To help commemorate New Zealand's First World War Centenary I will share with you 100 postcards from my private collection. These include real photographic images, artistic depictions and some handwritten messages of heartache and sorrow.
Alex Wong/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- Former first lady Nancy Reagan, who died at her home in Los Angeles Sunday, is remembered for several causes, including the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign and her support of stem cell research to help tackle Alzheimer's disease.

While so many of Reagan's accomplishments are well known, here are five things you might not know about her.

1. "I Never Was a Career Girl"

Despite her career as an actress, Reagan said in 1967: "I never was a career girl."

She explained, according to the Chicago Tribune, "When I graduated from college, I wasn't ready to get married and I didn't want to return to Chicago to lead the life of a post-deb. I never had a burning desire for an Academy award and I don't even remember how many films I made."

The future first lady launched her acting career shortly after graduating Smith College in Massachusetts, billing herself as Nancy Davis (she was born Anne Frances Robbins). She landed a minor spot in the musical "Lute Song" in what would be her only Broadway appearance.

After a series of smaller parts, Reagan attracted the attention of MGM Studios and moved to Hollywood for her first feature film, "The Doctor and the Girl."

Her Hollywood career included 11 feature films, including "The Next Voice You Hear," "Donovan's Brain" and the Academy Award-nominated documentary "The Dark Wave."

While filming "East Side, West Side," Nancy Davis' name wrongfully appeared on a published list of alleged communist supporters. She sought assistance from Ronald Reagan, who was president of the Screen Actors Guild at the time. The two conversed over dinner.

"I don't know if it was exactly love at first sight," Nancy Reagan later said, "but it was pretty close."

The couple wed on March 4, 1952, and the Reagans even starred together in the 1957 World War II film "Hellcats of the Navy, with Nancy playing a Navy nurse and Ronald the commanding officer of a submarine.

Ronald Reagan continued his film career and Nancy Reagan retired from acting and raised their two children, Patti and Ronald Jr., in addition to stepchildren Maureen and Michael from Ronald's previous marriage.

2. A Marriage of Comprise and Sacrifice: "Sometimes It's 90/10"

Nancy Reagan is remembered for her loyal devotion to her husband throughout their long marriage, as she was often caught by photographers gazing lovingly at him during his speeches.

When Barbara Walters asked Nancy and Ronald Reagan in a joint interview what their secret was to keeping the romance in their marriage, Nancy Reagan responded, "I think it used to be that one of you thought that it had to be, everything had to be your way. Or 50/50. And it isn't always 50/50, sometimes it's 90/10."

"And you have to be willing to give the 90. Or he has to be willing to give the 90," she said, pointing to her husband. "But it's something you want to do."

3. Her Seminal U.N. General Assembly Address

One of Nancy Reagan's most well-known efforts was promoting drug education and prevention programs. Her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign was influential in the passage of the 1986 National Crusade for a Drug-Free America anti-drug abuse law, and through her platform, Reagan became the first first lady to address the United Nations General Assembly.

In her October 1988 address, Reagan said the U.S. should initiate stricter drug law enforcement and education and that America must stop blaming developing countries that produce most of the illegal drugs consumed by Americans, The New York Times reported at the time.

"Frankly, it is far easier for the United States to focus on coca fields grown by 300,000 campesinos in Peru than to shut down the dealer who can be found on the street corners of our cities,'" she said. "It is often easier to make strong speeches about foreign drug lords or drug smugglers than to arrest a pair of Wall Street investment bankers buying cocaine on their lunch break."

"We will not get anywhere if we place a heavier burden of action on foreign governments than on America's own mayors, judges and legislators," she said. "You see the cocaine cartel does not begin in Medellin, Colombia. It begins in the streets of New York, Miami, Los Angeles and every American city where crack is bought and sold."

4. Her Influence on Policy

A friend of the Reagans once said: "Without Nancy, there would have been no Governor Reagan, no President Reagan."

And once he was president, Nancy Reagan was a powerful force behind the scenes at the White House.

Roger Sandler, a personal photographer to the Reagans, told ABC News, "Whether it was personal or official, if you wanted to get a policy question to him and you couldn't get to him directly, people would call Mrs. Reagan."

Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, told ABC News that while "she never initiated any policy...people knew how much influence she had."

"They would come to her and make their case," Tate said.

Vanity Fair's Bob Colacello, who has written extensively about the Reagans, told ABC News that Nancy Reagan once told him she didn't take a particular interest in any specific policy while first lady.

"She said 'Oh no, Ronnie had his ideas, his beliefs, he was hard to change.' Then almost in a whisper, she added, 'Well, maybe the whole Russian thing,'" Colacello recounted on Good Morning America.

5. Losing Ronnie: "People Say It Gets Better. No, It Does Not"

After Ronald Reagan died at the age of 93 on June 5, 2004, Nancy went on to live nearly 12 more years without her husband by her side.

And in a Vanity Fair interview in 2009, she told Colacello that the pain of losing her husband didn't go away.

I miss Ronnie a lot, an awful lot, she said. People say it gets better. No, it does not.



It sounds strange, but...I see Ronnie. At nighttime, if I wake up, I think Ronnies there, and I start to talk to him," she said in the interview. "Its not important what I say. But the fact is, I do think hes there."

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
TRS sedition trial: Ai Takagi convicted of four charges of sedition

SINGAPORE - The former editor of a now-defunct sociopolitical website was convicted on four charges of sedition on Tuesday (March 8).

Australian Ai Takagi, 23, pleaded guilty to publishing the inflammatory articles on The Real Singapore news portal and its Facebook page.

She also admitted to another three counts of sedition and one charge of failing to produce financial statements on the website's advertising revenue to the police. These will be considered in sentencing.

District Judge Salina Ishak adjourned sentencing submissions to March 23.

Takagi and her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng, 27, were expected to face a joint trial on Monday (March 8).

But before it began, she told the court she would be pleading guilty.

Her husband, however, is denying the charges.

The articles posted on TRS between October 2013 and February last year are alleged to have promoted ill will and hostility between different races or classes in Singapore.

Among the contentious articles is one in which Takagi adopted the Malay name "Farhan" to hide her identity as a foreigner while fostering xenophobia - an act Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan found "outrageous".

The couple pocketed "enormous" sums from advertising revenue, he said.

Based on their bank statements, they earned between AU$20,000 (S$20,420) and more than AU$50,000 a month, he added. They earned close to $500,000 from December 2013 to April 2015.

The TRS website was shut down by its editors last May, after the authorities suspended their licence to operate the site and ordered them to take it offline.
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Gogama one year later: 'Situation is bleak' - Gelinas

Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas rose in the legislature Monday morning to question the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on efforts to restore the environment surrounding Gogama after a CN Railway freight train derailed causing an explosion a

On March 7 a CN crude oil train derailed around four kilometres southwest of Gogama. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said between 30 and 40 cars derailed. Supplied photo.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas rose in the legislature Monday morning to question the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on efforts to restore the environment surrounding Gogama after a CN Railway freight train derailed causing an explosion and oil spill on the outskirts of the village one year ago.



Mr. Speaker, today is a very sad day, it is the first anniversary of the train derailment, the explosion and the oil spill in Gogama in my riding. The residents woke up at about 3 a.m. the morning of March 7 to a wall of flames that turned the sky orange; and the smell of burning oil, said Gelinas.



"The Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change has been extremely quiet while the people of Gogama are seeing their real estate prices tank and they are concerned about their environment, their food and the water quality. The situation is bleak. This is the biggest train derailment in the history of Ontario, yet no amount of trouble or suffering seems to trigger a response from this government.



"The people of Gogama want to know when will the minister commit to standing up for them and answer a simple question: Are the fish caught in the Makami River safe to eat? Yes or no?



The minister did not answer Gelinas yes or no question, but instead offered to share with her the ministrys most recent lab data on the fishs level of contamination.



On December 9, 2015, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change ordered CN to pay Ministry expenses to the tune of $350,000 for incurred costs by the ministry.



The people of Gogama are still waiting for government assistance and continue to press CN for compensation.
Sudbury native Erica Robinson is on her way to Vancouver after winning one of five mentorship packages in the prestigious From Our Dark Side writing competition, presented by Women In Film and Television Vancouver (WIFTV).

Sudbury native Erica Robinson is on her way to Vancouver after winning one of five mentorship packages in the prestigious From Our Dark Side writing competition, presented by Women In Film and Television Vancouver (WIFTV).Robinson aka Gada Jane won with her script 'Video Star', a film about assassins in a dystopian future where cameras watch your every move.A second script of hers, 'Blood Serfs', was a runner-up in the competition.Im very excited for the chance to work with some of the amazing mentors assembled by WIFTV for From Our Dark Side, said Robinson.As I am just beginning work on my first feature, the support and guidance of these professionals could not come at a better time.A native of Sudbury, Gada Jane attended Lasalle Secondary School and Laurentian University, where she studied English, Theatre and Film.She currently resides in Kitchener-Waterloo, and has maintained strong ties to her home city, bringing Pat the Dog Theatre Creation to Sudbury and working with Cultural Industries Ontario North, or CION, to develop a New Media program.In Kitchener-Waterloo, Gada Jane recently developed a large multidisciplinary collaboration called John Orpheus Is Dead , which was supported by Kitchener City Hall and the Waterloo Regional Arts Fund.Built around a short film about celebrity, death and online viral attention, the John Orpheus is Dead project involved more than 40 local artists, and included a thematically linked album, concerts, music videos and a jewellery line.From her home in Canadas Tech Hub, Gada Jane writes scripts for projects based across Canada. She has directed music videos, short films and created touchscreen interactive tour of a Quantum Physics Lab for the Insitute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo.As a proud product of Sudbury and Kitchener-Waterloo, Im honoured to use this experience to represent the places that have shaped and supported my career so far.
A plan to build a three-storey, 275-bed long-term care facility on Silver Hills Drive in New Sudbury got the greenlight from the city's planning committee Monday. Also approved was a five-story retirement home with 160 rooms for residents.

A plan to build a three-storey, 275-bed long-term care facility on Silver Hills Drive in New Sudbury got the greenlight from the city's planning committee Monday. Also approved was a five-story retirement home with 160 rooms for residents.



Both projects are part of a long-term plan by developer ARG DEVCO, a division of Interpaving Ltd., a company best known locally for its work repaving and rebuilding local roadways.



The company has built commercial buildings at the citys Millennium Centre, including Lowes, Best Buy and Toys R Us, and has completed residential projects in Timmins and Montreal. The residential development, the company said, would be part of the Millennium Centre, adding a residential component to the huge commercial development.



The Silver Hills Subdivision would be built in phases over several years and would eventually include 171 homes, 112 townhouses and 480 apartments.



The company is planning on building a major new road, Silver Hills Drive, which would connect to The Kingsway on one end, and the corner of Bancroft and Bellevue Avenue on the other.



Celia Teale, development manager at ARG Devco, said Monday that the company added the seniors complex to ensure it can offer a mix of residential options.



"We have an aging demographic and we want to be able to respond to the market, Teale said. So we thought that we would be proactive and incorporate some seniors housing into this community."



However, the development is within the Ramsey Lake watershed, sparking concern about protecting the lake. In a letter, Naomi Grant, chair of the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, said the project would mean a lot more people living next to a body of water 60,000 people rely on for drinking water.



This would add several hundred units within the Ramsey Lake watershed without the benefit of a watershed study to inform the decision, Grant wrote.



We respectfully recommend that no further large developments be approved within the Ramsey Lake watershed until a proper watershed study is done.



And Ellen Porter, co-chair of the Ramsey Lake Stewardship committee, said the Silver Hills development would be the second major project approved in recent months next to Ramsey Lake. That's a reference to a 147-unit development on Keast Drive approved last July.



Like Grant, Porter said until a watershed study is complete, the city should not allow more projects that could put more stress on the lake.



The watershed effects need to be studied to avoid the further growth of blue-green algae blooms, contamination through runoff and other types of problems, she wrote.



But city planner Glenn Ferguson said staff responsible for reviewing the project concluded it would have minimal impact on Ramsey.



"No activities that are proposed to be engaged in on these lands as a result of the rezoning are considered to be significant drinking water threats," Webb said. "We're recommending the application be approved."



And Teale said protecting the watershed has been incorporated into the company's plan.



"We have prepared a stormwater management plan that will control the quality and quantity of the water that will eventually go into a pond that will be located on Blueberry Hill, with enhanced trail system through there, as well," she said.



Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh asked about what sort of pedestrian infrastructure will be part of the development.



"Would it be part of the site plan agreement where you would determine where interior sidewalks will be required in this development for the seniors complex?" she asked.



Eric Taylor, the city's manager of development approvals, said those details were part of a settlement reached after an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board.



"There is a walkway located further to the east," Taylor said. "It was anticipated that it was the most likely location of municipal parkland.



"And there are sidewalks, as well as a bike path that have been included as part of the conditions on the draft approval. Those were part of the conditions that were appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, and a settlement was reached between the city and those appellants as to how the Silver Hills Drive would be designed to incorporate active transportation."



Both sides of Silver Hills Drive will have sidewalks, he said, and there will be a three-metre, two-way bike path is located on the east side, the same as the seniors development.



"And we would be proposing that there would be pedestrian connections from the site to Silver Hills Drive," Taylor said.



The plan was approved unanimously, with Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds praising the project.



I'm really pleased to see this kind of development coming to Ward 11, Reynolds said. It will serve the citizens of both New Sudbury and Minnow Lake who are looking for places to retire. It will be an asset to our whole city.



To become official, the approval must be confirmed by city council at its meeting next month.
R.L. Beattie may move senior students to Lo-Ellen

When the new school year starts in September, R. L. Beattie Public School's Grade 7 and 8 students could be transferred to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School.

When the new school year starts in September R. L. Beattie Public School's Grade 7 and 8 students could be transferred to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School (pictured). File photo.

When the new school year starts in September, R. L. Beattie Public School's Grade 7 and 8 students could be transferred to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School.



The Rainbow District School Board first proposed plans to transfer around 80 Grade 7 and 8 students to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School in late January.



We're dealing with an enrollment pressure, said Norm Blaseg, the Rainbow District School Board's director of education. Our French immersion schools are typically our growth schools.



Due to the growing popularity of French immersion in the school board, Blaseg said R. L. Beattie is preparing for a large influx of new JK students in the next school year.



The school is already at full capacity, said Blaseg, and has no more room to expand through construction.



The school board hosted a community consultation on Feb. 25 to inform parents about the proposed plans for R. L. Beattie's Grade 7 and 8 students.



That was very well received, Blaseg said.



Parents had some health and safety concerns, he said, but were generally open to the idea.



The Rainbow District School Board trustees are expected to decide on March 22 whether they will transfer the students to Lo-Ellen Park.



If Lo-Ellen Park takes in the students, a second gymnasium would need to be build at the school to accommodate the new students' different schedules and extra-curricular activities, Northern Life was told.



To reclaim five classrooms, the school board would also transfer education centre staff  currently at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School  to a new facility at the former Wembley Public School site.
Ontario Mine Rescue event coming to Sudbury

NORCAT has been selected to host the upcoming Ontario Mine Rescue Competition at its operating mine in Onaping from June 6-10.

Over the last six months mining supply and services companies around the world have come knocking at NORCAT's door to take advantage of its underground training and testing mine in Onaping. Supplied photo.
War Amp key tag program turns 70 this year

As The War Amps 2016 Key Tags are mailed to Ontario residents, the service marks 70 years of returning lost keys to their owners.

Sophia Carlson using her swim arm which was funded thanks to public support of the Key Tag Service. Supplied photo

As The War Amps 2016 Key Tags are mailed to Ontario residents, the service marks 70 years of returning lost keys to their owners.



Donations to the Key Tag Service assist members of The War Amps Child Amputee (CHAMP) Program, including Sophia Carlson, 7, of Sudbury.



Sophia was born a left arm amputee and, as a Champ, is eligible to receive financial assistance for the cost of artificial limbs and devices.



She also attends regional CHAMP seminars where Champs and parents learn about the latest in artificial limbs, dealing with teasing and bullying and parenting an amputee child.



CHAMPs financial assistance has been invaluable as Sophia was recently fitted with a swim arm. She can do whatever she sets her mind to and the seminars have encouraged her to adopt a positive outlook on life, said her mother, Susan.



The War Amps Key Tag Service was launched in 1946 so that returning war amputees could not only work for competitive wages, but also provide a service to Canadians that would generate funds for the Associations many programs.



The Key Tag Service continues to employ amputees and people with disabilities and has returned more than 1.5 million sets of lost keys.



Each key tag has a confidentially coded number. Should the keys be lost, the finder can call the toll-free number on the back of the tag, or deposit them in any mailbox, and the keys will be returned to the owner by bonded courier.



Thanks to the publics support of the Key Tag Service, we are able to help young amputees like Sophia live full and active lives, said Danita Chisholm, Executive Director of the CHAMP Program.



The War Amps receives no government grants and its programs are possible through public support of the Key Tag and Address Label Service.
The Brisbane Broncos are wary of a Warriors ambush on Friday night as New Zealand look to avenge a disappointing Round 1 defeat to the Wests Tigers.

The Warriors were highly fancied going into the first round but an ordinary first half where they conceded 28 points cost them any real chance of winning despite a spirited fight back.

Brisbane forward Sam Thaiday says the Warriors formidable forward pack will hold the key to New Zealand turning it around and upsetting the competition favourites.

Thaiday singled out experienced campaigners Simon Mannering and Ryan Hoffman as the key targets for Brisbane to shutdown.

"Shutting down their forwards is always going to be hard. Mannering should have had a double last weekend, he is in the form of his life," Thaiday said.

"The two edge back-rowers are fantastic and then they've got these big forwards that are skilful and can offload to the likes of [Shaun] Johnson, [Tui] Lolohea and Isaac Luke. It makes them quite a razzle dazzle footy team.

"We don't know what they'll bring. We're unsure of what to expect from this Warriors team but the talent is there."

A bumper crowd is expected for the Friday night blockbuster at Suncorp Stadium as Brisbane play their first home game for 2016.

A strong Warriors supporter base in the sunshine state means that many of the 35,000+ crowd will be cheering for a Warriors boilover and a first New Zealand win in Brisbane since 2013.

Thaiday says playing at Suncorp produces the best in opposition teams.

"They've got a fair following here and I'm sure that after last week's effort they would have gone back to New Zealand with their tail between their legs and copped that loss on the chin. They will be training hard this week to make amends," he said.

"We always expect the best of any team that comes to Suncorp Stadium to play the Broncos because it is a fantastic facility and teams lift in front of the great crowds we get.

"Hopefully they don't bring their A game to Brisbane. I'd like to see them do well in the weeks after us."
Roy Exum says in the last two months he has turned his attention to the Department of Education. I find it amazing that in two months time he has suddenly become an expert on all things education. I will try to address some of the things Mr. Exum eluded to in his article, but it will take some time because education has had my attention since at least 1998 when I first became involved in holding the education system accountable for the taxpayers money by forming a group called Citizens Advancing Responsible Education (CARE).

I have a few questions for Mr. Exum. Where were you in 1998 when CARE was holding meetings all across the county talking with taxpayers about their concerns over the way the school system was spending their money to educate their children?

Where was Roy in 2003 when HCDE did away with the three-track diploma paths (university, honors and regular) to implement the single path diploma? This single path diploma idea was opposed by 70 percent of teachers and almost all students and families. Teachers said this would frustrate students who did not want or need to go to college. It would also require hiring about 120 additional teachers because all students had to take four years of math and two years of a foreign language.

This one 7-1 vote (Joe Conner was absent but wrote a letter in full support of the single path. Mr. Eldridge was the single vote in opposition.), destroyed vocational education in Hamilton County. Guess who was pushing the single path diploma with Jesse Register? The Chamber of Commerce article says, The action (single path diploma) received strong endorsement of the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber recently appeared before the school board lamenting about the lack of a skilled workforce to fill manufacturing vacancies. It was their strong endorsement for the single path diploma that helped destroy vocational education in Hamilton County. It reminds me of the boy who killed both of his parents and then complained because he was an orphan.

Where was Mr. Exum in 1999 when CARE held meetings in every district in the county to try to stop the implementation of the very controversial Everyday Mathematics program? Even with all of the information about Everyday Mathematics available on the Internet telling its pitfalls causing it to be discontinued in school systems all across the nation (it was even banned in California), HCDE implemented the program. Everyday Mathematics was adopted amid strong opposition by a majority of the teachers and the community. However, it was praised by Ava Warren, NSF project co-director for HCDE, (NSF stands for National Science Foundation who gave HCDE a $5 million grant to implement the Everyday Mathematics curriculum.), Hamilton County Coalition of Mathematics and Science Excellence (partners with the Chamber of Commerce), as well as eight members of the school board. (The only board member voting against the curriculum was Mr. Eldridge.) I cannot go into all of the problems with Everyday Math. Just google Everyday Math Rhonda Thurman and you can read some of my articles and reasons for opposing this fuzzy math. This is one of the many times HCDE should have listened to the classroom teachers instead of our education partners. We continued to use this fuzzy math type curriculum until recently and our math scores have never recovered.

Where was Roy in 2007 when I was fighting the school administration and school board to get a list of all administrators accruing vacation days? I found out HCDE was not only allowing 12 month employees but, 10, 10 1/2, 11, 11  month employees to accumulate vacation days as well. I was refused the accrual vacation information by Dr. Jim Scales. He put my request on the board agenda twice and I was refused the information both times by an 8 to 1 vote of the school board (Only Everett Fairchild voted to give me the data). I then went to the state to help me obtain the information. You can look up the letter I wrote to Mr. Morgan and Art Alexander, Division of County Audit in Nashville on Chattanoogan.com, Rhonda Thurman Seeking Help on Unused Vacation Day Data, June 12, 2007.

I also have other articles on Chattanoogan.com regarding vacation day buyouts; Rhonda Thurman Hits Accumulated Vacation Pay for Administrators; August 17, 2006, Vacation Pay Plan Takes Millions from Budget, Does Not Help Teachers. After exposing to the public this obscene practice of paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in unused vacation days, the board finally negotiated with HCEA to cap the number of days administrators were allowed to accrue. In 2008 the cap was set at 1680 hours or 42 weeks, which is still insane but better than unlimited. This was the best deal that could be reached at that time given the makeup of the board and the fact that administrators are members of the HCEA the same union as the teachers. It is now time once again for this board to revisit the accrual of vacation days issue and get more in line with UTC and other businesses.

Perhaps Roy can ask Dan Challener the next time they do lunch about some of the education incentives the PEF, Lyndhurst and Benwood Foundations have implemented in HCDE over the last 25-30 years. A few of those incentives are the 2001 Benwood Initiative (part of the Carnegie Corporations School for a New Society) which funneled more than $15 million into the lowest performing elementary schools in the county, the Lyndhurst Foundations $6 million Middle Schools for a New Society in 2006, the PEFs instructional reform initiatives including the Benwood Initiative, MSNS, 2009 College Access Center, 2009-2010 Principal Leadership Academy and 1998 PEF developed a program to train teachers at the request of Dr. Jesse Register. Roy should ask why after 25-30 years of being in certain schools, are the children not reading on grade level? As a matter of fact in 2008 the school board commissioned a $150,000 study by Dr. Robert Green to see what the major academic problems were at Howard and Brainerd High Schools. This was a quote from the study, In interviews with current at-risk students, recent dropouts, and high school teachers, it was revealed that many of the young males never learned to read in elementary school.(Article May 28, 2008, WRCB.com David Carroll) Did you get that? Never learned to read in elementary school! Brainerd and Howard are in the feeder pattern of the Benwood Schools. Please see if Challener can explain this because I cannot.

Then I would also like to know why UTC is involved with our education partners to train our teachers? There are many in education that see educational courses in college to be the reason teachers are not prepared to teach when they get into the classroom. So, to UTC I say doctor heal thyself first. If new teachers were more prepared, a lot of these initiatives would not be necessary.

We all know that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. I know the history of our so called education partners. These are the same people who think the answer to HCDE educational woes is to put another million or two into the system to take teachers and principals out of their classrooms and schools to train them.

In Roys latest article he says,The Chattanooga 2.0 initiative was startling. A joint effort by the Chamber of Commerce, the Benwood Foundation, The Public Education Foundation and the Countys Department of Education, it illustrates a dramatic decline in the performance of our children. Earth to Roy! If there has been a dramatic decline in the performance of our children the aforementioned groups who have been camped out in the HCDE administrative offices for 25 years are a big part of the problem. If Roy wants to see the school system do something different that has not been done in Hamilton County in the last 25 years, he should want to kick these unelected and unaccountable groups out of the HCDE administrative office, tell the superintendent to direct his staff to get in the school buildings and talk to the teachers and principals to see what they think about education in Hamilton County.

If Roy had turned his attention to the Hamilton County School System 20 years ago instead of just the last two months, he would know these are the same snake oil salesmen who have been peddling their wares inside the HCDE administrative offices for a quarter century. Somehow, these groups always manage to find a new batch of believers like Roy who are willing to buy what they are selling with no proof that what they are selling even works.

Rhonda Thurman

* * *

And thats why Rhonda should be the superintendent.

Jay Reed

Falling Water

* * *

Oh boy, the circus is in town and is going to stay a lot longer.. Not only the elephants but the clowns and the poor audience is going to be so sick of the charade that poses as leaders, ie., the Hamilton County School Board.

Evidence piled up and piled up like elephant dung and the board's members saw fit to just walk around the mess. Rick Smith, center ring performer, sat and listened as praises were heaped and hurt assuaged and "let's just be buds."

Disgusting is not a correct term but one can think only of the kids, the teachers and the abysmal school record of failure. This school's leadership is and has not been inspirational nor worthy of such a wonderful community as is Chattanooga. The efforts for change cannot rest with the decision of this board but must instead now reside in the community to come together and demand change and that change should consist, minimally, of a new school leader from outside the community, far outside.. Secondly, the school board should just get their coats, hats and ideas and quietly leave.

Robert Brooks

* * *

I believe that while Ms. Thurman was performing her exhaustive list of functions falling under her realm of responsibility, Mr. Exum was fulfilling his responsibility of reporting current local events based upon facts, and his right to express his opinions regarding those facts. Day to day school board functions do not qualify. A culmination of events, brought to light by a tragic occurrence, revealed a record of facts demonstrating years of irresponsibility in the school system, which does qualify and was reported by every serious local journalist, not only by Mr. Exum.

Ms. Thurmans self-described efforts are very impressive, but the bottom line is that HCDEs performance is grossly sub-standard, as substantiated by facts.

As a retired business owner, I am very well aware of the simple but most critical fact in any organization: success or failure begins at the top. In this case, the top is obviously the combination of the school board and Rick Smith. Mr. Smith has failed as the top executive in the HCDE and should have been fired by the school board with no buyout. The school board failed in its responsibility to the children and to the taxpayers.

In this dispute, Ill take Roy every time.

H. David Dunn

Ooltewah






After a spike in violence at a high school in the Bronx, schools Chancellor Carmen Farina became personally involved in the solution, which included getting cellphones back out of the school. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.



Grainy security footage from December shows a violent fight, one of many erupting outside of the Lehman High School campus this school year.



"My office is three blocks away, so I can only tell you, it was difficult on the streets," said City Councilman James Vacca of the Bronx.



Administrators say Lehman, one of the city's most troubled high school buildings, experienced a spike in violence after Mayor Bill de Blasio lifted the cellphone ban in schools last year. Students began using their phones inside the building to arrange the fights. including repeadedly pulling the fire alarms, causing all 3,000 teenagers to pour onto the streets, where the beatdowns would occur.



"The business community reached out to me, many residents reached out to me, and we became increasingly concerned," Vacca said.



Six weeks ago, Chancellor Carmen Farina became personally involved, visiting Lehman, setting swift deadlines for action and dispatching her deputy for security to oversee the turnaround.



"We've just really tried to change the culture and what's happening in the building," said Maria Herrera, principal of Renaissance High School for Musical Theater Technology at the Lehman campus.



Farina invited us to walk the building with her Monday to see how the six high schools that share the campus are trying to turn things around.

The biggest change? The schools began collecting cellphones. Students now drop phones into mailbox-like containers and get them back at the end of last period.



"The violence kind of went down a little bit because before with the phones, I think people was like, 'Oh this person is right here and we could go get him right now,' and they would meet up and go jump somebody like that," said one student.



The police also arrested a student for pulling a fire alarm.



"It hasn't happened recently," said one student. "I think people are kind of scared now."

The principals of the six schools at Lehman hired a security director and began meeting more frequently to address common problems, meetings that led to the new no-phone policy. The principals also established a campus-wide student council and are trying to get parents more involved in the schools.



The chancellor says she wants other schools to visit Lehman to learn from their experience..



"I would think any school that sees themselves headed in this direction will have a way to preempt that," Farina said.



Owners of businesses around the school say they've noticed the change. At Lehman, a lesson learned.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that it will not pursue federal ciminal civil rights charges against the NYPD officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in the teenager's Bronx home.

Preet Bharara, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, said there was insufficient evidence against Officer Richard Haste in the death of Ramarley Graham, closing the two-and-a-half-year federal investigation.

Graham was killed by Haste inside his family's bathroom following an encounter with NYPD officers from the Street Narcotics Unit on Feb. 2, 2012.

The officers said they thought Graham had a gun on White Plains Road, and they pursued him to his 229th Street house, where Haste was captured on surveillance video kicking the door.

Haste's lawyers have said that the officer had the right to enter because people inside could have been in danger.

The officer confronted the teen inside the home, where he said he saw Graham make a motion as if he were pulling something out of his pants. The officer fired one shot, killing the teenager. Some marijuana was found, but not a gun.

A Bronx grand jury voted to indict Haste on state criminal charges, but the indictment was thrown out because of a prosecutorial mistake. Graham's family and advocates were hoping for federal civil rights charges after a second Bronx grand jury declined to indict the officer.

Haste is white and Graham was black.

But the U.S. attorney's office, an arm of the Justice Department, said it could "not conclude or prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a federal criminal civil rights violation."

"The weight of the evidence indicates that, at the time the shooting took place, Officer Haste believed Mr. Graham to be in possession of a firearm that was tucked into the waistband of his pants, for which Officer Haste believed Mr. Graham was reaching," the office said in announcing its decision Tuesday.

"Although Officer Haste ultimately was proven to be mistaken in his belief, the determination as to the willfulness of his actions must be assessed in light of his knowledge at the time of the shooting....The investigation revealed no evidence to refute Officer Hastes claim that he shot Mr. Graham in response to his mistaken belief that Mr. Graham was reaching for a gun."

Bharara met with Graham's family and their representatives to inform them of this decision Tuesday. "Mr. Bharara expressed his deep sympathy to the family of Mr. Graham for their tragic loss," the office said in its statement.

Graham's family is demanding that Haste be fired immediately, along with the officers who were on the scene as well.

"Another slap in the face. My son committed no crime," said Constante Malcolm, Ramarley Graham's mother.



"Same as usual: black lives don't matter," said Franclot Graham, Ramarley's father. "To the people who we choose to say what's wrong and what's right, Ramarley's life will always matter to us."



"Police officers always get the benefit of the doubt, and the benefit of the doubt always works to our disadvantage. And that can no longer exist," said Royce Russell, the family's attorney.

The officer has been on desk duty since the killing. An NYPD Internal Affairs investigation has been ongoing since Graham's death.

"My client Richard Haste is gratified that he will not face a civil rights prosecution by the Southern District," said Stuart London, Haste's attorney. "There are no winners when there is a loss of life.

"My client now looks forward to resolving the police department's internal investigation with respect to this case," London continued.

Graham's death has been cited during numerous demonstrations after grand juries declined to indict police officers in the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The deaths fueled a national conversation about policing and race.


A paper by Dr. Trut discussing these changes, translated from Russian, was published in the current issue of American Scientist, the magazine of Sigma Xi, a scientific research society. Dr. Trut wrote that by breeding the tamest animals from each of about 35 successive generations, the final offspring were not only tame from early puppyhood but also looked different from their wild forebears.

The normal pattern of coat color that evolved in wild foxes as camouflage changed markedly in the genetically tamed fox population, with irregular piebald splotches of white fur appearing in some animals. The tame foxes sometimes developed floppy ears in place of the straight ones of wild foxes. The domesticated foxes generally had shorter legs and tails than ordinary foxes, and often had curly tails instead of straight, horizontal tails.

Moreover, the faces of adult tame foxes came to look more juvenile than the faces of wild adults, and many of the experimental animals developed dog-like features, Dr. Trut reported. Although no selective pressures relating to size or shape were used in breeding the animals, the skulls of tamable foxes tended to be narrower with shorter snouts than those of wild foxes.

Even reproductive cycles changed in foxes bred to be docile; wild vixens are receptive to sex only once a year, but some of the docile females become receptive more often.

Domestication also apparently affects genes controlling the timing of physiological development. For example, the genetically tamable fox puppies open their eyes sooner after birth than do ordinary silver foxes, and they show a fear response to unfamiliar stimuli about three weeks later than their wild counterparts.

Over successive generations and increasing congenital tameness, Dr. Trut wrote, the Russian team measured a steady decline in the hormone-producing ability of the foxes' adrenal glands. Adrenal hormones prepare an animal for fight or flight.

Even the brain chemistry of the tame animals differed from that of their wild ancestors; after 12 generations of selective breeding, Dr. Trut reported, test animals' brains contained significantly higher levels of serotonin than did their forbears. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, is intimately involved in an animal's psychological state.
SHANGHAI  Inside the K11 Art Mall, an elevator ride away from Burberry, Chloe, Balenciaga and other high-end shops, hundreds of people line up each day to see very different kinds of luxury items on display. An exhibition of 40 paintings by Claude Monet, billed as the largest-ever show of the Impressionists work in China, opened in March in a basement gallery space of this retail magnet. On a recent Sunday, 600 people at a time filled the two rooms of the gallery space to see Monet: Master of Impressionism, on view until June 15.

The approximately 300,000-square-foot art mall opened in May 2013, and its not the only one. Many malls in China now make art-viewing part of the shopping experience, with some devoting themselves equally to exhibiting art and selling merchandise.

The K11 Art Foundation claims to have pioneered the concept, known as museum-retail: Each of its art malls have an in-house team that programs the gallerys offerings and coordinates how other work appears throughout the building.

As art and commerce mix in China, this art-retail concept has become a formidable trend in shopping-happy Shanghai. Here, art is used as a marketing tool to lure shoppers away from competitors. Those at the helm also see such exhibitions as viable forms of art education in a country where access to art can be limited to the rich and malls are destinations for young people and a new generation of wealthy women.
Of the 10 stories, eight have third-person narrators, and one, an academic tale entitled Eros 101, is written in the form of a Q. and A. Although the narrators tend to stay close to one character, the subjects of the stories range widely, one might even say wildly, and they announce their concerns in the first sentence. Tabriz, which details the breakdown of a marriage after the husband brings home a valuable rug he found in a rubbish heap, begins this way: David Merson, heartsore in the way of old activists, a stooped, unkempt 48, leafs through his so-called love life for precedent and finds none. Never Come Back, a hair-raising tale of a fathers fixation with his sons girlfriend, opens with a straightforward statement of the case (This was his life now, his real life, the thing he thought about most: His boy was in and out of trouble and he didnt know what to do) and ends with a tantalizing nonconclusion (He knew enough not to go after them. He knew enough not to go after them yet). The final story, Briar Switch  in which an estranged daughter, desperate to reach her dying fathers bedside, manages to fly into an airport during a blizzard and rent a car  starts with a question and answer that toll like a death knell through the ordeal to come. Sure you want to go out in that? the rental agent asks. Frustrated by his slowness and deliberation, she insists, Im sure.

Such examples demonstrate how immediately engaging these stories are. Theres an overseeing, orchestrating voice, outside the characters but close enough to hear their thoughts. Though Northern California is often the locale, theres a lot of variety in socioeconomic status: It seems unlikely that these characters would ever get together in the same room, even by invitation. A fisherman, an eco-activist, a Virginia Woolf scholar, a refugee artist whose father was murdered by a firing squad, a mill worker, a young tree-sitter who has been living in a giant redwood for 143 days  all are presented from a vantage point both intimate and direct, with their courage and foibles and weaknesses intact.

The startling perceptions that slip out in the urgency of a moment are dissected on the scene. When the youthful tree-sitter misses a step in her daily scramble from branch to branch, she realizes that within the singularity of the fall, time can be observed, it seems, both backward and forward. In life, its now clear, consciousness is always so pinned down, and time is so much bigger than that pinpoint known as I. Nate Dawe, the fisherman in The Wrong Son, burdened by an overbearing father and his own collusion in illegal abalone excursions, goes out for some hard fishing on his fathers boat, the Louise. He was alone, leaning to toss a bucket of refuse, when a wave lolloped into the bow and the Louise shrugged him into the sea. Battling the deep troughs of water, Nate finds himself for once wholly aligned with necessity, rejoicing in the clear, clear light of live or die.

At a dinner party in Eros 101, Clio, the Virginia Woolf scholar, recognizing that shes being heartily seduced by a new colleague who will soon be up for tenure, is momentarily blindsided by this apercu: Clio is 42 to the others 20-something: fact. Fearful fact. Later in the story, when Clio fails to notice a diamond on her potential lovers ring finger, the reader is advised that since she is only a character, much of her own story is lost on her.

In The Narrator, the young writer wonders how George Eliot managed to draw characters who are at once both pardonable and blameworthy. She has hopes that this prowess has something to do with a writers radiance and generosity of spirit. But the ability to create characters who force us to withhold judgment and leave us gasping at their absolute, solid reality isnt the result of any special kindness or goodness on the part of the author. The magnanimous moral acuity Tallent claims for Eliot is a condition of philosophical distance, hopeful yet fearful, the kind that arises in old marriages after many years of deep commitment and, above all, close attention. Its not affection or defensiveness that can blast a character into the readers life. Its not pity or pitys upscale cousin, compassion. Its not even love. Beware of the writer who says, I love all my characters.
Season 2, Episode 4, Gloves Off

At last, a Season 2 episode of Better Call Saul that demonstrates how gripping this show can get.

It also proved, yet again, that predicting plot is a fools game when dealing with storytellers as clever as this crew. Last week, I ruled out Tuco Salamanca as the one person Mike would not be asked to murder. Wrong. Nacho, Tucos partner in drug dealing, wants him dead because Tuco is a homicidal loon  a fact that will not come as news to anyone familiar with his history.

What I didnt predict is that Mike would decline the opportunity to kill Tuco and instead connive to have him tossed into prison. Thus unfolds a Rube Goldberg machine of a plan: Mike needed Tuco to 1) see him hit Tucos car; 2) to dismiss Nacho before the cops showed up; 3) to remain in situ as the cops rolled in; and 4) to pummel Mike enough to get arrested but not enough to kill him.

You are one lucky old man, Tuco says, midway through this improvised sting, not realizing how right he is.

Mikes plan was a triumph, unless you count the gruesome repercussions for his face. When we get a long look at it, in the closing moments of the episode, I was torn between thinking Ouch, ouch, ouch and O.K., that took five hours in a makeup chair.
Later, after she returns to the White House ahead of Franks return, Claire is again deliberately positioned in the frame to look small, particularly when shes curled up in the fetal position on the love seat at the foot of her bed. Knowing that Frank is back, she looks minimized, diminished and drained of purpose. Frank, still in recuperation mode, looks diminished as well; the slick brown dye in his hair has faded to gray, making him appear older and, coupled with his reduced physical size, frail. Kevin Spaceys performance in the whole Claire reunion sequence  when he chokes up over Meechums death and struggles to walk with Claires help  may be the best work hes ever done on House of Cards. For once, he gets to exhibit vulnerability that feels genuine.

I said you were nothing, in the Oval, without me, Frank tells his wife, alluding to their fight at the end of Season 3 and also echoing the words Petrov used to insult Claire just hours earlier. Its the other way around.

Frank promises her that she can have something more than just the role of first lady, continuing the House of Cards tradition of treating that job dismissively but also giving Claire what she wants and making them co-pilots again. Question: Shouldnt Frank be more angry with Claire? She abandoned him while he was undergoing surgery and wouldnt even take his call when he woke up for the first time in days, if not weeks. That certainly seems like grounds for holding a grudge. But Frank doesnt resent those choices because they resemble the choices he would have made; he looks at Claire and he sees shades of himself. Either that or hes super-woozy from the meds hes taking.

Franks hallucinations, consciously or subconsciously, seem to renew his resolve to do whatever it takes to stay alive and in the White House. The simultaneously sultry and threatening sequences involving Peter Russo and Zoe Barnes play like an attempt to seduce Frank into sweet death, much the way Frank lured them to theirs. (You tried, Frank, which is more than most people ever do, Peter coos in Franks ear. Right now, its just us. And we have all the time in the world.) The image of Frank, Peter and Zoe wrapped together in a freakish purgatory orgy eventually gives way to another mental snapshot: of Frank and Claire sitting across from each other in the Oval Office. That, it seems, is what brings Frank back.

Its nice to see Corey Stoll and Kate Mara on House of Cards again, even if their dream sequences feel simultaneously riveting and a little silly. (Ms. Mara, in particular, is objectified to a borderline absurd degree.) But nothing in those surreal mental side trips is quite as silly as this exchange between Claire and Leann:

Leann, suddenly appearing at the hospital: This cant wait.

Claire: What is it?

Leann: Pollyhop.
Bill Cosby had once been due in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday for a hearing in the only criminal case that has been brought out of the many sexual assault accusations leveled at the once-beloved entertainer. A judicial ruling last week, though, suspended those proceedings, perhaps for many months. Below are questions and answers to help untangle the complexities of that case and five civil suits in which Mr. Cosby is also embroiled.

What is the criminal case about?

Dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct for years, Mr. Cosby, 78, was charged in December with sexual assault in the case of a woman, Andrea Constand, who said he drugged and sexually abused her in 2004 at his home in a Philadelphia suburb. Until then, Mr. Cosby, who denies all wrongdoing, had never been charged with a crime.

Why did it take more than 11 years to bring charges?

An initial investigation in 2005 ended when prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, concluded there was not enough credible evidence to bring the case to trial. But prosecutors reinvestigated last year. They say that the new inquiry was sparked by the dozens of women who came forward, starting in the fall of 2014, to say they, too, had been drugged or assaulted by Mr. Cosby.

In addition, parts of a deposition Mr. Cosby later gave in a 2005 civil case brought by Ms. Constand were revealed last year. In them, Mr. Cosby acknowledged obtaining quaaludes as part of his effort to have sex with women. Prosecutors say the recent accusations and the deposition testimony are included in the new evidence prompting them to bring charges.
Whats Streaming

CAROL (2015) on iTunes. Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett), a glamorous New Jersey suburbanite whose sexual desires are destroying her marriage and jeopardizing her motherhood, enters into a scandalous love affair with Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), a lonely young department-store clerk quietly rebelling against the expectations of her inner circle and the boyfriend who wants to marry her. Todd Hayness sumptuous lesbian romance is spun from the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt and set in 1952, the year the American Psychiatric Association proclaimed homosexuality a sociopathic personality disturbance. At once ardent and analytical, cerebral and swooning, Carol is a study in human magnetism, in the physics and optics of eros, A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times. It gives emotional and philosophical weight to what might be a perfectly banal question: What do these women see each in each other? At Cannes, Ms. Mara won best actress (an award shared with Emmanuelle Bercot of Mon Roi); both she and Ms. Blanchett were nominated for Oscars. (Image: Ms. Blanchett and Kyle Chandler)

Whats on TV

NEW GIRL 8 p.m. on Fox. Jess returns from jury duty and tries to unearth the real identity of a juror sequestered with her in this 100th episode. In Grandfathered at 8:30, Jimmy finally embarks on a real relationship.
The United States waited almost three years before joining the Allied Forces in World War I, but then committed to the war effort in a major way. According to the National Archives, about 2 million Americans served overseas during the conflict, which represented more than one quarter of the country's male population from the ages of 18 to 31.

That means many of us have ancestors who fought during World War I. An upcoming workshop at the Tennessee State Library & Archives is geared toward helping people learn more about those long-ago relatives.

Gordon Belt, the Library & Archives' director of public services, will lead the workshop from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. on April 2. He will use a case study from his own family history to retrace the march of Tennesseans to the war's front lines.

The workshop will be held in the Library & Archives auditorium, which is located at 403 Seventh Avenue North, directly west of the State Capitol building in downtown Nashville.

Although the event is free and open to the public, reservations are required due to limited seating in the auditorium. To register for the workshop, please visit: http://tennesseegreatwar.eventbrite.com

Free parking is available around the Library & Archives building.
After a prolonged slide that took oil prices within sight of the $20-a-barrel threshold last month, sentiment in commodity markets seems to have turned, raising the question of whether oil prices have finally bottomed out.

Whether it will prove lasting or not remains to be seen, but the recent rebound in the oil market comes as investors focus on declines in oil drilling and pin their hopes on a freeze in output by major producers.

Crude oil futures traded in New York rose 5.5 percent on Monday to $37.90 a barrel, after rising nearly 4 percent on Friday. The American benchmark price has had three straight weeks of gains, the longest such stretch since May. In London, Brent oil futures rose above $40 a barrel for the first time since December.

Oil markets have bounced back more than 40 percent since hitting of low $26.21 a barrel in New York in early February. At the time, many analysts, including forecasters at Goldman Sachs, said that oil could slide to $20 a barrel with little to stem the decline.
PARIS  She may have a Bond girl bombshell of a sister, but with her mass of blond curls, the French stylist Camille Seydoux is more than capable of turning heads, though she prefers to stay off-camera.

Born in Paris, where she was raised in St.-Germain-des-Pres and now lives in the Marais, Ms. Seydoux, 32, started her career in advertising and the art world before making a name for herself dressing her actress sister, Lea (Spectre, Inglourious Basterds), for the red carpet. Now a front-row fixture at shows such as Louis Vuitton, and with a client list that includes Adele Exarchopoulos, Zoe Saldana and Miranda Kerr, and a new collaboration with Roger Vivier, Ms. Seydoux also has 71,000 followers on Instagram thanks to a personal style that marries old school glamour noir with 21st-century Parisian insouciance  and an address book to match:

It sounds cliche, but I promise you its the truth  I love nothing more than going to Laduree and having a quick coffee and macaron with my girlfriends. It is the grande dame of Paris patisseries and there are plenty scattered all over the city.

Laduree, 21 rue Bonaparte, Sixth Arrondissement, www.laduree.com

My current obsession is Japanese food  despite the fact I hate raw fish. French cuisine is delicious, but I find it very rich. Theres a hip little place near my home in the Marais called Nanashi, which serves healthy dishes and is always packed. And then there is La Maison du Sake, which does sharing plates, amazing cocktails and a little boutique attached.

Nanashi, 57 rue Charlot, Third Arrondissement, www.nanashi.fr

La Maison du Sake, 11 rue Tiquetonne, Second Arrondissement, www.lamaisondusake.com
They are as much a fixture on the streets of Astoria, Queens, as the souvlaki shops and markets selling lamb and feta straight from Greece: a group of about a dozen men, of varying ages, who share the same bleary eyes and frequently unsteady gaits when their indulgences  in marijuana and liquor  catch up to them. Well known to shop owners and local residents, the men stand out from the increasingly hip and well-heeled new arrivals to the neighborhood  ruffians, but benign, viewed more as lost than as a menace.

But on Sunday afternoon, one of these fixtures, James Patrick Dillon, 23, erupted in a spree of violence, according to the authorities. The police said he stabbed a neighbor in the head late Sunday morning; killed George Patouhas, a liquor store owner, in a knife attack a few hours later; and doused another man in accelerant and set him on fire.

By Sunday evening it was over. The police shot Mr. Dillon in the backyard of the house on 36th Street in which he lived with at least one of his parents, after a police chase in which the authorities say he sprayed two officers in the face with liquid. Mr. Dillon, who by Monday evening had not been formally charged, remained in critical but stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital Center.

Both of the surviving victims were treated and released, Berta Carpio from Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, and Julio Bolanos from NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Elizabeth Garrett, a lawyer and scholar who was the first woman to be president of Cornell University, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan, only eight months after starting the post. She was 52.

The cause was colon cancer, the university said.

In her short time as president, Ms. Garrett spearheaded an effort to group Cornells three accredited business programs into a College of Business. She had succeeded David J. Skorton, who stepped down to head the Smithsonian Institution.

Ms. Garrett announced on Feb. 8 that she recently learned she had colon cancer and that she would undergo aggressive treatment. The universitys provost, Michael Kotlikoff, was later named acting president.

Ms. Garrett was previously the provost at the University of Southern California from 2010 until 2014. She was also the first woman to hold that job.
New York City has agreed to pay $130,000 in legal fees and damages to 10 older or disabled residents who said they were unfairly removed from the Rent Freeze Program after their spouses or parents died.

In June, the residents, joined by the citys public advocate, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan to seek relief and bring attention to what they considered flaws in the laws, which were created in 2014.

The new laws were expected to help more people qualify for a rent freeze by raising the limits on income. But the citys Finance Department also instituted a rule giving people just 60 days to reapply for the programs if the head of the household who had initially qualified for the benefit died. The Rent Freeze Program, which includes the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption Program, had previously given survivors as long as six months to reapply.

Since the lawsuit was filed, the city has abandoned the 60-day deadline. In December, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, signed legislation that extended the deadline for reapplication to six months.
Democrats have regularly argued that, with a robust populist pitch, winning back white working-class voters could be within reach.

In 2016, there is evidence that, with the impact of Donald J. Trump on the race, that could actually happen.

In the past, Republicans could appeal to both more tolerant and intolerant white working-class voters through dog whistles. But if Mr. Trump is the Republican nominee, his open appeal to racial and xenophobic sentiments  calling for the deportation of Latino immigrants, barring Muslims from entering the country and flirting with white supremacists  could push at least some part of the tolerant sector to the Democratic side.

Meanwhile, Democrats are going after that more tolerant sector with a progressive populism initially and charismatically championed by Bernie Sanders but increasingly advocated by Hillary Clinton as well.
If there was any doubt about why the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized the newspaper Zaman last week, consider this: Within 48 hours after the takeover, the paper began publishing pro-Erdogan propaganda.

Zaman, Turkeys largest circulation daily, was one of the countrys few opposition media outlets before the police used tear gas and water cannons on Friday to disperse a crowd outside the papers headquarters chanting, Free press cannot be silenced as it raided the offices. The police acted after a court in Istanbul, without explanation, put the paper under the administration of a panel of trustees.

Before the takeover was complete, the journalists put out a Saturday edition of the newspaper with the headline, The Constitution Is Suspended. In the end, the newspapers editor was fired and efforts were underway to eradicate the papers entire online archive, according to news reports.

The attack on Zaman is no surprise. The paper has been associated with Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania. Mr. Gulen, once an ally of Mr. Erdogan, broke with the Turkish leader about two years ago and the media group switched from being pro-government to anti-government.
The administration also argued in court that federal judges lacked the authority to say whether drone strikes were lawful. It refused to release the evidence that it claimed made Mr. Awlaki a lawful target. In lieu of information, the administration offered assurances that the president and his aides were deeply moral people who agonized over authorizing lethal force.

But as this election season has underscored, powers this far-reaching should not rest solely on the character of the president and his advisers. In a democracy, the ability to use lethal force must be subject to clear and narrow limits, and the public must be able to evaluate whether those limits are being respected. Mr. Obama observed almost three years ago that the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power. At the very least, the president has the responsibility to ensure that drone strikes are subject to meaningful oversight.

The president should begin by publishing the Presidential Policy Guidance, a document that has provided the legal and administrative framework for the drone campaign since 2013. In response to litigation, the administration informed a federal judge last week that it would release parts of the document, but it remains to be seen how extensive the disclosure will be and whether it will be accompanied by a broader reconsideration of the secrecy surrounding the program.

The president should also release the legal memos that purport to justify drone strikes away from battlefields. Courts have compelled the administration to release portions of two of these memos, but the public should have access to all of the governments legal reasoning about who may be targeted, where and for what reasons. The government has a legitimate interest in protecting properly classified information, but the law behind the drone program should not be a secret.

The president should also make it the countrys default practice to acknowledge all drone strikes  not just those carried out on conventional battlefields, as in Iraq and Syria. To facilitate this shift toward greater transparency and to strengthen congressional oversight, he should withdraw the C.I.A.s authority to carry out drone strikes and provide that any future strikes will be authorized and carried out by the Department of Defense.
While federal law does not require that noncitizens be given government-appointed lawyers in immigration proceedings, it does require a full and fair hearing before a judge. Yet the administration argues that it has no constitutional obligation to provide counsel for children in immigration court and refuses to acknowledge the injustice of having children too young to understand the legal process fending for themselves in deportation hearings.

The result would be farcical were it not also tragic, because these children face grave danger, if not violent death, in being returned to their home countries.

Not everybody gets this. At a hearing last month in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, one of Washingtons leading nativists, raised an alarm about the children at the border not because they were being denied due process, but because the government was failing to deport them faster. But under international and American law, they have every right to ask for protection.

Many of them do lose their cases and are ordered deported, often in absentia if they fail to show up for hearings. Mr. Sessions and others see this as evidence of criminality. More likely its because these children have no one to help them make their case and dont understand what the court expects of them. Immigration advocates note that when children are represented by counsel, they are far more likely to return to court, and far less likely to be ordered deported.

A bill by Senator Harry Reid would require that the government appoint lawyers for unaccompanied children and for victims of abuse, torture or other violence. It would also require the Department of Homeland Security to make sure immigrant detainees know their rights and responsibilities under the law. But since the bill is unlikely to become law anytime soon, the Obama administration needs to act, now, to ensure that children receive a fair day in court.
FOR more than two hours, Nancy Reagan sat behind the artist Everett Raymond Kinstler as he painted her husbands portrait in his New York City studio shortly after the Reagans left the White House. Mr. Kinstler, who had done several portraits of President Gerald Ford, was unnerved by Mrs. Reagans intensity. It was terribly distracting, he recalled. When he asked if she would wait in the living room, Mrs. Reagan replied, unmoved, No, I really would like to stay here while you work.

That was classic Nancy Reagan. Since her death on Sunday, she has been remembered as a powerful and stylish first lady. But she was much more than that. Many ambitious women have filled the role of presidential spouse. Mrs. Reagan understood better than any of them how to use the position to control her husbands image and legacy.

The title of first lady comes with a thorny combination of intense scrutiny, an incredible platform and no official mandate. We have traditionally seen the first lady as the embodiment of American womanhood, but that view is on its way out; largely thanks to Hillary Clinton, were now more likely to see the first union as a political alliance between equals.

Many first ladies have been unhappy in the role. Martha Washington called herself a state prisoner. Jacqueline Kennedy proclaimed: The one thing I do not want to be called is first lady. It sounds like a saddle horse. And Michelle Obama says that living in the White House is like living in a really nice prison. Mrs. Reagan, however, was unabashedly proud of her hard-won position and even put first lady as her occupation on her income tax forms.
Given how expensive many cancer drugs are, it is alarming that the government, private insurers and patients spend an estimated $3 billion a year on cancer medicines that are thrown out because they are packaged in unnecessarily large quantities. The Food and Drug Administration ought to figure out ways to reduce this costly waste.

A new study of waste in cancer drugs by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the University of Chicago adds to the evidence that drug prices are set to maximize profits for pharmaceutical companies and have only a little to do with the value of those medicines or the cost of research and clinical trials.

With most cancer drugs, doctors determine how much is needed based on a patients weight, medical condition and other factors. When drugs come in one size, a lot of medicine has to be thrown out. Some drugs that are available in only one size in the United States are available in smaller quantities in Europe, where drugs generally cost less in large part because governments negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies.
The answer to the how and why of this and this begins with bacteria in the mud at the bottom of the lake munching on dead plants and other organic matter. This releases methane gas. As the methane attempts to escape, it bubbles toward the frozen surface of the lake and gets trapped beneath the ice.

Although the winds which keep the surface of man-made Abraham Lake clear have made it a particularly good spot to see the bubbles, thousands of other lakes support this phenomenon according to Katey M. Walter Anthony, a scientist at The University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has identified similar patterns at natural and man-made lakes in Minnesota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, Russia, Greenland and beyond. In Canada, Vermillion Lakes and Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park bubble beautifully too.

Dr. Walter Anthony studies these bubbles, not because of their striking aesthetics, but the because methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Warming in the Arctic is causing the once-frozen ground there, known as permafrost, to thaw across millions of acres. An immense amount of organic material is trapped in the permafrost, and after it thaws, bacteria can break it down, releasing methane or carbon dioxide, depending on how wet the area is. Dr. Walter Anthony is trying to determine how much the release of these gases will intensify global warming.

She first happened across the bubbles by accident in Siberia when the lake she was studying in warmer weather froze over. She told New York Times reporter Justin Gillis in 2011:
Aside from the fall/winter season being her favorite collection to work on, the designer Kym Ellery has another reason to look forward to her namesake labels presentation at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris today: This season marks the launch of Ellerys first-ever shoe collection.

The range will consist of six styles to complement the textile-driven clothes for which the designer has become known. For her spring/summer 2016 collection, for example, Ellery sent a mix of looks down the runway in velvet, silk and jacquard, ending with crinkly metallic dresses. The fabrications that we chose for the shoe collection are all very tactile, which plays into how we design, she says, referring to a lineup of materials that includes leather, velvet, snakeskin and rabbit fur. The Sydney-based designer had just flown into Paris from Australia to put the final touches on her fall/winter 2016 collection. This will be her second official showing on Paris Fashion Weeks schedule, following her debut there last season.

Image A sketch for one of the new boot styles. Credit... Courtesy of Ellery

Ellery, who had previously been a fashion editor for Sydneys Russh magazine, launched her line in 2007. While she had occasionally designed and sold small-run quantities of footwear in the past, this is her first full foray into the category. I feel like its given me something new and exciting to work on, since Ive been designing for Ellery for nine years now, she says. At the moment, Ellery intends to produce four collections a year, all of which will be available through her labels e-commerce site, as well as at select retailers.
WASHINGTON  In the latest volley in its high-profile fight with Apple, the Justice Department said on Monday that a federal judge in Brooklyn had erred last week in refusing to order the company to unlock a drug dealers iPhone.

Apple is not being asked to do anything it does not currently have the capability to do, Justice Department prosecutors said as they appealed the decision made last week by Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The prosecutors argued that their demand for technical help was a routine law enforcement request  no different from the dozens of times that Apple had agreed to cooperate in cases before this one  and that it in no way upends the balance between privacy and security.

Lawyers and analysts on both sides of the encryption debate are watching the Brooklyn case closely because they believe it could foreshadow the ultimate outcome of the case involving an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the December terrorist rampage in San Bernardino, Calif.
Donald Trumps presidential campaign has not been driven by detailed policy papers. But on one issue at least, his position is clear: He hates the Common Core State Standards. They are, he says, a total disaster, and he promises to abolish them upon assuming the presidency, because education has to be at a local level.

This is revealing, and not just because it shows Mr. Trumps ignorance of how American education actually works. He is promising to solve a problem that doesnt exist by using power the president doesnt have. His plan may also have the unintended effect of stultifying American greatness.

The president cant end the Common Core, because the federal government didnt create the Common Core. Governors and state boards of education developed and voluntarily adopted the standards in reading, language and math. Some states subsequently un-adopted them, as is their right. When Congress passed a new version of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act last year, it prohibited the secretary of education from requiring or even encouraging states to adopt any uniform standards, Common Core or otherwise.

Mr. Trump has another claim about education: that Americas weak educational results will be improved by returning power to local school districts. Thats a notion, widely held, that is at odds with research, common sense and the education agenda of every president, Republican and Democrat, for the past 40 years.
Murder charges were filed late Monday against a second Chicago man in the killing of a 9-year-old boy who the police say was lured from a city playground and shot in the head in November because of his fathers gang ties, a police spokesman said. The suspect, Dwight Boone-Doty, 22, had been in custody on unrelated gun charges when follow-up investigations connected him with the death of the boy, Tyshawn Lee, said the spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. The police have said Tyshawn was targeted because of his father and a series of gang shootings in Chicagos Auburn Gresham neighborhood. Corey Morgan, 27, was charged in late November with first-degree murder in the killing.
Gov. Tom Wolf is raising the minimum wage by nearly $3 an hour, to $10.15, for state government employees and workers on jobs contracted by the state. Mr. Wolf, a Democrat, signed an executive order Monday establishing the new minimum. It will affect a few hundred state employees and a narrow set of state contracts. The Republican-controlled legislature has not considered Mr. Wolfs request to set the minimum at over $10 for everyone. Pennsylvania wages are set at the decade-old federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, like those in 20 other states.
Seeking to drive Senator Marco Rubio from the presidential race, a super PAC supporting Senator Ted Cruz is spending heavily against Mr. Rubio in Florida, his home state. The five new ads that the group, Keep the Promise I, have released attack Mr. Rubios attendance record in the Senate, his stand on immigration, his tax plan and his relationship with Floridas sugar producers.

On Screen

In slow-motion, sugar pours over a smiling, waving Mr. Rubio, whom a narrator says has been making it snow for Big Sugar in Washington for years. The sound of cascading granules is heard as a mountain of sugar forms, and a sugar packet shows Mr. Rubios face.

So-called conservative Marco Rubio has been taking your hard-earned tax dollars and giving them to pay his billionaire buddies, the narrator says  the same billionaires who have funded Marco Rubios political career. Raining sugar gives way to raining dollar bills.

You know who else practices this kind of pay-to-play corporate cronyism? the narrator asks. Hillary Clinton.
Offering Senator Marco Rubio of Florida a much-needed boost, if not an outright endorsement, Mitt Romney has recorded get-out-the-vote calls for Mr. Rubios presidential campaign that are being sent to voters in the four states voting on Tuesday.

Mr. Romney indicates, at the beginning and end of the message, that he is calling on behalf of Mr. Rubio but only urges voters to cast ballots for a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud, according to a copy of the message obtained by The New York Times.

The explicit point of the message from Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, is less about helping Mr. Rubio than it is about sowing doubts regarding Donald J. Trump.

If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, I believe that the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished  and Im convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Romney says in the call.
WASHINGTON  When it comes to the strained relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, even a single missed meeting is cause for grievance and accusations.

So it was on Monday, when Mr. Netanyahu abruptly canceled a trip to Washington that was to have included a visit with Mr. Obama. The decision was quickly interpreted as the latest evidence of a lingering rift between two leaders whose public break last year over the Iran nuclear deal brought the American relationship with Israel to a bitter low.

Mr. Netanyahu had long planned to travel to Washington next week to attend the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israeli group known as Aipac.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Monday that he would not attend the conference because he had not been offered a meeting with Mr. Obama. The White House later dispatched a spokesman for the National Security Council to insist that it was Mr. Netanyahu who had turned down a chance to meet with the president. The spokesman also noted pointedly that Israeli officials had not personally informed Mr. Obamas team of the prime ministers change of plans.
Staple Gun Assault On House Candidate A 'Media Stunt,' Defense Lawyer Says

By Mae Rice in News on Mar 7, 2016 9:47PM

A local politician alleges that two people assaulted him and staple-gunned him in the forehead on Sunday night, but their lawyer says the politician is the one who started the fight.

Robert Zwolinskia Democrat running for an Illinois house seat in the 4th district, against incumbent Cynthia Sotodescribed the attack to Chicagoist Monday morning. Defense attorney Frank Avila told Chicagoist his clients have a different take on what happened.

He started a fight, and Im not saying he won the fight, but everything that my clients did was in self-defense, he said. This is a media stunt. I think that he might have used the staple gun on himself.

As evidence of foul play, Avila pointed out that Zwolinski did TV appearances on WGN and Fox after the fight, with what looked like untreated wounds.

Avila wondered why Zwolinski wasnt worried about internal bleeding and other medical repercussions potentially invisible to the naked eye.

Zwolinski could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Zwolinski previously alleged that Avilas clients, both volunteers for the Soto campaign, were hanging Soto posters at his office Sunday. Zwolinski said he saw them while driving by with his girlfriend and decided to get out of his car and ask them to stop.

Avila contests this account, however. His clientsa 26-year-old man and a woman Zwolinski told police was between 24 and 26were hanging posters up and down Ashland in a public way that was legal, Avila said.

Hanging a poster outside a business or home is only legal with the owners permission, Avila explained, unless the building is abandoned. However, his clients werent hanging posters on Sotos office; they were postering a couple doors away when Zwolinski approached them. Avila said this is confirmed by blood on the ground from the fight, which Avila alleges is mostly two doors away from Zwolinskis office.

Avila also pointed to what he sees as another inconsistency in Zwolinskis story: Zwolinski told police that Avilas female client struck Zwolinski in the head with a bottle, but no bottles or bottle remnants were found in the street, according to Avila.

Wheres the bottle? Avila said. Wheres the glass from the bottle?... Where are the cuts from the beer bottle?


WASHINGTON  Intelligence analysts now believe that an additional former Guantanamo Bay detainee has engaged in terrorist activity after his release, while seven more have been added to a roster of those who might be causing problems, according to data disclosed on Monday.

Most of the former detainees newly believed to be causing problems were transferred under the Obama administration, according to a semiannual report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Congress has mandated that the office produce and make public the reports on so-called recidivism by former detainees. They contain aggregate data based on intelligence assessments but do not give names or places. The new report compiled data as of mid-January.

It said that of the 144 detainees transferred after President Obama took office in January 2009, seven were known to have engaged in post-release militancy. The previous report, which contained data as of mid-July 2015, showed six such detainees.
PHOENIX  Two towns run by the polygamist sect controlled by Warren Jeffs routinely violated the civil rights of nonbelievers by discriminating against them in housing permits, policing and utilities hookups, a Federal District Court jury here found Monday.

Prosecutors had argued that the two towns  Colorado City, Ariz., and neighboring Hildale, Utah  effectively did the bidding of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the largest polygamist sect in the United States. They asserted that the towns denied basic services to outsiders, essentially creating a two-tiered system.

Federal prosecutors did not specify the remedies they would seek, which could include disbanding the towns police force and placing the towns administration into the hands of county or state officials.

The trial was one of two actions the authorities have taken recently against the sect. During the final days of the trial, federal agents raided businesses in Hildale and arrested 11 sect leaders and their associates, accusing them of siphoning millions of dollars in food-stamp transactions to bank accounts managed by the sect. Among those arrested was Lyle Jeffs, the brother and surrogate for Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence for the sexual abuse of under-age girls he claimed as his wives.
Venezuela is opening an investigation into the disappearance of 28 miners in the southeastern jungle state of Bolivar, officials said Monday. Relatives of the missing miners have said that they were murdered Friday in a dispute over a gold claim. They have said that a gang seeking to control the claim dismembered the miners, who were operating there illegally, and disposed of the bodies. We will conduct an objective, independent and impartial investigation, Tarek William Saab, Venezuelas ombudsman, said Monday, echoing a promise by the public prosecutors office. The states governor denied that any massacre had taken place.
The app business seemed to have taken a hiatus. It had begun in fall 2014 but then quickly went silent. However, it was started this year for another round of beta testing. The company had now been renamed simply Stand (stand.tc).

I downloaded the app. There seemed to be a measure of activity, with people creating new stands, as they were called, crowdfunding for animals and other social causes. There was no huge explosion of posts, though, and only a steady flow of a few stands every day.

Vivienne was still involved, was part of the Clinton Global Initiative and speaking at events on behalf of the business. Viviennes 6-year-old brother had even helped out, starting a $6,500 stand for Heforshe, the United Nations push to support women.

There were some other signs that all was not well. I looked up Mr. Harrs Twitter feed, and between his nonstop promotion of new stands were phrases that entrepreneurs rely upon, like this one from the other week: Founders: as you go through the @bhorowitz struggle  and you will  the key is to find your sense of grace and composure and lean into it. A Not Eric Harr account had popped up on Twitter, attacking him and Stand at every opportunity.

So I contacted Mr. Harr and got the update. Stand continued to prosper, he said, raising close to $3 million in funding and growing to a team of 12 employees. Mr. Stone had even agreed to be chairman of the board.

Mr. Harr was still filled with enthusiasm, but there was some weariness in his voice and a frankness I had not seen before. There had been some really dark times and deep challenges as the product had not become an instant hit. Attracting users remained challenging because fund-raising apps are a dime a dozen. Mr. Harr put his best face on it: They had validated their concept, had hosted over a thousand stands and had raised thousands of dollars for charity.
Can the government help Donald Trumps supporters?

The political system is in shock over the insurrection of the white working class, which has flocked to Mr. Trumps candidacy.

On the wrong side of globalization and technological change, no longer at home in an increasingly multiethnic America, these voters have eagerly embraced his simple proposal to make things better: walls against the imports and the people they believe have robbed them of a shot at prosperity.

That strategy, if it amounts to that, would visit a disaster of epic proportions upon the world economy. It harks back to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s, which pushed the world into a tit-for-tat trade war in which everybody raised their barriers against everybody elses imports, entrenching the Depression.

As Lawrence H. Summers, Treasury secretary under President Clinton and former chief economic adviser to President Obama, warned, Even the possibility of Trump becoming president is dangerous.
BRUSSELS  European Union finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to new rules under which their countries will exchange information on the tax affairs of multinationals, a move aimed at ensuring that big companies pay their fair share into government budgets.

The rules, which should take effect this year, are a response to growing concerns that corporate tax avoidance costs the European Union 70 billion euros, or $77 billion a year, according to a European Parliament estimate.

Today, we reached a political agreement on cooperation between tax administrations, country-by-country reporting, said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and the chair of the European Union ministers meeting in Brussels. This is part of our work on the anti-tax avoidance package.

The new rules will oblige large companies to disclose data on revenues, profits and taxes to the administrations of all European Union countries where they operate. That data will then be exchanged among the 28 member states.
FRANKFURT  German prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had expanded their investigation into the illegal manipulation of tailpipe emissions by Volkswagen, raising the number of suspects to 17, from six.

In line with German privacy rules, none of the suspects names were disclosed.

So far, no suspects are current or former members of the companys management board, said Klaus Ziehe, a spokesman for the states attorneys office in Braunschweig, a city near Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg.

But Mr. Ziehe said that the investigation was continuing, and that prosecutors had not ruled out involvement by top management. We are looking at all levels, including the management board level, he said.

Mr. Ziehe declined to say what kinds of jobs the suspects held or where in the company they worked.

Volkswagen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When a veteran industry analyst released a report last week stating that Netflix was to blame for half the decline in traditional TV viewing last year, he included a number of interesting assessments of how Netflix has changed the way we watch television.

The biggest takeaway: The Netflix effect is more pronounced in younger, more affluent households.

Here is a breakdown of some of the findings from Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson Research. His analysis was based on a combination of metrics from the media measurement firm Nielsen, company data and proprietary research.

Is Netflix Killing TV?

 The time spent streaming Netflix in the United States added up to about 6 percent of viewing hours for traditional television in 2015, up from 4 percent in 2014.

 Traditional TV viewing tumbled 3 percent in 2015, with half of that because of Netflix.

Takeaway: If you want to talk about killing and Netflix, start watching its original series, House of Cards. Frank Underwood is probably doing more damage to traditional institutions. But while Netflix hasnt actually murdered conventional TV just yet, its still a source of much distress.
Headliner

Le Coq Rico Antoine Westermann, the Alsatian chef who once had three Michelin stars, has created a New York incarnation of his Parisian poultry palace. It occupies two storefronts, one with a long bar and the other a stretch of counter with a battalion of rotisseries and some seating, joined by a spacious rear dining room. Mr. Westermann has had some practice operating a restaurant in the United States. He ran the Cafe du Parc in Washington and became familiar with local farmers. He is a fan of our heritage chickens from small farms; his menu even lists how many days it took to raise each one (the longer the better). In France, its poulet de Bresse, he said, referring to the chickens with blue feet, but here there are other breeds that can replicate the taste of Paris. There are also guinea fowl, Cornish hens, ducks and squab, as well as poultry livers, egg dishes and a traditional Alsatian baeckeoffe casserole: (Opens Thursday): 30 East 20th Street, 212-267-7426, lecoqriconyc.com.

Opening

Belle Shoals There is no such town in the Deep South, but Josh Mazza and Steve Laycock, the owners, invented the plausible name and tailor the ambience with a vintage Wurlitzer and a menu of hush puppies, po boys, biscuits with bourbon butter and drinks like Sazeracs and mint juleps: 10 Hope Street (Roebling Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-218-6027, belleshoals.com.

Freds at Barneys On the top floor of the resuscitated Barneys in Chelsea is a new edition of the restaurant that has been run by Mark Strausman in the Madison Avenue store for years. In a modern setting dominated by a bright mural, the food combines uptown standards like chopped chicken salad and pizza margherita with new dishes, including avocado toast, ceviche, rigatoni with brisket ragu, and late-afternoon cocktail tidbits: 101 Seventh Avenue (17th Street), 646-264-6402.

Perla Cafe Two weeks ago, Gabriel Stulman closed Perla, on Minetta Lane, to move it into a space that was closer to the rest of his portfolio. It is about to reopen, with the chef Jack Harris still in place, offering pastas, meat, seafood and vegetables. There will also be a pastry chef, Lindsey Prokscha, and a streamlined reservation system: 234 West Fourth Street (West 10th Street), 212-933-1824, perlanyc.com.
The World Health Organization advised pregnant women on Tuesday to avoid travel to areas where the Zika virus is spreading.

Experts on the organizations Zika emergency committee also recommended that pregnant women and their partners who have been in areas with Zika rely on abstinence or safe sex to prevent sexual transmission of the virus.

Sexual transmission is more common than previously assumed, said Dr. Margaret Chan, the agencys director general.

Local transmission of the virus has now been reported in 31 countries or territories in Latin American and the Caribbean. The agency emphasized that it was not recommending that women avoid whole countries, but only areas where mosquitoes were transmitting the virus.
No One In Custody After Weekend Stabbing At CTA Belmont Stop

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Mar 7, 2016 9:10PM



via Stephanie Barto/Flickr

A man was stabbed in the stomach and pepper-sprayed in the face at the CTA Belmont Station early Sunday morning, according to authorities. No one is in custody in the incident as of Monday afternoon, police said.

The 26-year-old man was pepper-sprayed (a police spokeswoman told Chicagoist it is unclear what substance exactly was sprayed) in the face and then stabbed in the gut after existing a CTA Red Line train early Sunday morning at the Lakeview Belmont station. After the stabbing, which took place around 3:35 a.m. Sunday, he was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in stable condition, according to authorities.

The offender was described as a black man with blonde hair and leopard-print pants.
A familys four-year quest to hold a white New York City police officer criminally accountable for the fatal shooting an unarmed black teenager in the bathroom of his Bronx home ended on Tuesday, when federal prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.

The family of the teenager, Ramarley Graham, has waged a public battle, pressing for Officer Richard Haste, who shot Mr. Graham, to be held to account.

Officer Haste had been indicted in state court for the shooting, but the manslaughter charges were thrown out because of a prosecutorial error. A second grand jury then declined to indict him.

The shooting of Mr. Graham preceded the death of Eric Garner on a Staten Island street, occurring before an unarmed black man was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., and before the nations attention was focused on the use of force by law enforcement officers and their relationship with black people in the communities they police.
To the Editor:

In Hidden Gold in College Applications (column, March 6), Frank Bruni writes of college admissions officers combing applications of students from underrepresented backgrounds, seeking evidence of resilience and persistence. He cites Davidson College in North Carolina, which sends emissaries to community-based organizations working with students in less affluent schools.

Such partnerships are crucial to helping demystify the admissions process and to giving low-income students, especially those who may be first in their families to apply to college, the social capital that families in other communities have long enjoyed.

In September, a communitywide coalition in Guilford County, N.C.  including the cities of Greensboro and High Point; the local school district; the county; and the business and philanthropic communities  began an initiative to give every eligible graduate of the countys 72,000-student school district access to a college or other postsecondary scholarship, as well as support services to seize that opportunity.

Guilford high school graduates now have access to scholarships from a consortium of more than 100 private college partners, including Davidson. Working with our nonprofit organization, the community has also raised more than $35 million for a scholarship fund, with a goal of sending every qualifying public high school graduate to an in-state public university, tuition free.
In the past, Zaman and Todays Zaman supported the Erdogan-led Justice and Development Partys pro-Western and democracy-oriented policies, as well as its efforts to introduce reforms that would pave the way toward Turkish membership in the European Union. Since the beginning of this decade, however, Mr. Erdogan and his party have become increasingly authoritarian.

Take, for example, the polices brutal response to the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul that arose after the uprooting of trees and the construction of a shopping mall. The protests attracted worldwide news coverage and elicited criticism from Turkeys most steadfast Western allies.

In March 2014, Mr. Erdogan, who was then Turkeys prime minister (he was elected president later that year), seemed to announce the nature of the new rule  one that involves silencing all forms of dissent  when he called for social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube to be shut down. He went on to describe Twitter as the worst menace to society.

The true oppression began in 2013 after two damning corruption inquiries resulted in several cabinet ministers being forced out. Trying to turn attention away from the graft allegations, Mr. Erdogan accused critics of being part of a parallel structure organized by the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen and his Hizmet movement that was seeking to overthrow him. A witch hunt followed against bureaucrats, businesses, journalists, teachers, philanthropists and ordinary citizens with perceived sympathies for Mr. Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.

His sermons were published in Zaman, but Mr. Gulen has no official ties with the media group that owns the newspapers. Yet the court order that enabled the seizure of Zaman and Todays Zaman argued, without providing any evidence, that Mr. Gulen controlled the newspapers. Many of my colleagues are inspired by his peaceful, moderate teaching  as are millions of people around the world  but it is an insult to their intelligence and integrity to suggest they are under his control.

This may be the last article I write as the editor in chief of Todays Zaman, as I objected to the new administrations censorship on the day they turned Zaman into an official mouthpiece with a pro-government cover article. The world must tell the Erdogan regime that enough is enough.

As we saw in the court ruling on Mr. Dundar and Mr. Gul, which came after the American vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., expressed support for the two journalists, the international community still has leverage over Turkey. Merely showing concern for press freedom and civil liberties in Turkey while turning a blind eye to violations for the sake of business and regional deals may pay off for now, but unless the West takes firm action to check Mr. Erdogans slide into authoritarian rule, it risks losing a stable ally and rare democracy in a Muslim-majority nation.
With protective glasses at the ready, skywatchers across Southeast Asia and the western Pacific are preparing to witness a total solar eclipse. But you dont have to live in those parts of the world to observe it. With only a few hours before the cosmic spectacle starts, here are answers to some questions you might have.

When does the eclipse begin?

Observers in the first places where the total eclipse will be viewable will see it around midnight G.M.T. on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday) and those in the last places to witness it will do so around 4 a.m. G.M.T. (11 p.m. Eastern).

How can I watch the eclipse from the other side of the world?

You have options.

Starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday (11 p.m. G.M.T.) the Slooh Community Observatory, which operates a global network of telescopes, will begin broadcasting the eclipse live from Tadulako University in Palu, Indonesia. From their vantage point, the moon will commence consuming the sun at 7:37 p.m. Eastern, casting its entire shadow across the sky for about 2 minutes and 4 seconds.
Q. Is Google ever going to update the Picasa program again?

A. Google announced last month that as of March 15, it will no longer update or support its free Picasa photo-editing program for Windows and OS X. The software will not stop working after next week, but because the company has ceased development, there will be no more updates to add features, fix bugs or enhance the program in any way.

Picasa has been around since 2001 and was acquired by Google in 2004, but the companys launch of its own stand-alone Google Photos app last year has meant the retirement of Picasa. Google Photos, which works through your web browser and your Google Account, is also available as an Android and iOS app for mobile devices.

Like Picasa, Google Photos can also be used to edit and organize your photos, and you can share albums with friends and back up your photo collection online for safekeeping. However, the Picasa Web Albums online photo-sharing service will change as of May 1, 2016, and some features will stop working. Google plans to move existing web-based albums (with all their photo tags and comments) into a new online space to preserve them, but you will not be able to create or edit new Picasa Web Albums.

The company suggests logging into Google Photos instead of Picasa Web Albums to edit your web-based Picasa files, as your pictures and videos will be available there as well. If you do decide to switch to Google Photos from Picasa, you can download a program to automatically upload the pictures stored on your computers hard drive to the Google Photos online server.
On opening night in January, I almost jumped out of my seat. Im no math whiz, but I could project potential book sales: 650 seats in the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, eight performances weekly, six weeks before completing its limited run. (The play closed on Sunday.) All without having even met the playwright.

My wife immediately nudged me back to earth. This is not Hamilton,  she said. Youre not Ron Chernow.

Still, when I was invited to the show by the Manhattan Theater Club, I was just as unsuspecting as Anna Cantor. All I was told was that the play had something to do with my book, The Brother. I was completely unprepared for Phil Weintraubs revelation and for what happened next.

So was the audience. How many had heard of David Greenglass, much less met him, as I had? Which is why Abby and Seth interrupted the action to nimbly recap the Rosenberg case:

David was an Army machinist working on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos during World War II. His sister, Ethel Rosenberg, and her husband, Julius, persuaded him to spy for the Soviet Union. Confronted years later by the F.B.I., he implicated the Rosenbergs to spare his wife from prosecution and himself from the death penalty. The couple were convicted of espionage conspiracy, in part because of his perjured testimony, and were executed.

But how did my book become a plot twist  and, in the finale to Act II, an actual physical prop? I waited until the play closed so that twist was no longer ripe for spoiling  to reveal the answer here. A friend had told Mr. Greenberg years ago about a womans indelible guilty secret. He was mulling it as the basis for a play.
Donald Trump has tended to fare worst in states that are mostly white.

That doesnt mean he hasnt had great success in appealing to white Republican primary voters  theres no doubt of that  only that he generally does better in states that have higher percentages of nonwhites, particularly African-Americans.

Mr. Trumps stances on, say, trade and Social Security can strike a chord with voters. But studies have shown that his bigger appeal is as an authoritarian voice of the voiceless. Part of that has been rallying people  particularly those who havent gone to college  who feel a resentment toward racial, ethnic and religious others.

As Michael Tesler and John Sides wrote for the Monkey Cage at The Washington Post last week: Fifty years of research backs this up. Ethnocentric suspicions of minority groups in general, and attitudes about blacks in particular, influence whites opinions about many issues.

Some social science research suggests that the simple fact that President Obama is black might have contributed to a sense of lost power and resentment among whites, and, of course, Mr. Trump first came to political prominence by questioning whether Mr. Obama was even a citizen.
The lead car of a commuter train derailed and plunged into a creek in Northern California late Monday, injuring nine passengers, officials said. Passengers shared images on social media of the rescue operation as emergency workers battled currents throughout the night to pull people from the car.

The Altamont Corridor Express No. 10 commuter train was traveling from San Jose to Stockton when the train struck a tree on the tracks in Sunol, a rural area about 45 miles east of San Francisco, a statement on the ACE website said. The first two cars derailed, but only the lead car ended up in the Alameda Creek.
DETROIT  Hillary Clinton has a clearer path to the Democratic presidential nomination than she ever had in 2008. But she is marching toward November facing the likelihood of an unpredictable opponent  and constrained by well-defined characteristics that have always limited her ability to inspire.

The former first lady calls it her responsibility gene; rivals deride it as poll-tested caution. Either way, it leaves Mrs. Clinton trying to hit singles and doubles while her Democratic socialist challenger swings for the fences.

Bernie Sanders advocates tax increases of $15 trillion affecting all income groups; Mrs. Clinton seeks an additional $1 trillion in revenue and would leave the bottom 95 percent of earners alone. He calls for a Medicare for all single-payer health care system; Mrs. Clinton aims to build on President Obamas Affordable Care Act.

He proposes breaking up Wall Street banks that have grown since the financial crisis; she backs tougher regulations but embraces the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that would dismantle banks posing systemic risks. He calls for $1 trillion in new spending to improve infrastructure and create jobs; she calls for $275 billion  half of what her husbands Treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, has advocated.
DENVER  Investigators said Tuesday that Oregon state officers had acted properly when they shot and killed LaVoy Finicum, one of the activists who occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon this year, but federal officials have opened an inquiry into the actions of F.B.I. agents for not disclosing that they also fired shots during the confrontation.

The investigators based their conclusions in part on a dramatic, previously undisclosed videotape taken from one of the occupants of Mr. Finicums car, which showed him taunting officers and daring them repeatedly to shoot me.

Mr. Finicum was killed Jan. 26 after the authorities tried to apprehend him at a police blockade outside Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The wildlife sanctuary had been taken over on Jan. 2 by a band of armed protesters led by two brothers, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who demanded that the federal government turn over its lands in the West to private owners or local governments.

By the time the confrontation ended on Feb. 11, 25 people had been arrested and charged with felonies; Mr. Finicum was the only one to die, and his shooting at the hands of deputies has become a rallying point for the Bundys cause.
Chicago Activist Faced Doxxing And Death Threats After #CancelColbert

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 8, 2016 5:38PM

In 2014, a Chicago-based activist who goes by Suey Park started the hashtag #CancelColbertand, as she recounts on the Wednesday premiere of SyFys new show The Internet Ruined My Life, it ruined her life.

I really did think that I could die, she says in the preview above.

Before the hashtag exploded, Park was a vocal activist for the Asian-American community, tweeting 50+ times per day about discrimination, stereotypical media representations, and other issues.

She spotted a now-deleted Tweet from Stephen Colbert, inspired by the Washington Redskins' owner's announcement he would start a foundation to benefit Native Americans: "I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever."

Park knew it was satirical, but didnt like the joke. I didnt actually want the show to be cancelled, she says in the preview, but I was trying to think of something catchy and over the top to get my point across.

She Tweeted: The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals has decided to call for #CancelColbert. Trend it.

The hashtag really did trend, and the backlash started immediately, snowballing into something truly horrific.

At first, her Twitter mentions were full of rape and death threats. TV pundits called her a grievance-monger; one TV personality had her on HuffPoLive to tell her she didnt understand satire and call her views stupid.

Then Reddit users doxxed her, sharing her personal email, phone number, and home address online. She got an untraceable message on her phone: Im an ex-military sniper. You are fucked Im outside your house. I have a target on you.

"I...felt like my independence and my privacy had been taken away," Park told Syfy.

Fearing for her life, she left Chicago for New York, but people stalked her even there. She started using burner phones and moving frequently from house to house. When she returned to Chicago, she wouldnt go outside alone at night for a long time, fearing for her life.

In her talking-head moments on the show, Park describes this whole epoch in the past tense, composedly. She doesnt specify what city she lives in right now, though, at least not in the preview aboveand if I knew, I wouldnt put it in a blog post.

The Internet Ruined My Life will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. CST on SyFy.


Seeking to end the Marco Rubio campaign with a defeat in Mr. Rubios home state, Donald J. Trump has set aside other ads he was using in Florida and is now running just one: a withering 60-second attack against the states junior senator.

On Screen

A visually simple production: Black and white photographs of Mr. Rubio looking concerned  raised eyebrows, pursed lips, downward glances  flip from side to side on screen like a slide show.

The narrators verbal flair often matches that of Mr. Trump, beginning the spot by intoning the words Corrupt Marco Rubio.

While in the Florida Legislature, the narrator says, Mr. Rubio flipped on a key vote after making a quick $200,000 selling a house to the mother of a lobbyist. He also got caught numerous times using Republican Party credit cards for personal use: paving driveways, living it up in Las Vegas and personal flights, as big red text proclaims that he lived by different rules. Stock footage rolls by: a house, asphalt being laid, a Las Vegas showgirl.
DETROIT  Rebuffed yet again in coaxing Hillary Clinton onto Fox News, executives at the network had an outside-the-box idea last month that would have made primary debate history: a face-off between Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the equally fiery candidate on the Republican side, Donald J. Trump.

The Trump campaign was initially very interested, according to Fox officials, and the Sanders campaign was on board. But before the debate could be announced, the Trump campaign pulled out, citing scheduling conflicts, so the network planned to welcome just Mr. Sanders in an hourlong town-hall-style event, hosted by Bret Baier as part of his Special Report program.

Late on Friday, the network received a surprise call. Mrs. Clinton would participate, ending her two-year absence from the network that her liberal base loves to criticize.

Its a good opportunity for us, and its one that I take seriously, Mr. Baier said in an interview on Monday before the event. He would, he said, take the same tough-but-fair approach that he and his fellow moderators had brought to the Republican debates, which were well received and which some view as a reason the Democrats might have been more willing to go on the network.
LANSING, Mich.  As voters in Michigan go to the polls on Tuesday, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio is getting some help from Mitt Romney, who recorded a get-out-the-vote call for Mr. Kasichs campaign.

Mr. Romney spoke out forcefully last week against Donald J. Trump, and he also recorded a phone message for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who, like Mr. Kasich, is trying to cut into Mr. Trumps support. Mr. Romneys calls are going to Republican voters in Michigan and the three other states voting on Tuesday: Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii.

Mr. Romneys father, George Romney, was Michigans governor, and Mr. Kasich has put significant effort into the state, which borders Ohio. He held a rally at a brewery in Lansing on Tuesday, then planned to return to Ohio, where he will spend primary night.

The call recorded by Mr. Romney on Mr. Kasichs behalf is virtually identical to the one he recorded for Mr. Rubio. It focuses on undermining Mr. Trump, rather than making a case for Mr. Kasich.
Who Will Win the Race Within the Race?

Though Mr. Cruz benefited from Mr. Rubios weak performance in Kentucky and Louisiana, it is not clear whether he can make the same gains in Michigan. It is a blue state with relatively few evangelical voters, and Mr. Cruz has struggled so far in such states.

Instead, Mr. Kasich could be the candidate who benefits from Mr. Rubios struggles. He is a relatively moderate governor from a neighboring state, and polls show he has moved into a tight race with Mr. Cruz for second place.

The race for second is a test for both Mr. Cruz and Mr. Kasich as each looks to present himself as the strongest Trump alternative. The second half of the primary season includes many Democratic-leaning states, like California, New Jersey and New York. A strong second-place showing in Michigan would ameliorate concerns about Mr. Cruzs ability to compete in blue states; if Mr. Kasich were to fare better, it would set him up for a strong showing in his home state next week.

Is Michigan Sanderss Best Bet?

On paper, Michigan should be a good state for Mr. Sanders. It is a white, working-class state that has been ravaged by outsourcing and ought to be receptive to Mr. Sanderss message on economic issues. It is also a fairly liberal state, with big college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing. The state is whiter than the nation as a whole, and black voters  who have turned out in droves for Mrs. Clinton in the South  make up roughly the same share of the electorate there as they do nationally.

The burden for Mr. Sanders in Michigan is even higher because he needs to make up for losses in the first part of the primary season with even stronger showings going forward. The polls suggest that Mrs. Clinton is on track for a decisive victory, so Mr. Sanders needs a surprise win to show he still has a path of his own.
Its, uh, well, look at the alternatives, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said when asked if his party could rally around Mr. Cruz at some juncture. Mr. Cruz has been gaining on Mr. Trump over the last week and lags him by fewer than 100 delegates, while a new poll shows Mr. Trumps popularity may be flagging after a wave of new attacks ads.

I am crestfallen that my candidate, Jeb Bush, is out of the running, said Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who added that she would endorse no one.

Perhaps she was just being self-interested. Ms. Collins joked that she and Senator Joe Donnelly, Democrat of Indiana, having recently been named the two most bipartisan senators by a policy think tank, were planning to run on their own ticket. We were worried about having an all-Catholic ticket, Ms. Collins said.

Mr. Cruz is one of the least popular senators on Capitol Hill, in large part because he masterminded the 2013 government shutdown in a failed attempt to roll back President Obamas health care law, something Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, said at the time was the dumbest idea I have ever heard.
KABUL, Afghanistan  One defendant was the custodian of a holy shrine who trafficked in Viagra, condoms and pagan amulets, and who, when exposed, falsely accused a young woman named Farkhunda of burning a Quran. Another was an employee from an opticians shop who joined a growing mob at the shrine and pummeled Farkhunda with a rock the size of a watermelon.

Another was an Afghan intelligence agent who bragged on Facebook that he had the honor of striking the fatal blow against her. Another man drove his car over her, twice.

Those men were sentenced to death last year in what briefly looked like a rare moment of justice for Afghan women, and other convictions seemed imminent. But in the months afterward, as detailed last year in an investigation by The New York Times, failures at every stage of the justice process surfaced. Clear leads did not turn into arrests, and tough sentences were drastically reduced  including for those four men identified at the center of the violence, who had their death sentences turned into as little as 10 years in prison.

Now, Afghanistans Supreme Court has confirmed the decision to vacate those four death sentences, and nine other defendants also had their sentences reduced. Word of that decision came late Monday in a restrained announcement by the attorney general, and all day Tuesday it became the inescapable backdrop for International Womens Day observations in Kabul.
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan  The banks of the placid Helmand River have always been the social center of Lashkar Gah, the southern Afghan provincial capital sometimes called Little America during the decades of modernization efforts here.

The appeal of the river stands aside from worldly concerns, and there are many of those lately. The water is calm this time of year, the sunset gorgeous. To unwind at the end of the day, people come to the riverbank for bandaar  easy chat over a cup of tea or, if in season, the delicious pomegranates this region is known for. Other visitors have slowed their worlds with hashish, lying on their backs in the water, away from the crowds, fascinated with the clear sky above.

On a recent reporting trip, I was particularly keen to talk to a friend here, a young university lecturer with helpful insights about this place. Even by its own standard, the surrounding region of Helmand Province has suffered a rough, bloody year. The Taliban, making major inroads, are now holed up in one of Lashkar Gahs suburbs across the river. Was he worried that the city might fall, that the lifestyle he had grown used to  a vibrant educational environment, multiple private TV and radio channels  could be in danger?

After a conversation over milk tea on a worn-out couch at a little cafe facing the river, he suggested dinner with a couple of his friends, also university lecturers, at a fish restaurant that had opened just outside the city. The suburb, Karez, is considered one of the safest, he said. Even when the Taliban entered Lashkar Gah a few years ago, they met fierce resistance in Karez.
A news organization led by one of Chinas most prominent journalists is sounding the alarm about censorship and the growing restrictions on free speech, citing a source very familiar with the situation: itself.

On Tuesday, the influential and respected news organization Caixin Media posted an article on its English-language website reporting that the countrys Internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, which it called a government censorship organ, had deleted a March 3 article on Caixins Chinese-language website because it contained illegal content.

The article, which Caixin said was removed on Saturday, quoted Jiang Hong, a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. It said he had expressed the view that advisers should be free to give their opinions to the Communist Partys leaders, who have gathered this month for the annual session of the National Peoples Congress, the countrys legislature. Mr. Jiang was quoted as saying that certain events had cast a shadow over the meetings, leaving attendees a bit dazed and not wanting to talk too much. The New York Times cited that Caixin article in a report on Friday.

For a Chinese news organization to publicize the governments censorship of the news media is highly unusual, and it comes less than three weeks after President Xi Jinping made a high-profile visit to some leading state-controlled news organizations, including China Central Television and the news agency Xinhua, telling them that they existed as propaganda tools for the Communist Party. While Caixin has always had more leeway than those organizations, it must still obey increasingly strict rules on what news organizations can publish.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan  Pakistani officials said Tuesday that the police and security forces had found Shahbaz Ali Taseer, the son of a prominent former governor, alive in southwestern Pakistan five years after militants kidnapped him in a mystery that had riveted Pakistan for years.

Mr. Taseer, now in his early 30s, was kidnapped by Islamist militants on Aug. 26, 2011, in Lahore. Eight months before the kidnapping, his father, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, was assassinated by one of his security guards, who had been outraged over Mr. Taseers campaign to alter the countrys harsh blasphemy laws.

The two episodes made the Taseers a public symbol of a Pakistani liberal establishment family that had been threatened by extremism. Speculation about Shahbaz Taseers health has continued over the years, with some assuming that he had been killed by his captors.

Mr. Taseer was found Tuesday evening in Kuchlak, a town near Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, according to Anwarul Haq Kakar, a spokesman of the provincial ministry. The province has long been a battleground between the Pakistani security forces and ethnic Baluch separatists. It is also known as a stronghold for jihadist and sectarian extremist groups, including the Afghan Taliban.
European Union leaders and Turkey reached a tentative deal early Tuesday morning to help resolve the migration crisis that has roiled the Continent. But human rights advocates have raised concerns about the accord.

Q. What are the main points?

A. Turkey agreed to take back all new migrants who enter Greece illegally from Turkey. In exchange, the union is considering whether to give aid groups more money to help Turkey look after the refugees, let Turkish citizens travel more widely in Europe without visas and speed up talks on Turkeys eventually joining the union. The days of irregular migration to Europe are over, said Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, who represents the leaders of the unions 28 member countries.

Q. Does this mean all the migrants will be stuck in Turkey?

A. No. Under the agreement, for every Syrian who is sent back to Turkey from Greece, the European Union promises to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey. The idea is to halt the human trafficking and dangerous smuggling that have led to so many deaths, while establishing an orderly screening process to let some refugees with a legitimate legal claim to asylum get through.

Q. Is the plan legal?

A. The United Nations refugee agency said it was concerned about any agreement that involves a blanket return of all individuals from one country to another without sufficiently spelled-out refugee protection safeguards.
These People Really Don't Want Trump Campaigning At UIC This Friday

By Sam Stecklow in News on Mar 8, 2016 5:28PM



Protesters march at Trump Tower with a doll that looks like Donald Trump. By Aaron Cynic/Chicagoist

Building off of the momentum started by students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who began a petition to bar Donald Trump from holding a rally at the UIC Pavilion on Friday, multiple groups have come out against UIC hosting the rally. A coalition of Latino politicians and community leaders, including U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez and Alds. George Cardenas, Raymond Lopez, and Gilbert Villegas, said Monday that they plan to hold a counter-protest.

"We want to raise our voices because the city of Chicago has an incredibly proud tradition of being inclusive, of bringing people together," Gutierrez told the Tribune. "And Mr. Trump has the tradition of division, of hatred, of bigotry, of prejudice. We are asking all of Chicago to stand up."

Separately, 180 UIC professors signed a letter addressed to chancellor Michael Amiridis that reads in part:





We are deeply distressed that this event threatens to create a hostile and physically dangerous environment to the students, staff, faculty and alumni who come out to express their opposition. We base this claim on what happened recently at another public higher education institution, Valdosta State in Georgia, where university security ejected a group of peaceful protestors, all of whom were students enrolled at the university, who were seeking to attend the rally being held in a campus venue. A range of reports in both the alternative and mainstream press have provided credible evidence that people of color and individuals with values opposed to those touted by the Trump campaign have been verbally and physically assaulted by not just the crowd attending Trump rallies, but also by the security forces staffing them. This maltreatment has extended to journalists. Some have been violently removed from rallies, despite having done nothing uncivil, let alone illegal. Donald Trump has been quoted as saying something to the effect of being willing to defend in court anyone who finds him or herself in trouble for reporting or expelling dissenters from his rallies and speeches. There is evidence that members of his audience have treated visible racial or religious markers as grounds for expulsion and that security and police have been enlisted to assist them. All of this amounts not only to a refusal to defend the rights and protect the safety of those targeted individuals, but more importantly as a direct affront against those rights and that safety. It also compromises the integrity and mandate of the officers assigned to maintain order and safety. We believe that these actions suggest that an incitement to violence is very likely and must be planned for and stopped if UIC is going to allow the rally to move forward. We believe these examples also constitute sufficient evidence to justify canceling the event to protect the physical safety of the UIC community.

The anti-Trump sentiment is widespread throughout the city. As many on social media have noted, a pro-Trump billboard at Ogden & Western in Lawndale has been defaced.





Good morning Chicago. We of course would never ever condone anything like this. Posted by Riot Fest on Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The latest Tribune poll, conducted last week, has Trump beating Ted Cruz by ten points in the Illinois primary.

Note: A previous version of this story said the UIC Pavilion is located in the 11th Ward; that is incorrect.
ISTANBUL  The contrast was jarring: Just days after the police broke into the offices of an opposition newspaper using tear gas and water cannons, Turkeys prime minister was greeted in Brussels with offers of billions in aid, visa-free travel for Turks in Europe and renewed prospects for joining the European Union.

The juxtaposition highlighted the conundrum Europe faces as it seeks solutions to its worst refugee crisis since World War II. To win Turkeys desperately needed assistance in stemming the flow of migrants to the Continent, European officials seem prepared to ignore what critics say is President Recep Tayyip Erdogans steady march toward authoritarianism.

It is a moment of European weakness that the Turkish leadership seems keen to capitalize on. As Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu arrived in Brussels this week, he upped the ante, asking for more financial aid than was previously negotiated and demanding visa-free travel by June, while offering to take back some migrants who had crossed into Europe.

The Turkish offer was hailed as a breakthrough on Tuesday by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, spoke about a common understanding between Europe and Turkey. They said they hoped to work out the details at a summit meeting on March 17 and 18.
TEHRAN  The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran staged nationwide ballistic missile tests on Tuesday, Iranian state television reported, though the accounts did not specify whether the military had fired any ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, which would violate a United Nations resolution.

Missiles were fired from several silos in different regions of the country, state television reported, without identifying the launch sites. It showed clips of underground silos with dozens of missiles and a missile being prepared for launch from one such silo.

One three-minute clip showed a missile silo at an enormous underground base with what seemed to be a Qiam 1, a ballistic missile first tested in 2010. This is a missile revolution, the presenter said.

The head of the Revolutionary Guards, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, and the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Corps, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, attended the exercises, state television reported.
RAMALLAH, West Bank  A Palestinian on a stabbing rampage on Tuesday along a coastal promenade near Tel Aviv killed an American combat veteran who was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University.

The attacks occurred along a popular seaside boulevard in Jaffa, about a mile away from where Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was meeting with a former president of Israel, Shimon Peres.

The stabbing attacks, carried out over 20 minutes, came just after Mr. Biden arrived for a two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. He is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday.

The American was identified as Taylor Force, 28, a first-year M.B.A. student at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt, the university said in a statement. He was one of 29 students from the graduate school on a trip to Israel to learn about global entrepreneurship, according to a news release from Vanderbilt. The rest of the students, as well as the four faculty and staff members that accompanied them, were safe, it said.
Medical workers in parts of Syria have been forced to let the wounded bleed to death for lack of bandages, and have opted to use catheter bags meant for urine to administer intravenous fluids to newborns because proper drip bags are gone.

Expectant mothers in areas vulnerable to shelling and bombing give birth by cesarean section rather than risk natural childbirth in an attack. Malnourished children are eating animal feed and leaves, in some cases only miles from warehouses full of food. Families are burning mattress stuffing and plastic scraps for heat.

Those are among some of the details in a Save the Children report issued Tuesday night about the challenges confronting Syrian civilians in 18 areas across the country that the United Nations has defined as besieged, meaning they are surrounded by armed antagonists who have severely restricted aid delivery and freedom of movement.

At least a quarter-million children are among the inhabitants of such areas, which have been effectively turned into open-air prisons, the report said. It drew on data from the United Nations and other organizations, as well as Save the Childrens interviews with local aid groups, doctors, teachers and civilians, including 126 mothers, fathers and children who reside in these areas.
JERUSALEM  Most Israeli Jews marry within their own religious or secular subgroups and inhabit largely separate social worlds, according to the findings of a new survey exposing the deep gulfs over the role of religion in Israeli politics and society.

The first in-depth study of religion in Israel conducted by the Pew Research Center in Washington, released on Tuesday, found that religious and social divisions are reflected in starkly contrasting positions on many public policy questions, and in profoundly differing attitudes toward the character of Israel.

So while 89 percent of Israels secular Jews, who make up 40 percent of the population, think democratic principles should take precedence over Jewish law on issues where the two collide, 89 percent of Israels ultra-Orthodox Jews, a smaller but fast-growing group, think the opposite.

The study found substantial differences among Israeli Jews on crucial questions. Even among self-identified centrists, opinion was split three ways on the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Over all, a third believed the settlements hurt Israels security, a third thought they helped security and the remainder said they made no difference.
Whats the deal with American politics right now?

This is an odd question for me to try to answer. I write and talk about money, not politics. But this year, its the question I hear most often when I travel to other countries. They want to know if I can shed any light on whats happening in our presidential race.

Im as shocked as everyone else by what is going on. But as I have thought about it, I keep coming back to this great insight from the investing guru Benjamin Graham: In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.

The same logic holds true for democracy. In the short term, how markets move and whom we elect depends on humans casting ballots in a voting machine  buying stocks or making a choice in the voting booth. The results we see represent nothing more than the collective feelings of all those humans  at that moment. At any given time were voting for stocks or politicians based on imperfect information and a very complex set of mental and emotional biases. These are all things that make it incredibly difficult to reach a rational decision.
LOS ANGELES  On a sun-soaked Southern California morning in the Hollywood Hills, the perennial pinup Pamela Anderson considered whether or not she had been afraid when she got breast implants. I didnt even have time to think about it, she said in her breathy girlish voice. It was done within a week, and that was that.

Ms. Anderson wore black ballet flats and a Crest-white coatdress that, despite its modesty, didnt mask her tan bombshell physique. It was very 80s, she said as she fumbled with her top button. A different time.

It was a time when the standards of beauty were not soft Botticelli bodies, Twiggy-thin frames or the kind of androgynous looks that now rule the runways. When Ms. Anderson arrived in Los Angeles as a wide-eyed Canadian transplant of 22, the women who intrigued her were the buxom blondes in the music videos that permeated MTV, and airbrushed 80s-era Playmates.

I would look at all these girls on the walls of Playboy, and I would go: Look at their breasts, look at their bodies. Hows that even possible?
Thomas is a gifted storyteller, and the changing circumstances of these womens lives as their cases drag on, along with the unpredictability of the courts, give her plenty to work with. She provides lots of head-shaking moments. Surely, you say to yourself, that couldnt have been legal  such as when a city utility required women to contribute 15 percent more to their pension fund because they lived longer than men. (Never mind that survivorship provisions often meant that shorter-lived men would leave widows who continued to receive the benefits.)

Thomas frequently comments on the luck of the judicial draw: So much depended on which judges were assigned to the cases. Indeed, luck in general is a big part of the story. An Alabama woman who had been rejected for a position as a prison guard found an ally when a lawyer from the Southern Poverty Law Center happened into the salon where she had taken a job shampooing hair.

Other developments came together to push for change. Womens organizations flooded courts with amicus briefs, lawyers cited legal theories developed by civil rights advocates, and the N.A.A.C.P. became more attentive to the implications of sex discrimination for black women. Social scientists gained some authority in the courtroom, presenting research that debunked longstanding gender stereotypes. In one case, experts testified that good judgment and interpersonal skills were more important than size for law enforcement officers.

Thomas convincingly describes Title VII as nothing short of revolutionary, yet throughout the book we see the limits of change for women. This point was underscored for me when I watched a Times video about the 200,000 women working as guards in American prisons. Although trained to handle violent inmates, they receive no instruction on how to respond to co-workers who sexually assault them. Fear of retaliation often keeps them silent. Title VII did away with the protective labor laws that for decades had limited womens career opportunities, and the choices are now often womens to make. Despite tremendous gains, however, too often those choices seem like quandaries  and they make it feel as if not enough progress has been made.
Reagans administration went far to help Bechtel, Denton writes, promoting the companys plans for a pipeline and a chemical plant in Iraq, already listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. Its troubling stuff  yet this is also where the dam begins to crack. Innuendo filters in. Shultz was not so much planning but plotting, and Weinberger was not firm in his convictions but fanatical. She darkly describes meetings at the Bohemian Grove, a two-week, all-male summer retreat on Californias Russian River, popular with the wealthy establishment. (Disclosure: I was invited to speak there last summer.) But the atmospherics carry a whiff of conspiracy theory. Powerful men talk all the time. They have private jets  phones, too. Why colluding among redwoods and amateur theatricals is particularly sinister remains unclear to me.

Nor does she need the story of the confessed spy Jonathan Pollard, which she crams in like a tuxedo in a hikers backpack. She devotes a prologue, the penultimate chapter and many pages of narrative to Pollards espionage for the Israeli government, his arrest and his incarceration. His discovery of Bechtels plan to build a petrochemicals complex in Iraq clinched his decision to spy, she asserts  though Saddam Hussein already operated several chemical-weapons factories. She attributes Pollards unexpectedly long imprisonment to a memo from Weinberger, suggesting that he wanted to silence Pollard about Bechtel, Weinbergers former employer, even though Weinberger had been sidelined at Bechtel before he left.

One neednt apologize for Bechtels courtship of Saddam Hussein to decide its thin evidence for concluding that Pollards primary motivation was to expose Bechtel, or that Bechtel engineered his prosecution and sentencing. The problem with a circumstantial case for conspiracy is that one must eliminate simpler explanations, and there are plenty. Pollards story sits awkwardly atop the whole, more lint than a woven thread in the fabric.

That aside, Denton strikes at the very conundrum that worried Madison  the relationship between corporate power and government in a political democracy. Corporations are useful; they concentrate capital, undertake publicly beneficial works and create wealth. They also concentrate power, in service of private gain. They deserve healthy skepticism, not deference, and intelligent oversight. They have come far from their early days as relics of mercantilism, but large companies embody interests that Washington cannot ignore. Private enterprise is a critical part of our national power and still plays a role in public policy.

Here is where I wish the author had placed more stress. Cronyism and wealth have helped Bechtel a great deal, but they cannot fully explain its long ties to Washington. Apples $233.7 billion in revenue in 2015 dwarfs Bechtels $37.2 billion, yet it is currently battling the government. Among private companies in 2015, Albertsons, the supermarket chain, was larger, though from what I can tell, hardly more influential. But Bechtel, unlike those companies, has played a central role in American foreign policy over the last century, particularly with regard to energy, and it knows how to keep state secrets. We should not leap to the conclusion that Bechtel has been only a tyrant rather than a tool. Considerations other than Bechtels fortunes have shaped Americas changing policies in the Middle East.

But this is a long conversation, one that goes well beyond the scope of The Profiteers. Denton begins it with a bang, itemizing amoral investments, environmental damage, exploitation of labor and chummy relationships with policy makers. Whether she persuades on all points or not, she shows that its a conversation we must have.
Its annoying enough to police your childrens digital excesses at home. But precious vacation time being wasted as they socialize virtually instead of engaging in the moment is the bane of 21st-century parenting. Heeding parents frustrations, hotels and resorts have responded with adolescent-savvy programming that encourages real-world interaction.

After a day on the slopes, the BC<3t2 (Beaver Creek Loves Teens Too) program in Colorado kicks into gear (during the winter and spring seasons) with field trips in and around the resort: tubing at Vails Adventure Ridge, guided twilight snowshoeing, a class for ski and snowboard flips and stunts at the Anti-Gravity Center in nearby Edwards.

At family-run, all-inclusive Beaches resorts (Turks and Caicos, Negril, Ocho Rios), teens have their own spa menu, nightclub and games arcade complete with a Scratch D.J. Academy. This year, Island Impact is offering the chance to work with local children on reading and computer skills.

A daily newspaper outlines dedicated activities for the 13- to 17-year-old set at Aulani, a Disney resort in Hawaii. Aside from an extensive menu of water sports, there are youth-specific fitness classes and spa services (along with D.I.Y. product tutorials) at the Painted Sky Teen Spa.
Ohmygosh, We Talked To Carly Rae Jepsen

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 8, 2016 8:48PM



Photo by Hazel & Pine

A lesser artist than Carly Rae Jepsen would have coasted into old age on the success of 2012s Call Me Maybe. It was a smash hit, with almost 800 million YouTube views and a Justin Bieber fan video. It was so ubiquitous that even my dad has heard of it (though he thinks its called Call Me Lately).

Jepsen doesn't coast, though. She took three years off from releasing music after Call Me Maybe and her 2012 album, Kiss, but in that time, she starred in Cinderella on Broadway and played Frenchie in FOXs Grease: Live. Most importantly, she put together a killer pop album: 2015s Emotion. It made almost every Best of 2015 music list, including ours.

Jepsen worked with an unprecedentedly Pitchfork-y array of collaborators on Emotion: Dev Hynes co-wrote the albums second single, All That, and Sia wrote the bulk of Making The Most Of The Night. (It was mostly [Sias] baby, Jepsen told Chicagoist.)

But Jepsen also stuck with her most enduring, mystical talent on Emotion: capturing the fizz and anxiety of crushes. Carly Rae Jepsen is a crush savant, on a level no other pop star can approach. Whether youre listening to Call Me Maybe or I Really Like You or the vampiric Warm Blood, you feel like youre on the verge of kissing someone so cute. Even if youre in fact doing laundry in your basement, alone.

So, before the Chicago stop on Jepsens Gimmie Love Toura sold-out Saturday show at the MetroChicagoist talked with Jepsen about her live show, her songwriting process, and obviously, crushes.

What can people expect from your live show? What inspired you when you were putting it together?

On the live show, I think the musicians I grew up seeing and loving were very much based off of the musicians my parents took me to. So its like, Melissa Etheridge and Elton John. My favorite pop artist was SinAad O'Connor growing up, and shes not even totally pop. So my show is just the band and me, and we just jam it out. Its been three years in the making of this album, and its just a lovefest celebration for us with each song.

How do you think your experience performing live on Broadway, or in Grease: Live, comes through in your live show?

I want to joke and be like, I wear a ball gown for one of the songs. But I mean, in general, I think that every live show you do, especially if its a little out of your comfort zone and challenging and exciting, just adds to your live performance. All of the band boys commented to me when I came off of Grease that there was something different added to the show, but I dont know how I would define it. I think just a new kind of buzz and confidence.

How have fans been responding to the Gimmie Love Tour so far? Have you had any noteworthy moments with your fans?



Theres been a couple magical moments. When we played in New York, it was really cool. Theres a song called When I Needed You, and I think its one of my favorite moments to datewe finished the song, and someone kind of kept singing one of the choruses,even though we had stopped. Everyone kind of took it up, and there was a moment where the entire crowd sang back and forth When I Needed You to us, and we just sat there and watched them. I was beautiful. It was a cool little rush.

Your tour is named after Gimmie Love, which is my favorite song on Emotion. Can you talk a little about how that song came about?

It was one of the last songs. It came together with Mattias & Robin, which is a writing partnership in Sweden, but they actually came to Los Angeles to work with me because the partnership felt really right. I think were all really like-minded writers. We had one last session together, and I showed up, and I was pining for somebody who I was too scared to say it to. And I showed up with this idea of Give me love, give me everything that I want, and we began writing it. The song came out in just one day, and it was here in one of the LA studios.

Ive read that you recorded Kiss, your first album, in two months. What did you do when you were making Emotion you didnt have time to do on Kiss?

I had time to experiment, which is a luxury that adds to the writing process for me in a big way. You go to places you might not realize is a really important place to go. When I was done with Kiss I was really happy about it, but I also felt like, Wow, that was such a rush! It would be so fun to do something next time where I really just take a pregnant pause there and I just go into the studio and try things and explore. At the end of it I found myself working with people who come from different worlds of music than I do, and sometimes making collaborations that turned out to be some of my favorites.

Speaking of experimentation: What do you think of as the most experimental song on Emotion?



Well, a song that I had begun with two Canadian writers in Canada way back in the day was a song called Warm Love. I brought the chorus of that song over to Rostam [Batmangli, of Vampire Weekend] when we first met. I said, Theres something to this, what do you think? and he kind of misheard me and thought I said Warm blood. In a weird way, we got off on how creepy and kind of real that felt. I would say that Warm Blood ended up being one of the weirder tracks but one of my favorite tracks as well on the album.



Whats your songwriting process like?

Its different with every song. Ill usually have a line or two that has a cadence, and a melody in mind to it. When I went to Sweden though, I found that they did it a very different way, where they almost started with the bare bones of melody, and then plugged in lyrics later on. I found that to be a really useful tool for getting the rhythms just right, and not feeling restricted by what you had to say. But coming back to LA afterwards, I found that I still like the way that I generally do things.

A lot of people tell me Emotion evokes high school crushes from them (because I make people talk about Emotion all the time). Im curious if thats purposeful. Do you pull from your younger years when youre writing?



Id like to say that I was just trying to rehash the old-school high school days, but I think the truth of the career that Ive chosen, it doesnt allow for very long-term, six-year-long relationships. Its been one where you get these long-distance romances that are very passionate, and theyre very intense, but theyre not really [the type where you] get up every day and brush your teeth and do the dirty laundry and really kind of get into each other. If Im being really honest, I think that a lot of my writing comes from the fact that it is about kind of first-time romance for me, and really quick flashes of heartbreak. Thats sort of the world that Ive been living in.

Your style has changed a lot since, say, the Call Me Maybe video. What inspired that? Were there any particular designers or artists that catalyzed that change?



In the past I never tried to put too much weight or stress on how I dressed or my personal life or my public persona. I kept on trying to steer back to what was most important to me, which was the music. But speaking really candidly, I was driving home from a Grease rehearsal, actually, and I heard Elton John give this amazing interview on the importance of fashion in performance. It just sort of like, something clicked in me where I was like, Ive never really embraced that as a fun and powerful tool, and looked at it as art. It kind of changed my thinking.

A week after Grease, I decided to just cut my hair randomly because I wanted to. I saw a couple of photos online and it just felt like a really powerful look. Less pretty, but kind of cool and confident. Im not really doing it for any purpose but the art of it.

One last question: In your live show, do you still perform Call Me Maybe?



Yeah. I feel like there was definitely a moment in time, I think probably half a year back, where I was like, Im exhausted by this song! Ive played it so many times! Maybe I just wont do it anymore. But I think that might be a really selfish decision. Because if I go see Van Morrison and he didnt do like, Moondance, it would really bug me. So whenever I get tired of it, I just think about the fact that its not just a performance for me, its for everyone. I actually really do enjoy it when I get to sing it. It doesnt ever feel like a song that I have to sing on my own. It becomes like this group singalong, and a nice moment just to celebrate a big reason why Im here. It goes by in a flash.

This conversation was condensed and edited for clarity.
A string of locals guided Joe closer and closer to our target. Finally, he parked on an incline and said we had made it. Before Dan ducked his oversize head out of the car, he squeezed his clammy forefinger around mine. Joe led us up a steep flight of concrete steps and through a narrow dirt path, and there it was: a weather-beaten block of stone adjoined to a much shorter hunk of stone, which was the original house; my ancestors carved it directly out of the cliffside over a century ago.

There was a curved roof designed to collect rainwater, shattered pieces of ceramic tile, a dried-up well, boarded-up doors. In the front yard, tall bristle grass that Id been told my grandfather once used to sweep the floors gave way to overgrown grape vines alongside spurts of wild fennel and licorice. Dans mouth, like mine, was agape, but he didnt say much. He snapped pictures, offered hard numbers about how many hundreds of feet above the sea the house might be.

We looked onto the port below  it turned out the house was visible from way down there  and I wanted to feel as if I was standing in my mothers light. I wanted to sense a recognition flickering in Dans hard-to-read green eyes, a sudden release of the torso under his Red Sox tee, a narrowing of the gap that separated him from all my greatest memories. But Im fairly sure that didnt happen.

Why had I decided Ponza was such a Meaningful Place? Yes, I liked saying I owned property on a little Italian island that no one had ever heard of. Yes, my mother talked about it, felt proud about it. Yes, wed been there together. But we went lots of places together. We went to Ponza only once; she went to Ponza only once. Her father left in adolescence for a better life and died before I could meet him; on his last visit back, his family shunned him for abandoning them. And our Ponza relatives now wanted nothing to do with us other than to fight over the house. In the early days of dating Dan, Ponza was simply a vessel for talking about my mother; there was no reason it should have brought him any closer to actually knowing her.

All the same, its pretty cool to spend time on a little Italian island that no one has ever heard of. Weve returned twice since the honeymoon.

Anna Fendi once said Ponza is the only place in the last 30 years that has stayed the same. Indeed, most things havent changed on the island since I visited with my mother, and probably since my grandfather lived there. The drinking water still comes off barges from Naples; there are no movie theaters or proper hospitals (even though there are four churches); they use figs milk to treat foot fungus and wear unironic Ponza-shaped choker necklaces. A banner stretched across the main church features San Silverio, the islands patron saint, atop a world globe  except in this version of the earth there is only one landmass, and that is Ponza.
Baking was just a cover for tango, Tissa Stein, the owner of Tabor Bread, said with a smile about the conception of her bakery in 2012. Even before it opened, tango was very much a part of the design.

Instead of concrete floors, Ms. Stein chose honey-colored hickory, a smooth surface ideal for tangos gliding steps. The countertops where bread is made by day are on wheels to open up space for dancing by night. Tango and baking are both deeply nourishing, Ms. Stein said. To me, tango is another type of nutrition for the body.

After hours, Tabor Bread hosts sultry tango soirees, attracting up to 50 dancers a night. Tables are cleared away and dancers spin around the floor, often to live music, against the backdrop of the bakerys wood-burning oven. Ms. Stein, 67, who began dancing about nine years ago, is planning a sunset, or happy-hour, milonga for dancers whose schedules dont allow them to dance into the wee hours (or as a warm-up for those who do).

The warm embraces of tango compensate for the lack of sunshine in Portland, said Antje Kalinauskas, one of the hosts of several past milongas there, including Chispa (Spanish for spark) at Tabor Bread. Originally from Germany, Ms. Kalinauskas, 40, found a welcoming tango community in Portland. Tango can be like speaking another language, she said. Think about how fun it can be to meet someone new and chat in their language.
The New York University Creative Writing Programs Spring 2016 Reading Series continues in April with events featuring Jonathan Safran Foer (April 7), Charles Bock (April 14), and Anne Enright (April 28), among others.

All events are held in the programs Greenwich Village home, the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, located at 58 W. 10th Street (between 5th and 6th Aves.) and are free and open to the publicunless otherwise noted. Seating for free events is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 212.998.8816 or visit www.cwp.fas.nyu.edu. Subways: F, L, M (14th Street/6th Avenue); 1 (Christopher Street); A, B, C, D, E, F, M (West 4th Street).

Thursday, April 7, 7 p.m.

Fiction Reading: Axinn Foundation Writer-in-Residence Allison Bulger

Founded in 2014, the Axinn Foundation Fellowship is awarded each year to a graduating student of exceptional promise. Introduced by Lillian Vernon Distinguished Writer in Residence Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the novels "Everything Is Illuminated," (Harper Perennial, 2005) "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," (Mariner Books, 2006) and the book of non-fiction "Eating Animals" (Back Bay Books, 2010).

Friday, April 8, 5 p.m.

NYU Creative Writing Program Alumni Reading: J. Scott Brownlee, James Byrne, Thomas Dooley, and Morgan Parker

J. Scott Brownlee's debut collection of poems is "Requiem for Used Ignition Cap" (Orison Books, 2015). James Byrne's most recent collection of poems is "Everything Broken up Dances" (Tupelo Press, 2015). A 2013 National Poetry Series selection, "Trespass," (Harper Perennial, 2014) is the debut collection from Thomas Dooley. Morgan Parker's debut collection "Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night" (Switchback Books, 2015) was selected for the 2013 Gatewood Prize.

Friday, April 8, 7 p.m.

NYU Emerging Writers Reading: Sloane Crosley, Guest Author

Sloane Crosley is the author of the essay collections "I Was Told There'd Be Cake," (Riverhead, 2011) "How Did You Get This Number," (Riverhead, 2011) and the novel "The Clasp" (FSG, 2015).

Note Location: KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street

Thursday, April 14, 7 p.m.

The New Salon: Charles Bock in Conversation with Darin Strauss

Charles Bock is the author of the novel "Beautiful Children," (Random House, 2009) which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book. His most recent novel is Alice & Oliver (Random House, 2016). This event is hosted by NYU Creative Writing Program faculty member and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Darin Strauss.

Friday, April 15, 7 p.m.

West 10th Launch Reading: Mira Jacob

Readings by guest author Mira Jacob and student contributors to the NYU Creative Writing Programs undergraduate literary journal. Mira Jacob is the author of the novel The Sleepwalkers Guide to Dancing (Random House, 2015).

Thursday, April 21, 7 p.m.

Cave Canem Presents: New Works with Tyehimba Jess, Jacqueline Johnson, and Marilyn Nelson

Tyehimba Jess is the author of "leadbelly" (Wave Books, 2005) and "Olio," forthcoming from Wave Books in April 2016. Jacqueline Johnson is the author of "A Gathering of Mother Tongues" (White Pine Press, 1998). Marilyn Nelson is the author of most recently, How I Discovered Poetry (Dial Press, 2014) and My Seneca Village (namelos, 2015). Co-sponsored with Cave Canem Foundation.

Thursday, April 28, 7 p.m.

The Laureate for Irish Fiction Lecture: Anne Enright

"An Irishwoman Abroad: Maeve Brennan and the Streets of New York." Man Booker Prize Winner and NYU Creative Writing Program Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, Anne Enright is the acclaimed author of six novels, three short story collections, a book of essays, and most recently "The Green Road" (W. W. Norton, 2015). Presented by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Friday, April 29, 5 p.m.

CantoMundo Poetry Reading: David Campos, Willie Perdomo, Natalie Scenters-Zapico

David Campos is the author of "Furious Dusk" (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015). Willie Perdomo is most recently the author of "The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon," (Penguin, 2014) a finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award. The debut collection of poems from Natalie Scenters-Zapico is "The Verging Cities" (CLP, 2015). Hosted by Deborah Paredez. Co-sponsored with CantoMundo and the PEN World Voices Festival.

Saturday, April 30, 7 p.m.

Washington Square Review Launch Reading: Amy Hempel and Tommy Pico

A reading by contributors to the NYU Creative Writing Programs nationally distributed literary journal. Amy Hempel is the author of four short story collections, later gathered and published in a single volume by Scribner, "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" (2006). Tommy Pico is the founder and editor-in-chief of "birdsong" and the author of "absentMINDR" (VERBALVISUAL, 2014). Co-sponsored with the PEN World Voices Festival.

Editors Note:

The NYU Creative Writing Program, among the most distinguished programs in the country, is a leading national center for the study of writing and literature. The undergraduate and graduate programs provide students with an opportunity to develop their craft while working closely with some of the finest poets and novelists writing today. The Creative Writing Program occupies a townhouse on West 10th Street in the same Greenwich Village neighborhood where so many writers have lived and worked. The Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House allows writersestablished and emergingto share their work in an inspiring setting. For more, visit www.cwp.fas.nyu.edu.


Man Charged In Gang-Retaliation Killing Of 9-Year-Old Tyshawn Lee

By Sam Stecklow in News on Mar 8, 2016 4:48PM



Tyshawn Lee (GoFundMe)

Chicago police have arrested and charged 22-year-old Dwight Boone-Doty with the murders of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee and 19-year-old Brianna Jenkins as part of an ongoing gang conflict in Auburn Gresham in October and November, respectively. According to the police, Lee was targeted due to his father's ties to the Killa Ward faction of the Gangster Disciples.

The Sun-Times reported this morning that Boone-Doty, who has been locked up at Cook County Jail since mid-November on unrelated charges, had bragged about shooting Lee to fellow inmates, one of whom informed authorities, who had him wear a wire to get Boone-Doty caught on tape. Anthony Gugliemi, CPD spokesperson, told reporters that the police "were able to ascertain that Mr. Doty targeted, lured and executed Tyshawn Lee."

Police have already arrested and charged one man, Corey Morgan, with first-degree murder of Lee, so it's unclear what will happen in his case; his lawyer told the Sun-Times that he had nothing to do with Lee's killing. Police also have a warrant out for another man, Kevin Edwards, in relation to the case.

Lee's mother posted on Facebook about the charges shortly after they were announced, saying that Boone-Doty will reap what he's sowed.


A treasure-trove of more than 6,000 Bob Dylan artifacts, including numerous pages of handwritten lyrics, concert films, and recording sessions will head to the University of Tulsa.

A poster of Bob Dylan. [Photo: mtime.com]

The plan is to preserve the extensive catalog of Dylan's work physically and digitally, as well as house it for academic use and for public exhibitions.

Sean Latham, professor for the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tulsa, said that it is important to understand the genius of this great musician.

"The research is around the world for the first time to really have an access to Bob Dylan's creative laboratory. He is one of the greatest artists and musicians of the 20th century. We will be able to understand something about his genius, which is important."

A few items were already on display Wednesday at the Gilcrease Museum, including Dylan's cigarette-stained lyrics to "Chimes of Freedom" on stationary from the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Toronto and early iterations of "Visions of Johanna" written on sheets from a yellow legal pad.

Nearly 1,000 items have arrived so far at the university's Helmerich Center for American Research, which is affiliated with the city's Gilcrease Museum.

Dylan's archives have been acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of TulsaIt for between 15 and 20 million U.S. dollars, and it will take them two years to acquire, ship and inventory the archives.
Is there a Broadway performer who delivers both spark and substance with the potent wattage of Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth? A quick tour of YouTube uncovers her impressive range. For frivolity there is the wide-eyed bafflement that infuses her Ado Annie as the Oklahoma character in I Caint Say No. Her high-camp, costumed take on Maleficent  demonic derangement meets vamping vaudevillian  inhabits the self-defining song Evil Like Me from Disneys Descendants.

A click away, she channels Kander and Ebb at their bleakest with Maybe This Time from Cabaret, but Chenoweth transforms the songs vulnerability and loneliness into a battle cry in the search for fulfillment. She just as easily embraces the straightforward lyricism about familial ties in the plaintive ballad Fathers and Daughters, elevating the sentimental to the sublime through unadorned yet emotionally realized singing.

During a 20-minute chat leading into her upcoming appearance with a five-piece ensemble at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, her range as a person is on display. The virtues of Sonic Drive-In easily morph into advice for Broadway newcomers and then onto heartfelt ruminations about forgiveness.

Q. Of all the questions your fans would want me to ask, I am going to annoy them by first asking you about your plastic cup.

A. My cup?

Q. Onstage in concert you usually have this huge plastic cup on the piano to sip from. There you are, all dressed up, with all the musicians and this cup that looks like it cost 99 cents.

A. Yes! My Sonic Drive-In cup. When I do a concert, the hall is supposed to have a drinking cup for me, but if they dont, I bring this along as a backup. It has been traveling around with me for at least the last year.

Q. Why Sonic?

A. Because I love eating there, their tater tots are great! I have a gift card for Sonic from my aunt who gave it to me for Christmas, so I am covered.

Q. When you are in O.C., I know one about 15 minutes from the hall, south on the 405 freeway.

A. Thats reassuring. A lot of states dont have Sonic.

Q. Speaking of you coming here, coincidentally, a touring production of Wicked will just have come through town. What is your best tip to actresses cast as Glinda?

A. They have to be true to themselves, not try to imitate me or whoever else. And that is a big statement because it applies to almost any Broadway role: You have to perform as yourself, not trying to be somebody else, some other vision of it in your head. If you dont be yourself, it never rings true, and audiences can feel that. I was lucky because when they were going to do Wicked, Glinda was written with me in the room, so I would sing the songs or try the scenes out for the first time, and ideas would come forward. But it doesnt mean the role is about me  someone who sings that needs to find the character in them.

Q. Do you have a next Broadway show lined up?

A. Nothing to talk about now. I am touring concerts into June.

Q. If you could play any role on Broadway right now, what would you want to do?

A. I would love to do Hamilton.

Q. Which one of the women would you be?

A. No, I mean Hamilton, Alexander himself. I think I would look good in those pants.

Q. Kristin Chenoweth as the lead in a history-based hip-hop musical  who would have guessed? Beyond the pants, why?

A. Its the show, its the rapping, its the character, its everything! I learned so much about American history for one thing. I didnt know much about Aaron Burr, but I certainly learned from that show. Same thing with Thomas Jefferson. You know the names, but to see them developed in this context, it just thrilled me to see our American history in this form. If I couldnt be Hamilton, maybe I could play the king (George III).

Q. Jonathan Groff is really good right now as King George. No offense, King George is really tall, too.

A. Yeah. But I think Lin-Manuel Miranda (the shows creator) is such a genius in putting this together, and with all the diversity in the casting, it could work.

Q. Your audience can anticipate you singing your standards, like the fun snark of Popular or Dolly Partons heartfelt Little Sparrow. But tell us about one of the less well-known songs we might hear in Orange County, and why you choose to sing it.

A. Theres one by Don Henley, The Heart of the Matter. It is so important to me because it is about forgiveness. Three years ago, I was in rehearsal with my music director (Mary-Mitchell Campbell) when the Sandy Hook shootings took place. And I didnt feel much like singing, the horror of what happened. We were talking about what America was going through, the poor little kids, and I said, I dont think I will be able to ever forgive the person who did this. And she said, I know, but that is really what we are called to do, arent we? Forgive. What was strange, just that morning we were considering this song, would it be right for me. It is all about forgiveness. So thats why I sing it, to remind myself and everyone that there is salvation in forgiving.

Q. This is a complicated issue.

A. I am not trying to tell the world answers about gun violence. Being from Oklahoma, I hold a lot of conservative beliefs. I also have liberal ones. So, yeah, complicated. But what she said was profound to me, personally: We have to find forgiveness, no matter what we face, either something larger than ourselves or in our personal lives, when we are hurt by a stranger or someone we know. We may have to reach deep, deep, deep into ourselves to do that. But holding hatred in our hearts is not right.
A recently released report claims that Orange County congressional candidate Joe Dunns 2014 firing from his job as executive director of the State Bar of California was justified because he misled board members and failed to provide them with key information.

Dunns campaign denied the allegations Monday.

Dunn and fellow Democrat Lou Correa are the leading candidates for the seat being vacated by Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, who is stepping down to run for U.S. Senate.

Dunn failed on several occasions to satisfy his contractual and fiduciary duties to provide complete and accurate disclosures to the board, said the investigative report produced by the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson for the bar prior to his firing.

The report, which had been a confidential internal document, was filed by the bar with an arbitrator late last month as part of the legal proceedings stemming from Dunns lawsuit against the bar association. Dunn claims he was fired for trying to expose improprieties by the bars board and staff.

Joe Dunn served the State Bar with the highest level of integrity, insisting on the strongest levels of transparency and fiduciary responsibility, said Dunn campaign consultant Douglas Herman.

The internal bar document cited three alleged instances of misconduct:

 Dunn failed to correct the then-bar presidents public statement that an association trip to Mongolia would not be paid for with bar funds, according to the report, and may have misled the board to believe none of the groups funds would be used. While most of the costs were covered by outside funds, about $2,000 in bar money was also used, the report said.

Herman said the trip was largely covered by the Mongolian government for a seminar presented by Dunn and two others, and denied that Dunn had made any false statements. He said no mandatory bar dues were used for the trip, only voluntary fees.

 Dunn asked the board to authorize the bar to sponsor 2014 legislation that would have allowed the association to bring civil enforcement actions against people engaged in the unlawful practice of law. The report asserts he failed to tell the board that the chief justice of the state Supreme Court had asked to delay further action on the proposal. The bar operates as an arm of the Supreme Court.

Herman said that Dunn informed the bar of the chief justices concerns, and the bill was held back.

 Dunn failed to relay to the board the chief justices reservations about a possible move of the bar headquarters from San Francisco to Sacramento, the report said.

Herman said the Supreme Court wanted an evaluation of the possible move and the board was informed of that. No move was made. Dunn served in the state Senate from 1998 to 2006 and was appointed to the bar post in 2010.

Contact the writer: mwisckol@ocregister.com
BOSTON  More than a thousand Boston public school students walked out of their classes to protest proposed budget cuts.

The students marched through downtown on Monday afternoon and crowded the Boston Common, the nations oldest park, The Boston Globe reported.

Some students then headed to the Statehouse, while others walked to the historic meeting spot, Faneuil Hall.

Boston school officials last week sent a letter to parents asking them to encourage their children to remain in class.

Boston School Superintendent Tommy Chang recently proposed cutting $20 million from the central office budget. He also proposed trimming $10 million to $12 million from the per-student funding formula, which affects the budgets of individual schools.
A man with Orange County ties was found guilty Monday in a Los Angeles federal court of traveling repeatedly to Cambodia to sexually assault impoverished children, four of whom testified to grueling sexual attacks that had jurors blinking back tears.

Delays kept the case against Ronald John Gerard Boyajian at a stalemate for seven years prior to the start of the month-long trial.

This case is about a man who wanted to sexually assault children  and he found a place where he could do that, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Baehr-Jones said.

Boyajian traveled to Cambodia  one of Southeast Asias poorest countries  about three dozen times from 2002 to 2009, where he engaged in sexual activity with Vietnamese girls ages 8 to 11 in a village outside Phnom Penh.

One of the girls, now an adult working in Cambodia to help fellow victims of sexual predators, told jurors that Boyajian paid her grandmother to leave her alone with him in a wooden shack. She described being raped, beaten and bitten on the legs and calves by the defendant during multiple attacks.

Asked by prosecutors to identify her attacker after she took the stand last month, the girl slowly walked to the center of the area in front of the judge, met the gaze of every male in the room, then turned to the defendant and pointed to him.

The federal jury deliberated for five hours before returning guilty verdicts on all three counts contained in a federal indictment initially handed down in September 2009.

Boyajian, who represented himself during the trial, seemed to nod his head as the verdicts were read, but otherwise showed no reaction.

The United States is the world leader in civil rights, and if you are an American and you hurt a child  no matter where it takes place in the world  you will be prosecuted, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Herzog said outside court. All children must be protected from sexual predators  and todays verdicts confirm that.

Boyajian  who was previously convicted in 1994 in Orange County Superior Court of having sex with a minor  was found guilty today of international travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors, engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in foreign places, and commission of a felony offense involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender.

He faces up to 30 years behind bars, with sentencing tentatively set for June 13.

Boyajian, now 55, was among the first defendant charged under an international law enforcement initiative specifically targeting Americans traveling to Cambodia for the purpose of sexually abusing children.

Operation Twisted Traveler was an effort by the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to crack down on sex tourism.

Boyajian has been in custody in Los Angeles since his removal from Cambodia seven years ago. In the years since, Boyajian lodged a raft of motions and continuances, ensuring the case remained deadlocked.

The investigation of Boyajian was begun by the Cambodian non-governmental organization Action Pour Les Enfants, whose investigators said they witnessed Boyajian visiting a child brothel in Svay Pak, a red-light district.
The parent company of Carls Jr., founded in Anaheim 60 years ago, is relocating its California headquarters to Nashville, Tenn.

2017 Update: Carls Jr. owner, CKE, prepares for March move to Tennessee, 24 local jobs cut

Carpinteria-based CKE Restaurants, which also owns St. Louis-based Hardees, is consolidating both offices in Tennessee, where it has several company-owned restaurants. All senior executives, including Chief Executive Andrew F. Puzder will be moving to Nashville, Chief Marketing Officer Brad Haley said.

Most employees will be offered positions with relocation packages, and the remainder will receive job placement assistance, the company said in statement.

Officials did not provide a number of how many people will lose their jobs. The two corporate offices employ about 150 people.

CKE said relocation, slated for early next year, is tied to the companys success at re-franchising company-owned locations. Roughly 90 percent of restaurants are franchise-owned, including restaurants near corporate offices in St. Louis and Santa Barbara counties.

Being highly franchised has also reduced our office space needs and, thus, made consolidating offices a more viable option, the company said. As such, early next year we will be consolidating our Carpinteria and St. Louis corporate offices in Nashville, which is centrally located and is one of the markets where we have retained company-owned restaurants.

In 1945, Carl Karcher moved his hot dog business from Los Angeles to Anaheim, where he opened a full-service restaurant, Carls Drive-In Barbeque. A year later, hamburgers were added to the menu. He opened the first Carls Jr. in 1956 in Anaheim.

For years, corporate offices were based in Anaheim. In 2000, the headquarters relocated to Carpinteria. A large office in Anaheim will continue to operate, Haley said.

Contact the writer: nluna@ocregister.
Editors note: As a spoiler alert, this column includes details on the plot of Spotlight, the best picture winner at the Academy Awards on Feb. 28.

I truly believe that film is the literature of this century. It pulls together all the arts  spoken word, writing, music, dance, painting, photography and more  to deliver stories that can have emotional impact across generations and continents, language notwithstanding. When Secretary of State John Kerry meets with studio heads to discuss how to counter the narratives of ISIS, no one is particularly surprised.

Yet what makes a film compelling is not just its subject matter, but also the skill with which the filmmakers can take us on a journey with them. The Academy Award-winning film Spotlight explores one of the most horrific crimes of our time  the physical and spiritual abuse of thousands of children by priests of the Catholic Church. We know how the story ends. We know that the reporters from The Boston Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for their investigative efforts. Yet the film packs a wallop audiences simply dont anticipate. Why?

As the dean of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University, I see hundreds of young people each year pursuing their dreams of working in film. For them, Spotlight offers a unique lesson in filmmaking  how the way a story is told builds a foundation for emotional catharsis: How can a downbeat story still be uplifting? How can we leave the theater feeling enlightened about a subject we thought we already understood?

Spotlight is a detective story. It begins with the specific and spirals up to the universal. With the exception of the opening scene  in which a single priest is arrested and then turned loose, only to be moved to another parish by his superiors  the film unfolds entirely through dramatic incident. It does not rely on flashbacks or voice-over. What we see is happening in the present, establishing a sense of dramatic immediacy that allows us to empathize with the victims and the reporters who are attempting to unravel this horrific story.

The style of the film reflects what the characters experience. Sophisticated tracking shots follow them through the offices of the newspaper and the streets of Boston, where doors are often slammed in their faces. They are always moving, constantly trying to get around the obstacles they encounter.

While more traditional filmmaking depends on a scene shot from many angles and cut together, this shooting style demands detailed planning up front so that the shots still give us views from various angles, but seemingly all in real time.

The real story was incredibly complex, involving legal maneuvering, research in old record books, and waiting in courtrooms for access to documents  incidents that are neither visually compelling nor easily explained. But by taking on us a journey with the reporters and allowing us to see the impact of the investigation on their lives, the filmmakers convey both the growing urgency and the desperation the characters feel. We feel it, too, in real time.

We see Rachel McAdams pursuing interviews, yet listening patiently as victims reveal their pain while victims rights advocate Neal Huff, as head of the Survivors Network, expresses his despair that no one is really listening.

We see Mark Ruffalo literally run as his sense of the scope of the crimes grows, along with his fear that the abuse will continue unless the vast conspiracy that covered it up can be untangled and made public.

And we feel the cross-currents  as the reporters worry that their story will be scooped by a rival paper. We see the manipulation when the cardinal (Len Cariou) tells the new editor (Liev Schreiber), an outsider, that another paper lost subscribers because it disagreed with the church  and then sends him away with a copy of the Catechism. And we see the constant pressure from Schreiber pushing the Globes Spotlight team to indict the system, not just the priests whose names they already have.

Finally, in a twist that leaves audiences gasping, the filmmakers wait until the credits to deliver their final punch. What began with the story of one priest arrested becomes universal, as a list of hundreds of cities around the world where abuse was uncovered scrolls across the screen.

For me, the scope of this horror was finally also personal, when the name of my town was among those rolling by. That is the lesson for young filmmakers  to find a way through compelling storytelling to take us on a journey beyond what we think we know to an ending that hits us in the gut  and stays with us as we leave the theater. Those credits are the equivalent of the chorus in a Greek play: We have witnessed misery side-by-side with human greatness.

That is the power of film.

Robert Bassett is dean of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University
DENVER  Investigators said Tuesday that Oregon state officers acted properly when they shot and killed LaVoy Finicum, one of the activists occupying a wildlife refuge in Oregon, but federal officials have opened an inquiry into the actions of FBI agents for not disclosing that they also fired shots during the confrontation.

The investigators based their conclusions in part on a dramatic, previously undisclosed videotape taken from one of the occupants of Finicums car, which showed him taunting officers and daring them repeatedly to shoot me.

Of particular concern to all of us, said Sheriff Shane Nelson of Deschutes County, was that the FBI agents did not disclose their shots to investigators.

Finicum was killed Jan. 26 after authorities tried to apprehend him at a police blockade outside the refuge.

Nelson said neither of the shots by the FBI struck Finicum. Investigators said Finicum was instead shot and killed by three rounds fired by Oregon state officers, all of which struck him in the back. The Malheur County district attorney, Dan Norris, said that all six shots fired by Oregon officers, including the three that hit Finicum, were justified.

The two shots fired by federal agents  at least one of which hit Finicums vehicle  will be the subject of the investigation, Nelson said. The inquiry will be done by the Justice Department inspector generals office along with the U.S. attorneys office in Oregon.

While the findings are a relief to the local troopers, the FBI agents on the scene face serious questions  along with new investigations into their role by both local and federal officials.

FBI agents on the scene from the hostage and rescue team were interviewed by investigators immediately after the shooting and again about 10 days later, but on both occasions they denied having fired any shots. Investigators said they ultimately concluded that two of the shots  one hitting the truck  must have come from one of the FBI agents, whose identity is still unknown to investigators.

Once investigators learned last month of the failure of the agents to disclose their full role, investigators in Washington were immediately summoned to Oregon to begin investigating possible impropriety, officials said.

Greg Bretzing, the special agent in charge of the Oregon office, declined to say Tuesday whether any of the FBI agents involved in the episode had been placed on leave.

In January, Finicum, 54, was one of the first people to occupy the refuge, an 188,000-acre bird sanctuary just outside Burns, Oregon, that is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Finicum and other leaders of the occupation, including two brothers, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, initially said they were protesting the prison sentences of two local ranchers who had been convicted of lighting fires that spread to federal land.

Others joined the activists at the refuge and the group began to call on the government to relinquish control of all federal lands. Many occupiers affiliated themselves with the so-called patriot movement, a loosely organized group that includes various militias and others who oppose the idea of a strong federal government.

On Jan. 26, Finicum, the Bundy brothers, and several other occupation leaders left the refuge in two vehicles, headed to a meeting in a nearby city, John Day, where they hoped to rally supporters. But the state police and the FBI had set up a blockade. As officers tried to arrest them, Finicum was killed. A video released by the bureau showed Finicum stopping his vehicle, then speeding away only to end up in a ditch near a roadblock. He then got out of his vehicle, waving his arms and reaching toward his pocket. The police later said that Finicum was carrying a loaded 9 mm handgun.

More than two dozen occupiers were eventually arrested and face federal conspiracy charges.

Two witnesses to the Jan. 26 episode, Shawna Cox, 59, and Victoria Sharp, 18, have said that they believe the killing of Finicum was unjust, and that he was holding his hands in the air in surrender. Sharp has said she heard shots hit the truck where she was holed up.

I was a witness, I saw what happened, said Cox in a telephone interview shortly before the investigators announcement. They murdered him.

The occupation ended on Feb. 11, when the last four protesters left the bird sanctuary and turned themselves in to the FBI. But occupiers and their sympathizers have gathered since, holding rallies in Portland, Salt Lake City, Bend, Oregon, and elsewhere, protesting Finicums death, the arrest of other occupiers, and the arrest of Cliven Bundy, a prominent leader of the anti-government movement.
Two years ago, Irvine-born comedic actor Will Ferrell and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith collaborated on a Reddit challenge that resulted in an epic drum-off on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The pair, who just happen to be freakish doppelgangers, have teamed up once again and will host the Red Hot Benefit Comedy + Music Show & Quinceanera to be held at the Shrine Auditorium (665 W. Jefferson Blvd.) in Los Angeles on April 29.

I have only one great regret in life and its that I never actually celebrated my quinceanera, Ferrell said via a press release. Id like to think it was just a simple oversight by my mother, but there has been a void inside me for many years. Growing up on the mean streets of Irvine, California, I have vivid memories of all my friends celebrating their quinceanera. Well, on April 29th at the Shrine Auditorium, with Red Hot Chili Peppers and a bunch of other really talented comedians and musicians by my side, we are going to right that wrong, and everyone is invited.

The comedy portion of the evening will be curated by Ferrell and his Funny or Die team and the music will be curated by Smith. Though the event promises to be star-studded, the full line-up has yet to be announced, though it was revealed that Red Hot Chili Peppers are confirmed to perform.

We had so much fun with Will on the drum off and ultimately getting the entire band together to participate on the Tonight Show, Smith said via the same release. So much goodwill came out of one silly joke. Weve been trying to find another way to get together and do some more good for our respective causes and I think we have found it. Im going to check with my own mother, because I dont recall any family photos of my own quinceanera either.

Ferrell chose Cancer for College as his beneficiary. It was started by his USC fraternity brother Craig Pollard and has granted over $2 million to help more than 1,000 cancer survivors get a college education. Smiths charity is the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organization founded by his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmate and bassist, Flea. The charity addresses the decrease in arts education in schools and offers lessons at a reasonable cost and also grants scholarships to children in need, providing free lessons and instruments.

Tickets are $75-$250 and a limited pre-sale started at 9 a.m. Tuesday at funnyordie.com/redhotbenefit and the general on sale starts at 10 a.m. Friday at AXS.com.

Contact the writer: 714-796-3570 or kfadroski@ocregister.com
Nothing brings out Huntington Beach residents more effectively than a robust protest about the citys plans for more housing.

On Monday, more than 200 residents filled City Halls auditorium and an overflow room to once again voice their disapproval of a proposal to amend the housing plan to add state-required high-density and low-income housing.

The council heard the message, voting 7-0 to scrap the latest plan to meet the state requirements and lay the groundwork to fight the number of low-income housing units the city must have.

I think the citizens spoke and the citizens were heard, said Councilman Billy OConnell, who received raucous applause when introduced the motion to reject the amendment.

Resident Cari Swan struck a common refrain that would win the day when she said, I urge you to deny any and all action that would amend the housing element or anything that would add one monstrosity development.

Mayor Jim Katapodis said he believes the issue to residents isnt so much about low-income units but against the massive housing developments that have gone up elsewhere in the city.

I think people are seeing a lot of building going on (and) they just want it to stop, he said.

The decision means that Huntington Beach has a shortfall of more than 400 units of low-income housing required by the state. On June 23, the Department of Housing and Community Development informed the city that it was out of compliance with state law.

It now seems almost certain the city will miss a September deadline to adopt a housing plan that meets with state approval. The city could have certain state funding withheld as a result.

OConnell wanted to direct City Attorney Michael Gates to challenge the Southern California Association of Government, which is responsible for allocating the number of affordable housing units in each city. Because it was not on the agenda, the challenge will need to be brought back to the council.

The recent housing issue arose in May when the City Council stopped plans to allow up to 4,500 housing units in the Beach Boulevard/Edinger Avenue area. Instead, the council capped housing at 2,100 units after receiving widespread complaints.

The original Beach/Edinger plan in 2010 featured up to 783 units for low- and very-low-income housing. After the changes, the number fell to 123 units. The state required 533.

To solve that, the council asked the Community Development Department to find alternate sites for housing.

Last month, a housing proposal covering 16.5 acres across eight sites with the potential for 519 units of affordable housing was presented. That plan was unanimously rejected by the Planning Commission and a wide cross-section of residents.

The latest moves by the council may end up being for naught. In November, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the city to reinstate the higher-density Beach-Edinger plan scrapped by the council in 2015. The courts ruling brought the city into compliance with the law, but it has been stayed while being appealed by the city.
Register restaurant critic Brad A. Johnson has been nominated by a global culinary organization for a series of reviews and guides published in 2015.

The International Association of Culinary Professionals nominated Johnson in the Food-Focused Column category along with by Rhoda Boone and Matt Duckor of Epicurious and Francis Lam of The New York Times Magazine.

Johnson, Register restaurant critic since 2012, writing was recognized for articles hed written about rules for barbecue, a guide to eating in Little Saigon and two reviews  TwentyEight in Irvine and Sushi Roku in Newport Beach.

This is Johnsons first IACP nomination. He has previously won the James Beard Award (2008) and the Cordon Bleu World Food Media Award (2010) for restaurant criticism.

IACP, which also honors cookbook writers, food photography and bloggers, will announce winners in early April in Los Angeles.
Tristram Sainsbury [China.org.cn]

China should deepen reform by upgrading or restructuring unproductive firms, launching flexible exchange rates and liberalizing its capital accounts under the stimulus plans offered by the latest fiscal and monetary policies, Tristram Sainsbury, a visiting Australian researcher, has said in an exclusive interview with China.org.cn via email.

Sainsbury, a research fellow in the G20 Studies Center at the Lowy Institute and visiting scholar of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, made his remark on Sunday after being asked about the ongoing "two sessions" (meetings of China's top legislature and advisory body) in Beijing.

"There are great benefits in upgrading industries and restructuring State Owned Enterprises (SOE) and by more effort to open up services sectors, such as, health and education, creating a deeper social safety net to support the progress in dynamic adjustment of the economy, and investing in cleaning up environmental pollutants," he said.

"One thing that needs to happen is ongoing clear communication of exchange rate settings. The recent public statements and interviews by People's Bank of China (PBOC) governor Zhou Xiaochuan are a welcome step and need to be continued."

Zhou addressed the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors last month in Shanghai, saying China would keep on with its reforms in economic restructuring and quality improvements. High savings deposits would be transformed into more investments, and macro-economic policies would maintain continuity and stability as there were still enough monetary policies stored in the financial toolbox. However, there was no basis for incessant devaluations of the RMB.

Lighten the load [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn]

Commenting on the achievement of G20's Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, Sainsbury wrote: "The Shanghai meeting was able to signal ambition, and Chinese negotiators worked effectively to push the G20 towards 'core finance' areas such as investment, the financial architecture, financial regulation, and tax".

He expected the Shanghai meeting would lay a sound foundation for the G20 Summit to be held in Hangzhou aiming to tackle pressing issues and longer term challenges confronting global governance.

According to the Australian researcher, a number of actions are expected to be launched, including a proposed structural indicator system to secure the delivery of the G20's growth strategies (by April); IMF reviews on the global financial safety net architecture (ditto) and on the possible broader use of the SDR arrangement (by July); support for a proposal to develop a tax platform jointly by the IMF, OECD, UN and World Bank Group, and various actions by development banks and the Global Infrastructure Hub on investment challenges.

"When Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors meet in Washington next month, the world will be looking for a stronger statement of political will to address near-term economic challenges," Sainsbury said.
The next time University of California officials ask for more money from students or taxpayers, maybe you should ask them about the moonlighting activities of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.

Katehi was caught last week with her hand in a rather lucrative cookie jar. Whats particularly troubling is that Katehi is hardly underpaid by California taxpayers. One must wonder why she felt the need to do something that clearly raises conflict of interest concerns.

California taxpayers pay her $424,360 to run the 35,000-student campus. At that salary she earns more than twice what Gov. Jerry Brown makes. She earns even more than President Obama.

Yet she accepted a $70,000-a-year moonlighting gig with DeVry Education Group, a for-profit company that competes with publicly funded universities. DeVry offers online college degrees, maintaining 13 California campuses. Presently, DeVry is under federal investigation for allegations of deceptive advertising about graduates job and income prospects.

Katehi apologized and resigned the DeVry gig a week ago, but only after questions were raised by public interest groups and by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, who chairs the Assembly budget subcommittee on education finance.

Then, later last week, the Sacramento Bee reported that, from 2012-14, Katehi pocketed $420,000 in income and stock as a board member for John Wiley & Sons, a major college textbook publisher. Her affiliation came at a time when many students are burdened by the high cost of books, with some seeking free or less costly online access.

Calls for Katehis resignation have started. In media interviews, McCarty stated, It is unseemly for the chancellor to be seeking these side deals moonlighting to increase her pay  while students are struggling with a tremendous amount of debt.

Katehi pledged she would donate all stock proceeds earned while on Wileys board to a scholarship fund for UC Davis students.

To his credit, McCarty said her sudden generosity sounds like an insulting payoff to students to deflect criticism. He plans legislative hearings to review UCs moonlighting policies.

Hes right. Her moonlighting does not serve students or taxpayers.

Still, its too little, too late. And its just too bad.

Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, chairman of the Assemblys Higher Education Committee, has joined the call for oversight hearings. Wheres the state Senate? Wheres the UC Board of Regents?

Katehi should resign. Quickly. And she should still donate the investment proceeds she earned off the backs of her students.

UC President Janet Napolitano, who, at $570,000 a year plus housing and car allowances, earns significantly more than President Obama, claimed she knew nothing about the moonlighting, quickly standing by Katehis side. That should trouble Californians. Who is minding the store at the highest echelons of Californias education system?

It has been 10 years since revelations that prompted UC to adopt policies to limit the number of corporate boards on which chancellors and senior management can sit. Nine chancellors received $1.5 million in cash compensation, as well as deferred compensation and other stock options for comparable moonlighting gigs from 2012-14.

UC executive compensation practices need scrutiny and reform. Clearly, the 2010 policies are either insufficient, or simply ignored. When former UC President Mark Yudof stepped down in 2014, he was given $500,000 to help transition. Yet, UC officials quickly plead poverty when asked to enroll more California students or better compensate their low-wage workers.

The gigs up. Heads should roll. Let the hearings begin.

Staff opinion columnist Gloria Romero is an education reformer and former Democratic state senator from Los Angeles.
Laguna Art Museum Director Malcolm Warner has wanted the museum to host a show on a certain Los Angeles artist since he took the directors job four years ago.

Now thats happening, with the current Helen Lundeberg: A Retrospective, which runs until May 30.

Helen Lundebergs career, if you look at it in a retrospective like this, it really is a remarkable achievement thats certainly comparable with the better-known male artists of her time, Warner said recently as he walked through the exhibit. She deserves to be a great deal more famous than she is.

Lundeberg wasnt, and isnt, totally unknown. But she was certainly less famous than other modernist painters of her time who were men, including her artist husband and one-time teacher at the Stickney Memorial School of Art in Pasadena, Lorser Feitelson.

It didnt help that Lundeberg was very reserved. Warner told this story: In the 1980s, toward the end of her career, Lundeberg had some of her work shown at the Laguna Art Museum. She was there for the shows opening, and people asked her to say a few words. She refused. She was too shy to speak to a crowd.

A lot of the works in the Laguna Art Museum show seem to show that reservedness, as well as introspection. Lundeberg began her career in the 1930s and created her final works in the 1980s (she died in 1999). Over those six decades, her painting changed and ranged enormously, from surrealism to near abstraction.

Warner calls her a modernist. Shes also been labeled a post-surrealist. Her early works reveal someone interested in biology, the passage of time, the cosmos and her minds inner workings.

She and other painters who fell under the post-surrealist label were inspired by European surrealists such as Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and Rene Magritte. Those European painters relied on dreams, the unconscious, hallucinations and drugs for their subject matter. But unlike them, Lundeberg and her contemporaries took a more organized, less random approach.

Lundeberg and her friends felt that there was too much kind of self-indulgent craziness and weirdness in surrealism, Warner said. He pointed to her Plant and Animal Analogies painting. This was the illustration for a 1934 manifesto Lundeberg wrote outlining this new approach, which she called new classicism. The painting shows a female torso and cross-sections of female anatomy and a fetus. It draws connections literally, with dotted lines as in a science textbook, between those objects and their echoes in the shapes of a sliced pepper, a seed and a tree.

Other works in the first part of the exhibit show Magrittes influence. Like him, Lundeberg played with the representation of two- and three-dimensional objects, creating optical illusions. Her 1944 Self-Portrait shows her at her easel, painting a scene from outer space. But whether shes painting a blue planet on her canvas or holding the planet in her hand is up to interpretation. Her 1934 The Red Planet shows that confusion of scale again. A red marble on a table and the knob on the door in the background are given context by a small picture of a shooting star sitting nearby. Its the idea of a macrocosm in a microcosm, the universe contained on the head of a pin.

Lundeberg moved toward abstraction starting in the 1950s, and the rest of the exhibit is very different than these early post-surrealist works. She became interested in invoking certain moods and states of mind, She began her hard edge paintings, a style other artists, including Feitelson, also were using.

Her works from this time onward are never total abstraction, though. There is always something being represented, something recognizable. Though paintings from the late 1950s and 1960 like Dark Corridor, The Road and Lights and Shadows in a Street are shapes of flat color without shading, theyre depicting shadows and depth, an interior, a landscape and an alley.

Her Planets series came in the 1960s, while NASA was making major strides in space exploration. These large works, 5 feet tall and long, are imaginary planets, painted in concentric loops of color within perfect circles. Warmer colors are toward the center, suggesting hot cores. The day-glo colors of Planet No. 3, from 1965, seem to make it vibrate against its black background.

Toward the end of the exhibit are some of Lundebergs last paintings and some of the brightest and lightest in the show. Islands from 1986 and Tidelands from 1987 are flat planes of pinks, grays, tans and lavenders layered on each other to create quiet, soothing landscapes. Aegean Light, from 1973, is limited to flat shapes of black, white, gray and blue. Standing in front of it, the viewer can imagine standing on a sunlit rooftop in Greece and looking out to the sea.

The museum has two other exhibits up to complement the Lundeberg show. On the top floor is Frederick Hammersley: Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection. Hammersley was a contemporary of Lundebergs and Feitelsons and a pioneer of the hard edge movement. His drawings  including several portraits and still lifes  show another side of this abstract painters art. Downstairs is City Life, Los Angeles: 1930s to 1950s. This was an extremely transformative time for Los Angeles, and the backdrop for Lundeberg in the first decades of her career. These paintings capture places like Chavez Ravine, when it was still home to Mexican American families before Dodger Stadium was built, and Bunker Hill, the Hollywood Hills, a train station and downtown streets as they used to look.

The Lundeberg exhibit is one of the most ambitious the museum has presented in terms of borrowing, Warner said. Museums in Washington, D.C.; Nebraska; Utah; and throughout California, as well as many private collectors, lent their Lundeberg works. Such broad sourcing makes the show more expensive to put on, Warner admitted. But its worth it.

One of the jobs of a museum is to identify artists who deserve more recognition than theyve received, he said.

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com
Nancy Reagan was a lady that was not afraid to speak her mind on issues she found near and dear to her heart. She was totally devoted to her husband, and had a cynical eye toward those who had less-than-honorable intentions in befriending him. Her intelligence and acumen helped her husbands decisions, and she was not well-liked by some, who felt her too guarded of her eminently popular husband.

A great man needs the support of a great wife, something most men wont give their wives credit for.

Barry Wasserman

Huntington Beach

  

Two of the finest women in recent history, Margaret Thatcher and Nancy Reagan, led at a time when the world truly needed them.

The Reagans worked hard for us. They believed the best place for other peoples money was in those other peoples pockets and purses. It is not the duty of the country to feed and clothe Americans, but for the governing utopians to get out of the way and let free enterprise burst forth.

Ronald and Nancy believed in America idealism, individual initiative, that the best government is small, unobtrusive and allows families to enjoy freedom in the most free land on Earth. And be free to help others.

Now, Nancy has joined her man on horseback in a different place. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you, Ronald. Thank you, Reagans.

Len Beckman

Anaheim

  

When hearing of the passing of Nancy Reagan, I tearfully recalled my mother and I meeting her at a home in San Marino.

Sitting down in her bright red suit, stunning jewelry and the most fashionable shoes, she asked what issues were most important to us. A secretary was taking copious notes as we shared our ideas. At the end of our conversation, Nancy read back our comments to be sure our ideas were communicated clearly.

I was so impressed with her soft, warm manner. I will always remember her as a woman with charm, grace and a genuine concern for others. Nancy Reagan is someone America will remember with great fondness.

Debby Bowes

Laguna Beach
Theres bad news  and a little good news  for Republicans in California. New voter registration data released last week by Secretary of State Alex Padilla found the GOPs share of voters dropped to 28 percent this year, from 31 percent in 2012.

The good news, is that those lost GOP voters apparently havent switch. Registered Democrats increased slightly, but remained at 43 percent. The number of voters expressing no party preference jumped to 24 percent from 21 percent.

Second, reported Capitol Weekly, [W]ith conservative-leaning Independents, 46 percent of the votes in a contest like the U.S. Senate race will be on the Republican side of the statewide ticket. But the chances of winning that seat this year appear close to zero. The presidential race will boost Democratic turnout. President Obama won California in 2012 by more than 3 million votes.

Moreover, although the state Republican Party has been working creatively under Chairman Jim Brulte to make the party more attractive to Hispanics, Asians and African Americans, results have been spotty. Promising GOP victories include those by state Sen. Andy Vidak, a longtime farmer from Hanford running in a 60 percent Hispanic district, and Assemblywoman Young Kim, a Fullerton busineswoman. Both beat Democratic incumbents.

Their victory formula: Advance creative solutions to local problems, such as farm water and excessive taxation and regulation.

These are local wins. Statewide races  the only one this year being to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer  will be more difficult for Republicans. Proposition 187, the 1994 illegal immigration restriction measure, still gets some blame for alienating Hispanics, but that was 22 years ago  even as a Donald Trump nomination could revive the issue.

Republicans also are hampered because their last statewide winner, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, broke pledges to balance the budget and not increase taxes. His Democratic successor, Jerry Brown, has balanced budgets and apparently will let his own tax increase, Prop. 30, expire in 2019.

Democracy needs competition to thrive. Republicans clearly need to work harder and smarter.
This is part of an occasional series on every Orange County city.

Theres something about the rumble, diesel smell and gargantuan size of a freight train that stirs the soul  unless youre stuck in traffic waiting for the annoying steel snake to pass.

Welcome to Placentia.

While most of us worry about clogged freeways, the roaring beasts of burden are a major factor in getting around in several North County cities, Placentia in particular. But with a $400 million series of long-awaited undertrack passings in various stages of construction, soon-to-be hassle-free freight trains are about to transform one of Orange Countys oldest cities.

Two underpassings were recently finished. Two more are on schedule to be completed in coming months. The final underpass is slated to open next year.

But train crossings are only part of the changes underway to help reinvigorate a city forced to sell property and lay off one-quarter of its workforce during the recession.

Faced with a $6.1 million deficit, the city is launching an ambitious effort to attract new business and new residents, too.

Placentias interim city administrator, Damien Arrula, envisions a central core with the attractiveness of Disneylands Main Street. The bones are here, he says.

As an example, Arrula points to a little parking lot in the citys well-worn downtown. Something as simple as a parking lot can have the cleanliness and charm of Disneyland. I want to bring that to the downtown.

Standing between two lots with a few dozen parking spaces each, Arrula points out how one has a wall with fake ivy to dispel graffiti, accessible handicap parking, flared green trash cans and lighting with 21st-century LEDs and a 19th-century style.

The other lot, built earlier, has none of that.

Without a major economic engine such as a mall or the post-recession boom in commercial and residential development that most area cities have seen, Placentia is trying a new approach. The city is in the midst of a marketing campaign at shopping center conventions  yes, there are such things  that focuses on public-private partnerships and provides details on every vacant storefront.

The Placentia campaign breaks down the citys demographics into prospective customer profiles with snazzy titles.

The Money and Brains group for example, makes up 6.5 percent of the city and reportedly shops at places like Crate and Barrel and reads magazines like Yoga Journal.

Another category is Low Rise Living. That group makes up 4.1 percent of Placentia, has some high school or college education, shops at Walgreens and reads Star magazine.

Placentia goes so far as to offer potential store owners a plastic business card with a flip-out flash drive filled with more details to entice.

We say, Were going to seek you out, recruit you and make you feel welcome, Arrula says.

Already, some seeds of change sprout. A pedestrian bridge over the tracks in the downtown area was finished a few years ago, and an adjacent train station is expected to start construction in about 18 months.

A five-story garage with electric vehicle charging will accompany the train station. Plans also are underway for a nearby 193-unit multifamily apartment building.

Arrula says the idea is to target millennials with easy access to public transportation, nearby apartments and eventually a transformed downtown.

Still, the challenge in this self-proclaimed bedroom community is just that. Placentia lacks the sizzle of Irvines Spectrum, Costa Mesas South Coast Plaza, Mission Viejos lake, Yorba Lindas views, Seal Beachs pier.

But Placentia does offer a central Southern California location.

Nestled just north of the 91 freeway and straddling the 57, commuters can get to Los Angeles or central Orange County relatively quickly. Yes, theres also the train.

Accordingly, one of the the citys biggest assets, Arrula says, is time savings. When youre driving, time is a quality of life issue. It can be more valuable than money.

The city administrator also points to another asset: the communitys public schools, part of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

Most of the districts schools are rated 9 or 10; however, the small cluster of 4s to 7s are mostly in Placentia.

The citys end game is to encourage residents to buy locally. Not only will that save drive time, it will increase sales revenue.

We check out several excellent, longtime Mexican restaurants. Tlaquepaque earns nearly five stars on Yelp. El Cantarito nudges even higher.

Arrula looks up and down the street and recalls the citys Tamale Festival and Las Posadas in December. Santa Fe Avenue was closed and the street was filled with people, music and the smells of cooking.

As a train rumbles by, Arrula says that is that kind of atmosphere that he envisions year-round.

Contact the writer: dwhiting@ocregister.com
LOS ANGELES  Nancy Reagan spent decades protecting the legacy of her husband, but some of President Ronald Reagans famous political advice appears lost among the White House candidates who embrace him as a guiding light.

Its known as the 11th Commandment: Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

The former first ladys death Sunday in Los Angeles closed the Reagan era at a time when crude insults, appeals to extremism and locker-room braggadocio have shaped the partys 2016 presidential primary, a clashing image with the sunny Morning again in America theme Reagan employed as a candidate a generation ago.

The 40th president didnt author the advice about restraint on the campaign trail, and he didnt always follow it to the word, but he recognized the GOP needed to avoid infighting that could lead to a splintered party and a November defeat.

A former California Republican chairman, Gaylord Parkinson, coined the phrase in the mid-1960s to tamp down bickering between political factions in Reagans first run for governor. A similar split between conservatives and moderates contributed to Barry Goldwaters defeat in the 1964 presidential election.

In his autobiography, An American Life, Reagan wrote of his campaign for governor: Its a rule I followed  and I have ever since.

Reagan recognized that the Republican Party was not going to win unless the sides united, biographer Lou Cannon said.

Donald Trump has blown this up and all the others have piled in. One could argue this would be a good time to restore it, but it isnt going to happen in this election, Cannon said.

Its hard for me to see how they cannot pay a price for it, he added.

Nancy Reagans death reflects the symbolic passing into history of the markers established by the former president for campaigns to have certain standards which should never be breached, former Reagan campaign aide and speechwriter Kenneth Khachigian said.

It seems like a bad dream to turn on the debates and hear the degrading dialogue, Khachigian said in an email, describing the campaign as heartbreaking.

Since Reagans death in 2004, Republican presidential candidates often claim to be his rightful heir, hold him up as a patron saint or outline proposals they say he inspired.

Ted Cruz calls himself the first true conservative running for president since Reagan and has promised to employ a Reaganite approach. Jeb Bush, now out of the campaign, called his tax-cut plan Reagan-inspired. And Trump has alluded to Reagans political shift  the former actor was once a Hollywood Democrat  to defend his own conservative makeover.

Reagans depiction on the presidential campaign trail can often be at odds with the record.

Reagan is seen as an apostle of lower taxes, but during his years as governor, from 1967 to 1975, he supported what was then the largest tax increase in California history. Cutting deals with Democratic leaders in Congress, he slashed and raised taxes during his White House days.

Reagan never presented a balanced budget to Congress. A 1986 law he signed established a one-year amnesty program for people who entered the U.S. illegally and had been in the country at least four years.

In recent days, the Republican presidential campaign has become increasingly foul-toned, as candidates and the Republican establishment look for ways to slow Trumps momentum.

Former nominee Mitt Romney called the front-runner a phony, a fraud inclined to absurd third-grade theatrics. In response, Trump called him a failed candidate. Trump repeatedly refers to Sen. Marco Rubio as little Marco, while Rubio has called Trump a con man. Cruz has called Trump part of the corruption in Washington.

The boorish spectacle of the race dismayed many visitors at the Reagan library in Simi Valley. Reagans efforts to broaden and unify the party are commemorated at the hilltop site, where Nancy Reagan will be buried beside him Saturday. The GOP candidates may attend her funeral.

With whats going on now with the Republicans, Im hoping they can learn about class and tact from Nancy Reagan, said Jonathan Kritzer of Moorpark, a Los Angeles suburb. Theyre tearing themselves up out there.

Sharon Hirtzer said she hopes the former first ladys death puts the focus for the Republican Party on the greatness of Ronald Reagan.

The level of the rhetoric has been extremely negative, the Chicago resident said of the candidates.
SACRAMENTO  Authorities said a 2-year-old girl is in critical condition after shooting herself inside a Sacramento County home.

Sacramento County Sheriffs Department spokesman Sgt. Tony Turnbull said officials received a call reporting the toddler had shot herself Monday afternoon.

He told the Sacramento Bee that sheriffs deputies and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department personnel responded to the home near Gerber and Power Inn roads, and the girl was transported to a hospital.

Turnbull said two women were at the home when deputies arrived.

The womens relation to the child and how she got the gun has not been determined.

Turnbull said investigators are still at the house conducting interviews.
LAGUNA BEACH  Krysta Higuchi couldnt answer the calls fast enough.

Higuchi, a rescue coordinator at Pacific Marine Mammal Center, got the first call at 7:45 a.m. March 1. San Clemente lifeguards sent a photo of a sickly sea lion at T-Street. Higuchi asked volunteer Tom Atkins to go get the pup.

Thirty minutes later she got word of another listless sea lion on the sand at Capistrano Beach. She asked Atkins to pick it up on his way back to the center. But when Atkins got there, the sea lion had gone back out to sea  a good sign.

When Atkins returned, Higuchi told him of a beached animal at Bolsa Chica State Beach. As he netted that one, Higuchi called again  Newport Beach lifeguards on Balboa Peninsula reported another sea lion.

Just two weeks ago, rescuers had hoped the record 1,000-plus beached sea lions found in February 2015 was an anomaly. But on that frantic day last week, they realized there was much more work ahead.

And after this weekends strong surf and riptides, it will likely be even harder for dying sea lions to make it to the sand. So rescuers are preparing for even more animals to wash in.

Were starting to get nonstop calls, said Wendy Leeds, head stranding coordinator the marine-mammal center. Were getting calls for pups and adult sea lions.

In the seven weeks from Jan. 1 to Feb. 18, center staff and volunteers rescued 70 sea lions. In the three weeks since, 76 were rescued.

Center staff and volunteers are gearing up  gathering gloves and medical equipment and filling hydration bags with pedialyte, karo syrup and vitamins. They have prepared wound-care kits for sea lions bleeding from fishing line entanglements.

The center  responsible for rescuing marine mammals from Seal Beach to San Onofre  spends about $3,000 to rehabilitate each pup. It is part of NOAAs marine mammal stranding network that includes SeaWorld, Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute and Marine Mammal Care Center in Sausalito.

Strandings going up

Experts are bracing for what could be a peak in March and April. So far, the highest concentration of sea lions have been found in Southern California.

Officials at NOAAs National Marine Fisheries reported last week that 430 sea lions were at centers in the stranding network. This week the number has increased by 80 percent to 775.

In spring 2015, 3,300 sea lions came ashore dying, taxing the resource-limited centers.

Justin Viezbicke, stranding coordinator for NOAA, plans to open a triage center in Huntington Beach on Friday. It will help get sea lions off beaches, away from public harassment and into treatment quickly, he said.

Since 2013, record numbers of sea lions have stranded themselves on Southern California beaches. Experts say the warmer ocean waters have driven fatty fish like sardine and mackerel further from the mothers hunting grounds  making feeding more difficult for adult females and yearlings, and leading to low weights among sea lion pups on remote Channel Island breeding grounds.

Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with NOAAs National Marine Fisheries Service, recently returned from her annual February trip to study sea lion behavior, check for disease and weigh newborns on the island.

She said she found what might be a reason that fewer sea lions came onto local beaches in January and February.

I expect the cause of lower strandings is because more of them are dying at the rookeries or in transit to the coast if they are leaving, she said.

Melin found that the sea lions weights were low, as in 2015. And that theyd barely grown since October.

As in the past few years, Melin found, many pups died of starvation because their mothers couldnt get enough to eat to produce sufficient amounts of milk.

Researchers in 2012 counted the population on the islands at 300,000  a normal number. A year later, nearly 70 percent of newborns died. Many pups waited on the beaches, starving, while their mothers hunted.

Marine mammal centers in 2013 took in more than 1,500 sea lion pups  five times higher than in a normal year.

Melin said she expects the number of sea lions beaching themselves to be elevated, but probably not as high as last year.

The timing looks like it will be more like 2013 when pups showed up in March-May, she said. We are expecting fewer births in June 2016 because of the poor foraging conditions for females during the pregnancy period this winter and spring.

At this point we are not concerned that the population will decline to extremes, just that it will drop from the normal limits, she added.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or Twitter@lagunaini
The former owner of two OC businesses admitted Monday to falsely claiming only $28 in income on a 2008 tax return.

David Thomas, 80, formerly of Newport Beach, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of subscribing to a false tax return, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Thomas was the owner and president of All American Capital and United American Ventures. In March 2010, he filed a 2008 tax return claiming to have $28 in adjust gross income.

An IRS investigation revealed his actual income was more than $350,000. The IRS says it lost $98,813 in taxes as a result of the false claim.

Thomas faces up to three years in federal prison, $250,000 in fines, and could possibly be ordered to pay restitution to the IRS when he is sentenced Aug. 8.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2478 or lcasiano@ocregister.com
IRVINE  More than one year after stained soil was uncovered near where a new high school is being built, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has ordered additional soil testing at the site.

The directive follows months of outreach by a vocal group of residents concerned about the adequacy of the testing that originally garnered state approval for the construction of Irvine Unified School Districts fifth comprehensive high school, Portola High.

This additional sampling will assess the site for the potential presence of contaminants that could pose a threat to the health of individuals who attend classes or work at the school, or people who might otherwise use the schools property, agency chief Barbara Lee wrote in a March 2 letter obtained by the Register to Irvine Unifieds John Fogarty, assistant superintendent of business services.

The $300 million project, slated to open Aug. 24, is intended to serve up to 2,400 students from the neighborhoods being built around the Orange County Great Park.

Superintendent Terry Walker, in a letter sent Friday to Irvine Unified families, said the district does not expect the testing to delay the schools August opening.

District administrators and school board members have said they consider the site safe, and point to more than 200 tests done sitewide  testing that garnered the district approval from the Department of Toxic Substances Control to begin construction in October 2014.

The month after the district broke ground at the Portola High site, contaminated soil was uncovered nearby. The construction of a storm drain box by Heritage Fields El Toro LLC, which is funding and building Great Park infrastructure, revealed stained soil 15 feet below surface level, a thin layer of which extended onto the school site.

The soil was hauled away. Tests commissioned by Heritage Fields revealed the soil contained hydrocarbons and naphthalene, which is considered cancer-causing by the state, but experts said the levels found were considered nonhazardous.

Harvey Liss, a civil engineer and former Irvine planning commissioner, found out about the stained soil via public records requests to the state agency, school district and city of Irvine.

He has written extensively about the testing done at the site, which he says was inadequate, in the Irvine Community News & Views, a monthly political newspaper that was once a slate mailer for longtime Irvine politician Larry Agran and his allies.

In recent months, hundreds of residents have signed a petition Liss started that asked for more testing at the site, which is situated along Irvine Boulevard and west of Alton Parkway.

Lee said the agencys interest in further testing was prompted by the potential of prior military activity at the property, which is on the former El Toro Marine base; the stained soil found in November 2014; and prior testing that uncovered contaminants for which the source remains unknown.

In August, Agran, a friend of Liss, wrote Gov. Jerry Brown requesting more testing at the site.

I was stunned  in a positive way  when I opened my mailbox on Saturday and got an old-fashioned, snail-mail letter with the contents that it had, said Agran of the agencys announcement. Thats very reassuring to those of us who just want, at this point, honest, comprehensive, independent, highly professional testing. As to what that testing reveals, well see and well deal with it at that time.

Dot Lofstrom, division chief and acting deputy director at the Department of Toxic Substances Control, said she pushed for additional testing after she heard from Liss in late 2015.

At that time, she hadnt been aware of previous communications from Liss, who had been pressing local Toxic Substances Control officials to require more testing.

I became personally concerned that this would impact future parents and staff of the school, said Lofstrom, who is based in Sacramento. The questions seemed to persist. The department thought it was best to require some additional analysis to put this question to rest once and for all.

Lofstrom said the testing should have little or no impact on the schools construction.

I think a few additional samples will confirm what we already believe: that the site is safe, she said.

Contact the writer: sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com
PARIS  The European Union and Turkey struck a preliminary deal Tuesday to block the vast waves of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea, effectively agreeing to slam shut the backdoor into Europe still being traversed by tens of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war in the Middle East.

The deal, to be ironed out over the next 10 days, could dramatically alter the regions refugee crisis, sealing off the single biggest corridor for irregular migration into Europe. From across the developing world but especially the Middle East, more than a million desperate people over the past 12 months have rushed to the jagged Turkish coast, where a new life in Europe is only a short if risky journey west by smugglers raft.

But even before the deal was finalized, the practical impact was being felt on the ground Tuesday evening, as Serbia announced it would allow entry only to people with valid papers to travel in Europe. In a statement on the Serbian Interior Ministrys website, the government said it was reacting to a similar move by Slovenia and needed to protect itself from becoming a collection center for migrants.

To keep the migrants from their doorstep, the Europeans are now willing to pay  a lot. Already promised some $3.3 billion to do more to contain the crisis, Turkey  a nation whose authoritarian leader is cracking down on freedoms at home  would now be paid double that.

European leaders lauded the agreement as a means of turning back economic migrants while also saving Syrians from the clutches of unscrupulous human traffickers. But the United Nations and rights activists were already decrying it as a potentially serious  even illegal  blow to refugee rights. It could, critics warned, block the path to sanctuary in the West for untold thousands of legitimate asylum seekers.

We know, weve documented, that Turkey is not a safe place for asylum seekers and refugees, said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty Internationals deputy Europe director. Weve documented people being sent all the way to the south of Turkey, held in incommunicado detention, and sent back to Syria.

Under the deal, all new migrants  including Syrian and Iraqis  found at sea or who reach Greece by boat would be sent back to Turkey. But for each Syrian among those returned, the European Union would be required to accept another Syrian directly from Turkish refugee camps in a one-for-one exchange.

Only Syrians, and not even Iraqis fleeing the Islamic State, appear to qualify for that direct relocation program. Even Syrians who risk the sea and are turned back could be blacklisted from legal resettlement in Europe, providing an extra incentive for migrants to avoid even trying to cross the Aegean.

On the Greek island of Lesbos, the single most popular arrival spot for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, boats continued to come ashore Tuesday despite the warnings from EU leaders that people should stay in Turkey. In the islands sprawling and fast-filling camps, new arrivals said they had heard that the door to Europe was closing and that people would be turned away. But they said they had come anyway because they felt they had no other choice.

We need a future. We need safety, said Abid el-Mohsin, a 23-year-old from Syria. The Islamic State murdered his brother, he said, and he was not going to stay to meet the same fate. So he fled.

In exchange for taking back migrants, Turkey  already hosting some 2.7 million Syrian refugees on its soil  is driving a hard bargain, and it surprised its European counterparts at the start of the talks on Monday with further demands. In addition to new aid, Ankara also wants accelerated talks on joining the European Union  a bid opposed by many current members  as well as visa-free travel within the EU for Turkish citizens. European nations, facing a strong domestic backlash against migrants, may have little choice but to agree.

The deal is a breakthrough, if it is realized, if it is implemented, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Critics immediately accused the Europeans of political expediency by agreeing to a deal that could only strengthen the authoritarian rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His government recently seized control of the countrys largest newspaper, and its crackdown on dissent in Kurdish pockets of the country has raised alarm over fast-deteriorating human rights.

I think this is a no-good deal for the EU because I dont think we are working for a stable Turkey in the future, said Marc Pierini, former EU ambassador to Turkey from 2006 to 2011. Were only inviting the Turkish leadership to crack down on the media or any opponents.

The deal, however, amounted to a compromise. European Council President Donald Tusk, backed by a number of hard-line nations, sought to include strong language in the deal declaring the migrant route officially closed. But Merkel, risking a backlash at home where anti-migrant sentiment is growing, forced through a change that left out that language, and inserted the one-to-one exchange deal with Turkey that at least allowed some Syrians a shot at direct relocation into Europe, according to the think tank Open Europe.

Yet even as Tusk staged a road show across Europe to sell the deal, it risked coming apart. In theory, its open-ended language could require Europe to resettle tens of thousands  and even hundreds of thousands  of Syrians directly from Turkey.

Europe so far has failed dismally in its effort to legally relocate Syrians, Iraqis and other asylum seekers from Greece and Turkey. Last year, European nations promised 160,000 slots, but only about 700 have been filled. Some countries, such as Hungary, have effectively reneged completely. Its leader, Viktor Orban, has already promised to veto the new deal should it compel all EU nations to accept Syrians.

If the legal routes to Europe via Turkey do not materialize  and even if they do  experts warned that asylum seekers would be pushed toward riskier alternatives. They include a dangerous route to Europe via war-torn Libya and another to Italy via a long stretch of sea where thousands of migrants have already died.

This can only work if refugees have a real chance to get to the EU directly, said Dietrich Thrnhardt, a migration expert at Mnster University. If this isnt the case, theyll try to find other ways.
CLEVELAND  Just minutes after the patients name was placed on the waiting list for a transplant, details about a matching donor popped up.

I was shocked, said Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, the director of solid organ transplantation at the Cleveland Clinics hospital in Weston, Florida. I really considered it an act of God.

Less than 24 hours later, on Feb. 24, the patient, a 26-year-old woman from Texas, became the first in the United States to receive a uterus transplant, in a nine-hour operation here at the Cleveland Clinic. Born without a uterus, she hopes the transplant will enable her to become pregnant and give birth.

I have prayed that God would allow me the opportunity to experience pregnancy, and here we are at the beginning of that journey, she said Monday at a news conference, where doctors revealed details of her operation. She gave only her first name, Lindsey, to protect her familys privacy. She and her husband, Blake, also 26, have three adopted sons.

The New York Times interviewed Lindsey in November when she was a candidate for an experimental uterus transplant, but it was not clear then whether she would be selected. At that time she did not want even her first name to be mentioned.

Uterus transplant surgery, still experimental, is meant to help women who want to become pregnant but cannot because they were born without a uterus, suffered damage to it or had to have it removed. Between 3 and 5 percent of women of childbearing age worldwide are estimated to be infertile for these reasons, and about 50,000 women in the United States are thought to be potential transplant candidates.

The Cleveland Clinics ethics panel has given the hospital permission to perform 10 uterine transplants in women ages 21-39, as an experiment. Officials will then decide whether to continue. Another patient is on the waiting list, and the clinic is still screening possible candidates. So far, 250 women have been evaluated.

Two other medical centers in the United States  Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston  have announced similar pilot programs, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which vets transplant programs and oversees the nationwide distribution of organs from deceased donors.

If the first transplants succeed, the procedure could come into widespread use, said Dr. David K. Klassen, chief medical officer of the organ sharing network.

At the news briefing in Cleveland, Lindsey expressed immense gratitude to the family of the donor. The uterus is an organ not usually removed for transplantation, and donor families must be asked for special consent.

The donor, healthy and in her 30s, had several children, and had died suddenly, said Tzakis, who did not give the cause.

Tzakis said the call about Lindseys donor had come in the middle of the night, and he and a gynecologic surgeon, Dr. Tommaso Falcone, had immediately flown to another city to remove the uterus. As soon as they determined that the organ was healthy, they notified surgeons back in Cleveland to begin preparing Lindsey, who had flown there with her husband.

The transplant surgery took nine hours, longer than the doctors had expected, even though they had practiced on animals and cadavers.

Tzakis and the other doctors said Lindsey was doing well, but would need close monitoring and monthly biopsies to make sure that her body was not rejecting the uterus.

Medically, uterus transplants are a new frontier. Ethically, they reflect an increasing acceptance that transplants are justified not only to save lives, but also to improve the quality of life. That belief has already led to hand and face transplants for people with horrific injuries. Penis transplants may be next: Doctors at Johns Hopkins University plan to perform them for men wounded in combat.

The transplant is not without risk: Patients face the usual surgical hazards of bleeding and infection, and the increased odds of infection and possibly even cancer, from the anti-rejection drugs, which suppress the immune system.

But the drug risks will be relatively short-lived, as will the transplants themselves. After the woman has had one or two babies, the uterus will be removed so that she can stop taking anti-rejection drugs. A woman who wants two babies would probably keep the transplanted uterus for about five years, doctors said.

The program in Cleveland has been about 10 years in the making. Tzakis, who led the team, spent time in Sweden to learn from doctors at the University of Gothenburg, who are the only ones in the world to have performed successful uterine transplants. They have operated on nine women so far  taking the uterus from a living donor, often the recipients mother  and five have given birth. The babies have been premature but healthy, according to Dr. Mats Brannstrom, the leader of the program.

The Cleveland team is using dead donors, to avoid putting live ones at risk, but Falcone said the team might consider living donors in the future.
Most voters in Michigan and Mississippi, regardless of party, are worried about the direction of the countrys economy, and many consider trade to be a negative influence on American jobs.

According to early results of exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks Tuesday, at least 8 in 10 voters in each primary say they are very or somewhat worried about where the American economy is headed.

More than half of Democratic and Republican voters in Michigan, along with Republicans in Mississippi, say trade with other countries takes jobs. In Mississippi, Democratic primary voters are more closely divided on the subject, with 4 in 10 saying it takes away jobs and nearly as many thinking it has a positive impact.

At least 8 in 10 Democratic voters in both states see the countrys economic system as benefiting the wealthy.
People generally tend to pick out the best looking fruits and vegetables when shopping for produce, but Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws is tempting customers with misshapen, blemished produce instead, by pricing them 30 percent lower than normal-looking ones.

A trial run of the ugly food line, named Naturally Imperfect, began in March last year with only apples and potatoes to choose from. Consumer demand has been so huge that Loblaws is now going to introduce more unsightly vegetable and fruit options like peppers, onions, and mushrooms. The line is available at other stores as well, including Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs, and Your Independent Grocer.

All the produce that will be sold through Naturally Imperfect would otherwise have been used in juices, sauces, or soups, or would have not been harvested at all. Senior Loblaw director Dan Branson explained last year that this sort of program was a win-win arrangement for both food producers who would otherwise have to let substandard harvest go to waste, and consumers who could afford fresh produce at regular prices. And he was right, given how popular the line has become.

Photo: Loblaws

It really went well above and beyond what our expectation was, Branson said last week, speaking to CBC News. I think it really spoke to the fact that Canadians are out there really looking for some options.

When it comes to produce, Canadians know that beauty is more than skin deep, added Loblaw Senior Vice President Ian Gordon. Our customers recognize that they get the same flavor and nutritional benefits in spite of appearances. The positive response to our initial offering of apples and potatoes demonstrated the opportunity to expand the Naturally Imperfect line and offer more selection at a greater price to Canadian families.

Photo: VanCity Buzz

If you were to grow produce in your backyard theres a lot that would grow that wouldnt look as pretty as what you would see in a grocery store, said Branson. And mother nature doesnt grow everything perfectly. Id like to think if somebody were to take a No Name Naturally Imperfect apple and put it right beside a No. 1 apple and closed their eyes and eat it, there would be no difference.

Examples of produce sold under the Naturally Imperfect brand include apples that might have only 50 to 60 per cent color, with the rest of the fruit a lighter shade of green, or specimens that might have some scarring, smaller potatoes that dont fit within the size range supermarkets usually require and deformed carrots.

Photo: Intermarche

In 2014, French supermarket Intermarche launched a similar program called Inglorious Fruits and vegetables, in an attempt to combat food waste.
New York City cab medallions, which sold for as much as $1 million a year ago, now are priced at the $500K level, battered by competition from Uber, Lyft.

Some Independent owners, having paid upwards of $1 million, are under water by hundreds of thousands of dollars on the mortgages they owe on the medallions.

Competition from Uber and Lyft is so fierce that New York cabbies are going out of their way to be polite, engaging in chatter with riders and being helpful with packages, luggage and giving extra care to senior citizens.

Our experience with NYC cab drivers and car services is mixed. Twice in recent weeks drivers have been unable to use our credit card and have demanded cash. It cost us $35 for a ten-block trip to Park ave. Cost was $55 in cash for a trip to Brooklyn Feb. 10 where we covered a talk by Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, at New York University.

In both instances it turned out there was nothing wrong with our credit card. It worked fine when we took a cab back from Brooklyn Feb. 10. On at least a half dozen occasions cabbies have sworn our credit card could not be used and demanded cash when the opposite of that was true.

Yesterday, on returning to LaGuardia airport from a trip to Washington, D.C., we were approached by a Uber driver who offered to take us to NYC for $45. He met us as we headed for a line of about 30 cabs waiting for customers. His solicitation was illegal. However, there was no one at the terminal to enforce such a rule.

Uber Has Five Types of Pricing

Accessing the Uber app shows 3-4 drivers within a few blocks with waiting time often estimated at from one to five minutes.

Five levels of service are offeredpool, black, UberX, UberT and Rush. Pool is the cheapest. A trip from E. 36th st. to Penn Station would cost $9 with pool but double that for Uber black. Prices during rush hour can double as Uber invokes surge pricing.

The Uber app is not that easy to navigate. Cancelling a trip can be difficult. Uber drivers may arrive at the pickup point in a minute or two and will only wait two minutes. A $5 cancellation fee is then put on the riders credit card.

Uber has several things that give it a competitive advantage over cabs. One is that there is nothing to sign at trips end. Its already on the credit card. There can be no battle over whether a credit card works or does not.

Theres no need to calculate a tip. Cabs used to have a 15% tip option but recently made 20% the least amount that can be given. Other options are 25% and 30%.

Lack of Ads Is Uber Plus

Uber drivers have been complaining recently about a cut in charges although the company says this has increased traffic.

A suggestion has been made by gas4ads that Uber drivers allow ads. Since their own cars are being used, there is nothing to stop that.

However, most Uber drivers and no doubt all Uber users would resent ads of any type with the cars.

It would cheapen the Uber experience, was a comment that was heard.

Cab users board cabs that have ads on their rooftops and are then confronted with video screens on the backs of the seats in front of them than carry ads interspersed with local news non-stop. Sometimes the audio cannot be turned off.

Uber cars are a momentary relief from the hyper-commercialism that is New York. Buses carry ads on their sides and on their backs and there are painted buses that are completely covered with commercial messages. Many of the buses used by the Hampton Jitney are painted.



7,500 Ad Terminals Coming to NYC

Adding to the commercial din will be 7,500 Wi-Fi terminals being constructed for Sidewalk Labs by Google, the Titan Advertising Group (worlds biggest outdoor ad company), and other participants.

They will carry 55-inch video commercials on each side as well as sending a strong Wi-Fi signal up to 200 feet away. Wi-Fi sensitive people will not be able to walk near them without experiencing symptoms. The terminals are Wi-Fry and Wi-Spy since data will be collected from users. The free Wi-Fi offered is meaningless since most New Yorkers already have a triple play that includes the web. The web can also be accessed via Verizon, AT&T or other phone company.
The Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore (MRHT) has received 84.4 million in funding for 2016. Details of the allocation were included in the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group (DMHG) Operational Plan which was published last week.

By Damian Moran

e-mail: damian@offalyexpress.ie

Twitter: @offaly_expres

The 2016 budget projects that MRHT will treat 11,000 inpatients and over 33,000 day care patients, in addition to patients expected to attend the emergency department. The plan also prioritises the delivery of a replacement MRI unit and additional ultrasound capacity at MRHT. An overall budgetary allocation of 2.57 million has been set aside to deliver these additional facilities. As one of the Groups seven hospitals, MHRTs funding has devolved to the Group for the first time, tailoring patient services to the local needs in Tullamore.

The plan points out that there are a number of challenges in delivering services to patients this year across its seven hospitals. These include an increased demand for acute hospital services; a growing and ageing population; pressures on emergency departments; the requirement to reduce agency staff and overtime costs; and the difficulty in hiring and retaining staff.

However, MHRT and the other six Group hospitals are undertaking a number of reforms to ensure that patient care and service efficiencies are enhanced. These include the development of integrated care programmes, which ensure that care is delivered in the most appropriate and cost-effective way and involves people at every level of the health services working together.

Dr Susan OReilly, CEO of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group (DMHG), said:

Todays publication of the DMHGs Operational Plan is a significant milestone for MRHT and the other Group hospitals. For the first time, the DMHG has responsibility for funding hospital services in Tullamore, ensuring the services and budget provided better meet the patient needs and are tailored, in so far as possible, to local issues.

There are certainly challenges to operating within the allocation that we need to tackle, in particular, the impact of an ageing population and increasing demand for services. DMHG and MRHT will now work together to deliver optimum services for our patients in Tullamore, within the resources available but at the same time ensuring that quality and patient safety remains a key priority at all times. In 2016, investment in services and new facilities such as the MRI unit and additional ultrasound capacity will help in achieving this goal, added Dr. OReilly.
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D.A. Davidson & Co. of Great Falls, Montana, plans to acquire Smith Hayes Cos. of Lincoln next month and operate the investment companies offices in Omaha, Lincoln and Columbus under the Davidson name.

Tom Smith, chairman and co-founder of Smith Hayes, said Monday that all of his companys 40 financial advisers have agreed to the change and will continue serving their clients.

Smith Hayes, started in 1985, manages $4.5 billion in client assets. The combined company will have nearly $40 billion under management, including about $10 billion from its Nebraska offices.

Smith, 70, said he has signed a five-year agreement to continue working with the company. He will join Davidsons board of directors and serve as vice chairman of the companys individual investor group.

John Decker, president and chief executive of Smith Hayes, will head the individual investor group in Nebraska.

Jim Kerr is president and CEO of Davidson.

Staff from Davidsons Omaha and Lincoln offices will move into Smith Hayes offices as leases expire through 2017, Smith said. That will add nine people, including six financial advisers, to the 24-person Omaha office, and four people, three of them financial advisers, to the 22-person Lincoln office.

Counting six people in Columbus, the combined firm will have a total staff of about 65.

Davidson started 80 years ago and has more than 1,300 employees, with its headquarters in Great Falls and major offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

In 2002 Smith Hayes acquired the retail business of Kirkpatrick Pettis Financial Services from Mutual of Omaha, and Davidson acquired Kirkpatrick Pettis public finance operation. Davidson opened retail offices in Nebraska in 2004.

Smith Hayes nine main stockholders and participants in an employee stock ownership plan will have the option of receiving cash or Davidson stock, Smith said, declining to give financial details of the purchase.

He said the combination will give clients a broader offering of services, and he hopes to open offices in central and western Nebraska, Wyoming and western South Dakota.

Smith said the companies have discussed combining before and decided now is the time. Were similar in style, and both are employee-owned, so its a perfect fit for us.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska said it will appeal after a federal judge dismissed a Papillion mans lawsuit alleging that he was unlawfully detained in Sarpy County because he was suspected of being in the country illegally.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon last week dismissed the suit against Sarpy County, the sheriff, jail staff and Justin Osterberg, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Their acts, the judge wrote, were not shown to be anything more than multiple innocent mistakes.

The ACLU said Monday that it would appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ramon Mendoza said he was held at the Sarpy County Jail for several days in 2010 because he was suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, even though he is a naturalized citizen.

Mendozas family tried to provide Sarpy County with documents proving his citizenship  as well as medication he requires daily  but was turned away, the ACLU said.

Mendoza was pulled over in March 2010 while driving in Papillion for having a medal hanging from his rear-view mirror. He was arrested when he couldnt produce a current license or proof of car insurance.

Mendoza spent several days in jail after a misstated Social Security number and mistakes on several forms led officials to identify him as another man, Ramon Mendoza Gutierrez, who had outstanding warrants and a long criminal record, according to the facts of the case cited in Bataillons opinion.

ICE had asked that Ramon Mendoza Gutierrez be held.

We are greatly disappointed in the decision and are planning to file an appeal as soon as possible so that Mr. Mendoza can have justice, said Amy Miller, ACLU of Nebraska legal director. Many courts around the nation have held the practices in which Sarpy County and Immigration and Customs Enforcement engaged are violations of the Fourth Amendment.

Not only was Mr. Mendoza pulled over for a barely plausible reason, held for four days without being charged with a crime and denied access to his medication, but he was also called racial slurs by Sarpy County law enforcement officers. Every one of these instances was a violation of Mr. Mendozas rights and dignity.

Vince Valentino, attorney for Sarpy County in the case, said Mendoza was asked to offer a description or identify from correctional guard photos anyone he claimed said anything racist to him, and he refused and failed to do so under oath.

Valentino said Sarpy County offered the ACLU a complaint form, but one was never filed. An internal investigation by Sarpy County also failed to discover anyone that could corroborate or substantiate Mendoza's claims of racism, verbal or mental abuse, Valentino said.

"In my view, (Mendoza) made that up to embellish his story," Valentino said in an email.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1192, emily.nitcher@owh.com
"Kick us out if we don't do anything": How Modi's emotional appeal resembles that of Mamata

Is BJP interested in West Bengal Assembly elections at all?

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Opposition Left Front have announced their candidates for the seven-phase Assembly election in West Bengal starting April 4.

Election schedules for 4 states and Puducherry

Mamata fields tainted Madan Mitra, more women and minorities: Is she worried?

Left releases list of 116 candidates; former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee not to contest

While the former announced names of candidates for all 294 seats on March 4, the day the election schedules were declared by the Election Commission, the Left declared its first list of 116 candidates on Monday (March 7).

The Congress is expected to announce its list in sometime since it is currently in the middle of a process of electoral understanding with the Left Front, if not an alliance.

Why is BJP still not releasing its candidate list for Bengal polls?

That leaves the BJP. The saffron party, which got 17 pe cent vote share in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and also won an Assembly bypoll later that year, hasn't yet revealed its list of candidates. For many observers, the party has seen a steep fall since the Lok Sabha election and failed to produce any magic in last year's civic polls in the state.

It is said that their organisation is so poor at the moment that they have failed to hold rallies with a significant attendance. The central leadership has also expressed its displeasure over the state leaders' failure in nurturing a strong front in the state.

Remembering 'Howrah Model' in West Bengal electoral politics



But another section of analysts feels there could be more to the story. In 2013, the BJP had decided not to field any candidate for a Lok Sabha by-election in Howrah and the TMC went on to win the seat, beating both the Left and Congress. But why did the BJP give up an opportunity in a constiteuncy where it had polled 37,723 votes, a figure more than the margin by which the TMC had beaten its closest rival (37,392 votes)?

According to reports, the BJP had decided not to contest the bypoll at the last minute after TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's confidant KD Singh had a 'coincidental' meeting with then BJP president Rajnath Singh.

Former Bengal BJP chief Rahul Sinha had also admitted that the top brass conveyed its decision to not contest the bypoll at the last minute but he chose not to shed much light on the meeting between the two Singhs in New Delhi.

It was said that the move was made by the BJP to keep Banerjee, who was fighting the snowballing Saradha scam then, in a comfortable position so that things remained smooth between them ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2014.

The Howrah Model is considered an opposite to Left-Cong's Siliguri Model in WB

We had seen how Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out at Banerjee before and in the initial phases of the Lok Sabha election but the latter responded in sharp terms, sometimes even by making below-the-belt attacks.

Perhaps Banerjee was publicly displaying a distaste for the BJP to secure her crucial minority votes.

'Howrah Model' as against the CPI(M)-Congress's 'Siliguri Model'

The BJP's decision not to vote in that bypoll is often called the 'Howrah Model', as against the 'Siliguri Model' whereby the Opposition CPI(M) and Congress came together to stop the TMC from coming to power.

Will BJP give TMC a respite in 2016 Assembly polls to reap benefits in future?

Is there any understanding between the TMC and BJP for this year's Assembly poll as well? Is the BJP going to field candidates in all 294 seats of the state? Reports said around 2,000 members of the party have expressed their desire to contest the upcoming polls but will the BJP find any gain in fielding Tom, Dick and Harrys?

A section is in favour of the two actors-turned-politicians from the state, Rupa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, to contest the election but the duo is not willing to contest for a number of reasons. In that case, will the BJP find it viable to allow the TMC have a free run in majority of the constituencies, expecting in return some support in the Rajya Sabha and also in the post-poll situation in 2019, when Modi will fight his first anti-incumbency challenge as the prime minister.

Bengal is a state where the BJP has little to lose; but it has much to gain at Centre

The BJP has been attacking the Left more than the TMC in issues related to the state, for example, the recent 'anti-national' protests in the Jadavapur University campus. For the BJP, letting go a state where it has very little to lose is not much of a loss, compared to serving its interest at the Centre, where much more is at stake.
Mahila e-Haat - for Indian Women Entrepreneurs

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

In a path-breaking initiative, the Minister of Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi launched "Mahila e-Haat", an online marketing platform for women in New Delhi to mark Women's Day.

Mahila e-Haat is a unique online platform where participants can display their products. It is an initiative for women across the country as a part of 'Digital India' and 'Start-Up India' initiatives of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

The Mahila e-Haat portal can be accessed at http://mahilaehaat-rmk.gov.in.

How Mahila e-Haat will empower women:

The empowerment of women will take place in three stages in which Mahila e-Haat is the first stage.

In the second stage, it is planned to integrate it with e-commerce portals to provide a larger platform for selling and buying.

Ultimately it will culminate into Women's Entrepreneurs Council which will help to expand this initiative further and give it an institutional shape.

The e-Haat is expected to result in paradigm shift enabling women to exercise control over their finances. The entire business of e-Haat can be handled through mobile phone.

The product, along with photograph description, cost and mobile number and address of the participants will be displayed on the e-Haat enabling direct contact between sellers and service providers and buyers.

How many women will be benefitted by Mahila e-Haat:

More than 10000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) and 1.25 Lakh women beneficiaries would be benefited from the day of launch of the site itself. Participation in e-Haat is open to all Indian women citizens more than 18 years of age and women SHGs desiring for marketing their legal products or services after indemnifying RMK from any or all acts of transaction.

Minister Maneka Gandhi's comments at the launch of Mahila e-Haat:

"This initiative can prove to be a game changer since it will provide access to markets to thousands of women who make products and are spread all over the country but have little access to markets. The initiative is unique since this is the first time that the government will help women to sell products online," the Minister added.

Congratulating Rahstriya Mahila Kosh and all those involved in creating the portal, the Minister said that it is web page based and has unlimited reach and can, therefore become catalyst in creating a new generation of business women.

Mrs. Maneka Gandhi further explained that the endeavour will help women to make financial economic choices which will enable them to be a part of 'Make In India' and 'Start-Up India' initiatives of PM Modi.

Secretary V. Somasundaran's remarks at the launch of Mahila e-Haat:

As per the Secretary Women and Children Development V. Somasundaran the Mahila E-Haat will help to meet the goal of financial inclusion of women and it is a big step forward for empowerment of women.

He further added that, "Mahila E-Haat is an initiative for meeting aspirations and need of women entrepreneurs which will leverage technology for showcasing products made, manufactured or sold by women entrepreneurs. They can even showcase those services being provided by them which reflect creative potential e.g. tailoring. This unique e-platform will strengthen the socio-economic empowerment of women as it will mobilise and provide better avenues to them."

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 12:05 [IST]
Social taboo hovers global aviation; Why it has only 3% women pilots?

Feature

oi-Pallavi

The world is reeling under the power of women and acknowledging them in building a healthy and happy society. With the news of Indian Air Force releasing its first batch of fighter pilots in the month of June, the fact that there are only 3% women working as pilots on commercial airlines comes as a shock.

Consider this, a whopping 97% of all commercial pilots in the Global aviation industry are males, which as per The International Society of Women Airline Pilots, means 4000 out of 1,30,000.

Desiding whether the aviation fraternity is sexist is a story in itself. Helen Richey, who became the world's first female pilot "to fly a commercial airliner on a regularly scheduled mail route" , had to leave her job merely 10 months after her recruitment because of the behaviour of her male colleagues.

She was also barred from being a member of the and was forbidden from flying in anything other than fair weather. Ironically, she was the one who crawled onto the wing of a plane she was flying to repair a tear. She also spent years flying stunt planes.

In the initial years, women failed the measuring criteria for being a pilot that required a certain height and physical strength. Even if they qualified, it was the general belief that they may not handle stress levels ruled them out from the crew.

A changing scenario

While things have changed a lot these days, there is still some repulsion from the passengers. Many commercial airlines are now promoting the recruitment of women pilots. British Airlines, for instance, is increasing the number of females applying for the given positions in order to even out the numbers.

Moreover, the measuring criteria is also not narrowed. One has to be able to fly the simulator successfully during the interview process.

However, the numbers are still staggering. So, what holds them back? Experts site the following:

[Read: India to have first women fighter pilots on June 18: IAF chief Arup Raha]

1. Lack of role models: Interested women do not have role models as advertisements and real life stories of pilots do not have any account of a woman.

2. Domestic life over erratic timing and frequent travelling: Young women do not see pilot as a career option because they have been trained to understand that this is a man's job. They would rather see themselves managing the household or doing jobs that suited their lifestyle.

In a study conducted by the British Airways, it was found that while young boys dreamt of being a pilot and it was the second most sought-after profession among them, women did not even mention it. Precisely, why there was a staggering difference in the number of men and women learning to fly in flight schools, which amounts to 97% versus 3% respectively.

[Read: Chinese combat women pilots date Flying Leopard]

Yvonne Pope Sintes - one of the first set of female pilots to score the skies said,"Initially when I first started, one of the pilots said he would resign if a woman joined, but fortunately he didn't. And I then I did find afterwards that the experienced pilots were happy to accept me and help me. Women need to be enthused by the idea of flying when they are young. You've got to have a real vocation for flying and maybe young women don't realise what possibilities there are nowadays. I hope that many more will go into it as a job," she says.

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 13:36 [IST]
Jaitley statue at Kotla: Angry Bedi asks DDCA to remove his name from stands, quits membership

Reforms in India being done by conviction, not compulsion: PM Narendra Modi

BJP leaders pay tribute to former minister Arun Jaitley on his third death anniversary

Will Arun Jaitley be able to meet Disinvestment Targets?

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

One smart reform that has been given a push by Arun Jaitley's third budget is monetising idle assets of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). Mr. Jaitley has set a target of Rs. 56,500 crore through the disinvestment in PSUs during the fiscal year 2016-17.

As per him of the total 56,500 crore, Rs. 36,000 crore is to come from minority stake sale in PSUs. Remaining Rs. 20,500 he says should be realised from the sale in both profit and loss-making PSUs.

Here one needs to know that for the previous year the target set by FM to realise money by selling stake in PSUs was Rs. 69, 500. He could only manage to get half of the sum estimated. During the year 2015-16 government could only realise Rs. 25, 312 crore.

Here one other point that needs to be noted is that this is the sixth consecutive year that government of the day has missed the disinvestment target set in Budget. Volatile market conditions are said to be the reason for the government not able to meet its disinvestment targets.

Last year government was able to sell its share in six PSUs which are:

1. Rural Electrification Corp Rs. 1,608 crore

2. Power Finance Corp Rs. 1,671 crore

3. Dredging Corp of India Ltd Rs. 53.33 crore

4. Indian Oil Corp Rs. 9,369 crore

5. Engineers India ltd Rs. 640 crore

6. NTPC Rs. 5,030 crore

During the budget speech Mr. Jaitley renamed the Department of Disinvestment to Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

As per the FM NITI Aayog will identify the state-owned companies which would be eligible for strategic sale.

Mr. Jaitley had told during the budget speech that, "We have to leverage the assets of CPSEs for generation of resources for investment in new projects. We will encourage CPSEs to divest individual assets like land, manufacturing unit to release their asset value for making investments in new projects".

He had further added that, "The NITI Aayog will identify the CPSE for strategic sale. We will adopt a comprehensive approach for efficient management of the government investment in CPSEs by addressing issued such as capital restructuring, dividend, bonus shares".

Many see it as continuation or reviving of policy that was followed during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government. Between 1999 and 2004 the first NDA government had privatised many PSUs including Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) Hindustan Zinc (HZL) and others.

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 1, 2016, 11:20 [IST]
The darker side of women: World's deadliest 'lady killers'

Feature

oi-Pallavi

By Pallavi

Little do we know that the world of terrorism and jihad is not solely dominated by men. On this women's Day, while we celebrate the spirit of women, we also explore the darker side of women.

The world's deadliest women range from suicide bombers to extremists who have rocked the world in several ways. Having families or career with multi national companies did not stop them from living their ideologies, however false they may be.

Like all terrorists, these women have been motivated to enter the big dark world of blood because of poverty, oppression and ideologies.

Here is the list of deadly women terrorists.

The Black Widows

Also known as the Shahidkas, the Black Widows are Chechen suicide bombers. They came to light in 2002 during a hostage situation in the Moscow theater. Sometimes referred to as the Brides of Allah, these are usually widows of the murdered Chechen fighters.

However, not all of them are widows. Some of the members also belong to an age group of 15-19 years. Some of these women are highly educated, have a career, but have chosen this path for their hatred towards Russians in the Chechenya war. These women are trained by psychologists, religious preachers and terrorists.

Patty Hearst

The unique story of Patty Hearst had taken the world by awe. Heir to a wealthy media Mogul-William Randolph Hearst , she was kidnapped from her own house by the SLA (Syambionese Liberation Army) members. Claiming to be a revolutionary reconnaissance army, they wanted the imprisoned SLA members released. But when that did not work out, he offered them 6 million dollars. But Patty remained captive.

After a few days, media broadcasts saw Patty joining the SLA. She was seen robbing banks in 1974 and threatening people. When the group leaders got killed in an ambush, Patty was caught. She told that she was forced into doing what she did and was raped and brainwashed. Also, she did not remember the bank robbery she was involved in. Although she was found guilty, she was pardoned by President Carter 2 years later.

Ulrike Meinhof

One of the most notorious terrorists, Ulrike formed RAF (Rote Armee Fraction) organisation, along with two of her friends. A leftist activist in her youth, she wrote against Adenauer`s policy. Her group was also known as the Bader-Meinhof group , which committed a series of attacks across Germany. They attacked a the headquarters of the American Army in Frankfurt and set up a bomb under judge Buddenberg`s car, who ordered an investigation on RAF members. She was arrested in 1972 and sentenced to 4 yaers jail. It is said she committed suicide in prison, although rumours state otherwise.

Fusako Shifenobu, is Japanese by origin. A leader of the Japanese Red Army organization, she is responsible for attacks on the American Consulates in the 1980's. She is rumoured to be living in Syria.

Reem Riyashi, Israel

A Hamas operative, she detonated herself at the Erez Checkpoint between Gaza and Israel on January 14, 2004. She passed through the security check claiming that she had metal plates fixed in her legs. She triggered the device while being frisked by a female Israeli soldier.
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A court in central China's Hunan Province jailed seven people on Monday for poisoning endangered birds and trafficking them for meat.

The People's Court of Yueyanglou District in Yueyang City sentenced one of the seven, only identified by his surname Fang, to 12 years in prison and fined him 10,000 yuan (1,535 U.S. dollars).

Two others, surnamed He and Zhong, were sentenced to 10 years in prison and each was fined 10,000 yuan.

The other four defendants got jail terms ranging from one to six years.

The gang illegally poisoned, purchased, transported and sold endangered birds, with their activity conducted in the wetlands of Eastern Dongting Lake Nature Reserve and surrounding regions.

Police began to investigate the gang after law enforcement officers with the reserve found a boat carrying many dead endangered water birds including cygnets, spot-billed ducks and herons on January 18, 2015.

They found that the gang bought pesticides to poison and kill more than 60 wild water birds under state protection in the reserve, selling them to a restaurant in Changde City between November 2014 and January 2015.
Can Delhi govt rely on forensic report of a private lab?

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, March 8: The Delhi government has been stating that it would initiate action against some television channels which had aired videos of the event at JNU.

The JNU event of February 9th hailing the martyrdom of Afzal Guru turned controversial after allegations of anti India sloganeering were made.

The Delhi government was quick to react to this incident and came out with a report suggesting that some of the videos relating to the event had been doctored.

The Delhi government acting suomotu on the issue had obtained a report on the authenticity of the video from the Truth Labs, Hyderabad. It is on the basis of this report that the Delhi government has threatened to sue some of the television channels.

The question is can a report by the Truth Labs be accepted by the court? Has the Truth Labs summoned for the original video footage before concluding that the videos were doctored. Courts normally do not consider reports of a private agency.

A private agency's inputs can be used as an investigating tool but not as evidence. Secondly Truth Labs cannot direct the police to submit original files.

Can Truth Lab's report be used as evidence?

As per the rules the investigating agency can rely officially on the forensic test results given by the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Bhopal and Pune.

While all these labs are under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the one at Delhi works under the Central Bureau of Investigation. Hence technically the Delhi police could not place the report of the state government on record.

How did the Delhi Government order a forensic test of the videos without even consulting the investigating agency? The original footage of the incident at the JNU is with the investigating agency. Clearly they were not asked for the same and neither can a Truth Lab order the Delhi police to send the clips.

This would mean that the videos that were sent for forensic testing were picked up from the social media and messaging applications. A forensic test cannot be conclusive unless it is ascertained on the basis of the original footing.

If a forensic report is taken to the Supreme Court or any other court and it is found that the same was done without using the original footing, it would not stand judicial scrutiny. The other point is that did the Truth Labs rely on the original footing that the television channels have?

Why the Delhi police ignored the report?

The Delhi government during a submission before the High Court had questioned why the police had not relied on this report.

First and foremost not just the Delhi police, but any other investigating agency in the country can rely only on the reports submitted by the six government run forensic laboratories.

In some cases police rely on private labs.

For instance there was an instance where an officer had relied on a private lab to subject an accused to a lie detector test.

This was clearly an excess and not permissible. Before anyone is subject to a lie detector test, the consent of the accused is needed.

Moreover, the police also need a directive from the court. Some officers to avoid such hassles approach private agencies.

However, the findings can never be used before a court of law.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 12:33 [IST]
Greater Noida village: 18-year old rapes GF, sets her on fire

India

oi-Pallavi

Noida, March 8: In a horrifying incident, an 18 year old boy raped his 16-year old girlfriend and set her ablaze. The girl has been admitted to Delhi's Safdarjung hospital with 60% burns. The accused Ajay Sharma lives in the same village and was arrested at his house.

Rakesh Yadav, circle officer 3, Greater Noida said,"A police team is with the victim at the hospital. Her statement was recorded. She accused Ajay of rape and attempt to murder."

The girl's father is a tailor who runs a shop in the locality said that their family had complained about the boy a few days ago for peeping into the house. "But his family promised that he will not disturb us again, so we did not follow the complaint," the girl's father said.

The father of the girl said,"At about 2.30am (on Monday), Ajay came to meet my daughter. The duo was having an affair. They met on the roof, where he raped her and set her ablaze. He fled from the spot."

Since the duo belonged to different religions, police were deployed at the village fearing tension.

However, the police said that there were no untoward incident in the village and that the two religious groups were called for a peace meeting.

OneIndia News
No decision yet on joining BJP or AAP, says Hardik; hails saffron party over Ayodhya issue, Article 370

Is Hardik Patel joining BJP today? This is what he says

Hardik lists 27 demands before CM for truce on Patel quota

India

oi-PTI

Gandhinagar, March 6: Jailed Patel quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel on Tuesday, March 8 put forward his charter of 27 demands before Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in a sealed cover, in order to arrive at a compromise with the state government on the row.

Father of Hardik Patel, Bharatbhai, along with mediators like BJP MP from Porbandar Vitthal Radadia, community leader of Patels, Jairam Vansjaliya and others, met the Chief Minister today and submitted the demands listed by Hardik.

"As part of the ongoing talks with the government to arrive at a compromise regarding quota agitation, we met Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and BJP chief Vijay Rupani and handed over a sealed cover given to us by Hardik Patel when we met him in Surat jail," Radadia told reporters after the meeting.

"The cover is having a list of 27 demands put forward by Hardik to workout a truce formula," Radadia said. Radadia and Vasjaliya have separately met Hardik many times inside the jail. "Since the cover was sealed when it was given to us, we don't know the exact details of these 27 demands," Radadia said when asked about the charter of demands.

"Chief Minister told us that she will go through the demands and give her response in due course. We think that government's approach is positive," Radadia said.

Though Radadia did not gave details of the demand of quota agitators, as earlier spelt out by Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) members, it includes quota for Patels, withdrawal of all cases against them and compensation for kin of those killed during quota agitation.

"I don't want to comment on cases in courts. That is a legal process," Radadia said when asked to comment on government's stand on bail applications of Hardik and other PAAS leaders. The state government has opposed the bail plea of Hardik Patel and his key aides, who are behind bars in sedition cases, in the courts.

The state government has filed two separate sedition cases against Hardik. Various other cases have also been filed against him across the state. Hardik is at present lodged in Surat's Lajpore jail, while his three key aides are lodged in Ahmedabad's Sabarmati jail.

Patels are demanding their inclusion in OBC quota so that community members can get reservations in education and jobs. The agitation had turned violent and had claimed 10 lives last year.

PTI
The persecution of Hindus in Pakistan continues with a Hindu girl forcibly converted and married

Indo-Pak politicians, experts pitch for joint TV channel

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 8: Politicians and subject experts from India and Pakistan today pitched for a joint Indo-Pak TV channel saying it could help create an "unprecedented" improvement in mutual perceptions and bilateral relations.

They also welcomed the recent high-level sharing of intelligence by the two countries on potential terror activities and hoped the move will help build trust and eliminate terrorism.

During the third round of 'Pakistan-India Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue on Sharing of Experiences on Governance and Democracy' organised here, the participants discussed role of media in India-Pakistan relationship and policing system in the two countries.

Among key suggestions, they pitched for pursuing the prospect of a jointly owned India-Pakistan TV channel, possibly located in Dubai, to see it engenders an "unprecedented" improvement in mutual perceptions and bilateral relations.

The day-long dialogue was organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) along with Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).

"Dialogue participants welcome the recent high-level sharing of intelligence information by Pakistan with India to alert the Indian government against potential terrorist activities.

"They hoped that this becomes the first of a series of confidence-building measures to build trust and goodwill, and eliminating terrorism," a joint statement issued by the participants said.

Observing that there is "tendency in a few media houses" from the both the countries to be "shrill and jingoistic" (in their reportage), the delegations from both the sides deplored the same and sought to address the issue.

The participants expressed concern that fringe elements are "wrongly" given more space than warranted in media in both the countries.

"More often than not, news media's unquestioning reflection of their own government's foreign and defence policies stance hampers the expression of independent perspectives," the statement read.

The participants noted that "lack of access" for media to locations in the other country and obstacles in obtaining visas for journalists of both the countries were hampering an "informed" portrayal of each country.

In this regard, they insisted both the governments put in place policies ensuring ease of access, travel and reporting by scribes from the two countries.

"Specific proposals (during the meeting) included visa- free access without city restrictions and for setting up of media lounges at Pakistan-India border posts to facilitate regular interaction and engagement between Pakistani and Indian media representatives without the need to obtain visas," it added.

PTI
ISIS threat in India emerges not from Pakistan, but Bangladesh and West Bengal

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Mar 8: For quite some time, India has been on guard regarding the menace called the ISIS. A spate of arrests were carried out recently across the country in an operation what the National Investigation Agency termed as the busting of a nation wide ISIS module.

NIA arrested 24 people for suspected links with ISIS

The investigations that are being conducted into the various ISIS related cases have one conclusion and that this threat emanates more from Bangladesh than Pakistan.

India Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that if the threat has to be countered, then the outfits based in Bangladesh are more worrisome in nature when compared to Pakistan.

What is the government doing about it?

The National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has appraised the Prime Minister about the situation. It was following this input that the government had decided to undertake a major deradicalisation programme.

Further Modi has been engaging with the Muslim community in large numbers to counter this threat.

India says that the ISIS threat will not emerge directly in India. It will come in through groups such as the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh.

The JMB which was responsible for the Burdwan blasts had openly pledged support to the ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Bhagdadi. In the recent days the JMB has been carrying out attacks in Bangladesh in the name of the ISIS or the Caliphate.

India has taken this development very seriously. The effects of the JMB could be witnessed in Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand as one got to witness during the probe into the Burdwan incident.

The Indian agencies say that the threat from the ISIS will be through the JMB and hence the Burdwan probe had become so important. During the probe Indian investigators found details such as the bomb making units and also the routes taken by these operatives.

OneIndia News
Kerala temples as iconic as beaches but who will tell the tourism industry

Kerala: LDF likely to release list of candidates on Mar 20

India

oi-Shreyas

Kerala, Mar 8: The state of Kerala is going to polls on May 16 and the political heat has already gathered in the God's own country.

Interestingly, Muslim League, a political ally of the Congress that comes under the umbrella of UDF (United Democratic Front) has put out list of candidates on March 3, even before the Election Commission announced the polling dates for five states.

The Muslim league which will field its candidates in 24 assembly constituencies has now announced names of 20 candidates. However the names for other four constituencies Kuttiadi, Kunnamangalam, Iravipuram and Guruvayoor, where it was decimated in the last assembly polls has not been announced yet. The list was put by the President of Muslim League Panakkad Hyderali Shihab Thangal.

There are 140 assembly segments in the state. The LDF (Left Democratic Front) according to sources will announce list of candidates on or before March 20. A source from LDF speaking to OneIndia said "we are likely to release the list of candidates on or before March 20."

[Kerala: LDF likely to rope in Kanhaiya Kumar as star campaigner]

The key factor to get the ticket in the LDF camp is 'winning factor'. "Those who have all the capabilities to capture the hearts and minds of the voters will be given the ticket." Though pre-poll surveys indicating good trend for LDF, the party would keenly analyse list of aspirants before issuing coveted ticket, source added.

[Kerala polls 2016: IUML refuses to field women candidates]

The ruling Congress which heads the UDF has adopted wait and watch strategy. The party sources say that the Congress is keenly watching the move of the LDF and the list of candidates would be released either on the day when LDF goes ahead with candidates list or the next day.

OneIndia News
Jaitley statue at Kotla: Angry Bedi asks DDCA to remove his name from stands, quits membership

PM Modi to attend first 'Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture' in Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan today

Reforms in India being done by conviction, not compulsion: PM Narendra Modi

BJP leaders pay tribute to former minister Arun Jaitley on his third death anniversary

News Flash: 87 Indian fishermen released by Pakistan at Wagah Border

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Mar 8: Get all the latest national, international news updates of March 8 here:

11.04 pm: Cong issues 3-line whip to all members in RS asking them to be present tomorrow,during PM's reply on Motion of Thanks to President's address.

11.03 pm: 10 Naxalites hv surrendered,out of them 6 were carrying reward of total 10 lakh on their head, says SRP Kalluri,Bastar IG

7.49 pm: Would urge both Govts (India-Pak) not to allow non-state actors, says Philip Hammond.

7.48 pm: We understand that there are many ppl who are trying to throw up reasons to not to take the dialogue forward, says Philip Hammond.

7.47 pm: We welcome steps that have been taken to create dialogue b/w India & Pak & for security of both nations, says Philip Hammond,British Foreign Secy.

7.46 pm: Pakistan has taken initiatives after Pathankot incident, says LtGen Abdul Qayyum (Chairman, Senate Standing Committee On Defence Production, Pak)

7.42 pm: Pakistan has taken initiatives after Pathankot incidentm says Lt Gen Abdul Qayyum (Chairman, Senate Standing Committee On Defence Production, Pak)

7.41 pm: We are also hopeful that Foreign Secretary level talks with India will also resume in the near future-, says Sartaj Aziz.

6:56 pm: Bail plea of Hardik Patel, arrested under charges of sedition, rejected by Ahmedabad (Gujarat) sessions court

6:55 pm: His bail petition has been rejected, we will now move to High Court, says Dinesh Chaudhary, Hardik Patel's lawyer.

6:40 pm: 87 Indian fishermen repatriated by Pakistan at Wagha border.

6:38 pm: UP CM's announcement in Assembly - every MLA to make active 200 hand pumps and build 10 houses for the needy under 'Lohia Awas Yojna'.

6.30 pm: First women fighter pilots under training in Hyderabad, to be inducted in Indian Air Force by June this year.

6.15 pm: High alert issued at Raja Bhoj Airport (Bhopal) from 8th to 12th March, visitors' entry barred.

5.55 pm: Pakistan delegation came yesterday, they have met DM and Inspector Gen of Police: MV Sridhar after meeing HM

5.50 pm: PM Narendra Modi meets award winners of 'Nari Shakti Puraskar 2015'.

5.42 pm: Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini released on parole for three days (8,9,10) to attend post funeral rituals of her father.

5.40 pm: PM Narendra Modi will respond to the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address in RS tomorrow.

5.35 pm: We've brought in lot of welfare schemes to empower women in MP. For me, everyday is women's day, says Shivraj Chouhan, MP CM.

5.30 pm: MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's road show in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) on International Women's Day.

5.25 pm: We've never refused to provide security & Himachal Pradesh is capable of providing security, says Virbhadra Singh, CM, on Indo-Pak match.

5.15 pm: Adarsh Sharma who had put up posters offering reward of Rs 11 lakh to anyone who shoots Kanhaiya Kumar dead sent to 2 days police custody.

5.10 pm: Bijapur (Chhattisgarh): 10 Naxalites, including 2 women Naxalites, surrendered before Police today.

5.05 pm: No one has anything against the particular student who was arrested, says Arun Jaitley on JNU row.

4.50 pm: Attari Border: 87 Indian fishermen repatriated by Pakistan.

4.36 pm: This is what democracy is, and in a democracy one has to listen to every voice, says Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) on EPF.

4.25 pm: Mumbai Women (of all religions) unite, demanding equal rights for women to access all places of worship.

4.20 pm: DDA has told the court today that we haven't violated any rules: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

4.10 pm: Ministry of Water Resources to reply to NGT's three questions tomorrow.

3.55 pm: UP CM Akhilesh Yadav presents Rani Laxmi Bai Awards in Lucknow on International Women's Day.

3.50 pm: NGT hearing on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival to continue tomorrow.

3.48 pm: WB CM Mamata Banerjee's padyatra in Kolkata on the occasion of International Women's Day.

3.40 pm: 8 political leaders from different opposition parties issue joint statement accusing Government of harassing Allahabad University Students' Union President

3.23 pm: NGT hearing: Art of Living Foundation says 2- 3 lakh people expected at World Culture Festival, have advertised gathering of 35 lakh.

3.18 pm: Bihar Minister Abdul Ghafoor meets Mohd. Shahabuddin (who was sentenced to life imprisonment) in Siwan(Bihar) prison.

3.00 pm: Kanhaiya's grandfather in Begusarai sues Adarsh Sharma & Kuldeep Vaishnav (who put up posters offering reward to one who kills Kanhaiya).

2.30 pm: WB CM Mamata Banerjee holds a rally in Kolkata on the occasion of International Women's Day.

2.25 pm: Attari Border: Process of repatriation of 87 Indian fishermen started by Pakistan.

2.20 pm: Iran conducts fresh ballistic missile tests.

2.15 pm: Protest in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh) ahead of India-Pakistan ICC

2.10 pm: Government should get Women's Reservation Bill passed in Lok Sabha which has already been passed from Rajya Sabha, says Sitarm Yechury in RS

2.02 pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till 3PM.

2.00 pm: Issue is change of mindset, law can only change the condition to an extent: Venkaiah Naidu on International Women's Day.

1.55 pm: We want Yamuna to be clean. We will not pollute the environment. We haven't cut a single tree, says Sri Sri Ravi shankar on World Culture Festival venue controversy.

1.40 pm: "My pressure did work," says Rahul Gandhi in Parliament on withdrawal of tax on EPF.

1.30 pm: "We will meet Maharashtra CM this week and urge him to take a decision on this", says Activist Trupti Desai.

1.25 pm: Activist Trupti Desai has been released by Police, Desai was detained today in early morning hours while on her way to Trimbakeshwar temple.

1.20 pm: CBI raids 10 locations in Jaipur, Udaipur and Delhi in an alleged Rs. 1000 crore (approx) bank fraud case.

1.12 pm: ED appeal against Sasikala Natrajan in FERA case dismissed by Supreme Court of India.



12.42 pm: Sonia Gandhi says "maximum governance" means giving women their due; seeks early passage of Women Reservation bill.

12.32 pm: Maximum governance involves expanding space for debate, expression of different point of view without inviting trouble: Sonia Gandhi.

12.17 pm: "We have decided to withdraw the proposed tax," Arun Jaitley says in Lok Sabha.

12.14 pm: Tax proposal for NPS scheme has been retained says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

12.09 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses Lok Sabha, clarifies statement on EPF Tax.

11.58 am: We're more than hopeful. Whatever is status on ground, has been communicated to them. Now decision is with them(Pakistan): MV Sridhar.

There will be no shortcomings on the security front: GS Bali on India-Pak match in Dharamshala pic.twitter.com/Viw4lO6skj  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

11.56 am: PCB delegation visited Dharamshala yesterday; They have inspected the entire premises: ICC WorldT20 2016 tournament Director MV Sridhar.

11.54 am: Sri Sri Ravishankar's event shouldn't be organized in that area. Any temporary/permanent structure can't be created there: Anand Arya, complainant.

11.48 am: Woman allegedly gang-raped in a private bus by the driver and conductor.

11.45 am: Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan rides a bike to the Parliament.

Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan rides a bike to the Parliament #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/oslAzSCl8u  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

11.40 am: Yes, CBI has summoned my staff as well: Satyendra Kumar Jain on Rajendra Kumar alleged corruption case.

11.35 am: MoU signing between Telangana & Maharashtra Government in Mumbai.

MoU signing between Telangana & Maharashtra Government in Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/XbQ2zu2XIx  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

11.30 am: We still have faith that DMDK will join our alliance: DMK Chief M Karunanidhi.

11.25 am: Security will be very tight. If ex-servicemen protest we wont take action against them: HP CM Virbhadra Singh on India-Pak T20 match at Dharamshala.

Why doesn't Anurag Thakur take people in confidence and talk to them about the issue?: Virbhadra Singh, HP CM  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

11.20 am: A consortium of PSU banks including SBI moves SC for direction to stop Vijay Mallya to leave India. Matter to be heard tomorrow.

11:10 am: In reality marginalisation of women is still manifest in lack of equal social status: Rajya Sabha Chairman on International Womens Day.

11:05 am: We still have faith that DMDK will join our alliance: DMK Chief M Karunanidhi.

10:59 am: Security will be very tight. If ex-servicemen protest we wont take action against them: HP CM on India-Pak T20 match at Dharamshala.

10:52 am: Madurai Bench of Madras HC issues summons to actor Rajinikanth and film producers of "Lingaa" to appear in Court in person, today.

10:50 am: CPI(M) has given adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on situation due to threat to Kanhaiya Kumar.

10:45 am: Army personnel construct pontoon bridge in Delhi for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival.

10:42 am: A consortium of PSU banks moves SC seeking direction that industrialist Vijay Mallya is not allowed to leave India.

10:40 am: Congress leaders KC Venugopal has given adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on Chhattisgarh Church attack issue.

10:38 am: Appeal to the opposition to cooperate in passing legislations which are important for downtrodden, poor,farmers & women: Venkaiah Naidu.

10:36 am: Three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream, they are under training: IAF Chief Arup Raha.

10:33 am: SC had asked Karisma Kapoor & her estranged husband Sunjay Kapur to appear before court to resolve their matrimonial dispute amicably.

10:30 am: Actor Karisma Kapoor reaches Supreme Court in Delhi.

10:25 am: Commuter train traveling from Central California to the San Francisco Bay Area derails, injuring at least 10 people (Source: AP)

10:22 am: Punjab Congress MLAs protest against State Govt outside State Assembly over Satluj-Yamuna link canal issue.

10:20 am: Congress to raise Raipur Church attack & EPF issue in Lok Sabha today.

10:15 am: I must thank Defence Min for having approved IAF's proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. And very soon on 18th June this year Indian Air Force will get its first woman fighter pilot: IAF Chief Arup Raha.

10:10 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to make statement in Lok Sabha on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) issue today.

10:05 am: WATCH: Passengers push Barmer-Kalka Express near the Barmer railway station as it got jammed on the track.

WATCH: Passengers push Barmer-Kalka Express near the Barmer railway station as it got jammed on the track (March 7)https://t.co/rS8MUcWygO  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

10.00 am: Indian Air Force will get its first woman fighter pilot on 18th of June this year: IAF Chief Arup Raha.

9.55 am: Agencies are working fine, hope we will get justice very soon: Mikhail Bora.

9.50 am: Three persons have died and two others injured in a crude bomb explosion at West Bengal's Murshidabad. A huge cache of explosives have been recovered from the site.

9:40 am: Home ministry has called a review meeting today to discuss security for India-Pak WT20 match in Dharamsala.

9:28 am: Not Arvind Kejriwal but sent summon notices to two staffers of Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar's office, says CBI.

9:02 am: CBI summons Delhi CM's staff "informally" on phone without notice, tweets Arvind kejriwal.

8:48 am: We asked her for help but she(Smriti Irani)didn't. Had she helped, my father would still be alive: Daughter of victim.

8.37 am: President Pranab Mukherjee to present the 'Nari Shakti Puraskars' today on the occasion of International Womens Day.

8.33 am: Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini's parole plea to come up for hearing at 10:30 am in Madras High Court today.

8.30 am: MHA calls a review meeting today to discuss security for India-Pakistan World T20 match at HPCA stadium in Dharamsala.

8.25 am: Activist Trupti Desai who was on her way to Trimbakeshwar temple, detained again by police in Nandur Shingote.

8.20 am: ICC World T20 kicks off today.

8.15 am: Puri: Sudarsan Pattnaik creates sand art dedicated to women crew of AI173 for world's longest All-Women flight.

Puri: Sudarsan Pattnaik creates sand art dedicated to women crew of #AI173 for world's longest All-Women flight. pic.twitter.com/E4BJ2G50R0  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

8.10 am: US Air Strikes kill over 150 millitants in Somalia.

8.05 am: A day to acknowledge& appreciate the huge contribution of Women in all walks of life & for the leadership provided in everything: Suresh Prabhu on Women's Day.

From 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' to better health & education facilities, our Govt's efforts towards women-led development are unwavering.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 8, 2016

8.00 am: Our financial inclusion efforts, skill development initiatives & MUDRA Bank will empower our Nari Shakti to contribute to India's growth: PM Narendra Modi.

OneIndia News
Nationwide terror alert: The target not Gujarat, it was Gujrat?

India

oi-Reetu

New Delhi, Mar 8: India remained on high alert owing to a terror threat on 'Maha Shivratri' as temples and strategic places were under tight vigil amid inputs that 10 LeT and JeM terrorists have entered India from Pakistan through Gujarat which saw an unprecedented security cover.

However, reports are sugessting that it was not Gujarat which was the target of the terrorists it was Gujrat, a tiny village near Pathankot in Punjab.

As per a report in The Economic Times, "The 'chatter' picked up by the intelligence agencies, following which a nationwide alert was sounded on Friday, could have been about a tiny village called 'Gujrat,' near Pathankot, in Punjab and not the state of Gujarat, government sources said after a day-long search in different cities of Gujarat. "

5 major cities on terror radar: Intelligence Bureau issues alert

"The immediate location of the militants were not known, said a senior official, adding that it was possible that the plans were to attack a famous Shiv temple in Gujrat village. The temple witnesses a large gathering every year on Shivratri," the report further added.

"The Shiv deity which may have been target near the Punjab border is also located very close to Dina Nagar that has witnessed a spurt of infiltration in the last one year. We are still trying to corroborate these inputs," a counter terror expert was quoted as saying in the daily.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the internal security situation in the country at a high-level meeting in Delhi attended by top security officials including Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Director of Intelligence Bureau Dineshwar Sharma.

As a multi-city alert remained in place, Singh took stock of the situation and the steps taken to prevent any possible terror attacks. An alert was already sounded in Gujarat and other major metropolitan centres by central security agencies following reports that the 10 terrorists are on a mission to carry out attacks against high-value targets.

A similar alert has also been sent to Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. In the national capital, Police presence and patrolling around temples which were teeming with devotees, popular markets, iconic buildings and other places like metro stations, railway stations and bus terminus, which witness very high footfall, have been stepped up, a senior official said.

Security was also tightened in Jammu and Kashmir, two days after a top army commander disclosed that there were "disturbing" inputs about a terror attack in the country and also after the detection of a tunnel along the international border in Jammu region.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 17:32 [IST]
NIA probes Karnataka link to blasts in Bjinor and Chennai

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, Mar 8: A team of the National Investigating team is in Karnataka to get further details regarding a case relating to a blast at Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh.

A gang of five members of the Students Islamic Movement of India had broken out of the Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh in 2013. While two were killed in an encounter at Telangana recently, three others were nabbed in Odisha last month.

The NIA has been questioning the trio since the past week and had found that they had stayed in Karnataka for a considerable amount of time. It was found that they had taken up accommodation in towns such as Yadgir, Dharwad and Hospet.

Further it was also found that these persons were staying in Karnataka when they planned the robbery at Karimnagar in Telangana.

The NIA team in Karnataka will look for more clues relating to the case. Further the NIA is also trying to find out if there is a link between these persons and the Chennai train blasts. The Chennai blasts is unsolved and the NIA feels that it may be connected to these persons.

The allegations against these persons is that they had carried out the Chennai, Bijnor blasts apart from robberies at Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karimnagar.

It may be recalled that the loot from Madhya Pradesh was paid off to a Jharkhand module which is behind the Patna and Bodhgaya attacks in Bihar.

OneIndia News
Now another mystery at Pathankot

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Mar 8: Phase two of the probe into the Pathankot attack appears to be about solving mysteries. While the National Investigating Agency is trying to find out if there were 6 or four terrorists, a new mystery has now emerged.

Pathankot attack: NIA begins probe into role of insider

The NIA has been told by eye witnesses about the presence of another man who was running near the area where the second encounter took place.

When the operation in Pathankot was over, it was said that there were 6 terrorists in all. While four bodies were recovered, the rest are missing which led to the suspicion that they may have been charred. The charred mass has been sent for forensic testing and prima facie the report suggests that there were no human remains.

While the NIA is dealing with this issue, it is also in the midst of solving another mystery. This time it is about a person who is said to have run towards the area where the second encounter was on. The security forces were engaged in a battle for nearly 30 hours after neutralising four terrorists. It was stated that the 30 hour battle went on since there were two more terrorists holed up.

The NIA has not found any evidence as yet to suggest that this person could have run towards the barracks where the two other terrorists were hiding. The area was cordoned off and heavily barricaded and hence it appears tough that this person could have gained entry into the barracks. We are still investigating the case, NIA officials say.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 12:59 [IST]
 Flash

Cambodia attracted some 694,712 Chinese tourists last year, up 24 percent year-on-year, accounting for 14.5 percent of the total international visitors to the country last year, said a report from the Tourism Ministry Monday.

China ranked the second largest source of tourists to Cambodia last year after Vietnam, the report said.

Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, attributed the increase in Chinese visitors to Cambodia to excellent ties between Cambodia and China and many direct flights between the two countries.

"Moreover, Cambodia has a lot of attractive tourism resorts, especially the Angkor archaeological park," he told Xinhua.

Cambodia sees China as a key market for its fast-growing tourism industry. In January, the Southeast Asian country released a white paper, aiming to attract roughly 2 million Chinese tourists by 2020.

The white paper lists steps to be taken by the tourism authorities to facilitate visits by Chinese tourists, such as providing Chinese signage and documents for visa processing, encouraging local use of the Chinese yuan currency, and ensuring that food and accommodation facilities are suited to Chinese tastes.

Cambodia is famous for its Angkor archaeological park, a world heritage site, in northwest Siem Reap province. Besides, it has a 450-km pristine coastline, which is one of the World's Most Beautiful Bays.
Peace deal with pro-talks ULFA faction underway

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, March 8: The Union Government is speeding up the process in a bid to have the Peace Accord with the ULFA (Rajkhowa faction) signed before March 20th.

A draft of the agreement which is being prepared will be signed before March 20th. There was some delay in signing the peace accord with the ULFA led by Arabinda Rajkhowa as the Home Ministry was busy due to the budget session.

However, the draft agreement is being prepared the Union Home Ministry wants to sign it as soon as possible.

On August 3, 2015 the Naga Peace Accord was signed and the same was hailed as a landmark move. The government had decided that an accord on the same lines would also be signed with the ULFA (Rajkhowa faction)

Will work on contentious issues later:

The government is expected to give some of the contentious issues which are part of the deal a skip. There were concerns raised about the granting of Schedule Tribe status to indigenous communities such as the Koch Rajbongshi, Ahom, Sootea, Moran, Motok, Chutia and Adivasi.

There is a committee that has been set up to look into this issue and only once the recommendations are made will this issue be addressed.

The draft agreement would however address issues such as granting of an upper house in Assam among others.

In a bid to make this deal a success, the government also involved the organising secretary of the outfit Anup Chetia who was brought down from Bangladesh recently.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 11:05 [IST]
Saudi Foreign Minister calls on PM Modi

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 8: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia next month, its Foreign Minister Adel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir today called on him during which they expressed keenness to elevate ties between the two countries to strategic level by boosting cooperation in key areas of trade, security and counter terrorism.

"Both leaders exchanged views on further strengthening bilateral relations, including in the fields of trade, investment, energy, and security cooperation. They also discussed regional situation.

They agreed that the two countries have shared interest in peace and stability in the region," a PMO statement said. Emphasising that India attached high importance to its close and friendly relations with Saudi Arabia, Modi also expressed confidence that his forthcoming visit there would provide an opportunity to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a new level.

Modi will travel to Saudi Arabia on a two-day State visit from April 2 as part of his three-nation trip starting from Belgium on March 30. After Belgium, he will also visit Washington to attend Nuclear Security Summit from March 31.

On his part, the Saudi Minister conveyed that relations with India were accorded a high priority in their foreign policy and "deeply appreciated" the constructive role being played by the Indian community in the development of his country, the statement said.

During his less then 24-hour-long visit, the minister, who arrived late last night, also held "substantive discussion" with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj covering issues of bilateral, regional and multilateral interest.

He conveyed to Swaraj that India was one of the most important relationships for Saudi Arabia, which was keen to upgrade the ties to a strategic level covering security, counter terrorism, maritime links, trade, investment and people-to-people ties, MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

The visiting minister also emphasised that "Saudi Arabia was India's largest supplier of crude but wanted to go beyond and make it a true energy partnership", Swarup said.

PTI
Something "fishy" in Bengaluru lakes, but authorities won't learn

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, Mar 8: It appears that the authorities in Bengaluru have not learnt their lesson and this resulted in a large number of fish being killed at the Ulsoor lake which is in the heart of the city.

Bengaluru: Thousands of fish found dead in Ulsoor lake

A similar incident took place last year at the Gowdanapalya Lake bund, which resulted in large scale fish kill in Dorekere.

In yesterday's incident nearly a 1,000 fish were killed while last year 20,000 fish were found dead. Last year there was a blame game between the BBMP and the BDA over the issue while this time the former refuses to acknowledge the problem.

The incident:

In the Gowdanapalya lake incident, the complaint was that it had become a cesspool of sewage and had been damaged by the land mafia. As a result of the tank bund being damaged highly contaminated water gushed into the lake resulting in the death of the fish.

In the Ulsoor incident the BBMP says that it is an annual occurrence. Fish kill is a result of reduced dissolved oxygen in the lake and this happens during the summer a BBMP official informed OneIndia. However environmentalists are not convinced and have a different line of argument.

Environmentalists have blamed the incident on the release of sewage water into the lakes. Prakash Javadekar, the Environment Minister who has already ordered a probe into the issue says that the fantastic eco-system of Bengaluru has been destroyed because of residential colonies which release discharge into the lakes.

Who will take the blame:

The question now is who will take the blame. In the incident of last year one got to witness a feud between the BDA and BBMP on the issue. While the two authorities fought over the issue, the residents blamed both. The BDA had accused the Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner for not initiating action against those encroaching upon the lake.

The BDA also said that the BBMP should be held responsible as they are the ones who get the funds to maintain lakes. BBMP on the other hand held BDA accountable saying they were the custodians.

In the Ulsoor incident, the BBMP has not even acknowledged the problem and quickly blamed it on the weather. While the weather is one factor, the authorities are not looking at the manner in which sewage water is entering into the lakes. Such water is meant to enter the drains and not the lakes. Urgent measures are needed or else the once beautiful eco-system of the city will become history.

OneIndia News
How this successful cafe chain run by acid attack survivors is changing lives

India

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

Bengaluru, Mar 8: To mark the occasion of the International Women's Day, acid attack survivors are all set to open the second branch of Sheroes Hangout cafe in Lucknow on March 8 (Tuesday).

The eatery will be run by five acid attack survivors. The cafe will also provide legal, medical and employment assistance to survivors of acid attack in Uttar Pradesh.

The first branch of Sheroes was opened in Agra in 2014.

UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will attend the event, which will start at 5pm. A special Women's Day calendar, featuring survivors of acid attack violence, will also be unveiled during the event.

(Centre's efforts towards developing women 'unwavering': PM Modi)

The cafe is located adjacent to Lucknow Metro office, Gomtinagar.

"Sheroes cafe has been designed to function as a reach-out centre, where survivors will get support from the state and society. This is India's first-of-its-kind initiative in collaboration with the UP government.

The Women and Child Development department of the state is assisting more than 200 survivors in their treatment and compensation. On behalf of my fellow survivor friends, I would like to invite you all to attend the event," Laxmi Agarwal, activist and acid attack survivor, told OneIndia.

"We believe that this initiative can change the perception that a person is less valuable based on her/his appearance," Laxmi added.

The cafe is the brainchild of the NGO Chhanv Foundation and the team of Stop Acid Attacks (SAA) campaign.

"With the launch of our new cafe in Lucknow, we aim to stop acid attacks in UP. Unfortunately, the state has registered the highest number of acid attack cases (186) in 2014.

For the past three years, since its inception as a Facebook movement on March 8, 2013,

"We started Chhanv Foundation in May, 2014, where survivors became the board of directors. Out of this journey towards rehabilitation was born Sheroes cafe," added Alok.

In India it's estimated that there are 1,000 such attacks per year, maybe more. Most of the victims of acid attacks are women.

"The Sheroes (she + heroes) here are women who have fought to survive after receiving a debilitating blow to their lives, appearances and self-esteem. These women are true fighters, who have the courage to live, work and walk in the midst of us all and force society to re-evaluate its norms about beauty and appearance," said Laxmi.

"Our first cafe in Agra has now evolved into a campaign to generate awareness about acid attack violence and help survivors lead normal lives. Several cultural groups and artists will perform at the cafe's official opening event. We will serve cocktails and dinner to our guests," smiles Laxmi.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 9:26 [IST]
Swachh Bharat: LG releases app that locates toilets in Delhi

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 8: Lt Governor Najeeb Jung today launched an app, Find x Toilet, that helps locate a toilet nearest to one's current location as well as allows users to rate the quality and upkeep of public toilets in Delhi.

The application, launched by Ishan Anand as part of Swachh Bharat Initiative, will prove to be very useful in locating the nearest toilet, especially a clean one.

Appreciating Anand's efforts, Jung asked all the three municipal corporations and the DDA to make use of the app to upgrade the existing conditions and services of public toilets and also help in up-dating locations of all the public toilets which do not figure at present.

"The app gives location and information on 1,000 toilets in Delhi, which is about 80 per cent of the total toilets in the national capital. I will soon cover all the toilets. Besides people can also add toilets through the app," Anand told PTI.

The mobile app uses GPS to find nearby publicly accessible toilets. Once the nearest toilet is located/selected then the app will provide the shortest route to exact location of the selected toilet, Anand added.

Do not treat Swachh Bharat Mission as mere govt programme'

Anybody can also write a review on existing facilities available at the toilets. This will provide users with convenience of locating clean toilets nearby, he said.

Users of this app can also add toilets that are not already listed, for the benefit of others, he added.

"This app's crowd sourced element is another important benefit because it enables users to help others, as well as themselves  all for free," Anand said. After all the toilets in Delhi are included in the app, Anand said he will try to cover public toilets in other metro cities like Mumbai and Bangalore.

PTI
Terror advisory: Delhi police told to be on high alert

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi: The union home ministry has advised the Delhi police to be on high alert at the event organised by Sri Sri Ravishankar. With intelligence from Pakistan suggesting that ten terrorists had entered the country, the threat perception has been graded higher.

A home ministry official informed that there is no cause for panic and the advisory was only precautionary in nature. There were unsubtantiated reports that suggested that the terrorists may have entered Delhi. However, there is no confirmation of the same.

The cultural event organised by the Art of Living Foundation has run into trouble with environmentalists. The event is expected to be held in the next two days and the foundation had advertised that 35 lakh people are expected to take part.

Security is very high in Delhi. However the home ministry based on intelligence bureau reports has advised the Delhi police to be on high alert.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 18:52 [IST]
No time for Soni Sori & tribals under attack: Has our media lost its backbone?

Tribal women feel insecure despite living in a democracy: Soni Sori

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 8: Activist Soni Sori on Tuesday said tribal women in India feel "insecure" despite living in a democracy as she lambasted both police and government for "failing" to protect them and their rights.

"We live in a democracy despite which we are insecure. We are attacked and dissent is squashed. Even today, many tribal women are locked in jail. They face various kinds of tortures, atrocities and injustice.

"Is raising voice against injustice wrong? Is asking for a legal proceedings wrong?," she said at a gathering at Jantar Mantar to mark the International Women's Day, where the audience responded with a resounding "Shame!Shame".

Sori, who herself was attacked with an acid-like chemical in Chhattisgarh last month, alleged that the state police indulges in all kinds of atrocities and still manages to get away with it.

"Police are raping us instead of protecting. They call us naxals and throw us behind bars. FIRs have been filed against the guilty policemen but no action has been initiated against them," she alleged.

The 44-year-old Adivasi school teacher was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists.

During her imprisonment, she alleged that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police.

"Men are killed and women tortured in Bastar by those who want our land and, when we question them, they attack us," she said referencing to the recent attack on her. By April 2013, the courts had acquitted Sori in six of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence.

Buoyed by the huge turnout in her support, Sori vowed to continue fighting for the rights of tribals and women in Bastar despite the ordeals she was facing.

"I will return to Chhattisgarh. We are not quitters. We will continue our fight. We will fight for the freedom of women who are in jail for years. We will fight together and we will win," said Sori.

PTI
Trouble for Rajinikanth: Filmstar summoned by Madurai Court

India

oi-Reetu

New Delhi, Mar 8: In some trouble for filmstar Rajinikanth, a Madurai court on Tuesday issued summons to him.

Rajinikanth and others have been asked to appear before the court in connection with a suit filed against his film "Lingaa" on the charge that its storyline had been stolen from another script writer.

The Additional District Munsiff Court Judge also summoned K R Ravirathinam (plaintiff), film producer Rockline Venkatesh, B Ponkumar, Director K S Ravikumar and the General Secretary of South Indian Film Writers Association directing them to appear tomorrow.

Social media rumour: Did Tamil superstar Rajinikanth donate Rs 10 crore for Chennai Floods?

The Judge said the Madras High Court had last month directed him to complete the trial in the case within April 30 next and hence asked them to appear before his court tomorrow.

Passing orders on a petition by the film producer seeking transfer of the case to another court on grounds on prolonged delay in the trial, Justice V M Velumani of the high court had directed the Munsiff court to conclude the case within April 30.

The matter pertains to an allegation by plaintiff Ravi Rathinam of Madurai that his script was stolen by the makers of 'Lingaa'.

He had moved the high court which in December, 2014 ordered the producer to deposit a sum of Rs 5 crore by demand draft and another Rs 5 crore by way of bank guarantee before releasing the movie.

The producer complied with the court order as he needed to release the movie immediately and appealed against it in the Supreme Court which on March 20, 2015, directed him to furnish only Rs one crore as bank guarantee and also ordered the trial court to dispose the suit within six months.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)
The persecution of Hindus in Pakistan continues with a Hindu girl forcibly converted and married

'India won't listen to anyone': Anurag Thakur gives strong reply to PCB

Pakistan off the FATFs grey List: What this means

21 militants killed in NW Pakistan

International

oi-PTI

Peshawar, Mar 8: At least 21 terrorists were killed in fresh air strikes when Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in Shawal Valley, a mountainous area in North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

"Operations continue. Important heights & passes along Pak-Afghan Border secured. Valley's sanitisation in progress," Asim Bajwa, DG Inter-Services Public Relations Twitted.

"21 terrorists were killed last night when military jets pounded militant hideouts in Shawal valley of North Waziristan as operations continue," Bajwa said.

"Combined with strikes by Pakistan Air Force & Combat Army Aviation, ground force continue hunt for fleeing terrorists through chase,cordon and search op-1," he said.

Pakistan began its operation to clear Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds in North Waziristan in 2014, and claims to have killed more than 3,750 militants since then with no civilian casualties.

Zarb-e-Azb military campaign was launched in June last year after militants had attacked the international airport in Karachi, killing 26 people including airport security staff. In late February the army said it was entering the final phase of the operation.

PTI
Bihar: Girls protest after being asked to remove Hijab during exam

Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

8 Bangladeshis arrested in Bihar

International

oi-PTI

Darbhanga, Mar 8: Eight Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested from a village under Sadar police station area in Bihar's Darbhanga district for staying in India without valid papers, a police officer said today.

Acting on a tip off, the police arrested eight Bangladeshi nationals from Mohammadpur village where they were staying for a week in a house on rent from its owner Banwari Yadav, the Superintendent of Police (SP), City, Harikishore Rai said.

When asked to produce valid papers for their stay in India, they could not furnish any documents, he said.

Shoes and clothes made in Bangladesh were recovered from the spot, Rai said, adding two others managed to escape ahead of the raid.

The Bangladeshis had taken Yadav's house on rent by orally convincing the owner that they were labourers and introduced some of them as students, the SP (City) said.

The Bangladeshis were under interrogation at Sadar police station since last night, Rai said, adding that their names will be disclosed only after conclusion of probe.

PTI
 Flash

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that China is paying close attention to Japan's moves in the South China Sea.

"Japan illegally occupied China's islands in the South China Sea during World War II, and we are highly vigilant of Japanese action there," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.

Hong's remarks came after media reports said that Japan's maritime self-defense force plans to send a submarine and two warships to Subic Bay in the Philippines for a port call next month. The warships will then proceed to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam.

"Cooperation between interested countries should be conducive to regional peace and stability," Hong said, stressing that other countries' sovereignty and security interests should be considered.

At the briefing, Hong also said that China and ASEAN members will hold a meeting on the Declaration on Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea from Wednesday to Friday in Manila.

"The Chinese side will clarify its views on effective implementation of the DOC to all concerned parties," said the spokesman.
India and Bangladesh want to see stability, peace in world: PM Modi in Orakandi

Will hunt down those who vandalised Temples says Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

India-Bangladesh friendship will touch new heights in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal: PM Modi

B'desh SC summons 2 ministers for contempt of court

International

oi-PTI

Dhaka, March 8: Bangladesh's Supreme court today summoned two senior ministers for making "contemptuous comments" against the chief justice during a debate over the appeal hearing of a top Islamist leader sentenced to death for the 1971 war crimes.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister A K M Mozammel Haque were ordered by a nine-member bench of the Appellate Division to appear before the court on March 15 and explain as to why legal actions would not be taken against them for their comments, which tantamount to contempt of court.

"Their comments undermined the dignity and prestige of the Supreme Court and the chief justice's office...their unholy and contemptuous comments stunned the judges of the top court," Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said in the order.

The court also asked the two ministers to submit in writing their explanations over their own comments a day ahead of their personal appearance on the dock.

The two ministers during a discussion had criticised the chief justice after Sinha, during the appeal hearing of death sentence convict Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, on February 23 expressed dissatisfaction over the poor performance of prosecutors and investigators in dealing with war crimes cases.

Minister Qamrul alleged the chief justice was openly speaking in the language of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and their lobbyists by questioning the investigation quality.

The other minister went even further to say that the chief justice should not be delivering the verdict in the appeal of war criminal Quasem.

The Appellate Division today came up with the suo motu order before it sat for delivering the judgment on the appeal hearing of Quasem against his death sentence for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War with Pakistan.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the death sentence of Quasem, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's liberation war. The two ministers comments had sparked an uproar in the political and judicial arenas.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a cabinet meeting yesterday snubbed the two ministers for "embarrassing" the government through their comments, saying the government did not own their "private comments".

Quasem headed a media corporation aligned with Jamaat before his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of running a militia torture cell, Al Badr, that carried out killings of several people.

Officially, three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the 1971 liberation war.

PTI
Justin Trudeau won't pick a fight with Trump nor will support him

International

oi-Sandra

Toronto, Mar 8: Speaking about Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has said that he does not want to pick a fight with Donald Trump now.

"I'm not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now. I'm not going to support him either, obviously," Trudeau said at a live forum hosted by The Huffington Post.

With torture on his mind, Donald Trump wants to play the ISIS way

Speaking more about Trump, Trudeau said that many Americans are angry with their politics and seem to be acting out or lashing out.

Though he was being pushed to speak more on Trump, Trudeau kept his calm and said that he will be watching the presidential race 'very very closely,' and that his job as a prime minister is to work with the next US president on financial, cultural and social issues between US and Canada.

Meanwhile, he said that once the dust settles over the presidential elections, Americans must discuss about campaign financing. "When the dust settles after November, however it settles, a conversation about the role of campaign financing in establishing a successful democracy is, I think, going to be merited," he said.

While many people have said that they will move to Cape Breton in Canada if Trump is elected President, Trudeau joked about it and said: "Cape Breton is lovely all times of the year."

"We will work alongside our neighbours and allies regardless of the political choices they make," he said.

OneIndia News
Malaysia hopeful of finding missing MH370

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Kuala Lumpur, March 8: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday said that his country remains hopeful of finding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 two years after the plane went missing.

Malaysian lawmakers observed a moment of silence as the country marked the second anniversary of the missing of the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, Xinhua reported.

A joint search effort in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane presumably ended its journey, has yet to reveal its whereabouts after covering 75 percent of the 120,000 square km search area.

The search is expected to be completed later this year. Najib said his country was hopeful that the plane could be found in the search area.

"The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history," Najib said in a statement.

"Amidst some of the world's most inhospitable terrain -- at depths of up to six kms, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the world's fastest currents -- the search team has been working tirelessly to find MH370's resting place," he said.

Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the next step if the current search fails, said the prime minister. Most of the pasengers aboard the flight were Chinese.

Australia's Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester on Tuesday said that authorities were committed to searching the Boeing 777 and desperately trying to solve the mystery that has baffled the world.

Although two years have passed since the flight went missing, Australia has not "forgotten" its responsibility to the victims' loved ones, Chester said.

"Finding the aircraft would give answers to the world, in particular the families of missing people, about what happened," he said.

The only confirmed debris from MH370 so far was a wing part called flaperon discovered in the French overseas Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean last year.

Malaysian and Australian authorities were verifying two more suspected pieces of debris, found in the Reunion Island and nearby African country of Mozambique respectively in the past week.

IANS
Musharraf death penalty: Pak court says trial in absentia against golden principles of justice

Musharraf, Imran Khan RAW agents? Pakistan to probe the allegations

International

oi-Reetu

New Delhi, Mar 8: If Pakistan's Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid is to be believed then Pervez Musharraf and cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan could be India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agents.

Rashid has reportedly called for widening of a probe into the allegations.

According to a ZeeNews report, Rashid said, "All those politicians who supported him (Musharraf) must be investigated."

Pakistani court issues arrest warrant for Musharraf

"Any probe into MQM's alleged ties with RAW should be expanded to include the likes of Musharraf because he had included the party in his government," Pakistan's leading daily Express Tribune on Monday quoted Rashid as saying.

Rashid added that "the interior minister has constituted a committee on the statements of Karachi-based trader Sarfraz Merchant. If Mustafa Kamal has evidence or information, he should present it before the (probe) committee."

Few days ago, former Karachi mayor and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) member Mustafa Kamal had alleged that Altaf Hussain (his party's boss) had links with India's external spy agency.

OneIndia News
The persecution of Hindus in Pakistan continues with a Hindu girl forcibly converted and married

Pakistan, India shouldn't let non-state actors derail peace: UK

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Islamabad, Mar 8: British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday urged Pakistan and India to not allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process.

"I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process. Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process," Hammond was quoted by Express News as saying during a joint press conference with Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad.

The British foreign secretary advised Pakistan to speed up the investigation into January 2 terror assault on India's Pathankot airbase in northern Punjab state which India has blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.

"I welcome Pakistan commitment to vigorously pursue Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation," he said.

Hammond also lauded Islamabad's role in the fight against terrorism and said Britain will continue its support to Pakistan in war on terror.

Sourav, Inzamam urge resumption of India-Pakistan series

"I salute Pakistan's efforts in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is the victim of terrorism and we want to work with Pakistan to take on the threats it faces. British and Pakistan will remain partner against terrorism," Hammond added.

IANS
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir arrives in India

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Mar 8: Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir arrived here late on Monday on a one-day visit to India as part of the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Gulf kingdom early next month.

Jubeir is scheduled to hold meetings with Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday to prepare for the important visit to the country which is India's principal oil supplier and a growing partner in anti-terror cooperation.

During his first visit to India , Jubeir will discuss with Sushma Swaraj the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

"India and Saudi Arabia share friendly relations based on close people-to-people contacts," the ministry stated.

(Centre's efforts towards developing women 'unwavering': PM Modi)

"The 'Strategic Partnership' that our two countries established in 2010 envisioned a deeper engagement in political, economic, security and defence areas through the Riyadh Declaration."

Modi's two-day visit from April 2 on his way back from the US will be the first by an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia after then prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2010.

Modi's visit assumes significance in the face of the current regional situation and strained relations between the Gulf kingdom and Iran, another strategically important country for India.

Apart from being India's largest crude oil supplier accounting for one-fifth of the imports, Saudi Arabia is also India's fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $40 billion.

Indo-Saudi Arabian ties got a fresh boost during then King Abdullah's visit to New Delhi in 2006 which resulted in the signing of the "Delhi Declaration".

The reciprocal visit by Singh in 2010 raised the level of bilateral engagement to "Strategic Partnership" and the "Riyadh Declaration" signed during the visit captured the spirit of enhanced cooperation in political, economic, security and defence realms.

In February 2014, during the visit to India of then crown prince and now King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, a joint statement was issued.

In November 2015, on the sidelines of G20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey, Modi met with King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and discussed areas of bilateral interest.

During his visit next month, Modi is expected to discuss with the leadership of one of the most powerful Arab countries key bilateral and regional issues, including trade and energy.

Saudi Arabia is also home to nearly three million Indian expatriates, most of whom are blue collar workers.

IANS
What does the US actually want in Syria?

US kills 150 militants in Somalia airstrike

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Mogadishu, March 8: The US carried out an airstrike in Somalia killing over 150 militants associated with the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabaab, the media reported on Tuesday.

Both Somalia and US officials said the militants, who were preparing for a major attack in the region, were targeted at a training camp about 200 kms away from the capital city of Mogadishu.

"We got the information that over 100 militants, including top leaders were killed and many others were wounded. They were planning to carry out a massive terror activity in the region," Abdiaziz Durow, a local official, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

His remarks came after the Pentagon Spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said on Monday that both manned and unmanned aircrafts were used in the strike.

Davis said top Pentagon officials had been monitoring the camp for several weeks before the strike, and gathered intelligence about an imminent threat posed by them.

IANS
Kerala polls 2016: Actors Siddique, Jagadish may get Congress tickets

Thiruvananthapuram

oi-Shubham

Thiruvananthapuram, March 8: Malayalam actors Siddique and Jagadish could make it to the final list of the candidates contesting this year's Assembly election in Kerala on the Congress's tickets. The final list of the Congress candidates for the May 16 election will be released on Thursday (March 10).

Kerala: LDF likely to release list of candidates on Mar 20

Kerala polls: IUML refuses to field women candidate

Kerala: LDF likely to rope in Kanhaiya Kumar as star campaigner

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee is reportedly waiting for the high command to approve its draft list which features both the actors.

Both Siddique and Jagadish are said to have a strong grassroots support and the Congress believes them as sure-shot winners.

Party sources said while Siddique may contest from Aroor constituency in Alapuzha, Jagadish could contest against three-time MLA KB Ganesh Kumar, also an actor, from Pathanapuram seat in Kollam district.

However, the report said Siddique' candidature from Aroor could face some resistance from the local leaders who want to field a local candidate. Siddique belongs to Edavanakkad in Ernakulam. The duo has been seen associating with the ruling UDF on a number of occasions, which make the speculation about their candidature all the more rife.

Oneindia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 19:50 [IST]
 Flash

The European Union (EU) and Turkey on Monday discussed new proposals to tackle the exacerbated migrant crisis which was imperiling the bloc's passport-free policy.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel speak as they and EU leaders gather for a group photo during an extraordinary summit of European Union leaders with Turkey at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The scheduled half-day EU-Turkey summit which gathered European leaders and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was prolonged into late Monday. Media reported that Davutoglu surprised his European leaders with new proposals.

Ankara asked extra 3 billion euros (3.30 billion U.S. dollars) from the EU for aid to help stem the massive migrant flows as the country was hosting millions of refugees, mainly from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who were keen to cross Turkish border to seek asylums in Europe.

Brussels already promised to provide 3 billion euros to Ankara to tackle the migrant crisis in November last year. But the Turkish side complained ahead of the summit that the EU has not delivered the fund yet.

Turkey reportedly promised to make more efforts to help solve the EU's migrant crisis at the summit. Crucially, Davutoglu outlined proposals to resettle one Syrian refugee in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey from the Greek islands.

European officials were investigating whether a one-for-one resettlement program was "legally and logistically possible", media reported.

Turkey has 2.7 million refugees and other hundreds of thousands of refugees were waiting on the other side of the border, said Davutoglu at a NATO press conference after his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"Many of them (refugees) are trying to go to Europe," Davutoglu said. "Before coming here we worked on a new package of proposals...in order to discourage new refugees to cross Turkey."

"With these new proposals we aim to rescue refugees, discourage those who misuse and exploit their situation and find a new era in Turkey-EU relations," he added.

Turkey also wanted to speed up its accession process to the bloc. On his arrival Monday morning, Davutoglu told reporters that the summit could be a "turning point" for its membership bid.

"Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," he said.

Europe was experiencing the worst migrant crisis after the Second World War. Greece, a front line country in the migrant crisis, was currently seeing some 2,000 refugees arriving on its shores each day.
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China is highly concerned about keeping stability on the Korean Peninsula and firmly opposes any move that will stir up trouble on the peninsula, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said on Monday.

Hong said that China is "highly concerned" about the start of joint military exercises between the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) and the reaction from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The United States and ROK kicked off their annual exercises on Monday, bringing a record number of American troops and military assets into the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK has issued a warning of "all-out offensive" in response to the largest-ever joint ROK-U.S. war games.

"The Korean Peninsula and China are linked by mountains and rivers and China is highly concerned about keeping stability on the peninsula," Hong told a daily news briefing.

"China firmly opposes any move that will stir up trouble in the Korean Peninsula," Hong said.

He urged "restraint instead of provocative moves."

Korean Peninsula tensions were discussed during a China-Russia meeting on Northeast Asian security in Moscow last week.

According to Hong, the two sides expressed grave concern over the push by the United States and ROK for deploying anti-ballistic missile systems in the ROK, saying the move would intensify tensions, harm the strategic balance in the region and directly undermine the security of China and Russia.

China and Russia are both firmly against such move, said Hong.
The Nigerian Air Force has denied allegations that the Force is deploying fighter jets and attack helicopters against election violence.

Air Force spokesman, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, protested in a statement that the allegations are misleading and a misrepresentation of the facts.

He noted that the Air Force is only supporting the Police to ensure the safety of lives and properties in their various locations.

Air crafts deployed are only surveillance and intelligence platforms, and not fighter jets as implied in some quarters, he said.

The Air Force PRO stated that the Air Force will continue to operate within the ambits of its constitutional role of defending the territorial integrity of the country and protecting the rights and liberties of all Nigerians.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has declined the request by former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kayode and Afenifere Renewal Group Publicity Secretary Yinka Odumakin for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Department of State Services (DSS) and the police from arresting or detaining them.

The request was contained in a fundamental rights enforcement suit which Fani Kayode and Odumakin filed earlier this year in the wake of threat by the EFCC to invite them in relation to their alleged involvement in the spread of false rumour about a purported invasion of the residence of the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen by EFCC officials.

Fani Kayode and Odumakin had prayed the court for among others, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents, by themselves, agents, privies or anybody deriving authority from them by whatever name called, from harassing, intimidating, abducting or detaining the applicants.

But, in a judgment on Monday, Justice John Tsoho elected to grant a modified variant of the applicants prayer, to the effect that any arrest or detention of Fani Kayode and Odumakin by the respondents must comply with due process of the law.

Justice Tsoho also rejected the applicants prayer for an order directing the respondents to tender unreserved public apology to them.

The judge equally declined the request by Fani Kayode and Odumakin for an award of N20million as damages for the unlawful threat to arrest the applicants.

Justice Tsoho however held that since Section 46 of the Constitution allows the filing of anticipatory suit where an individual suspects that his or her rights were about to be breached, he was convinced that there was threat to violate the applicants rights.

The judge noted that, by the way the EFCC went about publishing its threat to invite the applicants, and the intemperate language deployed in the press release authored by Orilade Tony, he was convinced that the applicants established a cause of action and the likelihood of their rights being breached.

He proceeded to grant prayers 1, 2, 4 and 6, which include a declaration that the respondents public declaration to arrest the applicants on the basis of spreading false rumours was an infringement of their fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 34 (a), 35 (1) (4) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution.

The court also declared that They said the threat to falsely imprison their liberty, safety, peace and security was a breach of their rights enshrined in Section 34 (a), 35 (1) (4) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution.
Opalesque Industry Update - La Francaise Global Investment Solutions has announced the launch of a new multi-strategy long/short credit UCITS fund, LFIS Vision UCITS  Credit. The Fund goes beyond a traditional long-short approach, seeking to deliver through-the-cycle performance by investing opportunistically in a diverse portfolio under- or overvalued credit assets while minimizing the risk of loss. The Fund is managed by La Francaise GIS Credit Strategies team, headed by Renaud Champion, and is run alongside the teams established credit opportunities strategy, launched in June 2013. The Fund's comprehensive, conviction-driven approach across credit markets leverages on the team's average of 16 years of credit experience, including on the buy- and sell-sides, and blend of asset management, investment banking and derivatives experience. Created in response to investor demand, the launch of LFIS Vision UCITS  Credit marks another important milestone in our growth according to Sofiene Haj-Taieb, CEO and CIO of La Francaise GIS. Since the creation of our initial alternative strategies in 2013, we have seen strong performance and the market reception for our funds has been excellent, both of which support our decision to open this new fund. Renaud Champion, Head of Credit Strategies at La Francaise GIS commented: Credit markets are characterised by different investment dynamics across the cycle and our multi-strategy, nimble approach enables us to exploit and combine these opportunities to deliver sustainable performance. With normalization across credit markets far from homogenous, we are pleased to be able to welcome new investors wishing to take advantage of our predominantly relative value approach to credit investing. LFIS Vision UCITS  Credit is currently passported for sale in the U.K. and France with additional passporting in process. The Class EB, available to institutional Early Bird investors, features a management fee of 1% and a performance fee of 10% with a minimum subscription amount of EUR 1 million and is available in EUR, GBP, USD and CHF. Minimum investment amounts range from EUR 10,000 to EUR 1,000 for Class R shares. The Fund offers weekly liquidity. All share classes and share class currencies may not be currently activated.
Opalesque Industry Update - Custom House Global Fund Services, a leading independent hedge fund administration specialist, has expanded its sales and operations in North America. Sebastien Sacre was appointed Managing Director of the Chicago office, the U.S. headquarters for Custom House, while John Lumley, who joined as the Head of Sales, Americas, will be based in New York. We are extremely pleased to have talent of the caliber of Sebastien and John join our global team and spearhead our operations and business development in the Americas, said Mark Hedderman, CEO, Custom House Global Fund Services. He added, Sebastien is responsible for the running of our Chicago office and also the further enhancement of our PERE offering while Johns invaluable experience across operations, product and business development places him perfectly to lead Custom Houses growth in the region.  Mr. Sacre joined Custom House from JPMorgan Chase, where he was a Vice President and Office Lead in the Private Equity and Real Estate Services group, managing the fund administration for private equity funds of several internal and external clients. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Sacre was a Senior Manager in the Audit Financial Services Industry group at Ernst &Young, working out of E&Ys Luxembourg, Toronto and Chicago offices, handling the audits of hedge funds, private equity funds and mutual funds. Mr. Lumley has over sixteen years experience in fund administration across operations, product and business development and was previously Product Head for Global Fund Services at J.P. Morgan, New York. In addition to positions at J.P. Morgan, he has experience on both alternative investments and investment banking with roles at GlobeOp Financial Services, Deutsche Bank, and Salomon Brothers. Related coverage: Custom House Global Fund Services returns to independence
The conventional wisdom is that the GOP candidate who poses the far greater peril than Trump can't possibly win the GOP presidential nomination, and would have absolutely no chance in a general election. The result is that few have actually taken the time to closely scrutinize Ted Cruz's actual record. Now that the race for the GOP presidential contest is effectively a two-man race between Trump and Cruz, and the GOP establishment is mounting a furious, all out full court press to stop Trump, it's time to take the hard look at Cruz that should have been done long ago.

In 2000, the then twenty-nine-year old Cruz was the domestic policy advisor to the Bush presidential campaign and a former law clerk for the hard-line, strictest of the strict constructionist SCOTUS chief justice William Rehnquist. From his Bush post, Cruz lined up the legal team that wrangled the conservatives on the Supreme Court to halt the disputed election Florida election count and tip the White House to Bush. Cruz' star skyrocketed in the GOP after that triumph.

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/brucewilson/how-ted-cruz-helped-rehnquist-supreme-court-tear-down-church-state-separation

While Cruz has seemingly warred with the GOP establishment at times, the fight has been mostly over his style, personality, and comportment, but not on the key issues from abortion and Planned Parenthood to the economy and foreign policy. Take Cruz's rough edge off his bluster about these issues, and his stance on them is mostly in line with the party's on many of these issues. Cruz has been on the political scene long enough to have enough of a paper trail to piece together a fairly accurate picture of what he will say and do on the big ticket issues such as the budget, government spending, civil rights enforcement, the environment, crime control, the military and foreign policy if in the White House, and compare him to Trump.

On civil rights and civil liberties, Trump accepts the Supreme Court decision in support of gay marriage, says he's "fine" with affirmative action, and will enforce the laws on hate crimes. Cruz would do all to wipe out the Supreme Court's pro-gay marriage ruling, clamp down on gay pride parades, would oppose reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, would Require voters to show IDs, and, of course, would outlaw any and all abortions. He'd dump the common core standards and let local school districts decide all education issues with no federal checks and controls. Trump hasn't gone that far and taken a total hands off by the feds of education decisions.

While Trump toes the pro-forma GOP line and derides climate change as a "hoax," he at least acknowledges that there may be some need to take some action. Not Cruz, he signed the No Climate Tax Pledge, flatly said no to initiatives to protecting ocean, coastal and great Lakes ecosystems, and would open up all federal lands to oil, gas and coal companies.

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Ted_Cruz.htm

Trump takes the GOP tough line on military confrontation in the Middle East and anywhere else, but he'd also cut funding for the Defense Department. Cruz won't. He'll ramp it up and put boots on the ground in the Middle East, unleash a non-stop air war on ISIS, and its supporters, put ABMs in Eastern Europe to confront Russia, and oppose any dealings with Iran. While Trump took much heat for backing waterboarding and torture, Cruz would just keep whatever torture is done "classified" meaning the public just won't know about it.

http://www.ontheissues.org/donald_trump.htm

Trump dutifully repeats the GOP party line that the Affordable Care Act is a "disaster," and will try to repeal and replace it. Cruz wouldn't just talk about it, to quote him "he'd throw his body in front of a train to stop it." He backed that up by trying to shut down to get the Senate to vote for repeal. Trump talks big about cracking down on labor unions, flatly opposes any minimum wage increase, advocates a border wall, and will crack down on Muslims coming and going in the country. But Cruz has actually voted against every immigration reform proposal, a minimum wage increase, supports a border wall, and will give police agencies virtual unlimited authority to investigate immigrants.

Trump won't abolish the IRS. Cruz will. Trump will negotiate some trade agreements even with US foes, Cruz would oppose many of them. Trump hasn't said much about his plan for Social Security and Medicare. Cruz has. He'd fully privatize Social Security, hike the age for Medicare eligibility, and "demand" a balanced budget amendment which would effectively slash and burn funding if not outright eliminate legions of health, education and job programs.

Cruz's record has made him the run-away darling of every tea party, fringe and respected ultra-conservative, religious freedom, federalist, and state rights group in the nation. While millions cringe in stark terror at the prospect of a Trump nomination and White House occupancy, Cruz is being put forth by much of the GOP establishment as the respectable alternative to Trump. 'President' Cruz anyone?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is From Sanders to Trump: A Guide to the 2016 Presidential Primary Battles (Amazon Kindle). He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network
 Flash

Taiwan should stick to the 1992 Consensus, the essence of which clearly recognizes the one-China principle, said Bangladeshi leaders and foreign policy experts said Tuesday.

They said the consensus paved the way for both sides to further promote cross-strait cooperation and exchanges in all fields, deepen economic and social integration and enhance the sense of a community of common destiny.

Taiwan and the Chinese mainland should not avoid the principle when facing cross-strait issues, Bangladeshi experts said.

"We've always reiterated our strong commitment to the one-China policy," Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu said on Tuesday.

Inu, also president of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), an ally of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling alliance, said Bangladesh has been strongly maintaining its "one-China" policy since its independence in 1971.

"Since the time of Bangladesh's founding father Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, when even diplomatic relations were not established between the two countries Bangladesh has been maintaining the one-China policy," he said.

"We strongly believe Taiwan is a part of China."

He said the issue could not be resolved yet due to some vested western interests.

"I would urge the West to consider Taiwan as a part of China."

There is merely one China and Taiwan is an inalienable part of it, said Chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) Munshi Faiz Ahmad.

He said Bangladesh will consistently adhere to the "one-China" policy and support any Chinese move to contain Taiwan's secessionist activities.

"On the Taiwan issue, Bangladesh has always steadfastly supported China in the context of its one-China policy," said Ahmed, who also served as the ambassador of Bangladesh to China.

"We expect Taiwan's new leadership won't change its stance and go beyond the 1992 Consensus."

Echoing them, another former Bangladesh ambassador to China said Taiwan is bound by the consensus reached in 1992.

"There is no way for Taiwan to seek political independence going beyond the 1992 Consensus," said Ashfaqur Rahman, former Bangladesh ambassador to China.

"Taiwan is an integral part of China," he said.

Rahman said Taiwan authorities should never change its "political status quo" which won't be accepted by any country including Bangladesh which strongly adheres to the one-China policy.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government last month reaffirmed the government's one-China policy and expressed support to China.

"Relations between Bangladesh and China are based on the principles of sovereign equality, peaceful co-existence, mutual trust and respect for each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in each other's internal affairs," said Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam.

"On our part, Bangladesh has consistently supported China on the issues of her core national interests," he said.

According to the experts, not merely Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party rather all other Bangladesh opposition parties including ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) adhere to the one-China policy and consider Taiwan as an integral part of China.

Abdul Moin Khan, a member of BNP's Standing Committee, the highest policy-making body of the party, said, "It was made absolutely clear that Bangladesh believes in the one-China policy which has been the consistent policy of subsequent BNP governments over the period of past several decades."
Reprinted from Eric Margolis Blog

I went to Libya in 1987 to interview its strongman, Muammar Khadaffi. We spent an evening talking in his colorful Bedouin tent outside the Bab al-Azizya Barracks in Tripoli which had been bombed a year earlier by the US in an attempt to kill the troublesome Libyan leader.

Khadaffi predicted to me that if he were overthrown, Libya would break up into two or three parts and again fall prey to western domination. His efforts to bring the Arab world and West Africa out of subservience and backwardness would be ended, he foretold.

The Libyan "leader" was right. Today, after his death, Libya has splintered into warring camps. The US, France and Egypt are expanding their influence in Libya, lately also joined by Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler. They have installed the usual set of yes-men to do their bidding. Old habits die hard.

We will be hearing much more about Libya after the big wins by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in last week's Super Tuesday Democratic primaries

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will shortly face the return of a major threat that has bedeviled her since 2012 -- the attack by jihadists on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the killing of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and his bodyguards.

Republicans have been trying to lay blame for Benghazi on Clinton. So far they have not been very successful. But brawler Donald Trump can be counted on to attack Hillary over Benghazi, her record as a do-little Secretary of State, and her legal troubles. What's more, the true story of the phony "liberation" of Libya may finally emerge.

Neither the Democrats nor Republicans have so far dared reveal what really happened in Benghazi. The so-called 2011 "popular revolution" in Libya was an elaborate plot by France, Britain, the US, aided by the Gulf Emirates and Egypt, to overthrow Libya's four-decade long strongman Khadaffi and seize control of his high-grade oil.

Western intelligence and quasi-government NGO's used the same tactics of subversion in Libya that they employed in the successful "color revolutions" Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, but failed in Iran and Russia.

The French wanted to overthrow Khadaffi because he claimed to have helped finance former President Nicholas Sarkozy's election. Sarkozy denied the charge. The Gulf Arabs wanted Khadaffi dead because he kept accusing them of stealing Arab wealth and being puppets of the Western powers.

French intelligence agents had tried to assassinate Khadaffi in the 1980's. Britain's MI6 sought to kill the Libyan leader with a massive car bomb in Benghazi. Both attempts failed.

The regime change operation begun in 2011 by the US, France and Britain by engineered popular protests in Benghazi. They were soon followed by covert military operation led by US, British and French special forces against Khadaffi's rag-tag army, followed by heavy air attacks. The tame western media obligingly closed its eyes to this Western military intervention, instead hailing Libya's "popular revolution."

After Khadaffi was overthrown and murdered (reportedly by French intelligence agents), huge stores of stockpiled arms became available. Secretary of State Clinton, who had championed the overthrow of Khadaffi, decided to arm the West's newest "color revolution," Syria's anti-Assad rebels.

Most of these Libyan arms were stockpiled in Benghazi, covertly flown to Lebanon or Jordan, then smuggled to the anti-Assad rebels in Syria. US Ambassador Stevens was overseeing the arms transfers from the US consulate in Benghazi. He was killed by anti-American jihadists battling the occupation of Libya, not "terrorists."

Hillary Clinton, who is bankrolled by heavy-duty neocons, holds chief responsibility for two calamities: the overthrow of Khadaffi and Syria's terrible civil war. Khadaffi had been restraining numerous North African jihadist groups. After his overthrow, they poured south into the Sahel and sub-Saharan regions, menacing western-dominated governments.

We also learn that Clinton's State Department green lighted over $150 billion of arms sales to 16 repressive nations that had donated large sums to the Clinton Foundation -- a sort of government in exile for the Clinton clan.
A version of this article published in The National





Diplomats may have a reputation for greyness, obfuscation, even hypocrisy, but few have found themselves compared to a serial killer, let alone one who devours human flesh.

That honor befell Laars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Union's ambassador to Israel, last week when Jewish settlers launched a social media campaign casting him as Hannibal Lecter, the terrifying character from the film Silence of the Lambs.

An image of the Danish diplomat wearing Lecter's prison face-mask was supposed to suggest that Europe needs similar muzzling.

The settlers' grievance relates to European aid, which has provided temporary shelter to Palestinian Bedouin families after the Israeli army demolished their homes in the occupied territories near Jerusalem. The emergency housing has helped them remain on land coveted by Israel and the settlers.

European officials, outraged by the Lecter comparison, have reminded Tel Aviv that, were it to abide by international law, Israel -- not the EU -- would be taking responsibility for these families' welfare.

While Europe may think of itself as part of an enlightened West, using aid to defend Palestinians' rights, the reality is less reassuring. The aid may actually be making things significantly worse.

Shir Hever, an Israeli economist who has spent years piecing together the murky economics of the occupation, recently published a report that makes shocking reading.

Like others, he believes international aid has allowed Israel to avoid footing the bill for its decades-old occuption. But he goes further.

His astonishing conclusion -- one that may surprise Israel's settlers -- is that at least 78 percent of humanitarian aid intended for Palestinians ends up in Israel's coffers.

The sums involved are huge. The Palestinians under occupation are among the most aid-dependent in the world, receiving more than $2bn from the international community a year. According to Hever, donors could be directly subsidizing up to a third of the occupation's costs.

Other forms of Israeli profiteering have been identified in previous studies.

In 2013 the World Bank very conservatively estimated that the Palestinians lose at least $3.4bn a year in resources plundered by Israel.

Further, Israel's refusal to make peace with the Palestinians, and as a consequence the rest of the region, is used to justify Washington's annual $3bn in military aid.

Israel also uses the occupied territories as laboratories for testing weapons and surveillance systems on Palestinians -- and then exports its expertise. Israel's military and cyber industries are hugely profitable, generating many billions of dollars of income each year.
By David Swanson,American Herald Tribune

Scholars have documented the consistent pattern. What makes a country far more likely to be invaded, attacked, "intervened in," or in other words, bombed, is not its lack of democracy or its government's crimes and abuses, or the crimes and abuses of some non-governmental group, but its possession of oil. Yet, with each new war, we are told to imagine that this one is different.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is to be applauded for publishing an article headlined "Syria: Another Pipeline War." The very idea that "doing something" about ISIS (which, let's face it, at this point in the imperialization of the U.S. republic means bombing) could be driven by oil might strike many as outrageous. I'm not suggesting that it's rational. U.S. corporations could buy Middle Eastern oil for about the same price without all the wars. The United States would save trillions of dollars and millions of lives that way. It could also avoid some destruction of the earth's climate by, instead, leaving that oil in the ground. I'm also not suggesting that because the real driver of U.S. militarism is an insane passion for oil, the crimes and abuses of ISIS or of Assad or Russia or Iran or Saudi Arabia or Israel or Turkey or anyone else are not real, or are of less concern or more concern than they actually merit, or that well-justified nonviolent opposition to Assad in Syria has never existed, or any similar inanity. Nor am I denying that there are employees of the U.S. government who are actually driven by humanitarian concerns, only that they aren't the employees who have risen to such heights that anyone's ever heard of them.

Senator Bernie Sanders is to be applauded for repeatedly bringing up the CIA's disastrous 1953 overthrow of democracy in Iran, 1954 in Guatemala, etc. But why is that the beginning? What about 1949 Syria? Does that not count because the U.S. president was a Democrat? Like Iran and Vietnam and so many other nations that the United States has attacked, Syria had worked to establish a democracy in line with U.S. rhetoric. But its democracy wasn't supporting a U.S.-proposed oil pipeline between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. So, the CIA overthrew the president of Syria and installed a dictator.

One explanation for the silence surrounding this incident is how quickly it failed. The Syrian people tossed out their U.S. puppet in 14 weeks. The U.S. government then spent 65 years learning absolutely nothing from the experience. It has spent those years arming and supporting Middle Eastern dictators and religious fighters, while rejecting out of hand all Soviet proposals to leave the region free to govern itself. In 1956, the CIA tried another coup in Syria, arming and funding Islamic militants, but without success. For years, the CIA kept trying -- perhaps less comically than with its efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro, but certainly with greater consequences.

This history is relevant not only as a guide to what not to do, but also because the people of Syria and the region know this history, so it illuminates how they view current events.

Wesley Clark says Syria was on a Pentagon list of governments to overthrow in 2001. Tony Blair says it was on Dick Cheney's list around that time. But Syria had already been on that list for decades. WikiLeaks has let us know that in 2006, the U.S. government was working to create a civil war in Syria. And we hardly need WikiLeaks when people like Senator John McCain have been openly and repeatedly saying on television that Syria must be overthrown to weaken Iran which must be overthrown. But WikiLeaks does confirm that the U.S. strategy was to incite Assad into a brutal crackdown that would inflame opposition to his rule, and that the U.S. has been arming Islamists in Syria since 2009 when Assad rejected a pipeline from Qatar that would have supplied Europe with Middle Eastern rather than Russian climate-destroying poisons.

At the root of the new U.S. priority for overthrowing Syria is then, once again, the desire to run an oil pipeline through Syria. The heart of the U.S. plan has been, again, arming and training Islamic militants. Two years before any of us heard about ISIS, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) noted that "the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI (now ISIS), are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria. . . . If the situation continues unravelling, there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor) and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want in order to isolate the Syrian regime." This is why the United States spent years thwarting U.N. efforts for peace in Syria, and dismissed out of hand a 2012 proposal from Russia for peace in Syria. The U.S. government had dreams of a violent overthrow of the Syrian government, and viewed the rise of ISIS as a price worth paying.

There were glitches in the plan. First the British, and U.S., and world populations said no to bombing Syria in 2013 on the same side as al Qaeda. Then al Qaeda (ISIS) released beheading videos that, as intended, motivated U.S. Americans to back war -- against them rather than with them. ISIS saw its potential for growth in appearing to be the leading enemy of the United States, not a U.S. tool for another overthrow. It produced videos imploring the United States to attack it. But in so doing, it didn't isolate the Syrian government; rather it united the world with the Syrian government. The U.S. government began denying it had ever met ISIS, or blaming Saudi Arabia and Turkey for supporting ISIS (while doing little to cut off that support).

But the origins of ISIS are not really in dispute. "ISI[S] is a direct outgrowth of al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion," admitted President Obama. The U.S. military destroyed Iraq and disbanded without disarming its military. Then it divided Iraq along sectrarian lines and brutalized people for years in prison camps where they were able to organize and plot vengeance. The U.S. armed Iraq, and al Qaeda/ISIS seized those weapons. The U.S. overthrew the government of Libya, and its weapons spread all over the region. And the U.S. armed and trained fighters for Syria, playing into Saudi Arabia's desire for overthrow and now its newfound desire to fight more wars, as well as Turkey's desire to attack Kurds. Secretary of State John Kerry admitted to Congress on September 3, 2013, that Saudi Arabia had offered to foot the bill for a U.S. invasion of Syria -- which sounds a lot like the foreign policy vision of candidate Bernie Sanders when he's compelled to present one. In fact, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar financed the U.S. arming of Syrian fighters including ISIS (Sanders dreams of Saudi Arabia financing a war against ISIS). The Pentagon dumped a half billion dollars into arming and training fighters, something the CIA had long been doing at a cost of billions. "Four or five" loyal fighters were the Pentagon's result. The rest had apparently ceased to be "moderate" murderers and become "extremist" murderers. How many got themselves armed and "trained" more than once, as Afghans have had a habit of doing, we don't know.

Why was the U.S. public willing to tolerate new U.S. war-making in Iraq and Syria in 2014--2015, after having opposed it in 2013? This time the advertised enemy was not the Syrian government, but terrorists scarier than al Qaeda, and supposedly unrelated to al Qaeda, called ISIS. And ISIS was shown to be cutting the throats of Americans on videos. And something switched off in people's brains and they stopped thinking--with a few exceptions. A few journalists pointed out that the Iraqi government bombing Iraqi Sunnis was in fact driving the latter to support ISIS. Even Newsweek published a clear-eyed warning that ISIS would not last long unless the United States saved it by bombing it. Matthew Hoh warned that the beheadings were bait not to be taken.

The public and the media swallowed it whole, and the U.S. government almost choked. It had wanted to enter the war on the same side as ISIS. Now it had an opportunity to enter against ISIS. It viewed this as a means of entering on both sides by making a case for arming fighters who would oppose both ISIS and Assad, even if such fighters didn't exist.

To make the new war more respectable, along came the supposed need to rescue civilians trapped on a mountaintop and awaiting death at the hands of ISIS. The story wasn't completely false, but its details were murky. Many of the people left the mountain or refused to leave the mountain where they preferred to stay, before a U.S. rescue mission could actually be created. And the U.S. seemed to drop bombs more with a goal of protecting oil than protecting people (four air strikes near the mountain, many more near oil-rich Erbil). But, whether it helped those people or not, a U.S. war was created, and the war planners never looked back.

The world, as represented at the United Nations, didn't completely fall for it and didn't authorize this war any more than the proposed attack a year earlier, in large part because the UN had authorized a supposed humanitarian rescue in Libya in 2011 and seen that authorization predictably and swiftly misused to justify a wider war and the overthrow of a government.

In addition to the dubious claims about people needing to be rescued on a mountain, the United States also pulled out that old standby of saving U.S. lives, namely the lives of Americans in the oil-rush town of Erbil, all of whom could have been put onto a single airplane and flown out of there had there been a real need to rescue them.
If the recent spate of anti-drone movies and plays was making you feel warm thoughts about U.S. culture, you'll want to avoid seeing "Eye in the Sky," starring Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, and Aaron Paul. This is what "Zero Dark Thirty" was for torture lies. This is what "The Interview" was for hatred of North Korea. The Director of "Eye in the Sky," Gavin Hood, openly brags about having had military advisors on this film, just as those films had their government advisors. And it shows.

"I'll bet the military loves this film," I told Hood after a screening in Washington, D.C., on Monday. He claimed that some loved it, some liked it, both in the military and in some human rights groups that I won't name because I doubt very much Hood's implication that at least one of them didn't condemn this piece of propaganda.

Let's be clear, this film is the best quality drone film yet made and has the coolest technology in it, including drones the size and shape of birds and beetles. But it is the furthest presentation of drone use from reality. Following the film screening, the director and General Eaton (no last name, like Cher) and Patrick Tucker, a technology writer from Defense One, gave a little presentation that included flying a tiny drone in the theater. Said Tucker, as if he had proved this: "So everything you saw in this movie is very close to reality."

I asked the director roughly this: We know of actual cases where the target was not identified, where the target could have been captured, and where the target was not actually about to commit mass murder. In fact the Justice Department has redefined "imminent threat" to be virtually meaningless, and I don't know of a single case in reality that matches this fictional fantasy. Do you?

Gavin Hood hemmed and hawed but said that No, he was unaware of a single case in reality that matched what he had produced in his slick propaganda. Then it was his turn to question me: Do I oppose the whole drone program?

I replied that it is counterproductive and that every time a top official retires they point that out, that it creates more enemies than it kills. Remarkably, Hood said that he agreed entirely and that in fact this point (which showed up nowhere at all in his movie) was the very point of his movie.

Then Hood strayed back into his own fantasy, recounting as if we hadn't just seen it that in the film one politician comments that it might be better politically to allow foreign terrorists to kill lots of people than for the politician's own government to be exposed as having killed one person.

Well, yes, this proves that in a fantastic scenario that hasn't ever happened a fictional politician could cynically discard human lives. It proves nothing else. But it creates the sick pretense that murdering is wise and not murdering is a form of propaganda. And, for the record, the "one person" was actually one unknown innocent plus several other people understood to be complicit in planning mass murder.

The cherry on top of this movie's feat of manipulation is Hood's making one of the drone victims white. Thus the drone program is not racist, is not killing people who haven't been identified, is not killing people who could have been captured, and is only killing people who are literally in the act of arming themselves to kills lots of other people momentarily.

The killer drone has its movie and it also has its argument. This piece of fiction is what the ticking time bomb nonsense is for torture. This is what every reincarnation of Hitler is for war as a whole. This is Obama's dream eulogy when the first drone warrior king is finally laid to rest.

All sins have been absolved.

Relax. Get some popcorn.

Or wake up, get outraged and join the next protest at Creech Air Base. Please. We're better than this.




The truce in Syria bodes well for salvaging our Cultural Heritage

Franklin Lamb





Aleppo





The tentative cessation of hostilities in Syria, which came into effect on 2/28/2016, brokered by Washington and Moscow, is only in its second week. The sides have agreed to an initial cease-fire of two weeks with an extension if it works. The AL-Assad government has announced that it would participate in renewed peace talks in Geneva, offering new proposals, which are due to begin next week (3/14/16). The opposition is still considering whether to attend despite a lull in fighting.





It is well documented that there have been daily incidents of artillery shelling, airstrikes and clashes. Yet, for the nearly 12 million displaced civilians, half of Syria's population, it's a much welcomed diminution of the five year slaughter which has decimated hundreds of towns and nearly 1000 villages, killing between 300,000 and 475,000 depending on which body counts one credits. As of this week nearly half a million Syrians trapped in areas under siege are finally receiving desperately-needed food and medicine.



Various monitoring groups including the office of Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, have estimated that the overall per-truce violence has decreased by 90 percent. Opposition groups, including the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which claims scores of on the scene volunteers, have agreed with this estimate. But due to "logistical" problems the cease-fire has failed to achieve one of its most important objectives which to facilitate the free flow of desperately needed aid supplies to more than 160, 000 people in nearly two dozen besieged areas. More time is required to see if there will be reasons to discourage more massive numbers of citizens from fleeing Syria and whether those who have done and who number nearly five million, will contemplate returning from neighboring countries or from even further afield including Europe.





In all areas where the bombing and shelling have ceased there is palpable relief and even reported celebrations. Damascus is perhaps the main city that has experienced relative peace without serious breaches. Much of Damascus is nearly blissful with hope aided one imagines by the arrival of spring. Visitors notice many family picnics and children filling this cities many parks, playgrounds and green spaces.

From Lebanon one hears expressions by Syrian refugees who have been forced to flee their homes, declaring their intentions to return to Syria as soon as possible, within weeks, if the cessation of hostilities even partially holds. Explaining that his family's home in Aleppo is reduced to a pile of rubble, Ahmad, a father of six, explained to this observer, "If the violence ends, and if we can get water back, we will return home and live on our property in a tent and immediately start to rebuild."





There are also reports that in certain areas of Syria hosting archaeological sites, most also being tourist destinations, citizens and volunteer civil society organizations are ready to help restore them immediately when security conditions allow.

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It's evident that we're still on a planet where oil rules. The question increasingly is: What exactly does it rule over? After all, every barrel of oil that's burned contributes to a fast-approaching future in which the weather grows hotter and more extreme, droughts and wildfires spread, sea levels rise precipitously, ice continues to melt away in the globe's coldest reaches, and... well, you know that story well enough by now. In the meantime, Planet Earth has a glut of oil on hand and that, it turns out, doesn't mean -- not for the major oil companies nor even for the major oil states -- that the good times are getting ready to roll.

Of all the powers struggling with that oil glut and the plunging energy prices that have gone with it, none may be more worth watching than Saudi Arabia. While exporting its own extremists and its extreme brand of Islam from Afghanistan to Syria, and lending a decades-long hand to the destabilization of the Greater Middle East, that kingdom has itself been a paragon of stability. Nothing, however, lasts forever, and so keeping an eye on the Saudis is a must. That's especially so since the latest version of the royal family has also made what might be called the American mistake (with the backing of the Obama administration, no less) and for the first time plunged the Saudi military directly into a typically unwinnable if brutal war in neighboring Yemen. Combine the destabilizing and blowback effects of wars that won't end, including the Syrian one, and of oil prices that refuse to rise significantly and, despite the kingdom's copious money reserves, you have a formula for potential domestic unrest. Already the royals are cutting their domestic subsidies to their own population, pulling billions of dollars in aid out of Lebanon, and exploring a possible $10 billion bank loan.

As TomDispatch's invaluable energy expert Michael Klare suggests today, when oil prices began plummeting in 2015, the Saudis launched an "oil war of attrition," imagining that others would be devastated by it (as OPEC partners Nigeria and Venezuela already have been) but that the royals themselves would emerge triumphant. Should the unimaginable happen, however, and should the kingdom itself begin to come unglued in a Greater Middle East that is increasingly the definition of chaos -- watch out. Tom

Energy Wars of Attrition

The Irony of Oil Abundance

By Michael T. Klare Three and a half years ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) triggered headlines around the world by predicting that the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia to become the world's leading oil producer by 2020 and, together with Canada, would become a net exporter of oil around 2030. Overnight, a new strain of American energy triumphalism appeared and experts began speaking of "Saudi America," a reinvigorated U.S.A. animated by copious streams of oil and natural gas, much of it obtained through the then-pioneering technique of hydro-fracking. "This is a real energy revolution," the Wall Street Journal crowed in an editorial heralding the IEA pronouncement. The most immediate effect of this "revolution," its boosters proclaimed, would be to banish any likelihood of a "peak" in world oil production and subsequent petroleum scarcity. The peak oil theorists, who flourished in the early years of the twenty-first century, warned that global output was likely to reach its maximum attainable level in the near future, possibly as early as 2012, and then commence an irreversible decline as the major reserves of energy were tapped dry. The proponents of this outlook did not, however, foresee the coming of hydro-fracking and the exploitation of previously inaccessible reserves of oil and natural gas in underground shale formations. Understandably enough, the stunning increase in North American oil production in the past few years simply wasn't on their radar. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the Department of Energy, U.S. crude output rose from 5.5 million barrels per day in 2010 to 9.2 million barrels as 2016 began, an increase of 3.7 million barrels per day in what can only be considered the relative blink of an eye. Similarly unexpected was the success of Canadian producers in extracting oil (in the form of bitumen, a semi-solid petroleum substance) from the tar sands of Alberta. Today, the notion that oil is becoming scarce has all but vanished, and so have the benefits of a new era of petroleum plenty being touted, until recently, by energy analysts and oil company executives. "The picture in terms of resources in the ground is a good one," Bob Dudley, the chief executive officer of oil giant BP, typically exclaimed in January 2014. "It's very different [from] past concerns about supply peaking. The theory of peak oil seems to have, well, peaked." The Arrival of a New Energy Triumphalism With the advent of North American energy abundance in 2012, petroleum enthusiasts began to promote the idea of a "new American industrial renaissance" based on accelerated shale oil and gas production and the development of related petrochemical enterprises. Combine such a vision with diminished fears about reliance on imported oil, especially from the Middle East, and the United States suddenly had -- so the enthusiasts of the moment asserted -- a host of geopolitical advantages and fresh life as the planet's sole superpower. "The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle East but on the Western Hemisphere," oil industry adviser Daniel Yergin proclaimed in the Washington Post. "The new energy axis runs from Alberta, Canada, down through [the shale fields of] North Dakota and South Texas... to huge offshore oil deposits found near Brazil." All of this, he asserted, "points to a major geopolitical shift," leaving the United States advantageously positioned in relation to any of its international rivals. If the blindness of so much of this is beginning to sound a little familiar, the reason is simple enough. Just as the peak oil theorists failed to foresee crucial technological breakthroughs in the energy world and how they would affect fossil fuel production, the industry and its boosters failed to anticipate the impact of a gusher of additional oil and gas on energy prices. And just as the introduction of fracking made peak oil theory irrelevant, so oil and gas abundance -- and the accompanying plunge of prices to rock-bottom levels -- shattered the prospects for a U.S. industrial renaissance based on accelerated energy production. As recently as June 2014, Brent crude, the international benchmark blend, was selling at $114 per barrel. As 2015 began, it had plunged to $55 per barrel. By 2016, it was at $36 and still heading down. The fallout from this precipitous descent has been nothing short of disastrous for the global oil industry: many smaller companies have already filed for bankruptcy; larger firms have watched their profits plummet; whole countries like Venezuela, deeply dependent on oil sales, seem to be heading for receivership; and an estimated 250,000 oil workers have lost their jobs globally (50,000 in Texas alone). In addition, some major oil-producing areas are being shut down or ruled out as likely future prospects for exploration and exploitation. The British section of the North Sea, for example, is projected to lose as many as 150 of its approximately 300 oil and gas drilling platforms over the next decade, including those in the Brent field, the once-prolific reservoir that gave its name to the benchmark blend. Meanwhile, virtually all plans for drilling in the increasingly ice-free waters of the Arctic have been put on hold. Many reasons have been given for the plunge in oil prices and various "conspiracy theories" have arisen to explain the seemingly inexplicable. In the past, when prices fell, the Saudis and their allies in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would curtail production to push them higher. This time, they actually increased output, leading some analysts to suggest that Riyadh was trying to punish oil producers Iran and Russia for supporting the Assad regime in Syria. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, for instance, claimed that the Saudis were trying to "bankrupt" those countries "by bringing down the price of oil to levels below what both Moscow and Tehran need to finance their budgets." Variations on this theme have been advanced by other pundits.

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Who's the EEOC's Carlton M. Hadden? Carlton M. Hadden is the Director of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Office of Federal Operations (OFO) headquartered in Washington, D.C. Hadden's federal career started with the EEOC in 1987. He began as an attorney writing EEOC appeals decisions. In 1999, he became OFO Director and has served in that capacity for over seventeen years.

As OFO's Director, Carlton Hadden is decisively responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination laws in the federal sector. The top OFO official frequently issues notices of Right to File A Civil Action to complainants wanting to bring suit against the federal government in an U.S. District Court for a civil-rights violation.



(Image by T. Ward Jordan) Details DMCA



Veterans Isaac Decatur and Ralph Saunders, black Americans, say OFO's Carlton Hadden, also a black American, gives new meaning to the term - Black on Black crime." Both Decatur and Saunders are former employees of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). They both filed Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints and successfully proved discrimination against the VA. Both men assert they notified OFO's Hadden of the incessant reprisal that operated within the VA.

"Carlton Hadden knew about the blacklisting of VA employees who filed complaints," alleges Saunders, "yet he failed to refer the case to the Office of Special Counsel for appropriate disciplinary action against lawbreaking managers." Saunder's references language in the Final Agency Decision related to his EEO complaint that plainly noted: "they [VA managers] also retaliated against other employees who filed EEO complaints." [ Saunders v Veterans Affairs , VA Case No.200L-0629-2004100828]

"To the peril of many, Hadden abuses his authority," alleges Kirk Webster. Webster, a former Department of Defense (DoD) employee, recently filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel against EEOC's OFO Director Carlton Hadden. "In 2012, I entered into an agreement with DoD's National Geospatial-Investigation Agency (NGA) to settle a discrimination complaint," says Webster. "When the agency breached the agreement, I timely notified the proper officials. The NGA's EEO Director agreed that the agency had breached the settlement contract. Yet, Carlton Hadden ignored the evidence. He decided the agency had not breached the settlement terms. [Webster v Defense - OFO Appeal No.:0120-15-2041]

Based on data extracted from the EEOC's Annual Report of the Federal Workforce, the enforcement agency rarely finds in favor of complainants alleging discrimination. For example, in fiscal year 2013 a total of 15,226 complaints were filed; yet, only 2.7% of the complaints closed with a finding of discrimination. In fiscal year 2014, a total of 15,013 complaints were filed; yet, only 2.6% of the complaints closed with a finding of discrimination.

"For far too long, Mr. Carlton Hadden, the Director of the Office of Federal Operations, has been part of the Washington bureaucracy that allows discrimination, rape, attempted rape, reprisal, harassment, bullying and more to persist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)," says Mr. Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees.

The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C), a civil-rights-advocacy group seeking an end to race discrimination and retaliation, asserts that USDA employees' harrowing accounts of reprisal and the EEOC's complaint statistics suggest that Hadden's OFO fails to effectively address federal workplace discrimination. The C4C has raised additional concerns regarding the EEOC's ineffectiveness to deter workplace discrimination in an OPEN Letter to EEOC's Chair Yang.




Helen Bartlett of Kansas City is RESA's Top 10 Professional Home Stager - United States

RESA Top 10 Professional Stager - United States Vacant Homes & Owner Occupied

www.HomeStagingIndustryAwards.com

www.RESAConvention.com

www.HomeStagingIndustryAwards.com

www.RealEstateStagingAssociation.com

www.kansascityhomestagers.com

www.kansascityhomestagers.com

For Immediate ReleaseContact: Shell Brodnax 888-201-8687 x 1Home Staging Association Award Finalists and Top 10 Lists AnnouncedKansas City, Kansas- February 11, 2016 A A Kansas City business woman, Helen Bartlett, owner of Refined Interior Staging Solutions and a member of the Real Estate Staging Association the trade association professional real estate stagers and re-designers was named as one of Top 10 Professional Home Stagers in 3 categories including Vacant Homes, Owner Occupied Homes and Redesign in the United States.Helen Bartlett will go on to compete for the overall title of RESAs Top 10 Professional Home Stager for Vacant Homes, Owner Occupied Homes and Redesigners in the United States.Helen Bartlett operates Refined Interior Staging Solutions and has been a professional real estate stager since 2011. Bartlett, services the metro Kansas City area.In support of our ever-growing industry, we are pleased to announce that Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) is recognizing leaders within the staging industry for their outstanding contributions and personal accomplishments.I am honored and humbled to receive the recognition from RESA for two consecutive years for all three categories of Top 10 Professional Home Stagers in the United States for Vacant Homes, Owner Occupied Homes and Redesign. To be recognized by your peers and the leading organization that sets the standard for home stagers internationally, is an honor I am proud to present.We would like to thank everyone for their participation in the awards process, without the support of our membership we would not be able to recognize so may well deserving people in our industry. All of the finalists in all categories can be seen at. All of the winners will be announced at RESACON2016 during the awards banquet January 22, 23, 24, 2016 at the Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas said, Shell Brodnax, President/CEO Real Estate Staging Association.About The Real Estate Staging AssociationThe Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) is the trade association for professional real estate stagers and redesigners For more information on the real estate staging and the convention visit. For more information about the awards please visit. For more information about real estate staging, or to find a professional stager or redesigner call 800-201-8687 and speak with Shell Brodnax, or visit the RESA Web site atRefined Interior Staging Solutions is a full service home staging company offering services from walk thru consultations to complete vacant home staging. We recognize the importance of knowing and understand the current real estate market, the buyer demographics, focusing on architectural features of each house and knowing that the strategic placement of furniture and accessories become a very powerful marketing tool for our clients. We take pride in knowing what we offer our clients helps them to sell their home quickly and for top market value. We service the entire metro Kansas City area in both Kansas and Missouri. For more information, please visit our website atRESA 2016 Top Ten Professional Stagers of the Year, Vacant Category, USA Brad Fletcher Helen Bartlett Kristine Ginsberg Todd McAllister Laurie Mattson Julie Y oung Judith Burzell Barbara Heil-Sonneck Sue Kauffman Unger Debbie BoggsRESA 2016 Top Ten Professional Stagers of the Year, Occupied Category, USA Kara W oods Helen Bartlett Judith Burzell Kathy Burke Bobbie McGrath Ululani Poepoe Karen Gray-Plaisted Suzanne OBrien Hana Slivka Nina GeorgeRESA 2016 Top Ten Redesigners of the Year Tina Singh Darcy Anderson Barbara Bryan Shar Sitter Lori Pedersen Kara Woods Betsy Ferguson Wilbur Laurie Mattson Helen Bartlett Jillian Summers####Refined Interior Staging Solutions is Kansas City's award winning home staging company offering a full menu of all home staging needs from a walk thru consultation all the way to full vacant home staging. We capture a buyer's attention the moment they are introduced to a property. We do so by focusing on the house itself, the architectural details and focal points each home has to offer, we focus on the buyer demographic, their lifestyle and what's important to them in looking for a new home, and we understand the strategic placement of furniture and accessories to show the best use of the space in any home. All of this translates to a very powerful marketing tool! What we know is that decorating a home is optional, but home staging is mandatory in selling a house today. Please visit our website at1103 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, Kansas 66103
Oregon Legislature advances Healthcare Coverage for legally residing Pacific Islanders with whom the United States has a unique treaty.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2016R1/Measures/Overview/HB4071

www.cann.us

Salem, Ore.  With the passage of HB-4071 Oregon will provide a COFA Premium Assistance Program that allows health care coverage for COFA Pacific Islanders beginning in January 2017.The Oregon legislature unanimously passed a watershed health care program that will give 1500 adult COFA Oregonians, whose income falls below 138% of the Federal Poverty limit, Medicaid-like health insurance coverage. Oregonian COFA Islanders are eligible to sign up to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and COFA advocates worked closely with the Department of Consumer and Business services (DCBS) to design a low cost ACA-linked health care program, where the federal government share is $9 for every dollar for state taxpayers pay.HB-4071 was passed with unanimous support among both legislative bodies. Loyd Henion, CANN lobbyist, said that much credit must be given to its Chief sponsors, Representative Andy Olson (R), Representative Dan Rayfield (D), Senator Alan Bates (D), and Senator Bill Hansell (R). In total, the bill had 42 sponsors. Many legislators mentioned that this bill was the right thing to do and was long overdue. They reasoned that if the federal government wouldnt make amends for removing healthcare for legal, tax paying COFA residents in 1996 with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, then Oregon would.The COFA treaty (Compact of Free Association) allows people from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, The Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau, to freely reside in the United States without visas and stay to live as long as they choose. They join the US military, pay taxes, attend schools, and work at many different jobs (often in the healthcare industry).The COFA Alliance National Network (CANN) is a non-profit advocacy group, whose specific focus is to restore social justice to COFA Islanders living the United States. In its advocacy work to restore health care for COFA Islanders, CANN was supported by several other other public policy groups, including; The Asian Pacific Network of Oregon, Oregon Health Equity Alliance, Oregon Primary Care Assoc., Oregon Law Center, and SEIU.David Anitok, CANN Community Organizer, will be assisting DCBS in enrolling eligible COFA residents in the program beginning in November of 2016. Kianna Angelo, CANN president said that with the passage of the COFA Premium Assistance program Oregon once again is a model for other states by providing a blueprint health care program for a long neglected group for the rest of the country.Link to HB-4071:To learn more go to:Contact: Kianna Angelo, (971) 533-4241, kianna@cann.us; David Anitok, (503) 428-2611, danitok@cann.us; orLoyd Henion, (541) 619-8861, lhenion@cann.us
Sixt Road Safety Programme over halves the number of serious road accidents in a year

www.sixt.ie

Dublin, March 3rd, 2016. Sixt Rent a Car Ireland has presented today a major road safety analysis which has found that drivers from abroad, who normally drive on the right hand side of the road, are twice as likely to have an accident in Ireland. The comprehensive survey was conducted by Sixt Rent a Car Ireland, one of the largest car rental companies in this country. Unlike the usual high risk categories that are used for domestic drivers such as age, the dominant factor with visiting tourists is the side of the road they are used to driving on. Drivers from the USA, who at home drive on the right-hand side of the road, accounted for 16% of rental days and 35% of accidents. This compares unfavourably to drivers from Australia, who like Ireland drive at home on the left, accounted for 5% of rental days and 5% of accidents. As a result of this research, Sixt Rent a Car Ireland has implemented a major Road Safety Programme. The Programme is primarily a driver education programme, backed with in-vehicle prompting, which is largely aimed at drivers who do not normally drive on the left, explains Trevor Toner, Operations Director Sixt Rent a Car Ireland. The programme has been a spectacular road safety success. In a period of over 250,000 days, the Sixt safety programme has resulted in a welcome and unprecedented decrease in accidents and serious injuries. In fact, the frequency of serious claims per 100,000 rental days has declined from over 6% in 2014 to below 3% in 2015, says Trevor. These findings have been confirmed by Zurich one of the worlds major car insurance companies. The success of the Sixt Road Safety Programme is such that it has attracted world-wide interest, even from as far away as the New Zealand Department of Transport, says Trevor. The Sixt Road Safety Programme ensures meticulous safety checks of every vehicle during the preparation procedure before every single rental transaction. The Sixt Road Safety Programme also places a large emphasis on driver education at a number of key points during the rental cycle. In particular, every high risk driver must review a six point safety card with his or her rental agent as part of the rental process, says Trevor.Sixt Rent a Car Ireland currently employs 78 people and has seen huge growth over the last few years. Sixt Rent a Car is a German 4th generation family owned business, which is in fact the worlds fifth largest car rental company with 4,170 outlets in 106 countries across the globe.Sixt AG, with its registered office in Pullach near Munich, is an international provider of integrated mobility services. Founded in 1912, the company, together with its franchisees and partners, is represented in more than 105 countries. Sixt is the market leader for car rentals in Germany and Austria and one of the biggest OEM-manufacturer-independent full-service leasing providers. The Sixt Group generated a turnover of  1.56 billion in 2011 and employs around 3000 people worldwide (excluding franchisees).German-Irish Chamber of Industry and CommerceDeutsch- Irische Industrie- und Handelskammer46 Fitzwilliam SquareDublin 2Republic of IrelandNicole JungPR-ManagerDEinternationalPhone: 01  6424-390gic8@german-irish.ie
Spaulding Clinical Research, A Full-Service CRO, To Present Company Metrics At ASCPT 2016

Spaulding Clinical Research, LLC, a full-service CRO announced today that they will be in attendance at the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) 2016 Annual Meeting. The event is scheduled to take place at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego, California a from March 8th through the 12th. Spaulding Clinical Research will be exhibiting at Booth #54 and will be showcasing their industry leading Clinical Pharmacology and ECG Core Laboratory Services.Company associates will be available to discuss how Spaulding Clinicals metrics could help a Sponsor achieve their study goals. Its been five years since we began publically reporting our study metrics that substantiate claims of high-quality study execution. Not only did we make our metrics available to Sponsors, but as a reminder we also placed them on the back of every Spaulding associate business card, stated Daniel Selness, Chief Strategy Officer at Spaulding Clinical Research. Mr. Selness continued, To our knowledge, none of our competitors have followed the Spaulding lead in making this information generally available to potential customers.About ASCPTThe American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) is the leading forum for the exchange, development and integration of translational science into the drug development continuum from discovery to safe and effective medication use. The Society is the largest scientific and professional organization serving the Discipline of Clinical Pharmacology. Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, ASCPT was founded in 1900 and has over 2,200 members worldwide.About Spaulding Clinical Research, LLCSpaulding Clinical Research, LLC (SCR) is a full-service CRO providing Phase I drug development and Phase I-IV Core ECG Laboratory services. SCR operates a 200 bed, fully paperless, Clinical Pharmacology Unit featuring 96, full 12-lead telemetry beds and a 12-bed unit for First-In-Human /SAD/MAD trials.Tyler Borst  Marketing Manager525 S. Silverbrook Dr., West Bend, WI 53095p (262) 334-6020e tyler.borst@spauldingclinical.com
Sky Zone Trampoline Park Bounces Into McDonough

www.skyzone.com/mcdonough

https://www.facebook.com/SkyZoneMcDonough/

www.skyzone.com

MCDONOUGH, Ga. (March 7, 2016)Sky Zone Trampoline Park has officially opened its doors in McDonough, offering high-flying thrills and boundless adventures for kids, teens and adults alike. Specializing in Active Fun, the creator of the worlds first indoor trampoline park features a variety of gravity-defying activities that will have visitors jumping for joy. McDonough residents are welcome to hop into Sky Zone McDonough to check out the popular activity that has guests bouncing off the walls with excitement.To commemorate, Sky Zone McDonough will host its grand opening celebration on Saturday, March 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will be offering 100 lucky fans free 30 minute jump passes through the parks Facebook giveaway. The fun-filled day will feature food trucks, face painting, balloon animals, a remote radio cast from Atlantas Q100 and special appearances from Batman, Superman and characters from Disneys Frozen.Sky Zone McDonoughs 60,000 square foot facility will feature a variety of activities such as Open Jump, offering a court of inter-connected trampolines where the sky is the limit, Ultimate Dodgeball, for a unique aerial take on a classic game, and Sky Slam, which gives everyone the highflying opportunity to slam dunk. Freestyle flyers can also boast their best moves as they soar into the 10,000 cube Foam Zone. Sky Zone is available for every kind of outing; from birthday parties, dodgeball tournaments and fundraising events, to corporate team building and memorable class field trips. Everyone is invited to HAVE FUN, FLY SAFE at Sky Zone!The McDonough area doesnt have any type of facility that offers an experience that matches that of Sky Zone, said Alpa Panchal, owner of Sky Zone McDonough. With the opening of our new park, our community will finally have a destination that promotes a healthy lifestyle while also being Awesome Fun activity for McDonough residents of all ages.Sky Zone McDonough is located at 165 Mill Road, McDonough, GA 30253. For more information, please visit Sky Zone McDonoughs website ator Facebook page atAbout Sky Zone, LLCSince 2004, Sky Zone, LLC has created and built the worlds first all-walled trampoline playing court  a concept so unique it was awarded United States Patent No. 5,624,122. Sky Zone, LLC currently has over 134 franchises open across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. Sky Zone Trampoline Parks feature a wide array of fun, fit and low-impact activities ranging from Open Jump, Ultimate Dodgeball and SkyFitness classes to birthday parties, corporate events and other group outings. The franchise has been awarded various accolades, including being ranked 308 on Entrepreneurs 2016 Franchise 500 list, 273 on the 2015 Inc.s 500/5000 list, 152 on the 2014 Inc.s 500/5000 list, 55 on the Forbes Americas Most Promising Companies list, Best Gym Alternative by Vegas Seven Magazine, 2012 Locals Choice for Kids Birthday Party by Southbay Magazine and one of Entrepreneurs 2013 Fresh Concepts Livening Up Franchising. For more information on the company or franchising opportunities, please visitEmily Johnstonejohnston@konnect-pr.comKonnect PR888 S. Figueroa Street, Ste 1000Los Angeles, CA 90017
DANG FOODS RECIEVES MINORITY FUNDING WITH LEAD INVESTMENT FROM CONSUMER PRODUCTS INCUBATOR SONOMA BRANDS

www.dangfoods.com

www.sonoma-brands.com

BERKELEY, CA (March 7, 2016)  Dang Foods, maker of the leading, all-natural Coconut and Onion Chip snacks, announced today that it has closed an investment from Sonoma Brands, a one-of-a-kind food & beverage products incubator and venture fund led by Jon Sebastiani, founder of Krave Jerky. With humble beginnings as a bootstrapped company, Dang Foods is excited to be the first brand to receive funding from Sonoma Brands, whose granular understanding of the snacking space in the U.S. will accelerate Dang Foods growth.We are excited to accept our first round of funding from Sonoma Brands and look forward to what this strategic partnership will help us accomplish in the months and years to come, said Vincent Kitirattragarn, founder of Dang Foods. With the support, resources and expertise of Sonoma Brands, we are confident that we will continue to be the leader in truly innovative, healthy, dang-worthy snacks.Sonoma Brands envisions a renaissance in the future of healthy snacking with Dang Foods at the helm. Dang is the first brand to take common ingredients like coconuts and onions and transform them into unexpected, culinary delights with nutritional value. The companies plan to work collaboratively to accelerate growth and continue to innovate the chip space with new ingredients and flavors.Sonoma Brands Founder, Jon Sebastiani adds: We couldnt be more proud that our first investment is in a category that is parallel with our experience and background. Dang Foods is a true category disrupter in the snack industry with a family story and a passion for culinary roots that resonates deeply with our team. We are excited to be a part of the Dang story.Dang Foods is available in over 7,000 stores nationwide and retails for $2.99 to $4.99 depending on the product.###About Dang FoodsDang Foods is a family-operated, B-Corp company that has challenged the traditional snack industry by creating the Coconut Chip and Onion Chip categories. Using minimal ingredients, most of Dangs products are vegan, gluten-free Non-GMO Project Verified, cholesterol-free and high in fiber. Ranging from sweet and tangy to savory and spicy, Dang Foods innovative flavor profiles appeal to the everyday snack lover as well as the discerning palates of todays food-savvy, health conscious consumers. Dang Foods products are available nationwide in the snack aisles of over 7,000 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods, Target and Kroger. For more information on Dang Foods, please visitAbout Sonoma BrandsFounded in 2015, Sonoma Brands is a venture incubator for emerging consumer packaged goods brands that creates new and revitalizes dormant categories in the industry. Inspired by the heritage of Californias wine country, Sonoma Brands is committed to authenticity, quality and innovation. Led by JonSebastiani, founder of artisanal jerky brand KRAVE Jerky, Sonoma Brands seeks to further food entrepreneurship by developing, launching and supporting promising, creative brands. For more information on Sonoma Brands, please visitand follow Sonoma Brands on Facebook and Twitter.Konnect1710 Evergreen Ave., Austin, TX 78704Emily Watkinsewatkins@konnect-pr.com
Valuation Management Group Renews Endorsement with The Georgia Bankers Association

Marietta, GA  Valuation Management Group is pleased to announce its renewal as a Georgia Bankers Association (GBA) Strategic Partner, and its preferred provider of appraisal management services.As an appraisal management company and to ensure appraisal compliance, Valuation Management Group handles the entire real estate appraisal process. This includes: approving the appraisers, managing the appraiser panel, handling the bid process for complex residential appraisal assignments and commercial appraisal assignments, ordering environmental risk assessments, engaging the appraisers and performing a robust, quality technical appraisal review. Valuation Management Group also offers commercial appraisal reviews and residential appraisal reviews for Georgia banks in need of review products only.High-quality outside appraisal management services are a priority for many banks, said Bobby Heath, vice chairman of First American Bank & Trust Company in Athens and chairman of the GBA Services, Inc. board of directors. Valuation Management Group has one of the industrys most experienced staffs. Its reviewers have an average of 20 years of actual appraisal experience, and the company is known for providing outstanding customer service. Were pleased to extend our relationship with Valuation Management Group. They have proven their commitment to support our states banks.We are excited that the GBA has proudly and exclusively endorsed us again as a strategic partner in the Appraisal Management area for the fourth straight year now, said Patrick McMillen, COO, Valuation Management Group. Our goal is to assist Georgia banks with appraiser independence compliance and provide robust reviews.About the Georgia Bankers Association: Founded in 1892, the Georgia Bankers Association promotes the general welfare and usefulness of banking and the preservation of a sound banking system. For 123 years, the GBA has provided Georgias banks with top-quality professional development, revenue-enhancing products and services, governmental relations and public advocacy.Established in 2006, Valuation Management Group, LLC is a nationwide appraisal management company with headquarters in Atlanta, GA. VMG offers a turnkey approach to the appraisal process from inception to final completion. VMGs primary mission is to institute an environment where true appraiser independence and quality commercial and residential appraisals can be obtained.Valuation Management Group, LLC1640 Powers Ferry RoadMarietta, Ga 30067Patrick McMillen, Chief Operating Officer(678) 486-7495Patrick.McMillen@vmgappraisals.com
Introducing New Cut Resistant Sleeves - Defensor by Ronco - Cut Level 5 protection without compromising comfort

www.ronco.ca

Concord, Ontario Feb 29: Ronco has introduced new CE Cut Level 5 Defensor sleeves.A large proportion of workplace accidents are attributed to workers not wearing or taking breaks from wearing their PPE because of discomfort. Made of 13 gauge HPPE (high performance polyethylene), the Defensor sleeves have a unique property of dissipating heat and is a solution to overcome discomfort even during prolonged usage. These sleeves are light-weight and soft, yet provide CE Cut Level 5, Abrasion Level 3 and Tear Level 4.The Defensor sleeves are 18 long and come with a thumbhole at the end. This prevents the sleeves from riding up and exposing the forearm to hazard. The sleeves are washable and can withstand up to 10 wash cycles.As a safe workplace practice, it is recommended that all workers who are carrying sharp objects wear Cut Level 5 gloves and sleeves. In addition, cut resistant sleeves should be worn in all applications where there is a chance of scrapes or scratch injuries to arms.The Defensor sleeves are the latest addition to Roncos specialized cut-resistant Defensor line. All Defensor products are produced with cutting edge technology, are CE rated as per European standards and are available across North America through a network of authorized distributors. For more information, call Ronco at 905.660.6700 or send an email to info@ronco.ca. You may also visit Ronco online atAbout Ronco: Established in 1996, Ronco is a world class manufacturer of safety products. With a focus on consistent quality and outstanding customer service, RONCO has developed a strong presence across Canada for delivering Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) solutions for Hand, Head and Body, targeting the food, healthcare and industrial sectors.RONCO is the first glove manufacturer in North America to obtain ISO 22000 certification for Food Safety Management Systems.70 Planchet RoadConcord, Ontario, L4K 2C7Vani KshattriyaMarketing Manager905.660.6700 x 275vani.kshattriya@ronco.ca
Future Electronics President Robert Miller Thanks MADC for Cancer Awareness Fundraising Campaign

www.FutureElectronics.com

www.FutureElectronics.com

Robert Miller, President of Future Electronics, a global leading distributor of electronic components, recognized the company's Memphis Area Distribution Center (MADC) team for their efforts and participation in a Cancer Awareness campaign.The campaign consisted of promoting the importance of getting cancer screenings, and distributing cancer awareness materials. Such items included car decals, pens, and hats. All the collected funds were donated to the Wings Cancer Foundation.The MADC is very involved in helping the community, and regularly hosts and/or sponsors fundraising activities for local charities and non-profit organizations in the region.Robert Miller, President of Future Electronics, places a high priority on philanthropic endeavors, and is proud to acknowledge the efforts of employees being active in trying to make the world a better place for everyone.About Future ElectronicsFuture Electronics is a global leader in electronics distribution, ranking 3rd in component sales worldwide, with an impressive reputation for developing efficient, comprehensive global supply chain solutions. Founded in 1968 by President Robert Miller, the company has established itself as one of the most innovative organizations in the industry today, with 5,000 employees in 169 offices in 44 countries around the world. Future Electronics is globally integrated, with one worldwide IT infrastructure providing real-time inventory availability and access, while enabling full integration of its operations, sales and marketing worldwide. Offering the highest level of service, the most advanced engineering capabilities and technical solutions through all stages of the design-production cycle, and the largest available-to-sell inventory in the world, Future's mission is always to Delight the Customer. For more information, visitMedia ContactMartin H. GordonDirector, Corporate CommunicationsFUTURE ELECTRONICS514-694-7710 (ext. 2236)Fax: 514-630-2671martin.gordon@FutureElectronics.com###Future Electronics is a global leader in electronics distribution, ranking 3rd in component sales worldwide, with an impressive reputation for developing efficient, comprehensive global supply chain solutions. Founded in 1968 by Robert Miller, President, Future Electronics has established itself as one of the most innovative organizations in the industry today, with 5,000 employees in 169 offices in 44 countries around the world.237 Hymus Boulevard, Pointe Claire, Quebec H9R 5C7, Canada
Project Journal Has Launched And its Expected to Soar

http://www.projectjournal.co.uk

Project Managers and young professionals in the UK and aboard have something to celebrate with the new online platform Project Journal.England, United Kingdom, March 08, 2016 -- Project Journal is an online magazine that publishes articles designed to inform, educate, inspire, and unite project managers in their respective fields including, but not limited to, architecture, building, environment, science, sustainability, and technology. So, yes, Project Journal covers everything and they do it with class.Several factors exist that set Project Journal apart from the competition. Whether its a case study, an article, or a leadership piece, privately funded Project Journal takes an unbiased, innovative, and expert approach to publishing content. Similar publications have been around so long that they produce uninspired, sponsor-funded, and dated materials. Project Journal hears what project managers want. Project Journal listens to the experts; the general public! Project Journal listens to its readers by offering a simple publishing process This unique online magazine publishes the submissions the readers contribute as opposed to content that the powers to be are paid to promote. The community write it, Project Journal cite's it.According to Dean Jones, the founder of Project Journal and Associate at AECOM, he has created "a space for a growing community of project professionals searching for the latest project news, products and events." "The reason were so intrigued about this new site is that it seems to serve a dual purpose;" Project Journal doesnt exist solely to educate, Project Journal is here to learn. Unlike similar media, Project Journal has no political, financial, or corporate affiliation. "This eliminates the narrow-minded perspective that most of us experience when perusing online content hoping to gain an edge in the field were passionate about." Project Journal doesnt create clones; Project Journal drives individuals."Project managers are faced with the challenge of delivering projects covering a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water and government and more," said Jones. "With access to the Project Journal, managers can quickly get up to speed on trending topics and start conversations with other project professionals."Project Managers, who are arguably the most over utilized and underappreciated staff members in a wide variety of industries, now have a digital haven to turn to for support, knowledge, and inspiration.About Dean Jones:Dean is an Associate in AECOMs Programme Leadership Practice and is an accomplished, forward-thinking Programme and Project Management Professional with a history of success in spearheading large-scale initiatives within various arenas, including construction, healthcare, IT, social housing, regeneration and education. Dean joined AECOM from Care UK, the UKs largest independent provider of health and social care, where he was a Programme Manager and delivered a 250m investment growth programme over 2012/15 which increased Care Uks number of homes circa 33%. Dean was also Programme Manager for a 60m Suffolk programme to build ten new care homes and ten day clubs, bringing much needed additional nursing and specialist dementia care to the Suffolk community. The new homes and day clubs will eventually replace Suffolk County Councils existing homes and well being centres which date mainly from the 1960s and 1970s. Dean also has experience working in Local Councils as their Project Manager for regeneration and community projects.About Project Journal:A leader in project innovation, industry opinion and expert analysis in the project management space, Project Journal is a digital publication dedicated to all aspects of project management, including disciplines architecture, engineering, surveying, planning, procurement, operations, finance, marketing, estate management, commercial, development, and more.Project Journal is a digital publication dedicated to all aspects of project management, including disciplines architecture, engineering, surveying, planning, procurement, operations, finance, marketing, estate management, commercial, development, and more.Contact:Dean JonesProject Journal35 Cantley RoadGreat Denham, Bedford, MK40 4SA+44 0 7939 024086editor@projectjournal.co.uk
Tumor Ablation Market Growth, Industry Trends To 2022 by Grand View Research, Inc.

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/tumor-ablation-market/request

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/medical-devices

www.grandviewresearch.com

Global tumor ablation market is expected to reach USD 1.5 billion by 2022, according to a new study by Grand View Research Inc. Rising prevalence of different forms of cancer and increasing technological advancements in the field of thermal ablation techniques are the most prominent drivers of the market.Besides the use of thermal ablation, techniques such as laser ablation, irreversible electroporation, High Intensity Focused Ultrasonography (HIFU) are also clinically growing, concurrently propelling the tumor ablation industry.Occurrence of lung, breast, and liver cancer is on the rise globally. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and other organizations, currently, about 210,828 cases of lung cancer, 2.9 million cases of breast cancer, and over 2.7 million cases of prostate cancer are reported in the U.S. alone.In terms of technological advancement, companies such as SonaCare Medical are coupling ablation techniques with other technologies to improve accuracy, performance, and level of care. SonaLink, a remote patient monitoring platform, was put to use along with Sonatherm ablation system to enable physicians to enhance patient care experience, thereby promoting market growth.The industry is also anticipated to witness mergers and joint collaborations as a tool to curb rising competition. For instance, Boston Scientific Corporation acquired C.R. Bard Electrophysiology, which led to a 48.0% hike in profit for the former company.Browse full research report on Global Tumor Ablation Market: grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/tumor-ablation-marketFurther key findings from the study suggest: Microwave ablation technology is expected to be the fastest growing segment over the forecast period at a CAGR of over 15.0%. Reduction in the procedure time and low cost for treatment are some of the attributes favoring growth. In terms of treatment, surgical ablation is predicted to form the largest market by 2022 with about 35.0% share. Liver and lung cancer ablation require surgical procedures, and since these form the largest and fastest growing segments, they concomitantly propel surgical ablation growth. Lung cancer forms the most lucrative market and is anticipated to be the fastest growing segment over the forecast period. By 2022, it is expected to contribute about 15.0% of the revenue share owing to its rising prevalence rate across the globe. According to market forecast for 2022, North America is expected to dominate the market and Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness the fastest growth. Augmenting growth in the cancer prevalence and rising healthcare expenditure in regions such as China, Korea, and India are factors responsible for this rapid growth. Major players of the market include HealthTronics, Galil Medical Inc., Angiodynamics, Medtronic Plc. (Covidien), Boston Scientific Corporation, SonaCare Medical, Misonix Inc., EDAP TMS S.A., and Neuwave Medical Inc. To retain market leadership, players such as Medtronic are working towards acquiring other companies and expanding their portfolio. For instance, in January 2016, Medtronic acquired the OsteoCool RF Ablation System from Baylis Medical.Read detailed report or request for sample of this research report:Grand View Research has segmented the global tumor ablation market on the basis of technology, treatment, application, and regionGlobal Tumor Ablation Technology Outlook (USD million), 2012  2022 Radiofrequency Microwave ablation Cryoablation Other ablation technologiesGlobal Tumor Ablation Treatment Outlook (USD million), 2012  2022 Surgical tumor ablation Laparoscopic tumor ablation Percutaneous tumor ablationGlobal Tumor Ablation Application Outlook (USD million), 2012  2022 Liver cancer Breast cancer Lung cancer Prostate cancer Other cancersTumor Ablation Region Outlook (USD million), 2012  2022 North Americao U.S.- U.S. tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- U.S. tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- U.S. tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancero Canada- Canada tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- Canada tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- Canada tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancer Europeo UK- UK tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- UK tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- UK tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancero Germany- Germany tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- Germany tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- Germany tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancer Asia Pacifico Japan- Japan tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- Japan tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- Japan tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancero China- China tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- China tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- China tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancer Latin Americao Brazil- Brazil tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- Brazil tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- Brazil tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancero Mexico- Mexico tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- Mexico tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- Mexico tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancer MEAo South Africa- South Africa tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- South Africa tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- South Africa tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancero Saudi Arabia- Saudi Arabia tumor ablation market technology outlook- Radiofrequency- Microwave ablation- Cryoablation- Other ablation technologies- Saudi Arabia tumor ablation market treatment outlook- Surgical tumor ablation- Laparoscopic tumor ablation- Percutaneous- Saudi Arabia tumor ablation market application outlook- Liver cancer- Breast cancer- Lung cancer- Prostate cancer- Other cancerBrowse more reports of this category by Grand View Research:Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Sherry JamesCorporate Sales Specialist, USAGrand View Research, IncPhone: 1-415-349-0058Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519email: sales@grandviewresearch.comWeb:
COMMELL reveals LV-67S & LV-67R Mini-ITX based on Skylake processors

www.commell.com.tw

www.commell.com.tw

Taiwan Commate Computer Inc.(COMMELL), the worldwide leader of Industrial Single Board Computers, unveiled LV-67S & LV-67R Mini-ITX embedded system board based on Intel 6th generation "Skylake" Core processor family. The "Skylake" PC is claimed to deliver 30 percent better performance than a PC base on Ivy Bridge architecture, 20 percent better performance than a PC based on "Haswell", and 10 percent better performance than a "Broadwell" PC.The LV-67S desktop Mini-ITX platform is designed for the 6th generation Intel Core S-series processors and Xeon E3-1200 v5 processor in the FCLGA1151 socket. It is the first mainstream Intel desktop platform to support DDR4 memory( 2 DDR4 DIMM 2133 MHz up to 32GB), The platform is based on Intel HD530 Graphics that provides high-end media and graphics capabilities for devices that display videos, 2D/3D graphics and interactive content. In addition, LV-67N supports VGA, LVDS, DVI-I and one DP port to provide its advanced solutions for imaging, machine vision and digital signage applications.LV-67N offers lots of features including high-speed data transfer interfaces such as 6 x USB3.0 and 4 x SATAIII supported RAID 0/1/5/10, equipped with dual Gigabit Ethernet with iAMT 9.0 supported, and comes with floppy, PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse port, 3 x RS232 and 1 x RS232/422/485, 4 x USB2.0, Intel High Definition Audio, and one PCI Expressx16 slot, two PCIE Mini card socket.About COMMELLCOMMELL is a leading supplier of Single Board Computers and focuses on developing the most advanced and reliable IPC products. In addition to promise our customers constantly stay ahead of this competitive business, we are always in search of disruptive & incremental sustaining innovation. We treat every of our customer as partner and provide the best services and total support. The combination of innovation, superior quality, and excellent services will ensure both Taiwan Commate Computer Inc., and our customers always have the competitive edge in the computer world.For further information about COMMELL is available atAbout COMMELLCOMMELL is a leading supplier of Single Board Computers and focuses on developing the most advanced and reliable IPC products. In addition to promise our customers constantly stay ahead of this competitive business, we are always in search of disruptive & incremental sustaining innovation. We treat every of our customer as partner and provide the best services and total support. The combination of innovation, superior quality, and excellent services will ensure both Taiwan Commate Computer Inc., and our customers always have the competitive edge in the computer world.For further information about COMMELL is available at19F, No.94, Sec. 1, Xintai 5th Rd., Xizhi Dist., New Taipei City, Taiwan
Help AG to Conduct Live-Hacking at GISEC to Highlight Top Middle East Cyber Security Vulnerabilities

Stephan Berner, Managing Director at Help AG

http://www.helpag.com

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates- 08 March, 2016: Help AG, a leading information security services and solutions provider in the Middle East, today announced its participation at GISEC, taking place at the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) from 29 to 31 March 2016. The security specialist has clearly marked three focus areas for its participation  to highlight its extensive portfolio of services, including its Managed Security Services (MSS); demonstrate its capabilities as the one-stop-shop for comprehensive IT security solutions, and raise awareness about regional cyber security threats through a series of presentations by its security experts.Help AGs range of specialized security services are delivered by its five service divisions- Cyber Security Consulting, Cyber Security Support, Cyber Security Analysis, Cyber Security Integration and Managed Security Services. The latest of these, MSS, was launched at GISEC last year and is the only offering in the region to meet full compliance with the UAE governments regulatory frameworks. Help AG hopes to draw attendees attention to the unique benefits of its MSS program which include 24x7 operation with guaranteed service availability, and the utilization of technical controls that are in line with industrys best practices including encryption, data leakage prevention, privileged access management, and end session recording for all access.As one of the biggest participants at the exhibition, Help AG will host its vendor partners F5 Networks, Blue Coat Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Infoblox, Riverbed Technology, PulseSecure, BeyondTrust, Tenable, and OPSWAT at its stand. We handpicked these vendors from our broad partner portfolio as they present a good mix of our strategic long term and new partnerships. Their set of complementary technologies not only cater to key security areas such as network visibility, access control, web-application security, modern-malware protection, and others, but also allow Help AG to demonstrate its strengths in the integration of these technologies for a holistic security infrastructure, said Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG.The company intends to demystify enterprise IT security and demonstrate the growing sophistication and breadth of modern cyber-attacks, by conducting live hacking sessions at the dedicated presentation area of its stand. Having our expert team of ethical hackers showcase just how innovative todays cyber criminals are is an effective and high-impact way for us to highlight the many vulnerabilities in todays enterprises, said Berner. He added, It also showcases the unmatched technical competency of our team, which is ingrained in each and every one of the cyber security services we offer.Also scheduled are a number of interactive 15-minute presentations during which Help AGs technical experts will introduce and discuss the latest regional IT security threats. The presentations slated to take place during the course of the three-day event cover a number of topics including web application security, malware and anti-virus, wireless hacking, social engineering, website defacement and hacking, mobile application security, incident response and Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC).Now in its 4th consecutive year, GISEC is established as the Middle East's only large-scale information security trade show and conference. The exhibition will focus on the latest information security trends, cyber security legislation in the Middle East and cyber security solutions in addition to knowledge exchange via a strong conference line-up, which brings together information security experts from Government & Military, Finance, Oil & Gas, Telecoms and large scale enterprise sectors. Help AG can be found at stand B-100.About Help AGHelp AG is a leading IT security solutions, services and consultancy company, founded in Germany in 1995 and active in the Middle East since 2004.Focusing solely on the security aspects of Information Technology and maintaining an unprecedented 80% of staff in technical positions has enabled Help AG to stand out as the region's trusted advisor capable of delivering the most complex and innovative IT security solutions spanning Application Security, Network Security, Enterprise Mobile Security and Next Generation Modern Malware Protection. This unmatched technical expertise has enabled Help AG to establish a dedicated Security Analysis division offering customers Security Review, Penetration Testing, Configuration Architecture Review, Vulnerability Assessment and Social Engineering and Exploitation services.As a key player in the security arena, the company remains dedicated to raising regional awareness about IT security threats and trends. More information is available at:Media Contact:Ian SaldanhaPROCRE8Vila 41, 81-d Street, Uptown MirdifP.O. Box 78835, DubaiUnited Arab Emirates
Emerging Opportunities in Silicon Photonics Market with Current Trends Analysis

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-651

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-651

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/silicon-photonics-market

Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Silicon Photonics Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025" report to their offering.In silicon photonics technology, silicon is used as a platform for the photonic circuits to create optical communication system which is highly integrated. The modern trend of miniaturization of electronic devices with increasing requirement for speed and efficiency as well as keeping the cost economical, has led to the increase in demand for the global silicon photonics market. This has led to the silicon photonics market becoming an interesting avenue globally as it has the advantage of requiring low power consumption, having higher density of interconnects, higher integration and reliability. The global silicon photonics market is anticipated to grow with two digit compound annual growth rate.Silicon Photonics Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe largest market for global silicon photonics market is data communication, as the protocol is providing services which is surpassing optical and copper technologies. The government providing financial support and the growing demand for the transference of data is driving the growth of global silicon photonics market. Demand for global silicon photonics market is also driven by covering distance or data rates which have not been provided by vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), providing faster data rates while maintaining low cost. Various constraints for the global silicon photonics market are high cost as the companies have to develop the Computer-aided engineering/Computer-aided design (CAE/CAD) on their own and competition with VCSEL which is available at a low cost.Visit For TOC@Silicon Photonics Market: SegmentationOn the basis of application, global silicon photonics market can be segmented into:TelecommunicationsDatacomHigh Performance Computer (HPC) and data centersMedicalSensing and instrumentsDefense/aerospace industriesResearch and developmentOthers (consumers-connecting PCs with HDTVs and desktop PC devices, commercial video, etc.)Request Free Report Sample@On the basis of products, global silicon photonics market can be segmented into:Silicon optical modulatorsWavelength division multiplexer filtersSilicon photo-detectorsSilicon photonic waveguidesOthers (silicon led, silicon optical interconnects, etc.)Silicon Photonics Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of region, North America has the highest market for silicon optical modulators and wavelength division multiplexer filters. North America is becoming an attractive destination for the companies to launch the silicon photonics market due to government support and increase in demand for the data transfer but Asia-Pacific has the highest CAGR for global silicon photonics market due to rising population, increase in urbanization and growing demand for data transfer.Full Report Analysis@Silicon Photonics Market: Key PlayersSome of the identified key players in the global silicon photonics market are Infinera, NeoPhotonics, Avago technologies, Luxtera, Mellanox technologies, OneChip Photonics, Cisco, Skorpios technologies, Photline technologies, etc.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: futuremarketinsights.com
Energy Management Systems Market To 2022  Market Share, Growth, Trends: Grand View Research, Inc.

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/energy-management-systems-market

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/energy-management-systems-market/request

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/emerging-and-next-generation-technologies

The global energy management systems (EMS) market is expected to reach USD 58.59 billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing concern towards energy prices coupled with increasing green building construction particularly in economies China, India, Japan, UAE and Germany is anticipated to drive global EMS market growth over next seven years.High growth markets of Asia Pacific and Europe have been focusing on optimization of energy systems and efficient urbanization plans. Growing concern towards industrial and commercial waste has urged governments to adopt strategies for efficient construction of urban and industrial establishments.Technology used in EMS is still expensive as there is high cost of R&D involved. The capital spending is highly correlated with the financial health of the company. In addition, the return on investment is gradual, and may take a period of nearly 3-4 years. High investment and longer payback period proves to be a major challenge for the market.Industrial EMS emerged as the leading product segment and accounted for over half of the total revenue in 2014. Surging energy demand in various end-use sectors such as power & energy, IT & telecom, and manufacturing has urged companies to adopt sustainable solutions for optimum utilization of energy. Favorable government initiatives coupled with integration of information technology solutions is expected to drive demand for industrial segment over the next seven years.Browse full research report on Global Energy Management Systems (EMS) Market:Further key findings from the report suggest: Global energy management system market was valued at USD 20.49 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach USD 58.59 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 14.3% from 2015 to 2022. Sensors were the most consumed component and accounted for over 35% of the global market in 2014. Deploying of remote sensors and real-time information optimize system performance and improve standards of safety. Growing concern towards monitoring of drainage systems is expected to drive sensors segment demand over the next seven years. Power & energy segment was the largest application vertical and accounted for over 41% of global revenue share in 2014. This sector is expected to maintain its dominance over the next seven years, owing to shifting trend towards modernization of electricity grids. Commercial sector accounted for over 80% of the total installation in 2014. Rising concerns towards reducing operating costs and power optimization in large as well as small scale enterprises is expected to drive demand in near future. North America witnessed high penetration of EMS and was valued over USD 8.5 billion in 2014. Favorable government initiatives coupled with surging energy demand in power generation and manufacturing sectors are anticipated to drive regional market growth in next seven years. EMS industry is moderately consolidated with presence of leading companies such as Elster Energy, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, and Siemens dominating global energy management system industry in 2014. Other significant players operating in the global market include C3 Energy, Gridpoint, Johnson Controls Inc., IBM, and Powerhouse Dynamics.Read detailed report or request for sample of this research report:Grand View Research has segmented the energy management system market on the basis of product, component, vertical, end-use and region:Global Energy Management System (EMS) Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Industrial Energy Management System (IEMS) Building Energy Management System (BEMS) Home Energy Management System (HEMS)Global Energy Management System (EMS) Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Sensors Controllers Software OthersGlobal Energy Management System (EMS) Vertical Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Power & Energy Telecom & IT Manufacturing Retail & offices Healthcare OthersGlobal Energy Management System (EMS) End-Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Residential CommercialGlobal Energy Management System (EMS) Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the World (RoW)Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research:Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Sherry JamesCorporate Sales Specialist, USAGrand View Research, IncWeb: grandviewresearch.comRead our blogs - dniamericas.org, divog.org, legalworkshop.org
Hanoi  your great welcome or farewell to Vietnam

Hanoi, Old Quarter, French Quarter, Sword Lake, Opera House, Hanoi street food, Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, Dong Xuan market

Visiting the Old Quarter, the unique vestige comfortably lying around Hoan Kiem Lake, you may get lost in a totally different world from the rest of the city. The streets heart and soul is exposed in the ancient commercial streets and named after their original businesses dating back about 1,000 years. It is a shoppers delight and features artistic products from around the country, fashioned by many top artists and craftsmen. It is where night owls head to with live music, discos, clubs and bars as well as decent karaoke joints being the norm here. The Hoan Kiem Lake, Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre and Dong Xuan market, etc. are within easy reach of the Old Quarter. For those who love cooking and Vietnamese food, French baguettes and coffee have something very much in common with pho rice noodles together with many culinary classes around.Hanoi's local cuisine is some of the best in Vietnam, and the finest local dishes are usually served at just open-air joints at street side. Hanoi is a street food paradise with exotic sauces as one way of creating a tasty meal from basic elements all through the year. Bun cha and cha ca are tasty and shouldnt be missed during your visit to the capital.Hanoi is also famous for elegant French architecture, especially in the French quarter where wide open streets, majestic buildings and high-end hotels, restaurants and shops await. It is home to some of Hanois fanciest restaurants and hotels such as Sofitel Metropole Legend Hotel, Hilton Opera and the Opera House.Oozing with charm, Hanoi still remains true to its essential personality and is an amazing city to experience. It is often the start or end point of a trip to Vietnam giving a great welcome or farewell.Living in South East Asia and with many years of experience in the travel industry, we are committed to delivering high-quality travel services and life-enriching, memorable holiday experiences for each and every individual.We are proud to be one of the best tour operators in the regions who offer the Highlights of Vietnam Tours, Laos Tours, Cambodia Tours, Myanmar Tours and Thailand Tours.Insight Asia Travel1 Do Hanh street, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi, Vietnam
CD shape,contactless sticker,nfc chip for rfid identification (gyrfidstore)

cd shape

The strength of RFID label or RFID Stickers compared with other tags is the thinner thickness, various size, flexible and cost efficient. It can be sealed inside of goods or stick on the device surface with adhesive layer. The label is also optional with anti-metal layer to mount and working on metal surface. GYRFID Provides different types Stickers to meet the requirement for different applications such as NFC Payments, library, CD vending, Car tracking, promotions, cloth store chain, jewelry etc.Features:Model number: LAP-CDMaterial: Aluminum Antenna with Paper or PVC StockSize options: dia45mm, hole dia 15mmThickness: Antenna position 0.35mm IC position 0.55mmNote: for CD vending systemPersonalization Support: Offset Printing with CMYK or Pantone colors Silk-screen printing logo Thermal transfer printing Serial Number or UID Barcode printing and QR code printing, Photo printing Hologram UV printing Chip encodingApplication: NFC payments Promotions and advertisments Logistic management Parcel tracking Library Management Inventory Control Jewelry tracking Garment trackingIC options: 13.56Mhz ISO14443A: NXP MIFARE Classic 1K, MIFARE Classic 4K, MIFARE Ultralight, MIFARE Ultralight EV1, MIFARE Desfire 2K, MIFARE Desfire 4K, MIFARE Desfire 8K, MIFARE Plus, Fudan FM11RF08; NTAG203, NTAG213, NTAG215, NTAG216; LEGIC MIM256, LEGIC ATC1024, LEGIC ATC2048 13.56Mhz ISO15693: ICODE SLI; ICODE SLI-X; Tag-it 256, Tag-it 2048 840-960Mhz UHF: Alien Higgs, Monza 3, Monza 4D, Monza 4QT; NXP UCODE G2iLAbout GYRFID STOREGYRFID Store is a brand of Go Young International Ltd, which is an online purchase platform of the RFID products.GYRFID Store sells a wide range of Cards and RFID tags embedded with 125KHz, 13.56Mhz, 868Mhz-915Mhz, as well as the personalization to apply in access control and industrial management. We also provide the accessories like lanyard, card holders, badge, ibuttons for office daily usage. We also welcome the personalization like serial number printing, offset printing, encoding service etc.GYRFID Store is located in Shanghai, China mainland. We have customers all around the globe and can ship products all worldwide.GYRFID Store will help you to make the best choices for your RFID system requirements. Shop in GYRFID Store will make your purchase much reliable and flexible.ADDRm1516, Qiangjin Building, QiXin Rd No.1318 ,Shanghai, 201100, China
Algae Biofuel Prospects Market 2015-2025 Shares, Trend and Growth Report

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gc-176

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/gcc-algae-biofuel-prospects-market

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Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Algae Biofuel Prospects Market: GCC Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020" report to their offering.Algae was first discovered as a fuel alternative in 1978 under the leadership of US president Jimmy Carter at a time when fuel prices were high, demand was high, and supply was low and depleting at the same time, the costs of exploring fuel fields and carrying out oil refining procedures were exorbitantly high and continued to skyrocket. Algae biofuel is an alternative fossil fuel that uses algae to generate Biodiesel, Biobutanol, Bio gasoline, methane, ethanol, hydrogen derived renewable fuel and jet fuel. Half of algaes composition by weight is a lipid oil. This has been targeted to convert it into bio diesel that will burn more efficiently than the conventional petroleum.A new concept of alga culture has come up to produce bio fuels. Algae costs more per unit than other bio fuel crops but is claimed to yield 10 to 100 times more fuel per unit area. In 2014, the prices of oil were between US $ 56 to US $ 120 per barrel. The cost of producing micro algal biomass in 2014 was US $ 2.95/kg through photo bioreactors. If the annual biomass production capacity is increased to 1000 tons then the cost will reduce to US $ 1.5/kg for a litre of crude oil. The extraction of biofuels from algae is largely dependent on organic solvents such as benzene. The companies that are working on innovating algal biofuel technology are Algenol Biofuels Inc., Blue Marble Productions, Solazyme Inc., Sapphire Energy Inc., Diversified Technologies Inc., Origin Oils Inc., Proviron Industries nv, Oilgae and Genifuel Corporation.Request Free Report Sample@Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is estimated to achieve 1.6% of the world GDP according to the World Bank. The GCC crude oil production in 2020 is forecasted to be approximately 24 million barrel/day. Although GCC countries are the leaders in fossil fuel production, but are taking initiatives for large scale production of renewable sources of energy.Algae biofuels presents a great opportunity to compensate the environmental impact of the oil and gas industries in the GCC. GCC has a wide coastline that stretches across its countries and is ideal for algae production. The carbon dioxide emissions from oil and power refineries can be effectively utilized and the climate is also favourable for algae cultivation. The waste water treatment plants are also a vital source of algae. Bio fuel is likely to be an addition to the energy mix of GCC countries in the foreseeable future, rather than a competitor to petroleum based oil. This scenario in GCC will be a reality in the long run if the technology required for it, for instance, photo bioreactors becomes a feasible option.Full Report Analysis@The US Government strongly backs the research on bio fuels and is pledged to invest US $ 24 million to commercialize algae based biofuels. Several Governments now have started funding initiatives to make biofuel commercially available for satisfying the future wants of the world and it will impact GCC positively. The world needs a new form of fuel that is clean, sustainable, environment friendly, renewable and cheap. Bio fuels is likely to be a success story and an economically accessible alternative that will save it from the energy crisis.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Solar Cell Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth To 2022 by Grand View Research, Inc.

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/solar-cell-market

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/solar-cell-market/request

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/renewable-energy

Global solar cell market is expected to reach 1,087.5 GW by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing demand for clean and reliable energy source coupled with supportive regulations by various countries in the form of incentives and feed-in-tariffs (FIT) is expected to propel demand over the forecast period.Growing need of electricity owing to rapid industrialization coupled with increasing infrastructure developments particularly in developing economies is expected to fuel solar cell market over the next seven years. In addition, increase in R&D investments related to increasing performance efficiency of solar cells as well as reducing system cost by manufacturers is likely to have positive impact towards growth.Browse to access In-depth research report on Global Solar Cell Market with detailed charts and figures:Further key findings from the report suggest: Monocrystalline silicon wafer market was over 57 GW in 2014. Increasing demand for the product particularly in developed economies such as North America promise abundant growth opportunities for industry participants. Various properties offered by monocrystalline solar cells including compact design, high efficiency and durability is expected to have positive impact on growth. In Asia Pacific, supporting government policies and programs offered by various countries including India, Indonesia, Japan and China is expected to have positive impact on solar cell market over the next seven years. Asia Pacific has been a key market for multicrystalline solar cell and this trend is expected to continue over the forecast period. Rising consumer awareness related to cost effectiveness of multicrystalline solar cells for residential and commercial applications in this region is expected to propel demand. MEA solar cell market is primarily driven by growing demand from UAE. Cost benefits along with reliability offered by solar systems are expected to propel solar cell demand over the next seven years. Growing demand for CIGS in building photovoltaics which offer high flexibility improved aesthetic appearance is expected to drive thin film solar cell market over the forecast period. Solar PV manufacturers are gradually shifting their focus from multicrystalline to monocrystalline in order to capitalize on the technological advantages. R&D related to incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles in solar cell manufacturing to enhance its performance is expected open new avenues over the next seven yearsRequest for free sample of this research report:Grand View Research has segmented the global solar cell market on the basis of product and region:Global Solar Cell Product Outlook (Installed capacity, GW, 2012 - 2022) Silicon Wafero Monocrystallineo Multicrystalline Thin Filmo Cadmium Tellurideo Amorphous silicono Copper Indium Gallium SelenideBrowse more reports of this category by Grand View Research:Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Contact:Sherry JamesCorporate Sales Specialist, USAGrand View Research, IncWeb: grandviewresearch.comRead our blogs - dniamericas.org, terrapass.org, divog.org
FMI Releases New Report on the Electrical Steel Market 2015-2025

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http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-883

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Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Electrical Steel Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.Using natural resources efficiently, is a major priority. It also applies once it comes to transferring electrical energy where electric motors convert electricity into generators or motion to turn indication into electricity. Electrical steel, also known as transformer steel or silicon electrical steel is a specialty steel tailored to produce assured magnetic properties such as low core loss along with high permeability. It has specific proportion of silicon that is responsible for its unique properties. Electrical steel material is generally manufactured in the form of cold-rolled strips (less than 2mm thick), these strips are called lamination (finished shape) when stacked together to form a core. Once gathered, they form the laminated cores of transformers and rotor parts of electric motors.Looking ahead, electrical steel is considered as one of the most valuable magnetic materials available today. Of all the soft magnetic core materials, electrical steel is used more. It is ideal for high efficiency transformers, generators, motors, small transformers and ballasts. Besides, increasing demand from the power sector, is escalating the growth in the global electrical steel market. The global electrical steel is predicted to expand at an encouraging CAGR during the forecast period (2015-2025).Full Report Analysis@ futuremarketinsights.com/reports/electrical-steel-marketElectrical Steel Market: Drivers & RestraintsElectrical steel plays a very vital role in the transmission, distribution, generation and use of power as their high magnetic permeability and low iron core losses are forged on the molecular level. Energy conservation is the new trend in the global electrical steel market. Rising electricity consumption, urbanization, increasing needs for infrastructure and industrial development are the major drivers identified in the global electrical steel market. Advancement in technology along with high efficiency is opening new doors in the growth of the global electrical steel market. Regulatory environment (focus on reducing losses at transformers) is another key factor fueling the growth in the demand of the electrical steel market. However, higher cost of the investment for production and distribution, could act as a major restraint in the global electrical steel market.Electrical Steel Market: SegmentationOn the basis of types, the global electrical steel market is segmented as:Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES are used for transformers as holds magnetic properties that are strongly oriented with respect to the direction of rolling)Non-Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (used for rotating machine of all sizes, and small transformers, it is produced by processes that create a definite orientation)Request Free Report Sample@On the basis of applications the global electrical steel market is segmented as:Large, Medium and Small-sized TransformersGeneratorsOthers (small electric precision motors, industrial machines etc)Electrical Steel Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global electrical steel market is expected to register a favourable growth for the forecast period, 2015?2025. . Depending on geographic regions, the global electrical steel market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Looking forward towards region, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America are expected to be the growth engines of global electrical steel market in the near future. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to dominate the global electrical steel market. The key countries mentioned in the Asia-Pacific region are India, South Korea, and China as an outcome of growth in infrastructure sectors. Also, the region is expected to generate higher revenue as compared to North America. In Latin America, Brazil is expected to be the largest opportunity in terms of revenue of the global electrical steel market. The remaining regions are expected to grow at a steady rate over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Electrical Steel Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market participants in global electrical steel market are ThyssenKrupp, ArcelorMittal, Posco, Nippon Steel, China Steel Corporation, Tata Steel, JFE Holdings, AK Steel, ATI, Tenaris, Baosteel, Anshan Iron & Steel Group, Wuhan Iron & Steel Group, among many others.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Food Sorting Machines Market Set for Rapid Growth And Trend, by 2025

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-843

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-843

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Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Food Sorting Machines Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025" report to their offering.Automation is becoming more of a requirement than an option in the food processing industry. The rigorous quality and cost controls required in the food industry is making it more critical. Production of high grade food requires capable and efficient inspection and sorting systems, in the operations and production line. The food is sorted by color, size, shape, specific gravity prior to inspection and other criteria depending upon the raw material and application.Global interest is increasing towards the quality of food consumed along with the stringent legislations on product quality and operating procedures. In the food industry, the product specification is extremely important, and is one of those area where new developments are crossing the boundaries. The food industry is under immense pressure of meeting the demands of growing world population.The global population is becoming urbanized and there is heavy industrialization seen in the emerging economies. This leads to an upward trend towards convenience foods that are healthy, nutritious and easy to prepare. Food security is an emerging challenge for policy makers and companies in the food supply chain. Over the period food production will be under threat from climate change, competing land uses, erosion and diminishing supplies of clean water. One of the solutions to this dilemma is increased efficiency and waste reduction in the food supply chain. Food sorting machines offer increase in efficiency by selectively filtering out the undesired materials from the main food. The main purpose is separation of foreign seeds and bodies, such as unhealthy or spotted grains. The insertion of optical sorter into strategic positions of the milling process facilitates and optimizes the whole cleaning process. Worldwide the optical sorters are being used in the food industry. Its highly adopted in the processing of harvested foods such as fruits, potatoes, vegetables and nuts where it achieves non-destructive,100% inspection on full production volume. Since manual sorting is subjective and inconsistent, its not preferred. Optical sorting helps to improve the product quality, increase yields, maximize throughput while reducing labor costs. Since few years the trend is of integration of the traditional mechanical cleaning process with optical sorting machines.Full Report Analysis@ futuremarketinsights.com/reports/food-sorting-machines-marketFood Sorting Machines Market: Drivers & RestraintsGrowing population, rising urbanization, growing technological awareness, industrialization of emerging economies and increasing per capita income are some of the key factors driving the growth of the food sorting machines market.Environmental Protection Agency regulations on disposal of food waste, changing consumption patterns and smaller households are few of the probable factors restraining the growth of the food sorting machines market.Food Sorting Machines Market: SegmentationThe global food sorting machines market is broadly classified on the basis of product type, technology and geographies.Based on product type, the global food sorting machines market is segmented into:Channel SortersFreefall SortersBelt SortersADR SystemsRequest Free Report Sample@Based on technology, the global food sorting machines market is segmented into:LaserCameraLEDX-rayFood Sorting Machines Market: OverviewThough food sorting machines is a new technology for emerging economies like India, but in the developed economies like North America and Europe the same technology is in use for years.With growing global population and increasing pressure on food industry to meet the customer demands, the acceptance of food sorting machines is gaining popularity. The global food sorting machines market is expected to expand at a promising CAGR during the forecast period (2015-2025).Food Sorting Machines Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global food sorting machines market is expected to register a double-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global food sorting machines market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. As of 2015, North America dominated the global food sorting machines market in terms of market revenue followed by Europe. Asia Pacific & Japan are projected to expand at a substantial growth and will contribute to the global food sorting machines market value exhibiting a robust CAGR during the forecast period, 2015?2025.Visit For TOC@Food Sorting Machines Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market participants in global food sorting machines market are Tomra Systems ASA, Sesotec GmbH, Buhler AG, Key Technology, BarcoVision, Satake USA Inc.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Metropolitan Wireless International Company Background

http://mwi.com.sg

Established in January 2009, Metropolitan Wireless International Pte Ltd specializes in designing and developing state of the art solutions using mobile wireless communication technologies. Our Vision is to become a specialist organization that provides high end quality, best choice mobile and wireless solutions for customers in the transport sectors (Air, Road, Train and Sea) as well as public safety / security operations. In line with our vision, our Mission is to design & develop specialized products that leverage latest wireless and mobile technologies to deliver integrated & seamless Voice, Data and Video communications to aid control centre operations.Head quartered in Singapore and having an off-shore development centre in Bangalore, India, the core team has a stellar track record in designing and deploying successful and highly reliable solutions. Our team is committed to give every customer the best service based on our shared values and trust. For any further details, please Contact Us.(65) 6778 0133Fax: (65) 6777 1295Address: Block 67, Ayer Rajah Crescent, #01-11, Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate, Singapore-139950Email: info@mwi.com.sgWebsite:
Respiratory Inhaler Devices Market is Anticipated to Grow at a CAGR of 4.3% through 2025: FMI Estimate

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/respiratory-inhaler-devices-market

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-493

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Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers key insights on the global respiratory inhaler devices market in its upcoming outlook titled, Respiratory Inhaler Devices Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2015  2025. In terms of value, the global respiratory inhaler devices market is projected to register a healthy CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period due to various factors. This FMI report offers vital and detailed insights regarding these factors.The respiratory inhaler devices market is segmented on the basis of product type, disease indications, technology and region. Based on the product segmentation, the overall market has been categorised into metered dose inhaler (MDI), dry powder inhaler (DPI) and nebuliser.Nebulisers are further sub-segmented into ultrasonic nebuliser, mesh nebuliser and compressed air nebuliser. The metered dose inhaler segment is estimated to account for maximum share in the global respiratory inhaler devices market by 2015 end, and expected to register a CAGR of 4.5% in terms of value during the forecast period 2015-2025. Currently, metered dose inhaler is a major contributor to market growth in Europe, North America and parts of Asia Pacific. Demand for nebulisers is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.8% through 2025.Increase in prevalence of asthma, COPD and other respiratory disorders, especially among paediatric and the geriatric population, is a major factor driving growth of the global respiratory inhaler devices market. Other driving factors include strategic alliances among key players in the market, manufacturers focusing on enhancing market share, and expansion of the healthcare sector in developing countries due to growing investments by major players. Further, surge in demand for respiratory inhaler devices in all acute and moderate asthma and COPD conditions owing to increasing health awareness and growing disposable income is projected to result in increased spending on respiratory inhaler devices. This in turn is expected to bolster respiratory inhaler devices market growth during the forecast period.Browse Full Respiratory Inhaler Devices Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2015  2025 Reports atLack of effective drugs for certain respiratory disorders, concerns about side-effects and complications, lack of skilled pulmonologists and healthcare professionals, lack of awareness among patients, and high prices of inhaler devices are the key factors hampering growth of this market.Currently, combined therapies offer more associated benefits, such as reliablility, increased efficacy, and favourable reimbursement policies. Owing to these factors, patients with complex respiratory disorders are more inclined towards adopting such therapies.However, the cost associated with combination therapies is higher as compared to conventional therapies for patients with complex respiratory disorders. The global respiratory inhaler devices market is expected to be driven by the increased usage of newly introduced triple combination therapy for COPD patients in the coming years.This report assesses trends driving each segment and offers analysis and insights about the potential of respiratory inhaler devices market in specific regions. North America is estimated to dominate the respiratory inhaler devices market with maximum market share by end of 2015. North America and Western Europe are collectively expected to account for over 64.1% of the total respiratory inhaler devices market share in terms of value by end of 2015. Asia Pacific excluding Japan is estimated to witness highest CAGR of 5.0% over the forecast period, followed by North America, due to increasing prevalence of asthma and COPD among children and the geriatric population.Request Free Report Sample@Some key companies covered in this report include AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Cipla Ltd., Koninklijke Philips N.V., PARI Medical Holding ,Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd., OMRON Healthcare Europe B.V. and Merck & Co., Inc.Their primary focus is towards enhancing their product portfolio through research and development, introduction of innovative and cost-effective drugs and medical devices in order to gain market share and to strengthen their respective position in the global market.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Launch of the new series THERA-Trainer Export reports

http://www.thera-trainer.de/english/current-news/thera-trainer-expert-report-01-janine-ehlers.html

First expert report focuses on treatment of high-dependency patientsmedica Medizintechnik GmbH publishes the first edition of the series expert reports of their brand THERA-Trainer. The first available expert report deals with the topic Treatment of high-level dependency patients with device-based therapy, written by certified speech therapist Janine Ehlers.Modern paths of treatment for high-dependency patientsThe Expert report 01 by Janine Ehlers is the first edition of a series where well-known doctors and therapists inform on device-based therapy concepts. Care, respiration therapy, physio-, occupational- and speech therapy must adapt and position their contents new in order to achieve the aim  the improvement of life quality for the patient. Modern therapy devices can offer efficient possibilities to optimize treatment concepts. This is possible in intensive care treatment as well as in domestic environment, even for people in vegetative state.About the author of expert report 01Janine Ehlers is a certified speech therapist and graduated occupational therapist. She leads three interdisciplinary therapy centres in Kerpen, Cologne and Solingen with focus on out-of-hospital intensive care. There she treats mainly people in vegetative state, tracheotomised and respirator-dependent patients.About THERA-Trainer expert reportsThe THERA-Trainer expert report addresses mainly to doctors and therapists in the field of neurological-, elderly- and orthopaedic rehabilitation. Within this year and the next years more brochures done by guest authors on various thematic focuses will follow. The reports are available in German and English language as PDF files for free downloading.You can find more information on the THERA-Trainer websiteFounded in 1990 the medica Medizintechnik GmbH specialised on the development and sales of professional therapy concepts for neurologic rehab and rehabilitation for the elderly. Because of highest safety standards, stand-out quality and best user friendliness the company and its brand THERA-Trainer meanwhile is one of the leading manufacturers in its sector.medica Medizintechnik GmbHBlumenweg 888454 HochdorfGermanyTel +49 7355-93 14-0info@thera-trainer.de
Pet Food Market Trends, Company Share To 2022: Grand View Research, Inc.

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-food-industry/request

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/animal-feed-and-feed-additives

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The global pet food market is expected to reach USD 98.81 billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing trend towards pet adoption as a result of increasing number of nuclear families in emerging economies of Asia Pacific including India, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia is expected to drive the industry over the forecast period.Rising need for nutritious, healthy, and organic food on account of increasing awareness towards pet health is expected to augment demand. Increasing life expectancy in the region has led to older generation adopting pets to guide them through routine chores; this is expected to fuel demand over the forecast period.Innovations in specialty, premium and gourmet products, and packaging techniques are expected to propel growth in larger regions of the U.S., Europe, and Japan. In addition, focus on nutritive and functional pet foods and shift in preference towards dry pet food are key drivers for industry growth in developing economies.Browse to access In-depth research report on Global Pet Food Market with detailed charts and figures: grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-food-industryFurther key findings from the report suggest: Nutritious food is expected to witness fastest growth, growing at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2015 to 2022. Changing lifestyles and growing concerns among consumers regarding pet health have led to increased consumer spending on nutritious pet food. Rising cases of obesity and other diseases including arthritis, diabetes, and high blood pressure among pets are expected to drive demand for nutritious products over the next seven years. Dogs accounted for the largest consumption of these products, which accounted for over 59.0% share in 2014. Rising urbanization, increasing disposable incomes, and rising trend of nuclear families are some major reasons for rising pet ownerships, thus increasing demand for dog food over the forecast period. In Europe, demand was valued at USD 15.71 billion in 2014. The market in Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe, is growing, as consumers are increasingly humanizing pets and considering them as their family members. Pet owners are responding actively to the changing trends of innovation and trading in better quality substitutes. Pet population is considerably growing in Europe as people are adopting more and more pets for companionship. As a result, the growing number of pets in European households is contributing to the robust growth. Some of the major players in industry include Mars Inc., Nestle SA, Colgate-Palmolive Co., Proctor & Gamble Co., Del Monte Foods Co., Agrolimen SA, Uni-Charm Corp., Nutriara Alimentos Ltda., Total Alimentos SA, Mogiana Alimentos SA, and others. Mars and Nestle are the leading players in the market accounting for around 55% of the total share.Request for free sample of this research report:Grand View Research has segmented the global pet food market on the basis of product, application, and region:Pet Food Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022) Dry Food Wet/Canned Food Nutritious Food Snacks/Treats OthersPet Food Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022) Dog Cat OthersPet Food Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022) North America Europe Asia Pacific OthersBrowse more reports of this category by Grand View Research:Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Sherry JamesCorporate Sales Specialist, USAGrand View Research, IncPhone: 1-415-349-0058Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519email: sales@grandviewresearch.comWeb:
EU to Limit NPEs in Textile Products

Interior fabrics as well as clothing items and other textiles subject to NPE limits.

http://newsletter.sgs.com/eNewsletterPro/uploadedimages/000006/sgs-safeguards-06715-eu-notifies-addition-textile-containing-products-reach-restriction-a4-en-15.pdf

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.009.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2016:009:TOC

http://www.sgs.com/en/consumer-goods-retail/softlines-and-accessories/textile-and-clothing/reach

On January 14, 2016, the European Commission published a regulation in the Official Journal of the EU to restrict the use of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) in textile articles and to amend Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 (REACH).Newly Produced Textile Products Must ComplyThe restriction applies to any unfinished, semi-finished or finished products comprising at least 80% textile fibers or any other product containing a part comprising at least 80% textile fibers including products such as clothing, accessories, interior textiles, fibers, yarn, fabrics and knitted panels. The restriction prohibits the articles containing a concentration of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) equal to or greater than 0.01% (100 mg/kg) of the textile article or of each part of the textile article that can reasonably be expected to be washed in water during its normal lifecycle.According to the regulation, second-hand textile articles and new textile articles produced exclusively from recycled textiles are exempt from the restriction. This exemption applies because it is assumed that the articles made from recycled textiles will have been washed several times already and will therefore contain negligible amounts of NPEs.Nonylphenol Ethoxylates (NPEs) Can Be a Source of PollutionNPEs are important to the textile industry because their excellent detergent or emulsifying properties make them suitable for a wide variety of applications such as cleaning, coating, dyeing and as a rinsing agent. However, textile articles containing NPEs can be washed, and the resulting water containing these toxic substances can enter the aquatic environment to form nonylphenols (NPs), a family of potentially hazardous and hormone-disrupting chemicals.Transition Period Planned to Ease ComplianceThere will be a transition period of 60 months between the adoption of the restriction and its applicability. The transition period gives manufacturers and producers of textile articles sufficient time to adapt their production processes in order to comply with the restriction.References:[1] Safeguards. EU Notifies the Addition of Textile-Containing Products to Reach Restriction. April 2015 ([2] EUR-Lex. Commission Regulation (Eu) 2016/26 of 13 January 2016 amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards nonylphenol ethoxylates (About SGS Services for the Consumer Goods and Retail IndustrySGS Global Softlines has an extensive network of over 40 laboratories worldwide, with a strong team of committed professionals from multi-disciplinary backgrounds. Its internationally accredited state-of-the-art testing laboratories offer a comprehensive range of physical, chemical and functional testing services for components, materials and finished products. SGS helps companies ensure quality, performance and compliance with international, industrial and regulatory standards worldwide, for example REACH ().For more information, please do not hesitate to contact an SGS expert.SGS is the worlds leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 85,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,800 offices and laboratories around the world.SGS Consumer Goods and RetailKris WanSenior ManagerGlobal Softlines Development OfficeSGS Hong Kongt: +852 27747492Email: global.sl@sgs.comWebsite: sgs.com/softlinesLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/sgs-consumer-goods-&-retail
TribePad works out for Sweaty Betty

No sweat is broken today, as TribePad are celebrating global fashion brand Sweaty Betty choosing to implement the social ATS.Sweaty Betty, a global multi-channel fashion brand, aim to inspire women to find empowerment through fitness. Founder and Creative Director Tamara, is highly active, and continues to be even after opening her first boutique in 1998 before turning the business into a global brand. Her regime revolves around work, her husband, three children and dog Ennis (named after Sheffield Olympic Gold Medalist Jessica Ennis).TribePads candidate management platform will create an easy to use, unified process for talent acquisition and the hiring process. Recruiters working for Sweaty Betty will be able to identify the right talent, who understand Tamaras vision and the business as a whole. Sweaty Betty expect approximately 4000 applicants in their first year alone.TribePad, who were contending with iCIMS, aim to provide Sweaty Betty with recruitment solutions, including the attraction of the best talent. The branded careers page will help to maximise efficiencies through automation and reduce time to hire with data analytics, plus many other features and benefits. This will align Sweaty Betty's recruitment efforts, providing consistency throughout the brand.One feature to keep an eye open for is TribePads Video Interviewing Platform that can be integrated, managed and owned by TribePadss ATS or act as a standalone platform. Recruiters can now spend less time interviewing the wrong candidates for a vacancy and only offer face-to-face interviews to candidates who do.TribePad ATS is a complete recruitment system designed to streamline your hiring processes, saving you time and money.The Innovation Centre,217 Portobello,Sheffield,S1 4DP
Job oriented Patent Analyst Program

By SurbhiMarch 8, 2016Delhi, Indian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorney announces the commencement of Job Oriented Patent Analyst Program. It is one of the main Intellectual Property related program offered by the company which helps you with job opportunities from various renowned companies. Job Oriented Patent Analyst program helps you enter the corporate world with excellent skills in Intellectual Property.Patent Analysis deals with the fundamental knowledge of Intellectual Property. Patent analyst programs had taken root as core in IP field and patent analysts have become the most sort after IP professionals. Every company dealing with innovative technological advancements requires patent analysts to secure the companys priced inventions and is considered the most important skill that an IP recruiter of any company expects from a candidate aspiring to work in IP field.The company has designed this program to prepare participants for entry level jobs in IPR sector especially as Patent Analyst. Patent Analysts are employed by various Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPOs), Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO), IPR Firms, Law Firms, IT Companies and every MNCs with RnD centers etc. Under this program participants will be provided with professional skills of patent searching tools and techniques. This program consists of 5 modules namely Intellectual Property and Patents, Basic Patent Laws and Concepts, Patent Searches: Advance Patent Searching Tools and Techniques, Patent Analysis, Case Studies and Sample Reports. This is 5 day program to become Certified Patent Analyst. This is classroom based program involving 30 hours of extensive interaction with experts. Six hours daily classroom teaching will involve theory and practical sessions. After completion of program, participants will get job assistance in TOP MNCs for profile of patent analyst.Upcoming BatchesDates  15th March 2016 to 19th March 2016Classroom Timing  1000 hours to 1700 hoursLocation of Training: BangaloreUpcoming BatchesDates 15th March 2016 to 19th March 2016Classroom Timing  1000 hours to 1700 hoursLocation of Training: New DelhiIndian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorney is a reputed institute providing intellectual property services and educates young innovators around the globe. The Institute, found in 2009 was funded by Mabbit Group and has been established as Indian Institute of Patent and Trademark Education and Research Private Limited, headquartered at Delhi, India. IIPTA  with its outstanding quality of services has set its name in the international markets. As a service provider IIPTA has given national and international clientele seeking IP consulting in global protection, business analytics and IP management.INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PATENT AND TRADEMARK ATTORNEYFor more details regarding the modules and registration for the program, please visit our official website iiptaFor further Information, call our career counselors on the following numbers (working hours 10:00 am - 7:00 pm, Monday to Saturday)Miss Divya (Delhi): 91 9212344782Mrs. Cheshta (Bangalore): 91 9731329136Indian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorney is a reputed institute providing intellectual property services and educates young innovators around the globe. The Institute, found in 2009 was funded by Mabbit Group and has been established as Indian Institute of Patent and Trademark Education and Research Private Limited, headquartered at Delhi, India.Delhi Office: G-85, Basement, Preet Vihar, Main Vikas Marg, Delhi  110092Bangalore Office: IXORA Suites, No.19, 9th Main, Indiranagar 1st Stage, Bangalore- 560038Landmark: Adjacent to Indiranagar Metro Station, CMH Road
Touch Panel Transparent Conductive Film Market Share, Forecasts Report To 2019 : Radiant Insights,Inc

http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/touch-panel-transparent-conductive-film-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-nanotechnology-2013-to-2019

In 2012, the touch panel transparent conductive film market was valued at $956 million. On addition, the overall industry for touch panel transparent conductive film is estimated to cross over $ 4.2 billion over the forecast period. Also, ITO is considered to be the well- established technology for display manufacturing. This technology has emerged as the equipment for transparent conductive film for the touch screens. Modern technologies are expected to erode ITO and offer enhanced functionality as lesser prices.A transparent conductive film improves and supports the usability of electronic devices. Furthermore, Usefulness of all the electronics devices is improved by its potential to navigate with the use of touch screens. Features of electronics applications and smart phones are enabled by transparent conductive film. Besides, these products also support the association as solutions are highly competitive. Growing market opportunities associated with the media devices and mobile communication of smart phones among others will impact the market.Browse Full Research Report With TOC On "Touch Panel Transparent Conductive Film: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, Nanotechnology, 2013 to 2019" at:Also, transport conductive film offers the support for device routing by identifying the existence of a finger while it moves crossways the screen. The market for transparent conductive film is considered to be highly competitive. As the new technologies develop, the competition is likely to build up noticeably over the forecast period. Reliability, price, innovation, relative price and performance and product quality are the competitive factors for transparent conductive film.The usage of transparent conductive films in touch screen functions is being overcome by Indium tin oxide. On addition, it also needs a cumbersome and expensive process of sputtering deposition. The prices of indium are expected to grow rapidly over the forecast period. Also, the film that is used is very rigid. After several researches, it has been stated that the requirement of more lithe film in the industry is likely to expand over the coming years.Commentary on every aspect of the industry from autonomous analysts forms an independent perspective in market evaluation. This study also displays the comprehensive overview of things happening in the market and also assistance of mangers with designing market strategy which is projected to succeed in future.Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions.28 2nd StreetSuite 3036 San Francisco
One Source Process is the legal services company of Virginia process server

http://www.onesourceprocess.com/our-services/process-service/

United States 08-03-2016. One Source Process is the leading and dedicated legal services company offers highest level of process service. Virginia process servers are really trained and skilled personnel with all the required knowledge and skills that are essential to serve legal documents. The process servers serve all type of legal documents involving: subpoenas, summons, writs, legal notices and many more. Whenever you are involved in court case then it is good decision to talk with professional or specialized process server.With the help of leading and dedicated process servers, it will be easy for you to make sure that all the documents are safe in professional hands. Virginia process servers are certified personnel with all the required knowledge in assisting you for service of process. They mainly perform: skip tracing, court filling, document appraisal, traveling notary and so on.Anyone wants to serve documents in Hawaii can prefer to One Source Process for highly dedicated and professional Hawaii Process Servers. These process servers will attend local courthouses on your behalf to issue documents in a new action or add to an existing file. The process servers work as messenger system to notify individuals of their constitutional rights regarding due process of law. When you are involved in court case then you dont need to get time to handle your legal documents while ensuring professional process server is here to take care of all these things. Having reference of specialized process server will give you peace of mind and never let you bother for legal rights.If you are looking for highly dedicated, specialized and reliable process servers in Hawaii then One Source Process is the name you can trust for superior service and support.For more detail on Virginia process server you can visit at:One Source Process is the highly dedicated legal services company provides professional process servers in Hawaii. It aims to provide all the required service and support that is essential to serve with legal documents.When it comes to process service then you can rely on Virginia process servers of One Source Process.1801 18th St NW,2nd Floor,Washington, DC 20009, United states
HIP Reconstruction Devices Market To Enroll 5.9 Billion USD by 2020

HIP Reconstruction Devices Market, HIP Reconstruction Devices Market Research, HIP Reconstruction Devices Market Report

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=76831539

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=76831539

Global HIP reconstruction devices market research has estimated to enroll USD 5.9 Billion market value by 2020 at a CAGR of 3.0% from 2015-2020. This market was valued at USD 4.8 Billion in 2014. Hip Reconstruction Devices market is expected to witness substantial growth due to increasing number of arthritis patients, favorable reimbursement, and technological advancements.Download PDF Brochure of this research -Despite this, the pricing pressure, waiting list and risk of complications after implantation are some of the major hindering factors.The government initiative of allocating new funds and development of new policies have reduced the waiting time for hip reconstructions, and increased the number of operations. However, it is difficult to achieve 90% threshold of patients that receive care within the regulated time.The technological advancements in hip reconstruction market, such as newly developed prostheses with improved strength and reliability of joints are reducing the need and cost of revision surgery. The minimally invasive techniques for hip reconstruction surgery will improve the precision and accuracy of surgeons, thus reducing the time of surgery. The emergence of these techniques and other improved surgical tools for the treatment of arthritis is expected to address the rising demand for surgery during the forecast period.In 2014, the global hip reconstruction devices market was dominated by North America. The market in North America is growing due to rising pool of arthritis, and favorable reimbursement. The European market is growing due to the technological advancements and is dominated majorly by Zimmer Inc. (U.S.) and Depuy Synthes (U.S.). The Asian market is growing due to growing health awareness among masses, along with increase in the spending capacity of the Indian population. Also, increasing number of population suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), government initiatives, and rising awareness towards hip reconstruction are propelling the market growth.This report also includes the market share, approach for arriving at the market size, new technology developments, product matrix, life cycle analysis, Porters five forces analysis and price analysis by product. In this report, market metrics are also included such as drivers, restraints and upcoming opportunities in the market. In addition, it presents a competitive landscape and company profiles of key players in the market including major companies which provide hip reconstruction devices as a product.The research study is aimed at identifying emerging trends and opportunities in the global hip reconstruction devices market along with detailed classifications, in terms of revenue. It provides comprehensive competitive landscape and identifies the key players with respect to market size and market share. The research study also includes a detailed segmentation of the global hip reconstruction devices market, on the basis of product, and region.For 'Queries' related to this research material, visit 'Inquiry Before Buy' at -MarketsandMarkets is worlds No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.Contact:Mr. RohanMarkets and MarketsUNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZMagarpatta city, HadapsarPune, Maharashtra 411013, India1-888-600-6441
JAC Vapour brings Make Your Own e-liquids to the mainstream

www.jacvapour.com

Edinburgh, UK - JAC Vapour, the UKs leading high quality e-cigarette company, has recently launched its brand new range of easy mix e-liquids called picNIC.Making it easy for users to create their own e-liquid flavours; picNIC is a range of 29 delicious flavourings and 4 nicotine bases that can be bought separately or as part of an easy to use kit. The range is manufactured in the UK and further flavour options are planned for the futureUsers simply1.pic their flavour (or flavours),2. choose their NIC-otine base liquid and3. mix together - everything is provided in the easy to use starter kit, including step by step instructions.Flavourings are available at 2.99 per 10ml, and 50ml base liquids (which are available in PG/VG (70/30), VG/PG (70/30), 100% VG and Clear Steam, JAC Vapours vapourless base) from 6.99.The introduction of an easy mix range of e-liquids caters for the everyday vaper who wants more choice, customisation and the ability to experiment with flavours whilst also saving money.picNIC easy mix e-liquids are produced to the same exacting standards as JAC Vapours other premium UK e-liquid ranges, they are CLP compliant and batch-tested at source and separately, in independent UK labs, to ensure all safety and quality standards are met.Emma Logan, Communications Director:Our customers wanted more flavours, more choices of nicotine bases  basically, more options to customise their vaping habit to best suit their needs. And we listened. After a long period of research and development crafting the best flavours and base blends, we've put together picNIC  an easy to use range of starter kits, mixing supplies and flavour concentrates for our customers to create their own unique e-liquids. It could not be simpler and since its launch the range has quickly become a best seller BackgroundThe e-cig industry continues to go from strength to strength, with an estimated 2.6 million users in the UK alone (source: ASH May 2015), and according to recent research (source: ITV, 900,000 used e-cigs last year to successfully quit smoking.E-cigarettes are designed to offer smokers an alternative to the continued use of tobacco. In a report published by Public Health England in August 2015, they stated that e-cigs are at least 95% safer to use than tobacco.For further information, visitAbout JAC VapourOperating globally since 2010, JAC Vapour has established itself as one of the foremost producers of high quality e-cigarettes and a market leader in terms of design, technology and industry innovation. With all products created under the companys 3 pillars of quality, performance and reliability.JAC Vapour LtdEmma Logan, Communication DirectorEmma@jacvapour.com99 Giles StreetEdinburgh
CRONUS SHOWS ITS METTLE WITH NEW CARDIFF GATEWAY

ABP Cardiff

One of Irelands most innovative logistic companies is now working with the Port of Cardiff in a move that guarantees container services continue to operate from Wales and expands the southern UK gateways to Ireland.Cronus Logistics has engaged with Associated British Ports (ABP) and integrated Cardiff into its Irish Sea schedule, all part of its ambitious plans to strengthen its expansion of the southern UK to Ireland gateways. This new operation enables Cronus Logistics to offer new door-to-door services for all full load cargoes whilst specialising in the steel, forestry and building sectors between Warrenpoint, Dublin, Bristol and Cardiff.The new gateway to Ireland dovetails neatly with Cronus Logistics investment in the steel and metals markets, according to managing director, Nicola Walker.Helping to keep the Cardiff service and port operations viable was only part of the reason we moved into Cardiff. This fits in with our own business model and coupled with our internal knowledge and investment in bespoke equipment to handle steel and other heavy metal engineering products represents a significant step in our development. The service began at the end of February and we can now provide door-to-door services from both Cardiff and Bristol in the UK as well as Dublin and Warrenpoint in Ireland continued Nicola.The 14-acre railhead at Cardiff provides a connected rail terminal linking directly into the national rail network opening up the whole of the UK and potential new markets. At Cardiff, full-length intermodal trains will now be discharged and loaded directly into the terminal. With an increase in rail traffic, Cardiff also has alarge area of open and covered storage next to the railhead that can easily accommodate large shipments.Irish cargoes can also benefit from onward transit from both Cardiff and Bristol on Borchard Lines West Mediterranean service, with sailings every 5 days. By utilising niche ports, Borchard Lines sails to/from Leixoes, Castellon, Salerno, Piraeus, Limassol, Ashdod, Haifa, Beirut, Alexandria, Mersin and Salerno. Cronus Logistics via the Port of Dublin is now also acting as the weekly feeder service to the Line.Nicola Walker sees this step as vital in developing Cronus Logistics door-to-door services and also as a natural fit for the company.Over the past 12 months we have increased our services across the Irish Sea and developed a strong link with the Port of Bristol and the southern part of the UK. Wales and Cardiff fit nicely into our plans for the steel, metals and forestry sectors, all areas we have strong experience and knowledge operating in. We have shown there is a more logical approach to door-to-door deliveries between Ireland and the UK. Now by linking these four ports through our own services we can strengthen the offerings to these core sectors to offer reduced road miles, lower CO2 emissions and tailored deliveries to customer needs.The Port of Cardiff was given a boost in 2015 with investment by ABP in new machinery, operational procedures, and renewable energy projects, all part of the ports operations handling more than 12 million tonnes of cargo each year.Ralph Windeatt, Head of Commercial, ABP South Wales ABP, said: This trade route is a vital link for our customers in South Wales, providing connections to suppliers and to important export markets. Were pleased to welcome Cronus asa new operator for the route and hope that the additional capacity they will bring will allow more customers to benefit from the service and support economic growth and job creation in South Wales and beyond. We look forward to working with Cronus to provide a first-class service to users of the line via Cardiff.Cronus has ensured the continuation of a container line service at the port and this can only be good news not only for the port of Cardiff but also for the four ports associated with this new service. Cronus has shown it is possible to have a strong line of communication between customers and suppliers and make door-to-door deliveries across the Irish Sea to suit those clients. Cardiff has a reputation for steel and we can see this new link driving this industry sector further using the Cronus expertise and operations."Cronus Logistics is a dedicated logistics specialist offering door to door services on the UK  Ireland gateway. The sustainable cost-effective multimodal solution breaks the mould of traditional LO/LO shipping to deliver a unique logistics alternative for the UK - Irish markets. Operating ships between the Port of Bristol and Warrenpoint, with 4 departures a week in each direction, the service enables a standard 48 hour door to door service for importers and exporters. Making supply chains greener by reducing road miles and breaking the mould of the traditional container shipping lines.Their 4000t vessels are capable of taking up to 80 forty-five foot curtain-sided or box containers, alongside 20ft and 40ft boxes and refrigerated containers. The ships can also easily accommodate out of gauge cargo.Bristol is only 90 miles from Birmingham, around 100 miles from London and with reducing road mileage a big factor for both exporters and importers, cutting their carbon footprint on an operationally effective yet more cost-efficient service starts to make a lot of logistical and financial sense.One of the big attractions of the port at Warrenpoint is its location, situated midway between Dublin and Belfast. It has excellent road links to the major population centres of Ireland and with an ever improving roads network, delivery times to all destinations are constantly being reduced.8 Skyline Business VillageLondonE14 9TS
Global Crop Protection Chemical Market to 2022 Size,Share,analysis,Trends and Forecast by Brisk Insights

BRISK INSIGHTS

http://www.briskinsights.com/category/chemical-and-material-industry

http://www.pdfdevices.com/global-green-solvent-market-is-expected-to-reach-8-5-billion-by-2022-brisk-insights

http://www.briskinsights.com

Crop Protection Chemical Market Analysis by Type, By Targeted, By Crop Type, Industry Size, Growth, Share and Forecast To 2022Briskinsights.com has announced the addition of " Crop Protection Chemical Market Analysis by Type, By Targeted, By Crop Type, Industry Size, Growth, Share and Forecast to 2022 Market Research Report to their Database.According to a recently published report, the Global Crop Protection Chemical Market is expected to grow at the CAGR of 5.23% during 2015-2022 and it is estimated to be $70.12 billion by 2022. The global crop protection chemical market is segmented on the basis of type, targeted use, crop type and geography. The report on global crop protection chemical market forecast 2015-2022 provides detailed overview and predictive analysis of the market.Read Full Report with TOC @ briskinsights.com/report/crop-protection-chemical-marketThere are many factors driving the market such as need to fulfill the increasing demand for food due to increasing population of the world. The arable land fit for cultivation is decreasing with a fast rate but the demand of food is increasing and hence comes the pressure to extract the maximum out of the limited resources and here comes the importance of crop protection chemicals which help to increase the yield of crop without compromising on quality. People have become more health conscious and demand for food that are healthy and free from harmful organisms.Although there are many drivers of the market there also exists certain restraints that hinder the growth of the market such as ban by certain regulatory authorities, because they have negative effects on human health. Also many a times extinction of beneficial species also takes place.The market leaders of the industry are Syngenta, BASF, DuPont, Dow Agro sciences. EtcView All Reports of This Category @Scope of the report1. Global Crop protection chemical market by type 2012-2022 ($ billion)1.1.1. Global crop protection chemicals market by Synthetic crop protection chemicals 2012-2022 ($ billion)1.1.2. Global crop protection chemicals market by Natural crop protection chemicals 2012-2022 ($ billion)2. Global Crop protection chemical market by targeted use 2012-2022 ($ billion)2.1.1. Global crop protection chemicals market by Insecticides 2012-2022 ($ billion)2.1.2. Global crop protection chemicals market by Herbicides 2012-2022 ($ billion)2.1.3. Global crop protection chemicals market by Pesticides 2012-2022 ($ billion)2.1.4. Global crop protection chemicals market by Adjuvant 2012-2022 ($ billion)3. Global Crop protection chemical market by crop type 2012-2022 ($ billion)3.1.1. Global crop protection chemicals market by Cereals and grains 2012-2022 ($ billion)3.1.2. Global crop protection chemicals market by Oilseeds and pulses 2012-2022 ($ billion)3.1.3. Global crop protection chemicals market by Fruits and vegetables 2012-2022 ($ billion)4. Global Crop protection chemical market regional outlook 2012-2022 ($ billion)Download a Sample Request Here @ briskinsights.com/sample-request/374.1. North America4.2. Europe4.3. Asia Pacific4.4. Middle East & Africa4.5. Central & South America4.6. Central & South America5. Competitive Landscape5.1. ADAMA Agricultural Solutions5.2. Agrimaxx5.3. Agrium5.4. Arham petrochem Pvt. Ltd.5.5. Arysta LifeScience5.6. Atul crop protection Ltd.5.7. BASF5.8. Bayer CropScience5.9. Biostad5.10. Cheminova5.11. Chemutra corporation5.12. Coromandel fertilizers5.13. Crystal Crop Protection5.14. Dow AgroSciences5.15. DuPont5.16. Nippon soda co. ltd.5.17. Novozyme5.18. Nufarm5.19. Sumitomo Chemical5.20. SyngentaRead Latest Report with TOC @Brisk Insights is a global market research firm. Our insightful analysis is focused on developed and emerging markets. We identify trends and forecast markets with a view to aid businesses identify market opportunities optimize strategies. Our team of 200 analysts provides enterprises with strategic insights. Brisk Insights works to help enterprises grow through strategic insights and actionable solutions.Contact Person: Jennifer SmithPhone: +448081890034Address: Office 1094 109 Vernon House Friar Lane Nottingham NG1 6DQ UKWeb:
Global Portable Bluetooth Speakers Market 2016 Industry Analysis Survey Research Growth and Forecast to 2021

Portable Bluetooth Speakers Market

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-portable-bluetooth-speakers-industry-2015-market-research.html

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-portable-bluetooth-speakers-industry-2015-market-research.html

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com

Global Portable Bluetooth Speakers Market 2016The report provides a basic overview of Portable Bluetooth Speakers Market including definitions, applications and industry chain structure. Global market analysis and Chinese domestic market analysis are provided with a focus on history, developments, trends and competitive landscape of the market. A comparison between the international and Chinese situation is also offered.Global Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Research Report 2016 also focuses on development policies and plans for the industry as well as a consideration of a cost structure analysis. Capacity production, market share analysis, import and export consumption and price cost production value gross margins are discussed.A key feature of this report is it focus on major industry players, providing an overview, product specification, product capacity, production price and contact information for Global Top15 companies. This enables end users to gain a comprehensive insight into the structure of the international and Chinese Portable Bluetooth Speakers industry. Development proposals and the feasibility of new investments are also analyzed. Companies and individuals interested in the structure and value of the Portable Bluetooth Speakers industry should consult this report for guidance and direction.GET FREE Sample Report @ qyresearchgroup.com/report/3620#request-sampleTable of ContentsChapter One Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Overview1.1 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Definition1.1.1 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Definition1.1.2 Product Specifications1.2 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Classification1.2.1 2014 Global Portable Bluetooth Speakers Sales Market Share by Product Type1.3 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Application1.3.1 2014 Global Portable Bluetooth Speakers Sales Market Share by Application1.4 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Chain Structure1.5 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Regional Overview1.6 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Policy Analysis1.7 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry News AnalysisChapter Two Portable Bluetooth Speakers Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.1 Raw Material Supplier and Price Analysis2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis2.3 Labor Cost Analysis2.4 Other Cost Analysis2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.6 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Manufacturing Process AnalysisChapter Three Portable Bluetooth Speakers Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity and Commercial Production Date3.2 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Portable Bluetooth Speakers Manufacturing Plants Distribution3.3 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Portable Bluetooth Speakers R&D Status and Technology Source3.4 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Portable Bluetooth Speakers Raw Materials Sources AnalysisChapter Four Portable Bluetooth Speakers Production by Regions by Technology by Applications4.1 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Production by Regions (Such as US EU China Japan etc)4.2 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Production by Technology (Key Type Product)4.3 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Production by Applications4.4 2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Price by Key Manufacturers4.5 2010-2015 US Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.6 2010-2015 EU Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.7 2010-2015 Japan Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.8 2010-2015 China Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.9 2010-2015 US Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Import Export Consumption4.10 2010-2015 EU Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Import Export Consumption4.11 2010-2015 Japan Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Import Export Consumption4.12 2010-2015 China Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Import Export ConsumptionChapter Five Portable Bluetooth Speakers Sales and Sales Revenue by Regions5.1 2010-2015 Sales by Regions (Such as US EU China Japan etc)5.2 2010-2015 Sales Revenue by Regions (Such as US EU China Japan etc)5.3 2010-2015 Sales Price by Regions (Such as US EU China Japan etc)5.4 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Price Cost Gross AnalysisChapter Six 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Productions Supply Sales Market Status and Forecast6.1 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity Production Overview6.2 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Production Market Share Analysis6.3 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Sales Overview6.4 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Sales and Shortage6.5 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Import Export Consumption6.6 2010-2015 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginBrowse Full Report with TOC @Chapter Seven Portable Bluetooth Speakers Key Manufacturers Analysis7.1 Harman Kardon7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specification7.1.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.1.4 Contact Information7.2 Bose7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specification7.2.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.2.4 Contact Information7.3 Fluance7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specification7.3.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.3.4 Contact Information7.4 Imation Corp.7.4.1 Company Profile7.4.2 Product Picture and Specification7.4.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.4.4 Contact Information7.5 Logitech7.5.1 Company Profile7.5.2 Product Picture and Specification7.5.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.5.4 Contact Information7.6 Creative7.6.1 Company Profile7.6.2 Product Picture and Specification7.6.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.6.4 Contact Information7.7 D&M Holdings7.7.1 Company Profile7.7.2 Product Picture and Specification7.7.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.7.4 Contact Information7.8 Koss Corporation7.8.1 Company Profile7.8.2 Product Picture and Specification7.8.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.8.4 Contact Information7.9 Jawbone7.9.1 Company Profile7.9.2 Product Picture and Specification7.9.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.9.4 Contact Information7.10 Soundmatters7.10.1 Company Profile7.10.2 Product Picture and Specification7.10.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.10.4 Contact Information7.11 KLIPSCH GROUP7.11.1 Company Profile7.11.2 Product Picture and Specification7.11.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.11.4 Contact Information7.12 Scosche Industries7.12.1 Company Profile7.12.2 Product Picture and Specification7.12.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.12.4 Contact InformationGET FREE Sample Report @ qyresearchgroup.com/report/3620#request-sample7.13 Divoom7.13.1 Company Profile7.13.2 Product Picture and Specification7.13.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.13.4 Contact Information7.14 Sony7.14.1 Company Profile7.14.2 Product Picture and Specification7.14.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.14.4 Contact Information7.15 SOL REPUBLIC7.15.1 Company Profile7.15.2 Product Picture and Specification7.15.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.15.4 Contact Information7.16 Philips7.16.1 Company Profile7.16.2 Product Picture and Specification7.16.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.16.4 Contact Information7.17 BRAVEN LLC7.17.1 Company Profile7.17.2 Product Picture and Specification7.17.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.17.4 Contact Information7.18 Beats Electronics LLC7.18.1 Company Profile7.18.2 Product Picture and Specification7.18.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.18.4 Contact Information7.19 GN Netcom7.19.1 Company Profile7.19.2 Product Picture and Specification7.19.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.19.4 Contact Information7.20 Poineer7.20.1 Company Profile7.20.2 Product Picture and Specification7.20.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.20.4 Contact InformationChapter Eight Price Gross Margin Analysis8.1 Price and Supply Consumption Analysis8.1.1 Price Analysis8.1.2 Supply Consumption Analysis8.2 Gross Margin Analysis8.3 Regional Price Comparison Analysis8.4 Different Product Type Price Analysis8.5 Different Price Level Market Share Analysis8.6 Different Application and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter Nine Portable Bluetooth Speakers Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis9.1 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Marketing Channels Status9.2 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Trader or Distributors and Their Contact Information9.3 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Ex-work Price Channel Price End Buyer Price Analysis9.4 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Regional Import Export Trading AnalysisChapter Ten 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Development Trend10.1 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Capacity Production Overview10.2 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Production Market Share Analysis10.3 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Sales Overview10.4 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Sales and Shortage10.5 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Import Export Consumption10.6 2015-2020 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginChapter Eleven Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Chain Suppliers and Contact Information Analysis11.1 Raw Materials Major Suppliers and Contact Information11.2 Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers and Contact Information11.3 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Major Suppliers and Contact Information11.4 Key Consumers and Their Contact Information11.5 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Supply Chain Relationship AnalysisChapter Twelve Portable Bluetooth Speakers New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis12.1 Portable Bluetooth Speakers Project SWOT Analysis12.2 Portable Bluetooth Speakers New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisChapter Thirteen Global Portable Bluetooth Speakers Industry Research ConclusionsRead More @QYResearch Group is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. QYResearch Group also carries the capability to assist you with your customized market research requirements including in-depth market surveys, primary interviews, competitive landscaping, and company profiles. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics. QYResearch Group is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Web:Email: sales@qyresearchgroup.com
Top Interior Designing Colleges, Top Fashion Designing College Bangalore

Welcome to INIFD the Cradle of DesignersINTER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION DESIGN (INIFD), World's Largest Network of Design Institute with 18 Years of Existence, Over 2 Lac Pass Outs And Approximately 20,000 Students Passing Out Each Year, INIFD Centres Worldwide, National And International Collaborations, Providing The Nation's Common Man A New Perspective And Career In Fashion And Design.FASHION DESIGNINGFashion Designing Courses 6 Month Fast Track of Fashion Designing 1 Year Diploma in Fashion Designing 2 Year Advanced Diploma in Fashion Designing 3 Year Bsc in Fashion Designing 2 Year Msc in Fashion Designing1. 6 Month Fast Track of Fashion DesigningCourse Details1. Fashion Foundation2. Textile Fundamentals in Apparels3. Fashion Figure Drawing4. Elementary Tailoring TechniqueCareer Opportunities & other stuffs.1. Costume Designer2. Fashion Merchandiser3. Fashion Consultant4. Personal Stylist5. Technical Designer6. Graphic Designer7. Export Houses8. Textile Mills9. Films/Television10. Faculty- Education Industry11. Self EmployedOpportunities for students to participate in Lakme Fashion Week, Internship & 100% placement assistance, Wifi Campus, Weekdays & Weekend course for professionals, homemakers & students, Lifetime alumini benefit to job openings, professional workshops & seminars, Site visit, Industrial Visit, professional workshops & seminars, Practical exposuresMedium: English1. A course that will distinguish you for life2. Shaping the future of young designers3. Build on a solid foundation4. Our students dazzle5. The List is endless. So are the possibilitiesEligibility: 10th Standard 1 Year Diploma in Fashion Designing 2 Year Advanced Diploma in Fashion Designing 3 Year Bsc in Fashion Designing 2 Year Msc in Fashion DesigningINTER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION DESIGN (INIFD), World's Largest Network of Design Institute with 18 Years of Existence, Over 2 Lac Pass Outs And Approximately 20,000 Students Passing Out Each Year, INIFD Centres Worldwide, National And International Collaborations, Providing The Nation's Common Man A New Perspective And Career In Fashion And Design.INIFD BangaloreINTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION DESIGN - INIFD BangaloreThe Design CentrePrestige Emporium,No-46 / 18 , Ward No -76 2nd Floor,Land Mark- Next To Cauvery Handicraft Emporium & Above Splash,M G Road, Bangalore- 560001KarnatakaPhone no : 080-42012631
Light House Studio announces Portrait Photography and Creative DSLR Film Making Workshops

Brett Florens, Nikon Brand Ambassador

www.lighthouse.ae

-sessions designed for amateurs and professionals in pursuit of perfection-Light House Studio Dubai presents two intensive one-day workshops on Saturday 26th March 2016 to be held at its studios in Al Quoz. Portrait Photography by Nikon brand ambassador Brett Florens and Creative DSLR Film Making workshop by The Hauke Digital Productions will run simultaneously from 10am to 6pm covering both basic training and technical post-production sessions. Participants will explore creative storyboard preparation, light manipulation, editing techniques and post-production receiving attendance certificate at the end of the workshops. Priced at AED 1,470 per person per course, early bird booking is discounted for AED 1,100 and with limited seats available participants are recommended to book ahead to avoid disappointment.Brett Florens returns to Dubai for the forth time following his sold out wedding and fashion workshops, to mentor young photographer keen to specialize in portrait photography. The session will cover understanding of portraits, studying the subject, personality, and temperament, capturing that photo that speaks louder than words. The workshop will offer practical experience and explore different lighting techniques from sources of natural and artificial lighting as well as manipulation for ambient light. Participants will perform test assignments in varying environments thus identifying unique aspects of techniques practiced by professional photographers.Designed for budding filmmakers, freelancers and entrepreneurs, the Hauke Workshop, creative DSLR film making master class, is presented by The Hauke Digital Productions team; Andreas Hauke, specialist in production of high-end corporate films, commercial and event productions and Jacques-Francois du Toit, an avid cinematographer who has developed fashion inspired editing style synonymous with the brand. The DSLR filmmaking workshop will focus on creative technique, shooting and editing, essential for cinema, corporate as well as commercial shoots. Whether pursuing a career in film industry or looking at horning technical skills, the workshop covers basic of shooting, Gorilla style shooting, known as freestyle and creating impressive low-budget videos. The session will also cover the wonderful world of imagination, finding your creative voice and producing impressive result oriented work. As video contents continue to become essential marketing tools, the team will highlight shooting angles, effects of lighting and background to enhance the final production with attendants invited to a practical video making session. The Hauke Digital Productions bring passion, energy and dedication to any project no matter how big or small to delivers ultimate results every time.As the industry continues to evolve so must we; at Light House Studio, our ambition is to bring quality workshops to assist photographers and film makers alike in developing skill sets necessary in the dynamic and growing landscape. We continue to source out demanding topics relevant to the market and these workshops are becoming popular not just in UAE but also across the region. This is a testament of increasing industry demand for such programs said Kashif Joosub, Managing Director, Light House Studio.Creative DSLR Filmmaking by Hauke Digital Productions - Andreas Hauke & Jacques-Francois du Toit: Early bird special: 1,100 AED or Regular Price 1, 470 AED per person.Portrait Photography Workshop by Brett Florens Photography: Early bird special: 1,100 AED or Regular Price 1, 470 AED per person.Both workshops take place on Saturday 26th March 2016 from 10am to 6pm with complimentary lunch and an attendance certificate for the workshops. The classes are on first come first serve basis with limited of only 15 attendants. Register in advance to avoid disappointment; for bookings contact Light House Studio: Tel: +971-4-341 9697 or email: info@lighthouse.ae. For more information visitLight House Studio in Dubai are modern state-of-the-art studios that offers studios and equipment rental as well as photography, video and production services. Located at 22 & 27 Street Al Quoz, Dubai U.A.E. (10 minutes from Media City), their aim is to provide a hassle-free, friendly and relaxed environment during any shoot. Studio Rental: Light House Studio in Dubai boast of over 6,000 sq. ft area (2 studios) for shoots equipped with corners, infinity curves, green screen, wall lighting grid and sound proof acoustics. In-house facilities include lounge areas with iPads, Dressing rooms with hangers and Racks for the stylists, Lockable cabinets, Hair and make-up areas, Kitchenette with food counters, and Surround sound system. Along with the studios, they offer complimentary refreshments and high speed WIFI internet access. They can also arrange for a caterer to provide F&B requirements during a shoot. Although the studios are primarily for photographic, video & film productions, they can also cater for events, galleries and workshops. Equipment Rental: Light House Studio considers it of paramount importance that your shoot is a success. They are in partnership with the best brands to provide a comprehensive stock of lighting equipment, cameras, and accessories available on-site. Their objective is to provide a rapid response while offering a wide range of products. When provided with an equipment list, the on-site assistants can set-up everything before arrival. E-mail for more information or to receive a quote equipment needs at info@lighthouse.ae or simply call us at +971-4-341 96 97. Photography: Light House Studio offers photography services from talented in-house photographers and a pool of professional photographers within the region. They cater to any photography needs for events, fashion shoots, portraits, weddings, products and other photographic projects.Video and Film: Light House Studio offers videography services from talented in-house team and a range of international talent. We cover the following videography for events, fashion shows, behind the scenes, weddings, corporate videos, commercials, music videos, animation and all any other video and film projects you may require. Talent Agency: Their database grows daily of variety of different talents, ranging from Models, Make-up Artists, Hair Stylist, Wardrobe stylist, Creative Directors, Photographers, Videographers, Cinematographers, just to name a few. Workshops: They have teamed up with the best in the industry from all over the Globe to bring them closer to you. Get hands-on training, explore different locations, and boost your knowledge. Other Services: At Light House Studio, they offer photo prints, album books, canvas prints, stickers, and large format printing. They also do cleaning of camera sensors and repairing of digital SLR cameras and equipment.P.O.Box 110927DubaiUAE
Signing the Contract of Establishing the First Arabic Online Marketplace for Exchanging Media Products and Works of Art

http://www.ibaroody.com

Total Syndication has concluded a contract with iBaroody to develop the first Arabic online platform for marketing of media products and artistic works, signed by Mr. Issam AYAD, president and founder of Total Syndication and Mr. Aziz BAROODY, Chief Executive Officer of iBaroody, noting that the projects first version is expected to be launched within three months.In fact, Total Syndication represents an ambitious initiative in the space of Arabic content production through creating an interactive hub for creators and producers from production houses along with individuals to promote their creativity and programs to all desiring satellite and digital channels on the web. It is a going to be the preferred marketplace for making deals, watching popular shows, voting for the best content, and following up media trends. In addition, the website aims to become a credible source to find Arab writers and thought leaders who specialize in Middle Eastern affairs and buy their works in order to republish them either digitally or in hard copy publications.The idea of Total Syndication has emerged from the previous practical expertise in Arab media field where the team of the parent company Total Media Cast  who specializes in establishing and launching media channels  noticed the real need of their clients to access the suitable content at reasonable price and high quality. The team has also witnessed the growth of the market of research reports and written articles as well as the vast gap separating educated writers and intellectuals and the appropriate channels that are keen to obtain and publish their work.After studying several proposals offered by the TOP Web & Software Development Companies in the region, it has been agreed that iBaroody is the right choice to build this new original project based on their proven experience and already delivered software. This decision was made because iBaroody is already using the latest most advanced programming, technologies, digital interaction techniques and systems which ensure the best user friendly experience to all our visitors and registered members.Currently, efforts are focused on launching the website in the near future, providing almost one thousand hours of distinguished television and film production, in addition to articles from a group of Arab writers and experts.For more information, kindly contact Total Syndication by email: Info@TotalSyndication.comiBaroody LLC is a Web Solutions website design, web development & SEO Company with an American business background, and incorporated history, serving just over 1500 different clients since 2002. Our business module today is the result of years on the job experience in the United States. This gave us the ability to continuously keep up with the fast growing Internet, Web, IT and Business Solution Demands and the serious competitive edge with pioneering companies.iBaroody LLCContact Address: 1st Floor Mega Mall Building, Furn el-Chebbak Main StreetCity BeirutState BeirutZip 29212Country LebanonPhone +9611284222Fax 961 1 284 222Company Email amb@ibaroody.comWebsite
ATEN UK launches their first LIVE Open Road show in 2016

The First A/V and IT Connectivity Management Solutions Road Show in the UK with ATEN UK

Reinforcing todays infrastructure solution in the A/V marketATEN UK has announced that they have officially launched their first out of six LIVE Opened Demonstration Road Shows across the UK.Their first Road show will be located at their prestigious demonstration room(s) in Slough, Berkshire  the first A/V and IT connectivity management solutions road show in the UK  on March 18. The company will help you to discover flawless effective solutions to deploy single and multiple sources to a single or multiple locations simultaneously, with the ability to access and view information within a short or long distance, seamlessly - ultimately minimise disruptions, unify communications and increase productivity.Why it is called a LIVE Open Demonstration Road show  due to their open door policy, visitors have the flexibility to join and leave when they decide, whether it is during a morning or afternoon session or at a particular topic discussed on the day. Visitors also have the opportunities to be proactive during these road shows to set up demonstrations and to proof any uncertainties they may have.ATEN UKs road shows will help visitors to discover a range of benefits within controlled working environments such as increased productivity, communication and collaboration, as well as the ability of monitoring and managing visual information wirelessly and connecting your business where it wants to be.During their first road show, ATEN UK will introduce their Enterprise A/V solutions such as their first control system, seamless video matrix and splitter. As a member of HDBaseT Alliance, ATEN UK has the capability to streamline operational process.ATEN UK is able to provide unparallel advice and the ability to educate the industry with our solutions through live road show demonstrations, said Toni Wong, Senior Marketing Executive of ATEN UK. Our sales team thrives to provide our industry with solutions that meets and excels requirements. We continue to invest in knowledge and technology to ensure we have the right solutions which meet the real needs of the industry.Travelling to our demonstration rooms is straight forward; easily accessible from the M4 and M25 by car with ample parking, train and public transports are approximately 15 minutes away from Slough train and bus station.For more information on the details of the road shows register today and reserve your free space email sales@aten.co.ukATEN UK, 18th March 2016  ATEN UK, a subsidiary of ATEN International Co., Ltd. is the world-leading designer and manufacturer of advanced connectivity and management solutions.ATEN UK Ltd466 Malton AvenueSloughBerkshireSL1 4QU
Global and China TV Remote Controller Industry 2015 Market Analysis, Emerging Growth Figures, Future Trends & Huge Requirements

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=483604&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-and-china-tv-remote-controller-industry-2015-market-research-report.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/category/ict-market-reports-96.html

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

The report titled TV Remote Controller presents a comprehensive overview of the Global and China TV Remote Controller market Forecasts 2015 and sheds light on all the important parameters impacting the markets growth. The report segments the TV Remote Controller market on the basis of products, application areas and presents the nearest approximations on the revenue numbers for the overall market along with presenting the sub-segments. The report also presents the market number for the various regions dominant within the TV Remote Controller market.The report is compiled by collecting data via both primary and secondary research methods. The information provided in the report on the TV Remote Controller market is up to date and covers a number of market dynamics. The report includes relevant information such as market drivers, restraints, opportunities, trends, and challenges. These market dynamics have also been studied on the basis of impact analysis, which studies the impact of these market dynamics on the growth of the overall market.Request a Sample Copy of Report @There are a number of assumptions that are taken into consideration in order to evaluate the market size. Amongst these assumptions, a few include economic, political, technological, economic, and social factors. The report helps the new entrants in understanding the competitors and provides insights on the better positioning of ones business. The report also includes a section on the competitive landscape entailing the mergers and acquisitions, end-user analysis, and expansions. In addition to this, the report also presents the company profiles of the key players operating in the market.The report also studies the impact of Porters five forces on the growth of the TV Remote Controller market. The key strategies used by the top vendors operating in the TV Remote Controller market have also been detailed. The adoption of these strategies will help the new entrants to successfully penetrate in the Global and China TV Remote Controller market.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of ContentsChapter One TV Remote Controller Industry Overview1.1 TV Remote Controller Definition1.1.1 TV Remote Controller Product Pictures & Product Specifications1.2 TV Remote Controller Classification & ApplicationChapter Two TV Remote Controller Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.1 TV Remote Controller Raw Material & Equipments Supplier and Price Analysis2.3 TV Remote Controller Labor & Other Cost Analysis2.5 TV Remote Controller Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.6 TV Remote Controller Manufacturing Process AnalysisChapter Three TV Remote Controller Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 2015 Global and China Key Manufacturers TV Remote Controller Capacity and Commercial Production Date3.2 2015 Global and China Key Manufacturers TV Remote Controller Manufacturing Plants Distribution3.3 2015 Global and China Key Manufacturers TV Remote Controller R&D Status and Technology Sources3.4 2015 Global and China Key Manufacturers TV Remote Controller Raw Materials Sources AnalysisChapter Four TV Remote Controller Production by Regions, Technology and Applications4.1 2010-2015 TV Remote Controller Production by Regions(such as US, EU, China and Japan etc)4.2 2010-2015 TV Remote Controller Production by Product Type & Application4.4 2010-2015 TV Remote Controller Price by key Manufacturers4.5 2010-2015 US & China TV Remote Controller Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.6 2010-2015 Europe and Japan TV Remote Controller Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.9 2010-2015 US and China TV Remote Controller Supply Import Export Consumption4.10 2010-2015 Europe and Japan TV Remote Controller Supply Import Export ConsumptionDiscover More Reports on ICT @QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.QYResearchReports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
A fresh scam hits OVLG - Lodged a complaint with the FBI to slam scammers

https://www.ovlg.com/scam.html)2P9L2

http://www.ic3.gov;

http://www.ic3.gov

OVLG has requested the Federal Bureau Of Investigations on February 27, 2016, to bring an end to the latest scam wherein countless consumers are getting victimized by fraudsters using the domain names oak-view-law-groups.com or manager-collections.com. The perpetrators have falsely identified themselves as counselors/attorneys affiliated with OVLG and threatened consumers to pay money to avoid dire legal consequences. Enom Corporation is the maintainer of these 2 domains and registration records.OVLG has asked Enom Corporation to revoke these domain names immediately. They have asked Enom Corporation to reveal registrant and owner information of both domains so that strict action can be taken against perpetrators who have carried out illicit activities by using OVLGs name.The perpetrators have violated various federal and state consumer protection laws - FDCPA, trademarks and copyrights to name just a few. They have deceived customers, misused laws, indulged in fraudulent activities and maligned OVLGs reputation in the industry.OVLG is not a debt collection agency. It is not associated with oak-view-law-groups.com or manager-collections.com. It is a law firm that has been helping financially challenged people since 2007.The fraudsters scammed not only innocent customers but also caused irreparable damage to OVLGs reputation in the industry. OVLGs attorneys have even requested California Attorney General E-Crimes Unit to build a criminal case against the perpetrators. The perpetrators have conducted illegal activities in the past also and had several domains suspended.OVLG has requested FBI to investigate the matter, uncover perpetrators, and serve justice. Justice should prevail at any cost.This is not the first time when someone has tried to scam consumers using OVLGs name (. Mark Goodman sent threatening emails to consumers. He threatened consumers with legal consequences if they didnt pay OVLG. Consumers made frantic calls to OVLG and informed them about the fraud attempt. OVLG immediately requested San Francisco FBI office to investigate the matter. They also requested local police jurisdictions of Citrus Heights and Los Altos to put down the scam attempt.OVLG is against scams and scammers. Consumers can send an email to kalani(@)ovlg(dot).com or contact with the reference case ID: I1511061624148681 online ator click "file a complaint online at. OVLG will take all the necessary steps to protect consumers.Oak View Law Group is a top-notch law firm in the country offering best legal services in the country. It is dedicated to help financially challenged people save money and get out of debt troubles since 2007. It has a powerful attorney hub to protect rights and reputation of consumers.Oak View Law Group, APCAddress: 4966 El Camino Real #225, Los Altos, CA 94022, United StatesPhone:+1 800-530-6854For any complaints: complaints@oakviewlaw.comFor becoming our client: clientintake@oakviewlaw.comFor customer service: customerservice@oakviewlaw.comFor all other questions: contact@oakviewlaw.com
Thermoseal Group at the FIT Show 2016 Innovation Zone

www.thermosealgroup.com

The Fit Show 2016 will see Thermoseal Group showcase its highest performance spacer systems - Thermobar and Thermoflex Warm Edge Spacers. See the Group on Stand A60 in the Innovation Zone.Thermoseal Group is the leading UK manufacturer of warm edge spacer systems and supplier of over 1,500 insulated glass (IG) components. With over 35 years of experience supplying to IG manufacturers and a large private investment into manufacturing and development of its own IG component manufacturing site with a dedicated product innovation centre, Thermoseal Group has a continual flow of new IG products. Its dedicated injection moulding division also ensures that new products are introduced with colour-matched bespoke fittings where applicable.Thermobar and Thermoflex warm edge spacers have achieved Bundesverband Flachglas thermal ratings of 0.14W/mK and 0.135W/mK respectively. In addition, these spacer bars have achieved Passive House ratings of phA+ certifying them for use in Arctic climates.All products supplied by Thermoseal Group are tested by the Groups innovation centre which houses a wide range of equipment dedicated to testing the tolerance and overall performance of its products. The Group also has its own EN1279 test centre to make and test its own IG units to European standards and beyond. This ensures an understanding of how each component performs within the lifetime of the unit.Marketing Manager, Samantha Hill explains: Thermoseal Group has spent millions of pounds in recent years on the development of new products and in enhancing our innovation centre. We now have a wide variety of equipment and the expertise we have in the IG industry and IG products puts our offering beyond any others.At the Fit Show, we would like to show installers how our product quality and the back-up service we offer is the best in the industry. Wed also like to show our Thermobar Interbar and Duplex Systems to simulate multi-pane windows using a warm edge solution. Thermobar systems offer a much lower heat transfer than alternative aluminium systems. Contact our marketing department now on 0121 331 3950 or marketing@thermosealgroup.com for free VIP tickets to the show.To find out about Thermoseal Group and its comprehensive range of insulated glass components (including highest performance Thermobar and Thermoflex Warm Edge Spacers) and machinery for glazing manufacture, call +44(0)121 331 3950 or visitThermoseal Group is dedicated to insulated glass. We have our own innovation centre where we develop new insulated glass components with a focus on energy efficiency. We manufacture warm edge spacers in the UK, as well as many other insulated glass components. We supply over 1,500 insulated glass components, including: sustainable warm edge spacers, aluminium spacer bars and steel spacer bars and accessories; integrated blinds; Victorian grille; Georgian style window components; molecular sieve desiccant; sealants; lead; decorative glass bevels and accessories; adhesive tapes; tools for glazing manufacturing, and most other items required for sealed unit manufacture.Thermoseal GroupGavin WayNexus PointOff Holford DriveBirminghamB6 7AFSamantha Hillmarketing@thermosealgroup.com0845 331 3950
Dolphins global vision for accessibility

Women at a blindschool in New Delhi find out about Dolphin assistive technology

A UK technology company has travelled to India to share their technology for blind and low vision people with a wider audience.Dolphin Computer Access develops software to enable blind and visually impaired computer users to access technology in the same way as fully sighted users, and celebrates their 30 year anniversary this year. Over that time they have built a global network of users; from visually impaired individuals accessing computers for education, employment and enjoyment, to organisations creating accessible documents in large print, braille and audio formats.Techshare India, a conference organised and run by Indian accessibility organisation BarrierBreak brings worldwide assistive technology providers together to showcase their products and solutions. This years theme was "Towards Digital Inclusion". Dolphin Computer Access presented at the 2 day event in New Delhi; around Windows 10 accessibility for blind and low vision people, and EasyConverter which creates alternative format documents in 3 easy steps.As well as the Techshare India exhibition, Dolphin sales director Steve Bennett visited the Sabita and Saradindu Basu Centre for Blind Women in New Delhi. The centre provides education, support and counselling and is open to women of all ages who have been born blind or lost their sight in later life. It helps them to deal with the practical and social side of sight loss, as well as training in subjects such as technology, personal development and life skills. The centre aims to educate and empower its members to the point they can leave the school and get jobs.Steve spoke to the centre members about the technology that is available to help them achieve their employment dreams, and demonstrated Dolphin products which they can use to magnify screen content to a size they can view comfortably, as well as a speech function which reads screen content, including typed input, aloud. Through this technology, blind and visually impaired users can access emails, browse the internet and read books online.The women at the centre were very enthusiastic and loved getting the chance to try the product first hand; realising the difference this could make to their futures.At Dolphin we believe that everyone should be able to use a computer, whatever their level of sight. We design and develop software from the ground up to help people achieve that. It doesnt matter if youve never used a computer or are tech savvy but need help with accessibility; we have a product to meet your needs. From crystal clear magnification through to speech output, our products enable people to work, learn and play.Dolphin Computer AccessTechnology HouseBlackpole Estate WestWorcesterWR3 8TJ
the future of the action thriller is female!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artemisprotocol/the-artemis-protocol-a-new-type-of-female-action-m

Award winning female director/producer team, Shamim Sarif and Hanan Kattan to bring a powerful female presence to a previously male dominated genre.Award winning film company Enlightenment Productions announced today that it is raising funds via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to finish the pre-production development of their revolutionary new female-centric action thriller movie, The Artemis Protocol. The company is setting out to raise 50,000 on Kickstarter to complete this stage of development and create the foundation for an amazing cinematic experience.Women are rarely leads in action films, and behind the camera, women direct fewer than 6% of movies in the world. When it comes to action movies, that percentage drops to something minuscule. The team at Enlightenment are looking to change that and bring gender parity both behind the scenes and in front of the camera with a cast of six lead women - diverse, complex and of different ages.The Artemis Protocol is an all female action film, but it is quite unique in its genre. It is a meaningful, gritty thriller about a group of influential women who run a rogue organisation, using highly-trained female operatives. The story moves from militia camps in West Africa to the slums of Eastern Europe and takes on human trafficking from the perspective of women who will go to extreme lengths to make a real difference. The films underlying theme is about trying to remain accountable when no one is watching and finding the courage to live with integrity when integrity might not be popular.Enlightenment Productions is owned and run by two irrepressible and dynamic women, writer and director Shamim Sarif and producer Hanan Kattan, who together have a reputation for creating movies that champion strong female characters. Taking the road less travelled in an industry that traditionally likes stories and writers and directors to conform to a safe movie-making formula. Together, they have released three award winning feature films and one hard-hitting documentary. Their first film, I Cant Think Straight, became a cult success and won 11 awards. Their second, The World Unseen, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and went on to garner 23 awards worldwide, including 11 South African Film & TV Awards (SAFTAs). Most recently, Despite The Falling Snow, offering a rare female perspective on the cold war, releases in the UK on April 15th and stars Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible 5) and Charles Dance. The movie just picked up its first award at Manchester International Festival this past week.Writer of the three previous films and The Artemis Protocol, Shamim Sarif said,Weve previously always funded development of our films ourselves and have already funded the first stage of The Artemis Protocol. But for a project of this ambition, we need industry buy in and we are working tirelessly right now to raise the industry investment to make the movie happen. To do this we need to deliver a visually compelling storyboard, complete with sequence and effects concepts, costume and set designs and to bring top level female acting talent on board. Which is where we will be investing the majority of our Kickstarter funding.Check out The Artemis Protocol on Kickstarter ator visit the website artemisprotocol.com or follow on social media facebook.com/artemisprotocol twitter.com@artemisprotocolThe Artemis Protocol SynopsisFrom their sleek London headquarters, a group of wealthy women run a secret organisationnamed Artemis, using highly-trained female agents to sort out global issues that governmentswont touch. The organisation is founded by a trio of successful women who couldnt be moredifferent on the surface - British ex-rock star Kit, Chinese technology tycoon Li, and former USAmbassadors wife, Peggy.Their primary method of attack is a covert team of younger female agents. With youthfulimmaturity and emotional scars, these women share disparate views and backgrounds.Dealing in the shadowy world of international criminality, the women test their courage against human traffickers, while trying to keep the moral high ground. But the very qualities that make the young agents able to fight and kill can also taint the ideals of the women running the organisation - and both sides have lessons to learn.Enlightenment Productions LtdUnit 9, Princeton Mews165-167 London RoadKingston-upon-ThamesSurreyKT2 6PT+44 (0)20 8546 8819
Z-LASER presents its new laser projector at the JEC World Composites Show 2016 in Paris

ZLPs laser projection on composite material/carbon

www.z-laser.com

Z-LASER presents new, multicolor laser projector in Paris | Z-LASER as member on the booth of the federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg | First fiber combined laser with red and green source in one device | Fiber combined laser with enhanced laser beam quality | Output rating from 7mW up to 40mW | Optics focusable by 0.5m up to 7.0m, additionally up to 14.0m | Fast driver card less flickering projectionsFreiburg/Paris: Z-LASER Optoelektronik GmbH from Freiburg (Germany) is presenting - first time ever - its new laser projector ZLP at this years JEC Composites Show in Paris. Z-LASER laser projectors are usually used in the composite industry, in branches like ship building, vehicle construction, scale modeling or space and aeronautics. For example: assembling of rotor blades of wind turbines.The ZLPs goal and difference to the conventional laser projectors is that ZLP, with its newly developed fiber-coupling, now projects highly precise multi-colored contours on different materials. At the JEC Paris a projector with a red (638nm) and a green (520nm) fiber source is going to be presented. This source delivers an enhanced laser beam quality and visibility. Depending on chosen material, the contours can be projected in red, green or yellow.The required data can be submitted either via Ethernet, PLC or serial input. Depending on clients specifications three different coolings are possible: passive, integrated thermoelectric cooler or water cooling. The ZLP operates with output ratings between 7mW up to max. 40mW (as special solution). The ZLP can work within the range of 0.5m up to 7.0m to the projection ground. With an additional enlargement optic (Tele-optic) up to 14.0m can also be realized.Within the past 30 years Z-LASER developed from a manufacturer of simple positioning lasers to the solution developing partner in the field of laser image processing and OEM in different industries. From Freiburg (Germany) the manufactured laser products are sold worldwide through a network of international distributors. Research, development and manufacturing of all components, and finally the whole laser is made 100% in Germany. Therefore every Z-LASER is a real Made in Germany product. In the headquarter in Freiburg (Germany) about 85 employees develop and create laser modules and innovative laser products/solutions. The Department of Research and Development itself is about 30% of the employees resources.In the region of Freiburg/Baden-Wurttemberg, Z-LASER delivers a major contribution for the preservation of the local business location. Also Z-LASER educates continuously trainees in the field of electronic and business administration (apprenticeship) and is a well-known and approved partner of several universities (degree studies).M. ReischMarketingleiterTel: +49 / 761 / 29644 364Fax: +49 / 761 / 29644 55Mail: reisch@z-laser.deWeb:Z-LASER Optoelektronik GmbHMerzhauserstr. 13479100 Freiburg / Germany
Industrial Data Acquisition Systems for Process Overview

Industrial DAQ Solutions

www.DataLoggerInc.com

www.dataloggerinc.com

ADwin, Delphin and dataTaker for Process Data Acquisition!CHESTERLAND, OHMarch 8, 2016Delphin, ADwin and dataTaker data acquisition systems are ideal for all types of industrial applications such as process or machine monitoring and control, fault diagnosis, product measurement, or data logging for compliance monitoring.At CAS DataLoggers we provide these systems along with FREE on-call technical support. Just give our experienced Applications Specialists a call at (800) 956-4437 to find the right data acquisition system or data logger for your individual project.Industrial Communications Array:These systems support scaling from just a few to hundreds of channels. They offer the flexibility to mix and match I/Os to meet the specific needs of the application and also offer easy connection to a PC via LAN, USB or WiFi. We offer models with the ability to interface to many common industrial communications buses: CAN, Profibus, Fieldbus and Modbus. They are also available in compact models with DIN rail mounting for easy installation in a control cabinet, test stand, or control room.ADwin:ADwin real-time control systems support parallel, individually-controlled, real-time processes while running independently of the PC's operating system. ADwin systems provide deterministic operation with response times of 1 usec. or less. A key feature is tightly coupled analog and digital inputs along with counters that provide extremely low latency operation.Delphin Technology:Delphin universal data logging systems solve a variety of measurement and control problems in industrial and laboratory applications. They feature different analog and digital input and output modules that can be used with a wide range of signal types including: voltage; 4-20 mA current; thermocouple; RTD; and resistance. They also offer powerful alarm and programming capabilities to allow the instruments to process measurements and initiate actions on their own.dataTaker:An extensive line of sophisticated and versatile data loggers with the ability to handle almost any sensor input: Temperature, Voltage, Current, 4-20mA Loops, Resistance, Bridges, Strain Gauges, Frequency, Digital, Serial and Calculated Measurements. They offer powerful alarm and programming capabilities to allow the loggers to process measurements and initiate actions on their own.The Data Logging Experts:Computer Aided Solutions, LLC. dba CAS Data Loggers is a distributor of data loggers, paperless recorders and data acquisition equipment. We have been in business for over 20 years, and actively involved in selling data loggers and real-time systems since 2001. Our staff has over 100 years of total experience with different types of data acquisition and test and measurement equipment. We also provide free technical support on all of our products.For further information on several lines of Industrial DAQ systems, or to find the ideal solution for your application-specific needs, contact a CAS Data Logger Applications Specialist at (800) 956-4437 or visit our website atContact Information:CAS DataLoggers, Inc.8437 Mayfield Rd.Chesterland, Ohio 44026(440) 729-2570(800) 956-4437sales@dataloggerinc.com
New Artbit App Brings Fun & Engagement to the Art World with Point-and-Snap Technology

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/artbit/id899962148?mt=8?utm_source=pr8316

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vstory.artbit&hl=en?utm_source=pr8316

Artbit instantly recognizes over a million works of art, providing new ways to share, discover, and learnArtbit announced the release of the Artbit app for iPhone and Android today, providing the world with a fun and engaging new way to enjoy and experience art. With advanced vision recognition capabilities, Artbit instantly recognizes artworks to reveal insider insights, offbeat discoveries, and social interactions.The revolutionary app can recognize over a million works of art from across the globesimply aim, point, and click for Artbit to instantly reveal fun and interesting facts about the piece, the artist, and more. Love a piece that isnt recognized? Users can simply add it to Artbits living and breathing archive, along with information such as artists name, medium, dimensions, etc. And with built-in sharing and discovery options, Artbit is a powerful and engaging social forum, whether users are perusing their local gallery, walking down the street, or at their favorite restaurantin short, wherever they are. Imagine Shazam and Wikipedia had an art-loving baby. This is Artbittaking the art world to the 21st century, leveraging the power of the crowd to create the worlds largest art discovery platform.In addition to enriching the art experience for consumers, Artbit also provides a valuable exposure platform for galleries, museums, and emerging artistsgiving them unprecedented access to art enthusiasts around the globe.Artbit FeaturesArtbit allows the world to: Instantly recognize artwork with a simple point and click from their phone Discover fascinating facts and stories behind over a million works of art Capture and share their favorite art with others around the world Find nearby art venues and exhibitions Write and read reviews Get social by following other Artbit enthusiasts (coming soon)Arbit enables galleries and artists to: Launch a professional platform for their business designed specifically for art enthusiasts Be discovered by new fans and clients from around the world Create new revenue streams both locally and abroad Enhance the share-ability of news, inventory and events Promote their art portfolio to a broad market of art enthusiastsPricing and AvailabilityArtbit is available through the App Store and Google Play for free. Artbit is designed for iPhone and Android devices. Artbit for iPhone requires iOS 8.0 or newer; Artbit for Android requires Android 4.2.2.App Store Link:Google Play Link:Additional Information Screenshots, icons and other related media are available. Please contact.###Press ContactFor all media inquiries contact:Hannah Litman | + 1 305.771.5687 | hannah@wink-communications.comMike Maloney | + 1 902.225.4989 | mike@wink-communications.comABOUT ARTBITArtbit is a mobile app and online platform that makes art more fun and engaging for both art lovers and the casual consumer, and provides artists and galleries new ways to reach a global audience. Led by a team of high-tech art enthusiasts, the companys vision is to bring art into peoples lives. Located in Tel Aviv, Israel, Artbit is led by a world-class team of entrepreneurs Ofer Atir, Yoram Ben Zvi, Zachi Diner and Stav Avrahami.For all media inquiries contact:Hannah Litman | + 1 305.771.5687 | hannah@wink-communications.comMike Maloney | + 1 902.225.4989 | mike@wink-communications.comWink Communications18455 NE 30th Court, NMB, FL 33160
Music by myTuner app launched today - Listen to all your songs for free on your iPhone / iPad

Listen to all your songs for free on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch!

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1073910998?at=11l64h&pt=420029&ct=musicopenpr&mt=8

After the huge success of the app myTuner Radio, an outstanding hit with 20 million downloads worldwide on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows Desktop and Mac OS, AppGeneration has decided to launch another contender for music lovers. Music by myTuner is launched today for iOS to fill in a major gap in the market, since users want to listen to their favorite songs without any restrictions, but don't want to subscribe to a paid service. The app seamlessly links users to YouTube playlists, letting them enjoy their favorite songs, artists and albums, for free.Plus, users can discover songs by several means and import them to their favorite songs or playlists. They can search their country's chart or search all the songs / video clips directly on YouTube. Additionally, Music by myTuner has 15 music genres that users may use to play selected radio stations, featuring a beautifully designed "Live Wall" with high resolution cover albums. The gorgeous design of the app is also something that makes the app stand out. The app automatically changes from dark to light mode according to the songs' artwork, with an intelligent blur effect.Music by myTuner provides an extraordinary experience when it comes to streaming and listening to music. It is a music roller coaster that allows users to browse through different music styles and search and listen to unlimited free music on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Users can stream and organize music directly from YouTube, build and manage playlists, listen to curated radio streaming services, share music with friends, and much more! All of this for Free!Feature highlights:* Stream any song from YouTube* Create playlists and organize your music* Discover & search directly from YouTube* Loop and Shuffle playlists and songs* Background / lock screen playing mode* Listen to 150 curated radio streaming services of 15 different music genres* "Live Wall" with album artwork* Discover the top hit songs of your country's chart and stream them or create playlists* Sleep timer and alarm* Stream music to any AirPlay enabled device* Share music with friendsSupported Languages:* English, Russian, Spanish and PortugueseDevice Requirements (iOS):* iPhone, iPod touch and iPad* Optimized for iPhone 6 / 6 Plus* Requires iOS 8.0 or later* 45.4 MBPricing and Availability:Music by myTuner(R) - Free Player and Streamer version 1.0 is currently available for Free, for iOS on Apple's App Store in the Music categoryDownload from iTunes:AppGeneration Software specializes in software development and editorial content to provide a unique experience centered on smartphones and tablets. myTuner is a brand from AppGeneration. The most known app from the company is myTuner Radio, an award winning app for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows Desktop and Mac OS. Copyright (C) 2016 AppGeneration and myTuner(R), All Rights Reserved.AppGeneration - Software Technologies, LdaPraceia Adelino Amaro da Costa, 772 - 3DT4050-012 Porto, PortugalTel: +351220160933Pedro Nunes - Marketing Directorpedro.nunes@appgeneration.com
Welcome to Best Bets, a weekly column in which the Oregonian's arts desk separates the wheat from the chaff of upcoming theater, classical music and dance performances and visual arts events. Here are our picks for March 11-17.

Performing Arts

Louder than Words, NW Dance Project

One year after he became the company's Resident Choreographer, Ihsan Rustem premieres "Louder Than Words," his fourth premiere for NW Dance Project. Artist Director Sarah Slipper's "Airys" and Alex Soares' "Trace in Loss" will be presented in what NW Dance Project calls its "biggest show of the year."

7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, March 17-19, Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, nwdanceproject.org

"We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915" Artists Repertory Theatre

Don't hold the mouthful of a title against this play within a play (or, rather, rehearsals of a play within a play); Charles Isherwood, reviewing it in The New York Times, wrote, that "impressively navigates the tricky boundaries that separate art and life, the haunted present and the haunting historical past."(Don't miss the accompanying exhibit in support of the play, "Cultural Fusion," at The Geezer Gallery.)

"We Are Proud to Present": March 12-April 3, Artists Repertory Theatre, Morrison Stage, 1515 S.W. Morrison St., artistsrep.org

Cultural Fusion: Continues through April 3, reception 6:30-7:30 p.m. March 16, The Geezer Gallery, Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St., geezergallery.com

Joseph Moog, Portland Piano International

Not yet 30 years old, Joseph Moog is already an international sensation, winning international awards - he was named the 2015 Young Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards and received a Grammy nomination in 2016. Moog will play a different program each day of his Portland stint: Saturday's program will include Bach, Chopin and Liszt; Sunday's will include Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Godowsky.

4 p.m. Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12, Lincoln Performance Hall at PSU, 1620 S.W. Park Ave., portlandpiano.org

Chicago: The Musical, Metropolitan Community Theatre Project

Metropolitan Community Theatre Project tackles another big, ambitious musical. This time, it's "Chicago," directed by the organization's creative director, Noah Scott. If you don't know the story, it's about time you go see it. If you already know it, you might want to see it again, produced by this ambitious company.

7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, March 11-27, Brunish Theater, 1111 S.W. Broadway, metroctp.weebly.com

Takacs Quartet, Friends of Chamber Music

The Takacs Quartet is the only string quartet in Gramophone's Hall of Fame. Earlier this year, first violin Edward Dusinberre wrote in The Guardian that they have rested a little easier since taking out life insurance policies on one another. Musical relationships that close need to be witnessed, and Portland is fortunate to get two opportunities.

7:30 p.m. Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15, Lincoln Performance Hall at PSU, 1620 S.W. Park Ave., http://focm.org/

Visual Arts

Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy Lecture, Portland Art Museum

Wendy Red Star, one of three Native American photographers featured in this exhibit running through May 8 at Portland Art Museum, will give a lecture titled "Apsaalooke Feminist," in which she will discuss the intersection between life on the reservation where she grew up, and the outside world. A docent tour of the exhibit immediately follows her talk.

2 p.m. Sunday, March 13, Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave., portlandartmuseum.org

"The Music That Makes Us," Disjecta

Portland State University's MFA program in Art and Social Practice collaborated with residents of the Kenton neighborhood to celebrate the music that surrounds Disjecta through an ongoing installation/exhibit, and various events throughout the run. The exhibit is part of the curator-in-residence (Chiara Giovando) program, "Sound is Matter." Opening reception is 6-10 p.m. Saturday, March 12.

Noon-5 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, March 13-April 24, Disjecta, 8371 N. Interstate Ave., disjecta.org

Delgani String Quartet, Walters Cultural Arts Center

Chamber music by a Northwest Quartet - based out of Eugene - in the Portland suburbs... Sounds quaint, but don't underestimate this up-and-coming quartet currently in their inaugural season. The quartet has been recognized by the Oregon Cultural Trust as an eligible nonprofit, and if you mention you saw it on Facebook when you call the venue for tickets (503-615-3485), you can get two for the price of one.

7:30 p.m. Friday, March 11, Walters Cultural Arts Center, 527 E. Main St., Hillsboro, delgani.brownpapertickets.com
Junior catcher Logan Ice has become the second Oregon State player in three weeks to capture Pac-12 Player of the Week, an honor the conference announced Tuesday.

In three games, Ice went 6-for-8 with a double, triple, two home runs and eight runs batted in, along with three walks. He went 3-for-4 with two home runs in Saturday's 12-3 win over William & Mary, becoming the first player in the conference this year with a multi-homer game.

Later that day, he entered as a pinch hitter in the second half of a double-header and went 3-for-3 with a double.

No. 4 Oregon State (10-1) won all three games last week in San Diego, twice defeating the University of San Diego and beating William & Mary in their lone matchup.

The week helped make Ice, who has started eight of the Beavers' 11 games, the clubhouse leader in multiple offensive categories. He ranks first in triples (three), RBI (16), total bases (31) and slugging percentage (.886), as well as batting average (.429) among players with at least 10 at bats.

Ice has also caught four base stealers this year.

Freshman second baseman Nick Madrigal won Pac-12 Player of the Week two weeks ago after OSU's first three games at the Surprise Tournament in Arizona.

Oregon State will host its home opener Friday at 5:35 p.m. against San Francisco in Goss Stadium at Coleman Field, the first of a three-game series.

-- Danny Moran
Daniel Christopher Wyant was suffering from a mental disorder and couldn't control himself when he fatally shot his ex-girlfriend at the apartment they once shared, his defense attorney told Washington County jurors Monday.

Wyant, 43, is charged with murder in the death of 33-year-old Monica Van Laer. Wyant shot Van Laer three times - in her head, neck and chest - with a .45-caliber gun on Nov. 2, 2014, while she was moving out of their Raleigh Hills apartment, authorities said.

A depressed Wyant couldn't curb his impulses that day because he suffered a traumatic brain injury years earlier and he was taking a medication to curb seizures and headaches that had ill side effects, said defense attorney Stephen Eberlein.

Wyant is relying on an insanity defense. Most of the facts about the case won't be in dispute, Eberlein said, and the jury will be tasked with determining whether Wyant was suffering from a mental disease or defect at the time of the crime.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Freeman told jurors that Wyant intentionally shot Van Laer because she had left him.

"When his leverage was ending, and he was facing the end, and she was going to move on, he made sure that she couldn't," Freeman told jurors in his opening statement.

Van Laer and Wyant had met through an online dating site in December 2013, when she was living in Oakland, Calif., and he was in Illinois, Freeman told jurors. Their relationship progressed quickly, and Wyant moved to California to live with her. The couple stayed a few weeks in the Bay Area before moving to Oregon.

In June 2014, they moved into the Raleigh Hills apartment together. By August, Van Laer was trying to break up with Wyant, but he wouldn't let go, Freeman said.

Van Laer broke off their relationship that fall and was staying with her sister. During that time, Wyant repeatedly contacted her, asking her to come back and offering her free rent for months if she did, Freeman said.

Monica Van Laer

By late October, Freeman said, Wyant started posting pornographic images of Van Laer online. He also learned that Van Laer had started dating another man. Freeman told jurors that online searches done by Wyant showed that he looked the man up, finding his Facebook page and where he lived.

On the day of the killing, Wyant posted another pornographic image of Van Laer on Tumblr, and he transferred money to his sister, Freeman said. He also had posted a photograph of himself on Instagram with the hashtag "#goodbyes."

Van Laer told Wyant she was coming to the apartment with her family and the police, Freeman said. Wyant told her the police didn't need to be there.

Van Laer had asked whether Wyant would be home, and he had told her no, Freeman said. But when she and her family walked inside the unit at the Broadmoor Manor Apartments, Wyant was sitting on the couch.

As she and her family were moving items, Van Laer and Wyant began arguing. At one point, Van Laer's sister heard her shout, "What are you doing?"

Van Laer, Freeman said, was backing into a corner in the kitchen and shielding her face with her hands. Wyant opened fire on Van Laer at point-blank range. Her body fell at the feet of her sister and mother.

"She was dead immediately," Freeman told jurors.

Wyant, still holding the gun, looked at Van Laer's sister and mother.

"That's what happens when you (expletive) with me," Wyant told them, according to Freeman.

He then placed the gun beneath his chin and pulled the trigger. The bullet traveled through his chin and out his nose. The shot didn't incapacitate him and he started searching for the gun he dropped, Freeman said.

Van Laer's sister called 911, according to a recording played for jurors, screaming, "He shot my sister! He shot my sister!" Eventually, Van Laer's mother got Wyant's gun, placed it in a cooler, ran outside and handed it to a neighbor. That neighbor, Freeman said, finished speaking to the 911 dispatcher for the sister.

The sister's fiance, who was also helping with the move, had retrieved a gun from his truck. Back inside the apartment, he and Wyant struggled, and the fiance shot Wyant in the hip. He then restrained Wyant until police arrived.

Freeman told jurors that Van Laer's killing occurred after months of "angry, vengeful behavior" by Wyant.

The defense team focused on Wyant's long struggles with depression and complications from a traumatic brain injury. Wyant has twice been married and has two children, Eberlein told jurors.

In the 1990s, Wyant enlisted in the Army, Eberlein said. While he was stationed abroad in 1997, he suffered an injury that damaged his temporal lobe and frontal lobe and caused him to suffer seizures and headaches, Eberlein said. He was treated for the injury in Germany.

In August 2014, Wyant suffered a headache so painful that he wound up in the emergency room. A doctor at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland prescribed topiramate to help, Eberlein said.

During the trial, a doctor will testify that Wyant was suffering from a neurocognitive disorder on the day he killed Van Laer caused by the brain injury, topiramate and long-standing depression, Eberlein said.

"This was a man with a vulnerable brain," the defense lawyer said.

The medication is known to cause adverse psychiatric side effects in some people, Eberlein said. Side effects, he said, can include depression, suicidal thoughts, irritability and aggressive behavior.

At the end of October, Wyant texted Van Laer to say that he had stopped taking the medication, indicating he was experiencing some side effects, Eberlein said. But Wyant apparently continued to take the pills to treat his headaches.

A little more than an hour before the shooting, Wyant texted his sister, and she encouraged him to stop taking the medication. She told him to get to a doctor.

"I've run out of my ability to cope," he had told her.

Wyant's trial continues Tuesday and is expected to last three weeks.

-- Rebecca Woolington

503-294-4049; @rwoolington
Screen Shot 2016-03-07 at 3.43.11 PM.png

Someone made it so. But who?

(Google Maps)

Apparently, there's still someone out there who isn't entirely pleased with the name TriMet chose for the car-less Tilikum Crossing.

On Monday, an online prankster managed to change the official name of the so-called "Bridge of the People" to Jean-Luc Picard Wunder Crossing, paying tribute to the Starship Enterprise Captain on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

That name was actually one of hundreds submitted by the public when the transit agency was building the bridge.

About a week after the bridge opened last September, Portland business owner Owen Lingley purchased two "Star Trek"-themed billboards near Portland State University suggesting the very same name change.

Lingley, who owns a local craft brewing canning and bottling company, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he isn't behind the Picard prank.

"But I'm pretty stoked," he said. "Somebody picked it up and ran with it."

But how did they manage to make it so on Google Maps?

Changing an official name is not an easy hack.

Google Maps spokeswoman Mara Harris told KGW the data "comes from a variety of authoritative public and commercial data sources, user contributions, and imagery references."

"Star Trek" fans may be thrilled with the name change. On Twitter, however, some bridge users said the prank was offensive to Native Americans.

As of 5:30 p.m. Monday, however, the bridge was still named Jean-Luc Picard Wunder Crossing, as far as Google Maps was concerned.

Bike Portland reports that GPS devices are also sending bicyclists over the "Jean-Luc Picard Wunder Crossing."

@BikePortland Best day ever in the route planner pic.twitter.com/MSRk897CLO  Ride With GPS (@ridewithgps) March 7, 2016

To quote the good captain: "Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again."

Yes, who knows how long Portland will have a bridge named after a beloved "Star Trek" hero.

This may be the only day.

-- Joseph Rose

503-221-8029

jrose@oregonian.com

@josephjrose
-e8aad86dd90dccaf.JPG

Investigators said Monday's explosions in a Parkrose home were caused by butane hash oil production. Hash oil, a potent and popular form of cannabis, can be made using butane, a highly flammable gas. BHO can be consumed using discreet portable pen-like devices or specially outfitted pipes called oil rigs. A small bit of hash oil is placed in the pipe's compartment, which is heated with a torch. The hash vaporizes and the consumer inhales through the pipe, a technique called "dabbing."

(Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian)

As many as 10 people, including an infant, escaped from a Parkrose home rocked Monday by butane-fueled explosions, Portland firefighters said.

Fire officials said multiple explosions and a fire damaged the home but caused no apparent injuries. Lt. Rich Tyler said someone who was in the home at the time of the incident Monday may have left by the time authorities arrived.

Investigators said explosions were caused by butane hash oil production. Hash oil, a potent and popular form of cannabis, can be made using butane, a highly flammable gas.

Since Oregonians said yes to legalizing marijuana in 2014, the Legislature has reduced many criminal penalties associated with marijuana. However, under a bill signed last week by Gov. Kate Brown, unlicensed production of marijuana extracts is considered a felony.

In recent years, federal authorities in Oregon have prosecuted a handful of people for crimes associated with making butane hash oil, or BHO.

Oregon medical marijuana patients and anyone 21 and older may legally possess BHO, which is readily available in dispensaries -- and on the illicit market. Though the state is home to a cottage industry of commercial hash oil producers who use blast-proof facilities, homemade BHO remains common.

People often underestimate the risks associated with butane; the gas can quickly fill an enclosed space, where something as ordinary as a pilot light or a cigarette can ignite a fireball.

In 2013, a Portland man was killed and his friend badly burned when butane filled a Gresham garage and exploded after the furnace turned on.

Monday's BHO-related blast took place in a house in the 4700 block of Northeast 111th Avenue, south of Sandy Boulevard. Portland fire officials said two neighbors called 911 at 6:33 p.m. to report explosions coming from the home.

Firefighters arrived and saw smoke coming from the house and a neighbor trying to put out the fire using an extinguisher. Inside, someone was attempting to save personal belongings from damage, Tyler said.

Tyler said investigators don't know how many people were in the home but estimate as many as 10, including three young children. No one at the scene when firefighters arrived was injured.

"We cannot verify at this point that someone did not leave the scene prior to our crews getting there," Tyler said.

Tyler said Portland firefighters have responded to five BHO-related fires in the past two years.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan during the 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

(Chris Pizzello/AP)

Bob Dylan's never-ending tour will turn back to Oregon this summer.

The iconic songwriter will headline Eugene's Cuthbert Amphitheater on June 7, after opening his latest jaunt with a pair of shows a few hours away in Woodinville, Washington. Tickets for his Oregon date go on sale on March 18 at 10 a.m. via TicketsWest, with a pre-sale available March 15 at 10 a.m. They'll run $40-$75.

Ticket buyers will also get a CD copy of Dylan's new album, "Fallen Angels," due May 20. It'll follow last year's sincere, surprising "Shadows in the Night," a collection of ballads best known for their Frank Sinatra performances.

Soul great Mavis Staples, whose exuberant new album "Livin' on a High Note" just arrived, will open the tour.

Dylan was last in Portland in October 2014, playing a Keller Auditorium show our Robert Ham called "relaxed and lived-in." The folk legend joins a busy summer schedule, with artists from 5 Seconds of Summer to Jackson Browne to Janet Jackson all heading to the Portland area. The Cuthbert's own booking is on shuffle this year, with electronic performances (Adventure Club, Disclosure) leading up to Dylan, Slightly Stoopid's "Return of the Red Eye" tour and a night with "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose Mandatory World Tour will also makes its Edgefield debut in Troutdale. Yes, Bob Dylan and "Weird Al" are really playing the same venue this summer.

-- David Greenwald

dgreenwald@oregonian.com

503-294-7625;

@davidegreenwald

Follow @davidegreenwald
MM3benson.JPG

Students in a tech geometry class at Benson High School work on building a housing structure that allows them to put the math concepts they learn about into action. A proposed ballot measure would direct the Legislature to devote new funds that would help establish and expand such education at districts across the state.

(Beth Nakamura/Staff)

Improving Oregon's dismal high-school graduation rate is supposedly such a priority for Gov. Kate Brown that she announced last year she would add a brand new education official to her executive team. The "education innovation officer," she said, would tackle this exact problem and look at how to dedicate resources to help students move on from high school to college or a career.

Unfortunately, hiring yet another education bureaucrat is about the extent of Brown's vision for high school education. While she supported a modest increase in funding for career and technical education, she and legislators as a whole have offered little strategy on how the state should raise graduation rates or stem the loss of some 10,000 students who drop out each year from Oregon high schools.

And if you need any further evidence of a lack of vision, just consider that Brown has quietly installed a former teachers' union lobbyist and leader -- who has no experience as an educator -- as the state's chief education officer. Previously, Lindsey Capps, who doubles as Brown's education policy adviser, was filling the position on an interim basis after former chief education officer Nancy Golden retired last September. The governor's office did not immediately comment on Capps' lack of experience in schools.

http://media.oregonlive.com/opinion_impact/photo/agenda-2013jpg-da8a3522a991b9c6.jpg

Editorial Agenda 2016



Get Oregon centered

Better leadership in education

Make Portland a city that works

Build Oregon prosperity

Protect and expand personal freedom

Get pot right

_______________________________

No wonder that a coalition of education and children's organizations are taking it upon themselves to develop a proposal they hope to place on the ballot in November. Initiative Petition 65 calls for the Legislature to dedicate new revenue totaling $800 per high school student to fund career and technical education, support students' access to college-credit courses and lower the dropout rate by identifying and assisting at-risk students who need extra help.

There is perhaps no bigger indictment of the lack of leadership by Brown and the Legislature than the broad alliance lining up behind IP65. Supporters include Stand for Children Oregon, the Latino Network, the Coalition of Communities of Color, Benson Tech Foundation, NAYA Family Center and a range of educators, school board members, entrepreneurs, politicians and others who believe the state needs to meet the needs of high schoolers now, before another 10,000 drop out.

Ballot measures are rarely the right way to set major policy, whether it concerns taxes, energy or education. But IP65 has a number of factors in its favor. The proposal is a targeted approach to a specific problem that is universally recognized. The funding will come from new revenue projected in the coming biennium with adjustments if income doesn't match expectations. And the solutions have already been shown to work in school districts both inside and outside Oregon.

Take for instance Benson Polytechnic High School in Northeast Portland, which reported an 88 percent on-time graduation rate in 2015 -- 14 percentage points above the district average. Benson, which has a predominantly non-white student population where 65 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, offers career and technical education that helps connect students with hands-on training in health sciences, manufacturing technology and other skilled fields.

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Or Portland's Jefferson High School, whose four-year graduation rate jumped 14 percentage points with the shift in 2011 to a "middle college" school, in which students could take classes at the neighboring Portland Community College campus. Not only does it help students stay engaged and enrolled, but it means that they already have college credits that will reduce the amount of tuition needed to earn their degrees.

Or Tillamook High School, whose dropout rate is 40 percent lower than the state average thanks in part to the rapid response with which teachers and counselors intervene to keep students at school, whether they plan on attending college or want a career path that won't require a four-year degree.

The backers of IP65 understand that the state's low graduation rates -- Oregon's 2014 results placed the state as the fourth worst in the country -- are more than just head-shaking statistics to be trotted out for political speeches. Thousands of students aren't making it to graduation, with a disproportionate percentage of those coming from low-income or minority backgrounds.

That's not a data point; that's an emergency. And such an emergency demands a strategy, not stalling. Unfortunately, when it comes to confronting the serious problems in Oregon's education system, stalling is what those in charge do best.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board
By Joseph Metzler

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation is over, but the threats to important lands and waters in Oregon continue. Right now, the state of Oregon is in the process of privatizing the 93,000-acre Elliott State Forest, our first state forest, which provides valuable fish and wildlife habitat and irreplaceable opportunities for hunters, anglers, hikers and other outdoor recreationists.

Established in 1930, the Elliott provided a sustainable source of timber revenue to Oregon schools. Over time, the state was increasingly challenged by new public demands to manage the forest for values besides timber revenue. A portion of the forest was sold in 2014, and at least one of those parcels already is closed to the public. Now, the remainder of the Elliott State Forest is on the auction block.

Without prompt and decisive action, the Elliott's future is bleak.

Fortunately, Oregon's elected officials can help keep the Elliott in public ownership -- or commit to selling the forest to an entity that will fully maintain public access and manage it for fish and wildlife values. The State Land Board -- Gov. Kate Brown, Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins and Treasurer Ted Wheeler -- can ensure that water quality is maintained, habitat is restored, logging and wood processing jobs are created and unparalleled hunting and fishing opportunities are guaranteed.

Without action by Oregon's leaders, however, hunters and anglers could be met with "no trespassing" signs the next time we visit the Elliott. Behind the locked gates, the forest could face liquidation -- and the prospect of becoming another industrial fiber farm, like most of the rest of the Coast Range.

Oregonians deserve better.

I grew up hunting and fishing in the Elliott State Forest. The elk and deer hunting, along with opportunities for mountain quail, ruffed grouse and band-tailed pigeon, are among the best in the Coast Range. The West Fork Millicoma River and its tributaries offer excellent cutthroat trout and steelhead fishing and encompass some of our best spawning habitat for endangered coho salmon and steelhead. They also clear up faster than other area watersheds after winter storms due to their intact stream buffers.

The Elliott is unique -- not least because of the public access it provides. Many hunting hotspots are located on large tracts of private forestlands, which are closed to the public or require permits too expensive for most hunters to buy. Sportsmen like me are committed to keeping public lands in public hands so that places like the Elliott are both accessible and sustained.

We united in support of our public lands during the Malheur occupation. Unfortunately, the Elliott today stands as an example of what can happen when states take on management of public lands.

Brown, Atkins and Wheeler understand what makes Oregon great -- and what moves sportsmen and other public lands patriots to join together over a shared set of values. Their leadership is vital if the Elliott is to remain in public ownership and accessible for us and our kids and grandkids to enjoy.

*

Joseph Metzler, of Coos Bay, is a retired U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescue swimmer and now works for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He is a member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a national sportsmen's group focused on public lands conservation.
Wolves in Oregon: Wolves are one of the most polarizing subjects in Oregon. Most ranchers never wanted them here in the first place and, ironically, are the very people that live closest to them and have been asked to adapt their practices to accommodate them.

Consider what that means. We have been asked to check our livestock more frequently, to haul livestock (that has died naturally) though town to the county dump. We put up flagged fencing around our calving and lambing grounds. We sleep with windows open, listening for any disturbance that could be harming our animals. And still we see our pets injured, family dogs taken from our front porch, sheep killed and injured right next to our houses. Cattle killed in ways that, if done by human hands, would lock up a person in prison -- and rightfully so. We attend public meetings on wolves, testify before committees and follow the rules of the U.S. and Oregon fish and wildlife departments. We watch as the ODFW votes to delist wolves and know that after all the efforts, there are attorneys funded by groups like Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wild and others waiting to sue.

House Bill 4040 is an effort to keep environmental groups (less concerned with wolf well-being than fundraising) from suing the ODFW and keeping the Oregon wolf recovery plan from working as drafted. This bill has moved forward with bipartisan support and has been a glimmer of hope for those of us in the sometimes forgotten and ignored side of the state.

I strongly urge our governor to sign this bill; it has moved though two committees and the full House and Senate -- all under Democratic leadership. To veto this bill would send a message that playing by the rules doesn't work.

Todd Nash

Enterprise

Nash is wolf committee chair for the Oregon Cattlemen's Association.
Malaysian Airlines.JPG

A Malaysian writes well-wishes on a wall of hope during a remembrance event for the passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Sunday, the second anniversary of the jet's disappearance.

(AP Photo)

By the editors of Bloomberg View

Modern aviation may be the safest complex system ever devised. Each day, 100,000 flights take off and land with prosaic regularity. Accidents are so rare that, almost by definition, they mean something unprecedented has happened.

The unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 -- which occurred almost two years ago, presumably killing all 239 people aboard -- is by any definition unprecedented. And despite some tantalizing hints, its fate remains utterly mysterious. As such, it makes a poor basis for dramatic changes in public policy. Modern planes are so safe that adding yet more rules and requirements in response to an incomprehensible tragedy could very well make things worse.

Consider proposals to mandate tamper-proof transponders. That sounds prudent: Someone aboard Flight 370 evidently switched off its communications systems, taking it off the grid. But pilots may have perfectly valid reasons for turning a transponder off, such as recovering from a malfunction or preventing overheating. American regulators acknowledged as much last year when they argued that the risks of tamper-proofing cockpit equipment outweigh the benefits.

Likewise, the United Nations wants to track aircraft more frequently and in greater detail. Again, this sounds like a no-brainer. Yet planes are already thoroughly tracked. And a group studying the idea for the U.N. found that the additional requirements under consideration could in some cases create new risks, cause miscommunication and impose an "unrealistic operational burden." Not to mention the expense. All this to address a surpassingly rare phenomenon.

In the age of the drone, why not eliminate human pilots altogether? Even overlooking the cost and complexity involved, the alarming rate at which military drones -- to say nothing of their civilian counterparts -- crash in much less demanding environments should give pause. The reality is that, despite high-profile catastrophes, pilots solve many more problems in-flight than they've ever caused.

Some new technology may, in fact, be helpful in preventing future disasters. Aerospace companies are working on gear that could wrest control from a pilot in times of distress. The U.S. military is working on robot co-pilots. These are promising endeavors, worthy of more study and investment. Yet they, too, risk unintended consequences, including malicious hacking, conflicting lines of authority and well-intentioned mistakes.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, a consensus emerged that cockpit doors should be reinforced and fitted with elaborate locks. This was an eminently sensible idea. Then, last year, a pilot named Andreas Lubitz boarded Germanwings Flight 9525. When his captain left the cockpit, Lubitz locked the door, took the controls and guided the plane into the French Alps, killing himself and 149 others. In the background, his panicked colleagues could be heard smashing against the reinforced door, again and again, in a futile attempt to stop him.

It took decades of research, regulation and scientific advances to make airplanes as safe as they are now. Things can always be improved. But it's important to accept that risk can never be completely eliminated from flight, and that more complexity often means more ways for things to go wrong. It may be that the safest thing to do in response to Malaysia Flight 370 is something that almost defies human intuition: nothing at all.

(c) 2016, Bloomberg View
By Leonard Pitts Jr.

"If he was for it, we had to be against it."

- Former U.S. Sen. George Voinovich quoted in "The New New Deal" by Michael Grunwald

The "he" is President Obama. The "we" is the Republican Party. And it is not coincidental that as the former pushes toward the end of his second term, the latter is coming apart.

The GOP is an incoherent mess. Republican-on-Republican rhetorical violence has become commonplace. Party members find themselves mulling whether to break away and form a third party or unite behind a coarse, blustering bigot whose scapegoating and strongman rhetoric has Holocaust survivors comparing him to Hitler.

The situation is so objectively and transparently grim that many on the right no longer even bother to spin it. "I'm a lifelong Republican," tweeted historian Max Boot last week, "but (the) Trump surge proves that every bad thing Democrats have ever said about GOP is basically true."

"It would be terrible," wrote Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens last week, "to think that the left was right about the right all these years."

But it can be argued that Trump is less the cause than an inevitable effect of the party's looming disintegration. It can be argued that what's really destroying the Republican Party is the Republican Party.

The popular storyline goes that voters are seeking political outsiders this year in their frustration over a government where the legislative gears are frozen and nothing gets done. What that storyline forgets is that this gridlock was by design, that GOP leaders held a meeting on the very evening of the president's first inauguration and explicitly decided upon a policy of non-cooperation to deny him anything approaching a bipartisan triumph.

The party followed this tactic with such lockstep discipline and cynical disregard for the national welfare that in 2010, seven Republican co-sponsors of a resolution to create a deficit reduction task force voted against their own bill because Obama came out for it. They feared its passage might make him look good.

In the book quoted above, Michael Grunwald distilled the GOP's thinking as follows: "As long as Republicans refused to follow his lead, Americans would see partisan food fights and conclude that Obama had failed to produce change."

Republicans and their media accomplices buttressed that strategy with a campaign of insult and disrespect designed to delegitimize Obama. With their endless birther stupidity, their death panels idiocy, their constant budget brinksmanship and their cries of, "I want my country back!" they stoked in the public nothing less than hatred for the interloper in the White House who'd had the nerve to be elected president.

And the strategy worked, hobbling and frustrating Obama. But as a bullet doesn't care who it hits and a fire doesn't care who it burns, the forces of ignorance and unreason, grievance and fear the Republicans calculatedly unleashed have not only wounded the president. No, it becomes more apparent every day that those forces have gravely wounded politics itself, meaning the idea that we can - or even should - reason together, compromise, form consensus.

There is a sense of just deserts in watching panicked Republicans try to stop Trump as he goose-steps toward coronation, but it is tempered by the realization that there's far more at stake here than the GOP's comeuppance.

This is our country we're talking about. This is its future we choose in November. And any future presided over by "President Trump" is too apocalyptic to contemplate. Yet, the possibility is there, and that's sobering.

It is bad enough the Republicans may have destroyed themselves. One wonders whether they will take America with them.

(c) 2016, The Miami Herald

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald. Readers may write to him via email at lpittsmiamiherald.com.
A state prosecutor was clear Tuesday that Oregon troopers who fired a total of six shots in a standoff with Robert "LaVoy'' Finicum on Jan. 26 were justified under state law.

An ongoing investigation will determine whether two other shots apparently fired by an FBI agent complied with state law and federal policy.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris pointed to a state statute that essentially says police in Oregon can use deadly force to protect themselves or others against imminent danger or the threat of such danger.

The state law follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Graham v. Connor. In it, the court said that a justified shooting should be based on whether officers' actions are "objectively reasonable" under the circumstances confronting them without regard to underlying intent or motivation.

The "reasonableness' of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, and must allow for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions about the amount of force necessary in a particular situation, the court said.

Finicum used his pickup as a "dangerous weapon" when he drove it toward a police roadblock on U.S. 395 north of Burns on Jan. 26, Norris said.

Federal agents and state police had moved in to arrest the leaders of the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as they were headed to a community meeting in John Day.

Oregon's law on use of deadly force:

161.239 Use of deadly physical force in making an arrest or in preventing an escape.

(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of ORS 161.235, a peace officer may use deadly physical force only when the peace officer reasonably believes that:

(a) The crime committed by the person was a felony or an attempt to commit a felony involving the use or threatened imminent use of physical force against a person; or

(b) The crime committed by the person was kidnapping, arson, escape in the first degree, burglary in the first degree or any attempt to commit such a crime; or

(c) Regardless of the particular offense which is the subject of the arrest or attempted escape, the use of deadly physical force is necessary to defend the peace officer or another person from the use or threatened imminent use of deadly physical force; or

(d) The crime committed by the person was a felony or an attempt to commit a felony and under the totality of the circumstances existing at the time and place, the use of such force is necessary; or

(e) The officer's life or personal safety is endangered in the particular circumstances involved.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section constitutes justification for reckless or criminally negligent conduct by a peace officer amounting to an offense against or with respect to innocent persons whom the peace officer is not seeking to arrest or retain in custody.

Oregon law defines a dangerous weapon as something "readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury," said Norris, who was asked to review the investigation of the shooting in Harney County.

A state trooper who fired three times at the approaching truck believed that Finicum, driving about 70 mph, intended to "injure or kill the people present" at the roadblock, Norris said. In a video released by the FBI, a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team is seen diving out of the way of Finicum's truck.

"Under these circumstances, these three shots are justified," Norris said at a news conference.

In Oregon, the state police academy trains officers that they can shoot at a moving car if it's about to cause deadly harm or serious injury by hitting an officer or someone else, said Todd Anderson, training director for Oregon's Department of Public Safety Standards and Training and former Tillamook County sheriff.

"They're trained to neutralize the threat'' - which means shooting the driver, Anderson said.

Two state troopers shot Finicum three times after he emerged from the truck. He had reached three times toward a loaded gun in his jacket pocket, investigators said. Finicum died when one of the shots pierced his heart, the autopsy showed.

The troopers also were justified in using deadly force at that point in the confrontation, Norris said.

Both of the troopers who shot Finicum said they believed he was reaching for a handgun and about to use deadly force against them or another trooper standing in a snowbank aiming a Taser at Finicum, Norris said.

The investigation led by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office also revealed that an FBI agent had fired twice from the roadblock, one bullet going astray and one hitting the roof of Finicum's truck.

The sheriff's office and the U.S. Department of Justice's Inspector General's Office are now examining whether those shots followed state law and FBI policy.

It appears that the agent fired at Finicum as soon as Finicum emerged from his pickup, investigators said.

"Of particular concern to all of us is that the HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) operators did not disclose their shots to our investigators or their superiors," Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said in a statement. "Nor did they discuss specific actions they took after the shooting, which are the subject of an ongoing investigation.''

One of the questions expected to come up as detectives work to sort through what happened is: Does a threat remain that justifies deadly force when a moving car stops and the person or persons in danger may be out of harm's way?

Investigators will ask the FBI agent if he considered Finicum a threat once the occupation spokesman left his truck.

FBI agents and state police were briefed ahead of time that Finicum could be armed because he often carried a gun on his left side shown in photos and videos from the refuge. Finicum was found with a loaded 9mm handgun in his jacket pocket after he was shot, the FBI said.

"We will take a look at whether his (the FBI agent's) use of force was justified, Sheriff Nelson said at the news conference, just as his investigators did with the state troopers' shots.

FBI agents, like state police, are trained to treat cars as deadly weapons if they feel they or others' lives are threatened.

Federal agents also are expected to report any shots that are fired, retired FBI experts said.

Though Greg Bretzing, the FBI's special agent in charge in Oregon, wouldn't comment if the FBI has removed the agents under investigation from active duty, other FBI experts said it would be a common practice to put them on paid leave pending the outcome of an inquiry.

While shooting at a moving car may be constitutional and legal under state or federal law, it could violate a police agency's own policies. The issue has been a subject of debate in Oregon and nationally.

Many police agencies have counseled against firing at a moving car except under extreme conditions, such as no reasonable escape. The reasoning is that shots can go far afield and hit innocent bystanders. Or if the driver is killed, the car could careen out of control and risk injury to others, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Portland police, for example, in 2009 changed their policy to prohibit officers from shooting at moving cars except under specific circumstances: "to counter an active threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person, by a person in the vehicle, using means other than the vehicle," or there's no other way to avert or eliminate the threat.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
A detention hearing in the 16-count Nevada indictment against independent broadcaster Pete Santilli has been rescheduled to Friday in federal court in Portland, where he's in custody.

Federal Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman on Monday allowed for the delay after Santilli's court-appointed lawyer, Thomas Coan, referenced a 59-page government detention memo that he and his client haven't been able to fully review.

Santilli, 50, was arrested in late January on a federal conspiracy charge stemming from the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside Burns.

He's also been indicted in Nevada, accused of conspiring to assault federal officers, threaten federal law enforcement officers, obstruct justice, extort officers, and use and brandish a firearm in relation to a crime of violence stemming from the 2014 standoff with federal officers outside Cliven Bundy's ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada.

In the Oregon case, U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown has ordered Santilli's release to a halfway house in Portland with conditions that he undergo a mental health evaluation. But federal prosecutors from Nevada are arguing for his continued detention.

Coan has argued that Santilli isn't violent and that he's being punished for his First Amendment right to free speech and his "shock jock'' bravado. Prosecutors have taken Santilli's broadcast statements "out of context,'' Coan said.

In their court filing, Nevada prosecutors argue that the facts in the Nevada indictment "independently justify'' Santilli's detention as a danger to the community and risk of flight. They describe him as part of the "organizing nucleus'' of the conspiracy and as Cliven Bundy's "shill'' and "propagandist'' who "beat the drums'' over the Internet to incite and motivate followers to Nevada.

"Santilli was a key player in the build-up, organization and execution of an unprecedented, massive armed assault against federal law enforcement officers near Bunkerville, Nevada on April 12, 2014,'' Nevada's Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre wrote.

The memo alleges Santilli recruited gunmen to the Bundy Ranch, threatened violence to law enforcement, helped lead an assault on U.S. Bureau of Land Management officers trying to roundup cattle on federal land, conducted reconnaissance of hotels where BLM officers were staying, delivered an ultimatum to the BLM's agent in charge to leave the impound site and incited followers and gunmen to participate in an assault on federal officers on April 12, 2014.

The government cites an April 8, 2014, Facebook exchange between Santilli and co-defendant Blaine Cooper, with Cooper messaging Santilli that it was time to stop "all this huffing and puffing'' over the microphones and "go down and do what we got to do'' in Nevada. Santilli, the memo said, responded to Cooper, writing, "Let's go to Nevada...Get a team of militia members.''

Prosecutors cite other statements Santilli made on his Twitter account under #BundyRanch, writing that night, "Time to kick the feds outta NV.''

The next day, the government contends, Santilli drove his car to block a lead vehicle in a U.S. Bureau of Land Management convoy on the way to a site where federal rangers planned to corral Cliven Bundy's cattle. Santilli did back out of the way, but the stall allowed a crowd of about 30 or 40 people time to converge on the convoy, the memo said.

Santilli's detention hearing has been rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Nevada prosecutor Myhre, who was in court in Portland, said he plans to play one video and one audiotape of Santilli at his detention hearing.

Eric Lee Flores

If he's returned to Nevada on the pending indictment, he'll have the chance to seek another hearing to argue for his release in federal court there.

In other action Monday, co-defendant Eric Lee Flores, 22, accused in the Malheur refuge conspiracy, was ordered to be released with conditions as soon as arrangements are made for his travel back to his home in western Washington. Federal prosecutors didn't object to Flores' release, saying he wasn't a leader of the occupation but was photographed armed at the refuge and seen on "guard duty.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Gary Braasch used to say his work would take him to the best places on Earth at the worst possible times, his son said.

He documented receding glaciers, oil spills and Mount St. Helens' eruption, earning renown as a nature photographer and environmental activist.

Braasch, a Northwest Portland resident, died Monday while photographing coral bleaching and death off the coast of Australia, his son said. He was 72.

"He was a great man, and he died doing what he loved to do," said his son, Cedar Braasch.

The elder Braasch was snorkeling and photographing the Great Barrier Reef near Australia's Lizard Island when he became separated from his partner and was swept away by the current. He was later found floating face-down, according to the Australian Museum. His death is under investigation.

Braasch, whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic, among many others, was a master photographer who dedicated himself to chronicling climate change.

"He had this incredibly deep ... love for the natural world," said close friend Lynne Cherry, with whom he co-wrote a children's book, started a nonprofit and created a film series. "He had this amazing eye, and he also had this technical ability that was very rare, to be able to capture colors and the light like almost no one else."

One of his recent works, a book titled "Earth under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World," was hailed by Al Gore. And he observed and took photos during last year's United Nations Climate Change Conference at the invitation of a French ambassador, his son said.

Braasch got his start in photography while serving in the Air Force, Cedar Braasch said, and started as a full-time photographer after he left the military.

Cherry described him as a marvelously talented, upbeat man who had a good sense of humor and was "off-the-charts intelligent."

"He was able to translate what he saw onto film in a way that was just extraordinary," said Cherry, a filmmaker, children's author and illustrator. "His photos are just real standouts. ... He was world class."

Jeff Burnside, board president of the Society of Environmental Journalists, said Braasch was quick to peg the importance of photojournalism and chronicling nature.

He was a regular at the 1,300-member organization's conferences, Burnside said, and environmental photojournalism played a larger role in the organization largely because of him.

"He was definitely one of those guys who turned his passion into a full-time obsession," said Burnside, a Seattle investigative reporter formerly of KOMO-TV.

The organization's most recent magazine features a photo taken by Braasch on its cover, he said.

Braasch was born in Omaha, Nebraska, met his future wife in Portland and raised his son in Oregon, Cedar Braasch said. He earned a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University, was a Nikon "Legend Behind the Lens" photographer and took only one photography class, Cedar said. He and his wife eventually divorced.

Cedar Braasch said his father's girlfriend, Joan Rothlein, was with him in Australia at the time of his death.

The younger Braasch, an actor, said he hopes to continue his father's legacy by spreading his ashes at every glacier he'd been to, as well as other sites he documented.

"I've got quite a bit of traveling coming my way soon," he said.

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
Tigard startup ID Experts named veteran Portland technology executive Allen Muhich chief financial officer on Tuesday.

For the last 11 months Muhich had been CFO at Portland digital archivist Smarsh. Before that he spent three years as CFO of Radisys in Hillsboro.

ID Experts guards against identity theft by monitoring for breaches and activating quick responses. In January, the privately held company raised a $5 million investment led by BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners.

ID Experts has raised $22.8 million altogether. It has 69 Oregon employees and reported $22.8 million in revenue in 2014, the last time it disclosed sales figures.

-- Mike Rogoway

mrogoway@oregonian.com

503-294-7699

@rogoway
Republicans go to the polls Tuesday, March 8, in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii. Democrats vote in Michigan and Mississippi. This post will provide news, analysis, exit polls and results throughout the day.

Update (March 9, 7 a.m. PT): Final results

Tuesday winners

Michigan: Donald Trump (37%), Bernie Sanders (50%)

Mississippi: Donald Trump (47%), Hillary Clinton (83%)

Idaho: Ted Cruz (45%)

Hawaii: Donald Trump (42%)

What it all means

Donald Trump: The businessman and reality-TV star once again has a big night, and once again shows that no matter what attacks are thrown at him, his supporters stick with him. He is well on his way to winning the Republican nomination -- on the first ballot.

Ted Cruz: With his victory in the Idaho primary, the Texas senator solidifies his place as the chief alternative to Trump, likely setting up a head-to-head battle down the home stretch.

John Kasich: The Ohio governor earns a strong second place in Michigan, giving him some momentum heading into his home state's primary. He still hasn't won a contest and is pinning his long-shot hopes on a contested convention.

Marco Rubio: The Florida senator has another disastrous night. He's trailing badly in the polls in his home state. It's hard to see how this campaign ends well for him.

Hillary Clinton: The Democratic front-runner grabs a comprehensive win in Mississippi, but her shock loss in Michigan points up her vulnerabilities, making party insiders who are looking toward the fall a little nervous.

Bernie Sanders: The insurgent Democrat proves on Tuesday that he can win in a big, diverse state -- and that he's more than a single-issue candidate. He has the money and the passionate support to go all the way to the convention -- and maybe, just maybe, beyond.

Update (March 8, 8:50 PT): Sanders wins Michigan

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been trying to pivot to the general election for the past two weeks, but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders isn't letting her. Sanders' insurgent campaign, calling for a "political revolution," scored its biggest victory so far by topping Clinton in Michigan. Sanders has now proved he can win a primary in a big, diverse state with his anti-establishment message. The victory holds the potential to alter the race's narrative, showcasing the strength of Sanders' agenda and forcing Clinton to redouble her efforts to win over the liberal base of the party.

It also highlights Clinton's vulnerabilities. She remains mistrusted by some 60 percent of Americans, thanks to more than two decades of Republican vitriol and suspicion directed at her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. The incessant drip-drip-drip of the email scandal from her tenure as secretary of state will continue to drag on her image.

So now Clinton and Sanders look to March 15, when Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio vote. Perhaps at the end of those elections, one of the Democratic presidential candidates will be able to pivot toward the general election.

Update (March 8, 6:10 p.m. PT): Trump triumphant again

Donald Trump has won the Michigan primary. It looks like Ohio Gov. John Kasich will take second place, giving him at least some momentum heading into his home state's primary next week.

Trump said tonight that increased Republican turnout from the 2012 primaries is the "biggest story in politics right now." His point being that he has brought the new blood into the party. He has affirmed once again his status as the GOP front-runner, fending off Ted Cruz in two more important contests. Even if Cruz ends up winning the Idaho primary, the night will belong to Trump. March 15 will offer up a last stand for Kasich and Marco Rubio, if not for Cruz, but at this point it looks like Trump is on a glider path to his party's nomination.

Update (March 8, 5:45 p.m. PT): Convention or bust

Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have talked a fair amount about a contested Republican convention, largely because that's essentially the only way either of them could end up as the nominee. To have a shot at that goal, the two candidates almost certainly have to win their home states, which both vote on March 15. If they do, the possibility of an open convention will start to feel real to Republican insiders. "Among GOP elites," writes the Washington Post, "the only agreed-upon mission is to minimize [Donald] Trump's share of the delegates to enable an opponent to mount a credible convention challenge."

But Trump isn't the only candidate who opposes this scenario. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants Kasich and Rubio out of the race so he can face Trump head to head.

"Any time you hear someone talking about a brokered convention, it is the Washington establishment in a fevered frenzy: they are really frustrated because all their chosen candidates, their golden children, the voters keep rejecting," Cruz said last week, playing to the anti-establishment fervor that has fueled both his and Trump's campaigns. "So they seize on this plan of a brokered convention, and the D.C. power brokers will drop someone in who is exactly to the liking of the Washington establishment. If that would happen, we would have a manifest revolt on our hands all across this country."

Depending on the final results tonight, Trump and Cruz could soon get that head-to-head match-up they desire. Rubio will finish in single digits in Mississippi. His vote tally in Michigan could be nearly as disastrous. Steve Schmidt, John McCain's chief strategist during the 2008 presidential election, said on MSNBC this evening that the Florida senator has "a tough decision to make" about continuing in the race.

Kasich, on the other hand, is hoping to sneak into second place in Michigan, setting him up for Ohio next week.

Update (March 8, 5:30 p.m. PT): Clinton, Trump win

Hillary Clinton has won the Mississippi Democratic primary by a "significant" margin, multiple news sources project. Donald Trump has won the Mississippi Republican primary, sources project. Ted Cruz will finish in second place.

Update (March 8, 4:30 p.m. PT): Trump's new torture laws

Donald Trump has faced increased criticism of his views on torture. So he's begun to moderate his stance -- a little bit.

"We're going to stay within the laws," the real-estate developer now says. "But you know what we're going to do? We're going to have those laws broadened."

What does that mean? Trump has said many times that the U.S. should be undertaking methods "a hell of a lot worse" than waterboarding, the largely discredited interrogation technique that makes a prisoner feel as if he or she is drowning. Ariz. Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and a POW during the Vietnam War, has said "waterboarding is an affront to all of the standards that we believe in and adhere to of humane treatment of people."

Update (March 8, 3:30 p.m. PT): Early exit polls

Anger remains the driving factor for many Republican voters, according to early exit polls compiled by ABC News. This is good news for insurgent candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Michigan GOP voters angry at the federal government: about 40 percent

Mississippi GOP voters angry at the federal government: about 30 percent

In Mississippi, 84 percent of Republican voters describe themselves as evangelical Christians.

Democratic voters in Mississippi were asked who "they would trust to handle race relations." Here's how an early sampling answered in exit polls:

Only Hillary Clinton: 47 percent

Only Bernie Sanders: 11 percent

Both of them: 35 percent

Neither of them: 4 percent

They were also asked whether the candidates should continue President Barack Obama's generally middle-of-the-road Democratic agenda. Here's how voters responded, which could be good news for Clinton:

Continue Obama's policies: 72 percent

Change to more liberal policies: 20 percent

Change to less liberal policies: 6 percent

In Michigan, Democratic voters were asked whether they found the candidates "honest and trustworthy." Here's how they responded:

Hillary Clinton: about 60 percent

Bernie Sanders: about 80 percent

Update (March 8, 2:45 p.m. PT): Medgar Evers brother backs Trump

Mississippi has a troubled racial history, epitomized perhaps most famously by the 1963 assassination of civil-rights leader Medgar Evers and the murders the following year of three civil-rights workers traveling through the state. (The 1964 killings were the inspiration for the fictional 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning.") So what do Mississippians think about how Donald Trump's campaign has drawn some white-supremacist support, leading to the "Racists for Donald Trump" sketch that "Saturday Night Live" aired over the weekend (watch below)? That's hard to say, but here's something we do know: Medgar Evers' brother endorsed Trump this week.

"I believe in him first of all because he's a businessman," said Charles Evers, Medgar's 93-year-old brother. "I think jobs are badly needed in Mississippi."

Evers, who served as Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP and mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, became a Republican in 1980. His opinion of Trump's views on race? "I haven't seen any proof of him being a racist," Evers told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper. "All of us have some racism in us, even me."

Update (March 8, 1:45 p.m. PT): Sanders' last, best hope?

USA Today says Michigan is "Bernie Sanders' last, best chance to challenge Hillary Clinton's hold on the Democratic presidential race."

That's because it's big, offering a whopping 130 delegates. And because Democratic voters in the struggling rust-belt state should be receptive to Sanders' message on income inequality and his outside-the-political-mainstream prescriptions. Sanders calls for government-run single-payer health insurance, making public colleges tuition-free, expanding Social Security and reestablishing the Glass-Steagall Act that separated investment and commercial banking.

Offers Susan Demas, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics: "If he can't win in Michigan, where can he win besides these small caucus states?"

A Sanders victory in the Wolverine State, where the Vermont senator has been trailing in the polls, certainly would knock Clinton back on her heels and possibly change the race's narrative. But even if Sanders loses in Michigan, he's not going away. He continues to raise impressive amounts of money and has said he plans on fighting all the way to the convention no matter what happens.

Update (March 8, 1:05 p.m. PT): Why Bloomberg stayed out

Want to know why former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided against launching an independent campaign for the presidency?

The media baron, a Republican with liberal views on most social issues, considered running chiefly to prevent GOP front-runner Donald Trump from reaching the White House. But as polling savant Nate Silver indicates with the electoral-vote map below, a Bloomberg campaign likely would have hurt the Democrats far more than the Republicans.

Update (March 8, 11:35 a.m. PT): The end of the GOP?

Republican insiders fear they are witnessing the destruction of their party, and they could be right. The two major parties have been adept at survival -- taking on new positions as times change, fighting off the worst ideas of their fringe elements. But major parties have disappeared before in this country. The Grand Old Party itself was born from the ashes of the 19th century Whigs -- the party of President William Henry Harrison, iconic Senator Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward.

There's no denying that businessman and reality-TV star Donald Trump is changing the GOP as he brings out voters who don't typically support Republicans or usually don't even vote at all. Expanding a party's voter base is generally seen as a good thing, but exit polls show that in Trump's case the new voters tend to be nihilistic: they feel betrayed by the major parties and are angry at government and elected officials.

Trump's nativist appeals, as has been widely documented, also draw supporters who are even more objectionable to mainstream Republicans than incumbent-haters. Huffington Post reporters Ryan Grimm and Julia Craven point out that the Trump campaign is serving "as a welcoming committee of sorts to new racists hoping to enter the party."

Trump's rivals, meanwhile, want to woo at least some of the reality-TV star's voters. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have repeatedly said they understand the frustration and fury of voters drawn to Trump and can provide solutions for them. And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says his overwhelming win in Sunday's Puerto Rico primary "is evidence I can take conservatism to people who don't normally vote Republican."

March 8 election preview (6:30 a.m. PT): Trump makes 'electability' case

"A normal Republican cannot think of bringing in Michigan, and if you don't bring in Michigan, it's tough," Donald Trump said at a rally in the Wolverine State this week. "You have a very narrow road. But I'm going to bring in places like Michigan."

The Republican presidential front-runner is talking about the general election in the fall. The controversial businessman and reality-TV star has focused on his electability in the run-up to Tuesday's contests in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii. He's had to, because over the weekend his rivals -- benefiting from various attacks on Trump including the late-night comedy show "Saturday Night Live" airing a mock "Racists for Trump" ad -- scored some momentum. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz beat Trump in Kansas and Maine. And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, dismissing calls from Trump and Cruz to get out of the race, won convincingly in the territory of Puerto Rico.

So Trump has begun playing down (a little bit) the nativist appeals that have stirred outrage and talk instead about how he's the Republican presidential candidate most likely to best former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's front-runner.

But he's not only relying on the "electability" issue. With Michigan the big prize on Tuesday, he also insists he will restore the U.S.'s manufacturing glory by dropping a 35-percent tariff bomb on U.S. companies that move factories overseas. Many economists believe this kind of big-time trade tax, assuming Trump could get it through Congress, would be disastrous, setting off a trade war that would blight the houses of all involved. But never mind that. Trump says the threat of a tariff is all that would be needed. Within a day or two of issuing the warning, Trump says, any CEO who was planning to shift production out of the U.S. would call him up at the White House.

"They'll say: 'Mr. President, we're moving back. Would you like us to move to Michigan?'" Trump said. "I'll say, 'Yeah, I really want you to move to Michigan.' And they'll move back."

Such outcomes might indeed be nothing more than a demagogic fairy tale Trump is spinning, a shout-out to the angry, disaffected voters who have fueled his campaign. But he's undeniably onto something important here. Income inequality -- and government's inability to do anything about it -- is a key part not just of the insurgent campaign Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is waging for the Democratic nomination. It's central to Trump's as well on the GOP side. Trump's most dedicated supporters, the think-tank Rand Corporation found, are those who answer yes to the following survey question: "People like me don't have any say about what government does."

In short, people increasingly believe that, whether a Republican or a Democrat is in the White House, the rich get richer and, thanks to corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C., the rest get the shaft.

That's why some Democratic insiders are agitating for Clinton to pick Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as her vice president -- assuming, that is, Clinton is able to see off Sanders' primary challenge. Warren, the first head of President Obama's Consumer Protection Bureau, was the left's hero before Sanders launched his long-shot presidential campaign. (Indeed, liberal groups last year made a concerted effort to get her to join the race for the White House, but she demurred.)

Democrats on Tuesday go to the polls in Michigan and Mississippi, with Sanders trying to tamp down talk of Clinton's nomination being inevitable. Clinton leads Sanders 55 percent to 42 percent in the final Michigan polls, but Sanders is trending up. In the final Mississippi polls, Clinton holds a commanding lead -- up by some 40 percentage points in some surveys.

As for the Republicans, Trump led the final Michigan polls -- generally in the 30-36 percent range -- with Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich trailing in the low 20s. Trump appears to have significant leads in Idaho and Mississippi.

Kasich is the lone Republican still in the race who has yet to win a contest. But he's looking to gain late momentum for the March 15 primary in his home state by pulling a surprise in Michigan. Playing up his blue-collar roots, he believes he can cut into Trump's base. "If they can hear me, and what I've done, that's the ticket," he said this week. "I believe that if I can sit with some Trump people -- I won't get them all -- if I can sit with them, they're going to understand that I'm one of them."

-- Douglas Perry
AX231_4CF5_9.JPG

Michael Bloomberg seriously considered running for president as an independent.

(The Associated Press)

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn't thrilled with the candidates running for president. That's why the billionaire entrepreneur, a Republican, said early this year he was considering running for the White House as an independent.

Bloomberg, 74, announced Monday that he's no longer considering it. He's not going to do it.

"I believe I could win a number of diverse states -- but not enough to win the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidency," he wrote on Bloomberg View. "In a three-way race, it's unlikely any candidate would win a majority of electoral votes, and then the power to choose the president would be taken out of the hands of the American people and thrown to Congress. ... As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience."

Bloomberg apparently came close to jumping in, even conducting polling in key states and hiring campaign staff. He said he's "always been drawn to impossible challenges."

But it was the leading candidates in the Republican race, rather than the challenge, that made him think hard about running. He says Trump "has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears. Abraham Lincoln, the father of the Republican Party, appealed to our 'better angels.' Trump appeals to our worst impulses."

He says Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas whose core support comes from evangelical Christians, is "no less extreme."

Bloomberg did not mention Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the other Republicans in the presidential race. Nor did he say whether he preferred either of the Democratic candidates -- former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders -- over Trump and Cruz.

-- Douglas Perry
A nonprofit wild animal rescue in Canby that was closed to the public last year is moving to unincorporated Washington County.

A Walk on the Wild Side - with a menagerie of about 30 animals ranging from tigers to tortoises -- has a lease for the property at 29875 N.W. Victory Lane Rd., roughly three miles north of the Hillsboro Airport.

Steve Higgs and Cheryl Higgs, the husband and wife team that owns Walk on the Wild Side, will leave behind a zoning disagreement with Clackamas County officials that last year forced the organization to stop admitting visitors. The episode followed a two-year battle with the county.

They will arrive in a rural setting with neighbors unsure and, for now, uneasy about the newcomer, with concerns about escaping animals.

Steve Higgs said his new neighbors needn't worry, saying no animal has ever escaped from the Canby property at 6815 S. Knights Bridge Road. The couple has leased 20 acres there for about nine years.

"No animal has ever gotten out or hurt anybody," Steve Higgs said, adding the Canby facility is regularly inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Steve and Cheryl Higgs have had an ODFW prohibited species permit since 2008, said Rick Boatner, the agency's invasive species coordinator.

He said the agency will sometimes give the couple invasive, nonnative species - such as red-eared slider turtle and the common snapping turtle - when they're found in the wild, more than likely discarded by someone who had them for a pet.

The Higgs sometimes display their animals at county fairs and other public events.

"He's been a good ally for us to make people aware these turtles don't make good pets," Boatner said.

Steve Higgs said the couple hoped to have moved the animals from Canby to the Hillsboro-area location by next month and open for visits in May.

As with the Canby operation when it was open, the couple will seek visits from groups such as Make-A-Wish, military veterans and Head Start, Steve Higgs said.

The Higgs conflict with Clackamas County officials hinged on whether the property's Exclusive Farm Use zoning, which, according to the county, prevented public visits with the animals.

Steve Higgs said on Monday that the county employed a dual standard against Walk on the Wild Side, contending a nearby property also zoned for agricultural uses is open to the public - and has not faced a zoning issue.

A Clackamas County official who Steve Higgs named as an enforcement lead could not be reached Monday. A Washington County spokeswoman did not respond to a late Monday afternoon request for comment.

A future neighbor at the Washington County property is concerned about what will move in about a mile away from her barn and business at 30190 N.W. Scotch Church Rd., about a mile south of the future animal sanctuary.

"I don't want them getting out," said Corinne Dimick. "What we're concerned with most is the big cats and the fencing they put in for them. They're supposed to have the whole thing in a month. We're concerned that they follow the proper procedures."

--Allan Brettman

503-294-5900

@allanbrettman
Gunmen set foot in an elderly care facility and killed 16 people on Friday.

According to the Vatican, Pope Francis was reportedly left "shocked and profoundly saddened" by the attack on an elderly home in Yemen that killed 16 people including four nuns on Friday.

Unknown number of gunmen has entered the facility which is located in the southern city of Aden. According to a report, the gunmen handcuffed the victims before they killed them by shooting them on their heads. Unfortunately, the identities of those gunmen were not yet announced and confirmed.

Report has claimed that two of the nuns killed were from Rwanda, one was from the India and the other one was from Kenya.

Report claimed as well that the elderly home facility was operated by a charity established by Mother Theresa.

Statement from the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin stated that the Pope ""sends the assurance of his prayers for the dead and his spiritual closeness to their families and to all affected from this act of senseless and diabolical violence. He prays that this pointless slaughter will awaken consciences, lead to a change of heart, and inspire all parties to lay down their arms and take up the path of dialogue.
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LA CROSSE  A La Crosse man stabbed his wife in front of five children late Sunday at the couples South Side apartment before they huddled around her as she was dying, according to court records.

Prosecutors Monday charged Haron Joyner, 35, with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Jessica Joyner, 29. Hes jailed on a $100,000 cash bond.

Apartment tenant Lynn Hollowitch said a loud thud shook the units of 1314-1320 S. Fifth Ave., a multiplex bounded by Adams and Hood streets, during an escalating argument between the couple.

Mommy! Hollowitch heard, then Stop!

Hollowitch called 911 at 11:16 p.m. before Haron Joyner said something to the effect of, I already said not to play with me, Hollowitch said.

Then, another thud, this one louder than the first, Hollowitch said.

The kids said, Shes dead.

Haron Joyner stabbed his wife in the neck, face and chest six or seven times in the kitchen of their upper unit before she escaped to the apartment across the hall, according to the complaint.

She collapsed there in a pool of blood, telling the tenant that someone had tried to kill her before the five children, ages 5 to 11, surrounded her, crying and screaming.

Hollowitch rendered aid, trying to keep her alert and alive until police took over and searched the building for her attacker, described by one child witness as too calm, to the point of being super creepy, after the stabbing.

I just cant do this anymore, he said before walking calmly from the chaotic scene, according to the complaint.

Haron Joyner called to turn himself in while standing outside the La Crosse County Jail but wasnt there when police arrived. Officers found his van at the La Crosse Tribune, where he worked in the packaging department, and a lieutenant discovered blood in the buildings bathroom sink before employees said Haron Joyner fled in another car.

Police arrested him at 2:07 a.m. when they found him inside a car parked on the 3600 block of South 29th Court, about 90 minutes after his wife died at a local hospital. He had blood on his pants and shoes.

One child said Haron Joyner stabbed his wife as she was running away after he said she was dating a crackhead, according to the complaint. He told one child that she was next, the complaint stated.

Authorities dont know yet how long Haron Joyner, a New York native, has lived in La Crosse or if he has a criminal record. He returns to court March 15 for a preliminary hearing.
The Midland County Courthouse continues to receive lots of attention from the Midland County Board of Commissioners.

The seven commissioners recently approved the purchase of a software license agreement with Cherrylan LLC for the 75th District Court.

They also approved an architectural services agreement with ArchiVerde Design LLC for the proposed renovation of the Midland County Courthouse. Commissioners voted 6-1 for the agreement.

The project would provide a new entrance to allow access from both Main Street and the rear parking lot along with repurposing of interior space of the courthouse.

The lone nay vote belonged to Jim Leigeb, R-3rd District, who has consistently been against spending money for courthouse renovations.

The total fee for architectural services will be $500,000. Of that money, $400,000 came from a grant by The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation and accepted by the board on Dec. 15, 2015. The grant stipulated that the county provide the remaining $100,000, which was included in the 2015 and 2016 capital budgets. The $500,000 will allow the county to develop plans and blueprints and begin to obtain a reasonable estimate of construction costs.

This is the logical first step, to walk slowly, look it all over, get the buy in, make sure that you get the state and federal permits, make sure the historical side is looked at and it is functional for the courts. That can take a year, said County Facilities Manager Kevin Beeson on Dec. 15.

However, it was the $100,000 that was the

focus of Leigebs objections. Leigeb has voted against the last two budgets, primarily because they have included funds to renovate the courthouse.

I believe this is a continuation of the costs we are experiencing from the jail plan we adopted for a new jail. The costs are adding up. Now we keep sinking more and more costs into security and renovations. The taxpayers of Midland County should be insulted, Leigeb said at the time.

The county had already contracted with ArchiVerde to conduct a Space Allocation Study for repurposing the courthouse interior. That contract was approved by commissioners on June 16, 2015, for $9,180. Because of that contract, and previous work done for the county by ArchiVerde, commissioners approved waiving the sealed bid process for the $500,000 agreement. ArchiVerdes previous work makes it familiar with the courthouse, which is on the State and National Registry of Historic Buildings.

This past week, commissioners also unanimously approved a contract with Cherrylan of Traverse City for Michigan Court Connect.

(Michigan Court Connect) takes a document that we scan and ties it to a specific record in the (Judicial Information Systems written by the State Court Administrative Office), said District Court Judge Michael D. Carpenter. If an individual has a traffic ticket or multiple types of cases, each document needs to be scanned to that specific record.

The agreement will provide 16 licenses along with yearly maintenance for the 75th District Court. The original request was for 10 licenses at $20,570, but Carpenter renegotiated for 16 licenses at the same price. The yearly maintenance fee will be $4,250. Funds for the license and maintenance have already been included in the 2016 county budget.

We also use this software in the Friend of the Court, Carpenter said.

The next board meeting will be 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 15, at the Midland County Services Building.
State Sen. Jim Stamas legislation to support the states Critical Incident Stress Management teams is on its way to the governors desk to be signed.

Helping workers deal more effectively with critical stress is good for the employee, the employer and for the entire community, said Stamas, R-Midland. Michigans CISM teams help emergency service personnel  like our police, firefighters and EMS workers  deal with critical stress, such as a traumatic event or loss of a co-worker.
WASHINGTON  Hillary Clinton has a knack for turning triumph into tedium.

On the night of Super Tuesday, after her wins all but guaranteed her the Democratic presidential nomination, she served up a victory speech that was a bowl of mush.

We know weve got work to do, but that work is not to make America great again, she said. America never stopped being great. We have to make America whole. We have to fill in whats been hollowed out. We have to make strong the broken places, restitch the bonds of trust and respect.

Filling holes, stitching bonds, breaking barriers: Is this an election or a public-works project?

Minutes later, Donald Trump, in his own Super Tuesday victory speech, made quick work of Clinton. She wants to make America whole again, he said, and Im trying to figure out: What is that all about?

Good question. All talk lately has been about Republican disarray over Trumps seemingly inexorable march to the GOP nomination. Thats as it should be: Trumps bigotry and xenophobia are a disgrace to the party.

But Democrats would be foolish to think this guarantees Clinton a victory in November, because, for all Trumps faults, he has an advantage: He connects with Americans feeling economic anxiety. With his talk of China killing us on trade and Mexico destroying us on manufacturing jobs, Trump has the potential to best Clinton in an area that traditionally benefits Democrats: a perception that he cares about the problems of ordinary Americans.

This empathy gap propelled President Obama past Mitt Romney in 2012 and nearly allowed socialist Bernie Sanders to topple Clinton. If she cant fix the problem, it could doom her in November.

But there is, in this case, a silver bullet for Clinton: She can make Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., her running mate.

Though formal deliberations have yet to begin, the notion of a Clinton-Warren dream team has already been contemplated in Brooklyn. And there is likely to be more such talk, for several reasons:

Putting the liberal icon on the ticket would reunite the party and energize Sanders supporters who feel Clinton hasnt gone far enough in adopting his theme of economic justice.

An all-woman ticket would electrify Democrats and widen a gender gap that is already broad enough to swallow Trump, long accused of misogyny.

Above all, Warrens passionate populism would provide a perfect antidote to the oft-bankrupt billionaire Trump. If Clinton embraced Warren, and more of her agenda, she could match Trumps appeal to disaffected, white, working-class voters.

Clintons problem can be seen in last months Quinnipiac University poll of voters nationally. Asked whether she cares about the needs and problems of people like you, only 42 percent said yes  a strikingly low number for a Democrat. Sanders rated 61 percent, and Obama (though not the best at establishing bonds with the common man) has generally been in the high 60s.

Clinton scored only six points better than Trump. Compare that to the summer of 2012, when Obama enjoyed a 22-point advantage over Romney on a similar question.

This is worrisome for Democrats because the empathy gap was key to Obamas win in 2012. Among voters who prioritized a president who cares about people like me, Obama beat Romney by 63 points. If Trump, with his talk of ripping up trade deals and bringing home jobs, closes that gap, he would be difficult to stop.

Enter Warren, who declined to run for the nomination and remains neutral. Based on how well Sanders has done, the charismatic Warren, in retrospect, probably would have beaten Clinton.

On the eve of Super Tuesday, she wrote an op-ed for The Boston Globe reminding all of her empathy bona fides. I graduated from law school nine months pregnant with my second baby  and 100 percent unemployable, she began, before making the case of a $15 minimum wage and expanded Social Security.

Warren, from modest means in Oklahoma, has as much populist fire as Trump but rages against Wall Street instead of making scapegoats of China and Mexico. And her populism is more inspiring than Trumps talk of killing and grabbing.

Trump signaled his general-election argument against Clinton last week. Shes been there for so long, he said. I mean, if she hasnt straightened it out by now, shes not going to straighten it out in the next four years.

Trump will portray Clinton as a status-quo candidate out of touch with the common man. Warren, better than anybody, could refute that charge.
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LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Lansing voters trickled into the Foster Community Center to cast ballots in the Michigan primary just after the polls opened.

Several voters said Tuesday they're backing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is vying with Hillary Clinton for 130 delegates in the Democratic race.

Ryan Knott, a 43-year old who works for a local nonprofit, says he voted for Sanders because he's pushing the Democratic Party in a direction that Knott says he likes. Knott says Sanders won his vote because of his insistence on small campaign donations.

Meanwhile, 60-year-old Lansing School District teacher Ann Grimm says she wanted to vote for Ben Carson and was saddened when he dropped out. She says she's scared "witless" of Clinton and GOP candidate Donald Trump, but didn't say who she was voting for.

___

7:15 a.m.

Polls are opening across Michigan for the state's presidential primary and elections officials say some 2 million voters could cast ballots.

Early lines were reported Tuesday morning in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.

Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are vying for 130 delegates in the Democratic race. On the Republican side, 59 delegates are up for grabs among businessman Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida.

Turnout could be relatively high. The secretary of state's office notes that that there are contested primaries for both Democratic and Republican candidates, and both parties are using the primary to allocate delegates for their respective nominating conventions. The last time that happened in a meaningful way was 1992.

___

1:45 a.m.

Presidential candidates in both parties are looking to Michigan for one of the largest delegate hauls in the bruising nominating contests. Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump are attempting to secure their hold on front-runner status.

Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are vying for 130 delegates in the Democratic race. On the Republican side, 59 delegates are up for grabs among businessman Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida.

In recent days, the former secretary of state and Vermont senator tangled aggressively over economic issues in industrial Michigan. Republicans are fighting to ensure they garner the minimum 15 percent of votes needed to secure some delegates before big winner-take-all elections in Ohio and Florida next week.
CLEVELAND (AP)  The recipient of the nation's first uterus transplant said Monday that she prayed for years to be able to bear a child, and is grateful to the deceased donor's family and surgeons who've given her that chance.

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic said Monday that the 26-year-old woman is recovering well after receiving the uterus late last month. The experimental surgery is part of a new frontier in transplantation that, if it works, might be an alternative for some of the thousands of women unable to have children because they were born without a uterus or lost it to disease.

The woman, identified only as Lindsey, appeared briefly at a news conference with her husband. She said she already is a mother to three "beautiful little boys" adopted through foster care and that she was told when she was 16 that she wouldn't be able to bear children.

"From that moment on, I've prayed that God would allow me the opportunity to experience pregnancy," she said. "And here we are today, at the beginning of that journey."

The woman must wait at least a year to ensure the new uterus is healthy enough to try getting pregnant through in vitro fertilization, using embryos frozen ahead of the operation. To monitor the transplant, she will undergo monthly examinations.

Other countries have tried womb transplants. Sweden reported the first successful birth in 2014, with a total of five healthy babies from nine transplants so far. The transplant team at the Cleveland Clinic, which has been exploring the possibility of performing uterus transplants for 10 years, trained with the Swedish surgeons.

The hospital has screened more than 250 women to identify 10 who qualify for the clinical trial, those lacking a functional uterus but with healthy ovaries that produce eggs. They must understand the risks  complications from abdominal surgery, plus the possibility that the transplant will fail  and that it's experimental.

"We must remember a uterine transplant is not just about a surgery and about moving a uterus from here to there. It's about having a healthy baby," said Cleveland Clinic surgeon Dr. Rebecca Flyckt.

One concern, both medically and ethically, is the effect that necessary anti-rejection drugs have on a developing fetus, the doctors said Monday. Dr. Andreas Tzakis, a transplant surgeon who is leading the study, said many women who've had kidney transplants have delivered healthy babies while taking anti-rejection drugs.

Births will be by cesarean section. The transplanted uterus will be removed after the woman has had one or two babies so that she won't need those drugs the rest of her life.

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees U.S. transplants, said Baylor University in Dallas and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital have also been approved for uterine transplants.

A uterus donation requires a separate consent from a deceased donor's family, like donations for other new procedures such as hand and face transplants, said UNOS chief medical officer Dr. David Klassen.

The donor for the Cleveland Clinic transplant was described as a healthy woman in her 30s who'd had children and had died suddenly. Sweden has used living donors for transplants there, but the Cleveland Clinic trial, to avoid any risk to a donor, decided to start with donors who have died.

The Cleveland Clinic patient, Lindsey, said she was grateful to that donor's family. "They have provided me with a gift that I will never be able to repay."

Dr. Mats Brannstrom of Sahlgrenska University Hospital at the University of Gothenburg said the Cleveland surgery marked the 13th transplant worldwide. According to Brannstrom, Saudi Arabia and Turkey previously reported attempts and China performed one in November, but Sweden so far has the only births.

___

Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard reported from Washington; Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.
If you want to guarantee a Clinton presidency, vote Republican in the primary. In the latest polls, Trump is 20 points ahead of Cruz, his closest competitor. He is going to win Michigan. And he has all but a lock on the nomination. Additional Republican votes are not going to change this.

Things are a lot less clear on the Democratic side. Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, but the Vermont senator is gaining rapidly on her. If he can overtake her, the Democratic primary will explode wide open.

Republicans and Independents have a real opportunity to end Clintons dreams of a second Clinton presidency right here in Michigan. Because we have an open primary, voters can cast their ballot in either the Republican or the Democratic contest. This year, your vote will have the greatest impact, if you cast those ballots for Sanders.

Clintons best chance for victory in the fall is if she can wrap up the nomination as soon as possible. A victory in Michigan will mean she can do so almost immediately. As Republicans continue battling all the way to the convention, severely wounding each other along the way, Clinton will be able to spend the next several months raising money and rebranding herself as a moderate. She will enter the fall far stronger than any of her opponents on the right.

If Sanders somehow beats Clinton in Michigan, everything changes. Rather than spending the spring and summer preparing for the general election, she will be forced to continue fighting for the nomination, perhaps all the way to the convention. It will be expensive. And it will force her to remain on the left side of the political spectrum far longer than she wants to.

The best way to prevent a second Clinton presidency is to vote for Sanders. The weaker Clinton is in the fall, the better the chance that a Republican will win the general election. And if Sanders were somehow able to defy the odds and actually win the nomination, then Clintons hopes would end that much sooner.

Kathy Donohue is a professor of history. She is the author of Freedom From Want: Modern American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer as well as the editor of and a contributor to With Liberty and Justice for All? Rethinking Politics in Cold War America.
This presidential campaign has been as strange as they come in recent memory.

GOP candidate Donald Trump appears to be the most disliked front-runner to ever appear on a ballot. And what was at one time a 13-person race for the Republican nomination has been whittled down to four: Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

On the Democratic side, things are a little less complicated with Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders still in contention.

Why is this important? Because today, Tuesday, March 8, the residents of Michigan are going to the polls to vote in the 2016 presidential primary election. Polls will be open until 8 p.m.

The ballots, printed long ago, will contain the names of a number of people who have since withdrawn from the Republican and Democratic presidential races. So when you vote, recognize there are only the six candidates named earlier left in the running.

Todays election also has significance for two Midland County townships and the people of Gladwin County.

In Midland County, residents of Geneva and Mills townships will each have a proposal on the ballot. Geneva is asking voters to approve a 0.5 mill renewal for fire department operations and equipment funding. Voters in Mills are being asked to approve a 1.0 mill new request for roads. Revenue from this millage will be disbursed to the Midland County Road Commission, which will perform the maintenance and improvements. One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of equalized value.

In Gladwin County, residents are being asked to approve a Headlee Rollback Restoration proposal. Voters originally approved 5.75 mills for county operations in 1978 and the county today is levying 4.4 mills due to the requirements of the Headlee Amendment. The board is asking voters to allow the county to levy the entire 5.75 mills.

Presidential primary elections are not known for huge voter turnouts. Lets buck those trends in Midland County and mid-Michigan and turn out in force today as voters help our nation decide the presidential nominees for the Republican and Democratic parties.
Osan prepares F-16s for Beverly Midnight 16-01

With hours before the start of combat readiness exercise Beverly Midnight 16-01, maintainers from the 36th Aircraft Maintenance Unit conduct final preparations and ensure the aircraft are prepared and ready  to Fight Tonight.



These Airmen ensure F-16 Fighting Falcons are prepared and ready for the grueling pace they will be required to sustain throughout readiness exercise Beverly Midnight 16-01.



The exercise focuses on readiness, testing Osans wartime procedures, and realistically looking at the ability to defend the base, execute operations and sustain follow-on forces.



We are out here to ensure these jets are ready to execute both day and night missions on a continuous basis during the exercise, said Staff Sgt. Nathan Lewis, 36th AMU dedicated crew chief. There is quite a lot of equipment that must be taken care of and stored in specific places to make sure we are able to get aircraft in the air at a moments notice.



During these combat exercise scenarios, Airmen train to launch and recover aircraft in simulated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear environments.



Its very important to check our [mission oriented protective posture] gear for any damage that may have happened during the last exercise, said Lewis. We make sure our simulated M9 chemical detector paper is still visible and not torn or frayed. We also prepare new people who havent exercised before about what to expect here.



Logistics can be a daunting task, especially during simulated attacks, but one 36th AMU Airman explained its all part of mission readiness on the Korean Peninsula.



Once the exercise begins, things are very intense, so getting our gear and reporting to our designated teams is extremely important, said Senior Airman Jacob Noble, 51st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief. We practice and train as close to real-world standards as we can. We all are aware of the threats and take our readiness and responsibility to protect the alliance seriously.


Church of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Charles Blake, Sr. Joins Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America Executive Committee Contact: Robert Coleman, Jr.,



MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 8, 2016 /



"The PCCNA Board of Administration was honored to elect Bishop Blake unanimously to serve as their new co-chairperson for a three year term effective February 2016," says Farmer. "Bishop Blake is a statesman and community transformer. We're honored that he is carving out time in his busy schedule to partner with us in our vision to demonstrate unity in the power of the Spirit." PCCNA represents over 40,000 Pentecostal / Charismatic Christian congregations in Canada, the U.S.A and Mexico.



Bishop Blake is the pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, one of the largest churches in the Western United States, with a membership of over 25,000. He is recognized as one of the great preachers of this generation with a message that ministers to the whole person and brings together people of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. On April 6, 2009, in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama sought Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. to serve on his 25-person White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.



This one-year appointment is a testament to his passion for the community and his desire to unite all people for the common good.



The heart of Bishop Blake is seen quite clearly in the love that he has for the children in Africa who have become orphans because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic plaguing the continent. In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, Bishop Blake founded, the Pan African Children's Fund (PACF). Save Africas Children, a program of PACF, has provided support to over 420 orphan care programs, 200,000 children in 24 nations throughout sub-Saharan Africa.



Bishop Blake has also formerly served as an Advisory Committee Member of the Pentecostal World Conference, and as the founder and Co-chair of the Los Angeles Ecumenical Congress (LAEC), an interdenominational coalition of religious leaders and pastors.



Second only to his call as a minister of the Gospel, Bishop Blake says his most treasured accomplishments are those of a devoted husband to Lady Mae Lawrence Blake, and a loving father and grandfather to their three children and eight grandchildren.



The Church of God in Christ is one of the oldest Pentecostal denominations in the World and the 4th largest Protestant group in the United States with churches in over 70 countries worldwide and a membership of nearly 6.5 Million adherents.

Share Tweet Contact: Robert Coleman, Jr., Church of God in Christ , 901-235-2160MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 8, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Church of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. was elected to serve as Co-Chairperson for the Executive Committee of the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA). Bishop Blake joins PCCNA Chairperson Assemblies of God Assistant General Superintendent Alton Garrison; PCCNA President Jeff Farmer; Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada General Superintendent David Wells, Treasurer, and Foursquare Church Chief Operating Officer Sterling Bracket serving as Secretary. The PCCNA Executive Board also includes the following as Members-At-Large: Church of God General Overseer Bishop Mark Williams; Assemblies of God USA General Superintendent George Wood; United Holy Church of America Bishop Elijah Williams; National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference President Samuel Rodriguez; International Pentecostal Holiness Church General Overseer Bishop Doug Beacham and Grupo Unidad President Fermin Garcia."The PCCNA Board of Administration was honored to elect Bishop Blake unanimously to serve as their new co-chairperson for a three year term effective February 2016," says Farmer. "Bishop Blake is a statesman and community transformer. We're honored that he is carving out time in his busy schedule to partner with us in our vision to demonstrate unity in the power of the Spirit." PCCNA represents over 40,000 Pentecostal / Charismatic Christian congregations in Canada, the U.S.A and Mexico.Bishop Blake is the pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, one of the largest churches in the Western United States, with a membership of over 25,000. He is recognized as one of the great preachers of this generation with a message that ministers to the whole person and brings together people of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. On April 6, 2009, in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama sought Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. to serve on his 25-person White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.This one-year appointment is a testament to his passion for the community and his desire to unite all people for the common good.The heart of Bishop Blake is seen quite clearly in the love that he has for the children in Africa who have become orphans because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic plaguing the continent. In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, Bishop Blake founded, the Pan African Children's Fund (PACF). Save Africas Children, a program of PACF, has provided support to over 420 orphan care programs, 200,000 children in 24 nations throughout sub-Saharan Africa.Bishop Blake has also formerly served as an Advisory Committee Member of the Pentecostal World Conference, and as the founder and Co-chair of the Los Angeles Ecumenical Congress (LAEC), an interdenominational coalition of religious leaders and pastors.Second only to his call as a minister of the Gospel, Bishop Blake says his most treasured accomplishments are those of a devoted husband to Lady Mae Lawrence Blake, and a loving father and grandfather to their three children and eight grandchildren.The Church of God in Christ is one of the oldest Pentecostal denominations in the World and the 4th largest Protestant group in the United States with churches in over 70 countries worldwide and a membership of nearly 6.5 Million adherents.
Five members from the Pacific Region Spouses Group joined together to count humpback whales from Marine Corps Base Hawaiis Pyramid Rock Jan. 30 in Kaneohe, Hawaii.

The Sanctuary Ocean Count project is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide scientists with data documenting the humpback whales annual 2,500-mile, round-trip migration from Alaska to the Hawaiian Islands.

This distance pales in comparison to some military members' last PCS! said Faith Carrabis, a key spouse with the Pacific Region Spouses Group and volunteer observer for the whale count. Carrabis coordinated the spouses' participation in the NOAA Whale Count. She is also wife to Senior Master Sgt. Manolito Carrabis, Readiness and Emergency Management Program manager, Air Force Installation Management Support Center, Detachment 2.

The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is the nationally-protected winter home to the Northern Pacific humpback whale population. Shoreline sections of Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii and waterways among Molokai, Maui and Lanai comprise the sanctuarys protected waters.

This year, the twentieth anniversary of the ocean count program, coincides with the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Command Pacific Region Spouses Group inaugural year of operation.

The Air Forces newest command, the IMSC, branches into 10 detachments to provide support to installations worldwide. The new spouses group's alma mater, Det. 2, provides support to the Pacific region from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Detachment spouses formed the group in December to create a social and support network which would serve and connect both the members and the community.

The group counted eighteen whales including a mother and calf duo, according to a Sanctuary Ocean Count Site Leader, Capt. Natalie Chounet. Chounet is the IMSC Det. 2 Basing and Beddown Flights deputy chief. She has volunteered as a Sanctuary Ocean Count site leader since 2015.

Each year, Sanctuary Ocean Count officials invite the public to assist in observing and recording whale population and behavior data in order to document population changes and distribution as well as behaviors while the ocean-going mammals are in the area.

The ocean count offers a truly-unique experience for military members and their families who might have limited time to experience life in the middle of the Pacific, said Sonia Berrios, also a volunteer observer and wife of Lt. Col. David Berrios, Readiness Branch chief, AFIMSC Det. 2. Marine Corps Base Hawaii is a one-of-a-kind rendezvous point for military travelers who might be wintering or living in Hawaii. This is such a great opportunity since we have access to the only military base from which the official count is conducted.

The spouses group leveraged their underlying core values during the half-day event as they relied on key communication skills to ensure an accurate count. The teams performance also exemplified their mission: to provide a strong social structure for unit families and to perpetuate the units community on Oahu.

The volunteers dedication and cohesion was obvious throughout the day, Chounet said. As was their ability to optimize team performance. Through cooperation and constant communication, they sited and documented very active humpbacks on a clear path to the North Shore protected waters.

One of the groups goals is to blend relaxed, fun events with a means for unit families to reach beyond the familiar and focus on unique experiences that arent available at every military assignment. The success of the days whale-count project verifies this new group is starting off with a splash in the right direction.

Visit www.facebook.com/groups/170050350004199 to find out more about the Pacific Region Spouses Group.

The Sanctuary Ocean Count project offers the community a chance to monitor humpback whales from the shores of Oahu, Hawaii and Kauai. The count is held the last Saturday of January, February, and March (during peak whale season) of each year from 8:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., according to the NOAA and National Marine Sanctuaries website.

Visit http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/involved/ocwelcome.html to find out more about the Ocean Sanctuary Count.
Boxer Receives 5th Consecutive Battle "E" By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Matthew N. Jackson

PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- For the fifth consecutive year, amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) was selected to receive the Battle Effectiveness (Battle "E") Award by Commander, Naval Surface Forces Pacific.



Boxer's selection was announced via Naval Message March 3 for her performance during calendar year 2015.



"This validation to the crew demonstrates that their hard work over the last year, their focus on standardization and procedural compliance is truly the right way to do business," said Capt. Mike Ruth, Boxer Commanding Officer.



The Battle "E" is awarded annually to ships and crew that best demonstrate the capability to perform wartime tasks and exhibit the highest degree of departmental readiness in their group.



"I provide a vision with clear priorities, and then empower this outstanding crew through a strong wardroom and Chief's mess to meet the mission," Ruth said. "The great men and women of Boxer make this command a success."



Battle "E" recipients must demonstrate mission excellence in six categories of battle efficiency: maritime warfare, engineering/survivability, command and control, logistics, safety, and efficiency excellence.



"To be eligible for the Battle E, Boxer had to earn at least four of the five Command Excellence Awards, satisfactorily complete basic phase certification events for each warfare area on the first try, and do well on INSURV if it happens to fall in the calendar year," said Cmdr. Mark Scorgie, Boxer operations officer. "Obviously, the Boxer team knocked it out of the park."



Boxer spent several months performing maintenance and implementing systems upgrades. The Boxer crew also integrated with USS New Orleans (LPD 18), USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), Commander Amphibious Squadron One and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit to complete integrated training in preparation for deployment.



"We battled a significant amount of maintenance issues which compressed our training phase," said Command Master Chief Matt Ruane. "However, clear communication up and down the chain of command, prioritizing and effective planning made the challenge with time easier to deal with."



"Every member of the crew should hold their head high knowing they are part of team Boxer, and know that they have accomplished something very significant," added Ruane.



More than 4,500 Sailors and Marines from the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (13th MEU) team are currently transiting the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations during a scheduled deployment.



For more news from USS Boxer (LHD 4), visit www.navy.mil/local/lhd4/.


WASHINGTON, March 7, 2016  U.S. and South Korean troops today began their annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises, which Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said are conducted to maintain South Koreas preparedness.

The exercises also will include troops from United Nations Command mission nations Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and Great Britain, Davis told reporters.

DoD officials said about 7,700 American and 10,000 South Korean troops will participate in the exercises.

As you know, we continue to ask [North Korea] to refrain from provocative actions and statements that only serve to aggravate tensions, Davis said. We closely monitor activities [in North Korea], and were always ready to act in support of our Republic of Korea allies.

Defensive Exercises

The exercises are purely defensive, Davis said. Certainly, any statements that imply hostile offensive action by North Korea are not only unhelpful,  theyre contrary to  what were doing, he added.

Both exercises involve air, ground, naval and special operations support, Davis said, noting that Key Resolve is a command-post exercise and that Foal Eagle is focused on field training.

THAAD Talks Move Forward

Based on North Koreas evolving threats, the United States and South Korea have agreed to look at the South Koreas missile defense posture and the feasibility of U.S. Forces Korea operating a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, officials reported last month. Following a recent formal agreement signing, the formal THAAD consultations are expected to begin soon, Davis said today.

THAAD provides the ballistic missile defense system with a globally transportable, rapidly deployable capability to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere during its final phase of flight, according to DoDs Missile Defense Agency website.

(Follow Terri Moon Cronk on Twitter: @MoonCronkDoD)
Alaska Air National Guard Supports Navy's Ice Exercise By Staff Sgt. Sheila deVera Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- A crew of six from the 249th Airlift Squadron flew to the Arctic Circle, two hundred nautical miles north of Deadhorse, Alaska, in support of Ice Exercise led by the U.S. Navy Submarine Forces, March 2, 2016.



One of the difficulties the Airmen overcame was the location of the camp. Since the camp is on an ice floe, moving about half a nautical mile per hour, navigation is difficult. The crew was able to pinpoint the location; making this the first time a C-17 Globemaster III based from JBER has conducted an airdrop onto the polar ice cap.



According to the Navy website, the Arctic is experiencing a trend of diminishing sea ice extent and thickness creating the likelihood of increased maritime activity in the region, including trans-oceanic shipping and resource extraction.



"Early this summer, Navy asked for us to assist moving their equipment to the Polar ice cap," said Air Force Master Sgt. Cecil Dickerson. "[During the planning conference], we decided to use the air delivery method."



The crew loaded up equipment and helped establish a temporary command center for conducting operations in the region.



"We had roughly 12,000 pounds of cargo and eight container delivery systems," added Dickerson.

This is the first time in the 249th AS had ever conducted an airdrop in the polar region; they logged roughly six hours of simulator training to see how the aircraft would react to extreme northern latitude, Air Force Capt. Joshua Flye, 249th AS chief of tactics said.



"We did our best to look at our [technical] data for the aircraft," Flye said. "So everything was trial and error in the simulator."



The squadron has been developing non-traditional methods of airdrop delivery to austere locations, by flying into these remote sites with no radio contact and locating the ground party.



"The Navy is not used to dealing with Air Force logistics and airdrops, so we had to send some of our guys to the planning conferences to work the [logistics] of it," Flye added. "It's a unique cooperation between the Navy and the Air Force."



ICEX 2016 is a five-week biannual exercise designed to research, test and evaluate operational capabilities in the Arctic region. The event enhances submarine readiness and supports Arctic objectives and initiatives.



The exercise includes more than 200 participants between U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska Air National Guard, Great Britain, Canada, and Norway.


ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam - More than 200 Airmen and 12 F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 112th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam and participated in exercise Cope North 16, from Feb. 10 through 26.

Cope North is a long-standing annual two-week exercise that includes nearly 3,000 military personnel from six different countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the Philippines.

This exercise serves as the keystone training event between the U.S. and partner nations, which included humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, search and rescue, and large-force employment exercises to hone vital readiness skills, enhance multilateral air operations, and promote stability and security throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

That integration piece is pivotal, because thats how were going to go to war, said Lt. Col. Michael DiDio, the commander of the 112th EFS. It allows us to learn the strengths and weaknesses of deploying with our coalition partners and how those cultural differences play into the tactical realm of executing missions.

The training allowed pilots to experience realistic training alongside dissimilar aircraft, including the F-15 Eagle, F-18 Hornet, EA-18G Growler, B-52 Stratofortress, KC-135 Stratotanker, E-3 Sentry and C-130 Hercules. DiDio said each of these unique aircraft bring its own set of capabilities to the fight. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each aircraft allows planners to execute mission development more effectively.

Were flying with a variety of aircraft from all different countries, so we get to learn how each other operate, said Capt. Andrew Hauber, an F-16 pilot assigned to the 112th EFS. Once we know how we each operate, we can integrate our forces to be more tactical. Its all one total fight and we utilize the advantages of our different aircraft to maximize our total efficiency and lethality.

The U.S. Navy brought Growlers for electronic warfare, so Ive gotten great exposure that Ive never had before on how to use them to our advantage in a fight, said 1st Lt. Pete Fritz, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot assigned to the 112th EFS.

Maj. Brian Cherolis, an F-16 instructor pilot with the 112th EFS, said the air-to-air combat training exercises during CN16 began as 1-vs-1 and 2-vs-2 scenarios as part of a building block approach, which culminated in the large-force employment exercise. A large-force employment exercise is where pilots train in simulated combat missions with a high number of allied aircraft attacking or defending against a high number of adversary aircraft.

As everyone gets more comfortable working together, we add more jets and more complexity to the scenarios, Cherolis said. The elements of complexity you get from having 70 aircraft in the air are experiences you cant simulate back home. Its unmatched when you can get an exercise like this.

Maj. Curtis Voltz, a weapons officer with the 112th EFS, said the scenarios varied from defensive counter-air missions, where adversary aircraft simulated attacking the island of Guam, to simulated offensive strikes deep into adversary territory. These scenarios included air-to-air, surface-to-air and air-to-ground threats.

Here, were fighting in much bigger scenarios, said Maj. Brian Hoose, an F-16 instructor pilot with the 112th EFS. You might have 30 or 40 airplanes versus 20 or more adversaries that regenerate during the fight to simulate 40 or 50 total adversaries. It gives us that big picture training we cant get in Ohio. Its much more about integration.

One of the major challenges the pilots faced during the large-force employment was the language barrier. DiDio said the language barrier was an intentional aspect specifically built into the exercise to help pilots and mission planners learn to overcome the obstacles they would face in a real-world coalition effort. DiDio said many of the issues came from using brevity words, which are short phrases used by the pilots to communicate information in as short a span of time as

possible. Additionally, the different accents made communicating a challenge over the radio.

You have a very small timeline and you have to make quick decisions, Hauber said. If you have to keep repeating yourself so the message gets relayed correctly, it makes you less tactical. During an exercise like this, you start to learn the language our partners speak, and now were establishing common brevity words to communicate faster and more effectively.

Over the course of CN16, the 112th EFS flew 135 sorties and logged 238 flight hours, contributing to the ability to successfully execute world-wide deployments and coalition missions.

Were trying to build that team focus, said Capt. Seth Murray, an F-16 pilot with the 112th EFS. Its not just the U.S. or Korea or Japan. Its all of us coming together with our partners to defend our common interests.
Gospel for Asia Addresses Gender Equality on International Women's Day

Local Partners to Give Out Food, Blankets, Health Information



Contact: 434-426-5310,

pressrelations@gfa.org



WILLS POINT, Texas, March 8, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Gospel for Asia joins with the international humanitarian community in commemorating today's International Women's Day. Gospel for Asia (GFA) partners will be offering special assistance to women in the areas where it serves in South Asia, celebrating the success of women and underscoring the wide gaps in gender equality that persist in our world.



Photo: GFA-supported female missionary shares about Jesus with women inmates at a jail center in South Asia where a Women's Day event was held last year. The local Bible College staff and Women's Fellowship sisters often visit the jail with different programs to demonstrate the love of Jesus and share the Good News with the inmates.



In many regions around the world, women face consistent hardships from gender-based abortions to child marriage, forced prostitution, and modern day slavery. GFA-supported workers will be visiting nursing homes, jails and medical facilities to distribute food and other necessities to hundreds of women today.



Around the world:

More than 1.6 million girl babies annually are targeted for abortion.



An estimated 39,000 girls are forced into marriage every day.



An estimated 4.5 million people, 98 percent of them women and children, are victims of sexual slavery.

"International Women's Day reminds us of the many women throughout the world who face extremely difficult challenges in their lives," said K.P. Yohannan, founder and international director of Gospel for Asia. "Through our efforts, we can provide both spiritual hope and physical help to ease their everyday burdens."



Last year, GFA worked with Believers Church to organize dozens of special events across South Asia to commemorate International Women's Day, giving away food, mosquito nets and clothing to hundreds of disadvantaged mothers and widows.



One region hosted a gathering where 100 people heard the local pastor praise the role of women in society, telling the crowd about God's love for each individual, and one woman noted, "I want to thank Believers Church for conducting this kind of program and for providing me with a mosquito net. I am very poor and not able to buy it. This gift is very helpful for my family."



At another event, a participant said, "I am very glad and privileged to be part of the International Women's Day program. I have heard about this International Women's Day, but I did not know what that means. But today . . . I understand about the importance of the day, and I feel special to be a woman."



This year, GFA-supported workers are expanding their efforts. In addition to events, they are opening tailoring centers to provide employment opportunities for women, distributing more than 4,500 food packets, blankets and mosquito nets to endangered women, organizing medical camps, and providing clothing and school items for children. They will be visiting homes for the elderly, jails and medical facilities to provide comfort and other assistance in the name of Jesus.



"Christ's compassion is meant to be shared with the entire world," said Yohannan. "We begin by praying for those suffering, but then continue by meeting their physical needs."



GFA offers a variety of ways to become involved in easing the physical plight of South Asian women, while providing them with the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ. To find out more, go to www.gfa.org.



For more information on International Women's Day, go to www.internationalwomensday.com.



GOSPEL FOR ASIA has  for more than 30 years  provided humanitarian assistance and spiritual hope to millions across South Asia, especially among those who have yet to hear the Good News. Last year, this included more than 75,000 sponsored children, free medical services for more than 180,000 people, 6,000 wells drilled, 11,000 water filters installed, Christmas presents for more than 400,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry.



To schedule an interview with a Gospel for Asia representative, contact pressrelations@gfa.org.
A British-based company's "period policy" attracts a fierce debate among companies. They allow their female employees to have a time off during their menstrual period.

Bex Baxter, Coexist director said that the policy was made based on her own experience. It's hard to get the job done while having menstrual cramps, as reported by Modern Readers.

"If someone is in pain - no matter what kind - they are encouraged to go home," she said. "But, for us, we wanted a policy in place which recognizes and allows women to take time for their body's natural cycle without putting this under the label of illness," she added.

She stated that while most assume that the policy will not slow the business' productivity. It will actually be beneficial to both business and employee.

"Cycle awareness is a mindfulness tool for women and men," said Alexandra Pope, founder and creator of women's leadership programme, Red School.

She said that it is a self-care tool and stress management. It offers a clear vision of creative process and "sustainable living for men and women," according to Bristol Post.

L.V. Anderson, associate editor of Slate believe that the policy is just "reductive, narrow-minded and patronizing." Some women do not have painful menstruation might have other health problems that they want to use their sick days on, she stated.

"This is to say nothing about men who might reasonably come to resent their female colleagues for taking advantage of benefit unavailable to men," she added.

A Japanese woman in her 30's who wishes to remain anonymous said that her previous company offers the same policy. However, she has not taken a single menstrual leave, The Guardian reported.

"If you take menstrual leave, you're basically broadcasting to the entire office which days of the month you have your period," she said.

"It's not the sort of thing you want to share with male colleagues, and it could lead to sexual harassment," she added.


They say that when you're allergic to peanuts, you will forever be allergic to it. Well, not anymore. A study has revealed that once tolerance is established to those children, who may be at a higher risk of developing peanut allergy, there is a good chance for it to last.

For the study, the children were given peanuts for several years as part of a supervised clinical trial. It was revealed that these children have maintained their tolerance for over a year even if they don't continuously eat peanuts, upi.com reported. According to Dr. Sherry Farzan, an allergist with Northwell Health in Great Neck, New York, who wasn't involved in the research, said that the study continued, and after 12 months the recipient of the clinical trial didn't have any allergic reaction. "They maintained their ability to tolerate peanuts, even though they hadn't been eating it," she added.

Another expert, who's not included in the study, Dr. Scott Sicherer, a pediatric allergy specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City who also isn't part of the study explained that the immune system eventually "learns" that peanuts are not a threat to the body, and children won't have to continuously eat peanuts to maintain that tolerance.

According to US News, the two doctors cautioned that this allergy prevention strategy should only be done with a doctor's supervision. The doctors know how much peanut can challenge the immune system without triggering an allergic reaction, and can step in when any untoward reaction occur. Sicherer also repeated that this prevention strategy only applies to those who are at risk of peanut allergy and not to those who are already allergic to peanuts.

This study is a continuation of the groundbreaking clinical trial known as Learning Early about Peanut Allergy (LEAP). The same trial discovered that feeding peanuts to babies who are at risk for at least 60 months decreases their risk of developing the allergy. The study determined an infant's risk of being allergic to peanuts using an allergy skin test.

Video Credit: youtube.com/Associated Press
As the finale episode of "The Bachelor 2016" nears, tension intensifies between the remaining candidates, Jojo Fletcher and Lauren Bushnell, for Ben Higgins' heart. However, speculations state that Higgins will most likely choose Fletcher over Bushnell.

As the trio spends a holiday in Jamaica, Higgins must make up his mind on who will become his future wife in the finale episode of "The Bachelor." Movie News Guide reports that Higgins has already chosen Lauren and has already proposed to her. This means that Higgins and Bushnell are already engaged. However, the finale episode is still about to be aired.

Higgins has revealed on "Good Morning America" that he is already engaged. This is after saying the "love" word to the two remaining ladies after Caila's exit in "The Bachelor."

"After telling two women that I'm in love with them, I'm in a state of shock because my heart's leading me in two directions," Higgins said per USA Today . "I'm scared because I don't know what I'm going to do."

However, one of the final candidates in "The Batchelor" has dominantly taken over Higgins' heart. After making his decision, Higgins proposed right away. Check out the report from "Good Morning America":

Movie News Guide points out that Higgins and Bushnell share an exceptional bond, especially during their trip to Jamaica. Both Higgins and Bushnell released baby turtles to the ocean. They expressed their gratitude to one another for sharing wonderful memories together.

During the entire airing of "The Bachelor," Higgins and Bushnell appear to have some deep connection, even Higgins has admitted that Bushnell is actually too good for him. In response, Bushnell tells the world that Higgins is the man of her dreams and feels the luckiest to have spent time with him.

Meanwhile, Bushnell reportedly feels that Fletcher's family won't be able to accept him although he also has some feelings for the lady. Fletcher defended that her brothers were only protective of her. This may have played a major role in Higgins' final decision.

The much-awaited Rose Ceremony on the final episode of "The Bachelor" will be on March 14 via ABC. Check out this romantic moment between Higgins and Bushnell provided by USA Today.
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Madonna appeared tearful during her concert in New Zealand as she admitted missing her son Rocco. Madonna is currently in the middle of a custody battle with ex-husband Guy Ritchie.

The Queen of Pop dedicated the song "La Vie en Rose" to her son Rocco during her "Rebel Heart" tour in New Zealand last Friday, according to New York Daily News. Rocco reportedly left Madonna's world tour to fly to Britain and stay with his dad, Guy Ritchie, last December. Since then, Rocco hasn't come back even with a court order. Madonna held back her tears as she professed her love for her son.

"There is no love stronger than a mother for her son," Madonna was quoted saying in a clip by TMZ. "If I talk about him too much I might cry."

As the crowd implored her on, Madonna impassionately sang "La Vie en Rose" and dedicated the song to her 15-year old boy, reports New York Daily News. "I hope he hears this somewhere and knows how much I miss him," Madonna said.

According to Daily Mail UK, Madonna appeared defeated in the custody battle for Rocco. She admitted to her friends that Rocco may not want to live with her anymore, conceding defeat. Madonna added that she will let her son stay in Britain. In return, she demands a number of guarantees and parental influence over Rocco

Since December, Madonna had been earnestly fighting for Rocco to come home to her in Manhattan. However, husband Ritchie is determined to keep Rocco with him even with a court order. In December, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan released an order to bring back Rocco to the United States, but Ritchie did not concede, per New York Daily News.

Meanwhile, a source told US Weekly that Madonna is strict and regimented while Ritchie is relaxed. Madonna promised that things will change, though. Rocco reportedly contacted Madonna last month to fix the situation and asked her to loosen up should he go home in the United States. Last week, the judge also urged the parents to settle things outside of court. There has been a temporary hiatus after weeks of negotiations between Madonna and Ritchie.

Check this video of Madonna during her New Zealand's concert.
A powerful message was heard on Tuesday in a news conference at the West New York, North Jersey. Javier Pichardo stated a very heart-warming message for the person responsible for the death of his only daughter Sheyla, a seven-year-old first grader.

On his statement, the grieving father emphasized that he does not wish any harm for the man who killed his little girl. He even prayed for God to bless the suspect if he hears the interview. "I do not hold any anger against him," Pichardo said. "I just ask him, if he has a family to step into my shoes" he added during an interview after the arrest of the suspect and his girlfriend who allegedly participated in the crime by "hindering apprehension," according to Little Things.

Sheyla Pichardo was walking with her mom towards her school when a black Chevy Tahoe struck them leaving the mother injured and Sheyla who suffered from severe head trauma lifeless. The mother was immediately rushed to the hospital where she was given medical attention for non-life threatening injuries.

Witnesses and surveillance videos revealed of someone coming out from the passenger seat of the Chevy to look at what happened to the victims and immediately getting back inside and running away after the accident, according to Bilbaoya.

After a series of investigation and matching the surveillance videos captured from the scene and from the businesses in North Bergen, officials managed to identify the first and last two digits of the Chevy's plate number and compared them to the vehicle registration records leading to a suspect named Fabian P. Rodriguez, 33 an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador and his girlfriend Johana P. Rosas-Alvarez, 26. The two were arrested at 31 Peck St. in Newark where they lived together with their children and where the Chevy was recovered, My Informs reported.

Both suspects are now facing multiple charges including filing false police report for 40 minutes after the incident the couple reported the SUV stolen to Hillside police in Union County. Rodriguez will also have to face motor vehicle violations such as driving without license.

"I want everyone to learn from this experience, to take care of their kids," Pichardo said. "I speak from the bottom of my heart: Take care of your kids," he concluded according to North Jersey.
Cyberbullying has become a global concern nowadays. Young individuals are believed to be more prone to this type of bullying especially in school and in the community.

Parents have the vital role to stop this kind of exposure for their kids. Irish Times said bullying needs to be addressed and stopped since it affects the mental and emotional health of a person.

Father Pat Forde said that one of the biggest contributors to cyberbullying is the technology and the devices that children use nowadays. "From a parent's point of view, it's very hard to buy something that's appropriate for a child. I've done it in the past where I've gone around to phone shops just to see what is available there for young people," Forde added.

He noted that a key step to preventing cyberbullying is to limit the usage of devices among children and to monitor their activity online. "Parents should not be letting their kids take their phones to their bedrooms at night," the father added.

On the other hand, Parents.com also advised moms and dads to educate their children on cyberbullying. Messages sent to kids that appear to be a way to bully them should not be deleted but documented for reference.

It was also noted that parents should never blame their kids for getting bullied. Parents are encouraged to support and understand their children then suggest a solution to their problem.

StopCyberbullying.org also said that if the bullying happens in school, parents need to inform school officials or the guidance counsellor of the incident. It should be properly addressed to avoid similar instances in the future.

Children who have been bullied also need to feel that they are loved and appreciated. Parents talk and spend time with their kids to give them assurance that they are not alone in dealing with their problems.

Some kids who do not receive proper attention from their parents commit suicide, as per StopCyberbullying.org. It noted that in Japan a young girl ended her life after getting bullied online.
Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris received a lot of well-wishes when they celebrated their first year anniversary. The hot Hollywood celebrity couple kept things simple on that special day. Taylor, who is known to be sentimental when it comes to numbers, may just choose their anniversary date, March 6, as their future wedding day, don't you think?

The lovely Swift and Harris couple celebrated their first year of togetherness last March 6 with a homemade cake and an adorable locket made for Swift. The cake's decors were no other than the symbol of love, which of course are lots and lots of hearts. The caption was a simple "1 year" in white icing.

Yes, their anniversary celebration may not be as grand as other celebrities who go out of their way to achieving media frenzy, but Swift and Harris surely had more love than most celebrity couples out there (think Rob and Blac for a second). They're one year strong without much fuss.

Harris took a video of their first year anniversary and posted it on Snapchat. Billboard further reported that Swift was also quick in posting a picture of a gold locket, which was engraved with "3.6.2015." Many guessed that Harris went out of his way to having the locket engraved with the date of their anniversary. Swift is kind of a numbers girl, if the couple would ever get married, there's a huge chance that it will be on March 6 too.
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Theres a lovely rainbow pyramid graphic out there in the ether titled Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, which is a theory of psychology that outlines (from the bottom of the pyramid up) what humans need to survive this crazy world of ours.

On the bottom, in red, are our most necessary and most basic needs  the physiological ones. And this is where you can find the intersection of food and sex that serves as the inspiration for erotic dinners.

Now, Im not saying erotic dinners are necessary to human survival, although its safe to say our culture would be vastly different were this the case. What Im saying is that the motivation to feed is just as strong as the motivation to mate, and combining  and exploiting  these two innate compulsions can make for one hell of a social gathering.

Its this concept that piqued my interest when I learned a company called Our Gourmet Life was hosting a series of so-called erotic dinners in my city of San Francisco. I immediately asked my fiance if he would come as my date, since the $125 per person price tag ($175 with a wine pairing) made it impossible for me to turn this into a spontaneous gift. Like most Americans, we have to budget our sex-infused meals.

The website promises a night where guests can explore an entirely new realm of sensuality and dining and tells them to prepare for an evening during which statuesque men and women wearing enticing black masks  and little else  serve you exquisite French cuisine. Im a fan of both delicious food and attractive people, so there was little stopping me from grabbing a reservation. Plus, I was curious about what it meant to be served dinner in a sensual way, so I had to see for myself.

Before jumping into how the night proceeded, I want to make it clear that this wasnt a sex party. Those are not challenging to find in our fair city of love and lust, and Our Gourmet Life even points you in the right direction if an orgy is truly what your taste buds desire. For me, the distinction was in how they said they would incorporate the different but similar sensualities of food and sex to make something entirely unique.

So we donned our most formal outfits, which can be a rare opportunity in this part of the world, and traveled to a secret location in the citys South of Market neighborhood  not the techie part, mind you.

We were greeted by a black-masked man (as promised) wearing formal serving attire, who led us upstairs, couple by couple, into a spacious modern apartment, no walls separating the kitchen, the dining room and the living room. Lots of red lights flooded the walls, making it clear that we were definitely in for a night of sensuality. No turning back now, I said to myself.

A whole group of similarly-adorned servers greeted the guests, taking our coats and personal items (no photos allowed, obviously) while everyone settled in for the evening.

Chris Hubbard, the founder and head chef, made a quick announcement to all 24 guests before we got into the real meat of the evening (multiple puns intended), basically reaffirming that this was not in fact a sex party, and that we could expect the servers to touch us  light caressing, massaging, breathing in the ear  and we could touch them (if they wanted us to), but there was to be no hanky-panky below the belt.

This was the most tantalizing concept of all. Obviously, the people present are self-selected  they have to be at the very least curious about what an erotic dinner entails to show up at all  but that doesnt mean everyone will be ready to strip down and go wild right off the bat. Using tension becomes extremely important in this case, and this is where I feel Our Gourmet Life truly excelled. They knew just how and where to build sensuality, making heads and taste buds spin in a very exciting way.

Thats not to suggest the food wasnt delicious. Starting with a warm, balsamic-glazed strawberry got everyone salivating, and by the time the third passed appetizer came around we were all ready to eat it directly from the servers hands. There were six courses in total, and once seated, it seemed the richness of the food increased with the level of sensuality, culminating in a chocolate make-out session with my husband, thanks to a server pressing our heads together as we tasted our dessert.

I dont want to give too many of the details away, since seeing how far they take it is part of the fun, but suffice it to say that everyone did warm up to the intentional caresses of strangers, who all went through various states of undress throughout the dinner (though the diners remained clothed). It was pretty interesting to see how quickly people went from discomfort to wanting way more, and the whole event was refreshingly free of jealousy, considering everyone watched their date get a rub down from a sexy, masked server. It helped that in addition to giving individualized attention, they made sure each half of the couple focused on each other, too.

My fiance and I have been together almost eleven years, and its safe to say this was one of the most interesting dates weve been on, though Id love to see someone try out a first date in this setting. It was liberating to have the opportunity to explore the intersection of food and sensuality in a judgment-free setting, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get in touch with their own eroticism.

It was an accessible event, certainly not just for those who are kink-identified, and ultimately very empowering both for me as a woman and for us as a couple.

Main photo by Joao Andre O. Dias

Ali Wunderman is a freelance writer with her feet in San Francisco and her heart in Iceland.
Even for a supergroup known for its legendary infighting, Graham Nashs comments on David Crosby in a couple of recent interviews were pretty damn harsh. If Nash is serious and dead-set on his words, CSN will never make music together again.

Billboard first reported that Nash dropped some bombs on Crosby when he spoke to Dutch magazine Lust For Life:

These fighting words come after Crosbys schism with Neil Young last year, a result of Crosby insulting Youngs relationship with actress Daryl Hannah, but it looks as if Crosbys assholery was not limited in its scope. Billboard pressed Nash for further comment, and he told the magazine, In my world there will never, ever be a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record and there will never be another Crosby, Stills & Nash record or show.

Well, he didnt rule out a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young show...also, hes still following Crosby on Twitter. Cue Nash checking in on Crosby periodically over the coming years and feeling a little pang of painful nostalgia each time until, tearfully, he rips off that last Band-Aid.
The GOP, as an entity, is totally fucked. And not just fucked in this electiontheyre fucked in the long term.

Yes, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich all said at Thursdays Republican debate that they would support Donald Trump if he were to win the partys nomination. But given the vitriol of the attacks on Trump not only by Rubio and Cruz, but also by Mitt Romney, I cant bring myself to believe those sentiments are genuineand I doubt general election voters would believe it, either. For Rubio especially, it would take a miraculous feat of mental gymnastics to move from calling Trump a con man to claiming hes fit to be the President of the United States. And you know all the candidates were paying attention to the backlash against Chris Christies endorsement of Trump, which resulted in six New Jersey newspapers calling on him to resign and Christie himself looking like he had gazed into Cthullus eyes and seen the coming apocalypse.

My best guess is that the GOP establishment isnt ready or willing to annihilate the party just yet, because thats what disavowing nominee Trump would betheres no turning back if they spurn the monster theyve created and his army of unfailingly loyal fans. Either by staying home on Election Day or forming an emergency third party that splits the former GOP coalition, theyd be delivering the presidency to the Democratic nominee (most likely Hillary, as unhappy as that might make our Shane Ryan).

Now, the Republican establishment might try to turn to Romneys suggested strategy of using delegate math to deny Trump a majority of delegates going into the partys convention in Cleveland in July. This would involve an unprecedented amount of cooperation between rival candidates in an attempt to wrest all of the GOPs winner-take-all primary states from Trump by banding together behind his closest competitor in each state. In Ohio, for example, native son John Kasich polls close to Trump; with a boost from Rubio, who has little chance to win the state, he could win all 66 Ohio delegates. And in return, Kasich could likely help push Rubio over the top in his home state of Florida. Such cooperation seems highly unlikely, not just due to the GOP establishments proven organizational ineptitudeCruz, Rubio, and Kasich all still think they can win and wouldnt want to accidentally abet a delegate majority (and therefore a loss) for one of their non-Trump opponents.

But even if, by divine intervention, the strategy succeeded in producing a Rubio delegate majority or a brokered convention that would almost certainly abide by the #NeverTrump strategy Romney trumpeted on Thursday, the party would still be doomed. Thats because Donald Trump would rightly claim that the GOP had failed to treat him fairly, and he would thus no longer be bound to the party. And despite his own previous confirmation that his September pledge of allegiance to the Republicans was made without exceptions, Trump has rendered the truth and his own past completely meaningless in a campaign that has thus far sustained zero damage despite its manifold inconsistencies. Ever a sucker for competition and winning, snubbed GOP nominee Trump would splinter off and run an independent campaign, because hes got the popular support and the unmitigated ego to do it.

No matter what the outcomea Trump nomination that results in torrid infighting and large numbers of voters and party elites staying home or (gasp) voting for Hillary, a Trump nomination that results in an actual split in the GOP, or a non-Trump nomination that spurs Trump to strike out on his ownwe seem to stand a very solid chance of witnessing the first election featuring three viable candidates since 1992. We stand a damn near absolute chance of the GOP as we know it being destroyed, whatever happens.

In some views, the GOP has already been split irrevocably. An extensive study undertaken by a team of political scientists in partnership with Vox found that the most accurate predictive measure of whether a voter supports Trump is authoritarianism: that is, whether said voter prefers law and order and rigid hierarchies, fears outsiders and changes to the status quo, and demands the use of force and punitive measures to enact their system of thought. The study argued that the Republican Party made this bed in the 1960s, when it courted disaffected Southern Democrats and social conservatives frightened by the Civil Rights Movement and the sweeping cultural changes of the era. Not all of these people were authoritarians, but most authoritarians sorted themselves into the GOP over the past five decades, where they continue to oppose any threats to the old ordercurrently, in their minds, Mexican immigrants and Muslims. In practice, we call this manifestation of authoritarianism bigotry.

The piece goes on to say that the authoritarian constituency within the Republican Party is effectively an entirely separate entity:

...the rise of authoritarianism as a force within American politics means we may now have a de facto three-party system: the Democrats, the GOP establishment, and the GOP authoritarians. And although the latter two groups are presently forced into an awkward coalition, the GOP establishment has demonstrated a complete inability to regain control over the renegade authoritarians, and the authoritarians are actively opposed to the establishments centrist goals and uninterested in its economic platform.

The question isnt whether these two bedfellows can remain together, but for how long. Those who believe the anti-bigotry stance taken by Paul Ryan and Mitt Romneys scathing assault on Trumps character are sincere, and that the establishment will commit organizational seppuku (either via a brokered convention that drives Trump to an independent run or by breaking off to form a new conservative party) before it supports the logical end of its half-century-long capitalization on bigotry, will say the end is nigh. Other pundits take a more cynical view and claim the establishment will fall in line with Trump, prioritizing the partys continued existence and power structure over ideology.

No matter which of these things happens, though, the underlying split between the hardcore authoritarians and the GOP establishment isnt going away. And things start to get really interesting when we examine the long-term ramifications.

First, I think the Democrats win this election easily. The only scenario in which that doesnt happen is if the GOP somehow pulls off a Rubio or Kasich nomination without creating a Trump third party run. Rubio and Kasich, according to RealClearPolitics metadata, both poll significantly ahead of Hillary in a general election. (For what its worth, this same metadata shows Bernie Sanders faring better than Hillary against the same opponents.) Any official split of the Republican Party automatically dooms them, and even if the establishment swallows their words and backs Trump, itll be almost impossible to make the public forget the historically extreme rhetoric theyve employed against him (the most recent non-general election example I can conjure is Alexander Hamiltons ethering of Aaron Burrin 1800). CNNs political prediction market shows Trump, even with his seeming stranglehold on the nomination, as having less than a 30% chance of winning the presidency.

(Note: Were aware that Ted Cruz has surged over the past few days. We largely omit him here because Ted Cruz is not an establishment Republican. He is a terrifying, psychotic zealot with an eminently punchable face, masquerading as a Republican.)

Second, I think this election triggers the next great American party realignment, and here, I turn to historical precedent for support. The Vox piece claims that Trump is just the first of many waves of authoritarian GOP candidates: The authoritarians will still be there. They will still look for candidates who will give them the strong, punitive leadership they desire.

And that means Donald Drumpf could be just the first of many Drumpfs in American politics, with potentially profound implications for the country. But while it also credits Trumps style, it fails to mention Trumps charisma and force of personality, which are unmatched by any politician in America (and perhaps by anyone, period). Hes essentially running on a cult of personality, independent of the traditional GOP structure and drawing broad-based support largely because of his brand. In this regard, the most apt comparisons to Trumps run in 2016 are Andrew Jacksons 1824 campaign and Teddy Roosevelts Bull Moose jaunt in 1912.

General Jackson shared Trumps affinity for the profane, and for the eschewing of traditional political mores; he was a xenophobe who did to the Native Americans precisely what Trump is threatening to do to undocumented immigrants and Muslims; he was also wildly popular among the common folk. The New York Times compared the two last month, but I want to take their comparison one step further. In 1824, Jackson ran for president, and he was opposed vociferously by the establishment of the time (the Democratic-Republican Party)to the point that, despite winning pluralities of the popular and electoral votes, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. Jackson and his supporters cried foul. Does this sound familiar?

Teddy Roosevelt left the presidency as an American hero in 1909 and, as if he needed to show off his badassery any more, went on a long safari to Africa with his family. When he came back, he found himself disgusted with the conservatism of his hand-picked Republican successor, William Taft. Declaring that Taft had abandoned the progressive principles Roosevelt had espousedtighter regulations on businesses, favorability towards unions and ecological conservation, and popular election of judges among themRoosevelt challenged the incumbent president at the Republican convention. State primary elections were not widespread at the time, so even though Roosevelt won the handful that were held in a landslide, Taft had accumulated more delegates overall. Claiming Taft had rigged the convention, Roosevelt stormed out and formed the new Progressive Party, colloquially named the Bull Moose Party, after Roosevelt himself. It was the most successful third party in any U.S. presidential election ever, garnering over 27% of the popular vote and 88 electoral votes, but by splitting the GOP, Roosevelt handed Woodrow Wilson an easy victory. Again, does this sound familiar?

In both the above cases, the American party system fractured and reorganized itself for good. Jackson came back to trounce Adams in 1828, essentially founding a new party structure single-handedly: Jacksons supporters became the Democrats, while his opponents became the Whigs. The Democrats dominated national politics until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Meanwhile, after Roosevelts Progressive bid was denied in 1912, Republicans who fell in line with his ideology slowly shifted over to the Democratic Party. When economic disaster struck in 1929, this trickle became a flood, and Teddys distant cousin FDR had a powerful coalition behind which he could enact the New Deal and usher in the era of the modern welfare state.

Looking at these two examples, do I think that a party realignment will happen immediately following this years presidential election? No; itll take a while for Trumps army to organize itself without him at its head, and I dont think the entire GOP establishment will jump ship if Trump is nominated (if any jump at all). But the writings on the wall for the current Republican party. The fiscal conservatives cant long survive their linkage to authoritarian nativists who dont give a shit about economic concerns, and the winner-take-all electoral system in America means they cant form a third party with long-term viability. The most likely scenario I see is that they join Hillary and the establishment Democrats, leading to a more centrist party, a diminished GOP that consists entirely of Trump-types and social conservatives, and a pissed-off Progressive wing of the Democratic party that sees its influence decline for the sake of single-party dominance.

Until a Trump of the Left arises thirty years down the line, that is, and we do it all again.

Zach Blumenfeld is a Paste editorial intern, and this fucked-up election is making him remember why he abandoned his political science major at Vanderbilt in favor of philosophy. Follow him on Twitter.
When Apple's CEO Tim Cook told Charlie Rose in a 60 minutes episode that aired in January that his reasoning for making iPhones in China wasn't because of their cheap labor force but rather skill -- It was like hearing nails scratching on a chalk board. Many took issue with Cook's statement. In recent weeks, Presidential candidate Donald Trump has pounded the table consistently insisting that companies like Apple, Ford, Nabisco and Carrier should open plants in the U.S. instead of China and Mexico so as to give Americans badly needed jobs in the labor sector. Apple fears Trump's position because they absolutely have no interest in ever having their popular products made in the U.S. In fact, Apple so fears Trump that they're now joined a cabal that's determined to take him down.



According to the Huffington Post, "Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum, according to sources familiar with the secretive gathering. The main topic at the closed-to-the-press meeting: How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump."

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk all attended. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), political guru Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan and others were in attendance.

"The key task now, to once again paraphrase Karl Marx, is less to understand Trump than to stop him," Kristol wrote. "In general, there's a little too much hand-wringing, brow-furrowing, and fatalism out there and not quite enough resolving to save the party from nominating or the country electing someone who simply shouldn't be president." How dare Mr.Trump challenge the status quo, quip the little Republican gods.



The people that are voting for Trump are on record as being angry at their government for getting nothing done as American companies abandon their country for better profits elsewhere. Does anyone remember Ross Perot's warning about the "giant sucking sound" that would happen if the free trade (NAFTA) went through? He has been proven right over time and now one of Trump's missions is to stop the current trade deal with Mexico and encourage U.S. companies to remain or open new plants in the U.S to get Americans working again. Who see's evil in that mission?

Yet at the end of the day, the business sector couldn't care less what the people want and never have. So if there's a way to derail Trump, they'll do everything in their power to do just that. And with Trump pointing to Apple specifically on numerous occasions of late, Apple now has a vested interest in being a part of this movement. The oligarchy's mission is clear: stop Trump, no matter the cost.

Is there a flip-side in support of the new group against Trump that met at the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum? Yes of course. The American Enterprise Institute created a video to counter Trump's views on free trade as noted below. It's tailor made to refute Trump's position.

At one point the speaker asks will Americans want to pay $2,000 more for a car in a trade war? Yes I believe they would if they understood that it meant supporting jobs in America. A $2,000 premium paid out over a five year loan wouldn't be a burden. I don't think having jobs at McDonalds, even at $15/hour, is what the American worker is hoping for. They want honest jobs that pay a decent wage. The jobs they once had that are now leaving the country. With that said, the video below is an opposing view worth noting.



 it About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.
Today, Microsoft announced that it would put one of its main products on Linux for the first time, selling a version of its database software to run on the open source OS.

Until now it has only sold the product, called SQL Server, to run on Windows, reflecting the tight integration Microsoft has traditionally used to protect revenues from its own operating system.

"I think it was a religious thing," Merv Adrian, an analyst at Gartner, said of Microsoft's unwillingness under Steve Ballmer, Mr. Nadella's predecessor, to move beyond Windows. "We would love to have seen this Linux thing five years ago, we were telling them that's what they should do."

Mr. Ballmer had taken a forceful stand against Linux, at one point describing the open source code as a "cancer" eating into the commercial software business.

However, Mr. Nadella said the change in strategy would give Microsoft a shot at the much bigger part of the database market that does not run on Windows, and denied that it would lead to a 'cannibalisation' of Microsoft's operating system as customers opted for Linux instead.

Nadella added that "I want us to be aggressive in going after all opportunities." Asked if this was a direct attack on Oracle, the leading database software company, he replied: "They are the incumbents, absolutely." The new software is not scheduled for release until mid-2017. For more on this story, see the full Financial Times report here.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.
Pope St. John Paul II in Cali, Colombia: June 1986. Photograph by Hernan Valencias [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license] * *

(5-16-06)

* * * From: The One-Minute Apologist (2007), with additional commentary. * * * * *



THE PAPACY

How can one man be infallible?

We know that all men make mistakes, so this is an unreasonable doctrine

Initial reply

With God all things are possible. If He chooses to protect a man from error, He can do so, and in fact, we often see this in Scripture.

Extensive reply

Infallibility, according to the Catholic Church, means that the pope (or an ecumenical council in agreement with a pope) cannot err in a teaching on faith and morals that is intended as binding on all Catholics. It isnt the equivalent of inspiration, and it doesnt mean that the author is morally or otherwise perfect, more intelligent than others, etc. Its a supernatural gift granted by Gods grace alone, for His purposes, in order to uphold and make known (with certainty, in faith) spiritual and theological truth.

Since infallibility is inferior to, and a less extraordinary gift than inspiration, we should not be more surprised at it than we are at inspiration, or think it is less likely to occur, or implausible. God worked through the writers of the Bible (inspiration means, literally, God-breathed), and this made it possible for the Bible to be without error. Some of the biblical writers, like David, Paul, Matthew, and Peter, had been great sinners at one time or other in their lives. Yet they were used by God to write inspired Scripture. Even in Old Testament times, some were granted this gift of special protection from error; for example, the Levites, who were teachers, among other things:

Malachi 2:6-8: True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Prophets routinely purported to proclaim the very word of the LORD. This is a much greater claim than infallibility under limited conditions. Papal infallibility is primarily a preventive, or negative guarantee, not positive inspiration. It is easy to argue, then, that infallibility is a far less noteworthy gift than the revelation on the spot that we observe in the prophets:

1 Samuel 15:10: The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 2 Samuel 23:2: The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me, his word is upon my tongue. [King David] 1 Chronicles 17:3: But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, Isaiah 38:4: Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: Jeremiah 26:15: . . . the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears. Ezekiel 33:1: The word of the LORD came to me: [word of the LORD appears 60 times in the Book of Ezekiel] Haggai 1:13: Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORDs message, I am with you, says the LORD.'

Objection

But that was in the Old Testament. Prophets had to have a special word from God to proclaim their message, because they didnt know the future. That doesnt prove that any such gift exists today. Even if the apostles had this gift, it was only for the time when the gospel was first proclaimed (they also performed relatively more miracles).

Reply to Objection

To the contrary: the prophets received their inspiration by the Holy Spirit (2 Chron. 24:20; Neh. 9:30; Zech. 7:12). The Holy Spirit is now given to all Christians (Jn. 15:26; 1 Cor. 3:16), so it is perfectly possible and plausible that an even greater measure of the Holy Spirit would be given to leaders of the Church who have the responsibility to teach, since James wrote: Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness (Jas. 3:1). The disciples were reassured by Jesus: When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth (Jn. 16:13; cf. 8:32), so surely it makes sense that shepherds of the Christian flock would be given an extra measure of protection in order to better fulfill their duties.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

If Christianity is both social and dogmatic, and intended for all ages, it must humanly speaking have an infallible expounder. Else you will secure unity of form at the loss of unity of doctrine, or unity of doctrine at the loss of unity of form; you will have to choose between a comprehension of opinions and a resolution into parties, between latitudinarian and sectarian error. You may be tolerant or intolerant of contrarieties of thought, but contrarieties you will have. By the Church of England a hollow uniformity is preferred to an infallible chair; and by the sects of England, an interminable division. Germany and Geneva began with persecution, and have ended in scepticism. The doctrine of infallibility is a less violent hypothesis than this sacrifice either of faith or of charity. It secures the object, while it gives definiteness and force to the matter, of the Revelation. (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1845, Part I, Ch. 2, Sec. 3)

* * * * *

Perhaps the clearest biblical proof of the infallible authority of the Church is the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:6-30), and its authoritative pronouncement, binding on all Christians:

Acts 15:29-30: For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity.

In the next chapter, we learn that Paul, Timothy, and Silas traveled around through the cities and delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem (Acts 16:4). This is binding Church authority  with the sanction of the Holy Spirit Himself -, and an explicit biblical proof of the gift of infallibility that the Catholic Church claims for itself when it assembles in a council.

* * * * *

I commented on the above passages (Acts 15:29-30 and 16:4) in my book, The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passsages That Confound Protestants (pp. 7-11):

These passages offer a proof that the early Church held to a notion of the infallibility of Church councils, and to a belief that they were especially guided by the Holy Spirit (precisely as in Catholic Church doctrine concerning ecumenical councils). Accordingly, Paul takes the message of the conciliar decree with him on his evangelistic journeys and preaches it to the people. The Church had real authority; it was binding and infallible.

This is a far cry from the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura  which presumes that councils and popes can err, and thus need to be corrected by Scripture.

[ . . . ]

A Protestant might reply that since this Council of Jerusalem referred to in Acts consisted of apostles, and since an apostle proclaimed the decree, both possessed a binding authority that was later lost (as Protestants accept apostolic authority as much as Catholics do). Furthermore, the incidents were recorded in inspired, infallible Scripture. They could argue that none of this is true of later Catholic councils; therefore, the attempted analogy is null and void.

But this is a bit simplistic, since Scripture is our model for everything, including Church government, and all parties appeal to it for their own views. If Scripture teaches that a council of the Church is authoritative and binding, it is implausible and unreasonable to assert that no future council can be so simply because it is not conducted by apostles.

Scripture is our model for doctrine and practice (nearly all Christians agree on this). The Bible does not exist in an historical vacuum, but has import for the day-to-day life of the Church and Christians for all time. St. Paul told us to imitate him (e.g., 2 Thess. 3:9). And he went around proclaiming decrees of the Church. No one was at liberty to disobey these decrees on the grounds of conscience, or to declare by private judgment that they were in error (per Luther).

It would be foolish to argue that the way the Apostles conducted the governance of the Church has no relation whatsoever to how later Christians engage in the same task. It would seem rather obvious that Holy Scripture assumes that the model of holy people (patriarchs, prophets, and apostles alike) is to be followed by Christians. This is the point behind entire chapters, such as, notably, Hebrews 11.

When the biblical model agrees with their theology, Protestants are all too enthusiastic to press their case by using scriptural examples. The binding authority of the Church was present here, and there is no indication whatever that anyone was ever allowed to dissent from it. That is the fundamental question. Catholics wholeheartedly agree that no new Christian doctrines were handed down after the Apostles. Christian doctrine was present in full from the beginning; it has only organically developed since.

John Calvin has a field day running down the Catholic Church in his commentary for Acts 15:28 [i.e., from Calvins Commentaries]. It is clear that he is uncomfortable with this verse and must somehow explain it in Protestant terms. But he is not at all unanswerable. The fact remains that the decree was made, and it was binding. It will not do (in an attempt to undercut ecclesial authority) to proclaim that this particular instance was isolated. For such a judgment rests on Calvins own completely arbitrary authority, which he claims but cannot prove. Calvin merely states his position, rather than arguing it, in the following passage:

[I]n vain do they go about out of the same to prove that the Church had power given to decree anything contrary to the word of God. The Pope hath made such laws as seemed best to him, contrary to the word of God, whereby he meant to govern the Church.

This strikes me as somewhat desperate argumentation. First, Catholics have never argued that the Pope has any power to make decrees contrary to the Bible (making Calvins slanderous charge a straw man). Calvin goes on to use vivid language, intended to resonate with already strong emotions and ignorance of Catholic theology. It is an old lawyers tactic: when one has no case, attempt to caricature the opponent, obfuscate, and appeal to emotions rather than reason.

Far more sensible and objective are the comments on Acts 15:28 and 16:4 from the Presbyterian scholar, Albert Barnes, in his famous Barnes Notes commentary:

For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost. This is a strong and undoubted claim to inspiration. It was with special reference to the organization of the church that the Holy Spirit had been promised to them by the Lord Jesus, Matthew 18:18-20; John 14:26. In this instance it was the decision of the council in a case submitted to it; and implied an obligation on the Christians to submit to that decision.

Barnes actually acknowledges that the passage has some implication for ecclesiology in general. It is remarkable, on the other hand, that Calvin seems concerned about the possibility of a group of Christians  in this case, a council  being led by the Holy Spirit to achieve a true doctrinal decree, whereas he has no problem with the idea that individuals can achieve such certainty:

[O]f the promises which they are wont to allege, many were given not less to private believers than to the whole Church [cites Matthew 28:20, John 14:16-17] . . . We are not to give permission to the adversaries of Christ to defend a bad cause, by wresting Scripture from its proper meaning. (Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV, 8, 11) But it will be objected, that whatever is attributed in part to any of the saints, belongs in complete fulness to the Church. Although there is some semblance of truth in this, I deny that it is true. (Institutes, IV, 8, 12)

Calvin believes that Scripture is self-authenticating. I appeal, then, to the reader to judge the above passages. Do they seem to support the notion of an infallible Church council (apart from the question of whether the Catholic Church, headed by the Pope, is that Church)? Do Calvins arguments succeed? For Catholics, the import of Acts 15:28 is clear and undeniable.
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"We're not used to seeing growth in our check business," said Deluxe's Tracey Engelhardt, who reports a 6% to 7% increase in revenue for check orders from businesses and consumers in each of the last three quarters, driven by various factors originating from the pandemic.
Iran Sets New Restrictions On University Concerts

03/08/16

By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL

Iran has set new restrictions on concerts held at universities, as hard-liners dig in their heels after election gains for moderates who might seek to ease some of the Islamic republic's harshest limits on cultural life.



By Iranian cartoonist Hadi Heidari (currently serving a one-year prison sentence)





The regulations, issued by the state council for the Islamization of universities and educational centers, declares that "holding concerts and independent musical programs is not a priority for universities and is not allowed."

But it adds that only "fine and valuable Iranian music" that "strengthens national identity" and is in line with "Islamic norms" can be played while emphasizing that promoting music is not part of universities' mission.

The regulations also say that music played at university concerts should encourage commitment to "moral, social, political, and revolutionary responsibilities."

It also says that music should not create "excitement that is out of the norm" or provoke "lust."

Lyrics that encourage "promiscuity," "despair and hopelessness," "superficiality," and "neglect human dignity" should be avoided, according to the regulations as published by the news site Khabaronline.ir.







Conservatives rally against music after Friday prayers in Tehran in October 2015

(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency)





The new restrictions come several months after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly criticized university concerts and mixed student camps as very wrong.

In a July 2015 meeting with a group of students, Khamenei quoted approvingly a student as saying that "university is not a place for concerts."

"Sending students to mixed camps and holding concerts in universities to, in our minds, create joy in the student environment, is among the most wrong deeds," Khamenei was quoted as saying by domestic media.

In September, the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Khamenei's representative at universities, Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadian, as saying that "universities have been told that they don't have the right to hold concerts."

Several concerts have reportedly been canceled at universities in recent months, including a music festival that was due to be held at Tehran's Sharif University in February.

Music came under a crackdown following the 1979 revolution, but restrictions have since been relaxed.

In past months, hard-liners who deem cultural policies advocated by President Hassan Rohani too liberal have disrupted or canceled a number of concerts.

Rohani's moderate and pragmatic allies saw gains in last month's national elections to parliament and the body that oversees the supreme leader, who holds ultimate power in politics and religion under Iran's constitution.

Since a landmark nuclear deal was struck last year with world powers, Supreme Leader Khamenei and hard-liners have repeatedly warned against allowing Western culture or values to creep into Iranian society.

Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Rags To Riches To Death Row: The Rise And Fall Of An Iranian Billionaire

03/08/16

By Farangis Najibullah, RFE/RL



Babak Zanjani, the billionaire Iranian businessman accused of corruption, said he was proud to have helped the country sell oil when its economy was suffering.

Babak Zanjani, the billionaire Iranian businessman accused of corruption, said he was proud to have helped the country sell oil when its economy was suffering.



Babak Zanjani, one of Iran's richest men, once attributed his business success to God and luck. But his fortunes began to turn when the presidency changed hands in 2013. And with the death sentence he was given for corruption this week, his luck appears to have run out entirely.

Zanjani was arrested in December 2013, just weeks after Hassan Rohani -- who vowed during his campaign to crack down on endemic corruption -- was sworn in as president.

Under Rohani's predecessor, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, Zanjani was somewhat of a hero. As Iran suffered from crippling international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear program, the tycoon was seen as using his business savvy and contacts to find customers for Iranian oil abroad, skirting the sanctions and bringing much-needed cash into the country. For his efforts, he was blacklisted by both the European Union and the United States.

Rohani and a handful of lawmakers, however, singled out Zanjani as a shocking example of corruption, alleging the businessman withheld much of the money he received from oil sales. When his case went to trial, prosecutors said Zanjani had misappropriated at least $2.7 billion that rightfully belonged to the state.

On March 6, a judiciary spokesman announced the culmination of the rare, months-long, public trial: the 41-year-old Zanjani had been found guilty of being a corruptor on Earth -- defined in the Iranian Penal Code as an individual who contributes to the deviation of society -- and had been sentenced to death. In addition, Zanjani was ordered to pay back the money he was found to have embezzled, plus one-quarter of that amount.

The total cost to Zanjani: his life and about $3.4 billion.

Many Corruptors

Conservative media outlets in Iran reacted to the ruling by simply reporting the judiciary's sentence. But more moderate publications went big with the story -- publishing large photos of Zanjani and calling for others tied to him and the Ahmadinejad government to be brought to trial.

Many Iranians don't believe Zanjani, who has an estimated worth of about $13 billion, could have acted alone.







President Rohani: "Where is the oil money?"

"Someone (Babak Zanjani) has been sentenced to execution. Where is the money? Who had supported him? Who had allowed him to sell oil?"

(source:

"Someone (Babak Zanjani) has been sentenced to execution. Where is the money? Who had supported him? Who had allowed him to sell oil?"(source: Arman daily)



Tehran-based lawyer Nemat Ahmadi tells RFE/RL's Radio Farda that it would be impossible to do business on such a grand scale without help. "You can't go to oil authorities and tell them, 'I'm a businessman, give me access to oil to do business,'" he says.

Ahmad Alawi, a Swedish-based Iranian economist and university professor, says that Zanjani wasn't the only one involved in the Iranian government's dubious business dealings during the sanctions era.

Alawi says that the government turned to Zanjani and other businesspeople and companies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other places for help to evade Western sanctions on oil sales.

Tens of billions of dollars were at stake -- with oil prices enjoying record highs.

"Even small and not-quite-so reliable oil companies" were approached by the Iranian government to take part in selling Iranian oil because the government needed hard currency, Alawi says. "It wasn't an ordinary time for Iran, and the authorities would prefer to use such people to transfer the money from oil revenues to Iran."

Zanjani, whom the European Union named "a key facilitator for Iranian oil deals and transferring oil-related money," was one such individual.



cartoon by Salman Taheri, Shahrvand daily





End Of The Rope

He has admitted selling millions of barrels of Iranian oil on behalf the government after 2010, through a network of companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia.

Zanjani denies any wrongdoing, however. In a letter sent from prison to Iranian lawmakers, Zanjani said he was proud to have helped the country sell oil when its economy was suffering.

The billionaire -- whose Sorinet Group reportedly includes some 65 companies operating in Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Tajikistan -- argued that the sanctions made it impossible for him to transfer oil revenue back to the state.

Zanjani, who is unmarried, comes from humble beginnings.

The son of a railway worker, he has said he got his first business experience working as a driver for the head of the Central Bank. Later, he moved to Turkey, where started to build his fortune. He has been involved in a wide range of businesses -- including cosmetics, hospitality, transportation, construction, and banking.

He claims to have paid a heavy price for his success. Prior to his arrest he said he had incurred large debts, and after spending more than two years in prison he is seemingly down to his last.

Zanjani does have the right to appeal his sentence. Should that process not go his way he will likely join Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, put to death in 2014, among Iranian billionaires recently executed for corruption.

Written by Farangis Najibullah, with interviews by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Former Iranian Political Prisoner Gets One-Year Prison Sentence On Recycled Charges

03/08/16

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Navid Kamran, a former political prisoner, has been sentenced to one year in prison without any new evidence supporting the charge against him of propaganda against the state, he told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.



From right: Navid Kamran, Behnam Mousivand, Arash Sadeghi and Golrokh Iraee





When the agents came into the shop jointly owned by me and [former prisoner of conscience] Arash [Sadeghi], they only had a warrant for Arashs arrest. Nevertheless, they also arrested me, Arashs wife [Golrokh Iraee], and Behnam Mousivand, Kamran told the Campaign in an interview. All the things they accused me of during interrogation and the trial were stuff I did years ago for which Ive already spent time in prison. It seems that now that they had me under arrest, they wanted to punish me.

Kamran was arrested at his stationery store on Azarbaijan Street in Tehran on September 6, 2014 along with three others including his business partner, former student activist Arash Sadeghi, by the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization. They were released on bond a few days later.

Arash and I jointly owned a stationery store. When the agents came in, they only showed a warrant for Arashs arrest. They searched the store and confiscated my laptop. Then one of the agents stayed with me and the others took away Arash to search his home. When they left, my wife, Arashs wife, [Golrokh Iraee] and my friend Behnam [Mousivand] came to the store just by chance to see us. Thats when they noticed the agents, said Kamran.

A little later the other agents returned with Arash to the shop and then I dont know why they decided to take all of us [except for my wife] with them, even though they were only supposed to arrest Arash. At first we were all taken to Evin Prison but the prison officials didnt take us in because there was no arrest warrant. They only took in Arash. Then they took us to another detention center but I had no idea where it was. We spent the night there and in the morning they took us back to Evin. We were interrogated, charged and put in a cell. I was released four days later on one billion rials bond (about $33,000 USD), he told the Campaign.

Kamran added that he had only learned through Sadeghis lawyer that the Appeals Court had upheld his one-year prison sentence issued by Judge Abolqasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court. Kamrans own lawyer has not yet been informed about the appellate ruling.

The Appeals Court also upheld the 15-year prison sentence against Sadeghi, a six-year prison sentence against his wife, Golrokh Iraee, and a one-year prison sentence against Mousivand. All four are awaiting the summons to serve their prison terms.

Asked about the evidence that was presented against him, Kamran told the Campaign: They mostly pointed at my Facebook posts. But my Facebook page had been inactive for a long time and I was not posting anything there. They also said I had prepared and gathered signatures for a number of political statements. But all I did was sign statements about things like respecting the rights of political prisoners and calling for their freedom. They also criticized me for visiting the families of political prisoners but in fact all I did was visit my friends when they got out of prison.

Kamran was previously arrested for attending the peaceful protests against the widely disputed results of the 2009 presidential elections.

He was sentenced to 33 months in prison and 74 lashes by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Yahya Pirabbasi for propaganda against the state, collusion against national security and disturbing public order. He was released in 2011 after serving his prison term.

In 2009 Behnam Mousivand was also sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence for protesting the contested results of the presidential elections.
Rouhani's Post-Election Openings and Challenges

03/08/16

By Ellie Geranmayeh (source: LobeLog)



President Hassan Rohani during a visit to Yazd in central Iran on Monday March 7, 2016

(photo by

President Hassan Rohani during a visit to Yazd in central Iran on Monday March 7, 2016(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency

Despite their limited choice, Iranian voters opted to back a strategy that diluted the power of radical hardliners within the Islamic Republic rather than conceding the political game to them. Last weeks election results strengthened the alignment between Iranian reformists, centrists (government supporters), and moderate conservatives aimed at weakening the hardliners. Former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, along with current president Hassan Rouhani, developed this alignment during the 2013 presidential race. In the lead-up to the February 26 elections for Irans parliament and Assembly of Experts, this trinity created the List of Hope Coalition.

After the first round of parliamentary elections, nation-wide results for the 290 seats have not been conclusively declared. But the existing strong majority in favor of those aligned with the most conservative factions has clearly been weakened. According to rough estimates, the List of Hope Coalition won 83 seats (gaining approximately 29 percent control). The conservatives and those affiliated with the Principalists camp won 78 seats (roughly 27 percent of the votes). Independents captured 60 seats (gaining roughly 21 percent of the votes)-while five seats went to minorities. An estimated 64-68 seats will be decided in a second round of voting expected in April. In the Assembly of Experts, the List of Hope triumphed in Tehran where it gained all but one of the 16 available seats. The body holds a total of 88 seats, the majority retained by conservative candidates.

As Rouhani enters the latter half of this presidential tenure, he will have to manage an array of opportunities and challenges connected to these elections.

Five Opportunities

First, Rouhani will have fewer obstacles in pursuing his overriding strategic objective of economic development. His chances of fulfilling this goal improved in 2016 given the sanctions relief that the implementation of the nuclear deal provided in January as well as the recent gains made by the List of Hope Coalition in Februarys elections. The Rouhani administration orchestrated the timing of these events to reap the biggest domestic political gains in the aftermath of the nuclear deal. Despite the many hurdles that remain, Rouhanis ability to deliver tangible economic relief has increased-as have the expectations from his supporters.

Rouhanis economic advisors have long stressed the need for market liberalization, greater privatization, and legal and regulatory reform to encourage much-needed foreign investment. With greater legislative backing for his economic proposals, Rouhanis administration can move more swiftly to introduce and implement policies that hardliners previously opposed as counter to their interests or Irans revolutionary ideals.

Second, the Rouhani administration will have more breathing room to engage with the West. As before, they will need to receive the green light to do so from the Supreme Leader. Going forward however, hardliners will have less opportunity to use parliament as a platform to oppose Rouhanis foreign policy towards the West. The hardliners who openly criticized Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for walking alongside his US counterpart and those who made death threats against him for shaking hands with President Barack Obama have lost their seats in parliament. Rouhanis existing and future cabinet members are also less likely to come under unreasonable scrutiny or risk impeachment based on their track record with the West. Although the radical power factions will have many outlets to continue their opposition to Rouhanis policy of outreach with the West, they will have fewer chances to do so in parliament.

Third, Rouhani will have more weight in persuading the Iranian leadership that restoring relations with Saudi Arabia is necessary for regional and national security. Soon after the elections, Rouhani stated that the results paved the way for moderation and that the era of confrontation was over. This motto presumably also applies to Tehrans relations with Riyadh. However, given the existing stalemate between Iran and Saudi Arabia on both the bilateral and regional levels, the outlook remains bleak for Rouhani to take advantage of this opportunity.

Fourth, on the domestic side, the new parliament is likely to provide Rouhani with backing on ad hoc initiatives that address human rights issues. Although Rouhani has advocated for greater civil liberties ever since his presidential campaign, his administration has made nominal efforts to advance these in any meaningful way. The threshold for progress remains low. Nevertheless, the reformists amongst the List of Hope Coalition will push for incremental improvements in civil and political freedoms. For example, the new parliament is likely to support a legislative bill already introduced by the secretary of Irans Human Rights Council for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related offences (which reportedly accounts for roughly 80% of Irans executions).

Finally, Rouhani and Rafsanjani are now in a relatively stronger position within the Assembly of Experts, which will likely perform its constitutional role of electing the next supreme leader during the course of its eight-year tenure. The high votes for the List of Hope Coalition in Tehran resulted in the expulsion of two out of the three most powerful hardline members within the Assembly of Experts whose thinking is closely aligned with former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Country-wide, this body retains its conservative majority and will be influenced by other power centers (most notably Ayatollah Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps). However, the List of Hope Coalition will compete for influence with the hardline powerbase within the Assembly of Experts and has enhanced the position of potential pragmatic candidates to replace Ayatollah Khamanei.

Five Challenges

An immediate challenge facing candidates elected from the List of Hope Coalition will be to prove that they can actually work together in parliament and reach consensus. Even in cases of established coalitions, interests and ideologies tend to diverge, causing tensions that can at times delay and potentially paralyze decision-making. Given that the candidates in the List of Hope Coalition have a diverse range of positions on civil and political issues, reform in this area will be most challenging to agree on. The traditionally reformist representatives in the coalition run the risk of pushing the administration too hard too soon on the types of political reforms that Rouhani is unable or unwilling to deliver on.

A second complicating factor is that there will be many new faces in the legislative branch, particularly among the candidates backed by the List of Hope Coalition. In part, this was a natural consequence of the Guardian Councils mass disqualification of the most experienced and well-known reformist candidates during the vetting process. This wave of newcomers will bring with it fresh ideas. But there will also be a gap in experience, with the younger parliamentarians facing a steep learning curve on the rulebook of the Islamic Republic.

Third, it is unknown which way independent candidates, who are likely to control around one-fifth of the seats in parliament, will sway on important issues. This makes them powerful enough to create a majority decision by joining forces with either the conservative/principalist factions or the pro-government/List of Hope Coalition. It is unclear and in some instances hard to predict where these candidates sit on specific issues. This means that they can be incentivized to vote both in support and against Rouhanis policies.

Fourth, conservatives retain a sizable influence, even though the radical hardliners were purged in Tehran. The final round of parliamentary elections could strengthen their position, giving them more ammunition to obstruct Rouhanis policies in parliament. In addition, although the elections enhanced the political standing of pragmatist leaders, the judiciary and the Revolutionary Guards intelligence forces, both overwhelmingly driven by hardline ideology, still have significant powers to block government policies.

Finally, Ayatollah Khamenei has shown a general dislike for allowing any faction to consolidate disproportionate power over its rivals. The development of Rouhanis relationship with the Supreme Leader can make or break his presidential legacy. So far, Rouhani has proven adept at creating consensus among pragmatic leaders across factional lines. In doing so, he has stressed that unity and moderation within the system is instrumental for the survival of the Islamic Republic. Much of his playbook is derived from his time serving as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, where his success hinged on striking compromises. His ability to continue this role will depend on maintaining strong personal relationships with Ayatollah Khamenei and with top Revolutionary Guard officers.

It remains to be seen how Rouhani can use the political momentum in the aftermath of the elections and the easing of sanctions to fulfill the opportunities and overcome the challenges facing his administration. Since his presidential campaign, Rouhani has managed to maintain a political alignment that has weakened the radical hardline grip on power. The latest developments are a clear indication that those who voted Rouhani into power continue to support this bid, even if they are dissatisfied with the pace of meaningful change.



About the author:

Ellie Geranmayeh is a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in London since October 2013. She focuses on European foreign policy in relation to Iran on the nuclear talks and wider regional issues.

Follow Ellie Geranmayeh on twitter
Iranian forest ranger spared from death sentence

03/08/16

Source: Radio Zamaneh

Asadollah Taghizadeh, a forest ranger who was arrested and sentenced to Qesas seven years ago for killing an illegal hunter in the Dena forest region, was released on Monday March 7 after the family of the deceased gave their consent.



Asadollah Taghizadeh upon release



Taghizadeh and two other rangers were confronted by a group of five illegal hunters in Kogilouyeh and Boyerahmad Province in 2008. After the hunters opened fire on the ranger, Taghizadeh reportedly fired back and hit one of the hunters, who later succumbed to his injury in hospital.

Taghizadeh was sentenced to death in 2011, and the sentence was later upheld by the appellate court.

On Sunday March 6, the family of Mojtaba Rezai agreed to forego their right to Qesas, and Taghizadeh was consequently released today.

Upon his release, Taghizadeh expressed his thanks to the family of the deceased and his many advocates.
The best 2-in-1 laptop 2022: our picks of the best convertible laptops

These are the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now
Think of it as the Galaxy S6...S. The Samsung Galaxy S7 ($672 for 32GB as tested on Verizon Wireless; $699.99 unlocked) looks so much like the Galaxy S6 that you'd be excused for thinking it's not a major upgrade. Rather than reinvent the design like it did last year, Samsung has focused on performance improvements in the S7, restoring crowd-pleasing features that were missing from the S6 (like a microSD slot) and boosting battery life. It's the best Android phone available in a truly one-handed form factor. That said, we're giving our Editors' Choice to the very similar Galaxy S7 Edge, which has more functionality and better battery life in a package that's not much bigger.

Size and Design

There's been a lot of talk over the last year about how smartphones are getting boring(Opens in a new window)essentially, how they've plateaued in terms of changing our lives. I think the industry is just taking a breath before it goes crazy with virtual and augmented reality, which we've started to see with Samsung's Gear VR.

But smartphones are still our most personal computers. They're our always-ready cameras with which we record our lives. They're our cloud-based brains that Waze us around town or Google the answers to pressing questions. They're our connections to our friends and family, via Facebook, or text message, or old-fashioned phone calls. They're essential, used hundreds of times a day, and even an incremental improvement in how they work is still an improvement in our lives.

Here's an incremental improvement, for instance. As someone who uses my phone on the subway a lot, I've been raging for years about phone size bloathow smartphones are getting wider and wider, making them harder to use with one hand. I'm happy to say that the 2.74-inch S7 is actually narrower than the S6 (2.78 inches), making it the same width as the HTC One M9, and narrower than any other high-end Android phone I can think of. That will make the S7 the go-to device for anyone who thinks that high-end phones are just too big.

The Galaxy S7's AMOLED screen is the same size (5.1 inches) and resolution (2,560 by 1440) as the S6's screen, but as Dr. Ray Soneira of DisplayMate Labs points out in a detailed report(Opens in a new window), Samsung amped up the brightness quite a lot. The S6 already had an excellent, highly visible screen; the S7 is even better. Both phones put the iPhone 6s to shame.

Samsung has returned waterproofing to the Galaxy S7, without the need for the irritating port cover from the Galaxy S5. This time, it's using a water-repellent coating inside the device. I washed and dried the phone, and even spilled hot coffee on it, with no issues. The phone is rated IP68, which means it's fully submersible and dustproof.



From left to right: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S7, Apple iPhone 6s

But yes, otherwise, the S7 looks a lot like the S6, although its slightly more rounded back is just a touch thicker, to allow for a bigger battery. The bigger battery, in turn, gives the phone less of a protruding camera bump on the rear. At 5.36 ounces, it's heavier, too (the S6 is 4.87 ounces). But it's still a metal-and-glass unibody design, coming in black or gold, with a physical Home button that functions as a fingerprint sensor below the display. The sensor is the same as the one in the S6; very good, but it'll miss an off-center touch. The phone also still uses traditional micro USB, not USB-C, for charging and accessories.

While the phone is about the same size as the Galaxy S6, many existing Galaxy S6 cases just barely won't work on the Galaxy S7. It's a real pity. When I slotted the S7 into an S6 case, I found the headphone jack was moved slightly to the right, so the hole for the jack on the case was in the wrong place.

Phone and Network Performance

Qualcomm is back. Last year was a bad one(Opens in a new window) for the leading chip manufacturer, during which it put out some decent processors and one real disappointment, the Snapdragon 810. Well, the Snapdragon 820 is no 810. It has the finest modem in the business, and what's looking like highly competitive app performance.

The Snapdragon 820's X12 modem supports LTE download speeds up to 600Mbps and uploads up to 150Mbps, using technologies that help with every carrier. 4x4 MIMO will make for faster speeds on T-Mobile and Verizon while 3x20 carrier aggregation becomes important on Sprint.

I couldn't perform any tests that pushed the limits of LTE performance, but I could check Wi-Fi and weak signal conditions. The phone had no trouble with a 150Mbps symmetrical Wi-Fi connection. On Verizon's network, the S7 did a better job holding onto LTE in poor signal conditions than the iPhone 6s, pulling out better data rates. My first day with the phone, I saw some odd behavior involving the phone not recovering or trading up to 4G LTE from dead zones, but that seemed to sort itself out after a few days.

The phone supports voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling. The unlocked model supports all US carriers, even Verizon and Sprint. If you buy a model directly from a carrier, it will exclude certain frequency bands for each of the other three carriers. The phone will work on other carriers, but not as well as that carrier's model or the unlocked unit. So if you buy a carrier unit, it's best to treat it as a phone exclusively for that carrier. If you want to move it around, get the unlocked model. (We have tested the Galaxy S7 on Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.)

Call quality is fine, but I wish it was a little better. The earpiece is plenty loud, and there's no distortion; that's not the problem. And noise cancellation is excellent. I suspect the issue is just Verizon's voice codecs. With standard calling, voices sound a bit harsh with a trebly punch. On VoLTE, you get a more balanced sound without the harshness, but it's not HD-level precise unless you're calling another phone on your carrier.

Battery life on the sealed-in 3,000mAh cell is noticeably better than on the S6. I did more battery tests than usual on this phone, because the Galaxy S6 had an annoying habit of draining its battery really quickly in standby mode. Unfortunately, this behavior tended to appear only after a month or two, and I haven't had the S7 for a month or two. But early signs are promising. The S7 got 9 hours in our video streaming rundown, as compared with 7 hours, 13 minutes for the S6. In standby mode without heavy CPU usage, the S7 drained 11 percent of its battery in eight hours. Not bad. Intense usage killed it in about 6.5 hours, which isn't too bad either.

The phone supports both fast charging and dual-standard wireless charging. Using the included fast charger, we got the phone from zero to fully charged in around 90 minutes.

Android Performance

The Galaxy S7 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Samsung's skin over it, on a 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. It's the first of several Snapdragon 820 phones we'll see this year, most notably, the LG G5 will join it very soon.

The Snapdragon 820 benchmarks faster than any other chip we've seen in an Android phone. With Geekbench scores of 2,333 single-core and 5,330 multi-core, it beats the Galaxy S6 (1,440 single/4,811 multi) and the Galaxy Note 5 (1,472 single/5,020 multi) handily. GPU performance is also better, taking the GFXBench Manhattan test from 15 frames per second (fps) on the previous generation, to 25fps here.

Now, whether it's faster than the iPhone is another question. The iPhone 6s still benchmarks faster in single-core mode than the Snapdragon 820 does, with a Geekbench score of 2,475, and it does much better with on-screen graphics frame rates because of its much lower resolution screen. The question of whether single-core performance or multi-core performance matters more is still intensely debated in programming circles.

What really matters is how the phone performs in practice. I like to use the controls of Asphalt 8 to check for responsiveness, and the S7 is as smooth as butteras you'd expect. Apps launch quickly and there's no lag. The S7, like the past two generations of Galaxy phones, also has dual-window or pop-up multitasking.

Samsung has, once again, tried to lighten the burden of its Android skin. While the icons are still all restyled, Samsung ditched its Briefing screen to the left of the main home screen. It has also resisted the current, horrid trend to get rid of the app drawer in favor of a more iPhone-like interface.

One likable customization is the always-on screen, which floats the time, date, battery status, and basic notification information on the screen at all times; you can swap it out for a calendar or one of a few preset images. The always-on screen information is convenient, and doesn't appear to consume much battery. And you can always turn it off if it's not for you.

But there are a ton of bloatware applications, consuming a total of 9.17GB on our Verizon device. As Verizon only sells a 32GB model, that's pretty rough. And bloatware apps can't be deleted or moved to SD cards. The other carrier versions were also loaded up with bloatware.

The bloatware load is at least somewhat alleviated by the phone's microSD card support. The microSD card pops into the SIM card slot, above the SIM card, and the phone supports cards up to the current maximum 200GB card SanDisk offers. Samsung disabled Google's Adoptable Storage feature, which makes the memory card look like internal memory to the system, so you still have to move apps back and forth from the Application Settings screen. You can move downloaded apps to the SD card, but not built-in apps.

Samsung Gear VR

Many people who order the Galaxy S7 will get a free Gear VR headset with it as a promotion,(Opens in a new window) so I took a spin with the S7 inside of one to see how it went.

My colleague Will Greenwald really liked the Gear VR when he reviewed it with the Galaxy S6, and I spent some time with VR porn in a Gear VR at CES earlier this year. Spending some time with the S7 watching music, movie, gaming, and, yes, adult content, I found that it didn't overheat (unlike in Will's experience, so that's a plus), but also that I've become spoiled by more powerful PC-based VR experiences like on the HTC Vive. The Snapdragon 820 processor makes for perfectly smooth motion with no lag, but the content in Samsung's MilkVR app is disappointing in terms of resolution: as I watched movies and music videos, I could see the pixels in a distracting way.

For people that wear glasses like me, the Gear VR has another annoying flaw: you can't change the focus of the two lenses independently, so I get a lot of double vision. I'm interested to see if I get a better experience from LG's upcoming 360 VR headset.

That said, there's probably more content for the Gear VR than there is for any other headset, and its ability to let you watch your non-VR movies in a virtual big-screen format can be worth the price of admission aloneespecially if it's free.

Photos and Video

The Galaxy S7's camera isn't much better than the S6's, but that's fine. The S6 has a terrific camera, and the S7 has a faster focus lock. Samsung's new promises mostly have to do with low light.

Samsung replaced the Galaxy S6's 16-megapixel camera with a 12-megapixel shooter with larger pixels, to improve low-light performance. It also increased the number of focus pixels, to speed up focus in low light. The latter part works: There's none of the pulsing you see on the S6 as the camera struggles to find focus. The S7 is also better at white balance than the S6, making my skin look orange less often.

The low-light improvements are minor at best. In one of my several low-light tests, the S7 took a much brighter image than the S6 did. But I didn't find that in other tests, and whether my hand was shaky mattered far more than anything else. Both the S6 and the S7 cameras outperform the iPhone 6s, though, with sharper and less noisy images.

The 5-megapixel front camera is also very good, but a minor improvement over the S6. Mostly images are a little less noisy. The bigger improvement for selfies comes in the addition of a Selfie Flash mode, which lights up the screen when you're taking a shot in the dark.

Video now records at up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second on the main camera, and 1080p on the front camera. Video recording is excellent, and maintained 30 frames per second even in very dim conditions.

In terms of audio and video playback, the Snapdragon 820 can handle any content you can throw at it. There's no cabled way to attach the S7 to a big screen anymore, though; you need to use wireless screencasting.

Conclusions

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is a no-compromise luxury phone, and the top of the Android lineup. It's also pretty conventional. There's nothing crazy here like the LG G5's dual cameras or modular build, just a good-looking, powerful smartphone that refines the performance of last year's model. The S7 is also the smallest flagship Android phone out there. It destroys every other Android device in its size class.

But it's hard to argue for the S7 as a $672 upgrade from last year's $650 S6, simply because the changes are pretty incremental. Maybe if you're paranoid about spills it's worth the peace of mind. If you've been holding onto an earlier Samsung Android phone on Verizon, though, and you're looking for a small but powerful device, now would be the time to upgrade.

The S7's hardware is better in almost every way than the iPhone's. And yet I can't unequivocally recommend it instead of an iPhone, because of the apps and services that are exclusive to Apple phones. If you're a big mobile gamer, want to put your phone on a professional camera mount, or want to use FaceTime, well, no S7 for you. You're locked into Apple's world.

The S7 sets the bar for this year's smartphones, much like the S6 did last year. LG plans to meet that bar and add innovative features, at the cost of a slightly wider design, and one that I suspect will have slightly shorter battery life. HTC will likely try to outdo Samsung with an all-metal design and more tasteful icons. There will also be plenty of competitive larger phones, starting with the Galaxy S7 Edge, which takes our Editors' Choice honors thanks to its longer battery life and innovative edge functionality. But if you're looking for a spill-proof, single-hand-operation 4G smartphone with a terrific camera, the Samsung Galaxy S7 fits the bill better than anything else on the market.

Samsung Galaxy S7 4.5 (Opens in a new window) See It $199.99 at Samsung (Opens in a new window) MSRP $672.00 Pros Small, for a high-end Android phone.

Excellent modem and Wi-Fi performance.

Super sharp, bright screen.

MicroSD card slot.

Waterproof build. View More Cons Not much internal storage.

Camera isn't a big jump up from the S6.

Carrier bloatware. The Bottom Line There's nothing radically new about it, but the Samsung Galaxy S7 delivers the best Android smartphone performance in a relatively small package.
Samsung gets it right the second time around. The Galaxy S7 Edge ($792 for 32GB as tested on Verizon Wireless; $799.99 unlocked) is a striking standout of a smartphone, bringing back several fan-favorite features that were lost in last year's successful S6 Edge. While we also like the smaller Galaxy S7, the Edge manages a bigger battery and Samsung's signature curved glass in a package that's not much larger. As I tested the two phones together, I found that they benchmarked the same and have pretty much identical camera performance. The only major differences are in battery life and design, but that's enough to push the S7 Edge into the lead, and make it our Editors' Choice for Android phones.

Design

The S7 Edge borrows ideas from a whole bunch of last year's Samsung phones, and puts them together in the right combination. It has the tight efficiency of the S6 Edge, a bigger screen like the slightly bloated S6 Edge+, and superior edge functionality from the older Galaxy Note Edge. Elegantly curved, the S7 Edge measures only 5.9 by 2.9 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.5 ounces. That's considerably narrower, and considerably less heavy, than other competing large smartphones like the Google Nexus 6P (6.3 by 3.1 by 0.3 inches; 6.3 ounces) and the iPhone 6s Plus (6.2 by 3.0 by 0.3 inches; 6.8 ounces).

The 5.5-inch, quad-HD screen on the front is the same resolution, and the same quality, as the S7's screen, even though the S7 Edge uses a flexible plastic OLED, while the S7 is on a traditional glass substrate, according to DisplayMate Labs(Opens in a new window). While that means it has a slightly lower pixel density than the S7 does, at resolutions like this, that really doesn't matter in practice. What's more important is that this screen is brighter than the panel on either the Galaxy S6 or the Galaxy Note 5.

Below the screen is a combination Home button/fingerprint scanner (the same as on the S6, which is accurate most of the time) and a standard micro USB port for charging and syncing. Samsung decided not to go with the newer USB-C so S6 users could keep their chargers and accessories.

Like the S7, the S7 Edge is IP68 rated, which means it's waterproof and sealed against dust. I had no problem dunking and rinsing it, which is a major advantage over competitors like the iPhone and the Nexus.

Networking, Voice Quality, and Battery

The S7 Edge has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset as the S7, which makes for the same performance. I didn't find that the larger body improves signal capture or performance in weak signal areas, which were better on both phones than on the S6 or the iPhone 6s.

I tested the Galaxy S7 Edge on Verizon Wireless. I was unable to get it to a location with a very fast Verizon connection, but I was able to test it in a weak signal location, where it maintained an LTE signal more consistently than an iPhone 6S did. Wi-Fi performance is also excellent. It's obviously dual-band 802.11ac (I mean, c'mon), and it had no trouble with a 150-megabit, symmetrical connection.

The phone supports voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling. The unlocked model works for CDMA, GSM, and LTE on every US carrier, even Verizon and Sprint. If you buy a carrier version, it will have all of the LTE bands on your carrier, but exclude some of the bands that the other carriers use. So it's best to get the unlocked version if you want to move it between carriers.

Voice quality is fine. The earpiece is solidly loud, with no distortion. The bottom-ported speaker is a little too easy to cover with your thumb, and it isn't boomingly loud given that this is a larger phone. In my test calls, I found the earpiece audio to be tuned a little sharper and less harsh than on the S7, but I suspect that was just an artifact of changing conditions on the Verizon network. Noise cancellation is excellent, but that's table stakes on phones in this price category. The S7 Edge, like the S7, supports both Wi-Fi calling and voice-over-LTE.

Battery life on the sealed-in 3,600mAh cell is excellent. I got 10 hours of video streaming, which matches the excellent Nexus 6P. Leaving the phone in standby mode for eight hours only drained 7 percent of the battery, which is also on par with the Nexus, and churning updates for half an hour only dropped the battery by 4 percent, which is frankly pretty killer. The phone supports fast charging and wireless charging, and fills the battery in about two hours of fast charging. You can be confident in the Edge's battery life, which is one reason we prefer it to the Galaxy S7 (which still manages a very respectable 9 hours of video streaming).

Software and the Edge

The S7 Edge's major unique feature is the edge, of course. The edge is Samsung's most notable, and most useful, addition to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow here.

Samsung's curved edge first appeared on the Galaxy Note Edge, and I love it because it's configurable. You could download and load various apps on the edge of the screen to check the weather or play a word game. On the Galaxy S6 Edge, the edge became a mere design featureyou could pull out some frequently used contacts, but few people ever did, and instead it was just pretty.

Well, the functional edge is back, and it's more functional than ever. Swipe in from the right side of the screen to bring up an edge panel. There are about a dozen possible edge panels, along with an open SDK so that hopefully more will come in the future. By default, you get favorite apps, favorite contacts, and a panel for some macros, like starting a message to one of your favorite people. You can add news services, weather, a ruler, memory status, or various other applications.

I also like the always-on screen, which displays the time, date, and basic notifications when the phone is locked; it can also show a calendar or a few custom images based on your phone's theme. It doesn't seem to drain the battery much and you can always disable it if it doesn't suit you.

All that software functionality just adds to Samsung's bloatware load, alas. US carriers only sell a 32GB version of the Galaxy S7 Edge, and 9.23GB on our Verizon model were taken up by Google's OS, Samsung's software, and more than a dozen preloaded Verizon and Amazon apps you can't move or delete.

You can add a microSD card up to 200GB, though, by sticking it in a tray that's part of the SIM card slot. Samsung doesn't support Google's Adoptable Storage, which lets the microSD card be seen as part of the phone's internal memory, but you can move downloaded apps to the card one by one using the phone's settings screen.

The 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor delivers excellent performance, identical to the Galaxy S7. It easily outclasses the Nexus 6P's Snapdragon 810 on both standard performance benchmarks and graphics benchmarks. It's outmatched by the iPhone 6s Plus when it comes to gaming frame rates, but that's not an apples-to-Apple comparison, as the iPhone has much lower screen resolution. High-intensity games like Asphalt 8 play perfectly smooth here.

Camera and Video

The S7 and the S7 Edge have the same camera module, which has a much more subtle exterior bump than on the S6 generation. Samsung says it dropped from a 16-megapixel unit on the Galaxy S6 to a 12-megapixel unit with larger pixels here to improve low-light performance; it also added more focus pixels to improve low light focus. We saw the focus improvements, but not the low-light improvements on this camera.

Double-tap the Home button and the camera opens in about 0.6 seconds, just like on the Galaxy S6. The quicker focus is immediately evident, and the shutter is pretty much instantaneous. In one of my several low-light tests, the S7 Edge took a much brighter image than the S6 did. But I didn't find that in other tests, and whether my hand was shaky mattered far more than anything else. Both the S6 and the S7 outperform the iPhone 6s, with sharper and less noisy images.

The 5-megapixel front camera is also very good, but a minor improvement over the S6; mostly, images are a little less noisy. The bigger improvement for selfies comes in the addition of a Selfie Flash mode, which lights up the screen when you're shooting an image in the dark.



From left to right: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S7, Apple iPhone 6s

Video now records at up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second on the main camera, and 1080p on the front camera. Video recording is excellent, and maintained 30 frames per second even in very dim conditions.

In terms of audio and video playback, the Snapdragon 820 can handle any content you can throw at it. There's no cabled way to attach the S7 to a big screen anymore, though; you need to use wireless screencasting.

Comparisons and Conclusions

Competition in the realm of larger premium smartphones is intense. The Nexus 6P, the Galaxy Note 5, the LG V10, and the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 all have unique advantages, and I could easily recommend any of them. There's also the iPhone 6s Plus, which frankly doesn't put Apple's best foot forward with its relatively low-res screen, but has many games and social networks that are unique to the iPhone platform. So why am I making the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge our Editors' Choice? You're getting the most phone per square inch, and more importantly the biggest battery.

The Edge gives you a big screen in a relatively small phone: 5.5 inches in a 2.86-inch wide device, as opposed to the 5.7-inch competitors, which are generally 3 inches or wider. The curved glass makes the Edge not just stylish, but easier to hold as well. Combine that with a killer processor, a faster modem, and a 3,600mAh battery, which is bigger than all the competition, and you get a large, waterproof smartphone with long battery life.

That said, you'll want to get the Galaxy Note 5 if you want to scribble on the screen with the S Pen, and you'll want the Nexus 6P if you prefer a simpler, pure Android experience with no bloatware. The Nexus 6P is also a lot cheaper. So that's a tough decision.

But the Galaxy S7 Edge is current state-of-the-art. It's the best-crafted, most powerful smartphone on the market, with the biggest battery, and the most cutting-edge components you can get. That's enough to make it our Editors' Choice.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 4.5 Editors' Choice (Opens in a new window) See It $400.59 at Amazon (Opens in a new window) MSRP $792.00 Pros Top-of-the-line in every way.

More Edge functionality than in last year's models.

Long battery life. Cons Expensive.

Not much internal storage. The Bottom Line The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge combines state-of-the-art components with a smart, gorgeous design and a big battery, making it a killer Android smartphone.
If there's a holy grail of computer hacking, it might be what the seven teams of computer scientists participating in the final round of DARPA's Cyber Grand Challenge(Opens in a new window) are seeking. They're attempting to write an autonomous program that can find security holes in software before malicious attackers can exploit them.

The Cyber Grand Challenge, started in 2013, bills itself as the "world's first all-machine hacking tournament." Security vulnerabilities are expensive, and DARPA hasn't been afraid to reach for its checkbook. It gave each of the seven recently announced finalists $750,000 for successfully finishing a capture-the-flag style preliminary round. The winner of the entire competition, which ends later this year, will take home $2 million.

In order to be selected as the winner, a team's systems must autonomously create network defenses, deploy patches and mitigations, monitor the network, and evaluate the defenses of competitors. It's a tall order, but the competitors are formidable, including one team that completed the first round in just six hours.

The teams hail from around the world; there's no citizenship requirement even though the competition is funded by the U.S. military. Among them are professors and students from UC Berkeley and the University of Idaho, as well as a group of French, British, and American security researchers who met as students at UC Santa Barbara.

The final round will take place in August at the DEF CON security conference in Las Vegas. The competition will be live streamed, though as participant Giovanni Vigna noted, real-life hackers aren't nearly as exciting as Hollywood portrayals.

"Hacking is usually just a bunch of guys around a table who are very tired just typing on a laptop," Vigna told The Guardian(Opens in a new window).
A day after a BuzzFeed investigation(Opens in a new window) appeared to uncover thousands of Uber customer complaints flagged with the word "rape," the ride-hailing service claims that the actual number of sexual assault complaints it received is far lower.

In a letter(Opens in a new window) to BuzzFeed, Uber executives explained that leaked screenshots of the company's ticket management system were misleading because of the search terms they depicted. They wrote that a "rape" query will return every instance of the letters "R A P E," such as a person's name (Don Draper, for example).

Instead of the nearly 6,000 tickets shown in the screenshots, there are only five tickets from December 2012 to August 2015 that allege an actual rape occurred, the executives wrote. There are 170 tickets with a legitimate claim of sexual assault, or one in every 3.3 million trips.

Still, Uber acknowledged that some cases of rape or other sexual misconduct could have been reported to the police and not submitted to its customer service representatives.

Indeed, there have been multiple news reports of sexual assault investigations in connection with ride-hailing services. Last year, police in Austin, Texas reported(Opens in a new window) they were investigating seven sexual assault claims against Uber and Lyft drivers. Two Boston women sued(Opens in a new window) Uber last October, claiming they were sexually assaulted by a driver.

In addition to sexual assault, unscrupulous Uber drivers have also been in the news recently for an alleged "fake barf" scam in which a customer was billed a fraudulent $200 cleaning fee.

Uber tacitly admitted to deficiencies in its driver screening process when it agreed to pay out $28.5 million to settle two class-action lawsuits that took issue with its "safe ride" fee. One of the suits complained that "Uber's background check procedures and safety measures are woefully inadequate and fall well short of what is required for other commercial providers of transportation."

BuzzFeed reported that after Uber learned of its investigation, the company began an internal probe to find customer service representatives who may have leaked the screenshots.
The U.S. Justice Department has asked a New York federal court to overturn a recent ruling that protects Apple from having to unlock an iPhone involved in a drug case.

Last week, a Brooklyn judge rejected the government's request to compel Cupertino to crack an iPhone 5s seized in 2014 from accused drug trafficker Jun Feng, who eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Despite the guilty plea, however, the government claimed access to his phone was still necessary, because it might lead to criminal accomplices.

"Ultimately, the question to be answered in this matter, and in others like it across the country, is not whether the government should be able to force Apple to help it unlock a specific device," Magistrate Judge James Orenstein said at the time. "It is instead whether the All Writs Act resolves that issue and many others like it yet to come. I conclude that it does not."

The move was welcomed by the tech titan, which is also fighting a very public battle against the FBI over its request to access an iPhone 5c used by a terrorist in the San Bernardino attack.

In the New York case, prosecutors filed a 45-page brief on Monday, arguing that Feng's iPhone 5s runs an older operating systemiOS 7that Apple has agreed to breach in the past.

"This case in no way upends the balance between privacy and security," prosecutors wrote in the new filing, as reported by The Wall Street Journal(Opens in a new window). Judge Orenstein's ruling "goes far afield of the circumstances of this case and sets forth an unprecedented limitation on federal courts' authority," the brief said.

Apple disagrees. "Judge Orenstein ruled the FBI's request would 'thoroughly undermine fundamental principles of the Constitution' and we agree," a company spokesman said in a statement. "We share the judge's concern that misuse of the All Writs Act would start us down a slippery slope that threatens everyone's safety and privacy."

Cupertino boss Tim Cook has referenced that same slippery slope in the tech titan's fight with the FBI, claiming that the requested iOS backdoor will inevitably end up in the wrong hands. Apple is even willing to take its fight to the Supreme Court, where it would have the support of numerous industry heavyweights.

Apple is due back in court on the San Bernardino case on March 22.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
While the public interest in backdoors has been centered on the FBI's court battle with Apple, a larger fight has been brewing amidst security and policy professionals for years. Law enforcement has repeatedly asked for cryptographic backdoors to prevent communications between criminals from "going dark." But the rousing response in favor of strong encryption and against backdoors has brought together seemingly intractable enemies, from the Secretary of Defense to hackers and many in between.

Traditional Enemies

Last week's RSA conference was the backdrop for several discussions about backdoors into encryption. Current and former administration officials, along with security researchers, were asked whether encryption systems should be accessible to law enforcement.

Mike McConnell, former director of the NSA, took pains to paint himself as a traditional opponent to privacy issues. At one time, he was "all for espionage," and reminded the audience that he was a proponent of the Clipper Chip, an encryption system with a built-in backdoor. His opinion changed, however, when he began working in the private sector, and discovered advanced malware being used to steal intellectual property, allegedly at the behest of the Chinese government.

"Ubiquitous encryption is something this nation needs to have," said McConnell.

McConnell was also pointedly critical of law enforcement's belief that encrypted communications will enable crime and terrorism. "Law enforcement is enabled by plain text," he said. "But we actually had criminal prosecution before we had telephones."

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, meanwhile, couched his opinion on strong encryption on moral grounds. "Security without privacy is protecting an empty treasure chest," he said. "The values that we're protecting would simply be evaporating."

Chertoff also said that strong encryption is especially important when critical industries, like power generation, could potentially need to repel attacks. "We've been telling [industry] the responsibility is on you," said Chertoff. "So if we're going to ask the private sector to be partners, whether it's information or operating controls systems, we need to give them the tools to complete the mission."

That sentiment of encryption as a valuable tool at all levels was also the basis of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter's assertion that he is "not a believer in backdoors or a single technical approach to a complex problem." Carter said that the Department of Defense uses the same encryption systems as everyone else, and that without strong encryption there is no way to secure communications between tanks, ships, and so on.

Much of the argument against backdoors in encryption systems hinges on the possibility of unauthorized access to those doors. In this context, the backdoor meant to enable law enforcement or intelligence gathering becomes a major vulnerability when in the hands of an attacker. This is usually a hypothetical situation, but security researcher and one of the minds behind the Signal app, Moxie Marlinspike, argued that it might have already happened.

He pointed to Dual_EC_DRBG, a psuedo-random number generator endorsed by the NSA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which contained a backdoor. The flawed generator was in use on Juniper Systems servers, which was secretly hacked and had control of the backdoor presumably placed in the hands of the attackers. Marlinspike pointed out that these servers were possibly in use at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management at the time of the massive OPM breach.

"It's entirely possible that a U.S. backdoor was used to gain access to a U.S. system," said Marlinspike.

One of the traditional defenders of privacy fully agreeing with these traditional opponents was Nuala O'Connor, the President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. O'Connor said America needs to start working on privacy protections that will be meaningful when everything is connected.

"My personal device, my connected home, my connected car, and government systems, and our critical infrastructure; all off those are interconnected and to break encryption in any part of that chain affects national security," she said.

What About Apple?

But while nearly everyone was in lockstep about encryption, not everyone agreed about Apple. It's important to note that the FBI has argued that it is not asking Apple to break its encryption system. Rather, the agency has requested that Apple disable a feature that would allow the FBI to brute-force the PIN code locking the phone.

A few at RSA commented that Apple and the FBI picked a bad case to test the waters for these issues. "Apple goofed several ways," said Adi Shamir, one of the co-inventors of the RSA algorithm. He pointed out that the FBI had a strong case in that the owners of the phone were already dead and their guilt in a horrific action firmly established. "The FBI had been waiting for a long time to find the perfect issue from their perspective," he said. Though he made clear that he did support backdoors, he felt Apple should comply in this case and find a more favorable court case to press these issues.

And while support from the technology community for Apple was strong, the support from the government was unsurprisingly nonexistent. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch was unequivocal in her remarks, tearing Apple's constitutional arguments apart. Secretary Carter voiced his support for encryption, but was careful to point out that he could not comment on the Apple case, which he described as a law enforcement, not defense, problem.

But among the technology professionals, support seemed strong for Apple. "The real reason we're having this discussion today is because Apple tried to make products that protect their users, which is unusual while most companies try to sell out [user] data at any turn," said Marlinspike.

Marlinspike went on to argue that in this case, the FBI is effectively trying to engineer away people's ability to break the law. Whitfield Diffie, one of the two inventors of public key encryption, agreed, saying, "The difference between a free society and totalitarianism of course being responsible for your action. But in tyranny, you build mechanism to prevent them from having their action."

The Path Forward

Nearly all of the prominent individuals who spoke on the subject maintained that the case of Apple and the FBI should not be the single discussion about backdoors or weak encryption. Instead, many held that the discussion should happen at the congressional level and not in the courts.

McConnell suggested that the technology sector be tapped to help lead the discussion in government. He called for the creation of a legislative commission to advise in the creation of new laws on encryption. "The public at large is not informed on this issue, just like when we went through the 9/11 commission to have a more engaged dialog for how we go forward," said McConnell.

Chertoff, like many this week, insisted that the technology sector had to work with government to find the best solution. "People from the security community, the privacy community, and the public want the same thing: a secure Internet, control of their data, and the benefits of technology without worrying about harm."

O'Connor agreed, saying that the discussions "should be in the legislative branch and they should be transparent." She and others emphasized the point that there is, in fact, much to agree about in terms of encryption and security. "I'm always profoundly optimistic and surprised that we're all able to find more common ground," concluded O'Connor.

If you're concerned about security and surveillance, consider getting one of the best VPN services to protect your Web browsing.
This evening, at least by our clocks here in the United States, residents and visitors to Indonesia and inhabitants of a few Pacific islands will be treated to one of nature's greatest spectacles, a total eclipse of the Sun.

The Moon's shadow will track across several Indonesian islands and much of the Pacific, spending most of its time over water. If you aren't in the path of the eclipse, you can view a live webcast of the event. The eclipse sets the stage for another total solar eclipse next year, the first to cross the American mainland in nearly four decades.

As the Moon's shadow will cross the International Date Line, today's eclipse will have the unusual distinction of beginning at dawn on March 9 (local time), and ending in the late afternoon of March 8. The total eclipse begins in the Indian Ocean, and the Moon's umbra (central shadow) will race across Indonesia, crossing the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, among others. It then heads out over the Pacific, only touching land in a few small atolls south of Guam, most notably Woleai, where the eclipse duration of just over four minutes is near its maximum. The Moon's shadow then continues over the open ocean until totality ends at sunset northeast of the Hawaiian Islands.

Many eclipse enthusiasts, aka umbraphiles, have traveled to Indonesia (and some to Woleai) from all over the world. Others will watch the event from various cruises. A few airplanes will also fly through the umbra. Most notably, thanks to the efforts of astronomer Joe Rao and other eclipse enthusiasts, Alaska Airlines(Opens in a new window) is slightly diverting one of its regular Anchorage-to-Honolulu flights (Flight 870) to intercept the Moon's shadow, providing both umbraphiles and regular passengers with an exceptional opportunity to see a total eclipse from above the clouds.

Eclipse Webcasts

Although the eclipse will not be visible from the continental United States (a partial eclipse can be seen from Hawaii and most of Alaska), you can watch a live webcast of the event. The Slooh online observatory is providing a live feed from Indonesia(Opens in a new window), narrated by astronomer Paul Cox with assistance from astronomy writer Bob Berman, starting at 6 p.m. San Francisco's Exploratorium has also teamed with NASA to webcast the event(Opens in a new window) from Woleai Atoll. The live feed will start at 7 p.m. ET, with narrated coverage from 8:00-9:15 p.m.

An All-American Eclipse

A webcast, however, is no substitute for actually seeing an eclipse in person. Although a total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth every year and a half, on average, the Moon's shadow often tracks through sparsely populated or not-easily-accessible regions. This was the case with both the November 3, 2013 eclipse, which crossed equatorial Africa, and the March 20, 2015 event, which was visible only from the Faroe Islands and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

We in the United States have been eclipse-deprived, with the last total solar eclipse to touch the continental U.S. taking place in 1979 in the Pacific Northwest. That will change next year on August 21, when the Moon's shadow will trace a 70-mile-wide path across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina. The maximum length of totality will be two minutes, 40 seconds, near Carbondale, Illinois, a town that will also be near the centerline of the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024.

But while the 2024 event crosses land from Mexico to maritime Canada, with its maximum duration in Durango, Mexico, the 2017 eclipse is unusual in that the only land that the Moon's shadow will touch is in the United States. This has led eclipse expert Michael Zeiler to dub the event the Great American Eclipse(Opens in a new window). His eponymous website provides a wide range of resources on this and other eclipses, including some good places to see the event.

During its trek across America in 2017, the Moon's shadow will cross many notable cities and towns. Soon after landfall, it will pass over Salem, Oregon, then Idaho Falls, and Jackson and Casper, Wyoming. Alliance, Nebraska is near the centerline, and a festival will be held at Carhenge, its automotive monoliths. In Missouri, Kansas City is near the shadow's south edge, and St. Louis near the north edge, with both Jefferson City and Columbia near the centerline, as is Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Nashville lies just within the southern edge of the umbra. Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina lie within the path of totality.

The eclipse isn't quite as long in the western U.S. (two minutes in Salem, Oregon), but weather prospects are generally better. Eclipse meteorologist Jay Anderson provides detailed weather information(Opens in a new window) along the entire eclipse path on his Eclipsophile website. Another great resource is retired NASA astrophysicist and eclipse expert Fred Espenak's Mr. Eclipse website(Opens in a new window). Espenak has teamed with Anderson to publish a comprehensive book (eclipse bulletin) on the event, as well as his own eclipse road atlas.

All of the continental United States will experience at least a partial eclipse in 2017, but a partial eclipse (or even an annular, or "ring of fire," eclipse), is but a pale shadow, so to speak, of a total eclipse. A partial eclipse lacks the darkness, the stars coming out in daytime, and the amazing sight of the pearly glow of the solar corona (outer atmosphere) surrounding the black disk of the Moon as it covers the Sun. If at all possible, find a way to get into the path of totality to see this extraordinary sight. Plan early, as people from all over the world will be coming to America for this spectacle.
The founder of online forum 4chan is moving on to Google.

The search giant told(Opens in a new window) Business Insider that Poole has been hired to work under Google's vice president of Google Photos and Streams, Bradley Horowitz. In a subsequent blog post(Opens in a new window), Poole confirmed the news, saying that he is hoping to build a vibrant online community at Google.

"I can't wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company," he wrote.

Poole is best known for founding 4chan, a controverisal online forum that allows users to post content to the site anonymously. While 4chan has been used for quite a bit of good, it's also been charged with spreading violent and sometimes illegal content. Indeed, it's the service's anonymity that makes 4chan both appealing to users and potentially dangerous.

Poole has been voted among some of the most influential online figures, and was instrumental in growing 4chan into one of the most popular websites on the Internet. He stepped down as the site's administrator in 2015, however, and announced that Hiroyuki Nishimura had acquired the service. Nishimura is best known for founding 2channel, a forum-based precursor to 4chan.

Naturally, news that someone from 4chan was joining Google raised some eyebrows. Is he just trolling us all? But Poole did develop a website, called Canvas, that allows users to share and remix images, so joining Google's photos and streams operation might not be too much of a stretch. Either way, Poole is coming to Google, and he says he looks forward to contributing to the company's "intelligence, passion, and enthusiasm."

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hackers have been out in full force this tax season, and Seagate is the latest major tech company to fall victim to a targeted phishing scam.

The Cupertino, Calif. data storage company revealed to security researcher Brian Krebs(Opens in a new window) that online miscreants last week tricked one of its employees into handing over 2015 W-2 forms for all its current and past U.S.-based employees. The W-2 documents, of course, contained employee Social Security numbers, salaries, addresses, and other personal information.

The incident occurred on March 2, when phishers sent a Seagate employee what appeared to be a legitimate internal company note requesting the W-2 forms. The employee obliged, inadvertently sending the information to hackers.

Seagate notified federal authorities about the phishing attack, and is now offering affected employees a two-year membership for credit monitoring services, though as Krebs pointed out, that will not protect them from tax refund fraud.

"We deeply regret this mistake and we offer our sincerest apologies to everyone affected," the company said. "Seagate is aggressively analyzing where process changes are needed and we will implement those changes as quickly as we can."

The news comes as Snapchat just last week issued a mea culpa to its employees after revealing that one of its staffers also fell for a phishing scam and "revealed some payroll information" to hackers. Word has it Fast Company(Opens in a new window) is also a victim.

Meanwhile, the IRS has temporarily suspended its Identity Protection PIN tool(Opens in a new window), which allows taxpayers to retrieve their IP PINs online, and is "looking at further strengthening its security features."

An IP PIN is a "six-digit number that provides an additional layer of protection for taxpayers who have been or could become victims of tax-related identity theft," the IRS explained. Taxpayers using an IP PIN can find more information about the change here(Opens in a new window).

The move comes after the IRS last month announced that hackers attempted to use some 464,000 stolen Social Security numbers and an automated bot to generate E-file PINs, which can be used to electronically file a tax return.
Fingerprint sensors built into smartphones are supposed to be a security feature. But an increasing number of researchers are dismantling them with ease.

A team at Michigan State University recently published(Opens in a new window) a YouTube video describing how they could spoof the fingerprint sensor built into the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Huawei's Honor 7 into believing it was the owner's real finger simply by using special paper and ink.

First, the researchers needed the person's actual fingerprint, so they took the print assigned to the button and scanned it into a computer. From there, they inserted a special AgIC paper into their printer and used AgIC silver conductive ink cartridges. After printing out the fingerprints, they placed them against the devices and they were in.

"We tried several fingers of different subjects and all of them can successfully hack these two phones," the researchers wrote in a report (PDF(Opens in a new window)) published last month. But, the Huawei Honor 7 is slightly more difficult to hack (more attempts may be required) than Samsung Galaxy S6.

AgIC is a special kind of material that effectively turns standard paper into a circuit board. And since it's conductive, it's a perfect material for interacting with a fingerprint sensor, according to the researchers. What's more, AgIC ink and paper isn't hard to come by.

Still, the fingerprint spoof is just the latest way to sidestep sensors. Users have been able to use everything from a heavy amount of ink toner to glue to make a fingerprint sensor believe it's the real thing. In addition to Android-based devices, Apple's iPhone has also been targeted in those experiments.

That said, there is no proof that spoofing has been done on a wide scale. Part of the issue is that the hacker would still need the person's fingerprint. Plus, it can often take significant time to create a fake fingerprint (think of how long it takes for glue to dry alone), which could frustrate some would-be hackers.

But that hasn't stopped researchers from calling on fingerprint sensor makers and smartphone manufacturers to think more about security.

"This experiment further confirms the urgent need for antispoofing techniques for fingerprint recognition systems, especially for mobile devices which are being increasingly used for unlocking the phone and for payment," the researchers said in their statement.

Looking ahead, biometrics is expected to expand to include voice, face, and iris identification. But as with fingerprints, it might eventually be possible for sophisticated hackers to attack those technologies, as well.
Since 1985, the government has provided low-income Americans with a monthly subsidy to help them connect to telephone service. But in 2016, the Internet has topped the phone as a more vital service, so the FCC wants to expand its subsidy program, known as Lifeline, to cover broadband.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn today circulated an order among their fellow commissioners that would "reboot Lifeline to enable all Americans to share in the opportunities broadband connectivity provides." The agency is expected to vote on their proposal on March 31.

A revamped Lifeline would provide low-income residents with a $9.25 per month discount on broadband service, or bundled voice and data servicesthe same rate they can currently get for phone service.

"The biggest reason [low-income] Americans don't sign up for broadband is cost," Wheeler and Clyburn wrote in a blog post(Opens in a new window). "Only half of the nation's households in the lowest income tier subscribe to broadband. And 43 percent [who don't get broadband at home] say that affordability is the reason.

"We must never lose sight of the fact that what we're really talking about is people  unemployed workers who miss out on jobs that are only listed online, students who go to fast-food restaurants to use the Wi-Fi hotspots to do homework, veterans who are unable to apply for their hard-earned benefits, seniors who can't look up health information when they get sick," they continued.

Under the revamped Lifeline program, ISPs would be required to provide a minimum standard of service: 10Mbps download/1Mbps upload. The agency is not requiring its 25Mbps threshold for broadband because Lifeline is, at its core, about affordability, a senior FCC official said.

Meanwhile, the FCC will make it easier for ISPs to sign up to provide service via Lifeline. The agency will authorize a third-party National Eligibility Verifier database that ISPs can use to see if a potential customer is eligible for Lifeline, rather than having to do the legwork themselves.

This database will also serve to combat something that has plagued programs like Lifeline for years: waste, fraud, and abuse. "This verifier will use existing trusted programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to determine eligibility," Wheeler and Clyburn said.

The verifier will also use Supplemental Security Income(Opens in a new window) (SSI), Veterans Pension, and Tribally Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(Opens in a new window) (TTANF) to determine eligibility. Even if you're not a part of any of those programs, you can be considered if income is at or below 135 pecent of the federal Poverty Guidelines(Opens in a new window).

In an effort to free up funds and get people to move to broadband, those who are currently getting Lifeline funds for mobile voice service will continue to receive $9.25 per month until Dec. 1, 2017, after which it will reduce to $7.25. A year later, that will go down to $5.25, before being eliminated at the end of 2019. Funds will be available at the full $9.25 for those who subscribe to a mobile voice and data bundle, though.

The program is paid for via the Universal Service Fund (USF), which telecom companies pay into to provide telecom service to those who cannot afford it. The FCC has set a budget of $2.25 billion for this update, up from a current level of $1.5 billion. FCC officials, however, don't expect to spend $2.25 billion at this point. But if more providers sign on for Lifeline, it might boost interest, requiring more funds.

For context, about 40 million households are eligible for Lifeline at the moment, but only 32 percent take advantage. With $2.25 billion, the FCC could add another 5 million to 5.5 million households to the program, or about a 50 percent penetration rate, FCC officials said.

Some ISPs already provide discount Internet service to low-income Americans, from Comcast's Internet Essentials to Google bringing gigabit Internet to affordable housing complexes.
If you have a smart TV that runs Skype, dont be surprised if the app stops working a few months from now.

Microsoft says it will stop supporting Skype for TV in June. At that point, TV makers may decide to remove the app from some or all of their models. Even where the app remains available, Microsoft wont deliver any more updates, which means the software could become unstable or fail to work.

Skype first arrived on smart TVs in 2010, one year before Microsoft acquired the video chat company for $8.5 billion. The TV integration received a fair share of hype, with a big announcement at CES and with Panasonic and LG as launch partners.

But while Skype was reportedly installed on tens of millions of TV sets, using the software required a separate camera, specially designed for the TV. (The service wasnt compatible with regular computer webcams.) Beyond the additional hardware cost and setup efforts, consumers have been a bit skittish about installing cameras in their living rooms. In a support document, Microsoft says most users prefer to access Skype on a smartphone insteadeven with a TV right in front of them.

For now, Microsoft hasnt said anything about abandoning Skype for Xbox One, which makes use of the consoles Kinect camera. But given Microsofts wishywashy commitment to Kinect in general, and its newfound lack of interest in big-screen video chat, its hard to imagine the software seeing much love from here on out.

Why this matters: Video chat on TV is one of those ideas thats better in theory than in practice. Compared to a phone or tablet, chatting on the TV almost feels like having someone in the room. Unfortunately, the barriers to making it work were just too high, and Microsoftnow fending off competition from Apple Facetime, Google Hangouts, and Facebook Messenger video callswisely decided to focus on where the users are.
Its rare to see a federal court docket for a search warrant dispute so laden with friend-of-the-court briefs as the one in the Apple-FBI encryption case. Almost as rare as Microsoft declaring it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with its longtime foe.

But all of that and more are on the record in the burgeoning file in the internationally watched case, in which Apple is fighting an order for it to create software to help the FBI hack an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the Dec. 2 San Bernardino shooting that killed 14 and wounded 22.

Along with backers of Apple and CEO Tim Cook, there are briefs from law-enforcement organizations and one filed on behalf of family members of six victims in the shooting.

The filing deadline was Thursday, but the volume of material on file has expanded as the court processed the briefs and placed them on the record in the intervening days.

As of midday Monday, 15 legal briefs in support of Apple had been filed, according to U.S. District Court electronic records. Four others were filed in support of the governments order.

There are numbers within numbers. The court records noted more than 65 friend-of-court identities Monday afternoon, but that hardly represents all the voices in the case.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and eight organizations described as having a consumer privacy focus filed one brief. A single brief is on behalf of 46 Technologists, Researchers and Cryptographers, and three law enforcement organizations in California are all named in one brief.

Apple has estimated about 40 companies, 20 industry and public interest organizations and 85 individuals have filed on its behalf.

The supportive filings from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others considered corporate foes of Apple  at one time or another  in the data and platform marketplace arent surprising, considering the stakes, said Tony Coulson, Cal State San Bernardino professor of information and decision sciences, and director of the schools Cyber Security Center.

The sanctity of protecting data is paramount for multinational companies he said in an email. That, oddly enough, puts Cook and arch-rival Microsoft CEO Satya Narayana Nadella on the same side.

It should also be noted that the data protection and encryption standards favored by the governments of the world are all weak and have been cracked, he wrote.

The federal governments response to Apples motion to vacate U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pyms Feb. 16 order is due this week. A hearing has been set for March 22.

Microsoft has been a frenemy of Apple for a long time, Coulson said. (Steve) Jobs and (Bill) Gates were friends and often spoke about the future of computing. Notably, Microsoft bailed out Apple in the 90s, Jobs and Gates working together.

Apple says the order for it to create software that will help the FBI evade built-in security on the iPhone 5c issued by San Bernardino County to health inspector Syed Rizwan Farook will be a gateway for hacking the encrypted Apple devices owned by hundreds of millions of people.

The FBI insists the brute force entry it seeks will be customized for use only on Farooks phone. He died in a shootout with police along with wife Tashfeen Malik a few hours after the killings.

The FBI has said the Redlands couple was inspired by the Islamic State, but not directed by the terrorist organization.

Supporters of Apple focused on the governments use of the 1789 All Writs Act in seeking the order, a law created fifty years before the telegraph was invented and almost a century before Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call, notes the brief filed by the group that includes Microsoft.

Their argument was bolstered last week when a Brooklyn federal magistrate judge in a less-invasive but similar case denied the FBIs request through the All Writs Act for Apple to help it hack a drug dealers iPhone.

The All Writs Act is meant for matters not addressed by statute, but U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein said Congress decided in 2015 not to move on legislation to strengthen government access to encrypted devices.

That took it out of the category of an unattended gap in legislation, he said in rejecting the FBIs application, Orenstein ruled Feb. 29. The Justice Department appealed the Monday.

Apple agreed in a statement released Monday. We share the Judges concern that misuse of the All Writs Act would start us down a slippery slope that threatens everyones safety and privacy, it said.

That view was reflected in the Microsoft-joined brief to support Apple.

The government endeavors to reinterpret the All Writs Act as an open-ended source of new powers. It asks this Court to endorse an unprecedented expansion of the Act that would allow law enforcement to force private technology companies to circumvent security features that protect their customers most sensitive information from hackers and criminals it said.

Stephen Larson, a former federal judge representing the family members of six shooting victims, five of whom died in the attack and one of whom survived but witnessed its horrors, said in his brief it was Apple, not the government, that is trying to outmaneuver the All Writs Act.

No citizen of the United States, corporate or otherwise, should be able to claim that the law does not apply to them; Apple cannot innovate itself out of the All Writs Act. The All Writs Act extends under appropriate circumstances to those who are in a position to frustrate the implementation of a court order or the proper administration of justice.

Apple is in such a position and the Courts entry of an order compelling Apple to comply with the search warrant is proper in these specific and limited circumstances, he wrote.

Staff writer Gail Wesson contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: rdeatley@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9573

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Kevin Welzel has killed millions. He hopes to kill millions more.

And if youre an Argentine ant, youd better run while you can.

Welzel, 28, a doctoral student at UCR, just published a study showing how a readily obtainable pheromone, combined with commercial ant bait, can nearly double the effectiveness of controlling Argentine ants, reducing their activity by 74 percent.

The scientist said he was surprised by the number.

I was expecting to get around 50 percent, said Welzel, who grew up in Bloomington and earned his bachelors degree at UC Berkeley. I wasnt expecting to get nearly 80 percent. Its pretty comparable to a spraying treatment. Its better for the environment and I think overall it is a better technique.

MOVIES: UC Riverside researchers talk science of Ant-Man

Welzels advisor, Dong-Hwan Choe, an assistant professor of entomology, has been studying Argentine ants since 2002. He said laboratory tests had shown the combination of the pheromone  an attracting agent that essentially smells and tastes good to the ants  and the bait was deadly to the insects. The ants carry the bait back to their nests, where it kills others in the colony.

In the lab, when were testing with a small ant colony, a small amount of bait will decimate the entire colony, Choe said.

But field testing, where the environment is uncontrolled, can often yield very different results.

Even though the pheromone increased the consumption of the bait, we really didnt know how it would turn out, Choe said. We were kind of pleased by seeing at least a 70 percent reduction where we put the pheromone bait. Achieving 70 percent or higher in the field is actually pretty significant.

The researchers focused on Argentine ants because they represent one of the largest pest problems in Inland Southern California. Welzel said the invasive species represents probably 85 percent of all pest management problems.

The field test, he said, was conducted in the Canyon Crest area. The bait with the pheromone was placed in five homes. Another five homes had bait with no pheromone. The ants loved the treated bait, consuming an amount more than twice that of the control bait. After four weeks, ant activity in the bait-only homes had dropped 42 percent, compared with the 74 percent reduction in the homes with the pheromone/bait combination.

Welzel said the addition of the chemical is relatively economical. He estimates that if the combined bait were available commercially  which it is not, yet  it would add $1.50 to a months worth of treatment.

He said he believes the university has applied for a preliminary patent on the technique.

Other scientists have looked at the potential for such a bait in the past, he said, but his is the first paper to be published on an actual field test. The paper appeared in the Journal of Economic Entomology last week.

Argentine ants have spread across the southern United States in the past few decades. The species is particularly prolific, Welzel said, because it is essentially one colony of ants.

If you take (Argentine) ants from Riverside to Northern California, they wont fight each other, he said, unlike other ant species. The other thing is, they have multiple queens in a colony. A colony can have up to 100 queens, which means they can reproduce really fast.

The pheromone bait, he said, is not attractive to other ant species.

By knocking off Argentine ant populations, he said, we can hope to see the native ants come back.

That doesnt happen with commercial spraying, he said. The chemicals used there kill all species of ants.

Hopefully this will get out there, he said of the treated bait, because its a more environmentally friendly way to control them.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9595
The Hometown Buffet restaurant on Margarita Road has been shuttered by the chains parent company, Food Management Partners, which is being investigated by the state for a possible WARN Act violation.

Area residents were informed of the news, which reportedly came as a shock to some employees, by a sign on the restaurants front door.

FMP  which also owns the Carrows and Tahoe Joes chains  said in a statement issued last month that it is closing a number of its buffet restaurants this year for the continued viability of the brands.

The closures fit a familiar pattern for FMP, which has been gobbling up the parent companies of established brands at discount prices and then slashing operating costs by eliminating executives and underperforming locations.

There is no WARN notice listed for Hometown Buffet on the states Employment Development Department website and some employees have told media outlets in San Diego that the company did not provide sufficient notification before executing the layoffs.

Similar reports have surfaced in Chico and Temecula, leading the states Department of Industrial Relations to open up an investigation to see if the owners of Hometown Buffet violated the WARN Act.

In general, the act requires an employer who lays off more than 50 employees must provide 60 days notice. Companies that violate the provision could be forced to pay back pay and benefits to the affected employees.

(An investigation) can run anywhere from three months to six-seven months to a year, said department spokeswoman Paola Laverde on Monday.

According to restaurant business analysts, the buffet concept has been in decline in recent years due to healthier eating habits by consumers and the whims of millennials, who have shown more of a preference for fast casual places.

There is a glimmer of hope, however, for local fans of the piled-high plate concept.

The Golden Corral chain, which appears to be growing while its buffet competition contracts, is entering the Murrieta and Lake Elsinore markets in the near future.

The closest Hometown Buffet location for Temecula area residents is in Hemet. The manager there said Monday that employees who were let go in Temecula or San Diego County could apply for a position at his restaurant.

The sign on the Temecula locations door said that restaurants former team members should report on Tuesday between the hours of 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for further instruction.

FMP officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Frances lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a plan to impose penalties and jail time on technology executives who deny access to encrypted data during a terrorist investigation, helping security services and prosecutors force companies such as Apple Inc. into cooperation.

The amendment was submitted by the opposition party The Republicans and, while the government hasnt officially supported the measure, it will be included in Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoass bill to overhaul legal procedures and fight organized crime in the wake of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

The rule aims to force phone makers to give investigators data and it will be up to the manufacturer to use whatever technique is necessary, Republican lawmaker Philippe Goujon, who proposed the amendment, said in an interview. The target is to have them cooperate. The aim is not to break the encryption  the principle is that manufacturers should cooperate.

Apple is fighting a Californian judges order to unlock the iPhone of a dead terrorist who carried out a massacre in San Bernardino in December, with its Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook saying the ruling is an attack on privacy. In France, phones with encrypted data are holding up investigators working in several terrorism cases, including the Nov. 13 attacks, Goujon said.

French Proposals

Under Goujons proposals, a company operating in France would face a 350,000-euro ($386,000) fine and its executives could be jailed for up to five years if it denied investigators access to data. In addition, every person who refused to share information relating to an investigation could be sentenced to two years in jail and fined 15,000 euros.

The U.S. court has faced a backlash from other technology companies and even the United Nations commissioner for human rights over the San Bernardino iPhone.

Technology giants from Microsoft Corp. to Google have set aside rivalries to back the maker of the iPhone while the UN on Friday said U.S. courts risk hurting human rights. Law-enforcement groups seeking to join the case said their ability to extract data from the equipment they seize is critical to solving crimes and protecting the public.

Frances bill will be reviewed by the Senate once it clears the lower house and the government aims for a final vote in the next couple of months. The government will seek to alter the amendment in the Senate debate, Goujon said, but not to change the target. It will be to make it more compatible with the French penal code to prevent the law being challenged on constitutional grounds. The Justice Ministers office didnt return calls seeking comment.

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Court action for victims and families will be filed next week

Q&A on the Apple vs. Justice Department court fight

Complete coverage of the San Bernardino shooting, aftermath
A world-renowned oboist, Gordon Hunt has developed an active conducting career, having led orchestras in Sweden, Denmark and South Africa, among others. On Saturday, he will conduct Redlands Symphony Orchestra at Memorial Chapel on the University of Redlands campus as the third of three candidates to audition to replace conductor Jon Robertson.

Conducting is a very complete way of making music, Hunt said in a recent interview. In many ways, it is the deepest way to make music. It gives the complete palette of colors at ones disposal. With only one instrument, the player is very limited.

Hunt serves as principal oboist of the Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra of London and London Chamber Orchestra and appears regularly as soloist with international ensembles.

After years of making music on the oboe, conducting is a liberation, Hunt said. It means not having to make music myself, but rather in a different mode. The orchestra is not an extension of myself, its completely different. As a conductor, Im not making a sound, Im not feeling that physical sensation one feels when playing an instrument. So, without the physical contact with the sound, I must find other ways to experience the sound the musicians are making.

With the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, Hunt will conduct Felix Mendelssohns Ruy Blas Overture, Mozarts Symphony No. 33, and Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2.

This is a lovely program of works by some of the great masters, Hunt said in the press release. The light touch of Mendelssohn, the peerless genius of Mozart, and culminating with the moving and wonderful second symphony of Brahms.  I am sure that everyone will find something in this program to motivate and inspire them.

Hunt also shares Robertsons unabashed admiration for Mozart.

Its astonishing in whatever way you consider Mozart, said Hunt. He had an incredible flow of ideas. There are many myths about Mozarts capacity to compose, that he wrote more music than anyone can copy in the same amount of time. He had such a gift.

Hunt wants the audience to perceive the very distinct sounds of the three composers.

For the Brahms, I want the audience to look for the sound of the orchestra, how it differs from that of Mozart and Mendelssohn, he said. All the while, it must have no less definition. Brahms sound will be richer, much deeper, partly because it uses a larger orchestra.

Hunt lives in Kent, south of London, ever aware, he said, of the wonder of hearing only the birds sing and seeing only the darkness at night.

With this concert, Redlands Symphony will have presented all three final candidates to become the orchestras conductor. At each of the concerts, the audience has been invited to express their opinion regarding the candidate so that the comments may be considered by the search committee as it makes its final recommendation.

Contact the writer: features@pressenterprise.com
Her Secret Service code name was Rainbow. Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday at age 94 at her home in Bel-Air, was the loving wife and critical political force alongside Rawhide, Ronald Reagan, our 40th president.

Nancy always was there with Ronnie, whether on a trip to the Soviet Union, as Mr. Reagan craftily was ending the Cold War, or giving a speech to a Republican group. Or, critically, when the president was recovering from being nearly killed by an assassins bullet in 1981.

I could not imagine life without her, the president said. Married in what now is Studio City in 1952, they honeymooned at the Mission Inn in Riverside. The Inland Empire and Orange County always were Reagan Country.

Nancy was first and foremost a loyal wife who provided unwavering personal support for President Reagan as he rebuilt our economy and strengthened our national security, said Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in a statement; a former Register editorial writer, he knew the Reagans well for decades and was one of the presidents speechwriters.

After the somber malaise years of President Carter in the late 1970s, the Reagans brought Hollywood glamour to the White House, although Nancy Reagan unfairly was criticized for ordering new china, paid for by donations, to use at state dinners. The bright new mood matched the economy, which boomed to above 7 percent growth in 1983, a sharp contrast to this anemic recovery.

Although the Cold War is long over, its worth noting Nancys shining public presence contrasted with the publicly invisible wives of three decrepit Soviet dictators who died in succession from 1982-85. When the Soviets finally elevated to power a younger man, Mikhail Gorbachev, his wife, Raisa, became a public first lady modeled on Nancy.

The first ladies relationship began tensely, but warmed over the years. This humanization of the superpower rivals helped ease tensions as the socialist colossus began to dissolve, unable to compete with a revived capitalist America.

Nancy Reagans toughest battles began when the former president became afflicted with Alzheimers in the mid-1990s; he died in 2004. They are together now and continue to inspire us.
Updates with more information on arrest of suspect.

An Idaho pastor with ties to Inland Southern California, shot six times last weekend after overseeing a Ted Cruz campaign event, has regained consciousness and is talking with his family, an associate said Tuesday.

Kyle Odom, the former Marine suspected of shooting Tim Remington on Sunday, was arrested Tuesday evening outside the White House, according to Coeur dAlene Police and the Secret Service.

The Secret Service said in a statement that Odom threw unknown material over the south fence line at the White House Complex.

He was immediately taken into custody.

Hours earlier, someone posted a message to Odoms Facebook page claiming Remington was shot because the pastor was from Mars and had ruined Odoms life, according to Washington television station KXLY.

Odoms profile picture also was changed to a drawing of an alien.

Police in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, where the shooting took place, announced Monday that Odom had a history of mental illness.

The pastor with ties to Inland Southern California,shot six times last weekend after overseeing a Ted Cruz campaign event, has regained consciousness and is talking with his family, an associate said Tuesday.

Remington was born in Riverside and spent years offering ministry to substance abusers on the streets of San Bernardino County.

Authorities say theres no indication Remingtons appearance with Cruz had anything to do with the shooting, as they work to figure out what motivated the broad daylight attack outside his church.

However, it does appear that this was a pre-planned attack, Coeur dAlene Police Chief Lee White said Monday. And I will tell you that some details surrounding Mr. Odoms planning are disturbing.

He did not elaborate.

Remington, 55, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur dAlene hospital, said John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor.

Hes whispering and talking to his family a little bit, Padula said Tuesday. Hes doing absolutely amazing.

He gave me a thumbs up last night when I went in, Padula said.

Remington, who is married and has four children, has no feeling in his right arm, Padula said.

Remington and his wife have been with The Altar Church for nearly two decades, and have specialized in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, Padula said. The church has extensive programs, including in-patient rehabilitation, for addicts, Padula said.

Remington, 55, was born in Riverside and moved to CoeurdAlene in 1968.

After graduating from Coeur dAlene High School in the late 70s, he moved back to California where met and married his wife, Cindy.

In 1984, the site says, he became a pastor in Loma Linda. The couple also ran a coffee house called the Supreme Bean Coffee House for years and offered ministry in the streets of San Bernardino County, helping people addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Remington often went to the Santa Ana River bed and invited the homeless for coffee, said Billie Griffin, a pastor at Faith Chapel in Mentone, who remembers Remington from that time.

He had a real heart for the down and outers, he said.

Griffin was senior pastor at the Cornerstone Assembly of God Church in Loma Linda where Remington was a youth pastor. Remington also was active in the Royal Rangers scouting program for boys run by the Assembly of God church.

Tim was just a great young man  quite active and full of life, Griffin said.

THE SUSPECT

Odom was a meth addict for 17 years before going through the churchs program seven years ago, he said.

Police said Odom drove to the Spokane, Washington, area on Interstate 90 after the Sunday afternoon shooting, according to information from traffic cameras. He then turned south before they lost his trail.

Odom had no connection with the church before showing up before services early Sunday morning, Padula said.

The former Marine from Coeur dAlene could be in one of several western states by now, police said.

The Coeur dAlene Police Department issued a warrant of attempted first-degree murder for Odom, who has no criminal record but does have a history of mental illness.

White said Odom was armed when he attended services in the church earlier Sunday, and that the violence could have been much worse.

Odom served in the Marines from 2006-2010, winning an Iraq Campaign Medal and other awards, and rose to the rank of corporal. He later graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry.
Soroptimist International president to visit Riverside group

RIVERSIDE  Yvonne Simpson of New Zealand, president of Soroptimist International, will be at the Tuesday, March 8 meeting of Soroptimist International of Riverside. The meeting is at noon at Habitat for Humanity in Riverside, 2180 Iowa Ave.

 Staff report

Poet to give reading at University of Redlands

REDLANDS  Poet and 2002 graduate Craig Santos Perez will give a reading at the University of Redlands at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 10.

Perez was a winner of the American Book Award in 2015 for his book of poetry, from unincorporated territory: guma. A news release says Perez is a native Chamoru from Guam. He grew up in California.

The reading, free and open to the public, is in Hall of Letters 100. The campus address is 1200 E. Colton Ave.

 Staff report

Library book sale

SAN BERNARDINO  Friends of the San Bernardino Public Library will hold a book sale on Saturday, March 12 in the Friends Room at the rear of the Norman F. Feldheym Central Library, 555 W. Sixth St. The members only sale is from 9 a.m.-noon and the public shopping hours are from noon-4 p.m.

Over 10,000 books will be available for $1 or less, according to a news release.

A follow-up sale will be held from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on March 19. Shoppers can buy a grocery bag of books for $2.

Information: 909-381-8251.

 Staff report

Event to combine health fair and egg hunt

RIVERSIDE  The Riverside Community Health Foundation will host the Eastside Community Fair and Egg Hunt 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, March 12. The fair will be at Cesar Chaves Community Center and Bobby Bonds Park, 2060 University Ave.

The event will include healthy food and exercise demonstrations, free health screenings, childrens activities, a rock wall and more than 10,000 hidden Easter eggs. The egg hunt is at 12:30 p.m.

Information: 951-788-3471 or rchf.org.

 Anne Marie Walker

La Sierra Library marks 40 years

RIVERSIDE  La Sierra Library will celebrate its 40th anniversary on March 26. There will be free food, games, arts and crafts, story-time and a pinata.

The event will be from 2-5 p.m. at the library, 4600 La Sierra Ave.

Information: 951-826-2461.

 Anne Marie Walker

Temecula Valley Family Fair to feature art contest

TEMECULA  Plein Air artists are invited to compete in a competition at the Temecula Valley Family Fair March 18-21 at Galway Downs. Participants will paint at the fair in a booth sponsored by the Temecula Valley Art League.

Paint the Fair ribbons will be awarded March 20 and exhibited the following day.

Information: Marilyn Latimer at 951-246-2435 or temeculavalleyartleague.com.

 Staff report

Fundraiser for Boys & Girls Club underway

REGION  Inland Empire residents who shop at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores through April 2 can make a donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside.

Participating stores are at 1625 W. Lugonia Ave., Redlands; 3635 Riverside Plaza Drive, Suite 240, Riverside; 2620 Canyon Springs Parkway, Riverside; and 2250 Griffin Way, Corona

 Staff report

Southwest Riverside County Heart & Stroke Walk

WINCHESTER  Registration is open for the annual Southwest Riverside County Heart & Stroke Walk at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 30 at Lake Skinner. The walk is designed to raise awareness and funds to fight heart disease and stroke..

The event includes a non-competitive 5-kilometer walk, a 1-mile Survivor Path, a Health and Wellness Expo and Kids Zone. Pets are welcome.

Participants may form or join teams at temeculavalleyheartwalk.org.

 Staff report

Water district needs votes to determine art contest winners

PERRIS  The Eastern Municipal Water District is asking the public to vote for the winners of the annual student art contest.

This years theme was Get Savvy About Water Conservation in recognition of the water districts water-saving mascot, Savvy. The finalists include students from the San Jacinto, Moreno Valley, Nuview Union, Hemet, Perris, Elementary, Menifee, Romoland, Val Verde, Temecula Valley and Murrieta Valley school districts.

Once the five winners are selected, their artwork will be submitted for possible inclusion in the 2017 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Water is Life calendar. The deadline for voting is April 15 and the winners will be announced on April 28.

Information: emwd.org/pick5posters.

 Anne Marie Walker

Send items for possible inclusion in Community Notes to community@pressenterprise.com.
The hike had been invigorating  invigorating, as in just this side of grueling. A 6-mile ascent into Mount Aspiring National Park had brought us to an overlook of Routeburn Falls, a thundering multilevel cascade of crystalline water (standard for New Zealand) jumping from the rock face above our heads and rushing into the deep valley below us. There we could see the Routeburn River winding through the high-shouldered Humboldt Mountains on its way to Lake Wakatipu.

We were breathless not only because of the impressive scenery but because we had run out of time. Sights along the Routeburn Track earlier in the day had slowed us down, and in order to see the falls, we had sprinted the last mile up the steep trail. We were sweating, struggling for air and, most importantly, feeling that the extra effort had been completely worth it.

Other than the danger of overextending yourself, hiking New Zealands abundance of trails is almost never disappointing. In fact, if you come all this way and dont take advantage of them, youve truly missed out.

And the Kiwis work hard to make hiking attractive. The maintenance on the trails we hiked was impressive: crushed-rock trail beds; comfortable clearance even in the most dense areas of the beech- and fern-dominated rain forests; boardwalks that meander over wetlands; and well-built, if sometimes unnerving, suspension bridges that span the roiling creeks.

Richard Davies, a recreation manager for New Zealands Department of Conservation, said about $65 million is pumped into the countrys park areas annually. Much of that money is devoted to trail development and making sure they are maintained properly.

It hasnt happened by chance, Davies said of the manicured trails. All our staff is working on certain service standards  how much vegetation is cleared, the gradient of the track, whether the watercourses are bridged or not. We can provide a really consistent service. Wherever you go in the country you get a similar experience.

From our hikes in the Bay of Islands on the North Island, to the southern regions of Fiordland National Park on the South Island, we found this to be true.

And there is good reason for the effort. The spectacular scenery this island nation has to offer is unsurpassed. Director Peter Jackson didnt just film his J.R.R. Tolkien epics here because he didnt want to leave his home country. The vertical landscapes, whether they anchor themselves in mountain rivers, broad lakes or the Pacific Ocean, perfectly lend themselves to fantasy.

What we were seeing often felt unreal: The knife-edged ridges on the mountains, the steep faces of which are frequently laced with waterfalls. The dense, verdant forests filled with calling birds and towering giant ferns that make you feel as if youve stumbled into some prehistoric world. The glittering lakes, where the water is so clear you can see the bottom until reflection gets in your way many yards from shore.

All of these, and more, make this a country of constant surprises. And hiking is one of the best ways to see it.

Originally, we had planned to backpack some of the trails, throwing our lot in with a largely younger crowd frequently seen not only on the trails but in the cities and by the sides of the roads, their thumbs extended. But when my girlfriend broke her arm four days before we were due to fly out of LAX, we had to alter our itinerary. Nevertheless, she was determined not to be slowed down, and we got in plenty of trail time and plenty of those wonderful surprises.

What we call hiking, folks here refer to as trekking or tramping, and its a bit different than what were used to in the United States. There arent many places on the popular trails where you can head out into the wilderness and plunk your tent down when you think youve found a good campsite.

On many trails, you can set up camp only in designated campgrounds. On some, trekkers can only stay overnight in huts, many of which are rather primitive. Davies said the oldest one his agency manages was built in the 1860s by early farmers. Some, such as the one at Routeburn Falls, are relatively new and  while it is a dormitory  the bunk beds are partitioned off in a way that provides a moderate degree of privacy.

New Zealands most famous trail, the Milford Track in Fiordland, is also its most restrictive. Both ends of the track are accessible primarily by ferry. Hikers can only do the route in one direction, and you have to have a permit or be with a guide to access the trail at all. Reservations are hard to come by. When I looked in October, shortly after we decided to travel to New Zealand, there were no reservations available until April.

Davies said the coveted spots usually get booked a year ahead of time. He didnt know the exact timetable but said reservations for the 2016-17 season would soon open.

Booking campsites and huts is required on the more popular trails. January weekday spots for the Routeburn Track, perhaps the next most popular after the Milford Track, were still available when I checked in late November. But if you go during New Zealands summer, January to April, there is plenty of competition, especially for space in the huts. There are cancellation penalties, but you are best off booking as early as possible.

However, there are other options. On less popular trails, huts are often available on a first-come, first-served basis and, according to Davies, you can camp wherever you find a good spot. If you venture onto some of these trails, dont expect the carefully tended paths of the major tracks.

We have many that are essentially just a few markers, Davies said. Every park or piece of land has trails like that. They tend to be not advertised as much.

But choosing the advanced or expert category on the conservation departments website will direct you to such trails.

We may tackle some of those next time around. But on this trip we found ourselves on some of the more popular routes.

We started our South Island trip in Nelson, a quiet town but one with enough restaurants to make it interesting. After an overnight stay at the very comfortable Brettons Retreat bed and breakfast amid the vineyards of nearby Brightwater, we took a 45-minute drive to Lake Rotoiti, one of the Nelson Lakes.

Here there are several trails around the lake and up adjoining valleys. We took one of two steep trails to the top of Mount Roberts, a 3,800-foot climb, where there was a spectacular view of the lake below and of the steep slopes of the St. Arnaud Mountains to the south.

Trail distances in New Zealands parks are typically measured in time rather than distance. We found the times to be pretty liberal estimates. The Mount Roberts loop is listed at five hours. We finished in 31/2 without pushing it.

Our drive for the remainder of the day took us through the Marlborough region, famous for its wineries and its distinctive sauvignon blancs, and down the picturesque east coastline, where we saw ample numbers of surfers and sea lions, to Kaikoura. The seaside village is known for its crayfish, or spiny lobster, and ocean excursions to see whales or swim with wild dolphins.

One of the things we had hoped to see was Mount Cook, New Zealands highest peak, in its Southern Alps. So the following day, we drove through the busy city of Christchurch and miles of green farmland to reach the tiny resort town of Lake Tekapo.

Along the way, we stopped at the occasional roadside stand to buy blueberries, peaches and, of course, kiwi. We were surprised to discover that the quality and price of the produce was pretty comparable in the supermarkets. And while the cost was a bit higher than in the States, we did not run into the exorbitant prices wed been warned about. The same held true for hotel rates and dining out.

We left Lake Tekapo in the morning rain. The weather hadnt improved much by the time we had skirted the shores of glacier-fed Lake Pukaki, with its steel gray surface, and reached the trail leading into the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. An hours hike took us over roaring streams and along the base of cliff faces cut with waterfalls. When we reached the trails end at the milky Hooker Lake, the clouds had only slightly lifted and offered us only occasional glimpses of the shoulders of Mount Cook. Nevertheless, the scenery was stunning.

New Zealands weather can be dicey, even in summer. These are, after all, rain forests that we were hiking through. Theyre called rain forests for a reason.

Three days later, when we were trekking along the southern end of the 30-mile-long Routeburn Track, we took a detour to Key Summit. There we were perched above a dramatic landscape. I know this because it said so in large letters on the sign in front of us. It was one of those sloped metal signs that depict the view before you, labeling all of the important geographic features.

To our left was Mount Christina or, to the Maori, Te Taumata o Hinepipiwai. Far below, cradled in a glacial cirque, was Lake Marian. Wrapped in a drizzling fog whiteout, we could see none of it.

There was nothing else to do.

I took a picture of the sign.

Fortunately, this was the exception. Though we dealt with overcast skies on many of the days we were in New Zealand, the clouds often added to the landscape, rather than detracting from it. They were part of the experience.

But, as if bestowing a parting gift upon us, the following day was sunny. We had returned to the North Island and had started our final day with a hike on the coast directly west of Auckland, above Mercer Bay, where the coastline rivals Big Surs.

At one headland stands a carving of the Maori maiden Hinerangi, who married a young chieftain but lost him at sea. Legend says she died on this spot of a broken heart, looking out to sea, hoping for the return of her love. Her face is said to appear on a nearby cliff side.

I wasnt able to pick out her features, but that hardly diminished the beauty of the place. Nor did her sad tale dampen my enthusiasm or appreciation for what we had experienced along the trails we tramped in New Zealand.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9595
The worst political blunder of all time, according to scientist Freeman Dyson, was the decision of the emperor of China in 1433 to cut off his country from the outside world. In the wake of that decision, China lost its position at the forefront of human achievements and fell behind, over the centuries, to become a Third World country.

Before the end of this month, the United States of America may break that record for the worst political blunder of all time. Professor Dyson attributed the Chinese emperors blunder to powerful people pursuing partisan squabbles and neglecting the long-range interests of the empire. That can be our path to disaster as well.

After the results of Super Tuesday, we find ourselves with front-runners in their respective parties who each could, as president of the United States, take the decline of America under the Obama administration even further down  to a point of no return.

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was in charge of the foreign policy that destroyed governments in Egypt and Libya that were no threat to Americas interests or allies, and plunged both countries into a turmoil from which only Egypt managed to rescue itself, while Libya has become another hotbed of terrorist activity.

Yet Secretary Clinton is running on her experience  even though it is one of unmitigated disasters for America around the world. Her email scandals and lies are important mainly as symptoms of her utter disregard of anything other than her own financial and political interests.

While Hillary Clinton seems, for all practical purposes, to be unstoppable in her quest for the Democrats nomination, Donald Trump is by no means inevitable on the Republican side. But he may become unstoppable after the next round of primaries, especially if he wins in winner-take-all states.

Most of Trumps wins in various state primaries have been achieved without winning a majority of the votes. Yet these wins can create an impression of great victories, even when most Republican voters voted against Trump. The fracturing of the majority vote among numerous other candidates is the key.

What prevents the anti-Trump majority from coming together in support of one candidate who can defeat Trump? Only the kinds of narrow political squabbles that ruined China.

Sen. Ted Cruz has the best track record against Trump, having beaten him in three states, even with the majority vote split among several candidates. But the Republican establishment would prefer Sen. Marco Rubio, who has won only one state and is trailing in the polls in his home state of Florida.

Perhaps most important of all, there are signs that  if push comes to shove  the Republican establishment would prefer Trump himself to Ted Cruz.

Why? Because, despite Trumps reckless rhetoric and shallow reasoning, he is a deal-maker who will not let principles stand in the way of anything that promotes the ego of Donald Trump.

Sen. Cruz, on the other hand, has repeatedly defied the Republican leadership in the Senate. Whatever the merits or lack of merits of his actions in particular cases, he has clearly shown himself not to be one of those who go along to get along.

Former president Jimmy Carter has criticized Sen. Cruz for not being malleable. No one was more malleable in the face of Americas enemies than Jimmy Carter, both when he was president and after he left office and cozied up to communist dictators in Cuba and North Korea. We dont need that kind of malleability in a president.

Even if we accept the criticism of Sen. Cruzs political enemies and critics that he is opportunistic, that charge loses some of its sting if he becomes president of the United States. What greater opportunity is there for him at that point? Becoming a great president, which is certainly what this country needs.

Perhaps a political near-death experience thus far will sober up both Cruz and his opponents into a realization that their cooperation is the only thing that makes sense for the country.

But politicians do not always do things that make sense for the country, whether in 15th-century China or 21st-century America. But we will know the answer to that question by the end of this month. And generations yet unborn may have to live with the consequences of that answer.
Today, the Department Of Immigration decided to hatch a response to the copious amount of shit-hanging it faces by rolling out a one-size-fits-all rebuttal. In it, the departments secretary Michael Pezzullo seems to tick off nearly every aspect of the government bodys criticised dealings, and attempts to offer a counterpoint to the continuous flow of scrutiny it faces.

It begins with a plea not to label the facilities as even remotely Hitlerian:

Recent comparisons of immigration detention centres to gulags; suggestions that detention involves a public numbing and indifference similar to that allegedly* experienced in Nazi Germany; and persistent suggestions that detention facilities are places of torture are highly offensive, unwarranted and plainly wrong  and yet they continue to be made in some quarters.

What the piece doesnt do is elaborate on why some people are making those claims.

Instead, honing in on the issue of children in detention, Pezzullo is absolutely adamant broader Australia has it all mixed up. Despite children interned on Nauru recently giving some stunningly raw insights into the depression, harassment and hopelessness rife in the centre, Pezzullo says the resources devoted to providing medical and support services, and the commitment of doctors, service providers and departmental staff to the welfare of those individuals, undercuts emotive and inflammatory claims to the contrary.

In fact, mental health represents a running theme in the release. Much is made of the mental health care available to detainees thats broadly commensurate with Australian community standards, despite recently documented cases that demonstrate that isnt quite right; last month, ABC uncovered the fact detainees on Manus Island had been freely administered an anti-malarial known to cause serious mental health issues. A drug thats only given on our soil after considerable psychological assessment.

The release does emphasise the governments improvement and expansion of mental health facilities and the fact many detainees had suffered psychological trauma prior to arrival, while side-stepping any mention of mental health issues spurred by the nature of mandatory detention itself.

Pezzullo also rallies on the claim whistleblowers are risking imprisonment for speaking out about the conditions in detention. He writes there are frameworks in place that do not prevent medical professionals from seeking the best clinical outcomes for their patients, but didnt touch on the removal of Save The Children workers from Nauru, who had exposed some absolutely terrible living conditions on the island.

To top it all off, he claims the department is getting closer to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Thats the group which absolutely fucking bollocksed the government for detaining children in a 2015 report  a report the Abbott government summarily sledged as being a blatantly partisan exercise, for which they should be ashamed. Of course, Pezzullo says theyve made improvements since that reports release.

Its a doozy for sure, and you can read the whole thing right here.

Dropping that little word in is well, the ability of a government organisation to convince the masses theyre treating detainees correctly is massively undermined by even the implication they dispute the existence of Germanys horrors during World War II.



Protip: Short of a war crime trial, theres no room for allegedly and Nazi Germany in the same sentence.  Stephen Murray (@smurray38) March 8, 2016

let me repeat: a public numbing and indifference similar to that allegedly experienced in Nazi Germany  Mark Pesce (@mpesce) March 8, 2016

And yes Pezzullo did refer to what allegedly happened in Nazi Germany. Think, much, ever, Mike? pic.twitter.com/pyMa5dkDxr  marquelawyers (@marquelawyers) March 8, 2016

Some striking turns of phrase from Michael Pezzullo here pic.twitter.com/WvRR3aaIq0  Richard ?? Green (@RHTGreen) March 8, 2016

Christ, a government department sprinkles casual (and hopefully-please-Lord-let-it-be-accidental) Holocaust/propaganda denialism in an official press release, and SOMEHOW its still not even the worst thing in the statement.

Bloody hell.

Source: Department Of Immigration.

Photo: Scott Fisher / Getty.
JFC.

Yesterday, a trainee female wildlife handler was rushed to hospital after being savaged by a crocodile at a Queensland wildlife sanctuary.

Renee Robertson, 25, was overseeing a feeding show at the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville when a 2.5-metre croc called Tipper lunged out of the water and dragged her to the ground.

The screams you could hear were shocking, we felt so helpless for the poor woman in the enclosure, witness Frank He told the Courier Mail. There were quite a few people watching the show, and we were all just in shock. Luckily the girl was only attacked by the small female crocodile that was about 2m long; there was a larger male one near the water that was twice as big.



Robertson  who was acting as the spotter during the afternoon show  was rushed to hospital with a significant arm injury, and underwent emergency surgery. Shes now in a stable condition, and expected to make a full recovery.

There was no nerve damage, so that was the best news we could have had, sanctuary owner Bob Flemming told ABC Radio today. Were very, very fortunate that shes going to fully recover.



Eight witnesses were treated for shock at the scene.

The incident is being investigated by both the sanctuary and Workplace Health and Safety Officers, but the croc will not be euthanised.

It was a very unfortunate incident and one that were very sad about, Flemming told the Courier Mail. As Tipper is a crocodile, shes certainly not going to be euthanised but well review our training procedures and make sure it never happens again.



In the words of Wu Tang Clan, crocodiles aint nuthing ta fuck wit.

Watch footage of the attack below, but please be warned it is pretty distressing stuff.

Source: Courier Mail / ABC.

Photo: Supplied.
The latest video from the cultural pressure relief valve Friendlyjordies isnt really funny. Ha ha funny, at least.

It includes a half-baked Chav accent, but its not funny. It features a comparison of New South Wales Premier Mike Baird to a real-life Furby, but its not funny. Hell, even Australias Got Talent wunderkind Jack Vigden gets a non-sequitur shout-out, but that doesnt make the videos content any more lel-worthy.

Thats because, after smacking down a seemingly endless stream of flawed government policies, the bloke has gone straight to righteous fury over NSWs proposal to privatise their disability care sector.

Mike Baird thinks he can get away with this Mike Baird thinks he can get away with thisThe Public Service Association (PSA) does a lot of good work in this area  find out more here: http://psa.asn.au/defending-disability-services/ Posted by Friendlyjordies on Monday, 7 March 2016

Blimey. If its difficult to grasp the magnitude of the issue due to his rapid-fire delivery, it somehow looks even worse in writing:

Their carers, that in many cases have been looking after these people since they were babies, will be rewarded for being the most selfless and kind-hearted people on the planet, in the only way [NSWs Minister for Disability Services John Ajaka] knows how  by being smacked with far worse conditions, and a 25% percent pay cut. If they survive the mass culling of 14,000 carers who are about to be stripped from the government payroll.

It gets worse, and you can practically feel his indignant spit slap against the inside of your monitor as he delivers this fun little tid-bit:

If Mr Ajaka and Mr Baird really did have these peoples best interests at heart, why would they completely gut literally the worlds best disability care service with no plan to accommodate these people when they cant afford what will be the skyrocketing price of private health care, when we have a completely privatised system? While thousands of these highly-trained carers which are in many cases these patients only friend will not only be separated, but effectively fired?

You can have a gander right here at the massive list of pollies who reckon the idea of shoving (and privatising) the entire Ageing, Disability and Home Care department under the National Disability Insurance Scheme banner is bad, bad news for New South Wales disabled community and their carers.

Heavy, heavy stuff. It almost makes buckteeth up there look tame.

Source: Facebook.
Hulk Hogans $100 million civil trial agains Gawker Media kicked off yesterday, with the pro-wrestlers lawyers arguing that the media company sought to do him harm when they published a 1,400 word account of his sex tape back in 2012.

In the piece  accompanied by a 1 minute 40 second edit of the tape, btw, which included nine seconds of sex  Gawker described how Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) banged the wife of his good mate, Tampa, Florida radio shock jock Bubba The Love Sponge Clem, Heather Clem, during which The Love Sponge was occasionally present.

Theyre arguing that Hogans willingness to talk about his sex life made the video in the public interest, and therefore protected under the first amendment.

Hulk Hogan was more than willing to talk about his sex life  including in two autobiographies, a reality TV series and Howard Sterns radio show  until he didnt like what Gawker had to say, they said in a statement on Monday. Now he wants $100 million as compensation.



And in court, company attorney Mike Berry  whos defending former Gawker editor A.K. Daulerio, who published the piece, and Gawker founder Nick Denton  called this type of reporting important.

Gawker believes this kind of reporting is important, he said. It is important for writers to be able to address uncomfortable subjects  whether the subject is mental health, whether the subject is drugs, whether the subject is celebrity sex tapes.



Hes also trying to prove its newsworthiness by pointing to Hogan creating himself in the image of an American hero, who claimed in his autobiography that he was not the cheating kind.

Hogan, when asked by his attorney Kenneth Turkel, explained that Hulk Hogan is merely a character.

Terry Bolleas a normal person, he said. Wrestling is my job. Its what Terry Bollea does for a living.



His lawyers presented the jury with internal memos highlighting Gawkers focus on traffic, and a chart that indicated a traffic spike in October 2012, when the tape was published.



They also presented internal staff chats showing Gawker staff members mocking Hogan.

What were going to prove to you is that they intended to harm him, said attorney Shane Vogt. The motivation here wasnt some higher public purpose. It wasnt the truth. It was money. It was power.



Source: CNN.



Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty.
For decades, us young folk have faced the same challenge: how can I head out without blowing every dollar currently in my possession? PEDESTRIAN.TV has partnered with NAB to share our collective insights on the matter and help alla yall #SpendBetter. A NAB everyday banking account will give you everything you need to better manage your cash-money  hook yourself up with one by visiting NABs website HERE.

Come Monday, Struggletown has taken in its newest resident: you. Youre not alone though, thousands now find themselves in Struggletown. Yep, youre all up Struggletowns creek without a paddle because you literally cant afford a goddamn paddle. The culprit for your $0 bank balance? One hell of a weekend. Was it worth it? Probably  even if it was just for the, you wont believe how off-bone Kev got on Friday, banter by the water-cooler.

Sydneysiders, if youre regretting your weekends financial decisions, then heres how to justify them: your citys doing it a bit rough lately. Dropping money in its bars, clubs, and pubs is an exercise of political support  youre doing your part to #KeepSydneyOpen. However, unless youve just renewed your contract to the Real Housewives franchise, or your full name starts with Chuck and ends with Bass, then you need to learn how to spend your money wisely when having a big one.

PEDESTRIAN.TVs asked Nicole Millar, Rainbow Chan, and Sports  Australian creators of bonafide-bangers/obvious authorities on nightlife penny-pinching  for their go-to venues, favourite cheap eats, money saving tips + a heap more.

NICOLE MILLAR

Photo: Nicole Millar / Facebook.

When your only income is a measly $200 from an inconsistent, once-in-a-blue-moon gig, you learn quickly how to get by on literally nothing. Nicole Millars lived it (we feel you, bae)  having quit her job after her vocals/lyrics featured on Peking Duks ARIA Award winning, #1 triple platinum selling song, High. Shes worked with Cosmos Midnight, What So Not, Golden Features, Rufus and The Kite String Tangle, we reckon it wont take much longer for Nicole to blow up more than Russell Crowe when hes unable to phone home.

Nicoles had the pleasure of playing at live venues such as the Oxford Art Factory and the Enmore Theatre  she understands the importance of Sydney institutions in furthering a musicians careers (so keep em open, pls). Speaking of furthering a musicians career, get around Nicole on her Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE and Soundcloud HERE. Shes about to head off on an Australia-wide tour and shes certainly someone worth seeing in the flesh  head HERE for the tours info. Before ya do though, review the picks she recommends hitting up that wont cost you a small fortune.

CHEAP FOOD

Sushi Train Newtown

Some plates are only $3 or less!

316 King St Newtown, 2042.

Beach Burrito Bondi

Mexican is my favourite. Just get heaps of tacos and share with friends.

252 Campbelle Parade, Bondi Beach 2026.

New Shanghai

Or any Chinese restaurant tbh. Eight dumplings for $9.

Several locations.

BOOZE BARGAINS

The Bucket List

Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Dr, Sydney NSW 2026.

Definitely not the cheapest but its worth it for the view. If you get there at happy hour youll save some cash.

Photo: The Bucket List.

The World Bar

24 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross 2011.

I used to go here when I was younger. Lots of cheap drinks and good music.

Photo: Instagram / The World Bar.

The Norfolk On Cleveland

305 Cleveland St Surry Hills 2010.

Happy hour is excellent and you can get $20 cocktail jars to share with friends.

Photo: The Norfolk On Cleveland.

FREE FESTIVALS

Night Noodle Markets

08.10.2016  25.10.2016

Newtown Festival

08.11.2016

Spectrum Now Festival

01.03.2016  16.03.2016

Vivid Festival

27.05.2016  18.06.2016

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Frankies Pizza

50 Hunter St, Sydney 2000.

Why? Because, Pizza. They also have amazing Whiskey and fresh Apple drinks.

Tokyo Sing Song

Basement, 145 King St Newtown 2042.

You can get weird here and no one will blink twice.

Plan B Small Club

53-55 Liverpool St, (between Sussex and George) Sydney NSW 2000.

Formerly called Goodgod. You can come here for $0 entry fee unless you want to go see a band play in the back room. Great music and atmosphere.

NICOLES BUDGETING TIPS

1. Go out with a big group so you can split travel costs.

2. Have a few drinks before heading out.

3. Move money into another account so you cant touch it.

4. Happy hours the best hour.

RAINBOW CHAN

Photo: Rainbow Chan / Supplied.

The electro-pop solo artist and producer, Rainbow Chan, has her noise down-pat. She creates songs that are perfect for when youre a bit fragile after a turnt one and feel like baking in the sun on a big patch of grass  yknow, living out your best, most rekt/whimsical existence. As a burgeoning act on the scene, Rainbow has some strong feelings towards the state of Sydneys nightlife:

Before the lockout laws and when Sydney was less of a nanny state, it was easier to play shows and I had some incredible gig experiences, she says.

More people were out and about. There was a healthy nightlife ecosystem. Now that venues make less from alcohol, bookers are preoccupied with ticket sales, which means less chances are taken to put on shows with more of an experimental or underground nature. Its a shame the vibrancy of live music, arts and culture has suffered in Sydney of late.

It sure as hell isnt stopping Rainbow, though. Shes still laying down bangers left, right and centre  and were really feeling them, tbh. Hit her up on Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE, Soundcloud HERE and enjoy the smooth groove of her latest single below:

CHEAP FOOD

Enmore Delicious Rolls

207 Enmore Road, Enmore, Sydney, NSW.

I love Enmore Delicious Rolls mainly for the boss lady who is a sweet heart. You can grab a pork roll for $5 or an amazing curry beef noodle soup for $9.

Photo: Liz Payne / Instagram.

Xin Jiang Noodle Restaurant

205 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, Sydney, NSW

I also recommend Xin Jiang Noodle Restaurant for their flavour noodles & pork or their cucumber salad for about $10.

Photo: Anna Belle / Instagram.

Kabul House

186A Merrylands Road, Merrylands, Sydney.

If youre eating with 3 or more, I suggest getting one of the platters at Kabul House in Merrylands. For around $15 each, youll be very happy and full of the most succulent kebabs, aromatic rice and fresh bread.

Photo: Sarah Chaabo / Instagram.

FREE FESTIVALS

I really like the programs and performances that Liquid Architecture (find out more HERE) organise. They explore complex ideas and experiences at the intersection of contemporary art and sound, but without being alienating. Tempe Jets (find out more HERE) is another place that puts on free or cheap gigs such as Doubtful Sound, which is really nice on a Sunday afternoon. Fredas Bar (find out more HERE) has also put on some stellar and sweaty tribute shows.

HONOURABLE MENTION

Goodgod Small Club (now Plan B) was my favourite venue because of its humble size but big personality. I loved the adaptability of the venue and the variety of music they put on. There was an immediacy between the artist and the crowd there because of the low stage. It always felt like Marcus Whale from Collarbones/BV could come up to you and pounce at any moment (with consent, of course), which I miss.

SPORTS

Photo: Sports / Supplied.

Madeleine Carr certainly knows how to dish up some fire AF bangers. Operating under the mantle of Sports, Madi is garnering a consistently rising support-base  she was plucked by the crew at FBi Radio for Dance Class 2015 (a projected designed to address the significant gender imbalance in dance music) and was also nominated for Lost E Minors Young Creative Australian Award earlier this year. She be up in the club just werkin on her fitness, and we likey. We likey a lot.

Having paid her dues as a bartender at venues like the Oxford Art Factory and Canteen (RIP), Sports has been exposed to the ins and outs of the music industry. Because of this, she knows better than most the impact lockout laws are having on local vendors and musicians. Pre-nanny state, it was a fantastic support network for musicians and music lovers alike, she says in reference to her time at Oxford Art Factory. You would get young bands and all their friends in the gallery bar, and international talent supported in the main room. Punters from all parts of Sydney came together, sharing a mutual love for music.

Keep dibs on Sports mad/dope/phresh skills by getting around her on Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE and Soundcloud HERE.

CHEAP FOOD

Spice I Am

296-300 Victoria St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010.

About Life

285A Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

Lentil As Anything

391 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042.

Chinese Noodle House

8 Quay St, Haymarket NSW 2000.

BOOZE BARGAINS

Keg & Brew Hotel

26 Foveaux St, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

Happy hour from 5-7pm is huge. $4 house spirits and bruskies (huge range of tap beers too).

Photo: Keg & Brew Hotel / Instagram.

Tios Cerveceria

4-14 Foster St Surry Hills, NSW 2010.

Featuring table dancing, this place is a huge vibe. $5 tinnies.

Photo: The Urban Feast.

El Loco

64 Foveaux St, Surry Hills Sydney, Australia.

$5 happy hour pints  including top quality cider!

Photo: El Loco / Facebook.

FREE FESTIVALS

FBi Radio is an institution when it comes to supporting Sydney culture, within which there are A LOT of free exhibitions, gigs and festivals alike! Check the their Diary of Death for weekly updates on free and cheap gigs worth supporting.

Check in with the girls at Ikolide Sydney who know whats up in terms of sweet food and drink deals without compromising on quality or style.

SPORTS BUDGETING TIPS

If you walk into Sydney Aquarium backwards you can get in for free!

If youre really (and we mean really) struggling with money, then head to Madis free food spots:

The Baxters Inn has quality pretzels, Shady Pines Saloon has bottomless Peanuts, and Tios Cerveceria has quality popcorn.

Hopefully youre feeling a touch more in the know, and feel confident that next time you head out youre not going to blow your entire pay. Another fab way to #SpendBetter is to open a NAB everyday banking account  hook yourself up with one by visiting NABs website HERE.

Photo: El Loco / Facebook.
Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 12.35.56 PM.png

Information regarding the replacement of a bridge in Juniata County in 2017 will be made available at an upcoming public meeting.

(PennDOT)

Information regarding the replacement of a bridge in Juniata County in 2017 will be made available at an upcoming public meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. March 21 at the Tuscarora Township Building, located at 12988 Route 75 in Honey Grove. The bridge replacement that will be discussed is Route 75 over Horse Valley Run Creek.

There will be a brief presentation about the project and then members of the construction team will be available to answer questions.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Rapid Bridge Replacement Project includes six bridge replacements in Juniata County. The replacements are scheduled for reconstruction in 2017.

Anyone unable to attend the meeting can call the bridge replacement hotline at (877) 444-9990 or email info@parapidbridges.com with any comments or concerns.

The replacement project website,

, includes a project overview, detour maps, and other project related details.
An Oklahoma-based company is conducting integrity tests on 79 miles of two of its Transco natural gas transmission pipelines in northern Pennsylvania to try to prevent a rupture like the one that occurred in June in eastern Lycoming County.

Williams Partners has determined the failure of a 24-inch transmission line was caused by a form of corrosion that began on the external surface, spokesman Chris Stockton said Monday.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Division of the U.S. Department of Transportation has yet to announce its findings.

Approximately 150 people were evacuated and Routes 118 and 42 were closed after 34 feet of the pipeline failed about three miles east of Unityville at 10:41 p.m. on June 9. No one was injured.

The escaping gas that was under pressure caused a loud noise but there was no fire or explosion. Initial 911 calls were for a plane crash.

Integrity testing is being done on the two pipelines in a common right of way between the Leidy underground storage facility in Tammerack in Clinton County and the Benton area in Columbia County, Stockton said.

The tests include the use of a smart pig whose sensors measure the thickness of the steel and sending water under pressure through the lines, he said.

A 14-mile segment of the line installed in 1963 in which the failure occurred has been isolated and pressure has been reduced in the second, he said.

"We want to be sure the same corrosion does not exist elsewhere," Stockton said. "We want to take time to make sure everything is done right."

The integrity testing, which has taken longer than normal due to the winter heating season, is anticipated to continue into spring, he said.

A third and in some places a fourth transmission line in the same right of way are not being tested because they are newer, he explained.

All the lines continue east from where the failure occurred into New Jersey where they connect with a Transco mainline, he said.

Williams is doing more work than the federal agency requires in a corrective action order issued last summer "to protect the public, property and the environment from potential hazards." Stockton pointed out.
john-m-mcdonald-iii

John M. McDonald III is accused of killing a man at a club in Harrisburg.

(Police photo)

A Harrisburg man accused of a May 2015 murder at a city after-hours club was quite chatty after his arrest, two detectives testified Monday.

They said that conversation occurred as they drove John McDonald III back to Harrisburg after U.S. Marshals apprehended him in Baltimore 17 days after the slaying of 31-year-old Todd Dunlap Jr. at the Forever Night club on South 19th Street.

"He proceeded to tell us he was going to beat the case, that he wasn't even there," Detective Christopher Silvio testified during the opening day of McDonald's Dauphin County murder trial.

Detective Jason Paul testified that McDonald said that even if police found witnesses to Dunlap's killing, "everybody would have been drunk and high anyhow."

Three witnesses did testify for the prosecution Monday, and all of them said the 23-year-old McDonald was at the club when Dunlap was killed around 2 a.m. on May 9. One even said she saw McDonald shoot Dunlap in the head.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Sprow is seeking a first-degree murder conviction and life prison sentence for McDonald. His main witness, Shanelle Franklin, testified that she saw McDonald shoot Dunlap as he tried to help a bouncer evict McDonald from the club after McDonald cursed at and shoved her.

Defense attorney Bryan McQuillan urged the jurors to be skeptical about the testimony of the prosecution witnesses since some admitted they had been drinking. He called the Forever Night a "drug lair."

Paul and Silvio said McDonald, whose street name is "Jizzy Mac," made his claims of innocence after he asked them if they were sheriffs and they told him they were detectives.

McQuillan asked the detectives why they identify themselves as police up front or read McDonald his rights. "We weren't asking him questions," Paul said. He said McDonald was the one doing the talking.

Paul said the murder weapon, a 10mm Glock pistol, was recovered from another man during a drug bust in the city in June. A state police ballistics test, which city police received just last week, tied the gun to Dunlap's slaying, he said. The detective said it is "very common" for guns to be passed around among criminals in Harrisburg.

When McQuillan asked if he had shown a picture of the man who was caught with the gun to the witnesses in McDonald's case, Paul said, no.

"They were all confident (the gunman) was Mr. McDonald. There was no need to," the detective said.

"Says who? You?" McQuillan shot back.

"Says them," Paul said, referring to the witnesses.

The trial is to resume Tuesday in Judge John F. Cherry's courtroom.
Medical Marijuana Problems

Harrisburg officials are holding two public meetings in March to gain input on a proposal to reduce penalties for marijuana possession.

(Marina Riker/AP)

HARRISBURG- Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter thinks young people should avoid marijuana.

But he knows young people will make mistakes.

That's why he said he supports Harrisburg's efforts to reduce the penalties for marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to the same level as a traffic ticket. The reduced charge would not stay on a violator's permanent record like a misdemeanor currently does.

Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter

"We can turn our heads and deny we have a marijuana problem among our youth or we can proactively take action," Carter said Tuesday. "I don't want to legalize marijuana. I only want to give kids a chance, an opportunity to make something better of their lives."

Carter appeared with other Harrisburg officials at a news conference Tuesday to highlight two public meetings about the city's efforts to reduce the charge for marijuana possession.

The meetings will be Thursday March 10 at the Harrisburg Area Community College midtown campus, Midtown 2, Room 206, at 1500 North Third Street and Thursday March 24 at the city's public works building at 1820 Paxton Street. Both meetings will start at 5:30 p.m.

Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico has not publicly stated his position on the proposal, but is expected to attend Thursday's meeting. He has previously said he has concerns about the proposal because he prefers uniformity in laws throughout the county.

Councilman Cornelius Johnson, who chairs the public safety committee, said he is hosting the meetings to gather as much public input as possible.

"We have to make sure this ordinance is the right fit for Harrisburg," he said "We want any and all comments, whether people are for or against this proposal."

As it stands, the proposal by Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse would reduce the level of crime for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana to a city ordinance citation instead of a misdemeanor.

The fine for a first offense would be $100. A second offense would cost $200. A third offense would revert back to a misdemeanor, which typically carries a much higher fine.

The proposal could generate some additional money for the city. City ordinance fines stay with the city, whereas misdemeanor crimes and fines are handled by county court.

Carter said he would like to see the money from violations go toward youth drug treatment programs.

The mayor's proposed fines have been questioned by a few council members as too steep for poor residents. The fines would be much higher than the $25 fines in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh_ two cities in the state that have already decriminalized marijuana possession.

Papenfuse said he supported the fines of $100 and $200 because he did not want to encourage drug use. Under his proposal, he said, a judge could waive the fine in lieu of community service.

One reason Papenfuse said he proposed the marijuana measure was to lessen the workload on police officers who must appear in court for every marijuana arrest that is challenged. The proposal would allow for more effective policing, he said.

The marijuana proposal contains many provisions that could be changed, based on what the public prefers, Johnson said. The fine structure, the amount of marijuana that is considered a small amount, and the three-strikes you're out provision are among the many areas he hopes to explore during the public meetings.

The city solicitor, meanwhile, is studying how a summary drug offense would affect a defendant's driver's license, if at all, and how the city should approach related charges such as possession of drug paraphernalia, which remains a misdemeanor.
John M. McDonald III.png

John M. McDonald III

(Provided photo)

John McDonald III told a Dauphin County jury Tuesday that he was so drunk and high at a Harrisburg after-hours club in May that he doesn't remember shooting another man in the head during an argument.

The 23-year-old took the witness stand during his murder trial and claimed he had been awake for two days straight before Todd A. Dunlap Jr. was killed early on May 9 at the Forever Night club on South 19th Street.

McDonald said he lost count of how many drinks of liquor he had in the hours before the shooting. He said he had been popping "Molly," a form of Ecstasy, a powerful hallucinogen. And, he claimed, he had smoked a "dipper," a cigarette soaked in embalming fluid.

"It had me out of my mind," McDonald said.

His testimony laid the foundation for defense attorney Bryan McQuillan's claim that McDonald's supposed "voluntary intoxication" means he couldn't have formed an intent to kill the 31-year-old Dunlap, who was shot as he tried to help a bouncer evict McDonald from the club after he had argued with and shoved a woman.

Soon after McDonald testified, McQuillan presented a closing argument contending that McDonald should be convicted of no more than third-degree murder for the killing. Such a conviction would ensure McDonald eventual parole.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Sprow dismissed the intoxication defense. He is seeking a first-degree murder conviction that would send McDonald to prison for life.

As McDonald testified, McQuillan asked him, "Do you recall shooting Mr.Dunlap that evening?"

"No," McDonald replied.

He said he awoke the next morning to find the police "had me labeled as armed and dangerous." He claimed he fled to Baltimore - where he was arrested by U.S. Marshals 17 days after the slaying - because he wanted to arrange his affairs, and secure a lawyer, before turning himself in.

On cross-examination by Sprow, McDonald said he never told two city detectives, Jason Paul and Christopher Silvio, that he would beat the criminal charges because he wasn't even at the murder scene. Paul and Silvio testified Monday that McDonald made such statements as they drove him back from Baltimore.

"You weren't too high to sneak your gun into Forever Night," Sprow said.

"I don't even remember going into Forever Night," McDonald said. "I was very intoxicated."

"You weren't too high to pull that gun and shoot Todd Dunlap in the head," Sprow continued.

"I've said that several times. I don't recall doing that," McDonald replied.

The only other defense witness, Kahadeeja Bethea, sounded more like a prosecution witness at times. She testified that McDonald was drunk before the shooting and that she had seen him take drugs. Yet she also said she saw McDonald shoot Dunlap.

"The truth is (McDonald) was so drunk and so high he didn't know what he was doing," McQuillan told the jury in his closing argument.

He called the after-hours club a "drug lair," adding that "it has a bad crowd. It is full of drugs and intoxicated people all the time."

Sprow countered that there is no doubt McDonald is the shooter and that he formed an intent to kill Dunlap, the key factor to justify a first-degree murder conviction. "You don't shoot someone in the head just to hurt them," he said. "You shoot them in the head to kill."

The accuracy of that fatal shot also belies McDonald's claim that he was so hopelessly intoxicated that he had lost control of his senses, Sprow said.

The jury is to begin deliberating after Judge John F. Cherry instructs it on the law.
YORK - It was a normal summer night when Dashaun Davis was sitting in his Chevy Impala, windows down, listening to music.

It was nearly 11:30 p.m. on July 19, 2014, and Davis was parked on the 200 block of Union Street in York, unaware of two attempted robberies that had just occurred blocks away.

And unaware that he was next.

Jeffrey A. Reid Jr., 29.

"Tragically and unfortunately, he crossed paths with this robbery crew," York County First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Russell said.

But the final robbery that crew attempted ended up being much more.

Someone pointed a .380 caliber handgun at Davis and shot him three times at point blank range, execution style, Russell said.

And they stole his cell phone.

Trial started Monday in York County Court on for the man prosecutors say pulled the trigger -- Jeffrey A. Reid Jr., 29, of York.

In her opening statements to the jury, Russell said Reid and his girlfriend, Shonique Smith-Hanna, 26, wanted to get out of town, but they needed money in order to do it.

"You're going to hear the way they thought they would get money wasn't by taking jobs," Russell said. "They decided they would get a crew together to rob people."

The crew?

She said they recruited Malik C. Williams, 20, Naquan K. Coakley, 24, and a woman who wasn't charged, and set off with their first target in mind.

And according to Russell and testimony, the night unfolded like this:

The first stop of the "robbery crew" was a bar called Pandora's Box on the 400 block of Market Street where Smith-Hanna and the uncharged female went inside looking for a customer who appeared to have some money on him.

That was Luis Martinez-Rojas.

When he took the stand, Martinez-Rojas said through an interpreter that the women told him they were hungry and asked him for $20 and for food. He told them he had food in his apartment next door and led one of the women there.

Once inside, though, he heard a knock on his door.

Martinez-Rojas answered and saw a man with a gun.

This was Malik, who was pointing Reid's .380 handgun.

Martinez-Rojas slammed the door and called the police. The woman jumped out of the window, and Martinez-Rojas looked out and saw the group fleeing.

Reid was angry this attempt did not work out, but he came up with another plan to try to get money from his friend, Kiara Favors, whom he said owed him.

They tried unsuccessfully to kick down her second-floor apartment door, only succeeding in making enough noise to alert the neighbors.

Favors testified she was home when this happened, and her girlfriend woke her up and said "someone's trying to kick in the door." Right after that, they heard gunshots coming from outside.

Several residents of the apartment were outside because they had heard the attempted break in, and they saw the crew fleeing toward Reid's blue Cadillac - one of them firing the shots Favors said she heard.

Now after two failed robberies, Reid was furious, Russell said.

He parked his car on the 200 block of Union Street near the unaware Davis, who was listening to music with his windows rolled down on a summer night.

Reid went upstairs with Smith-Hanna and reloaded his handgun.

The group then approached Davis' car.

But did Reid pull the trigger?

While defense attorney Korey Leslie said he does not dispute the attempted robberies the prosecution laid out, his client was not the one who killed Davis.

And if there was a conspiracy, it was a conspiracy between the other three, who had close relationships and called each other "brother" and "sis."

Leslie further pointed out that the murder charges that had been field against Smith-Hanna and Williams were dropped as part of a plea deal, and during the investigation, both of them lied in their statements to police.

Also, he noted that Coakely admitted to the shooting before taking back his statement.

The evidence will show Reid may have led the attempted robberies, but he did not kill anyone, Leslie said.

But he did flee the York area, Russell pointed out.

After the shooting, Reid cut off his long hair and braids to change his appearance, she said, and he took off for Virginia, where he was arrested nine days later.

Smith-Hanna pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in April and is awaiting sentencing. Williams pleaded guilty in April to two counts of attempted robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. And Coakley's case is currently pending. A motion for a competency examination had been granted in September.

Reid's trial is expected to last most of the week. He is facing charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery, persons not to possess a firearm and two counts of attempted robbery.
WILLIAMSPORT - One word - knowingly - could determine the outcome of the child pornography trial of the former executive director of the Boal Mansion Museum in Centre County.

Christopher G. Lee does not dispute child pornography was found on computers and other devices in the living quarters, his lawyer Kyle W. Rude said Monday during his opening statements in his client's trial in U.S. Middle District Court.

"You're not going to like the images," he told jurors. "They are going to inflame your mind."

What Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith A. Taylor omitted in her opening statement when she outlined the prosecution's case was the word knowingly, he said.

For a conviction, it must be proved Lee knowingly possessed, received and produced child pornography, Rude said.

The assumption he must have known since it was found on devices in the second-floor living quarters of the museum is wrong, he said. More than 30 people had access to those devices, he said.

Lee, 66, who has been jailed without bail since his arrest Oct. 2, 2014, also is charged with obstruction of justice.

At least five devices containing child pornography with dates ranging over a decade were found in the museum, Taylor told jurors.

She alleged Lee would take pictures focusing on the genital areas and buttocks of boys 14 and 15 years old "acting as silly teenagers."

The boys, some of whom were from France, served as volunteer tour guides and stayed at the mansion, she said.

There was no nudity in Lee's pictures but he would cut and paste his close-ups onto other photos making them more sinister, she said. Such a lascivious exhibition violates federal law, she explained.

Naked children, primarily boys, engaging in sex acts were discovered when the FBI examined computers seized from the mansion, primarily from the living quarters, the prosecutor said.

A collection of graphic stories into which child pornography was inserted also was found, she said. One of the narratives was about a sex training camp, she said.

Two of the thumb drives were hidden among folded clothing in a cabinet in living quarters, Taylor said in support of the government's theory Lee was responsible for the child pornography.

The obstruction of justice charge accuses Lee of asking friends in phone calls from jail after his arrest to get his cell phone from the FBI and "wipe it."

Taylor told jurors in one of the calls Lee tells the individual to contact someone about wiping it remotely.

The phone contained nothing of evidentiary value and Lee was concerned about information on it related to the museum, Rude said.

The trial, expected to take most of the week, is the first of two the former Harris Twp. supervisor is facing.

The second, for which no date has been set, is on allegations he enticed and transported two boys, 14, and 17, with the intent to engage in sexual activity with them.
Allegiant Air will begin offering nonstop flights from the Harrisburg International Airport to Myrtle Beach, S.C. for as low as $45 beginning this summer.

HIA Executive Director Timothy Edwards announced Tuesday that summer seasonal routes to Myrtle Beach will operate twice weekly beginning May 19. The discount airline will now offer flights to four locations - including Punta Gorda, Orlando and Tampa.

Flights to Myrtle Beach will be offered until Sept. 18. The flights, Edwards said, will be a much better option than driving the 500 miles to South Carolina.

Edwards urged people to take advantage of the opportunity. The more people that fly from Harrisburg to Myrtle Beach, he said, the more likely Allegiant Air will continue offering the flights

"Use it or lose it," Edwards said. "Earning new airline service today is not easy. Very few airlines are willing to provide new routes."

Allegiant Air will offer summer seasonal routes to Myrtle Beach beginning May 19.

Since 2012, nearly 300,000 passengers have flown on Allegiant Air from Harrisburg. The average ticket price has been $66 each way to those destinations.

"We're confident that travelers will enjoy planning their ultra-low-cost summer vacations with us to take advantage of all that Myrtle Beach has to offer," said Allegiant COO Jude Bricker.

As part of a new promotion, the first 22 people that book flights from Harrisburg to Myrtle Beach on www.allegiantair.com will be refunded the cost of their seats. Limit one refund per person.
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By Bob Quarteroni

"In a democracy, people get the government they deserve." -- Alexis de Tocqueville

Bob Quarteroni (PennLive file)

If that's true, we are in trouble so deep we may never get out of it.

We're right in the middle of a presidential election where there's not a single candidate with the credentials of a Lincoln or Jefferson, or even that of a competent dog catcher. Our Hobson's Choice is the least bad sailor on a ship of fools.

With 320 million people in the most successful democracy mankind has ever produced, do we really have to select the next most powerful person in the world from a clown parade replete with a budding authoritarian (Trump), two junior senators who know more about insults than governing (Cruz and Rubio), a marginalized and impotent governor (Kasich), a dubiously honest ex-First Lady (Clinton) and an aging Socialist Democrat with brilliant ideas he wouldn't be able to pay for (Sanders)?

Is this really the best the world's most powerful nation -- teeming with brilliant, innovative people, with those who inspire and innovate and thrill us with their achievements and abilities -- able to squeeze out of its impacted system?

It can't be; it must be a horrible nightmare I can't awaken from because there is no possible way a sane society could possibly sink this low, could it?

Obviously, it could.

It's happened before, and that's when the most advanced civilization of its time, the Roman Empire, fell. And the similarities between their collapse and what's increasingly looking like ours is downright scary.

Rome collapsed, it allowed the barbarians into the gate, because its once powerful and orderly society devolved into an appetite for what was called "bread and circuses," consumerism and mindless displays.

Sound familiar?

Edward Gibbon, the most eminent Roman scholar of all time, outlined the five marks of decaying Roman culture: "Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth; obsession with sex and perversions of sex; art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original; widening disparity between very rich and very poor; increased demand to live off the state."

If that comparison doesn't send a shiver up your spine, you'd better check yourself for a pulse.

It's crystal clear we go five-for-five on the end-of-civilization chart. And we don't even need to show the comparisons, they're blatantly, staggeringly clear.

And this rough beast slouching toward Washington is the result of our decline in our values, beliefs and commitment to the body politic, just as was the case in Rome.

Clutching our electronic devices 24 hours a day, idolizing people who have become that horribly soul-killing concept, a celebrity, for doing nothing - Kardashians to Paris Hilton, Duck Dynasties to housewives of New Jersey - we have become so wrapped up in glittery, nonsensical trash that we have abdicated our responsibilities as citizens of a participatory democracy.

So we don't have the patience, ability or desire to listen carefully to a politician who has serious, well-reasoned ideas for dealing with ISIS or bolstering the economy or improving health care.

Instead, we prefer performers who can amuse us, charlatans who happily cite statistics that they know are false, snake-oil salesmen who woo the disaffected with simplistic ideas for complex problems that can't possibly work.

I fear for our nation, I fear for our future, I fear that, like Rome in its final days, we are opening the gates for the barbarians, we are sowing the soil with the seeds of our own self-destruction.

What can be done to fix this or is it too late? I'm not sure and it might be are the answers I come up with.

Changing our shallow, consumer culture is something that would require a near-total shift in our beliefs and values. And I don't see that happening anytime soon.

But one thing that could be done effectively - and with immediate positive impact -- is to elect as president someone like Franklin D. Roosevelt who, from his wheelchair, singlehandedly pulled the country out of the Great Depression and then guided it though the horrors of World War II.

He showed, brilliantly and over decades, what an inspired, gifted, moral and decisive leader can accomplish, even at our worst economic moment and during our nation's worst war.

Where are the FDRs now?

I'm not sure, but they certainly aren't in this presidential race.

The only hope I see is if the Republicans - and the Democrats though less so - would do something concrete to stop Trump or Cruz from becoming president, and that's to draft - right now - a serious alternative that would allow reasonable people a reasonable option.

I'm not expecting another FDR to pop up but at least people like Mitt Romney and John McCain, as much as I disagree with much of their politics, are serious, tested politicians who are sane and reasonable, something I'm not sure that can be said of all the presidential candidates.

For the Democrats, the shafted (remember Bush's "Swift Boat" lies?) John Kerry or the really shafted (hanging chads/Supreme Court) of Al Gore could step in and provide the gravitas we so desperately need.

If we can't find the enthusiasm and spunk to fight and get a real leader elected, we may be dooming ourselves to an evil dictator -- an authoritarian just grasping power and with a mad glint.

There's no telling what horrible impact this may have on not only our nation but on the world. A messianic nutcase in charge of the nuclear button is something we simply must not allow.

Obviously, Trump and Cruz are the ones we must stop; the other candidates may be mediocre but they don't scare me as the yin and yang of political lunacy does.

So we must do this; I see no other alternative. We should go all in on drafting a viable alternative.

If not this, then what? Just wait for the worse? It's not too late, it can be done, we can stop the barbarians from taking over.

De Tocqueville also said, "I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run."

For once, I pray this oracle was wrong; for our nation to prosper, he must be.

Bob Quarteroni, a frequent PennLive Opinion contributor, is a former columnist and editor at the Centre Daily Times. He lives in Swoyersville, Pa. Readers may email him at bobqsix@verizon.net.
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Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Monday, March 7, 2016, in Detroit, Mich. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Good Tuesday Evening, everyone.

As we type this, voters in Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi are holding primaries. While Republicans in Hawaii are caucusing. All told, 240 delegates, both pledged and un-pledged, are up for grabs on this 8th day of March 2016.

Michigan, with 148 delegates up for grabs, remains the day's largest prize. And real estate billionaire Donald Trump held an average 12.3 percent lead, according to The RealClear Politics polling average.

With that in mind, here's your helping of Dinner Hour Politics.

1. Have We Reached Peak Trump?: The Donald has a lot riding on his Michigan performance this Tuesday. According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, Trump has the support of 34 precent of registered Republicans and GOP-leaning independents nationwide. That's down from 37 percent in a similar January poll. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who had a pretty good week last week, finishes second at 25 percent, while Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida takes 18 percent support. Ohio Gov. John Kasich brings up the rear with 13 percent support. As Politico notes, Trump is expected to win in all three primary states. But "If Trump falls short of expectations, he'll have a chance to make amends during the next week's winner-take-all delegate bonanza in Ohio and Florida. But if he wants to bury Cruz and avoid a delegate-by-delegate slog to the convention, Tuesday's races seem like a solid place to start," Politico notes.

2. Kasich's Survival Strategy: Obviously, the genial/irascible Ohio Guv needs to take his home on state on March 15 to even have a prayer of keeping his presidential hopes alive. And from there, he has to perform well on April 26, a multi-state day that also includes Pennsylvania. As Politico reports, "Kasich isn't playing to win anymore. He's attempting to survive long enough to outlast Marco Rubio as the Republican establishment's choice to face Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in a contested national convention in July. Every time he racks up losses, his case to emerge as the consensus choice at a convention diminishes. And after hyping his chances in Ohio, a string of losses would be deflating."

3. Who Says There Are No Second Acts in American Life Dept.?

He may be gone from the presidential race, but he's hardly forgotten.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

, has emerged as a voice of the #StopTrump opposition, as The Washington Post details in this handy video explainer.

4. Just in case you thought every Democrat was Team Hillary or Team Bernie: Meet The Gang of 27 who are keeping their options open in this year's bruising Democratic Primary Derby. As Roll Call reports, the more than two-dozen Congressional Democrats who are staying out of the fray fall into four camps: First up, "New Democrats" who tend to be biz-friendly and favored TPP. Then there are the vanishing Blue Dogs or Dems who hail from risky districts. The third group are so-called "party heavyweights," while the fourth group includes the House's "Progressive Caucus." And, why yes, that is the smiley-faced visage of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-1st District, you see in that group photo down below.



5. Did we mention Michigan was kind of a big deal?:

While Donald Trump is expected to take home the title from Michigan on Tuesday, it's the result among the surviving GOP undercard that has our interest piqued. As The New York Times reports, Michigan is "a blue state with relatively few evangelical voters, and Mr. Cruz has struggled so far in such states ... Instead, Mr. Kasich could be the candidate who benefits from [Marco] Rubio's struggles. He is a relatively moderate governor from a neighboring state, and polls show he has moved into a tight race with Mr. Cruz for second place." Among Democrats, Michigan "a good state for Mr. Sanders. It is a white, working-class state that has been ravaged by outsourcing and ought to be receptive to Mr. Sanders's message on economic issues. It is also a fairly liberal state, with big college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing," The New York Times notes. But Hillary Clinton, who cannily built her ground game by tapping into such local concerns as Flint's water crisis, is expected to put up a serious fight and may well prevail.

And that's your Tuesday. Enjoy your evening. We'll see you all back here on Wednesday.
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The 13,000 non-unionized state government employees are wondering when they will see a pay raise after watching unionized employees receive one in January and minimum-wage state workers get one on Monday. (File photo/PennLive.com)

Unionized state government employees received a 2.25 percent raise in January. Minimum-wage commonwealth workers got a $2.90 an hour raise, to $10.15 an hour that started on Monday as a result of an executive order Gov. Tom Wolf signed.

The 13,000 non-unionized state government employees sitting by watching raises being handed out to those around them are asking: "When is it our turn?"

Wolf didn't offer any timeline for when those employees would see their next raise when asked about it on Monday. However, the non-represented employees did hear him say this: "That is a legitimate issue to look at."

Until now, all those employees have heard is that a decision about whether they would be receiving a raise comparable to the one their unionized colleagues received in January would have to wait until the 2015-16 state budget is finalized.

The non-represented state employees had their pay frozen from 2008 to 2012 due to budgetary challenges the state was facing. That caused them to miss out on the nearly 14 percent contractually obligated pay increases that unionized employees receiving during those years.

The former Gov. Tom Corbett administration took steps to not allow that pay disparity to grow wider, by giving many of the non-unionized employees an extra 2.25 percent pay bump along with the raises that unionized workers received. But still disparity exists that has some supervisors earning less than people who work for them. Employees complain of low morale and difficulty in getting unionized employees to move into non-management supervisory roles.

Wolf revealed his awareness of this situation by offering a brief explanation about this turn of events that occurred prior to his taking office last year at Monday's news conference that followed his signing of the executive order.

But he called it a "separate issue" to his raising the minimum wage to $10.15 an hour for state government workers under his jurisdiction and employees who work for some contractors who do business with the commonwealth.

"I'm trying to create a workplace here as I did in my own workplace back when I was in the private sector that is fair," Wolf said.

Several management employees who contacted PennLive after learning of the boost in the minimum wage state government is paying said they are waiting to see that same concern about fairness reflected in their paychecks.

*This story was updated to correct a typographical error in the size of the wage increase granted by Gov. Tom Wolf's executive order.
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FILE - In this Jan. 21, 1985 file photo, President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan arrive at the inaugural ball in the Washington Hilton in Washington. Nancy Reagan died Sunday, March 6, 2016 at the age of 94. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz, File)
Environmentalist protester Jean Leger waves a banner and sings at the opening of environment hearings on the Energie Est pipeline, Monday, March 7, 2016 in Levis, Que. The hearings were stopped for 16 minutes because of the protest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
In this photo from Jan. 6, 2015, Ryan Brock fills a sample bottle with ethanol produced at the Green Plains ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. Canada's biofuels industry is facing significant headwinds even as interest grows on ways to reduce carbon emissions. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Nati Harnik
In this image provided the Alameda County Fire Department, first responders work the scene after a car of a commuter train plunged into Alameda Creek after the train derailed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Alameda County, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Francisco. Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. (Aisha Knowles/Alameda County Fire Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
In this photo taken on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, Syrian solders guard near a tent where local leaders and elders signed a declaration pledging to abide by a truce Maarzaf, about 15 kilometers west of Hama, Syria. Associated Press spent five days traveling through the port of Latakia and the surrounding areas in Syria during the cease-fire. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
Lee Sukjoon, minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, announces unilateral sanctions on North Korea during a press conference at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. South Korea said Tuesday it will sanction 40 individuals and 30 organizations aboard, mostly in North Korea, as part of its unilateral punitive measures on the North for its recent nuclear test and rocket launch. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Boyne City celebrates undefeated regular season after win over Roscommon

BOYNE CITY  Over the course of the 2022 season, the Boyne City football team has learned a lot about their squad.
NEW YORK

Petroleumworld.com 03 08 2016

Global oil markets jumped more than 5 percent on Monday, with Brent hitting a 2016 peak above $40 a barrel, after Ecuador said it was holding a meeting of Latin American crude producers as OPEC sought a higher anchor price for oil.

Technically-driven buying in crude and a commodities rally also boosted oil. Industry data showing a smaller-than-expected build in stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for U.S. crude futures was another supportive factor.

Oil has rallied more than 50 percent since hitting 12-year lows less than two months ago. The rally began after Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries floated the idea of a production freeze to support prices in an oversupplied market.

Separately, major OPEC producers are talking about a new oil price equilibrium of around $50, New York-based consultancy PIRA told Reuters.

"It's more confirmation that oil producers are close to achieving some kind of a deal on price support," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "It's feeding bullish sentiment into a market that's turned 180 degrees from where it stood just weeks ago."

Brent LCOc1, the global crude benchmark, settled up $2.12 at $40.84. Its session peak was $41.04, the highest since Dec. 9. That was 51 percent above the 12-year low of $27.10 on Jan 20.

U.S. crude CLc1 finished up $1.98 at $37.90 a barrel, near a 2-month high. On Feb. 11, it hit a 2003 low of $26.05.

Some of the recent gains in oil were also helped by chart-related buying as Brent and U.S. crude breached multiple resistance levels between $30 and $38.

Asset rotation by investors have also led to higher allocations into commodities, along with equities. Gold and iron ore prices hit multi-month highs on Monday while Asian equities rose to two-month highs.

Hedge funds raised their bullish bets on Brent to a record high and on U.S. crude to a November peak during the week to March 1.

On the production front, U.S. shale oil output was expected to fall for a sixth month in a row in April, a government forecast said.

Some analysts said the global crude market remained oversupplied by around 2 million barrels per day and higher prices could prompt U.S. shale producers to swiftly add rigs they had cut.

Morgan Stanley noted the rally was also driven by dollar depreciation. "The upside should be limited by bloated global inventories and producer hedging," it said.






Latam oil producers to meet in Quito over oil prices

Reuters/ Guillermo Granja



Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs Guillaume Long speaks during a news conference in Quito March 7, 2016

QUITO

Petroleumworld.com 03 08 2016

Latin American oil producers, including main exporters Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, will meet in Quito on Friday to seek a common position on global oil prices, the Ecuadorean government said.

"We're going to have a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean foreign and oil ministers, here in Quito, to reach consensus over oil, especially prices," Ecuador's Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa had announced the meeting last week, without giving a date, casting it as part of a push to raise global oil prices.

Venezuela, which has suffered particularly heavily from the loss of oil revenues at a time of deep economic crisis, has been pushing especially hard for a deal to freeze global oil production.

Venezuela and Ecuador are OPEC members, but Colombia and Mexico are not part of the cartel.

"All the (region's) producer countries are going to be present," added Long. "It will be an important step ... to adopt a common position in Latin America ... in view of the next OPEC summit." OPEC is due to meet June 2.






BRADENTON, Fl.  There has been no shortage of young, top prospects playing for the West Virginia Power the last few years. The team saw big breakout seasons from Gregory Polanco and Alen Hanson in 2012. They saw the same thing from Tyler Glasnow in 2013, and Dilson Herrera on a smaller scale. The breakout in 2014 was on a smaller scale with JaCoby Jones, but the 2015 season saw Yeudy Garcia becoming the Breakout Prospect of the Year in the system.

The 2016 West Virginia team will once again be a team to watch, as two of the best young talents in the lower levels of the system will be heading that way. This afternoon I spoke with Larry Broadway, the Pirates Director of Minor League Operations, who confirmed that KeBryan Hayes and Mitch Keller will both go to West Virginia to play full season ball this year.

This isnt a big surprise for Hayes. He was taken in the compensation portion of the first round last year, selected with the pick the Pirates got for losing Russell Martin. Theyve sent their first round prep position players to West Virginia in their first full seasons the past few years, with Austin Meadows, Reese McGuire, and Cole Tucker all getting that big push.

Its not just about being a first round talent though. Broadway noted that its about the player, crediting the maturity, approach in the batters box, and defense for Hayes as things that give them trust that he can handle the promotion.

Mitch Keller is a bit of a different situation. In the past, the Pirates would send prep pitchers to the NYPL in their first full season, followed by a move to West Virginia in their second full year. However, theyve since added an extra rookie league team in Bristol, and thats where they sent Keller for his first full year. It was unknown where they would send the prep guys after that, since there havent been any examples with the Bristol team in the mix.

Keller will go to West Virginia, and again this looks like its all about the player, rather than a typical approach, since it doesnt appear for now that Gage Hinsz or Luis Escobar will start the year at the same level.

Hes shown just physical maturity and emotional maturity, Broadway said. Hes in a good spot, can command the ball. He works his butt off.

When I saw Keller in the GCL, he had a great fastball that could touch 95 at the age of 18, but some bad command problems. Last year he was limited in innings due to forearm tightness, and didnt have the best numbers in Bristol when he returned. But what I saw in extended Spring Training and what he showed in instructs are cause for you to look beyond the numbers. He sits 93-95 MPH with ease, showing no effort with his delivery, and has a curveball that can be a strikeout pitch. More importantly, the command has improved since his time in the GCL.

Its just a function of strength, and ability to be consistent with his delivery, and consistent with his thought process, Broadway said of the command. Hes in a good spot right now.

Hayes is a top ten prospect, while Keller is in that next tier, and could push up into the top ten by this time next year. Theyre not on the same level of breakout candidates as Polanco or Garcia, who were way off the prospect radar before their big years. They could be more along the lines of Tyler Glasnow, where theyre top prospects in the system, and could propel themselves to top prospects in all of baseball. Either way, those two will make West Virginia an interesting team to watch once again.


Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 4 2016

Star rating: 4.0

A sonata for unaccompanied cello at the centre of this recital of unfamiliar repertoire from the Austro-Hungarian Empire



Cello Music from Austria-Hungary, Sonata in A major Op. 47 'Kreutzer' arranged for cello and piano by Carl Czerny and Auguste Franchomme, the Sonata for solo cello by Artur Schnabel and the Ballade in E major Op.171 by Emmanuel Moor. This disc from Navona Records contains three works which are rarely performed despite the presence ot two well known names, Beethoven and Schnabel. Cellist Samuel Magill and pianist Beth Levin have put together an intriguing programme with Beethoven'sarranged for cello and piano by Carl Czerny and Auguste Franchomme, theby Artur Schnabel and theby Emmanuel Moor.

Samuel Magill - photo Richard Blinkoff

Samuel Magill is a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York and has been a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He and Levin open with the transcription of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. Beethoven's pupil Carl Czerny made an arrangement of the sonata following Beethoven's suggestion. This edition was lost for 160 years and only resurfaced in 1992. Czerny simplified the violin part when transposing it for cello, and Magill has included passages from a later transcription by cellist Auguste Franchomme which is truer to the original.The cello is a far bigger instrument than the violin, so inevitably the dramatic chords and string crossings of Beethoven's violin part have a rather different effect and can occasionally sound effortful. Magill starts off with bravura attack and thesection of the opening movement is full of vigorous energy. This is a big boned, vibrant performance, ferocious at times, despite some finely sung moments. Thestarts with some beautifully sung tone from Magill, but as the movement develops we appreciate the varieties of timbre and texture that Magill and Levin bring to the work. The finale is full of vigour and verve, with great impetus and fierce energy.This transcription undoubtedly provides a wonderful challenge for cellists, and Magill responds with strong technique, though it is frankly a work that I could be content to hear only occasionally. Magill is well supported by Beth Levin whose playing brings a combination of poetry and neat HIP sensibility to bear whilst matching Magill's vigour.Artur Schnabel started composing at the age of 13 and continued to do so in parallel to his piano playing career, though he composed in fits and starts with occasional fallow period. Given his fondness, as a pianist, for Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart, it is somewhat of a surprise to find him writing atonally. He did not follow Schoenberg's 12 tone system but wrote in a more free style. This sonata for solo violoncello was written in 1931, probably for the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky who played with Schnabel in piano trios, along with violinist Carl Flesch.The openingis an intense movement. Dark and brooding in atmosphere, the writing rather reminded me of Shostakovich, despite the free atonality. The second movement Allegretto is a buzzingwhich Schnabel interrupts. He was evidently fond of the technique of Aposiopesis , the use of frequent gaps in music, and here it gives a real sense of a dialogue. Thethird movement is a slow sung melancholy one, akin to keening. The final movementstarts off vigorous with strong attack from Magill, but there are more lyrical moments. In the central section the music seems to fragment, and though the vigorous music returns, a the music fades away to nothing at the end. This is a terrific yet taxing work in a fine performance from Magill. I do hope this performance will encourage other performers.Emmanuel Moor was a Hungarian who studied in Vienna with Bruckner. A pianist as well as composer, he lived for a period in London before settling in Switzerland. He wrote a number of works for the great cellist Pablo Casals, who valued his talent very highly. Thewas dedicated to Casals in 1913 but never published. Magill and Levi play the composer's version for cello and piano. It is very late Romantic in style, and the material has folk-ish hints, overall it rather reminded me of Grieg. A pleasant work, but not one which seems to support the extremely high opinion that Casals had of the composerSamuel Magill and Beth Levin have assembled a fascinating trio of relatively neglected works. Both performers display fine technique, though the recording makes the piano sound rather dry. The transcription of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata is a striking piece, but for me it is Schnabel's sonata for solo cello which makes this recording worth returning to.Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), transcribed Carl Czerny and Auguste Franchomme - Sonata in A major 'Kreutzer' (1803)Artur Schnabel (1882-1951) - Sonata for solo cello (1931)Emmanuel Moor (1863-1931) - Ballade in E major Op.171 (1913)Samuel Magill (cello)Beth Levi (piano)Recorded 19,20 March, 21,22 May 2015 at West Center Congregational Church, Bronxville, New YorkNAVONA RECORDS NV6024 1CD
Estrellas Poker Tour Madrid Main Event Begins On March 9

March 08, 2016 Giovanni Angioni

The first leg of Season 7 of the Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) begins on Wednesday, March 9, at Casino Gran Madrid in Spain to welcome yet another edition of the country's live poker series sponsored by PokerStars.

Built around a 16-event schedule, the first ESPT of 2016 features a five-day 1,100 Main Event with two starting flights, as well as other marquee events like a two-day 2,200 High Roller and a four-day Madrid Poker Cup with three starting flights  both of these latter events starting on March 11.

Those interested in playing the Main Event at a fraction of its official entry fee can also try to qualify through the 165 live satellite tournament running at the Casino Madrid at 20:00 on March 8 and at 17:00 on March 9.

Another good event on the schedule is the 165 Super Satellite to the ESPT High Roller running from 13:00 onwards on March 11, as this gives everyone the opportunity to compete for the biggest cash prizes on tap for a very low buy-in.

Omaha players will also get a small share of action in Madrid, as the schedule features a one-day 275 Pot-Limit Omaha Double Chance event set to begin on March 10.

Back in Season 6, the ESPT Madrid Main Event managed to attract a field of 579, generating a total prize pool of 552,000. That time, the 106,400 top cash prize went to Denmark's Nicki Vestergaard, whose victory of the event is still the first and only entry on his profile page on HendonMob.com.

2016 ESPT Madrid Schedule

Date Time # Event Buy-in Mar. 8 20:00 2 NL - Holdem Freezeout Satellite to Main Event 165 Mar. 8 22:00 3 NL - Hyper turbo 110 Mar. 9 12:00 4 Estrellas Main Event - Day 1a 1,100 Mar. 9 17:00 5 NL - Holdem Freezeout Satellite to Main Event Day 1b 165 Mar. 9 20:00 6 NL - Holdem Turbo Win The Button 165 Mar. 10 12:00 4 Estrellas Main Event - Day 1b 1,100 Mar. 10 18:00 7 PLO - Double Chance 275 Mar. 10 20:00 8 NL - One Rebuy/One Add-on Super Satellite to ESPT HR (Max Spend Allowed) 165, 150 Rebuy/Add-On Mar. 10 22:00 9 NL - Hyper turbo 220 Mar. 11 12:00 4 Estrellas Main Event - Day 2 CLOSED Mar. 11 13:00 10 NL - One Rebuy/One Add on Super Satellite to ESPT HR (Max Spend Allowed) 165, 150 Rebuy/Add On Mar. 11 17:00 11 NL - Holdem High Roller "8 Handed" - Day 1 (Single Reentry) 2,200 Mar. 11 20:00 12 Estrellas Madrid Poker Cup - Flight 1a (One Entry Per Flight) 330 Mar. 11 22:00 13 NL - Hyperturbo 550 Mar. 12 12:00 4 Estrellas Main Event - Day 3 CLOSED Mar. 12 13:00 11 NL - Holdem High Roller - "8 Handed" - Day 2 CLOSED Mar. 12 12:00 14 NL - Holdem Six Handed Turbo 110 Mar. 12 16:00 12 Estrellas Madrid Poker Cup - Flight 1b (One Entry Per Flight) 330 Mar. 11 21:00 12 Estrellas Madrid Poker Cup - Turbo Flight 1c - Play down to 15% (One Entry Per Flight) 330 Mar. 13 12:00 12 Madrid Poker Cup - Day 2 CLOSED Mar. 13 12:00 4 Estrellas Main Event - Final Day CLOSED Mar. 13 14:00 15 NL - Holdem Turbo - Super Deepstack - EPT Edition 165 Mar. 13 18:00 16 "Sunday Battle" - NL Freezeout 80

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Sunday Briefing: Mustapha Kanit Wins PokerStars Sunday Supersonic

March 08, 2016 Matthew Pitt Editor

Scottish poker player "CantWinAFlip" has played more than 3,000 tournaments at PokerStars over the years, but until this weekend that big win, a life-changing score, had eluded him. However, his decision to enter the $215 buy-in Sunday Million was one of the best he's ever made because he went all the way and took down the largest weekly online poker tournament.

"CantWinAFlip" was one of 5,593 entrants in this week's Sunday Million and helped to create a $1,118,600 prize pool, of which $174,951.74 was reserved for the eventual champion. That champion was "CantWinAFlip", as he danced his way to heads-up before defeating Russias "M.Strelskaya" for the title; the runner-up received a cool $130,316.90.

There was a familiar face in top spot of the Sunday Supersonic, a hyper-turbo tournament that takes around two hours from start to finish. Mustapha "lasagnaaammm" Kanit is more accustomed to playing in super high roller events in the live arena, but put in an online session this weekend, and ended up winning the Supersonic for $47,999.89 and a ridiculous hourly rate of $34,285.63.

The Netherlands "Riffa Kriffa" is a previous winner of the Supersonic, but this week he turned his attention to the Sunday Warm-Up and won that, too. This latest victory added $73,375.28 to his lifetime winnings, and was the second-largest sum won at PokerStars this Sunday.

Other PokerStars Sunday major victories were enjoyed by:

"farmjim  winner of the Sunday Rebuy for $37,034.83

for $37,034.83 "Kozir"  winner of the Sunday Kickoff for $21,237.25

for $21,237.25 "DuTTiFruTTi9"  winner of the Bigger $109 for $36,928.00

for $36,928.00 "elmelogno4"  winner of the Sunday 500 for $58,353.00

for $58,353.00 "SmallKindB"  winner of the Bigger $162 for $32,181.00

for $32,181.00 "poosnack11"  winner of the Sunday 2nd Chance for $37,620.00

for $37,620.00 "bigpapas1978"  winner of the Sunday 6-Max for $21,168.00

More FTOPS Results

Over at PokerStars' sister site, Full Tilt, there was a nice win for "AntonSergeevoch" in FTOPS Event #31, a $250 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed tournament. He collected $26,625.00 for his victory, while UK-based Portuguese grinder "Spitnick_PT" walked away with top honors in the $100 buy-in FTOPS Event #30 for $13,821.02 after bounties were factored in.

Plenty of Powerfest Action On partypoker

It wasn't only at Full Tilt where there was a major online festival taking place because partypoker's Powerfest was also in full swing.

One of its events, a $100,000 guaranteed $109-buy-in tournament was taken down by "tolispapaio", who added $20,681.60 to his bankroll. Another big winner, this time for $20,872.59, was "tone2toni", who triumphed in the Powerfest Week 2 Main Event, a tournament that boasted a prize pool of some $132,100.

On a non-Powerfest week, partypoker's biggest tournament is the $150,000 guaranteed Main Event, but this Sunday saw its guarantee increase to $250,000. Although it missed the guarantee, "enzal77" won't be bothered because he emerged victorious and added a cool $42,500 to his bankroll.

Lastly for partypoker results, a mention to "BetinOleg" who won the $150,000 guaranteed High Roller for a welcomed $32,132.20.

It's a Fiesta On 888poker

Completing the Sunday Briefing this week are the results from 888poker's biggest tournaments including a win in the $150,000 Whale worth $35,422.11 for Mexicos "fiesta fiesta."

Pim "SuprNintend0" de Goede broke through the $2 million mark in lifetime winnings barrier courtesy of him taking down the $120,000 Mega Deep for $28,919.60, with "ineedpants" being now able to afford some thanks to becoming the $100,000 Sunday Challenge champion, a result worth some $19,660.94.

With Powerfest in its Heavyweight and then High Roller week and the FTOPS drawing to a conclusion this coming Sunday, there are ample opportunities to win big online and then feature in our Sunday Briefing article. Will you hit the headlines this week?

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
VIDEO: Arizona Officer Charged with Murder Over January Shooting

A Mesa, AZ, police officer who shot and killed a Texas man at an East Valley hotel in January has been charged with second-degree murder.

The Maricopa County Attorneys Office filed the direct complaint against the officer late Friday, KNXV TV reports.

The complaint alleges that Officer Phillip Mitchell Brailsford's use of deadly force was not justified when he shot 26-year-old Daniel Shaver at the La Quinta Inn near U.S. 60 and Superstition Boulevard.

Officers responded to the hotel just after 9 p.m. on Jan. 18 after guests at the pool reported seeing a man pointing a rifle outside a window above.

Officer Brailsford found Shaver and a woman inside a hotel room on the fifth floor, according to police. The officers ordered Shaver and the woman out of the room and into the hallway. Both complied, and the woman was detained by police without incident.

Montgomery said Shaver was ordered to his hands and knees, and as he moved towards officers, he made a motion with his hand toward his waist. Officer Brailsford, reportedly feeling threatened, then fired five shots, striking Shaver throughout his body and killing him.

Police have said that Shaver was unarmed before he was shot. A pellet rifle was found in the hotel room. His wife says her husband used the gun for his pest control job. She has filed a $35 million lawsuit against the Mesa Police Department.
Miami-Dade County is investigating a breach of privacy that has affected more than 1,000 police officers and other county employees.

The personal information of police officers, lawyers and judges in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties was made public through a South Florida website last month, and employees in Miami-Dade were only alerted of the breach this week, according to John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association.

When we made some inquiries we found out it was true and we were equally upset that the county had not informed the members of the police department so that they could take protective measures, Rivera told the Miami Herald.

Florida statutes protect the home addresses of police officers, prosecutors and judges, and its a misdemeanor to publish that information with malicious intent.
A Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray must testify against his colleagues while he awaits a retrial, Maryland's highest court ruled Tuesday, reports the Associated Press.

The Court of Appeals did not give any reason for the decision, saying it would issue an opinion later. The case was unusual because Officer William Porter's trial ended with a hung jury and as he was awaiting a retrial, a judge ruled he had to testify against some of the officers charged in the Gray case but not others.

The appeals court heard arguments over the issue last week and questioned Porter's attorney about why he shouldn't testify at multiple trials. Porter's attorney said every time he took the stand it could subject the officer to a perjury charge.

Porter was the first officer to stand trial, but the issue of whether Porter could be compelled to testify against his colleagues halted the other trials.

Tuesday's rulings mean the cases will be sent back to a lower court and the trials can move forward.
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Bernie Sanders took to the Fox News airwaves and destroyed several Republican talking points.

Video part 1:

Video part 2:

Video part 3:

Sanders said that he didnt vote for the bailout of Wall Street, but he did propose a surtax on the 1% to bail out Wall Street.

Bret Baier pushed the Fox News talking point that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are going to cause a debt crisis. Sanders said that he would prevent a debt crisis with his Medicare for all plan. Baier asked where the right of healthcare for all came from, and Sanders answered simply, Being a human being.

Listen to Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discuss Clinton and Sanders crushing Fox News bias:

Sen. Sanders called for a tax on Wall Street speculation. Sanders was asked about defeating ISIS by an audience member. Sanders promised to do everything in his power to keep the US out of a new war in the Middle East and vowed to support Muslim troops. Baier asked Sanders if what was happening to Christians in the Middle East was genocide. He corrected the Fox host by saying what was happening to Christians, and Muslims was wrong.

Sanders destroyed trickle down economics and called for an increase of the minimum wage to a living wage. The Democratic presidential candidate called for doing away with tax loopholes that help big corporations dodge taxes, and using the money to rebuild infrastructure. Sanders was asked to explain the benefits of his healthcare plan. Sanders said that he would not disable the CHIP program and Medicare. Sen. Sanders said that Medicare should be expanded to all Americans. He said that the healthcare system would be more efficient.

The Democratic presidential candidate went on Fox News and took apart all of the Republican Partys favorite talking points. Sanders took on the Republican desire to kill Social Security and Medicare, the GOPs refusal to raise the minimum wage, the failure of trickle-down economics, and the Republican belief that healthcare is not a right. Sanders stood up for reproductive rights by saying, I believe that the government does not have a right to tell a woman what to do with her body. Sen. Sanders called out Republican hypocrites who hate big government but want to tell a woman what she can do with her body.

Sen. Sanders excels at going into hostile environments like the Fox News town hall and delivering his message in an open way. Sanders appealed to the Fox News audience by telling them the truth that Congress is not listening to them. Congress is listening to big-money contributors. Sen. Sanders said that if he will convince Congress to carry out his agenda because if he wins Democrats will have taken back Congress. Sanders said that change in the country comes from the bottom up.

Bernie Sanders carried the flag of populist liberalism and delivered an excellent performance on Fox.
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Fox News Bret Baier tried to trip up Hillary Clinton on foreign policy, her emails, and abortion, but the former Sec. of State delivered a dominant performance.

Clinton was asked a loaded question about Libya, which she put in context and answered comprehensively. Bret Baier followed up with a second loaded question about a child having rights before it is born. Former Sec. Clinton took apart the Fox hosts biased question, and completely derailed the effort to make her look like a baby killer. Baier then asked about Clintons emails, and she quickly destroyed all of his questions and took on the misinformation being spread about her emails. Clinton wore Baier down as he tried to press on the emails. She played the Colin Powell card and said that she agrees Powell that all of the emails should be released.

Video:

Former Sec. Clinton was asked how she expects to get anything down when compromise is a bad word. She discussed her record of working with Republicans on the CHIP program and reforming the adoption and foster care system. In the Senate, she said she worked with nearly all of the Republicans that she served with. She said finding common ground is not easy, but that is what she will do. Clinton added that when she is not running for something, Republicans say really nice things about her.

Listen to Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discuss Clinton and Sanders crushing Fox News bias:

It was obvious early on that the point of the town hall, at least from Fox News point of view was to attack Clintons time as Secretary of State and her emails. On both counts, Fox News failed.

Clinton got fired up when asked about her education plan, and then on a question about the ACA, she talked about getting costs down, providing more free services, and lowering prescription drug prices. Clinton said that the country needed more competition for the insurance companies and more competition from non-profits.

Baier asked Clinton why she was not winning with young people and young women. Clinton said that she is going to keep working to help young people whether they support her now or not. Clinton was asked by 13-year-old questioner whether she considers Sen. Sanders an enemy or an ally. She said, Oh, an ally. She then explained the difference between her and Sen. Sanders are doing, and what the Republicans are doing in their primary.

Clinton was strong and showed exactly why Fox News is so afraid of her potential victory in November.
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As if Americans did not suffer enough embarrassment on the world stage from the likes of Sarah Palin, treasonous Republican senators, gun zealots, Willard Romney, and barbarically cruel conservatives, Donald Trumps ascendance as a Republican leader is humiliating. There has been no dearth of bemusement and alarm among residents of Europe over the proto-fascist Trump, but now many foreign diplomats, including those of Americas allies, are openly expressing concern and dismay at the prospect of a Trump presidency.

According to senior American officials;

Foreign diplomats are expressing alarm to about what they say are inflammatory and insulting public statements by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Officials from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia complained in recent private conversations, mostly about the xenophobic nature of Trumps statements. As the (Trump) rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by leaders around the world. The officials declined to disclose a full list of countries whose diplomats have complained, but two of them did say they included at least India, Canada, Britain, South Korea, Japan and Mexico.

According to American officials, it is highly unusual for foreign diplomats to weigh in, much less express concern either publicly or privately, about any candidate in the midst of a presidential campaign. Americas allies, in particular, are cognizant of the peril of being seen to meddle in American politics because they are well-aware they will have to work with whoever wins the White House; unless they are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Now, these latest revelations will only impact Trumps campaign and appeal positively among his racist and xenophobic supporters. In fact, instead of giving pause, both Trump and his hate-driven base view these attacks as a badge of honor and attribute them to the rest of the worlds jealousy that Trump will make America great again (read a warmongering bully).

It is the same mindset that resulted in French-fries being renamed Freedom Fries when France refused to be fooled by a minor fascists, George W. Bush, lies to invade Iraq and destabilize the Middle East; a disaster France has the distinction of having no part in. Except this time it will be the entire world being regarded as real Americas official punching bag and not just France or Europe. As noted often, any criticism targeting Trump from foreign nations citizens, diplomats, or American politicians for matter is a message from the holy bibles god almighty that Donald Trump is doing and saying everything right.

An article in Reuters quoted one high-ranking senior NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity saying, European diplomats are constantly asking about Trumps rise with disbelief and, now, growing panic. After Trumps rise to GOP dominance and front-runner status on the Republican side, much of the planet is worried about a Hitler-like fascist possibly becoming the leader of the free world.

It is noteworthy that even before the official GOP standard bearer is chosen, senior leaders in several countries such as England, Mexico, France, India, South Korea, Japan, and Canada have publicly condemned Trumps positions as being beyond frightening. In fact, in an interview published this past Sunday the German Economy Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said that Trump, like all right-wing fascists are not only a threat to peace , prosperity, and social cohesion, but also to economic development. One should note that despite worldwide disbelief at Trumps ascendancy, Russias president and affirmed bully Vladimir Putin has expressed his high hopes for a Trump regime and dictatorship in America.

The rest of the world should be concerned because as the worlds superpower, nearly every decision made, and every policy enacted, by America effectively impacts the entire world politically, economically, and militarily. Foreign people, leaders, and diplomats are also wondering exactly what in the world are so many Americans thinking, and why are they supporting a maniac like Trump.

Likely, if Ted Cruz were the front-runner the world would have very similar concerns once they heard the god-anointed world leader speak because although Trump is dangerous, an evangelical fascist like Cruz is seriously terrifying. Around the world, most people know that Trumps rise to prominence is a result, and creation of the Republican Partys unique worldview among the worlds advanced democracies.

Worldwide, civilized human beings still cannot comprehend why in an uber-wealthy and technologically advanced country like America, Republicans and their supporters still deny climate change exists, oppose and refuse to even talk about health care for all, and adamantly believe that every American should have completely unfettered access to any and all manner of firearms. They are also befuddled at the raging racism, bigotry and hate-mongering toward other Americans that has come to epitomize the Trump movement.

To say that the rest of the world, like most Americans on the left, believe the Republican religious and conservative movements are outliers from civilization is a gross understatement; it is also a signal to the rest of the Earths population that a significant number of Americans are dirt stupid; something Donald Trump is taking advantage of.

Although not using the term dirt stupid, a high-ranking Mexican official said that Trumps policy proposals and comments are ignorant and racist; and absurd. Mexicos top foreign diplomat, Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu especially noted that It is impossible to think of a 2,000-mile border being walled off and trade between our two countries stopped. It is impractical, inefficient, wrong and, frankly, it is not an intelligent thing to do. Ms. Massieu must not spend much time watching American politics because if she did she would know there is not much, if anything at all, proposed by any Republican that is even remotely regarded as the intelligent thing to do; Donald Trump is just saying those incredibly stupid things loudly and often to wild cheers from his equally stupid and racist base.

Americas reputation around the world, although improving, is still something the people should be ashamed of and it is all down to Republicans. The world has taken note, and condemned America for failing to provide clean water, housing, schooling and healthcare to all its citizens, and is appalled that as the richest nation on Earth it criminalizes homelessness, has the worlds second-highest child poverty rate, and keeps half the population in financial distress to provide more wealth for the rich and corporations. Now, the Earths leading diplomats are expressing their fear and concern that a real fascist is leading the Republican Party and running to lead the free world; all with ardent support of a nativist, xenophobic, and racist Republican base.
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You would think Donald Trump going full-frontal Hitler, demanding oaths of personal loyalty and even performing the Hitler salute or Hitlergru  literally Hitler Greeting  (which could get all those Trump supporters arrested in Germany by the way) would be enough to destroy his chances of becoming Fuhrer  er, umpresident.

But no, hes going strong. Perhaps when we start hearing variations on Rudolf Hess 1934 portrayal of Hitler: The Party is Hitler. But Hitler is Germany, just as Germany is Hitler. Hitler! Sieg Heil!

Would that be enough? If The Party is Trump? Thats certainly what the GOP fears.

Lets try it on for size: The Party is Trump. But Trump is America, just as America is Trump. Trump! Hail Victory!

It fits doesnt it? I mean, it even sounds like how Trump thinks about himself. Hes not only going to make America great again, but he is America.

Abe Foxman, former head of the Anti-Defamation League, told at the Times of Israel that Donald Trump knew he was evoking fascist symbolism when he asked supporters at a campaign rally in Florida to raise their right arms and pledge to vote for him.



It is a fascist gesture. He is smart enough  he always tells us how smart he is  to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, hes asking them to swear allegiance to him.

Foxman survived the holocaust as a child. Were told that to invoke Hitler in describing Trump is an insult to the memory of holocaust victims, but I think we can all agree that with this single act, Trump has suspended Godwins Law for the rest of the 2016 presidential race.

It isnt connecting the dots that insults holocaust survivors; its pretending Trump hasnt resurrected the spirit of Adolf Hitler.

According to Foxman,



As a Jew who survived the Holocaust, to see an audience of thousands of people raising their hands in what looks like the Heil Hitler salute is about as offensive, obnoxious and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America.

I think we can all accept this as true. Who would know better? As a historian, it was chilling. Yes, Trump has gone full-frontal Hitler, and hes not even pretending anymore. Nothing coy about a Hitler salute.

That was Saturday. And defying critics, Trump did it again Monday. Having obtained the oath of fealty from stalwarts in Orlando, appearing next in Concord, North Carolina, Trump started the rally with, Should we do the pledge? Should we do the pledge?

Raise your hand: I swear Im going to vote for Donald Trump next week, I swear.

You have to wonder if he has to change his pants after each appearance.

Oh, wow. Just with the people here, I think, we win.

Depending on how you interpret the Oh, wow, I think he does.

Trump has defended his loyalty oaths as well and said its ridiculous to compare his rallies to Hitler. Were having such a great time, he said on NBCs Today. Its unclear if he meant the oaths or roughing up his political opponents.

The heartfelt and unwavering adulation of thousands has to be a rush. As protesters were led out of the North Carolina rally, Trump took a break from playing Hitler to taunt the people who disagree with him:

Go home to mommy. Let her tuck you in bed.

Because its childish to disagree with the guy who outdoes four-year-olds in temper tantrums. Trump is the off-line version of online trolls who tell new players who complain about unfairness, Go back to Candy Crush!

In the anonymous online world of false machismo, saying those words to a male is like telling him to put on a dress. In Trump land too, opponents must be dehumanized and Trump must have the biggest tackle in the building.

If you cannot argue the merits of your rhetorical positions, you have instead to de-legitimize the speaker.

Trumps discourse is an endless series of ad hominem attacks. Have you noticed he never attacks the argument, but the person making the argument? The protesters at the rally got the same treatment Cruz, Rubio, and others have gotten.

Hitler liked to mock those who stood up to him too. In 1942, at the high-tide of Nazi power, he was deriding the allied military leaders as lunatics and drunkards, and in a speech a year earlier, Churchill was a madman and an arsonist.

But if his enemies are chaff, Trump, in his own mind, is the stuff of legends. In 1922, a New York Times writer, Cyril Brown, wrote about the new Nazi movement and its leader, saying of Hitler, Positively he stands for only a strong, united Germany, which is almost identically the message Trump followers are getting from Trump.

Brown spoke of The new converts made at these rallieswho absolutely and unconditionally pledge themselves to Hitler and the cause, and here too we see Trump following Hitlers game plan.

The biggest difference between the two is that Hitler was a common man funded by rich men, while Donald Trump cuts out the middleman and funds himself, merely presenting himself as a common man.

All this is no accident, as Abe Foxman said. The white supremacist support is no accident. The rhetoric is no accident. The Hitler salute and oaths of personal loyalty are no accident.

As a New York Times Editorial Observer, Brent Staples wrote the other day,

[Donald Trump] has functioned for years as a rallying point for birthers, conspiracy theorists, extremists and racists who are apoplectic about the fact that the country elected a black man president. These groups have driven the Republican Party steadily rightward, helping to create a national discourse that now permits a presidential candidate to court racist support without paying a political price.

Now hes added the Hitler salute without price. Whats next if he gets away with that?

In Orlando, Trump told the crowd, Dont forget you all raised your hands. You swore. Bad things happen if you dont live up to what you just did.

Trump should take notice: Hitlers fate was deadly proof of that.
Dear Answer Man, a little birdie tells me that the DMC Economic Development Agency has called a meeting about Second Street issues. Any truth to that?

This note came directly from my boss, so I wisely decided to check it out, and amazingly enough, he was right. I confirmed that a meeting has been called for 11 a.m. next Wednesday, at a site to be determined. Patrick Seeb, the EDA's economic development and placemaking director, has invited neighborhood leaders from Kutzky Park, Folwell and the Historic Southwest neighborhood associations to attend, and the meeting will include some city council members, city administrative staff and perhaps business people as well.

Seeb put out an email on Feb. 24, five days after the proposed $63 million Holiday Inn project on Second Street was withdrawn, and invited participants to "a design session to develop a concept for the public realm/public infrastructure for the Saint Marys Place sub-district (within DMC). We were going to focus primarily on the Second Street corridor between 11th and 16th avenues.

"We were planning on holding this on March 15 and 16, with the anticipation that the outcome of the work would inform decisions regarding the proposed development at 13th Avenue (the Holiday Inn project)," Seeb says. "Though the status of that project has changed, we know there remains considerable development interest in the area. Developing an areawide plan for the public realm/infrastructure remains of paramount importance as we advance projects in the district."

But Seeb says in the email that rather than a "full two-day design session," they'll instead do a one-day session to "establish agreement on the goals for the process, the information and resources needed, identify parties who ought to be involved and sketch out the design timetable. Getting agreement on this at the front end will help ensure greater success going forward."

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This sounds like quite a lofty and involved process, which adds insight to concerns expressed by the Holiday Inn developer, St. Cloud-based Brutger Equities, when they "changed" the status of their project from active to dead as a doornail. Brutger said in a statement Feb. 19 that "without a clearer path and a realistic timeline for DMC/EDA approval to allow our project to move ahead, we regrettably must withdraw our application at this time."

Again, DMC EDA called for its meeting several days after Brutger withdrew.

The project would have put a 225-room hotel on the vacant lot across from Saint Marys, along with underground parking, town homes on the First Street side and a possible pedestrian tunnel under Second Street to connect the hospital and businesses on the north side of the street.

One of my Answer Man I-Teammembers asked a city official recently if he could remember any project of this scale  at $63 million, it was nearly half the total dollar amount of the Chafoulias Broadway at Center project  being dropped at such a late stage in the process. He could not.

Based on email exchanges  a matter of public record -- it looks as if only council member Michael Wojcikwas going to be involved in the DMC EDA meeting initially; that was expanded to include council president Randy Staverand council member Mark Hickey, which still keeps council attendance at less than a quorum, so it won't be considered a public meeting. I'm quite sure I wouldn't have been invited anyway.

I obtained a copy of an email from council member Nick Campionto his colleagues regarding the meeting, and he says, "Great to see the DMC/EDA is taking steps to outline their desired direction within the district. I would, however, like the DMC/EDA reminded that this discussion cannot set the direction of the city nor alter the city's participating in the DMC development plan. I don't want these discussions to be seen as proxies for, or a replacement of, the direction of the council.

"I am optimistic that this can be a positive for the district," Campion wrote.
The story of a Confederate submarine captain will be shared during the next meeting of the Rochester Civil War Round Table at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the History Center of Olmsted County , 1195 West Circle Drive SW, Rochester.

Speaker Jim Ward will present "George Dixon: From Shiloh to Charleston." Dixon was captain of the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley . Ward will talk about the gold coin that was found in the Hunley when it was recovered in 2000, and the legend that connects the coin with Dixon.

The public is invited. Admission is a freewill offering.
ST. PAUL  In the final hours before lawmakers' were to return to the Capitol today, workers clad in hard hats and safety vests roamed the Minnesota House Chamber, making last-minute improvements.

As crews worked to get the House chamber ready to reopen, many legislators could be found Monday in their offices sorting through stacks of paperwork and making last-minute changes to bills. Legislators have a long to-do list ahead of them for the 2016 legislative session and not a lot of time to get it done. Here are four things to know ahead of this year's session.

This session is historic

The March 8 start date is one of the latest starts for a legislative session in recent memory. Lawmakers will have 10 weeks to plow through an ambitious legislative agenda.

On top of that, the logistical hurdles facing lawmakers are unprecedented. The Minnesota Capitol is in the midst of a $310 million renovation. The Minnesota Senate will hold its sessions in a temporary chamber in the newly built Minnesota Senate Office Building. The GOP-led House opted to hold its session in the construction-filled Capitol. The chamber is the only part of the building that's open and there is no running water, meaning lawmakers and visitors will need to use portable toilets.

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Austin DFL Rep. Jeanne Poppe said she is disappointed that the construction will mean few members of the public will get the chance to watch floor debates. The House galleries are closed, and a small number of seats will be made available to the public on the House floor.

"Talk about not having the public engaged and informed this legislative session,' Poppe said.

Preston GOP Rep. Greg Davids joked that the less-than-ideal setting may have an upside.

"With no running water, no restrooms, I think the House floor speeches will be much shorter," Davids said.

The year for transportation funding?

Last session, Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a deal on a comprehensive transportation funding package. Senate DFLers and Gov. Mark Dayton backed the idea of a gas tax increase. House Republicans staunchly opposed the move, instead favoring a plan that redirects existing auto-related taxes to transportation.

Rochester GOP Carla Nelson said she expects the debate to pick up right where it left off. While the governor said in December that he thought a gas tax increase was "dead," he has since backed off that statement. Nelson said she has serious concerns about raising the gas tax. She said the Democrats' plan would have meant a minimum total tax on gasoline of 61 cents per gallon, when the new proposed tax was added to existing state and federal taxes.

"61 cents minimum gas tax, I think, would be detrimental to our people, our pocketbooks and our economy," Nelson said.

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Poppe argues that lawmakers need to be open to considering some sort of revenue increase to fund transportation upgrades. She said that's the only way the state's long-term transportation needs can be addressed.

"I do think we need to have dedicated revenue, in whatever form it is. I think it's going to be obviously extremely challenging when the House Republicans appear to be opposed to any additional spending," Poppe said.

Debating tax cuts

Lawmakers also failed to reach agreement on a tax bill last session. House Republicans were pushing a $2 billion measure, while the DFL-led Senate favored a $460 million proposal. Davids, who is chairman of the House Taxes Committee, said Republicans will have to scale back their plan because of Minnesota's smaller budget surplus of $900 million. Still, he said he plans to push proposals to phase out the taxes on Social Security income and military veterans pensions, along with tax relief for farmers.

"This is the year for tax relief for middle class Minnesotans. That's my mission," Davids said.

But Rochester DFL Rep. Kim Norton said she's wary of lawmakers passing a large tax bill that could lead to budget deficits in the future. She said she'd like to see steps to help provide tax relief to Social Security recipients and businesses, but wants lawmakers to be cautious.

"Maybe this isn't the year for a big tax bill. We missed our opportunity last year, and frankly, it was a blessing because if we'd created a hole in the general fund we would have found ourselves with a deficit maybe hand having to make cuts," she said.

How big a bonding bill?

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In even-numbered years, the Minnesota Legislature historically passes a large construction borrowing bill, also known as a "bonding bill," to fund infrastructure improvements across the state. The big debate this year is likely to center on the bill's price tag. Dayton has proposed a $1.4 billion bonding bill. Meanwhile, GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt has said he'd like to see an $850 million bonding bill.

Mazeppa GOP Rep. Steve Drazkowski said he is urging Republican leaders to require Democrats get on board with passing a robust tax bill before agreeing to pass a bonding bill.

"I am pushing for and promoting that we need to provide the hardworking taxpayers of the state of Minnesota their overdue tax relief before we consider putting more money on the state's credit card," Drazkowski said.

Getting a bonding bill passed this session needs to be a priority, according to Norton. If lawmakers are unable to do that, it will represent a huge political failure.

"The primary purpose of this session is a bonding bill," she said. "And, to me, if we don't do a bonding bill, there's a serious lack of cooperation and statesmanship going on in this state.
Yes, at the GEC voting center at the Westin.

Yes, at one of the satellite voting centers open on Saturdays.

No; I'm voting on Nov. 8.

No; I'm not voting in the general election.

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Yesterday, I suggested that the key to Donald Trumps success so far in this presidential campaign may be belief in the Trump brand  the same faith exhibited by those who enrolled in Trump University. As a friend puts it, Donald Trump isnt running for president, Donald Trump is.

Years ago, I read somewhere that a key to Trumps business success is his ability to lend his name to enterprises operated by others. Trump University is an example, along with Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka, ventures that Marco Rubio has mocked.

Kevin Williamson discusses this phenomenon in the context of more successful Donald Trump businesses:

[Trump] boast[s] that he employs a large number of people at a Honolulu hotel he claims to own. But he does not employ anybody at that hotel, and does not own the hotel. Trump is lying. Trump has a famous name, and he rents it to various enterprises, much like Paris Hilton and her perfumes or George Foreman and his grills. The Hawaii hotel in question makes it very plain that it is not owned by Donald Trump: Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki Beach Walk is not owned, developed or sold by Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization or any of their affiliates.

Trump is, as Williamson says, conning voters who infer from his name the ability to help America win through great deals. Trump U students similarly inferred that Donald Trump would help them become successful and wealthy.

Williamson believes that many voters are willing to be conned because they are full of spite and wish to annoy people they resent. This may be true. But the people who were conned by Trump U were not full of spite and resentment. They just wanted to get rich quick.

I dont mean to discount anger as an explanation for the rise of Trump. But Ted Cruz also makes a strong pitch for voters disgusted by the Washington cartel.

Trump is more iconoclastic than Cruz and this is probably one key to his success. The most salient difference between the two, however, may be that voters believe Donald Trump has more to offer than a first term U.S. Senator.
PR-Inside.com: 2016-03-08 20:50:02

A.M. Best to Host Bests Credit Rating Methodology Update Briefing in London

A.M. Best

Charlotte Jackson, +(44) 20 7626 6264

charlotte.jackson@ambest.com

A.M. Best will host a Bests Credit Rating Methodology Update Briefing on Wednesday, 23 March, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., at Balls Brothers Minister Court, in London, United Kingdom.

A.M. Best is currently undertaking a significant restructuring and revised presentation of its credit rating methodology for insurance companies. While there is no change to the underlying principles of the current analysis, the new methodology will provide greater transparency and takes advantage of new benchmarking and other analytical tools. Concurrently, A.M. Best is updating its proprietary risk-based capital model, the Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) model, which once finalised will be implemented in conjunction with the revised methodology. The briefing will provide market participants with important insights into these two initiatives.

Registration can be made online at http://www.ambest.com/conferences/ambmulondon2016/. Enquiries can be addressed to events@ambest.com.

A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2016 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201603080066
Nigerian oil workers union, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) on Monday opposed plans by the Federal Government to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) next week, describing the plan as a display of arbitrariness.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, had last Thursday announced at the Oloibiri Lecture in Abuja, that the NNPC would be split into five regional corporation and 30 affiliate companies as part of the ongoing restructuring at the national oil company.

Mr. Kachikwu was also quoted as saying that the positions of Group Executive Directors (GEDs) would be phased out under the new arrangement.

But oil workers are fuming over the planned arrangement and have indicated their intention to stoutly oppose the move, saying it was capable of sending a wrong signal to the investment world.

Acting General Secretary of PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa, said the move would be tantamount to policy reversal by government.

The unbundling plan will stave off investors from the nations oil and gas industry at this time when the nation needs foreign investment most to grow the industry, which currently is the mainstay of the economy, Mr. Okugbawa said.

He accused the government of not considering existing laws establishing the NNPC before planning to unbundle the corporation.

There is an existing NNPC Act of 1977 that set up the NNPC. This Act has many provisions that deal with structure and operations of the corporation.

There are many issues such as pensions and transfer of the employees, provided for in the NNPC Act of 1977. What will happen to all these provisions of the law? the PENGASSAN official asked.

For the government to restructure the NNPC, he said the Act must either be repealed, or amended, pointing out that if this was not done, the exercise would amount to lack of respect for the rule of law.

He said the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, expected to be the legal instrument for the ongoing reforms of the oil and gas industry, would be meaningless if government introduces plans outside the reforms.

Any unilateral statement is capable of heating up the industrial climate and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, he said.

The PENGASSAN acting general secretary called for an all-inclusive forum where all issues confronting the industry could be looked into and solutions proffered to them.
The regulatory impasse between the countrys telecommunication regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission, and a leading GSM service provider, MTN, has taken a new dimension, with a recent payment of N50billion good faith deposit by the latter.

The crisis began in October last year when the NCC slammed a N1.04 trillion (about $5.2 billion) fine on MTN for failure to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered subscribers SIM cards from its network.

Shortly after the announcement of the fine, MTN claimed it had secured a 35 per cent reduction, equivalent to N647 billion (about $3.4 billion) from the NCC.

NCC however blamed typographic error in its letter to the operator, saying the actual reduction was by 25 per cent (N780 billion).

As the December 31, 2015 deadline for the payment of the fine elapsed, the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, claimed the final decision on the matter rests on the Presidency, clearly ignoring his role as the head of the supervising ministry.

But as a regulatory agency established by law of the National Assembly, the NCC has the full backing of the constitution to make and enforce its rules and regulations, with the supervision of the ministry, and without reference to any higher court.

Industry experts argued that it was the lack of firmness by government officials to enforce its rules that emboldened MTN to go to the Federal High Court in Lagos to challenge the fine.

But, as far back as 2013, the Director of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement at the NCC, Ubale Maska, said the regulator had written to all operators in the Nigerian telecom sector, giving a July 1, 2013 deadline for every unregistered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to be disconnected from their networks.

He said the NCC cautioned that any operator that failed to comply would be liable to a fine of N200,000 for each SIM card pursuant to Regulations 19 and 20, Section 15(2) of the Registration of Subscribers Regulations, Act 2011.

Clearly, more than two years later, MTN Nigeria flagrantly ignored the regulatory directive. But, the same company and its parent group were the first to describe the fine as excessive and arbitrary, said an industry player, Sam Nelson.

At the expiration of the November 15, 2015 deadline, when MTN refused to pay the fine, NCC was compelled to allow an extension to December 31, 2015. The regulator also threatened other sanctions, including a possible withdrawal of its operational license.

Interestingly, more than two months after the deadline, the impression Nigerians are left with is that government laws are meant to be breached with impunity without any consequence, Mr. Nelson said.

Last month, MTN Nigerias Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman, announced the companys decision to withdraw its suit against the Nigerian government, following a part payment of the fine to the federal government.

The announcement, however, stirred controversy with NCCs Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, claiming the commission was never aware of either the MTNs decision to withdraw the case or of its payment of N50 billion good faith deposit to the federal government.

Although the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, initially also denied knowledge of the deal, confirmation came later to reveal the involvement of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

The Attorney-General, who later confirmed that MTN, through its legal counsel, approached his ministry to indicate willingness to withdraw the case, said nothing concrete took place.

He explained that the N50 billion was a good faith gesture towards an amicable settlement of the fine saga.

The matter is what the office of Attorney-General of the Federation, as the chief law officer of the federation, is constitutionally vested with the powers to do, as the matter is pending in court, Mr. Malami said.

The minister further explained that an audience with MTN should not be misconstrued as an intention to saddle the NCC, the federal government or his office with an obligation over the fine.

Experts however picked holes in the said meeting with Mr. Malami, saying since the NCC had handed down appropriate sanctions in line with the terms agreed by all operators, there was no basis for the meeting.

In the first place, why was NCC not involved in all preliminary negotiations and decisions, having direct or indirect bearing with the fine, being the agency at the centre of it all?

Whatever the impending meeting is worth, the Nigerian government must bear in mind that any decision that fails to uphold the sanctity of the regulatory authority of the NCC on the issue would be setting a dangerous precedence, a telecoms expert, Jide Aminu said.

He cautioned that the country must avoid pandering to sentiments other than national interest.

Since the fine was imposed, the argument has been that if MTN pays the fine, it would go under, irrespective of the dire security implications of its condemnable act of ethical indiscretion.

Those promoting these views conveniently ignore the fact that laws are not there for fun, but to be obeyed for the orderly conduct of society.

Any attempt for the Nigerian government not to stand its grounds and enforce its rules would send a wrong signal to other operators, and indeed prospective investors, that the countrys laws are nothing more than a huge joke.

MTNs body language from the onset suggests a complete disregard to Nigerian laws.

At the very beginning, MTN said per second billing was not possible in the country. Until other operators came to give a lie to that claim, MTN was smiling to the bank, Mr. Aminu argued.

In a move seen by industry experts as an attempt to block government from recovering the fine from MTNs accounts in Nigeria, the operator moved to transfer funds from its accounts in about 21 commercial banks.

The move was however halted by a Federal High Court order in Lagos.

Records indicate that between October 2007 and May 2009, MTN repatriated over $7.7 billion of revenues generated from its operation in Nigeria to foreign accounts, including those in Mauritius, Cayman Island and British Virgin Island.

On Wednesday, the MTN Group published its 2015 financial statement, indicating that it recorded massive losses in its operations during the year.

The company blamed the declining performance on the regulatory sanction on its Nigerian subsidiary.

To enable it settle the fine, the group said its management had made a provision of about N119.6 billion, or R9.3 billion, which is only 15.3 per cent of the N780 billion it has been asked to pay.

Experts say regulatory sanctions are hardly flouted in developed countries of the world.

In 2010, when British Petroleum was indicted for gross negligence over its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the regulatory authorities slammed a fine of $18.7 billion on the company  the largest environmental fine in US history.

In 2013, JP Morgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the world, was compelled to pay a total of $3.68 billion for foreclosure irregularities, illegal manipulation of electricity markets, ripping off credit card customers, and compliance failures at four different regulatory agencies relating to billions of losses on the London Whale trade.

Several other examples abound of fines imposed on organisation for regulatory infractions.

Experts argue that since government had already waived 25 per cent of the fine, any further review would not only make a mockery of the Nigerian law, but also open it to being taken for granted.
It is now about nine years since Ibrahim Mantu, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, left office as deputy president of the Nigerian senate. During his tenure, Mr. Mantu was one of the most powerful politicians in the land, and was regularly described as the most trusted henchman of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the Senate.

After he was defeated by a little known politician in 2007, Mr. Mantu slipped into political obscurity, building his business and strengthening his relationship with God, he says.

In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES Musikilu Mojeed and Adebayo Hassan, Mr. Mantu spoke about a wide range of issues, including his role in the controversial third term bid of former President Obasanjo. Sam Akpe, a veteran National Assembly reporter and editor facilitated the interview.

This is the first part of the interview. It is vintage Ibrahim Mantu, and its a must-read.

Excerpt:

PT: How has it been for you since you left office as the Deputy Senate President?

Mantu: I can say it has been rough and smooth. Rough in the sense that when you are out of office, the challenges of life can become more difficult. And those who benefit from you or are dependent on you dont see difference between when you are in office and out of it as long as you still look ok, dress well, use good car and stay in the same house as I happen to do. They dont seem to understand that anything has changed at all. So if you gave somebody N50 before and then give him N20 now, they will say you have now become stingy and so on.

But the smooth side of it is that one has got time to reflect on the past and see where one must have gone wrong while in office. One thinks of what one should have done differently because as you mature in life, your values about life changes. Time changes everything. So, the smooth side of it is that there is now more peace of mind. You sleep well. You determine how many hours you want to sleep and how many hours you want to work.

For me as a person, I may say the greatest joy I have is the fact that I have more time to be closer to my creator. I have time to pray, read the Holy Book and the rest. This time around, I have so much time to read the scripture; practice my religion and visit the holy land, sometimes three times in a year which was not possible before. So this time is the sweetest because when you are closer to God, and you have peace.

PT: You talked about the continuous expectation, especially by those who depended on you while you were in office. It might be they still expect you to dish out patronage because of the expectation that politicians steal so much money to last them a life time?

Mantu: It is a very unfortunate perception here because holding public office is synonymous with making money. Thats why I said when they appoint you minister of information, minister of science and technology where there is no patronage to extend or much money to access, people will say how I wish he was minister of Abuja, finance or works.

People have equated occupying political office with making money, and, this is because of the corruption in our system. People dont see offering selfless service as a unique opportunity given to you by God and your country to excel and write your name in gold. They see it as a means of enriching themselves and making lots of money.

Even when you are out of office, they still believe you must have taken so much money. But like I said, when I was in office, I had my allowances, entitlements and the rest of them, so I could actually be more generous with people when I was in office than when I am out of office. But right now, and it may interest you to know that the position of presiding officer in the Senate or House of Representatives, as high as it is, we dont enjoy any pension as of now. But a former governor or deputy governor enjoys his pension and other entitlements, we dont have that one.

So, it is true that people equate sensitive political office as a way of automatically making money. I dont blame them because somebody will be appointed a minister or elected to the Senate or House of Reps. He might have had a car that you will have to push to start, but after three months, the car will become the latest BMW or Mercedez Benz and he will have the best house in the village. So, people will say so this thing is so lucrative. It is the corruption in the system that gives that kind of perception that when you are given an appointment, it is automatically synonymous with making money.

PT: Now, you say as you age, your value changes and you begin to reflect. Do you want to reflect on your time in office? What would you have done differently?

Mantu: Well, if I were in office today, I would have actually concentrated more on sponsoring bills that would actually fight corruption. Not fighting corruption by introducing all sorts of punitive measures but fighting corruption in a way thats appealing to the conscience and attitude of the people. There should be a way of targeting attitudinal change. When you change attitudinally from your heart, you change permanently. But when you change because you are afraid of consequences of the offence, which means you are a changed person because of fear of committing fraud or whatever. But when you change from your heart, its like somebody who has become born again. Nobody needs to police you. You will just do the right thing.

Secondly, I would have targeted bills that would promote unity of this nation so that we can see ourselves first and foremost as Nigerians before we see ourselves as Akwa Ibom, Lagos or Ekiti. You know we allow tribalism and religious differences to stand between us and progress.

The truth is that it is difficult to baptize a Bayelsa man to become an Akwa Ibom man. A Fulani man will remain Fulani forever. This cannot change. So, what cannot be changed must be endured. We must find a way of living together in peace and harmony. We must also know that religion is something between you and your God. It has got nothing to do with your relationship with another man. So when its about issue of common interest, we should work together. Take for example, corruption or poverty does not know Hausa or Igbo man. These are areas we have to pool resources.

PT: So why did you not do these when you were in office?

Mantu: Because I was not mature enough to think the way I am thinking now and I didnt have enough time to think about all these. When people have enough, they will think and think.

PT: You know talking about corruption. Nasir El-Rufai accused you and Senator Zwingina of demanding bribe from him for his ministerial clearance. Whats the real issue? What actually happened?

Mantu: The real story was in the open. I think you are either not in the system or just being mischievous. When the issue came up, there was a committee set up. The investigation was in the open. It was not in camera. So everybody who is interested must have known what happened? What was the outcome? At the end of the day, El-Rufai said there was a demand that he should give money but initially he said he gave money to Zwingina and I to approve him as a minister. And he said before that time, in fact in Punch, that he had evidence of how he actually gave money to Zwingina and me.

But when the committee asked him for evidence, he said there was a demand but he didnt give anything. You know if there was a demand and he didnt give anything and they asked him when he came before the Senate (for ministerial screening) what I did. He said I said he was a whizkid which meant I praised him. Obviously, if I praised him, it must have been that I was working for the money he gave me. But when he said he didnt give me money, its another contradiction. If he said he didnt give me money after I demanded and he came before me, I must have been very hostile because the condition for approving him was not fulfilled.

PT: The reason we asked is that it happened several years back. Maybe there were things you didnt want to say at the time.

Mantu: Truth does not change. There was nothing I didnt say because it was between my integrity and the people. My integrity was at stake; so, there was no way I could have held anything back. I said the truth and the truth is always constant.

PT: So whats the relationship between you and El-Rufai today?

Mantu: Very cordial!

PT: How did you resolve the conflict?

Mantu: The committee resolved the whole matter and it was a public hearing. And the people knew exactly what happened. I dont begrudge anybody forever. I have a forgiving heart.

PT: You and El-Rufai were Obasanjo boys at the time. It was something some of us could not understand at the time. Why would two people belonging to the camp of the president bicker over a matter like that?

Mantu: I have a different relationship with Obasanjo. The genesis of that problem was that when El-Rufai was leaving Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, he actually handed over to his in-law, one Tijani, and he had planned that his in-law would take over from him as DG. But I brought Julius Bala three months after El-Rufai had actually left BPE. So Julius Bala was appointed DG. So by the time he knew somebody else other than his in-law was appointed DG, he traced the emergence to me. And that was the beginning of the problem because he felt he had recommended someone and somebody else came to take over the job. So, he wanted to take his pound of flesh.

The question is if he knew what he said was true, why did he have to wait for three months before he revealed the story. If he were correct, when he came before the Senate, he would have said some of you demanded money from me for approval, I dont believe in buying this position, I believe I merit it. He would have been a hero there and then. But he didnt say anything. He would have said it even a week after he had been sworn in. Why did wait till after three months when that issue of BPE came up before he revealed this matter?

In fact, to be honest with you, I already contracted Rotimi Williams to go to court. But Obasanjo begged me to let the sleeping dog lie. I lost N15 million because I already paid Rotimi Williams.

PT: You had very close relationship with Obasanjo. What brought you together? What is your relationship with Obasanjo?

Mantu: You remember that in the National Assembly from 1999, nobody hated Obasanjo like I did. Nobody abused Obasanjo like I did. He was my breakfast. He was my dinner. He was my lunch. Then, by the time I became deputy president of the Senate, I had the opportunity to work closer with him because by virtue of my being a presiding officer, we met once in a week. Before, I was viewing him from a distance and he was also viewing me from a distance. But now our offices had brought us to work closely together.

Even at that time, everybody maintained his hostility. Each time it came to my point to make contribution, I would attack whatever he said. He would do same to me. We continued like that until one day he called me to his office and said listen, in my own part of the world we respect elders and authorities. Even if you dont like my face, you should respect my office and I am older than you. I said in my own part of the world too, we respect elders and authorities. Then, why are you not respecting me, he asked. I then said I was sorry. He stood and embraced me warmly.

And if you asked me why I was opposed to him; it was because we wanted Chuba Okadigbo to become the President of the Senate. Obasanjo didnt offend me as a person. I didnt know Obasanjo, he didnt know me. I knew him as a former head of state but I never set eyes on him until he became candidate of the PDP because it was in Jos that we did the Convention. But most of us wanted Chuba Okadigbo to become Senate President because we knew his capacity in the NPN (National Party of Nigeria) and he was a role model to some of us. He was a dashing young man and we saw him as a role model.

But overnight, they came and used all sorts of influences and Chuba was not elected the following day. You know that time we were staying at Hilton. So Anenih would just come, knock on your door and say your Chuba was erratic, he slapped the President and all sorts of things. So they worked on our colleagues and we lost that election to (Evan) Enwerem. That was the only thing Obasanjo did to me.

That was why Enwerem, may his soul rest in peace, was the saddest president ever produced by the Senate. If he took one step forward, we would make sure he took three steps backward. So, he could only last for six months. Because with the kind of attacks we were giving him, he was always looking like somebody who had lost his mind and you would never see him smile.

He was under serious mental torture because we did not allow anything for him until we brought Chuba as our President six months after. So, that was the genesis of my hatred for Obasanjo but by 2001 when I became the Deputy Senate President, we had opportunity to interact closely like I said earlier. Our relationship continued to improve and I appreciate him for who he is. Obasanjo is a nationalist. He does not care whether you are Yoruba or Igbo. Once you have something to offer, it brings you very close to him and he would use you for his objective. He does not care whether you are Christian or Muslim.

PT: And people actually knew you were Obasanjos henchman in the Senate. Can you specifically tell us what he used you to achieve in the National Assembly?

Mantu: Well, I can say what he used me to achieve was what the National Assembly also used me to achieve for this country. You know Obasanjo was very unpopular with the National Assembly, both Senate and House of Reps. So, when he was almost impeached and it was clear he was on his way out, I called some people in that chamber and I said we were beginning to overheat this polity and we should be careful. I didnt want a situation where the military would come and take over. We had suffered under the military for so long. Therefore, we should not allow our emotions to becloud our objectivity so that democracy would not be scuttled. So I began to appeal to the conscience of the people and was able to scuttle the impeachment process. That was the only thing that I did that Obasanjo appreciated me for.

PT: How did he appreciate you? You know some believe he must have given you a lot of money.

Mantu: But you know Obasanjo does not part with one kobo. Even his own relatives, when they come to him, he would give them five naira or N10. So, anybody who knows Obasanjo very well will tell you Obasanjo will never buy anybody. He is not the kind of person that expresses appreciation by giving you money. Never! He could shower encomiums, call you great man and so on. But if you have something you want like I took Julius Bala to him for BPE job. When he saw that Julius Bala was the only person in Nigeria that had Ph.D. in Privatization, that was what attracted him. Then he asked me to bring the person and Julius Bala reminded him that he was the one interpreting for him in Japan. Obasanjo said oh you were the one! That again helped. Again, that is to tell you Obasanjo cares for merit. Once he knows you are qualified for something and you have value to add to it, he will go for you.

Scuttling the impeachment process brought me closer to Obasanjo. But many people believe I was close to Obasanjo because I was the arrowhead of the tenure elongation project, the so-called third term project. Thats absolutely not true. I have held series of press briefing in the past when the accusation against me was at its peak.

I told people not to mix my role as Chairman of the Constitution Review committee with supporting tenure elongation of Obasanjo. I was the Chairman of the committee by virtue of being Deputy Senate President. I was not the first person, it is just part of the responsibility of the office of the Deputy Senate President.

First of all, when we were going around the entire nation to collect views about the clauses we intended to amend, one of the clauses was tenure elongation. When we collected the report, many people were encouraging opposition Senators not to sign the report that was going to be presented to the Senate and House of Reps. I asked all the sub-committee chairmen, especially one that had to be with tenure elongation to swear to God if there was anywhere I talked to anybody about tenure elongation project. They said no! I asked if there was a time I asked any sub-committee chairman to write what I wanted apart from what they collected from Nigerians. There was nothing like that. And that was how all the members of the committee, both those who are for and against, signed the report because they knew the report reflected what was collected in the zones and the states.

There was no input from my part as chairman of the committee. I only collected and presented. But because those who were having a burning ambition to become President of Nigeria went to the press like you people, and the press hyped something that was not a story at all. And they made tenure elongation out of 103 clauses as if that was the alpha and omega of all the changes.

Then, at the end of the day, we ended up throwing away the baby and the bath water. So, even recently, I asked if there was anybody in the entire nation that I called to support Obasanjos tenure elongation project. The answer is no. But the impression was as if I were made Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee to ensure Obasanjos tenure elongation project scale through. Unfortunately, when the press decides to overblow something, people will believe what they read as the golden truth. But thats not the truth because many of us sponsor you people to write what suit our interest.

PT: So in simple term, what was your role in the tenure elongation project?

Mantu: Was there any hidden role again? The role was open. I did not have any hidden agenda about tenure elongation. If I had, would I have gone to discuss it with spirits? It was human beings that I would tell. And up till now, nobody has said Mantu came to him to canvass support for tenure elongation.

PT: Did Obasanjo speak to you at the time?

Mantu: Obasanjo did not tell me to bend the rules to accommodate his interest. Never! Indeed, let me say for the benefit of hindsight, I would have expected the media to approach Obasanjo if he had interest in elongating his tenure.

The fact that he subjected himself to the constitutional procedure of doing so should have been applauded because there were presidents who would sit tight. Of course, we are aware of a president in Africa who said I am the country, the country is me. And he refused to go.

If Obasanjo had wanted to cause confusion, he was still the incumbent President, he could have caused a lot of problem. He could have even asked the military to stage a coup against him. Then, United Nations would come and say we should negotiate and that Obasanjo should be there for two years and all sort of things. So, at times, no matter how bad something is, let us look at it objectively and see the other side of it. In everything that appears to be bad, there is something good also there. For subjecting himself to constitutional procedure, he should be applauded. Look at Rwanda, the President subjected himself to constitutional process of elongating his tenure and he is still there because he has brought a lot of transformation to the country.

PT: But it happened in Burundi and there is crisis.

Mantu: Thats because its not popular there. When it is popular, there wont be crisis. Obasanjo too, many people felt he had done something well. People mentioned countries like Singapore, South Korea and said somebody had been there for over 30 years who brought transformation.

PT: But how did the third term project fail, given that your party had majority of the States Houses of Assembly and majority in the National Assembly?

Mantu: It failed because most of the Senators bought into the campaign of those people who did not want Obasanjo to have another tenure because they were also very eager to take over Aso Rock. And those were the people who went to buy the press, buy everybody to hype all sorts of negativity about Obasanjos tenure elongation.

PT: Something dramatic happened on the floor that day. The bill died. As a seasoned politician were you expecting it to happen? Did you see the handwriting on the wall as you were heading towards that stage of voting?

Mantu: As far as I am concerned, it (the third term plot) died before that day. It died some days before because something happened that led to its death. Let me say it was not popular with a lot of Senators. Maybe those who were supporting the tenure elongation did not do their work in terms of showcasing its advantages. But the mistake people made was that it was not going to be for Obasanjo alone. It was for all Presidents because proponents of that project believe two terms of four years is not enough to make impact in terms of transforming the nation economically.

PT: As Obasanjos friend in the Senate, what was his attitude towards you when this effort died?

Mantu: I dont want to say much about that. All I know is that he was not happy. But he knew a tree could not make a forest.

PT: Where did the money come from? The N50 million that was shared to lawmakers at the time.

Mantu: Those who took the money know themselves. Some of your colleagues took pictures of those who went to Central Bank with bullion vans. Did you see Mantu there?

PT: Some people thought the money came from you and that you shared the money?

Mantu: Your colleagues who were smarter than you followed them to the CBN, took the pictures? Did you see me there? I was not even in Abuja when it happened.

PT: So they didnt bring your share?

Mantu: I was not in Abuja. Nobody said I did.

PT: Looking back now, since this is a moment of reflection for you, what would you have done differently in the case of tenure elongation project?

Mantu: The truth is if I had known Nigeria would find herself where we are today, I would have even taken the last drop of my blood to ensure it happened because it would have been in the greatest interest of the nation. We never envisaged we would be here. Since Obasanjo left, the way this country has been run up to this moment, I weep for Nigeria.

To be continued
South African telecoms company, MTN, is negotiating with the Nigerian government for a possible reduction of a N780 billion fine imposed on the firm, President Muhammadu Buhari said Tuesday.

At a joint news conference with South Africas President Jacob Zuma, who is on official visit to Nigeria, Mr. Buhari said the talks could also agree on a payment schedule.

The fine, imposed by the Nigeria Communications Commission in October 2015, has been a subject of controversy for months. The commission initially asked MTN to pay N1.04 trillion for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered subscribers, but later reviewed the sum to N780 billion.

The telecoms company has yet to pay the fine. In January, MTN took legal action, challenging the powers of NCC to issue the fine.

After missing repeated deadlines for payment, MTN announced late February it had paid N50 billion in good faith towards and amicable resolution of the matter. The company also announced the withdrawal of its lawsuit.

In his first public comment on the matter, President Buhari said Nigeria was not concerned about the money, but the security implication of MTNs failure to disconnect unregistered lines.

He said the company chose to go to court rather than negotiate with the authorities.

MTN had withdrawn their case from the court and decided to go back and renegotiate the fine, which they consider very stiff, with NCC to find ways the fine can be reduced and given time to pay gradually, Mr. Buhari said.
The Nigerian Medical Association in Osun State has said it was awaiting the report of its committee investigating a medical air force officer, Chukwuma Okpara, who was alleged to have battered a female doctor, Theresa Ugalahi, a staff of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital.

Mr. Okpara, a Wing Commander with the Nigerian Air Force, on a residency programme at the OAUTH, was alleged to have assaulted Ms. Ugalahi, last week, inflicting injuries on her.

The altercation was said to have been caused when the female doctor, living in the same residential building with Mr. Okpara, delayed in removing her car directly parked behind his car when he wanted to drive out of the compound.

The Chairman of the NMA in the state, Suraj Ogunyemi, told PREMIUM TIMES on the phone that a committee had been set up to investigate the matter and appropriate sanctions would be meted out if the air force officer was found culpable.

The NMA as a body has its own way of dealing with such misconduct, because it is unprofessional and unethical, Mr. Ogunyemi said.

The committee has a week to do their job and thereafter we see how it goes. That kind of conduct is unacceptable and it is unfortunate in this environment. It has not happened here before, we have never seen such.

According to Mr. Ogunyemi, the female doctor, who was immediately admitted to hospital after the incident, was responding to treatment.

She needs all our support really, he said. It is a traumatic experience.

However, Mr. Okpara has since denied the allegation, saying instead it was the lady that assaulted him.

He accused Ms. Ugalahi of hitting him with a pedal lock even when he did nothing to provoke her.
The World Bank has set aside a $100 million grant to five states in Nigeria to improve girl child education, Tunde Adekola, Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, has said.

The five states are: Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa and Sokoto.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the grant was provided under the Nigerian Partnership for Education Project.

Mr. Tunde stated this on Tuesday in Katsina at the inauguration of the project, saying the grant was provided to support the education of children, especially those at the rural areas to have access to qualitative education.

He said the grant would also be used for the training of teachers, renovation of schools, provision of teaching materials and offering scholarship to students.

He said the World Bank would strengthen the school management system to improve the quality of education in primary schools.

The World Bank official commended the five benefiting states for providing enabling environment and necessary teaching materials in schools.

He said the World Bank would collaborate with other developing agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO and DFID for successful implementation of the project.

Earlier, the governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, said his administration had set up a department of girl child education and appointed a Special Adviser for the office.

He said his government had given education top priority by setting aside 22 percent of the 2016 budget for the improvement of education sector.

He said the state government had introduced scholarship programme for female teachers studying at Isah Kaita College of Education and other higher institutions in the state.

Mr. Masari commended the World Bank and other donour agencies for their financial support to the education sector.

In his remarks, the Emir of Katsina, Abdulmumini Kabir, expressed concern at the deplorable state of the education in the state, urging the government to rescue the sector.

(NAN)
Troops of 26 and 28 Task Force Brigades of the Nigerian Army on Tuesday repelled an early morning attack by Boko Haram insurgents on military locations at Pulka and Bitta on the fringes of Sambisa forest.

A statement by the spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Sani Usman, said two of the attackers were killed in Bitta area, while 16 of them were killed in Pulka area.

Today, troops of 114 Task Force Battalion came under three-pronged attack by Boko Haram terrorists fanning out of Sambisa forest from Damboa, Tokumbere and Pulka axis.

At the end of the debacle, two Boko Haram insurgents paid for their atrocities with their lives while several others sustained gunshot injuries.

The fate that befell those that attacked Pulka was more dreadful.

The ever-ready and vigilant troops rose to the occasion by repelling the attacks and killing all the 16 attackers and captured one of them alive during the exploitation.

The gallant troops also recovered 11 AK-47 rifles, three General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs), one Browning Machine Gun (BMG) and 2 Toyota Hilux vehicles.

Others are a 60mm Mortar tube, seven boxes of 12.7mm ammunition and one belt of 12.7mm ammunition.

It is gratifying to state that there were no casualty on our own troops except for 3 soldiers that sustained minor injuries.

The troops remained on maximum alert and are equally busy consolidating and continuing with their clearance operations with high morale, said Mr. Usman, a colonel.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party will hold its national convention to elect new leaders in May, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

The date and venue was announced on Monday at the end the 69th meeting of the partys National Executive Committee (NEC), in Abuja.

The communique Of the NEC meeting, which was signed by the partys national chairman and secretary, Ali Sheriff and Adewale Oladipo respectively also said the NEC approved the time-table for the partys congresses.

It said congresses would commence on Saturday April 23, while the national convention would hold on Saturday May 21, 2016 in the Rivers state capital.

The NEC also approved the extension of the tenure of office of all organs of the party at all levels until the conduct of congresses and national convention, except those of Edo and Ondo states.

NEC approved the setting up of four special committees in preparation for the national convention. They are National Convention Committee, Reconciliation Committee, Zoning Committee and Finance Committee, the communique said.

Harassment of Opposition

The PDP NEC also said it had observed the erosion of fundamental human rights and constitutionally guaranteed personal liberty of Nigerians especially key leaders of the PDP by the APC-led Federal Government.

The party condemns the incessant harassment, maltreatment and unlawful incarceration of PDP leaders at various levels by government-controlled law enforcement and prosecution agencies.

It particularly condemned the alleged invasion and raiding of Ekiti State House of Assembly last Friday and the subsequent arrest and continued detention of four PDP members of the House by the the State Security Service on trumped-up charges.

The party demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the four PDP members of the Ekiti Assembly.

It called on the international community and all civil rights organizations worldwide to take note of the denial of fundamental human rights, abuse of liberties and freedom of individuals; and the rapid descent of Nigeria into totalitarianism.

The party condoled with the families of its 18 members who it said were murdered in Ogoniland in Rivers state.

It also commiserated with the Federal Government and the Government of Kogi State over the unfortunate death of the late Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi, and promised to send a high-powered delegation to condole with his family.
A former special assistant to the immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, Nicholas Ashinze, has sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly detaining him illegally, demanding N500 million as compensation.

Mr. Ashinze also prayed an Abuja High Court to issue an order declaring his arrest and detention by the EFCC, since December 23, unlawful.

In the suit filed against the commission, the Chief of Army Staff and the Nigerian Army, Mr. Ashinze also asked the court to issue an order preventing his re-arrest.

The EFCC accuses Mr. Ashinze of diverting funds meant for the purchase of arms by Mr. Dasuki.

He was arrested by the commission on December 23, 2015 for his alleged involvement in the diversion of $2.1 billion by the former NSA.

Mr. Ashinze has remained in the custody of the EFCC since his arrest, without been charged to court.

His counsel, Mike Ozekhome, filed a fundamental rights suit before Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court seeking his immediate release from the custody of the EFCC and a compensation of N500 million.

He also asked the court to grant him bail on self-recognition, since the other parties to the matter, the Nigerian Army, and the EFCC, were not present at Tuesdays sitting.

The judge adjourned the matter to March 14.
The Benue State Commissioner of Police, Paul Yakadi, on Tuesday said in Makurdi that the departure of herdsmen from the state marked an end to clashes between them and farmers.

Mr. Yakadi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the herdsmen had started leaving the state on their own volition to end the ongoing crisis with farmers.

He noted that the decision of the herdsmen to leave the state would give peace a chance.

The herdsmen have started leaving the state for peace to reign. They are leaving in their numbers, but that does not mean the crisis has ended.

We believe that in no distant time peace will return in the affected local governments and the people will return to their homes again.

My men are trying their best to end this crisis. Our people too must learn to live with one another and manage disagreement amicably without violence, he advised.

The commissioner said the Benue command was expecting two additional units of mobile police from Asaba and Abakaliki to quell the farmers/herdsmen crisis.

He said the new units would be deployed to the hinterlands to assist the other officers already on ground to fully end the crisis.

The commissioner appealed to both parties to show restraint and learn to live with one another in peace.

The local government areas engulfed by the clashes included Agatu, Buruku, Logo, Kwande and Makurdi, the state capital.

(NAN)
The House of Representatives has summoned the Director-General of Department of State Security Service (SSS) to appear before it within 48 hours to explain why SSS personnel invaded Ekiti State House of Assembly.

The summon followed the unanimous adoption of a motion under matters of urgent public importance moved by House Minority Leader, Leo Ogor (PDP-Delta) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Armed operatives of the SSS invaded the assembly complex on Friday and reportedly arrested four members.

Mr. Ogor decried the action, saying such interference violated the principle of separation of powers.

It is a clear violation of the provisions of the constitution; it is unacceptable as it demonstrates interference with an arm of government.

If somebody violates the law and nothing is done, it gives him the privilege to move forward.

Therefore, it is important that we summon the Director-General of the DSS to explain where the agency derives its powers to invade and destabilise the activities of the House.

It is important to respect the rule of law and the sanctity of this institution must remain sacrosanct, Mr. Ogor.

The speaker, Yakubu Dogara, referred the matter to Committee on Public Safety and Intelligence for further legislative action.

(NAN)
The Federal Government on Tuesday said it would soon unfold a framework for managing $321million Abacha loot to be repatriated by the Swiss government.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said this at a meeting with a Swiss government delegation to Abuja. The team was led by the countrys Head of Foreign Affairs Department, Didier Burkhalter.

The meeting was also attended by the Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Eric Mayoruz.

Mr. Osinbajo promised that the recovered funds would be put to good use for the benefit of Nigerians.

We guarantee that recovered assets would be put to uses for which they have been intended, the vice president said.

Once finalized, the framework will be made available publicly, and it will cover the whole spectrum from the source of the stolen asset to how it would be managed once recovered.

The framework will guarantee that returned assets will be used in the interest of the people of this country, he added.

While commending the Swiss Government, Mr. Osinbajo said, Switzerland has always been at the forefront of returning stolen assets and ensuring that the people of Nigeria get the benefit.

Mr. Osinbajo assured a coalition of eight Swiss and Nigerian civil society groups that the recovered funds would be put to good use.

The groups, led by the Executive Director, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, David Ugolor, had asked the Swiss and Nigerian governments to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of the repatriated funds.

Nigeria and Swiss governments, together with the World Bank, must take all measures necessary to guarantee that these funds be returned in a manner that is transparent and benefits the general population of the country, the people that were initially cheated out of their money, the groups said in their petition.

The meeting also featured the signing of a Letter of Intent, between the Swiss Government and its Nigerian counterpart on the restitution of illegally-acquired assets forfeited in Switzerland.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the head of the Swiss delegation, Mr. Burkhalter, signed the document.

Under the agreement, the Swiss Government will award to Nigeria, $321million of funds illicitly acquired by the Abacha family which were initially deposited in Luxembourg and confiscated by the judiciary of the Republic and Canton of Geneva pursuant to a Forfeiture Order dated 11th December 2014.
The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, on Tuesday requested Nigerian men to marry more than one wife to show care to women.

He specifically advised the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to marry another wife. Mr. Saraki is currently married to one wife, Toyin.

Mr. Ndume gave his advice while contributing to the debate on the motion to mark International Womens Day moved by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Oluremi Tinubu.

In the motion, Mrs. Tinubu paid tribute to women, saying, We represent courage and resilience (and) without us I dont think this country will move forward.

Mr. Ndume, in his contribution, asked men to marry more wives as a way of taking care of them.

I urge men to marry more than one wife, he said. The first care of a woman is marriage.

Men should take care of women by not just befriending them, but by going further to marry them. I know there is nowhere in the Bible that prohibits marrying more than one wife.

Starting with the senate president I ask him to consider marrying more than one wife, he said.

Mr. Ndume, thereafter, made a formal request to the Senate. He asked the upper legislative chamber to declare that Nigerian men should marry more than one wife.

As a sign of respect for women, lets urge men to marry more than one wife, he said.

Suleiman Nazif, representing Bauchi North Senatorial District, in his contribution, supported the senate leader.

However, the request failed as Mr. Saraki the nays have it!

Responding to Mr. Ndume, Binta Garba (APC Adamawa state) made a counter remark.

We are not sex objects. Bible is in support of one man one woman.

We want gender parity. Where women and men can work side by side, Ms. Garba said.
South Africas President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday praised Nigerias democratic example in peacefully transferring power in 2015, and charting the way the entire continent of Africa needs to follow.

Addressing a joint session of Nigerias National Assembly in Abuja, Mr. Zuma hailed Nigerias long history of pan-African struggles, and offered his countrys help to Nigeria in the areas of solid minerals and power.

In this building that symbolizes, democracy, Mr. Zuma said, with the manner you achieved democratic change through the 2015 election, we are incredibly proud of you. You charted the way the entire continent needs to follow. We salute you for that.

Mr. Zuma applauded Nigerias frontline role towards the cause of freedom and an end to Apartheid in South Africa.

He specially noted the pro-Africa commitment of former head of state, Murtala Muhammed, reputed for his staunch Afrocentric foreign policy and the liberation struggle in South Africa.

Under late Mr. Murtala, killed in a coup detat 40 years ago, Mr. Zuma said Nigerias support for Augustino Netos Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA, helped the Southern African country attain independence in 1975.

He said Nigeria and South Africa had leadership role to play to achieve peace and prosperity in Africa.

He said Africa should move away from its colonial status of being producer of primary commodities in the international economic system to producer of finished goods.

Mr. Zuma was accompanied to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari in a historic appearance. It was the first time a foreign leader would be accompanied by the host president to the National Assembly to address the Nigerian lawmakers, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said.

Mr. Zuma said South Africa could assist Nigeria in the areas of solid mineral exploration and electricity generation.

South African solid minerals mining experience can contribute to solid minerals exploration in Nigeria. Our success in the electricity can also be tapped into to assist the Nigerian electricity generation, Mr. Zuma said to the applause of the audience which included members of Federal Executive Council and the lawmakers.

Earlier, Mr. Zuma, who expressed sympathy over the death of Nigerias junior labour minister, James Ocholi, said the honour of addressing the National Assembly indicated the serious of the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa.

He advocated improved cooperation between the two nations.

Although Nigeria and South Africa have many Memorandum of Understanding and bilateral agreements, he said both countries should pursue their implementations for mutual benefits.

He disclosed that South Africa now has 120 companies operations in different sectors of Nigerian economy, from four in 1999.

He assured that South Africa will review its visa policies for Nigerians to boost trade and partnership.
President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the Nigerian government was forced to impose a hefty fine on South African owned telecoms firm, MTN, after it was discovered that the sale of unregistered SIM cards by the company aided the terrorist group, Boko Haram, to continue to kill Nigerians.

Mr. Buhari made the disclosure Tuesday during a press conference he held with the visiting South African president, Jacob Zuma, at the State House presidential villa in Abuja.

Mr. Buhari was responding to a question on the matter by a South African journalist who said the hefty fine imposed on MTN may likely scare the firm away from the country and hurt ongoing bilateral agreements regarding trade between the two nations.

The concern of the Federal Government was basically on the security and not the fine imposed on MTN, he said.

Mr. Buhari also said Boko Haram has killed over 10,000 Nigerians since 2009 and the use of unregistered SIM cards aided them.

You know how the unregistered GSM are being used by terrorists and between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram.

That was why NCC asked MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM.

Unfortunately, MTN was very slow and contributed to the casualties. And NCC looked at its regulations and imposed the fine on them, he said.

The president added that the Nigerian government decided to allow the security agencies, as well as the NCC and MTN to deal with the issue.

He however said unfortunately for MTN, they went to court and once you go to court, you virtually disarm the government, because if the Federal government refuses to listen to the judiciary, it is going against its own constitution.

Therefore, the government has to wait and I think MTN has seen that and decided to withdraw the case and try to go back and negotiate with government agencies on what they consider a very stiff fine can be reduced or may be given time to pay gradually.

On his part, the visiting South African president was asked about Nigerian funds which were seized by the South African government during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan as well as the xenophobic attacks in South Africa by citizens of the country against other African nationals.

Mr. Zuma said Nigeria and South Africa are currently working the issue of confiscated funds.

Relevant structures are working on it and there are some that have been discovered and recovered, but there are some that the necessary departments are doing investigation. We would certainly appreciate if we succeed in recovering all other issues so that they would be returned back, he said.

On Xenophobia, Mr. Zuma said it was an unfortunate experience because, as he said all Africans are the same. It is the colonialists through borders that make us to think we are different from one another.

He said as far as the South Africa government is concerned, all Africans are the same and that view is what is being used to address the unfortunate incidence of xenophobia adding, we believe we have dealt with these issues and we need this kind of inter action among countries.

We like our people in both countries and other countries to realize that we are the same. We have the same objectives and the same interest and we have the same kind of destination as Africans, he said.

Mr. Zuma had also earlier informed the gathering that the discussion held with President Buhari centred on reviewing various bilateral and multilateral issues.

He said the two leaders have noted with satisfaction the ever growing cooperation in many sectors including trade and investment; defence and security; immigration matters; energy; mineral resources, and others.

He also said they have recognised the important role played by the South Africa-Nigeria Binational Commission since its inception in 1999.

As we forge a strategic partnership between the two sister nations, we have decided to elevate the Bi-National Commission to the level of Heads of State.

In this way my Brother and I will be able to lead as well as monitor progress in various areas of cooperation, he said.

Mr. Zuma said Nigeria and South Africa have signed over 30 bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding.

These agreements, he said, cover a wide range of cooperation areas including trade and industry, transport, energy, defence and security and immigration among others.

We have directed the relevant Ministers to move with speed in implementing all signed agreements.

We have also directed our Ministers to identify joint projects in the key high impact strategic development areas, which will have socio-economic benefits such as employment creation to our peoples, he said.
The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Shehu Sani, has expressed his support for President Muhammadu Buharis decision to involve Nigeria in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition against terrorism.

The senator said in a statement on Tuesday, that the coalition was a commendable step towards confronting and combating the menace of terror globally.

ISIL is the source and inspiration for terror groups worldwide and there is no alternative better than the Saudi initiative, Mr. Sani said.

The Saudi initiative provides opportunity for non aligned nations and nations bedeviled by terror and violent insurgency to tackle the scourge from its roots.

He said Nigerians should not attach any religious meaning to the initiative as terrorism poses a common threat and danger to global peace and to people of all religious affiliation.

Nigerias presence in the coalition is in the best national interest of Nigeria as Nigeria is also a victim of activities terror groups with possible affiliations to ISIL, he said.

A collective danger can only be addressed by a collective action. No nation of the world can individually contain or combat terror without an alliance in the pursuit of its total eradication.

Mr. Sani further said the fight against armed terror groups should not be the exclusive responsibility of global powers.

From Somalia to Yemen to Iraq to Afghanistan and beyond, terrorism represents a common threat to world peace and stability; it is a moral and political duty for nations of the world to act in unison of words and action to save humanity, he said.
By Ebuka Onyeji

A total of 30 candidates drawn from 14 political parties will contest the chairmanship seats of the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory on March 19.

Also, about 206 candidates will contest the councillorship positions in the area councils.

This was contained in a statement by the Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Augusta Ogakwu.

The councils are Abaji, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Kwali.

The statement indicated 13 parties, including the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, are fielding candidates in AMAC while two parties are presenting candidates in Abaji.

It also indicated that four parties would field candidates in Bwari, Gwagwalda and Kuje Councils while three would present candidates in Kwali Council.

Meanwhile, INEC Deputy Director of Publicity, Ndidi Okafor, has said the commission had no major challenges in the preparation for the poll, adding that it was ready for the election.

She however appealed to political parties and their candidates to shun violence in the ongoing campaigns and during the election.

Ms. Okafor, who disclosed this in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said card readers would be used during the poll despite the position of the election tribunals and courts.

The card readers are very effective and it will be used in the forthcoming elections alongside the PVCs so as to ensure a hitch-free election, she said.
Eighteen persons were burnt beyond recognition on Sunday night during a head-on collision between a lorry and a Toyota Hiace 18-seater bus in Buzaye Village, along Bauchi-Jos road

The accident occurred at 10.45 pm., few kilometres away from Bauchi, witnesses said.

The Police Public Relation Officer of the state command, Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the incident, said the accident occurred when the truck heading towards Jos collided with the fully-loaded 18 seater bus coming from Abuja.

As a result of the collision, the bus caught fire, Mr. Mohammed said.

The police spokesperson identified the vehicles involved in the accident as a DAF Truck with registration number XC-675-BAU, and a Toyota Hiace bus with registration number BAU-148-XR loaded with 18 passengers.

Eighteen victims were certified dead, among whom were seventeen passengers burnt beyond recognition, Mr. Mohammed said. Their Corpses were deposited at the Mortuary for postmortem examinations.

According to him, the police patrol team attached to to the GRA Division and men of the fire service from Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic rushed to the scene, put out the fire and rushed the victims to ATBU Teaching Hospital, Bauchi.

The police spokesperson said so far two victims have been identified  the bus driver (Alhaji Adamu Maijamaa, of Jahum, Bauchi, male and 45 years of age) and a passenger (Yahaya Umar, of Unguwan Dawaki, Bauchi, male and 41 years of of age).

He said the case was under investigation and that effort was on to ascertain actual cause of the accident.

Mr. Mohammed urged members of the public whose relatives travelled from Abuja to Bauchi on Sunday to visit the motor parks in Abuja and check the passengers manifest or report at the ATBU Teaching Hospital Bauchi for identification of victims.
Following the crisis in the Mile 12-Ketu area of Lagos State last week, the State House of Assembly has called on the state government to consider a relocation of the Mile 12 market.

Reacting to the crisis that occurred in the market last week, where some people lost their lives and properties destroyed, the House said, under matter of urgent public importance moved by the lawmaker representing Oshodi Isolo Constituency II, Hon. Jude Idimogu that the incident was unfortunate and should be avoided.

The Assembly consequently called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to relocate Mile 12 and Owode Onirin Markets to another location after conducting necessary feasibility studies and when accompanying infrastructures must have been provided.

While commiserating with the family of those, who lost their lives in the incident, the House condemned the killings and the attitude of soldiers stationed at the market, but who could not prevent the crisis.

The House then called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to constitute a high-powered enquiry into the crisis and punish the perpetrators.

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa had earlier said that the incident was a result of disagreement amongst brothers, adding that the state government should summon courage and come up with a political will on the issue.

Soldiers have been stationed at the market since 1999, yet they have not been able to solve the problem. There is a police station there, what did the DPO do, when the incident occurred.

It is a market without structure, we can move the market to another place if we can provide an alternative. We should look at a new planning, we cannot have such a market at the centre of a megacity, he said.

He emphasized that the matter should be investigated and that the culprits should be brought to book, and that the military men stationed at the market should be investigated since they could not do anything about the matter before it got out of hand, while also suggesting provisions of CCTV in our markets.

But Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu suggested that the matter should be properly investigated to avoid a -re-occurrence rather than just relocating the market.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Wasiu Sanni Eshinlokun stressed that the market was not well organised and that a visit to the place would revealed that it is not a conventional market.
The Head of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, Tuesday said the agency has begun the process of overhauling its informal sector operations to ease voluntary compliance by tax payers.

Mr. Ogunsanwo disclosed this at the LIRS press conference held in Lagos.

His Excellency has also recently approved the upgrading of this function of our operations to a full Directorate in appreciation of the enormity of work to be done and importance attached to it, he said.

To this end, we have identified three categories of tax payers in the informal sector. These are: market men/women and artisans; micro, small and medium scale enterprises (including professionals); and household domestic staff.

The LIRS boss said the agency had mandated its partners to commence the production of electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (eTCC) within 72 hours.

Taxpayers are enjoined to contact our Help Desk/Hotline if this service delivery standard is not met.

Physical filling of Annual Returns is being complemented with e-submission to ease compliance by taxpayers. This year, we got 95 percent  unprecedented  compliance from all employers of labour in Lagos State.

During a question-and-answer-session with journalists, Mr. Ogunsanwo said the low income earners being targeted for taxation are those earning N300, 000 annually or less  which includes household security men, cooks, nannies, and others.

We are targeting domestic helps who are self-employed, whose income come to them directly, they are actually taxable. If you are earning N300, 000 or less per year, the law says that it is taxable by a minimum of one percent.

If your income is N300, 000 per annum, you will pay one percent, that is, N3, 000 per year or N250 per month.

On whether the state government had a contract with Alpha Beta Consulting, for the company to collect revenue on behalf of the state, Mr. Ogunsanwo said various consultants were collaborating with the government.

We continue to engage with consultants, he said. All they do for us is to collect data. There is nothing like anybody collecting revenue on behalf of the government.

Earlier, Adeniji Kazeem, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, said the challenge had always been how to ensure people willingly pay their taxes to reduce the cost of its collection.

I want to assure Lagosians that the era of tax evasion and indeed avoidance is coming to an end under the administration of Governor Ambode. We are going to aggressively pursue tax avoiders and evaders. The Lagos State Ministry of Justice will provide adequate support to the LIRS in its quest to ensure that tax payers are complying with our tax laws, said Mr. Kazeem.

Prosecution and jail term for defaulting tax payers will be a tool that we will be actively using to ensure full compliance. Tax officers, I understand, will be very aggressive in their collection of taxes and the public is hereby advised to cooperate with them because obstruction of these tax officers in their lawful duty can and will lead to prosecution.

Mr. Kazeem said the Ministry of Justice would establish a Rapid Tax Prosecution Unit to assist the LIRS in its tax collection drive.

The Unit will work closely with the LIRS and its Legal Department and the Revenue Court which the Chief Judge of Lagos State has recently agreed to set up to aid our effort, he said.

Tax dodgers watch out because the long arm of the law will eventually reach you. All tax payers are also reminded that giving false information is also an offence and can be used in the prosecution of your tax default. If you pay your taxes regularly, you will have no problem.
Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos on Tuesday urged the state government and other relevant authorities to ensure that the perpetrators of the mayhem at Mile 12, Ketu are severely punished.

The monarch made the call when he met with the leaders of Hausa and Yoruba communities in the state as well as traditional rulers around Ketu and Ikosi areas.

He said violence with its attendant destruction of lives and property was not acceptable.

He added that those who carried out attacks should be treated as enemies of the state.

At a time when all hands should be on deck to move the state forward, some people rather chose to take innocent lives, destroy properties and unleash terror on some residents of the state.

This is totally unacceptable. Those who did it must be punished, Oba Akiolu said.

They must be severely punished. Even if my son or my brother is fingered in the violence, he must be made to face the law.

I am the paramount ruler of Lagos and I will not sit and watch destruction of peoples lives and properties in my domain.

The violence is unjustifiable and those behind it should not go scot-free, he said.

Akiolu described ethnic clashes in the state as one too many, and urged residents to co-exist with one another peacefully and be their brothers keepers.

He said Lagos was a melting pot of ethnic nationalities in the country and wondered why some people incessantly attempted to threaten the diversity of the state.

The monarch urged traditional rulers around Mile 12 and Ketu to give true leadership to their subjects and promptly intervene in disputes before they escalated.

Everybody in the market, whether Hausa, Fulani or Igbo, should know that they are there to make a living.

And if you are in a place to get something for your family, are you supposed to be fighting?

This madness must stop. Everybody should live together in peace. The traditional rulers should always relate with their subjects to ensure peace.

We do not want violence in Lagos, he stressed.

Akiolu said he heard of plans by the state government to relocate the market to a more suitable location and added that he would support the idea if it would serve the interest of the state.

He commended the government and the police for the safe rescue of the three abducted girls in Ikorodu.

The monarch called on residents to be more vigilant to check the activities of criminals.

Oba Samuel Oloyede of Ikosi thanked Akiolu for holding the meeting, saying it was an opportunity to strategise and find lasting peace at Mile 12.

The traditional ruler said he would engage every party at the Mile 12 market to ensure the unfortunate incident did not recur.

The Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos State, Aminu Yaro, said the incident was unfortunate and promised to constantly engage the leaders of Arewa communities on peaceful co-existence with their host.

The incident was unfortunate. We will do our best to talk to everybody on how we can handle things better to avert this kind of problem, he said.

The March 3 Mile12 violence between the Yoruba and Hausa communities left at least eight persons dead, while several properties were destroyed.

(NAN)
Police arrested and handcuffed two Ogun State workers Tuesday as a strike embarked upon by the states civil servants entered day two.

The workers were arrested as union leaders converged to monitor full compliance with the strike, at the entrance of the Oke-Mosan secretariat which houses the governors office and state assembly.

The government had on Monday night, through the secretary to the state government, Adeoluwa Taiwo, threatened to sanction workers who failed to resume duties.

Union leaders, who made efforts to monitor workers compliance, were hindered by the police.

The Secretary to the State Government, Adeoluwa Taiwo, who later arrived the scene and addressed workers, ordered the release of the arrested workers.

The chairman of Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Abiodun Olakanmi, later told journalists that workers would not be intimidated by the threat to return to work.

Mr. Olakanmi, accompanied by Akeem Ambali (chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress) and Olubunmi Fajobi (chairman, Trade Union Congress), said the threat of sanction by the government, should be ignored.

Mr. Olakanmi urged workers to disregard all effort by the government to intimidate them, insisting that the strike would continue till further notice.

The JNC states hereby categorically that all machinations of the state government to intimidate workers and coerce them to submission and servitude be disregarded. Under no condition would the organized labour in the state submit to cheap propaganda being peddled by the government, he declared.

It should be mentioned that until the government remit all deductions from workers salaries that there is no going back. The JNC therefore call on workers to reject out rightly the threatening message being circulated by the state government directing workers to report to work. You are advised to keep calm and stay at home until the strike is called off by labour leaders in the state.

The Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Taiwo, in an interview with journalists, denied any form of maltreatment on the part of the police, saying the workers leadership were trying to blackmail police after realising that the strike was a failure.

He declared that the government may have to apply no-work, no-pay rule, if the workers refused to return to work.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




DUBLIN, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/s4r53l/high_performance) has announced the addition of the "High Performance Film Market - Global Trends & Forecast to 2020" report to their offering.

The global high-performance film (HPF) market, in terms of value, is projected to reach USD 42.25 Billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 7.51% from 2015 to 2020.

High-growth application areas such as construction, packaging, automotive & transportation, and electrical & electronics, and extensive product launch and agreement & collaboration activities by companies are key factors driving the growth of the global HPF market.

The HPF market is expected to witness substantial growth, due to the increasing demand for and adoption of the films in various applications, including construction, packaging, automotive & transportation, electrical & electronics, aircraft/aerospace, and other applications (photography, personal car, clothing, and office products).

Currently, Asia-Pacific is estimated to be the largest market for HPF, accounting for more than half of the global market share, by value, in 2014. China dominated the Asia-Pacific HPF market in 2014, followed by Japan. India is the fastest-growing market for HPF, and is expected to surpass China in the near future.

The high economic growth rate, growing demand for applications (such as packaging, automotive & transport, aircraft/aerospace, electrical & electronics, construction, and others), low-cost labor, and competitive manufacturing costs are the main factors boosting the growth of the HPF market in the Asia-Pacific region.

Although the HPF market is growing at a significant rate, certain factors could hinder market growth. High capital expenditure and the need for technical expertise are restricting the growth of the HPF market.

Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Industry Trends

7 HPF Market, By Material

8 HPF Market, By Type

9 HPF Market, By End User Industry

10 HPF Market, By Region

11 Competitive Landscape

12 Company Profiles

Companies Mentioned:

3M Company

American Durafilm

Covestro AG

E.I. Dupont De Nemours and Company

and Company Eastman Chemical Company

Evonik Industries

Honeywell International Inc

Sealed Air Corporation

Solvay S.A.

The DOW Chemical Company

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/s4r53l/high_performance

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
VIENNA, Austria, March 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

European pharmacists will have an opportunity to learn more about the fully automated IV compounding system and how it can significantly improve patient and hospital staff safety.

NEVO Europe, a specialist in IV compounding automation solutions, will promote RIVA, the world's only fully automated IV compounding system at the EAHP Congress 2016, which will take place in Vienna on March 16-18, 2016.

NEVO Europe will provide information about the innovative automated IV compounding technology at the 21st Congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists at booth #19.

Representatives of NEVO Europe will meet with hospital pharmacists and distributors from all over Europe to discuss the advantages of RIVA, which prepares IV admixtures for both general medications and hazardous preparations in syringes and bags in an aseptic environment. By using RIVA, hospitals can enhance patient safety, lower cost-per-dose of medications and cut waste.

A recent study indicates that legislation and guidance concerning reconstitution of parenteral (IV) medicines are either nonexistent or insufficient in most countries belonging to the Council of Europe.

Researchers noted that European patients' health was at risk due to poor reconstitution and compounding practices. These risks include microbiological contamination, incorrect product composition, and health and safety issues.

"All critical compounding manipulation issues, including wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong diluents and possible microbial contamination, are addressed by RIVA," said Efi Gross, CEO of NEVO Europe. "EAHP will provide us with an opportunity to show European hospital pharmacists how they can use IV compounding automation to improve patient safety and reduce injury among hospital pharmacy staff."

RIVA is engineered to accurately and safely increase efficiency for routine repetitive movements related to the compounding of many frequently prescribed admixtures.

NEVO Europe's team at EAHP will help visitors calculate and evaluate-tailored to their hospital's environment and needs-how RIVA can optimize compounding efficiency in their own facilities.

About NEVO Europe

NEVO Europe is a leading provider of IV compounding automation technology and healthcare solutions to the European market.

Our flagship product is RIVA, the world's only fully automated IV compounding system, which prepares syringes and IV bags in a compliant, aseptic environment.

For more information and to schedule meetings with us at EAHP 2016, visit http://www.nevo-europe.com

Contact person

Dana Barocas

Business Development & Marketing Manager

NEVO Europe

+44-797-827-9209

dana@nevo-europe.com

SOURCE NEVO Europe
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands and LAGUNA HILLS, California, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SkylineDx today announces its support for Myeloma Awareness Month, an effort conducted throughout the month of March by the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) to increase patient education of multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer that arises from malignant plasma cells.

"Myeloma Awareness Month gives the multiple myeloma community increased visibility and a public platform to promote education and awareness of this debilitating disease," said Dharminder S. Chahal, Chief Executive Officer of SkylineDx. "With an estimated 114,000 diagnoses occurring around the world each year, SkylineDx is committed to improving global access to patient education and prognostic tests, such as the MMprofiler, that enables physicians to quickly and confidently identify multiple myeloma patients at high risk for poor overall survival and short time to progression.

SkylineDx markets the MMprofiler, the only CE-marked in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test backed by peer-reviewed published data designed to risk-stratify newly diagnosed and relapsed patients with multiple myeloma.

The MMprofiler is a prognostic test that determines the level of risk for patients with multiple myeloma by classifying them into a "high" or "standard" risk group. The MMprofiler assesses risk by measuring the activity of 92 genes (the SKY92 gene signature) that are directly or indirectly related to the disease. Patients with a "high" risk classification have a poor prognosis as compared to patients with a standard risk profile, regardless of treatment. The performance of the SKY92 gene signature to risk stratify these patients exceeds that of standard clinical parameters such as serum albumin levels, as well as FISH, and earlier gene expression signatures utilized in myeloma.

"Due to the unique genomic properties of cancer cells, multiple myeloma and subsequent treatments behave differently in each individual patient," said David Siegel, M.D., PhD, Chief, Myeloma Division, John Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack University Medical Center and member of SkylineDx's scientific advisory board. "As a result, it is critically important for physicians to make a careful assessment of genomic properties in newly diagnosed patients in order to choose the most suitable therapy. The use of prognostic tests such as the MMprofiler in early stages of the disease, or when patients relapse, allows physicians to potentially identify the most effective treatment path forward while diminishing the risk for unnecessary therapies and costly procedures that may exacerbate the disease."

The MMprofiler was launched in November 2015 as a CE-marked in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test kit in Europe. Physicians can now send their multiple myeloma patient samples directly to SkylineDx to be run as a service in their central laboratory located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It also enables molecular diagnostic laboratories throughout Europe to use the MMprofiler for analysis at their own facilities. The MMprofiler is currently available for research use only in the U.S.

For more information about Myeloma Awareness Month go to www.Myeloma.org.

About Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer that arises from plasma cells, a type of white blood cell made in the bone marrow. In patients with MM, the plasma cells become abnormal, multiply uncontrollably, and release only one type of antibody  known as paraprotein  which has no useful function. It is often through the measurement of paraprotein that MM is diagnosed and monitored. Most medical problems related to MM are caused by the build-up of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow and the presence of the paraprotein in the blood or urine. The most common symptoms of MM include bone pain, recurring infection, kidney damage, and fatigue. According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, an estimated 114,000 people around the world are diagnosed with MM annually, and the disease represents 0.8% of all cancers globally.

For more information about MM, visit www.hematon.nl/myeloom (information available in Dutch only), www.themmrf.org , www.myeloma.org.uk, or www.myeloma.org.

About the MMprofiler

The MMprofiler is a CE-IVD marked prognostic test to determine the level of risk of a multiple myeloma patient by classifying such patient into a "high" or "standard" risk group with the use of the novel SKY92 gene signature. In the USA the MMprofiler is available for research use only and currently not permitted to be used for clinical diagnostic use. For more information, please visit www.mmprofiler.com .

About SkylineDx

SkylineDx is a commercial-stage biotech company based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Originally a spin-off of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the company specializes in the development and marketing of innovative gene signature-based diagnostic tests to assist healthcare professionals in making personalized treatment decisions for individual patients. These tests are designed to accurately determine the type or status of the disease or to predict a patient's response to a specific treatment. Based on the test results, healthcare professionals can tailor the treatment to the individual patient. The MMprofiler is the company's lead product. To learn more, please visit www.skylinedx.com.

Related Links

http://www.skylinedx.com



SOURCE SkylineDx
OAKLAND, Calif., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 99designs, the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, is celebrating a record-breaking year that includes the strongest performance in the history of the company.

99designs in numbers infographic

In its eighth consecutive year of double-digit growth, 99designs achieved revenue approaching $60 million USD. The 99designs platform facilitates over 10,000 design contests every month, and in total, customers have launched over 500,000 design contests over the life of the company. 99designs' fast growing 1-to-1 Projects feature, a workspace where a designer and a customer can collaborate individually on the platform, has grown 50% year-over-year and now accounts for 15% of the company's total revenue. Designer payouts are now averaging $3.5 million USD per month and have reached $142 million USD lifetime, best in class in the online graphic design world.

"We enjoyed our best year yet in 2015 as we achieved nearly $60 million USD in revenue, including a 50% year-over-year growth in our 1-to-1 Projects service that now accounts for 15% of all revenue," said Patrick Llewellyn, President and CEO, 99designs. "Our success is driven by our single-minded focus on solving the significant challenges that exist in the global design market. By continually investing in the quality of our design community and the tools that allow them to connect and collaborate with customers online, we're attracting a larger segment of premium customers to 99designs. This will fuel our growth in 2016 and beyond."

99designs serves the design needs of entrepreneurs and SMBs looking to launch their brands and has a growing customer base of major brands and marketing agencies that are using 99designs to source graphic design, a validation of the quality of the freelance graphic designers on the platform.

Global expansion has been a central part of 99designs' success and 2015 was buoyed by strong performance in key markets. The top five performing markets are The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. A $10 million USD Strategic Series B financing round in early 2015, led by Recruit Strategic Partners to fuel 99designs' expansion into Asia, has been highly successful as Japan has become 99designs' fastest growing territory ever.

To celebrate these major achievements, 99designs is launching a rebrand that reflects the company's evolution from a destination for startups to get a quick and affordable logo design into the world's largest on-demand marketplace for quality graphic design.

"We want to own design online. We've created a better way to get design done for businesses big and small," said Llewellyn. "This rebrand celebrates what is core to the success of 99designs: the relationships customers have with our curated design community  the quality of work being created on the platform and the connection that designers have with their designs."

About the 99designs rebrand

Over the past eight years 99designs has become the world's largest graphic design marketplace by making it easier for design to do the things it was born to do: build businesses, shift attitudes, and change lives. The rebrand keeps the focus on the customers, the designers, and the way they collaborate to make a difference. Sourced through the company's signature design contest platform, the new logo was designed by Onripus and was chosen from over 4,000 entries from 556 designers around the world. It is one part of the look and feel of the new rebrand that celebrates the connection between the designer, the customer and 99designs.

For more information about 99designs' rebrand, please go here.

About 99designs

99designs is the world's largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a unique design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has paid out more than $142M to designers around the world to date at a rate of $3.5 million per month. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., 99designs has operations in Australia, Germany, Japan, and Brazil.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341208-INFO

SOURCE 99designs

Related Links

http://www.99designs.com


WASHINGTON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Travel is the #1 aspiration of individuals 50-plus, and America's national parks are a popular destination with 75% of Baby Boomers having visited one in their lifetime, according to a recent AARP Travel survey. The survey showed that along with Boomers, Generation-Xers and Millennials also share a love for parks despite the generations' differing reasons for visiting these national treasures.

AARP National Parks Survey

"AARP Travel celebrates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service by keeping travelers in-the-know on new ways to explore America's timeless parks," said Stephanie Miles, VP, Products and Platforms, AARP.

At www.aarp.org/parks, anyone can enjoy exclusive articles, travel tips and more to plan their ideal getaway or vacation, said Miles. "More than half of the 300+ million anticipated national park visits this year will be by people age 50-plus. AARP provides useful information and valuable travel discounts to our members helping them enjoy travel to the parks and more."

Here are some of the survey highlights:

A Love for National Parks Spans Generations : According to the survey, 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have visited a national park before, and nearly all have recommended those trips to others. 9-in-10 Baby Boomers say national parks are ideal vacations for those over age 50, and about 1-in-4 GenXers and Boomers have recently taken a trip to a park to create lasting memories with children and/or grandchildren.

: According to the survey, 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have visited a national park before, and nearly all have recommended those trips to others. 9-in-10 Baby Boomers say national parks are ideal vacations for those over age 50, and about 1-in-4 GenXers and Boomers have recently taken a trip to a park to create lasting memories with children and/or grandchildren. Most Popular Parks: The majestic Grand Canyon as well as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument in the nation's capital are at the top of the list for most popular parks. Others popular parks include Yellowstone, the Statue of Liberty and the Vietnam Memorial.

The majestic Grand Canyon as well as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument in the nation's capital are at the top of the list for most popular parks. Others popular parks include Yellowstone, the Statue of Liberty and the Vietnam Memorial. Ditching the Airport Lines: A major perk in heading to a national park for vacation is avoiding lengthy airport lines and the other tedious tasks that come with flying. 82% of travelers instead pack up their cars for the average 2-3 day road trip to parks, and 19% of travelers would prefer a longer trip next time they go.

A major perk in heading to a national park for vacation is avoiding lengthy airport lines and the other tedious tasks that come with flying. 82% of travelers instead pack up their cars for the average 2-3 day road trip to parks, and 19% of travelers would prefer a longer trip next time they go. Most Popular Park Activities: Sightseeing and hiking are the most popular park activities across generations. Other popular activities include scenic drives, visiting museums, enjoying picnics, and observing wildlife.

For more insight on AARP's National Parks Survey, visit: www.aarp.org/parksresearch

AARP is currently offering a travel sweepstakes that incorporates the parks and is called Explore Your National Parks. This sweepstakes gives U.S. residents ages 45+ the opportunity to win a variety of exclusive prizes. By entering online between March 1 and April 30, 2016, entrants will be eligible to win the first grand prize, a 2016 Volvo V60 Cross Country or the second grand prize, a trip for two on the AARP National Parks Tour with Collette Travel. For more details about other exciting bonuses and prizes, please visit: www.aarp.org/travelsweeps

AARP will also host a live Facebook chat featuring AARP Travel Ambassador Samantha Brown on Wednesday, March 9 at 1p.m. EST. During the chat, Brown will answer participants' questions, offer travel tips and provide recommendations for the 2016 summer travel season. Join the conversation here: www.facebook.com/AARP

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million, that helps people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities, strengthens communities and fights for the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare, employment and income security, retirement planning, affordable utilities and protection from financial abuse. We advocate for individuals in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name as well as help our members obtain discounts on a wide range of products, travel, and services. A trusted source for lifestyle tips, news and educational information, AARP produces AARP The Magazine, the world's largest circulation magazine; AARP Bulletin; www.aarp.org;AARP TV & Radio; AARP Books; and AARP en Espanol, a Spanish-language website addressing the interests and needs of Hispanics. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. The AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Learn more at www.aarp.org.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341643-INFO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20070209/NYF043LOGO

SOURCE AARP

Related Links

http://www.aarp.org


FORT WORTH, Texas, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for its "Crazy Good Food," exceptional value and people-first attitude, has partnered with Buxton to identify growth opportunities for Checkers & Rally's restaurants across the United States. The company, which operates and franchises both Checkers and Rally's restaurants, currently has more than 800 restaurants.

The famous double drive thru at Checkers & Rally's. Checkers & Rally's has partnered with Buxton to identify growth opportunities.

"Checkers & Rally's achieved our best growth in more than 15 years since Checkers and Rally's merged in 1999 and we're prepared to continue our aggressive growth," said Jennifer Durham, Chief Development Officer of Checkers & Rally's. "We look forward to integrating the insights from Buxton's analytics into our development strategy."

As a Buxton client, Checkers & Rally's will receive a customized real estate model delivered through the web-based Buxton Analytics Platform. Utilizing the platform, Checkers & Rally's will be able to analyze potential sites, run daypart traffic reports, and create unlimited market expansion scenarios. Checkers & Rally's joins a growing list of organizations using the Buxton Analytics Platform as a pre-screening tool for real estate location and market planning decisions.

"Buxton is pleased to support Checkers & Rally's growth efforts by providing the insights needed to select outstanding new restaurant locations," said Stephen Polanski, Senior Vice President of Sales at Buxton. "We look forward to being a part of the brand's continued success."

About Checkers & Rally's

Based in Tampa, Fla., Checkers & Rally's, an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for its "Crazy Good Food," exceptional value, and people-first attitude, operates and franchises both Checkers and Rally's restaurants. With more than 800 restaurants and room to grow, Checkers & Rally's is a proven brand with flexible building formats that is aggressively expanding across the country. Checkers & Rally's is a place where franchisees and employees who work hard can create opportunity for themselves, their families, and their communities. In recent years, the brand has been awarded several of the industry's most prestigious awards including: No. 1 Restaurant Franchise in Franchise Business Review's Top 50 Multi-Unit Franchises for 2015, Top 500 by Entrepreneur Magazine, Best Drive-Thru in America by QSR Magazine and the Hot! Again award from Nation's Restaurant News.

For more information, please visit www.checkersfranchising.com.

About Buxton

Buxton is the industry leader in customer analytics. Our analytics reveal who your customers are, where more potential customers are located and the value of each customer. More than 3,500 clients in the retail, restaurant, healthcare, private equity and public sectors have relied on our insights to guide their growth strategies.

For more information, visit www.buxtonco.com.

Contacts: Katie Russell Lauren Moorman Buxton No Limit Agency (817) 332-3681 (312) 526-3996 [email protected] [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/340220

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130731/DA55914LOGO

SOURCE Buxton

Related Links

http://www.buxtonco.com


DALLAS, March 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 8th, Dealmoon.com, the Kayak of Luxury Brands who since 2009 has earned a stunning Alexa rating of 1057, celebrates its 7th birthday in tandem with International Women's Day. In celebration of becoming the #1 passport to the Chinese American audience for #PledgeforParity American luxury brands, Dealmoon.com is sharing International Women's Day's campaign with their 13M monthly voracious deal hunters during the month of March.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341217

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341216LOGO

Between March 7 and March 9 Dealmoon.com will offer over 100 special birthday exclusives from their luxury merchants.

After Alibaba created the online shopping Singles Day, Dealmoon.com brought it to the top retailers in U.S. some of whom offered their most aggressive deals of the year and in 2015, sales on 11/11 surpassed Cyber Monday. Considered one of the world's most powerful "super affiliates," Dealmoon.com has cornered a very specific and brand hungry niche audience and served them up to some of the most cherished brands in the world.

"When we started in 2009," said co-founder, Jennifer Wang, "we had no idea we'd become the 900-pound gorilla in the room, but we have captivated the top 6 luxury department stores in the U.S. and every cherished brand you can think of with our traffic. Though we are based in the U.S., we are an international company and many of our customers are women, and as such we felt a kinship with International Women's Day. Instead of receiving for this birthday, we are giving a gift hoping that our rankings and traffic will make a difference for the Pledge for Parity campaign."

International Women's Day provides an opportunity to encourage gender parity by making a "Pledge For Parity" and choosing to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, challenge conscious and unconscious bias, call for gender-balanced leadership, promote value for women's and men's contributions equally and create inclusive, flexible cultures

About Dealmoon.com - Dealmoon.com is the biggest shopping secret unknown to most Americans, yet it is one of the world's leading cross-continent consumer buying advisory websites with 13M monthly visitors and 4-5M vocal fans on over 40 social media channels. With offices in China and the U.S., Dealmoon.com's curation shopping advisors make product recommendations on exclusives and deals for categories such as beauty, apparel, shoes, handbags, electronics, nutrition, baby, home, travel and finance. Some of the world's most storied brands and cherished retailers and e-tailers are listed. Dealmoon.com's powerful influence has been known to decimate entire inventories of brands from a single posting within a few days. With its massive leverage, Dealmoon.com introduced China's annual Singles' Day to North America; the shopping event (bigger than Cyber Monday) and was lauded by TIME magazine. Dealmoon.com publishes over 400 best-of-web deals per day in both English and Chinese. Dealmoon's shopping app boasts more than 1M downloads.

About International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity and does so with the help of partners such as Accenture, Metlife, BP and the European Bank.

Press contacts:

Marc Kruskol / Alyson Dutch

BROWN + DUTCH PR, INC. 310.456.7151

Email / Email

SOURCE Dealmoon

Related Links

http://www.dealmoon.com


Eric Grosgogeat, who served as CEO of FocusVision for eight years, has stepped down to pursue other opportunities.

"We would like to thank Eric for his leadership and contributions to FocusVision and we wish him the very best for his future," said Dennis Malamatinas, chairman of the FocusVision board.

FocusVision has been best known for its best-in-class research facility video streaming and has expanded its offerings with the acquisition of four leading market research technology firms: Revelation, Decipher, ResearchReporter, and KinesisPanel.

With these additions, FocusVision has become the leading global company to offer end-to-end solutions for both quantitative and qualitative research practices. In 2015, FocusVision was named one of INC 5000's fastest growing private companies.

"Jamin has full support of the board," said Malamatinas. "He successfully built Decipher, knows the research space well and we are certain that he will provide the leadership to take FocusVision to the next level."

About FocusVision

FocusVision is the leading global provider of quantitative and qualitative technology solutions to the market research industry, providing an online survey platform, research facility video streaming, webcam focus groups, ethnography streaming, panel management and mobile device usability studies. FocusVision's services allow research professionals to engage with respondents in any place, at any time. FocusVision has over 350 employees and offices in the US, the UK, Bulgaria, Brazil, Australia and Singapore. For more information, visit www.focusvision.com.

*Decipher is known as Decrypt in the UK

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341747

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160119/323385LOGO

SOURCE FocusVision

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LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jules and Eddie Fleetwood of Birmingham decided to marry at the London Church of Scientology. The Chapel was decked with red and white bows and flowers. Jules, a Londoner herself, now lives in Birmingham but planned her wedding in London especially, as she wanted to share her special day with her two elderly grandmothers 88 and 92 years old.

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Love Is in the Air--Valentine's Day Wedding at the London Church of Scientology

The couple was joined by five bridesmaids in ruby red dresses. The Scientology wedding ceremony was led by Minister Simon Chisholm, who also travelled from Birmingham for the special day. Jules and Eddie exchanged vows, rings and a kiss before they walked down the aisle to their reception held in the Church where guests enjoyed cream tea and champagne.

The radiant bride said of her day, "Getting married at our own Church was a wonderful experience, especially having all my London family together. The London Church is ideal in every sense. My grandmothers thoroughly enjoyed the wedding. It was a perfect Valentine wedding."

The first official Scientology wedding was in 2014, following the UK Supreme Court's unanimous decision acknowledging Scientology as a religion.

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE London Church of Scientology

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LA FARGE, Wis., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Organic Valley, America's largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation's leading organic brands, today announced that Logan Peterman, a Madison-based agricultural research analyst, will be leading organic research initiatives for Organic Valley. In his role as agricultural research & analytics manager, Peterman will lead on-farm data collection and analysis for farm advisory staff, while simultaneously serving as the liaison to the organic agricultural research community. Peterman also serves on the board of trustees for The Organic Center, a non-profit research and education organization in Washington D.C., and chairs the board's scientific sub-committee.

Logan Peterman, Agricultural Research & Analytics Manager, Organic Valley. Photo credit: Richard Bock for Organic Valley

"Whether it's land-grant universities, extension agencies, local veterinarians, or other agronomic advisers, the science of organic agriculture needs to be leveraged now more than ever," said Peterman. "The organic sector continues to mature and needs to legitimize best practices and share findings to usher in substantial agricultural change, within our cooperative as well as in the sustainable agriculture community at-large."

Peterman formerly served as farmer resource manager for Organic Valley for the past four years, functioning as liaison to the farmer-owned cooperative's in-house team of professionals in veterinary care, ruminant nutrition, agronomy, and animal care who serve the 1,800 members across the country. No stranger to organic soil and animal care himself, Peterman has run his own organic farm in the past, as well.

"Cynics and skeptics have for decades put pressure on the organic community to 'prove it,'" commented George Siemon, CEO and a founding farmer of Organic Valley. "And now, with more peer-reviewed studies emerging, as well as internal data gathered from our own farmer-owners, we can confidently say organic has the science to back it up. We are pleased that Logan will help us lead the charge."

Recent scientific studies on organic foods include a peer-reviewed study of organic milk by Washington State University, a meta-analysis of research on organic crops and produce by Newcastle University, and most recently, two meta-analyses also by Newcastle University which found that organic milk and meat contain up to 50% higher levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.

On behalf of Organic Valley, Peterman will address two groups at the upcoming Natural Products ExpoWest Conference in Anaheim, Calif. On Thursday, March 10 at 10:30 a.m., Peterman will serve on the "Organic & Carbon: The Climate Change Connection" panel in the Marriott Grand Ballroom F as part of the Cultivating Organic Track. On Friday, March 11 at 4:00 p.m., he will speak on the National Cooperative Grocers Panel, "Regenerative Agriculture" at the Hilton, room TBD. Additionally, Organic Valley will have a brand and product presence at booth #2831.

Organic Valley: Independent and Farmer-Owned

Organic Valley is America's largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation's leading organic brands. Organized in 1988, it represents more than 1,800 farmers in 36 states. Focused on its founding mission of saving family farms through organic farming, Organic Valley produces a variety of organic foods, including organic milk, soy, cheese, butter, spreads, creams, eggs, and produce, which are sold in supermarkets, natural foods stores and food cooperatives nationwide. With its regional model, milk is produced, bottled and distributed right in the region where it is farmed to ensure fewer miles from farm to table and to support our local economies. For further information visit www.organicvalley.coop. Organic Valley is also on Twitter @OrganicValley and Facebook www.facebook.com/OrganicValley.

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Horton

[email protected]

(207) 838-0084

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SOURCE Organic Valley

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PORTLAND, Ore., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Spot market freight volume fell another 7.9 percent in February, and truckload rates slipped, compared to January. The month-over-month decline was typical of seasonal norms, according to the DAT North American Freight Index, although disappointing harvests in California and Florida also contributed to this year's lower volume. Freight volume typically rebounds in March, due to an influx of seasonal cargo such as spring fruit and vegetables, construction equipment and materials, and a variety of consumer items.

Spot market freight volume in February 2016 declined 7.9% seasonally. Freight availability year-over-year was down 37% due to tepid growth and abundance of truckload capacity.

By equipment type in February, van freight availability declined 21 percent, and refrigerated ("reefer") volume lost 27 percent, while flatbed trailers added 26 percent, compared to January. Spot market rates declined 6.0 percent for vans, 3.5 percent for reefers, and 1.2 percent for flatbeds, month over month, not including fuel surcharges.

Compared to February 2015, overall spot market freight availability fell 37 percent. This continues a 14-month trend of year-over-year declines, due to a combination of tepid freight growth and abundant capacity. Demand declined 44 percent for both van and reefer trailers, and flatbed freight volume lost 24 percent, year over year. Line haul rates fell 11 percent for vans, 7.2 percent for reefers, and 7.7 percent for flatbeds, year over year.

Total rates paid by intermediaries to the carrier declined by 18 percent for vans and 14 percent for both reefers and flatbeds, compared to February 2015, however, due to a 55 percent decline in the fuel surcharge, which comprises a portion of the rate. The surcharge is pegged to the retail cost of diesel fuel, which fell below $2.00 per gallon in February for the first time since 2004.

Intermediaries and carriers across North America listed more than 95 million loads and trucks on the DAT Network of load boards in 2015. As a result of this high volume, the DAT Freight Index is representative of the ups and downs in North American spot market freight movement.

Reference rates are the averages, by equipment type, of thousands of actual rate agreements between freight brokers and carriers, as recorded in DAT RateView. Rates are cited for line haul only, excluding fuel surcharges, except where noted. The monthly DAT North American Freight Index reflects spot market freight availability on the DAT Network of load boards in the United States and Canada. Beginning in January 2015, the DAT Index was rebased so that 100 on the Index represents the average monthly volume in the year 2000. Additional trends and analysis are available at DAT Trendlines.

About DAT Solutions

Based in Portland, Oregon, DAT Solutions provides actionable information to transportation professionals in North America. It operates the industry's largest network of load boards and is a trusted source of supply and demand trends, rate benchmarking, and capacity planning information. Related services include a comprehensive directory of companies with business history, credit, safety, insurance and company reviews; broker transportation management software; fuel tax, mileage, vehicle licensing, and registration services; mobile resource management; and carrier onboarding.

Founded in 1978, DAT Solutions LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Roper Technologies, a diversified technology company and constituent of the S&P 500, Fortune 1000 and Russell 1000 indices. www.dat.com

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SOURCE DAT Solutions

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WASHINGTON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In advance of the March 15 primaries, the U.S. Census Bureau presents a variety of statistics that give an overall profile of each participating state's voting-age population and industries. Statistics include:

Voting-age population and estimate of eligible voters (i.e., citizens age 18 and older).

Breakdown of voting-age population by race and Hispanic origin.

Selected economic characteristics, including median household income and poverty.

Selected social characteristics, including educational attainment.

County Business Patterns (providing information on employment by specific industries).

Statistics on voting and registration.

Profiles are provided for the following states:

Florida

Illinois

Missouri

North Carolina

Ohio

In addition, the Census Bureau is providing a similar profile for the District of Columbia, which holds a convention on March 12.

No news release associated with these reports. Tip Sheet only.

Public Information Office

Connect with us on Social media

census.gov

301-763-3030 / [email protected]

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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Rory Hearne: The increasing concentration of wealth at the top of society has become a major economic, social and political issue. It is surprising, therefore that last weeks Knight Frank Wealth Report 2016, which suggests that the number of ultra-wealthy individuals in Ireland is set to increase by 28% over the coming decade, did not garner more attention.





The Wealth Report 2016 (see here) finds that the number of ultra high net worth (UNHW) individuals in Ireland increased by almost a fifth since 2005 (increasing from 712 to 840) with the number set to increase by 28% to 1075 by 2025. Table 1 reproduces the key data on wealth distribution for Ireland from the Report. These UHNWs are defined as having a net worth of at least US$30 million (after accounting for shares in public and private companies, residential and passion investments such as art, planes and real estate). The Report also finds that the number of millionaires in Ireland is projected to increase from 66,000 in 2005 to reach 100,400 by 2025.





Table 1 COUNTRY-LEVEL WEALTH DISTRIBUTION: Ireland

2005 2015 2025 No. of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals ($30m+) 712 840 1,075







Millionaires ($1m+) 66,400 78,400 100,400







Centa-millionaires ($100m+) 76 90 115







Billionaires ($1,000m+) U 4 5 6







UHNWI % change 2005- 2015 2015-2025



+18% +28%



Dr Rory Hearne is a Senior Policy Analyst at TASC. You can follow him on twitter @RoryHearne

Dr Rory Hearne @RoryHearne Rory Hearne is a postdoctoral researcher in the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute (MUSSI), working on the Re-Invest Participatory Action Human Rights and Capability project in relation to social investment with a particular focus on homelessness and water infrastructure. He has a PhD in political and economic geography from Trinity College Dublin. He is also a former policy analyst with TASC and has worked as a policy researcher and community development worker with Barnardos on social housing regeneration and human rights in Dublin's inner city. He was lecturer in human geography in the Department of Geography, Maynooth University and has researched and published extensively in the areas of housing and social housing, political economy, human rights, social movements, and politics. He is author of Public Private Partnerships in Ireland (2011) and co-author of Cherishing All Equally (2016). He is also a regular economic and social analyst on various national media.

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Source: Knight Frank Wealth Report 2016The Knight Frank Wealth report follows on from the recent Sunday Independent Rich List which showed that the top 300 wealthiest Irish people doubled their wealth since 2010. Analysis of their figures shows that these top 300 have 87.7bn in wealth.There is a stark contrast between this rising wealth for those at the top of Irish society and the reduction in wealth and income for those in the middle and at the bottom. For example, in terms of deprivation, in the same period of time as covered by this increase in wealth, the number of children aged 0-6 suffering from deprivation in Ireland doubled from 55,000 in 2007 to 105,000 in 2014.TASCs recent paper, The Distribution of Wealth in Ireland, based on the CSO Household Finance and Consumption Survey, found that half of all the people in Ireland have less than 5% of the wealth in the country while the top 20% have 70% of the net wealth. It also found that wealth inequality has been increasing over the last three decades.The Knight Frank Wealth Report is particularly interesting and important for the Irish context of a worsening housing crisis and the accumulation of wealth by property investors and vulture funds through the on-going financialisation of housing. The Wealth Report focuses on property (residential and commercial real estate property) as a key aspect of wealth creation (as they term it - of course it is more accurate to describe it as wealth accumulation). They highlight that super-normal returns experienced by those holding residential property helps underpin the net worth of the ultra-wealthy and, therefore, the Wealth Report has documented the performance of prime property and its interaction with wealth creation.Knight Frank themselves are a global property agent and property advisor, handling sales of very large properties. Clearly, promoting the role of property in wealth accumulation for UHNW individuals is an important aspect of their business model.Their Report shows that housing property (primary residence and second homes) accounts for a quarter of UHNWs investable wealth, while commercial property investments make up 11%. Thus, total property investment makes up almost 40% of the wealth of the UHNWs while financial investments (equities, bonds, etc) makes up a smaller proportion (28%). And the importance of property as an asset has increased in recent years with 54% increasing their allocation to residential property in the last 10 years. This contrasts to just 16% increasing their allocation to their personal business (see Figure 1). The reason for the increasing importance of purchasing property was its role as an investment to sell in the future and a safe haven for funds.Figure 1: Where the wealthy invest their fundsSource: Knight Frank Wealth Report 2016In terms of property price increases in prime markets (such as Dublin) they point out that it has been the weight of money from wealthy investors looking to secure assets in leading world economic hubs that has propelled markets to record levels. They also note that there is increased attention being paid by governments on the impact rising investor demand for residential property is having on affordability in key urban markets. I have highlighted the role of global wealth funds in previous TASC blogs (see here ) in worsening the housing affordability crisis in Ireland by driving up rents through the sale of property and land by NAMA to vulture funds.This is the necessary other side of the same coin of property based forms of wealth creation (accumulation). It is, as the critical political economist David Harvey has accurately described, accumulation through dispossession. The vulture funds and banks increase their wealth by dispossessing the poorest of their homes and extracting surplus value or super profits from speculative sales of land and property, along with rental income. This wealth isnt created from thin air  it is being accumulated from losses paid for by the Irish taxpayer through the bank bailouts, austerity and NAMA, mortgage distress and escalating rents and house prices.The result of this is most visible in our housing crisis from the 37,000 still in mortgage arrears to the 1,570 children and their families who are now homeless in Dublin.Figure 2 The worsening homeless crisis in DublinSource: Department of EnvironmentIt is interesting to read in the Report that even the wealthy are realising that the growing concentration of wealth, particularly within the advanced economies, is a major problem. There is a specific Chapter in the Report entitled Wealth Inequality takes Centre Stage which highlights the growing sense of disenfranchisement that is changing the political landscape globally. They explain:.There is also some discussion of various proposals for addressing wealth inequality with reference to Thomas Picketty and wealth taxes and the recent IMF paper highlighting that better access to education and health care and well-targeted social policiescan help raise the income share for the poor and middle class. It is the reports view that higher taxes, curbs on foreign investment and loan caps will continue to spread globally. Although in Ireland we have seen tax breaks (rather than tax increases) introduced for global wealth funds such as Real Estate Investment Trusts.The report also highlights the remarkable growth in cross-border capital flows and investment by individuals and Irelands significant role in this. Their graph (reproduced below - Figure 3) shows Ireland in the incredible position of having greater outward investment (assets that are claims of a local resident on an asset located in a foreign country) than Brazil, Italy or Russia. One would expect the management of funds from the IFSC (with Irelands low tax regime) being a significant factor in explaining this. This once again highlights the likely role of Irelands low tax regime in facilitating the further wealth accumulation of the rich and corporations and rising wealth inequality both in Europe and globally.Figure 3 Shift in global wealth movementsThe data for UHNW individuals in Knight Franks Wealth Report is gathered from 400 of the worlds leading private bankers and wealth advisors who, between them, manage assets for about 45,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) with a combined wealth of over half a trillion US dollars. They undertake the survey with the (scarily named!) ultra-wealth intelligence consultancy  Wealth X. Wealth Xs website states that it provides wealth managers, family offices, hedge fund companies, and investment and corporate bankers with in-depth intelligence on UHNW customers and prospects.Clearly these are people who would have a fair idea of the true extent of the wealth held by the UHNW individuals. But does that mean the information presented in the report is accurate? Or is it what the wealthy want us to know? There is a major issue about the accuracy of data on wealth because of the lack of transparency in the declaration of ownership of property and assets (including company and financial investments). It is expected that the wealthy tend to understate their wealth (for obvious reasons  reducing tax, public and political attention). So maybe the health warning for this data should be that these are likely to be underestimations of the true extent of UHNW individuals. The wealth analysis undertaken by TASC of the CSO data is a more reliable source of information but unfortunately it does not break down to the level of UHNWs.Co-incidently, in terms of the debate about how to address the problems associated with rising wealth inequality, the Irish Times journalist Diarmuid Ferriter reminded us yesterday that it was a Fine Gael Labour government which introduced a wealth tax in Ireland in 1975. It was levied at 1 per cent of the value of assets in excess of 100,000, with family homes, bloodstock, livestock and pension rights exempt. But after the 1977 election, Fianna Fail abolished the wealth tax.TASCs research shows that if a 1% wealth tax on net assets in excess of 1 million (which would apply therefore only to the top 1% of households in Ireland) was introduced today it would have a yield of approximately 500 million (TASC 2013 Wealth Tax). NERI have similarly found that a wealth tax of 0.5% which excluded peoples homes, farm land, peoples vehicles and peoples pension savings could raise approximately 400 million per annum for the exchequer. Such a tax would fall on wealth in the form of investments in property, shares and bonds alongside business assets and savings. Thus the introduction of a wealth tax would provide a significant annual sum of money that could go a long way to address the housing crisis.This again highlights the importance of progressive taxes, such as a wealth tax. They can reduce the levels of inequality through the provision of funding that can address key social inequalities such as the housing and homeless crisis currently affecting growing numbers of families in Ireland.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 02 : Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Central Committee member Thomas Isaac in a Facebook post on Wednesday came down heavily on the Sangh Parivar over the death threats received by journalist Sindhu Suryakumar.

The concerted attack by the RSS criminals on journalist Sindhu Suryakumar following a debate on the JNU issue on Asianet News channel exposed the true colours of the extremist organisation, he wrote.

Propagating a false allegation that Ms. Suryakumar denigrated Goddess Durga during the channel debate, Sangh Parivar sympathisers from within the country and abroad showered threats and abuses on her, the post said.

However, anyone saw the debate would be convinced that she made no such remarks, Mr. Isaac wrote.

Saying this was not an isolated incident, he flagged the case of another correspondent of Asianet, Lallu Sasidharan, who also had a similar experience.

In an interview published on the website of Asianet News channel, Sindhu Suryakumar explained the events that unfolded following the telecast of the debate on JNU row, Thomas Isaac wrote.

Thomas Isaac also hit out at the BJP leadership for maintaining a studied silence on the issue.

Sindhu also mentions that she brought everything to the attention of BJP leaders in the State. However, there has been no let up in the obscenity- and expletive-laden tirade against her, the CPI(M) leader said.

It is worth noting that the BJP leadership in the State has so far neither condemned nor distanced themselves from this depravity, he added.

An uncouth gang of criminals who are deprived of the ability to read, debate, or think has been let loose by the RSS-BJP leadership, he charged.

Sangh Parivar leaders, who feign a gentle demeanour on television channels and during press conferences, are mistaken if they thought that people would shut themselves up at home and keep quiet fearing the threats and smear campaigns of these criminals, Thomas Isaac concluded.

Asianet News editor Sindhu Suryakumar had the other day received death threats over phone following the telecast of a debate on the JNU issue, which she moderated.

Besides issuing death threats, the callers also cast aspersions on her character, some of them even going so far as to call her a sex worker.

The death threats came in the wake of right-wing elements disseminating false allegations on social media that she made derogatory remarks about Goddess Durga during the debate.
Beijing, March 3 : China has set a target of building around 30 nuclear power units in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative routes by 2030, the media reported on Thursday.

According to Sun Qin, president of China National Nuclear Corp, 70 countries in total are already planning or developing their own nuclear power projects, and it is estimated 130 more nuclear power units will have been built by 2020, the China Daily reported.

"But we also face very strong competition in the international nuclear market," he said.

"Countries like Russia, South Korea, Japan and the US are all exploring the global nuclear market aggressively."

Belt and Road destinations are those along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road-the initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping to strengthen regional economic integration and infrastructure connectivity.

Currently China has 30 nuclear power generating units with a capacity of 28 million gigawatts and another 24 units are under construction, according to data from the National Energy Administration.

CNNC is one of China's three nuclear giants.

The operator has already reached bilateral agreements on nuclear energy cooperation with countries including Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Britain, France and Jordan, Sun said.

But he emphasised there was no need to hit full self-sufficiency in nuclear, because many general components can be bought through international suppliers.
Ranchi, March 3 : The opposition in Jharkhand on Thursday forced Chief Minister Raghubar Das to express regret over one of his ministers' alleged remark that legislators take money to raise questions in the assembly.

The opposition moved an adjournment motion in the assembly to discuss Jharkhand Agriculture Minister Randhir Singh's remark made last week, which, it said, sought to damage the sanctity of the house.

"The minister's remark is unfortunate and it demeans the sanctity of the house," said Leader of opposition and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren.

Randhir Singh had allegedly said that the MLAs take money to raise questions in the state assembly.

Heman Soren also expressed unhappiness over Randhir Singh's remark that the previous government did nothing for the state.

"There is a move to establish that the tribal Chief Ministers in past did nothing for the state. This is insulting and an FIR should be lodged against the Minister under the SC and ST Act".

The house witnessed heated arguments over the issue between opposition members and the agriculture minister. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Rai questioned the opposition move to raise the issue.

The opposition members came into the well of the house and sought an apology from the minister. There was much acrimony when Pradeep Yadav of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM-P) said, "The sanctity of the house has been put in the dock. When the minister ditched the party from which he won, how will he hold the sanctity of the government and house?"

Reacting sharply, the minister said Yadav himself had ditched his parent party BJP.

Randhir Singh was one of the six legislators who had defected to BJP, subsequently becoming a minister in the Raghubar Das government.

The Chief Minister pacified the opposition by expressing regrets over the minister's remarks.

"Outside the house the ruling and opposition parties do indulge in allegations and counter allegations. But, in parliamentary traditions, a system should be followed. All the members of the house should maintain the sanctity of the house and if the minister's remark has hurt anyone, I regret such a remark," Raghubar Das said.
Mumbai, March 3 : In a bid to pre-empt an opposition onslaught during the coming Maharashtra assembly budget session, the chief minister and his ministers embarked on a daylong tour of some of the worst drought-hit regions, official sources said on Thursday.

Many of the 27 Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena coalition ministers, including cabinet and ministers of state hailing from both the parties, besides Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, have either left or are slated to leave for their destinations on Thursday to cover 29 sub-districts of Beed, Latur and Osmanabad among others.

The ministers will take stock of the grim water shortages that have severely hit the people in these areas of the dry Marathwada region and submit their detailed reports to Fadnavis.

They were expected to gather in Latur on Friday evening and Fadnavis will make a detailed review after considering the inputs and reports submitted to him.

The ministers will study the impact of shortage of water for drinking, irrigation or industrial purposes in rural and urban areas, cattle camps and availability of fodder for animals.

He will also assess reports of damage to crops in some areas lashed by heavy rains and hailstorms earlier this week, disbursal of aid and relief materials, and response of the local administration to tackle the situation.

The ministerial tours come amid a high-profile five-day tour undertaken by Leader of Opposition in the assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil of the Congress, who has drawn large crowds in several areas of the drought-hit regions since Tuesday.

Pointing out that there were 244 farmland suicides in January alone, Vikhe-Patil in his public meetingsdemanded a complete loan waiver and other relief measures for the farmers.

Following the ministerial tours, the BJP is likely to depute all its legislators and parliamentarians, besides state party office-bearers, to undertake similar tours and monitor relief works to help people tide over the crises till the next monsoon sets in after around 100 days.

The budget session of the Maharashtra assembly will begin in Mumbai from March 9.
New Delhi, March 6 : The CBI on Sunday carried out searches at 10 locations in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) as part of its investigation into the alleged Rs.6,000 crore Bank of Baroda forex scam.

Agency's spokesperson Devpreet Singh said the searches were conducted at the official and residential premises of certain people.

"Rs.40 lakh in cash, rubber stamps of about 44 different companies, 15 PAN (permanent account number) cards and various incriminating documents, including pen-drives and hard discs, connected to the case were recovered during searches," the official said.

In addition, foreign currencies of China, the US, Europe, the UAE, Nigeria, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka were also found, said the official, adding the documents recovered are being scrutinised.

The CBI officials privy to the investigation of the case, say the agency has so far found that around 8,500 foreign remittance transactions were made from 59 bank accounts of various firms against import of goods and software from Hong Kong and Dubai.

"The investigation revealed further involvement of around 11 private persons or entities," the official said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on October 9 registered a case under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, dealing with criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, against 59 current account holders along with "unknown" bank officials and private persons on a complaint from Bank of Baroda.

It was alleged that 59 current account holders and "unknown" bank officials conspired to send overseas remittances, mostly to Hong Kong, of foreign exchange worth approximately Rs.6,000 crore in an illegal and irregular manner in violation of the established banking norms under the garb of payments towards imports that were suspected to be non-existent.

Earlier, the CBI had conducted searches at 53 locations, including a Bank of Baroda branch in Delhi's Ashok Vihar, various companies and other accused persons.

"It was also alleged that the amount remitted in each transaction would be kept at less than USD 100,000. All the remittances were made to Hong Kong," the official said.

The official said the amount was remitted as advance for import and in most cases the beneficiary was the same.

"Most of the foreign exchange related transactions were carried out in newly opened current accounts wherein heavy cash receipts were observed but the branch did not generate Exceptional Transaction Report (ETR) and did not monitor the high value transactions," the official said.

Following the case, the CBI on October 13 arrested then assistant general manager and another officer (Foreign Exchange) of the Bank of Baroda's Ashok Vihar Branch for their alleged involvement in facilitating the foreign exchange remittances by violating the laid down guidelines of Bank of Baroda and thereby facilitating the accused persons in money laundering.

The agency had also filed a charge sheet against the two employees of Bank of Baroda in December 2015.

"Further investigation is continuing with reference to the role of other accused persons, including bank officials as well as alleged 59 account holders and private persons," the official said.
Sydney, March 7 : A man was killed and two others were injured in a shooting incident at an industrial site in Sydney, police said on Monday.

The police had surrounded the attacked industry with an armed gunman still inside, Xinhua news agency reported.

A person was arrested in relation with the incident, said police commander Mark Brett.

"The deceased is 43 years old. Two men with gunshot wounds have been transferred to Liverpool Hospital," Brett said.

"One is undergoing emergency surgery, the other has superficial wounds to the lower part of his body," he added.

The police did not say whether the gunman had any hostages.

"It's at a delicate stage. I really can't give you any more information," Brett said.

Emergency services were called to the site around 10.45 a.m. (local time) on Monday.

Five gun shots were heard in the area, according to nearby people. An employee at a nearby business said one person was dead.

"Police told us not to go near windows," the employee said.

Australians are still on alert since a lone gunman took 17 hostages at a cafe in Sydney in December 2014.

Two hostages were killed along with the gunman during the 16-hour stand-off.
Canberra, March 7 : A gunman who killed one person and injured two others at a Sydney industrial unit shot himself after a six-hour siege, police said.

The police surrounded the site after a man was killed and two others seriously injured in a shooting incident around 10.45 a.m. (local time).

"Three factory people were also at the site who were later rescued after the gunman was found dead around 5.00 p.m. (local time)," Australian ABC quoted Detective Inspector Mark Brett as saying.

"It is believed that the person died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Brett said.

Officers were yet to determine the motive of the shooter.

One man was earlier arrested at the scene for hindering the police, he said.

"Two men with wounds were transferred to Liverpool Hospital."

Police said one of the men had emergency surgery, while the other had superficial wounds to the lower part of his body.

Police said they did not believe the shooting was terrorism-related.

Witnesses from nearby businesses said they heard five gunshots ring out, and one person said police "told us not to go near windows".

A man who works in the building complex where the shooting took place said he heard a loud bang, which he later realised was a gunshot.
Brussels, March 7 : Turkish and EU leaders have gathered in Brussels for an emergency summit on tackling Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.

The EU aims to stem the flow of migrants and plans to declare the route north through the Balkans closed.

It will press Turkey to take back economic migrants and has pledged to give Ankara $3.3 billion, BBC reported.

Last year, more than a million people, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, entered the EU illegally by boat, mainly going from Turkey to Greece.

Many migrants leave Greece in a bid to reach northern Europe, but eight countries have introduced temporary border controls.

Some 13,000 migrants are currently stranded in northern Greece, after Macedonia, backed by Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia, closed its border to all but a trickle of migrants.

The human cost of the migrant crisis was brought home again on Sunday when a boat capsized off Turkey drowning 25 people.

The EU states remain divided over their response to the crisis with strains showing this year even in Germany and Sweden, seen as the countries most open to refugees.

The summit will be in two parts, the first involving Turkey while in the afternoon British Prime Minister David Cameron will join other EU leaders in seeking out a common approach to the crisis.

The EU is expected to ask Turkey to take back thousands of migrants who do not qualify for asylum. In return, the EU will discuss plans to resettle in Europe some refugees already in Turkey.

Last week, European Council President Donald Tusk said he had been told by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his country was ready to take back all migrants apprehended in Turkish waters.

A draft summit communique declared that the route for migrants through the Western Balkans will close. The draft also pledges that the EU will "stand by Greece in this difficult moment and will do its utmost to help manage the situation".

Greece said on Monday that it would meet its pledge on accommodation for refugees, with a capacity of 37,400 by March 15.

The EU last October said it would relocate 160,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Greece and Italy, but there was strong opposition among some members and fewer than 700 migrants have moved.

The future of the Schengen agreement -- which allows passport-free travel in a 26-nation zone -- will also be on the agenda.
Peshawar, March 7 : At least 17 people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

A Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) factional group Jamatul Ahrar, in an emailed statement, claimed responsibility for the attack, terming it as a "revenge of the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri", killer of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

The blast in Charsadda district of the province left over 30 people injured. Two policemen and a woman were among the 17 dead.

Official sources at a nearby hospital told Dawn they received 13 bodies, while the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar received four.

A local police official Sohail Khalid told media that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

The attacker was intercepted by policemen stationed at the court gate while attempting to enter the court premises.

The cops fired at the attacker who detonated his explosives-laden vest.

At the time of the explosion, the courts were crowded after a break over the weekend.

Some vehicles parked in the vicinity of the blast site caught fire.

Security and emergency teams reached the blast site and sealed the area.

The incident came at a time when law-enforcement agencies are said to be making gains in implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and taking counter-terrorism measures across the country.

The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has been waging an insurgency against the state since 2007 in a bid to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

A series of military operations in tribal areas -- the latest of which was Zarb-e-Azb launched in 2014 -- have reduced the TTP's ability to hit major targets regularly, but attacks on security and civilian targets do continue to occur.

Sympathising deeply with the bereaved families, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif deeply condemned the terrorist attack.

"The premier has extended his heartfelt condolences to the victims' families and prayed to Allah Almighty for grant of courage to them for bearing the irreparable losses," a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office said.

Sharif further said that the countless sacrifices by the country's law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism will not go in vain. "The nation is united in its commitment to wipe out this menace from our soil," he added.

"Those who embraced martyrdom in the line of duty sacrificed their today to safeguard a peaceful tomorrow for our future generations, and they deserve gratitude and recognition of the highest degree," said the prime minister.
Washington, March 8 : With Donald Trump going strong in Republican primaries, New York City's former mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped the idea of an independent run fearing it may help the Republican presidential frontrunner win.

"When I look at the data, it's clear to me that if I entered the race, I could not win," wrote Bloomberg who had floated the idea of an independent 2016 campaign -- particularly if Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders were the two major-party nominees.

"I believe I could win a number of diverse states -- but not enough to win the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidency," he wrote in a blog post Monday.

"There is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," Bloomberg wrote.

Trump is hoping to expand his lead while Hillary Clinton will try to block Bernie Sanders from winning his first big state Tuesday when Michigan and Mississippi go to the polls. Republicans will also square off in Idaho and Hawaii.

Tuesday's biggest prize is Michigan with 59 Republican delegates and 148 Democratic ones up for grabs.

The delegates will be awarded proportionately, meaning a candidate can still pick up delegates if they finish in second or even third place, as long as they meet certain thresholds.

The latest polls from Michigan show Trump and Clinton have double-digit leads over their competitors.

Trump is getting 41 percent from likely primary voters, followed by Cruz at 22 percent, Florida senator Marco Rubio at 17 percent and Ohio governor John Kasich at 13 percent.

Trump was leading the Republican pack among every demographic group - men, women, Republicans, independents, moderates and conservatives.

Upset over Trump's rise Republican leaders and donors have arrived at a consensus at private conclaves that a steady blitz of attacks could puncture Trump's support and force a contested convention, the Washington Post reported.

But the slow-bleed strategy is risky and hinges on the primaries in Florida, Illinois and Ohio, it said.

Meanwhile, CNN citing sources said a battle was being waged within Rubio's campaign about whether he should even remain in the Republican presidential race ahead of his home state primary on March 15.

Rubio himself is "bullish" on his odds of winning the critical primary, despite some advisers who are less hopeful and believe a loss there would damage him politically in both the short- and long-term, it said.

Among Democrats in Michigan, Clinton leads Sanders 57 percent to 40 percent. She is leading among African Americans, those 45 and older, women, men and whites. Sanders leads among independents and those younger than 45 years old.

Clinton and Sanders, meanwhile, laid out some of their key differences Monday in a Fox News Channel town hall event in Michigan with Sanders hammering his message of economic equality and prosperity.

Clinton claimed neither she nor her lawyers have been informed that any members of her staff or former staff are targets of an FBI investigation, which focuses on her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Clinton also stood by the decision, as part of the Obama administration, to remove Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Clinton also offered her answer to Sanders' popular free-tuition college proposal, unveiling the outlines of a plan in which students will no longer have to borrow money to attend a public college or university.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
London, March 8 : Britain will deploy military naval ships to join a NATO mission in the Aegean Sea to reduce the flow of migrants from Turkey to Europe, the media reported on tuesday.

The Royal Navy will send amphibious landing ship royal fleet auxiliary (RFA) Mounts Bay alongside two border force cutters to join the NATO mission, Xinhua quoted British Prime Minister David Cameron as saying on Monday.

RFA Mounts Bay, supported by a Wildcat helicopter, is expected to start operations in the coming days to identify smugglers taking migrants to Greece and passing the information to the Turkish coastguard so they can intercept these boats.

They will be supported by three border force boats, including standby safety vessel VOS Grace which is already in the Aegean and two cutters.

"We've got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey," Cameron said.

"That's why this NATO mission is so important. It's an opportunity to stop the smugglers and send out a clear message to migrants contemplating journeys to the Europe that they will be turned back," he added.

At an EU summit in Brussels on Monday, Cameron urged its European partners to break the link between migrants' getting on a boat and getting resettlement in Europe by "smashing the trafficking gangs and increasing the return of illegal migrants."

He also called on the international community to act together and stem the flow of migrants making the "perilous journey" from Turkey to Greece, according to the british government.
Jammu, March 8 : Jammu and Kashmir's criminal investigation department (CID) late Monday evening registered a first information report (FIR) against a journalist for posting inflammatory content on his Facebook social networking account.

Sources in the state police department told IANS that the counter intelligence wing of the CID here registered the FIR against Ramesh Khazanche, a migrant Kashmiri Pandit scribe living in New Delhi, for posting inflammatory, defamatory and malicious content on his Facebook account.

"Yes, an FIR has been lodged against the accused for posting inflammatory, defamatory and malicious content on his Facebook account that could stoke passions in the state," a senior police officer told IANS here.

Reports also said Khazanche was being picked up for interrogation by the sleuths of the state CID on Wednesday.
Islamabad, March 8 : It is for the first time perhaps that militants crossing over from Pakistan into India have not generated negative publicity, said a Pakistani daily which noted that the relationship between the two countries is fraught with mistrust.

An editorial "Benefits of co-operation" in The Nation said, "India has often alleged Pakistani intelligence agencies facilitate militants to cross the border so that they can carry out attacks in Indian cities - a claim the agencies have always denied."

"Regardless of definitive proof, incidents of militants crossing borders, real or fictitious, always strain the relationship between the two neighbours. It is for the first time perhaps that militants crossing over from Pakistan into India hasn't generated negative publicity," it added.

On Monday, top officials in India claimed that Pakistan's National Security Advisor (NSA) Naseer Khan Janjua informed his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval that a group of militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed cadres has crossed over into Gujarat on a mission to a major terror strike.

The warning prompted Gujarat to put its security and officials on high alert and to take necessary precautions.

The daily said that Pakistani officials have yet to confirm if the NSA did convey this warning and despite it, the danger still remains eminent until it is definitively tackled. But both National Security Advisors and their teams can take solace from the fact that a working relationship between the two can lead to sizable benefits.

"The present relationship between the two is fraught with mistrust and held back by the political opinion at home, but this incident should amply highlight the potential of extensive intelligence sharing," The Nation said.

"Not only can the militant threat be tackled from both angles -- removing a major bone of contention between the two nations -- regular interaction, sharing of information and mutual capacity-building will increase the trust between both governments -- a key commodity severely lacking between the two neighbours," it said.

The daily noted that if the militant threat is effectively countered, an argument can be made for increasing the interaction from just NSA to NSA, to a more departmental connection.
Beijing, March 8 : The relations between China and Russia are mature and stable, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is built on the solid foundation of mutual support and mutual trust, and the two sides have a strong desire to strengthen win-win cooperation, Wang said on the sidelines of the national legislative session.

President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met five times in 2015, setting the tone for the continued strong momentum in China-Russia relations, Xinhua news agency reported.

The relationship will not be weakened by any particular incident, Wang said.

"We are making active and orderly progress in various big projects," Wang said, adding that construction has started on the eastern route of natural gas pipeline.

Cooperation on industrial capacity, equipment, manufacturing, agriculture and finance is also speeding up, he added.

Both the countries have strong economic complementarity and a significant desire to work with each other. "Our cooperation is long term and strategic in nature," he said.

Temporary factors will not prevent China and Russia from deepening all-round cooperation, he said.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia treaty on good neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation.

"We want to carry forward the vision of everlasting friendship set by the treaty and to turn our strong political relations into more fruits of practical cooperation, so as to add more substance to the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination," said Wang.
Beijing, March 8 : Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday accused the Japanese government of "double dealing", saying that there is a little ground for optimism in bilateral relations despite signs of improvement.

On one hand, Japan says all the nice things about wanting to improve the relations and on the other hand, it is making troubles for China at every turn, Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Yi as saying.

"This is what I would call a typical case of double dealing," Wang said.

"Thanks to the efforts of wise people on both sides, there are signs of improvement in the China-Japan relations, but there is little ground for optimism," he said.

"Of course, we want to see the China-Japan relations truly improving, but as a saying goes, to cure diseases, you have to address underlying problems," the foreign minister said.

For the China-Japan relations, the underlying problem is that the Japanese politicians in power have wrong perceptions about China, Wang said.

The Japanese side should give a serious thought on whether to view the growing China as a friend or a foe, as a partner or an adversary, he added.
Kannur (Kerala) : Kannur (Kerala) March 8 (IANS) A court here on Tuesday allowed the CBI three days of custodial interrogation of CPI-M politician P. Jayarajan who is an accused in the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker Kathiroor Manoj.

The Thalassery principal sessions court asked the Kannur jail superintendent to make all arrangements for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to interrogate Jayarajan for three days starting on Wednesday.

Jayarajan, who suffers from a heart ailment, has been convalescing at a hospital in Kozhikode.

The Thalassery court had on February 12 sent Jayarajan to a month's judicial custody after he surrendered before the district sessions court.

Soon after his surrender he was taken to the Kannur jail. From there, owing to his ill-health, Jayarajan was first moved to a hospital near here and from there to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.

The CBI had been seeking since February 17 the court's direction to allow Jayarajan's custodial interrogation.

Jayarajan is former Kannur district secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

He was booked by the CBI for conspiracy under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), in the murder of RSS worker Manoj.

The CBI had earlier claimed that Jayarajan, the 25th accused in the murder of Manoj, is the brain behind the killing.

Manoj, 42, a district functionary of RSS, was hacked to death at Kathiroor in Kannur district of Kerala on September 1, 2014, allegedly by a group of CPI-M workers.
Mumbai, March 8 : National Award winning filmmaker Omung Kumar's upcoming biopic "Sarbjit", starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, has been fixed for a May 20 release worldwide.

"Sarbjit" is a biopic on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan and was sentenced to death. The filmmakers have made a conscious decision to shift the date from May 19 to May 20, read a statement.

The film features actors like Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadha and Darshan Kumar, who has been lauded for being a powerhouse of talent.

Randeep essays the character of Sarabjit and sneak peeks into his look for the role were hugely appreciated. Richa will be essaying his wife in the film and she has donned a 'desi' look for the role, while Aishwarya will be seen playing Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur.

Aishwarya features in the poster of the film, and her intense look has got a thumbs up from critics and the audience alike.

The film's team recently finished an important schedule in Punjab and Delhi, and have begun its third and last schedule in Mumbai.
Seoul, March 8 : Pyongyang hacked smartphones of dozens of Seoul's key government officials to wiretap text messages and voice calls, the media reported on Tuesday citing the South Korean spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) held an emergency meeting to examine preparations of the government agencies against North Korean cyber terror threats along with 14 ministries, including the defence and science ministries, Xinhua reported.

Choi Jong-il, third deputy chief of the NIS, in charge of industrial intelligence and cyber security affairs, who convened the meeting, reported on these hacking attacks.

North Korea had conducted hacking attacks against smartphones of tens of key South Korean government officials between late February and early March, taking voice calls and text messages, according to the NIS.
Tehran, March 8 : Iran on Tuesday test fired several ballistic missiles in the ongoing military drill attended by the senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

The drill, conducted in different parts of the country, was aimed at enhancing the deterrent power of the Islamic republic in the face of threats against the revolution and the territorial integrity of Iran.

In October, Iran announced it "successfully" test-fired the country's first long-range missile of Emad, which could be guided and controlled till hitting the target with high precision, Xinhua reported.

In December, a UN experts' report said Iran violated the UN Security Council Resolution 1929 by test-firing the Emad missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The UN report said the Emad ballistic missile has a range of "no less than 1,000 km with a payload of at least 1,000 kg."

Under Resolution 1929, Iran is prohibited from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear war heads.

However, Iran's Defence Minister Hossein Dehqan rejected the report, saying that the Emad missile is "totally conventional".

Iran is believed to have the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East and has developed a 2,000 km missile.
Beijing, March 8 : China on Tuesday described the joint military drill between the US and South Korea as an act of "sabre-rattling", saying the situation was a bit explosive and could spell disaster.

A day after North Korea warned of a nuclear attack against the US which began its largest-ever military exercise with South Korea in the divided peninsula, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it will not allow the stability in the region to be disrupted.

"At the moment there is some sabre-rattling on the Korean Peninsula and the situation is bit explosive. If the tensions worsen or even get out of control, there would be a disaster for all parties," Wang said in an oblique reference to the joint drill which began on Monday.

"As the largest neighbour of the peninsula, China will not sit back and see a fundamental disruption to stability on the peninsula," he added.

In the past too, North Korea has condemned the exercise between the two allies as a tactics of invasion, while the US and South Korea have insisted that they are purely for defence.

On implementing the UN resolution which calls for toughest sanction on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear programme, Wang said that China had the "obligation and ability to implement all the resolution passed by the Security Council".

Wang, however, said actions which could aggravate the tensions should be avoided.

"China has the ability and obligation to implement all the resolution passed by the Security Council including the resolution 2270 concerning the DPRK. People should have consensus," Wang said.

"It (resolution) also reiterates support to the Six-Party Talks and asks the parties to refrain from taking any actions that might aggravate tensions. So in China's view, resolution 2270 must be implemented in its entirety," he added.

Launched in 2003, the Six-Parties Talks, including China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US, aimed at convincing North Korea to terminate its nuclear programme. It collapsed in 2009 after North Korea's satellite launch followed by the Security Councils' sanctions against it.

The Six-Party Talks, launched in 2003, include China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States in negotiations with North Korea around the termination of its nuclear programme.

"Sanctions are just necessary means. Maintaining stability is pressing priority. Only negotiation can provide fundamental solution," he added.

(Gaurav Sharma is the Beijing-based correspondent of IANS. He can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)
Gurgaon, March 8 : The M3M group, a leading real estate developer here, on Tuesday said it has signed memoranda of understanding worth Rs.45,365 crore with the government of Haryana, at its ongoing global investor conclave here.

The first of the three MoUs involves an investment of Rs.9,000 crore for the development of large clusters of low-cost housing as part of the Prime Minister's Hosing Scheme. The second for Rs.2,000 crore is to be invested in developing IT park and special zones.

"Then, Rs.26,000 crore will be invested in building a new smart city in Gurgaon envisioned to become a model for 'smart city' concept for the nation," the company said, adding the memoranda were signed chairman Basant Bansal before Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khatter.
Ranchi, March 8 : Legislators in Jharkhand on Tuesday expressed concern over the rising menace of the wild elephants in the state and suggested a elephant-zone be developed in the state.

The issue was raised during question hour by Yogendra Prasad of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

Prasad also demanded hike in the compensation for crops damaged by the elephants.

Joining the issue, another JMM legislator, Stephen Marandi, said: "There is a herd of 20-25 elephants roaming in different parts of the state and damaging crops and killing people. A high-power committee should be formed which will try to find out permanent solution of the issue and to rehabilitate the herd."

Congress legislator Manoj Yadav also demanded permanent solution of the issue.

Geeta Koda, an Independent legislator, said: "This is a state issue and in some parts this is an inter-state issue. In some areas, elephants come from Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The state government should look into this seriously."

Amit Mahto of the JMM said: "There are 970 elephants in the state and the government should form elephant zone so that the elephants could be restricted to that area only."

Some legislators demanded that the villagers should be trained to drive away the rampaging elephants.

Responding to legislators' concern, Jharkhand Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Rai said: "This is man and elephant conflict. There is Wildlife Board and the board will look into the issue to find out solutions."

In Jharkhand, more than 550 people have been trampled to death by the elephants after creation of the state in November 2000.
Ranchi, March 8 : The opposition parties on Tuesday alleged that the Jharkhand government has lowered the rate of the land in Santhal Pargana area where the Adani group has proposed to set up a power plant.

Pradeep Yadav, a legislator of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P), brought an adjournment motion in the state assembly on Tuesday.

"The issue is important and all the business should be stopped and the adjournment motion should be accepted," said Pradeep Yadav when the house assembled at 11 a.m.

Assembly speaker Dinesh Oraon rejected the motion.

While raising the issue Yadav said: "The government rate of the land prices have been reduced drastically to help the Adani group which has proposed to set up power plant in Santhal Pargana.

"The land wners will get one tenth of the exiting price of the land."

JMM legislator Stephen Marandi supported the JVM-P demand.

"The issue is serious. The non-saleable land rate should be fixed after comparing with rate of saleable land," said Marandi.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Rai said: "This issue was raised in the last session. First of all it should be decided whether the adjournment motion is acceptable or not. The members can raise the issue by bringing questions during question hour."

The speaker later rejected the motion. Last month, the Adani group had signed a MoU with the state government to set up a 1600 MW power plant in Santhal Pargana at a cost of Rs.15,000 crore.
Kabul, March 8 : A total of 35 militants were killed during military operations in Afghanistan, the country's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

"The Afghan National Army in close coordination with other Afghan security force members carried out several military and cleanup operations, killing 35 militants in the countryside," the ministry said in a statement.

The statement also confirmed the loss of 10 army personnel as a result of separate attacks across the country over the same period.

In addition, the army personnel destroyed 23 militant hideouts and recovered a weapons cache in restive Dand-e-Ghori and Dand-e-Shahabuddin districts of Baghlan province on Monday.
Patna, March 8 : Another tigress was found dead in Valmiki tiger reserve in Bihar's West Champaran district on Tuesday, officials said.

"It was possibly poisoned to death by wildlife smugglers," said an official.

The forest guards found the body of the Royal Bengal tigress in a forested area in the state's only tiger reserve, and it has been sent for a post-mortem examination to ascertain the cause of death, said a district forest department official.

Last month, a tiger was found dead in the reserve and found to have been poisoned to death by smugglers.

Early this year, forest officials seized the skins of two tigers from smugglers, while in September last year, another tigress was found dead in the tiger reserve.

According to forest officials, there were 28 tigers in the reserve.
New Delhi, March 8 : President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday exhorted women not to wait for others to give them what was their right and empower their minds instead.

He also urged the Centre to learn from the initiatives taken by different states and union territories for women's empowerment and development.

"I often hear of women not being given the opportunity or permission to do something. I would say, why wait for others to give you what is your right? The minds of our women should be empowered. The mindsets of our people must evolve," the president said while speaking at a function held to give away 'Nari Shakti Puraskar 2015' on International Women's Day.

"They must realise that it is in society's own interest to create the conditions for their women to freely exercise their choices at home and workplace without restrictions or fear," said Mukherjee.

"The government can certainly partner with the private sector and the widespread network of civil society organisations to do this better. Best practices for the development of women - that have worked well at the grass roots in states and union territories - should be adopted and up-scaled in the Indian government schemes," he added.

"It is intolerable that in this day and age, women are still being exposed to barbaric brutality and violence because they are women.

"A greater focus on women's access to resources - and control over these resources - and more emphasis on improving the health and nutrition of girls and women is a vital necessity."

The president also commended the government for its initiatives on empowering women.

"I am glad to know that the ministry of women and child development has conceived a Village Convergence and Facilitation Services programme at the gram panchayat level. I am confident that the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' programme will succeed in addressing malnutrition, maternal mortality and bridging gaps to improve the status of women in our society," said Mukherjee.
Islamabad, March 8 : Shahbaz Taseer, son of erstwhile Pakistani Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was freed from his captors on Tuesday, five years after he was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from Lahore.

Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on August 26, 2011, near his company's head office a few months after the assassination of his father Salman Taseer -- who was then Punjab governor -- at the hands of his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri.

A senior police official confirmed that Taseer was freed during a raid jointly conducted by the Counter-Terrorism Department and intelligence agencies from near Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.
Bhubaneswar, March 8 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday urged the Centre to sanction critical road projects in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts and unconnected habitations in the state.

The state government proposal to construct 24 projects under the Road Requirement Plan Phase-II, covering a length of 375 km at a cost of Rs.657 crore, may be sanctioned at the earliest, the chief minister said during a meeting with union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Birender Singh in New Delhi.

The chief minister said these road projects were critical for the LWE-affected districts of Malkangiri and Koraput.

He said inadequate allocation and release of central assistance were adversely affecting implementation of vital programmes relating to rural drinking water, rural livelihoods, rural employment guarantee scheme and Indira Awaas Yojana.

Patnaik impressed upon the minister to restore the allocation under these programmes and to release the balance funds to the state urgently.

The chief minister said that though the union cabinet had approved the inclusion of 4,035 left-out unconnected habitations in the Core Network under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in February 2013, the proposal was still pending approval in the union ministry.

He said the Odisha government proposal for the upgradation of 3,000 km roads badly damaged by Phailin cyclone should be placed before the ministry's empowered committee for sanction at the earliest.

Patnaik said that the reduced allocation of Rs.78 crore under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) during the 2015-16 fiscal had adversely impacted its implementation.

He urged Birender Singh to restore the allocation under NRDWP to at least Rs.250 crore, as provided for in the previous years.

He also urged for allocation of the balance funds under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

Patnaik said the state was yet to receive the approved central assistance of Rs.503.74 crore under the Indira Awaas Yojana and sought the release of the funds at the earliest.

The chief minister said that the central share of Rs.2,116.80 crore towards the labour budget under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has not been fully released till date.

He said that the ministry had released only Rs.1,479.41 crore and that the state has been managing this important programme from out of its own resources since January 2016.

Patnaik also asked for the release of the balance amount of Rs.637.39 crore under MGNREGS.

The union minister assured that his ministry would endeavour to resolve all the issues.

He said that the 4,035 left-out unconnected habitations in the Core Network will be sanctioned at the earliest under the PMGSY after receiving the population figures of each habitation based on the 2001 Census from the state.

He said that approval for repair of 3,000 km of roads badly affected by Phailin will come within a week.
Mumbai, March 8 : Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal has been summoned for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate next Monday, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said here.

The former Maharashtra deputy chief minister has been called for questioning in connection with cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and Foreign Exchange Management Act pertaining to the alleged scam in the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi, Somaiya said.

The development comes exactly a month after Bhujbal's nephew Sameer Bhujbal was similarly summoned in February and later arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Later last month, ED had questioned his son Pankaj Bhujbal, a legislator, and allowed him to go, even as Chhagan Bhujbal cried foul, while the Nationalist Congress Party had termed it "political vendetta".

The ED's probe followed a Bombay High Court ruling in January when it sought progress reports from Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau and the ED within four weeks on their investigations against the Bhujbals.

The ED had lodged two first information reports against the Bhujbals and others under the PMLA to probe the Maharashtra Sadan scam in New Delhi and the Kalina land grabbing scam in Mumbai.
London, March 8 : Indian origin people in Britain are "important" because though only being 1.8 percent of its population, they contribute 6 percent to GDP, India's new High Commissioner Navtej Sarna said on Tuesday.

Addressing members of the House of Commons and House of Lords at a welcome extended to him, he also went on to highlight it was more expensive to study at Britain's Oxford and Cambridge universities than institutions in other countries, but Indians were willing to pay extra for the quality of education offered by Oxbridge.

What was preventing more students from India to come to such centres of excellence, said Sarna, was "visa difficulties are making the other destinations more attractive". Among these other destinations, he specifically mentioned Australia and New Zealand.

The event at the Westminster Palace, which houses the British parliament, was jointly hosted by the Indo-British and Commonwealth All Party Parliamentary Groups.
New Delhi, March 8 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked the government to pay attention to the passing of Women's Reservation Bill in parliament that seeks to reserve one-third legislative seats in the country for women.

She accused the Narendra Modi government of "double standards" and said that maximum governance -- the catchphrase of the prime minister -- should ensure "freedom" for civil society and not just accelerated economic growth.

"The long-awaited Women's Reservation Bill requires the government's attention," she said in the Lok Sabha during a debate to mark International Women's Day on Tuesday.

Taking a dig at the government on the prime minister's much talked about 'maximum governance', she said: "Maximum governance is more than just accelerating the economic growth. Surely, maximum governance involves expanding space for debate, for disagreement and for the expression of different points of view without inviting retaliation and retribution."

The Congress leader said that maximum governance should involve "giving freedom to civil society, non-governmental organisations and activist groups", and that it should be anchored in "deepening of country's democratic and liberal values".

Sonia Gandhi's remarks come in the backdrop of controversies over government action in the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Hyderabad University cases.

"Surely, maximum governance does not mean having double standards in relation to women and their rights. Maximum governance means protecting, preserving and strengthening our social and communal fabric," she said.

Making a strong pitch for the passage of the women's quota bill, she said, "Maximum governance also means giving us women our legitimate due - namely the much-awaited Women's' Reservation Bill."

In this context, the Congress chief also sought the intervention of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and said, "I believe we can expect in you, madam speaker, a strong ally for this cause."

She said the Congress was proud of giving the country its first woman prime minister in Indira Gandhi, first woman president in Pratibha Devisingh Patil and the first woman Lok Sabha speaker in Meira Kumar.

Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the laying down of eligibility criteria vis-a-vis education by some states for fighting local bodies' polls.

"Such things results in denying rights to women belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes. The matter needs urgent attention," she said.
Kolkata, March 8 : The Election Commission will maintain "special vigil" in West Bengal's vulnerable Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or Maoist-hit areas to ensure "incident free" Assembly polls, an official said here on Tuesday.

In a video conference of Election Commission official S. Saxena with the state team and district magistrates and police on Tuesday, emphasis was laid on LWE areas.

"With regards to LWE areas, we have been asked to be very alert. The central tream has advised that special vigil be maintained along interstate borders, especially Purulia district," said additional chief electoral officer Dibyendu Sarkar.

He said the target is "incident free election even in LWE areas."

Sarkar informed the poll panel has expressed satisfaction over the deployment of central forces in the state.

The commission also met and apprised all political parties regarding expenditure monitoring and maintenance of proper accounts.
Islamabad, March 8 : The abducted son of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was on Tuesday freed by security forces from Balochistan's Kuchlak area, five years after he was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from Lahore.

The security forces located Shahbaz Taseer in an area near Kuchlak, a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on August 26, 2011, near his company's head office in Gulberg area a few months after the assassination of his father Salman Taseer -- who was then Punjab governor -- at the hands of his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri.

No details on the whereabouts of Taseer were earlier made public.

However, there were speculations that Taseer was held captive by a group that was negotiating the release of Salman Taseer's killer Mumtaz Qadri and other prisoners.

There were also unverified reports of Shahbaz being killed in a drone strike in Waziristan.

The development comes just a week after Salman Taseer's assassin was executed at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail.
New Delhi, March 8 : The National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to Mumbai police and two lawyers following a complaint from a Canadian businessman alleging harassment by police personnel, including two senior officers of the department who allegedly acted on the directions of a local businessman.

Confirming the news, the commission said on Tuesday that Alnoor Jamal, a Canadian senior citizen of Indian origin, had a dispute with a local businessman named Shobhit Rajan in respect of the Parke Davis property -- now called Rajaskaran Tech Park in the city.

The complainant, in his petition to the NHRC, has stated that on the instructions of Rajan, Mumbai police officer of Khar and Marine Drive police stations, along with Rajan's two lawyers, raided Jamal's hotel room in South Mumbai. The incident happened on August 29, 2013.

Jamal had earlier petitioned the PMO which had referred the matter to the Maharashtra government for inquiry.

The complainant, in his petition, has also stated that the police personnel and the lawyers threatened him and his wife, coaxed them to settle the dispute with Rajan on the latter's terms or face immediate arrest.

According to NHRC, notice was issued last week to Mumbai police and the two lawyers with a demand that they respond within four weeks.
New Delhi, March 8 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said his government will plan a campaign involving people to fight against the menace of foeticide and dowry.

"We are very much concerned about safety of women in the national capital. We need to mitigate foeticide, dowry and spending in weddings. So, on the lines of the odd-even scheme, we will launch a campaign involving Delhiites to raise voice for women's safety and fight against foeticide and dowry," he said while speaking at a programme organised by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said women should be able to move around freely at any time of the day or night in the national capital.

"The government is willing to spend as much money as needed on women's safety. To ensure women safety, the Delhi government in it's upcoming budget is allocating money for the installation of closed-circuit television across the city," he said.

"But the measures are insufficient as rapists feel immune because of low conviction rate. Increased conviction rate will send a clear message that he will be in jail if he is a rapist," the chief minister said.

Kejriwal also lauded the DCW efforts towards dealing with cases of crime against women.

He appealed to the DCW to aggregate every single idea for the safety of women and said that the Aam Aadmi Party government will implement them all.
Ahmedabad, March 8 : A delegation of Patidar community leaders, including BJP MP from Porbandar Vitthal Radadiya, who is mediating between the state government and the agitating Patels, on Tuesday called on Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and state BJP president Vijay Rupani and handed over a 27-point charter of demands to them.

Besides Radadiya, Jairam Patel, a prominent leader of a religious trust of the community in Sidsar, and Hardik Patel's father Bharat Patel were also part of the delegation. Anandiben was accompanied by senior cabinet minister Nitin Patel.

Later, talking to the media, Radadiya said they have handed over an envelope containing a list of issues.

"The government will study the issues and hopefully express its view in three to four days. I will meet (Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader) Hardik Patel again after that," he said.

Radadiya refused to divulge the letter's contents but it is said to contain the chief demand of quota for the Patels in jobs and educational institutions as well as setting up a Patidar commission to look into the issues facing the community.

It is also said to include the demand withdrawal of all cases related to quota stir and release of all jailed agitation leaders.

On March 2, around 10 leaders of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti from South Gujarat and Saurashtra met Hardik Patel in the Lajpore central jail in Surat and later issued a 10- day ultimatum to the state government to act on the 27 demands.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad sessions court rejected the bail plea of Hardik Patel in a sedition case slapped on him by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.

Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Dave, rejecting the bail application, said, "Considering the seriousness of the offence and the role played by the applicant, this court is not inclined to exercise discretion in favour of the applicant. Hence, the application filed by the applicant is hereby rejected."
Gandhinagar, March 8 : International Women's Day on Tuesday saw a true all-women affair in the Gujarat assembly as the house was allowed to be conducted for the day by a woman member from the speaker's panel.

The proceedings were dominated by women legislators cutting across party lines as male members sat quietly.

The administrative and clerical work of the assembly too was entrusted to women employees. Even the job of ringing the bell to announce the start of the sitting was given to a woman peon.

In the house, Speaker Ganpat Vasava took a back seat and called in senior Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Neemaben Acharya to occupy his chair for the most part of the day.

The women members, numbering 15 in the 182-seat house, were given priority in raising questions or taking part in the debate as the male MLAs watched.

In an unusual scene, women members profusely praised each other irrespective of their party affiliations.

Putting aside all political differences, Congress legislator Tejashri Patel, who otherwise never misses an opportunity to flay the BJP and its government, applauded the steps taken by the state's first woman Chief Minister Anandiben Patel for the empowerment of women.

She appreciated the initiative taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in organising a national two-day convention of women legislators and parliamentarians in Delhi.

The Congress leader said the way Anandiben had impressed everyone at the convention by enumerating the steps taken by her government for women empowerment was highly praiseworthy.

Soon after taking over as the chief minister from Narendra Modi after he became the prime minister, Anandiben had piloted a legislation enhancing reservation for women in local self-government bodies in the state to 50 percent.

The local body elections in December last year were conducted under the new law that gave half the seats to women members.

Tejashri said the government should take the initiative to get elected Neema Acharya as the assembly speaker instead of for the day only.

She said that the deputy speaker too should be a woman, that too from the opposition benches as per the tradition.

Anandiben later attended a gathering of women policemen at the police academy at Karai on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Addressing the gathering, she said that before becoming a teacher, she actually wanted to join police.

The chief minister said she had applied for a police job but was not selected after which she took to teaching as her profession. She later came into politics.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Congress on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of showing gross disregard for the Women's Reservation Bill.

"This government has shown gross disregard towards the Women's Reservation Bill, providing for 33 percent reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

"Despite the fact that the previous government had passed the bill in the Rajya Sabha, in spite of grave numerical limitation, the government has shown inexplicable apathy towards the bill," said Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev.

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said: "For all his talk of empowerment and 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' endeavour, his colleagues in the party exhort women to produce more children and restrict what they wear."

"We would like to ask the prime minister why is he silent? Why is there no concrete assurance about passing the Women's Reservation Bill," Dev asked.

Dev said: "We would like to know what Sushma Swaraj, an old supporter of the bill, Uma Bharati, Najma Heptullah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Maneka Gandhi, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Smriti Irani are going to do about it?"
New Delhi, March 8 : The Supreme Court Tuesday issued notice to the central government on a PIL seeking the larger pictorial warning on the packaging of tobacco products and promulgation and implementation of the plain packaging rules for cigarette and other tobacco products.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit issued notice as it was told that the delay in non-implementation of plain packaging of tobacco products was contrary to its directions, the country's international commitments, and global best practices.

Counsel Aishwarya Bhati appearing for PIL petitioner Umesh Narain Sharma told the bench that non-implementation of the plain packaging rules for cigarette and other tobacco products was detrimental to the country's fight against increasing use of tobacco, and violated the constitution's article 14 and 21.

Sharma, who is a senior lawyer, aged 66, started chewing 'gutka' at the age of 26 and in 2010, was diagnosed with tongue cancer and underwent major surgery in 2011.

Pointing to an urgent need to discourage people from using tobacco by educating them, Bhati told the court that "one such way is to communicate to the consumer the possible health hazards arising out of use and consumption of tobacco. This is achieved by including large pictorial health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products."

Referring to WHO's MPOWER report, the PIL said: "Currently about 5.4 million people die prematurely every year in the world due to the use of tobacco. It kills one person every six seconds. It kills a third to half of all people who use it, on average 15 years prematurely."

Pictorial Health Warnings (PHWs), Bhati told the court, were "one of the most effective public health measures to inform the public about the harms of tobacco products. PHW labels describe the harmful effects of tobacco products using text and/ or pictures".

Pointing out that every day worldwide 80,000 to 100,000 children start smoking, the PIL said that as per the Global Youth Tobacco Survey - a survey of students aged 13-15 years in six regions of the country conducted in 2009 - revealed that 14.6 percent of students in this age group are using tobacco in India. Of those, 8.1 percent smoked tobacco. As many as 11 percent of all male students surveyed were found to be users of smoking or smokeless tobacco, while 6 percent of female students used smokeless tobacco and 3.7 percent smoked tobacco.

Referring to the economic cost of tobacco related diseases, the PIL said that a report by prepared by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) says that "the total economic costs attributable to tobacco use from all diseases in India in the year 2011 amounted to Rs.1,04,500 crores ($22.4 billion), which is 1.16 percent of the GDP".

This was 12 percent more than the combined state and central government expenditure on health in 2011-12, said the PHFI report.
Gurgaon, March 8 : Union Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh on Tuesday said 'losers and miscreants' tried to disturb the communal harmony among the people of the state during the Jat quota stir.

The minister said political losers indulged in violence in specific districts of the state where opposition parties had considerable influence.

He said the state government had done wonderful work and had gained the faith of investors in Haryana, who signed memorandums of understanding of nearly Rs.6 lakh crore.

The minister was speaking on the second day of the two-day 'Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit-2016' in Gurgaon.

He said every investor wanted safe and peaceful atmosphere to establish their business and that is why the industry captains were preferring south Haryana.

Rao, who is the local MP, said investors have been choosing Gurgaon because people here were law-abiding and helped developed Gurgaon as a Millennium City.

He said that a total of 357 MoUs were signed, including 250 in which investors desired to invest in Gurgaon.

Rao said employments must be provided to local youths whose ancestral lands were acquired by the government for industries.

He also stressed the need to develop infrastructure, specially water, transport and communication, to facilitate more MoUs.
New Delhi, March 8 : A Delhi court here began the trial against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and arms dealer Abhishek Verma for allegedly writing a forged letter addressed to then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2009 seeking easing of business visa norms.

Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna recorded statement of the complainant, the then minister of state for home Ajay Maken as the prosecution witness in the case. Maken was also cross examined by the counsel for accused in the case.

During the hearing, Tytler and Verma were also present in the court room.

The court on December 9 had framed charges dealing with cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy of Indian Penal Code and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Tytler and Verma had pleaded not guilty and claimed innocence in the case.

The case was filed on a complaint of Maken that a forged letter on his letterhead was written to the prime minister by Verma.

The CBI has alleged that Tytler had "actively connived" with Verma to cheat a Chinese telecom firm and the Congress leader had first shown a "fake and forged" letter to the company's officials, claiming it was written by Maken to the then prime minister.
New Delhi, March 8 : Railway Minister Suresh Parabhu, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin are among leaders expected to attend Global Leadership Forum, an event being held under of aegis of World Culture Festival organised by Art of Living here.

An Art of Living release said that other leaders "joing the forum" include Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen. V. K. Singh (retd.).

The Global Leadership Forum event is being held here March 12 and 13 while the World Culture Festival is scheduled to be held from March 11 to 13.

The release said that former Slovenian prime minister Alojz Peterle, Pakistani senator Sherry Rehman and Latvian Culture Minister Dace Melbarde would also attend.

Others expected to attend are Comptroller and Auditor General Shashikant Sharma, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Virgin group founder Richard Branson and GMR Group executive chairman and managing director G.M.Rao.

"The forum among other issues will also examine the dilemmas of leadership and reflect on how they can balance these challenging dichotomies in today's world - ethical and profitable, current and farsighted, global and local, humane and digital, steadyand adaptive, dynamic and peaceful," the release said.
March 08 : Kerala High Court judge Kemal Pasha has stirred a hornets nest with his comments the other day that the Muslim Personal Laws discriminated against women.

While his comments have given a fillip to organisations fighting for equal rights for Muslim women and also to calls for abolishing such undesirable practices in Islam as talaq, nikah halala, polygamy etc., it seems to have also touched a raw nerve with certain Muslim organisations, which have come down heavily on the High Court judge.

Suprabatham, the mouthpiece of the EK samastha group, has in its editorial gone so far as to accuse the judge of making such remarks to appease the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The editorial charged that Mr. Pashas remarks which touched upon the Shariat law would serve only to satisfy the votaries of the uniform civil code, adding that the implementation of the civil code was but the stated policy of the RSS.

Taking a dig at Justice Pasha, the editorial states his poor understanding of Islamic laws may have caused him to interpret the Shariat wrongly.

The editorial also took strong exception to Justice Pashas query as to why women cant have four husbands if Muslim men could take four wives.

Branding the suggestion unnatural, the editorial states that if a woman was allowed to have four husbands, confusion would prevail over the paternity of the children conceived by her.

All Indian Imams Council in a press statement hit out at the High Court judge, saying that the opinions aired by him were irrational and unwise.

Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama called for the judge to tender an apology, saying in a press release that judges should stick to doing their jobs.

Kerala Khatheebs and Qasi Forum accused Justice Kemal Pasha of openly challenging Shariat laws.

Justice Kemal Pasha had the other day opined that Muslim Personal Laws were loaded heavily against women. He was speaking at a seminar organised by Kozhikode-based Punarjani Women Lawyers Samithi.
New Delhi, March 8 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that a doctor is attending to an Indian medical student attacked by unknown assailants in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

"I have got complete report on Yasir. An Indian doctor is treating him in Kazan Trauma Centre in Russia," Sushma Swaraj tweeted late on Tuesday.

Her response came after an SOS was tweeted that Yasir, a medical student in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, was attacked by "local goons".

According to the tweet, Yasir, who hails from Srinagar, was in a state of coma after the attack and had lost all his money and documents.

Sushma Swaraj said that she has also spoken to Indiam Ambassador to Russia, Pankaj Saran.

"He (Saran) will contact the trauma centre," she said, adding that Indian officials would visit the victim on Wednesday.

Stating that she was pained to hear about this, Sushma Swaraj said that the issue would take up this issue with Russian authorities.
A rising number of foreign buyers, led by the British, helped sales in Spain rise to their highest level since 2014 in the first three months of 2018.

Sales recorded by the Land Registry increased by 13.4% in the first quarter of this year, the highest quarterly figure since the third quarter of 2008, according to the latest report from Spanish property registrars.

The data shows that the number of overseas buyers increased by 13.2%. British buyers accounted for 14% of foreign sales, followed by Germans and French at 8%, Belgians at 7%, Swedes and Italians both at 6%, Chinese buyers at 4% and Russian buyers accounting for 3% of overseas buyers.

A breakdown of the figures show that demand from Bulgaria grew the most, up 16%, followed by Morocco, the Ukraine. However, buyers from Switzerland fell by 15% and French buyers were down by 10%.

According to Mark Stucklin, of Spanish Property Insight, the fall in Swiss buyers is not a big deal as they account for only around 150 purchases per quarter. A small change in buyer numbers can deliver a high percentage change and we cant read too much into one quarterly decline, though generally speaking sales are about 10% down from 2016 when the Swiss Franc was incredibly strong against the Euro, he explained.

But he thinks the 10% fall in French buyers is more significant. France has traditionally been the second biggest market, and a decline of 10% is noteworthy. I suspect the answer has something to do with the constitutional crisis in Catalonia, a Spanish regions that borders with France, where the French have long been the biggest group of foreign buyers, with 43% of the foreign market for second homes, according to the latest figures from the Association of Spanish Notaries, he pointed out.

The Catalan separatist drive to break away from Spain has shattered foreign confidence in the region, and some developers in Barcelona I have talked to report their foreign clients have vanished since the crisis erupted with a disputed referendum last October, Stucklin added.

He also pointed out that the figures do not break down foreign demand by region. It is likely that all regions have seen an increase in buyers from abroad, with the possible exception of Catalonia, he said.
Ben Milleare We have many clients where software is an integral part of what they do and we have a multi-talented team to deliver innovation to them that will give them a tangible competitive advantage

Bens 17-year digital marketing career has seen him work with a range of high-profile brands including Hoseasons, Sony and Virgin.

Ive always been fascinated with marketing technology, says Ben. I ditched my plans to study law after my A Levels and went into web development in 1999. The Internet was pretty new and this was before Google even existed so we were building websites for companies that saw most traffic through search engines like AltaVista. Then Google emerged and suddenly everything changed.

For ten years, Ben worked with the UKs leading web and SEO companies, at the forefront of the online revolution and seeing the highs and lows of digital marketing. Not so long ago, keywords and backlinks were huge and everyone was battling to be at the top of Google regardless of the customer experience. Indian SEO firms were booming and at that time Google was really struggling. Results were full of spam and every day the top ten was changing according to who had the most links. Then Google figured out that user-friendly copy is key and changed the rules with Penguin, and overnight the criterion went from huge amounts of keywords and outbound linking to really good content.

Its perfectly possible now for a local business to get really great results with some simple SEO, but for the majority of our clients, the work we do is much more technical and multi-layered. Im increasing our technical offering with a pair of fresh eyes, which will enable Zero Above to design and develop more market-leading solutions. Were looking at scalable SaaS solutions that we can deliver to specific market sectors, like we have already with estate agents to pull in data from other sources and integrate across the web. We have many clients where software is an integral part of what they do and we have a multi-talented team to deliver innovation to them that will give them a tangible competitive advantage."

About Zero Above:

Zero Above is a multi-award-winning, Essex-based sustainable design agency which has been carbon-balanced from its creation two and a half years ago. Set up by its working partners, each sharing a vision for sustainable business, the agency offers comprehensive services for brand and marketing strategy, digital marketing, design and print, web design and development, exhibition and signage, and mobile App development.

Zero Above approaches every project as a unique piece of work for its clients, and with the skills, commitment and experience in the team, they are able to offer a multi-disciplinary service designed to deliver great results every time.

"We call it Develop-Design-Deliver - and we can deliver the whole process from start to finish, or any stage in isolation depending on your needs."

Visit http://www.zeroabove.co.uk or tweet @zeroabove for further information.
CMITech Company, Ltd., a leading developer of iris recognition biometrics products and solutions, announced today that it has completed a $2.1M Series B financing round to accelerate its R&D efforts and expand its global customer support presence.

Participating venture investment firms were Magellan Technology Investment of Seoul, SBI Investment Korea, and Industrial Bank of Korea Capital. Daniel An of SBI Investment has been appointed to CMITechs Board of Directors.

CMITech was founded in 2009 by one of the true pioneers in the iris recognition field, Dr. JJ Chae, the companys CEO and CTO, to bring highly intuitive and cost effective iris recognition systems to the global secure digital identity market. The companys current product lines are in active usage in governmental, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and commercial entities around the world.

We are delighted to bring in this investor group to support our continued innovation in iris recognition systems, said Phil Tusa, Chief Operating Officer of CMITech. They share our vision to achieve technology and product design leadership in high performance, intuitive and cost effective iris imagers.

As personal identities are increasingly challenged in our digital world, biometrics are becoming widely accepted as the most effective method of identity assurance in applications ranging from immigration control to physical access control to financial transaction authentication. Moreover, biometrics provide much more accurate verification of identity compared to paper and card credentials, which can be lost, stolen or given away.

CMITech has proven that it can design and produce leading edge iris recognition cameras that are very easy to use for non-acclimated consumers in a wide array of identity assurance applications, said Daniel An of SBI Holdings. We are very excited about what we have seen in their next generation product platform and their strategic direction to target emerging, high growth market sectors such as financial services authentication and healthcare.

About CMITech Company, Ltd.

CMITech is a leading developer of high performance, cost effective iris recognition systems for the global biometrics and secure identity assurance markets. Founded in 2009 by Dr. JJ Chae, a true pioneer in the field of iris recognition biometrics, CMITechs vision is to develop a range of iris recognition products that combine outstanding usability with exceptional quality and performance. CMITechs compact, robust systems are suitable for the widest range of applications, including large scale enrollment programs, immigration and border control, law enforcement, healthcare, financial services and access control.

CMITech is headquartered in Seoul, Korea and maintains its principal sales and marketing office in San Jose, California, USA. See http://www.cmi-tech.com.
Kristi Kanoon, a devoted writer and author, has completed her new book Remembering Ecuador: a dynamic and well-written book that encapsulates the magnificence that is Ecuador.

Kristi was born and raised in Sweden but immigrated to United States, where she married an Ecuadorian and moved to Ecuador, where a new exotic world made a great impression on her organized Swedish personality and way of life. She saw this new experience as a wonderful way to live life. Even though there were situations and traditions very different from hers, she looked with wonder upon the nature, the customs and traditions, the people, and the Quechua-influenced colloquial Spanish spoken, especially in the Andean region. Kristi is retired and lives in South Florida.

Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Kristi Kanoons lively tale reveals the magic and wonder of a country and a people who sang to her soul. It is a must-read guide for anyone wishing to visit or settle in Ecuador.

Upon moving to Ecuador with her young family, Kristi faced the triple gauntlet of a strange language, an over-stretched budget, and a disturbing political climate. Was it her Scandinavian tenacity that prevented her from succumbing to extended culture shock but, instead, spurred her to build an immense reserve of cultural capital? Whatever the motivation, this remarkable young Swedish woman became determined to learn everything possible about her new country: its language, its customs and traditions, and the way its people relate to family, friends, and visitors.

Readers who wish to experience this mesmerizing work can purchase Remembering Ecuador at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional New York based full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Patricia Catuto, a devoted writer and author, has completed her new book Gabriella's Return: a gripping and heart-wrenching story that challenges the reader to question until the very end!

Patricia Catuto lives in a small town in North Carolina, with her husband, two sons, and their families. She learned to enjoy reading at an early age, and even in a house full of six kids she could lose herself in a good book.

I hope you enjoy my first book Gabriellas Return this has been an idea of mine for a long time, growing up in Rhode Island, I am very familiar with all things New England and most things Italian, growing up in an Italian neighborhood and marrying my Italian husband, communicated author Patricia Catuto.

Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Patricia Catutos exhilarating tale shows how a world can be flipped, turned upside down in a moment! Is Gabriella in danger? Will she ever find out who murdered Marco?

Gabriellas Return is a story about Gabriella Verducci and Marco Marino who were childhood sweethearts, Gabriella met Marco when she was twelve and made a bread delivery to his parents Restaurant from her parents Bakery. They became very good friends working in the same neighborhood called Little Italy where both their parents owned their businesses. This was an area in Connecticut of a two mile strip of Italian Businesses where Generations of Italians had settled in the 1800s and families continued for generations after. These were all families who took care of one another so their children all grew up in a loving family community. Gabriella and Marco went all through school together and planned to get married after Marco finished Law School. Gabriella and Marco had been planning their wedding almost since they had met, and the night of their rehearsal dinner had finally arrived. Marco was driving in from New York where he had just gotten a job as an attorney at a Law Firm there. The weather was terribly foggy and rainy but Marco had driven this road many times before over the years. This time Marco would not make it home to his rehearsal dinner, so the marriage that they both had been waiting for since they were very young would never happen. Someone was making sure Marco never made it off that road, his car was hit from behind and driven off the road into the ravine. Now Gabriella and Marco would not get the life together that they had planned and Marco would never get to see his unborn daughter Gia. Gabriella would now have to raise their daughter alone, knowing someone had killed Marco on purpose, She may never know who or why. Did that mean that Gabriella and her child were in danger from this person? At this time all Gabriella could think about was getting away from the tragedy and memories. Everything in Gabriellas life as she had known it had changed and not for the better.

Readers who wish to experience this mysterious work can purchase Gabriella's Return at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional New York based full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Cowboy Surgeon Dr Mario Loomis Dr. Loomis explores the outer reaches of science, hidden powers of the mind, and the reality of the human soul.

Surgeon, Dr. Mario Loomis, writes young adult fiction about the mind and soul. Dr. Loomis has operated in third world missions, done brain and stem cell research, and cared for thousands of patients over the years. In his youth, he worked as a cowboy and hitchhiked through South America, seeing the connectedness of humanity through the eyes of the poor. Drawing on this background, Dr. Loomis explores the outer reaches of science, hidden powers of the mind, and the reality of the human soul. His smart thrillers immerse readers in the conflict between good and evil, affirming that good ultimately prevails, as long as the mind is free.

His premiere novel is Essence, Assault on the Mind, (2015). Goshen, NY, InVivo Press. Review copies available upon request.

With over a million downloads, eTelepathy is the most popular app of the year. Using technology designed to help quadriplegics communicate, it creates a wireless interface between a persons brain and their smartphone. But once downloaded, it also allows for ongoing subliminal influences from the apps creator, even when not in use. Racing to halt the onset of widespread thought control, FBI agent John Rocco finds that bringing in this perpetrator will be more challenging than he could imagine. From string theory physics and hidden dimensions to premonitions and near-death experiences, he will need to understand the transcendent nature of the mind in order to stop the imminent corruption of free thought in millions.

An engaging young adult novel, Essence makes complex scientific and philosophical concepts accessible and entertaining to readers of all ages. Through a gripping conflict between good and evil, the reader is drawn into Einsteins theory of relativity, hidden dimensions, string theory physics, mind-brain dualism, the reality of the soul, and the nature of free will. Following the protagonists journey from cynical bitterness to trusting love, the reader sees the possibility of certitude regarding the meaning of life: the order and beauty underlying all things.

Dr. Mario Loomis earned a BA in Biology from Cornell University, his MD from the University of Vermont, did his surgical residencies at Northwestern University, and is a member of the AOA Medical Honor society. He has worked in research laboratories studying neuroanatomy and Alzheimers disease, and in 2005, set up his own cell culture laboratory to study pluripotent stem cells in human adipose tissue. He has been an expert reviewer for the Office of Professional Medical Conduct in the New York State Department of Health and has served on the New York State Stem Cell Board. He lives with his wife and four children in the Hudson Valley of New York. In 2008, they were named International Family of the Year, by the Knights of Columbus, and were subsequently invited by the Vatican to represent North America at the World Meeting of Families in Mexico City.

Dr. Loomis is available for interview upon request.

InVivo Press is a boutique book publisher integrating science, metaphysics and philosophy with great fiction. It focuses on works that foster a deeper understanding of lifeof the mind and soul, and the connectedness of the human family. Through speculative fiction books, and other genres yet to come, InVivo Press hopes to entertain and engage readers of all ages.
Our platform enables MeridianLink clients to better meet the needs of todays auto loan applicants, who dont meet regulatory or stated loan policy restrictions of a credit union, said SpringboardAuto.com CEO Jim Landy.

SpringboardAuto.com, a new direct-to-consumer auto loan platform, today announced a partnership with MeridianLink, developer of the industrys first multi-channel account opening and loan origination platform, to provide its credit union clients with additional opportunities to fund members auto loans. SpringboardAuto.com has developed a technology solution that provides a direct auto loan platform, so credit unions can offer financing to members with credit below typical prime borrower policies, without assuming additional credit or operational risk.

The SpringboardAuto.com platform delivers an online loan experience that is fast, friendly, convenient and transparent  putting consumers in control of their auto financing process.

Our platform enables MeridianLink clients to better meet the needs of todays auto loan applicants, who dont meet regulatory or stated loan policy restrictions of a credit union, said SpringboardAuto.com CEO Jim Landy. Consumers, especially those with less than perfect credit, are extremely dissatisfied with the opaque and frustrating car-financing process, and our platform gives financial institutions the ability to better serve these members.

The new partnership seamlessly integrates MeridianLink and SpringboardAuto.coms platforms, eliminating duplicate member declinations and hard inquiries on consumer bureaus, which have traditionally plagued second look programs.

Approximately one-third of the US auto markets applications for credit fall outside of most credit unions buying parameters, said Landy. This new platform and process enables credit unions to provide a best of loan product and experience to members that are being declined today, creating a win-win for the credit union and the consumer.

Were pleased to partner with SpringboardAuto.com to securely and easily provide our credit unions with a best-of-breed solution, said Tim Nguyen of MeridianLink. This will enable credit unions to serve members who have less than perfect credit with an exceptional and dignified auto buying experience.

SpringboardAuto.com also recently announced a strategic investment from CUNA Mutual Group, the leading provider of lending, insurance and wealth management products for credit unions.

Consumer Benefits



Instant email offer upon prime policy decline

Soft inquiry

Improved shopping and financing experience

Credit Union Benefits



Non-interest income

Protects member relationships by placing them with a friendly, non-competing, non-depository financial services company

Meets consumers expectations by providing recommendations and options

About SpringboardAuto.com

SpringboardAuto.com is a financial technology company, whose direct-to-consumer auto loan platform puts the consumer in the center of the loan process. Founded by industry veterans, and staffed with an experienced team of automotive finance experts and technologists, SpringboardAuto.com facilitates and educates consumers during the loan process, offering faster decisions, transparency, personalized loan terms and support resulting in a better consumer experience and outcome. SpringboardAuto.com, consumers are in control as they refinance auto loans or finance and purchase new or used vehicles directly online or via their smartphone. Uniquely leveraging data and analytics, SpringboardAuto.com empowers consumers, while offering benefits to auto dealers, credit unions and other lenders.

About MeridianLink

MeridianLink, Inc., developer of the industry's first multi-channel account opening and loan origination platform, is a leading provider of enterprise business solutions for 20,000+ financial service organizations. The companys passion for excellence is reflected in their web-based credit reporting, lending and new account opening/deposit technologies, which all enjoy solid reputations as being cutting edge, reliable and affordable. Based in Costa Mesa, California, MeridianLink is committed to creating smart solutions that deliver real value. For more information, visit http://www.meridianlink.com.

Trademarks: MeridianLink is a service mark of MeridianLink, Inc. in the U.S. All other trademarks, service marks, and product or service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Relations:

Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, (949) 307-1723, melanie(at)mwebbcom(dot)com

Cassandra Cavanah, mWEBB Communications, (818) 397-4630, cassandra(at)mwebbcom(dot)com
ListingDoor.com The notion that buyers and sellers are not smart enough to understand the process is absurd.

Realtor Sissy Lappin is making waves in the real estate industry with her web-based service ListingDoor.com, a site that takes a new approach to the for sale by owner (FSBO) market. Committed to shedding old stereotypes of FSBO services targeting foreclosure properties and believing that anyone, no matter how inexperienced, can sell their own home and pocket the hefty commission they would otherwise pay a real estate agent, Lappin is a woman on a mission to change the way people sell their homes.

At a time when baby boomers and seniors are concerned about retirement and looking to save money wherever they can, the major asset most people have is their home. Lappin says that for the average home seller, paying a real estate agents commission means a 40 to 60 percent loss in equitymoney that could be well used in their own bank account.

ListingDoor.com provides sellers with all the tools they need to sell their own homes. Offering FSBO tool packages starting at $79, ListingDoor.coms pro package provides a professional real estate photographer to take high quality images of the home, a professional real estate writer to create descriptive advertising content, and other tools that help attract buyerssomething Lappin says no other FSBO service and few agents offer.

I know from experience that in order to get top dollar for a home, sellers need more than a cheesy sign with their phone number written on it with a sharpie, which is what many FSBO services offer, Lappin says. Sellers need professional photographs, quality yard sign and brochures, a mobile website customized to their home and other professional tools.

The ListingDoor.com website uses drag and drop technology for ease of use in making professional quality promotional brochures, and a complete IntelReporta ListingDoor perk that provides detailed information on comparable sales in the sellers neighborhood, including how long comparable homes took to sell, all formatted in an easy-to-read report.

ListingDoor.com also provides a worksheet for sellers to use for guidance in pricing their homes, similar to the process professional appraisers use to determine a homes value. According to Lappin, anyone can price their own home.

Lappin says that a number of homeowners have used ListingDoor.com to sell their homes successfully, and she has amassed a pile of emails from grateful sellers to prove it. She has worked with FSBO sellers whose homes are valued at anywhere between $100,000 and $2 million, which she says proves that anyone can and should sell DIY.

All they needed was to be shown the process and given a great set of tools, Lappin says. They can be ready to sell within a few days because ListingDoor.com feeds into the Fed Ex office, so sellers can receive their FSBO package typically with in 48 hours of ordering.

Lappin, whose own real estate company is a top one percent brokerage firm in the U.S., says she knows what she is talking about. In fact, she wrote a book about FSBO called Simple and SOLD, a guidebook that complements the ListingDoor.com platform.

According to Lappin, the real estate industry itself has operated in secrecy and mystery for too long, guarding MLS lists and comparable sales like the formula for Coca Cola, and keeping interaction between buyers and sellers at a minimum at best.

Today, MLS alternative sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Yahoo! Home have changed the real estate industry to one of inclusion, in which both buyers and sellers have access to information that empowers them to make the best decisions when it comes to buying or selling a home.

Sellers have been brainwashed into thinking that they need a middleman, but now the process has more transparency, she says. The notion that buyers and sellers are not smart enough to understand the process is absurdthe problem was that the process was guarded and not transparent.

To learn more about Lappins FSBO strategies, visit the Listing Door website, email Sissy(at)listingdoor(dot)com or call 713-922-0602.

About ListingDoor.com:

Founded in 2014 ListingDoor.com is a website that showcases Lappins innovative FSBO strategies and makes them available to the public. ListingDoor.com earned recognition from Forbes Magazine in Dec. 2014 when it was named a top contender to become The Next Uber for real estate sales. Lappins Book, Simple and Sold, achieved #1 Bestseller status on Amazon.com, and is available as a no-cost Kindle download.

ListingDoor.com aims to set new standards for the real estate industry by providing a smart, cost-effective alternatives to traditional home sale strategies that allow homeowners to decide on the best approach for selling their homes.

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The Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson is doing vital work to equip...youth to be curious & proactive learners. We are proud to have the opportunity to support this program's...initiatives...." Ken Dami, Director, So. Cal. Public & Government Affairs, Tesoro.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson announced its recent launch of innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) afterschool program for middle school students. The new program will focus on fun, hands-on activities to better prepare middle school students for professional and academic success by increasing access to high-quality, educational resources and instruction. The launch of this program was made possible by a three-year $450,000 grant awarded to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson by the Tesoro Foundation. The Tesoro Foundation grant will allow the Clubs to employ a dedicated, full-time STEM Coordinator who will develop STEM programs and provide training for staff members.

Exposing youth to new methods of thinking, previously unattainable opportunities and experiences, and potential career paths is work that can change a young life, said Kim Richards, Chief Executive Officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson. We are so excited to have a partner like Tesoro who affords these opportunities to our Clubs youth and believes in the importance of every young person succeeding.

Through a combination of experimentation, project-based activities, academic support, field trips and presentations from experts and professionals, students will gain insight into future career paths and be able to seek guidance from local businesses and higher-education institutions. The projects and activities are designed to encourage exploration and curiosity, as well as excite and sustain an interest in STEM-related areas.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson is doing vital work to equip our youth to be curious and proactive learners, said Ken Dami, Director, Southern California Public & Government Affairs, Tesoro. We are proud to have the opportunity to support this programs important initiatives  invigorating and affording new experiences for children  where our employees live and work.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States will have more than 1.2 million job openings in STEM related occupations by 2018. With Tesoros success heavily rooted in its ability to attract and retain employees with STEM-related skills, supporting STEM education programs has become a cornerstone of its community investment. In fact, nearly 50 percent of Tesoros strategic community investments will be dedicated to supporting STEM-related initiatives in 2016.

About the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson

The mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson is to offer our young people a safe environment where they can have fun and be themselves, dedicated adult mentors who respect and listen to them, and outcome-based programs that empower youth to become lifelong learners. Our goal is to foster academic and personal success for youth. The BGCC serves nearly 5,000 youth (six to 18 years of age) each year throughout the greater Carson, Calif. area. The BGCC provides a comprehensive and seamless program for youth from elementary to high school.

The Clubs youth development strategy successfully transitions youth from one educational milestone to the next, creating a strong foundation of learning, skills and knowledge that help youth attain their educational and personal goals. The BGCC offers a variety of programs and activities in the areas of (1) Academic Success, (2) Good Character & Citizenship and (3) Healthy Lifestyles. Programs are implemented after school from Monday through Friday at the Main Street Club, Andrew Carnegie Middle School, Bonita Street Elementary School, Edwin Markham Middle School, King Drew Magnet High School, Locke High School, Muir Middle School, Stephen M. White Middle School, Towne Avenue Elementary School and Carson High School. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson can be found on the web at http://www.bgccarson.org.
Third-party logistics provider Kane Is Able, Inc. (KANE - http://www.kaneisable.com) received the Presidents Award for best overall distribution center performance by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. The annual award ceremony took place at the Kimberly-Clark Logistics Leaders Conference, held January 26-28 at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. The award recognizes operational excellence in logistics throughout Kimberly-Clarks distribution system, which includes 12 large distribution centers.

It gives us great pleasure to know the associates of Kane Is Able were as thrilled as we were to recognize them for their hard work," said Todd Armstrong, Director  Distribution for Kimberly-Clark. The KANE-run DC is one of our flagship sites and we appreciate the staffs focus on safety and flawless execution. We have a high level of confidence in KANEs ability, and thats a testament to our 18-year business partnership.

Key metrics such as safety and load ready time conformance are major contributing factors in rating the performance of the partners who provide logistics services to Kimberly-Clark throughout the United States.

Commenting on the honor, Kane Is Able President and CEO Mike Gardner said, Sweating the details, honoring our word, and keeping safety first are at the heart of our associates working philosophy. We appreciate Kimberly-Clarks recognition of this commitment. During our long association, our associates have come to think of Kimberly-Clark as part of our family, and we treat them as such.

About Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the worlds population trust K-Cs brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the Companys 144-year history of innovation, visit http://www.kimberly-clark.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

About Kane Is Able

Kane Is Able is a third-party logistics provider that helps manufacturers and their retail partners efficiently and effectively distribute goods throughout the United States. KANEs value-added logistics services include retail consolidation, nationwide warehousing and distribution, contract packaging, and transportation solutions.
Simon Relph presents the Stevie Award to Paycor employees Catherine Dunwoodie (L) senior director, Client Support, and Kelly Sipple, configuration specialist for New Accounts. We are honored to be part of this selective group. Paycor is dedicated to not only creating great products and services, but also delivering them in a way that fits the needs of our clients.

HR Tech firm Paycor announced today it won a fourth-consecutive Peoples Choice Stevie Award for Favorite Customer Service. Paycor also received the Silver Judges Award for Customer Service Department of the Year, and its employees Jon Southern (Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year) and Kelly Sipple (Back-Office Customer Service Professional of the Year) received Bronze Stevie Awards.

The awards were presented to honorees during a gala banquet on Friday, March 4, at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. More than 500 executives from the U.S. and several other nations attended.

Paycor congratulates all of the winners and finalists who are working hard to listen to their clients and provide great customer experiences, stated Christine Kowalczyk, vice president of client service support for Paycor. We are honored to be part of this selective group. Paycor is dedicated to not only creating great products and services, but also delivering them in a way that fits the needs of our clients.

More than 2,100 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this years competition, an increase of 11% over 2015. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 115 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges. Entries were considered in 59 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Consulting Practice of the Year; more than 50 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Business Development Achievement of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers. Other peoples choice winners, who will each receive the coveted crystal Peoples Choice Stevie Award, include dESCO, Carbonite, Inc., Marriott Vacation Club International, Vonage and Wayfair. More than 27,000 votes were cast this year.

About Paycor

People are at the core of Paycor. Serving more than 30,000 small and medium-sized organizations, Paycor is known for delivering amazing client experiences combined with modern and intuitive HR and payroll solutions. Paycors personalized support and intelligent technology ensure that key business processes, including timekeeping, reporting, onboarding, and recruiting, run smoothly across your business. Paycor is the trusted partner for brokers, bankers and CPAs. Learn how Paycor can advance your business by connecting with us at Paycor.com.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

Sponsors of the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include ValueSelling Associates.

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Cindy Judd I am very excited that Cindy is a part of the executive team at Accumen, from my time with her at Accenture I know her ability to be an extraordinary leader and strategic marketer.

Accumen, a healthcare transformation company, announced that Cindy Judd has been appointed as Accumens new Chief Officer of Marketing and Communications. In this role, Judd will be responsible for creating, building and implementing marketing and branding efforts that will assist Accumen in profoundly impacting healthcare.

In her more than 25 years of professional services marketing experience, Judd has built marketing programs from the ground up, leading to highly differentiated brands and the growth of the business by her ground breaking work of linking marketing to sales. In these roles, Judd developed and implemented a number of highly regarded programs and partnerships that shaped her works global growth strategy, client targets and business services. Judd has extensive experience as a white space developer, successfully navigating the ever-changing, complex, ecosystem.

I am very excited that Cindy is a part of the executive team at Accumen, from my time with her at Accenture I know her ability to be an extraordinary leader and strategic marketer, said Jeff Osborne, President and Chief Executive Officer. She brings a wealth of knowledge, which makes her a perfect fit for Accumen as we continue to accelerate breakthrough performance by capitalizing on our current momentum and further our goal of creating healthier health systems and ultimately, healthier communities.

Judd, who resides in Chicago, joins Accumen from Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company where she served in a variety of corporate, lines of business and Industry roles, as Managing Director and Group CMO. Judds experience also includes serving as a manager in the White House Press office. Im excited to be part of a leadership team and organization committed to profoundly impacting healthcare. Accumen has a value proposition in partnering with health systems to improve cost, quality, and service for a critical component in the care continuum, laboratory testing, which makes them stand out as a transformation partner, said Judd.

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About Accumen Inc.

Accumen is a healthcare transformation company. Using a proven blueprint, innovative customized approach and proprietary technology, Accumen partners with health systems to set new standards of performance in the clinical lab- performance that drives higher quality, better service and unprecedented value. Accumen delivers proven results in Clinical Laboratory Operations and Patient Blood Management with solutions that are designed to help clients create healthier labs, healthier hospitals and ultimately, healthier communities.

Accumen  Accelerating Breakthrough Performance

Find more information at http://www.accumen.com.
The 24th National HIPAA Summit will be held March 21-23, 2016 in Washington, D.C, and online via live webcast and archived materials. The conference strives to help members of our nations intricate health care system work together to manage its complexity, curb rising costs and improve implementation of electronic health records.

Hundreds of health care industry professionals will have the opportunity to learn more about the next generation of privacy and security compliance strategies, audit readiness and data breach challenges, as well as best practices and operational efficiencies.

Clearwater is also excited to showcase its IRM|Analysis software at the summits Innovation Center. Their Vice President of Product Innovation, Jon Stone will be presenting. IRM|Analysis, which earned the exclusive endorsement of the American Hospital Association, provides guidance, tools and methodology to help organizations meet HIPAA and Meaningful Use requirements for the performance of periodic risk analyses and respond appropriately to risk identified. The product is part of a comprehensive suite of HIPAA compliance software, IRM|Pro developed by Clearwater.

Clearwater has had the pleasure of sponsoring and presenting at this annual conference in previous years,and CEO Bob Chaput will be there once again this year. Last year, he presented as a featured faculty member, speaking on the topic of information risk management essentials.

About the HIPAA Summit

The HIPAA Summit has been designed and produced by Health Care Conference Administrators, L.L.C. (dba Global Health Care, LLC). Global Health Care designs, produces, organizes and administers conferences, trade shows, courses, customized learning and education, and internet-based programming, alone, or in joint venture with or on behalf of sponsoring organizations. Global Health Care seeks to illuminate complex issues of health care practice and policy by bringing together leading-edge doers and thinkers - from operations to academia, from clinical practice to corporate management, from Main Street to Wall Street and from patient to politician. Since 1998, Global Health Care has offered conferences and symposia sponsored by over 200 associations, organizations and publications and attended by approximately 150,000 registrants. For more information on Global Health Care, go to http://www.GlobalHealthCareLLC.com.

About Clearwater Compliance

Clearwater Compliance, LLC, helps health care organizations and their business associates improve patient safety and quality of care by assisting them establish, operationalize and mature their compliance and cybersecurity programs. Led by veteran, C-suite health care executives, Clearwaters award-winning software, educational events and expert professional services provide scalable, cost-effective solutions for all sizes of organizations. Since 2009, the company has served hundreds of clients ranging from major health systems, hospitals, health plans and Fortune 100 companies, to medical practices and health care startups. Find out more about Clearwaters compliance, cybersecurity and information risk management solutions at clearwatercompliance.com
CRElendia has launched CRELoanShop.com - a platform dedicated solely to school funding.

CRELoanShop.com allows a borrower to shop and compare commercial lenders/loans. When a loan is funded by a CRELoanShop.com lending partner, CRELoanShop.com will donate half of their gross revenue to a school of the borrower's choice.

For example, when a $1M loan is funded, a donation of $3,750 is made to a school of the borrowers choice.

CRELoanShop.com is a platform that takes away the financial pain of giving. No one really enjoys writing a check - so now one can donate to his/her favorite school while saving money on a commercial loan as well!

CRELoanShop.com is partnering with schools/universities/school foundations initially in Colorado to promote this program to the students parents and the schools alumni.

While CRElendia remains strictly for licensed professionals (Commercial Real Estate Brokers), CRELoanShop.com is for the end borrower and promoting school funding. Like CRElendia, borrowers do not experience higher fees or increased rate spreads when using CRELoanShop.coms platform.
Charles Dause, Jr. The hardships, oppression and betrayals that David faced are much like the challenges many of us face in our own lives. By reading about the way David endured incredible tragedies and still trusted God has helped me and will encourage others, too, I hope.

Former U.S. Marine, Charles Dause, has written a book, The King: Ruler of Israel, which brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of Old Testament hero David as he battles to become the King of Israel. The Bible-based story is historical fiction written for those who may or may not know the Bible story of the shepherd boy who becomes King David. The author, deployed twice to Iraq in 2003 and 2004, is familiar with war in the Middle East and brings characters to life in a way to make readers feel like they are cowered in caves and marching through deserts with David as he fights for 20 years to claim the crown he was promised.

Author and former Marine Corporal (E-4) Charles Dause says, I came home from Iraq, had no purpose and little drive to find one. I became a correctional officer, simply because I needed a job. After several years working there, I went on a mission trip to Uganda in Africa which changed my life. Dause is now on a mission to cultivate interest in Bible stories and educate readers of the power of faith in God. He explains, The hardships, oppression and betrayals that David faced are much like the challenges many of us have felt in our own lives. Just by seeing the way David endured incredible tragedies, and still managed to obey and trust God, has helped me and, I think, will give others encouragement, too.

Dause, now a prison chaplain in Zephyrhills Florida and working on a masters degree in theology at Liberty University, also writes a blog: http://www.AMansTakeOnTheBible.com which tackles contemporary issues. The King: Ruler of Israel is being published by Westbow Press and is available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Hardcover and paperback: 210 pages

Publisher: Westbow Press (February 22, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-13: 978-1512727982

Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches

About Author Charles Dause:

Charles Dause was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1981. After high school, Charles enlisted in the US Marine Corps and served as an infantryman. After his discharge, Charles returned to Florida and became a corrections officer working for the Florida Department of Corrections. In 2010, Charles took part in a mission trip to Uganda through his church. Seeing God work in the hearts of not only the Ugandans but also the volunteers on the trip opened up his eyes to the great love of our Lord and Savior. Charles now works as a chaplain at a correctional facility and is a devoted husband and father.

About the Publisher:

Thomas Nelson, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh-largest trade book publishing company in the U.S., partnered with Author Solutions LLC to create WestBow Press. WestBow Press authors produce a fascinating collection of titles full of interest and character. WestBow Press provides an opportunity to deserving authors with goals to fulfill and dreams to achieve.
APCs infrastructure, IT systems and automation capabilities, together with a sound management team, enhances our position in the country to support existing and new customers.

AGRO Merchants Group has announced the addition of Almacenes de Productos Congelados (APC) located in Spain to its portfolio. The deal also includes Insofrisa S.A. and Zarantapec S.L. from the DRS Group. These Spanish entities are now part of AGRO Merchants Group. This latest partnership with APC will add automated storage retrieval systems, automated picking, commodity expertise and new strategic locations to AGRO Merchants Group. APC specializes in the temperature controlled logistics sector where it provides a comprehensive range of storage, handling and value-added services to manufacturers and retailers.

Carlos Rodriguez, President of AGRO Merchants Group Europe said, APC has a long-standing track record of providing large scale solutions to the ice cream and other market segments within the cold chain industry. APCs infrastructure, IT systems and automation capabilities, together with a sound management team, enhances our position in the country to support existing and new customers.

Claudio Mealli, Chairman of the DRS Group said, The Group has operated in Italy since 1971 and in Spain since 1987. We are proud of building our family business and serving customers for more than 40 years, and will continue with our Italian operations under the DRS Group brand. I look forward to collaborating with AGRO Merchants, they are well positioned to develop APC further in the Spanish market.

The acquisition by AGRO Merchants Group further validates how important the Iberian Peninsula is to the company and their customers. A large expansion project at the Port of Algeciras is underway with a planned completion in August 2016. This facility, along with APC and further growth plans, will allow the group to manage, develop and optimize customers supply chains.

APC is a cold storage leader in Spain, with two locations 25km and 30km north of Barcelona providing excellent accessibility via the main motorways. The facilities sit on a total of 67,000 sqm of land with expansion possibilities at both locations. They have a current capacity of 55,000 pallet positions. APCs commitment to quality, sustainability and customer service include certifications in: ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001:2007, SMETA, IFS and URSA.

About AGRO Merchants Group

AGRO Merchants Group owns and operates 53 facilities in 8 countries across North America, Latin America and Europe, with more than 700,000 square meters of cold storage. The company is focused on providing innovative cold chain solutions on a global basis by partnering with the highest quality family businesses and creating new, reliable, and integrated trade networks to help its customers grow. AGRO invests in modern assets, industry-leading technologies, and value-added service offerings to ensure the highest quality supply chain management standards in the industry.

For additional information, please visit AGROs website at http://www.agromerchants.com
Top physicists have already praised the book. Juan Maldacena of the Institute for Advanced Study declares it is a very engaging and up-to-date discussion of string theory [and] highly recommended.

This is arguably the most compelling set of arguments to explain why string theory has been so attractive to several generations of theoretical physicists in the past three decades despite the lack of experimental evidence, states Fernando Quevedo of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the University of Cambridge.

Pedro Ferreira of the University of Oxford asserts, This is a timely, intelligent, and exciting book that describes the joy and pain of working at the frontiers of theoretical physics.

Marcus du Sautoy, Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, also commends the book, saying Why String Theory? wonderfully unwraps the science, history, and philosophy behind one of the most challenging theories of the twenty-first century.

A professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oxford, Professor Conlon is a leading researcher on string theory and the author of over 50 scientific papers. Visit WhyStringTheory.com for more details about his work.

About CRC Press: CRC Press is a premier global publisher of science, technology and medical resources. We offer unique, trusted content by expert authors, spreading knowledge and promoting discovery worldwide. We aim to broaden thinking and advance understanding in the sciences, providing researchers, academics, professionals and students with the tools they need to share ideas and realize their potential. CRC Press is a member of Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business. For more information, visit http://www.crcpress.com.
Robert Gordon University and IASeminars Ltd As an international leader in education for the energy sector, Robert Gordon University is pleased to add its expertise to that of IASeminars in order to offer the global marketplace an enhanced choice of educational products and providers.

The international oil and gas industry stands to benefit from a number of new courses which provide specialised financial and managerial training for the sector.

These bespoke programmes are being initially launched across Africa by Robert Gordon University (RGU) of Aberdeen, in collaboration with IASeminars Ltd. of London, a company which specialises in international financial training. Further regions may be added in due course.

This collaboration between the two established UK education providers will include a new four day International Oil and Gas Management course, which has been specifically developed for public and private sector professionals looking to enhance their understanding of the energy sector.

Expert instructors from RGUs Aberdeen Business School will travel to countries including Ghana and Kenya in 2016 to deliver this International Oil and Gas Management industry-focussed short course.

Delegates who complete the course, which complements the range of IASeminars financial training programmes being offered in the same locations, will receive a certificate of attendance from the university.

Financial and Managerial training for the international Oil & Gas sector

Speaking about the launch of RGUs collaboration with IASeminars, Ken Russell, Associate Dean for Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Corporate Programmes at RGUs Aberdeen Business School says: There is a growing demand from public and private sector organisations around the world for high-quality financial and managerial training."

As an international leader in education for the energy sector, Robert Gordon University, including our Oil and Gas Institute and Aberdeen Business School, is pleased to add its expertise to that of IASeminars in order to offer the global marketplace an enhanced choice of educational products and providers.

Marc Gardiner, CEO of IASeminars stated: RGU is one of the UKs most respected learning institutions, and a renowned leader in real-world oil and gas teaching, training, innovation and research. IASeminars is therefore delighted to offer RGU courses alongside our own specialised financial training events for the international energy sector, starting with this four day International Oil and Gas Management course.

For more information and to register, visit http://www.iaseminars.com.
This move allows us to capitalize on a growing market, robust connectivity, and strong IT talent pool to better facilitate our mission of ensuring critical infrastructure uptime.

Canara, the trusted leader in critical power analytics and facility management services, today announced it has moved its corporate headquarters from San Rafael, California, to Atlanta. The company now has two bi-coastal offices to better serve its data center clients across the United States.

Georgia is considered one of the fastest-growing states for mission critical facilities, and Atlanta is one of the top data center hubs in the nation. In fact, weve been proud to call several Atlanta data centers our customers for many years, said Tom Mertz, CEO. This move allows us to capitalize on a growing market, robust connectivity, and strong IT talent pool to better facilitate our mission of ensuring critical infrastructure uptime."

According to Georgia Power, Atlanta is home to more than 60 major data centers owned by IT leaders including Google Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., QTS and Twitter. In addition, the city is the major interconnection point on the East Coast between New York, Miami and on to South America. Often referred to as Americas Most Wired City, Atlantas telecom infrastructure is ranked among the top five U.S. markets for total bandwidth and fiber access, according to the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG).

Atlantas reputation as a technology hub and its prime location initially drew Canara to extend our offices to the Southeast, said Mertz. With our chief operations officer, chief technology officer and myself all now based in Atlanta, it only made sense to move our headquarters here.

While corporate headquarters has transitioned to Atlanta, Canara will maintain personnel in San Rafael, California, to include operations, sales and analysts. The new corporate address is 2077 Convention Center Concourse Suite 425, Atlanta, GA 30337.

For more information on Canara, visit http://www.canara.com and follow the company on Twitter @Canara.

About Canara

With over 20 years of experience in the data center industry, Canara is a leading provider of predictive analytics and critical facility services. Canara Critical Power Analytics helps data centers across the globe maximize uptime and ensure efficient asset management of critical backup power systems. Canara Critical Facilities Services provides consulting and programs for critical facilities. Together, Canara's seasoned team of critical power analysts and facility operators provide unmatched visibility and intelligence into essential operations in order to detect potential threats, prevent problems and protect assets.

Headquartered in Atlanta and with a West Coast hub in San Rafael, California, Canaras customers include leading global companies such as CenturyLink, Cologix, Digital Realty Trust, Equinix, PG&E, and Fidelity Investments. For more information, please visit http://www.canara.com and follow @Canara on Twitter.
Sonoma State on Portfolium All 9,000 Sonoma students and 40,000 alumni now have access to Portfolium

Portfolium.com, the ePortfolio network that helps students transform learning into opportunity, has announced a campus-wide rollout to Sonoma State University. All 9,000+ Sonoma students and 40,000+ alumni have been provided with free access to ePortfolios which go beyond the limits of a resume to showcase students in-class and extracurricular work samples and projects, including evidence of job-related skills.

Employers will have direct access to these ePortfolios via Portfoliums powerful search engine and matching algorithm to help streamline their campus recruiting efforts. Portfolium has also announced plans to release its new TalentMatch functionality, which will automatically suggest matching candidates for each of an employers open positions, including internships and full-time job opportunities.

Sonoma State University will also be utilizing Portfolium to pilot its new co-curricular transcript (CCT), which was decided after an extensive review of a number of vendors. Co-curricular transcripts are becoming utilized more frequently by student affairs offices as well as prospective employers to serve as an official record of student accomplishments and involvement in organizations, leadership, community service and professional/educational development programs. They are designed as a means of recognizing "out of class" learning, development, and contributions during a students college career, making Portfolium an ideal candidate for generating such records.

Within a week of Sonomas campus-wide launch, students have added hundreds of thousand of unique data points to their network, including thousands of skills, all of which are indexed by Portfoliums recruiting search engine.

Were very excited to help Sonoma State drive academic and career success for all of their students. Its incredibly rewarding to provide a tool that bridges a universitys silos of excellence to fulfill a common mission of helping its students, said Adam Markowitz, Founder and CEO of Portfolium.

Sonoma States rollout of Portfolium is part of a larger 3 year agreement that Portfolium has reached with the California State University System - an agreement that extends ePortfolios to all 23 CSU campuses, 475,000 students, and 3.2 million alumni.

About Portfolium

Portfolium partners with colleges & universities to help students transform learning into opportunity. Our ePortfolio network helps 5M+ students from over 150 partner institutions manage their skills and launch their careers. Portfoliums cloud-based platform empowers students with lifelong opportunities to capture, curate, and convert skills into job offers, while giving learning institutions and employers the tools they need to assess competencies and recruit talent.

About Sonoma State University

Located in California's premier wine country 1 hour north of San Francisco, Sonoma State is a small campus with big ideas.With a tradition of promoting intellectual and personal growth, leadership opportunities and technological proficiency, SSU offers its students a friendly, safe and informal atmosphere on a beautiful campus setting.

SSU has a commitment to graduating students who have the ability to think critically and ethically and can effectively use information technology. There is a strong move to develop a global perspective in much of the curriculum to prepare students for the needs of the 21st century workplace.
Kinaole Capital Partners, a leading solar finance company offering Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to home and business owners is proud to announce that the company has become a Certified B Corporation. The prestigious designation is awarded to new companies that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and meet higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

Kinaole was founded with a mission to accelerate the adoption of solar power while providing our customers with a cleaner and lower cost of electricity, thus saving them money and contributing to a cleaner environment,  said Kinaole co-founder Blair Herbert. We have proven that solar electricity can be delivered at or below the cost of conventional fossil fuel energy and we continue to strive to provide our customers with the lowest cost electricity available. Becoming a B Corp is a huge achievement for us and we couldnt be more excited to announce this prestigious designation.

To become a Certified B Corporation, B Lab, the nonprofit that certifies and supports B Corporations, conducted a rigorous evaluation of Kinaole and determined the company met the comprehensive performance standards to qualify for certification. In becoming certified, Kinaole will join other notable Certified B Corporations in committing to consider the impact of their decisions on their employees, suppliers, community, consumers, and environment.

Receiving the B Corp Certification substantiates our mission here at Kinaole and shows our customers and others throughout the industry that not only do we talk the talk, but we stand behind our commitment to driving change and making positive impacts on both our communities and environment. Working with a B Corp resonates with our clients, which has led many of them to join us and the greater B Corp community in a shared social mission. - William Neverman of Kinaole.

Offering solar financing, Kinaole has successfully helped homeowners, business owners and non-profits throughout the United States go Solar, save money and contribute to our countrys shift to clean, renewable energy.

Kinaole joins the ranks of other community and environmental leaders in doing good business and proving that business can be the driver of change. Kinaole hopes to help other companies invest into solar power and commit to becoming Certified B Corporations.

About Kinaole Capital Partners, LLC

Kinaole is a leading solar financing company focused on providing Power Purchase Agreements to homeowners, business owners and non-profits throughout the United States. Kinaole delivers affordable electricity that saves its customers money and contributes to our countrys shift to clean, renewable energy. Learn more at http://www.kinaolecapital.com.

About B Corp

Certified B Corporations 1) meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance; 2) legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include consideration of stakeholder interests; and 3) build collective voice through the power of the unifying B Corporation brand. As of May 2012, there are over 530 Certified B Corporations from over 60 industries, representing a diverse multi-billion marketplace.

About B Lab

B Lab is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Lab drives systemic change through three interrelated initiatives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between good companies and just good marketing; 2) accelerating the growth of the impact investing asset class through use of B Labs GIIRS impact rating system by institutional investors; and 3) promoting supportive public policies, including creation of a new corporate form and tax, procurement, and investment incentives for sustainable business.

Contact:

Marketing

info(at)kinaolecapital.com

424-277-0701
A family with Dupuytren's Disease World Class physicians join with patients on a facebook forum for support, spirited discussion about new treatment options and to raise global awareness of Dupuytren's Disease - a genetic disease with no cure.

A group of patients with Dupuytrens Disease recently launched a Facebook forum and website designed to raise awareness of this incurable, disabling and baffling condition. The Dupuytrens Disease Support Group (DDSG) is a closed Facebook forum providing peer group support and resources for these underserved patients. The grassroots campaign founded by Leslie Rosenthal of Naples Florida, is bringing together patients and doctors in an effort to raise awareness of Dupuytrens. In addition to member discussions, the forum holds Coffee Talks featuring expert physicians in live Q&A with patients on the forum newsfeed.

Dupuytrens Disease is a genetic condition characterized by nodules and cords in the palm which lead to permanent contracture of fingers as they bend into the palm. 10 Million Americans suffer from disease and even more worldwide. People over the age of 50 are most affected. Treatment options for Dupuytrens include radiation therapy for early stage disease, minimally invasive needle aponeurotomy, Xiaflex injections and more invasive surgery. Rosenthal, encouraged her Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Gopal Bajaj, Chief of Radiation Oncology at Inova Fairfax Hospital, in Fairfax, VA, to collaborate with his hand surgeon colleagues. Dr. Bajaj commented, Leslies tenacity gave me the impetus to serve as a resource for hand surgeons, to educate about how radiation therapy can help Dupuytrens patients, and how multidisciplinary collaboration will help us improve treatments.

The group is also engaging members and social media channels to help the Dupuytren Foundation enroll 10,000 participants in the IDDB (International Dupuytren Data Bank). Dr. Charles Eaton, executive director of the foundation, explains, The IDDB is the first step to understand the molecular biology behind this systemic disease. After we uncover the root cause, we will be able to develop more effective treatments.

Sue Mills from Atlanta found DDSG after her Dupuytrens diagnosis. The forum has helped me better understand the nature and progression of this terrible disease, as well as the treatment options. The mix of members with similar experiences and the doctors who participate has been invaluable. The interactions on the forum have led to an in-person support group in Atlanta. Its been great to be able to share our experiences and build friendships. Most importantly, we are not alone in this battle, she added.

For more information, go to, http://www.dupuytrensdiseasesupportgroup.com

Contact:

Leslie Rosenthal

240.328.0848

Source: Dupuytrens Disease Support Group
Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Fred Tanzella has shown tireless passion and energy for advancing Georgias Technology Community, stated Tino Mantella, TAG President and CEO

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the states leading association dedicated to the promotion and economic advancement of Georgias technology industry, today announced that Fred Tanzella, Chief Executive Officer of Cirracore, has been appointed to serve on the 2016 TAG board of directors.

Fred Tanzella has shown tireless passion and energy for advancing Georgias Technology Community, stated Tino Mantella, TAG President and CEO. He will be a tremendous asset to our work, and I could not be more thrilled to have him on board as we continue to build a vibrant and celebrated technology community.

Tanzella is a veteran technology executive and entrepreneur with a track record of starting and growing companies to successful acquisitions. As CEO of Cirracore, Fred leads strategy and direction of global cloud services growth providing Enterprise Cloud solutions to a global customer base.

Prior to his role at Cirracore, Tanzella served in executive positions at AirDefense, BEA Systems, WysDM, Air2Web, and i2Go. Fred has also served on TAGs Education Collaborative board as well as ATPs board of directors and Executive Advisory board.

Its an honor to be appointed to the board of the most influential and well known technology association in the country and I am excited about the opportunity. The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) has grown tremendously in recent years and has been instrumental in enabling the technology industry in Georgia. I look forward to helping TAG continue innovation with Georgias technology community.

TAG has 66 active members on its board of directors representing large, medium and small companies across a multitude of Georgias technology sectors. Members of the BOD support TAG events and initiatives throughout the year and advocate on behalf of the organization. For a complete list of directors, visit: http://www.tagonline.org/board-of-directors.php.

About Cirracore

Cirracore is a provider of VMware-based Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), Managed Cloud Services, and Cloud Backup serving a global customer base. Cirracore provides Virtual Private Data Centers with dedicated resource pools for customers that need tighter security and control in their cloud. Cirracore is carrier-neutral with access to 180+ network providers to provide on-net Enterprise Cloud resources that do not traverse the Internet.

Additionally, Cirracore provides white-label Enterprise Cloud services to major telecom carriers and solution providers that offer IaaS to their customer base. Visit Cirracore at cirracore.com

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About The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)

TAG is the leading technology industry association in the state, serving more than 30,000 members through regional chapters in Metro Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Macon/Middle Georgia and Savannah.

TAGs mission is to educate, promote, and unite Georgias technology community to foster an innovative and connected marketplace that stimulates and enhances a tech-based economy.

The organization hosts over 200 events each year and serves as an umbrella organization for 35 professional societies. Additionally, the TAG Education Collaborative (TAGs charitable arm) focuses on helping science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education initiatives thrive.

For more information visit the TAG website at http://www.tagonline.org

To learn about the TAG-Ed Collaborative visit http://www.tagedonline.org/.

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Were happy to have the chance to help small businesses become more productive by sharing our knowledge about technology.

Stratosphere Networks experts will give a presentation on March 17 explaining the many ways technology can help businesses boost productivity as part of the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce Small Business Series.

The event will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Radisson Hotel Roseville in Roseville, Minnesota. Jesse Miller, director of telephony infrastructure for the IT managed service provider Stratosphere Networks, and Sarah Hutton, regional sales manager for Stratosphere, will discuss how technologies such as mobile solutions, cloud computing, backup and disaster recovery solutions, video conferencing and unified communications can improve productivity.

The presentation will also cover the integration of different solutions for a streamlined workflow, remote working capabilities made possible by technology, and how automating tasks can help you accomplish more.

Were happy to have the chance to help small businesses become more productive by sharing our knowledge about technology, Hutton said. Our expert team at Stratosphere knows exactly how to leverage state-of-the-art technological solutions to give companies of all sizes the support and tools they need to operate efficiently and achieve success.

Stratosphere Networks focuses on delivering comprehensive technology solutions and services to meet and exceed the evolving business needs of its clients across the nation. Since its founding in 2003, the company has expanded exponentially and provides high-quality managed IT services and solutions to businesses in a wide range of industries.

The event  including networking, the presentation, and a hot breakfast  costs $20 for Chamber of Commerce members and $30 for non-members. Sponsors include UPS and Deluxe. Go here to get more information and register.

About Stratosphere Networks

Stratosphere Networks is a multifaceted IT managed service provider focused on delivering comprehensive technology services and solutions to meet and exceed the always-changing, diverse business needs. Since 2003, Stratosphere Networks has grown exponentially and continues to provide the best-in-class and cost-effective solutions to businesses in all industries. Visit http://www.stratospherenetworks.com for more information.

About The Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce

The Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce is a dynamic network of people and businesses that aims to create economic opportunity. The Chamber has helped its gain a competitive edge for more than 140 years and currently includes more than 1,200 Twin Cities companies of all sizes and representing all industries, in addition to government entities and non-profit organizations. For more information, visit http://www.saintpaulchamber.com.

For more information contact:

Lori Bernardino

847-440-8608

LoriB(at)stratospherenetworks(dot)com
Check-in to THE LOBBY "...It was as if the reader was a video camera in the lobby and was able to see what every guest did. The Lobby was unlike anything that I have read before. I hope to read more of Shermans work. Past News Releases RSS

Reminiscent of Grand Hotel and Neil Simons California Suite, THE LOBBY (Friesen Press; March 2016) by Randi M. Sherman, sheds a hilarious spotlight on the comings and goings of anonymous people who come to life in the lobby of the grand Shipley Hotel. Practically engineered for eavesdropping, San Francisco's juiciest hotel lobby offers the perfect place to witness the livesand the most comedic intersections off staff, long-term residents, and eclectic guests.

More than just a hotel, the Shipley is the landmark choice of San Francisco hotels, says the narrator. It is a microcosm of humanity where visitors gather, common people feel sophisticated, strangers pass as interesting, twelve dollars seems a fair price for a cup of coffee, and where our perky and attentive staff provides the gold standard in artificial concern and comfort.

Randi Shermans spot-on character descriptions capture humanity in all its vain, self-absorbed, often romantic and sometimes loving preoccupations in 50 interlocking short stories as the narrator snoops into the lives of hotel workers and guests as they crisscross in the Shipleys elegant lobby during a single 24 hour period. Each consecutive chapter title is a time of day, beginning at 4:00 AM, when the hotel lobby comes to life.

Employing acute skills in human observation, Randi M. Sherman has written a must-read for anyone who has ever spent time in a hotel lobby people watching or just savoring the luxurious ambiance while the world floats. The next time you plan a trip, or a weekend excursion to your favorite city, pack a copy of THE LOBBY with you, and you will recognize every character in this witty, insightful novel as you gaze across your hotels lobby, observing humanity in all its colorful shades and hues.

ABOUT RANDI M. SHERMAN

With an eye for detail, an ear for well-tuned dialogue and an incredible grasp of the obvious, all honed while performing stand-up comedy in Los Angeles and improvisational theater in San Francisco, Sherman adds just enough bawdiness to deliver a character-driven contemporary novel that will have the reader laughing and connecting with major and minor characters. THE LOBBY is Ms. Shermans fourth novel. For more information, please visit http://www.randimshermanbooks.com

Randi is currently seeking agent and publishing partnerships, TV/fim options, international rights for THE LOBBY. Please contact info(at)randimshermanbooks.com

THE LOBBY is distributed by Ingram Press and is available through your favorite on-line book sellers: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, FriesenPress.com, iTunes, Nook, Kindles, Kobo and more...

E-Book ISBN: 978-1-4602-7812-3 $7.99

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4602-7811-6 $15.49

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4602-7810-9 $31.99

RANDI'S UPCOMING EVENTS: Where's Randi
RRT catering and outbound business development solutions gaining national interest within restaurant industry. "...the majority of operators are extremely challenged in supporting larger catering transactions as well as actively engaging in outbound business development," Dave Schofield, RRT CEO.

Restaurant Revolution Technologies, Inc. (RRT), the leader in off-premise order management technology, is pleased to report that the companys latest solutions  Catering and Outbound Business Development  continue to gain national interest within the restaurant industry by enhancing revenue streams for various chains. The RRT Catering solution is designed to support the more complicated and larger inbound catering orders while the Outbound Business Development solution focuses on outbound lead generation and the development of new potential business.

AT RRT, we focus on providing our clients innovative and fully integrated solutions for restaurant operators to grow their off-premise business, which is the fastest growing segment within the industry and represents close to 40 percent of our industrys total market opportunity, said David Schofield, CEO of RRT. A key part of these off-premise opportunities is supporting the larger and more complex catering orders, which is a rapidly growing segment within the industry. However, the majority of operators are extremely challenged in supporting these larger transactions as well as actively engaging in outbound business development. Often times the dine-in experience is their primary focus and the other opportunities, specifically as related to off-premise opportunities, are neglected. Operators need to understand that they are leaving a significant amount of money on the table.

RRTs catering and outbound business development solutions offer the following:



Targeting specific types of businesses, based on size, number of employees or geographical region.

Support community-specific opportunities including events, new business openings, charities, organizations and more

Scheduling appointments for local management to introduce promotions and incentives

Integration with POS systems

Data analysis to help determine specific ROI from promotions and initiatives

Multi-touch email and phone call campaigns

Sales-oriented agents with extensive restaurant training and experience

The catering and outbound business development offerings complement RRTs suite of services, which include its patented takeout order management software, supported by its integrated call center, online and mobile ordering platforms. Use of RRTs suite of services has provided a strong ROI to its clients.

About Restaurant Revolution Technologies

Restaurant Revolution Technologies, Inc. (RRT) provides the most advanced order management solutions within the restaurant industry, supported by its call center, online and mobile ordering platforms, along with its customer loyalty and catering solutions, for popular restaurant chains nationwide. RRT integrates directly into restaurants POS and other systems and operates as a virtual waiter for its clients, resulting in a seamless series of solutions enabling restaurant operators to offer takeout customers a consistent, positive experience and providing a very positive ROI. The patented suite of solutions reduces operational costs, increases off-premise business and provides a greatly improved customer experience. For more information, please visit http://www.rrtusa.com.
Cloud9 Logo "We believe weve won these awards because we focus on what our clients really need to grow their business, innovate, and serve their customers better. Robert J. Chandler President/CEO

Cloud9 Real Time announced today that it has received inspiring awards from the CPA Practice Advisory Magazine. Honors included the 2016 Readers Choice Award for Outsourced Technology Services, and runner up for ASP/Hosted Solution Providers, multiple technologies companies received recognition's for their contributions and achievements.

Thank you for voting Cloud9 Readers Choice Winners for the fifth consecutive year. President and CEO Robert J Chandler stated We are excited about these awards. We believe weve won these awards because we focus on what our clients really need to grow their business, innovate, and serve their customers better.

The Readers Choice Awards are presented annually by CPA Practice Advisor Magazine. Gail Perry, Editor in Chief stated In the 11th annual edition of the Readers Choice Awards, we invited our readers across the country to help us spotlight the programs they most respect and trust to help them run their practices and provide services to clients. The article continued, We believe the Readers Choice Awards help accounting firms by giving them a way to share, professional-to-professional, what they believe are the most beneficial systems. After all, professionals need to stay aware of technologies and best workflow practices in order to stay competitive in the constantly-evolving tax and public accounting space.

Award Categories Included:

Outsourced Technology Services - Just as some firms partner with a local legal or investment practice for certain areas of client work many also use vendors that specialize in handling certain technology areas of practice functions. These providers range from ASPs to virtual servers, digital fax systems, email management and even tax form preparation. This years top votes going to Cloud9 Real Time.

ASP/Hosted Solution Providers - Most traditionally-installed software programs can be turned into a web-based system by having it hosted by an Application Service Provider (ASP). This lets users continue to work in the program they are used to, while also relieving them of the headaches of IT functions and program updates and, more importantly, giving them anywhere, anytime access to the program.

About Cloud9 Real Time:

Cloud9 Real Time is a cloud technology and software solutions company serving businesses across the world by providing them with cloud-hosting options. Located in San Diego, California, Cloud9 offers QuickBooks and applications hosting. An award winner in the accounting industry, Cloud9 takes pride in its technology and invests considerable resources in staying ahead of the industry in infrastructure and innovation. Through its integral platform for business operations, Cloud9 can help businesses stay ahead of the curve.

Our mission is to empower businesses to grow with cloud technologies, by building relationships with customized solutions and superior support. For more information about cloud services offered by Cloud9 Real Time, visit http://www.cloud9realtime.com.

Contact: Annie Cook

Phone: (888) 869-0076 ext.2202

Fax: (888) 844-8570

acook(at)cloud9realtime(dot)com

http://www.cloud9realtime.com
Time and attendance systems that that can fit any budget.

AMG Employee Management is joining other exhibitors to showcase their services at the California Charter Schools Conference March 14-17 in beautiful Long Beach. The company wants to bring their cost effective full-featured time systems to charter schools knowing that smart budgeting is critical for a charter school.

AMGtime Systems give charter schools options that can fit any budget. From PC-based one-time fee solutions to web-based competitively priced monthly fees, from affordable fingerprint devices to HandPunch solutions, from smart phone data capture to browser based transactions, AMGtime brings all the options for schools to choose the best solution.

Through their presence at the CCSA, AMGtime also plans to gain new insights on how else they can help charter schools be more effective in employee time management. Tony Galstyan, CEO of AMG Employee Management says We pride ourselves on hearing our clients and building to their specific needs. Education is key to our future, so any way we can help charter schools with more efficient employee management tools so that they can focus on the teaching, we will.

AMGtime will be at booth 1351 on both exhibition days  March 15 and 16, to showcase their Time and Attendance solutions and respond to School Administrators needs. Company representatives will show interested attendees how any of the features work and can talk about integration with other software solutions.

About the Company

With more than 20 years of experience, AMG Employee Management Inc. is a national leader in time attendance products, services and solutions. This innovative Los Angeles-based company has a passion for offering employers advanced time attendance systems that boost the efficiency and accuracy of time and payroll records and facilitate clients to select the best solution to meet their needs.
Brennan (center) meets with Paul (left) of Ecuador and VE Group's Santiago Durango (right). Dekalb County forecasts spending $1.4 Billion for lateral pipe replacement over the next 20 years.

February 3rd through February 4th, TRIC Tools, Inc. participated in the annual Underground Construction Technology (UCT) Conference in Atlanta, GA. The UCT Show was held at the Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd NW, Atlanta, GA.

Michael Lien, Director of Operations, and Brennan Lunzer, Trenchless Pipe Bursting Sales Engineer represented TRIC Tools at the event. Both Mr. Lien and Mr. Lunzer met with the International Pipe Bursting Association (IPBA) representatives Tuesday evening after arriving in Atlanta. For more information of IPBA and how they can assist you with your pipe bursting specifications, please visit http://www.ipbaonline.org/.

Mr. Lien and Mr. Lunzer attended a number of the Pipe Bursting Seminars to get a better understanding of the how different issues affect both homeowners and municipalities. "This was my first major show in the Underground Construction industry and I really enjoyed meeting some of the industry players and learning how big the rehabilitation need is," said Mr. Lunzer. He continued, "Dekalb County forecasts spending $1.4 Billion for lateral pipe replacement over the next 20 years."

TRIC's X30 Pipe Bursting Unit took part in the "Rehab Zone" with live bursting demos. The Rehab Zone is a walking tour of an underground sewer, where the industry's technology is on display in a museum-quality, historical display of the infrastructure from the invention of the sewer to today's technology.This "Zone" is dedicated as an interactive arena enabling attendees to compare and contrast current technologies. The sewer system is amidst constant change and has come a long way since its inception.

This walk-through exhibit focuses on trenchless rehabilitation including innovative technologies, installation techniques, live demonstrations, and opportunities for hands-on technology test-drives.

On the last hour of the last day of the show, Mr. Lien and Mr. Lunzer" jointly presented John Rafferty's "Lateral Logistics." "Lateral Logistics" discusses how inflow and infiltration creates the need for lateral pipe replacement programs. Homeowners sewer laterals cause 50 to 80% of I&I, (Inflow and Infiltration) into the municipal sewer treatment system. With major rain storms, many of these same communities have been forced to release sewage untreated into public waterways. The "Lateral Logistics" discusses what some Municipalities have done to meet the needs of their constituents. The presentation also discusses how EPA 'Consent Decrees' have impacted communities replacement programs and how the development of lateral pipe bursting technology has assisted contractors to replace these lateral sewer lines.

TRIC invented and patented the first practical Lateral Pipe Bursting System while simultaneously gaining national approval of HDPE pipe for its use, thus opening the market for trenchless home sewer replacement in America. TRIC has since added municipal cable pulling systems to its arsenal, always employing their formula of modular portability, including pneumatic and steel splitting heads designed to replace various pipe sizes from 1/2" to 12" diameter.

For more information about Trenchless Pipe Bursting equipment or the Trenchless Industry in general - please call 888-883-8742 or visit TRIC's website at: http://www.trictools.com to see how they can answer any of these questions for you. Get your Trenchless Sewer and Water Replacement off on the right foot, and help get you profitably pipe bursting.
The Protein Society, the premiere international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2016 Protein Society Awards.

The Carl Branden Award

The Carl Branden Award, sponsored by Rigaku Corporation, honors an outstanding protein scientist who has also made exceptional contributions in the areas of education and/or service to the field. The 2016 recipient of this award is Dr. Gary Pielak (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Dr. Pielak is a long-standing member of the Protein Society and has served as conference organizer twice. The former Rotating Program Director of the National Science Foundation has advanced the field of protein chemistry through pioneering research in unraveling protein biophysics in living cells. Dr. Pielak and his students developed innovative quantitative techniques to measure protein stability and diffusion in crowded samples that interfere with standard measurement techniques. He has also made major advances in elucidating how the intracellular environment impacts both globular and intrinsically disordered proteins in surprising ways. Dr. Pielak has revolutionized our understanding of how proteins work where they actually function  inside cells , and not in the artificial environment of the test tube.

The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award

The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award, sponsored by Genentech, is granted in recognition of exceptional contributions in protein science which profoundly influence our understanding of biology. The 2016 award will be presented to Dr. Rachel Klevit (University of Washington). Dr. Klevits research contributions have made a profound impact on the way we understand very important aspects of biological chemistry including how phosphorylation alters protein activity, regulation of transcription, and ubiquitylation. From the first structures of a zinc-finger and the RING E3 ubiquitin ligase BRCA1, Dr. Klevit has pushed NMR spectroscopy to establish new paradigms. Her research has been instrumental in understanding the mechanism of disease of two scourges, breast cancer and Parkinsons Disease. Moreover, she has changed the way research in this area is done. She is an exceptional mentor of younger scientists and wonderful role model for other scientists and educators at all stages of their careers.

The Hans Neurath Award

The Hans Neurath Award, sponsored by The Neurath Foundation, seeks to honor individuals who have made a recent contribution of exceptional merit to basic protein research. In 2016, the Hans Neurath winner is Dr. H. Eric Xu (Van Andel Research Institute). Dr. Xu established and served as the distinguished Director of the VARI-SIMM Center for Drug Discovery at Shanghai Institute of Materia (SIMM) of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Research in his group has previously been supported by four NIH R01 grants, one Senior Investigator Award from American Asthma Foundation, and one past DOD prostate cancer idea development award, which cover structures and drug discovery of nuclear hormone receptors, hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor Met tyrosine kinase, G-protein coupled receptors, and plant hormones. Two of his research papers on plant hormones were selected as top ten breakthroughs by Science in 2009 and by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, and his recent X-ray laser structure of the first GPCR-arrestin complex was also selected as a top 10 breakthrough by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016.

The Christian B. Anfinsen Award

The Christian B. Anfinsen Award, sponsored by The Protein Society, recognizes technological achievement or significant methodological advances in the field of protein science. The recipient of this award in 2016 is Dr. Andreas Pluckthun (University of Zurich). Dr. Andreas Pluckthun is a pioneer of protein engineering. By combining rigorous biophysical studies with the invention of new combinatorial and evolutionary technologies, he has advanced both basic and applied science. Dr. Andreas Pluckthun's research greatly contributed to enabling the emergence of antibody engineering, by the use of E. coli as an engineering platform and studies on synthetic antibodies which led to the first fully synthetic antibody library. To create a true in vitro protein evolution technology he developed ribosome display of whole proteins. Through his work, designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) were created as a robust alternative scaffold for binding proteins. Innovative directed evolution technologies have led to highly stable G protein-coupled receptors that can be used for structural studies and in drug screening. Several engineered therapeutics, developed on the basis of Dr. Pluckthun's research, are now in late phase clinical development.

The Emil Thomas Kaiser Award

The Emil Thomas Kaiser Award recognizes a recent, highly significant contribution to the application of chemistry in the study of proteins. The 2016 recipient is Dr. Charles S. Craik (University of California, San Francisco). Dr. Craik is the founder and director of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program. His research interests focus on defining the roles and the mechanisms of enzymes in complex biological processes and on developing technologies to facilitate these studies. He is also founder of Catalyst Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on therapeutic proteases. The current research in the Craik lab focuses on the chemical biology of proteolytic enzymes, their receptors and their natural inhibitors. A particular emphasis of his work is on identifying the roles and regulating the activity of proteases and degradative enzyme complexes associated with infectious diseases and cancer. These studies coupled with his global substrate profiling and noninvasive imaging efforts are providing a better understanding of both the chemical make-up and the biological importance of these critical proteins to aid in the rapid detection, monitoring and control of infectious disease and cancer.

The Stein and Moore Award

The Stein and Moore Award is named for Nobel laureates Dr. William Stein and Dr. Stanford Moore. The award venerates eminent leaders in protein science who have made sustained, high impact research contributions to the field. The 2016 recipient is Dr. Jane Clarke (University of Cambridge, UK). Dr. Clarke is Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge. Her research is multidisciplinary, combining single molecule and ensemble biophysical techniques with protein engineering and simulations to investigate protein folding, misfolding, and assembly. In her role as Deputy Head of the Chemistry Department in Cambridge, Dr. Clarke became involved in mentoring, career development, and leadership training for scientists at all stages in their careers.

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award, named for the academic journal of the Society, Recognizes a scientist generally within the first 8 years of an independent career who has made an important contribution to the study of proteins. The 2016 winner is Dr. Benjamin Garcia (University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine). Dr. Garcia has been developing analytical and computational tools to understand the combinatorial complexity of simultaneously occurring histone modifications, identifying thousands of uniquely modified histone H3 forms, the significance of which is the focus of current research interest (e.g. combinatorial Histone Code). Dr. Benjamin Garcia has also been involved in development of advanced mass spectrometry instrumental approaches using electron transfer dissociation and data-independent acquisition to increase the accuracy and precision for protein and proteome characterization. The Garcia lab has been developing and applying novel mass spectrometry based proteomic approaches for interrogating protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), especially those involved in epigenetic mechanisms such as histones, publishing over 170 publications.
Past News Releases RSS

The finalists for the European IT & Software Excellence Awards 2016 (http://www.iteawards.com) - the leading pan-European awards for ISVs, Solution Providers and Systems Integrators and their vendor and distributor partners  were announced today by IT Europa. A total of 86 companies from 21 European countries have made the finals. The winners will be announced at the European IT & Software Excellence 2016 Awards Dinner at the Lancaster London Hotel, on 14th April 2016.

Sprint Innovations (http://www.sprint-in.com), a startup enterprise software development company headquartered in London, with an innovation centre in the Czech Republic, were chosen as finalists for Enterprise Solution of the Year 2016 thanks to their exceptional work automating workflow for Virgin Trains.

Now in their 8th year, this years European IT & Software Excellence Awards attracted over 400 entries from more than 31 countries. The awards are given for IT solutions that get to the heart of customer issues, delivering better business, a clearer understanding of data, and more efficient and profitable outcomes. The judges, with many decades of experience of IT industry involvement between them, have arrived at a list of finalists that they believe truly reflects both the strength of Europe's IT industry and some of the changes in the direction occurring within it.

John Garratt, Editor of IT Europa, who heads the judges' panel says: This year has seen more entries than ever, and an even wider spread of project types  from mobility, security and management to software-as-a-service packages for key vertical markets, and from data-driven systems using the new power of analytics to others which effectively replace costly old systems with new and far more efficient apps, increasingly driven in the cloud. The result is the best-ever advertisement for the capabilities of European IT, and we could not help but be impressed by the skills on display and the effort that has gone into effective IT delivery.

The award winners will be announced on April 14 at a gala dinner and awards ceremony following the day-long European Software and Solutions Summit 2016 (http://www.eusss.com ) where director-level representatives of leading ISVs and Solution Providers will meet with hardware, software and service organisations to discuss some of the changes impacting the sector and to develop business relationships.

Chris Wilson, Founder and Managing Director of Sprint Innovations says: "As a startup company we're delighted to have our work validated by such a prestigious awards ceremony and category. We're looking forward to celebrating our nomination at the event and continuing to improve people's working lives through innovation and technology."
QualMetrix, a new generation healthcare technology company, with a focus on population health management, cost and utilization management, provider performance, prevention, and quality initiatives, has been selected by Sendero Health Plans as its healthcare analytics partner.

We are very pleased to partner with Sendero Health Plans and helping with its priorities of providing innovative, high quality and cost-effective medical services to their health plan members in Central Texas. said Lawrence Schimmel, M.D., Founder and CEO of QualMetrix. We look forward to utilizing our technology and services in supporting Senderos critical mission. Our company understands the needs of our customers and provides them with the information that enables them to deliver the best possible care to their members.

We evaluated a number of analytic vendors, said Wesley Durkalski, Chief Executive Officer of Sendero Health Plans. The unique platform design with intuitive data visualizations will allow our clinical and financial decision makers unparalleled insight so we can focus our priorities and deliver the most effective and efficient care to our members.

About QualMetrix

QualMetrix delivers high value healthcare analytics, actionable insights and innovative reporting to payors, providers and employers. Built by medical directors for medical directors and other healthcare decision makers, QualMetrix delivers the answers healthcare leaders need to drive improvements in quality, cost and performance  so they can do better with less.

About Sendero Health Plans

Sendero Health Plans provides comprehensive healthcare coverage to eligible Central Texas residents through the Medical Access Program (MAP), Medicaid, and the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Sendero also offers the IdealCare plan to residents of 8 Central Texas Counties. IdealCare is a Qualified Health Plan under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and is provided through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Company Contacts:

Larry Schimmel, MD

CEO

QualMetrix, Inc.

3810 Executive Way

Miramar, FL 33025

Wesley Durkalski

CEO

Sendero Health Plans

2028 E. Ben White Blvd., Suite 400

Austin, TX 78741
Government officials from 12 countries will meet in Managua, Nicaragua, from March 7-10 to discuss the latest technology innovations and trends in Public Financial Management (PFM). These discussions are part of the annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) conference. The steering committee is critical to the FreeBalance customer-centric approach and social responsibility mandate of sharing governance improvement lessons.

FISC provides an interactive forum for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experiences among FreeBalance customers. Insights from FISC meetings and discussions provide leadership and vision for FreeBalance solutions for the public sector. These activities, combined with other aspects of the ISO-9001:2008 certified customer-centric processes, ensures FreeBalance products meet changing international needs in a financially sustainable fashion.

"FISC provides us with visibility into current and future customer needs," said Manuel Pietra, President & CEO of FreeBalance. Our customers have a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with our team to provide an in-depth look into public financial management trends." Customers at FISC participate directly in the FreeBalance product development process by voting for roadmap changes over the course of a two-year window.

Based on customer feedback and government priorities, FISC 2016 will focus discussions on six subjects that are of the highest value and priority to FreeBalance customers. A new FISC format for 2016 is designed to enable roadmap voting in context to country opportunities and issues.

The subjects that will be discussed during FISC are:



Better budget plans and sustainable economic growth

Technology-enabled public financial management reform

Oversight to improves the management of government financials

Case Management as a key to service delivery and revenue mobilization

Increasing value for money in times of tight budgets

Government performance management lifecycle

The FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) event takes place in parallel with the bi-annual Ministers Roundtable. The 2016 Minister Roundtable is hosted by the Honourable Ivan Acosta Montalvan, Minister of Finance, Republic of Nicaragua. The program explores how governments can better plan and execute to achieve sustainable economic growth, digital transformation, resilience to economic, social & environmental crisis, social inclusion and improved stability. The event provides provide ministers with content and ideas for actionable digital initiatives to support government reform and modernization.

About FreeBalance

FreeBalance helps governments around the world leverage robust Public Financial Management (PFM) technology to accelerate country growth. FreeBalance software solutions for public financial and human resource management increase transparency and accountability to improve governance and reduce corruption. For more information, visit the FreeBalance website or follow us on Twitter.
First Choice Emergency Room

First Choice Emergency Room, the largest network of independent freestanding emergency rooms in the United States, named Dr. Lara Dean, as the Medical Director of its new San Antonio-Helotes facility.

We are pleased to announce Dr. Dean will be the facility medical director of our new San Antonio-Helotes location, said Dr. James M. Muzzarelli, Executive Medical Director of First Choice Emergency Room.

Dr. Dean received her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University in College Station and her medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, TX. Prior to joining First Choice Emergency Room, she served as an Emergency Physician at Baptist Hospital System in San Antonio, TX. Between 2010 and 2014, Dr. Dean served as Medical Director of Acadian Ambulance Services in Bexar County San Antonio. She also served as an Emergency Physician at Methodist Stone Oak Emergency Department. Dr. Dean is board-certified in emergency medicine with over fifteen years of clinical experience.

All First Choice Emergency Room facilities are open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The facilities are staffed exclusively with board-certified physicians and emergency trained registered nurses. First Choice Emergency Room facilities are equipped with a full radiology suite, including CT scanner, Digital X-ray, Ultrasound, as well as on-site laboratories certified by the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments (CLIA) and accredited by the Commission on Office Laboratories Accreditation (COLA).

The San Antonio-Helotes facility will be located at 12285 Bandera Road, Helotes, TX 78023. For more information, visit http://www.fcer.com/locations/san-antonio/san-antonio-helotes/.

About First Choice Emergency Room

First Choice Emergency Room (FCER.com) is the nations leading network of independent freestanding emergency rooms; it is both the largest and the oldest. First Choice Emergency Room is revolutionizing the delivery of emergency medical services for adult and pediatric emergencies by offering patients convenient, neighborhood access to emergency medical care. First Choice Emergency Room facilities are innovative, freestanding, and fully equipped emergency rooms with a complete radiology suite of diagnostic technology (CT scanner, Ultrasound, and Digital X-ray) and on-site laboratory. All First Choice Emergency Room locations are staffed with board-certified physicians and emergency trained registered nurses. First Choice Emergency Room has facilities in Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. According to patient feedback collected by Press Ganey Associates Inc., First Choice Emergency Room provides the highest quality emergency medical care and received the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award for exceeding the 95th percentile in patient satisfaction nationwide. First Choice Emergency Room is an Adeptus Health (NYSE:ADPT) company.
MP visits Alexir in Edenbridge I am pleased to support Alexir, one of the most important businesses in Edenbridge. They provide good opportunity for employment and skills training locally. I look forward to supporting Alexir and the packaging industry in the future

Tom Tugendhat, local MP for Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Malling, Kent, visits headquarters of the Alexir Partnership to hold a key meeting with Chairman Robert Davison and Dick Searle, head of the Packaging Federation.

Robert Davison said, As well as being the Chairman of the biggest local company in Edenbridge I am also Chairman of the BPIF Cartons, the trade association for carton-converters in the UK. We have been actively encouraging all of our members to engage with their local MPs in an effort to increase the number of active members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Packaging Manufacturing Industry (APPG). We are delighted that Tom Tugendhat, amongst other things, has agreed to become one of these.

At a BPIF Cartons lunch in January Dick Searle of the Packaging Federation reiterated the need for members of the carton-converting trade association to engage with local MPs and encourage them to become active supporters of the APPG. The APPG meets to create a better understanding of the UK Packaging Industry and to address issues facing the industry from regulation and also to promote the UK as a centre of excellence for packaging manufacture. Once an MP becomes an active member of the APPG the extra support helps the committee discuss issues arising from the EU Circular Economy Package, EU Membership and Energy Policy (to name but three issues facing the industry).

The Packaging industry employs some 85,000 people in the UK, representing 3% of the manufacturing industry workforce and sales of 12billion. Its productivity is significantly higher than that of other industries average performance and it is a world leader in product innovation and manufacturing technology. The Packaging Federation and BPIF Cartons are united in their appeal for support to stop any further erosion in the UK manufacturing base and to ensure that packaging manufacture is recognized for its pivotal role in the supply chains.

The meeting held in Edenbridge on 26th February touched upon many of the key issues facing manufacturing businesses in the UK, especially in the uncertain times ahead of the EU referendum.

Tom Tugendhat MBE, MP for Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Malling said, I am pleased to support Alexir, one of the most important businesses in Edenbridge. They provide good opportunity for employment and skills training locally. I look forward to supporting Alexir and the packaging industry in the future.

About the Alexir Partnership

The Alexir Partnership is always pushing forward and leads the way in innovation in the carton-converting industry. Not only do they manufacture over 250 million cartons a year they also run a highly successful food co-manufacturing plant making them a unique design to delivery packaging provider for their customers in the FMCG industry.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Claire Summersby at + 44 1732 448690 or email at csummersby@alexir.co.uk.
US Military Veterans Who Served 2001-2005 (All Wars)

OurVetSuccess today announced, "U.S. Veterans - Better Than Ever," a national program to increase public awareness of veterans who are successful.

The Better than Ever program will expand the company's television programming and digital content development to include targeted messaging that balances the national narrative about military veterans.

For nearly 15 years, the company says, Americans have been inundated with relentless visuals of post 9/11 veterans posed as charity cases. Whether on television, billboards or cereal boxes, veterans continue to be presented with war wounds having left them broken, helpless, homeless, unemployed and unable to cope with civilian life.

"The reality is, more than 90% of post 9/11 veterans are not in crisis," said Mary L. Hagy, an Army veteran and CEO of OurVetSuccess, a Philadelphia-based company committed to showcasing military veterans at their best. "While pervasive, due in large part to the tens of thousands of non-profit organizations that seek donations from the public to 'help veterans,' this depiction is not factual."

As an example, Hagy suggests, "The Wounded Warrior Project estimates with the $800 million raised to date, it has treated some 83,000 veterans, or .02% of the 3.2 million who served after 9/11. Every wounded warrior deserves treatment and assistance. To raise funds, veterans continue to be presented as a class of people who are all in crisis. Better Than Ever will aggregate and promote factual information to enable the public to have a balanced view of veterans."

Some of the information presented in the program:



The Congressional Research Service, in its June 2015 profile, U.S. Military Casualty Statistics, reported that between Oct. 7, 2001 and July 28, 2015, a total of 52,531, or .01%, of veterans were wounded in all Post 9/11 wars. Further, the report states that over the same 14 years, the Department of Defense diagnosed 177,461 cases of post-traumatic stress, or .05% of service members. https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22452.pdf

Some 327,299 Traumatic Brain Injury cases were reported by CRS, from wherever service members were stationed, including U.S. bases. Of those cases, 291,284, or 88%, were diagnosed as mild, as in a concussion, or not classifiable. https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22452.pdf

In its Dec. 2015 Charting the Sea of Goodwill report on philanthropy, the Center for New American Security in Washington DC cites 42,035 non-profit veteran and military service organizations with revenue and assets of $2.7 billion, a cache $1 billion higher than any other charitable segment. With 29,109, or 69% of the organizations, listing revenues of less than $100,000, the Center reports a trend of warchesting large amounts of non-profit cash. http://www.cnas.org/charting-sea-of-goodwill#.VrUSd_krLjY

Given the numbers of veterans who need service, and the fact that those in need can receive treatment from the taxpayer-funded Department of Veteran Affairs, which in February 2016 requested $182 billion in President Obama's 2017 budget, the reasons for retaining the non-profit funds are unclear. http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2746



Veteran homelessness is another widespread message. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that on any given night in January, 2015, 47,725 veterans (all wars) across the country were homeless, .002% of the entire living veteran population of 21 million. On December 31, 2015, urban areas such as New York City, Philadelphia, New Orleans and even the state of Virginia, declared that they had ended veteran homelessness. https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2015-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

While impossible to prove and carry caveats such as functionally eliminated, such efforts underscore the resources and emphasis being placed on eliminating homelessness for a proportionally small group of veterans.



The low homeless rate could be related to higher employment for veterans, which has been rising steadily since 2013. U.S. Department of Labor reports that in 2015, the unemployment rates for veterans declined to 3.9%, compared with a non-veteran rate of 5.4%.

http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/632396/veteran-unemployment-rate-lowest-in-nearly-8-years

In its 2015 report to the Secretary of Defense, What Veterans Bring to the Workplace, the RAND Corporation outlined the major reasons why, rather than charity cases deserving corporate job donations, veterans offer employers a competitive edge. Technical skills can be taught; character traits such as leadership, decisiveness, critical thinking, continuous learning, teamwork, handling excessive stress, conscientiousness and persistence, can take years -- if ever-- to develop in non-veterans.

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/tools/TL100/TL160z1/RAND_TL160z1.pdf

"War wounds, brain injuries, homelessness and unemployment are all very important issues that must be addressed" Hagy said. "The point here is that proportionally, national emphasis is being placed on the few, while the majority of veterans who are not suffering have needs as well."

All of which leads to re-framing the national narrative of the veteran as victim to, Fellow American. No hyperbole of all-vets-are-heroes. No righteous exclamations of entitlement to jobs, housing or any other unearned slice of the American dream. Simply, Fellow American.

Adding the 14 years of data from veterans who have been reported as wounded (52,531), those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress (177,461) and those with severe to moderate traumatic brain injury (36,015), we have 266,007, or 8% of the 3.2 million post 9/11 veterans, (including those who did not serve in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Hagy contends the remaining 2.9 million Post 9/11 veterans are also in need. Of what?

Acknowledgement  Veterans are not all heroes, any more than they are all charity cases, or people to be feared, or to be treated gingerly. They want to simply be considered as Fellow Americans who were honored to serve, and are now finding their ways in civilian life.

Assumption of Wholeness  When meeting a person, there is generally an assumption that she or he is living life  family, work, community, with all that comes with the journey. Veterans and their Families are pursuing those things as well, and want to be regular people.

Opportunities for Continued Service  Veterans are driven by service for a greater purpose. The gaping hole that is left from departing the military can be filled with service, fellowship and results. An added plus: given a service mission, the veteran will move heaven and earth to accomplish the goal.

"What is the price tag of these needs for 2.9 million post 9/11 veterans?," Hagy asked. "$0."

"'The Better than Ever' program enables us to share the facts about vets, and to promote good communications between military veterans and civilians," she said.

For more information, visit http://www.ourvetsuccess.com
Jacque Wolf I enjoy working for gold standard businesses. It was Planet Depos industry-wide reputation for innovation and client satisfaction that appealed to me.

Planet Depos, LLC, an international court reporting, interpretation, and trial services firm, is pleased to announce that Jacque Wolf has joined the company as Account Executive based in Chicago. Ms. Wolf is responsible for demonstrating the breadth of services and technology solutions available to litigation teams from the inception of a case through trial.

Jacques experience in the legal industry over the past 20 years will prove invaluable to her clients, both new and existing, as she truly understands the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis, commented Jennifer Parratt, Director of Sales. Her energy and passion for serving law firms fits well with our client-focused culture at Planet Depos.

Ms. Wolf began her career more than 20 years ago as a practicing lawyer in Minnesota. In 2001, she relocated to the Pittsburgh region to join Westlaw, a division of Thomson Reuters. After 14 years with Westlaw, Ms. Wolf joined Rust Consulting, a class action settlement administrator, as a Business Development Director, working with class action attorneys throughout the Midwest and East Coast to identify settlement solutions.

I enjoy working for gold standard businesses. It was Planet Depos industry-wide reputation for innovation and client satisfaction that appealed to me, commented Wolf. It is wonderful to be back in the Midwest and in one of the most exciting cities in the U.S., working with a dynamic, rapidly growing company where going above and beyond is an everyday occurrence.

Jacque is a welcome addition to our growing sales team, and we are confident that her talent and expertise will bring strong advantages as we continue to optimize our sales strategies, said Bill DiMonte, a founder of the firm. Our company has experienced explosive growth, and Jacques appointment will help us build on our forward momentum.

About Planet Depos

Headquartered in Washington, DC, and with 60 offices around the globe, Planet Depos, LLC, is the only international court reporting agency led by court reporters and world-renowned industry experts. Planet Depos provides court reporting, videography, videoconferencing, interpretation, and trial support services throughout the United States and abroad to international law firms, worldwide corporations, and government entities. The Company has extensive experience reporting complex matters around the globe, including arbitrations, trials and depositions. A forward-thinking company, Planet Depos is conversant with the latest technologies and works closely with clients to implement case-winning tools, including streaming text and video, realtime to iPads, mobile videoconferencing, and digital exhibits.

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The Eclipse Foundation announces the initial release of Eclipse Che, a new IDE platform. The Eclipse Che ecosystem  supported by Codenvy, Microsoft Corp., Red Hat, and SAP  is the only community-driven open source cloud IDE, workspace server, and plug-in platform.

Eclipse Che is moving development forward with a universal workspace, said Tyler Jewell, Eclipse Che project lead and Codenvy CEO. By making workspaces portable, they can relocate anywhere, giving development teams on-demand environments that can be part of an agile process.

Eclipse Che workspaces are composed of projects and Docker-powered runtimes. Workspaces are accessible anytime by browsers, CLI and APIs. Their portable nature migrates development to any location, whether a desktop, mobile device or cloud. Other features include:

 Collaborative Workspace Server. Host Eclipse Che as a workspace server, providing shared access to programming services to workspaces and teams. Workspace environments are given a hostname and accessible by remote clients.

 Cloud IDE. A no-installation browser IDE and IOE accessible from any local or remote device.

 Plug-In Framework. Che is extensible, by customizing built-in plug-ins or authoring your own extensions.

 Stacks. Build projects for any programming language and framework. Create runtimes from Ches image and stack library, pull from DockerHub, or author custom images with Dockerfiles.

Eclipse Che builds upon years of experience within the Eclipse community in developing compelling tools. It integrates key elements of Eclipse technology such as the ubiquitous Eclipse Java development tools and the Orion web editor to provide a new developer experience. Che adds new workspace management and container-based runtime technology to modernize the developer experience.

Eclipse Che is rethinking the way IDEs are built and used by developers. It uses Docker, Java and JavaScript to create a more flexible and dynamic developer work experience,  said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation. The initial feedback on Eclipse Che has been outstanding. The number of downloads and external contributions all point to Che being an incredibly successful open source project.

Eclipse Che is available for download at http://eclipse.org/che and contributors can get involved at http://github.com/eclipse/che.

About the Eclipse Foundation

Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools, and runtimes for building, deploying, and managing software across the lifecycle. A large, vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research institutions, and individuals extend, complement, and support the Eclipse open source technology.

The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit, member supported corporation that hosts the Eclipse projects. Full details of Eclipse and the Eclipse Foundation are available at http://www.eclipse.org.

Quote Sheet

We are excited about this partnership, and our role in helping shape the future of agile development. By attaching ready-to-code Codenvy workspaces to Visual Studio Team Services, we continue to improve our partner ecosystem and provide development teams with comprehensive solutions for developing any application. Shanku Niyogi, General Manager, Developer Division, Microsoft

SAP is committed to the Eclipse Foundation and is continuing to invest in it, by building products on top of Eclipse Che as well as ongoing contributions to Open Source. With the new SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA, developers can expect to be able to design, build, and deploy SAP Fiori-like web applications based on SAPUI5. It also reaffirms our successful use of Eclipse Che in a productive, database-centric IDE, based on the SAP Web IDE front-end and Eclipse Che as the backend. Bjorn Goerke, Executive Vice President and Corporate Officer, SAP

Eclipse Che is clearly something into which IDEs are evolving. We are about to release a solution based on Che, that allows developers to try out development with Vaadin, a server side JVM framework, even without installing JDK to their computers. That will dramatically lower the barrier to try developing with the Vaadin Framework. With Eclipse Che, quick hacking with even large Java projects becomes as easy as it has become to play with various online JavaScript editors. Matti Tahvonen, Developer Advocate, Vaadin

"Using the OpenShift plug-in for Eclipse Che to leverage universal workspaces, developers can more easily access a facsimile of a production environment during development and testing. Together, these technologies create a powerful combination for enabling more agile application development, and I expect Eclipse Che will quickly find its place in the developers' arsenal. Red Hat welcomes the release of Eclipse Che and congratulates the team for its work on this project." Harry Mower, senior director, Developer Programs, Red Hat

Eclipse Che's workspaces are provisioned on-demand and located anywhere we need to place them. Eclipse Che allows us to provide a rich array of developer environments that are launched as part of our QA and continuous delivery automation. Frederic Drouet, CTO, eXo Platform

"We are pleased by the strong interest in Web IDE technologies such as Eclipse Che and Orion. The fact that the Orion editor is now being used in Eclipse Che and services like our own Bluemix DevOps Services, demonstrates open source collaboration is advancing the pace of innovation for Web IDE technologies. We look forward to the continued collaboration between the Eclipse Che and Orion projects." Dave Thomson, Director, IBM Bluemix DevOps Services

As modern development is reliant on distributed and cloud-based systems, it is necessary for the workspace to expand in a manner which is both open and API driven. A hybrid development environment is a necessary step to stay leading edge, and exposing the functionality with open technologies like Swagger is a huge win. We expect the ideas of Eclipse Che to shape the next generation of developer tools and enable integration with specialized tools like SwaggerHub for the best possible developer experience." Tony Tam, VP of Products, Swagger, SmartBear

Eclipse Che's vision for portable and universal workspaces makes it possible for our community to launch projects that always compile and just work. We are integrating Che into Sourcegraph to give our users and contributors instant workspaces that are powerful and extensible. We'll be closely following Che and its ecosystem." Quinn Slack, CEO, Sourcegraph

Eclipse Che gets developers running with TomEE quickly by providing a ready to go environment with a single click. It saves contributors from lost configuration time. Eclipse Che's Docker runtimes provide a rich developer experience with a gorgeous and fast UI." David Blevis, CEO, Tomitribe
2016 TESOL Teacher of the Year, Shannon Tanghe I recognize the value in fostering a community where all people are encouraged to grow and develop

TESOL International Association and National Geographic Learning are pleased to announce that Shannon Tanghe, an assistant professor and department head at Dankook Universitys Graduate School of TESOL in Seoul, South Korea, will receive the 2016 TESOL Teacher of the Year Award. The award honors exceptional English language teaching and is open to teachers at all levels of education. Tanghe will be recognized at the opening keynote session of the 2016 TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo 58 April in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Tanghe began her career teaching young learners, later transitioning into her current role as a teacher educator. I recognize the value in fostering a community where all people are encouraged to grow and develop . . . as English language users, teachers, and as members of the TESOL community, said Tanghe. In English language classes, I strive to create opportunities to transfer classroom content beyond the classroom, through introducing critical issues and international collaborations.

The recipient of the TESOL Teacher of the Year Award receives a one-year membership in TESOL International Association; a selection of TESOL publications valued at US$250; complimentary registration, travel, and accommodations for the 2016 TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo; and a cash award of US$1000. The award recipient will also deliver a presentation at the TESOL International Convention.

National Geographic Learning will present the award to Tanghe at the TESOL international convention, where she will deliver a presentation titled Teaching to Learn: Focus on Teacher Inquiry Stance. The presentation will show that, based on faculty and students experiences, cultivating teacher inquiry stances improves both professional growth and classroom practices.

For more on Shannon Tanghe, check out the Teacher of Year feature in the March issue of TESOL Connections.

A bout TESOL International Association

Founded in 1966, TESOL International Association is a professional community of educators, researchers, administrators, and students committed to advancing excellence in English language teaching for speakers of other languages worldwide. With more than 12,000 members representing over 150 countries, TESOL fosters the exchange of ideas, research, and peer-to-peer knowledge, and provides expertise, resources, and a powerful voice on issues affecting the profession. Through professional development programs, its international conference, special interest groups, and publications, TESOL engages tens of thousands of professionals to collaborate globally and create a world of opportunity for millions of people of all ages who want to learn English.

About Cengage Learning and National Geographic Learning

Cengage Learning is a leading educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education and K-12, professional and library markets worldwide. National Geographic Learning, part of Cengage Learning, is a provider of quality core and supplemental educational materials for ELT, adult education and PreK-12. Cengage Learning and National Geographic Learning distribute a variety of content from the National Geographic Society to the academic and library markets worldwide.
Dutch global connectivity specialist Custom Connect B.V. uses Customer Support software OTRS Business Solution It works like an ordinary email client, very intuitive. You know perfectly what the open tickets are, you have a good overview of what is in your inbox and the priorities are clear.

OTRS Group, the worlds leading provider of open-source and cloud-based service management software solutions, is announcing today the acquisition of Dutch global connectivity specialist Custom Connect B.V. as a new customer. With global offices and a demanding client base varying from Fortune 500 enterprises to innovative start-ups, the operating connectivity specialist sought a customer support software that offers high standards and flexibility. Open source customer support software OTRS Business Solution was chosen over for its flexible software architecture, easy integration, on-premise hosting, and non-seat based licensing.

Ton Blok, Senior Engineer at Custom Connect B.V., explains the benefits that OTRS Business Solution brings to the customer support and engineering team : It works like an ordinary email client, very intuitive. You know perfectly what the open tickets are, you have a good overview of what is in your inbox and the priorities are clear. The graph in the dashboard that shows the amount of open and closed tickets measured against each other is displayed on a big screen in our office and really pushes our motivation!

Custom Connect B.V. launched their customer support team in-house February 2016 and needed an effective customer support software to further improve the transparency and efficiency of customer communication. With their team Custom Connect B.V. processes between 130 to 3,000 tickets per week and provides support services to customers and suppliers. A partner company demonstrated the flexibility of the OTRS Business Solution to the team.

We wanted to host the system ourselves so we can integrate it with our own systems more independently. With the open software architecture of the OTRS Business Solution it is easily done by adding our code. On this basis, we plan to integrate it with Salesforce to offer our clients a familiar customer portal where they see their support requests, contracts and services at one glance. And we are just starting to explore the system! explains Blok. Due to the flexibility of the system and the effective licensing model, Custom Connect B.V. plans to deploy OTRS Business Solution in other departments.

In todays competitive environment, companies and their customer support need to react quickly to changing requirements, either in terms of staff size or how the customer support software offers new features to improve efficiency, said Christopher Kuhn, COO of OTRS Group. By offering a licensing model not based on seats, an extensive feature set, and many configuration possibilities, the OTRS Business Solution is the perfect customer support software that helps companies to grow quickly, stay flexible and save on unnecessary licensing costs.

Find more information about the customer support software OTRS Business Solution here: https://www.otrs.com/solutions/managed-otrs/

About OTRS Group

OTRS Group is the vendor and worlds leading provider of the open-source OTRS Service Management Suite, including the on premise and cloud-based versions of the OTRS Business Solution, as well as the OTRS Help Desk software and the ITIL V3-compliant IT Service Management software OTRS::ITSM. With subsidiaries in the US, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico and Brazil, OTRS Group offers managed services as well as training seminars, service support, consulting and software development to businesses that wish to increase the efficiency of their service management while saving costs and resources. Key customers include industry leaders such as NASA, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Lufthansa, Boeing, Porsche as well as 150,000 other organizations worldwide. OTRS is available in 36 languages, offers a fully responsive design to be used on every mobile device, and is used by 60 percent of the DAX 30 companies. Find out more about OTRS and our services at http://www.otrs.com
Lyft: Pulsed Eddy Current Reinvented This new patent-pending solution reinvents pulsed eddy current (PEC) and addresses what is possibly the greatest unresolved asset integrity problem in the industry: corrosion under insulation (CUI).

Quebec, Canada, March 7, 2016Dedicated to electromagnetic inspection technologies, Eddyfi is thrilled to announce the launch of Lyft. This new patent-pending solution reinvents pulsed eddy current (PEC) and addresses what is possibly the greatest unresolved asset integrity problem in the industry: corrosion under insulation (CUI). The portable, state-of-the art solution offers real-time C-scan imaging and fast data acquisitionwith grid-mapping and dynamic scanning modesto dramatically reduce inspection time and operator dependence. Lyft supports more applications than existing solutions, being capable of scanning through corrosion blistering and thick insulation with aluminum, stainless steel, and galvanized steel weather jackets.

Current methods for measuring wall thickness with liftoff, without removing insulation, all have severe limitations. However, PEC offered the most versatility and potential for evolution. In developing a new kind of PEC, Eddyfi integrated automated software features (SmartPULSE) that ease inspection, as well as an innovative, patent-pending technology redefining the way PEC signals are used by Lyft. Together, these features guarantee reliable and repeatable results. Three plug-and-play probes of different sizes for the right balance between wall thickness and liftoff complement Lyft. Finally, Eddyfi packaged the solution into a modern, portable instrument equipped with a large multi-touch display and embedded Windows PC.

Martin Theriault, president and CEO of Eddyfi says: As a relatively new company and global manufacturer of advanced NDT solutions, we firmly believe that we need to innovate and solve industry problems to be relevant to the market. 35% of all Eddyfi staff are currently focused on R&D and new product development. PEC, an electromagnetic technique addressing a serious industry problem, was therefore a natural field of interest for Eddyfi. Our new Lyft offering leverages the best of Eddyfis infrastructurecutting-edge instrument platforms, manufacturing systems, know-how, support from field engineers, and offices worldwide. Over the next months and years, Eddyfi will continue to push the limits of the technology even further. The product has superb potential and we are committed to see this product evolve on a continuous basis, for the benefit of the industry.

About Eddyfi

Headquartered in the advanced NDT hub of Quebec, Canada, with offices in France, the USA, and the UAE, Eddyfi focuses on offering high-performance eddy current and electromagnetic solutions for the inspection of critical components and assets. Eddyfi has customers in more than 50 countries in such major industries as nuclear, power generation, oil & gas, and aerospace.

We also employ the worlds most renowned experts in the field of advanced eddy currents and electromagnetics, and they have the mission to push the limits of these technologies to new heights. Eddyfi develops the industrys best performing and most reliable test instruments, acquisition and analysis software, as well as standard but, more importantly, specialized surface array and tubing probes. Eddyfi has the expertise, engineering, and manufacturing flexibility to supply fully integrated and specially made solutions that deliver superior performance to our customers.

At Eddyfi, performance matters.
Our findings build on previous research to deliver the clear message that exceptional HR management  from applying HR best practices to the competencies of the HR professionals who design and implement them  can positively contribute to the bottom line.

Better business performance, as measured by higher stock prices, faster revenue growth and more favorable perception of companies employer brand, is correlated both with company-wide certification of HR best practices and with the employment of a proportion of HR-certified professionals according to new research conducted by Top Employers Institute and HR Certification Institute (HRCI).

Certification of HR best practices applied by employers as well as HRCI certification of HR professionals correlates with improved business results and companies employer brand perception, said Top Employers Institute CEO David Plink. Our findings build on previous research to deliver the clear message that exceptional human resource management  from applying HR best practices to the competencies of the HR professionals who design and implement them  can demonstrably and positively contribute to the bottom line.

More specifically, the joint research conducted this year by Top Employers Institute, an independent global organization that certifies excellence in HR practices and the environment employers have in place for employees to advance their development, and HR Certification Institute, the leading professional credentialing organization for HR professionals worldwide, found:



Stock prices during 2011-2015 of companies certified by Top Employers outperformed the stock indices in their respective countries by an average of 51% over the same five-year period.

Compounded revenue growth rates of companies certified by Top Employers outperformed relevant industry average compounded growth rates by 14% when comparing 2010-2014 revenues.

Stock prices of companies with more than five HRCI-certified professionals have increased an average of 95% during 2011-2015, while the relevant indices (NYSE, NASDAQ) increased an average of 38% over the same five-year period. Therefore, companies with more than five HRCI certificants outperformed relevant stock indices by 57% over the five-year period.

Compounded revenue growth rates of companies with more than five HRCI-certified professionals increased 33% during 2010-2014, while the compounded revenue growth rate of relevant industries increased 8% over the same period. Therefore, companies with more than five HRCI certificants outperformed relevant industry average compounded growth rates by 25% over the five-year period.

HRCI certification correlates both with better results for the individual certified HR professional, as we previously demonstrated through our 2015 large-scale value of certification study, and also for the companies that employ them, as these new findings suggest, said HR Certification Institute CEO Amy Dufrane, Ed.D., SPHR, CAE. HRCI certification helps companies identify individuals who have expert knowledge of HR best practices as well as the strategic mindset, situational awareness, and sound judgment required to adapt those best practices to their companys unique needs.

Positive correlation between employer brand perception and both certification of companies by Top Employers and companies employing more than five HRCI-certified professionals were found as follows:

The average rating for Top Employers certified companies on Kununu is 3.5 stars (out of 5) vs. the overall Kununu average of 3.1. The average rating for Top Employers certified companies rated on Glassdoor is 3.5 stars (out of 5) vs. the overall Glassdoor average of 3.2.

The average rating on Glassdoor for companies with more than five HRCI certificants is 3.5 stars (out of 5) vs. the overall Glassdoor average of 3.2.

These findings, as compiled by independent international data analysts, are part of Emerging Evidence: Business Performance and the Validation of HR Best Practices published by Top Employers Institute and HRCI. The paper examines the strong precedent for best practices in general and how best practices benefit companies, and then looks at how the uptake of best practices in the more subjective realm of human resources management has faced challenges versus the application of best practices in more process-driven or scientific organizational functions.

There is widespread agreement that people are an organizations most valuable asset, said Plink. But what has been missing is a way to more systematically manage and optimize the effectiveness of that asset. With rigorous validation of HR practices at the company-wide and individual HR professional level, which comprises a systematic way to apply, evaluate, adapt and measure the impact of HR best practices, we are showing a way forward.

The paper concludes that HR best practices, like best practices in general, can have the most impact on business performance when they are embraced company-wide, starting at the top, and adapted smartly and sensitively by expert professionals.

About HRCI

HR Certification Institute (HRCI) is the premier professional credentialing organization for the worldwide human resources profession. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in the United States, HRCI is celebrating 40 years of setting the standard for HR mastery and excellence around the globe. An independent nonprofit organization, HRCI is dedicated to advancing the HR profession through developing and administering best-in-class certifications including the NCCA-accredited Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). All of HRCIs credentials are recognized as the most rigorous, meaningful, and grounded professional certifications demonstrating competency, real-world practical skills and knowledge in the field. Together with HRCI-certified professionals in 100 countries around the globe, HRCI ensures, strengthens and advances the strategic value and impact of HR.

About Top Employers Institute

Top Employers Institute, headquartered in the Netherlands and founded in 1991, is an independent organization that certifies excellence in HR practices and the environment employers have in place for employees to advance their development. For 25 years, Top Employers Institute has certified exceptional employers around the world with its annual Top Employers Global, Top Employers Continental, and Top Employers Country certifications. In 2016 alone, Top Employers Institute has certified more than 1,100 companies in 100 countries. Top Employers opened its Americas headquarters in Alexandria, VA in 2016. In 2015, Top Employers entered into a strategic global partnership with U.S.-based HR Certification Institute, the premier credentialing organization for HR professionals worldwide to expand the global reach of both organizations in a shared mission to raise the level of excellence of the human resource management profession.
Allsup joins the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care in recognizing social workers leadership roles in the U.S. healthcare system during National Social Work Month in March.

As the realm of healthcare continues to evolve for individuals and organizations, social work leaders are critical to advancing improvement and advantages for their patients and employers, according to the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (SSWLHC). Allsup joins the SSWLHC during National Social Work Month in March to celebrate the advances that social work professionals achieve for their field and the U.S. healthcare system. Allsup is a nationwide provider of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) representation, veterans disability appeal, re-employment, exchange plan and Medicare plan selection services.

Continuous professional development, training and education are key to advancing social workers leadership roles. The SSWLHC focuses on helping its members achieve career excellence through a range of services and activities that include chapter resources, continuing education and conferences.

Social workers traverse a continuum of leadership and involvement in their healthcare organizations, said Scott Ferguson, LCSW, ACM, president of the SSWLHC. Through their visible roles they advocate for patients and family rights, progress in healthcare issues and treatment, and help to lead best practices in hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities across the U.S.

Patient advocacy is a part of this leadership, and were pleased to join Allsup during National Social Work Month to raise the visibility and understanding of our influential profession, he added.

The theme of the SSWLHC 51st Annual Meeting & Conference is, Social Work Innovations for Health Care in Changing Times. Social work professionals will gather from throughout the nation in Costa Mesa, California, Oct. 26-29. Sessions cover a variety of topics across the spectrum of healthcare settings. For information on the SSWLHC, email info(at)sswlhc(dot)org or contact Kyle Fernley at (866) 237-9542.

Allsup has supported the SSWLHC for many years and will participate in the annual conference in October. During March, Allsup recognizes social workers and their challenging work in the evolving healthcare industry. To obtain patient resources in the areas of Social Security disability, VA disability, healthcare insurance and Medicare, contact Karen Hercules-Doerr, national sales director of Consumer Sales, Allsup, at (800) 854-1418, ext. 65770.

ABOUT SOCIETY FOR SOCIAL WORK LEADERSHIP IN HEALTH CARE

The Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care is an association of 700 members, in the United States and worldwide, dedicated to promoting the universal availability, accessibility, coordination, and effectiveness of healthcare that addresses the psychosocial components of health and illness. For more information, visit http://www.sswlhc.org.

ABOUT ALLSUP

Allsup and its subsidiaries provide nationwide Social Security disability, veterans disability appeal, re-employment, exchange plan and Medicare services for individuals, their employers and insurance carriers. Allsup professionals deliver specialized services supporting people with disabilities and seniors so they may lead lives that are as financially secure and as healthy as possible. Founded in 1984, the company is based in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis. For more information, go to http://www.AllsupCares.com.

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ConnectFX Logo Last year's sold-out conference was a huge success...

LiquidFrameworks announced today that they will host the second-annual FieldFX user conference, ConnectFX, and James Barnes will be a keynote speaker. ConnectFX is a two-day event that will provide attendees with the opportunity to hear product roadmap information, learn best practices from customer speakers and network with other FieldFX users.

Keynote speaker, James Barnes, is the Bonner Means Baker Fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University. He has written extensively on international economics, with a focus on the geopolitics of energy.

We are very excited to have James Barnes on our agenda this year, said David Levitt, Vice President of Worldwide Sales at LiquidFrameworks. James knowledge of the international politics of the energy industry will be of great interest to the conference attendees.

ConnectFX will be held in Houston, TX on April 26th and 27th at the Hilton Houston Post Oak. Registration is open; visit the event web site here.

Last years sold-out conference was a huge success, said Levitt. Our customers experienced great benefit from not only hearing other customer-presenters innovative use of the FieldFX software suite, but also from networking within the FieldFX community.

LiquidFrameworks FieldFX solution is a cloud-based, mobile field operations software suite designed to manage contracts, quotes, equipment, jobs and field tickets along with customer-specific electronic forms such as safety incidents, inspections and other operational data reports. To learn more about how mobile field operations management solutions can add value to your oilfield or industrial/environmental service company visit http://www.liquidframeworks.com.

About LiquidFrameworks

LiquidFrameworks is a leading provider of cloud-based, mobile field operations management solutions serving the oilfield, industrial and environmental services industries. LiquidFrameworks FieldFX solution provides companies with numerous benefits, including increased and accelerated revenue capture, increased cash flow, improved contract compliance, increased invoice accuracy and improved customer responsiveness. LiquidFrameworks is based in Houston, Texas. To join the conversation, follow @LiquidFrameworks on Twitter and on LinkedIn.
Scratch 101: Finishing Class Students can receive an amazing price on Scratch software thanks to our partners from The Studio B&H!

Manhattan Edit Workshop (MEWShop), the cutting-edge authorized digital training destination, in cooperation with The Studio B&H, today opened registration for the new SCRATCH 101: Finishing workshop. Held on April 2  3, 2016, the SCRATCH 101: Finishing course offers students valuable hands-on end-to-end post-production DI workflow; as well as a conforming and color-grading for the unique requirements of episodic broadcast.

Assimilate and The Studio B&H are proud to offer a permanent SCRATCH license (Mac or Windows) to any Manhattan Edit Workshop SCRATCH course attendee for the one-time special promotional price of $995. Offer starts on April 5, 2016, 12:00 AM ET and will run through May 15, 2016 11:59 PM ET. Please contact us via email at thestudio(at)bhphoto(dot)com to submit your request. You must have completed the course to be eligible. Proof of course completion is required. Offer not valid in the store.

SCRATCH 101: Finishing - Course Outline

Day one of the workshop will begin with an introduction and overview of SCRATCH. Instructors will walk students through CONstruct, media, player, output, LAB Dailies Workflow and more. Students will learn how to sync audio and edit content, color grade and verify color range with scopes, and process queue and rendering, among many other things. Day two will cover the SCRATCH finishing workflow, conform, primary and secondary grading, and advanced grading using scaffolds.

Who Should Attend

The SCRATCH 101: Finishing workshop is designed for any creative familiar with post-production concepts. This could be an independent feature filmmaker who needs to learn about SCRATCHs comprehensive, end-to-end post-production DI workflow capabilities or a colorist who needs to learn the ins and outs of SCRATCHs conform and color-grading feature set to meet the unique requirements of an episodic broadcast project they are working on.

SCRATCH 101: Finishing Registration Details

The two-day SCRATCH 101 workshop will take place on Saturday April 2, 2016 and Sunday April 3, 2016, at the MEWShop headquarters: 119 W 23rd Street, Suite 700, New York, NY.

The course fee is $995.00. For more information or to register, please visit: http://bit.ly/1VIXgT3.

About the Instructor

Cairo-born and Queens, New York - based, Instructor Sherif Sadek has been making shorts since 1999. After graduating with a B.F.A. in Film/Video/Animation from Rochester Institute of Technology, he returned to his native Egypt to work on a documentary film about the nomadic Arab/African tribe of the Bisharin.

In late 2001, Sherif returned to New York, working on documentaries on Arab-Americans in post-9/11 America, the Iraq War, and Latin gangs in Los Angeles. Sherif has also shot and edited a few narrative shorts, including a fiction, silent black-and-white film, and a documentary about taxi drivers in Cairo.

In the post-production scene, Sherif has worked at Technicolor Creative Services, PostWorks NY (when they were separate companies), Assimilate Inc., Nutmeg Post, and is now a DI Engineer at Post Factory NY.

About SCRATCH

Are you a independent feature filmmaker who needs a comprehensive, end-to-end post-production DI workflow with uncompromising quality? Or are you a artist who needs a dailies, conform and color-grading tool ideal for the unique requirements of episodic and spot television production? SCRATCH is so flexible and comprehensive it's actually been called a post house in a box. And ASSIMILATE was the first DI partner to natively support RED, so its no surprise that SCRATCH is the most mature, reliable tool you can buy for digital workflows. Period.

About ASSIMILATE

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven to be essential in the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions.

About The Studio  B&H

The Studio at B&H, a new division of B&H Photo Video Pro Audio, is dedicated to providing solutions for broadcast and digital cinema by offering a full range of products and services for all of your production and post production needs. The Studio team consists of highly skilled professionals with years of real-world experience. They are trained and certified to assist with pre & post-sales support, consultation, system design, and integration.

At the heart of The Studio is the new professional showroom, which is conveniently located in Midtown Manhattan. Professionals now have the opportunity to test and compare equipment as well as participate in product demonstrations and training.

About Manhattan Edit Workshop  Certified Training in New York City & Your City

Headquartered in the Flatiron District of New York City, Manhattan Edit Workshop was founded in 2002 with the goal of providing cutting-edge instruction on Apple, Adobe and Avid platforms. Since then, MEWShop has added Digital Cinema Production classes, DaVinci Resolve, Autodesk Smoke, Assimilate Scratch training and a two-week documentary film production course to its already impressive curriculum. MEWShops signature Six-Week Intensive is a jump-start for anyone looking for a career in post-production, while weekend and one-week courses introduce and solidify core editing concepts. Corporate and group training offer a customized curriculum, either in-house or on-site, for professionals eager to learn a new skill or to build on existing ones. The facilitys focus on small workshops, highly skilled and certified faculty, and a results-oriented curriculum have quickly won it the reputation as New Yorks premier post-production teaching facility.

Follow https://twitter.com/Mewshop on Twitter and follow us at https://www.facebook.com/ManhattanEditWorkshop on Facebook. For more information on Manhattan Edit Workshop please visit: http://www.mewshop.com.
The more members understand about the prescription drugs they are taking, the more proactive they are becoming about managing their medication and treatment needs.

Focused on ways to contain health benefit costs on behalf of its employer-clients since 2000, Cypress Benefit Administrators now offers a prescription cost management program that emphasizes employee education.

The Midwest-based third party administrator (TPA) began partnering with Magellan Health to offer the Magellan Rx Management solution as a proactive way to manage the prescription price increases plans are commonly experiencing. With the program, educating members through creative, cutting-edge technology is a fundamental  and effective  element.

One example of this member education is the QR codes printed on several frequently prescribed medications. When members receive their prescriptions, they can use their smartphones to scan QR codes printed directly on the packaging and access customized videos designed to inform them about:



Medication information

Dosage details

How-to administration guidance

Common benefits

Common side effects

Along with this video access, there are links that allow member clients to connect to a call center, set up reminders and go directly to a website with more detailed information on their prescription drugs.

According to Tom Doney, president and CEO of Cypress, providing employees with this added information through Magellan Rx Management is having a positive impact. The more members understand about the prescription drugs they are taking, the more proactive they are becoming about managing their medication and treatment needs. He added, Instead of just taking a specialty drug because thats what was ordered, theyre working more closely with their providers and exploring their options.

Doney explained that a big part of the issue related to rising prescription costs in the last few years is the fact that the number of specialty New Molecular Entity (NME) drugs now outnumbers the traditional/generic ones. He also said that the increased prescription usage and costs so many health benefit plans are experiencing correlate to an aging population with more Medicaid and Medicare participants.

With the end goal to contain prescription costs and increase the utilization of traditional/generic drugs, another educational tactic in place is the new patient engagement program that includes a welcome kit and follow-up call to open the lines of communication. Member patients are also connected with care coordinators in all stages of drug therapy.

The problem with escalating prescription costs is going to get more out of hand if we dont take measures now to address it, Doney said. By reaching out to them, employees see the costs of some of these specialty drugs and learn about more cost-effective alternatives available and they become part of the solution.

Cypresss partnership with Magellan Health also focuses on tracking pharmacy data on behalf of its employer-clients and monitoring the ongoing drug costs/trends associated with plans.

A privately held company headquartered in Appleton, Wis., Cypress Benefit Administrators has been pioneering the way toward cost containment in self-funded health benefits since 2000. The third party administrator (TPA) is the countrys first to bring claims administration, consumer driven health plans and proven cost control measures together into one package for companies ranging from 50 employees to thousands of employees. It serves employer-clients across the U.S. with additional locations in Portland and Salem, Ore., Omaha, Neb. and Denver, Col. For more information on Cypress and its customized employee benefits, visit http://www.cypressbenefit.com.
Kount, a leading innovator of solutions for fraud and risk management, today announced a guide to the latest fraud terms and trends that you need to know. As seen by the expansive increase in digital hacking and the millions of compromised accounts, fraud is a not-so-silent disease that is infecting digitally housed information everywhere.

This unfortunate and quickly evolving phenomenon has brought with it many new terms and industry traps that are unfamiliar to consumers and businesses alike, said Brad Wiskirchen, CEO of Kount. It is not enough anymore to stay in up-to-date with the latest social media and text talk; the key is knowing and understanding the newest fraud terms and schemes before they happen to you.

Kount has identified five top terms that are essential to add to your fraudster dictionary. They encompass some of the most serious and important trends evolving in the fraud space today. They include:

1. Ransomware: While no one is being kidnapped in this scenario, ransomware is sure to get your heart pumping. Put simply, ransomware is malicious software that infiltrates a network or system and locks or encrypts the users files and devices (often leaving files scrambled) unless the victim pays for the decryption key. For corporations, ransomware may be the most threatening form of malware because the fraudster takes control of the users network until the ransom is paid. This often-lengthy takeover can escalate to a full-scale data breach resulting in identity theft, invoice fraud, and other malicious activity that uses harvested data.

2. Ransom32: Otherwise known as ransomwares evil accomplice, Ransom32 is a first-of-its-kind software based on JavaScript. It is being sold on the dark web as Ransomware-as-a-service in exchange for a 25 percent cut of the ransom profits.

3. Synthetic IDs: Unfortunately, no chemistry degree is needed for this illegal act. Synthetic IDs are fraudulent identities developed by criminals who take legitimate pieces of personal information from various individuals and combine them into a new, hybrid identity that only exists in the virtual world. Fraudsters then use this info to open new, fraudulent bank or credit card accounts.

4. Extortionware: If ransomware and extortionware were going to battle, extortionware would most certainly win (at least by force). Extortionware goes beyond traditional ransomware, which encrypts data and demands payment, by taking it one step further and threatening to post all stolen data online if payment isnt made.

5. FaaS (Fraud as a Service): Yet another group of starving artists criminals just trying to make it in the big, wide world of fraud. FaaS offerings are made on the black market that include everything from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to stolen payment cards or healthcare records. Increasing competition also has cybercriminals making customer service guarantees for their services with try-before-you-buy options and returns for faulty merchandise (such as bad payment cards).

As if these new terms werent frightening enough, Kount has identified the top five fraudster schemes that are new and emerging this year, and they are sure to make you think twice about where you house your personal information. Becoming familiar with all of the below will help you become more aware of fraudulent activity if any of these unlucky circumstances were to happen to you.

1. Reshipper fraud: We like to think of this type of criminal as Jack the Shipper. This scheme is one in which the fraudster uses a stolen credit card to make a purchase that is then shipped out to a mule, or an innocent intermediary to avoid suspicion and detection. The mule ends up re-shipping the product back to the original fraudster unknowingly, usually in a foreign country, who then ends up selling the stolen goods illegally. Criminals often use make money at home or make money online type schemes through legitimate job boards to recruit the intermediary.

2. Triangulation fraud/schemes: The local auction doesnt have what you need? Look no further than triangulation. This is a form of fraud that combines phishing, credit card fraud, and return fraud. A criminal will then set up a phony online auction for an item they do not have and when the winning bid comes in, the fraudster uses a stolen credit card to fulfill the order from an online retailer. This can be extended into quad fraud, which is when criminals recruit existing, long-time eBay members with good standings to sell stolen items via work-at-home job scams. These schemes typically advertise that the seller gets to keep a significant cut of the sale price  typically 30 percent.

3. Zero-click fraud: Be careful where you click! Much like a sly crocodile, these criminals waste no time snatching their victim up. Zero-click fraud is a new type of online fraud that requires no user interaction and has evolved from older click hijacking fraud (an example of this would be when a site visitor clicks, for example, on a video play button, but instead of the video, they have downloaded ransomware onto their phone or computer). The new instance of zero-click fraud was discovered by Symantec security researchers who found that somewhere in Japan, an adult site operator decided that waiting one second after the user lands on a fraudulent page is more than enough to trigger the action they want from the user (in this case, the users were falsely led to believe that by accessing the page, they were subscribed to a premium service, for which they had to pay a fee of $2,000).

4. Chip and skim: Just when you thought that digital fraud was all you had to worry about, they start attacking the cards you have in your wallet! Chip and skim involves cloning or otherwise subverting the chip in new EMV cards. There is already a vulnerability within chip cards that allows a criminal to generate the supposedly secure unique transaction code generated by the chip, with experts saying its likely only a matter of time before they can clone the chip as well.

5. Social media banking: Otherwise known as the clever actors among the fraudster community, social media banking is a trend where consumers fall victim to brand hijacking, or instances where hackers can blatantly copy and misuse company logos and website content. Fraudsters impersonate a business online presence and deceive unsuspecting visitors into believing they are visiting the real organizations website, then getting them to divulge personal information, typically through a guise of confirming their account information.

All jokes aside, falling victim to digital fraud is no laughing matter. Educate yourself on these terms and activities to better protect your personal and private information from these ruthless criminals.

To learn more about Kount, visit http://www.kount.com.

About Kount

Kount helps businesses boost sales by reducing fraud. Our all-in-one, SaaS platform simplifies fraud detection and helps online businesses accept more orders. Kounts turnkey fraud platform is easy-to-implement and easy-to-use. Kounts proprietary technology reviews billions of data points and provides maximum protection for some of the worlds best-known brands. Merchants using Kount can accept more orders from more people in more places than ever before. For more information about Kount, please visit http://www.kount.com.
Joe Carter, a licensed real estate agent in the McCall, Idaho, market, has joined the prestigious Haute Residence Real Estate Network.

The Haute Residence Real Estate Network of Hauteresidence.com, affiliated with luxury lifestyle publication Haute Living, is proud to recognize Joe Carter as a prominent real estate professional and the networks newest partner.

Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners.

The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts.

HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for luxury listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more.

Access all of this information and more by visiting: http://www.hauteresidence.com

About Joe Carter:

Joe Carter has been revolutionizing the luxury lifestyle industry for more than 20 years. A veteran of luxury club operations and real estate sales, he began his career at the prestigious Piedmont Driving Club and never looked back. Joining the ranks of the Marietta Country Club and then the High Point Country Club, he has steadily worked to bring excellence and his keen business sense to every endeavor.

Carter believes that it his very experience in club operations that served as the best foundation for his real estate sales career. Success in sales, he believes, is first and foremost about selling the club experience and serving the needs of the community.

He quickly moved from club operations to leading a team of 10 agents managing more than 400 listings at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Georgia. Working hand-in-hand with his team, he managed to negotiate 148 sales contracts totaling in excess of $80 million.

Seeking to bring his unique skill set to a new location, Carter next took on his current position, director of real estate sales at Whitetail Club. He jumped at the chance to be part of such a unique offering. Ive worked with many private communities over the years but never had I seen the combination of sophisticated elegance and rugged surroundings like [at] Whitetail Club. You really have to see it to believe it.

At Whitetail Club, Carter oversees all real estate sales activities in his role as designated broker, while still maintaining his status as an active sales agent. In addition to his real estate credentials, he is also a certified Community Association Manager and a certified Property Owner Association Manager.

To learn more, visit Joe Carters Haute Residence profile: http://www.hauteresidence.com/member/joe-carter
This special issue highlights a number of algorithmic approaches that are fundamental to data analysis, both in formulating and solving problems. Timely and relevant, the special issue of Proceedings of the IEEE on Big Data helps readers understand statistical learning and algorithms in large-scale data.

Proceedings of the IEEE, the most highly cited general-interest journal in electrical engineering and computer science, has just published the first of two special issues covering the theoretical aspects of Big Data.

The first issue consists of nine papers covering a variety of topics in formulation and algorithmic approaches that are fundamental to data analysis, both in formulating and solving problems.

The issue, which was spearheaded by a team of three guest editors, Simon Haykin, IEEE Fellow and University Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University in Canada, Stephen J. Wright, Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Yoshua Bengio, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the University of Montreal, presents a variety of methods that can be apply to many specific application areas.

Timely and relevant, the special issue helps readers understand statistical learning and algorithms in large-scale data. Topics covered include:



How statistical models can be trained on large knowledge graphs and then used to predict new facts about the world. Googles Knowledge Vault project provides an example of such combinations.

Insights, pros, and cons of the emerging indexing and search methods for Big Data.

New approaches that incorporate data-driven learning methods in the development of advanced hash functions.

A framework for answering the fundamental question: When can reliable inference be drawn in the Big Data context?

Recent work on developing and implementing randomized matrix algorithms in large-scale parallel and distributed environments.

A correlation-mining framework for large-scale inference.

A framework for the allocation of a given set of resources to a collection of sources in order to optimize a specified metric of statistical efficiency.

How maximum aggregation can address certain challenges in large-scale data analysis of inhomogeneous data.

The mathematical and computational techniques that have enabled learning reductions to effectively address a wide class of tasks.

How a tweak to the aggregation step can produce an estimator whose influences are common to all the data, often resulting in a better prediction than would be the case with pooled effects.

An introduction to Bayesian optimization, a powerful tool for performing joint optimization. It promises greater automation, which will lead to increases in both product quality and human productivity.

The paper, Machine Learning in Genomic Medicine: A Review of Computational Problems and Data Sets, by Leung et al. provides an introduction to machine-learning tasks in genomic medicine. One of the objectives of genomic medicine is to determine how variations in the DNA of individuals can affect the risk of different diseases so that targeted therapies can be designed. However, engineers believe machine learning can help to model the relationship between DNA and the quantities of key molecules in the cell, with the premise that these cell variables may be associated with disease risks. With the growing availability of large-scale data sets and advanced computational techniques such as deep learning and predictive modeling, researchers in machine learning can help to usher in a new era of effective genomic medicine.

To learn more about the theoretical aspects of Big Data, please visit the Proceedings of the IEEEs website, LinkedIn or Facebook page.

About the Proceedings of the IEEE

Founded in 1912 and first published in early 1913 (originally as Proceedings of the IRE), Proceedings of the IEEE is the most highly cited general-interest journal in electrical engineering and computer science. This journal provides the most in-depth tutorial and review coverage of the technical developments that shape our world, enlisting the help of guest editors and authors from the best research facilities, leading-edge corporations and universities around the world. For more information on Proceedings of the IEEE and the latest ideas and innovative technologies, visit http://www.ieee.org/proceedings, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About IEEE

IEEE, the worlds largest technical professional association, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org.
We chose to work with Avalara, because they have a proven track record of delivering the best tax compliance solutions for business

Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of tax compliance automation for business, and WooCommerce, the worlds largest eCommerce platform powered by WordPress, today announced an extension of their partnership to streamline and improve sales tax management for businesses on the WooCommerce platform.

We chose to work with Avalara, because they have a proven track record of delivering the best tax compliance solutions for business, said Joel Bronkowski, chief business development officer of WooCommerce. Avalara has been a terrific partner in helping Woos e-merchants effectively manage their tax compliance obligations.

Avalaras Compliance CloudTM platform automatically validates addresses, determines taxability and rates, and delivers instantaneous tax calculations within the Woo shopping cart at checkout for 200 supported countries. Additionally, the Avalara integration will now feature active updating, maintenance and support for WooCommerce 2.3 and later releases. The update is automatically included for all users and features:



A more intuitive user experience

Efficiencies in tax code creation by category

Detailed levels of control on tax code variants

More reliable address validation

Customizable tax exemptions, with the ability to update by customer

Comprehensive refund support

We are leveling the playing field for small and mid-size e-merchants, giving them a real-time, automated tax solution for the Magic Moment of ecommerce, said Marshal Kushniruk, executive vice president of global business development at Avalara. Avalara enables business owners to accurately calculate the right tax for the right product at the right time, right in the shopping cart. Its a huge win for our mutual customers.

For businesses of all kinds and sizes, calculating and collecting sales tax for each transaction can be challenging, because tax rules, regulations, exceptions and exemptions vary widely by product, state, district, and even county or neighborhood. With Avalara, merchants can automatically, accuractely access the most current sales tax information required to generate an invoice. Because Avalara is cloud software, its tax engines are constantly updated with the latest rules, regulations, tax holidays and other important tax compliance content.

We have an ecommerce site and are required to collect sales tax for sales to 13 states, said Dan Martin, server administrator at Caliper Coporation. The AvaTax plugin for WooCommerce allows us to correctly apply sales tax in the applicable jurisdictions within our store.

About Avalara

Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales and use, excise, communications, VAT other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use. Avalaras Compliance CloudTM platform is designed to effectively manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.

Avalara offers hundreds of pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. The company processes millions of tax transactions for customers and free users every day, files hundreds of thousands of transactional tax returns per year, and manages millions of exemption certificates and other compliance related documents.

A privately held company, Avalara s venture capital investors include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara employs more than 1,000 people at its headquarters in Seattle, WA and in offices across the U.S. and in London, England and Pune, India. More information at: http://www.avalara.com

About WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the world's most popular eCommerce platform. Powered by WordPress and built by WooThemes, the goal of WooCommerce is to allow businesses to sell anything online - beautifully. Users can integrate with payment processors, easily manage shipping methods and inventory, set up flexible tax rules, and view detailed store reports all from your WordPress dashboard.

With a free core platform and hundreds of premium add-ons available, WooCommerce allows businesses to set up an online shop with functionality catered to their store's needs. http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce
On Monday, March 14th, 2016, Oilgear will be officially launching its new global website at http://www.oilgear.com

Twelve months ago, the century-old hydraulics company, Oilgear, initiated an ambitious plan to streamline and modernize its US operations along with its global branding. This plan has included a $10M investment in Oilgears Fremont, Nebraska pump facility, as well as the relocation of Oilgears Aftermarket business from Milwaukee to Oilgears modern, Traverse City, Michigan facility.

The branding component of the plan is also moving forward as Oilgear has begun utilizing a new logo, slogan, and is about to unveil a new global website.

The new global website is focused on making it easy for customers to do business with Oilgear, making it straightforward to locate products, download documentation, and download CAD files. The website also features an online Pump Configurator tool. This tool allows users to quickly build-up an Oilgear pump and create a valid Oilgear part number.

Though the official launch is Monday, March 14th, 2016, the website will first become available to the public on March 11th.
Every video has to tell a story. That's how students think. That's how everyone thinks. The best learning is felt, not just known.

Teachers and parents looking for run-of-the-mill, lecture-style educational videos have their pick of the litter. Visit yawns.com, snore.edu, and BoringVille.org for fine examples.

But what about educators who want their students to actually enjoy learning? Well, Shmoop's educational videos are like Brussels sprouts coated in sugar. Just less disgusting. Shmoop (http://www.shmoop.com), a digital publisher known for its award-winning Test Prep and certified Online Courses, has a collection of over 4,000 free educational videos that will keep students on their toes by relating concepts to their lives and dropping more pop culture references than a tween blogger.

Shmoop's videos cover the gamut of topics, including test prep, math, literature, English, social studies, science, life skills, and college and career readiness. Students can learn how to graph limits from an aspiring sumo wrestler or discover the benefits of delayed gratification from a talking dinosaur-chicken tag team. And the video styles range from interviews with PhDs to puppets talking about finance, which means there's something for everyone. For students looking to review a given topic, Shmoop has specially curated hundreds of playlists covering everything from common grammar mistakes to fractions and decimals to dystopian literature. All of these videos are found on the recently redesigned ShmoopTube and scattered throughout the site within Test Prep Guides, Online Courses, and Learning Guides to give students a different way to digest the material.

Shmoop founder, David Siminoff, spent several years in the depths of Hollywood and knows what grabs people. "Every video has to tell a story," he says. "That's how students think. That's how everyone thinks. The best learning is felt, not just known." Shmoop's videos reach students on an emotional level so they feel connected to the material, remember it, and think more critically about it.

For students who are prone to falling down the video rabbit hole, Shmoop also offers structured watching with online video courses. Individuals and small groups can access these courses via a Shmoop subscription, while schools and districts looking for bulk subscriptions on courses, test prep, and more, can contact sales(at)shmoop(dot)com for a quote.

About Shmoop

Shmoop offers hundreds of thousands of pages of original content. Their Online Courses, Test Prep, Teaching Guides, Learning Guides, and interactive Study Tools are written by teachers and experts and balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous concepts. Shmoop sees 13 million unique visitors a month across desktop and mobile. The company has won numerous awards from EdTech Digest, Tech & Learning, and the Association of Educational Publishers. Launched in 2008, Shmoop makes the magic happen from a labradoodle-patrolled office in Mountain View, California.
CheckPoint Sciences, Inc., and the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai have established a collaboration that makes state-of-the-art genomics and bioinformatics services available to pharmaceutical companies to facilitate the development and commercialization of diagnostics for personalized cancer immunotherapy treatments. The rapidly-developing field of cancer immunotherapy offers tremendous promise, but it is hampered by high costs and increasing numbers and combinations of cancer immunotherapies under development. Moreover, a significant number of patients do not respond favorably to immunotherapy treatment. Healthcare professionals urgently need personalized immunotherapy diagnostic tests that can help them determine which cancer patients could benefit from a specific immunotherapy and which patients would not benefit from it, or could even be harmed by it.

The new collaboration is led by CheckPoint Sciences Science Advisory Board, which includes several of the foremost cancer immunotherapy experts from The Tisch Cancer Institute and the Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai. The Icahn Institute has one of the worlds leading genetics and genomic labs, providing state-of-the-art next generation sequencing and supercomputer-based bioinformatics services. CheckPoint Sciences has developed unique, patent-pending blood-based pre- and post-treatment checkpoint immunotherapy response-predictive biomarkers, which it is bringing to the collaboration.

Dr. William Oh, Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital and Chairman of the CheckPoint Sciences Scientific Advisory Board, said Immunotherapy offers new hope for patients with melanoma, lung cancer and potentially many other types of cancers. Only a limited number of cancer patients respond to immunotherapy, however, and an urgent clinical need exists for biomarkers that can effectively guide treatment decisions. Medical professionals are looking to biomarkers to answer the most critical treatment questions for cancer patients and their loved ones, such as



Which patients will benefit from checkpoint inhibitors?

Which patients need combination immunotherapies?

Which combination of therapies is best for an individual patient?

Is the immunotherapy still working over time?

Is the patient responding to a therapeutic cancer vaccine?

Karl G. Wassmann, President of CheckPoint Sciences, said Biomarkers that are derived from simple blood draws and that can predict in real time the response of individual patients to cancer immunotherapy are the Holy Grail of personalized immunotherapy. Eric Schadt, PhD, the Founding Director of the Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai, added The combination of the Icahn Institutes advanced capabilities and CheckPoint Sciences robust blood-based biomarkers provides pharmaceutical companies with a comprehensive suite of immunotherapy biomarkers, capabilities and services to develop, validate and commercialize immunotherapy response-predictive diagnostics. The collaboration team of CheckPoint Sciences and the Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai welcomes the opportunity to meet with pharmaceutical companies to explore programs for commercializing response-predictive companion diagnostics for their immunotherapy drugs that are in the market and in their pipelines. For inquiries, contact Karl G. Wassmann, President of CheckPoint Sciences, Inc., at karl.wassmann(at)checkpointsciences(dot)com or (774) 893-4313.

About CheckPoint Sciences, Inc. CheckPoint Sciences, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, was formed in 2015 to commercialize response-predictive biomarkers that will facilitate the adoption and use of cancer immunotherapy in the most clinically-effective and cost-efficient manner. The Companys blood-based biomarkers for predicting the response of individual patients to cancer immunotherapy, currently at the clinical implementation stage, will empower medical professionals to answer critical treatment questions for the benefit of patients and their loved ones. In pursuit of these objectives, the Company has developed clinically-actionable, patent-pending genomic profiles, using biomarkers derived from whole blood, that can reliably predict the response of individual cancer patients to immunotherapy prior to treatment. Medical professionals and payors can use the Companys whole blood-based biomarkers to help formulate the most effective immunotherapy treatment course on an individualized basis for each cancer patient. For more information, visit http://www.checkpointsciences.com.

About the Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient servicesfrom community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care. The System includes approximately 6,100 primary and specialty care physicians; 12 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per investigator. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked as one of the nations top 10 hospitals in Geriatrics, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, and Gastroenterology, and is in the top 25 in five other specialties in the 2014-2015 Best Hospitals issue of U.S. News & World Report. Mount Sinais Kravis Childrens Hospital also is ranked in seven out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel is ranked regionally. For more information, visit http://www.mountsinaihealth.org/ or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Receiving parking tickets can be frustrating, but paying them doesnt have to be. Passport is the first software company to offer a single solution for parking payments and in-app parking citation payments, combining in one app the entire parking ecosystem. The new capability further enhances the industry-leading solution for parking and is being offered for the first time within Park Omaha, a parking payment app created specifically for the City of Omaha. With the Park Omaha app, users can find, pay, extend and manage parking. The latest update allows customers the capability of paying any parking violation directly from the app.

ParkOmaha was the first-ever private label mobile application for parking. We chose to partner with Passport because of their flexible technology and ability to build a product that fits our needs. Years later, they are continuing to evolve with new innovation and make parking easier, said Kenneth Smith, City Parking Manager. Omaha continues to pioneer the parking experience for residents with the new native citation payment feature. When a user receives a parking citation, they can download the Park Omaha app, find their citation, and pay or appeal directly from the app. To help avoid citations, users can pay with the Park Omaha app and extend their sessions directly from their smartphone.

Our enterprise software offers the flexibility to tailor features specifically for clients needs. Providing an in-app citation payment feature was important to the City and allows users a convenient way to resolve their parking violation quickly, said Brad Powers, CTO at Passport. Weve created a better experience by providing an end-to-end solution for parking in Omaha. Users can now manage everything in one place

Cities around the world are adopting mobile payment technology for parking, transportation, and now additional municipal payments. Passport provides payment technology to cities, universities, private operators, and transit agencies throughout North America. Passport clients are experiencing enhanced speed in their operation and up to 20% increases in online payment compliance for citation management.

Our extensible platform allows us to add useful functionality that meets user demands. It also creates multiple entry points for the app, whether parking for the first time--or receiving your first parking ticket, said Brad Powers. We are trying to make the entire downtown experience easier to manage and navigate.

Passport offers citation management services to clients through a secure online payment portal and can easily integrate with existing hardware and software providers. As part of Passports commitment to innovation, the company released this in-app enhanced functionality for iOS and Android devices.

About Passport

Passport is the industry-leading mobile payments company specializing in integrated urban mobility solutions. The company provides feature rich software platforms that offer parking and transit agencies a more effective and efficient way to manage their operations and serve their customers. Passports smart city solution includes multimodal options by creating an all app solution for public transit riders and parkers. Passports mobile payment systems are deployed in over 1,000 locations in 47 states and provinces across the US and Canada, with clients such as Chicago, Toronto, and Boston.

Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Passport is backed by a highly respected group of investors, including Grotech Ventures and Relevance Capital. For more information, please visit http://www.gopassport.com
The Trust Company will use SIGNiXs Independent E-Signature solution to control costs and improve customer experiences. SIGNiX will enhance our internal efficiencies, allowing us to maximize time spent with our customers.

SIGNiX, the leading provider of cloud-based Independent E-Signature solutions, announced today the signing of a strategic financial services client, The Trust Company. The Knoxville, Tennessee-based state-chartered bank, which specializes in helping individuals, businesses and foundations reach their financial goals, chose SIGNiXs FINRA/SEC-compliant Independent E-Signature solution to ease compliance burdens and to become more efficient.

Our team is committed to meeting the needs of our customers and providing them with specialized financial solutions, said Daniel Carter, president of The Trust Company. SIGNiX will enhance our internal efficiencies, allowing us to maximize time spent with our customers. We will also be able to offer our customers the convenience of the easy-to-use e-signatures that SIGNiX delivers.

The Trust Company will use SIGNiXs Independent E-Signature solution to control costs and improve customer experiences.

We love that SIGNiX offers a cloud-based Independent E-Signature solution that gives our customers instant access to transactions that they can sign online on any device at anytime, said Andy Muldoon, senior vice president at The Trust Company. Another benefit of working with SIGNiX is that they are a Tennessee-based company, and we always take advantage of the opportunity to work with nationally recognized local companies that we can view as a partner and not just another vendor.

The Trust Company is the latest addition to SIGNiXs quickly growing list of financial services clients. Many investment firms are attracted to SIGNiX because its Independent E-Signature solution is based on international, published standards. Further, the legal evidence of an e-signature is permanently embedded into a signed document using public key infrastructure technology, so e-signatures remain valid foreverand theres no reliance on SIGNiX to prove that validity. Users can verify e-signatures through any free PDF viewer, even offline.

SIGNiXs solution deploys the highest levels of identity authentication and encryption, comprehensive audit trails and tamper-evident technology to assure the safety and security of e-signatures and e-signed documents.

We understand the compliance burdens that the financial services industry faces, and thats why our solution is the leading choice in highly regulated industries, said Jay Jumper, CEO of SIGNiX. Were excited to be working with an industry leader thats so close to home, and we are looking forward to delighting their customers with our product.

About SIGNiX:

SIGNiX, the most trusted name in independent e-signatures, makes signing documents online safe and secure with comprehensive legal evidence permanently embedded in each document to eliminate any dependence upon SIGNiX. The companys cloud-based service uses patented technology to give businesses and organizations the most secure and legally defensible e-signatures available at a fraction of the cost of wet ink signatures. SIGNiXs products help the worlds leading companies become more efficient, decrease risk and boost profits. For more information, visit http://www.signix.com.

About The Trust Company:

With offices in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City, The Trust Company is the oldest independent trust company headquartered in the state of Tennessee. Founded in 1987 by Sharon Miller Pryse, The Trust Company manages more than $2.5 billion in assets. The company is a state-chartered bank that provides a multitude of financial services, including wealth management, personal trust, retirement plan services to individuals and businesses. More information about The Trust Company can be found at TheTrust.com.
Liquidware Labs Solutions Solve The Virtual Desktop Puzzle "Liquidware Labs offers joint customers full-featured UEM and Advanced Application Layering, -- Siddharth Rabindran, Director Citrix Ready

Liquidware Labs, a Citrix Ready Premier partner and leader in desktop transformation solutions, announced today that the ProfileUnity with FlexApp Layering Blueprint has been released for Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC). The Blueprint has also been Citrix-Ready verified and is immediately available for use via the Citrix Workspace Cloud Lifecycle Management (CLM) online catalog.

ProfileUnity with FlexApp is in use by numerous Citrix customers for User Environment Management (UEM) and Application Layering for Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop environments. The solution provides a seamless user experience that is highly scalable whether desktops and XenApp servers are on-premises or cloud hosted. ProfileUnitys core UEM features are designed to boost user login times, enhance security through context-aware policy management, and increase user productivity while FlexApp Layering is designed to deliver applications just-in-time, reducing the need to set up and maintain numerous Windows OS base desktop images.

Citrix Workspace Clouds strategy is all about enhancing flexibility with cloud-hosted desktop computing to answer to the demands of todays dynamic customers, said Jason E. Smith, VP of Product Marketing, Liquidware Labs. Our new CLM Blueprint embraces that flexibility and adds portable User Environment Management through ProfileUnity and portable cloud-based application delivery with FlexApp Layering - regardless of where the customers cloud is hosted.

Liquidware Labs ProfileUnity and FlexApp offers joint customers a good option for full-featured User Environment Management and Advanced Application Layering, said Siddharth Rabindran, Director, Citrix Ready, Citrix. Their support of our Citrix Workspace Cloud Lifecycle Management architecture makes it easy for customers to test and implement the solution on their choice for cloud infrastructure.

ProfileUnity with FlexApp is innovative technology that is the industrys first solution to incorporate both full User Environment Management and advanced Application Layering in one easy-to-deploy solution. The solutions can be licensed together for maximum productivity. However, they can also be licensed separately, if desired.

A video demonstration of the ProfileUnity with FlexApp CLM Blueprint is available by visiting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afct-zBDJ5k

For more information on ProfileUnity with FlexApp, including a free trial download, visit http://www.liquidwarelabs.com/products/profileunity

For more information on Citrix Workspace Cloud visit https://www.citrix.com/products/workspace-cloud/overview.html

About Liquidware Labs

Liquidware Labs provides industry leading platform-agnostic desktop solutions for hybrid Windows desktop environments including Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop, VMware Horizon View, and physical Microsoft Windows PCs. Stratusphere FIT and Stratusphere UX products deliver visibility into desktop environments and support assessment, design, monitoring and diagnostics (Health Checks). ProfileUnity provides just in time delivery of User Profiles, application and user rights management and context-aware policies. ProfileUnitys FlexApp feature delivers advanced Application Layering. Flex-IO supports IOPS acceleration in virtual desktop environments. The solutions are available in an extremely cost-effectively priced bundle called Liquidware Labs Essentials. Liquidware Labs products are Citrix Ready, VMware-certified, and are available through a global network of partners. Visit http://www.liquidwarelabs.com for further information.
N2 Publishing was recently named one of the 2016 Best Employers in North Carolina. The annual list is a creation of Business North Carolina, N.C. State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and Best Companies Group.

This award means the world to us, said Katherine Daniel, director of human resources and marketing for N2 Publishing. Our goal is always to provide a culture that affords our team members to grow, both personally and professionally. To have our effort recognized by a regional influencer like Business North Carolina is honoring and humbling to us.

N2 and others made the list following a survey and selection process which focused on the companies economic development, workforce and business community impact. Currently, N2 Publishing employs some 204 people at its Wilmington-based headquarters.

A few of the N2 perks highlighted on the Best Employers in North Carolina list include an onsite, full-time fitness instructor; two-week paid break at the end of the year plus an average of 18 paid days off throughout the year; marriage stipend; game lounge; and standing desks.

With this latest distinction, N2 Publishing picks up where it left off in 2015. Last year, the business garnered much national attention for its thriving progress and workplace culture. Some of the awards received include:



2015 Inc. 5000 Honor Roll Company

Entrepreneur and Culture IQ Top Company Culture List  Best in Large Enterprise Award

Great Places to Work and Fortunes 100 Best Workplaces for Women

Outside Magazines Best Places to Work List

Best and Brightests 101 National Best and Brightest Companies to Work For

According to N2 Publishing leadership, its Go the extra mile approach is not only the medium that energizes its team, but the fuel that drives its success.

Im often asked the question, 'What is the key to N2s growth?' said Marty Fukuda, chief operating officer. In short, my answer is, 'Our people.' Its the way our people respond to opportunity and challenge, the way they take care of business and each other  their behavior, which can be summed up as the culture of N2.

To see N2 Publishings spot and the entire list of the Best Employers in North Carolina, visit Business North Carolinas website, http://www.businessnc.com. For more information on the Best Employers in North Carolina program, visit http://www.BestEmployersInNC.com.

About N2 Publishing

Based in Wilmington, N2 Publishing, Inc., was named North Carolinas fastest-growing media company by Inc. Magazine in 2015. N2 Publishing focuses on turning neighborhoods into communities by partnering with affluent neighborhoods to produce private, monthly publications filled with resident-contributed content. Every N2 issue is personal, relevant, and unique to the community it serves. Visit N2 Publishing online at http://www.n2pub.com.
Gayle Roberts and Scott Yost with JICA award All of Stanley Consultants international experience was brought to bear on this successful project for the benefit of our client and the people of Vietnam. Gayle Roberts, P.E., Stanley Consultants President and CEO

Stanley Consultants has been awarded the 2015 JICA President Award for its work on the Noi Bai International Airport to Nhat Tan Bridge Connecting Expressway in Hanoi, Vietnam. Stanley Consultants is a global consulting engineering firm that provides program management, planning, engineering, environmental, and construction services worldwide.

Awarded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Presidential Award is given to an individual or organization that is associated with JICA and whose contribution in the field of development is recognized to be of immense significance in development of human resources, society and economy in Vietnam.

We are proud to play an important role in supporting the development of Vietnam and future growth of Hanoi, said Gayle Roberts, President and CEO of Stanley Consultants. All of Stanley Consultants international experience was brought to bear on this successful project for the benefit of our client and the people of Vietnam.

The Connecting Expressway, which links the Nhat Tan Bridge across the Red River to Noi Bai International Airport, is an integral element of a new international gateway to northern Vietnam. Part of a nationwide infrastructure development program, the Connecting Expressway will alleviate congestion and improve transport from Noi Bai to downtown Hanoi, improving the capital citys investment climate. The Connecting Expressway cuts the distance between Noi Bai International Airport and the inner city of Hanoi from the 20 miles to 9 miles, reducing travel time by nearly 45 minutes.

One of the keys to modernizing Hanois transportation system and commercial economy is to improve travel efficiency between the Noi Bai International Airport and downtown Hanoi, said Gary Foster, Vice President of Stanley Consultants, who leads business development for Vietnam. Project Manager Scott Yost noted that the challenges were many, the construction schedule was tight, but Stanley Consultants finished the project on time.

In 2011, the Joint Venture of Stanley Consultants (USA) and CTI Engineering International (Japan) won the Connecting Expressway contract through competitive bidding as a result of an invitation from the Vietnam Ministry of Transport (Hanoi) and Project Management Unit No. 85 (Vinh City) to provide design review and construction supervision services. The Stanley Consultants team had overall responsibility for the entire project through all stages of construction. The project received high government visibility as a result of the Vietnam Prime Ministers direct interest.

The 7.5 mile, six-lane expressway runs through urban and rural, agricultural areas and is bordered by two-lane frontage roads. The project included two river, two highway and one railroad crossings, four major interchanges, several flyovers, and connection to Noi Bai International Airport at the north end and the JICA-financed Nhat Tan cable-stayed bridge across the Red River at the south end. Construction of the $450 million project began in late 2011 and was completed within the scheduled 40 months through five construction contracts. Following completion, an elaborate road opening ceremony took place near Dong Anh. The highway, named after General Vo Nguyen Giap, was dedicated by high government officials and representatives of JICA; and formally opened for uninterrupted traffic.

Stanley Consultants has worked with the people of Vietnam since the mid-1990s. The firm has provided consulting services for rural electrification projects countrywide, urban upgrading and improvements for the city of Nam Dinh. It has provided construction supervision services for Highway Nine in Quang Tri Province from Dong Ha to the Laotian border, the Dong Ha Bypass, and the Cam Lo Bypass.

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About Stanley Consultants: Founded in 1913, Stanley Consultants is a global consulting engineering firm that provides program management, planning, engineering, environmental and construction services worldwide. Recognized for its commitment to client service and a passion to make a difference, Stanley Consultants brings global knowledge, experience and capabilities to serve clients in the energy, water, transportation and Federal markets. Since 1913, Stanley Consultants has successfully completed more than 25,000 engagements in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and in 110 countries. For more information on Stanley Consultants, please visit http://www.stanleyconsultants.com.
I am excited to work with an organization thats dedicated to furthering learning and development in our workplaces

RedVector, the leader in eLearning and workforce training solutions for the industrial, architecture, engineering, construction and facility management industries, has teamed up with Elliott Masie, an expert learning and development analyst, to present eLearning best practices at a one-of-a-kind learning and development summit.

In addition to providing industry-leading training content, RedVector strives to provide customers with top-of-the-line learning and development tools and strategies, tapping into talent and experience in-house and in the community. RedVector is proud to bring Elliott Masie onboard to further that mission. Masie is acknowledged as the first analyst to use the term eLearning and has advocated for a sane deployment of learning and collaboration technology as a means of supporting the effectiveness and profitability of enterprises.

I am excited to work with an organization thats dedicated to furthering learning and development in our workplaces, said Masie. RedVector shares my goal of developing and sharing strategies that best develop skills, improve performance and even save lives.

Masie will present important learning and development strategies for the workplace during his keynote address at the RedVector Summit in April.

Its an honor to team up with such a respected authority on the topic of learning and development, said RedVector Product Director Dan McGonegle. Elliott presents strategies and ways of thinking that reinvent industries, positively impact employees, and ultimately make organizations stronger and serve clients better.

About Elliott Masie

Elliott Masie is a provocative, engaging and entertaining futurist, analyst and speaker focused on the changing world of the workplace, learning and technology. To learn more about Elliott Masie, visit http://masie.com/MASIE-Information/who-is-elliott-masie.html.

About RedVector

RedVector sets the standard for excellence in online continuing education and training for the architecture, engineering, construction (AEC), industrial and facility management industries and holds nearly 100 state and national accreditations. RedVector offers individual courses as well as large-scale corporate training solutions featuring customizable and easily accessible online universities with a full range of tracking and reporting features. With an online library exceeding 2,250 courses authored by more than 100 subject matter experts, RedVector serves professionals and organizations in all 50 states. The recipient of numerous community honors and industry awards, RedVector was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. For more information, call 1-866-546-1212 or visit http://www.RedVector.com.
Just as there is a relationship between the television shows released and todays society, there is too a relationship between the mythology of the past and the history during that time.

Alexander the Great meets Hercules in a first of its kind, side-by-side account of Greek history and mythology.

In his new book, Greek Mythic History, author Spencer Clevenger provides a comprehensive look at the relationship between Greek history and Greek mythology.

The subject is timeless, Clevenger said. But the approach, which capitalizes on modern discoveries, makes the work both timely and unique.

Clevengers interest in Greek mythology began as a junior in high school and after thirty years of studying the subject, he chose to provide readers with a comprehensive rendition of Greek mythology from a more literal perspective.

Just as there is a relationship between the television shows released and todays society, there is too a relationship between the mythology of the past and the history during that time, Clevenger said. When you think of it that way, the relationship between history and mythology are a little more interesting.

For more information, visit greekmythichistory.com.

Greek Mythic History

By Spencer Clevenger

ISBN: 987-1-4917-7228-7

Available in softcover, hardcover, e-book

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iUniverse

About the author

Spencer Clevenger earned an economics degree from University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from the University of Southern California. He has studied mythology and Hellenic history for more than thirty years. Clevenger currently resides in the Seattle area where he works as a Senior Director, Treasury at a technology company.

# # #

**For Immediate Release**

For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Jade Schwarting

317.602.7137

jschwarting(at)bohlsengroup(dot)com
Global Ethics Day, October 19, 2016. Background photo, Shutterstock Although it's only a couple of years old, Global Ethics Day is gaining momentum every year We hope you'll join us in 2016 and host an event on whatever aspect of global ethics concerns you most.

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs announces its third annual Global Ethics Day (#globalethicsday2016) on October 19, 2016.

Inspired by Earth Day, Global Ethics Day provides an opportunity for organizations around the world to hold events exploring the meaning of ethics in international affairs.

Carnegie Council encourages academic institutions everywhere to use this day to hold programs focusing on ethics, such as lectures, film screenings, debates, or panel discussions. All ideas welcome. In the tradition of a "teach-in" model, these events will be run by each institution as it sees fit while being part of a worldwide Global Ethics Day.

Carnegie Council will promote Global Ethics Day activities on its online community platform http://www.globalethicsnetwork.org and share any resources that are created. Course and lecture ideas can be found on Carnegie Council's website here.

Sixty-eight institutions worldwide participated last year. To see the list, click here. Here are just a few examples of events in 2015: Carnegie Council co-hosted an event on Feeding the Planet; Texas Tech University (TTU) Ethics Center held a filibuster on legal, environmental and migration ethics; and globalethics.net chose responsible leadership as its main theme.

"Although it's only a couple of years old, Global Ethics Day is gaining momentum every year," says Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Devin Stewart. "We hope you'll join us in 2016 and host an event on whatever aspect of global ethics concerns you most. Carnegie Council's slogan is 'Ethics Matter.' Help us make this a reality."

To add an organization's name to the list of Global Ethics Day participants for 2016, please contact Alex Woodson at: awoodson(at)cceia(dot)org.

ABOUT CARNEGIE COUNCIL

Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1914 and based in New York City, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an educational, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that produces lectures, publications, and multimedia materials on the ethical challenges of living in a globalized world. For more information, go to http://www.carnegiecouncil.org.
he freedom we used to have would be considered dangerous and reckless in todays standards.

A modern Laura Ingalls Wilder, author Kathy Rice charms readers with her nostalgic tale in her new book, Kathy Run.

Rice chronicles one young girls life in 1960s Montana, when family was the focus and technology had not yet taken over the world. The book is based on Rices own childhood, but written in a way that takes the reader back to these simpler times.

Rice said the sheer difference between then and now makes for an interesting story. The freedom we used to have would be considered dangerous and reckless in todays standards, Rice said. We were free to wander, play around with old machinery, fool around with cap guns. We climbed trees, rode horses and even our recess at school was un-chaperoned. Life was just so different.

Rice grew up in rural Montana in the post-World War II era participating in covered wagon trips and rodeo competitions, and playing music around a campfire. Shortly after she and her husband were married, they moved to Haiti where they had their first son, and later returned to Montana and Pennsylvania to raise and homeschool her six children.

Rice said she hopes to delight younger readers with her tales of this simpler time. There arent many stories about growing up in rural Montana in the 1960s, Rice said. My hope is that Kathy Run sheds some light on the history of that area during that time, and puts a smile on readers faces as they learn.

For more information, visit kathyrun.com.

Kathy Run

By Kathy Rice

ISBN: 1503537005

Available in softcover, hardcover, e-book

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Xlibris

About the author

Kathy Rice grew up on a farm near Scobey, Montana with her parents, sister and three brothers. Her mother, Dorothy Rustebakke was a prolific writer working as a journalist for the local weekly newspaper, and a contributing reporter to state and national newsfeeds. Kathy participated in several mission outreaches including a wagon train in 1976 that crossed America with Youth With A Mission where she fell in love and married Donald Rice, a graduate of Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania. They lived in Haiti for two years, and returned to Montana and later Pennsylvania and raised six children.

# # #

For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Jade Schwarting

317.602.7137

jschwarting(at)bohlsengroup(dot)com
Were pleased with the results and the industry validation weve achieved over the past year, all of which have surpassed our most aggressive estimates.

Bit Stew Systems, a global leader in providing Software Defined Operations for the Industrial Internet, today announces record financial growth for 2015, the securing of a major customer in Europe, and strategic new partnerships that will bring Bit Stews MIx product portfolio to emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) markets globally.

Record Financial Growth

Bit Stew reports a record year with 2015 bookings showing a 200% Year Over Year (YoY) growth, and revenues increasing by 171% over 2014. Bit Stew expanded its vertical reach across four industries and also closed the largest deal in the history of the company worth $8.82 M in 2015.

Kevin Collins, CEO at Bit Stew Systems, says, Were pleased with the results and the industry validation weve achieved over the past year, all of which have surpassed our most aggressive estimates. Bit Stew concluded fiscal 2015 with exceptional and sustainable growth, including annualized bookings that are up 200% over last year. With the market leading capabilities of our purpose-built MIx product portfolio, we continue to be strongly positioned to expand our business and further our leadership position in the IIoT.

In 2015, Bit Stew raised an additional $20.9 million in Series B Funding from GE Ventures, Cisco, Yaletown Venture Partners and BDC Capital.

Salil Munjal, General Partner, Yaletown Partners says, With its world-class team and differentiated product offering, Bit Stew continues to spark the interest of the global investment community. Bit Stew is viewed as a catalyst in the formation of next-generation operations for the Industrial Internet as their MIx technology addresses customer needs across multiple industries.

Customer Success and Global Expansion

Bit Stew has shown substantial growth across IIoT markets including expansion into new verticals such as oil & gas, aviation, manufacturing and greater expansion in the energy sector. Bit Stews Mix Core platform analyzes billions of data points daily to create actionable insights that lower operational costs, improve asset performance and increase uptime for the IIoT.

Bit Stew has expanded into Europe and is proud to be working with Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD), which serves 3.7 million customers across Scotland and Southern England. David MacLeman, Distribution R&D Manager at SSEPD, says We are working with Bit Stew Systems to trial an application of their innovative technology on our distribution network. The project will improve our understanding of how data analytics can be used to ensure we continue to provide a safe, secure and reliable electricity supply to our customers.

Bit Stew also signed a significant software and services contract to deploy the MIx product portfolio with a large, Northeast US utility with 10.5 million customers.

Expanding the IIoT Ecosystem with New Partnerships

Bit Stew recently launched a new, global Partner Program that enables IIoT ecosystem companies to deliver greater value to their industrial enterprise customers while generating additional revenue. Partners enhance their business and the business of their customers by: integrating Bit Stews MIx technology into their solutions and portfolios, providing customization, implementation and managed services offerings; or by building and selling custom applications that extend the capabilities of Bit Stews products. Members of Bit Stews Partner Program include major players who are driving innovation in the global IIoT ecosystem including: Aclara, Blackstone Technology Group, Black & Veatch, CapGemini, Cisco, DB Results, GE, Gray Matter Systems, Harris Utilities, OSI Consulting, RoviSys, Trilliant and more. In addition, Bit Stew partners with several technology companies like OSI Soft, ESRI, Amazon Web Services, and Hortonworks to optimize the performance of the MIx product portfolio in heterogeneous data environments.

Industry Recognition

Forbes recently reported that an analysis executed by Mattermark Pro put Bit Stew on the map, once again, as one of the Top 100 Internet of Things (IoT) Startups in the world. It's the second time that Forbes has ranked Bit Stew to one of its influential business lists. Bit Stew was also named as one of the Top 100 Analytics Start-ups in the world by Mattermark, which continues to validate Bit Stew's growing market traction and contribution to the IIoT sector. In 2015, Bit Stew was also recognized on Greentech Medias prestigious 2015 Grid Edge 20 list as one of the top 20 innovators architecting the future of the electric power industry.

About Bit Stew Systems

Bit Stew is building the premier platform for handling complex data integration, data analysis, and predictive automation for connected devices on the Industrial Internet. Through data-driven automation, Bit Stew Systems removes the complexity of industrial operations and connected machines to give clarity and control back to operations. Purpose-built for the Industrial Internet, Bit Stews MIx technology automates data ingestion, applies machine intelligence to learn patterns in the data, allowing industrial companies to discover actionable insights that optimize operational performance. In 2015, Bit Stew was named to Greentech Medias Grid Edge 20 list, as one of the top 20 innovators architecting the future of the electric power industry, and was ranked as one of the Top 100 Analytics Companies and Top 100 IoT Startups by Forbes. Incorporated in 2009, Bit Stew is a venture-backed private company that is headquartered in Canada with offices in the USA, Australia and Europe. Visit http://www.bitstew.com to learn more.

For more information, contact:

Karen Dosanjh, Senior Director, Marketing & Communications

Bit Stew Systems

Phone: (604) 328-5171

Email: kdosanjh(at)bitstew(dot)com
LEDs Magazine Sapphire Award for Best SSL Network and Control Technologies: TekLink Lighting Controls Were honored to be part of such a well-respected group of competitors and very proud to have created something that not only increases safety and security for parking patrons but also helps facilities significantly reduce energy costs.

Kenall Lighting, an independently-owned Midwestern manufacturer of solutions for challenging lighting environments, had plenty to celebrate at the second annual LEDs Magazine Sapphire Awards. The gala awards were held March 2, 2016 at the co-located trade shows Strategies in Light and The LED Show in Santa Clara, CA. Kenall was a finalist in three categories and its TekLink Lighting Controls won in the category of SSL Network and Control Technologies.

After the successful launches of TekDek and TopDek parking luminaires, Kenall developed the TekLink lighting control systembecoming the first company to offer integrated parking deck lighting and controls built and supported by a single company. TekLink combines easy installation with the industrys only cloud-based, 3-D graphical user interface for parking structures. The system is available in four configurations to suit a range of applications and budgets and provides unrivaled energy savings and rapid payback. Accepting the award on behalf of Kenall, Bill Blackley, Product Marketing Director, said: Were honored to be part of such a well-respected group of competitors and very proud to have created something that not only increases safety and security for parking patrons but also helps facilities significantly reduce energy costs.

TekLink Controls are also compatible with a portfolio of products that serve Kenalls other core markets, including lighting for high-abuse locations, cleanrooms, healthcare, food processing and manufacturing, and correctional facilities.

About Kenall

Kenall Manufacturing was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1963 and has built a reputation for durable lighting solutions of superior quality and exceptional value. Today, the company focuses on the high-abuse, correctional and transportationincluding parking, transit and tunnel and sealed enclosure for healthcare, labs, cleanrooms and food processing. Kenall luminaires are designed and manufactured in the USA and meet the guidelines established under the Buy American Act and the North American Free Trade Agreement. For additional information, visit http://www.kenall.com.
ImmunoTargets and Therapy has published the review Current and emerging treatment options in the management of lupus.

As corresponding author Professor David DCruz says Systemic lupus erythematosus is a complex autoimmune disease that can be life or organ threatening. Conventional immunosuppressive agents are widely used in the management of SLE with recent regimens optimising the use of these agents while minimising potential toxicity. Biologic therapies have advanced the treatment of SLE particularly in patients with refractory disease. The CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab and the anti-BLyS agent belimumab, are now widely in use in clinical practice. Several other biologic agents are in ongoing clinical trials although the failure of many large scale trials has been disappointing.

Professor David DCruz continues, The importance of managing co-morbidities such as cardiovascular risk factors, bone health, and minimising susceptibility to infection should not be neglected. This review article gives a comprehensive but readable overview of treatment approaches for this fascinating but challenging disease.

As Dr Michael R. Shurin, Editor-in-Chief, explains, SLE is an important clinical problem and it will be great to show approved and potential therapeutic approaches to the general public. This is well-written review.

ImmunoTargets and Therapy is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal focusing on the immunological basis of diseases, potential targets for immune based therapy and treatment protocols employed to improve patient management. Basic immunology and physiology of the immune system in health, and disease will be also covered.

Dove Medical Press Ltd is a privately held company specializing in the publication of Open Access peer-reviewed journals across the broad spectrum of science, technology and especially medicine.
Vertafore, the leader in modern insurance technology, today announced the winners of Vertafore-sponsored awards presented at the NetVU16. These awards included Agency of the Year  Marshall & Sterling, Carrier of the Year  Nationwide, and the Vertafore Vanguard Award for Innovation  Risk Strategies Company. Recipients were selected internally by Vertafore and were evaluated on significant business or customer results achieved using Vertafore technology. Winners accepted their awards on stage at the invitation-only NetVU16 awards gala on Thursday, March 3rd at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.

This years award winners have used Vertafore technology to make meaningful strides in improving internal operations, driving productivity and contributing to profitability, in such a short time after deployment, said Greg Wright, senior vice president of agency and carrier solutions at Vertafore. These exemplary use cases are why we come to the office every day and continue to fuel the fire of product development and innovation.

This years Vertafore award winners include:

Agency of the Year: Marshall & Sterling

Ranked as one of the top performing agencies in the US, Marshall & Sterling has 26 locations and 450 employees in 5 states and the US Virgin Islands. The agency services customers across a variety of product lines including business and personal insurance, group benefits, equine, bonds, and wealth management. Recently, the agency switched to Vertafore, seeking help in its cloud migration. After completing its cloud deployment and implementing AMS360, BenefitPoint and WorkSmart, Marshall & Sterling has experienced significant time and cost savings, increased control over internal operations and greatly reduced E&O exposure.

Carrier of the Year: Nationwide

Nationwide has set the ease-of-use standard for carriers, after it rolled out ACORD eDocs and ACORD Messages (formerly Activity Notes) in late 2014 with both commercial documents and billing notifications. Today, nearly 600 agents are using eDocs, a number that is quickly expanding. Its latest initiative, pushing adoption of its claims download, has a seen a 50 percent increase in agent adoption within the last year. Nationwide is also investing heavily in other business and technology solutions to improve performance and usability partnering with Vertafore to identify new and improved integration capabilities.

Vertafore Vanguard Award for Innovation: Risk Strategies Company

The Vertafore Vanguard Award for Innovation is designed to recognize insurance professionals driving change and innovation, and this years winner is no exception. Risk Strategies Company began working with Vertafore in 2012 to build on their existing AMS360 agency management system, at which point it plotted aggressive growth goals, with a heavy emphasis on growth through acquisition, after seeing the initial productivity and operational efficiencies driven by Vertafore solutions. With Vertafore as Risk Strategies technology partner, the agency has been able to achieve an average growth rate of over 60 percent year-over-year since, despite the evolving insurance landscape.

About Vertafore

Vertafore offers the broadest and most adaptable technology solutions to better prepare the insurance industry for digital disruption. The Vertafore product line is built on a platform, empowering customers and other solution providers to adapt and thrive as the market changes. Vertafores platform features fast innovation, partnerships with the best technology companies, and customizable solutions to help companies remain independent during a time of industry disruption. As the leader in modern insurance technology with the largest customer base in the industry, Vertafore connects every point of the distribution channel, from agencies and carriers to MGAs, MGUs, and state governments. For more information about Vertafore, visit http://www.vertafore.com, read the companys blog, and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

 2016 Vertafore Inc. Vertafore and the Vertafore logo are trademarks of Vertafore and its subsidiaries. All other marks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Hillsboro Aviation Inc. will become the Airbus Helicopters exclusive commercial aircraft sales agent for the Pacific Northwest and Alaska under an agreement announced Tuesday by officials of Airbus Helicopters Inc. The exclusive sales agent agreement is the first authorized by Airbus Helicopters Inc. in the companys 47-year history.

Based in Hillsboro, Ore. since 1980, Hillsboro Aviation has a proven history of serving the Pacific Northwest with helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft sales, repair and maintenance, charter services, FBO, avionics, and parts sales. Hillsboro has sold more than 1,000 helicopters and airplanes during that time. The company operates a fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and 13 helicopters, including two Airbus Helicopters H125s.

Through the years we recognized that Airbus Helicopters had become the leader in the industry when it came to the design, performance and use of advanced technology, said Max Lyons, President, and owner of Hillsboro Aviation. Were excited to be able to offer our customers the broadest selection and most versatile product line on the market.

Terms of the agreement provide for Hillsboro Aviation to act as the commercial sales agent for Airbus Helicopters products in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and Alaska. Hillsboro Aviation, which is building a new facility, will also expand its MRO and other capabilities for support of Airbus Helicopters models, Lyons said.

We are pleased and excited to embark on this new relationship with Hillsboro Aviation, said Treg Manning, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Airbus Helicopters Inc. Hillsboro has a long track record of serving its customers well, and with their outstanding reputation for service and integrity, they will enable Airbus Helicopters Inc. to increase sales and improve customer support in the Northwestern United States.

Hillsboro took delivery of its second Airbus Helicopters H125 AStar on Feb. 16 in Grand Prairie. That aircraft will be put into the Hillsboro fleet of aircraft doing utility work. The company received its first H125 at Heli-Expo 2015, which is now ferrying supplies under Department of Defence contracts.

The agreement was announced Tuesday at a ceremony at the Airbus Helicopters booth at Heli-Expo 2016, which is being held March 1-3 in Louisville. Airbus Helicopters is exhibiting at Booth #9651, and Hillsboro Aviation is exhibiting at Booth #10344.

About Hillsboro Aviation Inc.

Founded in 1980, Hillsboro Aviation is known internationally as a leader in the general aviation industry for providing quality aviation products and services including helicopter and airplane charter services, aircraft and parts sales, MRO services, avionics equipment sales, and installations. Hillsboro Aviation has flown more than 1.2 million hours in its 36-year history and supported a variety of missions including aerial firefighting, construction, search and rescue, TV news, aerial survey, and seismic operations. The company has sold more than 1,000 new and used aircraft and represents over 50 of the industrys leading manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors. In the spring of 2016, the company will move into its new corporate headquarters at the Portland-Hillsboro Airport, an expansion that is the second phase of a 425,000 square foot development project. Max Lyons, President, and owner of Hillsboro Aviation is also Chairman of Helicopter Association International. To learn more, visit http://www.hillsboroaviation.com.

About Airbus Helicopters Inc.

Airbus Helicopters Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Airbus Helicopters, the largest helicopter manufacturer in the world, and a subsidiary of the Airbus Group. Airbus Helicopters Inc. manufactures H125 and UH-72A helicopters and markets, sells and supports the broadest range of civil and parapublic helicopters offered in the U.S. The product line represents the industrys most cost-effective, technologically-advanced helicopters serving all markets and missions. The companys headquarters and main facility are in Grand Prairie, Texas, with a large manufacturing and production facility in Columbus, Miss. For more information, visit http://www.airbushelicoptersinc.com.

For more information please contact:

Bob Cox

Senior Manager, Communications and Media Relations

Tel: 972-641-3525

Cell: 972-213-2038

bob.cox(at)airbus(dot)com
ETran accelerated our review processes by nearly 75 percent in the first thirty days of production. -- Greg Hopkins, Vice President at Physicians Mutual.

Financial Transmission Network Inc. (FTNI), a provider of industry-leading integrated receivables solutions, today announced that Physicians Mutual has successfully launched FTNIs ETran Integrated Receivables platform as its lockbox processing and management platform.

Physicians Mutual is headquartered in Omaha, Neb. and is a $3+ billion company standing in the top 1% of the industry* with division offices throughout the nation. The company processes hundreds of thousands of checks and documents each month, all previously requiring manual review. In light of the companys monthly lockbox volume, it wanted to streamline, automate and bring new efficiencies to its lockbox and accounts receivables operations. Having already achieved savings working with FTNI to streamline other areas of their receivables processing. Physicians Mutual turned again to FTNI to implement its enhanced lockbox processing solution, the ETran Integrated Receivables platform.

ETran accelerated our review processes by nearly 75 percent in the first thirty days of production, said Greg Hopkins, Vice President at Physicians Mutual. We went from having to manually review 100 percent of the check payments and associated forms within our lockbox operations, to reviewing only 20 percent of checks and documents scanned, and I expect that number to continue to decrease over time. The efficiencies we have already realized are significant, to say the least.

Physicians Mutual has worked with FTNI to consolidate several legacy payment systems to the ETran platform including Check, ACH and Credit Card processing as well as launching new online payments functionality. As the company looked to further consolidate and streamline its receivables processing operations, FTNIs ETran was a natural solution for its lockbox processing needs.

ETran enables companies to simply and quickly tailor the platform to their own business rules and requirements, streamlining and automating accounts receivables processes across any payment type or channel. Essentially a plug-n-play platform, ETran enables efficient integration (batch or real-time) with any back-office accounting system. It unlocks enterprise-wide AR oversight from a unified interface to improve business insights and deliver real-time visibility into the entire receivables stream.

Weve very pleased to continue to grow our relationship with Physicians Mutual, commented Chris Thompson, COO, FTNI. ETrans advanced Remote Deposit Capture module and unique configurability has delivered Physicians Mutuals lockbox operations with high-levels of automation, single-screen data entry and batch reviews, and simplified data entry formsall within a single user interface. Physicians Mutual is a great example of the benefits that can be realized by consolidating receivables processes on a single, unified platform.

---------------------------------------------

About FTNI

Financial Transmission Network, Inc. (FTNI) accelerates the way businesses accept, process, post and manage payments. Processing millions of transactions monthly, FTNIs integrated receivables hub, ETran, accepts any payment method, via any payment channel  on a single, secure, cloud-based platform. ETrans easy-to-deploy, modular design seamlessly integrates current business processes, bank and processor relationships, and back-office accounting software to deliver increased efficiencies and cost savings as a result of true straight through processing. Founded in 2007, FTNI serves more than 16,000 corporate users from leading organizations such as the American Red Cross, Benchmark Senior Living, DirectBuy, Five Star Senior Living, Mutual of Omaha, Penn Mutual, Physicians Mutual Insurance, Proxibid, RealPage, Shamrock Foods, The McClatchy Company and many more. For more information, visit http://www.ftni.com.

About Physicians Mutual

Physicians Mutual Insurance Company and Physicians Life Insurance Company are members of the Physicians Mutual family. Physicians Mutual Insurance Company offers reliable Medicare Supplement, dental and supplemental health insurance. Physicians Life Insurance Company provides important life insurance coverage and annuities. They entered the funeral pre-planning market to help meet the growing needs of funeral home owners and the families they serve. The companies have more than $3.6 billion in assets and consistently maintain some of the highest financial strength ratings in the nation from independent insurance analysts, including A.M. Best Company and Weiss Ratings. Founded in 1902, Physicians Mutual is headquartered in Omaha, Neb. To learn more about the company, please visit http://www.PhysiciansMutual.com.

*Based on WeissRatings.com's Recommended List of Companies, an elite group of insurance companies representing the top 1% of the industry.
Dream Kitchen by Toll Brothers Not only do buyers have a wide range of choices in countertops, cabinetry, fixtures, and more, but they will also benefit from an even better functioning work space in the room that is the centerpiece of the home  the kitchen

From Saturday, March 12 until Sunday, March 20, 2016, Toll Brothers is hosting its limited-time Dream Kitchen Sales Event throughout the Companys suburban communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Home buyers now have the opportunity to add more style, elegance, and value to their new Toll Brothers home for less. Buyers who place a deposit on a new home during this event will receive a select list of luxury upgrades and finishes, at no extra cost.

This special event is the ideal opportunity for buyers to get the gourmet kitchen theyve always wanted, with included upgrades in addition to our current, unmatched list of outstanding features, said Rob Parahus, Toll Brothers Regional President. Not only do buyers have a wide range of choices in countertops, cabinetry, fixtures, and more, but they will also benefit from an even better functioning work space in the room that is the centerpiece of the home  the kitchen, he added.

To take advantage of the special savings and incentives that will be offered through Toll Brothers Dream Kitchen Sales Event, buyers must place a deposit on a new home at a participating community between Saturday, March 12 and Sunday, March 20, 2016, sign an Agreement of Sale within 10 days, and close on the home. Incentives will vary among communities and will comprise a package of savings created specifically for this event, so buyers should contact their community of interest and speak with a sales representative to learn more.

For more information and directions to participating communities, visit TollBros.com/DreamKitchen

Toll Brothers, an award-winning Fortune 1000 company founded in 1967, embraces an unwavering commitment to quality and customer service. Toll Brothers is currently building nationwide and is a publicly owned company whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TOL). The Company was honored as the Worlds Most Admired Home Building Company 2016* by Fortune magazine in its 2016 Survey of The Worlds Most Admired Companies, and ranked #6 across ALL INDUSTRIES in Quality of Products/Services Offered, after Apple, Walt Disney, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nordstrom. The Company was named Americas Most Trusted Home Builder 2015** by Lifestory Research, receiving the highest numerical score among the largest 133 home builders in the country in a study that measures, among other things, perceptions of quality, price, reputation, and trust. Toll Brothers was also recently named national Builder of the Year by BUILDER magazine, and was twice named national Builder of the Year by Professional Builder magazine. This is not an offering where prohibited by law.

*Fortune magazines survey of the Worlds Most Admired Companies for 2016 began with over 1,500 companies across more than 50 industries, and asked over 4,000 executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria.

**Toll Brothers received the highest numerical score in the United States in the proprietary Lifestory Research 2015 Americas Most Trusted Home Builder study. Study based on 43,200 new home shoppers in 27 markets. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed between January and December 2014.
"HAR.com pioneered the public display of agent performance ratings," said Jeff Turner, President of RealSatisfied, "so we are proud to be associated with the Houston Association of REALTORS in this way. Past News Releases RSS Realsatisfied Partners With CENTURY...

RealSatisfied Announces Partnership...

RealSatisfied Announces Partnership...

RealSatisfied announces a partnership with the Houston Association of REALTORS (HAR), which supports 32,000 active members and operates HAR.com, which is one of the most successful consumer facing websites - among the top 20 real estate websites in the nation.

HAR prides itself on delivering what the consumer wants, said Bob Hale, CEO of the Houston Association of REALTORS. Agent ratings and client feedback are some of the most important factors consumers consider in selecting an agent. We took the lead with agent ratings in 2009 and we are delighted we can continue to serve both Texas REALTORS and consumers who look to us for information through our relationship with RealSatisfied to incorporate its feedback into our platform.

RealSatisfied, a performance evaluation and customer satisfaction platform designed exclusively for the real estate industry, will now provide a custom feed to HAR.com that maps RealSatisfied results to the measures HAR has been collecting for the last six years. HAR.com displays ratings for Overall Satisfaction, Competency, Market Knowledge, Communication and My Experience. The ratings and testimonials from RealSatisfied will behave exactly like those collected by HAR.com on behalf of its members and will be similar in behavior to the new detailed ratings features recently launched by RealSatisfied.

We could not be more excited about working with HAR.com, said Jeff Turner, President of RealSatisfied. Because our surveys are so detailed, we were able to map to HARs existing measures and provide our mutual customers with another outlet for their survey results. Bob and his team have been doing this longer than anyone. They pioneered the public display of agent performance ratings, so we are proud to be associated with the Houston Association of REALTORS in this way.

All HAR members who are using RealSatisfied can show their ratings on HAR.com. Agents with profiles on HAR.com will simply need to input their RealSatisfied vanity key to be able to instantly have their ratings and testimonials appear on HAR.com. Additionally, all RealSatisfied users in Texas can claim their profile on HAR.com through the Find A Pro feature on the HAR.com website. To sign up now visit: http://www.har.com/agentmax/signup

About the Houston Association of REALTORS

The Houston Association of REALTORS operates Homes And Rentals (HAR.com), which is a statewide real estate search website and one of the most frequently visited real estate sites in the state of Texas. Founded in 1918, the Houston Association of REALTORS (HAR) is a member organization of real estate professionals engaged in every aspect of the industry. It is the largest individual membership trade association in Houston, as well as the second largest local association/board of REALTORS in the United States. You may learn more about Homes And Rentals at http://www.har.com.

Media Contact:

HAR: David Mendel, 713-629-1900, x155, david.mendel(at)har(dot)com

About RealSatisfied

Based in Sydney, Australia with operations in Australia, United States, and Canada, RealSatisfied is the 3rd party customer satisfaction and performance evaluation platform built specifically for the real estate industry. Founded in 2010, RealSatisfied provides a turnkey solution to enable real, actionable feedback and performance ratings from clients. To learn more about RealSatisfied, visit http://www.realsatisfied.com.

Media Contact:

RealSatisfied: Laura Monroe, 916-936-3183, Laura(at)realsatisfied(dot)com
Trevor Knott, BSG Financial Group I am thrilled to join a firm that places a priority on technology and innovation just when financial institutions need it most, said Knott.

BSG Financial Group, a group of independently organized companies that provides revenue-enhancing programs, combined with compliance solutions, for financial institutions nationwide, announced today the addition of Trevor Knott as Senior Vice President, Business Development, effective March 1, 2016.

Knott is a strategic marketing veteran who has spent much of his career developing and delivering products and services, as well as marketing and distribution programs for top-tier banks and suppliers to the banking industry. His focus at BSG Financial Group will be on generating new business in the northeast; forming strategic partnerships across the country; and advising corporate marketing activities.

Trevors demonstrated track record and industry expertise will be invaluable to BSG Financial Group as we grow and strengthen our organization, said Jeffrey Harper, President of BSG Financial Group. We are very fortunate to have someone of his caliber join our team; I anticipate he will have an immediate impact on our growth strategy as well as enhancing product awareness with our existing customers.

Knott joins BSG Financial Group from Salyent Technologies in Franklin, Massachusetts. There, he served as Head of Marketing Services, overseeing the development and delivery of the companys marketing, consulting and analytics solutions, as well as managing the firms brand-building initiatives. Prior to that, Knott held several management positions in a 12-year career at Citizens Financial Group in Boston. His most recent position there was Director of Partnerships & Distribution Strategy, where he managed all distribution and planning activities (budget, performance and regulatory) for over 1,400 branches, 30+ retail banking partnerships and 3,900 ATMs. He was also a member of the Citizens Executive Leadership Group.

Prior to joining Citizens Financial Group, he held leadership positions at Havas/Brann Worldwide/Response Marketing Group in Richmond, Virginia; Fleet Financial Group in Boston; and Signet Banking Corporation in Richmond.

Knott received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Georgia.

I am thrilled to join a firm that places a priority on technology and innovation just when financial institutions need it most, said Knott. I look forward to sharing BSG Financial Groups impressive history and unique value proposition to financial institutions looking for proven solutions to increase revenue and streamline processes.

About BSG Financial Group

Louisville, Ky.-based BSG Financial Group is a group of independently organized companies that provides revenue-enhancing programscombined with compliance solutionsfor financial institutions to help them meet their financial goals. BSG Financial Group has been a provider of innovative overdraft programs since 1999, including the industrys first cloud-based overdraft management solution, CourtesyConnect/CourtesyLimit.

The companys additional revenue-enhancing solutions include: Demand Deposit Account Management; Fee-Based Packaged Checking Accounts; Vendor Management; Social Media Management; and Appraisal Management Services.

BSG Financial Group includes the following companies: CourtesyCloud Management Solutions, LLC; BSG Financial, LLC; IQ Development, LLC; and Sales Performance Group, Inc. For more information about the company, visit http://www.BSGfinancial.com.
International Women's Day Program in Asian Jail Through our efforts, we can provide both spiritual hope and physical help to ease their everyday burdens. Dr. K.P. Yohannan

Gospel for Asia joins with the international humanitarian community in commemorating todays International Womens Day. Gospel for Asia (GFA) partners will be offering special assistance to women in the areas where it serves in South Asia, celebrating the success of women and underscoring the wide gaps in gender equality that persist in our world.

In many regions around the world, women face consistent hardships from gender-based abortions to child marriage, forced prostitution, and modern day slavery. GFA-supported workers will be visiting nursing homes, jails and medical facilities to distribute food and other necessities to hundreds of women today.

Around the world:



More than 1.6 million girl babies annually are targeted for abortion.

An estimated 39,000 girls are forced into marriage every day.

An estimated 4.5 million people, 98 percent of them women and children, are victims of sexual slavery.

International Womens Day reminds us of the many women throughout the world who face extremely difficult challenges in their lives, said K.P. Yohannan, founder and international director of Gospel for Asia. Through our efforts, we can provide both spiritual hope and physical help to ease their everyday burdens.

Last year, GFA worked with Believers Church to organize dozens of special events across South Asia to commemorate International Womens Day, giving away food, mosquito nets and clothing to hundreds of disadvantaged mothers and widows.

One region hosted a gathering where 100 people heard the local pastor praise the role of women in society, telling the crowd about Gods love for each individual, and one woman noted, I want to thank Believers Church for conducting this kind of program and for providing me with a mosquito net. I am very poor and not able to buy it. This gift is very helpful for my family.

At another event, a participant said, I am very glad and privileged to be part of the International Womens Day program. I have heard about this International Womens Day, but I did not know what that means. But today . . . I understand about the importance of the day, and I feel special to be a woman.

This year, GFA-supported workers are expanding their efforts. In addition to events, they are opening tailoring centers to provide employment opportunities for women, distributing more than 4,500 food packets, blankets and mosquito nets to endangered women, organizing medical camps, and providing clothing and school items for children. They will be visiting homes for the elderly, jails and medical facilities to provide comfort and other assistance in the name of Jesus.

Christs compassion is meant to be shared with the entire world, said Yohannan. We begin by praying for those suffering, but then continue by meeting their physical needs.

GFA offers a variety of ways to become involved in easing the physical plight of South Asian women, while providing them with the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ. To find out more, go to http://www.gfa.org.

For more information on International Womens Day, go to http://www.internationalwomensday.com.

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GOSPEL FOR ASIA has  for more than 30 years  provided humanitarian assistance and spiritual hope to millions across South Asia, especially among those who have yet to hear the Good News. Last year, this included more than 75,000 sponsored children, free medical services for more than 180,000 people, 6,000 wells drilled, 11,000 water filters installed, Christmas presents for more than 400,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. http://www.gfa.org
Women's Day is March 8th We are honored to give a gift of beauty in support of the Womens Day Holiday, said Robert Kitayama, CEO of Kitayama Brothers.

Local florists across the United States are celebrating Womens Day March 8th by giving away flowers to honor women in their community. Participating local florists in conjunction with members of CalFlowers (California Association of Flower Growers and Shippers) and ASOCOLFLORES (The Association of Colombian Flower Exporters) have launched the website http://www.womensdayholiday.com as a platform for sharing stories of Love, Honor and Respect in celebration and recognition of Womens Day March 8th. When people share a story of love, honor and respect about the special women in their life they are entered to win flowers. The giveaway flowers were donated from the associations member farms and are delivered by the participating local florists. This year farms such as Northern California grower Kitayama Brothers are supporting the holiday by donating tens of thousands of fresh flowers to local florists across the country in support of Womens Day. We are honored to give a gift of beauty in support of the Womens Day Holiday, said Robert Kitayama, CEO of Kitayama Brothers.

In addition to the website, the floral community has taken its message of love, honor and respect for women to social media by raising awareness of Womens Day on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/womensdayholiday and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/womensdayusa. In less than 1 week the Womens Day Holiday social media campaign has reached more than 1 million people and generated over 4 million impressions. The mission of the Womens Day Holiday campaign is to provide a platform for the community to show respect, appreciation and love for all the amazing women that make a difference in our lives on a daily basis, said Michael LoBue, CEO of CalFlowers.

Womens Day, observed annually on March 8th, is a day to celebrate the achievements of women from around the world. More than 100 nations recognize Womens Day and 35 have declared it a national holiday with thousands of events held by organizations, governments, charities, educational institutions, womens groups, corporations and the media. "Every woman deserves Love, Honor and Respect. Whether mother or daughter, young or old, amazing women deserve to be honored this day and every day. In addition to recognizing and celebrating the achievements of women on March 8th, our goal is to raise awareness for the non-profit organization Where Hope Lives, said Cheryl Denham, CEO of Arizona Family Florist located in Phoenix Arizona.

The purpose of Where Hope Lives is to rescue trafficking victims, offering them love, hope and a way off the streets. Established in 2009, the non-profit Where Hope Lives formerly The Rescue Project, is a national leader in the rescue, recovery and prevention of human trafficking and relies on donations and support from both the public and private sector. In addition to helping raise awareness, the floral community donates flowers year round that are used in their heroic outreach efforts as an expression of love when rescuing young women. To learn more about how you can make a difference by donating or volunteering your time to Where Hope Lives, go to http://www.wherehopelives.org

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About CalFlowers

The California Association of Flower Growers & Shippers (CalFlowers, formerly known as NORCAL) was founded in 1941 by a small group of flower shipping companies to foster the success of the California floral industry within the United States. Today CalFlowers is the leading floral trade association in California serving growers and the entire supply chain in the state and in 45 states across the nation. For more information about CalFlowers, please visit http://www.cafgs.org

About ASOCOLFLORES

ASOCOLFLORES was established in 1973 as a non-profit trade organization, to represent and promote the Colombian flower industry in international markets and seek comprehensive development of floriculture, mainly in areas of market access, research, transport, Florverde (socio-environmental label certification) and social responsibility programs to improve the quality of life of workers and their families. ASOCOLFLORES membership represents growers who handle about 80% of total Colombian flower exports. For more information about ASOCOLFLORES, please visit http://www.asocolflores.org
United Benefit Advisors (UBA), the nations leading independent employee benefits advisory organization, announces Insgroup, Inc. as the latest addition to its family of Partner Firms. With offices in Houston and Austin, Insgroup is one of the nations top 100 independent strategic risk and insurance brokers and is the fourth largest in Houston. In 2015, they were named a Top Workplace in Houston by the Houston Chronicle.

Brian Kapiloff, President of Insgroup, says, We are very excited about our new partnership with UBA. The employee benefits world continues to change rapidly. Having access to the tools and vendors within UBA will help us maintain and improve the edge we need in delivering a strong value add to our clients. The ability to connect with our fellow UBA Partners across the country gives us the forum to share strategy and information in a way we didnt have before. This is extremely beneficial to Insgroup and ultimately our clients.

For more than 35 years, Insgroup provides high-quality service in the areas of employee benefits, commercial insurance brokerage, risk management and personal insurance solutions. Insgroups employees have an unwavering commitment to help every client achieve his or her insurance goals. Their devotion to their clients is apparent in all of the different insurance practice areas, which is the reason behind the companys reputation for relentless client advocacy, integrity, and exceptional service.

Benefits agencies should not only be great at providing advice to their clients, but also for heeding that advice themselves. I am thoroughly impressed that Insgroup was named a 2015 Top Workplace in Houston, says UBA CEO Les McPhearson. This recognition goes a long way in showing the character of the company and its employees. I look forward to our collaborative efforts together.

As the newest Partner Firm of UBA, Insgroup joins a network of employee benefits advisory firms that serve employers of all sizes across the United States, Canada, and Europe. As a combined group, UBAs annual employee benefit revenues rank it among the top five employee benefit advisory organizations in the U.S.

ABOUT Insgroup, Inc.

Insgroup is one of the largest privately held independent insurance brokers in Texas with offices in Houston and Austin. We are consistently ranked by Insurance Journal as one of the 100 largest independent property and casualty insurance agencies in the United States. We pride ourselves in being able to serve all of our clients' needs, from risk management and commercial insurance brokerage to employee benefits consulting and personal insurance services. Our team of more than 95 dedicated professionals are driven by their passion for client advocacy and recognized for their technical expertise and industry specific knowledge. As a closely held independent firm, Insgroup answers only to our clients, not to outside investors or insurance carriers. We move quickly to address the needs of our clients and provide direct access to company leadership whenever necessary. For more information, visit http://www.insgroup.net.

ABOUT United Benefit Advisors

United Benefit Advisors (UBA) is the nations leading independent employee benefits advisory organization with more than 200 offices throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. UBA empowers more than 2,000 Partners to both maintain their individuality and pool their expertise, insight, and market presence to provide best-in-class services and solutions. Employers, advisors and industry-related organizations interested in obtaining powerful results from the shared wisdom of our Partners should visit http://www.UBAbenefits.com.

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In the face of emerging cyber-security threats, IPConfigure is proud to introduce SRTP encryption technology to the video surveillance industry with the release of Orchid 1.8. Mature and tested in VoIP and military applications, the SRTP security standard is designed exclusively for real-time media transmission. With this technology, Orchid VMS allows secure end-to-end video and audio access over any public network, providing users with the most secure and efficient VMS solution available.

Other VMS manufacturers tunnel video and audio data over HTTPS, a technology built for securing web content, not streaming video. SRTP, on the other hand, allows Orchid to send secure video data via unicast and multicast using the same quality of encryption as HTTPS while benefiting from lower latency, higher throughput, and overall better quality compared to HTTPS.

IPConfigure Orchid is also the first VMS capable of supporting encrypted multicast for video surveillance applications. Multicast is a transmission technique for one-to-many real-time communication over a network. This is particularly appealing for large surveillance deployments across campuses or cities where bandwidth is limited and/or there are a large number of concurrent viewers. Multicast over HTTPS is not technologically possible; only SRTP provides an encrypted multicast capability for transmission of live video to multiple clients simultaneously.

IPConfigure customers deploying SRTP can purchase Orchid Certificates Services, a turn-key provisioning service through which certified IPConfigure support technicians can generate and deploy private keys and certificates on any Orchid device, including cameras, switches, NAS appliances, and traditional servers. All Orchid certificates are signed by a globally trusted Certificate Authority and require no custom client configurations. This service will become available in Q2 2016.

ABOUT ORCHID

Designed for small to medium video surveillance installations with up to 32 cameras per location, IPConfigure Orchid is used by customers ranging from small business owners to some of the world's largest global retailers. Recognized for its reliability and ease of use, Orchid provides local and remote access to live and recorded video through an intuitive web browser interface, with the same user experience on both workstations and mobile devices.

The Orchid web interface is hosted by one or more Orchid servers running on traditional Windows or Linux systems, NAS storage devices, or on supported embedded hardware. Orchid supports over 2,500 IP cameras through the ONVIF Profile S specification. This cross-platform flexibility adapts to your existing infrastructure and reduces IT, hardware, and licensing costs.

ABOUT IPCONFIGURE

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, IPConfigure, Inc. is a leading developer of IP video surveillance solutions. IPConfigure offers a variety of products, including video management software, license plate recognition, and video surveillance appliances and servers, available from global resellers and integrators. For more information about IPConfigure, please visit our website at http://www.ipconfigure.com.
J. WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY LOGO Since joining J. Walter Thompson 11 years ago, as CEO, Brazil, Stefano has shown exemplary and adaptive leadership abilities, and this promotion is a natural progression.

J. Walter Thompson Company announced today that Stefano Zunino has been promoted to CEO of the Americas. In this newly created role, Zunino will have oversight of J. Walter Thompson Company brands including J. Walter Thompson, Mirum and Colloquial across North America and Latin America. He reports to Gustavo Martinez, J. Walter Thompson Companys Worldwide Chairman and CEO.

Since joining J. Walter Thompson 11 years ago, as CEO, Brazil, Stefano has shown exemplary and adaptive leadership abilities, and this promotion is a natural progression, stated Martinez. Not only does Stefano have deep relationships with the agency and our global clients, he has a special strength regarding alignment and integration, which has been clear in the progress weve made in Latin America. In his time at J. Walter Thompson, Stefano has also demonstrated a knack for attracting and developing talent, and building teams that are aligned towards a common goal. These skills will be critical and necessary as he works to continue to foster alignment and new business opportunities across the U.S. and Latin America.

In 2014, Zunino was named CEO, J. Walter Thompson Company Latin America, and was responsible for re-unifying the companys Brazil and Latin America operations. In 2013, Zunino was given the additional title of Head of Digital Worldwide, and played a critical role in the creation and launch of Mirum and Colloquial. He will retain this role.

Zunino began his career in advertising in 1987 at Leo Burnett London, and worked across the companys Chicago and Milan offices as a business director for Procter & Gamble, Kelloggs, Philip Morris and Kraft Foods. He moved on to become General Manager of VegaOlmosPonce in Buenos Aires, and then CEO of Lowe in Brazil.

Weve had great success in Latin America and with the launch of Mirum, and Im honored to take on this new role, said Zunino. This is an opportunity to further strengthen our network across agencies and regions, and I look forward to collaborating with the regional leadership to reach our fullest potential in terms of growth, client offerings and pioneering solutions for our clients needs.

ABOUT THE J. WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY

J. Walter Thompson Company was founded in 1864 and has been making pioneering solutions that build enduring brands and business for more than 150 years. Today under the leadership of Worldwide Chairman and CEO Gustavo Martinez, the company has evolved to include an expanded global offering including J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, Mirum and Colloquial.
Union Street Goldsmith celebrates its 40 years of business in the San Francisco, Calif. Bay Area. For these past four decades, Union Street Goldsmith has been the shop offering creative and new jewelry designs for those shopping around for the perfect accessory. The versatile selection paired with a friendly and knowledgeable staff is what sets this shop apart from the rest in the Bay Area.

Union Street Goldsmith is staffed with six GIA Gemologists, all of whom are welcoming and unpretentious. Get the necessary knowledge, facts and insight about the pieces for sale in order to make the shopping experience and decision that much easier and enjoyable. Known for amazing jewelry and designs, Union Street Goldsmith is the go-to jeweler for unique designs and settings for all kinds of tastes, styles and occasions.

Union Street Goldsmith offers fine-colored gemstones, unique engagement and wedding rings, and so much more. For these special occasions and many more, visit Union Street Goldsmith at their newest location: 2118 Union St. in San Francisco, Calif. Hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information about the shop and their offerings, call the staff at 415-776-8048 or email staff(at)unionstreetgoldsmith(dot)com.

About Union Street Goldsmith:

Union Street Goldsmith has been a San Francisco landmark for 40 years, offering excellent quality and creative jewelry. This special shop with its friendly staff is welcoming and unpretentious. The Union St. staff consists of six GIA gemologists, who are able to help shoppers in a variety of ways when it comes to gems and jewelry. Union Street Goldsmith is known for amazing jewelry designs, fine colored gemstones, and unique engagement and wedding rings. An excellent sense of style and fashion gives Union Street the ability to offer valuable guidance to clients in their jewelry selection, helping each one to create an overall special look within their collection.
Introducing the OpenSlate YouTube GRP Planning Tool OpenSlates new planning tool makes the scale of YouTube more approachable and, ultimately, more efficient

OpenSlate, the leader in social video analytics, today launched a new audience planning tool that allows advertisers to program and size custom media networks on YouTube. Combining all of YouTubes ad-supported inventory with an advertisers own definition of content quality, brand safety and subject matter, this new planning tool delivers unprecedented insights about media opportunities on the worlds largest digital video platform.

Available for free at http://www.OpenSlateData.com, OpenSlates YouTube GRP Planning Tool lets marketers easily organize YouTubes inventory into TV-like programming slates and then estimate the reach and demographic composition available for their ad dollars.

There are now more than 200 million ad-supported videos on YouTube, and finding the perfect combination of content for a given message and audience has never been more challenging, said OpenSlate CEO Mike Henry. OpenSlates new planning tool makes the scale of YouTube more approachable and, ultimately, more efficient.

For four years, OpenSlate has produced actionable analytics related to the nature and quality of content on YouTube. With the YouTube GRP Planning Tool, the company is exposing this data in a format that will make sense to TV ad buyers.

YouTube offers great scale in almost any audience, but the content landscape is complicated, and not all of it is right for every brand, said Scott Marsden, SVP of Media at DigitasLBi. Combining the right audience and the right content at scale will help brands recognize more value.

In the past 12 months, more than 300 advertisers have used OpenSlates proprietary scores for quality, brand safety and subject matter expertise to target their YouTube media spending  a threefold uptick from the previous period.

ABOUT OPENSLATE

OpenSlate is a social video analytics firm focused on role of content in brand advertising. Our proprietary metrics about video content quality, brand safety and subject matter are used by hundreds of marketers to target their online video media. OpenSlate measures and scores all ad-supported content on YouTube and offers data that helps brands connect with social video influencers. Our SlateScore is the industry standard for social video content quality. Learn more at http://www.OpenSlateData.com.
SpringCM logo San Francisco is an ideal location for us to get closer to our customers and partners, said Greg Buchholz, CEO of SpringCM.

SpringCM, the No. 1 global sales contract management solution for Salesforce customers, today announced a new office in San Franciscos Financial District to meet the demands of the rapidly growing business.

SpringCMs next-generation sales contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform streamlines sales contract processes to accelerate revenue growth, reduce costs and increase efficiency by bridging the gap between sales and legal toward fulfilling a faster contracts process.

The move brings SpringCM closer to the headquarters of some of its key strategic partners, namely Salesforce and DocuSign.

San Francisco is an ideal location for us to get closer to our customers and partners, said Greg Buchholz, CEO of SpringCM. Weve grown our West Coast accounts by 45 percent, translating to 50 percent growth in annual recurring revenue, so the new office is a milestone in the next stage of our development.

SpringCM grew its Salesforce contract management customers by 400 percent in Q4 2015, driven by five CLM product releases in 2015. More than 150,000 companies call the Salesforce ecosystem home, and many leverage the platform, including tools like SpringCM Manage It, the No. 1-rated CLM app that enables sales and legal pros to easily manage and automate the contracts process, from contract generation and review, to approval and renewal.

About SpringCM

SpringCM is a secure cloud platform that manages sales contracts and all types of documents seamlessly across desktop, mobile and partner applications like Salesforce. SpringCM goes beyond standard sales contract management software with advanced workflows that automate manual tasks and complex processes to shorten contract cycles from weeks to days, and speed time-to-revenue. For executives looking to strategically leverage contract management to deliver immediate savings and accelerate revenue, SpringCM is the No. 1-rated sales contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform. Every day, more than 600 companies, including best-in-class organizations like Anaplan, athenahealth, BCBS, Facebook, Genentech, NBC Universal, and the USDA, use SpringCM to streamline internal sales and legal operations, improve the customer experience and get more done, faster.
Over the past week, Better Business Bureau has provided several statements in response to public inquiries about the BBB Business Review for Trump Entrepreneur Initiative (formerly Trump University). These statements remain available on our website. We are issuing a further statement today, in response to a number of inaccurate reports that continue to be repeated.

For purposes of this statement, we will refer to Trump University, which is how it is most often referred to in news stories. There is only one BBB Business Review for Trump University, and we noted the name change to Trump Entrepreneur Initiative when it was brought to our attention by the company.

1. BBB did not send a document of any kind to the Republican debate site last Thursday evening. The document presented to debate moderators did not come from BBB that night.

2. Trump University does not currently have an A rating with BBB. The BBB Business Review for this company has continually been No Rating since September 2015. Prior to that, it fluctuated between D- and A+.

3. The document posted on social media on Thursday night was not a current BBB Business Review of Trump University. It appeared to be part of a Business Review from 2014.

4. BBB ratings are based on information we obtain about a business, including complaints received from the public. The reporting period is three years. Detailed information about BBB ratings is available on all 5.3 million Business Reviews on our website, bbb.org.

5. At no point did BBB change the rating of Trump University based upon a demand from anyone. BBB followed its standard evaluation process applicable to all businesses.

6. During the period when Trump University appeared to be active in the marketplace, BBB received multiple customer complaints about this business. These complaints affected the Trump University BBB rating, which was as low as D- in 2010. As the company appeared to be winding down, after 2013, no new complaints were reported. Complaints over three years old automatically rolled off of the Business Review, according to BBB policy. As a result, over time, Trump Universitys BBB rating went to an A in July 2014 and then to an A+ in January 2015.

7. Trump University has never been a BBB Accredited Business. The document handed to the debate moderators on Thursday night could not have been an actual Better Business Bureau accreditation notice for this business.

To be accredited, a business must apply for accreditation and BBB must determine that the business meets BBB Accreditation Standards which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints.

BBB publishes ratings for both Accredited and non-Accredited businesses when we have sufficient information and the business continues to operate. While a business may earn an A rating from BBB by improving its customer record over time, BBB Accredited Businesses must meet higher requirements. Businesses must first earn a high rating and confirm compliance with other BBB Accreditation Standards before being eligible for Accreditation. Once Accredited, they are vetted annually and must maintain compliance with the Standards to continue as a BBB Accredited Business.

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ABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. In 2015, people turned to BBB more than 172 million times for BBB Business Reviews on more than 5.3 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at bbb.org. The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as home to its national programs on dispute resolution, advertising review, and industry self-regulation.
Whimsie Adepa, a female Western lowland gorilla baby born on February 25, sleeps on her mother's chest. This is Tingas first offspring, but zookeepers say she is quickly learning her new role as a mother. She is with Whimsie Adepa at all times, vocalizes to her and pats her back to soothe her.

Denver Zoo is celebrating the birth of a critically endangered western lowland gorilla. The female baby, named Whimsie Adepa (ah-DEEP-ah), was born to mother Tinga (TIN-gah), and father, Jim, just before midnight on February 25. She is the first birth of her species at the Zoo in 11 years and the fifth ever in the Zoos history. The second part of her name, Adepa, translates to good thing in the Akan (AH-khan) language of Ghana. Guests can see her now at the Zoos Great Apes building.

This is Tingas first offspring, but zookeepers say she is quickly learning her new role as a mother. She is with Whimsie Adepa at all times, vocalizes to her and pats her back to soothe her. Jim is now a second-time father, after his daughter, Jabali, was born in 2004. Zookeepers say he is noticeably protective and gentle.

Tinga, herself, was the last birth of her species at Denver Zoo, in May 2005. She was born while her troop, from Los Angeles Zoo, stayed at Denver Zoo during the construction of their new habitat. She returned to Denver Zoo in November 2014. Jim was born at Los Angeles Zoo in August 1987 and came to Denver Zoo in April 2003. The two were paired under recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP) which ensures healthy populations and genetic diversity among zoo animals. Fortunately, the couple has proven to be an excellent match.

Western lowland gorillas live in the lowlands, swamps and forests of western central Africa. They can grow to four to five and a half feet tall. Adult males can weigh up to 500 pounds, while females are significantly smaller and can weigh up to 300 pounds. Their fur is predominantly black with a brownish tinge and a reddish-brown cap on top of the head.

They are social animals and live in family groups, called troops, consisting of an adult silverback male, several adult females, and their offspring. Family groups may number from 2 up to 35 individuals but usually consist of five to 10 animals. The adult male and females usually stay together for life while the young leave when they reach maturity.

Wild populations of the species are difficult to estimate due to the dense forests and constant movement of family groups, but there are believed to be only 112,000 western lowland gorillas and the number is declining. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies them as critically endangered. Their greatest threats come from habitat loss because of logging and agriculture, but recently, the hunting of primates, including gorillas, for the growing bush meat trade has further threatened their survival.

About Denver Zoo: Denver Zoo brings education alive, providing a unique learning experience that sparks an interest in the natural world for visitors and program participants alike. Home to 4,000 animals representing more than 600 species, the Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which assures the highest standards of animal care.

A leader in green action, Denver Zoo is the greenest zoo in the country and is dedicated to ensuring the safety of the environment in support of all species by attaining the highest environmental standards. Since 1996, Denver Zoo has participated in about 600 animal conservation projects in 62 countries on all seven continents.

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This event will facilitate connections, spark dialogue and enable entrepreneurs and health care stakeholders to partner for success.

Invest for Health, an inaugural health care event during the SXSW Interactive Festival presented by Ascension Ventures, athenahealth and Cambia Health Solutions, will feature an incredible session lineup including some of the countrys most disruptive health care leaders on March 14 at the JW Marriott in Austin, Texas.

Bringing together entrepreneurs, health care executives and venture capitalists for conversations around real solutions to health cares pain points, this event will facilitate connections, spark dialogue and enable entrepreneurs and health care stakeholders to partner for success. The Invest for Health program will feature the following session topics:



Connecting the Disconnect: Fixing the Pain Points in Health Care  Featuring Jonathan Bush, CEO of athenahealth along with speakers Sue Siegel of GE Ventures and Chris Coburn of Partners HealthCare, this session will focus on the disconnected state of health care, issues that plague the industry, the climate that has allowed problems to thrive, and what the blueprint for the future looks like.

Empathy and Impact: Revolutionizing Healthcare with Data, Heart and Soul  This session features Cambia CEO Mark Ganz and Salesforce CMO Josh Newman, and will explore the role data, heart and soul play in leveraging empathy to revolutionize health.

Swipe Right: Creating Health Care Thats HOT  Theres pent up demand for a radically different infrastructure in health care, but new world orders dont come easy. Disrupting existing infrastructure has good days, and bad  its been called the long dark night of the innovator for a reason. Matt Hermann from Ascension and Brad Perkins from Human Longevity will reveal how to survive the hard moments while creating the next generation in health care.

Invest for Health will also feature 30 minute networking breaks between each speaking session. Startups at any stage of development will network at Invest for Health with thought-leaders, investors and stakeholders. To learn more visit InvestForHealth.Care.

About Ascension Ventures

Ascension Ventures, launched in 2001, is a subsidiary of Ascension, the nation's largest Catholic and non-profit health system. Ascension Ventures' role is to construct and manage a strategic portfolio of investments that deliver venture-level investment returns, have the potential to transform the healthcare industry and significantly enhance the experience for patients, their families and their caregivers. Ascension Ventures has three venture funds with $550 million in committed capital under management. Its limited partners include Adventist Health System, Ascension, Catholic Health Initiatives, Decatur Memorial Hospital, Dignity Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Mercy and Trinity Health. http://www.ascensionventures.org

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth is a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing, patient engagement, care coordination, and population health management, as well as Epocrates and other point-of-care mobile apps. We connect care and drive meaningful, measurable results for more than 75,000 health care providers in medical practices and health systems nationwide. For more information, please visit http://www.athenahealth.com.

About Cambia Health Solutions

Cambia Health Solutions, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is a health solutions company dedicated to transforming health care by creating a person-focused and economically sustainable system. Cambias growing family of companies range from software and mobile applications, health care marketplaces, non-traditional health care delivery models, health insurance, life insurance, pharmacy benefit management, wellness and overall consumer engagement. Through bold thinking and innovative technology, we are delivering solutions that make quality health care more available, affordable and personally relevant for everyone. To learn more, visit cambiahealth.com or twitter.com/cambia.

About SXSW Interactive

The 23rd annual SXSW Interactive Festival returns to Austin from Friday, March 11 through Tuesday, March 15. An incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity, the 2016 event features five days of compelling presentations and panels from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable lineup of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. From hands-on training to big-picture analysis of the future, SXSW Interactive has become the place to discover the technology of tomorrow today. Join us in March 2016 for the sessions, the networking, the special events, the 18th Annual SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards, SXSW Accelerator, the SXSW Gaming Expo, the SXSW Trade Show, the SX Health & MedTech Expo, SX Create, The Job Market, cross-industry conversations with attendees from SXSW Film and SXSW Music, and, most of all, the unforgettable inspirational experiences that only SXSW can deliver. SXSW Interactive 2016 is sponsored by Esurance, Mazda, Monster Energy, Capital One, Bud Light, Deloitte Digital, McDonalds, Ten-X and The Austin Chronicle.

For Ascension Ventures media inquiries, contact Johnny Smith at Johnny.Smith(at)ascension(dot)org or 314-733-6975.

For athenahealth, Inc. media inquiries, contact Holly Spring at media(at)athenahealth(dot)com or 617-402-1631.

For Cambia Health Solutions media inquiries, contact Christine Lynch at Christine.Lynch(at)cambiahealth(dot)com or 208-333-7839.
Oildex is incredibly honored to receive our second Bronze Stevie Award for Customer Service and our first Silver Stevie for Sales Distinction. We thank the Stevie community and international panel of judges for the recognition, says Jennifer Beaupre.

Oildex has been honored with two Stevie Awards, the Silver Stevie for Sales Distinction of the Year and the Bronze Stevie for Customer Service Department of the Year. The tenth annual Stevie Awards were presented on March 4 during a gala banquet at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Nevada. More than 500 executives from the U.S.A. and several other nations attended.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the worlds top sales awards, business development awards, contact center awards, and customer service awards. The Stevie Awards organizes several of the worlds leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International Business AwardsSM.

More than 2,100 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this years competition, an increase of 11% over 2015. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 115 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges. Entries were considered in 59 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Consulting Practice of the Year; more than 50 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Business Development Achievement of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

Over 60 members of several specialized judging committees determined the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging earlier this month.

Oildex is incredibly honored to receive our second Bronze Stevie Award for Customer Service and our first Silver Stevie for Sales Distinction. We thank the Stevie community and international panel of judges for the recognition, says Jennifer Beaupre, VP of Marketing at Oildex.

Since the acquisition of ADPs procure-to-pay business last year, Oildex has become the largest cloud-based financial supply chain automation solution in the oil and gas industry. Its customer care team consists of industry experts that can respond to every oil and gas companys standards and complexities. The combination of Oildex and OpenInvoice AP automation solutions bring together an unrivaled and unique set of technologies to manage the financial supply chain and support financial documents and transactions.

Entries to the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service continue to grow every year, further validating the essential roles that business development, customer service, and sales play in business success, said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. The widespread support of this program made the 2016 competition that much more intense among finalists. The judges were deeply impressed by the winners accomplishments and we congratulate all of the winners on their commitment to excellence and innovation.

About Oildex

Oildex transforms the way oil and gas companies manage their financial operations. As the market leader and innovator of cloud-based solutions for oil and gas financial supply chain automation, Oildex provides functionality that is built for the industry, eliminates paper-based processes, and provides analytics for greater financial insight. The Oildex technology platform includes: digital and scanned invoice processing (SpendworksTM and OpenInvoiceTM), owner relations web portals (Owner Relations), royalty check stub detail and reporting (CDEX), joint interest bill processing (JIB), crude oil data exchange (CODE), gas plant document exchange (GPEX), production and sales volume reporting and much more. Oildex is a privately held company backed by Accel-KKR and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado with offices in Houston, TX and Calgary, Canada. Learn more about Oildex at http://www.oildex.com.

About The Stevie Awards

The Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The American Business Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. A seventh program, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, will debut in April 2016. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.

Sponsors of the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include ValueSelling Associates.
AMO logo ISIS killing of Assyrian Christians in Iraq and Syria [also] amounts to genocide. The State Department must include the Assyrian Christians of Iraq and Syria among those people who ISIS clearly intends to obliterate.

In response to a State Department investigation of ISIS genocidal crimes in Iraq and Syria, the Philos Project has launched an initiative calling on Secretary of State John F. Kerry and the State Department to fully and unequivocally recognize the so-called Islamic States unmistakable campaign of genocide against Assyrian Christians in that region.

This effort, which is supported by the American Mesopotamian Organization (AMO), Assyrian Aid Society of America and the Iraqi Christian Relief Council is aimed at expanding the State Departments current consideration of genocide which currently includes only the Yezidi peoples of Iraq.

Andrews Kurth, LLP, prepared a detailed and in-depth letter for the Philos Project which clearly establishes that ISIS pattern of abuse, torture and murder against Assyrian Christians in Iraq and Syria meets all the criteria for genocide as laid out by the United Nations.

First, said Mr. David William Lazar, Chairman of AMO, We want to thank the Philos Project for initiating this effort, and the Assyrian Aid Society of America and the Iraqi Christian Relief Council for supporting it. For some time we all have known that the State Department has been considering whether ISIS attacks on the Yezidi peoples of Iraq constitute genocide - and we applaud this consideration.

But without question, Mr. Lazar continued, ISIS killing of Assyrian Christians in Iraq and Syria also amounts to genocide. The State Department must include the Assyrian Christians of Iraq and Syria among those people who ISIS clearly intends to obliterate.

The nearly 40 page letter, addressed directly to Secretary of State John F. Kerry, details not only ISIS destruction of Assyrian Christians churches and historical sites, but also lays bare many examples of ISIS atrocities against Assyrians in Iraq and Syria - all of which, the letter notes, is plainly intended to eradicate Assyrians and Christians from the Middle East.

In a clear and unified voice, said Mr. Lazar, AMO joins the Philos Project in calling on the Secretary of State and the State Department to declare the obvious: ISIS has unleashed a campaign of genocide against the Assyrian people and intends to wipe Assyrian Christians from the Middle East.

Pursuant to this declaration," Mr. Lazar concluded, "AMO demands that the United States and the international community step forward, put a stop to ISIS genocide against the Assyrian Christians, and protect them by means of self-governed, semi autonomous safe zones in Iraq and Syria. Anything short of this is a death sentence for the Assyrian people.
C&A Industries, Inc., a national leader in staffing and recruitment, has been named the #1 Employment Agency in Omaha, Nebraska by B2B Magazine for the eighth consecutive year. The announcement will be featured in the March 2016 issue of the magazine.

Omaha-based C&A is the parent company to four specialized staffing firms. Aureus Group, AurStaff, and Celebrity Staff each hold market leading positions in the Omaha metropolitan area and have a strong regional presence. Aureus Medical Group does business on a national scale.

The publications annual Best of B2B Awards recognizes the top businesses and service providers in the Omaha area. B2B is Greater Omahas premiere business publication, featuring the latest business developments as well as features on Omahas most prominent business leaders. Results are based on readers votes.

As a local and national leader in the staffing and recruitment industry, we understand the common denominator among the most successful organizations  great people. The same is certainly true within C&A, said Scot Thompson, president and CEO, C&A Industries, Inc. Our ability to consistently deliver an exceptional level of service is largely due to our outstanding team of employees who are customer-focused, passionate about our business, and keep excellence top of mind. We are proud to be named the top employment agency in Omaha by B2B Magazine and we congratulate our employees on a job well done.

ABOUT C&A INDUSTRIES, INC.:

C&A is a national leader in staffing and recruiting. Through its affiliate firms, Aureus Group, Aureus Medical Group, AurStaff, and Celebrity Staff, C&A has provided Human Capital Management Solutions to a wide variety of industries for more than 45 years, including supplemental, contract-hire, and direct hire programs. Non-staffing divisions of C&A include AurTravel, a full service travel agency; AurHomes, specializing in corporate housing; and its philanthropic arm, The Kim Foundation. C&A is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, with subsidiary offices located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; and Des Moines, Iowa.
Cab Guru gives you access to over 10,000 cabs in London We currently have over 10,000 cabs available in London and 15,000+ across the UK, which is considered to be the largest online cab fleet in the UK

More than 300 major cab companies in the UK have joined forces to produce a national booking app. The collaboration is unique and the first of its kind in the industry with the aims being: to help the UKs private hire and taxi firms compete with Uber and to provide the customer with an app where they can compare cabs based on price, availability or service in real-time and book a cab anywhere in the UK.

The app allows customers to compare fixed prices and book a cab with a licensed Private Hire or Taxi company. Where there is currently no Cab Guru partner coverage, customers will be shown a list of local cab companies to call and make their booking directly with them.

Marketing Manager Danielle Kinsella comments:

Cab Guru is about being helpful to customers. If youre in a town or city you dont know, its difficult to book a cab. Were making it easy to find, compare prices and book a cab no matter where in the UK you are.

The private hire and taxi industry has been disrupted significantly in recent years. Cab Gurus aim is to help strengthen and protect the UKs local cab companies and give them the ability to compete alongside new technology disruptors.

We soft launched the app back in December and have been adding licensed Private Hire and Taxi companies since then. We currently have over 10,000 cabs available in London and 15,000+ across the UK, which is considered to be the largest online cab fleet in the UK. Were aiming for 50,000 taxis and cabs to be available in the app within the first 12 months.

Cab Guru will use the investment towards further development and marketing, generating growth across the whole of the UK.

The app is available nationwide. To download the app search for Cab Guru in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, alternatively visit the website where you can also book online: http://www.cabguru.com
Think It ... Make It 3D printing has the power to invigorate the mind and creative process

Create3D, LLC is proud to announce their participation with Pinellas County Schools Saturday STEM Academies. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and is the pursuit of educating students on these topics (http://www.ed.gov/stem). This Saturday STEM Academy program will meet for a total of 6 sessions, held between February 6th and April 16th. Create3D will provide instruction, demonstration and participation to a total of 40 elementary and middle school students.

21st CENTURY SHOP

3D printing has the power to invigorate the mind and creative process, said Mark Guthrie, founder of Create3D. When I was in school, we had shopwe learned to make thingsit was powerful. The process created a sense of pride. 3D printing enables a student to imagine something and then create a real object like never before - it's exciting when you see kids 'get it'. Our tag line is think it  make it, and thats exactly what you do with 3D printing.

PINELLAS COUNTY SCHOOLS EMBRACING STEM

Laura Spence is the K-12 STEM Specialist for Pinellas County Schools. Currently she has 180 STEM Academies up and running for the 2015-2016 school year and plans to add an additional 40 Academies with a primary focus during the month of March. Laura has engaged over 180 teachers interested in teaching STEM content to deliver the programs.

Students engaged in the PCS STEM Academies are given tasks essential for any potential STEM workforce candidate competing in a global marketplace. Students are asked to work in teams to complete engineering inquiry projects that require critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration, said Laura Spence.

During the Saturday STEM Academies, students will learn about the process of 3D printing and have the opportunity to create their own 3D design. One of the very fun things you can do with a 3D printer is draw something, digitize it, add volume to it, then 3D print it  their own design by their own hand without having to learn a program, we call this 'Art to Thing'. MakerBot has an iPad app called ShapeMaker that we will use for this process. Search for Print Shop by MakerBot in the Apple store if you want to try it outits free.

COMPANY SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Create3D is actively looking for corporate sponsors who are interested in underwriting 3D printing labs for schools. The company would receive naming rights, receive public relation stories on what students are producing/learning and training for their employees to assist with staffing of the lab for volunteer services. Sponsorships can range from $3,000 to $50,000 based on the number of 3D printers, scanners and training.

** About Create3D **

Create3D serves the following markets: education, architecture and companies that develop products. For schools, Create3D provides MakerBot 3D printing technology labs and can deliver the entire curriculum or train the teachers to deliver the curriculum featuring MakerBot in the Classroom. For architects, full-color models can be printed for commercial or residential buildings. For product companies, 3D printing is used for creating prototypes and even manufacturing of production parts.

Create3D is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida and is an authorized MakerBot reseller. For more information, visit http://www.Create-3D.biz and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/create3Dpossibilities.

For more information:


Isagani Tabin Accepts Award Tabin is a true asset to the Lompoc Team. He continues to make outstanding contributions to guests and team members, showing great enthusiasm in all areas of his work at the hotel

Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotels, a national brand of upscale, all-suite hotels, has honored Isagani Sonny Tabin, Food and Beverage Manager, of the Embassy Suites by Hilton Lompoc Central Coast for his 20 years of service with the hotel. Sonny is also a recipient of the Spirit of Embassy Award, the companys most prestigious team member award.

Tabin is a true asset to the Lompoc Team. He continues to make outstanding contributions to guests and team members, showing great enthusiasm in all areas of his work at the hotel, said Golda Mae Escalante, General Manager. We are proud that he is part of our superb team. He is very popular among guests. He creates a welcoming and exceptional experience for guests, which impacts other team members and creates a domino effect of great service. He has an amazing ability to remember almost every guests breakfast order or drink from day to day, going out of his way to make their stay pleasurable.

Tabin represents the true spirit of Embassy Suites. He has been employed since February 26, 1996. For his anniversary, Tabin will receive $100, a Service Award plaque, recognition from Embassy Suites Hotels and a celebration lunch provided by the hotel team. Soni is honored to receive the reward and thanks Embassy Suites noting that, your encouragement and support have made all the difference.

Embassy Suites by Hilton Lompoc is located at 1117 North H Street, Lompoc, California. For reservations, visit http://www.embassysuiteslompoc.com or call 1-805-735-8311.
We are proud to be a part of The Mint 400 and its tradition for being a very special event for racers and fans alike.

Las Vegas is geared up for the Polaris Mint 400 off-road race presented by BFGoodrich Tires this weekend and 4 Wheel Parts is revved up for an exciting week of activities as an official sponsor. President and CEO, Greg Adler will represent Team 4 Wheel Parts in the grueling Great American Off-Road Race on the outskirts of Sin City as he campaigns his Unlimited Ultra4 car in the competition.

The festivities kick off on Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. with the 4 Wheel Parts Vehicle Parade, as many of the race entrants including Adlers Ultra4, will bring the thunder of over 75,000 horsepower down the famed Las Vegas Strip to Fremont Street. The green flag drops on the race itself on March 12 and features a field of over 350 of desert racings most prominent competitors.

The Mint 400 has built a reputation for attracting thousands of enthusiasts to Las Vegas to join the hundreds of race participants, creating what has become the greatest spectacle in American off-road racing. For the drivers and teams, the weeklong event culminates in a desert battle where the attrition rate makes merely finishing the first step on the way to capturing one of the many coveted class victories.

For Greg Adler, an experienced desert and short course competitor who raced in the Mint early in his off-road career, this Mint 400 represents his return to the desert as he brings his four-wheel drive Ultra4, purpose-built machine, normally reserved for King of the Hammers duty, to the open desert environment.

We are proud to be a part of The Mint 400 and its tradition for being a very special event for racers and fans alike, said Adler. Beyond our support of the weeklong activities, we are looking forward to seeing what we can do in our Ultra4 car. Its a rough course and this car has been built to take on anything thats thrown at it. Its going to be a lot of fun.

4 Wheel Parts is returning to sponsor the Mint 400 Vehicle Parade for the fourth consecutive year. The 4 Wheel Parts Vehicle Parade down the world renowned Las Vegas Strip, will showcase some of the toughest off-road vehicles on the planet with a procession spanning 10 miles. Grand Marshal and off-road legend Rod Hall will lead the immense group of racecars past the Las Vegas crowds eager to catch a glimpse of their favorites.

Time trials will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 10 and teams competing in the Mint 400s Pit Crew Challenge sponsored by Method Race Wheels will have a chance to qualify and contend in the finals on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Limited Race starts at 6 a.m. with the Unlimited class racing at 12:30 p.m. The Awards Brunch at the Golden Nugget Hotel is slated to happen at 11 a.m. Sunday.

About the Mint 400

The Mint 400 began in 1967 and has established itself as a classic 400-mile battle between the worlds premier off-road racers. In 1988, after the Mint Hotel was sold, the race took a 20-year sabbatical until 2008 when it was restarted. Actor/director Steve McQueen, astronaut Gordon Cooper and power boat champion Bill Muncey number among the luminaries who have competed in past races.

About 4 Wheel Parts

4 Wheel Parts is the global leader in truck, Jeep, SUV and off-road performance products. With 74 locations across the U.S. and Canada and growing, 4 Wheel Parts Service Centers install all the products they sell. Maintaining the nations largest inventory of off-road tires, bumper guards, lift kits, and truck bed extenders, 4 Wheel Parts serves customers across the country and around the globe. Life is Better Off-Road. Visit them at 4wheelparts.com or call toll-free 877-474-4821.
As a participant in the climb, I couldnt be more proud of the commitment and energy of everyone who climbed and supported this effort. Past News Releases RSS

A 15-person team of multiple myeloma patients, doctors, family members, and supporters climbed the renowned 19,341-foot Uhuru Peak on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, in January, to raise awareness and funds for critical multiple myeloma research. The inaugural event of Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma, a collaboration between CURE Media Group, Takeda and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), the climb raised approximately $250,000, with all proceeds going to the MMRF to accelerate research for next generation treatments.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer of the blood that carries only a 46.6 percent chance of survival beyond five years, according to the National Cancer Institute. While great progress has been made in recent years to develop novel treatments, continued research funding is needed to get to the ultimate goal: a cure.

There is nothing more powerful than working together with multiple myeloma patients, doctors, and caregivers toward a common goal, said Alicia ONeill, climber and MMRF executive. As a participant in the climb, I couldnt be more proud of the commitment and energy of everyone who climbed and supported this effort. Thanks to this remarkable determination and generosity, the MMRF will continue to advance the front lines of research in multiple myeloma, paving the way for more awareness, as well as new treatments and hope for patients and their families around the world.

Climber and multiple myeloma patient, Bob Dickey, of Shell Beach, Calif., added, Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was validation that multiple myeloma is not the end. The climb illustrates to patients and caregivers that multiple myeloma offers us an opportunity, if not a requirement, to press on harder.

Other MMRF climbers living with multiple myeloma included Chuck Wakefield, of Dallas, Texas, Jeff Goad of Chicago, Illinois, and Stan Wagner of Brooklyn, New York.

Pushing our way toward the summit was the hardest thing I've ever done, as it was freezing cold with winds more than 40 mphit was surreal, but I made it, said Wagner. The promise I made to bring the names on my banner - cancer survivors and people who passed away - to the summit motivated me. It was an obligation I had to meet no matter what. I'm thankful for the opportunity to take action in a meaningful way, and to fight back against multiple myeloma.

A documentary of the climb, filmed and produced by Uncage the Soul Productions, will premiere at the inaugural Multiple Myeloma Heroes Awards event on March 18, at the Eden Roc Miami, during the 20th Annual International Congress on Hematologic Malignancies. Hosted by CURE Media Group, the event will honor individuals making heroic contributions in the field of multiple myeloma or in the lives of patients with multiple myeloma, with nominations coming from patients, caregivers, and colleagues.

About Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma

Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma is an MMRF program supported by CURE Media Group and Takeda. The MMRF has teams participating in other adventure climbs, including Conquer the Canyon - Grand Canyon, May 12-16, and Machu Picchu, August 9-14, and is currently recruiting interested participants for Mount Kilimanjaro, February 2017. Funds raised by the Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma endeavors will go directly to research, supporting the MMRF mission. For more information, visit http://www.movingmountainsformultiplemyeloma.com.

About CURE Media Group

Combining science and humanity to make cancer understandable, CURE Media Groups flagship product, CURE magazine, is the indispensable guide to every stage of the cancer experience. With nearly 1 million readers, CURE is the largest U.S. consumer publication focused entirely on cancer, with broad distribution to cancer patients, cancer centers and advocacy groups. CURE Media Groups offerings also include its online resource, curetoday.com, live meetings, a resource guide for the newly diagnosed, and the Extraordinary Healer national nursing award. It also offers CURE Connections, a video platform designed specifically for patients with cancer that features information, stories, advice about the cancer journey and subscription options to receive updates. Cure Media Group is part of Michael J. Hennessy Associates, Inc., a full-service health care communications company offering education, research, medical media, and the acclaimed OncLive platform of resources for the practicing oncologist.

About the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) was established in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization by twin sisters Karen Andrews and Kathy Giusti soon after Kathys diagnosis with multiple myeloma. The mission of the MMRF is to relentlessly pursue innovative means that accelerate the development of next-generation multiple myeloma treatments to extend the lives of patients and lead to a cure. As the worlds number-one private funder of multiple myeloma research, the MMRF has raised more than $300 million since its inception and directs nearly 90 percent of its total budget to research and related programming. As a result, the MMRF has been awarded Charity Navigators coveted four-star rating for 11 consecutive years, the highest designation for outstanding fiscal responsibility and exceptional efficiency.

About Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Located in Osaka, Japan, Takeda is a research-based global company with its main focus on pharmaceuticals. As the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and one of the global leaders of the industry, Takeda is committed to striving toward better health for patients worldwide through leading innovation in medicine. Additional information about Takeda is available through its corporate website, http://www.takeda.com.

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Our graduates get better jobs than students with two-year degrees, and they can pay off their tuition within a year or two after starting work. And no other school in America offers mentoring by so many award-winning executive chefs.

Now in the midst of its first Salt Lake City session, Park City Culinary Institute is proving to be greatly beneficial for one student who completed initial culinary arts studies with Utahs ProStart program, which educates high school students in the food industry. At age 21, Ian Lyman enrolled in Park City Culinary Institutes two-month program to develop the skills that will advance his career by making him a more attractive candidate to prospective employers. He is also able to take advantage of the scholarship Park City Culinary Institute offers ProStart students  $500 for those who completed both years and $250 for those who completed one year of the program.

Drawn by the more intensive nature of Park City Culinary Institutes offering and the opportunity to be educated by renowned, award-winning chefs, Ian Lyman explains, While ProStart provides introductory exposure to the culinary industry, Park City Culinary Institute takes that education to an essential next level for those considering a career in the restaurant industry. Its more comprehensiveI find that I'm learning more because we do more cooking every day.

After the recent closure of other culinary schools in Salt Lake City and throughout the Intermountain West region, Park City Culinary Institute has emerged as a popular alternative to the declining industry of culinary schools thanks to its affordable tuition and format that jumpstarts students into a career after only two months of training.

Other culinary schools are closing because their model makes no sense. Two months is all one needs to get started in the restaurant industry, says Moldawer. The pseudo colleges offering culinary training were just putting students into debt. Our graduates get better jobs than students with two-year degrees, and they can pay off their tuition within a year or two after starting work. And no other school in America offers mentoring by so many award-winning executive chefs.

Ian is confident his Park City Culinary Institute education will allow him to work in a finer dining establishment when he graduates this spring. I hope that a future employer will recognize that I've gained valuable experience by completing the PCCI course. One day, Id like to go to Southern California to work in my uncles restaurants, he says.

Park City Culinary Institute graduates have careers at some of the most prestigious food and beverage establishments in Utah, including Forage, Ruths Chris Steakhouse, St. Regis, Deer Valley Resort, Cuisine Unlimited, Talisker, and High West Distillery. Most graduates get their first or second choice of jobs.

Im hoping our program can also get Ian more money when he graduates, as our other graduates have been given raises as high as 17 percent after just two months of training, says Moldawer. As far as we know, we have 100 percent job placement for our students. We get calls all the time from employers, and none of our students are still looking for work, which lends a great deal of credibility to the Institute.

Park City Culinary Institutes next two-month session will take place at its Deer Valley campus, April 11 to June 3. Tuition and fees are just $8,900. For more information and to enroll, visit http://www.parkcityculinaryinstitute.com.

ABOUT PARK CITY CULINARY INSTITUTE

Park City Culinary Institute collaborates with the regions top chefs to offer a distinctive culinary program that rivals some of the best culinary schools in the country. In addition to the schools two-month immersive hands-on program, the Institute hosts team building events and demonstrations for private and corporate groups. Park City Culinary Institute is On to something fantastic! according to Food Writer Wilbert Jones, and the innovative approach to culinary education is Definitely overdue according to restaurant owner Jesse Shetler. Students are trained to succeed in small classes with personalized attention, where they master essential techniques and gain experience with diverse ingredients. For more information, visit ParkCityCulinaryInstitute.com.
Shark Finds The Big Pitch Radio show airs to 37 networks with over 8 million listeners. This is a great way to catch someones ear who may be interested in a future collaboration with my company." Cathy Erwin, Owner/CEO Walkabout Harnesses, LLC Past News Releases RSS

Shark Finds and Kevin Harrington are proud to announce that Original Walkabout Back End Harness  was recently featured on the popular Big Pitch Radio program.

Original Walkabout Back End Harness  entrepreneur, Cathy Erwin joined hosts Kevin Harrington, Marla Tabaka and Jason Garey to market the valued pet product.

The Original Walkabout Back End Harness is made from soft, durable neoprene fabric, and allows pet owners to safely and comfortably lift and hold a pets hindquarters for exercise, getting in and out of the car, bathing, and more. Recommended by veterinarians as the most effective walking aid on the market, the Original Walkabout Back End Harness  is beneficial for animals with arthritis, hip dysplasia, spinal trauma, chronic back problems, old age, and fatigue. The harness even helps prevent back injury to pet owners from lifting pets improperly. The valued pet product keeps pets mobile and pet owners happy. For more information about the Original Walkabout Back End Harness , please visit http://www.walkaboutharnesses.com.

About Kevin Harrington

Founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $4 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized DRTV campaigns featuring the Shark.

About AsSeenOnTV.pro

As part of the media campaign with AsSeenOnTV.pro, participant products will appear in 30 and 60 second spots set to air nationwide and feature the original Shark himself, Kevin Harrington. AsSeenOnTV.pro is comprised of an award-winning team of brand evaluators, writers, videographers, and editors as well as industry veterans dedicated to finding the latest, most innovative products and ideas, and putting them on the DRTV map.

About Shark Finds

Shark Finds is an award-winning production company located in Florida. Its creative team guides the spots from script phase to screen-ready stage to final airing. The Shark Finds team has produced over $20 million worth of broadcast placements in just over two decades, with the help of their regional and national relationships.
SafetyTek Professional Liability for Technology Companies SafetyTek is designed to help protect technology businesses from such data breaches, said Dwight Stuckey, founder and co-owner of Stuckey & Company.

Stuckey & Company has added Data Breach to its SafetyTek Insurance Program, a technology insurance program for software, internet and computer consulting companies. In addition, Stuckey has updated its online rating system to include the new coverage.

SafetyTek now offers Technology and Internet Errors and Omissions Liability, Electronic Media Activities, Network Operations Security and Data Breach to help protect technology professionals against liability exposures resulting from allegations of negligence. The policy can also include Stuckey & Companys exclusive SafetyTek Endorsements that include: Expanded Covered Services, Innocent Insured, Contractual Liability, Defense Costs Outside the Limit and First Dollar Defense.

Data Breach includes the failure by the insured or their independent contractor to properly handle or destroy Personal Information such as social security numbers, medical information, drivers license numbers, credit card information or other non-public information. said Dwight Stuckey. These are important coverage areas due to privacy regulations such as HIPPA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the California Security Breach Notification Act.

Through its network of appointed independent agents, Stuckey offers SafetyTek to technology related businesses, typically under $25 million in revenues, which provide software consulting and development, computer network services, hardware and software sales, technology training, web development, internet services, telecommunications, IT staffing and other specialty services.

Stuckeys appointed agents can provide their customers with pricing information and quote proposals for SafetyTek and other products in Stuckeys suite of insurance offerings through its online rating system. In addition to SafetyTek, the rating system supports insurance products for miscellaneous professional liability and architects and engineers professional liability.

A company must defend itself against even a meritless E&O lawsuit. This can have a financially devastating impact on their bottom line. SafetyTek is designed to help protect technology businesses from such a events, said Dwight Stuckey, founder and co-owner of Stuckey & Company. Our updated rating platform offers agents an efficient way to deliver contract specific coverage to their clients in real time.

Stuckey & Company has in-house authority to quote and issue SafetyTek coverage for businesses with up to $25 million in revenue. Coverage is available in all states, except Alaska and Hawaii.

About Stuckey & Company

Stuckey & Company is a specialty insurance provider based in Lake St. Louis, Missouri. For 25 years, Stuckey has offered commercial, professional and personal lines of insurance. More than 8,500 Stuckey-appointed independent agents have the knowledge and experience in working with specific coverages not typically covered under standard policies. The experts at Stuckey work with these independent insurance agents to ensure each client receives the coverage they need to keep their corporate or personal assets safe. Stuckey manages 10 specialty insurance programs and offers 1x5 serviceaccounts received in the office by 1 p.m. CST will receive a response by 5 p.m. the same business day.
Sue Stylianos-Merich, RE/MAX Momentum Real estate is not the same everywhere, and you need someone who knows the area inside and out. Past News Releases RSS RE/MAX Realtor Sue Stylianos-Merich...

RE/MAX Realtor Sue Stylianos-Merich...

Its been an honor and a privilege to have spent the last five years with RE/MAX Momentum, said Realtor Sue Stylianos-Merich. For me, real estate is about much more than just buying and selling homes; its also about building relationships and truly understanding the ultimate ambitions of my clients, and RE/MAX enables me to do just that.

In fact, the complete satisfaction of her clients is Sues No. 1 priority, and the expertise she perpetually refines assures them every decision they make will be well-informed and carefully counseled. Furthermore, Sues success is derived from her attention to detail and organization in documenting the entire buying or selling process, making for a smooth transaction and a positive experience for everyone involved.

Real estate is not the same everywhere, and you need someone who knows the area inside and out, said Sue. I take great pride in being a Realtor who has a wealth of knowledge and expertise about buying and selling in my area.

About Sue Stylianos-Merich, RE/MAX Momentum

Sue Stylianos-Merich works with both buyers and sellers. She is an Accredited Buyers Representative (ABR), Graduate, REALTOR Institute (GRI), Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), e-PRO and Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource (SFR). She also offers a free instant home valuation link on her website. For more information, call (303) 669-6444, or visit http://www.buyingandsellingdenver.com. The office is located at 2227 Prairie Center Pkwy., Suite D, Brighton, CO 80601.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers in the digital age, while providing a single-agency source that helps them flourish in their local community. The NALA offers its clients an array of marketing tools from press release campaigns and social media management to a cause marketing program. The NALAs mission is to make businesses relevant and newsworthy, both online and through traditional media, by providing increased exposure at reasonable costs. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.
Greg Wathen, APR President & CEO Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana Indiana's Great Southwest is on the cusp of transformative growth and it's due to a common shared vision.

Consultant Connect, a consulting agency designed to bridge the gap between economic developers and site consultants, announces its 2016 list of North Americas Top 50 Economic Developers which includes Greg Wathen, President & CEO of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana. The economic development professionals selected for this list were nominated by their colleagues in both the economic development industry and the site consultant community for excellent practices, innovation and success in building the communities they serve.

This annual list recognizing North Americas Top 50 Economic Developers is designed to acknowledge the hard work of the top leaders in this field and elevate the conversation around economic development and job creation, said Ron Kitchens, managing partner of Consultant Connect. Each of the leaders represented on this years list are beyond deserving of this recognition for their efforts in building our communities brick by brick and job by job.

This makes the second year in a row that Wathen has been selected. Since March of 2007, Wathen has lead the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana from a fledgling public-private partnership to the national brand of Indianas Great Southwest. The Coalition promotes the regions assets to a global marketplace for business attraction and retention helping garner over $2.8 billion in investment creating 3,568 jobs; and, has helped the region gain approximately $74 million in state and federal grants for capacity building.

Most recently Wathen successfully spearheaded the state-wide effort for the Evansville region to be named one of Indianas first Regional Cities, a designation that will receive $42 million for talent attracting projects.

Each of the top 50 economic developers will be featured on the weekly podcast, From The Ground Up: North Americas Top 50 Economic Developers where Wathen and other industry leaders will share their expertise in the field of economic development and leadership insights theyve learned along the way. The podcast is scheduled to air March 31 at http://consultantconnect.org/category/econdev-podcast/. "It is an honor to be named to this prestigious list, but as any good economic developer knows, it takes many hands to change the landscape of communities," said Greg Wathen, President & CEO of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana. "Indiana's Great Southwest is on the cusp of transformative growth and it's due to a common shared vision."
Woo findings on Salary Gender Gap This data shows that, while women are looking to compete equally - and certainly arent asking for any special treatment - they may be short-changing themselves by underestimating their market worth, said Woo CEO and co-founder, Liran Kotzer.

Today Woo (woo.io), the first platform that lets tech talent gauge their market value, revealed data that show women in tech may be inadvertently handicapping themselves by underestimating their market value. Woo platform data confirms, while women and men have an equal appetite for risk, women ask for 16% less salary than men for the same positions.

The data comes as the world recognizes International Womens Day, with a plea to close the workplace gender gap. The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap wouldn't close entirely until 2133 - more than a century from now.

Woos authentic data, generated from thousands of U.S. tech workers registered on the Woo platform, shows that women in tech are asking for both less salary, and less flexibility, than men. Not only did women ask for an average salary of $108,000 compared to mens $128,000, men were more likely to ask to work from home and to have flexible hours than women. Other highlights from Woo data on gender equality in the U.S. tech sector include:

 Men and women are nearly equal risk-takers: 77.4% of women are ready to work in startups, vs. 82.3% of men.

 More men are asking to work from home than women: 14% of women vs. 18.5% of men

 More men are asking for flex hours than women: 10.2% of women, vs. 12.8% of men

This data shows that, while women are looking to compete equally - and certainly arent asking for any special treatment - they may be short-changing themselves by underestimating their market worth, said Woo CEO and co-founder, Liran Kotzer. Companies need to provide equal opportunity, but - at the same time - women in tech need to understand and ask for the salary and benefits that they deserve.

Woos platform matches tech worker expectations with companies that are agreeable to meeting a candidates must-have requirements. Tech talent, including software engineers, developers, product managers, QAs, DevOps and designers, remain anonymous during the process, and only share their full identity if they decide to pursue a job opportunity. As such, it is a blind interview process, where gender is a non-issue.

Woo is available on an invite-only basis currently to IT tech professionals. Interested parties can go to Woos website, http://woo.io/, and request an invite.

Woo Who?

Privately-held, Woo operates out of San Francisco and Tel Aviv. Its namesake platform, Woo, lets tech talent effortlessly learn their real demand and market value, while remaining fully anonymized. Unlike existing solutions, Woo focuses on helping tech talent know their true potential, regardless of whether they want to change their job or not. The company works with leading-edge tech brands, including Microsoft, Adobe, Yahoo!, WeWork and more. For more information, please visit http://www.woo.io.

# # #

Press Contact:

Carmen Hughes

Ignite Public Relations

C: +1.650.576.6444

carmen(at)ignitepr(dot)com
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On her website, Meg Medina  who won the Pura Belpre Award for Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, and received a Belpre Honor for Mango, Abuela and Me  describes herself as a Latina author of libros for kids of all ages. Libros, of course, is Spanish for books, and Medinas use of both languages speaks to her passionate belief that her books about Latinas are both specific and universal. Her new novel, Burn Baby Burn, tells the story of high school senior Nora Lopez and her struggles with family, money, love, and the question of what to do next, as well as what it was like to live in the dangerous, chaotic, and exciting New York City of 1977. From her home in Richmond, Va., Medina spoke with PW about her new YA book and how it reflects her larger writing interest, which is family as seen through the lens of Latina teenagers.

Burn Baby Burn takes place over one summer, but it covers a lot of ground in the lives of its characters, and in the life of New York City, which almost seems like a character itself.

Right. Its the whole ajiaco, as we say in Cuba; its a big soup with all the vegetables.

So where did the book start for you?

I was 13 in 1977, and it was just an epic year in New York Citys collective history. It felt like everything was at the brink of disaster, and yet there was this energy, this scary yet thrilling chaotic energy. I remember the smell of urine, the graffiti, the sense that you could get mugged at any time.

As I was writing, the biggest challenge was that I didnt want to use the Son of Sam murders in a way that would disrespect the suffering of those who were hurt and killed. And yet these murders were so much a part of the history of that year. The other challenge was that there was just so much going on. My very wise editor [Kate Fletcher] told me, Keep your focus on Nora. What is it thats happening for her? The rest of it is her world. It informs how shes going to act, it limits and opens her decisions, and so on, but the book is about this young woman trying to grow up and out at a time when everything in her family and her city is imploding.

The book is described on your website as historical fiction  a term your adult readers or the parents of your teen readers might find surprising.

Yes, its historical fiction. Isnt that fast?!

That brings up the question of feminism, which is all over the book  its energy, its appeal, the necessity of the struggle. Is that historical, given that many young women and girls today dont consider themselves feminists? Was that something you thought about?

I think about that every day  with agony. Its been very sad for me to see that feminism has become the F word for some girls. Young women may not realize that the rights they enjoy now were fought for by the women who came before them. The science class theyre taking, access to sports, maternity leave, protections against date rapethese were fought for; no one gave them to us. No movement stays stagnant, so it will be up to young women to continue to define feminism and what their issues are, but ideally with an appreciation for what was done and gifted to them.

Nora and her friend Kathleen are 17; their feminism isnt fully conscious until they have to make decisions about their intimate relationships, about what college is going to be like, about where the boundaries are with men in their lives. I wanted to have these young women come into an awareness of what they were up against and have to push forward.

One strand in this book that perhaps relates to this is the depiction of Noras father. Nora and her mother and brother are really struggling while her father has made a comfortable life with a new family. Where did that come from?

It relates to my history. My parents came here from Cuba and their marriage did not survive that; he was a surgeon, and my mother worked in a factory at minimum wage. I lived the galling reality that Nora does, and that a lot of people do and did. My editor was so great because in an earlier version, I didnt have that scene where Nora lets her father have it, and she said I needed it. I sat down to write it, and it was a very cleansing experience.

Nora also has a brother, Hector. Hes awful to Nora, but hes physically abusive to their mother. Hes terrifying.

He is terrifying. I dont outline, so every day I would go in and see him. What I can say about that is this: juvenile domestic violence is no joke. When we think about domestic violence, we always think of the parents, but we have violent children as well. People may be trying to get help, and they cant get through the mental health system, and thats made worse if youre an immigrant family where language is an impediment or cultural understanding is an impediment. You need a health care professional with cultural competence. And theres financial need. Its really challenging. So there I was, writing Hector, with that feeling of being trapped with a bomb in the room.

Your last book, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, has faced censorship. What specifically were people upset about? And do you anticipate any issues with Burn?

They put me through the wringer for putting ass in the title. I guarantee that Im going to get pushback on this one, too, because I mention birth control and Planned Parenthood. I tell people  that was the reality then. Maybe you dont like that reality, but it what was we were thinking about. Ive traveled a lot with Yaqui Delgado, and Ive had people questioning whether Im good for kids, questioning what Im telling girls. I think theyll have the same complaints about this novel. But Im undeterred. Going from girlhood to womanhood is a crazy, hard, fantastic journey of figuring out what the engine of your power is, and thats the story I want to keep offering girls.

Youve been active in the We Need Diverse Books movement. Can you talk about that?

Yes. Initially I was on their executive board, but I couldnt keep up that level of activity, so Im on the advisory board now. I try to keep the issue alive and in the thinking of librarians, and teachers, and parents, and readers as they build their collections and make recommendations. And its never an easy conversation when youre talking about change, when people have to notice blind spots. But we move forward if we have these conversations with grace and civility.

Are you surprised that were still talking about these issues in 2015 and 2016?

Yes. Its very sad to think that decade after decade people just fold their hands and say its a shame, but no substantive change happens. What I love about WNDB is that instead of simply pointing out whats happening, they turned to action. Funding internships, finding new voices, creating packets for libraries, being present in conferences  its all action, forward movement, rather than just a complaint.

Youre Latina the heroine of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is Dominican and Cuban, and your background is Cuban. Latin America is made up of many different cultures and countries. Do you do research for characters whose backgrounds are different from yours?

Yes, and I can get it as wrong as anyone else. Because when you say Latino, youre talking about a multitude of countries and customs. But in my own life I have friends, relatives. Ive had ample exposure to Latino people of different cultures. I feel like I got Yaqui right, but if I were to write a character from Argentina or Chile, Id have to put in the research like anyone else.

In Burn, Baby Burn, I had Stiller, who is Black. I love Stiller; shes my favorite character in the book. Shes a really important ally for Nora, and I worried about writing her. I had to do a lot of research and not take for granted that I got it right. When I finished drafting the book, I sent it to writer friends who are women of color and to bookish friends who would have been about Stillers age at the time, and asked them to give feedback. I wanted to get her right, and I needed to make sure that it wasnt a one-size-fits all feminism.

Perhaps that speaks to what we now call intersectionality?

Yes. The intersectionality question is really interesting to me. I love to hear the debate. And Stiller articulates this in the novel, the idea that there are many ways to be controlled, put down, discriminated against, so which lens are you looking through? For me, personally, I identify as a Latina, as a bi-cultural American, as an author, as a mother, but the one that overarches everything for me is that I see myself as a woman. Thats how I move through the world, thats my commitment to feminism, all things girl, strong girl, voice, equality. Those are the things that matter to me. But its an interesting debate. It will be interesting to see in 10 years time how todays girls are thinking about it.

Whats next for you? What are you working on now?

Im working on a middle grade novel for Candlewick, and Im really delighting in it. Ive done these two YA novels about the hard things of growing up; I need an emotional rest. I need to look on the bright side before I can come back and consider what its like to grow up as a teenager. It does feature a girl; you can always count on that.

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina. Candlewick, $17.99 Mar. ISBN 978-0-7636-7467-0
American Girls latest doll/book character, a 10-year-old 1960s-era African-American girl named Melody, is not the companys first foray into multiculturalism, but it is one of its most ambitious. The series will feature three books targeted towards readers ages eight and up telling Melodys story of growing up in Detroit while Motown grew in popularity and the civil rights movement was gaining traction throughout the country. Stephanie Spanos, an American Girl public relations executive, promises that the series wont shy away from sensitive issues associated with that era, such as the church bombing in Birmingham, Ala. on September 15, 1963 that killed four African-American girls.

The first book, No Ordinary Sound, was released in February to coincide with Black History Month. The second book, Never Stop Singing, which continues Melodys story, will be released in June, when the accompanying doll will go on sale. The third book, also released in June, is Music in My Heart: My Journey With Melody, a multiple-endings story in which a contemporary girl steps back in time to the 1960s, where she meets Rosa Parks and sings backup in a Motown recording studio. In a first for American Girl, there will be a guide for parents to discuss with their children both the issues raised in the series and issues today relating to discrimination. American Girl typically creates guides for educators supplementing the books, but not for parents until now. We wanted parents to have conversation points to share with their kids, explained Teri Robida, the American Girl editor in charge of the Melody project.

American Girl is printing 125,000 copies total of the three books. Additionally, an undisclosed number of books will be printed that will be packaged with the dolls.

While Denise Lewis Patrick, who herself is African-American and grew up in the 1960s in Natchitoches, La., wrote the series, American Girl conceptualized it with assistance from an advisory board of scholars and activists, including the late civil rights movement leader Julian Bond, who, in 1960, helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; New York University history professor Thomas J. Sugrue; JoAnn Watson, former executive director of the Detroit NAACP; Juanita Moore, the president of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History in Detroit; Gloria House, director and professor emerita of African and African-American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn; and Rebecca de Schweinitz, associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, and author of If We Could Change the World: Young People and Americas Long Struggle for Racial Equality (University of North Carolina Press, 2009).

Everyone we asked said yes, Robida said. They were not just willing, but enthusiastic about talking to us. They all want kids to know about this element of history.

Robida noted that Melody was in development for many years, even before the calls for more diversity in childrens publishing erupted in the past two years, with the March 15, 2014 publication of an op-ed by the late Walter Dean Myers in the New York Times calling for more diversity in childrens book publishing, followed a few months later by the emergence of the grassroots group, We Need Diverse Books.

The civil rights movement is an important chapter in American history, Robida said. Its a story weve wanted to tell for a while. American Girl decided to set Melodys story in Detroit, rather than in the South because, Robida explained, its easy for people to think that racism and segregation, and the civil rights movement itself, occurred only in the South.

We shifted the lens of the camera, Robida noted. Racism and segregation were not simply a Southern experience: it just existed differently elsewhere. Melody does, however, have ties to the South; her grandparents are from Birmingham, Ala., and in the second book in this series, Melody will travel there from Detroit because Patrick and the advisory board wanted to spotlight not just the different forms of discrimination African-Americans faced in different parts of the country, but also the difficulties in travel, when African-Americans could not even stop along the way to eat in restaurants or sleep in motels.

Patrick told PW that besides speaking at length with the advisory board members before writing these books, she did extensive research by reading, among other materials, Detroit periodicals from that era, including local African-American newspapers. Disclosing that a photo of the Hudsons flagship department store that anchored downtown Detroit , taken during the 1960s, helped her write a scene set there and that she also toured the Motown recording studios, Patrick said, I like to immerse myself if I can visually as well as emotionally.

Of course, Patrick listened to plenty of Motown music as well, as well as the protest songs popular with those who marched and demonstrated during the 60s. Listening to that music made it real, she said.

One of the reasons that Patrick jumped on the Melody project, she explained, is that she was about the same age as Melody during that same time period. And she incorporated some autobiographical elements into the stories, such as the memory of her older sister coming downstairs one evening sporting an Afro. We were about to have dinner and my father almost dropped his fork. It was kind of a fun scene to write in, she said.

Reflecting on the different ways that the various generations in her own family responded to the world during her youth, Patrick said that she made Melodys family as multi-generational as she could to illustrate the evolution of attitudes, such as older people calling themselves colored, while younger people referred to themselves as black or Negro. Much later, Patrick said, people started referring to themselves as African-American.

I wanted a scene in which Melody questioned it, Patrick said. I hope to inspire in readers a sense of possibility and hope for molding society in the way it should be.
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Celebrated Basque Novelist Draws Pre-Pub Buyers

Kirmen Uribe, a Basque novelist whose debut novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao won the 2009 National Prize for Literature in Spain, is looking forward to having his latest novel simultaneously published in four languages. The Pontas Literary and Film Agency sold Uribe's The Hour of Waking Together to houses that will release it in Spanish (Seix Barral), Catalan (Edicions 62) and Galician (Xerais). Scheduled for a November release, the book was originally written in Basque and will be published in that language by Susa. The novel explores the lives of two people who appeared in the 1927 painting by Antonio Gezala called "Artists Night in Ibaigane."

Norwegian Blogger's Debut Picks Up Steam

The Movements, a debut Norwegian crime novel by Geir Tangen, is gaining buzz. The novel was self-published in January and follows a journalist and a police investigator on the trail of a serial killer staging murders based on scenes from crime novels. Tangen, who is a prominent crime fiction blogger, is now represented by Astri von Arbin Ahlander of Sweden's Ahlander Agency. (He sought her out, hoping she could help him find a publisher who could help him market and distribute the title.) Ahlander has now closed 10 foreign sales for the novel in, among other countries, the Netherlands (House of Books), Germany (Goldmann) and Norway (Gyldendal).

Backlist Japanese Title Gaining Traction

Red Girls, a novel first published in Japan in 2006, is seeing new life in the international market. Gray Tan is handling all rights for the book, which is the first Japanese novel he has represented. He first came across the novel during a trip to Japan in 2013 and is hoping the book, which didn't sell well in Taiwan and has fallen out of print there, could have a more positive second life. "I fell in love with it immediately," he said, adding that he thinks it will "definitely appeal to western readers." Sales of the novel have closed with publishers in Taiwan (Apex) and China (Shanghai 99), and VIZ Media acquired U.S. and U.K. rights. Late last month, there was an auction for the novel in France, where Piranha Editions emerged as the winning bidder. The book is in the vein of One Hundred Years of Solitude and follows three generations of women in a Japanese family.


SPRINGFIELD  The National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism fell to its lowest reading in two years in February, with six of the 10 indices declining and four unchanged.

The overall Index dropped one point last month and stands 92.9, well below the 42-year average of 98.

State-specific data isnt available, but Kim Clarke Maisch, state director of NFIB/Illinois, said the national trends are reflected here.

I think the survey shows that a lot of small-business owners are worried about how things are going," she said. "You're not going to invest in new equipment or jobs unless you think the investments are going to pay off.

William C. Dunkelberg, NFIBs chief economist, said the "ho-hum outcome" this month confirms the small business sector is not performing with any strength.

Small business owners are still waiting for a good reason to invest in the future, he said.

According to the report, spending and hiring plans nationally weakened a bit as expectations for growth in real sales volumes fell. Earnings trends also weakened as owners continued to report widespread gains in worker compensation while holding the line on price increases.

More firms reduced prices than raised them, a sign that small businesses are finding ways to absorb higher labor costs without affecting consumers. The downward moving sales trends over the past few months continued into February, according to the report.

Expectations for future business conditions remained negative, indicating small business owners do not plan to increase hiring or capital spending. The political climate continued to be the second most frequently cited reason for reluctance to expand.

Political uncertainty remains a major concern, and the president does not seem inclined to address the major concerns of small business owners, Mr. Dunkelberg said.
A new Canadian study recommends giving vitamin D supplements to children who still are breast-feeding after their first birthday, in an effort to prevent health problems.

This is important for exclusively breast-fed infants and dark-skinned children, who are at particular risk of nutritional rickets, says Mayo Clinic family medicine physician Dr. Tom Thacher, who is not part of the study.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends widespread vitamin D supplementation of breast-fed infants to prevent rare cases of rickets, a softening and weakening of bones in children.

Although rickets is rare, it is entirely preventable with adequate vitamin D and calcium intakes, says Thacher.

According to Thacher, there is no important downside to supplementation as long as it is limited to recommended doses of vitamin D. He adds, new information indicates mothers may be able to enrich their breast milk with adequate vitamin D for an infant, if they take high enough doses themselves.

Vitamin D promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the gastrointestinal tract. A deficiency of vitamin D makes it difficult to maintain proper calcium and phosphorus levels in bones, which can cause rickets. Children 3 to 36 months old are most at risk for rickets because their skeletons are growing so rapidly.

Researchers in the Canadian study found children who were breast-fed up to 36 months and did not take supplements were more likely to develop vitamin D deficiency even though they had started eating solid foods.

Sometimes vitamin D levels are low or insufficient but not in the extremely low range that can cause rickets, cautions Mayo Clinic pediatrician Dr. Phil Fischer, who is not part of the research. This new study shows vitamin D levels are higher in supplemented children after the first year of life, but it is not clear there is any clinical significance to these variations in vitamin D level.

Fischer recommends seeking input about vitamin D supplementation from a health care provider, noting too much of the vitamin also is bad.

We occasionally see children who are very sick due to over-supplementation with vitamin D, so parents giving supplements must be very careful to give the appropriate amount.
ANDOVER  Residents will soon be able to communicate with Andover's village government on a web page.

Mayor Dave Crippen said hes been working with Bi-State Regional Commission on the project. He said the web page could have cost $2,033 to get started, but Bi-State will reduce the price to $1,000 because the village pays membership dues to Bi-State.

The mayor said the page should be up and running by May 1. Trustees will have email accounts, which will be separate from their private e-mail addresses. He also said periodic software upgrades could run roughly $60 and there would be an annual cost of $160 per year, but as the village wants to put a picture on the page or other changes, Bi-State will help. He said the nonprofit is also offering to come to Andover and train trustees on how to work with the web site.

Trustees approved the web page in a voice vote.

Trustees also voted to demolish a house at 234 4th St., which has been bought by a tax purchaser. The mayor noted such companies perform a service by updating the tax rolls, then are paid through attorneys fees and surcharges. There will be a lien of roughly $7,000 to $10,000 on the property, but the village wont be repaid ahead of the tax purchaser.

In all fairness to the property owners next to it, we need to do something, said the mayor.

The board also:

 Noted the village will host an Easter egg hunt March 19

 Approved a community-wide garage sale May 6 and 7 and village clean-up day May 13.

 Learned Cambridge, Kewanee and Lynn Center will join Andover scheduling activities for More Fun on 81 this June.
MONROEVILLE, Ala. (AP)  Famously private in life, "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee is keeping her secrets even in death.

Monroe County Probate Judge Greg Norris signed an order last week to seal Lee's will from public view, according to court records available Monday. Lawyers for Lee's personal representative and attorney, Tonja Carter, had asked for the will to remain private and Lee's heirs and relatives agreed to the request, according to the court filing.

"As the Court is no doubt aware, Ms. Lee highly valued her privacy," the lawyers wrote. "She did not wish for her private financial affairs to be matters of public discussion. Ms. Lee left a considerable legacy for the public in her published works; it is not the public's business what private legacy she left for the beneficiaries of her will."

Carter represented Lee for several years and once practiced law with the writer's sister, Alice Lee.

In a two-page order issued a week ago Monday, Norris wrote that he agreed there was a threat of public intrusion and harassment for Lee's heirs. They and Lee's next of kin have a right to inspect the contents of the will and accompanying file, but no one else does, he wrote. The order indicated that Norris held a hearing on the motion.

The judge ordered that a label be put on the file stating, "UNDER SEAL: DO NOT ALLOW PUBLIC INSPECTION."

Norris on Monday said the town was happy to keep the privacy of its most famous citizen. Norris said the publication of Lee's second book, "Go set a Watchmen" last year sparked a barrage of accusations and claims, many of them aimed at Carter.

"I would hate for her family to go through any of that," Norris said.

The will will go through the normal probate process, Norris said. A notice will be put in the newspaper with a six-month window for people to make claims.

Lee grew up in the southwest Alabama town of Monroeville, which she partly used as inspiration for the setting of her classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" and a second book published last year, "Go Set a Watchman."

After spending decades mostly in New York, Lee lived the final years of her life at an assisted-living facility not far from the old courthouse that served as a model for the set in the movie version of "Mockingbird."

Lee died in her sleep on Feb. 19. She was 89. She was buried the next day in a modest, private funeral service attended only by her closest relatives and friends.

While they may not have been able to get near the famous author while she lived, fans left small tributes at her gravesite in the Lee family burial plot beside Monroeville First United Methodist Church.

More than two dozen small pebbles had been placed on the Lee family headstone. A fresh carnation was tucked beside the wilting spray of red and white funeral flowers and someone had drawn hearts and messages in the sandy dirt atop her grave.

"Scout I misses you," was written in the dirt.
Monday's ruling refused to set aside the $848,690 jury award in U.S. District Court against the university in a lawsuit filed by former graduate student Tina Varlesi, who contended she was the target of discrimination during a social work internship at the Salvation Army that led to her being denied the chance to graduate. Varlesi has previously settled with the Salvation Army, which also was named in her lawsuit.

"There's just a complete arrogance by (Wayne State)," Deborah Gordon, Varlesi's attorney, told the Detroit Free Press. "They pay a lot of lip service to the law and not tolerating any discrimination, but at the end of the day, it's hollow. Now the taxpayers have to foot the bill."

Wayne State spokesman Matt Lockwood said the university was disappointed in the ruling and was in the process of reviewing the opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

Varlesi enrolled at Wayne State in the fall of 2006, seeking a master's degree in social work. She got excellent grades, court records say. In her second and final year, Wayne State required Varlesi and other social workers students to have field experience. She was originally placed at a Veteran's Administration Hospital, but left that placement in middle of the year and was placed at the Salvation Army, where she worked with men dealing with substance abuse issues.

Varlesi had become pregnant earlier that year. Her fiance had also left her.

When she got the Salvation Army internship, her supervisor, a female, "addressed her obvious pregnancy immediately, ordering her not to drive after dark or in bad weather, questioning her marital status and living arrangements and announcing that though she had 'had relations' with someone, the men at the rehab 'can look but they cannot touch,'" the court ruling said. Other students were present for this "uncomfortable conversation."

The issues grew, including having her supervisor not being a licensed social worker, something Wayne State's policies forbid.

The supervisor also continued to comment on Varlesi's pregnancy. Varlesi filed a complaint with Wayne State and at a meeting about it, the supervisor said she had told Varlesi "repeatedly to stop 'rubbing her belly' and to wear looser clothing, and said that the men at the facility were being 'turned on by her pregnancy.'"

The Wayne State administrators in the meeting told Varlesi she should wear looser clothing.

In April 2008, Varlesi was given a failing grade in the internship. That prevented her from fulfilling the requirements for graduation. Varlesi complained about the grade and filed a formal complaint with Wayne State. The university denied the claim, saying the School of Social Work already had investigated. However, social work school Dean Phyllis Vroom admitted during the trial that there had not been an investigation.

Wayne State filed an appeal based on a number of legal claims, all of which were denied by the Court of Appeals.

"Tina lost a whole career," Gordon said. "They (Wayne State) didn't care about the discrimination. They let it happen. They backed up (those who were discriminating) and assured Tina couldn't graduate."
The new law requires at least 10 out of 12 jurors recommend execution for it to be carried out. Florida previously required that a majority of jurors recommend the death sentence. The law was found unconstitutional in January because jurors served an advisory role while judges had the final say in death penalty cases.

"It is my solemn duty to uphold the laws of Florida and my foremost concern is always for the victims and their loved ones. I hope this legislation will allow families of these horrific crimes to get the closure they deserve," Scott said in a statement released by his office.

The law took effect as soon as Scott signed the bill. While judges can lower a death sentence recommendation to life in some circumstances, they will not be able to impose a death penalty without at least a 10-2 jury decision.

Death penalty opponents said the law is an improvement, but doesn't completely fix the state's death penalty. Florida is one of only three states that don't require a unanimous jury decision in favor of execution.

"We're glad that after years of work, the unreliable and unacceptable system by which a person could be sentenced to death when five out of twelve jurors disagreed is coming to an end," Baylor Johnson, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, remarked in an email. "But make no mistake: the legislature still hasn't solved the problem of Florida's broken death penalty system. Hopefully it won't take the next inevitable court ruling for them to finish that work."

Even Republican Sen. Greg Evers, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and who worked with House counterparts to get the legislation passed, said the new law would have been better if it required a unanimous jury decision before a prisoner could be condemned. He expects the law will be challenged.

"I would have felt more comfortable had it been unanimous," Evers said. "I feel like we've got a good death penalty bill. I feel like it will hold up in court until some judge, somewhere, decides not."

The legislation doesn't address the 389 death row inmates who were sentenced under the old law. The state Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether the U.S. Supreme Court ruling should apply to those prisoners.

The new law also requires prosecutors to spell out, before a murder trial begins, the reasons why a death sentence should be imposed, and requires the jury to decide unanimously if there is at least one reason, or aggravating factor, that justifies it.

Mark Schlakman, the senior program director of Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, praised that aspect of the law, though he also questioned whether the lack of a unanimous jury decision on the actual sentence would ultimately doom the law.

"The Legislature perpetuated Florida's outlier status as one of only three states among 32 remaining death penalty states in the U.S. that currently requires less than unanimity for such purposes, which leaves the door open for related challenges moving forward," he said.
Press release submitted by United Way QC

Quad Cities Honored by Campaign for Grade-Level Reading for Early Literacy Work

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a nation-wide collaborative effort to increase reading proficiency among children in low-income families, awarded the Quad Cities with Pacesetter Honors for the second year. The Quad Cities is one of 38 communities recognized for leading by example to solve challenges that can undermine early literacy, including school readiness, school attendance, and summer learning loss.

United Way of the Quad Cities Area, in partnership with local non-profit organizations and school districts, has funded several Grade-Level Reading initiatives.

School Readiness

 Since its inception in 2013, United Ways Preschool Capacity Expansion program has helped 250 local children attend preschool.

 Focused on the fact that a childs first, best teacher is a parent, United Ways new Born Learning initiative helps ensure all kids are ready to succeed in kindergarten. Born Learning launched in September 2015 and includes several strategies such as Born Learning Academies, Born Learning Trails, and a calendar and text campaign with tips for parents to turn everyday moments into fun, learning opportunities.

School Attendance

 United Way funded initiatives at nine local elementary schools to reduce the number of students who miss more than 10% of the school year.

 A promotional campaign focused on School Attendance Matters helped spread the message that school attendance affects the entire community.

Summer Learning Loss

 For the fifth year, funding was provided for the Youth Enrichment Initiative. Last year, this program served 450 low-income children, 95% of whom showed no learning loss whatsoever, and 26% of whom actually showed summer learning gains.

Pacesetter Honors are among the highest awards presented by the Campaign, said Ralph Smith, the managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. We are very proud of the Quad Cities and the numerous organizations and individuals behind them for joining forces and working tirelessly to uplift children and families. They remind us that we are seeing great progress and real results all across the country."

We are proud to once again be named a Pacesetter community by the Campaign for Grade-Level Learning, said Scott Crane, President of United Way of the Quad Cities Area. More importantly, we are pleased that through collaboration and partnership we are moving the needle on early literacy challenges in our community. We know that when a child is prepared for success in school, our community is better.

Pacesetter Honors have been awarded to communities and partners in the Campaign network since 2012. View the complete list of honorees. This year, 38 Pacesetter communities will be honored at an annual awards luncheon during the Campaigns 2016 Funder-to-Funder Huddle in Washington, D.C., on April 7. Each Pacesetter will receive a certificate and special recognition banner to showcase their award throughout their communities.

About United Way of the Quad Cities Area

We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, and when people have good health. United Way of the Quad Cities Area focuses on Education, Income and Health  the building blocks for a good quality of life. LIVE UNITED. unitedwayqc.org

About the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading

Launched in May 2010, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a collaborative effort of funders, nonprofit partners, business leaders, government agencies, states, and communities across the nation to ensure that many more children from low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizenship. By 2020, the Campaign aims to increase by at least 100 percent the number of children from low-income families reading proficiently by the end of third grade in 12 states or more. Since its launch, the Campaign has grown to include more than 240 communities, representing 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with 2,100 local organizations (including 130 United Ways and 250 state and local funders). To learn more, visit gradelevelreading.net
Press release submitted by Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency

Teacher Job Fair

The Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency and Regional Office of Education is hosting its Teacher Job Fair on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, at the iWireless Center in Moline from 2 to 5 p.m.. The purpose of the Teacher Job Fair is to bring school districts looking for teachers together with teachers looking for jobs.

All prospective and current teachers and administrators are invited to attend the Teacher Job Fair. This event will be an opportunity to talk to school district representatives from Illinois and Iowa at no charge. Please bring copies of your resume. Licensure information for Iowa/Illinois will be available.

To register for this event, go to www.mbaea.org and click on the Teacher Job Fair rotating banner. For questions, contact Dawn Meier at 563-344-6411 or dmeier@mbaea.org.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea on Monday issued its latest belligerent threat, warning of an indiscriminate "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" on Washington and Seoul, this time in reaction to the start of huge U.S.-South Korean military drills.

Such threats have been a staple of young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since he took power after his dictator father's death in December 2011. But they spike especially when Washington and Seoul stage what they call annual defensive springtime war games. Pyongyang says the drills, which started Monday and run through the end of April, are invasion rehearsals.

The North's powerful National Defense Commission threatened strikes against targets in the South, U.S. bases in the Pacific and the U.S. mainland, saying its enemies "are working with bloodshot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights" of North Korea.

"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the North's statement said.

Responding to the North's threat, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said Monday that North Korea must refrain from a "rash act that brings destruction upon itself."

In Washington, State Department John Kirby said the U.S. takes the North Korean threats seriously. He called on Pyongyang to cease provocative rhetoric and behavior.

"There would not be as compelling a reason to prepare for alliance capabilities," Kirby told a news briefing, "if Pyongyang wasn't so intent on raising the stakes on the peninsula" and decreasing any sense of security and stability there.

This year's war games will be the largest ever staged, involving 300,000 South Korean and 17,000 U.S. troops. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing military sources, reported that the allies will work on drills for precision attacks on North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war.

A pre-emptive large-scale military strike that would end the authoritarian rule of the Kim dynasty is highly unlikely. There is also considerable outside debate about whether North Korea is even capable of the kind of "strikes" it threatens. The North makes progress with each new nuclear test  it staged its fourth in January  but many experts say its arsenal may consist only of still-crude nuclear bombs; there's uncertainty about whether they've mastered the miniaturization process needed to mount bombs on long-range missiles and widespread doubt about whether they have a reliable missile that could deliver such a bomb to the U.S. mainland.

But North Korea's bellicose rhetoric raises unease in Seoul and its U.S. ally, not least because of the huge number of troops and weaponry facing off along the world's most heavily armed border, which is an hour's drive from the South Korean capital of Seoul and its 10 million residents.

The rival Koreas' usual animosity occasionally erupts in bloody skirmishes  50 South Koreans were killed in attacks in 2010 that Seoul blames on the North  and there is always a worry about an escalation of violence.

Always ragged relations between North Korea and its rivals Seoul and Washington have worsened following North Korea's nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket test last month that outsiders say was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The United Nations recently slapped the North with harsh sanctions, and South Korea has taken a harder than usual line, with a new North Korean human rights law and the president in Seoul warning of a collapsed government in Pyongyang. South Korea says it will announce new unilateral sanctions Tuesday.

Similar nuclear threats by the North were made in 2013, around the time of the springtime military drills, after the U.N. sanctioned the North over a nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Analysts say one part of North Korea's traditional anger over the drills is that they force the impoverished country to respond with its own costly war games.
Another Palestinian was shot dead after attacking Israeli security forces with a knife in the Old City, and a third was shot and killed after stabbing an Israeli in the central city of Petah Tikvah, according to police.

The attacks, the latest in a five-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, came shortly before U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was due to arrive as part of a regional tour.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the Palestinian who carried out the shooting in Jerusalem fled the scene and was pursued by police. He said the attacker continued firing at police until he was shot and killed.

Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman in her 50s tried to stab Israeli security forces in Jerusalem's Old City before being shot dead. No Israelis were wounded in that attack. In Petah Tikvah, a Palestinian followed an Israeli into a drinks store and stabbed him in the neck before being shot and killed.

The attacks occurred shortly before Biden was set to touch down in Israel on a two-day visit where he will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

In recent months Palestinian attacks, mainly stabbings, have killed 28 Israelis. At least 174 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during that time. Most of them were identified by Israel as attackers, with the rest were killed in clashes with security forces.

Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule over the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel says the unrest is fueled by Palestinian incitement.

Also Tuesday, Israeli security forces sealed shut the West Bank home of a Palestinian who killed an Israeli border policeman in a November car-ramming attack in the West Bank. Israel says home sealing and demolitions are an effective tool to deter attacks. Critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
His comments came amid violence in Syria that claimed the lives of over a dozen people. Warplanes bombed an opposition-held town in northern Syria, killing at least 12 people, monitoring groups said, and insurgents shelled a predominantly Kurdish neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo.

Riad Hijab, head of the Higher Negotiations Committee, acknowledged in a teleconference with journalists that Russian bombardment has decreased following the partial cease-fire, which came into effect Feb. 27.

Yet he added that President Bashar Assad's government has not released any detainees and said the flow of aid to besieged rebel-held areas was too small. These were among the main preconditions for the opposition to attend the indirect peace talks. The most recent round collapsed last month as the Syrian government launched a new ground offensive.

Hijab said that while the Russian airstrikes have become less frequent, the Syrian government has continued to attack rebels. "The Russians and the Iranians have caused catastrophic humanitarian situation that are killing Syrians," Hijab said.

Russia and Iran have been the primary backers of Assad's government since the country's conflict began five years ago. The war has killed 250,000 people and displaced half the country's population.

U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has said peace talks will resume on Wednesday.

Pressed on whether the HNC will participate in the negotiations, Hijab said a decision will be taken "in the coming days. Before the end of the week."

Hijab told journalists that the opposition would not allow Assad to take any role in the 18-month transitional period envisaged in the U.N. roadmap. He also said that they would not accept Assad being permitted to run in future presidential elections.

He said that Assad and top officials in his government "should be tried by international tribunals."

The cease-fire, which was sponsored by Russia and the U.S., does not include the al-Qaida's branch in Syria known as the Nusra Front and the Islamic State group.

Hijab also said that "unfortunately" all Russian airstrikes had been targeting moderate rebels.

Meanwhile, Russia has said it is aiming to step up humanitarian aid to Syria's war-battered people by opening up its military facilities in Syria for international aid cargos.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Russia "is ready to provide all necessary help to international and foreign organizations in the delivery of humanitarian aid."

He said this assistance will include allowing the unloading and temporary storage of aid cargos at the Russian naval base in Tartus, as well as receiving and storing aid at the air base in Hemeimeem.

Konashenkov said Russia is also ready to provide vehicles to help deliver cargos from Tartus and Hemeimeem to Syrian regions in need.
BRUSSELS (AP)  European Union leaders tussled with Turkey over how to control the flow of asylum-seekers from the Middle East in a diplomatic tug-of-war Monday that left the fate of thousands of refugees seeking a way to safety people fleeing war hanging in the balance.

Daylong negotiations between the 28-nation bloc and Turkey edged toward midnight with both sides seeking more as part of any new agreement. Turkey, home to 2.75 million refugees chiefly from neighboring Syria, surprised EU counterparts by demanding a doubling of funding beyond the 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) already pledged.

Turkey insisted that any agreement would require Europe to advance Turkey's long-delayed hope of joining the bloc. As an additional step, Turkey said it expects EU nations to ease its visa restrictions on Turkish citizens within months.

"Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davatoglu told reporters in Brussels.

"Our objective is to rescue the lives of the refugees (and) to fight against human smugglers," he said.

For its part, the EU sought to gain stronger commitments from Turkey to take back refugees who have reached European shores and ease a crisis that has left an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 souls encamped in the wintry cold on the Greece-Macedonia border.

"To stop refugees arriving in Greece, we have to cooperate with Turkey," French President Francois Hollande said.

In a draft statement prepared for the talks, seen by The Associated Press, the leaders said they were seeking an agreement to return to Turkey any newcomers who could not qualify for legal refugee protection.

The draft statement said the EU and Turkey would pursue "comprehensive, large scale and fast track returns to Turkey of all irregular migrants not in need of international protection."

But Davutoglu upped the ante Monday, calling for another 3 billion euros in EU aid for Turkish-based refugees by 2018 on top of the 3 billion already pledged to arrive by 2017. The aid would be designed to improve the quality of life in their often crowded, squalid camps.

In Ankara, the Turkish capital, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of failing to provide enough of the already pledged funds. He also criticized Europe for refusing to accept asylum seekers more readily, linking that policy to needless deaths as thousands opt to cross illegally by sea from the Turkish coast to offshore Greek islands.

"We are not sending them. They are going by sea and many of them are dying. We have rescued close to 100,000 from the sea," Erdogan said in a speech.

Turkey is seeking a new EU commitment to take Syrians and other high-percentage refugee applicants via safe travel routes, such as at the land border between Turkey and Greece, to reduce drowning deaths in the Aegean Sea.

Overshadowing the summit diplomacy is Turkey's questionable human rights record. On Friday, Turkish police stormed the headquarters of an anti-government newspaper to enforce a court order placing the paper and its sister outlets under new management. Police spent the weekend using tear gas and water cannons to quell street protests.

Hollande said that EU cooperation with Turkey should not be interpreted as European acceptance of Turkish rights restrictions. "The press must be free everywhere, including in Turkey," he said.

Of immediate concern was the plight of people stuck at Greece's northern border with non-EU member Macedonia, which for the past year has been one of the most popular routes for asylum seekers to reach central Europe via the Balkans. Hundreds of thousands of people have used the route in recent months to try to reach Germany, Sweden and other preferred destinations.

Macedonia now has effectively sealed off that route, a position backed by Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary. Cash-strapped Greece has struggled to cope with the rapid buildup of humanity.

Those camped on the border vowed Monday to press on into Europe, regardless of what diplomats decide in Brussels.

"Whatever it takes, we will go. We have nothing to go back to. Our homes are destroyed," said Lasgeen Hassan, a Syrian Kurd who hopes to reunite with relatives already in Germany.
King Cutkomp, 75, passed to the next life on March 4, 2016, after a long and courageous battle with COPD. King astonished his doctors by living for many years longer than expected because he truly loved life and those around him. He did not want to leave despite battling for every breath for many years. When he knew it was time, he passed away after saying his goodbyes to his family and friends. King maintained his positive outlook and great sense of humor all the way to the end. He will be missed.

Funeral services will be Friday at 11 a.m. at Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, Rock Island. Visitation will be Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home. Burial will be at Rock Island Memorial Park Cemetery.

King was born Dec. 17, 1940, to Margaret (Brandle) and King Cutkomp Sr., in Rock Island, where King lived his entire 75 years. King may be remembered most for his empathy and praise for others, as well as his love of family, country and God. He always made other people feel good about themselves. He was a sensitive man but could be tough when needed. King learned traditional values as a child from the influences of his parents and grandparents. His father was a World War II veteran who was a strict disciplinarian and worked King hard with chores that left little time for play. His grandmother was a traveling evangelist who taught King Christian values.

King was married to two wonderful women during his life. He married Melody Schuldt shortly after graduating from Rock Island High School. The two started their young adult life together in 1958 with literally $10 between them. They had one son, Michael King Cutkomp (1963). They divorced 10 years later and remained friends later in life. Melody helped care for King in his final years. King married Cindy Black in 1970. They were married for 25 years and had a wonderful family life with two sons, Matthew Dean Cutkomp (1974) and Christopher John Cutkomp (1979), and a daughter, Jennifer Elizabeth, who passed away as a baby.

King was a very successful self-employed businessman because he was honest, hard working and loved talking to people. As a 17-year-old boy, he became owner and operator of King Produce Company shortly after graduating from high school when his father moved to Salt Lake City to open a new business. The business was his lifelong passion where he worked hard, supported his family and saved money for his retirement years. The phrase that may best describe his success in business is "where there is a will there is a way." He overcame many obstacles in a very competitive business through his work ethic, self-reliance and never making excuses. For 30 years, he worked very long hours and rarely took a day off or a vacation but instead made the tremendous mental, physical and family sacrifices that many self-employed people make to survive. During those years, he also plowed snow every winter and cut grass in the evenings to supplement his income. King's sons continue to own and operate the family business that is now named King Food Service Inc.

King retired from business in 1989 and lived a long and happy 26-year retirement. He was able to relax and enjoy life that he was never able to do as a child or as a working adult. His retirement hobbies included spending time with his sons, grandchildren, friends, writing a book and becoming an artist. He enjoyed traveling, seeing the mountains, playing his harmonica, watching Fox News and photography, where he had a deep appreciation for nature. King's art, photographs and some of his legacy can be seen at his website, artbyking.com. Those who want to know more about King are encouraged to visit his website. Another notable achievement is that King testified in front of Congress and worked to change federal laws to prevent unconstitutional government seizure of personal property.

King was blessed to spend his final years with his best friend, Gini McCall. Gini and King spent many days and evenings together visiting, watching movies and traveling to see local attractions. Gini's kindness and sacrifices helping King in his final years and months made the end of King's life special and prolonged his life and happiness. She will always be a member of the family.

King was able to strike up a conversation with anyone and make lots of friends. Part of his likeability was his sense of humor, including his ability to make fun of himself. When others would question whether they heard his unusual first name correctly, he would joke "yes, as in King Kong." He would frequently joke about his short 5-foot-5-inch stature by calling himself "the German pigmy."

King is survived by Gini; his three sons; two daughters-in-law, Carol, Jennifer; three grandchildren, Jeffrey, Daniel and Kaitlyn; two great-grandchildren, Callie, Aria; and many, many friends too lengthy to list here.

Memorials may be made to East Moline Christian School. The family wishes to thank Hospice Compassus and Dr. Zabner for the wonderful and loving care they provided.

Online condolences may be left for the family at wheelanpressly.com.
Meng Brings NASA Astronaut To Queens On October 17, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) brought NASA astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim to Queens where he met and spoke with students at Francis...

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The Australian has reported that a new deal for Kyle and Jackie O to remain at ARNs KIIS may be close.

The report says despite reporting by other media outlets that a return to Southern Cross Austereos 2DayFM may be a possibility, radio giants Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson will re-sign with KIIS 1065 within the next few weeks.

Asked to comment, APN News & Media Chief Ciaran Davis declined to comment, but told (The Australians) Diary: Were happy with them, and theyre happy with us.

Kyle & Jackie Os current deal is believed to end this December, and unless contract discussions stall it would appear likely that the duo will remain on KIIS Sydney Breakfast.

Kyle Sandilands Manager Andrew Hawkins was unavailable for comment, and Jackie Hendersons Management Company Connected declined to comment.

Recently the Sydney Morning Herald suggested SCA have considered breaking the super duo up, offering Jackie O a role back at her old network SCA and 2Dayfm. Kyle and Jackie O currently lead the FM breakfast ratings with 10.1%.

The next round of survey results are released this morning.
The biggest problems facing the startup of Kansas Citys modern streetcar line are illegally parked automobiles and errant drivers, Lynn Horsley reports in the March 6, 2016 edition of The Kansas City Star. This is a problem that several streetcar systems have been dealing with, she notes. We repost the article here:

The biggest roadblock to Kansas Citys streetcar success may be exactly thatcars blocking the road and the streetcars rail path. Nearly every day as the new Downtown street cars have been out on test runs, cars have been illegally parked too close to the rails, sometimes forcing the street car to stop. Its led to delays, tickets, tows and even a minor fender-bender. Other cities with streetcars have some words of wisdom: It gets better.

Like with any new project, theres a little bit of a learning curve, said Dan Bower, executive director with Portland Streetcar, which has had a modern streetcar system for 15 years. Its solvable. Its not an insurmountable problem. Bower says when he talks to other cities about streetcars, the question of how to integrate them into mixed traffic has come up more than anything else.

Its a constant issue of educating new visitors, tourists, delivery vehicles and others to the city, but over time people grow accustomed to the system. Kansas City Street Car Authority spokeswoman Donna Mandelbaum said the authority is working hard to give the public its best advice for smooth traffic operations with the streetcar. She said people are definitely becoming more aware of the new rules and warnings.

Now if they disregard it, thats a whole other issue, she said. When the Kansas City Street Car was being operated on its route Monday, Feb., 22, 2016, for operator training, it was forced to stop because of an illegally parked car. Bower didnt have Portlands accident data from 15 years ago but said the number of accidents dropped from 47 in 2014 to 30 in 2015.

We operate 75,000 hours per year. Thirty collisions is not very many, he said. Of those 30, most were caused by an errant motorist or an improperly parked car. Three involved a streetcar striking a parked vehicle and four involved a streetcar rear-ending a vehicle. Bower said the system spends a lot of time training operators on how to avoid hitting parked cars, adds extra signage and striping to make no-parking zones clear, and tows cars as quickly as possible when they do block the tracks. He said the Portland streetcar system has not had any deaths or serious injuries in its 15 years.

However, that doesnt mean everything always goes smoothly. In late February, the streetcar had a 45-minute delay when thieves who stole a car abandoned it on a two-lane bridge, blocking the track and shutting down the entire bridge. The system kept the public informed about the problem via Twitter and eventually the car was towed.

Seattle officials said that when they opened their first phase, the South Lake Union line in 2007, they too had problems with cars poorly parallel-parked. There were several collisions after the start-up. All of them were the fault of a motor vehicle operator, typically for failing to obey a traffic light or stop sign, said Rick Sheridan, communications director with the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Sheridan said the system didnt have as many problems with its newest phase, the First Hill Street Car, which opened in January, because it worked closely with police on enforcement before the line opened publicly.

We placed temporary signage on streets and put leaflets on parked cars prior to service beginning to alert drivers to the need to park appropriately, Sheridan said.

In Washington, D.C., streetcars have been involved in nine fender benders since testing began in October 2014. The Atlanta streetcar system had a similar number in 2015, its first year of operation, and in most cases the other driver was at fault. According to the Federal Transit Administration, most cities with streetcars had no accidents or just a handful in 2015.

While illegally parked cars and fender benders can cause minor delays and inconvenience, some encounters between streetcars and traffic in other cities have been scarier.

In Charlotte, N.C., in July 2015, a streetcar operator failed to properly engage [the brakes] less than a week after the system made its public debut. The streetcar rolled out of control for roughly half a mile and struck an SUV, terrifying passengers and causing two minor injuries.

In Salt Lake City in August 2015, a streetcar and an Audi collided, killing two people. In that instance, officials said the Audi ran a stop sign and crashed into the streetcar.

Jeff Boothe, who since 2004 has headed the Community Streetcar Coalition, an advocacy group, said minor accidents are not uncommon when streetcar systems are in testing and start-up phases. Public education, signage and streetscape design improvements can alleviate trouble spots. You have to train the public about good parking behavior, he said. People have to respect the (streetcar) vehicle. You cant play tag with the vehicle.

Kansas City parking woes

Kansas City streetcars have been tested on the 2.2-mile downtown route from River Market to Union Station since mid-November, and for the most part it has gone smoothly. A public grand opening is set for May 6.

But on many safety training trips, the streetcar has had to stop at least briefly for cars parked too close to the tracks, with mirrors or tires over the white border line that runs parallel to the tracks. Signs along the route warn motorists that parking past the white line is prohibited, but they are small and mixed with other signs.

Weve got sign clutter, I wont deny it, said Kansas City Public Works Director Sherri McIntyre, acknowledging there are many signs along the streetcar route, and motorists may not always notice them. She said the city is talking about ways to make signage as helpful and noticeable as possible.

On Tuesday afternoon, streetcar No. 801 struck a Mercedes parked too far past the white line, close to the tracks just south of 20th and Main streets. According to the police report, the driver said he had to run into a shop for a short time. The southbound streetcars right side hit and damaged the cars left side about 1:30 p.m.

The motorist could not be reached for comment, and [contract operator] Herzog Transit Services would not make the operator available for comment about how the accident occurred. But streetcar authority officials have noted that it takes a while for the 78,000-pound vehicle to come to a stop, even after the operator engages the brake.

The Mercedes was moved to a nearby parking lot where the owner changed a flat tire. Police said the vehicle was parked about three feet from the curb, in the streetcar lane and in violation of city ordinance that requires cars to be within 12 inches of the curb. The driver was ticketed.

The white line in that area wasnt solid, and public works officials acknowledged it had been partly scraped off. They said it will be repainted, as will other faint spots along the route. The streetcar had only cosmetic damage and was back out testing the next day.

While this accident didnt result in significant damage, the streetcar authority and city have a shared insurance program for streetcar operations and city-owned streetcar assets. If the streetcar is at fault and causes damage, claims will be reviewed by the city law department.

Mandelbaum said operator training is being adjusted and enhanced in light of the incident, and the authority is working to incorporate new information from the streetcars interactions with cars. Streetcar authority officials and volunteers go out almost daily to put fliers on poorly parked cars, telling them about the new rules needed to prevent unwanted encounters with the streetcar. Enforcement is key. Police wrote nine parking tickets related to the streetcar in February and have ordered a handful of tows, but the number wasnt available.

The streetcar operators try to locate owners of cars blocking the street car before ordering a tow. But the city has a contract with a towing company and will summon one if necessary. Its got a guaranteed response time of 15 minutes but most often shows up in less than eight minutes so far.

The streetcar authority has also used local media, plus its website and Twitter, @kcstreetcar, to educate motorists.

Some businesses still grumble that the white line parking barrier is too close to the curb. Its horrible, said Mary Harmon, manager at Cascones Grill on East Fifth Street, right on the streetcar loop in River Market. Ive argued with them from day one, with my big mouth. Cascones lost several on-street parking spots to make way for a streetcar platform. Other spaces near the restaurant on the south side of Fifth Street are marked for compact cars only.

Harmon said several customers have had cars ticketed or towed, and they expect the restaurant to take care of it. She hopes the streetcar will bring more business in the long run.

Mandelbaum responded that the space for cars on the north side of Fifth Street is wide enough for a school bus, and nearby surface lots provide many more spaces. Harmon countered that its not enough and shed like to see another nearby parking garage.

At a City Council meeting, Councilwoman Katheryn Shields said she too thought the white line space was too narrow in spots. She said she was riding in an SUV recently that had to park partly on the sidewalk and fold mirrors in, and the streetcar passed within a whiskers breadth.

They didnt fit, responded Public Works Director Sherri McIntyre. Thats illegally parked. McIntyre said most white line areas on the route have sufficient space for an average full-sized truck, and theres plenty of room on side streets or in parking garages for larger vehicles. Boothe predicted that over time, Kansas Citys issues will dissipate, saying, Youre just going through some growing pains.

Mandelbaum agreed and said the streetcar safety testing and operator training are providing valuable lessons learned. She said the city and authority will continue to monitor and modify route areas where changes are warranted, and the public is invited to share its insights. Its OK, she said. We need that feedback so we can see how everything is working, and if there need to be adjustments.
No matter what Congress decides to do with President Obama's latest attempt to close Guantanamo Bay prison, there should be agreement that the existing legal process is fundamentally flawed and the best way to fix it is to replace the military judges now assigned to the Guantanamo trials with federal judgeswhether the trials proceed at Guantanamo or in the United States.

This shift to federal judges would expedite the process of resolving the Guantanamo cases in ways that would reflect better on the credibility and legitimacy of the U.S. justice system, while serving the interests of Congress, the president, survivors and victims' families.

That is the conclusion reached recently by the Pacific Council on International Policy's GTMO Task Force, of which we are members. The task force consists of 17 attorneys and policy specialists, the majority of whom have traveled to Guantanamo as official civilian observers.

We observed the proceedings at different times, but we shared persistent concerns that the legal conundrum the United States has constructed at Guantanamo will haunt it into the future.

We left Guantanamo with the impression that many decent, dedicated and professional military personnel have been deployed to serve in a court system that is itself nearly beyond rehabilitation. Shifting to federal judges offers the best and most politically feasible hope for rectifying the damage that's been done at Guantanamo since the military tribunals, known as the Guantanamo commissions, opened 14 years ago in the anxious aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Why would it make a difference to replace the military judges with federal judges? Two reasons.

First, almost everyone agrees that the Guantanamo commissions are broken. Their inefficiency, expense and ambiguity over something as basic as a trial date have undermined their legitimacy and America's credibility on the world stage.

Regardless of one's political views, it is hard to deny that the on-again, off-again pursuit of justice, for at best a week or two every other month, serves nobody's interests, neither in deciding guilt, nor in doling out punishment, nor in affirming the integrity of the U.S. legal system.

Second, U.S. district judgesassigned full-time to Guantanamowould apply standard case-management techniques that could go a long way toward clearing the logistical and procedural hurdles that have stymied the military judges since 2002.

Many federal judges are versed in the protocols for reviewing classified evidence and have already presided over high-profile terrorism trials in their own courts. Experienced federal judges would be better positioned than military judges to evaluate the millions of pieces of classified information that have mired the Guantanamo cases in years-long discovery disputes.

Because they are civilians, the federal judges would also deflect perceptions of improper command influence, and their lifetime appointments would shield them from political interference.

Federal judges could adjudicate the Guantanamo trials either at Guantanamo (if Congress rejects Obama's plan) or on U.S. soil (if Congress accepts his plan).

There is historical precedent for appointing federal judges to preside over courts for special purposes abroad. President Eisenhower created one such court in Germany after World War IIthe United States Court for Berlin.

This precedent also shows that the federal judiciary is empowered to apply an external body of lawthen it was German law; now it would be U.S. military lawin a jurisdiction outside the judge's own. For the Guantanamo trials, federal judges would simply be empowered to apply military commission law.

To make this happen would require an amendment to the Military Commissions Act of 2009 ( PDF ), which says that a military judge shall be detailed to each military commission. The amendment would say that a U.S. district judge shall be detailed to each military commission.

Such an amendment would require congressional approval but would not require the closure of Guantanamo. If anything, the amendment would put in place the jurists who could best advance the will of Congress to prosecute suspects in a timely fashion.

It would also require approval from the U.S. Supreme Court chief justice or his designee, but any U.S. Supreme Court justice would presumably have faith in the resolve of U.S. federal judges to bring the Guantanamo cases to just conclusions.

To further equip federal judges to advance the interests of justice at Guantanamo, the Pacific Council task force proposes four additional steps:

Allow the federal judges at Guantanamo to use modern technology. There is no reason every pretrial motion involving a Guantanamo detainee should have to be heard in person, as is now the case. Stateside lawyers, witnesses and interpreters should be able to participate in routine pretrial matters and attorney-client communications via secure video conference. A secure transoceanic connection, consisting of an underwater fiber-optic cable from Florida to Guantanamo, is scheduled to become active any day now.

Make commonsense use of timelines. The Guantanamo commissions should require each federal judge to set the earliest possible dates for trials to begin. This requirement is not imposed on military judges.

Allow the survivors of attacks and the families of deceased victims to testify even before trials begin, capturing a record of the human losses for the court to consider if and when sentencing occurs. Knowing that their testimony will endure for posterity can lend comfort to the survivors and families who now wonder if justice will ever be served.

Practice a policy of openness. The Guantanamo proceedings should be made available for broadcast or Internet streaming to promote public engagement, demystify a process mired in misunderstanding and articulate for the world how the military commissions advance American values and interests.

As recent atrocities involving the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) suggest, the 9/11 attacks are unlikely to be the last time the U.S. government will feel compelled to take extraordinary legal action under emergency conditions.

It is one thing to be a nation of laws in peacetime. It is quite another to uphold laws in times of peril. It is at those latter times when America defines its true brand of justice. Putting federal judges in charge of the Guantanamo commissions would help Americans regain pride in the U.S. justice system.

K. Jack Riley is vice president and director of the National Security Research Division at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. Jerrold D. Green is president and CEO of the Pacific Council on International Policy. And Richard B. Goetz, a partner at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, and Michelle Kezirian, a director of litigation and policy advocacy at a public-interest law firm, are co-chairs of the Pacific Council on International Policy's GTMO Task Force.

This commentary originally appeared on Newsweek on March 7, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
For Release Monday

March 7, 2016

Retail clinics, seen as a convenient and cost-saving alternative to physician offices and hospital emergency departments, may actually drive up medical spending by creating demand for new medical services, according to a new study.

Examining people who visited retail clinics for low-severity illnesses such as urinary tract infections and sinusitis, researchers found that in most cases people would have stayed home and not sought medical care if the retail clinic had not been available. The convenience of retail clinics, both in terms of location and expanded hours of operation, probably makes them an attractive alternative to staying home and suffering through a minor illness, researchers say.

Prior studies have shown that spending on retail clinic visits is lower than spending on office visits and especially emergency department visits, and the new study found that some people did trim spending by visiting retail clinics instead of costlier physician offices. However, such savings were overshadowed by the increased spending on new medical care.

The study, the first to examine whether retail clinics increase use of medical services, is published in the March edition of the journal Health Affairs.

These findings suggest retail clinics do not trim medical spending, but instead may drive it up modestly because they encourage people to use more medical services, said senior author Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School and an adjunct researcher at the RAND Corporation. Retail clinics do offer benefits such as easier access to medical care, but the widely expected cost savings may not be realized.

Retail clinics are walk-up medical providers typically located in drug stores and in retail chain stores such as Target and Wal-Mart. Care most often is provided by nurse practitioners rather than by physicians.

First appearing in 2000, there are now nearly 2,000 retail clinics across the United States and they receive more than 6 million patient visits annually. Visits to retail clinics are less expensive than visits to physician offices or emergency departments, both because charges are lower for the visit and fewer tests are performed.

Researchers from RAND, Harvard and other institutions assessed whether visits to retail clinics for low-intensity conditions represented substitution for higher-cost care or new use of medical services by examining information about a large group of people enrolled in health plans offered by a private health insurer in 22 U.S. cities in 2010 to 2012.

The analysis focused on visits for 11 low-acuity conditions that account for more than 60 percent of all visits to retail clinics. The health insurer covered retail clinic visits during the study period, with copayments for retail clinics that were similar to copays for visits to physician offices.

Researchers compared the experiences of 519,542 enrollees with at least one retail clinic visit with a random sample of 861,557 other enrollees who did not receive care at a retail clinic. Analyzing patterns of medical service use between the two groups allowed the study to determine whether retail clinic visits for low-acuity conditions represented substitutions or a new use of medical care.

Researchers estimated that 42 percent of the visits to retail clinics for low-acuity ailments represented substitution for a visit to a physician office or emergency department, with 58 percent representing new use of medical services.

Each use of retail clinics for new medical services increased per person spending by an average of $35 per year. That was partly offset by $21 in savings among those people whose visit to a retail clinic substituted for higher-priced medical care. So the overall spending increase prompted by retail clinics was $14 per enrollee annually, according to the study.

While the overall increase was modest, it did represent a 21 percent increase in spending for low-acuity conditions.

While retail clinics do allow some users to lower their medical spending, the new use of medical services outweighed the savings from the substitution we observed among the large group of people we studied, said Scott Ashwood, the study's lead author and an associate policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

Most health insurers now cover care at retail clinics and many have created financial incentives to encourage use of the clinics, such as waiving copays for such care.

Our findings may impact the decisions of health plans as they decide whether and how to cover care at retail clinics, Mehrotra said. If the goal is to lower costs, then encouraging use of retail clinics may not be a successful strategy.

While the study challenges notions that retail clinics may help cut health costs, researchers say clinics do likely provide value by offering a source of health care for people who cannot obtain timely care from a primary care provider.

Future studies should further explore the influence of retail clinics on overall health spending, as well as how retail clinics affect the coordination of medical care, and the quality of care provided by retail clinics for chronic illnesses.

Support for the study was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Other authors of the study are Martin Gaynor of Carnegie Mellon University, Claude M. Setodji of RAND, Dr. Rachel O. Reid of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Ellerie Weber of the University of Texas School of Public Health.
As we see a surge in inflation globally, it is now critical that everyone is aware of the implications this will have along every step of the insurance and reinsurance value chain.
Summary

After 10 years in Bolivia's highest office, President Evo Morales has begun to lose his grip on power. The failure of a constitutional referendum that would have extended term limits means he will not be able to run for re-election in 2019. But even though Morales' charisma is central to his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party's popularity, the referendum vote does not give an opposition candidate the upper hand in the next presidential election. Opposition parties are still disorganized, and the country's strong ethnic and regional identities will make it difficult for their candidates to gain national traction. At the same time, internal rivalries among the ruling party's elite will complicate its quest to retain the office.

Before his term ends, Morales will work to bolster his popularity while trying to groom a successor. He will be forced to referee the power struggle among his party's leaders over who will be his chosen heir, a contest that has the potential to weaken the MAS. But no matter who wins the office in 2019, constraints on Bolivia's economy placed by falling hydrocarbon revenue will limit the next president's ability to implement the same populist policies that propelled Morales to his current status.

Analysis

From the highlands of La Paz, Morales has ruled Bolivia virtually unchallenged since 2006. The longest-serving president in Bolivian history, he has enacted policies that have left an indelible mark on Bolivian politics and set a pattern of expropriations that both the opposition and the MAS may follow.

Before Morales took office, Bolivia's political system was in chaos. From 2001 to 2005, Bolivia had five presidents and was considered one of Latin America's most politically unstable countries. When Morales started his term, surging fuel prices and inefficient public services had caused massive protests. The country's international reserves stood at only $3 billion. Morales implemented a series of policies that elevated his - and by extension, his party's - popularity. During this period, Morales expropriated foreign mining and energy-related assets, including the country's electric power sector and strategic infrastructure. These moves, along with sustained revenue from the sale of natural gas to Brazil and Argentina, invigorated Bolivia's economy and gave Morales the popularity to easily win re-election in 2009 and 2014.

Morales, a member of the Aymara ethnic group, has fashioned Bolivia according to his ethnic identity and socialist philosophy. He championed the rights of its indigenous population and improved the country's public health care and educational systems. Under his leadership, the country has experienced economic growth of about 5 percent annually and now has international reserves of about $13 billion.

However, despite his popularity Morales conceded defeat Feb. 24 when 51.3 percent of voters rejected the referendum that would have removed the three-term limit on the office of the president. While it is difficult to deduce exactly why Morales lost, especially given Bolivia's economic strength and his continued high approval ratings, blame could rest on voter discomfort with his long authoritarian rule and a recent corruption scandal that involved Morales' former lover and a Chinese company that secured $500 million in contracts with his administration. The term-limit referendum won a majority in La Paz, Oruro and Cochabamba - majority indigenous ethnic regions - but failed in the remaining six departments, which have a mixed indigenous and mestizo populations. However, the defeat does not necessarily mean that the MAS will lose its power; opposition forces will be even more constrained before the 2019 presidential elections.

Looking Ahead to 2019

In spite of the referendum's failure, opposition forces that campaigned against it will remain hobbled for a number of reasons. Primarily, the opposition lacks cohesion and leadership. In the 2014 presidential election, for example, the strongest opposition contender, business leader Samuel Medina Doria, won less than 25 percent of the vote. Morales, meanwhile, secured more than 60 percent. Traditional Bolivian opposition figures such as Jorge Quiroga, who was president from 2001-2002, and exiled former Cochabamba governor Manfred Reyes Villa lack the popularity to coalesce support for a serious presidential run. Other key opposition figures face obstacles hampering a presidential run: Journalist Carlos Valverde, who uncovered the Morales corruption scandal, risks possible imprisonment after he sued the government over corruption charges; Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas is strongly identified with the pro-autonomy movement for his economically important department; and La Paz Mayor Luis Revilla is relatively unknown outside the city. But ultimately, the opposition's biggest problem is that it does not represent the native population, which constitutes the majority of the country. The major opposition figures are mestizos, who will have a difficult time cultivating support among ethnic Aymara and Quechan populations.
This article first appeared in Caixin.

BEIJING - China has always been clear about its "firm opposition" to North Korea's development of a nuclear weapons program. But as the international community's negotiation over the issue has stalled, Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear technology. It is a provocation that leaves China little room for diplomatic maneuver.

China has carried out a notable strategic readjustment on this matter in recent days, led by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi citing three non-negotiables vis-a-vis North Korea, and working with the Americans to push through a new United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions.

The unanimous approval by the UN Security Council on March 2 included unprecedented sanctions in the fields of finance, trade and technology to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear testing. The UN resolution also stresses that if Pyongyang conducts any more atomic tests or ballistic missile launches, it will "take further significant measures."

This Sino-American approach came after years of Beijing and Washington failing to agree on how North Korea should be sanctioned. The result reflects how the interests the two countries share on this issue are critical to both. As U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy R. Sherman told this newspaper in January 2015, if China makes it clear that North Korea's abandoning its nuclear program is its top priority, this will be of great help in solving the problem.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently specified China's three key points in how it will handle its policy on the Korean Peninsula: First comes the denuclearization of the peninsula, whether in the south or the north, and whether self-made or introduced deployment; second, there is no solving the problem by force, because this will lead to war and chaos, which China cannot allow; third, China's own legitimate national security interests must be effectively maintained and protected.

In a Feb. 25 speech given to an American think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Wang Yi acknowledged that the UN resolution is bound to affect the relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang, but is necessary in order to achieve the denuclearization of the peninsula. This is sending a strong message to North Korea: Denuclearization cannot be challenged.

As North Korea's biggest neighbor, one with historical ties, and as the world's second largest economy and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China indeed should assume its responsibility on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Blood brothers

Another key difference with past Pyongyang provocations is that this time, with more online communication, North Korean actions have aroused a lot more discussion among the Chinese public. The seismic effects triggered by the nuclear test, the cracking of a school playground, as well as the pollution the test may have caused along the Chinese border, are all causing an unprecedented questioning of the Sino-North Korean relationship among Chinese.

China used to call its relation with North Korea a "friendship sealed in blood." But this bilateral relationship had already undergone a major shift in 1992, when China established diplomatic relations with South Korea. Meanwhile as Beijing normalizes relations with countries with different ideologies and political systems, and moves towards the center of the international stage, it has inevitably drifted further away from its historical alliance with North Korea.

Over the past two decades, every time North Korea conducted a nuclear test or a ballistic launch, the two countries' relations deteriorated. In the era of Kim Jong-il, such new lows didn't have much impact, and both sides' leaders regularly visited each other. However since his son, Kim Jong-un, has come to power, the high-level exchanges between the two have been reduced significantly.

The cooling of relations between Beijing and Pyongyang is also linked to a huge gap in social development in the two countries. China continues to move forward, assuming an expanding international role in correspondence with its strength, while North Korea stands still and adheres to "military first" Songun politics regardless of its people's livelihood. If some from the older generation of Chinese still feel sentimentally attached to the ties between the two states during the Korean War, the young generation of Chinese are much more pragmatic, and find it difficult to identify with a North Korea they see as both foolish and offensive.

Sino-North Korean relations have come to a point where they must adapt to the realities of both the international system and public opinion. Though China's support for the UN sanctions resolution was a good start, it must now show Pyongyang that it is determined to follow through. After all, the first victim of North Korean instability is China.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/07/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/07/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Ben Higgins is engaged and "happier than ever," however his fiancee has been put through the wringer as Season 20 unfolds on TV.After Higgins' finale filmed in Jamaica and he proposed to either Joelle "JoJo" Fletcher or Lauren Bushnell , real life began. For starters, Higgins had to warn his new fiancee that he told another woman he flat out loved her as well."I put her through hell and back," Higgins told Us Weekly backstage at The Women Tell All taping on Saturday.Higgins' behavior on left him with some explaining to do. Reports also circulated he had sex with three women during his round of Fantasy Suites dates."I've had tough conversations," Higgins confessed. "It was a lot for her to take in."However, the software salesman from Denver, CO, insisted his relationship is doing just fine."We continue to move forward because we continue to communicate," Higgins said. "She's been supportive and loving, and ultimately we're going to get through it. We have gotten through it."It probably helps that the winner isn't obsessing over every episode of that airs on ABC. Higgins revealed it's sort of a defense mechanism for either the sweet flight attendant or the down-to-earth real estate developer."[My fiancee] has seen a lot, but not a ton," Higgins told Us of the show. "There's moments where it's like, 'That sucks,' and of course it does."Higgins' decision to tell his two finalists he loved them resulted in one devastated and confused bachelorette. His two love admissions are also clearly hard on the woman he gave his final rose and an engagement ring to. But despite all that, the Bachelor wouldn't take anything back."You can go back and regret things, but it put me in a place now where I'm very happy," Higgins noted.
A top city official has declared Shanghai's property market as overheated amid the rising home prices.

As per Bloomberg's report, Communist Party chief, Han Zheng, said, "An irrational and overheated sentiment have emerged in the Shanghai real estate market, and these sentiments have raised home prices."

The statement was made during last Sunday's annual legislative meetings in Beijing. In line with the overheating in Shanghai, Han said the property market needs to be more controlled and so the regulations in the city will be strengthened by introducing measures that are "scientific as housing is a specialty commodity."

Top-tier cities in the China - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- saw home prices rise, while other major cities experienced lower prices, according to Nikkei Asian Review. In Shanghai, prices of new homes rose 21.4 percent in January, its fastest pace since 2013. Shenzhen recorded the highest gain in home prices with an eye-watering 52.7 percent while in Beijing, house prices climbed 11.3 percent.

These increases resulted in panic buying. Reports say homebuyers had to fall in line outside offices of real estate agents to a point that police had to be called in to clear the roads. In Shenzhen, 90 percent of homes are sold immediately after being listed, with buyers seemingly ignoring important details of the properties such as layout before making a purchase. Consequently, mortgage rates rose to an average of 9,000 yuan ($1,381) per month, Nikkei Asian Review said.

These events in the property market prompted city officials to issue briefings and calm the demand in hopes to prevent a housing bubble. Plans include increasing the supply of houses, making stricter regulations and curbing price increases.

Additionally, other regions in the country experiencing the opposite situation from the top-tier cities are also placing strategies to drive demand, bolster home prices and reduce inventory.
At first glance, athletes who have suffered concussions may not appear physically injured, said Dr. Julianne Schmidt, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at University of Georgia.
A Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge mobile phone is displayed during a preview of Samsung's flagship store, Samsung 837, in New York's Meatpacking District, Monday, Feb 22, 2016. Samsung is opening what it calls a "technology playground" in New York for customers to check out its latest gadgets. The center opens Tuesday, the day Samsung starts taking orders for its upcoming Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP)  Apple and Samsung phones, which have been looking more and more alike over the past few years, are much closer to virtual twins with Samsung's latest Galaxy S7.

The convergence began two years ago when iPhones got larger, mimicking Samsung's once-innovative, plus-sized "phablets." Last spring, Samsung started emphasizing higher quality materials and sophisticated design, just as Apple had for years. And last fall, Apple boosted the resolution on the iPhone camera, narrowing one of the major gaps it had with Samsung.

With the S7, Samsung is lowering its camera's resolution  you read that right  to match the iPhone's 12 megapixels.

To be sure, there are key differences. Only the latest iPhones have special features you activate by pressing harder on an icon or link, while Samsung is among the biggest boosters of virtual reality.

It's too early to say which phone is better. Though Samsung announced the S7 on Sunday at a wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, the phone isn't coming out until March 11. My hands-on time has been limited to controlled settings.

And for most users it may end up being a draw  Samsung leads the pack among Android phones, while Apple has its own self-contained ecosystem, iOS. For many, a choice between the two could come down to preference for one system or another  and the apps available for each.

For now, here's how Apple and Samsung phones stack up:

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CAMERA

For both, the rear cameras are now at 12 megapixels  up from 8 for iPhones and down from 18 for Samsung. That doesn't mean Samsung photos are getting worse, though.

In making the change, Samsung adopted the iPhone's 4-by-3 dimension, ditching the widescreen format it had long used. Widescreen produces vertical shots that are awkwardly tall, such that I've had to crop them to 4-by-3 anyway. The 6 megapixel reduction is equivalent to chopping off the excess.

The front cameras are both at 5 megapixels, after Apple boosted its resolution in the iPhone last fall. Apple also turned the screen into a flash for selfies. Samsung, ever the fast follower, is now doing the same with the S7.

Samsung is promising improvements in low-light shots, borrowing techniques from full-bodied, SLR cameras, though it'll require extensive tests to see how well the camera performs. Even with last year's models, Samsung cameras tend to produce brighter night shots than the iPhone. But I've also seen more distortion when those shots are blown up. We'll see if that's been fixed with the S7.

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SIZE

Samsung's 5.1-inch Galaxy S7 is slightly larger and heavier than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s, but not much so. There's a premium version of the S7 called the S7 Edge; both sides curve like a waterfall, such that the screen flows over the side to the back of the phone. The Edge screen is 5.5 inches, but much of that comes from the curvature. The phone itself is taller, but just a tad wider and heavier.

Compared with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus, though, the S7 Edge is smaller.

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EXTRAS

Neither the iPhone nor the S7 phone lets you replace the battery with a spare. But the S7 does let you add storage. And the base model is 32 gigabytes, double what the iPhone offers for starters.

Unlike the iPhone, the S7 is waterproof. There's no need to keep USB and other ports sealed, as past waterproof phones did. The S7 also offers wireless charging; you simply lay the phone flat on a charging base. However, wireless charging is typically slower than plugging in a USB charger.

Apple and Samsung both let you unlock phones with your fingerprint rather than a passcode. And both let you make payments with a tap at some retail stores. The Samsung Pay service works with a greater range of merchants, but with credit cards from fewer banks and in fewer countries for now than Apple Pay.

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SHORTCUTS

The latest iPhones and the S7 Edge have shortcuts to common tasks, such as taking selfies. With the iPhone, you hard press on an app icon. With the Edge, you swipe from the right edge. That swipe also gets you headlines, frequent contacts and favorite apps.

Apple lets third-party app makers create their own shortcuts, while Samsung does not.

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THE SCREEN

One remaining difference is the screen technology. While the iPhone and most other phones use LCD screens, Samsung uses AMOLED, for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes. Colors are more vivid, though sometimes unnatural. Individual pixels produce their own light, and no energy is needed to light pixels that are black. LCDs require blacklighting, which uses energy regardless.

In practice, Samsung is able to offer an always-on mode in the S7, constantly displaying a clock, notifications and other highlights when the phone is locked. Because most of the screen is dark, the screen sips rather than drains power in this mode  at least in theory.

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VIRTUAL REALITY

Samsung is ahead of Apple, though it faces competition from other Android manufacturers, including LG.

Samsung already has its own VR headset, while LG is coming out with one. They won't work with each other's phones or any other Android phone. Both companies will soon sell 360-degree cameras for taking VR video. Apps on the phone will ease sharing with friends and viewing on the VR devices.

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AVAILABILITY

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have been available since September. There has been speculation that Apple is coming out with a smaller model soon, but it's not expected to have all of the advanced features found in the 6S phones.

Advance orders for the S7 phones started this week. March 11 is the release date in the U.S. and several other markets.


SHARE A Southern Pacific supervisor assesses the derailment of a tanker car into the Sacramento River July 14, 1991. Within minutes of the accident, the toxic herbicide in the car was moving down the river, killing all life between the spill and Lake Shasta.

By Dylan Darling

On a July night in 1991 ? 20 years ago this week ? a tanker car loaded with a toxic chemical was in the middle of a train climbing out of the Sacramento River Canyon from Dunsmuir to Mount Shasta.

Heavy locomotives and full boxcars were at the end of the 97-car Southern Pacific train, but light, empty cars flanked the tanker car.

It was a configuration destined for disaster. Like a shoestring yanked at both ends, the train snapped into a straight line as it traversed the treacherous Cantara Loop bridge, catapulting the toxic tanker car into the pristine waters of the Sacramento River.

The ensuing spill tested those who cleaned it up, left a legacy of lawsuits and led to an overhaul of the train tracks along the Upper Sacramento River. While the river has been reborn and plants along its banks since have regrown, Cantara left these lasting marks on the north state.

Ruptured in the plunge, the tanker spilled its deadly load ? more than 19,000 gallons of metam sodium, a soil fumigant that kills nematodes, fungi and weeds ? into the river. In the next week it killed every fish, crayfish, insect and all other aquatic life in a 45-mile stretch of the river from Cantara Loop to Lake Shasta.

"It was just an unbelievable scenario ? one of those nightmare-type events," said Robert Crandall, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The spill is still considered the worst inland ecological disaster in the state, and while the fishery in the river has returned, the spill wrought other lasting changes.

Learning as they went

Response to the spill included more than 60 agencies, working out of dual command posts in Siskiyou and Shasta counties, said Scott Zaitz, an environmental scientist with the Water Quality Control Board. Bound by the mission of rescuing the river, none of those involved in the cleanup had ever dealt with anything like it.

Chemists crafted metam sodium to turn into toxic gas when put into a farmer's field.

"They knew everything about it in soil because that was its natural use," Zaitz said.

They didn't know what it would do in water.

Then a scientist for Shasta County Environmental Health, Zaitz teamed with his counterpart George Day from the Water Quality Control Board to sample water along the Sacramento River in the weeks after the spill.

The first day the river's water killed much of the life that it once cradled as the chemical coursed through it. Shasta County sheriff's deputies tacked up warning signs over boat ramps along the world class fishing corridor "Don't touch the water."

Along the river fish loaded onto the shoreline or crammed into tributaries, trying to swim away from the choking cloud.

"So many that you could walk across the backs of the fish to go up there," Zaitz said.

The spill killed more than 1.1 million fish, most of them ? some 749,000 ? were rifle sculpin, rugged rock lovers that grow to about 4 inches, said Mark Stopher, environmental program manager at the state Department of Fish and Game's Redding office. Second hardest hit were the river's signature fish, rainbow trout. Stopher said the spill killed nearly 310,000 trout, or more than 8,000 per river mile. The rest of fish killed in the spill were bass, suckers and squawfish.

After the toxic blob moved into Lake Shasta the following week, Southern Pacific turned to an experimental technique of pumping air into the contaminated water, as well as spraying the water skyward using tanker trucks on barges. The exposure to air hastened the decay of the chemical.

The efforts blocked what biologists had feared would be an expanded dead zone deep into Lake Shasta. The focus then moved to restoring the long-stretch of the Sacramento River decimated by the spill.

State biologists decided to let the river mostly heal itself, waiting four years until resuming trout stocking programs along the stretch, said Mike Berry, a senior DFG environmental scientist. He said they did so because the ecosystem had to grow from the bottom up before the trout could again take hold. If they'd been stocked earlier, they would have been stuck in the river starving.

"It would be like running off (all the wildlife) on the African plains and putting the lions back in before zebras and everything else (returned)," he said.

Now the river is revived, Stopher said.

"I don't think you can tell a difference between now and July 14, 1991," he said.

Humans harmed as well

Along with the ecological devastation wrought by the chemical spill, Cantara caused lasting health problems for the railroad workers, others who helped clean it up and Sacramento River Canyon residents.

Three years after the spill the state, Southern Pacific and other companies involved with the tanker car agreed to a $38 million settlement. In the settlement, Southern Pacific paid $30 million; GATX, the tanker's owner, $5 million; AMVAC, the chemical's maker, $2 million; and J.M. Huber, which leased the tanker, $1 million.

While part of the settlement covered claims by the railroad workers and other first responders to the spill, residents in affected river towns filed separate lawsuits. In all there were about 1,500 personal injury claims, said Don Arbitblit, an attorney the Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein law office in San Francisco.

He said adults were paid $1,000 to $100,000 each about three years after the spill.

"The overall payment varied on the severity of the injury," Arbitblit said.

A toxic cloud of gas rose up from the tainted river after the spill, he said, causing nose, throat and eye ailments.

In February 2010 another wave of money came to the children of the first responders as a piece of the settlement locked away until the youngest reached age 18, Arbitblit said. The 767 beneficiaries of the Minors' Medical Benefits Trust Fund divided $1 million, with each receiving a check for $1,300.

Those payments were likely the last of Cantara's legacy, Arbitblit said.

Changes to the tracks

The chemical spill wasn't the first time that a train car tumbled off the tracks at Cantara Loop. In 1976 a car loaded with Ivory Soap and other sundries flew into the river in a derailment eerily similar to the chemical spill, said Day, the senior water resources control engineer for the Water Quality Control Board. But since the chemical disaster there's been an effort to make it the last.

Union Pacific acquired Southern Pacific in 1996 and poured more than $10 million into improvements along the tracks passing through the Sacramento River Canyon.

The company replaced wooden rail ties with concrete ties; regraded the loop and changed how trains operate in the canyon, said Aaron Hunt, railroad spokesman. Union Pacific shrunk the length of trains traveling along the canyon, reduced their speed and upgraded the locomotives pulling the trains. The locomotives are now spread throughout each train.

The most noticeable change to Cantara Loop is a massive guardrail, beefy enough to stop a locomotive from falling into the river.

"Hopefully that barrier will never have to be tested," Hunt said.
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By Ryan Sabalow

Indian experts, local historians and members of the Pit River Tribe say to understand the mistrust some might have toward authorities in the wake of a fatal police shooting of a tribe member last month, one must first look at the tribe's tragic and bloody history.

The federally recognized tribe is made up of 11 bands, whose ancestors were seminomadic hunters, gatherers and fishermen. They lived primarily near Mt. Lassen and the Pit River watershed in eastern Shasta County as well as in parts of Siskiyou, Lassen and Modoc counties.

In Shasta County, the two main groups were the Ajumawi, who lived in and around the Fall River Valley, and the Atsuegewi, who lived primarily in the Hat Creek area.

Historians say the name "pit" may have derived from the way early European settlers saw the bands digging traps to catch game.

Before Europeans came to colonize the area, the tribes often were victims of slaving raids from the fierce Klamath and Modoc tribes from the north. Like many Indians, they were devastated by diseases early Spanish and American explorers inadvertently carried with them, according to historians.

By the time of the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, when thousands of gold-hungry settlers moved east to California, diseases already had decimated the tribe. That didn't stop some from fighting back, often with devastating consequences.

"Whenever the Indians did something, the whites came after them fivefold," said Dottie Smith, a Shasta County historian. "In the very beginning, they never had a chance."

Smith described one such attack in the Fall River Valley in a column published this summer in the Record Searchlight. In 1855, a group of settlers moved to the valley. The following year, they attempted to build a ferry crossing on the Pit River. The tribe's warriors attacked, killing two men, dismembering and mutilating their bodies.

The whites responded by gathering dozens for an armed militia.

"The massacre started as soon as they arrived in the valley," Smith wrote, citing historical documents. "Every village they found was attacked. At one village, over 100 Indian people were killed by rifle, pistols and knives. They were left lying heaped together about their lodges."

In later raids, whites bragged about taking scalps and cutting off tribe members' ears as trophies, Smith wrote. Later, whites used strychnine to poison flour left out for starving Indians to eat.

Whites also stole Indian children and gave them to white families, Smith said. Most of tribe members who were left were forced onto reservations.

Historians like Smith estimate there were some 3,000 Ajumawi alone in 1800. By 1936, there were just 500.

It was similar elsewhere on Pit River lands, said Cindy La Marr, director of the Sacramento-based Capitol Area Indian Resources, Inc. La Marr is a Pit River Indian from the Susanville area who shares Paiute ancestry.

She said a UC Berkeley anthropologist traveled to Pit River lands in the early 1920s and stayed with her grandfather's family.

The anthropologist wrote of tribe members describing white people heading to church on Sunday and then going out to kill Indians.

"Pit Rivers brought in $5 a head," La Marr said. "That was quite a bit back then."

La Marr said the men who weren't killed lost what self-value they had, and they had to rely on the federal government for rations to keep their families alive.

She said languages and traditions were outlawed or beaten out of children.

"My grandmother recalled that as a child she saw the first white people come into the area," La Marr said. "They were fearful because they knew it meant death. This is not ancient history."

The lingering animosity between the tribe and the whites boiled over in the late 1960s and early 1970s, during a national movement in which Indians across the country tried to reclaim their ancestral lands.

The most famous of the national protests began on Nov. 20, 1969, when a group of Indians occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco for nearly two years.

In an effort to reclaim 3.4 million acres of ancestral land, the Pit River tribe members followed suit and began holding occupations of their own, including on Pacific Gas and Electric property near Big Bend and on U.S. Forest Service land near Burney.

In 1970, about 100 Indians, including men, women and children, occupied a piece of forest land near the "four-corners" intersection of highways 299 and 89, five miles east of Burney.

Although the Indians claimed the land was theirs, the U.S. Forest Service held legal ownership of the site.

The Indians built a Quonset hut on site and told authorities, they'd "have to be killed" if authorities went to tear it down, according to news reports from the time.

On Oct. 27, 1970, 52 armed officers, including federal agents, state troopers and sheriff's deputies, converged on the site with more than 50 Forest Service personnel, many of whom carried crowbars.

The authorities claimed they were there to arrest people on warrants charging them with illegal timber cutting and to demand the Indians tear down the hut, but he Indians said later in trial testimony the force was sent with one mission: to "break the back" of the tribe's effort to reclaim their lands.

News reports describe an all-out melee when authorities began tearing down the hut and wrestling with the Indians who tried to stop them.

Indians, both men and women, fought with bare fists, tree limbs and planks of lumber. Officers and sheriff's deputies swung billy clubs and sprayed mace.

In the end, more than two dozen Indians were arrested, but only one, who pleaded guilty to a lesser assault charge, actually served any sort of a sentence for the alleged assaults on officers.

The rest had their charges dismissed or were acquitted after a nearly two-month federal trial.

"At Four Corners, the Indian people felt they gained a little bit of ground," said Beverly Benner Ogle, a 70-year-old Indian historian from Paynes Creek, who traces part of her lineage to the Atsugewi.

There were other, less-violent occupations, confrontations and arrests in the few years that followed.

"It was a statement to the federal government that Pit River people had never agreed to the taking of ancestral lands," La Marr said. "This was a big statement and caught the eyes of the nation. This was a tribe who stood up for what it believed in and could not be bought."

The tribe's lawyers also fought in court in failed bids to sue to reclaim their ancestral lands.

The tribe lingered largely in poverty over the following decades.

Then, in the mid-1990s, the tribe followed the lead of dozens of other California Indian groups and built a small casino outside Burney.

Construction started in 1996.

Before the groundbreaking, the casino was billed by tribal leaders as a way to bring much-needed revenue to the Indians and to the Burney area.

The tribe's official website has just one item on it under the "history" section, an online video news clip from 1970 showing a tribal lawyer describing to a reporter why the tribe decided to take over PG&E property.

"It has always been their land," he says.
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight

Allan Johnson, center, is congratulated by Leslie DuBose, bottom left, as Johnson's wife, Pat Johnson, left, watches, on Monday at the Northern California Veterans Home in Redding. Allan Johnson was awarded medals for his service in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was a P.O.W. during the war.

SHARE Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Al Johnson, a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps and P.O.W. in World War II, was awarded medals Monday at the Northern California Veterans Home in Redding. Jim Schultz/Record Searchlight A photo showing Al Johnson when he served in the Army Air Corps was displayed during Monday's ceremony. Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Al Johnson, a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps and P.O.W. in World War II, poses for a picture with his wife, Pat Johnson, and daughter, Pam Garnett, both of Chico, on Monday, after Allan Johnson was awarded medals at the Northern California Veterans Home in Redding. Jim Schultz/Record Searchlight Among memorabilia on display during Monday's medal ceremony was this telegram reporting Al Johnson had been listed missing in action.

By Jim Schultz of the Redding Record Searchlight

A 92-year-old Redding man who spent almost a year as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II finally got the military medals he so richly deserved during a ceremony Monday at the Veterans Home of California in Redding.

Although Al Johnson already had some of the medals, including a Purple Heart that had been mailed to his mother many years ago, he got a new one, as well as a slew of others, for his service.

With Patricia, his wife of 67 years, proudly looking on with their daughter, Pam, and her husband, Rick, Johnson was lauded for his courage and for his dedication and perseverance he showed to survive his POW ordeal.

"He's truly an inspiration to all of us," said Molly Watson, the VA home's veterans service officer, who presented the medals to him. "This is the best part of my job - one of the best parts of my job."

Among the medals presented to Johnson were the Prisoner of War medal, the Air Medal, the American Campaign medal, the European-African-Middle East campaign medal and the World War II Victory medal.

Johnson, a U.S. Army Air Corps technical sergeant born and raised in the Marysville area and had been living at the Redding VA home for almost two years, served on a B-24 as a turret gunner-engineer during World War II.

But his bomber, which flew over Normandy during the D-Day invasion in June 1944, was shot down later that month during a mission over Berlin, Germany.

Johnson said five of his 10-member crew were killed when his bomber went down after coming under enemy fire.

Severely wounded by shrapnel, Johnson came to the aid of the bomber's co-pilot, fastening his parachute and helping him jump before it crashed, according to a short biography of his service.

That co-pilot, however, did not survive.

Johnson was quickly captured by German soldiers after he had parachuted from the plane. He spent 11 months in 11 separate camps and hospitals, surviving a bayonet wound by a guard, before being liberated by Russian troops in May 1945.

In addition to the medals, Johnson has an extensive and impressive collection of personal war memorabilia that was put on display Monday, including photographs, a journal he kept as a POW and the telegram sent by the War Department to his mother telling her that he was missing in action in Germany.

But Johnson, a modest man who prefers to keep out of the limelight, was a little overwhelmed by all the attention bestowed on him at the ceremony.

"I think it's too much, too much," he said modestly.
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Photographer Nigel Skeet, shown in his studio in Redding, took his Homeless Rock Stars program to Santa Rosa this past year and will head to Boulder, Colorado in 2016.

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By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

Homeles Rock Stars, a mentor program that pairs professionals with the homeless, is headed to Shasta High School.

Nigel Skeet, the Redding photographer and program founder, said he and a team of volunteers have made arrangements with school administrators to put on an outreach event Friday.

More than 50 students have signed up to attend the youth event, which provides each model hair styling, a photo session and "innerview" carried out by a community leader.

"The whole purpose of this event is to find out who they are, find out what they want to do with their lives and to remind them that their living situation should not get in the way of their hopes and dreams," Skeet said.

Skeet promoted the event heavily on Facebook. He has recruited about 80 participants - half who agreed to do the interviews with the students.

The event is closed to the public, and all volunteers will need to sign in with school administration. School counselors also will be accompanying the event and any follow-up will be handled through counselors, Skeet said.

Skeet said he got the idea to do the event after talking with Redding Councilwoman Kristen Schreder about the number of Shasta Union High School District students who had identified themselves as being homeless.

During 2014-15, 103 kindergarten through high school students were reported homeless in 11 programs and schools under the district, according to the Shasta County Office of Education. Included are Enterprise, Foothill and Shasta high schools.

Countywide, the Office of Education reported 736 students were homeless as defined by the federal McKinney-Vento Act, said Heidi Brahms, director of youth services.

Unlike the definition used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the education definition is broader in that it includes children and youths living doubled up with family or friends.

Lisa Jeter, one of the lead organizers of the Rock Star events, said any student who shows up on Friday will find out they have the support of many.

"There are people who are willing to help them make good decisions long-term," she said.

Skeet said Homeless Rock Starts has partnered with Shasta Family YMCA for the event. Also, he tried to build suspense saying there will be special guests who will Skype from Canada, Hollywood and Ukraine.

"One is on tour," he hinted.

Jeter spoke of getting at root problems, changing mindsets and breaking the cycles of homelessness.

"When you look at root causes and how do you fix problems," she said, children are like our roots. "That's where we fix problems. It's not the end-all solution, but it's definitely a good start."
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Artist Douglas Van Howd spent years crafting a statue of former President Ronald Reagan, his friend. Nancy Reagan wanted to make sure every detail of the statue was just right.

The former first lady supplied Van Howd with tracings of the governor's shoes so he could accurately sculpt them, and photos of his wardrobe, down to the cuff links and tie tack he wore as governor. Such attention - thoughtful, loving and fierce in its mission to guard the memory of her husband - was perhaps her signature trait.

In this, the adoring and protective wife of President Ronald Reagan set a standard for all first ladies who followed. Mrs. Reagan, who died Sunday in Los Angeles at age 94, leaves a legacy of style and grace, and iron-willed loyalty.

Hers was the face of a generation that prized civility in high office, a trait too often absent from public discourse. Hers, too, was the face of a generation of women who saw their role as auxiliary, but nonetheless crucial, helpmates to more powerful husbands.

Call it old-fashioned, but her style persists today in the way Americans view the role of their first lady. Not since Jackie Kennedy had a presidential spouse had such impact on the way American women view their place in, and obligations to, society.

Nancy Reagan showed political wives how to dress, entertain, influence and even how to gaze at their husbands. After her, the "Reagan red" suit became a signature look for Republican women.

Though, at the time, she was criticized for the sway she held over her affable husband, she set the bar for first ladies to come and influenced him on issues small and historic.

She encouraged Reagan, for example, to engage in arms-reduction negotiations with the Soviet leader at the time, Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan's work to end the Cold War would become his greatest legacy.

Other accomplishments were more mixed. In the White House, she was a national voice on drug abuse. Though her "just say no" campaign would be mocked as simplistic, it remains an iconic statement of principle. She came around, four years after AIDS began ravaging gay men, to become an advocate for AIDS research after the disease claimed the life of the Reagans' friend, Rock Hudson.

Some people remember that initial reticence; 20,000 people had died of AIDS by the time the epidemic gained the attention of the White House. Two weeks ago, when the California Legislature considered a resolution commemorating Reagan's birth, Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, asked that the resolution be removed from the consent calendar. He and five other senators voted against it. It's easy to forget the difference between then and now.

With time and age, her advocacy became more effective and focused. Back in California, she agitated for research into Alzheimer's disease, the scourge that claimed the life of her beloved Ronnie. Her mission was such that she broke with President George W. Bush by advocating for research into stem cell therapy, providing an important voice for what in the middle 2000s was controversial research.

In Sacramento, she is famous for refusing to live in the Governor's Mansion, which she viewed as a "firetrap." Instead, during Ronald Reagan's tenure as governor, they leased a home in the Fabulous Forties while money was raised for a second "mansion," though Reagan was out of office by the time it was built.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who succeeded Reagan, declined to live in the residence, preferring an apartment across from the Capitol. He recently moved back to the refurbished mansion, where his family lived when Pat Brown was governor. Times change, and priorities change, too.

One thing that stood fast was Nancy Reagan's will to make history see her husband as she saw him. A twin of the bronze statue of Gov. Reagan, unveiled in the Capitol last year with shoelaces and cuff links in perfect order, soon will go on display at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, where Mrs. Reagan will be buried, alongside the love of her life and her legacy.

The Sacramento Bee
Jason M. Peterson is a popular Chicago Instagrammer with more than 719,000 followers on Instagram. (Jason M. Peterson photo)

Don Draper spent silent hours thinking on his iconic sofa, drink in hand. Jason M. Peterson, chief creative officer of Havas Worldwide, spends hours alone as wellbut you're as likely to find him on a rooftop as in his Chicago office.

And instead of an old fashioned, you'll find him wielding his iPhone.

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If he spies an alley with a perfect shaft of light shining down, "I'll sit there and I'll wait ... right for that person to walk through," he said. "Boom, I got it."

His creative efforts on Instagram have netted him 719,000 followers and personal fees for promoting brands in his stream of dramatic, black-and-white shots of city life and architecture. In his advertising career, his personal use of social media has fueled pitches to major clients.

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Peterson joined the platform about four years ago, after moving from New York to join Havas, whose clients include Coca-Cola, Virgin Mobile and Sony PlayStation, and committing himself to becoming better at social media than anyone in his field.

Shoutouts from celebrity fans such as skateboarder Tony Hawk and exclusive opportunities such as shooting A$AP Rocky from onstage during Lollapalooza last year boosted his presence. Now, his sizable followinghe has more fans than some of the products he features, but less than half as many as Marnie the Dogand ability to curate an image give him a boost in the boardroom as well.

"I'm talking about it through practice," Peterson said. "I know how all these things work."

Peterson said he sees social media as a partyand he's not about to be the guy yelling about how great he is. He prefers to be cool and engaging, and he hopes others will like what he has to show off.

In between cityscapes shot from helicopters and rooftops and isolated figures captured midleap at the Grant Park Skate Plaza, Peterson includes paid endorsements for brands such as the Volvo XC90 and Perrier.

He tells clients, "Let me show you how to show up at this party and have a conversation."

At Havas, Peterson oversees creative for brands including Reynolds consumer products and Dos Equis beer, whose "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign spawned a popular meme.

He taps into his staff, many of whom have large social media followings of their own, to launch or support campaigns from time to time.

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Peterson's last 12 hires have been "kids off of Instagram and Vine and Snapchat that are really great at it," he said. He finds them by running social media contests to hire interns, 80 percent of whom he brings on as employees.

Those interns create so-called "insta-content"thousands of smaller-scale posts and videosfor brands such as Craftsman and Kmart, Peterson said.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

"That work is the most important work in our agency," Peterson said. "Not like the TV commercials and bigger kind of stuff we've done. That's the dying age of our industry."

A creative team stacked with social media naturals could be a competitive advantage, said Derek Rucker, who teaches advertising strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

In Peterson's case, brands might consider his social media endorsements or behavior before signing with his agency, looking for conflicts or red flags, Rucker said. But they're likely to look more at his overall portfolio and success.

"He's basically living the media, as opposed to being someone who's using it," Rucker said. "That might be providing him his own expertise in and of itself."

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Peterson said he sees his social media work and Havas' work as one and the same.

"You can think about it like, 'Hey, you do all this other stuff. That's your side hustle,'" Peterson said. "No, no, no. This is my hustle."

Story courtesy of Chicago Tribune's Blue Sky Innovation.
A malort cocktail tasting at Villains, a pizza burger at 25 Degrees and more things to do in Chicago on Tuesday, March 8.

EAT

30 Days of Pizza

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25 Degrees

2015 W. Division St. 312-763-9600

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Buy a pizza burger made with roasted tomato, crispy prosciutto, burrata and pesto ($13) and an Old Style beer and you'll get a souvenir pizza-shaped plate and be entered in a raffle awarding tickets to the sold-out Pizza Summit on April 3 at Chop Shop. 6-9 p.m. No cover.

DRINK

Malory Madness at Villains.

Malort Madness

Villains

730 S. Clark St. 312-583-0283

Try four different $8 cocktails made with Jeppson's Malort or order a $14 flight including four-ounce pours of each of them. The best-selling drink of the night will be added to the South Loop bar's menu. 5 p.m. No cover.

Flight School

Headquarters Beercade

2833 N. Sheffield Ave. 773-665-5660

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Beer director Mike Howell will give you a crash course on brewing as you taste your way through a flight of five craft beers ($13) at the weekly event. For every flight purchased, you'll get to spin a wheel awarding gift cards, a free brewery tour, drinks and other prizes. 6 p.m. No cover.

DO

Irvine Welsh in Conversation with Jessa Crispin

Bottom Lounge

1375 W. Lake St. 312-494-9509

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The author of "Trainspotting" discusses his latest novel, "A Decent Ride," with Bookslut's founder. 7-8 p.m. $5-$12. Tickets: tickets.chicagohumanities.org

'D.O.A.' at Strawdog Theatre Company.

'D.O.A.'

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Strawdog Theatre Company

3829 N. Broadway 866-811-4111

Catch the world premiere of Elizabeth Lovelady's adaptation of Rudolph Mate's 1950 film noir about a poisoned man who has only a few hours to hunt for his own killers. 8 p.m. $15. Tickets: strawdog.org

HAPPY HOUR OF THE DAY

Deca (160 E. Pearson St. 312-573-5160) spotlights a different wine region each day by pairing a $5 glass of wine with complimentary carved meat, cheese and another small plate from 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Want to learn how to brew beer or make an excellent cocktail? Click here for classes in Chicago.
A bourbon class, National Crab Day treats and more things to do in Chicago on Wednesday, March 9.

EAT

National Crab Day



Tortoise Club



350 N. State St. 312-755-1700

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National Crab Day at Tortoise Club

The River North restaurant celebrates by offering a platter including crabmeat avocado, baked crab dip and crab cake for $15. 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.

DRINK



Bourbon Master Class



Seven Lions



130 S. Michigan Ave. 312-880-0130



Sample six types of bourbon and learn about different styles of the spirit, its history and rarity. Appetizers are included. 6-7:30 p.m. $34. Tickets: seven-lions.ticketleap.com

Improved Old Fashioned Release Party



The Dawson



730 W. Grand Ave. 312-243-8955



Try Brooklyn Brewery's Old Fashioned-inspired rye ale aged in WhistlePig rye oak barrels alongside shots of the West Town bar's Old Fashioned Drip. 6-9 p.m. $10 for the beer, $6 for the shot, $14 for the pair.

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DO

"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" (Paramount Pictures)

Second City Second Wednesdays



ArcLight Cinemas



1500 N. Clybourn Ave. 312-637-4760



Catch a screening of the classic Steve Martin and John Candy comedy "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" followed by a discussion of the film and Q&A with Second City artistic director and head writer Billy Bungeroth. 7 p.m. $14.50. Tickets: secondcity.com

Stars Align



The Whistler



2421 N. Milwaukee Ave. 773-227-3530



Quinn Tsan, Bill MacKay and Michael Golas team up for a collaborative performance at the Logan Square bar's monthly concert series. 9 p.m. No cover.

HAPPY HOUR OF THE DAY



The Hangge-Uppe (14 W. Elm St. 312-337-0561) offers $5 Maker's Mark and Jim Beam from 9-10 p.m.

Want to learn how to brew beer or make an excellent cocktail? Click here for classes in Chicago.
India is no longer shying away from playing a role on the regional and international stages and is willing to don a bigger role in regional politics. It is showing traits of a responsible stakeholder in the regional security dynamics, says Dr Rahul Mishra.

Concluding today is one of the biggest-ever multi-nation field training exercises hosted by India. The six-day long Exercise Force 18, conducted under the framework of the ASEAN defence ministers meetings plus, is being undertaken since March 2 at the Aundh military station at the headquarters of the southern command of the Indian Army at Pune. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and eight other member countries of the ADMM Plus are participants in Exercise Force 18, which is themed around Humanitarian mine action and peacekeeping operations.

The 18 in Exercise Force 18 denotes the number of participating countries: The 10 ASEAN member States (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Republic of Korea, and the US, with the participation of over 360 military personnel from these countries. The exercise has been defined as an upshot of the sustained efforts by New Delhi in bringing more synergy with ASEAN members and the other seven of the Plus Eight ADMM Plus partner countries.

The forum for ASEAN defence ministers meeting -- the ADMM Plus -- had originally planned for two separate exercises for humanitarian mine action and UN peace-keeping operations in 2016. According to official statements during the ADSOM (ASEAN defence senior officers meeting) Plus held in Malaysia in March 2015, India had offered to host these two exercises together and jointly conduct the FTX in 2016.

While the stated objective of Exercise Force 18 is to build common understanding and achieve inter-operability among the 18 ASEAN Plus countries, the joint exercise is also driven by three other objectives.

First, the exercise is aimed at improving coordination among the armed forces personnel and collective response time of the regional stakeholders in the face of transnational natural disasters and other non-traditional security challenges.

Second, it is expected that the exercise will facilitate understanding among the armed forces of the ADMM Plus countries, and help them socialise with one another. This is particularly important in view of the fact that few participant countries are still involved in territorial disputes in the region. For instance, a military standoff between the Filipino and Chinese soldiers due to differing perceptions of their shared border is a common problem faced by both the countries.

Finally, the exercise is also to gain knowledge of the best practices in HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief) operations among the participating armed forces. In essence, the exercise is a concerted joint effort towards a lasting peace and stability of the region.

The exercise has added substance to Indias Act East Policy. Indias soft as well as hard power capabilities are projected well in the exercise as India possesses one of the strongest militaries in the world.

Another important development was that despite its ongoing maritime dispute in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, China has agreed to be a part of the drill, as did the US and Russia, despite several differences. It is clear that China did not want to be left out of such a region-wide military exercise.

From a strategic perspective, the timing of the exercise is crucial. Indias relations with the ASEAN member States have already been given yet another boost with the recently concluded Delhi Dialogue-Indias annual track 1.5-level dialogue to discuss issues of mutual interests in the economic, political, cultural and strategic domains between India and the ASEAN, on February 17-18, 2016. As a part of its Act East policy, India has been actively engaging the ASEAN member States, China, and countries of Northeast Asia -- Japan and South Korea, through economic, institutional and strategic arrangements.

The Look East policy, rechristened as Act East policy by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, has successfully entered its new phase. The first phase (1991-2000) revolved around the sole purpose of enforcing institutional linkages and strengthening economic ties between India and the ASEAN. India-ASEAN trade has increased manifold since 1991 and now India is ASEANs ninth largest trading partner, whereas ASEAN is Indias fourth largest trading partner. The two-way annual trade has already reached the US$ 80 billion mark.

The Second phase (2001-2010) of the Look East policy focused on politico-strategic, institutional, and regional integration arrangements. India became a member of the East Asia Summit and the ADMM Plus and the first meeting of the ADMM Plus was convened in 2010 in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was then that India got an opportunity to further strengthen cooperation with the region in the domains of maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster management, peacekeeping operations and military medicine -- the five areas of cooperation identified in the first ADMM Plus meeting.

With its Act East Policy, India is no longer hesitant to show its benign military strength in the region, and is confidently working with the armed forces of countries across the Asia Pacific region. India has been hosting the Malabar and MILAN multi-nation exercises for more than two decades now. These exercises involve the Southeast Asian countries. The point of difference, however, is that, such exercises do not involve ASEAN as a unit but just its member countries in their individual capacities.

These recent developments have made it clear that India is no longer shying away from playing a role on the regional and international stages and is willing to don a bigger role in regional politics. India is showing traits of a responsible stakeholder in the regional security dynamics. Importantly, it will strengthen Indias relationship with ASEAN in general and individual ASEAN and ADMM Plus countries in particular.

Countries such as the US, Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines welcome Indias increased presence in the region as they perceive India as an effective counterweight against Chinas assertive postures in the South China Sea. However, it is still unlikely that China will be confronted with Indias naval presence in the disputed South China Sea.

A successful hosting of Exercise Force 18 would facilitate India in establishing itself as a credible major power in the Asia-Pacific region. It will further contribute to the increasing trust between India and the countries of the region including Japan, South Korea, China, and the ASEAN member countries among others.

Image: Multinational forces witnessing a lecture and demonstration during Exercise Force 18. Photograph: Indian Army on Twitter.

Dr Rahul Mishra is a Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi. The views expressed do not represent the views of the ICWA.
Top universities should stop taking students from UP and Bihar to make these states act against the rampant mass cheating in school exams, suggests Anjuli Bhargava.

Fifty-seven students and 14 teachers were booked for mass cheating in Uttar Pradeshs Mathura and Agra districts last week. Pictures and videos showed friends and relatives of the students scaling walls and passing chits through windows at the examination centres. Students were caught blatantly copying from each other.

According to newspaper reports, an organised network helps students write examinations in return for money. Invigilators were booked; so was the chief superintendent of a centre. On learning of the incident, the deputy district collector visited an examination centre in Mathura. How ineffective the authorities in the state are is evident from the fact that he was attacked and his vehicle was damaged as locals pelted stones.

The whole incident is a repeat of what happened in Bihar last year when photographs of mass cheating and relatives scaling high walls to help students with chits made international headlines.

Despite the worldwide ridicule, the state government failed to take stern action against the students. Although the government holds the right to debar students from taking examinations for up to three years, jailing or charging a fine, no action of this sort was taken. The government, on its part, claimed that it had expelled several students. But most suspect that the punishment was primarily on paper. If the authorities concerned had taken stern action a year ago, we might not have seen a repeat in UP.

Shifting the blame from the state to the parents, Bihars education minister expressed the states helplessness -- he was quoted as saying, What can the government do to stop cheating if the parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate? Should the government give orders to shoot them?

Shooting may be an extreme punishment, but theres no reason why the culprits should get off scot-free. I have a couple of suggestions.

Let all institutions financially supported by the central government and various other state universities refuse or place a ban on students from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar till such time that the state governments are able to get their act together and prove the sanctity of the examination system.

There is no reason why a student from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh board should be placed on an equal footing with a student from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kerala or any other state where such incidents are rarely found. On what basis can the results of the student from one of these states be treated on a par with the other state boards?

If this is the scale of cheating as has been reported, one shudders to think how much goes unnoticed or unreported. If teachers and invigilators have to be brought to book and parents and relatives are in cahoots, the problem may be more endemic than we think.

If for any reason a total ban is not a ready option, lets start with a 10 per cent penalty on the final results. So, if student scores 90 per cent marks in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, let him be treated on par with a student from other states with 80 per cent: a 10 per cent penalty for the lawlessness of the state machinery and a student and parent body that seems devoid of basic morals.

There's no reason why Delhi or any other university cannot issue a decree stating that in light of these incidents, it cannot continue to treat these students as they were treated in the past because that amounts to penalising the rest, the ones who do not employ unfair means.

This may not fully stop the menace, but it will be a powerful check since one of the main reasons students -- encouraged and abetted by parents -- cheat is that they are looking to get out of the state at any cost and study in institutions outside of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Higher education institutions in these states are pathetic, and parents and students are willing to do anything -- including cheating -- to escape them.



So to answer the minister's question, the state government can start by trying to improve the quality of its own educational institutions.
Since 55 per cent of Indian trade passes through the South China Sea, and with over $5 billion investments in the energy sector in Vietnam, it is imperative for India to actively pursue its national interests in the region, argues Srikanth Kondapalli.

IMAGE: A Chinese Coast Guard ship, in the background, is seen near a Vietnam Marine Guard ship in the South China Sea, about 130 miles off the coast of Vietnam. Photograph: Nguyen Minh/Reuters

The military balance of power is increasingly shifting towards China even though several nations have contested its claims in the region.

China is making its own preparations for militarization of the region, despite undertakings by President Xi Jinping during his visit to the United States recently.

In February 2016, according to satellite images, China deployed two batteries of 8 HQ-9 surface to air missile launchers on Woody (Yongxing) Island in the Paracels to impose its anti-access area denial strategy in the region.

China's maritime Silk Road idea is thus quickly acquiring teeth.

Dramatic events are unfolding in the region.

The United States sent the USS Lassen and the USS Curtis Wilbur in October 2015 and January 2016 respectively closer to the reefs constructed by China in the Spratlys and conducted freedom of navigation operations.

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeau visited Taiping Island in January 2016 to show that his country's position matters in the dispute.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari recently signed a defence cooperation agreement with Brunei, a contestant.

Xi Jinping, as chairman of the emergency relief mechanisms at the highest Politburo level of the Chinese Communist Party, had personally given orders for the construction activity in several reefs.

China has been following the 'quadrilateral fortress' strategy in the region of connecting the Paracels, the Spratlys, the Macclesfield Bank-Scarborough Shoals through a series of strategic, naval, air and support military measures of dominating the region.

China's military preparations in the region are comprehensive in nature and dramatic recently.

First, China began deploying over 3,000 km range solid propellant 'Guam-killer' DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles. Also, the Type 094 Jin-Class strategic nuclear submarine made maritime patrols at the end of 2015 in the western Pacific.

Second, by December 12, 2015 China deployed its latest third 052D missile destroyer the 'Hefei destroyer' (earlier the 'Kunming destroyer', and the 'Changsha destroyer') in the South China Sea for both air and submarine defence missions.

At the same time, China unveiled its largest coastal ship the GY820 at Sansha in Hainan that carry tanks, helicopters and other military equipment for support missions in the combat region.

Third, China is expanding its air cover through the air traffic control in the region with airfields and aircraft deployments.

China's runways in the region are long enough to accommodate H-6K bombers, including the 2,400 metre-long runway on the Woody (Yongxing) Island, building 3,000 metre runway on the Yongshu Reef, and another on the Subi Reef.

In November 2015, China sent eight H-6K bombers. Also, the recently signed deal with Russia on 24 Su-35 fighters could be deployed to the region.

Fourth, China is building up support facilities for long haul missions. China has also built port and shipping facilities, desalination, sewage and garbage treatment stations, hospitals, schools etc to reinforce its sovereignty claims.

The presence of large-scale fuel storage on the artificial islands suggests building of active air bases by China. China is also planning to setup a 'stopover point' at the Kota Kinabalu port in Sabah, Malaysia.

China's militarisation of the South China Sea has regional and international security ramifications given the 29 sea lanes of communications passing through the region, trillions of dollars of trade passage, potential energy or fishery resources.

China suggested initially that its efforts are peaceful in nature, but exhibited military control, thus jeopardising regional peace.

The US argued for freedom of navigation and made preparations with the regional powers, but thus far has not been effective.

The Japanese on their part have included the Philippines in the recently enacted 'collective self-defence' partnership and have also agreed to sell fast attack craft to Manila.

All the above suggest China's emergence and its military control over the region.

Since 55 per cent of Indian trade passes through this region, and with over $5 billion investments in the energy sector in Vietnam, it is imperative for India to actively pursue its national interests in the region.

During the Chola period, vast tracts of Southeast Asia came under India's influence. While jettisoning the 'historical claims,' independent India began a new engagement policy towards the region.

On the other hand, China gradually occupied the region since 1974 through military means even as it professed peaceful rhetoric.

India had recently graduated from 'Look East' to 'Act East' although no major moves were made so far.

India had stated that the sovereignty issues be resolved through bilateral and peaceful means and insisted on uninterrupted flow of trade after the INS Airavat incident in 2009. None of these convinced Beijing.

India needs to change its course in the region with a pro-active policy of winning friends and allies, evolving maritime understanding with likeminded stake-holders, exploring naval support facilities and establishing mutually beneficial long-term institutional commitments.

Srikanth Kondapalli is Professor in Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the SAARC meeting in Kathmandu, November 2014.

Pakistan is growing restive with the below the radar screen diplomacy. This is the issue Modi and Sharif will grapple with at their Washington meeting, says Rajeev Sharma.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi resumes his foreign tours this month end after his second longest-ever stay in the country.

He begins his three-nation tour with a diverse agenda: Brussels (March 30) for the India-European Union summit, Washington, DC (March 31-April 1) for the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit, and Riyadh (April 2) for his maiden bilateral visit, the first by an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia after six years.

Modi will embark on his foreign tour after a little over three months. His last foreign destination was Lahore on December 25, an impromptu visit which capped his State visits to Moscow and Kabul.

His longest uninterrupted stay in the country was between his visit to Kathmandu for the SAARC summit (November 25-27 in 2014) and his trip to the Indian Ocean island countries beginning with Seychelles (March 10-11 in 2015).

The prime minister has already conveyed to the ministry of external affairs that he will cut down on his foreign visits and will focus on domestic issues. Modi's decision stems from the Opposition's criticism of his frequent foreign travels. Moreover, he has already covered most of the key nations where a prime ministerial visit was deemed necessary.

Significantly, the most important and sensitive event of his three-leg foreign tour will have nothing to do with the ostensible reasons of his multilateral visits to Brussels and Washington and his bilateral visit to Saudi Arabia.

It will be his bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

The Modi-Sharif meeting is likely to take place on March 31.

The two prime ministers are expected to take stock of the state of bilateral relations which after the high of Modi's stunning air-dash to Lahore from Kabul on Christmas Day have taken a serious hit due to the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase a week later.

The two countries' national security advisors, Ajit Doval and Lieutenant General Nasir Khan Janjua (retd), have been in close touch since the Pathankot attack, though virtually nothing has emerged in the public domain as to what the two NSAs have been discussing.

Pakistan has been pressing India for resumption of foreign secretary-level talks in the structured format and has taken unusual steps like taking Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in 'protective custody' and lodging a case against unknown persons for the Pathankot attack to mollify India.

However, India has been unrelenting in not obliging Pakistan, saying that New Delhi will go by concrete deliverables rather than sweet-sounding words and cosmetic actions.

Besides, another unthinkable happened in the India-Pakistan bilateral context last week when the Pakistani NSA shared with his Indian counterpart real time intelligence, warning India that at least ten Pakistan-based terrorists had sneaked into India for possible high profile terror attacks.

While India promptly deployed National Security Guard commandos in Gujarat, where the Pakistani terrorists had reportedly sneaked into, and stepped up vigil at many places across the nation including in the national capital, mercifully the feared terror strike did not take place as expected on Shivratri.

India continues to be on high alert. The fear is that the terrorists may be lying low and may strike just around the time Modi and Sharif meet in Washington. While there may not have been much progress towards normalisation of bilateral relations since Modi's visit to Lahore on Nawaz Sharif's birthday on December 25, a positive feature that has come to the fore is that the two NSAs have been in constant touch throughout.

For now this seems to be a workable template in the India-Pakistan bilateral context -- that their diplomacy is driven by the two NSAs rather than by their foreign offices.

This suits India better as the NSA-level contacts remain opaque and out of the public domain, unlike foreign policy, which is conducted through the foreign offices which inevitably attracts public glare.

But Pakistan is growing restive. It is not happy with the below the radar screen diplomacy. Pakistan wants to play to the gallery and this can be done only in the format of foreign secretary-level talks.

It is this issue that Modi and Sharif will inevitably grapple with during their Washington meeting. There is a lot of time left for the Washington event. There may well be many a slip between the cup and the lip.

Another big ticket terror attack may upset the leaders' plans.

Rajeev Sharma is an independent journalist and strategic analyst who tweets @kishkindha
'Sexual violence against women is not something unique to India but in our parts the victim must also have to contend with other burdens. Such as the notion of 'honour' and its loss,' says Aakar Patel.

March 8 is Women's Day, and I thought I should write about the most vulnerable part of our population and the one most discriminated against.

Defending Jawaharlal Nehru University in his speech which trended worldwide, its student leader Kanhaiya Kumar said two things which I did not know.

First, that it was the only university where the student body as a whole pressed for implementation of reservations. And second that 60 per cent of JNU's students are women.

I noticed that when he lists the groups for whom the JNU students are agitating he says Dalits, Adivasis, Women and Minorities.

The azadi slogans of the students have always included freedom from patriarchy and this is something unusual and to be supported by all of us.

It is a fine thing to be a middle class male in India because even in one of the poorest parts of the world, one is privileged.

The Indian woman, no matter what class and what caste she comes from, must suffer prejudice under a culture shot through with patriarchy.

Sexual violence against women is not something unique to India but it is true that in our parts the victim must also have to contend with other burdens. Such as the notion of 'honour' and its loss.

News on any given day will have the most horrific stories in which women are victimised even after crimes against them. This morning, as I write this, comes news of a 13-year-old girl who was whipped in public by a caste panchayat because her father abused her.

Is it surprising that women distrust the State and society when it comes to sexual violence? Some of the data on this will interest readers.

The government conducts the National Family Health Survey in households to feed the ministry of health and family welfare on maternal and child health, to inform policies. It also talks about the incidence of violence. This becomes complicated also because in India sexual violence by husbands -- marital rape -- is not criminalised -- so this doesn't get counted in this.

Here are the findings from the Indian government's survey, with a sample of 83,703 women, aged 15 to 49:

Only one out of one hundred women who face sexual violence report it to the police.

5.7% of men use force to have sex with their wives when their wives refuse sexual intercourse with them, 19.8% 'get angry and reprimand her,' 6% refuse her financial support, 4.2 have have sex with another woman.

44% percent of women with no education have experienced violence at some time since the age of 15, and 26 percent have experienced violence in the past 12 months. These proportions decline steadily with education, and the corresponding proportions for women who have completed 12 or more years of education are 14 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Two out of three women who have ever experienced violence have not only never sought help, but have also never told anyone about the violence.

A large majority of women who have experienced only sexual violence have never told anyone about the violence (85 percent), and only 8 percent have ever sought help.

By contrast, 37 percent of women who have experienced both physical and sexual violence and 22 percent who have experienced only physical violence have sought help. Help seeking varies by the type of perpetrator. Women who have experienced violence by a former husband are the most likely to have sought help. This is to be expected since seeking help against spousal violence is likely to be a first step in being able to leave an abusive husband and ending the marriage.

Overall, the data suggest that neither education nor wealth imply a greater likelihood that women will seek help against violence. There is even some indication that the most educated women and women in the highest wealth quintile are less likely to seek help than less educated or less wealthy women

Abused women most often seek help from their own families.

72% of women who experienced only physical violence and 58% of women who experienced only sexual violence mention their own family as a source.

Women in urban areas who experience sexual violence are more likely, and those who experience physical violence are less likely, than their rural counterparts to report each of the different sets of injuries.

Few women seek help from any institutional sources such as the police, medical personnel, or social service organisations.

Aakar Patel is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are personal.
The Jayalalitha government's demand to release former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassins has put its rivals, especially the BJP, in a fix. As political rivals clamour to retain their pan-Tamil credentials, the BJP may use the 'nationalist' card to even the odds in its favour, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

Image: A file photograph of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally on May 4, 1991. Photographs: Reuters

Independent of other perceptions, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-ruled Tamil Nadu government writing to the Centre on freedom for the seven Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts is aimed at embarrassing the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the upcoming assembly polls due on May 16.

On the one hand, the AIADMK hopes to retain whatever pan-Tamil votes that it had garnered away from the Vaiko-centric four-party front and actor-politician Seemans Naam Thamizhar Katchi (We, the Tamils Party) in the 2014 parliamentary polls.

Even more, the party hopes to embarrass the main rival in the DMK-Congress combine, by recalling to the pan-Tamil voter memory their own propagandist perceptions of the anti-Tamil stance of the Congress-led Centre and the DMK-led state government at the height of Eelam War IV in May 2009.

Its another matter that the war did not impact on the Tamil Nadu voter in the coinciding Lok Sabha polls of the time.

Not only did the DMK-Congress combine win a majority of seats from Tamil Nadu and adjoining Puducherry, but a pan-Tamil, pro-Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam stalwart like Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagams Vaiko lost his native Sivakasi seat.

By the same token now, the AIADMK, through the same letter, seeks to embarrass the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre. Given its ongoing tussle with the Congress rival and the rest over its superior claims to nationalist credentials, the BJP would find it difficult to take any position that could rub on the image.

For his part, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has since told Parliament that the Centre would not do anything that went against the Supreme Court verdict in the matter.

Elsewhere, he has also indicated that state governments should act against those celebrating the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi.

In December 2015, the Supreme Court had clearly indicated that the Centre alone has the power to decide on setting at large, those convicted in CBI-prosecuted cases.

It has thus taken away the possible option purportedly available to the Tamil Nadu government to decide on freedom for the Rajiv killers, citing their 20-plus years already spent in prison.

In the normal course, the Centre does take its time in deciding on such matters.

However, in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the very legal demand before judicial fora for freedom arose from the Centres inability/unwillingness to fix a date for the execution of six of the seven convicts, now in prison.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had confirmed the death sentence also on Nalini, an Indian national, who was A-1 in the case after the suicide/death of LTTE cadres and their local accessories more directly involved in the assassination.

At the behest of Sonia Gandhi, widow of the slain leader, Nalinis death sentence was commuted to one of life term.

Nalinis Sri Lankan Tamil husband, Sriharan alias Murugan, and five others are those now in prisons, whose death sentences were commuted owing to inordinate delay in their execution.

The continuing demand of Nalini, in particular, and those of the rest, both in courts and before constitutional authorities like the governor and the President, has been for their freedom after spending so many years in prison.

There is no denying the embarrassment quotient attaching to the Rajiv case convicts in electoral terms in Tamil Nadu. Yet, there is nothing to suggest that it would be a game-changer now, or ever.

To put it differently, those that had voted against the DMK-Congress, jointly or separately, over the past years would continue to do so. The vote-catching potential of the issue thus is minimal, if at all.

That should include first-time pan-Tamil voters, who would not be wooed one way or the other, either because the AIADMK had flagged the issue, or the DMK and the Congress are aligning all over again after s gap in the 2014 parliamentary polls.

Sure enough, the two aligning parties, and also their prospective poll partners too would have considered all aspects from the past before joining hands.

In a way, the poll-time slanging match on the issue could centre around other players in the field who all claim a pan-Tamil bias on the Sri Lankan front, extendable to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

In this, the Paattaali Makkal Katchi of Dr S Ramadoss has the longest claim, dating back to the months immediately following the assassination. In November of 1991, the PMK took out a massive rally in Chennai city, then Madras, in which slogans were raised in favour of the LTTE and the key Rajiv assassins, who were already dead at the time.

Today, the party is seeking to build a moderate image, and with great efforts.

Whether young chief ministerial candidate, Anbumani Ramadoss, would want to recall the partys past contribution in the matter, including its war-time and post-war political proclamations nearer home, remains to be seen.

Vaiko, who was still in the DMK, was sulking when the PMK went all out, after the assassination took a heavy electoral toll on the party. Two years down the line, the DMK would sack Vaiko, citing other reasons, but mainly to wash the sins, if any, associated with the assassination.

It thus became a necessity -- apart from conviction -- for Vaiko to carry on with his pan-Tamil imagery and pro-LTTE politics.

That also meant that the party lost top-level second-line leaders who had followed him into his MDMK from parent DMK, whose ideas on the subject did not match with that of the mentor-founder.

In turn, this has also meant a loss of vote-base for the MDMK, which has also been crowded in the confusion, caused by swiftly shifting Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora preferences for pan-Tamil partners in India.

Going now with Vaiko in the four-party alliance is the Communist Party of India, whose state leaders cannot but share the blame for misleading the LTTE leadership on ground realities in India during elections 2009.

Thol Thirumavalavan, whose Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, with its own brand of pan-Tamil politics and image, was then in the DMK combine, and is now with the MDMK and the CPI in the four-party combine, the Communist Party of India-Marxist being the fourth partner.

From among the rest in the poll-fray, Seemans Naam Thamizhar Party has a pan-Tamil political voice and imagery -- but not enough votes in individual constituencies even to influence the results, leave alone winning a few assembly seats.

This is despite the fact that the party has got head long into the elections, having already announced candidates for all 234 seats. Its a feat in itself.

Who then is the net-gainer or net-loser from the pan-Tamil, pro-Sri Lanka Tamil poll politics this time in Tamil Nadu -- even granting that it had played any decisive role in elections other than the Rajiv Gandhi assassination polls of 1991?

There are no net gainers on this score, as those that had voted the AIADMK or any other in the past would remain so -- and to the continued exclusion of the DMK and the Congress, allied or otherwise.

The PMKs is a vote-bank uninfluenced by pan-Tamil politics, despite the partys traditional Vanniar community having voted against the nationalist Congress party in the past.

Even in the BJPs company, the PMK votes mattered to the National Democratic Alliance only in constituencies where they over-lapped -- as in Dharmapuri, bordering Karnataka, from where Anbumoni R won the Lok Sabha seat in 2014.

Even arguing that there could be further migration of pan-Tamil votes from the MDMK, VCK, and the NPT to the AIADMK, their vote-base in general and pan-Tamil vote-base in particular have already shrunk enough to be able to make any difference to the results.

Conversely, the AIADMK, if at all, may lose marginally on the votes that otherwise used to go to the BJP in parliamentary polls but revert to the party in assembly elections.

That way the AIADMK could go beyond the DMK and the Congress to try and embarrass the ruling BJP at the Centre, by blaming it for delaying freedom for Rajiv Gandhis assassins.

Given the BJPs current mood and Prime Minister Narendra Modis continuing methods -- and concurrent acceptance of the same in his constituencies across the country, the two could try and turn the nationalist tables on the AIADMK and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Considering that neither has thought twice before attacking the Congress party and its Sonia-Rahul leadership on the nationalist plank without batting an eyelid, they could do so in the case of TN, too.

Better or worse still, they could use the nationalist plank centred on the Rajiv assassins to tell the TN voters why the state needed to be rid of Dravidian rule of the past 50 long years, since 1967, and of the Congress until then.

A lot would depend on the allies that the BJP is able to tie up -- and their own compulsions, perceived and real, and more so taking off from their own recent past of more recent years.

Considering that the BJP has had surprises for its adversaries at election time, particularly in terms of supporting evidence while bad-mouthing them, a time might come when a lot would depend on how serious the party and the leadership treat the TN polls for them to make that extra effort and possible disclosures -- and against whom, when and how -- than anything else.

Needless to add, some of it might also depend on what the courts might have to say/observe should they be moved over the election-linked timing of the TN missive to the Centre on freedom for Rajiv Gandhis assassins.

Its possibly also in this context that Nalinis brother, Packianathan, after a meeting with his sister in the womens prison in Vellore, has asked the people not to politicise their demand for and expectations of freedom.

In the past, Nalini and other convicts, particularly Arputhammal, mother of Perarivalan, had brought the legal and constitutional issues on their rights and freedoms too frequently and for too long onto the public forum that they now seemed to have understood the limits to which their grit and determination could take them -- and the inherent limitations that such an approach entail after a point.

N Sathiya Moorthy is Director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter.
IMAGE: The World Culture Festival in progress in Berlin in 2011. Photograph: Sankrant Sanu

There will remain those who will remain in opposition to this massive endeavour for world peace with an aim not to improve, but to scuttle the project.

But for the rest of us, a cultural and spiritual event of this significance and scale is a feast for the mind and soul, says Sankrant Sanu.

Five years ago, I was at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany, once the site of Hitler's controversial 1936 Olympics. Ballet dancers from Russia performed a segment from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, drummers from Africa led a mass ensemble, and a band from Argentina had the audience up on their feet dancing to Sanskrit chants set to rock music, 500 Polish dancers enthralled, matched by an even bigger set of 2,000 Bulgarians who trod light and swift their folk dancing traditions.

Over 25,000 people meditated together at the World Culture Festival in 2011, helping erase the ghosts of the stadium's past. Wouldn't it be nice if, once in a while, rather than travelling to see the world, the world travelled to us, bringing the delights of their own unique cultures?

The World Culture Festival 2016 in Delhi promises just that on an enormous scale, with 3.5 million expected attendees. But its impact may transcend mere song and dance.

If you see the list of the largest gathering of people, (external link) most of the events are specific to particular religious traditions.

The biggest ever was the Kumbh Mela of 2013 where 30 million people took a dip in the Ganga. Other events include the gathering for the Arba'eeen at Karbala, or the attendance for the Pope in the Philippines, with Rod Stewart's mega concert in Rio De Janeiro with over 4 million people being an odd one out.

The World Culture Festival is unique as a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-performer gathering -- a modern Kumbh Mela, as it were. It creates a new tradition in a world smaller than ever before and yet precariously placed in conflict.

With much talk of tolerance and diversity, religious conflict and nationalistic and ethnic rivalries remain contemporary challenges. Isn't it time we actually celebrated diversity rather than merely 'tolerated' it?

In the Berlin festival there were Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders, along with those of the Indian traditions addressing the gathering. There were political leaders from across the world. There were diverse nations and cultures, yet united by something we all possess and need; a yoga, union, of the bodies, mind, and breath.

But in a world where LuLuLemon's yoga pants are the hot fashion accessory and Disney's Kung Fu Panda learns the joys and travails of 'inner peace,' does meditation, the practice of the mind, matter? Yes, numerous studies are being published on the benefits of meditation in reducing stress, alleviating depression and improving health for individuals.

Harvard researchers suggest it may literally Build a Better Brain (external link), for instance. Research into yogic breathing practices, such as Sudarshan Kriya (external link) showed it to be as effective as medication for treating depression, without any of the associated side effects.

So meditation works for an individual, but will it when people meditate in a large group? Here the research gets more controversial and thus more interesting.

In the summer of 1993, a group of 4,000 Transcendental Meditation practitioners assembled in Washington, DC, for an experiment. According to a report (external link), the hypothesis was that 'levels of violent crime in the District of Columbia would fall substantially during the Demonstration Project was posited with a 27 member Project Review Board comprising independent scientists and leading citizens.'

The DC Metropolitan Police Department provided the crime data. 'The study statistically controlled for the effects of weather variables, daylight, historical crime trends and annual patterns in the District of Columbia, as well as trends in neighboring cities.'

The report concluded the crime dropped by up to 23 per cent, accounting for various controls 'coincident with the peak number of participants in the group during the final week of the assembly.'

Research on the effects of collective meditation is still preliminary, which makes its exploration even more fruitful. If 4,000 meditators could affect the crime rate in a city, what could 3.5 million people meditating together do?

Delhi has been the crossroads of empires and the centre of intrigues. It has been the seat of power and, with power, the den of corruption. It will be intriguing to watch and study what changes an event like the WCF could bring to the Lutyens ecosystem and beyond.

Any change brings resistance. If you face no opposition, it is unlikely that you are doing anything of significance. Celebrating diversity troubles those that want to convert all humans to one religion, for instance. Other groups, such as NGO Swechha, have raised concerns about the impact on the environment of the Yamuna. The impact of such a huge gathering of people would certainly need to be well-managed.

To its credit, the Art of Living organisation has a stellar record on environment. In 2010, it had launched a Yamuna cleaning project (external link) called 'Meri Dilli, Meri Yamuna' to raise awareness about pollutants flowing into the river and to clean the ghats. It has also worked for river revival (external link) such as the Kumudavati river near Bengaluru. Nevertheless, it should remain open to constructive suggestions from environmental groups on specific inputs for managing the impact.

There will remain those, though, who will remain in opposition to this massive endeavour for world peace with an aim not to improve, but to scuttle the project. Delhi's ghosts have even a longer history than Berlin's. They may not yield their grip so easily.

But for the rest of us, a cultural and spiritual event of this significance and scale is a feast for the mind and soul.

If Berlin with 25,000 people blew my socks away, what will 3.5 million do? I look forward to finding out.
'The same charm that draws men to the armed forces also draws women. It is love for the nation and honour and pride in donning the uniform,' says Lieutenant Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, the first woman to lead the Indian Army in a 18-nation military exercise that concludes in Pune on Women's Day.

IMAGE: Lieutenant Colonel Sofiya Qureshi is leading India at the Force 18 military exercise in Pune. Along with South East Asian countries, military personnel from the US, Russia, New Zealand and China are some of the other participants. Photograph: The Indian Army.

When Lieutenant Colonel Sofiya Qureshi led the Indian Army's contingent at the Force 18 military exercises that included 18 other countries, she became the first woman officer in India to do so.

The week-long military exercise which includes training in humanitarian mine action and peacekeeping operations concludes in Pune on Women's Day.

Commissioned in the Signals Corp in 1999, Lieutenant Colonel Qureshi has served in different places in India and abroad. She has also been involved in counter insurgency areas in signal regiments.

A native of Vadodara, Gujarat, she was in the second batch of woman officers inducted in the hard field posting to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a military observer.

"During the 2006 presidential election in DRC, I worked in coordination with the electoral and gender department and could reach down to women at all levels of society in the decision making process." Lieutenant Colonel Qureshi, sparing some time from her busy schedule for an email interaction, told Rediff.com, adding, "I was also actively involved in reunion of displaced children."

There are some other 'firsts' to the officer's credit:

She was the first woman officer to be nominated as an instructor for training women on Civil Military Coordination in South Africa by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

She was also nominated as the first woman instructor along with the UN Training Team for imparting training to the Cambodian army and police on UN aspects where she was awarded the Certificate of Excellence by the Cambodian army.

"A UN mission is a multidimensional and multi-complex mission which is physically and politically most challenging. The line between peacekeeping and war fighting is difficult to trace. Other challenges are sexual violence and lack of coordination sometimes between the UN bodies," says Lieutenant Colonel Qureshi, who is married to an army officer.

"Each country has its own way of operating and as a military observer no weapon is to be carried even for self defence," she adds.

The officer has been associated with the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in New Delhi since 2010 and has played a vital role in training national and international observers or staff officers.

She shares her experiences about life in the army with Archana Masih/Rediff.com

IMAGE: Lieutenant Colonel Sofiya Qureshi interacts with a soldier from a participating country during the exercise. Photograph: The Indian Army

How have things in the Indian Army changed since you joined more than 15 years ago?

The Indian Army has got more modernised and became technically savvy. In addition to this, women ; have been provided with more opportunities to join different corps of the Indian Army.

What draws women to the armed forces?

It is the same charm what draws the men. It is the love for the nation and honour and pride in donning the uniform.

What is it to be away from home and family while serving under the UN flag in a conflict zone?

Yes, of course, we miss our family back home, but duty comes first and we are trained by the Indian Army for this.

What have been your experiences while serving in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC?

It was a great experience working with the multinational armies as a military observer and it gave me satisfaction especially in dealing with protection of women and children from violence.

I was also instrumental in creating a Civil Military Coordination Structure in the western part of Congo.

I was awarded with Force Commander appreciation for dedication and devotion towards my duties.

I have been to South Africa and Cambodia as a UN instructor for training military observers as well as contingents

IMAGE: Force 18 is a week-long training exercise in humanitarian mine action and peacekeeping operations. Lieutenant Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, fourth from left, is an instructor on training aspects. Photograph: The Indian Army

What preparation did you undergo to command the Indian contingent at Force 18?

Under the guidance of ex director and as part of a panel of instructors, I have undergone refresher cadre prior to the course. Based on my experience as an instructor in India as well as in abroad, I have contributed in formalising the training aspects.

Are there women soldiers from other ASEAN countries participating in this exercise?

Yes. There are six women participating both in humanitarian mine action as well as in peacekeeping operation training.

How have the experiences been at Force 18? How rigorous is a military training exercise? What are some of the learnings for young officers from such exercises?

It was a wonderful experience to work with multinational armies and it's an opportunity to learn their way of tactics especially when getting deployed in a UN mission.

Military training is always meant to be rigorous however conducive an environment is created to learn from each others experience and create more cooperation and inter-operability in sustaining peace.

It is an excellent platform for a young officer to learn.

IMAGE: Lieutenant Colonel Sofiya Qureshi has served 17 years in the Indian Army and hails from Gujarat. Photograph: Kind courtesy, the US Embassy India/Facebook

What does this exercise include?

This exercise includes training in Humanitarian Mine Action and Peacekeeping operations. Patrol training, class room activities, brainstorming and lecture cum demonstration have been incorporated.

Emphasis is given more on role play during the exercise by simulating the UN environment.

How do you balance children/family and home as a working woman?

I am lucky to have a supportive and loving family to carry out my duties diligently.

Can you share some examples of how you have been a source of inspiration to young girls?

I have participated in Operation Sadhbhavna in the Kashmir Valley to motivate young girls to join the army. I have also delivered lectures in school and colleges organised by the army to create awareness about women's role in the army.
Detectives in Sydney have spoken to more than 2,000 people, taken almost 250 statements.

They have considered the possibility that someone in India was involved in, or helped organise, Prabha Arun Kumar's murder.

IMAGE: Prabha Arun Kumar with her husband and daughter

There has been no headway in the murder of techie Prabha Arun Kumar, 41, who was stabbed to death while she was walking home from work in a suburb in Sydney, Australia, on March, 7, 2015.

The ongoing investigation has been broadened and the Australian police tell Rediff.com that they will be pursuing the case in India too.

Georgina Wells, a spokesperson for the New South Wales police, told A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com that the New South Wales police remains committed to finding the person or people responsible for Prabha's death.

Strike Force Marcoala, the homicide squad investigating Prabha's death, continues to conduct extensive inquiries.

To date, detectives have spoken to more than 2,000 people, taken almost 250 statements, and continue to liaise with Prabha's friends and family in Australia and India.

Detectives have worked hard to build a profile of Prabha to find out more about her life, speaking extensively to members of her family when they came to Sydney in November for a memorial service.

The police do not believe Prabha knew her killer and remain certain that robbery or sexual assault were not motives for her death.

Detectives have considered the possibility that someone in India was involved in, or helped organise, the murder.

They are also considering the possibility the offender is still in Australia, as well as the possibility the offender has left the country.

Strike Force Marcoala detectives have urged any person with information about Prabha's death to come forward and remind them they can provide that information anonymously if they wish.

Prabha left behind her husband Arun Kumar and their eleven-year-old daughter Meghnaa. A year later her younger brother Shivprasad Shetty and her husband G Arun Kumar share their memories.

Shivprasad Shetty, brother

She was a very protective elder sister. She fulfilled her responsibilities towards us. She took care of us. She guided us. She was an ideal for us as we grew up.

She did her primary schooling in our village, Amtoor, near Mangalore. She completed her schooling in St Agnes in Mangalore. After that she did her engineering from KVG College in Sullia in south Karnataka. Then she moved to Bengaluru. She got her first job with Linc software.

This company was later acquired by Mindtree. All her life she worked for one company. She was very hard working. She fell in love with Arun Kumar and married him with the approval of both sets of parents.

She was very calm, never did any harm to anybody. If she was not comfortable with anybody she would move away. She never had any enmity towards anybody. She was hard working, loyal and 100 per cent committed to her company. She would work on weekends too.

She knew she would have a tough time without her daughter in Australia. She went there so that she could earn more money for her family. She was the ideal wife, sister and mother.

G Arun Kumar, husband

I met Prabha in 1996 in Bengaluru. We became friends. In 2000 we decided to get married. Initially both our families did not agree, but finally they consented.

After getting married, she began working as a software engineer.

She was a very nice person. She was very fond of family life. She was calm, soft and a very lovable person. We were living in a separate home a short distance from my parents. We used to help each other. Sometimes she used to cook and sometimes I used to cook.

In the morning I used to drop her to office and then go to my office. In the evening I used to pick her up. It was a busy life. In 2004 we had Meghnaa.

We used to sleep late on weekends as week days were so busy and tiring. When my daughter was three-months-old Prabha had a bike accident and was badly injured.

It was a very bad time for us. She was in hospital for two months. We fought the bad times together. I took leave to take care of my baby and my wife. She was at home for a year after the accident. 2004 was a tough time for us.

After a year, Prabha returned to work. It was her second life. I looked after my daughter and the home when she went to work. I was into marketing. I started a consultancy till Meghnaa became a little older. Once she went to school, I started a business.

We were living our lives for our daughter. Our life revolved around her. We could not ask others to help us look after our daughter all the time. So we did it ourselves. My parents and sisters were helpful as they were staying nearby.

In 2012 her company asked her to go to Australia for six months. She was a senior member of the company. We were happy. She was happy to go there. Initially they said it was for six months and they extended it by a few months.

As it was for a short time, we could not go there as a family. My daughter's schooling would have been affected. Education is very important for us.

Prabha wanted our daughter to be brought up in an Indian culture. Sometimes we thought of going to settle in the United States. We had lots of dreams.

Last year, we had planned a holiday to Mauritius. My daughter still asks, 'When are we going to Mauritius?'

As told to A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
The long-stalled Womens Reservation Bill was back in the spotlight on Tuesday as Congress president Sonia Gandhi joined MPs cutting across party lines in Parliament on International Womens Day to push for its early passage, asking the government to give us women our legitimate due.

As the day was observed across the country to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, it saw some action on the ground when 42-year-old Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan rode to Parliament on an orange Harley-Davidson motorcycle, making a powerful statement.

The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to enact the Womens Reservation Bill providing for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

The AP government announced a number of schemes aimed at empowerment of women, including opening an exclusive toll-free helpline 181 for women in distresss Day while Hyderabad City Police announced formation of Bharosa, a support centre for providing protection to women and children subjected to violence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to say he salutes women for their accomplishments and expressed his governments unwavering commitment to their welfare through schemes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao while President Pranab Mukherjee said women should be given freedom to exercise choices at home and workplace.

The women MPs who spoke in Parliament also talked about allowing womens entry into temples where they are banned, better education for girls and financial inclusiveness for women.

They got precedence to speak during an impromptu debate on womens empowerment in the light of Modis call for only female MPs to address both the Houses on Tuesday.

In the Lok Sabha, Sonia, who was the first member to speak on the issue of women empowerment, took a dig at the government over a host of issues including its slogan of maximum governance and minimum government.

Maximum governance is more than just accelerated pace of economic growth. It is also expanding the base of disagreement without inviting retribution or retaliation. Surely, maximum governance does not mean to have double standards in dealing with womens rights.

Surely, maximum governance also means to give us women our legitimate due -- the long awaited womens reservation bill, Gandhi said and told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that we can expect in you a strong ally...

Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the government is working towards evolving consensus on the Bill and expressed hope that it would succeed in this at the earliest. The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha in 2010 but got stuck in Lok Sabha due to stiff resistance by a number of parties.

Outside Parliament, Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev accused Modi of failing to empower women despite getting a historical mandate and asked him break his silence on his governments stand on the womens reservation bill.

Criticising the law in some BJP-ruled states like Haryana and Rajasthan which makes minimum educational qualification necessary to contest local elections, the Congress chief said it denied a large number of women from SC/ST groups to exercise their constitutional rights and called for urgent legislative attention to undo it.

Gandhi then took a dig at the government over a host of issues including its slogan of maximum governance and minimum government.

Maximum governance is more than just accelerated pace of economic growth. It is also expanding the base of disagreement without inviting retribution or retaliation. Surely, maximum governance does not mean to have double standards in dealing with womens rights.

Surely, maximum governance also means to give us women our legitimate due -- the long awaited womens reservation bill, Gandhi said and told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that we can expect in you a strong ally...

Though she did not make a direct reference to the governments crackdown on some NGOs, her reference to it was obvious as she sought giving freedom to the civil society, NGOs and activists.

She also referred to social evils like discrimination against girl child, foeticide and dowry and pitched for male colleagues cooperation in confronting these challenges.

It was Congress, she said, that had pledged itself to the womans voting rights when the country became independent.

The women lawmakers insisted that the lot of women has not changed much and discrimination against them continues. Some highlighted incidents of women being denied entry to temples, besides other problems like trafficking and sexual harassment.

In Rajya Sabha also, members, cutting across party lines, made a passionate plea for early passage of the Womens Bill.

Intervening in the debate in Lok Sabha, Naidu said, Our government is working towards evolving consensus... Hope we succeed at the earliest, he said.

The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha in 2010 but got stuck in Lok Sabha due to stiff resistance by a number of parties.

When a member from the opposition camp wanted a concrete assurance, Naidu hit back saying they (Congress government) could not evolve consensus in 10 years.

He said the Modi government, meanwhile, has initiated a number of schemes for empowerment of women, including beti bachao, beti padao (save girl child, educate girl child).

Utmost important is education of girl child, he said, adding the earlier governments have worked in this direction and the present dispensation is doing it more effectively.

After education, girls need to be provided with job opportunities, he said, adding that without provision of jobs, the discrimination against women will not end.

Another way of ensuring empowerment of women is to ensure that under the Housing-for-all scheme, titles are registered in the name of the woman.

We should ponder over these developments. It is not an issue of this party, that party... I do not want to politicise this. If blame is to be taken, all parties should take responsibility proportionate to the time they ruled, he said.
A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker carrying primary class children to school in an auto rickshaw was pulled out and brutally attacked with lethal weapons in Kannur on Tuesday allegedly by Communist Party of India-Marxist workers in front of the horror-struck kids.

Police said the attackers overturned the auto rickshaw with the children inside, but none of the kids were injured.

The 29-year-old RSS worker, A V Biju, was taking the children, aged between 6-8 years, to school in his three wheeler when the attack took place, police said.

A case under various sections of the IPC, including attempt to murder, causing hurt with deadly weapons, illegal assembly, rioting, has been registered, they said.

No arrests have been made so far in the attack carried out in this politically sensitive northern part of Kerala.

Biju, who suffered injuries on his head, left arm and shoulder, has been admitted to the Kozhikode medical college hospital and his condition is said to be stable.

Police sources said Biju's statement has been recorded and he has stated that political enmity was the reason for the attack.

He has also identified two CPI-M workers among the attackers, they said.

Police said the vehicle was stopped by a group of CPI-M workers at around 8.15 am at Pannur near Thalassery in the district and the driver dragged out and attacked with iron rods and swords.

The wailing children were later taken to their homes by police in another vehicle.

School bags and footwear were seen strewn around at the spot.

This is the second incident relating to an attack on RSS workers in Kerala, which is gearing up for the May 16 assembly polls.

Known as a political stronghold of CPI-M, Kannur has for years witnessed frequent violent clashes between workers of the Left party and that of the RSS, BJP's ideological mentor.

Last month, a 27-year-old RSS worker was hacked to death in front of his aged parents in Papinesseri in the district, allegedly by CPI-M workers.

On December 1, 1999, K P Jayakrishnan Master, a BJP leader was hacked to death, allegedly by CPI-M workers, in front of his students while he was taking class.

The CPM-led Left Democratic Front is making a bid to wrest power from the Congress-led United Democratic Front in the assembly elections to be held in Kerala in May.

While BJP has been a minor political player in Kerala so far, it has invested heavily in perking up its cadres for the polls and is hoping to make a dent in the UDF citadel.

Meanwhile, CPI-M leader and former member of Legislative Assembly P Jayarajan was remanded to three-day CBI custody in connection with an RSS functionary's murder in 2014.

Thalassery Principal Sessions Judge V K Anilkumar allowed the agency's plea, seeking custody of Jayarajan for questioning in the case.

The court said that CBI could question Jayarajan on March 9, 10 and 11 and that only an investigation officer should be present at that time of questioning which should be carried out between 9 am to 6 pm.

Jayarajan is now under treatment in Kozhikode Medica lCollege. The CBI had in January listed Jayarajan as 25th accused and framed charges against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the case.

Manoj, 42, a district functionary of RSS, was hacked to death in politically volatile Kathiroor in Kannur district on September 1, 2014, allegedly by a group of CPI-M workers.
The Maharashtra police has served a notice to activist Trupti Desai, and has said that it is unlikely that she will be allowed to go to Trimbakeshwar.

Earlier, Bhumata Brigade supporters, along with Desai, were again detained by the police in Maharashtra's Nandur Shingote as they headed towards the Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik where women are prohibited.

The women activists were also detained on Monday while heading to the temple and were later released.

"Why are we being stopped from proceeding to Trimbakeshwar temple? Whatever the police is doing is wrong," said Desai after being detained.

Desai and her supporters had on Monday vowed to break the age-old rule of not allowing women inside the temple. They have demanded that women be allowed to enter the inner sanctum of Trimbakeshwar temple on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri.

The temple trust has maintained that the ban on entry of women is based on tradition, claiming that no objection has ever been raised on the same.
The UK on Tuesday appointed veteran career diplomat Sir Dominic Asquith as its new High Commissioner to India.

The 59-year-old Asquith will take over from Sir James Bevan, who joined the UK's environment agency as chief executive last November, soon after Narendra Modi's first visit to the UK as Prime Minister.

"The Honourable Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG has been appointed British High Commissioner to the Republic of India in succession to Sir James Bevan KCMG, who has transferred to a non-governmental public body. The Honourable Sir Dominic will take up his appointment during March 2016," a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office statement said.

Sir Dominic has been at the forefront of UK-Libya affairs, having served as ambassador in Tripoli in the past and currently chairman of the Libyan British Business Council.

He holds a number of advisory posts at firms like Dentons LLP, Macro Advisory Partners and Group DF International.

He takes charge in India at a time when India-UK ties are at a high and is expected to be joined in New Delhi by wife and four children.
IMAGE: Indian Army soldiers build a pontoon bridge over the Yamuna for the Art Of Living World Culture Festival. Photograph: Kind courtesy Santhosh Kottayi/@kottayimavoor/Twitter

'Does the government help ordinary citizens like you and me with our marriages, birthdays and anniversaries?'

Rashme Sehgal reports on the controversy over the the Art Of Living Foundation's plans for a cultural festival on the Yamuna floodplains.

President Pranab Mukherjee has decided not to give the valedictory address at the Art of Living Foundation's three-day World Culture Festival cultural extravaganza.

No reason was given for his withdrawal but the President was clearly expressing his reservations at the controversy over the organisers using a large swathe of the Yamuna river's floodplains to hold the festival.

The President's is one amongst a chorus of protests by environmentalists protesting what they say is irreparable damage being done with the levelling of around 1,000 acres of land and the construction of the world's largest stage whose dimensions are around 1,200 feet long x 200 feet wide x 40 feet feet high.

Over three million people are expected to participate in the festival (March 11-13). Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the event and hundreds of cultural artistes from around the world will participate.

Art Of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has tried to defuse the criticism by stating that his organisation is proceeding in an eco-friendly manner and 'had not cut a single tree.' Sri Sri Ravishankar further spoke about how 100,000 AOL volunteers had been releasing eco-enzymes into the Yamuna to improve the river's water quality and the improvement could be gauged from the fact that water buffaloes, which had shunned the river in the past, had now come back to it.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's arguments don't cut much ice with experts.

"A very bad precedent has been set by granting Art Of Living permission. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is talking about using enzymes, but I would like to ask him have these enzymes been tested by any scientific body for their efficacy," asks Professor A K Gosain, a water expert at IIT-Delhi.

"Did he involve the Central Board of Pollution Control in this scheme or did he ask its permission before releasing these enzymes?" Professor Gosain asks, adding, "A one-time intervention can hardly be expected to clean the river."

"The entire bio-diversity of this coastal plain has been destroyed," the professor declares, "with the huge amount of levelling that was done there. He (Sri Sri Ravishankar) talks about not leaving a single piece of debris behind after the event, but fails to keep in mind that around the world, cities are implementing plans to free their floodplains from all construction activities including levelling as key step to prevent flooding."

India, Professor Gosain regrets, has not learnt anything from four major environmental disasters in the last decade caused by heavy encroachments of the rivers' floodplains. "This happened in Chennai, Srinagar, Uttarakhand and Mumbai. The loss to the nation ran into crores of rupees and yet we are now hell bent on repeating the same story in Delhi right under the nose of the central government," he warns.

"The floodplain acquifer is a huge underground lake and on an average, the 50 km long Yamuna floodplain can supply 250 million cubic metres of water each year which could meet the needs of three million people in the city," says Professor Vikram Soni, emeritus professor of physics and ecological wisdom at both the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia University.

"The 1,000 acres that will be impacted by the Art Of Living event has the potential of giving a sustainable supply of over one million cubic metres of water a year," he says. "At the rate of tanker water, it translates into water worth Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) per year."

"There is a clear collusion between Art Of Living and the DDA (Delhi Development Authority)" alleges Anand Arya, a senior ornithologist. "The first application for this event was moved in February 2015. Surprisingly, the DDA asked for no blueprint and none was provided. The DDA refused to give permission in February 2015, so Art Of Living moved a fresh application for permission in November 2015."

"This time too," says Arya, "permission was refused, but then obviously under pressure from the political masters, the DDA capitulated."

While DDA allotted around 60 acres, the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department allotted the remaining 37 acres. Despite being given 97 acres to stage the event, Art Of Living pamphlets state its festival is spread over 1,000 acres.

Arya believes the damage of the floodplains extends to over 2,000 acres.

"There is a game plan to develop this entire area for real estate," fears Arya. "We already know what happened in the case of the Akshardham temple where a vast stretch of floodplains was given over for the construction of a temple during the Vajpayee regime. Something similar could be afoot here."

"Our prime minister has no understanding of natural and riverine resources," says water activist Manoj Mishra who filed the public interest petition to disallow the Art Of Living event before the National Green Tribunal.

"Look what he has done with the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. The Aam Aadmi Party government should have adopted a much more cautionary and pro-green approach. Delhi Environment Minister Kapil Mishra is a member of the Art Of Living reception committee," Mishra points put.

Mishra and other activists are horrified that the cost of the entire event is being borne by the central and state governments. Pontoon bridges connect the capital with the event. One of these pontoon bridges has been built at the cost of Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million) by the UP Public Works Department. A K Gupta, the PWD engineer in chief, said the UP government agreed to construct the bridge on a request from the central government.

The second pontoon bridge has been constructed by the Indian Army whose services are now being used to construct a third pontoon bridge.

"Does the government have a policy to help ordinary citizens like you and me with our marriages, birthdays and anniversaries?" asks Mishra. "Many of us run NGOs. Is there any policy to help any of us? Art Of Living has made a refundable deposit of Rs 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million) for the entire event. The rest of the money running into several crores is being spent by different branches of government."

The National Green Tribunal has spoken about imposing a fine of Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion) on Art Of Living to compensate for damages.

"What does Art Of Living do? They sell meditation, they sell yoga and they sell products like any other commercial organisation," says Anand Arya. "They have excellent marketing and PR people. But that is hardly claim enough to have different government agencies bending backwards to work for you."
UN chief deplores terrorist attacks against security forces in Tunisia

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN chief deplores terrorist attacks against security forces in Tunisia, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de88de40c.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

7 March 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the terrorist attacks carried out today on police and army posts in the town of Ben Guerdane in Tunisia.

"He expresses his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the people and Government of Tunisia and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured," his spokesperson said in a statement.

"The Secretary-General reiterates the commitment of the United Nations to stand with the people of Tunisia as they confront the scourge of terrorism and work to preserve the gains of the revolution."

Media reports say several dozen people were killed in the attacks in Ben Guerdane, which is located near the Libyan border.
Iraq: senior UN official condemns Hilla bombing, deplores continuing loss of life

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 6 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Iraq: senior UN official condemns Hilla bombing, deplores continuing loss of life, 6 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de8a7040b.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

6 March 2016 - The most senior Unite Nations official in Iraq has strongly condemned the terrorist bombing near the city of Hilla in the Governorate of Babylon in the south of the country, which today caused scores of casualties, including women and children.

Once again the terrorists strike with untold savagery, leaving a trail of death and destruction, said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Jan Kubis, in a press release.

This latest atrocity committed by a suicide attacker driving a vehicle packed with explosives targeted a busy roadblock near Hilla as cars queued for security checks. It was clearly intended to exact maximum casualties among civilians, he added.

Mr. Kubis further stressed that he deeply deplores the continuing loss of life and property in yet another terrorist bombing and calls on Iraqis not to be cowed by the terrorists' murderous campaign.

This horrifying attack adds to the terrorists' long record of brutality that we and all Iraqis of different affiliations strongly condemn and totally reject, he underlined.

The UN envoy also expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the Government and people of Iraq, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Meanwhile, he reiterated his appeal to Iraqis not to fall into the trap of the terrorists who seek to undermine the country's unity and fuel sectarian strife.

In this connection, he applauded the restraint shown, for example, by the relatives of the victims and their communities of similar terrorist outrage on 29 February at a funeral ceremony in Muqdadiya. He called on the Government of Iraq to make sure that the perpetrators of these crimes and those behind them are swiftly brought to justice.

Sooner or later justice avails those terrorists committing crimes against civilians, crimes against humanity, Mr. Kubis declared.
Ban highlights Algeria's 'great progress' while raising alarm on situation in Libya

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 6 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Ban highlights Algeria's 'great progress' while raising alarm on situation in Libya, 6 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de8aba40d.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

6 March 2016 - Visiting Algeria for the second time as United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon today said great progress has been made in the country since terrorist attacks in 2007 devastated UN Headquarters in Algiers, while underlining alarming developments in Libya that could amount to war crimes.

My first visit to Algeria was very painful, the UN chief told reporters at a press conference in the capital, alongside the country's Minister of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ramtane Lamamra.

In December 2007, a car bomb destroyed UN offices in Algiers, killing 17 UN personnel as well as many Algerian citizens. More than nine years later, Mr. Ban praised the country's President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for progress made under his direction, and noted that what he has learned about rahma politics, meaning pity, has impressed him.

Instead of letting themselves be divided by terrorists, Algeria united in solidarity, he highlighted. History has shown many times that any violent strategy against terrorism that isn't based on the respect for human rights is doomed to fail. Respect for human rights is both a moral obligation and a tactical advantage.

The Secretary-General also noted that he and Minister Lamamra discussed their deep concern regarding the situation in Libya.

There is alarming information coming from Libya about grave acts that could amount to war crimes, Mr. Ban warned. All external actors need to use their influence to appease the situation. If things don't improve on the political front, the humanitarian crisis will worsen and threats to people's security, including attacks by Daech [ISIL], will multiply and expand.

In addition to thanking Algeria for hosting UN-led talks on Libya, he also welcomed the country's engagement towards Mali, for its role as one of the main mediators of the peace process.

Turning to the issue of Western Sahara, Mr. Ban recalled his visit yesterday to the town of Tindouf where he met with refugees who have been suffering for generations due to the ongoing regional conflict. He reiterated that no real progress has been made in negotiations towards a just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution, based on the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

I am deeply saddened by this humanitarian tragedy, Mr. Ban said. The world cannot continue to neglect Sahrawi refugees. They're hoping for the support of the region, the UN, and the international community. We must act.

Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria, the UN chief today planted a tree of peace. He also spoke at a foreign ministry symposium after meeting with President Bouteflika. Speaking at a press conference following the encounter, Mr. Ban said he was encouraged by the adoption of a revised constitution on 7 February, and insisted on the importance of investing in Algeria's dynamic and determined youth.

He is expected to visit the headquarters of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) located in Laayoune, Western Sahara.
In Algeria, the United Nations chief calls to ease 'unacceptable' plight of Sahrawi refugees

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 5 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, In Algeria, the United Nations chief calls to ease 'unacceptable' plight of Sahrawi refugees, 5 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de8b2540c.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

5 March 2016 - Calling to alleviate the plight of Sahrawi refugees in Algeria who are dealing with an unacceptable situation, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said the parties to the Western Sahara conflict have not made any real progress in the negotiations towards a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution.

What really moved and, even, saddened me was the anger. Many people expressed their anger people who for more than forty years have lived in the harshest conditions and who feel their plight and their cause have been forgotten by the world, Mr. Ban told the press after meeting with refugees and youth representatives at Smara camp, and later with the Polisario Front's Secretary-General Mohamed Abdelaziz.

Fighting broke out between Morocco and the Polisario Front following the end of Spain's colonial administration of Western Sahara in 1976. A ceasefire was reached in September 1991, and a UN mission-known as MINURSO-has been tasked with monitoring this ceasefire and organizing a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, which the Security Council has been requesting since 2004.

Meanwhile, Morocco has presented a plan for autonomy, while the Polisario Front's position is that the Territory's final status should be decided in a referendum on self-determination that includes independence as an option.

My first objective in visiting the region is to make my own assessment and contribution to the search for a settlement, said the UN chief. My second objective was to visit the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. I will visit the team site in Bir Lahlou, as well as personnel performing vital demining activities.

Mr. Ban added that he saw the remarkable and demanding work the Mission is doing in harsh conditions of the Hammada. He is also expected to visit the headquarters of MINURSO in Laayoune, Western Sahara.

Third, I wanted to bear witness to one of the forgotten humanitarian tragedies of our times. The Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf are some of the oldest in the world. It is heartbreaking to see these families separated for so long, he stressed, adding that the situation is unacceptable and must be addressed independently from the political process.

The UN chief further noted that his fourth objective is to finalize the security situation, as the UN is concerned about increasing criminality, drug trafficking and the possibility of extremists and terrorists coming to the region.

At the same time, I am calling on the donor countries to increase their assistance to this overlooked population to provide life-saving humanitarian aid, he added. We must show that the world remembers the Sahrawi people. To that end, I will soon convene a meeting of donors and assistance providers in Geneva.

Finally, the Secretary-General noted that the World Humanitarian Summit this May in Istanbul will be another opportunity to mobilize global solidarity.

I have been heartened by the faith Sahrawis put in the UN, its principles, and international law. Let us match this with determination to alleviate their plight and resolve this longstanding conflict for the future of all Sahrawis, he concluded.
UN Security Council arrives in Mali, vows to support country during 'key moment' in history

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 5 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN Security Council arrives in Mali, vows to support country during 'key moment' in history, 5 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de8bcc40b.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

5 March 2016 - The United Nations Security Council is in Mali today, the first stop of its visit to the African continent, where it underlined that the 15-member body is united in supporting the country's peace and reconciliation efforts.

We are here-the whole Council is here with its entire weight, with one voice, and with the same wish to see Mali reconciled, Malians united to build peace and to continue building the great country you have, Ismael Abraao Gaspar Martins, the Permanent Representative of Angola and Security Council President for the month of March, told reporters at a press conference in the capital, Bamako.

It's the main message we're bringing with us, he added. During this visit, we will meet with Malians, we will be close to them instead of just listening from afar and reading the reports. We will let them know directly that our main objective is to see the rebirth of Mali.

The Malian Government has been seeking to restore stability and rebuild following a series of setbacks since early 2012, including a military coup d'etat, renewed fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, and the seizure of its northern territory by radical extremists. The country has also been wracked by a series of humanitarian crises.

Echoing the Angolan Ambassador's message was France's Permanent Representative Francois Delattre, who said the road travelled by the West African country during these past years has been spectacular. Building on this progress, he explained that the Security Council is putting all its weight on three items in particular.

First, it is important to give renewed impulse to the implementation of the peace accords. These mark a historic step, they mark the coming together of all Malian stakeholders and of the whole international community supporting the agreement, he underlined, referring to the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, signed by the Government, the Coordination of Movements of Azawad, and the Platform coalition of armed groups.

The second objective is to put all the Security Council's weight on the fight against terrorism which counters the peace agreement, Mr. Delattre continued. It is the reason why are honoring the Malian security forces which are at the forefront of this battle. We are also honoring the UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) which works alongside the country's people and authorities.

Finally, he said the Security Council's third message is to promote reconciliation. It's the key word I think, the Ambassador stressed. To move forward with reconciliation between all Malians, no matter where they are, so they feel includes in this dynamic I have described.

We are at your side. You have, dear Malian friends, the destiny of your country in your hands. We are at a key moment in the history of your country. We will support your efforts especially in the implementation of the peace agreement. You have a historic chance, so cease it, he concluded.
Haiti must address prison overcrowding and prolonged pre-trial detention - UN report

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 March 2016 Related Document(s) Rapport annuel sur la situation des droits de l'homme en Haiti : 1er juillet 2014  30 juin 2015 Cite as UN News Service, Haiti must address prison overcrowding and prolonged pre-trial detention - UN report, 4 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de8cb3411.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 March 2016 - Haiti has made important steps towards the promotion and protection of human rights but some challenges exist regarding the judicial system, the excessive use of force by state agents and the situation of people returned or deported to Haiti by the Dominican authorities, according to a United Nations report on the human rights situation in that country.

The report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), covering the period from July 2014 to June 2015, highlights advances made in relation to the protection of children against trafficking, prostitution and pornography. At the same time, it underlines several human rights weaknesses, making particular reference to the increase of the country's prison population as well as the inhuman and degrading treatment suffered by prisons' inmates, a situation described as alarming.

On the relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the report emphasizes that the situation remains critical for thousands of people of Haitian origin, or regarded as Haitians, who have been returned or deported to Haiti by the Dominican authorities.

Regarding the extreme slowness of judicial proceedings on serious violations of the past, such as the trial against Jean Claude Duvalier and co-defendants, the report highlights how this represents an obstacle in the fight against impunity.

The report makes several recommendations, including use of the expertise of the UN human rights system, including the OHCHR, the human rights arm of UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the Human Rights Council (HRC), treaty bodies and special procedures.

To fight against prison overcrowding and prolonged pre-trial detention, the report recommends that the Haitian Government use the expertise of the HRC, in particular the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

The report also recommends that Haiti consider becoming party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment as well as its Optional Protocol establishing a system of regular visits by independent bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty.

The report is submitted to the Haitian Government for follow-up with a view to encouraging actions.
Tackling 'triple peril' facing the Sahel region is top priority for UN, Ban says in Mauritania

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Tackling 'triple peril' facing the Sahel region is top priority for UN, Ban says in Mauritania, 4 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de8d0a40b.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 March 2016 - With a triple peril of environmental degradation, poverty and insecurity facing the Sahel, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today during a visit to Mauritania that improving the situation in the region is a top priority for the United Nations.

You know my dedication to the Sahel, Mr. Ban told those participating in an event on peace and security, which discussed the root causes of instability in the region.

When I visited at the end of 2013, we mobilized the international community to find durable solutions, he recalled. The countries of the region can defeat these difficulties by working together, with the support of the international community, he added.

The UN estimates that one in seven Sahelians lack food, one in five children will die before their fifth birthday, and four and a half million people have been forced to flee their homes. Communities have also been struggling against harsh environmental conditions and worsening climatic shocks.

The international response has a new boost thanks to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the UN chief declared. We have another opportunity to strengthen global solidarity at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May. I count on Sahelian leaders to attend.

The Sahel is a region spanning across eight African countries  Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad  many of which are dealing with a volatile security situation.

I am especially concerned about the interlinked activities of criminal groups and terrorist organizations. Local people pay the highest price, warned the Secretary-General, noting that insecurity in Northern Mali has driven thousands of people from their homes, including some 48,000 refugees living in the Mbera camp in Mauritania.

The United Nations is ready to assist in countering terrorism and other asymmetric threats, he continued. In this, we insist on full respect for human rights and international humanitarian law  as a matter of moral responsibility and strategic effectiveness, he stressed.

Welcoming the African Union Nouakchott Process and its sustained focus on security and terrorism, Mr. Ban said Mauritania's engagement is invaluable. In his remarks, he saluted President Abdel Aziz's regional leadership and his role in establishing the 'G5 Sahel.'

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) meets with President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in Nouakchott. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivers keynote address at "Peace and Security in the Sahel: Tackling the root causes of instability" event in Nouakchott. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits a center that provides obstetric and neonatal emergency care for women in Nouakchott. Photo: OSSG

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) meets with Isselkou Ould Ahmed Izid Bih, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

SSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) meets with Yahya Ould Hademine, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

 

We need to carry out these new initiatives. And we need enhanced regional support to the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, he said. I especially applaud the G5's decision to establish a regional cell in Nouakchott for the prevention of radicalization. This can complement my global Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism.

Meanwhile, he stressed that youth across this region need better access to education and decent jobs. They can be a powerful force for progress against violent extremism. The historic Security Council resolution 2250 recognizes that young people can actively shape peace, contribute to justice and heal societies.

He added that it is equally essential to empower women, including by ending female genital mutilation (FGM), and praised Mauritania's national policy against FGM  and similar efforts across the region. Furthermore, he welcomed the country's laws to penalize slavery and address torture. Such abominable practices have no place in the modern world, he stressed.

Tomorrow, Mr. Ban will meet with Sahrawi refugees suffering terribly under harsh conditions in Algeria. The world cannot forget their plight. The Sahrawi people must enjoy their human rights  especially the right to self-determination within the framework of a mutually acceptable political solution, emphasized the UN chief.

He underlined that his aim is to contribute to this solution and facilitate genuine negotiations so that Sahrawi refugees can return home to Western Sahara.

I am also deeply concerned about the situation in Libya, he added. There are alarming reports of widespread human rights violations, including serious abuses that may amount to war crimes. All those with influence must use it to calm the situation and stop the fighting. It is utterly irresponsible for any outside player to stoke the fires.

Ending his remarks, the UN chief said he is inspired by Mauritania's rich history, and that the world needs such an open-hearted spirit to break down walls and forge trust.
EU/Turkey: Don't Negotiate Away Refugee Rights

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 4 March 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, EU/Turkey: Don't Negotiate Away Refugee Rights, 4 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de91864.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The European Union deal with Turkey is a flawed and potentially dangerous policy response to refugee flows across the Aegean Sea. EU and Turkish leaders will meet in Brussels on March 7, 2016, to discuss implementation of a joint action plan that the EU hopes will limit migration and refugee flows from Turkey to Greece.

Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document today, including details about why Turkey should not be considered a safe country of asylum.

"EU leaders are in a panic to stop refugee flows before spring, and they seem willing to throw human rights overboard in the process," said Judith Sunderland, acting deputy director for the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "It is naked self-interest and wishful thinking to say Turkey is a safe country of asylum - it is not, and this deal could cause much more harm than good."

The EU and Turkey signed the controversial deal in November 2015. The EU pledged 3 billion and political concessions to Turkey, in exchange for stepped up efforts to curb migration and refugee flows to Europe. The EU is eager for Turkey to crack down on boat departures from its coastline; an average of 2,500 people have made the crossing every day since the deal was struck. The 3 billion should be used to improve access to health care, education, and other basic services for more than 2 million Syrian refugees already in Turkey.

Turkey does not meet the two most basic conditions for a safe country of asylum, Human Rights Watch said. It does not provide effective protection for refugees and has repeatedly pushed asylum seekers back to Syria. Turkey has ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, but is the only country in the world to apply a geographical limitation so that only Europeans can get refugee status there.

While Turkey has been generous to Syrians, hosting more than 2 million refugees under a temporary protection regime, Syrians in Turkey face continuing barriers to employment and education. Turkey recently granted Syrians with temporary protection the right to work under certain conditions. Most other refugees, including Iraqis, Afghans, and Iranians, have even less legal protection in Turkey.

Significantly increasing refugee resettlement from Turkey could offer a credible alternative to smugglers and deadly boat crossings, Human Rights Watch said. Various proposals have stalled, however, and the EU has a generally poor record on resettlement. By mid-January 2016, fewer than 800 people had been brought to Europe under a 2015 commitment by EU governments to resettle 22,500 refugees from various regions over the next two years.

The EU-Turkey summit comes as tensions mount along EU and Western Balkan borders. An estimated 11,000 migrants and asylum seekers are blocked at the Greece-Macedonia border because of discriminatory border restrictions. Thousands more are stranded in Athens and on Greek islands, in an ever-deepening humanitarian crisis. In a belated but positive move, the European Commission proposed on March 2 an emergency fund of 700 million to help Greece and other countries manage the influx over the next three years.

More than 1 million migrants and asylum seekers reached EU shores in 2015, while more than 130,000 have crossed the Mediterranean so far in 2016. The vast majority have crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. More than 400 women, men, and children have died or been reported missing in the Mediterranean since January 1. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees says that 90 percent of those arriving since the beginning of 2016 are from three of the world's top refugee-producing countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

"The EU should demonstrate global leadership, collective action, and solidarity with refugees," Sunderland said. "Improving capacity in countries like Turkey to provide effective protection to refugees is a laudable long-term goal, but it's no substitute for sharing responsibility for fairly processing and humanely hosting asylum seekers in the midst of a global displacement crisis."

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
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Will the EU let itself be humiliated over media freedom in Turkey?

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 6 March 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Will the EU let itself be humiliated over media freedom in Turkey?, 6 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de98d221d.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

On the eve of another European Union-Turkey summit about migration, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges the EU to show all the necessary firmness in response to the attacks on media freedom in Turkey.

"The European Union must not settle for just reminding the Turkish authorities of the principles of media freedom," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. "It must exercise all of its potential leverage. There can be no question of resuming EU accession talks while Ankara visibly tramples on basic European values. If the EU continues to yield to blackmail regarding migrants, it will give the impression of abandoning the principles on which it was founded.

"Until now, the European Union has demonstrated culpable weakness in response to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attacks on the media. But 'business as usual' would be incomprehensible after he seized control of the main opposition media group in such a brutal manner while Donald Tusk was in Ankara. Is the EU determined to let itself be humiliated?"

After a court issued an order for the authorities to take control of the opposition Zaman media group, the police stormed its headquarters on the night of 4 March and used teargas and water cannon against the hundreds of protesters outside. Zaman's management was then dismissed and the Zaman daily newspaper is now taking a pro-government line that borders on caricature.

Turkey is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in RSF's latest World Press Freedom Index.
"President Erdogan, we hold you responsible for their safety"

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 2 March 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, "President Erdogan, we hold you responsible for their safety", 2 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de9946411.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) today organized the first news conference to be given by Cumhuriyet editor Can Dundar since his release from Silivri prison on 26 February, ending 92 days in pre-trial detention.

Addressing a room packed with journalists in Istanbul's Elite World Hotel, Dundar denounced "the climate of fear that the Erdogan regime has spread among journalists."

"We are journalists, not functionaries working for the state," he said. "It is our duty to provide the public with information, including information about the government's illegal actions. Right from the very first hearing in our trial, on 25 March, we are going to fully expose the state's crimes. We are not going to defend ourselves. We are going to put the state's crimes on trial."

RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire, who also took part in the news conference, hailed the courage of Turkey's constitutional court for ruling that the prolonged pre-trial detention of Dundar and Cumhuriyet's Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, was illegal.

"Yes, international pressure is effective," Deloire said. "For millions of people in Turkey and elsewhere, Can Dundar now symbolizes the very essence of journalism." Deloire also underlined the danger of President Erdogan's public statement that he does not respect the constitutional court's decision.

"Mr. Erdogan, we hold you responsible for the safety of Can Dundar and Erdem Gul," he said, reiterating RSF's commitment to stand by the two journalists, who continue to face the possibility of being sentenced to life imprisonment. "We will not rest until the absurd charges have been dropped. We will be there at the opening of the trial on 25 March."

RSF announced its intention of submitting the cases of arbitrarily detained Turkish journalists to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Turkey is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2015 World Press Index.

Sign the petition: Can Dundar faces life imprisonment for wanting to inform us.
Reformists surge despite obstacles to media freedom

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 2 March 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Reformists surge despite obstacles to media freedom, 2 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56de9b91411.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the renewed restraints that the authorities placed on media coverage during last week's elections in Iran and urges President Hassan Rouhani to take advantage of the relative good results achieved by the reformists and finally begin improving respect for media freedom.

A total of 54 million Iranians had the right to vote on 26 February for a new parliament and Assembly of Experts (the 88 "experts in Islamic law" who will one day choose the next Supreme Leader). The election was fixed inasmuch as candidates not complying with "Islamic values" or "not loyal to Islam, the Islamic Republic and its leader" were vetoed in advance by the Guardian Council.

Nontheless, many Iranians yet again took advantage of the elections to vote against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's policies. Even if they did not win a parliamentary majority, Rouhani's supporters did well, indicating that there is a desire for change, especially as regards respect for fundamental rights.

So Rouhani and his reformist and moderate allies no longer have any excuse for not releasing the 37 journalists currently in prison in Iran.

Not content with vetoing candidates, hardline authorities had complete control over the media and suppressed opposition voices. RSF points out that a free election depends on unobstructed access to independently reported news and information, and that any election that lacks this cannot be regarded as transparent and democratic.

Two months before the elections, the Revolutionary Guards conducted a preventive crackdown on the media that included arrests, closures of newspapers and intimidation of media outlets and individual journalists.

On 2 November, they arrested Afarine Chitsaz of the daily Iran, Ehssan Mandarinier, the editor of the daily Farhikhteghan, Saman Safarzai of the monthly Andisher Poya and Issa Saharkhiz, a well-known independent journalist. All are still being held.

Farzad Pourmoradi, a journalist working for media outlets in the western province of Kermanshah including Kermanshah Post and Navai Vaghat, was also arrested on 2 November. Bahman Darolshafai, a former reporter for the BBC and several reformist Iranian newspapers, was arrested by plainclothesmen on 3 February Released on bail on 23 February, he is now awaiting trial.

According to the information obtained by RSF, several other journalists were summoned for questioning and some of them were detained by the intelligence section of the Revolutionary Guards.

The reporting provided by media based abroad is often the only way for Iranians to get access to alternative news coverage but this reporting is also subjected to control attempts by the authorities and to demonization and intimidation by the intelligence services.

Two weeks ago, media outlets and prominent figures that support the Supreme Leader stepped up their attacks on foreign media and, in particular, the BBC's Persian-language section. On 17 February, Khamenei cited the BBC as an example of British meddling in the election and of the attempts by Iran's enemies to infiltrate the election process.

Khamenei accused these media of supporting the "block the hardliners" campaign on social networks that was designed to prevent the election of his supporters. Ever since President Rouhani's election in June 2013, many Persian-language media outlets based abroad have provided fairly favourable coverage of the Iranian government's actions. But Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards do not tolerate uncontrolled media reporting.

In the past three months, RSF has registered ten cases of threats against Iranian exile journalists working for international media or for independent Persian-language media based abroad, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Farda, Voice of America, Radio Zamaneh and the BBC.

Several of these journalists have been the targets of direct warnings by the intelligence services or by pro-government media outlets such as Farsnews, a news agency that supports the Revolutionary Guards.

Close relatives of some of these journalists have also been summoned and questioned by intelligence officials. After being interrogated for several hours, they were told to get the journalist to "stop collaborating with enemy media," failing which "other members of the family will be summoned and possibly arrested."

According to the Iranian authorities, more than 100 foreign journalists were given permission to cover the elections. Some foreign reporters confirmed that it was relatively easy to get a press visa but complained of being watched by the intelligence services and about the restrictions imposed on them. In particular, they said their visa was conditioned on their hiring interpreters and fixers through a government-controlled agency.

With a total of 37 journalists and citizen-journalists currently detained,Iran is still one of the world's five biggest prisons for media personnel and is ranked 173rd out of 180 countriesin the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
Freedom in the World 2016 - United States

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - United States, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2ecc.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 90

Freedom Rating: 1.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 1

Trend Arrow: 

The United States received a downward trend arrow because of the cumulative impact of flaws in the electoral system, a disturbing increase in the role of private money in election campaigns and the legislative process, legislative gridlock, the failure of the Obama administration to fulfill promises of enhanced government openness, and fresh evidence of racial discrimination and other dysfunctions in the criminal justice system.

Quick Facts

Population: 321,234,172

Capital: Washington, DC

GDP/Capita: $54,629.50

Press Freedom Status: Free

Net Freedom Status: Free

OVERVIEW

As the 2016 election campaign got under way, relations between the Democratic Party administration of President Barack Obama and Congress  controlled by the Republican Party  remained tense throughout 2015. The two sides managed to enact a crucial spending bill in December, but only after John Boehner stepped down as speaker of the House of Representatives in October, under pressure from hard-line conservatives in the Republican rank and file. Facing continued legislative gridlock on many issues, Obama attempted to push through parts of his agenda by issuing executive orders and other such measures. While this led to some policy actions, especially on environmental regulation, his efforts to remove the threat of deportation from as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants, a substantial portion of the estimated 11 million thought to be in the United States illegally, were stymied when federal courts blocked the plan's implementation.

Immigration was also a major subject of debate among the 2016 presidential candidates. Some Republican contenders called for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. Most of the Republicans also called for a halt in the admission of refugees from the war in Syria, ostensibly to prevent infiltration by terrorists, and one contender, wealthy real-estate developer Donald Trump, proposed a complete ban on entry to the United States for all Muslims. The campaign in general featured a surge in popularity for strident, antiestablishment candidates like Trump on the right and Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont on the left.

Mass shootings continued to claim lives across the country, renewing a perennial discussion of proposed restrictions on gun ownership. While the targets of the separate attacks included a college campus and a women's health clinic and featured a variety of motives, the year's deadliest assault was carried out in San Bernardino, California, by a husband and wife who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Obama took modest executive actions to tighten enforcement of existing laws and urged further changes through the legislative process. However, the gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, and the Republican Party remained strongly opposed to any new gun-control proposals.

A controversy over relations between black citizens and the police grew in intensity in 2015. There were demonstrations in Baltimore, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and other cities after high-profile incidents in which black people, often unarmed, were shot or fatally injured in confrontations with the police. While seeking justice in individual cases, protesters also demanded major changes in police use-of-force practices and asked the federal Justice Department to investigate local law enforcement policies.

In a major advance toward equal rights for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people, the Supreme Court ruled in June that the federal constitution guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage, effectively legalizing such marriages nationwide.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 36 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 11 / 12

The United States is a presidential republic, with the president serving as both head of state and head of government. Cabinet secretaries and other key officials are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, the upper house of the bicameral Congress. Presidential elections are decided by an Electoral College, making it possible for a candidate to win the presidency while losing the national popular vote. Electoral College votes are apportioned to each state based on the size of its congressional representation. In most cases, all of the electors in a particular state cast their ballots for the candidate who won the statewide popular vote, regardless of the margin. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, have chosen to divide their electoral votes between the candidates based on their popular-vote performance in each congressional district. The president may serve up to two four-year terms. In the 2012 election, President Obama, the incumbent, won the Electoral College tally by 332 to 206 and the popular vote by 51 to 47 percent, defeating his Republican Party challenger, Mitt Romney.

The Senate consists of 100 members  two from each of the 50 states  serving six-year terms, with one-third coming up for election every two years. The lower chamber, the House of Representatives, consists of 435 members serving two-year terms. All national legislators are elected directly by voters in the districts or states that they represent. In the 2014 congressional elections, Republicans won control of the Senate with 54 seats. Democrats control 44 seats, and there are two independent senators who generally vote with the Democrats. In the House, Republicans added to their majority, taking 247 seats, versus 188 for the Democrats. Republicans also control the majority of state governorships and legislatures.

In some states, citizens have a wide-ranging ability to influence legislation through referendums. Such direct-democracy mechanisms, often initiated by signature campaigns, have been hailed by some as a reflection of the openness of the U.S. system. However, they have also been criticized on the grounds that they can lead to incoherent governance, undermine representative democracy, and weaken the party system. Referendums in various states in recent years have resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage, elimination of affirmative-action programs for minority groups, legalization of recreational use of marijuana, and increases in the state minimum wage.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 15 / 16 (-1)

The intensely competitive U.S. political environment is dominated by two major parties, the right-leaning Republicans and the left-leaning Democrats. The country's "first past the post" or majoritarian electoral system discourages the emergence of additional parties, as do a number of specific legal and other hurdles. However, on occasion, independent or third-party candidates have significantly influenced politics at the presidential and state levels, and a number of newer parties, such as the Green Party or groups aligned with organized labor, have modestly affected politics in certain municipalities in recent years.

Election campaigns in the United States are long and expensive. The two main parties and the constituency and interest groups that support them have used an array of methods to circumvent legal restrictions on campaign spending, and the Supreme Court on several occasions has struck down such restrictions, finding that they violated free-speech rights. The cost of the 2012 presidential race alone reached at least $5.8 billion, and spending on television and radio advertising for the 2016 race in 2015 was more than triple that spent in 2011, suggesting even greater spending in the coming year. Such ballooning expenditures have drawn criticism in part because they lead elected officials to devote more time to fundraising and less to official duties, and because large donations increase the risk or appearance of corruption. Among other such reports during the year, the New York Times found that just 158 families accounted for the majority of campaign donations in the first half of 2015, reinforcing the perception that the wealthy and other privileged groups wield undue influence in the political system.

While the majoritarian system has discouraged the establishment of parties based on race, ethnicity, or religion, religious groups and racial or ethnic minorities have been able to gain a political voice through participation in the two main parties. A number of laws have been enacted to ensure the political rights of minorities. However, relatively new laws in a number of states require voters to present driver's licenses, birth certificates, or other forms of identification before casting ballots. Sponsors of such legislation claim that the intent is to combat voter fraud. Critics contend that such fraud is at most a minor problem and accuse Republicans of adopting the laws to suppress participation by demographic groups that tend to support Democrats, particularly low-income black voters. While the courts have struck down some voter identification laws, others have been upheld, and the issue was set to be contested further as the 2016 elections approached.

C. Functioning of Government: 10 / 12

Federal policymaking and government have been hampered in recent years by partisan gridlock in Congress, and between Congress and the executive branch. Impasses over taxation, federal debt, and spending bills have repeatedly threatened to halt government operations or trigger a default on public debt. While the all-encompassing "omnibus" spending bill passed in December 2015 is set to fund the government until October 2016, Congress again failed to use "regular order"  the traditional procedure for appropriations legislation whereby each of 12 bills funding different portions of the government are debated and passed individually in each chamber before being reconciled in conference committees. Regular order, which has not been followed in full in at least a decade, is widely seen as more transparent than recent practices.

American society has a tradition of intolerance toward government corruption, and the media are aggressive in reporting on such malfeasance. Cases of corruption at the federal level have been relatively rare or small in scale in recent years. The most serious abuses have instead been uncovered among state and local officials. In 2015, the Democratic leader of the New York State Assembly and the Republican leader of the State Senate resigned their leadership posts to face corruption charges, and both were eventually convicted.

The United States has a history of open and transparent government. It was the first country to adopt a freedom of information law. A substantial number of auditing and investigative agencies function independently of political influence. Such bodies are often spurred to action by the investigative work of journalists. Federal agencies regularly place information relevant to their mandates on websites to broaden public access.

In 2009, Obama ordered that millions of government documents from the Cold War era be declassified, and instructed federal agencies to adopt a cooperative attitude toward public information requests. However, the administration has since encountered criticism for engendering an atmosphere of secrecy. Prosecutors have exerted efforts to compel journalists to reveal the sources of leaked national security information, and the administration has been accused of implementing an aggressive policy to discourage government officials from having contact with the media. Journalists and scholars have also charged that the administration has failed to live up to the president's promise of a responsive policy toward freedom of information requests. A 2015 report by the Justice Department found that the backlog of information requests had grown to nearly 160,000 in the 2014 fiscal year, from 77,000 in 2009, as an increase in requests coincided with a decline in dedicated staffing. Also in 2014, agencies cited exemptions to withhold information related to nearly 220,000 requests.

Civil Liberties: 54 / 60 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 15 / 16

The United States has a free, diverse, and constitutionally protected press. While newspapers have been in economic decline for a number of years, the media environment retains a high degree of pluralism. Internet access is widespread and unrestricted, and news websites now constitute a major source of political news, along with cable television networks and talk-radio programs. News coverage has also grown more polarized, with particular outlets and their star commentators providing a consistently right- or left-leaning perspective.

The Justice Department has been criticized for its efforts in recent years to compel journalists, via the courts, to reveal their sources of classified information. However, both the president and the attorney general pledged in 2014 that journalists would not be jailed for refusing to identify sources.

The United States has a long tradition of religious freedom. The constitution protects the free exercise of religion while barring any official endorsement of a religious faith, and there are no direct government subsidies to houses of worship. The debate over the role of religion in public life is ongoing, however, and religious groups often mobilize to influence political discussions on the diverse issues in which they take an interest. The Supreme Court regularly adjudicates difficult cases involving the relationship between church and state.

The academic sphere features a substantial level of intellectual freedom. Nevertheless, universities have faced problems related to their establishment of overseas branches in such repressive settings as China, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Critics have accused universities of avoiding discussion of sensitive issues at these foreign campuses and agreeing to restrain student political activism. U.S. universities have also been criticized for giving in to pressure from student activist groups that object to speakers who have been invited to campus events. Speakers have regularly been disinvited or decided to withdraw from appearances after protests were launched. University students have also mounted protests over what they perceive as an environment of racism on campus. In 2015, both the chancellor and the president of the University of Missouri resigned in the wake of such protest actions. Another controversy involves academic involvement with Israel. Several scholarly associations have voted to condemn Israeli policies and endorse the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign.

Americans generally enjoy open and free private discussion, including on the internet. However, civil libertarians, many lawmakers, and other observers have pointed to the real and potential effects of National Security Agency (NSA) data collection and other forms of government monitoring on the rights of U.S. citizens. In June 2015, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which banned the bulk collection of citizens' telephone and internet records, a step urged by civil libertarians. Meanwhile, policymakers and experts continued to debate possible restrictions on encrypted communications, which ensure privacy but prevent even legally authorized monitoring by law enforcement agencies.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 11 / 12

In general, officials respect the right to public assembly. Demonstrations against government policies are frequently held in Washington, New York, and other major cities. In response to acts of violence committed in the course of some past demonstrations, local authorities often place restrictions on the location or duration of large protests directed at meetings of international institutions, political party conventions, or targets in the financial sector. During 2015, demonstrations over alleged police misconduct were held in a number of cities. While most were peaceful, protests in Baltimore over the death of a black man during transportation in a police van were punctuated by an outbreak of violence and arson in late April.

The United States gives wide freedom to trade associations, nongovernmental organizations, minority rights advocates, and issue-oriented pressure groups to organize and pursue their civic or policy agendas.

Federal law guarantees trade unions the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining. The right to strike is also guaranteed. Over the years, however, the strength of organized labor has declined, and less than 7 percent of the private-sector workforce is currently represented by unions. While public-sector unions have higher rates of membership, with over 35 percent in 2015, they have come under pressure from officials concerned about the cost of compensation and pensions to states and municipalities. The overall unionization rate in the United States is approximately 11 percent. The country's labor code and decisions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during Republican presidencies have been regarded as impediments to organizing efforts, although the board has been sympathetic to unionization during the Obama presidency. Union organizing is also hampered by strong resistance from private employers. In 2015, Wisconsin became the 25th state to adopt "right to work" legislation, which weakens unions by allowing workers who benefit from union bargaining efforts to opt out of paying union dues or fees. A case challenging such fees among public-sector workers in California was before the Supreme Court at year's end. Organized labor's political clout at the national level has diminished along with its membership, but unions continue to provide significant support to Democratic candidates during election campaigns.

F. Rule of Law: 13 / 16 (-1)

Judicial independence is respected. Although the courts have occasionally been accused of intervening in areas that are best left to the political branches, most observers regard the judiciary as one of the country's strongest democratic institutions. In recent years, much attention has been paid to the ideological composition of the Supreme Court, which has issued a number of major decisions by a one-vote margin and is currently seen as having a conservative majority. Concern has also been raised about a trend toward the politicization of judicial elections in some states.

While the United States has a strong rule-of-law tradition, the criminal justice system's treatment of minority groups has long been a problem. Black and Latino inmates account for a disproportionately large percentage of the prison population. Civil liberties organizations and other groups have also advanced a broader critique of the justice system, arguing that there are too many Americans in prison, that prison sentences are often excessive, that too many prisoners are relegated to solitary confinement or other maximum-security arrangements, and that too many people are incarcerated for minor drug offenses. A broad left-right political coalition calling for reform on the last issue has emerged despite increased partisan rancor on other matters. Although the U.S. incarceration rate has declined somewhat in recent years, it remains easily one of the highest in the world. Additional calls for prison reform have focused on the incidence of violence and rape behind bars.

Many critics of the incarceration problem point to abuses and deficiencies at other stages of the legal process. Media reports and analyses in 2014 and 2015 drew new attention to the extensive use of plea bargaining in criminal cases, with prosecutors employing the threat of harsh sentences to avoid trial and effectively reducing the role of the judiciary; the practice of municipalities imposing fines for minor offenses as a means of raising budget revenues, which can lead to jail terms for those who fail to pay; deficiencies in the parole system; and long-standing funding shortages for public defenders, who represent low-income criminal defendants.

The increased focus on the criminal justice system has coincided with a series of widely publicized incidents over the past two years in which police actions led to the deaths of black civilians. A number of the confrontations were captured on video, and the recordings appeared to show unjustified use of force by the officers in question. In response, the Justice Department has launched investigations into both specific incidents and broader police practices in several municipalities. As officers have often avoided indictments in such cases, critics called for sweeping changes to the grand jury system and the appointment of special prosecutors for cases involving police shootings. Some jurisdictions have enacted policies requiring police to wear body cameras and record interactions with civilians. While bipartisan efforts to reform aspects of the criminal justice system are gaining momentum in Congress, responsibility for the overwhelming majority of law enforcement issues rests with state and local governments.

Use of the death penalty has declined significantly in recent years. There were 28 executions, in six states, in 2015  the lowest number in more than two decades. The death penalty has been formally abolished by 19 states; in another 15 states where it remains on the books, executions have not been carried out for the past five years or more. The most recent federal execution was in 2003. Of particular importance in this trend has been the exoneration of some death-row inmates based on new DNA testing, as well as legal challenges to the constitutionality of the prevailing methods of lethal injection. Lethal injection has also come under pressure due to pharmaceutical companies' refusal to supply the designated drugs for the purpose of executions, forcing states to search for new suppliers or adopt new drug combinations, which in turn draw fresh legal challenges.

The Supreme Court has effectively ruled out the death penalty for crimes other than murder and in cases where the perpetrator is a juvenile or mentally disabled, among other restrictions. In 2012, the court further decided that juvenile offenders could not be subjected to mandatory sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The Obama administration made slow progress in 2015 in its effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has been used to hold terrorism suspects captured abroad in the early 2000s, in many cases without formal charge or trial. While Obama has repeatedly stated his determination to close the detention center, Congress has expressly forbidden the transfer of detainees to American prisons. A number of detainees determined to be low-level threats were transferred to cooperating countries, but at year's end, 107 men remained confined at Guantanamo.

The United States is one of the world's most racially and ethnically diverse societies. In recent years, residents and citizens of Latin American ancestry have replaced black Americans as the largest minority group, and the majority held by the non-Latino white population has declined. An array of policies and programs are designed to protect the rights of minorities, including laws to prevent workplace discrimination. However, the black population and some other groups continue to lag in overall economic standing, educational attainment, and other social indicators. The Supreme Court has authorized the use of race or ethnicity as a factor in university admissions under certain narrow conditions to improve access for minorities, but several states have banned it outright through referendums. A new challenge to the practice was pending at the court at the end of 2015.

Federal antidiscrimination legislation does not include LGBT people as a protected class, though many states have enacted such protections. The government bans discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in federal employment and among federal contractors.

The United States has generally maintained liberal immigration policies in recent decades. Most observers believe that the country has struck a balance that both encourages assimilation and permits new immigrants to maintain their religious and cultural customs. Many Americans remain troubled by the large number of immigrants in the country illegally, however, and the government has responded by strengthening border security and stepping up deportation efforts, especially for undocumented immigrants found guilty of criminal offenses.

Although the Obama administration and most Democrats support proposals that would offer many current undocumented immigrants a path to resident status and eventual citizenship, such reforms have been opposed by most Republican elected officials. The administration has focused its enforcement policies on criminals and other high-priority categories of migrants while explicitly sparing groups like those who entered the country illegally as children.

During 2015, a controversy arose over the administration's September announcement that it intended to allow 10,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict to resettle in the United States over the next year. Only about 2,000 Syrians had been admitted since the war began in 2011, and other countries, including Canada, were taking in many more. Thirty-one U.S. governors said they would oppose the refugees' settlement in their states, citing the possibility of terrorist infiltration. However, the governors apparently had no legal authority to block the plan, and Syrian refugees began arriving in larger numbers by year's end. The United States was set to take in 85,000 refugees from all countries in the 2016 fiscal year, up from 70,000 in previous years.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 15 / 16

Citizens of the United States enjoy freedom of movement and a high level of personal autonomy. The right to own property is protected by law and is jealously guarded as part of the American way of life. Business entrepreneurship is encouraged as a matter of government policy.

Women have made important strides toward equality over the past several decades. They now constitute almost half of the American workforce and are well represented in professions like law, medicine, and journalism. In December 2015, the Defense Department announced that all combat roles in the military were open to women. Although women with recent university degrees have effectively attained parity with men, the average compensation for female workers is roughly 80 percent of that for male workers. Many female-headed families continue to live in conditions of chronic poverty. In the past five years, there has been a renewed effort in some states to restrict a woman's access to abortion. A number of new state laws are being tailored to push the boundaries of prior court decisions, and some have survived initial judicial scrutiny, adding to state-by-state variation in access.

In its June 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court found that all states must allow same-sex marriage. The practice had already become legal in most states through court decisions, legislative action, or referendums, but the new ruling invalidated laws in a minority of states that still barred same-sex couples from marrying.

The "American dream"  the notion of a fair society in which hard work will bring economic and social advancement, regardless of the circumstances of one's birth  is a core part of the country's identity, and voters tend to favor government policies that enhance equality of opportunity. Recently, however, studies have shown a widening inequality in wealth and a narrowing of access to upward mobility. A principal driver of inequality is the widening gap between Americans with university degrees and those with a high school degree or less. A number of states and municipalities have enacted substantial hikes in the minimum wage, and the unemployment rate continued to decline in 2015. However, wages overall have remained stagnant for many years, and the number of well-compensated jobs for the less-educated have fallen steeply. A consequence of this trend is working-class resentment of immigrants, who are seen as competitors for blue-collar jobs. At the same time, Democratic Party leaders have generally failed to win passage of measures that require wealthier citizens to pay more in taxes. Among the world's prosperous, stable democracies, the United States is unique in having a large underclass of poor people who have at best a marginal role in economic life.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Ukraine

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Ukraine, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2ede.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 61

Freedom Rating: 3.0

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 3

Explanatory Note:

The numerical ratings and status listed above do not reflect conditions in Crimea, which is examined in a separate report.

Quick Facts

Population: 42,828,300

Capital: Kyiv

GDP/Capita: $3,082.50

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Conditions in Ukraine stabilized somewhat in 2015 compared with the previous year, which included the Euromaidan protests, the downfall of President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia's occupation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas, and presidential and parliamentary elections. With Crimea still held by Russia and continued fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko's top priority was restoring the country's territorial integrity and peace within its borders.

The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany agreed in February to the so-called Minsk II accord, which called for a cease-fire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front, release of hostages and detainees, changes in the Ukrainian constitution to give more autonomy to the regions, legislation on special status for parts of the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, withdrawal of foreign forces from Ukraine, and restored Ukrainian government control over the eastern border by the end of 2015. Low-intensity combat, albeit with numerous fatalities, continued along the line of contact until early October, when Russia turned its attention to a military intervention in Syria.

By the end of 2015, at least 9,000 people had been killed and more than 20,000 injured in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The fighting also displaced more than two million people, and the government has struggled to meet the humanitarian needs of those displaced within Ukraine. The 3.5 million people who live in the occupied Donbas territories are effectively dependent on Russia; those still receiving Ukrainian pensions in 2015 had to travel to government-held areas to collect them. The occupied area, which once comprised 15 percent of Ukraine's economy, had lost more than 60 percent of its former economic activity by year's end, and various pro-Russian militias and organized crime groups had seized or looted key economic assets. The media in the area remained under the tight control of the de facto authorities.

The debate over constitutional amendments allowing decentralization shaped Ukrainian politics for much of 2015. Although supporters of decentralization hoped to shift power and financing to local governments so as to bring state services and authority closer to the people, the issue was entangled with Moscow's demand that the Ukrainian government grant significant autonomy to the separatist territories  the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LNR). This connection made it difficult to proceed with decentralization reforms without running afoul of Ukrainians who opposed concessions to Russia, in addition to regional authorities who resisted losing power and resources to subregional entities.

In March, in keeping with the Minsk II accord, the parliament adopted legislation giving special status to the separatist-held areas, to take effect after Russian troops are withdrawn and elections are held under Ukrainian law. When legislators granted initial approval in August to constitutional amendments on decentralization, including a provision allowing the special-status law, a Ukrainian nationalist from the Svoboda party threw a hand grenade that killed three members of the National Guard of Ukraine outside the parliament building. The controversial vote undermined the governing coalition, with the Radical Party withdrawing to join the opposition. A second and final vote on the amendments, scheduled for December and requiring a two-thirds majority, did not take place by year's end.

Beyond the Donbas issue, critics of the decentralization amendments objected to a provision that gave the president and his appointed regional prefects the ability to overrule and even disband local councils. The president currently appoints regional governors, but they cannot disband councils. The process of amalgamating Ukraine's 11,000 villages and other primary-level municipalities (hromady) into about 1,500 larger, more manageable units proceeded slowly under separate legislation, and only 159 were ready to participate in the October 2015 local elections. Under pressure from the Kremlin, the DNR and LNR postponed their own local elections until March 2016. They had threatened to hold the votes in the fall without Ukrainian government oversight, in violation of the Minsk II accord.

Meanwhile, Ukraine continued to pursue greater integration with Europe. A free-trade agreement with the European Union (EU) was set to take effect at the beginning of 2016, and much of Ukraine's previous trade with Russia has been cut off by tit-for-tat sanctions between the two countries. However, obstacles to further integration include stalled anticorruption reforms and the activities of armed militia groups.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 25 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12

The president is elected to a maximum of two five-year terms. After Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014, a snap presidential election was held that May. Poroshenko won 54.7 percent of the overall vote and majorities in regions across the country. The process was largely considered free and fair by international observers, although voting could not take place in Crimea and some districts in the east.

Yanukovych in 2010 had overseen the restoration of the 1996 constitution, which featured a dominant presidency, but a 386-0 vote by the parliament in February 2014 reversed that move, reviving the 2004 charter. The latter, the product of a compromise during the Orange Revolution, had shifted power to the prime minister and cabinet and made them responsible to the parliament, though the president retained control over the foreign and defense ministers and the head of the security service. This division of power had led to infighting between the president and prime minister between 2004 and 2010, and similar rifts began to emerge in 2015.

Citizens elect delegates to the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council), the 450-seat unicameral parliament, for five-year terms, according to a system in which half of the members are chosen by closed-list proportional representation and half in single-member districts. The early parliamentary elections held in October 2014 produced a legislature with a reformist majority. Petro Poroshenko's Bloc won 133 seats, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front took 81, Self-Reliance 33, the Opposition Bloc 29, the Radical Party 22, and Fatherland 19. Several smaller parties and 96 independents divided the remainder. While the elections were generally deemed free and fair, voting was again impossible in Crimea and separatist-held parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, where many citizens would likely have voted against the winning reformist parties. As a result of the occupation, the elections filled only 423 of the parliament's 450 seats.

Parliamentary by-elections in Chernihiv in July 2015 were marred by flagrant vote buying as Poroshenko vied for control against the powerful businessman  or "oligarch"  Ihor Kolomoysky. Poroshenko's candidate prevailed.

In October 2015, Ukraine held elections for more than 10,000 mayors and 155,970 local, district, and regional council members, with 132 political parties participating. Turnout was 46.6 percent. Petro Poroshenko's Bloc and its allies won more than 16,500 seats, while former prime minister Yuliya Tymoshenko's Fatherland party placed second with over 8,000 seats. The Opposition Bloc, a successor to Yanukovych's Party of Regions, did well in some of the eastern and southern regions, taking over 4,000 seats. Oligarchs like Kolomoysky funded many of the parties, benefiting from a lack of effective campaign-finance laws and poor implementation of those that existed. A number of parties sought to attract votes with gifts of food and money. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the influence of business groups as a primary concern, among other problems, though it generally found the elections to be competitive and well organized. The electoral laws did not allow for internally displaced persons to vote outside their home municipalities.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 10 / 16

Since the fall of Yanukovych, Ukraine's political party system has experienced extreme volatility. With court approval in December 2015, the Justice Ministry banned the Communist Party; it had been accused of supporting the pro-Russian separatists, and refused to comply with May legislation prohibiting Soviet or Nazi symbols. Other older parties have all but disappeared, while a variety of new groups have formed and won important offices. Such instability can be attributed in part to the fact that the country's parties are typically little more than vehicles for their leaders and financial backers, and they generally lack coherent ideologies or policy platforms. In 2015, the president, the prime minister, a former prime minister, the Kyiv mayor, the Lviv mayor, and numerous other leaders all had their own parties. The most dramatic collapse during the year was that of Yatsenyuk's People's Front, which won 22 percent in the 2014 parliamentary elections but polled only around 2 percent ahead of the 2015 local elections; it decided to compete in a bloc with Poroshenko's and Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klychko's parties to avoid a humiliating defeat on its own.

In late October, the authorities detained Hennadiy Korban  the head of an opposition party, Ukrainian Association of Patriots (UKROP), that was established in June and affiliated with Kolomoysky  on suspicion of kidnapping, embezzlement, and ties to organized crime. Observers raised concerns that the action was politically motivated. The government said the arrest was part of its effort to combat corruption and "restore order" in the country.

In an attempt to improve transparency in the political process, the president in October signed a law providing for the public financing of parties that secure at least 2 percent of the national vote and requiring parties to disclose the sources of their funding. Implementation is scheduled to begin in July 2016.

Russia maintained a powerful influence over the course of Ukrainian political life through its occupation of Crimea, involvement in the fighting in the east, imposition of economic sanctions on the rest of the country, and manipulation of the price Ukraine pays for natural gas.

Ethnic minorities are able to participate freely in political affairs in Ukraine. However, their voting and representation has been hindered by factors including the conflict in the Donbas, illiteracy and lack of identity documents for many Roma, and rules against running as an independent for many local, district, and regional offices.

C. Functioning of Government: 6 / 12

Aside from the conflict in the east, the main obstacle to effective governance in Ukraine is corruption, and the vast majority of citizens were deeply disappointed with the government's slow progress in combating it during 2015.

In April, the government sharply reduced energy subsidies, aiming to remove distortions in the market that had drained state coffers and fostered corruption. Among other measures during the year, new traffic police forces were introduced in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and other cities  a popular change that in many places reportedly ended the scourge of street-level officers seeking bribes, though the new officers represented only a small fraction of the country's overall police force.

Much remains to be done. No major figures have been arrested, and the government has recovered almost none of the billions of dollars in assets that were allegedly looted under previous administrations. Critics  including former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was appointed governor of Odesa in May  claim that there is a "shadow government" that allows powerful insiders to take advantage of the system for personal gain. Oligarchs continue to exert considerable influence over Ukrainian life through their control of some 70 percent of the economy, much of the media, and the financing of political parties. In March 2015, after attempting to assert control over the country's main oil company, Kolomoysky was dismissed from the governorship of Dnipropetrovsk by Poroshenko. However, the tycoon continued to influence politics through his support for election financing, his personal television network, armed battalions that are nominally loyal to the state, and other means. Political parties use their positions in the parliament to control lucrative state companies.

Another key problem is pervasive corruption among Ukraine's prosecutors and judges. Poroshenko resisted numerous calls to replace Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin during 2015, and reformers such as Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze complained that many prosecutors block efforts to fight corruption. Although the parliament adopted a lustration law in 2014, it has not been used against prosecutors and judges.

A package of anticorruption legislation adopted in 2014 is being implemented slowly. The reforms set up a National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU) to investigate corrupt officials, called for a National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), and sought to establish a separate anticorruption section within the prosecutor general's office. Artem Sytnyk was appointed to lead the NABU in April 2015, and Shokin appointed Nazar Kholodnytsky as the new anticorruption prosecutor in November, though it remained to be seen how effective either official would be, particularly without reforms in the prosecutor's office and judiciary. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focused on combating corruption complained in June that they were not properly included in the process of choosing the new leaders of the NACP as required by law. In December, Poroshenko signed a law creating an additional agency to deal with the assets of corrupt officials, potentially exacerbating the problem of overlapping authorities in the fight against graft.

Civil Liberties: 36 / 60 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 11 / 16

The constitution guarantees freedoms of speech and expression, and libel is not a criminal offense. The media landscape features considerable pluralism and open criticism of the government. However, business magnates with varying political interests own and influence many outlets. Poroshenko owns the television network Fifth Channel and has rebuffed press freedom groups' calls to sell it. Among other key media owners are Kolomoysky (1+1), Dmytro Firtash (Inter), Rinat Akhmetov (Ukraine), Viktor Pinchuk (Novy Kanal, STB, ICTV), and Andriy Podshchypkov, whose cable and satellite broadcaster 112 Ukraine is often critical of Poroshenko. In August 2014, the Interior Ministry banned the broadcast of over a dozen Russian channels, arguing that the country's information space had to be protected from Russia's "propaganda of war and violence." Under a law signed in April 2015, which amended 2014 legislation on the same topic, Ukraine's national and regional state-owned broadcasters were transferred to a new public-service broadcasting corporation, with a supervisory council on which civil society representatives would hold a majority.

Several incidents during the year presented threats to media freedom, particularly in the context of tensions with Russia. News photographer Serhiy Nikolayev was killed while covering fighting in the east in February, and Oles Buzyna, a journalist with strong pro-Russian views, was murdered in Kyiv in April. A broadly worded law adopted in May criminalized praise for and banned symbols of the Soviet and Nazi regimes. In September, Poroshenko banned more than 38 international journalists and bloggers from Ukraine, citing security reasons. Also that month, 1+1 suspended a talk show shortly before it was to air an appearance by a political opponent of Poroshenko.

The constitution and a 1991 law define religious rights in Ukraine, and these are generally respected. However, the conflict has increased friction between rival branches of the Orthodox Church, and smaller religious groups continue to report some discrimination. In the DNR and LNR, separatist forces have reportedly persecuted Protestant and other non-Russian Orthodox denominations, forcing them to flee or operate underground churches.

A June 2014 law dramatically reduced the government's control over education and allowed universities much greater freedom in designing their own programs. Universities also gained an expanded ability to manage their own finances, and faculty members were permitted to devote more of their time to research activities.

Ukrainians generally enjoy open and free private discussion, although the polarizing effects of the conflict have weighed on political expression, and intimidation prevails in the separatist-held areas.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 9 / 12

The constitution guarantees the right to peaceful assembly but requires organizers to give the authorities advance notice of any demonstrations. While officials generally create an open environment for public gatherings in practice, Ukraine lacks a law governing the conduct of demonstrations and specifically providing for freedom of assembly. Moreover, threats and violence by nonstate actors sometimes prevent certain groups from holding events, particularly those advocating equal rights for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people.

Civil society has flourished since 2014, as civic groups with a variety of social, political, cultural, and economic agendas have emerged or become reinvigorated. Trade unions function in the country, but strikes and worker protests are infrequent. Factory owners are still able to pressure their workers to vote according to the owners' preferences.

F. Rule of Law: 6 / 16

Ukraine has long suffered from politicized courts, and judges were subject to intense political pressure under Yanukovych. An April 2014 judicial reform law sought to weaken the top-down power of court chairmen, who assign cases to specific judges and often make decisions about judges' salaries and other work conditions. The chairmen, in turn, reputedly take orders from powerful politicians. While the new law removed all chairmen from office and allowed judges to elect new ones, the former incumbents often managed to return to their jobs, reportedly using bribery and other illicit methods. In many cases, no one dared to run against the former chairmen, apparently fearing the repercussions of a failed attempt to unseat them. Separately, many of the prosecutors appointed under Yanukovych remain in office. Despite these reforms, Poroshenko has been unwilling to give up his control of the judicial branch. The senior prosecutors and law enforcement officials he has appointed are frequent targets of criticism for failing to arrest high-level suspects on corruption charges.

Due to the ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine, substantial parts of the population face extensive violence  including inaccurate shelling by both sides. In 2014, given the collapse of the military following more the 20 years of neglect, Ukraine had to rely on independent volunteer groups to defend the country. These groups are now formally subordinate to Ukrainian state institutions, though their loyalty remains in doubt, as some are still funded by oligarchs or other outside forces. Certain groups have also been accused of criminal activity. In July 2015, members of the Right Sector militia involved in smuggling on Ukraine's western border engaged in a shootout with local police in Mukacheve, leaving at least three people dead. The incident was seen as a direct challenge to the Kyiv government, which quickly replaced the regional leadership.

Although the national government has generally protected the legal rights of minority groups, the Romany population continues to suffer from discrimination. The LGBT community also faces bias and hostility in Ukraine. Right-wing groups attacked an LGBT equality march in Kyiv in June despite police protection, causing a number of injuries, and an Odesa court banned an LGBT event in August due to the threat of violence. In a small victory, under pressure from the EU, the parliament amended the labor code in November to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 10 / 16 (-1)

The ongoing conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the east has displaced many residents from their homes and hampered freedom of movement within the country. The separatist-controlled territories are largely lawless, with armed groups controlling public buildings and looting local businesses for supplies. Numerous reports indicate that separatist commanders force local residents to perform menial tasks.

In the rest of Ukraine, small and medium-sized businesses continue to suffer at the hands of corrupt bureaucrats, tax collectors, and corporate raiders.

Gender discrimination is prohibited under the constitution, but government officials demonstrate little interest in or understanding of the problem. Human rights groups have reported that employers openly discriminate on the basis of gender, physical appearance, and age. Women currently make up about 12 percent of the parliament. A new local elections law, adopted in July 2015, includes a 30 percent quota for women on the party lists, but there are no sanctions for parties that do not comply. The new law on party financing provides financial incentives for parties to achieve gender equality.

The trafficking of women domestically and abroad for the purpose of prostitution remains a major problem. The displaced population is especially vulnerable to exploitation for sex trafficking and forced labor. Separatist forces have reportedly recruited children as soldiers and informants.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Tibet

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Tibet, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2ef63.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 1

Freedom Rating: 7.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 7

OVERVIEW

No official dialogue between Beijing and the Tibetan government in exile took place in 2015; such talks were last held in 2010. In April the Chinese government released a white paper on the region, and in August the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held its Sixth Forum on Tibet, led by party head and Chinese president Xi Jinping. Reports on both signaled the Chinese government's intent to maintain a hard-line position on the issue of Tibetan autonomy while intensifying indoctrination campaigns within the region.

Over the course of the year, at least seven Tibetans set themselves on fire to protest CCP rule. The authorities responded with arrests of family members, "patriotic education" campaigns, travel restrictions, and intrusive controls on monasteries. The security clampdown that has been in place since a 2008 popular uprising increasingly extended to Tibetan areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

The Chinese authorities have had difficulty quelling popular reverence for the Dalai Lama. In June, despite an official ban and threats of arrest by the Chinese government, many Tibetans celebrated the religious figure's 80th birthday in public and private.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: -2 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

The Chinese government rules Tibet through administration of the TAR and 12 Tibetan autonomous prefectures or counties in the nearby provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan. Under the Chinese constitution, autonomous areas have the right to formulate their own regulations and implement national legislation in accordance with local conditions. In practice, however, decision-making power is concentrated in the hands of senior, ethnic (Han) Chinese CCP officials. In 2011, Chen Quanguo replaced Zhang Qingli as TAR party secretary. The few ethnic Tibetans who occupy senior positions serve mostly as figureheads and echo official doctrine. Losang Gyaltsen, an ethnic Tibetan, has served as chairman of the TAR government since 2013.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 0 / 16

All political activity outside the CCP is illegal and harshly punished, as is any evidence of loyalty to or communication with the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India. The exile government includes an elected parliament serving five-year terms, a Supreme Justice Commission that adjudicates civil disputes, and a directly elected prime minister, also serving five-year terms. The unelected Dalai Lama, who traditionally served as head of state, renounced his political role in 2011. Lobsang Sangay was elected prime minister in the same year, replacing a two-term incumbent and becoming the exile government's top political official. In 2014, the Dalai Lama announced that he may not reincarnate, which would make him the last to hold the religious title.

Political opportunities for ethnic Tibetans within Tibet remain limited by the effective dominance of ethnic Chinese officials at all levels of the CCP. The ethnic Tibetan population's concerns about and objections to party policies are actively suppressed.

C. Functioning of Government: 1 / 12

Corruption is believed to be extensive in Tibet, as in the rest of China. Little information is available on the scale of the problem, but there were reports in 2015 of moves to curb corruption among the region's officials as part of Chinese president Xi Jinping's nationwide anticorruption campaign. In January, state media reported that 15 CCP officials in Tibet had been found guilty of "serious discipline violations" in 2014, employing a euphemism commonly used for corruption but also applied to political infractions. Official reports on the investigations revealed a focus on suspected religious sympathies and support for Tibetan independence among officials, leaving it unclear whether the 15 individuals were punished for abuse of office or for their religious or political views. In June, state media reported that antigraft authorities were investigating Le Dake, deputy chief of the Tibet People's Congress and former head of state security in the region, for vague "violations of discipline and law." Also in June, the media reported a bribery and embezzlement case against Huang Xiangtian, former CCP chief of Lhasa's economic development zone.

Discretionary Political Rights Question B: -3 / 0

The Chinese government's economic development programs in Tibet have strongly encouraged ethnic Chinese migration to the region, disproportionately benefited ethnic Chinese residents, and exacerbated the marginalization of ethnic Tibetans, who have also been displaced by mass resettlement campaigns. In late 2014 and early 2015, officials announced new railway and urbanization projects that risk further diluting the Tibetan population in the region; one such plan aims to increase the "permanent urban population" of Tibet by approximately 30 percent by 2020, with many new settlers likely to be ethnic Chinese.

Civil Liberties: 3 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 0 / 16

Chinese authorities tightly restrict all media in Tibet. In 2015, officials continued to suppress information about self-immolations and related security crackdowns. According to overseas advocacy and rights groups, scores of Tibetan writers, intellectuals, and musicians have been arrested since 2008 as part of an effort to curb dissent and control Tibetan cultural expression, with some sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Internet blackouts are periodically imposed at protest sites and in 2015 included a months-long shutdown in Ngaba (Aba) County, Sichuan Province, where monks had led individual protests in September. International broadcasts are jammed and communications devices periodically confiscated. The online restrictions and monitoring in place across China are enforced even more stringently in the TAR. In August, authorities reportedly shut down the website Choemei, one of the longest-running Tibetan-language platforms for news, cultural writings, and literature.

Internet and mobile-telephone users have been arrested for accessing or transmitting banned information, particularly during politically sensitive periods. In June 2015, reports emerged that Tsering Dondrub, a young Tibetan, was detained by police in Qinghai Province for using WeChat, a popular mobile messaging platform, to share images of the Tibetan flag and the Dalai Lama in advance of the leader's 80th birthday; no further details on his status were available at year's end.

Access to the TAR is highly restricted and regulated for foreign journalists, who are also consistently prevented from entering Tibetan areas of Sichuan and other provinces, though no permission is technically required to travel there. Residents who assist foreign journalists are reportedly harassed. In a rare case, in September 2015, Chinese authorities took a small group of foreign journalists on a closely supervised visit to the TAR; the tour was arranged to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the TAR.

The authorities regularly suppress religious activities, particularly those seen as forms of dissent or advocacy of Tibetan independence. Several monks, including a 15-year-old, were arrested in 2015 for publicly protesting CCP rule. Possession of Dalai Lama-related materials can lead to official harassment, arrest, and punishment, including restrictions on commercial activity and loss of welfare benefits in some places; many Tibetans nevertheless secretly possess such items.

Religious Affairs Bureaus (RABs) control who can study in monasteries and nunneries. Officials enforce a minimum age requirement of 18 for those who wish to become monks or nuns, although some institutions continue to accept younger children without registration. Monks and nuns are required to sign a declaration rejecting Tibetan independence, expressing loyalty to the government, and denouncing the Dalai Lama. Since 2012, the CCP has set up committees of government officials within monasteries to manage their daily operations and enforce party indoctrination campaigns. Police posts are increasingly common even in smaller monasteries.

Intrusive government interference in both large religious celebrations and small, personal rituals is extensive. In June 2015, authorities issued a ban on public gatherings and canceled several planned events in advance of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday on July 6. Officials in Qinghai Province's Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture circulated a document in early 2015 outlining various activities that were construed as support for Tibetan independence, calling for harsh punitive measures; the list included ordinary activities like reciting prayers and burning incense. In December, Chinese officials announced plans to compile an online database of "living Buddhas" in an attempt to root out an allegedly growing number of fraudulent ones.

Ideological education campaigns reach most monasteries and nunneries in the region. Such campaigns typically force participants to recognize the CCP claim that China "liberated" Tibet and to denounce the Dalai Lama. Some monks and nuns have reportedly left their institutions to avoid the sessions. The effort has also been extended to the lay population in recent years, with students, civil servants, and farmers required to participate in discussions, singing sessions, and propaganda film screenings. In April 2015, Chen Quanguo announced a new round of "patriotic education" tests at monasteries and nunneries in the TAR.

University professors cannot lecture on certain topics, and many must attend political indoctrination sessions. The government restricts course materials to prevent the circulation of unofficial versions of Tibetan history, and has reduced the use of Tibetan as the language of instruction in schools in recent years.

Freedom of private discussion is severely limited by factors including the authorities' monitoring of electronic communications, the heavy security presence, and regular ideological campaigns in Tibetan areas.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 0 / 12

The Chinese authorities severely restrict freedoms of assembly and association. Independent trade unions and human rights groups are illegal, and even nonviolent protests are often harshly punished. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including those focused only on apolitical issues like development and public health, operate under highly restrictive agreements. Nevertheless, Tibetans continue to seek avenues for expressing dissatisfaction with government policies. In 2015, Tibetans held periodic demonstrations or vigils to protest CCP rule. Authorities often responded with arrests or violent crackdowns. In July, security forces in Sichuan Province's Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture reportedly opened fire to disperse a group of approximately 1,000 people gathered to mourn the death in custody of religious leader Tenzin Delek Rinpoche; no injuries were reported. Individuals are periodically detained for engaging in solitary protests to air demands such as freedom in Tibet or the return of the Dalai Lama.

F. Rule of Law: 0 / 16

The CCP controls the judicial system in Tibet, and courts consequently lack independence. Critics of Chinese rule continue to face arrests and disappearances. Torture is reportedly widespread. According to a partial database compiled by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, there were 646 Tibetan political prisoners behind bars as of September 1, 2015  including 51 individuals detained in 2015. Defendants lack access to meaningful legal representation. Trials are closed if state security is invoked, and sometimes even when no political crime is listed. Chinese lawyers who offer to defend Tibetan suspects have been harassed or disbarred. Security forces routinely engage in arbitrary detention, and detainees' families are often left uninformed as to their whereabouts or well-being. Amnesty International reported two deaths of Tibetan prisoners of conscience in custody in 2015, including that of Tenzin Delek, who died in July while serving a life sentence on charges of "terrorism and separatism," which he had repudiated. Chinese authorities cremated his body without his family's permission, and suppressed public efforts to mourn the religious leader and protest his mistreatment.

The use of self-immolation to protest Chinese rule declined further in 2015, following harsh punishments inflicted by the Chinese authorities. Authorities responded to immolations with information blackouts, a heightened security presence, and increased surveillance. Guidelines unveiled in 2012 state that engaging in self-immolations and organizing, assisting, or gathering crowds related to such acts should be considered criminal offenses, including intentional homicide in some cases. Officials have offered cash rewards of hundreds of thousands of yuan for information on planned self-immolations. Since 2013, the government has also employed collective-punishment tactics in various counties in Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces to deter self-immolations and other protests against Chinese rule, imposing financial penalties on families, canceling public benefits for the households of self-immolators or other activists, and ending state-funded projects in their villages.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people suffer from discrimination. No LGBT-focused groups operate in the TAR, and discussion of LGBT issues remains taboo.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 3 / 16

Heightened restrictions on freedom of movement  including the use of troop deployments, roadblocks, and passport restrictions  continued in 2015, particularly in areas where self-immolations took place. Increased security efforts and the cooperation of the Nepalese government have made it difficult for Tibetans to cross the border into Nepal. Approximately 100 Tibetans were reported to have crossed successfully in 2014, continuing a trend of declines from more than 2,000 in 2007. Obtaining a passport is extremely difficult for Tibetans. In July 2015, a Human Rights Watch report detailed the various additional requirements, excessive delays, and arbitrary denials in the issuance of passports for Tibetans and some other minorities, finding that a slower and more restrictive system is in place in minority-dominated areas than elsewhere in China. Authorities continue to restrict access to the TAR for human rights researchers as well as some tourists. They are often denied entry surrounding politically sensitive dates, such as the annual anniversary of the 2008 protests. During other periods, tourists are required to travel in groups and obtain official permission to visit the TAR, and even then, last-minute travel bans are periodically imposed.

Tibetans receive preferential treatment in university admission examinations, but this is often not enough to secure entrance. The dominant role of the Chinese language in education and employment limits opportunities for many Tibetans. Private employers favor ethnic Chinese for many jobs, and Tibetans reportedly find it more difficult to obtain permits and loans to open businesses.

Since 2003, the authorities have intensified efforts to resettle rural Tibetans  forcibly or with incentives  into permanent-housing areas with little economic infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch, more than two million TAR residents have been resettled since 2006, and plans to continue the program persisted in 2015. Many have reportedly tried to return to their previous lands, risking conflict with officials.

China's restrictive family-planning policies are more leniently enforced for Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. Officials limit urban Tibetans to two children and encourage rural Tibetans to stop at three. As a result, the TAR is one of the few areas of China without a skewed sex ratio. Women are well represented in many public-sector jobs and CCP posts within the TAR, though most high-level officials are men. However, advocates noted in 2015 that women suffer specific religious and political persecution related to Chinese suppression of Tibetan identity. Tibetan women continue to be targets of human trafficking, with many taken to China for domestic service or forced marriages.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Turkey

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Turkey, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2ef8.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 53

Freedom Rating: 3.5

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 4

Trend Arrow: 

Turkey received a downward trend arrow due to renewed violence between the government and Kurdish militants, terrorist attacks by the Islamic State group, and intense harassment of opposition members and media outlets by the government and its supporters ahead of November parliamentary elections.

Quick Facts

Population: 78,215,000

Capital: Ankara

GDP/Capita: $10,529.60

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Turkey held two parliamentary elections in 2015 amid an exceptionally polarized and volatile political environment. Prior to the first vote in June, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan campaigned for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), hoping that it could gain 60 percent of parliamentary seats, which would allow it to call a referendum on constitutional changes to create a stronger presidency. In a surprise result, the AKP failed to secure even a simple parliamentary majority, while the Kurdish-oriented Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) cleared the 10 percent electoral threshold for representation in the legislature. Four parties entered the parliament, but negotiations to form a coalition government failed, and new elections were called for November. In this round, the AKP won 49 percent of the vote, an eight-point improvement on the June result, and 317 seats, enough for a majority but short of the 60 percent goal. Nonetheless, Erdogan indicated that he would seek the support required to press ahead with the adoption of a presidential system.

The political and security situation surrounding the November elections was deeply affected by violence that rocked Turkey throughout the second half of 2015. In July, a bombing at a gathering of Kurdish student activists in Suruc, a town on the Syrian border, killed 33 people. The Syrian-based Islamic State (IS) militant group was blamed for the attack, but many Kurds accused the government of complicity or failure to address the threat from IS. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group then killed two Turkish police officers in retaliation, setting off broader fighting that ended a two-year cease-fire between the PKK and the government. By year's end, hundreds of soldiers and police, PKK fighters, and civilians had been killed. Armed gangs of Kurdish youth took over parts of some towns in the Kurdish-populated southeast, and government forces moved in to restore control. In addition, in September and October there were some 200 attacks by civilian mobs against offices of the HDP, which the AKP and nationalist parties accused of being a political wing of the PKK. Over 40 HDP mayors were arrested or removed from office. Also in October, a bombing in Ankara that was attributed to IS killed 102 people at another largely Kurdish demonstration.

A continued crackdown on the media added to the pressure on the electoral environment. Throughout the year, dozens of journalists were arrested and prosecuted for insulting the president and other government officials or for allegedly supporting terrorist organizations. Numerous websites were also blocked. A week before the November elections, the government seized the assets of a major conglomerate, including two daily newspapers, Millet and Bugun, and two television channels that had been critical of the ruling party.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 24 / 40 (-2)

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12 (-1)

Under the current constitution, the prime minister is the head of government and holds most executive authority, while the president is the head of state and has powers including a legislative veto and authority to appoint judges and prosecutors. In August 2014, Turkey held direct presidential elections for the first time; presidents were previously elected by the parliament. Erdogan prevailed with 51.8 percent of the vote, winning a once-renewable five-year term. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu assumed Erdogan's posts of prime minister and head of the AKP. Some domestic and international observers, such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), pointed to irregularities in the campaign, including media bias and self-censorship, misuse of state resources to support Erdogan's election bid, lack of transparency in campaign finances, and voter fraud.

The unicameral parliament, the 550-seat Grand National Assembly, is elected for a four-year term. In the June 2015 elections, the AKP won the most votes (41 percent) but secured only 258 seats, short of a majority. Three opposition parties also won seats: the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP, 132 seats), the Nationalist Action Party (MHP, 80 seats), and the predominantly Kurdish HDP (80 seats). All three ruled out a coalition with the AKP, and deep divisions between the MHP and HDP prevented the opposition from forming a coalition on its own. Consequently, Erdogan exercised the option to call new elections. In the November vote, the AKP won 49 percent of the ballots and 317 seats, giving it a clear parliamentary majority. CHP won 134 seats with 25 percent of the vote, whereas the HDP and MHP lost votes and parliamentary mandates, winning only 59 and 40 seats, respectively. Davutoglu remained prime minister.

There were some irregularities with respect to the electoral process. Erdogan campaigned for the AKP in the June elections, which domestic and international observers said violated the president's nonpartisan status under both precedent and law. Opponents of the government alleged media bias and censorship, noting that the state-owned TRT television station provided extensive coverage of the AKP's campaign while giving far less time to opposition parties and also rejecting some of their advertisements. Finally, the HDP suffered from terrorist attacks, arrests, and mob violence. The OSCE, while acknowledging that Turkish voters had a choice among parties and that the vote count was transparent, concluded that the media restrictions and violence severely hindered the campaign.

Judges on the Supreme Board of Elections oversee voting procedures, with the participation of nonvoting representatives of the four largest political parties, but critics have suggested that the board is subject to influence from the government. Its decisions cannot be appealed.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 9 / 16 (-1)

Turkey has a competitive multiparty system. In June 2015, the three opposition parties won a majority of parliamentary seats, though they were unable to form a coalition due to ideological differences.

The rise of new parties is inhibited by the 10 percent vote threshold for parliamentary representation, and parties can be disbanded for endorsing policies that are not in agreement with constitutional parameters. This rule has been applied in the past to Islamist and Kurdish-oriented parties. There have been no such bans since 2009, and Kurdish-oriented parties, most recently the HDP, have competed in various elections. However, some members of pro-Kurdish parties have been arrested for alleged links to the PKK, and the HDP was subjected to violence and intimidation during 2015, including bombings attributed to IS and hundreds of attacks on HDP offices surrounding the elections. After the cease-fire between the government and the PKK collapsed in July, officials accused the HDP of being a proxy for the PKK. Erdogan called for any HDP lawmakers with PKK ties to be prosecuted, but he stopped short of urging the closure of the party itself. Critics alleged that the AKP government was using its battle with the PKK to weaken its political opponents and reverse its June defeat. Between the June and November elections, roughly 500 HDP members and officials, including over 20 elected mayors, were taken into custody on terrorism charges.

The military has historically been a dominant force in politics. Under the AKP, however, various reforms, and especially a series of deeply flawed, politically motivated prosecutions, have increased civilian control over the military. Hundreds of military officers were convicted in 2012 and 2013 for alleged involvement in coup plots. Over 200 were acquitted in March 2015 after a retrial in which the court ruled that some evidence against them had been falsified.

C. Functioning of Government: 6 / 12

Corruption remains a major problem. In 2015, Turkey was still dealing with the effects of a 2013-14 scandal in which leaked audiotapes pointed to possible corruption among senior politicians, including Erdogan and his family. The government largely denied the charges and blamed the affair on a "parallel state" of rogue officials linked to the exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. Investigations to substantiate the corruption allegations have been extremely limited. In January 2015, the parliament voted against opening a trial for four former ministers. Meanwhile, throughout 2015, the government continued its campaign to ferret out elements of the "parallel state," investigating individuals and businesses accused of affiliation with Gulen, who has been branded a terrorist by the state.

In November 2015, Transparency International issued a report that was critical of Turkey, citing its failure to strengthen safeguards against money laundering, bribery, and collusion in the allocation of government contracts.

Civil Liberties: 29 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 8 / 16

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed, and some media outlets are critical of the government. However, in recent years dozens of intellectuals and journalists have been jailed, particularly on terrorism charges. Government harassment of journalists is also common, leading to self-censorship and dismissals.

During 2015, scores of journalists, as well as some high school students and a former Miss Turkey, were charged with insulting President Erdogan and other officials; some received prison sentences. In September, the offices of the liberal newspaper Hurriyet  owned by the Dogan Group, which had been involved in earlier disputes with the government  were twice attacked by AKP supporters after Erdogan lashed out against its news coverage. Three foreign journalists who were covering the conflict with the PKK were deported that month.

In October, Bugun and Millet, two newspapers owned by the Koza-Ipek group, were placed under government trusteeship pending an investigation into the company's purported ties to Gulen. Koza-Ipek's television stations, Kanalturk and Bugun TV, were also shut down. Seventy-one journalists from these outlets were fired, and they resumed operation under new management, producing coverage that was more supportive of the government. Separately, some television distributors moved to drop the signals of stations that were critical of the government. Following the Ankara bombing that month, the authorities attempted to restrict coverage of the incident.

Immediately after the November elections, police raided the offices of an opposition-aligned magazine and jailed two of its journalists for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. Among other arrests and charges that month, 18 journalists, including the editor of Cumhuriyet, were put on trial for allegedly disseminating terrorist propaganda by publishing a photo related to the abduction and murder of an Istanbul prosecutor by a leftist terrorist group in March. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that a total of 14 journalists were behind bars in Turkey as of December.

Threats to internet freedom remain a concern. In the past, the government has blocked access to services such as Twitter and YouTube after they published materials alleging government corruption. Twitter reported that in the first six months of 2015, Turkey continued to account for more than half of all content-removal requests worldwide. It was second only to India for content restrictions on Facebook during the same period. In March 2015, the parliament passed new laws that expanded the state's power to temporarily block content and conduct surveillance without a court order. Hundreds of websites and social-media accounts were blocked over the course of the year. In April, for instance, 166 websites were blocked for publishing images of the abducted Istanbul prosecutor. Roughly 100,000 websites were blocked as of the end of the year, according to Engelli Web, though this included sites banned in previous years or for apolitical reasons like copyright infringement.

The constitution protects freedom of religion, and religious expression has become more prominent in the public sphere under the AKP. Critics charge that the AKP has a religious agenda favoring Sunni Muslims, evidenced by the expansion of the Directorate of Religious Affairs and the alleged use of this institution for political patronage and to deliver government-friendly sermons in mosques. The Alevi minority, a non-Sunni Muslim group, has historically faced violence and discrimination. The AKP's promises of an "Alevi opening" to address these problems have led to disappointment among Alevis, though the new government formed after the November 2015 elections pledged to renew the effort, including by authorizing the state to cover the costs of Alevi houses of worship and religious leaders, as it does with Sunni institutions. In August, the Supreme Court of Appeals had confirmed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the state must pay such expenses for Alevis. In December, the government announced plans to grant full legal status to Alevi houses of worship. Three non-Muslim religious groups  Jews, Orthodox Christians, and Armenian Christians  are officially recognized. However, disputes over property and prohibitions on training of clergy remain concerns for these communities.

Academic freedom is limited by self-censorship and legal or political pressure regarding sensitive topics, including contemporary political developments. The government has asserted more authority over individual academics and both public and private universities through the state's Higher Education Board, which in October 2015 introduced a draft regulation that would make it easier to close private universities for becoming "the focal point of acts against the country's indivisible integrity." Also in October, a professor at Ankara University was indicted for "spreading terrorist propaganda" by posing a question on an exam that asked students to analyze the writings of the PKK's leader.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 6 / 12 (+1)

Freedoms of association and assembly are protected in the constitution, and Turkey has an active civil society. Protests and public gatherings on a range of issues were held without incident during 2015, though others were broken up by security forces, particularly in the southeast, and terrorist bombings added a new risk to public assemblies. In April 2015, Erdogan signed legislation that increased criminal penalties for various actions during protests and empowered police to fire on demonstrators who use incendiaries. Police continued to suppress May Day demonstrations in 2015, as well as attempts to mark the anniversary of the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Unlike in previous years, Istanbul's annual LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) pride parade was dispersed by police in June. Meanwhile, prosecutions linked to the original Gezi protests continued to produce verdicts during 2015; in October and November, some 270 demonstrators were sentenced to as much as 14 months in jail for a variety of offenses.

Turkey has many politically active nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). However, authorities have monitored and harassed some NGOs in recent years  most notably those affiliated with Gulen's Hizmet movement.

There are four national trade union confederations. Trade unions have been active in organizing antigovernment protests. However, union activity, including the right to strike, remains limited by law and in practice, and union-busting activities by employers are common. Because of various threshold requirements, only half of union members in Turkey enjoy collective-bargaining rights, and fewer than 10 percent of workers are unionized. In January, 15,000 workers in the United Metal Workers Union declared a strike, but the government banned it on national security grounds. From May to July, metalworkers at several automobile factories engaged in wildcat strikes and work stoppages to press for higher wages.

F. Rule of Law: 6 / 16 (-1)

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but the government has been able influence judges in the past through appointments, promotions, and financing. In the wake of corruption allegations against the government, thousands of police officers, judges, and prosecutors were reassigned during 2014, and the government passed laws to gain more control over the courts as well as the Higher Council of Judges and Prosecutors, the body responsible for judicial appointments. Antiterrorism laws are widely employed to investigate and prosecute critics of the government. The package of security legislation passed in March 2015 included expanded police powers to carry out surveillance, searches, and detentions without court orders. Impunity for past human rights abuses by the security forces remains a serious problem.

In recent years, the government enacted a number of reforms to enhance the rights of ethnic Kurds, and a cease-fire with the PKK had been in effect since March 2013. However, renewed violence broke out in July 2015, leading to episodes of intense urban fighting in the southeast. PKK attacks on security forces in September prompted reprisals against the HDP and Kurdish-owned businesses. By year's end, hundreds of militants, police, soldiers, and civilians had been killed. The government also detained thousands of Kurds for alleged links to the PKK. In November, Tahir Elci, a prominent human rights lawyer who had been detained in October after saying that the PKK is not a terrorist organization, was killed by an unknown assailant while speaking to the media. The HDP called his death an assassination, and others raised similar suspicions, sparking protests in several Turkish cities.

In addition to violence linked to the PKK, Turkey suffered from terrorist attacks by Islamist militants and a radical leftist group in 2015. After the October bombing in Ankara that was attributed to IS, authorities detained over 300 suspected IS militants, and two policemen were killed during a related raid in Diyarbakr. Separately, attacks by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front included the abduction and murder of an Istanbul prosecutor in March and a nonfatal shooting at the city's U.S. consulate in August.

Turkey is providing temporary protection to over 2 million refugees, most of them from Syria. While refugees have access to education and health care, they are not allowed to work, and caring for the refugees has strained government resources. Over the course of 2015, the authorities increased restrictions on the internal movement of refugees as well as controls at the country's borders.

Same-sex sexual activity is not explicitly prohibited, but LGBT people are subject to widespread discrimination, police harassment, and occasional violence. There is no legislation to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 9 / 16

Freedom of travel and choice of residence and employment are largely respected, though movement in parts of the southeast was seriously hampered in late 2015 by curfews, checkpoints, and fighting between security forces and PKK militants.

Property rights are generally upheld. However, since the Gezi Park protests in 2013 and subsequent allegations of official corruption, businesses and foundations perceived to be opponents of the government have come under pressure, including through intrusive tax and regulatory inspections and denial of government contracts. In January 2015, a lengthy investigation into a refinery owned by the conglomerate Koc Holding resulted in a $69 million tax fine, which some saw as politically motivated. In May, Bank Asya, an Islamic lender linked to Gulen's movement, was formally transferred to the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund. In September, business and university officials in Kayseri, including the chief executive of Boydak Holding, were detained by police in an anti-Gulen investigation. In October, the government seized 23 companies of the Koza-Ipek conglomerate, again for alleged links to the Gulen movement.

The constitution grants women full equality before the law, but only about 29 percent of working-age women participate in the labor force. Women's rights issues, including the problem of violence against women, have gained more visibility in Turkey, inspiring multiple demonstrations during 2015; all political parties included these concerns in their electoral platforms. The government has declared combating domestic violence a priority, but critics argue that it has not done enough, focusing more on family integrity than women's rights. Many question the government's commitment to women's rights given the often sexist rhetoric of leading officials and demeaning verbal attacks by the government and pro-AKP media against female politicians from opposition parties.

Migrants to Turkey have been subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Refugees from Syria and other conflict areas are especially vulnerable to exploitation, and the authorities' efforts to combat trafficking largely fail to match the seriousness of the problem.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Saudi Arabia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Saudi Arabia, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2f16.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 10

Freedom Rating: 7.0

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 7

Quick Facts

Population: 31,565,109

Capital: Riyadh

GDP/Capita: $24,161

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

Saudi Arabia confronted a number of domestic and regional challenges in 2015. King Abdullah died in late January and was succeeded by his brother Salman bin Abdulaziz, who began his reign with far-reaching changes to the line of succession and the cabinet that, among other things, empowered younger members of the royal family. Municipal elections held in December were the first in which women were eligible to vote and run for office. The government continued to exercise restrictions on dissent and freedom of expression, however, targeting a number of writers, activists, and dissidents. According to international watchdogs, Saudi Arabia carried out the highest number of executions since 1995, with estimates surpassing 150.

Beginning in March, Saudi Arabia led a coalition of Arab states in a military intervention in neighboring Yemen, where groups loyal to besieged President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi remained embroiled in a civil war against Houthi forces and other rebel factions. Although the intervention followed a request for help from President Hadi, the campaign was also influenced by Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia's relations with Shiite-ruled Iran, whom the Saudi government has accused of aiding Houthi forces.

In December, amid growing fears about regional security, Saudi leaders announced the creation of a 34-country coalition against terrorism. Individuals with affiliations to terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State (IS) militant group, carried out a number of attacks in Saudi Arabia throughout the year, particularly targeting members of the country's Shiite minority. The declining price of oil, straining the financial health of Saudi Arabia and a number of its neighbors, also contributed to regional concerns. The kingdom recorded its largest budget deficit in 2015  approximately $98 billion  and in December, officials announced plans to reduce subsidies.

Two separate incidents in September resulted in high civilian fatalities. During the hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage, a stampede on the outskirts of Mecca resulted in a high number of fatalities, with estimates reaching as high as 2,400. Earlier in the month, the collapse of a construction crane in Mecca led to more than 100 deaths.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 3 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

The 1992 Basic Law declares that the Koran and the Sunna (the guidance set by the deeds and sayings of the prophet Muhammad) are the country's constitution. The cabinet, which is appointed by the king, passes legislation that becomes law once ratified by royal decree. The king also appoints the 150 members of the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council), who serve in an advisory capacity, for four-year terms. Limited elections for advisory councils at the municipal level were introduced in 2005. In municipal elections held in December 2015, women were able to vote and stand as candidates for the first time  a right granted by a 2011 royal decree. Two-thirds of the seats on the 284 councils were open to voting, while the minister of municipal and rural affairs held responsibility for filling the remainder through appointment. Women won approximately 1 percent of contested seats.

In April, King Salman changed the line of succession, relieving his brother Muqrin bin Abdulaziz of the position of crown prince and appointing his nephew Muhammad bin Nayef instead  the first time that a grandson, rather than a son, of the kingdom's founder was given the title. King Salman's son Muhammad bin Salman was appointed deputy crown prince.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 0 / 16

Political parties are forbidden, and organized political opposition exists only outside the country. Political dissent is criminalized. Activists who challenge the kingdom's record on political inclusion or call for constitutional changes are treated harshly. Raef Badawi, a human rights activist and founder of the website Liberal Saudi Network, remained behind bars in 2015 on charges of "insulting Islam," serving a sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Badawi was subjected to a first round of flogging in January. Subsequent flogging was delayed following international criticism of the verdict. Although the Saudi Supreme Court upheld Badawi's punishment in June, reports emerged in August that the case was again under review. The kingdom's crackdown on one of the country's most prominent political rights organizations, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), continued in 2015. Muhammad al-Bajadi, one of the founders of ACPRA, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March, with five of them suspended; al-Bajadi faced a variety of charges, among them acquiring banned books and organizing protests by the families of prisoners. Several other ACPRA members remained imprisoned in 2015.

In 2014, authorities designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, a move that reflected official concerns about the domestic popularity of both organizations, which are considered threats to the regime.

C. Functioning of Government: 1 / 12

Corruption remains a significant problem, despite some earlier moves to hold certain officials accountable, and there is low transparency in the functioning of government. Following the stampede during the hajj in September 2015, amid international criticism of the infrastructure and safety measures provided by Saudi authorities, officials ordered an investigation into the incident. The death toll from the stampede remained contested at the end of the year  while Saudi officials claimed that there had been 769 fatalities, estimates compiled by international news organizations reached as high as 2,400.

The Saudi state remains notably opaque in its financial practices. Although the government generates massive revenue from the sale of oil, which it redistributes through social welfare programs and as patronage, little is known about its accounting or the various direct ways in which the state's wealth becomes a source of private privilege for the royal family and its clients. Due to the financial strain caused by declining oil prices in 2015, the state was forced to draw on reserves and issue bonds, and in October, reports emerged that officials planned to take cost-cutting measures. In December, authorities announced plans to privatize several state-owned entities and gradually reduce subsidies for fuel, water, and electricity.

Discretionary Political Rights Question A: 2 / 4

In addition to drawing advice from the Consultative Council, the monarchy has a tradition of consulting with select members of Saudi society. However, the process is not equally open to all citizens. From the king to local governors, royal family officials periodically host meetings for citizens to air grievances and seek access to money or power. These meetings are irregular, and while they afford some citizens rare opportunities to meet with the powerful, the outcomes reinforce the personalized nature of authority.

Civil Liberties: 7 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 3 / 16

The government tightly controls domestic media content and dominates regional print and satellite-television coverage, with members of the royal family owning major stakes in news outlets in multiple countries. Government officials have banned journalists and editors who publish articles deemed offensive to the religious establishment or the ruling authorities. A 2011 royal decree amended the press law to criminalize, among other things, any criticism of the country's grand mufti, the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, or government officials; violations can result in fines and forced closure of media outlets.

The regime has taken steps to limit the influence of new media, blocking access to more than 400,000 websites that are considered immoral or politically sensitive. A 2011 law requires all blogs and websites, or anyone posting news or commentary online, to have a license from the Ministry of Information or face fines and possible closure of the website. In 2014, the General Commission for Audiovisual Media declared its intent to restrict all non-state-run YouTube programming.

Authorities continue to target writers and activists who use the internet to express their views. Prominent writer Zuhair Kutbi, a regular contributor to online news and informational platforms, was detained in July 2015 following a guest appearance on a talk show during which he discussed political reform in Saudi Arabia. Also in July, authorities arrested Waleed al-Hussein al-Dood, founder of a news website known for its criticism of the Sudanese government. A Sudanese citizen and longtime resident of Saudi Arabia, al-Dood remained in detention without charge as of late 2015.

Islam is the official religion, and all Saudis are required by law to be Muslims. A 2014 royal decree punishes atheism with up to 20 years in prison. The government prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam and restricts the religious practices of the Shiite and Sufi Muslim minority sects. Although the government recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship in private, it does not always respect this right in practice. The building of Shiite mosques is banned.

In February 2015, a Saudi court sentenced a man to death for renouncing Islam and defacing a copy of the Koran in a video he published online. In November, Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh was sentenced to death in a retrial on charges of committing blasphemy and renouncing Islam. Fayadh had originally been sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes in 2014.

Academic freedom is restricted, and informers monitor classrooms for compliance with curriculum rules, such as a ban on teaching secular philosophy and religions other than Islam. Despite changes to textbooks in recent years, intolerance in the classroom remains a significant problem, as some educators continue to espouse discriminatory and hateful views of non-Muslims and Muslim minority sects.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 0 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are not upheld. The government frequently detains political activists who stage demonstrations or engage in other civic advocacy. While no large-scale protests have taken place in the kingdom, smaller demonstrations have become more common. The largest of these take place in the mainly Shiite Eastern Province. Authorities have responded by issuing a most-wanted list of activists and violently dispersing demonstrations. The prominent Shiite cleric and political dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for leading protests critical of the regime and calling for an end to sectarian discrimination, was sentenced to death in 2014 and remained in prison in 2015. His nephew Ali al-Nimr, arrested at age 17 in 2012 for participating in protests, also remained behind bars. He had received a sentence of execution and crucifixion in 2014 on charges of participating in antigovernment demonstrations, possessing weapons, and attacking security forces.

Saudi Arabia has no associations law and has historically approved licenses only for charitable organizations. No laws protect the rights to form independent labor unions, bargain collectively, or engage in strikes. Workers who engage in union activity are subject to dismissal or imprisonment.

F. Rule of Law: 2 / 16

The judiciary, which must coordinate its decisions with the executive branch, is not independent. A special commission of judicial experts writes law that serves as the foundation for verdicts in the court system, which is grounded in Sharia (Islamic law). While Saudi courts have historically relied on the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, the commission incorporates all four Sunni Muslim legal schools in drafting new guidelines.

Defendants' rights are poorly protected by law and not respected in practice. Detainees are often denied access to legal counsel during interrogation, and lengthy pretrial detention and detention without charge are common. Capital punishment, usually carried out by beheading, is applied to a wide range of crimes; juveniles are not exempt from the penalty. According to international watchdogs, Saudi authorities carried out upward of 150 executions in 2015. A sweeping new antiterrorism law, which includes lengthy prison sentences for criticizing the monarchy or the government, went into effect in 2014. It also expanded the power of police to conduct raids against suspected antigovernment activity without judicial approval. The penal code bans torture, but allegations of torture by police and prison officials are common, and access to prisoners by independent human rights and legal organizations is strictly limited.

Security concerns grew in 2015 amid a number of terrorist attacks. Local IS affiliates claimed responsibility for an explosion at a mosque in August that resulted in at least 15 deaths; the mosque, located near the border with Yemen, was frequented by members of the Saudi security forces.

Substantial prejudice against ethnic, religious, and national minorities prevails. Shiites, who make up 10 to 15 percent of the population, are underrepresented in major government positions, and Shiite activism has faced repression by security forces. Shiites have also been subject to physical assaults by both state and nonstate actors. In May 2015, individuals affiliated with IS claimed responsibility for two deadly attacks against Shiite mosques that killed at least 25 people.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 2 / 16

Freedom of movement is restricted in some cases. The government punishes activists and critics by limiting their ability to travel outside the country, and reform advocates are routinely stripped of their passports.

While a great deal of business activity is connected to members of the government, the ruling family, or other elite families, officials have given assurances that special industrial and commercial zones are free from interference by the royal family.

Women are not treated as equal members of society, and many laws discriminate against them. They are not permitted to drive cars and must obtain permission from a male guardian in order to travel within or outside of the country. According to interpretations of Sharia in Saudi Arabia, daughters generally receive half the inheritance awarded to their brothers, and the testimony of one man is equal to that of two women. Moreover, Saudi women seeking access to the courts must be represented by a male. The religious police enforce a strict policy of gender segregation and often harass women, using physical punishment to ensure compliance with conservative standards of dress in public. Same-sex marriage is not legal. All sexual activity outside of marriage, including same-sex activity, is criminalized, and the death penalty can be applied in certain circumstances. A 2013 law defines and criminalizes domestic abuse, prescribing fines and up to a year in prison for perpetrators. However, according to analysis by Human Rights Watch, the law lacks clarity on enforcement mechanisms.

Education and economic rights for Saudi women have improved somewhat in recent years. More than half of the country's university students are now female, although they do not enjoy equal access to classes and facilities. Women gained the right to hold commercial licenses in 2004. In 2008, the Saudi Human Rights Commission established a women's branch to investigate cases of human rights violations against women and children, but it has not consistently carried out serious investigations or brought cases against violators.

Saudi women continued to agitate for the right to drive in 2015. In February, authorities released Loujain al-Hathloul, who was arrested in 2014 by Saudi officials for attempting to drive into the country from the United Arab Emirates, and Maysaa al-Amoudi, who was detained after arriving at the border to support Hathloul.

A 2005 labor law that extended various protections and benefits to previously unregulated categories of workers also banned child labor and established a 75 percent quota for Saudi citizens in each company's workforce. Foreign workers  of whom there are more than six million in the country  have historically enjoyed virtually no legal protections and remain vulnerable to trafficking and forced labor, primarily through the exploitation of the visa-sponsorship system. In a small victory, in 2014, the Ministry of Labor ruled that expatriate workers who are not paid their salaries for more than three consecutive months are free to switch their work sponsors without approval. A number of amendments to the labor law that went into effect in October 2015 contain broader rights and protections for workers in the private sector, although implementation remained unclear at year's end. The amendments do not apply to domestic workers, who remain particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Russia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Russia, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2f26.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 22

Freedom Rating: 6.0

Political Rights: 6

Civil Liberties: 6

Quick Facts

Population: 144,302,000

Capital: Moscow

GDP/Capita: $12,735.9

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

Russia's economy continued to deteriorate in 2015, and the Kremlin worked to preempt potential domestic discontent through the distraction of foreign interventions. With the conflict in eastern Ukraine settling into a stalemate, President Vladimir Putin sent Russian aircraft to Syria in September and began bombing the opponents of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, directly engaging the Russian military outside the former Soviet Union for the first time since Soviet troops left Afghanistan.

At home, the Kremlin continued a crackdown on civil society, ramping up pressure on domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and branding the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy and two groups backed by billionaire philanthropist George Soros as "undesirable organizations." The regime also intensified its tight grip on the media, saturating the information landscape with nationalist propaganda while suppressing the most popular alternative voices. In the annual round of regional and local elections, serious opposition candidates were again prevented from competing.

The murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov not far from the Kremlin in February marked the first assassination of a prominent political figure since Putin came to power in 2000, though it followed a string of journalist deaths and beatings. The regime also continued to imprison the brother of anticorruption campaigner and politician Aleksey Navalny in what appeared to be an unsuccessful bid to curb Navalny's activism. In December, Navalny published extensive information implicating Russia's prosecutor general in a web of corruption.

The economy shrank by approximately 4 percent over the course of the year due to structural problems, falling oil prices, Ukraine-related sanctions, and the Kremlin's own countersanctions on European imports. In another sign that the country's aggressive foreign policy was increasing its international isolation, the government imposed new sanctions on a variety of Turkish goods and companies after a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian warplane over Syria in November.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 7 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12

The 1993 constitution established a strong presidency with the power to dismiss and appoint, pending parliamentary confirmation, the prime minister. Putin served two four-year presidential terms from 2000 to 2008, and remained the de facto paramount leader while working as prime minister until 2012, violating the spirit if not the letter of the constitution's two-term limit. In the March 2012 presidential election, Putin benefited from advantages including preferential media treatment, numerous abuses of incumbency, and procedural irregularities during the vote count. He won an official 63.6 percent of the vote against a field of weak, hand-chosen opponents, led by Communist Party leader Gennadiy Zyuganov with 17.2 percent. Under a 2008 constitutional amendment, Putin is now serving a six-year term, and will be eligible for another in 2018.

The Federal Assembly consists of the 450-seat State Duma and an upper chamber, the 170-seat Federation Council. (Four new Federation Council seats were added in 2014 to represent the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, whose annexation is not internationally recognized.) The 2008 constitutional amendment extended Duma terms from four to five years. The deeply flawed 2011 Duma elections were marked by a "convergence of the state and the governing party, limited political competition and a lack of fairness," according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, but many voters used the opportunity to protest against the status quo. The ruling United Russia party captured just 238 seats, a significant drop from the 315 seats won in 2007. The Communist Party placed second with 92 seats, followed by A Just Russia with 64 and LDPR (formerly known as the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) with 56. Registration and other obstacles ensured that truly independent opposition parties could not compete.

Since the 2007 elections, all Duma deputies have been elected on the basis of party-list proportional representation, but a 2014 law  set to take effect with the 2016 elections  restored a system in which half of Duma members are elected by proportional representation and half in single-member districts. Half the members of the upper chamber are appointed by governors and half by regional legislatures, usually with strong federal input. In July 2015, Putin signed a law moving the 2016 Duma elections from December to September, which analysts said would give progovernment forces an advantage because fewer voters pay attention to politics during the summer months. Since 2011, only locally elected politicians have been eligible to serve in the Federation Council; the change was designed to benefit United Russia, as most local officeholders are party members.

A 2012 law restored gubernatorial elections, ending a system of presidential appointments that dated to 2004. The new rules allowed federal and regional officials to screen the candidates for governor, and United Russia has won almost every subsequent election. In a rare exception, Communist Party candidate Sergey Levchenko won the Irkutsk gubernatorial election in a runoff vote in September 2015. In the other regional and local races, as in previous years, the authorities blocked serious opposition candidates and ensured victory for the Kremlin-backed contenders. The election-monitoring NGO Golos documented 1,736 violations, including multiple voting, by 11 p.m. on election night, nearly twice as many as in 2014.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 3 / 16

Legislation enacted in 2012 liberalized party registration rules, allowing the creation of hundreds of new parties. However, none posed a significant threat to the authorities, and many seemed designed to encourage division and confusion among the opposition.

Opposition politicians and activists are frequently targeted with fabricated criminal cases and other forms of administrative harassment. Navalny's brother was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on trumped-up fraud charges in 2014, and he remained behind bars in 2015 in an apparent attempt to limit Navalny's activities. Also during the year, the Justice Ministry and courts continued to reject attempts by Navalny's Progress Party to meet the requirements to register and participate in elections. Separately, four Chechen men were charged with Nemtsov's murder in December, and investigators claimed that a member of Chechnya's security forces ordered the crime; Nemtsov's family argued that higher-ranking officials were likely involved.

The formation of parties based on ethnicity or religion is not permitted by law. In practice, many ethnic minority regions are carefully monitored and controlled by federal authorities. Most republics in the restive North Caucasus area and some autonomous districts in energy-rich western Siberia have opted out of direct gubernatorial elections; instead, their legislatures choose a governor from candidates proposed by the president.

C. Functioning of Government: 3 / 12

There is little transparency and accountability in the day-to-day workings of the government. Decisions are adopted behind closed doors by a small group of individuals  led by Putin  whose identities are not often clear, and announced to the population after the fact. Corruption in the government and business world is pervasive, and a growing lack of accountability enables bureaucrats to act with impunity. Many analysts have argued that the political system is essentially a kleptocracy, in which ruling elites plunder public wealth to enrich themselves.

In December 2015, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation released a video showing evidence of extensive corruption surrounding Prosecutor General Yuriy Chayka. The foundation claimed that Chayka's son illegally took over a shipping company in Irkutsk and used the funds to build a luxury hotel in Greece and purchase a villa in Switzerland. The research also showed that Olga Lopatina, the former wife of the deputy general prosecutor, had business dealings with wives of members of the Tsapok organized crime group, which was responsible for the murder of 12 people, including four children, on a farm in Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Kray, in 2010. The authorities failed to address the allegations. Separately, although former Defense Ministry official Yevgeniya Vasileva, who was romantically linked to former defense minister Anatoliy Serdyukov, had been sentenced to five years in prison on corruption charges in May, she was released on parole in August, and it was unclear whether she had actually served any of her jail term.

In some cases, the Kremlin appeared to signal to officials that corruption needed to be scaled down given Russia's growing economic difficulties. Vladimir Yakunin, a powerful member of Putin's inner circle, resigned under pressure as head of Russian Railways in August, with some reports saying that corruption was a factor. The move was seen as significant because control over key state companies provides favored individuals with access to considerable funds. Over the course of 2015, federal authorities arrested a number of regional officials in Komi and Sakhalin on corruption charges.

Civil Liberties: 15 / 60 (-1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 3 / 16 (-1)

Although the constitution provides for freedom of speech, vague laws on extremism grant the authorities great discretion to crack down on any speech, organization, or activity that lacks official support. The government controls, directly or through state-owned companies and friendly business magnates, all of the national television networks and many radio and print outlets, as well as most of the media advertising market. These media effectively serve as vehicles for Kremlin propaganda, which vociferously backs Putin's actions in Ukraine and Syria and denounces foreign and domestic opponents. TV Dozhd (Rain), the only politically independent television station, was dropped by multiple cable and satellite providers in early 2014 after angering officials with its reporting, though it survived on the internet with the help of viewer subscription fees. A wave of legal and regulatory inspections at the end of 2015 exerted further pressure on the broadcaster.

Only a small and shrinking number of radio stations and print outlets with limited reach offer a diverse range of viewpoints. A 2014 law will force foreign owners of Russian media outlets to sell all shares above a 20 percent stake by early 2017. Aleksandr Fedotov, owner of Artcom Media, bought the Russian edition of Forbes from Germany's Axel Springer group in September 2015 and announced that the magazine would reduce its political content and focus more on "economics and business." Another Russian businessman and media executive, Demyan Kudryavtsev, bought the stake in the newspapers Vedomosti and the Moscow Times owned by Finland's Sanoma in April. The chief editor of the Moscow Times resigned in October, citing conflicts with the new owner.

Putin decreed in May that it was illegal to publish information about "personnel losses" during "the conduct of special operations during peacetime." Existing rules had considered only wartime losses a state secret. The new measure made it difficult for investigative journalists and others to report on the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, where the Kremlin denies that active-duty military personnel are operating.

Russian journalists continue to face physical danger in the course of their work. In October, journalist Oleg Kashin, who was beaten almost to death in 2010, argued in an open letter to Russia's leaders that Pskov governor Andrey Turchak ordered the attack but that the authorities refused to charge him because of his connections to Putin. In September, the authorities had released Aleksandr Gorbunov from pretrial detention; Kashin claims that Gorbunov personally hired the men who attacked him.

Pervasive, hyperpatriotic propaganda and political repression over the past two years have had a cumulative impact on open and free private discussion, and the chilling effect is exacerbated by growing state efforts to control expression on the internet. More than 70 percent of Russians have internet access, and penetration continues to increase. Discussion on the internet had been largely unrestricted until 2012, but following large antigovernment demonstrations in 2011 and 2012, the Kremlin adopted a series of laws that gave it more power to shut down critical websites. At the end of 2015, Russia was blocking access to roughly 20,000 websites, according to the independent group Roskomsvoboda. The Kremlin also employs numerous "trolls" to disrupt online discussions and intimidate users.

A law signed by Putin in 2014, requiring that data of Russian citizens be stored on servers located in Russia, took effect in September 2015. The measure could facilitate authorities' surveillance of Russians' internet activity. Companies that fail to comply can be fined and have their sites blocked by the telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor.

Freedom of religion is respected unevenly. A 1997 law on religion gives the state extensive control and makes it difficult for new or independent groups to operate. The Russian Orthodox Church has a privileged position, working closely with the government on foreign and domestic policy priorities, and in 2009, the president authorized religious instruction in public schools. Regional authorities continue to harass nontraditional groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.

The education system is marred by bureaucratic interference, international isolation, and increasing pressure to toe the Kremlin line on politically sensitive topics, though some academics continue to express dissenting views. The Dynasty Foundation, which sponsored Russian scientists and mathematicians, shut down in July 2015 after being designated a "foreign agent." It was deemed to receive foreign funding because its Russian founder's bank accounts were located abroad.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 3 / 12 (-1)

The government has consistently reduced the space for freedoms of assembly and association. Overwhelming police responses, the use of force, routine arrests, and harsh fines and prison sentences have discouraged unsanctioned protests, though pro-Kremlin groups are able to demonstrate freely.

The authorities intensified their campaign against NGOs in 2015. By the end of the year, the Justice Ministry had included 111 Russian organizations on its list of "foreign agents." While the designation does not formally close an organization, the label makes it nearly impossible for the groups to pursue their objectives, such as defending human rights. In May, Putin signed a law allowing the prosecutor general, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to declare a foreign firm or NGO "undesirable," after which the group must close its offices in Russia. By year's end, the authorities had declared the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy and two groups affiliated with George Soros as "undesirable organizations," and banned Russian groups from working with them. Undesirable entities may also have their accounts frozen, and individuals who violate a ban can face administrative and criminal prosecution, with penalties of up to six years in prison.

While trade union rights are legally protected, they are limited in practice. Strikes and worker protests have occurred in prominent industries, such as automobile manufacturing, but antiunion discrimination and reprisals for strikes are not uncommon, and employers often ignore collective-bargaining rights. The largest labor federation works in close cooperation with the Kremlin, though independent unions are active in some industrial sectors and regions. In November and December 2015, long-haul truckers mounted strikes and protests to oppose a new tax that would be collected by a private contractor; the company is controlled by the son of a close Putin associate.

F. Rule of Law: 2 / 16

The judiciary lacks independence from the executive branch, and career advancement is effectively tied to compliance with Kremlin preferences. A 2014 law merged the Supreme Arbitration Court, which headed the system of courts handling commercial disputes, into the Supreme Court, which oversees courts of general jurisdiction and will now also supervise the arbitration courts. The Supreme Arbitration Court had been widely respected as one of the most independent of Russia's courts.

In July 2015, the Constitutional Court ruled that Russia could comply selectively with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to avoid violating the Russian constitution. Putin then signed a law in December that allowed the government to refer rulings issued under international treaties to the Constitutional Court. Critics pointed out that this violated Article 15.4 of the Russian constitution, which states that international treaties take precedence over Russian law. Meanwhile, the ECHR found in September that Russia violated the rights of three of the individuals arrested on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square during 2012 protests against Putin's inauguration to a third term as president. The court found that Russia denied their rights to a timely trial and, for one defendant, the right to a speedy judicial review of his pretrial detention. Despite the ruling, a Moscow court sentenced another protester, Ivan Nepomnyashchikh, to two and a half years in prison for participating in the demonstrations and supposedly attacking police with an umbrella. The NGO Memorial declared Nepomnyashchikh one of 49 people on its list of political prisoners.

Parts of the country, especially the North Caucasus area, suffer from high levels of violence. Hundreds of officials, insurgents, and civilians die each year in bombings, gun battles, and assassinations. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov imposes tight control over his republic with the support of his militia and a flow of generous subsidies from Moscow. The result is a superficial peace and prosperity that masks personalized and arbitrary rule, fierce repression and intimidation, economic inequality, and impunity for abuses.

Immigrants and ethnic minorities  particularly those who appear to be from the Caucasus or Central Asia  face governmental and societal discrimination and harassment. Groups linked to countries antagonized by Moscow's foreign policy, such as Ukrainians and Turks, have also encountered harassment.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people are subject to considerable discrimination. A 2013 law banned dissemination of information promoting "nontraditional sexual relationships," putting legal pressure on LGBT activists and encouraging violent attacks. In late 2015, the parliament was considering a bill that would penalize people merely for publicly expressing or demonstrating "nontraditional sexual orientations."

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 7 / 16 (+1)

The government places some restrictions on freedom of movement and residence. Adults must carry internal passports while traveling and to obtain many government services. Some regional authorities impose registration rules that limit the right of citizens to choose their place of residence, typically targeting ethnic minorities and migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia. More than four million employees tied to the military and security services were banned from traveling abroad under rules issued during 2014. In 2015, the authorities banned flights to Egypt after an alleged terrorist attack destroyed an airliner there, and restricted package tours to Turkey after the downing of the Russian warplane over Syria. Nevertheless, the constitution grants citizens the right to freely leave and return to Russia, and most Russians remained able to exercise this right in practice during the year.

State takeovers of key industries and large tax penalties imposed on select companies have illustrated the precarious nature of property rights in the country, especially when political interests are involved.

Women are underrepresented in politics and government. They hold less than 14 percent of the Duma's seats and about 17 percent of the seats in the Federation Council. Only 2 of 31 cabinet members are women. Domestic violence against women continues to be a serious problem, and police are often reluctant to intervene in what they regard as internal family matters.

Migrant workers are often exposed to exploitative labor conditions. Both Russians facing economic hardship and migrants to Russia from neighboring countries are subject to sex and labor trafficking.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Nigeria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Nigeria, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2f34.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 48

Freedom Rating: 4.5

Political Rights: 4

Civil Liberties: 5

Trend Arrow: 

Nigeria received an upward trend arrow due to improvements in the quality of the 2015 executive and legislative elections, which featured the first-ever opposition victory at the national level and a peaceful rotation of power, as well as the new government's initial efforts to combat corruption.

Quick Facts

Population: 181,839,400

Capital: Abuja

GDP/Capita: $3,203.30

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

After 16 years in power, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the 2015 presidential election and its majority in the National Assembly to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). The polls, which observers regarded as competitive and generally well conducted, represented a milestone in the country's democratic development, marking the first time that the opposition gained power at the national level through elections. On assuming office in May, President Muhammadu Buhari identified combatting corruption, defeating the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, and boosting the living standards of Nigerians as his main policy priorities.

The new administration implemented reforms to increase the effectiveness of the Nigerian military in its counterinsurgency efforts. By December, the government had recaptured a significant amount of territory, and Buhari announced that the military had "technically" defeated Boko Haram, saying the group could no longer mount full-scale attacks on security forces or population centers. The government's gains were attributed in part to an offensive launched in mid-February by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which includes soldiers from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and Benin.

Nevertheless, the security situation in northeastern Nigeria remained grave throughout 2015, as Boko Haram carried out guerilla-style attacks and suicide bombings against civilian and government targets. In addition, reports from domestic and international advocacy groups indicated that government forces continued to commit gross human rights violations with impunity, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary mass arrests, illegal detentions, and torture of civilians.

To fulfill his anticorruption pledges, Buhari initiated a series of reforms, including the reorganization of the notoriously opaque state oil company. Nigeria's main anticorruption agencies launched investigations into several high-profile politicians, including the Senate president and top officials from former president Goodluck Jonathan's administration.

Nigeria's economy, the largest in Africa, grew by 3.2 percent in 2015, significantly below its average of around 6 percent for the previous decade. The lower growth rate was due in large part to a significant decline in the global price of oil, which accounts for 95 percent of the country's export revenue and as much as 80 percent of government revenue.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 23 / 40 (+5)

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12 (+3)

The president is elected by popular vote for no more than two four-year terms. Members of the bicameral National Assembly, consisting of the 109-seat Senate and the 360-seat House of Representatives, are elected for four-year terms. While elections that followed Nigeria's return to a multiparty system in 1999 were marred by gross irregularities, the 2011 polls marked the beginning of a departure from this trend.

The March 2015 presidential and legislative elections were regarded as competitive and generally well conducted by local and international observer organizations. Although the voting had been postponed by approximately six weeks, with officials citing insecurity in the northeast, the delay did not adversely affect the integrity of the process. Instead it appeared to have given the Independent National Electoral Commission more time to improve the distribution of permanent voter cards, pilot a new electronic voter-identification system, and fine-tune its election machinery. However, hundreds of thousands of Nigerians were still prevented from voting, either because they were internally displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency, or because they failed to receive their permanent voter cards in time. Election-related deaths were far less numerous than the roughly 1,200 reported during the 2011 election cycle, but more than 160 people were killed in election-related violence between January and April.

Buhari, the APC's candidate, won the presidential contest, defeating Jonathan of the PDP, 54 percent to 45 percent. Jonathan quickly conceded defeat, helping to ensure a peaceful and orderly rotation of power. APC candidates also won a majority in the legislative elections. In the House of Representatives, the APC took 212 of 360 seats, while the PDP won 140, and smaller parties captured the remaining 8. In the Senate, the APC won 60 of 109 seats, while the PDP secured 49. At the state level, the APC captured a majority of the contested governorships.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 10 / 16 (+1)

Nigeria's multiparty system provides an opportunity for opposition parties to gain power through elections, as demonstrated by the APC's sweeping victory in 2015. Buhari's defeat of Jonathan represented the first time that a sitting Nigerian president was democratically replaced. The vote appeared to reflect the ethnic and religious fault lines of the country, with Buhari, a northern Muslim, winning primarily in the northern states, and Jonathan, a Christian from the southern Niger Delta region, gaining an overwhelming majority in the south. However, Buhari's ability to gain support from many non-northern and non-Muslim voters was a significant factor in his success.

Despite the improved elections and peaceful rotation of power, citizens' political choices remained impaired or undermined to some degree in 2015 by vote buying and intimidation, the influence of powerful domestic and international economic interests on policymaking, and the local domination of either the Nigerian military or Boko Haram militants in regions affected by the insurgency.

In 2014, the 36 state legislatures approved proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution that would allow independent candidacy in Nigerian elections, among other changes. In February 2015, the National Assembly submitted the amendment bill to then president Jonathan, but he did not sign it before leaving office. As of December, Buhari had not assented to the amendment bill, despite overtures from the National Assembly.

C. Functioning of Government: 5 / 12 (+1)

Corruption remains pervasive, particularly in the oil sector. However, the Buhari administration undertook a series of reforms aimed at reducing graft and improving transparency, among them a restructuring of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Buhari also assumed ministerial responsibility for the petroleum portfolio, prompting some concern that he aimed to keep Nigeria's oil industry under his personal control.

Separately, corruption charges were brought against several high-ranking politicians in 2015. In September, newly elected Senate president Bukola Saraki was charged by Nigeria's Code of Conduct Tribunal with concealing assets and other offenses allegedly committed during his 2003-11 tenure as governor of Kwara State. At year's end the case had been suspended while Saraki appealed the charges at the Supreme Court. In December, former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki was arrested in connection with claims that $2.1 billion in federal funds earmarked for the military had gone missing. Dasuki pleaded not guilty to embezzlement charges and alleged that some of the missing funds were used to pay for Jonathan's reelection campaign. Several other officials implicated in the scandal were also arrested, and the case remained open at year's end.

Despite the passage of the 2011 Freedom of Information Act, which guarantees the right to access public records, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have criticized government agencies for routinely refusing to release information sought through the law. According to Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, Nigeria was ranked 136 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed.

Discretionary Political Rights Question B: -1 / 0

Boko Haram has been accused of attempting to alter the religious and ethnic composition of the northeast, particularly in the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, though in 2015 its operations and control over territory were curtailed by Nigerian and allied regional military forces. The militant group has targeted Christians and moderate Muslims through mass killings, kidnappings, and other human rights abuses; used captive women and children to carry out attacks, including suicide bombings; imposed a crude form of Sharia (Islamic law); and sought to eradicate any sources of secular education. The conflict has killed thousands of people annually in recent years, and the National Emergency Management Agency reported in December 2015 that nearly 2.1 million people were internally displaced in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in July that there were as many as 129,000 Nigerian refugees in Niger, Cameroon, and Chad.

Civil Liberties: 25 / 40

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 9 / 16

Freedom of speech, expression, and the press are constitutionally guaranteed. However, these rights are limited by laws on sedition, criminal defamation, and publication of false news. Sharia statutes in 12 northern states impose severe penalties for alleged press offenses. Government officials also restrict press freedom by publicly criticizing, harassing, and arresting journalists, especially when they cover corruption scandals, human rights violations, or separatist and communal violence. In December 2015, the Senate sparked public outrage by proposing a measure, known as the "social media bill," that would impose a two-year prison term on anyone found guilty of making false statements on electronic media. The bill's sponsors were pursuing its passage at year's end, though Buhari indicated that he would veto it should it reach his desk.

The military made a number of attempts to punish critical reporting in 2015. In March, soldiers detained and confiscated the equipment of two Al-Jazeera journalists covering the conflict with Boko Haram in Borno State. The two were released in April after a Lagos-based human rights lawyer filed a suit on their behalf. Local and international journalists also criticized the government and political parties for attempting to restrict the coverage of the 2015 elections. In February, officials with the State Security Service searched the home of a Reuters correspondent, confiscated his equipment, and detained him for several days on suspicion of espionage. Journalists and media entities have also been attacked and intimidated by nonstate actors, including Boko Haram. A reporter for Channels TV was stabbed during a live broadcast at an APC rally in Rivers State in February. An investigation was launched, but no arrests were reported by year's end. After publishing an article critical of Boko Haram in May, an editor at the independent daily ThisDay received death threats via e-mail, apparently from Boko Haram. There were no reports that the government restricted access to the internet in 2015.

Religious freedom is constitutionally and legally protected and is generally respected by the government in practice. Nevertheless, in some instances state and local governments have placed limits on religious activities and endorsed a dominant faith. In June 2015, the Sharia Court of Appeal in Kano State reportedly sentenced nine people to death for making blasphemous statements against the prophet Muhammad. Nonstate actors have also attempted to limit religious freedom. Boko Haram has explicitly targeted Christians and moderate Muslims, and their respective houses of worship. During the month of Ramadan, Boko Haram launched a series of attacks on churches and mosques in Nigeria's northeastern and so-called Middle Belt states. In July, suspected Boko Haram militants burned 32 churches and killed five people in Borno State, and attacked a crowded mosque in the city of Jos, killing 44 people. Periodic communal clashes between Muslims and Christians have broken out for decades in the states of Kaduna and Plateau, especially around Jos, often killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands at a time.

The federal government generally respects academic freedom. However, some state governments mandate religious instruction in elementary and secondary curriculums, and student admission and faculty hiring policies are subject to political interference. Boko Haram's assault on secular education has included the destruction of numerous primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions; the intimidation, injury, and killing of schoolchildren and teachers; and the forced closure of schools throughout the northeast. The government has been unable to locate more than 200 girls whom Boko Haram abducted from a school in the town of Chibok in 2014.

The U.S. State Department has received reports of authorities monitoring electronic communications between private citizens, particularly as election campaigning takes place. In February 2015, the APC alleged that the Jonathan administration was hacking the phones of party leaders.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 7 / 12

The rights to peaceful assembly and association are constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected. However, federal and state governments frequently ban public events perceived as threatening national security, including those that could incite political, ethnic, or religious tension.

Nigeria has a broad and vibrant civil society. NGOs operating in regions affected by the Boko Haram insurgency experienced difficulties in carrying out their work in 2015. Members of some organizations faced intimidation and physical harm for speaking out against Boko Haram, or encountered obstacles when investigating alleged human rights abuses committed by the military against Boko Haram suspects. Groups operating in the restive Niger Delta region face similar impediments.

Under the constitution, workers have the right to form and join trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and conduct strikes. Nevertheless, the government forbids strike action in a number of essential services, including public transportation and security.

F. Rule of Law: 4 / 16

Judicial independence is constitutionally and legally enshrined. The judiciary has achieved some degree of independence and professionalism in practice, but political interference, corruption, and a lack of funding, equipment, and training remain important problems. Certain departments, particularly the Court of Appeals, have frequently rejected election challenges or allegations of corruption against powerful elites, raising doubts about their impartiality. In January 2015, the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria held a three-week strike, shutting down all state and federal courts to protest the federal government's unwillingness to guarantee the financial independence of the judiciary.

Despite pressure from international human rights groups, torture has yet to be criminalized. There were numerous allegations of torture, extortion, bribe taking, and embezzlement within the police force in 2015. In June, the inspector general of police, in collaboration with an NGO specializing in security-sector reform, launched a social-media platform that allowed citizens to report police abuse and bribe taking.

The military has also been widely criticized for pervasive corruption and human rights abuses. In June 2015, Amnesty International (AI) published a report that called for the investigation of top military commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to extrajudicial killings and other abuses, including acts of torture, carried out during counterinsurgency efforts in the northeast. AI alleged that since March 2011, approximately 7,000 men and boys had died in military detention, while between 2013 and 2014 the military and other affiliated groups executed 1,200 people. In December 2015, local and international rights groups condemned the military for allegedly killing scores of Shiite Muslim protesters in Zaria, a major city in Kaduna State. The National Human Rights Commission began an investigation into the incident, which remained open at year's end.

After assuming office, Buhari sought to revive the military's counterinsurgency efforts by replacing the armed forces' leadership, relocating the military command center from Abuja to Maiduguri, and forging closer partnerships with Chad, Niger, and Cameroon to combat Boko Haram and redevelop the affected region. The multinational offensive against Boko Haram that began in February was instrumental in recapturing major towns and other territory from the group, rescuing thousands of civilians and hostages, and inflicting significant losses on the militants themselves. However, Boko Haram continued to launch deadly attacks against civilian targets in the northeast, and conducted raids and other operations in neighboring countries. In March, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly pledged the group's allegiance to the Syria-based Islamic State (IS) militant group, and the offer was subsequently accepted, according to an IS spokesperson.

Violent crime in certain areas of Nigeria is a serious problem, as is the trafficking of drugs and small arms. Abductions are common in the Niger Delta and the southeastern states of Abia, Imo, and Anambra. Political figures, the wealthy, and foreigners are most frequently targeted. In September 2015, Olu Falae, a former government minister, was abducted and held for ransom in Ondo State. Police rescued him and later arrested several suspects.

Despite constitutional safeguards against ethnic discrimination, many ethnic minorities experience bias by state governments and other societal groups in areas including employment, education, and housing. The government and society continue to discriminate against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people. According to a June 2015 report by the rights group PEN Nigeria, the implementation of the 2014 Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act  which imposes sentences of up to 10 years in prison for supporting or publicly expressing same-sex relationships, among other provisions  has substantially restricted freedom of expression and assembly for LGBT Nigerians, and encouraged anti-LGBT violence and discrimination. In northern states, same-sex relationships can be punished by death under Sharia statutes. In January 2015, Sharia police arrested 12 men in Kano State for allegedly being involved in a gay marriage; the men were eventually released.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 5 / 16

Freedom of internal movement and foreign travel are legally guaranteed. However, security officials frequently impose dusk-to-dawn curfews in areas affected by communal violence or the Islamist insurgency.

Nigeria's largely unregulated property rights system hinders citizens and private business from engaging in the efficient and legal purchase or sale of land and other types of property. According to the World Bank's Doing Business Report for 2016, Nigeria ranked 169 out of 189 countries; the country showed improvements in protections for minority investors, but continued to rank near the bottom of the index with respect to property registration, construction permits, and access to electricity.

Women's representation in government worsened following the 2015 elections. Women maintained 8 of 109 Senate seats, but in the House of Representatives women currently hold 18 of 360 seats, compared with 24 following the 2011 elections. Several civil society groups have criticized the Buhari administration for marginalizing women in its ministerial appointments. Of the 37 ministers announced in September, only 6 are women. This amounted to 16 percent female representation in the cabinet, compared with 31 percent in the previous administration.

Many families choose to send sons to school while daughters become street vendors or domestic workers. Women experience discrimination in employment and are often relegated to inferior positions. Gender discrimination is significant in the states governed by Sharia statutes, and this has been exacerbated by the Boko Haram insurgency. Women belonging to certain ethnic groups are often denied equal rights to inherit property due to customary laws and practices. Despite the existence of strict laws against rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, and child marriage, these offenses remain widespread, with low rates of reporting and prosecution.

Nigerian organized crime groups are heavily involved in human trafficking. Boko Haram has subjected children to forced labor and sex slavery. Both Boko Haram and a civilian vigilante group that opposes the militants have forcibly recruited child soldiers, according to the U.S. State Department. In March 2015, then president Jonathan signed the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, which imposes stiff penalties for those convicted of human trafficking or the exploitation of children for sex or labor. The law also provides a mechanism for cooperation among government and civil society groups to combat human trafficking.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Mexico

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Mexico, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2f415.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 65

Freedom Rating: 3.0

Political Rights: 3

Civil Liberties: 3

Quick Facts

Population: 127,017,000

Capital: Mexico City

GDP/Capita: $10,230.20

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

President Enrique Pena Nieto reached the halfway point of his six-year term in 2015 facing increasing questions about governmental commitment to good governance and human rights issues. The Pena Nieto administration began its term with a promising set of reforms accompanied by slowing homicide rates, generating optimism about Mexico's economic and social direction. However, starting in 2014 the government's narrative of progress was undermined by corruption scandals and rights abuses. The problems continued in 2015, with an increase in homicide rates, the escape of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from a high-security federal prison, and ongoing repercussions of the September 2014 disappearance of 43 college students in Iguala, Guerrero, who had engaged in political protests. Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)-led coalition maintained its majority following midterm elections in June, but the elections also signaled party fragmentation and the emergence of independent candidates as a new political force.

The Iguala disappearances loomed large throughout the year. Judicial processes continued against scores of local police, drug gang members, and the mayor of the city and his wife, but as of year's end no convictions had been achieved. In September 2015, a group of experts from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report that assailed investigative and procedural lapses in the government's investigation and cast doubt on the government's November 2014 conclusion that the students' charred remains had been burned in a municipal dump. Although the state agreed to reopen the disappeared students' case, its response to criticisms by the IACHR was highly defensive.

The government's denial of the IACHR experts' request to interview soldiers stationed in Iguala kept rights watchers' eyes trained on the military, as did the slow pace of judicial proceedings against soldiers in connection with a June 2014 confrontation between criminals and an army unit in the State of Mexico that left 22 people dead. The spotlight also shone on the federal police following two confrontations in Michoacan. The first, in January 2015, left 8 civilians dead, while a raid in May resulted in the deaths of 42 alleged gangsters and a police officer. In October, Human Rights Watch accused the federal police of committing extrajudicial executions in each incident. Also that month, the United States announced it was withholding a small portion of pledged military assistance due to the lack of progress on rights improvements. Meanwhile, the escape of El Chapo in July embarrassed the government, and a number of high officials were subsequently fired or arrested for corruption and incompetence.

The results of the June midterm elections offered the government some relief, as the ruling PRI continued to hold a majority in the lower house of Congress (with the help of its close allies the Green Party and the New Alliance Party). The elections also offered the first signs of potentially seismic changes in Mexican politics: the left fractured badly, and for the first time candidates were permitted to run as independents, resulting in the election of an outsider governor in the important northern state of Nuevo Leon.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 28 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12

The president is elected to a six-year term and cannot be reelected. The bicameral Congress consists of the 128-member Senate and the 500-member Chamber of Deputies. Senators are elected for six-year terms through a mix of direct voting and proportional representation, with at least two parties represented in each state's delegation. In the Chamber of Deputies, 300 members are elected through direct representation and 200 through proportional representation, each for three-year terms. Under a December 2013 electoral reform, current members of Congress are no longer barred from reelection. As of 2018, elected senators will be eligible to serve up to two six-year terms; deputies will be permitted to serve up to four three-year terms. In Mexico's federal system, the elected governor and legislature in each of the 31 states have significant governing responsibility, including oversight of the majority of the country's beleaguered police forces.

Pena Nieto won the July 2012 presidential election with 38 percent of the vote, followed by veteran Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with 31 percent. Although Lopez Obrador initially refused to accept the results, alleging infractions such as widespread vote buying, overspending, and media bias, the Federal Electoral Tribunal found insufficient evidence to invalidate the election. In June 2015, the PRI and allied parties overcame poor government approval ratings to garner a 260-seat majority in the lower chamber. The right-wing National Action Party (PAN) won 108 seats, while left-wing parties (the PRD, the Lopez Obrador-led National Regeneration Movement [MORENA], and the Citizens' Movement) won 120. No coalition commands a majority in the Senate, where the PRI-Green Party alliance won 61 seats in 2012, the PAN took 38, and the PRD won 22.

Mexico's National Electoral Institute (INE, known until 2014 as the Federal Electoral Institute) supervises elections and enforces political party laws, including strict regulations on campaign financing and the content of political advertising  although control is weaker in practice. Both the 2012 and 2015 elections were generally considered free and fair, but complaints persisted. The primary accusations in 2012  which concerned alleged instances of vote buying and collusion between the PRI and dominant broadcaster Televisa  were instrumental in sparking a significant anti-PRI student movement. At the state level, allegations of misuse of public resources to favor specific gubernatorial candidates are frequent. The 2013 political reform broadened the INE's power to include oversight of state elections, and the agency was generally considered to have managed the 2015 balloting competently. However, political analysts faulted the INE's unwillingness to adequately punish violations during the campaign, particularly repeated flouting of electoral rules by the Green Party.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 12 / 16

Mexico's multiparty system features few official restrictions on political organization and activity. Power has changed hands twice at the national level since 2000, and opposition parties are also competitive in many states. However, in states with lower levels of multiparty contestation, locally dominant political actors often govern in a highly opaque manner that limits political activity and citizen participation and opens the door to corruption and organized crime.

The PRI returned to national government in 2012 after losing two consecutive presidential races to the right-leaning PAN. The PRI ruled Mexico without interruption from 1929 to 2000, and many Mexicans still question its commitment to full democracy. Its ally the Green Party is viewed as a particularly feckless seeker of control over public funds. The left, which had previously been dominated by the PRD, fragmented prior to the 2015 midterms, with Lopez Obrador forming his own party, MORENA. In addition to independent Jaime "El Bronco" Rodriguez's victory in Nuevo Leon, the most prominent independent wins were one federal deputy and a state legislator in Jalisco.

Politicians and municipal governments have been subject to significant pressure from criminal groups in recent years, with more than 300 attempted or successful assassinations of local officials registered between 2008 and 2013. There were at least 19 killings linked to the 2015 electoral process.

Indigenous Mexicans are not blocked from participating in the political process, and federal and state laws prescribe procedures for the integration of traditional community customs. However, indigenous groups remain underrepresented in formal political institutions.

C. Functioning of Government: 7 / 12

Organized crime and related violence have limited the effective governing authority of elected officials in some areas of the country. Members of organized crime have persisted in their attempts to infiltrate local governments in order to ensure their own impunity. The mass student disappearance that occurred in Iguala in September 2014 was linked to a deeply corrupt local government working in conjunction with a drug gang. In the most violent regions, the provision of public services has become more difficult as public-sector employees such as teachers increasingly face extortion.

Official corruption remains a serious problem. Billions of dollars in illegal drug money  as well as large quantities of powerful firearms  enter the country each year from the United States, and such funds affect politics, particularly at the state and local levels. Attempts to prosecute officials for alleged involvement in corrupt or criminal activity have often failed due to the weakness of the cases brought by the state, prompting an attempt to purge the federal prosecutorial agency in 2015. Punitive measures have generally focused on low- and mid-level officials, hundreds of whom have been dismissed or charged with links to drug traffickers. Pressure for reform intensified during 2014 after it was revealed that the president's wife and the finance minister had purchased houses from an active government contractor in a conflict-of-interest scandal. In August 2015, all were cleared of wrongdoing following a widely derided investigation into the so-called mansion scandal. However, civil society outcry about lack of progress contributed to the April passage of constitutional amendments creating a new National Anticorruption System that grants more autonomy to auditors and prosecutors. Mexico was ranked 103 out of 175 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Despite some limitations, a 2002 freedom of information law has successfully strengthened transparency at the federal level, though implementation has slowed and many states lag far behind. A new and more extensive transparency law passed in April 2015 was mostly praised by good governance advocates, although controversies over denial of access to files pertaining to abuses by state security forces persisted.

Civil Liberties: 37 / 60 (+1)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 13 / 16 (+1)

Legal and constitutional guarantees of free speech have been improving gradually, but the security environment for journalists remains highly problematic. While some major media outlets have reduced or eliminated their dependence on the government for advertising and subsidies, investigative reporting is scarce and the distribution of government advertising still affects coverage, particularly at the local level. Broadcast media are dominated by a corporate duopoly composed of Televisa and TV Azteca, which together control approximately 95 percent of the free-to-air market. Televisa has faced accusations of supporting specific politicians over the years, usually from the PRI. A 2013 telecommunications law established a new telecommunications regulator, strengthened the Federal Economic Competition Commission, and resulted in the creation of two new free-to-air channels. However, civil society groups have criticized the limited scope of the reforms, and the winners of the auctioned airwaves  one of which subsequently was stripped of its frequency for nonpayment  were not considered likely to offer significant new competition.

A major controversy emerged in March 2015, when famed investigative reporter Carmen Aristegui, whose team broke the presidential mansion story, was fired by MVS Radio. Aristegui accused the station of bowing to political pressures, while the station's owners accused her of repeated insubordination.

Reporters probing police issues, drug trafficking, and official corruption have faced an increasingly high risk of physical harm since 2006, when violence spiked. At least four journalists were killed in connection with their work during 2015. Two of the killings occurred in Oaxaca, and one in Veracruz; another Veracruz-based journalist, Ruben Espinosa, was murdered along with four other people in Mexico City in July after threats in his home state prompted him to flee. Given the broader context of impunity and lack of state protection, the government's rapid dismissal of a professional motive in the Espinosa shooting left Mexican journalists indignant. Self-censorship has increased, with many newspapers in violent areas avoiding publication of stories concerning organized crime. Press watchdog groups hailed the 2012 federalization of crimes against journalists as well as an August 2015 law in Mexico City aimed at protecting journalists and human rights defenders, but they have decried the slow pace of the federal government's special prosecutor for crimes against freedom of expression since the office gained authority in May 2013. Despite improvements in legal status, community radio stations continue to face occasional harassment from criminals and state authorities.

Mexico has been at the forefront of citizen-led efforts to ensure internet access. The government amended Article 6 of the constitution in 2013 to make access to the internet a civil right. However, gangs have targeted bloggers and online journalists who report on organized crime, issuing threats and periodically murdering online writers.

Religious freedom is protected by the constitution and is generally respected in practice. The government does not restrict academic freedom, though university students are sometimes threatened for their political activism. While there are no formal impediments to free and open discussion, fear of criminal monitoring restricts citizens' willingness to converse publicly about crime issues in some areas of the country.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 8 / 12

Constitutional guarantees regarding free assembly and association are largely upheld, but political and civic expression is restricted in some regions. Protest activity slowed in 2015 compared to 2014's highly-publicized mobilizations in Guerrero and Mexico City related to the student disappearances.

Although highly active, nongovernmental organizations sometimes face violent resistance, including threats and murders. Activists representing indigenous groups contesting large-scale infrastructure projects have been particularly vulnerable. In 2012, civil society pressure prompted the government to create a Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which has offered protection to several hundred people but has been critiqued by rights groups as slow and suffering from insufficient governmental commitment.

Trade unions, long a pillar of the PRI, have diminished significantly, but independent unions still face interference from the government. Informal, nontransparent negotiations between employers and politically connected union leaders often result in "protection contracts" that govern employee rights but are never seen by workers. Several large unions are considered opaque and antagonistic to necessary policy reforms. Longtime teachers' union leader Elba Esther Gordillo  widely perceived as extremely corrupt  was arrested in February 2013 and charged with embezzling more than $150 million; she remained in prison throughout 2015.

F. Rule of Law: 6 / 16

Mexico's justice system is plagued by delays, unpredictability, and corruption, leading to pervasive impunity. A 2008 constitutional reform replaced the civil-inquisitorial trial system with an oral-adversarial one. Although it was expected to strengthen due process while increasing efficiency and impartiality, human rights groups raised concerns about the weak protections it affords to those suspected of involvement in organized crime. Implementation of the new system is expected to take eight years; in 2015, civil society groups noted progress in some states but significant delays in many others.

Abuses during criminal investigations are rife; in March, a UN special rapporteur released a report characterizing torture as "generalized" within Mexican police forces, generating a diplomatic spat. The government has also faced domestic and international pressure to confront the problem of forced disappearance, which may have affected up to 24,000 Mexicans, although figures remain murky. In December, the government submitted a law to end the statute of limitations for both disappearances and torture and create a system of registering the disappeared and coordinating the state's response.

Coordination among Mexico's many federal, state, and local law enforcement entities has long been problematic, and the Pena Nieto administration has pursued streamlined chains of command. In zones plagued by crime, federal troops have temporarily replaced local police forces. Critics contend that federal intervention decreases incentives for governors to undertake systemic reforms, and in practice implementation of such reforms at the local level has been largely unsuccessful. Despite a 2009 law ordering all members of the police to be vetted, thousands of police who failed to meet requirements have remained on the job.

Lower courts  and law enforcement in general  are undermined by widespread bribery and suffer from limited capacity. According to a government survey released in September 2015, nearly 93 percent of crimes committed in 2014 went unreported because the underpaid police are viewed as either inept or in league with criminals. Even when investigations are conducted, only a handful of crimes end in convictions. Prisons are violent and overcrowded, and it is not uncommon for prisoners to continue criminal activity while incarcerated. El Chapo's escape led to the arrest of 34 people. The National Human Rights Commission, long maligned due to its perceived passivity in the face of rampant rights abuses, began to regain some credibility following the appointment of a new director in November 2014.

Presidential authority over the armed forces is extensive, but the military has historically operated beyond public scrutiny. Human rights advocates have long complained about a lack of accountability for rights abuses including torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions. Military personnel are generally tried in military courts, but a bill passed in April 2014 shifted the venue of trials for violations of civilians' rights to civilian courts. Of the seven soldiers indicted for the 2014 State of Mexico massacre, four had charges dismissed in October 2015, while three remained in custody pending trial.

The number of deaths attributed to organized crime rose sharply each year between 2007 and 2011, declined from 2012 to 2014, but ticked upward again in 2015. Violence was particularly acute in Guerrero, and also rose sharply in Mexico City. In March and April 2015, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel carried out a series of attacks that killed more than 20 police in Jalisco. Gang murders often feature extreme brutality designed to maximize the psychological impact on civilians, authorities, and rival groups.

In recent years, the government has taken a number of steps to curb violence and ease popular frustration. These include engaging in consultations with civic leaders, the continued deployment of troops, the reformation of the federal police and development of the National Gendarmerie, and the decriminalization of possession of small quantities of drugs. The Pena Nieto administration has been less vocal on matters of public safety than its predecessor, but it has maintained many of the former administration's strategies, including use of the military. However, after three straight years of declines, the murder rate increased by more than 8 percent in 2015.

Mexican law bans discrimination based on ethnic origin, gender, age, religion, and sexual orientation. Nevertheless, the large indigenous population has been subject to social and economic discrimination, with many groups relegated to extreme poverty in rural villages that lack essential services. Southern states with high concentrations of indigenous residents suffer from particularly deficient services. Indigenous groups have been harmed by criminal violence; in recent years, a series of communities in Guerrero and Michoacan have formed self-defense groups, some of which were subsequently legalized. In addition, disputes over land issues within indigenous groups have occasionally become violent, particularly in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 10 / 16

Criminals have impeded freedom of movement by blocking major roads in several states in recent years, and ordinary citizens avoid roads in many rural areas after dark. Rights groups frequently detail the persecution and criminal predation faced by migrants from Central America, many of whom move through Mexico to reach the United States. Despite government initiatives to improve protections, pressure from the United States to crack down on migrants generated increasing accusations of abuses against migrants in 2015.

Property rights in Mexico are protected by a modern legal framework, but the weakness of the judicial system, frequent solicitation of bribes by bureaucrats and officials, and the high incidence of criminal extortion harm security of property for many individuals and businesses. A series of demonstrations in March 2015 drew attention to brutal working conditions endured by many indigenous Mexicans working in northern agricultural fields.

Women play a prominent role in social and political life, and female representatives increased their share of seats in the Chamber of Deputies to 42 percent in the 2015 elections. However, sexual abuse and domestic violence against women are common. According to a 2012 study, 46 percent of women have suffered some form of violence, and perpetrators are rarely punished. Implementation of a 2007 law designed to protect women from such crimes remains halting, particularly at the state level, and impunity is the norm for the killers of hundreds of women each year. In July 2015, authorities in the State of Mexico issued a "gender alert," thereby triggering greater scrutiny and an influx of resources to combat an epidemic of violence against women; women's rights advocates expressed hope it would serve as a precedent for other similarly afflicted regions. Abortion has been a contentious issue in recent years, with many states reacting to Mexico City's 2007 liberalization of abortion laws by strengthening their own criminal bans on the procedure.

Mexico took significant steps toward LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) equality in 2015, courtesy of the Supreme Court. In June, the chamber struck down as discriminatory a state law stating that the purpose of marriage is procreation, and in August, it extended protections to include adoption of minors by same-sex couples. However, implementing the jurisprudence in all Mexican states will take time, as the court's rulings do not apply in blanket form to all states that have yet to legalize same-sex marriage.

Mexico is a major source, transit, and destination country for trafficking in persons, including women and children, many of whom are subject to forced labor and sexual exploitation. Organized criminal gangs are heavily involved in human trafficking in Mexico and into the United States. Government corruption is a significant concern as many officials are bribed by or aide traffickers.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - Hungary

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Hungary, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2f7c.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 79

Freedom Rating: 2.0

Political Rights: 2

Civil Liberties: 2

Trend Arrow: 

Hungary received a downward trend arrow due to laws, policies, and practices that sharply curtailed the ability of refugees to seek asylum in the country, the ongoing deterioration of the media environment, and the effects of large-scale government corruption on commercial activity and competition.

Quick Facts

Population: 9,835,030

Capital: Budapest

GDP/Capita: $13,902.70

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Free

OVERVIEW

Support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Alliance of Young Democrats-Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz) party declined steeply at the end of 2014 and in the first months of 2015. Together with its junior coalition partner, the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), it lost two parliamentary by-elections in 2015, the first of which went to a leftist candidate and cost the coalition its two-thirds parliamentary supermajority. The second by-election went to the radical-nationalist Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) party, whose popularity peaked in April but gradually returned to about 15 percent. Fidesz's poll numbers recovered in August and September, apparently reflecting support for the government's tough stance on migration.

Roughly a million migrants and refugees streamed into the European Union (EU) in 2015, many of them fleeing conflict zones in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Hungary became the main entry point for those reaching the EU's core via Greece and the Balkans. The Orban government responded to the influx of asylum seekers by constructing a razor-wire fence along Hungary's southern border and adopting extensive new immigration and border-control regulations designed to deter new entries and ease the rejection of asylum applications. In December, the European Commission launched infringement procedures over Hungary's new asylum legislation, which appeared to breach EU standards.

Separately, in May, the government finalized its proposal to replace the controversial progressive advertising tax it had pushed through in 2014 with a flat tax rate of 5.3 percent. The original law was suspended by order of the European Commission in March, pending an investigation to assess whether it gave certain companies an unfair competitive advantage, in violation of EU rules.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 32 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 9 / 12

Voters elect representatives every four years to a 199-seat, unicameral National Assembly under a mixed system of proportional and direct representation. The National Assembly elects both the president and the prime minister. The president's duties are mainly ceremonial, but he can influence appointments and return legislation for further consideration before signing it into law.

The Fidesz-KDNP coalition won the April 2014 parliamentary elections with 45 percent of the vote, capturing exactly two-thirds (133) of the seats. Unity  a new coalition of five leftist parties  won 38 seats. Jobbik took 23 seats, while the green-liberal Politics Can Be Different party won 5 seats.

Throughout the rancorous campaign, opposition parties criticized recent changes to electoral legislation, including rules that facilitated the creation of instant parties, splitting the antigovernment vote; alleged gerrymandering in the ruling coalition's favor; and the government's heavy influence over state television and radio. Most of these grievances were echoed by critical assessments from international transparency watchdogs and an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election-monitoring delegation, which also pointed to strong government influence over media and advertising outlets and grossly unequal financial resources. Election monitors also suggested that the dual system for foreign voters, under which ethnic Hungarians who have been awarded citizenship but have never lived in the country can register and vote more easily than native Hungarian citizens living abroad, "undermine[s] the principle of equal suffrage."

Zoltan Kesz, an independent candidate who drew support from left-wing parties, won with 43 percent of the vote in a February 2015 parliamentary by-election in Veszprem, a traditional Fidesz stronghold. The Fidesz candidate, Lajos Nemedi, secured 34 percent. Fidesz-KDNP consequently lost the two-thirds parliamentary supermajority it had held since 2010.

In April, Lajos Rig of Jobbik won a by-election in Tapolca, which had also overwhelmingly supported Fidesz in 2014. Rig's victory marked the first time Jobbik had won a single-member district outright, as opposed to gaining seats through proportional representation.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 15 / 16

After Fidesz's electoral victories in 2014, public support for the party declined significantly due to corruption allegations, political infighting, and an attempt to tax internet traffic, among other factors. With the political left plagued by infighting, Jobbik was the country's second-most popular party as of 2015. According to data released in April by the polling agency Median, 18 percent of Jobbik supporters said they had voted for Fidesz the year before. However, the 2015 refugee crisis created an opportunity for Fidesz to reassert itself among anti-immigrant and Euroskeptic voters. The ruling party's popularity, which was at a two-year low of 24 percent in March 2015, bounced back to 34 percent by November, according to Median. A large number of smaller parties compete in elections, but a party must take at least 5 percent of the national vote to win parliament seats by proportional representation.

Hungary's constitution guarantees the right of ethnic minorities to form self-governing bodies, and all 13 recognized minorities have done so. Minorities can also register to vote for special minority lists  with a preferential vote threshold  in parliamentary elections, but they are then excluded from the general party-list voting. None of the 13 minority lists won enough votes to secure a seat in 2014, meaning each is represented only by a nonvoting spokesperson. The Romany population in particular has long been underrepresented in political office.

C. Functioning of Government: 8 / 12

Corruption remains a notable problem in Hungary, which ranked 50 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. Using its supermajority, the Fidesz-led coalition has appointed allies to lead state agencies with anticorruption roles. The lack of an appropriate public-spending database presents an obstacle to the transparency of government finances.

Transparency International's Hungary chapter reports that a number of companies with close ties to the government are supported primarily by public funds. The board of Hungary's Public Procurement Authority has 19 members, 7 of whom are government appointees and 3 of whom are chosen by nominally independent public institutions led by allies of the prime minister. In July 2015, the procurement board banned former Orban ally Lajos Simicska's construction firm Kozgep from participating in public tenders for three years on the grounds that the company had included "false data" in one of its bids. Before a much-publicized rift between Simicska and Orban came to a head in February 2015, Kozgep had won billions of forints in state contracts.

In April, the European Commission suspended approximately $2.6 billion in planned transfers to Hungarian economic development programs due to suspected corruption and irregularities in the awarding of tenders. Shortly afterward, public protests against corruption and the erosion of democratic freedoms were held in 50 towns and cities across Hungary. In June, two European Commission offices opened investigations into public contracts involving EU development funds awarded to Elios Innovativ at a time when the company was owned in part by Orban's son-in-law, Istvan Tiborcz. Neither investigation was complete at year's end.

Separately, in March, the Foreign Ministry withdrew 3.8 billion forints ($14 million) from the Quaestor brokerage firm days before it went bankrupt; the firm's chief executive was thought to be close to Fidesz politicians. The ministry denied allegations that it acted on inside information, and Orban explained that he had instructed ministries to withdraw public funds from brokerage firms after observing the failure in February of another company, Buda-Cash.

In 2014, the U.S. State Department issued travel bans against several Hungarians  including the head of the government tax authority  on the basis of corrupt activity. Details released in 2015 suggested that a Hungarian lobbyist was empowered to offer U.S. food producer Bunge a lower value-added tax (VAT) in exchange for the transfer of 2 billion forints ($7 million) to a government-affiliated think tank. The investigation continued throughout 2015.

Civil Liberties: 47 / 60 (-3)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 13 / 16 (-1)

Hungary's constitution protects freedoms of speech and the press, but complex and extensive media legislation enacted under the Fidesz government is widely deemed to have undermined these guarantees. Since 2011, media outlets must register with the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH), which can revoke licenses for infractions. A Media Council under the NMHH can close outlets or impose fines of up to $950,000 for failure to register or for airing content that incites hatred. Fidesz, with its parliamentary supermajority, controlled the initial appointments to the Media Council, whose members serve nine-year terms; it now requires some outside support for the approval of its nominees. The government has withdrawn most advertising from independent media since Fidesz took power in 2010.

Editorial bias and political pressure are problems at both public and private media outlets. In August 2015, a leaked memo revealed that the Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA), which is supervised by the Media Council and is responsible for funding and content production for all public media, had instructed employees of Hungarian state television not to include footage of children in news pieces about migrants and refugees. When questioned, the MTVA cited a need to protect the children, but the memo was widely interpreted as a government effort to limit public sympathy for refugees.

Kozgep owner Simicska controls a large conservative media empire that was considered pro-Fidesz until the mogul's relationship with Orban began to sour in 2014. A few new Fidesz-friendly outlets were founded in 2015, but their initial reach was limited. Also in 2015, associates of the government and of Simicska asserted rival claims to the ownership of TV2, Hungary's second-largest commercial television station. A lawsuit on the matter was pending at year's end.

Politicians regularly file criminal defamation charges against journalists and bloggers. In 2015, cases were brought against 17 people who posted on Facebook about a suspicious property sale by the mayor of Siofok, and against the editor of a prominent blog who criticized xenophobic statements by a Budapest district mayor. The criminal code requires internet service providers to block content deemed illegal by a court order. Websites hosting illegal content are placed on a nonpublic "blacklist" operated by the NMHH. In 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that website operators are responsible for user comments on blog posts or news commentary that may violate media laws.

In July 2015, legislators voted to extend the maximum response time for public information requests from 15 to 30 days and allow government agencies to charge a fee for fulfilling such requests. Another provision of the hastily passed bill allows public bodies to keep certain data private for 10 years if they have been used in decision-making processes. Freedom of information advocates denounced the changes as an attempt to deter journalists and citizens from investigating potential government corruption. Nevertheless, President Janos Ader signed the bill into law.

The constitution guarantees religious freedom and provides for the separation of church and state. Adherents of all religions are generally free to worship. Religious communities have the same legal standing as recognized churches. However, a two-thirds parliamentary majority must approve the right of any religious community or church to receive tax and other benefits reserved for "accepted churches." Anti-Semitism remains a problem, particularly among far-right groups.

The state generally does not restrict academic freedom. However, a gradual overhaul of the public education system has raised concerns about excessive government influence on school curriculums, and legislation adopted in June 2014 has the potential to reduce the autonomy of universities. There are no significant constraints on freedom of private discussion in Hungary.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 11 / 12

The constitution provides for freedoms of assembly and association, and the government generally respects these rights in practice.

State funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society groups is distributed through the National Cooperation Fund (NEA), whose nine-member council is dominated by government and parliamentary appointees. In 2014, the government appeared to retaliate against critical NGOs by launching a far-reaching investigation into the funding that several hundred of them had received via the Norway Grants, a charitable foundation supported primarily by the Norwegian government. In January 2015, a district court ruled that the National Bureau of Investigation's 2014 raid on the Okotars Foundation  one of the NGOs involved in the disbursal of Norway Grants funds in Hungary  had been illegitimate. The government finally agreed in December to conclude its investigations into the work of NGOs supported by Norway Grants in exchange for the release of development funds previously earmarked for Hungary. The government maintains that "not everything was in order" with the operations of NGOs funded by Norway Grants, and the Okotars Foundation will not be part of the management and distribution of Norway Grants money in the next funding cycle.

The government recognizes workers' rights to form associations, strike, and petition public authorities. Trade unions represent less than 30 percent of the workforce.

F. Rule of Law: 10 / 16 (-1)

Judicial independence is a matter of concern. Of the 14 judges currently on the Constitutional Court, 11 were appointed by the Fidesz government. In March 2015, a group of Hungarian civil liberties watchdog organizations released a joint study of 23 high-profile Constitutional Court cases, 10 of which were adjudicated before Fidesz-appointed judges constituted a majority, and 13 after. The study found that before the majority, all cases had come out against the interests of the government; after Fidesz appointees became dominant on the court, the government's interests won out in 10 of the 13 rulings.

Prisons are generally approaching European standards, though overcrowding, inadequate medical care, and poor sanitation remain problems. Inmates do not have access to independent medical staff to assess abuse allegations. In March 2015, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Hungary to pay 84,000 ($89,000) in damages to six prison inmates who had been held in highly overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

Hungary has taken a number of steps to improve monitoring of Romany legal rights and treatment, but Roma, who form Hungary's largest ethnic minority, still face widespread discrimination and poverty. Romany students continue to be segregated and improperly placed in schools for children with mental disabilities. A court ruling on a civil suit in September 2015 was the first against police accused of anti-Roma discrimination.

Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is banned under the Act on Equal Opportunity. However, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people face harassment in practice, including from police and government officials.

Amendments to asylum legislation passed in June and July 2015 allowed the detention of migrants in temporary camps, sped up asylum assessments, and limited opportunities to appeal asylum decisions. The government then deemed Serbia, among others, a "safe third country" under the revised asylum law, allowing officials to reject most asylum applications from people who reached Hungary via Serbia without examining cases individually. In September, the parliament overwhelmingly voted to make illegal border-crossing punishable by up to three years in prison and expulsion from the country. More legislation adopted in September allowed Hungary's army to enforce border controls, restrict civil liberties, and employ "coercive weapons designed to cause bodily harm, although in a nonlethal way, unless it cannot be avoided." That month, Hungarian riot police used tear gas and water cannons against crowds of frustrated asylum seekers who had broken through a border gate.

Some government figures and the Jobbik party have engaged in xenophobic rhetoric in recent years. During the summer of 2015, the government erected Hungarian-language billboards warning migrants to obey "our laws" and not to take Hungarian jobs. In September, footage of a camera operator for the Jobbik-affiliated station N1TV kicking and tripping migrants spread across social media; she was fired shortly afterward.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 13 / 16 (-1)

Hungarians enjoy freedom of travel and choice of residence, employment, and institution of higher education. Citizens have the right to own property and establish private businesses. Cronyism remains a serious concern, however. Critics of recent sectoral taxes see them as efforts by the state to drive out or take over foreign businesses. In December 2014, the parliament adopted a law forcing large or corporate-owned retailers to close on Sundays, while small or family-owned shops may remain open. The difficulties of Simicska-owned businesses and EU investigations into state contracting practices in 2015 further illustrated the extent to which business success depends on government connections.

Women possess the same legal rights as men, but they face employment discrimination and tend to be underrepresented in high-level business and government positions. Women hold only 20 of 199 seats in the National Assembly  the lowest percentage in Europe  and no cabinet posts. Government leaders show little interest in women's rights concerns. Magyar Telekom  the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom and Hungary's biggest telecommunications company  ended its affiliation with Hungarian pop star Akos Kovacs in December 2015 after he made a series of sexist comments during a television interview. The government responded by canceling its mobile internet subscriptions with the company. The same weekend, parliament speaker Laszlo Kover told ruling party lawmakers that "the highest level of self-fulfillment for our daughters should be to bear grandchildren for us," prompting a public outcry. The right to life from conception is protected under the 2011 constitution, but access to abortions remained largely unrestricted in 2015.

Same-sex couples can legally register their domestic partnerships. However, the constitution enshrines the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Hungary is a transit point, source, and destination for trafficked persons, including women trafficked for prostitution. Roma and unaccompanied asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - France

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - France, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2f913.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 91

Freedom Rating: 1.0

Political Rights: 1

Civil Liberties: 1

Quick Facts

Population: 64,346,720

Capital: Paris

GDP/Capita: $42,732.60

Press Freedom Status: Free

Net Freedom Status: Free

OVERVIEW

The year 2015 was flanked by several horrific attacks in France. On January 7, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin terrorized the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. Two days later, an accomplice took several hostages at a kosher market in the capital, taking four lives before he was killed by police. In the aftermath of these events, the government enacted a law granting security agencies extensive new surveillance powers.

On November 13, terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) militant group carried out coordinated attacks at a concert hall and cafes in central Paris as well as outside of a stadium in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, killing 130 people in shooting sprees and suicide bombings. The stadium attack took place during a game attended by President Francois Hollande. Nine assailants died either during the attacks or in later confrontations with police, and most suspects identified by year's end were French or Belgian nationals. Several had traveled to Syria to join IS and then returned; some had been on international security watch lists.

Following the November attacks, Hollande declared a state of emergency, under which security forces conducted thousands of raids and detained hundreds for questioning without judicial oversight. The attacks exacerbated anti-immigrant sentiment, contributing to the early lead of the far-right National Front (FN) in regional elections held in December. The FN was later defeated in all races through a coordinated effort by the political center.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 38 / 40

A. Electoral Process: 12 / 12

The French president and members of the lower house of Parliament, the 577-seat National Assembly, are elected to five-year terms. The upper house, the 348-seat Senate, is an indirectly elected body whose members serve six-year terms. The prime minister is appointed by the president, who is elected by direct, universal suffrage in a two-round system. In the 2012 presidential election, Hollande  a Socialist Party (PS) candidate  won the first round with 28.6 percent of the vote, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), who took 27.2 percent. Marine Le Pen of the FN placed third, with 17.9 percent. Hollande won the election in the runoff, taking 51.6 percent of the vote to Sarkozy's 48.4 percent to become France's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995.

In 2012, the center-left PS and its allies won an absolute majority of 314 seats in the National Assembly, while the UMP and its allies took 229 seats. In the 2014 Senate elections, the PS lost its majority to the UMP and the center-right Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), while the FN won two seats  its first ever in the upper chamber.

In regional elections held in December 2015, the FN led the first round of voting in 6 of the 13 regions at stake. The PS then withdrew from some races to encourage its supporters to vote for the Republicans  the successor of the UMP, which changed its name in May  in order to block the FN, which failed to win any regions in the second round.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 15 / 16

Parties organize and compete on a free and fair basis. The PS and the Republicans are the largest parties. Since taking over the FN in 2011, Le Pen has sought to rebrand it as a mainstream party, albeit a strongly anti-immigration and anti-European Union (EU) one. In April 2015, Le Pen moved to oust her father, who held the position of honorary president of the FN, after he publicly reiterated anti-Semitic views. The party's executive board voted in August to expel him. The 2015 regional elections demonstrated the lengths to which the traditionally dominant parties of the center will go to keep the FN out of power.

The 2012 parliamentary elections yielded a record eight new members from immigrant backgrounds. However, they comprised less than 2 percent of the National Assembly, prompting renewed calls from minority rights groups for a law ensuring ethnic diversity in politics.

C. Functioning of Government: 11 / 12

A number of governmental corruption cases linked to Sarkozy's presidency continued in 2015. In an ongoing probe into alleged illegal financing of Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign by former Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, Sarkozy's former chief of staff and interior minister Claude Gueant was charged in March 2015 with tax evasion and forgery. In December, France's Court of Justice of the Republic ordered International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde to stand trial for negligence over a 404 million ($436 million) government payment to businessman Bernard Tapie, which she had authorized as Sarkozy's finance minister in 2008. Earlier in December, an appeals court had ordered Tapie to repay the amount with interest. At year's end, authorities were investigating whether the compensation was a quid pro quo for Tapie's support for Sarkozy's campaign. France was ranked 23 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

French law provides for public access to government information. France ranked 7 out of 102 countries in the 2015 Open Budget Index, indicating very high levels of budgetary transparency and financial disclosure. In December 2015, the government declassified hundreds of thousands of official documents from the World War II-era Vichy regime, which had collaborated with Nazi Germany.

Civil Liberties: 53 / 60 (-4)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 14 / 16 (-1)

While the media operate freely and represent a wide range of political opinions, the events of 2015 had a wide impact on press freedom. Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo in January, killing 12 people  including a number of the magazine's cartoonists and writers as well as two police officers. Charlie Hebdo is known for its controversial cartoons and has published several caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, which in 2011 provoked a firebombing of the magazine's office. The assailants claimed to be members of an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, and at least one had reportedly trained at a camp run by the group there in 2011. The brothers were killed by police two days after the attack. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the killings made France the second deadliest country for journalists in 2015.

A 2014 counterterrorism law empowered authorities to block websites or bring criminal charges for incitement or glorification of terrorism, with penalties reaching seven years in prison. In January 2015, in the wake of the Paris attacks, more than 250 people were charged with condoning or provoking terrorism; some received prison sentences after accelerated court proceedings. In March, five websites were blocked under the law. The same month, a court used the law to convict comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala for a Facebook post that allegedly sympathized with Amedy Coulibaly, an associate of the Kouachis who carried out the January attack on a kosher market in Paris. Dieudonne, as he is popularly known, received a two-month suspended prison sentence.

In December 2015, a court in Lyon acquitted Le Pen of charges of inciting hatred with a 2010 campaign speech in which she had likened public Muslim prayer to the Nazi occupation of France.

In May 2015, the French data regulation agency ordered Google to comply with requests to remove objectionable or outdated search results from its global search engine, not just its French website, under a 2014 ruling by the European Court of Justice that affirmed the "right to be forgotten." The order was upheld on final appeal in September.

The constitution protects freedom of religion. Strong antidefamation laws prohibit religiously motivated attacks, and Holocaust denial is illegal. France maintains the policy of laicite, whereby religion and government affairs are strictly separated, though the government has relationships with organizations representing the country's three major religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). A 2004 law bans "ostentatious" religious symbols in schools; Muslim girls' headscarves were widely seen as the main target of this law. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld France's ban on clothing that covers the face, including the burqa and niqab, in public spaces.

Such restrictions remained the subject of controversy in 2015. In April, a 15-year-old Muslim girl in northeastern France was sent home from school twice for wearing a skirt that school officials found to be too long and in violation of the religious symbols ban. The Collective Against Islamophobia in France reportedly documented nearly 130 similar incidents in 2014. In November 2015, the ECHR rejected a challenge to the ban filed by a Muslim social worker who lost her job at a hospital in 2000 after refusing to remove her headscarf at work.

Following the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that authorities had closed three mosques  two in the Paris area, one in Lyons  and four "clandestine" Muslim prayer rooms in Nice due to alleged "Islamist radicalization." This marked the first time that French officials closed Muslim houses of worship on these grounds.

Academic freedom is respected by the government. Private discussion is open and vibrant. However, in May 2015, the parliament approved a new law granting the government expanded powers to conduct domestic surveillance, including monitoring and bulk collection of communications data, as well as expanded authority to use hidden cameras and microphones. The law authorizes the use of sophisticated intelligence technology to intercept all telephone, text message, and email conversations in targeted areas. Only limited judicial oversight of these activities is prescribed.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 11 / 12 (-1)

Freedoms of assembly and association are normally respected, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can operate freely. However, the state of emergency imposed in response to the November 2015 terrorist attacks included a ban on demonstrations, which was applied during a major UN climate conference in Paris. Similar conferences have sparked large public protests in the past.

After racially and religiously charged riots erupted in Ajaccio, Corsica, in December, the island's prefect banned public gatherings in the affected neighborhoods. The prohibition remained in effect through the end of the year, but demonstrations took place in other areas of the capital city.

Trade unions are strong despite declining membership and a lack of legal protections relative to more corporatist European countries. In October, Air France workers angered by planned layoffs stormed the airline's headquarters, assaulting security and executive personnel.

F. Rule of Law: 13 / 16 (-2)

France has an independent judiciary, and the rule of law generally prevails in court proceedings. In June 2015, an appeals court in Paris ruled that five individuals of Arab and African descent had been illegally detained and searched in instances of racial profiling by police. The judgment, the first of its kind in France, stated that police may only stop and search people on the basis of objective criteria not related to race. However, the court also ruled that this standard did not apply in so-called dangerous areas that merit heightened scrutiny, an exception criticized by rights advocates.

The state of emergency imposed after the November 13 attacks in Paris allowed authorities to take extraordinary measures, including conducting raids, detentions, and house arrests of suspects without warrants or judicial oversight. On November 19, the National Assembly voted to extend the state of emergency for three months. In December, the government proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow a state of emergency to last for an unlimited period. It would also empower authorities to strip dual nationals of French citizenship if they are convicted of terrorism or an attack on national interests.

Migrants and refugees in France suffer both from societal discrimination and abuse by government officials. Surging immigration and refugee flows from Muslim-majority countries have exacerbated anti-Muslim sentiment, which has been potent in France for years. Observers reported significant increases in bias-related crimes such as mosque vandalism, verbal assaults, and xenophobic graffiti in 2015. In May, French police were filmed assaulting a number of migrants near the port city of Calais without provocation, deploying pepper spray against them as they fled. During the December riots in Corsica, crowds vandalized a Muslim prayer room and burned copies of the Koran.

Thousands of migrants, largely of African and Middle Eastern origin, remained in an informal camp on the outskirts of Calais at year's end. In July and August, groups of migrants attempted to evade security at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in order to reach the United Kingdom while hiding in trucks and freight trains. Several died as a result of traffic accidents.

In September, Hollande announced that France would accept 24,000 refugees over the course of two years under a proposed EU quota. However, following the November attacks and revelations that the perpetrators had traveled through Europe in the planning stages, France successfully pushed for tighter border controls across the Schengen Area, and implementation of the quota agreement was in doubt at year's end.

Police in Paris demolished the country's oldest Roma camp in August, evicting 300 people without warning. According to the European Roma Rights Centre, there were more than 11,000 evictions in 2015, down from 13,000 in 2014 and nearly 20,000 in 2013. In September 2015, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on France to end its "punitive and destructive policy" of eviction.

Anti-Semitic sentiments became pronounced following the January attack on a kosher market in Paris. Jewish rights groups reported more than 500 anti-Semitic incidents in the first four months of 2015, an increase of more than 80 percent over the same period the previous year. This climate contributed to record numbers of French Jews relocating to Israel, with some 8,000 moving in 2015. In April, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced a three-year government campaign against "racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Muslims, hatred of foreigners, and homophobia." The campaign will include increased monitoring of hate speech online and tougher penalties for hate crimes.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited by law. French law forbids the categorization of people according to ethnic origin, and no official statistics are collected on ethnicity.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 15 / 16

There are normally no restrictions on freedom of travel or choice of residence or employment in France, but a number of exceptions have been made in recent years. A 2014 counterterrorism law imposed a travel ban on anyone suspected of planning to become a jihadist; the passports of such individuals can be confiscated for a period of six months to two years. The law was first used in February 2015, when the Interior Ministry seized the passports of six people suspected of planning to travel to Syria to join terrorist groups; hundreds of French citizens have reportedly traveled to Syria and Iraq for that purpose. Separately, under the state of emergency imposed in late 2015, authorities were empowered to place individuals under house arrest, require them to report to police stations, and confiscate their passports without prior judicial authorization. Hundreds of individuals were confined to house arrest in the aftermath of the November attacks.

Private businesses are free to operate. In July 2015, the government pushed through measures to liberalize multiple sectors of the economy; these measures aim to ease entry to certain professions, facilitate the firing of employees, and allow stores to open on Sundays in areas frequented by tourists.

Gender equality is protected in France, and constitutional reforms in 2008 institutionalized economic and social equality. However, in the 2015 Global Gender Gap report, France ranked 132 out of 145 countries in perceptions of the wage gap between women and men, despite its overall strong ranking. After the 2012 elections, women held a record 27 percent of seats in the National Assembly.

France legalized same-sex marriage in 2013. In September 2015, a court in Marseille gave one of the city's deputy mayors a five-month suspended sentence for her refusal to conduct a marriage ceremony for two women.

Civil rights groups and scholars have reported evidence of labor market discrimination against women, French Muslims, immigrants of North African decent, and others outside the traditional elite. While France's government takes actions against human trafficking, the problem persists in the commercial sex trade; other victims are forced into domestic labor.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom in the World 2016 - China

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - China, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2fa15.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 16

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Explanatory Note:

The numerical ratings and status listed above do not reflect conditions in Hong Kong or Tibet, which are examined in separate reports.

Quick Facts

Population: 1,371,920,000

Capital: Beijing

GDP/Capita: $7,593.90

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping, who assumed his post in 2012, continued to display a centralized and hands-on leadership style  as well as an intolerance for dissent  in 2015. Xi heads a growing list of coordinating bodies that give him direct supervision over policy areas including domestic security, economic reform, internet management, and ethnic relations.

An aggressive anticorruption campaign reached the highest echelons of the party during the year, culminating with a sentence of life in prison for former Politburo Standing Committee member and internal security czar Zhou Yongkang. Party and government bodies also pushed forward incremental judicial reforms, relaxed household registration rules, and eased population controls.

However, such initiatives were accompanied by hard-line policies on political freedoms and civil liberties and a rejection of judicial oversight of party actions. Harassment of previously tolerated civil society organizations, women's rights defenders, labor activists, and human rights lawyers intensified during the year. In July, security forces detained over 250 individuals involved in public-interest legal work in an unprecedented crackdown on China's "rights-defense movement." Internet controls continued to tighten, and several professional journalists were detained, imprisoned, and forced to make televised confessions.

The government introduced, amended, or passed laws that could further infringe on freedoms of association, expression, and religion. In July, the legislature passed a new National Security Law that defines security broadly to include political considerations like retaining CCP domination of the "ideological sphere." An Antiterrorism Law was adopted in December, while draft legislation on cybersecurity and foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were pending at year's end.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 1 / 40 (-1)

A. Electoral Process: 0 / 12

The CCP has a monopoly on political power, and its Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) sets government and party policy. At the 18th Party Congress in November 2012, a new PSC  headed by Xi  was announced following an opaque selection process. The committee shrank from nine to seven members. Party members  who number some 80 million nationwide, or about 6 percent of the population  hold almost all top posts in the government, military, and internal security services, as well as in many economic entities and social organizations. Xi, the CCP general secretary, also serves as chairman of the state and party military commissions, and was named state president in March 2013.

The country's legislature, the 3,000-member National People's Congress (NPC), is elected for five-year terms by subnational congresses. It formally elects the state president for up to two five-year terms, and confirms the premier after he is nominated by the president. However, the NPC is a largely symbolic body. Only its standing committee meets regularly, while the full congress convenes for just two weeks a year to approve proposed legislation. The current NPC was seated in March 2013.

The country's only competitive elections are for village committees and urban residency councils, which hold limited authority and are generally subordinate to the local CCP committees. The nomination of candidates remains tightly controlled, and many of the elections have been marred by fraud, corruption, and attacks on independent candidates.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 1 / 16

The CCP does not tolerate any form of organized opposition or independent political parties. Citizens who attempt to form opposition parties or advocate for democratic reforms have been sentenced to long prison terms. Democracy advocate and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo remained behind bars in 2015, having been sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in prison for his role in organizing the prodemocracy manifesto Charter 08. His wife, Liu Xia, has been under strict extralegal house arrest since 2010.

Several activists detained in previous years faced trial and imprisonment in 2015, including in connection with the New Citizens Movement  a loosely organized network of individuals seeking to promote the rule of law, transparency, and human rights  that was the focus of a crackdown launched in 2013. In May, a court in Hubei Province sentenced Liu Jiacai to five years in prison on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" for his online writings and for organizing gatherings of human rights defenders.

In addition to advocates of democracy and political reform, tens of thousands of grassroots activists, petitioners, Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, Tibetans, and Uighurs are believed to be in prison or extrajudicial forms of detention for their political or religious views, although complete figures are unavailable. In October 2014, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China published a partial list of over 1,200 current political prisoners.

C. Functioning of Government: 2 / 12

Party leaders and disciplinary bodies in 2015 accelerated an antigraft campaign launched by Xi in November 2012. During the year, the campaign  described by experts as the most sustained and intensive effort of its kind in recent memory  increasingly focused on central government and party organs, state-owned enterprises, and the financial sector. Scores of senior state and party officials had been investigated and punished by mid-2015, including individuals from the security apparatus, the military, the foreign ministry, state-owned enterprises, and state media. Most notably, in June, former PSC member and internal security chief Zhou Yongkang was sentenced after a closed trial to life imprisonment, having been convicted of bribery, abuse of power, and leaking state secrets. In October, two of his close associates  Jiang Jiemin, former head of China's largest state-run oil company, and Li Chuncheng, previously a top official in Sichuan Province  were sentenced to 16 years and 13 years in prison, respectively, on graft and abuse of power charges. Over 400,000 lower-ranking officials have also reportedly been disciplined by the party, prosecuted, or punished by the courts since the launch of the campaign.

Despite these efforts, corruption remained widespread, as the leadership rejected more fundamental reforms, such as requiring officials to publicly disclose their assets, creating genuinely independent oversight bodies, or lifting political constraints on journalists and law enforcement agencies. The leading agency behind the current campaign has been the CCP's own Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Prosecutions are typically selective and decision making highly opaque, with informal personal networks and internal CCP power struggles influencing both the choice of targets and the outcomes. Factional infighting was widely seen as the primary cause of Zhou's prosecution, even if the charges themselves had merit. According to some experts, one byproduct of the arbitrary and political nature of the anticorruption campaign has been increased bureaucratic inertia and policy paralysis, as officials fear being punished for even legitimate governing decisions.

Crackdowns on independent anticorruption activists, including those in the New Citizens Movement, and reprisals against foreign media for investigations of influence peddling by top officials' families, such as the long-term blocking of the New York Times website, have further undermined the effectiveness and legitimacy of the campaign. China was ranked 83 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

CCP officials continued to seek input from academics and civic groups regarding certain policy areas, though without relinquishing control over the decision-making process. Since open-government regulations took effect in 2008, many agencies have become more forthcoming in publishing official documents. High-level party declarations encourage greater disclosure of information, though implementation of previous measures has been incomplete. The poor quality of official responses has dampened citizens' initial eagerness to lodge complaints.

Discretionary Political Rights Question B: -2 / 0 (-1)

The government continues to pursue policies, including large-scale resettlement and work-transfer programs, that are designed in part to alter the demography of ethnic minority regions, especially Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. In late 2014, officials relaxed the household registration (hukou) requirements for Xinjiang in a manner that sparked an increase in Han Chinese migration in 2015 into areas that had been predominantly Uighur. Some Uighurs complained that their own ability to migrate within the region to the same urban areas remained restricted. Cash incentives encourage Uighur families to have fewer children than the permitted three-child limit for ethnic minorities, while in some locales, authorities have intensified crackdowns on "unauthorized births." [Note: Tibet is examined in a separate report.]

Civil Liberties: 15 / 60

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 4 / 16

Despite relative freedom in private discussion and citizen efforts to push the limits of permissible public speech, China's media environment remains extremely restrictive. All Chinese television, radio, and print outlets are owned by the CCP or the state. Moreover, all media outlets are required to follow regularly issued CCP directives to avoid certain topics or publish content from party mouthpieces. In addition to routinely censored topics like the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, directives issued in 2015 "guided" reporting or required deletion of content related to stock-market plunges, industrial accidents, the popular environmental documentary Under the Dome, high-level corruption, and extremist violence. Outlets that disobey official guidance risk closure, while journalists face dismissal and sometimes imprisonment.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 49 journalists and online writers were behind bars in China as of December 2015, a record number for the country since CPJ began tracking it and the largest total in the world. The total number of Chinese citizens jailed for offenses involving freedom of expression, especially on the internet, was much higher.

Pressure on investigative journalism and liberal media outlets intensified during the year, as several respected journalists faced detentions, forced televised confessions, and questionable charges of bribery, "obtaining state secrets," or "spreading false rumors." Following a trend from 2014, mainstream print journalists were detained or sentenced to prison alongside internet-based writers, ethnic minority journalists, and freelancers; cases against mainstream journalists had previously been less common. Gao Yu, a prominent 71-year-old journalist, was sentenced in April to seven years in prison for "leaking state secrets." Her sentence was reduced to five years in November, and she was released to serve it at home due to deteriorating health. In August, journalist Wang Xiaolu of the financial magazine Caijing was arrested and forced to make a televised confession regarding his coverage of the stock market. In December, former 21st Century Media chairman Shen Hao was sentenced to four years in prison for extortion and embezzlement.

Harassment of foreign reporters continued during the year, including occasional physical assaults, hostile editorials in state media, and intimidation of the reporters' Chinese sources and staff. The authorities used the threat of visa denials to retaliate against foreign journalists and news organizations for investigative or critical reporting. In December, journalist Ursula Gauthier was expelled after publishing an article in a French magazine that was critical of Chinese policies in Xinjiang. In September, shortly before Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States, Chris Buckley of the New York Times was granted permission to return to China; he had been forced to leave in 2012 after authorities refused to renew his press credentials. The websites of Bloomberg News and the New York Times have been blocked since 2012, when they reported on the wealth of top leaders' families; Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have also been blocked. Some international radio and television broadcasts, including the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia, have long been jammed.

The authorities block websites or force the deletion of content they deem politically threatening, and Chinese internet companies are obliged to adhere to official censorship directives. A range of Google services, the photo-sharing site Flickr, and cloud services like Dropbox were inaccessible in 2015 following blocks imposed the previous year. The U.S.-based social-media platforms Twitter and Facebook have been blocked for years. In July, the government introduced a new Cybersecurity Law that, if passed, would provide a legal basis for authorities to shut down internet connectivity at times of public security emergencies, while requiring companies to better enforce real-name registration rules and store user data in China.

Domestic microblogging and private chat services  with hundreds of millions of users  have grown rapidly since 2010 as a source of news, an outlet for public opinion, and a tool for civic mobilization. However, since 2013, the authorities have intensified real-name registration rules, criminalization of online speech, and restrictions on the sharing of unofficial news via popular platforms like Sina Weibo and Tencent's WeChat. During 2015, numerous individuals  particularly rights attorneys  who had used these tools for human rights advocacy or to express opinions critical of the government were arrested, prosecuted, and subject to smear campaigns in state media. Pu Zhiqiang, a prominent public-interest lawyer, was convicted in December of "stirring up trouble" and "inciting ethnic hatred" through seven Weibo posts that mocked government officials and criticized ethnic policy; he was given a suspended three-year prison sentence, barred from practicing law, and released from custody after 19 months in detention. In March, GitHub, a U.S.-based international code-sharing site that hosted websites censored in China, was hit with a massive denial-of-service attack that was traced to Chinese government servers and reportedly featured a new cyberattack tool dubbed "The Great Cannon" by researchers.

Religious freedom is sharply curtailed by the formally atheist CCP. All religious groups must register with the government, which regulates their activities, oversees clergy, and guides theology. Some groups, including certain Buddhist and Christian sects, are forbidden, and their members face harassment, imprisonment, and torture. The largest among them is the Falun Gong spiritual group, whose adherents continued to suffer detention in extralegal centers for forced conversion or sentencing to long prison terms during 2015. Those who advocated on their behalf were also punished; lawyers who had taken Falun Gong cases were among those arrested in the summer crackdown. Other unregistered groups, including unofficial Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations, operate in a legal gray zone. Some are able to meet quietly with the tacit approval of local authorities, but other "house church" gatherings are raided or evicted from their meeting locations. Harassment of both underground and state-sanctioned churches continued in 2015, especially in Zhejiang Province, where officials sought to curb the popularity of Christianity by removing publicly visible crosses and demolishing many church buildings. Some 1,200 crosses were removed between February 2014 and July 2015, according to Christian activists, and at least one pastor from a state-sanctioned church was sentenced to prison in 2015 for opposing the demolition campaign. An August amendment to the Criminal Law increased the maximum punishment for Article 300, "using a cult to undermine implementation of the law," from 15 years to life imprisonment. The article is often invoked to punish religious believers.

Curbs on Islam among the Uighur population of Xinjiang remained intense in 2015, although authorities are more tolerant of religious expression among ethnic Hui Muslims throughout China. Authorities in Xinjiang continued to impose restrictions on religious attire, beards, and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, in some cases sentencing violators to prison. State repression of Uighur religious and cultural practices, coupled with socioeconomic grievances, have fueled frustration and radicalization among Uighurs, leading to a rising number of domestic terrorist attacks as well as peaceful protests that draw police violence. Such clashes have caused over 160 reported deaths since September 2014. Official restrictions on journalists' access to Xinjiang make it difficult to independently verify the details surrounding these incidents. An Antiterrorism Law adopted in December featured a very broad definition of "terrorism" that could result in tighter surveillance and harsher punishments for Uighurs involved in nonviolent religious and cultural activities.

Academic freedom is restricted with respect to politically sensitive issues. The CCP controls the appointment of top university officials, and many scholars practice self-censorship to protect their careers. Political indoctrination is a required component of the curriculum at all levels of education. The space for academic discussion of democratic concepts shrank further in 2015 amid top-down pressure on universities to shun "Western" ideals.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 3 / 12

Freedoms of assembly and association are severely restricted. Citizens risk criminal punishment for organizing demonstrations without prior approval, which is rarely granted. Nevertheless, workers, farmers, and urban residents held tens of thousands of protests during 2015 to express grievances. The authorities have struggled to suppress protests without exacerbating public frustration, using force in some cases while employing subtler strategies to deter or disperse large gatherings in others. The number of environmental protests has increased in recent years. During 2015, Chinese authorities used force and arrested participants during environmental protests in several provinces, with violent tactics most frequently employed in ethnic minority areas. In April, police arrested over 50 people and reportedly killed at least one person during a violent crackdown on herders in Inner Mongolia who were demonstrating against pollution.

Local authorities routinely intercept and harass petitioners traveling to Beijing to report injustices, at times detaining them in illegal "black jails." Detained petitioners, many of whom are women, are reportedly subject to beatings, psychological abuse, and sexual violence. Amendments to the Administrative Litigation Law that took effect in May 2015 strengthen the framework for citizens to challenge government actions in court, raising the possibility that some of the millions of grievances submitted annually as petitions might instead be handled by the courts.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are required to register, obtain a government sponsor, and follow strict regulations, including vague prohibitions on advocating non-CCP rule, "damaging national unity," or "upsetting ethnic harmony." Hundreds of thousands of organizations have formally registered, especially those whose work is not politically sensitive. Registration requirements for service-oriented "social organizations" were loosened under new regulations in many of China's provinces in 2014. However, pressure on independent and grassroots NGOs intensified in 2015 amid an increase in raids, staff detentions, forced closures, and asset freezes for advocacy groups working on public health, education, and women's rights issues  including the prominent Yirenping organization, the Transition Institute, and Weizhiming. In May, the government published a second draft of a Foreign NGO Management Law that, if passed, would increase the role of the Ministry of Public Security in supervising foreign NGOs; require more government permission and advanced registration to conduct even temporary activities; increase administrative burdens and official supervision for internal NGO affairs such as personnel and finances; and restrict overseas funding for Chinese individuals and NGOs. The law's passage was pending as of December.

Arbitration mechanisms established under 2008 labor laws have proven disappointing to workers, who complain of biased mediators, lengthy procedures, and employers' failure to comply with rulings. The only legal labor union is the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), which has long been criticized for failing to properly defend workers' rights. Nevertheless, workers have asserted themselves informally via strikes, collective petitioning, and selection of negotiating representatives. They have also used social media to bolster solidarity. Strike activity has surged in recent years. According to data published by the China Labour Bulletin, more than 2,700 strike incidents were reported in 2015, more than double the total for 2014.

Numerous labor rights activists were detained in 2015, especially in Guangdong Province, in the worst such crackdown in years. In May, Guangzhou authorities detained Liu Shaoming on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" for his online writings and efforts to start a labor NGO; his trial was pending at year's end. Also in Guangdong Province, authorities in December raided five grassroots groups that assist and advise workers, detaining at least seven people for possible prosecution. Violent attacks against labor advocates reportedly increased as well. In one high-profile case in April, a group of unidentified men abducted, beat, and then abandoned Peng Jiayong, who had been advising female factory workers on strike in Guangdong. The abduction took place immediately after Peng was released from a police station.

F. Rule of Law: 2 / 16

The CCP controls the judiciary. Party political-legal committees supervise the operations of courts at all levels, and allow party officials to influence verdicts and sentences. CCP oversight is especially evident in politically sensitive cases. Most judges are CCP members, and party and government officials determine judicial appointments, salaries, and promotions. Adjudication of minor civil and administrative disputes is fairer than in politically sensitive or criminal cases. However, even in commercial litigation and civil suits involving private individuals, previous limited progress toward the rule of law has stalled or been reversed in recent years.

Incremental reforms aimed at improving judicial performance began in 2014 and continued during 2015. The changes focused on increasing transparency, professionalism, and autonomy from local authorities, for example by having provincial rather than local officials oversee all courts. Some courts are also testing a jury-like assessor mechanism. Still, official statements  including the Supreme People's Court five-year plan released in February  continued to emphasize the supremacy of the party over the legal system.

Civil rights lawyers faced an unprecedented crackdown in 2015. Beginning on July 9, within 48 hours, over 200 individuals involved in public-interest legal work were taken into custody. As of November, at least 36 remained in criminal detention, house arrest, or enforced disappearance. State media engaged in an intense smear campaign against attorneys and law firms known for taking human rights cases, while the family members of some detained lawyers were also targeted. The 16-year-old son of lawyer Wang Yu was taken into custody multiple times and barred from traveling abroad; in October he was reportedly detained in Myanmar near the Chinese border and returned to house arrest in China. Lawyers who continued to take rights cases were prevented from seeing their clients, disbarred, and beaten.

Criminal trials, which often amount to mere sentencing announcements, are frequently closed to the public, and the conviction rate is estimated at 98 percent or more. Amendments to the criminal procedure code that took effect in 2013 include the exclusion of evidence obtained through torture, access for lawyers to their clients, and the possibility of witnesses being cross-examined. Lawyers reported that access to their clients subsequently improved (except in politically sensitive cases), but other provisions have proven more difficult to implement. The trend of televised "confessions" by journalists, businessmen, and targets of corruption probes continued in 2015 and raised doubts about the protection of defendants' rights.

Torture remains widespread in practice, either for the purpose of extracting confessions or forcing political and religious dissidents to recant their beliefs. Security agents routinely flout legal protections, and impunity is the norm for police brutality and suspicious deaths in custody. Overall, detention facilities are estimated to hold three to five million people. Conditions are generally harsh, with reports of inadequate food, regular beatings, and deprivation of medical care; the government generally does not permit visits by independent monitoring groups.

Under a 2013 reform, the decades-old network of "reeducation through labor" camps, in which individuals could be held for up to four years without a judicial hearing, has been abolished. Alternative nonjudicial detention systems were used during 2015 to hold the same categories of detainees, though often for shorter terms. Some camps were transformed into coercive drug-rehabilitation centers, and prostitutes were sent to "custody and education centers," both of which typically involve forced labor. A growing number of activists, petitioners, microbloggers, and Falun Gong practitioners have been confined in extralegal "black jails," "legal education centers," or psychiatric facilities. Others faced formal prosecution, with some receiving harsher sentences than those possible under the labor-camp system.

In August, the government reduced the number of crimes carrying the death penalty from 55 to 46. Observers noted that since the most common capital crimes were not removed, the change was unlikely to significantly reduce the number of executions, which remains a state secret. An estimate by the San Francisco-based Duihua Foundation put the number at 2,400 for 2014. While still more than the combined total for the rest of the world, the figure represents a sharp decline from an estimated 12,000 in 2002. The government said it would end the previously common use of organs from executed prisoners as of January 2015, but prisoners would be allowed to make "voluntary" donations like other citizens, raising doubts as to whether any real change had occurred.

Chinese laws formally prohibit discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, or health condition, but they do not guarantee equal treatment for all segments of society in practice. Ethnic and religious minorities, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people, the disabled, and people with HIV/AIDS face widespread de facto discrimination, in some cases with official encouragement. This includes discrimination in access to employment and education. Separately, despite international legal protections for asylum seekers and refugees, Chinese law enforcement agencies continue to seek out and repatriate North Korean defectors, who face imprisonment or execution upon return.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 6 / 16

The hukou system limits the ability of China's 800 million rural residents and migrant workers to fully access urban social services, such as education for their children. Nevertheless, the government has explored reforms to the system. In December 2015, the State Council announced that beginning in January, migrants to cities would be able to apply for special urban residency permits granting them access to some social services, based on relatively loose criteria in small cities and towns and tighter restrictions in large cities. The latter conditions include requirements on employment, residency length, and educational attainment that may be difficult for many migrants to meet.

Millions of people are affected by restrictions on foreign travel and passports, many of them Uighurs and Tibetans. Political and religious dissidents, human rights defenders, certain scholars, and their family members were also prevented from traveling abroad or to Hong Kong in 2015.

Property rights protection remains weak in practice. Urban land is owned by the state, even if the buildings that sit on it are privately owned. Rural land is collectively owned by villages. Farmers enjoy long-term lease rights to the land they farm, but are barred from selling or developing it. Low compensation standards and weak legal protections have facilitated land seizures by local officials, who often evict the residents and transfer the land rights to developers. Corruption is endemic in such projects, and local governments rely on land development as a key source of operating revenue, funds for debt repayment, and economic growth statistics that are critical to officials' careers. Residents who resist eviction, seek legal redress, or organize protests often face violence at the hands of local police or hired thugs. Since November 2013, the government has announced several policies aimed at expanding farmers' land rights, but the reforms had not been implemented on a large scale by the end of 2015.

The government in 2014 began instituting policies that could increase private-sector lending and strengthen market-based competition and energy pricing, though state-owned enterprises continue to dominate banking and other key industries. Repeated, aggressive state intervention to curb stock-market plunges during 2015 illustrated the ongoing role of government in the Chinese economy and the political motivations often driving such moves. Chinese citizens are legally permitted to establish and operate private businesses. However, those without official protection can find themselves at a disadvantage vis-a-vis competitors, in legal disputes, or in dealings with regulators. Foreign companies can similarly face arbitrary regulatory obstacles, demands for bribes and other inducements, or negative media campaigns.

China's population controls require couples to obtain government permission before having children. However, in December 2015, the Law on Population and Family Planning was amended to abolish the decades-old one-child policy, allowing all Chinese couples to have two children. While the authorities would continue to regulate reproduction, the change meant that fewer families would be likely to encounter the punitive aspects of the system in practice. Meeting birth quotas has long been crucial to career advancement for local officials. Consequently, some have continued to resort to brutal practices like compulsory abortion and sterilization, though this is less common than in the past. Relatives of unsterilized mothers or couples with unapproved births are subject to high fines, job dismissal, reduced government benefits, and occasionally detention. These controls, combined with commercial ultrasound technology and societal pressures favoring boys, have led to a general shortage of females, exacerbating the problem of human trafficking. Unregistered children cannot obtain hukou status without the payment of substantial fines.

Domestic violence affects one-quarter of Chinese women, according to official figures. In December 2015, the National People's Congress adopted the country's first law designed to combat domestic violence. The final version included psychological in addition to physical violence, but critics noted that sexual violence was not explicitly addressed, and that the law's application to relationships outside marriage, including same-sex couples, remained unclear. Several laws bar gender discrimination in the workplace, and gender equality has reportedly improved over the past decade, but bias remains widespread, including in job recruitment and college admissions. Women remain severely underrepresented in important CCP and government positions. In March 2015, five women's rights activists were detained because they had planned to distribute stickers on public transportation to raise awareness of sexual harassment; they were released after five weeks in custody following an international and domestic outcry.

Workers are routinely denied social insurance and other legal benefits, while dangerous workplace conditions claim many tens of thousands of lives each year. The use of juveniles in government-sanctioned "work-study" programs continues to be a serious problem. Forced labor and trafficking is common in many industries in China, frequently affecting rural migrants, and Chinese nationals are also trafficked abroad. Although "reeducation through labor" camps have been abolished, other forms of detention continue to feature forced labor.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

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Freedom in the World 2016 - Burundi

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2016 - Burundi, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56dea2ff13.html [accessed 22 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 19

Freedom Rating: 6.5

Political Rights: 7

Civil Liberties: 6

Ratings Change, Trend Arrow: 

Burundi's political rights rating declined from 6 to 7, its civil liberties rating declined from 5 to 6, and it received a downward trend arrow due to President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a constitutionally dubious third term in July, which sparked violence including assassinations, arrests, torture of government critics, and escalating attacks by antigovernment forces. The government shut down nearly all private media and stepped up surveillance of citizens.

OVERVIEW

Demonstrations broke out in the capital in late April 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term in office, which was widely regarded as unconstitutional. At least two dozen people were killed, and many more were arrested or wounded, as police clashed with the protesters. The Constitutional Court approved the president's plan on May 5, though its members were reportedly subjected to intense pressure and intimidation by the regime. On May 13, a group of military leaders led a coup attempt against Nkurunziza while he was in Tanzania. Government forces quickly reasserted control and began a harsh crackdown on those suspected of involvement in the plot or opposition to the president.

The parliamentary and presidential elections, held on June 29 and July 21, respectively, resulted in victories for Nkurunziza and his ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party. However, the opposition boycotted the elections, and UN observers found that the voting was neither free nor credible.

Freedoms of expression, association, and assembly were severely restricted throughout the year as the government moved to silence dissent. The authorities cracked down on private media outlets; suspended 10 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including several working on human rights issues; and closed the national university in Bujumbura. Reports of torture, forced confessions, and extrajudicial executions by security forces increased.

The overall security situation remained volatile, with both ordinary citizens and prominent individuals affected by rising political violence. An opposition party spokesman was killed by gunmen in May, a key ally of the president was shot to death in August, and leading human rights defender Pierre Claver Mbonimpa narrowly escaped an assassination attempt a day later. By the end of the year, at least 400 people had been killed and more than 200,000 people had fled the country, creating a refugee crisis in neighboring states. In December, a new rebel group announced its formation amid growing concerns that Burundi's fragile peace was collapsing, potentially plunging the country back into civil war.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

Political Rights: 5 / 40 (-6)

A. Electoral Process: 1 / 12 (-3)

A new constitution was adopted in 2005 after a series of agreements ended Burundi's 12-year civil war. According to the charter, the president, who is directly elected for up to two five-year terms, appoints two vice presidents, one Tutsi and one Hutu, who must be approved separately by a two-thirds majority in both the lower and upper houses of Parliament.

The lower house, the National Assembly, has 100 members directly elected by proportional representation for five-year terms. The constitution requires the National Assembly to be no more than 60 percent Hutu and no less than 40 percent Tutsi, with at least 30 percent of the seats held by women, and three deputies from the Twa ethnic minority. Additional members can be added, or "co-opted," from the respective party lists to meet these requirements. The upper house, the Senate, consists of 36 members chosen by locally elected officials for five-year terms. Each of Burundi's 18 provinces chooses two senators  one Tutsi and one Hutu. As in the National Assembly, the Twa are guaranteed three seats in the Senate, and additional members can be co-opted to meet the 30 percent quota for women.

In April 2015, the CNDD-FDD announced that Nkurunziza would seek a third presidential term in elections scheduled for later that year. Critics charged that the move contravened the constitution and would jeopardize the country's fragile peace. Nkurunziza and his supporters argued that he was eligible to run again because he had been elected by Parliament rather than through a popular vote for his first term in office. Despite widespread public protests and international condemnation of the move, the Constitutional Court on May 5 ruled in favor of Nkurunziza, even as one of the court's justices fled abroad. Due to ongoing unrest in the country, the electoral commission postponed National Assembly elections until June 29 and the presidential poll until July 21. Indirect elections to the Senate were held on July 24.

In the National Assembly elections, the CNDD-FDD captured 60 percent of the vote and 77 seats. Despite having boycotted the vote, the opposition coalition remained on the ballot; Amizero y'Abarundi (Hope for Burundi) secured 11 percent of the vote (21 seats), while the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) captured 2 percent (2 seats). Subsequent reallocations and co-opting to meet constitutional quotas resulted in a full seating of 121 deputies. In indirect elections for the Senate, the CNDD-FDD took 33 of 36 elected seats; an additional 7 seats were co-opted. In the presidential poll, Nkurunziza defeated National Forces of Liberation (FNL) leader Agathon Rwasa, 69 percent to 19 percent. Rwasa had pulled out of the race, but his name  like those of other opposition candidates  remained on the ballot.

International observers from some organizations, including the European Union and African Union, refused to monitor the elections, saying they could not be free or fair given the growing violence and climate of intimidation. A UN mission observing the presidential poll confirmed that the overall environment had not been conducive to a free and credible electoral process.

B. Political Pluralism and Participation: 4 / 16 (-1)

More than two dozen political parties are active in Burundi, ranging from those that champion radical Tutsi positions to those that hold extremist Hutu views. Most are small in terms of membership, and many Tutsi have now joined formerly Hutu-dominated parties. The current legislature consists of members of the CNDD-FDD, a largely Hutu party associated with a former rebel group; the Tutsi-led UPRONA; and Amizero y'Aburundi, which includes members of FNL, a former Hutu rebel movement. Many political parties include youth branches that intimidate and attack opponents.

Opposition parties, politicians, and their supporters faced harassment, intimidation, and violence throughout 2015, particularly after the failed coup attempt in May, which triggered a crackdown on those suspected of involvement. Security forces loyal to the president played a key role in the repression, as did Imbonerakure, the ruling party's youth wing.

Zedi Feruzi, leader of the opposition party Union for Peace and Development, was shot dead on May 24; he had spoken out against Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term. Many opposition politicians and groups were operating in exile by year's end, including CNARED (National Council for the Restoration of the Arusha Accords and Restoration of the State of Rights), which accused Nkurunziza of violating the agreements that ended the civil war. Even some leading regime figures, such as Vice President Gervais Rufyikiri and National Assembly speaker Pie Ntavyohanyuma, fled the country in June after voicing opposition to Nkurunziza's third-term bid.

C. Functioning of Government: 0 / 12 (-2)

In the absence of freely elected leaders, the government is accountable only to the ruling CNDD-FDD party, and no other group is able to effectively influence policies or legislation.

Corruption and nontransparent government practices are significant problems in Burundi, which ranked 150 out of 168 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. Burundi's largest anticorruption watchdog group, the Anticorruption and Economic Malpractice Observatory (OLUCOME), has been active in investigating and drawing public attention to official corruption in recent years.

Civil Liberties: 14 / 60 (-7)

D. Freedom of Expression and Belief: 6 / 16 (-2)

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed, but press laws restrict journalists through broad, vaguely written provisions, and key independent news outlets were destroyed in the political violence of 2015. A 2013 media law has been widely criticized for limiting the protection of journalistic sources, requiring journalists to meet certain educational and professional standards, and banning content related to national defense, security, public safety, and the state currency. The law empowers the media regulatory body to issue press cards to journalists, suspend or withdraw cards as a result of defamation cases, and impose financial penalties for media offenses. The 15-member regulatory council is controlled by presidential appointees and journalists from state broadcasters. In 2014 the Constitutional Court largely rejected a challenge to the media law but reduced its high fines and penalties.

The government dominates the media through its ownership of the public television and radio stations; it also runs Le Renouveau, the only daily newspaper. Radio is the primary source of information for the majority of the population. However, five private radio stations were attacked by unidentified assailants and partially or totally destroyed after the May 2015 coup attempt. Some international radio broadcasts are available in the capital. Print runs of most newspapers remain small, and readership is limited by low literacy levels.

Throughout 2015, the government pressured journalists to name sources used in critical articles and threatened to shutter outlets carrying unfavorable coverage. Journalists are also frequently subject to arbitrary arrest, harassment, or threats by police and the Imbonerakure, and many live in exile.

Access to the internet remains largely confined to urban areas. As protests began in 2015, the government attempted to cut off access to social-media sites used by the demonstrators. Many were able to circumvent the restrictions through the use of VPNs (virtual private networks).

Freedom of religion is generally observed. However, the Roman Catholic Church, which is influential in Burundi, clashed with the government in 2015 over issues including the legality of the president's bid for a third term.

For many years, civil strife and Tutsi social and institutional dominance impeded academic freedom by limiting educational opportunities for the Hutu, but this situation has improved since 2005. Burundi's national university was abruptly closed on April 30, 2015, amid the antigovernment demonstrations.

The ability to engage in open and free private discussion, particularly on opposition to the ruling party, is hindered by a fear of harassment by government supporters. Private citizens, including students and youth activists, faced increasing surveillance by the National Intelligence Service (SNR) in 2015.

E. Associational and Organizational Rights: 2 / 12 (-1)

The constitution provides for freedoms of assembly and association, but a 2013 law on public gatherings imposes restrictions on the right to assemble, including a one-day limit on the duration of demonstrations. The law holds the organizers of public gatherings liable for any legal infractions by participants and allows authorities to interrupt or cancel gatherings that pose a risk to public order.

Amnesty International reported that police used excessive force during the 2015 protests against a third term for Nkurunziza, including shooting at unarmed demonstrators as they fled. At least two dozen people were killed within weeks of the president's announcement in late April, and hundreds more were injured, detained, or arrested.

Onerous and costly registration requirements prevent many local NGOs from receiving official legal recognition. Registration must be completed in person at the Ministry of Interior in Bujumbura, which is difficult for NGOs based in remote areas, and extensive documentation is required. Crackdowns against Burundi's civil society sector intensified during 2015. Members of human rights groups that criticized the government faced surveillance, intimidation, threats, and arrest, leading many to seek refuge abroad. Between April and November, at least 15 NGO leaders were forced to flee the country after receiving threats, and two NGO members were killed by police. In November, the authorities suspended 10 NGOs, including some working on human rights issues. The leader of one of those groups  Pierre Claver Mbonimpa of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons  was shot and seriously wounded in August; he had publicly criticized Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in office.

The constitution provides protections for organized labor, and the labor code guarantees the right to strike. The Confederation of Burundi Trade Unions has been independent since its establishment in 1995. Most union members are civil servants and have bargained collectively with the government.

F. Rule of Law: 1 / 16 (-3)

Burundi's judiciary is hindered by corruption, a lack of resources and training, and executive interference in legal matters. In 2015, justices on the Constitutional Court were reportedly intimidated into ruling in favor of Nkurunziza's decision to stand for a third term. The court's vice president, Sylvere Nimpagaritse, fled the country rather than approve the president's candidacy, which he deemed unlawful; he alleged that he and his fellow justices had come under enormous pressure, including death threats, to vote in favor of the proposal. The current judicial system struggles to function effectively or independently and cannot handle the large number of pending cases, many of which are politically sensitive. Crimes, especially those related to political violence, often go unreported or uninvestigated.

In April 2014, Parliament passed a law creating a truth and reconciliation commission to provide accountability for abuses committed between 1962 and 2008, though opposition members boycotted the vote due to concerns about the commission's lack of independence. In December of that year, Parliament elected 11 members to the commission in a vote that the opposition also boycotted; under the new law, members are elected by a simple majority. Of the 11 members, 6 are Hutu, 4 are Tutsi, and 1 is Twa. The opposition claimed that most were affiliates of the ruling party. The body has yet to begin its work, and many question the viability of the project given the 2015 violence.

Impunity for police brutality remains widespread. According to Amnesty International, the police and the SNR increasingly engaged in torture and other ill-treatment of detainees suspected of participating in the 2015 protests or subsequent antigovernment violence. Victims described being beaten with iron bars, burned with acid, and having their heads forced under dirty water. Detainees did not have access to lawyers and were forced to make false confessions under threat of death.

The general security situation deteriorated throughout the year, leading an estimated 200,000 people to flee the country. Even before the disturbances related to the president's reelection bid, the army was implicated in the extrajudicial killing of more than a dozen rebel fighters in the northern province of Cibitoke in January. Following the demonstrations that began in April, the authorities conducted house searches and made arrests in neighborhoods in Bujumbura thought to be harboring dissent. Antigovernment forces gradually stepped up attacks, including an assault in July by a group of armed rebels against army positions in the northwest. In August, General Adolphe Nshimirimana  a close ally of the president who was seen as the mastermind of the crackdowns on antigovernment protesters  was killed in a drive-by shooting and rocket attack. A rebel group calling itself the Republican Forces of Burundi (FOREBU) announced its formation in December 2015; its stated aim was to oust Nkurunziza by force. Also in December, following attacks on two military sites, security forces mounted raids in the capital and reportedly killed at least 87 people. According to the United Nations, the death toll from the political unrest had reached more than 400 by the end of 2015, though international organizations had difficulty collecting such data.

Albinos face a particular threat from discrimination and violence in Burundi. Since 2008, at least 18 albinos  whose body parts are believed by some to have magical properties  have been murdered. Although close to a dozen arrests have been made in connection with such crimes, only one has resulted in a conviction in recent years.

Members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community face official and societal discrimination. The 2009 penal code criminalizes same-sex sexual activity, and punishments include up to two years in prison.

G. Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights: 5 / 16 (-1)

The constitution provides for freedom of movement, though citizens are restricted from traveling outside their communities without a special permit on Saturday mornings as part of a government effort to encourage participation in local service projects. In 2015, concerns for personal safety further restricted free movement, particularly in neighborhoods regarded as opposition strongholds where security forces conducted search operations. The deteriorating security situation also hampered private business activity in the country, and the capital was subjected to a nightly curfew on public transportation.

A 2014 land law strengthened the authority of Burundi's National Commission of Land and Other Belongings to resolve disputes between current landowners and refugees returning to reclaim their land. Critics argue that the law could lead the country back into ethnic conflict if it is not implemented in an unbiased manner, and may affect the tenuous relationship between major landholders  including business interests and the Catholic Church  and the regime.

Women have limited opportunities for advancement in the economic and political spheres, especially in rural areas. Sexual and domestic violence are serious problems but are rarely reported to law enforcement agencies. In late 2015, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted an increase in cases of sexual violence against women by security forces conducting searches for suspected opposition supporters.

Children in Burundi are often subject to forced labor and sex trafficking. In some cases they are sold into servitude by family members, or recruited and deceived by friends and neighbors. Government officials have largely failed to combat domestic child trafficking, and law enforcement officers are allegedly among the clients of girls being exploited for prostitution.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

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DEAR ABBY: I need some relationship advice. How do you handle household expenses with a partner?

My boyfriend and I have been in a relationship for 10 years. In all this time, he has never once split any of the expenses with me. I pay for everything. He does buy groceries, although not all of them. He also helps around the house and with my daughter.

If I bring up the issue of sharing expenses, it turns into a fight. He says he's "sorry" he doesn't make enough money. Then he says all that matters to me is money and threatens to move out.

I feel completely taken advantage of because he DOES have the money to make $300-plus monthly payments for his new boat that's sitting in my garage. To me it's all about priorities. I would like a new car, but I have other monthly bills to pay.

Is it just me, or is this unfair?

- Up To Here With It

DEAR UP TO HERE: It's not just you. You have been carrying the lion's share of the load. But unless you are finally ready to insist upon a new arrangement with this man - who has had it pretty good for the last 10 YEARS - nothing will change.

It's time to ask yourself whether what he does contribute - on every level - is enough to satisfy you. If it isn't, be prepared to tell him you need to find an equal partner, and if he's unwilling to be that person, he should move.

DEAR ABBY: Four years ago I had major affection for a man. We talked every chance we could. We arranged times we could sit together and just talk. There was lots of flirting, eye contact, and this overwhelming feeling of bliss - butterflies in the stomach - all of that.

The problem was he was married. Once I realized it, I was devastated because I understood what I wanted could never be. I feel so lost. I'm now considering going to counseling.

Now there's someone else, and it's the same problem - just a different setting. I feel so guilty for crushing on unattainable men. What's wrong with me?

- Feeling Guilty in Ohio

DEAR FEELING GUILTY: The quickest way to change would be to talk about these feelings with a licensed mental health professional. When you do, be prepared to touch on all of your relationships with men, including your father - who is usually the first "unattainable" man with whom a little girl falls in love. I am pretty sure you will find that conversation illuminating.

Once you understand your feelings, it may be easier for you to find a man who is truly available - if a relationship beyond a mad flirtation is what you really want, that is.

Write Dear Abby at www.dearabby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
Incident reports released Monday by the Abilene Police Department:

Deadly conduct, 1900 block of Pine Street, Monday

A woman told police a bullet went through the roof of her RV parked at a hospital. Police said the woman left town with the bullet, which was inside the RV.

Criminal mischief, 3400 block of State Street, Sunday

A man told police someone caused $3,000 in damage to his vehicle by smashing the front windshield, headlights and taillights, as well as deflating his rear driver's side tire.

Burglary vehicle, 1300 block of Circle Drive, Sunday

Police said someone entered a unlocked vehicle and stole about $1,750 in property.

Burglary vehicle, 3500 block of Curry Lane, Sunday

Police said someone entered a unlocked vehicle and stole a gym bag with about $300 in property. Police collected fingerprints for evidence.

Theft, 3900 block of Whittier Street, Sunday

Police said someone stole $900 in property from a residence.
All new passenger school buses purchased by the Wylie Independent School District will now be equipped with seat belts after a decision by the district's Board of Trustees at Monday's regular monthly meeting.

Trustees voted to follow the new recommendation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to equip new school buses with seat belts. Joey Light, superintendent, said previously the NHTSA did not recommend seat belts for school buses.

Monday's vote by trustees means the three new buses ordered recently by WISD will each cost an additional $7,000 to add seat belts. The WISD board approved the purchase of three new 71-passenger buses in January at a cost of $96,000 each. They are expected to be delivered Sept. 1.

Light said the NHTSA does not recommend retrofitting old buses with seat belts. "From this point forward, we'd like to purchase new buses with seat belts," he told trustees.

Light also announced that the district will save about $8,400 for the cost of an election because each of the three races for the school board are uncontested. Incumbent trustees Chris McCurley (Place 1), Mike Awtry (Place 2) and Darrell Moore (Place 3) are the only candidates who filed.

At Monday's meeting, trustees also approved a calendar for the 2016-17 school year and a few new board policies as recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards. They also approved application for a few waivers for WISD from Texas Education Agency policies, including additional staff development days, six early-release days for students, and a limit of five foreign exchange students.

Light said the 2016-17 calendar will closely follow previous calendars. Next year classes will begin Aug. 22, and the fall semester will end Dec. 16 with Thanksgiving holidays Nov. 23-25. The spring semester will be Jan. 4 to May 25. "Bad weather" days are April 14 and May 26, spring break is March 13-17, and graduation is May 26.

Light said changes to the calendar may be necessary because the TEA is expected to issue new calendar requirements.

The new board policies adopted Monday included rules on homebound instruction and establishing student residency.

In budget and financial reports, Business Manager Carol Smith said the district made its first payment of $1.4 million Feb. 15 after last year's $15 million bond election to finance new construction at Wylie High School. WISD has a budget for 2015-16 of $30.5 million, and as of Feb. 29 it had received 66.9 percent of its revenue and obligated 47.7 percent of expenses for the fiscal year that ends Aug. 31.

In principals' reports, attendance figures were: 626 for middle school (grades 5-6, compared to 615 on the first day), 664 for junior high (grades 7-8, compared to 648 on the first day) and 1,051 for high school (compared to 1,055 on the first day).

Rob Goodenough, junior high principal, said the junior high band recently performed at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and eighth grade students will make a spring break trip next week to Washington, D.C.

Moore, vice president, presided at Monday's meeting in the absence of board president Steve Keenum.
The Abilene City Council on Thursday could pave the way for the design and construction of three bond projects and discuss the potential purchase of a pothole patching machine, said Robert Hanna, city manager, during Monday's council agenda review.

The council also will consider whether to approve rezoning of about 20 acres next to Wesley Court Retirement Community and hold a public hearing on the matter.

The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. in the council chambers, 555 Walnut St.

Wesley Court residents vehemently opposed the rezoning of the adjacent area from agricultural open space to general retail at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last month.

More than 20 percent of property owners within 200 feet of the proposed rezoning area oppose it, triggering the need for a supermajority vote to pass, which would be 6 of 7 ayes.

The owner of Wesley Court, ER Propco WC, submitted its opposition to the rezoning in writing. ER Propco WC's property constitutes 44 percent of the land within the 200-feet radius, the minimum distance property owners must be notified of a possible zoning change.

Regarding the bond projects, council members will decide whether to hire Tittle Luther Partnership/Parkhill, Smith & Cooper to design the new Fire Station No. 4. The new station will be located at 3802 Grape St., and the design would cost $301,100, if the council approves the agreement.

The council also will consider executing an agreement with H&G Construction Co. to renovate the Civic Center at a cost of $2.8 million, another bond project. The money will fund the design and construction of the renovations, which include removing ceiling tiles in the exhibit hall and painting the ceiling black, upgrading lighting features and staining the concrete floor. The city plans to update the kitchen and construct a service alley, as well.

Additionally, the Civic Center's auditorium fly system will be replaced with a computer-operated fly system that will move curtains, lights and theater set pieces. The current one is about 45 years old and manually operated.

The final bond project council members will look at Thursday is the reconstruction and widening of Catclaw Drive from Rebecca Lane to Curry Lane, adding curbs and gutters. The project also would include repaving Catclaw from Curry to Southwest Drive. The total project cost would be $1.6 million, if the council approves the Bontke Brothers Construction Co. bid.

Lastly, the council will hear a financial presentation on the 2015 fiscal year audit and discuss approving $2.2 million in extra revenue in the city's fund balance for "one-time projects," Hanna said. He said staff recommended council members use that cushion in the fund balance to repay the $836,492 the city borrowed from itself purchase new fire and police radios and computer dispatch equipment.

The remaining funds could go toward street maintenance by possibly purchasing a pothole patching machine and commissioning a street pavement index study.

"Without a pavement index study, it's really difficult to develop a street management plan," Hanna said. "We have some historical data that's solid, but we need to take it to the next step."

At least $1 million of the $2.2 million cushion would go toward the fire apparatus fund, if the council approves.
Coach Valentine's legacy honored with park rededication Friday

Under new policies adopted in December by the city's parks board, the name change will stand for at least 50 years.
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This just in...
Liu Ping (l) with lawyer Li Zhiyong (r) in Wukan, Guangdong province, in an undated photo.

Rights groups called on Tuesday for the release of key women activists on International Women's Day, as five feminists detained for planning a campaign event this time last year came under renewed pressure from police.

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network called in a statement for the immediate release from house arrest of artist and rights activist Liu Xia, under illegal house arrest since October 2010 after her husband Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Also listed in the appeal were top lawyer Wang Yu, who faces subversion charges for her human rights advocacy work, and pro-democracy and women's rights activist Su Changlan, detained for her support of the 2014 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

The group also called for the release of Liu Ping, currently serving a six-and-a-half year jail term for sentenced to 6.5 years for exercising her rights to free assembly, expression, and religion, housing activist Jia Lingmin, serving a four-year sentence, and NGO worker Bian Xiaohui, jailed after she campaigned on behalf of her imprisoned father.

It said four other women, trainee lawyer Li Shuyun, paralegals Zhao Wei, also known as Kaola, and Gao Yue and activist Wang Fang were all detained in a nationwide police operation targeting more than 300 lawyers, law firm staff and legal activists since Wang Yu's detention on the night of July 9.

"[They have been] subjected to government retaliation for their defense of womens rights, housing and land rights, rule of law, and the exercise of their rights to free assembly, association, and expression," CHRD said in a statement launching the campaign to free the women.

Hitting women hard

It said an ongoing crackdown by the administration of President Xi Jinping on all forms of social activism had hit women hard.

A lawyer for Beijing women's rights activist Ge Zhihui said she had been tortured while in a police-run detention center in the southern district of Fengtai.

"Staff at the detention center have been torturing Ge Zhihui, who is being held at the detention center as a criminal suspect," her lawyer Huang Han told RFA on Tuesday.

Ge Zhihui has further injuries to both her legs on top of the ones that were there before and can't walk normally, Huang said, adding that staff at the detention center won't allow her to seek medical attention.

He said Ge had also been subjected to degrading treatment.

"They gave her a bucket to urinate in but then when she defecated in it, they made her wash her face in that same bucket," Huang said.



China's five feminists  (clockwise from top left) Li Tingting, Wu Rongrong, Zheng Churan, Wei Tingting and Wang Man  were released on April 14, 2015. Credit: EyePress News Five feminists

CHRD also cited the detention of five feminists on March 6, 2015, as they planned an anti-sexual harassment campaign for International Women's Day.

Li Tingting, Wu Rongrong, Wei Tingting, Wang Man, and Zheng Churan were released "on bail" last April after being detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."

But the five women, whose detention prompted an international outcry, are still officially regarded as criminal suspects in spite of protesting to the United Nations over continuing police restrictions on their movements.

Wu Rongrong told RFA on Tuesday that police had sought her out ahead of the national annual parliamentary session in Beijing this week to ask about a recent open letter penned by the women's lawyers, calling on the authorities to drop the charges against them.

"The police spoke to me for about half an hour," Wu said. "They were basically asking me about my lawyer, and I said I didn't know anything."

"I asked them what the outcome of this case would be, and when the charges would be dropped," she said. "But they just hemmed and hawed, and made small talk."

Wei Tingting's lawyer Ge Wenxiu said police had also visited him earlier this week to ask if he had sent a recent open letter calling for charges to be dropped against the five women.

"I told them plainly that I thought the Beijing police have acted shamelessly, because none of these women has committed any crime," Ge said.

"All they were doing was campaigning for a law guaranteeing the rights of women."

Ge said last year's campaign was against frequent harassment and sexual assault reported by women on trains and buses in China.

"So they're fine if men are mistreating women on public transportation? Do they want Chinese men to behave like thugs?" he said.

"I told them the buck stops with me: they've found the culprit. I wrote the letter. They seemed pretty happy with that."

Worst on record

According to a recent Congressional report, human rights abuses in China, including violence against women such as forced abortions and forced sterilizations, were the worst on record in 2015.

Coercive population controls, now known as the Two Child Policy, still use forced abortion and sterilization to target women seen as breaking the rules, it said.

It said some provincial-level legislation explicitly instructs officials to implement abortions for out-of-plan pregnancies, with no requirement for consent.

"Unmarried women and third children continue to be forcibly aborted," Reggie Littlejohn, president of the group Women's Rights Without Frontiers (WRWF), said in a statement on Tuesday. "Women are still routinely sterilized after their second child."

"On International Womens Day, we call upon the Chinese government to call off the womb police and immediately to abandon all coercive population control," she said.

According to recent Congressional testimony by Littlejohn, the hidden tragedies of the policy include permanent disability due to brutal forced sterilizations of rural Chinese women.

WRWF cited a recent report as saying that the majority of detainees in extralegal detention are female, where they are at great risk of physical and sexual violence.

It said the trafficking of women and girls for forced marriage and sexual exploitation is part of an increasing trend in China, where men outnumber women by some 37 million after decades of sex-selective abortions.

Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to and Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Badges bearing portraits of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the star and peacock symbol of her party, the National League for Democracy are seen for sale at the NLD headquarters in Yangon, March 8, 2016.

Updated at 10:05 a.m. EST on 3-10-2016

Myanmars parliament will begin picking a new president on Thursday as the nation continues its transition from a military dictatorship to a democratically elected government.

While Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy won overwhelming victories in both houses of parliament in last years elections, the Nobel Prize winner and chairman of the NLD is unlikely to take Myanmars highest office.

Her ascension to the presidency is blocked by a constitutional provision passed by the military junta in 2008 that bars people with close foreign relatives from taking the office. Since Aung San Suu Kyis late husband and two sons are British, NLD leaders have been scrambling to find a way to put her imprimatur on the top job.

Discussions between NLD officials and leaders of the armed forces over ways to modify the constitution or get around the provision apparently ground to a halt when the military refused to go along.

While Aung San Suu Kyi may represent Myanmars march to democracy, the military still holds a great amount of power in the country. One-fourth of the seats in parliament are reserved for the military, giving it a veto over a constitutional change and the ability to scuttle nearly any policy initiative.

With the military unwilling to make a deal on the constitution, the NLD is attempting to install a candidate willing to be Aung San Suu Kyis figurehead. She has stated that she intends to lead from above the president.

In Myanmar, the president is selected from three vice-presidents selected by the parliament or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. The Pyithu Hluttaw (lower house) and the Amyotha Hluttaw (upper house) and the military lawmakers separately elect a vice-presidential candidate.

The vice-presidential nominations are then vetted by the Presidential Electoral College Team comprised of the two parliament chairmen, two vice chairmen of parliament, representative members of parliament from both houses and one military member of parliament.

There wont be rivals as the NLD will select each vice-president from the lower house and the upper house, Pe Than, a member of parliament from the Arakan National Party, told RFAs Myanmar service. But military MPs will select one vice-president in another place.

A joint sitting of the entire parliament decides which of the three candidates will become the next president, That means it will take a few days before a president is selected. The two candidates who arent selected as president become vice presidents.

March 12 and 13 are the weekend, so confirmation of the president and vice-presidents cannot be made earlier than 14 March, U Ko Ko Naing director of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Office told Frontier Myanmar.

No matter who is picked, or what their status is with Aung San Suu Key, that person will be the first to lead a democratically elected government in Myanmar that is untainted by military ties since the 1962 coup that marked the start of authoritarian rule in the country.

That doesnt mean the military in Myanmar is suddenly powerless. Not only does it control 25 percent of the parliament, but it also controls many key ministries giving it a big say in the way the country is run.

Reported by RFA's Myanmar Service. Translation by Khet Mar. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of the legal bar preventing Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president.
Excessive exploitation of rivers and lakes in Vietnam has pushed down water levels and polluted water resources of local communities, according to regional experts, who want the government to better enforce regulation of waterways.



The problem is mostly evident in the central and south of the country where waterways are increasingly used for farming and to generate power.



At the moment, water exploitation of rivers is over the limitespecially for hydropower plantswhich has lowered the level of Vietnams rivers, said Lam Thi Thu Suu, a coordinator with Vietnam Rivers Network (VRN), a consortium of NGOs, academics and government officials monitoring the countrys waterways.



Pollution in the downstream sections of the rivers has made the situation worse for local communities, Suu, who is also with Vietnams Center for Social Research and Development, told RFAs Vietnamese Service.



Vietnams river network includes 13 major river systems covering an area of around 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles).



International water resource organizations recommend limiting exploitation of Vietnams rivers to a maximum of 30 percent of their flow.



But according to a report by the official Voice of Vietnam online journal, most of Vietnams central provinces are exploiting more than 50 percent of their rivers flow, while Ninh Thuan province, in southern Vietnam, exploits as much of 80 percent of flow.



The excessive exploitation, mostly for agricultural use and energy production, has seriously degraded water resources in the basins of Vietnams major rivers, such as the Red River, the Thai Binh River, and the Dong Nai River, the report said.



Areas with depleted rivers and lakes are particularly susceptible to pollution from farming pesticides and fertilizers, as well as wastewater from industrial and urban zones, putting water sources for local populations at risk.



According to Suu, the government needs to develop a plan to limit usage of Vietnams rivers on a sector-by-sector basis.



We need to have plans on water usage for each river area, he said.



The government needs to have a specific plan on how many hydropower plants can use water from each river, how much water is used for farming and how much for running [tap] water.



Lacking clean water



Le Anh Tuan, a climate change expert with VNR based in Can Tho city, said that because of exploitation and increased pollution, the majority of people in Vietnams rural areasparticularly in the south near the Mekong Deltado not have daily access to clean water.



There are a lot of rivers and lakes around the Mekong Delta where the water is very polluted because of fertilizer for rice, run-off from factories and  waste from fish farms, said Tuan, who is also a professor with the Research Institute for Climate Change at Can Tho University.



Pollution tends to be worst in areas with high concentrations of people, especially around Ho Chi Minh City and in factory areas north of the city, he said, adding that industrial zones also accounted for high levels of pollution in central Vietnam.



It directly affects the health of the people both now and in the future. The water pollution affects health, nutrition, and life in general. It can also hamper growth of the economy, Tuan said.



In Vietnam pollution is a problem that is getting worse and worse each year. There is less clean water available for consumption as the number of factories and people living along the rivers grows, he said.



And while VRN has worked to increase awareness among riparian communities about the dangers of polluting their waters, Tuan said that the government must do more to enforce legislation that protects the countrys rivers.



The government  needs an agency to control the way people deal with unclean water, especially those who live directly on the water. They need to have true implementation, not just words. And they need to work with people, he said.



VNR cannot do the job by itself. We understand the problem and can warn the government and people, but the government needs to increase law enforcement, especially when dealing with local officials  The government hasnt done enough to tackle pollution.



Hydropower plants



Tuan also said that the government needs to reconsider how it moves ahead with plans to develop its hydropower infrastructure.



According to California-based International Rivers, more than 30 projects are under development or at an advanced stage of planning to meet Vietnam's growing demand for energy.



In addition to displacing around 190,000 people, many of whom will lack cultivable land and suffer from shortages of food and drinking water, many thousands living downstream will face health problems due to contaminated water, the group says.



The government wants to build a lot hydroelectric plants as part of development, but this will change the route of the rivers, and a lot of the surface water will become polluted by these projects, Tuan said.



The government must also make efforts to protect the surface water in the areas of the hydroelectric plants and they must consider that people displaced by the plants will use whatever water they can get, even if it isnt clean.



Pressuring the government



Nga Dao, a manager with VNR, said her organization has conducted several studies on water pollution in Vietnam and has been using its findings to convince local authorities to address the issue and to inform local communities.



She said VNR has called for stricter mechanisms on appraising environmental impact assessments for all projects that cause pollution to water resources.



Right now environmental impact assessments are done as a procedure for most projects, but the implementation of mitigation measures is very weak, said Dao, who is also director of the nonprofit Water Resource Conservation and Development.



Dao said the government must also enforce a strong penalty system that applies to both individuals and companies that cause water pollution, while creating favorable conditions for community water monitoring networks to exist and to channel information to relevant government agencies.



When possible, we work to push for community water co-management, she said.



We set up community river monitoring groups, train communities in the legal aspects of water management, and conduct research and use the findings to persuade local authorities to deal with water problems.



Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh, a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, said that while Vietnamese law includes comprehensive regulations on the release of waste water into rivers, the problem is law enforcement.



We need to measure the pollution  If it exceeds the legal limit, we need to have strong punishments, Oanh said.



With big plants, we need to have strong measures to make them follow international regulations and Vietnamese law.



But Oanh also called on the government to build treatment plants that would lessen the cost of processing waste water and to create greater awareness about the disastrous effects of pollution.



People's awareness is also important. If they dont understand that a river is polluted, they will continue to add waste to the water, and within five to 10 years, the river will die.



Reported by Thanh Truc for RFAs Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.




The son of a slain Pakistani governor was rescued by Pakistani security agents on March 8 -- nearly five years after he was abducted by militants in the eastern city of Lahore.

Government spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar said Pakistani intelligence agents, counterterrorism police, and paramilitary forces carried out the rescue operation near Quetta in the Kuchlak area of Balochistan Province.

The abduction of Shahbaz Taseer in August 2011 took place eight months after his father, secular Governor Salman Taseer, was assassinated in Islamabad by his body guard over accusations of blasphemy.

Governor Taseer had been a prominent public figure who was arguing for the reform of Pakistans blasphemy laws.

Governor Taseer's assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29 at a prison in Rawalpindi, prompting protests in several cities by conservative Islamists who saw the assassination as justified.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and Dawn


TBILISI -- Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili says his ruling coalition will draft a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.



Kvirikashvili and the Georgian Dream (GD) coalition appear eager to quash a civil rights lawyer's effort to legalize same-sex marriage in the socially conservative, mostly Orthodox Christian country in the South Caucasus.



Georgian officials frequently cast their country, which is seeking closer integration with NATO and the EU, as a beacon of European values in the former Soviet Union, and Kvirikashvili said on March 7 that GD is committed to wiping out all forms of discrimination.



But he said that "such an important value" as marriage as a union between a man and a woman needed to be enshrined in the constitution.



Article 36 of the Georgian Constitution reads: "Marriage shall be based upon equality of rights and free will of spouses."



GD's proposal is expected to offer replacing "spouses" with "a man and a woman."



Georgian civil rights lawyer Giorgi Tatishvili petitioned the Constitutional Court earlier this year to legalize same-sex marriage. Shortly afterward, GD made an initial announcement about plans to amend the constitution.



Gay rights groups in Tbilisi then condemned the coalition's plans to enshrine marriage as a union between a man and a woman, urging the authorities not to play "political games" with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues.



Several gay rights groups also issued a statement saying that even if gay marriage were expressly legalized, most gays in Georgia would be unable to officially register their unions due to what they called "the violent environment in Georgian society.



On May 17, 2013, at least 17 people were injured in violence that broke out in Tbilisi before the start of a rally to mark the International Day Against Homophobia.



In 2014, the premiere of a Georgian comedy that supports gay-rights was canceled in Georgia after a radical Christian group, the Union of Orthodox Parents, protested in front of the parliament building and demanded that the film be banned.



The influential head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, has publicly criticized what he calls "gay propaganda" and called on Georgians "to respect the nation's traditional values."
Iran's president has broken a long-standing taboo by publicly defending a reformist predecessor, but his remarks were met with a muted response.

In a speech broadcast live from Mohammad Khatami's hometown on March 7, President Hassan Rohani hailed the former reformist president as a "dear brother."

The crowd in the central Iranian city of Yazd cheered wildly at the mention of their native son. But Iran's state-run IRINN television, well aware of a long-standing media ban against mentioning Khatami's name, quickly cut the volume.

Social media also showed banners of Khatami and Rohani being held up by the crowd during the speech, but they could not be seen on the live broadcast.

Rohani clearly tested his boundaries by mentioning Khatami, who is fiercely opposed by conservative hard-liners. The president even went so far as to state that no one could "silence those who served the nation."

Scott Lucas, an Iran specialist at Birmingham University in Britain and editor of the EA World View website, suggests Rohani was emboldened by February elections that strengthened the hand of relative moderates and reformists.

"Rohani wouldn't have made those remarks if he hadn't got the boost from the election," Lucas says. "It is a significant shot to fire."

Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of the London-based political-risk-analysis group Cornerstone Global Associates, says Rohani took a calculated risk that could put him on a collision course with hard-liners.

"Rohani has given the strongest public indication yet that he is uncomfortable with the position that the establishment has taken against Khatami," Nuseibeh says. "It can be interpreted as the tip of the iceberg in terms of differences inside the Iranian regime."

Media Silence

Yet Iran's news media were largely silent in response to the development.

The hard-line daily Keyhan and conservative dailies Resalat and Vatan-e Emruz failed to note Rohani's mention of Khatami -- or that Mohammad Reza Aref, a vice president under Khatami and the reformists' most prominent candidate in the recent parliamentary vote, had accompanied Rohani to Yazd.

Major reformist newspapers such as Sharq and Etemad also failed to mention the former president, although they highlighted Rohani's remarks on the "dialogue among civilizations" -- a phrase coined by Khatami.

The hard-line daily Javan stood out as an exception by publishing a large photo of Rohani on its front page and mentioning Khatami. The government news agency IRNA also reported Rohani's comments on Khatami on its website.

The majority of reformist and moderate outlets carried Rohani's remarks, while somewhat surprisingly Rohani's own website in English did not put up his speech.

'Illegal' Ban

Iranian media are banned from publishing the name or images of Khatami, who was president from 1997 to 2005, on account of his support for the defeated reformist candidates in the disputed 2009 reelection of Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

During his March 7 speech, Rohani criticized the media ban on Khatami as "illegal" and a "joke."

Rohani said it was a "complete lie" that the National Security Council could ban the publication of Khatami's photo. "The National Security Council has no such directive and if anyone claims otherwise, he is breaking the law," he said.

Iran's judiciary promptly reacted to Rohani's comments, however, and said the ban was still in place.

A judiciary spokesman said the ban was a "judicial order" and, contradicting Rohani, claimed it was issued under "Resolution 298 of the National Security Council."

The media blackout is apparently part of an effort by hard-liners to silence Khatami, who remains one of Iran's most popular politicians.

Despite the media ban, Khatami managed to publish a five-minute video on social media before the recent elections that are credited with swinging the balance in favor of reformists and relative moderates aligned with Rohani.

In a statement published on Khatami's website on March 8, the former president urged fewer restrictions in the Islamic republic.

"We must all try so that the reputation of the system is not damaged and to have an open atmosphere for everyone's participation, to remove restrictions and limitations," he said.

His remarks came after the opposition website Kaleme on March 5 reported that security agents had not allowed Khatami to leave his house to attend the wedding of the daughter of Mir Hossein Musavi, a prominent leader of the opposition Green Movement who has been under house arrest since 2011.
The United States has warned that Iran's latest reported missile test could breach UN resolutions and that Washington may raise the issue with the United Nations Security Council.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby made the remarks in Washington on March 8, hours after Iranian state media reported that Iran had conducted a series of tests.

Kirby said he could not confirm that the tests were carried out, but warned that Washington could take unilateral or international action in response.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed on March 8 that the missile test was "not a violation" of the international nuclear agreement that Tehran signed with six world powers in 2015.

But Earnest noted that there is "at least one specific United Nations Security Council resolution that could apply."

Earnest told reporters in Washington that the Obama administration was "still reviewing the Iranian launch to assess whether it is necessary for this matter to be raised before the United Nations Security Council."

Meanwhile, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN was studying the Iranian state media reports and that it was up to the Security Council to determine whether there were any violations.

Dujarric said it is "important that Iran live up to its obligations."

Iran's state media reports said precision guided missiles had been fired form several sites over ranges between 300 and 2,000 kilometers.

Iran's ISNA news agency said the test by the Revolutionary Guards was aimed at showing "Iran's deterrent power and also the Islamic Republic's ability to confront any threat."

A state TV report showed a missile being fired from a fortified underground silo at night time.

The presenter said it was a medium-range Qiam-1 missile, and that the test took place in the early hours of March 8.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace arm, said sanctions would not stop Iran developing its ballistic missiles, which it regards as a cornerstone of its conventional deterrent.

The United States in January imposed fresh sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program.

The move came about the same time Washington lifted many sanctions on Iran as part of the international deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program.

Iran conducted a precision-guided ballistic missile test capable of delivering a nuclear warhead violating a United Nations ban last October.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the test was a violation of Iran's "international obligations."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reutersand Cihan


Britain's counterterrorism chief has warned that the Islamic State (IS) militant group wants to launch "enormous and spectacular attacks" targeting Western lifestyles, not just military targets.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told reporters in London on March 7 that while IS once struck primarily at symbols of the state, such the military and police, the group is now planning broader attacks like last November's string of attacks in Paris on a concert hall, stadium, and bars, which killed 130 people.

"You see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we've seen foiled to date," he said.

Rowley stressed that police have no information about such an attack at present, but said authorities should plan for all possibilities.

Rowley said IS is no longer content to simply radicalize so-called "lone wolf" attackers through propaganda on the Internet, but is "trying to build bigger attacks."

He added that the group is also trying to bring extremists trained in Syria into northern Europe to launch strikes.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says he has been officially informed by investigators that a new probe has been launched against him.

Navalny tweeted on October 20 that the probe was launched on charges of propagating terrorism, public calls for extremist activities, the financing of an extremist organization, and the rehabilitation of Nazism.

"[My] lawyers calculated that I may stay for up to 30 more years here [if convicted]," Navalny's tweet said, adding that the charges stemmed from the activities of his self-exiled associates' Popular Politics YouTube channel, which has criticized the Kremlin over Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.



Navalny has denounced the invasion, and earlier this month his organization said it would reopen its offices to fight against the Kremlin's mobilization.



"I am a genius of the underworld. Professor Moriarty is no match for me," he said sarcastically in a series of posts on Twitter, comparing himself to the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes.



"You all thought I had been isolated in prison for two years, but it turns out I was actively committing crimes," said Navalny, 46, who is able to post on Twitter through his lawyers and allies.

Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said Popular Politics was launched by Navalny's allies after he had already been in prison for a year.



"Well, what can I say to you now? Subscribe to Popular Politics," said the last in the series of tweets.



There was no immediate official confirmation of the new case from the Investigative Committee.

The new charges against Navalny came on the same day that a court in Moscow ordered TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova detained for just under two months, Russian state-run media reported. Ovsyannikova's lawyer said she and her daughter recently fled the country, so the court said the detention would begin upon her return.



It wasn't clear if she had any plans to return to Russia. Her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said on October 17 that his client "had to leave Russia and is under the protection of a European state at the moment."



Ovsyannikova gained international recognition on March 14 when she burst onto the set of Channel One's Vremya news program holding a poster reading: "Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you" in Russian. She also shouted: "Stop the war. No to war."



Ukraine-born Ovsyannikova was a producer with Channel One at the time of her protest. She was later detained and fined 30,000 rubles ($490) by a court for calling for illegal protests.

Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and other groups associated with the outspoken Kremlin critic, as well as his political movement, were declared "extremist organizations" by Russian authorities in June 2021 and disbanded.



Several of Navalny's associates have already been charged with the same offense.



Navalny was arrested in January last year upon his arrival to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for a poison attack with what European labs defined as a Soviet-style nerve agent.



He was then handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole because of his convalescence abroad. The original conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.



In March he was handed a nine-year prison term on charges of contempt and embezzlement through fraud that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated.

With reporting by Reuters and AP
Prague, Czech Republic -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Design Director and Pangea Digital Deputy Director Kimberly Conger has accepted an invitation to join the prestigious International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), the judging body for two international awards for online excellence: the Webby Awards and the Lovie Awards.

Membership to IADAS is by invitation only and is extended to former Webby Award winners and nominees, as well as others who have catalyzed great achievements on the Internet, demonstrated extraordinary talent in a traditional medium, or who possess in-depth knowledge of new media. RFE/RLs Pangea Digital unit was a Webby Award Honoree three years running (2012, 2013, 2014).

It is a huge honor, and it is nice to know that your work and your teams work is appreciated by others in the industry, Conger said. RFE/RL is a great brand -- people know it around the world and recognize that our mission is also quite prestigious. Its not just about me, its about the work that all of us do. I think we are unique in the world.

As part of her IADAS membership duties, Conger will help select nominees and winners of the Mobile Sites & Apps, Websites  Media and Websites  Features categories for the 2016 Webby Awards.

Conger and the 46-person Pangea Digital unit are the creative force behind Pangea -- the powerful, custom designed web-based content management system (CMS) tailored for online journalism. Pangea Digital publishes news in more than 60 languages across 200 countries and territories worldwide. It is the only in-house design and development team that supports content in so many languages on the same platform.

In recent years, Pangea Digitals work has been recognized not only at the Webby Awards, but also at the GLOMO Awards, and the Association for International Broadcasting Awards. Conger has previously won several international, national and regional design awards and has served as a judge for U.S. and international print design competitions.
The death toll in a suicide bombing at the entrance to a court building in northwestern Pakistan has risen to 17.

Two policemen, a policewoman, and a child were among those killed in the blast on March 7 in the town of Shabqadar in Charsadda district.

Police said the death toll rose after six of the more than 20 people wounded died in hospitals overnight.

A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban and calling itself Jamat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility, describing it as revenge for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, who was executed last week for the 2011 killing of a provincial governor.

Charsadda district is located at the edge of Pakistan's tribal region, near the Afghan border.

Pakistan's military says it has entered the final phase of an offensive against the militants in the tribal region.

Overnight air strikes targeted several hideouts in the town of Shawal, killing 21 militants, according to a statement on March 8 by the Pakistani Army.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
One of Russia's biggest national TV channels is marking International Women's Day with a campaign spotlighting heavy weaponry and antiriot equipment named after flowers.

The series of short promotional spots -- called Russian Spring, Russian Flowers -- identifies military tanks, artillery, and mace alongside images of their namesakes: Tulip, Carnation, and Bird Cherry.

It might seem an amusing choice to some Russians, given the annual event's roots in Russia, where it arose on the eve of World War I to promote the closely allied goals of peace and women's suffrage.

In a slightly longer REN-TV video released ahead of this year's International Women's Day, a young woman is seen answering routine questions until the disclosure that she is an antiriot officer casts a whole new light on her responses.

"Maria, do you like wearing high heels?"

"No, I don't like high heels. They make your gait unsteady."

"What's your favorite breed of dog?"

"I have a German shepherd, Mukhtar."

"What's your favorite place in Moscow?"

"Probably Bolotnaya Square."

"What's your favorite flower?"

"I like the bird cherry," the woman says as the camera zooms out, grabbing a can of pepper spray or mace (nicknamed "bird cherry" in Russian) from her belt and casually flipping it in the air. Maria is dressed in police riot gear and a German shepherd sits obediently at her side.

"Russian spring, Russian flowers," the voice behind the camera announces. "Happy 8th of March, Dear Women!"

Bolotnaya Square was a scene of major protests in 2012-13 that were some of the largest antigovernment demonstrations in modern Russian history. Around 400 protesters were arrested and some 80 more were injured, many of them after being tear-gassed.

The REN-TV bouquet of clips also features the self-propelled 230-millimeter 2S7M gun, known as the Peony; the self-propelled Tulip 2S4 mortar; and the self-propelled, 122-millimeter howitzer known as the Carnation.

REN-TV said the campaign was aimed at "returning to the original meaning of the Day of Strong Women."

'Bread And Peace'

But the history of International Women's Day in Russia belies any spurious equivalency to military prowess. The organizers of Russia's first International Women's Day marches, beginning in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1913, adopted and adapted the Western event to promote a woman's right to vote and advocate for peace as Europe lumbered toward World War I.

A few years later in 1917, with the October Revolution around the corner, Russian women organized demonstrations on International Women's Day to rally for "Bread and Peace." It was one of the protests that led to the February Revolution and subsequent fall of the Tsar Nicholas II.

The United Nations has declared the theme for this year's International Women's Day as Planet 50-50 By 2030: Step It Up For Gender Equality.
VORKUTA, Russia -- Coal miner Mikhail Momot had a day off on February 25. At about 2:45 p.m., he'd just returned home from shopping when he noticed cars and trucks from the Emergency Situations Ministry speeding through town on their way to the Severnaya coal mine.

Without thinking, he rushed to the mine himself. There he learned of a serious explosion in the pit, and until 3 a.m. he labored with rescuers to reach the miners missing nearly 800 meters below the surface. Mikhail's older brother, Konstantin, was among them.

The frantic initial rescue efforts after the methane explosions in the mine succeeded in bringing around 80 miners to the surface alive. But four other miners were left dead and 26 more were missing.

Yevgeny Gurenko was in the mine. At 2:15, the electricity went out and the workers were plunged into inky darkness. It was a common occurrence in Severnaya -- whenever methane detectors indicated levels above 1.3 percent, work was routinely stopped to prevent a stray spark from igniting the highly flammable gas. Gurenko contacted his supervisor on the surface and was told that power was out throughout the entire mine -- something serious had happened.

Gurenko began making his way to the surface. On the way, he was passed by two managers going the other way, rushing to find out what had happened. When he was in the lift on the way to the top, Gurenko felt a huge explosion. Later he learned that the two managers he'd seen moments before had been torn to pieces by the blast.

For more than two days, miners and rescue workers sought to reach the missing men. There was no contact with any of them, but hope remained that they were still alive. However, conditions in the mine were dangerous. Methane levels were beyond all safety limits and the explosions had started fires that raged deep underground. Mine officials and Emergency Situations Ministry bureaucrats argued about whether it was too dangerous to continue.

On February 28, another huge explosion at Severnaya killed six rescue workers. The rescue operation was halted. A few days later, the missing miners were declared dead and officials decided to flood the mine in order to extinguish the fire and prevent a major collapse.

Konstantin Momot, 41, who is believed to have been at the very heart of the original explosion, was among those presumed dead.

'No One Was Going To Stop Work'

Newly widowed Svetlana Momot lives in a two-room apartment on the edge of Vorkuta with her two daughters, 16-year-old Alina and 6-year-old Nastya. Konstantin also left behind two sons from a previous marriage who live with his first wife in eastern Ukraine. Just a few months ago, Konstantin became a grandfather.

Svetlana -- her eyes red but tearless -- is surprisingly eager to talk about Konstantin. He loved fishing and gathering mushrooms, she says. He loved to cook and spent hours taking care of the 300-liter fish tank that dominates the apartment's main room.

"He would come home from work and stare at this underwater world instead of watching television," she says.

Konstantin died less than four years shy of the retirement age of 45. He'd worked at Severnaya since 1993. He was already making plans to get a mortgage and buy a house with his parents in Belgorod Oblast, far from the brutal winters and dirty coal pits of Far Northern Vorkuta.

Svetlana says that in the week before the disaster, Konstantin had spoken often of the methane problem. Apparently, it was topic No. 1 among the miners. Why did they keep working?

"That's the way the management is," Svetlana says. "No one was going to stop work at the mine."

'Natural Anomalies'

Methane levels have been a chronic problem at Severnaya. Most of the miners who agreed to speak with RFE/RL said the levels regularly exceeded the norms but when they complained, they were told they could quit anytime they wanted.

Although the conveyer was supposed to be shut down when levels of 1.3 percent were recorded, miner Nazim Gadzhiyev says it kept running even when the indicators showed 2 percent or more. Sometimes detectors held near the ceiling of the mine, where the lighter-than-air methane collects, could be made to read 99 percent.

Aleksandr Proskuryakov told Novaya Gazeta that on February 11 his personal methane detector registered 5 percent. The conveyer was shut down when the general detector reached 3.8 percent.

When RFE/RL phoned Proskuryakov a few days later to discuss the methane problem, he refused to talk. "I am at the Investigative Committee right now," he said. "I am not going to talk anymore. You understand why. I'm sorry."

PHOTO GALLERY: Vorkuta -- A Town Steeped In Tragedy

Photo Gallery: Vorkuta -- A Hardscrabble Town That Is No Stranger To Tragedy Vorkuta is a brutal place. This Russian city of 70,000 just north of the Arctic Circle is almost completely dependent on coal mining. It was founded in 1932 as one of the most notorious camps of the Stalin-era gulag system. Out of the initial group of 1,500 prisoners who were sent to the barren wasteland, only 54 survived the ordeal. Nowadays, sons continue to follow their fathers into the mines and the city is still no stranger to tragedy. In late February, a series of methane explosions at the Severnaya coal mine left 36 people dead. Share on Facebook

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Miners say Investigative Committee officials have been carting away documents ever since the accident. The official explanation for the disaster is "natural anomalies," but most of the miners who were willing to talk think safety norms have long been lax.

"The mining engineer, the director, the section head, the deputy section head," miner Gadzhiyev says when asked whom he thinks should be investigated. "I have worked underground for 28 years and I have no idea what ['natural anomalies'] could mean."

A City That Is No Stranger To Bad News

Vorkuta miners are theoretically represented by two labor unions, but miners laugh at the mention of them. "I have no idea what they do at all," Mikhail Momot says. The process of flooding and then repairing the Severnaya mine could take as long as two years, a serious worry for the more than 1,000 miners who work there. The company has assured workers they will be offered work in other mines, but the miners are skeptical.

Vorkuta is a brutal place, a city of 70,000 just north of the Arctic Circle that is almost completely dependent on coal mining. It was founded in 1932 as one of the most notorious camps of the Stalin-era GULAG system. Of the initial group of 1,500 prisoners who were sent to the barren wasteland, only 54 survived the ordeal.

Nowadays, sons continue to follow their fathers into the mines.

For the month of January, a huge red star burned brightly over the city, signifying that the mines had made their production quotas for 2015. The Severnaya mine provided one-quarter of all the coal consumed by its parent company, steelmaker Severstal.

Now, the star is dark. Instead, outside the Severnaya mine's administrative office a tall wooden cross has been erected and decorated with the photographs of all the dead miners. The base of the cross is covered with frozen flowers. Chopin plays from a loudspeaker as people stand silently or sob quietly.

Twenty-eight-year-old Vitaly Nizhelsky's photograph is among those hanging on the cross. Although he was an ordinary miner, he was studying mine engineering at Ukhta State Technical University as a long-distance student.

"He was my pride, my support in my old age," his father, Sergei, tells RFE/RL. Sergei was a miner himself, having worked for 23 years in the nearby Vorkuta mine. Shortly after he retired in 2013, an explosion there killed 19 miners.

"What happened there has happened here as well," he says. "But there at least they gave out the bodies. And now? Who is there for me to bury?"

Vitaly's brother, Denis, is also a miner who worked on the same brigade as his brother until four years ago, when he was fired in a dispute with management. If not for that, he'd likely be dead now as well.

Asked what he plans to do now, Denis gives the only answer Vorkuta offers: "I'm looking for work in the pits."

RFE/RL's Russian Service correspondent Sergei Khazov-Cassia reported from Vorkuta. Robert Coalson contributed from Prague
KYIV -- Hundreds of demonstrators, including Ukrainian lawmakers, paraded through Kyiv on March 8 to demand the immediate release by Russia of the captured Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko.



More than 500 demonstrators marched from Ukraine's Defense Ministry to the Russian Embassy, where they handed over a petition addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin urging him to set Savchenko free.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on March 8 also called for her release, expressing concern about her health and welfare.

In a statement, Kerry said Savchenko during the past 20 months "has reportedly endured interrogations, solitary confinement, and forced 'psychiatric evaluation.' Her trial and continuing imprisonment demonstrate disregard for international standards, as well as for Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements."

Savchenko has refused food and water since March 3 to protest her continued detention.

A Russian military court refused to allow Savchenko to make a final statement when closing arguments were presented by her lawyers on March 3.

The court called, instead, for her trial to be adjourned for a week before she has another chance to speak to the court.

Ukrainian lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko's party said a team of doctors was leaving Kyiv on March 8 for the southern Russian detention center where Savchenko is being held.

"Ukrainian diplomats have been able to wrest an agreement from the Russian authorities to allow our doctors to see [Savchenko] on March 9," Iryna Herashchenko wrote on Facebook.

Russian prosecutors have accused Savchenko of being a spotter who called in coordinates for a mortar attack that killed the two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine shortly before she was captured there in June 2014.

Her defense lawyers argued that her mobile phone records prove she had been captured by Russia-backed separatists before the mortar attack.

Savchenko denies any role in the deaths of the journalists and says she was taken into Russia illegally by separatists after she was captured.

Ukraine's government says she has been subjected to a political show trial and that she should be treated as a prisoner of war rather than a criminal.


Ukraine's government has retracted the recent appointment of Adrian Bukovynskiy to the post of family ombudsman after activists complained he is biased against homosexuals.

Bukovynskiy's appointment to the post had been announced on February 24.

But the Ukrainian government's website announced on March 8 that Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was reopening a search to fill the post.

The website said Bukovynskiy was never confirmed as the government's family ombudsman because he failed to pass a background check.

Bukovynskiy's nomination sparked harsh criticism from gay rights activists in Ukraine who compiled material from 2013 showing he had publicly expressed "homophobic" views.

Those statements included calls to defend "traditional values," as well as condemnation of laws protecting the rights of gays in the European Union and the United States.

Bukovynskiy also publicly defended legislation in Russia banning what lawmakers there have deemed as "gay propaganda."

Bukovynskiy had said he would endorse a similar law in Ukraine.

With reporting by khpg.org


In early March 2014, veteran Russian ultranationalist Anton Rayevsky stood near a demonstration in St. Petersburg against Moscow's forceful annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula that was under way at the time. He held a placard that read: "Russians support sending Russian troops to Ukraine."

"I will fight. I'm not scared," the self-described former "fascist," who has a partially erased Adolf Hitler tattoo on his left arm, told a journalist who asked him about his one-man protest.

In the months that followed, Rayevsky made good on this vow. He and a group of fellow nationalists joined Russia-backed separatists to fight Kyiv's forces in a war that has since killed more than 9,100 people in eastern Ukraine.

And while says he never saw the regular Russian troops he had called for during his picket in St. Petersburg, it was crystal-clear to Rayevsky that the Russian military was orchestrating the separatist forces -- and arming them.

"I can say with absolute certainty that all of the mid- and high-level commanders -- from the battalion to the brigades -- were Russian advisers. All of the military equipment we had, all of the weapons: It was all from Russia," Rayevsky, 30, told RFE/RL's Russian Service in a recent interview.

Rayevsky's specific claims about his time fighting with separatists in eastern Ukraine could not be independently verified. But they are consistent with a broad array of evidence of the Russian military's direct involvement in the conflict. Kyiv, the United States, the European Union, and NATO have accused the Kremlin of providing weapons, personnel, training, and cash to the separatists since the war erupted in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected the allegations, often claiming that only Russian "volunteers" -- among them Russian soldiers purportedly on leave  have fought against the Ukrainian military. In December, President Vladimir Putin suggested that there were Russian military personnel carrying out orders in Ukraine -- but still insisted there were no "regular Russian troops" there. The Kremlin later walked back his remarks, saying Putin was referring to volunteers.

Evidence against Putin's claim includes accounts by soldiers to media, funerals for Russian servicemen in their hometowns, and indications of involvement by regular Russian troops at key points in the conflict such as the summer of 2014 and the fighting for Debaltseve early in 2015.

Rayevsky, who says he now regrets that he took up arms in the war, disputes the Kremlin's version of the status of Russian combatants in the conflict.

"Active Russian [military] advisers, trainers, Russian military equipment -- all of that is there," he says. "With regards to actual soldiers, I didn't see them. I think they are limited groups that are deployed in [the southern Russian city of] Rostov-on-Don and ready to move to any hot spot when called upon."

'Orders From Moscow'

Rayevsky says he was recruited to fight in Ukraine by a group that claims the mantle of the Russian All-Military Union, an anti-Bolshevik White Army emigre organization founded in 1924. On June 23, 2014, he says, he and his unit of about 10 fighters arrived in the city of Slovyansk, then held by the separatists but recaptured the following month by Kyiv's forces.

It was there, Rayevsky says, that he met separatist commander Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, a Russian who said last year that he was a colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

"Streklov-Girkin shook each of our hands, thanked us for being Russian volunteers who came to fight....They gave us weapons, loaded us into a car, and shipped us to the front," he says.

Rayevsky says he ultimately went on to command a motorized-rifle platoon, holding the rank of lieutenant with the forces of the separatists who hold part of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region.

Throughout his six-month stint with the separatists, he says, he repeatedly encountered Russian military officers.

He says that in the town of Debaltseve, which was also recaptured by Ukraine in July 2014 but changed hands again in February 2015, when the separatists continued a major offensive despite a new cease-fire deal, he met with a battalion commander nicknamed "Machete."

"It wasn't just the battalion commander Machete in the office. There was also some gray cardinal, the official battalion commander -- an active Russian serviceman," Rayevsky says.

The battalion commanders in the separatist forces in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions were "active Russian military officers," he adds.

"Russian advisers are the direct commanders on the ground and create the military rhythm of the whole machine," Rayevsky says.

He adds that he had already returned to Russia by the time separatists launched the major offensive to retake Debaltseve in early 2015, a push that Washington said was carried out by "separatist forces acting in concert with Russian forces."

"Maybe in local conflicts [separatists] participate directly and give orders, but in general the battalions are tracked, controlled, and given orders by Russian military advisers, who in turn get their orders, of course, from Moscow," Rayevsky says.

'On The Kremlin's Payroll'

While fighting has eased substantially since September, each side accuses the other of frequent cease-fire violations. This has dimmed prospects for the full implementation of the Minsk II peace accord signed in February 2015, which calls for the withdrawal of foreign fighters and the restoration of Ukrainian control over the border that Kyiv says Russian forces have streamed across during the conflict.

Rayevsky places the lion's share of the blame on Russia for "unleashing this war" but says "some politicians and security services in Ukraine are complicit as well in heating this war up."

"The war should definitely be ended, and no more blood of the people of Donbas should be spilled," he says, referring to the region of eastern Ukraine where the bulk of the fighting has taken place.

He says he hopes that by speaking out he can "warn others so that they don't buy into this bacchanalia, this propaganda."

"I'm warning others now not to participate," he says. "That's the first thing. Second, I am divulging the role of these rah-rah patriotic organizations that are on the Kremlin's payroll so that people don't buy into their propaganda."

Rayevsky says he was aghast at the rampant alcohol abuse and perilous lack of discipline in the separatist ranks. "This was an epidemic of drunkenness not only on the base, but on the battlefield and the front lines, when the regular Ukrainian Army on the front line was a kilometer away from us," he says.

He says that after fighting for six months, he decided to leave as quickly as possible after "some officers in our battalion accused me of supposedly shooting at our own positions."

Neo-Nazi To 'Russian Orthodox Monarchist'

Before he fought alongside the separatists, Rayevsky was kicked out of Ukraine for participating in an antigovernment rally in Odesa -- where anti-Kyiv activists widely believed to have been supported by Moscow held demonstrations but never seized territory like those in Donbas.

Rayevsky says his decision to speak publicly about his stint fighting with the separatists is also driven in part because investigators in his hometown of Oryol, 360 kilometers southwest of Moscow, recently designated him as a witness in a case linked to incitement of hatred.

He fears he could become a suspect in the case and believes that speaking out about his experience in eastern Ukraine, where he was wounded in battle, could help him avoid prosecution or prison.

Rayevsky says he has disavowed his earlier neo-Nazi ideology, and now considers himself a "Russian Orthodox monarchist." Asked, however, if he still believes minorities -- including Jews -- are the main enemies of Russia, he replies, "If [I am] to be honest, then yes."

The Hitler tattoo has been remade into that of a Roman warrior, he says, but he doesn't get offended "if they call me a fascist."

Rayevsky says his Nazi-themed skin art prompted suspicion and confusion among locals, including separatists, during his time in eastern Ukraine. Russia, after all, has persistently portrayed the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych as a coup carried out by a fascist junta.

"You start to explain that you're a Russian nationalist who came here to fight for Novorossia, for Russian people," Rayevsky says, using a tsarist-era term that was embraced by Putin in 2014 and refers to most of eastern and southern Ukraine.

"They say: 'What Russians? We're Ukrainians. What Novorossia? We want to live autonomously from both Russia and Ukraine.'"

Written by Carl Schreck based on reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service correspondent Dmitry Volchek
Members of the European Parliament have urged EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to impose personal sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and 28 other individuals over the "illegal" treatment of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko.

A March 8 letter signed by 57 European lawmakers names Russian individuals and pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine accused of being "responsible for the political decision to kidnap" Savchenko, to "transport her to the territory of Russia, detain her unlawfully, and fabricate charges against her."

In addition to Putin, the letter calls for the blacklisting of Federal Security Service (FSB) director Aleksandr Bortnikov, Russian State Duma foreign affairs committee chief Aleksei Pushkov, senior investigators in Russia, and eastern Ukraine's separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky.

It also lists prosecutors, judges, and other individuals who are accused of fabricating evidence against Savchenko, declaring fabricated evidence to be legally valid in court, and lengthening Savchenkos detention while awaiting the conclusion of her trial for 20 months.

The letter says personal sanctions against Putin and the others should include EU visa bans, asset freezes, and the confiscation of all property within the territory of the European Union.

With reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels
The U.S. government has announced restrictions against China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, prompting a strong protest from Beijing.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced that sanctions barring ZTE Corp. from using American components in its equipment will take effect on March 8.

The department released documents it said showed ZTE knowingly violated controls on sales of U.S. high-tech goods to Iran and set up front companies to conceal that.

China protested that the move will severely disrupt ZTE's business, with customers in more than 160 countries.

ZTE must now apply for permission to export equipment from the United States for use in its manufacturing business, it said.

"The U.S. move will severely affect the Chinese company's normal business activities," China's Ministry of Commerce said. Beijing and ZTE are both seeking negotiations to resolve the matter.

"ZTE has been actively making efforts to internationalize its business and has carried out broad trade and investment cooperation with hundreds of U.S. companies, creating tens of thousands of jobs for the United States," the Chinese ministry said.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Voters in four states will head to the polls Tuesday to pick a presidential nominee.



Of these four states, the stakes are significantly higher in Michigan.



Heres why:



Delegate Jackpot



Michigan is the biggest prize Tuesday for both Republican and Democratic candidates.



Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will be fighting for 147 delegates, while the remaining four Republican candidates will be vying for 59 delegates.



Its the largest amount of delegates for the taking since Super Tuesday.



Sanders Needs a Win



As of now, Clinton has 1,130 delegates, including pledged delegates and superdelegates, while Sanders only has 499.



With Clinton expected to sweep the Mississippi primary -- the only other Democratic contest on Tuesday -- Sanders needs a win in Michigan to narrow the delegate gap between him and Clinton.



Kasichs Strategy



Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still in the race because he believes he can win his home state, which holds its primary on March 15.



But Michigan, Ohios neighboring state, is essential for the struggling candidate, who has yet to score a win and has the smallest amount of delegates.



"The road to Ohio in this case leads through Michigan," Kasichs chief strategist John Weaver told ABC News in February.



During the South Carolina primaries, Kasich was already focusing on Michigan, campaigning heavily there and pouring a lot of resources into the state.



Michigan's primary was once the do-or-die moment for Kasich. Back in Feb. 15, at a town hall in Allendale, Michigan, Kasich told Grand Valley State University students: We have to do really, really well in this state, I mean -- or I have to roll up the carpets and go back.



Now, his campaign is blasting out the narrative that Kasich is surging in Michigan, pointing to his performance in Thursdays GOP debate in Detroit, hosted by Fox News.



Kasich has acknowledged that Donald Trump might win the primary, but hes hoping for a second place finish.



Rubio Stuck in Third Place



The Florida senators chances of being the Republican alternative to Trump may have slipped away this past weekend.



Despite nabbing a (much needed) win in Puerto Rico, earning him 23 delegates, Marco Rubios main rival, Ted Cruz, solidified his second place spot in the GOP race after coming out on top in Kansas in Maine.



In an NBC/WSJ/Marist poll released on Tuesday, the Florida senator takes third place in the Wolverine State with 17 percent support, compared to Trumps 41 percent and Cruzs 22 percent.



While Rubio isnt expected to win any of Tuesdays state primaries and caucuses, he is confident his campaign will succeed in his home state of Florida.



Robocalls from One (Former) Governor, For Another



Mitt Romney, who was born in Michigan and whose father was a popular governor there, recorded robocalls Tuesday morning to encourage Michigan voters to cast ballots for Kasich.



Hello, this is Mitt Romney calling, and Im calling on behalf of Kasich for America, the recording starts out. Today, you have the opportunity in Michigan to vote for a Republican nominee for president. These are critical times that demand serious, thoughtful commander in chief.



While the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential candidate hasnt formally endorsed any candidate, his efforts show the GOP establishment's goal is to stop Trump from becoming the nominee.



If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished, Romney says in the recording.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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When a group of state lawmakers went looking for a place to stay in Richmond for the 2016 legislative session, they decided to try something new. And not strictly legal.

For at least three members of the House of Delegates, Airbnb has been more than just a difficult agenda item for the legislative session. The online lodging platform also served as a viable alternative to the downtown hotels, condos and corporate housing lawmakers typically inhabit during their part-time work at the Capitol.

This just happened to be the site where we found a good house that was a good setup, said Del. Gregory D. Habeeb, R-Salem, whos sharing an Airbnb house in the Fan District with Dels. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, and Thomas A. Tag Greason, R-Loudoun.

Habeeb and Gilbert said the cost of their Airbnb rental is similar to what they incurred in previous sessions. The house fit their fairly unique need for three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a two-month term.

Its just another option, said Gilbert. And, frankly, one that we were glad to have.

Its not clear if other legislators used the platform to find temporary lodging in Richmond this session.

The group Airbnb house, which will ultimately be covered by the daily allowances lawmakers receive for session-related expenses, underscores both the widespread acceptance of home sharing and the difficulty of modernizing state and local laws in response to emerging industries.

As the three lawmakers commuted to the statehouse to consider legitimizing, regulating and taxing Airbnb throughout the state, their Richmond host was running the risk, albeit small, of being cited by the city for an illegal rental.

After hammering out rules for ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft last year, the General Assembly is taking things a little slower with the residential side of the so-called sharing economy.

Bills to create a statewide legal framework for Airbnb  which connects homeowners looking to rent out their space and guests seeking short-term accommodations  seemed to be on track to pass this year. But mounting opposition from the hotel industry and local governments led lawmakers to delay the issue for a year to allow for a formal study.

The bill was sent to Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week. He has not indicated any plan to pursue a different course.

If the governor signs the bill, no new rules would take effect until after the 2017 General Assembly session, when the legislature is expected to take up Airbnb again using the study as a guide.

The outcome was applauded by the hospitality industry. It had argued the legislation didnt ensure that Airbnb hosts could be held accountable by local governments and play by the same rules facing existing hotels and bed and breakfasts. The Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association called the result a major victory.

Competition drives businesses to improve, and thats why the lodging industry welcomes new technologies like Airbnb, Eric Terry, the lodging associations president, said in a news release last week. We welcome competition, but fair competition.

Skeptics pushed successfully to require Airbnb hosts to register with local governments, whose authority to regulate Airbnb would have been limited by the proposed state law.

Its hard to protect public safety regarding this type of situation if you dont even know where these people are and who these people are, said Neal Menkes, director of fiscal policy for the Virginia Municipal League, which supported converting the bills to a study.

Menkes said localities recognize Airbnb, which he called a form of creative destruction, is here to stay.

But we want to make sure that tax policy and land-use policy doesnt favor one type of industry over another, Menkes said. Let market forces decide who are the winners and losers.

Del. Christopher K. Peace, R-Hanover, said it would be ridiculous to treat private homes the same as hotels.

Thats a way for the hotels to drive the competitor out of business and for the state to be the one that protects their monopoly and protects their market share, said Peace, who sponsored Airbnb legislation in the House.

Airbnbs backers in the legislature said legitimizing the industry would let the state take full advantage of economic activity thats already occurring while setting ground rules to protect neighborhoods. The bills would have also created a mechanism to let the platform collect and pay taxes on behalf of operators all over the state.

While Airbnb is doing business in Virginia, its not doing the business that it could, Peace said. And therefore its not able to provide the revenues that it really could to the state and to localities.

The lack of decisive action wont have a major impact on Airbnb activity in the state, but it means another year of limbo.

Chris Lehane, Airbnbs head of global public policy, said the company will continue to work with other states that are excited about home sharing and remains interested in working with supporters in Virginia.

We were hopeful that the governor would seize the opportunity for the commonwealth to be a national leader when it comes to the role home sharing can play in generating more wealth for the common man, Lehane said.

Habeeb, Gilbert and Greason supported the Airbnb legislation throughout the process.

The lawmakers said theyve had no problems with their Airbnb experience, and their host plans to move back in once they leave.
Republicans on the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on Tuesday used their majority to nominate former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to succeed Justice Jane Marum Roush on the Virginia Supreme Court.

The surprise move came after Senate Republicans failed to muster enough floor votes to elect Court of Appeals Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. to replace Roush, the interim appointee of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat.

They then swiftly regrouped and certified Cuccinelli, the conservative lightning rod who nearly beat McAuliffe in the 2013 race for governor.

I have been approached to consider an appointment to the Virginia Supreme Court, Cuccinelli said in a statement Tuesday evening. I am humbled and honored to be considered for such a position, but it is not something that my wife and I have previously contemplated.

Together, we will prayerfully review this possibility in light of our familys needs and whether or not this is the best way for us to contribute to making Virginia a better place to live going forward.

Sen. Glen H. Sturtevant Jr., R-Richmond, citing politicization of the high court, had thwarted earlier GOP efforts to replace Roush. On Tuesday, he backed Cuccinelli in committee and said he would support him on the floor.

Now that Justice Roush and Judge Alston have failed to be elected by the General Assembly, I believe it is our responsibility to nominate and elect another candidate who is highly qualified and who can receive a majority of support in both houses, Sturtevant said in a statement. The General Assembly is in session and has the clear constitutional duty to elect judges in Virginia, and to fill this position.

For all these reasons, today I voted to certify former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Sturtevant added, calling Cuccinelli eminently qualified for the court.

I will vote for him on the floor of the Senate when his nomination comes before the full body. If he is not elected by the General Assembly, I am willing to support other qualified candidates for the Supreme Court, Sturtevant said.

It would be irresponsible to leave a vacancy on the court because of a political stalemate in the legislative branch.

If the GOP majority elects Cuccinelli, it would be a stern rebuke to the Democratic governor. Republican leaders say McAuliffe failed to consult or communicate with them before appointing Roush.

The governor first appointed Roush last summer to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. The seven-member Supreme Court has had a vacancy since Feb. 12, when Roushs most recent interim appointment expired.

The General Assembly session is scheduled to end Saturday. McAuliffe administration officials had said that the governor would give Roush another interim appointment if the legislature adjourns with a vacancy on the court.

McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said the nomination of Cuccinelli undermines the credibility of Virginias judicial selection process and threatens the independence of the commonwealths highest court.

Jane Roush is a qualified and nonpartisan jurist who is widely recognized as the best person for the job, he said.

It would be a disgrace to replace her with an eleventh-hour candidate whom voters have already rejected as hostile to their values on womens rights, gay rights, education, health care, the environment, transportation and a range of other issues.

The Senate panels nomination of Cuccinelli capped an eventful day in the ongoing partisan political battle over the Supreme Court vacancy between a Democratic governor and a Republican-led legislature.

The Constitution of Virginia gives the legislature the authority to elect judges and the governor the authority to appoint judges on an interim basis when the legislature has adjourned.

So far, the battle has resulted in the ouster of one highly respected jurist, Roush, while leaving Alston, another highly respected judge, in political limbo.

Cuccinelli has been considering another run for governor in 2017. He is now a lawyer in private practice and president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that seeks to elect true conservatives to the U.S. Senate. Cuccinelli also is a frequent Fox News contributor and a top surrogate for the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

He was a state senator from Fairfax County from 2002 to 2010. He served as attorney general from 2010 to 2014, and his office staked out controversial stances on abortion, gay rights, health care and climate change.

Interest groups that opposed his tenure as attorney general emitted a barrage of tweets and statements Tuesday afternoon criticizing the prospect of Cuccinelli serving on the state Supreme Court.

Senate Republicans said they would bring Cuccinellis name up for a vote before the full chamber before the legislature adjourns.

Attorney General Cuccinelli is extremely well-qualified to serve on the court, and he will receive an affirmative vote from all 21 members of the Senate Republican Caucus, Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, said in a statement.

The intransigence of the governor and the Senate Democratic Caucus led us to examine qualified candidates who could fill this vacancy and secure the constitutionally required 21 votes in the Senate and 51 votes in the House, Norment said.

While Sturtevant has pledged to back Cuccinelli on the Senate floor, Democrats could try to sway the vote of another Republican, hoping to prevent the 21st Senate vote that Cuccinelli would need for election.

The Senate panels move to place Cuccinellis name in nomination came after the House of Delegates voted to elect Alston to succeed Roush, and the Senate  lacking Sturtevants support  fell one vote short of the 21 votes needed for election.

The House voted 66-0 to elect Alston. One Democrat, Del. Luke E. Torian, D-Prince William, voted for Alston, a former chief judge of the Prince William Circuit Court. The other Democrats did not vote.

During debate on the floor, Del. Jackson H. Miller, R-Manassas, said the chamber should have supported Alston nine days ago, during Black History Month.

This is a great opportunity for the commonwealth of Virginia to have more African-American Supreme Court justices than any other state in the union, Miller said.

Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, took exception to the racial appeal, which he called the oldest trick in the book.

If you disagree with the governor, then blame the governor, Spruill said. But dont try to trick black folks by putting a black person up against black folks.

House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, released a statement saying he was deeply disappointed by the Senates decision not to elect Alston.

Howell said the House intends to meet its constitutional responsibility by putting forward another nominee before the session ends.

Under House rules, the Courts of Justice Committee would have to interview Cuccinelli and vote to certify him as qualified for the court before the full House of Delegates could vote on his nomination.

Cuccinelli was no stranger to controversy during his tenure as attorney general, issuing legal opinions that justified stringent construction standards on abortion clinics and limited discrimination protection for gays in the state workforce.

He also was the nations first attorney general to file a legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act and sued the Environmental Protection Agency over climate change regulations governing greenhouse gases.

I just put forth the name of someone I believe would be eminently qualified for the position, Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-Stafford, said in placing Cuccinellis name in nomination during the Courts of Justice meeting shortly after the Alston vote.

Democrats on the committee were perplexed and disappointed.

Ken Cuccinellis egregious policy positions are well-known, said Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico. His positions are and remain out of step with the views of Virginians.

I cant imagine even my colleagues on the right believing in their heart of hearts that he would make a better justice than Jane Roush, said Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth.

Earlier in the Roush saga, Lucas had flirted with voting for Alston in exchange for Republicans voting to elevate her friend, Portsmouth Circuit Court Judge Kenneth R. Melvin, a former state delegate, to the Court of Appeals. Lucas returned to the Democratic fold after a meeting with McAuliffe.
By Ralph S. Northam and Marissa Levine

Virginians are just starting to learn about a serious new threat to our health: Zika virus disease. Local and state governments have initiated planning to lessen the potential health risks, and Governor McAuliffe recently announced the formation of a Zika Task Force to ensure that all state resources are coordinated and prepared to assist in Zika virus prevention.

Zika virus is spread primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito. Only one in five people infected with Zika virus will become ill, and the illness is usually mild. However, there is growing evidence of a link between the infection during pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcomes because Zika can be spread from a mother to her unborn child.

Although the types of mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus do exist in Virginia, people here are not at risk of contracting Zika at this time because mosquito season hasnt yet begun. The greatest risk to Virginians right now relates to travel to Zika-affected countries, including Mexico, the Caribbean, and several countries in Central and South America. If you cant avoid such travel, talk to your health-care provider and review the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) travel advisories.

Zika virus disease underscores two very important aspects concerning health and well-being emphasized in the recently released Virginia Plan for Well Being, spearheaded by Lt. Governor Northams statewide collaborative roundtable of stakeholders. First, health begins in our communities where we live, work and play. Second  a takeaway from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations initiative  health is not only something we restore when lost, but also something we protect and retain before it can be lost. Together, we can create a culture of health in Virginia by making prevention available everywhere.

Because there is not a vaccine to prevent Zika or medication to treat the disease at this time, the best way to avoid Zika is to prevent mosquito bites. And the best way to prevent mosquito bites is through specific preventive actions.

So what should Virginians do now?

There are three critical things we can all start doing now. The first is to educate ourselves about Zika virus disease. The symptoms are not unlike other viral illnesses (fever, rash, joint aches and red eyes) and last a few days to about a week. If you have traveled and believe you have Zika, contact your health-care provider.

The second is to create a mosquito-safe living environment. Even though Virginia is currently experiencing cool weather, now is the time to begin planning to be sure our living spaces make it difficult if not impossible for mosquitoes to breed in the summer. The prevention of Zika virus disease depends upon the reduction or elimination of the habitats in which mosquitoes breed or lay eggs. The challenge is that the species of mosquitoes that can carry Zika virus require very little water in which to breed. In addition, mosquitoes dont fly far from where they breed, so this a local issue that requires direct action from us all.

We  homeowners and renters alike  need to start planning now. We can all take simple steps to modify our living areas in order to eliminate breeding places for mosquitoes and protect ourselves from bites. Steps to consider include installing or repairing screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out, and making sure your air-conditioning system is checked so that it is functional during mosquito season. Also, get into the habit now of emptying daily any containers of standing water. This includes flowerpots, pet water dishes, birdbaths, gutters, buckets, etc. Find the right mosquito repellent for yourself and your family members, and use it regularly.

Finally, stay up to date as more is learned about this emerging threat to our health. Information about new diseases such as Zika virus changes rapidly. Although thought to be rare, the current Zika outbreak has confirmed that Zika can be spread through sexual contact by an infected man to his partner.

We are also closely monitoring other diseases for a potential relationship to Zika. Some Zika-affected countries have noted an increase in cases of a rare neurologic condition called Guillain-Barre, which preliminary research suggests is linked to Zika virus infection.

Virginias leadership is committed to keeping the public informed so our communities can be healthy and prosperous. Through our individual and collective efforts, we can protect one another and, most importantly, ensure a strong start for all our children so they wont have to deal with a lifetime of complications from Zika virus disease.

Virginians are resilient people who have always come together to deal with threats and crises. Zika virus disease is such a threat.
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Annie Lin shares these photos from the Donald Trump rally at Radford University and writes:

"Tickets for Trump's free speaking engagement set for Monday, Feb. 29, at Radford's Dedmon Center went quickly on Wednesday joust hours after word leaked of the campaign event. I got a free ticket from the website on Friday, Feb. 26. I rescheduled my work schedule with my co-worker.

"Monday, Feb. 29, I woke up at 5 a.m. I wore my patriotic outfit from top to toes. I wore victory hat, Fire Cracker costume, patriotic tights and shoes. All were red, white and blue. ...

"I drove from South 1-81, took exit 109 onto route 177/Tyler Avenue into Radford. Then, I followed the event parking sign to arrive at the Demon Center.

"At 7 a.m. when I arrived there, people already line up. The weather was raining and windy. I was lucky to get in near the door. After the rain stopped, a man said, 'No backpack allowed, No umbrella, take everything from your pockets.' I needed to go back to my car to leave my bags. I told someone to watch my spot for me.

"When I came back, I bought Trump's T-shirt for Jerry. People liked my outfit. They asked me to take my picture. I stood in front of Trump's bus for many pictures. There were photographers, they carried power shot cameras, they asked me for their photos. It was my lucky day!

"At 9:30 a.m. All doors were opened. Everyone needed to pass a security check, just like you go through at the airport. After passing check, I ran to find the close stage spot. Thanks to a young man who gave me the best spot. I stood in front of the stage.

"Through scheduled to start at noon, the first speaker took the podium around 11 a.m. Several thousand people were there. Radford University's gymnasium was full. ...

"I spent my day off to see him. I was lucky to have his autograph on the cover of Time magazine. He showed the magazine to his photographers to take pictures. He also signed my son, Jerry's T-shirt (I bought it there) and his yard sign for me.

"The other thing that I met Mrs. Virginia 2016. I went to the stage to take a picture. Someone call my name 'Annie.' Who is Tucker Davis, Regional Director, we got a picture there. Before I walked out Dedmon Center. A TV channel wanted to interview me. (I do not know which TV station?) I stood in front of microphone and he asked me, 'What do you thing about Donald Trump?' I said, 'Cool!' and he signed my Time magazine. I enjoyed my lucky day!"
COVID-19 drove a dramatic increase in the number of women who died from pregnancy or childbirth complications in the U.S. last year, a crisis that has disproportionately claimed Black and Hispanic women as victims. A government report released Wednesday lays out grim trends across the country for expectant mothers and their newborn babies. It finds that pregnancy-related deaths have spiked nearly 80 percent since 2018, with COVID-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1,178 deaths reported last year. The percentage of preterm and low birthweight babies also went up last year, after holding steady for years. And more pregnant or postpartum women are reporting symptoms of depression.
Roanoke Times photographers Heather Rousseau and Erica Yoon won recognition for their outstanding work in the Virginia News Photographers Association contest, in which they competed with the likes of the Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Virginian-Pilot and the rest of Virginia.
About a month ago, Mohammed Alabbas was at a park with his 6-year-old daughter.

His daughter was playing with another little girl who appeared to be of mixed-race background, and his daughter told the other girl her father was Arabic and Muslim. In an unsettling moment for Alabbas, he said the girls mother grabbed her daughter and told her not to play with his daughter.

So Alabbas had a simple idea. The 27-year-old posted on Facebook about his experience and asked his friends to join him in downtown Roanoke with the simple goal of asking people to get to know Muslims by asking them questions.

Alabbas, who is originally from Iraq and settled in Roanoke in the 1990s, stood outside Center in the Square for about six hours holding signs that said Ask a Muslim, Islam = Peace and No Room for Racism. His friend, Hussain Alshiblawi, 25, joined him for a few hours.

A lot of times, most people just dont understand Islam, Alshiblawi said. So here we are to answer any questions you may have.

A variety of people  different races, religions and backgrounds  approached the two men posted on the sidewalk. Some simply gave them a hug or threw up a fist in solidarity. One person shouted a profanity out the window of a passing car. Questions ranged from How are you doing today? to frequent inquiries dealing with radical Islam or the Islamic State group.

A tense exchange between passerby Glenn Snow and the two men started with picking apart meanings of the Quran and ending with terrorism.

READ MORE: Roanoke mayor broadly condemned for comments on Syrian refugees

Christopher Lindamood paused to tell the two friends he spent more than a year in Turkey  where about 99 percent of the population identifies as Muslim  and said the people there were some of the nicest he ever encountered.

I just believe everybody ought to love everybody, he said.
A grade school boys parents are suing the Roanoke County School Board over its decision to expel him for pointing a BB gun at a school bus.

The childs parents, Diane and Lavelle Glenn, say the board exceeded its authority, neither following district policy nor considering the childs autism diagnosis in expelling the boy from Green Valley Elementary School for the remainder of the 2015-16 school year.

The parents are seeking the boys return to school once the alternative school he currently is attending determines its appropriate, rather than the child serving the expulsion through the end of the school year. The parents also are seeking a court order requiring the district to remove the expulsion from their sons academic record.

Roanoke County School Board Chairman Mike Wray said the board would not comment. Steven Maddy, the Glenns attorney, could not be reached for comment.

The expulsion stemmed from an Oct. 15 incident that started with name-calling between the boy and other students on a school bus, according to a narrative written by Ashley Williams, an assistant principal at Green Valley Elementary School who interviewed the boy the next day.

According to the assistant principals narrative, which was submitted with the petition, on the bus ride home, the boy and other students began calling each other names and throwing paper at one another. Then 10 years old, the boy told Williams the insults made him more mad than words can even describe.

According to the narrative, the boy said he stuck up his middle finger and said, Piss off, after being dropped off at his stop.

As the bus pulled away, the boy went inside his house to get his BB gun and then came back outside to his front yard. When the bus passed by again, the boy said, he aimed the loaded gun at the bus, according to the narrative.

When the boy initially was questioned, he denied pointing the gun, instead telling Williams he went inside after being dropped off and began playing video games. Later, he admitted pointing the gun at the bus.

Police investigated and the boy entered into an informal diversion plan in December, according to a copy of the probation plan submitted with his parents petition. As part of that agreement, the boy and his probation officer discussed the incident. The boy made a statement of regret made with assurance of no further violations of law, according to the agreement.

The Roanoke County School Board met privately for nearly two hours Oct. 22 to discuss whether to uphold Green Valley Principal Ashley McCallums recommendation for expulsion.

The board opted to place the boy on home-bound instruction for nine weeks and revisit the situation after the district completed an individualized education plan for the child, according to the petition. The delay in a final decision on expulsion was aimed at giving the family a chance to get all of your medical stuff together, all the [individualized plan] requirements and information together, and give you a chance to work with him, the petition quotes then-board Chairman David Wymer as saying.

Ultimately, McCallum again recommended expulsion, the petition states. Following a private hearing Jan. 28 that again lasted nearly two hours, the board decided to expel the boy for the remainder of the school year. The lawsuit did not include the boards specific rationale for the decision.

At the heart of the suit is whether the board has the authority to expel a student who did not possess a weapon on school grounds or at a school-sponsored activity. Though he pointed the weapon at the bus, the boy was standing in his front yard at the time.

The districts Student Code of Conduct does not address such a scenario in its section on weapons and dangerous instruments.

[I]t does not appear the Board took into consideration  the fact that [the child] did not possess a pneumatic gun on school property or at a school sponsored activity pursuant to its own policy, the petition states.

The parents also assert the board did not take the boys autism diagnosis into account in determining his punishment. He was diagnosed by a University of Virginia doctor following the boards initial hearing in October. The child has been participating in therapy with a social worker at Family Service of Roanoke Valley.

The team that oversees the boys individualized education plan determined in January that the boys autism didnt influence his behavior, according to the petition.

The parents argue a less severe punishment would have been more appropriate. The expulsion did not take into account the fact that the boy and his parents fully cooperated with homebound, completed the [individualized education plan] process [and] continued therapy, the petition states.

By imposing upon [the child] the harshest punishment available to discipline students, the Roanoke County School Board abused its discretion, exceeded its authority, and was arbitrary and capricious in its January 28, 2016 decision to expel, the petition states.
RICHMOND  Senate Republicans endorsed the nomination of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the state Supreme Court on Tuesday in an effort to break an impasse over a vacant high court seat that has clouded the legislative session.

But Democrats are skeptical that Republicans are serious about appointing the outspoken social conservative and question whether the GOP is using the nomination to gain an advantage in a monthslong political squabble.

Since its very difficult to rationally figure out why they would do it, you have to think they are doing it for some kind of leverage, said Democratic House Leader David Toscano. Cuccinelli is about as political as you can get, Toscano said.

The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted along party lines to advance the nomination of Cuccinelli, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2013. The committee vote came moments after the Senate failed to elect Court of Appeals Judge Rossie Alston to the high court.

Alston had been the top choice of Republican leaders, who rejected Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffes selection for Supreme Court, Justice Jane Marum Roush. A Republican holdout, Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Richmond, blocked GOP efforts to elect Alston.

But Sturtevant supported Cuccinellis nomination Tuesday and pledged to endorse the former attorney general when the vote comes to the Senate floor. Unlike Alston, Cuccinelli hasnt been used as a political pawn by the General Assembly, Sturtevant said.

I had hoped that we would have enough votes for Justice Roush, but we werent able to do that, Sturtevant said.

Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain, chairman of the courts committee, said hes confident that his caucus has the votes to get Cuccinellis nomination through the Senate.

The move appears to have caught Cuccinelli and Democrats alike off guard.

I am humbled and honored to be considered for such a position, but it is not something that my wife and I have previously contemplated, he said in a statement, adding that he and his wife would prayerfully review whether to pursue a seat on the high court.

A spokesman for McAuliffe said Republicans action threatens the independence of the commonwealths highest court.

It would be a disgrace to replace [Roush] with an 11th-hour candidate whom voters have already rejected as hostile to their values on womens rights, gay rights, education, health care, the environment, transportation and a range of other issues, spokesman Brian Coy said.

Top Republicans in the House said they were open to considering the former attorney general as a Supreme Court justice.

Since leaving the attorney generals office, Cuccinelli has remained active in politics. Hes currently a top campaign surrogate to GOP presidential hopeful Texas Sen. Ted Cruz an d has led a U.S. Senate-focused conservative political action committee.

Cuccinelli served as Virginias top attorney between 2010 and 2014 and was accused by Democrats of using the office to promote an ultra-conservative agenda.

He was the first attorney general in the nation to challenge President Barack Obamas health care law. A global-warming skeptic, Cuccinelli also initiated an investigation into whether a former University of Virginia climate scientist used manipulated data to land federal grants.
RICHMOND  When a group of state lawmakers went looking for a place to stay in Richmond for the 2016 legislative session, they decided to try something new. And not strictly legal.

For at least three members of the House of Delegates, Airbnb has been more than just a difficult agenda item for the legislative session. The online lodging platform was also a viable alternative to the downtown hotels, condos and corporate housing lawmakers typically inhabit during their part-time work at the Capitol.

This just happened to be the site where we found a good house that was a good setup, said Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, whos sharing an Airbnb house in the Fan District with Dels. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, and Thomas Tag Greason, R-Loudoun.

Habeeb and Gilbert said the cost is similar to what they incurred in previous sessions. The house fit their unusual need for three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a two-month term.

Its just another option, said Gilbert. And, frankly, one that we were glad to have.

Its not clear if other legislators used the platform to find temporary lodging in Richmond this session.

The group Airbnb house, which will ultimately be covered by the daily allowances lawmakers receive for session-related expenses, underscores both the widespread acceptance of home sharing and the difficulty of modernizing state and local laws in response to emerging industries.

After hammering out rules for ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft last year, the General Assembly is taking things a little slower with the residential side of the so-called sharing economy.

Bills to create a statewide legal framework for Airbnb seemed to be on track to pass this year. But opposition from the hotel industry and local governments led lawmakers to delay the issue to allow for a formal study.

The bill was sent to Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week. He has not indicated any plan to pursue a different course.

If the governor signs the bill, no new rules would take effect until after the 2017 session, when the legislature is expected to take up Airbnb again using the study as a guide.

The outcome was applauded by the hospitality industry. It had argued the legislation didnt ensure that Airbnb hosts could be held accountable by local governments and play by the same rules facing existing hotels and bed and breakfasts.

Competition drives businesses to improve, and thats why the lodging industry welcomes new technologies like Airbnb, Eric Terry, president of The Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association, said in a news release . We welcome competition, but fair competition.

Skeptics pushed successfully to require Airbnb hosts to register with local governments, whose authority to regulate Airbnb would have been limited by the proposed state law.

Its hard to protect public safety regarding this type of situation if you dont even know where these people are and who these people are, said Neal Menkes, director of fiscal policy for the Virginia Municipal League, which supported converting the bills to a study.
RICHMOND  An effort by doctors, tea party groups, conservative lawmakers and others to loosen government oversight of new or expanded health care facilities has failed.

The Virginia Senate effectively killed legislation Monday aimed at reforming the states decades-old certificate of public need law, which requires medical providers to prove to the state board of health that proposed new facilities, expansions or major equipment purchases are necessary in a geographic area.

Opponents of the current systems say it is noncompetitive and results in higher health care prices.

Hospitals argue they dont operate in a free-market system and need laws to remain economically viable.

Electric chair gets OK amid drug shortage

The Virginia Senate has approved a bill that would allow the state to execute condemned inmates in the electric chair when it cant find lethal injection drugs.

The bill passed the GOP-controlled Senate with a 22-17 vote Monday after a passionate debate. The Republican-dominated House has already approved the bill.

Virginia is one of at least eight states that allow electrocutions, but currently gives inmates the choice of lethal injection or the electric chair. If they dont choose, they receive the injection.

Like many states, Virginia has struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs in recent years because drug companies have protested their use in executions.

The bill faces a final vote in the House before going to Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe because of a minor amendment approved Monday.

 Associated Press

Compensation bill for cyclists passes House

Legislation making it easier for cyclists to get compensation for crashes caused by car doors cleared the Virginia House of Delegates on Monday on a 70-25 vote.

Senate Bill 117, which establishes a $50 fine for drivers who open a vehicle door when it is not reasonably safe to do so, now heads to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

The legislation is intended to help cyclists file insurance claims after dooring collisions. The Senate passed the bill last month.

 Richmond Times-Dispatch
RICHMOND  The General Assembly appears poised to roll back a short-lived ethics measure barring the governor from accepting most political donations from businesses seeking money from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund.

The restrictions, part of last years ethics reform legislation, caused some consternation among economic development officials who said it put an unprecedented burden on companies and weakened the protections for confidential state negotiations.

The moment you cant ensure confidentiality is the moment they walk away, said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones.

The new language proposed this year aims to simplify the process while observing the spirit of the ethics law by seeking greater public disclosure after deals are closed, said Jones, whose office requested the changes.

The bill has been cruising through the legislature and is coming up for a vote in the House, though it was held over Monday to clear up a discrepancy in the bills language.

Under Senate Bill 750, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment, the restrictions on political contributions to the governor would be lifted. But additional reports would be made to the state ethics council detailing any donations or gifts worth more than $100 given by a business that successfully landed a Commonwealths Opportunity Fund grant.

The opportunity fund is a pool of state money controlled by the governor and used to incentivize economic development projects.

The full intent here is to provide transparency, said Jones, whose office oversees the fund through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. I think the best disinfectant is sunshine. Weve tried to come up with a solution that is workable and that improves transparency but wont deter businesses from doing business with us.

The added reports would cover all donations and gifts starting from the time a grant application was submitted until one year after a grant was awarded. The information would be sought from the governors political funds within 18 months of a deal closing.

Unlike the current ethics law, which took effect in January, there would be no restrictions or heightened requirements for contributions made by CEOs, directors or others with a stake in a company. It also wouldnt apply to companies that sought a grant but were turned down.

Jones said the state struggled with the broader scope of the original law. The current ethics restrictions bar contributions exceeding $100 from all opportunity fund applicants and require companies to certify that neither they nor their officers, directors or owners will make such a contribution.

For some companies, that could mean putting thousands of shareholders on alert, creating a messy administrative entanglement and undermining the strict confidentiality of economic development talks, Jones said. Companies that knowingly ran afoul of the law would face civil fines.

Its something that puts the entire onus of the thing on the businesses. Ive never seen that before, said Jones, adding the requirements spurred concerns and confusion from companies dealing with the state.

This was a piece of legislation that had great intentions, but practically speaking it needed to be improved.

The House is expected to seek revisions to the bill to make it clear the governors staff has to provide the reports to the ethics council. The original bill required that the information be requested but didnt expressly require that the request be honored.

Jones said mandatory reporting was the intent of the bill and any disconnect in the language was an oversight.

Norment, patron of last years ethics overhaul, said he carried SB 750 to address concerns brought to him by Jones.

Norment, R-James City, is also carrying legislation to ease other gift caps that apply to General Assembly members.

The House has been wary of making sweeping changes to the states new ethics rules so soon. But Del. Todd Gilbert, House patron of last years ethics package, said hes more comfortable with SB 750 given the serious concerns raised by the states economic development office.

Im still concerned about rolling it back, but they do have a good case to make, said Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, adding it will be key to ensure there are clear disclosure requirements built in.

As long as we ensure transparency, I think thats as much as we can ask for, he said. ... With extra transparency, I think it should provide some level of comfort to the public that is consistent with what weve been trying to do all along.

The bill may be further reviewed in House-Senate negotiations this week if needed. Jones said the bill was driven purely by economic development concerns. The impact on Gov. Terry McAuliffes political coffers wasnt a factor, he said.

Gilbert said he was unaware of any concerns about the effect on McAuliffes fundraising and noted that was unlikely to be a persuasive point with the legislature.
Per the Pew Research Center (PRC), the religiously unaffiliated (RUs) are those in our population identified as atheists, agnostics or nothing in particular. The PRC did a large study in 2007 and again in 2014 to determine the religious makeup of the USA and the trend of change of this makeup.

Unquestionably, Christians are by far the largest religious group. In 2007 the population consisted of 78.4 percent Christians. The 2014 results show a declining trend to 70.6 percent Christian, with the largest decline among younger respondents, an important trend.

In the same time frame, RUs increased from 16.1 percent to 22.8 percent or over one fifth of the US population. All non-Christian faiths including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and others comprise only 5.9 percent of the population in 2014. Jews are 1.9 percent and Muslims 0.9 percent of the population.

Protestants are the largest Christian group with 46.5 percent of the population in 2014. Catholics are 20.8 percent of the population. So RUs are the second largest group of voters second only to Protestants.

Although the RUs are multi-ethnic, if you wish to look at potential voter groups, RUs are a larger group than our largest ethnic groups. Hispanics/Latinos are 17.1 percent and African-Americans are 13.2 percent.

So why dont RUs carry more political weight? One reason is that many atheists and agnostics are afraid to come out due to persecution by religious groups. The nothing in particular group is not organized in any way. The majority of the RUs have no organized political groups or the funding of the religious organizations. Also, politics is still firmly in the hand of old white men who are largely Christians.

So what can be done to begin to exert the potential power of the RUs?

First, RUs of all stripes need to proudly come out and make their beliefs and feelings known loud and wide.

Second, get engaged in the political process . . . vote, vote, vote.

Third, use the power of social media, write your senators and congressmen, write letters to the editor to your local paper, and urge your like-minded friends to do the same. We have the power, now lets use it.

RICH BRAGER

HARDY
Retired educators in Virginia are concerned about the excessive bonuses paid to the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) investment managers in 2015. A petition was sent to all the retired teacher units throughout Virginia and there was a good response. The petition was initiated by the Roanoke City Retired Educators Association in response to information disseminated by the VRS and from articles published in The Roanoke Times and Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The petition objects to the excessive incentive plan and is requesting a revision of the current bonus formula. Current retirees are affected by this now, but teachers hired after January 2014 may find that funds in VRS will be endangered.

Signed copies of the petition were mailed February 11, 2016 to the Chairman of the VRS Board of Trustees, Chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees, and to the Director of the Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission (JLARC).

It should be noted that the leadership of the Virginia Retired Teachers Association (VRTA) did not support this petition because they thought the investment managers do a good job and deserve to be as well compensated as private financial investment brokers even though the VRS is an independent agency of the Commonwealth.

BONNIE MANN

ROANOKE
THE Campaign for Nuclear Disarmaments national chairman will speak at a meeting tonight (Tuesday).



Dave Webb will be a guest at the Rotherham branchs public meeting on Tuesday to discuss scrapping Trident.



Rotherham CND chairman Jon Smith said: Parliament will decide later this year on whether to replace Trident, the UKs nuclear weapons system.



But its clear that opposition to Trident is growing and public meetings and protests are taking place right across the UK to make that opposition clear to the Government.



In this time of austerity, the idea of replacing a cold war relic at a cost of up to 167 billion is obscene.



The meeting, at Talbot Lane Methodist Church, takes place from 7.30pm to 9pm.
TEENAGER Sam Hickman was proudly on parade as he celebrated passing out of military training.



The 17-year-old was among hundreds of junior soldiers who graduated at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate.



The parade marked the completion of the soldiers' British Army Junior Entry training at Uniacke Barracks and follows months of hard work culminating in a gruelling, 30-hour battle camp challenge across the Yorkshire Dales.



They will now go on to serve in various Corps and Regiments of the British Army to begin the next part of their specialist training.



Sam, who will be going on to serve with The Royal Engineers, said: Graduating from AFC Harrogate in front of my friends and family is something that I am very proud of doing.



As a Junior Soldier you learn core life skills such as leadership, teamwork and determination.



I have made loads of friends and met new people, and have become much more confident in my own ability.



The course has been really hard work but the sense of achievement in graduating has made it worth it.
A WOMENS charity has relaunched to reflect its expanding work it is involved in across the region  including helping Rotherham CSE survivors.

The Sheffield YWCA has now changed its name to YWCA Yorkshire.

The charity said this was to reflect its expanding range of supported accommodation projects, family support services and specialist programmes it was involved in across South Yorkshire.

The charity has been working closely with victims and potential witnesses involved in Operation Clover  the police investigation into the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal.

Tracy Guest, YWCA chief executive, said: Over the last year we have been working with a consortium of voluntary sector organisations in Rotherham to provide counselling, one-to-one and family support to some of the victims of child sexual exploitation.

We have been supporting not only those women who have been giving evidence at the trial but also other victims considering coming forward.

Speaking about the relaunch Tracy added: This is a very exciting time for the charity.

Sheffield YWCA has been providing services to women, children and families locally since the 1940s.

From our first womens hostel in the city, we have continued to develop our expertise throughout Yorkshire and now offer safe accommodation, advice, support, life-skills, parenting training and mediation to hundreds of families in the region.

We believe that young women, children and families deserve the very best opportunity to thrive, prosper and reach their full potential as resilient and confident individuals, skilled and competent parents and fully informed and engaged community members.

YWCA Yorkshire runs supported accommodation projects for vulnerable young women and troubled families in Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster.

The charity also delivers specialist programmes and outreach work helping women affected by a range of issues including mental health issues, substance and alcohol misuse, leaving care, parenthood and child sexual exploitation.

YWCA Yorkshire has also launched a training company, offering its accredited lifestyle programmes and staff training courses to other organisations.
Going by a recent study by ASSOCHAM and YES Bank, the facts sound extremely encouraging for the Indian luxury market where scores of global players have penetrated in the last few years. Despite economic slowdown, the Indian luxury market grew 25% till 2015 and touched $15 billion. In year 2014, Indias market for global luxury brands was just about $8.5 billion, which indicates that this bullish outlook will continue in the luxury sector. The study said that the categories with high growth rates in 2015 such as luxury jewellery and personal care, electronics, SUV cars and fine dining are expected to grow by 30-35 per cent over the next three years. This augurs well for the gem & jewellery industry, which can utilize the opportunities that arise in this sector.

Interestingly, the survey carried out by the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) contradicts the general opinion currently that millennials are not interested in jewellery, more so the expensive diamond jewellery as they are more likely to opt for other luxury items including electronic goods, travel to exotic places and so on. It indicates that the millennials are almost twice as likely to have bought diamond jewellery as a holiday gift in comparison to non-millennials. So, everything is not lost yet for the diamond industry and the doomsday predicted by some pessimistic industry analyst is far from true. Besides millennials and other age groups would rather receive one meaningful gift than a lots of smaller gifts, which are invariably stored away and forgotten.

In India, jewellery retail is witnessing a huge transformation, especially in luxury jewellery retail market. On the whole, the retail jewellery market which is growing by 25 percent currently, is indicating further rapid growth in the coming years. The notion that jewellery should be considered as investment is fast changing and has transformed to a fashionable accessory. Of late, a large number of overseas luxury brands have made entry into India, which has the changing mindset of Indians towards branded products and contributed immensely to this transformation.

Today, with luxury retail jewellery market gaining momentum, many Indian players are consciously making efforts to offer high-end jewellery that are in par with foreign brands in design, quality and aesthetics.

All said and done, one has to accept that there is immense scope for Indias luxury market to grow, what with the countrys economy growing at a high and consistent pace. In the past, it was mostly the ancient Indias maharajas, maharanis and the super wealthy who were the high end jewellery consumers. But with changing times, the scenario is changing and to take the jewellery market forward in terms of brands expansion, the Indian government should encourage growth by suitably altering policies.

Today, one can see that the designer or luxury jewellery is in great demand in the country as the gold jewellery has lost its sheen as an investment vehicle. Currently, with consumers becoming more brand and fashion conscious, international brands as well as renowned Indian brands are introducing innovative products that is opening out a huge market for the genre of branded luxury jewellery in India.

The luxury concept in India is as old as time itself, going by the enormous display of wealth and utilization of jewellery depicted in our mythologies; and later with the opulence that history has recorded in relation to the luxury jewellery used in huge quantities by Indian royalty. Considering the importance and role of luxury in yester years social class, the situation has continued to the present and become more obvious at present with increase in per capita income and consumption.

As of today, on the back of economic deregulation and a growing young working population, wealth generation, fast GDP growth, increasing per capita consumption, the luxury market in India is expanding rapidly. Enormous potential for global and domestic jewellery brands are being sustained by the wealthy Indians, whose demand for luxury goods is insatiable.

Research statistics by ASSOCHAM puts down the fact that India would have more than double the number of High net-worth Individuals (HNIs) to more than 403,000 in 2015, from a mere 153,000 in 2010. This year about 50% of the customers are said to come from smaller cities, indicating a bright future for the Luxury Market, which is yet to achieve its boom.

Indias National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has predicted that by the end of 2022 around 1.76 million people will be required to stock all the luxury brands and services. The art of luxury is very much alive in India and with the democratization of luxury in recent years, the future of luxury jewellery market will soon reach greater heights on par with countries like China & European countries.

India is the second fastest growing economy is highly sought after by overseas brands. Foreseeing the demand of luxury jewellery in India, overseas brands are vying with each other to set up shop in India. The countrys rich fashion history coupled with numerous Indians in the billionaires club has international as well as the local brands, is focusing on this section of the population, which is growing by the day.

Recognizing the potential of the Indian luxury market, it is clear that most global luxury brands have enormous interest in the Indian market. According to market analysts, the next decade will see high growth in the number of high HNIs, as they will comprise of mostly first-generation entrepreneurs and young professionals who will be the largest consumers of luxury.

Indias luxury brands

The foray of international brands into luxury jewellery sector notwithstanding, many national brands have made a mark for themselves as well. The market place is crowded with renowned brands like Tiffany & Co., Harry Winston, Ganjam, Mirari Jewels, Jewelex, Anmol Jewellery and many others vying for the jewellery connoisseurs attention. The luxury jewellery market is growing and how-- High-end Jewellery catering to the tastes of all ages and there for the asking. Jewellery to suit the needs and wallets of the upper middle class and high net worth individuals is aplenty begging for choice. Innovations reign and design is the king 

In a bid to shift to luxury jewellery, Indian players are taking all innovative steps to change their business modules. Of late, key retail chain owners and noted single store owners are keen to offer in high-end diamond jewellery, while offering the regular entry point jewellery for the masses as high-end jewellery is in great demand in the market.

Taking a cue from foreign players who have entered Indian luxury jewellery retail, domestic brands are also converting themselves and entering the luxury class from purely mass retail.

Going Desi

Understanding Indian sensibilities, many leading national and international luxury jewellery brands are creating designs to match Indian tastes. Jewellers like Anmol, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, Asmi, Kalyan Jewellers, Joy Alukkas and a host of retailers and chains regularly come up with high end jewellery with Indian motifs especially for the Wedding Collections, which are very high demand with the Indians. Many mass jewellery offering domestic jewellery brands that have made a name for themselves are quick to have upgraded their business-line into class luxury to cater to like wedding, anniversary or religious events, as the consumers are likely to go for high-end jewellery pieces with high-ticket prices

Brands make their presence beyond metros

Understanding the pace of the growing luxury market in the country, Indian brands are taking all that right steps to be make use of the opportunities it offers. The growing demand of the luxury jewellery market has pushed large numbers of high-end jewellers to enter tier 1 and tier 11 cities to set up shop. Not surprisingly, they have been successful in making a mark beyond the metros, a sign of the growing middle class affluence in India. While many leading brands like Reliance, Malabar Gold, Joy Alukkas, Swarovski, Kalyan and many others have set up stand-alone stores across the country, brands like Orra, Cygnus, Gitanjali, Tanishq and others who have taken the franchise route for their expansion programmes.

Future of luxury jewellery market in India

It would not be wrong to say that the Indian luxury market is still at a nascent stage. But with rising purchasing power, evolving lifestyles and growing aspiration for luxury brands by its population, the market has immense potential. More so, with population of over one billion, there is more potential for growth.

The high expectations from the young population in India, whose personal needs differ from earlier days, as they want better quality goods and services. According to a few analysts, India is not necessarily a country big on luxury consumers, compared to other emerging markets like Indonesia due to high custom duties on imported luxury goods. But, it is the fastest-growing luxury market in the context of low-income growth and expansion in high earners. This makes the country an interesting market to watch out, although market watchers warn that such growth is bound to be slow.

According to Euromonitor Internationals forecast, India will be the fastest growing market of all emerging markets globally in luxury goods sales between years 2014 and 2018. During this period, the total luxury goods retail value in India is expected to grow by 63 percent, which is ahead of China whose growth is 59 percent. Besides, the increasing disposable incomes and increase in the number of HNWIs will be a key to growth of the luxury market, providing opportunities for luxury goods players in India. So, according to the study, in terms of luxury jewellery market, the Indias tradition for adornment, which goes back to times immemorial; and the countrys growing economic growth coupled with increase in high income earners, will boost the demand for luxury accessories, luxury jewellery and so on, this trend in wealth increase among HNWIs, as well as the current demand pattern is expected to continue well into year 2030.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished




Maryann Christy, 54, of the 500 block of Spruce Court in Schaumburg, told police that she struck the tree somewhere in her hometown, but didnt remember where. She was driving with the tree when she was stopped by police near the Irving Park Road intersection. The tree was estimated to be about 15 feet tall and the woman driver smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests. She was cited for driving under the influence and is due in DuPage County court April 15. She was charged with DUI, no insurance and obstructed windshield, Deputy Chief Roman Tarchala of the Roselle Police Department told to the media. A police report naming the woman will not be released until the case goes to court.
Crude oil prices turned lower Tuesday, trimming strong recent gains amid speculation a 35% rally was way overdone.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are calling the commodities rally a "mirage," "premature" and "not sustainable."

April WTI crude oil dropped $1.40, or 3.7%, to settle at $36.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, having touched a 2016 high in the previous session.

Later today, industry watcher the American Petroleum Institute is out with its weekly inventories report, followed by official data from the Energy Information Administration tomorrow morning.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
 Yuliya777  14  2016, 04:18

      (   )





About SOPA

SOPA is a range of online courses designed for new immigrants destined for Canada. Our courses help new immigrants to develop Canadian job search skills improve communication skills for the Canadian workplace connect with local resources in Canada before and after arriving



SOPA Partnership

Settlement Online Pre-Arrival engages a network of six settlement agencies across the country to deliver training to prepare immigrants for successful integration into the Canadian labour market.

Atlantic  Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS)

Manitoba - Altered Minds Inc.

Ontario - Catholic Centre for Immigrants / World Skills Employment Centre

Saskatchewan - Regina Open Door Society

Alberta - Calgary Catholic Immigration Society

British Columbia - MOSAIC



Facilitated Courses Available

Job Search Strategies provides an opportunity for immigrants to learn about the job search process. Topics include:  General Resume Writing Targeting Your Resume and Cover Letter  Essential Skills and Transferable Skills  Job Search Methods  Marketing Yourself  Preparing for Interviews After the Interview

Soft Skills: Professional Communication provides participants with communication tools required for success in the Canadian workplace. Topics include: Small Talk  Presentations  Constructive Feedback  Meetings

Soft Skills: Working with Others provides participants with communication tools required for success in the Canadian workplace. Topics include: Networking  Negotiating  Working with Others  Conflict Management



Self-Guided Courses Available

Canadian Workplace Integration provides information about adapting to Canadian workplace culture. Topics include:  How to Adapt Communication styles  Expanding Soft Skills  Cultural Communication  Working with Differences  Understanding Power Dynamics  Sensitive Workplace Norms

Working in Canada provides critical information about working in Canada, including:  Employment Contracts  Negotiating Contracts  Workplace Orientation  Written Rules  Unwritten Rules  Organizational Culture  Workplace Protections  Labor Laws throughout Canada



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To be eligible, you must:

 Currently live outside Canada

 Have applied for permanent residency in Canada

 Have a good level of English and preferably taken the IELTS exam in the past two years or other equivalent certificate (usually IELTS Band 5,5 is the min score accepted)



You need to have one of the following:

 a Permanent Resident Card

 a letter notifying pickup of Canadian visa (visa for permanent resident applicants only)

 a medical/security notification letter

 a Canadian visa (but have not landed in Canada yet)



Registration

Settlement Online

settlementonlineprearrival.ca



Altered Minds Inc.

entryprogram.ca/pre-arrivalservices.html
OHCHR: Two-thirds of Yemeni casualties were killed by Saudi warplanes

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GENEVA, March 05 (Saba) - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed its concern about the high number of civilian casualties in Yemen due to the continuous of airstrikes on the country.



"During February, a total of at least 168 civilians were killed and 193 injured, around two-thirds of them by Coalition airstrikes," said the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Colville.



This casualty number is the "highest since September", he added. Around 3,081 civilians have been killed and 5,733 injured since March 2015, Colville said.



Airstrikes account for the greatest number of casualties, with 99 people affected in the capital, Sana'a, in February, out of 246 people killed or wounded throughout the country during the month.



"In the worst single incident, at least 39 civilians were killed and another 33 injured on 27 February, during an airstrike on the Khaleq market in Sana'a's north-eastern district of Nahem."



There have also been worrying allegations  which we are still working to verify  that Coalition forces dropped cluster bombs on a mountainous area to the south of the Amran cement factory, Mr. Colville said.



He urged any investigation to be done in accordance with international standards, including independence and impartiality.



HA/AF

Saba

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[05/March/2016]
A first-of-its-kind journey along India and Pakistan border

What binds the two most talked about nations - India and Pakistan together? What makes the
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Your great idea plus stable finances equal a great chance of success.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Hoping to start a company that's built to last? Well, that all begins with keeping your finances in order. You'd be very surprised to find out how many businesses struggle, and even fail at times, with finances.



Not being organized with your funds can lead to a lot of unnecessary issues.



Prevent, protect and get the right treatment when needed.

(SALEM, Ore.) - With the wide range of health issues that are common among dogs, it can be difficult for pet owners to familiarize themselves with all of them.



Some illnesses have very similar symptoms so, if you are unsure, it is always important to seek veterinary assistance.

Take your time, enjoy the experience and sometimes walk away a winner.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Since gaming began thousands of years ago, players have always tried to find a way to win by narrowing the odds.



Yes in casino gaming, the house always has the upper hand  but savvy gamers know that there are ways to reduce that edge.




Do Kansas' drug-induced homicide laws actually help with fentanyl?

As drug overdoses related to fentanyl rise in Kansas, does a state law allowing drug dealers to effectively be charged with homicide have any impact?
How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can? But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death. - Pope Benedict XVI

"This past Wednesday I was in part of the hospital that was devoted to people who have memory problems like my father. The people here may have no idea who I am but they light up at the sight of a collar. People who cannot carry on a conversation click on and join in prayer as if there were little wrong with them, their faces relaxing in this moment of peace amidst the chaos of illness." - Fr. Valencheck

"The priest's life is not his own. He does not live it for himself and his personal fulfillment, but for the salvation of souls." - Fr. Richtsteig

"I am convinced that if we simply follow the liturgical books, say the texts and carry out the gestures properly, in a style continuous with our tradition, the Churchs liturgy has power the capture minds and hearts and transform them. I starting forming this conviction before I became a Catholic through my experience of Novus Ordo Masses done in an entirely Roman traditional style, closely following the books. The late Msgr. Richard Schuler would eventually articulate to me in words what I was experiencing in the church. "Just do what the Council asked do what the Church asks." Why is worship well executed according to the mind of the Church so effective? Christ is the true Actor in the sacred action of the Churchs worship. He makes our hands and voices His own as He raises our petitions and offerings to the Father for His glory and our salvation. Christs Holy Church has determined the way by which we may have this encounter with mystery in the liturgy, be taken up in the sacred action. Pope Benedict addresses this in his highly ignored Sacramentum caritatis. He teaches sacred ministers about ars celebrandi, our purpose and comportment. We must learn to get out of His way. Although we have the right to our Rite celebrated as the Church desires, liturgy is not about me or us or even you in the pews." - Fr. Zuhlsdorf
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Male-headed households continue to own more land and wealth than female-headed households in developing countries, researchers have found.



A survey tried to establish whether there is a connection between household wealth and the gender of the head of the household. It found that male-headed households own up to 13 per cent more asset wealth and 28 per cent more land than female-headed households.



The results are based on a survey undertaken by USAID (the US Agency for International Development), which cover wealth indicators such as indoor plumbing, concrete floors, bicycle ownership and land ownership.



We were able to test [gender inequality] at the household level, at the village level and at the national level, says lead author Brendan Fisher, an environmental economist at the University of Vermont in the United States.



The survey found that women in many countries are less able than men to secure land rights, due to legal and educational barriers. But it also found that gaps in asset wealth may be closing, particularly in densely populated areas, where female-headed households are often wealthier than male-headed ones (see chart).

Achieving gender equality is one of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, which came into effect this year. But the study, published in PLOS ONE on 1 March, found that global and national indicators  such as the UNs Human Development Index  do not give an accurate picture of local inequality.

For example, the analysis shows that, on average, women in Senegal have higher levels of asset and land wealth than men, but the picture varies in different parts of the country.

This is because improvements to gender equality, such as access to education and jobs for women, mainly benefit women in urban areas, says Ibrahima Aidara, a programme manager at the Dakar-based Open Society Initiative for West Africa, which aims to improve governance.

You can now see a growing female middle class, says Aidara, but he adds that cultural norms around womens roles in society act as ongoing barriers to gender equality.

Fisher says scientists and policymakers need to look inside countries to understand what truly drives inequality. Relying on [national-level statistics] could point us in the wrong direction or get us to ignore regions in which [local] inequality is very high, he says.

The study suggests that localised analysis of gender inequality could also demonstrate in more detail the benefits of giving women more choices in life.

Improving gender equality has an incredible amount of knock-on benefits, including on education, child health and natural resource management, Fisher says.
The male-dominated sector must broaden its vision to spark debate about women and development, says Tasneem Ahmar.

The world has spent years debating the successes and failures of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But in Pakistan, most people  women in particular  did not even know what they stood for. Even the mainstream media were mostly unaware of the eight goals the country committed to meeting by 2015.

And things have not changed with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): political debates, the war on terror, violent extremism, corruption and governance take up most of the media space and time. What space is left goes on trivial issues such as Valentines day or debates on who is a better Muslim and how.

On top of this, male domination of the media brings gender apathy, insensitivity and bias that leave little scope to discuss development issues through a gender lens.

As a result, the media in Pakistan not only failed to report on why the country missed its MDG targets, they also failed to focus on the fact that women were missing from MDG efforts. Women were not equal partners in the process of working towards the goals, their concerns were overlooked and their success stories were left untold.

Women can only be equal partners when they are heard, loud and clear. Tasneem Ahmar

Pakistans media need to be more responsive to gender inequality, adhering to international commitments such as the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. But for the SDGs to mean anything for women in Pakistan, they must first be informed about what they mean.



Narrow media vision

Pakistan is lucky to have a free and pluralistic media, but, at the same time, the vision of that media is hugely narrow. This is because it is a male-dominated sector.

To broaden that vision, the countrys local, national and regional media have some questions to answer.

First, can Pakistan achieve any target for development without engaging half of its population? The answer is no  we need to look at every issue through a gender lens.

The media need to closely monitor government actions on issues of womens health, education, mobility, equality and equity  and do so regularly, not merely as tokenism. There has been no shortage of training by NGOs on gender sensitivity and development journalism. It is time to put it all into practice, both to critique government actions and to give the public a voice.

The second question is whether women are equal partners as implementers as well as beneficiaries of development plans in Pakistan. Again, the answer is no, but they need to be.

A 2015 report on the countrys media sector found that women make up just 16 per cent of reporters in print, TV and radio combined. [1] Some news organisations have taken positive steps, but more should be done to bring more women into media professions and provide them equal opportunity for training  including in gender-sensitive reporting  along with their male colleagues.

Women can only be equal partners when they are heard, loud and clear. This applies to other areas too: to create a better, gender-sensitive society with balanced and non-biased information, we need more women as experts, analysts and mentors.

The next question is, of course, how to achieve this.



Radio clubs

There is a need to mobilise the media at all levels, particularly to use radio and informal messages (from sources other than the state) effectively through innovative and inexpensive means. Listeners clubs  community spaces where people gather to listen to radio programmes  are one way of doing this.

These clubs have been successful in many developing countries and are now taking off in Pakistan. Uks, the media NGO I lead, has formed many such clubs, where groups of 30-35 women and men (sometimes in mixed groups) gather to listen to radio programmes that we produce in-house, on issues of interest to their community such as all forms of violence against women. Participants then discuss the content of these programmes and, above all, put into practice the lessons learned.

Pakistans media must create public awareness and initiate informed debates about gender and development. Tasneem Ahmar

We make a point of weaving a strong awareness of gender into all clubs activities, strengthening the visibility of women and their ability to take part in decision-making. This approach has not focused on women alone: we strongly encourage the involvement of men and the expression of womens and mens needs.



Reporting language and media reform

More focus on the role of language as a barrier will also help. There is a stark difference between Pakistans vernacular and English language media in how they handle stories about women.

For example, when reporting on sexual crime, most vernacular media will focus on the woman involved rather than the crime itself. Images of rape victims or survivors, as well as judgemental language about them, continue to be used in crime reports that lack any investigative or analytical value.

The language used may even appear to sympathise with the victim or survivor, which may sound positive but in fact has a huge negative impact on the development and empowerment of women: although it may help gain support, it negates the resilience and strength that women display during times of crisis, disaster and violence.

Pakistans media need to devise a broad strategy giving space to the concerns of women, minorities, young people and children. To do that, the media can use the huge archive of material available online from Uks , which, every day for almost two decades, has recorded womens issues and how the countrys media report on them.

This can help educate media professionals to consider gender issues and develop critical media literacy  including how to counter gender discrimination and sexual harassment at work. Uks has also developed a gender-sensitive code of ethics, which we encourage other media to adopt through networking activities.

Pakistans media must create public awareness and initiate informed debates about gender and development. But change starts at home: the media themselves need to first become more focused and informed. Or else years later, we will be discussing our failure to achieve the SDGs as well.

Tasneem Ahmar is director of the Uks Research Centre and executive producer of Uks Radio in Islamabad-Karachi, Pakistan. She can be contacted at [email protected]
Child development experts already know obese children are at greater risk than their peers for developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, and joint problems.

Now, researchers at the University of Iowa have added another concern to the list: pedestrian injury.

It's not because overweight and obese kids can't cross the street fast enough. Rather, in a study involving traffic simulations, researchers found that children with higher body mass indices were more impatient and impulsive than their peers; they waited less before crossing, allowed for a smaller buffer of time and distance between themselves and oncoming traffic, and were involved more collisions in the experimental settings.

Elizabeth O'Neal, lead author of the study and a graduate student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the UI, says that extra weight influences how obese children choose to cross the street. "Being overweight is putting increased stress on their joints, which is a little uncomfortable," she says. "So, they are compromising their safety in order to expedite the crossing."

In addition, obesity in children is associated with deficits in executive functioning, which involves any task that requires planning, organization, memory, time management, or flexible thinking. Researchers say this deficit could explain why participants with higher BMIs were more impulsive and uninhibited during the road crossings.

O'Neal says examining the risk of pedestrian injury represents a new avenue in childhood obesity research.

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"As an area of study, it is not very well developed," she says. "This is sort of the beginning. We think there is a lot to be done both epidemiologically and behaviorally to see what is going on."

The study, "The Role of Body Mass Index in Child Pedestrian Injury Risk," was published online in February in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.

According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), in 2013, pedestrian injury was the ninth-leading cause of death and the 14th-leading cause of disability among children ages 6 to 11.

Previous work by the NCIPC shows a number of factors that increase the risk of childhood pedestrian injuries. One risk is age, with kids between 6 and 8 experiencing 1.5 times more motor vehicle crash-related deaths than those ages 9 to 11.

Gender is also a factor: Boys experience almost twice as many pedestrian injuries as girls. Location is also important: Mid-block crossings have the highest incidence of pedestrian injury in children ages 5 to 9.

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UI researchers think obesity could be another potential risk for child pedestrian injuries. Rates of childhood obesity have doubled over the past 30 years.

The study involved 206 children between the ages of 7 and 8 from Birmingham, Ala. The children crossed a road in a virtual environment that simulated a crosswalk near a school in the local area. Outfitted with head-tracking gear, participants stood on a wooden curb and watched traffic displayed on three side-by-side 24-inch monitors.

When they felt it was safe to cross, the children stepped down onto a trigger plate that launched an avatar that crossed the simulated roadway. The avatar was programmed to move at each child's typical walking speed, based on multiple trials taken before the experiment.

The children completed 30 road crossings that were randomly presented at three levels of difficulty: 25 mph and light volume, 30 mph and medium volume, and 35 mph and high volume.

Next, the children were assessed on their ability to select the safest pedestrian route. Four written prompts asked the children to make road-crossing choices based on a goal, such as catching a dog that escaped the house or making it home for dinner on time. They also used a tabletop model that represented two road scenarios: the intersection of a four-lane road and two-way road in an urban setting and a T-shaped intersection between a major and minor street in a residential setting.

In addition to their findings about overweight and obese children, the researchers found that girls were more cautious than boys when crossing the virtual roadway. And when it came to determining what type of route the children would select when crossing a roadway, race emerged as the strongest predictor, with African American children selecting riskier routes for crossing.

Researchers speculated that because most of the African American children in the study lived in urban neighborhoods where they generally had more exposure to traffic, they may have had more experience crossing streets.

O'Neal said more research is needed on obesity as a risk factor for childhood pedestrian injury.

"We tend to think of obesity as being detrimental to health, but we don't necessarily think of it affecting our health in the way we behave," she says.
HARTSVILLE, S.C.  Carolina Elementary School is working with the city of Hartsville, the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and the community to increase the safety of students who walk and bike to school, while encouraging more students to follow suit. And thanks to an SCDOT Safe Routes to School grant worth up to $400,000, plans to achieve those goals are now being prepared.

Carolina Elementary is one of 10 schools in South Carolina to be selected for the funding, and the schools Safe Routes to School Committee, assembled by Principal Donna Barrett, recently met with engineers from AECOM and state Safe Routes to School Coordinator Rodney Oldham.

We are so grateful for this grant to provide safe routes for the students to walk and ride bikes to school, Barrett said. Hartsville is a beautiful town for students to enjoy as they travel from home to school. As they walk and ride bikes, they build relationships with each that will last a lifetime.

The committee, comprised of teachers, parents and city administrators, presented their vision for building up infrastructure near the school. Priorities included installing sidewalks along Marlboro Avenue and 11th Street, designating a pedestrian crosswalk in front of the school, and installing new signage that indicates school zone speed limits. The school will enlist the Hartsville Police Departments help to ramp up enforcement in the area.

Other plans include educating students and members of the community about traffic safety, purchasing more bike racks for the school, rewarding students for walking to school and developing an ongoing relationship with the Safe Routes to School program. The committee will also work closely with the Darlington County School District to make the best use of existing facilities while implementing the infrastructure upgrades.

New sidewalks and a crosswalk would not only allow more students to safely walk to school, Barrett said during the meeting, but also would cut down on morning and afternoon traffic, provide healthy exercise for students and contribute to the overall betterment of the community. Barrett and the schools committee said sidewalks on those streets would benefit students of Hartsville High School, Thornwell School for the Arts and residents in the area.

Ultimately, Carolina Elementary would like to increase the number of students who walk to school by 20 percent, while simultaneously decreasing the number of students who must be picked up by car each day.

The committee meeting in February marked the beginning of the projects timeline, which should last about two years, according to Oldham.

Safe Routes to School is a federally funded grant program administered by SCDOT. Carolina Elementary submitted an application for the funding with assistance from Mary Catherine Farrell, Hartsvilles assistant to the city manager.

For more information about Safe Routes to School, please visit www.scsaferoutes.org. For more information about Carolina Elementary and the Darlington County School District, please visit www.darlington.k12.sc.us.
FLORENCE, S.C.  At a community forum hosted by Florence Republican Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. on Monday evening, constituents boasted about the 36-year S.C. Senate veterans achievements on roads and agriculture in the Pee Dee.

Potential voters met over a free chicken-bog dinner at the West Florence Fire Station and listened to Leatherman discuss the issues that he thinks are the most important ones now facing the state.

Despite reports of criticism and favoritism from other senators and the governor, many attendees said Leatherman has always kept his promise to the people of Florence County.

Ben Kitrell, a Florence resident, said Leatherman has done more for the Pee Dee than any other politician in his lifetime. If more politicians would do the same for their voters, he said, government would be more efficient.

Ive seen him make a lot of changes around here, he said. A lot of what goes on in the state happens in the Upstate, and the Pee Dee gets the short end. Hugh Leatherman looks out for not only Florence but the entire Pee Dee. Its not too much power; its doing what you told the people you were going to do.

Dupree Atkinson, also a Florence resident, said his biggest concern in state government is the farm aid bill that is sitting in the Senate. He said Leatherman promised him action on that bill, so Atkinson is confident something will happen soon.

Hes assured us hes going to get it passed, and Ill tell you hes always been a man of his word, he said. Hes always looked after South Carolina agriculture. Hes a key person for us.

Leatherman, also the Senate president pro-tempore and finance committee chairman, said his constituents know what they get when they vote for him.

Ive served the people of this county for 36 years, and I think theyre happy with me, Leatherman said. You can see a lot of the things Ive done here to give the people what they asked for when they chose me to represent them.

Leatherman probably will face Florence County Republican Party Chairman Richard Skipper and Florence County Treasurer Dean Fowler in the June primaries. Skipper is expected to announce his candidacy today, and Fowler previously told the Morning News that he intends to file later this month.

Leatherman said hes not worried about other candidates intentions.

Ill let them do what they want to do and Ill keep working for the people of Florence County, he said.
FLORENCE, S.C.  The State Board of Education has declared a state of emergency for two of Timmonsville's three schools, opening the way for S.C. Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman's office to take over managing them.

The board acted unanimously, at Spearman's recommendation, at a meeting Tuesday in Columbia.

Spearman said the two schools, Brockington Elementary and Johnson Middle School, had not met the goals set in a Challenge to Achieve Plan.

The Timmonsville schools, which make up Florence County School District Four, have been under state scrutiny for months because of poor performance.

District Four's board of trustees has called a meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the district's Media Center. The entire meeting might be held in executive session. The agenda lists an executive session to discuss personnel matters.

Two of the schools in Florence School District Four are not meeting our states high expectations of academic achievement, Spearman said in an announcement. We are taking this action to ensure the best opportunities for students and excellent support for teachers. This decision is best for both educators and students in Brockington Elementary and Johnson Middle.

Attempts to get comments from board of trustees members and Superintendent Andre Boyd were unsuccessful. The Morning News was able to speak directly to board members C. Chippy Johnson and Derrick Echols, who both said they could not comment on the situation. The others were unreachable.

In a letter from Spearmans office, dated Feb. 29, the district was notified that Spearman would be making the recommendation for declaring a state of emergency. recommendation. The letter laid out the possible course of action if the recommendation was accepted, including the removal of the principals of Brockington Elementary and Johnson Middle.

The letter, addressed to Timmonsville Superintendent Andre Boyd and District Four Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Hodges, also said that Spearman had made the decision to reconstitute the schools after the current school year.

A reconstitution would mean that the schools faculty and staff would be removed from their positions. Some of them could be rehired after undergoing an evaluation.

Spearman said that regardless of what decision has been made, the priority should be the students.

We are in discussions with the Florence Four Board of Trustees about the best courses of action, Spearman said. Any changes will occur with notice to the schools and community over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the schools continue to be open for business, and we want everyone focused on providing the best education possible to these students.
Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp is currently looking at a FSRU LNG terminal at the Batangas Bay area, The company needs to sort out the FEED study before coming out with a final investment decision (FID).

Quinones said investors and shareholders of the company would only approve the project if there is a good and viable plus-minus 10% estimate on the total project cost. Probably, this would be hundreds and hundreds of millions again, he said. I dont think (the FID) will be this year. It could be next year.

He noted however that once the FID comes, it would take less that three years to build the FSRU LNG terminal. Energy projects like this take a long time," he said.

Supply from the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project, the biggest gas project in the Philippines currently which took 10 years to develop, is expected to run out by 2024, thus building an LNG import terminal is key to meeting supply needs, possibly by LNG imports, until another gas field is discovered and developed -

Hopefully, we can find something in between but now, its too late to be able to develop something that can replace Malampaya. So, to bridge the gap between that would require LNG imports, Quinones said.
An explosion ripped through the Panama-flagged off Yemens Al Mahrah region, after a fire in the pump room according to reports. Local authorities dispatched firefighting tugs, and were able to contain the blaze.

The three survivors were taken to a hospital in Salalah, Oman, with one reported to be in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.

The bodies of two seafarers were also recovered.

The three sailors injured in Yemen are all Indians. They are admitted in Sultan Qaboos Hospital Salalah, Oman, said the Indias Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj. Our missions in Djibouti and Oman are providing all assistance to local authorities," he added.
Press Release

March 8, 2016 Cayetano pledges to end corruption to achieve universal healthcare, to enforce anti-hospital deposit law Asserting that the poor shouldn't be burdened by the high cost of hospital care, Vice presidential candidate and Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano today vowed to address corruption to realize universal healthcare coverage for all Filipinos. "Dahil sa gulo at korapsyon, walang maayos na serbisyong kalusugan ang mga tao," Cayetano said. "Ayon sa mga eksperto, 6 out of 10 Filipinos namamatay ng hindi nakakita ng doktor. Ang mahihirap, 'di tinatanggap ng mga pribadong ospital dahil lang walang pambayad. Sa pampublikong ospital naman, sasalubungin sila ng kulang na pasilidad," Cayetano added. A 2014 Global Financial Integrity (GFI) study says that the Philippine economy was cheated of $132.9 billion or more than P6 trillion in illicit money outflows from corruption in the past five decades, incurring losses of over P357 billion yearly on average. Cayetano said, if elected, he will push for the full coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Company (PhilHealth), as well as the full implementation of PhilHealth's "zero billing" services to members. It was reported that a resident doctor at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) Hospital allegedly refused to admit a pregnant patient in labor because she did not have any cash with her. The patient was then rushed to the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, but was also not accepted since there was no vacant incubator at the public hospital. The baby soon died after delivery. Cayetano also vowed to put up more public tertiary hospitals in the regions, and ensure the full implementation of Republic Act No. 8344, also known as the "Anti-Hospital Deposit Law," which prohibits hospitals to demand advance payments before admitting patients in need of emergency treatment. "Where the present government has failed on its promises, I will deliver. By cleansing the government of corruption, we will be able to provide our people better and more social services and programs like universal healthcare coverage. This is part of the bold and swift solutions I offer to the Filipino families this election," Cayetano ended.
STATEMENT OF SEN. CHIZ ESCUDERO ON THE SUPREME COURT DECISION ALLOWING SEN. GRACE POE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT

I laud the Supreme Court for its decision to allow Sen. Grace Poe to run for president in the May 9 national elections.

The Supreme Court once again sided with the rule of law in upholding the petition of Sen. Grace to reverse the partisan, biased and unfounded decision of the Commission on Elections disqualifying her from the presidential race.

The decision of the Supreme Court is not only a victory for Sen. Grace but a victory for other foundlings who aspire to seek for higher office in order to serve the country.

This is a great day for the Filipino people.
Press Release

March 8, 2016 Sen. Marcos to push for expansion of 4Ps once elected Vice President Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. has vowed to push for the expansion of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) once elected Vice President of the Philippines. Marcos said the 4Ps is a direct concrete intervention that helps poor families and the government should enroll more households in the program as well as come up with other strategies in its anti-poverty campaign. "Aside from expanding the coverage of 4Ps, we can implement other programs like 'cash for work,' 'cash for reforestation,' 'cash for community service,'" he said in a statement. He said poor families should be given employment packages that will not only compliment 4Ps but give them new skills to enable them to find a new sense of purpose. "The 4Ps should be expanded but we also have to compliment it by teaching them new skills to enable them to improve their lives more, find better jobs so that eventually they need not depend on it," Marcos said. The government defines 4Ps as a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is the lead government agency of the 4Ps. Marcos said the government should help poor families that try every possible means to survive. "The 4Ps program is a package intervention of the government to help the poor. It should reach out to more qualified families. At the same time, more programs should be implemented to help those who languish in extreme poverty," he said.
VP bet Sen. Marcos brings 'Unity Caravan' to Mindanao after successful campaign in Luzon

AFTER solidifying support from the so called "Solid North" voting block and other parts of Luzon including some areas in Metro Manila through his "Unity Caravan," vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. is set to court Mindanao voters this week.

Marcos will kick off today his Mindanao leg campaign sorties, anchored on his advocacy for national unity, with a motorcade around General Santos on Wednesday.

Marcos is expected to be welcomed by politically-influential families and groups, both incumbents and non-incumbents, who are backing his candidacy, and thousands of supporters.

Aside from General Santos, Marcos will also bring his "Unity Caravan" To Koronadal, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Davao del Sur, and Zamboanga del Sur.

Marcos already got the endorsement of leaders of the "Solid North" composed of Region 1 or the Ilocos Region (Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte), Region 2 or the Cagayan Valley (Cagayan, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya) and Quirino), and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

He also had received warm welcome when he brought his "Unity Caravan" to Liberal Party-dominated Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

Political kingpins of the provinces of Laguna and Rizal, led by the Ynares family, have also threw their support to the vice presidential bid of Marcos and his call for national unity. The Ynares even declared that their province will forever be a "Marcos country".

Political leaders of Manila, San Juan, Pasig and Mandaluyong City have also expressed their support to his candidacy.
Press Release

March 8, 2016 Recto calls for return of "Buy Philippine Made" policy

in gov't purchases Six hundred thousand pieces of imported car plates would not have passed through the port of Manila, where Customs officials seized them, if they were only manufactured locally. Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto cited the above case in underscoring the need for government to adopt a "Buy Philippine-Made policy" for government purchases. By buying local, government will be supporting local firms, creating local jobs and giving manufacturing--which it trumpets must be resurrected--a much-needed boost. The senator described government as a huge supplies and equipment buyer, with a budget in the hundreds of billions annually. "From soap to cars, from paper to guns, government buys these in bulk." For 2016, national government alone will be buying P73.5 billion worth of supplies and materials, many "common-use" items for offices but also medicine for hospitals and parts for its vehicle fleet. It will also be buying P4 billion worth of furniture and books, P1.9 billion worth of transportation equipment, and P62.3 billion worth of machinery and equipment this year. The latter, Recto said, includes farm equipment, and computers, like the 7,638 IT packages costing P6.8 billion that will be distributed to public elementary and high schools. In addition, government will be bidding out P545 billion worth of public works projects. "And these do not include procurement by local governments and government corporations." To the extent allowed by law, government must prefer local products or those with high local content in shopping for these, Recto said. "In the case of car plates, kailangan pa ba talaga made in Netherlands ang mga yan? Hindi ba yan pwede gawin ng mga Pilipino?" Recto said, referring to reports that 15.2 million pieces of motor vehicles plates will be manufactured in Netherlands under a P3.85 billion contract. Recto said there are vibrant domestic manufacturing sectors which can meet government equipment needs. "If we're buying boats for coastal or river patrol, then let our shipyards in Subic, Cebu and Bataan make them," he said. "If other nations find them exceptional, then we should too." Bodies of police patrol jeeps can be manufactured here, Recto added. "Laguna factories are good in assembling buses." But in buying locally-made, "price points should not be the sole consideration," Recto said. "We should not be buying a lemon just because it is wrapped in a Philippine flag. Quality should not be sacrificed." Recto said a provision in previous national budgets--which has been scrapped in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2016--provides the guidelines in government purchases of Philippine-made products. "It's a great mystery on why this provision, which was present in budget laws signed by presidents from Ferdinand Marcos to Benigno Aquino III, has been deleted in this year's budget," Recto said. The said provision, which was still present in the 2013 GAA, states that "priority shall be given to the purchase of locally-produced and manufactured materials to be undertaken either by administration or by contract." Covered by the policy, Recto said, are "foreign-assisted projects whose covering loan agreements expressly allow or do not prohibit the same." Recto said previous GAAs, however, allowed importation "if none of the desired quality or standard is available in the market or when the price of the local product or service is 15 percent more than that of a similar product offered by an enterprise other than a domestic entity." If the quality of the locally-produced and manufactured material is sub-standard compared with its imported counterpart, then importation was also allowed, Recto added. The third exception is "if no locally-produced and manufactured material is available as certified by the Department of Trade and Industry," Recto said citing a provision in past GAAs.
A Taser stun gun carried by Alejandro Alex Nieto registered three trigger pulls at about the same time he was fatally shot by San Francisco police officers in a park, an expert from Taser International told a jury Monday.

City attorneys defending police in a wrongful death lawsuit believe the testimony by Bryan Chiles, a technical compliance officer with Taser, supports the police account that Nieto pointed the stun gun at officers on March 21, 2014, at Bernal Heights Park.

The officers say they had to fire in self-defense because Nieto threatened them, and they mistook the gun-shaped Taser for a pistol.

But lawyers for the family of Nieto, a 27-year-old security guard and City College of San Francisco student, pushed back hard as the civil trial in U.S. District Court entered its second week.

They attacked the accuracy of the Tasers internal clock, which had to be calibrated by Taser, and questioned why the weapon was recovered with its safety switch activated in the on position  which would have prevented it from being fired.

Whether Nieto pointed the Taser has been the key point of contention at the trial, in which jurors must decide whether four officers used excessive force when they fired 59 shots at Nieto.

Last week, Nietos attorneys called a witness who said Nietos hands were in his jacket pockets when officers opened fire. City attorneys, however, suggested that witness was not credible, and they said Nietos Taser was found with its barb-like electrodes protruding from being fired.

Chiles had examined the weapon at the request of the San Francisco district attorneys office, which was looking into criminal charges against the officers. The officers were eventually cleared.

Chiles told the jury that in his examination of the stun gun he had to add roughly four minutes to the internal clock to correct for time drift. The Tasers clock, he said, lost approximately 2.3 seconds per day from its factory settings.

After also adjusting the clock to Pacific Daylight Time from its default setting of Greenwich Mean Time, Chiles said, he found that the weapons trigger log indicated it was pulled three times. Each pull was within seconds of when the officers opened fire, according to time-stamped recordings of police radio traffic.

But under questioning by Adante Pointer, an attorney for the Nieto family, Chiles said he initially gave the city a different set of times, each about four minutes earlier, for the trigger pulls.

Chiles said he initially failed to test the Taser for time drift, but corrected the mistake after someone from the city  he couldnt say who it was  contacted him and told him the original set did not match with the officers account of the incident.

Pointer also called into question how the Taser could have been found with its safety switch on. Chiles told the jury that its impossible to fire the stun gun with the safety on, and that the Tasers red laser sight would not have activated, either.

Three of the four officers have testified they opened fire because they feared for their safety after seeing the red laser beam. Police were called to the scene by park visitors who reported that Nieto was acting strangely and possibly carrying a gun.

Pointer also raised the possibility that the Tasers internal clock could have been reset by Nieto, which would throw off Chiles calculations. Chiles suggested that was impossible, because the cord needed for such a reset didnt come with the weapon and because the clock was still on Greenwich Mean Time when he examined it.

Later Monday, Nietos mother, Elvira Nieto, took the stand and recounted tearfully how proud she had been of her son for his work on political campaigns. Pointer displayed pictures of Alex Nieto posing with former President Bill Clinton and former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.

Elvira Nieto said that after her sons death, she received a certificate he had earned at City College.

This was the outcome of all the effort he had put into this, she said through an interpreter. When I got this, I felt very sad and I began to cry, but my husband told me it was a gift from him ... because he never got to see it.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale
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An exchange of gunfire erupted near Visitacion Valley Elementary School Monday morning, sending a bullet through the window of an empty kindergarten classroom, an incident witnessed only by construction workers on the school site, district officials said.

The gunshots were reported about 10 a.m. near the school and the school went into lockdown, said district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe.
A federal judge granted Pacific Gas & Electric Co. a postponement of at least three weeks Monday in the utilitys criminal trial on charges of violating safety laws in inspecting and keeping records on natural gas pipelines.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson agreed with a federal magistrate that PG&E needed more time to review thousands of pages of evidence provided recently by prosecutors. He delayed the start of jury selection from March 22 to April 12 and said he might postpone it further if necessary.

Henderson then removed everyone from his courtroom except PG&Es lawyers for a discussion of a potentially more significant issue: whether the law firm that is leading the utilitys defense might be implicated in one of the charges. If so, the firm could be forced out of the case, requiring a much longer postponement of the trial.

There was no immediate word on whether the judge had resolved that issue.

PG&E was indicted in 2014 on charges that it had repeatedly failed to maintain accurate records about its natural gas pipelines, to identify likely risks and to conduct inspections or tests when pipeline pressures exceeded the maximum allowed by the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act. The charges, which carry fines of up to $500 million, arose from the September 2010 explosion of a gas pipeline in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

One count of the indictment accuses the company of obstructing the investigation into the explosion by disavowing an internal document, issued after the explosion, that said PG&E would test for weld problems on its older pipelines only if gas pressure was 10 percent above the maximum allowed by federal law. Prosecutors contend the disavowal was false and that PG&E repeatedly used the 10 percent policy to avoid testing lines like the one that exploded in San Bruno.

Prosecutors are focusing on an April 2011 letter from a PG&E executive to federal investigators, declaring that the 10 percent policy was only a draft that had never taken effect. The Chronicle reported Monday that prosecutors are trying to determine whether the letter was written by lawyers from Latham & Watkins, which represents the utility in the criminal case.

Prosecutors quoted the PG&E official who signed the letter as telling a federal grand jury that lawyers had given it to him. The Chronicle reported that U.S. Magistrate Maria-Elena James recommended to Henderson, in a document that remains under seal, that prosecutors should have access to confidential emails between the company and its lawyers on the subject.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
A union pension fund has reversed course and will pay widowers benefits to a San Francisco man whose late husband was a union member, the mans lawyer says.

Robert Pritchard had sued the pension plan of Stationary Engineers Local 39 of the International Union of Operating Engineers in January for refusing to recognize his marriage to Thomas Conwell or pay him benefits after Conwell died of a brain disease in February 2012. The pension plan told Pritchard that Conwell had been single at the time of his retirement and death.

Pritchards lawsuit noted that the pension plan had defined a spouse as a person to whom a participant is legally married, without reference to gender. The two had wed in 2008 after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in California.

Pritchard filed papers Monday dismissing the suit and saying it had been settled. Amy Whelan of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of his lawyers, said the pension plan has already started paying his widowers benefits and will pick up his attorneys fees and costs.

To their credit, they (agreed) very quickly after the suit was filed, Whelan said. Pritchards lawyers had previously estimated the pension benefits as $900 a month for the life of their client, who is in his mid-50s.

Union representatives could not be reached for comment.

Pritchard, a hospice nurse, and Conwell, a hotel telecommunications engineer, met in 2005. They quickly became inseparable, their lawyers said, and worked together on historic preservation projects.

Conwell had worked at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel for more than 30 years, as a union member, when he took disability retirement in July 2011. Lawyers said Pritchard accompanied him when he applied in person for a disability pension that month and made their marital status clear on the application form.

In initially denying benefits to Pritchard, pension plan officials cited the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman and denied federal benefits to same-sex spouses. But Pritchards lawyers said DOMA hadnt applied to private pension plans even before the U.S. Supreme Court declared portions of the law unconstitutional in 2013.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
San Jose police were on the scene of a fatal officer-involved shooting Monday evening, according to public information officers.

The shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. after officers responded to reports of a stabbing at Third and Martha streets. A suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
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In what could prompt a dramatic shake-up in the way San Francisco handles its persistent homeless problem, Supervisor David Campos on Tuesday will ask the Board of Supervisors to declare a shelter crisis to make it easier to turn city land into homeless shelters.

Within a few weeks, Campos said, he will offer up a second piece of legislation requiring Mayor Ed Lee to open six additional Navigation Centers in the next year.

The first, highly praised center opened in the Mission, in Campos district, a year ago and allows entire encampments of homeless people to move inside with their pets, belongings and partners. More than 250 people have resided there. Lee said in September he was looking for new sites, but he has not publicly identified any.

Perhaps most controversially, Campos legislation would require that one of the six new Navigation Centers be a wet house  or a shelter that allows homeless alcoholics to keep drinking inside. Another one of the six would be required to include a safe injection site where intravenous drug users could shoot up legally. Both of those ideas have been discussed in the city for years, but never acted upon.

A demand for speed

Campos said the slow pace of Lees administration in dealing with the homeless problem does not match the immediate and growing crisis on the streets.

What Ive seen over the past year is a lot of talk, and Ive had enough, Campos said. Weve been waiting so long. I feel weve reached a breaking point.

Campos has the support of Supervisors John Avalos, Jane Kim and Eric Mar. He needs two more votes for passage.

Under a California law dating to the late 1980s, a municipality may declare a shelter crisis if a significant number of people in the community are unable to find shelter, resulting in a threat to the health and safety of those persons.

Declaring a crisis allows the city to turn public land into shelter sites far more quickly than under the traditional regulatory process and to expose itself to less liability than normal.

Campos acknowledged he doesnt know what public land could be used for his six new centers and doesnt know where the money would come from.

I dont have the power to tell any of these agencies what to do, he said. The power I have as a member of the Board of Supervisors is to hold the administration accountable.

The Navigation Center opened on Mission Street near 16th Street last March with Campos backing. In September, Lee announced he had set aside $3 million for additional Navigation Centers and that a second one and possibly a third would be open within six to eight months.

Lee also announced the creation of the Navigation Partnership Fund and said he wanted local businesses and the philanthropic community to at least match the citys $3 million pledge. Nobody donated any money, however.

The mayors staff has looked at about a dozen sites and has zeroed in on a few promising options. It has also prioritized a big expansion of its winter shelter beds for the El Nino storm season.

Six months is too long to open a new center, and the mayor has been exploring a number of ways to speed this up, said Christine Falvey, the mayors spokeswoman. She added that new sites should be finalized in the coming weeks.

Asked whether the mayor would support Campos legislation, Falvey said, We need to see how this fits into existing and ongoing efforts to build more Navigation Centers.

Campos proposals come a week after the city cleared a growing homeless camp on Division Street, directing many of its 250 inhabitants to a new shelter on Pier 80. The Division Street camp  which included more than 100 tents and even wooden structures  had been declared a health hazard because of used needles, rats and piles of trash.

Complaints on the rise

A tally in January 2015 found 6,686 homeless people living in San Francisco, a number that hasnt budged much in years. Residents complaints, though, have soared as homeless people have become more visible, pushed out of hidden-away areas by construction and gentrification.

The city is paralyzed, Campos said, noting that the Division Street camp took far too long to clear and additional Navigation Center sites are proving far too hard to find. I feel horrible for the people on the street, and I feel horrible for people in neighborhoods like Bernal Heights, where I live.

Campos shared many emails from constituents complaining about camps, used needles and filth.

One resident of Bernal Heights wrote, Over the last year I have seen an increase in crime, unbelievable amounts of dumping, drugs, naked cracked-out people and homelessness.

Another email read, This morning I caught a homeless man (defecating) on my sidewalk. Last night I phoned in a homeless person leaving a shopping cart and throwing trash all over the street.

Similar crisis calls

San Francisco certainly wouldnt be the first city to declare a shelter crisis. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Council members announced in September they would declare a state of emergency around homelessness, though local press there has dinged the administration for not actually following through.

The state of Hawaii, as well as Portland, Ore., and Seattle have declared similar crises around homelessness.

Its a trend thats happening in cities across the country, said Paul Boden, who has worked on homeless issues in San Francisco since 1983 and is the director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, a nonprofit that advocates for the homeless.

He said Navigation Centers beat the hell out of sleeping on the sidewalk in the rain, but that cities, in addition to providing shelter, need to do a better job of fighting for more state and federal money for affordable housing.

I find it hard after 33 years to say, Oh, isnt it great were declaring a crisis, he said. We are in a crisis, and weve been in a crisis for a while.

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com, Twitter: @hknightsf
Malta

GlobalFoundries and its Fab 8 computer chip factory in Saratoga County are not for sale, despite news reports and speculation that its Abu Dhabi parent company was looking to sell off all or a portion of the semiconductor company to raise cash.

The denial of a potential sale was made by Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, the U.S.-educated CEO of Mubadala Development Co., the Abu Dhabi investment fund that owns GlobalFoundries.

Bloomberg reported several months ago that Mubadala was looking to sell all or a piece of GlobalFoundries to raise money amid the global oil glut that had sent oil prices down to historic lows.

A Bloomberg story published last month repeated the GlobalFoundries sale story and added that Mubadala was also looking at selling a Swiss aircraft maintenance company called SR Technics and taking another company known as Yahsat Satellite public.

Speculation was that the Chinese, or perhaps a GlobalFoundries competitor like Samsung or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., was interested in buying the company, which has said it needed to grow substantially to become self-sufficient.

Reuters said that it was able to interview Mubarak at a recent business conference to ask him about GlobalFoundries as well as the fund's other portfolio holdings mentioned in the Bloomberg piece, which did not identify its sources.

"We are not in a distressed situation," Mubarak said on the sidelines of a business conference. "We'll keep those businesses."

Bloomberg had previously written stories about GlobalFoundries planning to acquire IBM's microchip manufacturing business. GlobalFoundries subsequently completed that acquisition last year.

Mubarak went to college at Tufts University.

GlobalFoundries spokesman Jason Gorss referred questions to Mubadala, which has not yet replied to the Times Union on questions about the potential sale of the company. GlobalFoundries employs 2,900 people at Fab 8 and has other factories in Dutchess County and outside Burlington, Vt.

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
The legal system wasnt exactly kind to Apple on Monday, as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower courts e-book ruling against the Cupertino company, and the Justice Department filed an appeal in Brooklyn as it keeps trying to get access to locked iPhone data.

The filing in Brooklyn federal court, which was expected, came a week after U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein issued his decision in a routine drug case. The New York case tackles the same legal ground as the California case in which a judge ordered Apple to create software to help the U.S. break into an encrypted iPhone used by a shooter involved in killing 14 people in San Bernardino on Dec. 2.

Apple has vocally opposed the governments move. Its pushback has fueled a national debate over digital privacy rights and national security.

The governments response in the California case is due Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court refused to review an appeals courts determination that Apple had conspired with book publishers to raise the prices of digital books.

As is the courts custom, its brief order turning down the case gave no reasons.

The case arose from Apples 2010 entry into the e-book marketplace, which had been dominated by Amazon and its Kindle reader. Publishers frustrated with Amazons low prices welcomed the new retailer, its iPad device and its willingness to let them set their own prices, with Apple taking a cut of each sale.

Last year, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, said the terms Apple had offered to five big publishers allowed them to engage in a price-fixing conspiracy.

In urging the Supreme Court to hear the case, Apple Inc. v. United States, No. 15-565, the company said its actions had promoted competition.

Apples launch of the iBookstore as a platform for tens of millions of consumers to buy and read digital books on the iPad dramatically enhanced competition in the e-books market, benefiting authors, e-book publishers, and retail consumers, Apple said in its petition seeking a Supreme Court review. Following Apples entry, output increased, overall prices decreased and a major new retailer began to compete in a market formerly dominated by a single firm.

If a new firms entry disrupts a monopoly and creates long-term competition, that is to be lauded, whether the previous prices were artificially high or artificially low, the brief said.

The appeals court disagreed. Competition is not served by permitting a market entrant to eliminate price competition as a condition of entry, and it is cold comfort to consumers that they gained a new e-book retailer at the expense of passing control over all e-book prices to a cartel of book publishers, Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote for the majority.

The case began in 2012, when the Justice Department accused Apple and five publishers of conspiring to raise e-book prices above Amazons standard of $9.99 for new titles by introducing an agency model of pricing. The five publishers settled, but Apple went to trial.
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Atlassian, a team-collaboration software maker, became the first tech company Tuesday to release data on the age breakdown of its employees in an effort to direct attention to ageism in the tech industry.

Pressure to bolster diversity at tech companies and disclose personnel data has grown over the past several years. But most companies that have released their diversity numbers have focused on gender, racial and ethnic breakdowns.

Atlassian said those numbers are important, but tell only part of the story.

We think ageism isnt something thats talked about enough in these kinds of conversations, said Aubrey Blanche, Atlassians global head of diversity and inclusion. Theres a stereotype that tech workers are all young twentysomething males. Our folks mostly dont look like that.

According to numbers collected and released by Payscale Inc., a compensation-data firm, the average age of employees at big Bay Area tech companies ranges from 28 at Facebook to 33 at Adobe.

Atlassian skews slightly older: More than half of its employees are in their 30s.

An age-discrimination lawsuit filed against Google last year by a 64-year-old engineer who was rejected by the company in 2011 despite being a great candidate, according to a Google recruiter quoted in the complaint, said the median age there is 29. Other companies, like Twitter, have also been sued for alleged ageism toward older applicants and employees.

About 30 percent of Atlassians workers are ages 20 to 29, while 19 percent are 40 or older.

Blanche said Atlassians approach to diversity is to not treat issues of ageism or a lack of women or racial minorities as if they are unrelated, but to aim for what is known as intersectional diversity  recruiting candidates with overlapping social identities that the company lacks.

Beyond gender

The Sydney company also tracks how international their offices are, what percentage of its employees identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual and are transgender or gender-nonconforming people.

Focusing on a narrow set of categories can be exclusionary, Blanche said. It gives the impression that people or other groups dont matter. Theres an issue with not having enough women in tech, sure, but theres also women of color, older women, women who are mothers. We cant build a truly inclusive diversity strategy unless we know how we stack up in these other categories, too.

Experts who study diversity in tech said there are two kinds of attributes companies talk about when they talk about diversity: visible traits and invisible traits. Race, gender, ethnicity and age can be considered seen when looking at a person, while sexual orientation or country of origin may be harder to discern at first glance.

Companies, experts said, should aim to acknowledge and value both, not just in how many people they have who check off those boxes, but in what it brings to the organization at large.

A diverse work space that has and prioritizes diversity has been shown to boost its bottom line significantly, said Fay Cobb Payton, an information systems professor at North Carolina State University. Seeing is very important in the tech space: seeing people and working with people who may be older or more seasoned, seeing people who are black, Hispanic, female. Thats all important.

Potential downsides

Atlassians data itself doesnt reveal the intersections of its workforce. It still breaks apart categories like gender, race and age, rather than identifying women who are also underrepresented minorities (black, American Indian and Latina). But diving into that level of detail may have downsides.

If its a small company or a small office, and you can figure out who the first-generation black female from the South is, the idea of being anonymous immediately goes away, Payton said. No one wants to be the only one person in a room who reflects a certain kind of experience. You dont want to be the spokesperson for a whole people, whether its seen as a negative or positive.

Last month, group-chat company Slack updated its diversity report to include more intersectional data on women of color and LGBT people, though it did not include age diversity.

Atlassians ultimate goal is parity  numbers that mirror the diversity of the communities in which their offices exist.

But it has many of the usual gaps in diversity. About 28 percent of global employees are female. In the U.S., 28 percent are from underrepresented racial or ethnic backgrounds. (The racial data released Tuesday exclusively addressed Atlassians 550 U.S. employees.)

S.F. picture

In San Francisco, where Atlassian employs 250 workers, that would mean having an office that consisted of men and women in almost equal numbers, and a racial breakdown that reflected that of the city: 42 percent white, 6 percent black, 33 percent Asian and roughly 15 percent Latino.

Theres a lot of work to do, especially on increasing representation of black and Hispanic people in the U.S., Blanche said. Building specific programs to address the most underrepresented people is definitely not something weve forgotten about.

Christie Smith, the director of Deloitte Universitys leadership centers for inclusion and community impact, said companies need to move beyond diversity as an intellectual exercise or a numbers game to create meaningful change.

I think tech in general is missing the point on inclusive leadership, which is not necessarily counting heads but holding accountable leaders in showing up as inclusive leaders who suspend their own self-interest and develop an insatiable curiosity and active empathy for their own employees, Smith said. That might be changing the way work gets done.

The data released Tuesday break down numbers into teams  the average size of which is 10 people  as well as offering a companywide snapshot. These numbers, Blanche said, are important to understand where a company is versus where it needs to be and informs efforts such as training and recruitment efforts.

Focusing on removing bias from the companys interview process, for example, upped the number of women in this years class of engineering interns to 46 percent, Blanche said.

Earlier this year, Atlassian established a scholarship with coding school Galvanize geared toward black, Latina and American Indian women.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @marissa_jae
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Troy

Internet pioneer Raymond S. Tomlinson, an Amsterdam native and 1963 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was remembered Monday as an engineer who "changed the way that the world communicates," in the words of Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson.

Tomlinson died Saturday at home in Lincoln, Mass. He was 74. The cause of death was undetermined, his daughter told The New York Times.

"With a stroke of a key, we can now speak directly and instantaneously to friends, family, colleagues and business partners across borders, states, countries and oceans," Jackson said. "He invented email, and he was the first to use the @ symbol to communicate  a symbol that is foundational for nearly all of the social networking platforms we use today."

As an engineer at Massachusetts technology firm Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Tomlinson in 1973 came up with the idea of using the @ symbol to separate the user's name from the computer's name when sending messages between different computers.

His employer, now Raytheon BBN Technologies, was working to create ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, as a way for researchers to communicate and share computers.

Email would become the Internet's most popular application.

"Most people today don't realize that email was invented long before the Web browser, the personal computer, Google, the cellphone, and most of the other computing innovations we take so much for granted today," said James Hendler, Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI. Hendler pointed out that fewer than 20 computers were connected in what then was the world's largest computer network.

"The fact that he designed the system in such a way that it was able to scale to the literally billions of users on today's Internet demonstrates what a visionary he was," Hendler said.

Tomlinson was born in Amsterdam in 1941 and graduated from Broadalbin Central High School in 1959 after his family moved to Vails Mills.

"He was always into electronics, even as a kid," his brother Gary told the Times Union on Monday. "Computers were really something new."

Gary said Ray "was still working," adding that "he probably worked Friday."

David, his other brother, recalled that Ray graduated "with the highest average in the history" of Broadalbin Central.

Ray earned a degree in electrical engineering at RPI and became interested in computers after an internship with IBM. After earning his master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he went to work at BBN.

Tomlinson typically returned to the Mohawk Valley at least a couple times a year, although those visits became less frequent after the brothers' parents died.

David said he hadn't been in contact with Ray in some time.

"I'm not into computers at all," he said, confessing that he's "not a user of email."

eanderson@timesunion.com
A startup that couldnt beat Twitters Periscope live video streaming service to the punch now hopes to make its mark with live virtual reality video, a promising but still unproven medium.

Livit Media, using technology developed by the Jewish Life TV cable and satellite channel, plans to launch a platform this week offering live mobile virtual reality streams from the South by Southwest music and technology festival, which starts Friday in Austin, Texas.

Livit plans to live-stream panel discussions and concerts. The company eventually plans to make money by selling its VR services to media companies, such as movie studios.

We want to be able to demonstrate all the different types of experiences you can have through live virtual reality, said CEO and co-founder Adam Blazer.

Livits launch comes just as Meerkat, which became the tech community darling at last years South by Southwest, is throwing in the towel on live mobile video streaming. Meerkat CEO Ben Rubin said his startup couldnt beat the distribution advantages of Periscope, owned by San Franciscos Twitter, or the newer Facebook Live.

In a message posted over the weekend on Medium, Rubin said his company is shifting to another as-yet-unannounced strategy.

While live video has become an interesting feature on top of Twitter and Facebook, it hasnt yet developed into a self-sustaining new network as we hoped we would do with Meerkat, Rubin wrote.

Blazer, however, believes his Los Angeles startup has a service that Twitter and Facebook dont offer. Even though companies like NextVR are also betting on live VR, the medium is just getting off the ground and is fraught with limitations.

For example, to create video for Livit, users will need a 360fly, a $400 virtual realty camera sold at Best Buy and online. Through a partnership with 360fly, the camera links wirelessly to Livits free iOS and Android app.

Livits 360-degree videos can be seen through a browser or a mobile phone. But to get the full virtual reality experience, you need a VR viewer. Livit plans to give away its own branded version of Googles basic Cardboard VR viewer, but Livit will also work with higher-resolution viewers like the Samsung Gear VR and several more expensive VR goggles scheduled to go on sale in the coming months.

Livit started as a project within the 10-year-old Jewish Life TV, where Blazer was chief operating officer. The cable channel originally wanted to distribute video-streaming technology to its reporters in the field.

Livit Media formed in 2014 as a separate company to develop a consumer-focused app.

Right as we were about to launch it, Twitter bought Periscope, Blazer said. Rather than trying to beat Twitter, We said lets take a step back and see how this works for them.

Blazer then met 360fly CEO Peter Adderton in January during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and worked out a partnership that gave Livits technology the camera it needed to launch.

Although Meerkat is searching for a new strategy, Periscope remains a top mobile app. And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly eager to make live video big on his social network.

Blazer wants Livit to be the Periscope of live VR, even though it also has to educate both content creators and viewers.

Virtual reality is one of those things you have to experience first-hand before you get it, Blazer said. That's all the more reason we wanted to be one of the first destinations where people can associate that wow moment with Livit and not someone else.
A San Francisco company assigned a crucial role in the efforts to battle Ebola in Sierra Leone made a series of costly mistakes during the 2014 outbreak, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Staffers with Metabiota Inc. not only misread the epidemic, they contributed to botched lab results, undermined partners and put people at risk of the virus, according to leaked documents and interviews with international health responders.

Picked by WHO

The company had been tapped by the World Health Organization and the Sierra Leonean government to help fight Ebola. But internal emails from WHO and other international health agencies show senior scientists were alarmed at a spate of problems in a lab shared by Metabiota and Tulane University.

This is a situation that WHO can no longer endorse, WHO outbreak expert Dr. Eric Bertherat wrote in a July 17, 2014, email to colleagues.

Bertherat relayed reports of total confusion in the government lab split between Metabiota and Tulane at the Kenema hospital in Sierra Leone, noting there was no tracking of the samples and absolutely no control on what is being done. He said the flubbed results were particularly dangerous given suspicion among the local population that international workers spread Ebola deliberately.

Lawrence Gostin, director of WHOs Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University, said it was inexcusable that a company without the required expertise to respond was given such fundamental responsibilities.

It was a comedy of errors, he said, adding WHO is ultimately to blame for allowing the situation to unravel.

WHO knew that this company was bungling the response and they did nothing, Gostin said. In any other context, that would be called a cover-up.

Metabiota CEO Nathan Wolfe said there is no evidence that his company was responsible for the lab blunders. He added that the reported squabbles were overblown and that any predictions made by his employees who were on loan to the Sierra Leonean government didnt reflect the companys position. Metabiota doesnt specialize in outbreak response, he said, but volunteered its staff and resources to Sierra Leone at a cost to his company of about $500,000.

We are incredibly proud about everything they did, he said at an interview in his office last week. These are individuals who took substantial personal risk and worked incredibly long hours.

Metabiotas problems mirror the wider mismanagement that hamstrung the worlds response to Ebola, which has killed upward of 11,000 people. Previous AP reporting has shown that WHO resisted sounding the alarm over Ebola for two months on political, religious and economic grounds and failed to put together a decisive response even after the alert was issued.

Seen as pioneer

Metabiota bills itself as a pioneer in tracking emerging viral threats and says it works to improve the worlds resilience to epidemics. The firm and its nonprofit sister company, Global Viral, have received millions from the U.S. Department of Defense, USAID, Google and Californias Skoll Foundation.

In the early months of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, with WHO and partners thin on the ground, authorities in neighboring Sierra Leone turned to Metabiota to help respond to the epidemic in Kenema. The company had been in the country since 2009 and supported the government on issues including outbreak investigation and laboratory work. At first, Metabiota appeared to be doing well; according to an account on its website, company staffers helped to train hundreds of health workers under the guidance of WHO.

But within weeks, the virus exploded across the country and, as the death toll mounted, experts questioned the work being done at the lab in Kenema shared by Metabiota and Tulane, which had its own long-standing project researching Lassa fever and other diseases.

When Gary Kobinger, head of special pathogens at the Public Health Agency of Canada, double-checked some of the facilitys work in mid-July, he found worrying discrepancies in four of eight tests and identified as many as five people wrongly diagnosed with Ebola, according to emails obtained by AP.

If you detect two, three, four, five, how many are out there? Kobinger said in a recent interview.

The mistakes sparked concern about bigger problems in the lab  worries relayed all the way up to WHOs Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan.

Several patients have been wrongly tested positive in these labs, Geneva-based staffer Pat Drury told Chan in an email, adding that Metabiota and Tulane did not meet biosecurity standards.

Metabiota founder Wolfe said we did wonderful lab work as far as Im concerned. He said that errors in the shared facility stopped once other groups were pulled from Ebola testing.

Documents show Metabiota and Tulane blamed each other for mistakes.

U. S. health official Austin Demby, who was sent to evaluate the shared lab by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Sierra Leone, said it was a mess. The cross contamination potential is huge and quite frankly unacceptable, he wrote in late July. Soon after Dembys report, both Metabiota and Tulane suspended their Ebola tests.

Despite Metabiotas performance, Wolfes firm has largely been congratulated on its work in West Africa. Last year, the company raised some $30 million to support their future epidemic projects.
Court file

An entity affiliated with famed inventor Dr. Julio Palmaz may make a bid to acquire the assets of the bankrupt medical-device technology company that bears his name, but an attorney for some of the shareholders believes its an attempt to get the assets at a discount.

Whats happening is that you have alleged fraudsters trying to take assets on the cheap, Jason Brookner a lawyer for some of the investors in Palmaz Scientific Inc., which filed for bankruptcy on Friday, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Gargotta at a hearing today.
United Airlines has agreed to reinstate 13 flight attendants who were fired for refusing to work a flight from San Francisco International Airport to Hong Kong in July 2014 because of menacing graffiti they perceived as a security threat.

In January 2015, the attendants filed a federal whistle-blower complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The attendants and United, in a joint statement issued Tuesday, said they had reached a confidential settlement that included reinstatement for the employees. Other terms were not disclosed.

The safety of our employees and customers is paramount. We respect the right of our employees to raise concerns in good faith about the safety or security of our operations, and encourage them to do so, said Sam Risoli, Uniteds senior vice president of inflight services.

David Marshall, a partner with the law firm of Katz, Marshall & Banks who represented the flight attendants, welcomed the deal. The protections that federal law provides to airline workers are essential to the safety of passenger airline operations, he said. Im glad that United and these flight attendants have come to a resolution that underscores the importance of these laws for airlines and their employees.

Neither side would say whether money changed hands or provide additional comments.

The Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, had no comment because it was not involved in the settlement and has not brought charges against United, said Brian Hawthorne, a labor department spokesman. If the flight crew opted to settle out of court with United, thats between them and their lawyers, he said.

The flight in question, United 869, was preparing for its 1:55 p.m. departure from SFO on July 14, 2014, when an image was discovered on the planes tail cone. Someone had scrawled BYE BYE in six-inch letters above two faces, one smiling and the other with a more troubling expression that could be described as frowning or devilish, the complaint said.

The image was near the access panel to a gas turbine engine housed in the tail cone that was about 30 feet off the ground, an area accessible only by authorized personnel using specialized equipment, the complaint said. The images could have been written on the plane at SFO or before its departure from South Koreas Incheon International Airport.

One of four pilots on the flight discovered and photographed the image. He shared the photo with the other pilots and told one flight attendant he had seen a disturbing image on the aircraft, according to the complaint. He requested a visual inspection of the engine compartment and removal of the image, the complaint said.

Eventually all flight attendants saw the photo. Passengers were allegedly told the delay was due to a maintenance issue.

Maintenance inspectors finished searching the engine compartment and found nothing suspicious, but did not investigate other portions of the plane, the complaint said. Capt. Willard Bowman told flight attendants he was comfortable with the planes safety and security.

Uniteds SFO inflight supervisor, Virginia Coronado, urged the flight attendants to trust the captains decision, but some attendants wanted a complete security sweep to ensure the planes safety. The Federal Aviation Administration requires airlines to deplane passengers and conduct such a search in the face of a specific and credible threat to the security of the flight, the complaint says.

Coronado ordered the 13 flight attendants to work, but they refused, some saying they would work only if United provided a different plane. Flight attendants must comply with a direct order unless it would endanger the health or safety of crew or passengers, the complaint says.

Sometime after 3:30 p.m., a United customer service agent came aboard and announced that the flight was canceled because of crew availability, the complaint says.

All of FAAs and Uniteds own safety procedures were followed, including a comprehensive safety sweep prior to boarding, and the pilots, mechanics and safety leaders deemed the aircraft entirely safe to fly, United said in an email last year.

Following an investigation by a United Airlines labor relations specialist and a grievance hearing in Hong Kong, the flight attendants were terminated in October 2014.

When the complaint was filed, one of the fired flight attendants lived in the Bay Area, the others in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Blog: http://blog.sfgate.com/pender Twitter: @kathpender
Dear Abby: My boyfriend and I have been in a relationship for 10 years. In all this time, he has never once split any of the expenses with me. I pay for everything. He does buy groceries, although not all of them. He also helps around the house and with my daughter. If I bring up the issue of sharing expenses, it turns into a fight. He says hes sorry he doesnt make enough money. Then he says all that matters to me is money and threatens to move out. I feel completely taken advantage of because he does have the money to make $300-plus monthly payments for his new boat thats sitting in my garage. To me its all about priorities. I would like a new car, but I have other monthly bills to

pay. Is it just me, or is this unfair?

Up to Here With It in South Dakota

Dear Up to Here: Its time to ask yourself whether what he does contribute  on every level  is enough to satisfy you. If it isnt, be prepared to tell him you need to find an equal partner, and if hes unwilling to be that person, he should move.

Dear Abby: Four years ago I had major affection for a man. We talked every chance we could. We arranged times we could sit together and just talk. There was lots of flirting, eye contact and this overwhelming feeling of bliss  butterflies in the stomach  all of that. The problem was he was married. Once I realized it, I was devastated because I understood what I wanted could never be.

I feel so lost. Im now considering going to counseling. I still hear from others that he mentions me or says he misses me, but this is old news. Now theres someone else, and its the same problem  just a different setting. I feel so guilty for crushing on unattainable men. Whats wrong with me? Why cant I like someone who is available? Ive liked guys my own age before, and ones who were single, but theres something exciting about older unavailable men. I dont want to feel this way, but I know that when I try to fight these feelings they just become stronger. I wont act on them, but I wish I could change them. How can I?

Feeling Guilty in Ohio

Dear Feeling Guilty: The quickest way to do that would be to talk about these feelings with a licensed mental health professional. When you do, be prepared to touch on all of your relationships with men, including your father  who is usually the first unattainable man with whom a little girl falls in love. I am pretty sure you will find that conversation illuminating. Once you understand your feelings, it may be easier for you to find a man who is truly available  if a relationship beyond a mad flirtation is what you really want, that is.
It sounds like Pixar might again be bringing one of its main characters close to home.

"Finding Dory," the sequel to the hit 2003 film "Finding Nemo," focuses on the original film's adorably forgetful character Dory (played by comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres) when she finally has a memory about her family's whereabouts.
The GLAS Animation Festival took place in Berkeley over the weekend, and it has the makings of something wonderful. In what is destined to become an annual event, growing in influence and importance, the festival showcased animation of all kinds from all over the world. It was a coming together of creativity that was, at times, awe-inspiring.

To be honest, I was not expecting this. I was expecting to see a lot of creepy guys, with cryptic smiles, like they just shot John Lennon. I was expecting work that was insular and of interest only to fellow practitioners within a tight circle. Instead, the work was both accessible and challenging, expressing emotional shadings and concepts that we just dont find in live-action narrative features. And the artists, at least the few I saw, were articulate and interesting.

GLAS  the Global Animation Syndicate  is the creation of Jeanette Bonds, herself an animator, based in Los Angeles. The purpose of GLAS is to provide grants to independent animators without directing either the films style or content. We dont have an international animation festival in the United States, Bonds said. But now we do, and it happens to be in Berkeley, because Berkeley enterprises welcomed it. For example, the David Brower Center contributed the use of its building at cost.

Bonds plans to give three grants this year  for $3,000, $5,000 and $10,000  but her hope is to be able, soon, to give grants of up to $50,000, which is about what it costs to make an animated short.

Mick LaSalle/glas0308

And what is the back end for an animator who invests 50K on a film? Well, roughly nothing. A good ballpark figure would be around, say, zero. Or, if theyre really lucky, perhaps zilch. Or squat. The people who do this, do this for love. They do it out of obsession, and out of the awful, crushing responsibility of knowing that theyre really good at it, and therefore must do it. Making an independent animated short is about the purest act there is in the world of art.

With such devotion behind them, these films should at least have an audience, and yet almost no one knows about them (film critics included). They are almost impossible to see except on a computer, and they are rarely curated so that we can know which to watch of the many films out there. That was and is the beauty of the GLAS Animation Festival, in that it solved all three problems  availability, exhibition and curation.

If you didnt know, you wouldnt guess this was the festivals first year. GLAS offered a full four-day program that ran from morning to evening and covered a lot of ground. Most of the time there were two things going on at once. There were six compilations of shorts, an American animation compilation, two international showcases and a childrens competition. Visual-effects creator Phil Tippett was there to discuss his career, and Henry Selick took questions about the making of his brilliant feature film Coraline.

What comes across in any discussion of animation is the labor involved. Festival honoree Paul Vester presented a collection of his films, including Into the Woods, which blended animated images, country music from 1947, news reports from 2003 and images from 1987 into a work of intuition and passion. The film operates on the viewer in a way that is almost beyond conscious perception. Its a creation of meticulous intent whose effect cant quite be classified. But you can see it for yourself on Vimeo, fortunately.

Hisko Hulsing, from the Netherlands, did a program in which he showed his film Junkyard and the animated section of the Kurt Cobain documentary Montage of Heck, which he created. It was fascinating to see a film and then see how it was made, and how difficult the process. Junkyard, for example, took six years to make, and every backdrop was painted by Hulsing. With an animated film, Hulsing said, You have to edit before you make it. Otherwise, it will take 12 years instead of six years.

Not everything was a masterpiece and not everything would appeal to everyone, but I saw many beautiful things at the GLAS. There was, for example, Ainslie Henderson and Will Andersons Monkey Love Experiments, a touching British film in which a monkey thinks he is about to be sent into outer space. Its a warm meditation on fragility; whereas Boris Labbes Rhizome is a brilliantly cold look at the relentlessness of creation, with a handful of silver beings reproducing into a multitude. David Coquard-Dassaults Peripheria is a poetic film about dogs in an abandoned housing project. You can see trailers for all three online.

Still, it feels a little cruel to tell you about movies you cant see in their entirety, so heres one I loved that you can find on YouTube. Its called The Centrifuge Brain Project (2011), a mock documentary in which a scientist discusses his centrifugal experiments on human beings through amusement park rides. It mixes live action with animated ride sequences that get increasingly crazy, and its very funny.

The Bay Area is home to many festivals, and introducing one more might seem like launching the Coal Festival in Newcastle. But not this one. Like the Silent Film Festival, GLAS is a specialty festival that debuts as an important fixture on the cinematic calendar. It fills a need we didnt even know we had and will spark interest and enthusiasm in many. Its a welcome and exciting development.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

To view The Centrifuge Brain Project on YouTube, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w
WASHINGTON  Pedestrian deaths surged by an estimated 10 percent last year as the economy improved, the price of gas plunged and motorists put more miles behind the wheel than ever before, according to an analysis of preliminary state traffic fatality data.

The growing use of cell phones distracting drivers and walkers may also be partially to blame, states a report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents governors highway safety offices. Warmer weather and shorter winters along with a greater awareness of health benefits may also be encouraging people to walk more.

This is really sobering news, said Richard Retting, co-author of the report. Pedestrian safety is clearly a growing problem across the country.

The data analyzed were from the first half of 2015. If the trend holds true for the full year, it would be the largest year-to-year increase in pedestrian deaths since 1975 when the current federal system for recording traffic deaths was created.

The report is based on state traffic fatality figures, extrapolated for the full year by researchers at Sam Schwartz Consulting, which specializes in transportation matters.

There were 2,368 pedestrians killed in the first six months of 2015, compared with 2,232 during the same period in 2014  a 6 percent increase. Researchers arrived at a 10 percent increase for the entire year by factoring in that fatalities for the first half of the year are typically underreported, and that for at least the last five years an average of 25 percent more pedestrian deaths were recorded in the second half of the year, which includes warmer summer months, Retting said.

Total traffic deaths, which had been trending downward for the past decade, were also up an estimated 8 percent last year. But pedestrian fatalities have been rising since 2005, and now account for 15 percent of total traffic deaths. The last time pedestrian deaths accounted for that large a share of traffic deaths was 25 years ago.

Nearly three-quarters of pedestrian deaths occur after dark, and a third of those killed had been drinking alcohol, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. By comparison, about 15 percent of motorists involved in those crashes had a blood alcohol content at the legal limit or higher.

Four large population states  California, Florida, Texas and New York  accounted for 42 percent of the pedestrian deaths in the first six months of 2015. States with the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents were scattered across the country  Florida, 1.35; Arizona, 1.27; Delaware, 1.27; South Carolina, 1.12; Mississippi, 1.07; Oregon, 1.04, and New Mexico, 1.01.

In San Francisco, 20 pedestrians died in traffic collisions in 2015, according to a report by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The tally included a collision with a pedestrian and an above-ground light-rail vehicle.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jenna Lyons contributed to this report.
In the Bay Area, we often get so distracted by things like rent prices, water cutbacks, and the high cost of goods like gas and groceries that we sometimes forget the incredible things we have over lots (if not most) other metropolitans.

According to a new ranking put together for 2016 by the folks at Conde Nast Traveler, we also have one of the ten best cities in the whole world in which to retire right here in the Bay: Concord.
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Pedestrian deaths surged by an estimated 10 percent last year as the economy improved, the price of gas plunged and motorists put more miles behind the wheel than ever before, according to an analysis of preliminary state traffic fatality data, with California accounting for more fatalities than any other state.

The growing use of cellphones distracting drivers and walkers may also be partially to blame, states a report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents governors' highway safety offices. Warmer weather and shorter winters along with a greater awareness of health benefits may also be encouraging people to walk more.

In California alone, 347 people were killed in the first half of the year, 24 more than during the same period of 2014 (a 7% increase). Florida had the second most fatalities at 273. On a per-capita basis, California, the most populous state in the union, actually ranked eleventh for fatalities at .89 per 100,000 residents.

"This is really sobering news," said Richard Retting, co-author of the report. "Pedestrian safety is clearly a growing problem across the country."

The data analyzed were from the first half of 2015. If the trend holds true for the full year, it would be the largest year-to-year increase in pedestrian deaths since 1975 when the current federal system for recording traffic deaths was created.

The report is based on state traffic fatality figures, extrapolated for the full year by researchers at Sam Schwartz Consulting, which specializes in transportation matters.

Overall, there were 2,368 pedestrians killed in the first six months of 2015, compared to 2,232 during the same period in 2014  a six percent increase. Researchers arrived at a 10 percent increase for the entire year by factoring in that fatalities for the first half of the year are typically underreported, and that for at least the last five years an average of 25 percent more pedestrian deaths were recorded in the second half of the year, which includes warmer summer months, Retting said.

Total traffic deaths, which had been trending downward for the past decade, were also up an estimated 8 percent last year. But pedestrian fatalities have been rising since 2005, and now account for 15 percent of total traffic deaths. The last time pedestrian deaths accounted for that large a share of traffic deaths was 25 years ago.

Nearly three-quarters of pedestrian deaths occur after dark, and a third of those killed had been drinking alcohol, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. By comparison, about 15 percent of motorists involved in those crashes had a blood alcohol content at the legal limit or higher.

Four large population states  California, Florida, Texas and New York  accounted for 42 percent of the pedestrian deaths in the first six months of 2015. States with the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents were scattered across the country  Florida, 1.35; Arizona, 1.27; Delaware, 1.27; South Carolina, 1.12; Mississippi, 1.07; Oregon, 1.04, and New Mexico, 1.01. The District of Columbia also tied Oregon for the sixth highest rate, 1.04.

In a related issue, the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents city bus drivers, estimates that roughly one pedestrian is killed every 10 days by a city bus because of blind spots in poorly designed buses. Wide "A pillars," which connect the windshield to the driver's side window, and poorly placed side mirrors frequently obstruct drivers' view of intersections, according to the union.

"Until the industry demands a change in the design of buses to remove the unnecessary blind spots like European buses, people will continue to die in these preventable accidents," said Larry Hanley, the union's president.

___

Follow Joan Lowy at twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joan-lowy
Federal agents and local police officers arrested three sorority women and three fraternity men, all UC Santa Cruz students, in what officials are calling an organized drug sales ring bust that turned up 5,000 tablets of the drug MDMA, valued at more than $100,000, officials said Monday.

Multiple shipments of the drug, also called Ecstasy, were bound for three Santa Cruz residences and sent through the U.S. Postal Service from overseas, according to Joyce Blaschke, a police spokeswoman. Officials said the packages were being shipped to members of the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity and alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority.
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The early March deluge is arriving just in time across the Bay Area, the Sierra Nevada and throughout Northern California.

Across the board, the effects are immediate, and more rain and snow are on the way. Reports from near and far indicate that outdoor recreation will benefit for months to come. This comes just as the state was drying out.

The water level at Loch Lomond Reservoir, which had been closed for the past three years, rose so fast that the lake, near Ben Lomond in Santa Cruz County, was reopened for the weekend. According to estimates Sunday, the lake was about 85 percent full and climbing.

We got so much water last night, the docks are underwater and most of the boats almost sank, said Jackson Branham, who works at the small marina at Loch Lomond.

In a 24-hour span, Ben Lomond (near the lake) got 5.64 inches of rain, and 4.44 inches fell at Boulder Creek, according to automated gauges. In nearby Big Basin Redwoods, all the waterfalls have been recharged, though trees downed in the storm are likely to provide obstacles on some remote trails.

In Marin County, lakes that are 100 percent full include Lagunitas, Bon Tempe, Alpine, Kent, Phoenix, Soulajule and Nicasio. In the watershed, Carson Falls and Cataract Falls have been recharged, along with other waterfalls across the county.

Across the East Bay foothills, the soil was drying out last week, even as golden poppies bloomed and the hills remained bright green. It Orinda, it rained 4.34 inches, saturating the soil and helping to raise water levels at nearby lakes. On Sunday, Briones was approaching 100 percent full, and Lafayette Reservoir was about 85 percent full.

Across much of the state, perennials such as poppies, iris, lilies and fiddlenecks will probably have spectacular growth and blooms once the rains pass and warm weather returns.

In addition, many small lakes filled, including Rollins near Colfax, Camp Far West near Marysville, Siskiyou at Mount Shasta and many others. Of the big reservoirs, giant Shasta came up three feet on Saturday and is 63 percent full, 85 percent of normal. The lake is 64 feet from the crest, a rise of 90 feet since early December.

Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicles outdoors writer. E-mail: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom
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Broadway veteran Francis Jue returns to his Bay Area home at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley for the regional premiere of Kimber Lees Tokyo Fish Story, a comic drama about sushi survival in a society obsessed with change. It explores gender and generational struggles as well.

Jue plays revered sushi master Koji, whose landmark sushi bar is struggling to survive as trendy competitors are packing in customers. Koji has placed his hopes in brilliant protege Takashi (James Seol). But maybe both of them should listen to hip assistant Nobu (Arthur Keng), or to Ama (Nicole Javier), the punked-out sushi chef trying to get a foothold in whats always been a mans world.
SACRAMENTO  The California Assembly swore in a new speaker Monday who pledged to make poverty reduction, increased government oversight and voter turnout his key priorities.

Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, was formally sworn in to replace Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and becomes the first legislative leader in 20 years who could remain in a top position for an extended duration.

Lawmakers elected after 2011 have the ability to serve 12 years in one house, under term limit changes adopted by voters in 2012. Under the old system, lawmakers could serve eight years in the Senate and six years in the Assembly. That means Rendon, who wont term out until 2024, could lead the Assembly for eight years with the support of his party.

Otherwise you have all these speakers of two years, two years, two years, and by the time they know what they are doing, some other guy is biting at their ass, said John Burton, a former Senate president pro tem who is now chairman of the state Democratic Party.

In the past 20 years, there have been 11 Assembly speakers. In the 20 years before that, there were just two: Willie Brown and the late Leo McCarthy, both San Francisco institutions.

Rendon, 48, said term limits created in 1990 created a volatility in leadership that allowed for the Legislature to concede much of its power to the executive branch. He said the change in term limits gives lawmakers the ability to do more during their time in office.

Voters put their faith in us to do more and to do better, he said.

Rendon is regarded as a low-key leader who prefers to work behind the scenes. He said he will not author any bills, instead preferring to support his colleagues with their legislation. The new speaker said he supports ballot measures to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and extend temporary taxes under Proposition 30.

Hes also been a critic of the embattled California Public Utilities Commission, which he said needs to be held accountable to ratepayers.

Despite not authoring legislation myself, I will continue fighting for the needs of my district and for what I believe in, Rendon said.

Growing up, Rendon said he was a terrible student who benefited from the states social safety nets, like food stamps, English as a second language programs, affirmative action and an affordable college education. He worked his way through community college and Cal State Fullerton with graveyard shifts at factories and warehouses, he said. On Monday, he thanked his wife, Annie Lam, the daughter of immigrants who herself worked in the fields picking fruit while in high school.

Neither Annie nor I was born with much, but we worked hard, and somehow we ended up here, Rendon said.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, said to much applause that for the first time in the states history, both houses of the Legislature will be led by Latinos. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon took office in 2014.

Rendons ascent marks the second time in recent decades that both the Assembly and Senate are led by Southern California Democrats. De Leon is from Los Angeles.

The last time both houses were led by either two Northern or two Southern Californians was in 1994-96 when Brown led the Assembly and Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, led the Senate.

Before that, both houses were led by Southern California Democrats from 1971 to 1974 when Speaker Bob Moretti of Van Nuys led the Assembly and President Pro Tem James Mills of San Diego led the Senate.

I think geography is relevant, but I also think its overrated, said former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. The thing about leadership is regardless of where you are in the state, you have to be conscious of the needs of everyone in the state.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
Its every drivers nightmare: returning to an empty parking spot to find the car has been towed.

In San Francisco, the lucky ones will pay around $600 to get their car back  a charge two to three times higher than nearly every other city in the country, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles included. The most unfortunate will pay hundreds of dollars and still end up losing their car.

The cost of being towed in San Francisco has nearly tripled over the last five years, to $491.25, driven by a 432 percent increase in the administrative fees the Municipal Transportation Agency charges. The MTA says that fee is necessary to ensure full cost recovery.

But some San Francisco supervisors and civil rights lawyers say the charges disproportionately harm low-income people and can ruin lives when people forfeit their cars because they cant pay the fees. The Board of Supervisors will take up the issue Tuesday as it considers whether to support MTAs proposed $65.4 million, five-year contract extension with tow company AutoReturn.

$700 is too much

Yes, we want to regulate driver behavior, Supervisor Jane Kim said. We have towaways for a reason. But $600 and $700 is too much for a single mistake. The city and county of San Francisco shouldnt be impoverishing people. We shouldnt be asking people to decide between getting their car and paying their rent.

Personally, if I got towed, Id have to start cutting back on groceries, and I have a pretty good salary, Supervisor John Avalos said at a subcommittee hearing last month. If youre living paycheck to paycheck, it would be a dramatic hit.

About 163 vehicles are towed in San Francisco every weekday.

Emily Van Dyke, a program administrator for the San Francisco Unified School District, was towed in front of her house in the Inner Richmond Thursday morning. She had forgotten to set her alarm for 6:45 a.m. to move her car to comply with a one-day construction permit nearby. When she woke up, it was gone.

At 9 a.m. that morning, she got a ride to the AutoReturn lot on Seventh Street to retrieve her car. The cost: $541.75, which included the towing fee, administrative fee, an extra dolly or flatbed fee because the car couldnt be towed in the usual way, plus $68 for the parking ticket.

The worst part is going into the lot and seeing the extra ticket on your windshield, she said, climbing into her car. Its a slap in the face. I think its irresponsible to assume that people living in this city have $700 of expendable money at a moments notice. If you cant pay it, the money continues to compound. Its the same for people who cant get off work or away from school. Any way you look at it, youre screwed.

It could have been worse: If drivers dont retrieve their car for several days  sometimes because they dont realize it was towed  the costs can quickly balloon to more than $1,000 as storage fees pile on.

Under MTAs new contract with AutoReturn, consumers will save $22.50 per tow beginning April 1. The new contract also gives a break to out-of-towners whose cars get stolen and then ditched. Tourists now get the same stolen-vehicle waiver against towing fees that has applied to San Francisco residents for three months.

Even with that adjustment, the cost of being towed in San Francisco will still add up to $469, not including the ticket. By comparison, the cost of retrieving a vehicle is $185 in New York City, $276 in Los Angeles, $170 in Chicago and $434 in Oakland. Those figures include the citys administrative fee, which in San Francisco will be $261 under the new contract. In New York and Chicago there is no fee, in Los Angeles it is $115 and in Oakland $166.

Full cost recovery

Towing costs so much in San Francisco largely because of the MTAs 2010 decision to seek full cost recovery for the tow program, which has caused the administrative fee to jump  from $50 to $266 over the last 10 years. Agency representatives said they know of no other municipality that seeks full recovery.

Included in the citys administrative fee is every cost directly and tangentially associated with the towing program  from the salaries and benefits of the citation enforcement officers who enforce towing restrictions, the paint to draw red zones on curbs, vehicle maintenance, and even part of MTA Director Ed Reiskins salary, said Steven Lee, the MTAs senior manager of financial services and contracts. The administrative fee also helps pay for administrative staff, accounting, our rent, our legal fees, Lee said.

AutoReturn, meanwhile, is responsible for all the towing, tow subcontractor management, customer service, and storage and disposal of unclaimed vehicles. Its fee has also risen, from $121.75 to $225.25 over the last 10 years.

As for the ticket that violators receive on top of all the tow charges  that goes to the MTAs general budget.

Lee said that because fewer cars are towed than in years past, thanks in part to better signage, the charges per tow have steadily increased to compensate AutoReturn and also to cover the citys expenses. In other words, the fewer people towed, the higher the charges.

Lee defended the agencys use of administrative fees. We are a transit-first agency, he said, asking if the city should take money from worthy programs like free Muni for youth and seniors or painting the crosswalk to give a break to folks who block commute lanes?

He added, Its not that hard to not get your car towed.

Some supervisors questioned the agencys logic.

The towing fee should be the citys actual costs and not a way to pad the MTAs coffers, Supervisor Aaron Peskin said. There should be an administrative fee, but they are soaking folks.

Economic justice issue

Elisa Della-Piana, legal director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, said towing charges have become an economic justice issue. She praised the free Muni rides for youth and economically disadvantaged seniors, but said that program shouldnt come at the expense of poor people who lose their cars because they cant pay the tow fees.

There are always trade-offs, but when you have something that feels fundamentally unfair, that is disproportionately burdening low-income families and families of color, that feels rigged against the average citizen  I dont think its a question of which is more worthy to spend on, she said.

Of the roughly 42,350 vehicles towed annually in San Francisco, about 10 percent of the owners abandon their cars, according to MTA. Those who forfeit their cars still have to pay the difference between the fine and the worth of the car. Unlike some cities, the agency has no program to help poorer people get their cars back.

Lee said such a program would be problematic. If I say you can pay me later, you can take your car and never come back, he said.

But Marquez Gray said the tow fees are untenable for working-class families like his.

Gray works at 100 Percent College Prep in the Bayview helping low-income minority students apply for college, and also serves as an associate pastor at City Life Church in SoMa. Last month, he went to Super Bowl City on a Sunday with his wife and four children. He parked about a mile away, on a street lined with cars, where the street sign seemed to indicate he was safe to park.

When he returned, all the cars were gone, including his.

It was devastating, he said. Payday was the following Monday, and Gray had only $20 left in his bank account. He and his family took an Uber ride to the tow lot, using a discount the company gives first-time users. His father-in-law met him at the lot and gave him the $500 he needed to retrieve his car. Gray later paid for the $68 ticket sitting on his windshield.

He said it doesnt make sense to charge him so much money. It just doesnt cost that much to tow a car  let alone tow a car five blocks. And I got it within the hour. If it wasnt for my father-in-law we wouldnt have a car. I need a car. I have to get my kids to school the next day.

Emily Green and Lizzie Johnson are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emilytgreen @LizzieJohnsonnn
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The Raiders arent wasting time, locking up free-agent offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele on Tuesday morning, a day before deals can be finalized.

The former Ravens guard and tackle agreed in principle to a five-year deal with the Raiders that would make him one of the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL, averaging more than $11 million per season, sources said.

Then on Tuesday night, Oakland addressed its pass rush and reached an agreement with Seahawks outside linebacker Bruce Irvin. Irvin is well versed in his new defense, as Raiders defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. coached linebackers in Seattle from 2010-14. Irvin had 22 sacks in four seasons  five last year.

Seattle drafted Irvin in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft.

Oakland was also hot and heavy after Broncos defensive end Malik Jackson and Chiefs cornerback Sean Smith, two other prized free agents on the market. Jackson, however, reached agreement with the Jaguars on Tuesday. The Raiders have more than $60 million in salary-cap space, second only to the Jaguars.

Osemele, 26, gives Oakland general manager Reggie McKenzie the versatility he likes on the offensive line. He has been a guard for most of his five-year career but finished last season at left tackle and could replace Donald Penn, who is set to become a free agent Wednesday. The 6-foot-5, 330-pound Osemele was the fifth-best run-blocking guard in the league last year and has allowed only two sacks the past two seasons, according to Pro Football Focus.

This is the third straight offseason that the Raiders have addressed the offensive line first, last year signing center Rodney Hudson to a five-year, $44.5 million contract. Two years ago, the biggest deal they handed out went to right tackle Austin Howard.

Penn, 32, would like to return, but a meeting between his agent and the Raiders last week showed that there is a gap, and Penn is expected to test the market. Osemele could play left tackle, the need could be addressed in the draft or the team could consider 2013 second-round pick Menelik Watson, who is coming back from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Irvin, 28, had 17 combined sacks and quarterback hits last year, eighth-best among linebackers. Raiders All-Pro defensive end Khalil Mack was second with 24, behind only the Broncos Von Millers 32.

Norton helped turn Irvin from a pass-rush-only defensive end to a linebacker who can set the edge and contain running backs, as well as cover running backs and drop back into pass coverage.

Norton told reporters in 2014 that Irvin was the best athlete on the Seahawks roster.

If we were picking a team for a game on Turkey Day Thanksgiving against the neighborhood, the first pick would be Bruce, Norton said. He throws, he catches, he runs, he covers, he does the whole thing.

He can probably throw a ball 80 yards. He can stand right here and do a back flip. He can stand on his head and do a handstand for 40 minutes. Hes an amazing athlete.

Smith could be the next domino to fall, as the Raiders need to address their secondary. The 49ers are also in on the 6-foot-4, 28-year-old corner, who had two interceptions and 12 pass breakups last season.

A middle linebacker would also be good, as sources said the Raiders plan to cut Curtis Lofton once his arm injury heals. That injury forced Oakland to pay Lofton a $3.5 million guarantee (of his $5.4 million salary) last month.

The Raiders have also reached out to the agent of former Bucs running back Doug Martin, sources said. Martin, from Stockton, ran for 1,402 yards last season, averaging 4.9 per carry, but scored only six rushing touchdowns in a pass-heavy offense.

Former Jets running back Chris Ivory was also on the Raiders list, but he is signing with the Jaguars.

Latavius Murray rushed for 1,066 yards for Oakland last year, but McKenzie and coach Jack Del Rio are obviously looking for someone to complement, or even replace, him. The Raiders finished 28th in the NFL in rushing with 91.1 yards per game, and Murray had seven games with 50 yards rushing or fewer.

Quarterback Derek Carr was second on the team in rushing with 138 yards.

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur
BRUSSELS  European Union leaders hoped early Tuesday that they reached the outlines for a possible deal with Ankara to return thousands of migrants to Turkey and said they were confident a full agreement could be reached at a summit next week.

After months of disagreements and increasing bickering among the 28 EU nations, French President Francois Hollande said that the summit has created hope that the refugee question can be dealt with through solidarity in Europe, and efficiency in cooperation with Turkey.

All eyes focus now on March 17 and the start of a two-day summit to finalize the commitment and clinch an iron-clad deal that the leaders hope would allow for a return to normalcy at their borders by the end of the year.

Turkey said it would be willing to make greater efforts to contain irregular migration. The truth is that Turkey came to the summit with attractive proposals, and I believe that surprised many, said Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras.

EU President Donald Tusk said that after a week of shuttle diplomacy in and around Turkey, we have a breakthrough now.

During 12 hours of negotiations, Turkey insisted that any agreement would require Europe to advance Turkeys long-delayed hope of joining the bloc. As an additional step, Turkey said it expects EU nations to ease its visa restrictions on Turkish citizens within months.

Turkey, home to 2.75 million refugees chiefly from neighboring Syria, surprised EU counterparts Monday by demanding much more funding beyond the 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) already pledged. Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davatoglu told reporters in Brussels.

Davutoglu did not disclose how much money Turkey was seeking but he said that the funds would only go to Syrian refugees. Not one euro will go to Turkish citizens. Every penny will be spent for Syrian refugees.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that we do have the basis for a breakthrough, which is the possibility that in future all migrants who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey. The sides will now reconvene at a two-day summit starting March 17.

For its part, the EU sought to gain stronger commitments from Turkey to take back refugees who have reached European shores and ease a crisis that has left an estimated 14,000 souls encamped in the wintry cold on the Greece-Macedonia border.

To stop refugees arriving in Greece, we have to cooperate with Turkey, French President Francois Hollande said.
1 Pakistan bombing: Sixteen people, including two police officers, were killed Monday when a bomber detonated his suicide vest after shooting his way into a court compound about 20 miles north of Peshawar, police said. The bomber forced his way into the court in the town of Shabqadar. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, took responsibility for the attack. In an email, its spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said the bombing was retaliation for the hanging of Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a former security guard who shot and killed the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, in 2001. Qadri was sentenced to death by the court and hanged on Feb. 29.

2 Gold mine probe: Venezuelan officials say they investigating the alleged killing of 28 miners in the southeastern state of Bolivar. Families say the wildcat miners were killed Friday in a dispute over a gold claim. The countrys public prosecutors office said it was opening a probe. State Gov. Francisco Rangel at first denied that any massacre took place. But he later acknowledged that an extensive search for the men is under way as the public prosecutors office investigates.
Its been 107 years since the world began observing International Womens Day, and yet no country has achieved full gender equality.

Its very sobering to realize that its 2016 and we dont have that yet, said Daniela Ligiero, vice president of Girls and Women Strategy at the United Nations Foundation.

Of 145 nations, Iceland has come closest in the realms of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, according to 2015 data from the World Economic Forum.

But in Yemen, the country that ranks lowest by the same data, women are considered only half a witness in court cases and are forbidden to leave the house without their husbands permission. In Tanzania and Lesotho, women cannot inherit land. All around the world, 1 in 3 women will experience some kind of sexual violence or intimate partner violence in her lifetime, Ligiero said.

As several countries around the globe marked International Womens Day on Tuesday, here are a few key indicators depicting the status of women, and some of the challenges that remain.

About two-thirds of countries in the developing world have achieved gender equality in primary education, according to U.N. data, but the progress is less substantial at the secondary school level.

The absence of women in the paid labor market is hurting the world economy, development experts say.

If women were to play an identical role in labor markets to that of men, as much as $28 trillion, or 26 percent, could be added to global annual gross domestic product by 2025, according to a September 2015 study by McKinsey Global Institute.

Social and cultural norms also continue to stifle womens progress, and the restrictions can be both dangerous and debilitating.

In Saudi Arabia, women are not permitted to drive and cannot open bank accounts without their husbands permission. In Iran, a prominent politician recently called for donkeys, monkeys and women to be kept out of parliament. Uganda forbids women to gain permanent custody of children after a divorce. Vatican City remains the only country in the world where women cannot vote.

Honor killings, the traditional practice that allows the slaying of a family member who is believed to have brought dishonor on a family, claim thousands of womens lives every year in South and Central Asia. Pakistani human rights organizations estimate there are about 1,000 honor killings every year, according to Human Rights Watch.

Some communities in Ghana practice the tradition of gifting young girls to priests to atone for crimes, typically committed by a male family member, or to show gratitude for a blessing.

More than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthdays, according to UNICEF. Of those, about 250 million were wed before age 15. Child brides are common in West and Central Africa and South Asia,

 In El Salvador, where abortion is outlawed, a woman can be jailed for having a miscarriage or stillbirth. At least 200 million people alive today have undergone female genital mutilation, according to UNICEF.
WASHINGTON  The Pentagon has presented the White House with the most detailed set of military options yet for attacking the growing Islamic State threat in Libya, including a range of potential air strikes against training camps, command centers, munitions depots and other militant targets.

Air strikes against as many as 30 to 40 targets in four areas of the country would aim to deal a crippling blow to the Islamic States most dangerous affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria, and open the way for Western-backed Libyan militias to battle Islamic State fighters on the ground. Allied bombers would carry out additional air strikes to support the militias on the ground. The military option was described by five U.S. officials who have been briefed on the plans and spoke about them on the condition of anonymity because of their confidential nature.
TOKYO  Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a beheading mission against Kim Jong Un himself.

Its the kind of option military planners tend to consider but almost never use. Neither the U.S. military nor South Koreas defense ministry has actually said it is part of the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises that began this week and will go on for about two months.
Here is some stuff in the news today...Today is International Women's Day . I don't know any better way I can mark this day besides resolving to keep treating every day like International Women's Day in this space.[Content Note: Disablism] My oldest blogging friend, and one of the great liberal bloggers, Pam Spaulding, who for many years ran Pam's House Blend, could use some help , if you can. Shared with her permission. Janell Ross on Hillary Clinton and female voters : "In September, a shocking poll showed that Clinton's support among women had dropped off about 30 points in two months. That's serious by just about any standard. But it turns out that Clinton's real problem wasn't with all women, it was with white womendespite political analysts expecting white, progressive women, in particular, to gravitate toward her campaign and key themes. At that point, less than half supported Clinton in the Democratic primary campaigndown from 63 percent in July. Of course, that was a long time agolong before voting began. Now we have several states where we have gathered enough data from different groups of female voters with sample sizes large enough to tell us more... In fact, Clinton has lost the female vote in just two primary statesNew Hampshire and Sanders's home state of Vermont. (She does worse overall in caucus states, but most don't have entrance poll data.) That has a lot to do with her performances among black women, but she also has been very strong among white women. ...Her biggest leads are with women of color. In fact, she's winning nearly 9 in 10 black female voters, and she won more than 7 in 10 Texas Latinas."[CN: White supremacy; Nazi imagery] Rebecca Shabad: " Donald Trump says he's 'not happy' with comparisons to Hitler ." I bet he isn't! If he's unhappy with the comparison, perhaps he should stop doing things that invite it. "'I don't know about the Hitler comparison. I haven't heard that. But it's a terrible comparison, I'm not happy about that certainly. I don't want that comparison,' Trump said on ABC'sTrump has recently started to ask voters at his campaign rallies to raise their right hands and pledge to vote for hima sight that people have compared to the Nazi salute 'Heil Hitler.' ...On MSNBC'sTrump was asked whether he is trying to emulate Hitler. 'Boy, is that a stretch,' he said. '...They're raising their hands in the form of a vote, not in the form of a salute.' Asked if he would stop calling on voters to make that pledge, Trump told NBC's'I mean I'd like to find out that that's true, but I would certainly look into it, because I don't want to offend anybody.'"[CN: Surveillance; privacy violations] Welp: "The FBI has quietly revised its privacy rules for searching data involving Americans' international communications that was collected by the National Security Agency, US officials have confirmed to the Guardian. The classified revisions were accepted by the secret US court that governs surveillance, during its annual recertification of the agencies' broad surveillance powers. The new rules affect a set of powers colloquially known as Section 702, the portion of the law that authorizes the NSA's sweeping 'Prism' program to collect internet data. ...FBI officials can search through the data, using Americans' identifying information, for what PCLOB called 'routine' queries unrelated to national security. The oversight group recommended more safeguards around 'the FBI's use and dissemination of Section 702 data in connection with non-foreign intelligence criminal matters.'"[CN: Climate change] A new study has found that climate change will result in an "intensification of the hydrological cycle," meaning more total precipitation and more extreme precipitation events. "This intensification has implications for the risk of flooding as the climate warms, particularly for the world's dry regions."Relatedly: "[United States President] Barack Obama and [Canadian Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau will commit to work together to fight climate change and protect an Arctic experiencing the mildest winter ever recorded, sources familiar with the initiatives said. The two leaders were expected to announce a number of common climate measures at a meeting at the White House this week, from a 45% cut in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry to protections for a rapidly warming Arctic."[CN: Homophobia] "Tuesday morning, Democrats in the Missouri Senate are still chatting about the many businesses that support their LGBT customers and the importance of not discriminating. They have been filibustering since 4:00 PM Monday afternoon to try to block legislation codifying anti-gay discrimination into state law. What they've been fighting all night is Senate Joint Resolution 39, which would advance a constitutional amendment that would protect religious organizations and individuals who oppose same-sex marriage. Mirroring the 'First Amendment Defense Act' introduced in Congress and other states, the amendment would protect those who wish to discriminate from any government 'penalty.' ...Around 8:00 AM Central Time, Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D) said that she believes that they could go at least 24 hours, noting that they were already two-thirds of the way there. 'I can do this all day,' she said. 'This is my prime time.' At that point, she and Sen. Jill Schupp (D) had been debating the measure by themselves for three hours." ROCK ON.[CN: Misogyny] "Sexist attitudes are 'rife' in school textbooks used in developing countries, according to Unesco . The United Nations agency, marking International Women's Day, says negative stereotyping undermines the education of girls. It says too often female figures are represented in textbooks as 'nurturing drudges' in domestic roles. This is a 'hidden obstacle' to gender equality, says Unesco's Manos Antoninis. ...'Ensuring all boys and girls go to school is only part of the battle,' says Antoninis, from Unesco's global education monitoring report. 'What they are being taught is equally, if not more, important. Persistent gender bias in textbooks is sapping girls' motivation, self-esteem, and participation in school.'" I haven't looked at any school textbooks lately, but I'm guessing that it's still a problem everywhere, to varying degrees. Also? It's important whatsee girls doing in their textbooks, too.[CN: Guns] Fuck the gun lobby: "The U.S. gun industry is trying to shake off the Hollywood hitman image of the gun silencer and rebrand it as a hearing-protection device in a campaign to roll back regulations that date to the 1930s. Industry lobbying has led to more than a dozen states legalizing silencers for hunting since 2011. Now gun advocates are pressing Congress to repeal a Depression-era law that requires a months-long screening process for silencer buyersfar more scrutiny than gun buyers face." We should be moving in the opposite direction.And finally! Another heartwarming story about a children's reading program working with shelter pets: "'We let [the kids] read aloud to a cat, and it just does something really special,' Liz Ford of the Iowa City Animal Care Center told KFOR TV. 'These cats aren't going to correct their pronunciation.' ...Ford said the center's Read to the Paw program is helping both children and pets. 'It's a win-win situation,' she said. 'The cats are soothed and socialized by the young reader's voice, and students are able to strengthen their reading skills and build confidence by reading out loud in front of a non-judgmental audience,' shelter officials said in a news release." 
The New Zealand dollar gained against the British pound after Bank of England governor Mark Carney told lawmakers that a move to leave the European Union could hit the country's economy.

The kiwi advanced to 47.62 British pence at 8am in Wellington, from 47.49 pence at 5pm yesterday. The local currency was little changed at 67.63 US cents from 67.69 cents yesterday.

The pound slipped after BoE governor Carney warned the potential exit by Britain from the European Union would deliver a short-term hit to growth and the currency, foreign investment would probably diminish, and some big financial firms might move business out of Britain. Carney said he wasn't making any recommendation on how to vote, in an attempt to avoid becoming embroiled in a politically charged debate leading into the country's June 23 referendum on its EU status.

"BoE Governor Mark Carney saw a frosty exchange in the UK Parliament testifying on the issue of Brexit," Boris Schlossberg, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management in New York, said in a note. "Carney has tried to remain as neutral as possible in the debate but his clear pro-EU leanings came under strong criticism from pro-Brexit forces in the Parliament and some of the questioning was downright hostile.

"The market remains at a standstill as the pro and anti Brexit forces remained even split for now."

In New Zealand today, electronic card spending data for February is scheduled for release at 10:45am. In Australia, Westpac Banking Corp releases its consumer confidence index for March.

The New Zealand dollar declined to 90.63 Australian cents from 91.10 cents yesterday, slipped to 76.17 yen from 76.45 yen, and slid to 4.3989 yuan from 4.4037 yuan. It was little changed at 61.48 euro cents from 61.42 cents. The trade-weighted index weakened to 72.66 from 72.76 yesterday.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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The New Zealand dollar fell after Fonterra Cooperative Group cut its forecast payout to dairy farmers citing global oversupply, and as other commodity prices and equity markets dropped on waning appetite for risk-sensitive assets.

The kiwi declined to 67.69 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 67.95 cents at 8am and 67.96 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index dropped to 72.75 from 73.09 yesterday.

Fonterra trimmed 25 cents from its forecast payout for the current season to $3.90 per kilogram of milk solids, blaming Europe's production for oversupplying the market, and hinting at more support for cash-strapped farmer shareholders. At the same time, other commodity prices retreated from recent highs and stock markets across Asia declined on subdued risk sentiment.

"After a strong rally in commodity currencies we've seen in the past week or so, markets have taken a little bit of a step backwards as Asian equity markets pulled back," said Stuart Ive, senior dealer foreign exchange at OMF in Wellington. "The kiwi came off about 20 pips after the Fonterra news and hasn't really recovered from that."

Government data today showed New Zealand's manufacturing sales volumes rose 1.3 percent in the December quarter, led higher by petroleum and coal in what are typically volatile industries.

New Zealand's Reserve Bank is set to review the 2.5 percent official cash rate on Thursday, and while governor Graeme Wheeler is expected to loosen policy traders will be watching for guidance on future cuts.

The two-year swap rate increased one basis point to 2.42 percent, and 10-year swaps slipped one basis point to 3.11 percent.

The kiwi fell to 91.09 Australian from 91.64 cents yesterday, having hit a three-month low after yesterday's 19 percent jump in iron ore prices which retreated from that spike today.

The local currency dropped to 4.4044 Chinese yuan from 4.4254 yuan yesterday after government figures showed China's exports sank 25 percent in February and imports fell 14 percent.

The kiwi declined to 61.42 euro cents from 61.83 cents yesterday ahead of the upcoming European Central Bank meeting on Thursday in Brussels, which investors are expecting will inject more stimulus in the regional economy. The local currency dropped to 47.49 British pence from 47.82 pence yesterday, and sank to 76.46 yen from 77.25 yen.

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MUMBAI: Country's foreign exchange reserves declined by a whopping $3.58 billion to $346.79 billion in the week ended February 26, on account of fall in foreign currency assets, according to Reserve Bank.

In the previous week, the reserves had fallen by $1.47 billion to $350.37 billion.

FCAs, a major component of overall reserves, decreased by $3.56 billion to $325.03 billion in the reporting period, Reserve Bank of India said on Friday.

FCAs, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies, such as the euro, pound and the yen, held in the reserves.

Gold reserves remained unchanged at $17.70 billion in the week.

India's special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund dipped by $7.4 million to $1.48 billion in the week, while the country's reserve position with the Fund declined by $13 million to $2.59 billion, RBI said.

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BEIJING: Business tax in China will be replaced by value added tax (VAT) before May 2016, a concrete step in deepening fiscal and taxation reform, the country's finance minister said on Monday. "The progress in the VAT reform last year was slower than having planned, efforts would be made to meet the May 1 deadline," Xinhua quoted Minister of Fiance Lou Jiwei as saying on the sidelines of the National People's Congress annual session.



"Starting from May 1, the replacement of business tax with VAT will be extended to construction, real estate, finance and consumer services to ensure that the tax burdens on all industries is reduced," Premier Li Keqiang said.

The great number of corporate tax payers, about 9.6 million, in the four mentioned industries caused slow progress last year, Lou said.

Business tax refers to a levy on the gross revenue of a business while VAT refers to a tax levied on the difference between a commodity's price before taxes and its cost of production.

A pilot scheme on business tax-to-VAT was initiated in 2012.

From 2012 to the first half of 2015, the measure has resulted in tax savings of over 484.8 billion yuan ($75 billion), accounting for 0.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product in the period, according to China International Capital Corp. Ltd., a joint venture investment bank.

Lou encouraged businesses to make good use of the money saved from the VAT reform, especially by channelling it into higher efficient investment, to promote industrial upgrades, which satisfies the purpose of the ongoing supply-side structural reform.

"We may assure that VAT replacement means lower tax burdens for an industry as a whole but not necessarily means that any company in an industry would see lower taxes," Lou said.

Lou also said that his ministry was working with relevant agencies on property taxation and proposals on individual income tax reform.

However, he advised people not to hold their expectation too high as the reform will be in "a complicated process".

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BENGALURU: The Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys budget proposal for the year 2016-17 is a clear strategy for Indian economy's resilience amidst the current global economic turmoil. He has extended a detailed breakdown of the financial goals of the government for ensuring macro-economic stability and prudent fiscal management and boosting on domestic demand with continued pace of economic reforms. The roadmap for this budget also includes focus on vulnerable sections through funding rural sector schemes and agricultural reforms.

The proposed budget carries several reasons for the urban youth of India from middle to upper class sections of society to be attentive this time. From something as basic as cigarettes becoming more expensive, to entrepreneurial and housing tax breaks, the 2016-17 budget has a lot in store.

Homegrown has selected a few of the beneficial and important clause of this proposed budget, steering away from long-drawn debates regarding the implications of the same, and choosing to focus on the raw clauses themselves. Here is brief look at the breakdown that will affect the urban youth.

Taxation

 Excise duty has been raised from 10 to 15 percent on all tobacco products apart from beedis.

 1 percent excise imposed will be imposed on articles of jewelry, except silver.

 1 percent pollution cess will be levied on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars, and diesel cards of certain specifications will have 2.5 percent, and 4 percent for higher-end models and SUVs.

 Service tax: 0.5 percent Krishti Kalyan cess to be levied on all services, bumping up the service tax chargeable from 14.5 percent to 15 percent. This is including the Swachh Bharat tax of 0.5 percent, levied as of November 15, 2015.

Personal Finance

 There will be no changes in the existing income tax slabs, however the ceiling of tax rebate for tax-payers with income up to 5 lakh per annum will be raised from 2000 to 5000 to lessen tax burden. The debate surrounding the controversial EPF (employees provident fund) taxation on 60 percent of the withdrawal will be settled at the budget debate in Parliament.

Start-up India

 Previously, the Prime Minister indicated a three-year tax holiday to the start-up sector in India, and this time the government has allotted a 10,000 crore fund to finance new-age entrepreneurs.

Housing

 Home loans: For first home buyers, an additional interest deduction of 50,000 per annum for loans up to 35 lakh sanctioned during the next financial year, for houses whose value doesnt exceed 50 lakh. This deduction is in addition to the 2 lakh deduction already existing on home loans.

 Housing rent: For those living in rented houses, deduction for rent paid will be raised to Rs 60,000 from the current 24,000.

 Housing construction: service tax will be exempted for houses less than 60 sq. m.

Education

 Ten public and ten private institutions will be provided with regulatory architecture to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research Institutions.

 To setting up a Higher Education Financing Agency, an initial capital base of 1000 crores is allocated.

 Plan is proposed to set up a digital repository for School Leaving Certificates, College Degrees, Academic Awards and Mark sheets.

 Massive open online courses to be implemented for entrepreneurship education and training.

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NEW DELHI: On International Womens Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he salutes women for their accomplishments and expressed his governments unwavering commitment to their welfare through schemes such as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.

Saluting the accomplishments of all women on International Womens Day & gratitude for their indispensable role in our society, he said on twitter.

From Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao to better health & education facilities, our Govts efforts towards women-led development is unwavering, Modi said.

The Prime Minister said his governments skill development initiatives will empower women to contribute to Indias growth.

Our financial inclusion efforts, skill development initiatives & MUDRA Bank will empower our Nari Shakti to contribute to Indias growth, he said.

On International Womens Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he salutes women for their accomplishments and expressed his governments unwavering commitment to their welfare through schemes such as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.

Read Aslo: Indian Railways Forms Spv To Execute Bullet Train Project

First Batch Of IAF's Women Fighter Pilots To Be Inducted On June 18
ISLAMABAD: The US government has formally notified the intended sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, taking a major step towards finalising the deal, the media reported on Sunday.

"This proposed sale contributes to US foreign policy objectives and national security goals by helping to improve the security of a strategic partner in South Asia," said the notification published in the US Federal Register.

"We are grateful to the US administration and members of Congress for their acknowledgment of Pakistan's decisive actions against extremists and terrorists and of the effective role the F-16a play in our counter-terrorism efforts," Dawn online reported citing Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani as saying.

The notification estimates the total cost of the deal to be nearly $700 million.

However, the Indian government and some US lawmakers have criticised Washington's rationale that such an arms transfer will help combat terrorism. They claim the fighter jets will change the military balance in South Asia and will ultimately be used against India.

In a policy justification, posted on the Federal Register, the US administration rejected this assertion.

"The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region," it said, adding that the aircraft would improve "Pakistan's capability to meet current and future security threats".

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What's Costly and What's Cheap? 10 Takeaways from Budget 2016
NAGPUR: The tournament will begin on March 15 when India take on New Zealand and the qualifiers before that will fill in two slots for the Super 10 stage.

The opening day double-header in qualifiers features games between Zimbabwe and Hong Kong besides a Scotland and Afghanistan clash. Both the matches will be played in Nagpur.

The other teams in the qualifying round are Ireland and the Netherlands.

The top two teams from the qualifiers will join India, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies in the Super 10 stage, which will be played alongside the women's event from March 15-28.

Although Sri Lanka are the defending men's champions, they hardly seem to be an intimidating force having endured a 1-2 loss as recently as in February, to India.

On the contrary, 2007 champions India are looking like an unstoppable force which will be further galvanised by the passionate support from its adoring home fans.

The Asia Cup triumph, during which Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men did not lose a single match, is the latest confidence- booster that the Indians received heading into the big event after victories over Australia and Sri Lanka in the run-up.

India are in Super 10 Group 2 along with 2009 winners Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and a yet-to-be-decided qualifier.

India will launch their campaign in Nagpur against New Zealand on March 15 before they go head to head with Pakistan on March 19. Their other matches will be against a qualifier in Bengaluru on March 13 and Australia in Mohali on March 27.

Even though they are placed in a tough group, India are expected to make the semi-finals given the stupendous form the team is in coupled with the distinct home advantage.

Sri Lanka have been placed in Super 10 Group 1 along with South Africa, West Indies, England and a yet-to-be-decided qualifier. Their will open their title defence against the qualifier in Kolkata on March 17, and play West Indies in Bengaluru on March 20, England on March 26 and South Africa on March 28.

Read Also:

India Overpower Bangladesh To Win Asia Cup

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Donovan.jpg

Rep. Daniel Donovan will run for a second term this year and recently speaks to fellow Republicans. (Staten Island Advance/Rachel Shapiro)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Rep. Daniel Donovan has gotten support from the Conservative Party in his bid for re-election against a liberal Democrat in the November election.

Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) will run for his first full term against Democrat Richard Reichard, a retired city employee and former president of the Staten Island Democratic Association.

Donovan was the only candidate who interviewed with the Conservative Party.

"We endorsed Dan Donovan in last year's special election and believe his work over the past ten months more than justifies his election to a full term," Conservative Party Chairman Harold J. Wagner. Jr. said on behalf of the executive committee. "We are especially impressed with his voting record thus far, including his opposition to the dangerous Iran nuclear deal and the Affordable Care Act and his support for the Zadroga Act to extend healthcare for 9/11 responders."

Donovan said in a statement, "As I have been in the past, I am proud to once again have the endorsement of the Conservative Party of Richmond County. I applaud the leadership of Chairman Wagner and the party's executive committee, and I look forward to continuing to work with him and the entire Conservative Party in advancing the conservative agenda we share in common."
Republicans are voting in primaries in three states and caucusing in one on Tuesday, with Democratic primaries taking place in two states. Polls began closing at 8 p.m. EST.

Stay with us for updates throughout the evening. All times Eastern.

Latest Results

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Hawaii Republican caucus:

Donald Trump is projected as winner

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Idaho Republican primary:

Ted Cruz is projected as winner

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Michigan Democratic primary:

Bernie Sanders is projected as winner

*

Michigan Republican primary:

Donald Trump is projected as winner

*

Mississippi Democratic primary:

Hillary Clinton is projected as winner

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Mississippi Republican primary:

Donald Trump is projected as winner

Latest News

2:36 a.m.



Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential caucuses in Hawaii, adding to his victories earlier Tuesday in Michigan and Mississippi.



Trump won three of the four Republican contests held on Tuesday. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the fourth, picking up a victory in the Idaho primary.



It was a tough night for John Kasich and Marco Rubio, who both sought momentum headed into primary elections in their home states next week.



Cruz edged out Kasich in Michigan, where the Ohio governor had spent much of the past week campaigning.



And Rubio posted two third-place and two fourth-place finishes on a disappointing night for the Florida senator.

12:40 a.m.: Trump takes most delegates, but Cruz slows front runner's gains

Donald Trump is winning the most GOP delegates in Tuesday's contests, but Ted Cruz's victory in Idaho is limiting Trump's gains.

Trump will win at least 59 delegates, Cruz will win at least 44 and John Kasich will win at least 17.

Marco Rubio didn't win any delegates in Michigan or Mississippi and was in danger of being shut out in Idaho, too.

Republican voters were also going to the polls in Hawaii.

A total of 150 Republican delegates were at stake in four states Tuesday. There were still 30 GOP delegates to be allocated, including all 19 in Hawaii.

In the overall race for delegates, Trump has 446 and Cruz has 347. Rubio has 151 delegates and Kasich has 54.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

12:14 a.m.: Cruz wins Idaho



Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won the Republican presidential primary in Idaho, adding a seventh state win to his tally in the 2016 White House race.



He finished ahead of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who earlier Tuesday won the day's two biggest prizes -- the primary elections in Mississippi and Michigan.



Still to come are the results from the GOP's caucuses in Hawaii. They'll wrap up at 1 a.m. Eastern time, with results to follow a few hours later.

11:52 p.m.: Sanders 'grateful' for Michigan win

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he's "grateful to the people of Michigan for defying the pundits and pollsters" and delivering him a win in the state's Democratic presidential primary.

In a statement issued after Sanders' win over Hillary Clinton, he says, "We came from 30 points down in Michigan and we're seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America."

Sanders adds that the results "show that we are a national campaign. We already have won in the Midwest, New England and the Great Plains and as more people get to know more about who we are and what our views are, we're going to do very well."

11:31 p.m.: Sanders wins tight race in Michigan

Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic presidential primary in Michigan, claiming victory over Hillary Clinton in an industrial Midwest state where voters expressed concerns about trade and jobs.

But despite his close win, he won't see any real gains in delegates for the night. And Clinton has now earned more than half of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

With 130 Michigan delegates at stake, Sanders will win at least 63 and Clinton at least 52. His gains will be canceled out by Clinton's earlier win in Mississippi. She already entered the night with a 196-delegate lead over Sanders based on primaries and caucuses alone.

Democrats award delegates in proportion to the vote, so Clinton was able to add on a good chunk of delegates even after losing Michigan.

Including superdelegates, her lead becomes even bigger -- at least 1,214 to Sanders' 566.

Still, Sanders can claim a small streak of wins going into a pivotal batch of delegate-rich contests next week.

Since Super Tuesday, Sanders has now won four of the last six states holding contests. Next week, Democratic voters head to the polls in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Florida. In all, 691 delegates will be at stake.

11:23 p.m.: Glitch in reporting system in Detroit fixed, officials say

Elections officials in Detroit say all is back to normal after a computer glitch caused a temporary issue with reporting results in the state's presidential primary election.

City elections chief Daniel Baxter says Detroit for a short time Tuesday night reported to country officials a single number of votes for each candidate, a combination of both absentee ballots and those cast in person. The county sought a separate tally for each kind of vote.

Baxter says the process of starting the vote count over to report absentee votes and in-person votes separately took about 15 minutes, and did not affect the total votes cast for any candidate.

10:25 p.m.: Trump says bleeped-out clip in negative ad will help more than hurt

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he thinks a negative ad that features clip after bleeped-out clip of him swearing publicly is actually going to help him with voters.

Trump said Tuesday he was a little concerned by the ad from the American Future Fund Political Action until he saw it.

He said he thinks that "it's better than any ad I've ever taken for myself."

Trump said he "can be more presidential than anybody" but that right now he's focused on beating his rivals.

He adds that, "people are sick and tired of being politically correct."

Trump says that in some of the instances shows in the ad he was joking. In others, he says he was demonstrating "a certain toughness that we need in our country."

He adds that if he had a choice between taking the ad down and letting it run, he'd say, "let it run."

10:15 p.m.: Kasich 'very pleased' with Michigan results

John Kasich says he's "very pleased" with the results in Michigan's primary, despite the race for second remaining too close to call between Kasich and Ted Cruz.

Speaking to an energized crowd Tuesday, Kasich said voters are beginning to hear and reward his positive campaign as the race turns to his home state of Ohio.

He's telling the crowd he got on his hands and knees and "almost kissed the ground" when his plane landed in Cleveland for an event Tuesday afternoon.

Kasich has yet to win a state, but has taken second place in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. Still, his campaign is continuing on with the belief that the primary calendar will become more favorable as more Midwestern and northern states begin voting.

Of his campaign, he says, "we struggled and worked in obscurity for a very long time."

10:10 p.m.: Clinton looks ahead in Cleveland rally

Hillary Clinton did not mention the primary contests in Michigan or Mississippi during a rally in Cleveland Tuesday night, instead looking ahead.

Saying she expects a "busy week" in Ohio, which holds its crucial winner-take-all primary on March 15, Clinton said Tuesday that she was "excited to have the campaign building across this state."

Clinton said she was proud of the campaigns she and Bernie Sanders were running and focused her criticism instead on the Republicans.

"America is great," she told a cheering crowd, using GOP front-runner Donald Trump's campaign mantra. She reiterated her call to "make it whole."

"We are better than what we are being offered by the Republicans," she said.

9:55 p.m.: Trump websites copy from outside sources without attribution

Multiple state-based websites for the Donald Trump campaign contain wording copied exactly from others sources with no attribution.

The Republican presidential front-runner has copied wording for Arkansas, Idaho, Ohio, Colorado, Michigan sites all regarding voter information from outside sources.

In Idaho, the Trump campaign used a 2012 Boise State Public Radio story containing information on where and how to vote. It also cited judicial races no longer taking place and quotes a former Idaho Republican Party official.

Peter Morrill, the radio station's interim general manager, says no one from the Trump campaign requested permission to use the story.

Meanwhile, in states like Michigan and Arkansas, the same voter information on Trump's state website is posted on the state's Secretary of State website.

9:45 p.m.: Trump's delegate lead grows

Donald Trump is expanding his lead in the race for delegates with wins in Republican primaries in Michigan and Mississippi.

Trump will win at least 21 delegates in Michigan and at least 20 in Mississippi. In Michigan, John Kasich will win at least 15 delegates and Ted Cruz will win at least 12.

There are a total of 150 Republican delegates at stake in four states Tuesday. Voters are also going to the polls in Idaho and Hawaii.

In the overall race for delegates, Trump has 428 and Cruz has 315. Rubio has 151 delegates and Kasich has 52.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

9:30 p.m.: Advertising is less important than competence, Trump says

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says that his wins in Tuesday's primary elections are proof that advertising is less important than competence.

Trump has won both the Mississippi and Michigan primaries despite an onslaught of negative advertising from a late-coming "stop Trump" effort.

In a speech to supporters in Jupiter, Florida Tuesday after winning the two primaries, Trump said there's never been more money spent than what is being spent to take him down.

And yet, he told his supporters, "only one person did well tonight: Donald Trump."

9:15 p.m.: Trump wins Michigan Republican primary

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Michigan, edging out rivals to post his 14th state victory of the 2016 White House race.

It's the second victory for Trump in Tuesday's nomination contests. The billionaire businessman also won Mississippi's Republican primary earlier Tuesday.

Idaho and Hawaii will also vote late Tuesday.

Heading into Tuesday's contests, Trump led the Republican field with 384 delegates, followed by Ted Cruz with 300, Marco Rubio with 151 and John Kasich with 37. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.

8:36 p.m.: Rubio rallies voters in home state of Florida

Marco Rubio is telling voters in his native Florida that the election will be decided in the state when it settles its winner-take-all contest next week.

Rubio, who campaigned Tuesday in Ponte Vedra as four states held nomination contests, urged Floridians not to allow Democrats to continue the policies of President Barack Obama. He vowed never to betray U.S. allies, specifically Israel, vowing always to be on Israel's side.

The 44-year old Florida senator also said that while he may not be the oldest candidate, he has the most foreign policy experience and can lead the nation in decisions that impact national security.

Early voting and absentee voting have already begun in Florida ahead of the March 15 primary. So far, early preference polls show Rubio's rival, billionaire Donald Trump, ahead in the state.

8:35 p.m.: Trump wins Mississippi primary

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Mississippi, edging out Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to post his 13th state victory of the 2016 White House race.

The billionaire businessman extends his lead for the highly contested Republican nomination amid a growing outcry by party elites against his unorthodox candidacy.

Heading into Tuesday's contests, Trump led the Republican field with 384 delegates, followed by Cruz with 300, Marco Rubio with 151 and John Kasich with 37. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.

8:02 p.m.: Clinton will take at least 21 delegates in Mississippi

Hillary Clinton is adding to her big delegate lead after a win in Mississippi.

With 36 delegates at stake, she is assured of picking up at least 21.

Entering Tuesday's contests, she held a 196-delegate lead over Sanders based on the results from primaries and caucuses. Still, Sanders is counting on winning several upcoming states in a bid to recapture momentum.

Also voting on Tuesday were voters in Michigan, with 130 delegates up for grabs.

Clinton's lead is even bigger when including superdelegates, the party leaders who can support any candidate they wish. She now has at least 1,155. Sanders has at least 502. It takes 2,383 to win.

Democrats living abroad also were submitting ballots by mail in their primary, with 13 delegates at stake. Their results will be released later this month.

8:00 p.m.: Clinton wins in Mississippi

Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic presidential primary in Mississippi, riding a continuing wave of support from black voters in Southern states to claim her latest victory over Bernie Sanders.

The former secretary of state will proportionally be awarded a share of the state's 36 delegates. Clinton had already earned 1,134 delegates in previous contests, versus 502 that have gone to Sanders.

Clinton's number is roughly half the amount she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination for president. Her win in Mississippi comes off weekend contests in which Sanders won three out of four states.

7:00 p.m.: Cruz attacks Trump for asking rally attendees to pledge allegiance to him

Ted Cruz is going after Donald Trump's recent move of asking rally attendees to pledge their allegiance to him.

Cruz told a crowd of 1,000 at a Kannapolis, North Carolina church on Tuesday that the move strikes him as "profoundly wrong" and is something "kings and queens demand" of their subjects.

Trump has recently begun kicking off his rallies by asking thousands of attendees to raise a hand and pledge to support him in upcoming elections, including at a rally Monday afternoon in Concord, North Carolina.

"I'm not here asking any of you to pledge your support of me," Cruz said, to thunderous applause and cheers. "I'm pledging my support of you."

5:50 p.m.: Senate Minority Leader: 'No idea' why no Senate Republicans endorse Cruz

"I have no idea," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday when asked why he thought no Senate Republicans have endorsed Cruz.

"It's a circus, and I'm not part of that circus."

Asked if he thought he could work with a President Cruz, Reid said he wouldn't predict how the GOP primaries will end up and added, "It's going to be a nasty affair."

Sens. John Thune or John Cornyn had said Cruz would change if elected president.

No. 3 Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said, "That's a great slogan. Maybe he'll change."

"Doesn't that say a lot," Schumer said of Cruz's lack of any Senate endorsements. He said "it says something about what people think he'll be as president."

5:35 p.m.: Michigan Democrats want government to protect public water supplies

Democratic primary voters in Michigan overwhelmingly think the government needs to do more to protect the safety of public water supplies.

Early results of the exit poll conducted for the Associated Press and television networks for Edison Research show that more than 8 in 10 Democrats voting in the state Tuesday think government regulations need to be made stronger to ensure a safe water supply, while just 1 in 10 think current regulations go far enough.

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have drawn attention to the issue leading up to Tuesday's primary, including at Saturday night's debate in Flint, Michigan.

5:25 p.m.: Economy on the minds of voters in Michigan, Mississippi

Most voters in Michigan and Mississippi, regardless of party, are worried about the direction of the country's economy, and many consider trade to be a negative influence on American jobs.

According to early results of exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks Tuesday, at least 8 in 10 voters in each primary say they are very or somewhat worried about where the American economy is headed.

More than half of Democratic and Republican voters in Michigan, along with Republicans in Mississippi, say trade with other countries takes jobs. In Mississippi, Democratic primary voters are more closely divided on the subject, with 4 in 10 saying it takes away jobs and nearly as many thinking it has a positive impact.

At least 8 in 10 Democratic voters in both states see the country's economic system as benefiting the wealthy.

Earlier

Republican front-runner Donald Trump faces a test of his durability with white, working-class voters in Michigan, the first industrial state to vote in the 2016 primaries and the biggest prize among four states casting ballots Tuesday in the turbulent GOP race.

Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii are also holding Republican contests. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in Michigan and Mississippi.

Squeezed between high-profile Super Tuesday and high-stakes primaries next week in Florida and Ohio, Tuesday's contests are unlikely to dramatically reshape either party's primaries. But with 150 Republican and 179 Democratic delegates at stake, the races offer an opportunity for front-runners to pad leads - and rivals to catch up.

Heading into Tuesday, Trump led the Republican field with 384 delegates, followed by Ted Cruz with 300, Marco Rubio with 151 and John Kasich with 37. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.

Among Democrats, Clinton had accumulated 1,134 delegates and Sanders 499, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Check back here for live updates throughout the day.

LIVE PRIMARY COVERAGE:
Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 2.19.50 PM.png

New York has the 11th highest real-estate property taxes, according to Wallethub study. (Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you're a homeowner in New York, you probably think your property taxes are high.

If so, you're right, says a recent Wallethub study, which ranks New York as the state with the 11th highest property taxes in the country.

According to the study, the median property taxes in the state are $4,478, as compared to $2,773 nationwide.

"New York ranked 41st overall in terms of real-estate taxes, with one of the highest effective real-estate tax rates at 1.58 percent. In terms of the state's median home value ($284,000), the annual property taxes due would be $4,478," said Jill Gonzalez, a Wallethub analyst.

STATEN ISLAND HAS LOWER PROPERTY TAXES

However, local Realtors say Staten Island property taxes tend to be lower than other places in the state.

"Staten Island is the best bet of all the boroughs when it comes to property taxes," said Claire Bisignano Chesnoff, broker/owner of the New Dorp-based Claire Properties, and president of the Staten Island Board of Realtors.

And the property taxes in Long Island are much higher.

"Property taxes for a house on Staten Island might be $5,000 when the same house in Long Island would have property taxes of $15,000," she said. "Property taxes on Staten Island have gone up over the last 10 years, but we are still ahead of the curve."

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Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers run/walk 2015 honors 9/11 heroes

This 2015 file photos shows the first wave of runners in the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers run/walk -- another charity event sponsored by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. (Staten Island Advance/Steve Zaffarano)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A charity stair climb at One World Trade Center organized by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to honor first-responders killed on September 11 has been abruptly canceled by the building's landlord, according to a report.

"This is all about profits, greed and getting the building leased,'' John Hodge, chairman of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, told the Post.

The Tunnel to Towers stair climb was meant to raise funds to build hi-tech homes for returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan who are triple- and quadruple-amputees.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An NYPD captain from Staten Island was docked vacation days for an unrelated incident in 2014 before being put on modified duty after he allegedly left work during the emergency response for two police officers who were shot in Brooklyn.

Capt. Scott Forster, 31, of Eltingville, was a lieutenant when he lost 10 vacation days after an internal review found that his subordinates didn't prepare a complaint report for a robbery in 2014, according to a spokesman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Forster, who recently was transferred to a precinct in the Bronx, was not immediately available for comment.

An internal NYPD probe continues into Forster's most recent trouble stemming from when NYPD officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were shot at about 3:20 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20, during a car chase and shootout with a suspect in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section.

The officers were rushed to Kings County Hospital, which is located within the confines of the 71st Precinct, where Forster served as executive officer. While the actual shooting happened in a different precinct, it reportedly would have been Forster's job to help organize the NYPD response at the hospital, including visits from top officials and family members of the injured cops.

In an exclusive interview, Forster told the Advance that he suffered a "hypertensive crisis" after he left work when the officers were shot and was too sick to return. Forster said he did not learn of the shooting until after he had finished his shift and already was at home on Staten Island.

Forster said that he started work on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. the prior day and ended at 3:30 a.m. the day of the shooting, nearly a half hour before he and his precinct were notified of the assault.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- He was supposed to be dispensing high-value HIV medicine.

But instead, a pharmacist from Staten Island paid his patients for their prescriptions, and lined his pockets with more than $59,000 in Medicaid reimbursement for scripts he never actually filled, authorities allege.

Mohamed Hassan Eladma, was arrested early Tuesday morning and charged with fraudulently billing Medicaid at his Pharmacy Express outlets in Brooklyn and the Bronx, said state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

"Healthcare providers cannot put their own interests above the needs of patients for financial gain," said Schneiderman in a statement. "Theft and abuse of one of New York's most important healthcare programs is shameless and will not be tolerated."

"To prey on the most vulnerable New Yorkers for personal gain is appalling," said city Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks.

Prosecutors said Eladma is 51; however, public records indicate he's 52 and lives in Greenridge.

Eladma ran the scam out of Alkheirat Inc. at 1081 Rutland Road, Brooklyn, and Baraka Inc. at 2088 White Plains Road in the Bronx, between May 2014 and January of this year, said officials.

He paid patients hundreds of dollars in cash for their prescriptions, mostly for medicine to treat HIV.

The patients agreed to forgo their medicine, and Eladma submitted phony claims to the state Medicaid program falsely certifying that the meds had been dispensed, said Schneiderman.

The probe was conducted by the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Human Resources Administration.

Eladma will being charged in Brooklyn Criminal Court with grand larceny, health care fraud and offering a false instrument for filing, all felonies, said officials.

Alkheirat Inc. will be charged in Brooklyn Criminal Court with grand larceny.

Baraka Inc. will be charged in Bronx Criminal Court with grand larceny, said authorities.

Attempts to obtain Eladma's phone number were unsuccessful.

His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
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The Pentagon on Monday provided some details about the Somalia strike, which happened during the early evening there. Davis said it appeared that the training was about to come to an end, and the operational phase of a suspected attack was about to start. Military forces from the U.S. and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) are routinely working in the country, and Davis said they could have been the targets of al-Shabab's planned attack.
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I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs

"You may be a nasty right winger, but you're not nasty all the time!" Warren Kinsella

"Go back to collecting your welfare livelihood."Michael E. Zilkowsky

Intelliweather

Seismic Map

Comments Policy

Read this

Best Of SDA

Hide The Decline

The Bottle Genie

(ClimateGate links)

You Might Be A Liberal

Uncrossing The Line

Bob Fife: Knuckledragger

A Modest Proposal (NP)

Settled Science Series

Y2Kyoto Series

SDA: Reader Occupation Survey

Brett Lamb Sheltered Workshop

Flakes On A Plane

All Your Weather Are Belong To Us

Song Of The Sled

The Raise A Flag Debacle

(Now on Youtube!)

(.mwv Video)

Abuse Ruins Life Of Girl

Trudeaupiate

Kleptocrat Jeans

Child Labour

I Concede

Small Dead Feminist

Protein Hoser: THK Interview

The Werewolf Extinction

Dear Laura (VRWC)

We Wait

Blogging The Oscars

Jackson Converts To Islam

Just Shut The HELL Up

Manipulating Condi

Gay Equality Rights


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System error

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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe49488)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f024d2b8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe49488)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f024d2b8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe49e30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f024d2b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f024d2b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880c938)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02bd540)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02bd540)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
I teach a very long MBA course on brand management at Melbourne Business School. In that course, I cover all the major topics of branding from research to positioning to pricing to communications. The shortest of all the topics I teach is the section on rebranding. It is literally one slide.

The title of the slide says "Rebranding", the first of the three bullet points underneath says; "Only do it if legally essential". The second bullet says; "Stay personally away from any and all rebranding efforts". The third bullet point shows the logos of Consignia (formerly the British Post Office) and Beyond Petroleum (formerly British Petroleum).

Starting today it looks like I might need to add Yes (formally Optus) to my list.

If the rumours are to be believed, the Singaporean-owned telco has considered rebranding itself as Yes. As a branding expert and marketing professor, I can confirm that the move would be stupid and almost certain to end in tears. You probably do not need me to explain why, but indulge me anyway.
The announcement came after iron ore surged 19 per cent overnight to $US63.74 a tonne - its highest level since June 15 last year - and a 24 per cent jump in the Fortescue share price to $3.08 on Monday. Fortescue shares opened higher on Tuesday before falling 9.4 per cent to $2.79. Fortescue Metals share price jumped 23.7 per cent on Monday to close at $3.08. Mr Power stressed that any asset sales to Vale would be in mines, not in Fortescue's railway or port. "We are not intending to sell part of the infrastructure assets - we did have a look at that a few years ago but we have taken that off the table and all that we have been considering have been in the mining assets," he said. Fortescue's founder, chairman and major shareholder Andrew Forrest has not spoken publicly since the deal was announced, but it is believed he does not plan to reduce his 33.32 per cent stake in the company if and when Vale starts buying the stock.

New iron ore product The aspect of the agreement that appears most likely to go ahead is the iron ore joint venture, would would see the companies sell a new iron ore product into China. The product would be a blend of Fortescue's Pilbara ore (which has lower iron grades and low impurity levels) and Vale's Brazilian ore, which has a higher iron grade and higher impurities. The companies hope the blended product would allow them to mine less attractive ores and blend them up to a marketable standard, and thereby operate more cheaply. Mr Power said he expected the blended product would attract a premium to the benchmark iron ore price, which is for ores with 62 per cent iron content.

Fortescue has historically sold its Pilbara product at 8 to 12 per cent below the benchmark price, because it has a slightly lower iron content. Mr Power said Fortescue was likely to supply 40 to 50 per cent of the blended product. Fortescue exported 165.4 million tonnes from Port Hedland during the 2015 financial year and expects to ship a similar amount in the year to June 30, so the new joint venture with Vale is expected to affect between 25 and 30 per cent of the miner's current production. Fortescue will continue to sell its remaining tonnes as it does now. Boon for investors

Shaw and Partners analyst Peter O'Connor said Fortescue shareholders would be "absolutely thrilled" by the announcement. "The balance of power in the iron ore market has shifted today with this bloc potentially emerging," Mr O'Connor said. "This is another positive development in the evolution of Fortescue and increases its credibility in the market's eyes as a sustainable, long-term, viable iron ore company. Not that I ever doubted that, but some people did. "This is an announcement done by a company [Fortescue] that has got control, it is not a company under pressure or under duress." Mr Wilkins said he also expected the market to react positively to the news.

"Long term, this could be viewed as the first step of a more disciplined approach to iron ore supply by aligning two of the big four [iron ore miners]. We expect the market to react positively to this news," he said. Regulatory implications Mr Power said he hoped the MoU would be formalised within three to six months, and Fortescue had already briefed Chinese regulators on the plan. "There is no reduction in competition from this, if anything it improves the competitiveness of supply to the Chinese steel industry," said Mr Power on Tuesday. But Mr Wilkins was not so sure that regulators would be sanguine about the deal; "there may be regulatory implications from China, in our view".

Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina also predicted that China would have competition concerns with the plan. "Anti-trust risk is exacerbated by the strategic importance of seaborne iron ore to the Chinese steel industry and economy," he said. The notion of Vale buying 15 per cent of Fortescue might also attract the attention of Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), particularly given the Brazilian government's sway over Vale. Originally a government-owned company, Vale was privatised in 1997 on the grounds that the government was given "golden shares" in Vale, which mean it can veto proposals. A spokeswoman for Treasurer Scott Morrison said transactions were examined on a case-by-case basis.

"The Treasurer does not comment on applications or potential applications to the Foreign Investment Review Board," she said. "The Treasurer will consider a wide range of issues in any decision making in any foreign investment application and will rely upon detailed advice that would be prepared by FIRB." Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said Fortescue and Vale had not contacted him about the proposal, but his agency would examine the proposal to ensure it did not breach competition rules. "We will look at it, but in saying that, we are not necessarily signalling any concerns," he said. 'Innovative'

The Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, has told a conference in Perth on Tuesday that he would not be opposed to Vale and Fortescue establishing the proposed partnership. "As I understand it they are going to blend their ores in China. To me that is innovative and just part of the market process in the iron ore industry so I am not concerned about it, I think it is probably good for FMG and good for exports," he said. "They will still pay full royalties on every piece of iron ore that is extracted from Western Australia." Vale has a long history of working in Australia, having owned coal mines on the nation's east coast and nickel exploration tenements in the Fraser Range region of WA. Vale is in the middle of a $US14.5 billion iron ore expansion project in the Carajas region of Brazil, which will push the company's iron ore exports beyond 400 million tonnes a year.

Mr Power said he did not believe the Fortescue deal would alter Vale's expansion plans. "I don't think anything in this would change those plans but certainly the ability to blend with our ores and meet that sector of the market is a very strong addition to their marketing for their Carajas ores," he said. Export caps Fortescue has recently vowed to cap its exports at about 165 million tonnes per year, and has been critical of large rivals, including Vale, for continuing to grow their exports amid weak iron ore prices. Mr Power said the agreement with Vale was not hypocritical and was not a sign that Fortescue would lift its exports.

"No change to our production guidance for this year, we haven't given guidance for FY17 and we will do that as we continue to observe how the market is shaking up, but right now I don't see any justification for any increased volumes into the market," he said. "Our criticism of the industry was the tactics and strategy of deliberate oversupply to try and drive competitors out of the market and that is what we railed against ... this is not any strategy to try and exert control over the market, it is rather trying to capture value that exists there by creating a blend that feeds a market segment and meets a market demand that we believe will suit our customers very nicely." Mr Power said he did not recall which company had made the first approach, but the non-binding deal had been under discussion for close to a year. "The talks have been ongoing for probably a year now and we have been in quite strong discussions since then exploring the outlines of this and we have now brought it to a stage when we can put it in an Mo U," he said. Share price surge

Asked if it was investigating the timing of Monday's share price surge and Tuesday's announcement, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was non-committal. "We do not comment on specifics but generally, ASIC makes inquiries into disclosure issues and trading consistent with our usual practices around company announcements which result in significant market movements. We also closely review all trading ahead of material announcements," said a spokeswoman for the regulator. Mr Power said Monday's sharp share price rise was a sign that short-sellers were forced to buy stock and close out positions rather than any leak of the Vale deal. "We did want to bring it to the market and make sure there was full transparency as soon as we could - I don't think there is any relationship to the share price, if you look at our share price move versus the rest of the market, it is pretty well in line," he said, in reference to iron ore juniors like BC Iron and Atlas Iron rising more than 30 per cent on Monday, and South African iron ore company Kumba rising 22 per cent. Major diversified miners like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto rose by closer to 6 per cent on Monday.
History is always a matter of interpretation, and political history is no different. The protagonists usually write narratives that accord with their own aspirations, achievements and occasionally admit a failing or two. Their courtiers, with hindsight, usually share in the glory but blame their leader for any mistakes. And then there is the fourth estate  journalists and commentators  whose effectiveness depends on their proximity to power as privileged recipients of information.

As a publisher I have always preferred the account of the main players, however myopic, to the commentary. Those commentators we publish, like the eminence grise Paul Kelly, bring the highest standards of journalism to their craft. Kelly's definitive and award-winning account of the Rudd-Gillard saga, Triumph and Demise, relied on more than 50 on-the-record interviews to underpin his analysis. It would be unthinkable and unprofessional for Kelly not to offer individuals the opportunity to respond to claims. It is Journalism 101. Those political books that stand the test of time are critical and rigorous; they sift through the dross to eliminate innuendo, gossip, and the petty grievances of second raters and wannabes.

Until the publication of Niki Savva's The Road to Ruin, the private lives of Australian politicians were generally accepted to be off-limits. Now it is suggested that the former prime minister and his chief-of-staff were so intimately involved as to ensure their own downfall. Apparently Tony Abbott was a nice bloke, good in opposition but indecisive in office. His chief-of-staff was a power-hungry dominatrix prone to tantrums who crucially failed to know her place. I think the vulgar term is "ball breaker." Peta Credlin is apparently a "hysterical", "domineering" "bully". Isn't it just possible that she was simply a very effective and efficient professional?
Adele Fergusons reports show that some clients have been denied payouts after a heart attack on the basis of a medical definition which the bank itself has known since 2014 was out of date and inadequate.

As a joint investigation from Fairfax Media and the ABCs Four Corners has revealed, CommInsure in too many cases has been concerned with process to the detriment of fairness towards people who are its clients.

Bureaucracies are set up to preserve corporate memory, but sometimes they can forget things. The Commonwealth Banks insurance bureaucracy, though it no doubt remembers many details about its many clients, seems lately to have forgotten ordinary human decency, moderation, and common sense in some outstanding cases.

In a separate case, one of the banks own employees, who had won its performance award just three years earlier, was given short shrift when he tried to claim against his insurance after a brutal assault had left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. The fine print of an insurance policy, in other words, won out over what both sides know is common sense and decency when the policy was called on.

In response, the Commonwealth Bank's chief executive officer, Ian Narev, has apologised at some length to the customers involved in a statement, and has vowed that his organisation will do better. His move is straight out of the public relations playbook: when caught and in the wrong, apologise immediately, sincerely and often, until your critics grow tired and fall away.

PR or not, his apology is welcome, and reassuring no doubt for the individuals concerned. But it would be more effective if it were not for previous revelations about the Commonwealth Bank of a similar type.

In 2013 we published reports by Ferguson and others which showed the bank had put its own interests above those of superannuants, both in selling them unsuitable investment products and in the way it subsequently dealt with their complaints about the financial losses which resulted. Instead of transparency, the bank showed itself defensive, stubborn and begrudging when confronted with evidence of its employees wrongdoing.

Whistleblowers in the bank who had seen what was happening and had tried to bring it to the attention of authorities suffered as a result. Details of the bank employees behaviour and clients dismay and distress at their losses had to be published before anything concrete was achieved.
Think global warming is a recent phenomenon? Well, climate scientists have some news for you.

An international team of researchers, including Australian scientists, have traced humanity's influence through greenhouse gas emissions on creating extreme weather events right back to 1937.

Climate scientists have in recent times become more confident in ascribing individual extreme weather to climate change, with the tendency having been to focus on recent, newsworthy events, including Australian heatwaves.

But the research group behind the latest paper - published on Tuesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters - sought to look back as far as possible to detect the earliest event that human activity - such as burning fossil fuels and clearing forests - could be said to have increased the chances of it occurring.
The peak body representing Australia's universities has lashed the Turnbull government for its lack of action on higher education, saying it has subjected the sector to intolerable uncertainty.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham last October announced the government had shelved its plan to deregulate university fees and that he was "all ears" for new policy ideas.

Since then, the government has not released a new direction for higher education fees. Some $20 billion in savings linked to the original deregulation package, including a 20 per cent cut to course funding, remain in the budget projections for the next decade.

Universities Australia chair Barney Glover will on Wednesday call on the major parties to detail their higher education policies ahead of a looming election.
All senior executive jobs in the NSW public service will be open to employees choosing flexible working arrangements, the state's Premier announced on Tuesday.

Only about two per cent of senior public service jobs are currently filled via a "flexible" working arrangement, such as working from home or sharing a job with part-time hours.

Mr Baird addresses the 2016 International Women's Day breakfast. Credit:Peter Rae

But the Premier, Mike Baird, told a Sydney breakfast marking International Women's Day the government would seek to raise that figure in a move that would help increase the representation of women in senior roles.

"I can announce that 100 per cent of public service jobs will be flexible by 2019 on the basis of 'if not, why not'," Mr Baird said on Tuesday morning. "We're changing our default position on the 8-6 desk-bound job."
A former Labor politician has recounted a "nightmare" stay in Canberra Hospital, where he spent five days waiting for a procedure before discharging himself in frustration.

John Hargreaves, a member of the ACT parliament for 14 years until his resignation in 2012, said he was sent by his doctor to the emergency room on Thursday, February 4, in severe pain and with a fever.

Former Labor parliamentarian John Hargreaves: A "nightmare" encounter with Canberra Hospital. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Arriving at 6pm, he had to wait 30 minutes to even see the triage nurse, and said he wondered as he waited why people who might need faster treatment could not be prioritised.

Once he reached the head of the queue, he was categorised as "urgent", but still had to wait an hour before he saw a doctor, in pain so severe he was eventually given intravenous morphine.
Although the wars in Europe and the Pacific were not yet over the Australian government was already considering how best to rewards its servicemen and women in March 1945.

"The Federal government has accepted the proposal of the parliamentary committee on war gratuities [bonuses] for servicemen," the Army News reported in a small, but we suggest very well read, article in the March 8 edition.

An example of the currency printed by Japan to be used in occupied territories.

"Rates will be two shillings and sixpence a day [25] a day for overseas service and sixpence a day for service on the mainland.

"The proposals will be incorporated in a bill to be brought before parliament soon."
Some of Australia's top iron ore industry executives have expressed their surprise at the sharp recovery in the iron price but conceded they don't expect the rally to persist.

Iron ore surged 18.5 per cent to $US63.74 a tonne on Monday, the highest since June 2015 and an increase of 66 per cent from December's record low of $US38.30 a tonne.

BHP Billiton's Edgar Basto and Mike Henry say the price leap had caught BHP, and most others in the sector, off guard. Credit:Philip Gostelow

Roy Hill chief executive Barry Fitzgerald said the welcome uptick was unexpected but unsustainable.

"I was talking to my staff last week and said I expected it to decrease in the future, so today was a very unexpected surprise," he said on the sidelines of an iron ore conference in Perth.
Superlots sales are becoming the preferred way to sell sites, with seven owners coming together to offload a prime South Sydney development opportunity in Alexandria for $30 million. This has led to each owner gaining as much as a 300 per cent uplift above the stand-alone industrial value. The 5590-square-metre site is zoned for mixed use and is likely to be developed by the new owner. A local, private investor/developer bought eight of the 10 units, most of which were owner occupied, within a strata industrial estate at 163-173 McEvoy Street from vendors including Clark Corporation, Peaty Group and MRecht Accessories. It is likely the buyer will look to develop in the future. By creating the so-called superlots, the owners can target larger developers while also keeping the collective costs at a reasonable level.

At Alexandria, the approximate 5590-square-metre land area is zoned B4 mixed use and was sold through Adam Bodon and Peta Antoniou of Knight Frank. "The surrounding streets of Fountain and Lawrence Street have prospered in recent years, undergoing a radical gentrification which has seen them turn into the most desirable streets in South Sydney, " Mr Bodon said. The advantage of the property is its proximity to the Sydney city, the Green Square train station and the busy McEvoy Street with its mix of residential developments and a wide range of high-tech commercial and retail properties on the southern side. Ms Antoniou, Knight Frank's associate director, South Sydney, said the nearby developments on Fountain Street have set the benchmark and opened up this small pocket of Alexandria to a whole new demographic of occupier and weekend visitor. Further afield, as demand and competition for large land parcels across Sydney remains strong, developers are increasingly looking to the greater Sydney region to acquire land for purposes including residential development, particularly those in the NSW government's 'Priority Growth Precincts' in the north and south-west, JLL says.
Investors and developers are pumping cash into the pub sector with two prominent sites at Pyrmont and Leichhardt the latest to hit the market.

In the past week Charter Hall opened its second pub fund with Hostplus worth $135 million, while the suggested takeover of Redcape by the Moelis/Meers Hotel Group joint venture and subsequent also gains momentum.

P. J. Gallagher's Hotel, formerly Norton's on Norton Leichhardt, is being offered for sale through JLL.

In Pyrmont, the private TWT Auswin, which is part of TWT Global, has put its Terminus hotel, which was formerly owned by the Wakil family, up for sale with price expectations of about $5 million. The 61 Harris Street property has been empty for more than 30 years and has development potential for office and retail.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group's John Musca has also been appointed to market the P. J. Gallagher's Hotel, formerly Norton's on Norton Leichhardt. Peter Gallagher bought the pub in 2012 and undertook a $2 million upgrade.
Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Philip Lowe said the economy and the banking system are resilient enough to withstand a substantial drop in house prices.

He was responding to a question about whether he thought there would be a big drop in house prices if negative gearing tax breaks are scrapped or capital gains tax concessions changed.

Dr Lowe said research by the Reserve Bank and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority showed the system was resilient.

"The issue for us is that if that did occur, and I'm not saying it would, but if it did occur is the banking system and the economy are resilient enough to deal with such a substantial decline in house prices?'" he said.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection operates a policy of keeping children in detention only as a last resort, and releasing those children that might be in detention as soon as reasonably practicable.

This is a very contentious area of public policy and administration. Sometimes emotions rise and facts gets distorted. For the reputation of my department and its officers, it is crucial that I set the record straight: the department and its uniformed operational arm, the Australian Border Force, does not operate beyond the law, nor is it an immoral "rogue agency".

The detention centre on Nauru. Credit:Department of Immigration

Recent comparisons of immigration detention centres to "gulags", suggestions that detention involves a "public numbing and indifference" similar to that experienced in Nazi Germany and persistent suggestions that detention facilities are places of "torture" are highly offensive, unwarranted and wrong  and yet they continue to be made.

Any contention that prolonged immigration detention represents "reckless indifference and calculated cruelty" in order to deter future boat arrivals does not pass a fact check. The number of children in detention would not be falling if that were the case. The resources devoted to providing medical and support services, and the commitment of doctors and staff to the welfare of these individuals, undercuts inflammatory claims to the contrary.
George Nichopoulos was for many years Elvis Presley's personal physician. Known as "Dr Nick", he prescribed more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, stimulants and narcotics to Presley in the final eight months of the singer's life, but insisted that his aim had been to restrain his patient's vast appetite for drugs.

Dr Nick, flamboyantly dressed in flared trousers and Hawaiian shirt, was an indispensable element of the Elvis Presley touring caravan as it criss-crossed the United States during the 1970s. Black Gladstone bag always in hand, Nichopoulos could be seen following dutifully behind his celebrated patient as Elvis climbed the steps to board his private aeroplane, Lisa Marie, ready to fly to the next city.

Nichopoulos (pictured with wife Edna) has died aged 89. He resented being portrayed in the media as a "Doctor Feelgood" character who was in thrall to his famous patient. "No one understands that Elvis was so complicated," he insisted. "I worked so hard just to keep things together and then they turned the tables on me after he died and decided I was to blame."

If he had not supplied the drugs, Nichopoulos argued, Presley would have turned to more compliant doctors. At one point Nichopoulos acquired placebo pills for the opioid painkiller Dilaudid from the manufacturers, Knoll, which he substituted for the real thing in an attempt at harm reduction.

In the view of his critics, however, Nichopoulos was star-struck by his domineering patient and had allowed his objectivity to be compromised. He accepted gifts from Presley and even brought him in as a partner in a deal over the building of a chain of racquetball courts.

After a string of legal battles over many years the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners stripped Nichopoulos of his licence to practise medicine in 1995. He received counselling under the Tennessee Medical Foundation where one medico remarked: "One of his problems was that he couldn't say no."
Racehorse trainer Jim Moloney was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in May 2015. If there was a Hall of Fame for Gentlemen, Jim would have been included decades earlier. He was involved in racing at the highest level for over 60 years. During his career he became a guide and mentor to his great mate, jockey Pat Hyland, and many other apprentice jockeys, with his quiet, sound and methodical advice.

The son of a successful trainer in western Victoria, Jim left his Warrnambool home in 1956 with wife Pauline to base the training business at the Epsom complex, now long swallowed by housing near Mordialloc. While progressively adding to their family (seven children), and with Hyland as boarder, Jim worked his way through the training ranks patiently and steadily.

Swynphilos, winner of the Newmarket Handicap in 1965, provided him with a big thrill. In over 30 years with Hyland as the Moloney stable jockey, their partnership with champion sprinting horse Vain was the highlight. The colt raced 14 times in Melbourne and Sydney for an extraordinary 12 wins and two seconds.

Vain set an Australian stakes record in his two-year-old year, winning six of seven starts. He won the Golden Slipper Stakes of 1969 by four lengths. Prior to the autumn's Sires Produce Stakes, Sydney's heavy conditions severely impeded Vain's trackwork. His colours were lowered by Beau Babylon, ridden by Roy Higgins. It was to be his only loss with Hyland in the saddle.

Vain won the Champagne Stakes, Beau Babylon ten lengths in his wake, in the fastest time ever recorded by a two-year-old over six furlongs. At three, Vain won another six of seven races. After his win in the 1969 Ascot Vale Stakes, Hyland was suspended. Higgins rode in the Moonee Valley Stakes when Vain finished second to Daryl's Joy, later a successful sprinter in the US.

Hyland returned for the Caulfield Guineas and Vain won in another race record time.
Should we worry that an international planning expert from University College, London, no less, reckons the state government's plan to turn Parramatta into a second Sydney CBD is seriously flawed? That it's such a bad idea, in fact, that it will eventually cause our city to grind to a halt? Professor Peter Rees, the City of London's chief planning officer for three decades, recently warned a Sydney planning forum that dispersing jobs from the CBD is the last thing we should be doing, because people will not move house to follow a job. So they'll finish up driving across Sydney every working day, "so your city will come to a halt", he said. A $2 billion plan for five or more civic, residential and commercial towers is meant to turn Parramatta Square into "western Sydney's Martin Place". As a visitor to Sydney, Professor Rees cannot be expected to have the full picture.The NSW government has $26 billion riding on him being wrong. That is how much is so far slated for spending on road and rail projects in western Sydney, including WestConnex, Australia's biggest road project, and the North-West Rail Link, it's biggest public transport project. There's a light-rail route around Parramatta planned, too, which might eventually be extended around the western region. The latest proposal is for a fast train link to reduce the travel time between Parramatta and the Sydney CBD to 15 minutes, plus a connecting rail link between Parramatta and the future airport at Badgerys Creek. A $2 billion plan for five or more civic, residential and commercial towers is meant to turn Parramatta Square into "western Sydney's Martin Place". Parramatta City Council also wants to create a "river city" by rejuvenating the Parramatta River foreshore. Meanwhile, the argument continues over where the Powerhouse Museum should be located when it moves from Ultimo. The state government is eyeing a council-owned car park on the river bank or, alternatively, part of Parramatta Park, where it plans an "arts and cultural precinct".

Parramatta will be "the infrastructure capital of the world" in Premier Mike Baird's flourishing description, as it transforms into Sydney's second commercial hub. It will "play a very significant role in providing employment and housing opportunities that are essential for Sydney's global competitiveness", according to the Premier, who doubles as the minister for western Sydney. Professor Rees thinks building better transport links between the suburbs and the CBD should be a priority. Most tellingly, he thinks the mobile global workforce of the future will not be interested in working in Parramatta: "I can think of lots of people around the world who could be offered 12 months working in Sydney and they would say 'yeah!' and I bet they wouldn't be thinking of working in Parramatta". Of course, we'll still need the CBD, but we need Parramatta to be strong, too  not for the global commuting class, but for the 2 million people already living west of Parramatta. Greater Western Sydney is one of Australia's biggest regional economies with an annual output of nearly $100 billion. But about 200,000 people commute away from it every working day, and that number is expected to double, unless jobs can be created in the region. Liverpool and Penrith have grand plans to match Parramatta's ambitions: Liverpool as the "Airport City" on the strength of Badgerys Creek, and Penrith as the "capital of the New West", on the premise that the (eastern) CBD is a global hub, but Parramatta is the "central city" of Sydney. The labels might be cheesy, but there is some sense in them. Not everyone wants to travel to the CBD on the harbour's edge to work. Increasingly, they want to work as close to home as possible, or even at home, supported by infrastructure, services and amenities nearby. We face the geographic reality of a space-constrained eastern CBD attempting to service a heavily populated urban sprawl far to its west.
"But it's your job to be friendly" and "the customer is always right" are mantras we often hear in bars, hotels and retail stores. But this seemingly innocent assumption can lead to some disturbing outcomes, particularly for vulnerable employees.

It's no secret that sexual harassment is a pervasive and destructive behaviour faced by many women in the workplace.

One in four female employees has experienced sexual harassment at work at some time in the past five years. Credit:Rob Banks

The prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace has remained largely unchanged during the past 30 years, contrary to popular belief and in contrast to community expectations.

The national statistics tell us that one in four female employees has experienced sexual harassment at work at some time in the past five years. Things are even bleaker in certain sectors: up to 67 per cent of female retail workers have been victims of harassment.
Frequent flyers should be concerned about the Reserve Bank of Australia's proposed changes to interchange fee regulation that specifically targets credit cards linked to rewards programs.

While there has been a lot of noise made over the Turnbull government's proposed actions to ban excessive credit-card surcharges  particularly for online flight bookings  interchange fee regulation is an issue that has slipped under the radar.

Interchange fees are charges between two banks  not a hidden consumer fee. First, a merchant service charge is paid by retailers to their bank. Part of that charge is then passed on to the cardholder's bank  the interchange fee. What cut each of those banks takes reflects the costs incurred and risks they bear in making the system work. The interchange fee goes to pay for things like fraud protection, interest-free periods, and reward points  including frequent-flyer programs. If the cardholder's bank has less money to pay for these benefits, the value of the benefits are either reined in or fees and charges are increased  or a combination of both.
The S7 Edge ships with the latest Android Marshmallow 6.0 operating system, which has new Edge panel features as part of Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. (The new features also roll out to previous Edge models when users upgrade to Marshmallow.) These include two columns of apps, not just one; a tasks panel for shortcuts to particular functions within apps; quick tools such as a torch, ruler and compass; a "Places" pane where you can customise which apps are displayed depending on whether you're at home, work or "out and about"; web shortcuts; information shortcuts such as the calendar or weather info app; and data and memory usage stats. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I found the trick to making the Edge work is to pick just a few panels you'll genuinely use regularly. Otherwise it's no quicker than scrolling through different screens of apps. It will be interesting to see which other third-party apps  in addition to Yahoo! News and Twitter trends, which come pre-installed  come out of the woodwork too. Battery performance

The S7 Edge's battery life easily trumps that of the iPhone 6 and 6s. At a generous 3600 mAh, it lasted me well over a day with moderate use over the weekend (I tend to plug my phone in while at work). However it does take longer to charge than an iPhone battery. Some of the new Edge panel features. Credit:Samsung Some may be annoyed Samsung has continued with non-removable batteries, but it has brought back waterproofing, last seen on the Galaxy S5. The S7 Edge has an improved IP rating of 68, making it water resistant even when submerged more than 1.5 metres for up to 30 minutes. Another new software feature, Game Launcher, is partly designed to improve battery performance. It lets you switch off notifications while you play mobile games, and reduce screen resolution so you can play longer. I get the point of this but it's such a great screen that it seems a waste to watch blocky action, even with something as basic as Candy Crush. Serious mobile gamers may respond more warmly to the feature, which includes other functions such as the ability to share a screen with friends while you play. The 'always-on display' is a nice addition. Credit:Samsung

Camera It wasn't long ago you'd find me talking up iPhone cameras over Samsung's. Last year's Galaxy S6 and Note 5 cameras saw improvements. But the new "dual pixel" feature on the S7 range, combined with beefed-up aperture at f/1.7, make a noticeable difference. This is a great smartphone camera. The new features result in much quicker focus, and clearer shots in low light. Samsung demonstrated the advance in focus speed in controlled tests compared with its Galaxy S6 Edge+ at Mobile World Congress last month: the new camera focused almost instantly in low light, while the S6 took about a second. Top to bottom: Apple iPhone 6s, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Credit:Hannah Francis The S7 camera also fares better against the iPhone 6s camera on these measures. I took some shots of a bee among flowers while there was a little wind. The colour and contrast in the iPhone 6s shot was better than in both the Galaxy S6 Edge and S7 Edge. However, the iPhone camera struggled to focus at close range despite multiple attempts at catching the shot.

L-R: Apple iPhone 6s; Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge; Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Credit:Hannah Francis In very low light, the iPhone 6s struggled. The S7 Edge produced an image that was both sharper and brighter, thanks to the increased aperture. L-R: Apple iPhone 6s; Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge; Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Credit:Hannah Francis Taking a step back to shoot a landscape with a foregrounded element, it was the iPhone 6s camera that excelled. The S7 Edge shot flattened all but the focal subject, while the iPhone shot retained more definition in both the foreground and background while still producing a pleasing contrast in sharpness. Other features

I'd gotten used to using the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 6s, which is impressively fast at unlocking your phone without you needing to think about it. Sadly, Samsung appears not to have upgraded its fingerprint scanners. With the S7 Edge, I often found myself having to tap my thumb multiple times before the screen would unlock. The new "always-on" display is a nice addition, however. (LG also featured this on its new G5 flagship phone.) You can choose to display the time, your calendar or an image, plus the battery power and a cute background pattern, while the phone is still locked. It supposedly only takes up a fraction of a percentage of battery power; I noticed myself picking up my phone a whole lot less thanks to this  certainly another battery saver. Verdict This is a great phone with a standout camera. If you like bigger Android phones, I'd recommend it. For me, a 5.5-inch phone is just that little bit too large for me to reach comfortably across with my thumb. If that's going to be a struggle, I'd rather go the whole hog and have the extra screen real estate  plus the stylus  that comes with a Note. To take that choice away from customers seems like an odd decision.
The organisers of alternative art fair Spring 1883 have indicated they will go ahead with the event in August despite the cancellation of this year's Melbourne Art Fair.

Spring 1883 director Luisa Bosci says while "it's disappointing for all those involved that the 2016 edition of the Melbourne Art Fair has been cancelled . . . the Melbourne art communities are both robust and innovative, and we look forward to supporting the new models that might emerge instead".

The directors of the Spring 1883 alternative art fair outside the Hotel Windsor.

Another alternative fair, the artist-focused NotFair, has indicated it, too, will proceed.
Louis says Three Brothers, which features David Page and Guy Simon, was well-received and attracted interest from the Sydney Brisbane and Adelaide festivals. NORPA's new show Three Brothers features Tibian Wyles, Guy Simon and David Page. Credit:Kate Holmes "In our experience, the most successful productions are the ones we make ourselves, that tell our stories," he says. NORPA's Railway Wonderland had a three-week sold-out season in 2015 and broke even despite limited government funding. NORPA, which announced Kirk Page as its associate director in February, is one of the few theatre companies in regional Australia that creates new plays, Louis says.

But creating new shows is challenging, he says. "Our process for making new work takes time and it's hard to sustain financial and creative momentum. "We don't have a permanent ensemble of actors, each new project requires gathering a new group of artists/collaborators and this can take time to get it right," he says. Louis says the greatest hurdle is overcoming a cultural cringe. "When work is presented out of the cities, it's hard to get reviewers, peers, potential partners and funding organisations to see the work," he says. "We generally have to get the work to the city in order for it to be seen, and to build confidence for our work in the sector." NORPA teamed up with western Sydney's Urban Theatre Projects to stage My Radio Heart in 2014, but such collaborations are rare, Louis says.

"We haven't yet formed co-productions with state-based theatre companies but we are always looking for partners  both venues and theatre companies  who are looking for an authentic cultural connection to regional Australia." "To date, state-based festivals have not programmed our work," he adds. Uncertainty over federal government funding has also affected NORPA's capacity to develop new shows. One-fifth of the Lismore company's $1.4 million annual budget comes from the taxpayer, with additional funding for individual shows such asThree Brothers. Louis praises the NSW government, but says NORPA has not gained organisational funding from the Australia Council.

"And now that there is a smaller pool of funding for arts organisations, the competition is more fierce and there will be aspiring creative organisations whose futures will be jeopardised," he says. Some of Louis' concerns are echoed by Lyn Wallis, the artistic director of Wodonga's HotHouse Theatre. Distance, time and cost are all factors creating difficulties for regional companies, she says. "Getting colleagues into the regions to see the work is really difficult. During funding rounds, the chances of assessing peers having seen the work of a remote company is pretty low." But HotHouse has partnered with city-based companies on shows such as Embers about bushfires that devastated regional Victoria in 2003. "I do think regional and metro could work together better to find those stories and experiences like Embers that might be particular to regional living, but that resonate in multiple contexts," Wallis says.
CSIRO is considering outsourcing climate modelling work to Britain - a step a senior executive conceded would reduce Australia's strengths in the field.

Grilled by Labor and Greens senators at a Senate inquiry in Hobart over cuts to up to half its climate research workforce, CSIRO executive Alex Wonhas said the organisation was considering contracting some work to counterparts in the British Met Office.

Australia's climate research is in the spotlight after CSIRO revealed plans for deep cuts to modelling and monitoring research. Credit:NASA

"I don't think that I can credibly claim that everything [we are doing now] will continue," Dr Wonhas said. "There will be a reduction in our activity."

It is understood CSIRO executives hope signing a contract with leaders in international climate change research at the Met Office will blunt international criticism of its climate research cuts.
Sydney's record-breaking warm spell has another week to run before a shift in winds to the south-east brings long-awaited rain to the region.

The city's temperature climbed past 26 degrees by 9 am on Tuesday on the way to 28.1 degrees, marking the 33rd consecutive day of such warmth. The previous record, set in 2014, ran 19 days.

Tuesday's expected top of 29 degrees will be matched or exceeded for the coming six days, according to current forecasts. The mercury may peak at only 27 next Tuesday.
The United States is talking to the Turnbull government about stepping up the presence of US long-range strike bombers in Australia in a further deepening of the alliance as China continues to provoke concern.

General Lori Robinson, Commander of the US Pacific Air Forces, said in Canberra on Tuesday that with China's "militarisation" of the South China Sea, the US and its partners had to "maintain a credible combat power".

She said China's military build-up raised the risk of "miscalculation" in which conflict is sparked by some unexpected incident.

And she echoed fellow senior US military figures in urging other countries, including Australia, to continue flying and sailing through the South China Sea in the face of China's growing military presence such as the stationing of surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets.
Collaborations can be risky. At their best, there is a frenzied launch, caught on camera for the nightly news audiences, and an instant eBay market for the sold-out items.

At their worst, racks and racks of sad, marked-down items, and signage from a campaign the retailer would like to soon forget.

On Thursday, Target will launch its collaboration with renowned designer and fashion bad boy Jean Paul Gaultier, following a parade at the Melbourne Fashion Festival on Wednesday night.

The collection features more than 100 items ranging in price from $10 for accessories to $299 for a leather biker jacket. The range spans fashion, homewares, lingerie and even baby wear.
With one misplaced "allegedly" Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) appears to have stumbled into trouble.

In a statement on Tuesday titled "Immigration detention and children: separating fact from fiction" the DIBP's secretary Michael Pezzullo attempted to dispel "highly offensive" comparisons between the detention centres and historical atrocities in Nazi Germany.

But the unfortunate placement of one word derailed the message.
An independent expert will count the number of properties listed on Australia's two biggest real estate sites to resolve an urgent court dispute.

Meanwhile a Federal Court judge has shrugged off concerns that consumers could be misled by a marketing campaign claiming Fairfax Media's Domain Group has the highest rated property app.

The Domain real estate app on the Apple Watch.

Justice Bernard Murphy of the Federal Court in Melbourne said it should be relatively easy to settle a dispute between Domain and its competitor simply by appointing an independent expert "who can count" and interrogate data. He has been hearing a matter started four weeks ago by News Limited majority-owned REA Group against Fairfax Media, owner of Domain Group (and owner of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald). The two parties also own competing newspapers.

Fairfax agreed until the termination of the dispute to stop using three phrases that REA Group claimed could mislead consumers and real estate agents.
Domestic violence leave has been stripped out of workplace agreements across the Commonwealth public service on the orders of the federal workplace authority, which answers directly to Minister for Women Michaelia Cash.

Up to 30 public service employers  including Malcolm Turnbull's own department, the giant Human Services Department and the Australian Taxation Office  are insisting on removing the right of their workers to take time off if they are victims of family violence.

But the government says it is false to suggest that victims of violence will be unable to get time off work, saying employees in crisis can use miscellaneous leave provisions.

Anti-violence campaign group White Ribbon Australia said that all employers should be supporting victims of domestic abuse with specified leave entitlements, while a leading workplace academic says the removal of these rights is directly at odds with the government's rhetoric on violence against women.
The two specialists discussed whether to continue or abort the operation. Dr Pincock said at the time he thought she was stable and it was safe to proceed. Dr Morgan admitted she did not advise him of any further cardiac risk but claimed he had somewhat pressured her into continuing, an allegation Dr Pincock denied.

Dr Morgan recalled that Dr Pincock said it was in Patient A's best interests to proceed as she had medical indications, such as ongoing sinusitis, as well as issues with the appearance and shape of her nose. Further, she says he felt the patient would be disappointed if the surgery didn't happen and might be reluctant to try again at a later date.

But clinical records show Patient A was in fact unstable following the cardiac arrest. An expert group gave evidence that the elective surgery should have been abandoned. The committee found it was a shared decision and either doctor could have exercised a veto.

Dr Morgan was reprimanded for deciding to continue with Dr Pincock's elective surgery list, which meant she was unavailable to provide direct post-operative care to Patient A, who was in a recovery ward and not in a high dependency or intensive care unit.

It found that from the outset Dr Morgan acknowledged she made an error of judgment and expressed remorse and contrition. She said she was stressed and "wasn't thinking straight" and has since taken steps to improve her practice.
A celebrated American photojournalist has died while documenting the impact of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Museum said on Monday.

Veteran nature photographer and environmental campaigner Gary Braasch, from the north-west US city of Portland, Oregon, was snorkeling with a companion near Lizard Island, about 270 kilometres north-east of Cairns, when he was found floating face down in the water on Monday morning.

In a statement, the Australian Museum, which runs the Lizard Island Research Station, said a nearby diver commenced CPR as an emergency team from the station was dispatched.

A doctor based at the research station also assisted with the resuscitation effort, but the 70-year-old could not be revived.
Brian Greene's theatrical work 'Light Falls' explores the highs and lows of Albert Einstein. World Science Festival (supplied by Queensland Museum) Credit:World Science Festival New York A subject close to home, this discussion asks whether we have lost the battle or if there is still time to preserve and protect our reef. With over 50 per cent of corals lost over the last 30 years across the world due to pollution, destructive fishing practises and ocean warming and acidification, our reefs are in desperate need. The festival will run until Sunday. Credit:World Science Festival National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence Sylvia Earle will be leading the discussion, exploring how science could help increase the speed of mapping and analysis of the reefs to gain an insight into what is happening.

The Moral Maths of Robots The morality of robots will be explored at during n expert panel on Sunday. Credit:World Science Festival What will determine the ethical framework of robots in the not-to-distant future? Leading cognitive scientists, roboticists, philosophers, and computer scientists will lead the audience through the tricky and emerging field of robot morality. Would intelligent machines develop a moral framework through experiences or a defined set of parameters? These questions and more will be explored in this captivating and integral discussion. Albert Street Pop-Up Pocket Park

Tucked in between Charlotte and Mary Streets in the city will be a relaxing free space for the public to experience and enjoy art and science (as well as a well-deserved rest). Green mountain lounges will be set up for the weary public to put up their feet and relax while listening to Glenn Christie's 'Tinkerbell', an instrument created from recycled materials. Artist Nicole Voevodin-Cash created and designed the affectionately termed 'mounges' for the festival. The event is weather dependent. Turtle Hatching

Queensland Museum has incubated Loggerhead and Flatback Turtle eggs timed to emerge during the World Science Festival, an event designed and supervised by renowned turtle biologist Dr Colin Limpus. Once the baby turtles have hatched, most will be transported to Yeppoon and released offshore, with some expected to be taken to Underwater World to be fitted with transmitters which will enable scientists to track their movements when released. This project has received official approval by the Queensland Museum Animal Ethics Committee. Street Science! Southbank's Cultural Forecourt will be transformed into a science haven with workshops, exhibitions and performances fit for the whole family.

Dancing robots, drones, magic mud and underwater soundscapes will fill the forecourt over Saturday and Sunday, inspiring even the least scientifically minded. While the event will feed minds, food trucks will stationed to satiate even the fussiest of eaters. The event is free so bring a rug and settle in. A map of events is available online. Dr Karl for Kids

While science personality Dr Karl Kruszelnicki's other events at the festival have sold out, his kids session is still open and ideal for those eager to get some science questions answered (adults welcome!). Hosted by Scope presenter Dr Rob, Dr Karl will provide an easy to understand explanation for those questions most people take for granted, like what makes the sky blue? Questions can be submitted prior to the event here. Biolumination Dr Siouxsie Wiles has taken bacteria and turned it into artwork, creating a masterpiece of biolumination using a cotton swab and giant Petri dishes.

Her artwork will be on display at Queensland Museum from 9.30-4pm on Saturday. Alien Life: Will we know it when we find it? The age old question 'Are we alone in the universe?' will be dissected and examined in a discussion that will see scientists across numerous disciplines combining their knowledge of life on earth to gain a strategy for identifying life beyond our world. One of the world's leading pulsar astronomers, Matthew Bailes will be leading the discussion, exploring whether we know what to look for and what prejudices we have that might cause oversight. In 2015, Bailes became a collaborator on the Breakthrough Listen Project to search for evidence of alien life in the universe.
All is not lost.

That's the message two Melbourne artists, whose famed Smith Street mural was destroyed by a notorious graffiti vandal, wish to remind the women of Northcote.

The historic Northcote mural after being tagged by Nost. Credit:Joe Armao

The giant feminist mural on the wall of the Gas and Fuel depot, which paid homage to the women of the north-east suburb, was painted over by an infamous Melbourne graffiti tagger known as "NOST" in January.

In huge capital letters, the NOST tag nearly "whited out" the mural entirely.
Jailed after a jury heard the recorded evidence of his now-dead alleged victim, a convicted rapist has walked free after the Appeal Court overturned the original, "unsafe" verdict.

Noting the "unusual circumstances of this case", three Courts of Appeal judges said they had a "reasonable doubt "as to whether the man was guilty - and acquitted him.

Three Courts of Appeal judges said they had a "reasonable doubt "about whether the man was guilty - and acquitted him. Credit:Getty Images

In March last year, Luka Omot was found guilty by a County Court jury of raping a woman, referred to in the trial as AD, in the bathroom of a friend's apartment in October 2010.

AD died from an illness in May 2013, before the trial began, but her police statement was read out in court and an audio recording of her evidence from an earlier hearing was also played to the jury.
Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle will retain his corporate credit card, but has to publicly disclose if he uses to it pay for any personal expenses.

It has been revealed Cr Doyle used his council card to purchase $28,000 of personal items over a three-and-a-half year period, prompting the former Victorian Liberal leader to promise to change his PIN in order to not get his two cards confused.

There have been calls for the Lord Mayor to have his work card suspended. Credit: Mark Jesser

There were calls for the lord mayor to have his work card temporarily suspended and a report to be conducted into the use of credit cards by councillors, in a motion by Labor councillor Richard Foster that was debated on Tuesday night.

"Three years, 70 transactions, $28,000 ratepayer dollars. No independent review and oversight, all because he's going to change his PIN. It's not good enough," Cr Foster said.
A man left a paraplegic after being shot in the face by police following a siege in a Perth home has pleaded guilty to several charges.

Daniel Ashley, 27, burst into the Mosman Park home of a 23-year-old woman he knew in June, armed with a gun and a baton before taking her and four other people hostage for three hours.

Daniel Ashley has pleaded guilty to a number of offences. Credit:Facebook

After emerging from the house, Ashley ignored calls to drop his gun and was shot once before falling to the ground, then pointed his weapon at officers who shot him again.

The gun was later discovered to be a replica.
Paris: A dentist dubbed "the butcher" by French media appeared in court on Tuesday accused of mutilating more than 100 patients.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, arrived in a police car, his head covered by a blanket, at a court in Nevers, central France, near the town of Chateau-Chinon where he began practising in 2008.

He faces charges of defrauding French social security and "wilful violence causing mutilation and permanent injury".

One former patient quoted by regional newspaper Le Journal du Centre described how Mr van Nierop took out eight of her teeth in one sitting without permission. She said she bled for three days afterwards.
Dubai: Iran test-fired several ballistic missiles from silos across the country on Tuesday, the official website of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said, defying recent US sanctions on its missile program.

The test was intended "to show Iran's deterrent power and also the Islamic Republic's ability to confront any threat against the [Islamic] Revolution, the state and the sovereignty of the country", the website said.

This image from October 2015 claimed to show Iran's launch of an Emad ballistic missile. Credit:AP

The test came two months after the United States sanctioned businesses and individuals linked to Iran's missile program over a test of the medium-range Emad missile carried out in October 2015.
Bangkok: Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak has pledged on the second anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that his country will not abandon investigations to solve the greatest mystery in modern aviation.

"We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonizing mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost," he said.

"On this most difficult of days, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who will never be forgotten."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others hailed the surprise Turkish proposal at an emergency summit in Brussels as a potential breakthrough in Europe's politically toxic migration crisis.

A child wears a plastic cover in the rain in the northern Greek border station of Idomeni on Monday. Credit:AP

Idomeni: European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels have welcomed Turkey's offer to take back all the migrants who cross into Europe from its soil and agreed in principle to Ankara's demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel in return.

But key details remained to be worked out on Monday, and the 28 leaders ordered more work by officials with a view to reaching an ambitious package deal with Turkey at their next scheduled summit, on March 17-18.

A migrant girl shields herself from the rain while waiting in a line for food rations at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni on Monday. Credit:AP

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people affected by their decisions were left stranded in Greece, with nations along the migrant trail gradually tightening border controls to staunch the northward flood.

The restrictions along what has become known as the western Balkan route has left about 13,000-14,000 people stuck on the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, and more than 36,000 people in the financially stricken country.

A punishing thunderstorm has turned much of the overcrowded Idomeni camp into a sea of mud. Conditions are deteriorating in the camp, which was set up only for about 2000 people, and crews are struggling to maintain hygiene.
Another round of primaries on Tuesday  in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii  will be watched closely for evidence that Cruz has managed to break from the three-man pack shadowing Trump to the nomination. Snarky and self-assured: Senator Ted Cruz. Credit:Bloomberg Michigan is crucial for Rubio. Its demographics  a mix of professional, younger, higher-educated, higher earning  supposedly is his preferred turf. But in two TV polls released on Sunday, Rubio was third, trailing Trump and Cruz. Trump and Cruz already are demanding that Rubio and Kasich quit the contest, to leave it to the New Yorker and the Texan to sort out the nomination between themselves. Going for broke in Florida and Ohio: Senator Ted Cruz speaks during a caucus night rally in Las Vegas. Credit:Bloomberg

And in a counter-intuitive expansion of his campaign, Cruz has decided to go hard ahead of critical March 15 primaries in Florida and Ohio. Ordinarily, local boys-made-good Rubio and Kasich would be expected to win these contests respectively. Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz listens to supporters at a caucus site. Credit:AP To deny them a winner-takes-all swag of convention delegates in the two states would bomb both from the water, leaving Cruz to face Trump alone. But if Trump were to best Rubio and Kasich and Cruz was to come in third, the Texan would be a diminished figure. High stakes ...

Donald Trump v Ted Cruz, a match-up many want to see. Credit:Bloomberg Describing Cruz's weekend success as "a real shift", The New York Times' numbers-crunching Upshot column declared  "it's not easy for Mr Cruz [to deny Trump a majority], but it's tougher for Mr Trump [to win one]." Senator Lindsey Graham, who had criticised Cruz has reluctantly changed his mind, endorsing Cruz  if with faint praise. "Some hope with Ted, no hope with Donald," was how he formulated the hold-your-nose choice for many Republicans in a Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. Forecasting that neither candidate would draw new voters for the GOP, he concluded ruefully: "We're in a demographic death spiral." Confirming the establishment objection to Cruz, Republican media consultant Kim Alfonso told The Washington Post that a Trump-Cruz face-off amounted to a choice between "a bully and a zealot".

Explaining difficulty in getting an anti-Trump campaign off the ground, an unnamed Republican strategist told Politico: "If the ultimate beneficiary of anti-Trump effort is Ted Cruz, the effort itself probably is not worthwhile." Cruz wears cowboy boots. Beloved of evangelicals, the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, he quotes Scarface and has acted out scenes from The Simpsons when pitching for younger votes who, he insists, are drawn to his libertarian riffs, despite his hard line on migration and his opposition to same-sex marriage. His campaign has been condemned for a resort to dirty tricks  a Photoshopped picture to show Rubio shaking hands with Obama; a misleading tweet that Ben Carson had withdrawn, to inveigle voters in Iowa to vote for Cruz; a circular to would-be voters that might have led them to believe they had broken the law by not voting. All that prompted this from an election commentator: "[Cruz] directs you to his halo as he surreptitiously grabs a pitchfork." In The New Yorker, a satire on Cruz's first primaries win is headed: "Cruise victory gives hope to despised people everywhere." At DC's Gridiron Dinner at the weekend, guest speaker Vice-President Joe Biden had them laughing in the aisles  suggesting that President Barack Obama nominate Cruz to the vacancy on the Supreme Court because, that way, "before you know it, you'll have eight vacancies".

Cruz doesn't seem to care. He's running against the Republican establishment as much as Trump, Rubio and Kasich. At this stage in the campaign, Americans know that Trump thrives on adulation. But if, as demonstrated by his seeming pique at Saturday's returns in Kentucky showed he had crawled ahead of Cruz by less than five points, maybe he won't thrive in the hand-to-hand combat that might be required to win. By contrast, Cruz bills his biggest weakness, as "I am a fighter". By contrast, and as his debate and stump performance would suggest, Cruz is ruthlessly methodical and his model for success has been acknowledged as the gold standard  how the novice Barack Obama wove microdata, grassroots and guerrilla tactics to capture young voters in particular, to best Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic nomination. But in pursuing young voters, Cruz is placing his evangelical faith less in a sea change, so much as a belief that he can part the seas to take them to a promised land  an American political reality is that Obama defeated Romney by 23 points and McCain by 34 points among voters under 30. Cruz, even when he's trying to win votes, is snarky, unpleasant. Late in February he seemed to be scapegoating the media as a co-conspirator, if Rubio were to pull ahead of him.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Social & Health Insurances (SZV) has become the latest recipient of JetBlues sweet cases on Friday, March 4th, 2016.

JetBlue donated fourteen sweet cases (duffle bags), decorated by JetBlue staff members filled with stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons, and a toothbrush with a timer. The bags were presented to the SZV in the presence of the Minister of Public Health, Emil Lee. The donation of the sweet cases was made possible by JetBlue Supervisor, Shellian Ramchandani, assisted by JetBlues Customer Service Representative, Christopher Green.

JetBlue distributes sweet cases annually to various organizations on St. Maarten and this year is no different. As we celebrate our 11th J.D. Power Award for best customer service, this opportunity, to exercise our commitment to giving back to the community JetBlue serves, could not have come at better time. By donating these sweet cases, we trust it will bring a smile to a childs face. I am also very thrilled to learn of SZV and its 3.0 Vision geared towards excellent customer service, remarked Ramchandani.

As part of the original team together with then commissioner Roy Marlin we negotiated for JetBlue to be in service to St. Maarten. JetBlue has consistently been a great partner to St. Maarten. This donation is simply a reinforcement of their commitment to St. Maarten not only in a commercial sense but also in a social sense. That is true partnership!  Emil Lee, Minister of Public Health

The duffle bags will be given to children referred abroad via SZV, for medical attention. That same afternoon SZV was able to hand over the first sweet case to a parent whose baby is scheduled to travel soon.

We are extremely happy to receive this donation. These sweet cases will surely bring a smile to many children. It is unfortunate but true that at this time we also have to refer small children abroad for medical reasons, it is always difficult, but we do our best to facilitate the process taking the needs of the children in mind. This small gesture is one that will brighten up their spirits as they prepare to travel abroad.  Glen A. Carty, Interim Director SZV.
GREAT BAY(DCOMM):--- Dr. Virginia Asin Oostburg, Head of the Collective Preventive Services (CPS), a government department under the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour, on Sunday said, the investigation into the Norovirus outbreak at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino has been concluded.

Norovirus gastroenteritis, is a common disease worldwide affecting all age groups and often causing outbreaks. The Norovirus symptoms are: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, myalgia, headache, malaise, fever, or a combination of several of these symptoms. The latter lasts usually 24 to 48 hours.

Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino noticed a sudden spike in guests complaining of mainly vomiting and a few cases accompanied with diarrhea. This was reported among approximately 200 tourists that arrived from Canada around February 17. The hotels consulting doctor was called in and guidelines were provided in connection with sanitation measures. After a dormant period of about a week, a sudden increase in gastroenteritis was noted again among some overseas students that had checked-in on February 24 with the majority checking in on February 25.

Treatment was provided by the hotels physician and at the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC). Again, various sanitation and preventive measures were re-emphasized at the hotel. Because of the inherit aggressiveness of the norovirus, very hard and effective measures had to be implemented in the hotel according to the investigations and inspection results observed by government officials.

The intervention by hotel management and staff in the initial phase was well managed. It can be concluded based on the ministries investigation that this was not an outbreak originating in food or drinking water, but rather by external intrusion stimulated by cross contamination.

I would like to thank all stakeholders for their professional response during this process from the hotel, the Emergency Room staff at the SMMC, St. Maarten Laboratory Services, Ambulance Service, as well as attending private family doctors for the role they played, was the response of Minister of Public Health Emil Lee after being briefed on the conclusion of the investigation. Minister Lee followed the investigation closely and visited the hotel where he took part in one of the meetings.

Various recommendations have been made to further strengthen outbreak response procedures, management and control. These will also be extended to other hotels on the island. We look forward to working with all stakeholders as we further strengthen our community response mechanisms for infectious diseases and viruses, Dr. Virginia Asin Oostburg said on Monday.

Collective Prevention Services took the lead in outbreak surveillance and investigation to identify the transmission mode and potential sources to guide the implementation of response measures. The department recommended strict adherence to preventive and control measures.

Ministry VSA is drafting national guidelines for Norovirus outbreak management. The ministry plans to meet with the hotel sector in collaboration with the St. Maarten Hotel and Trade Association (SHTA) and the Tourist Bureau, to inform them about the guidelines and to provide for a Norovirus prevention and management package.

The Inspectorate of Public Health, Social Development Labour will require that all hotels have a Norovirus sanitation control plan in place and operational to prevent Norovirus borne gastroenteritis.
Robert Bird Group Sees 70% Cost Savings With Talon CloudFAST(TM) and Microsoft Azure Through Global File Sharing and Collaboration Solution

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ  (Marketwired)  03/08/16  , a provider of Microsoft based Intelligent file caching solutions for distributed enterprises, today announced that Robert Bird Group, a global structural, civil and specialist construction engineering consultancy saves up to 70% of its storage and infrastructure costs with Talons FAST Intelligent File Caching software. Talons FAST solutions enable consolidation of file storage into through StorSimple and Microsoft Azure File Storage, while simultaneously providing branch office users high performance access to data using cached copies of active files at each branch.

As managing file storage in traditional datacenter environments and branch offices becomes increasingly complex and costly, Talon CloudFAST enables enterprises to regain control of their storage and management costs without impacting distributed workforce productivity.

Robert Bird Group, a global structural, civil and specialist construction engineering consultancy with offices in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and South East Asia, needed a solution that would empower follow-the-sun collaboration on some of the most prestigious, high profile civil and structural engineering projects in the world. In addition to its corporate needs, Robert Bird Group also wanted to collaborate beyond the boundaries of its internal organization, and be able to easily share large Autodesk Revit projects with consultancy practice in India and Australia.

Talon CloudFAST for Azure File Storage delivered a consolidated distributed enterprise, allowing the Robert Bird Group to manage the data at a single location in the Azure cloud while delivering a high performance file sharing experience at geographically dispersed locations. Microsoft Azure File Storage for CloudFAST eliminated complexity, storage infrastructure cost and local backups at the branch.

Stephan Cottham, Global IT Manager, Robert Bird Group explained, The ability to utilize Talons Microsoft-centric software-based solution that centralizes file based data to a single location allowing our distributed workforces to access the data in a centralized fashion is of great value. Talon CloudFAST does this while providing fully Microsoft-compliant file locking and security semantics. We use CloudFAST to augment our existing on premise Windows Server and Windows Server with Hyper-V virtualization infrastructure with Azure, and we can now seamlessly integrate on-premise and cloud infrastructures.

Microsoft Azure is synonymous with flexible, world-class delivery of cloud infrastructure, said Andrew Mullen, SVP, Sales and Marketing, Talon. At Talon we are pleased to offer a solution that helps drive storage and compute to Microsoft Azure using our CloudFAST solutions. Our customers see the need now, more than ever, to move to full cloud enablement on their distributed enterprises.

Jason Hogg, Principal PM Manager, Microsoft, explained, Talon is an important ISV for our customers. The companys global enterprise file sharing and collaboration solutions simplify IT infrastructure at the branch, delivering an end-to-end Microsoft solution, supporting Microsoft Azure.

Talon for Azure File Storage and StorSimple is available from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace (BYOL and user-based). More information on Talon CloudFAST for can be found at .

Talon is the leader in helping organizations simplify their distributed IT infrastructure while delivering mobile users and remote offices fast, reliable and secure access to datacenter applications. This results in improved user productivity and cost-effective IT management. From its headquarters in Mount Laurel, NJ and its global locations, Talon () serves the largest architectural, manufacturing, and Global 2000 customers.

Talon Storage Solutions, FAST, RemoteFAST, CloudFAST and MobileFAST are trademarks of Talon Storage Solutions, Inc.. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Andrew Mullen

Talon

+1 (856) 535-7571

Dina Petrosky

Smart Connections PR

+1 (860) 495-5566
Digital trust

How the company CryptoTec is contributing to the creation of a new world

Cologne, 07 March 2016

Digitalisation is spreading to more and more areas of our lives. Take photography as an example: within a decade, it underwent a complete digital transformation. And, as Telekom has announced, landlines will be phased out by 2018 as well and will be fully replaced by IP telephone services. Digitalisation and the Internet are changing the world at an ever faster pace. If one asks the founder of CryptoTec, Michael Mertens, what has happened so far is only the beginning. From my point of view, both digitalisation and the Internet are still in their infancy, but the whole thing is picking up momentum. He even takes one step further by talking of the start of a new epoch.

Trust as a business model

The digital world and the Internet as an instrument of communication are already providing us with a wealth of possibilities. We exchange news, we have access to information, we publish in real time across the globe and we do a lot more still on the Internet. However, todays Internet and digitalisation both have a major weakness: trust. For the most part, trust still requires human contact and hierarchical, institutional structures. Take a bank, for example. Whoever wants to take out a loan is usually presenting in person. Be it for identification or for confirmation of the loan contract in the form of a signature, Michael Mertens says about the limitations of todays Internet.

All of this will  if Michael Mertens has his way  become obsolete very soon.

Advances around the mathematical foundation, in the form of programming, have been so extensive that mathematics will act as the basis of trust. One example is Bitcoin: suddenly, money came into existence without banks or, indeed, without a government to issue it. Mere complex mathematical formulas, i.e. algorithms, are able to make people trust a means of payment which is recognised across the world and which can be rapidly transferred to anywhere  entirely without the involvement of banks. Everything is organised in a decentralised manner. Key word: web of trust.

Block chain and PKI

The underlying technology for trust in the Internet is block chain, which in turn requires the so-called public key infrastructure (PKI). Public key infrastructure (PKI) automates complex key management and end-to-end encryption for users. With PKI, all participants can be authenticated as communication partners.

About Michael Mertens

Michael Mertens is one of the most important pioneers in the development of central (trust centre) and decentral (web of trust) authentication systems. Already while at university, he studied PKI-based encryption solutions. He became an independent businessman in 1992 and has been securing the digital communication of companies using the PGP software since then. Since 1995, he has been securing the electronic transfer of sensitive flight data for airports, also based on PKI. Mertens has been doing extensive work in the Internet-based securities trade since 2000. His task in the establishment of one of the very first online portals for securities trade ever was ensuring the encrypted and legally binding transfer of data. Since 2002, Michael Mertens has been looking extensively into the opportunities of block chain technology, and already then maintained intensive contact with the inventors of Bitcoin. Two years later, in 2004, Mertens developed software for securing financial transactions in the productive finance sector with turnovers of several billions in his then newly founded company iDev. This software utilised processes of todays block chain technology. These techniques were automated in the block chain for the very first time.

Digital currencies are only the beginning

Was has been graphically illustrated for money with Bitcoin will be used in a vast number of other sectors  birth certificates at the registrars office, for example. The web of trust will make it possible to provide identification information online, and to thus prove a justified interest and receive a document in a fully automated process, which one can forward  also reliably. Even the fees for the provision of documents will be invoiced automatically. All without credit card institutes or employees at the registrars office.

The Internet of things

If Michael Mertens has his way, not only information, such as documents, will be part of easy-to-authenticate digitalisation, but also things. The Internet of things (IOT) will be fully imbued with possibilities in the near future, one example. You are granted a commercial credit for the purchase of a car. If an instalment is not paid, the vehicle will no longer start. The vehicle can only be used again once the instalment has been paid, Michael Mertens illustrates the possibilities that are offered by including things in the Internet.

CryptoTec AG

Michael Mertens holds participations in various technology companies. His latest hobbyhorse is majority participation in the company CryptoTec which he founded together with Dr. Michael Raumann. The new companys goal was to develop absolutely secure communication. The company has already published several modules on the market and, besides its headquarters in Cologne, already has branch offices in Hong Kong and India. The entire technology behind the cryptographic portfolio (CryptoTec Zone) is based on sustainable, proprietary PKI. What caused a stir in the industry  among investors and not least among customers  is the tremendous complexity this system allows for, combined with the simultaneous highest possible ease of use. This is why the two founders of CryptoTec are now taking the next step, and intend to expand the widely tested communication solution. By using the PKI and block chain technology that CryptoTec Zone is based on, we want to create a universal platform that includes any currencies and standards in effect so far and which thus ensures safe, decentral and forgery-proof exchange online. In this respect, it is irrelevant which type of exchange we are talking about. Whether it be payment transactions, the Internet of things or self-executing smart contracts. We want to include all sectors of digital values in the new platform, to guarantee their integrity through sealing and to offer people the opportunity to move these values digitally at will, Dr. Michael Raumann explains the vision of CryptoTec.

Goal is not the fully accessible human, but the opposite

When there is talk of authentication, some Internet users may think of complete transparency. At CryptoTec, efforts are made to achieve the exact opposite, namely the protection of privacy. Mertens explains in this regard, Actually, the current situation is outrageous. Lets assume you want to do something trivial, like purchase a product online. Today, you will still need either a credit card or one of the many payment systems such as PayPal. There are hardly any other ways to pay for something online. This is also where the problem starts. It is surprising how much information you have to submit to your bank before you get a credit card. Afterwards, the bank is privy to every payment transaction and can establish an exceptionally detailed personality profile for you. The same applies to any other institutional payment system. Sometimes, this information about you is also traded. With a payment system like, for example, Bitcoin, you can, first and foremost, regain your privacy because it really is of nobodys concern what you are doing with your money. Accordingly, it is at least as anonymous as cash and even safer than a conventional bank transfer  these are the advantages of block chain-based or PKI-based systems. Additionally, you are not only protected because you do not have to disclose information, but also because all transactions are virtually hacker-proof due to the utilisation or hard, asymmetrical encryption.

Block chain technology in international movement of goods

If CryptoTec has its way, the practise in international trade is one of the biggest problems in todays world. In the sphere where the judicial system has no power across borders, banks ensure so-called trust. For example, payment transactions are ensured based on letters of credit (L/C) and in return for high fees. This is one of the key problems block chain technology can solve in the future. It will be possible to prepare self-executing smart contracts, which are confirmed online in a legally binding manner by the contractual partners and which create trust because they are self-executing and stored in the block chain. It becomes even more graphic when intelligent self-executing contracts are combined with, for example, monetary payments. Here, the term smart money is used. Dr. Michael Raumann has an example for this as well: Lets look at the example of the so-called rounds of financing in private equity financing. So: an investor wants to acquire shares in a company, in return for a payment of money. Usually, such an exchange is not made in a single transaction, but is subject to a range of conditions. For example, achievement of a certain turnover, or completion of a solution. This entire process of cash flow and transfer of shares, dependent on process developments, can be described using smart money and therefore can be executed in a manner verifiable by all parties and thus reliably.

Summary

All in all, cryptography and associated central and decentral trust systems will fundamentally change the world as we know it today. Time will show how deep these changes will go for all parties involved, and which industries will suffer disruptive effects caused by this technology. The start, however, is well and truly under way.
Worldwide Spending on Cognitive Systems Forecast to Soar to More Than $31 Billion in 2019, According to a New IDC Spending Guide

Posted by Publisher Internet

.2016  International Data Corporation (IDC) has identified cognitive computing as one of six Innovation Accelerators that will drive digital transformation by opening new revenue streams, creating information-based organizations, and changing the way work is performed. In the new Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive Systems Spending Guide, IDC forecasts global spending on cognitive systems will reach nearly $31.3 billion in 2019 with a five year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55%. The new spending guide expands on IDCs previous cognitive software forecasts by including expenditures for cognitive-related hardware and services. The spending guide also provides greater detail on spending for cognitive systems by geography, industry, and use case.

More than 40% of all cognitive systems spending throughout the forecast will go to software, which includes both cognitive applications (i.e., text and rich media analytics, tagging, searching, machine learning, categorization, clustering, hypothesis generation, question answering, visualization, filtering, alerting, and navigation) and cognitive software platforms, which facilitate the development of intelligent, advisory, and cognitively enabled solutions. As both the largest and fastest-growing category of cognitive systems, cognitive applications spending is forecast to approach $13.4 billion in 2019. Cognitive-related services (business services and IT consulting) represent the second largest spending category while hardware spending (primarily on servers and storage) will grow nearly as fast as software spending.

Unstructured and semi-structured data is fueling a renaissance in the handling and analysis of information, resulting in a new generation of tools and capabilities that promise to offer intelligent assistance, advice, and recommendations to consumers and knowledge workers around the world, said David Schubmehl, Research Director, Cognitive Systems and Content Analytics at IDC. These cognitively enabled solutions are being developed and implemented on cognitive software platforms that offer the tools and capabilities to extract and build knowledge bases and knowledge graphs from unstructured and semi-structured information as well as provide predictions, recommendations, and intelligent assistance through the use of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning. The markets for these cognitively enabled applications and cognitive software platforms is just beginning, and IDC expects spending to accelerate throughout the forecast period.

Banking is the vertical industry that spends the most on cognitive systems with nearly a 20% share of the worldwide total throughout the forecast. Leading uses of cognitive systems in banking include fraud analysis and investigation, automated threat intelligence and prevention, and program advisors and recommendations. Retail and healthcare are the second and third largest industries with combined spending on cognitive systems forecast to reach over $10 billion in 2019. The leading use cases in retail are automated customer service agents and merchandising for omni-channel operations while the leading use case in healthcare is diagnosis and treatment systems.

The potential use cases for cognitive systems are as wide, varied, and rich as the imagination. Automated threat intelligence, for instance, is helping organizations connect the dots between pieces of information to improve security, while in healthcare, cognitive systems are improving the quality of peoples lives by assisting in diagnosis and treatment at the individual patient level, said Jessica Goepfert, Program Director, Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC. Wherever cognitive systems are in play, workers and organizations can expect to be impacted by the power of more information, intelligence, and automation.

On a geographic basis, North America (the United States and Canada) is by far the largest region for cognitive systems spending with almost 80% of the worldwide total throughout the forecast. Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is currently the second largest region, but IDC forecasts that cognitive systems spending in Asia/Pacific including Japan will overtake EMEA by the end of the forecast.

The new Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive Systems Spending Guide sizes the market for technologies that analyze, organize, access, and provide advisory services based on a range of unstructured information. The spending guide quantifies the cognitive computing opportunity by providing data for more than 20 use cases across 19 industries in eight regions. Data is also available for the related hardware, software, and services categories. Unlike any other research in the industry, the detailed segmentation and timely, global data is designed to help suppliers targeting the market to identify market opportunities and execute an effective strategy.

About IDC Spending Guides

IDCs Spending Guides provide a granular view of key technology markets from a regional, vertical industry, use case, buyer, and technology perspective. The spending guides are delivered via pivot table format or custom query tool, allowing the user to easily extract meaningful information about each market by viewing data trends and relationships.

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDCs analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the worlds leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.
Filed for divorce today

So, just came back from my lawyer and filed for divorce. 2-3 months if they find him and he signs a waiver, or 8 months to a year if they don't find him. He can't get back in the house.Lots of mixed emotions and my family doesn't think i am going through with it, I have become such a jokeMy friend said today that she doesn't believe in my intentions. The lawyer told me that the fastest way (since we have a separation agreement) is to sign a waiver. Then its a smooth road. Next step is to serve him papers (taken that he is still in rehab at the time and that rehab will actually let them serve these papers), if this doesn't happen, then they will divorce us still but have to wait for like 8 months to a year. My family thinks I am doing this ON PURPOSE. WTF. I am doing what my lawyer told me to do
International Relations  March 8, 2016  Sebastian Chwala

The class-consciousness of workers in France is diminishing. As early as 1978 opinion surveys revealed a strong unease that went with the sense of society falling into crisis. The most important factors for the preservation of class-consciousness, according to social scientists Guy Michelat and Michel Simon, were the existence of relatively unified and solidary collectives at the lower societal levels (workplace, neighbourhood), and the presence of strong organizations (trade unions, political parties), which were able to assert workers interests in the political and social spheres, and by whom workers felt themselves to be represented.

In the course of the 1980s the sense of belonging to the working-class fell apart. This accompanied structural changes in industry; persistent mass unemployment with its destructive effects on individuals and collectivities; and a consequential social consciousness. In the process, the Parti communiste francais (PCF) suffered its greatest loss of support, above all among the most leftwing sections of the population, who as a result turned to the Parti socialiste; while the ideology of liberalism began a decade-long stretch of popularity.

The downward trend in the membership numbers of the PCF is striking in a negative sense. In 1979 the party still had more than 700,000 dues-paying members, but by 2001 it was down to some 139,000. From the 1990s onward confidence in institutions began to erode. This was accompanied by a sharp turn toward collective forms of action and a second break with leftwing political parties. This time it was the Parti Socialiste that was affected. Voter abstention by the classe populaire became subsequently particularly pronounced. This went hand in hand with the further retreat of class references, but did not lead, for the main part, to support for the Front National (FN).

Red Belt

That the sense of belonging to the political left in the old PCF strongholds was not completely lost is revealed by the Red Belt. This refers to the Parisian suburbs that have been stable strongholds of the left since the 1920s. The PCF is still the source of several mayors and even parliamentarians. However, the election of leftwing candidates is more often due to cultural reasons, in as much as programmatic convictions. As a result, in these municipalities the election results for the PCF or candidates that are supported by the party, though still up to 15 per cent above the national average, are nevertheless below those of the FN; though voter participation hovers at around 10 per cent below the national average.

The oppositional polity, which once existed under the leadership of the PCF in red municipalities such as St. Denis or Gennevilliers, has hence disappeared. At the high point of the labour movement and the Fordist class compromise this made it possible to combine revolutionary rhetoric with reformist municipal policies. This led not only to the substantial expansion of social infrastructure, but also to the formation of cultural and associational politics driven by the labour movement; in the meantime, the communist mayors unconditionally supported workers in their struggles against the large firms.

Proud Rebels

Nevertheless, the deindustrialization of the Parisian suburbs since the end of the 1970s has repeatedly narrowed the capacity of the municipalities to act. With the bursting of the Fordist wage-labour society, municipal communism more and more lost its progressive substance. Instead of aligning with workers as before, the mayors now strove to establish good relations with the remaining firms, in the hope of rescuing at least a small economic base. Within these firms, the outsourcing of their operations became ever more significant, while competition between temporary workers and permanent employees thwarted the development of workplace solidarity and caused trade union activity to go awry.

Class struggle has been displaced by the struggle over jobs. The estrangement between workers parties and the dominated class has progressed in such a way that in many districts of St. Denis a third of voters are not even registered in their districts. These falsely-registered represent the largest portion of non-voters. Workers do not vote for the Right for the main part but tend toward abstention. During the April 2002 presidential election 31 per cent of workers did not cast a ballot. Moreover, 29 per cent voted for a left party (including the Greens), 22 per cent for a traditional rightwing party, and only 16 per cent for Le Pen.

Michelat and Simon make clear that the values of the political left, even in the consciousness of supporters, are incompatible with those of the FN. Support for the left is all the more decisive among the less xenophobic and authoritarian of those polled. The same goes for the level of politicization and acceptance of democratic forms of public life. A section of this group are the proud rebels who still possess class consciousness and have withstood workplace relocations and shutdowns in a few remaining bastions of Fordist industry.

Precarious Living Conditions

It is clear that within the classe populaire voter abstention has been increasing. But who are these non-voters, and which social-political attitudes can best characterize them? The first group to catch the eye are the precarious  a social group in France that has been increasingly accused of being susceptible to the siren songs of the FN and who are quite heavily concentrated in the banlieues. They are often dependent on state benefits, which nonetheless do not suffice for survival.

Significant portions of the precariously employed are young people. Many are dependent on an option that came into existence in 2008 for an augmentation, that is to say, to apply for supplements to their incomes via a newly established basic allowance provision. Yet not everyone possesses this right to benefits, which leads to conflicts among the poor. Indeed, at around 30 per cent of GDP, social spending in France is still relatively high compared to the rest of Europe (circa 22 per cent). And yet, depending on various assessments, between 8 and 14 per cent of Frances population can be described as poor; hence more than six million people rely on state assistance.

The renewed rise in unemployment since 2008 has led to the situation that people living in precarious conditions no longer originate solely from the working-class. To be sure, at present blue-collar workers continue to be the most affected, and the living and working conditions of 52 per cent of such workers can be described as precarious. However, the same can now also be said about the living conditions for 42 per cent of white-collar employees, 47 per cent of small business people, and 37 per cent of farmers.

Recent studies accentuate a particularly high affirmation of racist and xenophobic attitudes especially among the precarious. Yet these are not culturally and intellectually shaped, instead they are embedded in, and are the results of purely economic and social conflicts, which lie at the forefront. Hence, understandably, the critique of the growing gap between the rich and the poor is at the centre.

However, a conflict pervades the precarious milieu that plays out between those employed in the low-wage sector who earn too much to be eligible for state support, and the unemployed. The latter are subjected to the rebuke that by not working they enjoy the advantages provided by the welfare state, while the former are not adequately appreciated for their efforts to escape poverty. It is a conflict between two socioeconomically very close groups that is accompanied with the denigration of receiving state benefits.

Political scientists Nathalie Fuchs and Nonna Mayer write in a 2015 paper on the consciousness of low-wage workers:

the best possibility to distance and raise oneself above these people [the beneficiaries of social benefits] consists in everyone contrasting their own moral qualities. Work, motivation and honestly distinguish the good from the bad poor. The topic of the welfare state leads to an ethnocentric dimension becoming part of the debate. The foreigner, the migrant is perceived quite simply as a profiteer of social assistance, of benefits that dont belong to him.

It is telling that these groups, located on the upper end of the precariat when considered in terms of income, reveal an above average willingness to give their votes to the FN and Marine Le Pen. In contrast, the willingness to vote for the left or even the radical left rises as the level of precarity increases.

As such, the thesis that radical political offerings find backing among low-income milieus cannot be completely denied. Indeed, this leads to an eroding position for the rightwing bourgeois parties, who receive less support among the precarious than the FN; while at the same time sympathies for the parties of the left dominate.

Right Wing Workers

Right wing attitudes do exist among workers and those within the classe populaire. Michelat and Simon describe this as worker authoritarianism. By this they mean intolerance toward minorities and an intense attachment to national identity. This correlates with a positive view of the notion of liberalism, which considerably eases the decision to vote for the FN. It is clear that ethnocentrism, which leads to support for the FN, does not play the same role as the critique of capitalism of the old workers parties. Consequently, the thesis by political scientist Florent Gougou that the younger rather apolitical worker milieus support the FN for the same reason their parents and grandparents generation supported the PCF, appears more than questionable. A change in the motivations to vote for the right has hence not occurred. Like the rightwing radicalized proletarians of the traditional right mentioned by Gougou, these groups are likewise oriented toward advancement  they want to become technicians, foremen or senior managers. Even in 1978, at a time when the political left still appeared to dominate the labour movement, 32 per cent of workers surveyed admitted to harbouring the dream of opening their own small business and wanting to leave the workers life behind them.

That there are such rightwing workers among those voting for the FN becomes clear when one consults the results of a survey in the run up to the 2007 elections. Among the 100 workers surveyed who described themselves as FN voters, 43 per cent described themselves as rather rightwing, while 41 per cent as neither right, nor left or did not want to answer. Only 16 per cent considered themselves to be rather leftwing. In a 2011 survey, 61 per cent of workers who voted for the FN saw themselves as in the middle or rather rightwing, while 58 per cent of workers who did not want to vote for the party of Marine Le Pen identified themselves as rather left. The Front National has thus recruited its support primarily from the rightwing camp of the classe populaire.

Nevertheless, there are entire regions that lean strongly toward the right despite having a high proportion of workers. Here, in contrast to the old strongholds of the left, voter participation is sometimes even above average. An example is the industrial region of La Riboire. Here, since the turn of the century candidates for the rightwing parties (UMP and FN) obtain above average results in elections. Jean-Marie Le Pen scored 30 per cent here in 2002, while his daughter in 2012 claimed 32 per cent of the votes  with a voter participation rate that actually stood at 88 per cent in some districts. In the second round of the 2007 election Nicolas Sarkozy won 73 per cent of the votes here.

Relatively unnoticed has been the proportion of rural regions where the concentration of workers has significantly increased. Indeed, one should not ignore the many old municipal Islands dominated by the left, like the steel industry towns in Lorraine that are surrounded by rural areas. Many large corporations (Danone, Louis Vuitton, Sanofi etc.) are now establishing production facilities exclusively outside of cities. Those belonging to the rural worker milieu employed here do so in small manufacturing firms and are usually homeowners.

Corporatist Identity

Since the 1980s the region of La Riboire has experienced the emergence of an elevated working-class. Whereas the proportion of unskilled workers between 1982 and 1999 sank from 23 to 18 per cent, the share of technical workers and supervisory staff rose from 9 per cent in 1982 to 18 per cent in 1999; to the point where the share of skilled labour remains stable at 30 per cent. At the same time high unemployment is not characteristic of this region. In 2011 some 3 700 permanent employees and 1000 to 2000 temporary workers were employed here in more than 100 firms. Branch factories of large corporations, as well as small and medium firms, which act as suppliers, located to this region.

These new industrial parks in the hinterlands of the large cities, such as La Riboire, arose in the 1980s to circumvent the fortresses of the working-class, and are characterized by a rupture with traditional workers organizations. Characteristic of this was the use of outsourcing and the differentiation of labour relations. Due to the rightwing socialization of the rural population in La Riboire, leftwing organizations could never take hold. In contrast, rightwing liberal forces have always dominated, who also pushed for the establishment of industrial parks.

With the dominance of small and medium-sized production facilities of larger corporations, which are complemented by family firms, La Riboire is also characterized by a tight network of relationships on the employee and management/owner levels. As a result, not only do perceived flat hierarchies emerge, which make faster social advancement within firms seem possible, but in particular, an identification occurs among workers with the goals and outlooks of the owners. Workers from La Riboire hence largely accept the viewpoint that the competitiveness of their firms has priority.

This closeness to the owners goes with a preference for the family business as the optimal form of enterprise. It is especially here that workers in La Riboire see the possibility that their willingness to work and their corresponding engagement will be recognized and accordingly rewarded with advancement in the firm. In line with this, the willingness to contribute beyond the minimum within the firm is also common. Such individualization of occupational careers cannot but be difficult to align with the political demands of trade unions and left parties. Trade union activities in workplaces based on conflict and the limitation of managements prerogatives would be seen as a risk for ones advancement. Those for whom this conduct pays off accordingly reject the notion that unemployment is a societal problem.

In this setting, where the insistence on hard work is seen as the basis of ones existence and is accompanied with the rejection of an excessive welfare state, the political slogans of the FN find a sympathetic ear among many. The wish for further social and economic advancement is common to all these households; as well as the hope perhaps some day to be able to work for ones own account and open a business, as some have already managed. Those who succeeded at this subsequently come to share the classical values of small business. Though they are on the way to climbing economically into the middle strata, they differentiate themselves from the urban middle strata in one central aspect: the irrelevant roll that educational titles play in the consciousness of these workers. While members of the urban middle strata desire a long period of education in order to strive for (allegedly) secure jobs with their acquired educational capital, above all in the public sector, the workers of La Riboire remain limited to the acquisition of technical know-how offered them by the local firms. The hopes to be able to maintain and eventually raise their living standards, is thus directly connected with the future of La Riboire as a production location.

Several points can be ascertained. On first sight it seems that in the last 20 years a massive shift to the right has taken place within the working-class. Yet if one examines the development closer it becomes apparent that such a blanket assertion is wrong. On the contrary, a demobilization of leftwing voters can be discerned, which is linked to the deep crisis of the old Fordist industrial structure. Thus the political left along with the trade unions have been put on the defensive after the break up of the large industrial complexes that were the basis of their strengths; with this goes the disillusionment of many formerly active party and trade union members. This becomes clear from the above average voter abstention in the old leftwing (PCF) strongholds, but not from a high proportion of votes for the FN.

For worker milieus socialized by the right, above all in the regions that had been untouched by the labour movement, and who do not share the codex of leftwing values, a vote for the FN is not a break with their previous consciousness. Here they share the central (petty-bourgeois) programmatic contents of the FN, and support a national capitalism that is regulated by means of cooperative relationships between labour and capital. In sum, in addition to the doubtless required debate on the effects of the neoliberal penetration of the world of work, strong working-class support for the FN must also always be examined through a historical-regional approach. 

This article originally appeared in Junge Welt . It is adapted from Sebastian Chwalas recently published book Der Front National: Geschichte, Programm, Politik und Wahler [The Front National: History, Programme, Politics and Voters] by PapyRossa Verlag.

Translation from German by Sam Putinja.
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The annual celebration of a Slovak Mass and Easter Customs Breakfast will take place at Prince of Peace Parish on Saturday, March 19. Its an opportunity to learn more about the rich spiritual culture and traditional Easter customs of Slovakia.

The morning begins at 10:45 a.m. at St. Adalbert Church, 160 South 15th Street, with recitation of the Holy Rosary in Slovak, followed by Mass at 11:00 a.m. All prayers, hymns and responses will be sung in the beautiful Slovak language, led by Gerri Walters, Prince of Peace organist and choir director.

Father John Joseph Gonchar of the Holy Family Friary in Bellevue, will celebrate the liturgy in Slovak, and offer his homily in English.

After Mass, worshippers are invited and encouraged to gather at Prince of Peace Parish Center, 81 South 13th Street, to sample a traditional Slovak Easter breakfast of sunka (ham), pascha (bread), siretz (cheese), kolbasy (sausage) and pysanki (dyed eggs). There is no charge for this complementary meal, but donations to help defray expenses are accepted.

Also featured as part of this mini-heritage festival are a number of cultural displays depicting the folk culture, village life and kroj (traditional dress). Select imported and handmade gift items will be available for sale.

Master folk artist and author, Larry Kozlowski, will be on hand to discuss traditional Easter folk customs and crafts such as decorating eggs Slovak-style; Robert Corbin will demonstrate the art of braiding palms; and Timmy Zatek will demonstrate the age old tradition of stuffing kolbasy, along with others who work to preserve the Slovak cultural heritage.

The Bake Sale will have plenty of favorites to satisfy any sweet tooth. Nut and poppy seed rolls and assorted cookies made by parish volunteers are reasonably priced

The Annual Slovak Mass and Easter Customs Breakfast is sponsored by the Slovak Customs Group/Cultural Diversity Committee of Prince of Peace Parish. Proceeds will benefit two chairites in Slovakia, one being the Barlicka Center in Presov, which provides training for young adults with physical and mental disabilities, care for the elderly ill, as well as parental instruction and developmental care for young children

The Prince of Peace Annual Slovak Easter Mass and Easter Customs Breakfast in South Side is a great way to introduce children and grandchildren to the cultural treasures of their ancestral homeland. Its an opportunity to rekindle treasured memories, and to reach out a much-needed helping hand to others less fortunate while enjoying a relaxing and informative morning

Admission to the Slovak Easter Breakfast is free, but donations are accepted. For more information about making a donation, or to learn how you can display your own Slovak treasures, call the Paul Zatek at 412-779-1059.

Join the friends and families of Prince of Peace Parish on Saturday, March 19, 2016. Doors to the breakfast hall open following the Mass at approximately noon.
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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), named Curiosity, as seen fully deployed on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011 during a media photo opportunity inside Kennedy Space Center's Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility in Florida.

Editor's Note: The following timeline was updated on March 8, 2016.

Getting to Mars has never been easy. In the time that humans have been sending probes to Mars, there have been devastating failures and incredible successes. Here's a timeline of all the attempted Mars missions  including orbiters, landers and rovers  by various space agencies.

Marsnik 1: USSR, launched Oct. 10, 1960 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft did not reach Earth orbit.

Marsnik 2: USSR, launched Oct. 14, 1960 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft did not reach Earth orbit.

Sputnik 22: USSR, launched Oct. 24, 1962 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft achieved Earth orbit only.

Mars 1: USSR, launched Nov. 1, 1962 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft's radio failed at 65.9 million miles (106 million kilometers).

Sputnik 24: USSR, launched Nov. 4, 1962 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft achieved Earth orbit only.

Mariner 3: U.S., launched Nov. 5, 1964 on an intended Mars flyby. The shroud encasing the spacecraft at the top of the rocket failed to jettison.

Mariner 4: U.S., launched Nov. 28, 1964 and achieved the first successful Mars flyby on July 14, 1965. The spacecraft returned 21 photos.

Zond 2: USSR, launched on Nov. 30, 1964 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft passed Mars but its radio failed and it did not return any planetary data.

Mariner 6: U.S., launched Feb. 24, 1969 and successfully completed a Mars flyby on July 31, 1969. The spacecraft returned 75 photos.

Mariner 7: U.S., launched March 27, 1969 and flew by Mars on Aug. 5, 1969. The spacecraft returned 126 photos.

Mars 1969A: USSR, launched March 27, 1969. The Mars orbiter did not reach Earth orbit.

Mars 1969B: USSR, launched April 2, 1969. The Mars orbiter failed during launch.

Mariner 8: U.S., launched May 8, 1971. The Mars orbiter failed during launch.

Kosmos 419: USSR, launched May 10, 1971. The Mars orbiter achieved Earth orbit only.

Mars 2: USSR, launched May 19, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Nov. 2, 1971, but returned no useful data, and the lander burned up due to steep entry.

Mars 3: USSR, launched May 28, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Dec. 3, 1971. The lander operated on the surface of Mars for 20 seconds before failing.

Mariner 9: U.S., launched May 30, 1971. The Mars orbiter was in orbit from Nov. 13, 1971 to Oct. 27, 1972. The spacecraft returned 7,329 photos.

Mars 4: USSR, launched July 21, 1973. The failed Mars orbiter flew past Mars on Feb. 10, 1974.

Mars 5: USSR, launched July 25, 1973. The Mars orbiter arrived on Feb. 12, 1974 but lasted only a few days.

Mars 6: USSR, launched Aug. 5, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 but the lander failed due to a fast impact.

Mars 7: USSR, launched Aug. 9, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 but the lander missed the planet.

Viking 1: U.S., launched Aug. 20, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from June 1976 to 1980 and the lander operated from July 1976 to 1982.

Viking 2: U.S., launched Sept. 9, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from Aug. 1976 to 1987, and the lander operated from Sept. 3, 1976 to 1980. Combined, the Viking orbiters and landers returned more than 50,000 photos.

Phobos 1: USSR, launched July 7, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were lost in Aug. 1988 en route to Mars.

Phobos 2: USSR, launched July 12, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were lost in March 1989 near Phobos.

Mars Observer: U.S., launched Sept. 25, 1992. The spacecraft was lost just before arrival at Mars on Aug. 21, 1993.

Mars Global Surveyor: U.S., launched Nov. 7, 1996. The Mars orbiter arrived on Sept. 12, 1997 and transmitted its last communication on Nov. 2, 2006. The spacecraft returned more than 240,000 camera images, 206 million spectrometer measurements and 671 million laser-altimeter shots.

Mars 96: Russia, launched Nov. 16, 1996. The orbiter, two landers and two penetrators were lost after the rocket failed.

Mars Pathfinder: U.S., launched Dec. 4, 1996. The Mars lander and rover landed on July 4, 1997 and communicated with ground teams last on Sept. 27, 1997.

Nozomi: Japan, launched July 4, 1998. The Mars orbiter failed to enter orbit in Dec. 2003.

Mars Climate Orbiter: U.S., launched Dec. 11, 1998. The spacecraft was lost upon arrival in September 1999.

Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2: U.S., launched Jan. 3, 1999. The lander and two epentrators were lost on arrival in December 1999.

Mars Odyssey: U.S., launched March 7, 2001. The Mars orbiter arrived on Oct. 24, 2001 and is currently conducting its extended science mission. The spacecraft has returned about 350,000 images, mapped global distributions of several elements, and relayed more than 95 percent of all data from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

Mars Express/Beagle 2: European Space Agency, launched June 2, 2003. The Mars orbiter completed its prime mission in November 2005 and is currently on an extended mission. The lander was lost on arrival on Dec. 25, 2003.

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit: U.S., launched June 10, 2003. The Mars rover landed on the Red Planet on Jan. 4, 2004 for three-month mission to look for signs of past water activity on Mars. Ground controllers lost communication with Spirit in March 2010, and repeated attempts to awaken the rover failed. The rover far outlived its intended warranty, but NASA declared Spirit dead in May 2011.

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity: U.S., launched July 7, 2003. The Mars rover landed on Jan. 25, 2004 for a three-month prime mission in the Meridiani Planum region. The rover has currently logged more than 20 miles on the Red Planet and is now investigating the huge Endeavour crater. [Mars Explored: Landers and Rovers Since 1971 (Infographic)]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: U.S., launched Aug. 12, 2005. The Mars orbiter began orbiting the planet on March 12, 2006. The spacecraft has provided data that include more than 25,000 images and 3,500 radar observations. The mission has returned more total data than produced by all previous Mars missions combined.

Phoenix Mars Lander: U.S., launched Aug. 4, 2007. The Mars lander touched down on May 25, 2008 and dug through Martian soil to confirm the presence of water ice beneath the surface. Phoenix's solar panels suffered severe damage from the harsh Martian winter, and communication with the $475 million lander was lost in November 2008. After repeated attempts to reestablish contact, NASA declared Phoenix broken and dead in May 2010.

Phobos-Grunt: Russia, launched Nov. 8, 2011 on a mission to the Mars moon Phobos. The $163 million Phobos-Grunt spacecraft's thrusters failed to fire in a maneuver that would have sent the spacecraft on to Mars. It became stuck in Earth orbit, and crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 15, 2012.

Mars Science Laboratory: U.S., lanched Nov. 26, 2011. The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover landed at Gale crater on Aug. 5, 2014. The rover is carrying 10 instruments that will enable it to dig, drill and analyze the composition of rock samples. Go here to read about Curiosity's biggest science discoveries so far.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN): U.S., launched Nov. 18, 2013. The $671 million Mars orbiter was launched primarily to study the Martian atmosphere. Arrived at the Red Planet on Sept. 21, 2014. MAVEN is helping scientists understand how Mars lost most of its ancient atmosphere.

Mars Orbiter Mission: India, launched Nov. 5, 2013. The $73 million orbiter, which is also known as Mangalyaan, arrived at Mars on Sept. 23, 2014. Intended to explore Mars' surface features, mineralogy and atmosphere.

ExoMars Program: Europe and Russia, consists of two missions. First mission (orbiter and lander) scheduled to launch March 14, 2016. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will study the planet from above, while a small lander called Schiaparelli will test landing technologies. The second mission, scheduled to launch in 2018, consists of a rover that will drill 6.5 feet (2 meters) into the Martian soil. The combined cost of the program is about $1.6 billion.

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Sky Crane in aerial ballet mode during the descent of NASAs Curiosity rover to the Martian surface.

NASA's newest Mars rover is about to make a touchdown as the agency starts a long quest to bring the first Red Planet samples back to Earth.

The Perseverance (opens in new tab) rover, carrying the Ingenuity (opens in new tab) helicopter for testing flight on Mars, is scheduled to touch down on Feb. 18. The rover's entry, descent and landing (opens in new tab) is similar to the Curiosity rover's "seven minutes of terror" in 2012, which includes a rocket powered sky crane to lower the rover to the surface.

The new rover follows a long heritage of landers, rovers and other craft that have attempted to explore the Red Planet.

Related: Mars explored: landers and rovers since 1971 (infographic) (opens in new tab)

Here's a look at all the previous missions that have attempted to land on Mars:

Mars 2: (FAILED) USSR, launched May 19, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Nov. 2, 1971, but returned no useful data, and the lander burned up due to steep entry.

Mars 3: (FAILED) USSR, launched May 28, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Dec. 3, 1971. The lander operated on the surface of Mars for 20 seconds before failing.

Mars 6: (FAILED) USSR, launched Aug. 5, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 but the lander failed due to a fast impact.

Mars 7: (FAILED) USSR, launched Aug. 9, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 but the lander missed the planet.

Viking 1: U.S., launched Aug. 20, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from June 1976 to 1980 and the lander operated from July 1976 to 1982.

Viking 2: U.S., launched Sept. 9, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from Aug. 1976 to 1987, and the lander operated from Sept. 3, 1976 to 1980. Combined, the Viking orbiters and landers returned more than 50,000 photos.

Viking 2 looks out across Utopia Planitia. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)

Phobos 1: (FAILED) USSR, launched July 7, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were lost in Aug. 1988 en route to Mars.

Phobos 2: (FAILED) USSR, launched July 12, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were lost in March 1989 near the Martian moon Phobos (opens in new tab).

Mars 96: (FAILED) Russia, launched Nov. 16, 1996. The orbiter, two landers and two penetrators were lost after the rocket failed.

Mars Pathfinder (opens in new tab): U.S., launched Dec. 4, 1996. The Mars lander and rover, called Sojourner, landed on July 4, 1997 and communicated with ground teams last on Sept. 27, 1997.

Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2 (opens in new tab): (FAILED) U.S., launched Jan. 3, 1999. The lander and two penetrators were lost on arrival in December 1999.

Beagle 2 (opens in new tab): (FAILED) European Space Agency, launched June 2, 2003. Beagle 2 launched on ESA's Mars Express orbiter, which completed its prime mission in November 2005 and is currently on an extended mission. The Beagle 2 lander, however, was lost on arrival on Dec. 25, 2003.

NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars looks away from the sun into Endurance Crater and sees its shadow. The image was taken looking eastward shortly before sunset on the 3,609th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (March 20, 2014). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit (opens in new tab): U.S., launched June 10, 2003. The Mars rover landed on the Red Planet on Jan. 4, 2004 for three-month mission to look for signs of past water activity on Mars, and found extensive evidence over many years. Ground controllers lost communication with Spirit in March 2010, and repeated attempts to awaken the rover failed. The rover far outlived its intended warranty, and is considered a success. NASA declared Spirit dead in May 2011.

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (opens in new tab): U.S., launched July 7, 2003. The Mars rover landed on Jan. 25, 2004 for a three-month prime mission in the Meridiani Planum region. The rover has logged more than 20 miles on the Red Planet and was eventually felled by a lack of power due to a large sandstorm on Mars in 2018. The mission was declared over on Feb. 13, 2019, having lasted for 15 years  far beyond design expectations  and finding ample evidence of water on the surface.

Phoenix Mars Lander (opens in new tab): U.S., launched Aug. 4, 2007. The Mars lander touched down on May 25, 2008 and dug through Martian soil to confirm the presence of water ice beneath the surface. Phoenix's solar panels suffered severe damage from the harsh Martian winter, and communication with the $475 million lander was lost in November 2008. After repeated attempts to reestablish contact, NASA declared Phoenix broken and dead in May 2010.

Phobos-Grunt (opens in new tab): (FAILED) Russia, launched Nov. 8, 2011 on a mission to return samples from the Mars moon Phobos. The $163 million robotic probe suffered a crippling malfunction shortly after launch, stranding it in Earth orbit. Mission managers said Phobos-Grunt spacecraft's thrusters failed to fire in a maneuver that would have sent the spacecraft on to Mars. The spacecraft plummeted back to Earth and was destroyed on Jan. 15, 2012.

Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity (opens in new tab): U.S., launched Nov. 26, 2011. The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover landed at Gale crater on the night of Aug. 5, 2012, and has spent the last several year investigating Mount Sharp/Aeolis Mons to learn about the history of water across Martian geologic periods. The Mars rover is investigating whether the planet was ever hospitable to life (opens in new tab), and has found ample evidence of organic molecules and water in the past decade. Its primary mission has been extended several times.

Schiaparelli (opens in new tab) (FAILED): European Space Agency, launched March 14, 2016 with a failed landing attempt on Oct. 19, 2016. Schiaparelli was a landing demonstrator meant to test future landing technologies for Martian missions. It arrived safely at the Red Planet with the Trace Gas Orbiter, but conflicting data caused the little probe to crash into the surface (opens in new tab). Happily, however, TGO safely remained in orbit as planned and continues to collect data.

InSight (opens in new tab): U.S., launched May 5, 2018 and landed Nov. 26, 2018. InSight is equipped to probe the interior of Mars and has found ample evidence of marsquakes (opens in new tab). One of its larger goals is to better understand the history and formation of rocky planets more generally, using Mars as a test bed for our theories. Engineers spent two Earth years attempting to put a heat-seeking mole under the surface, but the effort ultimately was called off because the regolith (soil) was harder than expected (opens in new tab). InSight is now on an extended mission, having met its primary mission goals.

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United Launch Alliance ultimately plans to replace its Atlas 5 rocket with the Vulcan, picture above. The Air Force awarded ULA a $46 million contract for work on the rocket and its new upper stage engine.

WASHINGTON  The U.S. Air Force will invest up to $536 million in Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 rocket engine and as much as $202 million in United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket as a way to end dependence on the Russian rocket engine used to launch most U.S. national security payloads, according to a Feb. 29 announcement from the Pentagon.

Aerojet Rocketdyne will use the money to help develop its AR1 rocket engine. ULA will develop a prototype of its Vulcan launch vehicle with the BE-4 engine and work on its next-generation upper stage engine known as the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, or ACES.

The contracts are among the Air Force's top space acquisition priorities for 2016.

Following the Crimean crisis of 2014, Congress directed the Defense Department to develop domestic propulsion systems that would enable the Air Force to end its reliance on the Russian-built RD-180 by 2019. That engine powers ULA's Atlas 5 rocket, which is used to launch a majority of national security satellites.

The Air Force said in June it intended to award a total of $160 million to fund work on both main- and upper-stage rocket engines. Industry would be required to cover at least one-third of the costs of their proposed development efforts, but the actual size of the government investment would vary from proposal to proposal. But once the Air Force awarded four contracts the initial total was $242 million, including $115 million to Aerojet Rocketdyne.

"Having two or more domestic, commercially viable launch providers that also meet national security space requirements continues to be our end goal," Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, commander of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, said in a press release. "These innovative public-private partnerships with industry as they develop their rocket propulsion systems are a key part of the [Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle] acquisition strategy to assure access to space and address the urgent need to transition away from strategic foreign reliance."

Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 that, like the RD-180 it is intended to replace, is fueled by liquid oxygen and kerosene. The initial value of the contract the Air Force awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne Feb. 29 is $115 million but options could raise the potential government investment to $536 million. Aerojet Rocketdyne's share of development costs, under that scenario, would top $268 million.

"AR1 will return the United States to the forefront of kerosene rocket propulsion technology," Eileen Drake, Aerojet Rocketdyne's chief executive officer, said in a press release. "We are incorporating the latest advances in modern manufacturing, while capitalizing on our rich knowledge of rocket engines to produce a new, state-of-the-art engine that will end our reliance on a foreign supplier to launch our nation's national security assets."

Aerojet Rocketdyne executives say they plan to test the first AR1 development engine in 2017, followed by additional testing in 2018 and to provide a certified engine in 2019.

Following the Pentagon's announcement, the company said Huntsville, Alabama-based Dynetics will become a subcontractor for the work and supply elements of the engine's main propulsion system, ignition system and ground support equipment.

ULA announced in September 2014 that its first choice for a new engine for its Vulcan rocket is the BE-4, a liquid-natural-gas fueled engine that cannot be used on the Atlas 5 as currently designed. Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is developing that engine using its own funds.

The Air Force awarded ULA a $46 million contract Feb. 29 to develop a prototype of the Vulcan rocket using the BE-4 and the upper stage engine. With options, the potential government investment in Vulcan could reach $202 million. ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, would be expected to contribute as much as $134 million under that scenario.

ULA said the Air Force funding would help integrate the BE-4 with the Vulcan launch vehicle.

"While the RD-180 engine has been a remarkable success with more than 60 successful launches, we believe now is the right time for American investment in a domestic engine," Tory Bruno, ULA's president and chief executive officer, said in a release.

ULA has said the Vulcan's first flight could be as early as 2019 and that the ACES upper stage engine could fly as early as 2023. Last year, ULA officials said an ACES-equipped Vulcan, augmented by strap-on boosters, would have 30 percent more lift capacity than the Delta 4 Heavy, currently the largest vehicle in the U.S. fleet.

ULA has a contract with Aerojet to retain the AR1 as a backup in case the BE-4 effort falters. ULA is expected to choose which engine it will develop for Vulcan late this year.

The Feb. 29 announcement is the Air Force's second round of contract of awards for rocket propulsion systems. On Jan. 13 the service announced it would invest at least $46.9 million and perhaps as much as $180 million, to develop three technologies for a new rocket from Orbital ATK. In addition, SpaceX received at least $33.6 million, and perhaps as much as $61 million, to continue development of its reusable methane-fueled Raptor engine.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
The U.S. Air Force lost the ability to command one of its two primary weather satellites on Feb. 11 and is trying to determine if the satellite can return to service.

WASHINGTON  NOAA satellite operators unexpectedly lost the ability to command one of the Air Force's primary weather satellites on Feb. 11 and now officials from both organizations are racing to determine if the spacecraft can return to service, officials told SpaceNews.

The satellite, known as the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19, is used to help weather forecasters predict fog, thunderstorms and hurricanes that could impact military operations. Launched in April 2014, the spacecraft is the Air Force's newest weather satellite on orbit.

Air Force officials do not yet know the cause of the problem, or if the satellite can be recovered, Andy Roake, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command, said in a March 2 email. [See launch photos for the DMSP-19 weather satellite]

"Operators lost the ability to command and control Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19 (DMSP F-19) Feb. 11, 2016 and subsequently are making attempts to regain connectivity," he said. "The satellite is in a stable configuration while operators continue to troubleshoot the anomaly.

"At this time, it is not known what caused the anomaly or if the satellite will be recovered, and the anomaly is under investigation. There are no other known issues with the satellite."

Air Force Space Command disclosed the problem with the satellite March 2 in response to questions from SpaceNews.

The DMSP constellation requires at least two primary satellites and two backup satellites to gather cloud imagery. As a result of the problem, the Air Force has reassigned an older satellite, DMSP Flight 17, which launched in 2006 and had been serving as a backup, into a primary role, Roake said.

"There is no impact to the strategic weather mission, and the DMSP constellation remains able to support warfighter requirements," Roake said. "The constellation continues to provide weather and atmospheric data to users as it has for the past five decades."

DMSP operators in Suitland, Maryland, working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, first recognized trouble with the satellite when they could not "establish command access" with the satellite on Feb. 11, NOAA officials said in a Feb. 12 email obtained by SpaceNews.

Workers initially attributed the problem to the ground system, but then discovered a problem with the "RF receive subsystem" when its temperature spiked 10 degrees. Without that subsystem "the ability to uplink real time commands and refresh operational and navigation loads is lost," the email said.

About four hours later the Air Force declared a state of spacecraft emergency and on the next four contacts with the satellite, "all attempts to restore command access failed," the email said.

Roake said March 2 that operators are working through a 30-day plan to recover the command and control capability and that it is "premature to consider end of life shutdown actions at this time."

"The satellite is still sending signals; DMSP engineers continue to receive telemetry from F-19 and are able to verify the health and status of the vehicle," he said.

But, he added, any data from the satellite is no longer being used for weather forecasting. In addition, Air Force officials expect a gradual decay in that data in the 60 days following a problem.

The Air Force still has five DMSP satellites, Flights 14  18, operating in primary or backup roles. The oldest satellite, Flight 14, launched in 1997.

Even the potential loss of DMSP Flight 19 is likely to renew questions about the health of the Air Force's weather satellite program.

In February 2015, DMSP Flight 13, exploded on orbit fter a problem with its battery. In addition, after much debate, Congress opted last year not to launch the next satellite in the DMSP program Flight 20, and instead chose to terminate the DMSP program. That decision meant the Air Force is not expected to launch another weather satellite until 2017 at the earliest and that satellite, a technical demonstration from the Operationally Responsive Space Office, would not provide the same kinds of weather data as the DMSP satellites.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver is the prime contractor on the DMSP program. Matt Kramer, a Lockheed Martin spokesman, referred questions to the Air Force.

Originally published on SpaceNews.
The first spacecraft ever to visit a dwarf planet has now been circling its target for a full Earth year.

NASA's Dawn probe arrived at Ceres  the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter  on March 6, 2015, and has been mapping the dwarf planet in detail ever since.

"Ceres has defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways, thanks to a year's worth of data from Dawn," Dawn deputy principal investigator Carol Raymond, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "We are hard at work on the mysteries the spacecraft has presented to us." [See photos from NASA's Dawn mission]

Chief among those mysteries are Ceres' intriguing bright spots, and a 3-mile-high (5 kilometers) mountain known as Ahuna Mons.

Ceres' bright patches lie at the bottom of craters  most famously, a 56-mile-wide (90 km) hole in the ground called Occator. For a while, mission scientists debated whether these reflective spots are composed of water ice or salts; the current thinking leans heavily toward salts, in particular hydrated magnesium sulfates. (Here on Earth, magnesium sulfate is sold as Epsom salt, a home remedy for sore feet and other ailments.)

NASA's Dawn spacecraft produced this side-perspective view of the mountain Ahuna Mons on Ceres. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI)

Ahuna Mons remains more mysterious. The dome-shaped, steep-sided mountain, which is taller than the United States' Mount Rainier and Mount Whitney, features bright streaks on some of its slopes, but Dawn scientists aren't sure what they're made of.

And nobody yet knows just how Ahuna Mons came to be.

"No one expected a mountain on Ceres, especially one like Ahuna Mons," Dawn principal investigator Chris Russell, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the same statement. "We still do not have a satisfactory model to explain how it formed."

The $466 million Dawn mission launched in September 2007, tasked with orbiting and studying the two largest objects in the asteroid belt  the 330-mile-wide (530 km) protoplanet Vesta, and Ceres, which is about 590 miles (950 km) across. The main goal is to gain insights into the solar system's early days by observing these two leftovers from the planet-formation period  hence the mission's name.

Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011 and departed for Ceres in September 2012. When Dawn reached the latter destination, it became the first probe ever to orbit two separate objects beyond the Earth-moon system.

Dawn has eyed Ceres from four successively closer-in orbits over the past year. The spacecraft is now in its final orbit, which lies just 240 miles (380 km) from Ceres' surface. Dawn will continue studying the dwarf planet from this perch for the remainder of its mission, which is scheduled to end on June 30, 2016.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
NASA had hoped its next Mars probe would have launched by now. Instead, the agency is mulling whether to spend an extra $150 million to fix a problem with the spacecraft and re-target liftoff for May 2018, the next time Earth and Mars favorably align for flight.

"The fact that I'm standing here talking to you, instead of gloating on the phone (from the Mission Control Center) is a clue that things haven't gone as well as one may have hoped," project scientist Bruce Banerdt told a Mars exploration planning group last week.

NEWS: NASA's Next Mars Mission Has Been Grounded

Launch of InSight, which is designed to study the deep interior of Mars, had been targeted for Friday, March 4. But preparations came to a sudden halt in late December after a nagging technical problem with the spacecraft resurfaced for a fourth time. By then, it was too late to finish another round of repairs before the 2016 launch window closed.

"Everything was ready to go, but then we kind of went off the rails," Banerdt said.

Last week, the InSight team presented NASA managers with a proposal to fix the spacecraft and an estimate of the cost.

The extra $150 million would bust the project's current cost cap of $675 million and likely delay other projects. NASA already had spent about $525 million on InSight when work was suspended.

"Overall, I think we got a positive response," Banerdt said.

ANALYSIS: The Dust Devils of Mars Could Pack a Seismic Punch

A decision on whether NASA will proceed with the mission is expected as early as this week, he added.

The problem with InSight involves a nine-inch diameter spherical chamber that holds sensors needed to make seismic measurements. The chamber has to be able to maintain a near-perfect vacuum so the instruments can detect motions equivalent to the width of a hydrogen atom.

With that data, scientists hope to learn about Mars' core and mantle, information that is key to understanding how the planet formed and evolved.

The chamber has an infinitesimal leak  so tiny, says Banerdt, that if a car tire leaked at that rate it wouldnt need any air added for three centuries. But the leak is too high for the seismometer to operate properly.

"We figured out what the problem was and it's not going to happen again," Banerdt said.

ANALYSIS: Mars Mission Will Drill Deep for Inside Information

Although a subcontractor in France manufactured the faulty instrument, Banerdt says there should have been a management system in place to catch the error.

"I don't place the blame on any particular agency or any particular organization. It really was kind of a systemic problem  We share in the responsibility and we're going to be sharing in the cost to fix it," he said.

The French space agency CNES would foot the bill for its extra labor costs, Banerdt added.

If approved, the revamped InSight spacecraft would launch on May 5, 2018, and land itself on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018, for a two-year mission.

Originally published on Discovery News.
Pluto

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

From moving lights in the night sky, we now understand that planets, moons and dwarf planets are actual places. Some of them have weather, auroras and other features that are similar to Earth. One key to help us better understand a world's history is by charting its terrain. By figuring out what kinds of ground there are and how high they are, we can begin to trace events such as impacts and mountain-building. Here are a few cool geology maps from around the solar system.

PHOTOS: Dive Onto Pluto's High-Resolution Landscape

We didn't know much about Pluto at all until the New Horizons spacecraft flew past the dwarf planet last year. Today, high-resolution pictures are still flowing back to us from deep space. This recent example shows a nitrogen-ice plain that is informally called Sputnik Planum. You can see many different types of terrain, ranging from mountains to hills to nitrogen-ice plains. NASA wrote that this research helps scientists identify which of these features formed first. "For example," the agency said, "the yellow craters (at left, on the western edge of the map) must have formed after their surrounding terrain."

Titan

NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Cornell/Weizmann

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and is an interesting place to examine in Saturn's system. It has an atmosphere, hydrocarbon lakes and a liquid cycle similar to what we see here on Earth. These 2013 images from the Cassini spacecraft represent the first global topographic map of the moon, and were identified by NASA as a way to help pinpoint some of the finder details of the liquid cycle.

10 Years Later: When Huygens Landed on Titan

"It's especially helpful to those studying hydrology and modeling Titan's climate and weather, who need to know whether there is high ground or low ground driving their models," said map-design leader Ralph Lorenz, a member of the Cassini radar team based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, in a statement.

Mars

National Geographic society, Mola Science Team, MSS, JPL, NASA

We have lots of pictures of Mars over the centuries, but topographic data is a little more sparse. This is an example of a map created by the now-retired Mars Global Survey Mission, using its Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter. You can see great contrasts between the north and south of Mars in this global image. The northern hemisphere is generally at a lower elevation than the southern one, for example. Most of the mountainous terrain is also concentrated in one area, at left. Scientists are still puzzling out how Mars' history could have produced this, but it's possible that water was a factor in it.

PHOTOS: The Psychedelic Landscape of Mars

Venus

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Venus has an impossible-to-see surface using your eyes because it is shrouded in thick cloud. Radar, however, can penetrate down to the surface and show us the hellish, lava-filled terrain below.

PHOTOS: Japanese Spacecraft Has New Eyes on Venus

This is a 1990s-era map taken by the NASA spacecraft Magellan showing Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland on Venus. It is believed that there could be volcanic eruptions on Venus even today, which would potentially change the terrain fairly quickly. We'll need more long-term missions to learn more; the long-running Venus Express concluded last year and the Japanese mission Akatsuki has just arrived.

Mercury

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Mercury was never mapped in detail until the arrival of the MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) mission, which concluded last year. Here you can see an example of what the Mercury Laser Altimeter was capable of. This map particularly highlights craters, which are a common feature on Mercury because the planet does not have a substantial atmosphere.

PHOTOS: Mysterious Mercury and Planetary Pareidolia
Enhanced color image highlights Mercurys low-reflectance material, which appears blue in this image, and its association with impact-excavated material. The young rayed crater Degas appears near the center, and to the far left is the crater Akutagawa, whose extensive low-reflectance (dark blue) material was studied by MESSENGER and found to be carbon rich.

Before its planned crash into Mercury last year, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft gave scientists a parting gift.

In its final orbits, MESSENGER not only confirmed that Mercury's dark hue is due to carbon, but also revealed that the carbon wasn't deposited by impacting comets, as some researchers suspected.

Fuzzy to Clear: Space Robots Snap Solar System Into Focus

Instead, scientists now believe they are seeing remnants of the planet's primordial crust, which likely formed when a global ocean of super-heated magma cooled, allowing minerals to solidify.

Computer simulations and experiments show that most of these crystallized minerals would sink  with one key exception. Graphite, the studies show, would float.

Scientists used an instrument on MESSENGER called a neutron spectrometer to make low-altitude measurements of the darkest regions on the planet's surface, which were suspected of having the most low-reflectance material (LRM.)

"The measurements showed enhanced fluxes of thermal neutrons over three areas of LRM, so only graphite as the darkening agent fits both the spectral reflectance observations and the neutron measurements," MESSENGER's lead scientist Sean Solomon, with Columbia University, wrote in an email to Discovery News.

NEWS: Mercury's Speedy Spin Hints at Planet's Insides

Scientists also were able to match the carbon-rich material with large impact craters, evidence that the material stemmed from deep within Mercury's crust and was exposed after an impacting body gouged out a crater.

"Because LRM deposits on Mercury are all associated with material excavated from depth by large impact craters, they must come from the mid to lower crust," Solomon said.

Scientists estimate the ancient crust was about .62 mile, or 1 kilometer, thick.

The crust of present-day Mercury has been bashed by impacts, covered with lava, melted and otherwise disturbed.

"The processes  would dilute any primordial crust," physicist Patrick Peplowski, with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and colleagues write in a paper published this week in Nature Geoscience.

NEWS: Strange 'Hollows' on Mercury Revealed by NASA Probe

"This inference adds to our deepening appreciation that Mercury formed from a portion of the early solar nebula that was chemically much more reduced and was rich in other volatiles (such as sulfur, sodium, potassium and chlorine) compared with the portions of the nebula well sampled by Venus, Earth and Mars," Solomon said.

Originally published on Discovery News.
The next robotic mission to Mars will launch in less than a week, if all goes according to plan.

The first part of the two-phase, joint European-Russian ExoMars mission is scheduled to blast off atop a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kakakhstan on March 14. A slight delay can be accommodated; the launch window extends through March 25.

The Proton's payload consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a lander called Schiaparelli, both of which should arrive at Mars in October after a seven-month cruise. TGO will sniff the Red Planet's air from orbit using four scientific instruments, hunting for possible signs of life. [Gallery: Europe's ExoMars Mission in Pictures]

"The orbiter will perform detailed, remote observations of the Martian atmosphere, searching for evidence of gases of possible biological importance, such as methane and its degradation products," European Space Agency (ESA) officials wrote in a mission description.

"The instruments on board the orbiter will carry out a variety of measurements to investigate the location and nature of sources that produce these gases," the officials added. "The scientific mission is expected to begin in December 2017 and will run for five years."

TGO will also map subsurface hydrogen to a depth of 3.3 feet (1 meter), an effort that could reveal accessible deposits of water-ice on Mars; this information could, in turn, guide the choice of landing sites for future missions, ESA officials have said.

Schiaparelli, meanwhile, is an entry, descent and landing demonstrator designed to help lay the foundation for the second part of the ExoMars mission, which will launch a life-hunting rover toward the Red Planet in 2018 or 2020. (TGO will serve as the communications link between this rover and mission control.)

Schiaparelli will also gather environmental data on the Martian surface for as long as the probe's batteries last, likely between two and eight days, ESA officials have said.

NASA was ESA's original partner on ExoMars, whose name is short for Exobiology on Mars. But the American space agency dropped out in February 2012, citing budget issues. About a year later, ESA signed a deal with Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, to pick up the slack.

ESA leads the ExoMars mission and is responsible for most of the spacecraft hardware. Russia is providing several components: Proton rockets for both launches, the lander that will deliver the ExoMars rover to the planet's surface, and some scientific instruments on TGO and the rover.

ExoMars is Europe's second Red Planet mission. The first was Mars Express, which consisted of an orbiter and a lander that launched together in June 2003. The orbiter continues to study the planet to this day, though the lander, known as Beagle 2, went silent shortly after separating from the Mars Express mothership. It was never heard from again.

After a long search, Beagle 2 was finally spotted in January 2015, in images captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These photos showed that Beagle 2 made it to the Martian surface intact; the lander may have failed because its solar panels didn't deploy completely, mission team members have said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
This NASA graphic depicts the 100-mile-wide (160 kilometers) path of totality for the total solar eclipse of March 8, 2016 (which will actually occur on March 9 in Southeast Asia, which lies on the other side of the international date line).

Editor's note for March 8, 10:45 pm ET: The total solar eclipse of 2016 has ended. You can see photos of the solar eclipse here. To see our full wrap up, read: Total Solar Eclipse Wows Skywatchers Across Indonesia, Pacific Region.

Today (March 8) the moon will pass in front of the sun, causing the first and only total solar eclipse of 2016. For skywatchers around the world, here's how to see the eclipse and what to expect.

The eclipse will be visible across Indonesia, from the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and Halmahera. A partial eclipse will be visible over southern and eastern Asia, northern and western Australia, and Hawaii. Skywatchers in the rest of the world can watch the eclipse live in a webcast hosted by the Slooh Community Observatory.

Remember, do not look directly at the sun with the naked eye or a telescope. You can use special eclipse-viewing glasses or build a pinhole projector. [March 2016 Solar Eclipse - Mostly Out to Sea | Video]

This NASA graphic depicts the 100-mile-wide (160 kilometers) path of totality for the total solar eclipse of March 8, 2016 (which will actually occur on March 9 in Southeast Asia, which lies on the other side of the international date line). (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/E. Wright)

Slooh will broadcast views of the eclipse from Indonesia, along with "live feeds from several other locations along the eclipse path," said the observatory's website. NASA will broadcast a webcast of the eclipse as well, starting at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT on Wednesday, March 9) on NASA TV.

The Slooh webcast, which you can also watch the total solar eclipse on Space.com courtesy of Slooh, begins at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) and goes until 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT on Wednesday). From the location in Indonesia, the eclipse will reach totality  the point at which the moon fully blocks out the sphere of the sun  starting at 7:36 p.m. EST (0037 GMT) and lasting for only about 2 minutes.

(Click image to see animation). This image shows the shadow of the moon passing over Earth. The total solar eclipse will take place where the dark black dot is; the larger circle indicates regions where a partial solar eclipse will be visible. (Image credit: NASA)

To find out when totality occurs in different parts of the world, check out our solar eclipse reference page. At the location on the Earth known as the point of greatest duration, the sun will be fully covered by the moon for just over 4 minutes, according to Geoff Gaherty of Starry Night Education. However, this spot lies over the Pacific Ocean.

How Solar Eclipses Work: When the moon covers up the sun, skywatchers delight in the opportunity to see a rare spectacle. See how solar eclipses occur in this Space.com infographic (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor)

Other celestial events this week

You should never look directly at the sun, but there are ways to safely observe an eclipse. See how to safely observe a solar eclipse with this Space.com infographic (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor)

Even for skywatchers who can't personally observe the eclipse tomorrow, this week will offer some gorgeous celestial viewing events. Jupiter reaches opposition today, meaning Earth will pass directly between the mighty planet and the sun. As a result, Jupiter will rise just as the sun is setting, remain visible through the night and set when the sun rises.

Jupiter is currently the brightest object in the night sky (with the exception of the moon and the International Space Station), so it is easily observable with the naked eye. But a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope will also reveal some of the gas giant's moons. Mars and Saturn are also on display this month.

And if that isn't enough to satiate your skywatching appetite, Slooh will host another webcast on Wednesday night to track the journey of the 100-foot-wide (30.4 meters) asteroid 2013 TX68. You can also watch the webcast here on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh.

The asteroid made a close approach to Earth yesterday (March 7), at 8:42 a.m. EST (1342 GMT), coming to within 2,542,960 miles (4,092,497 kilometers) of Earth's surface, according to the Minor Planet Center, as reported on Slooh's website. However, even at its closest point, the asteroid was not visible with the naked eye, or even with a good telescope, said scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"Slooh will live-stream the event from its flagship Canary Islands Observatory, which will be accompanied by discussions led by Slooh astronomer Eric Edelman and scientist Dr. Mark Boslough, an expert on planetary impacts and global catastrophes and frequent participant on many science TV documentaries," said the Slooh website.

Editor's note: If you safely capture an amazing photo of today's total solar eclipse and would like to share it with us and our news partners for a story or gallery, send images and comments in to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
The United States could lose its long-held leadership position in space science, technology and exploration if the country doesn't renew its commitment to those fields soon, a coalition of space-industry organizations has warned.

Such a commitment should include the completion of a crewed launch system, stable NASA budgets and continued partnerships with other nations on projects such as the International Space Station, said the 12-group coalition, which jointly presented a white paper at the National Press Club on Friday (March 4).

"What we have is a rather unprecedented consensus of the space community in the United States," said Elliot Pulham, CEO of the nonprofit Space Foundation and one of three experts who shared their thoughts with reporters at the document's unveiling. [Giant Leaps: Top Milestones in Human Spaceflight]

Pulham added that one of the board members of the Space Foundation, journalist and writer P.J. O'Rourke, would have kept the message quite short if he had attended the event: "He would have said it should be one sentence: 'Space is good  keep investing.'"

The group plans to send the white paper, which is called "Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space," to candidates for office, from the presidential race on down to local congressional campaigns.

The main problem, the report said, is that NASA's funding is decided at the whim of politics. And at the moment, NASA's budget is at a historic low as a share of the overall federal budget. Meanwhile, other countries, such as China, are ramping up their investments in space.

Eric Stallmer, president of the nonprofit Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said that politicians often regard space as a regional issue, one that affects jobs in Florida, Texas and other states. But that's a very limited, and limiting, view, he added.

"Space affects all 50 states," Stallmer said. "It's a national space program."

Another big threat to U.S. leadership in space is malaise, brought on partially by past successes, several experts said.

"We landed on the moon, and that cemented in our heads that we were leaders," said Sandra Magnus, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Doing a great thing once, she added, doesn't guarantee leadership forever. [NASA's 17 Apollo Moon Missions in Pictures]

"Conquering malaise means allowing ourselves to be led by optimists and visionaries," Pulham said. Making this happen could boost the nation's "soft power," creating an environment in which other countries want to work with the United States, he added.

One of NASA's purposes is to "expand the bubble" of knowledge, Magnus said. Since the agency's establishment in 1958, NASA has built a base of expertise that has led to increased accessibility to space, Magnus said, citing the recent phenomenon of student groups launching cubesats as an example.

"For 50 years, we were kind of caught in low-Earth orbit, but now the edge of the bubble is expanding," she said. "Now people are engaged behind that in ways that aren't necessarily tied to government funding."

Investing in space allows new industries to develop, and that requires a commitment that is often lacking these days, Stallmer said. The coalition said it hopes Congress and the next president  whomever that might be  will commit to a plan of action, and fund the agency accordingly.

An important investment, the panel said, is a launch system able to get American astronauts into space, a capability the nation lost when the space shuttle program was grounded in 2011. (Right now, Russia and China are the only countries that can launch astronauts to space.)

NASA is currently developing the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion capsule toward this end, and the coalition urged continued support of these efforts. SLS and Orion are designed to help get astronauts to deep-space destinations such as Mars. Meanwhile, SpaceX and Boeing have signed NASA deals to develop "astronaut taxis" that will get spaceflyers to Earth orbit and back, beginning in 2017.

During Friday's event, panelists were asked whether fully funding SLS  which is scheduled to fly for the first time in 2018  might actually hamper American leadership in space, since the program might not even survive into the next administration. And private companies  notably SpaceX, which is building a rocket called the Falcon Heavy  might soon be able to lift hefty payloads into space for less money.

But Magnus said developing SLS technology is still important. "That system [SLS] is the expansion of the bubble," she said. "You need to continue to push the boundaries of what you're doing. You need to bring the technologies to bear that can push us out further."

And SLS and other NASA technology will still transfer to industry at some point, she added.

The panel also stressed that the U.S. should continue to partner with other nations in ways that benefit the America's space industry and security.

Lowering trade barriers in some areas could help make this happen, Pulham said, noting that restricting sales of certain equipment overseas simply encouraged other countries to develop their own capability to launch rockets.

"Our allies could not buy from us, so instead [they] developed their own indigenous industries," he said. "There was a time when 75 percent of launch capability was built in Colorado. Now it's zero percent."

Pulham also noted that some advanced spacecraft parts are now being built by other nations. "Other people have technology that we should want to get our hands on as well," he said.

Some barriers need to be in place to address real security concerns, Pulham said. "But they should not be so high that we can't do common-sense work together."

You can read "Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space" for free here: http://www.spacefoundation.org/sites/default/files/downloads/Ensuring_US_Leadership_in_Space.pdf

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Trail left by the object that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013.

A fireball exploded over the south Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 6 in the most powerful such event since February 2013, when a similar "airburst" injured more than 1,200 people in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

Last month's fireball packed the energy equivalent of 13,000 tons (13 kilotons) of TNT, but it exploded in a remote location, so no eyewitness reports are known. (The event was recorded on NASA's Fireball and Bolide Reports page.)

Meteors burn up in Earth's atmosphere every day, but most are small and therefore fly completely under the radar. Fireballs as dramatic as the Feb. 6 event  which was caused by an object estimated to be 16 to 23 feet (5 to 7 meters) wide  occur about once every two to three years, according to Peter Brown, a professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and a member of the Western Meteor Physics Group. [Photos: Russian Meteor Explosion of Feb. 15, 2013]

The Feb. 6 fireball, while powerful, would probably not have caused damage even if it had hit Earth over a populated area, Brown added.

"The only way you might get damaged is if rocks hit the ground and you are unlucky enough to be hit by some debris," he told Space.com.

The object that exploded above Chelyabinsk three years ago was about 65 feet (20 m) wide, experts say, and had an estimated explosive energy of 500 kilotons. The blast shattered hundreds of windows; the reported injuries were almost all caused by shards of flying glass.

Meteor terminology can get confusing, so here's a quick primer: An asteroid is a space rock. A meteoroid is a space rock about to hit Earth, a meteor is a space rock burning in Earth's atmosphere, and a meteorite is a space rock that made it all the way to the ground. (And, technically speaking, a fireball is a meteor that shines at least as brightly as the planet Venus in the sky.)

Varying damage potential

Meteoroids can come in several different forms. A small percentage of them (perhaps 5 percent) are made of solid iron. Others are more like comets  collections of ice and dust  and still others are rubble piles composed of bits of rock, dust and ice.

If the meteoroid is solid iron and large enough, a fraction of it can survive its trip through Earth's atmosphere and make it all the way to the ground, Brown said. A more loosely-held-together meteoroid, however, will break up in the air.

Both the Chelyabinsk rock and the Feb. 6 object likely came into the atmosphere at a shallow angle of about 20 degrees, subjecting each to relatively little heating and allowing each to penetrate deep into the atmosphere. Both rocks also each exploded at about 19 miles (30 kilometers) above the ground.

A much more powerful airburst took place over the Tunguska region of Siberia on June 30, 1908, flattening about 770 square miles (2,000 square km) of forest.

The best current estimates, Brown said, have the Tunguska object exploding with a force of between 5 and 15 megatons, or about 10 to 30 times the total energy of Chelyabinsk. Experts think the Tunguska meteor was at least 100 feet (30 m) wide, and they believe it detonated about three times closer to the ground than the Chelyabinsk object did  between 4.3 to 6.2 miles (7 to 10 km) above the Siberian treetops. [What If Tunguska Event Happened Over New York City? (Video)]

Tough to track

NASA and other agencies have a robust asteroid-tracking program that can detect objects about 16 to 32 feet (5 to 10 m) wide depending on their proximity to Earth, lighting conditions and other factors.

So far, surveys have found two asteroids of this size shortly before they impacted Earth: 2008 TC3, which came in over Sudan in 2008, and 2014 AA, which impacted over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Jan. 2, 2014.

The main observatories for this work, Brown said, are the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey and the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System). Catalina found both 2008 TC3 and 2014 AA. Both Catalina and Pan-STARRS are continually improving their capabilities and will likely be able to detect more objects of this type in the coming years, he said.

Also coming online in the next few months the University of Hawaii's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). This asteroid-detection system is optimized to pick up meteoroids impacting Earth, and will scan the sky a couple of times a night in search of them. The aim is to give a few days' or weeks' notice ahead of an impact.

But such tracking efforts are concerned primarily with big, potentially dangerous objects, not small fry like the one that caused the Feb. 6 airburst.

"They are too hard to detect ahead of impacting Earths atmosphere, and almost never do any damage  Chelyabinsk being a notable exception," Lindley Johnson, lead program executive at NASA's newly created Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), told Space.com via email.

"This size object hit and no one noticed," Johnson added, referring to the Feb. 6 rock. "Except we in the NASA PDCO did and put it on our fireball reports page, and thats why everyone now knows about it."

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
In shaping her refugee policies, Merkel followed the tenets of humanism and internationalism, both of which are rooted in Christianity but whose political home had thus far been on the left side of the political spectrum. In the campaign ahead of elections this Sunday in Baden-Wurttemberg, this state of affairs has produced an odd phenomenon: Governor Winfried Kretschmann, of the Green Party, is a passionate adherent of Merkel's policy course in the refugee crisis while Guido Wolf, the lead candidate from Merkel's own CDU, has distanced himself from the chancellor. Voting used to be easier. Particularly now that Merkel appears to be distancing herself from herself and is pursuing more restrictive refugee policies. What is one voting for now when one votes for the CDU?

This is, of course, far from the first time that state politicians have run a campaign in opposition to the federal government. It also isn't the first time that the leaders of the CDU and CSU, despite being paired in a decades-long conservative alliance, have battled it out in public as Merkel and Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer are doing today. Back in the 1980s, there was little lost love between Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Bavarian Governor Franz Josef Strauss. But Strauss and Kohl were in agreement on the fundamental questions facing their era: nuclear power and defense. By contrast, Merkel and Seehofer are so divided by refugee policy that the CSU is considering challenging Merkel's refugee policies at the Constitutional Court.

It used to be that the two conservative parties at least had a common enemy, and when it came to attacking the Social Democrats, the CDU and CSU were happy to put their differences behind them. But what do the Social Democrats stand for today? Who do they represent? SPD head Sigmar Gabriel, after all, recently said that the state has to do more for Germans, a position that would find broad agreement among supporters of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD). Germany's party landscape has been stood on its head.

Insurance Against the Fringes

Because Merkel has abandoned those on the right wing of the CDU, the AfD has filled the void and has been boosted by the refugee crisis. That, in turn, could spell the end to the CDU's firm grip on the conservative half of Germany's political spectrum. It is a development long since seen on the left, with support for the SPD having stagnated in recent years at around 25 percent or lower.

It used to be that the CDU and the SPD dominated the political landscape. Referred to as "Volksparteien," or "people's parties," they consistently divided up 80 percent of the vote between them and their sheer size served as insurance against the fringes. They were guarantors of consensus and compromise. The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) and the environment-oriented Greens were well-meaning additions to the landscape and were easily integrated.

But SPD missteps and the emergence of the far-left Left Party in 2007 fragmented the left half of the spectrum. The AfD is in the process of doing the same now to the right. Other parties on the extremist right wing, of course, have managed to find their way into some state parliaments, but their successes were largely the product of protest votes. They never really had their own electorates to speak of. The AfD, though, does and has profited from the Internet, transforming itself into the voice of online xenophobic trends and channels. Should the party's success prove lasting, Germany will end up with a political spectrum that is closer to the European norm -- but one which is nonetheless uncomfortable given the country's history.

Ahead of Sunday's state election in Baden-Wurttemberg, pundits are speculating about the creation of a "Germany Coalition," a coalition that would bring together the CDU, SPD and FPD, whose party colors are those of the German flag. It is reminiscent of the "Weimar Coalition" between the wars, that alliance of center-left parties that was forged to defend democracy, but which proved no match for the dark forces on the fringe. Things aren't nearly that bad yet, of course, but the system feels more instable than it has in a long time.

The First Steps

On the whole, it seems as though the republic is changing form. It is a slow, largely organic change -- and one strongly influenced by eastern Germany. Is that good or bad?

It would, of course, be possible to reestablish the kind of dualism seen in the heyday of the CDU and SPD -- via the introduction of a majoritarian system. That would have the advantage of making it easier to form governments, but in a situation like today, many voters would feel as though they were being shut out. That's not an option. Which is why we have to get used to a more varied party system. The disadvantage is that it will become more difficult for future governments to find consensus. The advantage, though, is that no party will be able to impose its own ideology -- pragmatism is the only route to consensus. And the shrunken Volksparteien will have to release their grip on the state and public broadcasters because they no longer represent the country the way they once did.

The United States these days is putting another possible outcome of the crisis of representation on display. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is dependent neither on his party's establishment nor on the established media. He is creating his own electorate with the help of the Internet. That is the path of extremely direct democracy.

It isn't difficult to see the black dystopia that may result: Anger, fear, unchallenged claims to truth and conspiracy theories create a mood that elevates those politicians who are best able to manipulate that mood, in part because he or she helped create it. Identity replaces representation, just like in a dictatorship. All checks and balances -- including the party system and the media -- fall away. Democracy falls prey to emotion.

Germany is still far away from such a fate. But the first steps have been taken.
She wears a pant suit, a black pullover and a small armband in Ukraine's national colors. She has served as social and health minister under Mikhail Saakashvili, governor of the Odessa Oblast, since July. Her official post is the greatest possible provocation for the Kremlin. Gaidar, the child of a brilliant intellectual family, has placed herself at the service of the much-hated Maidan revolution and is working for, of all people, one of Moscow's worst archenemies. Governor Saakashvili previously served as president of Georgia. In the United States, where he long lived, he was considered a reformer and a champion of democracy. Back in his home country, he is currently under investigation for alleged corruption and abuse of office.

'Give the People Back Their Elections'

Russia's state-controlled media angrily lambast Gaidar as a traitor to her country, with Russian novelist Eduard Limonov even having said that the politician and her entire family ought to be shot.

"My family is used to attacks like that," Gaidar says. Her father was the subject of considerable hatred as a result of his neoliberal economic reforms. Now she too wants to fight for causes she believes are just, and Gaidar is willing to become a publicly hated, martyr figure if that's what it takes.

Very early on, Gaidar demonstrated against Putin's increasingly authoritarian policies with spectacular protest actions. In November 2006, she rappelled from a bridge located close to the Kremlin and hung up a sign reading, "Give the people back their elections, you bastards!"

When Putin installed Dmitry Medvedev as president in 2008, Gaidar began infiltrating the institutions in her own way, with her political ascent to the role of deputy governor of the Kirov Oblast in central Russia and also its social and health affairs minister. She holds the very same positions today -- just in another country.

Gaidar is seeking to help "demonstrate that you can still create democracy and a market in Ukraine despite the legacy and ruins of the Soviet Union." It's now dark outside. With a heap of files packed under her arm, the health minister makes her way to her official car, a modest Skoda. She's heading to a meeting of Maidan revolution activists. Her plan is to stay for 30 minutes, but she winds up sticking around for two hours.

Nine men, a young female doctor and a middle-aged woman sit on threadbare chairs. An entrepreneur presents a policy proposal several pages long that includes his plan for increasing tax revenues. "We need three or four companies that will publicly state that they will stop evading taxes and, by doing so, serve as an example," he says. But his fellow campaigners say they fear it won't work because everyone prefers the corrupt old system. The longer the evening goes on, the gloomier the mood becomes. "We can't allow ourselves to be consumed by revolutionary romanticism and activist rhetoric," Gaidar says. "You guys should get elected into parliament and then attend the public committee meetings." In the end, they agree on a plan that would involve making the earnings of members of parliament and their families more transparent and posting them on the Internet.

The Limits of Kremlin Criticism

Another icon of the anti-Putin movement preceded Gaidar in making the trip to Odessa: Ksenia Sobchak, an It Girl, journalist, actress and daughter of a deceased former mayor of St. Petersburg who had been a confidant of Putin. Last summer, Sobchak came here to interview Saakashvili for Russian opposition broadcaster Dozhd.

On a Wednesday in February, Sobchak is again sitting in the Dozhd TV studio. Four years ago, no other broadcaster was as vociferous in its criticism of Putin's return to the Kremlin and election manipulations than the channel. Sobchak appeared at the time in front of tens of thousands of protesters. Then as now, she is not uncontroversial, because she is often associated with the same people she can be heard criticizing.

On this particular day, she has invited two actors and a filmmaker who have made a comedy critical of the system, to appear on her show, "Sobchak Live." The film's plot goes like this: The Kremlin issues the order for free and fair elections to take place. With people in the country having been exposed to manipulations and falsifications for so long that they've gotten used to it, nobody knows quite how to deal with the order. It turns out that criticism veiled in satire is still possible in today's Russia. "As long as you don't directly attack Putin," one of the filmmakers says.

A similar logic has been applied to the investigation into the Nemtsov murder. Six weeks ago, the Russian Investigative Committee looking into his murder announced its probe had been completed and that five Chechen men being held in jail had clearly been the perpetrators. Nemtsov's family believes that too -- their only complaint being that the "backers of the attack have been left untouched."

As seen after the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya in October 2006, there appears to be a pattern in the Kremlin's approach: The investigation is allowed to go just far enough to ensure it doesn't lead to its own doorstep. The deception appears to be particularly pronounced in Nemtsov's case. After the opposition politician's murder, Putin disappeared for 10 days. This led to speculation well beyond the American intelligence services of a brutal power struggle behind the scenes. It is believed that a major clash ensued between the FSB domestic intelligence agency and Ramzan Kadyrov, the despotic head of the Chechen Republic.

Ksenia Sobchak also expressed sharp criticism after the Nemtsov shooting. "There is no Putin who issued the order to murder," she said at the time. "But there is a Putin who created this infernal machine and lost control of it."




Series Synopsis





ITV has commissioned 10 part supernatural crime drama, Houdini & Doyle, from Big Talk Productions and Shaftesbury. Stephen Mangan and Michael Weston headline the cast.This bold and thrilling new crime drama series is Executive Produced by House creator David Shore, and written and created by his long-time collaborator David Hoselton, and leading Canadian screenwriter David Titcher.A UK/Canada treaty co-production, the drama is produced by leading independent producers Big Talk Productions (UK) and Shaftesbury (Canada) in association with David Shores production company, Shore Z. Sony Pictures Television will handle International distribution of the series which will air on Global in Canada and will be broadcast exclusively in the US on FOX.Stephen Mangan (Episodes) plays Sir Arthur Conan Doyle alongside Michael Weston (Six Feet Under, House) as Harry Houdini, two of the most fascinating and iconic characters of the early t0th century: real-life friends, real-life adversaries, real-life crime solvers.Harry Houdini: master magician, escape artist, born penniless and now the highest paid performer in the world and he wants everyone to know it. He refuses to believe in the paranormal. As a professional magician and master of illusion he knows theres nothing supernatural about magic. To him, everything unexplained is a trick, a gimmick, or a fraud.Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of the greatest detective of all time - Sherlock Holmes - but is also a passionate believer in the paranormal. Because, having lost someone very close to him, he desperately wants to find a way of communicating with them.This fundamental difference between the two men leads to conflict... and humour... and competition. High-minded competition in the pursuit of the truth and ridiculous petty competition because theyre... guys. But despite all this, they need each other. Doyle needs Houdini because he is gullible. Houdini needs Doyle because he is wrong.Houdini & Doyle draws heavily on the rich history of the period. At the turn of the 20th century the Metropolitan Police, mired in the ways of the 19th century, were overwhelmed with bizarre and often inexplicable cases so they turned to outsiders including, believe it or not, Houdini and Doyle, who collaborated with New Scotland Yard on some unsolved and inexplicable crimes.What can we believe? What should we believe? Is cynicism to be admired or is it what makes us human? Is reason the antithesis of hope?Joining the international cast of new and established talent are exciting new Canadian actress Rebecca Liddiard as Constable Adelaide Stratton, whose character in the series is the first female PC ever to work for the London Metropolitan Police Force, Tim McInnerny as Inspector Horace Merring, fast rising star Adam Nagaitis as Sergeant George Gudgett.Multi award winning Stephen Hopkins ( 24, Californication) is the lead director and Adrian Sturges (The Enfield Haunting) produces the series. Executive Producers are David Shore, David Hoselton, David Titcher for Shore Z, Kenton Allen, Luke Alkin and Matthew Justice for Big Talk Productions and Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie and Maggie Murphy for Shaftesbury.Houdini & Doyle was ordered by Controller of ITV Encore, Angela Jain and commissioned by ITVs Director of Drama Steve November and Controller of Drama Victoria Fea.




Thanks to Boris for the heads up.





WGN America has handed pilot orders to two dramas: alien saga Roadside Picnic, based on the StrugatskWGN Americay Brothers novel, and Scalped, based on the DC Comics graphic novel, which will feature a predominantly Native American cast. These are the first pilot orders at WGNA, which until now had employed the straight-to-series model. The two pickups come as the network is nearing a second-season renewal of breakout new drama series Outsiders.Roadside Picnic, an adaptation of one of the most famous novels of top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, was written by Transcendence sAlan Taylor Jack Paglen 2-shotcribe Jack Paglen, with Terminator Genisys and Game of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing. Sony Pictures TV, where the project was originally developed as a spec, is the studio, partnered with Tribune Studios.Scalped was written by Doug Jung (Banshee) based on the eponymous graphic novel series written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by R.M. Guera.Scalped is a modern day crime story set in the world of a Native American Indian reservation, and explores power, loyalty, and spirituality in a community led by the ambitious Chief Lincoln Red Crow, as he reckons with Dashiell Bad Horse who has returned home after years away from the reservation. The project will employ a predominately Native American cast, a first for a television series in recent history.
Efforts to forever strip standardized test scores from the teacher evaluation equation in Connecticut were debated Monday during a daylong hearing of the Legislatures Education Committee.

On one side, Commissioner of Education Dianna Wentzell and others argued against an abrupt change that lacks federal approval and which would circumvent the work of a committee created by the lawmakers to build a model evaluation system.

Student achievement is a powerful part of figuring out if instruction is effective, Wentzell testified. I am only saying dont ban us from using it.

Countering that argument were members of the states largest teachers union, who called the plan to use student test scores to judge either student or teacher success utter nonsense.

Teaching is not testing, Shelia Cohen, president of the 43,000-member Connecticut Education Association, told the committee, seven hours into the hearing at the Legislative Office Building. Results of a single test do not measure the effectiveness of a teacher.

Although the CEA has representation on the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council  which created the 2012 system that allowed student test scores to count for one-quarter or more of a teachers evaluation  the union backed away from the formula once a new standardize test, the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium, was introduced.

A subsequent change in federal law has allowed the state to put off using scores from the new test in its evaluation system through at least this year. For now, districts can, but are not required to, use scores from that test in the formula used to determine how well a teacher is doing.

A bill under consideration would prohibit the use of statewide performance test for purposes of teacher evaluation.

Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools, which represents principals, said by doing that, administrators would lose the ability to use test scores to develop teacher goals for improving student learning. The decision, she added, belongs at the local level.

We would be doing ourselves disservice from social justice perspective, Niehoff said.

If it is not valid, why use it? Mark Waxenberg, executive director of the CEA, countered later.

Joe Cirasuolo, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, told the committee there is no need to change the system in place, as long as test scores are not being required in the evaluation process.

It is a complex issue, he said. We need time to look at it.

The PEAC is set to meet again on Wednesday. Wentzell, too, said she doesnt want the Legislature to tie that committees hands. She cited a department survey that found that 56 percent of teachers dont oppose using a state assessment as part of the evaluation process, if it is used appropriately.

Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, co-chairwoman of the Education Committee, asked to see that study.

I can tell you, in my own district the responses I have received from teachers having SBAC count toward (evaluations) has been very negative, Slossberg said.

She also worried about holding teachers responsible for things beyond their control, like a students home environment.

Cohen,who submitted a packet of materials outlining the argument for why linking test scores to teacher performance is bad, said teachers are the first to take responsibility for student learning.

Including SBAC scores in teachers evaluations in no way helps improving student learning, she said.

lclambeck@ctpost.com
Racist City Employees Are on Notice, and 9 Other Greater Cincinnati News Stories You May Have Missed This Week

Catch up on local government, politics, sports, celeb sightings and Halloween fun.
STAMFORD  U.S. Rep. Jim Himes-D-Conn, will join two ministers for a roundtable discussion on gun violence Wednesday night at the Avon Theatre after a screening of the 2015 film The Armor of Light.

The film chronicles the life of a minister and father of a shooting victim as he grapples with preaching about the effects of gun violence in the United States.
BRIDGEPORT  When Mayor Joe Ganim delivered his state of the city address to the business community last week, David Kooris had a prime seat at the Holiday Inn.

Normally that would not be unusual. Kooris is the citys director of economic development.

But he is also a holdover from the prior administration. And Ganim sacked many of the key employees he inherited from defeated Mayor Bill Finch after returning to office Dec. 1.

Now Kooris is leaving of his own accord.

Kooris, sources said Monday, will leave in about a month for a job managing a federally funded project to improve shoreline infrastructure in Bridgeport and elsewhere. Part of that work involves overseeing a $38 million grant which, through Kooris efforts, Bridgeport just received to address flooding issues in the South End, where some major redevelopment is on hold pending a solution to the water problem.

Ganim confirmed in a statement Monday night that Kooris had given his notice.

It was a real pleasure to work with David, Ganim said. He is a talented and bright individual who has accomplished a great deal and brought a lot of investment and creativity into our city. I am sorry to see him go, (but he) will still be heavily involved in the future of Bridgeport in his new role.

Kooris was hired in July 2012 by Finch, who Ganim defeated in last Septembers Democratic primary.

Born in Bridgeport and raised in Fairfield, Kooris, prior to joining the Finch administration, worked for seven years with the Regional Plan Association of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, a consulting body widely employed in the region.

In that capacity, he helped draft Bridgeports master plan with then Economic Development Director Nancy Hadley.

Thats a loss for the city, Hadley said of Kooris departure. Hes really fantastic. Hes really a consummate professional and one of the top professionals in the business.

Paul Timpanelli, head of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, was one of Kooris biggest boosters and had lobbied Ganim over the winter to retain him, even as the returned mayor axed other Finch hires.

Number one: Hes a visionary, Timpanelli said in January. He knows where the city needs to go and he knows how to get it there. He has a big-picture view, and hes also a good project manager and a detail-oriented guy. People who work for him respect him.

Developer Phil Kuchma, who has spearheaded efforts to revitalize downtown Bridgeport, said Kooris brought an optimism and, frankly, a fresh viewpoint on things.

Kuchma said given Kooris is a talented young man, and that he was not surprised he is moving on.

Not surprised, but sorry, Kuchma said. I was hoping that he might be sticking around for a while.

Paul Antinozzi, whose prominent Bridgeport-based architectural firm recently hired Finch, said the silver lining is that it should not be difficult for Ganim to find a qualified successor.

(Kooris) leaves at a point where the citys certainly on an upswing, Antinozzi said.

Despite successes in trying to revitalize the lower-income East Side and East End  thanks to Finch and Kooris, the city and state are moving ahead with building a second train station there  some leaders in those neighborhoods never warmed to Kooris, and the fact that he lives in Stamford.

We have to find somebody that knowns what the city needs, as far as development, and give folks a fair shot who are local, not friends of friends of friends, Councilwoman Eneida Martinez said.

But ex-state Sen. Ernest Newton said he came to respect Kooris. Newton recalled complaining to Kooris about how the recently opened Bass Pro Shops megastore, separated from the East End by Interstate 95, looks like Broadway and across the bridge, its dark and dingy.

He said, Were going to work on putting lights up, Newton said. That lets me know at least he listened to the community. I wish him well.
STAMFORD  City officials said a revamped proposal to establish a quasi-public authority to promote development around transit stations is an improvement over a similar proposal killed last year.

The Connecticut Transit Corridor Development Assistance Authority being promoted by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would not have eminent domain powers or other proposed inroads into local control. The bill would enable the authority to establish new development districts in cooperation with municipalities near train stations and other transit hubs where they encourage private developers to create projects to encourage transit use.

Last May, a similar proposal by the governor died after widespread outrage in Stamford and elsewhere over provisions that would have allowed seizure of lands within a quarter mile of train stations and avoid local land use laws. Those provisions were taken out of the law, but the proposal still failed.

Based on the framework that is outlined by this bill, it is generally acceptable, City Rep. Brien Buckman-D-12 said. However the determination of whether it is good for Stamford or not is going to come down to the memorandum between the states development authority and the city itself.

More local control

Under Malloys new proposal the authority would have wide powers to buy and lease properties and work to match cities with developers who would expand office and retail space. But in addition to removing eminent domain and other objectionable measures, the bill includes other provisions reaffirming local control of transit-oriented development, said Gian Carl Casa, undersecretary of legislative affairs for the Malloy administration.

Authority-backed projects would not move forward, he said, without the approval of municipal leaders and a vote by local boards backing them.

Communities across the state are asking for help in doing transit-oriented development, Casa said. TCDAA will help them spur economic growth around transit stops.

The proposal additionally would give chief elected officials a vote on any issues impacting a planned project in that area, and allow local lawmakers to select a representative of their minority community to be involved in project discussions.

Casa said local agreement to projects, through a memorandum of understanding with the authority, could provide cities and towns ultimate control of the extent and type of development they want.

It really is left to the discussion between the municipality and the Authority, Casa said. If they dont like it, they dont sign it.

The authority proposal is currently being weighed by the states Planning and Development committee.

A vital part of the economy

Michael Pollard, chief of staff for Mayor David Martin said the citys lobbyist is carefully monitoring the legislations progress to flag any hidden concerns about local control.

While reserving judgment on the bills full impact, Pollard said the proposal appears to address concerns about sidestepping local regulations.

We were very pleased last year to see the governor and administration recognized the issues and challenges associated with the legislation put forth last year, Pollard said. We also give them credit for putting together something that appears to be a very reasonable approach to transit oriented development; which the state really has a need to engage in.

The new authority would include a 15-member board with some appointments from legislative leaders in the majority and minority. Malloys initial proposal would have given the governor sole appointing authority.

While still leery of the authoritys possible impact on local land use, City Rep. Kieran Ryan-R-1 said opening up the selection process for the authoritys board makes the proposal offers reassurance that more viewpoints will be involved in decision making.

But I think local officials really need to keep an eye on this bill and its impact on us here in Stamford, Ryan said. Our train station and its branch lines are a vital part of our local economy and a vital resource for our residents.
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NEW YORK (AP)  Before they say "I do," soon-to-be newlyweds are increasingly going online to ask, "Will you pay for our honeymoon?"

Crowdfunding websites such as Honeyfund, GoFundMe and Honeymoon Wishes make it easy to raise cash from family and friends for a post-wedding getaway. The sites charge fees for their services  as much as 10 percent of the total collected  but people are warming up to the idea, despite the cost.

As couples increasingly live together first and marry later, they already have toasters and towels, so traditional gift registries don't make as much sense. Honeymoon registries also provide a polite way of hinting to guests to give money instead, without breaking wedding etiquette.

"I didn't feel right saying, 'Hey, give me cash,'" says Nicole DePinto, who raised $2,900 on GoFundMe for an Icelandic honeymoon with her husband Anthony in December.

Sites that help couples raise cash for honeymoons have seen their popularity soar recently. Honeyfund users, for example, raised $90 million last year, a 50 percent jump from the year before, says co-founder and CEO Sara Margulis.

Last year, 22 percent of people using the Knot, a wedding planning site, said they also used honeymoon registries, according to a survey of 6,500 customers. That's the same as the year before, but up from 17 percent in 2013 and 13 percent in 2012.

The DePintos even crowdsourced the destination of their honeymoon, asking the 100 guests at their travel-themed October wedding reception to vote on Greece, Iceland or Japan. The save-the-dates came on postcards and the party favors were luggage tags.

"We did everything outside of the box," she said, and besides: "They're all places we wanted to go eventually."

The guests chose Iceland. In winter.

"Iceland is absolutely beautiful in December," she insisted, recalling the Christmas decorations, mulled wines, ice caves and northern lights. "I think our guests understand that we are not a super-traditional couple, so we wanted our honeymoon to be more adventure and less lounging on a beach."

Most guests gave the couple cash-stuffed envelopes at the wedding, but the 14 donations they got online covered their hotel and airline tickets, even after GoFundMe kept more than $230 in fees. The Union City, New Jersey, couple also had a registry at Target, but asked for just a few things there since they had lived together for three years.

"In that time we've acquired tons of pots, plates, towels, throw pillows and bedding," they explained on their GoFundMe page.

Asking for cash in the invitation is a wedding faux pas, says Kristen Maxwell Cooper, deputy editor at The Knot. But passing around a link to a honeymoon registry works, because couples can explain to guests exactly where the money will be spent, she says.

Couples have a few options to turn to.

Crowdfunding site GoFundMe has collected $2 billion to date for all sorts of personal campaigns, raising money for medical emergencies, crime victims and other local causes. But the site does have a weddings and honeymoons section where users have raised $4 million since GoFundMe was launched six years ago, says media director Kelsea Little.

Anyone can see a GoFundMe campaign, but don't expect strangers to hand over cash  only friends and family will likely donate, says Little.

"It's a common misconception," she says.

Honeyfund, meanwhile, is more focused on honeymoons. Couples can list exactly what the cash will pay for, from hotel rooms to sightseeing tours to massages.

Major resorts and cruise lines are jumping in, using Honeymoon Wishes to power honeymoon registries built into their sites.

At Carnival Cruise Line, for example, couples can ask wedding guests to pay for scuba diving excursions or horseback rides. The money goes straight to Carnival and couples can redeem the gifts on board, says Nancy Williams, the business development director at Honeymoon Wishes. Couples can also go to Honeymoon Wishes and build their own honeymoon, without being attached to a certain resort.

"It's now socially acceptable," says Williams.

___

Follow Joseph Pisani at http://twitter.com/josephpisani . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/joseph-pisani .
A fter winning The Apprentice in 2013, Dr Leah opened her first cosmetic clinic in Central London co-owned with her new business partner, Lord Sugar.

Following on from the success of her first business, Dr Leah has now opened a second clinic in Essex.

We caught up with the skincare Queen to find out all about her newest venture.

Congratulations on the exciting new opening! Why did you choose this location, Loughton in Essex, to open your second clinic?

Essex is a fantastic area so it seemed the most logical location for our second Clinic and Im hoping that, by opening close to where Lord Sugar lives, this may even encourage him to pop in for treatment!

Will you be offering any different treatments in this clinic compared to the one in the City?

Yes we will be offering hair transplants, which are very popular amongst our male clients, as well as the world exclusive 3D Bespoke LipoMed Fat Busting treatment. This latest treatment uses a combination of advanced HIFU and shockwave therapy technology to combat fat and cellulite, which allows for a faster and more effective treatment. However, all other treatments will be the same across both clinics, as at Dr Leah Clinics we pride ourselves in the quality of our treatments so clients can feel assured that no matter which Dr Leah clinic you visit, the quality of your treatment, the skills of your practitioner and the clinical environment will be consistent between clinics.

We saw you win The Apprentice back in 2013. What was the inspiration behind starting your own brand of skin clinics?

I have always been passionate about skin but also about the aesthetics industry too, and when I realised that the industry was wholly unregulated, I saw an opportunity to create a chain of clinics where both men and women could undergo cosmetic treatments in a safe clinical environment, but also in a convenient location and for a reasonable price.

How have you found working with Lord Sugar?

Our working relationship is great and I have learnt at lot from him over the past few years.

What are the most valued business tips that he has taught you?

He reminds me to keep an eye on my bottom line, which means your net profit. He is very commercially-minded and that is always helpful when you are running a business.

What have you found to be the most popular treatment in your current London clinic?

Botox is our most popular treatment  and the majority of my own treatment time in the clinic is spent doing botox.

Are there any treatments you predict to be particularly popular in the new, Essex clinic?

Yes, particularly as we are launching three brand new treatments in the new clinic. The first of which includes a world-exclusive fat busting treatment for the tummy, thighs and arms. Secondly, the Dr Leah Lift, for face and neck, which is a unique non-surgical lift which encompasses three treatments to give fantastic results with little or no downtime and finally hair transplants by our experienced hair transplant surgeon.

What is different about your own clinics compared to others out there?

I think the key thing which make us different is that we are a brand that you know you can trust as we provide the most safe and effective treatments. We also have an emphasis on innovation and heavily invest in the latest technology to bring the best cosmetic treatments to our clients and finally we employ the highest trained staff to perform these treatments.

You must be incredibly busy with the one clinic, never mind two. What do you do to relax?

My work is my passion but I do manage to find time to relax where I enjoy socialising with friends. I also really enjoy reading and academic work, so I am undertaking a degree in dermatology.

Finally, do you have any words of advice for someone considering their first cosmetic treatment?

It is a considered decision and something you should not undertake lightly, so I advise finding a reputable clinic with a medically trained practitioner who can discuss it with you in depth.

For more details on Dr Leah Clinics and full price list of treatments, visit drleah.co.uk
T he CBI has thrown down the gauntlet to Londons mayoral candidates by challenging them to make a commitment within 100 days of taking office to build 50,000 homes a year to solve Londons housing crisis.

The business body, led by boss Carolyn Fairbairn, has also called on the next mayor to put pressure on Chancellor George Osborne to scrap the surcharge on bank profits  which prompted Europes biggest bank, HSBC, to consider quitting the UK  by 2020 once the budget is balanced.

The group said whoever is elected on May 5 must keep a relentless focus on business growth.

The next mayor must take some tough decisions from day one for London to continue to grow and prosper, and to keep the city a magnet for investment and skills, CBI London director Lucy Haynes said.

Londons next leader has a unique opportunity to plan ahead, and position the city at the head of the pack.

CBI Director General Carolyn Fairbairn (Picture: AFP/Getty Images) / Niklas Halle'n/AFP/Getty Images

As part of its London Prosperity Agenda, the group wants a radical housing policy from the next mayor  including getting local councils to unlock public land for building and simplifying the planning process.

Around 29,000 new homes were completed in the year to March last year  according government figures  a 26% increase in two years but still almost half the 49,000 which the present Mayor, Boris Johnson, said were needed.

The CBI wants the new mayor to promise to double the numbers to 50,000 in a bid to help business attract talent to the capital.

London is the worlds fifth-most expensive city, driven by high housing costs, which a CBI survey published last month found was hurting businesses ability to lure new staff.

The CBI and Institute of Directors are hosting a town hall meeting with the four main mayoral candidates, Tory Zac Goldsmith, Labour man Sadiq Khan, Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon and Sian Berry from the Greens on Thursday.

London Mayor Election 2016: Sadiq Khan

Goldsmith has pledged to increase housebuilding to 50,000 a year by 2020 and Khan has promised 80,000 new homes a year. Pidgeon has also pledged to meet the 50,000 total.

But the group ducked the debate about whether Heathrow or Gatwick should get a new runway by urging the next mayor to press government to build a new runway in the South-East.

Zac Goldsmith mayoral policies explained

The CBI had previously come out in support for a new runway at Heathrow but refused to get the next mayor to support one or the other.

Heathrow and Gatwick are at present locked in a war of words about who should get a new runway after Sir Howard Davies Airports Commission recommended it should go to Heathrow. The Government has yet to make a decision.

London Mayor Election 2016: Caroline Pidgeon

Goldsmith is an opponent of a third runway at Heathrow as is Khan.
L ondon's jobs market is in its best shape for more than two years despite looming concerns over the impact Brexit might have, recruiter Manpower has said.

Its latest survey of the employment outlook found that nationally, 7% more employers were planning to increase staffing than were intending to cut, but in London the balance is 10%  the highest since the autumn of 2013.

Manpowers operations manager Paul Laurie said hirings for financial services, IT and digital roles had been particularly buoyant.

Londons hiring prospects have been progressively getting better It is encouraging to see London going from strength to strength as businesses across the capital sharpen their focus on attracting the right talent.

But the company also warned over the potential disruption of a vote to leave.

Managing director James Hick said: Though theres clearly the demand for workers, we need to protect the supply of talent. Employers of all shapes and sizes rely on the free movement of people inside Europe to find the skills they need.

Lets be realistic: we simply wont be able to replace overnight the skills these people bring to the UK if we leave the EU, and its our economy that will suffer.

Unemployment is at its lowest level since 2006  its unrealistic to suggest theres enough slack in the labour market out there to fill these jobs.
T escos long-awaited recovery started to look like a reality today as the supermarket halved its speed of its recent sales decline.

The UKs biggest grocer  being investigated by regulators after an accounting scandal  saw sales in the 12 weeks to February 28 drop just 0.8% compared with last year, when sales fell 1.6%, Kantar Worldpanel reported.

Similar results were recorded by rival supermarket data company Nielsen, which said sales at Tesco fell 0.5%.

Analysts said sales had probably been rising when factoring in store closures by the supermarket.

Sainsburys remained the only supermarket among the Big Four, which also includes Tesco, Asda and Morrisons, to see a sales rise  up 0.5%.

Sainsburys is enjoying the longest run of growth by any Big Four supermarket since March 2013, but the grocer has been opening more stores than its rivals, which would help increase sales.

Kantar Worldpanel added that total sales across all supermarkets were up 0.5%  the fastest growth since October.

But Asdas fall from grace continued unabated as sales plunged 4%, and Morrisons was also down 3.2%.
I t takes a good deal to ruffle the stoicism of the London commuter but an email from London Undergrounds managing director for customer experience advising commuters to avoid Tube services from Victoria between 8am and 9am because they are particularly busy may do so. There is no probably no group of individuals more keenly aware of the various impediments between them and getting to work on time; the advice that travelling through Victoria outside rush hour may be more comfortable or that walking may be quicker is a statement of the obvious that ignores the fact that Londoners work starts at a time convenient for business, not for Tube bosses.

What the email does usefully do, however, is emphasise the ever-increasing pressure on Victorian and early 20th-century infrastructure from a rapidly rising population. And as housing in central London becomes increasingly unaffordable, more and more people are travelling to work by rail, followed by Tube or bus.

There is probably no issue more urgent for the mayoral candidates than the improvement of transport infrastructure. The Budget is next week. If London is to keep moving, the Chancellor has to commit himself unequivocally to Crossrail 2 . The time it takes for projects of this kind to reach completion is in the order of 30 years, so to meet the needs of the population then ministers must get the project under way now.

At present, as the London Underground email reminds us, 20,000 people are packed onto Victoria and District and Circle line Tubes between 8am and 9am; this is not just uncomfortable but at times threatens to become unsafe. Increasing capacity on the Underground is a priority and so is the provision of Crossrail north-south as well as east-west to take pressure off other public transport services. This is not a luxury; it is a sine qua non.

Turkeys stranglehold

The European Union desperately needs Turkeys co-operation in retaining more of the desperate refugees who arrive there seeking a passage to Europe and the Turkish government is making the most of its moment. It is seeking payment of up to 4.6 billion to keep more migrants from making for Greece and a commitment from EU leaders to expedite its application to join the Union. There will be a meeting on that next week.

Curbing the migrant flow is plainly an urgent priority for Germany as well as Greece, as the destination of choice for most migrants. Now, with important elections ahead this weekend, Angela Merkel needs to be seen to take a more robust approach to the issue. But a policy that seeks to stem the influx of migrants in the short term by bringing into the EU a country that is barely European geographically but has a population of 75 million is short-sighted. Britain is in theory committed to Turkish EU membership but in reality it would be hugely challenging. The Turkish issue could be unsettling for the Brexit debate.

Tessa backs Sadiq

Tessa Jowell has thrown her considerable gravitas behind Sadiq Khans mayoral campaign today, endorsing the candidacy of her former rival. Having masterminded Londons successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, Baroness Jowell remains a genuine heavyweight in the Labour ranks; and, though her style of politics may differ from Mr Khans, it is clear that her loyalty to the party remains steadfast. Her positive, magnanimous outlook and her obvious love of London will provide a welcome boost to the Khan campaign.
W e were extremely disappointed to read that Nick Clegg is so ill-informed about the role of GPs and the services we provide for patients with mental health problems [Comment, March 3]. GPs take mental health very seriously  it is a key part of the Royal College of General Practitioners training curriculum and all trainees must demonstrate competence in this area to practise independently in the UK.

We were particularly surprised by Cleggs comments given our previous work with Norman Lamb, when he was the Liberal Democrat health minister, to increase funding for mental health services. We are making progress but agree that more needs to be done to improve the care available for patients with mental health problems.

The college is calling for every GP practice to have access to mental health workers who can deliver services and treatments that can really benefit our patients, and that all GP trainees receive specialist-led training in mental health. These measures would help to ensure that our patients with mental health conditions receive the same level of care as those with physical problems.

Professor Maureen Baker MBE, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners

I was interested to read Nick Cleggs column, including his reference to his success in securing the same legal status for mental health as physical health. Aside from the fact it was Labour peers in the House of Lords who ensured that parity between mental and physical health was written into legislation, it is worth clarifying that mental health funding was cut for the first time in a decade during his time in office.

In terms of mental health being one of the coalition governments top health priorities, the number of doctors and nurses working in mental health fell while the number of serious incidents in mental health trusts increased by more than a third in two years alone. It is also worth noting that the number of mental health patients being sent to a bed out of their area increased and the number of children turning up at A&Es with mental health problems is now more than double what it was in 2010.

Luciana Berger, shadow minister for mental health

Nick Clegg says GPs are not trained to spot and respond to mental health problems. However, given that about a third of GP consultations are related to mental health, this is inaccurate. Every medical school in the country includes psychiatry in its core syllabus and GPs on-the-job training involves frequent experience in dealing with patients in mental distress.

Everyone always has more to learn and some GPs will deal poorly with mental health. But the real problem isnt training  its the underfunding of mental health services.

Dora Steel, paediatric registrar

President Erdogan must be opposed

We should all be deeply alarmed about the sinister stranglehold the Turkish government is exerting over media outlets, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acting as self-appointed editor-in-chief across the entire country, deciding what he deems acceptable to print, broadcast and tweet.

The newest escalation in Erdogans campaign of censorship was the takeover of the Zaman newspaper by a court-appointed trustee, transforming Turkeys largest opposition newspaper into a government mouthpiece. Its just the latest episode in a series of similar moves. Two weeks ago the Turkish television channel IMC  the only national channel opposing the governments imposition of curfews on restive Kurdish areas of the country  was taken off air.

Journalists perform a vital task in informing the population and exposing abuse. When journalists become enemies of the state, who is left to raise the alarm about abuses? The rest of the world must come together to condemn this concerted attack on freedom of expression.

Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International

Women can win in a mans world

As a business leader, I have shown it is possible for women to reach the top  but it is also vital that we help other women succeed. We have to encourage women to believe they are capable of leading in male-dominated sectors  I work in what is seen as a mans world but by attracting female talent to our leadership programmes we are changing company culture and accelerating business growth.

Embarrassingly, there are still more men called John than women leading the UKs biggest companies. But by instilling self-confidence in women we will see a growing number of female graduates working in the upper echelons. We must look beyond simple gender disparities and promote people based on talent.

Estelle Brachlianoff, senior executive vice-president, Veolia UK & Ireland

Special constables are a great asset

Regarding your article on special constables [March 3], I have noticed that there are people who use the role as a way to become regulars and those who volunteer for their love of London.

Special constables can bring a multitude of talents into the police, such as linguistic, legal and financial expertise, but these skills are seldom used. Instead, they are deployed just to ease the administrative burden on regulars. To attract and retain quality special constables, managers need to appreciate their commitment and use their specialist skills.

Christian Ayerst

We need business rather than tourists

J Curton [Letters, March 4] has a point in that, in or out of the EU, London and the UK have great cultural diversity which attracts tourists. He also cites Shanghai and New York as frequently visited cities, but how many of their visitors are really in pursuit of cultural diversity and how many visiting on business?

Tourists are more than welcome in London and the rest of the UK, as well as being a nice earner for the economy, but what we as a country require are the real wealth-generators  international business and foreign investment.

James McGrory
It may be a fashion house steeped in history but this morning Chanel did away with traditional hierarchies when it invited every guest at its catwalk presentation in Paris to take a seat on the front row.

From vloggers and fashion assistants - usually shunted to the fourth and fifth rows - to celebrity guests - Pharell sat alongside Stella Tennant - to the top tier types such as Anna Wintour, all sat ringside today in one of the 3,500 thousand opera chairs chosen by Karl Lagerfeld to line the Grand Palais.

But contrary to what many had assumed on receiving the invitation - a crisp white note card illustrated with a gold chair and the words front row only - this was no radical move towards a new fashion democracy but a means through which Lagerfeld could recreate the salon experience favoured by Coco Chanel.

While Chanel fashion shows are now bank busting affairs with extravagant sets, in Gabrielle Chanels day intimate presentations with exclusive guest lists were held in the designers Rue Cambon apartment.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Accordingly a plush cream carpet served as a catwalk today while mirrored walls, echoing those find in the boutiques of Rue Saint Honore, offered a fitting backdrop.

When the clothes finally came out - they are always something of a secondary at Chanel - Lagerfeld looked to the houses back catalogue.

Modernised interpretations of the classic boucle suit included side slit a-line skirts and boxy jackets with herringbone checks were presented along and stomping lace up boots and typically Chanel boater hats.

Keen to bring classic house codes with the 21st century consumer, Lagerfeld unveiled jackets with iPhone pockets alongside strings of oversized pearls.

Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty

Harking back to his early collections for the house, denim played a significant role. Tweed dresses with blouson sleeves came inset with chambray panels. Knitwear, another favourite of the house's founder, also joined the party with capes and oversized cardigans detailed with Art Deco motifs.

Eveningwear included plisse gowns which showcased the waist as an erogenous zone. One strapless bustier gown, crafted from stiff brocade and woven silk, was among the collections most beautiful inclusions.

However, it was the outerwear that lent this show its high point - or at least, it was the vessel through which Lagerfeld had the most fun.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Slightly slouchy traditional dress coats - nipped in at the waist - were presented alongside military inspired jackets. Quilted anoraks - modelled by Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid - which served as proof that Lagerfeld is au fait with the fashion world's current trend preoccupations.

While this showcase was no retrospective it was a remix of Chanels history which left a few wondering if Chanels 82 year old designer had decided that his last catwalk bow was imminent. They need not worry: Outspoken Lagerfeld has made no secret of the fact that he plans to stay at Chanel until his dying day.

A more likely motivation is that the culturally savvy German, known for riffing on the zeitgeist, is making a comment on the fashion industry's shift towards a buy now business model with a showcase that harks back to a the fashion show as the retail venture it used to be.

While creating a spectacle will always be important to Lagerfelds Chanel, the practice of shopping will remain its lifeblood.
A few weeks ago I attended a fashion show in my pyjamas. NB: when I say pyjamas, I dont mean the sort seen on street style stars but the real deal.

The cause of this was a delayed Alitalia flight from London City to Milan, the result was me shamefully hiding my saggy woolly track pants from the judgmental glare of those also attending the Gucci show while feeling like a right tool.

From the look of the attire gracing the front rows of the shows in Paris this week I need not have worried. Track pants are not only acceptable show attire, they serve as a foundation to the new fashion uniform.

A consequence of the athleisure trend that has seen fashion editors rocking up to shows in trainers for quite some time now, trackies (which resemble the ones we wore in bus shelters during the 1990s) are no longer a style mag myth but a reality.

Timur Emek/Getty

The track pant currently favoured by those with cash to splash is a rainbow print style from Chloes spring/summer offering. So when Clare Waight Keller unveiled her latest collection for the French house on Thursday it was no surprise to see rainbow track pants aplenty on display.

Among the key adopters were street style sensation Veronika Heilbrunner, who wore hers along with a shearling waistcoat and thick-soled sneakers. She was joined by a host of fashion devotees who went a step further, teaming their fashion trackies with the corresponding zip-up top from the same collection.

Among more conservative fashion week attendees - notably those there to meet deadlines or buy clothes for department stores instead of pose on pavements (nice work if you can get it) - this slouchy trouser style is proving equally popular.

Vanni Bassetti/Getty

And little wonder given the matter of comfort: what, I ask you, could be better than an elasticated waistband when youve gorged on croissants and havent had the chance to go to the gym for a month? Popular styles include a navy silk version from Topshop Boutique and a cuffed style from Etre Cecile that make for the perfect travelling trousers.

To try this look at home Id suggest teaming silk track bottoms with simple sweaters in corresponding shades. Layering an oversized T-shirt or blazer over your trousers of choice also works well.

As a general rule team with trainers for day - go for a something with a thick sole and avoid Stan Smiths if you dont want to be a style cliche - and change to a simple sandal for evening. Its that easy.
B efore leaving for a protest on the streets of Damascus, Reem Al-Assil would kiss her sons goodbye. I feared it would be the last time Id see them, the Syrian activist tells me. I might be arrested. Shot. Killed. I was prepared to die. This was 2011; Al-Assils sons were just nine and four.

The 38-year-old was already an outspoken critic of President Bashar al-Assad. People inside Syria used to use fake Facebook profiles to criticise the regime and arrange demonstrations. I was using my real name. She cracks a smile: That was crazy.

Back then, she fervently believed this was Syrias great chance to bring in fair elections. The detention centres were packed with political prisoners. There was no freedom of speech under Assad. We wanted to choose our own leaders, as happened in Tunisia. Even after Libya  which seemed the worst scenario then  we thought, OK, the West will intervene, we will get rid of Assad and will take it from there. That turned out not to be the case.

The eldest of five siblings, Al-Assil was born in London so has dual nationality. Her father, an ophthalmologist, came here to study, but took the family back to his native Syria in the 1980s. Al-Assil grew up there, got married, and taught immunology at the university of Damascus. She later undertook a PhD, working between France and Syria, on the skin disease leishmaniasis. When the uprising began she was living between Syria and France.

In June 2011, trying to return to France, she was stopped at the airport and questioned. The Mukhabarat (secret police) then took her to Damascus for interrogation. She kept thinking, This is it. I will be tortured to death.

Reem Al-Assil fled Syria after being tortured / Matt Writtle

She could hear the screams of those in cells. I have post-traumatic stress disorder, and I only spent several hours there. My experience is nothing compared with others.

Her travel ban had been imposed because a friend had given her name under torture. He had been studying in the UK and was arrested after he returned to Damascus to visit his parents. His crime was to write in favour of freedom on Facebook. He confessed to conspiracy with Western governments, being a spy  things he would never be able to do. Hes a PhD student! With all the beatings, hed say yes,  I did it.

While she was held, the police showed Al-Assil pictures of her friend to make her talk. It was traumatising. He had bruises and a face full of blood. He could have died.

Two of her friends were tortured to death: They were brilliant young men. Another friend  who was seven months pregnant  was also detained: They didnt hold back from beating her.

Afterwards Al-Assils friend apologised to her, explaining: I went through my friends in my mind and you were the one who was most outspoken, so I thought you wouldnt have a problem.

Celebrity feminists - in pictures 1 /6 Celebrity feminists - in pictures Emma Watson Beyonce Kevin Winter/WireImage Miley Cyrus Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Taylor Swift Josiah Kamau/BuzzFoto via Getty Lena Dunham Michael Buckner/Getty

Why wasnt she scared? The Syrian government blamed outsiders for what was taking place, so people needed to see people they trusted asking for reform. Some of us had to be active with our real names and it doesnt correlate with my personality to hide.

After a night, Al-Assil was released on condition that her eldest brother  a blogger whose name had also been mentioned  went back in her place.

All three of her brothers have been detained. The youngest was arrested in April 2011 after attending a protest. Al-Assil went to look for him and found his car in the street, doors open. He was being chased by the secret police, and they dragged him out of the car.

The police claimed they did not have him. When he was released two days later, he had bruises all over and burns on his stomach.

In October, the other brother (also a blogger) was arrested at a protest. He was last seen on the ground, bleeding from his head. We didnt know if he was alive. It took weeks for the family to find out he was in a detention centre.

His skull had been fractured. He had been taken to an army hospital where the doctor stitched his head without anaesthesia. The pain woke him up. He was screaming. The doctor hit him until he lost consciousness again.

"We thought: 'The West will intervene to rid us of Assad'"

Later he was taken to an overcrowded cell: There was no bed so the prisoners would lie down in rotation. An elderly man gave Al-Assils brother his spot in the sleeping rota and his rations of orange segments, because her brother had lost so much blood. Beaten during interrogation, his wound opened again. He was held for more than a month.

Al-Assils family were relatively lucky, though. In July 2011 her travel ban was lifted and her family insisted she leave immediately. Her children later joined her in the UK. Her brothers have now escaped too.

Their parents are still in Damascus, though. Life there is horrible. The monthly salary of a university professor would buy 10 watermelons. People dont eat meat. Electricity is cut for more than 20 hours, the same for water. They dont have heating. People think Syria is really hot but in the winter, it can go below zero. Although the family has met in Istanbul, Turkey has now put visa regulations in place for Syrians and Al-Assil fears she will never see her parents again. They talk on Skype and WhatsApp. When she thinks back to her life in Syria Al-Assil feels she is watching a movie.

When she first arrived here, she was too traumatised to work full-time, so did freelance translation work. Now she also works in Cambridge doing research at the cardiovascular division of the university. After leaving Syria she also divorced her husband. She has a new partner who lives in the Czech Republic and was a political prisoner in Syria back in 2000. He has been in exile for 15 years. His father was a writer but was arrested in the 1980s and died under torture  under Assad, the father. The son was tortured under Assad, the son.

Reem helps other refugees moving to the UK / Matt Writtle

Since coming here, Al-Assil has continued to fight for Syrians, including campaigning for political prisoners. She says both male and female detainees are sexually assaulted: They use it as a weapon to humiliate men, and its the first thing they do to women  to break them. The stigma for women of being a victim of sexual assault is so great, Al-Assil adds, it stops some from being involved in protests.

The same stigma pushes parents into marrying their daughters at ages as young as 10. That was true for many Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. Parents want their daughters to be supported and safe. The families dont have legal refugee status or work permits and often they struggle to find shelter. So if a wealthy man proposes to a family, he may give them a house.

She is a founding member of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement and has worked with the conflict resolution charity International Alert since 2014. She also co-founded Free Syrian Translators, an NGO that translates articles and documentaries to spread news across Syria. The aim is to combat the regimes media blackout. The organisation translated the first video from a hospital where cases matched the symptoms of chemical weapon attacks.

Within Syria there are more than six million internally displaced people: They are starving to death. A lot of them are living in the streets, in the parks.

Al-Assil notes that those boarding boats are the wealthier ones, especially after the collapse of the Syrian pound. To risk your life, you have to pay. Those are the fortunate. Those who are less fortunate dont even have a chance to throw themselves in the Mediterranean.

She still wishes the West would intervene. Fighting IS goes hand-in-hand with fighting Assad because they support each other. ISs headquarters are obvious to the regime. If they wanted to attack it would be easy.

Her initial optimism is long drained: I dont have that dreamish vision any more. It will never be straightforward to topple the regime. We will have a transitional period eventually. Even though there is nothing on the horizon, its important to work on that now.

Follow Rosamund Urwin on Twitter: @RosamundUrwin

international-alert.org
O lympicopolis is an ugly name for a beautiful idea  the creation of a museum and education complex at the south end of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The name derives from Albertopolis  the nickname given to Prince Alberts grand vision for South Kensington in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851 that saw the building of grand edifices including the Natural History Museum, the Albert Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The 21st-century version for east London, in plans seen for the first time by the Standard, promises to deliver a string of architectural pearls along Stratford Waterfront (fronting the River Lea just south of the stadium) that are of a scale and unity of conception not seen in London for generations. It will, in contrast to formal South Ken, see cultural institutions in brick and steel where the public will be encouraged to roam through perforated ground floors and along linking riverside terraces with outdoor performance and exhibition spaces.

Outposts of the V&A, Sadlers Wells and Washington DCs mammoth Smithsonian museum complex will line up alongside a new home for the relocating UAL's 5,000 London College of Fashion students and 500 staff and two 30- to 40-storey residential towers. Around a nearby bend in the river a second campus for University College London  UCL East  promises to embed its 3,000 students and staff in the local community.

Dublin architects ODonnell & Tuomey and London-based Allies & Morrison are shaping the 1.3 billion vision. The Government is providing 141 million and the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Greater London Authority a further 198 million. The institutions themselves and private sector funding will contribute 789 million and a further 180 million is being fundraised philanthropically. A planning application is expected by the end of the year. ODonnell & Tuomey is designing the V&A and Sadlers Wells, Allies & Morrison the flats, the fashion college and the Smithsonian. A competition to design UCL East has just been launched.

How the development fits into the Olympic Park

Both practices are combining their talents with the landscapers on the surrounding public realm that is an integral part of the vision. They have enviable pedigrees, most notably ODonnell & Tuomeys wonderful perforated brick cliff at the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre for the London School of Economics and the complex warmth of the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Allies & Morrison was responsible for enlivening the Festival Hall and the recent Rambert dance company building nearby.

And it is the South Bank rather more than South Ken that provides an approximate precursor, with its riverfront promenade, the multifunctional, free roaming foyer of the Festival Hall and the cohesive sweep of Brutalist culture boxes from the Queen Elizabeth Hall to the National Theatre.

The Stratford Waterfront images show a suite of brick-clad cantilevering forms that form a familial cluster (details are far from set) on a podium above the terraces. The V&A is closest to the bridge, flanked by Sadlers Wells and UAL's London College of Fashion, with the Smithsonian jutting forward towards the water.

The area will be approached from the bridge from the Westfield Centre (entrance through the gift shop?) and past the stadium. Further south, beyond the cultural precinct, is the International Quarter  an office and commercial zone that includes the new headquarters for Transport for London by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Bob Allies, architect Allies & Morrison with John Tuomey and Sheila 0'Donnell, architects from O'Donnell & Tuomey who are collaborating on the Olympicopolis project

ODonnell & Tuomey cite the towers enclosing New Yorks Central Park, pieces on a chessboard and the still life forms in the paintings of Italian artist Giorgio Morandi as inspiration. The effect is to move the city closer to the stadium and the park, says John Tuomey, 61. It will intensify the urban grain and make the stadium and park feel more special.

Sheila ODonnell, 62, points out that the site is trickier to manage than first appears, with an 8m drop between the Westfield bridge and the water: We set up the idea of the podium, ramped promenades, dips, pockets and places between the buildings for programmed and un-programmed spaces.

People will be encouraged to take a shortcut though the V&A from the bridge to the waterfront, for example.

Everything has two entrances so you can walk through at ground level, adds Bob Allies, 63. The assumption is that [stylistic] diversity is a good thing, but Im interested in how the buildings can be more like each other. Diversity is easy  unity is more difficult.

Close collaboration on the composition of the building forms is essential, says ODonnell, so it doesnt end up as lots of different things on a tray.

The shift to east London will also be marked by an emphasis on making as much as consuming culture  Sadlers Wells, for example, will incorporate a choreography school and hip hop academy as well as a 600-seat theatre. The V&A East will emphasise design, architecture, art and performance and will encourage public participation. The new Design Museum opening in Kensington later this year will face stiff competition when Stratford Waterfront is completed at the end of the decade.

"Olympicopolis will intensify the urban grain and make the stadium and park feel more special"

While the buildings frontages will face south to the sun and the Lea, their rears on Carpenters Road will also be lively, with conservation workshops and the like, akin to similar areas in New Yorks Chelsea. ODonnell is also a fan of the special character of pockets of the West End where you come across the stage door of a theatre and a largely blank facade punctuated by small dressing room windows. Its part of the physical complexity and unexpected pleasures of a metropolis.

Each institution will not only have its own architectural individuality within this brick-faced family photo but will form separate elements of the podium so that each can be altered or redeveloped separately over time. A common failing of many contemporary large developments is that they masquerade as distinct buildings above ground but are conjoined megastructures below, which are difficult to adapt over time.

All very promising  as long as the architects vision is not compromised. The Olympic sites history is patchy in this respect: witness the Athletes Village, which looks like something thrown up for workers at a mobile phone factory in Guangzhou.

For Stratford Waterfront, the LLDC has the role of both development promoter and planning authority and even the presence of internal Chinese walls makes this a less than satisfactory arrangement. But at least being a quasi-public body should mean that the cultural precincts squares and terraces will eventually form part of a genuine public realm.

Now can we just do something about the awful Olympicopolis name, please?
T he family of a young man stabbed to death by a mob on his own doorstep have spoken of their heartbreak as an Old Bailey judge said justice has not been done after just one person was convicted of his murder.

Ahmed Ahmed, 24, bled to death from stab wounds to his leg after being ambushed by a gang of hooded men.

One of his killers, Osman Musa Mohamed, 20, was yesterday jailed for at least 22 years of a life sentence.

But Judge Paul Worsley QC admitted justice has not been done as other knife-wielding members of the mob had not been caught.

The case is the first where defendants were acquitted of murder following a controversial Supreme Court ruling on the law of joint enterprise.

Senior judges ruled midway through the trial that an accused could not be found guilty of murder solely on the basis that they foresaw that a co-accused might commit a crime.

The day after the ruling, Khalid Van Damme Hashi, 23, and Hamza Dodi, 24, were acquitted of murdering Mr Ahmed when the CPS said it had no choice but to abandon their cases.

They were accused of being part of the mob that attacked Ahmed, but prosecutors accepted that the joint enterprise ruling had fatally weakened the case.

Mr Ahmeds sister Ayan Abdi told of the heartache suffered by his family.

I heard my brothers screams of pain and saw him left for dead, she said.

It has left me traumatised and heartbroken. He was dying in front of us, we were holding him and I cant describe how awful this was for us all.

She told the court Ahmed was crying and screaming and calling out for his mother in Somali, as he lay bleeding to death.

He was attacked by the gang led by Mohamed, who lured Ahmed out of the flats in Turton House in Barnfield Road, Plumstead last August.

The victim, a trainee mechanic, was chased back into the block and stabbed repeatedly in the leg, despite the pleas of witness Fowsiya Harbii to leave him alone.

Mrs Harbii identified Mohamed as one of the killers and told the court she saw that he was holding a knife.

Judge Worsley said there were at least three weapons used in the attack.

Sazzad Gambino Khan, 20, was also acquitted during the trial due to lack of evidence, and two more men, Hussein Roble, 18, and a 20-year-old who cannot be identified, were found not guilty of murder by the jury.

After the verdicts, Ahmeds girlfriend Yvonne Kotsiou revealed he had proposed two days before he died, and did not know she was expecting his child. I was devastated, hysterical. I was in shock and I collapsed, she said.
A woman who lied to charities by claiming she had cancer has been jailed.

Alina Alnobani, 38, of Green Lanes, Hornsey, was sentenced to four months in prison today at Wood Green Crown Court after she was found guilty of two counts of fraud.

A separate charge of being in possession of false identity documents will remain on file.

Alnobani raised suspicions when she provided false references after being offered a job as a night manager at a hotel in South Kensington in December 2014.

The employer required Alnobani to provide two references, which she did from different companies on headed paper.

However, further enquiries by the employer found both references were forgeries. Albonani was challenged and asked to leave.

The employer then reported it to Action Fraud in January 2015 before an investigation was launched by the Mets Operation Falcon.

Albonani was arrested in May last year.

Detectives searching her address found paperwork that showed Albonani had approached charities claiming she had cancer and asked for help to fund the cost of treatment as the NHS would only pay for half.

Police even found a 500 cheque from one charity made out to a London hospital to help fund treatment.

Albonani told officers she was suffering from bone cancer.

In November 2014, she also told police she was diagnosed with benign bone cancer sarcoma and at the time couldn't walk or stand on her feet.

She added copies of NHS letters were to seek financial aid to fund an operation.

Albonani was released on bail but was charged in December after the NHS confirmed to detectives the letters were forgeries.

No trace of her was found on the NHS patient database and no documents supported her claims she was diagnosed with bone cancer or sarcoma.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Farah Nain of Operation Falcon said: "Alnobani's attempts to defraud charities in this way could have deprived someone genuinely suffering from a serious illness from being the beneficiary of charitable funds.

The custodial sentence handed down today will provide her with time to reflect on her actions."
T he sale of cannabis should be legalised and could raise 1 billion a year in tax, according to a report.

The study, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats and conducted by a panel of scientists, academics and police chiefs, suggests that the drug should be available to over-18s in specialist shops.

Doing so would help minimise health risks and save police resources, it said.

The party is expected to debate the issue at its spring conference later this week.

Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Every year billions of pounds are put into the pockets of organised criminals selling cannabis and vast amounts of police time and resources are wasted going after those using the drug."

Party leader Tim Farron said: "Prohibition of cannabis has failed. We need a new, smarter approach and I welcome this report ahead of the Liberal Democrats' debate at spring conference.

"It is a waste of police time to go after young people using cannabis and ludicrous to saddle them with criminal convictions that can damage their future careers.

"A legal market would allow us to have more control over what is sold, and raise a considerable amount in taxation."

Panel chairman Steve Rolles said: "The reality is that millions of people use cannabis in the UK and there is a pressing need for government to take control of the trade from gangsters and unregulated dealers.

"Legal regulation is now working well, despite the fear-mongering, in Colorado and Washington and will roll out across the US over the coming years.

"This is no longer a theoretical debate - and the emerging evidence is only pointing in one direction."
A man wanted over the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old in a London bar is among nine most wanted suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands.

Shane O'Brien, 28, is accused of walking up to Josh Hanson in the RE Bar in Hillingdon and fatally stabbing him in the neck in front of his girlfriend in October last year.

He is among nine fugitives, including another murder suspect, alleged drug smugglers and a convicted rapist, being hunted by British authorities.

Wanted for questioning: Shane O'Brien / Metropolitan Police

Josh's mother Tracey said: "Every single waking moment we keep on trying our best to assist the police. We need justice for Josh. An incredible young man, a very hardworking young man, it's the least that can be done for him. It would give us the chance to grieve.

Addressing O'Brien directly, she said: "Come forward. Hand yourself in. You can't run forever. Stop our pain. Give answers."

Josh Hanson Metropolitan Police / Metropolitan Police

O'Brien, who is from London and also uses the first name Troy, is white, slim, 6ft with grey eyes and short, dark brown hair. He has a birthmark on his face and a tattoo that says Shannon 15-04-06 on his back.

The other murder suspect being hunted by UK authorities is David Ungi, from Liverpool, who is accused of killing Vinny Waddington, 18, in the Garston area of the city in July 2015.

Top row left to right; Shazad Ghafoor, David Ungi, David John Walley, middle row left to right; Shane O'Brien, Ahmed Dervish Omer, Michael Paul Moogan, bottom row left to right; Robert Stephen Gerrard, Rezgar Zengana and Mark Liscott PA Wire / PA Wire

The "rogues" gallery - put together by Crimestoppers and the National Crime Agency (NCA) - also includes Shazad Ghafoor, 29, David John Walley, 40, Ahmed Dervish Omer, 45, Michael Paul Moogan and Robert Stephen Gerrard, both 52, and Mark Liscott, 55, who are all wanted for drugs offences.

Convicted rapist Rezgar Zengana, 33, is also on the list for posing as a minicab driver in Glasgow in December 2006, and picking up a 25-year-old woman who he attacked. He was convicted for rape but has yet to be sentenced.

Crimestoppers chairman Lord Ashcroft said: "With the support of the Dutch authorities and the public, we are confident that we can successfully hunt these people down."

Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A teenager was stabbed to death close to his own front door in a "brutal and ferocious" attack in a violent east London gang feud, a court heard.

Marcel Addai, 18, was pinned the ground and knifed repeatedly after being hunted through the estate where he lived.

He was a member of the "Hoxton Boys", the Old Bailey heard, who had been feuding with a rival gang based on the nearby Fellows Court estate.

Seven alleged members of the Fellows Court are on trial accused of Mr Addai's murder.

"He was killed because of where he lived and because of his connection to the Hoxton Boys", said prosecutor Mark Heywood QC.

"It's the prosecution case that at least some of the defendants have been shown to have association with a rival local gang known as the Fellows Court gang.

"Whether that is in fact the reason why Mr Addai was attacked in this way and so killed will be for you to decide", he told the jury.

"But this very firmly has a gang background and explains the hostility that occurred."

Mr Addai was attacked on September 4 last year, after being chased by a posse of young men who had arrived in a convoy of cars, the court heard.

Sodiq Adebayo, Sheku Jalloh, both 23, Rikell Rogers, David Oladimeji, both 21, Momar Faye, Eugene Ocran, both 19, and Akeem Gbadamosi, 22, are all accused of carrying out the murder.

Mr Heywood said all seven admit being at the scene but deny participating in the attack.

"Marcel Addai was 18, he died a very short walk away from his own front door, surrounded by enemies", he told the court.

"He was put to the ground and then stabbed and slashed multiple times before being left, beyond all help, for dead.

"His killers came there at night in three cars, cruising into his home area looking for violence.

"The occupants of those three cars are these seven defendants - three drove and the other four were their passengers. In going at all, they went there together for a common violent purpose.

"When they got to their destination, they turned their vehicles around and pulled up, in the middle of the roadway, engines running and doors opened.

"Most of them then got out, going for one of the opposing group who was slower to move, perhaps because he had been on a pushbike.

"They chased him down over a short distance, cornering him as his friends ran.

"Then they attacked him as he balled up on the floor.

"It was not one blow: they kept at their work until he was mortally injured, driving the knife or weapons into him, aiming for the chest and thighs and so for vital vessels and organs.

"Then they left as swiftly and as effectively as they had come, in the three cars moving at once as the attackers regained the open doors."

He added: "You wont have to decide whether Marcel Addai was killed and whether it was murder. It was, and of the most brutal and ferocious kind, in the street in front of his friends and neighbours, and that was deliberately."

He told jurors that Mr Addai was a member of the Hoxton Boys and involved in "street gang activity".

Mr Addai died just 200m from his home in the estate in Wenlock House, Evelyn Walk, the court heard.

Mr Heywood said the defendants all have connections to Hoxton and the surrounding areas of Hackney.

The trial continues.
T emperatures are expected to soar in London and the south-east as spring conditions arrive by the weekend.

Bright skies are predicted as temperatures climb to about 12C in the capital by Friday.

The Met Office said there will be more sun and increasingly mild conditions nationwide, with levels rising from Thursday as a tropical maritime air travels up.

Met Office spokeswoman Lindsay Mears said: It should be getting warmer towards the end of the week, starting on Thursday.

There will be a change in the weather with a tropical maritime air coming into the UK, causing milder conditions.

Londoners may face some wet weather on Wednesday before the clear skies and warmer conditions set in.

Across the UK, the weekend marks the beginning of accelerating temperatures - up to 13C in some parts of the south and 11C in the north.

Tropical maritime air can raise temperatures several degrees above average, travelling from the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Bermuda.

Ms Mears said these stereotypically "spring-like" temperatures were here to stay, adding: "It should affect most of the UK apart from the North West which is likely to be... wetter and cloudier. It will still be milder than it has been anyway.

"Spring began on the first of March but what you might think of as spring weather (is starting). Those temperatures will climb... so it will seem a lot warmer than it has been and it looks like it will stay mild."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
A Turkish restaurant owner has been fined 30,000 after customers complained they had fallen ill when they ate at a branch in west London.

The owners of The Woody Grill pleaded guilty in court to eight hygiene offences after a catalogue of filthy conditions were uncovered at one of its restaurants in Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush.

The company was investigated by Hammersmith and Fulham councils environmental health team after complaints from people who had fallen ill after they had eaten at the restaurant.

Following an inspection, officers found dirty food preparation surfaces, chopping boards and fridge door handles in the kitchen.

Other serious failings included cooked food not protected from raw food, animal droppings found in the back store with no pest control measures in place and no safety paperwork.

Owner Cengiz Erpolat, who owns six Woody Grill restaurants across London, was fined and also ordered to pay costs of 4,327.50 and a 120 victim surcharge at Hammersmith Magistrates Court on Tuesday February 23.

Cllr Wesley Harcourt, Hammersmith and Fulham cabinet member for environment, said: When customers eat out the very least they can expect is food that doesnt make them ill.

And these failings are also unfair on the vast majority of businesses who invest properly in proper hygiene standards to keep residents safe.

This heavy fine should serve as an indication of just how determined we are to stop restaurant owners motivated solely by financial gain cutting corners and selling dangerous food to the residents of Hammersmith and Fulham.
A teenager who has won a Princes Trust award after turning her life around today urged other young people not to feel embarrassed to talk about their mental health.

Laine Esperanzate, 17, collected the HSBC Breakthrough award at the London Palladium in front of an audience which included Prince Charles, Rita Ora, Alesha Dixon and Geri Horner.

The Breakthrough award, sponsored by the Evening Standard, recognises the achievements of disadvantaged young people in London and the South-East who have overcome adversity. The glittering ceremony was a far cry from Laines situation two years ago, when bullying and feelings of isolation led her to drug use, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

She spent nine months at a youth psychiatric unit but it was the Princes Trust which transformed her life thanks to a teamwork course which helped her rediscover her confidence.

Today Laine, from Dagenham, is an apprentice graphic designer at a digital marketing and SEO company. She said: Its hard because a lot of young people find it embarrassing to talk about their mental health. But you should not be afraid to do it. If you have a broken leg you go to the doctor, its the same thing.

Attitudes towards mental health are changing because young people are realising its not something to hide. People are getting rewarded for what they have overcome.
W itnesses today said there was panic outside a luxury Kensington hotel after a toddler was seriously injured when he was hit by a cab.

The two-year-old boy was today in hospital with serious head injuries after the incident as he was being pushed past the Baglioni hotel in a buggy just after 6pm yesterday.

Bystanders saw distressed members of the childs family being comforted by police.

One told the Standard: You could see the pram in the street. There was lots of police cars and panic going on.

They were going through the Prius with a torch light and the road was all sealed off.

I dont know if the baby rolled forwards or backwards but the car hit them. Someone said they heard screaming.

That poor baby is in hospital with serious injuries. I know the child is in a really bad way. I just hope the baby will be OK.

The childs pushchair was left in the street while police searched a silver Toyota Prius.

The Baglioni and neighbouring houses were cordoned off following the crash on High Street Kensington at its junction with Palace Gate.

Police officers were seen walking in and out of the hotel which has been frequented by Lindsay Lohan, George Clooney, Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Jay-Z.

A hotel worker said: A lady was pushing a pram with small children and the driver crashed into them. It was a big accident.

Despite being cordoned off for more than three hours last night the hotel remained open.

A receptionist said: The matter is being dealt with by the police and has nothing to do with the hotel itself. We are not able to give any information.

The boy was rushed to hospital with a head injury and neighbouring roads were closed while police investigated the collision.

The driver stopped at the scene.
L ast night saw a dazzling display of Issa dresses  the same design Kate Middleton wore at the announcement of her engagement to Prince William  at the National Portrait Gallery, in aid of the United Nations Women United initiative.

But what has happened to Issa itself? Go on its website and a notice comes up saying it wont be taking any orders by telephone or online from February 27.

The founder and original designer for the brand is Daniella Helayel. Her company, inundated by orders after Kate show-casing in 2010, was acquired by Camilla Fayed, who became chairwoman of Issa. Then, 18 months later, Daniella herself left the company in dignified silence, and Camilla, daughter of former Harrods boss Mohamed Fayed, brought in a new designer and announced plans for global expansion.

The Londoner has been trying to call Issa London for several weeks on another matter but has not been able to reach the firm on any numbers. Could that be explained by Daniellas passing remark last night: Unfortunately they closed in December 2015, before she was whisked away by a friend?

Helayel has been asked by the United Nations to produce eight versions of her iconic dress in eight different hues of orange, the official colour of a UN womens trust fund, and among the 400 wearing the dress last night were host of the evening June Sarpong, Camilla Kerslake and Olivia Inge. It is on sale, not via the Issa website but at www.LDNY.com, for 200 with half the funds going to the UN.

The Londoner has tried again to contact Issa this morning to find out whats happening, to no avail. Then we called its last listed auditor Grant Thornton. Its not for us to comment on clients past or present, they said.

Teasing out the two sides of Tony Blair

To a packed Emmanuel Centre in Westminster last night for The Trial of Tony Blair, a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared. Self-styled Lord Chief Justice for the evening was the BBCs Nick Robinson, asking a panel whether the ex-PM had been a blight on Britain.

Tom Bower, author of a new biography of Blair, spoke for the prosecution while David Aaronovitch for the defence said: It seems a persons evil lives on and on, but their good dies with their bones, citing the Good Friday Agreement.

Robinson told the audience he was slightly nervous as he was interviewing a man named Tony Blair tomorrow. Why? Im making a programme on the history of the European Union.

Night out for the new kids on the block

To Hackney last night, where hipster mecca Bistrotheque played host to ES Magazines Young London party. Supported by Converse, bright young things included photographer Scarlett Carlos Clarke, right, and presenter Billie J D Porter accompanied by jewellery designer Dominic Jones, inset above.

Also there was Jemima Jones, with her environmentalist husband Ben Goldsmith and sister, artist Quentin Jones. Jemima is a caterer for fashion shoots and film sets, and recently explained her secret weapon. My car is like Mary Poppins handbag, she told Harpers Bazaar. Its amazing what you can fit in, although Im usually driving around with a cake wedged above my head at 5.30 in the morning.

Drive responsibly.

***

Its International Womens Day, so what better time to evaluate how far the fairer sex has come? Author and intellectual Joan Bakewell was at The Savoy last night discussing her book Stop the Clocks at writer Damian Barrs literary salon. The biggest change Ive lived through is the change in the role of women, Bakewell said. But theres still such a long way to go. We only earn 78 per cent of what men earn. I think women should all down tools on November 17 because were working for the free for the rest of the year anyway. See you on the beach, Joan.

Michelle hob-nobs in the Upper House

Lingerie magnate Baroness Mone made her maiden speech in the House of Lords yesterday. Shes no maiden, chuntered some old buffers but one of them may have been looking on her with more kindly eyes  Lord Palmer, from the family behind Huntley & Palmers biscuits.

The two have known each other, Lords gossipers say, since before she became a baroness because she used his stately home in the Scottish Lowlands for a photoshoot for her Ultimo bras. Twice-divorced Lord Palmer also owns what he claims to be worlds largest collection of biscuit tins, housed in a large walk-in cupboard. One wonders whether he has invited Baroness Mone to view them yet.

Moore defends her turf

Last week in Oxford Culture Secretary John Whittingdale asked whether shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Great British Bake Off were absolutely distinctive  interpreted as a sneer at the BBC. A riposte came from Charlotte Moore, pictured, BBC TV controller, who was speaking at a party in the Serpentine Sackler Gallery held by director-general Tony Hall and attended by, among others, David Dimbleby, Andrew Marr and former D-G John Birt.

I dont recognise what the Secretary of State has said, she told them. More importantly neither does the public. Im not sure how more distinctive the past few weeks on BBC1 could have been with War and Peace, The Night Manager, our mental health season and David Attenboroughs Giant Dinosaur.

The Culture Secretary must have been too busy politicking to watch.
B oris Johnson today overturned a memo instructing his senior City Hall team not to speak out against Brexit, describing it as a cock-up.

He withdrew official advice that warned aides to either advocate the Mayors position or otherwise not openly contradict it.

The email from his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister, sent last Friday, had prompted accusations of hypocrisy as it came just 24 hours before he accused pro-EU campaigners of trying to gag opponents.

Deputy mayor for policing Stephen Greenhalgh has already spoken out in favour of staying in the EU, and the Standard understands that Sir Edward plans to vote to stay, although he has not stated his position publicly.

Today Mr Johnson said the memo was a cock-up and not something I agree with, and he was in favour of allowing a hundred flowers to bloom.

He added: Nobody has been gagged, I was only made aware of this edict very late last night and it ceased to be operative as soon as I was. It obviously hasnt been operative because my advisory team take a very different view from me.

Len Duvall, Labour leader on the London Assembly, called the Mayors move possibly the quickest U-turn in history.

TODO: define component type apester

Mr Greenhalgh has taken issue with Mr Johnsons claim that Britain would be safer outside the EU, stressing the benefits of the European Arrest Warrant and intelligence sharing with EU partners.

Today he added: I feel strongly that the right decision is for us to remain in. Ill certainly continue to do my job in City Hall and make my views known in a personal capacity when I think its important to do so.

Ministers have been told they are free to campaign for either side but supporters of the Leave campaign are banned from using Whitehall resources to help them as the Governments official position is to back staying in the EU.

Senior officials at the Greater London Authority had offered their formal advice on what the GLA can and cannot do during the referendum.

Sir Edward had forwarded this to the senior team, but gone further, stating: Boris is entitled, as Mayor, to adopt a public position on this issue and then ... to receive support from GLA officers in relation to that policy position.

The advice also makes clear that GLA officers can, when not at work, express personal opinions (which be contrary to the mayors views).

"Whilst this is the formal position for you also, I would expect, given your roles, you either to advocate the mayors position or otherwise not openly contradict it.

Mr Johnson has criticised the suspension of the director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce John Longworth  who later quit  for speaking in favour of Brexit, breaching the business groups neutrality.

"The Mayor claimed he had been crushed by the agents of Project Fear.
A female London Labour MP has laid into Jeremy Corbyn after he backed decriminalising the sex industry.

Stella Creasy was among those who attacked the Labour leader at a meeting of the partys MPs at Westminster.

After Mr Corbyns comments on the sex industry were widely reported, Ms Creasy said it was linked to the exploitation of girls and drug abuse.

Other Labour MPs said the leaders comments showed a misunderstanding of the nature of prostitution.

Mr Corbyn had sought to use the meeting to reverse the strained tone of previous gatherings with his MPs.

But Walthamstow MP Ms Creasy hit out at the leader, arguing that 50 per cent of women in prostitution start under the age of 18 and that the majority are substance abusers.

Former minister and Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart told Mr Corbyn that now he was leader he could not speak of the cuff as an individual.

TODO: define component type apester

When Mr Corbyn responded that we need to learn the lessons of Germany and the Netherlands, Ms Mactaggart silenced the room by banging her fist and saying: No we dont.

Brent Central MP Dawn Butler offered some support to Mr Corbyn, backing a campaign by the English Collective of Prostitutes to stop penalising clients of sex workers.

The clash was provoked by comments made last week by Mr Corbyn, when he said: I am in favour of decriminalising the sex industry. I dont want people to be criminalised.

At last nights meeting the Labour leader told MPs to stop sniping at his leadership and get behind the party for the May elections. His aides said that he had drawn a line in the sand over recent backbiting and mainstream MPs had rallied round to condemn personal attacks on him.
B ritish drinkers celebrated with champagne more often than at any time since 2011 last year as the growing economy sent imports rising nearly five per cent.

The classic French fizz saw off the challenge from cheaper sparkling wine rivals such as Italys Prosecco and cemented Britains status as the worlds largest champagne export market.

Shipments from the champagne growing region of north east France - now declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site - were up 4.5 per cent at 34.2 million bottles in 2015, according to official figures published today. The value of the imports grew 7.3 per cent to Euro 512.2 million (397 million), industry body the Comite Champagne said.

Francoise Peretti, director of the London based Champagne Bureau, said: The focus for everyone in champagne is value, not volume.

Champagne growers and houses understand the precious heritage of which they are the keepers, and they will spare no effort to conserve and enhance it.

Champagne imports peaked in 2007 at 39 million bottles and slumped during the recession before starting to recover in 2014.
A female Army captain today called for greater equality in the Armed Forces, insisting women can do just as good a job, if not better than men.

Captain Julie Navarro is the right section commander of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery, which is the only regiment in the Army to have a roughly equal split of women and men.

Across the 85,000-strong force, only 7,100  8.4 per cent  of serving members are women. The gender imbalance is almost as wide among the 27,420 reserves, some 3,540 of whom  2.9 per cent  are female. The Ministry of Defence is currently reviewing a ban on women joining infantry and tank units.

Speaking on International Womens Day, Cpt Navarro  who is in charge of about a third of the Kings Troop staff based in Woolwich  said: It is moving in the right direction in the Army, but it needs people to draw attention to it.

We need to fight the attitudes and incorrect perceptions and say women can do just as good a job, if not better, as they bring skills to the role that some guys lack. Things like organisation or diligence.

The Kings Troop has 67 women and 74 men in charge of the 119 horses and six First World War guns used for parades and ceremonies. Captain Caroline Bullard, 31, the on-site vet, said: There are a lot of women vets but we are a bit more few and far between in the Army. I love my job and it makes no difference that I am a woman.

Lance Bombardier Tanya Baldwin, 25, works in the saddlers shop completing essential repairs. You can never know what is coming in, she said. I love it here, but I always have dirty hands and they are covered in calluses. Theres no difference that I am a woman  we are all the same here.

Captain Nick Watson, centre section commander, said: Things have changed in society and so has the Army. While we are unique in our weighing of male to female ratio, I think the rest of the Army will catch up. Its generational.
A 15-year-old girl is fighting for her life in hospital after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her family's home in India.

The girl was subjected to the horrifying attack in the village of Tigri outside New Delhi, in what is the latest example of the prevalence of sexual violence towards women in the country.

Police arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with the attempted rape and burning of the girl.

A spokesman said the man "had severe burns on his hands" and has since been charged with several offences, including rape, attempted murder, assault of a minor and causing grievous injury.

The teenager, who is now in a critical condition in hospital in New Delhi, is reported to have suffered 95 per cent burns to her body.

A police report on the case describes how the girl's parents found her with severe burns, after hearing her screaming from the rooftop terrace a few hours before dawn on Monday.

The girl later told police that she was raped, beaten and then set on fire by a man who she said had been stalking her for months.

India's women and children are considered particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and harassment thanks to widespread social taboos against speaking about sexual assault. The stigma is enough to keep many from even reporting crimes, while many others face police resistance in filing complaints.

Experts say that has started to change since the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 triggered national anger and demands that more be done on women's safety.

The government rushed through legislation to double prison terms for rape, and to criminalise voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. But activists say more action is needed, including better educating youths and adding basic safety infrastructure such as street lights and public bathrooms.

The public debate has also increased Indian newspaper reports of rape and assault, including several in just the last few days.

On Monday, police in the financial capital of Mumbai said they were investigating whether a four-year-old girl whose body was dumped in the bushes on the city's outskirts had been raped before being killed, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. The girl reportedly went missing after being separated from her mother at a railway station on Sunday night.

In other cases in Uttar Pradesh, police arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of raping a six-year-old on Sunday night, while separately they were investigating nine people for allegedly gang-raping a woman when she went into the fields to urinate last month, PTI reported.

And last week, three boys reportedly kidnapped a teenage girl from her home and raped her repeatedly in an agricultural field in the northern state of Haryana and later in New Delhi before she escaped, the news agency cited police as saying.
N atos chief today said its ships would not turn back boats full of migrants trying to cross the Aegean Sea.

Three British boats, including amphibious landing ship RFA Mounts Bay, are being deployed to the region to strengthen the Nato mission.

But its secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told BBC radio: We will not turn back boats with migrants and refugees. But we will help the governments of Turkey and Greece and Frontex (the EU border agency) to deal with this.

The UK and other ships will provide intelligence on human trafficking gangs and the routes they are taking across the Aegean, but it will be largely up to Turkish and Greek coastguards to intercept the boats.

EU leaders will seek later to thrash out a deal with Turkey to take back migrants trying to make it to Greece.

Ankara has upped its demands, including doubling a financial package from the EU to six billion euros (4.6 billion), speeding up talks on EU membership and easing visa restrictions on its citizens. It wants the EU to accept one Syrian refugee for every migrant returned to the country.

However, key details are still to be worked out and the 28 leaders ordered more work by officials ahead of their next summit on March 17-18.

David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the surprise Turkish proposal at an emergency summit in Brussels yesterday as a potential breakthrough in Europes politically toxic migration crisis.

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015, most making the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, then heading through the Balkans to Germany.

Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu told EU leaders Ankara was willing to take back all migrants who enter Europe from Turkey in future, including Syrian refugees, as well as those intercepted in its territorial waters.

With this game-changing position our objective is to discourage illegal migration, prevent human smugglers, help people who want to come to Europe through encouraging legal migration in a regular manner, he said.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the summit, said the outcome would show migrants there was no longer a path into Europe for people seeking a better life. However, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned the EU should not shut its doors and should be willing to take in thousands more refugees from Turkey.
M illions of girls kept out of school in Nigeria because of early marriage, fears about sexual contact with boys, and misinformed religious beliefs are to be the focus of a new campaign to raise educational standards in Africas most populous country.

One part of the campaign, which is being supported by British taxpayers, will see successful female professionals being sent into communities to persuade parents that education brings virtues, not vice.

Efforts will also be made to convince Muslim parents that there is no religious justification for the widespread belief that girls should be married as young teenagers before they finish puberty.

Other reforms include the conversion of some co-educational schools into single-sex institutions.

The aim is to satisfy parents who stop their daughters from going to secondary school because of fears that sexual contact with male pupils will wreck the girls marriage prospects.

The measures form part of a wide-ranging drive, which is partly funded by the British Council and Britains Department for International Development.

Nigeria already has a population of about 180 million  nearly three times that of the UK  and is expected to become the worlds third largest nation behind China and India by 2050.

Official statistics show, however, that around 34 per cent of Nigerian children fail to attend school in a trend which is threatening to undermine the countrys prospects and contributing to high levels of poverty.

Attendance is even worse in northern Nigeria and other largely rural areas. Girls are more likely than boys to be kept at home. One reason is that mothers often want girls to assist them selling goods on the street.

The number of female pupils falls further as they reach their early teens, a traditional marriage age. Families also use children to help in the fields at key times of the year.

Nigerias education minister Adamu Adamu told the Evening Standard that the government might introduce fines for parents who fail to ensure their children attend school as one way of addressing the problem.

Other efforts are already under way, however, as part of a new inclusive education campaign in northern Nigeria that is being co-ordinated by the British Council.

Those taking part include Khadija Sanusi Gumbi, a graduate from Kaduna state, who warned that both parents and children needed convincing that education was beneficial.

"We have to have positive examples to send them to school. Most girls go to primary school but later stop because they want to get married, she said.

Parents are also not allowing girls to go to non-segregated secondary schools because they worry that if they send girls to school then something will happen. So girls drop out at 14.

What is being anticipated are the vices of education, not the virtue. We tell them that if a girl is educated, you are more independent, you can have a better impact on your children. Convincing parents is key.

Mubaraka Olagunyu, a 22-year-old law student who is also participating in the inclusive education campaign, added: Girls are mostly rejecting education. They are looked on as just wife material, as the lower gender. Girls dont exceed 15 before they get married.

Folawe Omikunle, chief executive of social enterprise Teach for Nigeria, said inequality in schooling was a systemic problem undermining the nations future.

She cited statistics showing that 17 per cent of children fail to attend primary school, with 56 per cent absent from secondary, and quoted a World Bank study which found Nigeria had the lowest educational standards among 22 sub-Saharan African countries.

Girls also shun education because schools lack lavatories. Other problems blighting education include poorly qualified teachers, inadequate numbers of staff and dilapidated or non-existent school buildings.

In the northern state of Sokoto, which has declared a state of emergency in its education system, its governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has responded with a number of reforms.

These include the provision of cash to mothers who previously kept daughters at home on condition that the children are sent to school instead.

Muhammad Sani Usman, a manager for the British Council in Kano, also in the north, said some girls were a problem to themselves because they wanted to get married young.

He added: Then there is the religious misinterpretation. There is this notion that your daughter shouldnt menstruate three times in your house, that she should be gone, but that is wrong. There is no religious evidence to support it. There are many problems that we are trying to overcome.
H enry Holland made sure to celebrate International Womens Day  by superimposing his face onto a naked image of Kim Kardashian.

Holland, 32, used Snapchat's Face Swap function to switch Karadashians face for his own on the full frontal image that sent the Internet into meltdown on Monday.

Not happy with the one, the designer also placed his face in the naked black and white image Kardashian posted on Tuesday morning.

Mocking the stars caption he posted: One more. #internationalwomensday #liberated.

Kardashian faced a barrage of criticism after posting the first image showing herself posing naked in front of her bathroom mirror.

Joking with fans she captioned the shot: When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL.

But some famous faces took aim at the image including Chloe Moretz who deemed her a bad role model and Piers Morgan who offered to buy her some clothes.

Kim Kardashian's most revealing pictures

The reality TV star later publicly called them out on Twitter in a rant similar to that of her husband Kanye Wests recent outbursts.

Caroline Flack today defended the image saying criticism stems from the fact she is a woman.

TODO: define component type apester

"Would everyone be making this fuss if a man posted the same picture as Kim Kardashian? I think not," she tweeted.

Kim Kardashian West's most revealing numbers yet 1 /25 Kim Kardashian West's most revealing numbers yet Latest snap Kim poses in the nude for yet another mirror selfie Kim Kardashian Paper Magazine Launches Winter Issue to Break the Internet with Kim Kardashian on the cover Jean Paul-Goude/Paper Magazine Big reveal Hands down the most revealing Kim pic ever has to be this GQ shot from her recent cover star stint at the mag. Thank goodness for those stilettos! (Photo credit: @kimkardashian) Kim Kardashian/Twitter Kim Kardashian Bikini Bum Selfie 2013 Kim Kardashian/Twitter Kinda covered Yes, probably one of her more modest snaps but let's be honest from a distance it looks like it's see through (Photo credit: @kimkardashian) Yeezus pop up See what we mean about it being kinda hard to capture her without it being revealing... (Photo credit: @kimkardashian) Kim Kardashian/Twitter Popping out Captioned "Celfie" the star looked like she was bursting out (Photo credit: @kimkardashian) Kim Kardashian/Twitter Barely there Mrs West paid a visit to JustJared's founder Jare Deng and we just don't know how she held everything in - we've seen bikini's with more support! (Photo credit: @kimkardashian) Kim Kardashian/Twitter Holding in Holding them in at the Valentino Fall Winter 2014-15 Haute Couture fashion collection (Photo credit: AP Photo/Francois Mori) Francois Mori/AP Holiday frolics The reality TV star bared all as she rolled around in the sand in Thailand on KUWTK (Photo credit: @kimkardashian) Kim Kardashian/Twitter Baby bump Kim Kardashian doesn't let being pregnant stop her dressing up Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Figure-hugging Kim loves a spot of bright pink latex. Who doesn't? Scott Barbour/Getty Images Keeping it sheer Kim's look for the Met Ball back in 2014 left little to the imagination Larry Busacca/Getty Images JonathanCheban and Kim Kardashian attend Heidi Klum's 2010 Halloween Party at Lavo on October 31, 2010 in New York City Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Kim Kardashian West attends the Hype Energy Drinks U.S. Launch on June 2, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee Rick Diamond/Getty Images Kim Kardashian at 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Arrivals, Los Angeles, America Rex Kim Kardashian attend the VIOLET GREY & Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey Host Artist In Residence Donald Robertson on August 20, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images Kim Kardashian 34th Birthday Party at TAO Nightclub, Las Vegas Rex Kim Kardashian attends the GQ Men Of the Year awards in association with Hugo Boss at the Royal Opera House in 2014 Dave Benett

Follow @StandardShowbiz for more entertainment news.
J anet Jackson has cancelled all of her UK tour dates just a few weeks before she was due to perform.

The pop superstar, who was due to play dates in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester, has pulled out because of scheduling difficulties.

With just a couple of weeks until her first show, fans were informed of the cancellation via an email from Ticketmaster.

It read: The event organisers have been in touch to let us know that, due to scheduling difficulties, theyve had to postpone The Unbreakable Tour at the following venues.

The email then lists all of the scheduled UK shows, which were supposed to kick off with the Birmingham concert on March 30.

It is not possible to confirm new date at the present time so we are refunding all ticket holders, you dont need to do a thing  youll see a credit onto the card you used within 15 days.

Jackson cancelled a series of dates in North America in January after having to undergo emergency surgery.

At the time she told fans: Hey you guys Happy Holidays to each and every one of you. I need you to know, I learned today, from my doctors that I must have surgery soon.

It breaks my heart to tell you that I am forced to postpone the 'Unbreakable Tour' until the spring.

Every date will be rescheduled. Please hold on to your tickets. They will be honored in a special way when the new schedule is announced.

Please pray for me, my family and our entire company during this difficult time. There will be no further comment. I love you all so much and am ever grateful for your understanding and your love. Gon' b alright.

Jackson, who was seen attending Paris Fashion Week over the weekend, is yet to comment on the UK cancellations.
Student debate held at Speak Up November 2015 (video here)

Seven months ago, I blogged about the ignominious stance of Ms. Merkel's Germany, weighing down on poor little Greece, stripping it bare so it would repay its debt - in short, dangerously rocking the Euro boat and nearly sinking it. That post was titled: "Shame on You Germany, You are Killing the European Project".How times have changed in just seven short months!Now Europe is facing the twin challenge of Brexit and the refugee crisis.Brexit - if it actually leads to the UK's exit from the EU and, for now, the chances that it will are about even - could open the way for other Euro-skeptical countries to leave, particularly East European countries like Poland and Hungary that seem to have forgotten how happy they once were to escape from the Soviet Empire.The refugee crisis has seen an extraordinary change of heart in Merkel: all of a sudden, she has turned into Europe's paladin, fighting for a generous, dignified humanitarian stand (in fact, the only one that would do justice to Europe's values). By contrast, East and Central European countries, in a selfish, amoral and ungenerous fit, led by Hungary and Poland in this case too, are fighting Merkel and closing their borders with razor-thin walls, reminiscent of the infamous Berlin Wall.This is a continent truly divided: on its western and eastern borders, EU members are hitting hard at the European project, while at the center, particularly in Germany, it has to valiantly grapple with the influx of over a million refugees and economic migrants.The crisis is not longer at its doors, it's within. Yet, in spite of the deadly urgency, the EU is still grappling in the dark, EU meeting after EU summit, for a solution.Paralyzed.Why? Are all our politicians stupid, don't they realize that if they do nothing, voters at home will make them pay? Or is it the EU institutional framework that is causing paralysis? That framework was carefully constructed to preserve "sovereignty" so that no country joining the Union would lose one shred of its precious "national identity".Result? Political paralysis. Inability to take any decisions. Focus on irrelevant details (like the length of bananas or wrapping mozzarella cheese in paper) rather than keeping an eye on the main road.: here, since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009, we have two "presidents" of Europe, one for the EU Council who is full time - first it was the Belgian Herman van Rompuy ; now, since December 2014, it is Poland's Donald Tusk - and then we have a continuing six-month rolling presidency as each EU member country takes its turn at the helm. The next EU presidency falls to Slovakia.And Slovakia in its recent elections has taken a turn away from Europe: its parties are dangerously anti-European. If you don't believe me, read this excellent analysis in the New York Times: Slovakia's Governing Party Loses Majority as Far Right Makes Gains if we have a European President of the Council, a man who presides over the Council that consists of the heads of states or government of EU members as well as the President of the European Commission? Why is this President that comes closest to an individual selected by ALL European citizens (since he is elected by the European Parliament), why is he set asideby whatever country that happens to take over the "EU presidency"?This is a perfect recipe for political paralysis.What kind of game are our politicians playing at? Obviously, this is a way to have more juicy positions to fill their pockets as they "rush to Brussels". But it is at the clear expense of European citizens and tax contributors. Slovakia, once it is sitting in the presidential driving seat next July, can be counted upon to at best do nothing and leave the European machine stalled, and at worst, to promote its own anti-European agenda and force the European machine to backtrack.Time to put a stop to this game and reform the EU institutions. Unifying Europe is a management matter: countries will need to leave behind chauvinistic nationalism in order to rise up to the challenges and make decisions. Solutions will never be reached as long as countries cling to their antiquated national identity.To begin with:This is the only way to have a real European Union President. Someone we know is dedicated to the European project. Someone who will push it forward and not stall it - as Slovakia no doubt will.It's only a start, but it would be a good start. Your views?
When we see records being broken and unprecedented events such as this, the onus is on those who deny any connection to climate change to prove their case. Global warming has fundamentally altered the background conditions that give rise to all weather. In the strictest sense, all weather is now connected to climate change. Kevin Trenberth HIT THE PAGE DOWN KEY TO SEE THE POSTS Now at 8,800+ articles. HIT THE PAGE DOWN KEY TO SEE THE POSTS
The University of Nebraska is nearing a decision on who will be the next chancellor of the Lincoln campus. And at the same time the Nebraska Legislature is nearing a decision on LB 1109, a revision to state law that would deny the public information about future searches for chancellors and NU presidents.

Last week and this week, the students, faculty and staff of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have been listening to and asking questions of the four finalists for the job of UNL chancellor. Those candidates have described their ideas about how the university should be governed, what the university needs to do to excel in the 21st century and how it should allocate its resources to achieve its goals.

Because we have had the opportunity to see and question all four finalists, students, staff and faculty will be better prepared to support the next chancellor, whoever that might be, and to help that person strengthen the university.

If LB 1109 were in place, we would not see four finalists, but only one priority finalist. We would not have an opportunity to compare and evaluate. We would be forced to accept someone elses judgment that this one person was the best choice for the university. But the only way one can determine which candidate is best is by having four or more from whom to select.

Faculty members have asked the chancellor candidates about the public nature of the selection process and about LB 1109. While the candidates have avoided injecting themselves into the politics of the issue, all of them have spoken of the need for transparency in management of university business. They all have embraced the notion that the only way to get the support they need to manage the university is by being as open and frank as they possibly can be with everyone who has a stake in UNL. And that means just about everyone in Nebraska.

It would be sadly ironic if the Legislature decided to eliminate the last vestige of transparency from the process of selecting university chancellors and presidents at the same time that the new chancellor of UNL was promising transparency.

The Faculty Senate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln voted 48 to 4 in February to oppose LB 1109. Our reason for doing so was to send a message that we value the opportunity to participate in the process of selecting university leaders and that a public university deserves leaders who are committed to the widest possible public participation in all of the major decisions they make.
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This blog contains articles and commentary on Climate Change / Global Warming. These changes will have an affect on the entire planet and all of us who reside therein. Life as we know it will change drastically. There is also the view that there is a high likelihood of climate change being a precursor of conflits triggered by resource shortges.
The Court of Appeals did not give any reason for the decision, saying it would issue an opinion later. The case was unusual because Officer William Porter's trial ended with a hung jury and as he was awaiting a retrial, a judge ruled he had to testify against some of the officers charged in the Gray case but not others.

The appeals court heard arguments over the issue last week and questioned Porter's attorney about why he shouldn't testify at multiple trials. Porter's attorney said every time he took the stand it could subject the officer to a perjury charge.

Gray died in April, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a police transport van while he was handcuffed and shackled, but left unrestrained by a seat belt.

Porter testified at his trial and said he didn't do anything wrong during Gray's arrest. He told a jury that it was the van driver's responsibility to make sure Gray was secured in a seat belt.

Porter was the first officer to stand trial, but the issue of whether Porter could be compelled to testify against his colleagues halted the other trials.

Tuesday's rulings mean the cases will be sent back to a lower court and the trials can move forward.

The appeals court issued two rulings. The first ruling agreed with Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams' decision to force Porter to testify against Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Caesar Goodson, all of whom face manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges. Goodson, the van driver, faces the most serious charge, second-degree murder.

A second order reversed Williams' decision that Porter did not have to testify against officers Garrett Miller, Edward Nero and Lt. Brian Rice. They face misconduct in office, reckless endangerment and assault charges. Rice also faces a manslaughter charge.
On the surface, Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) (AWS) is just another cloud services provider in a crowded market. Of course, the service happens to be provided by one of the biggest companies in the world, giving it an edge from the start. However, Amazon has a long history of setting itself apart from competitors through its unique focus on what customers want. That same type of strategizing about business users has helped AWS establish itself as the leader in cloud services.

One major area of success for AWS has been the AWS Partner Network (APN), which gives service providers the support they need to increase sales using AWS. Businesses benefit from being able to earn money as service providers and AWS benefits from increase usage. There have been so many successes through these relationships, Amazon devotes space to sharing those stories with the world. Here are a few ways AWSs partnerships are helping businesses grow and thrive.

Success in Progress

New York-based technology company Infor provides enterprise software that helps business fulfill orders, automate accounting processes, and manage relationships with customers. After recently launching a suite of 10x-enabled applications, CEO Charles Phillips knows the next phase is to take on giant competitors like Salesforce.com (News - Alert). To do this, Phillips is in the process of finalizing a deal with AWS that will let Infors customers migrate their data immediately, rather than wait for additional servers to be deployed. AWS already comes with a global network of data centers that will help Infor accomplish its goals quickly.

Outsourcing Re-Architecture

Setting up a cloud environment for businesses is complex, especially with the level of security and reliability companies expect. For Australian cloud service provider Bulletproof, AWS offers those services, taking the pressure off of their IT experts to completely redesign their cloud environment. Bulletproof believes the sales and support provided through APN has played a big role in its success, primarily because of the AWS teams commitment to all of the customers they serve through their partners.

The Privacy Difference

In addition to the typical concerns about security, providers who offer cloud services to healthcare organizations must meet Federal HIPAA standards. For that reason, Amazon designated special status to Logicworks for its healthcare competency. Built on top of the AWS platform, Logicworks (News - Alert) solutions are specifically designed to protect protected healthcare information for patients, ensuring organizations can collect, store, and transmit medical data. Having that designation has allowed Logicworks to give its customers confidence that theyre in compliance with regulatory requirements. Its work with AWS allowed Logicworks to set up an infrastructure where application deployment and maintenance are software driven, helping get customer applications running quickly.

Helping Retailers

SalesWarp brings the cloud to retailers, offering the technology they need to manage their inventories and automate fulfillment. AWS allows the company to create a seamless omnichannel experience for retailers while still keeping its environment secure and affordable. The environment has allowed SalesWarp to bring in-demand solutions to its partners, including a new Magento extension and the addition of USPS (News - Alert) Commercial Plus pricing. Last August, SalesWarps success allowed it to close $3.5 million in Series A funding.

Securing Services

Cloud service resellers arent the only businesses benefiting from AWSs robust technology. Unisys developed a product called Stealth, which encrypts data as it travels between endpoints on an AWS network. Once Stealth is in place, devices are verified as being part of the secure community as designated by an administrator. Since access is approved based on the devices ID, it helps reduce the risk of a data breach.

Enterprise Workload Management

As a premier consulting partner, 2nd Watch brings its technical expertise to the enterprise level of companies. On top of the AWS platform, 2nd Watch has built a suite of proprietary tools that directly address the workload demands of Big Data and digital marketing, among other services. After extensive research, 2nd Watch determined that AWS was the only platform that had the tools and products necessary to run enterprise-level production in the cloud.

Amazons cloud offerings have fulfilled the needs of many cloud service partners who can take the technology and customize it to their own unique markets. As a result, businesses of all sizes have gained access to cloud-based software and storage at affordable prices without sacrificing security or reliability.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi
Tuesday, 08 March 2016 23:10:58 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

A source from a steel distributor in the Brazilian northeastern state of Piaui told SteelOrbis that the company imported 5,100 mt of CRC from Ukraine in January.





According to the source, the company paid $303/mt, FOB conditions, for the product of the basic commercial grades, thickness between 0.5mm and 3.0mm.





The source mentioned that despite the logistics and customs costs associated to the Ukraine-Piaui shipment, the operation has proved profitable, considering the poor Brazilian logistics to move CRC from the southeast to the northeast, usually by truck, coupled with the high domestic price of CRC in relation to international prices.





He also mentioned that he expects a price lower than $303/mt FOB for the next imports of CRC , adding that in 2015 the company imported a total of 24,000 mt of CRC from Ukraine and China.




Tuesday, 08 March 2016 22:58:36 (GMT+3) | San Diego

ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor Sheet Mill Group, California Steel Industries (CSI) and AK Steel last week announced they would be raising prices for all non-contract hot dipped galvanized (HDG) spot market pricing by $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt) effective for all new orders. US inventory levels are finally right-sized, sources note, adding that mills lead times are currently spanning out. Further, US domestic scrap prices have also experienced an uptick this month, which bodes well for mills recent price increase attempt.Its only a matter of time before US prices start to rise, which will likely help increase interest in offshore bookings, one Texas-based source said.Current futures offer prices from Brazilian steelmakers for 0.019 x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 Galvalume coil are trending at approximately $35.00 cwt. ($772/mt or $700/nt), DDP loaded truck US Gulf coast ports, although sources close to SteelOrbis have confirmed that deals up to $0.50 cwt. ($11/mt or $10/nt) below this price may be available based on tonnage.Current average futures offer prices from Brazilian steelmakers for 0.12x40.875 G30 coil are being offered in the approximate range of $32-$33 cwt. ($705-$728/mt or $620-$660/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports, although other sources close to SteelOrbis say that deals up to $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt) may be available based on tonnage.
By MARK EVANS mevans@stegenherald.com During last Thursdays county commission meeting, the topic of tourism came up. First District Commissioner Karen Stuppy reported on the Tourism Advisory Council and Tourism Tax Commissions joint meeting earlier that week, at which a task force was formed. She said that the tourism department has an $89,548 budget, with $45,000-50,000
We've got some exciting news to share... we are moving! We knew our time in Norway was coming to a close, but we assumed (especially given the current oil economy) that we would be moving back to the US. Unfortunately, neither of our companies had concrete jobs for either one of us... so when this opportunity came along for Jason we decided he should go ahead and apply for the job. So where exactly are we moving? We'll let Madi tell you... :-)





Did you catch that? Where we are moving? Baku, Azerbaijan. Where is that exactly? We weren't sure and had to look at a map!I'm not even sure where to begin telling the story... and there are so many uncertainties and questions we can't answer yet still! I'll have to do a whole blog post on how God's working out all the details so fabulously for this move though because I want to remember how He opened so many doors and took care of every little detail. We feel a huge sense of peace about the location and the job for Jason and have no doubt this is where we are supposed to go next. It was just quite the surprise!Currently, Jason is working on the stringent visa requirements (Ever heard of having a document apostille? Yeah we hadn't either!). But most likely he will start rotating to Baku for work 2-3 weeks at a time. I'm not looking forward to those rotations, but we have a fabulous support system in Stavanger that loves on our precious girls so I know things will be okay. We are praying for the visas to go through swiftly, but in reality it will most likely be May before we move.
David Nicklaus David Nicklaus is a business columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow David Nicklaus Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

In some quarters, the battle over the city earnings tax is being framed as a Tea Party-style fight against big government.

It shouldnt be. Instead, we should be debating the most efficient way to fund local services. Whether you think of the folks at City Hall as sainted public servants or a bloated bureaucracy, you should want to pay their expenses with a tax system that does as little damage as possible to the local economy.

Thats not the earnings tax. It encourages companies and residents to leave the city for the suburbs, weakening the region by leaving it without a strong center. Even Mayor Francis Slay, certainly no right-wing bomb-thrower, testified last week that the tax is a disincentive to some residents and businesses.

The 1 percent earnings tax is under attack in the Missouri Legislature. A related tax, the half-percent payroll tax, has been challenged in court. St. Louis voters have a say on April 5, when they vote to either keep the earnings tax or phase it out over 10 years.

Wealthy activist Rex Sinquefield has contributed $1.4 million to an anti-earnings-tax political committee, so we can expect to see TV ads on the subject soon. Lets hope they explain how the earnings tax could be replaced.

Howard Wall, a Lindenwood University economist, says one alternative is higher property taxes. In a 2014 study for the Sinquefield-funded Show-Me Institute, he pointed out that St. Louis heavy reliance on wage taxes is unusual.

The typical U.S. city gets 17 times as much revenue from taxing property as from taxing work; here, property taxes bring in less than half as much as the earnings tax.

St. Louis also might be able to extract some revenue from its large nonprofit institutions. These universities and hospitals depend on city services but dont pay property taxes. Boston and other cities have negotiated payments from their big nonprofits; St. Louis could try to do the same. Eliminating the 1 percent earnings tax should make it easier for these institutions to attract and retain employees; wouldnt they pay something to make the tax go away?

City residents and leaders tend to defend the earnings tax on us-vs.-them grounds. They say they need to tax suburbanites who commute to work in St. Louis, because those commuters rely on city police and other services.

A property tax, Wall points out, does much the same thing. In other cities, an employer who owns a large office building pays enough to cover the city services used by the buildings workers.

In St. Louis, the tendency has been to abate property taxes in hopes of keeping jobs  and earnings tax revenue  in the city. Jobs have left anyway, and in recent years the city has handed special payroll-tax breaks to companies such as Anthem and Wells Fargo Advisors.

Those deals add a new level of unfairness to a tax that was already a slow-motion disaster for the city. Its hard to explain to a fast-food worker that the city needs 1 percent of her wages but can forgo part of the same revenue from a well-paid investment banker or insurance executive.

So lets not debate whether the city needs the $160 million a year it gets from the earnings tax. Clearly it does.

Lets talk instead about fairer and more efficient ways to fund city services. Five years ago, the last time voters considered the earnings-tax issue, St. Louis officials promised to study some alternatives. Its high time we learn what those alternatives are.
Updated at 12:37 p.m. Wednesday

NEW DELHI  The Bangladesh central bank says it is working to recover some $100 million allegedly stolen by Chinese hackers from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Authorities have given few details about how the money disappeared. But Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith says authorities are considering suing the U.S. bank over the money's apparent transfer to accounts in the Philippines.

Muhith said the U.S. bank has "no way to avoid their responsibility."

In a statement Wednesday, the New York Fed said it had not detected any hacking attempts, and there is "no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised."

"The payment instructions in question were fully authenticated ... in accordance with standard authentication protocols," the statement said.

The New York Fed said it has been working with the central bank of Bangladesh since the incident occurred "and will continue to provide assistance as appropriate."

The Bangladesh Bank said it managed to recover some of the funds, but gave no details. It has also tracked down those still missing and is working with the anti-money laundering agency in the Philippines, which has been ordered by a court in the country to freeze the accounts while the issue is being investigated. Bangladesh also is working with World Bank cyber and forensic experts, the bank said in a statement.

The country's leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported Wednesday that at least 30 transfer requests were made Feb. 5 using the Bangladesh Bank's SWIFT code, out of which five succeeded in effecting transfers.

Economist Mamun Rashid, who previously headed Citibank NA in Bangladesh, said he was sure the country would be able to recover the full amount.

"Bangladesh is a client of the Federal Reserve Bank. They must take the responsibility for this incident," he said. "But we have to see whether we have lodged our complaint properly."

Since hacking has been a threat for years, he said clients should not suffer if depositing with large banks. "A client's right must be protected."

__________

Our earlier story, from Bloomberg, posted at 2:32 p.m. Tuesday

The Federal Reserve is responsible for at least $100 million stolen from Bangladesh's account, according to Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.

Bangladesh plans a legal fight to retrieve the missing funds, Muhith told reporters in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday. Bangladesh's central bank said Monday that funds had been stolen from an account by hackers, and that it had traced some of the missing money to the Philippines, where it was working with local authorities.

"We kept money with the Federal Reserve Bank and irregularities must be with the people who handle the funds there," Muhith said. "It can't be that they don't have any responsibility."

A clear picture of the alleged misappropriation of funds has yet to emerge, in a case that appears to span the globe from Bangladesh to the United States to the Philippines, an East Asian country with few economic ties to the South Asian nation.

A Federal Reserve Bank of New York spokeswoman said on Monday there was no sign its systems had been hacked after Bangladesh Bank reported the missing funds.

There is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised, the spokeswoman said.

The instructions to make the payments from the account of Bangladesh's central bank followed standard protocols and were authenticated by the SWIFT message system used by financial institutions, the Fed spokeswoman said Tuesday. The Fed has been working with and assisting Bangladesh since the incident, she said.

__________

Our earlier report, from Reuters, posted at 1:43 p.m. Monday

DHAKA  Bangladesh's central bank said on Monday its U.S. account had been hacked and that money had been stolen from it, a claim that its U.S. counterpart, the Federal Reserve, denied.

Bangladesh Bank said it had traced some of the money to the Philippines and that it was working with anti-money laundering authorities there. Some of the funds were recovered, it said.

The central bank did not say how much money had been stolen and a spokesman declined to comment.

The New York Federal Reserve, where Bangladesh has an account along with other foreign central banks, later on Monday denied that its systems were breached.

"To date, there is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and there is no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised," a New York Fed spokeswoman said in response to queries about the Bangladesh claim.

The U.S. central bank's New York branch did not say whether funds had been drained from the account, or whether it was investigating the claim by its overseas counterpart.

Bangladesh's central bank has around $28 billion in foreign currency reserves.

Some 250 central banks, governments, and other institutions have foreign accounts at the New York Fed, which is near the center of the global financial system. The accounts hold mostly U.S. Treasuries and agency debt.

Fed computers have been hacked in the past.

There were legal charges in 2014 against a British citizen for breaching its servers and publicly posting information from internal network users.

In a broader breach of the U.S. government, details came to light last year about a massive computer hack that put the personal data of some 22 million Americans at risk.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York.
WASHINGTON  Federal auditors should examine a program that has allowed leading coal companies to lower cleanup insurance costs and could leave taxpayers on the hook if the miners declare bankruptcy, Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday.

Coal companies are responsible for spent mines and they typically use cash, bonds or other financing to cover future cleanup costs.

But some of the largest producers use self bonds, which are not backed by concrete collateral, to insure such costs. Regulators worry those costs could fall to taxpayers if the companies fail.

The coal industry has roughly $3.6 billion in future cleanup costs covered by self bonds and the Government Accountability Office should review the program, the lawmakers wrote.

U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell of Washington and Dick Durbin of Illinois are seeking an "audit of self-bonding" in the coal industry and a review of how the oil, gas and mineral sectors protect taxpayers from cleanup costs.

The Government Accountability Office is an independent, non-partisan investigative arm of Congress.

Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell told Congress last month that self-bonding was "a very significant problem and a risk to the taxpayer" in light of coal industry woes and bankruptcies for Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources.

The coal industry has been hurt by oversupply, competition from natural gas and weak export demand.

Arch and Alpha have sought to jettison cleanup liabilities in bankruptcy court and Jewell said officials would not tolerate such maneuvers. Arch is based in Creve Coeur; Alpha, in Bristol, Va.

While federal officials conceived self-bonding decades ago, coal-producing states are largely left to administer a program that some still defend.

Last week, Illinois told the Interior Department it would allow Peabody Energy Corp. to continue to self bond about $100 million in future cleanup costs.

If Illinois and other coal-producing states were to revoke Peabody's self bonds, the cash-strapped company might need private financing to underwrite about $1.38 billion in liabilities not now backed by collateral.

St. Louis-based Peabody reported about a $2 billion loss last year and has struggled to sell some western mines to raise cash.
Updated at 5:45 p.m. with more information about the lawsuit

Solar panel installer Vivint Solar Inc. said on Tuesday it had terminated an agreement under which it would have been taken over by solar energy company SunEdison Inc. after SunEdison failed to consummate the deal.

The cash-and-stock deal, worth $2.2 billion when it was forged last July, had faced criticism from hedge funds and other investors as SunEdisons finances and share price weakened.

SunEdisons borrowing constraints made it impossible for the company to complete the acquisition of Vivint, Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov told Reuters.

Later on Tuesday, Utah-based Vivint filed a lawsuit against the SunEdison in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging breach of contract.

In court documents, Vivint said Maryland Heights-based SunEdison justified its failure to close the deal by saying it had failed to secure financing. The complaint said, however, that obtaining financing was not a condition to closing the merger agreement.

SunEdison did not respond to requests for comment.

SunEdisons stock rose 10 cents, or 5 percent, to close at $2. Shares of Vivint, which is controlled by Blackstone Group LP, shares tumbled 20 percent to close at $4.17.

Like other solar companies, SunEdison has been hit by the drop in oil prices but it has also faced criticism for trying to grow too quickly through acquisitions that it could not afford.

The company, which has a market value of about $650 million, had long-term debt of $9.77 billion as of Sept. 30.

SunEdison said on March 1 it would delay filing its annual report while an internal investigation was conducted into the accuracy of its financial position.

The deal was set to expire on March 18, Cowen & Co analysts said in a note, adding that SunEdison could be liable for an amount well above the breakup fee of $34 million following a court hearing or likely settlement.

Several analysts said both companies will be better off on their own, noting that the extension of U.S. solar investment tax credits beyond 2016 had breathed new life into the industry.

As part of the deal, SunEdison yieldco TerraForm Power Inc. had agreed to buy Vivints rooftop solar portfolio for $799 million.

Activist hedge fund Appaloosa Management had been seeking to block the purchase through a lawsuit in a Delaware court.

Its good for TerraForm, Appaloosa Chief Executive David Tepper said of the collapse of the deal. TerraForms shares closed at $10.61, up 3.8 percent.

Appaloosa had said the deal put TerraForm shareholders at risk and was a departure from its business model.

David Einhorns Greenlight Capital said in January it was in talks with SunEdison regarding a board seat and that it was pressing for asset sales or even the sale of the company itself.

Up to Mondays close, SunEdisons stock had lost 94 percent of its value since the Vivint deal was announced, while Vivints stock had fallen 52 percent.
Fans of NPR's "Tiny Desk Concerts" should get a kick out from a local take on the popular music show.

Each day this week, St. Louis Public Radio (KWMU-FM 90.7) will highlight the five best local bands that submitted audition tapes earlier this year in NPR's national talent-search contest.

Willis Ryder Arnold, arts and cultural reporter at KWMU, said about 50 local acts applied to qualify for the NPR show, in which artists go into the NPR offices and play about 15 minutes of acoustic music from behind a "tiny desk."

Arnold said local staffers went through the national entries to find contestants for the local spin. The station's website (stlpublicradio.org) will feature a different artist each day, showing the audition tape and a short Q&A interview.

The band selected as the best by voters on the station's website was Mt. Thelonius, comprised of Ian Lubar, Alyssa Avery and Mark Wallace. The group will perform live at 1 p.m. Friday in the lobby of KWMU studios, 3651 Olive Street.

The other bands were selected by a combination of votes and input from KWMU staffers. They are:

Other KWMU staffers involved in the project are Jess Luther, Kimberly Springer, Brent Jones, Kelly Moffit and Susannah Lohr.
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In response to growing evidence of a link between the Zika virus and severe birth defects, the World Health Organization said Tuesday that pregnant women should not travel to affected areas across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The organization had previously recommended that pregnant women consider avoiding travel to the 31 countries with reported outbreaks.

The virus is mainly spread through mosquitoes, but sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, according to the health organization. In addition to the travel restrictions, pregnant women are advised to practice safe sex or avoid sex with partners who have traveled to the affected areas.

Also Tuesday, Missouri health officials said that 69 of the 91 blood samples sent for Zika testing at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were from pregnant women. The samples came from people who became sick after traveling to countries where the virus is circulating, health officials said.

Evidence has shown that pregnant women who contract Zika can pass the virus to the fetus, causing severe defects including microcephaly, or an abnormally small head and brain. Other associated risks include growth problems, injuries to the central nervous system and fetal death.

Cases of babies born with deformed heads linked to Zika have been confirmed only in Brazil and French Polynesia, though officials expect reports from other countries once the virus has been circulating long enough to affect pregnant women. Colombia has reported several suspected cases of microcephaly.

Nine countries have reported an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition that may be linked to Zika and can cause temporary paralysis and death.

Missouri has reported one case of Zika in a man who traveled to Haiti. Across the U.S., there have been 153 cases reported, all acquired outside the country. Illinois reports five cases, including two in pregnant women.

Most people who are infected with the virus have no symptoms. Others will develop fever, rash, joint pain and pink eye.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NEW FLORENCE, MO.  Police searching for a man charged in a quadruple murder Monday night in Kansas say he may have killed a fifth man, this one in the New Florence area, about 20 miles west of Warrenton.

The search for the suspect continued overnight Tuesday, including a swarm of officers at the Days Inn in New Florence about midnight.

Police say the suspect  Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino  was last seen Tuesday morning near New Florence, at the 175-mile marker of Interstate 70 in Montgomery County. Thats west of Warren County and about 75 miles from downtown St. Louis.

On Tuesday afternoon, Serrano-Vitorino was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of four men in Kansas City, Kan., Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome A. Gorman announced.

Serrano-Vitorino is a Mexican national who had been deported from the United States, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday night.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) previously deported Pablo Serrano-Vitorino, an illegal alien from Mexico, in April 2004, based on final orders of removal from a federal immigration judge, said the spokeswoman, Gail Montenegro. Mr. Serrano-Vitorino illegally re-entered the United States on an unknown date.

Police said Serrano-Vitorinos red 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup was found abandoned Tuesday on the shoulder of eastbound I-70 after an off-duty Jackson County officer spotted it. Highway Patrol Lt. Paul Reinsch said the vehicle was found about 7 a.m. Shortly after that, a 911 caller reported a homicide at a home in the New Florence area.

The victim, Randy J. Nordman, 49, was found at his home in the 400 block of Tree Farm Road, which is west of Highway 19 on the south outer road of I-70. His car was not stolen from the home, and there were no other reports of stolen vehicles in the area.

Reinsch said a witness who called 911 reported seeing a man running from Nordmans property, launching a manhunt of that area.

Authorities said they do not have any indication that the suspect and Nordman knew each other. Nordmans home is near his familys campground and a racetrack for remote-controlled cars.

At least 75 troopers were searching for Serrano-Vitorino, along with a SWAT team, police dogs and two helicopters, to determine if he might still be in the area.

Similar manhunt in 1986 ends with suspect's suicide Man killed two in Indianapolis before heading west, hiding out in Wright City area.

Serrano-Vitorino, 40, is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and 175 pounds. The patrol says Serrano-Vitorino is armed and dangerous and may have an AK-47. He was last seen wearing a red-and-black flannel jacket, a blue hooded sweatshirt and possibly blue jeans, police say.

The Montgomery County School District was put on lockdown about 8 a.m. Tuesday as police searched for Serrano-Vitorino. A woman in the superintendents office said the lockdown affected four buildings in the district and about 1,200 students.

Students were dismissed at the usual time, but only to parents and guardians, authorities said. There were reports of long lines of cars as parents picked up their children.

It was unclear if Serrano-Vitorino was on foot or in a vehicle.

Lock your doors, Sgt. Scott White of the Missouri Highway Patrol advised residents. Make sure you dont answer for anyone you dont recognize.

Police said anyone who spots Serrano-Vitorino should call 911 immediately and not approach him. Authorities positioned cars along the outer road for several miles west of New Florence on Tuesday.

Kansas slayings

Police in Kansas City, Kan., were seeking Serrano-Vitorino after the shooting deaths of four men late Monday. The four men were in their 30s.

One of the men managed to call police before he died, but its unclear how the men knew each other or what may have prompted the shooting, Kansas City police Officer Thomas Tomasic told The Associated Press.

The owner of the Kansas City home where the four men were shot said he received a call from a tenant at a neighboring house Monday night about a person lying on the porch as if he were dead. Steve Manthe said that when he was allowed into the rental home after 6 a.m. Tuesday, he saw blood on the living room couch and throughout that room, and the television still on.

It looked like he just stepped in the door and blew them away, said Manthe, 61, who is retired from the Army.

Police in Kansas had released information saying Serrano-Vitorino may have been driving the red Dodge Ram, the vehicle that was later found on I-70 in Montgomery County. They did not release the names of the victims, but the Kansas City Star reported that friends and neighbors identified three as Mike Capps and brothers Clint and Austin Harter.

Serrano-Vitorino lived next to the home where the four men were killed, police say. Capps lived at the house where the shootings happened, and the three other victims were friends of his, the Star reported.

Friends and neighbors told the paper they knew of no reasons why someone would kill them.

Capps was the father of two young sons, the Star reported. Clint Harter had a young child and another on the way.

Neighbors told the paper Serrano-Vitorino has a son who is about 8 years old and a daughter.

The Associated Press and Kristen Taketa and Jessica Bock of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
KANSAS CITY  A sister of a Missouri woman who authorities say was strangled while vacationing in Mexico said Monday that the womans boyfriend told her the woman overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide attempt after an argument.

Mexican authorities say Tamra Turpin, 36, of Union, died about 9 a.m. Wednesday of strangulation in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, near Cancun, and that attorney John Loveless, 59, is being held as part of a homicide investigation.

Its unclear whether Loveless, who was detained at the Cancun airport before he was to board a flight to Atlanta, has a lawyer. A woman who answered the telephone Monday at his law office in St. Clair, Mo., said there was no comment. Appearing before a judge Friday in Mexico, Loveless declined to discuss the matter.

Turpins oldest sister, Jodi Mills, said Loveless insisted to her via text messages the day Turpin was found dead in a condo the couple had rented that she had taken a bunch of pills after an argument between the two the previous night.

He said she was crazy out of her mind and had seizures after taking the unspecified medication, said Mills, who lives in Mexico, Mo.

Mills said Loveless later told her he canceled an initial call for an ambulance because Turpin was resting comfortably. Mills said Loveless told her by midafternoon that Turpin died, adding that he said he was sorry and had no words.

I immediately called him, thinking that surely its not true, Mills said. I remember talking to him briefly, and she said she was gone. After that, I dont know what the rest of our conversation was.

Its crazy, and Im still in shock, she added. It just seems like a bad dream.

Mills said shes awaiting word from the U.S. consulate about sharing the text exchange with Mexican investigators and that shes still keeping an open mind about Loveless.

I cant be judgmental when I dont have all the facts, Mills said. I see where its pointing, but I respect that he has family and that they need to be sure what happened. Anger gets you nowhere.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said Monday it had no new information on the case.

Mills said Turpin and Loveless had been friends for several years, had dated for roughly the past year and traveled frequently in recent months, including a trip to Florida weeks ago.

He wined and dined her and treated her very well, Mills said, describing Loveless as very nice and her sister as an animal-loving summer enthusiast who was very spunky, feisty and fun.

Turpin, nagged by lingering migraines and back pain dating to a car wreck when she was a teenager, always had some depression after her dad died in 2001, Mills said. Her remains are to be laid to rest next to her fathers burial plot after her body is returned to Missouri, perhaps as early as this week, Mills said.

That would make her happy, Mills said.

Loveless has had no disciplinary action against him as an attorney, the states Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates ethics complaints against lawyers, said Monday.
ST. LOUIS  For the first time in 25 years, supporters of St. Louis Public Schools gathered inside district headquarters Monday to kick off a tax campaign they say is critical to improving school security, continuing preschool and keeping the districts best teachers.

Members of the Special Administrative Board told about 100 supporters that they thought long and hard about the right time to launch this effort. Then last fall, confirmation came that the district had made significant strides. It earned enough points on the states performance report to qualify for full accreditation, eight years after it had been deemed to be failing.

The district hired Charlene Jones, a political consultant, to start laying the groundwork for Proposition 1.

Many of you have read or are beginning to understand some of the things that have occurred in the past eight years as it relates to academic performance, financial performance and governance, said Richard Gaines, a member of the Special Appointed Board. It has had a major impact upon the functioning of this school district.

On April 5, St. Louis voters will consider whether to raise their property taxes by 75 cents to benefit city schools. It would raise property taxes an additional $142.50 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home. The amount generated for all public schools would be about $28 million. Because charter schools educate about one-third of the citys school children, they would receive about one-third of the revenue after the second year of collection.

This is going to increase my taxes, I get that, but this is a good investment, said St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones, who joined several other elected officials in supporting the tax. Every dollar we spend in early childhood education yields a $7 return. As a treasurer I know a little bit about investing money. You cant get those odds on the stock market, right?

The district would put the revenue toward:

 Sustaining 31 preschool classrooms, currently funded through a $3.2 million annual payment from the desegregation agreement, according to campaign literature. That funding is set to run out after the 2017-18 school year.

 Upgrading and adding security in school buildings, such as replacing analog cameras with digital cameras, and increasing pay for safety and security officers to prevent turnover.

 Adding character education programs at schools to reduce suspensions, as well as reassess and improve the effectiveness of alternative education programs.

 Increasing teacher pay to reduce high teacher turnover. The districts average teacher pay is the lowest in the region.

Becky James-Hatter, executive director of Big Brother Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, said the tax campaign aims to restore the teaching profession. The who matters  who teaches our children, who serves them, she said.

The kickoff unfolded in the room that customarily serves as the meeting room for the Special Administrative Board. For the next 28 days, it will serve as campaign headquarters with volunteers and paid staff working behind computers and phones.

The Friends of St. Louis Public Schools is paying for the operation, which involves mailers, radio and newspaper ads, ice cream socials at senior centers and get out the vote efforts. Vans will travel through neighborhoods on April 5 with a loudspeaker announcing its election day. We have a plan to win, Jones said. We know how to win.

Last month, Marie Ceselski, a Democratic committeewoman, filed complaints with the Missouri Ethics Commission regarding a mailer to 150 city leaders advocating for the tax on district letterhead, she said. The campaign sent out a corrected mailer stating that the Friends of St. Louis Public Schools had paid for the ad.

The political action committee is also covering the cost of Jones contract with the district, which was initially paid for out of district funds.

For the next four weeks, volunteers will be appearing in churches and on street corners advocating for the tax.

Weve been working on this for three to four months, just to get to this day, Gaines said. This campaign will be the most significant campaign of its kind in the past 50 years for this school district.
Updated at 10:30 p.m. with mention of a New York Times article.

JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri is grabbing national headlines as word of Senate Democrats' day-long filibuster spreads.

A proposal by Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, is designed to protect wedding vendors and clergy from legal liability and government penalties if they decline to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies.

Republicans are trying to put the question on the ballot this year in the form of a proposed constitutional amendment. To do so, the measure only needs approval from the House and Senate.

Proponents say churches in other states have had their tax-exempt statuses threatened. They've also used an example from Oregon, where a baker was ordered to pay damages for declining to bake for a same-sex wedding, as a reason for why the amendment is needed.

But Democrats charge that clergy are already protected under the First Amendment, and that the proposal does little more than codify discrimination against gays in the state constitution.

So shortly after 4 p.m. Monday, the Democratic minority launched a filibuster to stall the bill. As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the bill had yet to come to a vote. Meanwhile, the debate has drawn nationwide attention from news outlets and social media.

A sampling:

From the Washington Post: Mo. Democrats filibuster religious-freedom bill that critics say could discriminate against gays:

Democrats in the Missouri legislature are aiming for a 24-hour filibuster of a religious-liberties bill that critics say could lead to discrimination against gay and transgender people. The bill would put on the November ballot a measure that would amend the state constitution to prohibit the state from penalizing clergy members, religious organizations and certain individuals who on religious grounds choose not to participate in or condone same-sex marriage.

The New York Times: Missouri Senate Filibusters Against Bill Protecting Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  They discussed Tyler Perry movies, Jews who eat pork, even which shoes they should have worn. But while the talk got loopy on Tuesday in the Missouri State Senate, the cause was serious on the second day of a filibuster against a bill giving new legal protection to opponents of same-sex marriage.

Buzzfeed: Missouri Democrats Have Been Filibustering an Anti-Gay Bill For 22 Hours and Counting:

Democrats are in the legislative minority, but they have possessed the mic since Monday afternoon, trading off in three-hour shifts. With the sun rising again, the banter between two senators had taken on the texture of a morning talk show: eye drops, watercolor painting, healthcare management, and, of course, the issue at hand.

Los Angeles Times: Conservative pushback over gay marriage leads to 20-hour filibuster by Missouri Democrats:

As of late Tuesday morning, a group of about seven Democrats has spoken nonstop for 20 hours in opposition to Senate Joint Resolution No. 39, which Republicans say would protect religious liberties and which Democrats say would enshrine anti-gay discrimination in state law.

Companies and at least one business group have also voiced opposition. Last week, PROMO, an LGBT advocacy group, published a letter with 185 Missouri businesses, churches and other groups voicing opposition.

Dow Chemical and the St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce have also recently voiced opposition.

Creve Coeur-based Monsanto also came out against the measure Tuesday.

"Monsanto has a long history of employing a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment for our employees," its statement reads, in part. "Monsanto is calling on other businesses and the agricultural community to join the company in speaking out against discrimination here in our home state of Missouri and around the world."

Proponents of the measure have also spoken out. At a February hearing on the proposal, 16 people representing groups such as the Missouri Baptist Convention, the Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Family Network and the Missouri Alliance for Freedom testified in favor.

Just three people testified against, but Sarah Rossi, the ACLU of Missouri's legislative director, blamed the lackluster showing on the measure's fast-moving pace.

The measure is Senate Joint Resolution 39.
ST. LOUIS  Presidential candidate Ted Cruz and former President Bill Clinton both are scheduled to be in the St. Louis area in the coming week, and there is an unconfirmed report that candidate Donald Trump will be here as well.

Clinton will be here Tuesday stumping for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He will speak at 5:30 p.m. at District 9 Machinists Hall, 12365 St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton.

Cruz, seeking the Republican presidential nomination, is scheduled to speak at the St. Louis County GOPs annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner at Orlando Gardens in Maryland Heights on Saturday, according to a message on the partys Facebook page.

Cruzs wife, Heidi Cruz, will talk to Illinois voters at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Eckerts Country Store, 951 South Green Mount Road. in Belleville. Anyone interested in attending can RSVP through Eventbrite.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay (@MayorSlay) tweeted Monday: Bill will be in town this week. So will Trump. There was no other information immediately available regarding a visit by Trump, who is seeking the GOP nomination.

Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders was in the region Friday, in an event at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Missouri conducts its presidential primary on March 15, along with Illinois, Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. With 358 delegates at stake, it could give both Clinton and Trump virtual locks on their respective party primaries.
UPDATED at 10:30 a.m. with more comments from Democratic Sen. Scott Sifton of Affton.

JEFFERSON CITY  Democrats in the Missouri Senate are in their 21st hour of blocking a proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting government penalties for clergy and wedding vendors who decline to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies.

The overnight filibuster, which began shortly after 4 p.m. Monday, was targeted at a resolution introduced by Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis. The resolution would need only the approval of the Missouri House and Senate to be placed on the ballot. If approved, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon would choose to put the question on either the August or November ballots.

Soon after the proposal was brought up on the Senate floor, Democrats began their effort to kill the bill. They argued that the proposal would enshrine discrimination against gay people into the states constitution and damage the states economy.

They pointed to Indiana, where a law was signed last year that opponents said would allow discrimination on religious grounds. Since its passage, and following a nationwide backlash, the state has lost out on 12 conventions and $60 million in economic impact, according to Indianapolis nonprofit tourism group, Visit Indy.

Opponents have also charged that under the First Amendment, churches and clergy already dont have to perform same-sex marriages. The definition of religious organization is also broadly defined in the resolution, opponents say, meaning that widespread discrimination could be in store.

Onder disputes that, and has repeatedly said his proposal is a shield and not a sword. He cited an example from Oregon, where bakery owners last summer were ordered to pay damages to a lesbian couple for refusing to sell them a wedding cake.

There was no desire to discriminate against them; the desire was to not be forced to testify to a religious point of view that she found contradictory to her faith, Onder said, referring to the bakery owner.

On Tuesday, after more than 16 hours of debate, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, R-Joplin, offered no indication Republicans who control the majority were ready to shut things down.

"We're prepared to stay," Richard said. "We're going to stay until we get finished."

Democratic Sen. Joe Keaveny of St. Louis, and the minority floor leader, said at 9 a.m. Tuesday that his caucus wouldn't budge.

"I don't see right now where there's room for compromise," Keaveny said. "I'll keep an open mind about this, but to allow  I think we would be derelict if we allowed any form of discrimination to be put into our state constitution."

Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, said at 10 a.m. Tuesday that there had been no talk of compromise.

"There has been no discussion of any compromise at any time, and that's not coming from us  that's them," Sifton said, referring to Republicans. "There has been no conversation whatsoever to this point about how we might get this resolved."

Onder said he was surprised Democrats were trying to block the proposed constitutional amendment.

"I think the bill really helps to reinforce the traditions of pluralism and tolerance in our society," Onder said.

But Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, said that a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person could find the resolution offensive.

For me, being on this floor right now, I look at this bill and I read it through their eyes, Holsman said. And when I read it through their eyes, I see a mean-spirited attempt to try and make the laws apply differently.

Sifton asked Monday night how the amendment would affect the states local ordinances that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, including those in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and in numerous St. Louis County municipalities.

Onder said that the ordinances would remain in effect, except for the religious exemption.

In addition to railing against the proposal, Democrats spent much of the night talking about family, friends and travel in order to keep Republicans who hold majorities in the chamber from voting on the measure.

Some members left the floor to nap in their offices or to eat.

"I've been on the floor the whole time. I did leave a couple of times to grab coffee," Onder said.

Amendment

Debate through most of the night was technically not on the bill itself, but on a series of amendments offered by Sifton.

The point of the amendments: to change the measure to allow people to deny services based on any religious objection.

"This bill singles out one and only one religious belief for protection," Sifton said. "My amendment simply says that if we're going to protect the free expression of religion, we're going to do it across the board and not just single out one view for protection."

But Onder has said Monday night that religious objections to same-sex marriage in particular are "under siege."

Debate has strayed off-topic multiple times, but as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday there had yet to be a vote on Sifton's amendment. Debate on the underlying bill can't move forward until the Senate votes on Sifton's amendment or he withdraws it.

Kurt Erickson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this story.
SUNSET HILLS  Victims of human trafficking often can be the children in classrooms who frequently act up, who show abrupt changes in behavior and are picked up from school by a man who isnt a family member.

The unfortunate truth about human trafficking in schools, said U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, is that the victims are hiding in plain sight.

Wagner, R-Ballwin, organized two information sessions Tuesday at a Holiday Inn conference center in Sunset Hills to help area educators understand the scope of human trafficking, and how to identify victims and perpetrators who may be walking their school hallways.

St. Louis is one of the most active human trafficking locations in the country, as identified by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Nationwide, schools are increasingly targets for recruitment.

About 30 classroom teachers, school counselors, superintendents and college administrators listened as presenters explained how easily a child can become the victim of commercial sexual exploitation. Students might wind up at a party with a friend whose boyfriend is a predator, or be enticed with expensive clothes or cellphones.

It could take years to groom a student, or it could happen overnight, said Jenee Littrell, director of safe and supportive schools at the San Mateo County Office of Education near San Francisco.

It is estimated that at least 100,000 children across the United States are sexually exploited annually, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But the real numbers may be significantly higher.

The average age of children who fall victim to human trafficking is 12 to 14 years old for girls, and 11 to 13 years old for boys, said Eve Birge, an education program specialist with the U.S. Department of Education.

Birge and Littrell offered advice on how schools can help prevent students from being exploited.

Children most vulnerable are those living in poverty, who move in and out of the foster care system, who have a disability, and who have experienced prior abuse. Those without any support network are more likely to become victims than those who have a trusted adult in their life.

Birge reminded educators of the importance of creating a haven at schools.

You can see how important it is for these young people to feel like that theres at least one person who truly cares about them, Birge said.

Wagner has co-sponsored legislation now signed into law to combat human trafficking and sex trafficking of minors. But the new laws have been challenged in court by Backpage.com, an online site that advertises escort services. The law was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

In addition, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, are pushing for a contempt of Congress citation against Backpage, which has cited First Amendment protections in not cooperating with a Portman-McCaskill probe of its policies on how it screens the advertising that appears on the site.

Outside Washington, Wagner said, meeting with educators could be one of the most effective ways to combat the problem.

This is about education and awareness, she said.
JEFFERSON CITY  Retired investor Rex Sinquefield made another big dollar contribution Monday to a committee looking to phase out the earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City.

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, the St. Louis financier wrote a check for $395,857 to the Vote No on the E-Tax campaign. The contribution is his third to the organization and brings his total outlay to over $1.4 million since March 1.

Records indicate Sinquefield is the sole contributor to the group.

The amounts hes given in each of his checks have a message behind them. The first, $618,306, mirrors the population of the city in 1970.

The second was $452,804, which mirrors the 1980 population.

The latest check is for an amount matching the 1990 population.

We believe the earnings tax is a major cause for both population and job loss over that time period, said Stephanie Lewis, spokeswoman for the anti-tax group.

Under that scenario, it would appear Sinquefield soon will be writing a check worth $319,294 to the campaign to match the citys population in 2010.

The money is expected to be used to convince voters to dump the earnings tax when they go to the polls next month.

The 1 percent earnings tax is charged to anyone who works or lives in the states two largest cities as a way to generate funds for services.

In St. Louis, the tax generates more than $160 million, which represents about one-third of the citys general fund revenue.

In 2011, more than 80 percent of the voters supported the tax when it was on the ballot. If voters say no this year, the tax would be phased out over 10 years.

Although no group has formed to fight for keeping the tax, Mayor Francis Slay was in the Capitol last week arguing against at least five proposals pending in the Missouri Legislature to upend the tax.

A measure sponsored by state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, is furthest along in the legislative process. It is pending in the full Senate.

Schaefer, who also is running for attorney general, earlier received a $500,000 contribution from Sinquefield.

Four other proposals are awaiting possible action in a House committee.
UNIVERSITY CITY  A public hearing is on tap for the owners of Social House II to explain why the city shouldnt revoke the liquor license of the topless bar officials say has been operating illegally in the Delmar Loop since Friday.

The council voted for revocation in a 6-0 vote Monday night.

Mayor Shelley Welsch said the city expects to notify the establishment of the revocation on Tuesday and convene a council hearing on the matter Friday.

The law grants the business three days to prepare a defense before the hearing.

University City officials, residents and business owners have let it be known that an establishment highlighted by a topless female wait staff with breasts enveloped in body paint is not acceptable in the Loop.

I think we would see changes come to the Loop. The Loop has always been designed as a rather funky place. Not designed, its happened, Welsch said. But it has always been comfortable for people of all ages, all ethnicities, all levels of income. And I think something like Social House would make some people uncofmfortable.

City Manager Lehman Walker said the club could face steep fines for being in violation of several municipal code ordinances.

In addition to failing to obtain a new liquor license, Walker said, the club opened Friday without securing an occupancy permit or a business license from the city.

Walker said Social House II could be fined up to $1,000 per day for each of the ordinance violations.

They are operating illegally now and they have been operating illegally since last Friday, Walker said.

The council meeting capped a day of legal maneuvering that began in the morning with the city filing papers seeking a temporary St. Louis County Circuit Court injunction to block Social House II from serving future customers.

A hearing on that matter could be held as early as Tuesday.

But a temporary restraining order, noted city attorney Kathryn Forster noted, is exactly that  provisional.

The city cant close it down, she told the council. But we can revoke its license.

Albert Watkins, the attorney for club owner John Racanelli, on Monday continued to argue that Social House II can operate legally under the liquor license the city issued to the Market House Pub, the business that occupied 6655 Delmar Boulevard prior to January.

The Market House Pub was also operated by Racanelli, whose regional chain of pizza franchises is anchored in the Loop.

University City residents have responded to the Social House II controversy by calling for a boycott of the pizzerias.

Not a new business

Watkins said the city is operating under the erroneous belief that it is dealing with a new tenant ... its not a new business, its a rebranded restaurant.

The attorney in a letter to University City officials warned the municipality could be liable for touching upon the infringement of the legal rights of its business citizens.

Watkins technically represents Ramo Inc., owned by Racanelli.

Forster told the council members that questions have been raised about the actual ownership of Social House II.

There were indications at one point, Forster said, that Nick Trupiano  who is the operator of the original Social House in Soulard  intended to open a second location in the Loop.

Councilman Stephen Kraft said a Facebook post from a woman who claimed she had a financial interest in the Loop location further complicated questions about ownership.

As an issue already the focus of the council became entangled in a possible courtroom showdown, Racanellis landlord informed the tenant that the breach of city ordinances could prompt the termination of a lease that isnt scheduled to expire until April 2017.

Please be advised ... that the Landlord will be compelled to exercise any and all remedies available by law or in equity under the lease in connection with such a breach, building owner Dan Wald wrote to Racanelli.

For the third time in under a month, it was the residents, however, who made it most clear they dont care who owns or leases space to the Social House II.

They simply want the business to go away. Boo McLoughlin, the executive director of Craft Alliance  directly across the street from the club  blamed the establishment for a 22 percent drop in enrollment for its 2016 summer youth arts camp.

Its fair to say our business will suffer irreparable harm if the Social House is allowed to continue to operate, McLoughlin informed council members. And as they have at past meetings, residents with long memories also invoked the demise of Gaslight Square to voice fears about the potential impact of Social House II on the Loop. That popular St. Louis nightclub district fell on hard times when go-go bars took the place of establishments where Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen and other big-name performers once took the stage.

Terry Kippenburger, a musician who once performed at Gaslight Square clubs, recalled how the new businesses ushered in an era of muggings, car thefts and other crimes. Do everything in your power not to allow this business to open in this gem, the Loop business district of University City, Kippenburger urged the council. If people want to see that type of activity, we have a wonderful institution here known as the St. Louis Art Museum.
HAZELWOOD  Sometimes even Bigfoot gets taken for granted.

Until recently, the beast that started the monster truck craze in the 1970s lived in plain view at one of the busiest intersections in the region, Interstate 270 and North Lindbergh Boulevard. Bigfoot 4x4 world headquarters became a landmark that drew thousands of spectators  especially when its biggest offspring was parked out front on a raised platform.

Bigfoot 5, the blue truck with 10-foot tires, could climb over anything, so it seemed to little boys like Bob Brown. Now 30, one of his regrets from a house fire was losing a family photo taken of him as a child, standing in the shadow of Bigfoots giant paw.

He got to go inside the garage that day. Somebody awakened another truck, and its screaming engine made him cry.

I think it was one of my first memories, said Brown, a construction worker from Alton. I cant believe its gone.

After three decades in the same habitat, Bigfoot has quietly moved to a low-profile locale in Pacific with more space to roam. Today, the raised platform and garage in Hazelwood sit empty, poised for another car dealership expansion thats coming soon.

Hazelwood spokesman Tim Davidson said city leaders were sad and disappointed to hear about the relocation.

The city of Hazelwood gained the reputation as being the birthplace of Bigfoot, and tourists came from all points of the world to see it on display and go through the museum, he said.

Everything has been moved and the sign lettering taken down, but Home of Bigfoot remains sun-stained into the blue metal roof.

You take things for granted because its been there so long, said Greg Smith, owner of nearby Dales Music, another dinosaur in suburban time. Everything changes, nothing stays the same.

That has been the spirit of Bigfoot ever since Bob Chandler specially ordered a 1974 Ford F-250 through a Ferguson dealership. Apart from companies that used heavy equipment, four-wheel drive vehicles were rare when he got his start.

Chandler pushed his new Ford off road and up river beds and eventually over cars and into the air. Crowds grew bigger, always wanting more from Chandler, who developed the reputation of having a big foot on the gas pedal.

As he got bolder, development of better machinery for an increasing fleet of monster trucks was paramount.

Its a vicious cycle, said Chandler, 74, sitting near a piece of broken axle in his new corner office in Pacific.

Landmark location

Early on, the family business mainly sold parts and serviced four-wheel drives. They left Ferguson in the late 1970s for more space near the airport in Hazelwood, then to the landmark location on North Lindbergh in 1984.

It got to the point that we were spending so much time working on the Bigfoot trucks that we didnt have any time to do the service work and installation work, Chandler said.

Besides, his first car crunch stunt in a St. Louis County cornfield signaled the future wasnt in parts and service.

He recalled that one of his first big shows in Pontiac, Mich., had 68,000 people packed into an arena, about half of whom stormed the field after Chandler drove over a line of cars and surrounded Bigfoot.

I couldnt move, Chandler said. I was up on top of the cars. I actually rolled the windows up and locked the doors because I had no idea what was going to happen.

Around then, he remembers seeing a promoters eyes turn into dollar signs.

I got booked all the time from that point on, he said. Thats why we built more trucks.

Today, the Bigfoot family is working on its 22nd monster truck, not including other off-road vehicles like one that runs on electricity and is popular among autistic kids because its quiet.

Most of the vehicles were built in Hazelwood. Busloads of children and thousands of engine enthusiasts of all stripes stopped by. Bigfoot 5 went down the road with police escort; welders from the shop sometimes fixed trucks for the fire department.

Test runs leading up to Bigfoots 1999 jump over a 727 airplane were done on formerly empty lots along James S. McDonnell Boulevard; the truck launched a distance of 202 feet that time. Its current record is 214 feet, 8 inches.

We had good working relations with the whole town, Chandler said. They are very nice people.

Chandler, who is semi-retired, seems to have a knack for public relations. Hes accommodated Jay Leno two times and once got a call about an adventuresome grandmother who wanted to ride in the original Bigfoot for her birthday.

I said we can do it, bring her over here, Chandler recalled.

The grandmother sat on a chair placed on a pallet, then was raised to Bigfoots door by forklift. She was driven around the lot in Hazelwood.

New digs

Bigfoots new home is in the 2200 block of Rose Lane, nestled into an otherwise nondescript sliver of Pacific. Theres more room for all the big tires and trucks. Theres a jump in a field that will be used for an open house on April 23.

Chandler said landmark status isnt important because of all the shows, races and exhibitions the trucks go to. He said Bigfoot has performed in 28 countries, appeared in seven movies and a countless number of television specials. It became a popular childrens toy.

Still, fans from Kentucky stopped in last week at the new digs on their way to a graduation ceremony at Fort Leonard Wood. The sign-in book listed tourists from a number of different states.

Bigfoot 5, the head-turning truck with 10-foot tires, hasnt showed up yet. Its parked at the International Monster Truck Museum and Hall of Fame in Auburn, Ind., while they settle into the new location.

Chandler said he doesnt want to park Bigfoot 5 on a raised platform anymore. Hell put it behind the security fence when it arrives in Pacific, allow the public to see it up close during regular hours. One time in Hazelwood, police discovered a young man who had climbed up a wheel and was sitting on the hood.

It has always scared me out in front of the shop, he said. They could kill themselves. Thats way up there.

Apart from the drone of highway traffic, Bigfoots old stomping grounds are quieter now. Not that the noise from the monster trucks bothered people much who lived in a trailer park hidden behind the lot, said Byron Ora, 36, a resident there who works the graveyard shift at a hotel.

Bigfoot was a landmark for North County, he said. It also was a wonderful way to give directions to his place.

We are right behind Bigfoot, he told people. That would get anybody here.

Now, he and many others, are near where Bigfoot used to be.
UNIVERSITY CITY  Caught somewhat unaware by the premature opening of a Delmar Loop bar with a female wait staff covered above the waist in body paint, University City on Monday will launch a two-pronged offensive to stop Social House II in its track.

Mayor Shelley Welsch on Sunday announced in her weekly newsletter to constituents that the city on Monday morning intends to ask a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge for a temporary injunction to close a bar and restaurant declaimed by elected officials, Loop business owners and residents alike.

Lawyers for the city will file the papers seeking the injunction Monday morning in Clayton, according to City Manager Lehman Walker.

Albert Watkins, the attorney representing Social House II owner John Racanelli, on Monday responded to the pending legal action by asserting that the business license for the Market House Pub - the previous occupant of 6655 Delmar Blvd. - remains valid until April 30.

Watkins said the city is operating under the "erroneous belief that it is dealing with a new tenant."

Instead, the attorney said, Social House II functions under the same corporate umbrella - Ramo Inc. - that operated the Market House Pub.

Ramo Inc. is owned by John Racanelli - additionally the owner of a chain of regional pizza franchises with a flagship shop in the Loop.

"It's not a new business," said Watkins. "It's a re-branded restaurant."

Watkins clarified that position in a Monday morning letter to University City officials, writing "it is abundantly clear the Citys left hand is not aware of that which the right hand is undertaking."

The attorney further cautioned that University City is "not immune from liability arising out of, pertaining to and touching upon the infringement of the legal rights of its business citizens."

Monday's legal developments are a prelude to a 5:30 p.m. special meeting at which the City Council is expected to pass a resolution seeking revocation of licenses issued to Market House Pub in 2010.

Law requires the council to give a business three days notice before a license is removed.

Welsch said the council will likely take that action later this week.

"Liquor licenses are not assignable, meaning not transferable from one business to the next," Councilwoman Paulette Carr wrote Sunday in a constituent newsletter. "So that when one business closes and another opens, even in the same space, the new business must apply for a new license."

Meanwhile, the landlord of the building occupied by Social House II notified Racanelli by letter on Saturday that he is in violation of the lease at 6655 Delmar Blvd.

Owner Dan Wald warned Racanelli that the building tenant is "obligated to comply with the laws and ordinances applicable to the use or occupancy of the Premises" - provisions that include a valid occupancy permit and liquor license.

Wald notified Racanelli he is "willing to release (the corporation controlled by Racanelli) from its obligation for the remaining term" of a lease scheduled to expire on April 30, 2017.

Absent a compromise with the city, Wald warned Racanelli, "The Landlord will be compelled to exercise any and all remedies available at law."

The original Social House has operated without opposition in Soulard since 2009.

But news of plans to open a second location in the Loop drew immediate fire from critics concerned that a topless bar was inconsistent with a business district that caters to families and young people.

Watkins debunks that the perception, noting that shops selling drug paraphernalia are among the businesses populating the Loop.
A national organization that represents university professors has announced a formal investigation into whether the firing of University of Missouri assistant professor Melissa Click violated standards of academic freedom.

Click was fired last month, after she was caught on video last fall calling for some muscle to help remove a student reporter from MU's Columbia campus during student protests over racial issues. Her actions draw national outrage and demands from more than 100 Missouri state lawmakers for her dismissal.

The American Association of University Professors issued a statement Monday raising the question of whether there was adequate cause to fire Click.

The statement said members of the organization will visit the campus in late March, meeting with administrators, Click and others to determine whether the firing "disregarded the institutions own stated policies, and whether conditions for academic freedom and tenure at the institution are sound.

According to the statement, the group will decide in June whether to issue a censure of the MU administration. A censure serves as a warning to prospective faculty members that their rights may not be respected at the university, said the statement.
Are Missouris already dangerous gun laws about to get more dangerous? Imagine a scenario where any adult who wanted to carry a concealed weapon could do so, no training and no permit required.

Now add to that a stand your ground law that says anyone who feels threatened, no matter where he is, can shoot to kill. No longer would he have a legal duty to try to avoid confrontation, much less try to determine if a threat was real. He could shoot first and ask questions later.

Thats where Missouri would be if the Legislature passes a pair of bills currently under consideration. This is simply irresponsible, fear-driven legislation unhinged from reality and carrying more than a whiff of racism.

House Bill 1468, sponsored by Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, would do away with current concealed carry permit regulations. A House committee approved it Monday night.

Right now, to carry a concealed pistol, gun owners need a permit from their local law enforcement agency. They must have passed an eight-hour firearms safety course. The state already eliminated background checks, but permit applicants have to swear, among other things, that theyre not felons, charged with a felony or firearms-related misdemeanor, and have not been adjudged mentally ill in the past five years. Permits cost $100.

This hardly seems too much to ask. But proponents of so-called constitutional carry laws say its an undue burden on their Second Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has said otherwise, but why let facts get in the way of Rambo dreams?

On Saturday, West Virginia became the eighth state to pass a similar law. The Legislature there overrode Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblins veto of the permitless carry bill. If Missouris HB 1468 somehow gets to his desk, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon should veto it, too. Theres no evidence to suggest that anyone who wants to carry a concealed weapon finds the current system onerous.

Nixon would have to veto Senate Bill 1037, too, if the Legislature becomes the first state since the 2012 shooting death in Florida of Trayvon Martin to pass a stand your ground law.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, removes the duty to retreat obligation from the states self-defense laws. If youre somewhere you have a right to be, and believe youre threatened by unlawful force, you wouldnt have to back away.

A study at Texas A&M University found that stand your ground laws do nothing to promote public safety and increase homicides by 8 percent. The study found that victims are disproportionately African-American.

This bill would do no good and a lot of harm. That its sponsor is running for attorney general, the states top law enforcement officer, only makes it worse.
If the execution is carried out, it too will leave a grieving family, in addition to having lost a little boy who might have survived if he could have gotten to the hospital in time.
LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE 100 ends higher; Mordaunt makes UK PM tilt

Friday, October 21, 2022 - 17:22

The pound regained some poise on Friday afternoon but remained in precarious territory, after falling below the $1.11 mark in afternoon trade.

The pound was quoted at $1.1203 at the close on Friday, down versus $1.1294 at the London equities close on Thursday. It hit an intraday low of $1.1063 not long after midday.

Sterling was hurt by continued political uncertainty. Speculation about who will join Penny Mordaunt in throwing their hats in the ring in the race for Number 10 continues. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, one-time neighbours at Number 10 and 11 Downing Street - but now bitter rivals - have pockets of support from Tory MPs.

Adding to the pressure on sterling, disappointing UK retail sales data showed a bigger-than-expected decline in September, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Retail sales fell 6.9% annually in September, with the decline accelerating from a 5.6% fall in August. It also was worse than FXStreet-cited market consensus, which had expected a fall of just 5%.

The pound had initially found some support on Thursday after Liz Truss called an end to her disastrous tenure as prime minister - poking above $1.13 - but has since been dragged lower.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 25.82 points, or 0.4%, at 6,969.73 - closing out the week up 1.6%.

The FTSE 250 lost 182.38 points, or 1.1%, at 17,206.55, but still managed to gain 1.0% this week, and the AIM All-Share ended down 1.04 points, or 0.1% at 785.40 - but advanced 0.8% over the past five days.

The Cboe UK 100 closed up 0.4% at 696.31, the Cboe UK 250 ended down 1.0% at 14,694.15, and the Cboe Small Companies lost 0.3% at 12,240.46.

In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt gave back 0.3%.

The Tories have begun to declare their allegiances in the party's second leadership contest of the year as speculation mounts over who will seek to replace Truss at the helm of the party.

Supporters of Johnson are backing the former prime minister to make an extraordinary political comeback, while ex-chancellor Sunak and Commons Leader Mordaunt also have the public support of several MPs.

Mordaunt become the first to declare her candidacy, with a pledge to re-unite the bitterly divided party.

The leader of the House  who finished third in the last leadership election  said she had been encouraged by the support she had received from fellow Conservative MPs.

There has also been no declaration yet from Sunak, who did not answer questions from reporters as he left his home on Friday morning.

Whoever does win will face an immediate test, choosing whether to go ahead with the planned Halloween statement setting out how the government intends to get the public finances back on track, Downing Street has said.

Work is continuing in Whitehall, led by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, in preparation for the medium-term fiscal plan to be announced on October 31 along with an updated set of economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

However, a Number 10 spokeswoman said it would be up to Liz Truss's successor to decide whether to proceed with that approach and with the same timetable.

In London, blue chip miners helped push FTSE 100 higher. Glencore gained 3.6%, Anglo American 3.1%, Antofagasta 2.7%, and Rio Tinto added 1.6%.

Retailers, however, were showing weakness after the disappointing UK retail sales data. A profit warning from Adidas did nothing to help the mood either.

JD Sports closed down 6.1%, Frasers 4.0%, Burberry 2.2%, and Next shed 2.9%.

On Thursday, Adidas lowered annual guidance as it struggles with "deteriorating traffic" in China and high inventory levels.

The sports apparel maker said it has needed to turn to "higher clearance activity" to try and shift stock.

It lost 9.0% in Frankfurt.

Deliveroo gained 3.6%.

The London-based online food delivery service said gross transaction values rose 8.3% annually in the third quarter to 1.70 billion from 1.57 billion, though orders fell by 1.1% to 72.8 million from 73.6 million.

Deliveroo said the decline in orders was due to a difficult consumer environment. With economic data on Friday showing that UK consumer confidence remains near record lows, this seems unlikely to change anytime soon.

InterContinental Hotels gave back 2.2% but reported strong revenue growth in the third quarter to September 30, saying that high global employment levels are boosting occupancy levels.

Revenue per available room, or RevPAR, rose 28% year-on-year and now exceeds its pre-pandemic level, being up 2.7% on the third quarter of 2019.

In the third quarter of 2022, the average daily rate increased by 13% compared to a year ago and was up 11% on 2019.

Chief Financial Officer & Head of Strategy Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson will leave the company in six months time to become CFO of Flutter Entertainment in the first half of 2023.

IHG has started the process of finding a new CFO.

The euro stood at $0.9802 Friday evening, down against $0.9822 at the close on Thursday.

Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP148.03, compared to JP149.77 late Thursday. The yen was staging a fightback after the open on Wall Street, after nearly hitting JP152 during the Asia session.

Stocks in New York opened higher on Friday, with the DJIA up 1.1%, the S&P 500 index up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.6% higher.

Brent oil was quoted at $92.84 a barrel late Friday, down from $93.29 late Thursday. Gold was quoted at $1,643.70 an ounce Friday, up against $1,641.90 from Thursday.

In the international economics events calendar next week, Monday will be dominated by a slew of composite PMIs, with Japan overnight followed by Germany, eurozone and the UK in the morning then the US in the afternoon. A quiet Tuesday will be headlined by a US house price index.

On Wednesday, there is Chinese GDP, retail sales and industrial production overnight, then on Thursday attention will be on the European Central Bank interest rate decision at 1315 BST. Friday will be headlined by a Bank of Japan rate decision.

In the local corporate calendar on Monday, there are half-year results from Dr Martens, while education publishing firm Pearson will issue a third quarter update.

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Federal security forces have experienced a sharp increase in violent attacks in western Jalisco state by gunmen belonging to the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG). The situation in Jalisco is now similar to that in Michoacan state before the large-scale army intervention. Municipal and state police forces in the area have also been targeted. Since February 24, five police officers have been murdered by cartel gunmen. The cartel gunmen killed three municipal policemen in the town of Tlaquepaque (near the state capital, Guadalajara). On March 1 gunmen tried to assassinate the mayor of Ahualulco (west of Guadalajara). He was traveling in armored vehicle and survived the attack. Back in 2010 the CJNG was a faction within the Sinaloa cartel. Federal authorities now say it is now a separate and powerful criminal cartel.

March 5, 2016: In a rural area of Puebla State police discovered ten barrels filled with acid and human remains. They also found nine sacks with human remains. Initial analysis said that the barrels and sacks contained the remains of at least three people. The victims may have been killed on March 1 when a criminal gang raided a cockfight in the nearby town of Cuautlancingo.

March 3, 2016: It has been awhile since anyone thought of Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) as merely a street gang. However, U.S. security officials have begun describing MS-13 as a highly-organized criminal operation that cooperates with Mexican drug cartels. For example, there is evidence that MS-13 helps Mexican cartels distribute drugs in the US. El Salvadorians living in Los Angeles, California area formed the original MS-13 street gang in the early 1980s. In the last decade a new leadership cadre emerged. The organization now has branches in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. These countries serve as transit points for smuggling South American cocaine through Mexico and into the U.S. The new leaders built on these existing operations, using money acquired from criminal activities to capitalize businesses in Central America and in the United States. The MS-13 businesses launder money for MS-13 (and perhaps other criminal organizations.) Security officials in the U.S. and Honduras believe some of these businesses have also created legitimate business operations, after running extortion schemes to drive out truly legal businesses. No wonder the Honduran government regards MS-13 as an internal threat. (Austin Bay)

March 2, 2016: In Mexico the government continues to deny requests to release autopsy reports of the 42 cartel gunmen killed by security forces in Michoacan state on May 22, 2015. Government critics that the 42 to 1 (42 cartel, 1 security officer) death rate suggests the battle was really an extra-judicial killing. The government continues to insist that there was no evidence to indicate federal police conducted summary executions.

Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquin Guzman said he wants to be extradited to the U.S. but with conditions. He is willing to plead guilty to criminal charge in a U.S. court is the United States promises him a short sentence in a medium security prison.

March 1, 2016: Two splinter factions of the Los Zetas cartel are fighting for control of the city of Ciudad Victoria (Tamaulipas state, on Texas border). The Vieja Escuela faction (Old School, also known as Grupo Bravo) is fighting with another faction named Cartel Del Noreste (CDN). Since the beginning of 2016 there have been several gun battles in the city and at least one confirmed execution murder.

February 28, 2016: Security forces in Mexico City rescued 87 women who had been forced into prostitution. Citizen complaints led to police raid on four illegal bars in the capital citys Iztapalapa neighborhood. Police arrested eight people suspected of running the prostitution ring. The suspects will likely face kidnapping charges.

February 25, 2016: Mexican media reported that for several years Joaquin Guzmans two sons have been running day to day Sinaloa cartel operations. The reports suggest that arresting Guzman will not significantly interrupt cartel operations. Guzman escaped from prison in July 2015 but was re-arrested in January 2016.

February 23, 2016: In January 71 people were murdered in the city of Tijuana (Baja California state) because of cartel-related violence. Authorities said this is the highest number of murders since 2010. Yet 2015 was a deadly year in Tijuana, with 670 murders. The Jalisco New Generation cartel is trying to take control of some of the narcotics smuggling routes that pass through Tijuana.

February 22, 2016: A former American Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrator has claimed that security forces in Mexico and the U.S. made use of actor Sean Penns visit to Mexico to interview drug lord Joaquin Guzman. Penn visited Mexico in October 2015 and interviewed Guzman. During Penns trip, law enforcement intelligence followed social media communications and direct communications made by some of Guzmans subordinates.

February 21, 2016: The navy has now ordered a total of ten Tenochtitlan-class patrol ships. The ships can easily handle missions up to 250 kilometers off-shore. The ships displace 250 tons, are 43 meters (140 feet) long and have a crew of 18. Their max speed is 52 kilometers an hour. Tenochtitlans have a range of 3,600 kilometers when cruising at a speed of 18 to 20 kilometers an hour. They can remain at sea for about two weeks. The ships can conduct a variety of US Coast Guard-like missions, to include sea patrol and surveillance, maritime security, maritime interdiction and search and rescue. Each ship is are armed with two 12.7mm machine guns and carries a 7.5 meter (24 foot) rigid inflatable boat (RIB).

February 19, 2016: Drug cartels are increasingly deploying their own UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Security forces on both sides of the border have spotted cartel drones watching the border and, well, looking for U.S. and Mexican security forces. The UAVs are also being used to smuggle narcotics. In April 2015 U.S. police found a crashed UAV carrying 12.7 kg (28 pounds) of heroin. The UAV crashed near Calexico, California.
In early 2016 Australia announced that it was giving up on its 22 Tiger helicopter gunships which, since 2004 (when the first one arrived in Australia), never become fully ready for combat. Thats one reason why none of the Australian Tigers were sent to Afghanistan even though other nations with Tigers (Germany, France and Spain) did. These three nations also had problems with their Tigers but in Australia it was worse in part because it took so long to ship spare parts and upgrades halfway around the world.

The decision to get rid of the Tigers was reached, in part, because it was realized that Australia has had a much better experience with American aircraft and is looking in that direction for a new recon helicopter (like an AH-6 variant) and more heavy transport choppers (like the CH-47). The Tigers will be sold off to nations who are more impressed with the satisfied Tiger users. Australia expects this process to take five years or more.

There are indeed satisfied Tiger users. For example in December 2015 France ordered another seven of them. This came a year after budget cuts forced the military to reduce its planned Tiger force from 80 helicopters to 60. Now there will be 67, mainly because Tiger is more frequently and heavily used (and much appreciated) in Africa (Mali) and the Middle East. The seven additional Tigers are the ground support (HAD) version and will be delivered in 2017 and 2018. These will replace combat losses and lessen the wear and tear on the existing sixty French Tigers.

It was in 2013 that France received the first of its 40 HAD Tiger helicopter gunships. The German Army received its first HAD Tigers in 2008. HAD first entered service in 2005 and benefitted from 14 percent more engine power and better protection from ground fire than the original model. While earlier versions were mainly for anti-vehicle work, HAD is more like the current U.S. AH-64 Apache and optimized for ground support and irregular warfare. Development of Tiger began in 1987, before the Cold War ended. So the anti-tank aspect took a while to disappear and get replaced by a gunship optimized for hunting and killing a large variety of targets.

Tiger is made by European firm Eurocopter and showed up just in time. Until the arrival of the French and German Tigers, American AH-64s provided gunship support for all foreign troops in Afghanistan. France has used Tigers in Somalia and Mali as well as Afghanistan where they have performed well. Tiger has spent nearly 2,000 flight hours in combat zones so far and a hundred have been delivered to Germany, France (which has ordered 80), Spain (24), and Australia (22). A total of 206 Tiger helicopters have been ordered. So far Tigers have spent over 45,000 hours in the air, most of it for training.

The Tiger costs about as much as the AH-64, a ten ton gunship that has been in service since the 1980s. The six ton Tiger has a crew of two and a max speed of 280 kilometers an hour. It cruises at 230 kilometers an hour and usually stays in the air about three hours per sortie. It is armed with a 30mm automatic cannon, 70mm rocket pods (19 rockets per pod), and various types of air-to-ground missiles (eight Hellfire types at once). It can also carry four Mistral anti-aircraft missiles.

Germany also cut its order from 80 Tigers to 57. Germany had a lot of problems with Tiger and decided it had better uses for the money, like bailing out the many European nations having financial problems after 2008. In 2012 Germany got four of its new Tiger helicopter gunships ready for service in Afghanistan and these arrived in 2013. These ASGARD (Afghanistan Stabilization German Army Rapid Deployment) models included sand filters, additional defense systems, a mission data recorder, and communications gear able to deal with systems used by allies. In the years before the German Tigers arrived in Afghanistan there were four crashes during training. No one was injured but in some cases the causes were traced to equipment problems not operator error. German troops in Afghanistan wanted Tiger badly but delivery was delayed several times due to various problems. In addition to the ASGARD upgrades, there were problems with the wiring and a number of less serious shortcomings as well. When Tiger finally made it to Afghanistan it performed very well and got high marks from the German troops there. French troops had the same reaction to Tiger. So it appears after the usual initial problems Tiger has become mature and much more reliable, but not for everyone.
Turkey recently ordered $700 million worth of smart bombs from American suppliers. This order is for over a thousand bombs and will take until 2020 for all of them to arrive. Turkey has been using smart bombs on its F-16s since the 1990s but this is the first time they ordered the laser guided, 909 kg (2,000 pound) BLU-109. This bunker buster can penetrate five meters (16 feet) of concrete and even more earth. It is believed Turkey wants these to go after PKK (Kurdish separatist) and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) facilities in caves and other underground bunkers.

In 2015 Turkish F-16s used about a thousand smart bombs against PKK (mainly) and ISIL targets. In addition the late 2015 Russian intervention in Syria led to tense situations between Russian and Turkish warplanes. One Russian was shot down and Russia has threatened war with Turkey. Turkey needs to replenish its supply of smart bombs and will probably be ordering more if the Russian threat continues.
Government forces are fighting on the outskirts of Sanaa but most of the action is now in the negotiations with the Shia tribes that have always lived in the tribal belt around the national capital. These Shia tribes are not as political or unpredictable as the Shia tribes in the far north that started and still lead the rebellion. The Sanaa Shia did not fight the Shia rebels but they have not been staunch supporters either. The government is offering the Sanaa Shia tribes and the rebels are trying to counter that. The government offer is more likely to be accepted as it is clear that the rebels have lost. At this point its just a matter of what kind of surrender terms can the rebels get.

In the north (Jawf province) pro-government Sunni and rebel Shia tribes continue fighting for control of territory and the pro-government Sunni forces continue winning. Since the Sunni tribes gained air support from the Arab coalition and access to training and supplies (weapons, ammo, medical) in early 2015 they have been able to drive Shia tribesmen out of most of Jawf. To the west of Jawf is Saada province, the Shia tribal homeland. North of Jawf is Saudi Arabia. Going into Saada will be a much more difficult fight but the Sunni tribes want revenge for several years of heavy fighting with the Shia. So far this year the Shia resistance has been more determined but the pro-government forces are still taking back control of towns and areas containing key roads.

The UN sponsored peace talks, begun in December and scheduled to resume in January are stalled. This comes after a December 15-January 2 ceasefire deal was regularly violated by both sides. Discussions to resume the peace talks are not making any progress but several senior rebel leaders and supporters are seeking to make deals for themselves and their families. This is the way wars end in Yemen. The UN is paying more attention to dealing the growing aid crisis. Food and medical supplies are still at risk of attack by rebels, Islamic terrorists, bandits or Arab coalition warplanes. The peace talks meant to deal with that but the rebels demanded too many concessions, mainly a ceasefire.

There are other aspects of this conflict that the UN would rather stay away from. For example the war in Yemen can be described as a four sided religious civil war. On one side you have the Yemeni Shia rebels who are fighting Both AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) who are each fighting to establish their own version of a religious dictatorship in Yemen. Opposed to these three groups are the various separatist Sunni Yemeni tribes. At the moment most of the Sunni tribes are allied alongside the government (some Shia but mainly Sunni Yemenis) aided by a Sunni Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia. This coalition is composed of largely conservative Sunni Moslems who consider Shia, AQAP and ISIL heretics. The Shia rebels are aided by Iran and Shia from the Iran-backed Lebanese Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah.

Another foreign faction is the United States which contributes warships for the government blockade and aircraft to track and attack Islamic terrorist leaders from the air. The U.S. shares intel on the Islamic terrorists with the Arab coalition. One reason for this is that at the moment AQAP controls more territory than the Shia rebels. Since late 2014 AQAP has controlled the southeastern the port of Mukalla and much of the surrounding Hadramawt province. In contrast ISIL is scattered in remote locations or urban bases in Aden. This reflects the different strategies of the two groups AQAP believes in slowly expanding while ISIL favors aggressive attacks and boldness. Neither approach has had much success in over a thousand years of use but both remain popular with Islamic radicals.

AQAP territory is largely thinly populated desert which the Islamic terrorists have used for bases since 2009, when AQAP was created. That was an aftereffect of al Qaeda being driven out of Saudi Arabia. That defeat was after a bloody terror campaign against the government triggered by the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2009 al Qaeda ordered its remaining members in Saudi Arabia (several thousand full and part timers) to move to Yemen. The newcomers merged with the al Qaeda organization already there to create AQAP. The new organization also benefitted from hundreds of Iraqi al Qaeda members who arrived after the defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007-8. Many of the al Qaeda men who stayed behind in Iraq went on to later create ISIL.

By 2011 growing unrest in Yemen (against a long-time dictatorship) enabled AQAP to recruit more freely and take over several towns in the south. In response the government launched a major counteroffensive that hurt AQAP very badly. That offensive continued until 2013 when the Shia rebellion became a larger threat to the government. During this period there was growing use of American UAVs in Yemen in part because after 2013 there were few other places for defeated al Qaeda men to flee to. The sanctuary in Mali was destroyed in early 2013 by a French led offensive. The sanctuary in Pakistan (North Waziristan) was hostile to al Qaeda and mainly for local Islamic terrorists. Surviving al Qaeda men were increasingly operating in isolation and under heavy attack. Sometimes, as is happening now in Syria, they attack each other. ISIL is most active in Aden where it regularly carries out suicide bombings and assassinations.

March 7, 2016: An Australian warship on anti-piracy patrol stopped and searched a fishing boat 300 kilometers off the coast of Oman and found over 2,000 weapons, most of them AK-47s. It was unclear if the weapons (which seemed to be from Iran) were headed for Somalia or to Shia rebels in Yemen.

March 4, 2016: In the south (the port of Aden) a group of ISIL gunmen attacked an old age home run by an Indian charity. The Islamic terrorists killed 16 people (including four elderly Indian nuns) and kidnapped an Indian priest. AQAP promptly denied any involvement but ISIL said nothing and there were soon rumors that ISIL had the Indian priest.

March 3, 2016: The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab oil states in the Persian Gulf) declared the Lebanese Shia militia to be a terrorist group. The rest of the world has long identified Hezbollah as an Islamic terrorist organization but the GCC did not because it was (and still is) popular in Arabia to try and support any group that is fighting Israel. Hezbollah and Palestinian groups like Hamas are the only ones doing that actively. In 2013 the GCC criticized Hezbollah for supporting the Assad dictatorship in Syria and Iran accused the Arab of taking orders from the United States and Israel.

February 29, 2016: In the south (the port of Aden) an Islamic terrorist suicide car bomber attacked a checkpoint, killing six soldiers and wounding five.

February 28, 2016: The United States revealed that it had halted an Iranian arms shipment to Shia rebels in Yemen.

February 23, 2016: On the Saudi border Shia rebels fired from Yemen at a Saudi patrol, killing one of the Saudi soldiers.

February 22, 2016: In the south (the port of Aden) Islamic terrorist gunmen killed the commander of an army brigade outside the compound of an influential tribal leader the officer had just visited.

February 19, 2016: Saudi Arabia is suspending military aid to Lebanon largely because the Lebanese government has been unable to curb Iranian use of Hezbollah fighters in Syria and Yemen and refused to condemn the attacks on the Saudi embassy in Iran. The $3 billion in weapons and equipment is being supplied for by France, paid for by Saudi Arabia and was arranged back in 2013. Deliveries began in early 2015 and were to have been completed by 2018. Training and maintenance services were to continue into the 2020s.
By Victoria Bryan

BERLIN (Reuters) - Hotel group Marriott International is concerned about tourist bookings in Paris this summer after November's attacks on the French capital, an executive at the firm said on Tuesday.

Marriott, whose brands include the Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Autograph and Courtyard and which has 15 hotels in Paris, is working with the city's tourist office and adapting some of its pricing in a bid to get travelers back there.

"Paris is the one that concerns us, but for the rest of(Europe) we don't think there's any reason why we shouldn't get strong leisure travel," Amy McPherson, Marriott Europe head, told Reuters at the IHIF hotels conference in Berlin.

McPherson said business travel bookings were doing better than expected right now, with January and February being ahead of budget and she expected the good momentum to continue.

Europe's hotel industry grew faster than the United States in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the first time since 2010, with growth of 6.9 percent to $83.94 against a rise of 6.3 percent to $78.65 for the U.S., a report from analysts STR said.

Europe benefited from the weak euro and also attacks in North Africa pushing demand to Europe, the report found.

McPherson said places such as Barcelona, London and Portugal were enjoying increased demand.

While Marriott had expected RevPAR to fall in Russia last year due to the crisis there, it had actually increased because Russians chose to travel within their own country instead of abroad, more than making up for a decline in overseas guests.

Earlier Marriott said it will double in size in Europe due to its takeover of Starwood, announced late last year.

Marriott has 61,000 rooms open in Europe, to which Starwood will add 40,500. The two companies' pipeline of 21,500 planned hotel rooms means it will have more than 123,000 open or signed rooms once the deal completes in mid-2016.

The combined group will have 30 brands, but McPherson said there were no plans to get rid of any of them because they appealed to different customers.

(This story has been refiled to add dropped word "Europe" to quote in paragraph 3)

(Editing by Alexander Smith)
Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) today announced the acquisition of Taylor-Dunn, a leading provider of industrial vehicles, serving a broad range of commercial, manufacturing, warehouse and ground-support customers. Taylor-Dunn, a privately owned company based in Anaheim, Calif., will join GEM, Goupil, Mega, and Aixam, as well as Polaris Commercial Off-road Vehicle (ORV) Sales, in Polaris Work & Transportation division, part of Polaris Global Adjacent Markets business. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Taylor-Dunn will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Polaris. It will continue to be a distinct brand and operate from its current headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Anaheim.While Polaris is best known for our leadership in powersports, adjacent markets are an important aspect of our growth strategy, and industrial vehicles are a natural extension for us, said Dan Chumbler, General Manager, Work and Transportation, Polaris. Taylor-Dunn has a deep understanding of industrial customers, and theyve earned a stellar reputation over the last 60+ years of providing application-specific solutions that are reliable, efficient, and economical. With Taylor-Dunn joining our portfolio, we look forward to offering an expanded product portfolio and enhanced commercial sales and service to a larger customer base.

I am proud to have had the opportunity to lead Taylor-Dunn for twenty-five years, said Jim Goodwin, Chairman, Taylor-Dunn. I believe that Polaris is the right company at the right time to drive continued success at Taylor-Dunn. Polaris brings strong capabilities in innovation and continuous improvement, as well as access to larger-volume resources. I am confident this combination will bring new opportunities not only for Taylor-Dunn, but also for the companys dealer network and its community of end users.
Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive and chief investment officer of DoubleLine Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Jennifer Ablan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer at DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday the recent rally in risk assets is nearing an end as those assets will struggle in sympathy with oil.

"Oil, like I said, had an easy time rallying from 28 to 38. Now the hard work begins," Gundlach said. "Oil is the key to everything."

Gundlach told Reuters last week that the firm is now considering closing out some of its long positions in the stocks they had purchased in February.

Gundlach said unless oil rallies another $10 a barrel or more, "a lot of companies are going to go under, which will kill the banking system."

He added that "the rally off the 200 low (in copper) has not been that impressive, and looks to possibly be over."

On Tuesday, benchmark Brent crude hit a 2016 high of $41.48 a barrel, then eased to settle at $39.65, down 2.9 percent on the day. Brent was still up 46 percent from a 12-year low of $27.10 struck on Jan. 20. [O/R]

Gundlach said gold prices are going to continue to rise and hit $1400 an ounce. He said gold is a good holding for those who have lost faith in central bank policies. "Gold is the anti-banking system. Negative rates are bad for the banking system," Gundlach said.

Gundlach said in a webcast later Tuesday that the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which he characterized as being in a bear-market rally that is close to being over, has 2 percent upside but 20 percent downside.

Gundlach also said emerging market equities are also in a bear-market rally and that it would be a "big losing proposition" to be invested in the overall equity markets. Gundlach added that the firm has been purchasing non-U.S. currency bonds which have performed well. There's "no progress" on the U.S. dollar short-term, Gundlach said, noting he is long-term bullish on the greenback.

Last year, Gundlach correctly predicted that oil prices would plunge, junk bonds would live up to their name and China's slowing economy would pressure emerging markets. In 2014, Gundlach correctly also forecast U.S. Treasury yields would fall, not rise as many others had expected.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; editing by Chris Reese, David Gregorio and Bernard Orr)
Klondex Mines Ltd. (NYSE: KLDX) is pleased to announce the promotion of Mr. Mike Doolin to Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective immediately. Mr. Doolin replaces Mr. Brent Kristof and will lead the operations of the Company's key properties. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Doolin held the position of Vice President, Technical Services for the Company.

Paul Andre Huet, President and CEO commented, "We want to congratulate Mike on his recent promotion and look forward to his leadership at our operations as we continue to create value for our shareholders. Additionally, we want to thank Brent for his contributions to Klondex and wish him well in his future endeavors."

Mr. Doolin is a 25-year veteran of the mining industry with substantial experience in the design and permitting of mining projects; extensive work in milling, metallurgy and assay operations. He also brings years of experience successfully managing small and large teams on multiple projects. Prior to joining Klondex in 2012, he served with Great Basin Gold as the Esmeralda Mill Manager where he was responsible for all on-site operations. Mr. Doolin's experience also includes tenures with McClelland Laboratories, Eagle Picher Minerals, GD Resources, Marigold Mining, Corona Gold, and Round Mountain Gold, all in Nevada gold country. He earned his Bachelors of Science degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and Chemistry from Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology.
People and vehicles are seen caught in a traffic jam in front of the Central Bank of Egypt's headquarters in downtown Cairo, Egypt, December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

By Asma Alsharif

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank removed caps on Tuesday on how much individuals can withdraw or deposit in foreign currencies at banks, a move aimed at boosting liquidity in a market that has been starved of dollars.

Egypt, which relies heavily on imports, has been wrestling with a currency crisis and struggling to revive its economy since a 2011 uprising drove away foreign investors and tourists, both major sources of hard currency.

Reserves have tumbled from $36 billion in 2011 to $16.5 billion at the end of February and the central bank has been rationing dollars through weekly auctions.

The move eased restrictions that were imposed a year ago for individuals but the central bank said it would keep them in place for companies while the currency crisis persists.

"In reference to the instructions issued on the limits for cash deposits and withdrawals in foreign currencies ... It has been decided to cancel those limits for individuals, but maintain the limits in force for corporates," the central bank said in a statement.

In an effort to fight a black market for dollars, the central bank had capped the amount that could be deposited in banks at $50,000 a month. It also set a $10,000 a day limit on withdrawals for individuals and a $30,000 a day limit for corporate withdrawals.

INCREASING LIQUIDITY

The central bank is keeping the pound artificially strong at 7.7301 pounds per dollar. The black market rate hovered around 9.7 pounds this week.

The central bank had taken several measures to relieve the dollar shortage in the banking system that had affected both importers and exporters who have been unable to pay for goods and raw materials.

In January it raised the deposit limit for importers of some essential goods to $250,000 a month to relieve a dollar shortage that had resulted in goods piling up at ports.

With that move, importers were able to deposit dollars obtained from the black market in order to pay for their goods.

Last month, the central bank also raised the cap to $1 million a month for exporting companies, which also increased demand for currency on the black market.

In another attempt to increase dollar resources at Egyptian banks, the central bank launched dollar-denominated certificates last month to attract dollars from Egyptians living abroad.

"This is another move to try to attract dollars into the banking system from the parallel market," said Ziad Waleed, economist at Beltone Financial.

"(This) might increase demand on the black market but will also increase liquidity in the banking sector," he said.

Another banker, who declined to be named, said: "If they withdraw (dollars) from the banks and sell in the black market, the price in the black market will drop, and if they did it the other way round then liquidity in banks will increase, so it's a good decision either way."

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Catherine Evans/Ruth Pitchford)
A man gets a haircut and a shave in front of a campaign poster of incarcerated opposition candidate Hama Amadou in Niamey, Niger, February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Joe Penney

By Abdoulaye Massalaki

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's opposition coalition said on Tuesday its candidate, Hama Amadou, would not contest a run-off election on March 20, increasing the chances that President Mahamadou Issoufou will win a second term.

Amadou has been in prison since November on charges relating to baby-trafficking. He says he is innocent and a victim of political repression. The government denies wrongdoing and says it follows the law.

"The Coalition for an Alternative has decided to suspend its participation in the electoral process and asks its representatives to withdraw from the electoral commission," it said in a statement.

The coalition denounced Amadou's detention and justified its decision to withdraw by saying the constitutional court had not followed procedure when it announced definitive first-round results on Tuesday and had also not proven its independence.

The coalition, which unites about 20 political parties including Amadou's MODEN, also asked its deputies to cease activities at the National Assembly.

Issoufou fell just short of outright victory in the first round on Feb. 21 and was expected to win the run-off as several smaller parties have said they will support him.

He campaigned on a promise to clamp down on Islamist militants and revive the economy in Niger, one of the world's poorest countries.

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in Nigeria, has staged a series of cross-border attacks in Niger's southeastern Diffa region, forcing the government to impose a state of emergency there.

Niger produces uranium and oil but is ranked last in the United Nations' Human Development Index and has one of the world's highest fertility rates.

It ranks 114th out of 142 countries in the 2015 prosperity index run by the British-based Legatum Institute.

(Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Richard Sulik, a leader of SaS party, speaks during a news conference after the results of the country's parliamentary election in Bratislava, Slovakia, March 5, 2016. REUTERS/David W Cerny

By Tatiana Jancarikova

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia's largest opposition party said on Tuesday it is ready to start talks with five other parties on forming a center-right government if current Prime Minister Robert Fico cannot put together his own coalition.

Richard Sulik, head of the anti-immigration Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, told reporters he believed he could find 87 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

"We are ready to seek what we have in common and we're ready for compromise," said Sulik, an economist who authored a liberal tax reform in 2004 that was widely credited with attracting foreign investors to Slovakia and spurring growth.

Sulik wants to reinstate the flat tax, after Fico's governments partially dismantled the system, and to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. He also proposes to legalize euthanasia and the use of marijuana.

Fico has the first chance to form a new cabinet after his leftist Smer party won Saturday's national election but lost its majority in parliament. He will receive the mandate from President Andrej Kiska on Wednesday.

With six out of seven other parliamentary groups taking an initial position they would not join a Smer-led cabinet, Sulik may be able to form only a very wide and possibly unstable center-right coalition.

Sulik's party, a member of the same right-wing European Parliament faction as Germany's right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), brought down the previous center-right cabinet in 2011 by refusing to approve a bailout for Greece.

Like most Slovak political parties, SaS has said it will refuse to accept migrants under a system of quotas approved by the European Union last year.

Forming a center-right cabinet would not be easy either.

Sulik would have to reconcile Most-Hid (Bridge), which seeks a more prominent role for Slovakia's Hungarian minority, and the Slovak National Party (SNS), which has campaigned against giving them more rights. Its founder threatened at a 1999 rally to wipe out Budapest with tanks.

The SNS has significantly toned down its image under its current leader Andrej Danko and Most-Hid said on Monday it could take part in talks involving the party.

However, Danko said on Monday he would not participate in informal talks with Sulik or other center-right leaders for the time being and would talk to Fico first if he accepts a formal mandate that the president is expected to offer on Wednesday.

Danko also told reporters he could talk to any other leader who is offered the mandate, a sign that they might eventually be able to break the political deadlock.

(Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Catherine Evans/Ruth Pitchford)
Riot police cut off the gate to enter the headquarters of Zaman newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey early March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Turgut Engin/Zaman Daily

By Oliver Ellrodt

BERLIN (Reuters) - Turkey's top-selling newspaper Zaman plans to continue publishing as an opposition daily in Germany after it was taken over by the state in its home country, the editor-in-chief of Zaman Almanya (Zaman Germany) said on Monday.

Turkish authorities seized control of Zaman on Friday in a widening crackdown against supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, an influential foe of President Tayyip Erdogan. Zaman has been affiliated with Gulen.

"As of today we are printing a version of Zaman that has nothing to do with Zaman there (in Turkey) because it has been forcibly taken over by the state," Sueleyman Bag told Reuters TV in an interview.

Monday's edition of Zaman Almanya bore a black front page with the headline: 'The constitution is abolished'. That stood in stark contrast to the paper published in Turkey, which on Sunday dropped its criticism of the government and published flattering stories about Erdogan.

"We will print an independent newspaper. We still have not addressed the question of how we do that. This is a new challenge for us," Bag added.

Zaman Almanya currently has 14,300 subscribers to its print edition in Germany, home to three million people of Turkish origin.

The top story on its online edition featured a picture of a veiled woman pressing her hand against her bleeding face outside the newspaper's offices, which were raided on Friday by police who used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters.

Rights groups and European officials have criticized the seizure, saying it infringes on press freedom in Turkey, an EU candidate country. Ankara rejects such charges, saying a legal process is underway to investigate illicit financing of what it describes as a "Gulenist terror group".

German politicians have joined the criticism of Turkey's move.

"He who wants to join the European Union must support freedom of expression, freedom of the press and must tolerate criticism," said German Green Party chief Cem Oezdemir, who was born in Germany to Turkish migrants.

But the EU also needs Turkish cooperation to help tackle a migrant crisis which has seen more than one million people, many fleeing wars in the Middle East, pass through Turkey to Europe to seek asylum.

EU and Turkish leaders held an emergency summit on the issue on Monday.

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Gareth Jones)
The High Court at Wellington was told the sentencing judge had not fully taken into account the "extremely objectionable" nature of the photos.

Police are appealing against a judge's decision not to convict a man who admitted storing sexual photos of children.

The 40-year-old IT professional, whose name is suppressed, was discharged without conviction in Wellington District Court in November, after admitting to 47 counts of possessing objectionable material.

The pictures, downloaded from a Russian porn website, included photos of children being sexually violated by adults and being forced to perform sex acts on animals.

At the time, prosecutor Lucette Kuhn opposed discharging the conviction, saying turning blind eye to the gravity of the crime would be "alarming".

READ MORE: Wellington child pornography offender discharged without conviction

Now police, fronted by prosecutor Ian Auld, have taken the case to the High Court, arguing district court judge Peter Butler carried out the balancing test during sentencing "incorrectly".

At the court on Tuesday, the man arrived with his wife and parents, who have supported him throughout.

They listened at the back of the court as Auld argued the judge had not fully taken into account the "extremely objectionable" nature of the photos.

Auld also said it seemed the man was minimising his behaviour when he said saving the photos wasn't sexually motivated, but just a symptom of his obsessive compulsive desire to store things.

"That's at odds with the [Google] search terms police found ... 'incest photos' and 'naked sister photos'."

Justice Rebecca Ellis said there was another search term that suggested the man was looking for sexual photos of children. "Third one down, I don't even want to read that out."

But defence lawyer Mike Antunovic argued the district court judge had made the right decision. He said the case was "truly exceptional".

Rather than getting sexual gratification from the photos, his client simply stored them away "like a stamp collection", never to be looked at again.

Plus, there was a huge range of mitigating factors, including co-operation with police, a guilty plea, remorse, and strong support from his family.

Antunovic said the man was attending his first session at WellStop  an organisation that aims to prevent sexual abuse  and it assessed he needed only six months of treatment when the typical length was 12 months.

He was the main breadwinner for his wife and two children, and the family was down to a quarter of their former income since the man left his job last year.

No-one would employ a man with 47 convictions of possessing objectionable material, Antunovic argued.

It was understood that the man, formerly an IT professional "high up" at a multinational company, was currently looking for work.

A conviction would also stop him from being involved in his children's activities, such as school camps, and other volunteer work.

The judge reserved her decision until later this week.
Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett says his city and Wellington share the fundamentals to make a merger successful.

Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett is playing down the cost to Wellington of merging with his council, saying the deal would be open to negotiation.

Last week Kevin Lavery, chief executive of the Wellington City Council, made a presentation to councillors on the benefits of merging with Porirua, even raising the prospect of forming a unitary authority.

Lavery described the impact on Wellington's rates as "minimal" although an indicative proposal said rates in Wellington could rise by 3.2 per cent.

ROSS GIBLIN/FAIRFAX NZ Wellington City Council chief executive Kevin Lavery says a merger with Porirua would allow an enlarged capital to become a unitary authority.

Almost all of the increase would fall on businesses in the capital.

Lavery has refused to be interviewed on the plan, which some councillors claim he is the driving force behind it.

On Monday, Wellington City councillor Paul Eagle said the merger talks were "definitely Kevin's proposal", with no input from councillors apart from a single presentation.

ROSS GIBLIN/FAIRFAX NZ Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford says it will be difficult to organise a merger where one party sees a saving but the other faces an increase.

But Leggett said Lavery's proposal was "only one proposal" and the formula for apportioning costs could be manipulated.

"We need to tease out where are the costs, where will they fall and how can we ease or adjust for the way that's appropriate for everyone involved," he said.

"Rates are essentially a formula for divvying up costs, and that formula can be adjusted where appropriate."

Porirua's ratepayers would be asked to comment on the plan in the upcoming draft annual plan, with Leggett claiming an amalgamation would be driven by the community.

Despite signs the costs could fall on its members, Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford said the merger should not be dismissed "out of hand", but be considered.

Lavery's presentation had business rates in Wellington up 6.2 per cent, while Wellington's residential rates would rise by only 0.4 per cent.

Meanwhile Porirua's rates would drop 16.1 per cent, with commercial rates in the smaller city down 26.3 per cent, while residential rates would fall 12.9 per cent.

"The chamber's had the position, from the time the amalgamation was being talked about, that we believed that scale and shared services across a wider area was the way to go.

"If this is a first step to achieving that, providing it brings benefits to both areas, then why wouldn't we seriously consider it?" Milford said.

However Milford said it was difficult to see how it would be possible to find support for a merger if one side was facing a cost increase while the other would see a saving.

"To me, when you consider a merger, you would only do it because it would save costs, not increase the costs to one side and reduce on the other."

What is a unitary authority?

Most parts of New Zealand have a two-tier council structure, with a local or city council as well as a regional council.

Local and city councils tend to provide core services such as rubbish delivery, parks, parking and wastewater, while regional councils generally deal with issues such as managing freshwater, flood defence, civil defence, regional transport, harbour navigation and marine pollution.

A unitary authority is a council which covers both local and regional responsibilities.
David Coventry is a finalist for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards with his debut novel, The Invisible Mile.

A Wellington author's first book has earned him a place in the finals of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, as the revamped book awards return after a year's hiatus.

David Coventry's The Invisible Mile is one of four novels short-listed for the fiction category, which comes with a $50,000 prize.

It tells the story of a New Zealander who rode with the first English speaking Tour de France team in 1928.

KEVIN STENT/FAIRFAX NZ Judges say the book had "all the great things of good art".

Coventry said he was thrilled to be nominated, and hadn't been expecting it at all.

READ MORE:

* New Zealand Book Awards scrapped for next year

* New Zealand Book Awards future is secure

In a way, being a finalist was bittersweet. "There's a lot of other books that missed out, I'm really surprised ... and kind of disappointed for them," he said.

Convenor of judges for the fiction category Jill Rawnsley said she was absolutely entranced with the tale right from the beginning.

The fact it was a debut made it even more extraordinary, and left judges wondering where Coventry had leapt from.

Rawnsley said it stood out amongst the 63 other books she read, each in a day.

"There's mystery, there's intrigue, there's confusion, there's something that moves you about it all, all the great things of good art.

"Something pulls at you and makes you want to devour it really, all the books that ended up on the short list did that for me."

It wasn't unheard of for a debut novel to be nominated in the fiction section, and Rawnsley said there was quite often something that came out that was fresh, and refreshing.

Renowned Wellington author Patricia Grace was also a finalist, with her novel Chappy.

The book awards, formerly the New Zealand Post Book Awards, weren't held last year.

Book Awards Trust chairwoman Nicola Legat explained that after New Zealand Post withdrew it's sponsorship in 2014, a decision was made to run the awards in partnership with Auckland Writers Festival.

It made sense to hold off for a year, otherwise only six months worth of books would have been considered.

The awards would be held on the opening night of the festival in May.

"We're really excited to have it back, and better than ever," Legat said.

"The Writers Festival is a wonderful place for it to be, the winners will be part of the festival programme so people will have a lot of exposure to not only finalists and winners, but their books."

This was important as books written by New Zealanders often suffered from an undeserved lack of recognition.

"They tend to get overlooked for international writers; but they're our books, our stories, about our country."

Rawnsley agreed Kiwi writers weren't being read as they deserved.

"We're not always great supporters of our artists, it's something we could be better at.

"There are books in this group that are I would say are eminently on the same level as a lot of books people buy from overseas."

Coventry was certainly up against some tough competition, he and Patricia Grace are accompanied by Stephen Daisley (Coming Rain), and Patrick Evans (The Back of His Head).

THE FINALISTS:

Fiction

The Back of His Head by Patrick Evans (Victoria University Press)

Chappy by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House)

Coming Rain by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)

The Invisible Mile by David Coventry (Victoria University Press)

Poetry

How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes by Chris Tse (Auckland University Press)

The Night We Ate the Baby by Tim Upperton (Haunui Press)

Song of the Ghost in the Machine by Roger Horrocks (Victoria University Press)

The Conch Trumpet by David Eggleton (Otago University Press)

General Non-Fiction

Maurice Gee: Life and Work by Rachel Barrowman (Victoria University Press)

The Villa at the Edge of the Empire: One Hundred Ways to Read a City by Fiona Farrell (Penguin Random House)

Maori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House)

Lost and Gone Away by Lynn Jenner (Auckland University Press)

Illustrated Non-Fiction

Te Ara Puoro: A Journey into the World of Maori Music by Richard Nunns (Potton and Burton)

New Zealand Photography Collected by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)

Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History by Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris (Bridget Williams Books)

Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s by Bronwyn Labrum (Te Papa Press)
Greenlea Rescue Helicopter waits in the South Crater of Mt Tongariro for a break in the cloud to allow the recovery of an injured Frenchman.

Thick cloud hampered efforts to rescue a Frenchman stuck on Mt Ngauruhoe after he became injured on a group outing.

The man in his early 20s was with three others on the western side of the mountain on Monday when he suffered a suspected ankle fracture and a cut to his head.

His friends alerted Taupo's Greenlea Rescue Helicopter, which flew out to the mountain in the afternoon.

"Due to passing cloud obscuring much of Mt Ngauruhoe above the level of the south crater of Mt Tongariro, Ruapehu Alpine rescue team members were used for the initial locate and recovery phase on the operation," a statement from the rescue helicopter said.

"The passing cloud momentarily cleared and allowed the RARO team to be hover-loaded out of the helicopter on to the steep northern slopes of Ngauruhoe."

But the Frenchman was located on the western side of the mountain and still enveloped in thick cloud.

In the poor visibility, the alpine rescue team climbed around the mountain and found the injured man, the rescue helicopter said.

"After a brief assessment of his injuries, a momentary clearance in the cloud allowed the helicopter, which was waiting, engine running in the South Crater of Mt Tongariro, to ascend to the injured man, who was very efficiently transferred into the hovering helicopter for his extraction."

Moments after his recovery, the cloud returned and the alpine rescue team were forced to walk back down Mt Ngauruhoe as the helicopter was unable to return to collect them.

The injured man was flown to Rotorua Hospital.


The region's apple exports are predicted to be down following devastating hailstorms last year, but growers are expecting a good season due to the high quality of remaining fruit.

Pipfruit New Zealand chief executive Alan Pollard said they were expecting about 4.4 million export cartons out of Nelson, which was down about 8 per cent on last year.

Several hailstorms around the district in December damaged crops with some growers losing entire blocks to hailstones, reported to be the size of 50c pieces.

MARION VAN DIJK Andrew Kininmonth, Hoddy's Orchard general manager with some of the new seasons Royal Gala.

Pollard said "significant" hailstorms in the Nelson region had put a dampener on things.

READ MORE:

* Record apple exports for 2016 forecast a bright future for growers

* Tasman apple growers count cost of hail

* Tasman hail storm hits apples hardest, damage yet to be assessed

* Apple industry looking rosy as volumes, returns continue to grow

"We probably lost about one million cartons so take that into account and it still is a reasonably good result for the region as a whole," he said.

MARION VAN DIJK Some of the new seasons Royal Gala being picked at Hoddy's Orchard.

"For some it's tough, but broadly across the country it is very positive.

"If you go around the regions the quality of the fruit is just outstanding at the moment, it is ready to go," Pollard said. "It's certainly from a quality perspective a very, very good year."

He said the international markets were looking promising and the high quality fruit would be well accepted overseas.

"New Zealand is very fortunate in that we occupy a niche position, so we are not often competing for the same consumer as some of the more commodity type suppliers are," Pollard said.

Royal gala remained the largest variety on the export market, taking up about a third of all exports, but varieties like envy and honeycrisp were also showing growth.

"The markets demand good quality, really good taste and safe fresh fruit and we are able to deliver those every time so that is a big advantage for us."

Hoddy's Orchard managing director Michael Hoddy said hail and wind had damaged a number of crops this season but things were looking good for export.

"All in all, considering we have got hail to contend with we are ticking along well," he said.

"We are really just starting to get a build up of stocks and get into full production this week and we have got enough fruit on hand in cool stocks to start supplying."

He said it was too early to tell what was going on with the markets as shipping had just begun.

Along with the hail storms, Hoddy said some of the fruit had been damaged by wind.

"It has been reasonably calm this summer but there has been enough [wind] to blemish the fruit."

Motueka Fruit Growers Association chairman Simon Easton said his family lost their early season varieties in the December hailstorms but most of the mid season and late varieties were virtually unaffected by the hail.

"We've have been hit two years in a row and lost the same volume, it is not much fun," Easton said. "That's what happens when you grow things outdoors."

Despite the loss, he said the fruit quality was great and the considering it had been a dry year, the rain had come at a good time.

"Generally everyone I have talked to their crop generally seems bigger than what they probably thought originally, the fruit size is a bit bigger," he said.

He said the industry was in "good heart" following several good seasons.

"Just the hail again in the Nelson Tasman region sort of has taken the cream off the top for a lot of growers," Easton said.

Around the region he said growers were hoping the hot weather came for an end as they needed cooler nights and mornings to colour the fruit.

"I'm looking forward to getting into next week and getting into our non hail varieties and picking fruit without a chunk missing out of it," he said.
Jessie O'Keefe is studying nursing via distance education while looking after her sons Axel, 3, and Kyran, 5.

A Timaru mum-of-two has become the first graduate from the city's teen parenting unit to begin tertiary study.

Jessie O'Keefe, 24, credits the teen parenting unit at Timaru Girls' High School with changing her life.

She dropped out of high school at the age of 16 after losing interest in education.

She moved from Christchurch to Timaru to be with her partner, and fell pregnant with her first son, Kyran, at 17.

While working as a caregiver at a Timaru rest home two years later, she became pregnant with her second son, Axel.

It was around that time she realised she wanted to turn her love of helping people into a nursing career.

"I've got a real passion for helping people. I'm just a people person."

A friend mentioned the teen parenting unit, based at TGHS.

Determined to follow her dream and provide a good example for her sons, O'Keefe went back to school at the age of 21.

She believed the teen parenting unit had helped to turn her life around.

"I couldn't have gone back to school if it wasn't there. I wouldn't have been confident enough to go back into classes."

It wasn't always easy, and by October 2015, she was the only student there.

"I was determined, I didn't want to give up on the dream."

Education was important to her, and she wanted it to be important for her sons as well.

She completed NCEA Level 3 in 2015, and is two weeks into a Bachelor of Nursing at Otago Polytechnic.

The programme gave her the option of studying from home, although she was required to spend one day a week in Dunedin attending lectures.

Studying fulltime while also looking after her two boys was not always easy, she acknowledged.

"I'm really lucky that I've got the most supportive partner and family."

O'Keefe hoped that speaking out about her experiences would inspire other young parents.

"I hope people look at my story and think they can do it too.

"It's a short step to a bigger life."

TGHS principal Sarah Davis said the teen parenting unit was established in 2013, after a push from community groups to help young parents complete their educations.

There were 40 teen mothers in South Canterbury in 2010, and none of them had stayed in the education system, Davis said.

"We didn't like that. It wasn't OK to have a group in our community that was not able to access education."

The unit was set up and based at TGHS, but any young parents were able to access its services, she said.

That included young fathers wanting to continue with their education.

Initially run using existing resources with support from the community, the unit started to receive government funding in 2014 as part of a pilot programme running throughout New Zealand.

There were four students studying through the unit at the beginning of March, but Davis expected that number to increase as the year went on.

It was important to have a way for young parents to stay in the education system, she said.

"There should always be an opportunity for them to carry on with some type of education."

O'Keefe's success was a big source of pride for those involved in the unit, Davis said.

"She hasn't let a situation get in the way of what she wanted to achieve."
The continuing bad news about their payout is like a death by a thousand cuts for many dairy farmers, says Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers dairy spokesman Steve Bailey.

Fonterras latest forecast of $3.90 per KgMS is a bitter pill to swallow and while some farmers may still be making money at this level, for others it could be straw that breaks the camels back.
The eight organisations that formed a Bobby Calf Action Group at the end of 2015 are well advanced on a range of initiatives ensuring best practice handling and management of bobby calves.

The group is DairyNZ, Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, Meat Industry Association, Federated Farmers, New Zealand Petfood Manufacturers Association, Road Transport Forum, New Zealand Veterinary Association and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Bring your own toaster was a rule for some of those attending the Trustpower welcome breakfast on the Durham Street footpath outside the new Trustpower Headquarters today.

Breakfasters were able to select toast from about 17 or 18 toasters brought along to the breakfast by councillors, the CEOs of Priority One, Tourism BOP, and senior Trustpower staff including community relations manager Graeme Purches and CEO Vince Hawkesworth.
The memorandum between Oberoi and the government of Maldives confirms the construction of the resort, which will be financed by SCDCL, a Bangalore -based real estate development company.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr K.N. Balasubramanyam, chairman, SCDCL said: A luxury resort in Maldives requires expertise in design and operations of world-class standards.

The Oberoi Group, which is rated as the best luxury hotel brand in the world, is well suited for this development.We look forward to working with The Oberoi Group to create more of such luxurious offerings globally and would like to say that this extraordinary project will make a major contribution to our long-term partnership.

The deal was signed in the presence of Moosa Zameer, minister of tourism, government of Maldives.

After signing the deal, he said: With growing demand of luxury hospitality services in Maldives , it is imperative to bring in the best in the industry and our partnership with The Oberoi Group will be a testament to this.

Founded in 1934, the Oberoi Group has grown to become one of the worlds most highly regarded luxury hotel groups. It operates and/owns over 30 properties spanning 5 countries.
Destiny USA Hotel rendering.JPG

Artist rendering shows the 17-story, 255-room hotel proposed by Destiny USA across from its shopping mall on Hiawatha Boulevard West in Syracuse in 2014. Destiny is now proposing to build a 209-room hotel instead of a 255-room hotel.

(Destiny USA)

Syracuse, N.Y.  Destiny USA is again proposing to build a hotel across the street from its giant Syracuse shopping mall, but its newest plans call for a smaller, less costly hotel than the one it designed two years ago.

The mall development company founded by Robert Congel as an offshoot of his Syracuse-based Pyramid Cos. is proposing to build a $48 million, 209-room hotel at the southeast corner of Hiawatha Boulevard and Solar streets.

In 2014, Destiny proposed a $75 million, 255-room hotel on the same site. However, it put the plans on hold in 2015 without explanation.

The size of the proposed hotel is not all that has shrunk. Two years ago, Destiny applied to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency for a 20-year property tax exemption that city officials said would be worth approximately $20 million.

This time, the company is asking the agency for a 12-year deal worth $6.84 million. The building, though not the land under it, would be exempt from property taxes for the first eight years. For the next four years, the exemption would be phased out by 20 percent a year. After that, the hotel would be fully taxable.

Such a deal would be closer to the agency's standard "community benefit" tax exemption policy, except that the standard policy provides a full exemption for the first three years and phases it out of the next nine years.

 Graphic:

The property tax exemption being sought by Destiny would be worth an estimated $5.08 million over 12 years. In addition, the company has applied for $1.76 million worth of exemptions from sales taxes on construction materials. Congel's Moselle Associates would be the project's sole owner. Combined, the property and sales tax exemptions would total $6.84 million.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said two years ago that she opposed any tax break for a Destiny USA hotel because the company's mall already has a 30-year property tax exemption.

It's not known yet whether Miner will oppose the more modest deal Destiny is seeking for its latest hotel plan. However, Destiny does not need her approval. The county agency is appointed by the chairman of the county Legislature and has the authority to approve tax exemptions anywhere in the county, including within the city.

In a Feb. 29 letter to the development agency, Destiny attorney Robert Smith said the company's plan is to begin construction in May or June of this year and complete the hotel in the summer of 2017. Smith said the project will support 225 construction jobs and create 74 permanent jobs.

It appears that the company's new plans have already been the subject of negotiations with the development agency, which is scheduled to formally take up Destiny's application Tuesday morning.

Smith said Destiny will pledge that at least 50 percent of the people hired to work at the hotel will be residents of Syracuse. If that hiring threshold is not met, the developer will make a $200,000 payment to the development agency to be used for workforce and economic development initiatives within the city, he said.

He said Destiny has committed to work with the State University of New York's Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center and the state Department of Labor to recruit residents of Syracuse to work at the hotel.

In addition, Smith said the company has agreed to make "reasonable efforts" to hire minority- and women-owned businesses for the construction of the hotel. If at least 15 percent of the contractors hired for the construction are not minority- and women-owned, Destiny will pay a $75,000 penalty to the agency to be spent on workforce and economic development initiatives in the city, he said.

The hiring requirements may be a response to the heavy criticism the county agency took from Miner and community groups over a 15-year tax deal, worth an estimated $44 million, that the agency approved in December for COR Development Co.'s $342 million Syracuse Inner Harbor development. Miner and the Urban Jobs Task Force criticized the agency for not requiring COR to commit to hiring city residents for the project.

Site plan shows the location of a proposed 209-room Destiny USA hotel, directly across Hiawatha Boulevard West from the Destiny USA shopping mall in Syracuse.

Destiny USA Hotel Proposal

Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
Destiny USA hotel rende_3.JPG

Rendering shows what the proposed 209-room Destiny USA hotel at 311 Hiawatha Blvd. W. in Syracuse would look like.

(Destiny USA)

Syracuse, N.Y.  Destiny USA is resurrecting its hotel plans to help drive tourism at its giant Syracuse shopping mall, a company executive said Tuesday.

"Tourism is an important component of our economy locally," said the executive, David Aitken. "It's what drives our business at Destiny, and we want to continue to put the welcome mat out."

A rendering of the proposed 209-room hotel shows a seven-story building at the southeast corner of Hiawatha Boulevard West and Solar streets, directly across Hiawatha Boulevard from the Destiny USA mall.

The hotel would cost $48 million to build. Aitken said the company would like to begin construction in late May or early June. Construction would take about 14 months, with an opening sometime in the summer of 2017, he said.

At 2.4 million square feet, Destiny USA is the largest mall in New York and the sixth largest in the country. Aitken said a significant portion of its 25 million annual visitors come from outside of Onondaga County, with Canadian tourists being a large component.

He said Destiny has been aggressively marketing itself to group tours. Last year, 142 group tours came to the mall that had not come there the year before, he said.



Two years ago, Destiny proposed a $75 million, 255-room, 17-story hotel, but then put the plans on hold. Aitken said the company has re-evaluated the project over the past year and decided that a smaller hotel would be more feasible. He added, though, that the new design is for an all-suites hotel that would have larger rooms than those found in many hotels.

Destiny, an offshoot of developer Robert Congel's Syracuse-based Pyramid Cos., will be financing the hotel privately, but it is seeking tax exemptions worth $6.84 million for the project.

The exemptions would include a 12-year property tax deal in which the hotel, though not the land under it, would receive a full exemption for eight years and declining partial exemptions for the next four years. After 12 years, the hotel would be fully taxable.

Destiny currently pays $111,000 a year in property taxes on the parking lot where the hotel would be built. It would continue to pay those taxes under its proposal to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency.

 Graphic:

In addition, the company has applied for an exemption from sales taxes on construction materials. It is not seeking an exemption from the state mortgage recording tax  a tax that developers routinely seek exemptions for when applying for assistance from industrial development agencies.

The development agency met briefly with Aitken Tuesday morning but took no vote on the company's application. It must first schedule a public hearing, which could be held later this month.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner strongly opposed a 20-year tax exemption that Destiny sought from the county agency for its bigger project two years ago. At the time, she said she opposed any further tax breaks for the company because it already had a 30-year tax deal on the mall.

Miner has not yet said whether she will oppose the more modest exemptions the company is seeking for its newest proposal.

Destiny has pledged that at least 50 percent of the 74 people hired to work at the hotel will be residents of Syracuse and says it is willing to pay a $200,000 penalty to the development agency if it fails to meet that hiring threshold.

In addition, the company has promised that at least 15 percent of the contractors hired to build the hotel will be minority- and women-owned businesses. It said it is willing to pay a $75,000 penalty if it fails to meet that threshold.

Site plan shows the location of a proposed 209-room Destiny USA hotel, directly across Hiawatha Boulevard West from the Destiny USA shopping mall in Syracuse.



Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
Suthep Leechalad.jpg

Suthep Leechalad, 51, charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

(State Police photo)

LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- A karate instructor at a Cicero martial arts center allegedly had a inappropriate relationship with a karate student when he wasn't working, according to New York State Police.

Suthep Leechalad, 51, of Liverpool, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, according to state police.

While employed as a karate instructor at Karate John's Martial Arts Center, which is located at 8072 Brewerton Road, Cicero, Leechalad allegedly engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a student, state police said. The incident occurred during one of several visits by the student to Leechalad's residence in Liverpool. During one of these visits the defendant had inappropriate physical contact with the student and offered the student alcohol, state police said.

State police asks anyone with information to contact state police at 677-9971.

Sarah Moses covers the northern suburbs of Onondaga County and Oswego County. Contact Sarah at smoses@syracuse.com or 470-2298. Follow @SarahMoses315
2012-12-10-sdc-karlsen1_2.JPG

Karl Karlsen enters Seneca County County in December 2012 when he was indicted on charges he killed his son four years before.

(Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com)

Waterloo, NY -- Two years after admitting to murdering his son in Seneca County, Karl Karlsen appeared in a California courtroom last week on charges he murdered his son's mother -- his first wife.

Karlsen, 56, was extradited to Calaveras County, Calif. to stand trial in the 1991 death of Christina Karlsen. He's been serving a 15-year to life sentence in a New York prison after admitting to killing his son, Levi, by crushing him under a vehicle in 2008.

Karlsen was arraigned Friday in his wife's death and faces life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted, according to news reports.

Like Levi's death, Christina Karlsen's death was originally considered accidental. But authorities now say Karl Karlsen staged them both.

Christina Karlsen died in a suspicious fire New Year's Day 1991 that Karlsen and their three children -- including Levi -- escaped. Her death came soon after her husband had purchased a $200,000 life insurance policy on her.

An undated family photo of Christina Karlsen.

That mirrored what happened in Levi Karlsen's 2008 death: his father had just purchased a $700,000 life insurance policy on him. Levi Karlsen, 23, was killed after his father hoisted a 5,000-pound truck on a wobbly jack, persuaded Levi to work beneath it, knocked the truck onto Levi's chest and left him to suffocate.

A retired California investigator told Syracuse.com after Karl Karlsen's murder plea that he always hoped Karlsen "would do something stupid."

In the 1991 case, Christina Karlsen died in the bathroom of a wooden mining shack that the family was living in. A kerosene fire trapped her in a bathroom with a window that had been covered with plywood by Karl Karlsen, authorities said.

From left, Levi, Kati and Erin Karlsen stand on the porch of the old mining shack in Murphys, Calif., where their mother, Christina Karlsen, died in a fire Jan. 1, 1991. Their father, Karl Karlsen, is now facing trial for her murder.

The fire was originally ruled accidental after Karl Karlsen said that his wife had accidentally carried a kerosene jug into the house. It was supposed to be a water jug, he explained, because the pipes had frozen.

But authorities wondered why Christina Karlsen was taking a bath in a house with no water, among other oddities.

Nevertheless, her death was ruled accidental and Karl Karlsen was lauded as a hero for rescuing the family's three children, including Levi.

Karlsen is due back to court in California on April 4.
HERKIMER, N.Y. -- A mother of a toddler who fell out of a second-story window in Herkimer County last month has been arrested.

Megan Muzzy, 21, was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor. The arrest came over a week after Muzzy's son, 2, was seriously injured after falling from a second-story Herkimer window.

Emergency responders rushed to 339 S. Washington St. around 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 23 after a toddler fell out of a window, said the Herkimer Police Department's Police Benevolent Association.

The accident happened after Muzzy left her son alone in a room with a box fan inside a window, Herkimer Police Chief Joseph Malone told WKTV. The boy pushed against the fan and fell out of the window, reported WKTV.

The fall left the boy seriously injured, police said.

After treating the boy on scene, Mohawk Valley Ambulance Corps rushed the child to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for treatment. He was later transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse with serious but non life-threatening injuries.

Muzzy is scheduled to reappear in Herkimer Village Court, police said. She is not listed in custody.

Herkimer police, the Herkimer County District Attorney's Office and child protective services members are working to ensure the children living in the Washington Street home are safe, police said.
LeeVanBoden.jpg

Lee VanBoden in a photo taken last summer in Chicago before developing complications from an experimental transplant.

(Associated Press)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Lee VanBoden of Pompey thought he'd be home by now with his wife and nine children after getting an experimental kidney transplant last April in Chicago.

He did return home last summer, but quickly developed a serious complication that landed him back in Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

He's been there since Sept. 11. His wife, Angelique VanBoden, has no idea when he will get out of the hospital.

She has been shuttling between Syracuse and Chicago, dividing her time between her kids - ages 8 to 17 - and her husband.

"It's basically been a nightmare," she said.

Lee VanBoden with his family last summer at a home they rented in Chicago. They are from left front, Noah, his wife Angelique, Carson, Quinn, and Jordan. Back row, Toby, Kameron, Gelsie, Brett and Peyton.

VanBoden, 46, has polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder in which clusters of cysts develop in the kidneys. The cysts, which sometimes grow very large, can lead to kidney failure and death unless the patient goes on dialysis or gets a kidney transplant.

VanBoden opted to undergo a combination kidney-stem cell transplant

as part of a clinical trial at Northwestern. He did this instead of a traditional kidney transplant so he could avoid having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life.

VanBoden received a kidney and stem cells donated by a family friend. The stem cells were supposed to trick VanBoden's immune system into thinking the donated organ was his own, gradually eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

Instead, the transplanted stem cells attacked VanBoden's body, a complication known as Graft-versus-host-disease.

When he returned to the hospital in September, doctors assured him they would treat the problem and send him home in a few weeks, Angelique said. But none of the treatments have worked and doctors keep trying different drugs.

VanBoden is very weak and on oxygen. He's suffered a series of infections and pneumonia. He hasn't been able to eat food since August and receives nutrition intravenously.

Angelique said both she and VanBoden now regret he participated in the clinical trial instead of getting a traditional transplant.

Doctors told him before the operation the worst case scenario was he'd have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life, Angelique said. Graft-versus-host-disease was barely discussed and doctors said it was nothing to worry about, she added.

She also said doctors could have done a better job of making sure VanBoden's donor was a good match. Angelique said they have since learned men are more likely to develop Graft-versus-host-disease if they receive stem cell transplants from women who have had two or more boys. VanBoden's donor is the mother of four boys.

A Northwestern official said the hospital is prohibited by federal patient privacy law from discussing VanBoden's case.

"While our goal is to always provide the safest and best care to our patients, some clinical trial treatments come with known risk of complications," said Megan McCann, a hospital spokeswoman. "Individuals who volunteer for clinical trials are provided all available information about potential risks and have provided voluntary, informed consent prior to their enrollment in a clinical trial."

Five of the VanBodens' nine kids are adopted. Angelique home schools the children. VanBoden, who is self-employed, is the family's sole breadwinner. Sarah Sujkowski, Angelique's cousin, started a fundraising page to help the VanBodens with their expenses.

The entire family moved to Chicago last April and lived in a rented house to be by VanBoden's side while he recuperated from surgery. They returned to Pompey in late June.

Since VanBoden was rehospitalized in September, Angelique splits some of the kids up and has them stay with friends and relatives whenever she goes to Chicago to see VanBoden.



Her oldest kids stay home with a family friend so they can take care of the house.

Friends and relatives have helped out by buying Angelique plane tickets, bringing over meals and taking the kids out to dinner when she's in Chicago.

The children visited VanBoden in Chicago over Christmas vacation.

Angelique said she's thought about moving them all back to Chicago again, but it's hard to find an affordable home there.

It's also difficult to plan, given VanBoden's condition, she said.

"He could get better next month and maybe not," she said. "I keep praying he will be healed and come home."

Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245
Performance by Siebert set

ALBION -- The Albion Area Arts Council will present a performance by folk artist Paul Siebert at 3 p.m. Sunday at Zion Lutheran Church.

For more information, call Paul or Lori Hosford at 402-395-2633.

KC corned beef dinner set

COLUMBUS -- The Knights of Columbus Council 938 will hold its annual corned beef and cabbage dinner and drawing Sunday.

The dinner will be served from 5-7 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 3115 Sixth St., with the drawing scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for children. Carry-outs are available, and the public is invited to attend.

Mental health seminar slated

COLUMBUS -- The public is invited to attend a free mental health information sharing sessions from 6:30-8 p.m. Monday at Word of Life Church.

This presentation will focus on cutting and self-harm and answer the question: Is this suicidal behavior?

All parents, caregivers and youth providers are encouraged to attend. Child care will be provided and bilingual interpretation will be available.

Jill Colegrove from Colegrove Counseling Center will be the presenter.

Nursing class slated for CCC

COLUMBUS -- Registration is now open for a nursing assistant class that will be held from Monday through May 4 at Central Community College-Columbus.

Students must attend a mandatory orientation session, but classes can be attended during the hours most convenient to them. The lab will be open from noon-8:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturdays.

The class is limited to the first 30 individuals who register. The cost is $376, which includes in-state tuition, fees, books and supplies.

For more information or to register, contact the CCC Extended Learning Services Office at 402-562-1225; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1225; or email lneid@cccneb.edu.

Pals fundraiser slated Monday

COLUMBUS -- Pizza Ranch of Columbus will host a Community Impact Fundraising Night for Big Pals-Little Pals from 5-8 p.m. Monday.

Ten percent of sales and all tips will be donated to Big Pals-Little Pals during this time.

Big and Little Pals and board members will be there to wait on the guests and answer questions. There also will be information available about the organization.

For more information, call 402-563-1081 or visit www.bigpals.org.

Hazwoper class at Central CC

COLUMBUS -- A 24-hour hazwoper training course will be offered from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. March 15-17 in the Student Center, Room 176, at Central Community College-Columbus.

The course is designed for employees engaged in the emergency response, containment, control and cleanup of hazardous materials.

Class size is limited, so preregistration is required by March 8 to reserve a space. The cost is $400.

For more information or to preregister, contact Susan Baer at 402-562-1425; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1425; or email sbaer@cccneb.edu.

Fundraiser to aid post prom

COLUMBUS -- The Scotus Post Prom 2016 will hold a fundraiser from 5-8 p.m. March 15 at Godfathers.

Mention Scotus Post Prom when ordering, and 15 percent of eat-in and carry out sales will be donated to the group.

K roundups at Catholic schools

COLUMBUS -- Columbus Catholic elementary schools will host kindergarten roundups on March 18.

St. Anthony Elementary School will run sessions from 8:15-9:15 a.m. and 10-11 a.m. in the Parish Center.

Sessions at St. Bonaventure will run from 9-10:30 a.m. and 1-2:30 p.m. in the kindergarten classrooms.

St. Isidore will host sessions from 9:30-10:30 a.m. and 1-2 p.m. in the school library.

Interested families may attend sessions at any of the Catholic elementary schools. Principals and teachers will be on hand to answer questions and give school tours.

For more information, contact one of the school offices: St. Anthony, 402-564-4767; St. Bonaventure, 402-564-7153; St. Isidore, 402-564-2604.

One-day book sale at library

COLUMBUS -- The Friends of the Columbus Public Library will have a one-day book sale from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 19 at the Columbus Public Library.

This will be shoppers last chance to get everything for a buck a bag. New items will be added weekly until the sale. Prices will be raised beginning with the August sale.

All proceeds benefit the Friends of the Columbus Public Library.

Fire workshop slated March 22

COLUMBUS -- A National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) arc flash protection workshop will be offered from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. March 22 in the Student Center, Room 176, at Central Community College-Columbus.

The workshop is designed for individuals who work on, around, or near any type of electrically energized equipment. It will cover electrical hazards, proper electrical work practices and procedures, and the safe installation of electrical equipment.

Participants also will learn how the NFPA 70E requirements work in conjunction with OSHA requirements.

Class size is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The cost is $199.

For more information or to reserve a space, contact Sue Baer at 402-562-1425; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1425; or email sbaer@cccneb.edu.
LINCOLN  Prevention is key when it comes to fighting scams, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson says.

One couple in the state recently learned that the hard way.

They contacted the attorney general's office after losing more than $200,000 to a so-called lottery scam, in which crooks claim people have won big money but need to make payments themselves  to cover taxes, for example  before collecting the jackpot.

"These scammers had set up meetings where they said, 'We will be bringing the check,'" Peterson said Monday.

But a check never arrived.

"They were told, 'Send just a little bit of money for the tax. Then send just a little bit more. Then just a little bit more,'" Peterson said. "It was almost as if they were in a virtual casino, because they kept pulling the lever to send more."

Scammers can be remarkably convincing, he said, even to people who many wouldn't consider vulnerable. And chances of that money being recovered are minimal, even with law enforcement involved.

That's because scams are often carried out by people living in other countries using sophisticated technology or practices intended to conceal their identities. If investigators close in, the swindlers disappear.

"Once money is sent to a scam artist, it's gone," said Abby Stempson, head of the attorney general's consumer protection division. "We want people to learn to protect themselves."

Last year, the attorney general's office held 112 speaking engagements across the state to teach people how to detect and avoid possible fraud.

And Monday, Stempson's team unveiled a new website  Protect the Good Life, at protectthegoodlife.nebraska.gov  where Nebraskans can go to learn about scams and other consumer threats, or to report issues they've experienced such as fraud, identity theft or predatory business practices. The launch is timed with National Consumer Protection Week.

People can also use the site to schedule a presentation in their area.

"We really like to get out there," Stempson said. "There's something about someone in person telling you."

Protecting yourself could keep you from needing to call Claire Salem.

A senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Salem is one of 10 to 14 mediators in the attorney general's Consumer Mediation Center, which negotiates disputes between businesses and consumers who feel they've been taken advantage of.

Sometimes mediation works out, such as a recent case where a business returned $11,000 after the attorney general's office got involved.

"To see someone get that much money back is really neat, I think," Salem said.

But in other cases  like when a caller requests cash or personal information, pretending to be someone else  tracking down the perpetrator is impossible.

"This is one time when hanging up makes a lot of sense," Peterson said.
SHARE "Kaleidoscope" by Jennifer Ivory, one of the artists exhibiting at Under the Oaks this weekend. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY VERO BEACH ART CLUB) "Beetles" by Jennifer Ivory, one of the artists exhibiting at Under the Oaks this weekend. No bugs were harmed in creating this artwork. They just look real. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY VERO BEACH ART CLUB) This butterfly collage by Jennifer Ivory is all art. No bugs were harmed in creating this artwork. They just look real. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY VERO BEACH ART CLUB) This butterfly balloon is the creative work of Jennifer Ivory. No bugs were harmed in creating this artwork. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY VERO BEACH ART CLUB)

By Janet Begley, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

VERO BEACH - Most people don't think of bugs as art but creator Jennifer Ivory is an exception.

Ivory, who creates mixed media models of bugs and insects, will display her work during the 65th annual Under the Oaks Arts and Crafts Show from Friday through Sundayat Riverside Park in Vero Beach.

A former architect turned full-time bug enthusiast and artist, Ivory is celebrating her 11th year creating what might be one of the most unusual, detailed forms of mixed media art on display this weekend. Ivory recreates insects from paper and other materials, including horsehair, after researching the bugs through college entomology departments throughout the country.

"All of my artwork is made with individual insect sculptures that I create using illustration, ink and acrylic paint on various types of archival grade art paper," said Ivory who lives in Corvallis, Oregon. "Each paper insect is based on a real insect from somewhere around the world."

Some of Ivory's more interesting creations have won awards, including the Award of Excellence at the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Fest, Best of Show at the LaGrange Art Festival and Art in the Park in Birmingham, and Booth of Distinction at Central Pennsylvania's Festival of the Arts. When she first began, Ivory had no intention of displaying the unusual creations but a friend encouraged her to display at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival in 2005, and she hasn't stopped since.

Ivory's lifelike insects literally draw reactions from the crowds that span from shock to awe.

"I try to get the detail and color as accurate as I can but for fun, I often make them much larger or smaller than they may be in real life," she said. "The time it takes to make each piece varies wildly from a day to many months. But no insects were harmed in the making of my artwork. They aren't real, they just look like they are."

In addition to Ivory's insect creations, there are some new additions to the 2016 Under the Oaks show, according to Beth Fairchild, who co-chairs the event with Naomi Koser. For the first time, light, classical music will be performed throughout the show.

"We think it will be delightful to view all the incredible pieces of art, and enjoy the crafts while taking in this beautiful classical music," Fairchild said.

Vero Beach's Under the Oaks show has ranked among the top 50 events for sales of fine art in 2015 by Art Fair Source Bank, and one of the Top 200 Art Shows in Florida by Sunshine Artist Magazine. The juried show attracts more than 80,000 visitors annually to the park over the three day event that features 220 vendors.

ABOUT THE SHOW

What: Under the Oaks Fine Arts and Crafts Show, sponsored by the Vero Beach Art Club

When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Riverside Park, east of Barber Bridge, under the oak trees

Cost: Admission and parking are free

Information: www.verobeachartclub.org
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Christopher Beckman, 52, 100 block of Las Olas Drive, Jensen Beach; warrant for violation of probation, felony charge.

Peter Dimitrion, 52, 1500 block of Oriole Avenue, Stuart; warrants for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, driving while license suspended, habitual offender.

Quinton Foster, 21, 4700 block of Salvatori Road, Stuart; warrant for possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.

Charles Infinger, 19, Jupiter; fleeing with disregard of safety to persons or property.

Bernard Leonard, 21, 800 block of 16th Street, Stuart; warrant for violation of probation or community control, felony charge.

Chad McDonald, 36, 8500 block of Lyons Road, Hobe Sound; grand theft.

Olivia Pare, 34, 200 block of Fifth Street, Stuart; warrant for violation of probation or community control, felony charge.

Larry Seasor, 36, 1600 block of Cecelia Lane, Port St. Lucie; possession of a controlled substance.

James Spreitzer, 29, Jupiter; warrant for violation of probation or community control.

Roberto Tosado, 1500 block of Royal Green Circle, Port St. Lucie; warrant for resisting arrest with violence.

Greg Wilkins, 22, 17000 block of Palm Beach Street, Indiantown; battery on a person 65 or older.

Samantha Koemm, 23, 800 block of 11th Court, Stuart; warrants for grand theft, uttering a forged bill, forgery. Arrested in St. Lucie County.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY - A second arrest was made last week in a robbery incident that left one man dead, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office.

Kerry Billy Philyaw, 32, of Fort Pierce, was arrested Friday, a day after the arrest of Phillip Gray, 29, of Fort Pierce, who was non-fatally shot in the March 1 incident at Cypress Bay Mobile Home Park. Philyaw and Gray were arrested on charges including second degree murder.

Philyaw, Gray, and Chase Orvis, 27, of Palm Beach County, are accused of approaching three men at the trailer park in northern St. Lucie County in a robbery incident.

After being beaten, one of the victims, Kyle Davis, pulled a handgun and fired several shots. Orvis was struck by gunfire and died, while Gray survived. The third assailant, identified as Philyaw, fled.

Under Florida law, if a death occurs during certain felonies, such as armed robbery, kidnapping and rape, all people involved in the felony will be charged with murder.

Investigators are searching for Logan Nicole Fulford, 20, who officials say drove the men to the mobile home park.
Stuart Public Works Department workers (from left) Johnathon Molina and Joel Zelaya install a grinder tank sewage system along with team leader Corky Kossen (background) in the backyard of a home on North Riverpoint Road in Stuart on Aug. 22, 2014. The grinder tank is a low pressure sewer pump system that replaces a septic system. (FILE PHOTO)

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By Isadora Rangel of TCPalm

TALLAHASSEE  Money that Treasure Coast communities asked the Legislature for to remove septic tanks near the Indian River Lagoon did not make it into a funding package for water projects, but money to pay farmers to store excess water on their property was included.

The Florida House and Senate agreed Sunday to give $60 million to help local governments build water treatment and waste and stormwater projects. Communities in all three Treasure Coast counties asked for more than $12 million combined to help them hook properties to sewer lines.

The projects included Sebastian's downtown as well as residential properties along the lagoon: North Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County, Old Palm City and Golden Gate in Martin. Septic tanks can contribute to nutrient pollution that causes algae blooms in the lagoon.

The state money would help lower property tax assessments Martin County plans to levy on owners in those areas, utilities director John Polley said. The county still can ask for money from the Legislature in 2017 for the Golden Gate project and for Old Palm City in 2017 and 2018, he said.

Stuart Republican Joe Negron is slated to be Senate president during those two years and could push for the money.

Local governments from across Florida each year compete for a pot of money for water projects from the state. The Treasure Coast this year asked for $20.4 million of the $674.6 million total requested. The $60 million the House and Senate agreed to Sunday accounts for only 9 percent of that total. A lot of the money went to Miami-Dade and Broward counties as well as Brevard, which is in the districts of Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner, who are both Republicans.

The chambers still have to pass a state budget before the end of session Friday.

There were two projects the Legislature is funding for which no local governments requested money, according to a list of requested projects. Those are water farms run by Alico Inc., the nation's largest citrus producer, in Hendry County, and Evans Properties Inc. in St. Lucie County. Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, asked for the Alico money, said Sen. Alan Hays, chairman of the committee in charge of the water and environmental section of the state budget.

The Legislature in the past allocated a lump sum for water farming, in which the state pays farmers to store water on their lands that otherwise would pollute estuaries. The South Florida Water Management District then distributed the money to individuals projects.

Alico and Evans would each get $250,000 this year. They still could get more money from a lump sum in the state budget allocated for storing water on public and private lands, but that total amount isn't available yet, said Katie Betta, Gardiner's spokeswoman.

Hays said the Alico and Evans farms aren't necessarily what the Legislature considers local water projects but they might fit the purpose because they deal with water storage. He said there was "some confusion" on whether the projects were "properly labeled" but he didn't explain the confusion.

This map shows the Treasure Coast water projects the Legislature funded this year:
TALLAHASSEE - House and Senate budget chiefs agreed Monday on next year's education budget, clearing the way for a vote on the entire $80 billion state budget by the end of the legislative session on Friday.

Agreement on the $21.7 billion education budget ends work on the final agreement between House Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon. The action Monday places the state budget into a three-day cooling off period, as directed by the state Constitution. The House and Senate cannot make changes or vote on the budget until Friday.

Lingering issues that prevented Corcoran and Lee from wrapping up the budget Sunday as planned included calculations within the contentious Best and Brightest scholarship program for teachers. The program provides teachers who scored high on college entrance exams with scholarships, which some colleagues felt was an unrealistic standard.

On the Treasure Coast, Indian River State College stands to receive $1.5 million for the renovation of an industrial building.

The budget chiefs also agreed to provide raises for some state workers, not including employees of the state Department of Corrections. They agreed to provide $3 million toward state Department of Agriculture forestry firefighters, which Gov. Rick Scott vetoed from the budget last year. They also provided $4 million for Florida Department of Law enforcement lab technicians.

Both the House and Senate also ignored a request from DOC to provide 734 corrections officer positions. Corcoran, who will take the role as House Speaker next year, said DOC Secretary Julie Jones should consider decreasing the size of the prison population.

'Having 100,000 inmates is difficult for anyone to manage at any time, and she needs to work on that,' Corcoran said.

DOC officials said in a statement that they will remain hopeful in the last days of the session.

Areas of the budget such as the $34 billion health care plan were settled by Corcoran and Lee last week. They began the budget making process Feb. 26, when they agreed not to fulfill Scott's request for $250 million for an incentive fund used by Enterprise Florida. The Senate also will vote on a $129 million tax cut package it proposed during a committee meeting last week. The plan is a fraction of the $1 billion Scott requested and heavily promoted over the past few months.

Contact Daily News reporter arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com or 850-559-7620.
Murky waters from Lake Okeechobee discharges stain the St. Lucie River on Feb. 11 near Palm City and Stuart. The Army Corps of Engineers opened the St. Lucie Lock and Dam on Jan. 30. The lake water dumps nitrogen into the river which eventually creates toxic algae blooms. Vegetation and animals suffer from the dirty water and the local economy is impacted negatively. (LEAH VOSS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

It's been a busy season at the Stuart Heritage Museum. Some 1,400 people came through the old Stuart Feed Store on Flagler Avenue in February, and tour guides like Judy Woods have been busy detailing the town's history and answering visitors' inquiries.

Lately, though, visitors have had a different kind of question.

They want to know about the brown water a stone's throw from the museum's front door. They've heard about the discharges from Lake Okeechobee and wonder what it will do to the St. Lucie River, to Stuart  to Martin County.

"I do a lot of explaining," Woods said.

And a lot of worrying.

"The water looks like sludge," Woods said. "How many people are looking at it and thinking they're going to leave this county and go somewhere it's not as bad?"

The question keeps local tourism officials and the businesses they serve up at night.

Tourism is a major economic driver here, generating $432.5 million in spending in 2013, the latest year for which figures are available. The industry supports an estimated 5,130 jobs.

But the golden goose is floundering in the foul waters.

Many businesses that cater to visitors  charter boats, paddleboarding and other firms dependent on the water  have reported falling sales. At least 18 Martin County businesses have registered with the state in the hopes of receiving emergency economic aid.

Others less directly dependent on the water haven't lost customers yet. But some worry the lingering effects of the discharges  and the bad publicity  could keep visitors away down the road.

After all, when Mother Jones, the left-leaning magazine/website, publishes a story titled "How Florida just flushed its 'toilet' lake onto its beaches," or Conde Nast Traveler writes about how polluted water is flowing onto beaches in "the area around the town of Stuart on the Treasure Coast," it sends a message to tourists worldwide: DON'T GO TO MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA.

And how would you like to be in charge of countering that message?

"This is a crisis," acknowledges Nerissa Okiye, who has that job.

And who, if things ever go south, might find a gig booking hotel rooms in Chernobyl, or cruises on the Exxon Valdez.

OK, the situation here isn't as bad as all that. But as Martin County's Tourism & Marketing Manager, Okiye has to walk a fine line. She and others in the industry have to level with the public about the crisis  all the while enticing them to come anyway.

The answer was to hit the crisis head-on.

Preparations began late last year, when it became clear El Nino was likely to pack a major punch. As the discharges began, the county's "Discover Martin" campaign sought to raise awareness of the environmental problems  but also of the fact that there's plenty to do in Martin County away from the water's edge.

A 2-minute promotional video released late last month shows soaring views of county beaches, and proclaims that they're still safe; but while touting the value of the county's natural wonders, the video also acknowledges the "unnatural" discharges from Lake Okeechobee and invites viewers to become advocates  perhaps after they've visited the parks, artsy and eco-friendly attractions that remain unaffected.

Okiye said the frank-but-still-sunny approach has rankled some who accuse Discover Martin of whitewashing the problem. County officials counter that they're careful to qualify any declaration that the water is "safe."

"We check water sampling to make sure, you'd be irresponsible not to do that," said Deborah Drum, the county's Ecosystem Manager, who works closely with the tourism office.

But yes, she acknowledged, "it's a bold step to recognize that you can still enjoy the environment in the midst of an environmental crisis."

Okiye said there's no other choice.

"It's my job to market the destination, and that's what we're going to continue to do," she said. "If we didn't have people coming and spending we would be in trouble ... and we're not going to continue to be recognized as one of the happiest small towns in America (by Coastal Living magazine) if we don't take care of what we have."

Again, that fine line.

On Hutchinson Island, Brent Meinhold walks it, too.

Meinhold is the manager of the Ohana Surf Shop across from the Hutchinson Island Marriott. Monday afternoon the store was jammed, but Meinhold said paddleboard business in particular has been down.

"We're losing about two to three rentals a day, that's $150-$200," he said.

Some customers come in, unaware of the discharges and why they might want to stay out of the tainted waters. Meinhold said surf shop staff always cautions customers, despite the potential for lost revenue.

"After all," he said, "we want to protect the people, too."
Nearly three years after Edward Snowden bypassed the intelligence community's own process for reporting wrongdoing and leaked troves of classified documents to Glenn Greenwald, the system for protecting whistle-blowers inside the national security state remains broken.

This is the view of current and former intelligence officials, national security lawyers and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Their message is simple: Whistle-blowers are often too intimidated to take their case to the inspectors general and Congress.

"There is a systemic problem with the whistle-blower process," Representative Devin Nunes told me. "There is no easy way for them to come forward that doesn't jeopardize their careers, across the whole defense and intelligence community enterprise."

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has in the past two years tried to address this problem, with mixed results at best. Dan Meyer, the executive director of the Intelligence Community's Whistle-Blowing & Source Protection program, said in a statement that more whistle-blowers were coming forward in the last two years since the intelligence community began implementing a 2012 executive order from President Barack Obama that gave them additional protections. He said his office was also doing more, for example, to educate agencies on the new law and regulation.

Meyer conceded, however, there were holes in the process. "Protections are imperfect given their differences, the most notable being the lack of equivalent laws protecting intelligence community contractors from reprisal actions by the private companies employing them," he said. He also acknowledged: "There will likely be some reluctance on the part of whistle-blowers to come forward. In our experience, this is understandably a very emotional event in someones career given whats at stake."

Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who has represented dozens of whistle-blowers over the last two decades, went further. "I have not seen any noticeable improvement in the ability of a national security whistle-blower to come forward and be confident they will be protected," he told me.

Snowden himself has said that he went to the press because of the experience of whistle-blowers before him. Specifically, he has talked about Thomas Drake, a former official at the National Security Agency. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Drake tried to warn his superiors and other oversight bodies of what he saw as a wasteful and illegal NSA program, known as "Trailblazer," to collect personal data from digital networks.

For Drake, the system didn't work. Out of frustration, he eventually leaked what he has says was unclassified information about the program to the Baltimore Sun. The Justice Department prosecuted him in 2010, but dropped his case the following year. His career was ruined.

A staff member on the House Intelligence Committee who took Drake seriously, Diane Roark, soon found she too was under investigation. She told me that because of her interest in Drake's complaints, and lobbying within the system on his behalf, the Justice Department and eventually her own committee put her under the microscope.

"They wanted to ruin our lives and make an example out of us to anyone else in the intelligence community," she told me, even though she said she never took Drake's complaints to the press.

Speaking anonymously, other U.S. intelligence officials told me analysts often face milder forms of intimidation if they are suspected of talking to Congress. This includes threats to suspend one's security clearance, or being deliberately kept out of loop on important programs.

At issue is anonymity. The inspector general for the intelligence community is required by law to tell the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the identities of whistle-blowers that seek to speak with Congress. The DNI office has also bolstered its monitoring of intelligence professionals and their browsing habits on classified computer systems since the first mass disclosures by WikiLeaks in 2010.

Congress and others have adjusted. Nunes told me he has found creative ways for intelligence professionals to get him information. One was through an annual survey provided to intelligence analysts on the integrity of their product.

At a hearing last month Nunes disclosed that 40 percent of analysts at U.S. Central Command, or CentCom, who responded to the survey complained their reports on the Islamic State were skewed by higher-ups to make the U.S.-led campaign seem more effective than it really was. (The Pentagon's acting inspector general, Glenn Fine, is also looking into these claims).

Nunes said analysts filled out extensive comments in response to the survey describing how their work was politicized, with the intention of getting them to the committee. Yet Nunes is still trying to get those in-depth comments from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

While some analysts at Central Command have gone directly to the inspector general at the Pentagon (who declined to comment for this column), Nunes said there were many more at CentCom who did not want to risk potential retribution and file a formal complaint.

Nunes also said intelligence officials who have helped his investigation into cost-padding for the construction of a new Joint Intelligence Analysis Center in Europe have been too intimidated to go through the formal whistle-blower process.

It's understandable that lawmakers like Nunes would raise concerns about weak protections for whistle-blowers. His committee is supposed to perform oversight, even though his predecessors have not made this an issue.

But fixing the system is also in the interest of the national security state itself. In the last five years, the intelligence community has invested great resources to protect its secrets from the next mega-leaker. But if whistle-blowers inside the system see no recourse to address legitimate grievances, then the intelligence community should brace itself for more Snowdens.




If he is elected president, Donald Trump has vowed "to open up our libel laws" to make it easier to win a suit against a news provider.

He singled out The New York Times and The Washington Post for running "hit pieces" against him.

"I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money," the billionaire real-estate mogul and reality TV star declared at a rally in Texas.

Could Trump make good on his promise? I don't see how. But his threats to sue those who displease him are troubling.

There are no federal libel laws for Trump to "open up." He would have to persuade Congress to pass the libel law he wants. That's unlikely even if Republicans are in the majority.

If such a law was passed, it would be challenged in the courts. Eventually, his legal team would have to persuade the Supreme Court to uphold it. That's even more unlikely because Trump's law would seem to violate the First Amendment guarantee of a free press.

Although newspapers were viciously partisan when our republic was set up, the founders believed in a free press, no matter how irresponsible, as a bulwark against tyranny.

Under today's state laws, the plaintiff must prove the offending material was false, damaging and went beyond fair comment.

A public figure, including a president or candidate for president, also must prove the defendant knew the material was false or could be false.

This "actual malice" standard was added by the Supreme Court in 1964 in New York Times v. Sullivan. It allowed reporting of the civil-rights campaign in the South over the objections of white office holders who claimed they had been defamed.

Asked about Trump's threat "to open up our libel laws," constitutional lawyer Floyd Abrams said, "He simply doesn't know what he is talking about."

Trump often has threatened to sue reporters, news organizations and people who comment on him in the media.

He won a $5 million suit against Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin, who called Trump's Miss USA Pageant "rigged" on Facebook and on the "Today" show but could not back it up.

Trump's $5 billion lawsuit against author Timothy O'Brien was dismissed. O'Brien wrote in his book "TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald" that Trump was worth no more than a mere $250 million.

Even when the defendant prevails, a libel suit is expensive to fight. Big Media, fortunately for them, have deep pockets to pay lawyers.

As a reporter, I was never sued for libel, nor were three newspapers when I was their top editor.

Sometimes I asked a lawyer to look at a news story I knew would anger someone. Usually, the lawyer said there was no problem or suggested modifications.

We were confident we would win a libel suit but knew it would cost us plenty.

What about small publications, such as The Nation, which leans far to the left, and the conservative National Review? Both have attacked Trump. They don't have deep pockets.

Neither do typical bloggers or members of the public who take to social media.

Thus Trump's frequent threats to sue could have a chilling effect on how he is covered by Little Media.

Warning: Be careful what you say about The Donald on Facebook.

Paul Janensch, a seasonal resident of Vero Beach, was a newspaper editor and taught journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. His "Treasure Coast Essay" can be heard on WQCS, 88.9 FM, and at wqcs.org. Email address: paul.janensch@quinnipiac.edu.
Dr.Naren Distinguished - BHPian



Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Bangalore Posts: 5,036 Thanked: 16,227 Times

View My Garage





My Maruti-Suzuki Baleno Zeta Petrol | 6 years & 46000 km done



What I like:

1.Good looking well proportioned hatch

2.Spacious interiors

3.Peppy and revv happy engine with good performance

4.Neutral ride and handling

5.Feature loaded and VFM

6.Powerful stock headlamps



What I don't like:

1.Alloy wheel design

2.Rear seat has shortage of under thigh support

3.Bouncy ride at rear on broken roads/speed breakers



PRE DELIVERY



October 2015

Suzuki Baleno was doing good buzz in Indian automotive scene. We never had a plan to purchase it. I was following up with Baleno regularly. I liked the looks, features etc. I just had a remote thought that I would exchange my Grand i10 for Baleno, may be after a year!!



October 26, 2015

Baleno was launched and pricing was spot on. Baleno Zeta had all features of Swift ZXI/ZDI with few additional things like bigger tyres, automatic headlight, automatic day-night mirror, UV cut glass etc. Baleno Zeta variant was priced just 25 K more than Swift ZXI/ZDI. It was really a killer pricing and undoubtedly VFM.



I was watching the live launch event with dad. Dad was very impressed and I asked if we are going to buy. His reply was negative and said not anytime soon.



October 28,2015

I was getting ready for my work. When I was about to leave home, Dad asks me to visit Nexa showroom and enquire about Baleno. I was shocked. He told me to check the car, drive and make a booking only if car can be delivered in a week. We had a bad time, when we booked Ecosport and waited for months just to cancel it. So my dad doesn't want any issues and follow up with SA regularly to know the status. I knew all the variants and features. I told him about the same and he advised me to book Zeta variant. Now it's time for 2nd shock. I told ok, so Zeta diesel it is. Dad says hell no, we are buying petrol this time. I didn't expect dad to say petrol. All our cars were diesel except Maruti 800(1989 model and still running) and Alto K10(sold). He explained me the reason and it was logical. We have 2 diesel cars and it doesn't make sense to buy one more diesel car paying 1.3 lakhs more than petrol.



Nexa Experience

There are 2 Nexa dealers in Mangalore. I visited Bharath Nexa first. Test drive cars were not available and I checked the display car. It looked much more better in person. Showroom was crowded, SA attended me and answered all queries. I was quoted a 2 month waiting period. I thought of checking with other dealer, Mandovi nexa and take a call. I drove straight to Mandovi nexa, which is little away from city. Showroom was less crowded. I told them my requirement of delivery within a week. SA immediately checked the cars in transit and told they can deliver a premium silver zeta petrol in 4-5 days. I liked the colour and it is available only in S cross and Baleno. It looks much better than silky silver of SX4.Test drive car was not available and I had to wait one more day for it. Booking amount was 11k and fully refundable. So I decided to book and block that car in transit. SA promised me test drive by next day evening and refund the amount if I am not happy.

SA called me for test drive next day. I drove both petrol and diesel models. Petrol was so smooth and dead silent while diesel had more clatter(more than swift /sx4 diesel too). Gear shifts were slick in petrol and it was little notchy in diesel. I was used to driving diesel cars for thousands of kms. I took some time to get used to petrol. I was shifting early like diesel. I started revving and it did manage to make me smile. Engine note was sweet. I found the ride quality and handling a little better in diesel. Also I missed the mid range punch of diesel. I thought that I will get used to high revving petrol and it would be fun



Why did we not choose the top variant Alpha?

We alway used to buy top of the line variant because of safety features. Baleno has Airbags and ABS standard across all variants. Alpha costs 80k more than Zeta with additional features like touch screen navigation system,reverse camera,projector lamps with DRL, illuminated passenger side vanity mirror, different tail lamp design. I loved the front look of Alpha variant. Headlights are smoked and there is a chrome element which merges with chrome of front grill which looks really good. All lower variants miss this design. Dad believes normal headlights (halogen) are better to drive through fog. Yellow light has better penetration through fog than white light of xenon. We drive frequently to mysore and bangalore at night. I still wanted those headlights in Alpha. Also, we did not like those DR'S. It was way too bright. Zeta was cheaper and has more features compared to top variants of other cars.



November 2,2015

My SA calls me to inform that car has arrived. I asked him for PDI at stockyard. I checked the car inside out and couldn't wait to get my hands on this beauty. I made the full payment excluding road tax and accessories(which were not yet available). I reside in kasaragod which comes under kerala state and just 1 hour drive from Mangalore, Karnataka. Road tax is way cheaper in kerala than karnataka. So my plan was to get TP from mangalore and register it in kasaragod within a month. I was around 24 hours away from acquiring this baby and it felt like ever!!



November 3,2015

Delivery was scheduled at evening. Dealer got the insurance,TP from RTO etc during the day. I went to Nexa showroom with dad. We were explained about the features and other necessary details. There are a lot of settings to play with in MID. It was the first Baleno to be delivered in mangalore. Nexa has separate delivery bay. Keys were handed over along with a box of chocolates and 500 rs petrol coupon. I wanted to drive this baby first. My home is around 40 kms away from showroom. Dad followed me in our SX4.I had reset the trip meter and mileage display. I did not drive above 80kmph and mileage figure was 22 kmpl in MID for the first 50 km trip. Impressed!!



Team-Bhp Key Chain





My SX4 and Grand i10 with their new companion

1.Good looking well proportioned hatch2.Spacious interiors3.Peppy and revv happy engine with good performance4.Neutral ride and handling5.Feature loaded and VFM6.Powerful stock headlamps1.Alloy wheel design2.Rear seat has shortage of under thigh support3.Bouncy ride at rear on broken roads/speed breakersSuzuki Baleno was doing good buzz in Indian automotive scene. We never had a plan to purchase it. I was following up with Baleno regularly. I liked the looks, features etc. I just had a remote thought that I would exchange my Grand i10 for Baleno, may be after a year!!Baleno was launched and pricing was spot on. Baleno Zeta had all features of Swift ZXI/ZDI with few additional things like bigger tyres, automatic headlight, automatic day-night mirror, UV cut glass etc. Baleno Zeta variant was priced just 25 K more than Swift ZXI/ZDI. It was really a killer pricing and undoubtedly VFM.I was watching the live launch event with dad. Dad was very impressed and I asked if we are going to buy. His reply was negative and said not anytime soon.I was getting ready for my work. When I was about to leave home, Dad asks me to visit Nexa showroom and enquire about Baleno. I was shocked. He told me to check the car, drive and make a booking only if car can be delivered in a week. We had a bad time, when we booked Ecosport and waited for months just to cancel it. So my dad doesn't want any issues and follow up with SA regularly to know the status. I knew all the variants and features. I told him about the same and he advised me to book Zeta variant. Now it's time for 2nd shock. I told ok, so Zeta diesel it is. Dad says hell no, we are buying petrol this time. I didn't expect dad to say petrol. All our cars were diesel except Maruti 800(1989 model and still running) and Alto K10(sold). He explained me the reason and it was logical. We have 2 diesel cars and it doesn't make sense to buy one more diesel car paying 1.3 lakhs more than petrol.There are 2 Nexa dealers in Mangalore. I visited Bharath Nexa first. Test drive cars were not available and I checked the display car. It looked much more better in person. Showroom was crowded, SA attended me and answered all queries. I was quoted a 2 month waiting period. I thought of checking with other dealer, Mandovi nexa and take a call. I drove straight to Mandovi nexa, which is little away from city. Showroom was less crowded. I told them my requirement of delivery within a week. SA immediately checked the cars in transit and told they can deliver a premium silver zeta petrol in 4-5 days. I liked the colour and it is available only in S cross and Baleno. It looks much better than silky silver of SX4.Test drive car was not available and I had to wait one more day for it. Booking amount was 11k and fully refundable. So I decided to book and block that car in transit. SA promised me test drive by next day evening and refund the amount if I am not happy.SA called me for test drive next day. I drove both petrol and diesel models. Petrol was so smooth and dead silent while diesel had more clatter(more than swift /sx4 diesel too). Gear shifts were slick in petrol and it was little notchy in diesel. I was used to driving diesel cars for thousands of kms. I took some time to get used to petrol. I was shifting early like diesel. I started revving and it did manage to make me smile. Engine note was sweet. I found the ride quality and handling a little better in diesel. Also I missed the mid range punch of diesel. I thought that I will get used to high revving petrol and it would be funWe alway used to buy top of the line variant because of safety features. Baleno has Airbags and ABS standard across all variants. Alpha costs 80k more than Zeta with additional features like touch screen navigation system,reverse camera,projector lamps with DRL, illuminated passenger side vanity mirror, different tail lamp design. I loved the front look of Alpha variant. Headlights are smoked and there is a chrome element which merges with chrome of front grill which looks really good. All lower variants miss this design. Dad believes normal headlights (halogen) are better to drive through fog. Yellow light has better penetration through fog than white light of xenon. We drive frequently to mysore and bangalore at night. I still wanted those headlights in Alpha. Also, we did not like those DR'S. It was way too bright. Zeta was cheaper and has more features compared to top variants of other cars.My SA calls me to inform that car has arrived. I asked him for PDI at stockyard. I checked the car inside out and couldn't wait to get my hands on this beauty. I made the full payment excluding road tax and accessories(which were not yet available). I reside in kasaragod which comes under kerala state and just 1 hour drive from Mangalore, Karnataka. Road tax is way cheaper in kerala than karnataka. So my plan was to get TP from mangalore and register it in kasaragod within a month. I was around 24 hours away from acquiring this baby and it felt like ever!!Delivery was scheduled at evening. Dealer got the insurance,TP from RTO etc during the day. I went to Nexa showroom with dad. We were explained about the features and other necessary details. There are a lot of settings to play with in MID. It was the first Baleno to be delivered in mangalore. Nexa has separate delivery bay. Keys were handed over along with a box of chocolates and 500 rs petrol coupon. I wanted to drive this baby first. My home is around 40 kms away from showroom. Dad followed me in our SX4.I had reset the trip meter and mileage display. I did not drive above 80kmph and mileage figure was 22 kmpl in MID for the first 50 km trip. Impressed!! Last edited by Dr.Naren : 7th March 2016 at 10:46 .
TheEuropean Commission on Monday released a draft of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield agreement, which would replace the controversial Safe Harbor provisions that regulated U.S. access to the data of European residents.

The legal texts aim to finalize the reform of EU data protection rules, which apply to all companies doing business in the region, EC officials said. An umbrella agreement between the U.S. and the EU would establish high data protection standards on data transfers across the Atlantic.

Protecting personal data is my priority both inside the EU and internationally, said Commissioner Vera Jourova. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is a strong new framework, based on robust enforcement and monitoring, easier redress for individuals, and, for the first time, written assurance from our U.S. partners on the limitations and safeguards regarding access to data by public authorities on national security grounds.

The plan also calls for an ombudsman within the U.S. State Department as a possible redress against any allegations of privacy violations.

Complaints against companies must be resolved within 45 days, a free alternative dispute resolution process will be available, and EU members will be able to file complaints with their own national data protection authorities, the EC said.

President Obama signed the Judicial Redress Act on Feb. 24, and the commission is expected to propose the signature of the umbrella agreement.

Lack of Privacy Protections

They tried to put 10 layers of lipstick on a pig, but I doubt the court and the DPAs now suddenly want to cuddle with it, said Max Schrems, who filed a lawsuit challenging the transfer of private data to Facebooks European subsidiary in Ireland.

The agreement fails to protect against access to private data, among other shortfalls, he told the E-Commerce Times.

It allows companies to self-certify and fails to provide adequate protection for the private data of individual users, according toAccess Now.

The flow of data might go on for now, but there remains insufficient protection for users private data, insufficient legal certainty for companies. said Estelle Masse, EU policy analyst at Access Now.

The bigger news embedded in this deal is the failure to address the issue of how non-EU countries should deal with EU data, said Kapil Raina, a vice president atHyTrust.

The entire reason the EU invalidated the previous Safe Harbor laws was the revelation that government entities may be able to in fact look at noncitizen data via international U.S. companies, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Transatlantic Commerce

The deal is a strong agreement that enables transatlantic commerce while safeguarding privacy for individuals, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said.

The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is a tremendous victory for privacy, individuals and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, she said. We have spent more than two years constructing a modernized and comprehensive framework that addresses the concerns of the European Court of Justice and protects privacy.

It underpins more than US$260 billion in digital services trade across the country and will allow U.S. and EU businesses and individuals to continue to access online services, Pritzker said.

The agreement would grant the U.S. access to data, while providing enough safeguards to the EU and offer a self-regulating mechanism at the State Department, according to theInformation Technology Industry Council.

After our initial review, said Josh Kallmer, senior vice president for global policy at ITIC, it appears the two sides have achieved the objective of securing an agreement that both enhances privacy protections and provides the certainty needed to promote innovation and economic growth.
CNIL, Frances data protection authority, on Monday formally gave Facebook three months notice to comply with the French Data Protection Act.

A working group comprised of regulators from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and the German province of Hamburg recommended the action.

On-site and online inspections, along with a documentary audit, disclosed that Facebook had failed to meet the requirements of the French Data Protection Act, CNIL said.

What Facebook Must Do

The notice gave Facebook a laundry list of things to do within the next 90 days, including the following:

Stop compiling the data of French account holders for advertising purposes without a legal basis;

Stop processing data thats irrelevant, excessive or inadequate with respect to the purposes pursued, and stop asking account holders to prove their identity by providing medical records;

Obtain the explicit consent of account holders, based on specific information, for the collection and processing of their sensitive data  including religious and political views and sexual orientation;

Inform account holders on the sign-up form and profile pages about the processing of their personal data, why data is transferred outside the EU  and to whom, and the level of protection offered by third countries;

Fairly collect and process data of non-account holders with regard to data collected using the datr cookie and the like button; and

Inform Internet users and obtain their prior consent for placing cookies on their terminal.

The Europeans take a tough stance, and it makes sense, commented Laura DiDio, a research director at Strategy Analytics.

Today, in a world where everythings interconnected, the question about who owns the data becomes very muddy, she told TechNewsWorld.

Facebook is using illegal means of collecting data and a data transfer mechanism which was invalidated by the European Court of Justice last fall, DiDio pointed out. I think its pretty nervy that they collect the browsing activity of anybody who surfs the Web, even if they dont have a Facebook account  and I laugh at their response, which is always, We are willing to work with the European authorities.'

Facebook did not respond to our request to provide further details.

Facebooks Options

Facebook will likely try some sort of delaying tactic, whether legal or procedural remains to be seen, surmised Mike Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

However, Facebook has to be able to target advertising to continue being a going concern, and this order would pretty much shut down French operations, Jude told TechNewsWorld. The procedural fixes will require rearchitecting its service for the French market.

Faced last year with a similar order from Belgium, Facebook responded by banning nonmembers in the country from accessing any pages on its website. That resulted in complaints of blackmail, so its unlikely Facebook will try that tactic again.

Forget about going to court, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

France has a very fast legal system, he told TechNewsWorld. Penalties could be assessed and reach nosebleed levels very quickly, and appeals are very limited.

The Napoleonic legal system doesnt embrace the concept of fairness, Enderle said.

Further, the French are likely to make an example of the company if it doesnt comply, he suggested. This could include criminal indictments for Zuckerberg and his senior staff, and theres an extradition treaty between France and the U.S. The French take this stuff really seriously.

Fallout From Frances Actions

More investigations are being conducted into Facebook by the various EU regulatory authorities, and India just last week banned the companys Free Basics service.

The Internet is being Balkanized by competing regulatory regimes, Frosts Jude said. As countries move to impose their own regulations on the Web, the overall freedom people enjoy there will ultimately disappear.

Expect repercussions against Google, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube, and every other company doing business online that uses consumer data to tailor services, Jude cautioned. This is definitely a slippery slope.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations efforts to compel Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the slain San Bernardino terrorists could threaten national security, charged Craig Federighi, Apples SVP of engineering, in an op-ed piece published Monday in The Washington Post.

Terrorists and criminals could launch attacks on vital infrastructure through access to just one persons smartphone and cryptographic protections on smartphones are a critical line of defense, he maintained.

Law enforcement officials have suggested that Apple return to the safeguards of iOS 7, which have since been breached by hackers, Federighi wrote. Further, hacker kits to attack iOS 7 weaknesses are available to less-skilled attackers.

The FBIs desire for Apple to create a backdoor also poses a threat, he argued, noting that security is an endless race and that yesterdays best defenses cannot fend off the attacks of today or tomorrow.

A Focus for Discord

More than 800 responses ro the Post article showed support for both sides of the controversy.

Arguing that only bad actors need worry about government intrusions is specious since the data analytics that sifts through metadata and associated content to establish networks of associations  is hardly foolproof, wrote Code Ferret.

The FBI could abuse the power obtained under a favorable court ruling, suggested Joan Ashley.

Rbobbin disagreed, noting that encryption is too sweeping.

Craig Lawson responded by posting a link to a letter from Salihin Kondoker, husband of one of the slain victims, who expressed support for encryption despite his personal tragedy.

A Community Split

Members of the security committee also are divided in their views on the issue.

Compelling Apple to build a backdoor for its own product actually undermines the security and personal safety of millions of Americans and others around the world, especially those living under authoritarian regimes, said Sophia Cope, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

It does so by creating the legal precedent, by weakening the trust users have in software updates supposedly authorized by companies, and by building the technology itself, she told TechNewsWorld.

Walking backwards into the future is never a clever way, remarked Ebba Blitz, CEO of Alertsec.

Its not only weakening encryption for individuals and companies  its also weakening encryption for the American government, she told TechNewsWorld. By creating the possibility of brute force [attacks], we are paving the way for anyone, including terrorists, to hack into our data easily.

If Apple should lose this court battle, we may need to take a look at, and revise the purpose of, the law, Blitz continued, warning that in the long run, it would drive the U.S. tech industry overseas.

Everything from health data to financial data to conversations with and about our kids is protected because of encryption, contended Jake Ward, president and CEO of the Application Developers Alliance. Why would we want to go back to iOS 7?

Deliberately weakening encryption just for the good guys is not possible, he told TechNewsWorld. You cant secure your home while leaving a window open for the police, hoping bad guys dont find it and use it.

With a court order, law enforcement agents should be able to unlock any cellphone or device, countered Philip Lieberman, president of Lieberman Software.

This doesnt put security or privacy at risk, because theres a one-to-one capability that would allow for limited access to single devices only via cryptographic techniques, he argued.

There is no win or loss in the court battle  only clarity in the governments overall position toward law enforcements immediate right to access systems, Lieberman told TechNewsWorld.

Apple is trying hard to answer some important questions about the role technology plays in our lives and its relationship with the law and our rights guaranteed under it, suggested ADAs Ward.

These are existential questions in the digital age that arent new to law enforcement, lawmakers or technology companies, he pointed out. That they are being talked about in a broader form may ultimately bring about a solution.
FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the government has the legal right to gain limited access to the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters and other suspected terrorists.

Congress and the judicial system can create a mechanism to protect the safety of the American people while preserving constitutional rights against government overreach, he said in prepared testimony.

New methods of electronic communications have transformed society, Comey noted, adding that he supports the creation of strong encryption technology that protects large institutions and private citizens against cybercriminals and others who might attempt to gain access to proprietary data.

At the same time, terrorists and others criminals have used this technology to stay one step ahead of law enforcement, he said.

We have always respected the fundamental right of people to engage in private communications, regardless of the medium or technology, Comey testified. Whether it is instant messages, texts or old-fashioned letters, citizens have the right to communicate with one another in private  without unauthorized government surveillance  not simply because the Constitution demands it, but because the free flow of information is vital to a thriving democracy.

Clear and Present Threat

However, groups like the Islamic State have used social media to recruit and radicalize individuals to commit terrorist acts, he warned. Law enforcement needs additional tools to gather evidence to prosecute cases and in some instances prevent the acts from occurring.

The FBI is seeking only limited steps from Apple to help it open the San Bernardino shooters encrypted iPhone. It wants the ability to bypass the encryption and spread out the time between individual attempts to guess a password, Comey said during a question-and-answer session with House members.

He likened the request to removing a group of guard dogs so that investigators could access the iPhone and get enough time to essentially break into the device themselves.

Asked repeatedly if the FBI had gone to other private companies or agencies to try to use alternative methods for unlocking the phone, Comey admitted that he was not an expert on the technology and that the FBI and other agencies had been stymied in their attempts to break into the phone.

Agency Assistance

The FBI asked San Bernardino County, where the shooter was employed, for assistance in retrieving data from the iPhone in December, county spokesperson David Wert said.

The statements that have been made contending that resetting the Apple ID password is what made the backup impossible are incorrect. The fact that the phone was off and PIN locked is what made a cloud backup impossible before the Apple ID password was reset, he told the E-Commerce Times.

An iCloud backup requires a WiFi connection, and an iPhone thats turned off wont link to WiFi until the phone is unlocked, Wert said.

At that point, the county said the best that could be done was to check the cloud for any past data uploads, but we would need to reset the Apple ID password because no one knew it. The FBI asked the county if it would do that, and the county agreed, unlocking the cloud and providing the FBI with the data that was in the cloud, he said.

Can of Worms

Granting the backdoor software request in the San Bernardino case will open the door for countless other requests by the Department of Justice  and foreign governments  in far less important circumstances, according to Eli Dourado, director of the Technology Policy Program at theMercatus Center at George Mason University.

This isnt a trade-off between security and privacy  its a trade-off between two kinds of security, he told the E-Commerce Times. One type of security is the kind provided by the FBI; the other is the security that iPhone users can get from encryption on their phones.

In a world with repressive regimes as well as cybercriminals, the latter takes on greater importance, Dourado said.

A U.S. magistrate judge in New Yorkruled Monday that Apple did not have to assist the government in accessing the phone of a drug dealer whose encrypted iPhone was seized along with other mobile devices in a 2014 raid by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

The government did not have the legal authority under the All Writs Act to make Apple provide a way to bypass the encryption built into the phone and give law enforcement the ability to search for additional evidence, the judge ruled.

The dealer in that case pleaded guilty last year, and any new evidence would be used at sentencing or to pursue co-conspirators or others involved in the drug ring, according to court documents.

We are disappointed in the magistrates ruling and plan to ask the district judge to review the matter in the coming days, DOJ spokesperson Emily Pierce said.

As our prior court filings make clear, Apple expressly agreed to assist the government in accessing the data on this iPhone  as it had many times before in similar circumstances  and only changed course when the governments application for assistance was made public by the court, she told the E-Commerce Times.

This phone may contain evidence that will assist us in an active criminal investigation, Pierce added, and we will continue to use the judicial system in our attempt to obtain it.
Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell on Tuesday testified before the House Judiciary Committee that his company should not be required write new code for software that would weaken the security of the iPhone in the wake of the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attacks.

The FBI wants Apple to take action that would put the privacy and security of millions of the companys customers at risk, he said.

Apple has no sympathy for terrorists, said Sewell, who noted that the company immediately cooperated with authorities in the investigation.

The request not only sets a dangerous precedent, but would open the company to countless other requests in the future, putting the security of all those involved in jeopardy, he said. Congress should settle the debate based on a thoughtful and honest conversion on the facts.

Most importantly, the decisions should be made by you and your colleagues as representatives of the people, rather than through warrant based on a 220-year-old statute, Sewell told the committee in prepared testimony.

During questions and answers with committee members, Sewell pushed back on the notion Apple was engaged in some sort of marketing exercise in its quest to fight the order. The government claimed in some court filings that Apple had complied numerous times with the requests until they were made public.

Apple was doing what was in the best interests of its shareholders, FBI Director James Comeytold the committee, noting that he had previously worked in a corporate capacity and understood the companys corporate accountability.

Microsoft plans to file an amicus brief on behalf of Apple this week in its court battle with the Department of Justice and the FBI, a spokesperson for Apple told the E-Commerce Times.

Prosecutors Stymied

Congress should take the lead on deciding how to balance the issues involved with accessing data on encrypted devices, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. testified at the House hearing.

Ninety-five percent of the criminal cases in the U.S. are handled by state and local law enforcement agencies, and Apples switch to default device encryption in 2014 has severely hampered their ability to investigate many criminal cases, he said.

As of November, Vances office was locked out of 111 smartphones running iOS 8 or higher, he said, citing a report released by the DAs office, called Report on Smartphone Encryption and Public Safety. The number has grown to 175 devices since then, representing 25 percent of the phones received by his offices cyber lab.

With more users migrating to the newer operating systems, investigators cant access half of the phones coming into the DAs office, he said. The phones are involved in investigations of attempted murder, child pornography, sex trafficking, sexual abuse of a child and other crimes.

The district attorney in Harris County, Texas, has more than 100 iPhones that it cant access, involving cases of human trafficking, violent sex crimes and other crimes, said Vance, who also was representing theNational District Attorneys Association. Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, cant access 30 devices, and authorities in Connecticut cant access 46 devices.

His office has drafted language for legislation that would require designers of operating systems to provide a way for law enforcement to access unencrypted data on the phones as long as they had a warrant, he said. The legislation would not require the makers to do anything themselves unless the encryption was part of the design.

Other telecom and technology companies have received official requests for data, Vance noted. Verizon received 149,810 in the first half of 2015; Facebook received 17,577 during the same period.

FBI Fighting Last Battle

Law enforcement is using outdated methods and laws to combat a 21st century problem, Susan Landau, who teaches cybersecurity policy atWorcester Polytechnic University, testified. Many law enforcement agencies lack the tools and expertise to fight modern cybercriminals and terrorists using new technologies.

Counter to claims by FBI Director Comey, encryption has been an issue for decades, dating back to at least the 1970s, she said. Other experts in the private sector have ways of accessing the data that the FBI insists only Apple can provide.

Landau, a former policy analyst at Google and distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems, cited the Chaos Computer Club, a group of European hackers that has exposed flaws in security systems over 30 years. The group last year demonstrated that it could recover data on security chips using electron microscopes.

Technological Misunderstandings

Landeaus testimony echoed the wider security community and computer security experts that Apple should not be forced to reengineer its devices, said Mark Jaycox, civil liberties legislative lead at theElectronic Frontier Foundation.

Director Comey kept on urging Congress to handle this issue  clearly implying legislation  despite the fact that President Obama and the administration said they did not plan on proposing or supporting any legislation, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The law enforcement witnesses appear to not understand the technology or wide-ranging precedent at stake in this case, Jaycox said, adding that committee members did seem to be trying to understand the technological details.

A majority of the committee appear to be on Apples  and the Constitutions  side, he said.

TheAmerican Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday announced that it will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Apples fight against the FBI request to create software that will open encrypted iPhones.

The brief notes that Congress deliberately withheld authority from the government to require that technology companies bypass the security built into their own devices.

Law enforcement may not commandeer innocent third parties into becoming its undercover agents, its spies or its hackers, the brief states.
Researchers atMIT and theUniversity of Innsbruck last week announced that they had designed and constructed the worlds first scalable quantum computer, a development that could make existing encryption technology obsolete.

They built the computer using five atoms in an ion trap, according to a report published in the journal Science.

The researchers used laser pulses to carry out an algorithm  conceived in 1994 by MIT Professor Peter Shor  on each atom to correctly factor the number 15. The computer system is designed so that atoms and lasers can be added to factor much larger numbers, creating the worlds first system that can scale Shors algorithm.

The algorithm is the most complex quantum algorithm known, but it can be upgraded in a laboratory setting, said Isaac Chuang, professor of physics, electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

Chuang, considered a pioneer in the field, designed a computer in 2001 based on a single molecule that could be held in superposition and manipulated through nuclear magnetic resonance to factor the number 15. Those results, published in the journal Nature, were not scalable and were considered experimental.

The New Math

Unlike traditional computing, which relies on 0s and 1s to carry out algorithmic instructions, quantum computing relies on qubits, which are atomic-scale units that can be 0 and 1 simultaneously, a state known as superposition. That allows a supercomputer to carry out two separate lines of instructions at the same time, for example.

Weve been hearing about quantum computers for many years and the concerns about how they may be able to break existing encryption schemes, said Steve Pate, chief architect atHyTrust.

A lot of the work came from the academic community and resulted in the DES algorithm being replaced with 3DES and later AES, which is widely used now, he told TechNewsWorld.

3DES  pronounced trip-DES  is a mode of the DES encryption algorithm that encrypts data three times. Three 64-bit keys are used, instead of one, for an overall key length of 192 bits. The first encryption is encrypted with a second key, and the resulting cipher text is again encrypted with a third key, Pate explained.

This improves the security of the algorithm and uses a larger key size but makes the overall encryption/decryption time longer, he said.

Out of the Laboratory?

The MIT development shows that quantum computing has moved beyond an idea and into a question of implementation, said Kevin OBrien, CEO ofGreatHorn.

The implications here are twofold, he told TechNewsWorld. First, this development suggests that quantum computing is becoming a question of scale rather than theory, much as the development of smaller chip sizes allow for increased complexity in traditional computing.

The second point is that the question of relying on the exchange of keys, even with larger key sizes, will not be sufficient in a quantum-enabled world, he said. New types of encryption will be required.

Implementing quantum computing on a large scale is not cost effective, said Mike Jude, program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

The technology to maintain a 5-qubit computer is very complex and difficult, he told TechNewsWorld, noting that it involves supercooling and laser entrapment. These are not likely to become desktop components any time soon. In fact, the very act of using a qubit destroys it, so a 5-qubit computer is good for one solution before it has to be rebuilt.

While we still have a few years before quantum computers become mainstream, Eli Dourado, director of theTechnology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, told TechNewsWorld, governments and a few other security-conscious organizations should start using quantum-safe encryption techniques now.




1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
Last week, it was reported that Apple had received a massive boost in its upcoming trial against the Department of Justice when, in a similar case, a New York Magistrate Judge ruled that the Cupertino company could not be forced to unlock an iPhone 5s owned by an accused drug dealer. Now, authorities are looking to have this decision overturned.

Brooklyn judge James Orenstein said that he had no legal authority under the 227-year old All Writs Act to order Apple to access the data on the suspect's iPhone. The law is the same one that the Justice Department wants to use to compel Apple to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's work-issued iPhone in the upcoming California trial.

New York authorities want Apple to help them access the data on Queen's resident Jun Feng's device, which is locked with a passcode. If an attempt to brute force the code is made, there is a risk that all the data on the iPhone will be deleted as there is no way to tell if the auto-erase feature is enabled. The prospect of losing all the stored information is the same scenario faced in the San Bernardino case.

In its filing on Monday, the Justice Department has asked that a higher ranking judge, Margot Brodie, hear the case. It adds that Apple has the capability to bypass the passcode of iPhones with operating systems that predate iOS 8 - as it has done for authorities many times in the past - therefore it does not need to build new software for the task. For reference, the iPhone in the New York case runs iOS 7, whereas the one in the California case uses iOS 9.

In light of the debate that has recently come to surround this issue, it is worth briefly noting what this case is not about. Apple is not being asked to do anything it does not currently have the capability to do. Apple may perform the passcode-bypass in its own lab, using its own technicians, just as it always has, without revealing to the government how it did so. Therefore, granting the application will not affect the technological security of any Apple iPhone nor hand the government a 'master key.'

Apple argues that just because it complied with past judicial orders to unlock iPhones doesn't mean it agrees with the process. The government also claims that Apple had initially agreed to help authorities access Feng's iPhone, but changed its stance once the California case hit the spotlight.

Judge Orenstein's ruling was a major setback for the government, as it could set a precedent and hamstring its case against Apple. Responding to the new DoJ filing, the iPhone maker said: "Judge Orenstein ruled the FBI's request would 'thoroughly undermine fundamental principles of the Constitution' and we agree. We share the Judge's concern that misuse of the All Writs Act would start us down a slippery slope that threatens everyone's safety and privacy."

Apple's federal court hearing in California is scheduled for March 22. The outcome of this privacy vs. security trial could have tremendous implications for tech companies, and influence the way the government monitors it citizens.

Image credit: Wachiwit / Shutterstock
The controversial Peeple app that stirred a firestorm of criticism a few months back is now launching in the United States, set to hit iOS.

Peeple first made its debut back in early October, shaping up as a nasty app for rating other individuals  somewhat like a Yelp for people. The app model was to allow users to rate everyone they met or interacted with and give them one- to five-star reviews.

If you find this approach a bit too objectifying and mean, you're not alone. The Internet exploded with rage over the concept and raised serious concerns regarding the huge potential for bullying and harassment. Peeple succumbed to pressure one week later and disappeared from the market, going back to the drawing board.

Fast-forward to the present date, and Peeple is now rearing its ugly head once again, ready to launch on iOS in North America.

"Peeple is a social networking reputation app with anti-abuse and accountability features baked right in," reads the press release.

The Peeple Controversy

"In October 2015 Peeple announced itself to the world. The reputation app promised to connect people with each others through honest reviews. The world talked back. People believed Peeple threatened their privacy, was prone to cruel bullying, threats, and abuse."

The announcement goes on to point out the irony of the situation, noting that the developers behind the app ended up being threatened, harassed, "shouted down" on social media and with their privacy invaded.

"People taught Peeple a valuable lesson and now the app is better than ever," adds the press release.

Reputation Tool

The app apparently aims to enable users to better understand others, serving as a tool for building one's reputation. Users can recommend (rate) friends and acquaintances in three areas: professional, personal and dating.

No feedback is anonymous, because reviewers have to own up to what they have to say about others. Moreover, commenters will soon be able to subscribe to a "Truth License," which will be a premium paid version that will display everything ever written about a person (even if it was not published live on their profile).

According to Peeple, this approach will enable people to better evaluate the ones around them by getting "The Truth." In Peeple's vision, "The Truth" is a collection of all recommendations written.

Wait, there's more. Each user gets a "Peeple Number," virtually labeling them with a score mirroring the total recommendations received.

As previously mentioned, Peeple is now available for download on iOS, with no Android version available initially. The app requires users to be at least 21 years old and have an active Facebook account.





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It looks like the Governator just made history: Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the first person in history to give a presidential endorsement via Snapchat, and the lucky candidate is none other than John Kasich.

Schwarzenegger took to the social media platform on March 6 to record a snapchat of the onetime body builder and actor, expressing his solidarity with Kasich despite having made overtures to give his presidential rec over to GOP contender Marco Rubio earlier on in the race.

By itself, Schwarzenegger's endorsement isn't all that surprising  the GOP hopeful and the former governor of California have been friends since the 1980s, back when the Terminator star was hosting a bodybuilding expo in Ohio. That and Schwarzenegger also gave an in-person endorsement later today at a Kasich rally in Ohio, referring to him as an "action hero."

"He kicked some serious butt," Schwarzenegger stated. "He was an action hero when he went to Washington."

As it turns out, however, Schwarzenegger's use of Snapchat as a platform to announce his endorsement isn't surprising, either. As the Verge pointed out, the man known as "Ahhhnold" has been a fan of the platform for over a year.

Whether or not you're a fan of Schwarzenegger, you have to give him props for his username: "ArnoldSchnitzel."

Even though Schwarzenegger is the first person go endorse a president using a Snapchat vid, he's not the first to give an endorsement over the Internet. A slew of celebrities (including Donald Trump, of all people) endorsed either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney on Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Tumblr during the 2012 presidential election, and Kim Kardashian, a self-proclaimed master of the art of the selfie, even gave a rare half-faced self-taken photo with Hillary Clinton to declare her support of the Democrat hopeful in August 2015.

Add me on Snapchat (ArnoldSchnitzel) and if you're here, add your stories to the Arnold Bodybuild story! https://t.co/LIHbQLjlIZ  Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 7, 2015

Source: Twitter

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People from Southeast Asia is in for a total treat as they have the best view for the total solar eclipse set to happen on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If the clouds will cooperate, space enthusiasts and millions of other people in the region will witness the spectacular show.

People in Indonesia, particularly in Palembang in Sumatra will have the first view of the totality. However, the totality will be observed the longest in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines for one to three minutes.

Can't Fly To Southeast Asia? Watch Online.

You don't need to travel all the way to Asia to view the rare space occurrence. As long as you have a computer or device with Internet, then you are good to go. Thanks to various websites that will provide live streaming of the highly anticipated event.

The Slooh Community Observatory will host a live stream of the eclipse starting at 6 p.m., Eastern Time on Tuesday.

From the location of Slooh, the group will be able to provide about two minutes of the totality starting at around 7:37 p.m., Eastern Time.

During the stage of partial eclipse, Slooh partner observatories in Hawaii will also provide live views.

The period of the most prominent totality is said to occur for around four minutes and nine seconds.

The Slooh coverage will be spearheaded by astronomer Paul Cox with some special guests including British science communicator Lucie Green. A group from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands will also take part in the live stream.

Together, these experts will guide online watchers during the entire event.

What makes the entire experience more enjoyable is the possibility of Slooh's StarShare camera, which will enable users to take photos and share them on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

"StarShare Camera enables viewers to snap and share photos throughout the eclipse," Slooh writes.

Viewers are also encouraged to post questions and comments on Twitter during the coverage, using the hashtag #SloohEclipse.

Other Websites

Space.com will also broadcast the event courtesy of Slooh.

Of course, NASA will not be left behind. The space agency will start its coverage of the total solar eclipse at 8 p.m., Eastern Time on Tuesday. The broadcast will include views from the Federated States of Micronesia and the Exploratorium and the National Science Foundation.

Social media users may also interact with NASA during the event via Twitter, Facebook and Google+, using the hashtag #eclipse2016. The official Twitter for the eclipse is @NASASunEarth. People may also head to NASA's Flickr account for the eclipse to view photos.

National Geographic will also feature a live feed of the total solar eclipse in its website.

Excited? Well, it's really one great event that even non-space enthusiasts will surely love to watch. The anticipation is creeping by the minute and special thanks to these websites, people from across the world will be able to have front-row seats to the total solar eclipse.

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China is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping pollution that is causing global warming. Climate scientists have predicted that China's carbon emissions will continue to rise in the next decades but a new study says that these emissions may have already peaked in 2014 and could now begin a steady decline.

In the study from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at the London School of Economic, the researchers said that as China finalizes its 13th Five Year Plan for economic development for 2016 to 2020, and due to negotiations from the Paris Agreement held on December 2015, the country is moving toward a new development mode, focused on better quality growth.

It may seem an ambitious set of targets especially for China, which surpassed the United States as the world's leading carbon dioxide emitter in 2007, but economists think that China has achieved the goal even before the agreement was made in Paris.

"We basically focused on trends in China's economy generally, which affect energy demand and trends in energy supply, and used that to come up with a forecast of the trajectory of China's carbon dioxide emissions in the energy sector over the coming decade," said Fergus Green, a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Key Findings

"It is quite possible that emissions will fall modestly from now on, implying that 2014 was the peak," the researchers said. "If emissions do grow above 2014 levels, that growth trajectory is likely to be relatively flat, and a peak would still be highly likely by 2025."

The study cited that if carbon emissions from energy would grow, they are likely to increase much slower than under the old economic model and will possibly peak at some point in the decade before 2025.

"Better global understanding of the extent and pace of change occurring in China should spur a reassessment of likely future global emissions, trends in the relative prices of commodities and technologies affected by structural change in China, and market opportunities for low-/zero-carbon technologies and services," the researchers concluded [pdf].

2030 Estimate Based On National Conditions

China pledged to bring its greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by 2030 as part of its participation in the Paris Agreement. Xie Zhenhua, the climate change representative of China said that emissions from the country have not peaked in 2014 and in fact, it is still increasing.

Xie Zhenhua and Xi Fengming, a carbon researcher with the China Academy of Sciences attributed the decline in emissions last year to an economic slowdown rather than an emissions peak.

"I would like to believe that the peak will be around 2030, and if stricter policies for carbon reduction and some reforms in the way local leaders are evaluated on GDP growth, the peak will come in 2025," said Fengming, noting that he doesn't think China's gas emission peak was reached in 2014.

Photo: Dean Hochman | Flickr

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Google has opened the doors of Project Fi to anyone in the United States who owns a Gmail account and compatible devices.

The wireless service went official about 10 months ago, but up until now, interested customers had to go through an invite system to get their hands on it.

"We launched Project Fi as an invitation-only Early Access program to make sure we could deliver the best quality of service to our first customers. Today, we're excited to be exiting our invitation-only mode and opening up Project Fi so that people across the U.S. can now sign up for service without having to wait in-line for an invite," Simon Arscott, product manager of Project Fi, says.

Requirements

As the case is with practically any service, there are some requirements that need to be satisfied. First off, Project Fi is available only to those who live in covered service areas, where Google will assist subscribers in verifying it during the sign-up process. Needless to say, consumers need a Gmail account, but they should also have a Nexus 6, 6P, 5X or recent LTE-enabled Nexus tablets. Lastly, they should be 18 years old and above.

One quick word regarding compatibility: Project Fi reportedly works with a handful of other unlocked handsets and a couple of non-Nexus LTE tablets such as later versions of the iPad and Samsung Galaxy tablets.

To make sure everyone gets a chance to take part in the service, Google is also downsizing the cost of the Nexus 5X from $349 to $199  that's a pretty big $150 price drop. Of course, they'll have to purchase and activate it via Project Fi, and the offer will last until April 7 only.

How To Sign Up For Project Fi

Step 1: Enter your Gmail account details at the Project Fi sign-up page.

Step 2: Navigate through the prompts.

Step 3: Enter your ZIP code, service address, new phone number and wireless plan.

Step 4: Order your Project Fi SIM card.

All that's left after that is to wait for the kit to arrive at the doorstep, which will contain instructions on activating the service.

For the record, Project Fi is powered by Sprint and T-Mobile networks. As for the cost, consumers will have to pay a $20 base fee for unlimited texts and calls and $10 on top for every gigabyte worth of data. In the event that they pay too much in a month, their money will just get refunded.

What's more, the plan provides Wi-Fi tethering, 3G data in more than 120 countries and international texts. Google has also stated that over 15 percent of subscribers have already used the service in other countries.

Project Fi wasn't exactly the hardest service to sign up for, and according to users, they only had to wait for about a week at most to get in. At any rate, it's great news to hear that Google is making things a lot easier for everyone by dropping a minor hurdle  well, for every person in the United States, at least  and offering the Nexus 5X at an affordable price.

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Toyota is shifting its gears into another initiative. This time around, the automaker wishes to help the blind and visually impaired people see with its wearable set named Project BLAID.

Toyota has pushed out a blogpost on its website describing how the Project BLAID is going to enrich the lives of these people.

It says it is currently cooking up its wearable device aimed at helping them do a lot of things with greater confidence, independence and freedom.

How Project BLAID Wearable Set Works?

Users wear the device around their shoulders. Rather than using canes and basic GPS devices when navigating indoor spaces, such as shopping malls and office buildings, the device is going to aid them in identifying everyday features, which include escalators, bathrooms, doors and stairs.

The wearable device is going to be crammed with cameras enabling the users to check out their surroundings. With the use of vibration motors along with speakers, information is being communicated to the users. Meanwhile, by means of voice recognition and buttons, users, in turn, will be able to interact with the device.

In the long run, Toyota says that the Project BLAID wearable set is going to be loaded with object identification, integrate mapping, plus facial recognition technologies.

Project BLAID is one example of how Toyota is leading the way to the future of mobility, when getting around will be about more than just cars, said Simon Nagata, Toyota Motor North Americas Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer.

He went on to say that the company wants to extend the freedom of mobility for all, regardless of their location, situation or ability.

Doug Moore, Manager of Partner Robotics at Toyota, believes that this particular project of Toyota has a great potential in improving the lives of blind and visually impaired individuals.

"Toyota is more than just the great cars and trucks we build," Moore said.

To make the wearable set even smarter, the company is launching an employee engagement campaign inviting team members company-wide to send in videos of common indoor landmarks. The videos will then be used by developers to teach the device to have a better grasp of these spaces.

In November, Tech Times reported that Microsoft, in collaboration with British charity Guide Dogs, had given its smart headsets a boost to aid visually impaired in navigating their surroundings.

If you wish to get a quick look of how the Project BLAID wearable set functions, check out this video shown.





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A human being is a speck of dust compared to the vastness of the known universe, which is itself constantly expanding and changing. In fact, as the universe continues to "stretch," new cosmological structures and objects are merging.

About 5 percent of the universe is composed of ordinary matter, including quarks, leptons, atoms, stars and galaxies. Approximately 25 percent of the universe is comprised of an invisible, theoretical substance called dark matter, which can only be detected from its gravitational effects.

The other 70 percent is attributed to a cosmological constant called dark energy, a type of energy density that seems to exist in completely empty space. It permeates all of space and is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Dark energy remains a mystery for scientists, but a new study could possibly shed light on its nature.

The Universe In Motion

Physicists in the past have studied the formation of large-scale cosmological structures by relying on simulations of gravity according to Newton's law. These Newtonian numerical simulations or codes say that space itself is static and does not change while time moves forward.

The simulations are very precise if the matter in the universe moves slowly at about 300 km (186.4 miles) per second.

But when the particles of matter move at high speed, the codes only permit approximate calculations and does not describe the fluctuations of dark energy. It was indeed necessary to develop a new method to simulate the formation of structures in the universe.

As a result, a team of physicists in Switzerland has developed numerical simulations based on Albert Einstein's equations to offer us a better glimpse of the complex formation of structures in the universe.

Led by Professor Ruth Durrer, scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) were able to incorporate the rotation of space-time into their calculations and even determine the amplitude of gravitational waves.

The new code, which is called Gevolution, is highly based on Einstein's theory of general relativity. Unlike Newton's static space theory, Einstein's theory considers space as dynamic, and space-time as constantly changing.

In order to predict the amplitude and impact of gravitational waves, as well as the rotation of space-time induced by the formation of cosmological structures, the research team at UNIGE analyzed a cubic portion in space. The space consists of 60 billion zones with each containing a portion of the galaxy.

UNIGE scientists were able to study the motion of particles and calculate the distance and time between two galaxies in the universe through Einstein's equations, with the help of the LATfield2 library and the Swiss Supercomputer in Lugano.

The resulting spectra of the team's calculations allowed them to see the difference between the findings of Gevolution and Newtonian codes. For the first time ever, they measured the effect of gravitational waves and rotation of space-time induced by cosmological structure-formation.

An Invaluable Tool

Because this has never been done before, scientists believe they will be able to test the theory of general relativity on much larger scales. It may soon shed light on the mechanisms of dark energy.

"I think it is an important step forward," said University of Oxford Professor Jo Dunkley, who was not involved in the study. "It's something that people have been trying to work towards for a while."

However, some experts believe Einstein's equations are too complicated and expensive to solve because it takes too much computer time.

"To study growth of structure on cosmological scales we can usually make do with the older Newtonian theory of gravity," said University of Sussex's David Seery, Ph.D., adding that although Gevolution can offer advantages, it has yet to reveal new revelations.

Still, Dunkley believes the simulations will prove themselves valuable.

"This is really timely because we are just about to embark on this whole wealth of new data," said Dunkley. "[W]e will need these computer simulations available if we want to learn new physics from the new data that is coming."

In the meantime, the findings are featured in the journal Nature Physics.

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Microsoft rolls out the private preview of SQL Server to select Linux users, eyeing a full release sometime by mid-2017.

The enterprise product is arguably second to the Windows operating system in terms of earning Microsoft the high-profile status it holds. In other words, the arrival of SQL Server to Linux is big news, not to mention that the development marks the first time that the company is sending out one of its main products beyond the Windows territory.

"SQL Server on Linux will provide customers with even more flexibility in their data solution. One with mission-critical performance, industry-leading TCO, best-in-class security, and hybrid cloud innovations - like Stretch Database which lets customers access their data on-premises and in the cloud whenever they want at low cost - all built in," Scott Guthrie, executive VP of the Cloud and Enterprise Group of Microsoft, says.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn't exactly like the idea of the open-source operating system, going to lengths of calling it a "cancer" and an equivalent of "communism" in the software industry. That means that the Linux version of SQL Server could have come sooner if it weren't for his objections.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella doesn't share the same sentiments as his predecessor, where this progress serves as evidence to that.

"I think it was a religious thing. We would love to have seen this Linux thing five years ago, we were telling them that's what they should do," Merv Adrian, an analyst at Gartner, says.

Moreover, Nadella says that this move could potentially create a better standing for the company in the database market that runs on other operating systems.

"I want us to be aggressive in going after all opportunities," he says.

Under Nadella's leadership, other endeavors of Microsoft that deviate from the long-running unwillingness of the company's previous head to expand include the Linux compatibility of the cloud-computing platform Azure.

This is expected to be a lucrative undertaking for Microsoft, and it proves how Nadella knows that working with rivals in the competition could be a fruitful venture when carried out correctly.

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23 May 2022

- Understand the French healthcare system, how you access it and how you are reimbursed - Useful if you are new to the French healthcare system or want a more in-depth understanding - Reader question and answer section Aimed at non-French nationals living here, the guide gives an overview of what you are (and are not) covered for. There is also information for second-home owners and regular visitors.
An appellate court's ruling in the case of the United States vs Apple is final. The tech firm must pay $450 million to settle the antitrust case, after the Supreme Court refused to hear Apple's appeal of the ruling.

The High Court made no comment when it refused Apple's appeal.

Apple will pay $400 million to e-book publishers, $30 million in legal fees and $20 million to the 30 states that sued it. The five publishers implicated in the scandal have already paid out a combined $166 million to the plaintiffs in the suit.

The majority of the individuals who bought the overpriced e-book will receive relief in the form of automatic credits via their e-book retailers, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Those credits may be put towards future purchases.

Finally, Apple's part in consciously conspiring with publishers to push up the prices of e-books has been "settled once and for all," stated Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.

"And consumers will be made whole," Baer said. "The outstanding work of the Department of Justice team - working with our steadfast state attorney general partners - exposed this cynical misconduct by Apple and its book publisher co-conspirators and ensured that justice was done."

Apple is believed to have conspired with HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Group, Hachette Book Group, Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC ( Macmillan) and Simon & Schuster. The defendants were allegedly unhappy with the price points Amazon had set when it started selling e-books, so they orchestrated a scheme to raise the standard.

To set the standard for higher prices, about a 40 percent price increase, the group worked out a scheme in which publishers would set the price point instead of retailers, concluded U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of Southern District of New York.

In her opinion, Cote noted comments the late Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder, made when asked why people would pay Apple more when Amazon was selling the same e-books for much less.

"Jobs paused and with a knowing nod responded, 'The price will be the same,' and explained that 'publishers are actually withholding their books from Amazon because they are not happy,'" wrote Cote in her ruling.

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Male friendships  the stuff of bromance movies and often pitted against or portrayed as romantic relationships  could actually be good for your health by reducing your stress, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley found in a rat study that mild stress made male rats more social and cooperative, and enjoyed same-sex friendships as well. Their oxytocin levels in the brain increased when they touched and huddled more, leading to better stress management and longer lives.

The hormone oxytocin has been previously shown to help people socialize and bond better, increasing resilience to stress and health. Its role in social bonding has been widely studied in male-female pairs as well as mother-child bonding.

Although often looked at as un-masculine, a bromance can actually be good for ones health, confirmed lead author Elizabeth Kirby.

Males are getting a bad rap when you look at animal models of social interactions, because they are assumed to be instinctively aggressive, Kirby says, adding that even rats, on the contrary, like a good male-male cuddle after a bad day.

The hormone oxytocin  released after a stressful episode  can be a way to bring individuals closer in times of mild stress, leading to greater bonding and so-called fear extinction. In the rats case, a few hours of mild stress or being restrained led them to cooperate better, despite a prevailing dominance hierarchy in their group.

Among rats whose water was repeatedly taken away, there was aggression and a lot of pushing and shoving at the water source. It was a different case for mildly stressed rats.

After taking away their water and bringing it back, they shared it very evenly and without any pushing and shoving. It was very civil, recounts Kirby, adding that this came with higher oxytocin levels.

However, when the mild stress was replaced with something major, such as the smell of fox urine in the cage as an indicator of a nearby predator, oxytocin decreased and social bonding stopped. Just like men with PTSD or depression, the male rats were antisocial and withdrawn, often alone in a corner and exhibiting increased aggression.

According to the authors, findings of oxytocin receptors levels decreasing after severe stress support the possibility of treating PTSD with oxytocin nasal sprays to encourage socialization and recovery.

The researchers noted that this demonstrates how stress can stimulate greater interaction and bonding, serving long-term gains for mental health.

The findings were published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Photo: Aaron Tait | Flickr

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A report by The Huffington Post claims that Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX chief Elon Musk were among the high-profile personalities that attended a secret meeting last weekend.

The agenda of the meeting, which also had other tech CEOs, billionaires, and top Republicans attending, focused on a plan to stop the political ascension of front-runner Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump.

Other attendees included Facebook investor and Napster creator Sean Parker, The New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, billionaire GOP donor Philip Anschutz, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton, Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price and Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling.

The secret meeting took place in a private island resort off the Georgia coast for the annual World Forum of the American Enterprise Institute.

The Weekly Standard founder and editor Bill Kristol wrote in a report from the conference that there was unhappiness regarding the emergence of Trump as the Republican front runner, with many attendees expressing hope that he would not become the President of the United States.

The report claimed that a highlight of the meeting was a presentation made by political guru Karl Rove. The greatest weakness of Trump, according to focus group findings, was that people had a hard time in envisioning the business mogul as someone that is "presidential." Trump was also seen as an erratic individual that should not be given the power to call for a nuclear strike.

Trump was not the only topic of the meeting, however, as a fierce debate also broke out between Cook and GOP Senator Tom Cotton regarding the ongoing feud between Apple and the FBI regarding mobile device encryption.

According to a source, Cotton showed hostilities against Cook which made everyone else uncomfortable with what was happening.

Influential people in various industries have previously attended such events, and it is wrong to assume any political leanings simply from their presence in the meeting. However, the invitation to get such people together shows the political influence that these powerful people have, even those that are in the tech industry.

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In October 2015, leaked military documents revealed that the controversial drone strikes launched by the United States in Afghanistan have killed a huge number of people that were not the intended target of the attacks.

The report claimed that for drone strikes launched from January 2012 to February 2013, there were 35 "jackpots," a term used to indicate the neutralization of a target, and over 200 people declared as EKIA, or enemy killed in action.

To shed some light into the controversy, Barack Obama's adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, Lisa Monaco, has promised to reveal the number of terrorism suspects and civilians that the drone strikes have killed since 2009.

Monaco made the pledge in a speech in Washington. It would be the first time that the Obama administration will release information regarding the most controversial lethal missions carried out by the United States, and Monaco is hoping that the transparency would lead to public support for drone strikes and other counterterrorism operations.

The disclosure will cover not only the drone strikes launched in Afghanistan, but will also include those carried out in Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere starting from 2009. However, information on drone strikes from the active war locales of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria will not be included.

Josh Earnest, the press secretary for the White House, said that Obama has pushed to provide the public with more information regarding intelligence and military programs of the United States against terrorism.

"The president's view is that the American public and the world can have greater confidence in the success and the effectiveness of these programs to fight terrorism if we're more transparent about them," Earnest said.

Human Rights First, however, noted that the pledge of Monaco came just hours following the announcement of the Pentagon that it killed over 150 suspected combatants in Somalia through series strikes using drones and manned aircraft.

"For data on the number of casualties to be meaningful, the administration must provide more than numbers," the group said, adding that the government should define how it determines individuals as either a combatant or a civilian, the terrorist group in which the killed combatants belong to and the location of the drone strikes.

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The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed a ruling by a New York court that protects Apple from unlocking an iPhone connected to a drug case.

New York Federal Judge James Orenstein ruled that the government lacks clear legal authority to order the Cupertino-based company to bypass the lock of an iPhone 5s, which was owned by alleged drug trafficker Jun Feng.

The drug case in New York is separate from the case in San Bernardino, California involving the iPhone 5c of Syed Farook. However, the Orenstein's ruling may help Apple in its argument that it doesn't need to follow the court order that it should help the Federal Bureau of Investigation in breaking into the shooter's phone.

On Monday, the Justice Department resubmitted its arguments to a higher judge who oversees this matter.

In its filing, the DOJ argued that the California ruling is an evidence that the All Writs Act of 1789 has been used to force the iPhone maker to bypass the phones. Moreover, it said that the iPhone associated with the New York case runs an older mobile operating system that the company has agreed to hack quite a few times in earlier cases.

Unlike the iPhone involved in the San Bernardino case, which runs iOS 9, Feng's iPhone had the iOS 7. This earlier OS version is not protected under similar encryption technology.

The government asked District Court Judge Margo Brodie to review the ruling by Orenstein.

"Apple has the technological capability to bypass the passcode feature and access the contents of the phone that were unencrypted," reads the filing.

In Apple's recent statement in response to the ruling by the New York court, it said that it agrees with the decision of judge Orenstein that the FBI's request would "thoroughly undermine fundamental principles of the constitution."

Earlier, Apple said the government's demand to hack into the iPhone of Farook is going to create a "back door" into every iPhone. Apple boss Tim Cook also previously stated that if the company will give in to the demand of the government, it would set a "dangerous precedent."

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The Federal Communications Commission announced an agreement with Verizon Wireless, regarding the carrier's usage of hidden tracking technology known as "supercookies."

Verizon was under investigation for using "supercookies," which pertains to hidden bits of code that remained even after the phone users deleted their handset's browsing history. "Supercookies" helped third-party companies assess the customers' browsing habits so they could use targeted ads.

According to the settlement (PDF), Verizon will pay a $1.35 million fine to the FCC. Not only that, but from now on the carrier must deploy a more explicit opt-in policy for consumers. Until now, Verizon used an opt-out policy that left many clients dismayed.

This means that only clients who specifically asked to have "supercookies" installed will be on the list of third-party ads pushing companies. However, Verizon will still maintain its "supercookie" tracking information for customers who connect to Verizon's corporate services. In other words, the FCC agreed to let Verizon use "supercookies" in order to promote its own services and products.

The FCC aims to get more involved in guaranteeing that wireless and broadband companies protect consumers' personal data. The commission's focus comes in the aftermath of net neutrality regulation, which was ratified in 2015. Information from the FCC shows that it has been working on a proposal to adapt privacy regulations for the Internet era.

"Consumers care about privacy and should have a say in how their personal information is used, especially when it comes to who knows what they're doing online," said Travis LeBlanc, FCC Enforcement Bureau chief.

The media in the Unites States and worldwide is boiling in anticipation of the FBI-Apple legal dispute. The Bureau wants Apple to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters from December last year. In spite of FBI's arguments that this is a one-time only case, Apple underlines that the broader issue of data encryption and individual privacy as we know it is at stake.

Luckily, the Verizon-FCC case is not as loaded.

Browsers regularly use "cookies" to track online habits, such as what sites have been visited and average time spent on them. "Supercookies," on the other hand, are cookies that are crafted so they stick to a device permanently. What is more, they are not as easy to spot as regular cookies and they're more complicated to erase.

Privacy advocates and lawmakers chastised wireless operators that rely on the said technology. Not only are they stealthy, but they could prove a liability for hackers to exploit.

For four years now, Verizon has been using supercookies with the sole purpose of helping push targeted ads. A January 2015 study revealed that this insidious tracking information remained embedded in the handsets and was accessible by third parties. As a direct result, lawmakers notified the FCC and asked it to look into Verizon's practices.

The company claims that it made steps towards customer-oriented policies in the last year. Verizon recently updated its privacy policy and it now informs customers on the use of supercookies, and even allows them to opt out of this tracking.

A spokesman for Verizon recently pointed out that the company offers "clear, complete information" that lets customers take the best decision.

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Microsoft recently unveiled that Skype, its popular video-calling app, supports Arabic as part of its embedded Skype Translator.

Skype Translator automatically translates your speech and even computer-generated speech into text. This expands the number of languages available via the tool to a total of eight: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Brazilian Portuguese and now Arabic.

The latest addition to the language pack only works in Skype for Windows at this point. The preview version of the translator reached users in January, but the first talk about Skype Translator reached the media in May 2014.

The new language that joins the Skype Translator package comes after Microsoft collected a huge amount of data and developed a training model that has increased accuracy. This means that the company feels confident enough about its Arabic translation module that it sees fit to send it to users, even if only for Windows.

The team behind the translation features explained why they chose to implement Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in Skype.

"Unlike dialects which may vary greatly from country to country, MSA is used throughout the Arab-speaking world in written and formal communications," the blog post says.

Microsoft adds that this is the variant of Arabic that is both taught in schools and used by professional journalists.

It is easy to see why Skype users would benefit from having MSA support. Arabic is the official language in 22 countries, and it is native to more than 200 million people. Speakers of Arabic come from Northwest Africa to Southwest Asia, not to mention the global expat communities.

Microsoft pulled a lot of resources to assist its Natural Language Processing researchers. The experts with the company's Advanced Technology Laboratory took the reins on the project and managed to embed Arabic speech models for Skype Translator. The progress is promising, so that in-person translations will also be available via Microsoft Translation apps designed for both for iOS and Android.

It is easy to locate the Arabic language setting in the Skype for Windows desktop app - just right under the globe icon. Click on the dropdown menu that allows you to turn on your Skype Translator, and just select both the spoken language and messaging preferences.

Perfectionists or those who majored in Arabic could say that there are many flaws in the implementation of Arabic in Skype Translator. However, this is a temporary state of affairs.

Gurdeep Pall, Skype corporate vice president, did mention that the simple ability to translate from one language into seven others and vice versa is not something to be dismissed so easily. He also reminded the audience that 50 languages got texting support, making Skype Translator one of the most potent tools for communication across cultures.

"One of the fundamental issues of AI has been trying to meet the bar of human intelligence," Pall said.

In January, Microsoft touted that the number of daily Skype calls surged by more than 400 percent since the release of the Skype Translator. The company further detailed by saying that French to English is the most used pair of languages.

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Today's Google Doodle is dedicated to women around the world in celebration of Women's International Day.

In the past, Google's search Doodles would feature well-known women from the past and present who have changed the world. On Google.com right now, however, are what Google calls "Doodle-worthy women of the future."

The Doodle itself is a fun, light-hearted video putting the spotlight on women and girls from around the world. Google's Doodle team travelled to 13 different countries filming a total of 337 female participants to complete the sentence: "One day I will..."

Starting a campaign supporting the hashtag #OneDayIWill that's dedicated to women, Google's latest Doodle has each of its participants sharing what they intend to do one day, speaking in their own native tongue, including sign language.

On the page, the second "O" laid out over the search box has become an animated GIF-like play button that starts playing the one-and-a-half minute video.

Those with keen eyes and ears up to date with prominent female figures of today will see a few notable cameos. Famed British primatologist Jane Goodall takes part in the Doodle, saying she will discuss the environment with Pope Francis. Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and activist Muzoon Almellehan are also featured, saying together: "One day we will... see every girl in school."

Other responses include a pair of American girls saying that they'll one day play in the Major Leagues. A cute, little Japanese girl says she'll one day be an artist like Michael Jackson (while doing a moonwalk). A German woman says she'll be a mom very soon, while a female couple of different ethnic origins says that one day they'll get married.

"Each new city brought more 'One day I will's, more signature dance moves, more hugs, more high-fives. ... It's not always easy to put into words what you want to achieve. When we asked women and girls on the street to articulate their aspirations, they often had to pause and think about it for a few minutes. Whether their responses were detailed or broad strokes, concrete or abstract, funny or heartwarming, it was inspiring to see them take the time to dream," Google says.

As visitors drop by Google's search page today and watch the Doodle, hopefully more people around the world get inspired to do the same and find their dreams, too.

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Members of a panel convened to discuss Californias energy future clashed Thursday evening over how  and even whether  government should prod the states residents and industry toward greater use of renewable power sources.Panelists including a state lawmaker, a renewable energy advocate and an oil industry representative argued over the economic costs of phasing out petroleum-based fuels, as well as technologys ability to deliver innovations that wont leave the Central Valley behind in Sacramentos ever-more ambitious drive toward an environmentally sustainable future.In occasionally sharp exchanges, the five speakers debated one of Gov. Jerry Browns top policy priorities, cutting the Golden States use of petroleum fuels 50 percent by 2030, a goal the state Legislature ultimately rejected last fall, prompting the governor to pursue the goal through administrative channels. Another focus of discussion was Californias cap and trade system, which forces businesses to buy credits so they can emit greenhouse gases.The event at The Mark restaurant in downtown Bakersfield was put on by TBC Media, parent organization of The Californian, in cooperation with CALmatters, a nonprofit journalism startup based in Sacramento.Skeptics of the Brown administrations renewable energy push were represented by state Sen. Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, and Cathy Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry trade group. Advocating on the other side of the issue were Bakersfield renewable energy analyst and author Paul Gipe and former state Sen. Dean Florez, a Shafter resident recently appointed to the California Air Resources Board. Pacific Gas and Electric Co.s senior director of planning and analysis, Todd Strauss, staked out ground somewhere between the two sides.Fuller cast Californias energy policy debate as a choice between forcing changes in human behavior in socialistic ways versus letting market forces set the pace for transitioning to greater reliance on renewable power. If a proper balance is not struck, she warned, the Central Valley could bear a disproportionate burden during the shift.The senator noted California meets its energy demand only by importing two-thirds of its combined oil, gas and electricity. She asserted the governor would be impeached immediately if the supply petroleum were suddenly shut off.If were going to be leaders for tomorrow, lets do it right, she said.Gipe said the transition toward more renewables is more a question of political will. He pointed to European countries aiming to move aggressively toward greater use of solar and wind power, and said Californias goal of meeting 50 percent of its electricity needs to 2030 should be more ambitious, not less.His impassioned advocacy was countered more than once by Reheis-Boyd, who cautioned moving too quickly risks economic harm. She also questioned how California officials would fill the budget gap that would arise if suddenly state government had to do without gasoline tax revenue.Florez urged continued progress toward wider adoption of renewables. He recalled a study done in the 1980s predicting fewer than 1 million Americans would use cellphones by 2000 because of clunky technology. He called the low estimate an example of lack of faith in innovation and consumer demand for alternatives.The air board member also asserted choppy oil industry conditions present a problem that might be mitigated by broadening the states menu of renewable fuels.We need to diversify to a point we even out out those ebbs and flows, Florez said.Strauss said although the states goal of getting half its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 was doable, it remains unclear what the precise mix of fuels will be. For that reason, he proposed policymakers stay flexible on how utilities such as PG&E procure energy for their customers.We need to take it one step at a time, he said.
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The UK will not become a safe haven for terrorists and international organised crime gangs in the event of Brexit, Northern Ireland's top police officer has said.

PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton told MPs that if the UK splits from the EU new bilateral agreements would have to replace existing treaties on data sharing, extradition and investigations.

He said new arrangements would be more expensive, clunky and not as slick as the current systems.

"Some of the public commentary from within the broader policing community around the UK becoming a safe haven for organised criminals and terrorism and all the rest of it personally is not my position," the Chief Constable said.

Mr Hamilton told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee the transition to new cross-border policing would take two years.
The University of East Anglia student union officials took the big floppy hats from students at the Freshers' Fair, because non-Mexicans wearing the traditional item of headwear could be seen as offensive, according to a new initiative.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Patients have so far seen more than 19,000 operations cancelled as a result of the BMAs irresponsible and unjustified industrial action. The new contract, 90% of which was agreed with the BMA, and endorsed by senior NHS leaders, is a very good deal for doctors and the NHS. It will mean an average 13.5 per cent basic pay rise with a cap on the number of long shifts worked to improve safety. We urge junior doctors to look at the detail of the contract and the clear benefits it brings.
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The Venezuelan government celebrated on Friday the arrival in the country of the last five crew members of the Emtrasur aircraft that had been held in Argentina since June 6. | Read More
1 Mohaymen Kiaran McLaughlin TapitJustwhistledixie, by Dixie Union It doesnt pay to try to analyze this horse. He has run his halfs in :45 4/5, :47 1/5, :49 2/5, :49, and :47 1/5. He comes home fast in some races and not so fast in others. He wins with his ears pinned whether hes doing it easily or not. In short, he just gets to the wire first and it doesnt seem to matter how he does it. That is evidenced by his last three Beyer figures of 95, 95, and 95. Some may ask: is what weve seen all hes got? Is that as fast as he can run? He had four sharp breezes in a month leading up to the Holy Bull, bounced out of that race with a bullet :47 3/5 half-mile breeze and then had an easy half in :49 3/5, so McLaughlin didnt really do a lot with him in the four weeks between races. He has managed to get two victorious preps in him without getting anywhere near the bottom of him; at least thats the way it appears. You want to save that big speed figure for the first Saturday in May and not use it now. He should be tested for the first time when he takes on a razor-sharp Nyquist in the Florida Derby, and lets just hope each doesnt make the other empty the tank. If that race goes as expected theyll both need the five weeks to the Derby.

2 Mor Spirit Bob Baffert EskendereyaIm a Dixie Girl, by Dixie Union Baffert is right back on schedule with him, working him 6 furlongs in 1:12 1/5 in company with Dream Team, which followed his sharp 5-furlong work last in :59 4/5 after the colts work had been aborted prior to that. This was one of the more impressive works Ive seen this year, as he did everything on his own, other than being nudged just a little at the end. Not only does he run low to the ground with long, efficient strides, he cuts the corner so smoothly and appears to drop his head even lower when he switches leads. The San Felipe is expected draw a competitive field of talented horses that looks more like the Santa Anita Derby than a prep for it. Whoever wins this likely will be the leader of the Califorinia 3-year-old division. Right now it seems to set up well for Mor Spirit, with Danzing Candy, Uncle Lino, Smokey Image, and Exaggerator all expected to be on or close to the lead. Because of the classy speed and the overall talent in the field, there is the danger of a horse having to take too much out of himself to win it, and that is why this looks more like a Santa Anita Derby field. What do you do for an encore if this turns out to be a battle? One thing that looks certain, if everyone runs their race, there should be a few shattered Derby dreams when its over. He seems to have an advantage because of his experience and he also never seems to be taking too much out of himself.

3 Brody's Cause Dale Romans Giants Causeway Sweet Breanna, by Sahm Finally, its time to find out what kind of transition hes made from 2 to 3. Hes going to be meeting several talented horses, some of whom have excelled over the Tampa track, and I like that he went there early and had a sharp half-mile breeze in :48 2/5. He certainly doesnt need to win, just show that same closing punch we saw last year. The reason hes been ranked so high all year is that consistent late closing punch and the way he blew by a classy horse in Exaggerator, who was making a winning move in the Breeders Futurity. And as Ive seen saying, unlike the Breeders Futurity, he simply ran out of room in the Breeders Cup Juvenile with the shortened stretch at Keeneland and having to negotiate his way through traffic. Do I know how good this horse really is? Of course not, and I admit he probably shouldnt be ranked ahead of Nyquist, but so far he just seems to have exhibited all the traits you look for in a Derby horse, so between that and my silly Dale Romans/Derby gods connection, I just decided to stick with him until he proves me wrong. Or until it looks as if it is McLaughlin on whom the Derby gods are smiling down. Ive waited this long with him I might as well wait one more week.

4 Nyquist Doug O'Neill Uncle MoSeeking Gabrielle, by Forestry ONeill, fearing bad weather, moved his work up, and the colt went his half in :48 4/5. ONeill was happy with the move, saying he was full of energy, adding that the undefeated champ will do all his training at Santa Anita before shipping to Gulfstream for the Florida Derby and his much-anticipated showdown with undefeated Mohaymen. Knowing how ONeill trained Ill Have Another, you can bet he will give Nyquist plenty of fast open gallops to compensate for the colt going into his 1 1/8-mile battle off only one seven-furlong prep. In Ill Have Another, ONeill had a horse he and many others felt was an absolute lock to win the Belmont Stakes and become racings 12th Triple Crown winner, but the colt, after having another long fast gallop two days before the race, came back injured and not only missed the Belmont, but never raced again. It seemed like a case of one too many fast gallops. With Nyquist, ONeil has decided to do most of his prepping in the morning and very little in the afternoon leading up to the Derby in the hope of getting him through the Triple Crown unscathed. He is foregoing the conventional and writing his own book on Derby training, and only time will prove whether he is right or wrong. For those who question his pedigree, forget about Uncle Mo, who is white-hot and we have no idea how far his offspring want to go. But Nyquists broodmare sire is out of a Pleasant Colony mare, his second dam is by Seeking the Gold, and his bottom line traces to (two-mile) Jockey Club Gold Cup winners and Hall of Famers Buckpasser and Arts and Letters. Pleasant Colonys sire His Majesty and Arts and Letters are both sons of the legendary stamina influence Ribot.

5 Exaggerator Keith Desormeaux CurlinDawn Raid, by Vindication He breezed 5 furlongs in a sharp 1:00 2/5 for the San Felipe. Desormeaux got him coming home his last quarter in :22 4/5, adding, He was under control, limber, and wasnt stressed out afterwards, all things you want to see in a horse getting ready for a race, so were happy. The key word with him is sharp. You know hes going to be sharp coming off the 7-furlong San Vicente, but stretching out to two turns he just has to be sensible and be able to settle behind the pace. We know he can move anywhere on the track, but it is essential that he times his move right. Where that move should be we have no idea yet because he has yet to develop a true running style. Hes made his move in the final sixteenth; hes made his move in the final furlong; hes made his move two furlongs out; and hes made his move down the backstretch. This race should tell us where he is most comfortable running and where hes most comfortable making his move. If he can put the speed away, it will be interesting to see how much he has left and how he responds when Mor Spirit and even Cupid come rolling along to pick up the pieces.

6 Greenpointcrusader Dominick Schettino BernardiniAva Knowsthecode, by Cryptoclearance As Ive been saying, Ive liked this colt since he broke his maiden at Saratoga and believe he has more ability than most people think. But I must admit I have no idea whats going on with him. He had another slow 5-furlong breeze in 1:02 4/5 and seems to be on a semi-vacation since the Holy Bull. I just hope wherever he shows up next hes not too fresh, as he was in the Holy Bull, and if he runs in the Louisiana Derby, hes not too fresh for the Kentucky Derby, with six weeks between races and one race in 14 weeks. I still dont know how far he wants to go, considering hes a half-brother to Justin Phillip and Keyed Entry, who wanted no part of distance races. His full-brother Algorithms looked to be a major player on the Derby trail, but was injured before we found out how good he was and far he wanted to go. So, despite my high regard for the horse, there are just so many questions regarding his pedigree and especially the odd schedule he is on. All we can do for now is wait for his next start, wherever and whenever that might be, and see what shows up.

7 Suddenbreakingnews Donnie Von Hemel MineshaftUchitel, by Afleet Alex He turned in a sharp 5-furlong drill in 1:00 3/5 with regular rider Luis Quinonez aboard in preparation for the Rebel Stakes. He then galloped out 6 furlongs in a strong 1:13, pulling up 7 panels in 1:29. Remember, despite his come-from-the-clouds score in the Southwest, this horse is far from a plodder. Hes shown in his other races he can beat you from anywhere, from the outside or splitting horses down on the inside. His main weapon is an explosive turn of foot, which can be delivered at any point in the race, and, along with a super distance pedigree, that makes him extremely dangerous. He just needs to be coming on fast at the end of the Rebel and Arkansas Derby. He showed he knows how to win. Now its more about maintaining what he has and moving forward toward the Kentucky Derby. Hes going to have to face another large field in the Rebel, and you really dont want him quite as far back as he was in the Southwest. What I love most about the combination of Mineshaft and Afleet Alex is that they are both making a resurgence of sorts, as so many stallions do, either as sires or broodmare sires.

8 Zulu Todd Pletcher Bernardini Temporada, by Summer Squall The more I think about it, the more I have to wonder if running him in the Florida Derby against Mohaymen and Nyquist is the best way to get him to the Kentucky Derby. But with a $1 million bonus attached to the Florida Derby, I doubt very much they will deviate from their original plan. It was just a thought. Right now he has shown hes not quite mentally ready for the Derby mayhem, unless he somehow can get his act together between now and April 2. He is still way behind those two in every way  mentally, experience, battle tested, and overall foundation. Would he be better off having a little extra time and pointing for the Blue Grass Stakes instead, where he wont have to hook up with arguably the two best 3-year-olds in the country who have never tasted defeat? Its very possible. He is a magnificent-looking horse with a world of talent, but realistically, hes run only three times, two of them in sprints. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Pletcher has already won a pair of Florida Derbys with lightly raced horses  Materiality and Constitution -- making only their third career start, and he really has no one to use as a substitute. With Materiality and Constitution, however, that was the highlight of their careers, although the latter did win the Donn the following year. Bottom line is Im sure theyre not going to pass up a $1 million race and $1 million bonus with a horse who has only raced at Gulfstream Park and obviously loves the track.

9 Mo Tom Tom Amoss Uncle MoCaroni, by Rubiano He turned in a sharp half-mile breeze in :47 1/5, second fastest of 78 works at the distance. He has been extremely consistent in his works all year, but showed more speed than usual this time. It must be the Uncle Mo and Rubiano coming out. For his running style hes also been remarkably consistent in his races and would have an even better record had his big run not been stopped in the Kentucky Jockey Club (by his own doing) and Risen Star Stakes. As Ive been saying, he needs to stay off the rail and make that big sweeping Fair Grounds move, even at the risk of losing ground. Remember, this is a horse who broke his maiden at 6 furlongs in his career debut, overcoming a severe bumping incident at the break and was no more than 5 lengths off the lead in his victory in the one-mile Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs.

10 Smokey Image Carla Gaines Southern ImageSpecial Smoke, by Free House He worked a half in :48 3/5 in company, with Victor Espinoza in the irons. Gaines called the work unbelievable. He looked smooth and powerful coming down the stretch under no urging whatsoever. We know hes fast and talented, and now he has to answer the all-important question of class. Following fellow Cal-bred California Chrome, a lot is expected of him in the San Felipe, and he will have his work out for him, having to deal with several quality speed and tactical speed horses. He showed he can wire his field while rating on the lead and hes shown he can come from off the pace and overcome a ton of trouble, as he did two races back. Although his connections obviously want to win, all he really has to show is that he can compete at a high level with horses of this caliber and leave room for improvement. He is the unknown factor in the race and makes it all the more intriguing.

11 Gun Runner Steve Asmussen Candy RideQuiet Giant, by Giant's Causeway Breezed 5 furlongs in 1:01 1/5. Its still difficult to get a line on the Fair Grounds horses and how the six-week gap from the Louisiana Derby to the Kentucky Derby will affect horses taking this route. Although hell have only two Derby preps, he did build a decent 2-year-old foundation with all four of his career starts at a mile or longer. The fact that he came back from a three-month layoff and was able to win a graded stakes against 10 opponents, while holding the lead from the top of the stretch to the wire down the long Fair Grounds stretch is a good indicator as to how far he has come from 2 to 3 and how much improvement he still has. Along with Mo Tom, Forevamo, and Candy My Boy and possibly even Toms Ready if he returns to form, the local contingent should supply plenty of competition for whoever ships in for the Louisiana Derby.

12 Destin Todd Pletcher Giants CausewayDream of Summer, by Siberian Summer He breezed a half in :48 4/5 for Saturdays Tampa Bay Derby, where he will take on much tougher opponents than he faced in the Sam F. Davis. But if his Davis performance is any indication of how good he really is, theyre going to have a tough time beating him, especially with a race over the track. As I stated last week when I put him in the Top 12, I just feel were dealing with a horse who is just coming into his own and you couldnt help but notice how powerful he looked in the stretch of the Davis after Rafting made what looked to be a winning move on the turn. At first I thought Rafting just handed the race to him by failing to change leads and losing focus, but the way he came home, his last sixteenth in :06 1/5, I now feel he was just too strong and perhaps was the cause of Raftings problems by turning back his challenge and opening up on him, and thus discouraging him. He looks like a tough, rugged type who runs hard, much like his full-brother Creative Cause.

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

The only reason SHAGAF is not in the Top 12 this week is because there was no reason to take anyone off, and with Destin running this weekend in the Tampa Bay Derby, I wasnt about to drop him now. So Shagaf likely will have to wait a week for several of the top-ranked horses to sort themselves out. If Shagaf had done something extraordinary in the Gotham I would have had to make room for him, but his race had its good points and bad points, and, remember, this was only the third start of his life. The same can be said of Zulu, but the latter did hold his own against the top-ranked 3-year-old, having even less of a foundation than Shagaf.

Now for the good points: He looked fantastic in the post parade and not only has the look of a Derby horse, but the refined features of a European distance horse, especially with his manicured tail, a la Chad Browns mentor Bobby Frankel. In short, he really catches the eye. For more info on him, see my Feb. 12 column. What I loved most about his race was the way he adapted to everything happening around him, as well as going two turns for the first time. And he did not have the smoothest of trips, yet rated kindly and took dirt in his face for the first time. He had someone looking him in the eye every step of the way. It was obvious Junior Alvarado on Rally Cry was intent of on keeping him boxed in and he was in traffic most of the way down on the rail and lost position when he tried to move up and Rally Cry moved with him and kept him pinned down behind horses. He finally was able to ease out when Rally Cry began backing up and wore down California invader LAOBAN, who was riding along the whole way on an extremely speed biased track. So he does get credit for running him down, and this was a great learning experience that should have toughened him up, and no doubt will move him forward.

As for the negatives, the rail was golden all day and, despite the traffic, he was on the best part of the track until swinging three-wide at the head of the stretch. I can forgive slow times and even slow closing fractions under certain circumstances, but the closing fractions of :27 and :07 were agonizingly slow. He actually went his quarter in :26 3/5, but that is still extremely slow for this caliber of horses. In the Heavenly Prize Stakes for fillies and mares on the same card, they came home in :25 2/5 and :06 2/5, off a pace about a second slower than the Gotham. If youre a Beyer pundit, you have to be concerned that hes never run faster than an 88 Beyer figure, and actually ran a point slower in the Gotham than he did in his career debut. So, because of these factors and with the Gotham being run on the inner track, which has a terrible record producing Derby horses, I need to wait a little longer before determining just where he fits.

I do expect a much more polished and brilliant performance in the Wood Memorial, where well learn a lot more about him. Thats assuming the Wood is his next start, as Chad Brown also has Flexibility and My Man Sam in New York, and Economic Model in Florida heading to the Tampa Bay Derby. Coming off this kind of effort, as slow as it was, I can see him moving way forward off it, especially now that hes shown he can go after horses in the stretch if need be. Based on his physical appearance and demeanor and overall look of class, I have no doubt this is a very serious contender. Like Zulu, I just wish he had one more race under his belt.

Considering the inside speed biased track, you have to feel third-place finisher ADVENTIST also has tremendous room for improvement, as he ran hard down the stretch and tried to rally on the outside from near the back of the pack, finishing three-quarters of a length behind Laoban. And like the others he was unable to accelerate in the final furlong on what appeared to be a tiring racetrack. He is another with only three career starts, so it is difficult to get a true gauge on him and the other talented, but lightly raced horses. But like those others, we have yet to see the best of him, as each race has moved him a step forward. SUNNY RIDGE appeared to run his race, but was up against the rail speed bias, and was unable to give six pounds to these horses.

Dont be surprised if the Wood Memorial winner raced this weekend, but was not in the Gotham. Things change fast and horses get good fast this time of year and we had several new faces who bear watching.. First off, on Saturday, DONEGAL MOON, who has had an up and down career and is probably best remembered for stumbling at the start in the Jerome as badly as any horse in memory, finally found a good spot, traveling to Parx and demolishing an allowance field by 13 1/2 lengths. Yes, it was Parx, but from a visual standpoint he looked sensational, just blowing by the leader on the turn while still on cruise control and coasting to an easy victory and still coming home his last quarter in the one-mile race in :24 1/5, and :12 flat for the final eighth. He looked like a powerhouse in the stretch, with smooth strides and great extension.

I am willing to forgive his fifth-place finish in the Withers, as it came four weeks after his debacle in the Jerome. It was a miracle he didnt go down or do serious physical damage, either grabbing a quarter or knocking himself silly when his face actually hit the ground hard. We still have no idea how good he is or whether he can compete with the best, but just to have him on the Derby trail and winning races is pretty amazing.

While watching Sundays 1 1/16-mile allowance race at Aqueduct that drew a pretty tough field, I kept thinking watching MY MAN SAM being pushed along vigorously nearing the five-eighths pole, some 10 lengths behind loose-on-the-lead MATT KING COAL, which certainly is not where you want to be on the inner track, that if he can sustain that long a run and is anywhere close at the finish he is going to be one to watch very closely in his next start. He kept coming and coming, and just when I thought he was going to run out of steam on this speed-favoring track, he kept up his relentless pursuit, passing one horse after another and coming within a length of catching Matt King Coal, who had opened a 4 1/2-length advantage at the eighth pole. Although I dont like comparing times from different days, they did run a full second faster than the Gotham.

Coming off an eight-length romp in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race, in which he was 15 lengths back, this effort confirmed that he is a serious horse, whose majority owner is Sheep Pond Partners of Lady Eli fame. What I also love about him is the third-place finisher in last race, CADEYRN, who he annihilated by 13 1/4 lengths, came off that race to break his maiden by 11 lengths next time out. Id like to see him a bit closer and not give himself so much to do, and Id like to see him duplicate this form on the main track or wherever he shows up next, but for now he definitely looks like an up-and-comer. By Tapits son Trappe Shot, out of an Arch mare and a tail-female family that traces to Forli, there should be no problem with stamina. This is one Im definitely keeping a close eye on.

As for Matt King Coal, take absolutely nothing away from his victory. He hadnt run for over four months, since his sensational maiden score at Belmont, earning a 96 Beyer figure, and trainer Linda Rice felt he would be a little short for this race. He was sharp early, opening a clear lead over another highly regarded colt. MO POWER, who also ran a good race to finish third, having to chase Matt King Coal the whole way. Its hard to tell how far Matt King Coal can carry his speed, but he no doubt is a gifted colt. All three of these horses are eligible to improve big-time off this race and, along with Donegal Moon, should make the Wood Memorial, or wherever they show up, all the more interesting when they get tested for class.

Another allowance horse to watch from this past weekend is MADTAP, a son of Tapit, out of a Point Given mare, from the same connections as Gun Runner, who went to the front, re-took the lead after being headed briefly, and drew off to win the 1 1/16-mile race by 6 lengths in yet another impressive allowance victory this past weekend.

As we head into March, people visiting Las Vegas or who have connections there may wish to take one last chance of landing a horse in the Kentucky Derby Future Book at a monster price. Unless youre a big-time player whos willing to spend a ton of money, youre not going to get any bargains on horses who have accomplished anything of note. But that doesnt mean there still arent a few out there at triple-digit odds who have shown enough to suggest they still may emerge on the scene as a Derby contender.

I was going to limit these horses to watch to those who are being quoted at 100-1 or higher at Wynn Las Vegas. But I couldnt resist including CUPID at a generous 85-1. Here you get a Bob Baffert-trained son of Tapit, who cost $900,000 as a yearling and who has tremendous upside, having looked very impressive blowing away a maiden field with a Derby-like sweeping move. Not only was he stretching out from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/16 miles, he was coming off a good second to Denmans Call, who came back to run a solid third to Nyquist and Exaggerator in the San Vicente Stakes in 1:20 3/5. Hes been working brilliantly, his last being a 7-furlong breeze in 1:26 1/5, and will have his first class test likely in the San Felipe, where well find out just where he stacks up against his more accomplished stablemate, Mor Spirit, and several other talented horses. One note, however, he is a half-brother to four pure sprinters and a full-brother to a horse who broke his maiden at a mile for Baffert and then was retired after two poor efforts. But I love what Ive seen so far,

Forgotten at 100-1 is FLEXIBILITY, who I had dropped from my first Derby Dozen when he ran in the Withers Stakes, which I felt was too much racing in a short-period of time (five starts in 3 1/2 months) for a young horse who had already been 1 1/8 miles and run hard on several occasions. But Chad Brown wisely decided to skip the Gotham and is giving him time to bounce back from his flat performance in the Withers. He needed a break after those two hard races against Mohaymen at 2, but Brown ran him twice in close proximity early in the year, obviously with the intent on giving him the time off now. He showed the effects of it in the Withers, but is fresh once again and back on a good schedule. Hes been working steadily, likely for the Wood Memorial, breezing a sharp half in :48 3/5 over the Belmont training track. But his status could depend on how Economic Model, also owned by Klaravich Stable and William H. Lawrence, runs in the Tampa Bay Derby. If he shows he belongs to be on the Derby trail, he likely will point for the Blue Grass Stakes and Flexibility likely would stay home for the Wood. If not, Flexibility could go for the Wood or the Blue Grass. Either way, for that price, to get a horse who has two big runner-up efforts against Mohaymen in graded stakes and is bred for stamina looks very appealing. He was a big deal back in early January, and I love forgotten horses.

Also available at 100-1 is former Top 12 horse RAFTING. Ive been waiting for him to return to the work tab and he finally did, breezing 6 furlongs in 1:15 at Palm Meadows. I cant help but feel this is a very talented colt who just hasnt gotten his act together mentally on a consistent basis. His move on the turn in the Sam Davis was powerful, but he blew it by failing to change leads and keeping his head straight. Plus, he probably needed that race, and with a race over that track he could surprise a lot of people in the Tampa Bay Derby, as tough an assignment as that appears to be. When he did put it all together and run professionally in the Smooth Air Stakes he handled Fellowship pretty easily, and Fellowship has come back to run third in the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth. For 100-1 you not only get a talented horse who just needs to overcome his occasional greenness, but you get Graham Motion as well, and if anyone can figure this colt out it is Motion.

Another interesting horse at 100-1 is CONQUEST WINDYCITY. The former needs to get faster, but was impressive visually winning a recent one-mile allowance race at Oaklawn. He turned in a bullet 5-furlong work in :59 4/5 Saturday, fastest of 45 works at the distance. By Tiznow, out of an A.P. Indy mare and trained by Mark Casse, he showed enough to suggest there is still a good deal of improvement. Hes finished first or second on fast and sloppy tracks and grass and turned in an explosive move on the turn to finish fourth in the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs in only his second career start. He could break out, possibly in the Rebel, and looks to be worth a shot at 100-1.

Rounding out the 100-1 shots is KASSEOPIA, another Motion-trained horse, who is strictly a guess, having never run on dirt and with an almost all European pedigree. But I liked his second-place finish in the Grey Stakes at Woodbine in his U.S. debut and I thought he ran a huge race to finish third in the El Camino Real Derby after a horrible start and making a big run from the back of the pack. He has the look of a classy horse and it might be worth 100-1 to take a chance hell handle the dirt and will learn to break alertly instead of just standing in the gate at the start, as he did at Golden Gate. He was originally intended for the Spiral Stakes, following a similar path as another Team Valor horse, Animal Kingdom, but may not get in the race, in which case he could be pointed for the Santa Anita Derby or Blue Grass Stakes. As I said, this one is a stab.

I dont know what woke up CREATOR in his last start, but he turned in as explosive a move on the far turn as Ive seen all year and then blew his field away, winning off by 7 1/4 lengths, a far cry from his four second-place finishes in maiden races. A son of Tapit and owned by WinStar and trained by Steve Asmussen, how can you go wrong taking a shot at a whopping 250-1? He is still a work in progress and should improve with maturity, but when a horse wakes up that dramatically and shows that kind of turn of foot, he definitely is worth keeping a close eye on, especially with connections like this.

The aforementioned MY MAN SAM wasnt even listed by Wynn, so you could have gotten any price on him. I dont know what his odds are now, but, considering he didnt win Sundays allowance race, he still may be available at big odds. With what he showed on that track, he could very well be a bargain at whatever price you can get.

So, to summarize, the triple-digit horses who could be worth a wager are Flexibility, Rafting, Conquest Windycity, Creator, and more of a guess, Kasseopia, with Cupid an extremely generous 85-1 if you can still get it. And check to see what odds theyre offering on My Man Sam.

My Man Sam is only one of a number of talented 3-year-olds who would have only four career starts going into the Derby, and we know history is against those horses. The others on the trail who would have to go into the Derby off no more than four starts are Zulu, Shagaf, Adventist, Mo Power, Malibu Sunset, Denmans Call, Economic Model, and Dazzling Gem. That is a talented group who had better hope they have the physical and mental toughness and stamina to win the Derby off so few races. As Ive mentioned, only two horses in the past 98 years have been able to accomplish it.

A few others worth mentioning are FELLOWSHIP, who is still 100-1, despite back-to-back, come-from-behind third-place finishes behind Mohaymen in the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth; the undefeated DAZZLING GEM, who defeated a solid field of allowance horses at Oaklawn, crushing Madtap, who came back to win by 6 lengths, and is quoted at 175-1. And at 250-1 is another Casse-trained horse, the stakes-placed SIDING SPRING, who just needs to settle into a steady running style and should in his second start with blinkers. He turned in a sharp 5-furlong work in 1:00 2/5 in company with the older grade I winner Noble Bird, who worked two-fifths slower.

Theyre all a gamble, but so is everyone to some extent, and these look to have some upside at a huge price.

UNCLE LINO, who could be ready to burst on the scene in a big way in Saturdays San Felipe Stakes, demonstrated his sharpness, working 5 furlongs in :59 3/5 behind a couple of workmates, second fastest of 51 works at the distance. Yet another son of Uncle Mo, his dam is a full-sister to Alabama winner Lady Joanne and a half-sister to Preakness and Met Mile winner Shackleford, multiple graded stakes winner Afleeting Lady, Indiana and Iowa Oaks winner Bagharia, and stakes-winning Stephanoatsee. He was forced to chase I Will Score in the Robert Lewis, and I would think he will have a more comfortable trip this time, giving us an idea of just how he wants to run. DANZING CANDY, whose best races have been on the lead, worked 5 furlongs for the San Felipe in 1:01 under Mike Smith.

It looks as if CHERRY WINES minor setback hasnt dulled him any, as he bounced back with a half-mile breeze in :47 1/5 at Gulfstream, second fastest of 78 works at the distance. Dale Romans main problem with him is trying to keep him on the ground for several more weeks after missing two starts already, not having raced since Jan. 9, and obviously being razor sharp right now. Romans might have thought he was sending his maiden winner LOOKIN FOR A KISS to Tampa for an easy score in a seven-furlong allowance race, but ran into a Tampa tiger in TIGER BLOOD, who was coming off a sensational 9 1/4-length maiden win in 1:09 4/5 at Tampa, earning a 91 Beyer in his career debut. The son of Cowtown Cat, out of a Smarty Jones mare, was just as impressive Sunday beating Lookin for a Kiss by 5 1/2 lengths under a hand ride.

WHITMORE, who should improve big-time in the Rebel Stakes, remained sharp, breezing 5 furlongs in a bullet 1:00 flat in company with another talented Ron Moquett-trained 3-year-old, TISDALE, fastest of 22 works at the distance. Whitmore, who normally breezes in company, was on the inside under Greta Kuntzweiler and pulled away from Tisdale on the 6-furlong gallop-out, timed in 1:13 1/5. Whitmore will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. in the Rebel. Tisdale, who broke his maiden in a three-horse photo last time, is headed for stakes company next, possibly the Spiral Stakes. Jack Van Berg is giving CUTACORNER another shot in the Rebel after the colt got cut up pretty bad in the Southwest Stakes. He showed hes back in fine form by working a bullet 5 furlongs in :59 4/5 breezing at Oaklawn, fastest of 43 works at the distance. Also working for the Rebel was AMERICAN DUBAI, a game third in the Southwest Stakes, who breezed 5 furlongs in 1:00 3/5, out in 1:13 1/5 with jockey Chris Landeros aboard. DISCREETNESS, who took the worst of it in the Southwest, being forced eight-wide into the first turn from the 14-post, worked 5 furlongs between races at Oaklawn in :59 4/5 with jockey Jon Court in the saddle. Withers and Jerome runner-up VORTICITY, who worked 5 furlongs in 1:01 4/5 at his home base at Fair Hill, will be ridden in the Rebel by Kendrick Carmouche. Wayne Lukas will be represented in the Rebel by GRAY SKY, who breezed 5 furlongs in 1:01 3/5.

The hard-knocking TOMS READY, who finished a disappointing seventh in the Risen Star Stakes, breezed a solid half in :48 3/5 for the Louisiana Derby. Perhaps trainer Dallas Stewart is already trying to get the same kind of monster odds he got on Kentucky Derby runners-up Golden Soul (34-1) and Commanding Curve (37-1) and Preakness runner-up Tale of Verve. Risen Star runner-up FOREVAMO, breezed a half in :49 4/5. CANDY MY BOY, a gallant fourth in the Risen Star, breezed an easy half in :50 4/5 in an attempt to help him conserve his speed a little. A sneaky horse who could show big improvement in the Louisiana Derby is ZAPPERINI, who finished a well-beaten fifth in the Risen Star , but was coming off a maiden victory and only two career starts, and did rally a bit from 11th after breaking from the 11-post. By Ghostzapper, out of a Smart Strike mare, he is certainly eligible to improve. He breezed an easy 5 furlongs in 1:02 2/5.

SWIPE breezed 5 furlongs in 1:02 1/5. Trainer Keith Desormeaux said the Derby is not out of the question, but admitted it is a longshot, adding, Its smart not to push him. Ill just put him through his paces and see how he handles it.

COCKED AND LOADED moved a step closer to his 3-year-old debut, breezing a half in :49 1/5 at Tampa Bay Downs.

Paul Reddams pair of FRANK CONVERSATION and RALIS both turned in solid works, with Frank Conversation, preparing for the UAE Derby, going a half in :48 3/5, and Hopeful winner Ralis starting to pick up the tempo, working 5 furlongs in 1:01 4/5.

At Santa Anita, the late-developing DENMANS CALL, third in the Robert Lewis Stakes, worked a sharp half in :47 4/5. I WILL SCORE, third in the Robert Lewis, drilled 6 furlongs in 1:12 4/5 for Jerry Hollendorfer. TOEWS ON ICE, who hasnt run since his disappointing effort in the Smarty Jones Stakes, worked 5 furlongs in 1:01 1/5 for this weeks San Pedro Stakes.

Miracle Wood Stakes winner MARENGO ROAD will try to make it back-to-back stakes wins in this Saturdays Private Terms Stakes at Laurel.
Court summons Superstar

Linga movie turned as super flop and Superstar Rajinikanth have faced several issues with the distributors. It seems the sufferings of Lingaa movie have no end for south Indian super star.As per reports Rajini has been summoned by a Madurai court on Tuesday. He was summoned with the charges that the story of his film "Lingaa" was allegedly stolen from another writer.



Apart from Rajini, "Lingaa" director K.S Ravi Kumar, writer and producer have also been summoned by the court. Court also summoned the complainant K R Ravirathinam. The court has asked all of them to appear before the judge.



In December 2014, producer of the film Rockline Venkatesh was ordered to deposit Rs.5 crore as guarantee before the release of the film. The judge in his summons mentioned that the Madras High Court directed the plaintiff to complete the trial in this case within April 30.The case was transferred to the Madurai Court following the request of the Ravirathinam. The case was filed by K R Ravirathinam alleging that the makers used his story in their film









News Posted: 8 March, 2016








TS, Maharashtra signs historic irrigation pact

Mumbai, March 8 (INN): Putting an end to a four-decade old dispute, the Governments of Telangana and Maharashtra on Tuesday signed an agreement for sharing of Godavari River water and construction of five barrages.



The MoU, signed by the officials of both the States, was exchanged by Telangana and Maharashtra chief ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Devendra Fadnavis respectively at an event held at Siyadari Guest House in Mumbai. Both the States have also decided to constitute an inter-State council to review the pending and new irrigation projects on Godavari River.



Speaking on the occasion, KCR described the agreement as historic and said that the Maharashtra has given its nod to Telangana not only for using Godavari River water, but also construction of barrages. He said that the pact would pave the way for an effective use of Godavari waters by both the states. "This is a historical day for both Telangana and Maharashtra as this is going to open up new ways of cooperation for the development of both the states," KCR said.



Thanking Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis, KCR said that the pact would serve as an example for all the states to resolve water disputes between them. He said presently, nearly 2,000 to 4,000 TMC of Godavari water was going waste into the sea. With the signing of this agreement, the water could now be utilised effectively.



The barrages are coming up at Medigadda, Tummidi-Haiti on Pranahita, Chanakha-Korata on Penganga, Pinpahad and Rajapeta.



KCR also invited Fadnavis and Maharashtra officials to Hyderabad for the next meeting on the project. "You all will be treated to the most delicious Hyderabadi biryani," KCR said in a lighter vein.



Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, Chief Secretary Dr. Rajiv Sharma and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.









News Posted: 8 March, 2016








Congress slams KCR over pact with Maharashtra

Hyderabad, March 8 (INN): Slamming Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for signing a pact with the Maharashtra Government over water sharing of Godavari River water, Leader of Opposition in Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Tuesday termed it as "Maha Daga" (Mega Cheating) and a Black Day in the history of Telangana.



Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, Shabbir Ali said that by materializing this agreement with the neighboring state, KCR has done a great injustice to the people of Telangana. He said, 'When KCR returned from Mumbai after signing an agreement on water sharing, State government, TRS party and others are celebrating on every forum as if a great deal has happened. Whereas, the fact is, KCR has done a great injustice to the people. There is nothing to celebrate.'



It is injustice because the height of the barrages that would be constructed on Godavari was decreased to 148 meters from the earlier proposal of 152 meters. The barrages are coming up at Medigadda, Tummidi-Haiti on Pranahita, Chanakha-Korata on Penganga, Pinpahad and Rajapeta.



Showing the copies of the similar agreement signed on May 5, 2012, Shabbir Ali said that the then Chief Ministers Kiran Kumar Reddy and his Maharashtra counterpart Prithvi Raj Chauhan signed an agreement in the presence of then union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal for the construction of barrage at Tummidi-Haiti at 152 Metres height. He sought to know how come the Chief Minister try to manipulate the facts in such a way that he was showing the already done agreement as his achievement and celebrating as if he has done something great for the people of state.



Further, he said that the cost of project has been increased from Rs. 38,000 crore to Rs. 86,000 crore while the ayacut remained at 16 lakh acres. He said it was the biggest irrigation scam in the country wherein Rs. 50,000 crore of public money was being swindled by manipulating the facts. He said that KCR has not consulted the opposition parties before going to Mumbai for the agreement.



Former irrigation minister P Sudarshan Reddy also found fault with the approach of the state government and said that the Congress party would expose the cheating after getting the agreement copies of the same.



TPCC Chief Spokesperson D. Shravan Kumar on this occasion lashed out at the Chief Minister and accused him of the selling the old wine in new bottle for cheap political gains.









News Posted: 8 March, 2016








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Injury-prone West Coast defender Mitch Brown could miss up to eight weeks after injuring his finger during the Eagles' scrappy win over the Gold Coast last week.

The 27-year-old had surgery on a ruptured tendon in the middle of his left hand and is unlikely to be available for selection until round seven.

Brown has had a wretched run with injury after missing all of the 2015 season after requiring knee reconstruction.

Since making his debut in 2007, Brown has only played 90 games because of ongoing injury problems.
Germany to develop Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Coimbatore as Smart Cities

Published: March 8, 2016

Germany has decided to partner with Indias smart city programme and will help developing Kochi (Kerala), Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) as smart cities.

It was announced by State Secretary in Germanys Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Gunther Adler in New Delhi at the second meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Urban Development.

These three cities are among the top 20 cities selected by Urban Development Ministry which are to be developed as smart cities.

This decision was taken after Union Government had invited Germany to be a partner in its Smart Cities programme in 2015. Earlier Germany had set up a six-member joint committee with India to identify the cities which it could develop as smart cities.

The joint committee had 2 representatives of Union Urban Development Ministry, 1 from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, and 3 from Germany.

It should be noted that Germany is Indias second largest bilateral donor after Japan with a record commitment of 1.5 billion Euros agreed in the year 2015.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2016

Topics: Bhubaneswar  Coimbatore  Current Affairs 2016  India-Germany  Kochi  Odisha  Smart cities

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Melburnians sweated through an autumn scorcher as the mercury soared above 38 degrees, making it the hottest March day in the city in eight years.

It hit 38.9 degrees in the CBD, while Moorabbin, in Melbourne's south-east, has recorded its hottest March day on record with 40.8 degrees.

The next hottest was on March 16, 2008.
A married Iranian couple who were once refugees at Nauru have left Cambodia and returned to their homeland despite the potential dangers, in a further sign Australia's $55 million deal with the south-east Asian nation has failed.

The office of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed the development on Tuesday, but said Nauru refugees were still encouraged to move to Cambodia.

It means Australia has paid Cambodia $55 million to permanently resettle just two refugees - striking a further blow to the much-maligned deal.

Labor's immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the deal had been "botched" and reflected the government's "abject failure" in dealing with asylum seekers.
Australia's diplomatic efforts to broker a deal to send hundreds of asylum seekers who have had their claims rejected back to Iran could be on the verge of a breakthrough amid reports an agreement could be struck next week when Iran's Foreign Minister visits Australia.

Dr Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit Australia nearly twelve months after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop invited him during her historic visit to Iran in April 2015.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is hopeful Australia will strike a deal with Iran next week. Credit:Jesse Marlow

So far, Australia has been unable to persuade Iran to accept the forced return of its citizens.

But The West Australian reported on Wednesday that the Government is hopeful of striking a deal soon. The report says Australia would secure guarantees that returned asylum seekers would not face any persecution.
Publicly-funded St Vincent's Hospital will not be forced to hand over documentation to state Parliament over the under-dosing of up to 70 chemotherapy patients because the hospital is privately run by a Catholic ministry.

In February the state Legislative Council passed a resolution seeking documents from the Health Minister, NSW Health and the hospital after St Vincent's oncologist Dr John Grygiel was accused of administering incorrect doses of the chemotherapy drug Carboplatin to head and neck cancer patients from up to three years.

The documentation would have included internal investigation and external review commissioned by the hospital, both of which concluded that the dosing had no adverse impacts on the outcomes of the patients involved.
Ljindim Sulejmani was, at first at least, a perfectly genial witness for the coronial inquest into the death of his friend, Numan Haider.

He took the stand on the eighth floor of the County Court, held the Koran in both hands, and swore by Allah he would be truthful.

He wore a blue hoodie, black slacks and slippers, a beige knit kufi, cropped beard and a placid smile.
Connecticut: When police arrived at Jonathan Law High School in Milford, Connecticut, to respond to a report of an altercation in April 2014, they found "considerable blood evidence" at a stairwell and recovered a knife in a hallway, not far from the grisly scene.

The victim of the fatal stabbing was a 16-year-old girl, Maren Sanchez, who was later remembered as outgoing and kind, the type of girl who "brought people together."

Maren Sanchez died of stab wounds the day of her prom. Credit:Facebook: Maren Sanchez

The suspect was a teenage boy, Christopher Plaskon, whose hands and clothes were covered in blood in the aftermath, according to a probable cause statement.

"I did it," Plaskon told a school resource officer, according to the police document. "Just arrest me."
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Equality advocates are calling on less talk and more action to reduce the gender pay gap in the ACT and the Australian workforce.

International Women's Day on Tuesday reignited a national discussion over gender inequality. And when it comes to equal wages, Canberra is doing significantly better than the rest of the country  except for South Australia.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed full-time average earnings for ACT men were 11.5 per cent greater than those of full-time working women as of November. The national pay gap was at 17.3 per cent, which equates to a full-time average earning difference of $277.70 a week.

The ACT's gap remained stagnant from the previous year. But during the recent period of November 2014-15, SA overtook the ACT with the lowest gender pay gap, most recently 10.3 per cent.

The figures seem to reflect the large proportion of the city's workforce in the ACT public service, which revealed a gender pay gap of 2 per cent in its last State of the Service Report.
The National Capital Orchestra's 2016 program. Opening concert, Passion. Sunday, March 20, 3pm, the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Bookings: nco.org.au or 6285 6290

From small beginnings many years ago as the Canberra Community Orchestra, this group of dedicated amateur instrumentalists has grown to become a 50-strong ensemble, the National Capital Orchestra. It's a group that is proud to offer programs as challenging and engaging as its professional counterpart, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

Guitarist Matt Withers will be the soloist in Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.

The NCO attracts top professional musicians as soloists and receives funding from Arts ACT for special projects.

This year young musician and composer Leonard Weiss adds the position of musical director and conductor of the NCO to his already demanding schedule as director of the Canberra Youth Orchestra, Canberra Qwire and the ANU Choral Society. He's brimming with enthusiasm and ideas to extend the orchestra's repertoire with emphasis on the promotion of Australian works and the introduction of lesser known works, while still presenting audience favourites by composers such as Dvorak, Beethoven and Haydn.
Former senior public servant Dan Stewart has rejected suggestions he should register as a lobbyist, despite meeting Chief Minister Andrew Barr in his new role as a consultant in September 2015.

Mr Stewart, Canberra head of Elton Consulting, is working on the casino bid, as well as the Manuka Oval development. He was deputy chief executive in the government's Land Development Agency until August last year.

Dan Stewart at the Westside Container Village in September last year after leaving the Land Development Agency. Credit:Jay Cronan

Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury refused a meeting with Mr Stewart about the Aquis bid to redevelop the casino, telling Mr Stewart he must first join the ACT's lobbyist register.

But Liberal Brendan Smyth was met Mr Stewart in September, before the casino bid was announced, to be briefed on the project. Mr Smyth said he had assumed that Mr Stewart, "having recently come from the ACT government, would be compliant with whatever he needed to be be compliant with".
The defence for two ex-Marist brothers who face historic child sex abuse allegations is expected to argue in the ACT Supreme Court the pair should not face trial.

Police charged John William Chute, 83, and Gregory Joseph Sutton, 64, as part of Operation Attest, an ongoing investigation into child sexual abuse in Canberra schools in the 1980s.

Brother John "Kostka" Chute. Credit:Martin Jones

Mr Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, was charged with two indecent assaults on a male and two acts of indecency on a child, while Mr Sutton faces three charges of indecent assault on a male.

Neither man has entered pleas.
As the ACT's jail is forced to expand, retired Californian Judge Peggy Hora is calling on the territory to catch up with the rest of Australia by introducing a drug court.

She says it would force people into treatment and keep many offenders out of jail.

Former California Superior Court judge Peggy Hora

Ms Hora is renowned for her expertise in "problem-solving courts", which hold pre-sentencing hearings that aim to help offenders overcome the reasons they break the law.

She was invited to present her pioneering work with therapeutic sentences for drug addicts, in Canberra on Tuesday, at the invitation of ACT Chief Justice Helen Murrell who set up the first NSW Drug Court in 1998.
It is more difficult for a high-achieving school to improve significantly over time than a low-achieving one, something of which principal Anne Coutts is acutely aware.

While the elite girls school is used to coming in the top clutch of schools each year, based on raw NAPLAN scores, it has also been identified by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority to deliver significant improvements to its reading results between Years 7 and 9.

Canberra Girls Grammar School has been identified as a high achieving school which also adds value to its high-achieving students in reading.

"Although we are not a selective school - we take students in strict date order of their registration with us - we do know that our students have many advantages," Ms Coutts said.

"Among the many advantages our students have is interest in and support for their learning at home. Often we are trying to help relatively high achievers to move to higher order thinking," she said.

This included being creative and innovate rather than just remembering facts and to create new generations of "independent thinkers".

"Any school can enable high-achieving students to coast comfortably, we don't want that to happen. We aim to challenge our students to move outside their comfort zone and discover their passions," Ms Coutts said.

While Canberra Girls Grammar had below average gains in some of the literacy and numeracy domains by Year 5, its performance was relatively strong across a number of domains by Year 9.
Principal Jason Borton has mixed views on NAPLAN testing, given Richardson's raw score results are often lower than schools with more advantaged students.

The small public school in Tuggeranong is one of fewer than 10 ACT schools identified to have a low socio-economic status, but it is showing significant gains for its students across the board - particularly in Year 5 numeracy where it tops Canberra.

Richardson Primary is one of the ACT's most successful schools despite taking students who often enrol with considerable educational disadvantage.

He knows what it is like to run a school that is achieving great things for its students, but which looks to the rest of the city like it is less successful than others.

For him, the gain results show the real value of the programs his staff employ to take their young charges off a low base and catch them up - not only to where they should be, but often beyond.

"This is our third year of significant gains, and frankly, it's what we do it for," Mr Borton said.

"Sometimes we can take a student through three years of gain in just one year."

He noted "NAPLAN is just one of the many test we consider when we look at each of our students. But we don't focus solely on it or teach to the test."
The University of Canberra's newly-announced Vice-Chancellor, Professor H. Deep Saini, said he was convinced to move half way around the world because of the unique campus redevelopment vision of outgoing Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker.

Speaking from Toronto where he is Vice-President of the University of Toronto - Canada's top-ranked, largest and most research-intensive university - Indian-born Professor Saini said the opportunity to lead a young and progressive university had been impossible to turn down.

Vice-President of the University of Toronto, Professor H. Deep Saini, has been appointed the next vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra.

Professor Saini is leaving two daughters and a grandchild behind in Canada to relocate with his wife Rani.

He spent part of a sabbatical living in Canberra in 2000 while he worked at the CSIRO.
The belated launch of a 500-kilogram statue of a monotreme on Tuesday has given Queanbeyan a unique "billboard" proclaiming its unique distinction as one of the best platypus spotting spots in NSW.

The artwork, the creation of local sculptor Neil Dickinson, is on the banks of the Queanbeyan River and just down from the Isabella Street footbridge.

Queany, the platypus sculpture at Queanbeyan, was launched on Tuesday. She has been in situ since 2015. Credit:Jay Cronan

Appropriately named "Queany", Neil's platypus basks serenely on a rock surrounding by a mosaic of waves that are significantly more pristine than the river they are meant to represent.

The mosaic was created last year by Queanbeyan volunteers working with Sydney sculptor and mosaic artist Freya Jobbins.
Super funds representing just under one million Australians have demanded an explanation from CommInsure over allegations of unethical claims handling.

A joint Fairfax Media and Four Corners investigation has exposed claims from CommInsure's former chief medical officer Dr Benjamin Koh of a culture where doctors are pressured to alter or delete medical records and opinions to allow the Commonwealth Bank subsidiary to avoid paying claims.

Nearly three million Australians are covered by CommInsure through its deals to offer life and total permanent disability policies to members of nine industry and two public sector funds .
The scandal in the Commonwealth Bank's life insurance arm will inflict further brand damage on the bank, and it contrasts with the bank's fundamental strategy, a leading analyst says.

With the government pledging a swift investigation into the life insurance sector, analysts said the latest incident would hurt the bank's reputation, which has already been damaged by significant wrongdoing in its financial planning arm.

A joint investigation between BusinessDay's Adele Ferguson and ABC's 4 Corners this week revealed doctors in the bank being pressured to change their assessments of customers to avoid payouts; delaying payouts to terminally ill customers; and a refusal to honour claims to former staff who were medically retired.

CLSA analyst Brian Johnson contrasted the revelations with the pledge by CBA chairman David Turner last year to be "the ethical bank" as its point of competitive advantage.
When is enough, enough? In the past few years Commonwealth Bank has been engulfed in scandal after scandal yet nobody seems to be made accountable.

The latest scandal, in its life insurance arm, is particularly egregious as it centres on sick and dying people deprived of their entitlements by scandalous and unethical tactics.

Bank chief executive Ian Narev has tried to insist that he can both see the bank's shortcomings as outlined in the joint Fairfax Media Four Corners investigation but without conceding they are anything but exceptions. This is where the bank's defence falls down.

Until the cases became a media threat, the bank had treated these people, its policyholders, with disdain. It had a system geared towards denial and delay.
There were some seismic shifts in the mining community this week, but none to match an announcement on Friday by billionairess, Gina Rinehart.

She was tickled pink after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at a breakfast bash in Perth last Friday from the local Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME). The event was actually in aid of the CME's Women in Resources awards.

Rinehart revealed a bold new look for some of the house-sized trucks that trundle around at her Roy Hill mine.

"Another initiative under way is our pink trucks program where I have asked that all future Caterpillar truck trays are painted pink as a way of highlighting not only breast cancer, but the value of women in mining and to demonstrate that this is something we as a company value," Rinehart told the audience.
Job losses are set to surge in the NSW coal industry with BHP Billiton wielding the axe at its Hunter Valley operations as hundreds of jobs go at other mines in the region.

BHP said it will slashing 290 jobs at its large Mt Arthur steaming coal mine, reducing the workforce to 1440, as part of efforts to revive the mine's profitability. The mine is the largest in the Hunter Valley with producing around 20 million tonnes of coal annually.

BHP Billiton axing more Hunter Valley mining jobs Credit:Michele Mossop

The bulk of the output from the mine is sold abroad and it will be seeking to maintain that output, despite the job losses, which has triggered concern with the mine workers union that BHP may seek to boost the number of casual contractors at the mine.

Of those losing their jobs, 230 are covered by employee agreements. The remaining jobs are support roles, mostly administration. It is unclear whether there will be a knock-on effect for contractor jobs at this stage.
From the air Australia's largest single resource development, Gorgon, doesn't seem all that impressive.

Aside from a massive 4.2 kilometre jetty and offloading facility, the longest for a liquefied natural gas project anywhere in Australia, the mangle of metal below appears as just a speck on the eastern side of Barrow Island.

The $US54 billion Gorgon LNG project on Barrow Island, Western Australia.

The Chevron-led Gorgon project occupies just 332 hectares of the island, or 1.4 per cent of the land area.

But at ground level it's an entirely different story.
The Chinese government is expected to flag concerns over a possible iron ore joint venture between Fortescue Metals Group and Brazilian miner Vale, while market and competition regulators in Australia are already investigating the plan and the way it was announced.

Under the non-binding, preliminary agreement announced on Tuesday, the world's second largest and fourth largest exporters of iron ore will become closely aligned and will blend a portion of their ores to create a new product for sale into China.

Fortescue chief Nev Power. Credit:Aaron Bunch

Despite steel production growth slowing in China in recent years, iron ore remains a strategic resource for China and analysts said they expected the Chinese ministry of commerce and potentially other regulators to raise concerns.

"Antitrust could be an issue. The seaborne iron ore market is highly consolidated as Vale, Fortescue, Rio and BHP will account for more than 77 per cent of seaborne iron ore supply in 2016," said Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina.
If fully formalised, the ore blending could help Fortescue continue lowering its cost of production, the mine stake sale could provide cash to pay down Fortescue's $US6.1 billion net debt, and the purchase of shares could help support Fortescue's share price. The non-binding deal came on the same day iron ore prices rose to a nine-month high. The bulk commodity rose $US9.99 per tonne to $US63.74 per tonne, and despite most analysts and mining companies predicting it will fall, there were signs on Tuesday that the price would be even higher by Wednesday morning. The deal also came just days after bullish comments from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang about the nation continuing on its development path, despite expectations it was switching to focus on becoming a consumption economy. "Development is of primary importance to China and is the key to solving every problem we face," Mr Li said in a report.

The confluence of events saw Fortescue shares rise 23 per cent on the day before the Vale pact was announced, and it is believed both the ASX and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission are investigating the timing of that surge. After opening higher on Tuesday, Fortescue shares closed 9.4 per cent lower, continuing the wild gyrations in the stock. Most analysts saw Tuesday's declines as profit taking, after the stock hit a 16-month high in the early minutes of trading. Regulators in China and Australia will likely have a big say over whether Vale and Fortescue are allowed to formalise their plan; Chinese regulators have already been briefed. The aspect of the pact that appears most likely to go ahead is the plan for an iron ore joint venture.

Fortescue's ores have a lower iron grade than Vale's, but Vale's generally have higher levels of impurities than Fortescue's, so the blend of the two ores would create a product that is superior to both companies' ores. The companies hope the blending will allow them to mine less attractive ores and blend them up to a marketable standard, and thereby operate more cheaply. Fortescue's second biggest shareholder, Chinese steelmaker Hunan Valin, has already agreed to take some of the blended product. Mr Power said the companies would likely produce up to 100 million tonnes of the blended product, with Fortescue likely to supply 40 per cent to 50 per cent of that. Fortescue exported 165.4 million tonnes from Port Hedland during the 2015 financial year and expects to ship a similar amount in the year to June 30, so the new joint venture with Vale is expected to affect between 25 and 30 per cent of the miner's current production.

Fortescue and Vale would continue to sell their remaining tonnes individually, as they do now. Shaw and Partners analyst Peter O'Connor said Fortescue shareholders would be "absolutely thrilled" by the announcement. "The balance of power in the iron ore market has shifted today with this bloc potentially emerging," Mr O'Connor said. "This is another positive development in the evolution of Fortescue and increases its credibility in the market's eyes as a sustainable, long-term, viable iron ore company. Not that I ever doubted that, but some people did." Deutsche analyst Paul Young said Fortescue may benefit more from the deal.
We tend to think of cyber crime in terms of good guys versus bad guys. Hollywood has taught us that the bad guys are young men with connections to shady, all-powerful underworld types. The good guys, by contrast, are governments and upstanding institutions such as banks and utilities.

But what if, instead of providing protection, our institutions are grooming us to become easy targets of cyber criminals?

Illustration: John Spooner

Take, for example, a recent call my wife took from her bank. Before the customer service representative would tell her what the call was about, my wife was asked to provide her full name, address and date of birth.

Having worked as an IT security consultant specialising in identity theft, my wife politely declined. "We just need to confirm that we're speaking to the right person," explained the woman from the bank. "You know who I am," my wife countered. "You just dialled my number."
Euthanasia and assisted dying is back on the agenda  if indeed it was ever really off the table. The Senate is currently considering a draft Bill sponsored by the Greens which would enshrine a "dying with dignity medical service", and authorise physicians to "prescribe, prepare and/or administer a substance that would assists a terminally ill person to end their life in a human manner".

Also before the Parliament is a bipartisan private members' Bill which seeks to repeal the so-called Andrews Bill, the 1997 law banning the territories from legislating on euthanasia. And here in Canberra, Dying with Dignity ACT is looking for someone "with a three- to five-year lifespan" who is prepared to take part in a legal challenge against the Commonwealth's prohibition on voluntary assisted dying and suicide, a ban the group argues is a violation of people's human rights.

The intensity of the ethical debate around euthanasia sometimes overlooks the fact that living wills, empathy, and common sense ought to be sufficient to deal with assisted dying.

Apart from a brief two years in the mid-1990s when the Northern Territory allowed doctor-assisted suicide (a pioneering social experiment swiftly terminated by the Andrews Bill), euthanasia was and remains illegal in Australia. That's not to say the practice is unknown. Day-in and day-out, doctors around the country practise euthanasia, with the tacit consent of relatives and where the prospect of recovery is nil. A patient can also exercise a right to die by refusing treatment, even food or drink, though obviously not without pain and distress.

But as modern medicine has equipped itself to keep more people alive for longer, the debate has become more focused and polarised. Many people argue that if an individual has no hope of living a normal functioning life, or of getting better, and if their suffering cannot be relieved, then it is barbaric for them to be forced to live on against their will.
A woman in her early 50s scoops water from a hand-dug well. It is barely more than a crack in the dry earth and the liquid in her cup is but a muddy sludge. It has hardly rained in this district for more than two years. With water sources drying up, women such as Sara walk further and dig harder in the hope of bringing something home for their families to use.

This past week, I have been in Ethiopia, where more than 10 million people just like Sara will require humanitarian assistance this year, as the country battles its worst drought in decades. And what a visit it was, albeit my first to this largely rural nation of more than 90 million people.

The Horn of Africa is no stranger to water scarcity, but two consecutive seasons of failed rains, exacerbated by El Nino conditions, have resulted in a savage drought that has devastated about half the farmlands of Ethiopia and created huge food shortages  1 million children are malnourished as a result. Children are also being taken out of school to go in search of water.

The extreme nature of this crisis has not gone unnoticed by the Australian government. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop announced recently that our aid program will contribute $10 million in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, prioritising food and nutrition support, as well as health and sanitation. While the Ethiopian government is responding with available resources, additional support from the international community is urgently needed.
It has been some 20 years since the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 passed federal Parliament and removed the rights of territory citizens, and their parliaments, from being able to debate or pass laws relating to euthanasia.

The "Andrews Law", as it became known, was a legislative sledgehammer which overrode the Northern Territory Parliament's Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995, which had provided the legislative authority for voluntary euthanasia in certain circumstances.

Labor senator Katy Gallagher makes a plea for territory rights. Credit:Graham Tidy

Fast forward to today and it's clear that the ACT and Northern Territory parliaments both function as mature parliaments which have been governing effectively for 30 and 40 years respectively. There are some 630,000 people who live in the ACT and the Northern Territory and their governments are responsible for running hospitals, schools, child protection, jails and multi-million dollar economies and yet, despite all of these responsibilities, both jurisdictions are specifically barred from debating or legislating for the rights of the terminally ill.

That is wrong in my view, and it is time that the "Andrews" legislation is repealed and two Private Senators Bills introduced and partially debated in the Senate this week seek to do just that.
"The major organisations seem to have been struck dumb by the minister's decisions and only a very few uttered any reaction to what was being done to artists and in particular small and medium arts organisations," Lynch said in a Currency House address in Sydney on Wednesday morning.

Michael Lynch, the former head of the Australia Council, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Theatre Company, said he was "really disturbed" at major companies'  who were quarantined from the measures  refusal to protest the cuts announced by former Arts Minister George Brandis in May 2014. (Lynch described Brandis' actions as the fulfilment of a "revenge strategy" of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott against the arts).

One of Australia's most experienced and influential arts administrators has slammed the heads of Australia's major performing arts organisations for their silence amid more than $100 million in cuts to the Australia Council for the Arts.

Lynch recently returned home after many years working overseas, establishing one of the world's biggest and most costly arts precincts, Hong Kong's $2 million M+ project in West Kowloon, and prior to that running London's South Bank and Royal Festival Hall.

"Having come from Hong Kong and China, the idea that we would trifle with arts with some sort of illusory promise if we keep quiet, that really disturbs me," he said before delivering his speech.

Lynch said he felt the rise of noted arts patron (and his local member) Malcolm Turnbull to the prime ministership when he returned six months ago would be like "entering nirvana" for the cultural sector.

Yet six months on, nothing had changed for the arts. Lynch challenged Turnbull to restore arts funding in the upcoming May budget and warned that without it there would likely be more job cuts at the Australia Council. (A further $50 million was cut from the arts in the May 2015 budget, including $36.8 million from mainly from major cultural institutions in Canberra.)

"I arrived a week after our new visionary Malcolm took control," he said. "It's been one of the most bizarre six months in my experience of the place," Lynch said of Turnbull's elevation. "It was like entering nirvana when I walked in."
Unlike Pablo Picasso, Jan Senbergs' long career as a painter has included neither a Rose nor a Blue period. He did, though, briefly have what he describes as his Axle-Grease stage: deep, dark, inky beasts of paintings he says were "horrible things" that he should have burnt. Others disagree: those paintings, among many others, are about to show in Senbergs' first retrospective, being held at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Senbergs is an elder statesman of Australian painting. He's 76, much respected and remains deeply inquisitive about the world: he explores it, paints and draws it, wriggles himself through its strange byways as if it were a psychological map. The Axel-Grease works were what got him going  he had his first solo show in 1960  but his most recent works are just as intensely energetic, if more luminous.

Jan Senbergs in his studio: ''I just like sitting here sometimes.'' Credit:Paul Jeffers

Here is Senbergs in his large studio, a maze of desks, tables, stacks of paintings and drawings, truckloads of books, materials, photos and several large racks and presses filled with work. Along with NGV curator Elena Taylor, Senbergs has, over the past couple of years, been trawling through all of this to nail down the past  a history richly arrayed with many large series of works.

He is, he says, "a stayer".
Show goes on for Spring 1883 despite Melbourne Art Fair's demise

Melbourne Art Fair axed for 2016 as interest from galleries wanes

Directors of the Spring 1883 alternative art fair.

The organisers of alternative art fair Spring 1883 have indicated they will go ahead with the event in August despite the cancellation of this year's Melbourne Art Fair.

Spring 1883 director Luisa Bosci says while "it's disappointing for all those involved that the 2016 edition of the Melbourne Art Fair has been cancelled . . . the Melbourne art communities are both robust and innovative, and we look forward to supporting the new models that might emerge instead".
Melbourne drive show champions Hamish Blake and Andy Lee - as well as their station Hits101.9 Fox FM - have copped a ratings shock in the first survey of the year, with Gold FM snatching the overall crown in the FM contest and the popular comedy duo just hanging on to their lead in a timeslot they have dominated since returning to the airwaves in mid-2015.

While radio ratings can be fickle - particularly with the first survey of a new year - the size of the audience slide for Fox in both the drive and breakfast slots is unusual.

Hamish Blake and Andy Lee were mobbed by fans and media at the Melbourne Cup. Credit:Barcroft Media

Blake and Lee have shed 2.3 per cent of their listener share to tumble from an untouchable 12.8 per cent back to 10.5. That's enough to keep them at number one but their buffer - 3.5 per cent in the last survey - was cut to a 1.1 per cent. Gold FM - whose 2.3 per cent boost was identical to Blake and Lee's decline - leapt from fifth place to second in the timeslot.

There was matching bad news for Hits101.9 in the breakfast slot, where Fifi Box and Dave Thornton - timeslot leaders in the previous survey - dropped 2.5 per cent, surrendering top spot to the Eddie McGuire-led show on Triple M, off slightly from 8.8 per cent to 8.5.
While a map released by the ACT government indicates about 87 hectares of nature reserve along the river will be preserved, he fears the ACT's population could see a similar decline if development continues along the Murrumbidgee's riparian corridor. The species was listed as vulnerable in the territory and pockets of the Murrumbidgee were the only places where it was possible to see breeding individuals in the ACT, Dr Fulton said. Land west of the Tuggeranong town centre the ACT government plans to develop into a new suburb. "The research we've just completed has found they're very sensitive to habitat loss because they're very choosy about where they want to live in a stream," Dr Fulton said. "They like areas that have deep pools full of boulders and a relatively moderate flow but the key thing is they really like streambank vegetation which overhangs the stream and keeps it cool.

The distinctive Murray crayfish is listed as vulnerable to extinction in the ACT. "That suggests if you have any clearing of that vegetation corridor on either side of the stream you could effectively be wiping out whole sections of streams habitable for these Murray crayfish." Murray crays can live up to 25 years and only reach maturity between eight and 10 years of age. They play a vital role in aquatic ecosystems, where they clean up dead and decaying matter and provide food for many other species. Senior lecturer with the Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution at La Trobe University's Wodonga campus Dr Susan Lawler describes them as the "unicorns of the river".

"The Murray crayfish are stunning creatures  if you take someone not familiar with them out in a boat and pull in a net with a few large animals in them, you will create a memorable moment," she said. "They are difficult to catch and even harder to hold  their spines will make you bleed and only the initiated would even dare reach toward one if they were in defensive mode. When threatened, they raise their spiny claws and wave them about. Quite intimidating." But despite their fierce nature, she said Murray crays were in decline and "nobody really knows what is driving that process". "We know almost nothing about their young, where they live and what they eat, so we cannot study recruitment in this species," she said. Dr Fulton said the loss of the Murray crayfish was particularly sad, given they were considered an icon of the Murray-Darling system and the Murrumbidgee.

"A lot of nature signs around the Cotter reserve have a drawing of a Murray crayfish on them. The irony is those Murray crayfish aren't in a large part of those areas anymore," he said. He said the crayfish were not a "road block to be removed". "They're on the edge. They've been in decline for 10 years and what concerns me is the government may do a survey and say they're very rare in this area and therefore it's not really going to be a threat," he said. "Even just a few reproductive individuals are extremely valuable. They can really lead to the future of the population in a given area. We really need to consider this crayfish as one of the key reasons to keep riparian corridors intact along the Murrumbidgee." If the suburb gets the green light, development would likely begin in 2018.
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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
The Business Council of Australia has supported making changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, putting pressure on the Turnbull government as speculation mounts about an early budget.

The news was jumped on by Labor, who declared it proof that the Coalition was floundering on tax policy.

BCA president Catherine Livingstone says the council would like to phase out stamp duties in favour of land taxes. Credit:Josh Robenstone

The Business Council released its reform plan for the next decade on Tuesday, a wish-list of tax policies it wants the federal government to pursue, hopefully starting with the budget.

The centrepiece of the plan is a cut in company tax rate to 22 per cent from 30 per cent by 2025, with a cut in personal income tax to stave off bracket creep.
Health Minister Sussan Ley has accused the Victorian government of exaggerating its hospitals' activity to unfairly claim a greater share of federal funding.

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy warned state hospitals in February to brace for cuts to services after a decision to cut $73 million in federal funding to the state. The independent administrator of the National Health Funding Pool had told her the federal Treasurer Scott Morrison had called for an adjustment to their funding arrangement.

Ms Ley said on Tuesday that the administrator had in fact advised the federal government that Victoria had used a "sneaky accounting trick" to "artificially inflate" state hospital activity to claim more federal funding than they were entitled to. She rejected Ms Hennessy's claims Victoria had permission to do this.

The government had then "reasonably offered" to cut federal funding to Victoria over a number of months in order to claw back excessive claims.
Taxpayers have footed the bill for family members of two Coalition MPs to fly to one of Australia's farthest-flung territories, the idyllic Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, for a weekend stay.

The $10,000-plus bill to fly the wife and two daughters of Western Australian Liberal Luke Simpkins and the husband of Northern Territory Country Liberal Natasha Griggs to and from the tropical islands is the equivalent of a business-class round trip ticket to Honolulu for each of the four family members.

Department of Finance records show Ms Griggs' husband Paul flew from Darwin to Cocos via Perth and Christmas Island at a cost of $4385. The bill for Mr Simpkins' wife Kelly and two daughters to travel from Perth via Christmas Island was $5100.

Fairfax Media revealed last month that Mr Simpkins visited a Polish coal mine in which he owns shares during a $5000 publicly funded "study tour" of Europe last year.
Investing in initial public offerings (IPOs) can be a good way for investors to "get in on the ground floor" with a new public company. But it can be hard to tell which IPOs are going to succeed and grow, and which will crash and burn.

Savvy investors who find the right opportunities can be rewarded. While individual performances varied, the average increase in share price across all new IPOs by the end of 2015 was 10 per cent, compared to the ASX 200 which fell 2 per cent over the year.

IPO volume was light in 2015, but it's expected to pick up pace in 2016. Credit:Perter Riches

Nonetheless, the IPO market in recent years has been particularly hard to predict as there have been several new trends emerging.

For example, in the years immediately following the global financial crisis (GFC), small companies (small caps) made up the vast majority of listings, with resources stocks dominating.
Reiswig knows that if he has the gene, he has perhaps a bit more than a decade before the first symptoms appear. If he has it, his two young children may have it, too. He wavers about getting tested. "Sometimes I think, 'This is a terrible storm on the horizon that could absolutely devastate us, and I want to know if it is real or not.' Other times I say, 'Gosh, if I do find out that it is real and I know I will die that way and I know probably the age I will die - that is an almost unbearable amount of information about my future'." "People say you could go sky diving or ride a bull. But you can only do things like that as long as time and income provide. You still have to get up in the morning and go to work and pay your bills." He joined a study at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis in which researchers are following members of families with the genes for early-onset Alzheimer's disease. At a recent meeting, he recalled, he found himself in a room full of people like himself: All had a parent with an Alzheimer's gene.

All were at risk of having the mutated gene themselves. Reiswig asked the group, "How many have been tested?" Half raised their hands. "Of those of you who have been tested, how many regret it?" He was met with ominous silence.

Then a man spoke up. He said he had been tested and learned he has the gene. As for regrets, "it depends on the day," the man said. "I have battled weight issues and the suicide issue, and I have had problems with my marriage ever since I found out. Some days I really regret it. It is a huge burden. Other days I am glad I know." Reiswig has been thinking it over. He has decided not to be tested. "For me, the return is not worth the investment," he said. His 41-year-old brother Matt, who lives nearby with his wife and five children, was plagued by the fear that he had the mutated gene. Every time he lost his keys or forgot a name, he thought: Alzheimer's.

"I was already living every single day, every single moment assuming I had it," he said. "I did not want to find out I have it. I wanted to find out I don't have it." He decided to have the test. "To me, it is just so obvious," he said. "Worrying about what the truth is, is far more damaging, and it doesn't change the conclusions." Knowing the truth, he added, "frees you from making the wrong assumptions". Matt Reiswig got lucky. He does not have the gene. He wept when he got the news, thinking of all the time and energy he had spent thinking he had it. All the emotional heartache.

His cousin Brian Whitney, 43, was not as fortunate. His father has the gene and has Alzheimer's. When he was 40, Whitney, decided to have the test, telling himself that he had to know for the sake of his family, and especially his tro-year-old daughter. Would she have to watch him start to lose his memory when she was just 10? Would she have to see him die? Might he have passed the gene on to her? If he had the gene, he told himself, he would volunteer for research studies; he would do anything he could to help scientists understand the disease and treat it, if not for his sake then for his daughter's. Whitney's test came back positive. He has the gene. He thought he was prepared, but nothing really prepares a person to hear such news.
Nicole Perko with husband Eddie. Fairfax Media has obtained a copy of the review conducted by Highlands Health Consulting for NSW Health. NSW Health has accepted its recommendations, which include establishing two new facilities for peritonectomy surgery - a private one located near St George Hospital in Kogarah and one at a Sydney public hospital, yet to be chosen. Nicole Perko and daughter Evie. The number of operations at St George Hospital has increased from 72 in 2013/14 to 115 this year and is expected to reach 170 by 2026.

Susan Pearce, from NSW Health, said the report had been well received and all its recommendations accepted. She said work was now underway to establish a private facility and a public hospital in Sydney would be selected by July for the second facility. "Our goal is to get this up and running as quickly as we can," she said. Professor Morris said the review was "very well written and well researched" and would "offer people in NSW much better access to treatment for their peritoneal cancers". "I think it is a very good report," he said. "The difficulty now is in implementing it. At St George, we are struggling with capacity in our hospital.

"There is no doubt that we still struggle with the waiting list. But we are largely getting people done within the clinically recommended times." Professor Morris said he was seeing an increasing number of cases of mesothelioma in young females. The number had grown from two or three in the mid 1990s to about 100. "Talcum powder in females is something we are concerned may have led to this increase in numbers of mesothelioma in young females," he said. An American jury late last month awarded more than $100 million in damages to the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer and blamed it on Johnson & Johnson talcum powder. The verdict came despite some researchers saying there is insufficient evidence to prove the link between using talcum powder and ovarian cancer. According to the Cancer Council of NSW website, there is "insufficient evidence" to conclude the use of talcum powder can cause ovarian cancer. The American Cancer Society also says the findings of studies examining the suggested link have been mixed.

The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer - classifies talc-based body powder as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" when it's used around the perineum - the nether region stretching from the vagina to the anus. A Sydney-based spokesperson for the American multinational has told Fairfax Media: "Johnson & Johnson relies on the greater body of evidence, and the greater body of evidence suggests there is really insufficient science to make that link." St George Hospital is undergoing a redevelopment which will increase its number of operating theatres and wards in two years. Professor Morris said surgeons were training to learn the peritonectomy procedure, but this would take time. He said the social media campaign in support of Mrs Perko had helped increase availability of the treatment.
A female backpacker has fought off her flatmate after he allegedly forced his way into her bedroom in Sydney's inner south and attempted to sexually assault her, police said.

The 23-year-old British woman was stabbed in her bedroom by her housemate in a backpacker sharehouse on Cleveland Street in Redfern around 3pm on Tuesday.

Detective Inspector Despa Fitzgerald from Redfern Local Area Command said it was believed the 27-year-old Mexican national had "gone in there to sexually assault her", before he left and returned armed with a knife.

He then allegedly "stabbed her a number of times," she said.
Police have launched a murder investigation after a woman died in suspicious circumstances in a house fire at Lalor Park in Sydney's west on Monday night.

Firefighters found the woman's badly burned body in the front of the Lucas Road house, which was well alight by the time they arrived about 9pm. She was the sole occupant of the house.

Neighbours told AAP they heard a scuffle before spotting the fire and calling emergency services.

"We heard a scuffle and then we heard something like a 'pop pop' and then somebody yell out 'help help' and a bang and then I looked out the window and I saw the fire," Karen Taylor told AAP.
The NSW Liberals have formally called on the Turnbull government to conduct public debates about climate change - including whether the science is settled - in a stark reminder of the deep divisions within the party over the issue.

A motion passed at the party's state council calls on the government to "arrange and hold public debates/discussions" between scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and "independent climate scientists".

The motion says the events should cover "the global warming/climate change debate"; "the claims by the IPCC"; and the statement "is all the science settled".

It proposes the first debate be held in Sydney, the second in Melbourne and "the others to take place one in each state".
Michael Bassal had gone to the Ingleburn business alone, early Monday morning, apparently seeking a refund for signage he had ordered for his family's construction business.

He was said to be angry the work had not yet been finished and the 43-year-old went into a meeting room on the mezzanine level with father-and-son employees, Peter and Wayne Williams to discuss it. Business owner Chantelle Tonna watched on.

Wayne Williams and Mr Bassal had history  they had common associates, had been in both business and personal disputes before and were associated to rival bikie gangs.
While on the southern tip of Queensland, surfers praised Annastacia Palaszczuk as the "best premier in the state", in Cairns Labor MP Rob Pyne has resigned throwing her government in chaos.

At Tweed Heads this morning, Gold Coast Surfing Reserve chair Andrew McKinnon said he began working with Annastacia Palaszczuk when she was opposition leader to secure the southern stretch of the Gold Coast as the world's eighth World Surfing Reserve.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with surf champ Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew and Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate at World Surfing Reserve announcement at Point Danger. Credit:Josh Hamilton

"Thanks so much premier, you're the best," Mr McKinnon said.

"Annastacia Palaszczuk came and saw me in 2014 and she has never wavered in her support and it was incredible to have her in our corner."
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said councillors usually had no idea who were party donors as he continued to defend two controversial public land deals with donors to the Liberal National Party.

But a spokesman for Cr Quirk confirmed that he was, in fact, aware of the prospective buyers' donations when the matters came before civic cabinet.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says he was unaware LNP donors were involved in two land deals approved by his council. Credit:Chris Hyde

The LNP's council campaign has been dogged by the deals, both concerning land on Nudgee Road at Nundah, since the attempted sale of public land to party donor Tan Boon Seng was rejected by the state government late last month.

It later emerged an earlier deal with another LNP donor, BMI, to sell the adjacent lot had been approved by the Newman government in 2013.
Raymond Tomlinson, the computer programmer who in 1971 invented email as it is known today and in the process transformed the "at" sign  @  from a sparely used price symbol to a permanent fixture in the lives of millions of computer users around the world, died on Saturday at his home in Massachusetts, United States. He was 74.

His daughter Brooke Tomlinson Mckenzie confirmed the death but said that the cause had not been determined.

Raymond Tomlinson. Credit:Raytheon BBN Technologies, via Associated Press

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Tomlinson was working at a research and development company, Bolt, Beranek and Newman, on projects for the ARPANET, a forerunner of the internet that was created for the US Defense Department. At the time, the company had developed a messaging program, SNDMSG, that allowed multiple users of a time-share computer to send messages to one another. But it was a closed system, limited to users of a single computer.

Tomlinson, filching code from a file-transfer program he had created called CYPNET, modified SNDMSG so that messages could be sent from one host computer to another throughout the ARPANET system. To do this, he needed a symbol to separate a user name from a destination address. He settled on the plump little @ sign because it did not appear in user names and did not have any meaning in the TENEX paging program used on time-sharing computers.
In a lab engineered to within an inch of its life, Michael Biercuk is working to change the world forever, in ways that even he doesn't quite understand.

Associate Professor Biercuk has built a room that is one of only five in the world. Each one operates under exacting environmental controls. Two of them are run by the US government, another is run by IBM in Zurich and a fourth is at Harvard University.

His lab at the University of Sydney cost more than $10 million before a single piece of equipment was installed. Here, science at the size of a billionth of a metre is carried out. It is at this scale where the quantum states of individual atoms and electrons are isolated and manipulated to build the technology of the future.
An international drug trafficking fugitive with links to the Mafia has been arrested at Rome's airport after flying from Australia, according to reports from Italy overnight.

Antonio Vottari, 31, was apprehended by police at the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino airport on Tuesday after he stepped off a flight from Australia, according to Il Quotidiano and other Italian news reports.

Mafia drug trafficker Antonio Vottari met with Joseph Acquaro about a week before the lawyer was murdered. Credit:Il Quotidiano

Vottari has been on the run for five years, wanted on drug crimes. He was convicted in his absence and sentenced to seven-and-half years in prison for trafficking cocaine as part of a syndicate operating in South America, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

The syndicate, Rai News reports, was managed by a notorious San Luca clan of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia.
Have you seen this little girl? If so, police need your help.

Victoria Police has released images of a child they "have concerns for" and are seeking assistance from the public to try to identify.

Have you seen this little girl?

It is understood the image of the girl - which was sent to police forces across Australia - relates to a child exploitation investigation, but it is unclear whether the footage was taken in Victoria.

The release of the image on Tuesday afternoon is believed to have resulted in several calls being made to investigators, but the identity of the girl remains unclear.
What does a man in his forties hope for in life?

A decent job and some money in the bank perhaps. For some, a family. For others, travel and a rich social life.

George Taleporos, the manager of Youth Disability Advocacy Service. Credit:JasonSouth

George Taleporos has some of these. But what he wants most is to be fully independent.

Taleporos, 40, uses a wheelchair, and has to rely on family for 24-hour care.
Victorian public schools will miss out on $1.1 billion over 2018 and 2019 unless the Turnbull government commits to the final two years of the Gonski agreement, an analysis by the state's education department reveals.

And the schools that stand to lose the most  up to $4.6 million a year  accommodate the poorest students.

Victoria warns of $1.1 billion school funding shortfall without Gonski. Credit:Virginia Star

The Andrews government, which is yet to commit to the final two years of the funding deal, is using the analysis to ramp up pressure on the federal government.

According to the department's modelling, Victorian schools will be shortchanged an average $500,000 every year from 2019 unless the Turnbull government funds the final two years of the agreement.
One of three policemen accused of assaulting an associate professor of law and his wife during an arrest in Fremantle denies the academic was handcuffed when he was tasered.

The couple were involved in a scuffle with the officers outside the Esplanade Hotel in the early hours of November 2, 2008 and then charged with obstructing police, but that case was dismissed.

Senior Constable Peter Clark has denied Robert Cunningham and Catherine Atoms were handcuffed when they were tasered. Credit:Steven Siewert

Robert Cunningham and Catherine Atoms then sued the state of Western Australia and three officers - Peter Clark, Simon Traynor and Glenn Caldwell - for malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, assault and battery.

Senior Constable Clark told the District Court of WA on Tuesday that Ms Atoms and Dr Cunningham were tasered after she twice jumped on his back as he tried to handcuff the academic, who resisted arrest.
Rockingham Senior High School was in lock-down on Tuesday afternoon as police were called in to remove a student "acting in a threatening manner".

According to a Department of Education spokeswoman, students at the school were locked in their classrooms around midday while police apprehended the boy.

No further details have been released about what sparked the lock-down but it is believed no students were harmed during the incident.

The boy was taken to Rockingham Hospital by police for a mental health assessment.
A Perth professional snake catcher says he has seen record hauls of dugites and tiger snakes over summer, getting up to 30 residential callouts a week.

And a volunteer reptile wrangler says he has bagged 50 snakes since September, despite only operating on evenings and weekends.

A man at Rottnest Island is understood to have been bitten by a dugite. Credit:Slithers and Slides

Marcus Cosentino of Slithers and Slides said call-outs had increased significantly to areas he might not previously have expected to be summonsed.

"There's definitely been more snakes this season, though it's difficult to call the reason why," he said.
A Perth cancer patient said his radiation treatment time was cut from three months to three weeks after being one of the first 500 West Australians to use a break-through treatment.

Brett Smith underwent targeted radiation treatment using the CyberKnife in February after being diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2013 and undergoing surgery and chemotherapy in 2014.

The $9m CyberKnife hovers over the body, shooting high-dose blasts of radiation at tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Credit:CyberKnife

Unlike its name implies, the procedure does not cut the skin but rather hovers over the body, shooting high-dose blasts of radiation at tumours with pinpoint accuracy while the patient is lying down.

WA is the only Australian state to use the $9 million machine, which was introduced nearly two years ago, and it's delivering beneficial results, the Health Department said.
Turkish police fire tear gas at newspaper as EU laments rights record

Turkey's Zaman newspaper now fawning over President Australia has urged Turkey to uphold freedom of the press as a "fundamental element of a democratic system of government" after Turkish authorities moved to seize control of the country's largest newspaper. The Foreign Affairs department said on Tuesday it was concerned over a weekend police raid in Istanbul on the offices of Zaman newspaper, after which authorities took control and published a new edition with flattering stories about President Tayyip Erdogan. A man holds Saturday's copy of the newspaper which reads "the constitution suspended" as people gathered in support outside the headquarters of Zaman newspaper in Istanbul, on Sunday. Credit:AP The newspaper had previously been sharply critical of Mr Erdogan, declaring the "constitution suspended" in its final edition before the seizure.

"Restrictions on freedom of the press, including the takeover of Zaman, a major Turkish newspaper, are a matter of concern," said a Foreign Affairs department spokesman in a statement. Turkish President Recep Erdogan in Ankara last month. Credit:AP "Freedom of expression is a fundamental element of a democratic system of government. A plurality of views, including critical views, can only strengthen democratic debate and good governance." "Australia encourages Turkey to uphold the universal values that are reflected in its Constitution." The takeover of Zaman relates to a feud between Mr Erdogan and Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a one-time supporter now in self-imposed exile in the US after Mr Erdogan accused him of plotting a coup.
On their own, each is an unthinkable everyday tragedy. Children forced to scrounge for leaves and animal feed to survive; a baby dying because its mother was prevented from crossing a checkpoint blockade to get help.

Added up, they give a rare insight into the unfathomable disaster of life in Syria.

Five years on from the outbreak of war, an investigation into seven besieged communities across the country tells a story of hundreds of thousands of people not able to leave but denied food and health supplies.

The report by aid agency Save the Children is based on interviews with 125 adults and children in 22 focus groups. The findings are consistent with stories told by those who have fled the shell-shocked country, but offer some fresh insights. They include:
Jakarta: Indonesian president Joko Widodo has called for the boycott of Israeli products produced in the Occupied Territories.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation called on the international community to support the "boycott of products produced in or by the illegal Israeli settlements" at a summit in Jakarta this week.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, right, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after delivering their closing remarks at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Jakarta on Monday. Credit:AP

Under international law, Golan Heights and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered to be occupied territories that are not part of the state of Israel. The call to support the boycott was one of 23 actions the OIC committed to in the Jakarta declaration.
Michigan's annual Ovation Awards will now be known as the Sutton Foster Ovation AwardsMichigan High School Musical Theatre Awards in honor of the Tony-winning Michigan native, the organization announced today.

A celebration of outstanding achievement in musical theater performance by high school students, the Sutton Foster Ovation Awards recognize individual artistry in vocal, dance, and acting performance. For the last four years Michigan's best high school theater students have competed in the Ovation Awards for the scholarships and awards on Wharton Center's Cobb Great Hall. One top male and one top female performer from the competition are chosen to represent the State of Michigan at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards competition in New York City. The awards are presented by Broadway in Detroit, Broadway Grand Rapids, and Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.

"Musical theater has had such a significant impact on my life! I am honored to have my name associated with the Ovation Awards and scholarship program, and I am thrilled to know that it will help inspire and support future generations of student thespians from my home state," said Foster in a statement.

Originally from Troy, Michigan, Sutton Foster has performed in 11 Broadway shows, most recently the revival of Violet. Her Tony Award-winning performances have included Anything Goes and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Foster currently stars in TVLand's critically acclaimed series Younger.

In addition, the Sutton Foster Ovation Awards have announced plans to award the Greg Reuter Excellence in Musical Theatre Education Award in honor of 20-year Broadway stage veteran, Los Angeles actor, and beloved Michigan State University Department of Theatre professor, Greg Reuter. The award will recognize the Michigan theatrical educator who follows the same upstanding ideals with which Reuter taught.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 8, 2016 -- Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) today announced that its Bridgestone-brand Turanza tires are featured on select models of the all-new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, which has been designed to be the most technologically equipped vehicle in its class.

Designed for minivan drivers who want a smooth, sedan-like driving experience, the Bridgestone Turanza EL440 tire is standard on the Limited model and optional on the Touring-L Plus model of the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. Bridgestone Turanza tires absorb road noise and provide a smooth, quiet and reliable ride in wet and dry conditions. Engineered for Pacifica owners demanding versatility, Bridgestone Turanza tires provide all-season capability, including snow traction, as well as great handling and long tread life.

"Bridgestone is committed to engineering the next generation of innovative tire solutions for drivers looking to get the most out of their vehicles," said Mike Martini, president, original equipment, U.S. and Canada Consumer Tire Sales, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations. "The all-new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, re-engineered from the ground up, is a revolutionary leader in its class and the perfect vehicle to showcase the Bridgestone Turanza EL440 tire's dependability, adaptability and year-round performance."

The Bridgestone Turanza EL440 is original equipment on the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica in size 235/60R18. The vehicle will be available in dealer showrooms in spring 2016, with the Pacifica Hybrid arriving in late 2016.

About Bridgestone Americas, Inc.:

Nashville, Tennessee-based Bridgestone Americas, Inc. (BSAM) is the U.S. subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation, the world's largest tire and rubber company. BSAM and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture and market a wide range of Bridgestone, Firestone and associate brand tires to address the needs of a broad range of customers, including consumers, automotive and commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturers, and those in the agricultural, forestry and mining industries. The companies are also engaged in retreading operations throughout the Western Hemisphere and produce air springs, roofing materials, and industrial fibers and textiles. The BSAM family of companies also operates the world's largest chain of automotive tire and service centers. Guided by its One Team, One Planet message, the company is dedicated to achieving a positive environmental impact in all of the communities it calls home.
If you happen to see an older white gentleman walking down the road, cursing the asphalt, with a shovel lobbed over his shoulder, its probably Bernie Sanders. After picking up endorsements from local politicians in Michigan, the Vermont senator should have been basking in the spate of wins he racked up on Super Saturday. Instead, the Democratic presidential candidate managed to dig himself even further into a trench during a Sunday evening debate in Flint.

When you are white, you dont know what its like to be living in a ghetto, Senator Sanders asserted. You dont know what its like to be poor.

It was a tough moment for Sanders, who did not appear to recognize the implication of his words or that they might result in repercussions from black and white voters alike. Had he known, Sanders might have explained that black and white poverty do operate differently. Black poverty tends to be more isolating and concentrated, wrote Emily Badger for The Washington Post.

It extends out the door of a familys home and occupies the entire neighborhood around it, touching the streets, the schools, the grocery stores.

The opposite is largely true for poor whites, who in most major metropolitan areas, are spread out.

Those spatial factors, in additional to the complications of racial discrimination, complicate how we approach poverty as a domestic issue. But Sanders did not say that. He said, without blinking an eye, that white people dont know what its like to be poor.

The fact is that a clear majority of those who receive public assistance in this country are white.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is 40.2 percent white, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Just over 25 percent are black and another 10 percent are Hispanic.

His assertions, however, were problematic for another reason. Despite the finding of The Washington Post study, there remain large pockets of white people living in deeply poor neighborhoodscommunities where poverty stretches out onto the street and into the schoolyard, where payday lenders and buy here-pay here car lots are more prevalent than banks. As Sanders stood on that gloriously lit stage answering audience and moderator questions, one of those communities lay right outside the auditorium doors.

It was not as if Sanders was standing in the middle of South Central Los Angeles or Compton, largely African-American and Latino communities. He was not in East St. Louis, Illinois, which is 98 percent black, or The Bluffs of Atlanta. Sanders was in Flint, Michigan, a rust-belt city besieged with pervasive poverty where both black and white residents have subsisted on lead-poisoned water and multiple layers of government that failed them all.

You see, if Sanders wanted to see white people living in a ghettowhite people who are living with long-term unemployment under the strictures of environmental injustice, economic flight, and crumbling schoolshe needed only peer out of the window of his SUV along the drive to the CNN debate.

Flint has a per capita income is less than $16,000 and falling. While the population is just over 50 percent black, 41 percent of its residents are white. Those are knowable facts for anyone who cares enough to know them.

Sanders spent the day repeatedly trying to clarify his statements about race and poverty, only to widen the chasm in the ground beneath him. Rather than walk them back, Sanders seemed to double-down on the notion that poverty is exclusively a black problem.

What I meant to say, Sanders told an NBC News reporter, is when you talk about ghettos, traditionally what youre talking about is African-American communities.

Without question, Sanders has mounted what he calls a revolution built to eradicate income inequality and unwind a rigged economic system that favors wealthy oligarchs. However, he appears increasingly tone deaf when it comes expanding his coalition to include non-white voters and, unfortunately, the notion that ghetto is a euphemism for black opened the window on a third problem for the Sanders camp.

In addition to the fact that ghetto is used as a derisive term in every economic strata of black culture, the deeper problem for him and the campaign is that the 74-year-old Brooklyn native consistently demonstrates a disconnection from black people and the issues they care about most. Even more curious are the early roots of the term when it was applied to Jews living in squalor in various European cities, including Warsaw. However, watching Sundays debate, one would think that African Americans care only about poverty, incarceration and environmental justice.

One would believe that there is no black middle class, that we do not own homes or occupy executive offices. One would have to believe that there are no African-American college graduates who are still worried that they cannot afford the same for their children. One would think that we are not small-business owners, college professors, police officers or postal workers. Yes, some of us are worried about hailing a taxicab in New York. But, as NBCs Al Roker will tell you, wealth is no barrier to discrimination.

What I meant by that is, I think that many white people are not aware of the kinds of pressures and the kind of police oppression that sometimes takes place within the African-American community, Sanders said at another campaign stop Monday. In the African-American communities, you have police officers abusing people, and that is the point that I tried to make.

That he seems to view black people solely through the lens of poverty and criminal justice reform is as problematic as his near constant fallback on Wall Street as chief culprit on almost every issue. His messaging, though somewhat improved in recent weeks, inextricably ties questions of race to economic issuesas if solving the latter would eradicate the former. That he is dismissive of those criticisms may be one reason why he has not been able to draw any significant support from black voters.

For his part, Sanders is quick to say that he will not be lectured about questions of race and inequality.

Consistently, as he did from a lectern in Flint, Sanders uses his work during the civil rights movement as a calling card. Sanders, who has represented part or all of predominantly white Vermont for the full of his political career, has spent recent months building relationships in the African-American community. A cache of black campaign surrogates passionately took to the streets and the airwaves on his behalf and Sanders says no other presidential candidate has talked about poverty more than he has. He points to his policy proposals as proof of his commitment.

But, lest anyone question his domestic policy agenda as it pertains to black people, Sanders and his supporters reflexively point out that he was once arrested for protesting segregated schools.

In 1963, and an important day for me, Sanders told the debate audience Sunday night, I went to the March of Washington led by Dr. King for jobs and freedom.

For many, that answer and others ring hollow and serve only to validate the assessment that Sanders simply does not get it.

I don't want to be lectured about talking about poverty, whether its white, black, Latino, he said Monday.

Maybe that is the problem. Maybe its time for Sanders to sit down and listen to his campaign advisers and surrogates. With the primary campaign in full swing, its past time for him to put down the shovel and back away from the hole.
Think your life is challenging? Then try being both Muslim and Latino as Donald Trump has ginned up the hate against both communities during his campaign.

My first thought was, Why does Trump hate me so much? Juan Galvin, a Latino Muslim American community activist in Texas explained to me. Galvin added painfully, Im the perfect embodiment of all he is demonizing: Im a Mexican-American Muslim.

To Galvins point, on Saturday in Wichita, Kansas, Latino and Muslim groups were both ejected from a Trump rally.

I bet some reading this are stunned to hear about Latino Muslims. Arent Muslims all Arabs or South Asian? many of you are probably mumbling to yourselves. Actually Muslims, especially in the United States, come in all different races and ethnicities. The largest group of American Muslims are African-American (one-third of the Muslim community.) And Latinos are reportedly the fastest-growing group in the Muslim-American community. In fact, in January, a momentous event occurred in Houston with the opening of Islam in Spanish, a first of its kind, state of the art community center catering to the Muslim Latino community that even offers Friday Muslim prayer sermons in Spanish. (Trumps white supremacist supporters must be going crazy upon hearing there are black and Latino Muslims.)

And now, with Trump scapegoating both Latinos and Muslims, the Latino Muslim community is getting it from both ends. As a Muslim and Latino, Im being used by Trump as a political prop, Wilfredo Ruiz, a United States military veteran and currently communication director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, told me Sunday. Ruiz added that Trump has taken anti-Muslim and anti-Latino hate to a new alarming level and has sadly been rewarded for it with free media coverage as well a spike in voter support and even campaign contributions.

Tony Lopez, a Duke University student who recently converted to Islam, explained last week on my SiriusXM radio show that Trumps approach is to divide and conquer Americans for political gain, as opposed to uniting Americans of different backgrounds. Lopez couldnt be more correct. Trumps demonizing of Latinos and Muslims is a strategy designed to tear at the very fabric of nation by pitting Americans against each other based on faith and religion.

Now there is potentially a Trump-sized yuuuge silver lining for the Latino and Muslim American communities thanks to The Donald. Trumps words are getting people off their couches! exclaimed Ruiz. We are seeing an increase in Muslims becoming involved in grass-roots organizations over the last few months as Trump has ratcheted up his bashing of Muslims.

And Will Giron, a New York Latino and Muslim activist, noted that Trumps attacks on Latinos and Muslims are encouraging coalition building, bringing not just Latinos and Muslims together, but also the black community as well. Nivia Martinez, also an activist in New Yorks Latino-Muslim community, echoed that sentiment, explaining that communities of color are increasingly working together to counter Trumps hate since they understand that it potentially can impact all American minorities.

The tangible impact of Trumps hate-filled campaign appears to be to speeding up the rate by which the Latino and Muslim communities both become involved in American politics and vote in 2016. As The New York Times reported Monday, Latino legal residents in the United States who have never pursued U.S. citizenship before are doing so now for the specific purpose of voting against Trump. And while in 2012 only 48 percent of eligible Latino voters cast a ballot (overall turnout was 62 percent), the activists I spoke with expect to see Latino voter turnout jump big timeregardless of their faith. In addition, I can personally attest to Muslim Americans of all backgrounds gearing up to counter Trump in the election.

But what if the GOP nominee is not Trump, but rather Ted Cruz? The response of all was similar, noting Cruzs hard-line views on immigration and his past comments that he only wanted to allow Christian Syrian refugees into the country and block Muslim refugees. Cruz is just as egregious as Trump, just less overt about it sometimes, Giron noted. And Galvin remarked pointedly, Trumps words are getting all the press so Cruzs alarming remarks are escaping notice.

Yet I could sense that the passion to counter Cruz was a notch down from defeating Trump. And several I spoke with candidly noted that while they dont know any in either community supporting Trump, they do know some who are fans of Cruz.

Regardless of whether the GOP nominee is Trump or Cruz, the concerns of the Latino Muslim American community are palpable. Their comments are filled with emotion and even trepidation. As Martinez stated, she fears that younger people in the community will shy away from being proud Muslims or Latinos for fear of backlash or discrimination. And Giron commented, I fear greatly for my Latino Muslim sons, adding, I dread the day when one of my three sons experiences bigotry directed towards him based on his heritage and religious beliefs.

And many believe the spike in hate crimes we have seen in the last few months versus Muslim Americans was at least intertwined with, if not inspired by, the alarming rhetoric of Trump. Trumps Islamophobic rhetoric is particularly disturbing because its laced with inciting violence, like his recent comment about shooting Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs blood, Giron noted.

As you hear the concerns of these the Latino Muslim Americans, it makes you wonder how have we come to this place in American history when a person like Trump could appeal to so many people. And even more frightening is that if Trump is successful, its very likely in the future that we will see politicians use even more extreme hate-filled rhetoric to capture votes. Is this what Trump means by making America great again?
Imagine for a moment that, when you were a child, all the members of your family were herded into a concentration camp and then gassed. Their crime: belonging to the wrong race or religion. Imagine further that you grew up knowing that most of the people who guarded the campwho kept the death machinery operating smoothlyhad gone on to lead normal lives, never facing judgment for what they did. Finally, imagine that one of those guards, now elderly and frail, has been dragged from his anonymous postwar existence to stand trial.

What would you feeland what would you want to happen? Should this old man now pay for his crimes as a young man? Or should he be left alone?

In a courtroom in Detmold, Germany, that is the crux of the debate about Reinhold Hanning, a 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard who is charged as an accessory to the murder of at least 117,000 people. Given the passage of time, this will be one of the last such cases. The reality is that soon there will be no more perpetrators of the Holocaust left.

Which is all the more reason why it is far from heartless to conclude that Hanning should be found guilty, even at this late date. Anything less would signal that living to an old age provides automatic absolution for all crimes, no matter how horrific. The child who lost his family would understand this immediately, but others whose families were not among the victims should also have no problem grasping what is at stake here.

The fact that Hanning is on trial at alland that a court in Luneberg found Oskar Groning, the 93-year-old bookkeeper of Auschwitz, guilty last year on similar charges of complicity in the deaths of at least 300,000 prisonersis the result of a recent dramatic change in how Germany handles such cases.

Its courts no longer require, as they did for most of the postwar era, proof that alleged Nazi criminals were guilty of specific acts of murder and other crimes. It is enough to establish that they willingly served as part of the killing apparatus.

The specific case that established that new precedent was the conviction of retired Cleveland autoworker John Demjanuk in 2011. He was found guilty of serving as a guard in Sobibor, a camp whose only function was the mass killing of Jews. By the new standards, he had no credible defense once that fact was proven.

The debate over what constitutes adequate evidence of guilt dates back to the immediate aftermath of World War II. William Denson, the U.S. Army chief prosecutor at the Dachau trials of the personnel who ran several concentration camps, argued that it was enough to prove that the defendants were part of the common designor community of intentionto commit these criminal acts. But a short distance away at the Nuremberg trials, the prosecutors presented evidence of specific crimes against each defendant.

Today, even among the people known loosely as Nazi hunters, both those operating on behalf of governments and those who have worked independently, there are splits on this issue.

Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, the French-German couple who employed confrontational tactics to force the trials of Klaus Barbie and other Nazis responsible for the deportation and murder of French Jews during the war, disapprove of the post-Demjanuk rules. The notion that someone can be found guilty simply by virtue of his or her position is quite Soviet, Serge argues, despite the fact that his father died in Auschwitz.

But the German ruling has won praise from people like Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, who has launched high-profile campaigns to identify other Nazi war criminals who may still be alive. Each successive trial, he and others argue, offers a valuable lesson for the new generation about the monstrosity of those crimes and the importance of individual accountabilityand nothing less is owed to the victims.

It also reinforces the point that the cog in the machine defense, the argument that a defendant cannot be held responsible for simply doing his job, no matter how deadly, has been permanently discreditedand, in fact, is backfiring.

The irony is that if German courts had come to this conclusion about what constitutes adequate evidence of guilt in the 1950s or 1960s, there would have been a huge surge in trials and convictions. But under the old rules it was notoriously difficult to establish guilt in cases where most of the potential witnesses were already dead, and the survivors often knew very little about the identities of their tormenters. As prisoners, they had instinctively tried to avoid eye contact with those who could end their lives in an instant.

In the Hanning trial and the trickle of remaining cases, punishment is not the key goal. Some of these late convictions, such as that of former SS Captain Erich Priebke, who organized the execution of 335 men and boys, including 75 Jews, near Rome in 1944, resulted in house arrest, since he was too ill to serve his life sentence in prison.

The real goal is to uphold the principle that there is no statute of limitations on such cases. As Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, points out, the biggest moral failure would be to avoid passing judgment.

In the past, there were far too many such failures. It is encouraging that, however late and however old the defendants, there are still efforts to make up for those failures now.
This weeks installment of The People vs. O.J. Simpson will be remembered as the episode that finally focuses on beleaguered prosecutor Marcia Clark. If theres any justice in the world, it should also be celebrated as the one that finally wins the excellent Sarah Paulson an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and hell, all the other awards we can throw at her.

Paulsons already been putting in work as Clark, with weekly displays of resigned contempt in the face of rampant sexismin the courtroom, in the media, and even in her own nasty divorce proceedingsthat give audiences new appreciation for the woman the world loved to pick apart.

Even the title of Episode 6, Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, is a stroke of bittersweet brilliance, an ode to the achievers who never quite got over with the popular kids no matter how hard they tried. This is the episode in which, caving to outside pressures and the condescension of the cruel and catty fashion police, Clark undergoes a Marcia Makeover to soften her look and straighten those corkscrew tresses. (The irony: Those curls were deliberate to begin with, since the naturally straight-haired prosecutor opted for a wash n wear perm to suit her totally 90s working-woman lifestyle.)

In American Crime Story, we get the broad strokes of the case we remember and the charged environment of post-Rodney King, post-L.A. riots racial tension: the Bronco chase, the Dream Team, the bumbling cops, the n-word, and all the soulless opportunists who came out of the woodwork to cash in on tragedy. But its these character arcs that paint the picture of intersecting race and gender conflicts that were slowly progressing, yet still utterly entrenched in every facet of the Simpson case.

Its a neat trick keeping audiences riveted to their screens devouring the soapy retelling of events they already know the outcome to. FXs miniseries also brilliantly deep-dives into the backstories of major figures like Johnnie Cochran (the great Courtney B. Vance), for example, whose racial profiling by a white cop in front of his little girls underscored a deeply personal understanding of the race card hed later play to get his client acquitted.

Weve seen flashes of similar racial conflict on the other side of the courtroom, raging inside assistant D.A. Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown) as he silently wonders if hes been given the chair next to Clark only because the color of his skin adds a much-needed splash of diversity to the Peoples bench. And then theres the abject horror of a young Kim and Khloe discovering that the outside world has never heard the name Kardashian, let alone understands how to pronounce ita waking nightmare, we can imagine.

The series imitates real life by taking notes from Jeffrey Toobins book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, adding dashes of sensational verisimilitude (hello, Faye Resnick). Dear God, I thought, do we ever look like morons, Clark wrote in her 1997 memoir Without a Doubt, recalling the facepalm moment when the D.A.s office learned that their prime suspect was on the run. Paulson pretty much repeats that line on the show with a brutal exasperation that illuminates Clarks underdog status, up against not only the craftiest defense team millions of dollars could buy but also the ineptitude of the LAPD and her own shaky witnesses.

The Clark-focused sixth episode, scripted by D.V. DeVincentis, takes a few delicious turns of artistic licensemost notably in a tipsy afterhours office flirtation between Clark and Darden, whose friendship deepens as Clark is subjected to some truly awful moments of gendered scrutiny and objectification. It also opens on a sequence that says everything about why history owes Marcia Clark some slack.

The camera zooms out of her face as she sits in a courtroom, vexed. But shes not facing down Cochran and Judge Ito; shes in family court, battling her ex-husband. Here, as in Itos court, her irritation only lands her in hot water. She apologizes for the first of five times in the span of the first two minutes as one case makes her late for the other, leaving her literally apologizing across town before her workday even begins. Each Im sorry burns more, adding insult upon insult.

Say what you will of Clarks efficacy trying the Simpson case, but the burden of proof wasnt the only weight on her shoulders during that trial. Shed tried to kick off her law career defending criminals but found that prosecuting them suited her better. She worked her way up to her first high-profile murder case in 1991, sending the obsessed stalker who killed actress Rebecca Schaeffer to prison for life.

By her own admission, Clark was a hungry workaholic who buried herself in her career as a distraction from the failings waiting for her at home. On June 10, 1994, she filed for divorce from her second husband, Gordon Clark, initiating a bitter battle over their two young sons. Three days later, her phone rang with a double murder in tony Brentwood that would change her life.

Women still apologize all the time, just for being women who dare to even try to have it all. Imagine attempting to do it while under a microscope thats broadcasting every glance, remark, outfit, or bad day to the world. On the show, its infuriating to watch Paulson as Clark, brushing off the blatant sexism that rains down on her in her work life, and immensely satisfying when she unloads a sardonic retort on the men around her. Yet the outrage builds in the bits and pieces of her own telling. While he always spoke respectfully to the defense, referring to them as Mr. Cochran and Mr. Shapiro, I was usually Marcia, Clark wrote. I felt that I had to draw the line early and break him of the habit of condescending to me

Monday morning quarterbacks blamed Clarks courtroom persona for being too off-putting to jurors, but the idea never occurred to her that her appearance would be a factor against Simpson. When L.A. County District Attorney Gil Garcetti assigned her to the Simpson case, she had a track record on cases involving DNA evidence, known for working hard and putting in extra hours. But her outspokenness rankled some figures higher up the food chain.

I could see why he might worry about me, Clark wrote. Im no ones idea of a lapdog. It wasnt that Gil couldnt tolerate assertive women; in fact, he went out of his way to promote them. But I could see how he might look at me and think, Loose cannon.

The media and the public tore apart her hair, her clothes, the length of her hemlines, her lipstick, the circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. You know, from working. Their lowest blow: a topless photo published by the National Enquirer mid-trial, taken several years and an entire marriage prior while Clark was on vacation with her first husband. Even the steeliest of confidences would be forgiven for breaking under such constant, unrelenting criticism from all sides.

But it was only when her appearance and demeanor seemed to be hurting the case against Simpson, the fight for justice for Brown and Goldman, that Clark caved to the pressures of the focus groups.

[Jury consultant Donald] Vinson told Gil that the people hed polled perceived me as hard. I should speak more softly. I should get a softer hairdo. I should lose the business suits in favor ofget thisdresses, Clark remembered in Without a Doubt. Just think about the logic here. Vinson claimed that black middle-aged women were carrying a grudge against me. And so the way to defuse them was to gussy myself up like Vanna White?

Vinsons line of reasoning was unapologetically sexist, she continued. It was demeaning to me personally. And in the end it was meaningless psychobabble. But we were spooked by a set of odds that were definitely not in our favor. So I got a goddamned haircut. It was not a makeover. The style Id been wearing to date was frankly unflattering.

She made several trips to a Studio City salon to get her new do. But the transformation in look and demeanor was instantly analyzed with great curiosity by news anchors, legal pundits, and even The New York Times.

Ever since Ms. Clark first appeared on the scene, shortly after Mr. Simpson was charged with double murder and she was told to try him, she had appeared grim, humorless, even angry, wrote Times reporter David Margolick in an article headlined Remaking of the Simpson Prosecutor. But magically, her voice had warmed up. She smiled often, and incandescently. She laughed, even giggled, repeatedly. She rolled her eyes, cocked her head and shrugged her shoulders. And instead of terse comments, she spoke about her harried new life, her shopping trips, her children.

Years later, Clark described the metamorphosis: The experience produced in me that awful naked feeling of being a teenager changing her hairdo to please the popular crowd.

She was just the mother of a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, going through a terrible divorce, who was a prosecutor for the County of Los Angeles, trying to put bad people away, Paulson told The Daily Beast last year, sympathizing with Clark. Then all of a sudden shes being criticized for the length of her skirts, the style of her hair, how tired she was, the color of her lipstick. It was really rough from a female perspective to be judged and ridiculed that way.

She was completely unprepared for what was ahead of her, mused Vance, talking to The Daily Beast about his uncanny turn as Clarks courtroom nemesis. She did not understand what she was stepping into. She thought it was about the facts. It wasnt about the fact. It wasnt about the search for the truth. It wasnt about the truth If you want to get out there in front and be the man or woman out there in front, you gotta know theyre coming after you. She was completely unprepared for that.

After watching The People vs. O.J. Simpsons premiere episode, Clark took to The View and applauded Paulsons performance. She said that watching the show itself, however, is reliving a nightmare. Its just awful, every bit of it is awful and very hard for me, she said. So its a very painful experience and yet, I have to tell you, thats kind of a measure of how good it is.

She had her feminist defenders, including female columnists who fought in the war of the sexes over the Trial of the Century in the newspapers. Its safe to say Clarks getting the wave of belated public support she didnt enjoy two decades ago.

Funnywhen the media likes you, they can take scraps that your friends toss out, and spin them into flattering fairy tales (but when they dont like you, they take the scraps from ex-husbands), Clark wrote in the memoirs she published two years after the Simpson verdict, after quitting her post as deputy DA. She would go on to serve as a legal commentator and columnist (including writing for The Daily Beast), in addition to publishing several crime novels.

Clarks observations from that time, and the ignominies her male peers never had to suffer, resonate all the more in each flash of pain and resolve Paulson allows only the audience see. Thats the retrospective justice The People vs. O.J. Simpson offers for Marcia Clark. God, dont get me started, she wrote in 1997. I look at myself in the Globe and see a man-crazy lush. And then I look at Ladies Home Journal and see a serene professional woman at the top of her game. And I look and look and look and dont see myself at all.
DEARBORN, Michigan  Among the halal restaurants, the meat markets, and the hookah bars of this working-class Detroit suburb, the topic of Donald Trump is terrorizing the local population.

The businessman and Republican presidential frontrunner is the foremost topic of conversation in Dearborn, a town with one of the highest concentration of Muslims in America and that boasts the countrys largest mosque. Its inhabitants cant stop talking about the real-estate mogul, who has proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country and normalized extreme rhetoric against the religious group.

Among the Muslim community in this state, the notion that they might one day be rounded up and herded into internment camps is a distant but not utterly outlandish possibilityone that has become more real with the seemingly inexorable ascent of Trump in the GOP primaries.

Muslim Americans have already felt persecuted and targeted since the 9/11 attacksa feeling that has only been exacerbated under the Democratic administration of President Obama due to worsening conflicts in the Middle East. The idea that Trump might one day be president is enough to send some of its inhabitants to the madhouseor, alternatively, Canada (pledges to move north if he is elected have spiked, locals say).

I have always felt like I was on the fringes of what is acceptable Americannessbeing Muslim on top of being black just compounds that, especially after 9/11, said Dawud Walid, a local Islamic preacher and the Michigan executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. There are actually people in our community that would literally consider leaving America [if Trump were elected], if not permanently, at least temporarily, to reside abroad.

At a Dearborn restaurant, over Moroccan tea with a hint of mint, Walid echoed others in the community who say they feel like the notion of detention camps for Muslims are an actual possibility in modern-day America.

We live in an era where the KKK recruitment is experiencing a resurgence, and the Klan in many states is recruiting in part on an anti-Muslim platform, Walid told The Daily Beast.

Its a legitimate fear, its a concern, added Mallak Beydoun, who heads the Michigan Democratic Partys Arab-American caucus. Donald Trump would entertain an idea of that sort.

When Trump was first asked about Japanese-American internment camps during World War II, he didnt give a definitive answer on whether he approved of it.

I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer, he told Time magazine. I certainly hate the concept of it. But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer.

He later walked back this answer.

For many years, Dearborn has been an oasis for the American Muslim community. Named the Muslim capital of America, it was a place where they could be culturally and politically visible, a place where wearing a hijab would not make its wearer feel less safe, a place where people could identify as an adherent of Islam without fear.

More than 30 percent of Dearborns roughly 95,000 residents are Arab-American, and McDonalds here even serves halal meat.

But with the prospect of a Trump win in the Republican primary in Michigan on Tuesday, and the billionaires potential ascension to the White House, this comfort is dwindlingin Dearborn, as well as across the entire American Muslim community.

A lot of people are terrified, if you want the truth. One of his main campaign points is targeting Muslims. And already we feel like were targeted, even with a Democratic president for eight years, said Muna Jondy, an immigration lawyer in Michigan. American Muslims think there is a possibility of Trump starting internment camps. I am personally not afraid, but I know there is that sentiment in our community. It is a reflection and indictment of our nation.

Whether justified or not, the fact that American Muslims take seriously the concept of internment camps is a signal that reflects their real concern about their place in modern society.

The reality is that the reckless and bigoted comments that are made bynot only Trump but some of the other Republican candidateshave fueled anti-Muslim sentiments in the country as a result of that, it is fair to say that much of the Muslim community is afraid, said Lena Masri, the legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan chapter.

Even American Muslims with historic ties to the Republican Party are reconsidering their options. Dr. Yahya Basha is a longtime GOP supporter with a medical diagnostics office in Dearborn. In prior campaigns, GOP bigwigs like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney have set up field offices in his building. But the last few years have given him pause.

Im struggling with it now, Basha says of his party affiliation. Basha is less disgusted with Trump, who he sees as a crass opportunist, than by the masses in the Republican Party who have bought into picking on various ethnic groups and minorities to get ahead.

I felt [Trumps supporters] should know better. They should know hes not the savior or a man of principle. To go along with their anger to support someone that is extreme, despite their depth and intelligence Basha trailed off.

Typically in Dearborn, overseas news stories are the fodder for restaurant conversations and tea-fueled debates. To the Arab-American community here, thanks to family connections, what is going on in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen might as well be a local story. But something far closer has dominated conversations in recent months: that in modern-day America, as Michiganders head to the polls Tuesday, the freedom that their population has enjoyed in this town for a century, might be challengedor even, one day, extinguished altogether.
In 2008, James Harris was hired to be an instructor with Trump University, the online school launched by reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump three years earlier. Harris was a motivational speaker from Pompton Plains, New Jersey, with slicked-back hair and a shit-eating grin. There was an easy, energetic way about himlike Billy Mays having just returned from a Hamptons vacationand his lectures, which relied on his alleged real life success story, could be captivating.

According to seminar transcripts filed in one class-action lawsuit against Trump University and reviewed by The Daily Beast, Harris told students that at 19, he found himself homeless and was forced to seek shelter in the grimy New York City subway. But his life changed, he said, when he met a nice gentleman who taught him about the real estate business. In no time, he said, he became one of the top 12 producing brokers in Manhattan. He no longer slept among vermin, but in a gated community in Buford, Georgia, with his wife and two sons.

But like so many rags-to-riches stories, Harriss obscured a seedier truth about his character. Despite becoming the top instructor at an institution that billed itself as a university, he didnt have a background in education or even, according to his story, a college degree. When he was hired in 2008, he was already a convicted felonfor aggravated assault, recent depositions in the Trump University case reveal. And according to 2011 divorce filings in Gwinnett County, Georgia, Harris threatened to kill his ex-wife and tried to have her Range Rover repossessed the day after she filed for a restraining order. Harris was so unruly, according to court records, that his childrens school went on lockdown when he picked up his kids one day, and officials required custody exchanges with his wife to occur off school property.

As Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz press their case that Trump is a con man, Trump University has emerged as the best evidence to support them. The school, which has been defunct since 2011, is the subject of two class-action lawsuits in California and a $40 million suit brought by Eric Schneiderman, the Attorney General from New York. Trump, who once boasted he hand-picked the universitys faculty, now claims that he doesnt remember Harris or anybody else he employed. But lots of others do remember Harrishis name has appeared 17 times in affidavits. Trump, who is set to be a witness this coming spring or summer when one of the California cases goes to trial, will have to answer for his schools failings and questionable associations not only on the stand, but out on the campaign trail and the debate stage as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination. Its already eating up his time. On Monday night, he released a slick campaign video defending himself against the allegations of fraud.

Trump University began in earnest on May 23, 2005, a for-profit venture with a website, TrumpUniversity.com, and a collection of courseson entrepreneurship, real estate, and marketingavailable on CD-ROM for $300 a pop.

It was an obvious effort to capitalize on the runaway success of The Apprentice, which had debuted a year earlier and averaged 28 million viewers, but it was also, to hear Trump and his faculty explain it at the time, a gung-ho attempt to remodel education for the digital ageto make the sort of ideas once only accessible to the privileged few in the ivory towers of academia available to the reality television-viewing masses.

Students wouldnt get degrees, but they would get experience and that experience, Trump explicitly promised in a collection of textbooks, could help them Make Your Fortune In Real Estate.People are looking beyond the traditional business education model, which involves hours in the classroom and relies primarily on book learning, Trump told reporters the day of the launch, in Trump Tower. Its really going to help a lot of people, which is what we really wanted to do.

I love the concept, he added, of starting what I think will be a great university.

From the outset, Trump Universitys roster of brainy professors was a selling point. In a promotional video, Trump said, I have terrific people coming in and were going to have professors and adjunct professorsabsolutely terrific. Terrific people, terrific brains, successful, the best.

He added, We are going to have the best of the best and honestly if you dont learn from them, if you dont learn from me, if you dont learn from the people that we are going to be putting forward, and these are all people that are hand-picked by me, then youre just not gonna make it in terms of the world of successand thats OK! But youre not gonna make it in terms of success.

Trump, who didnt respond to a request for comment, and the president of Trump University, Michael Sexton, who graduated from Dartmouths Tuck Business School in 2004, hired an impressive group of professors to create their curriculum and perform lectures: John Vogel, of Tuck, Don Sexton of Columbia Business School, Jack Kaplan of Columbias Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, and Roger Schank, whod taught at Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, and had just finished creating online curricula for Carnegie Mellon in Silicon Valley when he received the call from Trump Tower.

But there were also lesser-known Trump University hires without academic pedigrees, including Stephen Libman, a Canadian travel agent-turned-motivational speaker, according to his LinkedIn profile, and Geoff Nowlin, an Arizona realtor with a website called Mentor4Lifetime.com.

Sonny Low, who paid $25,000 for a Trump mentorship in 2010, reported that Nowlin didnt even appear knowledgeable about real estate or investing, according to one class-action lawsuit against Trump University.

Another instructor was Florida landlord and motivational speaker Gerald Martin, who continues coaching under a different real estate education program, FortuneBuilders. Last year, a Cincinnati Enquirer probe revealed that Martin gave students instructions on flopping, a controversial tactic that CNN called mortgage fraud.

(Attendees were required to sign a waiver promising not to sue the company if they later faced legal troubles, the Enquirer reported.)

Not everyone looked at Trump University and only saw dollar signs. For some of the professors involved, Trumps enormous celebrity seemed like an opportunity to bring higher education to an audience that might not otherwise be exposed to it.

At the time I was very intrigued, and still am, with this idea of doing online education, Vogel, who has been a professor at the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth for over 20 years, told The Daily Beast. He said he flew to New York City and recorded one lecture about how to buy a house in the same space in which they filmed The Apprentice, and that was the extent of his involvement.

Vogel, who said he is not a party in the lawsuits against Trump University, was paid about $1,800, and though he was supposed to receive royalties for his work, he never did. Money, he said, didnt motivate him anyway.

He used what he did make to buy a big-screen TV, which I thought was the perfect thing to get from Donald Trump.He hoped, he said, that Trump Universitys online curriculum would be like the free courses coming out of places like MIT with a nominal charge, like $40, that could be a win-win if enough people took them.

But in the end, he said, he was very disappointed to learn that although that was initially the plan, it evolved into more of a boiler room operation where students spent a lot of money on expensive courses.

You know, the guy doesnt need money, right? So why he would do things that were less than honorable and you know, just made no sense to me, he said.

The average per-person the cost of Trump Universitys programs was considerable. Students started with a $1,495 three-day seminar, before some instructors, according to court papers, goaded them into buying mentorship packages totaling up to $34,995.

The lawsuits against Trump University claim some pupils, encouraged to increase their credit limits and to max out their credit cards, paid twice as much. Tarla Makaeff, one plaintiff, spent $60,000 one year to attend Trump University seminars, but only two real estate deals came to her. She declined both for appearing flawed and unprofitable.

Vogel said he met Trump only once, at the Trump Tower press conference, but they didnt have some high-minded discussion about the universitys objectives. All I remember was his hair was even stranger in person than on TV, he said.

And his opinion of him now that hes a presidential candidate is even less generous. I basically disagree with all of his policies starting with immigration, where he called all the Mexicans rapists and wants to ban all Muslims, he said. I find most of his policy ideas vague but whenever he gets specific about things like torture I find it abhorrent.

Schank, who taught at a number of prestigious institutions including Yale, also said he is not a part of any of the lawsuits. He described a more active role in the university than Vogel. He was, he told The Daily Beast, the architect of the curriculum, just as he had been at Carnegie Mellon, and the process was much the same: He interviewed experts on cameraincluding, at one point, Trump.

Im not sure I want to be quoted on my impression of him, he laughed. I have to say, I think he had many things on his mind besides Trump University. I cant say he seemed very interested in it, you know, he had The Apprentice going on at the same time.

Then, after about a year, something changed.They put a certain amount of money into it and then the money stopped, suddenly, he said. I said, What happened? And they said, Well, we just dont have any more money, and we need to make money quickly in some other way. And that was kind of the end.

Trump decided to go in another direction, according to Schank. There would be no more online courses, no more lectures from Ivy League professors, no more booksjust seminars, with speakers like Harris.Schanks opinion is that Trump University is a fraud only insofar as all institutions of higher learning are. Really most universities are fraudulent in the sense that theyre promising youll get a job when you graduate, which is really not true, he said.In its initial stages, its initial setup, it was genuine, it was good, Schank said. When they started doing real estate seminars, I just wondered about it... Maybe he didnt have that much money. That was my thought at the time. There was a lot of pressure about money and discussion, Well, we only have $3 million to start, he said.

He asked a mutual friend of Trumps if he was really wealthy enough to start a university, he said, and the friend assured him he was both wealthy and motivated enough. It didnt turn out to be true, he said. I suspect he doesnt have that kind of moneymaybe he has it now.

At the Trump Tower ribbon-cutting, Trump posed with his new employees and joked about their Ivy League salaries.These guys, he laughed, according to The Daily News, are getting paid too much.

Harris certainly seemed to be.Harriss lectures peppered praise for Trump between foreclosure and home-flipping basics. He told would-be students that Trump launched the university to leave a legacy, and that Trump would be available to those who joined the program, according to event transcripts filed in court.When you come in our Trump family, he owns this company, Harris, who did not respond to a request for comment, told the crowd. He did not sell his name to someone else.

He will know your name, when you come in to this university, he said. And, this gave me the confidence necessary to achieve the great success that I now enjoy, after one year my company, now we are on $7 million in real estate.Look at this mug, look at that confidence, Harris continued, according to transcripts. You will have the confidence, you will feel that nobody can stop you and then, you are in control of your destiny.

On social media, he posed for photos in a plush, white bathrobe on a manicured lawn, flanked by a shiny silver Hummer and Mercedes-Benz. He told students they could live like him, too, and vowed to teach them to earn $25,000 a month, according to court filings.

I work a couple hours a week. I do not even get out of my bathrobe, Harris said.Harriss Trump-like tendency to exaggerate was such a hit on the Trump University speaking circuit that his speeches were distributed to other instructors, according to a class-action lawsuit, and Harris was compensated accordingly.

Harris was paid $500,000 in 2008 and $400,000 in 2009, according to court documents related to his divorce. His salary for 2010, when Trump University was forced to change its name to The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, has not been made public. At some point, Harris was also employed by Armando Montelongo Seminars, a venture similar to Trump University and also facing lawsuits from disgruntled students who claim they were scammed.

One thing about James Harris is, hes a very, very good salesperson at these real estate seminars. Theres no denying it, Jeff Barnes, an attorney for Harriss wife, told The Daily Beast in an interview last year.

They [seminar companies] all rely on Jamess fast-talking scheme to bring in the money, Barnes said. Nobody wants to get rid of James Harris for as much trouble as he is. Hes the necessary evil.

Barnes was referring to Harriss alleged antics during his divorcewhich included fleeing to Florida to avoid the court proceedings. At one point in 2012, the court garnished Harriss wages for failure to pay child support while he worked at Armando Montelongo, court records show.

In a May 2015 court filing for one of the Trump University lawsuits, attorneys singled out Harris for false and misleading statements about Trumps involvement and Trump University. The falsehoods perpetuated by Harris, according to the filing, were essential to the scheme to defraud and are expected to be presented as evidence at trial.In the past, Harris claimed to be Mr. Trumps top nationwide instructor. But last week when Trump was asked about Harriss qualifications for the job, according to Yahoo, he said, I dont know the people. I wasnt running it.

Yet Trump Universitys legal woes and his contentious divorce proceedings dont appear to have hindered Harriss get-rich-quick schemes anymore than theyve hindered Trumps presidential ambitions.Harris even created a new alias for himself, Jimmy Harrison, whose LinkedIn profile includes a work history of Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, Armando Montelongo, and his latest company, WebAForce.In a cluster of manic YouTube videos under the username, Webaforce Mentor, Harris urges people to join his investor network.

In one April 2014 video, Harris shouted at his camera from a dock on St. Martin in the Caribbean, which was filled with boats.

People who have a lot of money, like the people out here behind me with all these boats these people are multimillionaires and they will fund your real estate deals, Harris said.

If youre not a millionaire, he added, you are an idiot if you dont get into real estate.

with additional reporting by Patricia Murphy
He has been cited by Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed on radio, TV and in social media.





Inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame, for many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.





Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and other publications.



A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.



He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.









Cirucci's passions include politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel. In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. There he was one of the first teachers in the country to teach African-American history to inner city students. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, Matt Rooney's sidekick on Save Jersey's videocasts and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.
Terror Groups Eyeing Israel's Destruction from inside NGOs



Two stalwarts go sleuthing:



"The research suggests that antisemitism is the fuel that primes the PSC engine"



'For as long as these antisemites wrap themselves up in the Palestinian flag, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye. Only against Jews is this type of racism openly tolerated. It is flourishing in schools, colleges, universities, unions and in city councils. In fact, so rampant is the disease now, in some settings you can be ostracised if you do not partake in the frenzy yourself. Bashing Jews has becomes a trendy position for the ignorant social justice warrior. "Palestinianism" is a viral "ponzi scheme" and as it spreads, it carries antisemitism in the undergrowth.' David Collier (2017)

'This new rise in antisemitism, which I had thought long dead, was not shaven-headed white imbeciles from the far right. It was Muslims, a large chunk of it.... Suddenly I grasped that the British far left didnt want people to know about antisemitism because it pointed the finger at people they really, really liked. From that moment on, it all fell into place.... Time and again the same tropes emerged, the same sort of stuff that Streicher and Goebbels would have commended  and uttered.... And from that a whole bunch of other stuff emerged: the old blood libel business (a favourite of the repulsive Jenny Tonge).... Nice, avuncular, Jeremy Corbyn, with his peace badges, happily laying a wreath at the graveside of Palestinian terrorists who murdered innocent Jewish athletes, oh, and much much more.... It is the same antisemitism, exactly the same: the obsession with Israel to the exclusion of everything else, the conspiracy theory paranoias, the derangement.... Heres the test  if you cannot see the flagrant racism in the BDS movement, and if you are obsessed with the perfidy of the Middle Easts only democracy to the exclusion of all else, you are an antisemite. That means a good proportion of the Labour Party, including the leader, and almost all of Momentum: no brown shirts, no marching bands, but the same old filth, dressed in the clothes of a polytechnic geography lecturer.'

Rod Liddle (2018)



Pro-Israel Down Under







Shalom and Welcome to my blog!

I'm the little Aussie blogger who took the screenshot and broke the story of Stephen Sizer's notorious 9/11 post, and I've since broken two other stories that subsequently went viral, one Australia-wide and one, thanks to the sterling work of two other bloggers, worldwide. I remain very surprised and very honoured to have been co-winner, Best Pro-Israel Blog, Hasby Awards, 2013

Please "Like" me on Facebook; my Facebook page is here









'In a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted, Israel ... is different.... Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel's Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights.... Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what is right about the Middle East.' Bibi Netanyahu (20 Iyar 5771; 24 May 2011)

Scroll to end for more quotations





Tired of anti-Balfour agitprop?



Balfour and Beyond



Try this for Sizer



'Before the June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements". Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow. The core problem is not, and never was, "settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to exist inside any borders in that part of the world.

If you take a stand that is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose antisemitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then facts will keep on intruding.' Douglas Murray (31 December 2016)

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

BDS is Antisemitic



The Bigotry & Immorality of BDS



'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself.

Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.

[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world  even to demonise as Islamophobic anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

"Selling a house to a Jew is a betrayal of Allah"



Maps of Mendacity & Mischief



These misleading maps were deliberately prepared to date from 1946  intentionally papering over the momentous events that had occurred between 1917 and 1945. Attempts to unravel binding precepts of international law established between 1917 and 1945  and failing to insist on their being upheld and enforced  has a lot to do with the sorry situation the world finds itself in today. David Singer (2016)

How They Twist the Truth!



Jews have re-assumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the front lines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying...

Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)



Expose The Lies! There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one  the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals cant fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)



Exposing Lies



The "Apartheid" Slur The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas A, B and C was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.

95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.

Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.

Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.

There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area A. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation  and subjugation  by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.

The narratives did not begin in 1948  they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years? David Singer (2016)



Telling the Truth



The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts (historian)





A voice of courage & reason



He knows, y'know



An Aussie demo against BDS



On the left, black people are usually allowed to define whats racism; women can define sexism; Muslims are trusted to define Islamophobia. But when Jews call out something as antisemitic, leftist non-Jews feel curiously entitled to tell Jews theyre wrong, that they are exaggerating or lying or using it as a decoy tactic  and to then treat them to a long lecture on what anti-Jewish racism really is. Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian, 29 April 2016)

An awkward fact for some!



Socialist thought was tainted from its very origins with the heavy baggage of anti-Jewish stereotypes. Robert Wistrich, From Ambivalence to Betrayal:The Left, the Jews, and Israel (2012)

BDS hypocrisy!



Want more?



Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case  aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries  about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: It doesnt matter what we say. The whole world is against us. You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they wont say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)



#Je suis ISRAEL



Aujourdhui, lantisemitisme est masque par lantisionisme. Il faut dire les choses comme elles sont! ["Today, antisemitism wears the mask of anti-Zionism. We must tell things as they are!"] Nicolas Sarkozy (27 May 2015)





Once again the armies of the Arab nations are coordinating their military efforts to destroy Israel - whatever they say about wishing merely to regain the lost territories.... [I]f the present Arab offensive had been launched at the pre-1967 frontiers, then the Israelis would indeed have been fighting to avoid annihilation. It seems now that the Israelis were right to maintain the ceasefire lines gained in 1967, and that to do so is the only guarantee of their continued safety.

Alan Sillitoe (The Times, 11 October 1973)







A nuclear Iran threatens our existence



Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, theres no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who dont share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We cant let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to historys horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)





The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)



My archived Tuesday blogs at Elder of Ziyon



  ,   



Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)









Blog Archive





January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...

The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...

friendsofisraelinitiative.org





[I]ts impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldnt  if only opportunistically  seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can never be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)





What has happened to the 800,000 Jews who lived for over 2000 years in the Arab lands ...? Where are they in Arab society today? You dare talk of racism when I can point with pride ... to the fact that it is as natural for an Arab to serve in public office in Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew serving in any public office in an Arab country, indeed being admitted to many of them. Chaim Herzog (6 Kislev 5736; 10 November 1975)







I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews.... I defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time. And, disgusted by the antisemitism of many Europeans ... I am shamed by this shame that dishonours my country and Europe. Oriana Fallaci









For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar









Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera









Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies. George Weigel









Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse







The choice before us is not between victory and defeat, but between victory and annihilation. We therefore have not the slightest intention of allowing the re-creation of the conditions of vulnerability in which we found ourselves, abandoned and alone, in the summer of 1967. Diplomat Michael Comay (1970)









I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola









About Me Daphne Anson I'm a writer/researcher, with many academic books and articles under my own name. Daphne Anson is my blogging alias. Combining the names of two ships, it's a moniker of special significance to me - I'm a naval history buff. I use an alias owing to a perceived need to keep my blogging and professional identities separate. An Aussie, I've long been interested in politics and foreign affairs, having studied International Relations in the USA and Britain for my first degree, and I also hold a doctorate. I began blogging in response to the exponential rise in antisemitism and hostility to Israel in the wake of the Mavi Marmara affair. Another reason I use an alias: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/08/alias-two-ships-daphne-anson.html View my complete profile





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LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
At 64 years old, Richard Benson is positive that he has already lived through the worst day of his life.

It was April 16, 2007, and Benson was in Puerto Rico for a conference of university engineering deans. He started the day excited to spend some time away from his office at Virginia Tech University. Then at 9:27 a.m., he received an e-mail that jostled him out of his good mood: A shooting incident occurred at West Ambler Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.

Then, 23 minutes later: A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows.

Benson called his office, but no one answered. Soon, he turned on a television and found out why. News stations showed images of his engineering building, Norris Hall, as SWAT team members swarmed and gunshots rang out.

That day, the building where he worked became the scene of the deadliest act of gun violence ever to strike a college campus. Ultimately, 33 people died and 17 others were wounded. Bensons life changed forever.

Nine years later, Benson is about to leave Virginia Tech for good. Last week, he was appointed to lead the University of Texas at Dallas after a months-long interview process. And the impending move has brought that tragic day back to the forefront of his mind. One of his first tasks at UT-Dallas will be to oversee compliance with a new state law that allows students to carry their handguns into classrooms and other buildings on campus.

The law wasnt enough to keep Benson from accepting the job, but he said hell approach the task with trepidation. Guns dont belong on college campuses, he said.

My advice would have been not to do this, he said. But I am not a lawmaker. We will make the best of it. We will do what we need to do.

Horror on TV

For Bensons engineering students, professors and staff, April 16, 2007, was a day of terror. Early that morning, English student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed two people in a dorm, and then showed up at Norris Hall carrying two handguns a couple of hours later.

At the engineering building, Cho chained the doors behind him and calmly started firing. When police neared, he turned the gun on himself.

Benson watched helplessly as the news rolled out. It took him more than 12 hours to get home, and he spent much of that time trying to find ways to access e-mail, news websites and televisions. Occasionally, hed reach a co-worker on the phone. Each time, the news got worse.

Words cannot describe my despair at the growing escalation of the carnage  maybe 4 dead, maybe 20 dead, maybe 30 dead, Benson recalled in an e-mail he wrote to friends a few days later. Even now I dont know the final tally. Another hospitalized student died this afternoon in a local hospital.

Benson knew many of the deceased. Kevin Granata, a father of three, was killed after he ventured from the third floor to the second to investigate the sound of gunshots. Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor and a professor of structural mechanics, was shot through the door of his classroom as he blocked it with his body.

It was as awful of an experience as you can imagine, Benson said.

Benson arrived at the university the morning after the attack knowing hed have to guide his traumatized department through some terrible weeks. Some colleagues had been wounded. Others had leapt out of windows or stepped over bodies as they fled the scene. Many had left their work files, wallets or purses behind in Norris Hall.

He and his wife tried to make every funeral they could. Sometimes theyd have to split up to have a presence at each one. Even so, they sometimes attended three in one day.

Meanwhile, he had to figure out a way to finish the semester. With the school year almost over, the university couldnt simply press pause. Seniors needed to graduate, which meant courses needed to continue and office work needed to be completed. A handful of courses were cancelled, either because the professors died or too many students had perished to continue. But most classes began a week later, and graduation happened as scheduled on May 12.

Abiding by the law

Nine years later, the pain lingers.

I dont spend the whole day thinking about it, but it is something that is always back there in my mind, he said.

During his interview for the UT-Dallas job, he broke down as he recounted the experience. Bensons raw emotion was one of the reasons he got the job as president, said UT System Regent Sara Martinez Tucker.

He really took something that should never happen to any community and made a stronger community for it, Tucker said. What came across to me was not only his superb decision-making, but also his compassion and understanding.

Benson took the job during a time that the Virginia Tech shooting has returned to the political consciousness of Texans. The Texas Legislature passed its campus carry law last year. During the debate, both sides brought up Virginia Tech. Opponents said it showed why guns on campus were a bad idea. Supporters said banning guns wouldnt stop a potential mass killer from carrying a gun on campus. Letting students and faculty arm themselves, however, might stop a shooter, they said.

When you remove from the law-abiding citizen the ability to fight back, all you are doing is empowering a guy who wants to commit murder, said Michael Newbern, a spokesperson for the group Students for Concealed Carry.

The new law goes into effect Aug 1., two weeks after Benson takes over at UT-Dallas.

Public university presidents are allowed to write rules that would declare some limited parts of their campuses gun-free. Many professors have urged their leaders to ban guns in classrooms. But most university officials have said that would violate the law, a stance that has sparked some anger among faculty members.

Benson will arrive too late to write UT-Dallas rules himself; hell inherit his predecessors decisions, which are expected to be announced later this year. But he said he falls on the anti-campus carry side.

Im not sure a campus carry law would have prevented what happened, Benson said.

But in describing his qualms with the law, Benson didnt mention the threat of another mass shooting. His concern is that college students are emotional, stressed and sometimes unstable. Some experiment with drugs or alcohol. Guns could make them more prone to suicide or accidental shootings, he said.

Colleges are wonderful places, but they are also stressful places and when you inject firearms into that, it can be a problem, he said.

Benson said he also worries about faculty recruitment and retention. Many professors oppose the idea of guns on campus. Some might not want to come to a school where their students might be carrying.

But in a way, Benson himself is a counter to that argument. No one would blame him for having a visceral fear of guns on campus. But that didnt stop him from taking a job in a campus carry state. He said he was attracted to the idea of UT-Dallas because of its strong engineering and science programs and growing prominence. Campus carry wasnt going to stop him from jumping at the opportunity.

If it is Texas law, I will abide by it, he said, and I will make sure UT-Dallas manages it in the best possible way.
EL PASO, Texas (AP)  The El Paso Zoo is looking to build a pride.

Zookeepers have begun introducing their young lion, Rudo, to three lionesses one at a time. They hope that leads to friendship, giving zoo-goers a more natural view of how lions behave and live in the wild.

And perhaps like Simba with Nala in Disney's "The Lion King," Rudo might "feel the love tonight" with Zari. Or maybe Malaika or Kalliope. The three sisters have been on exhibit apart from Rudo, who arrived at the El Paso Zoo as a young cub in 2014 and might be ready to mate.

"Everybody would love to have cubs, but if we don't get cubs, that will be OK as well," zoo spokeswoman Karla Martinez said.

A pride of lions typically consists of at least one male, several females and eventually their young.

Under a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, El Paso Zoo officials have been given the greenlight to see if Rudo can breed with one of the lionesses  a process and timetable entirely dependent on the animals and their natural behavior.

"The cubs would be the cherry on top, but for us, making sure that our animals are happy and healthy is our top priority," Martinez said.

The zoo association follows a Species Survival Plan, a cooperative and carefully managed animal program that oversees the breeding and management of select species  many of which are threatened or endangered and urgently need to be conserved and protected, Association of Zoos and Aquariums spokesman Rob Vernon said.

"Through their participation in the SSP, facilities like the El Paso Zoo are helping to assure that populations of more than 450 species remain genetically and demographically healthy, which is important to long-term species survival," Vernon added.

El Paso Zoo Director Steve Marshall said in a statement that the breeding recommendation is made in an effort to save animals from extinction.

"Daily, we create awareness about what is happening to animals in the wild so that our visitors and the community see their value and create change to become a part of saving these animals," Marshall said.

The lion population has gone from 450,000 African lions in the 1940s to about 20,000 in 2015, according to zoo officials.

The lifespan of an African lion living in the wild ranges from 10 to 15 years. Under zoo care, most lions can live up to 20 years. The weight of the lions can range from 300 to just over 400 pounds.

A lion's head and body can range from 4 feet to about 6 feet, with the tail ranging from 2 feet to 3 feet long.

As zookeeper A.J. Citro fed Kalliope through a protective mesh, the female lion gave unsuspecting visitors a glimpse of her towering height as she got up on her two legs and placed her front paws up against it. Onlookers watched in amazement as the lionesses stood some 7 feet off the ground.

"That's what we love to see. That's the experience we want people to have here," Africa Collection Supervisor Amanda Leverett said.

When Rudo, a 3-year-old male, arrived from Seattle in 2014, he was shy and uncomfortable. Leverett said zoo officials wanted to make sure Rudo would settle into his new place before the zoo staff began introducing him to Zari, Malaika and Kalliope. The three lionesses have been at the zoo since 2010 and are about 8 years old.

After about two years of observation and planning, zoo officials are allowing full contact between Rudo and the lionesses. The introductions are being conducted behind the open exhibit.

"Lions are very unique among large cats," Leverett said. "Most large cats are solitary animals and they would not live in a family group like this, in a pride. Tigers, leopards . wouldn't stay together all day and all night."
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Berta Caceres could be seen raising many flags. She was a defender of human rights, of women rights, and the co-founder and coordinator of the Indigenous Council of Popular Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

Her spirited fight in defense of the right of peoples to land and natural resources, and against the construction of hydroelectric projects awarded by the Honduran government to national and transnational corporations, crossed borders. In 2015, her work was recognized internationally when she won the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Indigenous and social movement leaders from around the world, artists, politicians and regional and international organizations have expressed their rejection and condemned the crime.

Among them, the recently award-winning actor, Leonardo Di Caprio, and the Nobel Peace Prize, Rigoberta Menchu, have expressed their condemnation and distress at the assassination of the Lenca people's leader. The Lenca are one of the most impoverished, exploited and excluded indigenous people in Honduras.

But the persecution and threats on Berta's life were not recent. She was one of the women leaders of the indigenous resistance against the coup in 2009, backed by the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Because of her struggle for the rights of peoples and her strong opposition to the civilian-military power that ousted Manuel Zelaya Rosales, she was targeted with serious threats, including rape and murder.

This is why, from that year on, given the military harassment around her home, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) granted precautionary measures to protect her life and integrity.

Unfortunately, in Honduras, such measures were not taken seriously by the state. Berta is not the first person enjoying such protection to be killed.

As detailed in a 2015 report from Global Witness, Honduras is the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists.

Gustavo Castro, key witness and campaigner, held in detention

And now we learn that Gustavo Castro - coordinator of Friends of the Earth Mexico / Otros Mundos Chiapas, the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA) and the Mesoamerican Movement against the Extractive Mining Model (M4) - is being held against his will by the Honduran authorities.

On 6th March, after giviong witness statements to the police, Castro was intercepted by Honduran authorities before passing through migration in the Tegucigalpa International Airport, on the basis that he had to give further testimony. He was attempting to leave Honduras legally, under the protection of the Mexican Embassy.
All but 0.4% of the German population have been contaminated by the controversial herbicide glyphosate, according to a study carried out by the Heinrich Boll Foundation.

The study analysed glyphosate residue in urine and concludes that 75% of the target group displayed levels that were five times higher than the legal limit of drinking water.

A third of the population even showed levels that were between ten and 42 times higher than what is normally permissible.

Glyphosate residues were recorded in 99.6% of the 2,009 people monitored by the study. The most significant values were found in children aged from zero to nine and adolescents aged 10 to 19, particularly those individuals raised on farms.

Meat eaters also displayed higher levels of glyphosate contamination than vegetarians or vegans. This finding may reflect the high levels of glyphosate found in the 'Roundup-ready' GMO soy and corn used in animal feeds, which are sprayed with the herbicide many times over their growing season.

"The investigation confirmed the findings of the Federal Environment Agency, in regards to the majority of the population having glyphosate residue in their urine", said retired veterinarian Monika Kruger, who supervised the study. The investigation was the largest of its kind ever carried out.

Kruger emphasised that these results show that further studies have to be carried out in order to fully understand the link between exposure to glyphosate and disease and other health problems.

EU still to decide on glyphosate re-authorisation to 2031

Harald Ebner, a genetic engineering and bio-economic policy with the German Greens, warned that "now nearly every single one of us has been contaminated by plant poison, it is clear to me that no new authorisations for 2031 should be issued."

The European Commission recently called for glyphosate to be renewed until 2031, but it emerged today that the decision has been postponed by member state representatives, as reported today on The Ecologist.

France, Sweden, Netherlands and Italy have announced that they would be voting against the relicensing. Brussels, Bulgaria, Denmark, Austria, Belgium are also rumoured to be opposing licence renewal. One and a half million people have signed Avaaz's petition urging the EU not to relicense the herbicide.

The German government position has not been confirmed however the result of the new study can only add to pressure to oppose the reliciencing. Ebner today called upon both the agriculture minister, Christian Schmidt, and the environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, to oppose the Commission.
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By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Cynthia Fernandez helped make memorable music during a once-in-a-lifetime experience last month.

The college junior traveled to South Carolina last month along with her fellow bandmates in Western Kentucky University's wind ensemble to premiere music honoring the lives of nine parishioners killed at a Charleston church last June.

Fernandez, 22, is a 2012 Henderson County High School graduate. She is the daughter of Benson and Catherine Fernandez of Henderson.

She plays the oboe and English horn as a part of Western's wind ensemble and university orchestra. Oboe wasn't her first instrument. Neither was the English horn, which she also plays.

The middle school-aged Fernandez played the flute. Former HCHS band director Steven Page had an oboist graduate, so former North Middle School director Keith Vincent suggested Fernandez as a replacement.

"That was actually the last instrument I thought I'd play, but I stuck with it and I ended up really liking in," she said.

She stuck with and continues to play the instrument at Western, where she is majoring in music performance.

Western's wind ensemble received an invitation to perform at the College Band Directors National Association/National Band Association South Division conference in Charleston on Feb. 20.

The invitation came in early July, about two weeks after the June 17th mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

Western Band Director Gary Schallert organized a consortium of 37 university, professional and high school bands from across the country to commission a work commemorating the shooting victims, according to a news release.

"I reached out to Omar Thomas to see if he would be interested in writing a piece of music that would pay homage to those who died in the tragic shooting," Schallert said.

Thomas composed "Of Our New Day Begun," which was given its world premiere at the conference.

The band received the music before Christmas break. They began practicing it outside regular rehearsal time once the spring semester started.

Fernandez said she was both excited and nervous to play just a block away from where the shooting took place. It was an emotional, tear-filled experience.

"When we passed that church, everyone on the bus just got silent for a moment," she recalled. "It definitely impacted our performance. There were members of the church who showed up. It influenced us to play our absolute best. It was scary to think it was only a block away from where we were playing."
JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER Former Henderson County Board of Education member Greg Hunsaker (left) stands alongside Rev. Robert Esters from First Missionary Baptist Church as Esters leads a prayer during the board meeting at the Professional Development Center in Henderson Monday. Former board members Hunsaker and Ben Johnston started a "Walk & Pray" event where local residents walked from the center to the church Monday. JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER Local residents walk along Elm Street after leaving the Professional Development Center in Henderson Monday. Former board members Hunsaker and Ben Johnston started a "Walk & Pray" event where local residents walked from the center to First Missionary Baptist Church in support of local schools Monday. JASON CLARK / THE GLEANER Local residents reach their destination while participating in the "Walk & Pray" event in Henderson Monday. Former board members Hunsaker and Ben Johnston started a "Walk & Pray" event where local residents walked from the Professional Development Center to First Missionary Baptist Church in support of local schools Monday.

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By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Henderson County Schools announced Monday a plan to create a school of fine arts at Henderson County High School.

The school-within-a-school concept would offer four pathways: instrumental music, theater, visual arts and voice. Dance might be added as a pathway at a later date.

Henderson fine arts coordinator Brian Ettensohn announced the plan during a school board work session Monday evening.

Ettonsohn said SOFA would begin taking applications during the 2016-17 school year from freshman, as well as eighth-graders at Henderson's North and South middle schools and Holy Name School. Students can apply or reapply through their freshman year.

By this time next spring, Ettonsohn said auditions will have taken place and a selection process will be in progress. School officials are waiting to see the number of students who are signing up for fine arts courses this year so they can gauge how many students can be accepted.

Creating a fine arts school has been a passion of Ettonsohn's for several years. Troubled students are often creative thinkers and tend to be socially awkward.

"When we help them, the mirror image shows that they start working around the school a lot better," Ettonsohn said. "The arts are about relationships. That's what we're going to be doing is building even stronger relationships."

Research shows that fine arts help improve behavior, retention, graduate rates and close the achievement gap, he added.

Each pathway will have a capstone at the end of a student's senior year. Ettonsohn said SOFA will make students more . The students will have to complete SOFA requirements in addition to regular high school requirements.

The SOFA students would still be students of HCHS and receive the same diploma, unless the school board vote otherwise. School officials have talked about SOFA students getting recognition at Honors Night with an extra certificate or chord.

SOFA would need four things to succeed: a quality fine arts team, which Ettonsohn said is already in place; a third music teacher; new arts facilities and financial support.

A third music teacher would teach instrumental and voice courses and allow for one-on-one instruction.

"When we add that third music teacher and give the course offerings that we already going to be giving next year, we are going to offer one of the five most immersive music programs in the state," he said.

Within four to six years, Ettonsohn said the program would need: a new theater/auditorium, new or renovated art rooms, a new music wing and a dance studio.

"We are working in 45-year old facilities," he said. "We are limited."

SOFA would need the backing of the Henderson County Board of Education for the third music teacher and facility renovations and auditions. The district facility plan calls for updates to the auditorium, said Superintendent Marganna Stanley, adding that funding may be available through the nickel tax to make that improvement by the target date.

A community group has expressed interest in supporting SOFA financially. Ettonsohn, Stanley and HCHS Principal Chad Thompson plan to meet with members of this unnamed organization Tuesday to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Without this support or some other funding source, it would be difficult to run SOFA from day to day. Fundraisers and student fees are a possible way to make up the difference.

"I'm a dreamer and I know it's going to be taken care of," Ettonsohn said. "I won't let the money part stop us from moving forward.
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By Beth Smith of The Gleaner

A Henderson elementary school principal facing a felony charge after allegedly pointing a gun at someone made her first court appearance Tuesday morning.

Buffy House, 47, appeared in Henderson District Court on a charge of first-degree wanton endangerment. Her attorney, Sharon Farmer, who practices with a local firm, entered a not guilty plea on her behalf and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 17.

House, the principal at Cairo Elementary School, was placed on paid administrative leave, school officials said, after last month's arrest at her residence in Reed, Kentucky. She was lodged at the Henderson County Detention Center, but has since bonded out.

House is accused of pointing a loaded 9-mm gun at her boyfriend and pulling the trigger, according to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office. The gun didn't fire because the safety was on, authorities said.

House denies the accusations.

The sheriff's office said there are no indications that House or the victim were intoxicated when the crime occurred.

In 2006, House, then teaching in Daviess County, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance after selling drugs to an undercover officer.

House went to the police and confessed, saying she was in an abusive relationship and her husband forced her to do it. The investigating officer testified on her behalf, and she received a suspended sentence.

In 2008, House was hired as a teacher at East Heights Elementary School. Henderson School officials were aware of her arrest before she was hired.

After spending five years as a fourth-grade teacher, House accepted the position of curriculum specialist at Niagara Elementary School. She was hired as the principal at Cairo at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.
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By Special To The Gleaner

In a survey of more than 400 employers, 42 percent rated the overall preparation of high school graduates for entry level jobs as deficient. Junior Achievement, in partnership with Henderson County public schools, hopes to be a part of the solution by teaching students the soft skills needed in today's workforce.

For the third consecutive year, every high school junior at Henderson County High School will participate in the Junior Achievement Career Success Program, which equips students with the knowledge required to get and keep a job in high-growth industries, through a one-day blitz on Tuesday, March 22.

Students will explore the crucial workplace skills employers seek but often find lacking in young employees. Students will also learn about valuable tools to find that perfect job, including resumes, cover letters, and interviewing techniques.

JA is currently seeking business professionals, parents, retirees and college students to assist as program volunteers for the day. Volunteers will use a combination of JA lesson plans, hands-on activities as well as their own personal experiences to teach these students about the importance of work-readiness skills. As a volunteer, the individual will commit to teach one lesson of the program's six lessons throughout the course of the day as students rotate throughout the different sessions. A new volunteer training will be provided for all of those new to the program prior to this one-day event. This blitz event will begin at 7:45 a.m. and conclude at 3:30 p.m. with a break and lunch provided in between sessions.

Those interested in volunteering for this event or to seek additional information should contact Ashley Hamby, program manager with JA of West Kentucky, at 270-684-7291 or Ashley.hamby@ja.org
Federal appeals court temporarily blocks Biden student debt relief plan

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the Biden Administration from moving forward with its student debt relief program aiming to forgive billions of dollars in student loans.
Finding something and "fixing it before it breaks" has always been my philosophy when treating a patient. Preventative health care is a fundamental aspect of "good" health care. Therefore, preventative health screening is something that patients can certainly benefit from. However, there are some limitations and precautions when seeking preventative health screening outside of your traditional health care provider.

Recently, several of my patients have inquired as to the benefits of non-physician businesses that offer "preventative health screenings" for a set fee. Each patient was either contacted by direct mail or received mailings from their church, synagogue or local senior center. They were promised "extensive" health testing for a low set fee. Many were intrigued, but were also concerned about the necessity and accuracy of such testing.

Although there are many health testing recommendations based on sex, age and medical history, the preventative health screening tests offered by these companies generally offer a "one size fits all" approach. The brochure received by my patients offered the following tests:

1) Carotid artery ultrasound

2) Bone density X-rays

3) Peripheral vascular disease

4) EKG for heart rate and rhythm evaluation

5) Aortic aneurysm

detection

The above listed screening tests are all important. The need to perform them, however, should be specifically based on risk of these diseases occurring in each individual. For example, it is only recommended that post-menopausal women and men over the age of 75 undergo bone density screening, yet all patients were offered this study.

Another example is the carotid artery ultrasound. These arteries are the blood vessels found in your neck which supply blood to your brain. Should they become blocked, this could result in a stroke. However, the generally accepted approach prior to ultrasound testing is to first have a health care professional listen to these arteries with a stethoscope. If they hear a specific "blowing" sound called a bruit, then ultrasound testing should be considered. In addition, carotid disease is more likely to occur in the older population who tend to have risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, are (or were) smokers, are diabetics or have a family history of stroke. Otherwise, the risk is rather low in the general population. Therefore, testing would likely not be warranted.

Many patients may say why not just undergo testing? What is the harm? One example that comes to mind was a 45-year-old male patient of mine who underwent this screening and was told he had "severe" carotid artery disease and was at high risk for a stroke. He had no risk factors and was obviously alarmed when given these results. He called me for my opinion and I immediately sent him to a local radiologist for definitive testing. The subsequent results were "completely" normal.

So how did this happen? How could his screening be so wrong? There are only two possible reasons. One is that the technology used may not have been as accurate as those utilized in a true radiology office. A more disturbing possibility is that the results of two patients were mixed up; meaning that someone is walking around with carotid disease and is unaware. An additional consequence caused by this misdiagnosis is that the follow-up test (needed to better assess this abnormal finding) ultimately increased health costs for all of us.

While reviewing the other tests offered, each test has specific guidelines with respect to individuals who would benefit from them. For example, aortic aneurysm (weakening in the wall of the main artery coming off the heart) testing is only recommended as a screening test in men between the ages of 65-75 who are (or were) smokers. Electrocardiogram (EKG of the heart) is a test routinely performed during a patient's yearly physical exam to assess heart rate and heart disease. Peripheral vascular disease (circulation testing) is also mainly recommended for people with specific risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure or specific leg complaints such as pain, numbness or color changes.

Government regulations regarding medical records documentation also play a role in the problems that can result when health screenings are performed by someone other than the patient's primary care physician.

Eileen Smith, executive director of Soundview Medical Associates in Norwalk, Connecticut, explains, "A very real concern for primary care doctors is that most are following 'patient centered medical home' guidelines, assuring patients those annual exams, proper screenings, and quality measures are met. When a patient receives healthcare outside of their primary physician, their patient records become incomplete, which can result in gaps of care or a service performed twice. This drives up the cost of health and decreases quality of care, because multiple providers result in disjointed medical care. Medication reconciliation should only be performed by the patient's doctor, not a retail store, urgent care, or other entities that masquerade as the Primary Care Physician."

Of additional concern for patients is the fact that many recipients of these direct mailings are often in their 30s to 50s and thus not likely to have any risk factors and the preventative testing offered would generally not be warranted or recommended. The set fee for preventative testing by outside companies generally runs between $100 to $200 and is usually not covered by insurance. However, if a patient has a physical finding or risk factor and a test is ordered by their physician, it would be covered by their insurance as long as there is a documented diagnosis to have substantiated testing.

Ultimately, the decision to undergo these screening tests is up to the patient. However, before agreeing to be tested, make sure you understand the pros and cons. Also be prepared that you may be required to undergo additional testing based on results. Furthermore, there may be an expense associated with additional testing; even if the initial test was incorrect (a "false positive"). Screening does save lives, however, recognize the limitations and potential consequences. An "ounce" of possible prevention may cost you more than a "pound" of cure.

Dr. Michael Schwartz is board certified in Internal Medicine with a private practice in Darien, Conn. For comments or questions, please visit his website at www.drmichaelbschwartz.com.
Texas Death Row, Polunsky Unit, Livingston, Texas.View of the Death

Row building from within the perimeter fence (more photos here). An attorney pieces together a life cut short.



Marvin was the first of my clients to be killed by the state of Texas. Marvin was the first of my clients to be killed by the state of Texas.





Shortly after I joined Marvins legal defense team, my colleague Kate took me to meet him on Texas death row. We sat in the visitation booth, separated from Marvin by a pane of glass. He spoke to us through a crackly telephone, elbows on the metal table in front of him. He wore a white uniform.





Kate and I talked with Marvin about football. She loved the Broncos and he loved the Texans. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports, and listened to them every day on his prison radio. Beyond sports, I did not know how to speak with him.





He answered my questions with one-word answers. He had no interest in his legal proceedings. He shrugged when Kate talked to him about the execution date, just a few months away.





When he was not yet old enough to buy beer, Marvin committed a multiple homicide. The jury that sentenced Marvin to death knew nothing about him, except that he had caused permanent chaos and wreckage in the lives of innocent people.





Marvins jury never heard about his childhood. His trial lawyers assumed he had been raised by good parents. It was only later, during Marvins appeals, that attorneys met with his family and unearthed his story. (The names of my client and his family have been changed to protect lawyer-client confidentiality, which does not end at the grave.)





Marvins mother, Mary, grew up in a poor black family in rural Texas. Marys mother murdered Marys father while Mary and her siblings were in the house. Mary watched her mother pull the trigger. Marys brothers and sisters scattered, sent to live with relatives who could take them. Mary moved to a housing project in Houston.





When she was a teenager, she gave birth to Marvin. Marvins father was never around. When Marvin was still an infant, Mary married Leland. Leland worked minimum-wage jobs, hauling lumber at construction sites. Sometimes they had too little money to buy food. Marvin wore hand-me-downs from cousins. The family relied on food stamps and welfare. Year after year, they were uprooted by evictions. Leland drank every day. He beat Marvin, whipped him with extension cords and called him stupid. Once when Marvin was playing basketball, Leland took the ball from him, stabbed it, and dropped the deflated lump on the concrete.





When Marvin was young, his mothers behavior became erratic. Marvin watched Mary chase Leland around the house with a knife. Once, Mary nearly stabbed Leland with a pair of scissors. She spoke to people no one else could see, and tore at her skin in the belief that bugs were crawling on it. Mary attempted suicide for the first time when Marvin was a little boy, and she spent time at a mental hospital.





A few years later, Leland and Mary split up, and Marvin fell apart. He stopped sleeping. He stabbed and deflated a teachers car tires. He tore the furniture into bits. He cried compulsively. He slept with a knife under his pillow. Many times, he would bang his head against the wall over and over, even after his mother begged him to stop, ceasing only when she cradled his head in her arms. Mary took Marvin to the hospital, where he was confined for about two weeks and prescribed an antipsychotic. His condition improved with treatment.





That was the last time hed ever receive mental health care in the free world.





Around the time Marvin returned from his hospitalization, Mary tried again to kill herself. She was hospitalized for a week and had to be fed intravenously. A year later, Mary got back together with Leland and abandoned her son to live on his own.





This is the story Marvins lawyers told in his appeals. They argued that Marvins trial lawyers failed to create a full picture of Marvins life. They insisted that if the jury had known the whole story, it would have had mercy on Marvin.





The courts denied their argument, and Marvins execution date was set for a few months later. At that point, I joined Marvins legal team in a last-ditch effort to convince the courts to stop his execution. Because Marvins best legal claim had already been rejected by the courts, we had few arguments left to keep him alive.









Source: The Marshall Project, Burke M. Butler, March 6, 2016. Burke M. Butler is a staff attorney at Texas Defender Service, where she represents people on the states death row




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NORWALK -- A team of first graders gathered in the STEM lab at All Saints Catholic School Monday to map out how they would create custom bird feeders before putting the plans into action.

Older students recently met in the lab to design and build parking garage models using recycled materials. In the coming weeks, students will work on a number of additional hands-on projects including forecasting the weather and simulating a motor vehicle airbag.

The projects are examples of the problem-solving skills taught in All Saints Catholic School's STEM program. The program, open to all students in Pre-K through grade 8, aims to provide an educational yet fun approach to science, technology, engineering and math.

"Every engineer always starts out with some sort of a problem to solve that's going to help humanity. They work with other people to develop solutions to it. Once they collaborate and decide their best selection to fix the problem, they look to actually build something and kids really love to do that," said John Cook, coordinator of All Saints' STEM program.

Once the students learn about a problem that needs to be solved, they develop a plan, build a product and test it to see if it works.

The STEM program also emphasizes the 4 Cs of 21st century learning -- critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.

When first graders built bird feeders Monday, critical thinking was a big part of the planning phase as students had to figure out how to protect bird feed from squirrels.

Communication, collaboration and creativity were all key, when older students were tasked with creating parking garage models that would help alleviate transportation problems in the congested city of Rio de Janeiro, home of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Older students often document their experiences in journals and deliver presentations of their findings.

"What's good about this is it's all performance-based," said Cook. "Here, nobody takes a test where they have to circle the right letter. They perform here."

Prior to graduation, eighth graders will complete a capstone project, which is the culmination of STEM education at All Saints.

The Capstone Engineering Design Project challenges students to individually select a research-based solution to a real-world problem. Over the course of their final semester, eighth graders identify a problem, draft a proposal, select a mentor, conduct experimentation, submit a written reflection and present the findings to a panel of adjudicators.

"We're very fortunate to provide this STEM program," said All Saints Principal Linda Dunn. "We're giving these students tools they can use for the rest of their lives."

The technology portion of All Saints' STEM initiative will be expanded next school year, as the school will implement a Bring Your Own Device program for the middle school. By bringing mobile devices such as laptops and tablets to school, middle schools will have better access to Google Classroom, which has been in use at All Saints for the last five years.

All Saints will also move to online-based math textbooks and materials for middle school students next year.
Connecticut is back on the map and according to the Office of Tourism, the combined marketing efforts of the state and its partners have made a big difference in state revenues as well.

Consider the independently verified results:

Visitors are staying longer and spending more resulting in a steady increase in overnight stays, four nights or longer, 13 percent increase in 2012, 17 percent in 2014, 21 percent in 2015.

Attendance at leading attractions is also up significantly: a 12 percent increase over 2014 from 2,423,692 visits to 2,712,074 visits.

Traveler spending per trip: up 4 percent over 2014 from $875 per trip to $906.

Summer overnight stays: Percent occupied, average daily rate and revenue per room have increased over 2014 by 4 percent, 3 percent and 7 percent respectively.

Room occupancy tax: Increased revenues for the state through the room occupancy tax, up 9 percent $238 million in 2014, $215 million in 2015 creating $22 million in additional revenue.

Employment growth: 118,500 jobs are supported by the tourism industry with 80,000 being directly in tourism.

Economic development: $14 billion spent by travelers in 2014, and $1.6 billion collected in tax revenues between the state and local levels.

This means more revenue for businesses and millions in the state coffers from things like the lodging tax. That's real money. The efforts of our casino partners, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, were specifically singled out as an important driver in this success.

But with the recent groundbreaking for a casino just north of the Massachusetts border in Springfield and its promise to draw more customers from Connecticut than from their own region, the celebration could be short lived.

The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribes are working to remain competitive in this new environment with a strategically located, jointly run facility that will directly compete with new gaming options on our border. Last session, the Connecticut General Assembly allowed the tribes to work together and accept proposals from towns interested in hosting this new facility.

It's important to understand what this means for the state of Connecticut. The fact is, unless we take steps to protect the casinos and their revenue, the state will lose more than 9,000 existing jobs and $100 million in revenue. This is something we cannot afford.

As a state, we have gone to great lengths to protect jobs and businesses here. When the federal government threatened to close the Navy's submarine base in 2005, a bipartisan group of state leaders rallied to successfully convince the Pentagon to keep the base open, protecting thousands of civilian and defense jobs.

Today, we have two of the state's largest employers and biggest tourist attractions that need our support. They are wonderful community partners that not only contribute to the state's economy, but also support charitable organizations. From the United Way and Special Olympics to Hospice of Southeastern Connecticut, the hospitals and numerous other groups, including the Mystic Aquarium, these organizations benefit from the financial and human capital of the tribes. Without the casinos' support, their bottom lines would certainly suffer too.

In addition, Connecticut, has directly benefited from the billions of dollars in slot revenues contributed by the tribes to the state's coffers. That is why it is in the state's best interest to provide the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes the tools and the necessary support to compete and protect their businesses, and the thousands of direct and indirect jobs associated with their operations.

To those who question the concept of a jointly run casino, I suggest that they look at the marketing studies. We already know that a strategically placed casino in Massachusetts will capture business from Connecticut; we can use that knowledge to keep customers here.

Gaming has been part of nearly every civilization in history. The industry isn't dying; it is changing. And the jobs the industry provides are good paying and stable. Many of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun workers have been at the resorts since they opened, raising families, buying homes and putting their kids through college.

The Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes have been good neighbors and friends to the state for 13 generations, and business partners for the past two decades. They are asking the state to support a plan to protect jobs, business and revenue. Doing so is a win-win for all.

Tony Sheridan is the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.
OMAHA  Arthur C. Hoselton Jr., 89, of Omaha died Sunday, March 6, 2016, in Omaha.

Family graveside services will be held in Elmwood Cemetery in St. Paul, with the Rev. Martha Voigt officiating. Military honors will be provided by Carl Mogensen American Legion Post 119 of St. Paul. Jacobsen-Greenway Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Memorials are suggested to the familys choice.

Mr. Hoselton was born Feb. 26, 1927, in Brookfield, Mo., to Arthur Sr. and Katie (Greenwalt) Hoselton. At the age of 5, Arthur moved with his mother to Nebraska and lived on a farm near Loretta. Arthur joined the United States Navy when he was 18. After serving two years, he received his discharge.

He was united in marriage to Maxine Marie Carter on Oct. 16, 1948, in Albion.

The couple lived on a farm near Albion for a year before moving into Albion where he worked for a lumber company. They moved to Ravenna where he was employed by Meadow Gold Dairy. He worked at the dairy for 25 years before retiring and then the couple moved to Grand Island.

They then lived in St. Paul before moving in 1998 to Las Vegas, Nev., where they lived for 17 years. Arthur and Maxine then moved to Omaha, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Arthur enjoyed fishing and camping.

He was a member of the Carl Mogensen American Legion Post 119 of St. Paul.

Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Maxine of Omaha; three sons and two daughters-in-law, Delbert and Penny Hoselton of Alda, William and Rhonda Hoselton of Hastings and Richard Hoselton of Omaha; 19 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Condolences for Arthurs family may be left at www.jacobsengreenway.com.
New Delhi: The economic growth rate is expected to increase to 7.6 per cent in 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on March 8. The growth rate (GDP at constant market prices) increased from 6.6 per cent in 2013-14 per cent to 7.2 per cent in 2014-15.

"(It) is estimated to have further increased to 7.6 per cent in 2015-16 (Advance Estimates), indicating that economic growth has been improving in India," he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He was asked about "the position" of revival the Indian economy from the world-wide economic recession as on date. Jaitley further said that as per the information available from the International Monetary Fund, the global output growth remained positive, although it has been projected to have declined from 3.4 pe cent in 2014 to 3.1 per cent in 2015.

The Finance Minister said government has taken various initiatives to boost the growth of the economy, and industrial growth in particular. Meanwhile, to a question on central assistance for area specific development programme, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said funds allocated to states according to the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission are "far more" than earlier allocations.

Replying to a supplementary question, he said on "net-net" basis also states have got more under the 14th Finance Commission. He said flexibility has been given to states to spend the funds.

The government also said that consequent to recommendation of the Commission for increase in state's shares in divisible pool of Union taxes from 32 per cent 42 per cent, Central Assistance to State Plans, including Backward Region Grand Fund has been subsumed in overall enhanced devolution to the states from fiscal 2015-16.
Phillies win pivotal NLCS Game 3 behind Segura's clutch hit

Kyle Schwarber hit a leadoff homer in the first inning and Jean Segura's two-run single led the Phillies over the Padres in Game 3.
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has slammed members of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal issues for summonsing him in regard to his decision to clear the Kalijodo red-light district and procurement of land for a cancer hospital.



"The House has a right to summons me. However, the summons is baseless and peculiar. If the House oversees the governor, what's the function of the City Council?" Ahok said in Jakarta on Tuesday



A law enforcement working committee from the commission has summoned Ahok and Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian to explain the legal basis of clearing Kalijodo at a hearing next week after Ahok failed to appear on Monday.



Lawmakers have said that the governor violated the rights of residents by evicting them from their houses.



If the governor is suspected of violating law and human rights principles, the House should summons the police, prosecutor or even the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said Ahok.



Ahok maintains that it is the authority of the council to question him over the issues in question, not the House. He criticized the lawmakers, saying that they misused their authority.



'If I have violated the law, it is better for the House to report me to the police, instead of summonsing me,' he added.



In regard to land procurement for Sumber Waras Hospital, Ahok said that the 'summons is wrongly addressed.' 'The House should have summoned the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), not me,' he added.



Ahok was reported by the council to the KPK in connection to the procurement of the land, which according to the BPK potentially caused state losses.



In the BPK's audit of the Jakarta administration's 2014 financial report, the agency included a report on the city's Rp 755.69 billion (US$55.9 million) purchase of the land. The land, the agency report said, could have been purchased for Rp 564.35 billion, which would have saved the city Rp 191 billion.



Not all lawmakers support the commission's plan to summons Ahok. Teuku Taufiqulhadi of the NasDem Party agreed with Ahok, saying that the House has no legal basis to summons the governor.



Taufiqulhadi said that the Sumber Waras graft case was being handled by the KPK; therefore the House should not involve itself in the case, while clearing Kalijodo was the right thing to do because the evicted residents were occupying state land.



"Summonsing Ahok is going overboard. However, that is the decision the commission made,"Taufiqulhadi told thejakartapost.com on Tuesday.



Ahok said he would attend the House hearing with Tito. "Whether the summons is politically motivated or not, I'm not scared. Even if it is God who summons me, I will face it," Ahok said. (bbn)(+)
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Linkedin Dewanti A. Wardhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama took a risky gamble on Monday, announcing that he would run as an independent candidate in the 2017 gubernatorial election, dismissing overtures from political parties that had pledged to back his reelection bid.



In another surprise move, Ahok also named a civil servant without a political background, Heru Budi Hartono, head of the City's Financial Asset Management Board (BPKAD), as his running mate.



Ahok arrived at the decision, which he claimed was not an easy one, after receiving pressure from his supporters, Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), who demanded that the governor quickly make up his mind as the deadline for submitting documents for his bid was approaching.



Ahok said that he had initially preferred his current deputy, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) member Djarot Saiful Hidayat, as a running mate.



However, Ahok changed his mind after the PDI-P declined to approve the pairing and Djarot refused to resign from the party to join Ahok on an independent ticket.



'I have decided to join the race with Pak Heru,' Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Monday.



Ahok said that he settled with Heru as he was an experienced and competent civil servant and had a squeaky clean track record.



Before being inaugurated as head of the BPKAD late in 2014, Heru was mayor of North Jakarta and has previously been head of the Gubernatorial and Foreign Affairs Bureau. Heru also once served as an aide to then governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, and was in charge of arranging his impromptu visits (blusukan) around the city.



Ahok acknowledged that his decision to go it alone in the gubernatorial election carried its own risks and that he was completely relying on his supporters.



'If Teman Ahok can't collect enough valid ID cards, then I may not be able to run for a second term,' he said.



Separately, Heru said that he would resign once the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) officially registered his and Ahok's candidacy.



'I am honored that Pak Ahok has put his trust in me. I am aware of the risks and I am ready to deal with them,' Heru said on Monday, adding that he would intensify his communication with Ahok as he prepared for the election.



Spokesperson for Teman Ahok Amalia Ayuningtyas said the group was grateful for Ahok's decision.



'We are honored that Pak Ahok chose us. We understand that Pak Ahok puts a lot at stake choosing us because we all know that it would be much more comfortable to seek support from a political party,'

Amalia said.



Amalia said her team would introduce changes in the group's campaign to get support for the Ahok-Heru ticket.



Starting on Monday, volunteers will print out new forms that bear Heru's name for collecting residents' identity cards. On its website, temanahok.com, the group has already put up information about Heru.



Amalia said that volunteers needed to begin sorting out ID cards and forms that they had collected so far to add Heru's name to them.



Thus far, Teman Ahok has collected 774,552 ID cards from their total target of 1 million. Independent gubernatorial candidates in Jakarta must collect roughly 532,000 ID cards, about 6.5 percent of the city's population.



PDI-P Jakarta chapter meanwhile has not decided what move it will make following Ahok's decision.



The party's Jakarta branch secretary Pantas Nainggolan said the party had several qualified individuals that it could nominate if Ahok went ahead running as an independent candidate.



'The PDI-P has its own decision-making mechanism. We want to be sure before making any announcement,' Pantas told The Jakarta Post.



The NasDem Party has said it will support Ahok's candidacy and has set up the Ahok Youth Group (Muda Mudi Ahok) to help collect copies of ID cards to support his bid.



Some PDI-P politicians have said they would support Ahok's candidacy also, but only if the party could dictate its terms.
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka and Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Jayapura  Tue, March 8, 2016

In the latest twist to serial fugitive Labora Sitorus' recent escape, the former low-ranking police officer has surrendered and been locked up ' this time under closer guard.



Early on Monday, Labora turned himself in to police at his house in Boswessel, Sorong, West Papua.



A team of 120 personnel from the West Papua Police had surrounded the area around his house for days, cutting off all routes in.



'[Labora] said he didn't want to go to prison, that he'd rather die than be sent back to the penitentiary,' National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told The Jakarta Post.



A convicted illegal logger, fuel hoarder and money launderer, Labora was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2014.



He has a long track record of evading incarceration. In January last year, he was declared a fugitive for refusing to serve a court-ordered prison sentence and pay a fine of Rp 5 billion (US$383,58).



He was later found to be living with dozens of employees at his residence, a 7-hectare compound that resembles a fortress.



Labora had not returned to his cell in Sorong Penitentiary since October last year, having been allowed out for medical treatment, and had lived in the heavily guarded residential compound in Tampa Garam, Sorong, from where he ran his business.



Authorities at the Sorong correctional facility had conducted an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) test on him and confirmed that he had symptoms of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.



It was not until late February that 720 police and military personnel, acting on direct orders from Jakarta, finally moved to capture Labora and transfer him to Cipinang Penitentiary in Jakarta.



Once again, though, he fooled the officials, fleeing from his house in Tampa Garam on Thursday night with the help of an employee, identified only as Tatang, who drove him away on a motorcycle.



As of Monday, Tantang remained a large, but Labora had been captured and sent back to Cipinang.



The Law and Human Rights Ministry's director general of penitentiaries, I Wayan Kusmiantha Dusak said Labora had been placed in Cipinang because of his health issues.



'Labora is an ill man. If he doesn't feel well, we won't have to take him outside the prison, as Cipinang has its own hospital,' Wayan said.



He added that Labora was currently in an isolation room.



Yan Christian Warinussy, former lawyer for an accomplice of Labora named Iwanggin, noted that the ex-policeman had, since the time of his initial trial, proven liable to run away at any point.



'Labora's something of a mystery. He's capable of fleeing at any time. Hopefully, with better public scrutiny in Jakarta, he won't be able to escape, as he did in Sorong,' he said.



Legal activist and lawyer Julius Ibrani of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) said that the case should not end with Labora's recapture, and that investigators should look more closely at the crimes he committed and his relationship with other law enforcers to try and ascertain the truth behind his repeated flight.



'The Law and Human Rights Ministry should ensure that this case will not end once Labora is in the penitentiary. He could be a rich vein of information regarding systemic crime ' he could reveal the names of other figures involved in his crimes,' Julius said.



During his detention in Sorong penitentiary, Labora repeatedly lodged requests for temporary release for medical treatment outside the penitentiary, requests that were unfailingly granted by prison authorities.



Asking about the case, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly claimed that certain law enforcement officers were in cahoots with Labora.



'We suspect the involvement of [law enforcement] officials in his escape,' he said. (wnd)

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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

State airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II) says it will continue to operate Pondok Cabe Airport in Tangerang, Banten, and Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta to ensure safe air navigation.



The operation of both airports by Angkasa Pura II is crucial as the Transportation Ministry is concerned about air navigation, said a company official.



'There's no problem, the Pondok Cabe's operation will continue. Angkasa Pura II will still manage the airport,' AP II corporate secretary Agus Haryadi said on Monday.



Agus said AP II needed to operate both airports to synchronize the air navigation for Pondok Cabe and Halim as both airports shared airspace. Without a single airport operator, coordination of aircraft flying to and from the airports would be more difficult.



Pondok Cabe Airport, some 23 kilometers south of Jakarta, is currently a shared civilian and military airport. State oil company Pertamina uses the airport as the base for its airline subsidiary Pelita Air Service, while the Air Force also uses it.



Commercial operation of the airport is expected to start this month, with national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia planning to open eight new short-haul domestic flights from the airport, including to Cilacap and Semarang in Central Java, Yogyakarta and Bandar Lampung, using ATR 72-600 aircraft.



Pondok Cabe Airport is also expected to ease the pressure on already congested Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Banten, which has over 1,000 flights a daily.



'We currently have an idle airport, while Soekarno Hatta is so overloaded, why don't we take advantage of it?' Agus said.



Garuda Indonesia president director Arif Wibowo said recently that the Transportation Ministry supported the flag carrier's decision and that discussions on technical details were ongoing.



'We have been talking about the operational issues, such as the navigation system, how we have to upgrade the lights and the take off and landing equipment,' he said.



He said that the airport would be an important secondary airport for the company to aid its growth this year as well as the airline routes connecting Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan.



Pertamina is also reported to have allocated Rp 200 billion (US$15.3 million) for the first stage revamp, including runway strengthening and terminal renovation.



It is currently in the process of obtaining a license from the Transportation Ministry to operate Pondok Cabe as a commercial airport.



Agus added that despite a recent court ruling giving Lion Air authority to operate Halim Airport, Lion Air subsidiary Angkasa Transportindo Selaras (ATS) still did not have an airport operational permit (BUBU), so they would still be required to work with AP II to operate Halim.



He said the cooperation would likely be in the form of ATS as investor with AP II being the operator, with AP II's existing investment in the airport to be assessed soon to decide the size of AP II's stake in the total investment.



The investment in the form of terminal and runway is estimated to amount to Rp 200 billion, with the firm stating that it left it to Lion Air to buy those assets.



'Despite the court ruling, we will still be Halim operator. The only difference is that in Halim we'll work with ATS, while in Pondok Cabe we will work with Pelita,' he said.



In the ruling, issued on Feb. 16, the Supreme Court rejected AP II's request for a case review over the management of the airport, after losing a previous cassation in 2014 in favor of ATS to manage the airport.



The dispute stemmed from an agreement between Air Force Cooperative (Inkopau) and ATS to manage the airport back in 2005.

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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has identified rampant violations by broadcasting companies, particularly television stations, of laws that govern the content they air to the public.



'We found journalistic content showing violence, descriptions of criminal acts in too much detail, insufficient protection of victims, inaccurate news and repetitive reporting of tragedy,' said KPI chairman Judhariksawan in a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing intelligence, defense and foreign affairs on Monday.



The KPI had imposed 49 sanctions, including discontinuing two programs and limiting the duration of two others, across several television networks in the first two months of 2016, he said, adding that there was still a lot of broadcast content that violated the Broadcasting Code of Conduct and Program Standards (P3SPS).



Among those remaining violations are: the use of public channels to serve the interests of their owners, physical and verbal abuse on various television shows and featuring personal and private matters as infotainment, Judhariksawan added.



He also said that the broadcasting commission planned to evaluate the 10 television networks whose permits were set to expire this year.



Lawmaker Elnino M. Husein Mohi of the Gerindra Party said that House Commission I had discussed several changes in the revision of the Broadcasting Law, including the extension of the KPI's power to fine unresponsive television networks and the restriction of cigarette and political advertising.



'We are proposing one point to be included in the hearing's conclusion: stopping all unfair and unequal political ads, so that there will be no more complaints from the public about kids memorizing political party anthems,' he said.



Meanwhile, lawmaker Evita Nursanty from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) criticized television networks for continuing to violate the prevailing regulations. 'What they have showed to the public is far away from what is permitted in Broadcasting Law No. 32/2002,' she said. (vps/bbn)(+)
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Linkedin Karl Ritter (The Jakarta Post) Stockholm  Tue, March 8, 2016

The United Nations' lead official on climate change says the next U.N. leader should be a woman, but she has no plans to seek the job.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, says a female candidate should succeed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he finishes his second term this year.

But when asked whether she could be that woman, the 59-year-old Costa Rican diplomat told The Associated Press on Monday it was "not within my plans."

Figueres' role in shaping last year's long-awaited Paris Agreement to fight climate change has raised her international profile.

Four men and three other women so far have been nominated for the post. Although the UN nomination system observes no fixed rule, many diplomats take the view that it's Eastern Europe's turn to receive the top post under an informal rotation system. Six of the existing candidates are from Eastern Europe.

Figueres says she hasn't decided what to do after she leaves her job in July after six years in charge.

The Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, listed Figueres among its "women to watch" in the race for secretary-general, while Vogue magazine called her "one of the most promising" potential candidates.

Jean Krasno, a City College of New York professor who oversees a campaign to elect a woman as the next UN leader, described Figueres as "exactly the kind of secretary-general that we need, (someone) who can broker global agreements."

Figueres said it's "about time" that a woman gets the job.

"And I have no doubt that there will be strong candidates to compete for that responsibility," she said in a telephone interview from her office in Bonn, Germany.

She took the helm of UN climate change policy in 2010 at a low point following an acrimonious summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, that failed to produce an envisioned landmark agreement to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

"I very quickly realized that the tone had to change," Figueres said.

Citing her motto of "Impossible is not a fact, it's an attitude," she set out to persuade government, business and civic leaders to keep their faith that diplomacy could rein in climate-changing pollution.

Chances for a deal improved in November 2014 when the world's top greenhouse gas polluters, China and the United States, jointly announced efforts to control their emissions. Figueres said she could see, by early 2015, that a global pact would be possible in Paris.

"My efforts no longer went into getting the agreement ... but rather to increasing the ambition" of the deal, she said.

The Paris Agreement sets a collective goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

The pact requires all countries to submit plans for climate action and to update them every five years, though such plans are not legally binding.

Figueres called the agreement "impressively ambitious" and delivery of its central goals should not be taken for granted.

"They are definitely a stretch for most countries if not all," she said.

The Paris Agreement must be ratified by at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions to enter into force. World leaders have been invited to the UN headquarters in New York for a signing ceremony April 22. (**)
The consortium of banks had initially approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal for the arrest of Vijay Mallaya.

New Delhi: A consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to restrain Vijay Mallaya from leaving the country and for his arrest and presence in courts in India for recovery of over Rs. 9,000 crores from the defunct King Fisher airlines.

A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Lalit agreed to hear the matter on Wednesday on an urgent mention made by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi for early listing of the application.

The AG told the bench he (Vijay Mallaya) is a now a citizen of a foreign country and may leave. He owes banks Rs 9000 crores, the AG said. The CJI asked the AG whether this case was part of the petition relating to non-performing assets of the banks. But the AG said it was a different case.

The consortium of banks had initially approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal for the arrest of Vijay Mallaya. But the DRT had only issued a garnishee order preventing the London-based Diageo Plc from transferring any money to Mallya for the time being.

He received a $75 million payout for selling United Spirits to Diageo. The Karnataka High Court had also declined to issue an arrest warrant against him.

In the appeal, the banks said that Mallya had publically declared his intention to stay in London to back their claim and once he is allowed to leave the country he may not come back to India. The banks also sought an order for impounding his passport, which would curtail his movements in and out of the country without court permission.

The banks said that the Tribunal and the High Court were wrong in refusing to pass interim orders against Mallya.

The High Court had completely failed to protect the interest of the petitioner banks, which are yet to recover an amount in excess of Rs 9000 crores from Respondents 1 to 4 (Kingfisher Airlines, United Breweries, Dr Vijay Mallya and Kingfisher Finest (India) Ltd).

The banks claimed that they had individually advanced loans worth crores to Kingfisher and this had been restructured into one by another agreement on Dec 21, 2010.

UB and Mallya had executed corporate and personal guarantees to repay this amount due by that agreement. This loan had since been declared to be an NPA and recovery proceedings were pending.

The banks said that grave miscarriage of justice would be caused if the proceedings are delayed any further or Respondent 3 (Mallya) succeeds in settling in London.

The proceedings have been unnecessarily prolonged and dragged on by the respondents (Mallya and his entities) defeating/frustrating the very purpose of enacting the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993.
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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi  Tue, March 8, 2016

A tourist from the Netherlands has died while snorkeling in waters off Banawa district, Donggala regency, around 40 kilometers west of Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Monday.

The unidentified tourist was reportedly brought to Kabelota Hospital, Donggala, before she was referred to Undata Hospital in Palu.

The police told thejakartapost.com on Monday morning that around 20 Dutch tourists had checked into at a cottage in Tanjung Karang, Donggala. Around 11 a.m. local time, they went snorkeling at a nearby beach.

'Whilst snorkeling, one of the tourists suddenly raised her hand, asking for help,' said a police officer who helped bring the tourist to hospital.

According to the police, snorkeling guides accompanying the group brought the victim back to the ship and attempted to resuscitate her, but failed to save her life.

'She was foaming at the mouth, and there was a smell of alcohol in her breath,' the officer said.

The Dutch tourists reportedly visited Palu also to enjoy the total solar eclipse on Wednesday.

A number of regencies in Central Sulawesi are holding festivals to attract tourists. Vice President Jusuf Kalla is scheduled to view the eclipse in Kotapulu village, Dolo district, Sigi regency, around 15 kilometers south of Palu, on Wednesday.

The total solar eclipse can be observed from six provinces, namely Bangka Belitung, Central Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, North Maluku and South Sumatra. The eclipse will be visible in several cities of those provinces, including Balikpapan, Bangka, Belitung, Halmahera, Luwuk, Palangkaraya, Palembang, Palu, Poso, Sampit, Ternate and Tidore. (anh/ebf)
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

JAKARTA: The International Banks Association of Indonesia (Perbina) has appointed Citibank Indonesia CEO Batara Sianturi as its new chairman, replacing Joseph Abraham, ANZ Indonesia's president director.



In his capacity as chairman, Batara will facilitate and represent the group's interests when engaging with all stakeholders, including regulators and the public, Perbina said in a statement on Monday.



Batara is also expected to ensure that the group contributes significantly to the country's banking sector so as to support economic growth.



In response to his appointment, Batara said he was committed to representing the group's interests and increasing its involvement because the role of foreign financial institutions was becoming more relevant, especially in the nation's economic development.



'We will increase our contribution in providing insights and expertise in key areas of importance to national economic growth, particularly in the Indonesian financial and banking industry,' he said.



Prior to his appointment as Citibank Indonesia's CEO, Batara, who has been with the bank for over 27 years, spent his career as CEO of Citi Philippines and regional head for the Philippines and Guam.



He had also led Citi Hungary as CEO and was regional head for 12 countries in Eastern Europe.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Jakarta: The Transportation Ministry says it is confident the country will see an upgrade in its aviation safety status to Category 1 from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), following an audit by the body.



The ministry's airworthiness and aircraft operation director Muhammad Alwi said the ministry had made improvements on 283 points, with seven remaining points to be resolved in the upcoming 65 days before the FAA's announcement.



'The items included recurrent training for pilots, the number of pilots and licensing procedures,' he said on Monday.



He said the 65 days would begin from March 4, as the audit ran from Feb. 29 to March 4. 'We already passed the test. We are just waiting for the announcement,' Alwi said.



The FAA downgraded Indonesian's aviation safety standard to Category 2 through its International Aviation Safety Assessment program eight years ago. The status signaled that Indonesia lacked the regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards.



The ministry has since been struggling to improve the status, setting a target of seeing aviation safety return to Category 1 this year, after failing to do so last year.
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Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

US technology giant Google has announced that it will admit at least five more Indonesian startups into its Launchpad Accelerator mentoring program, adding to the eight Indonesian startups that are currently taking part in the first phase of the project.



Google will open registrations for the second phase of the program from March 4 until March 31.



Successful candidates will be granted access to Google's training facilities and resources for six months and each will receive US$50,000 in grants. They will also be invited to attend Google's startup boot camp at its headquarters in Silicon Valley for two weeks.



Currently, eight Indonesian startups are taking part in the first phase of the program with sectors ranging from education, workforce development and online matchmaking to digital agriculture and finance technology.



They include Setipe in online matchmaking, Jojonomic in financial technology and Kerjabilitas, a Yogyakarta-based app that helps the disabled find employment.



The startups began their mentorship programs in January and will be regularly evaluated by Google on their progress for the next six months.



The Launchpad Accelerator is specifically targeting companies that already have a product and are primed to scale. Currently, only mobile app startups in Brazil, India and Indonesia are eligible for selection.



Google's developer relations program manager Erica Hanson explained that the company aimed to find startups that were unique and offered something different than the usual crop of digital startups currently operating in the three countries.



'What I see in Indonesian startups, and also startups in the other available countries, is that many of them are mainly product oriented rather than industry oriented,' Erica said during a recent visit to Jakarta.



'The mentorship program that we offer would include pushing these startups to mostly focus on the quality of their product or service.'



Last month, after attending the two-day US-ASEAN Summit, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo visited Silicon Valley and met with several tech leaders, including Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, and expressed his vision of a $130-billion Indonesian digital economy, along with the flourishing of 1,000 technopreneurs, by the end of 2020.



For the next four years, Hanson said, Google planned to extend its partnership with Indonesian educational institutions, particularly universities, in implementing a special month-long curriculum on developing high-quality Android mobile apps, she said.



It will also translate its Udacity open online courses content into Bahasa Indonesia.



The purpose of all these measures and partnerships, Erica continued, is to help achieve the goal of training up to 100,000 mobile app developers in Indonesia by the year 2020.



'We will also establish the Indonesia Android Kejar, a series of study groups led by a Google-assigned facilitator, which specialize in intensive app development studies,' she said, adding that the program would be held in five major Indonesian cities, namely Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang and Surabaya.



Indonesia is also a chosen site for Google to test its Google Loon project, where numerous internet-carrying balloons will float 18.3 km above remote regions to provide high-speed network connections. The project is currently still in the technical testing phase.

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Linkedin Dewanti A. Wardhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Jakarta administration has long been a male-dominated field, with only a handful of female civil servants assigned to strategic posts.



Data obtained by The Jakarta Post shows that of 96 echelon II officials in the city administration in 2016, 17 of them ' 21 percent ' are women. Echelon II positions comprise heads of agencies, boards and bureaus.



Among the few females is 52-year-old Tuty Kusumawati, who has led the Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) since last year. Tuty, who earned her master's degree from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture summa cum laude, is among civil servants often praised by Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama.



Tuty was handpicked by Ahok and was inaugurated in January 2015.



'Before my inauguration, Pak Ahok sent me a message via BlackBerry Messenger. He said, 'there are many players in Bappeda, and I want you to help me fix it',' Tuty told the Post on Monday.



Tuty started her career in the public service as a staff member at the central office of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN). After regional autonomy took effect, Tuty officially became a Jakarta civil servant at the Jakarta Bappeda in 2004.



Her journey to become head of Bappeda, however, was not an easy one. Tuty said she was often underestimated, and that her peers had tried to thwart her career countless times. Over the years, the head of Bappeda has been known as a strategic post for all the wrong reasons ' the position has extensive power over the city budget, and is prone to corruption.



Moreover, Tuty said, the position was considered a masculine job. Thus far, only two women have ever held the position ' Tuty and Sarwo Handayani, who retired last year. Tuty acknowledged that balancing her domestic life with her career was not easy, but said her policeman husband was of great help as they evenly divided parenting tasks.



'Hiring someone based on their gender is no longer relevant. These days, I believe competence and character are number one. I ignored the negative sentiments toward me and continued to work within the regulations and do my best in every task,' Tuty said.



Fajar Nugrahaini, a 31-year-old echelon IV official at the Transportation Agency, has also succeeded in a working unit dominated by males. Fajar, who became a Jakarta civil servant in 2010, was inaugurated as head of the subsidized land transportation unit at the agency, and was the fastest among her peers to receive a promotion.



'From the moment I became a civil servant at the Transportation Agency, I was warned that this was a job for men. We even received physical training from the military,' she said.



As a junior civil servant at the Transportation Agency, she became a field traffic officer, managing traffic on the streets. She and her peers would also paint road markings during the day.



Currently, the Trisakti Transportation Management College (STMT Trisakti) graduate has the complex task of overseeing the long-awaited public transportation revitalization in Jakarta. Agency head Andri Yansyah has also made her his right-hand woman.



Fajar said she aimed to continue her studies in transportation economics to help further advance public transportation revitalization in Jakarta.



At the national level, the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) recorded in 2013 that 209,512 women held top positions across various sectors, 18 percent of a total of 1.1 million people working at managerial level.
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Linkedin Tassia Sipahutar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The government and legislators failed on Monday to agree on the use of state funds to salvage banks in times of crisis, forcing a delay to the deliberation of the financial system crisis prevention bill.



Talks on the bill, officially known as the financial system crisis prevention and mitigation bill (PPKSK), will resume on Friday at the House of Representatives.



Monday's deliberation was attended by Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Agus Martowardojo, Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Muliaman D. Hadad and Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) chairman Halim Alamsyah.



The seven-hour meeting was suspended twice for lobbying as arguments emerged between legislators and the government over funding options stipulated on chapter 49 and 50.



Chapter 49 stipulates that several funding options will be made available to assist the LPS in handling any collapsed banks. The funding options include the bank's own capital through a bail-in scheme, BI's assets, the LPS' assets, banking industry contributions through premiums paid to the LPS and, finally, the state budget.



Those options are listed sequentially, meaning that the state budget is a last resort for use only when other options are insufficient to meet the LPS' financing needs.



In such a case, state funds would be disbursed be through the issuance of debt papers (SBN) by the government. BI would purchase the debt papers and the government would then use the proceeds as a loan to the LPS, as stipulated in Chapter 50.



However, the plan to use the state budget immediately drew protests from lawmakers, who insisted that no state funds could be used to save ailing banks, as happened with the contentious Bank Century bailout in 2008.



At that time, the government spent Rp 6.7 trillion (US$514.24 million) of state funds to save the lender, followed by a further Rp 1.25 trillion to improve its capital.



Golkar Party lawmaker Ahmadi Noor Supit, who chairs Commission XI overseeing finance, and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Ecky Awal Mucharam argued that the use of the state funds, though in the form of loans, resembled a bailout.



'We are clearly against the bailout scheme. We do not want to repeat the practices of the past,' Ecky said.



Andreas Susetyo, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmakers, said the commission also objected to Article 4 of Chapter 41, which stipulates that the government can provide a guarantee for the LPS if it seeks loans elsewhere as additional financing to save a troubled bank.



Andreas said there had to be a limit to such guarantees.



Meanwhile, Bambang maintained the government's stance, saying that loans to the LPS could not be considered a bailout.



'Bailout funds go to the bank and they are not returned. Funds that we will give to the LPS will be in the form of loans and will be returned, no matter how long it takes.'



Bambang added that the state budget was a last resort only.



'Bank owners must be held responsible ' they're the ones we'll go after if their banks collapse,' said Bambang.



No decision was made during the meeting on Monday; talks are scheduled to resume on Friday.

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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The government is taking over the drafting of the long-awaited indigenous people's rights protection (PPHMA) bill from the House of Representatives.



The move was made after the House failed to list the bill as a legislation priority (Prolegnas) this year despite it already being included in the 2015'2019 program.



'The House couldn't put the bill on its priority list, so we will take over. But there is still a process to go through to move the bill from the House to the government,' said Arfan Faiz Muhlizi, head of the center for national law evaluation and analysis at the National Law Development Agency (BPHN), on Monday.



First step for the government will be deciding on which ministry will now handle the bill.



'There are several ministries that have the potential to take over the bill, such as the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Home Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry,' Arfan said.



Then, he continued, the government will have to ensure that ministries not specifically handed the bill still support the process, and that no overlapping ministerial authority disrupts the bill's deliberation.



National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Sandrayati Moniaga supports the ministry's plan to take over the bill.



'Because the bill is based on rights, [particularly] the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Therefore, it will be more appropriate for the bill to be handled by the Law and Human Rights Ministry,' she said.



The PPHMA bill had traveled a long and arduous journey, with multiple delays. The bill was initially proposed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction in 2012.



It was to be among the House's priority bills in 2014, but was dropped from the list at the last minute.



As the House does not have a carry-over mechanism, which would have allowed the new intake of lawmakers to continue deliberating the bill in the 2014-2019 term, the current lawmakers would have had to start the deliberation process again.



Indigenous right activists have lambasted the House for postponing the ratification of the bill, saying that the postponement means ignoring the mandate of the Constitution and letting 70 million indigenous people in the country continue to have their rights ignored with no legal protections and face even more abuse.



Arfan said that the government did not have to start the deliberation process from scratch.



'The script of the bill exists, so there's no need to start from zero. We just have to harmonize the academic script a bit,' he said. 'The draft [made by the House] will be a starting point for us.'



The current PPHMA draft bill will cover, among other things, the definition of an indigenous community, their rights, a much-needed procedure to settle customary land disputes and a task force that will handle matters of indigenous people at the central-government and regional levels.



Looking ahead, Sandrayati said that the government had to fully commit to the bill.



'I don't know [whether the bill takeover is a good thing or not]. We will have to listen to the commitments from ministers [involved in the coming deliberation process],' she said.

________________________________________

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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Abdul Aziz, the boss of the Kalijodo red-light district in West Jakarta, has asked the North Jakarta Police to suspend his detention in relation to an electricity poaching case.



Aziz, popularly known as Daeng Aziz, filed the suspension of detention request through his lawyer Razman Arif Nasution on Monday.



'His wife and two younger brothers will act as guarantors,' Razman said as quoted by tribunnews.com.



He added that Aziz would cooperate with the police during the investigation process. 'If he is no longer in detention he will still come for questioning anytime,' he said.



Aziz was arrested on Feb. 26 because one of his clubs in Kalijodo, named Kafe Intan, was allegedly involved in electricity poaching, causing state electricity firm PT PLN to suffer around Rp 500 million (US$37,590) in losses.



If found guilty, Aziz could spend seven years in prison for violating the 2009 Electricity Law. However, Aziz has denied the allegations and maintained his innocence.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Jakarta Police have intensified their efforts to curb drug use with West Jakarta Police ordering urine examinations for its officers and South Jakarta Police carrying out a raid in a residential area on Monday.



West Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Rudy Heriyanto ordered urine examinations for 42 officers, including himself, on Monday to check for possible drug use by the force's personnel.



'The examination is aimed at all officers from police district chiefs to unit chiefs,' said Rudy as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.



He said that he would not tolerate any of his officers testing positive to using drugs.



'We will punish and suspend police officers who are proven to be using drugs. I believe that even officers of the West Jakarta Police may somehow be involved in drug abuse,' he added.



Separately, a joint team from the South Jakarta Police raided a residential area in Paninggaran, Kebayoran Lama.



The police arrested five women and 14 men for alleged drug use.



'We seized 17 syringes, 10 bongs for smoking crystal methamphetamine, six packages of meth, a package of putaw [low-grade heroine], a dagger, a samurai-style sword and a knife as well as 16 cell phones, four wallets, two bank-account books and three ATM cards,' said Jakarta Police narcotics directorate head Sr. Comr. Eko Daniyanto.
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Linkedin Arif Havas Oegroseno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Three powers with concerns in the region ' the US, ASEAN and China ' are now entangled in the South China Sea issue one way or another.



Some ASEAN members have overlapping sovereignty claims among themselves and also with China. The claims cover hundreds of tiny islands, islets, rocks and even reefs and sandbanks as well as the maritime projection of those tiny features, which under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are either only owned by countries within 12 nautical miles of territorial waters or are not owned at all due to their natural state as submerged features.



While the US is not a party to the dispute, it has economic and strategic interests in the region, and it could be drawn into an open conflict, because one of its treaty partners, the Philippines, has a sovereignty dispute with China.



The South China Sea dispute stands out significantly in the context of competition for influence between the US and China and fears of a repeat of the Peloponnesian war, where the rising power of Athens created fear in the dominant power of Sparta. The dispute looks even more dangerous when seen through a study led by Graham Allison at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which shows that 12 of 16 competitions between dominant and rising powers ended in bloodshed.



The global economic chaos created by a potential war in East and Southeast Asia, a region through which more than 50 percent of world trade passes, is simply unimaginable. And the possible side event of a nuclear launch by North Korea would breed decades of horrible human tragedy.



A powerful China is actually good for the world. It has the capacity to hold North Korea at bay, to fight transnational organized crimes, to fight pandemics and to address global climate change.



After all, China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It needs to have power commensurate with its challenges and responsibilities. The world wants a China that is rising peacefully and responsibly. Therefore, containment is the wrong strategy.



On the other hand, to insist that the US leave Asia because of its decline rings hollow. The US will be in Asia not only because of economic and strategic interests, but also because of its treaty obligations. It is difficult to fathom that a country of a strong legal culture armed with 1.3 million lawyers would abandon its legal obligations simply because it has less firepower.



The South China Sea dispute poses three tests for the three powers in order to avoid catastrophic open conflict. These are a test of rules and norms, a test of resource management and an operational test.



The rules and norms test requires China to respect international law in addressing the South China Sea dispute. As a peace-loving and responsible permanent member of the Security Council, China, which has judges sitting in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), must not use threat or force in the resolution of the overlapping sovereignty or the management of the disputes itself. The world needs to be convinced that the newly built islands in the disputed area of the South China Sea are not militarized or used for power projection in the region.



The US, which promotes freedom of navigation and the adherence to global norms, must lead by example by ratifying UNCLOS. The US credibility in pushing nations across the world to abide by the principle of freedom of navigation and law of the sea is actually reduced when the US itself refuses to ratify UNCLOS. The current situation in the South China Sea should serve as momentum for the US to get its act together.



Members of ASEAN in the dispute need to streamline their claims under international law. They must state clearly the names and exact location of features they claim and the legal basis of those claims. And practices incompatible with UNCLOS, such as Vietnam's excessive baselines, need to be ended.



And if all of the claimants are confident with their claims and they want to contribute to lasting peace by removing the most recalcitrant problem, they should muster enough political will to bring the dispute to a settlement through a mediator or a third party of their choice.



The resource management test requires that claimants themselves, ASEAN and possibly the US, collaborate on the conservation of marine living resources in the South China Sea. The non-existence of a regional fisheries management organization in the dispute area means there is no information on the depletion of fish stocks and the health of the sea. This could lead to food insecurity, increasing poverty of coastal communities and increasing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.



While the idea of joint mineral development is wishful thinking, the six countries of the Coral Triangle Initiative have demonstrated that collaboration to manage the health of the largest coral reef on Earth is possible without having settled maritime boundaries.



The organizational test requires the US, ASEAN and China to devise a mechanism to reduce the risk of collision or conflict at sea. The ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting can be an excellent platform to establish a practical mechanism aimed at defusing tensions, preventing escalation, managing maritime emergencies and increasing operational safety.



The three could establish a sub-regional naval collaboration for joint exercises and joint operations other than war to create, strengthen and maintain trust. Regional maritime law enforcement and the sharing of experience could also create trust.



The tests require the three powers to act responsibly and avoid an Asian tragedy coming out of a bloody end to the South China Sea disputes.

_____________________________________



The writer is deputy coordinating minister for maritime affairs and resources and Indonesian ambassador to the EU 2010-2015. A shorter version of this piece appeared in the blog of CSIS think tank, Washington, DC.
Prices have strengthened following talks of a production freeze, with a producers meeting mooted on March 20 in a bid to ease a global supply glut that has depressed the market.

Singapore: Oil prices dipped in Asia Tuesday but Brent crude stayed above $40 a barrel, as traders took profits after solid gains over the past three weeks.

Prices have strengthened following talks of a production freeze, with a producers meeting mooted on March 20 in a bid to ease a global supply glut that has depressed the market.

Sentiment has also been boosted by strong US jobs growth data and a weaker greenback which makes dollar-priced oil cheaper, perking up demand.

At around 0255 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in April slid 48 cents to $37.42 and Brent crude for May fell 57 cents to $40.27 a barrel.

Brent closed at $40.84 a barrel in London on Monday, its highest since early December."With prices going up so much, there's of course quite a bit of profit-taking," said Daniel Ang, an analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"Selling pressures may be coming from hedges as well. Now that prices are up to $40, most of them could be selling off to hedge future production," he told AFP.

Ang predicted that the bullish momentum would continue should prices break the $41 mark, but said a sustained increase would only be driven if producers took concrete steps to ease the oversupply. "Fundamentals have not really changed. Prices have to be driven from fundamental change.

A cut in production or a concrete freeze by these players could cause prices to move up further," he added. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela last month agreed to freeze output at January levels if other producers followed suit.

United Arab Emirates' energy minister Suhail Mazrouei also said Monday current prices "are forcing everyone to freeze.

So I think it is happening as we speak".But British bank Barclays cautioned against putting too much optimism about the proposed production freeze. "OPEC's production freeze policy is far from certain to succeed," it said in a market commentary, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"The market is well aware that the countries that have so far signalled support for the policy are mostly producing at close to capacity... The big risk is that the meeting proves a disappointment and prices fall back sharply on any lack of further progress."
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Tehran  Tue, March 8, 2016

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency says the country has exported heavy water, a key component for one kind of nuclear reactor, to the United States as part of a landmark nuclear agreement.

The Tuesday report quotes Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying Tehran has exported 32 tons of heavy water to the United States since the agreement was implemented in January.

Heavy water, formed with a hydrogen isotope, has research and medical applications, but can also be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Under the deal with world powers, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Iran is allowed to use heavy water in its modified Arak nuclear reactor, but must sell any excess supply on the international market.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Rainwater causing overflow at the Ciliwung, the longest river in the capital, early on Tuesday has led to flooding in at least five districts of East and South Jakarta, forcing hundreds of residents to abandon their inundated houses and move to more secure ground.



This flooding occurred after officials at the Katulampa sluice gate in Bogor announced the maximum Alert 1 level of 250 centimeters on Monday night, indicating that most of the rainwater came from upstream areas.



The Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that based on monitoring on Tuesday morning, the water level in Jakarta had reached up to 2 meters, affecting 8,815 people in 2,507 households.



Agency spokesman Bambang Suryaputra said the worst flooding ' at 2 meters -- had occurred in the Cawang subdistrict of South Jakarta.



Flooding also affected the South Jakarta districts of Tebet, Pasar Minggu and Pancosan. Meanwhile, in East Jakarta, flooding occurred in Jatinegara and Kramatjati districts, with the subdistricts of Kampung Melayu and Bidara Cina being worst hit.



Jakarta city-owned news portal beritajakarta.com reported that people of 425 households in Rawajati subdistrict had fled their inundated houses. 'The water reaches 2 meters in the worst-affected area,' said Rawajati subdistrict head Adi Krisna.



He said fire department officers equipped with rubber boats were on standby to evacuate residents seeking to leave their inundated houses, while the City's Social Agency was ready to assist flood victims with clothes and food.



Meanwhile, East Jakarta Mayor Bambang Musyawardana said his office had anticipated the possibility of flooding in the area soon after Katulampa flood control announced Alert 1.



'So far, we have not seen residents flee their houses. But we expect the water level to continue to rise. Therefore, we are preparing personnel to anticipate a worsening [situation],' the mayor said, adding that all working units had taken preparations to help flood victims by establishing public kitchens, health posts and readying rubber boats.



'We have instructed district and subdistrict heads to keep monitoring their respective territories and the water level at the Ciliwung River so that they can evacuate residents if necessary,' Bambang Musyawardana said.



The residential area of Kampung Pulo in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, was also inundated on Tuesday. 'The water has started to enter the houses. But no residents have left their houses,' said Andika, a local resident.



Many Kampung Pulo residents were relocated recently to low-cost apartments as the city administration bulldozed their houses to develop flood mitigation infrastructure.



Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama said he was not worried by the water level in Katulampa. 'When the rain falls, Katulampa is always on Alert 1. Just relax. The most important thing is that Manggarai sluice gate remains open,' he added.



The opening of Manggarai sluice gate would help rainwater spread more evenly to all parts of the city, he added. (bbn)(+)
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Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura, Papua  Tue, March 8, 2016

Although it is not on the list of Indonesian cities set to be swept by a total solar eclipse on Wednesday, Jayapura in Papua will be experiencing the longest eclipse, which will last for 2 hours, 55 minutes and 3.1 seconds, an expert has said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency's (BMKG) Angkasapura geophysics station head, Danang Permana, said the solar eclipse in Jayapura would peak at 10:17 a.m. local time.

'Jayapura will see a 78 percent eclipse, in which the eclipse peak darkness will sharply occur at 10:17 a.m. local time. Jayapura will have the longest solar eclipse among areas across Indonesia,' Danang said on Tuesday.

The BMKG has prepared two telescopes to observe the solar eclipse in the courtyard of state-owned television station TVRI Jayapura in Bhayangkara subdistrict.

'Locals can use them to observe the eclipse,' said Dadang.

BMKG officials installed the telescopes at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, attracting passersby.

Jayapura residents are ready to welcome the rare natural phenomenon with various activities. Muslims in the city are set to carry out solar eclipse prayers, which will be centered at Baitul Rahman Grand Mosque in Jayapura.

Many residents are ready to view the eclipse by adopting traditional methods, including by viewing it through bowls filled with water along the street.

'We will view the solar eclipse through the shadow reflected on the water so we will not be blinded,' said Nurlina, a Jayapura resident. (ebf)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post)  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) plans to offer asset swaps to local communities using peatland for plantation purposes in an effort to restore two million hectares of peatland in five years.



BRG secretary Hartono Prawiratmadja said peatland owners would be presented with three options to free their land from plantation activities. The three options were compensation, relocation and commodity adjustment.



"If they agree with compensation, the BRG will simply talk to the land concession owner and pay. Relocation is provided to deal with community-owned plantations from which people make a living, which will be swapped for sites where plantation is permitted," he said on Tuesday in Jakarta.



Meanwhile, commodity adjustment pertains to switching from the existing plants to more suitable crops for peatland cultivation, such as sago. "Sago is productive and can recover the quality of the peatland's water, but not all sites are suitable for sago," Hartono said.



The relocation through asset swap, he continued, was based on spatial administration regulations. Regarding customary land, which is owned by indigenous communities, the agency would use customary land rules.



"The rule [for customary land] was already prepared by the Forestry and Environmental Ministry last year," Myrna A. Safitri, deputy for education, participation and partnership at the BRG, told thejakartapost.com.



The agency aims to restore 2 million hectares of exploited peatlands nationwide, with some 600,000 ha to be restored this year. Another 1,200,000 ha will be restored from 2017 to 2019, leaving the last 200,000 ha to be restored in 2020. (ags)(+)
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Linkedin Khoirul Amin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Poultry companies should focus on one major business activity, or risk dominating the entire poultry industry ' from upstream to downstream ' and slipping into cartel-like activities, a member of an antimonopoly body has said.



Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) commissioner Munrokhim said his office was investigating alleged cartel practices in the poultry industry.



One possible way to avoid such practices is to allow poultry companies only to focus on one major business activity, he said.



'I think [the firms] need to sell their stocks to other investors so they don't hold controlling stakes,' Munrokhim said on Monday.



Publicly listed poultry giants Charoen Pokphand and Japfa Comfeed, which dominates the country's day-old-chicks (DOC) and poultry feed markets, operate various poultry businesses engaged in both upstream and downstream operations.



Munrokhim made the statement in response to alleged cartel practices reportedly behind a free fall in the price of live birds. The government and chicken breeders disagree, with the government believing that oversupply is behind the price slump.



Agriculture Ministry director general of livestock Muladno said on Monday that the slump in the price of live birds was mainly due to excessive supply and that his ministry had taken appropriate measures to stabilize the price.



'The quickest way to prop up prices is through mass chicken culling by both small and big farmers,' he said.



It is estimated that parent stocks hit 30 million chickens, outstripping national demand by 50 percent.



The price of live birds from farms is now around Rp 9,000 (68 US cents) per kilogram, not enough even to cover the standard production cost of Rp 18,000 per kg. Earlier in February, the selling price was around Rp 30,000 per kg.



According to Muladno, the ministry and various poultry associations previously agreed to cull 6 million parent birds to boost the price of live birds in the market. In an initial stage, chicken breeders culled 2 million chickens in October last year and around 1 million in December.



However, the measure has been halted since, the KPPU alleging that only 12 poultry giants took part in the culling to gain individual benefit amid the price slump.



The 12 accused companies are PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia, PT Malindo Feedmil Indonesia, PT Charoen Pokphand Jaya Farm Indonesia, PT Satwa Borneo, PT Wonokoyo Jaya Corp, PT CJ-PIA, PT Taat Indah Bersinar, PT Cibadak Indah Sari Farm, CV Missouri, PT Ekspravet Nasuba, PT Reza Perkasa and PT Hybro Indonesia.



The KPPU announced its finding last week and it is set to hear responses from the accused this week.



Independent Poultry Breeders Association chairman Kadma Wijaya said, meanwhile, that there was an indication that semi-integrated poultry companies had dumped birds on the market, leading to the plunge in prices. 'They sell their parent stocks at a lower price, as they have greater parent stocks do small breeders,' he said.



Japfa marketing director Budiarto Soebijanto insisted that no cartel existed, denying that the 12 companies had cooperated to create an oversupply or manipulate prices. His company, he added, had complied with the Agriculture Ministry's instruction to carry out a mass cull to reduce stocks and help small farmers obtain higher prices.

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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

There was already a queue outside the McDonald's restaurant in Sarinah Plaza, Central Jakarta, when Christian, who works nearby, arrived at around 6 a.m. on Monday.



He immediately got in line and waited patiently for his turn to receive a free Egg McMuffin with a Rp 10,000 (less than US$1) package of harsh browns and a cup of coffee.



The fast food company was handing out 160,000 Egg McMuffin for free through outlets across the country on Monday to celebrate what it calls National Breakfast Day. The annual event applies a 'first come first serve' system, which explains the long queues early in the morning. Egg McMuffin was chosen for its protein, fiber, calcium, iron and vitamins as a suitable item of a healthy breakfast, the company claimed.





McDonald's Indonesia marketing and communication director, Michael Hartono, said the event aimed to build awareness on the importance of breakfast.



"Entering the fourth year of McDonald's National Breakfast Day, we also want to introduce people to having breakfast at our restaurant," said Michael.



To entertain queuing customers, cheerleaders and a marching band were present at Sarinah and McDonald's own employees could be seen dancing at the restaurant. Some lucky customers also received gifts according to their line-up number.



Although the event was scheduled to finish at 11 a.m., the last piece of Egg McMuffin was handed out by 9 a.m. (kes)(+)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Attorney General's Office's (AGO) decision to drop the charges against two anticorruption figures has met more criticism.

A group called the Society Forum Concerned with Law Enforcement, supported by 19 civil organizations' including the Indonesian Police Watch (IPW)' conveyed on Monday its disappointment over the AGO's move to drop cases implicating former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto to the House of Representatives.

The forum urged the House to use its interpellation and investigation rights to request information from Attorney General M. Prasetyo pertaining to the AGO's decision to drop Abraham and Bambang's charges and to issue a prosecution cessation order (SKPP) in an assault case implicating ex-KPK investigator Novel Baswedan.

'We urged the House to amend the AGO Law, specifically Article 35 [c] on the attorney general's tasks and authorities,' the forum's spokesman, Insp.Gen.(Ret.) Sisno Adiwinoto, said during a hearing with members of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs in Jakarta on Monday.

Several Commission III lawmakers attended the hearing led by the commission's deputy chairman, Desmond Junaidi Mahesa.

Commission III chairman Bambang Soesatyo said the Golkar Party faction supported the forum and would convey its requests on the possible use of the House's interpellation and investigation rights to the faction's leaders.

Abraham, a former KPK chairman, was named a suspect by the National Police in a document fraud case while Bambang was charged with perjury relating to a local election dispute at the Constitutional Court while he was a lawyer.

Meanwhile, Novel was accused by the police of shooting robbery suspects during his tenure as a Bengkulu Police detective chief in 2004.

On Feb. 22, the AGO issued an SKPP in Novel's case due to its expiration on Feb. 19 and the police's inability to gather enough evidence to continue the case.

Split of stances

Several Commission lawmakers voiced their different stances over the use of the House's interpellation and investigation rights to investigate the AGO's move.

Before the meeting, Bambang claimed that the right of investigation is not the commission's authority.

According to the Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law, the right of investigation must be proposed by at least 25 lawmakers from two political factions.

Arsul Sani from the United Development Party (PPP) faction said several individuals may have wanted to propose the use of the House's investigation right.

Raising another perspective, Risa Mariska of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction said the commission wanted to hear the attorney general's reasons for dropping the cases implicating Abraham and Bambang. The AGO is one of the commission's work partners, she said.

"The attorney general said his move to drop the cases, or known as deponeering, was for the sake of public interest. Which public interest was that?" Risa said on Monday, adding that both Abraham and Bambang were no longer leading the anticorruption commission.

"The attorney general's decision has too many improprieties. Apart from legal matters, he must have an objective reason to use deponeering," Nasir Djamil, lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said during Monday's meeting. (ebf)
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Simi Valley, California  Tue, March 8, 2016

The funeral for former first lady Nancy Reagan will be held on Friday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced Monday.

First lady Michelle Obama will be among those attending, the White House said.

Prior to the funeral, Nancy Reagan will lie in repose for public visitation on Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the foundation said.

Transportation to the library will be by shuttle from a Bank of America property in Simi Valley. Parking will not be allowed at the library.

Friday's funeral starts at 11 a.m. (1900 GMT) and will be closed to the public. Nancy Reagan will be buried next to her husband at the library.

Details on who will attend the funeral were not released.

Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure on Sunday at her Los Angeles home. She was 94.

Ronald Reagan, the nation's 40th president, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93. His remains were flown to Washington, D.C., to lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol and then a service at the Washington National Cathedral. His casket was then flown back to California.

Tens of thousands of mourners filed past his coffin in the days before his interment service at the library tucked into hills northwest of Los Angeles. After the service, a tearful Nancy Reagan kissed and stroked her husband's coffin while clutching an American flag. "I love you," she said quietly. (**)
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Amid generally positive public sentiment in response to the government's move to cease criminal proceedings against former antigraft commission leaders Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, some organizations have attempted to put them back under investigation.



A group called the Young Democratic Patriots (PMD) and M. Junaidi, a former political prisoner, registered a pretrial motion on Monday at the South Jakarta District Court to challenge the Attorney General's Office's (AGO) deponering decision.



Legal experts have said that the Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo's move to terminate the cases cannot be challenged at all in any court as it falls within the attorney general's prerogative rights.



However, PMD leader Andar M. Situmorang claims that there are loopholes in the AGO's legal procedure. 'As a registered organization, we have to defend the public,' he said.



Another group called the Forum for Law Enforcement Awareness (FMPP) reported Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo to the police, alleging that he had broken the law by terminating the case. 'We reported the case so [the police] can start an investigation. The lawsuit is enough [to prove] the Attorney General's abuse of power,' said forum member Sisno Adiwinoto, a retired police general.



Then KPK commissioners Abraham and Bambang were named suspects by police in two separate cases after the antigraft body took the bold step of naming Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a suspect in a bribery case. Budi at that time had just been recommended to become the National Police chief.
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin said on Monday that he supported the government's plan to halt all construction of official buildings, including those for the legislature.



The government has announced a plan to extend a ban on construction that has been implemented for a year now due to a tight budget situation.



Construction is only allowed for education, such as building schools, or for emergencies, like for narcotics rehabilitation facilities or for anti-terrorism purposes.



The extended ban may see the cancelation of a Rp 740 billion (US$56 million) plan to construct several buildings in at the House complex that the government has already agreed to.



'I am willing to maintain my support for the moratorium,' Ade said, although he still needs to consult with all political party factions and internal bodies at the House. The government has allocated Rp 570 billion to construction in this year's state budget.



Ade, a Golkar politician, said that construction plans at the House would be called off only if the entire House agree to do so.
New Delhi: Reiterating India's support to multi-stakeholder model for governing Internet, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said there should be focus on security also which is the primary responsibility of governments.

"While fully endorsing the multi-stakeholder model, the issue of security should also remain in focus, where the government has a very important role to play, as safety and security remains the primary responsibility of the governments," Prasad said at ICANN Summit at Marrakech in Morocco.

A new Internet governance model is being worked out through global consultation process and it is being coordinated by global Internet body ICANN. ICANN has been assigned the task to manage Internet by the US Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under a contract, which expires on September 30.

NTIA has decided to step out of its role of ICANN overseer after the contract expires and it be managed by global community and work is in progress to set rules on who should manage Internet post September 30. The new model was proposed to be finalised by September 30 last year but responses of some of the groups involved in the process could not be closed in time.

Since consensus on some issues related to accountability could not be arrived at by various communities, the process is expected to be closed by September this year if communities reach at an agreement. India has proposed that Internet should be managed through multi-stakeholder approach and the governments should have "supreme right and control" on matters relating to international security.

"If Internet is one of the finest creations of human mind, it ought not be allowed to be abused by the few, to unleash terror and cybercrime through dark net and dark webs and other instruments. Therefore, the role of government will continue to be relevant, as an important stakeholder," Prasad said.

A committee on Internet governance set by Indian government has favoured the approach and decided the country should try to collaborate with the US on the matter. "We instinctively value Internet to be open, plural and inclusive and access should be without discrimination. To ensure its stability, it must also be secure," Prasad said.

India in its submission has said under new transition, the body managing Internet should have "accountability towards governments" in areas where "governments have primary responsibility, such as security and similar public policy concerns." Prasad talked about push for content in local language over internet so that people can establish a link with it.

"Diversity of the representation should be ensured in the new architecture because developing and emerging economies are going to contribute the next billion internet users," he said. The minister said that India would like to share its own experience of successfully living in a country with diversity and the spread of internet capturing this diversity.

"Democracy and Deliberative policy making are some of the core strengths of India. We wish to convey our good wishes to the new architecture, in which we seek a constructive engagement with international community and let me assure that India's would be a voice of moderation," Prasad said.

Last round of public comments closed on December 21. ICANN received 4-5 comments from India among about 80 comments it received over accountability of new entity that will manage or oversee functions of Internet. The proposal will be then sent to US government, which is expected to take 60-90 days to gets approvals from various authorities within their government.
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Linkedin Foster Klug (The Jakarta Post) Seoul, South Korea  Tue, March 8, 2016

North Korea on Monday issued its latest belligerent threat, warning of an indiscriminate "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" on Washington and Seoul, this time in reaction to the start of huge US-South Korean military drills.

Such threats have been a staple of young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since he took power after his dictator father's death in December 2011. But they spike especially when Washington and Seoul stage what they call annual defensive springtime war games. Pyongyang says the drills, which started Monday and run through the end of April, are invasion rehearsals.

The North's powerful National Defense Commission threatened strikes against targets in the South, US bases in the Pacific and the US mainland, saying its enemies "are working with bloodshot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights" of North Korea.

"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the North's statement said.

Responding to the North's threat, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said Monday that North Korea must refrain from a "rash act that brings destruction upon itself."

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US takes the North Korean threats seriously. He called on Pyongyang to cease provocative rhetoric and behavior.

"There would not be as compelling a reason to prepare for alliance capabilities," Kirby told a news briefing, "if Pyongyang wasn't so intent on raising the stakes on the peninsula" and decreasing any sense of security and stability there.

This year's war games will be the largest ever staged, involving 300,000 South Korean and 17,000 US troops. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing military sources, reported that the allies will work on drills for precision attacks on North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war.

A pre-emptive large-scale military strike that would end the authoritarian rule of the Kim dynasty is highly unlikely. There is also considerable outside debate about whether North Korea is even capable of the kind of "strikes" it threatens. The North makes progress with each new nuclear test ' it staged its fourth in January ' but many experts say its arsenal may consist only of still-crude nuclear bombs; there's uncertainty about whether they've mastered the miniaturization process needed to mount bombs on long-range missiles and widespread doubt about whether they have a reliable missile that could deliver such a bomb to the US mainland.

But North Korea's bellicose rhetoric raises unease in Seoul and its US ally, not least because of the huge number of troops and weaponry facing off along the world's most heavily armed border, which is an hour's drive from the South Korean capital of Seoul and its 10 million residents.

The rival Koreas' usual animosity occasionally erupts in bloody skirmishes ' 50 South Koreans were killed in attacks in 2010 that Seoul blames on the North ' and there is always a worry about an escalation of violence.

Always ragged relations between North Korea and its rivals Seoul and Washington have worsened following North Korea's nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket test last month that outsiders say was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The United Nations recently slapped the North with harsh sanctions, and South Korea has taken a harder than usual line, with a new North Korean human rights law and the president in Seoul warning of a collapsed government in Pyongyang. South Korea says it will announce new unilateral sanctions Tuesday.

Similar nuclear threats by the North were made in 2013, around the time of the springtime military drills, after the UN sanctioned the North over a nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Analysts say one part of North Korea's traditional anger over the drills is that they force the impoverished country to respond with its own costly war games.

___

AP writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. (**)
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

After years of delay, the ambitious nationwide Palapa Ring project is expected to begin soon following the signing of the government's commitment to guarantee the broadband network project connecting the entire archipelago.



The Palapa Ring project, which will involve laying down 11,000 kilometers of undersea fiber-optic cable, will be divided into three sections ' the West, Central and East package.



Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara officially signed on Friday an agreement for the development of the Central Package with Len Telekomunikasi Indonesia, which will lay down 2,700 km of undersea fiber-optic cables connecting Kalimantan, Sulawesi and North Maluku.



The Rp 1.38 trillion (US$105.6 million) undersea cable project, which is expected to start in the third quarter of this year, is scheduled for completion in 2018, Rudiantara said, adding that state-owned financing guarantee company Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (PII) on the behalf of the government would guarantee the project.



The cooperation agreement for the West Package, which will be developed by Mora Telematika Indonesia, was signed on Monday. The project's estimated costs of Rp 1.28 trillion will involve laying down 2,000 km of submarine fiber-optic cable that aims to connect Riau province, Riau Islands and the Natuna Island off Sumatra. PII will also act as the financial guarantor.



The East Package is still in the pre-qualification stage. It will connect East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, West Papua, and remote places inside Papua. Currently, there are seven companies who have registered for its tender.



Palapa Ring is the first government-to-business cooperation (KPBU) scheme within the telecommunications sector that will utilize the availability payment method, in which the private partner would receive payment based on availability of the designed infrastructure at a specified performance level.



With the Palapa Ring project, the government hopes to expand broadband service availability to all regions within Indonesia as well as to reduce its usage costs.



At present, the top-five cities with the fastest internet access are Bandung, Bekasi, Jakarta, Surabaya and Tangerang, all which are located in Java. Currently, the archipelago's broadband distribution outside of Java is poor, where most people outside of Java cannot enjoy good internet, while even if they can, the cost is high.



'We hope that by 2019, people in every part of Indonesia will have the same opportunity to access the internet,' Rudiantara said after the signing ceremony on Friday, which was also attended by Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution and Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro. The Palapa Ring is part of the government's priority projects, which is overseen by the Committee of Infrastructure Priorities Development Acceleration (KPPIP) led by Darmin.



The KPPIP, which focuses on the acceleration of priority infrastructure projects, can filter which projects can be financed with the state budgets and which projects can be financed by the KPBU scheme, Bambang said.



'I hope that more large-scale infrastructure projects with commercial value can be financed by using the KPBU system so that the burden on the state budget can be reduced,' he said in his address at the signing ceremony.



The Palapa Ring project, formerly called Nusantara 21, was initiated by the government in 1998, but it was delayed due to Indonesia's worst ever economic crisis.

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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

While Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama has decided to run as an independent candidate in next year's gubernatorial election, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has stressed that it is in no hurry to name its own gubernatorial candidate.



The party initially expressed interest in nominating the incumbent as its candidate.



PDI-P Jakarta chapter secretary Prasetio Edi Marsudi said that the party's senior politicians met on Monday night at the home of chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri to discuss the party's stance, following Ahok's decision.



'We still have plenty of time, therefore there is no reason to hurry,' said Prasetio, who is also speaker of the City Council, in Jakarta on Tuesday.



In response to demands from the Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) volunteer group to name his deputy candidate, Ahok announced his decision to run as an independent on Monday and picked Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) head Heru Budi Hartono as his deputy candidate.



Ahok said that Teman Ahok, the main supporter of the incumbent, could not wait for the PDI-P to decide whether it would back him because its volunteers needed to continue their efforts to collect the required number of ID-backed signatures to ensure Ahok's candidacy by June. Prasetio denied that the meeting at Megawati's house was organized on account of Ahok's decision to run as an independent. But he did say that the meeting discussed the party's preparations for next year's gubernatorial election.



He said that as the largest political party with 28 seats on the City Council, the PDI-P was the only party that could propose its gubernatorial ticket in the 2017 election, while other parties needed to form a coalition to meet the threshold of 20 percent of seats on the council, or 25 percent of the vote in last year's legislative election. Jakarta has 106 city councillors.



The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) will open registration for party-backed candidates in October, while an independent ticket is required to submit all necessary documents, particularly ID-backed signatures from 6.5 percent of eligible voters in Jakarta. (bbn) (+)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi and Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta/Makassar  Tue, March 8, 2016

The administration of Surakarta, Central Java, has withdrawn from a national policy that requires modern retailers to charge customers for plastic bags, deeming the initiative unlikely to cut plastic bag consumption.



Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo said that the charge, at Rp 200 (2 US cents) per bag, was too low to serve as a deterrent, as is intended.



'The plastic bag policy will not change people's habits, especially because plastic bags are sold for only Rp 200. If the price were set at Rp 20,000 per bag, people would choose to bring their own bags,' Rudy said at Surakarta city hall on Monday.



The Jakarta administration has also withdrawn from the program, and will instead enforce a 2013 bylaw on waste management, which Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja said was sufficient to reduce plastic waste.



The policy was issued by Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya on National Waste Awareness Day through a circular, and stipulates that retailers must not give plastic bags to customers for free, but must charge at least Rp 200 for each bag.



An agreement between the Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) and city administrations was recently signed in Makassar, South Sulawesi, also on National Waste Awareness Day.



When the initiative was launched, the Surakarta administration said it had been encouraging people to take their own non-plastic bags when shopping. If modern shops still provided paid plastic bags, Rudy said, the plastic reduction policy would be meaningless.



He went on that the administration would cooperate with the Surakarta branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to produce shopping bags from non-plastic and recycled materials such as recyclable paper, rattan, natural fibers and coconut leaves.



The mayor is also considering asking private companies, through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, to participate in the plan.



'We will sit down and discuss programs to produce recycled shopping bags,' Rudy said.



Separately, Surakarta Kadin chair Sri Haryanto said that businesspeople in the city would support the efforts to reduce the use of plastic bags, adding that Kadin was engaged in discussions with a number of MSMEs to produce environmentally friendly shopping bags.



'I think such programs could benefit MSMEs. We hope they will come up with creative products to increase the choices available,' Sri said.



Meanwhile, modern retailers in Surakarta are ready to comply with Rudi's instructions.



Alfamart regional spokesperson Firly Firlandia said the company had applied the policy according to the circular issued by the environment ministry.



Responding to the mayor's instruction to ignore the policy, however, Firly said that Alfamart would fully support the instruction, but added that the management would first wait for an official letter from the city administration regarding the matter.



'We are in support of reducing plastic waste. Doing so is in the interests of everyone. However, before implementing the [mayor's] instruction, we first need a legal basis, for example a mayoral regulation or a circular from the city administration. We need something official,' Firly said.



Surakarta produces 260 tons of garbage every day, 20 percent of which is plastic, and only 10 percent recyclable.
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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar  Tue, March 8, 2016

Police have uncovered a drug network in the city of Makassar, South Sulawesi, following a one-month investigation. Four suspected members of the syndicate, identified only by the initials A, 42, K, 19, RH, 50, and Z, 40, were arrested in separate operations.

Makassar Police narcotics division deputy chief Comr. Muhammad Fajri Mustafa said on Monday that the syndicate had attempted to distribute crystal methamphetamine, locally known as shabu-shabu, via delivery service on Feb.1.

Police said they confiscated a package of drugs when Andi Lolo, a suspected member of the group, was about to it up in the Makassar Boulevard area. During questioning at the police office, Andi Lolo said the package belonged to Z.

'Based on information we obtained, we pursued him (Z) for more than one month. We chased him to Kalimantan, but he escaped. On March 3, we busted Z in Palu, Central Sulawesi,' said Fajri.

The police continued their manhunt in Makassar, where they arrested two other alleged syndicate members, namely RH and K. The last suspect, A, was arrested in Parepare, South Sulawesi.

The police confiscated 14 sachets of crystal meth from the suspects, weighing 700 grams in total.

'They claimed they got the crystal meth from Pinrang [South Sulawesi] and Kalimantan. We are carrying out a further investigation to find higher-ranking figures of the network,' said Fajri.

Speaking to thejakartapost.com, Fajri said that during the investigation, all suspects appeared to conceal the network supply chain connecting them to the higher figures. They claimed not to know a drug operator reportedly supplying the crystal meth from Malaysia to Kalimantan.

Fajri said the syndicate was categorized as 'high-class' because it had distributed drugs not only in Makassar and the surrounding areas but across provinces.

He added the syndicate had no any connections with Herwin Zainal, 43, who was arrested on Jl. Kandea, Makassar, on Friday, in possession of 2 kilograms of crystal meth. The crystal meth was sent from Jakarta via courier service.

Fajri said the four suspects were charged under Articles 112 and 114 of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics, which carries a prison sentence of five years to life.

Last month, Parepare Police foiled an attempt to smuggle 10 kg of crystal meth from Malaysia, which had been delivered via Nunukan, North Kalimantan. (afr/ebf)
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The government must prepare local businesspeople before joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), otherwise the trade pact may prove disastrous for the business sector, experts say.

The TPP is a US-sponsored trade agreement between Pacific Rim countries aimed at rebalancing their strategic strength over global trade and the economy. They currently cover 40 percent of the global economy.

However, the agreement could handicap local businesspeople if they are not prepared, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) senior researcher Iman Sugema said on Tuesday.

'We have to focus on our main export products that have real competitiveness. The partnership means we will be open for competition, but we will only be the 'victim-partner' if we don't prepare,' he said in Jakarta.

The US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Chile have signed the TPP agreement and are currently ratifying the agreements in their respective countries.

President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo expressed his intention to join the TPP during a meeting with US President Barrack Obama at the White House last October.

Meanwhile, economist Ine Minara S. Ruky questioned Indonesia's preparedness ahead of such a trade partnership.

'We will probably just be another market for TPP members [to sell their products],' she said in an interview on March 2. (vps/ags)
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Linkedin Anggi Lubis and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Indonesia has defended its decision to invite Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to attend 5th Extraordinary the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) having issued warrants for Bashir's arrest for alleged war crimes in Darfur.



The Hague-based ICC issued arrest warrants in 2009 and 2010, accusing Bashir of masterminding genocide and other atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in the western Darfur region.



Bashir is the only sitting head of state wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UN estimates that 300,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with the US and the EU, has called on the leader to be detained. Member states of the ICC are obliged to act on arrest warrants.



Bashir, who led a Sudanese delegation at the summit, arrived in Jakarta on Sunday.



As well as accepting his presence at the conference, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo held a bilateral meeting with Bashir on Monday, noting the intention of some Indonesian companies to invest in the oil sector in Sudan.



Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said that the OIC host was obliged to invite all members of the grouping.



'We're not allowed to cherry pick which countries we want to invite like on an A la carte menu at a restaurant,' Arrmanatha told reporters on the sidelines of the summit on Monday.



In this case, he added, Indonesia would honor all participating OIC member states and treat all heads of state with the same respect.



Since Indonesia was not party to the ICC, Arrmanatha said he had no comment to make on any dispute between Bashir and the ICC.



Wahjudi Djafar of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) criticized the government's decision to allow Bashir's attendance at the summit.



Despite Indonesia not being a party to the Rome Statute, the country needs to cooperate with the ICC in addressing the situation in Darfur.



'By allowing Bashir to come, Indonesia defies its international obligations by allowing an international fugitive to step in and attend the summit,' Wahjudi said in a statement.



Meanwhile, the US expressed concern over Bashir's travel to Jakarta to attend the OIC summit,



'President Bashir has been charged by the ICC with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and warrants for his arrest remain outstanding,' the US Embassy in Jakarta said in a written statement.



While the US is not party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, Washington has claimed it strongly supports the ICC's efforts to hold accountable those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.



Last year, Bashir canceled a trip to attend the Commemoration of the Asia Africa Conference in Jakarta. His plan to attend the event sparked protests among rights groups who wanted the president arrested.



Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since a 1989 Islamist- and army-backed coup, rejects the ICC's authority. Nonetheless, he had not traveled outside the Middle East or Africa since 2011 until he visited China in September to attend celebrations commemorating the end of World War II. China is also not a member of the ICC.



In June last year, Bashir was forced to flee South Africa after a court ruled he should be banned from leaving pending the outcome of a hearing on his possible arrest.
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat has warned Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama that running as an independent gubernatorial candidate is a risky move.

"I've told Ahok to be careful. The independent track is fragile," Djarot said at City Hall on Tuesday.

Ahok announced his decision to run as an independent candidate on Monday and picked Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) head Heru Budi Hartono as his deputy candidate in response to the demands of the Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) volunteer group.

Ahok is aware of the risks because if Teman Ahok fails to collect the required number of ID-backed signatures by June, he will not be able to participate in the 2017 gubernatorial election, said Djarot.

Djarot added that Ahok's challenges would not end with an election win and that he would face various hurdles on account of a lack of formal support from members of the City Council.

Djarot, who is a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) executive board, said that his party would not support Ahok as an independent candidate.

Djarot is among PDI-P politicians who met with the party's chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri, at her house on Monday night to discuss, among others things, the Jakarta gubernatorial election. Other politicians included PDI-P deputy secretary-general Eriko Sotarduga and City Council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi.

Djarot did not say whether Megawati had nominated him as the party's gubernatorial candidate, but he said: "Ibu Megawati told me to focus on my work. It hasn't been decided whether I will be nominated."

Separately, Prasetio said the party had several potential candidates, including Djarot, PDI-P Jakarta chapter head Boy Sadikin, Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo. (bbn)
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Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Bekasi administration has launched an ambitious smart city program with the establishment of a command center dubbed the Patriot Operation Center (POC), adding to other initiatives including real-time parking records and use of public monitoring application Qlue.



During the command center launch at his office over the weekend, Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi said he had for several years been considering introducing an IT platform in the city administration.



'[The idea] has met opposition, with people saying that Bekasi has more important issues, like poverty and child malnutrition,' Rahmat said.



What critics failed to understand, he said, was that IT could help to resolve such problems.



He added that he was pleased to see that the move had had positive effects on the city, citing the example of parking fine systems in three locations ' Galaxy shopping center, Jl. Juanda and Bekasi Plaza. 'Before the introduction of real-time parking records, we only received around Rp 6 million [US$456] a day, but since the system has been applied, we receive Rp 347 million a month,' he said.



However, there are still a number of obstacles to the introduction of a wider smart city program, the mayor went on. 'The main obstacle is the mindset of my officials,' he said.



Some officials, Rahmat said, were unschooled in the use of technology to address problems. 'There are some among them who rarely communicate with their subordinates,' he said.



Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) IT expert Suhono Harso Supangkat, who designed the program, said that of the 43 agencies under the Bekasi administration, only 17 had been integrated into the system.



'This is the initial program. The platform will be developed further in the future,' he said, adding that the smart city program would increase access to data and help the administration to resolve problems.



Bekasi is among the satellite municipalities of Greater Jakarta considering following in the footsteps of the Jakarta city administration by, as part of smart city initiatives, using the Qlue app to more effectively register and address residents' complaints .



Qlue marketing vice president Ivan Tigana said that according to Qlue's data, more than 2,200 reports had been submitted via the app in Bekasi in the last eight months; the five most commonly reported issues are illegal advertisements with 673 reports, traffic and bylaw violations with 452, garbage issues with 285, damaged roads with 149 and public facility issues with 127.



Ivan said that his team needed to train officials from a number of Bekasi public agencies before they could begin to address the reports.



'Our target is June,' he said.



Besides Bekasi, other satellite municipalities, such as Tangerang and South Tangerang, have also seen large numbers of complaints, according to Ivan.



'As such, we urge residents of satellite cities to ask their local administrations to start using Qlue so that their reports can be followed up,' he said.



The app was in fact free of charge, he said, for use by local authorities. 'Costs will emerge if the app is

layered with other dashboards,' he said.



Qlue is looking to cooperate with the administrations of eight cities, including South Tangerang, Depok, Bandung and Yogyakarta, he went on.



Jakarta Communications and Information Agency head Ii Karunia said it had cost the city Rp 5 billion to launch Qlue.



'The money was used to buy hardware and software, as well as to pay the human resources,' he said, adding that the city used outsourced technicians.



Any administration wanting to introduce the app, Ii said, should first train their personnel to ensure they can respond swiftly and effectively to complaints.



'If reports are responded to properly, people will use the app diligently,' he said, adding that if the respective city had the requisite funds, it could improve the app by adding new features.
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Linkedin Grace D. Amianti (The Jakarta Post)  Tue, March 8, 2016

The government and the financial regulator have called on state-owned banks to build strategic partnerships with regional development banks (BPDs), whose collective market share has been decreasing over the past years, to expand their business and support development across the nation.



The authorities believe stronger roles for both state and regional administration-owned banks are essential to provide citizens across the archipelago with various financing and banking services amid the need to boost economic growth.



Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Muliaman D. Hadad said the agency's data had found that the market share of BPDs, which make up between 9 percent and 10 percent of the total nationwide banking assets, had a tendency to remain flat or decline over the past several years.



Total assets in the domestic banking industry stood at Rp 5.91 quadrillion (US$444 billion) as of December last year, OJK data show.



The declining market share was mainly caused by tight competition and lack of empowerment for BPDs, so that a synergy should be built between them and state-run banks, whose vast networks across the country and more enhanced IT systems could assist in the development of BPDs, Muliaman said.



'BPDs and state-owned banks can build synergy or collaboration in many aspects, such as human resources, IT and product development,' he said recently.



On the other hand, Muliaman said the BPDs themselves had greater local knowledge in their own regions, making the synergy comprehensive and mutual.



He said the OJK had asked State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Rini Soemarno to endorse state-owned banks building cooperation with BPDs, including by providing regional banks with possible financial support if necessary.



Separately, the SOE Ministry's deputy for financial services, Gatot Trihargo, confirmed that the ministry and the OJK had discussed the program, which includes a plan for state-owned banks to take up minority shareholdings in BPDs.



Gatot said the ministry expected that state-owned banks could hold stakes in BPDs of between 20 percent and 25 percent.



'We want to build a mutual partnership with BPDs, even though we will not become majority shareholders. It is because we want the BPDs to retain their local uniqueness,' he said.



Gatot said the equity participation would help the government boost its funding for regions as well as strengthening the domestic basis for state-run banks.



Although some regional administrations have made a positive response to the plan, he acknowledged that the process would not be easy as approval needed to be obtained from their respective regional legislative councils (DPRDs).



He added that the ministry expected that the plan could be realized in 2017, while stressing the need to put the main focus on IT synergy between state and regional banks as part of the efforts to increase efficiency.



Executives from state-owned lenders have also welcomed the plan.



Bank Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) finance director Rico Rizal Budidarmo expressed their support for the synergy plan, saying that it could create positive outputs, such as higher levels of efficiency and valuations.



Both Budi and Rico said their banks would also be open to equity participation, but they had yet to decide which BPDs would be targeted as they still awaited the OJK and ministry's guidance.



In December, four state-owned banks ' Mandiri, BNI, Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Tabungan

Negara ' launched their new integrated ATM network, which will help them reduce operating costs so as to increase efficiency and strengthen their presence in the regional market.



The new service will also benefit customers of the four state banks as tariffs charged for interbank transfers as well as cash withdrawals and balance inquiries would be cheaper.



'JP/Grace D. Amianti

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Iran has also been requested for allocation of adequate land for the Indian SEZ and identification of joint venture partners. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: India expects to get gas at the price of USD 1.5 to 2.5 per unit for its proposed urea plant in Iran which will be around one-fourth of the current price level, Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said on March 8.

The Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers told the Lok Sabha that discussions are going on with Iran and a decision on the proposed plant would be taken soon. Various public sector undertakings were nominated for setting up the proposed 1.3 million tonnes urea plant.

During Question Hour, Ahir said the good thing that is going to happen is that gas would be provided at a price of USD 1.5 to 2.5 per unit for the plant. Currently, gas price is about USD 7-8 per unit and for the plant, it would be given at about one-fourth of that price, he noted.

Discussions in this regard are going on and a decision would be reached at soon, the Minister said, adding that the issues related to the proposed plant were discussed at a recent meeting of India-Iran joint commission.

In a written reply, Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar said India has expressed interest in setting up chemical and petrochemical industries through Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Chabahar Free Trade Zone in Iran provided that rich gas at competitive price is offered by Iran on long term basis.

"Iran has also been requested for allocation of adequate land for the Indian SEZ and identification of joint venture partners," he said.

He noted that non-availability of feedstock and natural gas, which has affected the growth of chemicals and petrochemical sector in India, has necessitated exploration of opportunities for investing in feedstock rich countries.

"Value addition and employment generation is envisaged by importing these intermediate basic chemicals in India," he added.
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

Sudan responded on Tuesday to the US' 'concern' over the attendance of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a war crime suspect, at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit in Jakarta on March 6-7.

The Sudanese Embassy in Jakarta stated that if the US administration 'is very concerned about the International Justice and in support of its endeavors then it has to go forward and join the ICC [International Criminal Court] to be a party to its convention, or to shut up.' The US is not a member of the ICC.

The embassy's press statement said that Bashir, who was issued ICC arrest warrants in 2009 and 2010 for genocide and crimes against humanity following reported atrocities in the conflict in Darfur, attended the fifth Extraordinary OIC Summit in support of 'the innocent Palestinians being killed in cold blood by Zionist state under the full support and protection by the US.'

The US Embassy in Jakarta said it was "concerned" by Bashir's travel to Indonesia for the OIC meeting.

President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo met with Bashir during the summit. Indonesian officials said the two discussed solidarity with Palestine and deeper economic ties.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir has defended the government's decision to invite al-Bashir as a move to honor all participating OIC member states and treat all heads of state with equal respect. Since Indonesia was not party to the ICC, Arrmanatha said he had no comment to make on any dispute between Bashir and the ICC.
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

The Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) volunteer group will need to collect at least 532,213 ID-backed signatures to ensure Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama's eligibility for the 2017 gubernatorial election, following the announcement of his running mate.

The ID-backed signatures of 6.5 percent of eligible voters are required to be collected by June for submission to the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD Jakarta) the following month.

Ahok announced on Monday his decision to run as an independent gubernatorial candidate and will pair with Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) head Heru Budi Hartono.

KPUD Jakarta has stressed that Teman Ahok has to ensure that Ahok's supporters also support his deputy candidate.

'Before submitting the documents to KPUD Jakarta, the support forms should be filled with the name of the deputy candidate also," KPUD Jakarta chairman Sumarno told thejakartapost.com on Tuesday.

'The Regional Election Law regulates the support for candidate pairs. Support should be given not only to the gubernatorial candidate but also to the deputy gubernatorial candidate,' said Sumarno.

According to the Teman Ahok website, its volunteers had collected 774,452 ID-backed signatures. However, the volunteers will need to start all over again as the ID-backed signatures were collected prior to Ahok announcing his deputy candidate.

"If Ahok says that he has collected 1 million ID-backed signatures, then KPUD Jakarta will verify the 1 million forms," said Sumarno, adding that KPUD Jakarta officers would meet with the supporters to verify their support.

Meanwhile, Teman Ahok has begun collecting ID-backed signatures again, saying in a press release that it had two big tasks ahead. The volunteers will verify all of the supporters' data that they have obtained and will need to check whether the supporters also pledge their support for Heru as the deputy governor candidate.

"If the supporters don't want to support Heru, they can rescind their support," Teman Ahok said in a press release.

Teman Ahok will distribute new forms that mention Heru's name as the deputy governor candidate. (bbn)
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

All major television networks in Indonesia have failed to fully implement the Network Broadcast System, adherence to which is a mandatory requirement for the extension of broadcast licenses, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has warned.

According to the commission, all Indonesian television stations are obliged to implement the rules laid out in the Network Broadcast System, which revolve around the decentralization principle as stipulated in the 2002 Broadcasting Law. Under this principle, stations are prohibited from broadcasting nationally, forcing them to build networks with local stations.

'So, if a television station is located in East Java, it should also broadcast content about that province,' KPI commissioner Amirudin said.

He added that under this rule, Indonesian stations were divided into two categories, namely parent and member stations. Each member station of a national TV network should produce and broadcast at least 10 percent local content, which involved and concerned the local people, he went on.

Through this decentralization principle, communities could benefit from content sourced from local wisdom and promoting cultural heritage, rather than just consume content from Jakarta that is sometimes irrelevant to them.

Under the rule, parent and member stations would share advertising revenue.

In a hearing at the House of Representatives on Monday, the KPI said the issue of insufficient implementation of the framework affected 15 private TV networks: Indosiar, Global TV, Metro TV, MNC TV, ANTV, Trans TV, Trans 7, RCTI, TV One, SCTV, iNews, Net TV, Kompas TV, RTV and O Channel.

Four of the 15 stations, namely Trans 7, Global TV, Net TV and RTV, failed to include local content in all of their member stations. Kompas TV broadcast more than 10 percent local content through its member station, while iNews featured local content deemed to have real relevance to the locals. Both Kompas TV and iNews included locals in their program production activities.

'I suspect there is no strong willingness on the part of parent stations to work together with their member stations,' House lawmaker Meutya Hafid told journalists.

The KPI plans to evaluate 10 television networks whose permits are set to expire this year. Nine television stations, namely ANTV, Global TV, Indosiar, MNCTV, RCTI, SCTV, Trans TV, TV7 and TV One, will see their permits expire in October, while Metro TV will have to renew its permit in December.

The commission will look at three main factors in evaluating the television stations, namely their adherence to the Broadcasting Code of Conduct and Program Standards (P3SPS), their broadcasting program proposals for the next 10 years and their implementation of the Network Broadcast System. (vps/ebf).
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Linkedin Anggi M. Lubis and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, March 8, 2016

An outpouring of strong solidarity with Palestine among Islamic countries was evident on Monday with a declaration calling for united action to end Israeli's hostile policies toward Palestinians.



The measures proposed included efforts to establish a legal advocacy group, revitalized funding support, the promotion of steps to achieve a two-state solution and a partial boycott of Israeli products.



Members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) concluded their two-day extraordinary summit on Palestine and Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) in Jakarta with a resolution and a declaration, which President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo said was initiated by Indonesia and formulated to lay foundations for concrete action to achieve an independent Palestine.



'Through this summit, history will record that leaders of the Islamic world have sent a strong message to all parties involved in the conflict in Palestine,' he said in a press statement to close the summit.



'OIC member countries condemn Israeli actions and call for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestine. We call for the formulation of a Palestinian state on the basis of a two-state solution.'



The OIC also pledged 'full support to political, diplomatic and legal efforts' to ensure the Palestinians achieve their 'inalienable rights'.



Jokowi said there was an urgency for the OIC to escalate support for Palestine through a number of concrete steps, namely: strengthening political support, evaluating ' and possibly adding to ' the members of the Quartet on the Middle East, boycotting Israeli products, boosting pressure on the UN Security Council to protect Palestine and to provide a deadline for an end to Israel's occupation and strongly rejecting Israel's restrictions on worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel's move to change the status quo and demography of Al-Quds Al-Sharif.



The declaration itself encapsulates 23 points under the heading 'concrete actions', with the most visibly concrete being the reinvigoration of financial contributions to the Al-Quds Funds and Waqf, the setting up of an intergovernmental group of legal experts to advocate for Palestinian rights and the boycott of Israeli products. However, the last measure is limited to those produced in or by illegal Israeli settlements.



Over 500 delegates from 49 countries attended the two-day summit, which was also joined by three observers, four Middle East Quartet members and permanent members of the UN Security Council.



Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he was grateful for the summit and for the attendance of delegates from OIC member countries, saying: 'Al-Quds is the beating heart of Palestine, and there is no reason for there to be a Palestine without Al-Quds, Jerusalem being its capital. Whatever efforts may be made to isolate Al-Quds from Palestine will be pointless and hopeless because neither the Palestinians nor the Arabs, or the Muslim world, will accept such a situation.'



Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and since then the situation has deteriorated, with the prospect of fresh dialogue appearing more remote than ever.



Acting US envoy to the OIC, Arsalan Suleman, said that it was in the US' interests to have Palestine and Israel resume peace negotiations in earnest as that was the only way for the Obama administration to recognize Palestine as an independent state.



'The ultimate goal we all share [is that] we want to see a prosperous and independent Palestinian state, where Palestinians can live in security and dignity, and we want to see a secure Israeli state as well,' he said.



As an observer of the summit, party to the Quartet and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia strongly supported furthering the agenda of the two-state solution.

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Linkedin Rod McGuirk (The Jakarta Post) Canberra  Tue, March 8, 2016

The US Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations' militaries in discussions to avoid any "miscalculation," a top US general said Tuesday.

Gen. Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged other nations to exercise their freedom to fly and sail in international airspace and waters claimed by China in the South China Sea "or risk losing it throughout the region."

"We've watched the increased military capability on those islands, whether it's the fighters, whether it's the missiles or the 10,000-foot runways. We will continue to do as we've always done, and that is fly and sail in international airspace in accordance to international rules and norms," Robinson told reporters in Australia's capital, Canberra, where she will address the Royal Australian Air Force's biennial Air Power Conference next week.

Robinson declined to say how the United States would retaliate if a US plane was shot down by the Chinese.

Several governments have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, a major conduit for world trade. The US lays no claims to the waters, but says it has an interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and non-use of force and coercion to assert claims.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a hard line Tuesday on the country's claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, saying Beijing won't permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area.

Speaking to reporters at an annual news conference in Beijing, Wang said that another nation's claim to freedom of navigation in the region doesn't give it the right to do whatever it wants ' an apparent reference to the US, which has sent naval ships past reefs where China has engaged in island-building.

Robinson conceded there was "a possibility of a miscalculation" leading to conflict in the increasingly militarized region.

But she said the United States and China had signed an agreement on air-to-air rules of behavior in international airspace in September and would continue discussions on the subject this year.

"That has allowed us to have continuous dialogue with the Chinese about how to conduct safe intercepts and intercepts in accordance with international rules and norms," Robinson said.

She said Russian long-range aircraft were also increasingly active in the Pacific, flying around Japan and Guam.

As part of US plans to increase its military presence in the Pacific, Robinson said discussions were underway with the Australian military to rotate U.S. bombers through the northern Australian air force bases at Darwin and Tindal.

"It gives us the opportunity to train our pilots to understand the theater and to strengthen our ties with our great allies, the Royal Australian Air Force," Robinson said.

US Marines already rotate through Darwin in a sign of an increasingly close military bilateral alliance that riles China, Australia's most important trade partner.
As one of the festival's interactive artworks, What a Loving and Beautiful World installation features a giant projection on the faAade of the Art Science Museum on the right side of Marina Bay Sands. (Photo courtesy of i Light Marina Bay)" height="385" border="0" width="639">

Singaporeas sustainable light art festival returns for its fourth edition to light up the Marina Bay waterfront until March 27.

For over three weeks, i Light Marina Bay is showcasing environmentally sustainable light art installations made by artists around the globe, transforming the country's icon into a kaleidoscopic display of light, color, shadow and interactive artwork.

Beyond its picturesque showcase of visual art and urban space, the festival also features a dynamic lineup of events, including eclectic performances, delectable outdoor dining options and engaging workshops.

Planning to head down to the i Light Marina Bay Festival? Here is a guide on what to check out:

What to see

The festival features up to 25 light installations that manifest this year's theme,aIn Praise of Shadowa.

Inspired by Junichiro Tanizakias seminal essay of the same title, the curators hoped to inspire festivalgoers to reimagine and reconsider sustainability issues in a new light and come together to create and sustain a harmonious relationship with the environment.

Below are the top five light installations not to be missed:

1. Marine Constellation

Beams of lasers link the skyline of Marina Bay, as if creating a new constellation in the cityscape for visitors to trace. Visitors are also invited to make a wish for those close to their hearts at wishuponeveryshootingstar.net and every time a camera set by the artists in Chiang Mai capture a shooting star, their message will be sent along with an image of that star.

The hot spot to see this installation is at The Promontory @ Marina Bay.

2. Light Origami

This particular installation invites viewers to explore reality by entering a giant 3D kaleidoscope. The dome structure is bathed in light and constructed using over 320 origami-shaped mirrored panels to show that light can look like paper. Changing spectrums of light are projected within the space, mirrored in the facets of the shape while creating an entrancing kaleidoscope of light.

The installation can be seen at Oue Bayfront, next to the Customs House.

3. Moon Haze

In addition to representing the giant full moon, the installation also functions as a monitoring system for air pollutants by responding to the ambient air quality; the better the air quality, the brighter the installation.

The Moon Haze can be seen near The Promontory @ Marina Bay.
This evening, officials with the Department of Transportation will go before Community Board 3 to outline their plans for a protected bike lane on Chrystie Street.

In the rendering posted above, you can see the proposal: a two-way bike path on the east side of Chrystie from East Houston Street to Canal Street, with a parking lane separating bicyclists from automobile traffic. In February of last year, CB3 approved a resolution calling for the upgrade. A local bike advocate, Dave Poco Abraham, campaigned for the changes on Chrystie Street, where faded lines and heavy truck traffic make conditions treacherous for cyclists.

A few more details from Gothamist, which was first to publish the renderings yesterday:

The DOT says the lane could be installed as soon as Fall 2016. Southbound cyclists on Second Avenue will have a safe path to the Manhattan Bridge, and northbound cyclists will be able to turn right off of Chrystie to merge onto the protected northbound lane on 1st Avenue. Cyclists will be separated from traffic by a parking lane from Canal to Grand, and again from Rivington to Houston. The stretch between Grand and Rivington, where the road is narrower, will be protected by flexible delineators (There) will be no traffic lane reduction (the DOT pointed out that one of the southbound lanes was almost entirely eliminated back in 2008, calming traffic significantly). The proposal also calls for the addition of four new pedestrian islands, and a complete resurfacing of the roada process that the DOT estimates will require about two or three weeks of overnight work.

If youd like to offer feedback on the plan, show up at tonights transportation committee meeting. It begins at 6:30 p.m. at Seward Park Extension, 56 Essex St. Heres the full agenda:

1. Approval of previous months minutes

2. Request for support to retrofit CB 3 tree pits as support for infrastructure that is more absorbent of storm water

3. DOT presentation on upgrade of 2-way protected bicycle lane on Chrystie Street from Canal Street to Houston

4. Proposed traffic calming measures and bicycle route on Pitt Street from Grand Street to Houston Street

5. 180 Orchard St (Indigo Hotel) Request for 28 foot loading zone for guests

UPDATED 3:22 p.m. The Department of Transportation put out a press release this afternoon. Relevant excerpts:
State Sen. Daniel Squadron says the MTAs capital plan should not be funded with an IOU. [NY1]

Staff members for City Council member Rosie Mendez, with her blessing, protest low pay for employees of local Council representatives. [Gotham Gazette]

A Lower East Side teacher critiques a memoir by another teacher, chronicling the horrors of working in the New York City public schools. [NPR]

EV Grieve updates the Astor Place plaza project.

The Orchard Street gallery, Chinatown Soup, has a pop-up internet cafe allowing visitors to surf Chinas censored internet. [Hyperalleric]

A new group show tries to reflect the dynamism of the Essex Street Market. [Bedford & Bowery]

The Koch Brothers now have their own mural on the Lower East Side. [Gothamist]

Happening Today: At the Tenement Museum at 6 p.m., theres a panel discussion titled, Who Remembers the Triangle? As the anniversary of the tragic factory fire approaches, Mary Anne Trasciatti, president of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, will be joined by labor organizers May Chan and Katie Qwan for the conversation. Heres the Facebook invite.
Jewellers have decided to continue with their strike to protest against the governments proposal to impose excise duty on gold jewellery.

Jewellers Association representatives from all states unanimously decided to continue the strike till further notice to protest against the imposition of excise duty that will negatively impact a large number of manufacturers, artisans and craftsmen.

The Excise guidelines are not practically implementable and will be detrimental to the survival of the industry. We urge the Government to withdraw the proposal to impose excise duty till there is proper dialogue and discussion on the subject. Our protest continues till the government takes cognisance of our views and acts favourably, said G V Sreedhar, chairman of All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.

Jewellers held discussions with finance minister Arun Jaitley and in order to address his concern over bullion trade resulting in increasing gold imports, they have decided to stop selling bullion. GJF office bearers also had a meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi and submitted their representation. More than three lakh jewelers including manufacturers and artisans are participating in the strike.
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan will join forces with Priyanka Chopra, Nana Patekar, Shefali Shah and Om Puri as they lend their voices to the Hindi live action version of The Jungle Book.

In a statement, Irrfan Khan expressed his excitement to have landed a childrens film and that he couldnt be happier to dub for Baloo.

The global franchise gives me a great opportunity to be a part of childrens film which I have been wanting for a long time. And yes, I couldnt be happier to dub for Baloo, and more than me my younger ones grin for Baloo made it worth while, Irrfan said in a statement.

The actor also says that the experience of dubbing for 'The Jungle Book' will feel like knocking on the doors of childhood memories.

He said: The Jungle Book travels back to childhood knocking doors of memories when one had talking animal friends in imagination, jungle book is old and still relatable, talking about the eternal attraction bond and conflict between man and jungledom.

In the film, Irrfan Khan, who has successfully made his mark in Hollywood with films like Life of Pi, The Amazing Spider-Man and Jurassic World, will voice the character fo Baloo- the bear, originally played by Bill Murray. Irrfan will start dubbing for the film this week.
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Karisma was spotted outside the Supreme Court, but her estranged husband was missing.

New Delhi: The divorce of actress Karisma Kapoor with businessman husband Sunjay Kapur is getting murkier day-by-day. The latest update to this case is that the celebrity couple has been asked to appear before the Supreme Court to resolve their matrimonial dispute amicably.

The apex court earlier this month, after the 41-year-old actress filed an FIR alleging harassment from her in-laws, asked both parties to settle their differences amicably and appear today for personal hearing.

Karisma was spotted outside the Supreme Court, but her estranged husband was missing.

Sunjay Kapur had filed a plea in Supreme Court, seeking transfer of his case from Mumbai to Delhi. He alleged that gangster Ravi Pujari had warned him against entering Mumbai.

Karisma's counsels Mahesh Jethmalani and Sandeep Kapoor said that Sunjay had violated some clauses of the couple's agreement before the mutual consent divorce petition was filed in Mumbai.

Sanjay's lawyer in reply said that his client was willing to pay both Rs. 10 lakh per month per child and even make over the Rs. 14 crore on the maturity of the bonds, but Karisma must ensure that Sunjay would have access to the children.
Actor Irrfan Khan will join forces with Priyanka Chopra, Nana Patekar, Shefali Shah and Om Puri as they lend their voices to the Hindi version of The Jungle Book. In a statement, Irrfan Khan expressed his excitement to have landed a childrens film.

The global franchise gives me a great opportunity to be a part of childrens film which I have been wanting for a long time. And yes, I couldnt be happier to dub for Baloo, and more than me my younger ones grin for Baloo made it worth while, Irrfan said.

The actor also said that the experience of dubbing for The Jungle Book will feel like knocking on the doors of childhood memories.

He said: The Jungle Book travels back to childhood knocking doors of memories when one had talking animal friends in imagination, Jungle Book is old and still relatable, talking about the eternal attraction bond and conflict between man and jungledom.

In the film, Irrfan Khan, will voice the character for Baloo the bear, originally played by Bill Murray. Irrfan will start dubbing for the film this week.
The doctors in the study were all writing far more prescriptions for drugs like opioid painkillers than doctors in similar specialties practicing nearby. (File photo)

Government letters informing doctors they're prescribing vastly more addictive drugs than their peers fall on deaf ears, according to a new study.

The doctors in the study were all writing far more prescriptions for drugs like opioid painkillers than doctors in similar specialties practicing nearby - but the letters didn't lead to changes in prescribing.

Still, the study's lead author said the results will help researchers who are studying ways to get doctors to pay attention.

"I think if there is a way to make these letters effective it may be one tool in the arsenal to curb the high rate of opioid deaths," said Adam Sacarny, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City.

The use and abuse of opioid pain relievers - like Vicodin and OxyContin - have risen dramatically since the late 1990s, with overdose death rates quadrupling between 1999 and 2014, the researchers write in Health Affairs.

They point out that seniors are often prescribed benzodiazepines or "benzos" - like Xanax and Valium - for long periods of time, but these drugs can increase their risk for falls.

Previous research on the effectiveness of letters has found that comparisons to peers can encourage doctors to vaccinate their patients and people to pay their taxes, Sacarny told Reuters Health.

To see if letters could do the same for the overprescription of addicting drugs, the researchers used 2011-2013 data from Medicare, the joint federal and state health insurance program for seniors and the disabled.

They identified 1,525 outlier healthcare providers prescribing Schedule II controlled substances, which carry the potential for abuse and dependence, at much higher rates than their peers. The providers were prescribing under the program's prescription program known as Medicare Part D.

An average outlier provider was responsible for 406 percent more prescription drug fills than comparable peers, who were matched by state and specialty.

About 60 percent of the providers were general practitioners. Another 20 percent were nurse practitioners, and only 20 percent were specialists.

In 2013, the average outlier provider was each tied to about 1,444 Schedule II prescriptions, which adds up to almost $200,000.

The outliers were randomly assigned to two groups. In September 2014, providers in one group received letters from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) informing them of how much more they were prescribing addicting drugs in relation to their peers across the state and nation.

After 90 days, there were no significant differences in prescribing patterns between the group that received the letter and the group that didn't.

It's possible the letters didn't reach the providers or that the letters just weren't effective, according to the research team, which included people from CMS in Baltimore, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team in Washington, D.C.

Sacarny said a new trial is looking to see whether letters can affect the prescribing of the antipsychotic medicine quetiapine - marketed as Seroquel by AstraZeneca. The letters in the new trial will be sent several times and will emphasize the negative consequences of overprescribing.
Chinese SIM card vendor blacklisted, to be deported

BANGKOK: The Immigration Bureau has blacklisted the Chinese suspect arrested in Phuket on Saturday (Mar 5) who supplied a phone card to one of the Chinese men arrested during a botched holdup at a gun shop in Bangkok late last week.

Chinesecrimepolice

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 8 March 2016, 06:39PM

National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda (centre) and Bangkok police chief Sanit Mahathaworn (right) examine the BB guns used by the Chinese men at the scene of the attempted holdup of the Inter Arms gun shop in Bangkok last Friday. Photo: Bangkok Post / Kajornlert Hoksoonheng

Police arrested Mr Su Su, 29, of China, at a luxury villa development in Phukets Pa Khlok subdistrict. Mr Su allegedly admitted that he sold SIM cards to various Chinese nationals, but claimed to have no knowledge or links with Fridays failed heist in Bangkok. (See story here.)

Immigration police chief Nathathorn Prousoonthorn today (Mar 8) said that Mr Su was blacklisted indefinitely and could not re-enter Thailand as his action was considered a threat to national security.

The mans family and Chinese authorities were arranging the trip and it was expected he would be deported sometime this week, Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said.

If he really wanted to re-enter Thailand he could make a request after five years, or after 2021.

Mr Su, 29, was arrested in Phuket for supplying a telephone SIM card to one of the five suspects in the failed robbery at Inter Arms gun shop at Samyod Plaza in Bangkoks Wang Burapha area last Friday.

The man said earlier that he sold SIM cards to tour companies, which in turn distributed them to Chinese travellers in Thailand.

The immigration chief also said on Monday that the five Chinese suspects might not have criminal records because they had applied for visas at the Thai consulate-general in Guangzhou.

The robbers used BB guns bought in Pattaya during the holdup. Three were shot by police, and one later died, as they tried to escape, and a fourth arrested nearby. The alleged gang leader was arrested on Saturday on a train heading to Chiang Mai.

The four remaining suspects are being held for further interrogation. Police asked Chinese authorities for background checks on the gang members and Mr Su.

Read original story here.
Foreign tenants told officials will do their best to resolve alleged property management fraud

PHUKET: Foreign tenants who have accused their property management company of failing to provide agreed services will have their case investigated by the Phuket branch of the Consumer Protection Office, Vice Governor Prajiad Aksornthammakul assured.

propertycrime

By Darawan Naknakhon

Tuesday 8 March 2016, 02:23PM

V/Gov Prajiad (left) assured that officials would do their best to resolve the dispute. Photo: Darawan Naknakhon

V/Gov Prajiad gave the assurance after a one-hour meeting attempting to mediate a solution for the disgruntled tenants at The Aspasia Phuket in Kata and the legal representative property management company at Provincial Hall yesterday (Mar 7).

The meeting was ordered by Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada after the group of 17 foreign tenants filed a complaint at Damrongdhama Centre on March 3 and asked the Governor to help resolve the issue. (See story here.)

The group led by Dutch national Jan Cornelis van Zuilekom said that they have been treated unfairly recently as a consumer and suspected the company of misusing central funds that they paid every year.

At 2pm, after the one-hour meeting yesterday, V/Gov Prajiad told the press, The foreign tenants wanted the company to turn the utilities back on for them as soon as possible, while the legal representative of the company told them that she would have to consult with the company first.

The lawyer said she expected to be able to give the tenants the companys reply by today (Mar 8), said V/Gov Prajiad.

The tenants also asked us to examine the financial records regarding the alleged misuse of funds, but we cannot intervene because this issue is between property management company and the tenants. They have to seek legal action to resolve this on their own, V/Gov added.

To investigate whether the company broke the Consumer Protection Act 1979, we will do our best to help and seek justice for them, Vice Governor Prajiad said.

V/Gov Prajiad made no mention on whether or not he would task officers with checking on any progress made by the Consumer Protection Office in Phuket in investigating the claims by tenants.

Also, no mention was made of any investigation by the Karon Police for alleged fraud.
Nationwide ban on gas passenger boats

BANGKOK: The Transport Ministry has banned the use of gas-powered passenger boats nationwide after Saturday's (Mar 5) blast that injured 67 people in Bangkoks Khlong Saen Saep.

accidentstransportmarine

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 8 March 2016, 09:32AM

Commuters yesterday (Mar 7) continued to board passenger boats in Khlong Saen Saep at Wat Thep Leela pier where nearly 70 passengers were injured in a blast on Saturday (Mar 5). (Photo by Somchai Poomlard)

The Marine Department issued the order on Sunday (Mar 6) and violators would be fined up to B10,000, Deputy Transport Minister Ormsin Chivapruck said yesterday (Mar 7).

Family Transport (2002) Co, the concessionaire of the ferry service in Khlong Saen Saep, sought permission to use diesel-gas engines when oil prices were high, he said.

Early on Saturday, the engine of one of the companys boats exploded near Wat Thep Leela pier, injuring 67 people.

Until Saturday, the company operated 26 hybrid boats. After the incident, gas cylinders were removed from all of them to ensure public safety, he said.

Bangkok police yesterday took legal action against Kawin Sakaojit, owner of the company that had installed gas-powered systems for Family Transports boats.

He was charged with recklessness causing serious injuries to others. The offence carries a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up to B6,000.

The 42-year-old engineer said he regretted the incident and would shut down his company which had equipped gas-power systems on auto mobiles and boats for eight years.

He had inspected the exploded boat and said the blast might have been caused by gas leakage at a joint between a gas vaporiser and a gas filter.

Read original story here.
Unidentified body found in Phuket canal, police suspect murder

PHUKET: Police are trying to identify the body of a man found floating in klong Tha Chin in Rassada early this morning (Mar 8).

homicidepolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Tuesday 8 March 2016, 01:59PM

The body was found floating in klong Tha Chin in Rassada early this morning (Mar 8). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Lt Col Chaleaw Taihu from Phuket City Police was called to the canal at 7:15am and arrived at the Seong Jern pier in Rassada with Kusoldharm rescue workers to find the body of a man floating there. Local fishermen had found the body.

The body is that of a male aged between 25-30 and is about160-170cm tall. There was no identification on him, but in his pocket we discovered betel and rice. This is quite odd, as for those who believe in superstition betel leaves, betel nuts and rice are used in rituals to suppress the soul, Lt Col Chaleaw said.

The badly decomposed body had tiny wounds believed to be bites from marine animals, but there are no prominent wounds. However, we discovered bruises around his neck which was broken.

We have questioned local people but no one knows the man and they do not think he is Thai, he added.

Lt Col Chaleaw explained that they assume the body belongs to a migrant worker but are not sure of his nationality.

This area is near the main fishing pier which also has many small piers which are flooded with migrants. The fishing industry has many migrant workers from Myanmar, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines just to name a few, he said.

We think that the man was murdered because it looks like he was hit on the neck with a blunt object. However, we will wait for doctors to confirm the cause of death while we continue to investigate to find out who he is and what happened to him, Lt Col Chaleaw concluded.
Washington: It seems like we are old before our time as a new study has suggested that process of ageing begins in the womb.

In the University of Cambridge study using rats to model pregnancy and fetal development, the researchers also found that providing mothers with antioxidants during pregnancy meant that their offspring aged more slowly in adulthood.

However, the offspring of mothers with lower levels of oxygen in the womb, which, in humans, can be a consequence of smoking during pregnancy or of pregnancy at high altitude, aged more quickly in adulthood.

Our DNA is 'written' onto chromosomes, of which humans carry 23 pairs. The ends of each chromosome are known as telomeres and act in a similar way to the plastic that binds the ends of shoelaces, preventing the chromosomes from fraying. As we age, these telomeres become shorter and shorter, and hence their length can be used as a proxy to measure ageing.

Senior author Dino Giussani said that the study in rats suggests that the ageing clock begins ticking even before we are born and enter this world, which may surprise many people.

Giussani added "We already know that our genes interact with environmental risk factors, such as smoking, obesity and lack of exercise to increase our risk of heart disease, but here we've shown that the environment we're exposed to in the womb may be just as, if not more, important in programming a risk of adult-onset cardiovascular disease."

First author Beth Allison further stated that antioxidants are known to reduce ageing, but here it is shown for the first time that giving them to pregnant mothers can slow down the ageing clock of their offspring. This appears to be particularly important when there are complications with the pregnancy and the fetus is deprived of oxygen. Although this discovery was found using rats, it suggests a way that we may treat similar problems in humans.

The study is published in The FASEB Journal.
New Delhi: Punjabis are the most obese people in the country, Health Minister J P Nadda told the Rajya Sabha today, while men from Tripura and women from Meghalaya are the leanest.

Replying to a question on the prevalence of obesity, a condition when Body Mass Index (BMI) is more than 25, Nadda said diabetes, which is linked to obesity, is seeing a consistent rise with 65, 66.8 and 69.1 million people between 20-79 years of age suffering from it in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Men and women from Punjab followed by Kerala and Delhi are the most obese people with 22.2, 17.8 and 16.8 per cent of men and 29.9, 28.1 and 26.4 per cent of women from respective states reporting a BMI of more than 25.

According to figures tabled in the House, women everywhere, except Bihar and Meghalaya, are more overweight than men. In Tripura, only 4.8 per cent of men and 7.1 per cent of women are obese while in Meghalaya, only 5.9 per cent men and 5.3 per cent women are overweight. The figures have been sourced to a 2005-06 National Family Health Survey.
At the end of the doodle you are given an option to share #OneDayIWill experience with Google. (Photo: Screen grab)

One day we will see every girl in school! This has been the dream of many people in this world and someday it will surely turn true.

On this International Womens Day, Google is promoting a campaign to raise awareness about women empowerment and the importance of education. The campaign is called #OneDayIWill, the doodle is in from of a video.

The video is produced after speaking to 337 women and girls from 13 countries across the world.

The video has commemorated the achievements of women from different fields, such as art, science, technology, journalism, sports, etc. The women and girls in the video were asked to complete the sentence, One day I will

Creator Lydia Nichols, Liat Ben-Rafael and Helena Leroux have brought aspiring women to limelight in order to inspire the future generation.

Google had paid tribute to all the women in this world by creating this heartwarming video. The doodle has a play button in the center in form of alphabet O, click on it and view #OneDayIWill video.

The video features women from Paris, New Delhi, Tokyo, London, Mascow, Bangkok, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, Lagos, San Francisco, Moscow, Berlin, Paris and Cairo. The creators have also filmed Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai, British primatologist Jane Goodall and activist Muzoon Almellehan as part of this video.

At the end of the doodle you are given an option to share #OneDayIWill experience with Google.

Happy Womens Day to all the amazing ladies out there.

Click here to watch the video:
The police personnel, a Circle Inspector, Sub Inspector and three policemen, who were on patrol duty, were allegedly attacked by the RSS workers and have been hospitalised. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI)

Kottarakkara: Five police personnel were injured and three police vehicles damaged in an attack by RSS workers, who surrounded the police station here, demanding release of an arrested activist, police said.

The workers, who encircled the Kottarakara police station late last night, were chased away by police. They threw stones damaging three police jeeps, police said.

The police personnel, a Circle Inspector, Sub Inspector and three policemen, who were on patrol duty, were allegedly attacked by the workers and have been hospitalised.

Earlier, RSS worker Binesh, who was arrested in connection with a case, was brought to the station around 11.30 pm.

Angered over this, some RSS workers encircled the police station and forcibly entered it demanding his release. Two cases have been registered in this connection against 35 persons, police said.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATESA newspaper in the United Arab Emirates says four people, including two Canadians, one of them a Toronto boxer, were killed after their rented Ferrari struck a pole and was split in two, early Sunday local time.

It says one of the Canadians has been identified as Cody Nixon of Toronto and the other is believed to be his cousin.

The Motor City Boxing Club in Oshawa, Ont., posted a tribute to Nixon on its Facebook page, saying he had died while vacationing overseas.

Mike Powers, vice-president of the boxing club and one of Nixons coaches remembered his pupil as a dedicated fighter and someone who always kept things interesting.

Powers has known Nixon since he was about 13 years old, when Nixon first attended the club. While recalling all the amusing times he spent travelling to boxing matches from Halifax to Ireland with Nixon, Powers shared many heartfelt anecdotes about times he has spent with the athlete.

He was a goofy kid, but he always listened to his coaches, Powers wrote. There was one time in Barrie when he went up against someone who had beat him three or four times already. He was very receptive and ended up winning the match after listening to my coaching advice.

Powers recalls Nixons family as very tight-knit; he had a brother who also attended the boxing club and his parents and older brother always came to watch the matches.

He was a good fighter, and he had a good heart, Powers wrote.

The two other victims of the fatal crash were identified as undergraduate students at Northeastern University, when the school posted a message on Facebook.

Victoria McGrath, who survived severe injuries during the Boston Marathon bombing back in 2013, and her classmate Priscilla Perez Torres, who came from Puerto Rico to attend the Boston school, perished in a car accident while travelling overseas.

Both of the students were scheduled to graduate this year.

Each were kind, talented young women with exceptional futures before them, Joseph Aoun, president of the university, said.

A spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada confirmed two Canadians had died in the United Arab Emirates, but said no further details could be released due to privacy concerns.

With files from The Canadian Press

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WASHINGTONFour former ambassadors to the United States have some thoughts about Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus three-day visit to Washington this week, where hell be feted at the first state dinner for a visiting Canadian in 19 years.

They were asked by The Canadian Press whether they had any advice for the prime minister on diplomacy; on what issues he should raise and on how to handle questions about the unusual American election currently underway:

Derek Burney: The leaders should start pressing their bureaucracies toward deals for enhanced co-operation in the Arctic, starting with environmental protection. Theres a lot of potential. But it needs to be prodded from the top, or it wont happen, he said. Trudeau should be careful not to make commitments on climate change that the U.S. cant keep.

Good relations with a U.S. president are an indispensable asset  and he says Trudeau is off to a good start with Obama. But hes skeptical of anything too substantial happening now, as U.S. politics is already in election mode. He says the media will pressure Trudeau to say things about the election and Republican front-runner Donald Trump: My strong advice to him would be to stay away from it.

Raymond Chretien: Start thinking beyond this (period and) about the post-Obama era. At the dinner, Im sure there will be influential senators. Identify the influential actors in American politics and start building relations with them. This visit, it couldnt even happen in three or four months. Its essentially the final hour (of Obama). Start thinking about after. We have to live with the Americans, whoevers in power.

He also offers a warning, based on his own experience. In 2000, he says, some media interpreted his non-verbal communication as suggesting a preference for Al Gore over George W. Bush. All he was doing, he says, was delivering a talk to Canadian federal officials and listing a few basic observations about either candidate. His advice now: Dont get involved in American politics. Dont take sides in your words, dont take sides in your moves, dont take sides with your smile. Dont take sides  period. My advice would be to be very careful  its not just words, but everything; the whole demeanour.

Michael Kergin: Recalls how some media made hay of relatively issnnocuous comments by his predecessor, comparing Bush and Gore. Says theres a safe way to avoid a repeat: Stay well out of any election comments. (Just say), Canada respects the decision of the American electorate and will get along with whomever they choose to occupy the White House. 

Frank McKenna: It is always good to have a strong personal relationship with the president of the United States, no matter what point in the election cycle. This is a highly visible event that will be noticed as a proxy for the closeness of the Canada-U.S. relationship. It also is an excellent opportunity to finalize the (country-of-origin meat-labelling) dispute and kick-start the softwood lumber negotiations. There are many other irritants and closer border initiatives that can be dealt with as well.

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A pop-up exhibit is set to traverse the city celebrating local women who fought inequality. Titled Toronto the Just and launching on International Womens Day, the display explores their battles for equity on all fronts. Here are six of their stories.

Doris Anderson (1921-2007)

Journalist

What I wanted more than anything was to be able to look after myself and make sure that every other woman in the world could do the same.

Doris Anderson headed Chatelaine from 1957 to 1977, opening its pages to everyone from the prairie housewife to the Toronto sophisticate, said former colleague Michele Landsberg. Under her watch, the magazine expanded its readership to one in every three Canadian women. It led the conversation on issues from divorce to birth control to abortion. Yet as editor, she earned less than half what her male predecessor made.

Jean Lumb (1919-2002)

Restaurateur

What do I have to do to be accepted? Im always looking in from the outside.

Born in B.C. to Cantonese immigrants, Jean Lumb left school at age 12 to support her family and moved to Toronto four years later to open a grocery store. A passionate social justice advocate for the Chinese community, Lumb lobbied successfully to reunite families  separated by an ocean  by opening the door to Chinese immigration in the 1960s. The tireless community worker also managed to run Kwong Chow Restaurant with her husband in Chinatown for 23 years.

Lillian McGregor (1924-2012)

Indigenous leader

Often, we find its the beginnings that elude us.

Born to a chief in the Ojibways of White Fish First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Lillian McGregor strove to sustain aboriginal traditions and spirituality in a Toronto where Protestant culture and bustling urbanism claimed pride of place. Her compassion and sense of humour buoyed her 40-year career in nursing. She retired to serve as the first elder-in-residence at the University of Torontos First Nations House in 1994, picking up an honorary doctorate of law at U of T two years later.

Fran Odette (b. 1962)

Human rights advocate

You arent the expert of our lives; we are the experts of our lives.

Fran Odettes experience as the only student with a visible disability in her class at Carleton University drove her to a life of advocacy for disabled women. Having consulted on provincial policy, Odette now serves as president of Nellies Womens Shelter in Riverside and sits on the faculty of George Brown College. She also has a sense of play. Odette co-authored The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability in 2003.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893)

Publisher

It is better to wear out than to rust out.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary was way ahead of Neil Young on that one. A teacher and anti-slavery crusader born to free parents in Delaware, Shadd Cary sought refuge north of the border in 1851. She founded Windsors Provincial Freeman newspaper two years later, promoting full integration. In 1863  the year Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves  she returned to the U.S. to recruit black soldiers for the Union army. In 1883 she became the first black woman to earn a law degree from Howard University.

Ursula Franklin (b. 1921)

Physicist

Peace is not the absence of war but the absence of fear.

A Holocaust survivor born in Munich to a Jewish mother, Franklins experiences during the Second World War informed her many humanitarian campaigns, waged from Toronto from 1949 onward. Franklin, guided by the maps of pacifism and feminism, became the first woman appointed to the University of Torontos Department of Mining and Metallurgy. Her research into levels of radioactive isotopes detectable in childrens teeth contributed to bans on nuclear weapons testing in the 1990s.

Toronto the Just: Stories of Women and the Struggle for Equality runs consecutively at four locations around the city from March 8-April 3.

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Yes, there is a Google Doodle. But around the world, people took the celebration of International Womens Day from the virtual realm into the streets  marching, chanting slogans, weeping and buying flowers to celebrate the day from the Philippines to Afghanistan to Poland and beyond.

Celebrated on March 8 for more than 100 years, International Womens Day comes with an UN-approved theme. This years is Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality  a reference to the UNs 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the goals of which seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

In the Philippines, a womens group celebrated a court decision that cleared the way for a female presidential candidate to run. In Taiwan, a former comfort woman  a woman forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during the Second World War  appeared at a museum memorializing her ordeal. In India, protesters demanded equal representation for women. In Bangladesh, garment workers demanded equal pay, an end to violence against women and safe working conditions. And in Poland, men bought flowers.

We have shattered so many glass ceilings we created a carpet of shards, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. Now we are sweeping away the assumptions and bias of the past so women can advance across new frontiers.

The story of womens struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights, political activist and renowned feminist Gloria Steinem said in a statement.

More on thestar.com:

Womens Day is a perfect occasion for reflection and repentance: Teitel

Surprising perspective on International Womens Day: Goar

Six women who made Toronto more just

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But for her impressive architectural hair, as one blogger once put it, and her wealth, she is in some respects the polar opposite of her brother, Donald Trump. His life is a reality show. Hers, says Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, is very private. His public speaking is raucous and free-wheeling. On the rare occasions when she speaks to a crowd, as she did in 2011 at the commencement of the Jesuit-founded Fairfield University, her words are carefully chosen, thoughtful and wise. She is bluster-free and without braggadocio about her professional success as a prosecutor and judge and speaks not of wins, but of fears and of losses, and how she has overcome them  particularly the two great losses of her life, her husband and parents in the space of a year when she said her faith and the Jesuits quite literally saved my life.

He is obsessed with his success as a businessman. When I say success, she told the students, I dont speak only of professional success. Success can be something as simple as the warm feeling one gets if you see a stranger that you sense to be lonely and smiling at that stranger and having that stranger return your smile; it can be bringing a child into the world and raising a child to be a good man or a good woman.

For Donald Trump, conceding fear is a sign of weakness, to her a sign of strength. . . . I was the first one in my family to go to college, she said. . . . I was desperately homesick. I was scared. And I didnt do very well that year. But I graduated and I went on to be a full time mother and only after being a mother for 13 years did I go on to go to law school. My first job out of law school was as one of two women assistant U.S. attorneys in an office of 63 U.S. attorneys, and the first woman to do criminal work appearing only before male judges. Scared? Every day of my life.

In other respects, she is just like her brother  tough and biting. When a defense lawyer for a Philadelphia mob boss, Joseph Skinny Joey Merlino, tried to challenge the character of a star prosecution witness in a 2003 racketeering appeal, she told him what he had was bupkis. As a trial judge in 1991, when she sentenced a candy mogul to 34 years in prison for beating and torching the competitors, she said there was neither a way nor a reason to sugarcoat what the defendant is all about. He is, pure and simple, a thug.

And like the Donald, shes never been much for political correctness. I stand second to none in condemning sexual harassment of women, she said in a speech in 1992. But what is happening is that every sexy joke of long ago, every flirtation, is being re-called by some women and revised and re-evaluated as sexual harassment. Many of these accusations are, in anybodys book, frivolous . . . Frivolous accusations reduce, if not eliminate, not only communication between men and women but any kind of playfulness and banter. Where has the laughter gone?

This is the woman, senior Judge Maryanne Trump Barry of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, age 78, characterized darkly by Ted Cruz, as a radical pro-abortion extremist, the type of judge he says Donald Trump would bring to the Supreme Court if given the chance; this because Trump jokingly spoke of putting his sister on the high court, followed by a quick disclaimer that, of course, he was just kidding.

Cruzs sole citation for labeling her an extremist was a 2000 opinion she wrote for a three-judge panel striking down a New Jersey law banning so-called partial birth abortions  she called the law so broad and vague that it could be read to ban almost any abortion at any stage, about which more later.

You know, Cruz also said, the one person he [Trump] has suggested that would make a good justice is his sister, a court of appeals judge, he explained pointedly, appointed by Bill Clinton, adding, She is a hardcore pro-abortion liberal judge. And he said she would make a terrific justice.

Cruz failed to point out, among other things, that Barry was first appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, that the outcome of the abortion ruling was dictated by a Supreme Court decision on a nearly-identical law and that conservative Judge Samuel Alito concurred in Barrys judgment, albeit not in in the legal reasoning stated in her opinion.

But pro-life groups have been after her for years about the opinion. In 2004, Seton Hall University, for example, apologized for giving her its 12th annual Sandra Day OConnor Medal of Honor after complaints from anti-abortion activists. Ramesh Ponnuru singled her out in his 2013 book, The Party of Death for her creative pro-choice epistemology . . .

Trump, exhibiting his own ignorance of the workings of the judiciary, botched his defense of his sister. Shes a brilliant judge, he said during the Houston debate last month. Hes [Cruz] been criticizing  hes been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito, a very conservative member of the Supreme Court, with my sister, signed that bill. So I think that maybe we should get a little bit of an apology from Ted. What do you think?

But Cruzs portrayal of Barry as an extremist and liberal, coupled with critiques by other conservative commentators, has also stirred up the anger of a number of lawyers familiar with her work on the 3rd Circuit, most notably a lawyer, Matthew Stiegler, who also authors a blog, the CA3, that reports on the goings-on of that court.

Judge Barry is moderate-conservative Republican centrist, Stiegler said in an email to The Washington Post. She is widely respected and thoroughly mainstream, he wrote on his blog, describing Cruzs accusation as an effort to smear her. His characterization of Barry, who is now a senior status judge, is supported by, among other things, a law review study that attempted to rank appeals court judges ideologically, and placed her right in the middle of the spectrum.

Politically, that makes sense. Barry, who was the first woman assistant U.S. attorney in her office, was appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Reagan in 1983. She conceded later that her brother helped her get the appointment, according to the New York Times:

According to a person involved in the effort to appoint Ms. Barry, who discussed the clandestine strategy on the condition of anonymity, Mr. Trump had his lawyer, Roy M. Cohn, a politically connected former counsel to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, lobby Edwin Meese III, then a senior White House aide, to put his sister on the bench. Im no different than any other brother that loves his sister, Mr. Trump said when asked about Mr. Cohns pressure on the Reagan administration. My sister got the appointment totally on her own merit. Ms. Barry herself has given her brother some of the credit for her appointment. Theres no question Donald helped me get on the bench, she was quoted as saying in Gwenda Blairs The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire. I was good, but not that good.

But the Times also noted that her name had been given to then New Jerseys Republican Gov. Thomas Kean, who had been asked by the Reagan administration for a recommendation:

 They wanted a woman and they asked me if I had a good woman, Mr. Kean said. He surveyed a sounding board of former New Jersey Supreme Court justices and legal counselors, and, he recalled, every one of them recommended the same name, Maryanne Barry . . . . Only as she was about to be appointed did he find out that she was the sister of Mr. Trump, who, Mr. Kean said, never made a call recommending his sister.

Bill Clinton appointed her to the appeals court in 1999 and she was confirmed by a voice vote in the Republican-controlled Senate with no dissenters.

While on the District Court she would catch the attention of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who appointed her as Chair of the Criminal Law Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, a position she held until 1996, which just happens to be the year that Rehnquist chose as a clerk a young Harvard Law School graduate named Ted Cruz.

Its not known if their paths  Cruzs and Maryanne Trump Barrys  ever crossed in the ensuing two decades. But they have now.

The case in question was Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey (et al) v. John Farmer, Jr., Attorney General of the State of New Jersey (et al.), a challenge to New Jerseys so-called partial birth abortion ban enacted in 1997. A U.S. District Judge enjoined its enforcement, declaring, among other things that in not defining with any certainty what it was banning  partial birth abortion is a political term not a medical term  those subject to the penalties of the Act cannot, with any certainty, determine what conduct is prohibited. As a result, they may steer far wider of the unlawful zone, effectively resulting in a much broader ban, and an undue burden on the right to abortion protected by the Supreme Court. The law also lacked an exception for the health of the woman seeking the abortion.

When the case got to the appeals court, Barry, Alito and Judge Leonard Garth heard the case. As they were preparing their opinion, however, the Supreme Court was taking up a similarly worded partial birth abortion law from Nebraska. And by the time the appeals court opinion was written, by Barry, the high court had weighed in, ruling in Stenberg v Carhart, that the statute was unconstitutional, first, because it lacked any exception for the preservation of the . . . health of the mother and, second, because, by its vagueness, it imposes an undue burden on a womans ability to choose abortion itself, not just so called partial birth abortion.

That left the appeals court panel little choice on how to rule. But it did not dictate a full-blown opinion. The panel could have simply affirmed the District Court ruling in light of the Supreme Courts decision, which was what Alito, in a concurring opinion advocated.

But Barry, joined by Garth, disagreed. The majority opinion which follows, Barry wrote at the outset of their opinion, was in final form before the Supreme Court of the United States heard argument in Stenberg. Because nothing in that opinion is at odds with this Courts opinion; because, in many respects, that opinion confirms and supports this Courts conclusions and, in other respects, goes both further than and not as far as, this opinion, and, because we see no reason for further delay, we issue this opinion without change.

They then struck down New Jerseys law in a ruling in which Barry took the New Jersey legislature to task, suggesting that the vagueness of the law was intentional, and wondering whether state lawmakers chose a path of deliberate ambiguity, coupled with public outrage based largely on misinformation, in an attempt to proscribe legitimate abortion practices.

That prompted Ponnuru, writing in The National Review in August of last year to call Barry a pro-abortion extremist judge for writing one of those heated judicial decisions in favour of giving constitutional protection to partial-birth abortion. Cruz took it from there.

Stiegler, in his blog, fired back, calling Barrys ruling aggressively limited. It treats pro-life policy views with respect but decides the appeal based on logic and precedent, not policy. The opinion is competent, professional, and utterly mainstream. If this opinion makes Judge Barry a radical extremist, then so is 98 percent of the federal judiciary.

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Hyderabad: The police has started booking smugglers of PDS commodities under the PD Act as they used to secure bail easily and return to their business. Six persons were booked under the PD Act on Tuesday.

Police said that one of the smugglers is Bussa Srinivas who has now been booked under the PD Act. He is a grocery merchant and had been diverting PDS commodities for around a year.

"He used to transport about 800 quintals of rice to Thipparthi in Nalgonda district and Shadnagar in Mahbubnagar district every month. He was earlier booked by Uppal, Amberpet and Chilkalguda police and 339 quintals of rice and 495.50 quintals of wheat were seized, said an official.

Another smuggler is Paluwai Karunakar, a rice miller of Nalgonda district. He, Srinivas and other brokers used to collect PDS rice and take it to Kakinada port. He was earlier booked by Keesra, Amberpet and Chilkalguda police.The police seized 338.50 quintals of rice from him, said an official.

The Commissioner's Task Force had conducted raids along with civil supplies officials earlier and had arrested 94 people. Fifty cases were booked and 2,200 quintals of PDS rice, 1,113 quintals of wheat, 2,750 litres of kerosene, 137 quintals of sugar and 42 quintals of red gram were seized in the last four months.
On International Womens Day, female voices are being heard as never before, speaking up for equality, peace and human rights. But some have been heard most widely when women are locked behind bars as political prisoners  not just in authoritarian, but also democratic countries.

Today there are increasing reports of females detained as political prisoners, as repressive regimes expand their sweep of suspected enemies. Many are tortured and subjected to sexual violence for offences that include political and environmental protests, labour organizing, promoting and defending womens rights and challenging authority non-violently through satirical performances and art.

Here are some of the high-profile women behind bars in 2016:

Nadiya Savchenko: Ukraine

Captured in June 2014 while fighting as a volunteer against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, Savchenko was taken across the border and charged with co-ordinating a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists. Russian authorities say she had sneaked into Russia illegally, and prosecutors are calling for a 23-year jail term. Thousands have rallied for her release in Kyiv, where she is considered a national heroine. If there is a guilty verdict, the 34-year-old military pilot wrote from jail, she will go on hunger strike: Russia will return me to Ukraine in any case  it will return me dead or alive!

Khadija Ismayilova: Azerbaijan

Ismayilova, 39, an award-winning investigative journalist, ran afoul of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev after accusing him and his family of corruption. She was arrested in 2014 during a crackdown on independent media and activists  accused, bizarrely, of prompting a co-worker to attempt suicide, then sentenced to 7  years for economic crimes. Her case won international attention after celebrity human rights lawyer Amal Clooney signed on to her defence. Clooney plans to challenge Ismayilovas detention in the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that her pretrial imprisonment violates the European convention.

Wang Yu: China

In 2008, Yu, a human rights lawyer, was denied entry to a train after buying a ticket. After demanding to board she was beaten by several men, and then herself charged with assault. Fired up by the injustice, she took on cases of clients that other lawyers feared, including five women activists arrested for protesting sexual harassment. Since then she has been harassed, threatened and smeared in state-run media, and last October her 16-year-old son disappeared in Burma while trying to escape to the U.S. Yu, 44, was seized by security forces in July 2015, and charged with subversion six months later.

Atena Farghadani: Iran

In Iran, even cartoons are punishable by jail time, as 29-year-old artist and activist Atena Farghadani found out when she sketched government officials who drafted a law banning voluntary sterilization and restricting access to birth control as monkeys and goats. After serving a three-month jail sentence, she was rearrested in January 2015 when she posted a video accusing prison authorities of beating, abusing and strip-searching her. She was sentenced to more than 12 years in jail on subversion charges  and further charged with indecency after shaking hands with her lawyer after the trial.

Mary Anne Grady Flores: U.S.

Her father was arrested as a Vietnam protester when she was only 14. But 58-year-old Mary Anne Grady Flores followed in his footsteps protesting 21st century drone warfare. She was arrested in February 2013 after photographing a protest at the Hancock airbase in Syracuse, N.Y., and convicted of violating a protection order issued to keep protesters away from the base, but mainly used to safeguard those at risk of domestic violence. Released on bail, she was ordered back to jail in January with a reduced six-month sentence. Its irreparable damage our nation is experiencing, she says. We just have to say no.

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When I was an undergraduate at Western University, my sense of security was shattered on Dec. 6, 1989 when Marc Lepine massacred 14 women at Montreals Ecole Polytechnique. Five months later, Western engineering student Lynda Shaw was sexually assaulted and murdered at a fast food outlet on the 401. I knew her. I had stopped at that rest stop dozens of times. Grief drove me and my peers to lobby campus administrators to end sexual violence on campus. We advocated for education campaigns, orientation programming, accountability for perpetrators, and survivor-centric supports.

On this  International Womens Day 2016  the goal remains unrealized. The number of students on university and college campuses who experience sexual violence is still unfathomable. And if they file a formal report, they are susceptible to having their integrity challenged. In this regard, post-secondary institutions are a microcosm of broader society wherein violence is glorified and survivors are too often re-traumatized.

My commitment to this issue goes far beyond my professional role as the Vice-Provost, Students at York University.

In the second year of a doctoral program at Bowling Green State University, I started noticing a man was following me. I would see him outside my classroom, at the gym, and on the driveway beside my apartment. A careful accounting of when and where I saw him provided the impetus for him to plead guilty to Menacing by Stalking; a crime for which he was sentenced to two years in jail.

The path to that outcome was incredibly difficult. For months, I lived in fear and had panic attacks. I am still easily startled and get anxious when my partner travels for work. My academic performance, physical health and mental well-being suffered. I questioned what I had done to elicit the criminal attention. I felt guilty that my family put their lives on hold to support me through protection orders, the universitys judicial processes, and a criminal trial. To be clear, I survived being stalked by a man with a violent criminal history because of my family and a few close friends. Key leaders on campus did their best to help, but there were gaps that left me vulnerable and undermined my personal power.

Anger fuelled my resolve to fight back. I had no intention of filing charges but when I arrived at security services, an officer listened and said he believed me. His obvious priority was my safety, well-being and survival. He connected me with campus resources like personal counselling and worked with me on a safety plan. Weeks later, I pursued the process to have the stalker expelled and charged with a criminal offence.

In Ontario, the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act, will soon amend various statutes with respect to sexual violence, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. My colleagues and I applaud this legislation and are working to ensure our campuses are compliant. Based on my professional and personal experience, however, I am compelled to sound two points of caution.

The first speaks to the issue of reporting versus disclosure. Colleges and universities must be empowered to distinguish between a report of sexual violence  which is formal and involves an expectation that action will be taken against an alleged perpetrator  and a disclosure of sexual violence, in confidence, for the purpose of accessing resources. Legislating or regulating that all disclosures be treated as formal reports takes control and choice away from the survivor. Thats wrong because it will inhibit healing and discourage people from coming forward.

My second concern is that the legislation may require colleges and universities to count the number of times accommodations or supports are accessed by students impacted by sexual violence. This is not a good way to measure the efficacy of our services and it could threaten personal privacy. To understand the bigger picture, an expert panel convened by the Council of Ontario Universities is recommending that a confidential climate survey be sent to Ontario post-secondary students to help us understand the real prevalence of sexual violence on campus and to empower students, faculty and staff to more effectively drive cultural change.

I rarely speak about my lived experience and this disclosure will come as a surprise to many. I have decided to use my voice today because I do not want to be talking about sexual violence on campuses in five, 10 or 15 years. Avoiding that reality rests on our capacity to work together and make smart decisions that will drive long-term change.

Dr. Janet Morrison is Vice-Provost, Students at York University

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Chennai: About 746 matriculation schools in the state will face the threat of closure, as the state government on Monday informed the Madras high court that the temporary conditional recognition granted to them till May 31, 2016, was an one time measure and there was no chance for further extension.

Counsel for the school education department stated this on instructions from the Superintendent of the office of the Matriculation Schools, who was present in the court, when a PIL from CHANGE India by its director A. Narayanan came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. M. Sundresh.

Narayanan sought to quash a GO dated August 18, 2015 of the school education secretary and consequently to forbear the authorities from granting recognition against law to unrecognized schools not fulfilling the norms specified in various GOs and the judgment of the Supreme Court and ensure that all the unrecognized schools were closed by the end of the academic year 2015-16 and to ensure that the students in such schools were placed in other neighbourhood government/government aided/unaided schools so as to enable them to continue their education in recognized schools.

Closing the petition, the bench In its order said the grievance of the petitioner was that unrecognized schools were continuing by adhoc extensions and the last such thing being granted under the GO in question up to the end of the academic year 2015-16. The counter affidavit filed by the authorities stated that an expert committee was constituted under G.O dated March 5, 2013 under the chairmanship of Director of School Education for fixing the minimum land requirement of private schools. On this aspect the opinion of the heads of department on the recommendations of the committee has been sought, which was yet to be received and it was affirmed that on receipt of the same, it will be suitably acted upon by the government, the bench added.

The bench said in paragraph 39, it has been categorically averred that after 746 matriculation schools who were granted temporary conditional recognition till May 31, 2016 as an one time measure pending final decision to be taken by the government on the report submitted by the expert committee, there was no chance of further extension as it was only one time measure. On our enquiry, this position is once again affirmed by the counsel for the Respondents (authorities) on instructions from K Venkatesan, superintendent of the office of the Matriculation Schools, who was present in the court. We take the aforesaid on record. Petition is closed in the aforesaid terms, the bench added.
Ahmedabad: The city sessions court here on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel in a case of alleged sedition, observing that he might repeat the offence.



Additional Sessions judge N G Dave rejected Hardik's application filed in January after the Ahmedabad police's filed a charge sheet against him.



Upholding the prosecution's argument that Hardik might indulge in similar acts if released, the judge noted that the violent agitation led by him caused a loss of property worth Rs 40 crore last year.



Hardik's lawyer Dinesh Chaudhury said he will file an appeal in the High Court.



Advocate Chaudhury had argued that sedition is a colonial law enacted by the British to suppress the voice of freedom fighters and it had been invoked wrongfully against the Patel leader who was only fighting for his community.



He also said that the police, who had recorded Hardik's telephonic conversations, failed to link it with the violence during the agitation.



Hardik and three others have been charged with IPC sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy).



They are accused of inciting the violence to mount pressure on the government for accepting the demand of reservations for the Patel community.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu made a special statement in the House on the occasion of International Women's Day. (Photo: PTI)

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to enact the Women's Reservation Bill providing for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who made a special statement in the House on the occasion of International Women's Day, proposed the resolution and it was adopted unanimously.

"This has been a long-pending demand. On International Women's Day, we shall request the Centre to enact the women's reservation bill and give women their due," the Chief Minister said while making the statement.

He listed out the various initiatives of his government aimed at "empowerment" of women.

Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy sought to ridicule the Chief Minister's statement saying the Telugu Desam Party had no respect for women.

"One of your MLAs manhandles a woman tehsildar who tried to curb the sand Mafia. You suspend our woman MLA from the House for a year for no reason. A minister's son is involved in an eve-teasing incident in Hyderabad. One of your MLAs talks bad things about women. This is the respect you have for women," Jagan said and alleged that what all the Chief Minister mentioned in the statement were "blatant lies".

The ruling party members, however, hit back at Jagan one after the other, leaving the opposition leader speechless. The Chief Minister then moved the resolution on reservations for women.
All the MLAs, MLCs and Members of Parliament should undertake a tour of the drought affected regions in the state between March 9 to March 18, says BJP. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Maharashtra BJP has directed all the party's MLAs, MLCs and MPs in the state to shoulder the responsibility for tackling drought in affected regions, particularly Marathwada.

As per the directive of BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil to party's all elected representatives, they are supposed to ensure implementation of government's drought relief measures till the monsoon arrives in the state.

On March 6, Danve toured drought-hit areas of Aurangabad and Jalna districts in Marathwada region. He directed party cadres, legislators and other elected representatives to convey the problems faced by the farmers and villagers to the government, so as to ensure effective implementation of drought relief measures.

"All the MLAs, MLCs and Members of Parliament should undertake a tour of the drought affected regions in the state between March 9 to March 18. The elected representatives will have to interact with local administration, take stock of the drought relief measures, interact with villagers and ask local party workers to ensure effective implementation of drought relief works," he said.

For the last three consecutive years, Marathwada has been facing drought, Danve said, adding that the government has been standing firmly behind the farmers.

"In order to ensure people's participation in the government's drought relief works, the party has taken the lead in ensuring communication between the affected people and the government," he said.

Danve said that the party, through public contribution, has made available 35 poclain machines which are being used to remove silt from water ponds, lakes, river beds and small farm ponds. These machines are also being used for the 'Jalyukt Shivar' programme (launched to make Maharashtra a drought-free state by 2019).
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Investors are rightfully concerned about falling oil prices, which have wreaked havoc on the global markets.

Experts are predicting that oil's stagnating low price will further bring down the price of goods and stocks. That's great news for everyday consumers -- but bad news for investors.

But even with oil at an all-time low, there are still investment opportunities to be found. You shouldn't pass up these three strategies, which belong to a group of promising growth opportunities.

1. Oil and Gas: Identifying Short-Term Market Opportunities

After a tumultuous 2015, oil's downward spike has halted and now hovers in the $28-35 range.

Since the market-wide effects of the drop are still being assessed as the industry consolidates, it is premature to pick definitive winners and losers.

A lack of industry transparency doesn't instill investor confidence. In early February, rumors circulated about the solvency and potential bankruptcy of Chesapeake Energy after the company announced the hiring of restructuring attorneys. Instead the company sold $700 million in assets to shore up the balance sheet. Confusion caused large percentage swings in both directions, furthering volatility.

On the other hand, some oil and gas companies may be preparing to purchase assets (and companies) at rock bottom prices. Exxon Mobil's recent $12B bond issue could signal that the industry giant is looking to fold technology and service companies into its portfolio. With industry consolidation happening at breakneck pace, expect strained companies to become targets in the coming months.

If you're considering investing in oil, be cautious. Most industry experts are predicting stabilization and a very slow price increase over the coming years. Production is at all-time highs and the supply glut continues to grow. Iran's entry into the world market could further squeeze prices downward, depending on Iran's output level in the coming months.

One investment opportunity: the United States Oil (USO) , an exchange-traded fund that has cratered to below $10 from its peak at $117 only a few years ago, and is beginning to look attractive as the price-per-barrel finds a floor. This ETF is among a class of enticing growth investments amid a tumultuous market.

2. Emerging Markets, Hard Assets and Forex

Are China and Brazil on the brink of complete disaster, or is the worst over? While all market indicators point to continued strength, it may be a good time to consider the flip side.

Foreign currencies are extremely depressed. As China's stock market rout has found a temporary floor after several failed government market interventions and capital control implementations, heavily discounted Chinese and Southeast Asian equities offer an intriguing entry point.

If you're interested in broader global emerging market equity exposure without the volatility of Forex or the cumbersome diligence of hard assets, then consider Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets Index FundETF (VWO) . This fund is focused on Asian and Latin American emerging markets, particularly popular destinations such as Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico and Brazil. This ETF should be a strong candidate for your growth strategy this year.

Brazilian securities are especially hard hit. The Brazilian real is floundering at an exchange rate of three to every one U.S. dollar, while the U.S. dollar reached historic highs over the last six months.

And the trend may continue: Commodity and oil prices that support these currencies do not show signs of strengthening much in the short term. The Ibovespa upswings and general volatility seem to reflect political reaction more than economic growth.

If you want to bet on South American Forex, there's plenty of opportunity -- as well as risk. The WisdomTree Brazilian Real Fund, an ETF that tracks Brazil's currency, has taken a beating, but may still be too risky to trade as fund redemptions pile in.

One bright spot: hard asset sales. Real estate and infrastructure (oil and gas) have come down from their peaks and investors who hold some of these assets are selling portfolios at heavily discounted prices. In combination with the dollar value arbitrage, great deals are becoming available in Colombia and Brazil.

3. U.S. Consumer Goods

Here in the United States, investors have several opportunities in fast-food restaurants. After hitting a high at over $750, Chipotle Mexican Grill seemed to have no limit to its upside. Investors got hit hard as the stock collapsed to just under $400 due to a slew of health issues reported at their restaurants.

After management sorted out the supply chain safety issues, held a company-wide educational session on food safety and made public commitments to food safety in the future, the stock has roared back to the $530 level.

Dunkin' Brands (purveyor of Dunkin' Donuts) and YUM! Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut) gained heavily in February. Strong job numbers and U.S. consumer confidence remain consistent enough to support growth in the fast food restaurant industry.





We've found a small-cap biotech "rocket stock" that's about to take off. UCLA researchers are stunned by a Nobel Prize-winning cancer breakthrough that's been proven in clinical trials to eliminate lethal forms of cancer with a single dose. One small company owns the patent to this life-saving treatment. Now trading at about $5 a share, the stock of this innovative company is projected to surge 2,700% on an imminent FDA announcement. To download the full report, click here.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Have trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and China and other emerging market countries joining the World Trade Organization accelerated the effects of global warming? In my view, yes, they have.

I agree with Donald Trump that trade agreements have been bad for U.S. workers and our economy. These deals have been very good for employers with unions who were then able to shutter their U.S. plants and replace production with facilities in Mexico, China, India and other emerging markets, where labor laws and pollution control are almost non-existent. Consumers of steel, aluminum and copper have benefited from metals production moving to emerging markets.

However, I have not heard of any of these deals resulting in a trade surplus for the U.S. When I worked for the United States Agency for International Development, it appeared to me that trade agreements were a part of our foreign aid program, in addition to allowing manufacturing companies to increase offshore production.

I'm surprised that Trump has not talked about the terrible toll that trade deals have had on the ecology and people of China, as well as other emerging markets. All of these countries are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol and as a result are not burdened by pollution standards. Between 10% and 20% of the air pollution on the U.S. West Coast comes from China.

There is a massive amount of pollution in China coming from many sources. It's in the air, in the water, and even in the soil now. Some experts say that millions of people are at risk of an early death because of China's unbridled push to take over so much of the manufacturing of the industrialized world.

The graph below shows the increase in the global mean surface temperature; it is clear that the temperature started to climb around the time Nafta became the law of the land -- and then really took off once China entered the WTO in December 2001. George H.W. Bush was president then, but the Clinton administration negotiated the agreements allowing China to enter the WTO. Many people at the time complained that the trade deals would cause job losses, as well as pollution.

Source: Wikipedia

I contend that one of effects of carbon taxes in industrialized countries has been to increase the problem of global greenhouse gas emissions. Efforts by Europe and other industrialized nations have been like clapping with one hand. Industrialized countries forcing heavy industries to flee to the emerging world made matters much worse.



Instead of levying carbon taxes on themselves, industrialized countries should impose them on imports from the real emitters of greenhouse gases and pollution. It was not just cheap labor that attracted the multinationals to use China for manufacturing -- it was also the ability to avoid pollution controls. It is true that some multinationals insisted that their plants be up to date on pollution controls, but companies that just outsourced commodities or production had little control over the environmental standards at the manufacturing facility.

It appears that the Clinton administration did not prepare a useful environmental impact analysis before proposing Nafta and letting China into the WTO. Had this been done, the administration might have figured out that when you take more than half a billion people out of poverty who had almost no carbon footprint, global-warming gases are sure to increase substantially.

The shutting down of vast amounts of industrial capacity by industrialized countries did not offset the massive increase of greenhouse emissions in China and India. It is interesting that China was still using coal-fired locomotives when they entered the WTO. In fact, China did not stop manufacturing coal-fired locomotives until 2002. The "mother's milk" of manufacturing is electricity and, to this day, India and China power their electric grids with coal. This alone has caused massive pollution in both countries and contributed to tremendously to global warming as more and more coal-fired generating plants were needed to produce all the goods previously manufactured in the industrialized world.

The Clinton administration touted the great benefits of so-called free trade with emerging markets. It told us we were going to become a post-industrial society and that the markets that would benefit from the transfer of manufacturing would buy our high-tech and agricultural products, our construction equipment and our intellectual property in the entertainment industry.

You would be surprised by how much influence the U.S. agricultural sector has in trade negotiations. Many times it is mostly about opening markets for U.S. products and manufacturing takes a back seat along with protecting U.S. jobs.

Most pundits, economists and academics said the U.S. population would go to college and become employees in banking and other service industries. I do not think they thought about the impact of the Internet -- and they certainly did not realize what would happen when over 500 million people in China and India alone moved from subsistence farming to living and working in cities with a very much larger carbon footprint.

I remember the TV news reports showing how people rode bicycles around Beijing and how quaint China was. At the beginning of the massive push for growth in China, many workers lived in dormitories and went home once or twice a year. Cities needed housing stock before the Chinese would permit a worker to move to his new workplace.

Eventually, China had a massive building boom and now hundreds of workers have urbanized themselves and require a huge amounts of energy to support them both at work and at home. Then the bicycles started to disappear and motorcycles and autos began to replace them.

Auto sales in China topped 24 million units in 2015 -- the most in the world. As we all know, automobiles with internal combustion engines emit a very large amount of greenhouse gases. The growing Chinese middle class now travels on cruises and takes flights all over the world. Bringing people out of poverty makes global warming worse. I am not saying that's a bad thing, but there needs to be a plan not to destroy the environment while bringing a better life to hundreds of millions of people.

Right now, the industrialized world is giving emerging economies the money to remedy emissions that their own policies have created or made worse, while the former industrial economies are clueless as to what to do about the situation. A chart showing the increase in the world's billionaires would probably look a lot like a graph of the rising world's temperature.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published at 12 p.m. EST on Real Money on March 7.

Matt Horween is a certified public accountant and served as a commissioned U.S. foreign service officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development from March 1981 to March 1998. He served in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Egypt, Honduras and Barbados, spending about 15 years overseas. He ended his career stationed in Washington, D.C. as the financial controller for the bureau that controlled the foreign aid program for Europe, including all of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and its former satellite countries. Horween also worked as an auditor for Price Waterhouse & Company in New York City and held various financial management positions for several publically listed corporations. Early in his career, he served as a radio intercept analyst for the U.S. Air Force Security Service and was stationed in Greece.
New Delhi: Journalist Barkha Dutt on Tuesday claimed that she has been receiving threat calls for her reportage on the JNU row over which she has lodged a police complaint and appeared before a Metropolitan Magistrate court to get her statement recorded.



"The court has now taken cognisance of fact that since 4th of March, I have received anonymous abusive death threats for my reportage on JNU.



"Many of you asked-Yes Post FIR I appeared today at Metropolitan Magistrate Court to give a statement against stalking, death threat & abuse," she tweeted today.



At a public event organised by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) she said in the past few days she had been receiving calls on telephone from an unknown person who had been threatening her of "rape, sexual abuse and even shooting me".



"An FIR under relevant sections of IPC was registered in connection with the matter on Thursday on the basis of a complaint we received. Investigation is underway," a police official said.
AbbVie (ABBV) said Monday it is paying Boehringer Ingelheim a minimum of $595 million to acquire marketing rights for a series of drugs aimed at treating immune system-related illnesses including psoriasis, Crohn's disease, arthritis and asthma.

North Chicago, Ill.-based AbbVie said Monday that in addition to the $595 million upfront payment Boehringer Ingelheim would also be eligible to receive additional development and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on net sales, the terms of which have not been disclosed. AbbVie, in return, will be solely responsible for commercialization of Boehringer Ingelheim's promising BI 655066, though the German company will retain an option to co-promote the compound for asthma.

The BI 655066 compound is currently in Phase 3 development as a treatment of psoriasis, with the two companies also evaluating its potential therapy in other areas. More than 100 million people suffer from psoriasis worldwide.

Michael E. Severino, AbbVie executive vice president and chief scientific officer, said in a statement the arrangement would complement the company's "robust immunology pipeline," including better-positioning AbbVie to withstand coming competition to its popular Humira arthritis and psoriasis drug.

"Our expertise in developing and commercializing the world's leading biologic, combined with Boehringer Ingelheim's clinical success to-date will enable us to offer patients a new treatment option with the potential to meaningfully improve the standard of care," Severino said.

AbbVie said the transaction would dilute 2016 earnings per share by about 8 cents including investment in the clinical program for the new compound. The company, which in 2014 pulled out of a $52 billion offer to acquire Shire Plc, last year acquired Pharmacyclics for $21 billion.

Michel Pairet, member of the board of managing directors for Ingelheim, Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim, called the collaboration with AbbVie "the best way to ensure broad access" for the compound.

"Our immunology R&D teams have successfully brought forward compounds that have the potential to transform the way immune diseases are treated," Pairet said in a statement. "Our company remains strongly committed to establishing immunology as a core area of expertise and building our pipeline and capabilities in this important therapeutic area."
Madurai: The Additional District Munsif Court, Madurai, has issued notice to actor Rajini and seven others, for suo moto hearing that has been advanced in connection with the Lingaa script case filed in 2015, on March 8.

Issuing the notice to the superstar and also director K. R. Ravirathinam (plaintiff) who alleged that Rajnis multi-lingual Lingaas storyline is the same as that of his story of his film: Mullai Vanam 999 (based on the story of a dam construction, reflecting the Mullaiperiyar reservoir construction) the judge said as per the direction of the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, the suit has to be disposed on or before this April end. Hence both sides counsels are required to appear on March 8 with their parties without fail, the judge said.

Passing orders on a petition by the film producer seeking transfer of the case to another court on grounds on prolonged delay in the trial, Justice V M Velumani of the high court had directed the munsiff court to conclude the case within April 30.

Ravi Rathinam of Madurai claimed that his script was stolen by the makers of Lingaa. He had moved the high court which in December, 2014 ordered the producer to deposit a sum of Rs 5 crore by demand draft and another Rs 5 crore by way of bank guarantee before releasing the movie.

The producer complied with the court order as he needed to release the movie immediately and appealed against it in the Supreme Court which on March 20, 2015, directed him to furnish only Rs 1 crore as bank guarantee and also ordered the trial court to dispose the suit within six months.

The Additional District Munsiff Court judge also summoned film producer Rockline Venkatesh, B Ponkumar, Director K S Ravikumar and the General Secretary of South Indian Film Writers Association directing them to appear tomorrow.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Murphy Oil (MUR) are down by 10% to $24.07 in mid-morning trading on Tuesday, as the decline in oil prices drives some energy and related stocks into the red today.

Crude oil (WTI) is lower by 1.87% to $37.19 per barrel and Brent crude is slipping by 1.52% to $40.22 per barrel this morning.

Oil prices are taking a hit following remarks out of Kuwait saying the country will only agree to freeze oil output if all major producers do so, Reuters reports. Additionally, comments from Goldman Sachs analysts that cast doubts on a sustained rally in oil is also pressuring prices.

Comments from Kuwait's oil minister said the country will only participate in a freeze if all major producers, including Iran do so as well.

"I'll go full power if there is no agreement. Every barrel I produce I'll sell," Anas al-Saleh told reporters, Reuters noted. Currently Kuwait is producing 3 million barrels of oil per day.

Murphy Oil is an oil and gas exploration and production company based in El Dorado, AR.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings has set a "sell" rating and score of D on Murphy Oil stock. This is driven by some concerns, which TheStreet Ratings believes should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks it covers.

The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow, generally high debt management risk and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: MUR

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- United Continental Holdings (UAL) stock is declining 2.38% to $56.24 in late morning trading on Tuesday after two activist investors released a letter that proposed adding six new members to the airline carrier's board, a day after the company added three new independent directors.

"I fail to see what these people are so upset about," TheStreet's Jim Cramer said on CNBC's Squawk on the Street this morning.

Altimeter Capital Management and PAR Capital Management, which own a combined 7.1% of United Continental, nominated six people for the board, including former Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune.

Shares of United Continental have outperformed American Airlines Group (AAL) over the past two years and the revenue decline has been less than other airline carriers, Cramer commented.

"I would kill for this performance," Cramer said, referring to United Continental's stock growth of nearly 18% over the past two years, compared with the S&P 500's 6% increase for the same period.

"This is a good stock" that has been improving, Cramer observed, adding that CEO Oscar Munoz is doing an excellent job at turning the company around.

Separately, United Continental has a "buy" rating and a letter grade of B at TheStreet Ratings because of the company's notable return on equity, attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: UAL

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author.

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Why now is the question for activist investors at United Continental (UAL) who are trying to appoint new board members.

Are they fighting the last war, even as CEO Oscar Munoz is fighting the current one?

The carrier seems to be starting -- finally -- to turn around under Munoz. Operational performance, labor relations and customer relations have improved dramatically since he took over in September, even though he suffered a heart attack in October and had a heart transplant in January. On Sunday, he returned full-time to the job.

News of the activist investors' action surfaced in a press release at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. The release came 45 minutes after United announced plans to speed up deliveries of Boeing 777s and 787s and purchase 25 additional Boeing 737-700s, and 15 minutes after acting Chief Financial Officer Gerry Laderman began a presentation at a JPMorgan airline investor conference.

The press release disclosed that investment firms Altimeter Capital Management and PAR Capital Management, which collectively own 7.1% of United shares, nominated a slate of six directors headed by former Continental CEO Gordon Bethune.

Investors and analysts in attendance at the investor conference didn't seem aware of the initiative; at least they did not question Laderman about it, and he did not mention it. He did say, however, that "in 28 years at the airline, I've never felt more optimistic about the U.S. airline industry and United Airlines than I do today."

Laderman also said that a United effort to reduce non-fuel costs by $1 billion by 2017 would achieve that target in 2016. And although Teamsters, who represent United mechanics, were demonstrating outside the conference, Laderman said that United has made "terrific progress" in labor relations since Munoz signed on, and that "January and February operational results were at the top of the industry."

On Tuesday morning, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents United flight attendants, spoke out in support of Munoz.

"Our union has worked with a lot of management teams over seven decades and we have rarely experienced a CEO as engaged or committed to the success of an airline," Nelson said in a prepared statement. "Oscar is moving United Airlines out of the era of struggling airlines and a failed merger to a vision of shared purpose that provides hope and excitement for the future of the airline.

"These investors are creating a distraction at just the wrong time," Nelson said.

In a letter to employees late Tuesday morning, Munoz noted that Bethune, who retired as Continental CEO in 2004, "is credited with leading Continental's turnaround over 20 years ago.

Like Continental in the '90s, we are starting to see real improvement in our performance by focusing on our employees, operation and customer experience," Munoz wrote. "However, PAR and Altimeter aren't just advocating appointing Gordon to the board. They are nominating six director candidates, which we believe is designed to put their nominees in control of the board and our company's future.

"Our focus must remain on running a great airline that all of us are proud to work for and that our customers choose to fly," Munoz wrote.

A spokesman for the investors did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the timing of the shareholder move.



However, it seems the investors were angered by United's move over the weekend to add three new directors to its board, bringing membership to 15. "Over many weeks of discussions with the board, Altimeter and PAR sought to work cooperatively with the board to improve United's board composition," Altimeter and PAR said in the press release.

"In a knee-jerk response to the stockholders' efforts, the company hurriedly added three new directors to its board on March 7, 2016, while simultaneously expanding its board size from 12 to 15 directors," the firms said in the release.

In a letter to the board, Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner and PAR CEO Paul Reeder wrote, "As long-term United stockholders, we have been greatly disappointed with United's poor performance and bad decisions over the last several years."

The activists listed three reasons for their action.

First, they said, "United has a clear record of sustained and substantial underperformance despite premier, industry-leading strategic assets."

Secondly, they said, the United board has been "under qualified, ineffective, and entrenched." The board lacks leadership, has failed to adequately align management compensation with stockholder interests, and "is too stale to effectively represent stockholders," they said.

Third, "United urgently needs a course correction" - which can be provided by their six board nominees.

Responding to Atimeter and PAR, Henry Meyer, non-executive chairman of the United board, declared, "We are deeply disappointed that after United attempted to engage in a constructive, good-faith dialogue with PAR and Altimeter, repeatedly communicated our willingness to make meaningful changes in our board, publicly announced our intention to name four new independent directors with deep relevant experience and named three of them yesterday.

"PAR and Altimeter have unilaterally taken this hostile action with no concern that a proxy fight could distract the company from executing on Oscar's strategic plan," Meyer said in a prepared statement.

In a research note, veteran S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Jim Corridore wrote. "We think that whatever happens, UAL is well served to be pushed to improve performance.

"While Mr. Bethune could be a disruptive force, he is a seasoned executive with great skill, in our view," Corridore said.

In late morning trading, United shares were down $1.04 to $56.57, and were down 1% year to date.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Maharashtra CM & Telangana CM signed an agreement for constitution of Inter-State Board for joint irrigation projects. (Photo: Twitter)

Mumbai: Maharashtra and Telangana on Tuesday signed a "historic" agreement for constitution of Inter-State Board for joint irrigation projects.

This Board is constituted to take decisions by mutual understanding for irrigation projects such as Lendi, Pranhita and Lower Painganga, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

"Telangana CM K C Rao termed this agreement as historic and thanked me for taking this decision to move ahead together," Fadnavis tweeted.

Maharashtra CM & Telangana CM signs an agreement for constitution of Inter-State Board for joint irrigation projects pic.twitter.com/oBKXcFGTUm  CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) March 8, 2016

Irrigation Ministers of both states-- Girish Mahajan (Maharashtra) and Harish Rao (Telangana)-- and Chief Secretaries of both states were present on the occasion.

The agreement on setting up an inter-state water board on Godavari projects, is expected to end decades of discord between the two states on utilisation of water in the river Godavari and its tributaries, an official release said.

The pact will pave the pay for the two states to work out mutually-agreeable specifications on the construction of Medigadda barrage, 20 km downstream of Kaleshwaram in Warangal district in Telangana, as part of the Kaleshwaram Project, a component of the redesigned Pranahita-Chevella project.

The barrage would allow irrigation of 16.4 lakh acres in Telangana and over 50,000 acres in some tribal areas of Maharashtra with the help of four small lift irrigation schemes, it said.

A meeting between the officials of the two states would decide the height, full reservoir level, of the barrage likely to be anywhere between 100 and 103 metres.

Fadnavis said the pact with Telangana comes after the neighbouring state had explained and convinced it about various possibilities on taking up the barrage.
TheStreet's Anchor Rhonda Schaffler discusses Microsoft's database software product SQL Server.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are gaining 1.65% to $51.87 on Tuesday afternoon, as the company said that its database software product SQL Server will also run on Linux, a competing operating system to Windows.

"We are bringing the core relational database capabilities to preview today, and are targeting availability in mid-2017," Scott Guthrie, Microsoft EVP of cloud and enterprise, said in a company blog post late yesterday afternoon.

The move shows the Redmond, WA-based software giant's willingness to work with rival products, Reuters noted.

"This is an enormously important decision for Microsoft, allowing it to offer its well-known and trusted database to an expanded set of customers," Al Gillen, group VP of enterprise infrastructure at IDC, said in a statement. "By taking this key product to Linux Microsoft is proving its commitment to being a cross platform solution provider."

The move also aims at a market that has been long commanded by Oracle (ORCL). Shares of Oracle are down 0.23% to $38.27 on Tuesday afternoon.

Microsoft's SQL Server business ranks behind number 1 Oracle, which has more than 40% market share in database software and runs on Linux, Gartner analyst Merv Adrian told Reuters.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Buy" rating with a score of B+ on the stock.

This is driven by several positive factors, which should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks covered.

The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, solid stock price performance and expanding profit margins.

The team believes its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: MSFT

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Two large investors in United Continental Holdings (UAL) served notice Tuesday that they are nominating a slate of directors led by former Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune to the airline's board.

Altimeter Capital Management and PAR Capital Management, who together own about 7.1% of United's shares outstanding, intend to push candidates Bethune, Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner, SherpaFoundry CEO Tina Sharkey, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) executive Brenda Yester Baty, former Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) CEO Barney Harford and one-time Delphi Automotive (DLPH) CEO Rodney O'Neal.

The funds said they are taking the action because United "has a clear record of sustained and substantial underperformance" and "an underqualified, ineffective and entrenched board." The company, they say, has been the worst-performing U.S. airline stock over the last five years, "despite premier, industry-leading strategic assets."

The announcement comes after weeks of private conversations, and one day after Chicago-based United named three new independent directors. Altimeter's Gerstner in a statement announcing the planned proxy contest called that move a "last-ditch effort" and "a cynical attempt to preserve power by this entrenched board."

"As long-term United stockholders, we have been greatly disappointed with United's poor performance and bad decisions over the last several years," Gerstner said. "Stockholders and employees deserve a proactive, well-crafted, and diverse board that has the experience required to end years of chronic underperformance."

United non-executive chairman Henry L. Meyer III in a statement called the nomination a "hostile action," warning that a proxy fight would distract management attention.

Chicago-based United Continental has been the laggard among the big four large airlines created via a round of consolidation in the last decade, with the company plagued by labor issues that have slowed integration following the former UAL's 2010 acquisition of Continental Airlines. The company, thanks to its Houston hub, has also been hit harder than most by the energy slowdown.

More recently, the company has been hit by criticism from investors after CEO Oscar Munoz, who took over last September after Jeff Smisek was replaced, went on medical leave after suffering a heart attack. Some investors have complained the airline did not offer enough timely disclosure on Munoz's health and prognosis.

Munoz is set to return to full-time duty on March 14. Bethune, who was CEO of Continental from 1994 to 2004, on CNBC Tuesday morning noted that he helped recruit Munoz to the Continental board last decade, saying the proxy fight "is about governance" and the board's "country club atmosphere" and is not a criticism of the CEO.

Altimeter, of Menlo Park, Calif., is no stranger to the travel industry, with Gerstner, an early investor in travel brands including Kayak Software, HotelTonight and Room 77. Boston-based PAR meanwhile is a veteran airline investor, contributing part of the $565 million in new equity America West Airlines and US Airways raised in 2006 to complete their merger. The firm also was an early investor in Virgin America (VA) , which went public in 2014.

PAR has been an investor in United Continental since the company was formed, and it invested in Continental prior to the merger. Altimeter has been an investor in United Continental since at least 2012, the first year the firm was required to report holdings.

United in a statement said that it held discussions with the investors, trying to negotiate a compromise, and even offering to amend its bylaws to extend its March 12 director nomination deadline. "Despite the company's offer, not only were PAR and Altimeter uninterested in extending the deadline, but they also refused to cooperate in making their nominees available to be interviewed ... before launching a proxy context," United said.

The airline's move to expand its board from 12 to 15 without a shareholder vote and ahead of a potential proxy contest is sure to be a matter of contention, and may not be met with much support in Delaware, where United is incorporated, if the activist investors choose to file a lawsuit.

United may need to worry about a 2003 Delaware Supreme Court decision finding that a move by Liquid Audio to expand its board "impeded and interfered" with shareholder efforts to exercise their voting rights in a contested board election. In that situation, the Delaware-incorporated company expanded its board to seven seats from five without seeking shareholder consent while it was faced with a pending proxy fight by activist funds seeking to elect dissident directors.

Gerstner and PAR CEO Paul A. Reeder in the letter to the board called the board additions "seemingly desperate actions" that they say "appear as a transparent and cynical attempt to maintain your official privileges" and power.

"When exactly did you determine that the board was so inadequate as to need four new directors, all at once, and without an annual meeting or a stockholder vote?" the activists wrote.

United Continental's annual meeting is likely to take place in June or July.

-- Ron Orol contributed to this story.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) are falling 4.47% to $13.24 on Tuesday afternoon despite higher gold prices.

For April delivery, gold is up 0.13% to $1,265.60 per ounce on the COMEX this afternoon.

Gold prices are advancing today as weaker-than-expected trade data from China spurred safe-haven investing, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Since the beginning of the year, gold has climbed 20% amid financial market volatility. The precious metal is often seen as a safer asset during times of economic instability.

"Uncertainty about the global economy and investor risk aversion have been a supporting theme for gold this year," Carlo Alberto de Casa, ActivTrades' chief analyst, told Reuters.

Barrick Gold is a Toronto-based gold mining company.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Sell" rating with a score of D on the stock.

This is driven by several weaknesses, which should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks covered.

The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its disappointing return on equity, poor profit margins and generally high debt management risk.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: ABX

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) are rising 0.11% to $27.17 in afternoon trading on Tuesday after the communications and networking technology company said it will invest $500 million in research and education initiatives in Germany.

The program, called Deutschland Digital, will focus its investments on specific digitization projects, research projects, venture funds, human resources, infrastructure and the expansion of Cisco Networking Academy, a non-profit education initiative.

Before today's market open, San Jose, CA-based Cisco announced it acquired Synata, a search technology startup, for an undisclosed amount.

Synata is expected to enhance the company's search features on Cisco Spark, Cisco's messaging and collaboration application.

Cisco Spark will also receive a multi-million dollar investment as the application tries to compete with popular collaboration program Slack, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company will invest $150 million in Spark for direct investments, joint developments, enhancements and developer support.

(Cisco is held in Jim Cramer's charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS. See all of his holdings with a free trial.)

Separately, Cisco has a "buy" and a letter grade of A- at TheStreet Ratings because of the company's solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, expanding profit margins, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: CSCO

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author.

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New Delhi: The Centre today asked the Delhi Police to ensure full security to 'World Cultural Festival', organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar here from March 11-13, in the view of "terror threat" in the country.

The Home Ministry, in a communication, has advised the national capital's police to take all possible steps to ensure peace during the three-day event to be held at Yamuna flood plains.

The Delhi Police has also been asked to ensure that no stampede-like situation should arise during the function, official sources said.

The Home Ministry advisory came in the wake of heightened terror threat following inputs that 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorists have entered India from Pakistan through Gujarat.

The event slated to take place on the west bank of Yamuna floodplain near DND flyover, has been organised to celebrate 35 years of The Art of Living. It is expected to attract around 35 lakh people.

It has come under the scanner of National Green Tribunal after a set of petitions were filed demanding its cancellation over concerns of potential permanent damage to the riverbed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the event on Friday.

President Pranab Mukherjee was to attend the valedictory function on Sunday but he pulled out of the event yesterday citing "unavoidable circumstances".
Moroccan Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy, Moulay Hafid Elalamy, expressed Moroccos support of the IANA Stewardship Transition today, during the Opening Ceremony of ICANNs 55th Public Meeting, taking place in Marrakech, Morocco from 5-10 March. The meeting is being held under the high patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.

This great meeting in Marrakech coincides with the last leg, the final leg, of the process in order to get to a transition plan of the governance model of the world system of Internet resources, in order to increase transparency as well as accountability, said Elalamy. This initiative is, without any doubt, the illustration of opening up the Internet.

ICANN55 is taking place during a critical moment in the history of the Internet governance, as members of the global Internet community have come together in Marrakech to finalize a set of proposals which will transfer stewardship of key elements of the Internets system of unique identifiers  the IANA functions  from the United States Government over to the multistakeholder community.

Director General of Moroccos National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency, Azdine El Mountassir Billah, spoke to the importance of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, stating, The great challenge  we know it all and we are working on it  consists of inventing a governance model for the Internet: a multistakeholder, inclusive, fair and balanced one, involving all stakeholders: governments, civil society, and businesses, in order to increase the exchange of opportunities, to reconcile points of view and to create the necessary synergies.

ICANN Board Chair Dr. Stephen Crocker remarked on the historic nature of ICANN55, but also to the work that still lies ahead, stating, These proposals will usher in a new era of independence and global accountability of ICANN. Let me emphasize that were not done yet. This will be an extremely important juncture at this meeting, and then we still have quite a lot of time and work that will go on in multiple quarters, including, of course, within the U.S. Government.

I wish to pay tribute to Mr. Fadi Chehade, President of ICANN, and his team for the work done to make this organization what it is today, added Billah. And for supporting, with enthusiasm and confidence, the holding of the 55th meeting in my country, Morocco.
Paktor Receives Strategic Investment from

MNC Media Group (Indonesia)

 Undisclosed investment amount from Indonesian media conglomerate MNC Group as part of larger investment round

 Aggressive growth in mobile app usage to 7 million users in SEA and Taiwan

 Beat 2015 revenue estimates with over 100 times year-on-year revenue growth

 Unlocked new milestone as top grossing dating player in the region

SINGAPORE, 8 March 2016  Paktor Pte Ltd (Paktor), announced that Indonesian media conglomerate, MNC Media Group, has invested an undisclosed amount, as part of a larger investment round Paktor is currently closing, in the Singapore-based social dating brand.

Proceeds will be used to support Paktors growth in Indonesia, where Paktor amassed 2 million users in the last 10 months to become the largest regional dating player in the country. In addition, the tie-up will allow Paktor to tap into MNCs media assets which spans the whole archipelago  MNC is the largest free to air operator in Indonesia with media assets across multiple media classes.

Since its launch in 2013, Paktor has seen and continues to see aggressive growth as the industry leader in the dating scene for Southeast Asia and Taiwan, with over 7 million registered users and 15 million matches a month. In 2015, Paktor grew leaps and bounds, currently the top grossing dating player in the region and the top grossing developer based out of Singapore. [1]

David Fernando Audy, Director of MNC Media Group and CEO of Tencent MNC, said, Weve followed Paktors progress closely since they launched in Indonesia in 2015. We are impressed by the growth theyve experienced in such a short period of time. MNC is keen to support Paktors growth in the region.

Joseph Phua, CEO and Co-Founder of Paktor, said, Paktors focus on monetization in 2015 paid off handsomely, with app revenue growing over 100 times in the year, and we expect to achieve group revenue in the 8 figure range (US$) in 2016. Take Taiwan for example: Were just behind Line app as the top grossing app in category, and ahead of all other dating industry players [2]. With MNCs support, I believe we can do the same in Indonesia, and further strengthen our position and leadership in the region.

According to App Annie Index, Paktor raced up the App Store revenue charts to grab second spot in category in Taiwan, since August 2015. The app also performed exceptionally well on iOS, surging to first place in category on Apple Store Taiwan. The Top Grossing App sections of the App Store and Google Play Store showcase the current leading apps in terms of revenue earned, effectively tracking customer purchases in real time.

Though Paktor is available for users to download and use for free, users may purchase optional in-app membership subscription packages to unlock premium features; the introduction of various popular premium features, including the ability to send virtual gifts to other users, have led to Paktors quick rise in the stores grossing ranks.

Prior to this round, Paktor received US$12 million of funding.

[1] Industry data; Google Play / Apple Store BD

[2] Google Play / Apple Store, screenshots in appendix

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The 'Speak Out on FGM' group had earlier started a petition seeking a ban on the practice and has claimed to have received about 50,000 signatures. The group wants it to be submitted to Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi. (Photo: AFP)

Mumbai: On International Women's Day, nearly 100 people on Tuesday took a pledge not to subject their daughters to the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) prevalent in their community.

The pledge, launched on Change.org by a group of FGM survivors, seeks girls and women not to be subjected to genital mutilation.

It also seeks "not to impose physical and psychological harm on a daughter so that she can be a strong, contributing member of the community, and of the world".

"Our pledge signifies the strength to break free from the fetters of convention and tradition, to take an independent stand for one's safety, security, freedom from violence and psychological trauma," a member of the 'Speak Out on FGM' initiative said.

The 'Speak Out on FGM' group had earlier started a petition seeking a ban on the practice and has claimed to have received about 50,000 signatures. The group wants it to be submitted to Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi.

In December 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution on banning the practice of FGM. The World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies FGM as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
[ COMMUNICATED CONTENT] Rochester, NY is an out of town community where Middos and Limud HaTorah are the focal point. Located in Western NY between Buffalo and Syracuse, being part of our close-knit kehilla means that you are not just another face in the crowd. Additionally, our community is only a 3 hour drive from Toronto and 4.5 hours from Monsey, making it easy to visit family and friends.

The cost of housing along with the quality of the neighborhood is hard to believe. You can purchase a 3 bedroom home for around $150,000 and a 4-5 bedroom home for between $200,000 and $225,000. Here is an example of a home purchased by a frum couple in the summer of 2014. A 5 bedroom home for $205,000!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROCHESTER, NY

Our neighborhood is very clean, quiet and full of wonderful people. Career opportunities are available in a variety of fields, and we are happy to aid in job searches using our local connections and relationships with staffing agencies. Rochester has strong education and medical fields and is full of many opportunities for professionals. Rochesters Yeshiva Elementary school Derech HaTorah is anticipating openings for a half-time kindergarten Morah position and a half-time second grade Morah or Rebbe position for the 2016-2017 school year. There may be limudei chol positions available as well. If you are interested and qualified, please email your resume to [email protected] or call the school office at 585-266-2920.

Whatever your stage in life, Rochester has something to offer. There are schools and Yeshivos to guide a person from preschool through Kollel, as well as many learning programs for adult men and women. Children receive personalized education from dedicated Morahs and Rabbeim who strive to help each student reach his or her potential through a variety of learning styles. Several Shuls and various Davening options for both weekdays and Shabbos, along with daily Shiurim round out the deal. Despite our size, Rochester is definitely a true Makom Torah.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROCHESTER, NY

If all that isnt enough to pique your interest, here is one more incentive for considering Rochester. Derech HaTorah of Rochester, our Yeshiva elementary school, is currently offering a fantastic tuition break for new students. New families pay a flat rate of $1,000 per year for ALL of their childrens tuition for their first two years in Rochester. Whether you will be sending one child or eight to DHR, your expense will still be $1,000 total.

So, if you are looking to relocate your family to a community where you can make a difference, where your children will have wonderful, wholesome friends, and where Torah hashkafos guide your way of life, dont waste another day. We are waiting to welcome you.

See our website www.TorahRochester.com for more details or contact Ben at [email protected] or 631-336-1278 to learn more or to schedule a visit.

Click HERE or on the image below to visit Torah Rochesters Android app.
President Barack Obama huddled Monday with top financial regulators to push for still tougher oversight of Wall Street to head off another financial crisis.

The president met with the group, which included Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White, to discuss implementing stronger protections for consumers and scrutinizing financial industry practices that predated the 2008 crisis. Among those practices are what he called the shadow banking system and executive compensation structures that create incentive for risk.

Obama defended the actions taken by the government in the wake of the crisis, including enacting the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

I want to dispel the notion both on the left and on the right that after the financial crisis nothing happened, Obama told reporters. Nor did those steps hurt businesses and the economy, he said.

The meeting was Obamas first with the group since October 2014, when the president pushed the group to identify steps to prevent excessive risk-taking across the financial system, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

Mondays meeting came after Obama described Americas status as pretty darn great during a meeting with economic advisers on Friday, hours after the Labor Department reported that the U.S. added 242,000 jobs in February. The U.S. has now posted the longest stretch of private-sector job growth on record.

Still, the administration has signaled it intends to keep tightening rules on the financial industry. The administration is gearing up to release a new fiduciary rule that will require brokers handling retirement accounts to put their clients best interests first. Currently, brokers are required only to offer investments that fit a clients needs and risk tolerance at the time of sale. The brokerage industry largely opposes the new rule.

Under the Labor Departments proposed rule, brokers could earn sales commissions and other income if they sign a best-interest contract with investors to disclose fees and incentives that might influence recommendations.

One of the key legacy achievements of this presidency will be the important reforms of Wall Street, Earnest told reporters on Friday. Those reforms have led to a financial system that is more stable and ensures that taxpayers are not on the hook for bailing out financial institutions that make risky bets.

(c) 2016, Bloomberg  Justin Sink
Ynet has released a report which claims if one wishes to circumvent the arduous and, according to many, demanding process of getting confirmed as Jewish for marriage, one need only visit the marriage registration of the chareidim. Needless to say this report will result in the next storm between religious and non-religious and the chareidim against the dati leumi community.

One case that was followed by Ynet claims the kallah is from the United States and she ran into difficulties proving her Jewishness to a local religious council which is the arm of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The couple then went to a chareidi beis din and report they received all the necessary paperwork in five minutes. Ynet reports documenting a number of similar stories in recent months in which the state religious councils make demands which are ignored by the chareidi registration officials. Ynet admits the staff was skeptical at first so they set up a couple of their own, and this couple Ran through the entire marriage registration at the Eida Chareidis Court in Jerusalem, stating it is one of the chareidi options in the capital that is permitted to register couple for marriage and recognized by the state.

Ynet explains that when asked to show a kesuva of parents to show Jewishness, they simply filled in a standard kesuva and the process was pain free. This permitted being registered with the Ministry of the Interior as a couple since the marriage is recognized by the state. Belz is also recognized to register couples as is Rabbanei Tzohar, which caters to the dati leumi and non-religious communities.

Ynet contends that the reason there is so much opposition to permitting others to register and perform marriage is simply because of money, explaining it costs NIS 700 to be registered (NIS 420 for yeshiva students) and contrary to the Rabbinate, this service does not include the bureaucracy, clerks or investigation, just registration.

In one case Ynet found a yeshiva student, Shlomo, who was willing to play the role of chosson and he had no difficulties getting through the Eida Beis Din. They told him his certificate attesting to be single lacked a stamp or logo and was not good. The certificate from the bridal counselor for the kallah were good, with Ynet explaining they made them up on their own as was the certificate itself bogus. Shlomo went as far as registering as married in the Interior Ministry, showing how easily he was approved by the badatz to get married.

According to Ynet, many people outside of the chareidi tzibur has become aware of this and are going to the Eida instead of the local religious councils. Couples explain its a breeze compared to the Rabbanut, Ynet explains, citing all the documents required they made up on their own and they were all accepted.

Tzohar Rabbonim has recently demanded a police investigation into alleged fraud in the Haifa Religious Council pertaining to marriage registration.

Following the publication of the Ynet report, Tzohar head Rabbi David Stav Shlita announced the earth will tremble when the tzibur learns what is really taking place with marriage registration. While constantly under fire by the Rabbinate, Rabbi Stav insists the Tzohar registration is friendly but far more stringent than the Chief Rabbinate and the Eida Chareidis.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo came down hard on Israeli policy on Monday, 27 Adar-I, explaining to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the patience of the international community pertaining to the continuing occupation in the occupied territories as long run out. The visiting dignitary calls on Israel to stop all illegal activities in the territories at once.

President Widodo spoke out harshly, threatening Indonesia and the Islamic world are ready to take concrete steps to push Israel to end its colonization of Palestine and its arbitrary actions in al-Quds al-Sharif, preferring to use the Arabic name for Yerushalayim.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
In his weekly shiur given on Sunday, 26 Adar-I, HaGaon HaRav David Yosef Shlita, a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, announced he issued a psak halacha to Minister of Religious Services David Azoulai prohibiting him from signing off on the cabinet decision to allocate the egalitarian prayer area near the Kosel. Without the ministers signature, the cabinet decision lacks legal backing.

Azoulai has recently been quoted saying that had he known he would be at the epicenter of this machlokes, he would have not accepted the cabinet post.

Rabbi Yosef once again used harsh terms in reference to the Reform movement and their rabbis whom he refers to as Rav Bariach (name of Israeli door company).

He explained the overwhelming number of these rabbis are burim and amei haaretz who cannot even read from a chumash with vowels and understand, yet alone write a Sefer Torah. They dont even know loshon haKodesh he added.

The rav stated he writes about the matter in his halachic seforim, whether one should burn their Sifrei Torah or place them in genizah. He stated one of the major problems is too often they will buy a kosher Sefer Torah from a recognized sofer, paying a great deal of money, adding the sofrim must be warned against this. It is prohibited to sell a Sefer Torah to the Reform and one doing this insults halacha. It is also prohibited to write one that is pasul and sell it for it may find its way to religious Jews.

Rav Yosef explains Minister Azoulai approached him this week, in obvious pain, asking How can I sign on this? How can I act against the Torah, with Rabbi Yosef explaining he told him he may not, siting this is in the category of   . He had words of praise for Azoulai, whom he regards a true Yiras Shomayim.

The rav repeated numerous times that it is absolutely forbidden to sell Sifrei Torah to any Reform person, telling the tzibur They dont believe in Chazal and they do not believe in anything. Anyone selling them a Torah, mezuzos or tefilin is responsible for desecrating these items.

The rav adds that both an Ashkenazi and Sephardi Sefer Torah is kosher for both Ashkenazim and Sephardim for reading of Parshas Zachor and a Reform Sefer Torah is pasul under any circumstances.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
It is reported that for every available slot in the Israel Border Police there are six applicants among the young women entering their mandatory service seeking a combat environment. According to the Walla News report, the number of women requesting to serve in the border police has increased five times since the security agency has been at the forefront of the ongoing wave of terror that began on erev Rosh Hashanah 5776.

There are 6.2 applicants for every available slot as opposed to 1.17 applicants per slot in 2011. For comparisons sake, there are most popular branch of service for men is the IDFs Golani Brigade, with 6.6 applicants for each available slot. In fact, even among males, border police was in the top three for inductees in November 2015, following Golani (1st place) and Givati (2nd place). In the upcoming March 2016 induction, an additional 352 inductees will join the ranks of the border police with the Givati Brigade being in second place.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
According to the excavation directors, the owner of the seal was exceptional compared to other women of the First Temple period: she had legal status which allowed her to conduct business and possess property

Who were Elihana bat Gael and Saaryahu ben Shabenyahu? Two seals bearing Hebrew names were uncovered in a large building dating to the First Temple period in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out in the Givati parking lot at the City of David, in the Jerusalem Walls National Park. Finding seals that bear names from the time of the First Temple is hardly a commonplace occurrence, and finding a seal that belonged to a woman is an even rarer phenomenon, said the researchers.

After nine years of excavating by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the City of David Foundation, archaeologists at the site succeeded in reaching the strata of ancient Jerusalem dating to the First Temple period where a surprise awaited them: they found the two seals inside a structure built of magnificent ashlars. The researchers believe that the well-constructed building was used as an administrative center.

According to archaeologists, Dr. Doron Ben-Ami, Yana Tchekhanovets and Salome Cohen, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, explain, Personal seals, such as those of Elihana and Saaryahu, were used for signing documents, and were frequently inlaid as part of a ring that was worn by the owner. In antiquity they designated the identity, genealogy and status of the owner of the seal.

On the rare womans seal, which is made of semi-precious stone, appears the mirror-writing of to Elihana bat Gael, inscribed in ancient Hebrew letters. The female owner of the ring is mentioned here together with the name of her father.

According to Dr. Hagai Misgav of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Seals that belonged to women represent just a very small proportion of all the seals that have been discovered to date. This is because of the generally inferior economic status of women, apart from extraordinary instances such as this. Indeed, the name Elihana does not appear in the Bible, and there is no other information regarding the identity of the woman, but the fact that she possessed a seal demonstrates her high social status. Dr. Misgav adds, Most of the womens seal that are known to us bear the name of the father rather than that of the husband. Here, as in other cases, this might indicate the relatively elevated status of Elihana, which depended on her original family, and not on her husbands family. It seems that Elihana maintained her right to property and financial independence even after her marriage and therefore her fathers name was retained; however, we do not have sufficient information about the law in Judah during this period. The name Eliha is known from a contemporary Ammonite seal and is the feminine form of the name Eli, known from the Bible. The script appearing on the seal is remarkably similar to the script on Ammonite seals, and this might indicate the foreign origin of the artisan who carved the seal and possibly the foreign origin of Elihana, who apparently came from east of the Jordan River.

The Book of Proverbs (31:13-23) states that an ideal wife is responsible for providing for the needs of her household when her husband is engaged in public and legal affairs at the city gate  She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing handsHer husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. An archive of documents preserved in the Judean desert from the time of the Second Temple indicates, among other things, the business of Babatha bat Shimon, a female land owner who had legal status. But as generally speaking, evidence of legal and financial independence in the bible and archaeology are rare, and it seems that the exception to the rule indeed sheds light on the rule itself.

The second seal that was exposed in the excavation was also in mirror-writing and bears the inscription to Saaryahu ben Shabenyahu. The name Saaryahu appears on a sherd from Arad, and apparently means the Lord, which was revealed in a storm (see Job 38).

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz announced that any public buses that have a new safety detection system installed on board will receive a 70% subsidy in the price of the system, a NIS 3,000 government check per bus. This providing the new system is on board and operational by the end of April 2016.

Katz explains that beginning in November 2016, the system will be mandatory in all buses and trucks manufactured from 2012, a device that alerts drivers to hazards such as veering from ones lane and tailgating.

The director-general of the Transportation Ministry, Meir Chen, explains the ministry is searching for a source of funding in the hope of offering a government subsidy for private vehicles too for the experts are convinced the warning system will prevent accidents and thereby save lives.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is now playing an even more active role in the 2016 campaign: Hes working the phones.

On Monday, Romney recorded a phone call paid for by the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that is being sent to Republicans in four states voting on Tuesday  Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii. In the brief message, Romney makes clear that the call was paid for by the Rubio campaign, but he stops short of endorsing the senator.

Tomorrow you have the opportunity to vote for a Republican nominee for president. I believe these are critical times that demand a serious, thoughtful commander-in-chief. If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, I believe that the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished  and Im convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton. So please vote tomorrow for a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud.

News of the robocall was first reported by The New York Times.

A Romney spokeswoman said in an email that the former Massachusetts governor has offered and is glad to help Senator Marco Rubio, (Texas) Senator Ted Cruz, and (Ohio) Governor John Kasich in any way he can. Hes been clear that he believes that Donald Trump is not the best person to represent the Republican Party and will do what he can to support a strong nominee who holds conservative values to win back the White House.

The Rubio campaign didnt return requests for comment.

Even though Romney isnt endorsing Rubio or anyone else, his continued participation in the race is unprecedented. Never before has a partys immediate past nominee later meddled in its affairs so boldly.

Romney re-emerged on the political scene last week by delivering a point-by-point indictment of Trump, the GOP front-runner, warning Republicans that nominating the New York businessman would be detrimental to the party and the country.

He called for a scenario that likely would lead to a convention floor flight, recommending that voters cast ballots for Rubio in his home state of Florida, for Kasich in Ohio, and everywhere else, for the candidate best positioned to deny Trump a win.

The only serious policy proposals that deal with a broad range of national challenges that we confront today come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich, Romney said in his speech.

I know that some people want this race to be over, he added. They look at history and say a trend like Mr. Trumps isnt going to be stopped. Perhaps. But the rules of political history have pretty much all been shredded during this campaign.

Romney urged Cruz, Kasich and Rubio to find some common ground and help the party nominate a person who could win the general election and who will represent the values and policies of conservatism.

So far, all three have rebuked such suggestions.

Throughout the speech Romney repeatedly dismissed Trumps personal behavior: Think of Donald Trumps personal qualities. The bullying. The greed. The showing off. The misogyny. The absurd third-grade theatrics.

Trump fired back, bemoaning Romneys nasty remarks and dismissing him as a choke artist and failed candidate who was eager for Trumps endorsement in 2012.

Romneys more active involvement comes as party leaders now believe that Trump is vulnerable and that a continued blitz of attacks could puncture the billionaire moguls support and leave him limping onto the convention floor.

In private conversations in recent days at a Republican Governors Association retreat in Park City, Utah, and at a gathering of conservative policy minds and financiers in Sea Island, Georgia, governors, lawmakers, top party donors and operatives are learning about plans to systematically chip away at Trumps delegate lead.

As that work continues, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.  Romneys 2012 running mate  held separate phone conversations with Trump and Cruz to fill them in on House Republicans legislative plans for the remainder of the year.

The Washington Post  Ed OKeefe
New Delhi: Activist Soni Sori on Tuesday said tribal women in India feel "insecure" despite living in a democracy as she lambasted both police and government for "failing" to protect them and their rights.

"We live in a democracy despite which we are insecure. We are attacked and dissent is squashed. Even today, many tribal women are locked in jail. They face various kinds of tortures, atrocities and injustice.

"Is raising voice against injustice wrong? Is asking for a legal proceedings wrong?" she said at a gathering at Jantar Mantar to mark the International Women's Day, where the audience responded with a resounding "Shame! Shame".

Sori, who herself was attacked with an acid-like chemical in Chhattisgarh last month, alleged that the state police indulges in all kinds of atrocities and still manages to get away with it.

"Police are raping us instead of protecting. They call us naxals and throw us behind bars. FIRs have been filed against the guilty policemen but no action has been initiated against them," she alleged.

The 44-year-old Adivasi school teacher was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists.

During her imprisonment, she alleged that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police.

"Men are killed and women tortured in Bastar by those who want our land and, when we question them, they attack us," she said referencing to the recent attack on her.

By April 2013, the courts had acquitted Sori in six of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence.

Buoyed by the huge turnout in her support, Sori vowed to continue fighting for the rights of tribals and women in Bastar despite the ordeals she was facing.

"I will return to Chhattisgarh. We are not quitters. We will continue our fight. We will fight for the freedom of women who are in jail for years. We will fight together and we will win," said Sori.
A New Jersey state trooper died early Tuesday, hours after he sustained severe head injuries when he was hit by a vehicle at the scene of an accident, state police said.

Trooper Sean Cullen was 31 years old and had been a trooper for about two years.

Cullen had responded to an accident in the southbound lanes of Interstate 295 in Deptford Township around 8:15 p.m. Monday. A car was on fire and several fire trucks and police vehicles had emergency lights on, state police said. He was walking near the crash when he was struck by a vehicle.

Cullen was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital in Camden with severe head injuries. Family members and numerous law enforcement officers held a vigil before State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes told them that Cullen had died at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The 22-year-old woman who hit the trooper stopped and was cooperating with investigators.

No charges have been filed and the investigation was ongoing.

The last New Jersey state trooper to die in the line of duty was Eli McCarson. McCarson, 30, died when his patrol car struck a utility pole after responding to a call in Salem County on Dec. 17.

McCarson was trapped while rescuers in Quinton Township opened the jammed doors, and he died a short time later at a hospital.

(AP)
A coalition crisis is brewing around matters of priority to Yahadut Hatorah, matters that are mentioned in the coalition agreement.

Members of Yahadut Hatorah on Monday, 27 Adar-I sent a letter to Coalition Chairman MK (Likud) Tzachi Hanegbi and Tourism Minister Yariv Levine in his capacity as the liaison between the cabinet and Knesset demanding the coalition adhere to the coalition agreements that were signed.

The letter is signed by Minister Yaakov Litzman, Deputy Minister Meir Porush, MK Menachem Eliezer Moses, MK Moshe Gafne, MK Uri Maklev and MK Yisrael Eichler. The issues raised in the letter include the recognition of the Reform Movement, supplemental income payments, educational funding and affirmative action to benefit the chareidi community.

Yahadut Hatorah explains that while these items were addressed, they are not being advanced but simply stalled where they are and if this continues, Yahadut Hatorah will refrain from voting in support of the coalition in upcoming votes as an act of protest.

They explain As the end of the Knesset winter session nears. in line with instructions from Gedolei Torah, if this items are not advanced by the end of this session it will be viewed as a violation of the coalition agreements signed with us and we cannot continue supporting the coalition in upcoming votes.

In short, Yahadut Hatorah is explaining if they feel the coalition is not being true to its agreements, the party no longer feels obligated to honor its commitment.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Voting began in two states early Tuesday  Mississippi and Michigan  that are widely expected to solidify the leads of Republican Donald J. Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in their respective nominating contests.

The latest day of voting, which will also include a Republican primary in Idaho and GOP caucuses in Hawaii, comes at a time when the GOP establishment is in turmoil over how to stop Trump. On the Democratic side, Clintons advantage in recent polls of Michigan and Mississippi suggests easy victories that would render Sanders path to the Democratic nomination all but impassable.

On Monday, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney recorded a phone call paid for by the campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that is being sent to Republicans in all four states voting Tuesday.

Tomorrow you have the opportunity to vote for a Republican nominee for president, Romney says in the call. I believe these are critical times that demand a serious, thoughtful commander in chief. If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, I believe that the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished  and Im convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton. So please vote tomorrow for a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud.

Trump still leads his GOP rivals, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, but the margin has narrowed and the party is now deeply divided over his candidacy. Trump maintains the support of 34 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, compared with 25 percent for Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas, 18 percent for Rubio and 13 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

In private conversations in recent days at a Republican Governors Association retreat in Park City, Utah, and at a gathering of conservative policy minds and financiers in Sea Island, Ga., there was an emerging consensus that Trump is vulnerable and that a continued blitz of attacks could puncture the billionaire moguls support and leave him limping onto the convention floor.

But the slow-bleed strategy is risky and hinges on Trump losing Florida, Illinois and Ohio on March 15; wins in all three would set him on track to amass the majority of delegates. Even as some party figures see glimmers of hope that Trump can be overtaken, others believe any stop-Trump efforts could prove futile.

This moment of confusion for the Republican Party is made more uncertain by the absence of a clear alternative to Trump. Cruz, Rubio and Kasich each are collecting delegates and vowing to fight through the spring. Among GOP elites, the only agreed-upon mission is to minimize Trumps share of the delegates to enable an opponent to mount a credible convention challenge.

Its one thing if [Trump] goes to the convention and hes got 48 percent, 49 percent of the delegates, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Rubio supporter, said in an interview. Then its a hard thing to see if theres a convention floor battle. But if he goes to the convention and hes got 35 or 40 percent, thats a whole different thing.

Cruz, who made a hastily scheduled stopover in Michigan late Monday night, arriving in Grand Rapids at 11, made a pitch to hundreds of voters in a bar who ate complimentary pasta and bought out most of a bar as they waited for him.

Poll after poll after poll, Hillary trounces Donald Trump, Cruz said. To those 65 percent of Republicans who think Donald Trump would be a disaster as the nominee, I want to encourage you to join so many others and unite behind this campaign.

In a news conference afterward, Cruz  who is roughly tied with Kasich in polls here, behind Trump  refused to speculate on a scenario in which he entered the convention without a majority of delegates. Republican voters, he said, needed to prevent that by backing him.

A vote for John Kasich, a vote for Marco Rubio, is effectively a vote for Donald Trump, he warned.

Trump, meanwhile, made the rounds on several television shows Tuesday morning. In a phone interview on ABCs Good Morning America, host George Stephanopoulos asked Trump whether the barrage of attacks were drawing some blood.

No, I think were doing very well, he replied. But certainly theyre spending tens of millions of dollars fighting me, the establishment.

Trump noted he was way up in the polls in Michigan and Mississippi, was ahead in Hawaii and doing well in Idaho. I love their potatoes.

When Stephanopoulos noted that multiple critics had compared him to Adolf Hitler in recent weeks, Trump dismissed the comparison. I dont know about the Hitler comparison, I hadnt heard that.

I have to be strong, he added a minute later. I have a tremendous following.

In a separate interview with NBCs Today Show Tuesday, Trump said he was surprised some people thought his decision to ask supporters at rallies to take a pledge to vote for him resembled Nazi rallies more than half a century ago.

Honestly, until this phone call, I didnt realize it was a problem, he said, adding later, If its offensive, if theres anything wrong with it, I wouldnt do it.

Among the Democrats, Sanders held yet another series of enormous rallies across Michigan on Monday, including one that attracted 5,700 supporters in Ann Arbor. There, he scrambled to deny Hillary Clintons assertion in a debate Sunday night that he opposed funding the 2008 auto industry bailout, a claim he called absolutely false.

Sanders debuted a new minute-long radio ad Monday that accuses Clinton of trying to distort the truth about Bernies record and says the senator from Vermont has always been on the side of Michigan workers and working families.

Of course I voted to defend the automobile industry, Sanders told the Ann Arbor crowd.

During the CNN debate broadcast Sunday from Flint, Mich., Clinton said there was a pretty big difference between the two candidates on the $14 billion auto rescue package, which was of particular interest to voters in Michigan, as well as in Ohio, which holds its primary next week.

I voted to save the auto industry, Clinton said during the debate. He voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry.

Left unmentioned was an earlier Sanders vote in favor of the bailout. The vote that Clinton referenced was on legislation to release funds for a Wall Street bailout, some of which were instead used to help auto manufacturers.

What I did not vote for was a middle-class bailout for the crooks on Wall Street, Sanders told his audience there.

At her own event in Detroit on Monday, Clinton made clear to supporters that she is pivoting to focus on a general-election matchup against the GOP.

The sooner I can become your nominee, the more I can begin to turn my attention to the Republicans, Clinton said before launching into a riff against the bluster and bigotry in the opposing party.

Of Trump, she said: I mean, youve got to say this about him: Hes an equal opportunity attacker. Hes just gone after everybody.

And she elicited roars from the crowd when she added: We will not let a person like that ever become president of the United States.

Former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Monday that he will not run for president this election cycle.

Im flattered that some think I could provide this kind of leadership, he said in an essay posted on the website Bloomberg View. But when I look at the data, its clear to me that if I entered the race, I could not win.

Bloomberg, 74, one of the worlds wealthiest men, used the essay to put to rest months of speculation over whether he would enter the race  and thereby scramble an already chaotic contest  as well as to criticize Trump and Cruz.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Abby Phillip, Philip Rucker, Juliet Eilperin
[UPDATES & PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a group of Border Police officers near Shar Shechem in Yerushalayim, Tuesday afternoon.

Two officers were struck by gunfire and are in critical condition.

According to initial information, the terrorist was on a motorcycle, and was shot and killed by officers as he fled the area.

Roadblocks were being set up in the area in search of possibly another terrorist..

UPDATE 17:36: According to information from combined sources, a terrorist armed with an automatic weapon opened fire at police near Shar Shechem in Jerusalem as reported earlier.

The terrorist then fled as police fired at him. The terrorist opened fire again, wounding a second policeman before being hit by police gunfire and neutralized. The policemen have reportedly sustained serious injuries. More to follow.

UPDATE 17:56: Hadassah Hospital spokeswoman Hadar Elboim reports the two policemen wounded in the attack are being treated in the trauma center.

One of the wounded, 49, is listed in extremely serious/unstable condition and he is sedated and on a respirator. The second victim, 31, is listed in moderate condition and he is alert.

The Jerusalem attacks happened just minutes after a Charieid man was stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist in Petach Tikva. Read that story here.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos: Media Resource Group)
Interestingly, while some organizations seeking to advance the position of women, many involving women from the dati leumi community, are opposed to the platform of the Yahadut Hatorah party, Bayit Yehudi is signaling its support for the mikve bill being initiated by MK Moshe Gafne. The bill is an attempt to circumvent a High Court decision that instructs the state-run mikve in Beersheva to permit a Reform convert toivel in the presence of a Reform beis din. Gafnes bill would place exclusive authority over state-run mikvaos in the hands of the nations religious councils and prohibit toiveling for converts of all streams, including Orthodox  thereby eliminating any shouts of discrimination. Gafne realizes frum giyorim can easily find a private mikve to toivel.

Rabbi Dr. Seth Farber, founder of ITIM, has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to permit women wishing to toivel in Chief Rabbinate mikvaos throughout Israel to do so without the presence of a balanit as part of their right to privacy. He is among the loud voice of opposition in the dati leumi community against Gafnes bill.

Some three weeks ago, when Bayit Yehudi expressed backing for the bill, Rav Farber approached the dati leumi party, requesting it retract its support for the bill. He sent a letter to MKs Moti Yogev, Betzalel Smotrich, Shuli Muallem and Nissim Slomiansky. Farber fears the bill will harm primarily religious women despite being presented as being anti-Reform and it will shut the door of the struggle to permit women to immerse in the absence of a balanit.

Farber adds that the party is also contradicting itself for in the previous Knesset, in his capacity as Deputy Minister of Religious Services, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan supported permitting women to toivel without a balanit present.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS BY JDN IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

We are a nation of chessed, of giving, of kindness and compassion. When one Jew hurts, others are unable to sit idly by without attempting to ease his suffering. We are a people characterized by an innate need to support our brothers in any possible way.

An exclusive group of individuals among us far surpass the typical selflessness of the average human. Join us as we pay tribute to this uniquely altruistic set of honorees in a celebration unlike any other.

On motzaei Shabbos, March 12, 2016, Renewal invites the community to take part in honoring the people who truly support their organization: 329 extraordinary kidney donors.

Since its inception in 2006, Renewal has facilitated 329 live kidney transplants. Theyre currently responsible for 25% of all altruistic kidney transplants in the United States, including over a staggering 75% of transplants in the state of New York.

The upcoming gala dinner is slated to be heartening, inspirational, and genuinely befitting of the most deserving honorees, who will occupy an oversized head table that will be a sight to behold. The packed program is guaranteed to keep every guest riveted and inspired, featuring a personal account of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Schwadron, shlita, grandson of the famed Maggid; a message from donor Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, shlita, of Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck, NJ; fascinating stories shared by the honorees themselves in a donor symposium; divrei chizuk from Rabbi Noach Isaac Oelbaum, shlita, of Congregation Nachlas Yitchok in Queens, NY; uplifting music by composer Yossi Green, accompanied by the Hamizomrim Choir; a heartfelt tefilla on behalf of all cholei yisroel sung by world-renowned chazzan Yaakov Yosef Stark; and a special appearance and honorary address by councilman David Greenfield.

In addition to the program, a highlight of the event will be a siyum Mishnayos in memory of Shloima Aryeh ben Yehuda, establishing the Shloime Bernstein ah Kidney Assistance Fund.

Join Renewal at Ateres Chaya Hall, 1415 54th Street in Brooklyn, to celebrate the true heroes among us. Reception begins at 8:30 and program promptly at 9:20. Show your support to the most worthy baalei chessed and enjoy an evening of inspiration and delight.
Rumours started to circulate that the Government was looking to privatise Channel Four last summer  and the broadcaster is shortly set to find out if it will be going up for sale.

Launched at the end of 1982, the channel is largely commercially self-funded. Many may not realise that it is owned by the public, via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale is allegedly keen on selling it and a government official was photographed last September entering Downing Street with a document outlining options for a sell-off.

The document revealed proposals have already been drawn up in a bid to raise an estimated 1billion for Treasury coffers. In September, the Government said its future would be decided by early 2016 and C4 is expecting to hear what will happen to it imminently.

Hands off! Stalwart news anchor Jon Snow thinks privatisation of C4 would be a major mistake

The leaked report also included several other options, including 'do nothing.'

In a statement at the time, the DCMS said: 'The Government has made no decisions regarding reform of C4.

'C4 has an important remit and we are looking at a range of options as to how to continue to deliver this, including options put forward by C4.'

C4 executives are opposed to privatising the broadcaster. The options being drawn up by its chairman, Lord Burns, are understood to focus on continuing as a not-for-profit operation.

A C4 representative said: 'C4's not-for-profit model enables it to deliver significant public value to viewers and the UK economy with a unique remit focused on innovation, diversity and new talent.'

It has also launched a huge advertising campaign this year, highlighting the diversity on the channel.

Channel Four: It has been around since 1982 and is publicly owned, but funded by advertising

One staunch supporter of C4 is Burnley-based businessman Dave Fishwick, also known as Bank of Dave.

Dave, who set up his bank five years ago, was supported heavily by C4 while recording his television series, which he says was turned down by the BBC.

He says that without their legal help, there is no way Bank of Dave would have gotten off the ground.

Bank of Dave: The Burnley businessman says that without C4, he would not have been able to take on the big boys of banking to open and run his own bank

He is currently in the final throes of getting his banking licence, which will allow him to operate across the country.

His savings rate of five per cent is the best in Britain, while he offers loans to small businesses in the local area for far lower rates of interest than they could get in the bank  and that's if they are accepted.

He told This is Money: 'C4 are in a position to give a voice to the people who wouldn't normally have one.

Poll Would you care if Channel Four was privatised? Yes No Not sure Would you care if Channel Four was privatised? Yes 149 votes

No 90 votes

Not sure 15 votes Now share your opinion





'I genuinely feel C4 and its remit is a great asset to British society and has helped me and the "Bank of Dave" immeasurably.

'Together we have made a huge positive difference in society and the programs we have made and we will continue to stand arm in arm and make programs that improve people's lives well into the future.

'I deeply care about the channel and the people who work there and the production companies who work with them.'

Jon Snow, the long-running presenter of its primetime news programme, said: 'I don't think a commercial entity could afford a one hour news bulletin.

'I think privatisation would be a mistake. We cost the public nothing, the amount of money that could be released is frankly not that much and in releasing it there is a very serious danger that what is special about C4 will be lost.

'You tell me of any other entity that can generate 900million of revenues a year, without costing the taxpayer a bean.

'We even pay our taxes. We're putting in as well. We're not taking out.

'There's no way that you can say that C4 is any kind of drag on the economy. It's a pretty sublime deal.'

Bad move: Respected broadcaster Jon Snow says that privatising C4 could result in it losing its magic

In its annual report, published last June, the broadcaster revealed it met its planned three-year investment and break even business targets, reporting an overall financial surplus of 4million, with cash reserves remaining above 220million for the fifth year in a row.

C4 revenues rose by 30million - or three per cent - to 938million in 2014.

The channel is an unusual hybrid. It was set up Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. It is publicly owned but funded by advertising revenue.

It buys all of its programmes from outside suppliers. The more commercially-successful programmes in turn pay for public service remit programming, such as its hour-long news slot.

It has been funded by advertising and sponsorship deals since the outset, starting with a commercial for Vauxhall cars.

It made its debut with an episode of Countdown, presented by Carol Vorderman and Richard Whiteley.

It has escaped repeated calls for privatisation in the past.

Proposals to privatise the channel were last considered under the Coalition but it was blocked by the then-Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats.

John Whittingdale: It is rumoured that the Culture Secretary is keen to sell C4

David Abraham, chief executive of C4, said in a speech today: 'Despite the undoubted novelty of Netflix and Amazon Prime, at C4 we are reassured that when the British public hear our name they think of a brand that remains very much part of the culture and zeitgeist of the nation today.

'After six months of questions in parliament, rumours and leaks we should soon begin to consider the effect of prolonged uncertainty on our staff, our business partners and our advertising clients.

'If we had failed to creatively renew C4 over the past five years, or if we had not built a powerful proprietary data platform and successful commercial partnerships, I might fear today for the future of 4.

'The fact that we have done so gives me confidence that far from needing the assistance of a private owner, we are well placed for the future.
The bench after hearing the matter adjourned the matter for tomorrow (Photo: Twitter)

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures in Yamuna Flood plains for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living three-day 'World Culture Festival'.

Also read: Art of Living to Build Biodiversity Park on Yamuna Floodplain: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

"You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains," a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.

Also read: Sri Sri defends mega event, says 'eco stability' has been maintained

The direction came after counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said that they have found no debris at the site, when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

#NewsAlert: Delhi Govt submits before NGT that organisers haven't taken permission from Delhi Police & Fire Dept for World Culture Festival  Deccan Chronicle (@DeccanChronicle) March 8, 2016

The Green Panel also questioned the building up of pontoon bridge by the Army on river Yamuna for the festival, and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as who gave the permission for setting it up.

DDA, Delhi government, MoEF said that they have no relation with the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge as all the three said that they are concerned only with different issues.

Read: Sri Sri's event: 'Army making bridge in view of people's security, safety'

While DDA said it was only required to give no objection certificate for the bridge, Delhi government submitted that its role for the pontoon bridge comes only at the time of flood and MoEF passed the buck on Ministry of Water Resources.

WATCH: Army personnel construct pontoon bridge in Delhi for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival.https://t.co/cOSTHAPC8R  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016 Army personnel construct pontoon bridge in Delhi for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival

Advocate Rajiv Bansal appearing for DDA backed the authority's decision to grant permission for the event saying that it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.

"The area is meant for recreational activity. The area is with DDA and it is the competent authority. Permission was granted after taking proper legal opinion which was conditional that no permanent structure will be constructed and also that it will be subject to permissions from other concerned authorities," he said.

Read: President to skip Ravi Shankar fete, NGT hearing on event today

Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.

#NewsAlert: NGT hearing on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival to continue tomorrow. (ANI)  Deccan Chronicle (@DeccanChronicle) March 8, 2016

The bench after hearing the matter adjourned the matter for tomorrow.

The NGT is hearing pleas seeking stoppage of ongoing construction on the flood plains for the Cultural festival.
Padur: Students of the Hindustan University in Padur, Kancheepuram district, ransacked their campus on Monday alleging that the management is collecting exorbitant fees on various counts, including registration fees for exams.

Traffic on Rajiv Gandhi Salai was consequently disrupted for almost two hours as hundreds of students gathered to stage the protest against the university allegedly taking a U turn on its earlier promise of waiving the fee for internal assessment improvement. After a confrontation between the security staff and the students broke out, the students resorted to pelting stones at glass buildings.

The university declared a holiday. Cops who got wind of the incident rushed to the campus around noon and their presence discouraged students from damaging the properties any further.

Hundreds of students gathered to stage a protest on Monday on the campus after the university allegedly took a U turn on its earlier promise of waiving the fee for internal assessment improvement. As the confrontation between the security staff and the students broke out, the students started pelting stones at glass panes.

After two hours, many buildings inside the campus were reduced to skeletal structures. Students told DC they were forced to protest as the management was collecting exorbitant sums as fee and fines. For internal assessment improvement exam, students were forced to pay Rs 8,000 and for those with less than 75 per cent of attendance, the fine amount is Rs 25,000. If we dont pay the fines and clear internal assessment, we were not permitted to write the exams. When we protested last week, the management announced that the registration fee will be returned and students will be allowed to write the improvement exam without any fees. But three days ago, the management took a U turn and issued a circular saying they reduced the fees from Rs 8,000 to Rs 5,000, students said.

Some students alleged those attending NCC camps on behalf of the college were also asked to pay for the internal exam improvement. If we have to write five subjects, the total amount goes up to Rs 40,000. Apart from that, we have to pay an annual fee of Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 1,60,000, they said.

There are other fees like green campus fee and book fee which are very high. Since it is a deemed university, students have no other forum to complain against the management, they said.

Hindustan University Registrar Pon. Ramalingam in a statement said, A group of students boycotted classes demanding waiver of the registration fee for internal assessment improvement and to extend the last date for payment of tuition fee. The management favorably considered the demands of the students and a circular has been issued resolving the concern raised by the students.
Chennai: Stating that it is taking every step to have an accurate voters list devoid of discrepancies, which will in turn ensure free and fair elections, the EC prayed the Madras HC to dismiss a petition filed by DMK with costs.

Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni stated this in his counter affidavit filed in response to a petition from DMK, represented by its organisation secretary, R.S. Bharathi, which sought a direction to EC to appoint central government officers to act as Electoral Registration Officers and also Booth Level Officers to re-check the entire voters list published on January 20.

Justice R. Subbiah said as per the notification of the Madras high court, the matter relating to Assembly election 2016 should be posted before the First Bench. He directed the Registry to list the matter before the First Bench on Tuesday (March 8.).

Lakhoni submitted that who should be notified as Electoral Registration Officer was the absolute discretion of EC. Hence, the petitioners prayer was not maintainable and liable to be rejected.

The EC and its officials were undertaking a comprehensive exercise to update and correct the electoral rolls to ensure proper representation and at the same time to ensure free and fair elections. The total entries under deletion was 6,84,105. In the circumstances, as all steps have been taken to ensure that electoral rolls were accurate and there were no duplications, there was no cause for the petitioner or any other political party to apprehend and seek interference of this court. It was not correct to say that election officials were bent upon favouring the ruling party. Lakhoni denied the averment that bogus voters and dead persons were included in the list.
October Fun Calendar: Plenty to do this month in Beaver County
Srinagar: Two civilians were injured on Tuesday when security forces opened fire in "self-defence" to disperse a stone-pelting mob in Anantnag district of Kashmir during a cordon and search operation, police said.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Ashmuqam area of Anantnag district following information about presence of militants in the area, a police official said.

The official said as the security forces were going about their job, a group of around 100 persons resorted to stone-pelting at them.

"The security forces fired few rounds in self defence, resulting in injuries to two persons who have been referred to hospitals in Srinagar for treatment," he said.

The injured persons have been identified as Javaid Ahmad Wani (22) and Amir Sheikh (21). The official said the situation in the area is tense but under control.
Slow Cooker Chipotle Burritos were served during the 2016 Town and Country Women's Fair during the Texas Farm Ranch Wildlife Expo on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, at the Taylor County Expo Center.

SHARE photos by Laura Gutschke/Special to the Reporter-News Lorrie Coop, county extension agent for food and consumer sciences in Knox County, prepares a freezer meal during her Freezer Pleasures program at the 2016 Town and Country Womens Fair, part of the Texas Farm Ranch Wildlife Expo on Feb. 23 at the Taylor County Expo Center. Lorrie Coop, county extension agent/food and consumer sciences in Knox County

By Laura Gutschke, Special to the Abilene Reporter-News

Frozen meals have come a long way since the TV dinners in a portioned aluminum tray.

They were a hit with women who wanted out of the 1950s kitchen, "but the men called the company and complained because they wanted meals like their mamas cooked. They didn't want heat and serve," said Lorrie Coop, county extension agent/food and consumer sciences in Knox County.

She made the observation during her "Freezer Pleasers" program recently at the 2016 Town and Country Women's Fair, hosted in conjunction with the Texas Farm Ranch Wildlife Expo at the Taylor County Expo Center.

Coop's presentation showed that homemade freezer meals can be just as convenient as pre-packed ones - plus healthier, tastier and cheaper.

"They pretty much put things together that you can do at home just as easily and at less cost," Coop said before the presentation.

Preparing home-cooked meals also means controlling the sugar, salt and other ingredients. That is a plus when watching calories and sodium intake.

"I know what's in here (freezer bag). I know the ingredients. I know what's going into my body. And, I know my family is going to like it," said Coop during her presentation.

SLOW COOKER CHIPOTLE BURRITOS

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 2 pounds boneless beef round steak, cut into 5 or 6 pieces)

1 16-ounce jar salsa

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped*

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can whole kernel corn

- flour or corn tortillas

- optional toppings: pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, black olives, avocado, etc.

Freezer Directions

1 Place chicken in a gallon freezer bag.

2 Combine the salsa, chili powder, oregano and chipotle pepper. Blend for a few seconds until well mixed and pour over meat.

3 Add beans and corn.

4 Press out air, seal and place flat in freezer.

5 When ready to use, place bag in refrigerator to thaw. After ingredients have thawed, place in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Shred meat with two forks. Serve on tortillas with toppings of your choice.

*Cook's note: You can find chipotle peppers in a can in the Mexican section of the grocery store. Since this recipe uses only 1 chipotle pepper, freeze the remaining peppers from the can in ice cube trays (1 pepper per cube). Once frozen, store them in a zip-close bag in the freezer and use as needed in recipes.

Recipe courtesy Lorrie Coop, county extension agent/food and consumer sciences in Knox County.

ROSEMARY DIJON CHICKEN AND POTATOES

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 small russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions

1 In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, mustard, rosemary, salt and pepper to combine. Add potatoes and chicken and toss until evenly coated.

2 Pour chicken mixture into a gallon Ziploc Freezer bag and seal, pressing out air. Store in the freezer.

3 To cook, thaw and place contents of the bag into a slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

Recipe courtesy Ziploc.com.

What to know when making freezer meals

Freezable foods

"You can freeze almost anything, but that doesn't mean you should," Coop said.

Cream sauces should not be frozen because they separate. Other foods that do not freeze well are potato salad, macaroni salad and fried foods, according to the Oregon State University Extension Service.

And, while raw eggs in the shell should not be frozen, they can out of the shell. The raw eggs can be beaten slightly or separated into whites and yolks and stored up to a year in tightly sealed freezer containers, according to the American Egg Board.

Because egg yolks thicken when frozen, the board recommends adding / 8 teaspoon salt or 1 teaspoons sugar per  cup egg yolks (about four large eggs). Yolks with salt can be used in savory dishes, while the sugared yolks work well in desserts.

Freezing time

For the sake of quality, Coop recommends using a freezer meal within three or four months.

Raw versus cooked meat

Both raw and cooked meat can be frozen. However, because meat loses moisture during cooking, its quality will diminish quickly when frozen compared to raw meat, Coop said.

Equipment

"You don't have to have a lot of expensive equipment to freeze foods," Coop said.

She recommends quality freezer bags, a permanent marker and stickers for labeling the bag and listing reheating instructions, quality plastic wrap and foil for casseroles, an ice cube tray to freeze small items and glass or foil pans.

"If I'm cooking meatloaf, I go with foil pans so that I don't have to worry about messy cleanup," Coop said.

Expressing air from freezer bags is effective enough usually to keep a freezer meal safe from the ice crystals that form when air is trapped inside the bag.

A freezer bag stand also is handy for keeping a bag upright while filling it with food.

Avid freezer meal cooks may want to invest in a good food chopper to make quick work of onions and other diced vegetables and a vacuum sealer if buying large quantities of meat to repackage into smaller portions, Coop said.

How to Freeze

Lay the filled, sealed freezer bags flat on a baking sheet in the freezer with air around them to speed up freezing time. When the bags are frozen solid, stack them upright like books.

"A 2-inch bag of food should freeze solid in two hours," Coop said.

Stacked bags will take longer to freeze, allowing ice crystals to form.

Casseroles can be frozen in a glass dish and then popped out and rewrapped in quality plastic wrap and foil for storage in the freezer. It then can be returned to the original glass dish for thawing and cooking.

Thawing

Frozen meals can be thawed in the microwave, the refrigerator starting the night before or cold water that is changed every 20 minutes, Coop said.

Frozen meat and other meals should not be thawed on the countertop, she said.

"Freezing does not kill bacteria. It stops it. The bacteria will continue to grow when thawed," Coop said.
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Los Angeles

Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president  and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease  has died. She was 94.

The former first lady died Sunday at her home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles of congestive heart failure, assistant Allison Borio told The Associated Press.

Her best-known project as first lady was the "Just Say No" campaign to help kids and teens stay off drugs.

When she swept into the White House in 1981, the former Hollywood actress partial to designer gowns and pricey china was widely dismissed as a pre-feminist throwback, concerned only with fashion, decorating and entertaining. By the time she moved out eight years later, Mrs. Reagan was fending off accusations that she was a behind-the-scenes "dragon lady" wielding unchecked power over the Reagan administration  and doing it based on astrology to boot.

All along she maintained that her only mission was to back her "Ronnie" and strengthen his presidency.

Mrs. Reagan carried that charge through the rest of her days. She served as a full-time caretaker as Alzheimer's melted away her husband's memory. After his death in June 2004 she dedicated herself to tending his legacy, especially at his presidential library in California, where he had served as governor.

She also championed Alzheimer's patients, raising millions of dollars for research and breaking with fellow conservative Republicans to advocate for stem cell studies. Her dignity and perseverance in these post-White House roles helped smooth over the public's fickle perceptions of the former first lady.

The Reagans' mutual devotion over 52 years of marriage was legendary. They were forever holding hands. She watched his political speeches with a look of such steady adoration it was dubbed "the gaze." He called her "Mommy," and penned a lifetime of gushing love notes. She saved these letters, published them as a book, and found them a comfort when he could no longer remember her.

After Reagan was shot by John Hinckley just three months into his presidency, he was said to have famously wisecracked to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck."

In announcing his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 1994, Reagan wrote, "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience." Ten years later, as his body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol, Mrs. Reagan caressed and gently kissed the flag-draped casket.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, remembered Reagan as "elegant."

"We can have political differences, but there's no doubt she was a great first lady and she'll be missed," he said following an event in New York City.

State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Republican, said in a statement that Reagan "was both gracious and brave" and she helped "usher in a proud new era in America's history" along with her husband.

Recalling the former first lady's New York City roots, state Republican Chairman Ed Cox said in a statement that Nancy's and Ronald Reagan's "relationship had a positive impact on the nation, and the world  one which we will forever celebrate."

In a statement Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spoke of the Reagans' journey with Alzheimer's disease.

"Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer's, and took on a new role, as advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the promise to improve and save lives," the Obama's said.

As the newly arrived first lady, Mrs. Reagan raised more than $800,000 from private donors to redo the White House family quarters and to buy a $200,000 set of china bordered in red, her signature color.

She was criticized for financing these pet projects with donations from millionaires who might seek influence with the government, and for accepting gifts and loans of dresses worth thousands of dollars from top designers.

Her lavish lifestyle  in the midst of a recession and with her husband's administration cutting spending on the needy  inspired the mocking moniker "Queen Nancy."
Canada's fresh-faced, Kennedy-esque new leader arrives in Washington on Thursday for his first official visit since beating an American-style, wedge-politics incumbent back home last October. Given the current ugly state of American politics, where bladder control, sexual potency and perspiration have become legitimate items of campaign discourse, our goal for Justin Trudeau's visit should be clear.

We need to convince him to run for president of the United States.

This won't be an easy sell, especially since a Trudeau presidential run would face some constitutional challenges, not the least of which is his birthplace  Canada. But this hasn't stopped Ted Cruz, so before you reject a Trudeau candidacy out of hand, let's look at the possibilities.

Trudeau is a young, good-looking Gen-Xer who overcame a dissolute bar-bouncer past to shape up into a first-rate vote getter in last October's landslide victory for his Liberal Party. His campaign emphasized  wait for it  fair and open government and rejected negative advertising.

More Information Stephen R. Kelly is a former American diplomat in Canada who teaches at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. See More Collapse

Since taking office, Trudeau has continued his un-American style of politicking. Where American pols are shunning Muslims in general and Syrian refugees in particular, Trudeau personally greeted the first of 25,000 that Canada will welcome when they landed in Toronto.

Where less-educated white Americans are dropping dead in record numbers, even as GOP politicians rail against Obamacare, Canadians of all stripes are living longer than ever with that single-payer health care system of theirs, which Trudeau has pledged to expand.

Where some American politicians remain in climate-change denial, Trudeau has committed Canada to a carbon-tax and a positive role on the world climate stage.

Trudeau even has a lot in common with recent occupants of the Oval Office.

Like the Bushes and (they wish) the Clintons, he continues a political dynasty. In his case, his father was Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the flashy and charismatic prime minister until 1984.

Like John F. Kennedy, Trudeau is in his early 40s and has a Jackie Kennedy-esque attractive and accomplished wife.

Like Barack Obama, Trudeau came from behind to beat a conservative opponent who called him inexperienced and unprepared for the top job.

Beyond these personal attributes, several other practical details make a Canadian a logical choice for our leader. In recent months, for example, nearly half the oil we had to import came from north of the border, an addiction that would be worrisome if it were any country other than Canada.

Canada has also been our largest trading partner for decades, and remains the largest single foreign purchaser of U.S. goods.

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The 5,525-mile border we share is the longest in the world, and except for Wisconsin governor and former presidential candidate Scott Walker, no one is suggesting we build a wall along it.

In short, we are already highly interdependent, and likely to get more so in the future. Having someone at the top who knows how both halves fit only makes sense.

And as Trudeau said on "60 Minutes" this past Sunday, Americans are electing the most powerful leader in the world. It would be nice if that leader actually knew something about that world.

Unfortunately, the Constitution aside, Trudeau would be a fool to run for our top job. For one thing, even if he started right away, what remains of the U.S. presidential campaign season is still three times longer than his entire campaign for prime minister. Putting up with Donald Trump's Twitter tirades for eight more months would make a Canadian winter look downright tolerable.

If Trudeau decides not to run for the White House, perhaps the solution is for Americans to follow him back to Canada. Google searches for "moving to Canada" reportedly spiked after the Super Tuesday primaries, which suggests more than a few Yanks are considering this option.

They may want to check first to see if Canadians would want them, though. Accepting Syrian refugees is one thing. But tolerating people who would even consider voting for some of the current candidates for president might be over the top.
The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times:

Unlike Iran, North Korea has been impervious to international efforts to force it to forswear the use of nuclear weapons. But new sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council last week offer at least the possibility of altering North Korea's behavior. Much will depend on whether China, North Korea's patron, enabler and largest trading partner, follows the letter and spirit of the resolution it supported.

The measure was prompted by North Korea's test in January of what it characterized as a hydrogen bomb, as well as repeated missile test launches. But North Korean defiance of the international community stretches back years. Neither previous sanctions nor diplomacy have induced the reclusive regime in Pyongyang to end its nuclear program.

The new resolution, approved after lengthy negotiations between Chinese and U.S. diplomats, significantly expands sanctions against North Korean individuals and entities involved with the insular country's nuclear weapons program. It also requires the inspection of cargo entering or leaving North Korea and bars the importation of aviation fuel. An arms embargo is expanded to include light weapons, and North Korea is instructed not to use ballistic missiles even to launch non-military satellites.

But even as it strengthens sanctions, the resolution leaves their enforcement to U.N. members. As a practical matter, that means North Korea will feel the pressure only if China takes its responsibilities seriously, rather than circumventing the sanctions on the pretext of avoiding "adverse humanitarian consequences."

Beijing must recognize that anxiety about North Korea's intentions threatens a nuclear arms race not just on the Korean peninsula but in the entire region. It also should realize that if it doesn't put meaningful pressure on North Korea, the U.S. may go forward with a high-altitude missile defense system in South Korea that China sees as a threat to its own arsenal. However justified it might be, a strengthening of South Korea's defenses would make it even less likely that there would be another round of negotiations involving the two Koreas, the U.S. China, Russia and Japan. The last version of such talks collapsed in 2009.

China may not be able to dictate policy to North Korea's unpredictable leader Kim Jong Un. But it provides a lifeline to him and his inner circle and props up the country's infrastructure. If it's serious of about calming tensions on the Korean peninsula, it will use that considerable influence.
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday sought security for JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in view of two rewards announced by two persons on his life and for chopping off his tongue. The government has on its part stated that adequate protection will be provided to Kanhaiya.

The Congress leader pointed out the grim situation and said one Adarsh Sharma of Purvanchal Sena had put up posters announcing reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who kills Kanhiaya Kumar.

Azad also said Kuldeep Varshnay, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, had also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for cutting off Kumars tongue. Provide security to Kanhaiya Kumar. His life is in danger, Azad said.

He said first fake videos were circulated against the student leader and then he was booked under charges of sedation. When he is out on bail, there is conspiracy to kill him, he said. He also sought strict action against those who made fake videos.

MoS for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said adequate security will be given to Kanhaiya Kumar. He also said BJP took immediate action Varshnay.

Regarding the alleged fake videos, Naqvi said investigation was on. Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien too said there should be investigation into the fake video matter.

Meanwhile, Allahabad University was at the centre of a row that escalated with eight Opposition parties targeting HRD Minister Smriti Irani over alleged harassment of its Student's Union President, accusing her of acting like ABVP's patron saint.
THE ISSUE:

A politically generous insurance company enjoys special treatment and state secrecy.

THE STAKES:

Citizens should know what the hidden charges for this could be on their insurance bills.

More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse

For a glaring example of how corruption is not a victimless crime, and how money in politics can hurt ordinary citizens, look no further than Physicians' Reciprocal Insurers.

PRI is a medical malpractice insurer that has donated heavily to top New York politicians, and figured prominently in the corruption trial of ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. And it seems to still be getting favors from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration  favors that keep customers from knowing the extent of financial problems that could leave just about anyone with insurance  home, auto, or business  picking up the tab.

As the Times Union's Chris Bragg details, Mr. Skelos, in his time in power, pressured PRI's chief executive officer, Anthony Bonomo, to give his son, Adam Skelos, what amounted to a no-show job. In return, prosecutors argued, Mr. Skelos pushed through legislation favorable to PRI, such as a bill that protected malpractice companies operating at a loss from liquidation by state regulators. PRI was, at the time, one of only two such troubled companies in the state. It reported $86 million more in liabilities than in assets in 2014, the year before that protective legislation passed.

How bad are PRI's finances now? Good luck finding out. Even though the law requires the state to do a deep analysis of medical malpractice insurers every five years, and make the findings available to the public, no report on PRI has been released for two decades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Department of Financial Services has, however, made reports on PRI's competitors publicly available.

This is no small matter. If PRI is in bad shape, doctors now covered by the company might worry about getting any claims paid and decide to sign on with a competing insurer. If PRI lost enough business and became insolvent, any outstanding claims would be paid out of a state property and casualty guaranty fund that is funded by insurance companies  which in turn get the money from their ratepayers. So just about anybody with any kind of insurance would pay for this.

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What merits this secrecy and special treatment? Says a DFS spokesman on why the reports aren't available: "I can't speculate on why they haven't been posted." Speculate? How about a factual explanation?

Still, it's not hard to connect some dots. PRI has donated generously to Gov. Cuomo, including a $50,000 gift last year, just before Mr. Bonomo was appointed chairman of the New York Racing Association. In the last election cycle, he and family members gave almost $1.3 million to the governor, the state Democratic Party, state candidates and party committees. Former Gov. George Pataki also enjoyed PRI's largesse in his time in office.

No amount of money should buy the kind of secrecy that's occurring here. The Cuomo administration should stop suppressing PRI's reports.

And perhaps we need a new itemized line on New York insurance bills. Call it the cost of political favors.
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The driver of a vehicle that crashed in the village of Diamond around 4:30 p.m., today, was flown to UPMC Hamot Hospital, in Erie.
[March 08, 2016]

iNACOL Releases New Issue Brief: Chugach School District: A Personalized, Performance-Based System

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, CompetencyWorks released a new report: Chugach School District: A Personalized, Performance-Based System, written by Chris Sturgis, Co-Founder of CompetencyWorks. This paper explores how an Alaskan school district shifted from a traditional K-12 education system to a personalized, performance-based system, embedded in the culture of the community, which led to increased student achievement.

Chugach School District (CSD) first implemented competency education over twenty years ago, paving the way in developing a system founded on student advancement upon demonstrated mastery. This case study explores how CSD created the infrastructure to support a performance-based system, expanding learning beyond the classroom, embracing the culture of the community and developing educator growth.

Chris Sturgis said, "With the community demanding that something be done about low student achievement, Chugach School District r-imagined what education could look like. They placed students and learning in the center surrounded by a structure that allows flexibility while ensuring students reach proficiency before advancing to the next performance level. As the first district to implement competency education in the United States, the pioneers at CSD paved the way in developing a personalized, performance-based system where failure is not an option."







Susan Patrick, iNACOL President and CEO, said, "The promising practices and lessons learned offered in this report provide K-12 education leaders and teachers with strategies to design and implement powerful, personalized learning models to maximize each student's potential."

Download a full copy of Chugach School District: A Personalized, Performance-Based System here.

For more information about CompetencyWorks, a project of iNACOL dedicated to advancing K-12 competency education, please visit CompetencyWorks.org.

About iNACOL

The mission of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is to catalyze the transformation of K-12 education policy and practice to advance powerful, personalized, learner-centered experiences through competency-based, blended and online learning. iNACOL is a non-profit organization focusing on research, developing policy for student-centered education to ensure equity and access, developing quality standards for emerging learning models using competency-based, blended and online education, and supporting the ongoing professional development of classroom, school, and district leaders for new learning models. Visit our website, like us on Facebook, connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on twitter.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inacol-releases-new-issue-brief-chugach-school-district-a-personalized-performance-based-system-300232416.html

SOURCE International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL)
[March 08, 2016] MNP Expands Cybersecurity Services by Merging in NCI, a Leading Cybersecurity Firm

Enhanced Cybersecurity Solutions to Benefit Marketplace CALGARY, March 8, 2016 /CNW/ - MNP LLP, one of Canada's largest national accounting and business consulting firms, announced today that NCI, a cybersecurity services and solutions firm, will join MNP effective April 1, 2016. "Cybersecurity is more than a technology issue, it's a critical business risk and one of the leading and growing business threats in the world," said Jason Tuffs, CEO, MNP. "As a firm, we wanted to enhance our services in cybersecurity for our clients and merging in a full-service cybersecurity firm of leading experts made the most sense. It's truly a win-win situation for both our firms and the clients we serve." NCI was founded in 2000 by IT professionals Danny Timmins (CEO & President) and Eugene Ng (CIO). Their goal was to create a company that offered a full range of services and solutions related to cybersecurity. NCI has grown to include offices in Mississauga, ON and Montreal, QC, as well as satellite offices in Sydney, NS and St. John, NB. As leaders in the cybersecurity industry, the firm has been recognized year-after-year with numerous awards, including: CRN Magazine's Top 25 North America 'Need to Know Security VAR' List, CRN Next  Gen 250 List, Branham 300 Top 10 Canadian ICT Security Companies, Branham 300 Top 20 Movers & Shakers, CDN Top 100 Solutions Providers, Profit 500 Canada's Fastest Growng Companies and Branham 300 Top 250 Canadian ICT Companies.



"MNP already had a growing technology consulting and cybersecurity practice, but was looking for a like-minded firm to build on their strategic plans for growth in offering cybersecurity services and solutions. At the same time, we were looking to expand our service capability across the country, while offering other specialty consulting and risk services to our valued clients," added Danny Timmins, CEO & President, NCI. "MNP and NCI had discussed opportunities to work together over the last few years. As we got to know each other better, both firms grew quite impressed with each other's people, experience and expertise. This is a truly a mutually-beneficial union and we are very excited to have found the perfect firm, one that puts clients first, that will allow us to offer clients a greater breadth of services to address their growing business needs.

As a national accounting and business consulting firm operating for more than 55 years, MNP has grown to more than 80 locations with over 3,500 team members from Victoria to Montreal. In addition to tax and accounting expertise, MNP delivers a diverse range of advisory services, including corporate finance, valuation and litigation support, succession planning, investigative and forensic accounting, cross-border taxation, as well a full breadth of services in enterprise risk services, including governance, risk management, internal audit, regulatory compliance, business resilience and operational effectiveness. Tuffs added that this merger will take MNP's Technology Solutions practice to a new level across the firm. "MNP focuses on strategic mergers for the benefit of our clients. This merger will allow us to build on our existing strengths and ensure we continue our client-focused approach to doing business while ensuring our clients are protected against growing cyber threats." Timmins will become MNP's National Cybersecurity Leader and Ng will join as the firm's Cybersecurity Leader for Eastern Canada. Timmins expects the transition to be seamless for their team and clients. While the Montreal NCI staff will move into MNP's Montreal office, the remaining NCI locations, including their main office in Mississauga, will remain in their current locations. About MNP LLP

MNP is one of the largest national accounting and consulting firms in Canada, providing client-focused accounting, taxation and consulting advice. National in scope and local in focus, MNP has proudly served individuals and public and private companies for more than 55 years. Through the development of strong relationships, MNP provides personalized strategies and a local perspective to help them succeed. For more information, visit www.mnp.ca. SOURCE MNP LLP

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Hyderabad: Cops are trained to treat their weapons 'as an extension of their arms', but recent incidents show some officers are careless with their weapons.. While senior police officials from both AP and Telangana claim that officers are given regular weapon training, a series of serious mishandling of weapons by lower rank officials prove otherwise.

The most recent incident is Chittoor Armed Reserve constable, the gunman of Palamaner MLA N. Amarnath Reddy, losing his 9 mm pistol and 10 rounds of live bullets. The constable was coming to Hyderabad from Chittoor in an APSRTC bus on Sunday. He lost his weapon due to negligence. We have now send a report against him to Chittoor police, said G. Giridhar, the ACP of Sultan Bazaar.

A serious weapon mishandling happened in the third week of February when an MLAs driver was shot dead with a cops pistol. Narsapur MLA Madan Reddys driver Syed Akbar died on the spot when a bullet hit his chest during a friendly scuffle with the MLAs gunman B. Ravinder, who was allegedly careless with his weapon.

In May 2015, a Special Branch inspector was injured when he accidentally fired at his stomach while cleaning the weapon at the AR Centre in Nalgonda.

Another tragedy occurred at the US consulate in Begumpet. A State Special Police constable was killed when his own weapon misfired.

The bullet from his rifle got stuck in his stomach and he succumbed in hospital.

Senior officials said an important part of weapon training is how to handle firearms safely.

The officers in civil police and all cops in armed reserve are given training on how to handle their arms and ammunition safely. It is only when cops take weapons for granted and mishandles it mishaps happen, an IPS official said.
[March 08, 2016] Physicians With Florida Cancer Affiliates Honored for Contributions to Clinical Research

US Oncology Research, one of the largest community-based oncology research programs in the U.S. specializing in oncology clinical trials, has honored two physicians from Florida Cancer Affiliates (FCA) for their contributions to cancer research by inducting them into the organization's prestigious Centum Club. The two medical oncologists, Thomas Cartwright, M.D., and Craig Reynolds, M.D., earned admittance into the elite club by enrolling more than 100 patients into US Oncology Research clinical trials. Meeting enrollment goals is a huge challenge in clinical research, so accruing more than 100 patients is a significant achievement. Florida Cancer Affiliates is a leading provider of advanced cancer care services throughout Florida and a practice in The US Oncology Network. Both physicians provide services from the FCA state-of-the-art treatment center in Ocala. "Clinical trials are an essential part of our commitment to provide cancer patients convenient access to the latest and most advanced therapies and treatment options," said Dr. Cartwright, principal investigator at FCA Ocala. "Providing these cutting-edge treatments close to home allows patients to receive care in a familiar, comfortable setting where they have the support of family and friends during a very difficult time. This encourages optimal outcomes and provides a better patient experience."



Through its affiliation and collaboration with US Oncology Research, Florida Cancer Affiliates has established a world-class research program, leading the way to better care for patients throughout Florida and across the nation. By participating in investigational trials that test new drugs, unique approaches to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, or various combinations of treatments, the FCA research program helps drive progress and advance cancer treatment while giving patients the opportunity to receive promising new therapies not yet available to patients outside clinical trials. "Clinical trials are the first step in bringing exciting new advancements from the laboratory to the patient," said Dr. Reynolds, also a principal investigator at the FCA Ocala location. "We have made enormous strides in treating cancer and improving quality of life that are the direct result of clinical trials. It is very rewarding to know I can offer my patients these novel treatments that are also advancing our efforts to conquer this disease."

Florida Cancer Affiliates is highly regarded among the medical community as a leader in cancer research and is a regional resource for referring physicians who want their patients to have access to the very latest treatment options. The practice takes pride in being an integral part of US Oncology Research, which has enrolled more than 62,000 patients in nearly 1,500 clinical trials. This nationwide group of more than 900 experienced investigators has played a role in nearly 60 FDA-approved cancer therapies, nearly one-third of all cancer therapies approved by the FDA to date. "I am extremely proud of the strong, ongoing commitment our practice has made to clinical research," said Fadi Nakhl, M.D., principal investigator at the FCA Tampa Bay Trinity Cancer Center. "Developing a first-class research program requires a large financial investment, as well as a shared vision to bring new therapies to patients battling cancer. It is a great privilege to participate in these groundbreaking studies that lead to exciting new treatments that improve the lives of those touched by cancer." About Florida Cancer Affiliates Florida Cancer Affiliates (FCA) is a community-based radiation oncology, medical oncology, and hematology practice with convenient locations throughout Florida, from Naples and Ft. Myers to Trinity, Hudson, Brooksville, The Villages, Ocala and Panama City. The integrated clinical team of FCA employs the latest technologies and drug therapies to ensure patients receive advanced care close to home. The comprehensive treatment centers include outpatient treatment and diagnostic facilities providing chemotherapy, hematology services, radiation therapy including stereotactic, brachytherapy and PET/CT imaging, clinical research, pharmacy and laboratory, as well as financial counseling and patient support services. The practice is committed to providing patients with advanced care. They offer therapies proven to be effective, along with advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies. They also provide access to new investigational drugs through clinical trials. By participating in clinical trials that test new drugs or various combinations of treatments, patients have the opportunity to receive new therapies not yet available outside these clinical trials. To learn more about Florida Cancer Affiliates, go to www.floridacancer.com. Florida Cancer Affiliates is united in healing with The US Oncology Network, one of the nation's largest networks of integrated community-based oncology practices dedicated to advancing high-quality, evidence-based cancer care. As an affiliate of The US Oncology Network, FCA is united with 1,000 physicians nationwide. Florida Cancer Affiliates participates in clinical trials through US Oncology Research, which has played a role in nearly 60 FDA-approved cancer therapies, nearly one-third of all cancer therapies approved by the FDA to date. For more information, visit www.usoncology.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308005647/en/

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[March 08, 2016] ReneSola Announces Changes to Board of Directors and Board Committees

SHANGHAI, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ReneSola Ltd ("ReneSola" or the "Company") (www.renesola.com) (NYSE: SOL), a leading brand and technology provider of energy-efficient products, today announced the appointments of Ms. Julia Xu and Mr. Weiguo Zhou as independent directors of the Company, effective March 8, 2016. The Company's current director Mr. Yuncai Wu and independent director Mr. Jing Wang are stepping down from the Company's Board of Directors. Ms. Julia Xu is the Founder and Managing Director of Oravida, a New Zealand-based group specializing in the branding and promotion of New Zealand's premium food products primarily for the Chinese market. Prior to establishing Oravida in New Zealand, Ms. Xu was the Chief Financial Officer of ReneSola between April 2010 and June 2011. Ms. Xu has extensive financial markets experience, including earlier roles at Deutsche Bank Hong Kong, Bankers Trust and Lehman Brothers. Mr. Weiguo Zhou is the Managing Partner of Silicon Valley Investment Management Partners, a China-based partnership specializing in investment in information technology and renewable energy area. Mr. Zhou was a Partner of Vangoo Capital Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in investment in early to pre-IPO stage China-based companies, between April 2012 and June 2013. Mr. Zhou has extensive capital markets experience in Asia and held various senior positions in major investment banks, including Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Gaohua Beijing, Vice President at Credit Suisse Beijing and Hong Kong, between August 2007 and April 2012. Prior to that, Mr. Zhou worked at Deutsche Bank's Tokyo and Hong Kong offices for more than seven years. Both Ms. Xu and Mr. Zhou satisfy the independence requirements under Rule 10A-3 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 303A of the Corporate Governance Standards rules of the NYSE Listed Company Manual. The departing directors Mr. Yuncai Wu and Mr. Jing Wang both joined the Board before the Company's initial public offering. Mr. Yuncai Wu has been a director of the Company since March 2005. Mr. Jing Wang has been an independent director of the Company since June 2006. Mr. Wu and Mr. Wang are stepping down from their Board positions to focus on their respective personal and other business interests and commitments. Considering these director changes, the Company is also announcing changes to the composition of Board and Board committees as follows: Chief Executive Officer and director Mr. Xianshou Li will serve as chairman of the Board of Directors;

Independent director Mr. Tan Wee Seng will serve as chairman of the Audit Committee and will step down from his position as a member of the Compensation Committee. Mr. Tan will continue to serve as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee;

will serve as chairman of the Audit Committee and will step down from his position as a member of the Compensation Committee. Mr. Tan will continue to serve as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee; Independent director Mr. Martin Bloom will serve as chairman of the Compensation Committee as well as a member of the Audit Committee, and will step down from his positions as chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee;

will serve as chairman of the Compensation Committee as well as a member of the Audit Committee, and will step down from his positions as chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee; Independent director Ms. Julia Xu will serve as chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and a member of the Audit Committee and the Compensation Committee; and

will serve as chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and a member of the Audit Committee and the Compensation Committee; and Independent director Mr. Weiguo Zhou will serve as a member of the Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. After giving effect to the above changes, the composition of our Board and Board committees will be as follows:









Board Audit Committee Compensation Committee Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Xianshou Li Chairman





Martin Bloom Independent Director Member Chair

Tan Wee Seng Independent Director Chair

Member Julia Xu Independent Director Member Member Chair Weiguo Zhou Independent Director

Member Member

Xianshou Li, ReneSola's Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are excited to welcome Ms. Julia Xu and Mr. Weiguo Zhou to ReneSola's Board of Directors. Julia was a strong contributor in her former role as CFO at ReneSola, and Weiguo is also a longtime friend of ReneSola. We are confident that their impressive track record in financial markets and knowledge of solar industries will bring considerable value to our Board. We also want to thank Mr. Yuncai Wu and Mr. Jing Wang for their many years of contribution to the Company, and wish them the best in their future endeavors. We believe these changes in the composition of Board and Board committees represent part of our company strategy to build a more innovative leadership, and will certainly stand us in good stead as we continue to pursue business progress and expansion into downstream business." About ReneSola Founded in 2005, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2008, ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) is an international leading brand and technology provider of energy efficient products. Leveraging its global presence and expansive distribution and sales network, ReneSola is well positioned to provide its highest quality green energy products and on-time services for EPC, installers, and green energy projects around the world. For more information, please visit www.renesola.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: Ms. Rebecca Shen

ReneSola Ltd

Tel: +86 (21) 6280-9180 ext. 106

Email: [email protected] Mr. Gary Dvorchak, CFA

Blueshirt Group Asia

China: +86 (138) 1079-1480

Email: [email protected] In the United States: Mr. Ralph Fong

Blueshirt Group

Tel: +1 (415) 489-2195

Email: [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080506/CNTU030 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/renesola-announces-changes-to-board-of-directors-and-board-committees-300232379.html SOURCE ReneSola Ltd.

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[March 08, 2016] See Nation's Most Innovative Teen Scientists in Action at the Intel Science Talent Search

This week, 40 brilliant high school seniors will convene in Washington, D.C., for the Intel (News - Alert) Science Talent Search 2016, a program of Society for Science & the Public and the nation's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science and math competition. This elite group of young scientists includes students from 38 schools in 18 states. Three finalists are from the D.C. metro area: Arnold Mong and Josephine Yu of Potomac, Maryland, and Kunal Shroff of Great Falls, Virginia. From March 10-16, the Intel Science Talent Search finalists will compete for more than $1 million in awards provided by the Intel Foundation, including three first-place Medal of Distinction awards of $150,000 each that will be presented to students who show exceptional scientific potential in three areas: basic research, global good and innovation.







WHAT: Media are invited to attend a public exhibition of the Intel Science Talent Search finalists' projects and meet the next generation of scientists, researchers and engineers. Finalists will be available for interviews and photos as they display, describe and answer questions about their research. WHEN & Public Exhibition of Projects: WHERE: Sunday, March 13, 1-4 p.m. ET National Geographic Society 1145 17th St. NW Washington, D.C. 20036 WHO: All 40 Intel Science Talent Search 2016 finalists. The high schools seniors' research projects include:  An identification platform that utilizes the unique arm and hand motions individuals use to pick up their smartphones to improve mobile security.  A low-cost, smartphone-based tool to diagnose respiratory illnesses such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  An ambitious endeavor to find undiscovered exoplanetary systems by analyzing data from stars in a region of space known as the galactic center.  A way to modify plastics that are commonly used in littered items, such as grocery bags and milk jugs, so they degrade 90 percent faster when exposed to ultraviolet light.  A new process to grow kidney cells from human stem cells, which could eventually eliminate the need for donor kidneys for transplantation. For a full list of this year's finalists, visit https://student.societyforscience.org/intel-sts. CONTACT: To RSVP for the event or to schedule interviews, contact Olivia Campbell, 646-384-2095, [email protected].

Finalists by high school state: Claire Burch CA (News - Alert) Paige Brown ME Sanath Devalapurkar CA Demetri Maxim ME George Hou CA Shreya Menon MI Anjini Karthik CA Rachel Zhang MO Jonathan Ma CA Meena Jagadeesan NH Anin Sayana CA Andrew Amini NY Pranav Srinivas CA Katharine Berman NY Maya Varma CA Soon il Higashino NY Asher Willner CA Jessica Huang NY Clare Zhu CA Catherine Lai NY Helen Liu CT Allen Liu NY Beverly Ge FL Rachel Mashal NY Maria Grimmett FL Augusta (News - Alert) Uwamanzu-Nna NY Nathan Marshall ID Kavya Ravichandran OH Sreya Vemuri IN Vikul Gupta OR Yashaswini Makaram MA Milind Jagota PA Amol Punjabi MA Michael Zhang PA Michael Li MD Thomas Colburn TN Arnold Mong MD Joshua Choe TX Josephine Yu MD Kunal Shroff VA View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308005571/en/

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[March 08, 2016] Trend Micro 2015 Security Roundup Details Canada's Top Breaches, Vulnerabilities and Cyber Underground

OTTAWA, March 8, 2016 /CNW/ - Today, Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704 ) released its annual security roundup report, "Setting the Stage: Landscape Shifts Dictate Future Threat Response Strategies," which dissects the most significant security incidents from 2015. The research confirms attackers are now bolder, smarter and more daring in attack vectors, cyberespionage efforts and cyber underground activity on a global basis. "At the start of 2015, we predicted that cyber attacks would quickly escalate. Unfortunately, we were spot on and 2015 brought bigger attacks with a larger, more personal impact", said Mark Nunnikhoven, Trend Micro's Vice President, Cloud Research. "Nowhere was that more apparent than with the breach of Canada's Ashley Madison. This breach marked a new chapter where the ramifications of digital activities had a real consequences in people's day-to-day lives." Other highlights in the Report and Nunnikoven's take on what they mean for Canadians: In 2015, the Angler Exploit Kit surged to become the number one exploit kit on the Internet. Canadians were tied with France and Germany as the fourth largest pool of Angler Exploit Kit victims around the world. Exploit kits lower the technical bar for cyber criminals. These kits make running a malware campaign as easy as "pay, plug, and play" for cyber criminals. Angler is currently very popular due to its effectiveness in delivering malware to a targeted set of victims. That Canada is among the top targets should be no surprise given the value of Canadian identities, credit cards, and other personal information to the underground One of the most pernicious threat trends globally in 2015 was ransomware and the rise of crypto-ransomware. However, Canada was fortunate to be spared from this major online threat. Ransomware is a cybercriminal's dream. It's highly automated and very lucrative. 2016 will see a rise in Canadian infections of ransomware. As with most countries around the world, for Canada, OPENCANDY was the top adware while DRIDEX was the top malware for Canada. OENCANDY highlights the need for better user awareness around browser plugins and disingenuous software installs. DRIDEX continues to turn a profit for cybercriminals. Expect to see DRIDEX or a variant of it continue to flourish in 2016



Online Banking Malware surged at the end of 2015 in Canada and elsewhere. By the end of the year, Trend Micro detected over twice as many online banking malware infections as at the start of the year. Cybercriminals continue to mature their business-like approach to malware. Building on earlier successes, criminals are no longer focusing on building out botnets or SPAM engines (though these activities continue). Banking malware (like DRIDEX) and ransomware are making significant amounts of money for the underground. They are continuing to invest and evolve these malicious technologies. Macro malware continued to stage a return throughout 2015. In Canada, we saw nearly four times as much macro malware in the final months of 2015 as we saw at the start of the year.

While this one is always a little surprising, it highlights the complexities involved in software engineering. The amount of code running on laptops and phones makes it difficult to cover all of the exposures. For cybercriminals, using a simple technique (like macros) is a low cost investment and allows them to save their more complex exploits for when they are really needed. Canada's investment in Chip and Pin technology appears to be paying off: point of sale malware Canada was an early adopter for chip and pin and it's paying off. Chip and pin make it a lot trickier for cybercriminals to sell credit card information for use in the real world. Any non chip and pin transaction in a location where chip and pin is available is immediately flagged as suspicious. This is a great example of a reasonably low cost effective security control. For the complete report, please visit: http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/research-and-analysis/threat-reports/roundup/setting-the-stage-landscape-shifts-dictate-future-threat-response-strategies About Trend Micro Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Built on 27 years of experience, our solutions for consumers, businesses and governments provide layered data security to protect information on mobile devices, endpoints, gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. All of our solutions are powered by cloud-based global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network infrastructure, and are supported by more than 1,200 threat experts around the globe. For more information, visit TrendMicro.com. SOURCE Trend Micro Canada

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[March 08, 2016] Alan Osetek Joins Digilant as Global Chief Executive Officer

BOSTON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Digilant, a leading global programmatic media company that partners with agencies and brands to provide customized and strategic advertising solutions, today announced the appointment of Alan Osetek as its Global Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Osetek will oversee all global operations across 9 markets, as well their DMP/DSP technology offering. He will be responsible for establishing and cultivating business relationships with current and prospective clients as well as driving the company's growth and innovation throughout the world. In addition to his role as Global CEO, Mr. Osetek will serve as a member of the management team at ispDigital, the holding company of Digilant. Reporting directly to ispDigital's Chief Executive Officer, Don Epperson, Mr. Osetek is based in Digilant's Boston headquarters. Mr. Osetek brings more than 20 years of experience in advertising marketing and technology industries, most recently serving as Global President of Resolution Media overseeing the global growth of Omnicom Media Group's search, social and digital performance media unit. Throughout his 5 years at Omnicom, the company was awarded by AdAge as the fastest growing SEM/Social/Programmatic agency 4 years in a row, as well as the Chicago and San Francisco offices the 'best places to work'. Under Mr. Osetek's leadership, Resolution tripled in size reaching a total of 1700+ employees globally and increased an average of +25% its annual revenue growth rate. "With his fundamental understanding of how brands connect with consumers and his in-depth experience in marketing and technology we are thrilled to bring Alan on board to lead Digilant's global operations and to add valuable perspective and knowledge to ispDigital's management team," said Don Epperson, Chief Executive Officer of ispDigital. "Alan's industry knowledge, expertise, management skills, and past successes will bring tremendous value to our clients and team, as Digilant continues to rapidly grow and strategically expand its footprint across multiple continents." Prior to Omnicom, Mr. Osetek was the Managing Director of iProspect/Aegis, responsible for overseeing all activities for iProspect's east coast operations. He also served as a Board Member and Chief Revenue Officer for Visual IQ, as Executive Vice President for Isobar/Carat where he executed multiple acqusitions around the world including those of iProspect and Molecular. Mr. Osetek also served as President/Founder of the email and CRM marketing firm, Vizium, which he successfully sold to the global agency holding company Aegis.



"I am excited to join such an innovative and growing company, as Digilant expands its global presence and continues to lead in the programmatic space, during a time of great technology advancement," said Mr. Osetek. "The company's unique technology, sophisticated client base and impressive growth reflects not only the commitment of the team but also the quality of the product and service being delivered. I am looking forward to working with such a dedicated and enthusiastic team to continue the success of the company." The appointment of Mr. Osetek comes on the heels of global expansion for the company, which in 2015 opened offices in UK, Italy, Chile, and Peru. Digilant has a presence in 9 countries, with a product offering that goes from self served programmatic buying to a custom data solution.

"I am proud to be joining the management team of a global company dedicated to delivering innovative media solutions through the development of a unified platform for managing paid, earned and owned media," Mr. Osetek said. "I look forward to working together with the ispDigital management team and contributing to the group's continued success." About Digilant

Digilant, a global programmatic media pioneer, partners with the world's leading agencies and brands to provide customized and scalable programmatic media solutions. Powered by insightful and actionable data science, Digilant's display, video, mobile, native and social solutions are delivered through a world-class service offering. The company's advanced technology platform, which includes a data management platform (DMP), connects brands with relevant and unique audiences by activating first party, third party and its own proprietary data. Headquartered in Boston, Digilant has offices in Barcelona, Bogota, Lima, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Monterrey, Santiago de Chile, Sao Paulo, and across the U.S. For more information, please visit www.digilant.com or follow the company on Twitter at @Digilant_US. Digilant is an ispDigital Group Company. About ispDigital

ispDigital is a technology-based marketing services holding company driving innovation and solutions at the intersection of earned, owned and paid media. Together Acceso (earned), Antevenio (owned), and Digilant (paid) provide cross channel and cross device, closed loop marketing solutions. Headquartered in Boston and Barcelona, ispDigital has offices in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ispDigital is majority owned by Inversiones y Servicios Publicitarios (ISP), an investment company fully owned by the Rodes family. For more information visit www.ispdigital.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/340991

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151217/297084LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alan-osetek-joins-digilant-as-global-chief-executive-officer-300232401.html SOURCE Digilant

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[March 08, 2016] App Annie Celebrates the Top Global App Publishers

SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today App Annie, the most trusted mobile app data and insights platform, is pleased to celebrate the Top 52 App Publishers of 2015. Our team of data enthusiasts and researchers first started this tradition in 2012 to honor and highlight the world's app publishers building great and influential app businesses. Reflecting App Annie's global presence, leading publishers received their awards in ceremonies or in-person deliveries in Tokyo, Beijing, San Francisco, New York and London among many other cities. What Veterans of the Top 52 Had to Say Numerous app publishers have been featured year over year since our first Top 52 in 2012, showing the enduring success and longevity of their app businesses. More specifically, 8 out of the Top 10 champions of the Top 52 topped the list last year, with companies like Supercell, King, GungHo Online, LINE and Tencent still ruling the charts. Some of this year's winners shared the following: "We started Supercell to make games that people would play for years. So it's a real honor to be part of App Annie's Top 52 again, and to be #1 for the second year in a row. I feel that if we stay focused on this very idea, with some luck, even better games will follow over the years to come." - Ilkka Paananen, CEO at Supercell "We're thrilled to be included for the third year running in App Annie's official list of the Top 52 Publishers. App Anie has been a great partner to us for a number of years and has always provided market data which we can rely on." - Jai Dave, Director of Market Insight and Strategy at King



"The way App Annie's Top 52 recognizes the world's best app publishers is positive for the app economy's long term growth. We're proud to be a leading app publisher, and we'll continue to invest in developing and publishing great apps." - Jun Masuda, CSMO at LINE "I would like to thank App Annie for their contribution to the development of the global mobile game industry. IGG is honored to claim a spot on App Annie's Top 52 Publisher list...." - Kevin Xu, COO at IGG

"This is the second year we have been included in App Annie's official list of the Top 52 Publishers, which is a huge reward to the hard work of our team. It's also thanks to the insights we gain from App Annie that we've been able to steer our focus in the right direction and differentiate ourselves from our competitors. It's not just about having great data; it's about having the know-how to use it intelligently!" - Julian Tietz, Product Strategy Lead at Goodgame Studios Find more information and the full list here. The Data Behind the Cards The App Annie 52 is comprised of the top 52 earners by combined iOS and Google Play revenue from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. Revenue rankings are based on revenue earned from paid downloads and in-app purchases on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. They do not include revenue earned from in-app advertising or subscriptions outside app store channels. We source our information from App Annie Intelligence, which generates the industry's most accurate market estimates for the app stores. We then tie everything together with our DNA technology to get a full picture of whole companies  including their subsidiaries. About App Annie App Annie delivers the most trusted app data and insights for your business to succeed in the app economy globally. Over 500,000 registered members managing 1 million apps rely on App Annie to better understand the app market, their business and the opportunities around them. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with 425+ employees across 15 global offices. App Annie has received $157 million in financing, including from investors such as e.Ventures, Greenspring Partners, Greycroft Partners, IDG Capital Partners, Institutional Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital. Learn more at www.appannie.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341454



Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341455 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/app-annie-celebrates-the-top-global-app-publishers-300232383.html SOURCE App Annie

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[March 08, 2016] Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe Acquires Intuit QuickBase

NEW YORK and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe ("WCAS"), a leading technology-focused private equity firm, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Intuit Inc. (INTU) to acquire its fast-growing QuickBase business. QuickBase provides an industry-leading low-code development platform to more than 6,000 business customers to enable the creation and rapid deployment of customized, purpose-built cloud applications. WCAS intends to operate QuickBase as a stand-alone company with its headquarters based in Cambridge, Mass. Upon close, QuickBase General Manager Allison Mnookin will be named CEO of the newly independent company, joined by her existing senior management team and more than 200 employees. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. "QuickBase has cultivated a large, passionate customer base and sustained strong financial performance with 33 percent annual revenue growth over the past decade," said Allison Mnookin, appointed CEO of QuickBase. "Now we can accelerate our growth even faster and deliver innovations to further delight our customers." QuickBase has been a pioneer in the low-code platform space since 1999, enabling citizen developers within businesses to create, customize and deploy business applications. According to a recent report by Forrester, this market is expected to grow to more than $15 billion in 2020.1 "QuickBase is led by a strong management team with a highly supportive customer base and a platform that has been changing the way businesses create and deploy applications," said Michael Donovan, a WCAS General Partner. "With increased focus and investment, such as doubling product development funding, the company can even better serve its customers and capitalize on the multi-billion dollar opportunity ahead." 2 "Our over-arching goal was to find the right strategic fit for QuickBase, assessing potential buyers against a set of decision principles that would ensure the best outcome for employees, customers, partners and shareholders," said Brad Smith, chairman and CEO, Intuit. "I'm pleased we have found a home for QuickBase with a company that will invest in its future and provide the product support and service customers deserve." Once the transaction is closed, Intuit will become one of QuickBase's largest customers with more than 10,000 actively used apps, created without code and used across all employees and departments. The transaction with Intuit is subject to customary closing conditions, including requisite regulatory approvals, and is expected to close during the first half of 2016. Intuit announced the intention to divest the QuickBase business on Aug. 20, 2015. About QuickBase

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., QuickBase is focused on helping businesses of all sizes drive productivity and digitally transform their organizations. The platform's unique low-code interface enables users to create custom applications faster and easier without learning code. Today, QuickBase is used by more than 6,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 100, across a variety of industries and use cases. For more information, please visit: www.quickbase.com. About Intuit

Intuit Inc. creates business and financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services include QuickBooks and TurboTax, which make it easier to manage small businesses and tax preparation and filing. Mint.com provides a fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money, while ProSeries and Lacerte are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. Founded in 1983, Intuit had revenue of $4.2 billion in its fiscal year 2015. The company has approximately 7,700 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com. About Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe

WCAS focuses its investment activity in two target industries: technology and healthcare. Since its founding in 1979, WCAS has organized 16 limited partnerships with total capital of over $22 billion. WCAS has a current portfolio of approximately twenty-five companies. WCAS's strategy is to partner with outstanding management teams and build value for its investors through a combination of operational improvements, internal growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. The firm is currently investing an equity fund, Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe XII, L.P., which has closed on $3 billion in commitments. See www.wcas.com to learn more. 1 Jan. 2015 Forrester Vendor Landscape: The Fractured, Fertile Terrain Of Low-Code Application Platforms (FIGURE 5, pg 16)

2 Funding for product development will be doubled over the next three years as compared to the prior three years.







Media Contacts: Jon Rather Angela Maglione

WCAS QuickBase

(212) 893-9570 (617) 250-2241

[email protected] [email protected]

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/welsh-carson-anderson--stowe-acquires-intuit-quickbase-300232530.html SOURCE QuickBase and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe

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[March 08, 2016] MACOM Announces Industry's First CWDM4 L-PIC for 100G Datacenter Applications

M/A-COM Technology Solutions (News - Alert) Inc. ("MACOM"), a leading supplier of high-performance RF, microwave, millimeterwave and photonic semiconductor products, today announced the MAOP-L284CN, a silicon photonic integrated circuit integrated with lasers (L-PIC) for a 100G transmit solution for CWDM4 and CLR4 applications. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308006441/en/ MACOM's MAOP-L284CN features four high bandwidth Mach-Zehnder modulators integrated with four lasers (1270, 1290, 1310, and 1330 nm) and a CWDM multiplexer, with each channel operating at up to 28 Gb/s. To meet the explosive growth of data traffic driven by video and mobile, major Internet content providers, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google (News - Alert) and Facebook, are building hyper-scale datacenters, which require high-speed interconnect solutions that are power efficient, compact and cost optimized. MACOM's Etched Facet Technology (EFT) lasers are attached to the Silicon PIC using its proprietary Self-Alignment process (SAEFT) with high coupling efficiency, offering a power efficient solution at reduced manufacturing cost. MACOM's MAOP-L284CN features four high bandwidth Mach-Zehnder modulators integrated with four lasers (1270, 1290, 1310, and 1330 nm) and a CWDM multiplexer, with each channel operating at up to 28 Gb/s. The L-PIC operates on a standard single mode optical fiber, and includes integrated tap detectors for fiber alignment, system initialization and closed loop control. A single fiber aligned to the output edge coupler of this 4.1 x 6.5 mm die is the only optical requirement for implementing this device into QSFP28 transceiver applications. MACOM is also offering the MASC-37053A modulator driver integrated with CDR, matche with this L-PIC for optimized performance and power dissipation.



"Silicon-based photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, enable integration of optical devices such as modulators and multiplexer onto a single chip. We believe that MACOM's L-PIC solves the key challenge of aligning lasers to the silicon PIC with high yield and high coupling efficiency, making the adoption of Silicon PICs a reality for high-speed optical interconnects within the Datacenter," said Vivek Rajgarhia, Vice President of Strategy, High-Speed Networking, for MACOM. MACOM's L-PIC will be on display for private demonstrations at OFC 2016, Booth #3101, March 22-24th in Anaheim, CA (News - Alert). To make an appointment, contact your local sales representative. For more information on MACOM's broad optical and photonic portfolio at OFC click here.

ABOUT MACOM:

M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. (www.macom.com) is a leading supplier of high-performance analog RF, microwave, millimeter wave and photonic semiconductor products that enable next-generation internet and modern battlefield applications. Recognized for its broad catalog portfolio of technologies and products, MACOM serves diverse markets, including high speed optical, satellite, radar, wired and wireless networks, industrial, medical, and mobile devices. A pillar of the semiconductor industry, we thrive on more than 60 years of solving our customers' most complex problems, serving as a true partner for applications ranging from RF to Light. Headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, MACOM is certified to the ISO9001 international quality standard and ISO14001 environmental management standard. MACOM has design centers and sales offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. MACOM, M/A-COM, M/A-COM Technology Solutions, M/A-COM Tech, Partners in RF & Microwave, The First Name in Microwave and related logos are trademarks of MACOM. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about MACOM, please visit www.macom.com, follow @MACOMtweets on Twitter (News - Alert), join MACOM on LinkedIn, or visit the MACOM YouTube Channel. DISCLAIMER FOR NEW PRODUCTS:

Any express or implied statements in MACOM product announcements are not meant as warranties or warrantable specifications of any kind. The only warranty MACOM may offer with respect to any product sale is one contained in a written purchase agreement between MACOM and the purchaser concerning such sale and signed by a duly authorized MACOM employee, or, to the extent MACOM's purchase order acknowledgment so indicates, the limited warranty contained in MACOM's standard Terms and Conditions for Quotation or Sale, a copy of which may be found at: www.macom.com/support. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308006441/en/

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[March 08, 2016] Agribotix Your FarmLens Image Processing And Analytics Solution For Agriculture Drives Productivity, Profitability

BOULDER, Colo., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- From its headquarters where the Colorado Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, Agribotix LLC is reshaping the way coffee is grown near Bangalore, India, row crops in Brazil, and everything from cotton, to citrus, to soybeans and corn in the United States. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341809 Agribotix processes and analyzes agricultural data gathered by drones via its FarmLens cloud-based data analysis and reporting solution. The resulting intelligence is applied to increase yields, reduce input costs, and maximize profits while reducing the environmental footprint. Agribotix offers a "white label" version of its platform, called Your FarmLens to drone and agricultural service providers that have farmer customers. The service generates prescription maps for in-season fertilization, weed reports for geolocating resistant patches and estimating coverage, and specialized reporting such as thermal imaging, digital surface models, and historical weather data. At a recently concluded coffee conference in Mumbai, Jaisimha Rao, coffee plantation owner and founder of TartanSense, calls Your FarmLens a game changer. "Before drones, we made decisions without data to support them. Now we can eliminate wasted inputs, maximize our yield and increase profits," he said.



"Coffee plantations are large. Gathering data with drones gives us a level of detail about the entire field we didn't have before," said Rao. "When we upload images to our TartanSense FarmLens platform, we get back a nice map that shows the farmer precisely where he needs to take action." In Brazil, Luciano da Silveira Araujo is CEO of Elio, a company that provides agricultural insights to producers. "With the Elio FarmLens, drone service providers have access to a complete image processing and data analytics system. It's an incredible tool for us to find new customers. We work with some large producers in Brazil, with more than 150,000 hectares in cultivation. We chose Agribotix because they have an incredible team, and it's reflected in their products."

Back in the US, Phil Stiles, President of SkyViewHD, touts the advantages of the Your FarmLens solution. "Our crews can fly fields anywhere in the US and within a matter of hours, our clients can come to our website and see actionable data. It's a seamless interaction with our clients. The sophistication and quick turnaround enhances customer perception of our company. It's a fantastic user experience for the grower, and for us, with increased revenue plus reduced IT costs. Too often, technology companies develop solutions for problems that don't exist, whereas Agribotix created a solution that is exactly what the grower needs, and of course, enhances our relationships with our clients." To learn more about the Your FarmLens service, visit www.agribotix.com/yourfarmlens or call Jason Barton at (720) 295-3625. About Agribotix

Founded in Boulder, Colorado, in 2013, Agribotix LLC delivers agricultural intelligence to increase yields and profits using drone-enabled technologies. All Agribotix solutions include FarmLens, a leading cloud-based data analysis and reporting solution for people using drones in agriculture. Outputs include agricultural intelligence maps for in-season fertilization, georeferenced reports that can be used to identify resistant weed patches and estimate coverage, and specialized reporting that supports precision agriculture programs. The FarmLens solution is bundled with the Enduro agricultural drone system, which includes a long-range agricultural quad copter. For more information, visit www.agribotix.com or call (720) 295-3625. Contact: Christa Lassen-Vogel

+1 (720) 295-3625

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agribotix-your-farmlens-image-processing-and-analytics-solution-for-agriculture-drives-productivity-profitability-300232711.html SOURCE Agribotix LLC

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[March 08, 2016] Global Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Compatible Patient Monitoring System Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2020

LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) compatible patient monitoring system market is growing significantly due to technological advancement in MRI compatible monitors, and increasing number of MRI procedures. According to Magnetica, a MRI magnet and magnet sub system manufacturer, approximately 26.7 million MRI procedures were done in 2007 and the number has increased to approximately 30.2 million in 2010. Massive unexplored market in the MRI compatible patient monitoring system industry of developing economies are creating abundant opportunities for the MRI compatible patient monitoring system market to grow at a considerable rate during the projected years.



In addition, the advanced research and development facilities, and innovative product developments by the companies are propelling the growth of the MRI compatible patient monitoring system industry. As MRI investigations are lengthy, generally children or critically ill patients may require sedation to tolerate the procedure and remain immobile during the procedure. MRI procedure poses risk of life-threatening adverse events, such as respiratory depression and hypoxemia. According to Safety Committee of the Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI procedure should be physiologically monitored and supported with appropriate means. In addition, according to the guidelines issued by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization, patients under sedation or anesthesia require monitoring during the administration and recovery from these medications.



MRI compatible patient monitoring system helps in monitoring vital signs of the patient during the scan in order to identify physiological parameters and avoid any emerency condition during the scan. Vital signs monitored with the help of MRI compatible patient monitoring systems are mainly electrocardiography (ECG), invasive blood pressure (IBP), and pulse oximetry (SpO2). It is mainly used to ensure the patients basic cardiopulmonary parameters and temperature. It is essential for mentally unstable patients, neonatal and pediatric patients, sedated patients, patient with compromised physiologic function, patients who are not able to communicate, and high risk and critically ill patients.







Some of the factors driving the growth of the global MRI compatible patient monitoring system market are increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, upsurge in geriatric population, increasing number of hospitals and diagnostic centers, increasing lifestyle associated diseases, and increasing healthcare expenditure. In addition, the increasing government funding and support, and increasing healthcare awareness are also expected to fuel the growth of the market in the coming years. However, high cost and, strict regulatory requirements for the approval of devices are some of the factors restraining the growth of the global MRI compatible patient monitoring system market to some extent.



Geographically, North America will be leading the global MRI compatible patient monitoring system market in the coming years due to increasing geriatric population, increasing lifestyle associated diseases, and faster adoption of technologically advanced devices. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region in the global MRI compatible patient monitoring system market. The major reasons for the fastest growth of MRI compatible patient monitoring system market in the region are increasing healthcare awareness and increasing healthcare expenditure in the region. Moreover, the MRI compatible patient monitoring system market is growing due to refining healthcare infrastructure in the emerging countries, such as India and China .

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Website: www.reportbuyer.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri-compatible-patient-monitoring-system-market-size-share-development-growth-and-demand-forecast-to-2020-300232962.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

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New Delhi: The first batch of women fighter pilots will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on June 18. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said three women trainee officers have volunteered to be trained for combat role.

We inducted women as pilots in 1991 but only on helicopter and transport (planes). I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved the IAFs proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. Three women trainees are in the second phase of their training. The passing out parade is scheduled on June 18, the IAF chief said.

The three women cadets to be inducted as fighter pilots are Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh.

Meanwhile, for the first time in the counter-insurgency in India, women commandos have been given the combat role in the ongoing battle between security forces and Left-Wing extremists in Chhattisgarhs conflict zone of Bastar.

A senior police officer in Raipur, requesting anonymity, told this newspaper that women commandos had taken part in at least three recent counter-insurgency operations in south Bastar on an experimental basis.
What you need to know about Powerball and the $580 million jackpot
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Chennai: Madras High Court on Tuesday granted one-day parole to Rajiv Gandhi killer Nalini Sriharan to attend fathers memorial service.

Sriharan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, had moved the Madras High Court seeking three days leave from Tuesday for attending the 16th day obsequies of her father, who passed away last month, to held here on March 9.

24-hour parole starting from today at 4 pm to 4 pm tomorrow. The judge said she should be under police escort and be brought back to prison by 4 pm tomorrow.

In her petition, Nalini had submitted that she had made a representation on March 2 to the Superintendent of Special Prison for Women in Vellore, where she is lodged, seeking three days leave but the official had not responded so far.

She said she was granted parole for 12 hours on February 24 to attend the cremation of her father Sankaranarayanan. The 16th day obsequies of her father was scheduled to be held on March 9 in Karnatakas Kottur.

Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.
Way back in 2001, Australia was introduced to an artist called Selwyn, who was catapulted into the limelight after a stint on Channel Sevens Popstars. After leaving the show before the finals, Selwyn was picked up by Sony, who turned him into the equivalent of Australias Chris Brown.

Our boy Selwyn had massive success with his first album in 2002. Some of you might remember his ARIA-topping cover of Hall & Oates Rich Girl, which subsequently went gold.

After the success of his first album, which included another two ARIA Top 20s, he felt untouchable, but after his sophomore album flopped he promptly parted with the label and returned to his normal life.

In a recent News Corp article, Selwyn discussed going back to the humble life after his brief time at the top. His money had dried up but he had found love, marrying a salsa dancer and welcoming a son into the family.

Forced to re-enter the workforce to support his family, Selwyn took a job with his wifes brother before their marriage broke down and he was forced to look elsewhere for a gig.

Since then hes been working a slew of odd jobs. I got a bit of a crap job just driving a forklift in a warehouse, he said in the recent interview, I also did phone work for a charity.

Now with a new lease on life Selwyn is ready to get back on the mic, so get keen Aussie R&B fans, ya boy Selwyns makin a comeback!
The Punjab government had a month back constituted a state-level advisory committee to review the situation of H1N1 in the state (Photo: PTI)

Chandigarh: Swine flu has so far claimed 61lives in Punjab, with 30 succumbing to H1N1 virus in the state in past one month alone.

"Sixty-one persons have died due to swine flu in Punjab so far. The number of positive cases reported until yesterday stands at 163," state's nodal officer for Swine Flu Dr Gagandeep Singh Grover said.

Most of the deaths reported were from Bathinda, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Ludhiana followed by Moga and Muktsar districts, he said.

"We are going to notify this disease after which it will be mandatory to report the disease to authorities/health department. This will allow the authorities to monitor the disease and provide early warning of possible outbreaks..," Grover said.

The Punjab government had a month back constituted a state-level advisory committee to review the situation of H1N1 in the state and give recommendations on prevention and control of the deadly disease.

"The committee has found that most of the people who have died were suffering from other chronic diseases and most patients reported to government hospitals only when their condition had worsened," he said.

"Sometimes, patients who reported to government hospitals died within a day or just few hours as they reported late," he said.

The Nodal officer said an advisory has already been issued to hospitals to provide immediate treatment to suspected swine flu patients without conducting tests.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Haryana swine flu has claimed five lives --two from Hisar, one each from Jind, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts, Dr Aprajita Sondh, Haryana State Surveillance Officer (IDSP), said, adding until yesterday, 59 positive cases were reported.
It seems that the lesson for today is that there's no end in sight for the divisive racial drama that has plagued Missouri for more than a couple of years now.To wit . . . Take a look at more protesting on the UM campus as a legendary moviemaker is now on his way to document one aspect of the recent drama.Developing . . .
The latest from MD Alam . . . "Great meeting with Senator and my candidate Bernie Sanders - from the campaign Trail in Michigan on the Democratic Primary Eve"

South Kansas City activist MD Alam continues to keep busy during election season. This organizer of theandremains enthusiastic about this battle betwixt Democratic Party factions.More video from outside the rally . . .Developing . . .
Mixed trends in the fundamentals of Mediterranean hotels are recorded in January 2016 compared to the same month of 2015.

The report is published exclusively on Tornos News (www.tornosnews.gr) and can be downloaded free of charge.

The report records the changes in occupancy, average price and revenue per available room regarding hotels located in Greece, France, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia.

Read the absolute numbers and percentage changes for all hotel sizes per country in the survey's full text.

Download freely for a year the MKG Mediterranean HIT Report (Hotel Industry Trends) exclusively at Tornos News

Tornos News will also host at regular intervals MKG Group President and CEO Georges Panayotis' articles.

MKG Group profile

MKG Group is a European-based company, headquartered in Paris, France. The group operates various divisions within the tourism, hotel and hospitality sector, namely monitoring global trends in supply, demand and pipeline growth, including the worldwide chain hotel brand and chain hotel group rankings, as well as conducting specialised ad hoc industry research for various stakeholders, including private investors, developers, hoteliers (chain groups and independent properties), government and tourism associations, banking and financial institutions,and hedge funds.

MKG is the official industry monitor for a number of European tourism organisations, such as the French Ministry of Tourism, Tourism Office Lyon, Tourism office Brussels, offices in Spain, the Netherlands, and the European City Marketing Association (ECM). MKG also regularly supplies various other t ourism organisations and NGOs with trends and analytical reports, including fractions of the European Union, UN such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the UNWTO's International Labour Organization, as well as a number of hospitality educational institutions in Europe.

MKGs database represents the largest industry performance sample in the EMEA region, supplied directly by all leading international chain hotels, as well as many regional groups and independent properties. MKG is associated with MKG Hospitality, HotelCompSet, MKG Qualiting, Hospitality-ON.com media platform, the Global Lodging Forum (GLF), Worldwide Hospitality Awards, and Hotel Class, the official hotel rating agency in France.

The group was founded in 1985 and currently has 110 employees. It contributed to the development of over 2.000 hotels in France, has offices in Paris, London, Cyprus and Athens and offers a printed and digital information service in English and French:

** Hospitality ON Web: http://mkg-group.com/en/our-events-and-the-press/hospitality-on-web

** Hospitality ON Magazine: http://mkg-group.com/en/our-events-and-the-press/hospitality-on-magazine





City Contact company profile

City Contact was founded in 1996 in order to provide printed information to foreign and domestic visitors of Greece's major hotels. It has currently developed an Info Stand and Visitor's Free Editions and Brochures information network, collaborating exclusively with 220 top Athens, Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, Thessaloniki, Santorini and Mykonos hotels.

Moreover, it covers printed information needs of tourists by offering free publications at conferences, travel agencies, public institutions, trade fairs, embassies, yacht marinas, etc.

In 2004, the company initiated the Athens Walking Tours, drawing upon the extensive experience of its staff, and, ever since, these tours have turned into one of the most acclaimed and innovative tourism activities in Athens.

Athens Walking Tours offer today, on a daily and all year round basis, high-quality, historical and gastronomic interest guided tours to visitors of Athens, Chania and other popular Greek tourist destinations.

Tornos News was created by City Contact in April 2014 and is currently listed as the No. 1 news site * for Greek tourism professionals, with more than 250,000 unique readers **.

* http: //www.alexa.com (Oct 2015)

** Tornos News, Google Analytics (Oct 2014-Oct 2015)
Tourexpi, turizm haberleri, Reiseburos, tourism news, noticias de turismo, Tourismus Nachrichten,  , travel tourism news, international tourism news, Urlaub, urlaub in der turkei,  , holidays in Turkey,   , global tourism news, dunya turizm, dunya turizm haberleri, Seyahat Acentas,

This site is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+, at a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768.
Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco's largest bank by assets, plans to bid for the Egyptian operations of Barclays, a senior executive told Reuters on Tuesday.



Barclays said last week it will sell its Africa business as Chief Executive Jes Staley attempts to simplify the bank's structure and seek higher shareholder returns.



The British lender plans to sell its 62 percent stake in Barclays Africa Group over the next two to three years. It will also sell its separate operations in Egypt and Zimbabwe.



"Egypt we will look at and we already signalled that to Barclays. Once the competitive process starts we hope to receive the documents and decide accordingly," Attijariwafa Bank General Manager Ismail Douiri said in an interview on the sidelines of an event in Dubai.



Sources familiar with the sale said the equity size of Barclays' Egyptian unit was around $400 million.



Barclays has 56 branches and serves around 127,000 customers in Egypt, where it first established a foothold in 1864, according to the bank's website.



Attijariwafa has a presence in 24 countries, including 14 in Africa.



The bank has been keen to expand into Egypt for several years and reached the final stages in bidding for BNP Paribas' Egyptian retail business, which was eventually sold to Dubai bank Emirates NBD in 2013, Douiri said.



He said Attijariwafa is not interested in Barclays Africa Group - which runs Absa in South Africa and Barclays-branded operations in a number of other countries - as it would not likely offer a majority stake and is largely made up of South Africa, a highly competitive market.



Attijariwafa, 48 percent controlled by Moroccan royal family holding SNI, aims to grow its net banking income from outside Morocco to 30 percent over the next five years, from 27 percent now, he said. A large acquisition may add an additional 10 percent to that ratio, he added.



The bank is also examining Nigeria for acquisition opportunities, he said.



Egypt and Nigeria are among the largest banking markets in Africa with populations of around 90 million and 170 million, respectively.



The bank is targeting loans and deposit growth of 4 to 5 percent in 2016 after a dip in growth last year, he said.-Reuters
A plan is afoot to establish a new city in Egypt's Suez governorate that will boast of several key facilities including residential units, park, a factory and other amenities.



The governorate will send a general plan to the government and the presidency for the new city to be developed on a vast area in Oyoun Mousa district, east of the SuezCanal zone, reported Daily News Egypt, citing a senior official.



The Suez Canal area will be converted into an economic authority and will work as a single-window in completing all investors' procedures, separate from all ruling legislations of economic activity in Egypt, Ahmed Al Hayatmi, the governor of Suez, was quoted as saying.



The project, which targets public and private investments, aims to attract foreign investment, develop industries, and export to gain foreign currency, he added.
Saudi-based Red Sea Housing Services Company (RSHS) said it has been awarded a QR144-million ($39.5 million) contract to build an integrated accommodations facility in Qatar.



As per the deal awarded by Daruna for Real Estate Brokerage, the company will provide complete infrastructure and housing development to support a 4,000-strong community.



The communitys facilities include accommodation blocks, indoor and outdoor recreation, utilities, mini-markets, police/security station, a bank, a clinic and other miscellaneous outlets, said the Saudi company.



Donnie Sumner, the president of Red Sea Housing (Middle East), said: "We are delighted to enhance our footprint in Qatar through this deal with Daruna. The project demonstrates the acute need for high quality, large-scale communities which enable our clients to operate at full performance in comfortable, clean and superior conditions."



The project will be financed from existing bank facilities and internal cash flow, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Kolkata: WBPCC general secretary Om Prakash Mishra will contest against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the prestigious Bhabanipur seat in the city in the coming Assembly election, state Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said on Tuesday.



Announcing the list of 75 constituencies Congress would contest in the Assembly election, Chowdhury said the names of the candidates would be announced by the high command.



"But Mishra will contest against Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur. We are sending the list of candidates to the party high command and request them to clear Mishra's name first," he said.



Mishra, a Jadavpur University professor, had unsuccessfully contested from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat on Congress ticket in 2014.



Bhabanipur is one of the five seats in the metropolis where the Congress will field its candidates as part of its seat adjustment with the Left Front.



As per the list declared by the party, it would contest Chowringhee, Ballygunge, Rashbehari and Jorasanko besdies Bhabanipur seats also.



Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is seeking a re-election from Bhabanipur.



Chwodhury said the party wants to put candidates in 100 seats and talks were on with the left front in this regard.
Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D) has announced the keynote speakers for its Annual Research Conference 2016 (ARC16), taking place on March 22 and 23 at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).



ARC16 will bring together thought leaders, scientists, and researchers from Qatar and around the world to discuss trending industry developments. The multitude of conversations expected to take place at the conference will address the nations Research Grand Challenges.



The opening keynote panelists for ARC16 will include Dr Hassan Al-Derham, president of Qatar University; Dr Elias Zerhouni, president of Global R&D, Sanofi, France, and former director of the National Institutes of Health, USA; Suresh Sachi, deputy managing director of Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore; and Christopher Coburn, vice president, Innovation, Partners HealthCare, USA.



The keynote panel discussion, entitled Strategic Investment in Research and Innovation for Society, will be moderated by Dr Maher Hakim, associate professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q).



Dr Hakim said: It is an honour to be moderating the ARC16 keynote panel discussion. The expert panel will address commercialisation of research and innovation, instilling an entrepreneurial spirit in Qatars researchers and scientists, and the encouragement of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).



These topics are central to Qatars mission to enhance the nations technology innovation and product development capacity. I believe that the wealth of expertise each of the panelists has in his respective field will offer invaluable insights and will make the discussion interesting and rewarding.



During ARC16, a number of panel discussions will be held to enable local, regional, and international delegates to discuss a wide range of critical research challenges. These include Qatar's water and cyber security, solar and renewable energy solutions, and healthcare, as well as the social challenges and opportunities facing Qatar and the region.



Furthermore, a series of events organised by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), another member of QF R&D, will run alongside ARC16. Taking place on March 21, the 8th Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) enables students to gain invaluable R&D experience under the guidance of senior faculty members.



In addition, the Sustainable Urbanism Workshop will explore various topics on urban sustainability. At the conference, QNRF will conduct a meeting with the National Research Fund of Korea.  TradeArabia News Service
Despite the prevailing economic challenges, the UAE will continue with its long-term diversification plan, according to Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Mubadalas managing director and group chief executive officer.



Speaking at the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Al Mubarak explained that the UAE has always will think in terms of decades rather than months or years, describing the country as an oasis of security in this region.



He emphasised the importance of innovation and partnership for economic diversification and defined how moving away from oil and gas has always been part of the UAEs strategy and vision.



Industries such as aerospace and aviation remain key drivers for such divergence. Al Mubarak reiterated the UAEs deep and lasting commitment to these industries as keepers of its economic mission and added that the current economic climate reinforces and strengthens the UAEs focus in these areas.



Al Mubarak said: It is critical for any business to reflect on economic challenges, as well as those on the horizon. No globally focused business can be immune to the current economic conditions. What is critical is how you react to these challenges. The UAE has always, and will continue to plan, in terms of decades, rather than months or years.



He added that as CEO of Mubadala, one of the vehicles established to drive economic diversification across a range of strategic sectors in the country, the messages he received from the UAEs leadership reinforce one key strategic message: Operational efficiency is always vital in the face of volatility, but our strategic direction remains clear and our long-term focus remains intact.



James Hogan, president and chief executive officer for Etihad Airways, the summits official airline, explained the airlines strategy and vision and how it has always reflected a culture of collaboration. He commented that the creation of Etihad Airways has been about innovation, diversification and taking advantage of a global market through codeshares, alliances and investments.



Our partnerships with pioneering firms such as Masdar, Boeing, Total, IBM and SAP have opened up major opportunities for us by working as one source across the aviation group. For us its about economic and operational cooperation and looking at synergies that focus on guest experience and choice. Innovation such as The Residence was a result of a seven-year research and development programme led by Etihad Design Consortium which today has changed the flying experience.



Other examples of innovation include our work with Masdar on fog prediction, our new digital innovation programme and the fact that we are developing the very best guest experience for our new home  the Midfield Terminal Building. We are working with technology experts to develop smarter maintenance and smarter baggage systems. No one has the monopoly on innovation  ideas can occur anywhere in the organisation by anyone. We must stay flexible and agile  in a world growing at different rates. The Global Aerospace Summit gives us a fantastic opportunity to exchange ideas and think about new solutions to challenges and we are delighted to welcome industry leaders to Abu Dhabi, Hogan said.



Dr Mohammed Al Ahbabi, director general of the UAE Space Agency, said: We see space as a key element for diversification and transformation of our economy from a resources based economy to a knowledge based economy, and were already well along that road. The UAE Space Agency recognises the importance of space exploration in the greater context of advancing humanities legacy. We are firm believers in working together with all competent entities in the field of space towards the common goal of fostering the well-being of humankind.



The development of space technologies and the space sector are catalysts for economic development and diversification. It creates job opportunities and allows us to enable scientists and engineers to become pioneers of an industry that can bring huge benefits to our daily lives. Many technologies that we use today stem from the developments made within the space industry.



Around 1,000 C-level executives and from 59 countries attended the first day of the two-day summit to discuss the most pressing issues and trends within the aviation, aerospace, space and defence industries.



Organised by Streamline Marketing Group, the summit is an invitation-only strategic forum, covering a wide-range of topics including globalisation, workforce challenges, air traffic management, safety and sustainability.



This years summit is part of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Aviation and Aerospace Week, which is held under the patronage of HH General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. - TradeArabia News Service
Kuwait will commit to a potential global oil production freeze only if major oil producers, including Iran, agreed to join the pact, the Gulf Opec member's acting oil minister said on Tuesday.



"If there is an agreement, Kuwait will commit to the freeze," Anas Al-Saleh told reporters in Kuwait city.



Asked what would happen if not all producers agreed to join in the freeze deal, he said: "I'll go full power if there's no agreement. Every barrel I produce I'll sell."



Kuwait is currently producing 3 million barrels of oil per day, he said.



Opec leader Saudi Arabia and non-Opec producer Russia, the world's two largest oil exporters, agreed last month to freeze output at January levels to prop up prices if other nations agreed to join the first global oil pact in 15 years. - Reuters
Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Pearl  Doha scooped three awards at the Food & Travel 2016 GCC Awards, held in Bahrain on last month.



Marsa Malaz Kempinski was selected as the 'GCCs Best Resort Hotel', while El Faro as named the 'Best Spanish Restaurant', and Antica Pesa was recognised as the 'Best Newcomer Restaurant'. All the awards are significant achievements, considering the hotel has been open for just over one year and that the nominees were many elite restaurants and hotels spread across the GCC.



The ceremony took place under the patronage of Zayed R. Alzayani, Bahrains Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, and was attended by Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority acting chief executive Shaikh Khalid bin Hamoud Al Khalifa, diplomats and more than 120 hospitality leaders and other guests.



The Food & Travel Awards highlight the excellence of the regions hotels and restaurants. The initial call for nominations was sent out in February last year, with the winners selected by a team from Food & Travel, along with expert panellists, who also incorporated public opinion by way of over 263,000 votes.

The hotel also won the Qatar awards for the 'Best Resort Hotel', the 'Best Middle Eastern Restaurant' for Al Sufra and the 'Best Italian Restaurant' for Antica Pesa.



Wissam Suleiman, general manager of Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Pearl  Doha, said: "We are honoured to be recognised by such a prestigious publication as the Food & Travel Arabia magazine. Our management team and staff have contributed significantly to the hotels accomplishments since the opening, and we are all very appreciative of the support from our valued guests." - TradeArabia News Service
The 23rd edition of Arabian Travel Market (ATM), a leading travel trade event taking place in Dubai this April, is turning its focus to mid-market tourism  a key area of opportunity for Middle East destinations looking to diversify their source markets and attract a larger volume of visitors.



Organised by Reed Travel Exhibitions, ATM will take place at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) from April 25 to 28.



As tourism infrastructure across the Gulf and beyond continues on its high profile development path, our spotlight theme for 2016 has turned to mid-market tourism, said Nadege Noblet-Segers, exhibition manager, Arabian Travel Market. This has been identified as both an underdeveloped and potential growth area for the region, driven by demand from the growing middle class markets such as China, India and Africa combined with budget Generation Y travellers and young families.



A key point of discussion will be the number of new hotel rooms entering the market, including the share that is planned to be in the four- and three-star classification. According to the January Pipeline Report from STR Global, there are 538 hotels totaling 151,771 rooms under contract in the Middle East and 321 hotels totaling 62,194 rooms under contract in Africa. Makkah, Saudi Arabia, reported the largest number of rooms under construction with 21,068 rooms in 13 hotels. Three other markets reported more than 5,000 rooms under construction: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (19,846 rooms in 63 hotels); Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (6,738 rooms in 30 hotels); and Doha, Qatar (5,980 rooms in 26 hotels). Dubai, for instance, currently has a total hotel key count of approximately 94,000 and this figure is set to rise to between 140,000 and 160,000 keys by 2020 with around 20% set to target the mid-market hotel sector, according to a recent Knight Frank report.



Midmarket focused seminars include the opening session, Dubai of the Future, taking place on April 25 from 13:00 - 14:30 on the new ATM Global Stage. Panelists including Gerald Lawless, Head of Tourism, Dubai Holding will pinpoint the source markets Dubai should be targeting including midmarket travellers, families, young independent travellers and couples, as well as the high-growth-potential BRIC countries in order to evolve over the next two decades.



The mid-market strategies session, taking place on 26 April from 13:15 - 14:15, also on the ATM Global Stage, is designed specifically to identify who the midmarket traveller is, where they come from and what they want. Confirmed panelists include, Dr. Amine Moukarzel, President of Louvre Hotels Group MENA, Hilton Worldwide.



An additional exhibition hall has been added this year to cater to rising demand. ATM 2016 will welcome over 400 main stand holders and over 2,800 exhibiting companies with more than 26,000 visitors expected. Over 80 countries will be represented by exhibitors and over 150 countries will be represented by pre-registered visitors. A total of over 100 exhibitors are new this year and there are over 60 country pavilions.



Other new features at this years event include the Wellness & Spa Lounge, a dedicated space for 25 exhibitors designed to connect Middle East wellness and spa buyers with international suppliers in a series of exclusive pre-scheduled appointments on 26 and 27 April. There will also be a series on seminars taking place in the Showcase Theatre



There is also a valuable new networking feature for exhibitors and travel bloggers. The ATM Bloggers' Speed Networking will provide an opportunity for up to 40 travel bloggers to take part in mini-meetings with exhibitors to explore ways to work together in the future. Bloggers will be grouped by geography and by travel sector such as luxury travel, family travel, food and more. The event will take place on Thursday 28th April from 10am to 11am in Hall 8.The Travel Agent Academy will take place on the final day of the exhibition.



Other highlights this year include the popular Travel Tech Show at ATM.



The region has seen phenomenal growth in online engagement in the last two years, transitioning from a traditional face-to-face booking model to a new virtual reality where 24/7 updated information is a basic expectation and speed of access is essential when it comes to planning, researching and booking, said Nadege Noblet-Segers. Airlines and hotels are the acknowledged market leaders when it comes to highly effective online marketing and consumer engagement. This is an area where all industry players need to ensure that they look at increasing market share and awareness through a blend of creative messaging, teamed with ongoing technology investment, especially when it comes to mobile applications.



All of this is complemented by over 50 wide-ranging seminar and tech theatre sessions with topics covering mid-market travel, luxury, aviation, technology trends, spa and wellness tourism, business, adventure and halal tourism. Responsible tourism is also a key focus and will headline several seminar theatre sessions with exhibitors including The Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia, Namibia Tourism Board, Gray Line and FHRI Hotels & Resorts, tour operators, airlines and other industry sub-sectors focusing additional resources on exploring new opportunities in this area.



Popular annual features include the easy-to-follow exhibition trails covering mid-market travel, halal tourism, business travel, health & wellbeing, shopping, transportation, cultural and heritage and adventure travel.



There is also the high profile New Frontiers Recovery Awards, which recognises the efforts of those nations that have suffered devastating economic and human losses in the last 12 months, as a result of natural disasters. This years shortlist includes Taiwan, Philippines and Nepal



Also on the agenda is the prestigious ATM Leaders Breakfast that will welcome 100 heads of private sector travel organisations to this exclusive by invitation only event. The breakfast will be hosted in Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai on April 27.



Following the success of its inauguration in 2015, the ATM Best Stand Awards are back for a second innings and will see a line-up of top judges and visitors to the annual industry event acknowledge the design creativity and positioning of exhibiting companies physical presence at the annual showcase.



Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, the show has grown to become the largest showcase of its kind in the region and one of the biggest in the world.



For more information on Arabian Travel Market 2016, log on to: www.arabiantravelmarket.com. - TradeArabia News Service
Rotana, a leading hotel management company in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe, has announced its participation at ITB Berlin  the worlds leading travel trade show taking place in Germany from March 9 to 13.



Rotana has had a successful 2015 where we managed to continue on our expansion path despite tough market conditions, and we have a number of new openings scheduled throughout 2016 that will further strengthen our portfolio and market leadership. Our interest in Germany as a source market for our properties remains robust  highlighting the important place we believe this market holds in our wider growth plans. ITB has always proven to be an indispensable platform for information-sharing and networking and we are excited to share our key highlights and future plans with the travel trade community at this years event, said Omer Kaddouri, president and CEO, Rotana.



Rotanas impressive mix of properties that cater to a wide variety of guest needs means that the company has already established itself as a popular brand for visitors from Germany. Our business from Germany contributes to 11 per cent of the entire business across all our properties in all cities and 16% in the UAE  a spike of 13% from 2014, he added.



With the UAE increasingly being chosen by German tourists as a value-for-money destination, these figures are expected to grow higher this year as our diverse range of offerings, such as our beach resorts, continue to cater to their leisure needs. Also, a large number of German tourists look for cultural experiences to enhance their travels, and in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in particular we have a lot to offer in this regard. Our properties in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah too are major draws for tourists from Germany, and we are looking towards high-level networking events such as the ITB to try and increase the number of German overnight guests at our hotels in Al Ain, Kaddouri continued.



Strategic partnerships such as the one between Etihad and Air Berlin as well as special air travel deals offered by German tour operators are expected to further boost inbound tourism from Germany, driven by multiple factors such as flight affordability, frequency and connectivity. The steady increase in the number of young single travellers from Germany is also opening new opportunities for players such as Rotana.



Rotana has already launched a wide range of unique properties this year, in keeping with its guests evolving needs for comfort and style in key markets across the region. Rotanas impressive expansion plans for 2016 witnessed the inauguration of a number of properties in the first two months of the year including Dalga Residences by Rotana, Turkey; Downtown Rotana, Bahrain; and City Centre Rotana, Qatar, adding a combined 697 keys to the groups existing inventory of 13,296 rooms.



Upcoming Rotana properties set to open within the first half of the year include Centro Capital Doha (April 1); Kin Plaza Arjaan by Rotana, Kinshasa (Q2 2016)  marking Rotanas entry into the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Amman Rotana in Jordan (Q2 2016) Rotanas second Jordanian property featuring 412 rooms and suites and world-class facilities; Vazo Residences by Rotana (Q2 2016), Turkey - located on the Asian side of Istanbul; two luxury properties in Saudi Arabia Rosh Rayhaan (Q2 2016) in Riyadh and Centro Shaheen (Q2 2016) in Jeddah both located minutes away from the countrys high-end shopping districts and business centres. These hotels will add a further 1,364 rooms to Rotanas inventory.



Rotanas end-of-the-year plans include the opening of five new properties in the region in Q4  2016, including Capital Centre Rotana, located in the heart of Abu Dhabi, Erbil Arjaan by Rotana in Iraq and three new properties in Saudi Arabia Centro Waha and Centro Olaya in Riyadhs business district as well as the four-star Centro Corniche in Al Khobar that offers luxury long-term stay for business travellers and families alike. - TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi: "HRD Minister is acting like the patron saint of ABVP", eight Opposition parties including Congress, Left and AAP said on Tuesday while accusing the Modi government of harassing Allahabad University Student's Union President Richa Singh.

Drawing parallel with dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad University and the JNU row involving Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest, leaders from the parties in a joint statement trained their guns on HRD Minister Smriti Irani reminding her that she is a minister of the entire country and not just the RSS and BJP.

Jairam Ramesh and Rajeev Shukla (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Javed Ali Khan (Samajwdi Party), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Bhagwant Man (AAP) and Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD), who signed the joint statement said they are "aghast" that University administration across the region are "hunting" students, who have a different view than that of the ABVP.

"We are agonized over the fact that the first ever lady President of Allahabad University Student's Union Richa Singh is being harassed by the administration...," they said.

"A government, which refuses to learn that autonomy of education institution is foundation of democracy, is sowing widespread discontent in campuses by its blatant support to ABVP's goondaism," they said.

Noting that Richa Singh, a PhD scholar, had won as an independent candidate in Allahabad University while all the other seats were won by ABVP, the leaders claimed that she came into the eye of the storm for protesting against the proposed visit of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.

"ABVP members allegedly attacked the protestors but instead of investigating the attack, an enquiry was set up on Richa Singh herself. Further, there is a move now by the Vice Chancelor to declare her admission null and void, using some technical grounds, in order to get rid of what appears to be the only thorn in ABVP's side.

"We are aghast that University administration across the region are hunting students, who have a different view thatn the ABVP," the said.

Alleging that the HRD Minister is acting like the "patron saint of ABVP", they said, "we wish to remind her that she is a minister of this vast, diverse country and not just the RSS/BJP.

"It is her responsibility to encourage and protect all Constitutitional freedoms in University campuses. If Richa Singh is made a victim of ABVP's diktats, on the heels of Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar, then the students of this nation will be forced to rise in revolt," the statement said.
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New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday welcomed the government's decision to rollback tax on Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals and said that it was because of his pressure that the ruling dispensation provided relief to the salaried class.

"I told the government that they should not oppress the salaried-class. So, the rollback of the government is a good decision," Gandhi told the media.

"Whenever somebody is being oppressed wrongly or victimized, I tend to try and help those people. I felt that the salaried and the middle-class people were being hurt by the government. So, I decided to put some pressure on the government. I am happy that they have got some relief," he added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced relief on the issue of tax on EPF withdrawals, which was proposed in the Union Budget on February 29, 2016.

As per the announcement made by Jaitley in the Lok Sabha, the common man is liable for no tax on withdrawal from EPF and other superannuation funds.

In the recent budget, the government has proposed that withdrawal in excess of 40 percent of the accumulated corpus will be taxed.

The Finance Minister made it clear that the aim of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is to create an insured India and presumptive taxes will benefit the small and medium taxpayers.

In his post-Budget 2016-17 interaction with industry chambers, Jaitley had pointed that the revenue department is doing an important job to make sure that people comply.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with party leaders Randeep Surjewala and Motilal Vohra at AICC headquarters in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi would be the partys star campaigner in the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, going to the polls in the next couple of months. He is expected to address more meetings than party chief Sonia Gandhi.

While the real players in the electoral battle would be regional leaders like chief ministers Tarun Gogoi and Oommen Chandy, besides Mr A.K. Antony, Mr Vayalar Ravi, Mr V.M. Sudheeran, Mr Ramesh Chennithala, Mr Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mr Somen Mitra, and Ms Deepa Das Munshi, it will be interesting to see whether former Union minister P. Chidambaram leads the partys campaign in Tamil Nadu against the ruling AIADMK.

The Congress is fighting the polls in direct and indirect alliances with like-minded parties in almost all the four states and one Union Territory.

It is unclear whether the Congress leadership will address meetings jointly with its senior ally, the DMK, in Tamil Nadu.

Although the polls will be fought on local issues, the debate initiated by the BJP on nationalists versus anti-nationals could polarise voters in Assam and Kerala, sources said.

Meanwhile, Mrs Gandhi on Monday constituted the election committee, campaign committee, manifesto committee and publicity committee for the electoral battle to be fought against regional players and the BJP.

While the 18-member Assam Pradesh election committee is headed by PCC chief Anjan Dutta, the 18-member West Bengal Congress election committee is headed by PCC president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and the 90-member campaign committee will be led by MP Pradeep Bhattacharya. The eight-member West Bengal Congress manifesto committee is headed by Mr Somen Mitra and the eight-member publicity committee of the state Congress by Mr A.H. Khan Choudhary.

While the Congress is going virtually alone in Assam, it is fighting the Kerala and Tamil Nadu polls under fronts. In West Bengal, it will have an understanding with the Left against the Trinamool Congress.
Hyderabad: Striking a discordant note, CPI on Tuesday said it would be a part of the Left Front in West Bengal, but would have no understanding with Congress in the state assembly elections.

"As far as we are concerned, we are part of the Left Front (in West Bengal) and we are not having any adjustment with Congress. We have no discussions. As per our knowledge, discussions have not taken place between Left Front and Congress," CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters here.

He was replying to a query on Left Front chairman Biman Bose announcing yesterday that they have reached an "understanding" with Congress to fight jointly against ruling Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal elections beginning next month.

Announcing the names of 116 candidates out of a total 294 seats, Bose had said, we have welcomed an understanding with Congress to remove Trinamool from the state. Front, alliance and understanding are not the same thing.

"Such news reports (understanding between Left and Congress) came earlier and today," Reddy said.

Asked if CPI would accept if the CPI(M) went ahead with the understanding with the Congress, he said, "We (CPI) are contesting as part of Left Front. Naturally, we have no alliance with Congress in any seat. We don't support Congress in any seat. We don't expect Congress to support us".

CPI has decided contest 16 seats in West Bengal, he said. In Kerala, CPI decided to contest in 29 or 30 assembly segments, Reddy said. The final understanding among the LDF partners would be announced in a couple of days in Kerala.

Claiming that the ruling UDF got "defamed", he felt that the LDF's chances to win are bright.

The alliance in Tamil Nadu comprising CPI, CPI(M), MDMK and VCK has got encouraging response, Reddy said, adding that more parties would join the coalition.

CPI has identified 65 constituencies to contest in Tamil Nadu but is ready to adjust for the sake of friendly parties.

Except SUCI, all other Left parties have decided to fight together in Assam assembly polls, in which CPI would contest in 18 constituencies.
New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA Government today hit back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and said the grand old party's hall mark all these years has been 'words for the poor, deeds for the rich'.

"The Congress vice-president says that the government may attack him personally but don't attack the poor. I want to tell him that you (Congress) are attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally, even about his dress and other things also. You attack and we cannot stop that, but don't attack the people, particularly the poor, by stalling the Parliament, by stalling important legislations connected with the welfare of the people. That is my appeal to the Congress Party," Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu said.

"You have ignored poor all these days. 'Words for the poor, deeds for the rich' has been the hallmark of your government for all these years," he added.

The minister's comment came a day after the Congress-vice president accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government of crushing the voices of poor and weak and dared the ruling dispensation, saying 'attack me but spare the poor people of the country'.

Gandhi, who met a delegation of tribals from Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, said that the government was oppressing anyone who spoke against them.

"Our tribal brothers and sisters from Bastar have come to meet me. They told me that they are being threatened and oppressed in Chhattisgarh. The nation is not going to gain from the oppression of people. In Hyderabad, you oppressed Rohith Vemula, here you are trying to oppress Kanhaiya and students. The NDA Government is trying to crush the voices of poor and the weak," he told the media here.

"Narendra Modi and his Cabinet will attack me. Modi even attacked me personally. People of his party attack me daily. Attack me as much as you want, but do not crush the poor, labourers, farmers, adivasis, Dalits. Attack me, but spare the poor people of the country," he added.
Around 9,70,000 US Facebook users are expected to die by the end of 2016.

Facebook, the biggest social networking website in the world, is the virtual home to more than 1.6 billion monthly active users as of 2015, according to a statistics portal. Well, these are rather big numbers and hats off to the social networking giants for monitoring so many profiles, and keeping millions of people connected.

However, have you ever thought what happens to these profiles after the owner dies? We are guessing not many people have wasted time speculating on such a diminutive issue. But there is one bizarre fact which will leave you tangled.

According to researchers, the social media giant will become the largest virtual graveyard by the end of this centurywhich means there will be more dead profiles on the website than living ones by 2098. Now thats scary!

University of Massachusetts statistician Hachem Sadikki told the Daily Mail that the social giant will turn into the worlds biggest virtual graveyard by 2098.

Considering that Facebook is a fairly young company, the number of profiles of dead people on the website has increased rapidly since its formation in 2004. Consequently, the social networking giants policy to keep dead user profile data and turn it into a memorialised version will see an out-and-out increase in the number of dead profiles.

Digital Beyond, a blogging company about digital existence, indicated that approximately 9,72,000 US Facebook users will die in 2016! If you think thats a considerable number for a year, imagine the total tally of deaths after taking the whole world in to account.

There have been numerous incidents in the past where the companys weird policy has been criticised heavily from numerous users. In the past some of them have complained that the website showed the photos of dead people on their year in review videos in 2015.

There have been instances where individuals have also reported receiving birthday notifications of dead users. As weird as this might sound, such an incident can lead to extreme emotional trauma, or fear; it is disrespectful to some extent as well.

Facebook has tried to mend the problem by asking users to appoint a legacy contact just like a beneficiary. The legacy contact can then perform the last virtual rights by posting one last status, accepting pending friend requests, and even changing the display and cover picture.

Facebook has not yet given any comments regarding the issue, according to media reports.

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Twitter lauded for increasing efforts to thwart Islamic State's use of its platform for recruitment and propaganda.

Mumbai: Officials with the nonprofit Simon Wiesenthal Center praised Twitter on Monday for increasing efforts to thwart Islamic State's use of its platform for recruitment and propaganda.

The centre's Digital Terrorism and Hate Project gave Twitter a grade of "B" in a report card of social networking companies' efforts to fight online activity by militant groups such as IS.

"We think they are definitely heading in the right direction," the project's director, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of Monday's release of the report card at a press conference in New York.

He said the review was based on steps that Twitter has already taken and information that centre staff learned in face-to-face meetings with company representatives.

Islamic State has long relied on Twitter to recruit and radicalize new adherents. The Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, has been one of toughest critics of Twitter's strategy for combating those efforts.

Some vocal Twitter critics have tempered their views since December, when the site revised its community policing policies, clearly stating that it banned "hateful conduct" that promotes violence against specific groups and would delete offending accounts.

Researchers with George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism last month reported that Islamic State's English-language reach on Twitter stalled last year amid a stepped-up crackdown by the company against the extremist group's army of digital proselytizers.

Last year, the centre gave Twitter a grade of "C" in a report card that covered efforts to fight terrorism along with hate speech. This year it gave two grades, awarding Twitter a "D" on hate speech, saying the company needed to do more to censor the accounts of groups that promote hate.

A Twitter spokesman declined comment, but pointed to a statement on the company's blog posted February 5 on combating violent extremism.

"We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behaviour, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service," Twitter said in the blog.

Among other major Internet firms included in this year's survey, Facebook got an "A-" for terrorism and a "B-" for hate.

Cooper said Facebook "understood" the gravity of the issue before most companies, set up a team of monitors worldwide to catch the posts in question and created technological fixes to prevent extremists from creating new accounts.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Alphabets YouTube got a "B-" for terrorism and a "D" for hate due to what Cooper said is a "reactive" response to videos posted rather than a proactive approach to keeping them off the site.

He pointed to a video published last year on YouTube by the Al Shabbab fundamentalist group that listed Mall of America in Minnesota as a potential attack site.

He said that video was pulled from YouTube after several hours. YouTube declined to comment.

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Project Fi marked the end of a 10-month, invitation-only test phase and comes as the Internet giant's first foray in being a mobile phone service provider.

San Francisco: Google on Monday opened its Project Fi mobile phone service to anyone in the United States using its latest model Nexus smartphones.

The public launch of Project Fi marked the end of a 10-month, invitation-only test phase and comes as the Internet giant's first foray in being a mobile phone service provider.

"We're excited to be exiting our invitation-only mode and opening up Project Fi so that people across the US can now sign up for service without having to wait in-line for an invite," product manager Simon Arscott said in a blog post.

"With Project Fi, we deliver fast wireless service with the flexibility to use it where you want -- even internationally -- and a monthly bill that's simple and easy to understand."

Project Fi is only available for Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6 smartphones from Google and work with a special SIM card that supports connections to multiple cellular networks.

Project Fi enabled smartphones can link to one of two 4G LTE networks or to Wi-Fi, automatically selecting optimal connections and switching from one to another without interrupting service, according to Google.

"As you go about your day, Project Fi automatically connects you to more than a million free, open Wi-Fi hotspots we've verified as fast and reliable," Google said in a blog post.

"Once you're connected, we help secure your data through encryption."

Basic Project Fi plans cost $20 monthly for unlimited domestic voice calls as well as unlimited domestic and international text messaging. Fi boasts cellular coverage in more than 120 countries.

Data service costs $10 per gigabyte, with people only charged for what they use.

Google promoted Fi service with discounted prices on Nexus 5X smartphones.

The move by Google is seen as a way to lure consumers away from Apple and promote Google-branded Android phones with an a low-cost mobile plan.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife will be guests of honour at a White House state dinner. (Photo: AP)

Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will bring panache and progressivism on his first official visit to Washington, where he and his wife will be guests of honor at a White House state dinner on Thursday.

"There's a buzz in Washington," said Matt Browne, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think tank in the US capital. "People are really very excited to be around him, speaking with him and learning more about his vision."

Trudeau will be the first Canadian leader to be feted in Washington in almost two decades.

Over the coming days there will be cocktail parties, toasts with champagne, music and celebrities, a wreath-laying at Arlington Cemetery, a Q&A with students, speeches, and more.

As well, the trip presents an opportunity to reset the Canada-US relationship strained under previous administrations.

"It will be refreshing to have some inspirational and issues-based politics rather than bickering," said Browne, contrasting Trudeau's push for diversity, inclusiveness and a progressive economic agenda with recent US presidential debates in which Donald Trump refuted disparaging accusations about his "small hands" and genitals.

"(Railing) against intolerance and politics of fear and division and ideas such as the need for the state to invest in infrastructure and job creation, it's all part of a new progressive agenda that Trudeau is leading, and there's a lot of interest in his vision," said Browne.

But don't expect the Canadian prime minister to hog the spotlight. "There's a keen interest in Sophie too," he observed, referring to Trudeau's wife, the television host Sophie Gregoire.

Trudeau, 44, and Gregoire, 40, were featured on the cover of Vogue magazine's December issue, while The New York Times and The Washington Post recently published flattering portraits of the prime minister.

"Clearly the Trudeaus are a glamor couple, perhaps like the Kennedys, and that adds to the mystique and the buzz around town," Browne said.

Pay attention

The Trudeaus will be officially welcomed by US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle at a ceremony on the White House South Lawn on Thursday morning, followed by a luncheon hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry and finally the big event, a state dinner that evening (followed by an after party at a swank hotel).

Between courses, Trudeau and Obama are expected to firm up new bilateral agreements on trade and the environment, which are to be announced during the visit.

Ahead of the trip, Canadian public safety and environment ministers have been talking up proposals for tighter fuel emissions standards, promoting greater use of electric cars, regulating upstream oil and gas emissions, sharing border exit and entry records, and expanding US customs preclearance at more Canadian airports.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, travel across the world's longest border has been bogged down by security measures. According to government figures, the number of cars and truck crossings plunged from 97 million in 2000 to 65 million in 2014.

But far more than that, the 120-seat state dinner is a chance to schmooze with shakers and movers.

"It's not just fun," Canadian Senator Art Eggleton, who attended a 1997 state dinner at the White House as trade minister with then prime minister Jean Chretien, told AFP.

"It's an opportunity to get to know each other and build relationships," he said. "The United States is our closest ally and neighbour and by far our biggest trading partner so building relationships is very important."

In an exclusive interview with US television news magazine 60 Minutes, Trudeau said: "Having a little more of an awareness of what's going on in the rest of the world, I think is, is what many Canadians would hope for Americans."

"I think we sometimes like to think that, you know, Americans will pay attention to us from time to time, too," he added.
The woman climbed on the roof of a vehicle and stripped, while dancing completely naked. (Photo: YouTube Video Grab)

Houston, Texas: In a bizarre incident, a video footage has surfaced online purportedly showing a naked woman dancing on the roof of a truck in the middle of the road blocking the traffic for nearly two hours, before being taken into custody by cops, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

The unidentified woman driver allegedly stopped in the middle of Houston Highway 290 and climbed on top of the big rig. As she climbed up the roof, she stripped completely naked and started dancing. The video shot by an on-looker shows a woman standing, dancing and sitting on the roof of the vehicle.

On-lookers were also quoted saying that the woman had crashed into another car before stripping and dancing naked, after which they informed police.

Footage shows the woman dancing on the roof of a big rig in the middle of the highway. (Photo: YouTube Video Grab)

Police and firefighters were rushed to the scene. With the help of an aerial tower, the firefighters moved their truck next to the big rig and tried to talk to the woman.

With much efforts, they tried to calm her down, post which she was brought down, handcuffed and taken into custody.

On-lookers also said that the woman spat on a police official who tried to speak to her about the alleged accident. Investigators are trying to ascertain the reason to the woman's abnormal behavior.

Watch: Freeway shut as naked woman dances on roof of a big rig:
News Oct 21st, 2022 at 12:40

Spending on IT this year by the UK travel sector is projected to hit 1.98 billion, the highest level seen in data analysed covering the last 15 years...
Israel and the United States have been seeking to move past deep disagreement over the Iran nuclear accord, which Netanyahu strongly opposed. (Photo: AP)

Washington: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down US President Barack Obama's invitation for talks later this month in Washington, a "surprised" White House said Monday.

The episode was just the latest sign of frosty relations between the two leaders on the eve of US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel.

An Obama aide said the Israeli government had requested a meeting to take place on March 17 or 18, and the White House had responded selecting the latter date two weeks ago.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.

"Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister's schedule are false."

Israel and the United States have been seeking to move past deep disagreement over the Iran nuclear accord, which Netanyahu strongly opposed, and work out a new 10-year defence aid package.

The current deal grants Israel some $3.1 billion annually, in addition to spending on other projects such as missile defence. Netanyahu's visit in Washington would have coincided with the annual conference of pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC in which he has previously participated.

Biden's trip, due to begin Tuesday, comes amid a five-month wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that has killed 181 Palestinians and 28 Israelis. The White House said on Friday that Biden would not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit.

Obama has acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017. His administration's tough criticism of Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank has added to tensions between the two longstanding allies. In recent months, however, the US and Israel had sought to reaffirm the strength of their ties.
On the top 10 worlds destinations with reasonable cost for 2016 listed by Lonely Planet, Hanoi is also one of the most beautiful cities in Asia. The lively one-thousand year old Hanoi is a fascinating blend of the east and the west.



(TRAVPR.COM) VIETNAM - March 8th, 2016 - Visiting the Old Quarter, the unique vestige comfortably lying around Hoan Kiem Lake, you may get lost in a totally different world from the rest of the city. The streets heart and soul is exposed in the ancient commercial streets and named after their original businesses dating back about 1,000 years. It is a shoppers delight and features artistic products from around the country, fashioned by many top artists and craftsmen. It is where night owls head to with live music, discos, clubs and bars as well as decent karaoke joints being the norm here. The Hoan Kiem Lake, Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre and Dong Xuan market, etc. are within easy reach of the Old Quarter. For those who love cooking and Vietnamese food, French baguettes and coffee have something very much in common with pho rice noodles together with many culinary classes around.

Hanoi's local cuisine is some of the best in Vietnam, and the finest local dishes are usually served at just open-air joints at street side. Hanoi is a street food paradise with exotic sauces as one way of creating a tasty meal from basic elements all through the year. Bun cha and cha ca are tasty and shouldnt be missed during your visit to the capital.

Hanoi is also famous for elegant French architecture, especially in the French quarter where wide open streets, majestic buildings and high-end hotels, restaurants and shops await. It is home to some of Hanois fanciest restaurants and hotels such as Sofitel Metropole Legend Hotel, Hilton Opera and the Opera House.

Oozing with charm, Hanoi still remains true to its essential personality and is an amazing city to experience. It is often the start or end point of a trip to Vietnam giving a great welcome or farewell.

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This spring U Sapa Vietnam will unveil their new two bed Family Rooms featuring a generous 50 square meters with two bedrooms, a living area and luxury bathroom.

(TRAVPR.COM) Vietnam, March 8th, 2016 - The two-bedroom Family Rooms offer an expansive layout for guests to enjoy the exclusive facilities for an unforgettable stay, including two king-size beds swathed in luxurious linens and a bathroom with both shower and bathtub. Amenities include a vanity table, air-conditioning, television, IDD telephone, mini-bar, safety box, hairdryer and wi-fi plus tea and coffee. These Family Rooms provide ideal accommodation for groups of up to four adults or a family with two adults and three children. Rates start from USD 140 per night, excluding local VAT and service charge.

U Sapa Vietnam is ideally located in the heart of the city close to City Center Park. The property is well suited for both domestic and international leisure travelers to experience Sapas unique lifestyle and natural beauty. The architecture and interior has been designed in a breathtaking French Colonial style with an indigenous twist combined with services that are delivered with Us unique concepts.

The hotel offers deluxe facilities including a restaurant, bar, business center, library and gym so you can make the most of your time in the hotel after a day spent exploring the beauty of Sapa.

U Sapa opened in August, 1st 2014 with 57 rooms and suites and in September 2015 U Sapa was the only hotel in Sapa to receive the prestigious The Guide Award 2015-2016 awarded by the Vietnam Economy Times. This award honors a hotels outstanding business and sterling contribution to tourism and hospitality. This is the first time that U Sapa Vietnam was named among the top choices of upscale hotels in Vietnam and was described as A luxury hotel with unique design, friendly service and perfect location

For more information and reservations, please contact +8420 387 1996 or email reserve@usapavietnam.com

Visit our website at www.usapavietnam.com or follow us on Facebook

www.facebook.com/USapaVietnam

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Special Themed Cruise Aboard Hotel Barge Scottish Highlander Takes Whisky Lovers on Tours of Popular Distilleries in the Scottish Highlands



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - March 8th, 2016 - European Waterways, Europes largest luxury hotel barge cruising company, offers an assortment of themed charter cruises featuring specialized itineraries that allow travelers to experience the history and culture of Europe. One that can truly be said to capture the spirit of a country is the companys Whisky Trail Cruise in the Highlands of Scotland aboard the hotel barge Scottish Highlander.Traveling along the Caledonian Canal, guests will visit at least three historic distilleries, each with its own remarkable history. Along the way, the hotel barge will glide across the scenic deep water lakes that include Loch Ness, past spectacular natural vistas, and visit some of the countrys most famous castles and historic sites that have inspired many songs and legends.

European Waterways Whisky Trail themed cruise is perfect for single malt whisky enthusiasts, said Derek Banks, managing director of European Waterways. Its a unique opportunity for a group of like-minded travelers to get a true taste of what made Scotland famous. Guests are also free to enjoy the many varieties of special whiskies available onboard the hotel barge.

The 8-passenger Scottish Highlander evokes the ambiance of a Scottish country house, with subtle use of tartan furnishings. It cruises the Caledonian Canal between Fort William and Inverness, with guests being served the finest Scottish fare such as line-caught wild salmon, fresh scallops and locally-sourced saddle of venison  all skillfully prepared by the onboard Master Chef.

Among the distilleries visited on the Whisky Trail is the Benromach Distillery near Forres, an intimate, family-owned business founded over 100 years ago. The tour includes a tasting of the classic Benromach Speyside single malt. Another private tour and tasting is provided at the Glen Ord distillery. Founded in 1838, it is the only remaining single malt Scotch whisky distillery on the Black Isle. Also scheduled is a visit to the Dalwhinnie distillery, located in the spectacular Cairngorms National Park, where guests will enjoy the unique experience of tasting several aged single malts with a variety of matching chocolates.

The distillery tours and private whisky tastings are the highlight of the cruise, but seeing the extraordinary diversity of wildlife and the expansive, natural views that frame the cruise route are all equally memorable experiences, said Banks. And, of course, crossing Loch Ness, its advisable to have your cameras ready and the focus sharp  just in case Nessie makes an appearance!

Rates for this 6-night, all-inclusive Whisky Trail charter cruise start at $31,500 for eight guests. The cruise is also available for individual cabin bookings on two departures in 2016, June 5 and October 2. Rates are from $4,090 per person, based on double occupancy.

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A school utility worker mops a mural depicting the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at the Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino High School campus at Makati city east of Manila, Philippines. (Photo: AP)

Kuala Lumpur: Investigators probing what happened to flight MH370 said on Tuesday the cause of the plane's disappearance remained a mystery as its second anniversary passed with no end in sight for devastated next-of-kin.

The Malaysia-led international team of aviation experts set up to investigate issued an annual progress report, but the brief statement contained no new insights into what caused the Malaysia Airlines jet to vanish.

"To date, the MH370 wreckage has still not been found despite the continuing search in the south Indian Ocean," said the statement.

Read: Malaysian PM hopeful that flight MH370 will be found

It was the second straight year that the team of investigators, which includes seven representatives from the likes of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and its counterparts, had nothing to offer.

Malaysia and Australia, however, said they remained optimistic that the painstaking search for an Indian Ocean crash site will find something that could lead to the recovery of MH370's flight data recorders, and eventually reveal what caused the plane's disappearance.

"The current search operation is expected to be completed later this year, and we remain hopeful that MH370 will be found," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement.

If nothing turns up by the time the scheduled search ends, Malaysia, Australia and China will meet "to determine the way forward", he added, without elaborating.

The jet vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew onboard, mostly Chinese and Malaysian nationals.

Authorities believe the Boeing 777 flew far out over the remote southern Indian Ocean and went down.

A wing fragment later confirmed to be from MH370 was found on an island thousands of kilometres (miles) from the search area last July.

It was the first proof the plane went down, but brought authorities no closer to finding a crash site.

The three nations have already indicated they will end the biggest and most expensive search effort in history if its high-tech scanning of a designated swathe of seafloor comes up empty.

The search zone is expected to be fully scoured within a few months.

'Suffering day and night'

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester echoed Najib's hope that the search can eventually "give answers to the world, in particular the families of missing loved ones".

Next-of-kin, struggling for closure in the tragedy, have pleaded for the quest to be expanded and continued until there are results.

In Beijing, at least 20 Chinese relatives gathered at a major Buddhist temple to pray and read out a statement appealing for an open-ended search.

"Since MH370 disappeared, we family members have suffered day and night, with each day passing like a year. Our longing for our loved ones aboard the plane grows every day," the statement read.

Theories to explain the disappearance include a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

Many families accuse the airline and Malaysian government of letting the plane slip away through a bungled response, withholding information on what happened and treating grieving relatives insensitively, charges that are denied.

The second anniversary also is the deadline for filing lawsuits against Malaysia Airlines.

Scores of next-of-kin have filed lawsuits seeking damages in recent days in the United States, Malaysia, China, Australia and elsewhere, while others have accepted undisclosed settlements, say attorneys.

Some suits also have targeted Malaysia's government and Boeing.

Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday denied being insensitive toward next-of-kin and promised to honour its "moral and legal obligations".

"(Malaysia Airlines) has never shied away from its commitment to engage with the next-of-kin, and strives in good faith for payment of fair and equitable compensation," it said in a statement to AFP.
Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter and was initially welcomed by locals who were sorely lacking in medical services. (Representational Image, Photo: Pixabay)

Nevers, France: A Dutch man dubbed by French media the "dentist of horror" was set to go on trial on Tuesday after allegedly causing horrific injuries to the mouths of more than 100 patients in France.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, ripped out healthy teeth and left dozens of patients in a remote French village with broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia.

He is charged with aggravated assault, as well as fraud over claims that he tried to rip off patients and insurance companies, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000 euro ($165,000) fine if found guilty.

His case is being heard at a court in Nevers in central France, near the rural area of Chateau-Chinon where he came to work in 2008.

Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter and was initially welcomed by locals who were sorely lacking in medical services.

A neighbour recalled the arrival of a smiley, larger-than-life character, with a "big 4x4, a big dog, a big cigar".

But by 2011, the authorities were starting to question some of his accounting, and patients were starting to compare notes on his dentistry.

Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, visited the dentist in March 2012 to have braces fitted.

"He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days," she said.

An 80-year-old, Bernard Hugon, said the dentist left "pieces of flesh hanging everywhere" after tearing out a tooth.

"Every time, he would give us what he called 'a little prick' and we were asleep, knocked out," said Nicole Martin, a retired teacher who lost several teeth to abscesses caused by the horrific operations.

"When it was over, we would find a Post-it note saying to come back for an appointment the next day or the day after," she added.

Fled to Canada

With the help of one of Van Nierop's assistants, Martin set up a victims' group in early 2013 to press charges, and it soon swelled to 120 members.

In June of that year, police arrested Van Nierop but left him free pending trial, and he fled the country the following December.

He was eventually tracked down to a small Canadian town in New Brunswick and arrested under an international warrant in September 2014.

Local media reported that he tried to slit his throat when police came for him.

Van Nierop tried to block his extradition, first to the Netherlands and then France, claiming to suffer from "psychological problems" including gender identity issues and suicidal tendencies, but he was eventually placed in a prison psychiatric unit in the Loiret department, south of Paris.

"He claimed to have killed his first wife, he played crazy, he said he was trans-sexual. He tried everything" to avoid extradition, Martin said.

According to Dutch media, Van Nierop had already come under investigation at home over his working practices before coming to France.

With the defendant already detained for 18 months, the magistrates are keen to deliver a verdict by March 18, though judicial sources have told AFP the trial could run longer.
Faridabad, March 8

Former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, who has been undergoing jail term in connection with the JBT scam, has charged the ruling BJP and the Congress for the violence during the recent Jat agitation.

On his way back to Delhi after a visit to Palwal district, Chautala addressed a small gathering of party workers at Dr Sanjiv Godaras house in Sector 11 here last evening. He said hardly anyone could imagine such a situation that could put Haryana to shame. Chautala said holding functions like  Happening Haryana and Global Investors Meet at this stage was irrelevant as social and business atmosphere had got disturbed beyond an acceptable limit. Blaming the Khattar government and the Congress for the violence, the INLD chief said this could not take place without any conspiracy hatched at some level. He claimed that the BJP government in the state had failed its duty and responsibility to maintain peace and harmony.  TNS
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 7

The large-scale violence during the Jat quota stir has taken its toll on the recession-hit realty sector. The Tribune reporters take a realty check in various districts of the state:

Jhajjar: Forget outsiders, local investors too will now think several times before investing in real estate here as the violence during the Jat stir has caused a sense of insecurity among businessmen as well as common people.

Despite no incident of violence and arson reported in Bahadurgarh town during the Jat stir, customers are not making inquiries about rates of residential and commercial property though several customers used to visit my office daily, said Dinesh Jain, a real estate businessman.

Ajay Gupta, a realtor, said the rates of residential and commercial properties were likely to go down 10 to 20 per cent in coming days. Some persons have contacted me even to sell their property , he added.

Anshuman Sharma, a private developer, said fear among the people following the recent riots had cost the real estate business dearly as the number of queries about property had declined up to 40 per cent within a fortnight.

Ambala: Though Ambala did not witness any violence or arson , the Jat agitation has affected real estate business in this region too.

People from Chandigarh, Baddi and Himachal have dropped their plans for purchasing property in Ambala. Sarvajot Singh, a leading property dealer, said: The agitation has affected property business. The business was already witnessing a slump and the agitation has worsened the situation.

He said: Earlier, property dealers used to get regular customers from Chandigarh and Himachal but after the Jat agitation, few want to purchase property in the state anymore.

Yamunanagar: Already reeling under an acute slump, the real estate business may have to face another jolt in this area following Jat reservation agitation recently wrecked havoc in parts of Haryana.

The Jat agitation has tarnished the image of the state. Therefore, investors from other states will hesitate to invest money in real estate here, sources said.

However, Sanjay Sharma, a realtor, said that there was no effect of the Jat agitation on this business in the district as the area remained peaceful during the Jat stir.

Kurukshetra: Real estate sources in Kurukshetra claim a sudden spurt in inquiries about property prices in the district. They said queries were from residents of Kaithal, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Hisar, the worst violence-hit districts during the recent Jat agitation. However, no surge is reported in the property prices in the last few days.

Sources say as the violent agitation is suspected to have political overtones, people with surplus finance may opt to buy properties in other areas, including northern Haryana and Chandigarh or Delhi. Kurukshetra was among other districts of Haryana which largely remained unaffected by violence during the agitation.

Suresh Jawa, a property adviser in Kurukshetra, told The Tribune that people from Kaithal and other districts were showing eagerness to buy properties in Kurukshetra. The trend was not routine but a direct fallout of violence, he claims.

Panipat: The textile town of Panipat is facing downfall in real estate business owing to the recent Jat stir. Real estate business has touched a low of 20 to 25 per cent in the textile city. Panipat is an industrial town. There was a hope in investors to invest in industrial as well as in real estate business. But due to the recent arson and violence in various districts, the investor feels insecure to invest now. The business has fell down 20 to 25 per cent in the last 20 days itself. said Mahesh Chugh, a real estate consultant.

Hisar: The real estate which is already going through a low patch has suffered a further setback due to the riots in Hansi town of the district.

Hardly any land deals are taking place now. Real estate agents feel that property prices would further come down. Billu Yadav, a property dealer, said that commercial and well as residential property prices have crashed during the last one year Those living in outer colonies and HUDA sectors too feel unsafe.

Bhiwani: Property experts said the rates were stagnant in the last two years before the previous Congress regime was about to complete its tenure but the recent anarchy has made genuine buyers panicky. It is not that people do not want to invest but caste-related conflict has made purchasers withhold further investment, a local dealer said.

DK Yadav, a local businessman, said the price of property in Bhiwani town was already at its bottom and the recent lawlessness had made it worse

Sonepat: The cancellation of acquisition of around 3,200 acres of land in five villages Lath, Joli, Bidhal, Katwal and Bhainswal Kalan on both sides of the Sonepat-Gohana highway for setting up a model industrial township has been taken as the biggest causality of the violence and arson during the Jat agitation.

The acquisition was in the last stage of announcement of awards before February 27 after completing the legal process by notifications under Sections 4, 6 and 9 of the Land Acquisition Act.

Meanwhile, property dealers Suraj Malik and Ashwani Dahiya said: Property prices have come down by 30 per cent during the last five years and this trend is not likely to be reversed after the violent incidents during the reservation stir.

(Inputs from Ravinder Saini, Nitish Sharma, Shiv K Sharma, Vishal Joshi, Mukesh Tandon, Deepinder Deswal, Sat Singh and BS Malik)
Tea vendor takes Class X exam with her daughter

Agartala: Twenty years is a long time to carry through the dream of passing at least the Class X exams, especially when life is a struggle just to make two ends meet. Not for Smriti Banik (39), though. This mother of two daughters does tuitions and runs a tea stall to supplement her husbands meagre income as a vegetable seller. Thats in addition to the household work. She still has had the energy to prepare for this year's Class X exams of the Tripura Board of Secondary Education, which started on March 3. Smriti is now sitting for the exams along with her teenaged daughter Sagarika. Both are enrolled as examinees at Office Tilla Higher Secondary School in Bishalgarh. She said she had to discontinue her studies when she got married in 1996 at the age of 19. Since then, I have always wanted to sit for the Madhyamik (Class X), but poverty came in the way. IANs

Sadhvi thrown out of Nashik temple

Mumbai: The management of the ancient Trimbakeshwar temple at Nashik on Monday threw out a sadhvi who tried to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine on Mahashivratri. Sadhvi Harsidhigiri of the Juna Akhara was asked to leave the premises after she protested the temple trustees decision to continue with the ban on the entry of women into the sanctum sanctorum. The temple is among the prominent shrines in Maharashtra, which continues to prohibit the entry of women into the core of the shrine. The sadhvi later said the trustees decision to continue the ban on entry of women into the sanctum sanctorum was against divine law. She is supporting the Bhumata Brigade, which is carrying out protests across the state by attempting to enter sanctum sanctorums of shrines where women are banned. TNS

Woman jumps to safety after rape bid by friends

Howrah: A young woman jumped from the second floor of a two-storey house in Liluah in Howrah district to evade an alleged sexual assault, a police official said on Monday. The incident occurred at Payerabagan area in Liluah yesterday, he said. The woman and two youths hailing from Rishra in Hooghly district had come to the house of a male friend residing at Payerabagan last evening, the official said. The youths allegedly got drunk and tried to induce the woman into drinking, the official said. Suspecting foul play, the woman jumped from the roof of the house to evade assault, the official said, adding she sustained injuries on her head and was rushed to a local hospital by the youths. She was later released after first aid. The police have lodged an FIR with Liluah police station and arrested the three youths who would be produced in court later. PTI

E-haat to promote women entrepreneurs

New Delhi: The government launched Mahila E-haat, a first-of its-kind online marketing platform for women entrepreneurs, on the eve of International Women's Day. The portal, where women entrepreneurs can sell their products directly, will be managed a team of the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, the Women and Child Development Ministry. The initiative will provide access to markets to thousands of women who make products across the country, WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi said at the portal launch. Women's empowerment will take place in three stages in which Mahila E-Haat is the first stage. In the second stage, it will be integrated with e-commerce portals to provide a larger platform for selling and buying. Ultimately, it will turn into the Women's Entrepreneurs Council, which will help expand the initiative and give it an institutional shape, the minister said. TNS

Debt-ridden man puts up wife for sale on Facebook

Indore: A man from the neighbouring Khargone district allegedly posted a status update on Facebook seeking to sell his wife for Rs 1 lakh to clear his debts. The woman has lodged a police complaint over the objectionable post, following which a case has been registered against her husband Dilip Mali (30) under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, an official at the Aerodrome police station said on Monday. A search is on to nab him, he said. In his Hindi post, the man also uploaded a photo of his wife and two-year-old daughter and mentioned his mobile number for interested people to contact me. I want to return the money I have borrowed from various persons. Therefore, Im selling my wife for Rs 1 lakh. Anybody interested in buying her can contact me on my mobile number, he wrote in the post. PTI
Canberra, March 8

The US Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a build-up of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations' militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top US general said today.

Gen Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged other nations to exercise their freedom to fly and sail in international airspace and waters claimed by China in the South China Sea "or risk losing it throughout the region."

"We've watched the increased military capability on those islands, whether it's the fighters, whether it's the missiles or the 10,000-foot runways. We will continue to do as we've always done, and that is fly and sail in international airspace in accordance to international rules and norms," Robinson told reporters in Australia's capital, Canberra, where she will address the Royal Australian Air Force's biennial Air Power Conference next week.

Robinson declined to say how the United States would retaliate if a US plane was shot down by the Chinese.

Several governments have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, a major conduit for world trade. The US lays no claims to the waters, but says it has an interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and non-use of force and coercion to assert claims.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a hard line today on the country's claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, saying Beijing won't permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area.  AP
New York, March 8

A 69-year-old Indian-origin doctor in the US has been convicted of illegally receiving benefits for referring elderly patients to a financially struggling hospital in Chicago.

Venkateswara Kuchipudi of Illinois became the fifth physician and 10th defendant overall to be convicted for taking part in the massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme at the now-shuttered Sacred Heart Hospital.

He was convicted after a five-week trial on one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and nine counts of illegally soliciting or receiving benefits in return for referrals of patients covered under a federal health care programme.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $2,50,000 fine.

US District Judge Matthew Kennelly scheduled a sentencing hearing for June.

From 2001 through April 2013, hospital executives conspired to pay kickbacks and bribes to physicians to induce them to refer patients for services that would be reimbursed by federal insurance programme Medicare and Medicaid.

The scheme earned the financially struggling hospital millions of dollars in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.

Evidence at Kuchipudis trial revealed that he was one of the hospitals most prolific sources of patient referrals.

In exchange for his referrals, the hospital provided Kuchipudi with free labour in the form of physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

The hospital allowed Kuchipudi to bill Medicare and Medicaid for the services of the physician assistants and nurse practitioners as if he employed them himself.  PTI
Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Tuesday asked former military dictator Pervez Musharraf to appear before it on March 31 for the hearing of high treason case against him after the ex-President did not turn up citing bad health. The three-member special court ordered Musharraf to attend the hearing on March 31 in person and respond to the charges against him in the treason case launched in 2013 for imposing emergency in 2007 when he was president. High treason is punishable with death if proved. PTI

Abducted son of slain Taseer found after 5 years

Karachi: The kidnapped son of slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was on Tuesday recovered from Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province in a multi-agency security operation, nearly five years after he went missing. Senior police officer Aizaz Ghoraya confirmed that security and intelligence officials recovered Shahbaz from the Kuchlak area on the outskirts of Quetta city. Shahbaz was kidnapped on August 26, 2011 and since than it was feared he was held captive by different militant groups. PTI

S Korea announces unilateral sanctions on North

Seoul: South Korea said on Tuesday it was imposing unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, including a ban on financial dealings with 40 individuals and 30 entities. The sanctions target 38 individuals and 24 organisations in North Korea who Seoul says are responsible for the North's development of weapons of mass destruction. A Singaporean, a Taiwanese and six entities in Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan and other countries will also be sanctioned for indirectly assisting North Korea. AP

Bdesh court upholds Jamaat leaders death sentence

Dhaka: Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a top Islamist leader for war crimes during the country's independence struggle against Pakistan in 1971, paving the way for his execution. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha announced the apex court's verdict to dismiss the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's liberation war. PTI

Deuba elected Nepali Congress president

Kathmandu: Three-time Nepal prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been elected the new president of Nepali Congress, the countrys largest democratic party, in a run-off poll, succeeding late premier Sushil Koirala. Deuba, 69, was elected the Nepali Congress chief during the 13th National General Convention here last night. The post was vacant after the demise of 79-year-old Koirala last month. PTI
Beijing, March 8

Terming the UNs arbitration on a raging territorial dispute in the South China Sea as tainted, China on Tuesday asserted that it will not honour the outcome of the tribunal in the strategically vital area.

The Philippines stubbornness is clearly the result of the behind scenes instigation and political manoeuvring, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at his annual press conference, in a veiled attack on the US for its backing to the Philippines and the maritime neighbours of China in the South China Sea (SCS) dispute.

China refuses to recognise the case lodged by the Philippines with the tribunal and says all disputes should be resolved through bilateral talks.

This so-called arbitration has become tainted and gone astray and China is not going to honour it, Wang said.

Asked whether China is worried about the likelihood of the Philippines winning its petition on its claims on the SCS islands at the UN Conference of the Law of Sea (UNCLOS), Wang said it is too early to judge the outcome of the case.

I respect your right to ask the question. Perhaps you are judging the outcome of the UNCLOS arbitration case and it is too early to tell, he said.

China has already made a declaration at the UNCLOS back in 2006 excluding itself from the arbitration under the article 290 of the tribunal, Wang said adding that over 30 other countries made similar declarations excluding themselves.

So in legal terms, these declarations are part of UNCLOS and must be respected by other parties, he said.

So by not accepting arbitration case, China is acting entirely legal. Whereas the Philippines stand is unlawful and unfaithful and unreasonable, he said.

Wang again reaffirmed Chinas claims on the whole of the SCS stating that China is the fist one to discover, name develop the SCS islands.

Our ancestors lived and worked here for ages. We know the place and love it more than anyone else, he said.

Chinas stand on the SCS is strongly contested by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan which had counter claims on the islands and reefs, which believed to have rich oil and mineral deposits.

The US in a bid to assert the freedom of the navigation in the region has sent its naval ships and aircraft to counter Chinese claims.

Wang defended China building defence facilities in the SCS, saying that they belonged to it.

China exercises the right of self defence entitled by the international law, he said, rejecting allegations that China militarised the region.

Wang said China will uphold the freedom of navigation of the SCS over which a host of countries, including India and US have expressed concerns.

We want to uphold the peace and freedom of navigation in the SCS, Wang said, adding, freedom of navigation does not imply doing whatever you want.

The SCS has seen colonial invasion and illegal occupation. Now some people are making waves and some others showing force. However like the tide that comes and goes none of these things will make impact and history will determine who is the real guest and who is the host, he said.

China he said will not make further claims.

China has never claimed and will not claim new territories, he said.

Not China, but others should be accused of militarising the sea, he said.

Besides meeting basic defence needs, China is building more facilities for civilian use, with purposes of offering public services to the international community, he said and promised to take the international media there after the facilities are completed.

He also said China and the US can consider more maritime cooperation.

China and the US are two major countries, and there are both cooperation and friction between them.

In the face of problems, our task is to resolve them. We want to expand and deepen cooperation and work hard to turn friction into cooperation, he said.

China is not the US, and China will not and cannot become another US. We have no intention of displacing or dominating anybody, he said.  PTI
24 percent of French people believe a forced act of oral sex is a sexual assault and not rape. (Photo: AP)

Paris: A radio campaign detailing harrowing experiences and a call from President Francois Hollande to "face up to harassment" show that France still has much to do tackle the widespread denial of violence against women.

In one of the radio spots that began airing at the weekend, a woman identified as Anna describes how her husband Louis came into the bathroom as she was preparing to go to bed.

"He forced himself on me, he raped me. It was the start of a nightmare for me. I was too afraid to divorce, so I said nothing. But keeping silent for 30 years no-one should have to go through that."

The radio campaign has been organised by the Feminist Collective Against Rape, who are hoping victims who feel ashamed or somehow to blame for their own abuse can be encourage to speak out.

The group believes that in France more than 86,000 women a year are victims of rape or attempted rape, but only 13 percent complain to police and just one percent of those complaints leads to a conviction.

"Making people feel at ease with expressing themselves is the first step," said Marie-France Casalis, one of the Collective's leaders.

But due to the disparity between the number of suspected offences and the number that go punished, the group is calling for each complaint to be systematically investigated.

It also wants sex attacks to be classed as a crime and not merely an offence, which under French law carries lighter penalties.

In France, a rape defined as "any act of sexual penetration, regardless of its nature" that is committed "by violence, constraint, threat or surprise" is a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

That can rise to 20 years if there are aggravating circumstances, such as rape by a partner, or the rape of a victim who is pregnant or suffering from an illness.

A study on the perception of rape in France, published last week by "Memoire traumatique et victimologie", a group that researches the psychological effects of violence, showed that worrying stereotypes persist.

For example, 24 percent of French people believe a forced act of oral sex is a sexual assault and not rape. Two out of five people believe the responsibility of the rapist is lessened if the victim is "seductive".

Another finding that provoked particular concern was that a third of people aged 18 to 24 believe that "women can get pleasure from being forced during sexual intercourse".

Sexist myth

"The rule of silence, impunity and an absence of recognition, as well as the abandoning of victims of sexual violence, still dominate," said Muriel Salmona, the head of the group that carried out the research.

To mark International Women's Day on Tuesday, President Hollande has taken to the pages of a women's magazine for the first time in his four years in power to admit that harassment of women is "scandalously trivialised" by French society.

He told Elle that verbal or physical harassment of women was a "mass phenomenon which must be faced up to because it attacks the very principles of living with others".

But is France really a country where "the sexist myth of a naturally violent sexual masculinity" persists, as the study on the perception of rape darkly concluded?

Francois de Singly, a sociologist, said: "Society puts on a pedestal the notion of virility, which contains a logic of the sort of violence you find in war, in competition and in sexuality. And no-one dares say that this virility should be condemned."

He wants a rethink in the way boys are educated in France because he believes that historically they have been brought up to believe that "force is legitimate".

"Behind the logic of rape, you find the logic of legitimate violence," he said.

De Singly also called for corporal punishment meted out by parents to be banned because he thinks it conditions children from a young age to believe that violence is legitimate.

France was criticised by the Council of Europe last year, which said its rules on smacking were not sufficiently clear compared to bans in many other European countries.

"Until physical punishment is banned, any speech hitting out at rape is hypocrisy," the sociologist said.
Washington, March 8

The US launched an air strike in Somalia that killed more than 150 fighters with al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab following US intelligence on preparations for a large-scale militant attack, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The Saturday strike, using both manned aircraft and unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drones, targeted al Shabaabs Raso training camp, a facility about 120 miles north of the capital Mogadishu, the Pentagon said.

The US military had been monitoring the camp for several weeks before the strike and had gathered intelligence, including about an imminent threat posed by those in the camp to US forces and African Union peacekeepers, officials said.

US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James described the strike as defensive in nature.

There was intelligence ... these fighters would soon be embarking upon missions that would directly impact the US and our partners, James told reporters.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the targets were US forces and African Union fighters in Somalia, but declined to offer additional details.

Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the US believed the threat was imminent and that the fighters were poised to soon depart the camp.

Somalias Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer said the Somali intelligence agency had provided information about the camp to the US in the run-up to the attack.

There has to be intelligence on the ground for this to happen. Our intelligence had helped, Omer told Reuters.

The al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011 but has remained a potent antagonist in Somalia, launching frequent attacks in its bid to overthrow the Western-backed government.

The group, whose name means The Youth, seeks to impose its strict version of sharia law in Somalia, where it frequently unleashes attacks targeting security and government targets, as well as hotels and restaurants in the capital.

Al Shabaab was also behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda, which both contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Omer said the US drone strike was a major blow to al Shabaab.

Instead of al Shabaab attacking civilians, it was a military target that was hit and there was a high success rate, Omer said.

Davis said as many as 200 fighters were believed to be training at the Raso camp at the time of the strike and expressed confidence there were no civilian casualties.

Their removal will degrade al Shabaabs ability to meet the groups objectives in Somalia, which include recruiting new members, establishing bases and planning attacks on US and Amisom forces there, Davis said.

He added that no US forces on the ground participated in the strike, the largest in recent memory against the militant group, in terms of the number of fighters believed killed.

Shabaab says casualties exaggerated

MOGADISHU: Somali Islamist group al Shabaab confirmed on Tuesday that the US had bombed an area it controlled, but said the US figure of more than 150 casualties was an exaggeration.

The U.S. bombed an area controlled by al Shabaab. But they exaggerated the figure of casualties. We never gather 100 fighters in one spot for security reasons. We know the sky is full of planes, the groups military spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters. He did not give a casualty figure.  Reuters
Among recent projections highlighted by a House of Commons spokesperson includes a swastika by the campaign network Awaaz to protest against the Prime Minister's visit last November with the message "Modi Not Welcome". (Photo: PTI)

London: The British Parliament has warned activists who projected "unauthorised" images, including that of a swastika during a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit last year, on to the Palace of Westminster, saying the iconic building is "not a free billboard".

Among recent projections highlighted by a House of Commons spokesperson includes a swastika by the campaign network Awaaz to protest against the Prime Minister's visit last November with the message "Modi Not Welcome".

"Unauthorised projections break planning permission regulations. They also dilute the impact of a marketing technique that Parliament reserves for moments of national significance," Lee Bridges, Commons' director of external communications, told advertising magazine 'Campaign' last week.

"These buildings are not free billboards - proposals to project commercial campaigns that are not in the national interest will not be granted permission. The council can pursue incidents where a projection has been made without its permission," he warned.

Awaaz had projected a sword-wielding Modi on to the Gothic Parliament building as part of a wider "Modi Not Welcome" protest against his visit to London last year.

Bridges added: "The Houses of Parliament are recognised around the world as a symbol of the UK and a must-visit for tourists. As an iconic sight, it is perhaps unsurprising that Parliament - and, in particular, Big Ben (the Elizabeth Tower) - has become the backdrop for guerrilla marketing projections.

"However, as a much-loved, Grade I-listed public building, it is important to protect Parliament's symbolic status. Having commercial messaging beamed on to it compromises this status, which is why there are planning laws requiring permissions before any projection is allowed."

He stressed that to legally project on to the Houses of Parliament, people need permission from both the Speaker of the House of Commons and the planning department of Westminster City Council.

"The Houses of Parliament, famed for their stunning Gothic architecture, are part of an Unesco World Heritage Site and need to be enjoyed as such," he said.

Besides the protest by Awaaz, other unauthorised projections included a monkey by British tea firm PG Tips last month to mark Lunar New Year, which is the Year of the Monkey as well as an advert for a weight loss brand.
WASHINGTON  A U.S. company assigned a crucial role in the efforts to battle Ebola in Sierra Leone made a series of costly mistakes during the 2014 outbreak, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Staffers with the San Francisco-based company, Metabiota Inc., not only misread the epidemic, they contributed to botched lab results, undermined partners and put people at risk of the terrifying virus, according to leaked documents and interviews with international health responders.

The company had been tapped by the World Health Organization and the Sierra Leonean government to help fight Ebola. But internal emails from WHO and other international health agencies obtained by AP show senior scientists were alarmed at a spate of problems in a lab shared by Metabiota and Tulane University.

This is a situation that WHO can no longer endorse, WHO outbreak expert Dr. Eric Bertherat wrote in a July 17, 2014, email to colleagues.

Bertherat relayed reports of total confusion in the government lab split between Metabiota and Tulane at the Kenema hospital in Sierra Leone, noting there was no tracking of the samples and absolutely no control on what is being done. He said the flubbed results were particularly dangerous given suspicion among the local population that international workers were spreading Ebola deliberately.

Lawrence Gostin, director of WHOs Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University, said it was inexcusable that a company without the required expertise to respond to an outbreak was given such fundamental responsibilities.

It was a comedy of errors, he said, adding WHO is ultimately to blame for allowing the situation to unravel.

WHO knew that this company was bungling the response and they did nothing, Gostin said. In any other context, that would be called a cover-up.

Metabiota chief executive officer and founder Nathan Wolfe said there is no evidence that his company was responsible for the lab blunders. He added that the reported squabbles were overblown and that any predictions made by his employees who were on loan to the Sierra Leonean government didnt reflect the companys position.

Metabiota doesnt specialize in outbreak response, he said, but volunteered its staff and resources to Sierra Leone at a cost to his company of about $500,000.

We are incredibly proud about everything they did, he said at an interview in his office Thursday. These are individuals who took substantial personal risk and worked incredibly long hours.

Metabiotas problems mirror the wider mismanagement that hamstrung the worlds response to Ebola, which has killed upward of 11,000 people. Previous AP reporting has shown that WHO resisted sounding the alarm over Ebola for two months on political, religious and economic grounds and failed to put together a decisive response even after the alert was issued.Metabiota bills itself as a pioneer in tracking emerging viral threats and says it works to improve the worlds resilience to epidemics. The firm and its nonprofit sister company, Global Viral, have received millions from the U.S. Department of Defense, USAID, Google and the California-based Skoll Foundation.

In the early months of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, with WHO and partners thin on the ground, authorities in neighboring Sierra Leone turned to Metabiota to help respond to the epidemic in Kenema. The company had been in the country since 2009 and supported the government on issues including outbreak investigation and laboratory work. At first, Metabiota appeared to be doing well; according to an account on its website, company staffers helped to train hundreds of health workers under the guidance of WHO.

But within weeks, the virus exploded across the country and, as the death toll mounted, experts began questioning the work being done at the lab in Kenema shared by Metabiota and Tulane, which had its own long-standing project researching Lassa fever and other diseases.

When Gary Kobinger, head of special pathogens at the Public Health Agency of Canada, double-checked some of the facilitys work in mid-July, he found worrying discrepancies in four of eight tests and identified as many as five people wrongly diagnosed with Ebola, according to emails obtained by AP.

If you detect two, three, four, five, how many are out there? Kobinger said in a recent interview.

The mistakes sparked concern about bigger problems in the lab  worries relayed all the way up to WHOs Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan.

Several patients have been wrongly tested positive in these labs, Geneva-based staffer Pat Drury told Chan in an email, adding that Metabiota and Tulane did not meet international biosecurity standards.

Metabiota founder Wolfe said we did wonderful lab work as far as Im concerned. He said that errors in the shared facility stopped once other groups were pulled from Ebola testing.

Documents show Metabiota and Tulane blamed each other for the mistakes.

U. S. health official Austin Demby, who was sent to evaluate the shared lab by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Sierra Leone, said it was a mess. The cross contamination potential is huge and quite frankly unacceptable, he wrote in late July. Soon after Dembys report, both Metabiota and Tulane suspended their Ebola tests.

Despite Metabiotas performance, Wolfes firm has largely been congratulated on its work in West Africa. Last year, the company raised some $30 million in investment intended to support their future epidemic projects.
While the Okmulgee police chief confirmed just after 10 p.m. Friday that the remains were those of four men, he could not confirm that they were the bodies of the four local men who had been missing since Sunday.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho  An Idaho pastor who led the prayer at a weekend campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was gunned down outside his church the following day but was expected to survive.

Altar Church pastor Tim Remington, who has counseled drug addicts and inmates in this city about 30 miles east of Spokane, Washington, was shot as many as six times Sunday, including in the head and lung, officials said.

He was listed in fair condition at Kootenai Health on Monday morning.

Outreach pastor John Padula spoke with Remington's doctors and said the 55-year-old is "going to be fine." Remington prayed Saturday with the Texas senator in Coeur d'Alene, but officials do not know what prompted the shooting.

"We pray for his full recovery and are thankful for the efforts of law enforcement to ensure the attacker is swiftly brought to justice," the Cruz campaign said in a statement Monday.

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said it is looking for local resident Kyle Andrew Odom, 30, a decorated former Marine who should be considered armed and dangerous.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Police Chief Lee White said there was no obvious motive for the shooting. White also said that Odom headed west to nearby Spokane after the shooting. Then he headed south and police lost his trail, White said.

White said Odom was armed when he attended services in the church earlier Sunday, and that the shooting toll could have been much worse.

Odom has no criminal record, but does have a history of mental illness, White said.

Odom served in the Marines from 2006-2010, winning an Iraq Campaign Medal and other awards, and rose to the rank of corporal. He later graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry.

His family issued a statement Monday saying they were praying for the pastor's recovery.

"We are also praying for Kyles safe return and to get the help he needs," the Odom family wrote. "We love you Kyle!"

Padula said Odom is not a parishioner and had no known connection to the church.

Remington remained heavily sedated on Monday and was not expected to resume consciousness until Tuesday, he said.

"It looks like everything is going to be fine," Padula said Monday. "It's amazing considering he was shot six times with a .45 at 15 feet."

Remington is married and has four children, Padula said.

The suspect was inside the church during morning services, said Padula, who viewed footage from a security camera that captured the shooting.

The man wandered around, then went outside and waited in his car for about 10 minutes before Remington left the church around 2 p.m. Sunday, Padula said.

Remington opened his car door, and the shooter walked up behind him and started shooting him in the back, he said.

Two men ran to help the pastor. Remington was shot in the lung, head, hip and shoulder, Padula said.

Remington has been threatened several times by addicts he tried to help through his faith-based recovery program, Padula said.

He spent years building the program for drug addicts and alcoholics and has counseled jail inmates, the newspaper reported.
LOS ANGELES  Before Nancy Reagan became a fixture in the national consciousness and on home television sets, the late first lady also shared the big screen with the likes of Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner, Glenn Ford and Ray Milland in her short career as a Hollywood actress in the post-war era.

After a few years on Broadway, Reagan, then Nancy Davis, moved to California and signed a seven-year contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, leading to roles in 11 features  her last of which was the 1958 feature Crash Landing, a middling Fred F. Sears drama about a pilot (Gary Merrill) reflecting on his troubled marriage (to Reagans character) in the midst of an engine crisis over the Atlantic.

She was never the biggest star, but she had her moments in a wide variety of genres, from noir to melodrama, often as loving and supportive wives and girlfriends.

The Doctor and The Girl (1949)

Nancy Reagans first big-screen role was in director Curtis Bernhardts drama about a wealthy doctor (Glenn Ford) who defies his familys wishes by opening a practice in a poorer neighborhood. Reagan played the main characters sister Mariette, who is engaged to a class-lusting physician (played by Warner Anderson).

East Side, West Side (1950)

In this Mervyn LeRoy-directed melodrama about a married couple torn apart by the husbands infidelities, Reagan played Helen Lee, a socialite and best friend to Barbara Stanwycks wronged wife. James Mason played Stanwycks philandering husband, one of whose consorts was Ava Gardner. The ladies all wear expensive garments and the gentlemen drink expensive booze. But that still doesnt elevate the effort above the level of hopeful pretense, wrote New York Times critic Bosley Crowther in his review.

The Next Voice You Hear ... (1950)

When God starts giving radio broadcasts in this odd little William A. Wellman film, a married couple (James Whitmore and Reagan) and their 11-year-old son living in suburban Los Angeles are forced to confront their own faith. Reagan was praised for her delightful performance as the kind, gentle and pregnant wife in the film.

Shadow on the Wall (1950)

After a run of playing mostly wives and girlfriends, Reagan got a particularly meaty and serious role in this Pat Jackson-directed psychological crime thriller about a 6-year-old girl (Gigi Perreau) who loses her memory after witnessing the murder of her stepmother. Reagan played a doctor who endeavors to help cure the girl and makes some critical discoveries about the nature of the murder along the way.

The New York Times said Reagan gave a beautiful and convincing performance.

Night Into Morning (1951)

Reagan plays a widow who saves Ray Milland from his depression and drunkenness after his wife and child die tragically in a fire. Milland and Reagan were applauded for their performances, but the melancholy story was seen as a bit of a letdown.

Hellcats of the Navy (1957)

This WWII-set film about a submarine commander charting minefields off the Japanese coast marks the only time Ronald and Nancy Reagan, already married for five years, shared the big screen. As the land-locked love interest, Nancy Reagan didnt have much to do besides fret though. Its far from a classic  in fact its somewhat derided  but the film remains an interesting document of historical value just by nature of the fact that it features the future president and first lady.
Correction: Rodney Carrington has released 10 albums total, not six.

After Rodney Carrington bought an old guitar at a pawn shop in Georgia, and after teaching himself a few chords, the comedian decided to bring the thing on stage and play a few songs.

On stage in Lincoln, Nebraska, Carrington played a few chords, but the reaction was less than ideal.

The comedy club owner, he told me at the time, If youre going to take that guitar on stage, you might want to think about doing something funny with it, which was his way of saying dont take the guitar up, Carrington said in a recent telephone interview. I started writing a little, half-written songs and stuff like that. Now, its become a major part of the show.

Major, indeed. The Texas native who calls the Tulsa area home has released 10 albums of comedy and music since 1998. Some of his better-known songs, which could fit on any country radio, include Letter to my Penis, Dancin with a Man and Dont Look Now. Actually, they probably wouldnt fit on radio, thanks to Carringtons obvious adult themes. But its pushed his albums to reach the charts with tens of thousands of copies sold.

While Carringtons songs and comedy have country twang and themes, Carrington said his audiences are more broad. Over those 10 albums and countless days touring across the country, Carrington has opened up for audiences, bringing his life experiences to the stage in a way that makes it OK to talk about.

Every album has been a capsule of my life at one time and whats going on, Carrington said. The topics are very personal, so if theyre personal to me, theyre bound to be pretty personal to everybody else because weve all experienced the same things in life. When youre talking about marriage and kids and life and divorce and parents  whatever  its about life. Im not breaking new ground; Im just bringing my own perspective to the stage with my own experiences. I think the show Ive got going on now is probably the strongest its ever been. Its my favorite.

Carrington is set to come share this favorite show with his hometown crowd, performing Friday at the BOK Center. Of course, to get there, hell have to make the long trek from deep south Tulsa, which like all other Tulsans he jokingly resents. (I got friends that live in midtown ,and I joke they might as well live in Bartlesville, Carrington said. Its so damn far!)

Carrington moved to Tulsa in 1993, which was in the middle of his time as a touring comedian. That was a tough world, he said, one that required a lot of time on the road and a lot of time sleeping in his truck.

While it was hard, he knew from an early age that he was going to do something along these lines. He wasnt sure what he wanted to do, but he was sure what he did not want to do.

I got in trouble enough in school to know that sitting behind a desk or listening to someone tell me what to do probably wasnt going to work out real well, Carrington said.

In junior college, he was taking acting classes and finding his niche. His mission was to do things that scared him.

His first show was a blur, he said. As a 20-year-old in Texas, he got the stage high, but then he needed to learn how he did it. He was hooked by the laughter, now he needed to figure out how to hone it.

In order to be good at comedy, you have to be really horrible at first, Carrington said. Theres no way around it. You just got to be horrible. Youre just as bad as it gets. What you need in order to succeed is the ability to withstand an enormous amount of humiliation, and I happen to be a person who has a high tolerance to that.

One of his early tours took him to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a week of shows, where he was working with comedian and now talk-show host Steve Harvey. Carrington said he lied to the club owner, who asked if he had 30 minutes of material ready to go. Carrington had about seven minutes, he said.

At the end of the week, the (club owner) pulled me into his office, and he handed me $400 and told me I was horrible, Carrington said. He said, Youre awful. You need to go back to Texas, and see if your old boss wouldnt mind giving you your job back. He said, The only reason Im telling you that is I want to save you the heartache. This is not your thing. And he handed me $400. I drove back for six hours to Longview and all I thought was about how he paid me $400 and I sucked. I wonder how much money he would pay me if I got real good at it.

Carrington released his debut album in 1998. A mix of comedy and music, the album reached the U.S. country album charts. His 2000 album, Morning Wood, reached No. 18 on the country charts and was certified Gold.

By then, his career was on a rocketing trajectory. The crowds at his shows had grown, and he had moved from the clubs to the theaters. He got his own sitcom, which aired on ABC between 2004 and 2008 and was set in Bixby. He wrote and performed in Beer for my Horses with Toby Keith.

He was able to take his Texas and Oklahoma-centric world and make it appeal across the board. Carrington said Texas and Oklahoma are influences on his comedy, a character in his stories. But what he talks about is the human experience.

What has been the most painful things and tragic things in my life, I draw from that, Carrington said. Whether it be being married or not being married. Whatever the most painful part of it is in human existence, whatever my experience is, whatever is most embarrassing, whatever is most humiliating parts of my life, whatever the most heinous parts of my own life I can dig into because thats what I find fascinating for us as human beings is that there is such a heinous part about all of us. Were all so broken in so many ways. So for me, its where are the most broken parts of myself that I can expose to the world because I think thats the most interesting part. Plus, I think for myself I know when Im honest and deeply honest, the more success Ive had with it.

Carrington and his family went through a divorce in 2012 after an 18-year marriage. He brings the pain that comes along with life to the act, and that realness has helped audiences connect with him more.

But Carrington also feels strongly about connecting with his community. The Rodney Carrington Foundation was founded in 2010 in Tulsa to provide support for agencies that need a hand.

I want to help people within the community, and where I help them is in Tulsa, Carrington said.

DaySpring Villa Women and Childrens shelter has been a big recipient of funding from the foundation.

The reason I chose DaySpring Villa or any other place like that, I look for somebody that is struggling but doing it right and needs help, Carrington said.

He added that the effects of domestic violence are personal to him, which made DaySpring Villas work that much more personal.

When I was a kid growing up, I experienced that in my own life. My mother was married five times by the time I was 15. We were Jerry Springer long before Jerry Springer ever came along, Carrington said. So I saw that. I also know what it feels like as a kid to be involved in that, to be in a situation when theres so much  When you see your mom beat up or something, theres a lot of uncertainty that comes with that. It shakes you to your core when youre a young kid.

His comedy, his songs, his charity, all of them let people see Carrington for who he is. Those early years of shedding the humiliation have helped shape an approachable and relatable performer.

I put out these comedy records and they just followed the story lines of my life, Carrington said. Thats why so many people they come up to me after the show, they really feel like they truly know me. And they do know a lot about me. I think thats been the most gratifying thing, too, because when I meet people at the shows, theyre just so damn genuine.
These children are provided with rigorous training to become lethal fighters of the terror group. (Photo: YouTube Video Grab)

Around 31,000 women held captive by Islamic State are being used for breeding the next generation of Islamic State terrorists, according to a report in the Independent.

Quilliam, a UK-based think tank released a detailed report titled 'Children of Islamic State', which reveals how ISIS recruits children and then gives them jihad training by indoctrinating them at school, and sometimes at home too. These children are provided with rigorous training to become lethal fighters of the terror group. They are then infiltrated into the terror group's caliphates.

Islamic State militants providing children with martial arts training. (Photo: YouTube Video Grab)

The report also focuses on how these jihadi children are inculcated with extremists values since their birth or when they are too small to distinguish between right and wrong. Tagged 'blank slate' by militants, these kids are provided with extreme martial arts training.

Even worse, these children are encouraged to play with decapitated heads to make them familiar with ISIS's environment and mould them with brutality.

Islamic State training camp for children. (Photo: YouTube Video Grab)

Young boys are provided with tough training, including memorising Quran verses, whereas girls are asked to stay at home and take care of their husbands.

"There's a systematic creation of the next generation of mujahideen - the next generation of fighters, said Nikita Malik, a senior researcher at Quilliam, who was quoted in the report.

Malik said that more than 31,000 women are pregnant with the children of ISIS terrorists, adding that the terror group has a defined strategy for breeding their future generation of terrorists, where the initial brainwashing of children begins at birth, followed by training in schools and jihadi camps which results in - robust terrorism.

In the past, Islamic State had released a spine-chilling video of children who are being trained to be terrorists.

Watch the video here: Islamic States children military training camp
Sand Springs Public Schools, like other school districts across the state, is feeling the impact of an additional four percent across-the-board reduction in funding for state agencies that receive money from the general revenue fund.

Across the state, the reduction amounts to a $62.3 million funding cut in the wake of the second general revenue failure for fiscal year 2016, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Combined with a $46.7 million cut announced in December, funding for public education has been cut by about $109 million to date, a report states.

For Sand Springs Public Schools, the cuts amount to $483,267 less in mid-year state aid, according to OSDE data.

Sand Springs Superintendent Lloyd Snow said the school district has frozen all non-essential spending as a result of the budget cuts.

Im hoping the legislature knows the decisions theyre making will affect future generations...I urge them to use the Rainy Day Fund, Snow said. Weve frozen all spending except essentials.

Governor Mary Fallin on Monday proposed using the Rainy Day fund, the states savings account, to partially offset the cuts to education and prisons.

Fallin suggested using $51 million for public schools and $21 million for the Department of Corrections, according to a news release.

The fund contains $385 million, of which $144.4 million is available to address the fiscal year 2016 revenue failure.

Fallin, Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman and House Speaker Jeff Hickman announced a plan Wednesday to use $78.5 million from the Rainy Day Fund to offset budget cuts to common education and corrections this fiscal year.

The State Department of Education is to receive $51 million and and the Department of Corrections is to receive $27.5 million, according to a news release.

All of us can agree that four-day school weeks and draconian cuts to corrections are not acceptable and are not going to happen, Fallin said in a statement. This is the most responsible option available to keep vital state services for education and corrections going between now and the end of June when this fiscal year ends.

Legislation authorizing the withdrawal of the Rainy Day Fund money should be completed next week, according to a report.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister requested $56.2 million in emergency supplemental funding Friday as a result of the additional cuts announced last week.

Hofmeisters request would offset cuts in three of five affected funding streams, including the funding formula (Financial Support of Public Schools) and two that cover health insurance--known as the Flexible Benefit Allowance (FBA)  for teachers and support staff.

We do not make this request lightly, Hofmeister said in a statement. Amid this dire budget crisis, every state dollar is precious. But we must do everything in our power to shield children in the classroom from the negative impact of nearly $40 million in cuts to the funding formula this late in the school year.

The request includes $16 million in FBA costs that the state has a statutory obligation to cover, according to a news release.

A shortfall of $1.3 billion is expected for fiscal year 2017, officials say.
OKLAHOMA CTIY  Four sentencing and justice reform measures backed by Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican legislative leadership cleared the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Monday.

The four bills, all by Rep. Pam Peterson, R-Tulsa, emerged from a justice reform committee that included Fallin, House Speaker Jeff Hickman, Senate President Pro-Tempore Brian Bingman and Attorney General Scott Pruitt. They are similar to elements of the Justice Reinvestment Act passed in 2012 but never implemented.

On Monday, Peterson fended off attempts to classify the legislation as soft on crime, or to connect it to President Barack Obamas sentencing reform proposals.

It may be good politics to bring up President Obama, but this legislation is supported by (district attorneys), Peterson said.

Peterson said the legislation is needed to reduce the states prison population, particularly at a time when the corrections system is overcrowded and strapped for money.

The measures adopted Monday are:

HB 2751, which raises from $500 to $1,000 the amount at issue in most property-related crimes for it to be considered a felony. Included are embezzlement, larceny, shoplifting and receiving stolen goods. The felony bogus check amount would be raised to $2,000. The bill passed 80-8.

HB 2472, which would allow district attorneys discretion in filing misdemeanor instead of felony charges for other than 85 percent crimes. Eighty-five percent crimes are serious offenses for which those convicted must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. HB 2472 passed 63-27.

HB 2479 reduces mandatory sentences for simple drug possession. It passed 76-15.

HB 2753 expands eligibility for drug courts and community sentencing. It passed 90-0.

Going in a somewhat different direction, the House also passed a measure intended to crack down on drunk drivers.

HB 3146, by Rep. Mike Sanders, R-Kingfisher, would require all driving under the influence cases to be handled by courts of record, and create a state database of DUI convictions.

Currently, Oklahoma City and Tulsa are the states only municipal courts of record. All other DUI cases would be moved to state courts.

Sanders bill seeks to close a loophole that has allowed chronic drunk drivers to rack up DUI convictions in various jurisdictions without losing their licenses. In presenting his bill, Sanders said his wife and children were rear-ended by a driver with six open containers in his vehicle and four DUI convictions in the previous year. The driver received another DUI citation two weeks after hitting Sanders family.

The bill passed 82-5, with some rural legislators concerned the loss of DUI fines and fees would shut down municipal courts in some towns.

Also Monday, the House passed HB 3058, by Rep. Tom Newell, R-Seminole. The measure requires the annual sweeping of appropriated agencies revolving funds. The legislation was requested by Gov. Mary Fallin, who expects it to add $150 million to the general revenue fund each year.

Revolving funds generally are money collected by government agencies through fees and other charges.
When finances are tight, states often reduce payrolls to close budget gaps. The reason is obvious: Salaries and benefits make up a substantial share of spending.

No doubt cutting employees will be one of the ways Oklahoma copes with a looming $1.3 billion general revenue loss. But it might not be as easy here as in other states.

Contrary to the national trend, Oklahoma actually has slightly fewer full-time state employees than it did two decades ago, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Census from 1995 to 2014.

Oklahoma also has slightly fewer full-time equivalents, a measure of employment that factors in part-time workers.

State government is much different than it was 10 years ago, said John Estus, public information officer for the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.

Its a more skilled workforce and a more educated workforce, Estus said. Its more office-driven than field-driven.

Simply put, Oklahoma has been hiring more accountants, information technology professionals and lawyers, and fewer corrections officers, highway workers and park employees.

Officials say technology and outsourcing have constrained state employment, but priorities and the ability to self-fund, at least partially, also seem to be a factor.

Several state agencies  most notably the departments of Human Services and Corrections  were already understaffed or have trouble retaining employees  or both  headed into the current downturn. The number of full-time corrections employees fell 40 percent from 1995 to 2014 and 16 percent from 2005 to 2014.

Higher education, which can raise tuition and fees and tap private donors, saw full-time employment grow 31 percent during the 20 years examined, and 13 percent from 2005 to 2014, despite declining appropriations in recent years.

Those increases were in line or just behind the national rate of growth for higher education.

Public schools are the largest government employers in the state, but teachers, administrators and other K-12 common education workers are not considered state employees for statistical purposes. Instead, they are tracked as local government employees, even though some or all of their compensation comes from state funds.

Those statistics show the number of K-12 instructional employees  teachers, in other words  has increased 21 percent in the past 20 years. Non-instructional employees, which can be anything from superintendents to janitors, have slightly decreased.

State Transportation Secretary Gary Ridley, who went to work at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation in the 1960s, says the highway department is an example of how technology and outsourcing have changed state government.

It used to be, a survey party would have four or five people in a crew. Now its one person with a backpack who transmits his readings by satellite into a computer.

Technology has eliminated skilled positions such as draftsmen, too, and outsourcing allows the department to operate with a minimal full-time engineering staff.

When big projects call for more bodies, they are hired temporarily on a contract basis.

Thats important, because it not only saves salary, but also allows the state to bring on people without paying benefits.

For classified employees  those covered by the sometimes Byzantine state merit system  the cost of benefits alone averages about $25,000 a year. Thats equivalent to about 60 percent of the average salary.

A ton of technology now is done by contractors, Estus said. Any time we can do that, we jump on it. We dont have to put people in the pension system, and we dont have to put them on benefits.
Two people were arrested Friday in connection with an early-February grass fire near Hughes Ranch near Bartlesville.

Stephen Alan Land, 26, and Heather Ann Land, 30, were charged with third-degree arson and conspiracy after the Feb. 9 fire, Osage County Sheriffs Office Undersheriff Lou Ann Brown said.

The two turned themselves in to authorities Friday. They were booked into Osage County Jail and have since been released on $2,500 bond each, Brown said.

A judge issued a warrant for their arrest on March 2, according to court records.

The two are accused of starting a fire that burned land near Oklahoma 123 between Barndall and Bartlesville. Tips from those who live in the area led deputies to the pair, Brown said.

Authorities are seeking two others in relation to the case but havent released their names, Brown said.

A large grass fire in Osage County burned near the same area Sunday into Monday. That fire covered 11,200 acres, Osage County emergency manager Jerry Roberts said.
An attorney for a former Tulsa police officer charged in the 2014 shooting of his daughters boyfriend said Tuesday that he intends to continue appealing the assignment of a judge who he says should recuse herself from the case.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a ruling Feb. 29 regarding Shannon Keplers case, in which Judge Sharon Holmes has refused to recuse. The court overruled attorney Richard OCarrolls objection of Presiding Judge Rebecca Nightingales decision to have District Judge Bill Musseman hear a motion about the recusal issue.

OCarroll had argued that Nightingale, as the presiding judge, erred when assigning the request to rehear the motion to Musseman on Jan. 6. Musseman denied OCarrolls motion Jan. 7.

However, the Supreme Court said a review of the rest of OCarrolls appeal, which challenges Holmes assignment to the case based on Oklahomas Judicial Disqualification Statute, is premature because Musseman has not yet put a journal entry in the case record that states his ruling.

The justices said Mussemans written decision needs to be on file before OCarroll files a challenge to it, and that challenge must be presented before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

OCarroll said Tuesday that Mussemans journal entry is expected to be filed by Friday and that he has filed two new motions in the case, including a motion to settle the journal entry. A status conference before Holmes is set for Monday.

Were going to go back up to the Court of Criminal Appeals after the journal entry is settled, OCarroll said. Come the 14th, I imagine (the trial) will be set off again.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray said Tuesday that he expects the continuing appeal process to set back the trial date by at least six more weeks.

Court records show a jury trial was first set for Jan. 11 before Musseman made his Jan. 7 ruling, which postponed trial proceedings because of OCarrolls announcement that he intends to appeal to the Supreme Court.

OCarroll has argued  and appealed  multiple times Holmes refusal to recuse herself from the case, suggesting that her history of employment by the Tulsa County District Attorneys Office may have factored in her decision to summarily deny defense motions. A Dec. 17 motion by OCarroll claims he exposed that Holmes was at one time a patron of a massage parlor whose owner the District Attorneys Office charged with pandering, and that Holmes left the agency six to eight weeks later.

Holmes, for her part, has said twice in open court that there is no reason she cant handle the case impartially.

Kepler is charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 5, 2014, death of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake, who had just begun a relationship with the defendants adopted daughter, Lisa Kepler. Lake died outside his aunts home in the 200 block of North Maybelle Avenue.

Shannon Kepler also faces two counts of shooting with intent to kill related to alleged attacks on Lisa Kepler and Lakes younger brother. He has been free on bond since Aug. 25, 2014, and retired from the Tulsa Police Department about two months after his release.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Seven women involved in the criminal case against a former Oklahoma City police officer convicted of sexually assaulting women while on duty have filed a lawsuit accusing the city and its police force of failing to properly monitor the officer.

The federal civil rights lawsuit also alleges the city didnt adequately test or train Daniel Holtzclaw and didnt adequately investigate allegations of police abuse. The suit says the plaintiffs are among at least 14 women who Holtzclaw stalked, stopped, arrested, and physically and sexually assaulted.

Holtzclaw, 29, was sentenced to 263 years in prison after being convicted of rape, sexual battery and other charges in December. The jury convicted him on counts involving eight of the 13 women who had accused him.

The lawsuit was originally filed Feb. 25 by five women, and then amended Friday to add two more. Holtzclaw was convicted on charges related to four of the women suing, but acquitted on charges connected to the other three plaintiffs.

Oklahoma City police spokesman Paco Balderrama said he couldnt comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit also cites allegations from a woman who was not among the 13 women in the criminal case but reported being assaulted in November 2013. Balderrama confirmed Monday that the women reported an assault, but he said investigators determined nothing improper occurred.

It was basically a use-of-force complaint, Balderrama said. She did not report any type of sexual misconduct when she spoke to a supervisor about the incident.

The woman isnt a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, but she has filed a separate lawsuit against Holtzclaw and the city in state court.

The suit also alleges police should have removed Holtzclaw from his patrol duties after he and several other officers were involved in the May 2013 death of Clifton Armstrong, who died following his arrest in Oklahoma City.

Holtzclaw and three other officers were cleared by prosecutors in the Armstrong case after the states medical examiner determined Armstrongs death was an accident caused by acute methamphetamine toxicity.
The Tulsa Public Schools board on Monday approved a plan to offer immediate contract buyouts for qualified personnel in non-school-based positions.

The employee attrition plan will offer people the incentive of immediately ending their current contracts for the 2015-16 school year in return for payment equal to the remainder of their base salary for the year. The employees would also be paid for eligible accruals, such as unused vacation time.

The employees taking the buyout would sign an attrition release waiver agreement with a resignation date no later than April 15.

Talia Shaull, chief human capital officer for the district, said, We do not have a dollar figure we are trying to reach, but we are simply offering an incentive for employees who may already be thinking about leaving the district to make a decision sooner rather than later so we may factor non-school-based staffing needs in our planning for (fiscal year 2017) budgets.

Those qualified to accept the offer will include full-time personnel  or those working 25 hours or more per week  who have at least five years of continuous service with the district. Everyone from those in leadership positions to those in support positions, such as bus drivers, are eligible for the offer. All school-based positions are excluded from the program.

Shaull said a total of 577 employees are eligible.

According to the rationale listed as part of the agenda item: The district is considering a realignment and overall reduction of the number of administrative and leadership positions for the coming fiscal year and the reassignment of a number of current administrative and leadership personnel for the next school year. Offering an additional attrition incentive to selected personnel at this time may provide sufficient flexibility for the needed reassignment of existing personnel, as well as provide a financial benefit to the district for the 2016-2017 school year.

The rationale notes that though some of the employees who opt to take the buyout may need to be replaced immediately, it is expected that a significant portion of costs associated with this plan will be generated from those who will not be replaced for the 2016-2017 school year.

Shaull said the program will give the district the power to reject a request if officials deem the position critical and determine that they would not be able to otherwise fill it.

The last time the district offered a similar program was in 2010, Shaull said. At that time, about 70 people took buyouts offered from three different incentive programs.

This plan comes up at a time when TPS has received a cut of about $4 million from the state for the current fiscal year. The district is expecting additional cuts between $7 million and $20 million for the next fiscal year, and on Monday night, TPS Superintendent Deborah Gist said theyve recently heard the cut will likely be closer to the higher end of that estimate.

Gist said she is grateful for Gov. Mary Fallins proposal on Monday to tap into the states rainy day fund to provide some additional funding for schools.

But under any circumstances we are experiencing significant reductions for this year, and have already had to make some difficult decisions and will need to make more difficult decisions, Gist said.
TAHLEQUAH  W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah was built in 1984 to accommodate 60,000 patient visits a year.

There were nearly seven times that many visits last year at the Cherokee Nation facility.

Its been sorely undersized and overutilized for quite some time now, said Cherokee Principal Chief Bill John Baker.

A new partnership between the tribe and federal government, which could be worth more than $1.6 billion over 20-plus years, has cleared the way for a major expansion to the facility that will meet the growing needs among American Indians with a residual impact on rural health care in eastern Oklahoma.

The Cherokee Nation plans to break ground this spring on a 450,000-square-foot expansion that will house the tribes clinics, including womens health, pediatrics, dentistry and optometry.

The current 190,000-square-foot building will be used strictly as a hospital and medical school.

Its going to shorten the lines and make access much smoother, quicker and more efficient, Baker said.

Through the partnership, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Indian Health Service will provide at least $80 million a year for at least 20 years.

The Cherokee Nation is contributing more than $150 million to construction costs.

The expansion will be on land east of the current hospital, and the hope is for a sky bridge to connect the buildings.

The project also includes at least two parking garages.

Right now, people have to walk 200 yards to get into the entrance, so our people, especially our elders, will be closer to the doors, Baker said. It will be much more efficient  much more patient-friendly.

The project is expected to be complete in late 2019.

This is a long-term process, but we truly believe we will have the best health-care system in the state of Oklahoma when we get this all completed, Baker said.

The hospital and its clinics draw customers from the 14 counties of the Cherokee Nation and neighboring states, said Brian Hail, hospital CEO, adding that the expansion is much needed.

Weve known for a while that our service lines for outpatient are beyond capacity, he said. Weve been past capacity for several years.

Once finished, the expansion will create more than 1,100 new health-care jobs.

Thats a lot of health-care jobs. Thats a lot of jobs, period, Hail said, adding that the hospital currently employs about 1,000.

The tribe is working on securing a partnership with a local university to house a rural medicine program with a residency program at the hospital.

Were going to ask the doctors to stay with us for at least five years. If they go into private practice after they do their term with us, then our neighbors all over northeastern Oklahoma will be part of this growth and medical prosperity, Baker said, adding that doctors typically stay within 100 miles of where they do their residency.

Were getting ready to hit a major health-care wall with the lack of doctors all over the United States, but we have a plan to grow our own doctors right here that will not only benefit our facilities, but it will also feed into northeastern Oklahoma once they decide to go out on their own, he said.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Gov. Mary Fallin and legislative leaders on Monday were poised to tap the states Rainy Day Fund to offset cuts made to education and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

Last week, state officials said the current fiscal year revenue failure had worsened, necessitating a 4 percent cut to state-appropriated agencies on top of 3 percent cuts announced in December.

Fallin on Monday proposed using $51 million for public schools and $21 million for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. The fund has $385 million, of which $144.4 million is available.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, and House Appropriations and Budget Chairman Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, both said they were agreeable to the proposal.

We would like to get something acted upon this week, Jolley said. I would suspect that amount is the exact amount we were thinking of as well.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections had increased its supplemental request to $38 million following the second round of cuts.

Last week, State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said she was seeking $56.2 million in emergency funding for schools.

Four-day school weeks and draconian cuts at prisons are not acceptable and are not going to happen, Fallin said. The deepened revenue failure cuts have changed the budget situation in a way that requires immediate action, so I support accessing the Rainy Day Fund for common education and prisons.

This is the most responsible option available today to keep vital state services at acceptable levels until the Legislature and I reach agreement on the recurring revenues necessary to fund these services in the long run.

The states bleak budget picture is the result of depressed energy prices, tax cuts and other factors. The state expects to have $1.3 billion less to spend in crafting a budget for the next fiscal year.

On behalf of the Department of Corrections, I appreciate the governor and thank her for her decisive leadership and willingness to address this critical public safety agencys needs, said Joe M. Allbaugh, Oklahoma Department of Corrections interim director. These funds are vital and will be used for such critical areas as correctional officers and support staff at the prisons as well as the contract beds necessary to handle the ever increasing prison population.

We are very pleased and appreciate the governors proposal, and we hope it moves swiftly through both chambers of the Legislature, said Phil Bacharach, a senior policy adviser for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

House and Senate minority leaders last week suggested tapping the Rainy Day Fund to offset the cuts.

I appreciate Gov. Fallin agreeing with House Democratic Leader Scott Inman and me that we should immediately access the Rainy Day Fund to provide the funds we have already promised our public schools, said Senate Minority Leader John Sparks, D-Norman.

However, we are disappointed she only requested $51 million for education out of the approximately $145 million available at this time. We have schools which may not be able to stay open until the end of the year. I cant imagine what we are saving money for when faced with that situation.
Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from Myanmar's presidency by a constitution that thwarts her ambition to lead the country away from decades of military rule. (Photo: AP)

Naypyidaw: A doctor, a one-time driver and a personal assistant head a motley ensemble of possible picks for Myanmar's next president, as democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi seeks a close confidante to rule in her place.

Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from Myanmar's presidency by a constitution that thwarts her ambition to lead the country away from decades of military rule.

Instead she has vowed to rule "above" the next leader, potentially adopting a system like India's Sonia Gandhi, who wielded huge influence over her Congress party's administrations despite having no official government role.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a resounding victory at November elections, a direct endorsement for the Nobel laureate who is the shining star of the country's democracy movement.

The NLD is due to nominate a candidate to replace outgoing President Thein Sein at a meeting in parliament on Thursday.

In total three names will be put forward, one selected from MPs in the lower and upper houses and one from the unelected soldiers who are gifted a quarter of all seats under a charter they wrote.

But with just days to go before a selection, the public remains entirely in the dark about the candidates.

The uncertainty has stirred up a storm of speculation, with a list of possible figures including Suu Kyi's former driver, her family doctor and her erstwhile personal assistant.

How the veteran activist, who is excluded from top office because she married and had children with a foreigner, will manage the relationship with a proxy president is also unclear.

"It is going to create huge problems," said political analyst Khin Zaw Win, adding that the new president would always have to "look over his shoulder" for instructions from Suu Kyi.

"It is a very murky picture. (But) one of the bright things is at least a transition is taking place," he told AFP.

Murky picture

Myanmar politics are haunted by memories of the NLD's 1990 election victory, which was swatted away by the former junta who went on to rule for two more decades.

As the NLD closes ranks, presidential speculation has recently zoomed in on Htin Kyaw, a genial 69-year-old who acted as Suu Kyi's driver during her brief spells of freedom from house arrest.

The son-in-law of the NLD's late spokesman and a school friend of Suu Kyi, Htin Kyaw has long been a staunch ally and currently helps run her charitable foundation.

Others names doing the rounds include Tin Myo Win, her personal doctor during the long years of house arrest, Tin Oo, an octogenarian former general turned NLD veteran, and her personal assistant Tin Mar Aung, one of the few women who have been touted.

All are in their late sixties or above in a country where more than half the population is under 30.

But for Suu Kyi's supporters, few are able to match her star power.

"We want Daw Suu to be our president, there is no other position that is suitable for her," said Yangon tour company director Tun Tun Naing, using a term of respect.

Formidable challenges

In public Suu Kyi has repeatedly struck a conciliatory tone towards a military that kept her under house arrest for 15 years.

This focus on national reconciliation is expected to be reflected in a cabinet, announced by the NLD in the coming days, that will include figures from across the political spectrum.

It is not clear if Suu Kyi will join the executive, which under Myanmar's web of political rules means she would have to relinquish her position as head of the NLD.

Expectations are running high from a public eager to grasp the change promised by Suu Kyi and her party in their election campaign.

Thein Sein, who took office in 2011, ushered in reforms that saw most junta-era sanctions lifted. Political and economic freedoms have begun to blossom.

Newly-imported cars now jostle on Yangon's streets while farmers check once-banned social media on mobile phones that were previously the preserve of a tiny elite.

But formidable challenges lie ahead, including resuscitating long-neglected public services, infrastructure and improving the cloudy legal environment. Suu Kyi will also need to work with the army in efforts to end decades of civil war in ethnic minority borderlands.
2008

City announces end to ice storm debris cleanup

Tulsa residents were told to move their December 2007 ice storm debris to the curb because the hired collection crews were making the third and final pass through the city.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced its local office would close at the end of March. City officials estimated that the total cost for the debris collection was running close to $12 million. In January, city administrators raided the trash boards fund for $11 million to help pay to clean up after the December ice storm until the reimbursement was received.

2013

Bodies of USS Monitor crewmen buried

The bodies of two unknown crewmen found in 2002 in the turret of the USS Monitor 150 years after the ironclad sank off North Carolina during the Civil War were buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Navy was unable to identify the bodies although it had narrowed the possibilities to six men. Relatives of some of the 16 men who died attended the ceremony that included bands, a gun salute and a talk by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. The Monitor had fought the Confederate CSS Virginia on March 9, 1862, in the first battle involving two ironclads. The battle was a draw.

2010

Brandon Brixey pleads guilty to rape, robbery

Bringing his jury trial to a halt, Brandon Brixey pleaded guilty to six felonies, including the rape of an 8-year-old girl twice in 2008. Charges included rape, lewd molestation, kidnapping and robbery. The Tulsa man had no agreement with prosecutors. Prosecutors asserted that Brandon Brixey drove off in a womans van occupied by her three sleeping children  her 1-year-old and 3-year-old sons and her 8-year-old daughter  from the parking lot of a tanning salon on June 26, 2008. Brixey was sentenced to six consecutive prison terms.

2014

Malaysia Flight 370 disappears

Malaysia Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with 227 passengers from 15 nations and 12 crew members and then disappeared. It was bound for Beijing International Airport. The flight last made contact with air traffic control about 5 p.m. on March 7. Malaysian military radar continued to track the plane as it deviated from its flight plan and flew over the Malay Peninsula. Some debris, later confirmed to be a flapperon from Flight 370, was found July 29, 2015, on Reunion Island east of Madagascar. The bulk of the aircraft has not been located.
It's Divali time so at TV6 over the next few days, we bring you some of the interesting aspe
New French drama series, The Last Panthers, will premiere on SBS later this month.

The six-part series starring Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahim and John Hurt is inspired by the notorious Balkan jewel thieves the Pink Panthers.

Co-created and written by Jack Thorne (Skins, This is England, A Long Way Down, Glue, The Fades) and directed by Johan Renck (Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Bates Motel) it also features David Bowies Blackstar as its theme song.

The thrilling series features 3 different languages (English, French and Serbian) and delivers full-blown action, big emotion, cinematic vision and storylines worthy of a Greek tragedy. The shows original theme song is written and recorded by the late David Bowie  the first time Bowie had contributed to a film or television show in more than 20 years.

The gripping series, which is based on real events, stars Golden Globe Award winner Samantha Morton, Cesar Award winner, Tahar Rahim and Oscar nominee, John Hurt. The shows concept came from an idea by celebrated French Journalist Jerome Pierrat, and the stories were developed through years of research and the testimonies of former Pink Panther gang members, the police who hunted them, the insurers and the drug-dealers of Marseille.

A daring jewel heist bears all the hallmarks of the notorious Pink Panthers gang but with one tragic difference: the death of a little girl sets off a chain of events across Europe. A British insurance loss adjuster (Samantha Morton), her nefarious boss (John Hurt), a French-Algerian cop (Tahar Rahim) and a Serbian gang member (Goran Bogdan) are placed on a dangerous collision course. The trail of diamonds leads to gun trafficking, spiralling backward to Bosnia during the dark days of the Balkan conflict, and through webs of corruption between Marseille, Belgrade and the high-finance capital of London. The united Europe of organised crime is evolving and a new breed of criminal has emerged  the Banksters.

Thursday, 31 March at 9.30pm on SBS.
Peter Capaldi has been asked by the BBC to stay on with Doctor Who when executive producer Steven Moffat is replaced by Chris Chibnall.

He told Radio Times a decision is still a long way off.

Stevens been absolutely wonderful, so I love working with him. Chris is fantastic, and I think hes a hugely talented guy, he said.

I dont know where the shows gonna go then. I dont know. I have to make up my mind, and I havent yet.

As Steven will tell you, its very difficult to say goodbye.

Meanwhile no word yet on who will replace Jenna Coleman as the next companion.

I think youll know fairly soon, where we are with all that.

Capaldi has previously noted his support for a companion with a working-class voice.

I think its a good idea that the programme should reflect Britain, he said, adding I dont think Jenna didnt do that  for Gods sake, Jennas from Blackpool!

Itd be good if the show was more that we saw more of how Britain is now in the show.
Following on from themed pop-up channels over summer, Foxtel has announced a Harry Potter pop-up channel for Easter.

.and here you were thinking Nine was already a Harry Potter channel.

All 8 films will screen back-to-back in chronological order starting from 6am on Good Friday March 25 and wrapping up in the early hours of Tuesday March 29, 2016.

The channel will be available to Foxtel Platinum and Foxtel Movies subscribers on channel 400.

 Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)  On his eleventh birthday young Harry Potter learns he is the orphaned son of two powerful wizards and possesses unique magical powers of his own. He enrols as a student at Hogwarts where he befriends Ron and Hermione who help him discover the truth about his parents mysterious deaths.

 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)  Follows Harry as he ignores warnings not to return to Hogwarts for his second year as the school becomes terrorised by a dark force that has been unleashed by sinister powers.

 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)  Harrys third year at Hogwarts starts off badly when he learns a deranged killer has escaped from Azkaban prison and is bent on harming the teenage wizard. While a swarm of dark enforcers, called Dementors, arrive at the school to protect it from the killer, a mysterious new teacher helps Harry learn to defend himself.

 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)  Harry returns for his fourth year at Hogwarts and is selected to compete in a dangerous tournament that pits his school against the wizards and witches from two other schools of magic.

 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)  Now in his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry is forced to defend himself against charges of using magic while underage. As his expulsion from the school is considered, Harry decides to prepare a group of students to protect the Hogwarts against a rising tide of evil.

 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)  Now sixteen years old, Harry experiences new dangers within the walls of Hogwarts, which is no longer a safe haven for students. He turns to the schools trusted headmaster, Dumbledore, to help prepare him for his final battle against the rising tide of darkness.

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)  Harry, Ron and Hermione must rely on one another more than ever as evil forces threaten to tear them apart. Harrys nemesis, Lord Voldemort has seized control of Hogwarts and is searching for Harry as he and his friends prepare for the ultimate showdown.

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)  A final clash between good and evil awaits as Harry, Ron and Hermione prepare for a final battle against Lord Voldemort. Harry has grown in strength on his mission to rid the world of evil, which prepares him for an epic showdown where the forces of darkness may finally meet their match.
A NSW Supreme Court judge has declined to grant WIN TV an injunction and order Nine to halt its Live streaming service 9NOW.

But he said both sides had a compelling case and has brought forward a trial from April 13 to April 4 and set it down for three days.

WIN claims Nine streaming into its market areas is damaging its business and advertisers.

The Australian Financial Review reports it was attempting to have Nine stop streaming into its regional broadcast areas by using the postcodes that 9Now asks for during registration for the service. However, Nine argued that that would be impossible and it would have to shut its whole live streaming service down.

Nines barrister Noel Huntley told the court that there was no evidence that WIN could not sell its advertising slots because of 9NOW.

The case follows other regional broadcasters also protesting at Live streaming by Free to Air networks into their markets.

9NOW began streaming Live in January.

Yesterday WIN TV mogul Bruce Gordon was revealed as the mystery buyer behind a recent raid of Nine shares.
He also asked Pakistan to speed up the investigation into the January 2 Pathankot attack which India has blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant group. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a pre-condition for holding talks between India and Pakistan, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Tuesday as he asked the two nations not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process.

He also asked Pakistan to speed up the investigation into the January 2 Pathankot attack which India has blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant group.

"Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process," Hammond, who is here on a day-long visit, said during a joint press conference with Pakistan Premier's advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz.

"I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process," he said.

"I welcome Pakistan's commitment to vigorously pursue Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation," he said.

Aziz said that a joint investigation team is in process to complete its probe into the Pathankot attack. "The probe team will visit India in the next few days," he said.

Aziz also said that there is no pre-condition for the meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two nations. However, he said that their meeting could take place after the visit of Pakistani probe team to India.

Aziz said that Pakistan also shared intelligence with India about possible terror attacks. "Sharing of intelligence among various nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world. However, this time it was somehow leaked to media. But this showed Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism," he said.

The British Foreign Secretary also appreciated the role of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.
Beijing: In a rare public display of annoyance towards North Korea, China today said it will not support its reclusive ally's pursuit to acquire nuclear weapons and missiles but will provide security assistance if war breaks out in the Korean peninsula.



"If the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) seeks development and security, we are prepared to help and provide support," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in his annual briefing.



"At the same time we have an unwavering commitment for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and we will not accommodate DPRK's pursuit of nuclear and missile programmes," Wang said, distancing China from North Korean leader Kim Jung-un's recent directive to officials to keep the nuclear weapons ready to use in the aftermath of the UN sanctions.



This is the first time China openly came out against North Korea, whose dictatorial regime has enjoyed its backing for long. Wang also said China, which looks exasperated with Kim Jong-un's antics, will implement UN sanctions against North Korea.



"China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.



We have the responsibility and capability to implement various resolutions passed by the Security Council, including Resolution 2270 concerning the DPRK," Wang said.



"In China's view, Resolution 2270 must be implemented in its entirety. Sanctions are just necessary means, maintaining stability is the pressing priority, and only negotiation can provide a fundamental solution," he said.



As the largest neighbour of the peninsula, China will not sit by and see a fundamental destruction to the stability of the Korean Peninsula, and will not sit by and see unwarranted damages to China's security interests, he said.
Udaku Special

You see I have been right all along. Uhuru Kenyatta is a dangerous conman that cannot be entrusted with the leadership of a country let alone the chairmanship of even a funeral committee. How can this man carry 23 of his relatives to Paris at the detriment of poor Kenyans? How can he take with him his daughter to a forum she has idea about? What does Guinea as  he struggled to mention Ngina  know about climate change? Can she even define the term climate? This man is simply a tourist who loves to holiday around the world. Since he went to the white House, he has made more trips to foreign countries compared to his own country. I dont know Kenya well and I have never stepped foot there but my intelligence tells me that ever since he was elected, Mr. Keniatta has never stepped foot in the North Eastern Province. People say that I hate these Africans, no it is the ridiculous things they do that I hate. How do you carry the entire community to a climate Change forum at the expense of poor denizens? Is this not a fellowship of con-men?I hear he sends to jail bloggers from the opposition side and whoever criticizes him. Freedom of Press must be espoused by all leaders including Mr. Keniatta Answered Mr. Trump as he confirmed he loves Kenya and would one day love to visit.

Just a month after endorsing former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga for President, Donald Trump has this time expressed his hate for Uhuru regime, terming it A fellowship of con-men of con-men.Speaking to an ABC News pressman after his meeting with black pastors, the GOP said that Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenyan President has failed to lead by example.
3:48 p.m., March 8, 2016--Music played an important role in the lives of many 19th century American families, when having a piano in the parlor was seen as a symbol of middle class refinement and respectability that went hand in hand with genteel womanhood  and African Americans were no exception to this view.

That observation was made by internationally renowned scholar and author Psyche Williams-Forson during a talk titled How Sweet the Sound: African American Performances of Class and Citizenship Using the Piano, which she delivered March 1 at the University of Delaware.

Hosted by UDs Center for Material Culture Studies, the event was the inaugural lecture in the new African American Material Culture and Public History speaker series.

Williams-Forson is professor and chair of American studies and an affiliate professor of womens studies and African American studies at the University of Maryland. A founding scholar in the field of food studies, she is the author of the award-winning book Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power.

In her talk at UD, Williams-Forson analyzed the material culture of African American homes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on the symbolism behind owning a piano in its relation to larger issues of equality and economic freedom. She discussed class tensions and how people throughout U.S. history have measured their citizenship through definitions of materialism and economic freedom.

African Americans worked hard to obtain luxury goods, such as the piano, for reasons much larger than just trying to be equal to their white counterparts, Williams-Forson said. Materialism was critical to the fulfillment of citizenship and equality, she said, discussing such issues as the difference between owning and playing the piano, and the work ethic that was put into owning one.

In describing her own scholarly career path, William-Forson told the audience that she entered graduate school in the early 1990s, a time of resurgence in the field of African American womens studies. While studying literature, she became intrigued by depictions of the lives of African American women in the 19th century, by the roles they played in society and by the material culture that was often described in great detail in novels and other literary works.

She said she began focusing her scholarship on an essential question in the field of material culture: Why do we need things? She also saw a lack of research into the material culture of people of color, the working class and Southerners, all of which inspired her own work.

In answer to a question from the audience, Williams-Forson cited a continuing need for research in certain aspects of material culture, not just African American but also Latino and Afro-Cuban culture, for example. While they may be less well-cataloged, such areas of material culture are documented in various archives and can be located and explored by persistent scholars, she said.

This stuff is all around us, she said. Its just begging for us to take the time to analyze it.

The lecture was supported by the Center for Material Culture Studies, the College of Arts and Sciences and the UD Library. A video recording of the lecture is available here.

Article by Christopher Razzano and Ann Manser

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson
1:43 p.m., March 8, 2016--The University of Delaware Cybersecurity Initiative has awarded six grants to support research projects addressing a range of issues from bio-cybersecurity and drone navigation to the use of social robots for education.

The research teams include faculty from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Health Sciences.

Each project will receive a total of $30,000 over two years, including matching funds from the colleges.

The program was established by the Office of the Provost to cultivate multidisciplinary cybersecurity exploration at the University as an essential component in contributing to the existing and future cybersecurity workforce.

The 2016 grants went to:

Bio-cybersecurity working group

Security measures to protect biological and health care data lag behind those in other sectors such as financial services and the military, leaving individuals as well as groups of patients vulnerable to having medical and/or personal information stolen and misused.

This project, a joint venture between the UD College of Health Sciences and the University of Vermonts Global Health Unit, will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from medicine, nursing, computer science, biology and cybersecurity to address the issue of protecting private health data, including financial, illness, medication use and genetic makeup information.

Social media safeguard

The prevalence of social media has fundamentally changed how people obtain information and communicate with each other, but social media posts often consist of a mix of gossip, misinformation and rumor. Failing to identify such misinformation can cause misleading text mining results, which may lead to bad business decisions. Unlike traditional web spam, which is relatively static, the misinformation on social media is more dynamic and can be spread rapidly.

This research is aimed at building a real-time analytical tool that can help a user infer whether a piece of information is trustable. The developed system is expected to benefit a wide range of users, including journalists, government organizations, intelligence agencies, and emergency services.

Secure drone navigation

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have gained importance in a wide range of applications, such as search and rescue, reconnaissance and surveillance, and delivery services. The economic impact of their integration into the national airspace is predicted to be significant, but their use exposes the public to unprecedented vulnerabilities due to ever-increasing malicious attacks.

This research is aimed at achieving attack-resilient, resource-aware, consistent UAV navigation, an enabling technique for numerous drone-based applications.

Tracking cybersecurity employment

While many cities and regions have initiated economic development programs focused on attracting cyber-related industries, such efforts must be grounded by an understanding of the role a regions economic ecosystem  its institutional context  plays in determining the growth of particular industries.

In an effort to move beyond fuzzy definitions of cybersecurity employment and enable rigorous tracking and evaluation, this research will analyze cybersecurity employment, research spending, and patents to characterize the institutional context of cybersecurity across the U.S.

Developing cyber leaders

This project will launch a four-year undergraduate program to attract, develop and empower high-caliber students from a broad range of disciplines as the next generation of leaders who know how to shape the cultures that create secure digital infrastructures. The students will identify and understand the most pressing defense questions and work together to find practical interdisciplinary answers.

They will network with policy-makers, defense contractors, representatives from the financial industry, and health care IT specialists to discuss security issues from a variety of perspectives; devise practical strategies to address simulated cyber-attack scenarios; perform security audits of local companies; and engage in case studies exploring the legal issues surrounding all aspects of cyber warfare.

Cybersecurity education

In the same way that children are educated about the risks of drugs, smoking, or violence, it is critical that they also be educated about the importance of cybersecurity. Social robots  autonomous robots that interact and communicate with humans by following social behaviors and rules attached to their roles  have been used in recent years as educational companions to children, teaching them new vocabulary, math concepts and social skills.

Recent research suggests that children strongly prefer learning with robots and view them to be more like people than like a tablet. This project will explore the use of social robots for cybersecurity education through storytelling games that address key cybersecurity issues.

About the UD Cybersecurity Initiative

The mission of the University of Delaware Cybersecurity Initiative (UD CSI) is to establish UD as a center of excellence in cybersecurity that encompasses research, education, workforce training and development and promotes partnerships among the government, private and academic communities. UD CSIs strategic focus is to serve as the cybersecurity hub for corporate America.

UD CSI is expanding the pipeline of skilled cybersecurity workers that the nation needs now and in the future; producing unbiased research and standard protocols for optimal security so that every type and size of business can protect itself; and helping individuals and businesses adopt best practices to handle this ever-growing threat.

UD CSI is developing programs through relationships with a broad array of partners, including government agencies, private industry and other academic institutions.

Article by Diane Kukich
"Dead Wake" author Erik Larson will be the featured speaker at the University of Delaware Library Associates annual dinner on April 6.

"Dead Wake" author Erik Larson will be the featured speaker at the University of Delaware Library Associates annual dinner on April 6.

8:47 a.m., March 8, 2016--The 2016 Annual Dinner of the University of Delaware Library Associates will be held on Wednesday, April 6, at Arsht Hall in Wilmington and the featured speaker will be Erik Larson, an American journalist and a master of narrative non-fiction author.

Larsons vividly written bestselling books have won several awards and been published worldwide. He is the author of several works, most recently Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, which is about the 1915 sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania.

The Washington Post stated, "This enthralling and richly detailed account demonstrates that there was far more going on beneath the surface than is generally known...Larson's account [of the Lusitania's sinking] is the most lucid and suspenseful yet written, and he finds genuine emotional power in the unlucky confluences of forces, 'large and achingly small,' that set the stage for the ship's agonizing final moments."

The evening of April 6 will begin with a hospitality hour starting at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner and program at 7 p.m.

Dinner prices are $130 per person for members of the University of Delaware Library Associates and $175 per person for non members/guests, which includes a first-year membership in the organization. A table of eight persons who sit together may be reserved for $1,500.

Interested persons may contact the Office of the Vice Provost for Libraries by sending an email message to UDLA@udel.edu or by calling 302-831-2231 to request a printed invitation along with the provision of name and first-class mailing address. An e-version of the invitation is available at this website. The event is open to the public with a paid dinner reservation.

Larson has agreed to sign copies of his book during the hospitality hour and after the dinner program. The Barnes and Noble University of Delaware Bookstore will have copies of his book available for purchase.

Photo by Benjamin Benschneider
3:05 p.m., March 8, 2016--No two days are alike for Ilwad Elman, a 2014 University of Delaware Mandela Washington Fellow and winner of both the Harvard Gleitsman International Activist Award and the Oxfam America Right the Wrong Award.

Elman, director of programs and development at the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre in Somalia, joins the ranks of the most prominent advocates in the world. The Gleitsman Award, bestowed upon Nelson Mandela in 1993, is given biennially to those who have committed their lives and inspired others to improving quality of life around the globe.

It was a tremendous honor, said Elman. Accepting the same award as people I greatly respect and have looked up to for much of my life was surreal.

She added that the experience gave her a renewed sense of commitment to the work she so passionately pursues. Working in conflict and bearing witness to human suffering every day is not an easy feat It is encouraging to be recognized for your work by your peers.

Elmans mother, Fartuun Adan, founded the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre after the death of Elmans father, a renowned peace activist, during the height of the Somali Civil War. The organization seeks to defend and protect human rights, and to promote a peaceful co-existence of the Somali people.

More than 70 percent of Somalias population is made up of youth who have lived their entire lives in a country at war. My goal is to create real, transformational change in my slice of the world, Elman said. I envision a Somalia where youth have a better future, with increased income-generating opportunities resulting in improved living standards.

This, she said, will reduce conflict between communities and give youth ownership over their futures.

The Elman Centres rehabilitation and reintegration programs have been replicated by other organizations both in Somalia and beyond.

Elman and her organization also advocate for womens rights and work daily toward the goal of a society that supports their basic needs, safety, quality health services, education and dignified economic opportunities.

In fact, Elman said she believes that women are at the heart of a solution to the countrys years of conflict.

I envision a Somalia where communities are healed and peace is built through dialogue, forgiveness and reconciliation for a peaceful transition...Ultimately, my vision is to have women lead these processes towards a more enabling and progressive Somalia.

In addition to her work with the center, Elman has also helped her mother build Sister Somalia, the first rape crisis center in Mogadishu, and co-chairs a number of coordinating bodies and working groups on human rights, gender-based violence, service delivery and child protection throughout the country.

On March 8, in honor of the United Nations International Womens Day, Elman was awarded the Oxfam America Right the Wrong Award in Washington, D.C. This award came as recognition of her pursuit to create lasting change in the sphere of womens rights.

Of her time as a Mandela Washington Fellow at UD, Elman said she grew from opportunities to connect, foster partnerships and generate new ideas with other like-minded people, whether they were from Africa or the United States.

Prof. [Gretchen] Bauer arranged for our group to visit local organizations working on challenges of the inner city communities of Wilmington, Delaware, and Camden, New Jersey, she said.

This program allowed the fellows to draw connections between these challenges and those occurring in Somalia and elsewhere on the continent. Where there are shared challenges ... there is opportunity for greater convergence to tackle issues with global solutions, Elman said.

From the onset, Elman added, fellows were asked an open-ended question that would be answered through personal growth, networking and the abundance of resources available during the program.

We really had to dig deep and take account of the factors that were hindering us from reaching our potential, Elman said, adding that this has allowed her to refocus her strategy to not only be reactive but also proactive in establishing a mainstream environment in which rehabilitated youth can thrive.

The program, she said, was also a unique opportunity for Americans to delve into the true identity of Africa and its nations. For many, for a long time, the first thing people associated with Somalia was war, piracy, and the film Black Hawk Down. I believe it is so important to change the global narrative about Somalia  and promote the positive developments that are also happening.

Elmans reference to Black Hawk Down draws another link to UD, as Mark Bowden, author of the book on which the movie was based, is serving as UDs Distinguished Writer in Residence.

Elman offers the following advice to future Mandela Washington Fellows: Dedicate your full time and attention to the fellowship while you are there. Allowing herself to take a step back and invest in herself meant moving forward with new energy and skills for the future.

About the Mandela Washington Fellowship

In June 2016, UDs Institute for Global Studies will welcome its third class of Mandela Washington Fellows. The flagship program of President Barack Obamas Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), the Mandela Washington Fellowship empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities and support for activities in their communities.

Working closely with the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its implementing partner, IREX, host institutions have designed academic programs that will challenge, inspire and empower these aspiring young leaders from Africa.

About the Institute for Global Studies

The Institute for Global Studies was created in 2009 to enhance the international dimensions of teaching, research and outreach at the University of Delaware. IGS provides leadership and support for programs and experiences that contribute to the education of informed, skilled, open-minded citizens of the world.

Best known for coordinating the Universitys study abroad program, IGS also awards scholarships and grants to faculty and students for a number of global opportunities, and administers internationally-recognized State Department-sponsored programs such as the UD Fulbright Initiative, Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Student Leaders Institute, Mandela Washington Fellowship Program for Young African Leaders, and most recently the Study of the U.S. Institutes for Student Leaders on Womens Leadership (SUSI-WL) program.

IGS sponsors such signature events as Global Month each fall and country-specific celebrations each spring.

IGS collaborates with other global partners on campus, including the Office for International Students and Scholars, the Confucius Institute and the Center for Global and Area Studies. In addition, IGS partners with Enrollment Management to coordinate the UD World Scholars Program.

Article by Nikki Laws
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Published March 8, 2016

MONROE, La.  The University of Louisiana Monroe had a large contingent of students present papers and posters at LSU-Shreveports first annual Scholars Forum on Friday, Feb. 19.

Funding for the research forum was provided by the Noel Foundation.

The program included 73 presentations by undergraduate and graduate students from universities in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The five academic categories were: Science and Mathematics, Arts and Humanities, Business, Education, and Social Sciences.

$50 prizes were awarded to undergraduate and graduate students in the top poster and top paper presentation categories.

The following ULM students presented papers and posters:

Undergraduate

Holly Mallinson (Atmospheric Science)

Elisa Murillo (Atmospheric Science)

Stephen Kreller (Atmospheric Science)

Finola Reed (Marketing)

Amoi Lyons (English)

Rachael Maddox (English)

Jerry Ehlers (English)

David Brasher (English)

Graduate

Sir Aaron Mason and Jacinda Whitley (Marriage and Family Therapy)

Anson Andrews (Humanities)

Dylan Crowell (History)

Jillian Marie Allbritton (English)

Rebekah A. Barnes (English)

Stephen Kreller won the undergraduate poster presentation award with his ULM research titled Which Hurricane Attributes are most Strongly Correlated with Maximum Storm Surge Height? His ULM faculty advisor was Dr. Ken Leppert.

Elisa Murillo won the top paper presentation award with her undergraduate ULM research titled Classification and Analysis of Tornado Outbreaks in Dixie Alley and Tornado Alley. Her faculty advisor was Dr. Todd Murphy. Murillo also presented a poster presentation on her summer research she conducted at the University of Oklahoma titled, The Sensitivity of Supercell Simulations to Initial Condition Resolution: Implications for Warn-on-Forecast, which was advised by Dr. Corey Potvin, OU/NSSL.

Dylan Crowell won the award for top graduate paper presentation with his ULM research titled, Cause and Effects of Pearl Harbor. His faculty advisors were Dr. Ralph Brown and Dr. Jeff Anderson.

Most of the student research was unfunded, meaning that the students gave up their free time to work on something that they thought was important and/or interesting. According to Dr. Todd Murphy, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science, this is an indication of how dedicated these students are to research.

Im happy that we are able to provide meaningful research opportunities to our students, said Murphy. The fact that Atmospheric Science had two student winners shows not only the dedication of the students for their research, but that others in the regional community believe it is important, meaningful research as well.

On the Humanities side, Crowell said this achievement says a lot about the History department. This achievement only confirms what our department already knewthat we are one of the best in the region and our faculty are some the best available, said Crowell.

A full list of the Scholars Forum participants may be found here.
Aziz said that the two sides reviewed their relations during Hammond's visit. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Pakistan and the UK on Tuesday discussed cooperation in security, economic and social sectors under the bilateral 'Enhanced Strategic Dialogue' framework.

UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond met with advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz during his day-long visit to Pakistan.

Aziz said that the two sides reviewed their relations during Hammond's visit.

"We hope this review would help to further strengthen our ties with the UK," he said.

Aziz said that the two sides have five strands of cooperation: trade and business relations, financial and development cooperation, education and health, consultations on defence and security and cultural cooperation under the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue.

He said both countries in 2014 prepared roadmaps and targets for each strand of cooperation to provide guidance to the concerned ministries and organisations for implementation.

"Today we reviewed the progress on various aspects of our cooperation including political, trade and investment, education, health, defence. We are grateful for Britain's assistance and support in many of these areas but specially in the education and health sectors," Aziz said.

The two countries also discussed regional issues including the Afghan peace process and Pakistan's relations with India, he said.

Hammond was in Kabul yesterday and briefed Aziz about his discussions with the Afghan leadership.
Refugee women from Afghanistan sell traditional dishes at an upmarket fair in New Delhi, India.  UNHCR/U.Kumar

NEW DELHI, India, March 8 (UNHCR) - On a cold Saturday afternoon at a packed cultural fair in New Delhi, hundreds of visitors check out stalls selling traditional arts and crafts, clothes, furniture and food. Moving from one stand to another, they are hit by a tempting aroma wafting from the far end of the fair.

Drawn by the smell, a line of people wait for their turn at the counter behind which four Afghan women are busy doing what they are best at - cooking up traditional delicacies from home. From aromatic Kabuli Pulao rice to Afghan dessert Firni, there is something for everyone to feast on.

Started last year by the women - all refugees from conflict-torn Afghanistan - their culinary venture has gained popularity among foodies in New Delhi, and is giving its four founders both financial independence and a measure of respect.

"It's so satisfying to see the contented faces of our customers," says Zameera,* a co-founder of the venture called ILHAM, a word which means "positive" in the Dari language. "It's not just about doing business but also earning respect through our work," she adds.

A widow who lost her husband in Afghanistan's ongoing conflict, Zameera fled to India three years ago with the scars of the war still fresh in her mind. Teaming up with her partners Naadirah, Zeenat and Sania*- who all share similar backgrounds - the women were initially fearful about starting over.

Helped by UNHCR, the UN Refuge Agency, and its partner ACCESS Development Services -a national livelihoods promotion organization - the four women together cooked up an idea that would give them and their families a measure of much-needed financial independence.

"I was working as a domestic helper and the money I earned was not enough to manage my household expenses, and then I heard about the livelihood programme offered by ACCESS and got myself registered," Zameera explains.

The ACCESS team worked with the women to identify their skills and aspirations, and found out that cooking came naturally to them. A culinary training programme was arranged for the team, where they picked up professional skills and an array of cooking techniques.

The organization also went a step further and helped the women to take their products to the market. "We wanted to create an income-generating activity for refugee women that recognize their skills, interest and capacities. When the idea of starting a catering line was floated, they accepted it with a spirit of alacrity," says Aditi Sabharwal, project manager at ACCESS. "Never did we imagine that their food would be such a big hit."

The women first experienced commercial success at a food kiosk held at the popular Dastkar fair in New Delhi last year. Impressed by their food, they started getting orders from embassies, and organized more food stalls at fairs in Delhi.

"Initially we were nervous as none of us had prior experience of working commercially at a public level. But gradually we acquired business acumen that enabled us to make use of our newly-acquired skills to establish a successful catering service," says Sania who believes cooking and selling Afghan food brings her closer to her home country.

The theme of International Women's Day - which is today - is achieving global gender parity - an issue close to these four women's lives. Before they founded ILHAM, they had no reliable means of supporting their families. In addition, most of them were struggling with physical and psychological problems, including depression and stress.

"This catering business has worked wonders for us. It not only helps us to be financially independent but it also is therapeutic. Especially for people like us who escaped war  this venture is also acting as a stress-buster and is building our self-esteem," says Zeenat, who came to India from Herat - Afghanistan's third largest city - with her six children in 2000, and now manages to pay rent and school fees thanks to the venture.

And Saina, who fled to India five years ago with her eight children, is clear about the benefits that the venture has brought her: "It's much better than medicine."

Five tempting Afghan delicacies offered by ILHAM Manthu Afghan dumpling filled with meat and onion, steamed and served with split pea sauce and garlic yoghurt. Kabuli Pulao Mouth-watering rice dish cooked with meat, vegetables, nuts and flavourful spices. Mutton do Piaza A semi-dry curry made with mutton, plenty of onions and spices. Chabali Kabab Soft and moist kebabs, served with Afghan flat bread. Firni Rice pudding is made with milk, sugar and spices, which is generally served cold.

*The names in the story have been changed for protection reasons.

By Shuchita Mehta, with additional reporting by Ujjwal Kumar, in New Delhi, India
Enterprising grandmother Lamia Abid stands outside her stall in Asia camp in southern Baghdad, Iraq.  UNHCR/C. Gluck

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 8 (UNHCR) - Forty-year-old Iraqi grandmother Lamia Abid never saw herself as an entrepreneur. She was a housewife back home and had never even thought of working.

But after the death of her husband two years ago and the family's forced relocation to Baghdad to escape from extremist forces in her home town of Ramadi, Lamia used some creative thinking to adapt to her new situation and opened a store.

Recognizing a niche market offering simple treats to the 128 other displaced families living in Asia Camp, in Al-Dorah neighbourhood in southern Baghdad, she set up a stall selling snacks and biscuits beside her UNHCR-installed shelter.

"This is the only shop in the camp," she says proudly of the stall she opened about a year ago, which caters mostly to children. "I didn't want to beg or take things from others. They have their own problems. I just wanted to be able to rely on myself and look after my family," she said.

The theme of International Women's Day - which is today - is achieving global gender parity. Lamia's small stand covered with plastic sheeting, has helped her go a long way toward achieving financial independence and to step up to the role of being the provider for her family - traditionally a role filled by men.

Her shop turns over US$45-70 a day. On some days, she said has had more than 100 customers. Lamia said children would pass by on their way to school to make their purchases. But that is not all. As the weather is getting warmer, she is thinking ahead and wants to buy ice creams and lollies to sell.

The challenge she now has is to raise funds to buy a large refrigerator. She does not have the money right now, as her income has been spent on stocking the shop, feeding her family and buying a small television and a tiny fridge. Her remaining assets - her wedding ring and other gold jewelry - were sold off long ago.

While Lamia's married son sometimes manages to get odd jobs, the responsibility of looking after her 70-year-old mother falls to her. In fact, her income helps her to provide for a total of nine family members, including her four grandchildren.

"Thank goodness I have this job," Lamia said. "Many people have been curious and asked me how I managed to do this. A lot of people have said I am doing a good job in being able to support my family like this. But some people are jealous; they cannot understand how I got my idea and am managing to make some money. They even tell their children not to buy from me!"

"But I don't care what other people say," she said, revealing determination to push ahead with her role as the family's principal provider. "This job helps me to support my family with honour and dignity."

To see a photo gallery paying tribute to the strength and resilience of women refugees click here.

By Caroline Gluck in Baghdad, Iraq
After almost one year of conflict in Yemen, more than 2.4 million people are forcibly displaced by the fighting, some of them in hard-to-reach areas. And the situation is likely to get worse, amid increasingly dire humanitarian and socio-economic conditions and with no political settlement in sight.

The figure of 2,430,178 internally displaced people in Yemen appears in the latest report of a special Task Force on Population Movement, which is led jointly by UNHCR and the IOM as part of the humanitarian response to the Yemen crisis, which escalated in late March 2015.

Although down slightly from the 2.5 million displaced people reported by the last task force report, in December (due to improved methodology and returnees identified in the south), the number of people displaced within Yemen remains staggeringly high and a cause for grave alarm. The figures also mask the human face of the conflict and the continuing suffering and growing needs.

UNHCR and IOM believe it is crucial to keep humanitarian access open for deliveries of essential services. At the very least we implore all sides to allow humanitarian access to the hardest hit-areas, where most of the displaced are located. This is feasible, as demonstrated last month, when aid was delivered to Taizz.

The latest report shows increased levels of displacement in areas where the conflict has escalated, notably in the governorates of Taizz, Hajjah, Sana'a, Amran, and Sa'ada, which together account for 68 per cent of all IDPs in Yemen.

Taizz, where parts of Taizz city have been under siege for several months, has the largest number of internally displaced (555,048 individuals, or 23 per cent), followed by Hajjah (353,219), Sana'a (253,962), Amran (245,689) and Sa'ada (237,978). In addition, Sa'ada, Sana'a and Amran have the highest displaced people-to-host-community ratios; 33 per cent, 21 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.

The latest report, based on data through January 31, highlights the continuing human suffering of those forced to flee their homes in a desperate search for safety, often without possessions and often finding themselves in areas where even the most basic services have been affected by the conflict.

Most seek shelter with relatives and friends, in schools, public or abandoned buildings, makeshift shelters - or out in the open, with little or no protection. Despite the severely restricted humanitarian access and security constraints, organizations such as UNHCR and IOM have delivered household items and emergency shelter to more than 740,000 internally displaced people.

The Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, launched in Geneva last month, seeks US$1.8 billion for more than 100 humanitarian partners to provide critical and life-saving assistance to 13.6 million people in need. It is currently just 2 per cent funded.

The report is available at:

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Protection%20Cluster_TFPM%207th%20Report_February%202016_FINAL.pdf

For further information, please contact:
A UNHCR aid convoy enters the centre of Taizz, Yemen.  UNHCR/M. Al Hasani

GENEVA, March 8 (UNHCR) - After almost one year of renewed conflict in Yemen, more than 2.4 million people are forcibly displaced by the fighting, some of them in hard-to-reach areas where they face deteriorating conditions in the absence of a political settlement, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warned on Tuesday.

The figure of 2,430,178 internally displaced people in Yemen appears in the latest report of a special Task Force on Population Movement in Yemen, which is led jointly by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, as part of the humanitarian response to the Yemen crisis, which escalated in late March 2015.

Although down slightly from the 2.5 million displaced people reported by the last task force report, in December - due to an improved methodology and the return home of some displaced people in the south - the number of people displaced within Yemen remains staggeringly high and a cause for grave alarm.

"The figures also mask the human face of the conflict and the continuing suffering and growing needs," UNHCR spokesperson Leo Dobbs told a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday (March 8). "The situation is likely to get worse amid increasingly dire humanitarian and socio-economic conditions and with no political settlement in sight."

Dobbs stressed that UNHCR and IOM believe it is crucial to keep humanitarian access open for deliveries of essential services. "At the very least we implore all sides to allow humanitarian access to the hardest hit-areas, where most of the displaced are located. This is feasible, as demonstrated last month, when aid was delivered to Taizz," he said.

The latest report shows increased levels of displacement in areas where the conflict has escalated, notably in the governorates of Taizz, Hajjah, Sana'a, Amran, and Sa'ada, which together account for 68 per cent of all IDPs in Yemen.

Taizz, where parts of Taizz city have been under siege for several months, has the largest number of internally displaced (555,048 individuals, or 23 per cent), followed by Hajjah (353,219), Sana'a (253,962), Amran (245,689) and Sa'ada (237,978). In addition, Sa'ada, Sana'a and Amran have the highest displaced people-to-host-community ratios; 33 per cent, 21 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.

The latest report, based on data through January 31, highlights the continuing human suffering of those forced to flee their homes in a desperate search for safety, often without possessions and often finding themselves in areas where even the most basic services have been affected by the conflict.

Most seek shelter with relatives and friends, in schools, public or abandoned buildings, makeshift shelters - or out in the open, with little or no protection. Despite the severely restricted humanitarian access and security constraints, organizations such as UNHCR and IOM have delivered household items and emergency shelter to more than 740,000 internally displaced people.

The Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, launched in Geneva last month, seeks US$1.8 billion for more than 100 humanitarian partners to provide critical and life-saving assistance to 13.6 million people in need. It is currently just 2 per cent funded.
Refugees wait to board buses after crossing the border from Syria into Turkey after fleeing fighting around the city of Kobani in September 2014  UNHCR/I. Prickett

GENEVA, March 8 (UNHCR) - The United Nations Refugee Agency today distanced itself from an outline joint EU-Turkey deal to solve Europe's refugee crisis, saying it was concerned with some aspects of the proposal although it was not yet privy to all the details.

"As a first reaction, I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law," Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Tuesday.

Grandi, who was speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the occasion of International Women's Day, stressed that legal safeguards would need to govern any mechanism under which responsibility would be transferred for assessing an asylum claim.

"An asylum-seeker should only be returned to a third state, if the responsibility for assessing the particular asylum application in substance is assumed by the third country; the asylum-seeker will be protected from refoulement; and if the individual will be able to seek and, if recognized, enjoy asylum in accordance with accepted international standards, and have full and effective access to education, work, health care and, as necessary, social assistance," he detailed.

Earlier, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, had separately expressed concern over the deal but said it welcomed the EU's financial contribution to support Turkey and the refugee communities in Turkey.

"Turkey hosts close to 3 million refugees and has made enormous contributions for years and just recently adopted a work regulation for Syrian refugees, but, in light of the enormity of the task, still struggles to provide for all the basic needs of the swelling Syrian population," William Spindler, the spokesperson for Europe, told a press briefing in Geneva.

Spindler said pre-departure screening would also need to be in place to identify heightened risk categories that may not be appropriate for return even if the above conditions are met, adding that: "Details of all these safeguards should be clarified before the next meeting of the EU Council on 17 March."

On the resettlement point, UNHCR said it welcomed any initiative that promoted regular pathways of admission for refugees in significant numbers from all neighbouring countries in the region - not just Turkey and not just Syrian refugees - to third countries.

However, Spindler noted that: "Europe's resettlement commitments remain however, very low compared to the needs - i.e. 20,000 places within two years on a voluntary basis."

Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR's Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Refugee Crisis in Europe, added his voice to those expressing concern over the draft EU-Turkey plan.

"The collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention of Human Rights," Cochetel told the Geneva press briefing in answer to questions.

"An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return to a third country is not consistent with European law, not consistent with international law," he said.

To read the full High Commissioner's speech, please click here.

To read a briefing note setting out UNHCRs reaction to the statement by the EU heads of state and Turkey, please click here.
Islamabad: A Pakistani court today asked former military dictator Pervez Musharraf to appear before it on March 31 for the hearing of high treason case against him after the ex President did not turn up citing bad health.

The three-member special court ordered Musharraf to attend the hearing on March 31 in person and respond to the charges against him in the treason case launched in 2013 for imposing emergency in 2007 when he was president.

High treason is punishable with death if proved. Musharraf has pleaded non-guilty.

Musharraf did not appear before the court today and his counsel Faisal Chaudhry told the court that the ex-ruler was unwell and admitted in the hospital.

He said that Musharraf was on bail and that he is exempted from appearing in hearing.

However, the court said that Chaudhry should have informed it before the date of hearing that Musharraf would not attend.

State prosecutor Akram Sheikh pleaded that hearing should be held on daily basis but it was not immediately accepted by the court.

Musharraf only once appeared in person before the court last year when he was charge-sheeted since the case was launched in 2013.

The high treason case deals with suspension of the Constitution by Musharraf in 2007 which has been declared under the Article 6 of the Constitution as "high treason" punishable with death.

He was indicted in April 2014 but since then no progress has been made in the case for various reasons.

Musharraf grabbed power in 1999 by deposing then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and ruled till 2008 when he was forced to resign.

He lives in Karachi with his daughter. He is not allowed to leave the country under an order by the court.
You can have your own opinions on the future, of course. But you cant misstate the historical record to make your economic case, and thats what Ferrara does in this column. And I thought it was worth picking apart since he perpetuates a commonly held belief here:That reprises Reagans 1980 campaign proposal to cut tax rates across the board by 30%, which was enacted in 1981 as a 25% income tax rate cut for everyone. Those sweeping tax rate cuts helped spawn the greatest economic boom in world history over the next generation, 1982 to 2007. That boom is now an established, recorded, factual result, and, therefore, is not an issue over which reasonable people can differ.This is just false. Real GDP grew an average 3.3 percent a year in the 25 years from 1982 to 2007. But guess what? It grew 3.4 percent a year in the previous 25 year period, from 1956 to 1981. Real GDP per capita grew 2.2 percent a year from 1982 to 2007, and it also grew 2.2 percent a year from 1956 to 1981.And real GDP per capita grew 2.4 percent from 1947 to 1972. Its just not true that Ferraras 1982-2007 time frame was the greatest economic boom in world history.But thats not all. Ferraras Reagan boom was goosed on a flood of debt, both from the financialization of the private sector and from deficit spending you might call Keynesian, even.In 2012 dollars, total private sector and government debt in the U.S. rose from $13.3 trillion in 1982 to $54.2 trillion in 2007, according to Federal Reserve flow of funds data. To put that $39 trillion increase in perspective, real GDP over that time totaled $243 trillion. The country leveraged up to the gills to finance economic growth during Ferraras Reagan boom and were paying the price now with a depressed and deleveraging economy.My favorite part of this piece though is this bit of self-aggrandizement from Ferrara in comments to his post (emphasis mine):But thank you for your recitation of the Obama campaign talking points. They have been monitoring this column because they fear what it has been saying and I see they are ramping up the standing of those assigned to comment on it.Im kind of fascinated by these DC creatures, the wingnut welfare cases, as the lefty bloggers call them, who perpetuate these zombie lies. Heres Ferraras bio of current jobs: Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Heartland Institute, Senior Advisor for Entitlement Reform and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation, General Counsel for the American Civil Rights Union, and Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis.Oh, and Forbes columnist.
Bernie has gained a lot of traction from his complaints that Hillary is in the tank for Wall Street and the big banks. Hes likewise pointed to the six-figure honoraria Hillary has earned from speeches given to the big banks.The best the now-hapless Bill Clinton could do in reply was to note that Bernie, too, had been paid to give speeches. Technically, Bill was right. Bernie had earned money from public speaking: a whopping $1,800 over the course of a year. The year before that, Bernie had earned $1,300 from public speaking. All of this money was donated to charity, as is the requirement for US senators.Its true that Bernie is better than Hillary on foreign policy, but in keeping with Rothbards Law  everyone concentrates in the area in which he is worst  Bernie speaks very little about issues of war and peace. And even there, consistency and principle are elusive: he supported Bill Clintons bombing of Serbia over Kosovo, an act of terror based on propaganda that rivaled anything George W. Bush ever peddled. Sanders favors the ongoing drone campaigns, too, and even supported the F-35, one of the biggest boondoggles in the Pentagons long and sorry history.Bernies primary legacy will be to have resuscitated the idea of socialism in the minds of many Americans. It is a very confused socialism, to be sure. The young people who follow Bernie cant even seem to define socialism, according to recent surveys. And in fact Bernies economics is really just a hyper-Keynesianism rather than out-and-out socialism. But by suggesting that the Scandinavian countries constitute a model that the United States should emulate, he has encouraged the idea that only large-scale, systemic change in the direction of vastly increased government power can produce the kind of society Americans want.Capitalism ought to be our default position, since it conforms to the basic moral insights we acquired in our youth: keep your word, live up to your agreements, dont take what doesnt belong to you, and do not cause anyone physical harm.But thanks to years of propaganda to the contrary, socialism has come to appear to many people as not simply a morally plausible position but clearly and obviously desirable and superior to the capitalist alternative. The free market, they are convinced from what they recall from their elementary school textbooks, leads to monopoly and oppression.
UTSA professor receives grant to study climate change in Earths distant past Marina Suarez with her sister, Celina, in northwest China. Share this Story

(March 8, 2016) -- Marina Suarez, assistant professor of geology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. It includes a $478,000 grant to support her top-tier research in paleoclimatology.

Suarezs passion since childhood has been dinosaurs. In 2011, a new species of dinosaur, Geminiraptor suarezarum, was named after her because she discovered it at a site in Utah with her twin sister and fellow paleontologist, Celina Suarez. The animal lived 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, a critical time in Earths history.

The Cretaceous Period is really cool because it was this big transition from an archaic terrestrial ecosystem to something more modern, she said. During this time, we had more diversification in flowering plants, which had never been seen before. Then we started to get birds and more modern mammals. It was a really important time for life.

During the Cretaceous, many of the dinosaurs seen in the Jurassic Park films were roaming the Earth. There wasnt any ice on the Earths poles, and submarine volcanic eruptions caused dramatic climate fluctuations.

What Im really interested in is how the climate has changed, and how the Earth functions with high levels of carbon dioxide, Suarez said. Im also going to get into how the Earth comes back to equilibrium from these extreme conditions, and how that effects life.

The period also saw the planets climate fluctuating between wet and dry conditions. This led to the formation of isolated environments that Suarez calls genetic islands, wherein new species of plants and animals formed in very specific conditions.

For plants, temperature and precipitation are very important, Suarez said.

She plans to study Cretaceous rocks in Utah, China, Spain and Texas. Many of the rocks found in San Antonio are from the same period.

These fossil soils are fascinating because theres an interaction of many different processes, she said. If you can understand them, you can work back toward understanding the climate of the Earth millions of years ago.

Suarez also hopes her research will impact current studies on climate change, an issue of considerable concern to world leaders.

If you want to know how the Earth is going to function in these more extreme conditions, we need to know how the climate has behaved in the past, she said. You really have to go millions of years back in time.

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UW Extension Entomologist Says Warmer Climate Could Boost Grasshopper Numbers

UW Extension Entomologist Alex Latchininsky, left, is an international consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and advises agencies in the United States on grasshopper control and monitoring. (UW Photo)

University of Wyoming Extension Entomologist Alex Latchininsky says a wetter, warmer climate may contribute to future locust outbreaks like that harassing Argentinians, and also could boost future grasshopper infestations in Wyoming and the West.

Officials say Argentina faces its worst plague in more than half a century, with the New York Times last month reporting farmers in 2015 sighted locust clouds more than 4 miles long and nearly 2 miles high.

The locust species causing havoc in Argentina is the South American locust, Schistocerca cancellata, Latchininsky says. Because of the crops it feeds upon, economic importance is high.

Latchininsky, a professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, was asked by The Weather Channel how climate change may affect future locust outbreaks and how insufficient control efforts may contribute. Latchininsky, in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is an international consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and advises agencies in the United States on grasshopper control and monitoring.

Climate change may influence the South American locust in two ways, he says.

The Moroccan locust expanded its ranges northward. (Alex Latchininsky Photo)

More abundant rains in its breeding areas could trigger an outbreak due to likely producing three generations instead of one, and higher temperatures may allow the locust to expand its range to the south, Latchininsky says.

Some locust species (for example, the Moroccan locust Dociostaurus maroccanus) in Central Asia expanded its distribution ranges to the north because of warmer temperatures.

Grasshoppers in Wyoming also could get a climate-change boost by developing faster and producing more offspring, he adds.

Some Western Hemisphere subtropical grasshoppers, like the Moroccan locust, have expanded their ranges northward. The gray bird grasshopper, Schistocerca nitens, whose northern-most boundary has been south Texas, was spotted several times in Wyoming near Cheyenne and Lusk.

This shows the great migratory potential of these grasshoppers, Latchininsky says. Like locusts in the Old World, they can expand their ranges to the north when temperature rises.

Locust swarms from South or Central America invading Wyoming is unlikely, he says, but last year showed an upsurge of the native grasshopper numbers in the state.

In a couple of years, that may lead to a widespread grasshopper outbreak similar to that in 2010 when more than 6 million acres of rangelands were protected from these pests, Latchininsky says.

As for South America, efficient monitoring systems should be established in the South American locusts traditional breeding areas in the north of Argentina for control, Latchininsky says. Some of those areas are hard to access and are insufficiently monitored. He advised breeding areas should have anti-locust treatments, against early-instar hoppers.
UWs Liu Named Co-Chair of NCAR Working Group

Xiaohong Liu, a professor in the UW Department of Atmospheric Science and the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Climate Science, recently was named co-chair of NCARs Community Earth System Model Chemistry-Climate Working Group. (UW Photo)

Recognizing his contributions to an NCAR climate model, a University of Wyoming professor has been named co-chair of the national organizations working group on climate science.

Xiaohong Liu, a professor in the UW Department of Atmospheric Science and the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Climate Science, has been named co-chair of the National Center for Atmospheric Researchs (NCAR) Community Earth System Model (CESM) Chemistry-Climate Working Group (CCWG).

Being named co-chair of a CESM Working Group represents the significant contributions to the CESM model and recognition as one of the leading experts in the fields by peers, Liu says. My research group has strong collaborations with NCAR and made significant contributions to the development of CESM version 1, which was used in the IPCC AR5, and to the development of CESM version 2, which will be released to the public at the end of this year and used in IPCC AR6.

The CESM is a widely used major climate model. It is an important tool for studying significant atmospheric and climate topics, such as atmospheric temperature change, drought/flooding, atmospheric circulation, air quality and visibility, snow/ice cover and biogeochemical cycles.

IPCC AR5 stands for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes Fifth Assessment Report. The report provides an up-to-date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change.

CCWGs goal is to continue developing the representation of chemical gas and aerosol species in the CESM, and to further understand the interactions between chemistry/aerosol and climate. Scientific motivations include advancing knowledge on past, present and future atmospheric composition; interactions between atmospheric composition and the Earth system; stratosphere-troposphere coupling; aerosol direct and indirect effects on the Earth's energy balance; aerosol effects on precipitation; and impacts of global chemistry/aerosol and climate on air quality.

Liu has received numerous awards and honors, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratorys Exceptional Contribution Program Award and Outstanding Performance Award; the World Meteorological Organizations Young Scientist Award and its Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Award (honorable mention) for papers in atmospheric environmental research; the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Fraunhofer Institute for Atmospheric Environmental Research, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; and was elected into the 100 Talent Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Additionally, Liu has been listed in the Thomas Reuters Highly Cited Researchers for 2014 and 2015. The list represents some of the worlds most influential minds from 21 scientific fields.

Liu also leads a research project in which he uses the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) in Cheyenne. His project goal is to better understand the role of black carbon emitted by wildfires and mineral dust lofted into the atmosphere from arid regions on decadal climate variation. He says this ultimately will lead to better climate prediction capabilities.

He edits the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. He has served as a guest professor at Nanjing University in China, and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, where he advises doctoral students.

For more information about Liu, go here.
Iran conducted today multiple launches of ballistic missiles as part of Velayat Strength (Eqtedar-e Velayat) military drills conducted in the past week by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The launch of long range missiles was a preplanned part of the exercise, announced last month by the Iranian military.

While the types of missiles fired in the recent exercise were the familiar Shihab 1, 2 and Qadr-F and -H, the unique aspect of the recent test was the use of hitherto unknown missile base near Qom, in central Iran desert, where missiles are maintained in high readiness in underground silos, tucked inside the hills. The missiles were fired from the base at targets at a distance of 700 km and were claimed to hit their targets with high precision.

While the current is thought to reflect Irans contest of US sanctions, Tehran has fired such missiles before, even in a larger scale. The commander of IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh confirmed that the IRGC has fired various types of ballistic missiles from spread out underground sites with a range of 300, 500, 800 and 2,000km.

A day later, on the morning of March 9, two Ghadr-H ballistic missiles were fired from another site hidden over land in the Eastern Alborz Range, at predetermined targets in Makran coastal strip, covering a distance of 1,400km. Sources in Tehran said the mission range was shorter than the missiles maximum range, restricting the mission to Iranian territory.

These huge underground missile depots and silos are part of the Islamic Republic of Iran strategy to cope with regional missile defense in the region, in Israel and the gulf. The fact that the missiles are prepared for launch underground, with no visible signature could be used for first strike. said Tal Inbar, Head of the space research center at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies.

This excerpt is part of the 420 word article available to subscribers
Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media  main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.




Officials rescue 3

horses in Cook Co.

BEND  Crook County sheriffs deputies have taken three horses from their owners, saying the animals were malnourished and dehydrated.

The Bulletin reports that deputies received a tip Tuesday that the three animals were malnourished. Two of the horses, 24-year-old gelding Custer and 3-year-old mare Sassy, were up and walking around. A third horse was so malnourished it lay on the ground.

The horses owners have been cited on suspicion of animal neglect.

Sassy and Custer were taken to the nonprofit horse sanctuary Equine Outreach, where Custer had to be euthanized on Saturday due to his condition. The third horse died before arriving at Equine Outreach.

Officials with Equine Outreach say Sassy is recovering and should eventually be able to be adopted.

OHSU names head

of research center

PORTLAND  Oregon Health & Science University has found a scientist to lead its $1 billion cancer research center.

The Oregonian reports that nanoengineer Sadik Esener will lead the early detection cancer research center. He will earn $350,000 a year as part of an endowment from the family of Richard Wendt, the late co-founder of Jeld-Wen.

Esener has spent the past 30 years at the University of California, San Diego, where he is a professor of nanoengineering and electrical and computer engineering. At OHSU he will focus on detecting cancers early, when theyre most treatable, and on differentiating between lethal and nonlethal tumors.

Aquarium team nurses

sea turtle to health

SEATTLE  By the time Tucker the turtle washed up on an Oregon beach, his body had nearly shut down.

Seattle Aquarium spokesman Tim Kuniholm told the Seattle Times that the olive ridley sea turtle had essentially become a piece of driftwood, borne away from the warm waters of Mexicos Pacific Coast.

Tucker was sent to the aquarium after a beachcomber spotted him. At first, veterinarian Lesanna Lahner wasnt sure the turtle was alive, but then she pinched his tail. He tucked it in, earning his name.

Lahner and her team slowly warmed Tucker up, helped regulate his breathing and fed him anchovies, shrimp and squid once he regained his appetite.

Next, Tucker needs swimming lessons to correct his buoyancy.

Lahner plans to release him in San Diego at the end of the month.

Despite dry February,

snowpack is abundant

BAKER CITY  Farmers in northeastern Oregon say theyd still welcome a late winter blizzard to bolster the regions snowpack, but recent measurements show that the snowpack is already above average.

The Baker City Herald reports that February was drier and warmer than usual, but storms from late November through January helped build up the snow.

At 17 of the 18 snow-measuring sites in Baker, Grant, Union and Wallowa counties have higher water content than they did in early March 2015. In most of those cases, the current water content is at least 30 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Farmers told the Baker City Herald that the snowpack is inspiring optimism about water availability during the upcoming summer.
Malaysian palm inventories dropped to an 11-month low during February as poor weather spoils crop harvest. Palm harvest in the country was impacted by the El Nino effect that reduced palm production and increased the price of palm products. The Malaysian Palm Oil Board has planned to disclose official data within March 10.

Stockpiles during February dropped 8.7% to 2.11 million metric tons from January, according to the average data result collected by Bloomberg survey. Palm production fell 3.5% to 1.09 million tons, the lowest since the period 2011 January. The poll data also showed that palm oil exports dropped 14% to 1.1 million tons during the reporting period.

Olam International, a commodity trader in Singapore, expects the second largest palm producer to record a further drop in palm oil inventories as the El Nino impact is set to worsen the production fall. Futures in Malaysia swelled as high as in a period of 21 months during February, but lost its momentum due to poor demand from consumers. According to James Fry, chairman of LMC International, palm production in Southeast Asia may face the horrible El Nino effect since 1997 to 1998.

Bloomberg quoted Voon Yee, an expert at Kenanga Investment Bank, who said that production must be soft near April and that stockpiles must decline further in the coming few months. Palm futures for May delivery increased as high as 1.4% on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, the highest daily profit since February 12.

Weak demand from China and India curbed Malaysia's palm export in February, HELLENIC SHIPPING NEWS said quoting a Reuters survey. Malaysian palm shipments are anticipated to fall 14% to 1.10 million tonnes. According to an East Malaysian trader, there will not be much changes in palm exports to China in March, but there are opportunities for more exports during April.

Reuter's poll also predicts February palm production in Malaysia to drop 5% to 1.07 million tonnes, the lowest since January 2011. The average poll figures denote domestic palm consumption of 221,186 in the previous month.

According to Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia (PORAM), the nation have to scrap duty rates on export of palm oil yields in order to boost refining division. According to Malaysian refiners, Indonesia government executes a higher duty rates on crude palm oil export than refined palm yields. As a result of this approach, crude palm oil producers sell their products to local refiners and maintain a low costs. In 2015, PORAM summoned the Indonesian government to fix a common export duty for crude palm oil in order to aid its refiners to enhance their market share, as reported by BORNEO POST online.

Malaysian refiners are trying hard to uplift the country's palm product inventories amid global crises. Refiners are more worried as their Indonesian counterparts are winning the battle for foreign palm market.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne face a hurdle in fulfilling his last year's ambition to eliminate budget deficit by 2019.. His economic plan is obstructed by Brexit issue and economic slowdown.

In February last year, Institute for Fiscal Studies mentioned that Osborne has boxed himself in, with an ambitious target to eliminate budget deficit by 201920. Afterward, he planned to continue running budget surpluses.

This time, according to Business Insider, Simon Wells and his team at HSBC also supported the theory that Osborne is "boxed in." While Osborne pledged to meet his 10 billion ($14 billion) surplus target by 2020. However, a worsening economic backdrop does not support his plan right now.

It will be hard for government under Prime Minister Cameron to fulfill promises to triple lock the pension. Which means to rise pension at the pace of wage growth or faster, to protect pensioners. Osborne also promised to cut public spending and to not raise taxes.

Chancellor of Exchequer is set to announce the budget next week, scheduled on March 16. However, Wells and HSBC warned this year's budget will become a delicate one for for Chancellor George Osborne as the economic backdrop has worsened. Slowing down economy, lower than expected GDP has added more complexities to the budget plan.

Brexit has been another pressing issue which lead the economy of UK slowing down at faster pace, according to Jeremy Warner, one of Britain's leading business and economics commentator. In his column in The Daily Telegraph, he wrote, "Only six months ago, things were going swimmingly for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne." After Brexit issue expanding, it takes toll on the economy.

Meanwhile Warner also took note on director general of British Chamber of Commerce John Longworth's resignation after stating his personal support on Brexit. Warner said, "Yet people have to be allowed to say what they think, and he made it abundantly clear he was speaking in a personal capacity. The Brexit debate is already ugly enough, but by the look of it, it is about to get a great deal uglier."

Chancellor Goerge Osborne seems more preoccupied with Brexit issue rather than focusing on economic matters. In this regard, Labour Party's MP Rachel Reeves blasted George Osborne for being more interested in "outmanoeuvring" Boris Johnson in the EU referendum than tackling Britain's sluggish economic recovery. The Huffington Post reported her comments, as she accused Chancellor Osborne to focus more on a short-sighted game between him, Boris Johnson and other top Tory government leaders.

Facing a hurdle in the budget plan, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne seemed to be more interested in dealing with Brexit issue. As the issue and economic slowdown has decimated is budget plan.
Global business software segment is witnessing a huge shift as it's moving towards a more smarter and more predictive software. Analyzing data and suggesting on future course of action are the next wave of business opportunity. Considering the encouraging growth potential, Salesforce has been acquiring startups that add value to its expansion strategy.

Salesforce's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Marc Benioff said at Forbes CIO summit that there is a major shift taking place in the global business software space. Considering future prospects in enterprise software space, Salesforce has started acquiring a number of machine learning and data analysis startups.

Salesforce is doubling down on this segment these days. It has already acquired PredictionIO, MinHash, and Tempo IO. It bought RelatelQ for $390 million two years ago. RelatelQ is a software that enables users to get automate data-input and sales recommendations further. Salesforce is upbeat on growth prospects on smarter and predictive enterprise software, as reported by Yahoo Finance.



Benioff said "This will be the huge shift going forward, which is that everybody wants systems that are smarter. Everybody wants systems that are more predictive, everybody wants everything scored, everybody wants to understand what's the next best offer, next best opportunity, how to make things a little bit more efficient."

Responding to the latest layoffs at IBM, which is retrenching staff as part of its multi-year restructuring plan, Benioff has welcomed those laid off employees. In his latest tweet, Benioff wrote "Salesforce opens its hands to help @IBM and any lid off workers send us your CV." Once, Benioff went to such an extent to call IBM along with Oracle and SAP as 'dinosaurs' of tech world, according to Business Insider.



RelatelQ became a major part of Dreamforce, an annual conference of Salesforce. It has launched SalesforcelQ, a new service available to all its customers. Based on the user's calendar and email interaction data, the new SalesforcelQ alerts and advises on who to contact when.

Marc Benioff-led Salesforce is a Fortune-500 cloud computing company. Benioff is also supporting Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in this year's United States Presidential elections. He appreciates Hillary Clinton's focus on education as he's worried about state of America's schooling, adds CNN Money.



Benioff said "The reality is a lot of our customers still don't have a comprehensive customer database, their core employees are not connected in a robust way with their customers. That remains the biggest opportunity."

Benioff further highlights that the biggest opportunity still lies in the core customer relationship management (CRM) software which Salesforce is currently selling. He observes that several companies are unable to make use of CRM software.
Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said to begin review on Greece debt soon. The group of European finance ministers will renew talk soon after Greek government continue reform plan.

Greece and Eurogroup has a long standoff over pension fund. In June 2015 third bailout program, Eurogroup insisted Greece to implement a capital control and economic reform to ensure financial sustainability. However, majority of citizens and parliament members rejected the bailout program and resulting the new government to be formed.

In November last year, the government continued the bailout program, but still have a deadlock over pension fund. As part of measure in economic reform Greek must slash its expenditure on its main and supplementary pensions. However, the government is reluctant to do so, as protest from pensioners have burdened the government.

On Monday, Eurogroup held a meeting to start a review process and new negotiation over Greece economic reform. Head of Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters, as quoted by Bloomberg, "In order to make it all fit and work, we may have to bring all of this together in the comings months," he said regarding the review process.

"That means speeding up of course both the review process as quick as possible, and also bringing forward the debt discussion. That could allow us to reach a political agreement."

Finance ministers of European Union agreed to prepare an easier debt terms, but, first of all, they have to review its 86 billion($95 billion) third bailout program. They expect to overcome the deadlock and ensuring Greece membership in Eurozone.

Dijsselbloem, who is also Dutch finance ministers told finance ministers in Eurogroup to prepare in starting debt talks in April. Meanwhile a Greek government official told Reuters, "The lenders mission will return to Athens on Tuesday."

European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici confirmed the return of bailout monitoring team to Athens on Tuesday. Strait Times reported the team from European Union and International Monetary Fund will return to Greece to complete a long-delayed review of the programme and unlock rescue cash.

Although International Monetary Fund is one of of the strongest advocates for continuing debt relief, but it has also been the one taking the hardest line on Greece economic reform. The mission to Athens will try to lessen the standoff over the measures to be taken.

"I am very happy that mission chiefs are going to Athens as soon as tomorrow," said Moscovici said in the same conference.

Review on Greece economic reform will soon begin today, as Eurogroup and IMF send mission to Athens. Following the review, debt relief talks will soon to be renewed in April.
Vale SA, the world's largest iron ore producer, has signed an initial agreement with Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. Under the agreement, Brazilian company acquires a minority stake in the Australian miner owned by billionaire Andrew Forrest.

The accord also aims creating new iron-ore blending joint ventures for customers in China, the top consumer around the globe. It empowers the Brazilian company to acquire as much as 15% of Forestcue. The stake values around A$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion), calculated on the basis of Monday's closing prices, reports Bloomberg quoting Neville Power, chief executive officer for the Perth based miner while covering a conference call with the latter on Tuesday.

Fortescue shares have been witnessed to surge 65% this year in Sydney trading following efforts to cut costs, plans making further reductions to its $6.1 billion net debt. Furthermore, prices of iron oars have started to soar in 2016 which also contributed to the upsurge in share prices. Prices of the steel making ingredient has jumped 19% up on Monday, the biggest one day gain in daily data since 2009, according to a report published in Daily News.
Fastjet, an African-based airline, issued a profit warning once again owing to weak demand for flight journey. The shares of the airline plunged over 40%, following the news. The prolonged hurdles in the airline industry led Fastjet to project annual results below market anticipation. The company said that it does not aim to produce any capital in 2016.

The airline said it had sufficient cash of over $20 million as of February end to meet corporate operations. However, Fastjet might plan to raise additional capital by the end of 2016. In December, the airline blamed weak demand in Tanzania and low value of African currencies for poor revenue growth. But, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of EasyJet Plc, condemned the management team for high corporate expenditure that led the company to report low profit.

Initially, Fastjet aimed to carry over 12 million passengers per year, but it took a longer period for the company to establish hubs in nations like Zimbabwe and Zambia. Currently, the management team expects 2016 results to be "materially below market expectations". Meanwhile, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who has invested huge capital in the airline, has asked Fastjet's directors to reign from the board as situation gets worsen. Moreover, chief executive officer Ed Winter is under pressure from Stelios and wanted to resign as soon as a successor is found, as reported by theguardian.

On an average, two analysts expected 2016 profit before tax to be $1 million after a loss of $35 million in the previous year. In addition, Stelios wants to shift the airline's base to Tanzania's Dar es Salaam from Gatwick in London. The shares of the African budget carrier dropped 46%, or 30.75 pence, to 36.50 pence in the Monday trading session, according to Bloomberg.

The new government in Tanzania, the carrier's main operation spot, has declared travel ban for members and bureaucrats belonging to the government. As a result of this travel ban, demand weakened in Tanzania leaving the airline industry in a miserable state. New hubs in Zimbabwe and Zambia are yet to develop and that the company expects to achieve a breakeven load factors from these hubs in 2016, eTN Global Travel reports.

The company was created with an aim to become Africa's first budget carrier, hoping that recovering global economy, bookings through mobile phones and the developing middle class community will stimulate its survival in the airline playground. However, unexpected difficulties in the global market coupled with other risk factors have nailed the revenue growth of the African-based carrier.

Fastjet is attempting hard to withstand these risk factors in the industry in order to position itself in the airline market. The company is executing various cost cutting policies to overcome the gloomy situation in the sector.
Social network giant Facebook confirmed to withdraw plan to build demand-side buying platform to its Atlas advertising platform. The main reason is bots and low quality ads.

Atlas Solutions is a subsidiary of Facebook that provide online advertising service. Its solution has delivered billions of ad impressions a day, with a complete suite of tools for marketers. Atlas advertising platform also provide tools to manage, track, and measure the performance of advertisement campaigns.

The company has planned to test the buying platform and integrate it into its Atlas Solution service. However, the company on Monday announced to ditch the integration plan. In official blog, Atlas Solution mentioned two findings during one-year of effort.

Those two findings are the bad ads and fraud like bots which result to deliver less value for advertisers due to low quality ads. Second one is the two ad formats that deliver significant values are native ads and video.

Facebook Vice President of Advertising Technology Brian Boland told Business Insider that native and video formats delivered seven times better results than banner ads. Furthermore he said, "There are some fundamental things we want to have in place around video. The video ecosystem is fraught with low-quality supply."

In 2014, Facebook acquired Live Rail, a monetization platform for video advertising. Although video advertising has a better result for its clients, but Facebook discover similar quality issue on bots and low quality ads. Facebook removed more than 75% of ads because of two reasons: either the publishers deliver ads which were not viewable or ads were posted on sites that marketers did not want to advertise on.

In order to keep delivering high quality ads for its partner, starting January Facebook stopped receiving customers for Live Rail. Facebook wil continue to focus on high-quality demand, people-based marketing, measurement and ads delivery engine. Those four components are the core strengths of Facebook advertising power.

In the future plan of Atlas, Boland said, "The important thing to understand is that we are taking a fundamentally different approach. Our approach is helping marketers understand value. We're focusing on a mobile-first approach, when other tech is desktop [-first] which can struggle with the mobile environment. Our entire company is mobile-first and we are bringing advertisers this ability in a way no other system can."

Atlas has proven to deliver great result for Facebook. In October last year, head of global sales at Atlas Damian Burns told Business Insider that top 10 advertisers in Atlas spent more than $20 billion in advertising across all media. Daily News reported that Atlas was only using 15-20% of its full functionality to achieve the result.

Facebook will continue to focus on its core strength to maintain its advertising revenue. The social network giant shut down its high-cost project due to low quality ads and bots.
American donuts and coffee chain Dunkin' Donuts is expanding its mobile ordering service to some of its stores located in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Starting Tuesday, members of the brand's reward program can enjoy ordering and pay for items via mobile app.

Dunkin' Donuts is testing out its mobile ordering app to nine Boston Dunkin' restaurants and 19 other locations across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The service will be available for the members of the chain's reward program, DD Perks. The mobile app, called "Dunkin' VIP", is currently available only for iOS devices.

The company stated that such mobile ordering service has been requested by customers. Boston quoted Dunkin' Donuts's emailed statement, "We're excited to offer On-the-Go Ordering exclusively to DD Perks members at 28 select Dunkin' Donuts restaurants throughout the Boston area. Our guests have been requesting mobile ordering for some time, and we are excited to expand this program at select restaurants in our hometown."

Boston Herald explained how the mobile ordering process works. Using iOS devices, DD Perks members can order menu items sold nationally, displayed in the app as images. After that, customers can check in at the restaurant to pick up their orders whenever they're ready, and set up an order confirmation before picking up. Customers can also opt to pick up orders at drive-thru windows. The payment will be charged to the customer's virtual Dunkin' Donuts card via the app.

The Canton-based chain has already rolled out a pilot program last November. The program has been available in 124 locations in Portland, Maine, not long after Starbucks launched its own mobile ordering system, as reported by Eater. As for now, Starbucks is also working to further develop and improve its mobile ordering system as the coffee chain partners with delivery app Postmates to deliver beverages directly to customers.

Dunkin' Donuts's vice president of global consumer engagement Scott Hudler expressed the company's delight with the expand and improvement. "Usage continues to rise. We want to extend it to Boston - our hometown - and get greater and more robust consumer data." Hudler also acknowledged that the company is going to learn a lot and make adjustments during the process, before rolling the program nationally.

Dunkin' Donuts aims to expand its area of service and make use of mobile technology to make it easier for customers to get their products. After conducting a pilot program last year, now the mobile ordering service is expanded to Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
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By Ben Barber Has Covered The Middle East For 30 Years For The Baltimore Sun, London Observer, Toronto Globe And Mail And Other Publications.

There is a mad rush to legalize marijuana these days, but its time to rethink that generous yet foolish move  generous because it lifts the onus of crime from peaceful smokers, but foolish because it harms mental development and health.

Legalization, as we have seen it in Colorado and soon Washington state, lifts the cloud of legal fears from the shoulders of millions of pot smokers  some of them actually languishing in prisons for decades for selling or possessing a few ounces of pot.

But legalizing pot would almost certainly lead to much wider smoking of the weed, leaving millions damaged for life, especially todays youth. People who started smoking marijuana as teenagers and continued into adulthood showed an average IQ drop of six points between age 13 and age 38 reported U.S. News and World Report in 2012.

I know the effects of weed intimately and have seen the good minds of my generation squandering their talents and health on the addictive buzz of pot. Back in the 60s, I made my way to one of the best communes in Northern California, a place where we built our little houses in the forest, cut firewood for the winter and delivered our babies in the pure mountain air.

But time moved on for many of us and we spread out into the wider world. I traveled to India and North Africa and the Middle East. Finally I decided to study journalism and swore off weed until I graduated and got my first full-time reporting job.

When that day came, I began covering the city council, traffic accidents, school conflicts, labor strikes, corruption, elections and the other meaty stories of small-town life in Massachusetts. I found that weed meant nothing to me compared to the rush of participating in public life, searching for truth and serving our readers.

In fact, the journalism career enabled me to return to India, Nepal and Pakistan with a changed view. Where previously I had smoked with the Sadhu holy men and was exalted by the beauty of the Himalayas and the rice paddies, I now began to understand the injustice behind it all: the lack of womens education, the feudal land arrangements, the limitations of caste.

Things were not so groovy as they seemed under the buzz of weed.

Years later, I returned to the commune and found a few old-timers still ensconced in the redwoods. On that visit, a couple of the younguns  second generation, mostly born on the ranch  were sitting around the main house smoking up a cloud. They said they were going to take the chain saw and cut up some fallen Douglas fir trees.

We left them and after two or three hours trekking down by the river, we returned to the house and  guess what? No wood was cut. Nothing happened but hours lost in fantasy.

Pot destroys  in many people and at many times  all initiative. If the brain needs to itch before we scratch it through meaningful work, pot soothes that itch and makes it go away.

Aside from the hacking cough so many of the older smokers developed, most likely liked to cancer as well as to emphysema, pot reduces the ability to interact with the modern world.

Too many pot smokers simply divide the world into us and them. Those who do not smoke are often dismissed as the Man and not worth knowing. Legalizing pot may take us to a place we will not want to be in a few short months and years.

Hundreds of thousands of American kids may find themselves without the intellectual maturity to contribute to the greater society or to even feed and clothe themselves.

Certainly some people can smoke and still maintain  still hold jobs or carry out productive work. There is a tribe in Africa that smokes in the morning because it lets them work in the fields all day without rest or food. Some smokers can use grass and still hold down complex jobs.

Some artists smoke to unleash their muse, to guide their paint across the canvas, enhance their music or find the right words to spin a poem down a page. But for every one of these there are many more who simply will fail to graduate, fail to learn, fail to specialize, fail to excel and fail to contribute.
When Philomaths Mel Young began cutting hair in Corvallis at Oregon State Universitys Memorial Union, one of the first conversations he had with a customer was about college kids planning on dodging the draft for the Vietnam War.

That was in 1967.

In April, the 81-year-old Corvallis native will celebrate 50 years as a barber in Benton County. Young owned and operated Mels Barbershop in Corvallis for more than 30 years before opening The Clip Joint in Philomath at 100 S. Eighth St. in 2000. Looking back on that time, Young recalled thinking that his business might not survive the first year.

All the kids were growing long hair, burning their draft cards and protesting the Vietnam War, Young said. Ive been very lucky to do this for so long.

Young spent four years at OSUs Memorial Union before opening Mels Barbershop in Corvallis in 1971. When Young opened in Corvallis,there were 14 barbershops and more than 30 barbers working in Benton County. Today, there are four barbershops, and Young started two of them. His son-in-law now operates Mels Barbershop, and his daughter owns a shop at the Memorial Union.

Most of those other barbers quit; a few have died, he said. But I love what I do. And I take my time.

Young said he notices bad haircuts everywhere and laments the lost art of being a barber.

They dont know how to do it anymore. They cant taper or use a straight-razor, Young said before laughing at the notion of using clipper guards. If my instructor saw me using those hed turn over in his grave.

Young uses electric clippers and manually adjusts the length, something he said he could do quickly and with his eyes closed, but he believes in treating his customers with respect and care.

People dont take their time with anything anymore, he said. I dont leave lines and I straight-razor every neck and Ill do a full shave if they want it. And every customer gets a neck massage after every cut. Thats what keeps them coming back. You treat people right.

Young owned and operated Mels Barbershop for more than 30 years before handing the business over to his daughter and son-in-law in 2000. He was ready to retire, but a friend convinced him to open a new shop in Philomath.

Young said he couldnt resist keeping the old traditions alive. His shop is lined with pictures honoring Philomaths past and more than a hundred hats cover his ceiling and walls as a tribute to his love for college sports. And he insists that all haircuts should cost $10  he hasnt raised that price in 27 years.

I love being my own boss and I still love what I do, Young said. Its been a great run. People have been good to me.

But Youngs customers  and he has more than 200 regulars  say they keep coming back to him because Young has been very good to them.

He treats you right, always has something to talk about and takes his time and makes you feel appreciated, said longtime customer Ted Wilson. You dont get that kind of service anymore. It reminds me of the way it used to be.

Likewise for Youngs longest customer, 86-year-old Don Megale, who recalled getting his first haircut from Young nearly 50 years ago. Megale said he was working as an OSU physical education professor when he first met Young at the Memorial Union.

All we had to do was walk across the street to the MU and we all knew Mel, Megale said. He does the best job he can do for every customer. Hes a credit to his profession and hes the kind of barber everyone wishes they had.

Megale and Young recall moments in their relationship not by years, but how Megale wanted to wear his hair. They both laugh about Megale wearing his hair down to his shoulders when he first came in, then when he switched over to the crew-cut, and then to the flat-top, back to the crew-cut and finally to what they refer to as todays normal look.

Its hard to find good barbers that cut it the way you want, but Mel always has done it just right, Megale said, adding that Youngs personality is the only thing that trumps his talent. Hes a very honest person and he always gets right to the point. Mel calls it the way it is.

While he refrains from talking about either religion or politics unless customers bring it up first, Young loves to tell stories. And now that hes 81, Young said he never runs out of stories to tell.

Hell tell stories about his life before becoming a barber  like when he worked as a Sonarman aboard a destroyer in the U.S. Navy in the 1950s. Young was in charge of finding submarines and he loves telling his customers the tale of when he found a Russian submarine in 1957 and the crew tracked it for days.

Or hell tell the story about how he saved a man who had been gored by a bull in Peoria in the 80s.

I saw the bull while I was driving and I pulled over and ran through this electric fence and got shocked all the way through, Young said. Then I got through and I kicked that bull in the nose and grabbed the man and took him back through that fence.

And Young loves to tell jokes.

Did you hear the one about the couple at the mall? he asks a customer. This couple is in the mall shopping and they get separated. So the wife calls the husband on the phone and asks where he is. He says, You remember that shop with the diamond engagement ring that you really wanted and said was the most beautiful ring youd ever seen and how you thought Id never get it for you? She says, Yeah.

He says, Im at the bar across the street.
FILE PHOTO John Spoor Broome Library at CSU Channel Islands

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By Jean Moore of the Ventura County Star

CSU Channel Islands will learn who its new president is Wednesday morning.

The California State University system's board of trustees plans to announce the Camarillo university's second president about 8:30 a.m., then discuss his or her compensation. The meeting will be broadcast online at https://www.calstate.edu/bot.

The new president will succeed Richard Rush, who is retiring at the end of June. Rush has been president since 2001, a year before Channel Islands opened with its first class of 1,000 upper-division transfer students.

Trustees interviewed three finalists Monday, the first day of their three-day meeting in Long Beach. An advisory committee that included faculty, administrators, students and trustees helped select the finalists.

The new president will take over a university that plans to double its enrollment to 10,000 students and expand its campus over the next decade.
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By READER SUBMITTED CONTENT | California Dental Association Foundation

The California Dental Association Foundation will be hosting a CDA Cares free dental clinic April 16-17 at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis with a goal of providing care to approximately 2,000 people during the two-day clinic.



The services offered are limited to extractions, fillings, cleanings, some partials to replace front teeth, limited root canals, dentures, oral health education and assistance in finding a source for future dental care. Uncontrolled blood pressure or diabetes may prevent patients from receiving dental care at the event  please take prescribed medications as directed.



Parking for the event is free and no identification is required. Interpreters are available to assist those who do not speak English.



For more information, visit cdafoundation.org/cda-cares/ventura or call 877.516.8854.


CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR The Redwood Middle School color guard performs at the seventh annual Sights of Conejo drumline and winter guard exhibition Saturday night at Thousand Oaks High School.

SHARE CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR The Oak Park High School drumline performs "Flight to Fantasy" at the seventh annual Sights of Conejo drumline and winter guard exhibition Saturday night at Thousand Oaks High School. CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR The Adolfo Camarillo High School winter guard performs "Beyond the Grey" at the seventh annual Sights of Conejo drumline and winter guard exhibition Saturday night at Thousand Oaks High School. CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR The Moorpark High School winter guard performs "Smooth Criminal," at the seventh annual Sights of Conejo drumline and winter guard exhibition Saturday night at Thousand Oaks High School. CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Christer Schmidt, from right, plays the bass saxophone and Troy Ebert plays the tenor sax for the Thousand Oaks High School Lancer Band during the seventh annual Sights of Conejo drumline and winter guard performance Saturday night at Thousand Oaks High School.

By Staff Reports

About 200 students from seven local high schools and one middle school took part in Saturday's Sights of Conejo drumline and winter guard exhibition hosted by Thousand Oaks High School.

It was the seventh year for the exhibition, a two-hour event that took place in the school's gym.

Shows ranged from the seven-member Moorpark High School winter guard performing "Smooth Criminal" to the 46-member Thousand Oaks High School drumline performing "Vanity."

Also performing were the Redwood Middle School color guard, the Oak Park High School drumline, the Adolfo Camarillo High School winter guard and drumline, the Moorpark High School percussion ensemble, the Buena High School drumline, the Royal High School winter guard, the Westlake High School drumline and the Thousand Oaks High School winter guard.
AP PHOTO/MARK J. TERRILL Former President Ronald Reagan, center, and his wife Nancy Reagan pose for pictures during a tour of the "Christmas Around the World" exhibit Nov. 22, 1994 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley.

By Tom Kisken of the Ventura County Star

Bill Lindemann trembled as Ronald Reagan announced in a hand-scrawled letter he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the disease that would ultimately end Lindemann's life.

"He sat and cried and said 'he's a wonderful man. He didn't deserve that,'" said Sue Lindemann of Thousand Oaks, remembering her husband watching on television. "The tears were just coming down his cheeks."

Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday morning in Bel Air, spent 10 years taking care of her husband as the disease engulfed him. Publicly, she championed for caregivers and lent her name to fundraising efforts. She pushed for embryonic stem cell research cloaked by controversy that silenced others.

She shoved a disease that triggers isolation and shame into the limelight.

"Because of them, people started paying attention," said Lindemann, an Alzheimer's support group leader whose husband died in 2005, nearly 20 years after he was diagnosed.

"They had the single greatest impact," she said of the Reagans. "Most people will not go public and I understand it."

In his letter on Nov. 5, 1994, President Reagan worried the burden of his care would fall on his family.

"I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience," he wrote. "When the time comes, I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage."

Dr. James Sutton of Oxnard reads the letter every time he visits the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley.

"It kind of chokes me up," he said Monday. "It's emotional ... It's inspiring."

Sutton is a neurologist who helps evaluate people who may suffer from Alzheimer's and other conditions that steal away memory. As a researcher, he tests medications including the high-profile Alzheimer's drug, aducanumab, currently in clinical trials.

Sutton talked about research and Nancy Reagans persistent support for federal funding.

Mostly, he talked about her decision to publicly confront a disease that affects 5 million people across the country, including at least 14,000 in Ventura County.

"To me, it's basically sharing with the world that Alzheimer's is not something to fear, not something to hide, not something to be ashamed of but something you deal with," Sutton said.

And Nancy Reagan dealing with it resonated with people because she was Nancy Reagan.

"They were a beloved couple. ... They spoke to what America was," said Rhonda Spiegel, executive director of the association's California Central Coast Chapter. "I think it gave the American people permission to talk about it."

At UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Ken Kosik uses stem cells - some from embryos, some converted from skin cells - to create aspects of Alzheimer's in a Petri dish.

After her husband was diagnosed, the former first lady jumped into the raging debate over embryonic stem cells. According to a 2002 story in The New York Times, a Republican lawmaker told Reagan adviser Michael Deaver the former president would not have supported the research.

"Ronald Reagan didn't have to take care of Ronald Reagan for the last 10 years," Deaver said.

Kosik credited the former first lady with tilting public opinion.

"Research is driven by public consciousness," he said. "The public needs to understand the gravity of this problem. Nancy Reagan brought that home."
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Luis Guzman, currently in television's "Code Black," will discuss his career and life in Hollywood on Thursday at Oxnard College.

SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Author, screenwriter and playwright Josefina Lopez will discuss her life and career in Hollywood as part of the Latino Thought Makers Series at Oxnard College on Thursday.

By Staff Reports

"Code Black" actor Luis Guzman and "Real Women Have Curves" playwright Josefina Lopez will discuss their careers and life in Hollywood Thursday at Oxnard College.

Their discussion with Rick Najera is the next installment of the Latino Thought Makers Series, presented by the Oxnard College Institute for Latino Performing Arts. Doors to the college's Performing Arts Center at 4000 S. Rose Ave. open at 6:30 p.m., and the show begins at 7 p.m. Entrance and parking are free. A $5 donation is suggested to benefit the Oxnard College Foundation, which supports students in the arts.

"I'm a huge fan," Ken Sherwood, vice president of academic affairs and student learning at Oxnard College, stated in a news release, "so to have them as guests at our college, is an honor for me and the entire Oxnard community."

Najera, creative director of the Oxnard College Institute for Latino Performing Arts and host of Latino Thought Makers Series, called both speakers "exceptional talents."

"I've known them and worked with them for many years, and now I have the opportunity to share their talent with the Oxnard community and supporters of the performing arts," he said.

Lopez is an author, screenwriter and playwright best known for authoring the play and co-authoring the 2002 Sundance award-winning film "Real Women Have Curves." Lopez started her writing career at 17 and has had more than 80 productions of her many plays throughout the country. She has been working as a professional screenwriter in Hollywood for almost 25 years.

In addition to the current "Code Black" on CBS, Guzman has been in "Carlito's Way," "Traffic," "Boogie Nights" and "The Count of Monte Cristo."

For more information, visit www.latinothoughtmakers.com.
STAR FILE ART San Nicolas Island

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By Cheri Carlson of the Ventura County Star

It took 20 years, 40,000 buckets of sand and hike after hike to the same spot on San Nicolas Island before archeologists found the Lone Woman's cave.

The last of the native Nicoleno living on the remote island, the Lone Woman was left there when others were taken to the mainland in 1835.

She survived alone for 18 years - a story made famous in the children's book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell, a staple in U.S. schools.

For much of that time, researchers believe she lived in a cave. But it was one that archeologist Steve Schwartz and others now believe was buried in layer upon layer of sandy sediment, about 20 feet below ground.

Schwartz, an archeologist with the Navy for 25 years, might never have started the search if not for O'Dell's book.

"'Island of the Blue Dolphins' is arguably the most widely taught work of historical fiction in American schools," said Sara Schwebel, a professor at the University of South Carolina. "It's also been translated into more than 30 languages, so children worldwide know this novel."

But its influence hasn't stopped in grade school.

Historical fiction, the book also has spurred archeologists and historians to dig through transcripts, surveys and maps, looking for the true story.

"It's really remarkable. The fact that a children's book inspired scientific research," said Schwebel, who also has researched and written extensively on the topic. "I feel like I could count on one hand the number of times that has happened. It really speaks to how important what we read as children is."

On Wednesday, Schwartz and Schwebel will share pieces of the puzzle - the story behind the book in a live broadcast from another Channel Island, Anacapa.

They and others have worked with the Channel Islands National Park to put together information about the story for the public. A website is expected to launch late this summer.

In the meantime, the park will broadcast live from Anacapa Island starting about 11 a.m. Wednesday. Schwartz and Schwebel will talk about what they've found and answer questions from Santa Paula and Idaho students back on the mainland.

Others can watch on the Channel Islands' website.

"It's very, very common for children and teachers to have lots of questions after reading the book," Schwebel said. "This is an opportunity for them to talk to an archeologist and a historian about what aspects of the text are accurate reflections of things in our past."

Schwartz, now retired, said it's not 100 percent sure that the Lone Woman lived in the cave that he and others uncovered on the Navy-owned San Nicolas Island, about 65 miles off the Ventura County coast.

But it matches the descriptions, the historical maps and field notes.

"I'd say we're 95 percent certain," he said.

But the cave is just part of the story that has gained a large following.

"Of all children's historical fiction that is taught, this is the one most deeply rooted in historical and archeological evidence," Schwebel said. "It's a perfect way to teach kids about how the past is used in the present."

Online: http://www.nps.gov/chis
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Nancy Reagan once told her friend Mike Wallace, of "60 Minutes" fame, that her job was simply being Mrs. Ronald Reagan. "It's not about my legacy," she said.

But in the days following Mrs. Reagan's death from congestive heart failure, we cannot help but think of the enduring mark she left in so many ways - certainly on her husband's career, care and image, but also on his library in Simi Valley, the fight against drug abuse and Alzheimer's disease, and how the nation views its first ladies.

Mrs. Reagan, who died Sunday at age 94 and will be buried next to her husband at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum, helped steer him through two terms as California governor and two more as president - through the Iran-Contra controversy, a lingering recession and negotiations with the Soviets.

"Did I ever give Ronnie advice? " she wrote in her memoir. "You bet I did. I'm the one who knows him best and I was the only person in the White House who had absolutely no agenda of her own - except helping him."

In 1994, she wrote an open letter to America to announce that the former president had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, not a widely understood disease at the time. She embraced the role of being his caretaker and didn't hesitate to get involved in the political fight over Alzheimer's stem-cell research, writing to President George W. Bush to urge him to change his stance.

She was actively involved in the Reagan administration's fight against AIDS in Africa, but may be best remembered for her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. You can argue about the effectiveness of what some called a simplistic approach to the complex problem of teen drug abuse, but Mrs. Reagan's efforts kept the issue on center stage for years to come. She later received the Medal of Honor for Just Say No, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

President Barack and Michelle Obama said in a statement that Nancy Reagan redefined the role of first lady. Presidential biographer Lou Cannon puts her in a category with Abigail Adams, Dolly Madison and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Simi Valley and Ventura County owe an additional nod to the Reagans. The presidential library they both worked to open in 1991 is now among the county's top tourist attractions and one of the nation's centers for political discourse.

After Ronald Reagan's death in 2004, Mrs. Reagan devoted herself to the library, partly to further her husband's legacy. She became the face of the library, hosting speeches by Republican leaders and top conservatives, presiding over presidential election debates, welcoming President George W. Bush for several visits, and visiting her husband's grave each year on the anniversary of his death. As Ronald Reagan's status as the poster child for conservatism grew, being seen with Mrs. Reagan at the library was just about the best endorsement a Republican candidate could ask for.

Nancy Reagan will be remembered for her devotion and love for the man she called Ronnie. Indeed, former Simi Valley Rep. Elton Gallegly called it "one of the greatest love stories ever told." But we also will remember her other footprints on the "shining city upon a hill."


Hook Jaw Net Radios On Air with Robert & CC will host a live interview with Executive Chef Mike Minor at Rockhouse in The Venetian | The Palazzo Grand Canal Shoppes on Friday November 1 at 6:00pm.

Robert and CC are glad to welcome back a familiar face to the show- Chef Mike Minor joins them this Friday discussing his new business launching next year and several other projects he is currently working on. Chef Mike is currently the Executive Chef at Mandalay Bays Border Grill. Chef Mike found his cooking influences beginning with his grandmother and grew all the way to Oaxaca and Michuacan of Mexico, ultimately leading to his strong lean towards the Latin cuisine. Not only is his food delicious, the environmentally conscious foodies will also applaud his efforts to keep his menu green. Despite the size of his variety in the menu, his seafood selection is 100% sustainable: a feat not many chefs cant claim. Unique to his style and passion for community, Chef Mike Minor is always a welcome hit with On Air with Robert and CC.


TV personality Holly Madison shaved writer John Katsilometes head in support of the St. Baldricks Day celebration and fundraiser for childhood cancer research at New York  New York Hotel & Casino on March 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada (Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net).

The St. Baldricks Foundation funds the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage / www.DeniseTruscello.net.
A non-perishable food drive will be held during the Nov. 26-30 Las Vegas Bracket Nationals during Thanksgiving Weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

McFaddens Restaurant & Saloon has joined the food drive this year and will donate canned goods collected at a special function. Located in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, McFaddens will host its The Goose Is Loose party on Wednesday, Nov. 26. Anyone who brings in one canned food item may enjoy unlimited drinks from 10 p.m. to midnight for just $10. The four patrons who bring in the most canned food items by midnight will win a bottle of Grey Goose vodka and a table for all of their friends. McFaddens employees will deliver the donated food to The Strip at LVMS during the Las Vegas Bracket Nationals.

Racers and fans are encouraged to donate non-perishable food items during the event. Donations will be accepted at the announcers booth in the officials tower at the drag strip each day.

The food items will be boxed and delivered to local causes that aid the homeless and less-fortunate citizens of the Las Vegas area.

Past non-perishable food drives during the Thanksgiving Weekend drag-fest have produced truck loads of food which were distributed to local programs and food pantries. This year, cash donations will be used to purchase even more food items to donate to Las Vegas-area charities.

For more information on the Las Vegas Bracket Nationals, please visit: http://www.lvms.com/news/strip_news/534881.html.

For more information on McFaddens, call (702) 270-6200 or visit http://www.mcfaddensvegas.com.


The Las Vegas Hospitality Association (LVHA) today delivered 213 custom bags of cheer with shoes, shirts, toothbrushes, toys and other holiday goodies for at-risk children at the John Mendoza Elementary School , located at 2000 S. Sloan Lane.

Photo: LVHA president Linda Ness bends to assist an enthusiastic John Mendoza Elementary School student who is receiving a holiday gift bag that is nearly her size.

Our teachers are able to spot the children who can use the extra help, said principal Brenton Lago. The LVHA worked closely with the schools teachers and principal to determine which children were in need. Their names, shoe and clothing sizes and special needs were individually determined. Then LVHA members selected students and shopped for them. Every bag had a pair of shoes, other gifts and a toothbrush donated by On-Site Dental.

In spite of the economy and the downturn in tourism, we want to help respond to our communitys needs, said Linda Ness, the non-profit LVHAs president, who pointed out that no two bags were alike.

Adding to the holiday spirit, the children enjoyed cookies and small cartons of milk that Hooters Casino Hotel, an LVHA member, donated.

The LVHA also delivered another community donation made by Ann V. DeVere who owns Plaza Books.

She gave the school used books and pointed out that she extends a 50 percent discount to school teachers year round.

The LVHA is a non-profit, Nevada State association made up of more than 400 hospitality industry working professionals. Originally founded in 1962, the Las Vegas Hospitality Association encompasses a broad spectrum of companies supporting the tourism, convention and hospitality fields in Southern Nevada.

Web site: www.lvhospitality.org
The Cannery Casino & Hotel has partnered with Three Square to host a canned food drive at The Club, Wednesday, May 27 through Friday, May 29 from noon to 8 p.m. C.A.N. Club members will receive one virtual drawing ticket per can donation, for up to a total of five cans per customer, per day. More donations mean more chances to win free play. Five hundred Club members will win $20 in free slot play for a grand total of $10,000!

Weve always strived to cater to the locals in our community, said Josh Killian, Director of Marketing for Cannery Casino & Hotel. With our canned food drive, we really want to give back to the community in a different way. This promotion is a great way to say thank you to our local customers while supporting our local food bank, Three Square.

Three Square is a local food collection hub that collects and distributes donated food to local charitable organizations. In addition to providing bakery, produce, dairy, and non-perishable products, Three Square also works directly with local schools to facilitate childhood nutrition programs. For more information, please visit ThreeSquare.org.

Cannery Casino & Hotel and Eastside Cannery Casino & Hotel: www.cannerycasinos.com
By: Max Buerger, Head of Alpha Aviation Group (AAG)

The news that Vietjet Air, Vietnams first private budget airline, predicts a doubling of passenger numbers in 2016 is welcome reading to Vietnams civil aviation industry.

With the price of crude oil expected to remain low, and demand increasing thanks to a growing Vietnamese middle class, Vietnamese airlines will, along with their international counterparts, be looking to capitalize on these trends through fleet expansion. Since the start of 2016, Vietjet has already announced the purchase of twelve new planes in addition to the 9 purchased last year, and expects their fleet to grow to 100 planes within five years.

Yet whilst this boom is a heartening development, it also exposes the urgent need for more pilots within the sector. As airlines acquire larger fleets, enjoy greater profits and welcome more passengers, it is essential that Vietnams labor force can meet the demand of its consumers.

Already the current shortage of pilots, and specifically Vietnamese pilots, within the Vietnamese commercial aviation sector is evident. Vietnamese airlines are continually having to invest in foreign talent as a means of maintaining operations; of the 800 pilots attached to Vietnam Airlines, 360 are non-Vietnamese nationals, while at Jetstar Pacific Airlines, 95 percent of the companys total air crew are foreign nationals. The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has also frequently lobbied for the retirement age of pilots to be increased as a means of alleviating this national shortage.

With 40m people in Vietnam under the age of 24, and increasing government investment in science and technology, Vietnam has the potential to meet the demand for more pilots both domestically and across the Asia-Pacific region.

Neither the government, private sector, or the airlines will be able to solve the pilot shortage alone. While the gravity of this shortage is appreciated within the industry, the current pilot training infrastructure is simply insufficient to produce the capacity currently needed.

Of increased importance therefore will be regional flight training schools. Arguably, private training academies across the region provide the best opportunity to meet the near term shortage in talent seen within the aviation sector.

By outsourcing pilot training, airlines can secure more efficient, cost-effective training programmes, with pilot training schools offering specific skills and expertise in the field. Doing so also enables airlines to focus on the commercial aspects of their businesses. They can do so with the assurance that training schools will provide professional, assured pilots who have undertaken extensive training which can be flexibly offered to suit each airlines needs.

Boeing has stated that by 2034, 558,000 additional commercial pilots will be required to service expanding global fleets. Asias high likelihood of experiencing rapid expansion in demand means a sizeable proportion of these commercial pilots will be needed in the region. Ensuring ambitious young aviators find their way into high-class pilot training schools will be integral to the continued growth of aviation in Vietnam.

The government must play its part too, by ensuring that young Vietnamese are encouraged to pursue and study science and technology subjects. More and more opportunities are set to emerge in this exciting and dynamic sector, and it is crucial that young flight enthusiasts identify this trend and capitalize on it.

This issue is especially pertinent with regards to young women in Vietnam. Of the 130,000 pilots across the globe, a mere 4,000 are estimated to be female. Encouraging young women to join their male counterparts is sure to swell the ranks of cockpits throughout Asia. If accomplished, Vietnam has the chance to become an industry leader in this regard.

This is a pivotal point in the Vietnamese aviation history, and Vietnams time is now. The chance is there for a symbiotic relationship to develop between ambitious young aviation enthusiasts and an industry that is projected to rapidly expand in years to come. If young people and airlines are willing to invest in each other, then we could be moving into a golden age of flight for Vietnam.



About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email vietnam@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. 

Annual Audit and Compliance in Vietnam 2016

In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we address pressing changes to audit procedures in 2016, and provide guidance on how to ensure that compliance tasks are completed in an efficient and effective manner. We highlight the continued convergence of VAS with IFRS, discuss the emergence of e-filing, and provide step-by-step instructions on audit and compliance procedures for Foreign Owned Enterprises (FOEs) as well as Representative Offices (ROs).

Navigating the Vietnam Supply Chain

In this edition of Vietnam Briefing, we discuss the advantages of the Vietnamese market over its regional competition and highlight where and how to implement successful investment projects. We examine tariff reduction schedules within the ACFTA and TPP, highlight considerations with regard to rules of origin, and outline the benefits of investing in Vietnams growing economic zones. Finally, we provide expert insight into the issues surrounding the creation of 100 percent Foreign Owned Enterprise in Vietnam.

Tax, Accounting and Audit in Vietnam 2016 (2nd Edition)

This edition of Tax, Accounting, and Audit in Vietnam, updated for 2016, offers a comprehensive overview of the major taxes foreign investors are likely to encounter when establishing or operating a business in Vietnam, as well as other tax-relevant obligations. This concise, detailed, yet pragmatic guide is ideal for CFOs, compliance officers and heads of accounting who must navigate Vietnams complex tax and accounting landscape in order to effectively manage and strategically plan their Vietnam operations.
Overload is expected to be eased at the two childrens hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017 as another similar infirmaries will open for young patients in September this year, Tang Chi Thuong, deputy director of the municipal Department of Health, said at the conference.

Construction of the second oncology hospital in District 9 is anticipated to be completed by 2018, which should alleviate the excessive number of patients at the existing facility in Binh Thanh District, Thuong continued.

He added that authorities have been applying temporary measures to cope with the issues by shortening medical procedures and increasing the number of beds.

Several leaders of the infirmaries in the southern city pointed out that improving existing facilities and their equipment is important in reducing the current overcrowding problem.

In terms of financial capacity, authorities should consider mobilizing investment not only from the city budget but also from the private sector, Vo Duc Chien, director of Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital in District 5, recommended.

Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Dinh La Thang (R, 2nd) inspects the progress of the construction of the new childrens hospital in Binh Chanh District on the morning of March 6, 2016. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The Ministry of Health is advised to issue specific guidance and policy for hospital operators to receive investment from the private sector in order to afford modern equipment, which is essential in providing better healthcare services for citizens, according to Phan Van Bau, director of Peoples Hospital 115.

Speaking at the meeting, Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Dinh La Thang highlighted the fact that competent authorities should collect opinions from attendants, as well as dealing with reported issues that have emerged during the construction of new hospitals in the city.

He added that those contractors who are not qualified to carry out the projects in accordance with schedules should be replaced.

With regard to the financial autonomy of hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, many of their directors suggested that their facilities be independent in the purchase of medicines and equipment in order to optimize service.

The city's Party chief agreed with the proposal and encouraged authorities to establish a suitable mechanism to facilitate the financial autonomy of infirmaries, adding that leaders of the hospitals will then take responsibility for any emerging problems.

On the morning of the same day, Secretary Thang and the delegation from the Ministry of Health paid a visit to the construction site of the new childrens hospital in Binh Chanh District to evaluate its progress.

Thang urged that the new oncology hospital be built according to the schedule to help minimize patient overload.
The situation is so urgent that the government has organized a meeting with relevant ministries and leaders of all Mekong Delta provinces on Monday to discuss solutions.

The Mekong Delta includes 12 provinces -- Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Dong Thap, An Giang, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu and Ca Mau -- and Can Tho City.

The total area of salinity-hit paddy fields in the area has been 139,000 hectares so far, with that number expected to be much higher by the end of next month, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat told the meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.



Farmers are pictured near a salinity-hit paddy field in Kien Giang. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Ca Mau is the worst salinity-hit location, with more than 49,000 hectares of paddy crops affected. The respective figures for Kien Giang and Ben Tre are 34,000 hectares and 13,844 hectares respectively.

If the drought continues until June, some 500,000 hectares of the summer-autumn rice crop will not be able to begin on time, Minister Phat said.

The current drought has also resulted in a fresh water shortage for some 575,000 people throughout the Mekong Delta.

Even restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals and factories in Ben Tre are running short of fresh water, the agriculture minister added.

Vietnam is expected to need some VND90 trillion (US$4.02 billion) for irrigation projects to ensure water supply and deal with climate change in the Mekong Delta for the 2012-20 period, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

For 2016-20 alone, the required capital is about VND31 trillion ($1.38 billion).

The investment ministry has therefore suggested that the prime minister task relevant ministries and agencies with finding money for the projects and begining to work on crucial constructions as soon as possible.



Agriculture officials examine a dead paddy field due to salinity in Kien Giang.

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Farmers solutions

While macro-level solutions to fight drought and salinity are under discussion, Mekong Delta farmers have come up with their own ways of dealing with the harsh conditions.

When water is too salty to grow rice, Tran Van Huynh, a farmer in Hau Giang, has turned his five-hectare paddy fields into ponds to raise fish.

I rake in up to VND5 million [$223] from every hectare just by raising fish there between May and June, which is better than growing rice, he said.

The model has been widely adopted by other farmers in Hau Giang, whereas those in Hong Dan District, Bac Lieu, are farming shrimp instead of fish to make use of their paddy fields.

Since 2012, farmers in Hong Dan have also grown a special type of rice that is resilient to salt water.

Even with a salinity rate of four percent, this rice still grows healthily and produces a good yield, Nguyen Hoang Duong, a local farmer, said of his salt water resilient paddy crop.
Utilising a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in a three-class configuration, this new route will strengthen Emirates network of destinations in Southeast Asia, offer a new flight option to passengers travelling between Hanoi and Yangon, and open up new connections for Myanmese and Vietnamese travellers to access Emirates global network.

Hanoi will be Emirates second destination within Vietnam, following the launch of services to Ho Chi Minh City in 2012 and a cargo-only service to Hanoi in 2013.

With the daily service to Yangon and Hanoi, Emirates, in cooperation with its regional codeshare partners Bangkok Airways and Jetstar - now serves the major capitals and tourist attractions in Southeast Asia, providing the opportunity for tourists in these markets to build travel itineraries covering multiple cities in these destinations.

With the opening of this service, Emirates will enhance its Southeast Asia offering and offer more choices for travellers in Myanmar and Vietnam to conveniently connect to 39 cities in Europe, 16 in the Middle East as well as a number of destinations across our extensive network in Africa and the Americas, said Adnan Kazim, Emirates' divisional senior vice president, Strategic Planning, Revenue Optimisation & Aeropolitical Affairs.

Passengers will also be able to travel between Hanoi and Yangon on this service. For Hanoi, the service will provide additional options for labour and government travel to Emirates global network of destinations, Kazim added.

The three-class configured Boeing 777-300ER which Emirates will operate on the route offers 8 seats in First Class, 42 seats in Business Class and 310 seats in Economy Class. In terms of cargo, up to 20 tonnes of capacity will be offered in the bellyhold on this service.

Popular exports on this route are expected to be foods including beans, fish, rice, as well as clothing from Myanmar, and marine products and electronics from Hanoi.

Timings of the new service have been scheduled to allow for seamless connections to many European and GCC routes, via a convenient stopover in Dubai.

Passengers from Hanoi now can fly with Emirates to explore exciting destinations across the airlines vast global network. On the other hand, Emirates will bring about more travellers and business opportunities to Hanoi and help facilitate the development of economics and tourism there.

As with all Emirates flights, passengers travelling on the Yangon and Hanoi service will be able to take advantage of the generous Emirates baggage allowance of 30kg in Economy Class, and 40kg in Business Class, and 50kg in First Class.
In a draft document from the central bank circulated for public opinions, the risk index of receivable lending for real estate and securities would be raised from 150 per cent (the lowest level) as stipulated in Circular No 36 to 250 per cent.- Photo petrotimes.vn

He made the statement to reassure real estate insiders amidst fears that the new regulations would have negative impacts on the real estate market which has seen signs of recovery.

In a draft document from the central bank circulated for public opinions, the risk index of receivable lending for real estate and securities would be raised from 150 per cent (the lowest level) as stipulated in Circular No 36 to 250 per cent.

The maximum ratio of short- term funds used for medium and long term loans would be reduced from 60 per cent to 40 per cent.

Chairman of the Viet Nam Real Estate Association Nguyen Tran Nam said that since Circular No 36 had come into effect a year ago, the number of transactions in the housing market increased, proving that there was considerable demand for houses.

Outstanding loans in the housing sector were still under control, Nam added, and suggested that the circular be unchanged at the moment.

Pham Duc Toan, general director of the EZ Viet Nam Real Estate Development and Investment Company, said that the amendments would make it difficult for property investors and traders to get loans, which could increase house prices.

Good sentiments

Contrary to the opinions of real estate developers, the amendments received praise from experts and commercial banks.

Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, member of the Board of Director of the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) and former head of the SBV's Monetary Policy Department, said that the new policy was an indirect method that the SBV could apply to prevent a bubble in the real estate market.

"I think that the market now is over supplied as too many projects are underway while people who have real demand for a house can not afford one due to their low income.

"Housing enterprises must find ways to adapt themselves to new economic and policy conditions," Thanh said.

HSBC Viet Nam General Director Pham Hong Hai said to Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) that this was a signal to housing enterprises that they should be more cautious.

"The change in risk index of receivable lending for real estate (250 per cent) is suitable, because a large amount of capital has been poured in the real estate sector."

Enterprises should look at both the supply and demand sides of the market to ensure efficient performance, Hai added.

Good decision

Chau Dinh Linh, a lecturer at the Banking University of HCM City, said that implementing the amendments would be a good decision.

"The new regulations would help not only prevent risks from the property market but also redirect the capital flow in the financial market. We have relied too much on the monetary market as a capital supplying channel while the capital market including bonds and securities is underdeveloped.

"The country's economic development does not depend only on the real estate sector, but on the real production and consumption," Linh said.

"If real estate developers want to have sustainable businesses, they should not count on short-term capital sources to do medium- and long-term investment projects," he added.

Anh said that the amendments were drafted to ensure the banking system's health. If the banking system was not exposed to excessive risks, then enterprises would find it easier to access loans, he explained.

Fire rekindled

According to Anh, monetary policy was not the only way to boost the real estate market's development. He said that the market had got out of the worst situation and real estate companies should not count on bank capital.

Banks have completed their role in "rekindling the fire" and it is necessary to have policies to lure capital from other sources such as foreign investment or remittances into this sector.

A long-term and stable property market needed the consistent implementation of many policies such as fiscal, tax and land.

The SBV official said that they had predicted the response of stakeholders when issuing the draft amendments. However, the SBV would do further research before a final decision and draw a roadmap for the market to have time to adapt, Anh stressed.
Migrants and refugees arrive in the first international standard refugee camp in Grande-Synthe, northern France. The new camp, featuring some 200 heated wooden cabins and proper toilets and showers, has been built by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). (FRANCOIS LO PRESTI/AFP)

CALAIS: France's first international-standard refugee camp opened in the teeth of official opposition on Monday (Mar 7) while Calais residents protested over the impact of the migrant crisis.

Three families of Iraqi Kurds were the first to arrive at the new camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk on the northern French coast, an AFP reporter said. They came from another site nearby where around 1,000 people have been living in miserable conditions with limited protection from the cold.

The new camp, featuring some 200 heated wooden cabins and proper toilets and showers, has been built by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) with the support of the local town hall, despite opposition from the French government.

It lies around 40 kilometres from the largest refugee camp on the outskirts of the port city of Calais, nicknamed the "Jungle", which is being gradually demolished by the authorities.

The new 3.1 million (US$3.4 million) migrant accommodation at Grande-Synthe is thought to be the first in France to meet international standards, and MSF said they hoped soon to have 375 cabins, catering for 2,500 people.

"It's a great day for human solidarity," said local mayor Damien Careme, who fought a battle with the authorities over its construction. "I've overcome a failure of the state," he said, adding that he could no longer stand the sight of around 75 children living in the original camp.

The move has frustrated the government which has been trying to move refugees away from the northern coast and into centres where their movement is more controlled.

The government's representative in northern France, Jean-Francois Cordet, said last month: "The government's policy is not to reconstitute a camp at Grande-Synthe, but to make it go away."

LINE OF RIOT POLICE

Several hundred residents from Calais travelled to Paris on Monday to demand state support in the face of a huge loss of business caused by the migrant crisis in the port city.

"We are the closest point to Britain and there aren't any English people left in the streets of our town," said Antoine Ravisse, one of the organisers, estimating that Calais had lost around 40 per cent of its trade since the crisis became acute last summer.

The protesters were demanding a 10-year tax moratorium for the town, and a delegation was received at the president's Elysee Palace.

Meanwhile, demolition resumed for a second week in the Jungle camp outside Calais. A group of children tried to offer white roses to the line of riot police holding back migrants and volunteers as workers resumed the dismantling of makeshift shelters.

Thousands of migrants have been living in the Jungle and other smaller camps along the northern coast, desperate to reach Britain where many have family or community ties and see better hopes of gaining employment or education.

Most have turned down offers from the French government to move into heated containers alongside the Jungle, or into accommodation centres elsewhere in France, fearing doing so would end their dreams of reaching Britain.

Unlike these alternatives, the new camp at Grande-Synthe will not restrict the movement of migrants and refugees, MSF said.

In the Calais camp, nine Iranians who last week stitched their mouths shut in protest at the demolition, said they were carrying out a hunger strike. Some two hectares of the Jungle were destroyed last week, and authorities said it could take a month or more to demolish the southern half of the camp.

Local authorities say there were between 800 and 1,000 migrants living in the southern half, while aid groups say there were around 3,500.


The MoIT is enticing power companies to bolster Vietnams national grid, as the domestic electricity supply is falling short of demand

Ratch Co., Ltd (Ratch) revealed investment plans for Vietnams Haiphong 3 thermal power project in last weeks meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Located in the northern port of Haiphong, Haiphong 3 thermal power is backed by Vietnams state-run mining group Vinacomin, the countrys third largest power investor. The plant has a total capacity of 600 megawatts and is expected to make a significant contribution to the electricity supply for the northern provinces.

MoIT Deputy Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong commented that Ratch should discuss investments directly with Vinacomin, as well as suggesting that the company choose other projects in Vietnams power development master plan for the 2011-2020 period, with a vision to 2030, such as joining with Thailands EGATi to invest in the proposed Quang Tri thermal power station in the central province.

After receiving government approval in August 2013, a memorandum of understanding for the 1,200MW coal-fired power plant was drawn up, classifying the $2.26 billion Quang Tri energy project as a build-operate-transfer (BOT) venture which is expected to come online in 2021. The proposals initial construction, currently slated for 2017, will depend heavily on the upcoming negotiation process.

Deputy director of the Quang Tri Department of Industry and Trade Ho Hiep Nghia told VIR that the Quang Tri thermal power project had completed its pre-feasibility study, after which it could begin its BOT contract negotiations. This next step is a tricky process that often causes headaches for energy projects, resulting in construction delays.

Vuong also suggested that Ratch could take part in the government-directed equitisation of state-run Electricity of Vietnams Power Generation Corporation (Genco) and its subsidiaries (Genco 1, Genco 2, and Genco 3). The three Gencos began operations in 2013 and are not on the list of corporations in which the state is required to hold a controlling stake.

In the same week, Thailands Country Group Holdings, which provides securities brokerage, trading, and underwriting as well as investment advice, showed interest in the renewable energy sector in Vietnam.

Vuong said that in recent years the Vietnamese government has been calling for investment into renewable energy projects after realising the limited potential of traditional fossil fuel power sources, such as coal and crude oil. Severe nationwide electricity shortages have been harmful for the nation.

According to Vietnams power development master plan for the 2011-2020 period, with a vision to 2030, Vietnam intends to raise the proportion of renewable energy to 6 per cent of the total power supply by 2030, up from 3.5 per cent in 2010.


illustration photo

Recent data from EY & private nonpartisan, nonprofit institution Peterson Institute for International Economics reveals that companies in just five countries have at least 30 per cent senior women executives, with only Norway exceeding the 30 per cent mark for women on company boards.

The research also shows that companies with at least 30 per cent women in leadership can achieve up to a 6 percentage point increase in net margin.

In the largest global study of its kind, the research focused on data from almost 22,000 publicly traded firms across 91 countries. It found that Bulgaria (37 per cent), Latvia (36 per cent), Philippines (33 per cent), Slovenia (33 per cent) and Romania (32 per cent) have made the most progress toward gender parity in business with the percentage of female executives.

For having the most women-on-boards, the top five countries are Norway (40 per cent), Latvia (25 per cent), Italy (24 per cent), Finland (23 per cent) and Bulgaria (22 per cent).

While gender parity in business varies widely across the globe, most countries are still far below the 30 per cent threshold for women CEOs, women on boards and women executives, with the worlds largest economiesUnited States, China and Japan not reaching the top 10 for any category.

Companies that advance women into leadership roles are going to have the upper hand, with more engaged workforces, stronger cultures and improved economic performance. We know that gender-balanced companies achieve better results, said Mark A. Weinberger, EYs global chairman & CEO.

EY has developed a series of pledges in sponsoring International Womens Day.

The IWD pledges arose out of EYs own experience and research conducted on what helps most to close the gender gap. They are designed to provide people with practical steps they can take as individuals and within their organisations to advance women in business and the wider community.

Uschi Schreiber, EYs global vice chair- Markets and chair of Global Accounts Committee, said, The current direction and state of gender parity and diversity across all levels of business needs to be changed. At a time where business and government face unprecedented challenges due to technology and disruption, having diverse leadership and management is a necessary and critical tool to survive today.

EY seeks to help individuals and organisations tackle gender inequality in the workplace, through its Women. Fast Forward platform which is designed as an accelerator to inspire individuals to put gender on their agendas and help organisations take the concrete steps needed to advance women in the workplace.
With restored relations, US and Cuba still must address spy wars
Of the five refugees Cambodia has so far settled in a deal with the Australian government, at least three have returned home.

The first to go was a Rohingya man from Myanmar, in June 2015. Now officials say an Iranian couple has left Cambodia for home, after only a few months in Cambodia.

Refugees coming to Cambodia through the controversial 2014 deal had sought asylum in Australia, but were being held among many at facilities on the Pacific Island of Nauru.

Kem Sarin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, told VOA Khmer the Iranian couple had become homesick and decided to return their home country.

That leaves just one Rohingya and one Iranian refugee remaining in Cambodia under the deal. They are still under the watch of the resettlement program, through the Ministry of Interior, and are studying Khmer, Kem Sarin said. There are no applications from other refugees on Nauru to be resettled in Cambodia, he added.

The new departures cast new doubt on a program that has been widely criticized by rights groups as counter to the spirit of international law.

Suon Bunsak, executive secretary for the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, told VOA Khmer the resettlement program has been a failure and disappointment.

Cambodia should not accept any more refugees, he said, because the countrys insufficient public services constitute a violation of refugees rights.
Pakistani security agents on Tuesday rescued the kidnapped son of a governor who was assassinated by his bodyguard after speaking out against the country's controversial blasphemy laws.

The agents found 33-year-old Shahbaz Taseer in a room behind a hotel in the Kuchlak area near Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province near the Afghan border.

He was abducted in August 2011, months after his father, Governor Salman Taseer, was shot to death by bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri, because the elder Taseer had spoken out in support of a Christian woman who was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Governor Taseer had called for the laws that mandate the death penalty for insulting Islam be revised; but after his death, religious hardliners threatened his family multiple times.

Qadri was convicted in 2011 of the killing and hanged a week ago. His execution triggered protests in several cities. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral in Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, a group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban and calling itself Jamat-ul-Ahrar, has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Monday that killed 17 people outside a courthouse in the northwestern city of Shabqadar. The group said it carried out the attack in revenge for Qadri's hanging.
Pakistan has urged Afghanistans Taliban not to require conditions for direct peace talks with the Afghan government.

The basic message [to the Taliban] would be that many of the preconditions that they are putting forward can come as a result of the negotiation and not in advance, like prisoners exchange and freedom of movement [of Taliban leaders] et cetera, said Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani prime ministers adviser on foreign affairs, at a news conference in Islamabad Tuesday.

The long-awaited internationally-backed Afghan reconciliation process was expected to start in Islamabad the first week of March, but, in a last-minute announcement Saturday, the Taliban refused to attend.

Taliban's refusal



The Taliban insisted that such futile and misleading negotiations will not bear any results until all foreign forces leave Afghanistan, innocent prisoners are freed and international travel restrictions on insurgent leaders are removed.

The announcement dealt a blow to efforts that Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States have recently initiated as part of a four-way coordination group to arrange the talks.

Aziz said Islamabad, Beijing and Washington are acting as facilitators in the four-way process, and all three now have a shared responsibility to contact and persuade the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

The Afghan government has already repeated their invitation for them to come forward, so I hope in the coming days some process can start at some level in which case once it starts I am sure it will gather momentum, Aziz said at the press conference, which visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also attended.

The United States on Monday backed a call by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for the Taliban to join peace talks with the Kabul government.



"They have a choice. Rather than continuing to fight their fellow Afghans and destabilizing their country, they should engage in a peace process and ultimately become a legitimate part of the political system of a sovereign united Afghanistan, State Department spokesman John Kirby told a media briefing.

The delay in starting talks could intensify fighting later this year and there are fears the violence will further strain Afghanistans relations with Pakistan, where Taliban leaders are believed to have taken shelter.

Islamabad also alleges that fugitive Pakistani insurgents are using Afghan territory to plan terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Need for further cooperation



Hammond Tuesday said years of lack of trust hamper bilateral cooperation, but he emphasized the need for Pakistan and Afghanistan to work together to root out cross-border terrorism.

This is a mutual problem. There are people carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan who are fleeing into the relative safety of improperly governed areas of eastern Afghanistan. There are people carrying out attacks in Afghanistan who have been using ungoverned space in Pakistan as a haven. And what needs to happen is for both governments to work together to ensure that there is no space in their respective countries for people who are seeking to attack the other country.
An indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon took at least eight public officials hostage to demand help from the central government after an oil spill polluted its lands, authorities said Monday.

The Wampis community of Mayuriaga seized a grounded military helicopter late Sunday, holding crew members and several officials to press for inclusion in the emergency response plan, said German Velasquez, the president of state-owned energy company Petroperu.

A rupture in Petroperu's 40-year-old pipeline spilled 1,000 barrels of oil in Mayuriaga on Feb. 3, nine days after a leak in the same duct poured 2,000 barrels near eight other indigenous communities in the same Amazonian region.

Environmental regulator OEFA ordered Petroperu to replace parts of the pipeline after repeated leaks in recent years. It said the two most recent spills polluted at least two rivers, including a tributary to the Amazon River.

Omission called 'mistake'

Though officials refer to the second leak as "the Mayuriaga spill" because it took place in Mayuriaga, the government did not include the community in an official list of affected groups that would receive emergency supplies and attention.

The government will amend the emergency decree, published last month, to include Mayuriaga, said Deputy Culture Minister Patricia Balbuena.

Balbuena said a local government compiled the list and it was not clear why it excluded Mayuriaga.

"It's a mistake that should be corrected as soon as possible," Balbuena said.

Velasquez, who spoke by phone on his way to Mayuriaga, said the company has been tending to Mayuriaga's needs anyway.

But not being included in the list would also make it harder for Mayuriaga to demand compensation, said regional governor Fernando Melendez.

Representatives of Mayuriaga could not be reached for immediate comment.

Peru is rife with social conflicts, especially related to water, and remote communities often take hostages to get the attention of the central government.

The group being held in Mayuriaga includes three Petroperu officials, four with OEFA and a specialist with the energy and mines ministry, Velasquez said.

The pipeline transported between 5,000 and 6,000 barrels of oil per day before the spills halted operations. It mostly moved crude from block 192, operated by Pacific Exploration & Production Corp, to Petroperu's Talara refinery.

Petroperu faces some $17 million in fines if tests confirm the spills affected the health of locals, OEFA has said.
Sometimes it takes a village. But sometimes it takes the concerted dedication of concerned people thousands of miles away to help empower women.

That's how Gloria Kotente Mumeita, a medical student from Kenya, was able to come to the U.S. this past fall for eight weeks of hands-on medical experience at Suburban Hospital and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

As part of her training at Suburban, Mumeita learned how to care for trauma patients under the guiding hands of Dr. Dany Westerband, medical director of trauma services at the hospital, which is one of just nine trauma centers in the state of Maryland that is specifically designed and equipped to handle medical emergencies.

Westerband is one of several physicians who sponsored and mentored Mumeita.

The Kenyan medical student says she has learned a great deal during her time in the U.S. and hopes to share that new-found knowledge with her peers back home.

My experience here has been great, the doctors are great, Ive gotten to do a lot of things which I wouldnt have done in my country, she said. Ive learned how to use an ultrasound to scan patients during an emergency and that is a program we don't have in my school and that's a program Id love to start in the future.

An unusual journey

Seeing a young woman receive medical training is not an unusual sight in a large hospital like Suburban, but it is, in this case. Mumeita is a Maasaian ethnic patriarchal tribe in Kenya and Northern Tanzania, in which less than half of all girls attend primary school, and only one percent go to college.

A Maasai girl doing medicine in my country is a big deal," she said tearfully. "Most of the time I get that question, you are Maasai, and youre in med school, how did you get here? Even in Kenya. Its been a great journey for me.

Mumeita's journey began when she learned about the Maasai Girls Education Fund  a U.S-based organization with offices in Kenya's Kajiado County. It provides young Maasai women and girls with scholarships  based on need -- for free education at boarding schools in the country.

It was founded in 1999 by Barbara Shaw, an American who believed that educating girls will empower them, their families and their communities, and lift them out of poverty. If you educate a woman, it's proven over and over again, you have higher literacy, better health, better nutrition, greater economic stability and the entire community is better, Shaw often said.

Dr. Westerband knew the American visionary well.

Of all the programs that Ive been exposed to and heard about, this initiative led by the Maasai Girls Education Fund is just mind-boggling in terms of value and what they can actually do for a community like Glorias community back in Kenya, he said.

Shaw died in 2013, but her daughter, Tracey Pyles, is continuing her mothers work. She recalled, It started with two little girls that she first met while on a photography project in Kajiado district of Kenya and staying among the Maasai in their village." The number of girls helped by the organization has now grown to more than 150.

Mumeita is the first to go to medical school, and train at Suburban hospital, where Pyles works as an emergency physician.

Someone like this, who has the heart that Gloria has, and the desire to go back to her home and make a difference, needs in my opinion, to be invested in, supported, given every opportunity to make the most," said Pyles, "because what she has the chance to do when she goes homeis incredible.

The organization has proven that girls who go to school are less likely to be forced into early marriage and other cultural practices. We have rescued girls as young as nine who were already married," said Pyles, "and also from FGM; female genital mutilation, which is still something that is practiced among the Maasai. In fact, 90 percent of Maasai girls are circumcised by the age of 12.

The new Maasai warrior

But that is all changing, thanks to the organization's guiding philosophy to help girls in every way they can.

There are many instances, captured on videotape, of young Maasai women singing and dancing with joy because of their rescue through education from early marriage and FGM.

And thanks to the organizations community programs, attitudes toward them are also changing - especially their fathers' views, says Pyles. It's only as these girls come back, educated, teachers, doctors, lawyers... that's when they're coming to see the value of educating their daughters.

A good example is Lucy Ntayia, a graduate of the program who is now its Kajiado office director.

This new generation of Maasai girls who are now getting an education; they are now showing their community that they are bringing a lot of empowerment and they are showing their community that it is not just about a onetime dowry but they can do a lot for themselves and for their families and for their country, she said.

Pyles noted, "It's hard to overcome strong cultural beliefs and ingrained practices, you're never going to do it by telling people that theyre wrong or bad, but by demonstrating and showing people how their own lives can be better, that's the way to effect change.

Gloria Kotente Mumeita is back in Kenya now, spending time with her family and friends, and completing her fifth and final year of medical school at the University of Nairobi School of Medicine.
Immediate international action against Islamic State extremists in Libya is needed to prevent the terrorist group from expanding further, regardless of the status of peace talks on a unity government there, analysts say.

Putting pressure on those political entities so far has not yielded any positive outcome, said Kamel Wazne, the director of the Center for American Strategic Studies in Beirut. And I think at least you have to start to weaken these terrorist organizations.

He said the global communitys failure to fight IS in Libya is helping the group expand beyond its strongholds there as well as in Syria and Iraq.

Tunisias closure of its frontier with Libya after a border town battle that killed 55 people has added to the pressure on Libya's two competing governments, analysts like Wazne say.

Post-Gaddafi chaos



Libya has been in chaos since Moammar Gaddafi was toppled five years ago. Along with the two rival governments, several militant and extremist groups like IS are operating in the country.



Diplomats say the Libyan factions need to unite to overcome IS militants, but multiple rounds of peace talks have collapsed.

The militant group appears to be growing stronger, attacking border town Ben Guerdane in Tunisia. About 50 gunmen battled Tunisian forces before the town was secured Monday, leaving civilians, security forces and attackers dead and wounded.

No group claimed responsibility, but the attack resembled previous attempts by Islamic State militants to widen their control over civilian areas.



Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said the unprecedented attack was coordinated and organized with the aim of taking control of the region.



[Security forces] were expecting such an operation, he said in Algeria on Monday. Not on this scale, but still they were expecting it.

Peace talks

Western insistence on successful United Nations-sanctioned peace talks a the single path to form a united front against IS could be simultaneously wearing away at other potential solutions while giving IS the time and space to grow, according to Jason Pack, a researcher of Libyan history at Cambridge University.



Continued Western attempts to force a square peg into a round hole threaten to destroy many of the new aspects of Libyan unity that seem to be emerging, he writes in Middle East Eye, an online news organization. Paradoxically, these attempts are clearly undermining the initial geopolitical purpose of the unity government - to facilitate the conducting of joint actions against the Islamic State [IS] militant group.



Western leaders say if they attempt to intervene in Libya without a unified government with which to ally, any military action is bound to fail.



Italy is a leading country on this issue but the priority is to form a government in Libya, said Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last week. Before a mission all attempts must be made to form a government."



On Friday, two Italian construction workers escaped captivity in Libya, leaving behind two hostages they said IS killed.



The U.S. ambassador to Italy responded by saying Rome is willing to commit 5,000 troops to its former colony if the two Libyan governments unify, but the Italian prime minister says that idea is not on the table.

Growing threat



And with only bad choices available in countering the extremist threat, it continues to grow as Western countries chose inaction over what could be a failed action.



Every day we delay an attack on these terrorists, says Wazne, We give them more time to build their infrastructure and to be more formidable.
Bangladesh's highest court has rejected an appeal by a senior Islamist leader, upholding his death sentence for war crimes committed during the country's 1971 war for independence with Pakistan.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha announced the decision Tuesday against Mir Quasem Ali.

The 63-year-old is a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party and was convicted in 2014 on eight charges that included the abduction of a young man and his killing in a torture cell.

Bangladesh says local collaborators and Pakistani soldiers killed 3 million people during the fight for independence, which Jamaat-e-Islami opposed.

Several other Islamist leaders have already been executed for war crimes. Jamaat-e-Islami and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have criticized the government's war crimes tribunal as politically motivated.
Benin appears headed for a run-off presidential election between the prime minister and a prominent businessman.

Preliminary results from Sunday's poll show Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou leading the field with 28 percent of the vote, followed by cotton magnate Patrice Talon with around 25 percent.

Another businessman, Sebastien Ajavon, ran a close third with 23 percent.

The West African country's electoral commission Tuesday announced the results which still have to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court.

Current President Thomas Boni Yayi is stepping down after serving the maximum two five-year terms allowed by Benin's constitution.

His decision bucks a trend by several African presidents who have tried to change constitutions to stay in power.

Zinsou is a former banker who spent much of his career in Europe and was named prime minister last year.

Talon was once an ally of Boni Yayi but fled the country for several years after being accused of plotting to poison the president. He was pardoned and returned last year.
It was a bloody day in Tel Aviv Tuesday when a Palestinian stabbed an American tourist to death and wounded 12 Israelis while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden held talks just a few kilometers away.

Witnesses say the Palestinian ran down the boardwalk in the port of Jaffa, a popular tourist site, and started stabbing people before police shot him dead.

The State Department identified the dead American as Taylor Allen Force and called the attack that killed him "senseless." The attacker was said to be from the occupied West Bank.

Just a short distance away, Biden was meeting with former Israeli president Shimon Peres, who condemned Tuesday's violence and said successful peace talks are the only answer.

"Terror leads to nowhere, neither to Arabs nor to us," Peres said. "The majority of the people know there is no alternative to the two-state solution...and we shall follow with our strength and dedication to make from it a new reality."

U.S. President Barack Obama has said there will be no comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before he leaves office next January. The White House also has said Biden is not bringing any new peace initiatives during his talks in Israel.

Following their meeting, Biden and Peres met briefly with several Israeli and Palestinian girls who participate in a football (soccer) program that promotes friendship and understanding between Israeli and Palestinian youth through sports.

Biden will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday. They plan to discuss a new 10-year U.S. defense assistance package for Israel and the ongoing fight against Islamic State.



Netanyahu was to have met with Obama at the White House later this month. But Netanyahu's office canceled the talks, saying the prime minister did not want to interfere with the U.S. presidential campaign, even though Obama is not a candidate.

Relations between the two leaders have been lukewarm at best over U.S. criticism of Israeli settlements and Israel's condemnation of the nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden arrived in the Middle East Monday, meeting with U.S. airmen stationed at the Al-Dhafra Air Base. He pledged the United States would "squeeze the heart" out of Islamic State and destroy it.

He also plans to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday in the West Bank and Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman on Thursday.

Israel has blamed Abbas and other Palestinian leaders for inciting the six-month wave of violence that has killed 28 Israelis, two Americans and an Eritrean along with at least 177 Palestinians.

Police and bystanders killed most of the Palestinians while they tried to stab Israelis or run them over with cars.

Rumors that Israel was planning to take over an East Jerusalem holy site revered by both Jews and Muslims sparked the violence.

But Palestinians say they are fed up with Israeli settlements in lands they want for a future state, few economic opportunities, weak leadership, and a dim outlook for peace.
In Africa, the story of the Chibok girls represents the struggle to improve the conditions for women: their security, education, and equality. The #BringBackOurGirls movement was created almost two years ago when more than 250 school girls were abducted in Chibok, Nigeria by Boko Haram militants.

Every day at 5:00 pm, the ritual is the same in downtown Abuja: two dozen people gather near the Unity Fountain, a monument celebrating the federation of Nigeria's states.

Even though TV crews disappeared long ago, the will remains the same for the #BringBackOurGirls Movement.

Waziri Bello, an activist, told VOA he still believes they will be free.

"I still believe the Chibok girls are alive and they can be rescued. The federal government of Nigeria has the responsibility to rescue each and every citizen who finds himself in that situation. I am here because the Chibok girls are children of the poor, the children who are voiceless in this country and they need somebody to speak out for them," said Bello.

#BringBackOurGirls was created to engage Goodluck Jonathans government to find the girls. Now, the president is Muhammadu Buhari and, authorities say Boko Haram has been degraded significantly. But journalist Emman Usman Shehu has doubts.

"The president likes to say that Boko Haram has been technically defeated. But I do not buy it. Yes, Boko Haram has been suppressed; they do not rampage the way they used to before. From the history of Boko Haram, we know Boko Haram is always capable of retreating and coming back in full force," said Shehu.

The fight to free the girls has become broader. It is a women's issue in Nigeria, according to Bring Back Our Girls spokesperson Aisha Yusufu.

"Fighting for the Chibok girls is fighting for the little girl I was so many years ago, who was crying out for help, and no one came. I just know I could never give up on them," said Yusufu.

In few weeks, Bring Back Our Girls will mark two years since the abduction of the Chibok girls. Only 57 have been released - 219 are still missing.
Residents of the northern U.S. city of Flint, Michigan, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state's governor and others alleging gross negligence for causing the city's drinking water to become contaminated with lead.

The group of seven residents filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court seeking damages for thousands of Flint residents who suffered physical or economic injuries.

The suit names Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other current and former government officials, as well as corporations, for their role in the water crisis.

It accuses them of gross negligence, which is an exception to the immunity that lawmakers generally are granted for performing official duties.

A spokesman for Snyder said the administration is not commenting on pending legislation, but said the governor is staying focused on finding solutions for Flint.

Michigan's slow response to the water crisis in Flint was a big topic at the Democratic presidential debate Sunday with both candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, calling for Snyder's resignation.

Flint, with a population of about 100,000, was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its water source in April 2014 from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The new, more corrosive water supply caused lead to leach from city pipes into the drinking water.

Over the ensuing months, the city's residents complained about the odd, brownish color of the water and its taste. Tests later found that lead was in the bloodstreams of more than 200 children. Lead contamination in children is especially debilitating, causing developmental delays, learning disabilities and aggressive behavior.

City and state officials are pointing the blame at each other. The state-appointed emergency manager who oversaw the switch to the new water source blames the decision on the city council. City officials, conversely, are blaming the emergency manager.

Michigan's attorney general has launched an investigation into the contamination crisis, and so has the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. One state investigator said charges as serious as manslaughter could be brought if drinking the toxic water causes any deaths.
European Union leaders said Tuesday they have reached a possible deal with Ankara to return thousands of migrants to Turkey, and that they are confident a full agreement can be reached at a summit next week.

After months of disagreements and increased bickering among the 28 EU nations, the leaders said they agreed to give Turkey more money to help refugees, swiftly ease visa requirements for Turks and speed up Ankara's accession talks in exchange for its help in stemming migration flows to Europe.

French President Francois Hollande said "the summit has created hope that the refugee question can be dealt with through solidarity in Europe, and efficiency in cooperation with Turkey."

All eyes are now on March 17 and the start of a two-day summit to finalize the commitment and agree on a deal that the leaders hope will allow for a return to normalcy at their borders by the end of the year.

"We hope that we can have an efficient method as well as a results-oriented approach, humanitarian approach without harming any refugee or the rights of refugees," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in advance of the reported agreement at a news conference at NATO headquarters.

New demands from Turkey

But the difficulties in reaching a deal were underscored by the talks themselves, which stretched hours later than initially scheduled. Turkey, which is sheltering an estimated 2.7 million Syrians, was reported to be asking for an extra $3.3 billion from the EU, roughly twice the amount already pledged by the 28-member bloc.

The new set of demands also included a deal for the EU to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in return for every Syrian refugee Turkey takes back from Greece. In addition, Turkish authorities wanted to speed up sputtering EU membership talks that have made little progress over the years.

Davutoglu cast the new Turkish proposals as a way to both rescue lives, staunch migrant trafficking and herald "a new era in EU-Turkish relations."

But deep divisions remain over finding a solution to Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 1 million migrants arrived on the continent last year, and roughly 142,000 have arrived so far this year, many crossing the Aegean to EU member Greece from Turkey.

Beyond differences with Turkey, EU countries are split among themselves over how to handle the crisis, as some countries install border controls while others  notably Germany and Sweden  call for a more humanitarian approach. Those differences were on display during an EU summit last month, when leaders failed to make any headway on the migrant issue.

Collective solution needed

New spats have flared up, including between France and Belgium over the fate of asylum-seekers in Calais  which has also been a longstanding bone of contention between France and Britain, the ultimate destination of many.

Even some areas of agreement  such as the voluntary resettlement of roughly 160,000 asylum-seekers  have shown little progress on the ground.

"There is a lack of political willingness to implement the decisions that have been taken," said Sergio Carrera, senior research fellow for the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, who said he was baffled by the EU's inaction toward asylum-seekers, many of whom come from conflict-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.

Arriving at the talks Monday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras  whose country is on the front lines of the migrant influx  called on fellow EU members to honor their resettlement agreement.

"This is a European problem, so we have to find collective solutions to this problem," he said.

Some governments, however, seem opposed to following even already-existing rules, according to Carrera.

"These include basic human rights of the people arriving, he said. Then they want to rewrite their rules according to their own wishes."

But, he added, "a union cannot function like this."

Meanwhile, thousands of migrants are now stuck in Greece since non-EU member Macedonia blocked their passage northward as part of a domino series of border controls established by Balkan countries.

And more keep arriving  or lose their lives trying to do so. At least 18 asylum seekers were drowned off the Turkish coast Sunday, according to news reports.

Ahead of the Brussels meeting, Human Rights Watch warned that a potential deal with Ankara would mean a "flawed and potentially dangerous policy to refugee flows" across the Aegean.

"EU leaders are in a panic to stop refugee flows before spring," senior Human Rights Watch official Judith Sunderland said, "and they seem willing to throw human rights overboard in the process.
Two years to the day after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, an interim statement issued about the aviation mystery contains no significant new information.

"To date the MH370 wreckage has still not been found despite the continuing search in the South Indian Ocean," said the chief of the international investigation team, Kok Soo Chon, in a brief statement he read on Malaysian television.

The multinational effort, extending to 2,000 kilometers off of Australia's west coast, has found no trace of the jet or any of the 239 people on board.

The international Air Accident Investigation Team's three-page written statement, issued Tuesday, says it is continuing to work towards finalizing its analysis, findings/conclusions and safety recommendations on eight relevant areas associated with the disappearance," including flight crew profiles, the diversion from the filed route and satellite communications.

The 19-member team will complete a final report "in the event wreckage of the aircraft is located or the search for the wreckage is terminated, whichever is the earlier," according to the fresh statement.

MH370 was supposed to land in Beijing but it veered sharply off course, continuing on a straight path across the Indian Ocean after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonizing mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in a statement issued Tuesday.

The search for the aircraft, the prime minister added, has been the most challenging in aviation history.

Several ships are still actively conducting underwater search operations.

The high-tech operation, by Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities, costing up to $130 million, is due to conclude in July.

The three countries are to hold a meeting next week to determine the next step as the deadline approaches.

Pieces of evidence

The only evidence has washed up far from the 120,000 square kilometers of seafloor where the official search has been underway.

A barnacle-encrusted wing fragment was found July 29 last year on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. It was the first confirmed piece of the Malaysia Airlines plane to be found.

The man who found it has said he turned over another suspected plane part to island authorities last week. He described it as being honeycombed and lightweight, measuring about 40 by 20 centimeters with a blue mark on the surface and grey underneath.

A white, meter-long chunk of metal discovered on the coast of Mozambique is also being examined to determine whether it is part of the missing Boeing 777.

That piece of debris was found at a location consistent with drift modeling, according to Australian officials.

Malaysian authorities have said it appears to be a slice of an airliner's horizontal stabilizer.

Tuesday's second interim statement (the initial one was issued on the first anniversary of the plane going missing) makes no mention of the Mozambique debris nor the possible second piece of the aircraft found on the French island.

Under international agreement, two years from the date of the plane's scheduled arrival, Tuesday is the last day for relatives to file lawsuits related to the loss of MH370.

Chinese kin of dozens of MH370 passengers have filed lawsuits this week in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.

Relatives of American, Australian, Malaysian, Russian and Ukrainian passengers and crew, who are presumed dead, have also initiated legal action.

The families have also criticized both the airline and the Malaysian government, saying both treated them poorly after the flight disappeared and have issued scant information, giving rise to conspiracy theories and speculation the carrier and authorities are trying to shield themselves from further embarrassment.
A Brazilian court on Tuesday sentenced Marcelo Odebrecht, the former chief executive of Latin America's largest construction company, to 19 years in prison for his role in a far-reaching corruption scandal that has implicated some of the country's political and corporate chieftains.

Odebrecht, who until his arrest last June helmed the family-run engineering and building conglomerate known as Odebrecht SA, was convicted on charges of bribery, money laundering and organized crime.

The conviction of Odebrecht, the 47-year-old grandson of the founder of a company that in recent decades became synonymous with large public works projects, is the most significant yet among dozens of corporate executives charged in the nearly two-year-old "Operation Car Wash."

The investigation has destabilized Brazil's government and led to the arrest of former aides and allies of President Dilma Rousseff. Last week, it reached a staggering political turning point when prosecutors detained former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for questioning.

The scandal, dating to the Lula administration and a time when Rousseff chaired the board of state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, involved an intricate scheme of billions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes through which contractors paid politicians, political parties and company executives in exchange for work.

Bids rigged, judge says

According to the verdict by Sergio Moro, the federal judge in the southern city of Curitiba spearheading the investigation, Odebrecht formed a "cartel" with other companies through which they, since 2006, "systematically" rigged bidding on projects by Petrobras, as the company is known.

"The contractors, united in something that they called a 'club,' previously agreed among themselves who would be the winners of the Petrobras contracts, manipulating the prices presented during bidding," Moro wrote. "They were able to, with no real competition, be contracted at the highest possible price."

Officials at Odebrecht headquarters in the city of Salvador didn't respond to calls for comment. A spokeswoman at the company's Sao Paulo office declined to comment.

The former executive is considered a pivotal probe figure because of the company's heft and its close ties to current and former political leaders, like Lula, who prosecutors say may have received illicit payments or favors from Odebrecht and other builders.

Lula, who remains one of Brazil's most popular politicians, has denied wrongdoing.

His brief detention last week sparked clashes between supporters, many of whom characterized the ongoing investigations as a witch hunt against the ruling Workers' Party, and demonstrators who support the crackdown.
A former president of El Salvador, Antonio Saca, will stand trial for illegal enrichment, the country's Supreme Court said Monday, in a case centering on the ex-leader's inability to explain how he acquired $5 million at the end of his term.

Saca, a businessman who served as president of the small Central American country from 2004 to 2009, has also had his bank accounts and properties frozen, the court said.

The ex-president was expelled from his political party, the conservative Nationalist Republican Party (Arena), in 2009 due to alleged irregularities.

Last month, former president Mauricio Funes was also ordered to stand trial for more than $700,000 that he was not able to account for following his 2009-2014 term.

Funes, a former TV journalist, was leader of the leftist political party Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

In January, another ex-president of El Salvador and Arena leader, Francisco Flores, died after suffering a stroke as he waited to face trial over embezzlement charges.
A smell of spray paint drowns out the odor of fresh fish and meat as night falls on bustling Mahane Yehuda, a food market that is one of Jerusalem's most popular shopping sites.

From early morning until late evening, the Israeli market's narrow, covered alleys are packed with local shoppers and tourists pushing their way past packed stalls in search of the best fresh produce or juicy kebabs.

But after dark, when the stall owners shut up shop for the night and roll down their metal shutters, the closed storefronts become a personal canvas for 22-year-old artist Solomon Souza.

In the past year, Souza, helped by his friend, Berel Hahn, who came up with idea, has painted about 140 shutters with graffiti-style murals of characters that have inspired him, ranging from biblical heroes to former Israeli prime ministers.

Souza's tools for this night's job are about a dozen spray-paint cans and his smart-phone. His glance alternated between the phone, depicting Lucy Aharish, a popular Arab-Israeli news anchor, and the three-meter-high (10 feet) version of her he was creating, one spray at a time.

Mahane Yehuda market, which over years has experienced a number of deadly Palestinian attacks against shoppers, is also one of Jerusalem's hottest night spots, with bars open and music echoing through the walkways until dawn.

Souza lifts the face mask he wears against the fumes, the straps of which squish down on his skull cap worn by orthodox Jews.

"I've had nightmares about this," the former Londoner, said softly with a smile. "So many shutters."

Souza and friends who help him, seek out store owners to get permission to paint their shutters, but sometimes they approach him and may ask for a painting of someone specific, such as a famous rabbi or family member. Others have given him free rein.

A few stalls down from Aharish's portrait, Souza chose to paint Si Ali Sakkat, a former mayor of Tunis who helped save Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.

Souza works for free and said he looks to share his sources of inspiration and to add life to the market. He hopes to bring in other artists to help fill the remaining 200 or so shutters.
The beginnings of International Womens Day  a mass protest by thousands of women in New York City seeking better pay and working conditions, and the right to vote  have evolved into a day to take stock of the progress made toward gender equality as well as issues that still need to be addressed.

The United Nations views gender equality  the view that women and men have equal value and should be afforded equal treatment -- as a human right.

Yet despite a more than 100-year history for International Womens Day, discrimination against women and girls continues worldwide in the form of gender-based violence and discrimination.

US ranking

The United States has made huge strides since that first march in 1908: women won the right to vote, they make up about half of the workforce and they now earn a higher percentage of college degrees than men, among other things.

However, the U.S. rates 28th out of 145 countries in an annual world ranking of equality for women.

The World Economic Forum "Global Gender Gap Report 2015" bases its equality ranking on economic, educational, health-based and political indicators.

The report, which was first published in 2006, shows progress has been made in the past decade, yet inequalities remain. In fact, it notes the gender gap has closed only 4 percent in the past 10 years, and at that rate, it would take 118 years to reach parity.

Iceland ranks No. 1 in the report, a position it has held for the past seven years. The Scandinavian countries  Norway, Sweden and Finland  as well as Ireland round out the top five countries. At the lower end, Yemen ranks as the least equal country for women.

Wages, politics

The U.S. fell eight places in 2015, with the report citing a slight drop in wage equality for similar work and fewer women in leading government positions.

While former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a front-runner in the Democratic presidential nominating race this year, the U.S., with women holding just 26.1 percent of high government positions, ranks 29th in the world, according to a U.N. report, "Women in Politics: 2015."

It fares worse regarding congressional seats. The United States ranks 73rd -- tying with Panama -- with women holding just 19.3 percent of the seats in the U.S. Congress  84 in the House and 20 in the Senate.

While the U.S. does well regarding three criteria of the gender gap report, the political representation of women in this country is abysmal, Keshet Bachan, a girl's empowerment expert in Washington, D.C., told VOA.

Just for comparison, Rwandas female representation to their [parliament] is over 60 percent, and in the Netherlands its almost 40 percent, Bachan said. Weve never had a female president, which further drops our score.

Leadership in business

The lack of gender equality extends to women in positions of leadership in U.S. businesses as well.

Just 20 years ago, there were no female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, according to the Pew Research Center. In January 2015, Pew counted 26 women  5.2 percent -- serving as CEOs of such companies.

However, women held nearly 17 percent of positions on company boards, according to 2013 data, up from nearly 10 percent in 1995.

In November 2014, women accounted for nearly half of the U.S. workforce  47 percent. The number of working women 16 and older steadily grew for three decades, increasing from 39 percent in 1965 to 60 percent in 1999, Pew found. But the number fell to 57 percent by November 2014.

Education has been proven to be a strong equalizer between men and women, yet globally, nearly half a billion women cannot read and 62 million girls are denied an education, according to UNICEF.

International Women's Day: Benefits of Educating Girls Educating girls International Women's Day, while initially focused on women in the workplace, has evolved into a day to take stock of the progress made toward gender equality as well as issues that still need to be addressed. Education has been proven to be a strong equalizer between men and women yet, globally, nearly half a billion women cannot read and 62 million girls are denied an education, according to UNICEF. A report on girls education noted that girls are kept from school for many reasons: Poverty

Institutional and cultural barriers

Pressure for early marriage

Lack of safety in getting to school

Lack of separate latrines for boys and girls

Sexual harassment and gender-based violence in schools

Domestic work overload If girls receive an education, it leads to: A decrease in child marriages by 64 percent

A decrease in maternal mortality by 70 percent

More children surviving past the age of 5 Source: UNICEF

However, education is an area where U.S. women have surpassed men. Since the 1990s, women have outnumbered men in college enrollment and completion rates, a Pew study found in 2013. Thirty-seven percent of women ages 25-29 had at least a bachelors degree, compared with 30 percent of men the same age, according to Pew.

College degrees

Women are also more likely to continue in education after receiving a bachelors degree: in 2012, women earned 60 percent of all masters degrees and 51 percent of all doctorates; in 2013, women earned 36 percent of master of business administration degrees, according to the Pew study.

However, despite the gains in education, a gender wage gap persists, and is even wider for minority women.

The median weekly earnings for full-time female workers were about 80.4 percent of mens earnings, according to fourth-quarter 2015 statistics by the U.S. Department of Labor.

In 2014, African-American women were paid 63 percent of what white men were paid, while Hispanic women were paid just 54 percent, according to a survey by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a group that advocates for equity and education for women and girls.

In 1979, U.S. women earned about 62 percent as much as men in the same position, the Department of Labor said.

AAUW's report, "The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap," found the wage gap has narrowed in the past 30 years due largely to more women furthering their education and entering the workforce.

Nationwide, the pay gap was smallest in Washington, D.C., where women were paid 90 percent of what men were paid in 2015, according to the American Community Survey, the ongoing statistical survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. The pay gap was largest in Louisiana, where women were paid 65 percent of what men were paid.

International Women's Day: Wage Factbox Gender Wage Gap The median weekly earnings for full-time female workers were about 80.4 percent of mens earnings, according to fourth-quarter 2015 statistics by the U.S. Department of Labor.

were about of mens earnings, according to fourth-quarter 2015 statistics by the U.S. Department of Labor. African-American women were paid 63 percent of what white men earned in 2014, while Hispanic women were paid only 54 percent , the American Association of University Women, or AAUW reported.

were paid of what white men earned in 2014, while were paid only , the American Association of University Women, or AAUW reported. Earnings for both female and male full-time workers tend to increase with age, with a plateau after 45 and a drop after age 65. Women typically earn about 90 percent of what men are paid until they hit age 35. After that, median earnings for women are typically from 76 to 81 percent of what men are paid, according to the AAUW.

about of what men are paid until they hit age 35. After that, median earnings for women are typically from 76 to 81 percent of what men are paid, according to the AAUW. As a rule, earnings climb as years of education increase for both men and women; however, while more education is a useful tool for increasing earnings, it is not effective against the gender pay gap . At every level of academic achievement, womens median earnings are less than mens.

for increasing earnings, it is . At every level of academic achievement, womens median earnings are less than mens. The gender pay gap persists across educational levels, even among college graduates, AAUW reported. As a result, women who earn college degrees are less able to pay off their student loans promptly, leaving them in debt longer than men.

across educational levels, even among college graduates, AAUW reported. As a result, are less able to pay off their promptly, leaving them in debt longer than men. In 2014, the wage gap was smallest in Washington, D.C., where women were paid 90 percent of what men earned, and largest in Louisiana, where women earned 65 percent of what men were paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Sources: U.S. Department of Labor; American Association of University Women: "The Simple Truth About The Gender Pay Gap"; the American Community Survey; U.S. Census Bureau

Advances made

In one of his first acts in office in 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which prohibits sex-based wage discrimination. However, Congress has not passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it easier for women to challenge wage disparities.

Weve made strides in closing the pay gap, but we could do more, Bachan said, referring to a report earlier this month by researchers at Accenture that said becoming adept at digital technology would help women close the gender gap in the workplace. "So that's the good news," she said.

"The bad news is that women's health in the U.S. is under constant threat, especially their access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and family planning. The campaign against Planned Parenthood, and the way states like Texas are making it harder for women to access abortion clinics. These are direct threats to our ability to make informed choices freely about whether, when and how many children we want to have," Bachan said.

"In terms of international laws, this is a basic minimum standard, and yet in the U.S. it's so highly politicized it's constantly being undermined," she told VOA.

Twenty years ago, a global gathering organized by the United Nations yielded what many consider a defining moment in the ongoing fight for gender equality.

Hillary Clinton, who was then the first lady of the United States, took the stage in Beijing and, in a 19-minute address, laid out a simple but soaring equation. "Human rights are womens rights and womens rights are human rights, once and for all," she said as applause erupted.

Her speech  delivered September 5, 1995, at the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women  distilled the concerns brought forward by 5,000 official delegates and at least as many other participants.

Conference history

They challenged limits on women's and girls' education and health care, including reproductive health. Disparities in economic security, wages and inheritance rights. Violence against women, from domestic abuse to female circumcision to human trafficking.

This fourth women's conference made history, 20 years after the first, by securing the pledges of 189 world leaders to help females attain equality. Leaders committed to an action plan setting benchmarks and ensuring that women have "a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making" in public and private life.

"There was anticipation. There was excitement, too," recalled former U.S. Representative Connie Morella, who had led a small, bipartisan congressional delegation to the conference.

The Republican said she "felt the eyes of the world needed to look at what was happening to women.... I knew that my sisters in other parts of the world needed to have the protections I needed to have. In most instances, they needed them even more."

As Clinton noted in her 1995 remarks: "What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well.

"That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on this planet does have a stake in the discussion"  and in reaching those goals, she said.

Bachan is also optimistic that the goal of gender equality can be reached.

The biggest win we could see is in encouraging more girls and young women to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and enter the tech industry. The stereotypes that discourage girls from studying engineering or mathematics are changing rapidly," she said, adding it is also up to tech companies to eliminate bias in their hiring practices.

"At the very end of that pipeline we still need companies to be more female friendly," Bachan said. "It's still very much a tech-bro space which alienates women. I'm optimistic, though, given the rise of girls and women in this industry, and looking to other sectors like law or female doctors, where we've seen huge increases in female representation in the past few decades means it can be done."

International Womens Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasnt observed by the United Nations until 1975. It's now celebrated in more than 25 countries around the world, from Afghanistan to Russia.

In 1981, the U.S. Congress established National Womens History Week to be commemorated the second week of March, expanding the observation to a womens history month in 1987.

Events have taken place in the days leading up to Tuesdays official day of recognition, when events are scheduled throughout the U.S. and the world.

Carol Guensburg contributed to this report.

PHOTO GALLERY: International Women's Day events
People around the world held events Tuesday to mark International Women's Day, a day to mark the achievements of women as well as the continuing struggle for gender equality.

World leaders praised the contributions of women and urged greater inclusiveness.

"Today, on International Womens Day, we recommit ourselves to achieving a world in which every woman and girl enjoys the full range of rights and freedoms that is her birthright," President Barack Obama said in a statement Tuesday.

"We know that when we invest in women and girls, we are not only helping them, we are helping the entire planet. A future in which all women and girls around the world are allowed to rise and achieve their full potential will be a brighter, more peaceful, and more prosperous future for us all," Obama said.

He also said Secretary of State John Kerry would soon announce a program, the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls, which would provide the next generation of women the tools they need to pursue their aspirations.

"From human rights to human security, women have made our world a better place," Kerry said in a statement Tuesday.

"We remember the extraordinary achievements of women throughout history, and we applaud the women of today who lead, inspire, and work to improve their communities, seek solutions to conflict, cure disease, and build peaceful and prosperous societies," he said. "We pledge to young girls that equal opportunities for success will not be limited by gender."

PHOTO GALLERY: International Women's Day events

U.N. General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon said he has fought for the empowerment of women during his nine years as head of the international group.

"For more than nine years, I have put this philosophy into practice at the United Nations. We have shattered so many glass ceilings we created a carpet of shards. Now we are sweeping away the assumptions and bias of the past so women can advance across new frontiers," Ban said in a statement.

"I remain outraged by the denial of rights to women and girls  but I take heart from the people everywhere who act on the secure knowledge that womens empowerment leads to societys advancement," he said.

Worldwide events

Women, and men, in countries such as Georgia, the Philippines, Britain, China, India, Bangladesh, the Netherlands and the U.S. took part in marches, rallies, concerts and panel discussions.

But for the women refugees waiting at a Greek border camp, Tuesday found them living in squalor for yet another day.

More than 1 million refugees and migrants have fled conflict-torn areas such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Tuesday that 138,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in southern Europe so far this year.

"In public opinion, the image is often that of young single men arriving in Europe to look for work. Today, on International Women's Day, I wish to report instead that nearly two-thirds are women and children, up from last year's 41 percent," Grandi said.

Migrants in misery

For Rafa, 21, who traveled from war torn Syria with a group of female relatives to find herself sleeping rough in the muddy fields, there was little to celebrate on Tuesday as the border gate toward a more promising future in western Europe remained shut.

"Open the border, please, open door, please, we want to be safe, we want to be safe, open the border, please. We have children. ... We don't know what we should do. We run away from the war," Rafa said.

Despite the weather taking a turn for the worse Monday and a declaration by EU leaders that the Balkans route was now "shut," thousands of desperate people continued to line up at Greece's northern border and refused to leave the makeshift camp and seek shelter at the hospitality centers set up in the wider region by Greek authorities.

The appalling conditions at the open-air camp have caused many of the migrant children and women, the camp's most vulnerable residents, to fall ill.

'Sexual exploitation and trafficking'

Grandi said more than 35,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece, having been denied access to Macedonia. "This has had a direct impact on women and girls, who are suffering disproportionately and are at great risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking."

Elsewhere, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he believed that "a woman is above all else a mother," during a speech to an audience of women in Ankara.

I know there will be some who will be annoyed, but for me a woman is above all a mother," Erdogan said.

Critics have accused his government of trying to impose strict Islamic values on Turkey and curtailing women's civil liberties, while the president has come under fire for urging Turkish women to have at least three children.

On Sunday, Turkish police fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of hundreds of people trying to mark International Women's Day in central Istanbul. The event had been banned out of security concerns, a local official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also congratulated his countrywomen, saying, it was "the woman, her dignity and mercy, that reveals the real Russian soul."

Women bring "beauty, light and hope to this world. We are proud of you and we love you," he said during an address carried by Russian state broadcaster RU-RTR.



In Britain, an online survey of 1,600 women found two-thirds of them have been sexually harassed in public places and more than one-third have experienced unwanted sexual touching.

The survey by the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), released on the day that is meant to focus on womens issues, found for women aged 18 to 25 the abuse is even more common, with 85 percent reporting unwanted sexual attention and almost half undergoing unwanted sexual touching.

"Sexual harassment is an everyday experience which women and girls learn to deal with, but it's time to hold a mirror up to it and challenge it," EVAW acting director Sarah Green said in a statement. "Women should be free to live their lives without the threat of harassment and violence, not having to plan and limit their choices to make sure they're safe."

In India, hundreds of women from varying religions on Tuesday staged a protest in Mumbai, demanding equal access to places of worship. They also questioned the conservative country's patriarchal mindset. The rally came a day after dozens of women activists were detained by police in the western city of Nashik as they tried to enter a Hindu shrine where entry of females is prohibited.
As the world marks International Womens Day, a new report finds females globally wield little political power, hampering efforts to bring about positive social and economic change for women.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union's release of its "Women in Parliament 2015: The Year in Review" report here showed womens participation in parliament has plateaued for the second year in a row. Last year, the number of female parliamentarians increased by a low 0.5 percent in 58 national elections, to reach 22.6 percent globally.

At this snails pace, IPU Director of Programs Kareen Jabre said, women will not reach the 2030 target for equality as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. In contrast, she said, more progress has been made concerning women parliamentary leaders, with nearly 18 percent of parliaments today being led by women speakers.

Jabre cited the three most recent countries to choose women speakers: Nepal, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates. Nepal "is quite emblematic after the adoption of the constitution in the country," she said. She also noted the UAE "is the first Arab country to have a woman speaker of Parliament."

The report finds Latin America, with more than 27 percent of women in parliament, has made the most progress, with sub-Saharan Africa not far behind. Though a number of African countries' elections have been marred by violence and conflict, the IPU says women members of parliament have increased their numbers by 0.7 percent to reach 23.2 percent.

Jabre said the most progress has been made in Ethiopia and Tanzania due to quotas and other political incentives.

She cited "another interesting initiative" in Africa: "In Benin, we have noticed a very innovative campaign to encourage young womens political participation through social media.

As in previous years, Rwanda has the highest proportion of female parliamentarians, with 65 percent of seats held by women.

Overall, quotas remain among the main tools for achieving progress in boosting the number of women MPs, the IPU says, adding they must be quotas with teeth. It says sanctions must be applied and enforced where quota provisions are ignored. Otherwise, it warns, women will not be elected in large numbers.
Iran said Tuesday it conducted ballistic missile tests at several sites across the country in order to show its "deterrent power" and readiness to confront threats.

The tests come two months after the United States imposed new sanctions against five Iranian nationals and a network of companies with links to banned missile activity.

Iran defended two previous missile tests last October as being a matter of national security after the U.S. and other Western powers said the launches violated a U.N. Security Council resolution.

US reaction



The U.S. State Department said it plans to ask the United Nations Security Council to review Iran's latest tests and "press for an appropriate response."

"We also continue to aggressively apply our unilateral tools to counter threats from Irans missile program," the State Department said.

But State also acknowledged that the missile tests are not prohibited by Tehran's agreement with six world powers, including the United States, to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions that hobbled its economy. That deal was meant to address concerns that Iran was working on nuclear weapons, which it has always denied.

With the implementation of the nuclear pact in January, a new U.N. resolution calls on Iran to not "undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said Monday, citing Israeli news reports.

Netanyahu's decision to nix his U.S. visit marked the latest episode in a fraught relationship with Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year's U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's arch-foe.

The White House said the Israeli government had requested a Netanyahu meeting with Obama on either March 18 or 19, and that he was offered a March 18 encounter two weeks ago.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in an emailed statement.

Price denied Israeli news reports that "that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister's schedule."

The White House has announced Obama's plans to be in Havana on March 21 and 22 for a historic visit aimed at moving closer toward normalized relations with Washington's former Cold War foe.

No official explanation

There was no immediate word from Netanyahu's office about the cancellation, which also comes as the two countries are struggling to reach a new 10-year, multibillion-dollar defense aid agreement for Israel.

Israel's Channel 10 TV, citing unnamed Israeli sources, said Netanyahu's decision to cancel the trip appeared to be motivated by reluctance to be perceived as interfering in the U.S. presidential election campaign, should any candidates seek to meet him in Washington.

Netanyahu also saw little to show for such a trip, given that the new defense Memorandum of Understanding is "far from being agreed yet," Channel 10 said.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit Washington this month not only to see Obama, but to address the leading U.S. pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC.

The prime minister made a speech to the U.S. Congress last March criticizing the then-emerging Iran nuclear deal and was denied a meeting with Obama during that visit in what was widely regarded as a diplomatic snub.

But the two leaders met at the White House in November and sought to mend ties.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, on a five-day trip to the Middle East, is due to visit Israel later this week and hold talks with Netanyahu.
Many scientists say the Earth is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction. The soaring rate of species loss is blamed largely on us, with climate change, pollution and human encroachment on animal habitat playing roles.

In response, some conservationists say introducing new plants and animals or reintroducing old ones will slow the trend.

Now, a new study in the journal Cell Biology warns that such "rewilding efforts" may harm the environment in unintended ways.

But that hasn't stopped conservationists from trying. European bison imported from Poland now roam Denmark's Baltic island of Bornholm in places where the animals haven't lived for thousands of years.

Rewilding is also playing out on a nature preserve in a remote part of Siberia at Pleistocene Park, established in 1989. Wild horses, oxen and reindeer are living there for the first time since the last ice age.

Ice-age landscape

Russian scientist Sergey Zimov runs the nearby Northeast Science Station and is one of the park's founders. "A few years ago there were no animals here," he said. "Today they are here and there will be more and more each year."

The experiment aims to re-create an ecosystem that disappeared 10,000 years ago. Zimov said the animals would turn the tundra into a grassland. "Horse, musk ox, reindeer will break the bushes. They will eat them. They will fertilize the soil. The grass will begin to grow. Then most of the trees will dry up, and there will be meadowlands of steppe vegetation."

But that's a long way off. Currently, the park supports fewer than 200 animals.

University of Copenhagen ecologist David Nogues said such projects might have dangerous consequences. "We cannot predict the consequences of this new conservation approach," he said.

One of the main concerns is that some of the animals in these environments have adapted to their new conditions. Throwing long-gone animals back into the mix could further disrupt an already stressed ecosystem.

Writing in Cell Biology, Nogues urges using extreme caution in rewilding to save wild places, "to understand in which way the ecosystem works, how it might react when you introduce a new species, what are the economic costs of rewilding compared to other more classic conservation approaches."

Wolf recovery

The recovery of wolves in America's Yellowstone National Park is often hailed as a rewilding success story.

In the mid-1990s, 91 Canadian wolves were released in the park, seven decades after they had been systematically exterminated. The population has multiplied fivefold. Project manager Doug Smith said the wolves are triggering an unexpected ecological chain reaction.

"Weary of wolves, elk no longer linger here," he said. "That allows the willows to grow and sets other changes in motion. Songbirds, moose, muskrat, mink  all these animals benefit when the willows come back."

While wolves are closely monitored in Yellowstone, their expansion outside the park has ranchers up in arms. They say cattle losses have increased with the wolf population.

Rancher Richard Kinkie said that because wolves are federally protected, he has few options, "Certainly I would like to see the controls loosened up on us, so we can deal with wolves," he said.

Fight threats first

Nogues said politicians and the public must consider the best science before implementing any rewilding program.

He argues that protecting biodiversity and reducing deforestation, climate change and invasive species are better initial steps to avoid the potential impact of mass extinctions.
New political surveys in the United States show support for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump may be eroding as voters cast ballots Tuesday in nominating contests in four more states.

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll showed 34 percent of Republicans still favor the billionaire real estate mogul, compared to 25 percent for Texas Senator Ted Cruz, 18 percent for Florida Senator Marco Rubio and 13 percent for Ohio Governor John Kasich.

That's a narrower Trump lead than in previous surveys conducted by the newspaper and television network.

The same poll also showed that Trump trails both Cruz and Rubio in head-to-head matchups if the one-time 17-candidate field is winnowed further.

Lead narrowing

An NBC News/Survey Monkey poll showed Trump with a bigger lead of nearly 2-to-1 (39 percent to 20 percent) over Cruz, with Rubio and Kasich trailing, but that margin was also narrower than it had been.

The new surveys come at a time when establishment Republicans, including the party's losing 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, have embarked on an all-out effort to thwart Trump, a political novice and one-time television reality show host, from winning the party's presidential nomination.

They fear he is too unpredictable and would lose to the leading Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Novembers national election to succeed President Barack Obama, who leaves office in January 2017.

The four remaining Republican contenders face voters in four distinctly different states on Tuesday, the countrys car manufacturing hub in Michigan, the conservative Deep South state of Mississippi, the sparsely populated western state of Idaho and the Pacific island state of Hawaii.

Polls show Trump ahead in Michigan and Mississippi, but there have been scant surveys in the other two states.

Party convention

The candidates are vying for delegates to Julys Republican national convention Cleveland, where the partys presidential nominee will be picked. Trump is ahead so far in the contest, but nowhere near a majority in the months-long campaign.

US Presidential Candidate Delegate Count Delegate Count Here is an estimated delegate count for each candidate: Republicans Donald Trump: 621

Ted Cruz: 396

John Kasich: 138 Democrats Hillary Clinton: 1,561

Bernie Sanders: 800 Total delegates needed for party nomination: Democrats: 2,383 Republicans: 1,237 * As of March 16, 2016

Tuesdays biggest prize is Michigan and its 59 delegates.

Candidates will win a share of those delegates based on their proportion of the vote count, just as they will with the 91 total delegates available in Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii.

In the Democratic race, primaries are only being held in Michigan and Mississippi.

Clinton has held big leads in polls in both states over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who is her lone challenger.

Clinton holds a huge delegate lead and at recent campaign events has talked about a potential matchup against Trump in the November election.

She told supporters Monday in Michigan the sooner she becomes the Democratic nominee, the more she can focus on the Republicans.

The Democratic national convention will be held in Philadelphia in July.

Independent: No campaign

Also Monday, former three-term New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he will not make a third-party run.

Bloomberg spent months considering running as an independent, but said in an editorial posted by the Bloomberg View that he does not believe he could win the election and that there would be a good chance his candidacy would lead to Trump or Cruz being elected.

"That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," he added.

The 74-year-old Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat-turned Independent lambasted Trump, saying, "He has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on peoples prejudices and fears."

In an effort to block Trump from capturing the party's 2016 presidential nomination, conservative and Republican groups are mounting acerbic new television advertising campaigns.

In all, several anti-Trump organizations say they plan to spend at least $10 million in the next week on the ads.

Attack ads

Many of them are aimed at voters in the southeastern state of Florida and the Midwestern state of Illinois, two delegate-rich states where Republicans are holding March 15 party nominating elections and political surveys show Trump with leads over his remaining three opponents.

The ads characterize Trump as a liberal out of touch with the dominant conservative character of the Republican party, a military draft dodger, and a tycoon with little empathy for the powerless who have stood in the path of his business empire.

Club for Growth Action, a conservative, anti-tax organization, has one ad running in Florida, saying Trump "hides behind bankruptcy laws to duck paying his bills and kill American jobs. He even tried to kick an elderly widow out of her home through eminent domain. Real tough guy."

Another group, American Future Fund, called Trump, a one-time television reality show host, a draft dodger who has disparaged American prisoners of war captured by the North Vietnamese more than four decades ago and "hasn't served his country a day in his life. Donald Trump is a phony. Stop him now."

Rather than respond to the ad campaign against him with television ads of his own, Trump said he would continue to attack his opponents with tweets from his Twitter account.

"We cannot let the failing Republican establishment, who could not stop Obama, ruin the movement with millions of dollars in false ads!" Trump said Monday.
Super Tuesday, the one-day megaprize in the race for the U.S. presidential nomination, is over.

The front-runners - billionaire Donald Trump and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton - cemented their leads in the Republican and Democrat races respectively. But, they are far from securing their parties' nominations.

With several major primaries and caucuses looming, the challengers on both sides say they are ready to fight to the end.

On Tuesday, the southern state of Mississippi and northern state of Michigan will hold primaries for both parties. Republicans also will caucus in Hawaii and hold a primary in Idaho.

But the big prize is Michigan, with its 147 delegates for the Democrats and 59 for the Republicans.

Trump has an 18-point lead over his nearest challenger, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is polling less than a percentage point ahead of John Kasich, the governor of neighboring Ohio, according to a RealClear Politics polling average.

Kasich is hoping a win in Michigan will give him the much needed momentum ahead of crucial March 15 primaries in his home state of Ohio, as well as Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.

A strong showing in Michigan and a win in Ohio are critical to his ability to continue in the race.

Kasich told Michigan voters Monday that he understands the anger and anxieties of Trump supporters, but that unlike the GOP front-runner, he also understands how to fix the country's problems.

On the other side of the aisle, Clinton is expected to cruise to an easy win with a 20-point lead, according to the RealClear Politics polling average.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey released Sunday shows nationwide support for Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is split almost evenly among white voters, 49 percent to 48 percent, respectively, but Clinton pulls far ahead of Sanders, 76 percent to 21 percent, among likely African American voters.

As the candidates march toward their respective nominating conventions in July, here's where they stand in the delegate count:

A total of 2,383 delegates is needed to secure the Democratic nomination. Clinton has collected nearly half that total, leading Sanders by a 1,121-to-481 margin.

In the Republican contest, the winner needs 1,237 delegates. So far, Trump has 382, Cruz 300, Florida Senator Marco Rubio 128 and Kasich 35.

The winners of the two parties' nomination contests will face each other in November's national election to pick the successor to President Barack Obama, who leaves office in January 2017 after eight years in the White House. The U.S. Constitution limits presidents to two four-year terms.
U.N. agencies are expressing growing concern about the millions of people who have been forcibly displaced by the nearly year-long conflict in Yemen. The United Nations reports more than 3,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 6,000 wounded since Saudi Arabia began bombing Houthi rebels on March 26, 2015. These numbers do not reflect casualties among the fighting forces.

U.N. refugee spokesman Leo Dobbs says the latest report of a special Task Force on Population Movement shows more than 2.4 million people now are internally displaced in Yemen.

This is a staggeringly high figure and a cause for grave alarm and the situation is likely to get worse amid increasingly dire humanitarian and socioeconomic conditions and with no political settlement in sight, Dobbs said.

Dobbs says most of the displaced are in five areas where the conflict is most intense - namely Taizz, Hajjah, Sanaa, Amran, and Saada.

We have been trying to get aid into these areas - these displacement areas, Dobbs said. "We are imploring all sides to allow humanitarian access to the hardest hit areas.

The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a blockade on the import of food, medicine, fuel and other essentials for most of the past year. From time to time, there has been an easing of the restrictions, which has allowed some, but not enough life-saving commodities into Yemen.

The International Organization for Migration says it is very concerned about the situation of thousands of third country nationals caught up in the conflict. It says they are subject to all kinds of violence and chaos.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman says thousands of Somali asylum seekers and Ethiopian migrants who want to transit to the Middle East are stranded in war-torn Yemen.

There is a wide belief that 92,000 people managed to enter Yemen last year from Somaliaand Ethiopia," said Millman. "Their whereabouts is not entirely known. We know that some have managed to get to their destinations, but we know many have not. Then there are concerns about abduction and detention in Yemen now.

The United Nations launched an appeal for $1.8 billion last month to provide humanitarian assistance to 13.6 million people in need. Just 2 percent are funded.
It's something that has not happened in decades. If it does happen this year, one leading presidential candidate, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, predicted voters would respond with a "revolt." But most analysts now agree: A contested political convention may be the only way to stop Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party's nomination.

A contested convention occurs when no presidential candidate wins a majority of delegates during the primaries and caucuses that take place in each state. Instead, delegates attending the party's national convention cast ballots for whomever they want, and continue to vote until a candidate wins a majority.

For weeks, it appeared the outspoken billionaire Trump was on the path toward securing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright. As a result, Republican Party leaders who were repulsed by the idea of Trump as their nominee urged low-polling candidates to drop out of the race so the party could coalesce around a single non-Trump candidate.

But after Trump did worse than expected recently in several states, and no clear alternative to him emerged, that strategy changed. Many are now calling for the remaining candidates to stay in the race, hopeful that dividing the vote will deny Trump a delegate majority and force a convention battle from which a more establishment candidate can emerge.

The strategy is risky, and it is rare.

The last time a major national party convention opened without a clear winner was 1976, when Gerald Ford had a lead, but had not captured a majority of the delegates. It is also controversial, since the outcome likely will not reflect the decision of voters and is vulnerable to backroom deals between party leaders.

A contested convention could either define or destroy the Republican Party, according to James Russell Muirhead, a professor of government at Dartmouth University. By choosing a candidate who does not have the most support from voters, delegates risk "imposing a definition on the party independent of what the people who participated in the nomination process decided," he told VOA.

"They could also destroy the Republican Party by alienating a large number, a third to a half of people who participated in the primaries and caucuses," Muirhead added.

Trump: Contested convention 'unfair'

The candidate who stands to lose the most in such a scenario is Trump, who despite recent setbacks still has a commanding delegate lead. On Tuesday, Trump said it would be "pretty unfair" to have a contested convention.

"I think that whoever's leading at the end should sort of get it, Trump told Fox News. I would think so. That's the way democracy works. I don't know that that's going to happen, but I'll tell you there will be a lot of people that will be very upset if that doesn't happen."

Trump's rivals are mixed on whether a contested convention, also known as a brokered convention, is the best way forward.

Cruz, who now appears to be the strongest second-place option, last week flatly rejected the idea, saying instead that he intends to beat the New York businessman at the ballot box.

Cruz predicts revolt

Last week, Cruz even went so far as to predict that voters would respond to a brokered convention by revolting.

"(If) we go to a brokered convention ... the D.C. power brokers will drop someone in who is exactly to the liking of the Washington establishment. If that were to happen, we will have a manifest revolt on our hands all across this country," Cruz told an annual gathering of conservatives outside Washington.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is in a distant fourth place both in the delegate count and in most opinion polls, has acknowledged that a contested convention is the only possible way for him to win the nomination. Florida Senator Marco Rubio's campaign has also been reportedly planning for a brokered convention.

More moderate candidate?

Both Kasich and Rubio typify the more moderate, establishment-type candidate that has traditionally dominated the Republican Party. If there is a contested convention, many analysts predict that someone like this will emerge as the nominee.

But Steffen Schmidt, political science professor at Iowa State University, isn't so sure, saying Republican delegates could be just as divided as Republican voters.

"There are at least three, maybe even four or five, different currents within the stream of the Republican Party," Schmidt told VOA. "And if it were a brokered convention, it isn't clear which piece of the party could actually wrangle a majority out of this."

Another intriguing option: Delegates could choose to nominate someone not even currently in the race. Mitt Romney, the party's last presidential candidate, who lost to President Barack Obama in 2012, recently refused to rule out becoming the nominee at a brokered convention.

Whoever emerges as the nominee, he or she will likely be severely damaged and will face a tough challenge in defeating the Democratic nominee, according to Muirhead, the Dartmouth professor.

"This is a formula for nominating someone who's going to be very, very weak in the general election, who is going to lack the support of a very large part of the party," he said.
President Barack Obama has invited U.S. lawmakers of both parties to join him on a history-making trip to Cuba later this month. Although the full list has not been revealed, numerous senators have confirmed receiving the invitation.

The Senates longest-serving current member, Democrat Patrick Leahy, promptly accepted the White House invitation.

Ive been there many, many times and just want to improve relations between our two countries, Leahy said.

Republican Jeff Flake also will accompany Obama to Cuba March 20-22.

Excited to do it, Flake said. Im glad the presidents going. This is a big deal, and it will be good for the Cuban people.

Youve seen a significant increase in private sector activity in Cuba, which makes for far better human rights conditions for a lot of Cubans," Flake added. "Up to 25 percent of the Cuban workforce is outside of the government sector now. Thats a huge deal. And that is traced, basically, to the president lifting restrictions on Cuban American travel, restrictions on remittances. The presidents done a good thing here."

By contrast, Democrat Bill Nelson, whose home state of Florida is home to many Cuban-Americans, turned down the invitation.

They invited me to go along and I cannot go, Nelson said. I dont want any attendance by me as Floridas senior senator that would in any way be interpreted that you overlook the human rights abuses of Castro in Cuba. Its not time for me to go.

Bipartisan invitations

Observers say it is appropriate  and smart  for the administration to invite lawmakers of both parties.

For the U.S. policy to stick, it has to be bipartisan and it has to be representative of the Republican voices that want a new relationship with Cuba, said Marc Hanson of the Washington Office on Latin America.

Many high-profile senators will be absent from Air Force One. Both the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Bob Corker, and the ranking Democrat, Ben Cardin, said they were invited but cannot make the trip with Obama.

Ive been travelling non-stop, Corker said. Ive got things back home that I need to do. I appreciate the invitation, but Im not going to be able to make the trip.

The administration invited me, Cardin said. Im scheduled to be in another part of the world, and I couldnt change that.

Republican Jerry Moran also cited a scheduling conflict but praised U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba that benefit farmers in his home state of Kansas.

Economic ties create greater pressure on the Cuban government to change the nature of its relationship, between the government and its people," said Moran. "I think economic opportunities create greater demands for personal freedoms and liberties, and so I think the two are related.

Asked if he supports Obamas diplomatic opening with Cuba, Moran would only say, After 50-60 years, we might try something different.

Trip's benefits

Several Democrats not invited told VOA they would like to visit Cuba at some point. And several Republicans said they were glad not to have been invited.

Of course not, why would they invite me? said Republican Senator John McCain, who had this to say when asked if he would want to accompany Obama to Cuba: Id just as soon have a root canal.

In 1995, McCain hailed the normalization of relations between the United States and another communist-run nation, Vietnam. Today, he insists there is no comparison between that episode and Obamas opening with Havana.

We worked for 10 years; we worked with the president of the United States; we worked on both sides of the aisle, McCain said. We accounted for the people missing in action [in Vietnam], and so everybody was together when we did it. This [opening with Cuba] is just an executive order. This is the difference between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.



Cardin sees value in the trip

Clearly the president is going to underscore the changes that we must see in Cuba on human rights, Cardin said. Theres a lot of potential in Cuba. But they still are not doing what is necessary on human rights. But through U.S. involvement, we will be able to see greater change.

Corker is not so sure.

Any additional steps that may or may not be taken down there [U.S. policy changes to Cuba] really should be dependent on how the Castro government conducts themselves, Corker said. Our policies down there havent worked for decades. Now I think its very incumbent on the Castro administration to show that they are willing to make changes, especially on human rights.

Democratic Senator Richard Durbin said he wants to accompany Obama to Cuba, and is attempting to rearrange his schedule to be able to do so.

This president, I believe, has moved us to a new, more realistic level of foreign policy, engaging the Cubans, doing our best to open Cuba, so that new ideas, new thinking new opportunities can come to the island," said Durbin. "The president visits many countries where we disagree with their leadership and disagree with their policies. But he still tries to engage them and encourage them to move toward democratic standards. That is exactly what is happening here.
Marylands highest court ruled Tuesday that Baltimore police officer William Porter, who was charged in the death of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, must testify against colleagues while awaiting a retrial.

The Court of Appeals gave no reason for the decision but said a statement would be made later. A judge ruled that Porter would be required to testify against some, but not all, of the officers charged in the Freddie Gray case.

The 25-year-old Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in the back of a police van last April, without being secured by a seatbelt; he died one week later.

Large protests, both peaceful and destructive, broke out after Grays death. While some claimed that his being black contributed to his mistreatment, three of the six officers charged in the case are black.

Porter is awaiting retrial after the end of his initial trial met with a hung jury in December. He testified that he had done nothing wrong, as it was the drivers responsibility to secure Gray in a seatbelt.

The six police involved in the case, one of whom is a woman, face an array of charges, from reckless endangerment to second-degree murder.

Porter was the first officer to stand. The question of whether he could be made to testify against others prevented their trials from moving forward.

The appeals court heard arguments concerning the issue last week. When questioned on why Porter should not testify at multiple trials, his attorney said that the officer could be charged with perjury each time he took the stand.

On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal issued two rulings, the first of which agreed with Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams in his decision to compel Porter to testify against colleagues Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Caesar Goodson. All three face charges of assault, manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. Goodson, who drove the police vehicle, additionally faces the most serious charge of second-degree murder.

The second court order rescinded Judge Williams decision that Porter did not have to testify against officers Edward Nero, Garrett Miller, and Lt. Brian Rice, who face misconduct in office, assault, and reckless endangerment charges. Rice is also charged with manslaughter.

Tuesdays rulings mean that said cases will be sent back to a lower court, and the court may move forward with the trials.
Pakistans military said Tuesday its fresh airstrikes have killed at least 21 militants in the restive North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.

The action came as the death toll in Mondays suicide bombing at a court compound in the northwestern town of Shabqadar rose to 17.

Army spokesman Lt-General Asim Bajwa says fighter aircraft conducted the overnight raids in the Shawal valley where ground troops continue to hunt for fleeing terrorists through chase, cordon and search operations after securing key heights and passes.

Officials say the counter-insurgency army operation has cleared around 90 percent of the Waziristan territory of insurgents, including foreigners, but has yet to fully secure Shawal and nearby areas.

A militant group, Jamatul Ahrar, affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the court bombing. It said the attack was meant to avenge last week's hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, a police bodyguard executed for killing a provincial governor over his call to reform the blasphemy law.

Qadri was part of the detail protecting governor Salman Taseer when he shot and killed him in 2011 in a busy market in the capital, Islamabad.

The Pakistani Taliban has been waging a violent insurgency against the state in a bid to dislodge what it condemns as an un-Islamic governance and security system in Pakistan.

The extremists have killed thousands of people in terrorist attacks. However, officials say the continuing army operations have destroyed militant strongholds, leading to an 80 percent decline in the violence.

Speaking in Islamabad Tuesday, visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond praised the improvement in the security situation in Pakistan.

I salute Pakistans efforts in the fight against terrorism and domestic extremism Too many people are still dying in acts of terrorism but the reduction in violence is much welcome and we never forget that Pakistan more than any other country in the world has been the victim of terrorist violence over many years, said Hammond.
They give their infants a drop of cobra poison when they are five or six months olda form of initiation into life as a snake charmer.

That poison, according to Misri Jogi, a famous chieftain of a tribe of snake charmers in Pakistans Sindh province, creates a bond, enabling them to smell and catch snakes when they grow up. His last name comes from what his tribesmen are called in the local language  jogis.

When I sit here and play the flute, I can smell if there is a snake in the vicinity, Jogi said as he played the instrument while children from his tribe gathered around.

His eldest son, dressed in a bright orange tunic like his father, danced like a snake on the floor in front of him, slithering and swirling with the music.

A teacher and a leader of his community, Jogi has received multiple awards in Pakistan and other countries for his performances. He proudly displays pictures of his foreign travels to those who visit his home in Umerkot city.

For children in South Asia, in countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, jogis are a common site. They are street performers, wandering the cities and towns, playing their flutes, trying to attract local children to see a performance with their snakes and pay them for it.

Passed on for generations



The art is passed from generation to generation, from father to son. Women of the tribe usually do not handle snakes, although they are used to being around them.

While jogis catch snakes, they cannot keep them forever.

Instead, they say, they make a sacred pact with a snake in the name of Pir Goga, their guru of ancient times. They tell the snake they will release it after a given time, usually 3-4 months, if it agrees to cooperate and not hurt them.

Only a cobra is kept for a full year. It holds a kingly status among the snakes and jogis treat it as sacred. Their Pir Goga loved cobras and used to hang one around the neck.

In our tribe, we dont love our wives as much as we love our cobra. He is our friend, our companion during our travels, Jogi explained.

They feed it milk and let it sleep in their beds to stay warm in winter. In return, they say, a cobra guards them against evil, human or otherwise.

If a burglar or a thief comes in the night, or someone who tries to harm us, a cobra will wake up its charmer, according to Jogi.

Talisman



A black cobra produces a talismana black, shiny, flat bead called a manka in the local languagethat they say saves them from snakebites. Once placed on a bite, it sucks the poison from the blood, swelling in the process. The poison can then be squeezed out of the manka.

It is considered so valuable and sacred that a jogi would never sell one, no matter the price. Anyone who does, it is believed, faces bad luck.

It is, however, allowed, to give it as a gift. Daughters, when they are married, expect their fathers to give a manka in their dowry.

Misri Jogis historically wandering clan settled in Jogi Daro, in Umerkot, in the 1970s when the government offered them rights to that land. Staying in one place brought its own challenges to the jogi lifestyle.

Dwindling interest



As opportunities for formal schooling opened up, jogi children started moving towards more stable jobs and away from the nomadic existence.

Those of our kids that are going to school are more interested in continuing with their studies, Jogi acknowledges. Several of his own children fall into that category.

He hopes, however, that at least his oldest son will carry on his traditions and his name.
Illegal trade along the border between North Korea and China is one of the loopholes in international efforts to deter Pyongyangs missile development, Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and U.S. defense secretary said.

Panettas comments came as Washington is trying to curb Pyongyangs missile and nuclear programs through strong U.N. sanctions. Last week, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution expanding sanctions against Pyongyang in response to the countrys recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch.

My view is that China has not been directly helping North Koreas missile development. I think indirectly there have been ways to assist North Korea in their missile development, Panetta told VOA Monday, referring to illegal trade of banned goods from China to North Korea.

Chinas involvement

While serving as secretary of defense, Panetta told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee in 2012 that China was helping North Koreas missile program.

Im sure theres been some help from China. I dont know, you know, the exact extent of that, said the secretary.

Panetta said despite international efforts to tighten sanctions against North Korea, the communist country has found ways around the sanctions.

North Korea has a thriving black market on everything from computers to cognac, said the former defense chief.

He said blocking illegal trade between the two sides is key to the implementation of the new U.N. sanctions.

The real question is going to be whether or not that illegal trade continues and North Korea finds other ways to get the supplies they need, the former defense secretary said.

In an apparent response to the U.N. sanctions, Pyongyang has ratcheted up its nuclear rhetoric. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly ordered his military to use its nuclear weapons at any moment, according to North Koreas state media.

Nuclear rhetoric questioned

Panetta questioned whether Pyongyang has the ability to deploy a nuclear warhead on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile, adding the U.S. should not take anything for granted as to North Koreas capability.

When asked about what might have led Beijing to agree to impose the U.N. sanctions, he said China has lost patience with North Korea after a series of events, including Pyongyangs provocative nuclear posture.

The launch of talks in South Korea between Washington and Seoul over the possible deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), an advanced U.S. missile defense system, also might have pressed Beijing to support the sanctions, according to Panetta.

The former CIA director said Kim Jong Un has shown unpredictable leadership through a series of purges and executions of top generals and his aides.

Panetta led the CIA from February 2009 to June 2011, and served as secretary of defense from July 2011 to February 2013.
U.S. President Barack Obama swept into office in 2008 on a progressive agenda  vowing change.



This week, he is welcoming a leader whose recent election mirrors his own; new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a White House state visit on Thursday.

There is a developing special relationship between this president and prime minister. Both young leaders with similar visions, both have a progressive vision of governing, both very much committed to the appropriate use of multilateral tools, both committed to diversity, the National Security Councils Mark Feierstein told reporters.

This is the first state visit by a Canadian prime minister in nearly two decades, and White House officials promise a hefty agenda, focused on security, trade and climate change.



Canada has stood with us in response to the Ebola crisis, the fight to destroy ISIL, the enforcement of sanctions on Russia and in securing consensus of the Paris agreement on climate change, Feierstein said Tuesday.



Obama and Trudeau met before on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last November, just a month after Trudeaus Liberal Party swept Canadas parliamentary election  unseating Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives that had been in power since 2006.



The first call I made to him I said, Justin, congratulations. You and your family look great. I know Canadians are incredibly inspired by your message of hope and change. I just want to point out that I had no grey hair when I was in your shoes seven years ago, Obama joked to reporters following the talks in Manila. Obama was 47 when he first took office.



Countering Islamic State



Justin Trudeau, son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, made headlines in February when he announced Canadas withdrawal of six fighter jets from the U.S-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) militant group  following through on a campaign pledge.



Instead, the 44-year old leader said Canada would triple the number of special forces trainers from 69 to nearly 200 in northern Iraq, while increasing intelligence and humanitarian efforts in the region.



White House officials on Tuesday highlighted what they called Canadas important and founding role in the anti-IS coalition and said the administration is satisfied with the countrys contributions.



They are working across all the lines of effort that we are focused on, military, foreign terrorist fighters, counter- terrorist financing, counter-messaging and stabilization, NSCs Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Feierstein noted.



The Canadian prime minister has also garnered attention for his warm reception of Syrian refugees  personally greeting families in December as they stepped off the plane in Toronto with the words you are home, welcome home.



We very much applaud Canadas leadership on the Syrian refugee crisis...and congratulate them for meeting the goal of admitting 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada, and the welcoming way in which Canadian citizens did so, Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson said.



Boosting trade, fighting climate change



Trade and climate change are also expected to feature prominently during Thursdays talks at the White House.



Senior administration officials point to Canadas status as the United States largest trade partner, with nearly 400,000 people and some $2 billion worth of goods and services crossing the 8,851 kilometer border every day.



About 75 percent of Canadas exports go to the United States and Canada is the top export destination for 33 U.S. states, White House officials say.



Still, officials say more work is to be done to open the border that has seen the number of crossings drop due to enhanced security measures following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will also play a prominent role in trade discussions, as lawmakers in both countries consider the deal.



On climate change  White House officials praised Canadas cooperation on the issue.



We appreciate the very constructive and effective role that Canada has played in working closely with us in securing a strong agreement at COP 21 in Paris, and we look forward to continuing that working relationship with Prime Minster Trudeaus government this year to maintain momentum, White House Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said.



Trudeaus state visit Thursday is the Obama administrations 11th.



The White House says previous state visits include India in November of 2009, Mexico in May of 2010, China in January of 2011 and September of 2015, Germany in June of 2011, South Korea in October of 2011, Britain and Northern Ireland in March 2012, France in February of 2014, Japan in April of 2015, and Pope Francis visit in September of 2015.



Jean Chretien was the last Canadian prime minister to attend a state dinner in 1997  hosted by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Syrian and Iraqi war refugees are sleeping by railroad tracks in northern Greece hoping to be allowed to travel onward to Germany and other northern EU countries. Seventy-three years ago, these tracks were traversed by another group heading to Germany for a completely different future: the Nazi death camps.

North was not a direction the Jews wanted to be heading. Packed into death trains by the SS, their journey ended in the gas chambers of the Third Reich, where 98 percent of the total Jewish population of Thessaloniki died.

Europeans escaping Nazi tyranny in the Balkans and parts of Central Europe, were heading in opposite directions from Thessalonikis Jews, some southeast for Turkey, the country contemporary Syrians and Iraqis are traveling through to flee the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the jihadists of the Islamic State and al Qaida affiliate Jabhat al Nusra.

Poignant, cruel historical ironies and injustices abound in the turmoil of the current refugee crisis roiling Europe and the Middle East  ghostly echoes of a past Europeans thought they had long ago exorcised that is panicking their politicians.

Located at a major crossroads between mainland Europe and the Mideast, Greece and its Balkan neighbors - now throwing up coils of razor-sharp wire on their frontiers and militarizing their borders to stop asylum-seekers - are no strangers to huge flows of war refugees searching for a firm footing nor to forcible displacements.

Shifting plates

The turmoil that has come in the wake of these mass migrations has shaken countries to their roots and foreshadowed era-changing politics.

It is almost as if the European continent is built on political tectonic plates. With each chafing and grinding, the lives of hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, are shattered. Individuals, rich and poor alike, are caught up in consequences beyond their control.

From the 19th century until the end of the 20th century, an estimated 10 million ethnic Turks, Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Tatars and Pomaks trudged towards Turkey, emigrating to the heartland of the Ottoman Empire, Anatolia.

Most did so during the Balkan War of 1912-13 and the Great War - World War I - as the Ottomans saw their territory shrink and independence grabbed by vassal states. In 1915 those refugees passed Armenians coming the other way when about 80,000 survivors of the Armenian Genocide fled to Greece.

There was more to come with the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, the Greek occupation of the port of Smyrna, now known as Izmir, the launching point for many fleeing Syrians and Iraqis today. The war was concluded with a forcible mass exchange of populations that saw the expulsions of Orthodox Christians from Turkey to Greece and of Muslims from Greece to Turkey.

The Aegean Sea, now being passaged by Syrians and Iraqis desperate to reach safety, figured prominently then as well.

The population exchange  the great uprooting  involved more than two million people.

When friends become foes...

Cant we go back to Syria now, is a plea many Syrian parents at Idomeni have heard from their children. The same look of bewilderment, the same faux courage is on the faces of Syrian and Iraqi kids as they are captured for posterity in the faces of Greek and Turkish children in black-and-white photographs taken during the great uprooting.

My mother only took a few spare clothes because she thought she would be coming back. And then the boat came and took us away, an aged Despoina Christopulou, a Greek Christian survivor, recalled in a 2012 BBC documentary exploring the devastating consequences of the Greek invasion of Turkey and the refugee crisis it created on both sides of the Aegean.

Remembering how life was before, Christopulou says: There would be a Greek house and then a Turkish house  they would all live well together. They ate and drank together. They would come to yours; you would go to theirs. War put a finish to that. When the Greek army retreated, Greek Christians fled in its wake pursued by vengeful Turks determined to punish the terrible devastation wrought on their towns by the Greek military. Christopulou talks in the documentary about the disappearance of her father, wiping tears away as though it were yesterday.

Today, Sunni Muslims, Kurds, Yezidis and Christians are flooding out of the Mideast in the biggest mass movement of people Europe has seen since the Second World War. And their oral histories, what they are struggling with emotionally, what they are enduring now, are, for all of the technological differences, the same.

We stayed because we thought the war would stop, but then we realized the war will never stop, says Shermini, a 19-year-old Yezidi, who with her parents, a brother and his wife left their village near the Iraqi town of Dohuk at the beginning of February.

She and her family decided also to leave because they started to fear their Sunni Muslim neighbors, people they had once called friends. We thought if Daesh came, they would quickly become Daesh themselves, she says, using the Arab acronym for the Islamic State.

Starting over

About the same time Shermini and her family left, so did Waad Alnaimee, a Sunni Muslim from Baghdad and a former director in Iraqs Ministry of Culture. He fled the Iraqi capital after his eldest daughter was kidnapped  she was freed by the police  and his car was crumpled in a bombing, an assassination attempt on him.

In the new Iranian-controlled Iraq there is no place for Sunni Muslims, he says.

He was at Idomeni for two weeks with his wife, two grown-up daughters and his ten-year-old son but has now agreed to enter a relocation scheme that should get him and his family placed somewhere in Europe, although they are not allowed to choose the country.

We left everything behind, he laments.

Like most refugees he is trapped in nostalgia and struggling to maintain his self-identity. He flicks through photographs on his mobile of his office and of him greeting well-known artists. I loved my work; I loved my job, he says.

He will have to try to recreate himself  or part of himself  in Europe. He seems destined to get the chance. Others may not, if those opposed to admitting more asylum-seekers into Europe get their way. Force is already being used  Afghans were kicked into Athens-bound buses last week by Macedonian border guards after they had been denied further entry into the Balkans, according to relief workers.

NATO warships are starting to patrol the Aegean to help Turkish coast guards turn back the little, unseaworthy boats ferrying refugees. European leaders say the mission is to rescue refugees, to ensure they dont drown. The refugees see the objective as forcible interdiction.

History can be hard to escape.



* Also see: Photo Blog "The Children of Idomeni Refugee Camp"
The Pentagon says a U.S. airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia last Saturday killed more than 150 militants. Analysts say the strike was a major coup but that African Union troops in Somalia still have a long fight ahead of them.

In an interview with VOA, Somali presidential spokesman Daud Aweys applauded the airstrike. He said Somalia was aware of the operation and contributed intelligence.

We think that this was a significant victory not only for Somalia but also for the entire region as we face the same challenges on the war against terror. This was a coordinated attack in which Somali forces shared (intelligence) with their U.S. counterpart. These areas have been under a close surveillance, Aweys said.

The training camp targeted is located 190 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the U.S. had learned the fighters were set to depart the camp, and "posed an imminent threat" to African Union forces and U.S. military advisers in Somalia.

An al-Shabab spokesman, Abu Musab, confirmed the aerial attack but said the death toll was exaggerated. He said al-Shabab doesnt gather more than 100 fighters in one place for security reasons.



Lucky Strike



Analyst Yan St. Pierre, who runs the Berlin-based security firm MOSECON, said the opportunity for such a large strike may not come again.

Usually, al-Shabab, historically speaking, they have always spread [their] troops very well, so if this was indeed the case [that] they had so many people in one location, its a strategic mistake that definitely they are bound not to repeat, St. Pierre said.

Al-Shabab has kept up a steady string of bombings against civilians in Mogadishu while also going after African Union troops with renewed vigor since the middle of last year.

On January 15, al-Shabab fighters stormed a Kenyan army camp in El-Adde. In February, the Somali president said 200 soldiers lost their lives in that attack, a claim denied by the Kenyan government.

Security observers say heavy losses in these and other recent raids are damaging the effectiveness and reputation of the African Union force, AMISOM.

Analyst St. Pierre said airstrikes won't necessarily ease that pressure on ground troops.

Any American or Western support will be from the air, so they (al-Shabab) adjust their strategies accordingly while maintaining focus on the local troops. The real message really needs to come from AMISOM. It needs to come from the Kenya Defense Forces and Somali troops much more than the Americans, St. Pierre said.

AMISOM has been fighting al-Shabab in Somalia since 2007. The force currently has 22,000 men on the ground to provide assistance to the internationally recognized Somali government.
South Korea imposed new unilateral sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday as Seouls spy agency blames Pyongyang hackers for recent cyber attacks.

These latest developments could further fuel heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula triggered by North Koreas recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Closing Russian loophole

The new South Korean measures will add to the recently adopted United Nations Security Council resolution that imposed tough new international sanctions on North Korea.

In a move that may frustrate Russia, South Korea will halt the trilateral Rajin-Hassan Project to develop a train system to transport Russian Siberian coal to North Koreas port in Hassan and then to South Korea by ship.

Before agreeing to support the U.N. sanctions, Russia leveraged its veto power as a member of the Security Council to ensure the resolution would not block exports of Siberian coal to North Korea.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed an agreement in 2013 to cooperate on the project.

Russia reportedly expressed regret at Seoul's decision.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said the decision to end Seouls participation in the project was made in close consultation with Moscow.

Between South Korea and Russia, the heads of the two countries have established trust, and have maintained diplomatic communications, he said.

Expanding UN sanctions

The recent U.N. sanctions require member states to conduct mandatory inspections of all North Korean cargo to search for prohibited materials, and to ban entry and financial transactions with 16 North Korean individuals and 12 private companies or government organizations linked to countrys arms trade or nuclear program.

The Philippines last week impounded a cargo ship linked to a company blacklisted in the U.N. resolution, the Pyongyang-based Ocean Maritime Management Co.

The new South Korean sanctions blacklist additional North Koreans or representatives from other countries and institutions linked to the North for their involvement in past illicit trade.

We will ban foreign currency and financial exchange between these subjects and our citizens and freeze their assets in our country," said Lee Suk-joon, the South Korean Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The measures will institute new import controls to increase the interdiction of North Korean goods coming from third party countries like China.

The Seoul government will go further than the U.N. sanctions in banning ships from any nation that visited North Korea or are suspected of being owned by the sanctioned state.

South Korea already imposed sanctions in 2010 that ban North Korean vessels from ports in the South and severed most economic ties in retaliation for the sinking of a South Korean navy ship.

Most of the new South Korean sanctions will likely have limited direct economic impact, especially after Seoul closed the last remaining joint economic program, the Kaesong Industrial Complex that employed over 54,000 North Koreans.

But these new measures could strain ties with countries like Russia and force other countries to either cut most economic trade with the penalized North or lose access to the richer and more advanced economy of the South.

It is sad that there will be a crack in relation between South Korea and Russia, but it is an unavoidable measure, said analyst Ahn Chan-il, with the World Institute for North Korean studies.

Cyber attacks

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) accused North Korea of orchestrating a series of cyber attacks that targeted government officials and that sought to disrupt railway traffic control systems.

The NIS released a statement Tuesday that said the North stole phone numbers and texts from the smartphones of dozens of key South Korean officials between late February and early March.

The spy agency say the North Korean hackers were attempting to infect the smartphones with malware to capture the phone numbers of other government officials.

It also accused the North of trying to hack into the server of a major software firm specializing in providing security software for Internet banking.

And the NIS said North Korean hackers attempted to steal the email account details and passwords of two provincial railway operators by sending them malware infected email messages in January and February of this year.

While these cyber attacks were either blocked or discovered in the early stages, the NIS said they had the potential to do serious harm to the economy and national security.

The accusations of North Korean cyber attacks come at the same time President Park is pressing the National Assembly to pass a new anti-cyber terror law.

The main opposition Minjoo Party said the government has exaggerated the cyber threat to secure surveillance powers for the NIS that could be used against political opponents.

Seoul blamed North Korean hackers for past cyber-attacks targeting military institutions, banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and a nuclear power plant.

The United States also said the North was behind a damaging cyber-attack on Sony's Hollywood film unit over its controversial North Korea-themed satirical film The Interview in 2014.

North Korea has denied any involvement in past cyber attacks.
Spain's King Felipe decided Monday not to open a new round of one-to-one talks with party leaders to give them more time to reach a coalition deal, although so far they are unwilling to bridge their divisions as a potential new election looms.

After Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed to win enough support Friday, parties have until May 2 to reach a parliamentary majority and form a government or the lower house will be dissolved and a new election will be called.

Sanchez won the support of only 131 members of the 350-strong parliament, with the opposition of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP), anti-austerity Podemos and five smaller parties scuppering his pact with newcomer Ciudadanos.

Although businesses and investors have so far remained calm about the deadlock, a new election would raise the risk that Spain's uneven economic recovery might be impaired by lost months of political leadership.

Talks postponed

The king's office said in a statement he would postpone formal talks with leaders, which he has held twice since a December election when Spaniards deserted the two traditional parties to vote for newcomers.

But with the clock ticking there are few signs that parties are willing to move from their entrenched positions in the negotiations that have often boiled over into vitriolic attacks.

Rajoy, in Brussels for EU talks on refugees, said a new election would be "ridiculous," and repeated that Sanchez should join the PP in a coalition of center left and center right, which the Socialist leader has rejected.

"I will call Mr. Sanchez and if, as has been the case so far, he does not want to see me, evidently I will not be able to do anything else," he told reporters on arriving.

Sanchez hopes to persuade Podemos to join his "government of change" and the upstart party's leader, Pablo Iglesias, who is holding out for an alliance solely between leftist parties, said Monday he would reopen talks between the two.

But Iglesias has said an agreement with Sanchez is only possible if he abandons business-friendly Ciudadanos, something strongly opposed by many Socialist politicians.

In a survey by pollster Metroscopia published Sunday in the newspaper El Pais, Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera and Sanchez were seen as the two leaders who had come out best from the investiture debate, with Iglesias as the worst.
Canada's charismatic Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be traveling to Washington this week for talks with U.S. President Barack Obama, hoping to revitalize a frayed relationship and draw rare attention to Canadian issues.

Trudeau's Liberals came to power in November by ousting the right-wing Conservative leader Stephen Harper, whose ties with Washington deteriorated as he hectored Obama in a failed bid to gain approval for a major Canada-U.S. pipeline.

Trudeau, who has basked in international media attention since coming to power and whose progressive politics are much more in tune with Obama's, will attend a state dinner Thursday, becoming the first Canadian leader to do so since 1997.

"We want to strengthen our relationship with the United States at a time when it is key for our agenda of economic growth," Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said in an interview Monday.

Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. It is also the United States' largest trading partner and biggest supplier of oil, but has found it hard to stand out.

"We'd sometimes like to think that Americans would pay attention to us from time to time," Trudeau said in an interview with the CBS television show 60 Minutes that aired Sunday.

Trudeau will press his message Thursday, holding talks with Obama, lunching with Secretary of State John Kerry and then attending the state dinner.

Countries' priorities

Canada wants to avoid a fresh trade fight over its softwood lumber exports, while the United States will reiterate long-standing concerns about how much information Ottawa shares on terror suspects, say officials involved with the talks.

The two sides are also set to sign a declaration committing to the fight against climate change, sources said.

"Canada's not an issue that gets a lot of attention normally," said a senior U.S. administration official. "[But] I'd be hard-pressed to identify a relationship that's more important day in, day out, and that affects more Americans day in, day out."

Trudeau has a higher profile than any Canadian leader since his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who was in power four decades ago. The New York Times and Vogue magazine are among the U.S. outlets that have run sympathetic profiles about him.

Still, his visit may be overshadowed by the raucous race between Republican candidates vying to run for the White House.

Thursday's dinner coincides with a Republican debate in the battleground state of Florida.
The car ground its way over the gravel dirt road and turned the corner. And there, in the middle of the sprawling Domiz refugee camp, a wedding gown shop.

Long pink, white and red dresses hung in the dusty window of the one-room cement brick building topped with red corrugated tin.

There are many weddings in the camp, home to more than 40,000 Syrians who have fled the war during the past five years. Sometimes there are even mass weddings. Children and babies are everywhere.

Love, however, is not easy in Domiz.

Many families are crowded into small cement block units, or tents, and there is not much to do. The pressure of living that way year after year is taking its toll.

These refugees have been staying in tents, and you can imagine the issues that we have, be it psychological, or even domestic violence. You have the whole family of seven people living in a small tent, said Tanya Kareem, head of the UNHCR sub-office in Dohuk, northern Iraq.

With the war in Syria about to enter its sixth year, donor fatigue is setting in. Kareem said funding constraints are affecting what UNHCR can do for the refugees.

According to UNHCR, there are some 245,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq, most of them in Kurdistan. Khalisa Sabri Ali, a tall woman in her early 30's, has been in the Domiz camp for more than three years. Her morning was spent sitting on a wood bench, holding her younger children, watching the older ones play in the dirt roads.



In Syria, Sabri Ali said, she had a house, her husband had a job and she dreamed of her children going to college. Now, she has nothing.

She stood up, held her green and brown dress a couple of inches above the ground and bent down with a small hand shovel to scrape up a collapsing hill of gravel on the dirt road.

Done, she walked down a tiny alleyway between cement block houses, some covered in blue tarp. In the doorway of the space she shared with her five children and disabled husband, she turned and tried to smile.

In Syria, she continued, her son had been a top student. Now he was the only one working to support the family. She covered her face with her hands as tears poured. One daughter hid in her dress; another started crying.

Sabri Ali looked up.

What was called Syria does not exist anymore. There is nothing now. It is all in ruins. I have no hope that Syria will return to normal. There is no hope, there is nothing. Forget about Syria, said Sabri Ali.

She said going to Europe was the only hope, regardless of the risks. Thousands of refugees already have fled to Europe.

Hussain Alis daughter was one of them. She left in January with her husband and children. She never made it. Like hundreds of others, she drowned during the sea crossing.

Even Ali, a lanky man who runs a tiny shop in the camp with the help of a grandson, felt there was little to be gained by staying. He said business was dropping off, and it was becoming harder to get by.

Things are getting worse here. We may have a chance at a better life in Europe, but staying here, it will be even worse, he said.
Prime Minister Habib Essid praised Tunisia's military and security forces on Tuesday for their response to the deadly assault by extremist attackers near the Libyan border.

The death toll from Monday's clashes in the city of Ben Guerdane rose to 55, including 36 attackers, Essid said Tuesday. Seven civilians and 12 members of Tunisia's security forces also died, and 17 others were injured.



The attack that happened yesterday showed that our military and security forces were ready, he told a press conference. We won a battle, but we haven't yet won the war on terror, and that war continues.



No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but websites affiliated with the Islamic State group said IS militants were handed a tough blow by Tunisian security forces. One website published more than 30 pictures showing militants' bodies as well as weapons and munitions seized.

Essid said that about 50 gunmen - most of them Tunisians - took part in the attack. Only four out of the 36 attackers killed have been formally identified. Essid did not give more details about the attackers' background but said some came from Libya.

According to local journalist Raoudha Bouttar, there was sporadic gunfire on Tuesday in the outskirts of Ben Guerdane as Tunisian forces searched for attackers still at large.



Tunisian forces have repeatedly clashed with extremists on the borders of Libya and Algeria in recent years, but Monday's fighting was unusually bloody. Tunisia has been as a model of relative stability for the region since an uprising five years ago ushered in democracy and inspired Arab Spring protests against dictatorships across the region.



An uprising in neighboring Libya led to the ouster and killing of longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, but since then the country has fallen into chaos, allowing the IS group to take control of several cities. The divided country is ruled by two parliaments: an internationally recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival government, backed by Islamist-allied militias, that controls the capital, Tripoli.



Essid said the gunmen targeted a police station and military facilities in Ben Guerdane after launching their attack from a nearby mosque. He said attackers were arrested and gave information that led to the discovery of a weapons cache.



The prime minister also confirmed that the chief of the anti-terrorism brigade in Ben Guerdane was among those killed. He was killed in his house when he was preparing to go to work, at the beginning of the attack.



According to Essid, security and military forces in the city were not caught off guard.



We were not passive spectators because we had received info, hence our reaction and the positive results we had, he said.



Without elaborating, Essid insisted cooperation with brother and friend countries, including the United States will help Tunisia in its fight against extremism but ruled out the possibility of a foreign military intervention.



Tunisia is especially worried about the IS presence in Libya after dozens of tourists were killed in attacks in Tunisia last year. IS extremists claimed responsibility for those attacks, and Tunisian authorities said the attackers had been trained in Libya.

Last week, Tunisian security forces killed five heavily armed men in an hours-long firefight after they crossed into the country from Libya with a larger group. Tunisian security forces had been placed on alert based on precise information of possible border infiltrations following a February 19 U.S. raid on an IS camp near the Libyan town of Sabratha, not far from the Tunisian border.



A jihadist wrote on an IS-affiliated website that the gunmen in Ben Guerdane were part of a group that withdrew from Libya because they were under big pressure, live in a difficult situation and being sought after by everyone especially after last month's U.S. airstrike.
EU and Turkish officials say they have reached an agreement in principle to resolve the migrant crisis. Turkey, which is hosting over two million Syrian refugees and is the migrants' main transit route into Europe, is seen as the key to stemming the exodus.

Pro-government newspapers in Turkey described the emergency summit on the migrant crisis held in Brussels as a historic victory for the country, with the EU agreeing to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in return for every Syrian refugee Turkey takes back from Greece.

But the United Nations and international human rights groups are questioning the legality of immediate deportations. Andrew Stroehlein of the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said there were too many unanswered questions.

"Neither side is saying how they are going to assess people individually, how they are going to evaluate their needs for international protection. Two sides are promising these rapid fire mass expulsions not based on anyones particular situation," he said.



This year alone, more than 120,000 migrants made the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. More than 200 have died.

Questions are also being raised over whether the EU will be able to honor the commitment to accept an estimated tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. There is also concern about EU leaders' support of Ankaras proposal to send Syrians back to safe-haven areas in Syria.

Stroehlein said the proposal was alarming.

"The suggestion that they might send back Syrians back to Syria is just appalling. The idea there is going to be safe zone in anything but in name is just unrealistic in the extreme. This would mean to send people to deadly danger. It's just a non-starter," he said.

For years, Turkish leaders have been lobbying hard for creating safe havens in Syria, in what analysts say is an attempt by Turkey to draw its Western partners into the Syrian conflict.

Turkish media are portraying the EU's agreement to swiftly ease visa requirements for Turks as Ankara's biggest victory in the summit. But observes say the proposal will cause alarm in many European countries already nervous about the scope of the migration.

That concern was well placed, said Cengiz Aktar, a political scientist at Istanbuls Suleyman Sah University, who predicted a further surge in migration.

"Turkish asylum seekers arriving to Europe because of the ongoing hostilities in Turkish Kurdistan, Turkish jobless, and Turkish ISIL members need to be taken into account before making any decision to lift visa [restrictions] to 78 million Turks," said Aktar.

Analysts here are already questioning the sustainability of the proposed deal. EU and Turkish leaders will meet again next week to hammer out what they say is the final details of the plan. The meeting is already predicted to be a long one.
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday it is concerned some parts of an EU-Turkey proposal to stem the flow of refugees and migrants into Greece, including a possible blanket return of individuals, may violate international law.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said aspects of the proposed agreement need to be clarified. However, it said it is concerned about any arrangement that involves the blanket return of all individuals from one country to another.



EU leaders and Ankara said Tuesday they had reached a possible deal that would return the thousands of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey. The leaders are confident a full agreement can be reached at a summit next week.

Possible agreement

After months of disagreements and increased bickering among the 28 EU nations, the leaders said they agreed to give Turkey more than $3 billion in additional funds to help with the nearly 3 million Syrian refugees it is hosting.

The EU leaders also agreed to swiftly ease visa requirements for Turks and speed up Ankara's EU accession talks in exchange for its help in stemming migration flows to Europe.

In addition, the deal calls for the EU to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in return for every Syrian refugee Turkey takes back from Greece.

French President Francois Hollande said, "The summit has created hope that the refugee question can be dealt with through solidarity in Europe, and efficiency in cooperation with Turkey."

However, UNHCR refugee coordinator for Europe Vincent Cochetel, who said he is did not know the details of the proposed deal, told VOA he worries it may lack safeguards to protect asylum-seekers.

Collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention of Human Rights," Cochetel said. "An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return of any foreigners to a third country is not consistent with European law, is not consistent with international law.

March 17 summit

All eyes are now on March 17 and the start of a two-day summit to finalize the commitment and agree on a deal that the leaders hope will allow for a return to normalcy along their borders by the end of the year.

But the difficulties in reaching a deal were underscored by the talks themselves, which lasted hours longer than initially scheduled

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu cast the new Turkish proposal as a way to both rescue lives, staunch migrant trafficking and herald "a new era in EU-Turkish relations."

But deep divisions remain over finding a solution to Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

Last year, more than 1 million refugees and migrants made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Europe, and roughly 142,000 have arrived so far this year, most of them arriving in Greece.

The Turkish coast guard is reportedly intercepting would-be migrants on an irregular basis in an effort to discourage human smugglers.

Rights protections

Cochetel tells VOA he has no objection to interceptions in Turkish territorial waters, as long as those aboard are able to access protection.

We know that 91 percent of the people arriving in Greece are Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians fleeing for their lives, fleeing because of the conflict or fleeing because of the human rights violations in their country, he said.

They are not people that are looking for a better economic future. They are people that are fleeing those conflicts that are still unsolved today, Cochetel added.

The UNHCR urges European leaders to ensure the plan includes proper legal safeguards for refugees before they meet next week to finalize the deal with Turkey.

Beyond differences with Turkey, EU countries are split among themselves over how to handle the crisis, as some countries install border controls while others  notably Germany and Sweden  call for a more humanitarian approach. Those differences were on display during an EU summit last month, when leaders failed to make any headway on the migrant issue.

New spats have flared up, including between France and Belgium over the fate of asylum-seekers in Calais  which has also been a longstanding bone of contention between France and Britain, the ultimate destination of many.

Little progress

Even some areas of agreement  such as the voluntary resettlement of roughly 160,000 asylum-seekers  have shown little progress on the ground.

"There is a lack of political willingness to implement the decisions that have been taken," said Sergio Carrera, senior research fellow for the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. He said he was baffled by the EU's inaction toward asylum-seekers, many of whom come from conflict-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.

Arriving at the talks Monday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras  whose country is on the front lines of the migrant influx  called on fellow EU members to honor their resettlement agreement.

"This is a European problem, so we have to find collective solutions to this problem," Tsipras said.

Some governments, however, seem opposed to following even already-existing rules, Carrera said.

"These include basic human rights of the people arriving, he said. Then they want to rewrite their rules according to their own wishes."

But, Carrera added, "a union cannot function like this."

Thousands stalled

Meanwhile, thousands of migrants are now stuck in Greece since non-EU member Macedonia blocked their passage northward as part of a domino series of border controls established by Balkan countries.

And more keep arriving  or lose their lives trying to do so. At least 18 asylum-seekers drowned off the Turkish coast Sunday, according to news reports.

Ahead of the Brussels meeting, Human Rights Watch warned that a potential deal with Ankara would mean a "flawed and potentially dangerous policy to refugee flows" across the Aegean.

"EU leaders are in a panic to stop refugee flows before spring," senior Human Rights Watch official Judith Sunderland said, "and they seem willing to throw human rights overboard in the process."
Chinas annual meetings in Beijing are a key opportunity in the political calendar for officials to take stock of the past years successes and failures and fine tune their messaging about key topics such as the economy, environment and social issues.



It is also a time when undercurrents and key concerns surface despite the tightly scripted meetings and daily flood of press conferences at the 2 Sessions- meetings for Chinas top legislative body the National Peoples Congress (NPC) and Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).



This year is no exception, and the direction Chinas increasingly powerful leader Xi Jinping is taking the worlds second largest economy is a key point of discussion and, for some, a growing concern.



Theres a groundswell of discontent among NPC members, intellectuals, experts in Beijing, even more liberal party officials, that Xi is turning back the clock imposing a kind of a dictatorial model on the party, said Willy Lam, an expert on elite Chinese politics. However, at this stage, I think except for relatively few liberal academics, most government officials and NPC members will not dare not openly criticize Xi Jinping.





Free speech debate grows

Last year, it was a documentary about Chinas notorious smog that had social media buzzing. The documentary Under the Dome, which was produced by a former state media reporter went viral, attracting hundreds of millions of views before it was eventually blocked online shortly after the meetings started.



This year, just days before the meetings opened last week, a politically connected and the social media account of prominent former property businessman Ren Zhiqiang was shut down after he criticized President Xi.



Rens account, which had more than 37 million followers, was taken offline after he took issue with comments Xi made during a visit to party media headquarters stressing that they should tow the party line in their reporting.



Although that silenced Ren and has put his fate in question, others continue to voice concerns.



An interview with Caixin magazine, Jiang Hong, a veteran finance professor and delegate to the CPPCC who is known for speaking up at the annual meetings, said certain events were casting a shadow over this years meetings.



In his interview with Caixin, Jiang did not say what he meant by certain events, but added that because of those events everyone attending the meetings felt a bit dazed and did not want to talk so much.



Caixins interview with Jiang was later taken down but discussions about Ren and Jiangs remarks continue on social media, including accusations that his comments violated party regulations.



On social media, authorities worked quickly to limit re-posting of articles on the topic and comments were blocked shortly after they were put up.



On Tuesday, Caixin filed a report on its English website, featuring the mouth of a Chinese citizen and a red stop sign painted over it. The article was entitled Story about Advisors Free Speech Comments Removed from Caixin Website.

That too was taken down shortly afterwards.



No light at the end of the tunnel



David Bandurski, editor of the University of Hong Kongs China Media Project, said all of the uncertainty about the social, political and economic environment was creating a perception of instability, which may also correspond to real instability.



And this is the kind of situation even regardless of who Xi Jinping is in terms of his thinking and his policies, the media is going to be controlled very very tightly, said Bandurski. But he added that what is happening now unprecedented for the reform era and that it was hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel.



The debate, however, is not only about media control, but a broader tightening that is going on as well simultaneously including controls over film to online publishing. There is even question whether party members are internally being able to discuss policies.

If you cant look at the fact, if you cant make small decisions about the future, and you cant even talk about the future in an intelligent way, this is bad news for China, said Bandurski.

For now, the backlash appears to not have stopped not stopped Jiang Hong, who has said that he is considering putting forward a proposal on free speech during the meetings, even as he continues to voice concern about a topic he usually comments on - economic reform.

Xi as the 'Core'

Since coming to power three years ago, Xi Jinpings leadership has been marked by a distaste for dissent, from the more recent disappearances of booksellers overseas and in Hong Kong to televised confessions and ever-tightening controls on the Internet and media.

Analysts say the tightening control is aimed at stabilizing Xis position as head of the government, party and military, and silencing any criticism at a time when Chinas economy is slowing dramatically.

At the same time, there has also been a push in state media to enshrine Xi as the core leader of the party a status similar to that once held by Deng Xiaoping.

In the governments work report, which was delivered on Saturday by Premier Li Keqiang, he called on members of the NPC to rally close around the CPC Central Committee headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping to fulfill this years economic and social development targets and tasks.

While the push seeks to elevate Xi, it also puts the brunt of responsibility for fixing the economy squarely on his shoulders.

David Zweig, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said one of the difficult questions for outside observers was judging whether Xi was in it for power or whether he was tightening down to push through reforms.

If we do see the continuation of the drive for reforms and it does have some success, then we cant reject the idea that hes doing this in part to consolidate enough power to run sort of run over the opponents, said Zweig. I think once the reforms are dead in the water then well in a much stronger position to say hes doing power for the sake of power.

21st Century Mao

In addition to how economic reforms are progressing, another key signal will be who Xi selects to head the countrys top level politburo standing committee in the fall of 2017 and who becomes vice president, a key grooming position for the future leaders.

Analysts note that if someone such as Hu Chunhua, the communist party boss in Chinas southern Guangdong province is selected as a senior candidate to take over as vice president, then it will be clearer that a hand over is on the horizon.

But if theres nobody in those authorities in that vice presidency, then, theres the possibility that hes just not grooming anybody, said Zweig.

For now, in absence of any clear rising stars to replace him and persistent talk that that Xi may not need to step down after 10 years in office as expected in 2023, analysts say Xi may be aiming to stay in office longer than his predecessors.

Most of the pieces of information that we get from Beijing points to the fact that Xi Jinping wants to be Mao Zedong of the 21st century. And that hes seeking three terms of office. That is, he may stay in power until 2027 and that at this stage hes in no hurry to identify his successors,said Willy Lam.

This is, of course, very bad for political reform. This is a return to the Maoist system of a semi-imperial leader imposing his wishes on the country, he added.
The United States is promising more transparency on the countrys sometimes-controversial use of drones to strike at terrorist targets.

White House Counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco announced Monday the administration will release an assessment in the coming weeks of both combatant and civilian casualties due to drone and other counterterrorism strikes dating back to 2009.

We know that not only is greater transparency the right thing to do, it is the best way to maintain the legitimacy of our counter terrorism actions and the broad support of our allies, Monaco said during a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Not from 'areas of active hostilities'

Officials say the report will not include information from drone and counterterror strikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, all of which are considered areas of active hostilities.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday the release of drone strike data is consistent with President Barack Obamas commitment to transparency.

We do see that extremist organizations try to tell a story that is not at all accurate about the impact of our counterterrorism operations, he said.

By publishing the numbers and being more transparent, we can make clear that we are not just playing lip service to the idea that our policy puts in place the highest possible standard for avoiding civilian casualties when carrying out these operations, Earnest said.

Updating figures yearly

U.S. officials said the plan calls for publishing updated drone and counterterror strike casualty figures on a yearly basis.

The White House announcement was met with cautious optimism from the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said the move to release casualty figures is a good first step.

Weve been calling for this transparency for a very long time, said HRW Deputy Washington Director Andrea Prasow. This is a government that started off by saying there were zero civilian casualties from drone strikes.

But Prasow said numerous questions still need to be answered, including how the U.S. determines civilian casualties, how it differentiates between combatants and civilians and what sort of remedial actions are taken following a strike that results in the deaths of civilians.

This is transparency, not accountability, Prasow said, adding that the U.S. also seems to operate under two distinct set of rules for drone strikes  one for conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq, and one for places like Somalia or Pakistan, where the situation is less clear.

Data on Strikes

There are also doubts that releasing casualty figures from more than seven years of strikes will change anyones mind on the use of drones.

At this stage, I suspect it won't matter, Long War Journal editor Bill Roggio told VOA. The opinions on the subject have hardened and increased transparency will do little to change this.

Long War Journal has been keeping an ongoing count of combatant and civilian deaths, based on mostly press reports, in both Pakistan and Yemen.

It found that since 2006 in Pakistan there have been 389 strikes, killing 2,797 extremist leaders or operatives and 158 civilians.

In Yemen, since 2002, there have been 135 strikes resulting in an estimated 657 combatant deaths and 105 civilian deaths.

Some academics say the possibility of getting additional data on drone strikes will help in determining the extent to which the U.S. drone policy has worked or not.

Data is absolutely essential to make that assessment, said Max Abrahms, a professor of political science at Northeastern University.

One of the big criticisms of the drone program is that its so unregulated and that information has been released in a very ad hoc way, he said.

It would be useful to know exactly when the strikes happened and against whom, Abrahms added. Then we can match that data against the terrorist group to understand whether [the drone strike] helps to weaken the group in terms of degrading its ability to mount operations.

White House Correspondent Aru Pande contributed to this report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Tuesday he turned down a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington later this month because he wants to avoid interfering with the ongoing presidential primary elections.

The White House said Monday that Israel had proposed the meeting for either March 17 or 18, with the Obama administration agreeing to meet on one of those days.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said. "We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit."

The development comes as Vice President Joe Biden is due to arrive late Tuesday in Israel during his multi-nation visit to the Middle East. Biden will meet with former Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday and has a meeting with Netanyahu scheduled for Wednesday.

Biden began his trip Monday in the United Arab Emirates, where he visited U.S. airmen stationed at the Al-Dhafra Air Base and vowed the United states would "squeeze the heart" out of Islamic State and destroy it.

He dismissed Islamic State insurgents as "criminals and cowards."

In an interview with the Abu Dhabi newspaper The National, Biden pressed the U.S. case for a negotiated peace settlement to end the five-year civil war in Syria, ruling out a military solution. Peace talks are set to resume again later this week in Geneva as a truce has sharply curtailed fighting in recent days.

"A political solution between the parties is the only way to end the violence and give the Syrian people the chance they deserve to rebuild their country," Biden said. "To create a credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian system, a new constitution and free and fair elections."

Biden also discussed the fight against Islamic State with Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as well as efforts to resolve conflicts in Yemen and Libya. He thanked the UAE for its humanitarian contributions in both Syria and Iraq.

UAE forces have been taking in part in airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition.

Biden's trip is scheduled to include a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday and with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday.
Zimbabweans today joined the world in commemorating International Womens Day. Representatives of various nations, civil society activists and state officials took a five kilometer walk in Harare in an effort to highlight the importance of gender parity.

A recent research shows that Zimbabwe has not been adequately responding to urban-to-rural migration resulting in the continued marginalization of women regarding access to housing and other services.

Zanu PF national Youth League secretary, Pupurai Togarepi, has scoffed at his alleged dismissal from the ruling party saying the move is null and void.

The family of Occupy Africa Unity Square leader Itai Dzamara says commemorations to mark one year after Itais abduction by unknown assailants will go ahead regardless of whatever determination will be made by the High Court. Police have blocked the march set for this Thursday saying it will infringe on other peoples rights.

Typhoid threatens Harare residents as three more people are infected by the disease, bringing the number of infected locals to almost 31 cases in Zimbabwes capital city.

And Zimbabwes Chevrons beat Hong Kong in the Twenty20 ICC World tournament.

Stay tuned for these stories and more coming up on Studio 7 at 7:30 pm on 9-0-9 Medium Wave and on the 4-9-3-0, 5-9-4-0 and 1-5-4-6-0 shortwave frequencies. We also broadcast on www.channelzim.net. Please check us out on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Today on LiveTalk our hosts of the Connection Tatenda Gumbo and Ntungamili Nkomo will be talking with listeners and experts about International Womens Day.

Send us your numbers on our WhatsApp number 001 202 465 0318. The number again 001 202 465 0318. Stay tuned!!!!!!
The world commemorates International Womens Day on Tuesday with indications that Zimbabwean women are still struggling to occupy top posts in government and other sectors though over the years the government has tried to promote gender equity.

The theme for this year's Day is Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality. The year 2030 is the deadline for the new Sustainable Development Goals, which include targets on achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, as well as ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning.

In his message to mark the day, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moo, said I remain outraged by the denial of rights to women and girls  but I take heart from the people everywhere who act on the secure knowledge that women's empowerment leads to society's advancement.

Let us devote solid funding, courageous advocacy and unbending political will to achieving gender equality around the world. There is no greater investment in our common future.

ZIMBABWE EMPOWERING WOMEN

Though some Zimbabweans openly marked International Womens Day, some women said there is still a lot to be done for the country to achieve gender equality.

They said there is need for the nation to step up efforts to fully empower women, who have over the years been struggling to get equal opportunities like men.

The women commended some efforts being made by President Robert Mugabe in creating better chances for women to advance in society. The country once introduce some affirmative action measures that promoted the enrolment of more girls than boys at state universities and colleges. The impact of this move has not yet been measured.

Dr. Nyepudzai Nyangulu , director of Women in management, business and development Trust said while some women in Zimbabwe had managed to break barriers, there was need for women to work together and support each other to occupy top positions in different sectors.

The sky is the limit for any woman to be in business, mining or anything. I encourage the nation and everyone to aim higher. Women should also get into consortiums and work together to do greater things especially considering this years theme of Planet 50-50 by 2030, Step Up for Gender Equality. Barriers are there and they can be conquered. Women can go beyond the selling of tomatoes. We even need to start thinking of beneficiation as women. As you grow your tomatoes for example how can you add value (on them).

WOMEN SHOULD STAND UP AND FIGHT

Her views were echoed by Margaret Mukahanana Sangarwe, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, and the only woman chairing a state commission in Zimbabwe at the moment.

She said International Womens Day gave everyone time to reflect on how they are ensuring that there is gender equality in Zimbabwe.

Mukahanana Sangarwe said, This is the day where women can stand up to say how far have we gone and for men to look up to themselves and ask how far they have gone in promoting gender equality. We know the world is unequal in terms of gender. So, reflection is important. We can see that there are strides being taken, we need to do more to achieve the 50:50.

Another women, Priscilla Misihairambwi Mushonga, who has broken barriers of inequality in the political sphere, and has served more than three terms in parliament, said as women fight for equality they should also deal with men who for long have thought power is their preserve.

Mushonga urged women not to give up fighting for equality.

PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION

The eighth parliament of Zimbabwe was expected to set a record in the region and the world over by achieving a 50-50 representation in the 2013 July harmonised elections.

However, some women activists were angered by political parties in the country, who failed to field more women candidates, especially when the constitution advocates for such representation in all political offices in the country.

Zanu PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change formations fielded a combined 90 women compared to 663 males who participated in the elections, a far cry from equal representation.

In other sectors, women believe that they are still far from occupying top posts, while at the same time some of them normally fall victim to political violence.

One of them is Sheffra Dzamara, whose husband, Itai, was allegedly abducted by state security agents for urging President Mugabe to step down for failing to properly run Zimbabwe.

Today is women's day and to women in Zimbabwe, I want to say women let us stand up and say no to abductions in Zimbabwe. Help me to speak out to the government of Zimbabwe to release my husband.

It still remains to be seen whether Zimbabwe will achieve the set gender equity goals set by the United Nations as the nation has a long way to go in terms of gender parity. Meanwhile, some representatives of embassies in Harare, civic society groups and government today made a five kilometer walk to highlight issues the importance of gender parity.
The High Court has granted an order authorizing the family of missing pro-democracy activist, Itai Dzamara, to hold a march Wednesday in commemoration of one year after the leader of Occupy Africa Unity Square was abducted by unknown assailants about a year ago in Harare.

The family approached the High Court after the police barred the planned march arguing that it would infringe on other peoples rights.

Family lawyer, Clement Phiri told Studio 7 that the court granted the order saying it was the familys constitutional rights to demonstrate peacefully.

He cited that in terms of the constitution Section 59, there was an unfettered right that was given to the citizens of Zimbabwe to petition and demonstrate and the only qualification there was that the demonstration should be peaceful, so basically that what he insinuated in his judgment.

Family representative, Patson Dzamara, told journalists the commemorations are meant to send a message to the government that forced disappearances should not persist in Zimbabwe.

Dzamara said Zimbabweans, especially young people, must take a stand and make sure that disappearances stop as anyone can become a victim.

Its time for all youths to rise above partisan politics and indifference because our future is certainly at stake.

He said people are expected to gather at African Unity Square and then march peacefully along Jason Moyo to Rotten Row, Samora Machel, First Street, Nelson Mandela Avenue and back to Africa Unity Square for prayers.

Later in the day, a documentary and a song to honor the missing activist compiled by Patson himself was unveiled at the Anglican Cathedral.

Patson Dzamara said life without his brother has been very difficult and the family is now struggling to cope but remained hopeful that he would return one day.

Our emotions constantly oscillated between hope and despondency. Itai is still missing and that is heart rending.

Itais wife, Sheffra, said their two kids were equally worried and always asking about their father.

Dirk Frey, who worked with Itai Dzamara in the Occupy Africa Unity Square project said though work without the political activist had been very difficult, the group had re-strategised and was carrying on with his work.

Itayi Dzamara Trust chairperson, Bishop Ancelimo Magaya said it was disappointing that that the government had failed to safeguard the life of Zimbabweans.

He said developments in the ruling Zanu PF indicate that no one is safe as some of the people who have been part of the state alleged atrocities have been isolated.

It is now clear that no one in this country, no matter what office they occupy is safe, nobody is safe.

Although the court secured a High Court order compelling the police and other security services to update the family on their investigations, Patson Dzamara and the family lawyer, Kennedy Masiye, said police had not provided any lead so far.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba could not be reached for comment.
A typhoid outbreak is threatening Harare residents as four more people are infected by the disease, bringing the number of infected locals to 31, while over 400 suspected cases are being monitored.

Harare City Council spokesperson Michael Chideme told VOA Studio 7 they have now declared the disease an outbreak, meaning that the council has to mobilize all resources in the fight against the outbreak.

The typhoid has already claimed one life since the disease was first reported in Harares southern suburbs of Glen Norah, Glen View, Budiriro, Hatfield and Hopley almost a month ago while two of the latest cases were detected at Mereki, a popular drinking joint in Warren Park D.

Chideme said his council is doing all it can to make sure that the disease is contained, adding that the cases are not rising as was reported in some sections of the media.

He said, No, the cases are not growing as you are alleging, the rate of growth is actually low because of the education we are giving out to the people.

Because we are giving people education and for you to suggest that the cases are growing its not fair.

Typhoid is spread through poor sanitary conditions, especially dirty drinking water and contaminated food.

Chideme said they visited Mereki on Tuesday to educate the people there and to inspect their toilets and the way they handle their food, and all the other open-air venues in and around Harare.
President Robert Mugabe flew out of Harare on Monday to attend a World Cultural Festival in New Dehli, India, leaving his ruling Zanu PF party in a crisis as factionalism deepened.

Mr. Mugabe's term may be ending in 2018 but his advanced age - 92 (making him the world's oldest president) and frequent trips to seek medical attention in the Far East - are said to be fueling succession fights in his party.

The World Cultural Festival 2016 is a celebration of The Art of Livings 35 years of service, humanity, spirituality and human values. The three-day event starts on March 11th. The festival this year celebrates cultural diversity in the world.

Mr. Mugabe is on the European Union and American sanctions list and his trips have been limited mostly to Asia.

As he left for India, the hemorrhaging in the ruling Zanu PF continued with a new war front being opened pitting newly elected War Veterans Minister Tshinga Dube and the veterans of the countrys war of independence.

Dube, who was appointed minister Saturday, has mounted pressure on his predecessor Chris Mutsvangwa saying he must relinquish his position as chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWA).

Mutsvangwa was suspended from the party for three years after being accused of disrespecting President Robert Mugabe and his wife.

Dube, who ironically attended the controversial press conference that contributed to the ouster of Mutsvangwa, has according to the Chronicle newspaper instructed the ZNLWA to dump Mutsvangwa saying they cannot be led by someone suspended by Zanu PF.

Dube has put this as a condition before he facilitates a meeting between war veterans and their patron, Mr. Mugabe. Mutsvangwa is allegedly linked to a Zanu PF faction called Team Lacoste that is backing Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed President Mugabe.

The faction is engaged in a bitter conflict with a faction called Generation 40 of Young Turks which enjoys the support of first lady Grace Mugabe.

ZNLWA secretary general, Victor Matemadanda, told VOA Studio 7 that Dube is overzealous and they will defy him.

Matemadanda claimed that Tshinga Dube is not a member of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association. He has no right to speak for us. He has no right to select a leader for us.

YOUTHS ARRESTED

On Monday, three former Zanu PF youth chairpersons - Vengai Musengi of Mashonaland West province, Godfrey Tsenengamu Mashonaland Central and Godwin Gomwe of Harare province - who were fired from the party Thursday, were briefly detained by the police and accused of trying to incite riots in the country.

Tsenengamu told VOA Studio 7 that they were interrogated at Harare Central Investigation Department Law and Order Section. Police accused them of sending messages on WhatsApp  a cross-platform mobile messaging application

The three were taken to Harare magistrate court where they were released on US$500 bail each.

But intelligence sources told VOA that what rattled authorities was a press conference held by the youths on Sunday in which they attacked Mr. Mugabe for causing factionalism in the party.

Tsenengamu said, We have also noted that Mugabe has continued the habit of playing divisive, manipulative and arm-twisting politics and being the real force behind the creation of factions in the party as a grand strategy to assist him to hold on to party leadership and power without genuinely and sincerely addressing critical issues affecting the organization.

He added that Mugabe has the tendency of setting up his fellow comrades against each other so as to shift focus from his wayward and self-aggrandizement leadership style.

And we doubt his sincerity in promoting cohesion and harmony in the party as he seems to enjoy leading and presiding over a divided membership which in turn promotes his continued rule in the party,

VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

Meanwhile, reports also said late Monday, Zanu-PF Youth League secretary and an alleged Mnangagwa ally, Pupurai Togarepi whose son Gabriel, named after President Mugabe and was also expelled Thursday, is now being pressured by some youths to quit.

The Youth League deputy secretary Kudzai Chipanga is leading the charge against Togarepi. The two clashed last month when Chipanga allegedly said the youths were ready to fight war veterans who were backing Mangangagwa.

Togarepi though distanced himself from the utterances saying, The position of the Youth League is that these founding fathers of our revolution are critical for us to learn from and move forward with our revolution.

Civil society groups have expressed concern at the sustained bickering in Zanu PF, saying the warring is now preventing the government from tackling pressing national issues such as the crumbling economy. More than 3 million Zimbabweans are also food insecure.
Makian volcano (Kie Besi) (Molucca Sea, Indonesia): increase in seismic activity, alert level raised

Tue, 8 Mar 2016, 17:21 17:21 PM | BY: T 17:21 PM | BY: T

Seismic activity of Kie Besi volcano (Makian) over the past weeks (VSI)

The alert level of Makian Island's Kie Besi volcano was raised from 1 (normal) to 2 ("waspada" = watch) yesterday, as an increase in seismic activity has been detected recently under the volcano.The stratovolcano, which forms a small island south of Ternate (and is in the center line of tomorrow's Solar Eclipse, where one of our groups is currently stationed...), is one of the regions most active (and dangerous) volcanoes with a number of strong explosive eruptions in historic times, last in 1988.Already on 2 June 2009, a similar increase in internal activity had triggered a raise in alert level, but unrest declined soon after again and the volcano was placed back to normal again on 16 July, as no further changes in activity had been detected.The current, most recent phase of unrest began apparently last year. A series of deep earthquakes could be felt in the region in November. Since January, the observatory noted an increase in the number and size of shallow volcanic earthquakes. Weakly felt quakes occurred on 12 January, as well as on 18 and 24 February. Long-period quakes and volcanic tremor (regular vibrations), both related to internal fluid movements also started to occur since the end of past February.The volcano's seismic activity further increased during the past week and now volcanic tremor has been a weak, but constant signal since 7 March which is why the volcano's alert level was now raised.So far, no signs of changes in the volcano's visible (surface) activity have been noted, in particular concerning the relatively weak fumarolic activity in the summit crater. However, volcanologists interpret the increased seismic activity and its characteristics as likely created by a magma intrusion from depth, and that fluids, possibly magma, have been moving closer to the surface, causing an increase in internal pressure, and, hence the risk of sudden explosions.For now, no evacuations are recommended, but the local population is advised to stay alert of possible tremors that can be felt. It is apparently not expected that an eruption might occur in the near future, but increased vigilance is in place as things can change quickly at active volcanoes. Past eruptions of Makian have often produced pyroclastic flows and significant ballistic ejections that pose great risk to nearby areas, especially within a radius of 2 km.For the time being, the local population on Makian island around G. Kie Besi volcano and visitors / tourists are advised not to climb the crater and remain outside a radius of 1.5 km from gunung Kie Besi's summit crater.
Momotombo volcano (Nicaragua): continuing explosions of varying size

Tue, 8 Mar 2016, 07:40 07:40 AM | BY: T 07:40 AM | BY: T

A spectacular explosion at Momotombo yesterday night

Small vulcanian explosion in daytime yesterday

The eruption of the volcano continues with little visible changes: Intermittent vulcanian-type explosions of mostly small, but sometimes moderate size continue to occur at rates of 1-2 per day (on average), the stronger ones showering the upper flanks of the cone with incandescent material and producing ash plumes that rise 1-2 km above the summit.In addition, weaker activity of semi-persistent style also occurs. Continuous glow is visible from the crater at night. This is probably due to the presence of a small lava lake or (more likely) a small lava dome (more viscous lava), as well as frequent, but small (strombolian-type) explosions (that don't reach the outer rim) as INETER reported in its recent status update (53 explosions recorded during 3-4 March).According to Nicaraguan scientists, seismic activity of the volcano has been at low to medium levels.
Photo: COMMA Foundation, Belgium

The Met Breuer (or the MetNey, as Jerry Saltz has decided it would be better called) opens to the public next week. But one work from the housewarming show, Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, remains a kind of mystery  like, an actual mystery. The exhibition features works which, for various reasons, either never were finished (theres more than one piece in the show which was the last thing left on the artists easel), or (yes, slightly confusingly) explore the notion of unfinishedness. Theres often an interesting story behind this incompleteness, which the Mets curators walked us through last week. But the unfinishedness of one of the paintings, James Hunter Black Draftee (1965) by Alice Neel, is especially striking, since nobody knows what happened to its subject.

She would ask people she didnt know off the street to come in and sit for her, says Kelly Baum, curator of postwar and contemporary art at the Met. She asked this man, James Hunter, to pose and he told her he had been drafted for the war. He never came back for his second sitting. She decided she was going to call this painting finished anyway. She signed the back and showed it in the Whitney here in her retrospective in 1974. We dont think he died because his name is not on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in D.C. But we dont know what happened to him.

If you know him  or you are him the Met wouldnt mind hearing from you! Let us know in comments.


Some time in the not-so-distant future, Mike Ehrmantraut will warn fledgling drug kingpin Walter White to avoid taking any half measures. Its a lesson he learned the hard way during his time as a Philadelphia beat cop. Hed demonstrated relative leniency to a repellent domestic abuser  i.e. choosing not to execute him in an alley  only to clean up the mess two weeks later when that piece of shit bashed his wifes head in with a blender.

Nachos learned a thing or two from the past himself. Back in 96, he and Tuco were squaring up with a steady drug connect named Dog Paulsen, their link to the Southwest biker community. Tuco, wired on crank and fighting off symptomatic paranoia, blasted Dog away at close range with a sawed-off shotgun. Poor Nacho was positioned right behind Paulsen. He still cant get the image out of his head, let alone Dogs skull fragments out from under his skin (gross). Nachos takeaway: High Tuco is loco Tuco, and now Tucos hooked on meth. Not Walter Whites pure-blue crystal just yet, but a strong enough strain to make him less than predictable. So, given Nachos extracurricular dealings and Tucos short fuse, the former deduces his lunatic cohorts gotta go away, no matter how much cartel heat it inflames.

Mike doesnt see it that way. Killing your partner, thats a bell you cant un-ring, the crusty vet cautions, always one with an advisory word for overly ambitious troublemakers. He pivots from Nachos convoluted plot to take Tuco out, going so far as to walk away from a black-market weaponry deal empty-handed (hey there, Jim Beaver). Instead, he calls 9-1-1 with claims of a bogus shooting at El Michoacano  Tuco and Nacos preferred spot for tortas and drug deals, much to the owners obvious lament  and instigates an ass-whooping from Tuco outside the restaurant that climaxes just as the police finally arrive. Strapped and caught mid-mugging, Mr. Salamancas headed toward the slammer for five-to-ten. (Given his fateful 2009 encounter with Walter, its safe to assume he served the minimum projected sentence.)

Later, Mike meets up with Nacho to claim his $25,000 fee. His eye is swollen shut, cheekbone likely shattered, lip swollen and curled like a fat Elvis. Nachos perplexed. Why turn down $50,000 to put Tuco down permanently and take a beating for half the payday? Never mind what might happen when Tuco gets out of prison. Mike says nothing, merely taking his wad of bills and retreating home to ice his face with some crinkle-cut carrots and sip from a well-earned can of suds. Though hes probably wondering why it had to be so clear-cut for Nacho: Is it really as simple as roguishly breaking off into his own endeavors now or toiling endlessly alongside his erratic partner? No one could blame Mike for wanting his own answers as to why Nacho couldnt just bide his time, wait for Tuco to do himself in, then take his rightful place atop the food chain when the time was right. But as Mike knows too well, and as would be reiterated in his dealings with Walter, some criminals never learn.

Not so for Jimmy. Hes getting closer to accepting that his version of pursuing justice necessitates bending the law. And just as quickly, its sinking in that he stands no chance of becoming a self-made man if he plays by other peoples rules. Upon arriving at work for his reckoning over the successful  if unauthorized  commercial he aired in Colorado Springs, Jimmy endures a mighty tongue lashing from Cliff and the other Davis & Main partners. Its humiliating and frustrating. More essentially, it impedes his progress in putting Sandpiper to bed, regardless of whether his motivation is personal validation or vindication for exploited nursing-home residents. Jimmys mind can wrap itself around Mikes full-measure philosophy, so its no wonder the two eventually make an unlikely alliance.

Theres plenty of punishment to go around in Gloves Off. When Howard and Chuck confront Kim about Jimmys ad, she opts not to throw Jimmy under the bus and spare herself, despite how his lies landed her in this predicament. After she leaves the conference room, the camera frames Howard in a way that suggests hes tired of being made the fool and plans to assert his will. Accordingly, Kim gets mandated to basement document review, stamping and calculating and collating the wee hours away in a windowless hell. Jimmy visits and extends empathy, but its becoming obvious to Kim that he cant truly identify with the humiliation shell abide to keep her career on the right track. Jimmys merely lucky their relationship hasnt entirely derailed.

The same cant be said for whatever bonds remained between the brothers McGill. Enraged over Chucks continued attempts to squash him  and now Kim  at every turn, Jimmy reluctantly storms into the mans darkened home for a confrontation. What he finds is his Chuck on the couch, still in his suit and tie, wrapped in foil and shivering like a feverish child. Its a perfect paradox to illustrate Jimmys dilemma. Hed spent his entire day spinning from the paternal reprimands handed down to him and Kim, and now here he is, nestling his older brother with a caretakers touch. To quote Nacho, Somethings gotta give. Kim, Chuck, Howard, and Cliff may be content with the contradictions inherent in toeing some invisible line of decorum, as is dictated by the State Bar of New Mexico. But Jimmy recognizes that the only way he can survive is by crossing it. Mike finds himself at a similar precipice amid an underworld governed by thieves and thugs. In their own ways, both of these polar-opposite protagonists are ready to fight for their lives.

Apart From All That:
Chapter Thirty-Six has so many plates spinning in the air all at once, surely at least a few have to come crashing down. In just one hour, we get a birth, a proposal, a kidnapping that leads to a pretend Stockholm syndrome, a failed police sting, a stolen-book concept, a moving moment of reconciliation between mother and daughter, a returning first love whos bad luck, AND a pretty decent Frozen joke. How is that possible? How does it all fit?

Jane the Virgin often has tightly packed episodes, but its typical for at least one or two plot threads to be brief, silly, or relatively lightweight. This week was just wall-to-wall stuff, and almost all of it was remarkably satisfying.

Rogelios stuck in his own horrible staycation during this episode, isolated from Jane and the rest of the plotlines, forced to relive Lolas creepy-stalker reenactment of scenes from his first telenovela, La Miseria. For an episode otherwise full of big emotion and lots of interwoven, crisscrossing plotlines, the Rogelio story is a bit odd. Its stuck in a box all on its own, and it has to strike a very tricky tonal note somewhere between this is a horrific experience and it would leave very real scars on any persons psyche and this is a silly telenovela plot that is meaningless, so I dont really care about these characters as people.

So far, the Adventures of Rogelio and Lola the Crazy-Eyed Stalker are successfully finding that place. Rogelios commitment to method acting helps quite a bit, as does Our Beloved Narrators continual mediating presence. But ten days in captivity already strains the boundaries of reasonable expectations, even for a character like Rogelio who is always at least one-third telenovela himself. Heres hoping he manages to slip Lola a better Mickey next week!

As for the rest of the episode, there are three major emotional moments that cap off the major plot threads, and its worth highlighting each in turn.

First, we get a truly moving moment between Xiomara and Alba, which feels like its been a long time in the making. Theres been too little Alba this season. Its hard to blame Jane the Virgin, which has been doing a ton of stuff lately. But as Jane has moved away from the initial pregnant virgin! premise, Alba the conservative abuela has become less relevant to the story. So it was both unexpected and quite welcome to get this Xiomara/Alba development. With the incipient return of Pablo Alonso Segura, Alba is forced to confront her own regrets about her sexual past, and she sincerely apologizes to Xiomara for the sense of shame shes instilled in her about being a normal, sexually active person. Huge props to Xiomara and Jane for being firm in their insistence that Alba is just wrong on this issue, and even bigger applause to Alba for admitting her own hypocrisy.

This scene between Xiomara and Alba is small. Its not one of the big-action sequences we get in this episode, nor is it the stuff of TV promos. But its one of the major reasons why Jane the Virgin is such a worthy successor to Gilmore Girls.

The next major emotional capstone in Chapter Thirty-Six is the extended Jane/Petra birth plot, which ends in a moment of bonding between Jane and Petra that Ive been waiting for since this season began. Petras trying to get Jane to help rescue Rafael from what appears to be a Jane-breakup-fueled bender. (Actually, hes on a police sting to try to find his stepbrother.) While Jane tries to distract Petra, they somehow end up in a bookstore-signing line, and confront Janes romance-novelist hero about stealing her idea for a book. Petras water suddenly breaks, and Michael and Rafael are stuck together in a traffic jam that lasts for untold hours. Also, Petra cant get an epidural.

This is Jane the Virgin at its most cliched: water breaking at a dramatic moment in public, traffic jam, Jane stuck being Petras birth partner. It should be absurd. It is absurd. (Especially the traffic-jam thing. What were Michael and Rafael even DOING together in that car for so long? Isnt Michael a cop? Cant he call for a police escort?) But it creates the opportunity for delicious, sincere, plausibly human moments between Jane and Petra, all of which completely validate the manic melodrama. Petra teaching Jane how to be scary is awesome, if only because it gives Petra some of her best dialogue in a while. Jane trying to comfort Petra while shes in labor is great, and Petras Czech insults are golden. (GO INTO THE WOODS AND SOIL YOURSELF.)

Jane the Virgin is not trying to sell us on Jane and Petra as best friends  after all theyve been through, that would be ridiculous. In these scenes, they build a relationship thats both believable and surprisingly heartwarming, based on support and appreciation and grudging mutual respect. And I love them for it. And I love that Petra and Rafael have no idea what Frozen is. Its a silly joke, but it also underlines just how disconnected they are from the world. Welcome, Anna and Elsa! I wish you the very best of luck getting through 12th grade, at which point you can go to separate colleges and no one will ever know.

So Xiomara and Alba come to terms with the intersections of faith and sexuality and shame. Jane and Petra find mutual respect in the pain of childbirth and in the glory of taking down ones enemies. And for our third knockout scene, we get one of the simplest and most romantic proposals Ive seen on TV. Its genuine and honest, and it sells me on Jane and Michael in a deeply satisfying way.

Jane spends much of the episode regretting that she ever broke up with Michael, and imagines a Sliding Doorsstyle alternate timeline where they get along with Rafael without any of tension. But Petra, in her infinite Czech-infused wisdom, points out that if Jane and Michael had been happy, they wouldnt have broken up. Fresh from this simple but usefully freeing realization, Jane walks out of the hospital, hands Michael a bag of salt-and-vinegar chips, and says, Yes to his proposal so insistently and so joyfully that he hardly even has a chance to ask the question. This, at last, feels like the marriage proposal Jane deserves. Its so effortless that all of the melodrama falls away. This is not a proposal on a wind-buffeted cliff, or amid a high-speed chase, or at the moment of great tragedy or incredible surprise. Its easy, and sweet, and just insanely blissful.

Meanwhile, though, Rogelios getting a low-rent spray tan from a crazy person, Xiomara invites Pablo Alonso Segura back into Albas life (which Alba swears is bad luck), and Rafaels stepbrother, Derek, checks into the Marbella. To Be Continued!

From Our Narrator, With Love:

From the previously on segment, Our Narrator summarizes Rafaels recent events as tough times for the Raf-ster. Indeed.

And so they finally had sex! Lots and lots of sex! Just kidding! Jeez, why are you all so obsessed with that, anyway?

On Michaels suggestion that he and Jane can keep waiting for marriage: Bro, you just blocked yourself!

I love that Jane and Michael watch Scandal, but not as much as I love Our Narrators suggestion that we Scandal our way through the Derek plot. #TGIT

On Rafael and Petras baby-name selections. Let It Go, Jane.

#Rogelio:
Just try to look away. Photo: Universal Pictures

If you like sexy stuff, and we think you do, get ready to book a plane ticket to Washington, D.C. (unless of course you already live there  lucky). Because Mr. Darcys wet shirt from Pride and Prejudice, which has since probably dried, is heading to the Folger Shakespeare Library as part of the exhibition Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity. The exhibition will also feature a bundle of wood from Shakespeares birthplace  talk about sexy. The wet-shirt scene is not in the book, obviously, which we all know, because weve read it a bunch. It was just made famous by Colin Firths bod, and, later, by a glorious statue in Hyde Park. One of the shows curators, Janine Barchas, told the New York Times, We will be giving the Folger some Windex, to be used in what we anticipate will be a daily wiping-down of lipstick marks. Oh la la! Wipe down that library glass!
In this exclusive clip from Hello, My Name Is Doris (out this Friday in New York and Los Angeles), Sally Field has a whole lot on her plate to deal with. Shes playing Doris, a shy, 60-ish woman whos finally opening up and trying to live her life. Along the way, she meets Max Greenfields John, and despite their major age difference, she starts falling for him.

The clip picks up while the two of them are on a date at a very loud, very youthful concert, to which Doris has worn a  bold  outfit. After the pair goes backstage, they meet Jack Antonoff, playing an eccentric musician who finds himself beguiled by Doris and her unusual vibe.

Hes not the only one who fell for Field. Shes awesome, Doris director Michael Showalter told Vulture last night at the movies Metrograph premiere, hosted by The Cinema Society and Belvedere. Shes just amazing, so charming and sexy. Ive always loved Sally Field and I still do.

As for that age difference, I didnt set out to make any big comment about age as far as relationships go, said Showalter, who had something more meaningful in mind. Finding love is hard, and I think maybe, if anything, the movie just tries to be true about [how] connection is hard to find.

Additional reporting by Heather Schwedel.
http://donpolson.blogspot.com/ Bringing you the very best information, analysis and opinion from around the web. NOTE: For videos that don't start--go to article link to view.
Dear Baylor Alumni Association Members:

I am pleased to report that on March 7, 2016, the Baylor Alumni Association (BAA) reached an agreement with Baylor University resolving our legal differences and putting an end to nearly two years of litigation.

The BAA Board of Directors believes this settlement agreement represents the best possible outcome for our members and the entire Baylor family, and we hope you will support our effort to bring this litigation to an honorable conclusion.

Unlike the Transition Agreement rejected by BAA members in 2013 (Link), this settlement agreement does not abolish the BAA or require the organization to turn its assets over to the University. Rather, the BAA will live on and continue to exist as an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit entity. The BAA will continue to connect, engage and inform Baylor

alumni, award scholarships to deserving children and grandchildren of Baylor graduates and, most importantly, continue to add transparency to the Baylor family dialogue by publishing the Baylor Line magazine with editorial and operational independence bolstered by an agreement more solid than the current license agreement.

Under the settlement agreement, the BAA will change its name to one of several options  probably The Baylor Line Foundation --- and will not hold itself out as an alumni

association. But this agreement also ensures that the thousands of proud alumni who have purchased Life Memberships over the years will continue to receive the benefits that come from that long-term commitment, including their lifetime subscription to the Baylor Line.

The settlement agreement will also usher in a new era of governance at Baylor University.

Under the agreement, all Baylor alumni will now have the right to vote in elections to name three members of the Board of Regents to full voting seats. Never before in Baylors history have the alumni had the right to directly elect members to the Board of Regents. These new Alumni-Elected Regents will have the same rights and duties as all other voting regents, and will bring fresh, new ideas and opinions to the Board  something we believe is critical to a healthy and successful Baylor going forward.

The first three Alumni-Elected Regents will be selected by consensus of the BAA Board and the Baylor Board of Regents to serve staggered terms of one, two and three years. As each term expires, all Baylor alumni will vote to elect the Regent who will serve a three-year term. Each Alumni-Elected Regent will be eligible, like other Regents, to serve three consecutive terms. The settlement agreement provides that this alumni-election process will remain in place for at least 20 years. Alumni-Elected Regents can be removed only for cause and will have a right to submit unfair removal to an arbitration panel. This ensures that the Alumni-Elected Regents do not serve at the pleasure of the other Regents, but remain accountable to the Baylor alumni who elect them.

Finally, the University will pay the BAA $2 million to use in any way that furthers the organizations charitable purposes, including awarding scholarships, publishing the Baylor

Line, securing a new location for our headquarters, and communicating with alumni. In exchange, the BAA will waive its rights to a replacement for the Hughes-Dillard Alumni

Center, which was razed by Baylor in the summer of 2013.

As a next step, the BAA plans to submit a name change and other changes to align the BAA bylaws with this new era of cooperation with Baylor to a vote of our members. More

information about voting, including electronic voting, will be coming to you shortly.

If for some reason the parties cannot agree on the initial three Regent selections, the settlement will be void. Also, if BAA members reject the BAAs new name, Baylor will have

the right to render the entire settlement agreement null and void. In our ongoing effort to be fully transparent, we have posted a more detailed overview of the settlement agreement; the agreement itself; and the Baylor press release on the BAA website at btl.bayloralumniassociation.com/settlement (link)

In closing, several people deserve special thanks for producing this mutually agreed-to settlement.

U.S. District Judge and Baylor law graduate Ed Kinkeade73, J.D. 74, has spent countless hours over almost six months providing leadership and friendship in helping the parties negotiate a resolution to this dispute. Judge Kinkeade got involved at the request of his friends BAA Director Lyndon Olson 69 and Baylor President Ken Starr. Judge Kinkeade encouraged, cajoled and hounded us. When negotiations took a few wrong turns, he forced us back to the table. That the parties have reached agreement is a testament to Judge Kinkeades vision, tenacity and his sheer love for Baylor University.

Our counterpart in this months-long negotiation has been Baylor Regent J. Cary Gray, 79, 80; J.D. 83. Although we have had a few tense, adversarial conversations, Cary is a good and honorable man who brought enormous energy, time and legal skill to the very difficult process of resolving this dispute. Baylor alumni are fortunate to have a leader like Cary serving so diligently on the Board of Regents.

The members of the BAA Board of Directors have also spent hours overseeing informal settlement discussions. The BAA Board has been engaged and informed about the evidence related to the lawsuit, the legal strategies, and every stage of the settlement negotiations. The BAA Board was remarkably unified throughout the litigation and settlement discussions and approved this settlement agreement without any dissenting vote.

Judge Gary Coley, J.D. 93, deserves special recognition for helping both sides understand the urgency of making one last attempt to settle our differences to avoid an unpleasant public trial. With the months-long settlement negotiations seemingly at impasse, Judge Coley ordered the parties to come to his courtroom on February 11 for a mandatory final settlement negotiation.

The parties negotiated for about nine hours in Judge Coleys courtroom, then for another eleven hours on Sunday, February 21, at Pat Neff Hall. We left Pat Neff at 1:15 a.m. Monday morning with a near-final agreement.

The BAA is proud of its long and storied 157-year association with Baylor University. With this lawsuit behind us, we look forward to ushering in an exciting new chapter for our members and for Baylor, an institution we all hold dear. We are eager to move forward together  united as one Baylor family.

Sincerely,

Tom Nesbitt 94

President
The election results for the McLennan County Commissioners Court Precinct 1 race, which was decided by a margin of 29 votes, will be recounted Wednesday and a lawsuit may be filed by the end of the week. Cory Priest narrowly lost the March 1 election to incumbent Kelly Snell.

Joe Nixon, who is representing Cory Priest, said they will move quickly after the recount to file a lawsuit in hopes of prompting a new election against Snell.

Wed like the commissioner to agree that a new election is required, said Nixon, with Beirne, Maynard & Parsons LLP. His counsel has told me that they do not agree.

Snell has hired attorney Donna Garcia Davidson, of Austin. She did not return messages Monday.

Now that hes got the attorneys involved, we have to stay with no comments on that part, Snell said. Hopefully, we can get this deal behind us on that end.

Last week, Snell said, I dont know why (Priest) would do that, but thats up to him. A man can do what he wants to do if hes got the money.

Jeb Leutwyler, outgoing McLennan County Republican chair, approved the recount petition from Priest. Leutwyler set the recount for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at 214 N. Fourth St., Suite 300, in Waco.

On March 1, 606 voters received the incorrect precinct for their ballot at the polling location at First Assembly of God Church in relation to the Republican commissioners court races.

Ballot issues also occurred at Mart Community Center, Cesar Chavez Middle School and Fellowship Bible Church.

County leaders have said the ballot snafu only affected the county commissioners races for Precinct 1 and the Precinct 3 race between Will Jones and Ben Matus.

The Precinct 3 race was decided by a margin of 821 votes.

Nixon said based on information provided to him by Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe, there were at least 92 voters who didnt get to vote in the Precinct 1 race.

There were another 10 voters who cast their ballot for the Precinct 1 race who didnt live in that precinct. Another 46 people who voted at the Fellowship Bible Church polling location received the wrong ballot, but the county has reported there is no way to determine which voters got the wrong ones.

As best we can tell, its 155 problem votes, either people who didnt get to vote who lived in Precinct 1 or people who did get to vote in Precinct 1 but dont live there, Nixon said.

The recount of early voting and election-day ballots will help determine if there were more problems, he said.

Elections are run by human beings, he said, adding there was no ill intent that led to the snafu.

Nixon said the law allows for 30 days to contest the vote and file for a new election.

We will not take 30 days. We will probably not take three days, he said. There is a runoff election scheduled in May, and we want to work quickly enough so if the court chooses to allow for a new election, they can have it done at the same time to minimize expense.

Nixon said the law requires a judge outside of McLennan County to take the lawsuit.

He said contested cases dont happen often, but he thinks the answer is clear. There were too many mistakes in the primary election to properly determine a winner of the race, and the evidence is indisputable, he said.

This is all about democracy, Nixon said. In order for a democracy to work, you have to have correct elections.

Since many of the Republican Partys volunteers served as election judges or members of the voting ballot board, they are ineligible for membership on the recount committee.

Leutwyler is asking each candidate to provide the names of 10 McLennan County residents to serve on the recount committee. The individuals will not represent a campaign and will be paid for their work.

The committee will be divided into seven counting teams of three people each. Priest requested a hand count of electronically cast ballots.

Snell said the party didnt give him a lot of time to convince 17 people to serve on the recount committee on a workday during spring break.

Although the incorrect ballot also affected State Representative, District 12 contested race, the 606 votes are not enough to overturn the results of the election for State Representative, District 12, county documents state.

Before the recount, the McLennan County Elections Commission will meet Tuesday in light of the news that more than 600 voters received the wrong ballots during the primary election.

County Judge Scott Felton, who is the commission chairman, scheduled the meeting. In accordance with state law, the commission consists of the county judge as chair, the county clerk as vice chair, the county tax assessor-collector as secretary, and the chair of each county political party that made nominations for the primary election, the last general election or state and county officers.

The McLennan County Commissioners Court is not scheduled to meet again until March 15.
Former first lady Nancy Reagans legacy counts heavily on her unceasing efforts to not only champion her husbands legacy as president from 1981 to 1989 but to protect him from those in his administration who didnt always have his best interests at heart. In that sense, she deserves plenty of credit for a subsequent generation of Republican conservatives idolization of President Ronald Reagan.

Yet this doesnt begin to cover the breadth, accomplishment and potential of the remarkable American who died Sunday at age 94. In the best tradition of political wives, Nancy Reagan not only offered her husband solace and sanctuary from the rough-and-tumble world of Washington politics but served as Reagans political and even moral compass in ways that subsequent generations of conservatives would do well to study far more closely than they have.

While many in the GOP today rail against negotiations with Iran and Cuba, they praise President Reagan for his dealing with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and ending the Cold War. Right-wing ideologues urged Reagan to dismiss such negotiations, but others  including the ever-observant first lady  prevailed in pressing for just such a meeting of great minds. History was made, lives were changed, liberty won out.

And while some in the Reagan administration also urged Reagan to publicly ignore the Iran-Contra scandal, a handful including the first lady urged him to get ahead of the damning narrative, acknowledge the debacle hatched on his watch and apologize to the American people  which Reagan did in somewhat convoluted fashion. In any case, it might well have saved his presidency.

Great lessons from Nancy Reagans public life rate further study by Republicans, Democrats and independents, including her heartfelt effort to fight drug use by Americans  an outgrowth of what she saw among the offspring of her friends. And she pressed her husband to do far more to recognize the devastation caused by the then-largely misunderstood AIDS virus.

She broke with many Republicans (including George W. Bush) in her vigorous, right-headed push for stem-cell research, not only because it offered hope for those fearful of the dreaded Alzheimers disease that claimed her husbands life (a malady she described as the worst that one can suffer) but because of its potential in the treatment and cure of juvenile diabetes.

This was a pragmatic, thoughtful, gutsy sort of Republican, one to admire. For instance, the very first public official the first lady personally cleared to see her husband after he was shot 69 days into his presidency was the leader of the opposition party, House Speaker Tip ONeill. Those paying homage to Nancy Reagan today would do well to reconstruct that moral compass so oriented to common-sense conservatism, an element now missing in our political dialogue.
So many guests wonder if I make PHOTO TOURS AROUND RIO, these specific people are incredible photographers and of course I decided to accept the challenge. I can spend hours with my guests taking to the hottest spots, places with unique angles and I have the patience to follow my guest friends. Photos of the classic places, photos of unknown places...Places where regular tourists never go because of the language barrier or even because people simply do not know any place when they come to visit. I am here to guide, and I am here to give you many suggestions. But let me be clear, I am not a professional photographer, I am just a good amateur. I am in the travel business for 16 years and I have welcomed amazing photographers from all over the World.





So with me we can explore all over Rio, the old neighborhoods, the generous nature, the hills, the ocean, the people. And not only in Rio, we can travel the country and we can travel the Continent. You just need to contact me way in advance and I will be ready.





Below, I am happy to share part of my favorite images and there will be much more in my tours.









Brazil has five region and one of our most fascinating regions is not doubt the North East which we call it as NORDESTE...One of the lively states of this region is Ceara with wild beaches with amazing falesias where you can capture the fishingmen life together with breathtaking nature. I took this photo in a village called MORRO BRANCO.









We have several old historic towns where the beautiful portuguese colonial architecture, barroc churches, old homes some of the homes with more than 300 years, cobbled stone streets, slow pace of life where every little corner gives you fantastic images. This photo was taken in the country side of Minas Gerais State, in the charming old town of Tiradentes.









Nature inspires me and I love travelling and take my guest to places where they can have a sort of EXPLORERS OF A WILD BRAZIL, hahahaha :) and one of the most interesting states that you can find the best beaches is the route between Natal and Pipa, in the Dolphin Bay. This is Rio Grande do Norte State, no doubt one of my favorite places in Brazil









Ohhhhh thinking about the sweet and delicious State of Bahia...Salvador comes to my mind in first place...the race mix that provides the best gastronomy in Brazil, the amazing samba rhythm, deep faith in religion, good hearts...everything is positive when you think of Bahia, and for sure my shots are always gorgeous when I get there.









I was born in Rio and I deeply love Brazil, so honored to be Brazilian and I have good friends anywhere in my country. There is a very unknown state of Brazil called MARANHAO, very hardly foreign visitors go there and people simply have no idea what they are missing. My heart lives there and this State gave me the happiness I need to continue living, my love comes from there and I will be everlasting grateful. Maranhao which capital is Sao Luis holds some World's Best Images in places that you never heard such as Lencois Maranhenses in Santo Amaro, Cururupu, Carolina, Alcantara, Balsas, Morros...this place has endless colors and it is a huge source of photography inspiration, a real PHOTOGRAPHER'S PLAYGROUND.









An universe of waters and an orgasm for us photography fans, we share this treasure of nature with Argentina and from different angles maybe you will have your best shots in life. I always organize tours in Iguazu Falls, specially in Argentinean side where the falls are very present!!!









Uhmmmm this is my best photography shot in recently years and I took this photo in a Earth Paradise located in Argentina, in the Province of Corrientes...This is the Ibera Lagoon, an impressive wetland area.









And in a photo tour with me, you can even be the PHOTO DIRECTOR of your own photos, hahahaha...this incredible "pet" is called Sharima, and she was born in Sri Lanka and she has a wonderful home in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, so I am ready to share my secrets with you. Do your best to be part of this amazing activity in Rio, in all states of Brazil and in every country of South America.





Just contact me, brazilrafario@gmail.com and we can exchange ideas and figure out what we can do in your trip to South America.





ALL THE BEST AND LOTS OF LOVE, DEAR READER,





Rafa




NY Times Maureen Dowd referred to Herr Trumpf as "a master of bling and bluster" and admits she's flown on Species, who mutates from ova to adult in months, regenerating and reconfiguring at warp speed to escape the establishment, kill everyone in sight and eliminate the human race... Trump really wants to be president. It isnt a joke any more." I yesterday'sMaureen Dowd referred to Herr Trumpf as "a master of bling and bluster" and admits she's flown on Herr Force One . "No one," she wrote, "is more shocked at how far, how fast, Trump has come than Trump. Watching him morph into a pol in real time and wriggle away from the junior-varsity G.O.P. chuckleheads trying to tackle him is hypnotic. Hes like the blond alien in the 1995 movie, who mutates from ova to adult in months, regenerating and reconfiguring at warp speed to escape the establishment, kill everyone in sight and eliminate the human race... Trump really wants to be president. It isnt a joke any more."

The most enjoyable thing about the Trump phenomenon has been watching him make monkeys out of a lot of people who had it coming.



Marco Rubio, a frothy focus-grouped concoction whose main qualifications to be president consist of a nice smile and an easy wit, has been mocking Trump as a con man.



Real estate developers are con men by nature, trying to get what they want at the lowest price and sell it at the highest price, overpromising how great its going to be... Its delicious watching the neocon men who tricked the country and gulled the naive W. into the Iraq invasion go ballistic trying to stop the Gotham con man.



...Its amazing, having been tainted by the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, that the Republican national security intelligentsia would unite against a Trump presidency in an open letter, charging that he would make America less safe and diminish our standing in the world. Sort of like the Iraq invasion?



...Its delightful to see the encrusted political king-making class utter a primal scream as Trump smashes their golden apple cart. Hes a real threat to the cozy, greedy, oleaginous cartel, their own Creature from the Black Lagoon.



For all the Republican establishments self-righteous bleating, Trump is nothing more than an unvarnished, cruder version. For years, it has fanned, stoked and exploited the worst angels among the nativists, racists, Pharisees and angry white men, concurring in anti-immigrant measures, restricting minority voting, whipping up anti-Planned Parenthood hysteria and enabling gun nuts.



How lame was it that after saying he was a crazy choice, Rubio, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and John McCain turned around and said they will support Trump if hes the nominee?



...He has a tenuous relationship with the truth and an inch-deep understanding of policy. Although it is compelling when he says he would surround himself with an A team in the White House, his campaign is not chock-a-block with A-team players. On Friday, his team put out a press release saying Trump would campaign this weekend in a town called Witchita in the state of Kanasas. And he has not brought on heavyweights who could bring him up to speed on substance.

Daily News, just another ordinary American predatory, fast-talking, bloviating billionaire. She and her husband invested almost a quarter million dollars in one his luxury condo complexes and got nothing for it but a legal battle. Nor is it only the pundits who are ringing the alarm bells about Herr. Linda Drake's story ran in yesterday's New York, just another ordinary American ripped off by the fast-talking, bloviating billionaire --, fast-talking, bloviating billionaire. She and her husband invested almost a quarter million dollars in one his luxury condo complexes and got nothing for it but a legal battle.





On Face The Nation yesterday, Cruz shared his visions of a dark conspiracy of a media with "bombshells" that will bring Trumpf down but that they are saving so the GOP destroys itself and allows everybody's favorite corporate shill to win the White House. Cruz, more a receptionist than a kook: "I think an awful lot of reporters-- I can't tell you how many media outlets I hear, you know, have this great expose on Donald, on different aspects of his business dealings or his past, but they said, 'You know what? We're going to hold it to June or July. We're not going to run it now.' ... And all of the attacks on Donald that the media is not talking about now, you'd better believe come September, October, November-- if he were the nominee-- every day on the nightly news would be taking Donald apart... Donald may be the only person on the face of the planet that Hillary Clinton can beat," especially with the drip drip drip of these bombshells that are being hidden until the general election when Cruz predicts there will be "singular focus of the media... [W]e've been burned by that before. We're not interested in losing again, particularly when the stakes, I think, are catastrophic." Cruz is clearly becoming unhinged-- which will make him a more viable primary candidate.





NY Times wingnut Douthat-- are all over the map, groping for a comfortable postion. On Fox New Sunday yesterday, Limbaugh said "with the case of Trump, theres a much bigger upside than downside." while Douthat wrote he thinks the country should be grateful to Herr for showing us Professional rightists-- like Hate Talk Radio host Limbaugh andwingnut Douthat-- are all over the map, groping for a comfortable postion. Onyesterday, Limbaugh said "with the case of Trump, theres a much bigger upside than downside." while Douthat wrote he thinks the country should be grateful to Herr for showing us how authoritarianism works, how it seduces, and ultimately how it wins , his caveat being "God willing-- hes doing it in a way thats sufficiently chaotic, ridiculous and ultimately unpopular that he will pass from the scene without actually taking power, leaving us to absorb the lessons of his rise."

That rise has four building blocks. First, his strongest supporters have entirely legitimate grievances. The core of that support is a white working class that the Democratic Party has half-abandoned and the Republican Party has poorly served  a cohort facing social breakdown and economic stagnation, and stuck with a liberal party offering condescension and open borders and a conservative party offering foreign quagmires and capital gains tax cuts. Trumps support is broader than just these voters, but theyre the reason hes a phenomenon, a force.

Second, you have the opportunists-- the politicians and media figures who have seen some advantage from elevating Trump. The first wave of these boosters, including Ted Cruz and various talk radio hosts, clearly imagined that Trump would flare and die, and by being in his corner early they could win his voters later, or gain his fans as listeners. But the next wave, upon us now, thinks that Trump is here to stay, and their hope is to join his inner circle (if theyre politicians), shape his policy proposals (if theyre idea peddlers), or be the voice of the Trump era (if theyre Sean Hannity).



There is no real ideological consistency to this group: Trumps expanding circle of apologists includes Sarah Palin and Steve Forbes, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie; he has anti-immigration populists and Wall Street supply-siders, True Conservatives and self-conscious moderates, evangelical preachers and avowed white nationalists. The only common threads are cynicism, ambition and a sense of Trump as a ticket to influence they couldnt get any other way.



Then third, you have the institutionalists-- less cynical, not at all enamored of Trump, but unwilling to do all that much to stop him. These are people who mostly just want Republican politics to go back to normal, who fear risk and breakage and schism too much to go all in against him.



The institutionalists include the party apparatchiks who imagine they can manage and constrain Trump if he gets the nomination. They include the donors whove been reluctant to fund the kind of scorched-earth assault that the Democrats surely have waiting. They include the rivals who denounce Trump as a con artist but promise to vote for him in the fall. They include Republicans who keep telling themselves stories about how Trump will appoint conservative justices or Trump is expanding the party to pretend that Trump versus Hillary would be a normal sort of vote. And they even include the occasional liberal convinced that Trump-the-dealmaker is someone the Democrats can eventually do business with.



Then, finally, you have the inevitabilists-- not Trump supporters, but Trump enablers, who encourage the institutionalists in their paralysis by acting and talking as if the support of 35 percent of the primary electorate means Trump Cannot Be Stopped.



Some inevitabilists are intoxicated with celebrity and star power. Cable news is riddled with such voices, who daily manifest Orwells dictum, Power worship blurs political judgment, so that, Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.



Others, especially in the intelligentsia, have a kind of highbrow nihilism about our politics, a sense that American democracys decadence-- or the Republican Partys decadence, in particular-- is so advanced that a cleansing Trumpian fire might be just the thing we need... Fortunately Trumps fire should still be contained, by the wider electorate if not by his hapless party. Fortunately hes still more a comic-opera demagogue than a clear and present danger.

not take a chance on as fatally flawed a candidate as Hillary Clinton is. She is distrusted and disliked by independents and without there votes, she isn't going to the White House. Bernie out-performs her in every head-to-head general election matchup. You can Insurance... in case Trumpf does make it through the primary, Democrats shouldtake a chance on as fatally flawed a candidate as Hillary Clinton is. She is distrusted and disliked by independents and without there votes, she isn't going to the White House. Bernie out-performs her in every head-to-head general election matchup. You can support him here ... and you should.








Since 1997, DR1 has been covering the Dominican Republic in English. A site overhaul had long been due. Here is the beta version of the first phase of the new DR1. We have upgraded the website with user-friendly software to serve our community better. We have kept the up-to-date content. Now it is your turn to give the new DR1 a test run!

We are tough-skinned. Go ahead and tell us what we are doing right, wrong, and what we need to change asap or work on next. Tell us what you would like to see less or more of, and what we shouldnt change!

Imagine we have bought a new house for DR1. The house comes with:

New server that ensures DR1 can handle peaks in traffic

New DR1 Forums

Improved Search

New DR1 Calendar

DR1 News and DR1 Calendar are integrated into the DR1 Forums

New DR1 Wiki for frequently asked topics

New Trending Topics emails

We now need to furnish the house. It is YOUR DR1! We invite you to collaborate in adding valuable content. What content or services should we add? Check out the new resources, but get creative, too. You can contribute and play a key role in helping people connect, enjoy and be productive in the Dominican Republic.

Dolores Vicioso, founder

Write to support@dr1.com
Keeping you updated on important news stories you might have missed!
Dyckia sp, what does this mean? ...and what else?

Dyckia sp is the very same as Dyckia species, in fact short for Dyckia species. It refers to an unnamed Dyckia species.



A Dyckia sp can not be a hybrid Dyckia and never a Dyckia you do not know the name but a nameless Dyckia species. The fact that you do not know the plant it does not mean a nameless one.



A new Dyckia species must be published in order to have its name valid. This obligation doesnt counted on Iternet publications as The World Wide Web didnt exist and publication meant : journals, books, magazine, scientific report magazines.



Nowadays nothing is better published than in the WWW.

Publishing means getting public and there is nothing equal nor close to the WWW.



Public means everybody not just a bunch of selected guys.

These are mates, collegues, fellows not public. Here people publish new Plant species on very restricted magazine or very specialized magazines and assume as published. Publishing means everybody who is willing to know of it. Also the world doesnspeaks Portuguese, nor spanish and less than this doesnt understand old Latim ( Not even those who publishes a new species. They rely on claves and many mistakes are made.) Today publishing means WWW!!! Today it means English!! If a new species is published here in Brazil it must be in Latim as in any other place on the Earth, Portuguese and for Gods sake also in English and entirely not a sinopsis only. Publications with a very restrictec and exclusive public is out of question. Publications with on purposal omitted data is also out of question and not valid. A bunch of readers is not public. A group of readers are collegues never public!!!Public is WWW and your reader may be in Reykjavick or Auckland, Rio or Tokyo and everywhere in between. Portuguese is a lovely sounding language. It makes feel home...but who is going to undertand me in ...in...everywhere else besides people which countries speak Camoes language? English, English for Godssake.

Also there is no sense publising without precise data.

Preservation means showing, educating not hidding an less yet iluding.

What Light is for if it doesnt Brighten up high above everything? Light is to iluminate or it is not Light and if it isnt Light it isnt Science!


The European Commission and the International Energy Agency will address the impact of the energy crisis on SMEs in an online event on 21 October.
Just months after releasing his latest solo album, legendary Daddy Cool guitarist Ross Hannaford has died, aged 65.

A benefit concert that turned into a celebration of "Hanna" was held midway through last year after it became known publicly that he'd been diagnosed with cancer.

He continued playing despite his deteriorating health, but lost his battle today. Hanna was also the name of that last album, on which Hannaford wrote and played all the instruments. He launched the album with one final, memorable show at Oakleigh's Caravan Club in December.

Hannaford formed Daddy Cool with vocalist Ross Wilson after originally playing together in Melbourne outfit The Pink Finks in 1965. In between the pair also played in The Party Machine and Sons of the Vegetal Mother.
Nine is pinning its hopes on its controversial Australian series Here Come the Habibs!, greenlighting a second season while the first season is still on air.

The show attracted plenty of press late last year when the promo hit Australian living rooms, with viewers accusing the sitcom of being both "casually racist" and "outdated" on Twitter.

It was even the subject of a Change.org petition calling for it to be pulled before it aired on TV.
Jakarta: Indonesia's western province of Riau has declared a state of emergency over forest and land fires blazing on the island of Sumatra, a government official says.

The fires, which send choking smog over south-east Asia every year, raged uncontrollably across several provinces last year, costing an estimated $US16 billion, and pushed average daily greenhouse gas emissions above those of the US.

Last year, Indonesia's annual fire season was made worse by the El Nino-linked drought. Credit:Getty Images

"The governor has declared an emergency now, to be able to prevent a repeat of the haze that occurred in 2015," said provincial government spokesman Darusman, adding that life in the province continued to be normal.
Around 180 delegates from Customs, trade and other ministries, the WTO and other international organisations, development partners, academia and business convened at the 5th Meeting of the TFA Working Group (TFAWG) on 29 February and 1 March 2016 in Brussels.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Ana Hinojosa, Director, Compliance and Facilitation (WCO) said that stakeholder cooperation was of paramount importance for effective and efficient border management processes to support the implementation of the TFA. She reminded delegates that the WCO had been, and always would be, fully committed to the trade facilitation agenda, having developed relevant tools and expertise.

The delegates appreciated the ongoing successful cooperation between the WTO and the WCO. The delegates to the TFAWG took note with interest of an update by the WTO Secretariat on the situation regarding TFA acceptances (70), notifications of Category A commitments (79) and B and C commitments (2). They also heard about the organisation of side events regarding trade facilitation at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, from 15-18 December 2015. Several delegations shared their state of play concerning the acceptance of the TFA.

The WCO Secretariat provided feedback from the December 2015 WCO Policy Commission in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic where the TFA had been an important topic, culminating in a WCO Communication that emphasized the continued commitment of the global Customs community to trade facilitation. Delegates were also informed about the highly successful WCO side event hosted by the Kenya Revenue Authority at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference, bringing together several high level speakers.

A panel of distinguished participants from the Private Sector, the International Plant Protection Convention Secretariat and Brazilian Customs stressed the importance of stakeholder cooperation. The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) and World Organisation for Animal Health (OiE) subsequently informed the TFA Working Group about some of their activities in relation to trade facilitation.

Discussion also took place about work carried out under the Mercator Programme, including regional TFA workshops, expert accreditation workshops, e-Learning courses, National Committees on Trade Facilitation (NCTFs) and the strategic planning of mordernisation efforts for the successful implementation of of the TFA, e.g. in the area of exchange of information. Cameroon, Senegal, Colombia and the Private Sector supported these discussions by sharing their experiences.

Australia informed the meeting about their national practice regarding fees and charges imposed on or in connection with importation or exportation and the WCO Secretariat presented the results of the Scientific Sub-Committee and the impact of TFA Article 5.3 on Customs laboratories. In addition, the 5th TFA Working Group considered proposals by Mexico and the EU regarding the Annual Work Programme,

The International Chamber of Commerce informed the delegates about the launch of the Global Alliance on Trade Facilitation at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference.
The 211th/212th Sessions of the WCO Permanent Technical Committee held on 2 and 3 March 2016 brought together over 170 delegates from over 71 Member administrations and 24 Observer entities. The newly appointed WCO Director of Compliance and Facilitation Ms. Ana Hinojosa welcomed the delegates stressing that Trade Facilitation continued to be an important priority for the WCO and therefore the PTC needed to explore its broad aspects, especially in terms of Custtoms engaging with other government entities.

The Meeting focused among others on many aspects of Digital Customs and identified new avenues for promoting the WCO Data Model for the purpose of achieving a whole-of-border approach in automating cross-border procedures. The Meeting endorsed the Handbook for Globally Networked Customs and supported the Supplement Addition to the Single Window Compendium. The PTC shared experiences on data security standards, modernization of management through the use of ICT and Single Window solutions. It further discussed e-commerce, Customs Brokers, performance measurement and the impact of 3D printing, as well as of drones on the Customs and trade environment.

After concluding the 211th/212th Sessions, the PTC held a Joint Session with the Enforcement Committee on 4 March. The Meeting welcomed the opening remarks by the WCO Secretary General Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, as well as the keynote speech by Mr. Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD. This prepared the ground for a discussion on strengthening cooperation between Customs and Tax Administrations, especially in terms of exchange of information. Digital Customs including Big Data, Data Mining and Analytics was another item on the agenda which brought together WCO Secretariat research on the topic and private sector experience in the field. It was clear that there was still a lot of grounds to explore how Customs could further benefit from the use of Big Data and related cutting-edge solutions. Finally, the Joint Session discussed Advanced Passenger Information (API)/Passenger Name Record (PNR) and welcomed the draft Guidelines on the Use of PNR.
Brussels, 8 March 2016

Press Release

The World Customs Organization (WCO) is pleased to join the international community in celebrating International Womens Day 2016 under the theme Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality.

As women play a key role in international trade, the WCO recognizes the urgent need for Customs administrations to achieve gender parity by ensuring that their policies take this important issue into account, thereby further bolstering the sustainability of Customs reforms.

The 2016 theme for International Womens Day reminds us that it is imperative to achieve gender parity and ensure gender equality if we are to adequately address national development needs, given that women represent over 50% of the worlds population, said WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya.

Furthermore, operational policies and procedures in Customs that are jointly devised by men and women should have a positive impact on local trading communities, considering that in many countries most cross-border traders are women, the Secretary General added.

In his message for International Womens Day 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, We have shattered so many glass ceilings we created a carpet of shards. Now we are sweeping away the assumptions and bias of the past so women can advance across new frontiers.

The WCO has actively embraced gender equality, having organized a Conference in 2013 with the theme Women in leadership, the outcomes of which were used to develop a Customs-specific diagnostic tool known as the WCO Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool (GEOAT).

This tool aims at assisting Customs administrations to assess their policies, practices and activities relating to gender issues, and at making sure that gender is duly mainstreamed in the design and implementation of WCO capacity building programmes supporting Customs reform and modernization processes.

The WCO has also circulated a Request for Information entitled Gender policies for public administrations, in an effort to collect research papers on gender policies that would specifically target public administrations, with a view to using this information to refine the GEOAT in order to ensure that it fully meets the needs of Customs and tax administrations reform programmes.

Gender mainstreaming is one of the topics on the agenda of the upcoming WCO Capacity Building Meeting. In addition, the WCO Leadership and Management Development (LMD) Programme contains a full module on gender equity, which addresses gender diversity and stereotypes.

The WCO will continue to be proactive in finding ways to raise awareness on the importance of achieving gender parity within the global Customs community, thereby contributing to the creation of an equitable and more balanced working environment.
Dear Sir,

Is Mr. Bradley Roberts really saying the Churches in the Bahamas actively caused the 2002 gender equality referendum to fail? How could they have done this, were the various priests preaching from their pulpits to vote against that referendum? How Mr. Roberts, how could they or would they have done this very UNchristian act?

Please Mr. Roberts, do us a favour and try putting your brain in gear before opening your mouth, everybody knows full well that the rejection of the last referendum by the populace was because Mr. Christie broke his word to support it, for totally political reasons, and told his supporters to vote "No".

Harry Strachan
The State Department's annual Award for Corporate Excellence recognizes the important role American businesses play in the world through their commitment to social responsibility, innovation, exemplary practices, and democratic values. This year, for the first time, the Award was given in three distinct award categories that serve to support U.S. foreign policy priorities.

The Award for Corporate Excellence in Human Rights and Labor Rights went to Cargill Vietnam Ltd. in Vietnam. The company has demonstrated a long-term commitment to investing in its farmer-partners in cocoa and other sectors by supporting community health, training over 12,000 farmers in sustainable production techniques, and using technology to share pricing information with farmers, the government, and other stakeholders to promote transparency. Cargill Vietnams school building program has built and delivered 76 schools across rural communities.

The Award for Corporate Excellence for a Small or Medium Enterprise went to East Bali Cashews in Indonesia. This cashew producer employed 350 people in the local rural community, 85 percent of whom were previously unemployed women; improved the quality of local agricultural production and modernized its methods; and expanded services to address the health and education needs of more than 800 children of company employees.

The Award for Corporate Excellence in Environmental Sustainability went to Weyerhaeuser Productos S.A. in Uruguay. This renewable forest-product company built a 100 percent clean-energy facility capable of supplying electricity to 40,000 residents.

U.S. enterprises, said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "represent the best of America in every corner of the world, and it shows. American business practices are an inspiration to people around the world. It is our courage to aim high, our commitment to fair rules, our capacity to translate possibility into opportunity for all."

The profound attraction of American innovation and entrepreneurship is that in doing well one can also do great good.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 08, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 08, 2016 | 02:06 PM | PADUCAH, KY

As Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo renewed his push to amend Kentucky's Constitution to approve local-option sales taxes for special projects, and a bill awaits approval by the Senate's Appropriations and Revenue Committee, Paducah's Mayor has weighed in on the issue.



Mayor Gayle Kaler wrote an editorial column on Monday, which was provided to the West Kentucky Star news room. In the column, Kaler re-states that she thinks a restaurant tax like what is described in Senate Bill 166 would benefit the city.



Kaler said the new tax, if approved and implemented, would eliminate an occupational license tax on gross receipts and net profits that restaurant owners currently pay, but would instead tax consumption by customers. She says this would provide necessary local funding and benefit the bottom line of local businesses, too.



Kaler said, "Based on gross receipts taxes paid by restaurants to the City of Paducah in 2014, over $210,000 would be saved annually by local restaurant owners under Senate Bill 166."



Some critics of the bill don't want local tourism agencies receiving 25 percent of the tax proceeds without any kind of oversight from elected officials. Kaler agreed, and pointed out that current governments who have a similar tax in place are giving 100 percent of the proceeds to those commissions.



"Thats why we want to make this reform happen: let elected leaders decide how to build and improve their cities," Kaler said.



Pointing to recreational complexes in Elizabethtown and Mount Sterling - which some city leaders have wanted to build for a while - Kaler said this type of local tax could have a real impact, and Paducah needs to have the same revenue tools as other cities.



Kaler said, "Paducah needs a dedicated revenue source that is contributed to by all who benefit from our tourism amenities, our recreational assets, and our economic opportunities. The world has changed, and Kentucky cities are striving to become cities of tomorrow. Senate Bill 166 helps get them there."





Here is Mayor Kaler's editorial column in its entirety:



"Cities must be able to invest in tangible infrastructure to truly attract tourism, create local environments where businesses can create jobs, and offer new opportunities for our citizens. One needs to only look at the recreational fields in Elizabethtown and Mount Sterling to see the real impact a restaurant tax can have on building community and attracting visitors. Senate Bill 166, sponsored by Senator Jared Carpenter (R-Berea), would modernize and reform Kentuckys local tax code to help city governments through the approval of a restaurant tax provide for direct investments in the community. Those investments would focus on supporting, operating, and enhancing local tourism, recreation, and economic development assets, making Paducah a more attractive place to visit and live!



The Paducah Sun editorial on Sunday, February 21 discussed its opposition to Senate Bill 166; however, important details need to be clarified and amplified from that editorial. First, this tax would eliminate the current gross receipts and net profits tax that restaurant owners currently pay. If Paducah chose to implement this optional tax, it would be a tax on consumption paid by consumers rather than a tax on the productivity of the restaurant. Based on gross receipts taxes paid by restaurants to the City of Paducah in 2014, over $210,000 would be saved annually by local restaurant owners under Senate Bill 166.



The editorial also alleged that the provision of the bill requiring 25 percent of the restaurant tax proceeds to be distributed to local tourism commissions is a mistake because elected officials should decide how tax dollars are spent  end of story. We agree, because in current law for those cities already eligible to have a restaurant tax, 100 percent of the proceeds are turned over to the nonelected tourism commissions. Thats why we want to make this reform happen: let elected leaders decide how to build and improve their cities.



Many tourism commissions in former 4th and 5th Class Cities (Paducah was a 2nd Class City) want to keep the old system in place and oppose Senate Bill 166 because they say it takes away their funding. They couldnt be more wrong. The math simply does not agree with their opposition. Here are the real facts: in fiscal year 2014, Kentucky cities reported that the restaurant tax in the cities where it exists generated about $13.8 million. Based on conservative estimates, if all cities imposed a three percent restaurant tax, tourism commissions would receive at least $43.5 million. This is more than three times what they received in fiscal year 2014 and plenty of money to promote all of the exciting festivals and unique places Kentucky can offer to its visitors.



The City of Paducah needs to have the same revenue tools that other cities in Kentucky have in order to strengthen our local quality of life and economic vitality as well as that for the Commonwealth as a whole. Most states allow some form of local sales tax, and it is not uncommon for local restaurant taxes to be used for projects and activities intended to generate more taxable sales for restaurant businesses. Paducah needs a dedicated revenue source that is contributed to by all who benefit from our tourism amenities, our recreational assets, and our economic opportunities. The world has changed, and Kentucky cities are striving to become cities of tomorrow. Senate Bill 166 helps get them there."
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 07, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 07, 2016 | 05:50 PM | PADUCAH, KY

The McCracken County Sheriff's Department is asking for the public's help identifying two suspects in a phone theft last month.



On February 21, a customer at Rural King, located on Cairo Road was trying on boots while shopping. Deputies said that during the course of trying on boots, the customer set his phone down on the shoe rack and walked around to the other side of the aisle.



In the brief period that he was on the other side, another couple shopping allegedly picked up his cell phone and walked away with it. The customer reportedly confronted the couple, who both said that they hadnt seen any cell phones laying on the shoe rack.



Deputies said they located clear video evidence of the theft and now would like the publics assistance in identifying the couple.



The Sheriff's Department is asking anyone with information about the identity of the suspects to call them at 270-444-4719 or Crime Stoppers at 270-444-TELL.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 07, 2016 | 06:45 PM | LONE OAK, KY

Three people face drug and other charges after police were called to a disturbance Monday afternoon at a bank in Lone Oak.

Shortly after 2:00 pm, McCracken County Sheriff's deputies responded to a disturbance call at FNB Bank in Lone Oak. A witness told deputies that 27-year-old Cynthia Dotson had come into the bank and attempted to take money from an account that did not exist. Dotson then reportedly became irate and began cursing at bank employees. Witnesses said she then locked herself in the bathroom and began hitting herself and cursing.

When they arrived, deputies found a red Chevy truck that they were told was involved. Deputies said Dotson, 43-year-old Jason Leek of Melber and 50-year-old Robin Gambino of Gilbertsville were inside. Deputies said Dotson and Gambino both appeared to be under the influence of drugs. Deputies said they found four grams of marijuana in the drivers side door. Leek was cited for the marijuana possession and released.

Gambino reportedly gave deputies a false name and date of birth several times, even after being warned. They later discovered that she had an active warrant for a probation violation. She was arrested on the warrant, along with giving an officer a false name and public intoxication. Dotson was also arrested for giving a false name and public intoxication.

Deputies said that when they attempted to arrest Dotson she struck her head on their patrol vehicle, causing damage. She was additionally charged with menacing, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and resisting arrest.

Dotson was taken to Lourdes Hospital for treatment.
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Prominent Christian lawyer Zhang Kai is the latest in a growing number of people in China who appear to be forced to confess on state television to purported crimes.

Mr. Zhang, who had provided legal services to Christian churches in Zhejiang province that were resisting a government campaign of cross removals and church demolitions, was detained by authorities in August 2015 prior to a scheduled meeting with visiting U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein.

Authorities denied repeated requests by his lawyers and family members for access to Zhang during his detention. He had not been seen in public since that time until he appeared on state media February 25 and reportedly confessed to several crimes, including disrupting social order and endangering Chinas national security. He also warned human rights lawyers in China to take his case as a warning not to collude with foreigners or harm national security.

Human rights groups have observed that Zhangs so-called confession appeared scripted and coerced.

In its most recent report on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department noted the government of the Peoples Republic of China exercised state control over religion and restricted the activities and personal freedom of religious adherents when these were perceived, even potentially, to threaten state or Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interests.

It also cited reports that the government tortured, physically abused, detained, arrested, sentenced to prison, or harassed a number of religious adherents of both registered and unregistered groups for activities related to their religious beliefs and practices.

Speaking about the case of Zhang Kai at a recent press briefing, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said the United States is very concerned about Chinese state medias airing of a purported confession by Zhang Kai prior to any indictment and, frankly, any judicial process whatsoever. Such confessions are counter to the standards of a rule of law society.

Mr. Toner added, We urge China to release Zhang and others detained for seeking to peacefully uphold the freedom of religion guaranteed in Chinas constitution.
Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world
Robert Holman's reputation is being restored. Since the Donmar Warehouse revived Making Noise Quietly four years ago, a new generation has picked up his plays - mostly quiet, pensive still-lifes - and found in them tenderness and truthfulness. German Skerries, revived by director Alice Hamilton and playwright Barney Norris, is no exception.

On a patch of Teeside clifftop - birds swooping overhead, boats chugging into harbour - two men look out through binoculars, watching the world from afar. One's a teacher named Martin, nearing retirement; the other's a newlywed, Jack, wasted in a menial job at a chemical plant. His watch has stopped. Typical of Holman's characters, the two men swap stories from the opposite ends of life.

It's a play about something bigger, though - about the overarching forces swirling around them. Martin (Howard Ward) moans about over-crowding at Salcombe, where he and his wife holiday; Jack (George Evans), about the unions battling against job loses, despite doing only two hours work on an eight-hour shift. On this clifftop, all peace and quiet, the world seems to go on around them: industry, shipping, cities and wildlife. Below, the German Skerries - rocks named after a World War Two plane crash - are a reminder of what might have been.

Jack comes back later that night, with his wife Carol (Katie Moore) - an adventure at the end of a date - only their evening's interrupted when an injured man, Michael (Henry Everett), climbs out of the sea.

It's a prophetic piece. Set in 1977, the year it was written, just before Thatcher's policies ripped through this industrial region, it also somehow presages the recent collapse of British steel. In the distance, a new steel plant has opened, and its cooling pipe is spewing out boiling water into the sea, pushing the seabirds out. Though not a climate change play per se, Holman's attuned to the continuum of the economy and the ecology. Martin knows Teeside needs jobs as well as birds, but our every action has an effect.

That plays out on a personal level too, and Holman's play is perhaps most eloquent on the longshore drift of marriage. Its older men huff about their wives - Martin fondly, Michael frustratedly - and they come to the cliffs to escape being nagged. The young couple might coo and cuddle now, but you see the first shoots of that future in Jack's unthinking selfishness and immaturity, and in Carol's determined patience. When he badgers her for nookie, she bats him gently away. Over time, you suspect that they'll fray - but Holman lets them have this moment regardless, rolling around on the grass.

Tonally, it has something of an old Ken Loach film - the sort that tracks a flock of starlings on a grey sky. You breath in the Teeside landscape, rugged and exposed, and Hamilton's production lets you feel the wind's chill and the sun's warmth.

James Perkins' patch of grass is near-perfect, with its worn path and lose pebbles, tufts and tyres. You slip into the setting quite easily, as if a chunk of coastline had landed, asteroid-like, in the middle of Richmond. Simon Gethin Thomas catches the light eloquently. When a cormorant performs a fly-by, a trill of woodwind catches its flight. It's beautifully acted all-round, with small actions speaking volumes: Moore's silent generosity, picking the grass off her husband's back; Evans' head-first bluster, snatching his jacket back for a fag; Ward's sage shrug that sees the way the world's heading, but knows how powerless we are to stop it.

German Skerries runs at the Orange Tree Theatre until 2 April and then tours to Reading, Scarborough, Lancaster and Hull.
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Will Berry Gordy, founder of Motown in Detroit in 1959, go to his own 25th anniversary concert in 1984? Will Diana Ross survive without the other two Supremes? Will Berry and Diana get it on together after a disappointing night in the sack in Paris?

These and other questions - why does Smokey Robinson look like Lionel Richie? Why does a race riot become an anti-Vietnam war protest and a tuneless parody of Hair? - flit across an evening then flops in an untidy heap between snatches of Motown classics served up with punch, pizazz and some fairly obvious backtracking enhancement.

Of course, if you're going to the theatre for a party or a karaoke evening - at my press preview, Kenny from Brentwood and Eleanor from Fife, both in horrid jumpers, joined Diana Ross in Las Vegas to give us their versions of "Reach Out and Touch" - you will be cheering all the way through and standing at the end.

But you won't be seeing anything half as classy as Jersey Boys, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical or Sunny Afternoon, all of which modestly aspiring back-catalogue shows knitted songs and story with wit, propulsion and clarity.

Motown The Musical comes across as a muddled vanity exercise by Mr Gordy, still going strong at 86, and here credited as lead producer and librettist. He's the star of his own show, fulfilling a dream of "wanting to make people happy" just like his boyhood hero, Joe Louis, who whipped Joe Schmeling and won the world heavyweight title.

There's even coy reference to maybe, one day, making it all the way to the West End! That's after a lot of location switches starting in his trophy room (photos and gold discs) while sulking about not going to the concert - people he nurtured signing rival contracts, bad blood after years of intimacy, and so on - with over-familiar film inserts (Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Nixon and Robert Kennedy, Walter Cronkite announcing JFK's demise, etc) playing footsie with ideas of black power in a white man's pop industry.

The show takes off sporadically with set pieces by The Temptations and Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, old Smokey (Charl Brown), Stevie Wonder (Jordan Shaw) the Jackson Five led by terrific little Eshan Gopal as Michael and majestic Keisha Amponsa Banson singing some of "My Guy." But Lucy St Louis is harsh and pinched, in manner and voice, as Diana Ross, though she improves as the show goes on, and on.

Motown evolved as a formulaic, medicated sound through gospel, rhythm and blues and a syrupy, irresistible melodic twist, and Gordy, along with old Smokey, wrote many of the greatest songs. But the definition of the artistry, and the recording studio aesthetic, is never as well established as Gordy's own fight to create the phenomenon in the first place, using saving funds from the family's grocery store business and setting up shop in the house he dubbed "Hitsville USA."

The first act of Charles Randolph-Wright's production doesn't know where, or how, to end, and the second act flounders around a big bust-up between Gordy and Marvin Gaye (Sifiso Mazibuko) before subsiding in wide-grin sentimentality at the concert. Some of the costumes by Esosa I liked, especially the shiny satin suits and flared skirts, and the sixteen-piece band under Gareth Weedon's musical direction is chilli-pepper hot.

Best of all, Cedric Neal as Gordy has a truly remarkable voice and sings up a storm from start to finish, though the song with which he raises the roof, "Can I Close the Door," before drowning in a puddle of oh-my-gosh gloop, is pretty awful, and nothing at all like Motown. No worries, though; we've still got "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Dancing in the Street" to come and yes, that is a cue for you all to get up and guess what...

Motown The Musical runs at the Shaftesbury Theatre until 18 February 2017.
One of the goals for the recent cessation of hostilities in Syria is for desperately needed aid to reach people in besieged Syrian cities and villages, which have been cut off from food and medical supplies, in some places, for months and even years.

On February 26, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2268 endorsing the cessation of hostilities and reiterating its call on the parties to immediately allow humanitarian agencies rapid, safe and unhindered access throughout Syria by most direct routes, [and] allow immediate, humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need.

The goal of the U.N. is that by the end of March, 1.7 million Syrians in need will have received relief supplies.

Since the cessation of hostilities went into effect on February 27, there has been a significant, albeit erratic, pause in the fighting, and significant amounts of aid have reached those in desperate need; but other humanitarian convoys have still been delayed.

Speaking at a news conference in Washington with his German counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry voiced concern over reports that the Assad regime had continued to drag its feet in providing necessary permits:

Much of this aid could move faster. And so we call on the Assad regime to, at least in a moment of cessation of hostilities, try to show some measure of decency, if that is even possible.

Secretary Kerry noted that Syrian troops and officials had also removed aid from the convoys the Syrian government previously authorized for delivery:

Actually putting their hands into the shipments and taking out medicine or taking out other preferred items simply to keep for themselves. Thats not the purpose of this.

This obstructionism that has existed has to stop, said Secretary Kerry. And we call on the Russians and the Iranians to do everything in their power to leverage their client to understand the stakes here.

Ultimately what is at stake is the chance of ending the cycle of fighting and of bloodshed that is destroying Syria, said Secretary Kerry, and, following the diplomatic path agreed to in Vienna and in the UN Security Council, to create over time a stable, united, whole, non-sectarian Syria...in which the people of Syria decide the future.
March 8th is International Womens Day, celebrated by the United Nations since 1975, and adopted by a UN resolution in 1977, as United Nations Day for Womens Rights and International Peace. It is a day to reflect on womens progress, call for further change, and acknowledge the courage and determination of women working for gender equality around the world.

It is also an opportunity to raise awareness about the struggles of women and girls the world over: struggles for education, for equality before the law, for access to basic services that men take for granted, such as access to banking, or training and adult education. In too many cases, women struggle for basic respect, and in the worst cases, they struggle to be seen not as the property of anyone, but as a free and independent person.

The fact is that although women and girls have made great strides in the past 41 years, they still have a long way to go. Nowhere in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men. The majority of the world's poorest people are women. And their work is less valued: they receive 30 to 40 percent less pay than men for doing the same work. Their lack of economic power sometimes translates to powerlessness in other aspects of their lives as well, where they disproportionally suffer from gender-based violence.

That is why this years theme is Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality. A part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is an all-out push to implement a number of United Nations commitments on gender equality, womens empowerment and womens human rights.

This includes goals such as ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere; eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls; stopping all practices specifically harmful to girls, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation; and ensuring that all girls and boys receive a quality primary and secondary education.

Any society hoping to flourish must begin by empowering its women, and by promoting for them the same rights that men already enjoy.

On International Womens Day we celebrate and honor women and girls, and commit ourselves to making the world a place where women and girls are not excluded or marginalized, but are free to realize their full potential.
Just over one year ago, shortly before midnight on February 27th, 2015, Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician and former deputy prime minister, was assassinated as he walked across a bridge in central Moscow. He was shot in the back four times at point blank range, by gunmen driving by in a vehicle.

Boris Nemtsov, a nuclear physicist by training, worked for a more democratic and prosperous Russia throughout his life, including during service as Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr. Nemtsov was murdered two days before he was to participate in a peace rally against Russian involvement in Ukraine. He vehemently objected to Russias interference in Ukraines politics, and later, to the military intervention there.

Russian authorities arrested 5 individuals for the murder and have declared the investigation to be completed.

The United States calls on the Russian government to ensure that all those responsible for his killing are brought to justice.

One year after his murder, we remain deeply troubled by the Russian governments growing intolerance of all forms of dissent and independent expression. As we honor the memory of Boris Nemtsovs life and work, we renew our call on the Government of Russia to uphold its obligations to the Russian people and the international community to promote and protect universal human rights, including the fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The former Conservative governments signature maternal health initiative treated women like baby-making machines, the head of a United Nations agency said Tuesday.

Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said he had little opportunity to speak his mind on the issue when Stephen Harper was prime minister.

Osotimehin said Harpers international maternal health policy, dubbed the Muskoka Initiative, made a difference, but I think what we are trying to make out here is that we should not treat women just as bodies that deliver babies but actually as human beings with rights and dignity.

The UN officer made the comments in Ottawa while attending the Canadian launch of the agencys 2015 report on the worlds population. The report provides a disconcerting account of the condition of women and girls in a world in crisis.

Osotimehin was also in the city Monday for the Liberal governments announcement it was providing $5 million to the UNFPA for the distribution of contraceptives.

Harper launched his maternal health policy for mothers, children and newborns during the 2010 G8 Summit in Muskoka, Ont.

Since then, Canada stopped providing money to the UNFPA for contraceptives.

The UNFPA describes itself as the worlds largest distributor of contraceptives for the public.

At the conference in Toronto, even (Harpers) announcement reluctantly said it would also include (money) for contraceptives. But we never got any funding for contraceptives.

Sandeep Prasad, executive director at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, stood alongside Osotimehin at the news conference and said Harpers health initiative instrumentalized women as child bearers and prioritized the lives of mothers over other women.

It excluded and neglected safe abortion and contraception, respectively, despite the evidence of the necessity of these two interventions.

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose defended the Muskoka Initiative, saying she was sorry to hear such criticism.

I think its a really unfortunate comment, Ambrose said. At last count, it had saved the lives of six million women and babies. It is a highly respected program.

Ambrose refused to take a position on abortion or funding the procedure abroad.

Prasad applauded the Trudeau governments decision to fund the UN agencys contraceptive-distribution program.

There are 225 million women and girls in the world who want family planning and they are not getting it, Osotimehin added.

The Harper government received international criticism for its refusal to fund abortion in developing countries, a policy the Trudeau government hasnt yet changed despite promises to do so.

Prasad said he is waiting for Trudeau to change his predecessors policy, adding he had the patience to wait another few months.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A headline on an earlier version wrongly attributed a statement on abortion to a UN agency head.
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Syrian activist Elias Sadkni remembers walking through the main markets of the Syrian city Aleppo, looking at stalls that had been there hundreds of years.

Over the last five years of the Syrian civil war, many of those stalls have been bombed and burned and their owners are now long gone.

A World Vision study released Tuesday estimates the Syrian economy has lost US$275 billion since the war broke out, measured by taking stock not just of the markets destroyed but the loss of human capital as well.

Syrian activist Elias Sadkni poses for a photo in Ottawa Monday, March 7, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

Sadkni, 31, says all of his childhood friends have now fled the country.

So has he, having first tried to come to Canada in 2010 as a skilled worker. Delays with his application took him down a different route  a scholarship to a U.K. university that hes now putting to work running a non-governmental organization for Syrians in Lebanon.

Its estimated that half of Syrias doctors have left. One out of every four schools has been destroyed or is now being used for shelter. Thousands of teachers are gone, too.

This is a loss that will never be reversed, Sadkni said of the flight of Syrias most educated.

People who are leaving to find a better life in Europe or in Canada, when they settle down with their families, their kids in schools, I doubt that they will come back to Syria soon.

Peace talks are scheduled to resume in Geneva this week aimed at ending the war. But on Tuesday, MPs will vote on the Liberal plan to retool Canadas role in the fight against Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria.

The vote is symbolic. Parliament does not legally need to authorize these kinds of campaigns. Part of the Liberal plan  ending the airstrikes against militants in both countries  has already happened.

Sadkni said he supported ending the bombing campaign. When asked why, he gave a simple answer: To save lives. Isnt it enough?

But another major piece of the Liberal plan has yet to be rolled out: the specifics of how and when $1.1 billion in aid and development funding connected to the revamped mission will start being spent.

Sadkni eventually received his permanent residency card for Canada but continues his work abroad. As he meets with MPs this week, hell tell them Syrians need both urgent humanitarian assistance and longer term development.

Making good on the promise to resettle 25,000 refugees also sent a message Canadians are serious about helping and that should be leveraged, he said.

They can use their reputation with this new government, this new prime minister, to be involved more in the political process because they are not aligned with some party.

A spokesperson for International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said there have been no final decisions yet on what projects will be funded. Most of the money will go towards humanitarian assistance.

But about $270 million is earmarked for both Syria and nearby countries struggling under the weight of an influx of refugees, and will include funds to help fix schools, improve local water supplies and sanitary facilities, Bernard Boutin said in an e-mail.

These programs will help create jobs, increase childrens access to education and ensure that people have access to the essential services they so desperately need, he said.

The World Vision report estimated the cost of the conflict by looking at what Syrias economic growth most likely would have been had the war never broken out.

The amount lost is equivalent to six times of what Canada spends each year on primary and secondary education, said Michael Messenger, president of World Vision Canada.

If we as an international community dont reach peace, we are denying the children of Syria the opportunity for a prosperous future for likely at least a generation, he said.

Follow @StephanieLevitz on Twitter
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The House of Commons formally took Canada out of the combat mission against the Islamic State in a vote on Tuesday, but it comes as senior U.S. military commanders warn that the planned campaign to free Iraqs second-largest city will likely require more western military help, not less.

Thanks to the Liberal majority in the House, a motion in support of the reconfigured mission was passed by a margin of 178-147.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper, who presided over the launch of the original mission against ISIL, was on hand to vote against the motion.

The CF-18 fighter jets deployed to the Middle East in 2014 ended their bombing runs last month after the Liberals opted to focus instead on training local security forces and helping to rebuild the shattered region.

The new mission increases the complement of military personnel to 830 people, up from 650, to provide planning, targeting and intelligence expertise.

The train, advise and assist mission also triples in size, including additional medical personnel and equipment including small arms, ammunition and optics to assist in training Iraqi security forces, mostly in the Kurdish north.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has insisted from the outset that the mission does not constitute combat, although military officials have acknowledged Canadian trainers will likely face engagements with enemy combatants.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the rules laid down for trainers will give them the right to shoot first at extremists in a limited set of circumstances that fall under the umbrella of self defence.

If there is a threat posed, our troops have the ability to defend themselves, he said. There are many different aspects on how the rules of engagement can work.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair wasnt buying it.

The minister is trying to put lipstick on a pig, he said. What we have here is a combat mission. We know its a combat mission. Weve been describing it as such since the beginning and its an insult to the brave women and men in uniform to call it anything but.

Both Sajjan and the countrys top military commander, Gen. Jonathan Vance, say the highly trained troops will not be allowed to accompany Kurdish forces into battle, nor undertake offensive operations.

The policy stands in contrast to the U.S., which has deployed roughly 200 elite U.S. Army Delta Force commandos, who conducted a recent mission that led to the capture of a high-level ISIL commander.

American special forces operators are expected to carry out more such missions in the run-up to the long-awaited battle to retake Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Dunford, said last week that he expects American troops would do more in Mosul than they did in Ramadi  in central Iraq  because of the size and complexity of the operation.

There is also the fact that extremists have spent the last 18 months fortifying the city.

Vance agrees with Dunfords assessment and said Canadian trainers, in anticipation of the coming battle, will be taking responsibility for Kurdish fighters over a wider section of the front  north and east of the occupied city of one million residents.

He said Canadians will be doing more in terms of helping plan the operation and offering advice.

According to Vance, the Kurdish forces under Canadian supervision will provide a backstop to prevent ISIL fighters from fleeing the area.

Theyve got eyes on the city, and as we support them well be contributing just as Gen. Dunford described, he said.

But the Americans have also offered to send in Apache gunships to aid ground troops  a suggestion the central government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad has rejected.

Vance also gave more detail about earlier suggestions, made in early February, that Canadian troops would provide more specialized training to existing Kurdish units. He said the trainers will take a battalion  roughly 600  local fighters and give them advanced weapons and infantry courses.

The Canadians will also provide them will small arms, he said.
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobas finance minister faces vastly different messages from business and organized labour as he tables the governments fiscal update today.

Greg Dewar and the NDP government have opted not to unveil a full budget before the April 19 election, citing a lack of time.

Instead, they will unveil a mini-budget that is expected to reveal the state of the provinces books, set the size of government department budgets  although with far less detail than usual on how the money is to be spent  and highlight major programs and tax changes.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSNDP Finance Minister Greg Dewar fends off demands to know why he isn't tabling a budget during question period at the 5th Session of the 40th Manitoba Legislature, Wednesday afternoon.

Premier Greg Selinger hinted a few months ago the government might institute a surtax on high-income earners; todays document will tell whether the NDP plans to follow through on that.

Loren Remillard, executive vice-president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said the business community would have preferred a normal budget.

Were disappointed that were not going to be able to have a full budget, which offers a much better reflection of the governments current fiscal position and their plans ahead, he said.

With a fiscal update, he said, the government can be a little more creative with its reporting knowing that it wont have to stand by its numbers. Whereas with a budget you do, once its passed (into law).

Remillard said business wants assurances the government has a plan for balancing the books.

In December, the Finance Department revised the projected budget deficit to $550 million from the $422 million predicted by Dewar on budget day April 30, 2015.

For far too long the target of returning to black has been a moveable date. Its never been written in stone. The date just continues to be pushed back, Remillard said.

Rather than look for new ways to increase revenue, the government should cut costs, he said. We do have a spending problem here in the province.

Remillard said its been 17 years since the province overhauled the entire tax system.

When you take a look at our tax brackets, our (tax) rates and our entire system, we are grossly out of step with other jurisdictions, he said.

While business would like to see the Selinger government chart a new course, the message from organized labour is steady as she goes and more of the same.

Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, said his organization wants to see continued investment in infrastructure, more child-care spaces and more funding for health and workplace safety.

I think the plan that this government has been on has served us well, he said. We have one of the best-performing economies in Canada because we havent gone the austerity route. Weve said, How do we invest in our economy? How do we rebuild our infrastructure and create jobs in doing so?

Kelly Moist, president of CUPE Manitoba, said the Selinger government has been a strong supporter of public services, and she expects that to continue.

I would like to see our province continue to press Ottawa for a new health accord, with particular concern for a national long-term-care strategy and additional funding to long-term care here in Manitoba to ensure quality care for seniors, Moist said.

Dewar took heat Monday from the Opposition for spending more than $40,000 on pre-budget consultations and then not delivering a full budget.

Manitobans should be angry to discover they took their time and shared their priorities and their ideas with the NDP, and the NDP wasnt actually planning to deliver a budget, Tory finance critic Cameron Friesen said.

Dewar said the views received from hundreds of Manitobans will be reflected in the document he tables today.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg School Division trustees have started chopping.

Just how far theyre willing to cut to overcome the critical loss of commercial assessment will be decided late Monday night when the board votes on its final budget.

So far, trustees have hacked nearly $1 million out of what is now a $395.9-million draft budget, to take WSDs property tax increase down to 5.9 per cent.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Mark Wasyliw: Eliminating programs would destroy division.

Theyre proposing to drop two of the four unidentified schools scheduled to get full-day kindergarten in September, have ditched plans to hire a male aboriginal elder, deferred some programs until the fall of 2017 and are asking parents who can afford it to pay 25 cents a day  or $5 a month  for their childs milk at school lunches. The initial proposal was 10 cents. The former Ellen Douglass school property at 700 Elgin Ave. is going up for sale for a housing development.

Board chairman Mark Wasyliw challenged trustees Monday night to decide if they can ignore what poverty does to children and destroy the division from within, or look at their values and raise taxes.

With a March 15 budget deadline, WSD tumbled into a last-minute budget crisis when it learned late last week it would have to chop $5.5 million in salaries and programs just to get down to the five per cent increase in school taxes the school board had been planning. Thats when trustees were told a record level of successful commercial property-assessment appeals had sent their proposed tax increase soaring.

The city informed the division owners of commercial properties had successfully appealed $158.6 million in reductions in the value of their properties, a drop of 3.85 per cent in the commercial assessment base  thus reducing their own taxes and shifting a greater burden onto homeowners.

Its three times higher than the division has ever seen, Finance chairman Chris Broughton said Tuesday morning.

Such a loss of property assessment meant the board was suddenly looking at a 6.4 per cent increase in taxes instead of an already-not-so-palatable five per cent.

City officials would not make the city assessor available for an interview. The city will not make public which properties successfully appealed their assessments, citing confidentiality.

The city said in a statement the number of appeals was up about 25 per cent this year and school divisions have just been learning the outcomes of appeals heard in January and February. Said the city: On a monthly basis since November 2015, we have provided all school divisions with assessment roll information for their budget planning purposes. On a monthly basis since December 2015, we have advised school divisions about the status of appeals. Many of the appeals were heard in January and February 2016. This resulted in ongoing changes to the assessment roll during the same time that school divisions were setting their budgets.

Broughton said the $5.5 million is the equivalent of 60 teachers, but repeatedly said he does not want to lay off teachers or reduce positions by not filling the jobs of retired teachers. Nor should the nursery program be a target, Broughton said.

Cutting jobs and programs would destroy the division from within, Wasyliw said.

As it stands now, the tax increase would be $73.75 on an average house, or $109.70 in higher taxes for the owner of a home assessed at a value of $300,000.

Meanwhile, trustees learned behind closed doors Monday night there are more than enough kids registered for the division to launch new Cree, Ojibway and Spanish language programs in September.

Broughton said the school board will set the final budget Monday evening, with some of the line-by-line debate held behind closed doors.

I imagine some parts of it will be debated in-camera  some people may feel that their jobs are at risk, and those talks are better off not being held in public session, he said.

Because the latest reassessment saw residential values rise at a far greater rate than values of commercial properties, homeowners were already looking at having to carry a greater share of the WSD budget this year.

Meanwhile, St. James-Assiniboia School Division said Tuesday successful commercial appeals within its boundaries have increased the proposed 3.61 per cent tax increase to 3.9 per cent.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Today is International Womens Day, a dual-focused day that aims to commemorate the progress made in the name of womens rights, as well as advocate for further action towards gender equality. Two pressing concerns frequently discussed on this day in Canada are the gender pay gap and missing and murdered aboriginal women.

These are generally categorized as womens rights issues  but this is incorrect. These are human rights issues that are holding our nation back progressively, economically and morally.

According to Statistics Canada, one half of our population (women) earns 73.1 cents for every dollar the other half (men) earns. Catalyst Canada measured men and women with similar skills and qualifications in similar roles, and found Canadas gender pay gap is approximately $8,000 per woman per year  more than twice the global average.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Photos of the missing and victims on display last month in Winnipeg at the second national roundtable on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Any way you slice the pie, it is clear Canadian women are getting a much smaller piece of it.

This is not breaking news. As my brother, Graham McLeod, recently stated in a Facebook post: This (the gender pay gap) has been common knowledge for literally decades, and yet the situation persists, so it appears that the maintenance of this inequitable state of affairs must be at least partially deliberate, or at least deliberate insofar as were insufficiently motivated to do anything about it.

The World Economic Forums newly released 2015 Global Gender Gap Report states at the present pace of change, the global economic pay gap will not be closed until 2133; barring drastic changes, this issue will not be resolved in our lifetimes.

Canadians should not idly accept this fate for our nation. That being said, our languid national response may relegate us to this timeline of mediocrity. The Forums corresponding Global Gender Gap Index ranked Canada a dismal 30th in 2015, placing it behind numerous developing countries, including the African nation of Burundi, which in 2015 faced a coup detat as well as ongoing protests and violence. To borrow the words uttered by Dr. Seuss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and many others, We can and we must do better.

Women deserve to be fairly compensated for their services  and should advocate for these rights. Men and boys should also champion this cause for their mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, or merely on behalf of 50 per cent of the nations population. If sentiments or principles of fairness do not sway you, then consider the economic rationale: the Royal Bank of Canada estimated closing the pay gap in the next two decades would boost Canadas GDP by four per cent in 2032.

While our nation continues to be held back by the under-compensation of womens wages, it also suffers from ongoing violence against aboriginal women and girls.

Delaine Copenaces mother is praying her 16-year-old daughter, most recently seen Feb. 27 in Kenora, Ont., will be only a temporary addition to the ever-growing list of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls. While a RCMP study totals this list at less than 1,200, many interested parties  including affected families, the Native Womens Association of Canada and Carolyn Bennett, minister of indigenous and northern affairs  believe the true number is much higher. All parties agree, however, that whatever the true number may be, it is far too high.

In 2014, the National Post interviewed 12 aboriginal girls from Maples Collegiate in Winnipeg who revealed a perpetual state of fear for themselves and/or their friends and family. One girl expressed with frustration: It makes me question, how are we different?

Recognizing the difference in how society  including the police  deals with this issue, 14-year-old Brianna Jonnie decided to take matters into her own hands. This past weekend, the honour-roll student sent a letter to Winnipeg police Chief Devon Clunis instructing him on what to do if she goes missing, stating, (Do) not treat me as the indigenous person I am proud to be.

The fact Canadian girls are living in fear is a clear moral shortcoming. Our nations failure to resolve this crisis is also a blatant violation of numerous promises Canada has made through its ratification of international treaties, making this issue a marked stain on its standing in the international community. But what is undoubtedly the most appalling matter of this issue is the duration in which our country has allowed it to continue unabated.

Nahanni Fontaine, the provinces special adviser on aboriginal womens issues, says progress is being made. The fact that Im here in this room talking about missing and murdered indigenous women  and you can hear a pin drop  thats change, she said at the Manitoba Multifaith Councils leadership breakfast in February. The fact we have a prime minister who, unlike his predecessor, is committed to an inquiry on this issue, also denotes progress.

But until two per cent of our nations population (aboriginal women) no longer represent a quarter of its murder victims, this issue should remain at the forefront of our collective concern. Similarly, until men no longer pocket an extra one-quarter in wages, Canadians need to fight against this discrimination. Not just on International Womens Day, but every day. Womens groups have drawn attention to these injustices for decades. Its time the rest of Canada joined in.

A feminist is simply someone who advocates for equality. Someone who believes the rights and freedoms enshrined in our charter should apply equally to all citizens. A feminist recognizes a better Canada is not only possible, but inevitable if its citizens are provided equal opportunity to rise to their full potential. Im a feminist. Are you?

Christie McLeod is the founder and managing director of Human Rights Hub Winnipeg and the executive director of Mondetta Charity Foundation. She is the secretary of the Institute for International Womens Rights-Manitoba, and sits on the Resolution Committee of the Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On March 1, a 29-year-old indigenous woman in Manitoba was sentenced to prison for the crime of aggravated sexual assault. More than four years ago, Marjorie Schenkels had sex without a condom with a friend on three occasions. Schenkels did not disclose the fact that she is HIV-positive. Schenkels, a survivor of sexual violence in both her family and relationships, is now registered as a sex offender and will spend the next two years in jail.

This is where the Supreme Court of Canada, and prosecutors, have brought us with their overly broad use of criminal law when it comes to HIV. Because of a series of much-criticized decisions that equate HIV non-disclosure before sex with sexual assault, indigenous women living with HIV are now a new face of sexual offender in this country.

Schenkels case is a window into this miscarriage of justice. As in many other cases of HIV non-disclosure, the sentencing judge found that there was no lie, manipulation or exploitation by Schenkels. Rather, her silence was the result of fear and denial. Nor was there any evidence that she actually transmitted the virus to the complainant who has since tested positive for HIV. But because the Supreme Court ruled that HIV non-disclosure before sex can amount to fraud invalidating consent to sex, people living with HIV can be convicted of aggravated sexual assault  an offence usually reserved for the most violent cases of sexual assault  even if the sex was neither forced nor coerced, there was no intention to harm and HIV was not transmitted.

FOTOLIA

Criminalizing HIV non-disclosure is often perceived as a means of protecting women. This perception is reinforced by the fact that the charge used to prosecute people for not disclosing the fact they have HIV is sexual assault. But criminalizing HIV non-disclosure does not protect women from HIV, nor from gender-based violence nor the inequality in which it is rooted. What it does do is put women living with HIV  especially those in abusive relationships  at increased risk of violence, abuse and prosecution. For many indigenous women, particularly those surviving a legacy of colonization and the intergenerational effects of residential schools, the overly broad criminalization of HIV non-disclosure has only institutionalized another form of violence against them.

As of today, at least 17 women living with HIV have been prosecuted for HIV non-disclosure in Canada. Most of them were already living on the margins, already facing a greater risk of acquiring HIV and making it even more challenging to disclose their status. Some of those women, like Schenkels, are indigenous; also like her, some are survivors of sexual or other violence. Many were and are living in poverty or with little income security. Some had precarious immigration status. Add to this marginalization the dilemma of revealing a heavily stigmatized status such as being HIV-positive or facing criminal charges for one of the most serious offences in the Criminal Code. This bind does not help or protect women.

When a person does not disclose they have HIV, it is usually not about asserting force over another person in order to gain sexual gratification, but rather the result of fear of violence or other harm, rejection or denial. By associating HIV non-disclosure with sexual assault, we are both harming people living with HIV and seriously undermining the law of sexual assault. These concerns are not limited to the HIV community. Feminist scholars and advocates are also questioning the value of such use of the law, as captured in a new documentary film, Consent: HIV non-disclosure and the law of sexual assault.

As one of the films experts asks, What does it do to our understanding of sexual assault law as a vehicle to promote womens equality if the new faces of sex offenders are young, racialized, aboriginal or street-involved women? It is a bitter irony that Consent was publicly screened in Winnipeg the day of Schenkels sentencing hearing.

Schenkels case brings Canadians, once again, face to face with the cruelty of a justice system that not only fails to protect women from sexual violence, but also ensnares the most vulnerable, despite their efforts to overcome their struggles. Schenkels is taking responsibility for her life and her former actions. She is married and a caregiver to her partners child, and she is accessing HIV care. Even the sentencing judge acknowledged she was considered a viable candidate for community supervision rather than imprisonment. Nevertheless, she will spend the next two years in an institution notorious for its limited resources for addressing the health needs of its population, especially those living with HIV. Its a tragic illustration of how equating HIV non-disclosure with sexual assault makes women less safe and simply multiplies the forms of systemic violence that women living with HIV suffer.

Cecile Kazatchkine is a senior policy analyst for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. Laverne Gervais is the project co-ordinator of Sisters of Fire at Ka Ni Kanichihk.
Senior Mitchel Meyerhoff is the son of Bonnie and Joel Meyerhoff of Minnesota City. Mitchell describes himself as kind and courteous. Math and band are his favorite subjects in school. Mitchel works in the Hy-Vee produce sections, is an audio and visual technician at Goodview Trinity Church and participates in Saturday morning bowling league. Michel said his parents are his role models. Faculty and staff describe Mitchel as kind, polite, helpful, hardworking and friendly. He is a great student with a wonderful sense of humor, they said. After graduation, Mitchel plans to attend a four-year college. His advice to students is, Do your homework, study hard and you will be just fine.

Senior McKenzie Fueling is the daughter of Sue and Bruce Fueling of Winona. McKenzie describes herself as organized, hard-working, creative, responsible, sociable, studious, loyal, intelligent, punctual, determined, funny and generous. English, math and Spanish are her favorite subjects in school. McKenzie is active in the drama club, band and speech team and said she enjoys reading. McKenzie said that her sister Latasha and Misha Collins are her role models. Faculty and staff describe her as hard working, helpful, dedicated, considerate and a leader. She is an excellent student and a responsible young lady, they said. After graduation, McKenzie plans to attend Minnesota State College  Southeast Technical, then Winona State University to pursue a paralegal degree, and then attend the University of Minnesota to pursue a law degree. Her advice to students is, In high school, everyone is trying to find themselves. So dont be discouraged by those who try and put you down. Remember that you are not alone and that you can only be the best that you can be.
Kindergarten students at Jefferson Elementary School had the opportunity to make their own mini canoe paddles Monday afternoon, thanks to Winona company Sanborn Canoe.

The students stood around tables with sandpaper and paintbrushes in hand, putting their creativity to work as their voices and laughter filled the hallway.

Julie Seeley, a kindergarten teacher at Jefferson Elementary, said the students are in the middle of their wood and paper unit, where the students are learning about the use of wood as a resource. She said they were looking for a way to have an interactive activity that would help the students better understand ways wood is used as a resource.

Tapping the resources of a local company that depends on wood to create its high-quality canoe paddles was a natural fit.

I thought it would be a good way to give the students that opportunity to learn, Seeley said.

Zak Fellman, one of the owners of Sanborn Canoe, said his wife is a teacher at Jefferson Elementary, which helped make the connection and bring them in to teach the kindergarten students.

He said he and other Sanborn owners are sharing what they love with the next generation, in hopes of inspiring some of the students to consider similar, unique careers.

Seeley said its important they expose the students to paths different than the ones theyre typically taught to imagine. Those jobs are good, too, but its important for the students at a young age to see all the different possibilities.

I heard one of my students say I wanna do this, so that was great, Seeley said.

She said the students have been preparing for this day for a while now, learning how to sand wood, make wood laminates and paint. She said the students will be making paper canoes in their next unit to follow up the paddle-making.

It goes along with the units of study theyve been doing, Seeley said. Its important that the students understand the connections humans have to the natural world.

Lisa Henderson was standing by her daughter Jadas side Monday as she sanded and painted her mini canoe paddle.

Lisa said its important to inspire the kids with activities like this, especially in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathmetics) school.

Jada had a smile on her face while she painted her paddle.

I get to have fun and make a mess, Jada said.
Hillary Clinton fared well on Super Tuesday, winning seven of 11 primaries thanks in large part to minority voters in delegate-heavy Southern states such as Texas and Virginia. But the perception that she is less of a genuine liberal, or even a credible feminist, than her rival Bernie Sanders continues to prevail among some younger, and often female, voters. In an interesting example of why this might be so, a reader wrote to me recently and asked whether I thought Clinton set back the feminist movement by not leaving Bill Clinton after all the evidence of his infidelities.

I always thought she could have done a lot for women if she would have signaled that she was strong, she was her own woman, and she wasnt going to tolerate that kind of disrespect and humiliation, said my correspondent, a 43-year-old woman from Los Angeles.

I wrote back what Ive always thought: The Clinton marriage is  pardon me while I duck for cover  kind of great, even romantic in its own way. Maybe not in a romantic love kind of way (though who knows?), but in the sense of a true partnership that transcends the common conventions of most marriages.

The idea that the Clinton marriage is little more than a political partnership  and therefore a cynical relationship  has been lobbed at Hillary and Bill for decades. I dont buy it. I see them as intellectually, philosophically and practically well matched, a pairing thats taken on tasks ranging from raising a child and thinking about how best to effect change in the world.

Obviously no one would have blamed Hillary for leaving Bill over the Monica Lewinsky scandal or any number of previous improprieties. But her choice to stay never struck me as a sign of weakness or compromise. It struck me as the choice of a woman deciding that the value of her relationship with her husband was greater than or equal to the humiliations and setbacks caused by a philandering nature she was probably aware of from the get-go.

Not that we can ever know what really goes on in other peoples marriages. Maybe Hillary was clueless about Bills proclivities when she married him. Maybe she tolerated his dalliances over the years solely for political expediency. Maybe when the Clintons left the White House, Hillary did focus groups on whether shed have a better shot at a political career with Bill or without him, and were seeing the result.

For my money, though, I think Bill and Hillary both know theyre better off together than apart, especially if together means enjoying the benefits of marriage without the hassle of being constantly in each others company. Given that they own two homes and havent been seen much in public together over the last eight years, it seems possible that they maintain separate households. Besides, being married remains an unspoken requirement for the presidency regardless of gender.

The Clintons meet-cute story has been a staple of their narrative for years. It was 1971; he stared at her for so long in the Yale Law School library that she finally walked up to him and introduced herself.

In recent weeks, Bill Clinton has been telling the story. In one way or another weve been together ever since, he said while campaigning for Hillary in Iowa. He went on to say that when he asked her to marry him, he told her she shouldnt do it.

Ive met the most talented people in our generation in politics, he recalled saying to her. And then I came to law school here and I met you. Youre better than all of them  . You should go home to Chicago and run for office.

If youre so inclined, look up this speech (it was Jan. 15, in Marshalltown, Iowa) and watch it for yourself. Turning the dial up on his inimitable earnestness, Clinton puts a dramatic pause between I met you and Youre better than all of them, a pause, I dare say, that would melt the heart  or weaken the knees  of even the most Clinton-wary feminist. Its a manipulation, for sure (and it seems to have been a successful one back then, given that she married him and supported his political career instead). But its also a clear, and I think authentic, display of admiration and affection, a kind of love song about the particular passion of this particular couple.

No two marriages have quite the same yardstick for happiness or success. Hillarys choice to stay in her marriage sends the signal that she is strong, that she is her own woman, one capable of deciding that being together in one way or another can be just as sacred as waking up next to the same person day in and day out.

Though I guess it would help to have your own house.
ST. PAUL, Minn.  All workers in Minnesota would have access to paid family and medical leave under a new proposal unveiled by a group of Democratic state legislators.

Sen. Katie Sieben and other legislators announced the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act on Monday morning flanked by advocates from around the state. It goes well beyond Gov. Mark Daytons proposal earlier this year that would extend six weeks of parental leave only to the states 35,000 public employees.

Our current lack of a paid family leave program reflects a time decades ago when the majority of women did not fully participate in the workforce, Sieben said. A paid family leave program in Minnesota will ensure that workers have some degree of security when a major life event occurs.

Siebens proposal would guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid leave for pregnancy and medical issues and would also offer 12 weeks to care for a new child or an ill family member.

Intended to be phased in over time, the program would be self-funded equally by employees and employers after the initial startup costs. Program proponents say it would cost an employee making $44,000 a year about $1.70 per week.

The proposal would operate on a progressive, partial wage replacement model, in which the lowest-paid workers would receive the highest portion  up to 80 percent  of their pay.

The program would be mandatory for employees and businesses, but companies that already offer benefits that are comparable or better than the proposed program could apply to be exempted. They would still have to pay some fees to help cover the programs administrative costs.

Just three states offer paid family leave to public employees  California, New Jersey and Rhode Island, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A similar measure gained little steam last year in Minnesotas Republican-controlled House and was strongly opposed by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, but Democrats said Monday they were nonetheless optimistic.
MINNESOTA

Woman critically wounded, man dead in Rochester shootingsROCHESTERRochester police say a woman was critically wounded and a man dead after a domestic dispute. Neighbors and a passerby saw the woman collapse on the sidewalk Monday morning. Police Capt. John Sherwin says the woman was bleeding heavily. Witnesses also saw a man walking away from the home. The woman, in her 40s, had been shot multiple times. She was taken by ambulance to a Rochester hospital and immediately went into surgery. Authorities then found a man in his 70s in a pickup truck, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. Sherwin would not confirm that the man had shot the woman, but says there is no risk to the public and no suspects are being sought. Names of the victims were not released Monday.

Ice fishing shelters should be gone from area lakesST. PAULThe Department of Natural Resources said ice fishing shelters should have been taken off lakes in the southern two-thirds of Minnesota by the end of Monday. If the structures arent gone, owners could be cited and the ice houses may be confiscated and destroyed. Those shelters on lakes in the northern third of the state have two weeks before they have to be removed.

Minnesota WWII-era pilot Elizabeth Strohfus dies at 96FAIRBAULTA Minnesota woman who piloted military planes during World War II and received two Congressional Gold Medals has died. Elizabeth Strohfus of Faribault was 96. Her son, Art Roberts, says Strohfus died Sunday night at her assisted living center after being placed in hospice care after a fall. Strohfus was one of the last remaining members of Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. She ferried military planes in 1943 and 1944, and helped train air and infantry gunners at Las Vegas Army Airfield. Ater graduating from high school, Strohfus borrowed $100 to join the previously all-male Sky Club. She was a member of the Civil Air Patrol before joining WASP. After WASP was disbanded in December 1944, Strohfus worked as an aircraft controller in Wyoming before returning to Faribault.

2 people on motorcycle die in Fridley crash with minivanFRIDLEYTwo people died Monday after their motorcycle collided with a minivan in Fridley. The Anoka County Sheriffs Office said the three-wheeled motorcycle apparently ran a red light and struck the van at an intersection early Monday afternoon. Authorities say the 52-year-old Fridley man who was driving the cycle and the woman who was his passenger both died. Their names have not been released. The woman who was driving the van and her child were taken to a hospital for evaluation but apparently were not hurt. Motorcycles arent typically on Minnesota roads in March, but the unseasonably warm weather has given riders the opportunity to get out earlier than usual.

WISCONSIN

Wisconsin sees increase in babies born addicted to opiatesWISCONSIN RAPIDSThe number of babies born addicted to heroin and other opiates is growing at an alarming rate in intensive care units across Wisconsin. Over 500 addicted infants are born a year, a number that has more than doubled since 2009. Those births have been occurring throughout Wisconsin, including in relatively small, rural counties. Data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Department of Children and Families show that the number of babies born with opiate addiction in Wisconsin increased by 125 percent between 2009 and 2014. The states worst year was 2013, when 540 addicted babies were admitted to hospitals. Every county in Wisconsin has reported growing numbers of heroin-related arrests since 2008. The increase in heroin use is the result of the crack down on methamphetamine production in 2005, as well as restrictions on the amount of opiate-based pain relievers prescribed by physicians and the rise in cheap supplies of heroin.

Lawyer featured in Making a Murderer is writing a bookNEW YORKAn attorney for Steven Avery who was featured in the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer has more to say about the trial. Jerome Buting has a deal with HarperCollins Publishers for a book being released next year. The book will be released through the Harper imprint. Making a Murderer chronicles the hardship of Avery, a member of a salvage-yard family in Wisconsins rural Manitowoc County who served 18 years in prison for a 1985 rape he didnt commit. The series tells of Averys widely disputed conviction in the 2005 death of a photographer. The documentary suggests the possibility that deputies planted evidence. In the book, Buting will draw on his 35-year career and assail the dysfunction of the criminal justice system.
A Baraboo woman who stabbed her brother to death pleaded guilty to reduced charges Monday and was sentenced to five years behind bars.

Sauk County District Attorney Kevin Calkins said the agreement, in which the intentional homicide charge against 59-year-old Anne M. Simon was amended to a less serious count of homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon, represented a nice middle ground.

Simon called 911 around 11:30 a.m. Dec. 22, 2014, to report that her brother, 56-year-old Donald E. Simon, was dead on the living room floor of her town of Delton home. She told investigators she had stabbed him nine hours earlier when he attacked her following an altercation over cigarettes.

Calkins said the plea deal was recognition of the fact that Simon could have reasonably convinced a jury that she stabbed her brother in self defense. He also said a Miranda violation committed by investigators during her interrogation precluded the prosecution from introducing statements Simon made about knives found in her basement at trial.

Simon  who wore an orange jumpsuit and glasses during a hearing Monday in Sauk County Circuit Court  answered questions from Judge James Evenson softly in one or two-word responses. Although she chose not to speak on her own behalf prior to sentencing, Simons defense attorney tried to put the events of that night into context.

It has never been my conclusion that Mrs. Simon intentionally caused the death of her brother, Attorney Craig Mastantuono of Milwaukee said while speaking in support of the joint sentencing recommendation.

He described Donald Simon as a drifter who had accumulated charges related to alcoholism, substance abuse and violent conduct. He had been living with his mother in Florida prior to the incident, and his sister paid to bring him to Wisconsin in order to relieve the mother of his presence.

After about a week, Simon realized she could no longer live with her brother and his son set him up with a hotel room, Mastantuono said.

The defense attorney said Donald Simon had made statements to his sister prior to the stabbing about their pending deaths, which alarmed her. The brother was drunk on the evening in question, Mastantuono said.

She was concerned about his ranting, but when he came up behind her and put his hands on her neck, she grabbed the first thing in front of her on the counter  which happened to be a knife  and plunged it into him, Mastantuono said.

He said Simon then went to sleep before calling authorities roughly nine hours later. Although he conceded that Simon has an alcohol problem, he said she was not intoxicated on the night of the incident.

Evenson accepted the joint recommendation from Calkins and Mastantuono, calling it an appropriate sentence.

Simon must serve an additional five years of community supervision upon her release from prison. She also must pay $518 in court costs, submit a DNA sample, undergo a substance abuse assessment, and comply with any treatment recommendations. She was credited with 440 days already served.
A group of kayakers, environmental educators and business people working to increase recreational interest in the Baraboo River has identified its rapids section as an area that can be utilized more effectively.

The group met Monday to discuss potential improvements and grant opportunities as part of the Baraboo River Corridor Plan, which MSA Professional Services is developing to apply for grants.

Some of the information compiled from the meeting included a desire for additional public access points, especially in the rapids section.

Thats the number one section for kayaking, said project engineer Raine Gardner of MSA Professional Services, who facilitated the meeting.

The overall corridor is about 15 miles long and includes the rapids section. A 45 feet drop happens within 4.5 miles, said Jack Burton of Mad City Paddlers.

A water course for whitewater kayaking also was identified as one of the priorities. The group talked about creating a map and adding signs at the areas where kayaks and canoes are put into the river.

Questions tackled by the group included first impressions of the Baraboo River, whether they engaged in recreation along the river, some of the assets and challenges of the Baraboo River Corridor and suggested improvements.

Daniel Fuller of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Fisheries department said he was concerned about mud and log jams along the river. Were trying to clear a path, Gardner said.

Gardner said the focus groups will help the company identify some of the desired outcomes of the plan before presenting it to the public during a planned workshop from 6-8 p.m. March 15 at the Baraboo Civic Center, Room 14.

The workshop will allow area residents, business owners and others to learn about corridor plan, brainstorm and provide input on its development.
The Department of Natural Resources is the one agency in Wisconsin tasked with protecting our air and water. So its alarming to learn that the DNR is on the verge of abdicating that responsibility in the name of making the state more business-friendly.

The DNR is closing in on a major reorganization that could send duties to other agencies and streamline regulatory work, including an experimental plan to allow some businesses to draft their own environmental permits, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Feb. 26.

Officials said the goal is to increase the DNRs efficiency. Its responsibilities range from management of hunting, fishing and state parks to regulating large-scale farms and keeping tabs on invasive species.

We cant nibble around the edges, Deputy Secretary Kurt Thiede said last month.We have to make strategic decisions about what we are going to continue to do, where we are going to focus and be brave enough to say we are going to give certain things up.

The Republican-led Legislature is no friend to the DNR. It has cut the agencys funding and advanced a series of measures to limit DNR powers in recent years.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, have grown more dissatisfied, pointing to the drop in enforcement activity, reductions in scientific staff and concerns that the DNR isnt doing enough on matters like groundwater protection, water pollution and oversight of large farms.

Thiede emphasized that environmental protections wont be weakened and the DNR would still have to approve permits. This isnt about changing the law, not following the law, he said.

Mr. Thiede, you dont have to change the law to satisfy certain constituencies. You can do that by becoming much less vigorous in enforcement. Or by signaling an appetite for deregulation by saying You tell us how much pollution is acceptable.

Is a business given the latitude to write its own environmental-permit language going to be more likely to relax pollution standards on itself, or less likely? We believe that wed hear from Corporation X that the existing standard for dumping waste into nearby streams and rivers is outdated.

Handing a fill-in-the-blank regulatory form over to a business surely will please that business, but its a disservice to everybody else.

DNR should be commended for their efforts to streamline the permitting process to get permits issued more quickly without changing environmental standards in any way, Lucas Vebber, director of environmental and energy policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the states largest business group, said in an email to the Journal Sentinel.

Except for the without changing environmental standards in any way part, we agree with the WMC spokesmans assessment of what the DNR is doing.

DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, a former homebuilder, recalled at one agency listening session how an employee told her that clean air and clean water, that those were our customers. And I said, Well, the last time I checked, they dont pay taxes and they dont sign our paychecks. 

Shes got us there. The air and the water do not pay taxes.

But taxpayers also need clean air and clean water. And they need the agency tasked with protection of our air and water to actually do its job.
Cynthia L. Stone, 63, Beaver Dam, died Tuesday, March 1, 2016, at Beaver Dam Community Hospital.

Visitation will be held at Koepsell-Murray Funeral Home in Beaver Dam on Sunday, March 13, from 11 a.m. to the time of the service at 1 p.m. The Rev. Terry Larson will officiate and burial will be at Oakwood Cemetery in Beaver Dam.

Cynthia Lou Stone was born March 5, 1952, to Donald E. and Laurena M. (nee Kline) Stone in Beaver Dam. Cindy made friends everywhere she went. She had many friends at Green Valley and adult day-care at the Trosten Haus in Beaver Dam. Cindy loved to sing. She liked all genres of music but her favorites were gospel, pop and country. Her memory was as sharp as a tack when it came to remembering the lyrics to her favorite songs. The Special Olympics were very important to her. Cindy was a longtime member of First Ev. Lutheran Church in Beaver Dam.

Survivors include her sisters, Karen (Robert) Compton of Hartland, and Gail (John) Streich of Great Falls, Mont.; a niece and three nephews; numerous cousins; other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Gary Stone.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Charlton House, Beaver Dam, or to Green Valley Enterprises  Trosten Haus, Beaver Dam.

A special thank you to the staff at Charlton House for the care she received over the years.

Koepsell-Murray Funeral Home in Beaver Dam is caring for the family. To leave online condolences, or for directions and other information visit www.KoepsellFH.com.
Mauston High School senior Nate Buss received a first-hand look at Wisconsin government when he participated in the Senate Scholar Program at the state capitol in Madison.

Buss was one of just 33 high school juniors and seniors in the state selected to this week-long educational program, taking students through the daily activities of the Wisconsin State Senate. Buss attended the Feb. 7-12 session, which was one of three offered by the state senate.

Admission to the program is highly competitive and limited to juniors and seniors with high academic achievement. Buss was referred to the program by Mauston High School Social Sciences teacher Greg LaBansky and Principal Jim Dillon.

I had to take a test on Wisconsin state history, write an essay on some laws, get a couple letters of recommendation and send them my resume, Buss said. I would like thank Mr. LaBansky and my principal, Mr. Dillon, for helping me get into this program.

Buss said about 60 students applied for the program, which gives high school kids an inside look at the state legislature.

It wasnt super selective, but I think the lengthy application process really filtered out the people who werent as committed, Buss said.

Upon getting selected, Buss couldnt wait to travel to Madison and take part in the program.

I have a slight interest in politics, Buss said. I dont know if its a future career interest, but its nice to know how government works.

Through the program, students gained experience in several legislative areas, such as policy development, constituent relations, and processing legislation, working alongside state senators, legislative staff and faculty from UW-Madison.

Every day was really busy; we got up at like 5:30 a.m. and were doing stuff all day, Buss said. The first day we got a tour of the capitol and every day after that we would hear from people in different branches (of the government) telling us what they do and what their job entails.

For Buss, one of the most interesting aspects of the program was talking to lobbyists. Buss said the experienced shed some of the stigma about what lobbyists do.

I just didnt think there was as much depth there; they lobby for many different things and there are public lobbyists and private lobbyists, Buss said. I couldnt see myself doing what they do, but its cool to see that there are people who can do that. Sometimes you think of corruption, but they are nice people to.

Buss, along with fellow Senate Scholars, passed a fake law to see what the legislative process entails. While hes learned about the bill process in school, the activity in Madison gave him a new appreciation for state government. The bill focused on whether minors (age 16 to 17) should be allowed to get tattoos.

Its a lot more complicated than you might think because we had to write the bill and use certain language, Buss said. It has to be researched through a bureau and worded precisely right or else it can be discarded. I learned a lot about compromise too because we had to work together and we learned about what we can and cant do. The whole process of drafting a bill really opened my eyes.

During the week, Buss met Senator Howard Marklein, who represents Juneau County in the 17th State Senate District.

He was a really nice guy. We got to meet with him in his office and he was really interested in what we were learning about, Buss said.

Through the week, Buss met new friends from throughout the state. Buss, who is also a National Merit Semifinalist, was proud to represent Mauston High School as a Senate Scholar.

Buss also received exciting news recently, being informed he was accepted to the prestigious military academy at West Point. As of 2013, the acceptance rate to West Point was just 9 percent. In June, Buss will travel to New York to begin the next chapter in his life.

Im really excited, Buss said. Its quite an honor.
A Friesland man faces the possibility of more than 20 years in prison after he was charged with strangulation, substantial battery and other charges in an 11-count criminal complaint.

Justin A. Bryce, 26, appeared in Columbia County Circuit Court on Monday for his initial appearance before Judge Alan J. White. Assistant District Attorney Clifford Burdon requested Bryce be held on a $50,000 cash bond.

Although domestic abuse cases are a regular occurrence, those in the courtroom sat up and took special notice at the few details that were read from the criminal complaint.

The factors alleged ... are extremely disturbing, said Burdon. This is a case that Mr. Bryce is alleged to have strangled the victim, the victim turned out to have a broken bone in her throat. Threatened to kill her, imprisoned her  these are aggravating factors all over the board.

The Columbia County Sheriffs Office dispatched an officer at 2 a.m. Thursday after a 911 call form a Friesland resident reporting a naked 26-year-old woman who had shown up at their door, seriously injured and yelling for help.

Officers noted 15 separate injuries including two black eyes, a bump on her forehead and marks around her neck. The woman was taken to Divine Savior Healthcare where she was reported to have several healed broken ribs and a recently broken hyoid bone, which supports the tongue in the throat.

The woman told officers that she had been living with Bryce for about 15 months and that they had lived in Michigan before moving to Illinois and Texas, then moving to Wisconsin in the last three months. Since moving to Wisconsin, she said, Bryce had been physically, mentally and verbally abusive, leaving her with no phone, no friends, no relatives and not working because he doesnt want me around people.

On Feb. 24, she told officers, he beat the **** out of me really good, saying that was the reason for some of her bruises and one black eye and that Bryce had strangled her to the point that she passed out and her throat had been sore since.

On March 2, the two went out to a bar in Fox Lake and when they got home, Bryce began picking a fight, she said. Bryce then reportedly shoved her to the ground and began strangling her, but after she kicked him, he stopped strangling her and began punching and kicking her.

She told officers that she took off her clothes and tried to get Bryce to come into the bedroom, but he attacked again, saying, Im going to kill you. At which point she said she just knew I had to go, running out the door and then going door to door, trying to find a neighbor who would help.

Bryce told an officer that the two of them had been out drinking and gotten into an argument and that when she ran out of the house he got dressed and got into his vehicle to go look for her. After showing several signs of intoxication and registering 0.106 on a preliminary breath test, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Among the bond conditions Burdon requested was that if released, Bryce would have no contact with the victim, have absolute sobriety and not be in possession of any weapons.

Were there weapons involved here? asked White.

I believe in the previous incidents  it was not reported at the time, but is was reported  that he did put a knife through a door, said Burdon referring to the earlier incident the woman told officers about, in which she locked herself in the bathroom.

Pointing out that Bryce is locally employed at a job he was missing by being in jail and that he did have local friends whom he could stay with, defense attorney Tristan Eagon asked that any cash bond be limited to $1,500.

White ordered Bryce be held on a $10,000 bond, scheduling him to next appear for a preliminary hearing on March 17.

According to the Columbia County Sheriffs Office, Baraboo-based domestic violence shelter and advocacy center Hope House assisted in taking care of the woman after the incident and offering counseling.

In 2014, Wisconsin had 37 homicide deaths related to domestic violence, according to the group End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin. According to the organizations most recent annual report on domestic abuse-related deaths in the state, between 2000 and 2014, there have been between 28 and 52 domestic abuse-related homicides every year.
Winter wont turn to spring for several weeks, but the fall campaign for president starts now.

After Super Tuesday, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump can see clear paths to their parties nominations. True, the anti-Trump forces show faint flickers of life, but battle lines are already forming. And at this point, Clinton rates as the clear favorite.

Trump is a clever campaigner who has confounded conventional wisdom for months. He has a keen ear for the fears and phobias that trouble his supporters, and deftly exploits the economic and cultural shifts that leave them confused and frustrated.

Many Republican officials will support him, like Rep. Tom Marino, a third-termer from north central Pennsylvania who told Politico that Trump enjoyed overwhelming support in his district.

Hes the man for the unprotected ... not the protected, not for the Wall Street people, not for the D.C. insiders, but for the hard-working taxpayers, Marino said.

The primaries have also revealed sizeable weaknesses that have long clouded Clintons ambitions. Shes done poorly with young people, white men and voters who value honesty and trustworthiness. Ongoing investigations into her email habits could produce new and damaging revelations, even a criminal complaint. And Trump will surely run a virulent, vicious and highly personal campaign.

Still, Clinton starts with important advantages, and the first is the widening split in Republican ranks. A recent CNN poll showed that 1 in 4 Republican voters harbor grave doubts about supporting Trump in the fall, and they are epitomized by Meg Whitman, co-chair of Gov. Chris Christies finance committee.

After Christie endorsed Trump, Whitman accused the governor of an astonishing display of political opportunism. Trump, she complained, is unfit to be president. He is a dishonest demagogue who plays to our worst fears. Trump would take America on a dangerous journey. ... For some of us, principle and country still matter.

Certainly some Sanders backers disdain Clinton, and might stay home in November. But the level of vitriol is far lower among Democrats, and their prospects for unity are much greater.

Few party loyalists believe Hillary is unfit to be president, for example. And on Super Tuesday, Clinton and Bernie Sanders barely mentioned each other, while Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio continued to hammer Trump and he blasted them back.

Clintons second advantage is that the Republican primaries have provided her with a vast store of ammunition, ready to fire against Trump. She doesnt have to call him a con man or a fraud or a liar; she can just show clips of Rubio and Cruz making those charges.

Other Republicans focus on Trumps biggest weakness: his unsteady and unreliable temperament. In fact, two GOP strategists floated ideas for an anti-Trump ad they described: We want voters to imagine Donald Trump in the Big Chair in the Oval Office, with responsibilities for worldwide confrontation at his fingertips.

That ad never got made in the primaries. It will in the fall.

These attacks havent worked with Trumps hard-core supporters, but the general election is a very different arena. Will moderate suburban moms living outside of Philadelphia or Cleveland or Orlando really trust Trumps judgment in a crisis?

Republicans can hardly take Sanders attacks and turn them against Clinton. Are they going to accuse her of being too cautious on health care? And how do you lambaste her for befriending billionaires when your standard-bearer is, well, a billionaire?

That raises Clintons third asset: demography. Barack Obama won the womens vote by 11 points (while losing men by 7 points). Hillary is already testing themes aimed at women voters, and theyre working: She won women by 32 points on Super Tuesday. These words in South Carolina were aimed directly at her sisters: I believe with all my heart, we have to start treating each other with respect, listening to each other, holding out hands, a fellowship.

Shes already demonstrated her appeal to black voters, and Trumps strident attacks on undocumented immigrants give her a clear shot at increasing her support among Latinos.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican from South Florida and the son of Cuban exiles, told The Wall Street Journal he could not face his two children if he backed Trump: I could never look them in the eye and tell them that I support someone so crass and insulting and offensive to lead the greatest nation in the world.

Thats why Clinton is the favorite. Too many Republicans wont be able to defend Trump to their children. Or trust him to keep them safe.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the state agency that Scott Walker created to replace the old Department of Commerce to fulfill the governors (failed) promise of creating 250,000 jobs during his first term in office, continues to be an embarrassment.

The latest came last week when the Wisconsin State Journal reported that WEDC officials and an executive of the states big business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, discussed as early as last June the possibility that the merged conglomerate Kraft Heinz might move jobs out of Wisconsin, but decided not to contact corporate officials to learn what it might take to keep the jobs here.

About five months later, Kraft Heinz announced that it was closing the historic Madison headquarters of Oscar Mayer, costing the city about 1,000 jobs.

According to emails the State Journal examined between WMC Senior Vice President Jim Morgan and WEDC officials, there were indications that other states were trying to lure a Kraft Heinz cheese-processing facility in Beaver Dam away from the state. But the WMC, which has worked hand-in-glove with Walkers WEDC since it was created early in Walkers first term, suggested it wasnt necessary to contact the conglomerate.

So WEDC didnt. WMC Pesident Kurt Bauer now insists that the contact had nothing to do with Oscar Mayer and he chastised the State Journal for not recognizing the difference between Beaver Dam and Madison.

But Mayor Paul Soglin called that a lame excuse that obfuscates the issue. Soglin said he talked to Kraft Heinz officials as early as last March to inquire about possible plant closings following the merger between the giant ketchup maker and Kraft Foods, but state officials didnt do a thing until the conglomerate announced it was closing Oscar Mayer.

Soglin was joined in his criticism by state Sen. Fred Risser and state Rep. Chris Taylor, in whose district Oscar Mayer is located. They see the news as another indication that the WEDC has not kept its eye on the ball in trying to keep and create Wisconsin jobs.

And, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgeralds recent finger-pointing at local officials not withstanding, theyre right of course.

The WEDC has been involved in misstep after misstep since Walker promised his creation of the agency would lure countless jobs to the state.

Perhaps communications would not have caused Kraft Heinz to change its mind about Oscar Mayers Madison headquarters, but it surely was worth a try, especially by the state agency whose sole job is to build and keep jobs. Other states were quick to get the conglomerates ear by offering incentives and other options to move jobs their way. Wisconsin should have been in the mix.

What we have here is another example of how poorly state government is being run by this group of Republican ideologues whose priorities never seem to include the publics best interests.
USDA announces $1 billion debt relief for 36,000 farmers

The USDA announced a program to provide $1.3B in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure.
Tackling rheumatoid arthritis in Africa

Research could not, and should not be done in isolation.

That is the strong belief of Professor Mohammed Tikly, Principal Specialist Physician and Academic Head of the Division of Rheumatology in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences.

It is all about collaboration, says Tikly, who since 1997 has trained 14 specialist rheumatologists at the hospital and supervised several Masters and PhD students to completion. Tikly, who started out as an intern at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital 35 years ago, saw the research potential at the hospital after he returned from the University of Edinburgh in 1990 and he immediately started up the Rheumatology Division.

One of the things that struck me was that there is so much research potential at the hospital, he says. We produce very good clinicians but not enough clinical researchers.

Tikly immediately started researching Rheumatoid Arthritis in African people - both clinically and with the support of the Human Sciences Research Council, the social impacts of the disease.

The challenges for patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis in Africa are somewhat different to those of patients in industrial countries, he says. Patients here have many more difficulties in terms of transport, public transport, amenities like housing, running water, toilets and coping with pain.

But while Tikly sees himself primarily as a physician with a strong interest in research, he has over the years become one of the leading researchers in his fields, with his publications being cited all over the world.

His mentorship of others, however, is what excites him most. As a true leader, Tikly has the ability to identify gaps in research areas and to inspire other academics to conduct great research.

In one specific case, Tikly brought together specialists in immunology, genetics and clinicians from the University of Pretoria and Wits, as well as researchers from universities from the United States to study various areas of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The collaborations resulted in 19 publications on various aspects of clinical outcomes of treatment, genetic risk factors by studying the entire genome and using accelerometry as a novel method to assess physical disability and the habitual physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis.

Out of that study, we have produced five PhDs since the start of the collaboration, says Tikly.

When we open up to other people, everybody benefits. You have to surround yourself with smart people  thats what makes you smart.

The study on the relation of the disease to the habitual physical activity of patients was published in the leading journal, Rheumatology (Oxford).

We were probably the first group to have shown this, says Tikly.

Subsequent research also showed for the first time in Africa that the aggressive treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis is more effective in reversing the inflammation and disability caused by the disease.

We are actually using that aggressive treatment now in the clinic, concludes Tikly.

The patient is the centre of our research. It has to somehow impact on healthcare. We have to be relevant to the society within which we work.




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Modular milestone for Vogtle 3 shield building

08 March 2016

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The placement of concrete to fill the walls of the CA20 module at the Vogtle 3 nuclear construction project in Georgia has been completed, a key milestone for the vertical construction of the shield building.

Pouring concrete into the walls of Vogtle 3's CA20 module (Image: Georgia Power)



Over 1800 cubic yards (1376 cubic metres) of concrete were poured in a continuous 45-hour operation to fill the walls of the CA20 module. The module, weighing nearly 1000 tonnes and standing over 21 metres tall, will house plant systems including fuel handling and used fuel storage areas. It was lifted into place in March 2014.

Unit 3 is one of two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors under construction at Vogtle, joining two existing pressurized water reactors. The unit is expected to enter operation by the middle of 2019, with Vogtle 4 following by mid-2020. Two AP1000s are also under construction at VC Summer in South Carolina. The first two of four units under construction in China - Sanmen 1 and Haiyang 1 - are expected to begin operations before the end of 2016, with Sanmen 2 and Haiyang 2 scheduled to be in operation by the end of 2017.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News





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Amano highlights 2016 activities for IAEA

08 March 2016

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Further enhancing nuclear safety around the world and the verification of Iran's nuclear program will be key activities for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this year, its director general has told the organization's board of governors.

Amano addresses the IAEA's board of governors (Image: D Calma/IAEA)

In an introductory statement to the board yesterday, Yukiya Amano said there are currently 442 nuclear power reactors in operation around the world and another 66 under construction, two-thirds of which are in Asia. He noted there is continued interest among 'newcomer' countries in introducing nuclear power. "The agency is assisting them in meeting challenges in nuclear infrastructure development," he said.

Amano said the climate change agreement reached at COP21 in Paris late last year will have implications for the work of the IAEA, in particular concerning the use of nuclear power. He said, "The IAEA can assist member states with the pre-2020 actions necessary to meet the goals of the Paris agreement."

Enhancing safety

Referring to the forthcoming anniversaries of the nuclear power accidents at Fukushima Daiichi and Chernobyl, Amano said: "The immense human impact of these events should not be forgotten." He added, "I am confident that the legacy of Fukushima Daiichi will be a sharper focus on nuclear safety everywhere. There is widespread recognition that everything humanly possible must be done to ensure that no such accident ever happens again. This is all the more essential as global use of nuclear power is likely to continue to grow in the coming decades."

Amano said the Nuclear Safety Review 2016 shows that progress continues to be made in enhancing nuclear safety but stressed, "There can be no grounds for complacency about nuclear safety in any country".

He said all countries - especially those with nuclear power programs - are encouraged to become contracting parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety as soon as possible. The convention's peer review process, he said, provides "an excellent forum for sharing experience among regulators and the nuclear industry, from which all parties benefit". There are currently 78 contracting parties to the convention.

"2016 will be an important year for nuclear security," Amano said. The amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material could soon enter into force, more than ten years after it was adopted. "Bringing the amendment into force is the single most important step which the world can take to strengthen nuclear security," he said. Adherence by 11 countries is required for the amendment to come into force. "I hope that this will happen as soon as possible," Amano told the board.

Verification work

Amano said the IAEA has found no indication of the diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran. Iran's Additional Protocol has been provisionally implemented since 16 January.

"Iran is now invited to participate in the full range of agency activities, including technical meetings, conferences, training courses and workshops," Amano stated.

However, he noted that Iran has to implement its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the E3/EU+3 countries "for many years to come, and the agency has to verify, monitor and report on its implementation". Amano said a new Office of Safeguards Verification in Iran had been established within the IAEA's Department of Safeguards on 1 March.

Amano issued a draft budget update for 2017 in January. He said, "It is essential that predictable, regular budget funding is made available for our long-term verification and monitoring work in Iran. As I stated in the update document, we need a clear path for integrating the full amount of 5.2 million ($5.7 million) into the regular budget as soon as possible."

North Korea's nuclear program remains "a major cause for concern", Amano said. "Recent statements by the DPRK are especially worrying," he said. North Korea announced in early January that it had conducted a new nuclear weapon test. "The agency remains ready to contribute to the peaceful resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue by resuming its verification activities once a political agreement is reached among countries concerned."

Non-energy technologies

The IAEA responded quickly to the outbreak of the Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean, Amano said. "We are providing portable equipment that will allow the rapid detection of the Zika virus in the field, and training our local partners in how to use it."

He added, "The agency is also helping countries in Latin America which seek to deploy the sterile insect technique against the Aedes mosquito that can transmit the Zika virus and other pathogens." The IAEA is to transport a gamma cell irradiator to Brazil to enable it to boost production of sterile male mosquitoes for release in pilot areas.

Amano said the IAEA's laboratories in Seibersdorf near Vienna play a vital role in research and transferring nuclear technology to developing member states. However, he said the laboratories are in urgent need of renovation. "Without full renovation of the laboratories, our capacity to respond to member states' request for assistance, on Zika and in other areas, will be significantly limited."

He noted that some 6.5 million in extrabudgetary funds is still required to fund modernization of the laboratories and called on all member states to contribute to their renovation.

Researched and written

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Betty J. Wolfrath, age 94, passed away on February 27, 2016 at Highland Village in Elko, NV. She was born on July 23, 1921 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Floyd L. Watkins and Ethel D. Watkins. She was the 9th of 11 children. Her mother died when she was 9 years old. The family moved to New London, Wisconsin, where her father became superintendent of a furniture factory. She married Richard B. Mathewson in 1937 and had one daughter Margaret Anne. Betty lived in Baraboo during World War II and worked for a time at OKeefes Grocery Store and Badger Ordnance. She married Adolph Wolfrath in 1948 and lived in Neenah, Wisconsin. She moved back to Baraboo in 1984 to live with her sister Ila. She had a beautiful voice and sang throughout her lifetime including singing at funerals as a member of Greenwood Memorial POST 987 Auxiliary. Betty worked at St. Clare Meadows in the ice cream parlor for 14 years. She loved her job at the Meadows, but retired at age 80. She was involved in the community as she belonged to the Senior Center and helped prepare bulletins for both Senior Center and the Aging and Disability Center. She helped with the hot lunch program for seniors for many years. Betty loved to sing and did singing at the nursing home for the residents and at the Senior Center along with others singing old time songs. She also belonged to the senior fitness program. Betty was a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and sang in the choir for many years and was a member of one of the ladies circles. She was loved by many with her wonderful personality and bright cheery smile. She moved to Elko, Nevada in September of 2015 to be near her daughter.
Energy Fuels acquisitions cement US position

08 March 2016

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Energy Fuels is to take full ownership of the Roca Honda uranium project in New Mexico and has also announced that it is to acquire Mestena Uranium, operator of the Alta Mesa in-situ leach (ISL) uranium project in Texas.

The company announced on 4 March that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to buy Sumitomo Corporation's 40% interest in Roca Honda, giving it 100% ownership of the project. In return, Energy Fuels will pay Sumitomo $1.0 million in cash; $1.5 million in common shares; and $4.5 million in cash upon the first commercial production of uranium from the project. Closing of the acquisition is expected to occur next month, and is conditional upon final Sumitomo approvals, the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements, and receipt of applicable regulatory and stock exchange approvals.

Energy Fuels describes Roca Honda, in north-western New Mexico, as one of the largest and highest grade uranium development projects in the USA, with 14.6 million pounds U3O8 (5615 tU) of measured and indicated resources and 11.2 million pounds (4308 tU) of inferred resources. The project is undergoing permitting and is within shipping distance of Energy Fuels' wholly owned White Mesa uranium mill in Utah. Last year Energy Fuels acquired properties adjacent to the project which it says contain "significant additional historical resources".

The company said that acquisition of 100% of Roca Honda, as well as providing it with complete control over the project, would allow it to "completely internalize" the benefits from using White Mesa - the only licensed conventional uranium mill currently operating in the USA - to process resources from Roca Honda.

Sumitomo had indicated to Energy Fuels that it is divesting of its interests in "a number of development-stage mining assets" around the world in order to focus on producing assets, the company said. "We have appreciated Sumitomo's participation in the Roca Honda Project over the years as a valued joint venture partner. We understand and respect Sumitomo's decision to change its business focus. We will be very pleased to be able to obtain complete control over this major project on the terms negotiated with Sumitomo," Energy Fuels president and CEO Stephen Antony said.

Mestena purchase



Energy Fuels announced yesterday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mestena Uranium, and will issue 4,551,284 common shares of the company to the current owners of Mestena. The transaction is expected to take place on or before 4 May, subject to the receipt of all applicable regulatory and stock exchange approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions.

Mestena owns Alta Mesa, a fully permitted and constructed ISL operation and uranium processing facility with an operating capacity of 1.5 million pounds U3O8 (577 tU) per year. It is currently on standby, and has not produced uranium since 2013, but Energy Fuels said that it is ready to resume production, as market conditions warrant, and can reach commercial production levels within six months of a production decision.

The company said that Alta Mesa would diversify its operations into a third production centre, along with the Nichols Ranch ISL project in Wyoming and the White Mesa mill, and would "further cement Energy Fuels' position as the dominant integrated uranium producer in the US."

With the acquisition of Alta Mesa, Energy Fuels' total licensed uranium processing capacity will exceed 11.5 million pounds U3O8 (4423 tU) per year.

The company said in its guidance for the 2016 financial year, published yesterday, that it expects to produce about 950,000 pounds U3O8 (365 tU) in 2016, including 350,000 pounds U3O8 (135 tU) from Nichols Ranch and 600,000 pounds U3O8 (231 tU) from White Mesa using previously mined stockpiled material. This is up from 2015's production of 468,000 pounds U3O8 (180 tU), which included 296,000 pounds U3O8 (114 tU) produced at White Mesa (72,000 pounds of which were toll processed for a third party), and 172,000 pounds U3O8 (66 tU) produced at Nichols Ranch after Energy Fuels' acquisition of Uranerz in June 2015.

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Proving a commitment to gender balance

08 March 2016

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As the world celebrates International Women's Day, we should take note of the contribution women make - and have always made - to the nuclear energy industry. But the Conservative Party-led British government needs to do a lot more to show today's young women that the sector can offer them a fulfilling and rewarding career, writes Lisa Nandy.

Women have been central to the nuclear story from the very beginning. It was that great scientist, Irene Joliot-Curie, who pioneered research into radioactivity, which laid the ground for the discovery of nuclear fission and earned her a Nobel Prize. She was the less famous daughter of perhaps the most well-known woman scientist of all, Marie Curie. And Marie's granddaughter is an esteemed nuclear physicist too. Three generations of women in nuclear in one family. What an inspiration. Yet in the time I've been Shadow Energy Secretary I've been struck by how male the energy world is.

The data shows women are underrepresented right across the energy industry, and in science and engineering departments in our universities too. The government says it wants more women in the sector. But the latest figures show it is the Department of Energy and Climate Change that is the Ministry with the biggest gender pay gap in Whitehall. So I want to celebrate what you've achieved, by contributing so much to this industry and by helping to inspire the next generation of young women.

It angers me that so little is being done to give today's girls the confidence that this is being addressed. It angers me too that the energy sector is devaluing the contribution of women because of the immensity of the challenges that we must address, which will require everyone's talent.

Britain's power supply is going into the red. Half of Britain's coal-fired stations will close this year. All but one of our country's nuclear stations are scheduled to shut by 2030. New figures show how for the first time National Grid expects Britain will be forced to rely on backup measures, and importing electricity from abroad, to keep the lights on and avoid power shortages this winter.

Nuclear stations can dependably produce consistent supplies of large quantities of power. Crucially they can do this without producing the air pollution that is so damaging to public health, or the gases that are causing climate change and contributing to flooding that is putting homes and businesses under water.

The scientist often described as the world's foremost authority on climate change, the former director of NASA, Professor James Hansen, has said: "Nuclear will make the difference between the world missing crucial climate targets or achieving them." So I believe it would be wrong to take nuclear - such a major carbon-free energy solution - off the table.

With our economy still over-dependent upon jobs in London and the South East of England, our world-class nuclear industries offer many communities across the rest of our country - like the one here in Warrington - good, well-paid work. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last week found that almost all of the towns and cities most struggling to thrive are in the North of England. Rochdale, Oldham and my town of Wigan. Whether at Rolls-Royce in Derby, or the Forgemasters steelworks in Sheffield, or at Sellafield in Cumbria, our nuclear industry offers skilled work to thousands of people in the North and right across the rest of the country.

The government says it has job creation in its sights, and they are right to. But too often they ignore the quality of the jobs - and it's a question about our future. 'Zero hours' contracts , low-paid, repetitive, low-skilled work. Or work that has quality, that helps to give meaning to our lives, and makes a contribution to our future. Purposeful jobs helping to address some of the greatest challenges that threaten our collective security. Skilled and well paid too. That's why I want Britain to be a country that doesn't just have nuclear, but that does nuclear too.

With our proud history of successful nuclear research, and gold standard regulatory system, Britain cannot be allowed to fall behind. Some of these new reactor designs even hold the potential to turn Britain's nuclear waste stockpile into fuel, to reduce the risks of proliferation, and to cut costs. Through innovation in our own universities and businesses, Britain can be at the fore of the next generation of nuclear research. That is why I will hold this government to account on their promise of 250 million ($354 million) of support for nuclear innovation.

Britain cannot afford for these funds to suddenly 'disappear' like the budgets did for other energy innovation projects. All options must be kept on the table.

And that's why I will demand of this government that they act to invest in better careers advice and education, and support work experience and apprenticeships in this area, to increase the numbers of women working in science and engineering. I want to congratulate the Prospect union on all the campaigning they have been doing on this. Because we cannot afford not to open up the energy world to talented young people from communities like Warrington, to continue to deprive ourselves of the talent we need in the face of the risks posed by climate change and energy insecurity. I want a girl in Warrington or Wigan today to grow up knowing that she will have the opportunity to build a sparkling scientific career.

It is only by investing in you, and the skills and expertise of workers throughout our industry, that we can beat the threat from climate change, safely close Britain's energy gap, and discover the next generation of Nobel Prize winners.

Lisa Nandy

This is an abridged version of Lisa Nandy's speech at the Women in Nuclear conference held on 4 March at the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory.

Comments? Please send them to editor@world-nuclear-news.org

Lisa Nandy is Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the British government. A Labour Party politician, she has been a Member of Parliament for Wigan since 2010.

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The precipitation increase is indicative of global warming since warm air is able to hold more moisture than cold air.

A new study released Monday shows that extreme downpours are hitting both the driest and wettest ares of the world with increasing frequency, and that global warming is raising the risk of the occurrences continuing for the rest of the century. The study was released by the University of New South Wales in Sydney inn the journal Nature Climate Change. Study leader Markus Donat said that climate change which is projected until the year 2100 indicates a continued intensification of daily precipitation extremes. The study examined trends in the most arid 30 percent and the wettest 30 percent of the Earths land area.

The precipitation increase is indicating global warming since warm air is able to hold more moisture than cold air. Although previous studies have suggested that, although wet areas will get wetter, dry areas will actually get drier overall when a warming trend happens. Scientists blamed this on man-made greenhouse gasses. The new study disputes that.

The study also determined that even though the amount of rain is increased, the warmer atmosphere causes increased evaporation, meaning that water storage rates will not change.

Death Valley in California, which is the driest and hottest North American locations, had spectacular flowers blooming this spring after heavy rains last year. Chiles Atacama desert saw a similar phenomenon in 2015 after receiving the heaviest rain in 20 years.

The extreme rains are also resulting in damaging floods, which are especially threatening in dry areas. In those areas there is usually little invested in flood defenses, leaving them especially vulnerable during heavy rains.

The new study shows that global warming could lead to more regular flash flooding events. Donat says we found a strong relationship between global warming and an increase in rainfall, particularly in areas outside of the tropics.Within the tropics we saw an increase in rainfall responding to global warming but the actual rate of this increase was less clear.

The researchers came to the conclusion that the extreme rainfall evens were increasing in dry areas at regional levels, rather than as an average across the globe, by looking at regions with similar characteristics. Dry regions in countries such as Australia, Asia and Africa were compared, as well as wetter regions across different countries. The findings remained consistent throughout all the observations.

Donat says that the uncertainties in the climate were greatest where the observational uncertainties were greatest, suggesting that better observations are needed for those who are planning for climate change if they are going to determine how future precipitation world wide will change with global warming.
Restaurant (illustration)

By: Mahesh Sarin

A man was arrested on a charge of theft after running up large bills at upscale restaurants before walking out the door without paying, police in the United Kingdom said.

Now, 45-year-old Neil Rogers of Lancashire, has been banned from all the restaurants in the country except fast-food joints, where he will be required to pay for his food in advance.

Rogers was also sentenced to serve 24 weeks in prison, but it was suspended for two years.

According to the police investigation, Rogers loved to impress his friends by inviting them for meals at upscale restaurants across the city.

However, he would routinely leave the restaurants without paying his bills. At one restaurant, Rogers spent 248 pounds before trying to pay with a credit card that he knew would be declined.

At another restaurant, Rogers ran up a bill of 187 pounds, but he left without paying. He also admitted running up taxi bills and leaving without paying the drivers.

Rogers pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft, but 13 additional counts were dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea.
Rapist stripped naked on street

By: Wayne Morin

A man was arrested on a charge of sexual assault after allegedly trying to rape a young girl in public, police in Argentina said.

Before being handed over to the police in San Miguel, an angry mob detained the young man, who was not identified, and he was stripped naked.

According to residents, the suspect tried to rape the 8-year-old girl on a street before being caught. A group of people grabbed the suspect, stripped him naked and tied up his hands with rope.

He was taken from the scene, and paraded naked on the streets of the city. After several hours, the mob handed over the suspect to the police who arrested him on a charge of sexual assault.

People in the crowd shouted insults as the man was being led away by the police. One man can be heard shouting: Next time I will kill you.

A woman suggested that police tie him to the back of the truck and drag him to his death.
Stephen and Jacqueline Coops

By: Feng Qian

A little girl was rushed to a hospital after being stabbed by her father because she is the unlucky 13th grandchild, police in the United Kingdom said.

Truro police said that following the stabbing incident, 40-year-old Stephen Coops, who believed he was God, killed himself.

A court ruled his death as a suicide. According to the police investigation, Coops suffered from schizophrenia and had tried to kill his family by crashing his car.

Coops was obsessed with conspiracy theories, and always read about the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, in New York.

He believed that he was God, and had to save the world and the rest of his family by killing himself and his daughter because she was the unlucky 13th grandchild.

His wife, Jacqueline, 40, told the court that she did not blame her husband for what happened, because he had been let down by mental health agencies.

One night, he stabbed his 5-year-old daughter before stabbing himself. When paramedics arrived, Coops was dead. Coopsa daughter Celeste, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, but she made a full recovery in two weeks.
ELKO -- The sheriffs office is requesting assistance from the public in addressing a noticeable increase in reports of malnourished and neglected livestock.

Nevada laws and the United States Constitution prohibit law enforcement authorities from seizing the property of a person without probable cause, unless it is evidence of a criminal act.

"Therefore, horses cannot be seized from the owners without probable cause that the neglect is potentially criminal, which requires an evaluation of a veterinary physician and determination that the horse is imminent danger of death," said Lt. Kevin McKinney in a statement.

In Elko County, deputies and animal control officers have recently responded to multiple reports of malnourished horses, due to neglect.

Several of these reports have been confirmed. In these cases, after being evaluated by a veterinary physician, the horses have been seized because of imminent potential danger of death.

In other cases, where the evaluating veterinarian has not found the horses to be in imminent danger, an improvement plan was developed to monitor the horses, and to cooperatively work with the owners in an attempt to improve the condition of the horses.

"Despite a vocal minority, public opinion to the contrary, the law enforcement officers and animal control officers of the Elko County Sheriffs Office are performing their duties to the best of their abilities while acting within the existing laws of the United States and the State of Nevada," concluded McKinney.

Community Members are encouraged to call 911 in an emergency or dispatch at 777-7300 to report livestock that they believe to be neglected or other suspicious activity to the Elko County Sheriffs Office.
Celebration Of Successful First Year Of Fusion Project Held At Vic Centre

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Mar 8th, 2016

An new programme using the arts, culture and heritage to support some of Wales most disadvantaged communities has seen over 1,500 people take part in activities during its pilot year.

From kids taking over museums to helping unemployed men develop skills through archaeology, the Welsh Governments Fusion: Tackling Poverty through Culture initiative is supporting local authorities and Communities First areas to find new and exciting opportunities to get people who would not normally engage with culture and heritage to give it a go.

At a celebratory event in Wrexham yesterday at the Victoria Centre to mark the successful first year, the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Ken Skates, welcomed an evaluation of progress so far and announced an additional 165,000 funding to expand the programme.

The Deputy Minister said: I am proud that Wales is taking the lead in the UK in breaking down the barriers to cultural participation so that everyone can enjoy the benefits. This has been one of my priorities as Deputy Minister and something I feel passionate about.

The programme is providing valuable opportunities for people to gain new skills and build confidence, whether it is helping run a museum, taking part in arts and music activities or volunteering. As a result over 500 people have taken part in structured courses and schemes, many leading to accreditation and qualifications.

This is clearly an approach worth investing in and I am delighted that we are providing funding support which will allow this important scheme to go from strength to strength.

Wrexham is one of the Pioneer Areas for the programme, with over 30 local and national partners including Oriel Wrecsam and Literature Wales. It has been working with economically and socially inactive adults in two Communities First Clusters in the county borough, with the aim of increasing aspiration and opportunities and helping to move them through to training and potential employment.

A pop-up library has been piloted to service the Caia Park estate, allowing access to e-library services which can boost literacy and digital inclusion. Art courses have also been delivered, with cultural bodies offering trips and activities to inspire the group, with many participants having never visited these sites before.

Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member Communities & Partnerships at Wrexham County Borough Council, said: Wrexham County Borough Council fully recognises the role that the arts, heritage and culture can play in enriching peoples lives. In Wrexham we have formed a network of key partners from the arts, heritage and cultural sectors around a shared ambition to engage our communities in new opportunities that raise aspirations, skills and ultimately better equip people for securing employment. I look forward to the contribution that the Wrexham Fusion Partnership can make as Wrexham embarks on the development of the Creative Arts Hub in the town centre as we continue to demonstrate our commitment to this important area of community life.

Neal Thompson from Focus Wales told Wrexham.com: Were really happy and proud to be involved with the FUSION initiative. Creating opportunities for people is a natural part of what we do with the festival each year, and to be able to tie in with a great project like this on a local level enables us to widen the scope of our volunteer programme and make our events even more accessible.

The Fusion programme was established in response to the Baroness Kay Andrews report on Culture and Poverty, which made a compelling case for joint working to guarantee culture is accessible to all, regardless of their background and where they live.

Pioneer Areas were established in Wrexham, Gwynedd, Swansea, Cardiff/Merthyr, Newport and Torfaen to pilot the programme. Discussions are underway to increase the number of areas taking part in 2016-17. The full evaluation report is available here.

The top picture was tweeted by the Twitter channel of the Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism from the event  which was held at the Vic Centre.

The Vic itself only escaped closure itself a few months ago when a social enterprise took over the running after funding was cut by Wrexham Council  we are told this information appeared to be surprising news to some who attended the event, unaware of its recent brush with possible extinction and subsequent rescue by the community.



AMENDMENT / CLARIFICATION

An earlier version of this article was entitled Celebration of successful first year of Fusion Project held at Phoenixed Vic Studios , and has been amended to reflect the event was held downstairs in the Victoria Centre rather than the Studios upstairs.

Wrexham Council have since pointed out While it is correct that the Vic Studios was once run by Wrexham Council and will soon be run by a social enterprise, the Victoria Centre still remains under the purview of Wrexham Council and will continue to be managed by the authority.

Wrexham Council also stressed that a paragraph (striked through above) implied that the whole centre faced closure, which is of course not the case.

Wrexham.com is happy to include the above clarification and amendment on which section of the building was used for the event and which section was due to be cut by Wrexham Council.

Such confusion was shared at the event itself with virtually the first sentences of an address mentioning the upstairs studio space, which was described to us by one onlooker yesterday as worthy of her suppressing a heckle.

Further to the above from Wrexham Council we spoke today with Dave Gray, of THIS Project (and many other arts connections) fame, who attended the event and has kindly shared his views and further information on the status of the Vic Studios.

Dave told us: It was a great event, and was a real celebration of the Fusion project. It was fantastic to see and speak to the volunteers who had been part of the activities and we are excited about its roll out in the coming year.

I have to confess I was surprised that the Vic Studios were referred to in the opening remarks as an example of Wrexham Councils arts provision. Theyve obviously been closed since September last year, as a result of local authority cuts to provision for Youth Services. It seemed to cause a little confusion, which led to some conversations about the music project on the day, as members of the Arts Council and the Deputy Minister for Culture are fully aware of the closure and have been very supportive of the communitys bid to save the studios.

We are hoping to announce the imminent reopening of the studios in the very near future, as negotiations with Wrexham Council have just reached their conclusion.

I can understand where the confusion has arisen, with the event being held in the same building, although in a different area, and with the celebration of new arts projects in a building where a successful, established arts initiative has been dropped.
Council to Introduce Zero Tolerance Approach to Littering & Dog Fouling

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Mar 8th, 2016

Dog owners who refuse to clean up after their dogs foul and those who refuse to use a bin for their litter will be handed a 75.00 fine from April if they are caught.

The issue of dog fouling is one that has been raised several times over the past few months  with a number of focussed patrols enforced in some areas following a series of complaints back in January 2015.

However Wrexham Council has awarded a contract to Kingdom for a 12 month trail to an environment protection company, to dish out fines to offenders.

From April 1st they will be on the streets and in the parks of the county borough as the council launches its zero tolerance towards the offenders.

Cllr David A. Bithell, Lead Member Environment and Transport said: Litter and dog fouling are two issues that are of concern to Wrexham residents particularly those who do use litter bins and pick up after their dogs. For many years now we have warned offenders that they face a fine but some still persist.

We will now have a zero tolerance approach to the matter and Kingdom enforcement officers will be on our streets to issue fines to offenders.

There will be no warnings issued as we believe the time has now come to clamp down hard in order to secure a cleaner, safer and greener Wrexham for everyone to enjoy.

People who pick up after their dogs or dont drop litter will have nothing to fear from these new arrangements

In December 2015 Wrexham Councils Executive Board approved proposals to call-in a private company to help crackdown with littering and dog fouling issues across the County Borough.

During last years it was noted that demands of the public, councillors and community councillors were not being met by current enforcement methods and that improvements were necessary.

Michael Fisher, Relationship Director with Kingdom, said: On behalf of Kingdom I would like to say how delighted we are to be working on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council.

It is our intention to work specifically in an Intelligence led manner focussing our patrols on litter and Dog Foul Hotspots provided to us by members of the community and of course our colleagues from Wrexham CBC.

Kingdom staff have been providing and indeed developing this service for over seven years and we look to utilise the skills and experience we have gained, together with lessons learned to ensure we contribute in a positive manner to the overall objective of having cleaner streets and public places within the Borough.

 We are extremely grateful to WCBC for allowing us this opportunity to work alongside them on this project.
Obama and Immigration

Editor:

In a highly ironic statement, President Obama said that In the Syrian seeking refuge today, we should see the Jewish refugee of World War II. The irony is that Jews are fleeing from Europe in record numbers largely because of Muslim immigration. Muslim anti-Semitism is the most violent form in Europe. PBS Newshour reports, A new anti-Semitism? Why thousands of Jewish citizens are leaving France. The new anti-Semitism is largely driven by radical Islam.

I never thought I would live to see an important American magazine, The Atlantic, run a cover story entitled Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe? Shockingly, it answers the question in the affirmative and asserts, Violence against Jews in Western Europe today . . . appears to come mainly from Muslims . . .

The Pew Research center study showed that around 90 percent of Middle Eastern Muslims have unfavorable views of Jews. The Quran makes negative statements about Jews, but the Hadith (sayings of Muhammad) are even worse. One of Muhammads popular saying is The day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslim . . . there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. The Quran commands Muslims, O ye who believe, Take not the Jews and Christians for friends (Pickthall 5:51). Muhammad banished, killed, and enslaved the Jews who dwelt around him.

The greatest Arab historian, Ibn Khaldun, noted the difference between Islam and other religions: In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty . . . convert everyone to Islam either by persuasion or by force. He correctly explains that for the other religions the holy war was not a religious duty to them, save for the purposes of defense.

Joseph Schacht, who was Professor of Arabic and Islamics at Columbia, explained that under Islamic law there are three alternatives for non-Muslims they must be either converted or subjugated or killed. The Jews who fled to America had no equivalent mandate. Using the plight of Jewish refugees to justify bringing in those who pose the greatest threat to todays Jews is ironic.

Daniel DuSoleil

Spring Creek
In Sunday nights debate between Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, held in Flint, Michigan, the crisis resulting from the lead poisoning of the citys water supply served as the occasion on the part of both candidates for left posturing devoid of any substantive proposals.

Sanders sought throughout to use the Flint crisis as a springboard for pushing economic nationalist, trade war policies, attacking Clinton for having backed trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the normalization of trade relations with China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In the run-up to Tuesdays primary election in Michigan, Sanders has intensified his nationalist rhetoric, seeking to channel the anger and frustration of autoworkers over mass layoffs, plant closures and cuts in wages and benefits into hostility toward their coworkers abroad, particularly in Mexico and China.

Flint, a city of 100,000 people, has been devastated by General Motors closure of virtually all of its plants in what was for decades the center of its industrial empire. Over the past 20 years, the city has lost 75 percent of its manufacturing jobs. It has gone from 80,000 GM workers to fewer than 5,000 today.

The auto giant bankrupted the city, with the collaboration of both Democratic and Republican administrations and the United Auto Workers union. The decision of state and local officials to switch the water supply to the polluted Flint River in 2014, and the subsequent cover-up of toxic levels of lead and other chemicals by officials from the Obama administration on down, was but the latest social crime inflicted on Flints mostly working-class inhabitants.

In his promotion of protectionism, Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, actually complements the overtly fascistic demagogy of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has campaigned in the Detroit area in advance of the Republican primary and sought to exploit the social crisis facing Michigan workers by means of racist attacks on foreign workers and immigrants.

While nominally representing different extremes of the bourgeois political spectrum, both Sanders and Trump lay the blame for factory closures and unemployment not on capitalism, but rather on unfair trade deals. This nationalist opposition to pro-corporate trade deals reflects the interests of sections of the ruling class. It echoes the longstanding chauvinist policies of the United Auto Workers and the trade unions in general, which have served to block a united struggle by American and international workers against the transnational corporations. The unions economic nationalism has facilitated endless layoffs, wage cuts and speedup carried out in the name of upholding the competitiveness of US-based companies against their foreign rivals.

In Sundays debate, Clinton sought to counter Sanders charges on trade by accusing the Vermont senator of opposing the Obama administrations bailout of Chrysler and General Motors by voting against the October 2008 bill sanctioning the $700 billion taxpayer rescue of the banks. Some $85 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bank bailout fund was used to finance Obamas forced bankruptcy and restructuring of the US auto industry.

Clinton presented the auto restructuring as an immense boon to autoworkers, remaining silent on the fact that it was carried out on the backs of the workers, who suffered a 50 percent wage cut for all new-hires as part of a two-tier wage system, along with drastic cuts in benefits for both retirees and current workers, and thousands of additional layoffs.

Referring to record profits recorded by the Big Three US automakers in 2015based on a 30 percent reduction in labor costsClinton boasted, We had the best year that the auto industry has had in a long time.

While Sanders voted against the TARP bill, he actually supported the auto bailout, a fact he emphasized at a town hall event held Monday night in Detroit.

In the back-and-forth between the two candidates over their respective records on auto, Sanders and Clinton were in part competing to win the endorsement of the UAW, which has yet to announce its choice for the November election.

At one point, in fending off Sanders attacks on her trade policies, Clinton, perhaps unwittingly, revealed an essential function of the State Department, which she headed as secretary of state in the first years of the Obama administration. I did go many places around the world to sell American products, she declared, because the alternatives were usually European, Asian, primarily Chinese products. In other words, she hustled to secure markets and profits for the American corporate elite.

The first half-hour of the two-hour event was devoted to the Flint water crisis, with the candidates taking questions from both the CNN moderators and members of the audience. The two sought to outdo one another in expressing shock and anger over the poisoning of Flint residents, but neither offered any specific proposals or dollar amounts to be spent removing the lead pipes, making the water system safe and caring for the thousands of children physically harmed for life by exposure to the toxic substance.

Both Clinton and Sanders quickly called for the resignation of Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican. While this demand is entirely in order, for the Democratic candidates it serves as part of an attempt to lay all of the blame on the Republican Party and conceal the criminal role of Democratic officials at the local, state and federal level.

When asked by one of the moderators whether they thought officials responsible for the lead poisoning and cover-up should be jailed, both candidates dodged the question, saying that would be up to investigators and the courts.

Asked by a Flint resident for specific proposals to solve the crisis, Clinton said she supported the efforts of the citys Democratic mayor and Democratic representatives in Congress. They, however, are proposing token measures that will hardly begin to address the scale of the crisis.

Congressional Democrats have proposed allocating $600 million for Flint, while the cost to remove and replace the lead pipes has been estimated at more than $1 billion. Fitch, the credit rating agency, recently estimated that it would cost $300 billion to replace lead water pipes nationally.

Sanders, for his part, quickly pivoted from the Flint crisis to his trade war agenda. In reply to a question from CNN moderator Anderson Cooper on whether Flint residents could trust big government solutions to the crisis, Sanders replied, I suppose they can trust the corporations who have destroyed Flint by a disastrous trade policy which has allowed them to shut down plants in Flint and move to China or Mexico.

He returned several times to the same theme, complaining at one point that Secretary Clinton supported virtually every one of the disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America. He added, Those trade policies have resulted in the shrinking of the American middle class.

The above quote points to one significant feature of Sanders performance in the debatethe virtual elimination of any reference to the working class in favor of that most vacuous of political abstractions in the vocabulary of American bourgeois politics: the American middle class. Sanders increasing adherence to the unwritten law of official politics in the US banning the term working class is a sure sign of his accelerating turn to the right.

At one point he answered Clintons disparagement of him as a one-note candidate by declaring, My one issue is to rebuild a disappearing middle class. Thats my one issue.

Most revealing of the fraud of Sanders socialism was his omission of any call for the nationalization of basic utilities such as water and sewerage. If ever there has been a demonstration of the incompatibility of social needs with corporate control over the provision of basic necessitieswhether through direct ownership or via the subordination of nominally public entities to the banksit is in the Flint crisis.

Historically in the US, the demand for public ownership and democratic control of the utilitieselectricity, water, sewerage, the railroadswas a standard plank in the platforms of socialist and progressive parties in the early part of the 20th century, and was even supported by more left sections of the Democratic Party. Sanders, a conventional bourgeois politician despite his talk of political revolution, opposes nationalization, in line with his defense of capitalist private ownership of the banks and corporations.
With Detroit Public Schools (DPS) facing insolvency as early as April and teachers fearing payless paydays, Michigan governor Rick Snyder agreed to a lucrative severance package for disgraced emergency manager Darnell Earley, it was revealed last Friday.

Earley is receiving a payout of $82,862.90, reportedly after negotiating with Snyders office to provide consulting services to the impoverished district over the next few months. A spokesman for the governors office said Earley will be available through July to handle questions or issues related to the [emergency] managers performance. 

Earley resigned on February 29 as the districts emergency manager in the face of growing outrage over his role in the poisoning the Flints population under the cost-cutting regime he oversaw while emergency manager of that city.

Snyder appointed Earley as DPS emergency manager in January 2015 with an annual salary of $221,000, meaning his total haul will be well above $300,000, plus perks.

Earley was the target of escalating sickouts by teachers against horrific and unsafe conditions and years of wage and benefit cuts. Earley reacted to the exposure of these conditions with utter indifference and contempt.

Confronted with black mold, falling ceiling tiles and dangerous aspects of crumbling schools, Earley dismissed them, stating, Code violations are not new to Detroit Public Schools. After the exposure that a leaking roof at Spain Elementary had spread mold and poor air throughout the building, sickening teachers and staff as well as students, Earley merely said, People have known about the conditions of Spain. And finally, when questioned why, on a daily basis, thousands of DPS students had classes without certified teachers, Earley testily replied, Well, let me just say this here. That is no different than in other districts. There is a teacher shortage across the state.

It become widely recognized that Earleys ham-fisted persona and his role in Flint had become a political liability for state politicians seeking to force through an unpopular reorganization of Detroit schools and further attacks on educators wages, health care and retirement benefits. The creation of a new experimental Detroit Community School District under new rules and a dictatorial financial control board has been under debate since April 2015.

Various political factions, each seeking to position themselves to benefit from the carve-up of Detroit Public Schools, have put forward contending legislation and plans. While the legislation promoted by Governor Snyder and Judge Rhodes seems to have the most legislative support, a section of state Republicans have called for a statewide voucher system. Democratic Party and union functionaries have made their main emphasis the issue of local control--primarily in order to allocate bids on lucrative outsourcing to their cronies and business partners.

In other words, a lot of money is at stake. Since Earley was clearly ill equipped for the job, Snyder has appointed Judge Steven Rhodes who oversaw the 2013-2014 Detroit bankruptcy to finish the transition. During the bankruptcy, Rhodes crafted a Grand Bargain that brought together Democrats, Republicans, big business foundations and union bureaucrats to restructure the citys debt by ramming through a massive cut to city workers health and pension benefits. He solidified the deal by running roughshod over Michigans constitutional protections for pensions. This makes it all the more sinister that last week Rhodes justified the pending school legislation as necessary for the moral and constitutional obligations we have to our children.

But how is such a discredited individual as Earley the beneficiary of a more-than-generous golden parachute?

Of course, there were services rendered on behalf of the pro-privatization politicians. At the time of Earleys resignation, Snyder issued a statement stating his approval of the emergency managers work. Darnell has done a very good job under some very difficult circumstances. I want to thank him for his professionalism and his service to the people of Michigan.

Snyder referred to Earleys elimination of nearly 100 central office administrators, which has, in turn, opened to the door to additional millions of dollars in privatized contracts. For example, a current contract with Learning Sciences International for $6 million (enough to pay 22 teachers for five years) of highly questionable Professional Development based on the Marzano system has been widely taken as an affront by hard-pressed teachers.

Praising the emergency manager, the governor continued, He restructured a heavily bureaucratic central office, set in place operating and cost-containment measures, and has taken steps to stabilize enrollment. These factors should all set the course for a sustainable, new Detroit Community Schools, as I have proposed.

Earleys new consulting contract apparently includes a clause that releases the state and its officers from any claim related to his work, according to Detroit Channel 7. It is hush money, claimed LaMar Lemmons, a DPS board member.

There may be more than element of truth in those remarks. The payout is certainly more hard evidence of how both the Democrats and Republicans are working togetheras they did in the cover-up of the poisoning of Flint residentsto conceal their financial agendas and connections. Now, the very same players are seeking to push through the reorganization of the Detroit schools to further enrich politically connected business interests. Criminal malfeasance and wholesale disregard for the health and education of the states children are just part of doing business for this political elite.

At the same time, it was also revealed Friday that as DPSs new transition manager (appointed under the emergency manager legislation PA 436), Judge Steven Rhodes, will not be paid the $12,000 a month he previously claimed but $18,750 per month, a 50 percent higher sum. Additionally, it was noted that Rhodes is only required to work 96 hours per month in order to leave room in his schedule for his lucrative work as a lawyer. He is also the consultant for the government of Puerto Rico, which is imposing savage austerity measure to pay off hedge funds and other big bondholders.

These extravagant payouts come at a time when the district is staggering under $515 million of debt incurred after years of state and federal defunding of education, government subsidies to charter schools and the growing incursion of for-profit edu-businesses (see, How banks, privatizers and politicians bankrupted the schools). Currently, over $3,000 of the $7,000 for each students state foundation grant is being diverted to pay off debts to the State of Michigan and the bondholders that originated the loans.

As with the municipal bankruptcy, Rhodess efforts will be directed at safeguarding the interests of Wall Street as the expense of the social right of the working class. In this case, it will mean the growing privatization of education, cutting wages and benefits of school workers and fundamental attacks on MPSERS, the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, which retains the pension plans of school teachers of the entire state.

Last week, Rhodes essentially threatened teachers, indicating that only with the passage of the Snyder reorganization could teachers be assured of a future. There is no Plan B, he reiterated. We need this legislation really, within a month. Thats our clock. ... This is urgent. Only then, would it be possible for the new Detroit Public School systemto compete for the best and brightest and to compensate its present educators competitively.

Teachers justly fear that the politically manipulated crisis will be used to impose not only further cuts to pay and benefits, but even payless paydays. In 2009, emergency manager Robert Bobb, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, and Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) president Keith Johnson blackmailed teachers to give up nearly $10,000 in a Termination Incentive Program. Teachers fear that similar and worse conspiracies are currently afoot. The DFT is part of a conspiracy against teachers, promoting Rhodeswho is holding meetings with DPS employees at Renaissance High School Thursdayas a fair and impartial arbiter.

The threat of school closures is also a major concern of teachers and students. Rhodes admitted there had already been a school capacity study done, but claimed that before schools would be closed, there would be transparency and input from parents, students and teachers.

The State of Michigan seems to have unlimited funds to pay off its political cronies but cannot pay teachers, fix buildings, or keep schools open. Rhodes and Earley alike are being paid handsomely for their loyalty to the interests of the big business.
The 28 European Union member states worked out a deal at a special summit with Turkey on Monday that would make it even more difficult for the millions of people fleeing the wars in the Middle East to enter Europe.

The so-called West Balkan route, along which hundreds of thousands of refugees have reached central Europe via Greece in the past year, is to be closed with the official blessing of the European Union.

Greece will receive several hundred million euros, as well as personnel and logistical support to confine stranded refugees in camps where they can be registered and sent back.

Between the Turkish coast and the Greek islands, the Aegean will be patrolled by NATO, which will seal off the escape routes over the sea, in close cooperation with EU border agency Frontex and the Turkish coast guard.

Turkey will prevent refugees from departing towards Europe and will take back those who have succesfully made the crossing to Greece. In exchange, Ankara will receive several billion euros and visa facilitation for Turkish citizens, and accelerated negotiations in its bid for membership in the European Union.

The media received an early draft of the summits final declaration before the meeting had begun. During the day, however, unforeseen difficulties arose, particularly in the negotiations with Turkey, so that the summit had to continue into the night. But this concerned details, and not the fundamentals, of the policy, which had been carefully prepared beforehand.

For refugees trying to escape the wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, the summit decisions will have devastating consequences. Refugees will face arbitrary treatment by police and authorities, being detained against their will in camps and ultimately transported back to their home countries. They will be forced to choose even more dangerous and expensive routes, which will drive up the death toll higher still.

The summit exposed the myth of the so-called welcoming culture associated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel since she had agreed last year to allow refugees who were stranded in Hungary under inhumane conditions to continue their journey to Germany.

In reality, Merkels opposition to the unilateral closure of borders and calls for a European solution were never based on humanitarian considerations. Rather, she feared that a return to border controls within the Schengen area would have negative consequences for the German economy, and could endanger the European Union in the long term, from which Germany has benefited greatly.

The export success of German industry in the last decades is due not least to the fact that it has outsourced parts of production to Eastern Europe, where wages are only a fraction of those in Germany. Production takes place across borders and relies on timely deliveries. The EU Commission has recently calculated that widespread border controls within the Schengen area could cost up to 18 billion euros annually. Much of this cost would be due to longer waiting times for trucks.

What Merkels European solution looks like has now been revealed at the summit in Brussels. The summits decisions also include reestablishing a normally functioning Schengen area by the end of the year, i.e., to dismantle the border controls unilaterally imposed by Austria and some Balkan countries, against the wishes of Brussels and Berlin. This requires hermetically sealing off the EUs external borders.

A document outlining the conclusions of the summit states, Irregular flows of migrants along the route of the Western Balkans are ended; this route is now closed. According to media reports, Merkel is said to have resisted this formulation. But this was merely a matter of saving face. In reality, the route has already been blocked and Merkel had unambiguously stated days before that unlike last year in Hungary, she was unwilling to allow refugees who are living in inhumane conditions at the Greek-Macedonian border to move on to Germany.

Greece now has the task of serving as a holding tank and deportation prison at the EUs external border. An article in Die Welt asked, Will Greece now become the Nauru of Europe? This was a reference to the Pacific island of Nauru, on which Australia imprisons refugees who are prevented from reaching Australian soil. The Syriza government will be remunerated for this role with a few hundred million euros from EU funds, and the hint that perhaps there might be a bit more leniency in meeting the austerity measures dictated by the Troika.

Even more draconian is the decision to deploy the largest military alliance in the world to shut off refugee routes across the Aegean. The NATO mission was in principle agreed to in February, but the final agreement only occurred shortly before the summit due to tensions between Greece and Turkey.

But now the German command ship Bonn, part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG 2), is underway to take up position between the Greek island of Lesbos and the Turkish mainland. The ship, under the command of Admiral Jorg Klein, has some 210 soldiers on board.

France and Britain are also sending ships to support the mission. Although not a member of the Schengen area, the protection of which is the apparent goal of the mission, London is sending several vessels, as Prime Minister David Cameron personally announced on Monday night.

In Orwellian language, the NATO mission is officially presented as a fight against human smuggling. In fact, the mission has nothing to do with fighting criminals, but stopping refugees so that they are prevented from crossing the sea and are brought back to Turkey. NATO is working closely with the European border agency Frontex and the Turkish coast guard. In this way, a precedent is being set for the militarization of the external borders of Fortress Europe.

Turkey is to play a key role in Sealing Europes borders. Although there are already 2.7 million refugees in Turkey, the country is expected to take back all the refugees who manage the perilous crossing to Greece. Many of those affected will be declared economic refugees to be deported from Turkey to their country of origin, for example, Afghanistan.

In return, the EU wants to take in some of the refugees directly from Turkey. This is only true for a number of countries that have volunteered, because many EU members are refusing to allow refugees into their country.

Germany in particular has sought to win Turkey for this role. For this reason, European Council President Donald Tusk travelled to Ankara after the summit. Chancellor Merkel met her counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday evening for several hours of talks. The fact that the day before, the Turkish government had violently seized the daily newspaper Zaman, forcibly broke up a womens rights demonstration and is conducting a brutal war against the Kurdish population in the east of the country was completely overlooked.

But at a lunch with EU leaders on Monday, Davutoglu raised a series of new demands, bringing confusion to the carefully prepared summit proceedings.

Instead of the long-agreed but not yet disbursed 3 billion euros, he demanded 6 billion euros to finance the refugee and deportation policies. He agreed to take back all irregular migrants who have travelled from Turkey to the Greek islands, if the EU bears the costs. He also demanded that for every Syrian who is returned from Greece to Turkey, a Syrian from Turkey be resettled in the EU.

Finally, he called for the establishment of safe zones for refugees on Syrian soil. Previously, President Erdogan had proposed building a refugee town in Syria covering an area of 4,500 square kilometres. This would only be possible through a direct military intervention in Syria. In this way, NATO would be directly brought into position against Syrian President Assad and his Russian allies, while Ankara would achieve its goal of preventing the consolidation of a coherent Kurdish region in Syria.
The Leave campaign in Britains June 23 referendum on continued membership in the European Union (EU) is led by a virulent nationalist block of right-wing political forces and big business figures.

It consists of three main groups: Vote Leave, Leave.EU and Grassroots Out. Their policies and agenda are framed from the standpoint of the most parasitic sections of the City of London, with its position as a global financial centre held out as offering the prospect of revisiting the halcyon days of empire.

Vote Leave includes Business for Britain representing over 1,000 business heads, Conservatives for Britain and Labour Leave, representing those within the Labour Party who support the UKs withdrawal from the EU.

Tory Mayor of London Boris Johnson has endorsed Vote Leave, along with six Conservative government cabinet ministers, including Justice Secretary Michael Gove. According to the Financial Times, Vote Leave has the backing of more than 100 Tory MPs.

The main demand of Business for Britain, when it was founded in 2013, was for fundamental changes to the terms of our EU membership and a flexible, competitive Europe, with more powers devolved from Brussels.

Its CEO, Matthew Elliott, is the founder of the right-wing TaxPayers Alliance. Business for Britain is heavily backed by the Conservative Daily Telegraph, which sponsored a half million-word document titled, Change, or Go. How Britain would gain influence and prosper outside an unreformed EU.

Conservatives for Britain is stuffed with arch-Thatcherites, including its president, Lord Nigel Lawson, a former chancellor, Lord Norman Lamont, another ex-chancellor, lifelong euro-sceptics John Redwood and Lord Norman Tebbit.

The Vote Leave campaign from the outset was explicit in representing the most parasitic sections of finance capital. Last October, Paul Stephenson, a spokesman for the campaign, said, We are confident that hedge funds and many other financial firms will support 'Vote Leave, take control.'

It is backed by the billionaire London-based hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, a founding partner of Odey Asset Management, and other financial institutions. John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of Phones4U, Joe Foster, the founder of sportswear manufacturer Reebok, and other CEOs, are listed as supporters.

The Labour Leave campaign states that it is funded and staffed by Labour, Trades Unions and Socialist Society Members. John Mills, a former councillor who made his fortune as a household goods retailer, is a co-founder of the group, as is MP Kate Hoey, a former member of the now defunct International Marxist Group and former Home Office Minister. Another leading figure is MP Kelvin Hopkins.

Previously Labours largest private donor, Mills stopped financing the party when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader. He declares on the Labour Leave web site, 42 years of reform have produced a wasteful, undemocratic bureaucracy sucking the life-blood from our economy.

The Vote Leave board includes Mills and Labour MP Graham Stringer. It has established a cross-party parliamentary committee including two Tories, three Labour MPs, one from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Douglas Carswell, the only MP of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

Its documents state, After 40 years of membership, only around 6 percent of British companies export to the EU, but all have to comply with the full burden of EU law.

It adds, If we Vote Leave and take back control of our trade policy, we can speak for ourselves and sign new deals with countries all over the world

Leave.EU was set up by insurance millionaire Arron Banks, a financial backer of UKIP, and Richard Tice, a former CEO of FTSE 250 multinational group, CLS Holdings PLC and the current CEO of Quidnet Capital Partners.

Banks, a former Tory donor, gave UKIP 1 million before the general election. On founding Leave.EU, Banks said, We are in talks with lots of high profile business people. 7 million was immediately pledged from six millionaires, with 20 million scheduled to be raised by the end of 2015. Among its backers is Isle of Man-based fund and asset manager Jim Mellon, said to be worth 850 million.

Leave.EU claims to have the support of over 1,300 councillors, including 531 Conservatives, 134 Labour and 194 from UKIP.

Grassroots Out (GO) was founded in January 2016. It is seeking to be designated the official Leave campaign by the Electoral Commission as the GO Movement (an umbrella group comprised of forces from GO, UKIP and Leave.EU).

GO was established by Tory MPs Peter Bone, Tom Pursglove and Liam Fox, Labours Kate Hoey (after she defected from Vote Leave), UKIP leader Nigel Farage and a DUP MP Sammy Wilson. Last month, George Galloway, a former Labour Party and Respect MP, joined Grassroots Out, appearing on the platform at its London launch meeting to deliver a nationalist diatribe in support of the political bonafides of Farage and the Tory right. Also present on the platform were Tory MPs Bill Cash, Bone and former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis.

UKIP and GO speak for a layer of the British ruling elite that regards the EUand the economic and political domination of Germany in particularas a constraint on the pursuit of Britains national interests. Hoey stated recently, We have a global market at our feet if we can free ourselves from Brussels.

If GO wins the designation as the official Leave campaign it is entitled to 7 million in public money to fund its campaign. As a political party, UKIP could also spend a further 4.4 million in the campaign.

Britains pseudo-left are playing a central role in concealing the overwhelming domination of the Leave campaign by far right, pro-business interests, with the Socialist Party and Socialist Workers Party citing the pro-exit positions of a handful of unions as proof of an independent left, progressive alternative.

These unions, they insist, are guarantors that the right-wing Tories and UKIP will not be able to dominate the referendum campaign and that they provide the working class with a voice.

This is a political fraud.

The claim that these eviscerated bodies, which have sold out one industrial struggle after another, can represent the interests of the working class in the referendum is patently false.

The Leave campaign of the trade unions is organised primarily through the Morning Star newspaper of the Stalinist Communist Party and its front group, Trade Unionists Against the EU (TUAEU). Its nationalist programme differs in no essentials from that of Galloway. For National sovereignty is one of the main planks of TUAEUs propaganda.

This author also recommends:

For an active boycott of the Brexit referendum!

[29 February 2016]

Nationalism and Brexit

[23 February 2016]
This, the second part of a two-part article on two years since the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine, reviews the role of various pseudo-left organizations. The first part was posted on March 7.

The pseudo-left and Maidan

In February 2014, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a right-wing coup backed by the US and Germany. In the months leading up to and after this event, the World Socialist Web Site exposed the forces behind the Maidan movement, which was led by a combination of free-marketeers, ultra-nationalists and neo-fascists who exploited popular discontent with Yanukovych to install a virulently anti-Russian government with close ties to Washington and Berlin.

The analysis of the WSWS then and now demonstrates the immense chasm separating it from a line-up of pseudo-left tendencies such as the International Socialist Organization (ISO) in the US, the New Anti-capitalist Party of France (NPA), and the Russian Socialist Movement (RSM), which applauded the Maidan revolution and claimed that it bore some sort of progressive character. Hailing the ouster of Yanukovych as a positive transformation that could be utilized by the left for its own purposes, they sought to cover up the fact that the real target of the coup was not the anti-democratic and corrupt practices of Yanukovych, but the working class of Ukraine, Russia and the world.

In taking this position, these organizations simply extended their support for imperialism to a new domain. Having backed the interventions in Libya and Syria, portraying these imperialist wars for regime-change as democratic revolutions, they lined up behind Washington and Berlin and their fascistic proxy forces in Ukraine. In 2011, for instance, the NPAs Gilbert Achcar wrote: Every general rule admits of exceptions. This includes the general rule that UN-authorized military interventions by imperialist powers are purely reactionary ones and can never achieve a humanitarian or positive purpose.

From the very outset, the RSM served as a leading mouthpiece for the Maidan protests. Formed in 2011, this organization, like its fake-left counterparts around the world, declared its goal to be the creation of a broad coalition of anti-capitalist leftists. It rejected Trotskyism and the lessons of Trotskys struggle against the nationalist degeneration of the Russian Revolution under Stalin. It accommodated itself to anti-immigrant chauvinism and promoted economic nationalism.

The RSM maintains that the major task confronting the left in Russia today is the fight for a democratic revolution. On this basis, it champions various forms of identity politics. It has forged coalitions with an array of forces, both liberal and overtly right-wing, including proponents of free-market capitalism, trade union bureaucrats and Stalinists. During the anti-Putin protests of 2011-2012, a leading faction of the group welcomed the campaign of the right-wing Russian nationalist and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny as having opened the door to public politics.

During the Maidan protests, as reports of assaults on workers and leftists at demonstrations and images of protesters smashing statues of Lenin hit the media, the RSM insisted that Maidan not be abandoned. In late January 2014, when the WSWS was warning that the Western-backed Ukrainian opposition was determined to provoke a civil war to gain power, the RSMs Workers Platform group proclaimed, In todays Ukraine, were seeing the most genuine revolutionary situation.

In another statement issued the same day entitled Maidan: Not Our War? the RSM described those opposing participation in the protests as philistines who did not wish to get their hands dirty. It proclaimed, This is our movement! This is our war!

Ivan Ovsiannikov, a leading member of the RSM in Saint Petersburg, insisted, Russian official propaganda representing the Ukrainian events as a putsch by Lvov fascists, professionals of the US State Department, is false. He then admitted, however, that this characterization rested upon a half-truth, on which he failed to elaborate.

Ilya Budraitskis, an RSM member whose views were broadcast widely in pseudo-left publications of various stripes, readily acknowledged the overwhelming presence of the far-right in the Maidan demonstrations. He described the fascist Right Sector as courageous fighters. When asked what the left should do given that the movement was dominated by neo-Nazis, Budraitskis said it had to participate alongside these forces. Of course, he wrote, it means I have to leave my beloved red flag at home because it doesnt get a good reception. So what? I want to come into political contact with people. Radical is what brings success.

On February 20, 2014, as observers became increasingly horrified at the savage violence meted out by the Right Sector, including the use of improvised napalm, the RSM posted an article entitled, Dont cultivate pity for tyranny. It was accompanied by a picture of a member of the Ukrainian security services being burned alive after what presumably was a fire-bomb attack.

Budraitskis argued that it was necessary to build a Left Sector in Ukraine, with the primary goal of bringing down Ukraines Communist Party (KPU). He welcomed a close to [the KPUs] ignominious existence, and insisted that the call to ban the organization and Yanukovychs Russian-speaking Party of Regions was not a reactionary demand of the far-right, but a positive manifestation of popular hostility towards those organizations ties to oligarchs and Russia. With the outlawing of the KPU and the banning of all Communist-era symbols by the new Ukrainian government, Budraitskis has gotten what he wished for.

This anti-communism was accompanied by a fawning attitude towards Maidans ferocious Ukrainian nationalism. The RSM, for instance, insisted that Maidan was progressive because it expressed the populations desire to get out from under the Russian yoke, a position that was identical to that of Ukraines nationalists. In April 2014, the RSMs Maksim Osadchik waxed enthusiastically, Maidan is not only a democratic revolution, but also the final act in the formation of a political nation. Two winter months gave Ukraine all its attributesnational pride, a national myth and national martyrs. This national pride included the rehabilitation of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, a fact he ignored.

The support for nationalism and separatism of the RSM and other pro-Kiev pseudo-left forces extends only to those cases where it serves the interests of Western imperialism and lays the ideological groundwork for the ethno-nationalist breakup of Russia. As the Kiev government was working in 2014 to physically crush opposition to its rule in the predominantly Russian-speaking eastern parts of Ukraine, the RSM busied itself with denouncing as imperialist pillage Russias incorporation of Crimea, which followed a popular referendum on the peninsula that overwhelmingly supported unification with Moscow. The RSM embraced the hysterical anti-Russian propaganda emanating from Western capitals and the media.

The ISOs Socialist Worker was likewise filled with denunciations of the Putin government. In March of 2014 the organization condemned some on the left in the US and Europe for insisting that the main enemy, imperialism, is at home. To do so, according to the ISO, meant renouncing the mass uprising that overthrew the Yanukovych regime and accepting the lying justifications of Russian imperialists for trying to maintain power in their backyard.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the Maidan coup, the French NPA (with which the RSM is aligned) endorsed a statement put out by the anti-Trotskyist United Secretariat of the Fourth International implying that those who said the pro-Kiev forces were led by fascists were spewing Moscow propaganda. This statement blamed the coming to the fore of ultra-nationalists in Ukraine on the past experience of Great Russian policies, the repressive nature of Putins regime, the war in Donbass and the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

The main target of all of these groups was and continues to be the Putin government, which they denounce for everything from anti-gay bigotry to the civil war in Syria, even as they support American, German and French imperialisms military interventions and regime-change operations in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The World Socialist Web Site is intransigently hostile to the Kremlin regime and the capitalist oligarchy it represents. The power and wealth of this ruling elite were handed to it by the Stalinist bureaucracy, which in the 1980s set about destroying the nationalized property relations established by the Russian Revolution in order to transform itself into a property-owning class. The Putin government seeks to find its way out of the current economic and geopolitical crisis through a combination of brutal domestic austerity measures, pleas to Washington and Europe for some sort of mutual accommodation, and the exercise of military force. It is an enemy of the working class.

However, the denunciations of Russia as imperialist by the pseudo-left have no purpose other than to downplay and cover up the crimes of the United States and the European powers. By supporting so-called humanitarian interventions, national liberation struggles and allegedly democratic color revolutions against Russian imperialism, these organizations are attempting to provide a cover for the rapacious and neo-colonial policies of Washington and Berlin. In April 2014, the RSM wrote: It is time to acknowledge that we live in a society that is much more right-wing that any country in Western Europe, and even the United States. This was nothing more than a justification for lining up behind the aggressive and militaristic policies of Western imperialism, which seeks to reduce Russia, as well as China, to the status of semi-colonies.

Today, the RSM is attempting to give the Maidan movement Marxist credentials by claiming that the far-right coup in Kiev was the equivalent of the 1905 Russian Revolution, which Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks supported. In an article entitled Lenin on Maidan, the organization writes: The experience of the past periods color revolutions did not give us examples of a transition of power from one group of the elite to another, but to organs of self-organization that grew out of a popular movement. The RSM essentially claims that the ultra-nationalist militias formed out of Maidan, which serve as a major base of support for the current government and its austerity measures, are somehow equivalent to a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.

What of those in the pseudo-left who claim to have opposed Maidan and the Kiev regime?

After initially arguing in February 2014 that the predominance of far-right forces in the Maidan movement does not mean that one should not take part and be active in Maidan (or in its orbit), and use the temporary weakening of state control and the really emerging power vacuum to create personal autonomous spaces through which one can enter into the new post-Maidan stage of political life, the well known Russian pseudo-left figure Boris Kagarlitsky began to denounce the Kiev government and call for the building of a Novorossiya (New Russia) in Ukraines Donbass.

Kagarlitsky is a long-time political operator in Russia. During the 1980s he was a proponent of Mikhail Gorbachevs pro-market perestroika and supported the restoration of capitalism in the USSR. Up until a few years ago he was closely associated with the RSM. He maintains close relations with the Communist Party and Russias trade union bureaucrats.

In July 2014, Kagarlitsky teamed up in Yalta, which is on the Crimean peninsula, with a number of pseudo-left forces to issue a manifesto on Maidan and the pro-Russian separatist movement that erupted in Ukraines southeast. It argued that the separatists in the region were leading a popular-liberation revolution that could be pushed to the left and result in the creation of a state that guaranteed the interests of the people and their all-sided development, forbade exploitative private property and usurious finance capital, and provided pensions and social benefits.

Nothing of the sort happened, nor could it have. The forces that came to power in the breakaway regions of Ukraines Donbass were not left-wing representatives of the genuine mass opposition that existed in the region to the Kiev coup. They were a mixture of right-wing Russian nationalist, pro-capitalist and even monarchist elements, who filled the political vacuum created by the collapse of support for the Kiev government and the mass exodus of a population fleeing war. While there was an initial attempt on their part to make use of left-wing sentiment and nostalgia for the Soviet past to find a base of support within the population, this was a mask for a reactionary, nationalist outlook.

For instance, even as they played the Internationale at official functions, the leaders of the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) proclaimed Russian Orthodoxy to be the state religion. On July 8, 2014, then-DPR military commander Strelkov vented, We are fighting here specifically for Russia and for the rights of the Donetsk Republics people. We are battling here for the USSR and for the Donetsk peoples rights as a part of the USSR. For the USSR as our universal, divine Motherland. These remarks, which are a rejection of the revolutionary and internationalist origins of the Soviet Union, are a crude product of Stalinism and Russian chauvinism.

From the start, the leaders of these Peoples Republics explicitly stated that they had no relationship to communists who seize and nationalize things, and insisted on respect for the right of private property. Eduard Limonov, the head of the Russian far-right National Bolshevik Party, praised the pseudo-lefts Novorossiya project as a red-brown alliance.

Kagarlitsky and those grouped around him now lament the failure of Novorossiya, arguing that it is a product of the betrayal of the Russian nation by the Kremlin, which intervened in southeastern Ukraine to defend its neo-liberal agenda and bureaucratic interests. A recent editorial posted on Kagarlitskys web site, Rabkor, states: The hope that in Novorossiya it would be possible to create a new, more democratic and more progressive state than currently exists in Russia (not even talking about Ukraine) never materialized. And not because these hopes were groundless. Rather, the very opposite. They were entirely real. The Kremlin administration, as well as we and our co-thinkers, understood this and alas... [the Kremlin] worked on suppressing everything living and progressive that there was in the movement for Novorossiya.

The idea that a progressive statelet that guarantees the welfare of the population could be carved out of an impoverished section of Eastern Europe and southwestern Russia ravaged by deindustrialization, wholly dependent on access to international markets for whatever wealth it produces, and at the center of an explosive conflict between the West and Russia is absurd and reactionary. It is little more than a rehashing of the Stalinist program of socialism in one countryminus even the reference to socialism.



Concluded

The author also recommends:

The International Socialist Organization and the Ukraine Crisis

[16 April 2014]

The pseudo-left Russian Socialist Movement and the dead end of the anti-Putin protests

[29 October 2013]
Mexicos president, Enrique Pena Nieto, issued a statement Monday denouncing Donald Trump, breaking silence studiously observed by his government for the past nine months, since the Republican presidential front-runner launched his campaign with a speech characterizing Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.

Pena Nietos fairly mild condemnation of Trump, who has made the sealing of the US-Mexican border with a 1,000-mile wallpaid for by Mexicoand the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants central themes of his campaign, was contained in an interview published by the Mexican daily Universal.

In the same interview, the president defended his drive to privatize the state-owned oil company, PEMEX, and asserted that no one could even attempt to blame the federal government for the September 2014 disappearance of the 43 normalistas, students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College in the state of Guerrero. This despite documented reports of army involvement in the mass kidnapping and murder of the students and subsequent evidence of a deliberate government cover-up.

Trumps rhetoric, the Mexican president said, hurt a relationship that Mexico has sought with the United States of bridges, of dialogue, of rapprochement, of seeking solutions to shared problems through agreements and shared tasks.

He went on to compare the Republican candidate to fascist dictators of the 1930s: There have been episodes in the history of humanity where this type of rhetoric has lead to ominous scenarios, he said. Mussolini and Hitler entered the political scene in the same way; they took advantage of a contextfor example an economic crisis. And what they planted created a historical conflagration.

Nonetheless, Pena Nieto stressed that he was not worried about Trump being elected and that his government would seek the path of mutual respect in order to really build a better relationship with whoever wins the US presidential election in November.

The remarks made by Pena Nieto, of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), came in the wake of a widely publicized interview in which former Mexican president Vicente Fox, of the right-wing PAN (National Action Party), told Spanish language network Univisions anchor Jorge Ramos: Im not gonna pay for that f---ing wall. He should pay for it. Hes got the money.

Fox, a wealthy businessman whose election in 2000 ended 75 years of PRI rule, also called Trump racist and crazy.

Incredibly, Foxs statement drew a condemnation from Trump for the former Mexican presidents use of an obscenity, saying he should be ashamed and apologize. This from a candidate who epitomizes the degraded character of the US election campaign, itself an expression of the protracted descent into criminality and parasitism of Americas ruling oligarchy.

Foxs successor and fellow PAN politician, Felipe Calderon, similarly told CNBC last month: Mexican people...are not going to pay a single cent for such a stupid wall. And its going to be completely useless. He pointed out that the flow of Mexican immigrants returning to Mexico now outstripped the number of Mexicans entering the US.

They dont want to go, he said, they can work for a motor company [thats] not in Detroit, I am sorry to say. They are working for a motor company in Hermosillo and Toluca, so Mazda is coming to Mexico, Honda is coming to Mexico. Those kids have jobs in that industry in Mexico.

Popular reaction within Mexico to the denunciation of Trump by the three Mexican presidents has been summed up in the Mexican expression, Un burro hablando de orejas or a donkey talking about earsroughly the equivalent of the English phrase, the pot calling the kettle black.

Fox and Calderon presided over governments that sought to subordinate Mexico ever more directly to the domination of US imperialism. Economic stagnation and deepening poverty under Fox led to an increased flow of Mexican immigrants seeking work in the US. Calderons reign is synonymous with the escalation of the so-called war on drugs and the implementation of the Merida Initiative, or Plan Merida. This brought with it unprecedented operations by US military and intelligence personnel on Mexican soil and a US-funded build-up of the Mexican security forces. Its result was the deaths of more than 80,000 Mexicans under Calderon.

This murderous toll has doubled under their PRI successor, Pena Nieto, whose administration has escalated the attacks on the working class and the subordination of Mexico to the interests of foreign capital. The hallmark of Pena Nietos Pact for Mexico is the drive to privatize PEMEX and open up Mexican oil fields to exploration and exploitation by the major transnational oil conglomerates.

Like his predecessors, Pena Nieto has collaborated closely with Washington against immigrants, even as the Obama administration has carried out a record number of deportations. Washington and the Mexican government are carrying out a joint policy to suppress the flow of Central American refugees fleeing the intense violence bred by decades of US interventions in the region.

The opposition to Trump by these reactionary Mexican capitalist politicians is based not on a defense of the Mexican people or immigrants in the US, but rather on the interests of foreign capital and Mexicos ruling oligarchy, the top 1 percent whose wealth is roughly equivalent to that of the bottom 50 percent of Mexican society, more than 60 million people.

Francisco Guzman, chief of staff to President Pena Nieto, who is taking a leading role in a bid to counteract misinformation from the Trump campaign,stressed recently: This [relationship] is not a threat but an opportunity.  The North American region is the most competitive in the world. That [relationship] is much more intelligent than a wall, which, far from boosting trade, will restrict it.

The Mexican ruling class is offering its services in making US transnationals the most competitive by ensuring, in collaboration with the corporatist Mexican trade unions, that workers in the maquiladora plants on the border and in the auto parts and assembly plants remain super-exploited and poorly paid. The countrys daily minimum wage, just over $4, is among the lowest in the hemisphere.

The emergence as a leading US presidential candidate of a fascistic figure like Trump, appealing to racist and anti-immigrant sentiments and promoting reactionary economic nationalism, represents a serious warning to the working class on both sides of the US-Mexican border.

This danger, which is rooted in the deep-going crisis of US and world capitalism, cannot be answered by either appeals to Mexican nationalism or pleas by the Mexican bourgeoisie for continued economic integration. It requires the unification of the working class in US and Mexico in a common struggle to put an end to capitalism.
Van der Dussen outside the parish church in Montserrat, Mallorca. Sofia Moro

When Romano van der Dussen was finally released from a jail in Palma de Mallorca on February 11 after spending 12 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, he was greeted by a horde of reporters eager to hear his story. Few there that day noticed a woman standing patiently to one side, waiting until the 42-year-old Dutchman had finished talking to the journalists.

She is the only good thing to happen to me in the last 12 years, perhaps in my whole life, he says wistfully.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, had seen a headline in EL PAIS in September 2014 that read: Man condemned for rape remains in prison seven years after DNA evidence exonerates him. As a result, she contacted Van der Dussen, and the two began writing to each other. She appeared in the midst of this hell. Not even the nurses in the prison hospital would touch me, because I was a rapist. Then this good woman started to believe in my innocence and spoke kindly to me. I started to feel like a person again and that I could regain my dignity and rejoin society, he remembers.

How do you get over being treated like trash for so many years? On my first day in jail I was beaten up so badly I spent the next three weeks in the hospital wing. The guards knew they couldnt guarantee my safety, so I had to be put in solitary. For 18 months I was alone for 23 hours a day, going crazy, living through a nightmare. He spent the rest of his sentence being transferred from one prison to another, spending his time in secure units for child molesters and rapists.

While locked up, Van der Dussen has become an uncle, but has never met his nephews. His mother also died while he was behind bars

For the moment, he is staying in a Church-run halfway house in Palma de Mallorca, and still has no idea about what to do with the rest of his life. The Dutch government has offered financial assistance and psychotherapy, along with an apartment in Kerkrade, a pretty town close to the German border. Van der Dussen knows that the sensible thing to do would be to accept and leave Spain behind him. He has no money, and says he is not yet strong enough to work. It will be months before he can claim compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, and there is still the matter of his exoneration for the other two rape charges he remains guilty of in the eyes of the Spanish legal system. That could take many more years, and may never happen.

September 2, 2003: From heaven to hell

That morning, like so many others that first summer on Spains Costa del Sol, Van der Dussen had been to the beach. He was jobless after the ice-cream parlor in Fuengirola where he had worked earlier in the summer had closed, but was confident an interview with a resort complex in Marbella would yield work thanks to the four languages he speaks. In short, he was a 30-year-old without a care in the world.

Van der Dussen in the Espana bar in Palma de Mallorcas Rafal neighborhood. Sofia Moro

Returning to his apartment around midday, he was stopped by two police officers. They asked his name and told him that he was under arrest.

He was held for two days and then transferred to prison to await trial. His 12-year-long nightmare had begun.

Van der Dussen soon learned he stood accused of the rape of three women during the night of August 2003, a month earlier. The women had been brutally beaten; one of them so badly that she could remember nothing about what had happened to her and was in a state of shock.

The attacks had taken place soon after the murder of two young women in nearby Coin and Mijas, and the police were under pressure to put somebody behind bars.

The dining room of the Church-run halfway house where Van der Dussen is now staying. Sofia Moro

While Van der Dussen awaited trial in jail he wrote to the magistrate overseeing the case, saying he had an alibi and could provide witnesses who would testify on his behalf. At this point he was still confident he would be released, sure that there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crimes.

May 25, 2005: I hope they send you to hell

But things started to look bad even before the trial began. His lawyer, Celia Martin Aurioles, told him that the public prosecutors office had offered a deal: seven years in jail if he confessed. With 18 months of his time already served while awaiting trial he would soon be transferred to a Dutch prison and would be eligible for parole. But Van der Dussen refused, still believing that the Spanish justice system would see he was innocent. Two of the rape victims were in court on the first day, hidden by a screen, and they identified him. I hope they send you to hell, said one of the women. Another fainted when she saw him. The two victims who gave testimony in court appeared absolutely certain that Van der Dussen was the man who had savagely beaten and raped them.

The next day, the expert witnesses gave their testimony: the DNA found on one of the victims, along with fingerprints, did not belong to Van der Dussen. None of the security cameras in the area where the attacks took place contained any footage of him. The only evidence presented in court was the testimony of two of the victims and that of a witness who claimed to have seen Van der Dussen from the balcony of her apartment close to where the attacks took place. And so, on May 25, 2005, he was found guilty by the three magistrates deciding the case in Malagas High Court  Jose Maria Munoz, Lourdes Garcia, and Maria Jesus Alarcon  who sentenced him to 15 years and six months in jail for sexual assault, aggravated injury, and robbery with violence, emphasizing the identical modus operandi of the three attacks.

It is worth noting that the verdict makes no mention of the DNA found on the pubis of one of the victims that did not match Van der Dussens. One explanation would have been that it belonged to a boyfriend, but she said she had not had sex with anybody else that evening or in the previous days. Seemingly, it did not occur to the three judges that somebody else might have raped her.

Van der Dussen walks along the beach in Palma. Sofia Moro

Furthermore, the prosecution said that Van de Dussen had not provided any witnesses to support his alibi, which was that he was with friends at a party in Torremolinos on the night of the attacks. In fact there were several letters in the courts possession written by the Dutchman mentioning several people by name who could vouch for him and providing their contact details. Van der Dussens lawyers presented written testimonies and asked for the witnesses to be called. The three judges refused.

Two weeks after the hearing, the lawyer called me to say that I had been found guilty, says Van der Dussen, still visibly affected by the experience. It was a huge shock, one of the toughest moments of it all. I tried to slash my wrists with the lid of a tuna can, he adds, showing the scars on his wrists. I just couldn't deal with it, and of course thats what they all wanted. They would say that I couldn't deal with what I had done and thats why I had taken my life. It would be just another piece of evidence against me. So, on that day I decided I would fight to the end to get justice.

But the Supreme Court turned down Van der Dussens appeal, and by the time he tried to bring the case before Spains Constitutional Court, the deadline had passed; and as all the options within the Spanish legal system had not officially been exhausted, the European Court of Human Rights could not take up the case. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong.

A difficult life

Photos from Van der Dussens childhood.

Van der Dussens life has never been easy. His father ran a small insurance company and his mother was a housewife. She had been raped before Van der Dussen was born and become pregnant, eventually deciding to keep the baby. This was Van der Dussens elder sister, who while in her teens became addicted to drugs and worked as a prostitute to pay for her habit. At the age of 14, in the face of the worsening situation at home caused by his sisters problems, Van der Dussen was put into the care of the local authority. He soon got into trouble and became addicted to drugs. Eventually, after kicking his drug habit, he moved to Spain in the hope of starting a new life with his then girlfriend. They had a baby, but separated soon after she was born. The girl was aged two when he was sent to prison.

While locked up, Van der Dussen has become an uncle, but has never met his nephews. His mother also died while he was behind bars. The case has even split the family: his younger sister, who is a police officer, refused to believe his innocence, arguing that in Europe it was impossible for somebody to be locked up for a crime they did not commit.

May 10, 2010: A British psychopath

Five years into his sentence, a Dutch diplomat visited Van der Dussen in jail to tell him that the DNA found on one of the rape victims had turned out to be that of Mark Dixie, a British national in jail for murder and rape who had been living in Malaga at the time of the offenses Van der Dussen was now serving time for having committed. The Spanish police had known about Dixie since 2007. The year before he had been arrested and his genetic profile entered into the Veritas EU database, which made the connection with the DNA found in Fuengirola three years earlier.

The Spanish police eventually requested more information about Dixies genetic profile, but the British authorities never responded, saying the paperwork had not been presented properly. The first that Van der Dussen heard about this development was from the Dutch diplomat who visited him in 2010. He then contacted Madrid-based attorney Silverio Garcia Sierra, a public lawyer who had handled one of Van der Dussens many appeals. Garcia Sierra worked pro-bono on the case for the next five years, playing a key role in securing his release.

But a case that should have taken a matter of months to clear up was instead delayed again and again by red tape. Its as though the case was somehow cursed, says Garcia Sierra. Everything has been done badly, the whole thing has been a disaster. When you look through the indictment, you cant believe the mix of irregularities, shortcomings in the investigation, and sheer bad luck: its one act of negligence after another. Those final years were ridiculous. Nobody seemed in any hurry to establish whether an innocent man had been sent to jail: either in the United Kingdom or in the Spanish courts. The whole thing was exasperatingly slow. Just when it looked like he was about to be released and he got his hopes up, some new piece of paperwork would appear that had to be filled in.

Mallorcan prison chaplain Father Jaume Alemany shows Van der Dussen how to use Facebook. Sofia Moro

Its important to remember that of the three rapes Van de Dussen was convicted of committing, he has only been acquitted of one. The Supreme Court has refused to look into the other two convictions, despite his sentence being based on the three judges decision that the crimes were all committed by the same person. Van der Dussens lawyer has lodged a new appeal based on further evidence, along with the testimonies of the witnesses who were with the Dutchman on the night the rapes took place. Whats more, a properly conducted police investigation would have found further DNA or fingerprints on the clothes and bags of the other two victims, which the authorities did not bother to analyze or even keep.

Not an isolated case

How does somebody who is innocent of any crime end up in jail? Cases such as that of Ahmed Tommouhi, Rafael Ricardi and Jose Antonio Valdivieso  to name but a few of those who languished in jail for crimes they did not commit  suggest that Romano van der Dussens is far from the exception and that the Spanish authorities repeatedly mishandle investigations, jump to conclusions, and that in their haste to close cases, cut corners by not properly following procedures.

Van der Dussen had been detained by the Spanish police on three occasions prior to his being accused of the rape of three women in 2003: for damage to public property and after two complaints filed by his former partner. None of the cases led to prosecution; nevertheless, he remained on the polices database. His conviction seems based solely on the evidence of two of the rape victims, who swore under oath that he was their attacker. But a closer look at the indictment shows that the three women gave evidence to the police either on the night of the attacks, or the next day. Their descriptions of the rapist differed: he was blond; he was brown-haired; his hair was long and it was short; his shirt was light colored; it was dark. The only thing the three agreed on was that their attacker had curly hair. The first time they were shown photographs of possible suspects, including one of Van der Dussen, they did not pick him out. A few days later, one of the victims was able to identify him without a shadow of a doubt, but another was uncertain and later failed to pick him out at an identity parade.

Van der Dussen as a teenager in the Netherlands.

Victims and witnesses sometimes get it wrong, says Margarita Diges, professor of psychology of memory at Madrids Autonoma University. And the reason is often because of the polices mishandling of an investigation. If witnesses are led to believe they have correctly identified a suspect, or if they are shown a single photograph of somebody when making their statement, later on they will almost certainly identify that person, insisting that they are sure. Its called false memory. The problem isnt so much that this produces mistaken identities, but that these statements are accepted in court as evidence and given precedence over DNA. The empirical data shows that identification is wrong about half the time.

Looking back on his tragic story, Van der Dussen says he feels sorry for the women who testified against him in court. It was obvious they had suffered greatly. But it wasn't me. If the police investigation had been carried out properly, I wouldn't have spent 12 years in jail, and could have kissed my mother before she died and seen my daughter grow up. None of this should have happened.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Thus reads the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, which prohibits unlawful searches and seizures by the government. Yet, a new report issued by the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) leads to the conclusion that the New York Police Department (NYPD) systematically and often violently violates this constitutional right.

Specifically, the report found numerous instances in which the police forcibly or by coercion intruded into peoples homes, often late at night or early in the morning, without a valid warrant, or by claiming exigent circumstances, such as purported imminent danger to someone inside, without demonstrable justification (i.e., they made up an excuse when no emergency existed). Instances in which police fabricated evidence or testimony from informants in order to obtain search warrants were also reported.

Cases cited demonstrate that the police operate with arrogance, total disregard for the law (which they are supposedly defending) and an evident expectation of impunity. In many instances, the police were found to have used offensive language, caused unnecessary property damage or physically assaulted the residents without justification. One officer is quoted as having told the victim of such an invasion, I can do anything I want.

In another case described in the report, a young man was detained by police on supposed drug-related charges and, while he was at the police station under interrogation, police took his house keys, returned to his home and entered without a warrant. They did so despite the fact that the mans mother refused to sign a form giving them permission to conduct a search. One officer is reported to have screamed at her, Goddamn it, you f***ing Haitian, just do it.

A 2013 early morning warrantless invasion of a family home by the NYPD caused the father to suffer a fatal heart attack due to the confrontation with police. The police later conceded that the family had nothing to do with the alleged crime they were investigating.

During the five-year period examined by the CCRB, police conducted more than 15,000 searches. The board reviewed 180 of 1,763 of substantiated complaints resulting from these searches. In 157 of the 180 cases, residents did not provide voluntary consent for the police to enter and search their homes, and many explicitly refused permission, rendering the warrantless search illegal. Undoubtedly, many more reports of misconduct by the police would have been lodged if the victims had any real expectation of justice. In more than half the cases, police conducting the invasions were in plainclothes (i.e., not in uniform), making them indistinguishable from common criminals.

In the face of this widespread criminality, the CCRB recommended additional officer training, the use of bodycams and increased discipline.

The NYPD claims it has imposed discipline in 64 percent of the cases reviewed by the board. The nature of the discipline was not revealed, however. The department stated that they would review whether their policies needed clarification.

It is clear, however, that the systematic violation of constitutional rights is not the result of a few bad apples or insufficient training, but pervades all aspects of police work. For example, a recent federal government report revealed that court-ordered modifications to the NYPDs notorious stop and frisk policy were frequently being ignored, with officers unable to provide legitimate justification for stopping people on the street. In a sample of 600 cases, police failed to justify reasonable suspicion in 28 percent of stops, 27 percent of frisks and 16 percent of searches.

The behavior revealed by the CCRB report is not a surprise to the millions of working class residents of New York, or, in fact, in any community across the country. The reckless arrogance of the police everywhere was highlighted by a recent case in Pennsylvania in which police, while undertaking a forcible eviction, fired at a man standing in his doorway, wounding him and killing his 12-year-old daughter, who was behind him. As if that were not enough, the father has been charged with the murder of his daughter, while the policeman was exonerated of wrongdoing.

Widespread police violence against workers and youth nationally, with total disregard for constitutional rights, is steadily on the increase; be it in the military-style suppression of protests, the wanton killing of many hundreds of mostly unarmed civilians each year, constant harassment of people on the street (e.g., New Yorks stop and frisk policy) or in the subtler form of the systematic violation of privacy by surreptitious surveillance and monitoring of private communications.

Reacting to the CCRB report, Jose Lopez, spokesperson for New York City group advocating for police reform, stated, Improper home searches are just the tip of the iceberg of unconstitutional searches being conducted by the NYPD. In report after report, these police searches that fail to abide by law on the streets and elsewhere continue with impunity. It could not be clearer that neither training nor internal NYPD rules are solving this crisis.

No matter how many studies are conducted or how many recommendations for increased training are made, brutal and illegal police tactics will not end. As the capitalist crisis deepens, they are the necessary expression of capitalisms need to intimidate and repress the working class.
The head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, gave a highly provocative speech in New Delhi last week in which he laid out the next steps in Washingtons strategic agenda for India. Claiming to be a bit moonstruckby the opportunities a strategic partnership with India provide, Harris said he envisioned the US and Indian navies jointly patrolling the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the not too distant future.

He also urged India to form a quadrilateral security dialogue with the US and its closest military allies in the Asian-Pacific region, Japan and Australia.

Later the same day, Admiral Harris proposed that the recently established annual trilateral Indo-US-Japanese naval exercise take place off the northeast shore of the Philippines, just outside the South China Seaa contested region where the US has been encouraging its allies to press their territorial claims against China.

In sum, Harris urged India to become a frontline state in the US drive to strategically isolate, encircle and potentially wage war against China.

By virtually any measure, India is a poor country. But US imperialist strategists, including the Pentagon war planners, have been touting it as a strategic prize since the beginning of the 21st century. The efforts to harness India to US imperialisms predatory global agenda, through a combination of threats and poison-chaliced inducements, have greatly intensified since the Obama administration announced its anti-China pivot in 2011.

US strategists covet India for multiple reasons. It is the second largest of the worlds emerging economies. It has a huge military, armed with nuclear weapons and a rapidly expanding blue-water navy. From a geostrategic standpoint, it dominates South Asia (the Indian subcontinent), providing a potential base of operations for projecting US power across much of Eurasia, including towards neighbouring China and the energy-rich Middle East and Central Asia.

Last but not least, India protrudes far into the Indian Ocean, providing easy access to the entire northern half of that ocean, which, as a recent US Naval War College-sponsored study notes, has replaced the North Atlantic as the central artery of world commerce.

The strategists of US imperialism view dominance of the Indian Ocean as essential to US global hegemony. First and foremost, because it is at the heart of US plans to impose an economic blockade on China through strategic maritime chokepoints in the event of war or war crisis. But also because the Indian Ocean is a key staging ground for US military operations in the Middle East and East Africa.

In pursuit of its own great-power ambitions, the Indian bourgeoisie has tilted ever more decisively toward Washington, even as the US has emerged as an incendiary power that wages illegal wars and otherwise violates national sovereignty and precepts of international law at will.

The Congress Party-led government that ruled Indian from 2004 to 2014 entered into a global strategic partnership with Washington, helped legitimize its efforts to isolate and bully Iran, and rapidly expanded ties between the Indian military and the Pentagon, including weapons purchases.

In the 22 months during which Narendra Modi and his Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have formed Indias government, New Delhi has integrated itself ever more fully into Washingtons strategic offensive against China.

This has included:

Joining Washington in painting China as the aggressor in the South China Sea, although it is the US that, in the name of freedom of navigation, is arrogating to itself the right to patrol Chinas shores and to have in place the naval might to quickly seize the Straits of Malacca and other strategic chokepoints;





Expanding bilateral and trilateral military-security cooperation, including military exercises and strategic planning, with the US, Japan and Australia;





Collaborating across South Asia in countering Chinese influence, including in the January 2015 regime-change operation in Sri Lanka that saw Mahinda Rajapaksa replaced by a president ready to degrade Colombos ties with Beijing and launch a security dialogue with Washington.

Harriss New Delhi speech was aimed at stoking suspicions and inflaming tensions between India and China, the better to bind New Delhi to Americas strategic agenda. It is part of an unrelenting campaign to force China to forgo any challenge to US global hegemony.

Earlier last week, Harris ordered an aircraft carrier-led US Navy strike force to enter the South China Sea. This week, the US and South Korea launched their largest ever Korean Peninsula war game, and did so on the basis of a new operational plan that provides for pre-emptive strikes on North Korea and the occupation of the North up to the Chinese border.

It took Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar a full two days to respond to Harriss speech, indicating that the BJP government was taken aback by the admirals public airing of Washingtons asks of India. Parrikar rebuffed the suggestion that India will mount joint navy patrols with the US, but in a manner that very much left the door open to such a possibility in the future.

The BJP has already reversed the decision taken by the previous government and supported by Indias military-security establishment to reject three agreements the Pentagon considers foundational for joint action with foreign militaries. The agreements had been rejected on the grounds that they threatened Indian sovereignty and security.

According to press reports, when US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter travels to India next month he will sign at least one of thesea Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) giving the US military routine access to Indian ports and naval bases, including for refuelling. The LSAs importance is underlined by the comment of a high-level Indian official who last December said that the only remaining hitch in giving the US military access to Indian bases was, What happens in the case of war?

The burgeoning military-strategic alliance between US imperialism and the Indian bourgeoisie constitutes a huge threat to the masses of South Asia and the world.

Washington is drawing on the political and military support given it by New Delhi to recklessly pursue a confrontation with nuclear-armed China, a course which, whether deliberately or through miscalculation, threatens to ignite a world war.

The Indian bourgeoisie, for its part, is using the enhanced diplomatic, military and geopolitical power it derives from its junior partnership with Washington to pursue its longstanding goal of imposing itself as the regional hegemon of South Asia. Under the BJP, India has aggressively asserted its interests with all its neighbours, including building new military installations along the disputed border with Pakistan and instructing army commanders in the disputed Kashmir region to be more militarily assertive. Last year saw the worst border clashes between India and its nuclear-armed rival, Pakistan, in more than a decade.

Pakistan has repeatedly warned that Washingtons strategic embrace of India has overturned the balance of power in South Asia, fuelling an arms racewarnings the US has cavalierly ignored. These warning have become shriller in the past year due to the strengthening of the Indo-US alliance and Modis efforts to bully Pakistan. Militarily, Pakistan has responded by announcing the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, and politically, by seeking closer ties to China.

Aware that the US was intent on harnessing India against it, Beijing long sought to avoid antagonizing India and attempted to enlist it as a partner in its land and sea Eurasian transport initiatives. But with Modi integrating India into Washingtons anti-China pivot, Beijing has moved to place Pakistan at the center of its plans to circumvent Americas chokehold strategy, announcing that it will invest $46 billion in a Pakistan Economic Corridor linking western China with the Pakistani Arabian Sea post Gwadar.

The US, which has used the Pakistani elite and Pakistani military as satraps in its geopolitical machinations for the past six decades, is not about to cede Pakistan to China. The axis between the Pentagon and Pakistans military is a source of continuing mistrust and friction between New Delhi and Washington.

Nevertheless, Washingtons strategic offensive against China and its drive to make India the south-western pillar of its anti-China pivot have an incendiary geopolitical logic: the US-China conflict is becoming ever more entwined with the reactionary geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan, adding to each a highly explosive new dimension.

As the International Committee of the Fourth International explained in its statement Socialism and the Fight Against War, published last month, the only progressive basis on which to oppose Washingtons insane attempt to uphold US global hegemony through aggression and war is to counterpoise to the imperialists war map the map of the class strugglethat is, the building of a global working-class movement against war on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program.
Just days after the UN Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear test and rocket launch this year, the Philippines became the first country to carry out significant action in enforcing them.

On Saturday, the Philippine coast guard and port authorities seized a suspected North Korean cargo ship docked at Subic Bay port. The following day, a government official declared that President Benigno Aquino intended to impound the ship and deport its North Korean crew of 21.

While Philippine officials invoked the UN resolution passed last Wednesday, the government undoubtedly acted with the approval, if not on the direct orders, of Washington. The US rammed through the new UN sanctions and is determined to ensure they are enforced, particularly by China.

The MV Jin Teng, a 6,830-tonne general cargo ship, is flagged under Sierra Leone but is supposedly owned by the Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a North Korean company. The corporation allegedly illegally shipped arms to the Middle East and exported ballistic-missile technology to Africa.

As a result, OMM was blacklisted in 2014 and its assets, including its ships, could have been seized even before the latest UN resolution. According to the Financial Times, the US government claims that OMM has continued to operate through front companies and representative offices to evade sanctions.

On what basis the ship is being impounded is unclear. Philippine Coast Guard commander Raul Belesario said the ships documents indicated it was owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands and managed by a firm in Chinas Shandong province.

The MV Jin Teng had been anchored in the Subic Bay since February 28, having arrived from Indonesia with a shipment of palm kernel products, which are used locally as a livestock feed. It was finally able to dock on March 3.

The Philippine Coast Guard inspected the ship twice. Coastguard spokesman Armand Balilo admitted that no weapons of mass destruction or other banned goods were found. The ship had been scheduled to proceed to the port of Zhanjiang in China.

The ship was initially prevented from leaving Subic Bay on the pretext of four minor safety violations, including inadequate accommodation.

The latest UN Resolution 2270 widens previous bans to include the importation by North Korea of all arms imports, items connected to its nuclear and missile programs and various luxury goods.

In a bid to strangle the North Korean economy, the US-led sanctions bar North Korean exports of gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore and rare earth minerals. North Korea is also banned from exporting coal and iron ore, unless the proceeds are for livelihood purposes.

To enforce the bans, the UN resolution mandates member states to search all cargo passing through their territory, whether by land, air or sea.

Clearly the goods on board the MV Jin Teng were not banned, nor were they intended for shipment to North Korea. Unless the ship can be proven to be the asset of a banned North Korean entity, there appears to be no legal basis for impounding it. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the ship had been operating into Subic Bay for some time without incident.

The Philippine administration is proceeding nevertheless. Foreign Ministry spokesman Charles Jose claimed that Philippine authorities were acting in accordance with the latest UN resolution. The most important thing is to impound the vessel so it cannot engage in economic activity that would benefit North Korea, he said. The UN resolution, however, does not ban all North Korean economic activity.

The Philippine administration has been in the forefront of the US pivot to Asia by aggressively pushing its territorial disputes in the South China Sea with China. The countrys Supreme Court has just upheld a new basing agreement with the US, enabling US military forces extensive access to Philippine military facilities, including the former American naval base at Subic Bay.

As part of the pivot, the US has been intensifying pressure on North Korea as a means of justifying its heavy military presence in Japan and South Korea, which are integral to the US military build-up throughout the region against China. Beijing only agreed to the latest UN sanctions on North Korea, after being strong-armed by Washington, which has imposed unilateral penalties on individuals and entities engaged in a wide range of banned activities with North Korea. China is by far North Koreas largest trading partner.

By seizing the MV Jin Teng, the Philippine government has sent a message, on Washingtons behalf, that the latest sanctions have to be enforced. Moreover, the dubious grounds for impounding the ship make clear that the US is intent on stopping all economic activity that would benefit North Koreawhether it is covered by UN resolutions or not.

The ships seizure is another demonstration of the close integration of Manila into the US pivot and preparations for war against China.

On January 24, the US Navy dispatched the USS Curtis Wilbur from Subic Bay to carry out the second so-called freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea. The guided missile destroyer intruded within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit around Chinese-administered Triton Island in the Paracels, then returned to Subic Bay.

Behind the backs of the Philippine population, the Aquino administrations willingness to support US provocations against China is ensuring that the country is being swept up in the intensifying geo-political maelstrom that is driving toward war.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has submitted a demand to the Pitchford Inquiry into undercover policing that significant parts of its proceedings be held in camera, with no participation by the public.

The five barristers hired by the MPS argued that the fact of, or details of an undercover police deployment cannot be disclosed in open sessions of the inquiry. They wrote that anything that could make it possible to expose the identity of an undercover officer must be kept secret.

The government was forced to establish the inquiry, headed by senior judge Sir Christopher Pitchford, in July 2015. Its remit is to review practices in the use of undercover policing, establishing justice for the families and victims and making recommendations for future operations and police practice. This was after it was revealed that undercover police officers infiltrated their way into hundreds of political groups since 1968, using a wide range of deceptive techniques. These included using the names of dead children, forming long-term relationships and even fathering children to unsuspecting women as part of building their cover story, then later disappearing without warning.

In December 2015, the Metropolitan Police were forced to pay millions in compensation to victims of crimes committed by undercover police officers.

The legal submission by the MPS states they wanted it to be clear at the outset that it would be applying for much of the detail of past or current deployments to be presented to a closed, secret session of the inquiry.

The MPS resorted to Orwellian logic by claiming that a public inquiry need not be held in public. The question arises, if there are significant closed parts of a public inquiry, is it a public inquiry at all? The Metropolitan police submits the answer to that question is yes.

They claim that the inquiry could perform its task where even large parts of the evidence considered by the inquiry chairman are not disseminated.

In 2015, a report was produced by Mark Ellison QC and Alison Morgan of the Historic Police Misconduct and Investigations Unit for use by the attorney general, the principal legal officer representing the Crown in legal proceedings and who gives legal advice to the government. This report was referenced in a ministerial statement announcing the establishment of the Pitchford Inquiry.

The report revealed that the SDS [Special Demonstration Squad, the body responsible for undercover policing from 1968 to 1999when it was renamed] were successful and managed on many occasions to engineer their field officers into key positions within target groups.

It notes that this became the main goal of the SDS, although when it suited the SDS management, they would offer the by-product of tactical intelligence as a key indicator of their success. [Review of Possible Miscarriages of Justice: Impact of Undisclosed Undercover Police Activity on the Safety of Convictions]

Confirming that undercover police were involved in provocations and entrapment, the report continues, It follows that the material currently available confirms an almost universal practice of SDS secrecy. That is, withholding undercover intelligence, reporting and activity from investigating officers and prosecutors, even when (as it must have sometimes done) it touched on the activists who were arrested and prosecuted...

In 2011, a former undercover police officer, Mark Kennedy, offered to aid in the defence of six environmental campaigners from a group he had previously infiltrated, leading to the collapse of the trial they were involved in. In 2015, lawyers acting for the Home Office claimed to have discovered more than 80 possible miscarriages of justice bound up with undercover policing, in addition to 57 convictions that had been quashed due to the role undercover officers had played.

The MPS uses arguments on the need for secrecy and hiding identities that were previously exercised in the run-up to the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

The MPS submission is meant to ensure that the inquiry rides roughshod over the basic democratic rights of the Pitchford Inquirys core participants, who have been the victims of police spying. A letter sent to the inquiry on February 8 by 133 of the core participants demanded the inquiry revealed a list of names of all the organisations about whom intelligence was gathered; the cover names (not the real identities) of the individual officers responsible for infiltrating and reporting on activists and campaigns; and the individual Special Branch reports for each Core Participant group or individual.

The letter makes the important point that many people who were spied upon cannot take part in the inquiry, because they are not currently aware of the spying having taken place.

There can be no doubt that the MPS are continuing their secret operations against oppositional political and activist groups. This is clear from their submission, in which they state that any lessening of their secrecy would impinge on undercover operations.

Helen Steel was the target of an undercover police operation before and during the McLibel trial, in which she was one of the two defendants. She is now a core participant in the Pitchford Inquiry. She said in response to the MPS submission, Why should those who committed the abuses be protected above those who suffered the abuses?

On an earlier occasion in 2015 Steel said, These undercover policing units have committed grievous human rights abuses which are absolutely shocking in a supposedly democratic society. We want to make sure they dont happen again to anybody else, and for that to happen we need the full truth to emerge.

The decision on whether police officers give evidence in secret will be taken by Sir Christopher Pitchford. At the outset of the inquiry, he declared his willingness to make parts of it private if he deemed it be in the national interest.

In his opening remarks to the inquiry last July, he said, This is a public inquiry to which, as the name implies, the public will have access. I will therefore start with the presumption that witnesses should give evidence in public. However, the subject matter of the Inquiry means that there may be circumstances, such as the national interest, continuing police investigations or the rights of individual witnesses that require me to make an order under section 19 of the Inquiries Act 2005 restricting attendance at the Inquiry or restricting the disclosure or publication of evidence (emphasis added).

In a hearing scheduled for March 22/23, Pitchford will consider what legal approach he will take towards granting applications to keep information secret.

Working people must demand access to all these state secrets. The Socialist Equality Partys Open Letter to the Pitchford Inquiry demands the immediate release of the names of all undercover police operatives, especially those active in the Workers Revolutionary Party (and its forerunners and successor organisations), their pseudonyms and dates of operation.
6 years, 7 months ago by Scott Hardy

Status hearing planned

Curtis Lovelace will appear in an Adams County courtroom later this month, for the first time since a mistrial was declared in his first degree murder trial.

A status hearing in Lovelace case will be held March 18th. It may address a request by Lovelace to review court transcripts from that first trial. The Special Prosecutor's office that's handling the case has opposed the motion, saying Lovelace is still technically being represented by attorneys Jay Elmore and Jeff Page. Both have said they would not represent Lovelace at a second trial, but have not filed out paperwork to officially drop out of the case.

The University of Chicago-based Exoneration Project has offered to represent the former Adams County prosecutor free of charge. There may also be new counsel for the prosecution, as State Appellate Prosecutor Julia Wykoff has filed to appear.

Lovelace is charged with one count of first degree murder, and is accused of smothering his first wife Cory with a pillow in 2006. He's in the Hancock County Jail on $5 million bond.
6 years, 7 months ago Jim Dewey

Pablo Serrano-Vitorino suspected in five deaths since Monday night

Multiple law-enforcement agencies are searching in central Missouri for a man suspected in killing five people since Monday night.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said an abandoned truck belonging to Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino was found Tuesday in Montgomery County. He's wanted for questioning in the shooting deaths of four men in Kansas City, Kansas Monday night. His truck was found on the shoulder of Interstate 70 in Montgomery County early Tuesday morning, which prompted the search.

Late Tuesday morning, authorities found a fifth victim's body at a home near the truck. The Highway Patrol said they found 49-year-old Randy Nordman dead at the scene, and suspect Serrano-Vitornio is also responsible for that homicide.

Serrano-Vitornio was last seen wearing a red and black flannel jacket, blue hooded sweatshirt and possibly blue jeans. He should be considered armed and dangerous, and might be armed with an AK-47.
6 years, 7 months ago QPD

Demetre L. Franklin, 35, Quincy, for FTA - Littering et al.. At 521 Vermont on 03-07-16 @ 1000 hours. Lodged in the ACJ.

Mary E Russell 56, of Lima for stealing.

Nicole C Baker 31, of Quincy for no valid registration.

Levi Parson 522 Cedar reports his truck was sprayed with white paint on 2/21 while parked at the residence.

Timothy D Reinberg (28) 2001 Locust Driving While License Revoked, Operating Uninsured Vehicle and Possession of Cannabis at 5th & Locust USC

Diabolique D Benton (18) 401 Oak for Possession of Cannabis at 5th & Locust NTA

Michelle Rogers (24) 931 N 5th for Truancy, FTA Interfering and FTA Fighting at 6th & College Lodged

Sara R Sompolski (24) 512 Hampshire Apt A for Speeding at 30th & Harrison PTC

Lawerence L Wagner (50) 525 Adams for Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol at 2739 Chestnut USC

Kimberly L Harvey (48) 925 N 3rd for Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession of Cannabis at 200 Maine Lodged

Brian M Sicler (40) Homeless for Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Hypodermic Needles at 200 Maine Lodged

Jordan M Story (28)2428 College for FTA Leaving the Scene of an Accident, FTA Operating Uninsured Vehicle, FTA Improper Use of Registration, FTA Operating Vehicle with Suspended Registration and FTA Improper Lane Usage at 200 Maine Lodged

Kelly L Voss (44) 1116 Rhapsody Rd and Gordon L Hultz (42) 1541 N 1400th for Fighting at 1116 Rhapsody

Tevin T Johnson reported the theft of a Television from his residence.

Shelby L. Penrose, 22, Quincy for Open Liquor in Public at the Complex, 906 Hampshire. NTA

Brandon S. Hawk, 18, Quincy for Retail Theft at County Market, 520 N 24th on 12/03/15. NTA

Alexander T. Robles, 18, Quincy for Shoplifting at the Quincy Mall. NTA

Mariah R. Hess, 24, Quincy for Interfering at 835 1/2 N 6th. NTA

Cody M. Felker, 25, 2023 1/2 Broadway for Burglary, Possession of Stolen Property, Possession of Meth, Possession of Cannabis and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Lodged

Melissa S. Hoffman, 35, Quincy for Adams County FTA  Passing Stopped School Bus. Lodged
6 years, 7 months ago by Scott Hardy

Cost to re-open Fire Station #6 is $250,000

Quincy's fire chief says he's studying a possible re-location of the city's fire stations, to improve response times.

Fire Chief Joe Henning made that statement after Monday's Fire Aldermanic meeting. Henning told the committee that a new fire station hasn't been built in Quincy since the 1970's. Henning says for now, and for the future, it's a question of how many stations are needed. (Audio Cut)

Henning also told the committee that it would take $250,000 to re-open Fire House Number 6. That would cover the cost of hiring two new firefighters, and cover $100,000 in needed overtime.
6 years, 7 months ago by Scott Hardy

Michael Curtis, 62, arrested Monday

A Quincy man is in jail after his arrest on drug and weapons charges.

The West Central Illinois Task Force said Tuesday that they, along with the Adams County Sheriffs Office and the Illinois State Police raided a home Monday in the 1900 block of Sherwood Lake Estates in Quincy.

The Task Force says 62 year old Michael Curtis was arrested for Unlawful Possession of Meth and Unlawful Possession of Firearm Ammunition by a Felon. Court records show that Curtis was on probation from a 2015 Ralls County, Missouri charge of Unlawful Possession of Meth.

Curtis is in the Adams County Jail awaiting his first court appearance.
Rajoy arrives at the European Council on Monday. D.Mouhtaropoulos (Getty)

With Spanish politics in gridlock since December and no new prime minister in sight, the conservative Popular Party (PP) is already working on a new campaign strategy for a hypothetical repeat election on June 26.

Aides to acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy want to cast this fresh vote as a presidential-style election between their own candidate and Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, who came in second at the December 20 vote with 90 seats, compared with the PPs 123.

The PP wants to cast Ciudadanos as an instrument of the Socialist Party, given that the two have joined forces

Because no party managed enough voter support for an overall congressional majority of 176 seats, political leaders have been forced to embark on a flurry of cross-party negotiations to build a coalition government, or at least secure enough backing to get one nominee into the prime ministers office at the helm of a minority government.

But so far all negotiations have failed, putting Spain in the unprecedented situation of facing a repeat election if no successful nominee emerges within the next two months. The countdown began last week, when Sanchez bid for the post but was struck down in two rounds of voting in Congress.

Now, Rajoys team will try to win back the disaffected voters it lost to the emerging Ciudadanos party at the December election. It will do so by casting the reformist group as an instrument of the Socialist Party, given that the latter two recently joined forces and produced a long program of projects they would implement if given a chance to govern. But the Socialists and Ciudadanos together only command 130 seats in Congress, not enough for a majority. The Canaries Coalition has recently added its single deputy to this alliance.

The PP had originally counted on Ciudadanos for support, but this hope was dashed after Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera decided to join Sanchez instead. Riveras impassioned speech at last weeks investiture debate  in which he launched a missile against the [PPs] inner circle by asking PP deputies to betray Rajoy and hand over his head on a platter, in the words of one high-ranking PP official  did the rest.

If the PP has few chances of convincing the Socialists and Ciudadanos to join it in a grand coalition, the Socialists are themselves struggling to find support in left-wing circles. Sanchezs original idea of a progressive coalition that would include the anti-austerity Podemos has stalled because of a growing confrontation between both parties.

Among other things, Podemos supports a referendum on self-rule in Catalonia, which most other parties in Congress reject, including the Socialists. Political observers have also expressed concern at Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias recent statements regarding his desire to control key state agencies if he reaches power, including the intelligence services and the public broadcaster.

The PP, which is reeling under the effects of a seemingly endless raft of corruption scandals, considers that in this scenario, new elections in Spain are inevitable.

English version by Susana Urra.
Park authorities have not yet announced a date for re-opening. Ricardo Ceppi

More information Una plaga de viboras obliga a cerrar un parque publico en Buenos Aires

Parque Costanera, a Buenos Aires park along River Plate, has had to close its doors to citizens due to an invasion of snakes.This is the second such plague the area has faced in the aftermath of heavy December floods along the coast, which caused islands of water lilies to float down the Buenos Aires estuary, bringing with them reptilian pests.

The parks Facebook profile announced that it would close on February 18 due to the presence of serpents, which would pose a very big risk for users if the park were to stay open under such conditions. Snakes were found in the grass and in the whirlpools by which scooters roll by every day. All evidence suggests they enter the park through drainpipes that empty into the river.

Snakes were found in the grass and in the whirlpools by which scooters roll by every day

Parque Costanera has become a popular playground for Buenos Aires skaters since it opened in October 2013 on the site of the former Saint Tropez Park. The 7.5 hectares of recreational space offer areas for residents to practice longboard, mountain biking, slackline and rock climbing. Visitors can enjoy 350 meters of coastline and a view over the river.

But the park has had difficulty keeping its doors open over the last few months. Flooding in the Mesopotamia region in the north-east of Argentina in December brought down islands of water lilies with their resident snakes, spiders, mice and otters. Berisso, a community an hour outside of Buenos Aires, has banned bathing, lodging and camping at seaside resorts along its 23 kilometer coastline.

On February 22, a 12-year-old girl was bitten by a venomous serpent while sunbathing nearby. The child was not in mortal danger since the animal did not release its poison but ophidians have become an unexpected concern for residents in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

English version by Dyane Jean Francois.
The latest anti-corruption raid took place in Getafe (Madrid) on Monday. Mariscal (EFE)

A new survey shows that 47.5% of Spaniards consider corruption to be the countrys second-most-pressing problem, topped only by unemployment.

The February poll by the Sociology Research Center (CIS) suggests that citizen concern over corruption and fraud has jumped eight percentage points from the previous months survey.

The new results, made public on Tuesday, find that 15.4% of respondents feel personally affected by corruption, a four-point rise over January.

The lack of a new government in Spain after the inconclusive December elections only worries 1.4% of citizens

The lack of a new government in Spain only seems to worry 1.4% of citizens, a similar rate as those who expressed misgivings over the Catalan independence drive.

Spaniards placed economic issues third on the list of the countrys top problems (25.1%), followed by politics and politicians (22.2%).

The survey was conducted between February 1 and 11, a few days after the Civil Guard launched a new corruption raid against the Popular Party in Valencia and shortly after a Palma court confirmed that Princess Cristina de Borbon would remain a defendant in the Noos corruption case.

The poll took place before Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed in his bid to win the Spanish premiership, sending the political situation back to square one. Even so, 41% of respondents said that the political situation in Spain is bad, while 35.7% described it as very bad and 18.2% called it regular. Only 2.2% termed it good or very good.

English version by Susana Urra.
Hulk Hogan testifies: Even his character was embarrassed when Gawker posted that sex tape
Mohammed Al-Qiq, an administrative detainee, ended his 94-day hunger strike on February 26. The average reader does not know what caused the 33-year-old Al-Qiq, a Palestinian journalist, to end his strike or even who Al-Qiq is. Hold on, who is Al-Qiq? A Palestinian journalist carried out a hunger strike. So what? A journalist? Yes, so what? He is a Palestinian. I see. One should say an Arab from the territories. A journalist is definitely a terrorist. If the authorties arrested him, they know why.

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Israel is the sole democracy in the Middle East. If the security forces make an arrest, there must be a reason. Thus, Israel can arrest a person for six months, the length of Al-Qiq's detention. But if Israel wants to, it can extend his detention again and again without an indictment, a trial, or family visits.

Mohammed Al-Qiq

Why? Security officials argue that Al-Qiq was arrested for his involvement in "recent military activity." His relatives claim that he was arrested for his articles in the Palestinian press. Which version is correct? Al-Qiq has not been indicted since the start of his administration detention. If evidence against him exists, it is confidential, as all materials used for his arrest indicate. Why? Our democracy works in this manner. What the army, police, and Shin Bet say is sacred.

The most hated criminal also deserves to hear his indictment and receive a trial. Until then, he is not a criminal and should not be punished. If the authorities fail to present an indictment against him, he deserves to be freed. Why? Because that is how a legal system works in a democracy. And no, the army's, police's, and Shin Bet's answer does not suffice. Since the beginning of his hunger strike, all Al-Qiq requested was to be charged or set free. The authorities refused. Why? That is how the system works. So what?

Then, we were informed that Al-Qiq and the Israeli security services had reached an agreement to set him free on May 17, 28 days before the expiration of his administrative detention. Why, exactly? Six months of administrative detention were enough? Why did they agree to release hm four weeks early? Is Al-Qiq not involved in "recent military activity?"

The Shin Bet only said that "if no new intelligence is received regarding his case, his circumstances will not change and his administrative detention will not be renewed." Wait, why not release him today? Is something going to happen at the beginning of May, at which point Al-Qiq will no longer pose a security threat? Why did the security services originally request a six-month administration detention instead of five months?

I am asking irritating questions. Indeed, it is clear that the authorities arrested him because they arrested him and they will free him because they will free him. If the security services say so, they know. The same thing will happen when the next administrative detainee goes on a hunger strike. Wait, there already is someone else striking. He is 23-year-old Mahmoud Al-Fasfous, who was arrested more than 18 months and still has not been indicted. All right, is he another Arab from the territories? Well, he is definitely a terrorist. If the authorities arrested him, they know why.

How fortunate that we live in the only democracy in the Middle East and not in Soviet Russia or Pinochet's Chile. There, they arrest people for no reason.
US President Barack Obamas administration is considering a United Nations Security Council resolution to serve as a blueprint for Israeli-Palestinian talks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The US has repeatedly vetoed such resolutions in the past.

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That move would be just one element of a plan to receive the peace process, according to the Journal.

The newspaper added that other elements might be a presidential speech and joint statement from the Quartet.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power vetoes Security Council resolution on Palestinian state in 2014 (Photo: EPA)

The report offered one possible scenario: the US would push Israel to halt construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories and recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state Palestinians would in turn be asked to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and end claims on a right of return for Palestinian refugees. That scenario would entail establishing two states based on the 1949 armistice lines, with land swaps to reflect population changes since then.

According to the report, Palestinian officials said they were open to an intervention by Obama.

Obama and Netanyahu have frequently butted heads. In March 2015, Netanyahu invoked the presidents ire with his pre-election statement that a Palestinian state would not be created under his government, seen by the White House as a repudiation of the two-state solution that consistently been at the heart of all negotiations involving the US. Although Netanyahu backtracked from this statement the day after the election, Obama told the press that he had told the Israeli leader that it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing negotiations were possible."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said on Monday.

Netanyahu decides against Washington trip

Meanwhile, Netanyahu's decision to nix his US visit marked the latest episode in a fraught relationship with Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year's US-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's arch foe. The White House said the Israeli government had requested a Netanyahu meeting with Obama on either March 18 or 19 and that two weeks ago he was offered a March 18 encounter.

PM Netanyahu and President Obama in the Oval Office (Photo:Avi Ohayon)

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," White House spokesman Ned Price said in an emailed statement. "Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister's schedule are false," he said.

Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he had declined the offer because of the heated US election campaign. The Prime Minister's Office said that Israel's ambassador to the US informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" Netanyahu would not make the trip.

Netanyahu also saw little to show for such a trip, given that the new defense Memorandum of Understanding is "far from being agreed yet," according to Channel 10. Several Israeli media quoted Israeli officials as saying that no appropriate time could be found for the meeting before Obama's departure for Cuba.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit Washington this month not only to see Obama but to address the annual conference of the leading U.S. pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. In the past he has sometimes spoken to the group via satellite.

The prime minister made a speech to the US Congress last March criticizing the then-emerging Iran nuclear deal and was denied a meeting with Obama during that visit in what was widely regarded as a diplomatic snub.

But the two leaders met at the White House in November and sought to mend ties. In recent months, differences over defense aid have underscored continuing tensions over the Iran deal.

Netanyahu and his aides suggested in February if Israel were unable to reach an accord with Obama, it could wait for the next president to secure better terms. Current US defense aid to Israel, worth about $3 billion annually, expires in 2018. The two sides are seeking an extension before Obama leaves office in January 2017.

US Vice President Joe Biden, on a five-day trip to the Middle East, is due to visit Israel later this week and hold talks with Netanyahu.
Carlos the Jackal, the Marxist guerrilla who became a symbol of Cold War anti-imperialism, has told a newspaper that he moved freely through Switzerland in the 1970s under a "non-aggression pact" between the government and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

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He felt so safe that he flew to Zurich rather than Vienna airport on his way to neighboring Austria for his most spectacular coup: the kidnapping of oil ministers at OPEC headquarters in 1975, he told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) in a telephone interview from his prison in France.

'Carlos the Jackal' in 1975 (Photo: Getty Images)

His comments, published on Monday, seem sure to inflame a debate about whether Swiss authorities secretly agreed to turn a blind eye to PLO activity in the 1970s and give it diplomatic support in exchange for an end to attacks on Swiss targets.

The NZZ said it had made contact with the 66-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, through his lawyer. Ramirez is serving life sentences in France for a series of attacks.

He told the paper it had been common knowledge among PLO militants that they would not be arrested in Switzerland, on condition was that they refrained from making trouble. "Of course we stuck to that," he said.

He recalled seeing a wanted poster with his picture on it in the guard's booth as he stood in line for passport checks after flying into Zurich from Beirut on his way to Vienna, only to be waved through with his fake South American passport.

'Carlos' in court in 2000 (Photo: AP)

Ramirez sealed his notoriety by taking OPEC's oil ministers hostage in the name of the Palestinian struggle, in an attack in which three people were killed, and went on to be an international gun-for-hire with Soviet bloc protectors.

But the revolutionary mystique he once enjoyed - helped by a Che Guevara beret, leather jacket and dark glasses - wore thin after he was captured in Khartoum in 1994 by French special forces.

Switzerland last month began looking into whether a former government minister, now dead, had struck a covert deal with the PLO.

The allegation emerged this year in a book by Swiss journalist Marcel Gyr, who conducted the NZZ interview. The book, "Swiss Terror Years", has also raised questions about whether such a pact interfered with an investigation into the bombing of a Swissair plane in 1970 that killed 47 people, for which no one was ever charged.

According to the book, representatitves from the Swiss government secretly met with the heads of the PLO in order to mitigate the terror attacks happening on Swiss soil and against Swiss interests.

Carlos also revealed that on the Swiss side of the negotiating table was a banker named Francois Zeno, who, according to NZZ, was a Nazi enthusiast, a huge admirer of Adolf Hitler, anti-Zionist and avowed anti-Semite who wasn't afraid to hide his opinions.

Zeno - according to the Swiss newspaper - while being followed by the Swiss authorities, was also well connected to people in the Swiss intelligence services due to his good relations with Palestinian terror organizations. The relations between Carlos and the PLO only became apparent after the attack on OPEC.
Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel (Likud) experienced sexual harassment on a bus while she was soldier, she told Ynet on Tuesday, which was International Womens Day.

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It was simply horrifying, she said. I got up, startled, and ran towards the driver and when I turned back around he got off at the station.

Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)

Regarding the rise in reports of sexual harassment and abuse in Israels police and military, Gamliel acknowledged that we are in a disturbing year.

She also gave words of support to the women who recently accused Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris, the commander of the Golani brigade, of harassment, saying that we should support the complainants; the victims are not to blame. The minister further said that the government has, for the first time in Israeli history, worked to create a budget for gender equality. Gamiliel added that her ministry intends to form a governmental authority to combat violence against women and that she believes gender equality should be taught as early as kindergarten.

On Monday, Nehama Rivlin  the wife of President Reuven Rivlin  hosted 16 women who had publicly discussed their experiences with sexual assault. She praised the women for telling their stories, which she said would help women get the courage to reveal their own experiences.
Somalia's intelligence service cooperated with the US in airstrikes that killed more than 150 al-Shabab members on Saturday, an intelligence official said Tuesday.

The airstrikes targeted a forested military training camp run by the Islamic extremists 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, the official said, adding that the camp was al-Shabab's main planning base. He said Somali officials helped the US to pinpoint the location of the militants' training base but did not give details. Another intelligence official said al-Shabab members training there were planning to attack a drone base in the region.
A 16-year-old Danish girl who was arrested in January was planning bomb attacks against a Jewish school in Copenhagen and another school in Denmark, Danish prosecutors said on Tuesday.

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Prosecutors presented the preliminary charges against her and a 24-year-old man suspected of being her accomplice in a court hearing in Holbaek, northwest of the Danish capital.

Prosecutor Kristian Kirk told The Associated Press after the hearing that the suspects obtained chemicals and tried to produce explosives with the intent to commit terror attacks against the two schools.

A Copenhagen synagogue that came under attack (Photo: Reuters/Archive)

He said police thwarted their plans by arresting them. He declined to give other details.

The suspects, who were not identified, deny the charges. The court extended their pre-trial detention until March 30.
US Vice President Joe Biden was at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa on Tuesday evening as a Palestinian terrorist was less than a mile away, running along the boardwalk in the city and indiscriminately stabbing anyone he encountered

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"Terror activity against innocent women and children is intolerable," Biden told former president Shimon Peres during their meeting.

Biden "condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack which occurred in Jaffa," his office said. "He expressed his sorrow at the tragic loss of American life and offered his condolences to the family of the American citizen murdered in the attack, as well as his wishes for a full and quick recovery for the wounded," the statement said.

The American vice president stressed the United States' "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to the security of Israel," saying he hopes progress can be made on the peace process and the fight against terror.

Biden and Peres meet at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa ( :  )

X

Biden and Peres were told of the stabbing attack that was happening not far from where they were, but Biden's visit and his meeting with Peres continued uninterrupted.

A 22-year-old Palestinian from Qalqilya rank amok along the Jaffa boardwalk, stabbing anyone in his path. He killed one person, said to be an American tourist, and wounded 11 others.

"There are serious terror attacks in Israel even today," Peres told Biden. "In these very moments, there is a terror attack in the nearby streets. Terrorists want to hurt innocent people and they want to hurt the State of Israel. We will not give up and will continue fighting terror with all our might."

"The majority of the people know there is no alternative to the two state solution ... and we shall follow with all our strength and dedication to make from it a new reality," Peres added.

"It is up to us, Israel and the United States together, to do everything we can in order to fight terror and bring an end to the bloodshed and war," Peres said in a statement released by his office.

After the meeting, Peres said: "I notified the Vice President on the terrible incident that took place just a few hundred meters away from here in Jaffa. He wanted to know every detail and the names of the families and how the wounded were doing. Throughout our entire meeting, we received updates on the attack and the condition of the wounded, and it was clear that there is no compromising when fighting terror - both in Israel and the US - and that terror will be defeated, despite all of the sorrow and pain."
"Fatma", a mother of twins with a demanding workload, was distraught to discover she was pregnant again. Her doctor agreed to perform an abortion, she says, only after she promised to pretend the procedure had been a medical emergency.

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"He felt sorry for me and told me, 'If someone asks you how you ended up having an abortion, I will be in trouble and will lose my job, so say you were hemorrhaging at the time,'" said Fatma, who lives in the West Bank.

"He did the abortion for me - the first time, the second time and third time," she told Reuters, speaking on condition her real name not be used as she had never told her husband.

For women seeking abortions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinian law strictly limits the procedure, the choice is stark: have the baby or terminate the pregnancy by using ruses, risky back-alley methods or even turning to neighboring Israel, where the laws are far more permissive.

Palestinian women stand on a beach in Gaza City during sunset on summer's day (Photo: Reuters/Archive)

Women's rights campaigners rue the ban but decriminalization looks unlikely. Conservative customs guide much of Palestinian society and parliament has effectively been suspended since 2007 because of factional disputes, making it impossible to amend or pass new laws.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, doctors are permitted to perform abortions only when pregnancy endangers the mother's life, but not if it is a peril to her mental health.

When fetal impairment is detected, an abortion can be performed if both parents consent, but terminating a pregnancy that resulted from rape or incest is banned, the ministry said.

Palestinian authorities declined to give figures for how many abortions had been approved or how many people had been prosecuted for violating the law. Anecdotal accounts suggest such sanctions are rare, but the fear of repercussion and violating taboos keep many abortions covert.

According to Wafa Muammar, head of the Palestinian police family protection unit, a woman who has an illegal abortion could face 1 to 3 years' imprisonment.

That may be reduced to 6 to 12 months in cases of "shame-preventing" termination of pregnancies that resulted from incest or rape, Muammar said.

The same reduction applies if a woman is threatened with a so-called "honor killing" for getting pregnant outside marriage.

Unlicensed or back-alley abortionists can also get 1 to 3 year prison terms, or 5 to 15 years if the woman dies from the procedure, Muammar said, adding that if the practitioner is a doctor, he or she could be jailed for an additional 3 years.

"If the woman herself does the abortion, she will suffer a penalty, as will anyone who helps her," Muammar said.

Even opting for emergency contraception such as "morning-after" pills is taboo. Some pharmacists have been known to dispense the pills with no questions asked.

Costly risks

"Samira," another Palestinian woman who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said she found a sympathetic pharmacist away from her home town to help a friend prevent a pregnancy.

"I told him about the woman, that she has 10 kids and is not feeling well," Samira said. "I told him, 'You are safe, I'm not even from this area and your name will never be mentioned.' He said, 'Okay, I trust you, here you go, here's the medicine.'"

Amina Awedat, director of the non-profit Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association (PFPPA), said that while she respects Palestinian law, she wanted to see "safe services" become readily available for women who want abortions.

"Ultimately, unsafe abortions prove costly because when women start hemorrhaging and have to go to hospital, the cost of getting the abortion and recovering from unsafe abortions is higher," Awedat said.

For some women, the motive for an abortion is fear of paying the ultimate cost - being killed by a male relative to preserve the family's "honor".

For now, some Palestinian women are turning to Israel, where abortion is available once approved by a medical committee. Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, which Israel counts as part of its jurisdiction, have free access to Israeli hospitals.

Israeli government data on abortion recipients do not distinguish between East Jerusalem Palestinians and Arab citizens, who make up 20 percent of Israel's population.

The most recent Central Bureau of Statistics data, from 2012 and 2013, found that around 85 percent of recipients were from the Jewish majority, and 15 percent - 2,600 to 2,800 cases annually - either Israeli Arabs or East Jerusalem Palestinians.

A CBS official, citing anecdotal information relayed by hospital registrars, said 9 Palestinian women from the West Bank or Gaza had abortions in Israel in 2012, and another 6 in 2013.

Even that small number appears to have trailed off recently.

Dalia Basa, an Israeli government official in charge of arranging entry of Palestinians for medical treatment, said she was now aware of around one abortion case a year.

"Usually these women turn to Israel because of 'family honor' sensitivities which require discretion," Basa told Reuters, meaning pregnancies that resulted from illicit unions.

She said that in such cases the recipient's application to have the abortion in Israel is generally handled by human rights groups or relatives in East Jerusalem or Israel's Arab sector.
WASHINGTON - The United States said on Tuesday it had raised concerns with Saudi Arabia about the kingdom's cutting off aid to the Lebanese army, adding that international assistance to Lebanon is essential to curbing the influence of Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia said last month it had suspended a $3 billion aid package for the Lebanese army in what an official called a response to Beirut's failure to condemn January attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

"We have raised our concerns about the reports of aid cutoff with the Saudi authorities," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a news briefing. "I am not going to talk about the details."

"Assistance to the Lebanese armed forces and to other legitimate state institutions is essential to help diminish the role of Hezbollah and its foreign patrons," Kirby said.

US aid to Lebanese armed forces will continue, he said.

"We don't want to leave the field open to Hezbollah or its patrons," Kirby said.
David Fremd, a Jewish man in his 50s, was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack on Tuesday in the city of Paysandu in Uruguay by a man who reportedly called out "Allahu Akbar." He succumbed to his wounds on Wednesday.

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According to reports from the Jewish community in the country, Fremd was walking down the street when the attacker jumped him and stabbed him in the back 10 times.

According to reports in Uruguay, one of Fremd's sons was also wounded in the attack.

Local police located and arrested the attacker, a 35 years old man with a criminal past. Police is examining whether the attack was criminal or anti-Semitic in nature.

Paysandu is a small town on the Uruguay river, by the Argentina border.

Uruguay's chief rabbi, Ben-Tzion Spitz, said he was making his way to the hospital.

"The victim has a secular appearance, but is known in the town as Jewish. We don't know who the stabber is, except for the fact we heard he has been arrested by police," Rabbi Spitz said.

According to Spitz, there are about 15,000 Jews in Uruguay. "We haven't felt a lot of anti-Semitism here and that's why this incident is very surprising to us," he added.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

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Action in Yerevan in support of Nadezhda Savchenko (video)

A protest action has been held outside the Russian Embassy in Armenia with the demand to release Nadezhda Savchenko, officer of Ukrainian Army, who is kept in the prison of Donetsk. Today brave woman, patriot, freedom fighter, Ukrainian officer Nadya Savchenko is judged under shameful conditions, noted Tigran Khzmalyan, one of the action participants. 34-year-old pilot appeared in the Russian prison in July, 2014 and is charged with involvement in the murder of two journalists of Rossia state TV company and illegally crossing the border. Savchenko herself considers the accusation to be baseless by claiming that Russian separatists kidnapped her. Imagine that in the territory of Armenia, Azerbaijani subversive group kidnaps an Armenian officer, takes into Azerbaijan and judges for defending the homeland, notes Tigran Khzmalyan. The state prosecutor demands 23 years of imprisonment for her and the trial, according to her relatives, has been delayed. Being displeased with the course of trial Savchenko has held hunger strike and thirst strike starting from March 3. The trial on March 7 didnt give her a chance to the last word, the next court hearing was postponed until March 9. According to the action participant Daniel Ioannisyan, the ongoing trial in Russia is illegal. The alleged crime Savchenko is accused of took place in the territory of Ukraine, the territory, which is considered to be Ukrainian territory also from the official point of view of Russia. The Russian court has no power to judge. Embassy of Russia didnt react to the protest action.
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

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Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

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An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

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This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

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ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
Have womens rights changed after 100 years? (video)

Who can understand a woman? Men even dont try, they simply want to make March 8 a pleasant day for them according to their imagination. When in 1908 15.000 women took to the streets in New York with the demand to cut down the working day and receive equal salary, perhaps they thought that after 100 years there would be no issue of equal rights. Have they fully succeeded in their fight? In reply to this question the fellow citizens told A1+: Even judging by salary, in Armenian men are paid more than women, and it itself tells that there are still borders. At present, under these conditions, women carry more burden than men. I am happy that gradually everything is changing for the better, they are seeking independence, they try to achieve everything by overcoming the difficulties. Compared to the previous 10 years, there has been a great change. I think that in Armenia the role of women has increased and of course there has been much progress compared to the last years. Today womens role is big both in public offices and in general. I think everything is good, we are developing more and more, there have been many changes. Irrespective of the existing problems Yerevan is in festive mood today.
According to the Sydney and Melbournes Housing Affordability Crisis: No End in Sight report released by The Australian Population Research Institute (TRAPI) earlier this week, both Sydney and Melbourne will see apartment completions soar in 2016 and 2017 compared to recent years.

Report authors Bob Birrell and David McCloskey claim the boom in apartment numbers has been driven by a mix of overseas buyers and local investors looking to buy off the plan

The report claims Sydney will see more than 22,000 apartments come online in both years, while just over 21,000 new apartments are predicted each year for Melbourne.

In comparison, both cities saw 10,600  14,800 apartments completed each year from 2013 -2015.

According to the report, authored by Bob Birrell and David McCloskey, the boom in apartment numbers has been driven by a mix of overseas buyers and local investors looking to buy off the plan.

For Todd Hunter, head of buyers agency wHeregroup, the figures put forward by TRAPI come as no surprise.

From the number Id seen I thought that would be the case, Hunter said.

Thats only the ones they know of already, thats not the ones that pre-work and plans that are coming through for, so I think those numbers will be even higher, he said.

While the sheer number of apartments coming online might be warning enough for some, the TRAPI research highlights another issue as developers look to maximise their profits on each site.

Most of the product is small, around 50 square metres. They are this size because the smaller the apartment the more that can be put on to each site. There are no requirements in Sydney or Melbourne for developers to provide a mix of apartment sizes or prices. It is the investors who are bearing the risk, the report said.

They prefer small apartments because most dont want to pay more than $500,000. A family friendly apartment of 80 square metres will cost at least $700,000 to $800,000. As a result, few are being constructed.

With that being the case, Hunter believes lenders could soon become more restrictive as they look to minimise the risks involved with lending to a saturated market.

Lenders who might be overexposed in a particular suburb or building will then cease to finance them completely. It wont come down to lending policies, it will come down to something like one lender has 30 or 40 units in one building that theyre lending to and theyll say no more and wont take the risk on.

Well see more and more of that. Lenders have the right to do that and they do exercise that right. It can go down to suburb, street or development. The data they have on that now is very good and they can work that out very well.

Birrell and McCloskey also believe the flood of apartments, many of which are predicted to be extremely similar in size, could also see investors walk away from deposits as valuations come in under the agreed purchase price, something Hunter also agrees with.

Ive read some stories where thats been happening already with valuation shortfalls or they havent been able to get finance, he said.

I think well see more and more of that coming up, but there hasnt been a huge volume of it so far.
As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More
The Global and United States Hydrobike Market Report has been published by QY Research recently. Hydrobike Market Analysis and Insights This report focuses on...
This is a blog about Wyoming EPSCoR, the projects we do and the grants we are working on. From student internship programs, to grant work, to research, we're sharing our news and stories for our community to read and share. Thank you for visiting our site!
The article/blog entry below from the JTA reminds me of the arguments about Lenin's Jewish ancestry. Now that we can look at the records, we know that Leni...

11 years ago
- Obinim has revealed that DCOP Kofi Boakye and David Nenyi Ampah-Bennin are all active members of his church in an attempt to hit back at Rev Sam Korankye for criticising him

- He says he has a large following of respected men of good standing in Ghana and the world over which includes the police capos

- Rev Ankrah had previously criticised Obinim, describing his prowess as magic

- Obinim lashed back at Rev Ankrah that he was envious of his (Obinim's) large number of congregants

A jubilant Bishop Obinim when he was acquitted by court over assault charges

The General Overseer of the International Gods Way Church, Daniel Obinim in an apparent response to the stinging remarks he has had from the founder of the Royal House Chapel International, Rev Sam Korankye Ankrah, has revealed that the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kofi Boakye and Director-General Public Affairs Department of the Ghana Police Service, David Nenyi Ampah-Bennin are all active members of his church.

READ ALSO: I can make breasts, penis bigger  Obinim claims

Rev Korankye Ankrah in response to a question posed to him in a radio interview last week, said he doubted the claim of Obinim to being a true prophet of God and that his so called miracles are akin to sorcery.

According to Obinim, he has a large following of respected men of good standing in Ghana and the world over who should be smart to know that he is a fake prophet.

Controversial Daniel Obinim is reported saying that the respected security capos called him personally on phone and begged him to be their spiritual father.

READ ALSO: Beat anyone who criticizes me  Obinim charges his members

He said his decision to go public with their names is to prove to some holier than thou men of God that his church is not a wayside church as they seek to paint.

If Kofi Boakye and Ampah-Bennin who are future IGPs begged me to make them my spiritual sons and protect them from any evil then who are you to insult me he quizzed.

Sam Korankye Ankrah is envious of me; I have over two billion members worldwide; his members are not up to one million so he wants to use me to be popular, he said.

READ ALSO: President Mahama wept over dumsor  Rev Sam Korankye

Rev Korankye Ankrah has condemned the claim by Obinim that his assertion to being able to metamorphous into a snake is unbiblical and unchristian.

Source: YEN.com.gh
I did not believe that this could be done - until it was announced. The trek takes anywhere from 25 to 28 days at a normal pace  to attempt...
About ZVTS

Even with the Biden Administration adults in charge and Democrats in control on Congress (barely), there remains an increasingly crumbling global economy imperiling the world, rising nationalism and deadly racism across Europe and Asia, a seemingly endless war against terror, a federal government nobody trusts or believes in, global climate change putting us on the brink of destruction and a Village media that barely does its job on even the best day.



Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there when we need solutions . Dangerous levels of Stupid.



Into the fray, dear Reader. Tray tables, crash helmets, arms inside blog at all times.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the retrospective fee hike in IP University colleges is expected to be rolled back by tomorrow.

The file in this regard has been sent to the Lt Governor for his approval, he said.

The Directorate of Higher Education had asked the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University to implement the revised fee structure on basis of the recommendation of an eight- member panel re-constituted by the government.

"IP univ students met me this morn also. Pl don't worry. File sent to LG. Hopefully, fee hike will be cancelled by tomo (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted.

IP univ students met me this morn also.Pl don't worry.File sent to LG. Hopefully, fee hike will be cancelled by tomo https://t.co/gXkoAys9aA  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 8, 2016

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio, said he has sent the file on the roll- back to LG Najeeb Jung for his approval.

Under the revised fee structure been implemented, an MCA student who pays Rs 96,600 per academic session at Banarasidass Chandiwala Institute of Information Technology, would have to shell out Rs 1,20,000 per academic session from 2013 onwards.

Meanwhile, amidst allegations that the agitating students were threatened by colleges not to approach the government, Sisodia has ordered that the Director (Higher Education) may instruct university authorities that no private college can take action against any student in this matter and any such move would be viewed seriously.

In his order, the Deputy Chief Minister further said it is the considered opinion of the government that the right to protest and right of dissent are fundamental rights of the students.

A notification issued last month by Shiv Kumar, Director (Higher Education), said "the government has decided that the fee proposed for 2013-16 by the State Fee Regulatory Committee (SFRC) be notified for the period 2014-17. For courses having duration of four years and five years, the fee notified by the government will be applicable for their entire duration."

The new fee structure is based on the recommendations of the SFRC, set up by Delhi government on February 1, 2013, to determine the fee for courses in privately-managed institutions in the national capital and to perform the functions assigned in the Delhi Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence) Act, 2007.

The notification is based on a report by the government appointed eight-member panel re-constituted on February 13, 2013, headed by former Delhi Chief Secretary Ramesh Narayan Swamy to determine the fee for courses in privately-managed institutions under the IP University in Delhi and NCR.
New Delhi: The grandfather of JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who was arrested and later released for organising a controversial event at the university campus, on Tuesday initiated legal action against two people who had recently announced a reward for anyone who kills his grandson.

According to ANI, Kanhaiya's grandfather filed legal suits against Adarsh Sharma and Kuldeep Vaishnav, who had allegedly put up posters offering a reward to anyone who kills the JNU leader.

The case was filed in Begusarai.

Delhi Police had earlier arrested the two men for announcing Rs 11-lakh reward for killing JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar.

Adarsh Sharma, the president of Purvanchal Sena, had made the offer.

"Kumar is a traitor and we want him dead. He has let down our motherland by raising anti-national slogans," Sharma had said.

"The court will take the time to deliver a judgment, but we will ensure that he is shown his place at the earliest. This is why we will give Rs 11 lakh to his killer," he had said.

The little-known outfit had even denied that this was a publicity gimmick. Purvanchal Sena members said that though they had faith in the judiciary and they wanted speedy justice.

Sharma said he formed the Purvanchal Sena for the welfare of people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
New Delhi: Pulling up the Delhi Development Authority for debris dumped in the Yamuna, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday asked the DDA as to what their quick reaction team was doing when the debris was allegedly brought and dumped by the Art of Living Foundation, the organiser of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar`s World Culture Festival.

Resuming the hearing on pleas seeking cancellation of the World Culture Festival organised by the Art of Living Foundation on the Yamuna flood plains here from March 11 to 13, NGT Chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar said, "You (DDA) must tell us where the debris has come from? In the Yamuna, 5-6 feet dumped material has been seen.

The DDA response team remained unaware of that. You can`t wash your hands off.

"Notwithstanding the response by DDA`s counsel Alok Bansal`s statement that there was no debris in October and November, Justice Swatanter Kumar shot back: "You are saying there was no debris in the months of October and November. Obviously, that has come subsequently, and the quick response teams should have taken note of that."

Crticising the DDA for being insensitive to letters and photos that brought the presence of debris to its notice, the NGT asked why the DDA didn`t take their cognisance.

Tearing into the Uttar Pradesh Government`s decision of granting the parking permission for the event, the NGT sought to know from the UP`s counsel, "Under what authority you have given the parking permission? Does the area you have allotted for the event come under flood plane?"

Besides, the NGT also sought to know whether the organiser the Art of Living Foundation have acquire more than the allotted land for the event and how much money the government has spent on clearing debris from the allotted land.

Expressing concern over the impact of the forthcoming event on environment, Justice Swatanter Kumar sought to know from all the official respondents - DDA, Delhi and U.P. governments, Environment Ministry and Art of Living Foundation - whether they have considered the impact of the event on environment, river and biodiversity, and the pollution it could generate.

"If somebody has to alter the flood plain, don`t you think it requires your clearance," the NGT asked the Environment Ministry.

Inquiring about the expected number of people attending the function, the NGT asked as to what would be the maximum estimated number of participants at the event at any given point of time.

The Art of Living Foundation replied that 2-3 lakh people are expected at the festival at any point of time.During the hearing, the Delhi Government, however, submitted before the NGT that the World Culture Festival organiser has not taken any permission either from the Delhi Police or the Fire Department.

On March 3, the DDA had submitted that it had granted conditional permission for organising the event. However, the DDA told the NGT that it had no idea about the magnitude of the programme.

Meanwhile, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has confirmed that President Pranab Mukherjee, who had earlier agreed to attend the valedictory ceremony of the festival, will not attend the event "due to unavoidable circumstances".
Ahmedabad: A court in Ahmedabad rejected the bail plea of Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel, arrested in a case of sedition.

Additional sessions judge N G Dave is likely to pronounced the order in the open court. Hardik is currently lodged in Surat jail.

In his petition, Hardik claimed that he was wrongfully booked for sedition and 'waging a war against the government' by Ahmedabad police.

The crime branch opposed his application saying the 22-year-old leader may indulge in similar activities if released and tamper with the evidence.

Hardik's lawyer Rafik Lokhandwala said sedition is a colonial law enacted by the British to suppress the voice of freedom fighters and it had been wrongfully applied in this case against a "patriot" who is fighting for his community.

Hardik and his associates had raised their voice only for the betterment of the community and there was no feeling of hatred, disloyalty or enmity against government, he said.

The police, who had submitted the record of Hardik's intercepted calls before the court, failed to establish a link between the state-wide violence and Hardik's conversations with others during the quota agitation, Lokhandwala argued.

The crime branch, in its affidavit, said Hardik may abscond if released. It also accused the Patel leader of spreading rumours of secrete meeting with a top government officer and a leader in Surat jail recently.

There had been no such meeting, it said, adding that Hardik may once again try to destabilise the government if released.

Property worth Rs 40 crore was damaged during the Patel agitation last August. Police have argued that inciting such a mass violence amounted to sedition and waging a war against the government.

With PTI inputs
Chandigarh: Justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi, a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court, passed away on Monday following a heart attack.

The HC judge was en route to the Tirupati temple along with his family members when the incident took place.

According to The Hindu, Sanghi complained of chest pain during his stay at Sri Padmavati Guest House at around 3.30 pm on Monday and was admitted to Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences in Tirupati.

He died while undergoing treatment.

His body is likely to reach Chandigarh by air from Tirupati by this evening and cremation is expected to be held tomorrow.

The High Court and all the district courts across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh would remain closed today as a mark of respect to Justice Sanghi.

Notably, Justice Sanghi had taken suo motu notice last month of news reports about the alleged rape of around 10 women at Murthal in Sonepat district during Jat reservation agitation in Haryana.

Justice Sanghi was to retire in June 2017.
Allahabad: Richa Sharma, the first woman president of the Allahabad University Students` Union, who has accused alleged harassment by the administration, on Monday got support from political parties.

Eight politicians of different political parties have issued joint statement in support of Richa accusing the government of harassing Allahabad Univ Students' Union president.

The letter was signed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, Janata Dal (United) KC Tyagi, Congress leaders Rajeev Shukla, Jairam Ramesh, AAP leader Bhagwant Mann, Javed Ali Khan and Jai Prakash Yadav. While extending their support to Richa, the politicans have alleged that the government is sowing widespread discntent in campuses by its blatant support to ABVP's goondaism.

8 pol leaders from diff opp parties issue joint stmnt accusing Govt of harassing Allahabad Univ Students' Union Pres pic.twitter.com/HkKd9i4Jl3  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 8, 2016

Richa has maintained that she was being targeted for questioning the vice-chancellor`s conduct and the varsity`s anarchist approach.

As per reports an inquiry was conducted against Richa following allegations that she got admission as a research scholar on a seat meant for the reserved category.

The Allahabad University students` union president also alleged that the varsity`s actions were politically motivated, aimed at targeting her for questioning the vice-chancellor`s conduct wherein he appointed a sexual-harassment accused as his OSD.

"The administration of the Allahabad University has been mentally harassing me for the last six months. Daily they are sending me notices and questioning my work. In tune with those unwarranted allegations, they are trying to send me out of the varsity. They are now questioning my admission procedure and stating that there are some irregularities in that," Richa told ANI.
New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is hearing a plea against the Art of Living Foundation's proposed 'World Culture Festival', on Tuesday posed some tough questions to the Delhi Development Authority and the UP government for granting permission for the event and not considering all environmental aspects.

As the NGT continued its hearing on the proposed event, the Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar today said, ''Well leave the venue as a beautiful bio-diversity park after the event is over.''

Speaking to reporters, the renowned spiritual guru said, ''As per my knowledge, not even a single tree has been cut down, we've only trimmed four trees.''

Sri Sri further assured that he wants to keep Yamuna river clean.

''We will not pollute the environment. We haven't cut a single tree. I want the Yamuna to remain clean.'' he added.

The reactions from Sri Sri came at a time when the NGT is hearing a plea moved by several NGOs and environmental activists against the World Culture Festival.

While the NGT slammed the DDA for overlooking various environmental issues, the Army defended its move to construct two pontoon bridges on the Yamuna river for the event.

Clarifying on the issue, the Defence Ministry said that the Army pitched in to help in building supporting infrastructure for the event in view of security and safety of lakhs of people who are expected to attend the event from March 11 to 13 on grounds adjacent to the Yamuna river near Mayur Vihar.

During the hearing, the NGT asked the DDA and the UP government to explain why they gave permission to organise such a massive event without proper assessment of the likely threat it poses to the Yamuna river bed and the ecosystem.

"The area which you have given, does it come under flood plain and with what authority did you give parking permission? The NGT asked the UP government counsel to explain.

It also asked the UP government to clarify whether the organisers took more area and what amount of money was spent in clearing the debris.

A day earlier, President Pranab Mukherjee had announced that he will not attend the World Culture Festival which is being organised by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The petitioners have moved the NGT against the festival saying it will cause irreparable damage to the Yamuna ecosystem.

The three-day event will be held on the floodplains of the Yamuna river near DND toll bridge and massive construction is underway for the festival starting March 11.

The event, being held on the 35th anniversary of the Art of Living foundation.

The programme that is expected to be attended by 35 lakh people from 155 countries.

Earlier, reacting to the allegations of causing damage to the environment for 'World Culture Festival' event on Yamuna flood plains, Sri Sri Ravi had said, it is the joke of the year when people say that his organisation is polluting the Yamuna river.

The noted spiritual guru said, "The Art of Living should be lauded and rewarded for even choosing such a polluted place for a prestigious international event.

While stressing that they will not cause any harm to the river, the spiritual guru said, It takes enormous courage and commitment to ready a place where once, one could not even breathe due to the stink.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday exhorted women not to wait for others to give them what was their right and empower their minds instead.

He also urged the Centre to learn from the initiatives taken by different states and union territories for women's empowerment and development.

"I often hear of women not being given the opportunity or permission to do something. I would say, why wait for others to give you what is your right? The minds of our women should be empowered. The mindsets of our people must evolve," the president said while speaking at a function held to give away 'Nari Shakti Puraskar 2015' on International Women's Day.

"They must realise that it is in societys own interest to create the conditions for their women to freely exercise their choices at home and workplace without restrictions or fear," said Mukherjee.

"The government can certainly partner with the private sector and the widespread network of civil society organisations to do this better. Best practices for the development of women - that have worked well at the grass roots in states and union territories - should be adopted and up-scaled in the Indian government schemes," he added.



"It is intolerable that in this day and age, women are still being exposed to barbaric brutality and violence because they are women.

"A greater focus on womens access to resources - and control over these resources - and more emphasis on improving the health and nutrition of girls and women is a vital necessity."

The president also commended the government for its initiatives on empowering women.

"I am glad to know that the ministry of women and child development has conceived a Village Convergence and Facilitation Services programme at the gram panchayat level. I am confident that the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' programme will succeed in addressing malnutrition, maternal mortality and bridging gaps to improve the status of women in our society," said Mukherjee.
Islamabad: British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday urged Pakistan and India to not allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process.

"I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process. Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process," Hammond was quoted by Express News as saying during a joint press conference with Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad.

The British foreign secretary advised Pakistan to speed up the investigation into January 2 terror assault on India`s Pathankot airbase in northern Punjab state which India has blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.

"I welcome Pakistan commitment to vigorously pursue Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation," he said.

Hammond also lauded Islamabad`s role in the fight against terrorism and said Britain will continue its support to Pakistan in war on terror.

"I salute Pakistan`s efforts in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is the victim of terrorism and we want to work with Pakistan to take on the threats it faces. British and Pakistan will remain partner against terrorism," Hammond added.
New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Makarand Paranjape, Monday, took on Kanhaiya Kumar for quoting wrong facts, while delivering his speech at the campus after being released from Tihar Jail last week.

Paranjape, poet and professor of English at JNU, made the comments while speaking at 15th edition of the speak-in at JNU: Indias Uncivil Wars. Tagore, Gandhi  JNU and what is Left of the nation.

While addressing the students and some faculty members, Paranjape questioned Kumar for wrongly quoting historical facts.

Kanhaiya said in his celebrated speech Golwalkar met Mussolini. Did you check your facts, it was Moonje who met Mussolini. I am not saying they were not impressed by the fascist, they were. They thought it is a very good idea to have an authoritarian system. Please let us agree on what is factual and what is not. Fascism stands for anti-democratic position and so does Stalinism," the professor said.

Notably, Paranjape's speech was interrupted by Kanhaiya Kumar amid sloganeering and booing by some students. However, other speakers, who were pro-Left, had a smooth run.

The professor further took on Kanhaiya for saying that his organisation was the oldest and fought a lot for independence. The JNU president is a member of All India Students Association (AISA), which is the student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

"The Communist Party of India wrote to the British that they will not agitate when you are fighting, we will cooperate with you. When he (Kumar) said we fought for Independence of India, I want to know what the evidences are, the professor said

Paranjape's stated that the present discourse in JNU in particular and in the country in general has destroyed the middle ground, adding that only the extremes are left.

Earlier, the professor had said the February 9 event in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru at JNU was carried out under a false pretext.

JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested for sedition, was released from the Tihar Jail on March 03.
New Delhi: Many may be accusing the Jawaharlal Nehru University students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and some others for inciting anti-national sentiments, but it seems that some professors of the prestigious university are the real culprits, who are infusing hatred for the country amongst the youngsters.

Addressing a gathering of students on nationalism programme, JNU professor Nivedita Menon, who teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the International Studies school, said, We believe that democracy (Rashtraraj) is a very strong thing, but if it was so strong then why few students, who raised such (anti-India) slogans were arrested. She went on to say that, If such incidents happen then the democracy is not so strong as we claim because tanks and guns are used to keep the democracy intact and strong.

The professor in question also made some remarks on Kashmir, which might encourage Pakistan and China in their anti-India propaganda.

''After Independence, the accession of Kashmir was done following the India-Pakistan war on the pretext that a plebiscite will be conducted when the situation gets back to normal and since then it (janmat sangrah) has not happened,'' she said in her speech.

We all know that the world today believes that India is illegally occupying Kashmir, she added.

Further spitting venom against the state, she said, India is an imperialist country. Here 30-40 percent of the country is under control of the army in the name of special forces laws, which are used to crush the people.''

Atrocities are being committed from Kashmir to the northeast and in Chhattisgarh, Menon noted, adding that Manipur and Kashmir have been illegally occupied by the Indian state.''

The JNU professor was of the view that raising pro-azadi slogans in context of Kashmir is justified.

Further justifying her statement, Menon said, When the international community is debating over legal occupation of Kashmir, then we should think that 'azadi' slogan is justified.''

She also said that Nagaland was annexed by India.

Menon was not the only one who shared such anti-national views. Retired Delhi University professor Achin Vinayak shared echoed similar views on Kashmir and the northeast.

JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, facing sedition charges for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans are presently under judicial custody.

JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on sedition charges, was released on bail from Tihar Jail last week.
Islamabad: Pakistan`s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz here on Tuesday assured British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that a joint investigation team is in the process of completing its probe into the Indian airbase terror attack.



"The team will visit India in the next few days and hopefully then a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries will take place. The Indian High Commissioner himself stated that foreign secretaries` meeting is not linked to the Pathankot investigation," the prime minister`s senior aide said.



New Delhi previously accused Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad of masterminding the attack which left seven Indian security officials and one civilian dead and avoided pointing fingers at Pakistan or its institutions.



However, India`s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the country`s parliament that the deadly assault could not have been carried out without "state support".



Aziz also confirmed to Hammond that the government shared intelligence with New Delhi about possible terror attacks in India.



"Sharing of intelligence among various nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world. However, this time it was somehow leaked to media. But this showed Pakistan`s commitment to fight terrorism," Aziz said.


New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee, who was scheduled to deliver the valedictory address at Sri Sri Ravi Shankars World Culture Festival (WCF) commencing in Delhi from March 11, has decided to distance itself from the event.

The Art of Living Foundation, which is organising the event, has, however, refused receiving any intimation from the President.

We have not received any intimation from the President cancelling his attendance, said a spokesperson for the Art of Living Foundation.

An official of the Rashtrapati Bhavan had on Monday announced: "The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances."

Notably, the President's decision came in the wake of a controversy over the three-day event on the flood plains of river Yamuna that has raised environmental concerns.

The event drew criticism after some activists petitioned the National Green Tribunal, a qusai judicial body on environmental issues, asking it to stop the event as it would have a deep impact on the Yamuna flood plains.

While the organisers expect 35 lakh people to attend the function, concerns have been raised by experts about the likely damage to the environment that may be caused by holding it on the flood plains of the already polluted river in east Delhi.

The AOL foundation, which is organising the function, will have yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars and traditional cultural performances from around the world.

The three-day event will be held from March 11-13 on the west bank of Yamuna to celebrate 35 years of the foundation.

Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority and the foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains.
Chennai: Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini was on Tuesday released on parole for 24 hours for attending the 16th day obsequies of her father, who passed away last month, to held here on March 9.

She was released after the Madras High Court allowed her a 24-hour parole. However, she had applied for a three days leave starting from today.

Nalini Sriharan, who is undergoing life imprisonment in the said, was earlier granted 12-hour parole to attend the last rites of her father.

She, however, returned to the Vellore prison where she is currently lodged, after attending the last rites of her father.

In her 25 years of incarceration, this was the second time when she was granted parole. In 2004, she had got a similar parole to attend the marriage of her brother.

92-year-old Sankara Narayanan, a former police inspector, had passed away in Tirunelveli District.

Political party leaders including actor-director turned chief of Naam Tamizhar Katchi Seeman, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi legislator Jawahirullah, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi chief Thol Thirumavalavan paid their last respects to Sankara Narayanan. They expressed their condolences to family members including Nalini.

Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.

On December 14 last year, she had moved Madras High Court seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu government to consider her representation for premature release, saying she has undergone imprisonment for more than 24 years.
Mumbai: Mikhail Bora, the brother of deceased Sheena Bora, on Tuesday said he is confident that he will get justice in the high profile murder mystery.

"Agencies are working fine, hope we will get justice very soon," Mikhail said this to news agency ANI, days after Peter Mukerjea was chargesheeted by CBI in Sheena Bora murder case.

Talking to ANI, Mikhail also said that he doesn't care anymore about what Indrani Mukerjea has to say on the matter as he doesn't believe her.

"Whatever Indrani Mukerjea says does not matter because she has been lying since day one."

On March 7th, a report published by Mumbai Mirror claimed that when Peter Mukerjea had gone to meet his wife Indrani in Byculla jail in November last year, she reportedly told him that it was her son Mikhail Bora, who killed Sheena and she only tried to shield him by disposing of the body. She also claimed that she was being framed in the murder case.

Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband husband Sanjeev Kumar and her former driver Shyamvar Rai, were arrested in August last year in connection with the killing of her daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012. Sheena's partially-burnt body was found in the forests of Maharashtra's Raigad District.

In February this year, CBI charged Indrani's husband Peter Mukerjea with murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy in the sensational murder case.
Mumbai: Bhumata Brigade activist Trupti Desai, who was detained on Tuesday morning by Nashik Police while on her way to Trimbakeshwar temple, has been released.

Desai along with 100 other members of the organisation was detained in Nandur Shingote near Pune-Nashik border en route to Trimbakeshwar temple. They were detained by Nashik police on Monday evening as well when the activist group tried to enter the Trimbakeshwar temple, which is traditionally closed for women worshippers.

Desai, who returned to Pune today accompanied by Maharashtra police, has given a 15-day ultimatum to Trimbakeshwar temple to hold a meeting with government to break the ban on entry of female devotees into its sanctum sanctorum.

"We have been told that we won't be allowed to enter the temple. Trimbakeshwar Trust must take a decision on the matter within 15 days. We will march to Trimbakeshwar again if our demands are not met," activist Trupti Desai told ANI.

The Bhumata Brigade leader also urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to help them in their fight against the gender discrimination. "We will meet Maharashtra Chief Minister this week and urge him to take a decision on this," she said.

She urged all women to come forward and participate in this movement, adding that their campaign is not 'politically motivated'.
New Delhi: Days after security forces discovered a 30-meter-long tunnel across Indo-Pak border, the Border Security Force (BSF) said on Tuesday that they have completed the investigation and have asked Pakistan for a joint verification.

"We have completed our investigation, also held sector commanders level talks with them (Pakistan)," ANI quoted BSF Inspector General Rakesh Kumar Sharma.

He further said, "We've requested them (Pakistani side) for a joint verification. They have assured us that action will be taken."

"They (Pak) said that they will take permission from their HQ &inform us. We're waiting for that so that we can conduct joint verification," Sharma added.

Talking about the recent terror alerts issued in various states after intelligence report claimed that 10 Pakistani terrorists may have entered the national capital via Gujarat, Sharma said, "We have inputs and we are alert."

BSF had earlier lodged a protest with their Pakistani counterparts over the cross-border tunnel and passed on the evidence in this regard to them.

Expressing concern over discovery of the cross-border tunnel along the international border in RS Pura sector of Jammu district, BJP had said that Pakistan should "mend its ways and stop support to terrorism".

Last week, the BSF had detected the tunnel from Pakistan to the Indian side. It was the fourth tunnel unearthed by the BSF in the region since 2012.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis offered an olive branch to the opposition for smooth conduct of the legislature`s budget session starting on Wednesday, but the opposition is readying itself for a clash with the government.

Setting a conciliatory tone, Speaker Haribhau Bagade hosted an all-party meeting to discuss and take effective decisions for the improvement of the common man on the eve of the session where Fadnavis appealed for the cooperation of all parties for the smooth running of both the houses.

Later he announced plans to introduce various bills including one on the controversial issue of re-starting the dance bars in Maharashtra following the recent Supreme Court rulings.

Unimpressed by the government`s moves, the main Opposition parties Congress and Nationalist Congress Party prepared for a showdown over a variety of issues including the persistent drought conditions, farmers` suicides and the proposed new bill on the dance bars in the state, and made their intentions clear by boycotting the customary session-eve tea party hosted by Fadnavis.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil (Congress) labelled the recent tour of all cabinet ministers including Fadnavis to drought-hit areas as "knee-jerk" reaction to a similar initiative by the opposition leaders.

Leader of Opposition in Council Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said no government in recent years had excelled in "juggling words" as the present Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance.

Vikhe-Patil said in 2016, 224 farmers have committed suicide but no provision has been made to give them aid and fodder for their animals.

He also dared the government to introduce the law banning dance bars before March 15 (the Supreme Court deadline) which the opposition would support, but if not then, he alleged it would be clear they are in a secret pact with the dance bar owners.

The Supreme Court last week directed the state government to grant licenses to hoteliers for the dance bars within 10 days after the complied with modified guidelines on the issue.

Munde also demanded a white paper on the actual investments received at last month`s `Make In India Week` here and termed it as `Fake In India` event.


New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to Mumbai police and two lawyers following a complaint from a Canadian businessman alleging harassment by police personnel, including two senior officers of the department who allegedly acted on the directions of a local businessman.

Confirming the news, the commission said on Tuesday that Alnoor Jamal, a Canadian senior citizen of Indian origin, had a dispute with a local businessman named Shobhit Rajan in respect of the Parke Davis property -- now called Rajaskaran Tech Park in the city.

The complainant, in his petition to the NHRC, has stated that on the instructions of Rajan, Mumbai police officer of Khar and Marine Drive police stations, along with Rajan's two lawyers, raided Jamal's hotel room in South Mumbai. The incident happened on August 29, 2013.

Jamal had earlier petitioned the PMO which had referred the matter to the Maharashtra government for inquiry.

The complainant, in his petition, has also stated that the police personnel and the lawyers threatened him and his wife, coaxed them to settle the dispute with Rajan on the latter's terms or face immediate arrest.

According to NHRC, notice was issued last week to Mumbai police and the two lawyers with a demand that they respond within four weeks.
Nashik/Pune: A fresh bid by women activists to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar temple near here was foiled by police who detained them today even as a defiant Trupti Desai, spearheading the campaign for breaking gender bias at places of worship, threatened to intensify the stir.

Desai, chief of the Bhumata Brigade, has been leading the protests seeking entry of women to the sanctum sanctorum of the famous Lord Shiva shrine against the ban on female devotees.

She and around 150 activists had yesterday left Pune for Trimbakeshwar but were stopped and detained by the police at Nandurshingote village, 80 kms away from the temple town. At 2 am today, they were allowed to return to Pune but they reassembled at the spot three hours later and made a fresh attempt to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar.

However, the police personnel present there prevented them, an official attached to Wavi police station said.

Desai claimed that she was approached by some officials from Nashik district who promised her to arrange a meeting of all stake-holders on the issue including the Trimbakeshwar Temple Trust, in next eight days.

"We have accepted the request of local administration and have given them an ultimatum of 15 days to resolve the matter. We warned them that if no solution is made, we will intensify our agitation," she told reporters here.

Narrating the sequence of events, Desai said she and other activists were let off by the police around 9 PM yesterday after detaining them at Nandurshingote village.

"We had categorically told them that the brigade is determined to go to the temple. While returning towards Pune, we did not see any police van around us and took a decision to go back towards Trimbakeshwar again (today morning).

"On the way, we were once again detained by police at the same spot near the village and now after being detained for several hours (throughout the day), we have been released. Police themselves are escorting us till our doorsteps in Pune," she said.

Desai had taken out a march January 26 to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district seeking access for women to its sacred platform.

However, the police had foiled their bid and detained them at a village 70 km away from the shrine.

While the entry of women is banned in Trimbakeshwar temple's garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), men devotees are allowed to enter for an hour (between 6 am to 7 am) on condition of wearing sovala (a silk dhoti) for offering pooja to Lord Shiva.


Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that even though the Supreme Court had ordered that licenses for dance bars should be issued in Mumbai, the state government was willing to bring a new bill so that the dance bars are not opened.

"We are willing to bring a new bill in next Assembly session so dance bars are not opened in Mumbai," Fadnavis said, as per ANI.

The formal announcement, to restrain the business of dance bars, was made by the CM today evening.

"We will bring a new law in the state concerning dance bars. A bill to this effect will be introduced in the budget session, wherein the first week will witness a discussion in both houses, followed by tabling of the bill and conceiving a new law," Fadnavis said, while addressing a press conference at the Sahyadri state guest house, ahead of the state budget session starting from on Wednesday.

Stating that government cannot permit obscenity, Fadnavis had last week said that they would approach the apex court with an alternative. He had added that his government was also mulling a suitable legislation in the state Legislature on the issue.

Addressing the press conference today, Chief Minister also said that 15 Bills will be tabled in the Budget session, including the Prevention of Social Boycott Bill.

Apart from this, seven pending Bills will also be tabled and five ordinances will be converted into Bills, he added.

Hitting back at the Opposition for demanding a white paper on the MoUs signed by the state government during last month's 'Make in India' week held in Mumbai, Fadnavis said all details pertaining to these deals would be put up online.

"We have faced a lot of criticism from the Opposition on this issue. I want to clearly tell them that we have formed a task force to keep a tab on each and every MoU signed during the week. We will also put the details of all the MoUs and their progress online which will then be easily accessible to all without filing RTI queries."

The Supreme Court had earlier modified seven conditions put by the Maharashtra Police for the issuance of licences to hotels and restaurants in Mumbai.

The apex court had ordered to exclude installation of CCTV cameras from restaurants and dance performance place.

The court, however, had said the CCTV can be permitted for security purposes at entrance gate.

The Maharashtra government had banned dance bars in 2005. But in October last year the Supreme Court had overruled the state, saying that those working there had a right to livelihood.
Washington: With hashtag activism, the micro-blogging site Twitter has triggered the biggest ever push for racial justice the US has seen in decades, researchers report.

With hashtags like #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the Online Struggle for Offline Justice, the social media activism fuelled the rise of Black Lives Matter (BLM) - a nationwide movement dedicated to ending police brutality.

The study by communications professor Deen Freelon from American University's Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) looked at videos, images, and stories of violent encounters between police and unarmed Black people circulated through news and social media in 2014, galvanizing+ public outrage.

According to a university statement, BLM ignited an urgent national conversation about cases of excessive police force against minorities and police killings of unarmed African American citizens.

Freelon and his co-researchers from New York University and University of North Texas analyzed the online media tools credited with transforming the hashtag into a household phrase and influential national movement.

"BLM hubs were successful in projecting their anti-brutality messages through various nonactivist networks; in criticizing the media harshly for their portrayal of anti-black police brutality; and in educating some audiences rather than simply preaching to the choir," the authors wrote.

Researchers analyzed three types of data: 40.8 million tweets, over 100,000 web links and 40 interviews of BLM activists and allies.

The found that although the #Blacklivesmatter hashtag was created in July 2013, it was rarely used through the summer of 2014 and did not come to signify a movement until the months after the Ferguson protests.

Activists used digital tools to generate alternative narratives about police violence to counter the so-called neutrality of the mainstream press.

Activists managed to spread their messages much further than ever before by appealing to the moral sensitivities of non-activists such as celebrities, politicians, online humorists, and ordinary citizens who, in turn, endorsed and shared the activists' posts with their followers, the authors wrote.

According to the report, BLM borrowed many of its digital tactics from prior movements, including the development and independent distribution of new issue narratives, media criticism, systemic critiques, and enlisting well-known endorsers.

This report showcases how Black Lives Matter and related movements have used social media tools to broaden conversations about the general capacity of online media tools to facilitate social and political change," the authors stated.
Dhaka: Bangladesh`s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of Jamaat-e-Islami`s chief financier, imposed for war crimes, in a major blow to the country`s biggest Islamist party.

Mir Quasem Ali, a shipping and real estate tycoon, was convicted in 2014 of abducting and murdering a young fighter during Bangladesh`s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Three senior Jamaat officials and a leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes, despite global criticism of their trials by a controversial tribunal.

The trials have divided the country and sparked deadly protests, with supporters of Jamaat and the BNP branding them a sham aimed at eliminating their leaders.

"The court upheld his death sentence for the abduction and murder of a young freedom fighter whose body was dumped in a river," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told AFP.

The 63-year-old senior party leader faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court or he is granted clemency by the Bangladeshi president.



Abdur Rob, professor of political science at the North South University in Dhaka, said the ruling was a big setback for Jamaat. "He was the main financier of the party," he told AFP.

"He also ran Jamaat`s social and business enterprises and had very good connections across the world, especially in the Middle East."

The executions and convictions of Jamaat officials plunged the country into one of its worst crises in 2013 when tens of thousands of Islamist activists clashed with police in nationwide protests that left some 500 people dead.

In the same year it launched a nationwide crackdown of Jamaat activists in which tens of thousands of Islamists were either detained or sued over the protests.

The latest verdict is expected to widen the divide between secular groups and Islamic hardliners in the Muslim-majority nation, which has seen recent killings of secular bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.

Opposition parties say the trials are politically motivated, aimed at weakening rivals to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina`s secular government. The trials come as the government has also been accused of a recent crackdown on dissent, including in independent media.

Since it was set up by the government in 2010, the tribunal has sentenced more than a dozen opposition leaders for their roles in the war.

The government maintains the trials are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict, which it says left three million people dead.

Jamaat called for a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest against the verdict. The party has in recent months eschewed violent protests in reaction to war crimes verdicts.

"The government conspired and planned to kill one after another of Jamaat`s leaders. Mir Quasem Ali is a victim of a government conspiracy," Jamaat said in a statement.

Ali had helped revive the party by setting up charities, businesses and trusts linked to it after it was allowed to operate in the late 1970s.

Jamaat was banned after its leaders became key organisers of the notorious pro-Pakistani militia al-Badr during the nine-month war of independence.

Before he was arrested in 2012 on 14 war crimes charges, Ali headed the Diganta Media Corporation, which owns a pro-Jamaat daily and a television station that was shut down in 2013 for inflaming religious tensions.

Alam, the attorney general, said the tycoon had paid $25 million to a US lobbying firm to try to put a stop to the war crime trials of Jamaat leaders. Defence lawyers have said the charges against him were "baseless and false" and that he was not at the crime scenes during the war.

Ali`s wife called the court`s decision "a travesty of justice".
The Hague: Pakistan is violating its "obligations" to the international community by failing to reduce its nuclear arsenal, the Marshall Islands told the UN's highest court on Tuesday.

The small Pacific Island nation is this week launching three unusual cases against India, Pakistan and Britain before the International Court of Justice.

Majuro wants to put a new spotlight on the global nuclear threat, its lawyers said yesterday, by using its own experience with massive US-led nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s.

"Pakistan is in breach of its obligations owed to the international community as a whole," when it comes to reducing its nuclear stockpile, said Nicholas Grief, one of the island nation's lawyers.

Islamabad and its nuclear-armed neighbour India "continue to engage in a quantitative build-up and a qualitative improvement" of their atomic stockpiles, added Tony deBrum, a Marshallese government minister.

DeBrum warned that even a "limited nuclear war" involving the two countries would "threaten the existence" of his island nation people.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

In 1998, the rival neighbours both demonstrated nuclear weapons capability.

The ICJ's judges are holding hearings for the next week and a half to decide whether it is competent to hear the lawsuits brought against India and Pakistan -- neither of which have signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

A third hearing against Britain -- which has signed the NPT -- scheduled to start on Wednesday will be devoted to "preliminary objections" raised by London.

The Marshalls initially sought to bring a case against nine countries it said possessed nuclear arms: Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.

Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.

But the Hague-based ICJ, set up in 1945 to rule in disputes between states, has only admitted three cases against Britain, India and Pakistan, because they have accepted the ICJ's compulsory jurisdiction.

Pakistan's lawyers did not attend Tuesday's hearings.

It did however file a counter-claim against Majuro's allegations saying "the court has no jurisdiction to deal with the application" and insisting that the case is "not admissible", said ICJ President Ronny Abraham.
Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Tuesday asked former military dictator Pervez Musharraf to appear before it on March 31 for the hearing of high treason case against him after the ex-President did not turn up citing bad health.

The three-member special court ordered Musharraf to attend the hearing on March 31 in person and respond to the charges against him in the treason case launched in 2013 for imposing emergency in 2007 when he was president.

High treason is punishable with death if proved. Musharraf has pleaded non-guilty.

Musharraf did not appear before the court today and his counsel Faisal Chaudhry told the court that the ex-ruler was unwell and admitted in the hospital.

He said that Musharraf was on bail and that he is exempted from appearing in hearing.

However, the court said that Chaudhry should have informed it before the date of hearing that Musharraf would not attend.

State prosecutor Akram Sheikh pleaded that hearing should be held on daily basis but it was not immediately accepted by the court.

Musharraf only once appeared in person before the court last year when he was charge-sheeted since the case was launched in 2013.

The high treason case deals with suspension of the Constitution by Musharraf in 2007 which has been declared under the Article 6 of the Constitution as "high treason" punishable with death.

He was indicted in April 2014 but since then no progress has been made in the case for various reasons.

Musharraf grabbed power in 1999 by deposing then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and ruled till 2008 when he was forced to resign.

He lives in Karachi with his daughter. He is not allowed to leave the country under an order by the court.
Lahore: A Pakistani court has directed federal and Punjab provincial governments to submit written replies to it on a petition seeking return of the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond from Britain that India has been trying to get from the UK for years.

A federal law officer yesterday presented arguments at the Lahore High Court on a petition seeking direction for the Nawaz Sharif government to bring the 105.6 carat stone back from Queen Elizabeth-II of Britain.

The officer said as per the petitioner's story, the diamond was shifted to UK from Lahore, therefore, the Punjab government could apprise the court about the facts.

The additional advocate general of Punjab government, however, argued that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner had no locus standi (aggrieved person) to agitate the matter.standi (aggrieved person) to agitate the matter.

Lahore High Court Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan, however, brushed aside both arguments, asking the law officers as if the petitioner was not a resident of Pakistan.Mahmood Khan, however, brushed aside both arguments, asking the law officers as if the petitioner was not a resident of Pakistan.

The judge directed both federal and provincial governments to submit written replies to the petition on the next hearing.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey said in his petition that the British had snatched the diamond from Daleep Singh, grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and took to the UK.

"The diamond became part of the crown of incumbent Queen Elizabeth-II at the time of her crowing in 1953. Queen Elizabeth has no right on the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which weighs 105 carats and worth billions of rupees," the petition said.

Koh-I-Noor diamond was cultural heritage of Punjab province and its citizens owned it in fact, it said and prayed to the court to direct the federal government to bring the diamond back to Pakistan from the British government.

Reportedly, in 1849, after the conquest of the Punjab by the British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated.

The Koh-i-noor was transferred to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore. The properties of the Sikh Empire were taken as war compensations. India has made regular requests for the jewel's return, saying the diamond is an integral part of the country's history and culture.
Washington: NASAs Dawn spacecraft arrived at Ceres - the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter - on March 6, 2015. Since then, it has been mapping the dwarf planet in detail.

Now, latest images from the spacecraft reveal a mysterious mountain on the dwarf planet Ceres, which the Dawn team named as Ahuna Mons.

This mountain appeared as a small, bright-sided bump on the surface as early as February 2015 from a distance of 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers), before Dawn was captured into orbit, explained NASA in a blog post in its official website.

From afar, Ahuna Mons looked to be pyramid-shaped, but upon closer inspection, it is best described as a dome with smooth, steep walls, it added.

Dawn, the first ever spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet, has delivered a wealth of images and other data that open an exciting new window to the previously unexplored dwarf planet.

Dawn's latest images of Ahuna Mons, taken 120 times closer than in February 2015, reveal that this mountain has a lot of bright material on some of its slopes, and less on others.

"Ceres has defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways, thanks to a year's worth of data from Dawn. We are hard at work on the mysteries the spacecraft has presented to us," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator for the mission, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Ceres mysterious Ahuna Mons is about 3 miles high on its steepest side, and has an average overall height of 2.5 miles.

"No one expected a mountain on Ceres, especially one like Ahuna Mons," said Chris Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We still do not have a satisfactory model to explain how it formed."

Scientists will present new images and other insights about Ceres at the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, during a press briefing on March 22 in The Woodlands, Texas.

(Source: NASA)
Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: On early morning of March 9, the South-east Asia will plunge into darkness to witness the first solar eclipse of 2016. The Japanese electronics giant, Panasonic will broadcast this spectacular moment from its Power Supply Container which works on solar power.

The 4 minute long live video will be delivered from Ternate, an island in Indonesia. Panasonic announced that the live broadcast of eclipse will start at 5:00 AM, March 9, in Ternate and can be seen on social sites like Ustream, YouTube Live and Periscope.

This event is entirely different from the previous two occasions when Panasonic used solar modules to streamline the solar eclipse.

As per NASA, the total solar eclipse is only visible for the people located on a 100 mile-round path that runs across the earth surface.

Solar eclipse is a natural phenomena which occurs when moon comes in between the path of the sun and the earth and blocks the bright sun area, revealing only a thing round linings of corona.
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted a 24-hour parole to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict Nalini for attending post funeral rituals of her father.

According to reports, Nalini's parole plea came up for hearing at 10:30 am in the Madras High Court.

Nalini Sriharan, who is undergoing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was earlier granted 12-hour parole to attend the last rites of her father.

She, however, returned to the Vellore prison where she is currently lodged, after attending the last rites of her father.

In her 25 years of incarceration, this was the second time when she was granted parole. In 2004, she had got a similar parole to attend the marriage of her brother.

92-year-old Sankara Narayanan, a former police inspector, had passed away in Tirunelveli District.

Political party leaders including actor-director turned chief of Naam Tamizhar Katchi Seeman, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi legislator Jawahirullah, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi chief Thol Thirumavalavan paid their last respects to Sankara Narayanan. They expressed their condolences to family members including Nalini.

Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.

On December 14 last year, she had moved Madras High Court seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu government to consider her representation for premature release, saying she has undergone imprisonment for more than 24 years.
Lucknow: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, challenging Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission`s report on the Muzaffarnagar riots.

The PIL has been filed by Allama Zafar Naqvi.

The report, which was tabled in Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Sunday, had come under cloud after a social activist has challenged its constitution in first place.

The Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission has blamed the "negligence" of the local administration, the "failure" of the intelligence agencies and exaggerated reporting in the social and print media for the communal riots that left over 60 persons dead and 60,000 homeless in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining districts.

The commission was constituted to probe the reasons for the riots and the administrative lapses in controlling the violence.

The 775-page report was tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Sunday.

Though the former Allahabad High Court judge identified 14 causes for the violence, he has not indicted any SP leader or senior official or police officer.

The commission said no further action would be taken against BJP MLA Sangeet Som, who had uploaded on YouTube a provocative fake video that was shot in Pakistan, until the investigation was completed.

No penal action would be taken against the then BSP MP for an inflammatory speech.
Copenhagen: Four Danish men go on trial on Thursday accused of aiding a Copenhagen gunman who killed a filmmaker and a Jewish security guard in twin attacks last year.

The four stand accused of committing "terror offences" by providing support for Danish-Palestinian Omar El-Hussein ahead of the second attack, which took place outside a synagogue.

El-Hussein, 22, was shot dead by police hours later, having killed two people and wounded five.

The prosecution said it could prove the four suspects were in close contact with El-Hussein in the hours after the first attack.

"There has been a very comprehensive investigation involving a very large number of police," prosecutor Bo Bjerregaard told AFP.

On February 14, 2015, Danish-born El-Hussein opened fire with an automatic rifle outside a cultural centre hosting a free speech event attended by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, reviled by Islamists for portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog in 2007.

In what is believed to have been an attempt to stop the assailant outside the centre, filmmaker Finn Norgaard, 55, was killed and three police officers were wounded.

Later that night, El-Hussein -- seemingly inspired by the attacks on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo -- headed to the city`s main synagogue, where he shot 37-year-old Jewish security guard Dan Uzan.As the shots were fired outside, an eerie silence fell inside Copenhagen`s Great Synagogue, where worshippers were celebrating a Bat Mitzvah, a Jewish girl`s coming of age.

Claus Bentow, the girl`s father, said he "tried not to think too much" about the trial.

"Everyone in the family has seen a psychologist. We are all deeply affected," he told AFP.

As preliminary hearings were closed to the public, little is known about the suspects, all of whom deny the charges.

"My client pleads not guilty and looks forward to finally starting the trial. It`s now been almost a year since he was arrested," said Berit Ernst, a lawyer for one of the men.

Aged between 20 and 31, all are believed to be Danish citizens but two hold dual citizenship and could risk deportation, according to Danish media.

They are accused of having provided the killer with ammunition, a hoodie and a bag -- all used in the second attack -- and for having paid for his time in an Internet cafe where he located his second target, the synagogue.

Two of the men have also been charged with helping him get rid of an M95 assault rifle he used outside the cultural centre.

The four have been detained since February and March last year and could face life in prison if found guilty.

The prosecution has set aside 30 court days for the trial.

A fifth man was released in January -- allegedly El-Hussein`s younger brother -- and the charges against him have been dropped.

Bentow said he was troubled by the man`s release, and that he thought it was unlikely El-Hussein had been acting completely alone given widespread anti-Semitism in the immigrant community where he grew up.

"Of course there are others around him who also think (his actions are) a good idea, and who maybe do not dare to do the same as him, who offer help with what they can," he said.Observers say it could be difficult for the prosecution to apply Denmark`s terrorism law since it would have to prove that the four suspects knew about El-Hussein`s plans.

A petty criminal known for his violent temper, El-Hussein was released from prison two weeks before the attacks, having served time for a stabbing.

On the day of the attacks, he reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group on Facebook, also posting a link to a video of a violent Islamist hymn.

Hundreds of people attended his Islamic burial outside Copenhagen. Some were known gang members, while others said they wanted to show support for the killer`s family.

Danish intelligence agency PET has been criticised for failing to act on information from prison services that El-Hussein was at risk of radicalisation, and former classmates have claimed they tried to warn police as early as 2012.

Copenhagen politicians have since launched a plan partly inspired by the smaller city of Aarhus` "soft-hands" approach to battling the radicalisation of young Muslims with social techniques used in gang exit strategies.
Singapore: An Australian woman who admitted fabricating anti-foreigner articles on a Singapore website to boost advertising revenues was convicted on Tuesday of sedition.

Ai Takagi, 23, pleaded guilty to four of seven sedition charges lodged against her and her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng, 27.

The three other charges, as well as an additional charge of withholding information from the police, will be taken into consideration during her sentencing on March 23.

Yang, however, is claiming trial.

Both were based in Australia but arrested in February last year during a visit to Singapore. They are currently out on bail.



Takagi, described by prosecutors as the owner and chief editor of the now defunct site "The Real Singapore", was teary-eyed as a statement of facts in the case was being read in court.

The site was forced to close by the media regulator last year for playing up articles seen as fomenting racial hatred. Immigration has been a hot-button issue in Singapore in recent years.

Yang and Takagi were also charged with withholding from police information on the website`s advertising revenues, which were estimated at Sg$473,000 ($342,000) over a 17-month period.

Court documents showed its Facebook page had more than 400,000 likes, while the site itself had almost 13 million views a month.

At a district court on Tuesday, Takagi pleaded guilty to fabricating two articles attacking Filipinos and another targeting mainland Chinese.

They included an article which said that a Filipino family instigated a fracas at a Hindu festival, and another alleging that a Chinese woman made her grandson urinate into a bottle inside a metro train.

These articles tended to "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility" between different races and between Singaporeans and foreigners working in the city-state, court documents said. Singapore`s sedition laws make it an offence to promote hostility between different races or classes in the multiracial city-state, which is mainly ethnic Chinese.

About 40 percent of the labour-starved island`s 5.5 million people are foreigners.

Each sedition charge carries a penalty of up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of Sg$5,000 ($3,620), or both.

They also face one month in jail and up to Sg$1,500 in fines, or both, for withholding information from police.

Last September, Filipino nurse Ello Ed Mundsel Bello was jailed for four months for sedition after insulting Singaporeans online and calling on his countrymen to take over the city-state.
Beijing: "Blind faith" in sanctions and international pressure on North Korea are irresponsible, China`s Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, after the U.N. security council implemented a fresh round of economic curbs targeting the North`s nuclear programme.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month triggering a U.N. Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions.

"The final settlement of the Korean peninsula issue needs comprehensive action and the right meicine for the illness," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists.

"Blind faith in sanctions and pressure, actually, are not a responsible approach for the future of the Korean peninsula."

Wang made the remarks at a briefing as China conducted its annual parliamentary session.

Isolated North Korea has rejected criticism of its nuclear and rocket programmes, even from old ally China, and last week leader Kim Jong Un ordered his country to be ready to use nuclear weapons in the face of what he sees as growing threats from enemies.

The UN Security Council put in place its latest round of sanctions, drafted by China and the United States, last week.

Independent experts have frequently questioned China`s resolve to enforce sanctions against North Korea, whose economy is heavily dependent on China. China has said it will enforce the measures "conscientiously".

"At this time with the situation on the Korean peninsula, there are swords drawn and bows bent in mutual hostility, and the air is saturated with the taste of gunpowder," Wang said.

"As the largest neighbouring country of the peninsula, China will not sit idly by and watch stability on the peninsula be destroyed on a basic level."

South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in an annual test of their defences against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

China has voiced opposition to discussions between South Korea and the United States on possible deployment of a new U.S. anti-missile system to South Korea. China sees the terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system as a threat to its strategic deterrence.
Copenhagen: A 16-year-old Danish girl arrested in January was planning to carry out bomb attacks against two schools, one of which was Jewish, Danish police said on Tuesday.

The girl was allegedly helped by a 24-year-old man who Danish media said had been fighting in Syria, though it was not clear for which side, according to the preliminary charges presented in a court in the town of Holbaek, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Copenhagen.

The girl, a recent convert to Islam, is accused of obtaining chemicals and preparing bombs to attack two schools: a Jewish school in Copenhagen and another one where she was once a student, according to broadcaster TV 2.

The girl was arrested on January 13 while the man turned himself in to police the following day.

Both deny the charges, which were only revealed to the public on Tuesday.

Police said they were unable to comment further as the case was being investigated "behind double-locked doors", meaning information is withheld from the media and the public.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said in a statement there was "no reason to change the assessment of the terror threat against Denmark, which remains serious."

On Thursday, four Danish men are to go on trial accused of aiding a Copenhagen gunman who killed a filmmaker and a Jewish security guard in twin attacks in February 2015.
Nievre: A Dutchman dubbed the "dentist of horror" by French media went on trial Tuesday after allegedly causing horrific injuries to the mouths of more than 100 patients in France.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, ripped out healthy teeth and left dozens of patients in the rural central village of Chateau-Chinon with broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia.

He is charged with aggravated assault, as well as fraud over claims that he tried to rip off patients and insurance companies, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000-euro ($165,000) fine if found guilty.

Although he is not required to offer a plea under French law, Van Nierop has previously sought to deflect responsibility, saying he suffers from "psychological problems" including gender identity issues and suicidal tendencies.

The court in Nevers, in central France, heard conflicting evidence about Van Nierop`s psychological state.

One psychiatrist found he had "narcissistic tendencies" and had therefore been unable to make a moral judgement of his own actions.

But another found that the Dutchman was "perfectly aware of what he was doing", according to statements read to the court.

Van Nierop himself told the court: "I was not in the right state to put myself in my patients` position."

Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter and was initially welcomed by locals in the area which was sorely lacking in medical services.

A neighbour recalled the arrival of a smiley, larger-than-life character, with a "big 4x4, a big dog, a big cigar".

But by 2011, the authorities were starting to question some of his accounting practices, and patients were starting to compare notes on his dentistry.

Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, visited Van Nierop in March 2012 to have braces fitted.

"He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days," she said.

An 80-year-old patient, Bernard Hugon, said the dentist left "pieces of flesh hanging everywhere" after tearing out a tooth.

"Every time, he would give us what he called `a little prick` and we were asleep, knocked out," said Nicole Martin, a retired teacher who lost several teeth to abscesses caused by the horrific operations.

"When it was over, we would find a Post-it note saying to come back for an appointment the next day or the day after," she added. With the help of one of Van Nierop`s assistants, Martin set up a victims` group in early 2013 to press charges, and it soon swelled to 120 members.

In June of that year, police arrested Van Nierop but left him free pending trial, and he fled the country the following December.

He was eventually tracked down to a small Canadian town in New Brunswick and arrested under an international warrant in September 2014.

Local media reported that he tried to slit his throat when police came for him.

Van Nierop tried to block his extradition first to the Netherlands and then France on psychological grounds, but was eventually placed in a prison psychiatric unit south of Paris.

"He claimed to have killed his first wife, he acted crazy, he said he was transsexual. He tried everything" to avoid extradition, Martin said.

According to Dutch media, Van Nierop had already come under investigation in the Netherlands over his working practices before coming to France.
Michigan: US voters cast ballots in White House primaries in Michigan and Mississippi Tuesday, with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton favored to win their parties` latest tests of strength.

Republican voters also will have their say later in the day in a primary in Idaho and a caucus in Hawaii.

But the biggest prizes of the day in terms of delegates and visibility were in Michigan and Mississippi, where polls opened at 1200 GMT.

Clinton is seeking to further extend her lead in the delegate count over Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who has energized young voters with denunciations of what he sees as a corrupt US political system.

Republicans meanwhile were in an intensifying race that will soon tell whether Trump`s march toward the Republican nomination can be broken by rivals led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

With every passing week, the billionaire real estate mogul has reinforced his lead, winning 12 out of 20 contests so far, in regions as varied as the industrial northeast and the deep South bible belt.

But Cruz, the 45-year-old champion of the religious right, is nipping at his heels.

He has done well in delegate-rich Texas and nearby states, pulling ahead of the two other remaining Republican candidates, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Rubio, 44, has the backing of the Republican anti-Trump camp -- which sees Cruz as too uncompromising to unite the Republican party -- but he has underperformed and trails in third place.

Next week`s primary in Rubio`s home state of Florida, a winner-take-all contest with 99 delegates at stake, is widely seen as a must-win if he is to stay in the race.

In an attempt to counter the front-runner`s advance, campaign ads depicting Trump as a charlatan have been financed by Republicans dismayed that a man who once flirted with the Democratic party could become the GOP flag bearer in November`s presidential elections.

One such ad, to be shown in Florida, shows snippets of Trump using profane language while out on the campaign trail. Financed by the American Future Fund -- which has not revealed its donors -- the ad campaign has a budget of several million dollars, according to its spokesman Stuart Roy.

Other ads, created by the Club for Growth, target Republicans in Illinois.

Florida, Illinois and other states will vote on March 15 in a sequel to March 1`s "Super Tuesday."

Trump has announced the launch of his own Florida ad campaign against Rubio, portraying him as corrupt by invoking an old credit card controversy.

"Little Marco Rubio, you know he`s a no-show in the US senate," Trump said Monday during a campaign stop in Concord, North Carolina.

Meanwhile Cruz insisted that he is the best alternative to Trump.

"We`re now the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump over and over and over again," Cruz told reporters.A total of 150 Republican delegates are up for grabs Tuesday out of 1,237 needed to win the party`s nomination, compared to 166 out of 4,763 on the Democratic side.

Trump is leading in Michigan with 36 percent compared to 23 percent for Cruz, according to a recent Monmouth University poll. However rival John Kasich, the governor of neighboring Ohio, is hoping for a surprise after actively campaigning in Michigan.

There are no recent polls in Mississippi, but last month Trump largely dominated his rivals there.

For Democrats, Clinton is the favorite in both states. That is especially true in Mississippi where African American voters represent an important voting bloc. African Americans have voted by more than 80 percent for Clinton in other states of the South.

Michigan and the city of Detroit symbolize the heart of the US auto industry, and Clinton has accused Sanders of having voted against a federal intervention to save the sector in 2008/2009.

"I voted for the auto bailout and he voted against it," she repeated Monday while visiting a small software firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Sanders did vote for it, but separately voted against funds whose main purpose was to assist financial institutions. Those funds however also ended up financing the auto industry bailout.

The Vermont senator stressed to voters that Clinton has supported free-trade agreements that he said has cost millions of jobs.
Brussels: European Union leaders on Monday hailed a "breakthrough" in talks with Turkey on a deal to curb the migrant crisis but delayed a decision until a summit next week to flesh out the details of Ankara`s new demands.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stunned his 28 EU counterparts in Brussels when he suddenly asked for an extra EUR three billion (USD 3.3 billion) in aid and visa-free travel for Turks to the bloc by June.

In return he proposed to take back all illegal migrants landing on the overstretched Greek islands, and suggested a one-for-one deal under which the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece.

After EU leaders "warmly welcomed" Turkey`s proposals, EU president Donald Tusk said he would now work on the legal details to reach a final deal at a European summit in Brussels on March 17-18.

"We all of us are aware that in fact we have a breakthrough now," he told a post-summit press conference.

Tusk, who toured Turkey, Greece and the Balkans in the run-up to the summit, said it was a major step in ending the continent`s biggest migration crisis since World War II.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who has been the strongest proponent of a deal with Turkey, partly to offset the impact of her own open-door asylum policy -- gave cautious backing to the deal.

"It is a breakthrough if it becomes reality," she told reporters.Muslim-majority Turkey is the main launching point for the more than one million migrants who have made the dangerous crossing over the Aegean Sea to the Greek islands since the start of 2015. It hosts 2.7 million refugees from the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, more than any other country.

Ankara has nevertheless proved a difficult partner, failing to honour an earlier three-billion-euro deal with the EU in November and continually pushing Turkey`s long-stalled EU membership bid.

But Davutoglu surprised EU leaders on Monday by offering to take all irregular migrants from Greece, a step that would relieve the pressure on debt-hit Athens and the whole of the EU.

He said the one-for-one Syrian refugee swap deal was "game-changing" and denied that Turkey was "demanding" money, urging the world to share the burden of hosting Syrian refugees.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker also called the plan a "real game changer", insisting that it was "legally feasible" despite questions from rights groups about whether it would breach international laws on the treatment of refugees.

EU sources said the bloc had already identified 70,000 places for Syrians resettled from Turkish camps.

For Turkey perhaps the biggest win was the EU`s agreement to push forward to June visa-free travel to the EU`s Schengen passport-free area for Turkey`s 75 million people, provided that Ankara honours its promises.

He further pushed for the opening of five more "chapters" in Turkey`s long-drawn out EU accession process -- so far it has only completed one out of more than 30.But securing a deal next week may still be difficult given the deep divisions that the migration crisis has sown in the bloc.

Hungary`s hardline anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orban may veto the resettlement deal.

There is still bad blood in Ankara too, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- who has previously threatened to "flood" the EU with migrants -- on Monday criticising the EU for a four-month delay in disbursing the funds from the November deal.

Meanwhile the EU chastised Turkey over its crackdown on the country`s biggest opposition newspaper, with Tusk warning that Ankara`s EU accession was dependent on freedom of the press.

While the EU has identified Turkey as the main pillar of its migration policy, the bloc still faces a host of other challenges.

Deep rifts emerged in recent weeks over the main migrant route through the Western Balkans to wealthy Germany, after border restrictions by Austria triggered a domino effect of frontier closures that left tens of thousands of migrants stranded at the border between Greece and non-EU Macedonia.

In its closing statement the EU leaders said that "irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end".

Next week the EU leaders must agree on a plan to restore the Schengen area to full functioning by the end of the year, after parts were effectively suspended by border closures.

They are also set to approve a 700 million euro aid plan for Greece, whose Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed that he will not let the rest of the EU turn his country into a "warehouse of souls".
Pas-de-Calais: France`s first international-standard refugee camp opened Monday despite opposition from Paris but the central government`s local representative raised safety concerns that could suspend its operations.

Three families of Iraqi Kurds were the first to arrive at the new camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk on the northern French coast, an AFP reporter said.

They came from another site nearby where around 1,000 people have been living in miserable conditions with limited protection from the cold.

The new camp, featuring some 200 heated wooden cabins and proper toilets and showers, has been built by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) with the support of the local town hall, despite opposition from the French government.

Grande-Synthe mayor Damien Careme had ignored advice from police and fire representatives and validated the security arrangements for the camp.

However the government`s local representative, prefect Jean-Francois Cordet, late Monday raised safety concerns that could halt operations.

Cordet had "ordered the mayor of Grande-Synthe to immediately cancel the municipal bylaw" which authorised the opening of the camp against the advice of the municipal safety commission, he said in a statement.

He ordered Careme to "without delay take measures to ensure the safety of the occupants, especially at night" to limit the risk of fire.

"The safety of people is at stake and one cannot disregard the rules, whatever the humanitarian motives," Cordet said.Careme, who fought a battle with the authorities over construction of the camp, earlier said: "The standoff continues" after the prefect first requested the organisation of a safety committee.

"I`ve overcome a failure of the state," he said, adding that he could no longer stand the sight of around 75 children living in the original camp.

The move has frustrated the government, which has been trying to move refugees away from the northern coast and into centres where their movement is more controlled.

"The government`s policy is not to reconstitute a camp at Grande-Synthe, but to make it go away," Cordet said last month.

The new, 3.1 million euro ($3.4 million) migrant accommodation is thought to be the first in France to meet international standards, and MSF said it hoped soon to have 375 cabins, catering for 2,500 people.It lies around 40 kilometres (24 miles) from the largest refugee camp on the outskirts of Calais, nicknamed the "Jungle", which is being gradually demolished by the authorities.

A group of children tried to offer white roses to the line of riot police holding back migrants and volunteers as workers resumed the dismantling of makeshift shelters.

Thousands of migrants have been living in the Jungle and other smaller camps along the northern coast, desperate to reach Britain where many have family or community ties and see better hopes of gaining employment or education.

Most have turned down offers from the French government to move into heated containers alongside the Jungle, or into accommodation centres elsewhere in France, fearing doing so would end their dreams of reaching Britain.

Unlike these alternatives, the new camp at Grande-Synthe will not restrict the movement of migrants and refugees, MSF said.

Some two hectares (five acres) of the Jungle were destroyed last week, and authorities said it could take a month or more to demolish the southern half of the camp.

Local authorities say there were between 800 and 1,000 migrants living in the southern half, while aid groups say there were around 3,500.
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police foiled a plot by the Islamic State (IS) militant group to kidnap Prime Minister Najib Razak and other senior ministers last year, the country`s deputy premier said on Tuesday.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the home minister, said the militants also planned to carry out attacks in the administrative capital, Putrajaya, for which explosives had been prepared and tested.

"On Jan 30, 2015, there were plans by 13 people linked to Daesh (Islamic State) to kidnap the country`s leaders including the prime minister, the home minister and the defence minister," Ahmad Zahid said in response to a question about the government`s efforts to tackle the threat posed by IS.

"There was also a plan to carry out an attack in Putrajaya. To this end, the group had prepared and tested explosives," Zahid said.

"Although there is no proper Daesh (IS) establishment in the country, those here (in Malaysia) were being influenced and have been receiving orders from the IS network in Syria," he added.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has not experienced any significant attacks, but it has arrested at least 160 people since January 2015 suspected of being involved in militant activities, including seven believed to have been part of an IS cell.

The country has been on high alert since IS-linked militants carried out an armed attacks in Jakarta, Indonesia on January 14.

Zahid said between September 2014 and May 2015, IS members had planned four major attacks across the country, including in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and the state of Kedah.

The plans had included stealing weapons from military camps, the making of bombs and explosives, stealing cash for funding attacks and kidnapping state leaders for ransom, Zahid said.

The targets for attacks included entertainment centres and religious buildings including a Shiite mosque, a Buddhist temple and a Freemasons` lodge.
Jerusalem: Israel is razing Palestinian homes and other buildings constructed with international aid at an "alarming" rate, the UN says, with more demolitions so far this year than in all of 2015.

In total 121 structures funded partly or fully by international donors were demolished in the occupied West Bank between January 1 and March 2, overtaking the 108 from all of 2015, according to UN figures seen by AFP.

The projects include homes for Palestinians and at least one school, as well as temporary structures such as pens for animals and sheds.

Robert Piper, humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, wrote in response to an AFP query that the demolitions were "alarming".

"We have already surpassed the total number of humanitarian aid items destroyed or confiscated in all of 2015, in just the first 10 weeks of 2016," Piper said.

"We will be protesting to the Israeli authorities of course, as are many in the diplomatic community."

Israel says the projects are built illegally so can be demolished, but aid groups argue that obtaining necessary permits is nearly impossible.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for implementing government policies in the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on the number of demolitions, saying only that it takes "enforcement steps against any illegal construction" after issuing demolition orders.

Moti Yogev, an MP from the far-right Jewish Home party who heads an Israeli parliament sub-committee on the West Bank, said the rise in demolitions was likely in response to European Union measures on imports of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

"I have no doubt that the government`s firm stance is in part a result of the unilateral measures taken by Europe," said Yogev, whose party has ministers in cabinet.

In November, new EU guidelines were issued forcing member countries to label imported produce from the settlements, sparking condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The UN`s Piper said a number of factors may have contributed to the increase in demolitions, including the EU decision, growing domestic pressure on the government amid a wave of Palestinian attacks and a "renewed push to advance settlement expansion plans in these areas".
Jerusalem: The rocky relationship between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a fresh hit Tuesday over a declined White House invitation hours before Vice President Joe Biden`s arrival.

Netanyahu`s decision not to accept an invitation for talks with Obama in Washington later this month "surprised" the White House, which first learned of it through news reports. The Israeli premier`s office defended the decision by saying Netanyahu did not want to interfere in US presidential primary elections currently taking place.

Obama and Netanyahu have had a rocky personal relationship, worsened by the Israeli premier`s forceful opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, including in a speech to the US Congress.

But the two have sought to set aside their disagreements in recent months and work out a new 10-year defence aid package for Israel as well as demonstrate that the ties between the two traditional allies remain strong.

Biden is due to arrive in Tel Aviv later on Tuesday and hold talks with Netanyahu on Wednesday. He is also scheduled to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

A previous visit by Biden in 2010 was marred by the announcement of a major Israeli settlement project in annexed east Jerusalem.

The announcement drew a public scolding from Biden and it soured relations with Washington for months.

His visit this time comes with Obama having acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

The White House has said that Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit, even though a wave of violence since October has killed more than 200 people.

Talks are expected to include discussions on a new, 10-year defence aid package for Israel, currently worth some $3.1 billion annually in addition to spending on projects such as missile defence, illustrating the importance of Israel`s relationship with the United States.
Beijing: Refuting criticism that the mega Silk Road initiative is aimed at expanding China's interests abroad, Beijing today said its multi-billion dollar project is an "open initiative" and not a form of "Monroe Doctrine" to expand its dominance.

The Silk Road initiative which is officially termed as Belt and Road projects is "an open initiative, not some form of Monroe Doctrine or expansionism,"?Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here.

The Monroe Doctrine was a US foreign policy regarding domination of the American continent in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonise land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring US intervention.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is China's idea, but the opportunities it has created belong to the world," Wang said pointing to the the formation of USD 40 billion Silk Road Fund and setting up the Chinese initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt that links China with Europe through central and western Asia, and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) connecting China with southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

India has adopted a mixed approach to the Chinese initiative. While it backed the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) corridor, it so far stayed away from backing the MSR owing to the reservations over strategic implications?it would provide for China in the Indian Ocean.

India has also opposed the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it is being built through the disputed parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Wang said notable progress has been made over the past years in the Silk Road Initiative.

A connectivity network has taken shape, most notably the CPEC and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, Wang said.CPEC and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, Wang said.CPEC and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, Wang said.

A freight train now links China with Europe. All-round progress has been made in industrial capacity cooperation.

China has institutionalised such cooperation with nearly 20 countries, he said.

He also defended building military logistic base at Djibouti in Indian Ocean.

China has begun construction of the base at Djibouti in the horn of Africa which it describes as a "logistic base" to serve its anti-piracy naval escort missions off the Somali coast.

The US has however termed it as a military base.
Johannesburg: South Africa`s President Jacob Zuma begins a two-day state visit to Nigeria on Tuesday, which observers see as an attempt to mend fences between the continent`s largest economic powers.

Key events on the trip include an address to the National Assembly in the capital, Abuja, and a meeting with the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum, Zuma`s office has announced.

Pretoria is putting a positive spin on the visit, talking up the pair`s "good bilateral political, economic and social relations" and potential new business opportunities.

But neither presidency made mention of tensions between the two countries, including most recently the massive fine imposed by Nigeria on South African telecoms giant MTN.

MTN`s Nigeria operation was handed a USD 3.9 billion penalty in October last year for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.

The company, which is trying to negotiate a settlement, has so far paid out USD 250 million but its headline earnings for last year have taken a hit as a result.

Other South African firms in Nigeria have reportedly complained of being targeted. There have also been official criticisms of Nigeria`s response to a deadly building collapse in Lagos in 2014.

Eighty-one of the 116 victims were South African nationals. Pretoria said their bodies were not repatriated quickly enough.

On the Nigerian side there have been complaints about South African visa restrictions while in April last year the pair got into a spat about the recall of Nigeria`s two top diplomats.

The return of the high commissioner to Pretoria and consul-general in Johannesburg came in the wake of anti-immigrant attacks about which Nigeria said it was "deeply concerned".

Zuma will be accompanied to Nigeria by his ministers of trade and industry, international relations, defence, home affairs, and mineral resources, as well as captains of industry.

Observers have taken the presence of a strong ministerial delegation as a sign of a desire to resolve mutual complaints and possible deals to help Nigeria diversify its economy away from oil.

Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari`s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan became Africa`s leading economy after a re-basing exercise of GDP.

But the global fall in oil prices has slashed government revenues, severely weakening the naira currency and driving up the cost of living.
Seoul: South Korea on Tuesday unveiled a series of fresh unilateral sanctions against North Korea, which include asking citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants abroad.

The new measures imposed over the North`s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch also blacklist scores of North Korean individuals and entities and bans any vessels previously docked in North Korean ports from South Korean waters.

They follow tough sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council last week and -- though largely symbolic given the lack of North-South economic ties -- are likely to prompt an angry response from Pyongyang.

Seoul took the unprecedented step last month of closing operations at the jointly-run Kaesong industrial complex and Tuesday`s measures were aimed at "further toughening" sanctions against the North, the government said.

Designed to block foreign cash flows to the regime in Pyongyang, the government announcement included a request for South Koreans to stay away from North Korean businesses abroad.

"Since North Korean facilities such as overseas restaurants are one of North Korea`s channels for foreign currency, we ask the public to refrain from using these facilities," said Lee Suk-Joon, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The South Korean government estimates that Pyongyang rakes in around $10 million every year from some 130 restaurants in 12 countries.

"A decrease in the use of North Korean restaurants will have an effect of blocking its foreign cash flow for the most part," the government said in a separate statement.

Lee said the government suspected most of the foreign currency was "ultimately being used for weapons of mass destruction" through various channels.

Seoul also blacklisted 40 individuals and 30 groups involved with North Korea`s nuclear and missile programmes -- including two individuals and six groups from a third country -- banning them from doing any business with South Koreans.

The move to ban foreign vessels that have previously docked in the North would appear to spell the end of an ambitious trilateral infrastructure project aimed at transporting Russian coal to South Korean ports through the North`s port city of Rajin and Russia`s border town of Khasan.

The so-called Rajin-Khasan project was viewed as an integral part of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye`s vision of uniting the railways of South and North Korea to connect them to Europe.

"It is difficult to continue our cooperation under the current circumstances," said Kim Hong-Kyun, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs.

The project could resume if there was "progress in North Korea`s denuclearisation," Kim said, adding that South Korea had warned Russia of its intentions in advance.

The new measures add to a number of existing sanctions South Korea imposed in 2010 after blaming North Korea for the sinking of one of its naval corvettes.
Damascus: Syria`s regime said on Monday it would attend renewed peace talks in Geneva starting March 14, but the opposition was still considering whether to go despite a major lull in fighting.

The United Nations is hoping to restart peace talks that collapsed last month, building on a ceasefire that has led to the first significant decline in violence in Syria`s nearly five-year civil war.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has said he hopes talks can begin from Thursday, but officials have indicated it could take several days of preparations before they can start.

A source close to the Syrian regime delegation told AFP it would attend the new round of talks starting from March 14.

But the opposition has sent mixed signals, with the head of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee, Riad Hijab, refusing to commit.

"The HNC will assess the situation in the coming days and we will take the appropriate decision," he said.

Hijab said a small HNC delegation would travel to Geneva "in the next two days" to meet the international task force monitoring the truce.

His statements appeared to be a step back from comments by HNC spokesman Riad Naasan Agha, who said the opposition delegation would arrive on Friday to take part in talks.The truce between President Bashar al-Assad`s regime and non-jihadist rebels is part of the biggest diplomatic effort yet to resolve Syria`s conflict, which has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Russia and the United States are on opposing sides of the conflict -- Moscow backs Assad and Washington supports the opposition -- but have made a concerted push for the truce and further peace efforts to succeed.

Observers say the partial truce, which does not apply to the Islamic State group or the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, has largely held despite widespread scepticism before it took effect.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said Sunday had been Syria`s "calmest day" since the ceasefire began.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the average number of daily civilian deaths had fallen by 90 percent since the truce came into force, with an 80 percent decline among soldiers and rebel forces.

Aid deliveries have also improved, with the UN delivering supplies on Monday to a key rebel bastion east of Damascus, the third distribution since the truce began on February 27.

World Food Programme spokesman Hussam al-Saleh said 22 trucks would distribute food, flour and medical supplies to Hammuriya, Jisreen and Beit Sawa in Eastern Ghouta.

Residents have taken advantage of the ceasefire to stage daily protests.

In Aleppo city, dozens of men demonstrated, carrying the three-starred tricolour of the uprising and banners reading: "The world`s silence is louder than the barrel bombs of death."

But an anti-regime protest in northwest Idlib city ended abruptly after Al-Nusra fighters threatened to shoot demonstrators.

Moscow, which has provided a daily account of ceasefire violations, said the truce was still "in general" holding apart from unspecified "isolated provocations and shelling".

It said Russian planes were still carrying out strikes against IS and Al-Nusra in three provinces, including on the main IS stronghold of Raqa.

In September Russia began a campaign it says is targeting "terrorists", but has been accused of hitting non-jihadist rebels in support of Assad`s forces.South of Aleppo city, Al-Nusra Front and allied jihadists late Monday seized a set of strategic hilltops held by pro-regime forces at Al-Eis, detonating five car bombs during their offensive, the Observatory said.

"Fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Jund Al-Aqsa, and other groups seized the central Al-Eis hilltop and surrounding hills as well," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The hilltops are important because they reinforce the regime`s presence in the outskirts of Aleppo and gave them a presence near the main highway south towards Damascus," he said.

A plan agreed by world powers last year calls for a ceasefire, the creation of a transitional body, the drafting of a new constitution and fresh elections.

The main sticking point has been the fate of Assad, whom the opposition insists must step down for any transition to work.

The HNC`s Hijab said that if it attends, the issue of a "transitional governing body with no role for Assad" would top its agenda.

Beginning a Middle East visit, US Vice President Joe Biden admitted that finding a political solution would be difficult but there was no other choice.

"So as hard as it is, we have to keep trying to reach a political settlement," he told Abu Dhabi newspaper The National.

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Tunis: Tunisian security forces pressed a search for jihadists near the Libyan border on Tuesday after a deadly raid the authorities described as an "unprecedented" assault by the Islamic State group.

Prime Minister Habib Essid said around 50 extremists were believed to have taken part in Monday`s coordinated attack on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts in the border town of Ben Guerdane.

He said that 36 attackers had been killed and seven captured in a fierce battle that also saw the deaths of seven civilians and 12 security force personnel. Essid told a news conference that the militants "murdered one internal security force member in his own home".

He said three civilians and 14 security personnel were also wounded.

Interior ministry spokesman Yasser Mesbah said the search for any militants still at large was continuing in the border area.

He said a nighttime curfew imposed in the town after the attack had been well respected and that the situation was "stable". On Monday, Essid said that the operation`s aim had been to create a "Daesh (IS) emirate" in Ben Guerdane.

President Beji Caid Essebsi said the "unprecedented" jihadist attack was "maybe aimed at controlling" the border region and vowed to "exterminate these rats".

Residents told AFP the assailants appeared to be natives of the region.

They stopped people, checked their ID cards apparently to seek out members of the security forces, and announced their brief takeover of Ben Guerdane as "liberators".

It was the second deadly clash in the border area in less than a week as Tunisia battles to prevent the large number of its citizens who have joined IS in Libya from returning to carry out attacks at home.

Two deadly IS attacks on foreign tourists last year that have dealt a devastating blow to Tunisia`s tourism industry are believed to have been planned from Libya.
Kuala Lumpur: Exactly two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people aboard, its whereabouts remain a mystery, with only one confirmed piece of wreckage found despite the most expensive search operation in history.

Here are some of the key questions still swirling around MH370:

A. An Australia-led search is operating on the assumption that the plane went down somewhere in the remote southern Indian Ocean, based on satellite data indicating the plane`s possible movements.

So far, they have covered about 70 percent of a designated search zone four times the size of Belgium and are expected to be finished within months. Unless promising new leads emerge, no new areas will be searched.

A wing fragment was found on Reunion island, thousands of kilometres (miles) from the search zone last July, and later confirmed as being from MH370 -- the first proof the plane met a violent end.

Such debris is no help in pinpointing a definitive crash site, but Australian authorities have said the find is consistent with oceanic currents that could have carried the wreckage from the search area.

A: An immensely challenging mission to recover the data recorders would begin in an oceanic abyss up to 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) deep and marked by an extremely rugged seafloor.

This has been done before, however, in the case of Air France Flight 447, which crashed in 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean.

Its black boxes were located two years later and eventually plucked from the seabed nearly 4,000 metres deep by a remotely operated submersible.

A: The search zone was determined through analysis of signals from MH370, detected by a satellite, which indicated its last known location as being somewhere along an arc sweeping north into Central Asia or south into the Indian Ocean.

The northern corridor has been discounted in the belief the plane would have been detected, and experts say the southern arc is the best option.

But the imprecise satellite data and the search`s failure so far have sustained nagging doubts. Many next-of-kin believe the search is too narrowly focused and want it expanded.

A: Leading theories include a mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

But the lack of information to support any theory has fuelled a range of other outlandish conspiracy ideas advanced in books, documentaries and a thriving online debate.

Suggestions have included that the plane was commandeered to be used as a "flying bomb" headed for the US military installation on Diego Garcia atoll -- and was shot down by the Americans -- or that it was flown to a Russian facility in Kazakhstan.

Earlier unconfirmed reports said the plane`s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was distraught over marital woes or the controversial conviction of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges just hours before MH370 took off. Zaharie was an opposition supporter.

But family and friends of Zaharie -- a highly respected veteran pilot -- strongly reject such claims as baseless.

A: Malaysia`s government and the airline insist they are hiding nothing, but their credibility was damaged in the chaotic initial response.

Besides a series of contradictory early statements, there were miscues such as the revelation that Malaysian immigration allowed two Iranian men aboard on false passports. They were later said to be merely illegal migrants seeking to reach Europe.

Malaysia`s air force also took days to reveal that it had tracked MH370 flying far to the west toward the Indian Ocean, wasting precious response time.

Families say the government and airline have routinely stonewalled requests for more information -- a charge they deny -- and many refuse to believe the plane crashed.

This is particularly true in China -- 153 Chinese nationals were aboard -- where distrust of officialdom under the Communist Party is ingrained.

A: According to the Netherlands-based Aviation Safety Network, which tracks air incidents, there has been only one other instance where a plane carrying more than 100 people disappeared without a trace.

That was in 1962, when a turbo-prop operated by US-based Flying Tiger Line and chartered by the US military disappeared en route from Guam to the Philippines with 107 people aboard.

A: A crucial factor in the mystery was the inability to monitor MH370`s movements after tracking features were disabled around the time it went off course.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has moved to prevent a recurrence by mandating that airlines implement systems by November 2018 to track their aircraft at least every 15 minutes.

Some carriers such as Malaysia Airlines have already implemented the move.

The ICAO also plans to impose requirements that tracking be increased to a real-time basis for aircraft in distress, according to reports.

It also has banned the transport of lithium batteries in cargo holds -- MH370 carried a consignment of such batteries -- in case they cause a fire.
Beijing: Terming the UN's arbitration on a raging territorial dispute in the South China Sea as "tainted", China Tuesday asserted that will not honour the outcome of the tribunal in the strategically vital area.

"The Philippines stubbornness is clearly the result of the behind scenes instigation and political manoeuvring," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at his annual press conference, in a veiled attack on the US for its backing to the Philippines and the maritime neighbours of China in the South China Sea (SCS) dispute.

China refuses to recognise the case lodged by the Philippines with the tribunal and says all disputes should be resolved through bilateral talks.

"This so called arbitration has become tainted and gone astray and China is not going to honour it," Wang said.

Asked whether China is worried about the likelihood of the Philippines winning its petition on its claims on the SCS islands at the UN Conference of the Law of Sea (UNCLOS), Wang said it is too early to judge the outcome of the case.

"I respect your right to ask the question. Perhaps you are judging the outcome of the UNCLOS arbitration case and it is too early to tell," he said.

China has already made a declaration at the UNCLOS back in 2006 excluding itself from the arbitration under the article 290 of the tribunal, Wang said adding that over 30 other countries made similar declarations excluding themselves.

"So in legal terms these declaration are part of UNCLOS and must be respected by other parties," he said.

"So by not accepting arbitration case China is acting entirely legal. Where as the Philippines stand is unlawful and unfaithful and unreasonable," he said.

Wang again reaffirmed China's claims on the whole of the SCS stating that "China is the fist one to discover, name develop the SCS islands".

"Our ancestors lived and worked here for ages. We know the place and love it more than anyone else," he said.

China's stand on the SCS is strongly contested by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan which had counter claims on the islands and reefs, which believed to have rich oil and mineral deposits.

The US in a bid to assert the freedom of the navigation in the region has sent its naval ships and aircraft to counter Chinese claims.

Wang defended China building defence facilities in the SCS, saying that they belonged to it.

"China exercises the right of self defence entitled by the international law," he said, rejecting allegations that China militarised the region.

Wang said China will uphold the freedom of navigation of the SCS over which a host of countries, including India and US have expressed concerns.
Washington: US Republican presidential front- runner Donald Trump faces a tough test on Tuesday when the party's key primaries will be held in four states of Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi as the gap between him and his rivals has narrowed.

The four State primary is considered to be decisive for the Republican front-runner as an impressive show would put him on the path of commanding lead.

A series of polls released yesterday indicated that 69-year-old real estate tycoon is loosing the momentum in some of the key States like Michigan and Florida.

Though still in the lead, the popularity gap between him and his other rivals have narrowed down considerably.

For instance, the gap between him and Marco Rubio has come down from a 20 point to juts eight points now.

Meanwhile, Rubio strongly refuted reports that he is dropping out of the race.

In Florida, Trump launched a advertisement campaign against Rubio.

"Lightweight Senator Marco Rubio is a dishonest person.

He has cheated with credit cards, and does favours for lobbyists. In my opinion, he is a total crook and I am doing the people of Florida a great favour by further exposing him," Trump said in a statement.

"In addition to everything else, he is an absentee Senator with one of the worst voting records in the history of the United States Senate, instead preferring to spend his time begging for campaign contributions," he said.

In a related development, Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, called both Trump and Senator Ted Cruz to discuss with them the party s agenda.

This was part of his effort to efforts to craft a bold, election-year agenda, his aid said.

The Politico reported that the Trump campaign has introduced new security measures in view of the increasing frequency of protesters at his rallies.

This includes having security personnel in plain cloths.

At one of the campaign event, some protesters were stripped away first and removed individually by security personnel, while others who remained huddled together were slowly pushed en masse out of the airport hangar where the rally was held, Politico reported.
Berlin: An Italian pilot flying a Japan-bound flight allegedly threatened to crash the plane with 200 passengers on board if his wife left him, a report said on Monday.

The unnamed pilot, in his 40s, sent a text to his wife saying he would kill himself along with the 200 passengers on his Rome-Japan flight after she apparently threatened to leave him, The Times reported on the incident that occurred in January last year.

Police managed to stop the pilot at Fiumicino airport in Rome from taking controls of the flight just minutes before take-off. His wife had alerted authorities after he sent her a text message threatening to commit suicide and kill everyone on board the long-haul flight from Rome, the report said.

Another pilot took his place and passengers were not told about the incident that has been kept secret until now, the report said.

The Italian pilot sent the text message after his wife announced she was leaving him, and referred to the flight he was due to take that night.

The pilot had previously been reported to police by his wife for mistreatment. He remains suspended and is undergoing psychiatric evaluation, according to reports.

This incident happened two months before German pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed his Germanwings A320 in the Alps, killing 149 people.
By John Tilak and Euan Rocha TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian oil and natural gas producer Encana Corp , looking to further trim its debt load, is exploring the sale of more non-core assets in the United States and Canada that could be worth about $1 billion, two sources familiar with the matter said. The move would help Calgary-based Encana, which recently cut its 2016 capital spending forecast to less than half of its 2015 expenditure, to further pare the roughly $5.4 billion it has in fixed and revolving debt, said the sources, who asked not to be named as the discussions are not public. A spokesman for the company declined to comment. On Feb. 18, Moody's downgraded its rating on Encana debt to junk grade Ba2 from an investment grade Baa2, noting it expects a "material decline in Encana's cash flow" in 2016 and 2017, potentially affecting its leverage metrics. Last year, in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet, Encana sold shares worth C$1.44 billion ($1.08 billion). It has also reached agreements to sell about $2.8 billion worth of assets. "Despite this, there's still a perception in the market that Encana are over levered," said a third source, adding that an equity sale is not really an option as it would be highly dilutive for the company at this stage. Like others in the energy sector, Encana's stock has been battered by the slump in global energy prices. Despite a rally over the last couple of weeks, the company's shares are still down about 65 percent in the last two years. The first source said that although the company itself has no long-term debt maturities until 2019, it wants to proactively address the leverage issue and focus investments on core assets. Encana has previously identified the Montney and Duvernay assets in Western Canada, along with the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford assets in Southern United States, as its core projects. The sources said Encana is open to offers on all of its non-core assets including the Deep Panuke offshore gas field in Nova Scotia; its Horn River and Wheatland assets in western Canada; natural gas assets in the Piceance basin in northwest Colorado; its San Juan assets in New Mexico; and its Tuscaloosa Marine Shale assets in Mississippi and Louisiana. It was not immediately clear whether Encana has retained a bank to run the sale process. ($1 = C$1.3284) (Additional reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Alan Crosby)
By Tom Hals WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - The owner of HomeTown Buffet and other buffet dining chains filed on Monday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming a lawsuit that was not disclosed when its current owner bought the businesses in August. Buffets LLC, an affiliate of Food Management Partners, in August paid an undisclosed amount for the chains Old Country Buffet, Ryan's, Fire Mountain and Tahoe Joe's, in addition to HomeTown, according to Food Management Partners' website. Those chains, which operate 150 restaurants, were part of the bankruptcy filing on Monday, according to court documents. The firm that sold the restaurant chains in August did not disclose a pending lawsuit, which resulted in an $11.4 million judgment, according to a statement from Peter Donbavand of San Antonio, Texas-based Food Management Partners. He also said the chains have experienced sharp drops in sales that he considered unusual. The statement did not say who sold the businesses to Food Management Partners, and a spokeswoman would only say it was "private equity." The company said sales have fallen 22 percent short of the seller's projections, prompting the closure of 74 stores in recent weeks and another 92 in the next 10 days. Buffets LLC and the chains do business under the Ovation Brands name. It was the third filing since 2008 years for the restaurant chains, which previously entered bankruptcy known as Buffets Inc. The chains listed assets worth up to $50 million and liabilities of up to $100 million, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas. Buffets Inc and the Ryan Restaurant Group merged in 2006 to create the largest U.S. buffet chain. In early 2008, however, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to shed some of its 626 locations and cut its debt by $700 million. The company returned to bankruptcy in 2012, this time to slim its reach from 494 restaurants. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
By Rod Nickel TORONTO (Reuters) - Climbing demand for the metal lithium at a time of broader commodity weakness has Canada's Nemaska Lithium Inc and Western Lithium USA Corp confident they can soon obtain scarce capital even as other junior miners struggle. A scramble to secure lithium has accelerated as prices have risen, driven by demand for smartphone, laptop and electric car batteries. "Everyone can see the writing on the wall as we move toward 2020, and a need for new deposits to get into production," said Jon Hykawy, president of consultancy Stormcrow Capital. "Problem is, the capital really isnt there." But Western, which aims to bring the world's next new lithium resource into production in 2018 in Argentina, is optimistic. "What we're really seeing is the equivalent of another industrial revolution, the switch to electric power for automobiles," Chief Executive Officer Tom Hodgson said at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto. "Given the fundamental shift in energy demand, nothing's easy, but (raising capital is) very doable." Vancouver-based Western's $314 million project would pump brine to the surface for evaporation. Western says one of its advantages is a commercial agreement it is negotiating with South Korean steelmaker Posco, a potential joint venture that would deliver Western's lithium to the doorstep of South Korean battery manufacturers LG Electronics Inc and Samsung SDI. Nemaska Lithium Inc, developing a mine in the Canadian province of Quebec, expects to raise the C$521 million ($392.14 million) it needs within a year, Chief Executive Officer Guy Bourassa said, adding it has one of only three undeveloped projects in the world with full permits. Since lithium does not trade publicly, many investors, burned by other faltering commodities, do not realize that prices have steadily climbed, Bourassa said. Three large producers, SQM, Albemarle Corp and FMC Corp, and a new Argentina brine operation owned by Orocobre Ltd account for just over half of global production, according to advisory firm Global Lithium LLC. "End users we're talking with obviously don't like that situation because they're at the mercy of these four guys," Bourassa said. "It's another advantage for us." Lithium carbonate prices are poised to keep rising in 2016, and demand will require a new large-scale plant every 18 months for the next decade, Global Lithium president Joe Lowry said. Western Lithium's shares have gained about 11 percent this year, as of Friday, while Nemaska has climbed 9 percent. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Toronto; Editing by David Gregorio)
Two political parties have seats in Saskatchewan's legislative assembly  the Saskatchewan Party and theNew Democratic Party of Saskatchewan  but there are a total of six political parties registered in the province.

Two of those four plan to run a full slate of 61 candidates  the Green Party of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Liberals.

Greens have full slate

In fact, the Green Party has had 61 candidates nominated since the summer of 2014, after spending nearly half of the 2011 campaign nominating a full slate of candidates for the first time in the party's history.

"We determined that we didn't want to go through that, kind of, nightmare process again," says Victor Lau, the Green Party's leader.

"And so this time we've been nominating candidates all along the way."

Lau says half of those candidates are women. "It's part of our principles, the idea of gender balance, in government and as well in the party."

Lau says it's important to him that not only can any Saskatchewan voter choose to cast a ballot for the Greens, but that the Green Party could form government if enough voters chose it.

All our candidates believe they'll win: Liberals

That is also the goal for the leader of the Saskatchewan Liberals, Darrin Lamoureux.

"The definition of success is to form government," said Lamoureux. "We have 61 candidates that believe they're going to win each riding."

PCs hoping to return to legislature

The Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan has 10 confirmed candidates and expects to add more until the deadline of Mar. 19.

Its leader's pitch is for voters to elect some PC MLAs to sit among the opposition in the Legislature.

"We understand clearly that you can't have a good government unless you have a good opposition," said Rick Swenson.

Swenson notes the party's work in bringing forward issues from farmland ownership, in the wake of a purchase of land by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to questions about the Regina bypass.

Story continues

"You've seen a very aggressive PC Party of Saskatchewan doing the public's work," said Swenson. "We see that as our role after the next election, is to get back in the House and continue with that."

Swenson notes his party will have more money for this campaign compared to the last one. The party regained control of a trust fundand Swenson says it will be running paid advertisements for the first time since 1995.

Western Independence also in race

The other party that has official status with Elections Saskatchewan is the Western Independence Party.

The party, whose goal is to have Saskatchewan separate from the rest of the country, does not yet have any potential candidates listed on the Elections Saskatchewan website for this campaign.

Candidates may also choose to run as "independents" in any constituency. There is one potential Independent candidate set to run in the constituency of Regina Coronation Park.
By David Ljunggren and Roberta Rampton OTTAWA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada's charismatic Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be traveling to Washington this week for talks with U.S. President Barack Obama, hoping to revitalize a frayed relationship and draw rare attention to Canadian issues. Trudeau's Liberals came to power in November by ousting the right-wing Conservative leader Stephen Harper, whose ties with Washington deteriorated as he hectored Obama in a failed bid to gain approval for a major Canada-U.S. pipeline. Trudeau, who has basked in international media attention since coming to power and whose progressive politics are much more in tune with Obama's, will attend a state dinner Thursday, becoming the first Canadian leader to do so since 1997. "We want to strengthen our relationship with the United States at a time when it is key for our agenda of economic growth," Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said in an interview on Monday. Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. It is also the United States' largest trading partner and biggest supplier of oil, but has found it hard to stand out. "We'd sometimes like to think that Americans would pay attention to us from time to time," Trudeau said in an interview with the CBS television show "60 Minutes" that aired on Sunday. Trudeau will press his message on Thursday, holding talks with Obama, lunching with Secretary of State John Kerry and then attending the state dinner. Canada wants to avoid a fresh trade fight over its softwood lumber exports, while the United States will reiterate long-standing concerns about how much information Ottawa shares on terror suspects, say officials involved with the talks. The two sides are also set to sign a declaration committing to the fight against climate change, sources said. "Canada's not an issue that gets a lot of attention normally," said a senior U.S. administration official. "(But) I'd be hard-pressed to identify a relationship that's more important day in, day out, and that affects more Americans day in, day out." Trudeau has a higher profile than any Canadian leader since his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, was in power four decades ago. The New York Times and Vogue magazine are among the U.S. outlets that have run sympathetic profiles about him. Still, his visit may be overshadowed by the raucous race between Republican candidates vying to run for the White House. Thursday's dinner coincides with a Republican debate in the battleground state of Florida. (Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Bernadette Baum)
By Yimou Lee and Joel Schectman HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp <0763.HK> has urged its U.S. suppliers to apply for export licensee to satisfy newly imposed U.S. trade restrictions, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Tuesday. The news came as export restrictions against ZTE <000063.SZ> for alleged Iran sanctions violations drew fire from the Chinese government, which said it was "resolutely opposed" to the tough measures but stopped short of announcing retaliation. The moves announced by the U.S. Commerce Department on Monday are likely to disrupt ZTE's sprawling global supply chain and could create substantial parts shortages, according to sanctions experts. ZTE purchases of technology components last year will not be enough to meet demand in a rapidly changing global tech industry, said the source, adding the U.S. export restrictions were a rare punishment for a company. "It's possibly the toughest punishment you can do to a tech company," said the source who declined to be identified as the information was not public. If the restrictions remained in place for a significant amount of time, "the case would escalate to a very high level politically", the source added, declining to give a timeframe. China's Ministry of Commerce criticized the decision, adding to complaints from the Foreign Ministry on Monday. "China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition" to the measure, the ministry said on its website (www.mofcom.gov.cn). "The U.S. move will severely affect normal operations of Chinese companies. China will continue negotiating with the U.S. side on this issue." Under the measures, U.S. manufacturers will be banned from selling components to ZTE, a major global supplier of telecom-networking equipment and smartphones. In addition, foreign manufacturers will be prohibited from selling products containing a significant amount of U.S.-made parts to the Chinese company. The U.S. Commerce Department, confirming the decision that was first reported by Reuters on Saturday, said ZTE planned to use a series of shell companies "to illicitly reexport controlled items to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws." It said ZTE acted "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States." In a statement, ZTE said it was "working expeditiously" towards a resolution to the issue. "ZTE is fully committed to compliance with the laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates. ZTE has been cooperating and will continue to cooperate and communicate with all U.S. agencies as required," the Shenzhen-based company said. RIPPLE EFFECT While ZTE suppliers can apply for an export license to ship any American-made equipment or parts, the Commerce Department said such license applications generally will be denied. ZTE, which has annual sales of more than $15 billion, can appeal the decision. The export restriction, which does not stop ZTE from selling handsets in the United States, is expected to have a global impact. "It is going to have a large ripple effect. It's very significant to many companies both in the U.S. and (outside the) U.S.," said Doug Jacobson, an export attorney at law firm Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC. Although ZTE is not being banned from selling handsets in the United States, the restriction could disrupt handset production if ZTE sources U.S.-made parts to manufacture its handsets, experts said. ZTE is the No. 4 smartphone vendor in the United States, with a 7 percent market share, behind Apple Inc , Samsung Electronics Co <005930.KS> and LG Electronics Inc <066570.KS>, according to research firm IDC. A ZTE website says companies including Microsoft , Intel Corp , IBM and Honeywell International Inc are "key strategic partners." The terms of the partnerships are not described. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk, Donny Kwok and Yimou Lee in Hong Kong, John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Joel Schectman and Susan Heavey in Washington, Steve Stecklow in London, Dan Burns and Malathi Nayak in New York; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Lincoln Feast)
By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton's vow to regulate oil and gas fracking almost out of existence was met with skepticism Monday, failing to convince either industry or environment groups that she would - or could - end the controversial drilling practice if she becomes president. The front-runner for the Democratic party nomination used a debate in Flint, Michigan on Sunday night to oppose fracking anywhere local communities were against it, wherever it polluted air or water, and whenever companies refused to disclose what chemicals they use in the process. By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place, she said. But supporters and opponents of fracking dismissed her position as campaign rhetoric that would collide with the limited powers of a president to control an activity largely regulated at the state level. Defenders of fracking said no president would try to put the brakes on a drilling technique that has flooded the U.S. with cheap oil and gas. Secretary Clintons answer is essentially campaign hyperbole, and meant to appease her environmental constituency, said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Texas' Southern Methodist University, in a blog post in the Dallas Morning News. In reality, it has little substance to it. Green groups welcomed Clintons shift from her past support for fracking. But they also urged her to stop laying down conditions and caveats. Clinton will continue to struggle to convince climate advocates that she is serious about addressing the crisis until she comes out for a full ban on fracking, said Yong Jung Cho, campaign coordinator of grassroots groups 350 Action. As secretary of state, Clinton supported fracking as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on imported energy, and even led a push to spread shale extraction to allies in Europe to wean them off Russian gas.[L1N0VX2JT] Her pledge in Flint to curtail the practice followed the blunt declaration against fracking by Senator Bernard Sanders, her sole rival for the nomination. Sanders' challenge has shifted some of Clinton's positions in the campaign, and her statement on fracking now comes closer to wider Democratic party sentiment. Secretary Clinton has been pushed to the left by Senator Sanders, said Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government affairs at the Western Energy Alliance. Sgamma said Democrats from President Barack Obama to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper support fracking and the economic benefits its brings to many states. Sometimes things said in the heat of a debate are later wisely set aside when faced with the economic and national security consequences of shutting down the technique that unlocks huge domestic sources of energy that would otherwise have to come from Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, she said. The Clinton campaign said the candidate has previously criticized fracking when it clashed with local opposition. "If a local government says no (to fracking), not here, they should be able to do that, Clinton said during a campaign stop in Keene, New Hampshire last October. But fracking for natural gas has also drastically reduced the amount of coal being burned to produce electricity, and has been mostly supported by the Obama administration. David Koranyi, director of the Eurasian Energy Future Initiative at the Atlantic Council said Clintons very circumspect answer to the question in Flint actually reflected the Obama administrations current approach to fracking, which seeks to continue expanding shale production with more environmental oversight. I believe wrapped in her strong statement is a pragmatic approach that recognizes the merits of natural gas as a bridge fuel in the process of decarbonization, he said. Clinton's harder line did, however, delineate the clear differences between Democrats and Republicans on the issue. All Republican contenders have strongly defended fracking, leading Louis Finkel of the American Petroleum Institute to attack Clinton's position as "a political stunt by those who are spouting populist rhetoric for political points." The importance of fracking to the American economy, he said, means the Democrats "are not being honest with American voters. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Bernard Orr)
By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of former Guantanamo Bay prison inmates who are suspected of having returned to fighting for militants doubled to 12 in the six months through January, the Obama administration said on Monday. The increase could fuel Republican attacks on Democratic President Barack Obama's plan to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba, which has come to symbolize aggressive detention practices following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and opened the United States to accusations of torture. Most detainees have been held without trial for more than a decade. The closure plan, drawn up by the Pentagon and which requires approval by Congress, proposes 13 potential sites on U.S. soil to hold 30-60 detainees in maximum-security prisons. According to figures released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), as of Jan. 15 the United States also had confirmed that seven out of 144 Guantanamo prisoners who were freed since Obama took office in January 2009 have returned to fighting. That was up from six since the ODNI's previous release last July. The ODNI report is released every six months and does not give details on where or for which groups the former detainees are confirmed or suspected to be fighting. The ODNI figures showed that 111 of 532 prisoners released by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush are confirmed to have returned to the battlefield, with 74 others suspected of doing so. Under Bush, suspected militants were rounded up overseas as the United States became embroiled in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and imprisoned at Guantanamo. The closure plan faces strong opposition from lawmakers who do not want detainees transferred to the United States. The United States took control of part of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 1903 under a treaty with the Havana government. Obama has pressed the Republican-led legislature to give his proposal a "fair hearing" and said he did not want to pass the issue to his successor in January. He is also considering executive action to close the facility. Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a measure that would force the administration to publicize plans for transfers from Guantanamo. Four other Republicans, Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Ayotte, Tom Cotton and presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, also introduced a bill that would bar Obama from returning the naval base at Guantanamo to Cuba without authorization from Congress. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball; editing by Grant McCool)
By Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A European Union draft deal with Turkey to stop migrants reaching Greece introduces a harder edge of coercion to what critics have derided as a hitherto feeble EU response to a crisis tearing it apart. Just last week, some saw European Council President Donald Tusk running short on ideas when he urged would-be migrants: "Do not come to Europe." UKIP, a party campaigning to take Britain out of the EU at a June referendum, said his "weak plea" was "too little too late to stop the vast migrant flow into Europe". Yet what Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called a "game-changing" plan for Turkey to forcibly take back not only economic migrants who make it to Greek islands off its coast but even refugees from Syria, who will then suffer disadvantages, is the strongest move yet to change the calculus of migration. If the plan is agreed, and if it works, taking to a boat from a Turkish beach at the cost of life savings to a smuggler - and possibly of life itself - would no longer be a ticket to a better life in Germany but a rapid round trip to Turkey. There, those returned would be, in the words of EU officials, "at the back of the line" for legal asylum and resettlement in Europe. The United Nations refugee agency warned that Europe must not close its door to those in need, as civil war in Syria has left millions homeless and afraid. Human rights groups have been scathing about a Europe preaching democracy but cutting a deal with a Turkish government accused of persecuting opponents. Many are concerned about a quickfire process of deporting everyone back to Turkey with little regard for individuals. But 1.2 million people reached the EU last year to claim asylum amid chaotic scenes on beaches and on the long trek north from Greece through the Balkans. It has set EU states at odds, shut long-uncontrolled borders and fueled nationalist sentiment among voters across the bloc. Leaders' patience is thin. "We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe," they said after Monday's summit. DETERRENCE An earlier EU plan foresaw deportation back to Turkey reserved for those, such as Pakistanis or North Africans, with little likelihood of winning refugee status in the EU - though in practice making such distinctions has proven problematic. The new plan would see even Syrians and others with stronger asylum claims being shipped with little ceremony back across straits, now being demonstratively patrolled by NATO warships. To force back crowds that last year numbered up to 20,000 a day seems impracticable. But EU officials said the key was to dissuade people from traveling in the first place. For every Syrian sent back from a Greek island in future, another Syrian would be entitled to a legal, safe trip to Europe. That could be a rather small number if deterrence works, so EU leaders agreed to consider also resettling larger numbers. For Europeans, the deal could help end a crisis that has jeopardized their cherished Schengen passport-free zone. There are clear gains for Greece, where Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has warned of becoming a "warehouse of souls" as more than 30,000 migrants have become stranded there since its northern neighbors began closing their borders. The downside could be ugly scenes on the islands off Turkey. For German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who worked closely on the deal with Davutoglu before the summit, a dramatic sign of an imminent end to the crisis could be a boost in regional elections on Sunday that will, in part, pass judgment on her decision last summer to open Germany's doors to Syrians. "DIRTY DEAL" Turkey is seeking in return some 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) to help improve the lives of refugees over the next three years - twice as much as a two-year deal with the EU struck in November, as well as the opening of new "chapters" in its long-stalled negotiation to join the European Union. Also important for Turkish public opinion is a request to bring forward by four months to June a plan to make it easier for Turks to travel without visas to Europe's Schengen zone. Several European governments have strong reservations about the Turkish proposals. Cyprus is wary about lifting its veto on parts of the accession process as long as Ankara does not end a refusal to recognize or trade with Cyprus, diplomats said. It is also concerned not to disrupt talks that have brought the prospect of ending the four-decade division of the island. France, sceptical of Turkey ever joining the EU, is resistant to a rapid easing of visa requirements for Turkey. President Francois Hollande said it would still have to meet 72 criteria - among them modernizing Turkish identity documents. Britain, too, where Prime Minister David Cameron is campaigning to persuade voters to back continued EU membership on June 23, is wary of newspaper headlines suggesting 75 million Turks may soon be traveling more easily around Europe, even if Britain is outside the Schengen visa area they could access. And central and eastern European states, long opposed to EU efforts to force them to take in a share of refugees, are concerned about elements of the deal that could see more calls for asylum-seekers to be resettled around the bloc. However, the lure of an end to the crisis - at least inside Europe - may prove a compelling argument despite the critics. John O'Brennan, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at Maynooth University in Ireland, tweeted: "EU norms of pluralism are being completely eviscerated. By the European Union itself. Shame on this dirty deal with Turkey." Summit chair Tusk, a former Polish premier, insisted the EU was not going soft on defending human rights in Turkey. But he stressed the benefits of the plan to crack down on travelers, saying: "The days of irregular migration to Europe are over." (Editing by Robert Birsel)
By George Georgiopoulos ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will press for solidarity with refugees and fair burden-sharing among European Union states at Monday's emergency EU summit with Turkey, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday, lashing out at border restrictions that led to logjams. Tsipras has accused Austria and Balkan countries of "ruining Europe" by slowing the flow of migrants and refugees heading north from Greece, where some 30,000 are now trapped, waiting for Macedonia to reopen its border so they can head to Germany. With more arriving in the mainland from Greek islands close to Turkish shores, the numbers could swell by 100,000 by the end of this month, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos projected on Saturday. "Europe is in a nervous crisis," Tsipras told his leftist Syriza party's central committee. "Will a Europe of fear and racism overtake a Europe of solidarity?" He said central European countries with serious demographic problems and low unemployment could benefit in the long term by taking in millions of refugees, but austerity policies have fed a far-right "monster" opposing the inflows. "Europe today is crushed amidst austerity and closed borders. It keeps its border open to austerity but closed for people fleeing war," Tsipras said. "Countries, with Austria in the front, want to impose the logic of fortress Europe." Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has urged Germany to set a clear limit on the number of asylum seekers it will accept to help stem a mass influx of refugees that is severely testing European cohesion in the midst of the worst refugee crisis in generations. Tsipras told his party "unilateral" actions to close borders to refugees were condemned by all European institutions. "We are not pointing the finger to any other peoples or countries of Europe. We are against those who succumb to xenophobia and racism," Tsipras said. "We will continue to save lives ... and defend the human face of Europe." Tsipras heads to the summit after clinching a minimum of consensus from the political opposition which has been critical of his handling of the refugee crisis. He said Athens would push for solidarity with refugees, reduced flows from Turkey, a fair sharing of burdens and tackling smugglers. He would demand sanctions for member countries which violate the bloc's decisions. "With the border closed to refugees and flows to the islands continuing, it is clear that relocation to other countries is urgent and must start immediately in high numbers. We will pursue this at the summit," Tsipras said. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Stephen Powell)
By Gul Yusufzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The kidnapped son of a Pakistani governor who was murdered after he criticized the country's blasphemy laws was freed on Tuesday, a week after his father's killer was executed, authorities said. Shahbaz Taseer, in his 30s, had been missing for more than four years, ever since he was abducted in Lahore months after his father, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, was killed in 2011. The Pakistani army said Shahbaz Taseer had been rescued by intelligence agents in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Provincial officials confirmed the news. "Shahbaz was recovered safe and sound," Baluchistan police inspector general Ahsan Mehboob told Reuters. Intelligence agents and counter-terrorism officers found Taseer after receiving information he was being held in a hotel in Kuchlak, 25 km north of Quetta, the provincial capital, Mehboob said. No arrests were made in the raid, and there was no confrontation with the captors, he added. Last week, Salman Taseer's former bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged for the murder. The killer's funeral attracted tens of thousands of supporters who proclaimed him a hero for defending Islam. On Monday, a suicide bomber killed at least 10 people near a court, an attack the Pakistani Taliban's Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction said it had committed to avenge Qadri's execution. Salman Taseer had spoken in support of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy and had called for the laws that mandate the death penalty for insulting Islam to be revised. After his death, Taseer's family received multiple threats from religious hard-liners. On the day of Qadri's execution, another of Taseer's sons, Shehryar, tweeted: "MumtazQadri being hanged is a victory to #Pakistan. NOT the #Taseer family. The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants." Shahbaz Taseer was believed to have been kidnapped originally by the radical Islamist group Lashkar e Janghvi and later handed to al Qaeda and then to the Pakistani Taliban, intelligence sources told Reuters. (Reporting by Syed Raza Hassan and Asad Hashim; Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Larry King)
By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Islamist fighters attacked army and police barracks in the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan near the Libyan border on Monday and at least 30 people, including civilians, were killed in the clashes, residents and the Interior Ministry said. Authorities sealed off the nearby beach resort town of Djerba, a popular destination for foreign and local tourists, and closed two border crossings with Libya, the TAP state news agency said. It was not immediately clear if the attackers crossed the border, but Monday's assault was the type of militant operation Tunisia's government had feared as it prepares for potential spill over from Libya, where Islamic State militants have expanded their presence. Local television broadcast images of soldiers and police crouched in doorways and on rooftops as gunshots echoed in the centre of the town. Bodies of dead militants lay in the streets near the army barracks, local residents said. "I saw a lot of militants at dawn, they were running with their Kalashnikovs," Hussein, a resident, told Reuters by telephone. "They said they were Islamic State and they came to target the army and the police." Soldiers killed 21 militants and arrested six after they attacked military and police posts, the Interior Ministry said. Hospital sources said at least seven civilians were killed along with a soldier and a customs agent. While Tunisia has been held up as a model of democratic transition since its 2011 uprising against ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, the North African country is also caught up in a struggle with Islamist militancy. More than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight with Islamic State and other groups in Syria and Iraq. Tunisian security officials say increasingly they are returning to join the militant group in Libya over the border. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi five years ago, Libya has slipped into chaos, with two rival governments and armed factions struggling for control. Islamic State has grown in the turmoil, taking over Sirte city and drawing foreign recruits. Tunisian forces have been alert for possible infiltration since last month when a U.S. air strike targeted mostly Tunisian Islamic State militants at a camp near the border in Libya's Sabratha. Western military advisers are starting to train Tunisian border forces to help better protect the frontier with electronic surveillance and drones and authorities have built a trench and barrier to help stop militants crossing. Islamist militants trained in Libyan jihadist camps carried out several attacks on Tunisia last year, including gun assaults on the Tunis Bardo museum and a Sousse beach hotel targeting foreign tourists. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
North Korea has threatened the US and South Korea with a "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" after the two countries started huge military drills.

Pyongyang claims the exercises, which happen every year, are rehearsals for an invasion of North Korea.

But Washington and Seoul maintain the war games are purely defensive.

:: Kim Puts Military On 'Pre-Emptive Attack' Mode

The North's powerful National Defence Commission threatened strikes against targets in South Korea, US bases in the Pacific and the US mainland, saying its enemies "are working with bloodshot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights" of North Korea.

"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the statement said.

South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said Pyongyang must refrain from a "rash act that brings destruction upon itself".

:: Watch: North Korea's Latest Rocket Launch

This year's military drills will be the largest ever held, and will involve 300,000 South Korean and 17,000 US troops.

The two countries will work on drills for precision attacks on North Korea's leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, which cited military sources.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the military exercises were unprecedented in scale, stressing it was opposed to pressuring North Korea in this way.

There remains considerable debate about whether North Korea is capable of the kind of strikes it regularly threatens.

:: White House Doubts North Korea's H-Bomb Claim

Pyongyang staged its fourth nuclear test in January, but many experts say its arsenal still may only be made up of crude weapons.

It is not known if the North has mastered the miniaturisation process required to mount bombs on long-range missiles, and there are doubts about whether they possess a reliable missile that could hit the US mainland.

Relations between North Korea and the West worsened following its latest nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch last month that outsiders say was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The United Nations recently hit the country with harsh new sanctions, and South Korea has said it will announce new unilateral sanctions on Tuesday.
By Timothy Gardner and Rami Amichay WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel would have shown good manners had it informed the United States directly rather than through the news media that it was turning down a proposed summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, the White House said on Tuesday. But spokesman Josh Earnest said there was "no offense taken" by the decision which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ascribed to a desire to steer clear of the U.S. presidential election campaign. It was the latest episode in a fraught relationship between the right-wing Israeli leader and the Democratic U.S. president that has yet to recover from deep differences over last year's U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Israel's foe Iran. In a stark reminder of the paralysis in peace talks which Obama tried to revive earlier in his tenure, an American tourist was stabbed to death on a boardwalk in Tel Aviv in the most serious of several Palestinian attacks on Tuesday. The stabbing occurred about the time U.S. Vice President Joe Biden began a two-day visit to Israel. Biden met former Israeli president Shimon Peres and was due to hold talks on Wednesday with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank. With a wave of Palestinian street attacks now five months old, U.S. officials did not expect a peace breakthrough during Biden's visit. A 2010 Biden visit was marred by acrimony over a Jewish settlement plan Israel announced during his trip. WHITE HOUSE 'SURPRISED' The White House said on Monday it had been "surprised" to learn first from Israeli media that Netanyahu had decided against coming to a conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington on March 20, and to see a suggestion in some reports that Obama's unavailability had been one of the reasons. It said Netanyahu had been offered a March 18 meeting with Obama, ahead of the president's landmark visit to Cuba on March 21 and 22. Asked whether the Netanyahu government should have told the Obama administration before the media, Earnest said on Tuesday, "I think it's just good manners." Zeev Elkin, an Israeli cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, countered that Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer had given the White House advance warning the trip might not happen. Netanyahu's office cited the U.S. election campaign in saying he would not travel to Washington for the AIPAC event, and voiced appreciation for Obama's willingness to host him. In 2012, Netanyahu hosted Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in Israel in what many Democrats saw as a bid to undermine Obama's attempt to secure a second term. Israel denied meddling. While candidates for the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination have been vying to assert their credentials as friends of Israel, Obama is not up for re-election in November, having served a maximum two terms. Earnest said Biden was not in Israel to handle talks over a memorandum of understanding about the United States providing military support to Israel. There was a separate channel through which those negotiations were taking place, he said. (Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey and James Dalgleish)
Rumble

This video shows the incredible behaviour of a caring mother elephant on high alert, quickly stopping her adorable baby which was curiously straying away from her towards a vehicle full of safari tourists. Going on safari in the Kruger National Park is a life changing experience. Driving around multiple tarred roads, slowly scanning a massive area of wilderness is all part of the thrill. You never know what will be around the next corner or what animal will suddenly appear from the bush onto the road. Its an exciting experience and one of the must-see animals for most tourists are elephants. Not only are they the largest land mammals on our planet and fairly intimidating, elephants are also one of the most intelligent and emotionally intelligent animals that roam this planet. Seeing these giants in the wild is always a sight to remember. The video shows an incredible moment filmed in the Kruger National Park when a safari vehicle full of tourists found a large elephant cow and her adorable calf next to the road. The safari vehicle stopped and it looked like the mother elephant and her baby wanted to cross the road. The baby elephant was the cutest thing alive in the wild right at that moment. While the elephant cow remained focussed on crossing the road, her baby took notice of the safari vehicle and curiously started straying away from its mother towards the vehicle. The caring mother elephant immediately went into high alert and quickly took her trunk and stopped her baby from going any closer to the safari vehicle. The mother elephant gently used her trunk to guide her baby back and into the right direction. It was incredible to see how quickly the elephant cow became protective over her baby. The elephant calf listened to its mother and in a well-behaved manner, walking on the opposite side of its mother, continued to focus and follow its mother as it should. This is crucial for the survival of the calf in the wild. The gestation period of an elephant is twenty-two months, so it is very understandable that an elephant calf is seen as a huge investment and there will always be a mother around, ready to protect her calf from any potential danger. Even though the tourists were not a direct threat, the mother elephant knows all to well that there are humans that still pose a danger for them in the wild. The mother of such a small calf is definitely not something to mess with at all and its best never to get too close to a mother and her calf.
By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his country to be ready to use its nuclear weapons at any time and the military to be in "pre-emptive attack" mode in the face of growing threats from its enemies, state media said on Friday. The comments, carried by the North's official KCNA news agency, marked a further escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula after the U.N. Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the isolated state for its nuclear programme. North Korea, known for belligerent rhetoric, has previously threatened pre-emptive attacks on its enemies, including South Korea and the United States. Military experts doubt it has yet developed the capability to fire a long-range missile with a miniaturised warhead to deliver a nuclear weapon as far as the United States. Kim made the comments as he supervised military exercises involving newly developed rocket launchers, KCNA reported. It did not mention the date of the drills but said the new weapons had South Korea within range. South Korea's defence ministry said on Thursday the North launched several projectiles off its coast into the sea, up to 150 km (90 miles) away, an apparent response to the U.N. sanctions. Kim said North Korea should "bolster up (its) nuclear force both in quality and quantity" and stressed "the need to get the nuclear warheads deployed for national defence always on standby so as to be fired any moment," KCNA quoted him as saying. "Now is the time for us to convert our mode of military counteraction toward the enemies into a pre-emptive attack one in every aspect." Kim criticised South Korean President Park Geun-hye in his first direct published mention of her by name for acting "in league with the U.S. scoundrels," adding, "her hysteria will precipitate only her ruin in the long run," KCNA said. A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said Kim's comments were not helpful and may have been intended for the domestic audience, to boost morale in the face of the new U.N. sanctions. Responding to the report, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said, "We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that given the sensitive and complex situation on the Korean peninsula, China hoped the parties would maintain restraint, and "be careful in their words and actions, and not take any actions that would exacerbate tensions in this situation". The latest U.N. sanctions, drafted by the United States and China, the North's main ally, punish the isolated country following its fourth nuclear test, in January, as well as last month's satellite launch, which the United States and others say was really a test of ballistic missile technology. Later on Friday, North Korea rejected the Security Council resolution as a "criminal act" masterminded by the United States and vowed to continue boosting its nuclear deterrent and move forward on the path to become a "satellite superpower". "Our response will involve the full use of various means and tools including a strong and ruthless physical response," KCNA quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying. POSSIBLE ENGINE TEST EYED South Korea and the U.S. militaries are set to formally begin talks on Friday on deployment of the advanced anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system with the U.S. military in the South. China and Russia oppose the deployment of THAAD, which has powerful radar capable of penetrating deep into their countries, but South Korea and the United States have said it is needed in response to the heightened missile threat from the North. Johns Hopkins University's 38 North project, which monitors North Korea, said recent commercial satellite imagery showed new activity in the isolated country, including a convoy of trucks at its satellite launch station that could be preparations for a rocket-engine test. The site on the North's west coast is the upgraded rocket station where it launched a long-range rocket on Feb. 7 that put an object into space, but was condemned by the Security Council as violation of past resolutions that ban the use of ballistic missile technology by the North. On Thursday, South Korean President Park repeated a warning to the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions and said she would work to "end tyranny" by its leader. They were the toughest-ever comments against Pyongyang by Park, whose recent hard line against the North is a shift from her earlier policy of "trustpolitik" that focused on trying to engage in dialogue. North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, the official daily newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, on Friday carried three pages of a report and photographs of leader Kim supervising the rocket launch drills. It also ran a full-page commentary insulting Park as "a wicked woman who does everything evil against the compatriots in the North." (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing; Editing by Tony Munroe and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
By Hugh Bronstein and Maximilian Heath BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and the first lady will visit the lake-side Patagonian tourist city of Bariloche later this month during an official trip to Argentina, a U.S. diplomat told local radio on Friday. The trip will follow the couple's visit to Cuba on March 21 and 22, another major step toward ending decades of animosity between former Cold War foes. They will meet with newly elected Argentine President Mauricio Macri on March 23 and fly to Bariloche the following day, Kevin Sullivan, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires, told Radio Mitre. The stopover in ski-destination Bariloche, known for its crystal clear lakes and panoramic mountain vistas, appeared to be first lady Michelle Obama's idea, Sullivan said. "I believe she heard what Bariloche is like ... and it seemed to her it would be a good place to share a little family time," Sullivan said. Relations have improved between Argentina and the United States since Macri took office in December. Macri has moved to open Latin America's No. 3 economy to foreign investment by ditching trade and currency controls enacted by his predecessor. "It seems to us to be a good moment for President Obama to get to know Argentina and have a dialogue with President Macri," Sullivan said. The agenda will include international cooperation, terrorism, human rights and energy investment. Argentina has some of the world's largest untapped shale oil and natural gas formations. China is a major investor in Argentina's energy and grains sectors. March 24 will be the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup that installed a military dictatorship, which the United States initially supported. Argentina returned to democracy in 1983. Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the Nobel peace prize for his human rights work during the dictatorship, wrote an open letter to Obama this week saying that if the U.S. president stayed in Buenos Aires on the 24th, many Argentines would see that as "a provocation." Marches and demonstrations in honor of the victims of the military junta are planned for that date in the Argentine capital. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Richard Chang)
Parks Canada has been in a tug of war with the government of Nunavut about who controls artifacts from the sunken Sir John Franklin ships in Arctic waters  and so far Nunavut is winning.

Nunavut officials refused to issue archeological dive permits to Parks Canada unless the federal government agreed to give up the authority to retrieve whatever artifacts it wants from the ocean floor.

Parks Canada initially balked at the restriction, but relented after getting advice that defying the Nunavut government could get their divers arrested by the RCMP.

- Special Report: Searching for Franklin

Now, the agency must seek prior permission from Nunavut's director of heritage before retrieving anything from HMS Terror, the remaining lost ship from Franklin's ill-fated 19th century Arctic expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

The awkward outcome is yet another headache for Parks Canada, which is delicately navigating competing claims to the Franklin wrecks and artifacts.

Other claimants include the Kitikmeot Inuit, who have a say in the fate of the artifacts under a land claims treaty, and the British, who have the right to cherry-pick any artifacts that are of "outstanding significance" to the Royal Navy.

A CBC News investigation uncovered the jurisdictional tensions behind the dazzling headlines of the discovery of the wreck of HMS Erebus in September 2014 and the continued search for HMS Terror.

The spat with Nunavut began last spring, when Parks Canada applied for a permit to send divers to both the wreck of HMS Erebus and, if found, the wreck of HMS Terror.

"During the permit application process for the spring 2015 ice dive on HMS Erebus, the government of Nunavut included a condition that denied Parks Canada the authorization to recover artifacts from the wreck site," says a briefing note for Leona Aglukkaq, who was then the environment minister.

"Parks Canada responded to the government of Nunavut that it could not accept the condition," says the briefing, which noted the "risk of being charged" under the Nunavut Act. "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have the authority to lay a charge." The note, and related documents, were obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act.

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Trumps permit regulations

The federal cabinet subsequently declared the HMS Erebus wreck and surrounding waters a national historic site, which decisively trumped Nunavut's permit regulations.

But the other lost Franklin ship, HMS Terror, posed a problem because the wreck is almost certainly outside the boundaries of the national historic site and is therefore under Nunavut's jurisdiction.

Nunavut's insistence that Parks Canada get prior permission before retrieving any object from the wreck of HMS Terror put the agency in a difficult position.

"The ability to recover artifacts is a critical requirement of the search operation," says the briefing note.

There's a "likelihood that evidence for HMS Terror will be spread over a debris field. ice conditions are unpredictable, and there are no guarantees that additional searches will be possible in the coming years, raising the risk of permanent loss of artifacts."

In the end, Parks Canada acceded to Nunavut's demands, and agreed last June to seek prior permission of Nunavut's director of heritage before its divers remove any HMS Terror artifacts they may come across. Parks Canada is again applying for an HMS Terror dive permit this year, and Nunavut spokesman Doug Stenton says the same conditions will apply.

Just how that awkward arrangement will work is unclear. "The approval process would be managed on a case by case basis once Parks Canada archeologists identify potential artifacts for recovery," agency spokeswoman Kassandra Daze says in an email.

Complicating the artifact dispute is the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, which requires the federal government to negotiate what's called an Inuit Impact Benefits Agreement for any area that it declares a national historic site, in this case the location of the wreck of HMS Erebus.

Talks on the benefits agreement have begun. A Kitikmeot Inuit spokesman says ownership and control of Franklin artifacts is a priority because the Inuit want the objects to be displayed in local communities to enhance tourism. So far, all 55 objects retrieved from HMS Erebus remain in Ottawa for conservation, including the ship's bell.

Britain has claim

"We'll all be coming to a table with our legal opinions at some point and trying to finally establish the ownership," says Fred Pedersen, director of planning and communications for the Kitikmeot Inuit Association in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

The British government also has a stake, based on a 1997 memorandum of understanding signed with Canada before any elusive Franklin wreck objects were found. The agreement acknowledges Britain's ownership of the wrecks and their contents, but says that country will assign ownership to Canada of everything recovered from the wrecks.

But there are two key exceptions. Any gold found will not be given up by Britain (none has been discovered yet). And "any recovered artifacts identified by Britain as being of outstanding significance to the Royal Navy will be offered to Britain for display in an appropriate museum."

A spokesman for the British High Commission in Ottawa, Nathan Skolski, says that "at present no items have been returned to the U.K. nor has the U.K. sought to do so." He adds that there currently is "no protocol for determining ownership."

Daze confirms Britain has not assigned ownership of anything to Canada, 18 months after HMS Erebus was discovered.

She adds that Parks Canada's goal is to make the artifacts available for public display somewhere in Nunavut after a lengthy conservation process.

Since 2008, Parks Canada has spent about $1 million on its archeological dives for the Franklin wrecks.

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By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - People with anxiety may not be able to distinguish between neutral and threatening stimuli as well as individuals without anxiety, a small study suggests. Researchers designed a sound experiment to explore the brains plasticity, or its ability to change and respond to new situations. These changes influence how the brain reacts to stimuli and whether the person is able to distinguish between safe or dangerous circumstances, said lead author Rony Paz of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Our study suggests that people with anxiety cannot discriminate, at the most basic level, between stimuli that have an emotional content and similar mundane or daily stimuli, Paz said by email. This in turn might explain the anxious response that they exhibit to scenarios that seem regular, normal or non-emotional to anyone else  their brain cannot discriminate and responds as if it is the anxious stimulus, Paz added. In the first part of the experiment, Paz and colleagues trained 28 volunteers with anxiety to associate three distinct tones with three outcomes  money loss, money gain, or no consequences. Then, in the second phase, researchers played 15 different tones and asked participants to identify whether they had heard the sound during the first part of the experiment. The goal was to see if people could avoid over-generalizing a new tone and mistaking it for a different sound they heard before. But the people with anxiety were much more likely to make this mistake than 16 healthy controls who previously participated in a similar experiment, researchers report in the journal Current Biology, March 3. Researchers also compared magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the anxious people to those of the healthy participants in the previous experiment. With anxiety, people had more activity visible in the amygdala, a brain region tied to fear and anxiety, and also in primary sensory regions of the brain, the study found. The study is small, and more research involving more people is still needed to understand how or whether anxiety may directly cause shifts in how people perceive the world around them, Paz said. Its possible, however, that the inability to distinguish sounds may extend to other senses, Paz added. Our world is comprised of simple features that build the complex picture, Paz said. If we cannot discriminate these building blocks or simple features, we would not be able to discriminate the big picture. The results also underscore that anxiety is a disease, not a voluntary way of perceiving the world, said Dr. Damiaan Denys, a psychiatry researcher at the University of Amsterdam who wasnt involved in the study. If youre anxious, youre hardly to blame, Denys said by email. It is not a choice or a lack of free willpower. In an ideal world, people would want to have less generalization and more ability to detect nuances differences in distinct situations, said Dr. Amit Etkin, a psychiatry researcher at Stanford University who wasnt involved in the study. The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that people with anxiety respond with fear to situations that only partially resemble previous frightening encounters, Etkin said by email. This paper goes a long way in providing a biological explanation and shows how the bias towards over-generalization that is seen in anxiety is evident even in how their brain encodes the perceptual information itself, Etkin added. More and more, I see over-generalization as a new and important domain for understanding anxiety, which may furthermore offer us new and different insights into how we might better treat these patients, Etkin said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1pbrHXN Current Biol 2016.
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russia's embassy in Kiev sent a note of protest to Ukraine's foreign ministry on Sunday about attacks on the embassy's cars, the RIA news agency quoted embassy spokesman Oleg Grishin as saying. Grishin said three cars parked outside the embassy were "seriously damaged" overnight by a group of unidentified people who also threw flares and smoke flares to the embassy. Kiev police said it had started a criminal investigation into the case which it preliminarily described as hooliganism. "At night ... unidentified people started smashing parked cars, so a total of three vehicles were damaged: mirrors and the glass had been shattered," the police said in a statement. A video with a slogan "Freedom to Nadia Savchenko" and footage of few men smashing cars in darkness appeared on the Internet, while hundreds of people have massed near the embassy in Ukraines capital on Sunday with similar slogans. Protesters have urged Moscow to free Nadezhda (Nadia) Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot on trial in Russia on charges of complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists. Savchenko, 34, was captured by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine in June 2014. She denies any wrongdoing. Last Thursday she went on hunger strike to protest against the length of what she said was an unjust legal process after the judge in her trial adjourned proceedings just as she was about to deliver her final speech. The helicopter pilot, who faces up to 25 years in jail if found guilty, has become a national hero for many in Ukraine who see her as a symbol of anti-Kremlin defiance. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Natalia Zinets; Editing by Mark Potter)
After weeks of unofficial campaigning, Saskatchewan's premier has made it official.

Brad Wall met with the province's lieutenant-governor to dissolve the Legislature, before joining Saskatchewan Party candidate Ken Cheveldayoff for a campaign kickoff event during the lunch hour.

There, Wall spoke to an enthusiastic group of party faithful.

"There is no issue more important today in Saskatchewan, more central to this election, than the economy," he said. The protection and the preservation of the increased numbers of jobs we have in the province today, and the environment that we need to create more jobs."

Wall took a number of jabs at his political opponents, the Saskatchewan NDP, bringing up the party's job creation record as well as numerous cuts the NDP made while in government.

"The choice is pretty clear in this election," he said. "Action or talk. Forward or backward. The future or the past."

The unofficial campaign has been well underway in recent weeks, with the NDP rolling out platform ideas daily in the week before the campaign began  from restoring and boosting the province's film tax credit to scrapping the government's fleet of airplanes for cabinet ministers' travel.

Cam Broten promises to end privatization, review P3 contracts

NDP leader Cam Broten made a policy announcement at the Saskatchewan Legislature shortly after Wall's speech this afternoon. He promised to axe SaskBuilds, which Broten called the privatization ministry and "Europe Builds Sask."

"We will save $15 million in operations alone and hundred of millions of dollars in reckless and costly P3 (Public-Private-Partnership) deals," Broten said.

Pointing the finger at the P3 project for the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford, Broten questioned why a one year maintenance budget for a new hospital dwarfed the entire maintenance budget for the entire Prairie North Health Region and all of its facilities.

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"To me that makes absolutely no sense that you have a brand new building that costs more for maintenance than every other building put together in the health region."

Broten also reference the province's P3 deal with VINCI, a French corporation that entered into a P3 project for the Regina Bypass.

Broten asked why P3 contracts were being doled out to European companies rather than local constructions companies.

If elected, Broten promised to look at each P3 and see if it's the most cost-effective ways to deliver these major projects.

"We will not cancel projects, we will look at how to do this in the smartest and most cost-effective way possible and when you're paying a French company to plow a bypass outside of Regina, that makes no sense. When you're paying more in maintenance for one year on a brand new building than every other building the health region put together, something strange is going on and it's certainly not a good use of taxpayer dollars."

Wall spent much of last week in Vancouver, railing against a carbon tax at a meeting of the country's leaders.

Leading up to the election, the Saskatchewan Party has had a healthy lead in the polls. The NDP had been closing the gap in recent weeks, particularly in the cities, but last week the governing party surged back with the support of nearly one of every two voters or 49 per cent support.

This is the third campaign for Brad Wall as leader of the Saskatchewan Party.

His party first came to power in 2007, when the party was just a decade old  an amalgamation of MLAs from the former Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties.

During the 2007 campaign, Wall and the Saskatchewan Party dropped its controversial plans to sell government-owned utilities if it made economic sense to do so.

Instead, Wall and the party's MLAs signed on to legislation put forward in the wake of the 2003 campaign by the NDP government to protect the Crowns from sale unless a political party campaigned on the idea first.

Wall and his party won that election against the Saskatchewan NDP and its leader Premier Lorne Calvert, with more than 50 per cent of the popular vote  gaining 10 seats to elect 38 MLAs to the NDP's 20.

Four years later in 2011, Wall and the Saskatchewan Party did even better with a historic 64.2 per cent of the popular vote. The NDP lost 11 seats, including that of its leader Dwain Lingenfelter  sparking yet another leadership race for the official opposition party.

This time around, Cam Broten will lead the NDP into a campaign with even more seats at stake. The government added three constituencies to a redrawn electoral map, for a total of 61 MLAs to be elected on April 4.
By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani militants said a suicide bombing at a court on Monday in which at least 10 people were killed was revenge for the hanging of a man convicted of the 2011 killing a prominent liberal politician who had called for reform of blasphemy laws. Police said the bomber had intended to enter the court in the northwestern town of Shabqadar, near the Mohmand ethnic Pashtun region, and set off his explosives when guards challenged him. "The suicide bomber was trying to enter the judicial complex and he blew himself up when the police stopped him," said police official Saeed Wazir. Television news footage showed extensive damage including the charred remains of at least two vehicles. Senior police official Sohail Khalid told Reuters two police personnel, as well as four women and two children were among at least 10 people killed. Nearly 30 people were wounded. The Pakistani Taliban's Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction claimed responsibility for the attack in the town, about 150 km (90 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad. Group spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an emailed statement the bombing "was especially done as vengeance for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri". Qadri, a bodyguard-turned-assassin, was executed last week for killing Salman Taseer, the then governor of Punjab province, after he had called for reform of blasphemy laws that mandate death for insulting Islam or its prophet. Human rights groups say the laws can be abused by people trying to settle scores or involved in feuds and members of Pakistan's religious minorities are vulnerable to unfair treatment under the legislation. The laws are at the heart of an ideological clash between reformers and religious conservatives in Pakistan. Hard-line religious leaders have declared Qadri a hero and Ehsan said his faction would continue to attack courts. "The Pakistani courts give decisions against the laws revealed by Allah, and convict and hang innocent people," Ehsan said in his statement. Pakistani Taliban militants have been waging an insurgency against the state since 2007, in a bid to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law. A series of military operations in the Pashtun lands along the Afghan border - the latest of which was launched in 2014 - have reduced the militants' ability to hit major targets regularly, but attacks have continued. (Additional reporting by Asad Hashim in ISLAMABAD and Saud Mehsud in DERA ISMAIL KHAN.; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)
The head of Europol has told Sky News there is a growing threat of a spectacular terror attack in Europe and the UK would face significant security challenges if it left the European Union.

Rob Wainwright, who is British and a former MI5 officer, has been the director of the agency responsible for the co-ordination of the European Union's law enforcement since 2009.

Speaking from the organisation's headquarters in the Netherlands, Mr Wainwright was frank about the challenges following last November's Paris attacks.

"I think it is likely that we will have another attack," he said.

"We are working of course around the clock to prevent that from happening but this is a very, very serious threat.

"It's certainly the highest terrorist threat we have faced for over 10 years and we need to up our game as a collective counter terrorist community to make sure we can protect our citizens from this."

The Paris attacks exposed failings in Europe's ability to co-ordinate and share intelligence on known terror suspects.

The attack mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaoud, was able to pass freely through Europe to Syria and back without being apprehended despite being the subject of an international arrest warrant.

One of the attackers, Saleh Abdeslam, was stopped by police hours after the attacks driving into Belgium.

They failed to arrest him and he remains on the run.

"Since Paris I can tell you that at Europol we have seen a significant increase in the amount of intelligence that's now been shared ... a determined response by the community to prevent another Paris-style attack," Mr Wainwright said.

The unprecedented migrant and refugee crisis has exposed Europe to massive challenges on two separate fronts: people trafficking and terrorism.

"Some 1.8 million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe last year putting huge pressures on our external border and driving in particular, fuelling, a serious increase in people smuggling which has become the fastest growing criminal sector now in Europe.

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"There are security dimensions attached to this migration crisis and at the same time the highest terrorist threat for 10 years so the twin effects of that mean that we are in very uncertain times in Europe at the moment ..."

The attackers in Paris were Europeans, radicalised in Europe but trained in Syria.

The number of people who pose a threat to us all is huge, according to shared European intelligence.

"At least 5,000 we think - that have been radicalised by ISIS, very often online and have acquired conflict experience in Syria and Iraq. Many of them have since returned," Mr Wainwright said.

Against this backdrop, he was happy to voice his views on the impact a 'leave' vote would have on the UK's security.

"One can expect that the arrangements [in the event of the UK leaving the EU] will be not as optimal and therefore it will be difficult for the UK to replace what it currently relies on in the EU with arrangements that would be as effective and as cost efficient as well," he said.

Europol says 2,500 operational cases were brought to its attention by British law enforcement agencies in 2015.

Up to 40% of all Europol casework has what Mr Wainwright calls a "British dimension".

In that context, he argues that the UK's membership with the EU enhances cooperation and improves security in the UK and across the continent.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, has suggested EU bureaucracy hampered the UK's ability to fight crime and terrorism.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is winning praise from the White House for his leadership on climate change ahead of this week's visit to Washington where that issue will be high on the agenda.

In a call with reporters Tuesday morning, officials from President Barack Obama's administration also noted the personal relationship that is developing between the two leaders.

Obama extended the invitation for a state visit and dinner, the first in 19 years for a Canadian prime minister, when he met Trudeau at the APEC summit late last year.

The officials said Canada and the U.S. always have a close relationship, regardless of who occupies 24 Sussex Drive or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but they acknowledged Trudeau and Obama have a lot in common.

"I think there is a developing special relationship between this president and prime minister," said Mark Feierstein, senior director for Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council.

"Both young leaders with similar visions, both have a progressive vision of governing, both are very much committed to the appropriate use of multilateral tools, both are committed to diversity."

'Tremendous cooperation' on climate

Feierstein said there is "a coincidence" when it comes to their agendas, and that's reflected in their commitment to fighting climate change and other priorities for both leaders.

"This will be a good opportunity for the president and prime minister to expand their relationship and build on that," he said.

Trudeau arrives in the U.S. capital Wednesday along with his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau and a delegation that includes five cabinet members: Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo.

They will attend a lavish state dinner at the White House on Thursday night after a day of meetings in the Oval Office and at the State Department.

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The White House officials discussed the close bilateral relationship between the two countries in terms of trade and defence but they paid particular attention to how Canada and the U.S. are co-operating on the environment file and suggested there is a change in tone since Trudeau defeated former prime minister Stephen Harper in October.

"Since Prime Minister Trudeau assumed office we have also had tremendous co-operation with Canada on climate and clean energy issues," said Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state, bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs.

Keystone didn't do damage

The Harper government had lobbied hard for Obama's approval of TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline and the long delay in a decision was an irritant in the bilateral relationship for years. The president finally rejected the proposed cross-border pipeline in November, saying its approval would undermine U.S. efforts to fight climate change.

Jacobson rejected the idea that the dispute over Keystone damaged the Canada-U.S. relationship and said it survives any one individual issue and continues to prosper and deepen.

But the officials left little doubt they are looking forward to co-operating more closely with Canada on the environment.

"We are pleased to welcome Prime Minister Trudeau to the United States and to be working with the new government. They have already shown that they are an ambitious and committed partner in the fight against climate change," said Todd Stern, special envoy for climate change.

"The climate relationship with Canada really just ramped up dramatically quickly."

Stern would not get ahead of Thursday's meeting and preview any forthcoming announcements but did outline that some talks are focused on looking at ways of making carbon emissions from the aviation sector neutral and others are on reducing methane emissions from the energy sector.

Softwood lumber talks

He said the U.S. wants to keep the momentum going that was generated in Paris at the United Nations climate change conference. Stern spoke effusively about Canada's participation there and singled out McKenna for her work and leadership.

"She played an important role," Stern said of Canada's environment minister. She announced that "Canada was back" and then promptly demonstrated it, he said. "The Canadians in Paris were extraordinarily effective.

"They made a very positive splash," Stern added.

Aside from climate change, trade and border efficiency and security will also be high on the agenda when Trudeau and Obama meet Thursday.

The softwood lumber deal is a priority trade issue for Canada, given that the deal governing exports to the U.S. expires in October. The White House didn't have too many details to offer beyond saying they welcome the Canadian government's interest in talking about a new arrangement.

"We are open at this point to exploring all options with Canada to address this important trade issue," said Feierstein.

U.S. satisfied on ISIS contribution

A bigger trade priority for the U.S. is the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. The White House wants Canada on board with ratifying it but the officials said they respect Canada's process and that public consultations are ongoing.

On the defence file, the officials were asked about Canada's participation in the coalition to defeat ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq and the decision to withdraw fighter jets.

Feierstein said Canada's new commitment to the coalition to increase training and intelligence gathering is "in line with our current needs" and that the White House is "satisfied" with Canada's contributions.

At the White House briefing Tuesday afternoon, press secretary Josh Earnest said nothing should be read into the fact that Obama did not host a state dinner for Harper, an event that is considered an extremely high honour.

Earnest said Harper did visit the White House while prime minister and that he and Obama met frequently during summits around the world. Obama and Harper worked "effectively" together to strengthen ties and the president valued that, Earnest said.

The decision to have an official visit is partly just a recognition of the importance of the bilateral relationship, Earnest said.

"Given that there is a new prime minister that was elected to lead the country, it only made sense to ensure that he was warmly welcomed here in Washington on his first visit as prime minister of Canada," said Earnest. "The president is looking forward to the visit."
By John Whitesides DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump sought to regain campaign momentum as four states including Michigan voted on Tuesday, after a barrage of attacks from fellow Republicans and a tightened race created an opening for those seeking to block him. The Republican front-runner split four contests on Saturday with conservative rival Ted Cruz, who positioned himself as the prime alternative to Trump in the race for the party's nomination in the Nov. 8 election. Michigan is the biggest prize up for grabs in Tuesday's contests. Most opinion polls show the New York real estate magnate hanging on to a solid double-digit lead there over Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has climbed in some opinion polls in the Midwestern state. While Kasich is in last place in the number of delegates amassed, which are needed to clinch the nomination at the party's July convention, a strong showing for him in the state could complicate the math for any one anti-Trump candidate. "The whole world's watching what's going to happen in Michigan tonight," Kasich, 63, told a rally in Lansing. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is the favorite of a Republican establishment alarmed by Trump's controversial proposals and crude style and anxious about Cruz's uncompromising conservatism. But Rubio, 44, lags behind and may need a win in his home state next week to keep his campaign alive. Trump, 69, faced a week of blistering attacks from the party's establishment that ended with a mixed showing in Saturday's contests in Louisiana, Kentucky, Kansas and Maine. That encouraged some Republican leaders and donors who are trying to block him from a clear shot at the party nomination. FLORIDA ADS Anti-Trump Super PACS have spent millions in advertisements designed to attack Trump's character in Florida, a state Rubio calls home and Trump calls a second home. Florida's 99 delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. "They are trying and they're spending millions of dollars but I have a tremendous following," Trump said Tuesday on Fox News, taking credit for the massive Republican voter turnout in the 2016 campaign. "That's what's happening - there's life now in the Republican Party," he added. Many mainstream Republicans have been offended by Trump's statements on Muslims, immigrants and women and alarmed by his threats to international trade deals. Trump said on Tuesday he has not assembled a foreign policy team, despite having said he would have one in place by February, and dismissed criticism his statements would be harmful to U.S. interests. Conservatives meeting in recent days at the Republican Governors Association retreat in Park City, Utah, and a think tank gathering in Sea Island, Georgia, believe Trump will be vulnerable to another blast of attacks before a big day of voting on March 15, the Washington Post reported. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page and billionaire Philip Anschutz, as well as congressional leaders, were among those attending the Sea Island event, the American Enterprise Institute's World Forum over the weekend, which was closed to media, the Huffington Post reported. Tesla and Space-X entrepreneur Elon Musk told Reuters he gave a talk on technology innovation at the forum. He said he was an independent who believes "in supporting reasonable candidates that show wisdom in their actions, understanding that no one is perfect, and empathy for all." On Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats were also voting in Mississippi, and Republicans in Idaho and Hawaii were making their choices on a day when 150 Republican delegates and 166 Democratic delegates will be up for grabs. But the focus was on the industrial battleground of Michigan, where Trump's relentless anti-free trade rhetoric and promise to slap taxes on cars and parts shipped in from Mexico has resonated in a state that has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing and auto industry jobs. In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton, 68, has a solid lead in Michigan opinion polls over rival Bernie Sanders, 74, a U.S. senator from Vermont. Big Michigan wins for Trump and Clinton would set them up for a potentially decisive day of voting on March 15 in Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. Michigan was the state that spawned the term Reagan Democrats to refer to largely white, working-class voters who abandoned their party to vote Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980s. Sal Isabella, a Dearborn insurance agent, said he was for Trump because he would make things happen. "He'll be like Reagan," Isabella said. "He'll make some big changes and we need big changes." (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Megan Cassella and Susan Heavey in Washington and Deborah Todd in San Francisco; Writing by John Whitesides and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Peter Cooney and Frances Kerry)
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned an Alabama judicial ruling that had refused to recognize a gay woman's parental rights over three children she adopted with her lesbian partner and raised from birth.

The court took the relatively unusual step of reversing the Alabama Supreme Court without hearing oral arguments in the case. Cases are decided in that fashion when a lower court ruling is considered to be particularly counter to Supreme Court precedents. None of the eight justices dissented.

The adoptive mother, identified in court papers as V.L, said she was overjoyed with the ruling.

"When the Alabama court said my adoption was invalid and I wasn't their mother, I didn't think I could go on. The Supreme Court has done what's right for my family," she said in a statement.

The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Alabama court was required to recognize the woman's parental rights because they had been legally endorsed by a court in Georgia.

The ruling said the Alabama court's interpretation of the law was "not consistent" with prior Supreme Court decisions. Under the U.S. Constitution, state courts are required to recognize judgments issued by courts in other states.

The Alabama Supreme Court, led by outspoken conservative Chief Justice Roy Moore, has a history of hostility to gay rights. For example, it dragged its feet in implementing the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling last June legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

The Supreme Court had already intervened in the case once before. In December, the court ordered that the Alabama ruling be put on hold while the woman filed a formal appeal of Alabama Supreme Court's September ruling.

Lawyers for the woman say the Alabama ruling had "effectively stripped V.L. of parental rights over the children she had raised since they were born."

V.L. was formerly in a relationship with a woman identified as E.L., who is the birth mother of the three children, a 13-year-old and 11-year-old twins.

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In 2007, a court in Georgia granted V.L.'s petition to adopt the children in a move that E.L. agreed to at the time. The couple split in 2011 and disagreed over custody arrangements.

V.L. filed papers in Alabama seeking joint custody. Lower courts ruled in her favor before the state's high court ruled in favor of her former partner.

The state appeals court said it did not have to endorse the Georgia court's adoption order. But the Alabama Supreme Court said that the Georgia court did not have jurisdiction to issue the adoption order.

The two women were not married.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley)
One in five men in Alberta said they witnessed abusive behaviour towards women in the past year, with 61 per cent reporting they tried to intervene, according to a survey commissioned by the YWCA of Calgary.

Of the 1,478 men surveyed across the province, 97 per cent said violence and abuse against women is a concern to them.

However, some survey results indicate there is still room for improvement, with 61 per cent saying they found it hard to understand why women stay in an abusive relationship.

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"We tend to oversimplify because that makes it easier for us to process that," said Sue Tomney, CEO of the YWCA of Calgary. "We can say, 'well just walk away, what's wrong with you?'

"There are so many other reasons why a woman thinks twice before leaving an abusive relationship."

Tomney is pleased with the responses that show progress in men's attitudes, especially in light of high profile sexual assault court cases like the one against ex-CBC host Jian Ghomeshi or the review of a judgement by Federal Court Justice Robin Camp.

Jonathan Hutton is a clinical supervisor at the YWCA. He says involving men in the conversation can help prevent cases of violence.

"It's about our children," said Hutton, "I'm a pretty passionate person. I have a lot of emotion about this subject. It is about a better a day, a better future, it has to always be on front of the agenda for me ahead of any other issue.

"And we will get there."

The survey results were revealed ahead of International Women's Day on March 8th.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, saying it stirs up prejudice and polarizes society. Her comments, made in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, reflect growing unease among Germany's mainstream parties amid rising popular support for the right-wing AfD and its fierce opposition against Merkel's refugee policy. Merkel faces one of her toughest electoral tests in three regional elections on March 13. The AfD is set to win almost 20 percent in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt and match the ruling Social Democrats in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, according to the most recent polls. "The AfD is a party that is not bringing together society and not offering the appropriate solutions for the problems, but it is stirring up prejudice and polarizing," Merkel said. The elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate states are Germany's first since last May and will serve as a litmus test of popular feeling after more than one million migrants arrived in Germany last year. Merkel said government officials and mainstream parties had to challenge the AfD in public debate by clearly distinguishing themselves from its anti-immigrant stance. The center-right chancellor defended her decision to keep Germany's borders open despite the influx of migrants and reaffirmed her push for a joint European solution, including strengthening the continent's external borders and cooperation with Turkey to stop refugees from traveling on to Europe. "We can only meet this challenge together," Merkel said. The EU emergency summit with Turkey scheduled on Monday will focus on how Ankara was planning to spend 3 billion euros pledged by EU member states to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, she said. Leaders should also discuss how EU member states could help Greece to cope with "this difficult situation", Merkel added. Austria, one of the last stepping stones to Germany for hundreds of thousands of migrants, recently imposed border restrictions, setting off a domino effect in Europe and leaving tens of thousands stranded in poor conditions in Greece. The move, which was publicly criticized by Berlin, reduced the number of new arrivals to Germany. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; editing by Jason Neely)
By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Dozens of Islamist fighters stormed through the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan near the Libyan border on Monday, attacking army and police posts in a raid that killed at least 53 people, including civilians, the government and residents said. Local television broadcast images of soldiers and police crouched in doorways and on rooftops as gunshots echoed in the center of the town. Bodies of dead militants lay in the streets near the military barracks after the army regained control. Authorities sealed off the nearby beach resort town of Djerba, a popular destination for foreign and local tourists, imposed a curfew on Ben Guerdan and closed two border crossings with Libya after the attack. "I saw a lot of militants at dawn, they were running with their Kalashnikovs," Hussein, a resident, told Reuters by telephone. "They said they were Islamic State and they came to target the army and the police." It was not clear if the attackers crossed the border, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. But it was the type of militant operation Tunisia's government has feared as it prepares for potential spillover from Libya, where Islamic State militants have gained ground. Since its 2011 revolt to oust ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has struggled with Islamist militancy at home and across the border. Militants trained in jihadist camps in Libya carried out two attacks last year in Tunisia. "This attack was an unprecedented, well-organized. They wanted to try to control the Ben Guerdan region and name it as their new Wilaya," President Beji Caid Essebsi said, referring to the name Islamic State uses for regions it considers part of its self-described caliphate. Soldiers killed 35 militants and arrested six, the Interior Ministry said. Hospital and security sources said at least seven civilians were killed along with 11 soldiers. Troops also later discovered a large cache of rifles, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades in Ben Guerdan, a security source said. "If the army had not been ready, the terrorists would have been able to raise their flag over Ben Guerdan and gotten a symbolic victory," said Abd Elhamid Jelassi, vice president of the Islamist party Ennahda, part of the government coalition. REGIONAL JIHADISTS More than 3,000 Tunisians have gone to fight with Islamic State and other groups in Syria and Iraq. Tunisian security officials say increasingly they are returning to join the militant group in Libya. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi five years ago, Libya has slipped into chaos, with two rival governments and armed factions struggling for control. Islamic State has grown in the turmoil, taking over the city of Sirte and drawing foreign recruits. Tunisian jihadists are taking a lead role in Islamic State camps in Libya, Tunisian security sources say. Tunisian forces have been on alert for possible militant infiltrations since last month, when a U.S. air strike targeted mostly Tunisian Islamic State militants at a camp near the border in Libya's Sabratha. Western military advisers are starting to train Tunisian border forces to help better protect the frontier with electronic surveillance and drones and authorities have built a trench and barrier to help stop militants crossing. Islamist militant gunmen trained in Libyan camps carried out two of the three major attacks on Tunisia last year, including assaults on the Tunis Bardo museum and a Sousse beach hotel targeting foreign tourists. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Janet Lawrence, Larry King)
By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes will travel to Miami next week to meet with leaders from the Cuban-American community to allay concerns about Obama's historic trip to Cuba later this month, a White House official told Reuters. "Miami has long been at the heart of the Cuban-American community, and this trip will provide an opportunity to continue the important dialogue about the president's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba," the official said. Rhodes, who helped negotiate the thaw in Washington's relations with the island nation, will meet with human rights advocates, religious leaders, and private sector representatives during his March 11 trip. Obama goes to Havana in mid-March in what will be the first visit by a U.S. president to the Caribbean nation since 1928. Republicans and some leaders in the Cuban-American community oppose the trip, believing it will give legitimacy to the island's Communist government. Rhodes will seek to allay those concerns and discuss what the president hopes to achieve by going to Havana, the official said. Obama plans to meet with dissidents as well as President Raul Castro during his stay in Cuba. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Sandra Maler)
In normal times, Davos, Switzerland, is a snow-covered ski village whose main street--the Promenade--is lined with quaint shops offering chocolate, watches, and ski boots.

But this January the Promenade was transformed. The stores were emptied, their signage scraped off windows, and they were turned into high-tech "networking hubs," plastered with ads for companies like Salesforce , Flex, Infosys , Accenture , and more. Palantir and Facebook built entirely new buildings for the occasion.

The reason? More than ever before, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum has become a place to do business. The forum's goal is to "improve the state of the world." But the CEOs who arrive here en masse do so in large part because it's an efficient way to meet with colleagues. The pop-up stores along the Promenade broadcast the opportunity. There is big money at stake.

With so many CEOs crammed into so little space, the Davos gathering offers an unrivaled opportunity to check in on the zeitgeist of the global business elite. Here are our three takeaways:

1. We're entering a new Industrial Revolution. Klaus Schwab, founder and orchestrator of the forum, calls it the "fourth" Industrial Revolution--after steam power, electricity, and computers defined the first three, the next will be shaped by sensors and artificial intelligence. Some quibble with the designation, but all agree that mobile computing, the proliferation of inexpensive sensors collecting terabytes of data, and the rise of machine learning that can use that data will fundamentally change the way the global economy is organized.

Source: World Economic Forum

Click graphic to enlarge.

2. The revolution will expand global opportunities but increase inequality within societies. The Facebook building was filled with displays of the company's ambitious plans to connect the world's unconnected. Elsewhere, groups assembled to talk about using new technologies to bank the unbanked, educate the uneducated, and help those without health care. But most also acknowledged that digital technologies have a tendency to create winner-take-most dynamics that widen the gulf between champs and also-rans.

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3. The revolution is changing the nature of leadership.

At a private dinner hosted by Fortune, a group of 30 execs (together employing 3 million) agreed that the revolution requires business leaders to deliver not just profits but purpose, to engage employees and customers.

A version of this article appears in the March 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline Oracles of Davos.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
Chris Christie

Want to avoid paying a fortune in property taxes? Dont buy a home in New Jersey. There, we said it.

The Northeastern state, home of failed presidential contender/overeager Trump supporter Gov. Chris Christie, has the nations highest state real estate taxes of 2016, according to WalletHub. That means residents are paying out a bank accountdraining rate of 2.29% of their property values, or $7,335 for those with homes at the state median value of $319,900.

The personal finance website analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data to figure out the real estate tax rates by dividing the median, annual state property tax payments by the median state home prices. But it didnt take into account county, municipality, or even water jurisdiction taxes in their calculations. Ouch!

A lot of Northeast states are known for their higher property taxesand theyre also known for the many great amenities they provide, such as good schools, says Jill Gonzalez, a WalletHub analyst. There is a sense you might be getting what you pay for.

New Jersey is followed by Illinois, at 2.25%, or $3,959 annually for those who live in homes priced at the states median value; New Hampshire, at 2.1%, or $4,996; Wisconsin, at 1.97%, or $3,266; and Texas, at 1.93%, or $2,537.

The average homeowner shells out an average $2,127 a year in the taxes each year, according to the website.

Post-recession, people are absolutely taking tax rates more and more into account, says Gonzalez. People are are looking into where their money is going and what they can do about it.

The state with the (blessedly) lowest real estate taxes is Hawaii, at 0.28%. That translates into a $1,405 annual payment for homes at the states median home value of $504,500. Aloha!

Alabama came in second at 0.43%, or $538, and Louisiana was third, at 0.48%, or $672. They were followed by Delaware, at 0.53%, or $1,231, and Washington, DC, at 0.57%, or $2,601.

But prospective buyers shouldnt hop a plane to Hawaii just yet. The median home value for the state is a whopping $504,500nearly $185,000 more than the median home price in New Jersey, according to WalletHub.

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And New Hampshires lower home prices, as well as the no sales or income taxes, can, in some cases, offset higher property taxes.

For example, Kathy Snyder, a Nashua, NH-based real estate broker at Re/Max Properties, has seen many Massachusetts residents cross the border into the Granite State to save a few bucks.

The median home value in New Hampshire is $237,400, compared with Massachusetts $329,900, according to WalletHub.

And states with lower property taxes often have higher income or sales taxes. And some states with higher property taxes have lower (or in New Hampshires case, no) income or sales taxes. They may also rely on surcharges for gasoline and cigarettes.

Every state has their own mixture of taxes that they rely on to fund government services, primarily schools, says Norton Francis, a senior research associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a think tank.

Many states and municipalities will offer relief to their residents, particularly the elderly, disabled, or very low income.

But there are still plenty of home buyers who arent dissuaded by paying high premiums to live in the hottest areas.

Typically people pay more taxes to have a better school district, Francis says. But that increases property values and that tends to increase property taxes.

The post Should You Steer Clear of the States With the Highest Property Taxes? appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.





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SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greenwood Hall, Inc. (OTCQB:ELRN), an education technology company that helps colleges and universities improve student engagement and outcomes, today announced it has entered into an agreement with the University of Oklahoma (OU) to provide the OU community with a Safe Campus solution. As part of the agreement, Greenwood Hall will provide a Bias Hotline - multimodal access point for students, faculty and staff to confidentially report incidents of discrimination, unsafe or unethical conduct. The hotline will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to members of the OU community as a centralized place for assistance in locating information, resources and policies related to diversity, inclusion and equity for all campus constituency groups.



We developed Safe Campus at the urging of some of our long standing education partners who are committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and healthy learning environment. Incidents of discrimination, bullying, harassment, and misconduct continue to be serious issues on our college campuses. All too often, these incidents go unreported. Not only does this impact the safety and well-being of students but research suggests these issues can directly impact student success. Safe Campus provides a neutral, centralized, and safe medium for members of the campus community to report incidents and obtain help in rectifying concerns that impact the well-being of the entire community, said Dr. John Hall, chairman and CEO of Greenwood Hall.

Commenting on the addition of Greenwood Halls Safe Campus service, University of Oklahoma Vice President for University Community Jabar Shumate said, Prominently located on the campus of the University of Oklahomas Parrington Oval stands a 12-foot bronze sculpture of a Native American Indian holding a peace pipe. The inscription on the sculpture reads, A university is a place where we should learn how to challenge and argue with each other without ceasing to love and respect each other. As vice president for the Office for University Community, my mission is to enhance OU's commitment to diversity and inclusion, recognize and respect the essential worth of each individual and value differences amongst groups. Since our work began in 2015, weve taken great measures to demonstrate our continued commitment to providing a diverse and inclusive community. The addition of Greenwood Halls Safe Campus service plays a critical role in our strategy to effectively respond to incidents of bias, while at the same time assisting students, faculty and staff at all 3 of our campuses locate University-sponsored diversity and inclusion resources. Were excited to partner with Greenwood Hall, who has shown themselves to be both innovative and forward-thinking as they seek to meet the needs of todays university campuses.

Hall added, We praise the efforts of Jabar Shumate and the University of Oklahomas Office for University Community, who are working to build a more inclusive community. Greenwood Hall is proud to provide our platform to advance the University of Oklahomas national leadership in promoting diversity and inclusion on campus.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma  a short hop (20 minutes) south of the state capital of Oklahoma City. OUs Norman undergraduate population is just over 20,000, giving students a major university experience in a private college atmosphere. With three campuses in Oklahoma, OU also offers study abroad opportunities at several locations overseas.

For more information, visit www.ou.edu, follow us on Twitter @UofOklahoma and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/uoklahoma.

About Greenwood Hall

Greenwood Hall is an education technology company that helps colleges and universities manage the student journey. Every Greenwood Hall solution is designed to increase revenue and improve student engagement as well as learning outcomes. Since 2006, Greenwood Hall has developed customized turnkey solutions that combine strategy, people, proven processes and robust technology to help schools effectively and efficiently improve student outcomes, as well as increase revenues and expand into new marketing channels, such as online learning. Greenwood Hall has served more than 50 education clients and over 70 degree programs.

For more information, visit http://www.greenwoodhall.com, follow us on Twitter @GreenwoodHall and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GreenwoodandHall.

David Ruderman

Greenwood Hall

310-907-8585

druderman@greenwoodhall.com
SAINT LOUIS, March 8, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On January 20, 2016, Stephen Tillery, senior partner and founder of Korein Tillery, was honored with a Distinguished Service award by Illinois College. Steve received his Bachelor's degree from the college in 1972 as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, graduating magna cum laude. It was an honor for Tillery to be recognized by his alma mater for his lifelong professional and philanthropic achievements. The attorney received the award at a banquet ceremony held at the Illinois College campus in Jacksonville.

As the school described, "Stephen M. Tillery is the founder and senior member of Korein Tillery, a St. Louis and Chicago-based complex litigation law firm. A trial lawyer his entire career, Tillery has litigated cases throughout the United States involving numerous areas of the law, including securities, antitrust, environmental contamination, tobacco, patent infringement, computer technology and consumer fraud. He has handled, individually or as lead counsel, hundreds of complex civil cases in federal and state courts throughout the United States. He was nominated for the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2003, 2008 and 2013 for his work in socially significant complex cases. Tillery has authored numerous articles and book chapters on trial practice. In addition, he has served as lecturer, moderator and panel member at dozens of legal seminars relating to litigation and trial practice.

"Tillery has always viewed litigation as providing a means to effect social change. His cases against huge multi-national corporate opponents have secured the filtration of dangerous pesticides from public drinking water supplies for over 32 million Americans, and they have caused false and dangerously misleading descriptors like 'Lowered Tar & Nicotine' to be removed from every pack of Marlboro Lights cigarettes sold in America. His volunteer work for the Department of Justice of Canada helped in the eradication of all false cigarette descriptors in that country.

"In recent years Tillery has worked with leading scientific experts of the world to fund epigenetic research to clearly establish for worldwide regulatory bodies the real health risks for all children who are exposed to dangerous chemicals.

"Tillery grew up in the small town of Divernon and first visited Illinois College as a child while participating in a regional science fair competition. He immediately fell in love with what would be his future alma mater."
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ASEAN Ambassadors to Mexico attend a forum in Jalisco, Mexico. (Source: VNA)

The event took place in the two western states of Jalisco and Colima, and was the joint efforts of the embassies of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in Mexico and the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology (COMCE).

Vietnamese Ambassador to Mexico Le Linh Lan took the occasion to introduce the trade, investment and tourism potential of Vietnams market to representatives of Mexican businesses.

The Ambassador underscored the huge cooperation potentials between the two nations enterprises, particularly after the signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) last February.

She pledged to serve as a bridge for the two nations enterprises by providing information and contact so that they can meet and reach specific agreements.

Governor of Colima State Jose Ignacio Peralta praised the role of ASEAN and the achievements the bloc has gained, particularly the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

The Governor highlighted the local potentials, including the Manzanillo Seaport which handles the majority of commodity traded between Mexico and ASEAN nations.

The ASEAN delegation also had working sessions with representatives from ministries, sectors, and representatives of businesses from the two states.

The COMCE said it will send a business delegation to Vietnam in May to seek specific cooperative agreements with Vietnamese partners./.


Participants at the event (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Doan Xuan Hung highly evaluated the organization of the International Womens Day, stressing the significance of the event and confirmed the role of women in Vietnamese families in particular and in the world in general.

On this occasion, the Ambassador sent best wishes to all spouses and female staff of the Embassy, and expected they will be pivotal and solid foundations helping their husbands complete their term of office abroad.

Ambassador Doan Xuan Hung highly evaluated the establishment of the association of spouses and female staff of Vietnamese Embassy in Germany and hoped that the association would have useful initiatives to create a warm atmosphere and help the members get closer.

On behalf of the association, Le Nguyet Nga, spouse of Ambassador Doan Xuan Hung, thanks the Embassy for creating conditions for the spouses and female staff to exchange and better understand each other.

Representative of the Embassys Trade Union, Counsellor Bui Ha Nam, congratulated the establishment of the association, and hoped the association would have various significant activities, including foreign affairs activities in the coming time./.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday the death sentence imposed on leading opposition politician Mir Quasem Ali for crimes including murder and torture committed during the country's 1971 war of independence. Chief state lawyer Mahbubey Alam told reporters immediately after the verdict that an appeal by 63-year-old Quasem against the death sentence imposed in 2014 had been rejected. Critics have accused a war crimes tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government in 2010 of victimizing her political opponents. Four opposition politicians, including three leaders of Quasem's Jamaat-e-Islami party, have been convicted by the tribunal and executed since late 2013. Quasem is a member of central executive committee and is believed to be the main financier for Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party in Bangladesh. He is also a leading businessman, running firms ranging from print and electronic media to hospitals. According to official figures, about 3 million people were killed and thousands of women raped during the independence war, in which Jamaat-e-Islami was among factions opposing the breakaway by what was then known as East Pakistan. The party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities. Quasem went into hiding after Pakistan occupation forces and their local allies surrendered on Dec. 16, 1971, and reappeared years later as a Jamaat-e-Islami leader. He was arrested on June 17, 2012 and convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death on Nov. 2, 2014. Principal defense lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain told reporters that after receiving a copy of the full verdict he will consult Quasem and his family. Shafiqur Rahman, the acting secretary general of Jamaat said Quasem had been denied justice and called for supporters to strike in protest, prompting the government to deploy the paramilitary Bangladesh Border Guard in the capital. "To protest this decision we called a peaceful general strike on Wednesday across the country from dawn to dusk," Shafiqur said in a statement. (Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Cotonou (AFP) - Benin's presidential election looks set to be a second round run-off between Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou and businessman Patrice Talon, the country's electoral commission indicated on Tuesday.

Zinsou won 28.4 percent of votes in Sunday's first round, with Talon on 24.8 percent of ballots and business leader Sebastien Ajavon third with 23.03 percent in a record field of 33 candidates.

Electoral commission president Emmanuel Tiando announced the polling in the early hours of Tuesday. Confirmed results from the first round will come from the Constitutional Court.

President Thomas Boni Yayi is bowing out after serving a maximum two five-year terms, marking him out among some African leaders who have tried to change constitutions to ensure third terms.

A second-round ballot appears likely within a fortnight of official confirmation of the first-round result because no candidate managed a majority.

Boni Yayi's mandate expires on April 6.

Talon's spokesman Oswald Homeky told AFP he was "happy the Beninese understood the new departure we're proposing".

They were "ready to talk to everyone and especially Ajavon" before the second round, he added.

Zinsou's spokesman Eric Houndete, the deputy head of the national assembly, said they were "satisfied" with the prime minister's polling, even though they would have liked to have had more votes.

Turn-out was poor in some areas, he added. The electoral commission said 64 percent of the 4.7 registered voters cast their ballot.

The election was postponed from February 28 because of problems distributing new voters' cards. But international observers said there were no major incidents.

The West African bloc ECOWAS, which has 120 monitors on the ground, said on Monday evening said it was a "free and transparent" vote.

Zinsou, 61, was appointed prime minister last year after a successful career as head of France's biggest investment bank.

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But despite having French-Beninese citizenship, he has had to face criticisms of being an outsider, "parachuted" in by Paris, the former colonial power.

Talon, 57, has long been a key player in Benin's economy, in particular in the cotton sector and the port in the commercial hub of Cotonou.

He gave financial backing to both Boni Yayi's presidential election victories in 2006 and 2011 but fell out with the head of state after being implicated in a bizarre poisoning plot in 2012.

Talon fled into exile in France but Boni Yayi pardoned him in May 2014.

Key issues in the election include urgent job creation, tackling corruption, improving access to health and education and the economy in the country, which is a major cotton producer.

Despite its problems, largely agricultural Benin, which is dwarfed by Nigeria to the east, has been seen as a relatively stable country in often turbulent west Africa.

The major centre of the voodoo religion is now promoting itself as a major regional shipping hub. It introduced multi-party democracy in 1990 after nearly two decades of military rule.
By Joel Schectman and Yimou Lee WASHINGTON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - New export restrictions against China's ZTE Corp for alleged Iran sanctions violations drew fire from the Chinese government, which said on Tuesday it was "resolutely opposed" to the measures but stopped short of announcing retaliation. The moves announced by the U.S. Commerce Department on Monday are likely to disrupt the telecom manufacturer's sprawling global supply chain and could create substantial parts shortages, according to sanctions experts. Under the measure, U.S. manufacturers will be banned from selling components to ZTE, a major global supplier of telecom-networking equipment. In addition, foreign manufacturers will be prohibited from selling products containing a significant amount of U.S.-made parts to the Chinese company. "China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition" to the measure, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on its website (www.mofcom.gov.cn). "The U.S. move will severely affect normal operations of Chinese companies. China will continue negotiating with the U.S. side on this issue." The U.S. Commerce Department, confirming the decision that was first reported by Reuters on Saturday, said ZTE planned to use a series of shell companies "to illicitly reexport controlled items to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws." It said ZTE acted "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States." In a statement, ZTE said it was "working expeditiously" towards a resolution to the issue. "ZTE is fully committed to compliance with the laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates. ZTE has been cooperating and will continue to cooperate and communicate with all U.S. agencies as required," the Shenzhen-based company said. RIPPLE EFFECT While ZTE suppliers can apply for an export license to ship any American-made equipment or parts, the Commerce Department said such license applications generally will be denied. ZTE, which has annual sales of more than $15 billion, can appeal the decision. The export restriction, which does not stop ZTE from selling handsets in the United States, is expected to have a global impact. "It is going to have a large ripple effect. It's very significant to many companies both in the U.S. and (outside the) U.S.," said Doug Jacobson, an export attorney at law firm Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC. Although ZTE is not being banned from selling handsets in the United States, the restriction could disrupt handset production if ZTE sources U.S.-made parts to manufacture its handsets, experts said. ZTE is the No. 4 smartphone vendor in the United States, with a 7 percent market share, behind Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc, according to research firm IDC. A ZTE website says companies including Microsoft, Intel Corp, IBM and Honeywell International Inc are "key strategic partners." The terms of the partnerships are not described. Intel and Qualcomm confirmed they were ZTE suppliers, but did not elaborate on specific products sold to the Chinese company or how sanctions would affect their businesses. Texas Instruments, which has also said it provides processors for the Chinese company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company had a licensing agreement with ZTE but could not confirm if the Chinese company purchases other products. The other U.S. companies did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk, Donny Kwok and Yimou Lee in Hong Kong, John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Joel Schectman and Susan Heavey in Washington, Steve Stecklow in London, Dan Burns and Malathi Nayak in New York; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Nevers (France) (AFP) - A Dutchman dubbed the "dentist of horror" by French media went on trial Tuesday after allegedly causing horrific injuries to the mouths of more than 100 patients in France.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, ripped out healthy teeth and left dozens of patients in the rural central village of Chateau-Chinon with broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia.

He is charged with aggravated assault, as well as fraud over claims that he tried to rip off patients and insurance companies, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000-euro ($165,000) fine if found guilty.

Although he is not required to offer a plea under French law, Van Nierop has previously sought to deflect responsibility, saying he suffers from "psychological problems" including gender identity issues and suicidal tendencies.

The court in Nevers, in central France, heard conflicting evidence about Van Nierop's psychological state.

One psychiatrist found he had "narcissistic tendencies" and had therefore been unable to make a moral judgement of his own actions.

But another found that the Dutchman was "perfectly aware of what he was doing", according to statements read to the court.

Van Nierop himself told the court: "I was not in the right state to put myself in my patients' position."

Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter and was initially welcomed by locals in the area which was sorely lacking in medical services.

A neighbour recalled the arrival of a smiley, larger-than-life character, with a "big 4x4, a big dog, a big cigar".

But by 2011, the authorities were starting to question some of his accounting practices, and patients were starting to compare notes on his dentistry.

Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, visited Van Nierop in March 2012 to have braces fitted.

"He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days," she said.

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An 80-year-old patient, Bernard Hugon, said the dentist left "pieces of flesh hanging everywhere" after tearing out a tooth.

"Every time, he would give us what he called 'a little prick' and we were asleep, knocked out," said Nicole Martin, a retired teacher who lost several teeth to abscesses caused by the horrific operations.

"When it was over, we would find a Post-it note saying to come back for an appointment the next day or the day after," she added.

- Fled to Canada -

With the help of one of Van Nierop's assistants, Martin set up a victims' group in early 2013 to press charges, and it soon swelled to 120 members.

In June of that year, police arrested Van Nierop but left him free pending trial, and he fled the country the following December.

He was eventually tracked down to a small Canadian town in New Brunswick and arrested under an international warrant in September 2014.

Local media reported that he tried to slit his throat when police came for him.

Van Nierop tried to block his extradition first to the Netherlands and then France on psychological grounds, but was eventually placed in a prison psychiatric unit south of Paris.

"He claimed to have killed his first wife, he acted crazy, he said he was transsexual. He tried everything" to avoid extradition, Martin said.

According to Dutch media, Van Nierop had already come under investigation in the Netherlands over his working practices before coming to France.
Calais (France) (AFP) - France's first international-standard refugee camp opened on Monday despite opposition from Paris but the central government's local representative raised safety concerns that could suspend its operations.

Three families of Iraqi Kurds were the first to arrive at the new camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk on the northern French coast, an AFP reporter said.

They came from another site nearby where around 1,000 people have been living in miserable conditions with limited protection from the cold.

The new camp, featuring some 200 heated wooden cabins and proper toilets and showers, has been built by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) with the support of the local town hall, despite opposition from the French government.

Grande-Synthe mayor Damien Careme had ignored advice from police and fire representatives and validated the security arrangements for the camp.

However the government's local representative, prefect Jean-Francois Cordet, late Monday raised safety concerns that could halt operations.

Cordet had "ordered the mayor of Grande-Synthe to immediately cancel the municipal bylaw" which authorised the opening of the camp against the advice of the municipal safety commission, he said in a statement.

He ordered Careme to "without delay take measures to ensure the safety of the occupants, especially at night" to limit the risk of fire.

"The safety of people is at stake and one cannot disregard the rules, whatever the humanitarian motives," Cordet said.

- 'Standoff continues' -

Careme, who fought a battle with the authorities over construction of the camp, earlier said: "The standoff continues" after the prefect first requested the organisation of a safety committee.

"I've overcome a failure of the state," he said, adding that he could no longer stand the sight of around 75 children living in the original camp.

The move has frustrated the government, which has been trying to move refugees away from the northern coast and into centres where their movement is more controlled.

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"The government's policy is not to reconstitute a camp at Grande-Synthe, but to make it go away," Cordet said last month.

The new, 3.1 million euro ($3.4 million) migrant accommodation is thought to be the first in France to meet international standards, and MSF said it hoped soon to have 375 cabins, catering for 2,500 people.

- Line of riot police -

It lies around 40 kilometres (24 miles) from the largest refugee camp on the outskirts of Calais, nicknamed the "Jungle", which is being gradually demolished by the authorities.

A group of children tried to offer white roses to the line of riot police holding back migrants and volunteers as workers resumed the dismantling of makeshift shelters.

Thousands of migrants have been living in the Jungle and other smaller camps along the northern coast, desperate to reach Britain where many have family or community ties and see better hopes of gaining employment or education.

Most have turned down offers from the French government to move into heated containers alongside the Jungle, or into accommodation centres elsewhere in France, fearing doing so would end their dreams of reaching Britain.

Unlike these alternatives, the new camp at Grande-Synthe will not restrict the movement of migrants and refugees, MSF said.

Some two hectares (five acres) of the Jungle were destroyed last week, and authorities said it could take a month or more to demolish the southern half of the camp.

Local authorities say there were between 800 and 1,000 migrants living in the southern half, while aid groups say there were around 3,500.
Tel Aviv (AFP) - The rocky relationship between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a fresh hit Tuesday over a declined White House invitation as Vice President Joe Biden arrived for talks.

Netanyahu's decision not to accept an invitation for talks with Obama in Washington later this month "surprised" the White House, which first learned of it through news reports.

The Israeli premier's office defended the decision by saying Netanyahu did not want to interfere in US presidential primary elections currently taking place.

Obama and Netanyahu have had a testy personal relationship, worsened by the Israeli premier's forceful opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, including in a speech to the US Congress.

But they have sought to set aside their disagreements in recent months and work out a new 10-year defence aid package for Israel as well as demonstrate that the ties between the two traditional allies remain strong.

Biden arrived in Tel Aviv late Tuesday afternoon and will hold talks with Netanyahu on Wednesday. He is also scheduled to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

A previous visit by Biden in 2010 was marred by the announcement of a major Israeli settlement project in annexed east Jerusalem.

The announcement drew a public scolding from Biden and it soured relations with Washington for months.

His visit this time comes with Obama having acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

The White House has said that Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit, even though a wave of violence since October has killed more than 200 people.

- Worry among Israelis? -

Talks are expected to include discussions on the 10-year defence aid package for Israel, currently worth some $3.1 billion annually in addition to spending on projects such as missile defence, illustrating the importance of Israel's relationship with the United States.

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Biden and Netanyahu also plan to talk about the fight against the Islamic State group.

But while Obama has resigned himself to not achieving any major breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there have been suggestions he may seek to somehow kickstart peace efforts at a complete standstill for two years.

That has included speculation that the United States could break with traditional practice and support a UN resolution related to resolving the conflict, which Israel strongly opposes.

The United States has traditionally vetoed resolutions at the UN Security Council opposed by Israel.

"They are worried in Jerusalem that between the time of the election in November and the time that the actual president begins his term of office in January... President Obama might do certain things that the PM won't like," Jonathan Rynhold of Israel's Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies told AFP.

At the same time, some analysts say they do not expect the United States to demand concessions from Israel toward Palestinians in connection with the new defence aid pact being negotiated.

A former Israeli ambassador to the US and ex-adviser to Netanyahu said completing the deal was in the interest of both countries due to the evolving threats to them in the Middle East.

It was important for both to have "a projection to the common enemies of Israel and the United States of a very strong -- militarily strong  Israel," said Zalman Shoval.

"And therefore, I think these two things will not be linked.

- Palestinians expect 'nothing' -

Biden's visit is part of a tour of the Middle East.

On Monday he was in the United Arab Emirates where he said Washington was going to have to "squeeze the heart of" the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to wipe it out.

However, he also ruled out a military solution to end Syria's conflict and called for a political transition.

His comments came as President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its opponents are to resume UN-sponsored peace talks in the coming days in Geneva while a fragile ceasefire holds in Syria.

After his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Biden will travel to Jordan.

Senior Palestinian official Ahmed Majdalani said he was expecting "nothing" from Biden's visit.

"Mr. Biden is only coming to the region in the context of his plans regarding the fight against terrorism in Syria, not for us," he told AFP.
Seoul (AFP) - South Korea on Tuesday accused North Korea of hacking the smartphones of government officials, and unveiled new sanctions on Pyongyang over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) -- the South's spy agency -- said the North had stolen phone numbers and texts from the phones of dozens of key officials between late February and early March.

North Korean hackers also sent phishing emails to employees of two provincial railway operators in an attempt to steal passwords that could have allowed a cyber-attack on rail traffic control systems, the agency said in a statement.

"North Korea has been mounting a series of attacks against our cyberspace" following its nuclear test on January 6, the statement said, adding that they appeared to have been preparation for a major cyber assault on South Korea's banking network.

"If left unchecked, it would have resulted in major financial chaos, such as paralysis of Internet banking systems and unwanted transfers of deposits," it said.

Seoul has blamed North Korean hackers for a series of past cyber-attacks on military institutions, banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites as well as a nuclear power plant.

The United States also said the North was behind a damaging cyber-attack on Sony's Hollywood film unit over its controversial North Korea-themed satirical film "The Interview" in 2014.

The NIS revelations came as Seoul unveiled a series of fresh unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang and asked citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants abroad.

The new measures blacklisted scores of North Korean individuals and entities and banned any vessels previously docked in North Korean ports from South Korean waters.

They follow tough sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council last week and -- though largely symbolic given the lack of North-South economic ties -- are likely to prompt an angry response from Pyongyang.

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"Since North Korean facilities such as overseas restaurants are one of North Korea's channels for foreign currency, we ask the public to refrain from using these facilities," said Lee Suk-Joon, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The South Korean government estimates that Pyongyang rakes in around $10 million every year from some 130 restaurants in 12 countries.

Lee said the government suspected most of the foreign currency was "ultimately being used for weapons of mass destruction."

The move to ban foreign vessels that have previously docked in the North would appear to spell the end of an ambitious trilateral infrastructure project aimed at transporting Russian coal to South Korean ports through the North's port city of Rajin and Russia's border town of Khasan.

The so-called Rajin-Khasan project was viewed as an integral part of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye's vision of uniting the railways of South and North Korea to connect them to Europe.
By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration will announce further measures to ease travel and trade restrictions on Cuba on March 17, ahead of his historic visit to the Communist-ruled island this month, U.S. congressional sources said on Tuesday. The new rules will mark the latest effort by Obama to use his executive powers to sidestep the U.S. Congress and chip away at the more than half-century-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. The anticipated announcement appears timed as a gesture toward Cuba just days before Obama flies to Havana for a March 21-22 visit in another step aimed at ending decades of animosity between the former Cold War foes. It will be the first visit to Cuba by a sitting U.S. president since 1928. The measures are expected to include changes to make it easier for individual Americans to visit Cuba if they qualify under 12 authorized categories of travel such as educational or cultural visits, as well as further loosening of trade and banking rules, said the sources, who were briefed on the matter by administration officials. Though details were still being finalized, the package could also include revised regulations on how the U.S. dollar can be used in trade with Cuba, a person familiar with the discussions said. U.S. regulations restrict or prohibit the Cuban government from using the dollar for international transactions. The White House wants to make a splash on the economic front before Obama gets to Havana, and this is one way to do it, according to the source, who was consulted by Obama aides ahead of the visit. It will come a couple of days before he leaves." Obama plans to hold talks with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana but also intends to meet dissidents to show that Washington remains committed to promoting human rights on the island, a source of tension with the Cuban government. RESISTANCE FROM SOME LAWMAKERS The White House has invited members of Congress to accompany the president, and congressional aides told Reuters about 20, mostly Obama's fellow Democrats, were expected to go. Obama's moves to normalize relations with Cuba have encountered stiff resistance from some lawmakers, mostly Republicans but also some Democrats, since the policy shift was first announced on Dec. 17, 2014. They feel the White House is not getting enough back from Castro's government in exchange for the eased regulations. The administration believes that moves to loosen the embargo would help meet its goal of benefiting the Cuban people. But even some Democratic aides said they were taken aback by news there would be further moves by the White House without concessions from Havana. "Shouldn't we get something from the Cubans in return?" one asked. The mainstay of the new regulatory package is expected to be further easing of limits on travel by Americans to Cuba at a time when U.S. airlines are rushing to apply for routes to the island following the recent signing of a bilateral agreement for regular scheduled flights. The rules changes are likely to allow more people to go on self-directed people to people and cultural trips without having to rely on group tours or be sponsored by an organization, two people familiar with the discussions said. But a ban on general tourism to Cuba will remain in force. It is part of the broader U.S. embargo and can only be lifted by Congress. Obama has called for an end to the embargo but Republicans say that will not happen during his presidency, which ends in January 2017. We continue to look at additional regulatory changes that could be made as part of the administration's efforts to further normalize relations with Cuba, an Obama administration official said. But the official declined to provide specifics. (Additional reporting by Dan Trotta in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish)
OSHA and Waubonsee Community College to Sponsor Worker Safety Conference on March 16

The conference will take place in Sugar Grove, Illinois

In a news release, OSHA has announced that it is partnering with Waubonsee Community College to host the OSHA Safety Day Training Conference on March 16 at 8 a.m. in Sugar Grove, IL.

Roughly 300 employees and managers from industries like manufacturing, health care and education are expcted to attend.

20 information sessions will cover industrial hygiene, machine safeguarding, risk assessment, and fighting fatigue.

"The 2016 Safety Day Training Conference is a great opportunity to help small businesses prevent job injuries and protect their workers," said Jacob Scott, OSHA area director in Aurora.
News

Report: Second Windows 10 'Redstone' Update Delayed to 2017

The second of Microsoft's two planned Windows 10 updates this year has been delayed until the spring of 2017, according to media reports.

Citing unnamed sources, Web site WinBeta said last week that Microsoft's forthcoming "Redstone" Windows 10 releases will happen in June 2016 for Redstone 1 (RS1) and spring 2017 for RS2. That deviates from earlier expectations that RS2 update would arrive in the fall of 2016. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley corroborated that information in a report Monday, also citing unnamed sources.

Microsoft isn't confirming the information, though, so it's at the rumor stage.

"Microsoft doesn't have anything to share," a spokesperson said, when asked about these Redstone Windows 10 release plans.

The Redstone name is said to be a code word used internally by Microsoft for its major Windows 10 build releases. Purportedly, Redstone was to follow the lines of a spring and summer release cycle that Microsoft initially had laid out for Windows 10 last year. Back then in 2015, the releases went by the "Threshold" (TH) code name. There was a TH1 release and a TH2 release.

When Microsoft does talk publicly about its Windows 10 releases, it uses terms like "current branch" and "current branch for business" as major release milestones. It uses a year/month numbering system to refer to them, too. For instance, last year's Windows 10 releases were labeled "1507" and "1511" for July and November 2015, respectively.

A description of Microsoft's current branch and current branch for business numbering scheme can be found in this Microsoft TechNet article. Minor Windows 10 updates also happen on a quasi-monthly basis, and that's partially explained by Microsoft here.

The current branch for business milestones are important for IT pros to note since they must update Windows 10 to the next current branch for business release within about eight months' time. Failing to get to the next current branch for business in a timely manner means that organizations won't get new operating system updates and security bulletins for Windows 10, which puts organizations potentially at risk.

It's not clear if the purported RS2 pushback to spring 2017, if true, alters this current branch for business update responsibility for IT pros.

Foley said the pushback was happening because Microsoft wants to support new Windows 10 devices yet to come, per her sources. She noted that the company has had power management problems with its Surface devices using Intel's "Skylake" processors and it likely needs more time to address Intel's newer emerging processors, such as "Kaby Lake," arriving year-end 2016.

Perhaps that's the case, but Microsoft isn't commenting on such matters. It has, though, shortened its product lifecycle support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on machines using Intel Skylake processors. That was an unusual change in policy for Microsoft to make. It suggests that some sort of alteration of the traditional "Wintel" collaboration model has occurred.
News

Next Major Windows 10 Updates Reportedly Coming June 2016 and Spring 2017

Microsoft's traditional fall and summer Windows 10 update release cycle, as seen last year, may not be the pattern for this year, according to reports.

That idea comes from a WinBeta story, which indicated that Microsoft's forthcoming "Redstone" Windows 10 releases will happen in June 2016 and spring 2017. No Microsoft sources were named in that story to confirm the information. This alleged change in plans, though, was confirmed today by veteran Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley, who cited unnamed sources.

Microsoft isn't confirming the information, though, so it's at the rumor stage.

"Microsoft doesn't have anything to share," a spokesperson said, when asked about these Redstone Windows 10 release plans.

The Redstone name is said to be a code word used internally by Microsoft for its major Windows 10 build releases. Purportedly, Redstone was to follow the lines of a spring and summer release cycle that Microsoft initially had laid out for Windows 10 last year. Back then in 2015, the releases went by the "Threshold" (TH) code name. There was a TH1 release and a TH2 release.

When Microsoft does talk publicly about its Windows 10 releases, it uses terms like "current branch" and "current branch for business" as major release milestones. It uses a year/month numbering system to refer to them, too. For instance, last year's Windows 10 releases were labeled "1507" and "1511" for July and November 2015, respectively.

A description of Microsoft's current branch and current branch for business numbering scheme can be found in this Microsoft TechNet article. Minor Windows 10 updates also happen on a quasi-monthly basis, and that's partially explained by Microsoft here.

The current branch for business milestones are important for IT pros to note since they must update Windows 10 to the next current branch for business release within about eight months' time. Failing to get to the next current branch for business in a timely manner means that organizations won't get new operating system updates and security bulletins for Windows 10, which puts organizations potentially at risk.

It's not clear if the purported Redstone 2 (RS2) pushback to spring 2017, if true, alters this current branch for business update responsibility for IT pros.

Foley said the pushback was happening because Microsoft wants to support new Windows 10 devices yet to come, per her sources. She noted that the company has had power management problems with its Surface devices using Intel's "Skylake" processors and it likely needs more time to address Intel's newer emerging processors, such as "Kaby Lake," arriving year-end 2016.

Perhaps that's the case, but Microsoft isn't commenting on such matters. It has, though, shortened its product lifecycle support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on machines using Intel Skylake processors. That was an unusual change in policy for Microsoft to make. It suggests that some sort of alteration of the traditional "Wintel" collaboration model has occurred.
Female entrepreneurs have shown to punch way above their weight in Asias tech and startup space, and why? Its 2016.

This year marks the 107th International Womens Day, which sets yet another year of the worlds efforts in championing gender equity, and the advocacy of diversity and inclusion across the latest hotseat: the tech industry.

Lets get real. e27 has tried an approach in post-feminism, gender-neutrality and even gender-blindness  but we have yet to set any real progress in motion. We might be 106 years late to a concerted effort in walking the talk  so we are going bold with this first shot. We tested the waters on the Echelon Thailand 2015 stage, where we initiated a panel discussion featuring female entrepreneurs to address hard-hitting issues to overwhelming positivity from the attendees.

This April at Echelon Indonesia 2016, we are making it our responsibility to strive towards a representation of female speakers not only on a single panel  but with 50 per cent across the three stages. To kick this off, meet the first 10 female changemakers worthy of a spotlight beyond today:

Also Read: Myths no more! Startup investments are easier than you think

Andhini Putri, Head of Marketing, Indonesia, Facebook

Currently Head of Marketing, Indonesia, Facebook, Andhini Putri brings with her a wealth of experience working for well known brand names such as Heineken and Sampoerna. She is also highly regarded by the industry as she was the winner of the Best Digital Campaign 2015 for her work at Heineken. Andhini is a graduate of the Leeds Business School, achieving the MA/MBA Student of the Year 2007 while completing her Masters in Advertising and Marketing.

Angelyn Ardiwinata, Executive Director at GEPI

Angelyn Ardiwinata Liem is the youngest Executive Director and the first woman to hold the position in Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI), an initiative from U.S. State Department to develop entrepreneurship in Indonesia. Before GEPI, Angelyn led a social media campaign that turned Jakarta Globe into the biggest newspaper community in Southeast Asia in 2010. She also led the launch of Student Globe, a media programme for high school students from BeritaSatu, involving more than 100 school and 10,000 students across Indonesia. Angelyn has a master in Social Enterprise Administration from Columbia University and a bachelor in Education from Pelita Harapan University.

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Anna Rehermann, Founder of Growth Hacking Asia

Anna is a passionate serial entrepreneur with a strong background in Digital Marketing and Growth Hacking. She worked with Rocket Internet and Team Europe Ventures, two leading global venture builders, to set up and maintain the complete range of digital marketing activities for some of their ventures and develop tactics to grow them quickly and sustainably. Anna also co-founded an edtech startup and recently launched her latest venture called Growth Hacking Asia, with the goal to flip the success rate of Asian startups from 1/10 to 9/10. Anna also works as advisor, mentor and trainer focusing on digital marketing and growth strategies for early stage startups.

Also read: Not 1, not 2 but 5 promising companies you should meet at Echelon Indonesia 2016

Aulia Halimatussadiah, Co-Founder of Zetta Media, Nulisbuku

Aulia Halimatussadiah (Ollie) is CTO & Co-Founder of Nulisbuku.com, the first online self-publishing in Indonesia. Shes been heavily involved in entrepreneurship events and efforts as the initiator of #StartupLokal, the largest Indonesian startup community and Girls in Tech Indonesia. In her spare time, Ollie is a writing fanatic, having authored more than 26 books. You can read her blog at Salsabeela.com and follow her on Twitter @salsabeela.

Aviva Markowicz, International Development, NUMA

With a business school degree and several experiences in Marketing, IT consulting and startups business development, Aviva has joined NUMA in December 2012. After 2 years working inside NUMAs accelerator in the entrepreneurs service, she is now in charge of the International development of NUMA, looking for strategic partnerships around the globe.

Faustine Tan, Co-Founder of HotelQuickly Indonesia

Faustine is responsible for leading and developing HotelQuickly markets in Indonesia. A graduate of The London School of Public Relations, she began her career at the young age of 17 and has experienced many different industries including Procurement, Architecture, Construction and Recruitment. Her extensive experience, has created a wide network in Indonesia and Malaysia. People person, social networker and travel, are the three points to describe who she is!

Also Read: The importance of being Earnest in businesses

Geraldine Oetama, Executive Director, Skystar Ventures

Geraldine is the Executive Director of Skystar Ventures, an incubator located in University of Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) supported by Kompas Gramedia group. Geraldines initiative in tech started when she experienced firsthand how the Internet was disrupting traditional business models specifically in the media, retail and education industry. This drove her to spearhead initiatives including incubation program and tech fund, Skystar Capital to help early stage entrepreneurs to create sustainable businesses that add value to and make a positive impact on Indonesia. Geraldine holds an MA in Marketing with a focus on Digital Media and Marketing from the University of Southern California (USC).

Karen Mok, Asia Regional Manager of Seedstars World

Karen is the current Asia Regional Manager of Seedstars World, a Swiss-based initiative to find, connect, and invest in the top seed stage startups in 55 emerging markets. She also serves as the elected Trustee for Thousand Network (formerly Sandbox), a community of global changemakers spanning 40 hubs across five continents. Prior to this, she was co-founder and CEO of Mahila Mobile, a social enterprise that aimed to increase womens access to mobile phone technology in low and middle income countries.

Sati Rasuanto, Managing Director of Endeavor Indonesia

Sati Rasuanto is currently the Managing Director of Endeavor Indonesia. She started her career in the private sector, working as a financial analyst in, before moving to the World Bank in 2005, where she held a number of positions, including as an energy specialist and adviser to the Country Director. Thereafter, Sati joined the Indonesian Government as the special staff to Gita Wirjawan, the then-Chairman of Indonesias Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM). She was also the founding Managing Editor of Strategic Review, the Indonesian Journal of Leadership, Policy and World Affairs. In 2011, Sati was named a Yale World Fellow, Yales premier program for young leaders around the world. Sati was also selected as Kauffman Fellow in 2013, a global network based in Silicon Valley that focuses on high-growth and innovative companies.

Also Read: Meet the top 27 females who elevated Asias tech ecosystem to new heights

Stephanie Yoe, Founding Partner at Appstrak

After living in the States for many years, working in EMC, Trinity Technologies, Verizon, Steer Partners LLC, co-founding and mentoring start-ups in the US, she marked her return to Jakarta at the end of 2013 by working for Babson Global, consulting and guiding Agung Podomoro Group (APG) with Podomoro University (PU) and their recent acquisitions. Currently, she is the Business Development Manager at Blibli.com, one of the pioneers in the e-commerce space in Indonesia.



Do you have something to add? Join the discussion in the comments below!

Supporting us in achieving this goal are our co-organisers DailySocial.id, and community partners Girls in Tech Indonesia and StartupLokal. Know a powerhouse technopreneur who happens to be female? Send a referral our way! contact@e27.co

The post 10 tech powerhouses taking the Echelon stage this April appeared first on e27.
A Frenchman suspected in a cocaine smuggling case in the Dominican Republic should not be freed on bail because he poses a serious flight risk, the attorney general said Tuesday.

The official spoke a few hours before Christophe Naudin, extradited from Egypt last week, was to appear in court to have charges read out against him in a case known here as "Air Cocaine."

It involved a failed attempt to smuggle 680 kilos (1,500 pounds) of the drug in a private jet bound for France.

Naudin is suspected of helping the two French pilots, who were first arrested here in 2013, flee to France.

"I hope the courts understand that there is a serious flight risk. Mr. Naudin must not be freed," Attorney General Francisco Dominguez said.

Since arriving in the Dominican Republic overnight Thursday into Friday, Naudin has been detained at the Palace of Justice.

The hearing has been called to determine whether there is enough evidence against Naudin for a trial.

Naudin, a 53-year-old criminologist and aviation security expert who was arrested in Cairo on February 4, was sought by the Caribbean nation on suspicion of helping pilots Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos flee to France in October after they had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking.

The pair, who maintain their innocence, were arrested in March 2013 as they were about to depart from Punta Cana in a private jet found to be carrying the big cocaine cargo.

Convicted of drug trafficking in August, they were released pending appeal but barred from leaving the Caribbean nation.

They somehow managed to flee and return to France -- an escape that Dominican prosecutors allege Naudin facilitated.

Fauret and Odos fled back to France vowing to clear their names, but were rearrested in November near the French city of Lyon.

On February 11, an appeals court in the Dominican Republic upheld the 20-year prison sentences for the two pilots.

Paris has ruled out extraditing them.

The affair has prompted keen interest in France, after Interpol in November issued arrest warrants for Fauret and Odos, as well as a far-right member of the European Parliament accused of involvement.
Oil prices rose Tuesday, with Brent crude climbing above $41 a barrel, despite more disappointing data out of China.

Prices have strengthened in recent weeks largely on hopes of production freezes to ease a global supply glut.

Around 1300 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in April was up 28 cents at $38.18 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for May delivery won 56 cents to $41.40 a barrel compared with Monday's close.

Brent had closed at $40.84 a barrel in London on Monday, its highest since early December.

Daniel Ang, an analyst with Phillip Futures, said a sustained increase would be driven only if producers took concrete steps to ease the oversupply.

"Prices have to be driven from fundamental change (to supply and demand). A cut in production or a concrete freeze... could cause prices to move up further," he told AFP.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela last month agreed to freeze output at January levels if other producers followed suit.

United Arab Emirates' energy minister Suhail Mazrouei on Monday said he believed producers were already freezing output.

But British bank Barclays cautioned against too much optimism.

"OPEC's production freeze policy is far from certain to succeed," it said in a market commentary, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"The market is well aware that the countries that have so far signalled support for the policy are mostly producing at close to capacity."

Barclays added: "The big risk is that... prices fall back sharply on any lack of further progress."

Crude futures continued to grow meanwhile despite China releasing data showing another hefty slump in exports.

But mining share prices were hit hard on demand jitters because China is a leading consumer of raw materials.

burs-bcp/jh
One person was killed and at least two wounded Tuesday when eight rockets fired from a jihadist-controlled area of Syrian territory slammed into the Turkish border town of Kilis, reports said. Some of the Katyusha-type rockets hit empty areas but one caused casualties, Turkish media quoted Kilis mayor Hasan Kara as saying. One person was killed and two people wounded, one of them seriously, he said. The Dogan news agency said that the rockets had been fired from an area in Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists. The Turkish army then struck back by firing on IS positions in Syria according to the rules of engagement, it quoted security sources as saying. It is the first such incident since January 18, when a rocket fired from an IS-controlled position in Syria killed a janitor and wounded a pupil at a school in Kilis. The latest attack comes after Turkish armed forces launched artillery strikes on repeated occasions in the last two weeks on IS positions in Syria. A fragile ceasefire backed by Turkey has taken effect in Syria, but the deal does not apply to territory held by the IS group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. From mid-February, Turkish artillery had also on successive days shelled targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Syria, with the military saying it was responding to incoming fire. But Turkey has not shelled any positions held by Syrian Kurdish fighters inside Syria since the ceasefire was implemented on February 27. Washington had urged Ankara to halt its fire on the PYD and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.
It aims to make 100  150 investment funds into Vietnam-connected startups

Leading startup accelerator and incubator 500 Startups has launched a US$10 million micro-fund for Vietnam simply called  500 Startups Vietnam.

The fund aims to make investments in about 100 to 150 startups in Vietnam-connected startups be it Vietnamese entrepreneurs launching their enterprise overseas or teams aiming to expand into Vietnam.

500 Startups Vietnam will issue checks ranging from US$100,000 to US$250,000 and will be led by Venture Partners Binh Tran and Eddie Thai, who joined 500 Startups last year, with the goal of ramping up its investment activity in the country.

According to a post by Eddie Thal, Vietnams tech space shows promising potential in the areas of B2B, Enterprise SaaS and e-commerce, although its goal is to be vertical agnostic, returns religious.

Also Read: The Dreamplex vision: Connecting Vietnams startup community

500 Startups has already been investing into several Vietnam-connected startups including beauty startup Ipsy; social photography app Lightbox; social intelligence platform DataRank; hyperlocal social networking app Tappy; event ticketing platform Ticketbox; and language pronunciation training mobile app ELSA.

While Vietnam currently has over 1,300 startups, it is still perceived as fairly nascent compared to other regional markets. In recent years, it actually has been experiencing a hive of activity. Grab and Uber entered the market; Vietnam Silicon Valley launched its accelerator programme; Vietnam-based startups such as Appota have expanded overseas.

Just yesterday, Vietnamese co-working space raised an undisclosed six figure sum, with plans to launch a third branch by this year; Edtech giant Topica acquired Hanoi co-working space Hub.IT at the beginning of this year.

Lets not forget that the country also has a unicorn  digital media, e-commerce and gaming platform VNG Corporation.

500 Startups Vietnam will be 500 Startupss second micro-fund in the region following 500 Startup TukTuks which is focussed on Thailand.

Also Read: Startup Spring: A busy time ahead for Vietnams startups

The post 500 Startups launches US$10M micro-fund for Vietnam appeared first on e27.
By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said he would neither fight Donald Trump, nor support him, but understood the Republican's appeal for people fed up with politics, who he said had also voted for controversial Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Trudeau - who will visit Washington this week for talks with President Barack Obama - took office last November and will be in power when the next occupant of the White House takes over in January 2017. Trudeau also suggested Trump might not be serious about policy platforms such as tearing up the North American Free Trade Agreement, which could badly damage Canada's economy. "I'm not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now. I'm not going to support him either, obviously," Trudeau told a live forum hosted by the Huffington Post when pressed to condemn the Republican. Trudeau said he was watching the United States closely "to see how it deals with what is obviously a very real set of issues around frustration toward the body politic" which had been seen around the world. He cited the case of Ford, the former populist mayor of Toronto who gained global notoriety for admitting to smoking crack while in office. "We had a mayor called Rob Ford here for a while and there's a lot of people who didn't get it. But he tapped into a very real and legitimate sense that people had around who politicians were," said Trudeau. The prime minister seemed less concerned when asked about Trump's proposals to temporarily bar Muslims from the United States and deport millions of illegal immigrants. "Let's see if the things that he needed to say in order to secure the Republican nomination are the same things he chooses to say in order to win the Presidency, if that's what happens," he said. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Andrew Hay)
BEIJING (Reuters) - "Blind faith" in sanctions and international pressure on North Korea are irresponsible, China's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, after the U.N. security council implemented a fresh round of economic curbs targeting the North's nuclear programme. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month triggering a U.N. Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions. "The final settlement of the Korean peninsula issue needs comprehensive action and the right medicine for the illness," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists. "Blind faith in sanctions and pressure, actually, are not a responsible approach for the future of the Korean peninsula." Wang made the remarks at a briefing as China conducted its annual parliamentary session. Isolated North Korea has rejected criticism of its nuclear and rocket programmes, even from old ally China, and last week leader Kim Jong Un ordered his country to be ready to use nuclear weapons in the face of what he sees as growing threats from enemies. The UN Security Council put in place its latest round of sanctions, drafted by China and the United States, last week. Independent experts have frequently questioned China's resolve to enforce sanctions against North Korea, whose economy is heavily dependent on China. China has said it will enforce the measures "conscientiously". "At this time with the situation on the Korean peninsula, there are swords drawn and bows bent in mutual hostility, and the air is saturated with the taste of gunpowder," Wang said. "As the largest neighbouring country of the peninsula, China will not sit idly by and watch stability on the peninsula be destroyed on a basic level." South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in an annual test of their defences against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive. China has voiced opposition to discussions between South Korea and the United States on possible deployment of a new U.S. anti-missile system to South Korea. China sees the terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system as a threat to its strategic deterrence. (Reporting By Ben Blanchard; Writing By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Robert Birsel)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China sees little reason for optimism that relations with Japan will improve, China's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, accusing "two-faced" Tokyo of constantly seeking to make trouble. China, the world's second-largest economy, and Japan, the third largest, have a difficult political history, with relations strained by the legacy of Japan's World War Two aggression and conflicting claims over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets. While ties have been thawing, with meetings between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing remains deeply suspicious of Japan, especially of Abe's moves to allow the military to fight overseas for the first time since the war. Speaking at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of China's annual parliament meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he hoped bilateral ties could improve as the two have a "tradition of friendship". "Thanks to the efforts of wise people on both sides, there are signs of improvement in the China-Japan relations, but there is little ground for optimism," he said. "Of course we want to see the China-Japan relations truly improve, but as a saying goes, to cure diseases, you have to address underlying problems," Wang added. On one hand, Japanese leaders say nice things about wanting to improve relations, but on the other they "create troubles for China at every turn", he said. "This is what I would call a typical case of being two faced." Japan has also been keeping an eye on China's activities in the South China Sea, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga saying in February that Japan was gathering and analysing information on China's moves there with "serious interest". China claims most of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. Beijing is feeling public pressure at home to show it can protect its claims to the waters after the United States began conducting "freedom of navigation" operations near islands where China has been carrying out controversial reclamation work and stationing advanced weapons. "All ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) states hope for freedom, democracy and the rule of law," Suga told reporters, when asked about Wang's comments. "Isn't it a rule in the international community that any country can say what it has to say on an unilateral attempt at dominance with force?" Suga reiterated, however, that nothing has been changed to Japan's stance that the door to dialogue with China remained open. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Malaysia and Turkey, once hailed as "successful, secular democracies" among Muslim nations, are now failing as authorities crack down on journalists and stifle press freedom, the Sydney Morning Herald comments in an editorial today. "Both Turkey's Erdogan and Malaysia's Najib have been following the universal handbook for strongman leaders in trouble  they are protecting their own power," said the paper, referring to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. "And perhaps the biggest single impulse to censorship has been the effort to silence allegations of personal corruption at the very top." Last week, Turkish authorities seized control of a newspaper in a widening crackdown against supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a staunch critic of Erdogan. Zaman, Turkey's top-selling newspaper, was taken over by the state, in what Ankara claimed was part of an investigation into illicit financing of a "Gulenist terror group". This followed arrests of 52 people linked with Erdogan's AKP ruling party, over a money-laundering scheme, with Turkish police discovering millions of dollars in cash allegedly used to pay bribes. An audio clip was later posted on YouTube, in which Erdogan was heard telling his son to get rid of tens of millions of dollars, but the Turkish leader said it was orchestrated by the US-based Gulen. SMH compares the media clampdown in Turkey with the blocking of The Malaysian Insider news site by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission over a report that cited a source as saying that corruption charges had been recommended against Najib over some RM2.6 billion found in his personal bank accounts. It said the developments in both countries "will put democracies in the Islamic world on the list of endangered species". "And they are sliding. In the past 10 days, the governments in both countries shut down media outlets that dared report unflattering facts about their leaders." The daily quoted an expert from the Australian National University (ANU) as saying that Malaysia's slide towards authoritarianism had begun since the rule of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after he sacked his deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in 1998. "It's been sliding to authoritarianism for some time and now it's coming to a head," said Amin Saikal of ANU's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies. "Turkey was more successful than Malaysia." Saikal said although the Arab spring brought about democracies in some Muslim countries, it was Indonesia which had been more successful.  March 8, 2016.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Greece needs to deliver quickly on its promise to provide accommodation for 50,000 refugees and the European Union should help Athens with this task, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a media interview published on Saturday. Austria, one of the last stepping stones to Germany for hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants, recently imposed border restrictions, setting off a domino effect in Europe and leaving tens of thousands stranded in poor conditions in Greece. "Originally, Greece should have created 50,000 accommodation places for refugees by the end of 2015," Merkel told German tabloid Bild am Sonntag. "The backlog must be resolved now at lightning speed because the Greek government has to guarantee decent accommodation." Merkel, under pressure to reduce the number of new arrivals after more than one million migrants entered Germany last year, said Greece could count on more help from other EU states. "I know from my talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that he wants to do this, but that he needs our help, and that's why the EU must and will support Greece in solidarity." She also said that Austria and Balkan countries were largely to blame for the changed situation in Greece by deciding unilaterally to impose borders controls. Tsipras has accused Austria and Balkan countries of "ruining Europe" by imposing border restrictions to slow the flow of migrants heading north from Greece. By contrast, Merkel's Bavarian ally said the imposition of border controls by Austria and other countries was benefiting Germany by reducing the number of new arrivals. "There is a turning point in the refugee policy due to the closure of large parts of the Balkan route," Horst Seehofer told Der Spiegel magazine. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Ros Russell)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday it was ready to give access to its military bases in Syria for humanitarian aid deliveries. Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said aid packages could be delivered and stored at its naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus and transport planes carrying aid could land at its air base in Latakia. He told a briefing shown on Russian state television that Russia was also ready to provide vehicles to deliver aid from its bases to areas in need. On March 2, the ministry prepared a list of areas where it believed the aid was needed urgently and sent it to the United Nations. The ministry said the cessation of hostilities in Syria was broadly holding despite what it described as some provocations and shootings. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; editing by Dominic Evans)
By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Dozens of Islamist fighters stormed through the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan near the Libyan border on Monday, attacking army and police posts in a raid that killed at least 53 people, including civilians, the government and residents said. Local television broadcast images of soldiers and police crouched in doorways and on rooftops as gunshots echoed in the centre of the town. Bodies of dead militants lay in the streets near the military barracks after the army regained control. Authorities sealed off the nearby beach resort town of Djerba, a popular destination for foreign and local tourists, imposed a curfew on Ben Guerdan and closed two border crossings with Libya after the attack. "I saw a lot of militants at dawn, they were running with their Kalashnikovs," Hussein, a resident, told Reuters by telephone. "They said they were Islamic State and they came to target the army and the police." It was not clear if the attackers crossed the border, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. But it was the type of militant operation Tunisia's government has feared as it prepares for potential spillover from Libya, where Islamic State militants have gained ground. Since its 2011 revolt to oust ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has struggled with Islamist militancy at home and across the border. Militants trained in jihadist camps in Libya carried out two attacks last year in Tunisia. "This attack was an unprecedented, well-organised. They wanted to try to control the Ben Guerdan region and name it as their new Wilaya," President Beji Caid Essebsi said, referring to the name Islamic State uses for regions it considers part of its self-described caliphate. Soldiers killed 35 militants and arrested six, the Interior Ministry said. Hospital and security sources said at least seven civilians were killed along with 11 soldiers. Troops also later discovered a large cache of rifles, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades in Ben Guerdan, a security source said. "If the army had not been ready, the terrorists would have been able to raise their flag over Ben Guerdan and gotten a symbolic victory," said Abd Elhamid Jelassi, vice president of the Islamist party Ennahda, part of the government coalition. REGIONAL JIHADISTS More than 3,000 Tunisians have gone to fight with Islamic State and other groups in Syria and Iraq. Tunisian security officials say increasingly they are returning to join the militant group in Libya. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi five years ago, Libya has slipped into chaos, with two rival governments and armed factions struggling for control. Islamic State has grown in the turmoil, taking over the city of Sirte and drawing foreign recruits. Tunisian jihadists are taking a lead role in Islamic State camps in Libya, Tunisian security sources say. Tunisian forces have been on alert for possible militant infiltrations since last month, when a U.S. air strike targeted mostly Tunisian Islamic State militants at a camp near the border in Libya's Sabratha. Western military advisers are starting to train Tunisian border forces to help better protect the frontier with electronic surveillance and drones and authorities have built a trench and barrier to help stop militants crossing. Islamist militant gunmen trained in Libyan camps carried out two of the three major attacks on Tunisia last year, including assaults on the Tunis Bardo museum and a Sousse beach hotel targeting foreign tourists. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Janet Lawrence, Larry King)
ALGIERS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said he will try to restart negotiations between Western Sahara's Polisario independence movement and Morocco to resolve their conflict and allow Sahrawi refugees to return. The dispute over the arid region in the northwest corner of Africa has festered since Morocco took most of it over in 1975 following the withdrawal of former colonial power Spain. The Polisario Front, which says the territory belongs to ethnic Sahrawis, waged a guerrilla war until a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1991 that did not settle the dispute. The two sides have been deadlocked since. The U.N. chief plans this weekend to visit refugee camps in Algeria's Tindouf area where Polisario is based. Before leaving Mauritania on Thursday, the U.N. chief said he intended to "relaunch negotiations to resolve the conflict so that the Sahrawi refugees can return home to Western Sahara". "The patience of the Sahrawi people has now run out. The U.N. has lost its way on Western Sahara," Polisario leader Mohammed Abdelaziz said in a statement on Friday. "Ban's visit and his upcoming reports to the Security Council are the best opportunity in a long time to reset negotiations." Polisario, backed by Morocco's regional rival and neighbour Algeria and a number of other African states, wants to hold a referendum promised in the ceasefire deal on the region's fate. "We want to hear from the Secretary-General in order to achieve a solution this year," Abdelaziz said. "Allowing the stalemate to continue would have serious consequences not only for the people of Western Sahara, but also for the prospects for peace and security in a Maghreb region." Rabat wants Western Sahara, which is rich in phosphates and possibly offshore oil and gas, to be an autonomous part of Morocco and disagrees with Polisario over who should take part in the referendum. Ban said last year U.N. envoy Christopher Ross had intensified efforts to facilitate the entry of the parties into negotiations "without preconditions and in good faith". (Reporting by Patrick Markey; Additional reporting by Khalilou Diagana in Nouakchott; Editing by Andrew Roche)
Distance Learning

Apex Learning Unveils New Comprehensive Courses

Apex Learning has unveiled a new set of comprehensive courses ready to debut for the 2016-2017 school year.

The new courses are designed to improve student engagement and outcomes and integrate new elements designed to "further support highly diverse populations, all with the goal of providing more opportunities for students to master today's rigorous standards," according to a news release.

"We are excited about the new generation of Apex Learning Comprehensive Courses," said Kathy Moffitt, program administrator at Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska, in a prepared statement. "We are especially looking forward to the expanded supports for struggling learners. As always, Apex Learning strives to identify how their solutions can be even more effective and is very willing to implement feedback from clients."

"The design of our new generation of courses reinforces what has worked so well and reaffirms a commitment to provide students and educators across the country with the most effective digital curriculum available," said Cheryl Vedoe, CEO of Apex Learning.
SWNS

<p>Americans are still waiting for their Goldilocks moment  four in five say theyve never found their perfect fit for certain items.</p><p>According to a new poll of 1,000 people 250 lbs and over and 1,000 people under 250 lbs, 52% struggle to find clothing, mattresses (40%) and bathtubs or shower enclosures (38%) that fit their body types.</p><p>In fact, about two-thirds (67%) find themselves struggling frequently with finding items that fit their body size needs.</p><p>This was especially true for those 350 lbs and over, as 41% admit they always struggle, compared to only 23% of those under 250 lbs.</p><p>Despite frequency, almost three-quarters (74%) of all respondents find themselves feeling frustrated when they are searching for an item that accommodates their needs.</p><p>Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of <a href="https://www.bigfigmattress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-safelink="true" data-linkindex="1">Big Fig Mattress</a>, the survey asked respondents how they go about their everyday lives despite challenges they may face because of their body type. </p><p>Results found that seven in 10 respondents feel less confident when they struggle with finding items that fit their size needs.</p><p>When asked about other emotions respondents experience, those 250 lbs and over are more likely to feel set apart from others, citing embarrassed (59%) and isolated (53%).</p><p>While those who are under 250 lbs tend to lean towards disappointed (51%). </p><p>Even so, those 250 lbs and up were more optimistic than those under (35% vs 23%).</p><p>The average respondent has crossed off about five brands or retailers because they dont carry products that meet their physical needs.</p><p>However, for those who are 250 lbs and over, 72% have eliminated between three and eight stores.</p><p>Almost one in five (18%) of those under 250 lbs cited that all stores carry their size, compared to only 2% of those who are 250 lbs and up.</p><p>"This survey makes it clear that the 'all' part of 'one size fits all' couldn't be further from the truth," said Jeff Brown, president, Big Fig Mattress. "Almost two in five respondents haven't found something that they felt was made for them. Everybody and every <em>body</em> deserves a long-lasting and comfortable mattress to support a good night's sleep, regardless of your size."</p><p>Products made for all body types are an issue no matter what the product, with respondents needing to stand on furniture to reach something (46%) or finding that clothing is either way too long or too short (46%).</p><p>And ill-fitting items arent just an inconvenience, 61% of respondents say that clothing, vehicles (59%) and mattresses (50%) that arent made for their body type have a big impact on their quality of life.</p><p>More than half of those 250 lbs and over (53%) believe their life is more difficult than for someone who is considered normal sized.</p><p>But that doesnt mean respondents are only dwelling on the negative  almost half (44%) frequently make light of their struggles. </p><p>When asked how they do so, respondents outlined things like, I speak to myself. I'm beautiful and special. I'm impeccable," and Remind myself that if this is the biggest problem I have, then I am doing just fine in life."</p><p>The survey also asked about relationship status and how respondents are navigating integrating their lifestyles with another uniquely sized person.</p><p>Seventy-four percent of all respondents are in a relationship and living with their significant other.</p><p>Almost half (45%) are mixed-size couples, meaning they have a noticeable difference in body size or type.</p><p>Because of this, couples face challenges like finding a place to live that accommodates both people (40%), struggling to share a mattress comfortably (40%) and having items that one person uses but the other never would such as step stools (34%).</p><p>In the end, more than two-thirds (68%) of all respondents agree that its difficult to navigate a one size fits all world when people have varying body types.</p><p>We believe and support being body positive, in body acceptance, and in making positive life choices, noted Brown. Bigger figured people deserve the same level of quality products and choices as everyone else. Its important to accept that all bodies are different and require more from product manufacturers, and I think the data makes that clear.</p><p><strong>MOST DIFFICULT ITEMS TO FIND FOR A SPECIFIC BODY TYPE</strong></p><ul><li>Clothing - 52%</li><li>Mattress - 40%</li><li>Bathtub/shower enclosure - 38%</li><li>Chairs/couch - 35%</li><li>Bike/scooter - 34%</li><li>Vehicle - 31% </li></ul><p><em>Survey methodology:</em></p><p><em>This random double-opt-in survey of <strong>1,000 Americans under 250 lbs and 1,000 Americans 250 lbs and up </strong>was commissioned by <strong>Big Big Mattress</strong> between <strong>September 8 </strong> and <strong>September 21</strong>. It was conducted by market research company <a href="https://www.onepoll.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-safelink="true" data-linkindex="2">OnePoll</a>, whose team members are members of the <a href="https://www.mrs.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-safelink="true" data-linkindex="3">Market Research Society</a> and have corporate membership to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (<a href="https://www.aapor.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-safelink="true" data-linkindex="4">AAPOR</a>) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (<a href="https://www.esomar.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-safelink="true" data-linkindex="5">ESOMAR</a>).</em></p>
By Tatiana Jancarikova and Jan Lopatka BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico won Saturday's parliamentary election, nearly complete results showed, but gains by opposition parties including the far right will make it very hard if not impossible to form a new government. If Fico fails to put together a government led by his leftist Smer party, a group of centre-right parties could try to form a broad but possibly unstable anti-Fico coalition, a repeat of the 2010 election. Fico, a leftist whose anti-immigration and socially conservative views are in line with neighbours Poland and Hungary, took 28.3 percent of the vote, far ahead of others but less than he had hoped for, results from 99.98 percent of voting districts showed. With euro zone member Slovakia due to take over the European Union's rotating presidency from July, giving it a bigger role in EU policy discussions over the bloc's migration crisis, the election is being watched closely in Brussels. Fico bet on a combination of popular welfare measures such as free train rides for students and pensioners and his opposition to accepting refugees to secure a third term, after ruling in 2006-2010 and 2012-2016. The results showed eight groups won seats in the new parliament, including four that were not in the outgoing one. Some factions rule out working with each other, especially with a far-right party that gained representation. Some analysts raised the prospect of a stalemate that could lead to a minority or temporary cabinet. Fico, who had hoped to rule with one smaller coalition partner, said building a new coalition in a highly fragmented parliament would take time and be tough, given the "very complicated" election results. "As the party that won the election we have the obligation to try build a meaningful and stable government," Fico told reporters. "It will not be easy, I am saying that very clearly." Fico, who dismisses multiculturalism as "a fiction", has pledged never to accept EU-agreed quotas on relocating refugees who have flooded into Greece and Italy from Syria and beyond. Slovakia has a tiny Muslim minority. It has not seen any large numbers of refugees pass through its territory. Opponents portray Fico as an inefficient and unsavourypopulist who ignores the need to reform education and healthcare. However, most opposition parties in the predominantly Catholic country agree with Fico's hardline stance on migrants. Refusal to provide guarantees for a bailout of Greece brought down the previous centre-right government in 2012. Both Smer-led and centre-right coalitions face huge obstacles, because either would have to include the centrist Most-Hid party popular among the Hungarian minority as well as the mildly nationalist Slovak National Party. Most-Hid refuses to work with the nationalists, the party's chief Bela Bugar said, putting the faction that won just 6.5 percent in the position of a possible king-maker. "This will be a more difficult birth than this country has ever experienced," said Marian Lesko, a commentator at weekly Trend. FAR-RIGHT IN PARLIAMENT Slovakia is one of the euro zone's most financially sound states, popular with foreign investors, particularly car makers. But unemployment of more than 10 percent and vast regional differences in wealth, as well as corruption and low healthcare and education standards, have disappointed many voters. The dissatisfaction along with Fico's bet on immigration fears may have brought votes to protest parties. The far-right radical People's Party of central Slovak Governor Marian Kotleba won 8.0 percent, nearly three times more than predicted. Kotleba has in the past sported uniforms reminiscent of the Nazi-era Slovak state, and was investigated, but not found guilty of, spreading hatred toward the Roma minority. (Editing by Tom Brown, Matthew Lewis and Stephen Powell)
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Two Somali soldiers and an African Union peacekeeper were wounded when Islamist militants detonated a bomb outside an airport in the south central town of Beledweyne, the group and a local military source said on Monday. The bomb was hidden in a "paper bag", according to Ibrahim, a local military officer who did not wish to reveal his full name. It is not clear if the bomb was intended to be smuggled on a plane. Last month a plane was forced to make an emergency landing after a bomb smuggled aboard at Mogadishu International Airport exploded mid-air. A suspected suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded during the incident. Al Shabaab, which is aligned to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack on the small airport in Beledwayne, about 350km north from Mogadishu. "We were behind the blast that targeted Djibouti forces. We shall give details of casualties later," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operation spokesman, told Reuters. Ibrahim, the military officer, said the African Union (AU) peacekeeper wounded was from Djibouti. Soldiers from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Burundi are also fighting al Shabaab as part of the 22,000-strong AU force. Al Shabaab wants to topple a Western-backed government in Mogadishu and impose its strict version of Islamic law on Somalia. (Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Editing by Drazen Jorgic)
KKR has agreed to buy into seeds provider Advanta Enterprises in a deal which values the business at about $2.25bn.
Texas-based private equity firm Kainos Capital is looking to raise up to $750m for its second mid-market fund. The fund,
Modified On Feb 23, 2017 12:55 PM By Sumit for Renault KWID 2015-2019

The Renault Kwid has invoked enormous response in the domestic market. The success was so huge that Renault has decided to go international with its baby hatch. Contrary to previous reports which suggested that the Kwid will enter Sri Lanka first, it is now learnt that Mauritius will be the hatchbacks first international market.

Renault has plans to launch the Kwid in African and Latin American nations as well. Other aimed destinations are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which together constitute the SAARC nations. The French automaker has carefully planned the export destinations, keeping in mind its offering. The Kwid is an entry-level hatch and considering the economy of targeted nations, chances are high that the car will become immensely popular there too.

Mr. Sumit Sawhney, CEO and MD of Renault India is quite optimistic about the future of the company. On the occasion, he said, "In December (2015) we had 4.5 per cent market share, then in January it was 3.8 per cent. This month we have 4.5 per cent market. We are working very hard to achieve 5 per cent market share by the second half of 2016.

Presently, the KWID comes with a 0.8-litre engine, which can deliver a maximum power of 53bhp and a peak torque of 72Nm. This four-wheeler faces stiff competition from the likes of the Maruti Alto 800 and the Hyundai Eon in the domestic market. Renault will soon launch a 1.0-litre variant of the Kwid. Cashing in on the rising popularity of an automatic transmission, it even displayed the hatchback with an 'Easy-R' AMT at the Indian Auto Expo 2016. With these upgrades, KWID will compete with the Alto K10 and Eon 1.0-litre.

Also Read:

Kwid Gears up to Explore International Market

Kwid exports to begin soon; Mauritius to be first export market

Renault Kwid: Export To Neighboring Countries To Begin Soon

Read More on : Renault KWID 2017
Modified On Mar 09, 2016 11:28 AM By Saad for Maruti Baleno 2015-2022

Maruti Suzuki has crossed the benchmark of 1 lakh bookings with its premium hatchback, the Baleno and the manufacturer is rightfully content. The car further solidifies the sentiment that the sweat broken by Maruti over the research and development of their cars was not a futile exercise. It was launched in October 2015 and has gained the crown of segment leader within a short span of its existence. The carmaker is buoyed with the positive response and has plans to export the hatch to over 50 countries across the globe. The sales milestone also includes small portions of exports. The manufacturer has recently started shipping the Baleno to European markets and is using the Mundra Port in Gujarat for the same. The first lot, which consists of 1,800 units will be sent to Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Belgium and Spain. Maruti has also started exporting the car to the Japanese market, though, it only has been a few weeks.

Talking about the specs, in India the Baleno is offered in both 1.3 litre diesel and the 1.2 litre petrol variants with the engines mated to 5-speed manual transmissions, however, the European and Japanese markets only receive the 1.2 litre petrol engine, paired to SHVS hybrid technology. The transmission options here in India vary from a CVT to a 5-speed MT. International markets also have the added advantage of a 1.0 litre BoosterJet variant, the launch of which is still pending in India.

Maruti Baleno has been causing nightmares for both the Honda Jazz and the Hyundai Elite i20 in India, and with the launch of a more powerful 1.0 litre RS variant, it is expected to generate even bigger numbers.

Watch First Drive of Maruti Baleno

Also Read: Maruti Vitara Brezza Launching Today

Read More on : Maruti Baleno review
Modified On Mar 08, 2016 03:25 PM By Konark for Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2012-2021

German carmaker, Mercedes-Benz has launched its luxury armored sedan, the Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard at Rs. 10.5 Crore (Ex-showroom Delhi). Mercedes-Benz had a successful run in 2015 and launched 15 new products. Mercedes-Benz E Class Edition E was launched last month and the company plans to launch a total of 12 new products in 2016.

Built like a tank, the Maybach S600 Guard is VR10 certified [according to Directive BRV 2009 (Bullet Resistant Vehicles) Version 2], which is the highest armored rating for any civilian car. The Maybach S600 Guard can withstand a blast of almost 15kg of TNT from a distance of four metres. It is even resistant to blasts from the side with explosive fragmentation charges. The windows of the Maybach S600 have a polycarbonate coating which provides the best possible protection even from the Dragunov sniper rifle! Also, the fuel tank has been designed in such a way that it wont catch fire even if it takes a direct explosive hit. The Maybach S600 Guard also gets special PAX run-flat tyres to allow the car to be taken away to a safe location even if the tyres of the car are damaged.

Inside the cabin of the Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard, one can expect all the luxuries and amenities like any other Maybach. There is also a system inside the cabin which flushes out poisonous gases with the press of a button and also has an exit hatch if the car gets immobilized. It also uses a high strength special glass which provides fragmentation protection. The chassis of the S600 Guard has also been adapted to the protective components.

Talking about its engine, the Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard shares its engine with the Mercedes S600 Limousine by the 6.0-litre Petrol V12 engine that produces 523PS of power and 830Nm of torque.

The Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard comes as a CBU and will take on the Audi A8L Security - which was launched at the Auto Expo last month at a price tag of Rs. 9.15 Cr.

The Rs.10.5 Cr price tag, makes the S600 Guard, the most expensive sedan on sale in the country.

Also Read: Mercedes-Benz India to Hike Prices

Read More on : Mercedes-Benz S-Class
Fincantieri and the University of Rhode Island, on behalf of its International Engineering Program (IEP), has signed an understanding, which establishes the beginning of mutual collaboration to develop academic and cultural interchange.

According to Fincantieri, the agreement, which has an initial duration of three years with renewal possibilities, will begin in the first half of 2017 and will be dedicated to undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Rhode Island.

In particular, Fincantieri said it will consider internships for some of the most skilled students from the faculties of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering at its premises in Italy.

After a training period, the students will also be given the chance to increase and upgrade their skills in the companys Italian facilities, integrating the know-how provided from the academic world with the realities of the business world, the shipbuilder stated.

The understanding also includes the possibility of activating further collaboration forms of specific projects related to research and innovation, also involving the American subsidiary Fincantieri Marine Group (FMG).

Fincantieri stated further that the agreement is part of the Groups global strategy, aimed at undertaking continuous collaboration projects with top international universities and institutes in order to build up the its presence worldwide and attract talent and professionals from all over the world.
Appearing before the assembled masses of credit union groupies last week, CFPB director Richard Cordray, the benign dictator of Consumer Finance and Oracle of all that is good, told credit unions that it was time to wake up and smell the coffee: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not your enemy; on the contrary, it is an important new friend and ally.

Well, Mr. Codray, I enjoy the aroma of my Starbucks French Roast as much as anybody. I am still here to respectfully suggest that you need to drink a little less of your own Kool-Aid: its going to your head.

Why would credit unions possibly be frustrated by the CFPB, you wonder? Because they are tired of being told that they were not a cause of the financial crisis only to be subjected to the flood of post-crisis regulations. Talk is cheap but regulatory compliance sure isnt. The CFPBs authority to unconditionally exempt any class of covered persons, service providers, or consumer financial products or services, from its regulations is broad enough to exempt all credit unions from the QM mortgage requirements, for example. Instead, it has established exemption criteria which penalize smaller credit unions that make more than 500 mortgages or that sell mortgages to the secondary market.

I was also a little taken back by the triumphal I told you so tone of your prepared remarks. I half expected you to announce mission accomplished from an Aircraft carrier.

According to you there is good news all around. when it comes to mortgage lending. Credit unions are making more mortgage loans and the consumer has a wider path to the American dream in a mortgage market made stronger by the changes we made.

This is a rehashing of the you can bake your cake and eat it too nonsense that has kept this country from having an adult conversation about housing policy. It makes sense to hold reckless institutions responsible for poor underwriting standards; but, lets not fool ourselves: higher underwriting standards mean fewer people are going to qualify for mortgages than would otherwise be the case. For example, the New York Fed has identified a strange trend in which home prices have risen since 2012 but the aggregate amount of mortgage debt hasnt.

Furthermore, mortgage lending is now more closely tied to credit scores than ever before. Whats more, there is plenty of evidence that tighter under writing standards are one of the factors keeping millennials from buying that first home.

You are also really jumping the gun to gloat that hot-headed critics greatly exaggerated litigation fears. Oh Really? Remember that, since many of these regulations kicked in just two years ago cases involving them are only now beginning to work their way through the system. Why just this week a homeowner on Long Island tried to put off a foreclosure by arguing that Emigrant Bank failed to follow the loss mitigation procedures mandated by 12 CFR 1024.41(g) (Emigrant Savings Bank-Long Island v. Berkowitz, 27142/2012,) Other litigation has taken place in Michigan involving whether the loss mitigation rules should be retroactively applied ( Campbell v. Nationstar Mortgage , 611 F. Appx 288, 296 (6th Cir.) cert. denied, 136 S. Ct. 272, 193 L. Ed. 2d 137 (2015).

No one should be surprised that Litigation is coming All you have to do is look at the foreclosure defense litigation that routinely takes place in states like NY, NJ and California, states whose foreclosure mitigation laws provided models for the Bureaus own requirements, and you quickly realize that more litigation is coming and with it will come absurdly long foreclosures. It takes more than 900 days to foreclose on property in New York which makes it more expensive for residents to get a mortgage. And, by the way, the know-before-you-owe foreclosure requirements have made it more time consuming to close on mortgages and imposed increased compliance costs on any institution offering mortgage loans.

Believe it or not I used to be a defender of the Bureau. Dodd-Frank is a gross abdication of legislative leadership. Its as if Congress took some of the countrys most vexing problems and told your Bureau to solve them. In addition, I agree with you, credit unions and the CFPB share many of the same goals. After all, credit unions were started largely as a reaction to the indifference of mainstream banks to the needs of ordinary consumers.

That being said, its inevitable that we wont be on the same side on many issues. There is one big difference between credit unions and the Bureau: credit unions can go out of business. Credit union CEOs have to make tough calls every day balancing the desire to do what is best for the consumer against the need to generate enough revenue to keep the doors open. In contrast, the CFPB can craft regulations for an ideal world in which no well-meaning consumer protection costs too much or accomplishes too little to justify its imposition.

In short, credit unions have to deal with reality every day. Its the CFPB that needs a reality check.
Wu Jianmin, Member of Foreign Policy Advisory Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and Honorary President of Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) (Photo by Guo Hongsong/ Guangming Daily)

Belt and Road initiative is a hotspot at the CPPCC and NPC annual sessions. Last year and at the beginning of this year, I paid visits to Singapore, Indonesia, France, Kazakhstan and the United States where I spoke about the Belt and Road initiative. Here I want to share three points after talking with various parties.

First, the Belt and Road initiative is widely welcomed and highly praised. Officials from Indonesia, Singapore and Kazakhstan told me that they all paid high attention to the Belt and Road initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping. Indonesia wants to connect its maritime power strategy with Chinas B&R initiative, which coincides with Indonesias maritime plan. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former Prime Minister of France, told me that under the circumstance of challenging global economic situation, other countries are just considering their own interests, China is the only country that considers its own interests as well as the worlds development.

Meanwhile, we have to be keenly aware that there are still some doubts about the B&R initiative. In March 2015, after delivering a speech on the B&R initiative in Singapore, I received eighteen questions from the audience, some of which explicitly doubted Chinas strategic intent. Therefore, it is not easy to eliminate doubts about China from outside world in a short period, and we should not underestimate difficulties and obstacles in the process of implementing the B&R initiative.

Second, the B&R initiative is the most grand and farsighted initiative proposed by China that takes into consideration Chinese and global conditions as well as the state of world economic situation.

After over three decades of robust development, China has made remarkable achievements. However, we are still in the face of various challenges like the transformation of development modes and serious environmental pollution, which can only be solved through opening up, instead of closing the door.

At present, a batch of developing countries is rising on one hand, resulting in huge demands for infrastructure. On the other hand, banking sectors in western countries dont encourage investment in infrastructure; some even take such investment as bad debt. However, Chinas experience in the last over three decades demonstrates that infrastructure construction is a key link in promoting fast economic growth. The B&R initiative will promote development in infrastructure fields and bring fast economic growth, meeting the worlds demand.

Third, enterprises play a central role in implementing the B&R initiative. As China is experiencing a trend of going out nowadays, there are thirty thousand Chinese enterprises overseas with total assets of $6.4trillion. I believe that it is just a beginning when we look back after two or three decades.

At the beginning of this year, I visited Kazakhstan where there are over 2,600 Chinese enterprises, who are establishing a chamber of commerce. As most overseas Chinese enterprises are small and medium -sized enterprises which dont count much independently, it is necessary to establish a chamber of commerce. Chinese enterprises have their own advantages as well as weaknesses like the lack of professional knowledge, experiences and talents, which require them to constantly explore, innovate and improve during the process of going out.

During the process of implementing the B&R initiative, both state-owned enterprises and private enterprises can realize their ambitions, but it is also a bumpy road as well as a process in which those enterprises display their talent, innovative capacity, wisdom and courage to overcome difficulties.

By Wu Jianmin, Member of Foreign Policy Advisory Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and Honorary President of Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), for Guangming Daily

Translated by Zhang Zhou

[ Editor: zyq ]
President Barack Obama kicked off this week on Capitol Hill by welcoming financial regulators, including the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to the White House Monday.

During the meeting, Obama called the financial system safer and stronger than it was before the crisis. He added that it is top priority of the White House going forward to improve cybersecurity and tighten security gaps in the financial sector, identifying weak and vulnerable areas.

The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) will continue its advocacy efforts for the remainder of Obamas term and the 114th Congress, pushing for cybersecurity legislation that would provide a national data security and data breach notification standard.

CUNA will also continue to fight for reducing the regulatory burden of credit unions, revealed in a groundbreaking CUNA study to have been $7.2 billion in 2014 alone. (See related story: Complete CUNA reg. burden study now available.)
A major restructuring of agricultural policy will be needed to maintain food security if the UK leaves the European Union, academics have warned.

The UKs forthcoming in-out referendum on 23 June will have momentous significance for the countrys food system, says a report by Food Research Collaboration.

Called Food, the UK and the EU: Brexit or Bremain?, the briefing paper argues that country must wake up to the enormity of unravelling 43 years of co-negotiated food legislation.

See also: Farm leaders accused of scaremongering over EU exit

Both consumers and food businesses would be affected by a referendum vote that results in the UK leaving the EU, it says.

If the country decided to leave, food imports would become more expensive, prices would increase and there could be major disruptions to supply chains, says the report.

With such prices increases for imported goods, the report suggests there could be consequences for the consumption of foods that the UK relies on EU nations to produce.

Nearly 40% of the UKs total food supply of fruit and vegetables comes from the EU, and nearly 55% of its supply of pigmeat, says the document.

The UK is about 60% food self-sufficient and people should therefore be wary of instant independence from the EU, it adds.

The report also warns of a potential food service and food factory crisis if EU labour currently working in those industries lost their freedom of movement to be in the UK.

The report was co-authored by Food Research Collaboration chairman Tim Lang, who is director of the Centre for Food Policy at City University London.

He said: The referendum will be a defining moment in UK food policy, with hugely important implications for both consumers and businesses.

The report outlined the real impact of the EU on UK food, said Professor Lang.

The Brits need to stop joking about wine lakes, bent bananas and myths from the EU past, which have been sorted, and get real about security of food supply today and tomorrow.

It is not simply a choice about farming  the decision will affect the entire UK food system and all of our daily lives. Food prices will almost certainly go up, affected by a weakened sterling.

The UK is in a vulnerable position already with a food trade gap of 21bn in the red  we import far more food than we export.

Figures show EU employees make up more than a quarter of the food manufacturing workforce (26.9%) and a tenth of workers in food and beverage services (11.3%).

This compared with 6.1% across the UK economy as a whole, said Prof Lang.

If the people vote for Brexit, therell need to be a dig for victory on an unprecedented scale. And this wont be using the EU labour that currently grows, picks and processes so much British food.

EU membership wasnt without its frustrations, acknowledged Prof Lang.

But British people should be provided with the facts if the country was to break away from four decades of hard-fought policy, he said.

The public has been woefully ill-informed on this subject by politicians, for instance Defra has seven times more civil servants, despite massive cuts, than has DG Agri in Brussels.

Prof Lang said people should ask which was better  to use British muscle to try to shift the food system in a more sustainable direction, or to waste years negotiating an isolationist position?

The report is likely to be viewed by EU supporters as another reason for the UK to remain a member of the trading bloc.

But those who want to leave say such views are little more than scaremongering and insist the UK has everything to gain by going it alone.

Speaking at this years Oxford Farming Conference, leave campaigner and former Defra secretary Owen Paterson said UK farming would thrive outside the EU.

The first priority in growing the rural economy should be to increase food production, Mr Paterson told listeners.

The food chain contributed 85bn per year to the UK economy, supported 3.5m jobs and provided 62% of the food we eat.

Food and drink is the UKs largest manufacturing industry  bigger than cars and aerospace combined; it employs one in eight people.

Many of these jobs are located in rural areas.

A UK policy should encourage import substitution, the export of quality products, and the government should direct public procurement, worth 2.4bn, towards UK producers.
According to public records, In October 2015, the Compliance unit of the Revenue Management Bureau, aided by the Business Tax Customer Service and Audit units, conducted the calendar year 2015 non-compliant rental property project. Staff licensed and brought into compliance approximately 4,300 unregistered landlords. The project generated invoices of $6.58 million of which approximately $4.60 million has been collected.

Oakland nails 4,300 unregistered landlords operating illegallyBy Lynda Carson - March 7, 2016Oakland - Sometimes Oakland is known for having residential buildings with bedbugs http://tinyurl.com/zmgyxb9 , or slumlords http://tinyurl.com/hh36hd4 , and bad landlords http://tinyurl.com/zp2juye Sometimes people like Hong Gardner makes the news at times http://tinyurl.com/k7hgjqy , or Elizabeth Ann Williams http://tinyurl.com/zad4z68 , and some landlords may have even been arrested for hiring an arsonist http://tinyurl.com/zbkfqjx . Sometimes landlords in Oakland may even end up going to prison for trying to hire an arsonist to burn down a low-income hotel, as a way to collect on the insurance money http://tinyurl.com/jnpxhru At other times, some landlords may be illegal landlords who have not registered their rental units with the City of Oakland, and have been operating illegally for years in the city. Other landlords may have been listed as slumlords by the community at large http://tinyurl.com/zcsaukn Then there are the times when landlords or nonprofit housing developers get nailed in Oakland for trying to evict all of their tenants from a building illegally http://tinyurl.com/ha5tdap In this latest case of shady landlords, in the March 7, 2016, on-line edition of East Bay Express http://tinyurl.com/jgrvs3h , there is brief a mention about 4,300 unregistered Oakland landlords getting caught for operating illegally recently. The story also mentions how the city collected an additional $4.60 million as a direct result.According to public records, In October 2015, the Compliance unit of the Revenue Management Bureau, aided by the Business Tax Customer Service and Audit units, conducted the calendar year 2015 non-compliant rental property project. Staff licensed and brought into compliance approximately 4,300 unregistered landlords. The project generated invoices of $6.58 million of which approximately $4.60 million has been collected.4,300 Unregistered Landlords Operating IllegallyNow that we know that 4,300 unregistered landlords were nailed recently for operating illegally in Oakland, people should be asking if city officials notified all the renters in those illegal rental units, or if the landlords operating illegally payed back all the rents they collected from the renters.According to California Tenant Law http://tinyurl.com/7akbv92 , in the section called The Illegal Unit, it clearly states;  If the place is illegal, such as a converted garage or bootlegged duplex, then under Gruzen v. Henry, the landlord is not entitled to collect or request ANY rent. It is illegal if the structure that is there does not match the "Certificate of Occupancy" or equivalent issued by the City. Chances are, there are plenty of defects in an illegal unit: no contractor would touch it.Considering that the city was able to track down and nail 4,300 unregistered landlords who were operating illegally in Oakland, should have notified all the renters that the landlords were operating illegally.Additionally, city officials should also be able to track down all the people who are operating illegal hotels in the city who are associated with Airbnb http://tinyurl.com/jpoyyjk . As was exposed in the East Bay Express http://tinyurl.com/opj4byt , there certainly appears to be a lot of shady operations happening in Oakland that city officials are turning a blind eye to.For a view of the public records revealing that 4,300 unregistered landlords have been operating illegally in Oakland: According to City records http://tinyurl.com/zdndq3d under the section called Finance Department, click on 1. View Report, and a PDF report will open. Go to page 10 of the PDF report, to the section called Business License Tax to see mention of 4,300 unregistered landlords getting caught for operating illegally in Oakland.Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com >>>>>>
Native American organization; Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC), Co-Founder and Lead Organizer , Corrina Gould demands the removal of the warrior mascot at John Swett High school in Crockett, CA.

Indian People Organizing for Change Demands the Removal of High School MascotBy Angel Heart - March 6, 2016Native American organization; Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC), Co-Founder and Lead Organizer , Corrina Gould demands the removal of the warrior mascot at John Swett High school in Crockett, CA. IPOC is an organization that educates the public on issues affecting First Nations Peoples. IPOC promotes awareness and educates the public about the desecration of Native American sacred sites, and Shellmound desecration in the greater Bay Area.Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSPRIT) advocated for the removal of the Indian mascot, addressing John Swett Unified School District (JSUSD) in February of 2014. IPOC supported SSPRITs advocacy, providing a statement for the JSUSD Board of Education (BOE). SSPRIT is an organization that educates members of the community through seminars, workshops, discussion groups, and participation, to eliminate discrimination, and prejudice against Indigenous Peoples. SSPRITs goal is to educate the public about the moral and legal obligations to preserve and protect the sacred sites and places, and to uphold the civil, and human rights of all Indigenous Peoples.In her correspondence to JSUSD BOE, IPOC, Co-Founder Corrina Gould stated, Our people have heard many of the excuses of why naming a team after a race of people is supposed to be in some way honoring them. Our people decided that this is not a way of celebrating who we are, but rather it continues the devastation of dehumanizing us; a continued cultural genocide. School districts should strive to teach its students the real history of the space they now occupy on Ohlone territory.On February 11, 2015, one year after SSPRITs advocacy began, JSUSD BOE voted unanimously to remove the Indian mascot. JSUSD BOE, and SSPRIT agreed, the Indian mascot removal could provide a teachable moment. The district approved a SSPRIT mascot discourse for students. SSPRIT facilitated the discourse at John Swett High School; all students, grades 9-12. The discourse addressed cultural relevancy & appropriate mascot replacements. At this time, the warrior was a popular mascot replacement choice within the JSUSD community; including, several, but not all JSUSD BOE members, students, parents, and alumni. SSPRIT advised the board that Warrior mascots often portray images of violence, weapons of violence, and that warrior mascots are most often depicted as Native American. There are 85 schools in California that use Warrior as their mascot; each is depicted as Native American. Prior to the mascot discourse, JSUSD BOE created a Resolution forbidding the use of violent imagery, and forms of violence in connection to their schools.Despite JSUSDs Resolution, and despite the Native American Cultural Educational Consulting provided by SSPRIT, On February 15, 2016, JSUSD BOE voted to replace the Indian Mascot with Warrior. In response to JSUSDs decision, IPOC, Lead Organizer, Corrina Gould states, I am disappointed that in this time of great change, the work that has been put into working together as different communities, to educate one another, to see different perspectives; to honor one another with respect; has been cast aside. I am demanding that the school board reassess their decision to change the mascot name to warriors. I am asking that this Board do what is ethically, and morally right, to be the leaders that our children can look up to, to make the right decision, and to retract the last vote. SSPRIT will be addressing the JSUSD Warrior Mascot at the districts next school board meeting on Wednesday, March 9, 2016.SSPRIT is hosting a Teach-Out, and Meet & Greet prior to the JSUSD BOE meeting from 4:00- 5:30pm. The Teach-Out is located at Lefty Gomez Recreational Center, 470 Parker Avenue, Rodeo, CA. Snacks and refreshments will be made available. The JSUSD, BOE meeting is located next door at 400 Parker Avenue, and begins at 6:30pm.For More Information, please visit the following links:
Los Angeles, CA In another sign that Uber drivers might be employees rather than independent contractors, a former California Uber driver, one who is involved in the In another sign that Uber drivers might be employees rather than independent contractors, a former California Uber driver, one who is involved in the California labor lawsuit , has reportedly been approved for California unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits, which are not given to independent contractors, are granted by the Employment Development Department.

According to(3/4/16), Patrick Ely applied for unemployment benefits after his access to Ubers app was deactivated. Ely had driven for Uber for more than a year and initially made around $1,100 per week. But Uber lowered its rates, and Ely says he found he was making less than half as much money for working the same hours. After he and other drivers filed a lawsuit against Uber, alleging violations of California labor law, Ely says he was no longer able to access Ubers app, meaning he could no longer drive for Uber.Ely then filed for unemployment benefits, and had his application approved. An attorney for Ely toldthat a large part of the Employment Development Departments decision was determining how much control Uber had over Elys work.The amount of control an individual or a company has over the workers job is an important factor in determining whether a person is an independent contractor or an employee. Independent contractors have more authority and discretion in their job; they are able to set their own rates, determine their working conditions and control their hours. Employees are under greater control of the company they work for. The company generally controls their pay (or the amount charged), the hours worked and the working conditions. The company can also fire an employee at any time.There are other factors that determine whether a person is an independent contractor or an employee. These factors include whether the work is part of the regular business of the alleged employer, whether the services rendered require special skills, and the expected duration of the working relationship.In other words, its not enough that the alleged employer says the worker is an independent contractor, the nature of the job and the relationship has to back that classification. If it does not, the worker is likely an employee and eligible for all the rights and benefits of an employee.In September 2015, US District Judge Edward M. Chen granted class-action status to Uber drivers involved in the California labor lawsuit.The lawsuit iscase number 3:13-cv-03826, in the US District Court in the Northern District of California.
- A five-storey building has collapsed in Lagos, killing at least 34 people

- The collapsed building is opposite Oando filling station by Chisco bus stop along the Lekki-Epe expressway corridor

- The cause of the collapse is unknown

34 persons have been confirmed dead while 13 others were rescued alive after a five-storey building collapsed in the Lekki area of Lagos.

The collapsed building is opposite Oando filling station by Chisco bus stop along the Lekki-Epe expressway corridor.

READ ALSO: Read Obasanjos message to Akpabio and Amaechi

Confirming the incident, the spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, said rescue operations are currently ongoing.

Rescue operations was concluded on Wednesday, March 9 by 7:20pm after reaching ground zero NEMA officals told our reporter.

Already, investigation into the cause of the collapsed building has began by various federal and Lagos state agencies.

Recovered dead bodies from the collapsed 5 storey building in Lagos

A survivor at the collapsed 5 storey building in Lekki

Rescue operations at the collapsed 5 storey building in Lekki

Local rescue team at the site of the collapsed building in Lekki on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

The carcass of the collapsed building in Lekki area of Lagos on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

Combined team of LASEMA, NEMA trying to rescue a victim from the rubbles of the building. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

Another section of the collapsed building in Lekki area of Lagos state on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

Crowd gather at the rescue site after the five-storey building collapsed on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.

One of the victims of the collapse being rescued from the rubbles of the collapsed building. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

Another portion of the building falling off during the incident on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

Source: Legit.ng
- Zuma speaks about settling business tensions among citizens of South Africa and Nigeria

- The South Africa president addresses bilateral relationship between Nigeria and South Africa

- Zuma reveals how Buhari helped South Africa during the Apartheid

Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa on Tuesday, March 8, addressed a joint session of the National Assembly.

Zumas visit to Nigeria and President Buhari is aimed at mending the relations between the two giants of Africa, as there are also indications that it is an opportunity for both presidents to address the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum.

But according to Zuma, the main objective for his visit is to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and South Africa so as both nations economic ties are fortified.

L-R: President Muhammadu Buhari; South Africa President, Mr. Jacob Zuma; Senate President , Bukola Saraki and Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, when Jacob Zuma Address a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja

L-R: South Africa President, Mr. Jacob Zuma; Senate President , Bukola Saraki and Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, when Jacob Zuma Address a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja

Jacob Zuma and President Buhari at National Assembly

President Buhari and Jacob Zuma stand for both nation's national anthem at the National assembly

A cross section of lawmakers during President Jacob Zuma address

Read excerpts from President Jacob Zumas speech below:

The main objective of the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa is to ensure that economic ties are strengthened. We are proud of this country, as Nigeria charted the way Africans need to follow with the 2015 election.

Nigeria's role in ending apartheid in South Africa must be told endlessly to future generations of our people. Nigerias role in the reparation of South Arica has a special place in the history of the African continent and we must strive not to be left behind in the fourth industrial revolution. Presently, more than 120 companies from South Africa operate in Nigeria as against just four companies in 1999.

But we must diversify our economies to provide more jobs for our people to break away from colonial strongholds and improve their living conditions. Economic cooperation between Nigeria and South Africa must be enhanced to enable Africa develop at a fast pace.

The bilateral relationship between our countries improved in the last 16 years with over 120 South African Companies in Nigeria now.

"Mr. president and honourable members of the Senate and House of Representatives, Nigeria and South Africa must forged a strong strategic partnership. We need to stand firm in our political, economical and social co-operation. We need to advance a continental transformation of peace and security. That the citizens of both countries march together towards a brighter future. A future filled with prosperity. South and Nigeria must play a key role to achieve this."

Shortly after Zuma's speech, the speaker of the House of Representative Yakubu Dogara gave a vote of thanks to the South Africa president as both country's national anthem were sung.

Zumas visit to the National Assembly is symbolic. It is the first time that the 8th National Assembly is honouring a visiting President and the second time that a President is addressing the joint session in the last 15 years. The last was in 2000 by a former US President, Bill Clinton.

Source: Legit.ng
According to a Bucharest City Report by JLL, Romanias GDP grew by 3.7% (y-o-y) in the first 9 months of 2015 and is forecast to increase by 3.7% (Goldman Sachs) until the end of the year. The cut in VAT from 24% to 9% for food products since the 1st

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Internos Spezialfondsgesellschaft mbH has acquired two care home properties in the Hanover region, Germany for its special fund Care Invest I. The vendor is the Bremen-based developer Friedhelm Clasen, which has specialised in care facilities for more than 20 years. The properties include the AWO (Worker's Welfare Association) home in

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Scientists from NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) and the University of Massachusetts Boston have found evidence of Atlantic bluefin tuna spawning activity off the northeastern United States in an area of open ocean south of New England and east of the Mid-Atlantic states called the Slope Sea.

The findings, to be published March 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the current life-history model for western Atlantic bluefin, which assumes spawning occurs only in the Gulf of Mexico, overestimates age-at-maturity. For that reason, the authors conclude that western Atlantic bluefin may be less vulnerable to fishing and other stressors than previously thought.

Prior to this research, the only known spawning grounds for Atlantic bluefin tuna were in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea. The evidence for a new western Atlantic spawning ground came from a pair of Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) research cruises in the Slope Sea during the summer of 2013.

"We collected 67 larval bluefin tuna during these two cruises, and the catch rates were comparable to the number collected during the annual bluefin tuna larval survey in the Gulf of Mexico," said David Richardson of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), lead author of this study. "Most of these larvae were small, less than 5 millimeters, and were estimated to be less than one week old. Drifting buoy data confirmed that these small larvae could not possibly have been transported into this area from the Gulf of Mexico spawning ground."

Larvae collected during the cruises were identified as bluefin tuna through visual examination and genetic sequencing. To confirm the identification, larvae were sent to the Alaska Fisheries Science Center laboratory in Juneau, where DNA sequences verified that the larvae were Atlantic bluefin tuna.

A single bluefin tuna can spawn millions of eggs, each of which is just over a millimeter in diameter, or the size of a poppy seed. Within a couple of days these eggs hatch into larvae that are poorly developed and bear little resemblance to the adults. Larval bluefin tuna can be collected in plankton nets and identified based on their shape, pigment patterns and body structures.

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Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is a high value species with a unique physiology that allows it to range from the tropics to the sub-arctic, in coastal to international waters. As a highly migratory species, Atlantic bluefin tuna is assessed by the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) as distinct eastern and western stocks separated by the 45 degree west meridian (or 45 w longitude). The U.S. fishery harvest from the western Atlantic stock is managed through NOAA Fisheries' Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan.

For many years, global overfishing on this species was prevalent, resulting in substantial population declines. However, recent international cooperation in managing catches has contributed to increasing trends in the abundance of both the eastern and western management stocks. The western stock, targeted by U.S. fishermen, is harvested at levels within the range of the SCRS' scientific advice.

This research may help to resolve a longstanding debate in Atlantic bluefin tuna science. It had long been assumed that bluefin tuna start spawning at age 4 in the Mediterranean Sea and age 9 in the Gulf of Mexico. Electronic tagging studies begun in the late 1990s revealed that many bluefin tuna, assumed to be of mature size, did not visit either spawning ground during the spawning season as expected. This led some to propose that these larger fish were not spawning, and instead the age-at-maturity for western Atlantic bluefin tuna was 12-16 years, rather than 9 years, as was assumed in the stock assessment.

Molly Lutcavage at the Large Pelagics Research Center of the University of Massachusetts Boston, a co-author on the study, was a consistent supporter of an alternate hypothesis--fish that did not visit the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea were spawning elsewhere. The research team used electronic tagging data from the Lutcavage lab to present an alternate model of western Atlantic bluefin tuna spawning migrations.

Only the largest bluefin tuna, those over about 500 pounds, migrate to the Gulf of Mexico spawning area. After these fish exit the Gulf of Mexico, they swim through the Slope Sea rapidly, on their way to northern feeding grounds. On the other hand, smaller fish, ranging in size from 80 to 500 pounds, generally spend more than 20 days in the Slope Sea during the spawning season, a duration consistent with spawning.

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"Last year, we demonstrated using endocrine measurements that bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic mature at around 5 years of age. That study, and ones before it, predicted that these smaller fish would spawn in a more northerly area closer to the summertime foraging grounds in the Gulf of Maine and Canadian waters," Lutcavage said. "The evidence of spawning in the Slope Sea, and the analysis of the tagging data, suggests that western Atlantic bluefin tuna are partitioning spawning areas by size, and that a younger age at maturity should be used in the stock assessment."

Researchers also found that individual tuna occupy both the Slope Sea and Mediterranean Sea in separate years, contrary to the prevailing view that individuals exhibit complete fidelity to a spawning site. Reproductive mixing between the eastern and western stocks may occur in the Slope Sea and the authors contend that population structure of bluefin tuna may be more complex than is currently thought.

"Past analyses of Atlantic bluefin tuna population structure and mixing between the western and eastern Atlantic stocks may need to be revisited because they do not account for the full spatial extent of western Atlantic spawning," Richardson said. "So much of the science and sampling for Atlantic bluefin tuna has been built around the assumption that the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea are the only spawning grounds. This new research underscores the complexity of stock structure for this species and identifies important areas for future research."

The authors expect these findings could potentially lead to a lower estimated age-at-maturity, a critical component of the stock assessment, and could reopen consideration of the nature and level of mixing between the western and eastern Atlantic populations. This new information will be considered along with other pertinent research as part of the regular ICCAT SCRS stock assessment process.

The scientific team for this study comprises researchers from NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), the Large Pelagics Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the School of Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and NOAA's Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO). The sampling for this study was supported by NOAA, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the US Navy through interagency agreements for the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS).
Forests in the Nation's most densely forested and most densely populated region will change radically in the next 50 years, primarily because of the way they are managed -- or not managed -- today, according to a new report by a team of USDA Forest Service scientists and partners.

"This research is vital to everyone concerned about sustaining diverse, healthy, productive forests and the associated ecosystem services, commodities, and jobs our forests provide," said Tony Ferguson, Acting Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory. "It provides a scientific foundation for exploring and discussing the future of forests, and it underscores the role of management in making forests healthier and more resilient."

Future Forests of the Northern United States is part of the Northern Forest Futures Project, a cooperative effort of the Forest Service, the Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters and the academic community. Begun in 2009, the project examines how past trends and today's choices may impact Northern forests in coming decades. The new report is published as General Technical Report NRS-151 by the Forest Service's Northern Research Station and is available online at: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/50448 Interactive, on-line tools for exploring future scenarios of forest change are available at: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/futures/dashboard/

Change is nothing new to Northern forests, and much of it has been positive over the past century. Since the early 1900s, a period when forests were exploitively logged and cleared for farms, there has been an increase of 11 million acres of forest land and an increase of 144 million cubic feet of timber, both despite a population increase of 26 million people. However, other changes are causing concern for forest owners and managers: the expanding impact of invasive species, loss of species diversity, low diversity in forest age classes, increasing urban expansion that is shrinking forest acreage, fragmentation of forest land, parcellation of forest ownerships, loss of forest-based employment, effects of burgeoning white-tailed populations on tree regeneration and forest composition, and increasing atmospheric carbon emissions.

"The challenges facing northern forests are large, complicated, intertwined, and enduring," said Stephen Shifley, one of the 30 authors who collaborated on Future Forests of the Northern United States and a principle investigator for the Northern Forest Futures project. "By applying the best available science to look ahead at how forests are likely to change over the next 50 years, we think forest owners, managers, planners, and policymakers will be better prepared to avoid many future problems by implementing proactive management practices that are ecologically sound, socially acceptable and economically viable."

A few of the trends that will affect Northern forests over the next 50 years include:

Forest area is projected to decrease between 3.5 and 6.4 percent with losses concentrated around existing urban and suburban areas.

Forest area is currently concentrated in the 40-to-80-year age class and is expected to increase in mean age over time, reducing forest diversity and, with it, important types of wildlife habitat.

Forests are under the expanding influence of numerous native and invasive insect pests including emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, spruce budworm, Sirex woodwasp, winter moth, hemlock woolly adelgid, and gypsy moth as well as dozens of invasive plants.

Aboveground forest biomass is expected to increase by about 4 percent, but total carbon sequestered by northern forests (including soils) is expected to decrease by about 2 percent, primarily as the result of reduced forest acreage combined with slower tree growth that is typical for aging forests.

Projected population increases in the North are expected to cause Federal and State park land area per capita to decrease by 19 percent and non-Federal forest land area per capita to decrease by 26 percent.

Future Forests of the Northern United States is one of a series of publications examining past, present and anticipated changes in forest biodiversity, productivity, health, soil and water, carbon, biomass, energy, commodities, employment, and recreation in the U.S. North. Other publications are available at: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/futures/pubs/

The mission of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station is to improve people's lives and help sustain the natural resources in the Northeast and Midwest through leading-edge science and effective information delivery.

The mission of the Forest Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the Nation's clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the U.S., of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.
The military government is increasingly hostile to any form of criticism. That can be seen by the growing number (nearly a hundred so far) of known (via speeches, Internet posts or published remarks) critics who have been arrested and held, often without being charged. The generals are increasingly criticized for these police state tactics but the most common criticism is about the refusal to name a date when elections and democracy will resume. Best estimate now is late 2017, maybe. There is growing foreign pressure from neighbors (except China) and the West. Worse since September 2015 the pro-democracy populists (the red shirts) have largely ceased demonstrations. The populists did so to demonstrate that there was no violent opposition to justify continued military rule. The red shirts are waiting for the military government to allow elections which is what Thai military governments all eventually do. The May 2014 coup came after months of political protests in the capital and those tensions remain but the army is definitely in control. Despite that the economy is not doing as well as people expect and the military government is blamed. In the past this sort of thing played a large role in persuading the generals to allow elections again and that seems to be happening again.

The Smugglers Are Suffering

There is growing evidence that some people smuggling continues via land routes into Malaysia. Although the security forces now monitor known smuggling routes (trails or dirt roads crossing the border in forested but thinly populated areas) there are so many of these routes that there are always some that smugglers can still get small groups of people across on. Despite this, there is now a lot less people smuggling and in large part because the numerous Thai smuggling gangs got the message in 2015; anything but people is tolerable and the pressure will ease off once the people smuggling stops. The gangs apparently decided to do what was best for business.

All this began in early 2015 when the security forces carried out a major crackdown on gangsters smuggling Burmese Moslems (and others) through Thailand to Malaysia. In the course 2015 some 2,300 illegal migrants were arrested (and many more turned back) in Thailand along with over a hundred of the smugglers. This forced the smugglers to seek another route. By early 2016 it appeared that the people smugglers had largely shut down the people smuggling operation because far fewer people were disappearing from refugee camps in Burma.

What triggered all this crackdown was the deaths, and bad publicity associated with the illegal migration of Rohingya Moslems from Burma and Bangladesh via Thailand. As of early 2015 thousands of Rohingya had gone missing after getting on boats to be taken south. People smugglers used boats and trucks to move these people south, often overland through Thailand or via Thai coastal waters. The Thai crackdown halted a very lucrative criminal enterprise for smugglers large fees to take people to Malaysia, Thailand, India or more distant points (like Indonesia). This had become big business and by late 2014 it was believed that up to 10,000 people a month were leaving with 75 percent coming from Burma. Security forces in Burma and Thailand were accused of working with the smugglers, usually in the form of taking bribes to allow the smuggler boats and trucks to pass without interference. Security forces were accused of sinking some boats because the smugglers refused to leave or pay. Others pointed out that smugglers tend to use poorly maintained boats, which are often overloaded and this leads to boats sinking, especially in bad weather or being stranded when engines fail.

A growing number of Rohingya who survived the trip reported that some smuggler gangs would use Thai transit camps to try and extort more cash from the families of some refugees and would torture or kill some refugees while doing this. Some of the bodies found in these camps showed signs of torture and other abuse. Most of the deaths were from disease or exhaustion. Because of international pressure the Thai government also cracked down on corrupt security personnel taking bribes from or otherwise cooperating with the smugglers. Over 200,000 Rohingya are believed to have fled Burma by sea since the anti-Moslem violence began there in 2012. At least 25,000 are believed to have gone south in the first three months of 2015 and that level of activity continued until May when the Thai crackdown took effect. Suddenly a lot fewer (soon over 80 percent fewer) Rohingya refugees were showing up at in Malaysia or Indonesia. All the countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal were now watching for boats engaged in people smuggling and that pretty much ruled out using large vessels anymore. At that point smugglers could only move a few people at a time on smaller vessels that could avoid or pass inspection. The drove the price of using people smugglers way up, to the point where most Rohingya could not afford it.

Peace Talks Sputter Forward

In the south the terms for the resumption of formal peace negotiations are still being worked out in Malaysia with Malaysian government help. A major point of contention is which southern political groups will be recognized as negotiators. Meanwhile the government monitors the mood down south and reports that the Moslem majority there is generally repelled by the actions of major Islamic terror groups like al Qaeda and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). Very few, if any, Thai Moslems have joined ISIL although a few Malaysians Moslems have. Meanwhile the violence down south continues to decline. Islamic terrorist bombings were down 49 percent in 2015 compared to 2014. The 2015 bombing activity was 65 percent less than 2007, the peak year for violence in the Moslem south. The violence has been going on since 2004 and most Moslems in the south are fed up but there are still a few hard core violent separatists who keep at it. This is believed partly responsible for the recent increase in separatist violence down south.

March 4, 2016: In the south (Narathiwat province) Islamic terrorists used a roadside bomb to attack local defense volunteers escorting teachers to school. Two of the eight volunteers were wounded and the others opened fire on the Islamic terrorists who set off the bomb but did not hit any of them.

March 3, 2016: In the south (Yala province) Islamic terrorists killed a Buddhist civilian and in a separate incident killed an off-duty Moslem soldier.

March 2, 2016: In the south (Yala province) Islamic terrorists, in three separate incidents, killed two Moslem civilians and badly wounded a soldier.

February 27, 2016: In the south (Pattani province) Islamic terrorists stole a car, placed a bomb inside and then parked it near a police station. The bomb had a timer and when it went off wounding six policemen and a civilian.

February 17, 2016: Task Force (TF) 152 of the Chinese Navy reached Thailand and spent five days visiting and showing off the destroyer, frigate and replenishment ship that comprise task force. The sailors and 64 commandos assigned to the task force also got some shore leave. TF 152 has been on a world tour for nearly a year. First it spent four months with the international anti-piracy patrol off Somalia then proceeded around the world making stops in Africa, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and the Americas (including the United States). TF 152 visited Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Cambodia before returning to China.

February 14, 2016: In the south (Narathiwat province) armed men stopped a truck and killed one of the three men in the vehicle because he could not speak Malay (that is, he was not a southern Moslem). The other two men were left unharmed.

February 12, 2016: In the south (Pattani province) there were eight Islamic terrorist attacks; four small bombs went off in various places, a garage and a school were set on fire, a pro-government Moslem shot dead and a police checkpoint fired on. The only casualty was the murdered Moslem man. At the same time in nearby Yala province a remote controlled bomb killed two soldiers and wounded five others. This unusual amount of Islamic terrorist violence comes after a year of relative peace in the south. This was partly the result of Islamic terrorist leaders ordering their followers to only carry out attacks in response to any government actions that warrant it. In that case the retaliation should be as widespread as possible but also avoid harming any civilians. It is unclear what government action, if any, prompted this surge in violence.

February 10, 2016: In the south (Pattani province) troops, acting on a tip found and raided an Islamic terrorist camp. They encountered five armed men who briefly fired at them and then fled. Troops seized bomb making materials and documents that led to the arrest of a local man.

February 6, 2016: In the south (Yala province) a village leader accused of cooperating with Islamic terrorists was found shot dead. Locals believed he was murdered by a pro-government gunman.
The teenager charged with the murder of Kawerau man Todd Branch will reappear in the Whakatane District Court on March 23.

Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Standen says a post mortem has now been completed and police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the homicide.
When Naledi's mother died, she had no idea who would step in to raise her: a group of men in Botswana.

A beautiful clip, from the forthcoming Vulcan Productions film "Naledi," captures perfectly what one man's devotion to this baby elephant's life means to her.

Dodo Shows Soulmates Pig Loves To Launch Himself Onto His Dad's Lap

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The film aims to highlight the plight of African elephants, who are being killed faster than they are being born. These elephants are fighting for their own individual lives, as well as for the survival of their species.

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"One of these guardians has been charged with a daunting task: to count every elephant in Africa in a desperate attempt to help them survive," the film's website explains. "Now, he must race to defend an entire species while struggling to save a single life."

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James Hannahams Delicious Foods is among the five finalists for this years PEN/Faulkner Award. His novel, which was named a 2015 Notable Book by The Washington Post, is a dazzling, disturbing story about a young man trying to free his mother from virtual slavery on a modern-day produce farm.

The PEN/Faulkner Award, which bills itself as Americas largest peer-juried prize for fiction, is administered by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation in Washington. The winner, who will be announced April 5, will receive $15,000. The other four finalists will receive $5,000 apiece. The finalists for this years prize include two debut novels and two collections of short stories:

[Notable fiction books of 2015]

 Julie Iromuanyas debut novel,  Mr. and Mrs. Doctor , is about a Nigerian immigrant who deceives his family back home into believing that he has become a doctor. Iromuanya, who is herself the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, teaches English and Africana literature at the University of Arizona.

 Viet Thanh Nguyens debut novel, The Sympathizer, is about a North Vietnamese spy who flees to California after the fall of Saigon and continues working for the communists. The Sympathizer was also named a 2015 Notable Book by The Post. Nguyen teaches English and American studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

 Elizabeth Tallents new collection, Mendocino Fire, contains 10 stories, which the judges praised for their depiction of turbulent change and ecological peril. Each character leaves us gasping. Tallent, who was born in Washington, is a longtime teacher of creative writing at Stanford University.

 Luis Alberto Urreas The Water Museum, a collection of stories, was also named a 2015 Notable Book by The Post. Post reviewer Michael Lindgren wrote, A subtle and moving exploration of the boundaries and contradictions of ethnic identity shimmers through these stories like a melody. He went on to call the collection an extended exercise in gutbucket romanticism played out in scorched-earth country where the land is cracked and hard. Urrea teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

At the awards ceremony at the Folger Theatre in Washington on May 14, all the finalists will read from their work. Tickets to the ceremony, which includes a dinner with the authors, are $100. Go to penfaulkner.org or call 202-544-7077 for more details.

The judges this year are Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey and Sergio Troncoso. They considered almost 500 works of fiction by Americans published in the United States during 2015.
Q-Tip has been appointed as an artistic adviser at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (Courtesy of Q-Tip/ )

Marking the 100th anniversary of John F. Kennedys birth, Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter has introduced her first season of programming with a year-long festival that honors the presidents legacy of courage, freedom and social justice.

The Kennedy Centennial is the centerpiece of the centers 2016-2017 season, a schedule of some 2,000 performances and events announced Tuesday that includes a focus on hip-hop for the first time in the centers history.

Now 18 months into her tenure at the head of the nations busiest arts center, Rutter provides a glimpse of her artistic vision with this season lineup, the first completely under her control. It features 25 commissions across multiple genres and a continued focus on the role of the artist  emphasized by the appointment of Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming and Q-Tip as artistic advisers and Terence Blanchard and violinist Joshua Bell as artists-in-residence.

An important aspect of our identity here at the center is the fact that we are a living memorial, Rutter said. You cant really, as a performing arts center, recognize [Kennedys] achievements, but you can extrapolate the ideals that we associate with him and bring these ideals to life through performing arts activities.

The centennial begins with events from this season  including pieces of the Ireland 100 Festival and next months Kennedy Center Arts Summit  and continues with tributes to activist artists Pete Seeger, Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln. Also included in the festivals 35 events are the Washington National Opera productions of Blanchards Champion, about boxer Emile Griffith, and Jake Heggies Dead Man Walking.

The hip-hop programs are part of the JFK centennial. The arts center has presented hip-hop events for 15 years, but not in a cohesive way. Next seasons events will be curated by rapper and record producer Q-Tip, the centers first artistic director of hip-hop culture. They include the world premiere of the B-Fly commission All the Way Live! and the Brave New Voices Youth Summit.

Q-Tip did not attend the season announcement, but he said in a video message that he welcomes the arts centers commitment. It couldnt come at a better time. As a nation, were dealing with issues of race, issues of racism, issues of misogyny, he said. People turn to art at times like these, and hip-hop is no exception.

The hip-hop performances expand the centers genre-blurring events that Rutter launched this season. Returning under the heading Mashups will be five performances of KC Jukebox, a contemporary series from composer-in-residence Mason Bates, as well as the Jason + series with artistic director for jazz Jason Moran and Demo, curated by Damian Woetzel.

Rutter expects Ma and Fleming to foster an artist-centered atmosphere, an approach she used successfully in Chicago, where she worked before coming to Washington. Ma and Bates, who is the Kennedy Centers composer-in-residence, had formal relationships with Rutter there.

The 2016-2017 season marks the National Symphony Orchestras final year under music director Christoph Eschenbach. In addition to a residency with Joshua Bell and three co-commissions from composers Mason Bates, Christopher Rouse and Wynton Marsalis, the schedule features performances by violinist Hilary Hahn and pianists Emanuel Ax, Lang Lang and Jeremy Denk. Two programs will be conducted by music director designate Gianandrea Noseda, and a series of concerts celebrating former music director Mstislav Rostropovich, including three concerts in Russia under Eschenbach next March.

It is an important milestone for the orchestra, Rutter said. Its a reflection of an institution, how you say goodbye, she said. We really want to bid him a generous and grateful farewell.

The five-production lineup from the Washington National Opera includes Madame Butterfly, The Daughter of the Regiment and The Marriage of Figaro.

Highlighting an expanding theater lineup are The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, a three-play series from Richard Nelson, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. December brings the Fiasco Theaters acclaimed production of Into the Woods and the return of Wicked. The Kennedy Center will host multi-week runs of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Sound of Music, Cabaret and The King and I in the summer of 2017.

Among the ballet and contemporary dance offerings are performances by the Danish Dance Theatre, the San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet as well as STREB Extreme Action and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The Cincinnati Ballet brings its Nutcracker for a pre-holiday run, and choreographer Justin Peck and ballerina Misty Copeland curate two programs for Ballet Across America, a series last seen in 2013.

Rutter said the theater and dance programs reflect an attempt to balance artistic risks with audience favorites. Im thrilled that The King and I is coming because its a beautiful work that our audiences deserve to see, she said. We should be taking risks and growing audiences. For me, success is a very carefully crafted blend of, did people attend and did it have artistic merit?


(Photo by Adolfo Felix, illustration by Ruben Encinas /For The Washington Post)

The modern war against aging  against tiny furrows, laugh lines and muffin tops  will be bloodless.

Now, were microneedling, subjecting our jowls to the prick of a hundred pins in the hopes that this will prod our collagen to flow the way it did when we were 25. Were basking in the clarifying glow of intense pulsed light and letting ultrasounds wash over our chubby parts. (Prominent exception to the bloodless rule: The vampire facelift, the grotesque Kardashian-endorsed fad that pumps your own platelets back into you: That is basically all blood.)

No longer will we be nipping, sucking and tucking at 60. Not when we middle-income, yoga-loving Americans could be filling, peeling and sub-dermal heating at 35.

For evidence, you needed only to troll the massive halls of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center this weekend, where thousands of doctors converged for the American Academy of Dermatologys annual conference, which runs through Tuesday. Doctors flitted between sessions on sculpting and needling and mingled with those who peddle the tools of this revolution: the erbium lasers, the Fraxel lasers, the stem-cell serums, the HydraFacial get-ups and the Dermapens.

Twenty-five, 30 years ago, everybody thought of dermatology as psoriasis, eczema, acne and warts, said Tina Alster, a high-profile Washington dermatologist who gave several lectures during the convention. These days, dermatology is as much the pursuit of a future free from having to age like our mothers.

So, inside the convention centers exhibit hall, there was a National Institutes of Health table stocked with the requisite dermatological pamphlets  Raynauds Phenomenon! Behcets disease!  that no one stopped to pick up. But who could resist the allure of the cosmeceutical stands, where pretty women slathered conference-goers in post-laser gels and balms?

What are cosmeceuticals about? we wanted to know.

Cash, they whispered. Doctors sell the products in their offices to patients whove had procedures  procedures that doctors are now performing all the time. Which are also about cash.

According to data compiled by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Americans spent more than $12 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2014, and some doctors estimate that half that figure is spent on the non-invasive stuff, including fillers and fat injections. And the number of men looking to flatten their crows feet with a little hyaluronic acid or tighten up their man-handles using radio frequencies rose at a rapid clip: Procedures among men rose 43 percent between 2013 and 2014.

Alster, one of the worlds leading experts on cosmetic lasers, has been in the field for decades, and she sees her clientele changing as fast as the technology.

The younger age groups are much more accepting of this, she said. They dont really see this as being abnormal. Its like getting their hair cut.

Its the gray-hairs, the Dad Bods, who fret about the stigma of paying a visit to the doc and fear ending up looking plastic.

The baby boomers and older age groups  who need it, right?  theyve been the ones whove been the most reluctant to embrace these procedures, said Alster. Theres still that element of it being so vain. The younger people are like Hey, I had Fraxel today. 

In patients minds, it goes hand-in-hand with eating kale and going to spin class, confirmed Ivona Percec, associate director of cosmetic plastic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, in a phone interview.

As with eating kale, of course, before you can feel good, you must first feel bad. In the convention center, it was almost impossible not to feel slightly bad  like the kind of bad where you have leprosy but dont worry, because its gonna be okay  in the midst of all these peddlers of youth and beauty and true happiness.



A vendor at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, promises to help people discover their beautiful. (Lavanya Ramanathan/The Washington Post)

Clinique was one of several skin-care-related booths that set up shop at the derm conferences exhibit hall. (Lavanya Ramanathan/The Washington Post)

Do you want to get your lips done? a chipper fellow in a lab coat asked a woman who had meekly entered his booth. Ooh, injectables! The woman nodded and took a seat while he pulled out a lip brush and began tracing her pout with a cherry-hued lipstick. That, he announced, is called Passion Pop.

Passsssion Popppp, she repeated as she eyed herself in the mirror, pleased.

Oh, right: This is a Clinique booth. Its just makeup. But its hard to tell, given the lab coats and the scientific air of it all. But this is where we also spied an actual doctor, Sophia Reid, a medical resident based in the Bronx.

Everyone wants to do the safest, cheapest thing possible. And no one wants to go under the knife, she said as she rushed to her next lecture. Body contouring, CoolSculpting, face-sculpting . . . . She ticked off all the procedures in her professional future. The non-invasive stuff is one of the attractions of dermatology. A lot of people will pay out-of-pocket.

Patients talking up the work theyve had done, said many doctors at the conference, is one element driving the non-invasive boom. The other is how many new tools are available, and how little bloodletting many of them require.

This spate of new technology is more than the field has seen at any point in cosmetic medicine, said Percec, of U-Penn., which has even opened a research center dubbed the Center for Human Appearance to study the trends.

On her way out of the exhibition hall, Manasi Ladrigan, a dermatologist from Rochester, N.Y., confessed that although shed trained in using the cosmetics technology as part of her schooling, it never crossed her mind that shed actually perform those procedures as much as she does.

Now, she says, Everybody comes in saying, Dont touch my lips, but make them look better.  They want the work, but they want it to be natural-looking.

Ah, yes, the I woke up like this look.

But this brave new world has also required her to pick up a new skill: managing expectations.

People will come in and pull their face back, and say, I want this,  she said. And Ill say, What youre looking for is a facelift. 


A Havenly e-decorating project. (Havenly)

Design quizzes, smartphone selfies, inspiration boards and apps are the modern trappings of online interior designers who are renovating the process of how style comes home. The concept: a virtual service that democratizes home decorating and beautifies the world, one middle-class living room at a time.

Disrupting design

Most people have had to be their own interior designer because they couldnt afford to hire one, says Gretchen Hansen, founder and chief executive of Decorist, a San Francisco-based online design company. Not anymore.

Heres how it works: Choose a package of services from one of several cyber-savvy design companies. Average prices range from $200 to $700 (though one mini package from e-decorator Havenly rings in at $79). Next, take an online quiz designed to reveal your style personality. Then upload digital images and measurements of your space to the website.

Youre then matched with a designer or short list of designers who suit your style. Communication is done through email, Pinterest, phone calls, Skype or direct messaging. Designers never step foot in the room. Virtual concept or mood boards are delivered for review and revision. For the finale, you receive a final room design and layout along with a personalized shopping list. Who does the ordering and shipping depends on the company and the package, but for the most part, youre on your own when it comes to installation.

The perception of interior design is going to change, says Sarah Chek, an Arlington-based designer working remotely for Havenly, based in Denver. Most people think of interior design as something for those who can spend $4,000 on a chaise longue . . . but there are new ways of doing things, and its filling the gap between high-end interior design and doing it yourself. Its a big hole.



A concept board for a Havenly e-decorating project. (Havenly/Havenly)

Leura Fine, an interior designer and founder of Laurel & Wolf in Los Angeles, credits the online design shift to the massive amounts of home decor imagery available on the Web (think Pinterest, digitized shelter mags, design bloggers) and the introduction of such Web-based retailers as One Kings Lane, Wayfair and Gilt. You went from only being able to shop at local brick-and-mortar stores . . . to millions and millions of SKUs [stock-keeping numbers for inventory] available at the touch of your fingertips. The problem was people couldnt pull it all together.

The answer, according to online design services, begins with a quiz. Fine says Laurel & Wolfs quiz is based on an algorithm and designed to communicate preferences that can be difficult to express  especially when words such as modern, traditional and contemporary are relative. As a result, Fines quiz has clients answer such questions as: Are you attracted to lots of color? Minimal color? Clean-lined furniture? Its a great stepping-off point for us to learn about the client, Fine says.

A plan comes together

Jennifer Weissman, a Havenly client seeking assistance for her new condo in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, was matched with Los Angeles-based designer Clare McCormick. She called me, and we set a time to speak over the phone, Weissman says. We talked about my ideas, and she had me set up a Pinterest page. McCormick and Weissman both pinned images to the board, creating a visual and virtual discussion.

After McCormick had pinned down Weissmans personal style, her client received two virtual mood boards showing furniture, artwork and accessories the designer envisioned for the open-concept living area. I was able to give feedback of what I liked and what I didnt as well as clarify the budget, Weissman says. Some of the things she picked were a little out of my price range. I was able to say, I love that look, but I need it to be $1,000 less, and she would give me options. . . . She was amazing.

Weissmans final product was a detailed rendering of the rooms new layout and a list of items to be ordered. However, responsibility for ordering, tracking, delivery and installation varies by company.



A project by online design service Laurel & Wolf. (Laurel & Wolf)

Lizzie Lipman, owner of e-decorating service Homegrown Interiors in Los Angeles, says clients dont mind a little legwork. Clients who sign up for e-decorating are totally okay with placing the orders and accepting deliveries and putting everything together themselves. They just dont know what to order or how to create a space plan, she said.

The process, says Megan Shannon, owner of Megan Blake Design in Alexandria, is fun, flexible and doesnt need to fit into a busy daytime schedule  for the consumer or the designer. It can be done at night, after work, school or kids bedtimes, Shannon says.

The majority of traditional interior design is project management, Fine says. Its measuring, meeting with contractors, overseeing deliveries and installs. Theres no reason for the design work to be done in person.

The future is digital

To prove this point, Hansen and her team at Decorist partnered with Seattle-based Porch, an online directory of home maintenance and repair specialists, to create a virtual showcase house in January. It was 100 percent virtually designed, Hansen says. We did the design, ATGStores.com provided the furniture, and Porch.com provided the installation. It was a cool way of saying, Heres the new world of design and furnishings. 



Decorist designed this Seattle project remotely, ATG Stores provided the furniture and Porch did the installation. (Jeff Beck)

I do think the future of interior design is digital, Fine says. In fact, she thinks theres potential for augmented-reality applications in the design world. I think its something that is going to be very powerful for the industry. I think design will be happening through virtual reality very shortly.

Does this mean curtains for the traditional process? Emily Motayed, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Havenly, says no. I think what were doing is targeting a different demographic of people a lot earlier than what has been normal. So, if anything, what were doing with the virtual-design model is expanding the group who appreciate interior design at an earlier age, when they have less money, Motayed says. I think were just lowering that entry-price point rather than taking business away from traditional design models.
Mary Edwards Walker, who was taught to believe that boys and girls should be treated equally, preferred to wear coats and trousers rather than dresses. This photo of her was taken around 1911, when she would have been nearly 80 years old. (Library of Congress)

In 1865, Mary Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor for valuable service during the Civil War. The first female surgeon in the country was now the first woman to receive its highest military award.

In 1917, after a rules change on who could receive the award, her medal was taken away. But Walker, then 84 years old, refused to give it back. She had worn it every day for half a century and would keep wearing it until her death two years later. It was the last stubborn act in a life built on defying peoples expectations.

Early days

Mary Edwards Walker was born in 1832 in north-central New York, the youngest of five sisters. A little brother arrived a year later. Her parents were teachers and had a farm. Her father was also a self-taught doctor. The couple believed that girls and boys should be treated equally. They gave their children good educations and encouraged them to be curious and independent thinkers.

From a young age, Walker was interested in medicine. She graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855, the only woman in her class.

She stood out in other ways, too. Like her mother, she believed that the clothes women wore  the tight corsets and long, heavy dresses  were unhealthful and designed to limit activity. Walker wanted to be comfortable and active. So she wore a coat and trousers, sometimes with a skirt over the pants.

Walker, shown here between 1860 and 1870, was a doctor during the Civil War. She is the only woman to have been awarded the Medal of Honor. (Library of Congress)

Because she looked different, boys chased her and threw rocks at her, biographer Sharon Harris told an NBC reporter in 2014. She once said that nobody would ever know what she had to go through just to step out the door each morning and face the jeers.

But that didnt stop her. She didnt think women should be judged by their appearance, so when she married, both bride and groom wore suits and top hats. Walker also omitted the word obey from her marriage vows and kept her last name  highly unusual for brides at that time.

Wartime service

When the war erupted in 1861, Walker traveled to Washington and tried to join the U.S. Army, which was fighting the rebellious Southern states. But although the Army badly needed doctors, it didnt want a female surgeon officially in its ranks. So Walker volunteered, spending nearly two years as an unpaid field surgeon near the front lines.

In April 1864, she was captured by Confederate forces and sent to a prison in Richmond, Virginia, where she stayed for four months until she was freed in a prisoner swap. One Confederate officer described his men as amused and disgusted at the sight of a woman in the uniform of an Army surgeon.

After her release, Walker was hired by the Army as a civilian surgeon and put in charge of a hospital for women prisoners in Kentucky.

The end of the war in 1865 did not put an end to Walkers efforts to get formally recognized as an officer. She was turned down yet again but was given the Medal of Honor instead for her patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded and the hardships she faced in prison.

Walker spent the rest of her life promoting womens rights. She was arrested repeatedly  for dressing like a man.

Dr. Mary lost the medal simply because she was a hundred years ahead of her time and no one could stomach it, a relative told the New York Times in 1977, when her name was put back on the list of those who have received the medal.

That list continues to grow. Navy SEAL Edward Byers Jr. received the award last week for helping to free an American hostage in Afghanistan. But of the more than 3,500 Medals of Honor given out since the prize was created in 1861, only one has gone to a woman: Mary Walker.

[Read about four women who have been honored during Womens History Month.]
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling is releasing four stories on her Pottermore website about the development of wizarding in North America. (Evan Agostini/Invision via AP)

Fans of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling are in for a treat this week when her website Pottermore releases a series of four pieces of writing about wizardry titled History of Magic in North America.

The writings, posted at 9 a.m. each day from Tuesday to Friday, are meant to set the scene for the highly anticipated Harry Potter spin-off movie called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is due for release in November.

Tuesdays offering, titled Fourteenth Century  Seventeenth Century, takes readers back through the centuries to reveal the beginnings of the North American magical community and how witches and wizards used magic before they adopted wands, Pottermore said.

Wednesdays piece will look at the dangers faced by witches and wizards in the New World and Thursdays will reveal why the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) took steps to move the magical community deeper underground.

Friday will take readers to the Roaring Twenties, when the new movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them starring Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne is due to begin.

These stories will give you some idea of how the wizarding world on this continent evolved over the years, and of the names and events that lay the foundation for the arrival of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,  Pottermore told Rowling fans.

In the movie Redmayne plays magizoologist Newt Scamander, who stops in New York following his travels to find and document magical creatures, according to Warner Bros.

A magizoologist, in Rowlings make-believe universe, is somebody who studies magical creatures.

The story is set in 1926  decades before Rowlings fictional boy wizard Harry Potter begins his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The film, based on Rowlings Harry Potter accompanying volume Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, marks the best-selling authors screenwriting debut.


Michelle Ertischek and her husband Julio Guzman, who was a candidate for the presidency of Peru, in Paracas, Peru, a couple weeks after their 2011 wedding. (Courtesy of Michelle Ertischek)

Update, March 9: Perus National Jury of Elections denied Julio Guzmans appeal Wednesday, barring him from the presidential race. In a 3-to-2 vote, the board deemed Guzman ineligible because his campaign did not properly register his presidential ticket, Reuters reported. Alleging the process is corrupt, his campaign vowed to attempt another appeal and file a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

***

The day Michelle Ertischek went on her last first date, she wasnt expecting anything special. She had been on more first meetings than she could count. At 37, Ertischek was living the typical D.C. single professional life. Her resume touted a masters degree and an impressive job in pharmaceutical consulting. Her weekends, she remembers fondly, were filled with traveling, hiking and friends who were like family.

But in her U Street apartment, it was just her. She had decorated a designated romance corner  a feng shui trick for finding love  with a fig plant and pictures of orchids taken on a hiking trip in Peru, then waited, and hoped.

So in July 2010, after she walked into the restaurant of the W Hotel to meet yet another brunch date, those orchids suddenly felt like a sign. The man was from Peru.

Soon, he became her husband. Now, he might become his countrys president.

Julio Guzman is in a tightly contested race in Lima, where hes risen from an unknown economist to a political star with a real chance at winning. His candidacy is hanging in the balance, though: On Friday, the electoral board reversed a previous decision and declared Guzman ineligible to run for the presidency, claiming that his party was not properly registered. But the board is reviewing his appeal Tuesday. If granted, Guzman stands to be a significant threat to the establishment candidates and what he calls the corrupt system that wants to cling to power.

Hes currently in second place behind Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed in 2009 for crimes against humanity. Just like the other candidates in the race, she has run for elected office in the past. Guzman, a 45-year-old economist with a PhD in public policy, is the arenas newcomer.



Julio Guzman is greeted by supporters after a press conference in Lima on March 4. (Ernesto Arias/European Pressphoto Agency)

But the real newcomer is his wife: Ertischek, not long ago your typical Washington consultant who now has a shot at becoming first lady of Peru.

I had been to Peru for five days on an amazing hiking trip in 2007. And at the end of it, I said Bye, Peru, thank you! I thought that would be it, Ertischek said Sunday, calling from Lima while their 1-year-old daughter, Clara, napped.

She knew Guzman was different from the first moments of their date. His way of saying hello was to wrap her in a full-out hug. His questions werent just: How many siblings do you have? He asked, Whats your relationship with your brother like?

I wanted to see him again, Ertischek said. And that didnt happen very often.

Guzman was in the United States working at the Inter-American Development Bank after finishing public policy degrees at Georgetown and the University of Maryland. He was married once before and had two kids back in Peru. He had no plans at the time to run for office. (Though Ertischeks mother often asks, Are you sure he didnt mention this?) The couple had been dating for a year when the Peruvian government called and offered Guzman a job.

Ertischek took the leap. She moved to Peru in September 2011, and the couple was married in Virginia that December. She got to keep her job as director of pharmaceutical risk management at Pinney Associates, which made the transition to South America a little easier. He alternated between positions under the countrys prime minister and jobs in the private sector.

Three years in, Ertischek was starting to feel stable in Peru. She had learned Spanish through podcasts and lessons, met Peruvian and American friends, loved being a stepmom and was excited to have a child of her own. She had become accustomed to all the little details of a South American living: not having screens on her windows, keeping gas in the kitchen for her stove, grocery store clerks always asking to walk her bags home for her.

And thats when her husband decided to run for president.

He was fed up with his countrys government and had the academic and career background to make waves. From his announcement in March 2015, his campaign excited young voters and Peruvians looking for someone new in a race dominated by well-known but unpopular politicians, according to Reuters.

Unlike political spouses in American, Ertischek was not immediately thrust into the spotlight. There was no standing behind her husband at speeches, no waving to crowds or giving interviews. She didnt even have to appear in the campaigns promotional materials.

But then pundits and opponents started to question how Guzman was supporting his family while on the campaign trail. It was time for Ertischek to make her debut and point out something that would have been obvious back in Washington: A wife can earn a living, too.

The campaign posted her photo on its Facebook page. Smiling into the camera, she held a piece of paper that said, #SoyMujerYParoLaOlla.

I am a woman and I am a breadwinner.



(Courtesy Michelle Ertischek via Julio Guzman Facebook page)

As a wife and mother, I am proud to contribute financially to our home, Ertischek wrote in Spanish. I feel that I am using my education to make a difference. I like to be a good role model for my children and I believe in working hard.

The hashtag went viral and became a rallying cry for female voters, who posted photos of themselves with similar messages.

In the U.S., this wouldnt have been a big deal, Ertischek said. But for these women, it was a brave action to take. For all age groups, it was taking a risk to put themselves out there.

Ertischek went from being an observer of politics  as residents of Washington have no choice but to be  to participating in it. Her husband, second place in a crowded field and polling at 16.6 percent Monday, was a target in a campaign she sees as full of dirty money.

Hes fighting for a world where you dont need to pass money to gain a place in government, she said. We talk about the American dream. Well, theres a Peruvian dream too.

If Guzman were to win, Ertischek would continue her job as a long-distance pharmaceutical consultant. The family would not be able to stay in the apartment where they now live, but they probably would choose not to live in the residential quarters of the ornate presidential palace. They would find a new house, where she would take on yet another transition: trying to figure out what she as first lady can do for Peru.

But theres still an election board decision to be overturned, and 18 points to catch up to the front-runner before election day, April 10. But Guzman doesnt have to win; if he can get second place, he will face the first-place candidate in a runoff election in June.
A man had just gone on a shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Mich., allegedly killing six people while driving for Uber. Sherry Towers, an Arizona State University physicist who studies how viruses spread, worried while watching the news coverage.

Last year, Towers published a study using mathematical models to examine whether mass shootings, like viruses, are contagious. She identified a 13-day period after high-profile mass shootings when the chance of another spikes. Her findings are confirmed more frequently than she would like.

Five days after Kalamazoo, a man in Kansas shot 17 people, killing three by firing from his car. To Towers, that next shooting seemed almost inevitable.

I absolutely dread watching this happen, she said.

As the nation endures an ongoing stream of mass shootings, criminologists, police and even the FBI are turning to virus epidemiology and behavioral psychology to understand what sets off mass shooters and figure out whether, as with the flu, the spread can be interrupted.

[In Kalamazoo, an agonizing wait for a mass shooters motive]

These things are clustering in time, and one is causing the next one to be more likely, said Gary Slutkin, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who runs Cure Violence, a group that treats crime as a disease. Thats definitional of a contagious disease. Flu is a risk factor for more flu. Mass shootings are a risk factor for mass shootings.

The idea is not without skeptics. James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor who studies mass shootings, said: Some bunching just happens. Yes, there is some mimicking going on, but the vast majority of mass killers dont need someone else to give them the idea.

Confirming, disputing or further exploring the idea scientifically is hampered by the federal funding ban on gun violence research. Towers and her colleagues did their study on their own time. And theres not even a common database or definition of mass shootings.

The Congressional Research Service uses the term public mass shootings to describe the killing of four or more people in relatively public places by a perpetrator selecting victims somewhat indiscriminately.

But other definitions, including those used by the Mass Shooting Tracker, a widely cited crowdsourced tally, count all shootings of four or more people, including domestic incidents and street crimes. The data Towers used was largely drawn from a USA Today database of mass killings, defined as four or more people killed by any means, although the vast majority were shootings.

Towers said shootings with fewer than four people killed, while obviously troubling, usually do not generate national news coverage and show no signs of triggering other incidents. It is the most publicized events that have brought the language of viruses  incubation periods, vectors, susceptibility  into the discussion of mass shootings, which in a metaphorical sense seem to travel as a cold does, moving from day-care settings to homes to offices.

From Columbine to Charleston, here's a look at some of the notable U.S. mass shootings since 1999. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

In the 1980s, the violence occurred in post offices. In the 1990s, schools. Now it is mutating into new forms, such as the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., that initially appeared to be a workplace shooting by a disgruntled employee.

Researchers say the contagion is potentially more complicated than any virus. There is the short-term effect of a high-profile mass shooting, which can lead quickly to another incident. Towers found that such echo shootings account for up to 30 percent of all rampages.

But there appear to be longer incubation periods, too. Killers often find inspiration in past mass shootings, praising what their predecessors accomplished, innovating on their methods and seeking to surpass them in casualties and notoriety.

For many mass shooters, the carnage at Columbine High School is an important psychological touchstone. According to an analysis by Mother Jones magazine, at least 21 have referenced the 1999 Colorado school shooting by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 13 and wounded 23. The dots connect one mass shooter to another in online ramblings and manifestos going back nearly two decades.

[The haunting link between two mass shootings 40 years and 500 miles apart ]

Two months after Dylann Roof allegedly killed nine worshipers last year at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., Vester L. Flanagan killed a Virginia reporter and cameraman on live TV. Although Flanagan did not kill enough people to qualify as a mass shooter, he was clearly inspired by them.

Flanagan, an African American, killed himself as police closed in. In a manifesto sent to ABC News, he wrote: What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims initials on them.

He said he was also influenced and impressed by Seung Hui Cho, who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Thats my boy right there, Flanagan wrote. He got NEARLY double the amount that Eric Harris and Dylann Klebold got . . . just sayin.

And whom was Cho inspired by?

Martyrs, Cho said in a video, like Eric and Dylan.

Why violence spreads

Behavior is contagious. Studies have shown that watching someone yawn can make us yawn. Conference speakers who come after a nervous speaker can absorb the nervousness. Bad moods spread from boss to employee.

Researchers think violence is no different. Although its a somewhat recent area of focus  the Institute of Medicine held a workshop on the subject in 2012  the evidence for contagion of criminal or dangerous behavior has lurked in academic research for decades.

Studies have shown that the aircraft hijackings of the 1970s were contagious. Product tampering  also contagious. So is highway speeding, rioting and even military coups. Contagion is especially pronounced in suicides.

Numerous studies have shown that suicides cluster, particularly among young people. It is known as the Werther effect, a term coined in the 1970s by sociologist David Phillips describing what happened after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published The Sorrows of Young Werther in 1774.

At the end of the book, Werther shoots himself with a pistol. Many young men followed his lead.

In many of these events, the primary vector  what transmitted the behavior  was some form of mass media. Coverage of hijackings bred more hijackings. Coverage of suicides, particularly of famous people, had the same effect. In the month after Marilyn Monroe overdosed on barbiturates, suicides increased 12 percent nationally.

Some researchers think this loop drives mass shootings. Although FBI officials declined to comment on contagion for this article, a senior investigator in the behavioral-analysis unit has said that the copycat phenomenon is real.

[Database: Mass shootings by the numbers]

Columbines timing is important. That mass shooting occurred just as Americans were beginning to use personal computers to connect to the Web. Harris, 18, and Klebold, 17, posted rants about the world on the Trench Coat Mafia website, creating a digital footprint that has had a long-lasting effect on others.

Nearly two decades later, as a result of the Internet and the explosion of social media, the transmission of violent behavior is faster, wider and permanent. Shooters no longer need to rely on television for attention and notoriety. And they can obsessively study details from previous incidents, imitating and advancing the strange cultural script that the rest of the nation is watching on repeat.

While honoring Cho, Flanagan displayed innovations that have disturbed authorities. Besides shooting people on live TV, he recorded the shooting on his phone, then uploaded it to social media. Shooting while driving for Uber, as Jason Dalton allegedly did in Kalamazoo, had a Bonnie-and-Clyde feel, making it both retro and new. Then the Kansas shooter, Cedric Ford, shot from his car, winding up at a lawn-mower factory where he worked and gunning down more people.

On one hand, they want to be like the people who came before them, said J. Reid Meloy, a psychiatry professor at the University of California at San Diego who studies mass killings. And yet they also want to distinguish themselves. Its totally paradoxical.

But why are some people infected, while others arent? In the infectious-disease world, thats called susceptibility, Slutkin said.

Elderly people are susceptible to the flu because their immune systems are weaker. Mass shooters could be susceptible for a number of reasons, including social isolation, depression or paranoid forms of severe mental illness.

Some researchers wonder whether mass shootings are just another form of suicide contagion. Many mass shooters kill themselves or are killed by police.

They are always an expression of suffering that manifests itself in a psychosocial crisis that is both homicidal and suicidal, a recent paper in the journal Comprehensive Psychology said.

Mary Ellen OToole, a former senior FBI profiler who has worked on mass shootings, said, Its only infective if they are entertaining a similar ideation.

You get a powerful normalization of your ideas and thoughts, she added. Its like a little club where its an okay behavior. You can achieve something very important.

Prevention

Millions of people are depressed, socially isolated or at their wits end. But only a minuscule portion of them commit rampages, which, depending on what definition is used, number anywhere from a handful to two dozen a year.

Its a big country, Slutkin said. Who knows who will pick it up or who wont?

Slutkins program, Cure Violence, employs violence interrupters in the United States and abroad who try to disrupt shootings and other acts of violence before they happen, stopping retaliations by mediating and diverting high-risk people to counseling, drug treatment or job opportunities. Local law enforcement agencies and the FBI are trying to do something similar for mass shootings.

The FBI opened the Behavioral Threat Assessment Center in 2010, using a multidisciplinary approach, including psychiatrists, to help identify and disrupt targeted violence. The center works with local law enforcement agencies following tips about suspicious behavior from families, friends and schools.

The center, working in coordination with other government agencies, has helped address hundreds of cases. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Timothy Slater said research is ongoing to identify behaviors that might indicate that a person is heading toward committing targeted violence. We hope this will help educate people to see the warning signs.

Others are looking to the news media for help, part of a new twist on an old idea.

At the request of public health officials, newspapers and other outlets have largely stopped reporting on suicides unless they are deemed newsworthy. That has helped drive down suicide clustering.

Now some are pushing a campaign called Dont Name Them, which was started at Texas State Universitys ALERRT Center, where thousands of law enforcement officers train every year to respond to mass shootings. The special agent in charge of the FBIs San Antonio field office has publicly supported the effort.

Texas State cites Towerss research in its plea, but she thinks the idea is untenable.

First Amendment rights should not be infringed, she said. Its not just the media. There are other factors in this.

Like guns. Her study found no correlation between state rates of mental illness and mass shootings. But it did find that state prevalence of firearm ownership is significantly associated with the state incidence of mass killings with firearms, school shootings, and mass shootings.

Towers would like to continue researching mass-shooting contagion, but she is limited because of the federal ban on research funding. One question that probably needs more attention: Why do the shootings fall off after two weeks? She has a theory: News coverage and social-media postings fade.

People get bored and move on to something else, she said.

Until it happens again.
Bring me back cigars was a common refrain before I recently traveled to Cuba for the first time. I would have happily obliged more requests if it were not for the ominous warnings about the cost  financial and otherwise for Americans who return with too much.

Since the U.S. government moved to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba in late 2014, Americans have been allowed to return from the communist island with $400 worth of newly bought merchandise. However, no more than $100 of the loot can be of the tobacco and alcohol variety. And for those found in violation, penalties can reach $250,000 and 10 years in prison, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol noted just last month in its most recent warning on the matter.

In Havana, it only takes a quick trip to a government-run cigar shop to realize that the $100 limit can approach quickly  and can be downright imposing if youre shopping for an aficionado.

Cubas famed rum, by comparison, is cheap, and the bottles are inspected for quality and sealed at the factory. I found it might have been more economical to buy everyone on my souvenir list a large bottle of rum  if I could have carried it all home.

So, what to do? Heres a look at how to reach your $100 limit  and how to get it home:

The basics: The 3-year-old rum that Cubans mix into mojitos is clear and relatively cheap, about $7 per bottle, meaning you could theoretically lug home at least 14 bottles  enough to start your own bar. But heres the tricky part: airlines now usually impose fees for checked luggage over 44 pounds, meaning on your return flight, you might have to choose between your rum or your clothes.



(Bonnie Jo Mount/TWP)

The upgrades: Cubas finer sipping rum, aged 7 years, runs about $20 per bottle, meaning you could take home five bottles for close friends. Its even better maestro class runs about $40 per bottle. But all that would leave nothing left over for cigars.



(Bonnie Jo Mount/TWP)

The unaffordable: Forget about it. There are a dozen classes of even nicer rum, but its over the $100 limit. The most expensive is Havana Clubs Maximio which goes for $1,700 a bottle.

Smoking: On the tobacco front, there are plenty of ways to quickly reach $100. Almost every brand on Cigar Aficionado Magazines Top 10 can set you back $250 to $650 per box. There are a handful of exceptions, but finding those also can be tricky. The only box this reporter could find under $100 was a box of Romeo y Julieta Coronitas for $72.

But heres another thing, its also not clear how much the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is checking. And its entirely unclear how the agency will grapple with enforcing the limit once as many as 110 regular flights between the U.S. and Cuba resume later this year.

On a recent day at Miami International Airport, there were no searches of carry-on luggage for cigars when a chartered flight arrived carrying several officials from Washington. However, the rum was slowing down the processing of all international arrivals.

From the one flight alone, screeners insisted on individually testing more than 100 bottles of rum purchased at Havana international airports duty-free shop. Each was placed in a spectrometer, then put back in a duty-free bag, and resealed with tape bearing the Transportation Security Administrations logo. Only then were passengers allowed to continue to their connecting flights to D.C.

In Cuba, tour guides have heard about the process and pitfalls of Americans returning with too much in their bags. They warn not to draw attention by packing full boxes of cigars. Instead, you should pack the cigars singly. And when it comes to rum, they suggest packing in your checked luggage if you want to try to make a connecting flight.

The guides also say repeat American visitors to Cuba have told them they have been able to pay small fines at the Miami airport when necessary and continue on with their trips without trouble.

According to the most recent customs report, however, there were almost 400 instances of U.S. agents seizing Cuban cigars at entry points to the country in the last month. The report does not distinguish which seizures involved visitors, and which involved American citizens.
Sarah Gossard is pictured with her Shar-Pei Nala, who was killed by police in June 2014. (Baltimore Sun)

A former Baltimore police officer acquitted of animal cruelty charges after he slit a dogs throat will receive $45,000 in back pay from city government.

Jeffrey G. Bolger, 50, is to get payment for about 10 months of paychecks he missed while on unpaid leave from the Police Department. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve the deal Wednesday.

In November, Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa M. Phinn ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that Bolger was criminally responsible for the death of a 7-year-old Shar-Pei named Nala when he slit the dogs throat in June 2014. Bolger was charged with mutilating an animal, animal cruelty and misconduct in office.

Police commanders had called the killing outrageous and unacceptable and accused him of threatening to [expletive] gut this thing.

But the judge said the evidence indicated the officer was acting in the interest of safety and that he believed he was putting the dog out of its misery.

Under the police union contract, Bolger is entitled to receive back wages for the period he was suspended, from June 2014 to March 2015. He was forced to retire early from the Police Department, according to his attorney.

Steven H. Levin, who represented Bolger, said his client was unnecessarily charged and suspended from the department. The evidence was overwhelming that Mr. Bolger acted appropriately, Levin said Monday.

Nalas owner, Sarah Gossard, said her dog escaped through a gate in her Canton backyard in June 2014. The dog ended up in Brewers Hill and bit a woman on the hand, leaving a superficial wound. The woman called police to help capture the dog, and officers of the Emergency Services unit, which handles some dangerous-animal calls and carries dog-control poles, were summoned.

According to charging documents, Bolger and Officer Thomas Schmidt responded. Officers tethered Nala to the dog-control pole, police said. Witnesses told police Schmidt held down the dog while they saw Bolger slit its throat. Charges against Schmidt were later dropped.
Officer William Porter, center, one of six Baltimore city police officers charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, leaves the Maryland Court of Appeals on Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Annapolis. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that prosecutors can compel a Baltimore police officer to testify against five other officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray.

The decision by the states highest court hands prosecutors a major victory, because the testimony of Officer William G. Porter is seen as key to securing a conviction against Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the officer facing the most serious charge in Grays death, and other officers.

The question of whether Porter would be forced to testify delayed the trials of the officers accused in Grays death as the appeals court considered the issue, which had no precedent in Maryland. Porters attorneys had argued that it would be unfair to force him to take the witness stand when he is facing trial.

It is not clear why the court sided with the prosecution, since it did not immediately release an opinion explaining the brief orders released Tuesday. Court officials said it was not clear when that opinion will be published.

Court officials also said the ruling will mean that new dates will have to be set for the officers trials in coming weeks. Most had been scheduled for January and February.

[Attorneys argue over whether officer must testify in Freddie Gray case]

Legal wrangling over the issue began in the trial court. Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams ruled in January that Porter would have to testify against Goodson and Alicia D. White  but not against the other three officers: Edward M. Nero, Garrett E. Miller and Brian W. Rice. Attorneys then appealed the rulings to the states high court, which heard arguments in the case on March 3.

On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals affirmed Williamss first ruling and overturned his second.

Prosecutors had argued in court that they had the authority to compel Porter to testify and had said previously that their cases would be gutted without the witness. They said Porters testimony would not be used against him at his June retrial.

Porters attorneys argued that forcing Porter to testify would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and damage his ability to receive a fair trial. Porters first trial ended with a hung jury in December.

Porter and the five other officers are facing a range of charges in the death of Gray, who suffered a severe neck injury while riding in the back of a police van in April after he was arrested. Gray later died, touching off days of protests and rioting that grabbed national attention.

Prosecutors contend that Porter and other officers shirked their duty by not strapping a seat belt around Gray in the back of the van and failing to get medical attention for him. Porters attorneys argued at his trial that he was unaware of the extent of Grays injuries and acted conscientiously in seeking help for Gray.

Porters testimony is crucial because he met the van as it made a handful of stops around Baltimore on April 12 and testified at his own trial that he told Goodson and White that Gray needed medical attention.

Goodson drove the van and is facing a charge of second-degree depraved heart murder.

The next step for an appeal would be to the U.S. Supreme Court, because it is not a post-conviction matter, said Bill Brennan, a Maryland defense attorney who is not involved in the case. But that depends on whether the Maryland Court of Appeals decision is rooted in state or constitutional law. If the state appeals court issued its order based only on Maryland law, defense attorneys might not have the ability to request that the U.S. Supreme Court review the case.

Marshall T. Henslee, a Baltimore defense attorney, said that if Porters attorneys do appeal the courts argument, it would likely center not only on whether their clients forced testimony is constitutional but also a procedural issue. During the hearing last week, defense attorneys argued that the state had no right to appeal a judges order that would have kept Porter from testifying against Nero, Miller and Rice.

There are limited things the state can ask for on appeal when a case is pending, said Henslee, who is not involved in the case. In most cases, youd have the trial and then file the appeal, if youre the state.

If Porters attorneys dont appeal, Henslee said its likely that the next trial will be scheduled in short order.

Judge Williams has been scheduling these things pretty quickly, and theres no particular reason to have this take a long time, Henslee said.

Warren S. Alperstein, a Baltimore defense attorney and former prosecutor who is also not involved in the case, said that even if the case moves forward with Porter taking the witness stand, prosecutors will have a difficult challenge ahead of Porters retrial. The state must hold a hearing to prove that none of Porters statements  directly or indirectly  as a witness will be used against him at his own trial.

Its very difficult to do, Alperstein said. If youve formulated a cross-examination question, how do you know it didnt come from what he previously said?

In federal cases, prosecutors bring in teams of attorneys from other jurisdictions to handle the trial  a taint team that is seemingly insulated from a defendants previous statements as a witness. They are people who havent been saturated by media reports, read transcripts or heard the testimony and can come in with a clear mind, Alperstein said. But that may prove to be a tougher challenge in a local case where agencies have to draw from a smaller pool of prosecutors.

Does the state in Porters case, if he is ultimately prosecuted, bring prosecutors from a completely different part of the state? Alperstein said. The further you go, the less youve heard what a witness has ever said, but thats certainly more of a challenge.
The first time that masked men came to rob his bakery in Northwest Washington, they beat an employee unconscious but left with nothing, not even a loaf of bread, the master baker and owner of Bread Furst managed to joke.

A month later, two masked men came again, and that time they left with $1,500 stuffed into the pockets of their pants and coats. They got to the Connecticut Avenue store 30 minutes after it closed, just as a worker was counting money in an upstairs office.

The two incidents in January and February are probably linked, 77-year-old proprietor Mark Furstenberg said, perhaps set up by a disgruntled former employee. He said he is frustrated by D.C. police, who he thinks are not acting with appropriate urgency. The police have given us no reason to believe that theyre treating this as an important matter, he said.

[Robbers escaped with nothing, Not even a loaf of bread]

There is concern along the busy stretch of Connecticut Avenue that runs past Bread Furst, the Van Ness Metro station and the University of the District of Columbia. As of Sunday, authorities this year reported three robberies with guns and two unarmed robberies in the patrol area that includes the Cleveland Park, North Cleveland Park and Forest Hills neighborhoods. There were none in that area in the first two months of 2015, according to police statistics, and 14 robberies for all of last year. In the District, robberies are up 40 percent this year over last.

Certainly were concerned about crime in the area and about the recent robberies at Bread Furst and other incidents, said Malachy Nugent, a local Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative. Weve reached out to police and are in conversations with them right now about what their response has been, what it should be and what it will be going forward.

[Master bread maker opens new shop in Van Ness]

The biggest problems last year were car break-ins and property crime, Nugent said. He thinks the neighborhood best known for the university is growing with new residents and businesses  and gaining more attention for opportunistic criminals.

Van Ness is developing quickly in a really positive direction, Nugent said. But, he said, if it is true that the robberies at Furst are linked to a former employee, that means its specific to that location and not emblematic of a larger trend.

D.C. police Cmdr. Melvin Gresham, who heads the 2nd District station that includes the area around the Van Ness station, said Thursday that detectives are pursuing leads in the bakery incidents and have a person of interest in a third incident  an armed robbery  which he said was of a taxi driver.

Gresham would not discuss specifics of the Bread Furst cases, but he said that detectives have provided updates to bakery representatives. We treat all cases seriously, Gresham said. Furstenberg said that one of his store managers got an email from a detective describing leads.

Robberies have been a troublesome issue in the District in recent years. In January, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier launched a task force along with Metro police and federal prosecutors to target people committing robbery sprees. During a Thursday award ceremony, Lanier hailed work done by a newly formed criminal interdiction unit, which along with seizing guns and targeting drug dealers is working with robbery squads. The chief said undercover officers are mingling in crowds to intercept people about to rob others.

[Bread Furst employee knocked unconscious in robbery]

Furstenberg opened Bread Furst in 2014 in what might seem an odd spot for an upscale bakery selling $7 loaves with dark, caramelized crusts in a small shop wedged between a seven-story apartment building and a carwash. The store shares a street with a fast-food restaurant, a hotel and a dry cleaner.

The chef, twice nominated for a coveted James Beard award, said he searched for two years for the right spot, rejecting Dupont Circle, Chevy Chase and Adams Morgan. His spot in North Cleveland Park had parking and patrons familiar with the Marvelous Market he had opened just up the street in 1990.

In 27 years of running various businesses in the District, Furstenberg said he had never been robbed before January. I think we are being targeted, he said, adding that he is disappointed with police who he feels have not acted quickly enough on leads he has provided. I dont know whether Im an institution in this city, but Im very committed to this city. And Id like to think the city government is as committed to me.

The bakery was first hit by would-be robbers on Jan. 19 around 12:30 p.m. Police said two masked men, one with a gun, got in through a back door, which is also used by customers, and went to an upstairs office. There, police said, one of he men said to an employee, Yall know who the f--- this is, give me the money. The man was unable to open the safe, police said, and the gunman hit him in the head, which Furstenberg said caused a wound that took more than a dozen stitches to close.

[Routines altered amid robbery spree]

Police said the bakery was then robbed on Feb. 26. Two masked men, one with a gun, got in at 7:30 p.m., a half-hour after closing, entering through the back door, which was left unlocked as a worker stocked inventory from a rear storage shed.

The men went upstairs to the office where a worker was counting money. Police said the assailant pointed his gun at the employee and said, Dont move. The man grabbed $1,500 and ran away, according to a police report.

Furstenberg said on the morning of the first incident, a former employee had called, asking for two workers. He thought that she was seeking a tax document, but then, he thought, she was calling to see if one of the two people who could open the safe were there. She was told that one of the people she asked about started at noon. The robbers showed up at 12:30 p.m.

The baker said he gave police the ex-employees name, and that they had a picture of a potential suspect from a surveillance camera at the adjacent carwash. But he said a detective was showing people the wrong photo during a follow-up investigation. He said the two groups of robbers appeared to be different, but he thinks that the crimes are connected and that the robbers knew the location of the hidden safe.

Furstenberg said his staff is understandably anxious. They think, like I do, that this is likely to happen again.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the District can continue to enforce its gun-permitting system, while she considers a closely watched constitutional challenge to the citys requirement that applicants show good reason before obtaining permits to carry a concealed handgun in public.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly marked a reversal from a ruling last May by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr.  a visiting federal judge from New York  who barred the city from enforcing what courts called the good reason/other proper reason regulation.

Mondays decision had no immediate impact on D.C. police gun-permitting processes, which have remained in force since an appeals court in June stayed Scullins preliminary injunction and later set it aside, ordering that a new judge hear the case.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in December that Scullin  a senior judge tapped in 2011 to help with a backlog at the District court  should not have handled the case because it went beyond the bounds of his temporary assignment. The panel did not rule on the reasoning he used in his decision.

Scullin had ruled the provision impinges on Plaintiffs Second Amendment right to bear arms.

[Federal judge again rules key part of new D.C. gun law unconstitutional]

The December decision on Scullin cleared the way for a new judge to hear the good reason issue.

A District law passed in September 2014 gives police discretion to grant licenses to applicants who show good reason to fear injury or any other proper reason for carrying a pistol, such as employment transporting cash or other valuables.

Scullins order was significant because the Districts law is similar to legislation in Maryland, New Jersey and New York, and the Supreme Court has yet to decide whether the Second Amendment requires cities such as the District to allow guns in public or what regulations are permitted.

[Federal judge again rules key part of new D.C. gun law unconstitutional]

In her 31-page opinion Monday, Kollar-Kotelly disagreed with Scullin and wrote that even assuming  but not deciding  the Second Amendment extends the right to carry a weapon outside ones home, that did not offset the District and the publics interest in promoting public safety and preventing crime while the constitutional challenge is making it ways through the court.

The judge noted that the District  with nearly 10,000 people per square mile  is an urban area more than 100 times more densely populated the U.S. average, and more densely populated than any state.

The public safety interest, she wrote, is heightened here where the alleged constitutional violation pertains to the public carrying of operable handguns, which poses a potential risk to others  carriers and non-carriers alike  far greater than the risk of possessing a handgun within the home, Kollar-Kotelly wrote.

Alan Gura, attorney for Brian Wrenn, two other individual plaintiffs and the Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights advocacy group, immediately filed a notice of appeal of Kollar-Kotellys decision.

Were looking forward to the appeal, Gura of the Gura & Possessky law firm in Alexandria, Va., said in an email.

D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) said the District was pleased.

[D.C. Council votes, reluctantly, to allow public to carry concealed weapons]
A woman who was fatally shot in Southeast Washington on Sunday afternoon has been identified as a 39-year-old from Northeast, according to D.C. police.

Police said they have made no arrests in the killing of Ivy Tonett Smith and the shooting of a man who was wounded in the same incident in the 2800 block of Alabama Avenue SE. The shooting occurred about 12:30 p.m.

On Monday, police said they found a gray minivan that had been stolen from a church and which detectives think was used in the attack. The minivan is described as a gray Honda Odyssey with a Maryland handicapped license plate 241-69HT.

Acting D.C. police Capt. Anthony Haythe, who heads the homicide unit, said police found the vehicle in the 1700 block of S Street SE, about a mile from the shooting scene. Haythe said the van had been stolen from Mount Ephraim Baptist Church in Largo in Prince Georges County.

[Police find minivan believed to be used in fatal shooting]

The shooting occurred near a bus stop in the Woodland neighborhood. Smith died at a hospital, and the man was taken to a hospital with wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Haythe said police were trying to identify the people who were in the Honda at the time of the shooting. He said it was not clear whether the man and the woman knew each other, but he said he thinks that at least one of the victims was targeted.

We dont believe this was a random act of violence, Haythe said.

The Rev. Joseph Gilmore Jr., pastor of Mount Ephraim, said that the van typically is parked in a bus lot and that church officials were unaware that the van was missing until D.C. police contacted him Sunday night.

Gilmore expressed condolences to the family of the woman who was killed and said, Im praying for the recovery of those who were injured in this horrific incident.
White House security quickly arrested a man who attempted to breach the first barrier before the White House fence on March 7. (WUSA9)

White House security quickly arrested a man who attempted to breach the first barrier before the White House fence on March 7. (WUSA9)

A man in a hoodie who apparently tried to breach the White House fence on Monday was tackled and arrested before he could reach the reinforced perimeter, according to a witness and the Secret Service.

The incident occurred about 4:30 p.m., when a Secret Service officer saw the man cross a bike- rack barrier on the northeastern fence line. At no time did the subject gain entry to the grounds of the White House complex, the Secret Service said in a statement. The incident was quickly resolved.

Kevin Dye, a Secret Service spokesman, declined to say whether the first family was home. Dye also declined to release the identity of the suspect, who was turned over to D.C. police.

Andrew Dennis, 21, a sophomore at Lee University in Tennessee, said he saw the man climb over the small barrier along Pennsylvania Avenue.

Dennis, who was with a school choir group touring the area, said the man did not make it over a secondary barrier, a fence with pencil point tips designed to deter intruders.

People gather outside of The White House on Monday with U.S. flag lowered to half staff after the death of former first lady Nancy Reagan. (AP)

The last time a person successfully jumped over the reinforced fence was in November 2015, when a man draped in an American flag leapt over the spikes while the first family was inside the White House celebrating Thanksgiving.

Dennis said he was standing near the fence when he saw a man dressed in a hooded sweatshirt cross over the first, small barrier. Security officers started screaming for everyone to run, he said. Everyone started running. Dennis said he looked back and saw police swarming over the man.

About 20 Lee University students were outside the White House when the breach occurred.

carol.leonnig@washpost.com

Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.
A bill meant to pave the way for producing therapeutic marijuana oils in Virginia cleared its last legislative hurdle on Tuesday.

The Senate voted 39 to 0 in favor of the bill, with Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) not voting. Parents with severely epileptic children, who have struggled to obtain the oils used to treat the condition, broke into tears as they watched the vote from the Senate gallery.

Last year, the General Assembly passed a law intended to make it easier for people with severe forms of epilepsy to use two oils derived from marijuana, which lack the plants intoxicating properties but help alleviate debilitating seizures. The bill provided a way for epileptics or their legal guardians to avoid prosecution for possession of cannabidiol oil (also known as CBD) and THC-A oil.

[Bill meant to pave way for marijuana oil production advances in Virginia]

The law passed in Virginia last year was intended to prevent patients or their caretakers from being prosecuted for possession of the oils, but it stopped short of making the oils legal. It did not provide a way for patients to obtain the oils.

The oils are sold legally in Colorado, but makers there are wary of shipping them across state lines because doing so violates federal law. Parents have risked prosecution for traveling to Colorado and transporting the oils themselves. And they would have to make frequent trips because the oils have only a 30-day shelf life.

But last years bill laid the groundwork for possibly producing the oils in Virginia after 2017, when and if the legislature votes to reenact it. The law says that no pharmaceutical processor could produce the oils without first obtaining a permit from the state Board of Pharmacy.

The current bill, which now heads to Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), would direct the board to start to develop those regulations. Sen. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax), who sponsored the measure, said he did not want to wait until the measure is reenacted next year because the regulatory process takes as long as 280 days.
Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II seemed to be caught off-guard by his nomination to the state Supreme Court. (Steve Helber/AP)

A Senate panel on Tuesday nominated former attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II to the Virginia Supreme Court, a move that could both keep Cuccinelli out of the 2017 governors race and deal a particularly bitter blow to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

While the governor and the Republican-controlled legislature have been deadlocked for months over how to fill a vacancy on the states highest court, the nomination of Cuccinelli appeared to have enough support from GOP lawmakers to break the impasse.

Cuccinelli (R), who narrowly lost the 2013 gubernatorial contest to McAuliffe (D), seemed caught off guard. I am humbled and honored to be considered for such a position, but it is not something that my wife and I have previously contemplated, he said. Together, we will prayerfully review this possibility.

A tea party hero for the brash battles he waged as attorney general against abortion, Obamacare and other perceived examples of federal overreach, Cuccinelli is reviled with equal fervor on the left. Establishment Republicans have not been fans, either, and have expressed concern as Cuccinelli has publicly mulled a second gubernatorial bid.

Republicans and Democrats alike speculated that the nomination was aimed at cutting short that possibility  thereby avoiding a potentially divisive nomination contest with former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie and others who have jumped in.

Judge Jane Marum Roushs latest recess appointment to Virginias high court expired in February. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

[Cuccinelli is thinking  at least a little  about running for governor in 2017]

I just think the chief motivation behind this is to get him out of the governors race, said Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax). And they could [not] care less about what it does to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Cuccinellis name surfaced just days ahead of the General Assemblys scheduled Saturday adjournment, after which McAuliffe would be free to give a third recess appointment to former justice Jane Marum Roush if the slot remained unfilled.

A freshman Republican who had refused since January to go along with his partys plan to replace Roush with Appeals Court Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. said he would support Cuccinelli.

Hes qualified and not a political pawn in this process, Sen. Glen Sturtevant (Richmond) said in a text message to The Washington Post.

In a statement, he said: I hoped we would elect Justice Roush, and I could not vote for Judge Alston. However, now that Justice Roush and Judge Alston have failed to be elected by the General Assembly, I believe it is our responsibility to nominate and elect another candidate who is highly qualified and who can receive a majority of support in both houses.

[GOP backs McAuliffes Supreme Court pick, but only for the moment]

Some legislators wondered if Cuccinellis nomination was merely a ploy to prompt Democrats to get behind a more moderate Republican-backed candidate instead of holding out for McAuliffes pick.

Im praying that it is a scare tactic, said Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth).

But Republicans brushed off the notion that the nomination was anything other than sincere. Yes, its for real, said Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (Rockingham).

McAuliffe and Republicans have been at war over how to fill the opening since summer, when the governor gave Roush the first of two temporary recess appointments.

The Republican-controlled legislature refused to give the former Fairfax County Circuit Court judge a full 12-year appointment. Her most recent appointment expired in February, leaving the Supreme Court shorthanded.

Republicans have not questioned the qualifications of Roush, a highly regarded jurist who has presided over many high-profile cases. But they have noted that judicial appointments are theirs to make and have said they prefer Alston, who has served on the appeals court since 2009. Republicans also said McAuliffe violated protocol by not consulting them on the choice.

[Time runs out  again  for McAuliffes Supreme Court pick]

The lawmakers opposition to Roush only grew after she accepted a second recess appointment from McAuliffe, whose authority to grant it was in question because the House had not gaveled out of a special session.

McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said it would be a disgrace to replace Roush with an 11th-hour candidate whom voters have already rejected as hostile to their values on womens rights, gay rights, education, health care, the environment, transportation and a range of other issues.

Republicans have long had the votes in the GOP-dominated House to install Alston, but because Sturtevant was unwilling to go along they were one vote short in the closely divided Senate. Senate Republicans twice appeared close to persuading a Democrat from the black caucus to support Alston, who is African American. Both times, the effort fell short.

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) issued a statement that expressed disappointment about the Senates failure to elect Alston. But it also signaled an intention to move ahead to elect someone.

The Constitution of Virginia obligates the General Assembly to elect the Justices of the Supreme Court; failing to do so would be a dereliction of duty, it said.
Elizabeth Strohfus, who flew military planes across the country during World War II and received two Congressional Gold Medals, died March 6 at an assisted-living center in Faribault, Minn. She was 96.

The cause was complications from a fall, said a son, Art Roberts.

Mrs. Strohfus was one of the last remaining members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, known as WASPs. She ferried military planes in 1943 and 1944 and helped train air and infantry gunners at Las Vegas Army Airfield in Nevada.

She was one of 1,074 female pilots to earn silver wings in the WASP program. The female pilots flew military aircraft in noncombat roles during wartime to free up male pilots for combat. The women were considered civilians until Congress retroactively granted them veteran status in 1977.

Elizabeth Bridget Wall, known as Betty, was born in Faribault on Nov. 15, 1919, and described herself as an adventuresome tomboy in childhood. After completing high school in 1937, she worked in the register of deeds office at the county courthouse. It was stifling.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz greets Elizabeth Strohfus in 2010. (Lauren Victoria Burke/AP)

When I was in school, I couldnt take any classes except home economics or classes for working in an office  like shorthand, typing and that sort of stuff, she told the Owatonna Peoples Press in her home town. We were very limited because we were women. It was kind of too bad because I wasnt too interested in those things.

One day, she overheard a conversation about flying and grew intrigued.

I thought, What a wonderful thing to get above it all and see the beautiful world there,  she said. He asked me if I wanted to fly after he saw I was interested. I said: Yes, I do. Id love to fly. 

She began spending many afternoons after work volunteering at the Faribault airport, learning from pilots with the local flying club. She became so adept at the controls of the Piper Cubs that when one of the pilots left for military service, she was asked to replace him. It would cost $100 to join.

She went to the local bank for a loan, using her bicycle as collateral.

After the WASP program was disbanded in December 1944, she was turned down for a pilots job with Northwest Airlines and worked as an aircraft controller in Wyoming. She eventually returned to Faribault, about 50 miles south of Minneapolis, where she married Arthur Roberts and raised a family.

Widowed in 1972, she worked for the American Cancer Society in New York as a research consultant. She wed Francis Langeslag in 1979; he died in 1988.

Elizabeth Strohfus in 1944. (Courtesy of family)

A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

A member of the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, Mrs. Strohfus received Congressional Gold Medals for her service as a WASP and for her service in the Civil Air Patrol.
IDAHO

Pastor shot a day after praying with Cruz

On Saturday, pastor Tim Remington put his arm around GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz and then delivered a rousing invocation at a campaign rally in Coeur dAlene, Idaho.

Now Remington, 55, is on the receiving end of prayers after being shot in the head and the back after his Sunday sermon.

Early Monday morning, authorities identified a suspect in the shooting: a 30-year-old local man and former Marine named Kyle Andrew Odom. He allegedly ambushed Remington as the pastor was walking to his car after church services Sunday.

As authorities launched a manhunt for Odom, questions remained about the motive. Some members of Remingtons Altar Church speculated that the shooting might have stemmed from the pastors efforts to help drug addicts.

 Michael E. Miller

MISSOURI

Ferguson council set to pass DOJ agreement

Fergusons city council will again consider approving an agreement with the Justice Department to resolve claims that the citys police officers routinely violated the rights of black citizens, and a city spokesman said Monday it is more than likely to pass this time.

The action  though not guaranteed  would be significant, allowing the city to avoid a protracted court battle with the Justice Department. The department and the city had seemingly reached an agreement in January that would have required the police department to improve its policies and train officers to deescalate confrontations. But the council unexpectedly refused to approve the agreement without changes last month, and the Justice Department responded with a lawsuit alleging pervasive misconduct.

Jeff Small, a spokesman for the city, said council members will take up the original agreement again at a meeting Tuesday. He said that while the Justice Department had not agreed to any changes, city officials felt more at ease because of a letter the mayor received from Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta on Friday offering broad reassurances that the Justice Department was committed to working with the city. Gupta heads the departments civil rights division.

 Matt Zapotosky

OKLAHOMA

Oil, gas firms asked to help quell earthquakes

State regulators asked oil and gas producers in central Oklahoma on Monday to restrict wastewater disposal operations to help temper a sharp increase in the number and severity of earthquakes. The request covers more than 400 wells across 5,200 square miles. Scientists blame wastewater disposal volumes for increased seismicity.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission said the new cuts should reduce disposal volumes by 40 percent from 2014 levels.

The number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or greater has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year.

 Associated Press

Jury finds that polygamous towns violated civil rights: Two polygamous towns in Arizona and Utah violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a jury said Monday. Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, were accused of doing the bidding of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a radical offshoot of Mormonism, which disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago.

Fla. overhauls death-penalty law: Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed into law a major overhaul of the states death penalty Monday in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring the previous system unconstitutional. The new law requires that at least 10 out of 12 jurors recommend execution for it to be carried out. Florida previously required that a majority of jurors recommend the sentence. That law was found unconstitutional in January because jurors served an advisory role, while judges had the final say in death-penalty cases.

10 hurt as train derails near San Francisco: A commuter train traveling from Central California to the San Francisco Bay Area derailed and one of its cars fell into a creek, injuring at least 10 people, transit officials said. Officials with the Altamont Corridor Express said the train derailed in Niles Canyon. A dispatcher for the Alameda County Fire Department said the agency received a report of the derailment at about 7:30 p.m. local time.

 From news services
VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS from both parties joined forces recently to reverse the effects of a pernicious state Supreme Court ruling that could give state and local officials a free hand in hiding the workings of government. That apparent legislative victory for transparency has now been put at risk by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who has threatened to gut a good bill.

The stakes in the legislative fight in Richmond are high, although the McAuliffe administration asserts the opposite. The court ruling, rendered in the fall, ignores the clear intent of the states Freedom of Information Act, which is designed to enable public access to information, with certain discrete exemptions.

A majority of the court, siding with the state in a case involving the contested release of documents related to procedures for carrying out Virginias death penalty, said officials could refuse disclosure if the requested material contained even a scrap of information exempt under the FOIA. A state lawmaker who had requested the documents, Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), had argued, sensibly, that officials could simply edit out the exempt bits and release the redacted documents.

A respected judge who dissented from that key part of the ruling, former attorney general William C. Mims, said the court had gone overboard. Virtually the entire General Assembly agreed. Legislation sponsored by Mr. Surovell and Del. James M. LeMunyon (R-Fairfax) would restore the original intent and meaning to the law. Their identical bills would require officials to redact requested documents, when necessary, rather than withhold them. With almost no opposition, the General Assembly passed the bills.

The governor argues that the legislation goes too far to correct what he sees as a ruling whose impact is limited, and lawyers for his administration say it would saddle state and local agencies with excessive administrative burdens and costs. Brian Coy, a spokesman for the governor, called the measure a sledgehammer solution to a tadpole problem.

In fact, the risk is that the governors amendments, which are still being negotiated with the legislature, would impose a sledgehammer of a problem on the state. They would leave in place the courts ruling while having the commonwealths mostly toothless Freedom of Information Advisory Council study the issue.

The governors view is that the courts ruling does not apply to state and local agencies beyond the Department of Corrections, which was the subject of the original dispute over requested documents. But its difficult to see why other agencies of government would not wield the courts decision in trying to withhold documents theyd prefer not to redact.

As Mr. Surovell pointed out, the court ruling, and the governors stance, incentivizes officials to sprinkle little nuggets of exempt information through records, thereby creating a pretext to withhold them entirely from public view.

Virginias record on openness and accountability is already poor; unlike many state legislatures, the General Assembly in Richmond does not even record most committee votes, thereby leaving citizens in the dark about the activities of their elected representatives. Leaving the court ruling in place would be a further step backward. Lawmakers should restore the original language of the bill and discard the governors amendments.
In fending off the challenge posed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Hillary Clinton has wrapped herself around President Obama, touting her appointment as secretary of state as confirmation of his trust in her judgment, while criticizing Sanders for not being ready for prime time as commander in chief. In fact, when it comes to foreign policy, there is little question that Sanders is closer to Obamas sensibility than is Clinton.

One revealing tell is that Clintons criticism of Sanders echoes the attacks she leveled at Obama in 2008. That year, her campaign released its infamous 3 a.m. phone call ad, implying that Obama was not ready to be president. Now she criticizes Sanders because there is no way to predict what comes in the door of that White House from day to day that can pose a threat to the United States or one of our friends and allies. Also in 2008, she dismissed Obama as irresponsible and frankly naive for saying that hed be prepared to meet with Iran, North Korea and Cuba without preconditions. Now her campaign accuses Sanders of fundamental misunderstandings for calling for engaging Russia, Iran with the Sunni nations, and our allies in a coordinated effort to defeat the Islamic State.

The campaign rhetoric exposes a significant divergence in perspective. Both Sanders and Obama opposed President George W. Bushs catastrophic war of choice in Iraq. Clinton voted for it and defended her vote for years. That was, as Sanders repeats, not just a calamitous case of bad judgment; it also reflects differing worldviews.

Clinton, as Vice President Biden noted, is by temperament an interventionist. She believes the United States is an indispensable nation, that, in Bidens phrasing, we just have to do something when bad people do bad things, whether our vital interests are involved or not. Leading neoconservatives such as Robert Kagan (a Post contributor) who touted the Iraq War declare themselves comfortable with Clintons views. If she pursues a policy which we think she will pursue, Kagan said in June 2014, its something that might have been called neocon, but clearly her supporters are not going to call it that; they are going to call it something else.

Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, share a perspective of skeptical restraint. They worry about the unintended consequences of regime change. They are more aware of the limits and costs of military force. They dont believe the United States can or should police the world. They understand that without restraint abroad, we will never be able to focus on rebuilding our country at home.

This difference was reflected throughout the Obama years. Secretary of State Clinton lobbied hard with the generals for a counterinsurgency surge in Afghanistan, over the opposition of Biden and her own aide Richard Holbrooke. The president was skeptical but finally signed on. The counterinsurgency was a failure, and the United States remains mired in Afghanistan to this day.

As a deeply reported two-part article recently published in the New York Times documented, Clinton pushed for the bombing of Libya, countering the objections of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president was reluctant but finally signed on. Clinton exulted when the intervention expanded from stopping civilian massacres to regime change. Upon receiving the news of Moammar Gaddafis killing, she crowed, We came, we saw, he died. She suggested this was a classic example of smart power. Now Libya is a failed state, savaged by warring militias, with the Islamic State consolidating a new base there.

Clinton pushed hard for the United States to arm the somewhat mythical moderate rebels in Syria when that civil war broke out. The president resisted, calling the idea a fantasy in 2014 because wed be arming amateurs up against a well-armed government backed by Russia, backed by Iran, a battle-hardened Hezbollah. The CIA did provide small arms and assistance to the Kurds, but a $500 million effort to arm moderate rebels in Syria to fight the Islamic State ended in abject embarrassment.

When she left office, Clinton then branded the presidents policy in Syria a failure, calling for more U.S. Special Operations forces and advisers, more weapons and redoubling the effort to oust Syrian president Bashar al-Assad while taking on his enemy the Islamic State at the same time. She called for enforcing a no-fly zone, presumably against Russian and Syrian planes, which the president scorned as a half-baked idea.

Sanders is not a pacifist. He supported U.S. use of force in the Balkans under Bill Clinton, and the original Afghanistan intervention to get Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda after Sept. 11, 2001. But like Obama, he opposed the war in Iraq and was a skeptic about regime change in Libya and Syria. Clinton harshly criticized him when he called for building on the Iran nuclear deal to improve relations with Iran, putting regime change in Syria on hold and engaging the Russians and Iranians in a coordinated effort to take out the Islamic State. Now, thanks to the efforts of Clintons successor John F. Kerry, the administration has forged a fragile cease-fire in the civil war in Syria. If it holds, it will free up the Russians and the Syrian army to escalate the attacks on the Islamic State in Syria, while the Iranian-influenced Iraqi military does the same in Iraq.

Obama, too, is far from a pacifist or non-interventionist. He has expanded the use of drones far beyond the Bush administration. He has asserted the right of the president to order the assassination even of American citizens in the war on terrorism. While he has consistently been a skeptical warrior, he will end his administration with the U.S. military engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and indirectly in Syria.

In the spring of 2013, Obama spoke at the National Defense University on the war on terrorism. He argued that we must define the nature and scope of this struggle or else it will define us, invoking James Madisons warning that no nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. He called for new limits on our use of force. Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. Thats what history advises. Thats what our democracy demands. Clinton would not have delivered those remarks. Sanders would.

After she left office, Clinton criticized Obamas quip that a central principle of his foreign policy was dont do stupid s---, saying that Great nations need organizing principles, and Dont do stupid stuff is not an organizing principle. Maybe so, but it reflects a common sense that Sanders and Obama exhibit, and Clinton consistently does not.

Read more from Katrina vanden Heuvels archive or follow her on Twitter.
TURKISH PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdogan is plunging ever deeper into the destruction of what remains of a free press. His behavior resembles that of a despot rather than a leader of a NATO democracy. On Friday, with a court order, the state moved to seize Zaman, Turkeys most widely circulated newspaper, and its sister publication, Todays Zaman, ousting the management and editorial board and installing three court-ordered administrators. A similar process has been used before in Turkey to effectively take over and close down media outlets. We are going through the darkest and gloomiest days, Todays Zaman told readers in an editorial protest. In a defiant last edition before the takeover, Zaman said in a huge Page 1 headline, The Constitution is suspended.

Just recently, Mr. Erdogan moved against two prominent editors, Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, from the newspaper Cumhuriyet, accusing them of treason for publishing information about weapons transfers by the Turkish secret service to fighters in Syria. The charges were trumped up to intimidate and harass all independent journalists in Turkey. Both editors were jailed in November, but the Turkish Constitutional Court ordered them released from detention Feb. 25, pending the start of their trial March 25.

Now Mr. Erdogan has turned against Zaman and Todays Zaman, closely affiliated with Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Once an ally of Mr. Erdogan, he has become a leading target of the presidents wrath. Mr. Gulens Hizmet movement has millions of followers in Turkey, but the president has depicted it as some kind of shadowy conspiracy bent on ousting him from office, and adherents have been prosecuted based on the nations antiterrorism laws. By seizing Zaman and Todays Zaman, Mr. Erdogan is reaching for the movements throat. Barely two days after ousting the editors and management, Zaman began printing pro-government articles.

It is only the latest of his repressive moves: Journalists critical of the government have been forced out of their jobs; social media have been blocked; academics have been targeted for speaking out against Turkeys military campaign against Kurdish separatists; and Mr. Erdogan is seeking to rewrite the constitution to expand the presidents powers. Asli Aydintasbas, a prominent journalist, told the New York Times, Turkey is galloping towards an authoritarian regime full speed ahead.

That gallop should worry the United States. Turkey is an ally and hosts NATO tactical nuclear weapons. It is sliding into the abyss of one-man rule. Of course, Turkey is struggling with urgent problems, including an influx of nearly 2 million refugees from Syria. Mr. Erdogan may calculate that Europe and the United States will not dare object to his crackdown as long as they need his help to keep refugees from flooding Europe. He should be proved wrong. The time to speak out is now, before freedoms have disappeared and Turkey is ruled by a single strongman.
In a speech in Salt Lake City, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney denounced support for candidate Donald Trump, saying Trump "is playing the members of the American public for suckers." Here are key moments from that speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

In a speech in Salt Lake City, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney denounced support for candidate Donald Trump, saying Trump "is playing the members of the American public for suckers." Here are key moments from that speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

How has the Republican establishment tried, and failed, to take out Donald Trump?

Let me count the ways.

The GOPs first line of defense against Trump is usually to claim that his policies would be disastrous. Last week Mitt Romney declared that, If Donald Trumps plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession.

This argument is less than compelling, though, when you consider how little daylight lies between Trumps policies and those of his two chief rivals, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

All three would blow up the deficit by trillions of dollars, losing more tax revenue as a share of economic output than any tax cut on record. Their health-care plans are virtually indistinguishable. All three promise to build a wall on the Mexican border, and both Cruz and Trump want to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. None accepts the scientific consensus on man-made climate change. All want to further restrict access to abortion and further expand access to guns. And so on.

Caught undercutting their own arguments that Trumps policies would be uniquely intolerable, Republican elites then confusingly resort to arguing that Trump may not actually believe all those intolerable policies after all.

Party elders and campaign rivals have doubled down on claims that Trumps not a true conservative, and that he may not uphold his hard-line rightist stances, because not so long ago he espoused more liberal views. But this merely gives Trump an opportunity to invoke Ronald Reagan, another late-in-life party-switcher. More important, voters just dont seem to care much about ideological purity.

When that tactic fails, Republican bigwigs attack Trumps indecorousness and vulgarity. But theres little high ground for them to stand on here, either, given that their preferred candidate recently crawled into the gutter, too.

Recall that it was Rubio, not Trump, who first invoked Trumps genital size on the campaign trail. In an instant, what had been a subtext in Trumps campaign  his big wall, big buildings, big wealth, big poll numbers  became text. But that was Rubios doing, not Trumps.

Condemnations of Trumps race-baiting and nationalism likewise fall flat, for the same reason: hypocrisy. Party leadership turned a blind eye when Trump spewed birtherist nonsense about President Obamas citizenship and faith, and when talk radio hosts rallied the base with their own racially tinged rhetoric. Why should anyone, let alone Trump supporters, be swayed by the partys protestations about such bile now?

Then, elites try targeting Trumps opacity and lack of accountability in his financial dealings.

But the other candidates also only pretend at transparency. Rubio, Cruz and John Kasich all purport to have released their tax returns, but in fact the abbreviated documents theyve published leave out charitable donations, income sources and all the other substantive details that are part of a real tax return  you know, the full documents that every major-party nominee has released since 1980.

1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Trump captures the nations attention on the campaign trail View Photos The Republican presidential candidate continues to dominate the contest. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Cruz likewise complains that the lamestream media has withheld negative coverage and exposes of Trump and his financial activities. This accusation is both demonstrably false and demonstrably funny, when you consider Cruzs declarations that you shouldnt trust anything you see in the media anyway.

Republicans have hacked away at both the customs and the institutions that impose accountability and now have the gall to complain that a party insurrectionist is not held to account.

Of all the ploys that Republican leadership has deployed to curb Trumpmentum, perhaps the most pitiful is the #NeverTrump campaign. Anti-Trump enthusiasts have spread the hashtag far and wide on social media. Rubios website even sells hats, stickers and other swag featuring the slogan.

Yet when asked during the last debate whether theyd support Trump if he became the Republican nominee, every candidate left standing pledged he would. If the other candidates believe a Trump presidency would really be so unendurable, agreeing to support him in November is a strange way to show it. Perhaps #NeverTrump is short for #NeverTrumpExceptDuringTheGeneralElection.

So why have none of the GOPs attacks on Trump stuck? Maybe its because Trump, the new Teflon Don, has unusually effective nonstick properties. Or maybe its because party honchos have been too cowardly to do the one thing  an admittedly very unpleasant thing  that might convince Republican voters that Trump is a real threat to the liberal world order.

Theyd need to voice the most damning insult of all, at least in the minds of Republicans: an acknowledgment that even Hillary Clinton would make a better president than Donald J. Trump.
Laura Bush is an honorary co-chair of the U.S.-Afghan Womens Council and chair of the Womens Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute.

Fifteen years ago, if you were a woman in Afghanistan, you could be beaten for laughing in public or if your shoes made noise. You could be beaten or killed for going out alone, unaccompanied by a male guardian. Covered by burqas, women became strangers. Waiting in bread lines in Kabul, they learned to recognize each other from the sound of their voices and the faces of male children with them. Today, one of those women, Nasima Rahmani, is a leading lawyer and educator, working toward her PhD.

And she is not alone. Women in Afghanistan are changing their lives and their nation. Fifteen years ago, barely 5,000 girls were enrolled in primary school. Soon that number will exceed 3 million. Thirty-six percent of teachers are women. Afghanistans first lady, Rula Ghani, has launched a project to establish a female-only university, run by women. In government, women hold 69 seats in parliament. There are four female government ministers and two female provincial governors. Thousands of women have started their own businesses.

On Tuesday, International Womens Day, the George W. Bush Institute is releasing a new book, We Are Afghan Women: Voices of Hope. The book recounts inspiring stories such as Rahmanis, reminding us of both the challenges Afghan women have endured and the incredible successes they have achieved.

It is hard to find another country where women have made such substantial gains against such overwhelming odds in so short a time. In the United States, women won the right to vote in 1920, but it wasnt until 1969 that nearly all of the elite Ivy League universities started admitting women. By 1961, only 20 women were serving in Congress. In the age of Twitter and Instagram, it can be hard to remember that real change takes time.

We should not underestimate the challenges that women in Afghanistan still face. Later this month, the country will observe the one-year anniversary of the brutal mob murder of a young woman named Farkhunda, who was falsely accused of burning a Koran. There are regular reports of attacks on girls schools and attacks on female students. Last July, three girls, ages 16 through 18, had acid thrown in their faces as they walked to school in Herat province. Violence against women remains a serious problem.

Yet I am hopeful. I am hopeful because of the skills, determination and abilities of Afghanistans women.

When Sakena Yacoobi stood in a filthy, crowded Afghan refugee camp, she knew the one thing that every Afghan needed was an education. She opened 15 schools for 21,000 refugees. Today, one of her programs in Afghanistan teaches women to read, write and do math using cellphones. Naheed Farid, a young member of Afghanistans parliament, faced death threats when she ran for office. Her face was cut out of campaign posters and opponents promised to dishonor her father-in-laws family. But her husband and father-in-law insisted she continue. Now she advocates for women and children and serves on the parliaments international relations committee.

Afghanistan is at a crossroads. It is a global hot spot that before 9/11 became a terrorist haven, and it is a young country: The median age is 18.3 years. U.S. policy in Afghanistan must be consistent. Afghanistan is a resilient society. The best way to build on this resilience is to be predictable in our support. If the United States turns its back on Afghanistan, other forces will step in to erase the hard-won but fragile gains that have been made.

We can and must help Afghanistan create a better future. We need to ensure that Afghanistan cannot again become a terrorist haven or fall to the Taliban or the Islamic State. In the interest of our own national security, we must assist Afghan security forces. I welcome President Obamas decision to maintain a U.S. military presence through 2016 and beyond. We know, and the Afghan people know, that we will not have troops in Afghanistan forever, but the country remains fragile, and the cost of leaving Afghanistan is too high.

We, and the entire international community, should continue to provide significant development assistance in the areas of health care, entrepreneurship and education. We know this assistance works. A 2013 Rand Corporation study found Afghanistans metrics have improved in nearly every area of development. By maintaining our presence and support, we are encouraging the Afghan government to keep its security commitments to the Afghan people and to build on economic and anti-corruption reforms and the rule of law. That is why it is critically important that any peace achieved through negotiations between Afghan leaders and the Taliban is not made at the expense of Afghan women. A return to policies that made the Taliban notorious in the 1990s would be traumatic not just for women but also for the stability of the country.

We must never forget that what happens in Afghanistan  and elsewhere in the world  matters to us here at home. The Afghan people are not asking us to solve their problems; they are asking us to remain engaged so that they have the space and opportunity to create their own solutions. As American University of Afghanistans first female valedictorian, Onaba Payab, told me: This is a reminder that we are not alone in those tough places, that there are people who care about us.
For nine months, Republican leaders refused to take on Donald Trump when it would have done some good. Now that it may be too late, theyre blaming their own failures on the media.

The medias pumping him up, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) complained. The Republican presidential candidate alleged that theres a weird bias here in the media rooting for Donald Trump because they know hes the easiest Republican to beat.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) agrees that the media have given Trump hundreds of millions of dollars of free advertising, a massive in-kind contribution that helped create this phenomenon. He even alleges that media outlets are holding exposes on Trump until he secures the nomination.

Complaining about the media is an easy applause line for conservatives, and the news business no doubt deserves some blame for Trumps rise. But if Cruz, Rubio and other GOP leaders are looking for the real culprits, they should start with themselves.

Upset about the volume of coverage Trump has received? You might as well complain about the weather. News outlets (and their customers) love conflict: If it bleeds, it leads. If GOP rivals had taken on Trump early in the race, they would have received coverage, too. But they ignored him, hoping he would disappear, and so Trump had the cameras to himself for his outrages du jour.

Coverage volume, meanwhile, is not necessarily a measure of success. Trump got 93 percent of coverage in the past 30 days, according to the LexisNexis Presidential Campaign Tracker. But on the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) got a virtually identical 92 percent.

Also, its worth noting that all the issues Cruz and Rubio now bring up  bankruptcies, Trump University, his bigoted remarks, his autocratic instincts  were covered by the press long ago. But Trumps rivals declined to attack him.

Recall the very first debate, when Fox Newss Megyn Kelly led off with a question noting that Trump has called women fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. Trumps rivals were at most mildly critical of his misogyny.

Or think back to another early debate, when CNBCs John Harwood opened by challenging Trumps preposterous promises and asking: Is this a comic-book version of a presidential campaign? Trumps rivals joined him in denouncing the moderators for being too tough.

Looking back through my own coverage of Trump, I see a long list of unanswered pleas for the other GOP candidates to take on Trump. On Aug. 27, for example, I lamented the lack of backbone and the virtual silence of others in the field in reaction to Trumps offenses. On Sept. 16, I pleaded for other GOP candidates to respond quickly and consistently to Trumps bullying, and four days later I argued that if his rivals take him on consistently and jointly . . . Trumps moment will end.

But they didnt. By Nov. 24, I despaired that Trump gets ever more base in his bigotry  and yet, with few and intermittent exceptions, rival candidates, party leaders and GOP lawmakers decline to call him out. So he continues to rise.

Certainly, theres a case to be made that the media  namely, Fox News  created Trump as a political figure before his candidacy. Beginning in 2011, Trump had a weekly segment on Foxs morning show. The liberal watchdog group Media Matters calculates that Trump was on Foxs evening and prime-time programs and Fox News Sunday 48 times between January 2013 and April 2015. But then Fox News, like Republican officials and other conservative opinion leaders, lost control of the monster they created.

Theres no question Trumps run has been good for ratings and readership. But while this creates an incentive to cover Trump, it hasnt translated to favorable coverage. The LexisNexis tracker finds that 7 percent of the coverage of Republicans has been negative over the past 30 days, 11 percent positive and the rest neutral  virtually identical to the proportions for Democrats.

The bigger problem among journalists covering Trump is the moral neutrality in the reporting. News organizations apply to him the same type of horse-race reporting that they do to conventional candidates: driven by polls, defining whos up and whos down, who won the news cycle and who lost. Trumps moves are often described as brilliant. But while it may be tactically brilliant of him to, say, propose a ban on Muslims entering the United States, its also deplorable. News organizations fear making such judgments would compromise their impartiality.

But thats a small flaw compared with the chronic unwillingness of Republican leaders, and particularly Trumps rivals, to take him on. Had they done so earlier, journalists would have followed their cues, and coverage would have been different. To blame the news media now for the GOP leaders own failings compounds their cowardice.

Twitter: @Milbank

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A family in Mexico looks towards metal bars marking the U.S. border where it meets the Pacific Ocean. (Gregory Bull/Associated Press)

Hows this for poetic justice? Donald Trumps favorite scapegoats could end up having the satisfaction of blocking him from the White House.

Latino voters have the potential to form a big, beautiful wall between Trump and his goal. If Trump gets the Republican nomination and Hispanics are provoked into voting in numbers that more nearly approach their percentage of the population  and if, as polls suggest, they vote overwhelmingly against Trump  it is hard to see how the bombastic billionaire could win.

Such an outcome would serve Trump right. Unfortunately for the GOP, it would also threaten to make Latinos a reliable and perhaps monolithic voting bloc for the Democratic Party, just as African Americans have been since the 1960s. If this were to happen, simple arithmetic would make it increasingly difficult for Republicans to win the White House.

In 2012, Mitt Romney won just 27 percent of the Latino vote; his policy of self-deportation for undocumented immigrants is believed to have contributed to this poor showing. After Romneys defeat, a GOP postmortem called on the party to regain its footing with the nations largest minority group. We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform, the report said.

This never happened. A group of senators who became known as the Gang of Eight, including Marco Rubio, managed to win passage of a reform bill, but House Republicans refused even to consider the legislation. It seemed the immigration issue would once again be a liability for the GOP in the presidential contest.

The Washington Post and Univision News asked Hispanic voters which 2016 presidential candidates they prefer, which issues matter to them and whether they think the country is on the right track. Here's how they responded. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Then along came Trump, who opened his campaign by charging that immigrants coming from Mexico were criminals and rapists  and promising to build a wall along the border to keep them out. As for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already here, Trumps solution is not self-deportation but rather forced deportation: He pledges to round them all up and send them home.

Trump may be all over the map on a host of issues, but xenophobic opposition to Latino immigration has been his North Star. He invites supporters to see their nation under siege from Latinos who allegedly take away jobs, commit crimes and alter traditional American culture. Last year, he criticized campaign rival Jeb Bush  whose wife is from Mexico  for speaking Spanish at a rally. He should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States, Trump said.

Trumps chauvinism has been winning approval among the mostly white, working-class voters who form the core of his support. But there are signs that he may also be animating Latinos  to come out and vote against him.

A poll last month by The Post and Univision showed that just 16 percent of Latino voters had a favorable view of Trump, as opposed to 80 percent who view him unfavorably. The remaining GOP candidates  Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich  all do considerably better. But no Republican does nearly as well as Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, both of whom are seen favorably by healthy majorities.

In a hypothetical matchup, according to the poll, Clinton would beat Trump among Latino voters by 73 percent to 16 percent. Assuming those who had no opinion went equally for the two candidates, Clintons share of the Latino vote would approach 80 percent. Swing states with large Hispanic populations such as Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado would effectively be off the table for the GOP.

Moreover, the sheer number of Latino voters will almost surely increase across the nation. According to the Pew Research Center, the 23.3 million Hispanics who were eligible to vote in 2012 will have grown to 27.3 million by Election Day, mostly from young citizens who turn 18. The specter of a Trump presidency is giving urgency to widespread voter-registration drives.

Trumps claim that he won among Hispanic voters in Nevada is based on entrance polling at the party caucuses, but the sample was so small as to be virtually meaningless. More pertinent is that more than twice as many Hispanics participated in the Democratic caucuses as in the Republican ones.

Assuming Trump wins the nomination, where does this leave him? If Latinos come out to vote against him in greater-than-usual numbers, he would have to win what looks like an impossibly high percentage of the white vote to be competitive. Even if the Latino vote just grows proportionally with population, he would have a hard time winning states that GOP presidential candidates cant afford to lose.

He may wish he could say Im sorry in Spanish.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
What took you so long?

The question, posed to Sen. Bernie Sanders this week by a local newspaper editor about his first visit last month to the majority-black city of Flint, Mich., cut to the heart of his struggles to engage black voters and compete with front-runner Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

An awkward reality has defined the nominating contest between Sanders and Clinton this year: his failure to win over African American voters  or the states where they represent large portions of the electorate. As a result, Sanders in recent weeks has focused almost exclusively on winning in whiter states, where his campaign has resonated among younger and working-class voters.

Its not how Sanders wanted it to be. A longtime civil rights proponent who marched on Washington in 1963, Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist who believes that his central promise to combat income inequality would benefit African Americans at least as much as anyone else.

Hes running against somebody very well known in the African American community, said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs. He started off 10 months ago with almost no name recognition and no support. We think were making progress, but clearly we have more work to do.

1 of 21 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Clinton and Sanders clash during debate in Flint, Mich. View Photos Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders traded pointed words in the Democratic presidential debate at the University of Michigan at Flint on Sunday. Caption Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders traded pointed words in the Democratic presidential debate at the University of Michigan at Flint on Sunday. March 6, 2016 Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) stand stage before the crowd at the seventh Democratic presidential debate at the University of Michigan at Flint. Charlie Neibergall/AP Wait 1 second to continue.

[Democrats Clinton and Sanders pounce on Flint water crisis  and each other]

Sanders has endured a series of crushing defeats in states with large black electorates. Despite heavy spending on TV and paid canvassers in South Carolina, Clinton beat him by more than 70 points among African American voters there and in Georgia  and by a whopping 85 points in Alabama. On Saturday, she won the Louisiana primary 71 percent to 23 percent, again thanks to her strong showing among black voters.

Without stating it explicitly, the Sanders campaign has made no secret of a strategy targeting whiter states. His advisers have argued repeatedly that he retained a path to the nomination that involved winning industrial  and whiter  Midwestern states. Campaign adviser Tad Devine talked about the need for the campaign to pick our targets.

Knowing that South Carolina wasnt likely to tilt his way, Sanders left the state for 48 hours ahead of the primary to campaign in more heavily white states later on the calendar. He targeted five states in the run-up to Super Tuesday, all of them with relatively small black populations. He won four of them. Ahead of Saturdays contests, Sanders did little campaigning in Louisiana. Instead, the campaign celebrated a trio of caucus conquests over the weekend in overwhelmingly white states: Kansas, Nebraska and Maine.

Richard Dickerson, a political consultant based in Birmingham, Ala., who has worked on campaigns across the country, said Sanderss inability to gain traction with black voters leaves him little choice but to focus on states that are less diverse.

I think thats the best they can do, Dickerson said. It highlights their inability to reach the Democratic base.

Winning the black vote was always going to be a challenge for Sanders. He is up against Hillary and Bill Clinton and their decades-long political relationships with African American leaders and voters. And as a longtime independent, he has never been active with the Democratic Party. Elected to the Senate from Vermont  a state that is 95 percent white  he has none of the relationships that the Clintons enjoy among Democratic activists.

I think the easy part of getting black voters to turn to Bernie Sanders is what happens when they actually listen to him, said Ben Jealous, a Sanders supporter and former leader of the NAACP. The hard part is getting beyond the Clinton brand. The Clinton brand is a bit like Coca-Cola. You know, its a Southern brand. Everybody knows it. It tastes good. The question you have to ask is: Is it the best option for you?

In addition, Sanders has connected with few black leaders and voters  although its not clear whether he missed opportunities or those individuals were unreceptive to him. The Sanders campaign disputes, for instance, the premise of the question posed to him Sunday in Flint by Bryn Mickle, the editor of the Flint Journal.

Mickle noted that Sanders had visited the city just over a week ago. In fact, Sanders first made Flint a campaign issue in mid-

January, when he called for Gov. Rick Snyders resignation, saying the Republican knew about the lead in Flints water and did nothing. Sanderss statement came on the eve of a weekend visit to South Carolina and appeared aimed at least in part to get the attention of that states African American voters.

The campaign also disputes the perspective of Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, who said with some bafflement that Sanders didnt make an effort to contact her. Its very interesting to me that he hasnt called, said Weaver, who endorsed Clinton in mid-January and wore a large gold pin with the campaigns logo on her lapel at the debate in Flint on Sunday. It seemed to me that hed talk to the mayor of any city he visits that is in crisis and ask what we in government need.

Briggs, from the Sanders campaign, said the mayor was mistaken. We tried to meet with her, he said. We called. We went to City Hall and waited outside her office. We invited her to the opening of a Flint field office. She never responded. She also did not show up at the very moving town meeting at the church in Flint.

The Sanders campaign is not targeting white voters exclusively. One campaign ad, featuring the daughter of Eric Garner, who died when New York City police officers used a chokehold to restrain him, is clearly meant to convey his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

In addition, he has collected endorsements from a group of famous African American supporters, including academic Cornel West, film director Spike Lee, actor Danny Glover, entertainer Harry Belafonte and rapper Killer Mike, who all have vouched for how Sanderss agenda would benefit African Americans. Killer Mike has gone so far as to say that Sanders would help carry on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Although Clinton enjoys far broader backing among black elected officials, several have come forward to support Sanders, including Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who was among Sanderss biggest cheerleaders in his state, and former state senator Nina Turner of Ohio, who has a national profile among Democratic activists. In South Carolina, a half-dozen African American lawmakers campaigned on Sanderss behalf.

But there are signs that he hasnt reached out to black voters in the traditional manner of Democratic politicians. Sanders has demonstrated that he can draw large crowds almost anywhere  including thousands to a rally in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Monday. But he has not embraced another staple of the trail: retail politicking.

Clinton peppers her schedule with visits to restaurants, workplaces and houses of worship, providing opportunities to talk to voters in small groups or one-on-one (with TV cameras capturing the moment, of course).

Sanders has seemed like a fish out of water during his relatively few attempts to mingle with everyday people. On a Sunday morning, hes much more likely to appear on a network talk show than in a pew of an African American church. That aloofness may have hurt him, particularly among African Americans in the South. Rather than coming into their communities, Sanders was only seen as a northerner talking at them in large settings.

Supporter Killer Mike seemed to understand that. He told reporters that he wanted to take the senator on a barbershop tour throughout the South. Sanders visited a barbershop in Atlanta owned by Killer Mike  who widely distributed a video of their discussion there  but a tour never happened.

Sanders also stumbled in Sundays debate, when he answered a question about whether he has any racial blind spots by suggesting that only black people live in ghettos.

When youre white, you dont know what its like to be living in a ghetto. You dont know what its like to be poor. You dont know what its like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car, Sanders said.

Jealous, who was at the debate, acknowledged that Sanderss answer missed the mark, but he criticized Clinton for failing to mention in her answer that as a high school student she supported Republican Barry Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964 on a platform opposing the Civil Rights Act. In her autobiography, Clinton writes about her transformation from Republican to liberal Democrat.

Ellison noted that there are parts of Bill Clintons legacy that should give black voters pause, including welfare reform, a crime bill that has been blamed for ushering in the era of mass incarceration and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has hurt African American workers in industrial states.

That argument does not appear likely to affect the outcome in Michigan, which votes Tuesday. In a new NBC News-Marist poll released Sunday, Clinton leads Sanders 57 percent to 40 percent overall  and 76 percent to 21 percent among black voters.

A commanding Clinton victory in Michigan on Tuesday would render Sanderss path to the nomination all but impassable. And that, in turn, raises the question of whether its possible to win the Democratic nomination without the black vote.

The answer is no, said Dickerson, because many of the states that yield the largest number of delegates have significant percentages of black voters in the Democratic primary electorate. Its all about the delegate count, he said.

Steve Friess contributed to this report.
The night Barack Obama was elected president, Christopher Poulos watched the election returns inside a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., where he was the only white inmate in the TV room.

Poulos had been convicted in 2008 of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and spent an additional two years in federal prison. But by last fall, he had an access badge to the White House. The law student, now 33, recently finished an internship in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

His journey from a federal prison to clearance by the Secret Service to work in the White House illustrates Obamas particular philosophy that the United States is a nation of second chances. The societal reclamation of Poulos, a once-homeless teenager from Portland, Maine, shows what that kind of thinking looks like in real life.

Although Pouloss trajectory is unusual, hes not the only person with a criminal past to work in that White House office: JD Stier left college to serve 25 months for selling marijuana and landed a job as the Office of National Drug Control Policys national outreach coordinator after working as a field organizer for Obamas 2008 bid.

And the offices director, Michael Botticelli, has been in recovery since his drivers license was suspended almost three decades ago after a drunken-driving incident.

Law student Christopher Poulos recently finished an internship at the White House, despite a felony drug conviction in 2008. He spoke with Post Video in September 2015, shortly before his internship, about a new movement to "come out" about being in recovery from a substance abuse disorder. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

I think  not I think, I know  they bring a unique perspective to the work that we do, Botticelli said. They bring a sense and a depth of understanding that folks who have not had that direct, lived experience dont bring.

[White House drug czar approaches job from a different angle: In recovery]

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) has sought out Pouloss advice for the same reason. King, who has joined with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in asking for $600 million in emergency funding to address the drug epidemic in New England, said he had been trying to answer the question: Does treatment work? Only 1 in 10 Maine residents seeking treatment have access to it, the senator added.

His answer, unequivocally, was yes, King said of Poulos. King said he considered Poulos one of the most impressive people he had ever met, particularly given where hes been and what hes done.

Poulos, the child of a single mother, used to rifle through his grandfathers dusty legal books and dreamed of being a lawyer. But at the age of 10, he began defying every authority figure in his life. At 13, he was prescribed Ritalin to address his attention-deficit disorder. Almost immediately, he started misusing the prescription, as well as benzodiazepines and opiates.

Two years later, his family doctor switched him to Adderall and added sleeping pills because, as he explained, If you put a child on speed during the day, you need something to calm him down at the end of the day.

In high school, a series of personal setbacks accelerated Pouloss use of drugs and alcohol. Within a few months, his stepfather, a commercial fisherman, was lost at sea, Pouloss grandfather died and a close friend was killed in a fight.

To help him cope with the grief, his doctor prescribed Xanax, then Klonopin, and Poulos began consuming large quantities of those substances as well, along with alcohol. During his senior year, his mother kicked him out of the house. Eventually, he began using cocaine and illegal opiates and sold drugs to support his habit.

I would have never been involved in any illegal activity had it not been for an untreated addiction, he said in an interview. I never woke up one morning and said, I want to pollute my community with cocaine. It was a long road in.

[In recovery, former addicts challenge the social stigma by going public]

Pouloss activities came under scrutiny from Drug Enforcement Administration agents, although it was a year before he was indicted on drug charges. During that time, he went into recovery with the support of a 12-step program. Kevin, a friend and recovering alcoholic who asked that his last name not be used in keeping with the practice of the recovery program, said that Pouloss experience was not unique.

When you start turning your life around, the wreckage doesnt automatically get cleaned up, said Kevin, who is now a successful real estate developer. In his case, he had to deal with the wreckage by going to prison.

In prison, Poulos started teaching writing to other inmates and began studying Spanish. Prison authorities confiscated the Spanish-language CDs Kevin sent him but allowed him to keep the books. After 33 months in jail and a federal halfway house, he was free.

He voted for Obama in 2012 and would have in 2008 had his absentee ballot arrived in time. Maine does not deny felons the right to vote.

Now Poulos looks like a successful Hill staffer, with closely cropped auburn hair and a set of crisp suits. One of his tattoos, a Celtic cross, peeks out from his shirt collar, but hiding underneath are an entire oceanscape emblazoned on his chest, which he got inked after being indicted on felony charges, and tattoos on his back.

After joining Young People in Recovery, a national group that supports youths who have experienced addiction, he started speaking publicly about his experience. A portion of the TEDx talk he recorded last year, an independently organized event, now plays in a loop in a North Carolina federal probation office, and on one January afternoon, he found himself at the U.S. Probation Office for the District of Columbia, sitting on Chief Gennine A. Hagars couch. Right on this sofa, Ive had Marion Barry, Scooter Libby, Hagar remarked, noting the late D.C. mayor and the former aide to Vice President Richard B. Cheney, who were convicted of federal felonies.

Hagar believes people on probation are more likely to listen to someone who has served time. So on the day Poulos met Hagar, he addressed a couple dozen men and women who had just completed federal prison sentences. Welcome home, to anyone who is coming home, he declared at the outset. I came home, too.

Several members of the audience kept their eyes downcast much of the time, but they appeared to be listening as he described his journey from drinking shot after shot of rum in a Portland bar as DEA agents searched his apartment one night, to pursuing first a college degree and then a law degree in that city.

Poulos worked as a telemarketer promoting vacation homes and as a paralegal, and he had a dispiriting talk with the University of Maine Law Schools then-dean, Peter Pitegoff, when he broached the idea of applying there in 2012.

Pitegoff explained to him how even if he graduated with a law degree, his felony conviction might prevent him from gaining admission to the state bar. In an interview, Pitegoff, who still teaches at the school but no longer serves as its dean, said he was trying to outline a wide variety of options he could do to pursue his goals.

At the end, I think he walked away a bit deflated instead of encouraged, Pitegoff said.

Poulos remembers the exchange even more starkly, asking Pitegoff, Dean, why didnt the judge give me a life sentence? he recalled. Okay, so then why are you giving me one today?

Throughout the process, Poulos networked, and he eventually won admission with Pitegoffs full support. Poulos spotted a journalist he knew while crossing a public square in downtown Portland one day; that reporter helped put him on a mayors task force on criminal-justice policy and addiction. When Botticelli came to Portland City Hall for a meeting with reform advocates and was mobbed after the session, Poulos calculated that he would be better off standing outside the buildings main entrance so he could catch Botticelli on his way out the door.

I knew that having a conversation with this guy had the potential to change my life, he said. I saw the moment.

The two men had a brief conversation, and one of Botticellis aides gave Poulos a card. Poulos kept in touch and last year applied for a White House internship. The application form, unlike those of many employers, does not require applicants to indicate whether they have a criminal conviction, and by the end of the summer, he had an offer from the White House.

But no one knew what would happen with my clearance, he said.

Neither White House officials nor Poulos would talk in detail about his clearance process, although Poulos called it a thorough but fair investigation. He filled out nearly 100 pages of documents, and with no decision reached by the end of September, Poulos headed back to Maine in October to start his final year of law school.

As he was driving up the highway near Worcester, Mass., a no caller ID call flashed on his phones screen. In the past, that had signaled an incoming call from a fellow drug dealer or a federal agency. This time, it was the Secret Service agent who had conducted his clearance investigation, so Poulos pulled off the road.

I found your case so extraordinary, and so encouraging, I wanted to call you myself to congratulate you, Poulos recalled the agent telling him.

Alone in the parking lot of a Papa Ginos pizzeria, Poulos got out of his car and started jumping up and down in celebration.

Getting a White House job has not solved all his problems: Poulos could not rent an apartment in the District because of the apartment agencys restrictions on those with felony convictions and had to sublet instead. But he is set to graduate from law school in May, defends juvenile offenders as a sworn member of the Maine bar and was named a law student of the year by National Jurist magazine.

Christopher Northrop, who directs UM law schools Juvenile Justice Clinic, said that although Poulos does not share his personal history with clients, he has a comfort level with the kids hes working with and a level of knowledge that they pick up on.

Recently, Poulos managed to get charges against a 17-year-old he was representing reduced, sparing him a felony conviction.

That felony conviction could have haunted him for the rest of his life, like my conviction has haunted me, he said.

Still, his current life is far different from what he faced in October 2008.

In the past, people didnt want to be near me, he said. Recently, a police officer approached him in a parking lot at the University of Southern Maine, knowing that he had worked at the White House. The officer wanted to know whether Poulos could get him a signed photo of President Obama.

I told him, Ill see what I can do. I probably can get it.
On the night Michigan and Mississippi Democratic voters went to the polls, candidate Hillary Clinton said she was proud of the campaigns she and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are running. Meanwhile, Sanders expressed confidence that Democrats would "beat Mr. Trump" in November. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

On the night Michigan and Mississippi Democratic voters went to the polls, candidate Hillary Clinton said she was proud of the campaigns she and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are running. Meanwhile, Sanders expressed confidence that Democrats would "beat Mr. Trump" in November. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Sen. Ted Cruz has been projected to win the Republican presidential primary in Idaho, according to exit polls and early returns  a key victory for Cruz, after billionaire front-runner Donald Trump won the nights first two GOP contests.

The Associated Press projected Cruz as the winner at 12:14 a.m., when Cruz was leading Trump by 15 points with 49 percent of precincts reporting. This is the seventh state Cruz has won. Trump has now won 14, including Michigan and Mississippi earlier on Tuesday evening. There is still one state up for grabs on Tuesday: Hawaii, where returns from the GOP caucuses are not expected until early morning, Eastern time.

The nights biggest surprise, however, came in the Democratic presidential race, where Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won an upset victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Michigan.

Pre-election polling had shown Clinton with a significant lead in Michigan. But Sanders took the lead as early returns came in, and he never gave it back: the Associated Press projected Sanders as the winner at 11:33 p.m., when he was leading by 50 percent to 48 percent, with 91 percent of the precincts reporting.

[Michigan primary election results]

For Sanders  the democratic socialist from Vermont running an insurgent campaign on Clintons left  the Michigan victory will bring a new energy, after several weeks in which his chances had seemed to fade.

Michigan is the largest state he has won, and the most diverse. It signalled that Sanders long efforts to attract black voters, by talking about racial justice and police brutality, had finally paid off. He only lost African American voters by a margin of 2 to 1, instead of the lopsided losses seen elsewhere. That, paired with Sanders stronger support among blue-collar whites, put him over the top.

Sanders was outperforming Clinton even in Genesee County, Mich.  whose county seat is Flint. Both Clinton and Sanders had focused heavily on the water crisis in Flint, where mismanagement by a Republican-led state government had led to toxic lead leaching into drinking water.

As the results remained unexpectedly close, aides to Sanders scrambled around 10 p.m. to set up a podium and banner in an outdoor courtyard at the South Miami boutique hotel where Sanders, his aides and the traveling press were staying. The campaign had not previously announced plans for Sanders to address the media.

What we have done is create the kind of momentum that we need to win, Sanders said. This has been a fantastic night in Michigan, he said, noting that regardless of the final outcome he will claim roughly half the states delegates.

[The two big warning signs for Clinton in Michigan]

Earlier in the evening, Clinton had won the Democratic primary in Mississippi, thanks to a dominating performance among black Democrats there. Pre-election polling had showed her with a huge lead in Michigan. She still holds a commanding lead in the count of Democratic delegates  thanks, in part, to her lead among the super-delegates who arent beholden to primary voters, but get to make up their own minds instead. The victory in Michigan will not change that. But it does signal that Clinton may not be able to pivot away from her primary fight  and toward a general election against a Republican  anytime soon.

Among Republicans, the Michigan and Mississippi primaries were both won in commanding fashion by billionaire Donald Trump  two victories in far-flung states, which showed that furious attacks by Trumps rivals and his own party elite had failed to blunt his momentum.

Polls have also closed in Idaho, the third of four states to hold a Republican contest on Tuesday. As the first returns came in after 11 p.m. Eastern time, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) was leading, with Trump running second and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) third. There is no Democratic contest in Idaho on Tuesday: Democrats will caucus there on March 22.

Hawaii Republicans also headed to the polls Tuesday.

[U.S. primary state results]

In the first two Republican races of Tuesday night, early returns showed Trump winning by double-digit margins. There was little sign of a drop-off, even after days of attacks by Rubio, Cruz and super PACs, which had blasted Trumps business record and called him un-trustworthy.

In a speech and press conference held at one of his golf resorts in Florida, Trump savored the win.

They didnt do so well tonight, folks, Trump said. Theres only one person did well tonight, Donald Trump. I will tell you. Its true.

But, even in triumph, he had clear that his rivals had gotten under his skin. Trump interrupted his talk of politics to offer a detailed defense of his name-branded products: he mentioned Trump Water, Trump Magazine, Trump University, Trump Vodka, Trump Wine and others.

We have Trump steaks. And by the way, if you want to take one, well charge you about 50 bucks a steak, Trump said. It was, undoubtedly, the first time a presidential front-runner had interrupted a political event to sell steaks and alcohol with his name on them. But Trump has won by breaking taboos: in the most recent debate, he was undoubtedly the first presidential front-runner to talk about the size of his genitals on stage.

On Tuesday  at least in the early going  Trump was the dominant force in the GOP race.

In Michigan, the second-place candidate was Ohio Gov. John Kasich. In Mississippi, it was Cruz. But neither was close to catching Trump.

For Rubio, the night was shaping up as a disaster. Rubio was running fourth in both stages, far below the threshold needed to win any delegates at all.

[Kasich elbows past Rubio with last-minute Michigan surge]

Rubio spoke to his supporters early in the evening, and said he would re-focus his energies on winning his home state of Florida, whose crucial winner-take-all primary is next Tuesday.

I believe with all my heart that the winner of the Florida primary next Tuesday will be the nominee of the Republican Party, Rubio told a crowd in Ponte Vedra, Fla., reiterating that he hopes to win his home states 99 delegates next week by defeating Trump. Rubios candidacy seems to be flagging. A loss on home turf would likely end it.

[Allied super PAC rushing to Rubios rescue in Florida]

The victories in Michigan and Mississippi may not significantly increase Trumps lead in the count of Republican delegates, since the two states give them out proportionately. The second-place candidate, and even perhaps the third- or fourth-place candidate, will also get a share. But, for Trump, these victories will still be undoubtedly sweet, since they came after the first sustained attacks against him.

In the Democratic race, the contest in Michigan was looking far closer than pre-election polls suggested. One reason, preliminary exit polling reported by CNN, was that Sanders did far better with African American voters in Michigan than he has in the Deep South.

In Michigan, Sanders was losing African American voters by a 2-to-1 margin to Clinton  and that was great news for the senator.

Sanders has lost black voters to Clinton  by an average margin of 84 percent to 16 percent according to exit polls so far this year  including a series of southern states where African Americans make up a large share of the electorate. Such massive losses were also partly responsible for him losing the close Nevada caucuses. But Sanders garnering over 30 percent of African American support in Michigan would mark a new high for the year.

Earlier in the night, the Associated Press projected Clinton as the winner in Mississippi  where her strong support among black voters was decisive  just after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern time. AP projected Trump as the winner of the states GOP primary about 40 minutes later, as early returns showed him with a double-digit lead over Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), his nearest rival.

For both Clinton and Trump, Mississippi was the latest in a series of victories across the Deep South, which have helped both cement their status as front-runners. The two of them have played to widely different electorates in those states, with Clinton speaking to black voters pleased with the performance of President Obama, and Trump speaking to white Republicans who have turned even more conservative and embittered  with Obama and with their own party leadership  in the same period.

African Americans accounted for roughly 6 in 10 voters in Mississippis Democratic primary, which would mark a record high if it holds according to preliminary exit polling reported by ABC News. Black voters went strongly against Clinton in 2008, when she was defeated in the Democratic primary by then-Sen. Barack Obama. But, in this election, they have helped Clinton swamp Sanders in a series of southern states. In Mississippi, Clinton was hoping that black voters could give her a lopsided victory, as well as the bulk of the states 36 Democratic delegates.

Clinton won nearly 9 out of 10 black voters in Mississippi, according to exit polls reported by ABC News. Clinton also won white Democrats in Mississippi, however, by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.

Sanders has won eight states, but  because his victories were in smaller states, and because Clinton, with 12 state wins, has dominated among super delegates that make up their own minds  Sanders is still far behind in the race for delegates to the Democratic convention.

In early returns from the GOP race in Mississippi, Trump held a double-digit lead over Cruz. In exit polls, 85 percent of Mississippi Republican primary voters said they were evangelical Christians in preliminary exit polling reported by CNN, similar to 83 percent in 2012. Cruz had hoped these voters would be strongly for him, campaigning heavily in the South. But  in Mississippi as elsewhere  Trump appears to have blocked Cruz from gaining an edge in this group.

[Mississippis could be a key test for how the Trump-Cruz contest is evolving]

Early exit polling data found Trump with a small edge among evangelical Christians. Trump also had 2 to 1 lead over Cruz among those who did not call themselves evangelicals. In Mississippi, that group accounted for just 15 percent of the electorate.

Trump has dominated in the deep South, where he has won a solid block of states that stretches from Louisiana and Arkansas in the West to South Carolina in the East. His rivals have won eight states between them.

Robert Costa, Juliet Eilperin, Ed OKeefe, Abby Phillip, Phillip Rucker, John Wagner, David Weigel and Niraj Chokshi contributed to this report.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump rallied supporters in Madison, Miss., on March 7, on the eve of the states presidential primary. (AP)

Donald Trump continues to lead his rivals nationally in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. But his hold on the GOP electorate has weakened since the primary season began, and the party is now deeply divided over his candidacy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Trump maintains the support of 34 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, compared with 25 percent for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, 18 percent for Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and 13 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.





Trumps margin over Cruz has narrowed from 16 points in January to nine today. As a succession of Republican candidates quit the race, Cruzs position has ticked up four points since January, Rubios has risen by seven and Kasichs has grown by 11. Trumps has dipped by three points, within the polls margin of sampling error.

In the Democratic race, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton still leads Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but her national margin is the smallest in a Post-ABC poll since the beginning of the campaign. The new poll shows Clinton as the favorite of 49 percent of registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents compared with Sanders, whose support is at 42 percent. That seven-point lead for Clinton compares with her 19-point advantage in January.





That Trump is a polarizing figure within the Republican Party is no surprise, and its typified by the opposition among establishment and other Republicans that has intensified over the past few weeks. Only a bare majority (51 percent) of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents say they would be satisfied with the New York billionaire as their nominee, a noticeably smaller percentage than for Cruz (65 percent) or Rubio (62 percent), with Kasich in between at 56 percent.

Favorable ratings also indicate an increasingly tenuous standing within the party. In early January, Republicans clearly gave Trump more favorable than unfavorable reviews, 60 percent to 39 percent. That has narrowed to a 53-46 margin, with negative marks at their highest level in Post-ABC polling since Trump entered the race. His positive ratings also trail Cruzs 64 percent and Rubios 63 percent.





The Post-ABC poll finds that more than half of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents think Trump is dishonest, does not understand their problems, lacks the right experience, and does not have the right personality and temperament to be an effective president. By contrast, more than 6 in 10 Republicans say Cruz is honest, empathetic, and has the right temperament and experience; similar shares say Rubio has the first three qualities, while half say he has the right experience.

In a hypothetical head-to-head test of strength between Trump and Cruz, Republicans say they prefer the senator by 54 percent to 41 percent. Rubio is a narrower favorite in a one-on-one test against Trump, with an edge of 51 percent to 45 percent. The survey did not test a Trump-Kasich face-off.

The poll was conducted over a weekend in which Cruz won contests in Kansas and Maine, Trump won in Louisiana and Kentucky, and Rubio won in Puerto Rico. On Tuesday, Republicans are voting in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii.

Next Tuesday  the first day states can award delegates on a winner-take-all basis  there will be contests in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. By the end of that day, more than half of the 2,472 convention delegates will have been awarded.

It is likely that, after those March 15 contests, Republicans will have the clearest sense yet of Trumps overall strength and of the viability of his challengers. Cruzs string of recent victories, including in his home state of Texas a week ago, have elevated him as the leading rival to Trump. If Rubio and Kasich dont win their home states, they will face pressure to quit the race.

Many now predict that the Republican contest will not be resolved before the national convention in July. But even many Republicans who say they would not be satisfied with Trump as the nominee appear uneasy about the efforts of party leaders to prevent him from winning. About half of all Republicans who are dissatisfied or only somewhat satisfied with Trump nonetheless oppose efforts by party leaders to prevent him from becoming the nominee.

There is considerable talk now about a possible floor fight at the convention, should Trump arrive with the most delegates but lacking the 1,237 needed for a first-ballot victory. About 42 percent of Republican voters support other candidates and say that in such a situation, the party should pick another nominee. But 53 percent either support Trump or say that leading the delegate count, even if short of an outright majority, should guarantee victory.

Among all Americans, Trump has a more negative image by far compared to Cruz, Rubio or Clinton. Two in 3 adults say they have an unfavorable impression of Trump, who has drawn controversy in recent months for attacks on illegal immigrants from Mexico, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, a disabled reporter and Muslims, among other targets.

None of the three other candidates tested  Clinton, Cruz and Rubio  had a net positive image, but all were viewed more favorably than Trump. Among all adults, 52 percent say they see Clinton unfavorably, 51 percent see Cruz negatively and 45 percent have a negative impression of Rubio. Clinton and Rubio have the least-negative image overall.

The new Post-ABC survey shows a huge gender gap in support for Trumps candidacy. He leads among Republican men with 44 percent, a roughly 2-1 margin over second-place Cruz. Among Republican women, though, he is the favorite of just 24 percent. In January, his support among GOP women stood at 37 percent, compared to 15 percent for Cruz. Trump also has lost ground against Cruz among very conservative Republicans and among those with incomes less than $50,000.





Matched against his remaining rivals, Trump continues to perform slightly better among Republicans without college degrees than among those who are university graduates, although he has an edge with both groups. He has a wider lead among voters younger than 50 than with older voters. Among white evangelical Christians, Trump narrowly trails Cruz, but among non-evangelicals and white Catholics, his lead is almost 2 to 1.

Matched directly against Cruz, though, Trump loses voters with or without college degrees, voters who see themselves as working class and middle class, and those with higher or lower incomes. Trump also loses conservatives against Cruz, especially those who say they are very conservative, while the two tie among moderate and liberal Republicans.

Overall, Americans remain deeply pessimistic about the federal government. Two in 3 offer negative reactions, including about a fifth who describe themselves as angry. Trump has tapped into that mood  the more dissatisfied that people are with the federal government, the more likely they are to support his candidacy.

A similarly strong majority sees the political system today as dysfunctional, even slightly more so than in the fall. Trump does best among those who feel most strongly about the way the system works.

More Americans by far say they favor someone with experience in the system as the next president, rather than someone from outside the political establishment. Republicans, though, tilt more toward an outsider. Among those who want someone from the outside, Trump has the support of nearly half. Among those looking for someone with experience, Trump runs fourth behind Cruz, Rubio and Kasich.

A similar pattern holds for two of Trumps most controversial ideas  deporting all of the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country as a security precaution. Overall, Americans oppose both proposals, though more Republicans favor than oppose them. Trump has big leads among those who support such policies, but those leads disappear among those who do not.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted March 3 to 6 among a random national sample of 1,000 adults reached on land-line and cellular phones. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
GOP leaders are scrambling to minimize Donald Trump's dominance in the polls, leaving many wondering what would happen if no one candidate wins a clear majority before the national convention. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

GOP leaders are scrambling to minimize Donald Trump's dominance in the polls, leaving many wondering what would happen if no one candidate wins a clear majority before the national convention. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The presentation is an 11th-hour rebuttal to the fatalism permeating the Republican establishment: Slide by slide, state by state, it calculates how Donald Trump could be denied the presidential nomination.

Marco Rubio wins Florida. John Kasich wins Ohio. Ted Cruz notches victories in the Midwest and Mountain West. And the results in California and other states are jumbled enough to leave Trump three dozen delegates short of the 1,237 required  forcing a contested convention in Cleveland in July.

The slide show, shared with The Washington Post by two operatives advising one of a handful of anti-Trump super PACs, encapsulates the newly emboldened view of many GOP leaders and donors. They see a clearer path to stopping Trump since his two losses and two narrower-than-expected wins in Saturdays contests.

In private conversations in recent days at a Republican Governors Association retreat here in Park City and at a gathering of conservative policy minds and financiers in Sea Island, Ga., there was an emerging consensus that Trump is vulnerable and that a continued blitz of attacks could puncture the billionaire moguls support and leave him limping onto the convention floor.

But the slow-bleed strategy is risky and hinges on Trump losing Florida, Illinois and Ohio on March 15; wins in all three would set him on track to amass the majority of delegates. Even as some party figures see glimmers of hope that Trump can be overtaken, others believe any stop-Trump efforts could prove futile.

1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Trump captures the nations attention on the campaign trail View Photos The Republican presidential candidate continues to dominate the contest. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

This moment of confusion for the Republican Party is made more uncertain by the absence of a clear alternative to Trump. Cruz, Rubio and Kasich each are collecting delegates and vowing to fight through the spring. Among GOP elites, the only agreed-upon mission is to minimize Trumps share of the delegates to enable an opponent to mount a credible convention challenge.

Its one thing if [Trump] goes to the convention and hes got 48 percent, 49 percent of the delegates, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Rubio supporter, said in an interview here. Then its a hard thing to see if theres a convention floor battle. But if he goes to the convention and hes got 35 or 40 percent, thats a whole different thing.

[Inside the Rubio meltdown: Frustration, perceived blunders]

Other governors voiced exasperation not only at the prospect of a Trump nomination but also at the political culture that gave rise to his candidacy.

Weve got this Enquirer magazine mentality, Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah said in an interview. We are subject to this reality-TV voyeurism that is taking place. Fast-food headlines, no substance, all flash. The Twitter atmosphere out there, snarky comments on email, Snapchat. Everything is superficial. . . . Weve got to wake up, America.

Similar conversations were underway in Sea Island, where the American Enterprise Institute think tank held a policy forum.

Despite the fact that the story right now is panic in the streets, throw the baby out the window and hope the firefighter catches her . . . hope springs eternal, said Arthur C. Brooks, AEIs president. Nothing is inevitable.

Trump could get a bounce Tuesday with the Michigan and Mississippi primaries: He is expected to win them, although there are signs of the races tightening. But the next Tuesday is seen as the more decisive moment. Winner-take-all Florida is ground zero, and polls show Trumps lead there slipping.

The stop-Trump movements leading super PAC, Our Principles PAC, is adopting what its operatives call a surround sound strategy in Florida: more than $3 million in television advertisements, plus direct-mail pieces, digital ads, phone banking and emails  all designed to sow doubts about Trumps character, convictions and fitness for office.

There is not a silver bullet, said Brian Baker, a strategist involved with planning the super PACs activities. Its the cumulative effect of all of these messages.

[Remaining hopefuls are not ready to let Cruz be the Stop-Trump candidate]

Baker also advises the political work of the billionaire Ricketts family, whose matriarch, Marlene, gave $3 million in seed money to Our Principles PAC. Baker and Michael Meyers, president of TargetPoint Consulting, developed the delegate-count slide show that was shared with The Post.

Our Principles PAC is also eyeing an aggressive push in Ohio, where Kasich is governor, and has prepared a possible television ad casting Trump as an outsourcer because his branded clothing is made in China and Bangladesh, the groups advisers said.

Katie Packer, the super PACs president, said: His path to 1,237 goes through Florida, Ohio and Illinois. If he cant win at least two of those places, its going to be very, very tough for him to get to 1,237.

The super PAC is attracting new donors, including Randy Kendrick, wife of the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, who said she was moved to act by Trumps provocative rhetoric. Dictators arose because good people did not stand up and say, Its wrong to scapegoat minorities,  Kendrick said.

Some party establishment figures are assisting the super PAC, including former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, who confirmed that he has been calling friends and urging them to make donations.

[Calls for the GOP to unite against Trump tear the party apart]

A separate group, American Future Fund, also is trying to take Trump down with a $2.75 million series of ads in Florida. Some spots feature people who say they were duped by Trump University, while others star veterans speaking out against him or characterize some of Trumps business associates as shady.

A third group, the Club for Growth, is advertising against Trump in Florida and Illinois and is assessing a possible barrage in Ohio.

David McIntosh, the Club for Growth president, said donors recently were hesitant to fund anti-Trump ads but have come around in the past couple of weeks.

After South Carolina, I got questions  Can he be stopped? Youre running a fools errand,  McIntosh said. My answer was: It worked [in Iowa], and even more importantly, it has to be done. We cant just cede this ground. 

Trump reacted Monday with a tough ad in Florida depicting Rubio as a fraud and ticking through the greatest hits in the senators opposition-research file. The narrator calls Rubio another corrupt, all-talk, no-action politician.

For Cruz and his allies, the intensity of the anti-Trump ad campaign is a welcome relief. It frees them to focus on their main target, at least in Florida: Rubio. The Cruz camp hopes a home-state loss would force him to drop out.

There is so much anti-Trump messaging out there, its flooded, said Kellyanne Conway, president of Keep the Promise I, a pro-Cruz super PAC. What could we say that isnt out there?

Some Republican donors are not on board with trashing Trump, however.

Theres a group that thinks, Look, Trump is likely to be inevitable here, and lets not tarnish him,  said Fred Malek, the RGAs finance chairman.

[How the Republican Party created Donald Trump]

Strategist Liz Mair said she has found it difficult to persuade many donors to pony up for Make America Awesome, her anti-Trump super PAC.

Republican donors are acting like the parents of teenage alcoholics, Mair said. They see all the signs of problems, but they dont really want to admit and address the problem because that would entail them acknowledging that they didnt do the right things along the way.

Idahos governor, C.L. Butch Otter, who met with many donors in Park City over the weekend, said he heard a lot of concern about the GOPs fracturing.

Theres people that always say, Youve got to go negative, and I really struggle with that, Otter said in an interview. To, in a gentlemanly way or a ladylike way, point out the other persons record is one thing. But to get into some kind of a name-calling deal, I dont think is very beneficial.

But Haslam, Tennessees governor, reiterated the urgency of slowing Trump before he accumulates too many delegates. Otherwise, party elites risk the appearance of trying to steal the nomination from him at the convention.

That is probably the most dangerous situation for the Republican Party, Haslam said. If he gets there with not a majority but close to a majority of the [delegates] and doesnt get the nomination, thatll be very difficult. He could say, Im going to ask all of my folks to sit this one out to show them how big we are. Who knows?

Matea Gold in Washington contributed to this report.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham couldnt remember the last time he spoke to Ted Cruz. Its been a while, Graham (R-S.C.) said last week.

Same for Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a first-term senator facing a difficult reelection in the fall. And Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), whose last talk with the fiery GOP presidential candidate from Texas came a few months ago.

We just chatted in general, Hatch, the Republican elder statesman on Capitol Hill, recalled last week. Cruz has not won the endorsement of a single U.S. senator, something he has worn as a badge of honor as he rails against the Washington cartel of bipartisan disappointment.

Now, coming off several critical victories over Donald Trump, Cruz is dropping hints that he may be seeking support from the very colleagues he has repeatedly infuriated during his first three years in the Senate. By late last week, Cruz had spoken to Graham about the presidential race, following a suggestion by the senator from South Carolina that conservatives may have to rally around Cruz to stop Trump from storming to the GOP nomination.

The recent wins have established Cruz as the clear second choice to Trump, eclipsing the establishment favorite, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), and setting up the possibility of a long battle throughout the spring for the ideological soul of the Republican Party.

To defeat Trump, however, Cruz must decide whether his best path is sticking to his current stand against everything and anyone in Washington, or if success will require some rapprochement with the Republican establishment, both inside and outside Washington. He may need their votes as well as their money.

But who could even negotiate such a peace?

For now, Graham is the only one talking about it openly, something that seemed implausible just six weeks ago. Thats when Graham, shortly after ending his own presidential bid, likened Trump or Cruz as the nominee to certain death for Republicans. Like being shot or poisoned, he said at a Capitol news conference.

[The education of Ted Cruz]

Cruz earned the enmity of his Republican colleagues within weeks of joining the Senate in early 2013. He and other junior senators earned the nickname wacko birds from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) when they filibustered the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director over the agencys use of drones. Some Republicans dubbed Cruzs plan to shut down the government in an effort to end funding for the Affordable Care Act the dumbest idea ever, and another called Cruz a bully.

He seemingly burned his last bridge to fellow Republicans last June, as his campaign struggled for early attention, when he delivered a series of floor speeches accusing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of lying to GOP senators about his handling of trade legislation.

That tune changed, however slightly, after Rubios disappointing showing in the Super Tuesday states left Cruz clearly in second place, with the best chance of overtaking the bombastic Trump.

In some circles, Republicans are choosing the arsenic over the firing squad.

I dont think Trump is a Republican. I dont think hes a reliable conservative. Ted Cruz and I have a lot of differences, but I do believe hes a conservative, I do believe hes a Republican, Graham told reporters last week. Marco would be my preferred choice. I think hes far more electable, but, you know, were going to play the hand were dealt here.

No endorsement has been forthcoming, and Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press, Graham expanded on the theme to say there is some hope with Ted, no hope with the Donald with regard to Republicans winning the White House.

That has been an open question among Republicans for months. Some have suggested that Trumps outreach to white working-class voters has expanded the GOP electorate, making him more viable in a general election and helping down-ballot Republicans among voters not otherwise inclined to support them.

Others view Trumps racially tinged remarks as brutal fodder for Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. They view Cruz  Princeton undergraduate, Harvard Law, argued before the Supreme Court  as someone less prone to make mistakes.

One Republican consulting firm, with no connection to any candidate, recently tested several remaining hopefuls for the nomination for its private-sector clients and provided the results to The Washington Post.

In head-to-head matchups against Clinton, Rubio fared the best, leading her 45 percent to 44 percent; Cruz trailed Clinton narrowly, 45 percent to 42 percent.

Trump fared the worst, trailing 46 percent to 36 percent. The firm also found Trumps overall standing with the electorate to be toxic: 28 percent of voters viewed him favorably, 65 percent unfavorable.

[Some supporters of Rubio say bad strategy, poorly run campaign killing his chances]

Some colleagues think such polls, along with six victories in early primaries, demonstrate that Cruz should stick with an approach that has taken him from obscurity to national fame in four years.

Hes come a long way the way he is, and I dont think changing his personality is a requisite. I think hes got a tough, strong personality. A lot of people think that would be good for the presidency, Hatch, a Rubio supporter, said of Cruz.

Johnson, who is staying neutral, pointed out that voters have discounted most of Rubios endorsements from prominent Republicans. Are you kind of noticing that comments by senators and congressmen and governors and endorsements arent really having an effect? I mean, who am I? So the voters are going to decide, and in the end, we will accept their verdict, he said.

But others think Cruz cannot overcome Trump on his own. After Tuesdays races, which included Idaho as fertile ground for the senator from Texas, the races shift to mostly large Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic states that arent naturally suited for the evangelical Christians archconservatism.

Workers in those states have been hit hard by globalization, making them targets for Trumps nativist populism.

Cruz has called on others to drop out so he can go one on one against Trump. If you want to beat Donald Trump, we have to stand united as one, he told supporters after his win in Kansas on Saturday.

Graham says that, once Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich get to contest their home states in next Tuesdays set of primaries, a grand negotiation must take place to consolidate forces against Trump. Years ago, party elders such as McConnell or Hatch might have brokered that peace.

These days, no one is quite sure it can be done.

Cruz and Rubio eventually need to combine forces, Graham said. I dont know how they do it, but it would be good for the party if they could.
Less than a mile from where Vice President Biden spoke at a center for peace, a Palestinian attacker went on stabbing rampage Tuesday that left an American tourist dead and 10 wounded before the assailant was fatally shot by police, officials said.

The knife attack on the Mediterranean coast in the ancient port of Jaffa followed three other attacks around Israel on Tuesday.

It is unknown whether the assaults were timed to generate attention during Bidens visit. But Israelis were left toggling between images on news and social media showing Bidens Air Force Two jet landing at Ben Gurion airport and chaotic scenes of wailing ambulances and blood stains.

[Biden arrives in Israel to talk billions in military aid  and patch things up]

At least 14 Israelis were wounded, some seriously, in the four attacks. All of the four Palestinian assailants were killed at the scenes.

A wounded man is evacuated from the scene of a stabbing attack in Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Arab part of Tel Aviv, on March 8. (Oded Balilty/AP)

After hearing news of the knife spree, Biden condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack, which occurred in Jaffa during his meeting and said there is no justification for such acts of terror.

Palestinians have sought to justify the attacks, saying their people are living desperate lives under an almost 50-year military occupation. Israeli leaders say the Palestinians are fueled by anti-Semitic propaganda. The peace process is currently moribund.

Biden came to Israel to patch up relations between the Obama White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a very public and deeply partisan spat over the Iran nuclear deal last year. Embarking on a two-day trip to Israel and the West Bank, Biden met with former Israeli president Shimon Peres.

Israeli police spokesperson Luba Samri said the attack in Jaffa appeared to have been carried out by a single assailant at two separate locations  the Ottoman-era Clock Tower and the ancient port  both popular with locals and tourists, in a city populated by Arabs and Jews.

The assailant was chased by a man with a metal pipe and was hit by another with a guitar before he was cornered by police and shot dead.

Vanderbilt University, in a message from Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos posted on its website late Tuesday, identified the slain American as Taylor Force, a student at the Owen Graduate School of Management. Zeppos said Force was on an Owen school trip to Tel Aviv, and all the other students and faculty on the trip are safe.

Force, 28, a graduate of the United States Military Academy West Point, was a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In Washington, the State Department condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the family of Force. As we have said many times, there is absolutely no justification for terrorism. We continue to encourage all parties to take affirmative steps to reduce tensions and restore calm, department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, near the Damascus Gate in the Old City in Jerusalem, just minutes from the hotel where Biden is planning to stay during his visit, a Palestinian gunman shot at Israeli policemen, injuring two. The assailant was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Another attack on Tuesday afternoon took place in Petah Tikvah, a city near Tel Aviv, where a Palestinian from the West Bank entered a supermarket and stabbed an Israeli man. According to police reports, the victim managed to pull the knife out of his neck and stab his attacker.

[An Israeli leader wants to put Jerusalems Arabs on the other side of new walls]

Earlier in the morning, a 50-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead after attempting to stab Israeli policemen in Jerusalems Old City, Israeli police said.

Israels intelligence minister, Yisrael Katz, said Israel is in the midst of a war against ISIS-style Muslim extremist terror. He said Israelis should not be scolded by the international community for taking tough countermeasures.

A leader of the Israeli opposition in parliament and a former peace negotiator, Tzipi Livni, told the Jerusalem Post that Biden's visit could help lower the flames between Israel and the Palestinians.

Tuesdays bloodshed comes amid six months of near-daily stabbing, shooting and vehicle attacks by Palestinians against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Twenty-nine Israelis and five others, including two Americans, have died. More than 120 Palestinians have been killed during their attacks. Another 50 have been shot and killed by Israelis during violent clashes.

Eglash reported from Jerusalem. Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Residents gather to view the damage after an al-Shabab car-bomb attack near a hotel in Mogadishu on Feb. 27. At least nine people were killed. (Feisal Omar/Reuters)

Somalias al-Shabab movement is emerging as one of the most loyal  and lethal  al-Qaeda affiliates, even as the Islamic State expands its reach into the region, according to Western and Somali analysts.

The Somali militants have shown signs of a resurgence, staging deadly attacks and assassinations in recent months, despite the billions of dollars being spent by the United States to fight them. That has prompted the Islamic State to try to woo them away from al-Qaeda, as U.S. and other Western intelligence officials grow increasingly alarmed.

The concern is so great that U.S. warplanes and drones attacked an al-Shabab training camp Saturday, killing more than 150 fighters, according to the Pentagon. It was the deadliest U.S. strike on the militant group  whose name in Arabic means the youth  since it emerged a decade ago with the goal of turning Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state.

[U.S. airstrike kills more than 150 at Somalia terrorist camp, military says]

Al-Qaeda understands the potential of this self-financing and experienced insurgency in the strategic Horn of Africa, said Abdirashid Hashi, director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank based in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. And ISIS, of course, understands this potential and hence its overtures for co-option or stage a hostile takeover. Al-Qaeda is probably working hard to protect its jewel from ISIS. ISIS is another name for the Islamic State.

Less than two years ago, al-Shabab was a crippled movement. U.S.-backed African Union forces had driven the militia out of Mogadishu and other areas. Its leader, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, widely known as Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a U.S. airstrike a year after he masterminded an attack on a posh Nairobi mall that killed scores. His death was hailed by U.S. officials as a major operational and symbolic blow to the militia; many thought it would result in the groups fragmentation and eventually lead to its demise.

Instead, it regrouped under a new leader, Ahmad Umar, and transformed itself into a lethal guerrilla insurgency. Its fighters have raided parts of the countryside, setting up roadblocks and controlling the population. They have expanded their recruitment and presence in Kenya and other neighboring countries. In Somalia, they have been aided by incessant political infighting, poorly trained and equipped national security forces, and a weak central government that has not been able to fill the void.

Thinly stretched African Union peacekeepers, known by the acronym AMISOM and funded by U.S. and other Western governments, seldom pursue the militia into rural areas, focusing instead on cities and towns. That has allowed the militants to stage spectacular attacks from their rural strongholds.

Al-Shabab has also attacked restaurants, beachfront bars and other soft targets while dispatching assassination squads to eliminate government officials.

Al-Shabab dominate in the countryside in the newly liberated areas, where neither AMISOM nor the Somali army so far have been successful in establishing security for the locals, said Stig Jarle Hansen, a Norwegian researcher who authored a book on the group. In these areas, they can tax and even use forced recruitment.

Since January, the militia has killed scores of people, including Kenyan soldiers attached to AMISOM at their base and guests at a Mogadishu hotel. It also asserted responsibility for a bomb planted on a jetliner that ripped a hole through the fuselage, forcing the plane to land in Mogadishu, and for a bomb that detonated in a laptop on Monday at the airport in the central Somali town of Beledweyne.

While U.S. officials described Saturdays airstrikes as a major success that apparently killed more militants than all previously known U.S. operations in Somalia combined, some analysts expressed caution. The presence of such a large number of fighters at one camp is a worrying indicator of the groups continued relevance and its power to attract, notwithstanding the setbacks it has suffered in recent years, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council.

If anything, despite the killing of several of its leaders and battlefield reverses the group has suffered, its hard-line core has become even more radicalized and, indeed, have seen their ambitions grow, he added.

Saturdays airstrikes marked an escalation and a sharp tactical shift for U.S. military operations in Somalia.

Over the past decade, the Pentagon had cast a surveillance blanket over Somalia to gather intelligence on al-Shabab, but it rarely opened fire. Before this month, there had been only about a dozen recorded U.S. drone strikes in Somalia since 2003. Each had targeted individual al-Shabab leaders whom U.S. forces had long been hunting.

Last weekends attack, by contrast, was aimed squarely at a gathering of low-level fighters in an attempt to inflict mass casualties. Officials at the Pentagon said they feared the fighters at the training camp, about 120 miles north of Mogadishu, were preparing to mount a major attack on A.U. troops and also represented a threat to the handful of U.S. military advisers in Somalia.

We do believe there was a direct threat, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday, while declining to provide details about intelligence assessments. And we believe that this strike has been successful in reducing that threat.

Al-Shabab has demonstrated a growing ability to launch ambitious, large-scale attacks against A.U. forces in recent months. In January, for instance, the groups fighters overran an A.U. base in el-Adde, Somalia, and killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers.

In September, al-Shabab fighters killed about 50 Ugandan troops at another A.U. base in Somalia, and in June, the group killed 70 Burundians belonging to the same force at yet another such encampment.

Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the head of the U.S. militarys Africa Command, said U.S. officials were worried that the al-Shabab camp targeted in Saturdays airstrike was preparing for a similar attack on A.U. troops.

The camps are transitory, so they pop up and they move and theyre at different places throughout Somalia at different times, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing Tuesday.

It is a concern because the last three times they did something similar to this, they had an ability to conduct a devastating attack on the [A.U.] forces, he said.

There are more than 20,000 A.U. troops in Somalia, drawn primarily from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Ethiopia. Their primary funder is the United States, which foots a large part of the bill for training and equipping the international force.

Given the resurgence and success of al-Shababs attacks, however, U.S. officials have become increasingly concerned that their African partners might lose resolve for the fight.

Rodriguez told the Senate panel that regional powers remain committed to the mission but that because of the existing tactics that al-Shabab has taken, they need to start making adjustments, too, and thats what were working with them on.

As it has grown again, al-Shabab has drawn the attention of the Islamic State. In videos and on social media, Islamic State leaders have urged the militia to abandon al-Qaeda and join their fold, part of an ongoing contest for influence between the two most influential militant groups.

Last year, Nigerias Boko Haram militia pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. That was considered a setback for al-Qaedas central branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has increasingly relied on local and regional affiliates  in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and other areas  to spread its radical philosophies and target the West and its allies.

[Ive seen the Talibans brutality in Afghanistan. Boko Haram might be worse.]

But al-Shababs senior leaders have shown little inclination to break away from al-Qaeda. Godane and other top leaders trained and fought with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Their agenda is also more nationalistic and regional, unlike the Islamic States global ambitions.

Al-Qaeda is believed to have provided financing, training and logistical support to al-Shabab. And while there have been some defections to the Islamic State, the militia has shown no visible signs of fragmenting or weakening.

Because of al-Qaedas weakness, al-Shabab have been more important, Hansen said. They actually presented a victory for al-Qaeda in the face of the Islamic State.

Whitlock reported from Washington.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world


Elite Afghan soldiers stand in formation at the School of Excellence, where Afghan commandos and special-operations soldiers receive training on Feb. 27 at Camp Morehead in Afghanistan. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)

Sgt. Jawed Hazara, with an elite Afghan army commando unit, chugged an energy drink, grabbed his M-4 assault rifle and hopped into the drivers seat of a military pickup truck. The 24-year-old was directing a convoy of commandos on night patrol in the southern outskirts of Kabul.

Now, we do my job, Hazara said as he fumbled with his radio and sped off the base. By the grace of God, I will do a good job.

Indeed, if large swaths of Afghanistan are to be saved this year, that responsibility is likely to rest on how Hazara and 11,500 other Afghan commandos perform as their country staggers into the 15th year of the Taliban insurgency.

Despite more than $35 billion in U.S. support since the Taliban was driven from power here in 2001, the regular Afghan army is still broadly criticized as ineffective because of defections, timidity and an inconsistent command-and-control network. But U.S. and Afghan officials believe

that the armys commando and special-forces units can fill the void and should be sufficient to reassure nervous Afghans that the Taliban wont be able to fight its way back into power.

All of the things you read about in the news  the units keeping things from going very wrong  are the commandos and special forces, said U.S. Army Col. Joe Duncan, commander of the Special Operations Advisory Group, which supports the Afghan National Armys Special Operations Command (ANASOC). You wont find commandos laying down their arms and refusing to fight.



Afghan commandos eat lunch near the headquarters for the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) at Camp Morehead in Afghanistan. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)

[Stretched by its fight against Taliban, Afghan army raises recruitment age]

But the Afghan armys heavy reliance on its commandos is controversial, amid sharp disagreements over the effective deployment of elite forces. And especially this year, the stakes could not be higher for the commandos, as well as Afghanistans broader security forces, which comprise about 320,000 soldiers and police officers.

Afghan intelligence assessments suggest that the Taliban has 45,000 to 65,000 fighters.

And the Taliban is not the only problem. Security forces will be tested by Islamic State efforts to gain a foothold even as older militant groups  most notably al-Qaeda  show signs of reestablishing bases here. Afghan security forces are at the same time being thrust into bloody battles over the countrys billion-dollar opium trade.

Last spring, after President Obama withdrew most U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban repeatedly overran or outsmarted Afghan army units in rural southern and eastern provinces. Then, in late September, in a humiliating setback for the Afghan army and police forces, the Taliban seized control of Kunduz, a major city in northern Afghanistan.

Within days, however, Afghan commandos fought their way back into the city. Commandos were also instrumental in retaking territory in Badakhshan, Konar and Nangahar provinces last year.

We cant do anything without them, said Abdul Qahar Aram, spokesman for the Afghan armys 209th Corps in northern Afghanistan.



Farod Aziz, 23, and another Afghan commando on night patrol on the outskirts of Kabul. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)



Sgt. Jawed Hazara , right, 24, and fellow commando Farod Aziz. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)

Afghan army commandos stand on a hilltop while on patrol on the outskirts of Kabul. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)

Elite but strained

The night he led his men out of the base here, Hazara took the convoy into neighborhoods that he said are packed with sympathizers of the Taliban and its brutal offshoot, the Haqqani network.

As the five-vehicle convoy drove down a dark highway, Hazara spotted a man digging a drainage ditch. It was 10 p.m. He slammed on the brakes, jumped out and grabbed the man while other commandos scanned the ditch for signs of an explosive device.

We worry because the Taliban wont meet us face to face, said commando Farod Aziz, 23. But as soon as we get a report that there are 20 to 50 Taliban somewhere, we will be there, and they wont be able to resist us.

[Afghan forces undertake bid to regain key city seized by Taliban]

Still, the Afghan armys heavy reliance on its elite forces is raising concerns over training disparities within the army.

With just 9,800 U.S. troops here, the American-led coalition limits hands-on training of traditional army units to a few large bases. Far more attention is given to commando units, which are trained down to the tactical level.

When we have Americans with us, we feel very comfortable because we also have the best air support, said Capt. Gul Mohammad Abrahimi, spokesman for ANASOCs 6th Battalion. But its not like it used to be. They used to be with us 100 percent of the time, and that turned into 10 percent of the time.

At ANASOC headquarters, tucked in a valley along with Camp Morehead, coalition soldiers and contractors mentor Afghan units and help oversee the School of Excellence. The school trains its students in calling in airstrikes, assessing surveillance and maneuvering bulky armored personnel carriers.



Elite Afghan soldiers sit during a lesson at the School of Excellence. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)

Commando and special-forces units are designed for short-term operations that should take no more than 72 hours, said Col. Abdul Jabar Wafa, who runs the School of Excellence. But many deployments now take at least 20 days because army and police units are so ineffective, he said.

The soldiers are not able to do their jobs very well, and also the police, and that is why they send the commandos, Wafa said. When we do a mission, they do not send other forces from the army or police to occupy that place, so we have to stay longer.

And military leaders and analysts worry that the elite units are being degraded by overuse.

Brig. Gen. Besmellah Waziri, commander of ANASOC, said he is so frustrated by the frequent deployments that he recently ambushed Afghanistans chief of army staff, Gen. Qadam Shah Shaheem, at military headquarters to complain.

I told him, Sir, we are not a regular army and we are not police,  Waziri recalled.  These are your commandos, sir, and you should use them carefully, short-term, and for specific missions. 

Instead of defending territory, Waziri said, commandos and special forces work best when they are destroying enemy ammunition supplies, freeing soldiers from Taliban prisons and identifying targets for airstrikes. He added they also need to be kept available for missions such as one in October in which Afghan and U.S. Special Operations forces dismantled a 30-square-mile al-Qaeda training camp in Kandahar province.

[Commando-style assault on Afghan jail frees scores of Taliban inmates]

But casualties are soaring. Between April 1 and Feb. 29, 130 ANASOC soldiers and officers were killed, about double the 2014 fatality rate .

Still, ANASOC maintains a 90 percent retention rate, far exceeding the rates of other army units, officials said. When 1,000 soldiers arrived at the School of Excellence last month, many with freshly shaved heads, instructors began team-building exercises  including push-ups on gravel.

How many types of ambushes are there? an Afghan trainer yelled out to trainees.

Emergency and planned! they yelled back.

Few bullets, bathrooms

Even Afghanistans best soldiers, however, struggle with limited resources.

The United States recently spent $19 million upgrading the school, but a severe electricity shortage limits indoor training on new weapon systems, tactics and first aid to six hours a day. There are not enough commando uniforms for everyone. And the mess hall and the dormitory were built to accommodate 600 trainees.

There are only 16 toilets here, said Sgt. Akbar Haz, a trainer at the school. That is not enough for 1,000 men, especially in the morning.

For an army at war, a far more fundamental concern is the lack of ammunition. To become an expert marksman, each commando should fire 5,000 live rounds over three months, but there were only 800 bullets per student when the new class arrived in late February, Wafa said.

I keep asking [the Afghan Defense Ministry] for more, but they are saying they dont even have enough ammunition in their own stockpiles, Wafa said.



An Afghan soldier stands on a junked Russian tank left behind after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Camp Morehead and ANASOC are located on the site of a former Soviet base. (Tim Craig/The Washington Post)

John F. Sopko, the U.S. inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said the ammunition shortage reflects broader dysfunction and corruption within the Afghan army.

We provide enough money, but the problem is getting that funding in the right place, said Sopko, adding that the drawdown of coalition forces has severely limited the Pentagons ability to monitor how money is spent. The [Afghans] doing logistics, many of them are illiterate, so its kind of difficult to ship rifles and bullets when the guys doing the logistics cant read.

But for commandos, who are encouraged to take English classes, scraping for supplies is just part of the job.

Hazara, for example, went on patrol with dozens of bullets, a knife and smoke grenades draped on his vest. When he saw a truck idling, he and a half-dozen other commandos climbed into the cargo bay to make sure it wasnt a truck bomb.

No explosives were found, but Hazara set up a checkpoint  even though Afghan police officers were already stationed at the intersection.

They can rest, Hazara said. We are stronger than the Taliban.

Mohammad Sharif and Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul contributed to this report.
Migrants at a locked gate on the Greek-Macedonian border, where thousands of refugees and others are blocked from heading north. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)

The European Union and Turkey struck a preliminary deal Tuesday to block the vast waves of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea, effectively agreeing to slam shut the back door into Europe still being traversed by tens of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war in the Middle East.

The deal, to be ironed out over the next 10 days, could dramatically alter the regions refugee crisis, sealing off the single biggest corridor for irregular migration into Europe. From across the developing world but especially the Middle East, more than a million desperate people over the past 12 months have rushed to the jagged Turkish coast, where a new life in Europe is only a short if risky journey west by smugglers raft.

But even before the deal was finalized, the practical impact was being felt on the ground Tuesday evening, as Serbia announced it would allow entry only to people who have valid papers to travel in Europe. In a statement on the Serbian Interior Ministrys website, the government said it was reacting to a similar move by Slovenia and needed to protect itself from becoming a collection center for migrants.

To keep the migrants from their doorstep, the Europeans are now willing to pay  a lot. Already promised some $3.3 billion to do more to contain the crisis, Turkey  a nation whose authoritarian leader is cracking down on freedoms at home  would now be paid double that.

[Turkey to E.U.: If you want to send us your migrants, send money, too]

European leaders lauded the agreement as a means of turning back economic migrants while also saving Syrians from the clutches of unscrupulous human traffickers. But the United Nations and rights activists were already decrying it as a potentially serious  even illegal  blow to refugee rights. It could, critics warned, block the path to sanctuary in the West for untold thousands of legitimate asylum seekers.

We know, weve documented, that Turkey is not a safe place for asylum seekers and refugees, said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty Internationals deputy Europe director. Weve documented people being sent all the way to the south of Turkey, held in incommunicado detention, and sent back to Syria.

Under the deal, all new migrants  including Syrians and Iraqis  found at sea or who reach Greece by boat would be sent back to Turkey. But for each Syrian among those returned, the European Union would be required to accept another Syrian directly from Turkish refugee camps in a one-for-one exchange.

Only Syrians, and not even Iraqis fleeing the Islamic State, appear to qualify for that direct relocation program. Even Syrians who risk the sea and are turned back could be blacklisted from legal resettlement in Europe, providing an extra incentive for migrants to avoid even trying to cross the Aegean.

On the Greek island of Lesbos, the single most popular arrival spot for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, boats continued to come ashore Tuesday despite the warnings from E.U. leaders that people should stay in Turkey. In the islands sprawling and fast-filling camps, new arrivals said they had heard that the door to Europe was closing and that people would be turned away. But they said they had come anyway because they felt they had no other choice.

We need a future. We need safety, said Abid el-Mohsin, a 23-year-old from Syria. The Islamic State murdered his brother, he said, and he was not going to stay to meet the same fate. So he fled.

[Europes harsh new message for migrants: Do not come]

In exchange for taking back migrants, Turkey  already hosting some 2.7 million Syrian refugees on its soil  is driving a hard bargain, and it surprised its European counterparts at the start of the talks on Monday with further demands. In addition to new aid, Ankara also wants accelerated talks on joining the European Union  a bid opposed by many current members  as well as visa-free travel within the E.U. for Turkish citizens. European nations, facing a strong domestic backlash against migrants, may have little choice but to agree.

The deal is a breakthrough, if it is realized, if it is implemented, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Critics immediately accused the Europeans of political expediency by agreeing to a deal that could only strengthen the authoritarian rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His government recently seized control of the countrys largest newspaper, and its crackdown on dissent in Kurdish pockets of the country has raised alarm over fast-deteriorating human rights.

I think this is a no-good deal for the E.U., because I dont think we are working for a stable Turkey in the future, said Marc Pierini, former E.U. ambassador to Turkey from 2006 to 2011. Were only inviting the Turkish leadership to crack down on the media or any opponents.

The deal, however, amounted to a compromise. European Council President Donald Tusk, backed by a number of hard-line nations, sought to include strong language in the deal declaring the migrant route officially closed. But Merkel, risking a backlash at home where anti-migrant sentiment is growing, forced through a change that left out that language and inserted the one-to-one exchange deal with Turkey that at least allowed some Syrians a shot at direct relocation into Europe, according to the think tank Open Europe.

[Doors slamming shut across Europe]

Yet even as Tusk staged a road show across Europe to sell the deal, it risked coming apart. In theory, its open-ended language could require Europe to resettle tens of thousands  and even hundreds of thousands  of Syrians directly from Turkey.

Europe so far has failed dismally in its effort to legally relocate Syrians, Iraqis and other asylum seekers from Greece and Turkey. Last year, European nations promised 160,000 slots, but only about 700 have been filled. Some countries, such as Hungary, have effectively reneged completely. Its leader, Viktor Orban, has already promised to veto the new deal should it compel all E.U. nations to accept Syrians.

If the legal routes to Europe via Turkey do not materialize  and even if they do  experts warned that asylum seekers would be pushed toward riskier alternatives. They include a dangerous route to Europe via war-torn Libya and another to Italy via a long stretch of sea where thousands of migrants have already died.

This can only work if refugees have a real chance to get to the E.U. directly, said Dietrich Thranhardt, a migration expert at Munster University in Germany. If this isnt the case, theyll try to find other ways.

Faiola reported from Berlin. Griff Witte in Lesbos, Greece, and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command, prepares to testify about the Islamic State before the Senate Armed Services Committee last September. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In 2011, Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, had a simple message about his proposal to keep a residual force of up to 24,000 U.S. troops there: I want to get this right, he told his staff, so the next generation of U.S. soldiers doesnt end up back here.

Two-and-a-half years later, in the summer of 2014, U.S. troops were fanning out across Iraq as the Obama administration scrambled to help a weakened Iraqi government stave off a powerful Islamic State assault.

Austin, from his perch at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, now oversees an expanding operation against the extremist group, including a force of 3,600 U.S. troops in Iraq, some of whom are taking part in combat operations.

In neighboring Syria, U.S. Special Operations forces are advising local forces in an increasingly complex civil war.

As he prepares to step down this month, the uncertain future of the Iraq and Syria conflicts will weigh on Austins legacy, as will sharply deteriorating security in Afghanistan and a grinding insurgent war in Yemen  all part of a command that stretches from Egypt to Pakistan.

An experienced infantryman, Austin was selected to head the most powerful U.S. combatant command in 2013, in part for his deft handling of the Iraq exit, despite his recommendations against a full withdrawal.

The reserved, intensely private Austin was seen as an alternative to high-profile generals, such as Stanley McChrystal or David Petraeus, who created friction inside the Obama administration by publicly airing their views, which often differed from those of civilian leaders.

But it is Austins discipline in quietly working within parameters set by the White House that makes his tenure so difficult to evaluate and, critics argue, may have contributed to an overly timid response to the Islamic State.

[Pentagon searches for new approach to aiding rebels in Syria]

Peter Feaver, who teaches political science at Duke University, said commanders such as Austin should be judged by the outcome of the wars they lead and by their willingness to provide candid advice.

Austins counsel appears to have closely tracked the reticence of senior leaders, including President Obama, to dive back into the Middle East.

Obama has the military strategy he has chosen, and would choose regardless of who his commander is, he said. These are Obamas strategies more than they are Austins.

A former senior Pentagon official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a prominent general, said Austins cautious approach was a result, in part, of working for a president who didnt want to open up a third war in the Middle East. His thinking was certainly in keeping with his superiors, the official said.

A soldiers soldier

When the towering Austin, a Georgia native, landed at West Point in the early 1970s, he planned to stay in the military for a few years and then become a lawyer. But as he made his way up the ranks, he earned a reputation as someone people wanted to follow into battle and found himself suited to the military life.

As he prepares to retire, Austins career has set precedents: He was the first African American officer to command an Army division and corps in combat and the first African American leader of U.S. Central Command.

Speaking in an interview, Austin credited Centcom for coping with the challenges that have been thrown up here and there since he became commander.

In Austins view, social factors such as sectarian tensions and marginalized youths have driven much of the turmoil gripping the region, including the rise of the Islamic State.

Unless the leadership in each of these countries is doing the right things, youre going to have blips on the screen here, and some of these blips are going to be big blips, bigger than blips, he said.

By early 2014, Austin, then in Tampa, was among a handful of senior U.S. officials closely tracking al-Qaeda in Iraqs reinvention in neighboring Syria. In June, the group, now called the Islamic State, swept across northern Iraq and captured the city of Mosul.

[Pentagon considers new measures to make Iraq fight more effective]

In the White House discussions that followed, it was clear Obama and top aides wanted to limit involvement in efforts against the group. Obama had campaigned on getting out of President George W. Bushs insurgent wars. His top military adviser, Gen. Martin Dempsey, was skeptical of the U.S. militarys power to effect change in the region. Galled at the collapse the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, senior officials wanted to avoid U.S. casualties at all costs.

Retired Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, who was a senior commander in Iraq in 2014, said Austin was between a rock and a hard place during that uncertain period as he juggled the imminent militant threat with misgivings in Washington.

When I would send him things [saying], Weve got to strike Syria, he would calmly say, Were not authorized to do that,  Pittard said.

When it seemed like the Islamic State might overrun the Iraqi city of Irbil, Austin secured support from Washington for conducting air attacks to protect the city, Pittard said. It was late Baghdad time. He called, got authority, and within a couple hours, he called back and said, Execute,  Pittard said. That was my best day there.

Susan E. Rice, Obamas national security adviser, praised Austin in a statement. There is no more complex or challenging set of issues in the world than those he faced, and Gen. Austin led the military effort . . . in a concerted and, more importantly, effective way.

But critics inside and outside government have faulted him for not moving earlier and more effectively to push the kinds of measures later deemed necessary by the White House.

Officials said that Austins desire to avoid civilian casualties was a major factor in his decision-making. One former official said that instinct, while laudable, had translated into air combat rules so tight they made strikes less effective than they could have been.

[In Iraq debate, military brass pushed for doing less]

James Jeffrey, who served as U.S. ambassador in Iraq, said Austin had done an extraordinary job halting the Islamic State advance given the limitations he faced. Whats concerning to me, however, are these limitations and the general problem of the U.S. military seeing the military force as merely a contributing factor in any of these conflicts rather than a decisive element, he said.

Austin declined to discuss interactions with civilian leaders but said he had worked to give straight-forward advice about issues in his purview. I believe that military decision-making and military leaders shouldnt be politicized, he said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has criticized the Obama administration as being overly cautious in Iraq and Syria.

There are recommendations from these commanders including from Centcom, that end up in the black hole called the White House and the [National Security Council], McCain said recently. I dont blame General Austin and Centcom . . . theyre just a funnel.

Austin has been notable for his reluctance to speak in public about his views or the operations he oversees. One official described it as a blind spot. Part of his role at that level is to carry policy water and to communicate policy decisions, the official said.

Even within government, he has been reticent to share his personal views outside a small cadre of advisers, officials said. He is so private that even senior aides know little about the basic facts of his life.

Hes a rare beast today in uniform that doesnt seek attention . . . and doesnt try to litigate command decisions in the press, the former senior Pentagon official said.

[What a year of Islamic State terror looks like]

That reserve has won Austin favor with a White House known for its distaste for leaks and appears to have helped repair civil-military ties that frayed in the early Obama years.

One recent episode may crystallize the basic dynamics of Austins tenure. In 2014, senior officials approved a Centcom plan, developed with White House input, to train more than 5,000 fighters in Syria.

From the start, it was plagued with problems. In September last year, Austin faced a withering response when he informed Congress that the $500 million program had trained only a handful of Syrians. McCain, incredulous, scolded Austin. I have never heard testimony like this, he said, finding fault with the strategy Austin defended. Never.

Soon afterward, Centcom abandoned the program in favor of a new approach. Austin was smart enough to say this isnt working, a defense official said. He knew he would get eviscerated by the armchair generals.

A senior official said the training program, motivated by a desire to act, had been built on wishful thinking. I dont think thats necessarily Lloyds fault, the official said.

There was a sense that Oh, maybe this can work,  the official said. But that crashed on the shoals of the reality of Syria.
FBI Director James B. Comey, left, and New York Police Department Commissioner William J. Bratton, seen in December, have greatly improved the working relationship between their agencies. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

 In the long, bitter and testosterone-rich rivalry between the New York Police Department and the FBI, few things aggravated the G-men more than the repeated towing of their cars by the local cops. And the practice was one of the first things that NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton banned when he took over in late 2013 and tried to defuse tensions with his most important counterterrorism partner.

Relations between the NYPD and the FBI, never warm, deteriorated sharply after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when the countrys largest police force transformed its intelligence division and expanded its counterterrorism work well beyond the city limits, brushing up against the bureaus prerogatives.

But Bratton, who has hired some prominent FBI personnel into the NYPD, has purged much of the bad blood, drawing praise for ending turf wars that potentially endangered the city.

If there is a glitch in this one . . . thats going to be a big deal, said John Miller, the NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism who also spent years working for the FBI.

Diego G. Rodriguez, a Queens native who is in charge of the FBIs New York field office, said that its a no brainer to work together, adding: I dont know how to do business any other way. I am from here.

[In New York, a turf war in the battle against terrorism]

Under the previous police commissioner and his intelligence-division chief, the NYPD saw the FBI more as rival than partner.

The NYPD tried to limit the FBIs view into its intelligence operations, raising concerns among federal agents that some investigations were not being done properly.

But with the arrival of Bratton, FBI officials now have a seat at the NYPDs weekly intelligence collection meeting. The FBI and NYPD have also swapped intelligence analysts as part of a three-month-old pilot program; previous exchanges involved investigators.

Miller said the relationship benefits from his time working at the FBI. It helps to speak fluent FBI, he says.

The NYPD also hired Peter Donald, a former FBI spokesman in New York, as director of communication, a key role in handling crises and reducing friction.

More important, the two sides are working together, officials said. Last summer as the number of terrorism suspects linked to the Islamic State spiked, the Joint Terrorism Task Force struggled to keep pace and found itself with more suspects than surveillance teams. Miller then shifted some of his teams doing lower-priority cases to help out.

We benefit from John, said Carlos Fernandez, one of the FBIs most experienced counterterrorism agents, who overseas the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the largest in the country.

The FBI also benefits from the NYPD. The police department has more than 100 officers on the task force, working among the 17 counterterrorism squads. About 25 percent of the officers on the task force are from the NYPD.

Also helping to soothe relations are changes in the way the NYPD intelligence division conducts its operations, a flash point in previous years.

After Muslims in New York sued the police department, saying their constitutional rights were being violated by police surveillance activities, the NYPD, in response, codified certain investigative practices, bringing them closer in line with the FBIs. The NYPD admitted no wrongdoing but paid attorney fees.

Still, some of the old tensions can resurface.

When a Muslim convert attacked four NYPD officers with a hatchet in 2014, Bratton called the incident a terrorism act. Police officials pointed to suspects extensive online history, but the FBI was more skeptical because his last overt contact in the days preceding the attack was with a black extremist not connected to a terrorism group.

Police officials were irritated that the FBI didnt immediately back their assessment, a former bureau official said. FBI Director James B. Comey later said, There is no doubt it was terrorism.

We had that conversation and moved on, Miller said. We made our point.

Miller added that disagreements are inevitable, but they dont spill into the tabloids as they used to, with each side sniping at the other.

Its a collective result of all this lowering of testosterone, Miller said.

Perhaps the best evidence that the FBI has buried its grievances was the promotion in June 2014 of Paul Ciorra to become the intelligence divisions chief of operations.

Ciorra was at the center of one of the worst moments in NYPD-FBI history when police officers, without informing the bureau, approached an imam about a terrorism suspect in a plot to attack the subway system. The imam tipped off the suspect and enraged FBI agents who feared the investigation had been compromised. While not at fault, Ciorra was blamed and sent to the highway division.

When Miller was considering candidates for the job in the intelligence division, he called the FBI to see whether Ciorra was still radioactive. He was told that it was all in the past.
Lee Suk-joon, South Koreas minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, announces unilateral sanctions on North Korea during a news conference in Seoul. (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

North Korea has been able to make its nuclear warheads small enough to fit onto ballistic missiles, the state media claimed Wednesday in Pyongyangs latest boast about improvements in its weapons capabilities.

North Korea has made the claim before and it is not known whether it is true, but the timing of the announcement is not auspicious.

The United States and South Korea are conducting huge military exercises that North Korea views as a pretext for an invasion, and Seoul on Tuesday unleashed a wave of unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang, including blacklisting the Norths official in charge of inter-Korean relations.

The Norths official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday that Kim Jong Un, the states leader, had visited nuclear scientists and then announced the tremendous achievement.

The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them, KCNA reported Kim as saying to the scientists. This can be called [a] true nuclear deterrent. . . . Koreans can do anything if they have a will.

Kim is trying to bolster his legitimacy ahead of a Workers Party congress he ordered for May, the first in 36 years. In January, he oversaw a nuclear test  Pyongyang claimed it was a hydrogen bomb  and last month he ordered the launch of a long-range rocket thought to be part of a ballistic missile program. The United Nations responded by introducing new sanctions against the Norths regime.

[Punishing North Korea: A rundown on current sanctions]

This is not the first time that North Korea has declared it has miniaturized a nuclear warhead, and while there is some skepticism that it has been able to make this breakthrough, there is also an assumption that its not unreasonable.

Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and Adm. William Gortney, head of the U.S. Northern Command, have said they believe North Korea has the capability to make its weapons small and light enough to fit on a missile.

The announcement came a day after South Koreas intelligence agency said that North Korea had hacked into the smartphones of South Korean officials and stolen information from them.

The hackers had access to phone conversations and text messages, as well as the phone numbers of other senior Southern officials, the Yonhap News Agency reported. The intelligence agency, which held an emergency meeting Tuesday, did not identify whose phones were hacked or what information they contained.

In a rare statement, the intelligence agency said North Korea also tried to hack into the email accounts of railway workers in a bid to compromise the Souths train networks. But the agency said it intercepted the cyberattack.

Seoul has previously blamed the North for cyberattacks on its banks and its nuclear power operator, while the United States accused Pyongyang in the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures over the movie The Interview, which revolved around a plot to assassinate Kim. North Korea has denied involvement.

Also Tuesday, South Korea introduced unilateral sanctions designating 30 companies with links to the Norths nuclear and missile programs, as well as 38 North Korean nationals and two foreigners. The foreigners are Leonard Lai, president of Singapore-based Senat Shipping, and Lyou Jen-yi, the Taiwanese president of Royal Team Corp.

All will be banned from the South Korean financial system, and any assets they have in the South will be frozen. This is the first time that South Korea has targeted people and companies by name, a practice used by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.

Seoul also said that it will ban from its waters ships that have been to North Korea within the past 180 days and will introduce stronger controls on imports to and exports from North Korea. The U.N. sanctions mandate inspections for all goods going in and out of North Korea by land, sea or air, and one North Korean ship has already been impounded in the Philippines.

The sanctions, which overlap with measures imposed by the United States and the United Nations, signal that South Korean President Park Geun-hye intends to inflict as much pain as possible on Pyongyang in the wake of its recent defiance.

North Koreas provocations  its nuclear tests and long-range missiles  can no longer be accepted, and North Koreas misjudgments should be corrected by making them pay the heavy price for their actions, Lee Suk-joon, minister of government policy coordination, told reporters Tuesday.

Todays announcement expresses the international communitys firm intention to change North Korea, he said.

The government also renewed its advisory that South Koreans traveling abroad should not visit North Korean-owned restaurants, which are a significant source of income for the regime in Pyongyang. Seoul estimates that Pyongyang earns about $10 million a year from about 130 restaurants in a dozen countries.

Yoonjung Seo in Seoul contributed to this report.

Read more:

In latest outburst, North Koreas Kim orders nuclear weapons at the ready

North Korea fires projectiles into sea after U.N. passes new sanctions

U-Va. student held in North Korea confesses to severe crime

The strange ways North Korea makes detainees confess on camera
Pharmacists to Offer Free Service For Minor Ailments to Ease Strain on GPs

This article is old - Published: Monday, Mar 7th, 2016

Pharmacists across Wales will provide new NHS services for people with minor illnesses in an attempt to ease the strain on Welsh GPS.

The Choose Pharmacy service will see pharmacists take responsibility for managing a range of minor ailments. People will be able to see their pharmacist for free treatment instead of making an appointment to see their GP.

The scheme aims to help free up GP time to deal with people with more complex needs.

Overall 18% of GPs workload and 8% of emergency department consultations are estimated to relate to minor ailments, such as coughs, colds, ear ache, hay fever, conjunctivitis and head lice.

Choose Pharmacy will also see pharmacists undertaking medication reviews when people are discharged from hospital and providing an emergency supply of prescribed medicines at evenings and weekends. These services will also help demand on both out-of-hours GPs and emergency departments.

Community pharmacies in Wales will be fully integrated with GPs and hospitals as part of a 750,000 investment from the Welsh Governments Efficiency Through Technology Fund.

This will:

 Provide community pharmacies in Wales with access to peoples GP record or their Individual Health Record (IHR) with consent, enabling consistent sharing of patient information to deliver seamless and safer patient care

 Allow community pharmacies to electronically record a consultation with a patient with common ailments, which includes assessing them and selecting and supplying a treatment from a list of medicines. This information is then available to other pharmacies throughout Wales to support clinical care

 Allow electronic discharge information to be transferred from hospitals to a patients nominated community pharmacy and for the pharmacy to undertake an electronic discharge medicines review

 Allow community pharmacists to provide an out-of-hours service for emergency medicines supply of exiting prescriptions.

Choose Pharmacy supports the aims of the Welsh Governments national plan for primary care, using the skills and expertise of the wider primary care team, including pharmacists, so GPs have more time to focus on people with more complex health conditions.

Speaking today, Vaughan Gething said: Im pleased to announce that as part of the Welsh Governments continuing support for community pharmacies in Wales and a 750,000 investment from our Efficiency through Technology Fund, the Choose Pharmacy service will be commissioned by health boards from later this year.

By enabling people with minor ailments to see highly-skilled pharmacists for advice and treatment, it will free up GPs time to focus on those people with more complex cases and reduce patient waiting times.

Giving pharmacists access to patients summary medical records will significantly reduce the number of people who need to be referred to GP, out-of-hours services and A&E departments and will deliver considerable improvements in patient safety.

The Efficiency through Technology Fund is a clear indication of our continued commitment to invest in high-quality care provision at a time and location most convenient to individuals.

Following a successful pilot in 19 pharmacies in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area and 13 in the Cwm Taf University Health Board area, the Choose Pharmacy service, will be available to be commissioned by health boards.

The investment in community pharmacy is one of a number by the Efficiency Through Technology Fund, including improvement in the provision of community-based care for pregnant women in Powys and a national infection surveillance and monitoring system for Wales.
The Australian and New Zealand governments have utilised the devastation of Fiji caused by Cyclone Winston to send ships, aircraft and hundreds of military personnel to the impoverished former British colony in the South Pacific.

The category-five cyclone that struck on February 20 was the worst-ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, with winds at over 280 kilometres per hour. It killed over 40 people, levelled wide areas of the countrys islands, rendered 54,000 people homeless and affected 350,000 people, nearly 40 percent of the total population.

Hundreds of schools have been damaged or destroyed, and health facilities have been severely damaged. Scores of towns and villages lack access to water and electricity, and face potential food shortages and the outbreak of diseases such as Dengue fever or the Zika virus.

While thousands of Fijians desperately need assistance, Australia and New Zealand have seized on the disaster to advance their own geo-strategic interests. The two imperialist powers regard Fiji, the largest and most strategically-located South Pacific state, as critical to their hegemony in the region. Their military intervention dovetails with their role in Washingtons pivot to Asia to assert its domination over the Indo-Pacific region, especially against China.

HMAS Canberra, Australias new naval flagship, arrived in Fiji last week carrying over 850 military personnel, including doctors and engineers, as well as 50 vehicles, three heavy-duty helicopters, three amphibious landing craft and tonnes of relief supplies. The Canberra, a command and helicopter dock ship, is being used as platform to deploy equipment and troops for debris clearing, engineering assessment, water purification and medical aid.

New Zealand has sent HMNZ Canterbury, a multi-role sealift vessel, and HMNZ Wellington, a patrol ship, and about 500 combat engineers, soldiers, sailors, pilots and medical crews, as well as helicopters, landing craft and other vehicles. This is New Zealands largest non-combat mobilisation in the southwest Pacific since World War II.

According to the Australian newspaper, this is the first time that the Australian and New Zealand militaries have worked together with the Fijian defence forces since the 2006 military coup led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the current prime minister.

When Bainimarama seized power, the Australian and New Zealand governments denounced his takeover, fearing it would undermine their influence. They imposed diplomatic and economic sanctions and cut off military assistance. This had nothing to do with defending democratic rights in Fiji but was driven by concerns that the coup could destabilise the region and open the way to Chinese influence.

The sanctions, however, backfired. Bainimarama responded with a Look North policy, seeking and receiving economic, diplomatic and military aid from China, Russia and elsewhere.

Bainimarama travelled to Beijing and met with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in 2014, securing various deals, including some infrastructure funding and the training in China of 300 senior public service, government and police officials. The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army also signed closer cooperation and technical assistance agreements with the Fiji military.

In recent months, Fiji took delivery of two shipments of arms and equipment from Russia, accompanied by promises of military training. The second arms shipment arrived just before Cyclone Winston.

Bainimarama, who has previously denounced the domineering role of Australia and New Zealand in the South Pacific, welcomed the arrival of the HMAS Canberra, reportedly sending a thankful text message to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. The people of Fiji were delighted to see such a physical manifestation of Australian support, Bishop told reporters in Canberra.

Bainimarama, however, also welcomed assistance from China, which has now pledged more than $US8 million in aid and relief supplies, including tents, blankets and generators.

The Australian and New Zealand governments are promoting their intervention as a humanitarian and disaster aid mission. But the use of the military in response to natural disasters in order to defend strategic interests was specifically emphasised in the Defence White Paper released by the Australian government last month.

Instability in our immediate region could have strategic consequences for Australia and we will continue to take a leading role in providing humanitarian and security assistance where required, it stated. The White Paper listed this role as one of the main drivers of Australias security environment, bound up with a commitment to the US pivot and to Washingtons preparations for a military confrontation with China.

Euan Graham from the Pentagon-backed Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) underlined this strategic connection in an article posted on the CSIS web site on March 1.

In the South Pacific, inter-state threats are less of a concern than the perpetual issue of state fragility, which could easily absorb the deployable strength of the ADF [Australian Defence Force]. The DWP [Defence White Paper] affirms an ambition for Australia to continue playing a leading role in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Graham wrote.

The importance of this noncombat role was underscored even as the DWP was being launched, as Australias new flagship HMAS Canberra prepared for its first operational deployment to Fiji to assist in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Winston. At a time when Australias traditional sway in the South Pacific is being challenged, the importance of HADR as a source of influence and goodwill should not be underestimated.

Anthony Bergin, deputy director of the government-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, bluntly spelled out these geo-strategic considerations in yesterdays Australian newspaper.

Canberras level of assistance, Bergin declared, was part of a message to the Fijian prime minister to not forget who your real friends are  The response is not just driven by the humanitarian motive. It also has a diplomatic overlay  of really being prepared to significantly deploy the military capabilities for this. The disaster response is an  easier way to show that it [the Pacific] is still our patch.

In 2009, military strategists developed detailed plans for the invasion of the Fiji and Papua New Guinea as part of a Defence White Paper drawn up for the Rudd Labor government. The secret plans, which were presented to the federal cabinets National Security Committee, were based on scenarios in which Australian military forces would intervene to suppress an outbreak of civil strife or the breakdown of order.

The current humanitarian intervention has provided the Australian and New Zealand militaries with the opportunity for a large-scale military mobilisation and a logistical dry-run for an intervention into Fiji or other South Pacific states. Like every other part of the globe, the South Pacific is being riven by the mounting aggression by the US and its allies, directed against any threat to their hegemony, particularly from China and Russia.

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US military airstrikes launched in Somalia over the weekend killed more than 150 people. The attack took place at what the US Pentagon yesterday said was an al-Shabaab training camp about 120 miles north of the countrys capital, Mogadishu.

The strikes mark a significant escalation of US operations in the Horn of Africa, a region that borders the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical oil passageway that links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The airstrikes, carried out on Saturday against the Al Qaeda-affiliated group that controls parts of northern Somalia, are the deadliest in Africa in years. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook asserted without providing evidence that the targets were graduating from the Raso training camp and posed an imminent threat to the US and US-backed African military forces in Somalia.

The Pentagon also claimed that there were no civilian casualties, though it would categorize anyone at the location as by definition a terrorist or military target. Those killed, according to an official cited by the New York Times, were standing outside in formation when a combination of drones and manned airplanes destroyed the camp and killed almost everyone present.

The Pentagon said that it had been monitoring the camp for weeks prior to the strike.

The attack on the training camp follows a years-long campaign of drone strikes in the impoverished North African country targeting individual leaders of al-Shabaab. In December of last year, a drone strike assassinated what the US said was one of the organizations leaders, Abdirahman Sandhere, and two other individuals.

The strikes against the training camp indicate that the Obama administration is expanding its undeclared war in the Horn of Africa, aimed at bolstering the position of the corrupt regime of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, based in Mogadishu. In recent months, al-Shabaab has carried out a series of attacks on Somali forces and those of a coalition of African countries that is backing the government with the support of the US.

Al-Shabaab has also carried out a number of terrorist attacks, including a January 22 suicide bombing and shootout at a restaurant in Mogadishu that killed 25 people.

While implemented under the framework of the war on terror, the main interests of the US in the region lie in Somalias geostrategic location. The countrys northern coast lies along the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. On the other side of the Gulf of Aden lies Yemen, where the US has backed a brutal Saudi-led bombing campaign that began in the spring of last year.

Just to the northwest of Somalia lies Djibouti, where the US has its only permanent military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, the center of its drone operations throughout the continent. The water pathway between Djibouti and Yemen, known as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is listed by the US Energy Information Association as one of the major global oil transit choke points. Some 3.8 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products were transported through the strait in 2013, including much of the oil exported from the Persian Gulf to Europe and the US.

More broadly, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a key access point to the Indian Ocean, which now includes the most significant global trade routes, connecting Europe and the Middle East to Asia, including China.

In addition to the US, Britain has also taken a recent interest in the region, announcing last October that it was sending hundreds of troops to Somalia and South Sudan.

In their determination to retain control of the Horn of Africa, the major imperialist powers have stoked a series of civil wars and internal conflicts between different tribal and national factions. The population has been left to destitute poverty. Somalia, which has a population of more than 10 million people, has a gross domestic product per capita of just $112 and a life expectancy of 52 years. Some 1.1 million people are internally displaced.

Al-Shabaab itself arose out of factions of the Islamic Courts Union, which gained control of Mogadishu in 2006 after 15 years of civil warfare, before being toppled at the end of the year by an Ethiopian invasion orchestrated by the US. In 2007, the US backed the formation of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), comprised of about 22,000 troops from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

After al-Shabaab launched an offensive against Mogadishu in 2010, AMISOM forces, again backed by the US, responded with a campaign that eventually drove the organization out of the capital and from the southern portions of the country. This was followed by regular drone strikes targeting the organizations leaders.

The operations in Somalia are part of a broader escalation throughout northern Africa, overseen by the US militarys Africa Command and aimed largely at countering the growing influence of China on the continent. In recent months, the Obama administration has announced the deployment of troops and Special Operations forces to both Cameroon and Mali, and the US and European powers are also preparing for a major military escalation in Libya.

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By Steven Shapiro



Sophie Gregoire Trudeau is the wife of Canadas newly elected prime minister, but dont call her first lady.

There is no actual title, she told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric during a revealing interview held in Toronto.

We could be a little more progressive, she said, but please call me Sophie.

The prime ministers wife is known throughout Canada for her career as a television reporter. Her husband, Justin Trudeau, is the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. This week, the couple will make an official visit to the White House and attend a state dinner.

The 40-year-old told Couric that, despite the couples celebrity status, her daily life is filled mostly with taking care of their three young children. She is also focused on bringing attention to issues facing women and girls.

We still face social injustice, violence. We are denied most basic rights because we are women, and to me that is completely unacceptable, she said.

She is particularly passionate about self-esteem and body-image issues.

I came out years ago saying I suffered from eating disorders. Eating disorders are like any other compulsion or mental illness, she told Couric.

I had to use my voice to make a difference, she went on to say.

Gregoire Trudeau also commented on a recent magazine article in which she revealed she still breastfeeds her 2- year-old son.

I think its a womans choice. I breastfed my three babies. I also gave them formula, she said. I think its a beautiful bond, and I encourage it, but I dont judge.

Prime Minister Trudeau, 44, has come under fire from critics who have accused him of being too young and inexperienced to lead the country. But his wife sees it differently.

Hes not a yes man. He likes to be surrounded by people who challenge him in his views.

Trudeau is the leader of Canadas Liberal Party and has made womens issues, gay rights and immigration central agenda items for his administration. He made international news when he welcomed a group of Syrian refugees to his nation, greeting them at the airport and distributing coats.

Story continues

Gregoire Trudeau was careful not to comment on policy, U.S. politics or the current presidential election, but offered her thoughts on heated rhetoric in general when asked about GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.

I think we need to remember that in a country like ours and a country like [the U.S.], diversity is the richness. It makes us who we are. We must foster relationships that really promote openness and acceptance.

As for the prospect of a woman in the White House, Gregoire Trudeau would not directly comment on Hillary Clinton, but said, The thought of having a woman president anywhere in this world is amazing. Its happening. The more we get women involved in the political process, the more we will foster greater democracy.
DETROITAppearing for the first time in two years on a Fox News broadcast, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton joined challenger Bernie Sanders Monday evening in a town hall forum at Detroits Gem Theatre. The hour-long event, in which the candidates took the stage one at a time to answer questions from audience members and moderator Bret Baier, followed Sundays occasionally heated CNN debate, and came on the eve of Michigans crucial primary.



A recent CBS News poll shows Clinton leading there with 55 percent of prospective Democratic voters.

Sanders, who was slated to go straight from the forum to rally with supporters in Ann Arbor, kicked things off. He was first asked by Baier to explain a comment hed made during the previous nights debate that when you are white, you dont know what its like to be poor.

Hillary Clinton and Fox News anchor Bret Baier in Detroit

Hillary Clinton talks with Fox News anchor Bret Baier during a town hall event in Detroit on Monday. (Photo: Rebecca Cook/Reuters)



The Vermont senator, who represents one of the whitest states in the country, took the opportunity to clarify his statement in a way that might appeal to the black voters hes struggled to win over.

There is no candidate in this race who has talked more about poverty than I have, Sanders said. What I meant by that is that in African-American communities, you have people living in desperation, often being abused by white police officers.

Thats why he wants to fix the broken criminal justice system, Sanders said, adding, But I know about white poverty.

Reiterating many of the points hes made during the last week of campaigning in Michigan, Sanders emphasized differences between his voting record and Clintons on key issues like the Iraq war and terrible trade programs that, he believes, are to blame for the economic collapse of industrial cities like Detroit and Flint.

Baier also pointed to disparities in how the two candidates are perceived by the public. For example, he noted, exit polls from many of the early primary states show a massive gulf between the percentage of voters who think Sanders is honest and trustworthy and the much smaller number of those who would say that about Clinton.

Story continues

Bernie Sanders speaking in Detroit

Bernie Sanders answers a question during a town hall event in Detroit on Monday. (Photo: Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

Baier further pressed the issue of trust when Clinton took the stage, hitting the former secretary of state with questions about the investigation into her private email server.

I have said it wasnt the best choice to use a personal email, Clinton said, adding that shes not alone in the practice; others, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, have done the same.

Further defending herself, Clinton repeated that, nothing I sent or received was marked classified.

While much of the candidates time was spent discussing differences in how they would approach issues such as student debt and health care, the forum also touched on areas where they agree, notably including abortion rights.

Baeir asked both candidates whether they believe there should be time restrictions on when a woman can legally have an abortion. Clinton stated that under Roe v. Wade, which is rooted in the Constitution, women have the right to make this highly personal decision with their family in accordance with their doctor. But, she argued, its not really a right if its filled with constraints.

Sanders agreed, though his response was a bit more direct.

I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to do with her own body, he said, eliciting applause from the audience. I am very strongly pro-choice. That is a decision to be made by the woman, her physician and her family.

Sanders was similarly straightforward when discussing his belief in the health care as a universal human right. Asked where his understanding of that right came from, Sanders simply stated, Being a human being.

The final question of the evening was delivered by a 13-year-old named Samuel who asked Clinton whether she considers Sanders an enemy or an ally.

An ally for sure, Clinton replied, taking the opportunity to double down on a dig she made in Flint Sunday night about the bickering at recent Republican presidential debates.

We air our differences about issues, Clinton said of the way she and Sanders compete. Compare that to the Republicans and how they debate.

Ultimately, Clinton said, if nominated, she hopes to work with Sanders because if any of the remaining candidates on the Republican side is nominated, I think my supporters and Senator Sanders supporters are going to find a lot of common cause to prevent that person from ever becoming president of the United States.

Asked whether that means shed consider her current opponent as a potential running mate, Clinton chuckled and said, Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

I dont want to think any further ahead than tomorrow and the Michigan primary.

(Cover tile photos: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Warning: This recap for the Scientists Hollow Fortune episode of Blindspot contains spoilers.

A strangely-paced episode of Blindspot this week, with the emotion of the tattoo story drowned out by the potential life-changing confession of Wellers father. It was solid, but if this had been stretched into a two-parter, it could have been great.

Related: Head to Toe: Every Blindspot Tattoo So Far



The Tattoo

Names on the back of Janes left leg. The individual letters were chopped into four bits, then rotated. One of the names, Sergeant Charlie Napier, is a decorated veteran who supposedly died a year and a half ago, but is found wandering down a road near a military base.

The Plot

Charlie acts a little like Jane  dazed, but when threatened, reveals exceptional military skills, killing three soldiers and a bystander. The team catches him when he returns to his childhood home. His body is filled with a drug cocktail that makes him into a kind of super-soldier; it also includes Zip, the memory erasing drug used on Jane. The Army takes custody of them over the teams objections, but theyre ambushed by Northlake, a Blackwater-type military contractor. Theyve been faking the deaths of soldiers, then experimenting on them to create a super-soldier. The mad scientist is captured, but Charlie is still drug-addled and Weller shoots him before he shoots Jane.

Janes Other Mission

Is Tree Guy (fine, Oscar) more or less trustworthy this episode? He gives Jane a pen to switch out on Mayfairs desk. The pen is completely harmless  she realizes it was just a test of her loyalty. In return, Oscar tells her the bearded man who was shot in her house was with them, but he wont say who killed him. And, regarding the project that Jane has heard scattered mentions of: Orion is where you died.

Also, his line, We have another way, probably shouldnt go unnoticed. They know the directors favorite pen, but they dont have cameras. Do they have an inside man? Is Mayfair their inside man?

Story continues

Wellers Emotional Roller Coaster

Wow, Kurt really jumped on the grenade there, relationship-wise. Instead of asking Jane why she didnt show for their late-night talk, he says that he didnt show so that Jane can pretend like she did and not feel awkward. Then later, he finally gets his dad to admit what he was doing the night of Janes disappearance. The suspicious muddy shoes werent because he kidnapped the girl  they were because he tried to commit suicide by drowning that night. After all those years of blaming his dad, it turns out he should have been helping him.

And things are about to get a whole lot more complicated once he finds out that his sister is dating his teammate, Reade. Those awkward locker room moments are about to get seriously weird.

Slow Down!

This weeks threat was smaller than the usual nation-destroying plot. They werent trying to spread plagues or dirty bomb New York  they just wanted to build a Captain America with steroids and meth. At the same time though, it felt like they should have devoted more time to it. Jane felt a kinship with Charlie and for good reason: Theyve both been subjected to horrible medical procedures, turned into weapons, and drugged to forget. That mirroring felt like it had deeper thematic implications, and it would have been nice to see the two of them connect more before killing him off like they did. Plus, we barely had time to acknowledge that the doctor is a Nazi Germany-level war criminal who, in some shows, could have carried an entire season.

Blindthoughts

 Is there no other place for Kurt and Jane to talk besides the locker room? Surely theres a broom closet, a fire escape, something more private than an echoey room where the rest of the team routinely gathers?

 Kurt bonds with his sister over PB&J sandwiches. He bonds with his dad over green smoothies. What food will he and Jane bond over? Falafel pitas? Froyo?

 Line of the Night: The ears a treasure trove. You dont even want to know what I can do with an ear. Depending on the context, Pattersons line can either be sexy, terrifying, or deeply nerdy. Here, its maybe a little bit of all three?

Blindspot airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver tackled special districts. Special districts are small units of government that use tax dollars for one specific thing. Theyre poorly regulated, rife with corruption, and have complicated voting systems. So Oliver teamed up with a fifth-grade class in San Diego in hopes of clearing things up a bit. The children described how special districts can use taxpayer money for things like fireworks and cigars, which sounds ridiculous, but these are actual examples of corruption in these entities. While the kids were adorable, the reality was bleak.

It was a fun bit, but special districts are no laughing matter. They spend upwards of $100 billion per year and are technically the most common form of local government. Oliver paired with the youngsters as part of a California initiative to inform the public about special districts. But it wouldnt be Last Week Tonight without another reality check. It highlighted a county in Illinois with four special districts for spraying mosquitos  yes, thats a thing  where the mayor of a town contracted West Nile virus from a mosquito bite.



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Kyiv has gained the Russian authorities' permission that enables a Ukrainian medical team to visit Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is on 'dry' hunger strike, at the detention facility, parliament member Iryna Heraschenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc) has said.

"A group of Ukrainian physicians will leave for meeting with Nadia Savchenko within hours; they will examine her and provide assistance. Ukrainian diplomats have finally gained a promise from the Russian authorities that our doctors will visit Nadia on March 9," Heraschenko wrote on Facebook on Tuesday morning.

According to Russian detectives, Ukrainian Armed Forces officer Nadia Savchenko was staying at the location of the Aidar battalion near the town of Metalist in the Slovyanoserbsk district of the Luhansk region on June 17, 2014. Now she is accused of conducting secret observation and adjustment of artillery fire on a Luhansk militants roadblock where civilians, including three journalists from Russia's VGTRK broadcaster, were present. The gunfire killed two journalists  Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. Savchenko denied all charges.

She has been held in custody in Russia since July 2014. Savchenko said at a meeting of the Donetsk City Court on December 17, 2015, that she would be on a hunger strike until the end of the proceeding.

She also announced a 'dry' hunger strike and refused to drink water on Friday, March 4.
The Spokesperson of the EU External Action Service has expressed extreme worries over a thirst strike declared by Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko.

"The European Union continues to call for Nadia Savchenko's immediate release," reads a statement released in Brussels.

According to the EU spokesperson, such a step would also be in keeping with the "Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk Agreements" and the commitments therein to release all hostages and illegally detained persons related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

"The European Union underlines, as it has done on previous occasions that Russia bears responsibility for the health, well-being and observance of the human rights of all persons it detains," reads the document.
The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union (COREPER) will approve the decision to extend the sanctions against 146 individuals and 37 entities from Russia and Ukraine for six months at its meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, a European diplomatic source has told Interfax.

He said COREPER would make the decision on March 9 and he was expecting the Council of the European Union to approve it on March 10.

Three persons who died during the period of sanctions were excluded from the blacklist of individuals suspected by the EU of actions undermining or threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence, the source said.

The targeted sanctions put a freeze on assets of blacklisted individuals and entities in EU banks and banned their travel to the European Union.

The source was unable to say when the decision might be published by the Official Journal of the European Union. He said the date would be mentioned in the resolution of the Council of the European Union.
Kerry calls on Russia to immediately free Savchenko, bring her back to Ukraine

The United States again called on Russia to immediately free Ukrainian parliamentarian Nadia Savchenko and bring her back to Ukraine, stated U.S. Secretary of Sate John Kerry.

"The United States once again calls on Russia to immediately release Ms. Savchenko and return her to Ukraine," Kerry said in a statement posted on the website of the U.S. Department of State.

He expressed a deep concern about the health and welfare of Savchenko, who since Friday has refused food and water to protest her continued detention by the Russian Federation.

According to the official statement, in the 20 months since she was captured in eastern Ukraine and taken to Russia, Savchenko has reportedly endured interrogations, solitary confinement, and forced "psychiatric evaluation."

"Her trial and continuing imprisonment demonstrate disregard for international standards, as well as for Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements," Kerry stressed.

As reported, Savchenko has been held in custody in Russia since July 2014. Savchenko said at a meeting of the Donetsk City Court on December 17, 2015, that she would be on a hunger strike until the end of the proceeding.

She also announced a 'dry' hunger strike and refused to drink water on Friday, March 4.
Interfax-Ukraine to host press conference 'Arbitrary Behavior Before Verification. In What Way is Number of Social Provisions Recipients Among Internally Displaced Persons Cut?'

On Thursday, March 10, at 12.30, the press centre of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference "Arbitrary Behavior Before Verification. In What Way is Number of Social Provisions Recipients Among Internally Displaced Persons Cut?". Participants include Coordinator of All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation 'Right to Protection' Olena Vynohradova, Coordinator of Donbas-SOS public organization Olha Hvozdyeva, Coordinator of Vostok-SOS Charitable Foundation Oleksandra Dvoretska and Coordinator at OPORA Civil Network Oleksandr Kliuzhev (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Accreditation by phone: (096) 776 55 94, press @ vostok- sos. org
COLOMBO, March 7 -- Sri Lanka is set to begin Chinese-funded new infrastructure development projects by the end of the year after the two countries have agreed to further strengthen their economic ties, an official has said.

Niroshan Perera, state minister of national policies and economic affairs, said in a recent interview with Xinhua that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will discuss prospects of attracting new investments during his visit to China in April.

And the two sides will also discuss the implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA) and the commencement of infrastructure projects which Sri Lanka believes will help boost its slow paced economy, the state minister added

Perera said that during the visit, which will be Wickremesinghe's first since winning a parliamentary election in August, the prime minister will also look to further strengthen political ties with China.

"This will be a very crucial visit which will set the tone for the next couple of years," Perera said.

"Also as you know, we are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with China, so we hope that all these projects will come together by the end of the year along with the investments. Thereafter we hope to have a strong economic partnership with China."

One of the key issues which will also be on Wickremesinghe's agenda, will be to discuss a multi-billion-dollar Port City project funded by China, which was suspended by the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena in March last year.

The project which had begun under construction in September 2014 was suspended as the government said the project needed to be reviewed.

Sri Lankan leaders recently announced that it will go ahead with the project, which would be the first of its kind in South Asia.

"Negotiations are ongoing so as soon as we reach an agreement, the project will begin work. It can even be before the Prime Minister leaves for China," Perera said.

Reiterating that Sri Lanka's relations with China have been strong, Perera said ties have now been strengthened further after the new government came into power last year.

He said most of the Chinese-funded projects which had been suspended, have now been given the nod and their construction have begun.

"When we were talking to the Chinese government, there was no misunderstanding. It was only that we had to review some of the projects which took some time. But I think we can move on now and it is good for China and Sri Lanka to further strengthen their ties."

Perera noted that while the government was in the process of setting up a special industrial zone at Hambantota in the south of the country for Chinese investors, the government invited China to invest in other areas including the former war torn north and east too.

Sri Lanka hopes to be part of China's Belt and Road initiative, saying this would lead to further economic corporation between the two countries.

Perera will lead a 100-member youth delegation to China next week in order to educate the future generation on China's development.

Perera said it was important for Sri Lanka's future generation to maintain strong ties with China for the betterment of the country.

The delegation will visit several cities in China and hold discussions with Chinese officials.
Scientists are trying to clone extinct cave lions after the 12-000-year old, perfectly preserved remains of two cubs was discovered in Siberia.

The South Korean team seeking to reanimate the pair, found around 650 miles from the local capital of Yakutsk, is already trying to bring back the long extinct woolly mammoth.

Experts have said the 'perfectly preserved' predators, named Uyan and Dina, are a 'sensational find'.

The South Korean team seeking to reanimate the cave lions (pictured) named Uya and Dina is already trying to bring back the woolly mammoth. The demise of the species is a puzzle since the animal had few predators, was smaller than herbivores, and not prone to getting bogged down in swamps unlike woolly mammoths.

The perfectly preserved predators (pictured) were found around 650 miles from the Siberian capital of Yakutsk.

Controversial cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk visited Yakutsk this week to watch over scientists as they removed samples of skin and muscle tissue from a young cave lion.

He was embroiled in a bizarre dispute with Siberian scientists over the size of the samples he could take to experiment on.

Hwang was 'unhappy with the samples', said Semyon Grigoriev, director of the world famous Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk.

He told the Siberian Times: 'They expected to take more, as they did with the woolly mammoth previously.

Experts have said the 'perfectly preserved' predators, named Uyan and Dina, are a 'sensational find'. An adult European cave lion is thought to have measured 3.9ft (1.2metres) tall and 6.9ft (2.1metres) in length without its tail, based on a skeleton found in Germany.

Research on the two cubs (pictured) could help to explain why the species died out around 10,000 years ago, say experts. Cave lion fossils have also been found in Alaska and Canada. Remains are rare, making the recent find particularly exceptional, and only fragments of carcasses and skeletons have been found before.

'But it will not work with with these little kittens. You have to understand, the lion cub is very small, so it was not possible to get as much as we would like.'

One of the cubs is being kept in a Russian freezer indefinitely to await scientific advances in cloning.

'The methods of research are constantly being improved - about once a decade there is a mini-revolution,' said Dr Albert Protopopov, head of the mammoth fauna studies department of the Yakutian Academy of Sciences.

He added: 'So we will do everything possible to keep this carcass frozen for as long as possible.'

'We managed to take some samples of skin along with the muscle tissue, and we hope that we will find what we want in these samples.'

Cave lions lived during Middle and Late Pleistocene times on the Eurasian continent, from Britain to the extreme east of Russia. They also roamed Alaska and north western Canada.

Research on the two cubs could help to explain why the species died out around 10,000 years ago, say experts.

The demise of the species is a puzzle since the animal had few predators, was smaller than herbivores, and not prone to getting bogged down in swamps unlike woolly mammoths and rhinos.

Controversial cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk visited Yakutsk this week to watch over scientists as they removed samples of skin and muscle tissue from a young cave lion.

Remains are rare, making the recent find particularly exceptional, and only fragments of carcasses and skeletons have been found before. The discovery will give scientists a better idea of what the animals that once roamed Yakutia looked like.

The predators lived during Middle and Late Pleistocene times on the Eurasian continent, which stretched from the UK to Chukotka in East Russia, connected by the Bering land bridge.

Cave lion fossils have also been found in Alaska and Canada.

Remains are rare, making the recent find particularly exceptional, and only fragments of carcasses and skeletons have been found before.

The discovery will give scientists a better idea of what the animals that once roamed Yakutia looked like.

The discovery was made in the Sakha Republic, otherwise known as Yakutia (shaded in red) and scientists believe the two 'sensational' cubs are the best preserved ever found.

Until now, their impressions were based on a handful of skulls, teeth and bones found in the freezing region.

Careful study of the remains may help explain why prehistoric cave lions became extinct.

One theory holds that a decline in deer and cave bears, their prey, caused their demise.

In 2006, Hwang was dismissed by Seoul National University for faking groundbreaking work in stem cell research.

The university said Hwang had damaged its and his country's reputation. But he has gone on to be seen as a pioneer of cloning efforts.
Rolling across a 213-foot-high viaduct in the Alps, the red carriages of the Bernina Express add a splash of colour to the spectacular snow-covered Swiss surroundings.

The passenger train was pictured on the Landwasser Viaduct, which towers over the Landwasser River in Filisur, Switzerland.

The Bernina Express, which connects Chur in eastern Switzerland to Tirano in northern Italy, is famed for being on the highest railway line in the Alps.

Rolling across a 213-foot-high viaduct in the Alps, the red carriages of the Bernina Express add a splash of colour to the spectacular snow-covered Swiss surroundings.

The Bernina Express, which connects Chur in eastern Switzerland to Tirano in northern Italy, runs along the highest railway line in the Alps. Pictured is train in the Albula valley, Graubunden.

Italian photographers Marco Bottigelli, 34, and Francesco Vaninetti, 36, travelled on the Bernina Express and photographed the views from the train. Pictured is the Schmittentobel Viaduct in Schmitten.

The highest point on the line is situated at the Swiss station of Ospizio Bernina, which sits at 7,391 feet above sea level.

Italian photographers Marco Bottigelli, 34, and Francesco Vaninetti, 36, travelled on the Bernina Express and photographed the views from the train.

The pair also captured the Bernina Express itself.

Having disembarked, they scouted locations and photographed the train as it travelled through Schmitten and Filisur in Switzerland.

Marco, of Castellanza, Italy, says: 'I have never seen views like this on a train - it was absolutely spectacular.

'Our favourite part of the trip was seeing the train travel over the Landwasser Viaduct.

'The train comes out of a mountain cave and right onto a 213-feet-high, six-curved arch limestone bridge.

'The bright, red colour of the train carriages really stood out against the crisp snow and blue skies.'

The photographers said their favourite part of the trip was seeing the train travel over the Landwasser Viaduct (pictured). The train travels out of a mountain cave and right onto a 213-foot-high, six-curved arch limestone bridge.

The duo from Morbegno, Italy, spent a day travelling on the railway which spans 75 miles of railroad, passes through 55 tunnels and crosses 196 bridges while covering areas such as Albula Valley.

Bottigelli photographed stunning lakes with cracked sheets of ice in Silvaplana as the pair travelled on the Bernina Express.

Marco and Francesco, of Morbegno, Italy, spent a day travelling on the railway, which spans 75 miles of railroad and passes through 55 tunnels and crosses 196 bridges.

Marco says: 'The day before we arrived, there was a lot of heavy snowfall.

'The whole area turned into an amazing winter wonderland.

'It was like we were in a fairy-tale book.'

The photographers say they were extremely lucky to be able to capture the images as the locals believe so much snow is becoming a rare occurence in the area.

The Bernina railway line was built between 1908 and 1910 and was operated independently until the 1940s, when it was acquired by the Rhaetian Railway, a Swiss transport company.

Marco says: 'We were extremely lucky to be able to capture this day because snowy scenery like this is becoming rarer as the years go by.

'The locals believe that it is due to global warming.

'And I really hope that these photographs can act as a reminder that action needs to be taken to protect the beauty of our planet.'

Looking like a scene from a fairy-tale, a snow-dusted Filisur is nestled in a valley surrounded by trees.
Chinese President Xi Jinping joins a group deliberation of deputies from Heilongjiang province to the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, March 7, 2016. [Phtoto/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping on Monday called for deeper reform to revitalize China's northeastern industrial base.

Xi urged lawmakers from Heilongjiang to pursue innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development when participating in deliberations on the government work report at the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC).

He said that local government and Party officials must abide by the law as they implement reform policies and that they should encourage the public to do likewise.

Capable, honest officials should be rewarded with promotions, the president said.

The meeting also discussed the shift of economic engines, food prices, poverty relief and structural reform in industrial bases.

In a panel discussion with NPC deputies from Fujian province, Premier Li Keqiang urged authorities of the eastern coastal province to strengthen the green and maritime economy and build a strategic pivot for coastal development.

Li asked the province to speed up a shift in growth by boosting smart manufacturing and the modern service sector and to take more initiative in advancing reform and opening up as well as the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.
China and Russia have conducted the seventh round of negotiations on their joint development of heavy-lift helicopters. Both sides have reached a consensus on the core technology, said Yu Feng, President of AVIC Helicopter Co. Ltd. on Monday.

The talks, held from Feb. 29 to March 4, are of great significance for further promoting strategic cooperation between China and Russia, Yu Feng, also an NPC deputy, told reporters at the ongoing Two Sessions meetings on March 7.

The development of heavy-lift helicopters makes China the third country after Russia and the U.S. to boast the capability. Thus, China has become one of the world's few countries with a complete spectrum of helicopters.

The heavy-lift helicopter, which is currently in the research and development phase, has an maximum take-off weight of 38.2 tons, a maximum cruise speed of 300 kilometers per hour, a service ceiling of 5,700 meters, and a range of 630 kilometers.

It is designed to undertake tasks such as large-scale rescue, vehicle transport, fire transport, personnel transport and other heavy lifting.

China and Russia signed the cooperative framework on the advanced heavy-lift helicopter on May 8, 2015. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attended the signing ceremony.
TAIPEI, March 7 -- A clear message was sent out from the top legislature's annual session that the Chinese mainland has strong determination and sufficient goodwill in the development of relations across the Taiwan Strait.

A report delivered by Premier Li KeqiangSaturday said the mainland will continue to adhere to the 1992 Consensus as the political foundation for cross-Strait ties and will promote exchanges in diverse fields with Taiwan compatriots.

Later that day, President Xi Jinpingexpounded on the mainland's firm stance when joining a group of lawmakers from Shanghai.

STEADFAST DETERMINATION

"Only by accepting the 1992 Consensus and recognizing its core implications can the two sides have a common political foundation and maintain good interaction," Xi said.

The 1992 Consensus clearly defines the nature of cross-Strait ties, and is the basis for the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties in the long run.

Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who won Taiwan's leadership election in January, remains ambiguous about her stance on the 1992 Consensus, just stating that she wishes to "maintain the status quo."

Chang Wu-yueh, head of the graduate institute of China studies at Taiwan's Tamkang University, said that Xi's words reiterated the significance of the 1992 Consensus in the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations

"Without this foundation, it will be extremely hard to maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, the mainland has steadfast determination to address the issue of 'Taiwan independence'," Chang said.

In his speech, Xi vowed to resolutely contain "Taiwan independence" secessionist activities in any form, safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity and never allow the historical tragedy of national secession to happen again.

"Our policy toward Taiwan is clear and consistent, and it will not change along with the change in Taiwan's political situation," Xi told legislators.

Teng Che-wei, head of the Taipei-based non-governmental organization Cross-Strait Public Affairs Association, said that neither side of Taiwan Strait should sabotage the common foundation, or else exchanges across the Strait will suffer.

"Tsai has been emphasizing the status quo, but status quo cannot be grown in the air. There must be concrete measures to maintain it," Teng said.

GOODWILL FOR FUTURE EXCHANGES

Xi also said the Chinese mainland will further promote cross-Strait cooperation and exchanges in all fields, deepen economic and social integration, and enhance the sense of a community of common destiny.

The peaceful development of cross-Strait ties needs not only high-level interactions, but also mutual understanding and mutually beneficial exchanges at the grassroots level, according to Chang.

"The mainland hopes that bonds between people on both sides of the Strait are not influenced by political divergence and exchanges in all aspects can continue to improve," he said.

Micky Chen, chairman of the Management Institute in Taipei, said economic and trade exchanges between two sides of the Strait showed strong momentum in recent years and are still moving forward.

Last year, tourists from the mainland accounted for 40 percent in total tourists to Taiwan. The mainland is also Taiwan's largest destination of investment and export.

"In recent years, the economic and trade ties is becoming more and more intertwined with other facets of cross-Strait relations, including educational and cultural exchanges," according to Chen.

Xi said the results of the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties should be safeguarded by compatriots from both sides.

A latest achievement of cross-Strait ties is the return of the head of a 1460-year-old marble Buddha statue back to the mainland 20 years after being stolen.

In 1996, the statue's head was chopped off and disappeared from a tower in north China's Hebei Province. In 2014, a follower in Taiwan bought the statue's head at auction and donated it to Master Hsing Yun, founder of the Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.

Hsing Yun decided to reunite the head and the body, and escorted the statue's head to Beijing late last month himself.

The head of a Buddha statue can be chopped off, but the spirit of the Buddha cannot. It's just like the cross-Strait ties, Hsing Yun said.

"The sea can not sever our historical bond, nor can it cut off our connection and blood lineage," he said. "The common Chinese cultural traditions can not be chopped off by external forces."
President Xi Jinping attends a panel discussion held by the Heilongjiang delegation in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing onMonday. LAN HONGGUANG/ XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

When 32-year-old national lawmaker Liu Lei, of the Hezhe ethnic group in Heilongjiang province, met President Xi Jinping on Monday morning, she was surprised by how well he knows her culture.

"He mentioned to me a song of our ethnic group, and told me he can even hum its tune. The president also knows about our fishing tradition," said Liu, a primary school teacher, after a panel discussion on the Government Work Report that Xi also attended.

The Hezhe, with a population of about 5,000, is one of the smallest ethnic groups in China.

It has become standard for top leaders to join panel discussions held by some delegations during the annual sessions of the top legislature and advisory body, to listen to opinions from the grassroots.

While the suggestions offered by Liu were about how to improve the livelihood of ethnic groups, the panel discussions focused on how to shore up the province's economy, which has been hampered by diminishing resources and a slump in global oil prices.

Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia's Far East, used to be the country's economic powerhouse  together with Jilin and Liaoning provinces, all in Northeast China  due to its abundant energy resources and manufacturing industries.

But it has been hit by overcapacity and outdated technology.

The province's 5.7 percent GDP growth rate last year ranked among the slowest nationwide.

Its Daqing oilfield, China's biggest and a pillar enterprise for Heilongjiang, has been cutting output due to the global oil price plunge, according to Jiang Wanchun, an oilfield official.

While listening to lawmakers from the energy and mining industries, Xi encouraged the province to embrace the market and speed up technological innovation to spur growth.

The province must make the best use of its advantages and blaze new trails to revitalize its economy, the president said.

He also called on the province to cultivate additional qualified officials and improve the rule of law to create an environment that is conducive to social and economic development.

Governor Lu Hao said Heilongjiang has made headway in its grain industry, whose output accounts for a tenth of the country's total. Efforts have also been made in high-tech and financial sectors.

"We have felt the pinch of an economic downturn, but we are also finding new growth points," Lu said during the discussion.

Lu said the province will speed up several major transportation projects.
On March 7, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to the Heilongjiang delegation at the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature. He discussed regional mining industry developments and its transition, pointing out that state-owned enterprises need external help and internal motivation.

By Song Xiongwei, associate Professor, the department of politics, the China National School of Administrationdrawing by Wang Dongjie

He called for more protections on wetlands and to strengthen ecological civilization construction, focusing on economic activities with multiple measures and striving for a new revitalization way.

Xi's remarks reflect deep concerns for the people of Northeast China and their fond hopes of remaking the northeastern old industrial base, which can boost confidence for local officials and people to deepen reforms and achieve a comprehensive revitalization.

Currently, the economic development of Northeast China remains at a crucial stage. To get rid of constraints from a deep-seated system and structural contradictions, we should support industrialization of better and new technology, recruiting all kinds of talents to support overall development in the market.

We should stick to the five development concepts of innovation, coordination, green development, opening up, and sharing to activate market forces and enhance endogenous power.

Northeast China's revitalization has a long way to go and numerous challenges to overcome. But if we have the spirit to undertake continued reform and innovation, we can make the northeastern old industrial base great again.
HAMI, March 7, 2016 -- Female soldiers compete with male soldiers during a jumping game celebrating the upcoming International Women's Day at the Hami military sub-district, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 7, 2016. There is a group of female soldiers born after 1995 at the communication station in the Hami military sub-district in Xinjiang. They do regular trainings together with male soldiers during the day time while practising operator services at night. Within half a year, they have mastered various techniques to become professional military operators. (Xinhua/Li Hua)
Cultural relics found by two farmers of Ningxiang county. (Photo/Cswb.changsha.cn)

Xiong Shangfeng and Xiao Aimin are both farmers in Ningxiang county of central China's Hunan province. During an excavation, they found two pieces of cultural relics and handed them over to the government. These two relics have been initially identified as Soul Jars from ancient China's Song Dynasty by experts at the local Cultural Relics Bureau. The two men got 400 yuan from the government as a sign of appreciation for turning in the important objects.

"Last Saturday, I was digging ditches with Xiao Aimin in a place about 100 meters from my home. Suddenly, I felt my hoe touch something hard. I dug it out and found that the peculiar-looking vessel was very different from the pots and pans in my home. The place where I live was the hometown of China's bronze culture. The famous Siyangfangzun four sheep statue was unearthed here, so I thought this vessel might also be a cultural relic," said Xiong.

Both farmers cleaned the vessels with water and carefully kept them at home. "We are not experts, but we thought the vessels might be cultural relics. They did not belong to us and we should not own them, so we called the local Cultural Relics Bureau," said Xiao Aimin after he also found a vessel.
Photo: Frankfurt-Hahn Airport

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport,the fifth-largest cargo airport in Germany, is currently under negotiation to be sold to two Chinese consortia, according to the German Press Agency. If the bid is successful, this will mark the third airport the Chinese have acquired in the country.

Located 110 kilometers to the southwest of Frankfurt, the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport mainly operates cargo transportation and budget airlines. The airport saw a loss of nearly 16 million euros (over 17 million USD) in 2015, due to the fact that Air China Cargo, a subsidiary of Air China, and Yangtze River Express, a subsidiary of Chinas Hainan Airlines, withdrew their businesses to Frankfurt and Munich airports.

According to the German Press Agency, one of the two Chinese buyers is a consortium invested by Henan provincial government, and another potential bidder points to German DHL Express and Chinas online retailer giant JD.com.
China and Russia held the seventh round of negotiations recently to cooperate in developing heavy lift helicopters and reached consensus on some core technologies, said Yu Feng, chairman of the AVIC Helicopter Co. Ltd.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China signed a framework agreement with Russian Helicopters on May 8, 2015 to work together on developing advanced heavy lift helicopters.

This round of negotiation was a significant step in advancing the heavy helicopter program, said Yu, who is attending the annual parliamentary session as a deputy. With support from both sides, the project is going forward as planned.

Heavy helicopters refer to those with a take-off weight of more than 20 tonnes, Yu said, adding that the planned cooperation would fill a blank in China's helicopter family.

A model of the planned chopper was put on display in September 2015 at the Tianjin International Helicopter Exhibition.

With a maximum cruising speed of 300 km per hour and a maximum take-off weight of 38.2 tonnes, the chopper could be used in rescue missions and vehicle transportation, especially in natural disasters and on high altitudes.




MORE ABOUT ME:









I'm an author with The Story Factory. My literary and film agent is Shane Salerno.









I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. After studying philosophy at Oxford University I emigrated to New York City where I lived in Harlem for 7 years working in bars, bookstores, building sites. In 2001 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction. I lived in Oz for 10 years from 2008 - 2018 in the beautiful suburb of St Kilda. In 2019 I moved back to NYC.





My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, was optioned by Universal Pictures and appeared on several best of the year lists.



I'm probably best known for my Sean Duffy series of detective novel set in Belfast during the Troubles. Those books have won the Edgar Award, Ned Kelly Award, Barry Award, Anthony Award, Audie Award etc.





I have a new standalone coming out in 2019 called The Chain...
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Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

Trend:

Baku has in recent years become a center for political discussions, said Nazim Ibrahimov, chairman of Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora.

"Many reputable international think-tanks and organizations choose Baku as a venue for their events," Ibrahimov told reporters March 8.

"Ways to address current challenges in the world, conflict resolution, world management methods and other issues are discussed in Baku," he added.

This year, the Canadian InterAction Council, which is holding its 33rd annual plenary meeting in Baku on March 8 on the eve of the Global Baku Forum, is also involved in the Forum's organization, said Ibrahimov.

The IV Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and supported by the State Committee on Work with Diaspora, will be held March 10-11 in Baku.

Nearly 300 people, including influential politicians, heads of states and governments of Albania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Georgia will take part in the event.

The conflicts on ethnic, religious and political grounds, global challenges in the democratic development, education, environment and energy security will be the topics of the upcoming Forum.

The previous Global Baku Forums were held between 2013 and 2015.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

By Anakhanum Hidayatova - Trend:

The Global Baku Forum will provide an opportunity for former and current leaders to discuss global problems and try to find a solution, said Jean Chretien, Canada's former prime minister.

He made the remarks during the 33rd plenary meeting of the Canadian InterAction Council, which is being held March 8 in Baku on the eve of the Global Baku Forum.

The Forum will also provide an opportunity for participants to get closely acquainted with Azerbaijan, its rich history and culture, said Chretien.

Nearly 300 people, including influential politicians, heads of states and governments of Albania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Georgia will take part in the event.

The conflicts on ethnic, religious and political grounds, global challenges in the democratic development, education, environment and energy security will be the topics of the upcoming Forum.

Club of Madrid, InterAction Council and Library of Alexandria are the partners of the event.

Addressing the meeting, the former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga congratulated its participants on the upcoming Forum.

She said that youth unemployment and medicine will be among the main topics of discussion at the Forum.

In turn, the former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said the InterAction Council was created in 1983 to address global problems, such as terrorism, energy security and environmental issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

Trend:

An official welcoming ceremony was held for Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, who is on an official visit in Azerbaijan March 8.

A guard of honor was arranged for the Emir of the State of Qatar in the square decorated with the national flags of the two countries.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev welcomed Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to the Emir of the State of Qatar.

The national anthems of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Azerbaijan were played.

President Aliyev and Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani viewed the guard of honor.

The Emir of the State of Qatar saluted Azerbaijani soldiers.

State and government officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan were introduced to Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, and members of the Qatari delegation were introduced to President Aliyev.

The guard of honor marched in front of the heads of states to the accompaniment of a military march.

The president of Azerbaijan and the Emir of the State of Qatar posed for official photos.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8





Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan llham Aliyev received chairman of the Board of Directors of Russia`s Gazprom Viktor Zubkov March 8.

Zubkov said he was deeply impressed by development processes in Baku.

The sides noted the successful development of Azerbaijani-Russian relations in all areas, and expressed confidence that these ties would continue expanding.

They hailed the economic, particularly energy cooperation between the two countries, and also pointed to successful cooperation of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic with Russian oil and gas companies, including Gazprom.

The sides also highlighted the importance of the Global Baku Forum, held by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, which Viktor Zubkov would also attend. They emphasized the significance of the forum in strengthening international cooperation.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 8

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has sharply criticized the activity of the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Turkmen government said March 8.

The president urged to take relevant measures.

The State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange held 40 auctions in January-February 2016. Some 2,172 contracts worth more than 4.2 billion manat were registered there.

"The export and import transactions are worth over 2.4 billion manat, construction contracts - more than 1.1 billion manat," the statement said. "The investments in the amount of 6.1 million manat were used during this period or by 73.1 percent more than in the same period of 2015."

As of January 2015, the official rate of the Turkmen manat to the US dollar hits 3.50 Turkmen manat.

The State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan was established in 1994 and is a body of regulation of export-import operations.

As opposed to other stock exchanges, the range of activities of the local stock exchange is universal, a variety of goods and materials, with the exception of intellectual property facilities, real estate and works of art are sold here through bids.

Domestic products, which are exported to more than 40 countries, including Turkey, China, Russia, UAE, Iran, Germany, US, UK, Ukraine and Switzerland, are currently sold at the stock exchange bids.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 8

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has signed a decree on setting the appropriate customs duties on the vehicles imported into the country.

The document has been signed to protect the interests of consumers in Turkmenistan in terms of using the environmentally friendly and comfortable vehicles for people, as well as controlling the import of vehicles from foreign countries.

According to the document, the Turkmen State Customs Service, the Ministry of Economy and Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Main State Tax Service together with the Ministry of Justice have been charged with preparing a suggestion to amend and change the country's legislation within one month and submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8



Trend:

The Georgian government aims at ensuring stable and uninterrupted gas supply, Mikheil Janelidze, Georgian foreign minister, said.

Janelidze made this statement following the negotiations and the agreement with SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan).

The gas supply was problematic after the recent consumption growth in the country.

"Together with our friend and strategic partner - Azerbaijan, the ways of supplying additional gas volume, necessary to cover the deficit, were found," he said. "An agreement was signed."

He said that that the talks were held with the Russian Gazprom company about the terms of gas transit from Russia to Armenia via Georgia's infrastructure.

"Such talks have been held every year since 2004," he said. "The negotiations include the ability of supplying additional gas volumes required to cover the deficit if it had not been possible with other sources," he said. "As a result of agreements reached with SOCAR, there is no need to purchase additional gas volume from Gazprom."

According to the document, an agreement with Gazprom about gas transit upon existing conditions is valid. Georgia will receive gas for its transit to Armenia without any additional volumes.

"The Georgian government has ensured the best possible conditions for stable and uninterrupted gas supply and energy security of the country due to these agreements," a statement said.
Tehran, Iran, March 7

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Although the SWIFT service is running in Iran and banking operations such as opening credits are performed right now, the level of the established banking relations doesn't satisfy the country, said Seyyedeh Fatemeh Moqimi, secretary of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce.

"Banking relations may not have reached the desirable level yet. However, the problem is not a general one. Negotiations over the details of the operationalization of the relations will take some time," Moqimi told Trend March 7.

In recent days there has been much talk whether Iranian banks are really able to use international transactions, with contrary statements from the government and private sector, as well as media outlets affiliated to political rivals of the government.

A few days ago, Tehran Chamber of Commerce member Asadollah Asgar Oladi said government vows have not been fulfilled and businessmen cannot use Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) even as nearly two months have passed since the implementation day of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, which removed economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

But the Central Bank of Iran President Valiollah Seif has made contrary remarks, noting that Iranian bankers are normally performing international transactions.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, answering a question at a press conference on March 6, said, "Transactions between our banks and foreign banks have started. However, some banks are still afraid of establishing relations with us."

Iran complained on March 5 that European banks and companies were too wary about renewing business ties and said it had asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease their concerns.

"There is still 'Iranophobia' in the banking sector that we are trying to overcome," Hamid Tehranfar, a vice governor of Iran's central bank, was earlier quoted as saying.

Iranian businessmen's efforts to quickly make deals with foreigners have been hampered in part by foreigners' reluctance.

Zagros Airlines chief Hushang Seddiq said March 7 that his company intends to buy 20 aircraft from Brazil's Embraer, but expressed concern that bringing them into the country would "require a green light from the US."

Regarding the issue, Moqimi told Trend that the problem springs in great part from the current political vibe in the US as the country is expecting a presidential election and party rivalry is high.

"Surely, the situation will move toward considering a win-win game and the problems will be solved, however after some time," she said.

"Problems with the American banks, however, are not solved yet," the Tehran Chamber of Commerce secretary noted.
Iran on Tuesday indicated frustration with India's failure to settle debts remaining from previous purchases of oil from Tehran, Press TV reported.

Iran's First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri said India has announced that its banks are too afraid from US punitive actions to proceed with paying Iran's dues while many global financial institutions have already resumed working with Iran after the removal of the sanctions.

"Even though the sanctions have been lifted, we have not been able to retrieve our cash from India," said Iran's First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri.

"India's officials say the country's banks are afraid of the Americans."

Jahangiri's comments follow indications that recently appeared in Indian media that suggested Tehran and New Delhi have hit a roadblock over settling some $6 billion in oil dues.

India's Business Standard reported on Sunday that Gholamali Kamyab, the vice governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), will travel to India later this month to discuss differences with officials in New Delhi over a mechanism to get Iran's oil money back from the country.

The difference reportedly involves the foreign exchange rate for the sum that India owes Iran.

Iran sold oil to India's refiners like Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) in US dollar per barrel. Around 45 percent of the oil bill was paid in rupees in a UCO Bank account while the rest 55 percent was to be cleared whenever banking channels open with the removal of the anti-Iran sanctions, reported the Business Standard.

Rupee to a US dollar was under 55 in February 2013 when the 45:55 payment system became operational. Rupee to a US dollar is at 67 now.

The Business Standard further quoted sources as saying that Iran wants its dollar dues in full without factoring in the exchange rate.

Refiners like Essar Oil on the other hand want to pay rupee equivalent of the purchase at current rate.

Tehran has told India that the three-year old mechanism of paying 45% of oil import bill in rupees and keeping the remaining 55% pending for payment channels to clear, has come to an end.

It will be opening or re-activating euro accounts with Indian banks and would like to have the past money transferred from refiners into these accounts.
Oman's top port Salalah has signed a basic agreement with two key Iranian southern trade terminals in what is expected to make the Persian Gulf state Iran's new biggest trade partner in the region, replacing the United Arab Emirates, Press TV reported.

The agreement has been signed with Shahid Rajaee port, Iran's biggest cargo port Bandar Abbas located at the Strait of Hormuz, and with Chabahar port which is located on the coast of the Gulf of Oman.

Based on the agreement, an all-water route between the three ports will be jointly promoted, different news agencies have reported.

The port of Salalah will provide advice on infrastructure development and the modernization of the two Iranian ports as well as workforce training.

Officials in Oman say the move would "facilitate growth in shipping, trade and commerce" between the two countries.

"This agreement provides an opportunity for the three ports to complement and significantly enhance each other's value proposition by providing the industries in their hinterlands gateways for wider markets by leveraging on the location of the partner ports," David Gledhill, chief executive officer of the Port of Salalah, has been quoted by the media as saying.

"We also envisage the landlocked countries adjacent to Iran to use the existing multilateral agreements for transport corridors to access new markets."

Salalah is Oman's main trans-shipment port, and handled 2.6 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of container trade last year as well as 12.5 million tons of bulk cargo, Reuters reported.

Shahid Rajaei port is located 23 kilometers west of Bandar Abbas, the capital city of southern Iranian province of Hormozgan. The port is equipped with 18 gantry cranes and 41 docks, which make it the biggest and most modern container port in Iran.

Chabahar Port is being promoted as an alternate gateway for access to Afghanistan and landlocked Commonwealth of Independent States such as Kazakhstan and Armenia.

In February, Iran and Oman officially launched a separate shipping route between Shahid Rajaee port and the Omani port of Sohar in what officials say would help promote trade not only between Iran and Oman but also across the region.

President Hassan Rouhani told reporters during a visit to Ashkhabad in early March that Iran and Turkmenistan are determined to activate a "south-to-north economic corridor" that starts with Oman, passes through Iran and leads to Uzbekistan through Turkmenistan.

Iran's both moves - with Sohar and Salalah - are expected to make Oman a hub for re-export of Iranian goods in the region, possibly overtaking trade volume between Iran and the UAE.

The UAE - which has currently downgraded relations with Iran in light of tensions between Tehran and Riyadh - is Iran's second largest trade partner after China.
Chinese youth are making their own effort to earn a living and alleviate their own poverty. (Photo : Getty Images)

Scratch marks on an elevator wall in Xian City indicate how desperate a 48-year-old woman was when she was trapped inside the lift for one month. Maintenance workers have been arrested because of the incident which killed the woman.



The employees of Shaanxi Kaiwen Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Company, who were called to repair the elevator, switched off the power supply that provides electricity to a malfunctioning elevator at the Shuixiehuadu apartment buildings on Jan. 30, reported Mashable. The two workers, who went home afterward for the Lunar New Year holidays and returned on March 1, failed to check first if the elevator had a passenger inside.



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When they opened the lift on Tuesday, the maintenance employees found the trapped woman, identified as Wu, dead and the scratch marks on the walls of the lift to show her efforts to save herself or attract attention of other residents. It did not help that the woman lived alone in her flat, so no one noticed she was missing, except perhaps her relatives in the province who missed her presence during the Spring Festival.



The residents explained that the victim was hardly missed because she was not only divorced but also suffering from mental illness. She likewise hardly had any visitors. Some residents are said to have noticed her absence but did not take the matter seriously.



Police blamed the death of the female resident on the gross negligence of the two maintenance workers of the elevator company. CCTV reported that the two would be charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to properly check the elevator first before cutting off its power supply.



But the residents are blaming more than the two workers. Instead, they said that the property management company of the residential complex, the Xian Huicheng Property Management Company, is also negligent because it failed to maintain the apartments facilities. Because of the incident, the Gaoling district government suspended the companys license to operate and it assigned a new property management company.






When it was finally launched, Zhenhaipifa.com has given users access to approximately 500 wholesale markets from 38 different Chinese cities. So far, there are 22,410 users registered on the website. (Photo : Getty Images)

More parts of China are joining the fold when it comes to entrepreneurship and manufacturing innovations, according to an article by China Daily. One new up-and-coming technological center is located in Guangdong Province, in some parts of the Pearl River Delta.



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Originally known as the hub of traditional manufacturers and companies that offer commercial services, the Pearl River Delta is experiencing a rebirth that gives it a much-needed digital edge.



Local entrepreneurs, of course, experience its effects. One such local is Li Hua, the founder of a Guangzhou-based company that provides financial accounting and other related services to private enterprises.



A former teacher, Li quit her job in Xi'an and traveled to Guangzhou in 2004 to help her mother with her wholesale clothing business.



Due to various technological advances, Li founded Zhenhaipifa.com, an exclusive e-commerce platform in 2014, to fill the need for a professional e-commerce service, which she discovered in 2009.



She waited two years, traveling across the country during the period, until she finally launched her e-commerce platform.



"I don't think faster is better. I prefer to make sure every step I take is sound and steady," Li said in an interview with China Daily.



When it was finally launched, Zhenhaipifa.com has given users access to approximately 500 wholesale markets from 38 different Chinese cities. So far, there are 22,410 users registered on the website.



Public information available on the site includes the locations of their wholesale markets as well as business licenses. By helping buyers address issues of substandard products, Zhenhaipifa.com was able to improve after-sales services of wholesale businesses in China.



As an added support, Li has included factories and logistics enterprises to the website.



"Brick-and-mortar wholesale markets won't die though because buyers still regard a seller with a physical store more trustworthy (than online shops)," Li said. "Moreover, physical stores provide samples of commodities. But the markets must embrace the Internet, and adapt their business models to people's new consumptive habits."



According to Li, in the future, brick-and-mortar markets may become just showrooms and after-sales service centers, while promotions and deals will be made online.


Mia.com is secure in its position as a market leader despite the presence of big shots such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (Photo : Getty Images)

What started as a small business for a former stay-at-home mother is now a Beijing-based e-commerce firm valued over $1 billion, according to an article by China Daily.



Liu Nan started Mia.com, a cross-border e-commerce company as a small online shop where she sold baby products through Taobao.com. After her first year, sales increased to 13 million yuan, with products as such baby formula, garments, diapers and toys as top sellers.



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A big investment of 8 million yuan by a venture capital firm in March 2014 ultimately transformed her small online business into a billion-dollar operation.



Liu sources branded baby and mom products overseas, then re-sells them through Mia.com. Most of her customers are middle-class Chinese parents who are looking for good-quality products.



"I'd say I was lucky enough to tap into the imported baby products sector before it became a big thing in China's e-commerce world," Liu said in an interview with China Daily.



Numerous e-commerce companies have popped up since then, following Liu's business model. Competition is now fiercer than ever, but Mia.com is secure in its position as a market leader despite the presence of big shots such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.



"Unlike large e-commerce platforms, which see baby products as an important sector to boost their overall sales, we are dedicated to helping middle-class families access the best mom and baby products from abroad. That is the only thing we do," Liu said.



Another factor that gave Liu an edge over her competitors is her role as a mother to a 5-year-old daughter. This led to a unique perspective in understanding baby and mom products much better than her male counterparts.



"Everybody is discussing diapers as if you (men) really understand diapers, as if you had touched one before," Liu once told a male executive from a competitor.



Liu understands, however, that her role as a mother is not enough to support her company's sustainable development.



"The rapid development of the company raises the bar for management," Liu said. "When you think out of the startup box, you find that you need people with more experience and vision."


Samsung will launch its mobile payment app Samsung Pay in China this month. The app can be used with POS terminals for payment or cash withdrawal from automated teller machines. (Photo : REUTERS)

Samsung will officially launch its mobile payment app Samsung Pay this month, a representative announced on Saturday, March 5, shortly after Apple launched its own payment service, turning up competition in the Chinese market, the Xinhua News Agency reported.



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According to its representative, Samsung Pay will be launched via a partnership with China UnionPay, a bank card clearing service provider that will manage all bank card transactions on the Chinese mainland.



Samsung Pay has attracted 5 million registered users in six months, with transaction volume via the app exceeding $500 million, following its launch in the Republic of Korea and then the United States in the latter half of 2015.



Since late February, Samsung has started public tests for the app in China, the report said.



To complete transactions, Samsung Pay users can place their mobile phones near the card slots or the NFC reading areas of compatible point-of-sale (POS) terminals.



The report said that Samsung Pay can be used with POS terminals without the NFC function, in contrast with Apple Pay which needs UnionPay's NFC compatible POS machines. With the Samsung service, users can also withdraw money from automatic teller machines (ATM).



Samsung said it also plans to incorporate in the app card-swiping functions for public transit in some Chinese cities.



Samsung Pay has also partnered with seven banks in China for the public tests, as it expects more banks to jump on the bandwagon.



The company said that the service was aimed at attracting more new users in the mobile market.



Mobile payment is an emerging market in China as 620 million people or 90.1 percent of the nation's Internet users last year used a smart device to go online, the China Internet Network Information Center said.



According to research firm Analysys, the third-party mobile payment market in China was valued at 16.36 trillion yuan in 2015. Analysys data showed that Alibaba and Tencent are the major players in the market, as Alibaba's Alipay held 71.51 percent of the market in the third quarter last year, while Tencent's Tenpay had taken a 16-percent share.


Telus delays Android 6.0 Marshmallow roll out for Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Note 5, and S6 Edge+. (Photo : YouTube/XEETECHCARE)

From home-country South Korea, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update rolled out to several Galaxy S6 smartphones and Galaxy Note 5 in some regions across the world.



Canada's Telus, on the contrary, recently published the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow timeline for carrier-branded version of some devices from different OEMS. Based on the list, a report from GSM Arena revealed that the roll out schedule for Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 was supposed to be as early as March 9. The Galaxy S6 Edge was supposed to get the update from March 16.



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The update has allegedly been postponed due to some technical issues. As a result, the new roll out date of the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow for Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ is March 13. With regard to the Galaxy S6 Edge handset, Telus will now send out the OTA update on March 30.



Telus has not explained this delay, but hopefully, the Australian carrier will not postpone the upgrade even more. When it comes to the Galaxy S6 flagship, the carrier will roll out the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow on April 13. Apart from the Galaxy S6 and Note lineup, Telus will reportedly roll out the Android 6.0 update for Moto X Play and LG G3 on March 9 and March 16 respectively.



Samsung's Android 6.0 Marshmallow schedule leaked last week via Phone Arena. While the roadmap does not provide specific dates, it unveils the general idea of when to expect the software on Samsung gadgets. According to the list picked up by the publication, here is when the high-end Samsung devices are supposed to get the firmware update:



March 2016



Samsung Galaxy Note 5



Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+



Samsung Galaxy S6



Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge



April 2016



Samsung Galaxy Note 4



Samsung Galaxy Note Edge



May 2016



Samsung Galaxy S5



Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (8.0-Inch Display)



Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (9.7-Inch Display)



June 2016



Samsung Galaxy Alpha



The mid-range Galaxy series, particularly the Galaxy A lineup, should receive the firmware update in summer. Watch the clip below for more information the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow rollout.






A regulation will be made to help foreign experts participate in national science and technology programs. (Photo : Getty Images)

What does it take to be a true-blue Beijing expat? Several foreigners living in the Chinese capital talk to Chen Ximeng with the Global Times to share what it takes to be a real Beijing expat.



Is it enough, however, to call oneself a real Beijing expat after only living for a few months or years in the capital? Apparently not.



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For one, real Beijing expats don't get duped by cab drivers--a lesson 21-year-old Ronja Ostlund from Sweden learned.



"I had just arrived at my destination, and I gave him a new 100 yuan note, but he handed it back, saying he didn't have enough change," Ostlund said. As a result, she paid the cab driver in smaller bills. It was only until later when she discovered the 100 yuan note the driver handed her was a fake one.



Another sign that one has become a real Beijing expat is when one stops to check out foreign commercialized items, said Peter Behn, a 30-year-old American who has been living in Beijing for over three years.



"When you turn down an invitation to go to Sanlitun because you realize you don't care about all the foreign commercialized stuff, when the person at the breakfast food stand by your office recognizes you and you don't have to tell them what you want in your 'jianbing' (Chinese crepes with egg, soy cause, and rice cracker), that's when you know you are a true Beijing expat," Behn said.



For expats who have been living in Beijing for far longer, being a true Beijing expat goes deeper than adapting local habits and cultures.



"It's like being with an old friend," shared Jacobe Ragione, a 39-year-old Italian who has been living in the capital for 15 years as a director of a culture and media company. "There is a part of me in this city and there is a part of the city in me."



Regardless of what makes one a "real" Beijing expat, the most important thing is to develop a sense of belonging in a place a foreigner is trying to call home.


Android Marshmallow update rolling out to Xperia Z5 series, Z3+, Z4 Tablet with new home launcher but no adoptable storage feature, STAMINA mode

Android Marshmallow update is rolling out to Sony Xperia Z series soon (Photo : YouTube/ Sony Xperia)

Android Marshmallow is now rolling out to international variants of the Sony Xperia Z5 series. Sony Xperia Z3+ and Xperia Z4 Tablet are also getting the latest update.



According to Xperia Blog, the update comes with the firmware build 32.1.A.1.163 and includes the February security patch release from the search giant Google.



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The Android 6.0 M update for the Xperia Z5 Compact and Xperia Z5 Premium has also been released as an OTA update, 9to5Google reported.



It is important to note that the latest update includes the 'Doze mode' feature and granular app permissions. However, it does not include the adoptable storage feature. It means that users will not be able to adopt a MicroSD card as internal storage in the devices.



The software has a new home launcher and app drawer. The electronics company Sony has not included STAMINA mode within the update. However, it is expected that the company will bring the STAMINA mode back in a later update.



Furthermore, there is a new camera interface, Direct Share and Xperia Messaging app.



Sony Xperia Z5 smartphone was released in September last year. The device comes with a 5.5-inch screen with a 2160 x 3840 pixel resolution.



Other features of the Xperia Z5 smartphone include a 5 MP front camera for selfies, 32GB of internal storage, 3GB of RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset and a 3430mAh non removable battery.



In addition, Sony is also rolling out the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Xperia Z3+ and Xperia Z4 Tablet. At present, both Xperia Z4 Tablet and Xperia Z3+ are receiving the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow with firmware build 32.1.A.1.163.



Several reports suggest that the new update is currently available for the single-SIM Xperia Z3+ (E6553) and the Xperia Z4 Tablet Wi-Fi (SGP712) and LTE (SGP771). The dual-SIM version of the Xperia Z3 Plus will receive the Android Marshmallow update pretty soon.



Sony Xperia Z3+ was released in May last year. Some of the features of the smartphone include 5.2-inch touchscreen display, 2930mAh non removable battery, Snapdragon 810 chipset, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.



Other Sony devices that will receive the Android 6.0 M update include Sony Xperia Z2, Z2 Tablet, Sony Xperia M5, Sony Xperia C4, Sony Xperia Z Ultra GPE and Sony Xperia C5 Ultra.


President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed on Monday that Egypt would not intervene militarily in turmoil-stricken Libya, describing the neighbouring country as a "sovereign state."

"History won't forget our stance if we decide to interfere in Libya," he said in a phone interview with Al Youm TV, his second with the same channel in a little over a month.

Egypt has been in coordination with General Khalifa Haftar, who controls militia forces loyal to the internationally recognised government in northeastern Libya.

In retaliation for the killing of 20 Coptic Christians over a year ago, the Egyptian army conducted air strikes against the Islamic State group in Libya, which Libyan authorities were informed of in advance.

"Libya is a sovereign state. Even if there is weakness within it now, we don't do that [military intervention] to our people [Libyans]," El-Sisi added.

El-Sisi's comments came after dozens of Islamist militants in the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan, near the Libyan border, attacked army and police posts in a raid that left at least 50 people dead.

The Egyptian army is capable of foiling such attacks near the borders, El-Sisi said.

"You don't know the power of the Egyptian army. We are awaiting and ready for the evil people."

Development

Like in previous speeches, El-Sisi outlined development projects in Egypt, including in Sinai.

He promised that the peninsula, widely deemed one of the most underdeveloped areas of the country, will be "fully developed" by the end of his first term in 2018.

El-Sisi said his government set up a plan that includes EGP 10 billion ($1.28 billion) worth of development projects in Sinai. The execution timeframe may be a year and a half, he said.

The former army chief highlighted that "our brothers" in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are willing to contribute to the funding of these projects. Both oil-rich countries have been providing Egypt with generous financial aid for over two years.

El-Sisi said new housing has already been built in the restive North Sinai city of Al-Arish, with 2,000 units ready and 3,000 set to be finished this month.

"As long as I said I will do it, then you will see it," he said.

When asked what message he would send to his people, El-Sisi said: "I ask Egyptians to know that the government and I are doing our best to change the harsh reality that has accumulated over the years."

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Women's empowerment should encompass more than just women's issues, it should be an indispensable part of Egypt's economic development and social progress, Miwa Kato, United Nations Women country director in Egypt, told Ahram Online.

[This is] a society where [many] people are jobless, only 20 percent of university graduates can get a job; men or women," said Kato. "Only talking about the situation of women does not help, so I think the [solution] to all this is strong economic growth and a very visible and inclusive [economy]."

The unemployment rate stood at almost 13 percent in 2015, with the rate among youth reaching 26 percent, according to numbers from Egypts Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) released in 2016.

The country is seeing more female job seekers, as the unemployment rate for women has reached 25.8 percent, while the rate for men is at 8.9 percent.

When we talk about female empowerment, [we talk about] a wider area of social inclusion and respect for diversity, which will benefit not just women but also the whole of Egyptian Society, Kato said.

Capturing opportunities

"As UN Women, we are eager to [capitalise on] the momentum of change as there is so much happening in Egypt. Some stuff we could not have imagined even a year ago, so many opportunities," she asserts.

"Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is the new parliament and the new National Council for Women's members and president, thus, UN Women is trying to engage with these policymakers," said Kato.

Egypt's new parliament has the highest number of women in the country's modern history, with 89 female MPs elected in 2015, representing up to 15 percent of MPs, which exceeds the 12 percent quota for women on electoral lists.

In January 2016, 30 members were appointed to the National Council for Women by a presidential decree.

Maya Morsi, who previously worked as the UN Women country coordinator and Regional Gender Practice Team leader in the UNs Development Programme, was elected in February 2016 as the new head of the NCW.

The National Council for Women was founded by a presidential decree in 2000 and was headed by first lady Suzanne Mubarak until her husband, president Hosni Mubarak, was deposed in 2011.

On the number of female MPs in parliament, Kato said it is great, but having this number is not the whole picture."

We need to make sure that the female MPs who are elected are able to take effective policy decisions, [and] not just on women's issues, she affirms, adding that it is vital to have male parliamentarians come around to women's empowerment.

Kato emphasised that representation is central for women, adding that the upcoming local council elections, planned to take place next year, will be a great opportunity, as there will be a set quota for women.

According to Article 180 of the constitution, a quota of "one quarter of the seats" is allocated for women in the elected local councils.

"This would be 13, 500 seats, which is a big number, and since we have this provision we need to do a lot to ensure good women are there as candidates and can make it through. It's not easy... Its a lot of people."

Kato says that taking the lessons learned from last year's parliamentary elections, UN Women will be working not only with NCW but also with the various non-governmental organisations that are active in this field, especially at the local level, in order to scale up womens representation in government.

"By working with parliament, we can get a lot of the legal provisions and parliamentary actions we have been waiting for to really move in the right direction.

Violence against women

Criminalising sexual harassment in spring 2014 was a major step to counter violence against women, yet it is not enough, Kato asserted.

The anti-harassment law was ratified and added as an amendment to the Egyptian penal code in June 2014, criminalising sexual harassment for the first time.

The law imposes jail terms of no less than six months and/or fines of EGP 3,000 to EGP 5,000 ($419 to $700) on those who are found guilty of sexual harassment in public or private areas, with harassment defined as gestures or words or any modern means of communication, or any other action, that carry sexual or pornographic hints.

However, Kato says, the law is not comprehensive in addressing various other forms of violence against women.

"We talked a lot about sexual harassment in the public space, which is of course horrible... but never talked about domestic violence," she said.

For instance, as part of our media campaign at the end of last year, we talked about violence against women, as you might have seen," Kato said, referring to UN Womens media campaign "Speak up" on billboards and TV ads on sexual harassment and domestic violence.

According to Egypt's Demographic and Health Survey 2014, one out of four Egyptian women is subjected to physical violence from their husbands.

If the conservative estimates that 30 percent of Egyptian Women are subject to domestic violence, Kato says, it is a shame not to tackle the problem.

In mid-2015, Egypt's cabinet adopted a nationwide violence against women strategy addressing what it refers to as societal and domestic violence.

The strategy includes provisions for prevention, protection and legal procedures.

Kato said that while legal provisions are important, the actual application of legal and strategic frameworks as the national strategy is much more important.

She stresses on the importance of reaching out to communities where violence is dominant, highlighting UN Womens flagship programme Safe Cities.

We work with three impoverished neighbourhoods in Greater Cairo, which is yielding more interesting lessons because it is a community engagement," she said.

"We do everything from building shelters to awareness-raising  from the perpetrators to taxi drivers  and improving some of the infrastructure as there are dark roads, groping at schools and community centres for youth. We are doing a lot of things, but obviously we need to do much more.

Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces is a global programme that develops, implements and evaluates tools, policies and comprehensive approaches on the prevention of, and response to, sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls across different settings.

Yet to increase its outreach and impact, Kato highlighted the necessity of scaling up this kind of local community intervention by reaching out to more governorates and districts.

However, Kato underlines that it is imperative not to portray women who are victims of sexual harassment or any form of violence as women who deserve pity.

Women Economic Empowerment

With womens unemployment reaching 25.8 percent, economic empowerment for women is a priority.

How do you make sure that people have legitimate income and contribute to growing the economy? Entrepreneurship... small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), Kato says.

Egyptian womens participation in entrepreneurship still remains lower than expected.

Almost 86 percent of early-stage entrepreneurial ventures in Egypt are led or owned by men, according to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report of 2012.

With the government and president prioritising entrepreneurship, it is important that women be included, Kato said.

Dr. Abla Abdel-Latif, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Development, announced that there is an upcoming project on SME initiatives for men and women supported by the president  which will offer job opportunities  to be discussed at a forum held in Cairo in mid-February titled 'Role of Women and Youth in Transforming Societies: Egypt and Japan, Comparing Notes.'

Egypt ranks 136 out of 145 countries in gender equality, making it among the bottom 10 countries, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2015.

This [issue of women's empowerment] must be elevated to higher policy discussions, especially as it relates to Egypt's overall economic development and social justice," Kato says. "Where is women's unique role in this?"

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The deputy spokesman also affirmed US commitment to Egypts war on terror

Mark Toner, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, was reported by MENA early Tuesday as saying that his country "agrees with Egypt on the importance of holding culprits in the assassination of the former public prosecutor...to account."

The statements come after the arrest of 14 in the past two days in connection with last years assassination of Egypts Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat.

Egyptian Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar said on Sunday that exiled Muslim Brotherhood officials and militants from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas planned the assassination of Barakat.

Toner said during a press briefing in Washington that the US has been informed of the arrest of some suspects and that evidence is being collected in connection with the attack.

He added that Washington continues to cooperate with Egypt in the fight against terrorism.

Barakat, 64, was killed last June when a car bomb hit his convoy in Cairo's upscale district of Heliopolis.

Barakat, the most senior government official to be assassinated following Morsis overthrow, was regarded as an enemy to Islamists after referring thousands to trial following the ouster of Morsi in 2013.

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Egypts House of Representatives decided on Tuesday to ban independent Nasserist MP Kamal Ahmed until the end of this years session after he was found guilty of hitting colleague MP Tawfik Okasha with his shoe.

Addressing parliament on Tuesday, Ahmed said "I really apologise for my bad conduct and for violating parliament's deep-rooted rules. I dont wish for my name to be associated with this offence."

Ahmed also argued that he agrees that "there should be a punishment for all fellow MPs for committing this offence if it ever happens again." 

"I do not want any other MPs to imitate me, but all should understand that I was acting under exceptional conditions," Ahmed said.

He argued that "holding a meeting with a foreign ambassador in such crucial conditions is an insult to Arab symbols, and that he accused these symbols of treason and opened the door wide open for normalisation, are totally considered taboos for me.

Not to mention that it represents an intervention in the country's internal affairs," he continued. 

Kamal also said that he will take the punishment as an honour because it was the right reaction in nationalist terms.

The decision against Ahmed came after a special Egyptian parliamentary committee recommended on Monday that Ahmed be barred from the current session for his offence.

The committee accused Ahmed of violating old parliamentary ethics and rules.

In a plenary meeting held on 28 February, Ahmed took everyone by surprise when he hit Okasha with his shoe in protest against the latter holding of a dinner meeting with the Israeli ambassador, Haim Koren, in Egypt on 24 February.



The committee, formed by parliament on 28 February, was entrusted with questioning Ahmed and Okasha.



It recommended on 3 March that Okasha be banned from attending one legislative session  nine months  for meeting with the Israeli ambassador in Cairo without parliaments prior approval, though MPs later voted in favour of stripping Okasha of his parliamentary membership entirely.



Ahmed, who was questioned by the committee for two hours on Sunday, told reporters that he did not regret hitting Okasha with his shoe.



I told the committee that it was a great point of pride for me to take this action against a man who directed an insult to all Egyptians, and I have no guilty conscience about it, Kamal said.



Ahmed told the committee that he was deeply angered by Okasha tarnishing the image of the late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.



The committee said that although it fully understands Ahmeds angry reaction, it believes that he behaved improperly.



The punishment of Okasha should have been left to parliament, said the committee report, adding that for this reason, it recommends that Ahmed be banned for one session  which will end in July or August.

"The committee opted for this punishment instead of recommending cancelling his parliamentary membership completely due to his long and honourable history in parliament since 1976," the report said.

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Egypt's parliament finalised its new bylaws on Tuesday, deciding to decrease its total number of committees from 28 to 25

Egypt's parliament approved on Tuesday its new internal bylaws that will regulate the conduct of MPs over the next five years.

Over the past three months, since parliament's first session, the proceedings were regulated by the 1979 bylaws.

At the end of the debates on Tuesday, parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al said that "this is parliament's first concrete achievement and these bylaws are slated to reinforce parliament's supervisory and legislative powers."

Bahaaeddin Abu Shoqa, the Wafd Party MP and chairman of the committee that drafted the bylaws, said that "parliament's new bylaws are a new step towards democracy in Egypt."

Abu Shoqa explained that a six-member committee will be created to put the new bylaws in their final form.

"This is a necessary step ahead of referring the bylaws to the State Council to revise them in legal and constitutional terms," said Abu Shoqa.

The final debates on parliament's bylaws saw significant changes on Monday and Tuesday.

MPs decided that the total number of parliament's committees would be 25 rather than 28.

MPs also rejected the creation of an independent committee aimed at fighting corruption and graft under the title "the transparency and integrity committee."

They also voted down a request aimed at creating an independent committee on media affairs.

On reducing the number of committees, many MPs had complained that 28 committees in parliament were too many and too costly.

Abu Shoqa said that the committees on media, culture, education, higher education and scientific research will be merged into one committee, while two committees on tourism and antiquities will be coalesced into one.

MPs also decided to cancel Article 430, which sets the monthly salary of MPs at EGP 15,000 (around $1,900) and mandates that salaries be tax-free and are to be increased by seven percent every year.

Abu Shoqa said that by cancelling this article, MPs aim to send a message to all Egyptians that "they are totally aware of the hard economic conditions and that they refrain from profiting from parliamentary membership."

He said that the law regulating the House of Representatives states that MP are to receive EGP 5,000 (around $632) in monthly salary and that their overall bonuses cannot exceed EGP 20,000, rather than EGP 42,000 as was originally proposed in the bylaws.

Abu Shoqa also indicated that "a complete chapter, including articles 347 to 351, regulates the House's relationship with the Central Auditing Agency, the country's main watchdog institution."

He said that while the constitution grants the president the prerogative to appoint the heads of such institutions, it gives parliament the right to review the appointees and the power to veto them.

However, Abdel-Al and Abu Shoqa rejected a proposal aimed at putting watchdog institutions under the purview of parliament.

Though MP Makram Radawn said that parliament should have the right to oversee the performance of watchdog institutions, Abu Shoqa indicated that although both the president and parliament have the right to name the heads of such institutions, the constitution states that they are independent and cannot be dismissed by parliament.

In spite of objections from many MPs, parliament decided that those who aim to form parliamentary blocs must gather the support of 25 percent of parliament (around 150 MPs), and that they must come from at least 15 governorates.

Many MPs had asked that the requirement be lowered from 25 percent to 20 percent.

The House also approved a new article (no.421) stating that a parliamentary institute was to be set up to provide MPs in Egypt and the Arab world with intensive training in political and parliamentary areas.

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The strike by taxi drivers in Gizas Mostafa Mahmoud Square blocked a major thoroughfare in the city, leading to a complete closure of roads in the area

Hundreds of Egyptian taxi drivers on Tuesday began an open ended strike in Giza's Mostafa Mahmoud Square until the government responds to their demand to shut down foreign ride sharing applications Uber and Careem.

"We won't leave until the applications are shut down completely," Hazem Abo Steit told Ahram Online, a taxi driver and one of the protest's organisers.

Deemed The Last Call, the protesters called on Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to interfere.

"Save us, our president," the taxi drivers chanted.

The protest led to a complete closure of roads around the square  a vital thoroughfare in the Gizas Mohandiseen neighbourhood, a few kilometres outside central Cairo.

According to Abo Steit, the police allegedly fired tear gas at the protesters shortly after the protest started.

Ahram Online tried to reach the interior ministry, but they were not available for comment.

The decision to stage an open ended sit in came after drivers told Ahram Online that they felt that their demands were being ignored on purpose by officials.

"We will leave when an official comes to talk to us," Abo Steit said.

Another taxi protest also took place near Almaza in Heliopolis, where police also allegedly fired teargas, leading the protesters to join the strike at Mostafa Mahmoud Square.

In earlier protests, taxi drivers have argued that illegally operating companies were stealing their livelihood and creating strife between taxi drivers and passengers.

White taxi drivers key argument is that Uber and Careem must be suspended in Egypt because they function illegally, as they use private cars whose drivers do not have taxi licenses and do not have the financial and legal obligations imposed on taxis.

Speaking to Ahram Online in an earlier interview, Ubers Cairo Operation Manager Abdellatif Waked said they are not against taxi drivers and that they understand the fact that they might be upset about some aspects of their operations.

Cairo has about 20 million people, the market is large, so it is possible that it can accommodate taxi drivers, Uber, and other competitors, Waked said.

Waked also argued that theyre trying to encourage taxi drivers to join the Uber platform, and added that the service is open for negotiations and discussions with taxi drivers to include them in the system.

This is the first step of escalation that taxi drivers have taken following continuous stands in the past weeks.

In the past two weeks, Cairo taxi drivers began protesting against the taxi service operators Uber and Careem, arguing that the companies are putting traditional metre taxis out of business.

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A group of prominent Egyptian figures aim to spread 'constitutional culture' in Egypt through the new NGO

A group of prominent Egyptian political figures launched on Tuesday the Egyptian Institution to Protect the Constitution in hopes of spreading "constitutional culture" in Egypt as well as implementing its articles.

In a press conference held at the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo, the head of the institution's board of trustees Amr Moussa stated that the new NGO aimed to spread awareness about the 2014 constitution and its articles.

The institution announced that it would present studies and suggestions to the executive and legislative powers regarding the laws needed to complete the constitution and to pinpoint contradictions between laws and the constitution.

"Although the constitution's articles have not been fully implemented, some are calling for amending it, claiming that some of the articles disrupt the executive power from doing its constitutional duties," the institute said in a statement.

"However, any critical reading of the constitution would reveal that the president's authority as the head of state and the executive branch is maintained in a balanced way."

In 2015, during the parliamentary elections, there were calls for amending the 2014 constitution to give the president more powers.

In an interview with Al-Watan Daily in October 2015, the coordinator of the In Love of Egypt electoral bloc, MP Sameh Seif El-Yazal, stated that there were at least seven articles in the constitution that needed to be amended concerning the powers of the president, the cabinet and the parliament.

El-Yazal, who is currently heading the Support Egypt bloc in the House of Representatives, stated that although there was a need to amend the constitution, this would not happen in the first two years of the parliamentary term.

These calls have largely disappeared, but their echoes are present from time to time in statements by several MPs.

"We are looking forward to a dialogue to preserve the constitution and its gains," Moussa said, adding that the new institute was not looking for a battle about the constitution.

Last week, Article 226 was passed, giving the president the right to request from the parliament to amend the constitution.

The current Egyptian constitution was passed in a referendum in January 2014 with 98 percent of the vote.

Ten members of the 50- member committee that drafted the constitution are among the founders of the new institute, including political science professor Amr El-Shobaky, heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub, Dr. Abdel-Galil Mostafa, lawyer Mona Zulfukar, MP Khaled Youssef and writer Mohamed Salmawy.

There are also other prominent public and partisan figures among the founders of the locally funded NGO, including former foreign minister Nabil Fahmy, law professor Nour Farahat, and lawyer and economist Ziad Bahaa Eldin.

Ahram Online asked writer and journalist Abdullah El-Sennawy about whether the members of the foundation who are currently members of political parties  such as Dr. Mohamed Abu El-Ghar, the leader of the Egyptian Democracy Social Party  were participating as party members or as private individuals.

"They are here as individuals who believe we should spread the constitutional culture," he said, adding that the founders of the institution include two advisers to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi; Dr. Abla Abdel-Latif and Dr. Azza El-Ashmawy.

El-Sennawy added that this wide variety of members from different backgrounds and positions will enable the institute to protect the constitution by having a "lobby" of sorts that focuses on the implementation of its articles.

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Iran's President Hassan Rouhani secured a more moderate parliament Monday after elections saw hardliners soundly trumped by reformists while conservatives lost seats and voters implicitly backed the government.

Final results showed seats being shared three ways between Rouhani's reformist and moderate allies, conservatives and independents.

No single group had a decisive share of parliament's 290 seats from Friday's voting, but tallies suggested the president would be able to muster support from key backers and create a working majority.

The returns were shaping up as a strong signal of public support for last year's nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, an agreement steered by Rouhani which saw the lifting of crippling sanctions in January.

Friday's second election -- for the clerical Assembly of Experts -- also produced symbolic gains for Rouhani.

Two renowned hardline ayatollahs lost their seats on the 88-member assembly, a powerful committee that monitors supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's work and will pick the 76-year-old's successor if he dies during its eight-year term.

In contrast, 15 of 16 members of the assembly's list in Tehran headed by Rouhani and his top ally Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a two-term former president, were elected.

Rafsanjani came first and Rouhani third. A push by their supporters, largely on social media, helped eject current assembly chair Mohammad Yazdi and the ultraconservative Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, formerly a close adviser to ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The most dramatic change was the resurgence of the reformists, a political camp largely silenced after a disputed election in 2009 saw Ahmadinejad re-elected.

That vote was followed by bloody street protests in which dozens of people were killed in what is widely considered the Islamic republic's darkest hour.

Reformists swept the capital, and in an electoral first did so without requiring a second round of voting in any of the 30 seats they secured.

After campaigning as the "List of Hope", a slate of reformist politicians who support the government will regain significant power in parliament and are likely to push for social, cultural and political reforms.

Reformists stayed away from parliamentary elections four years ago in protest at Ahmadinejad's earlier victory, with defeated candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who remain under house arrest, alleging the vote was rigged.

Results from other cities also had conservatives losing seats, but they continued to enjoy strong support in rural areas.

The main conservative list secured 103 MPs, reformists and moderates from the List of Hope 95, and Independents 14.

Some 69 constituencies had no clear winner, meaning a second round run-off will be needed in a field that has more conservatives than reformists and moderates.

Many of those conservatives already elected are moderates who backed Rouhani on the nuclear deal and, acutely aware of the public's shifting mood and desire for more openness to the West, are likely to support the government.

Such a spirit of cooperation came from Ali Larijani, a conservative and parliament's current speaker, who described the election as "eye-catching" and said it signalled that "a new page had been opened for the country".

Larijani's political heft was crucial to the nuclear deal being approved by MPs as he had backed Rouhani at key moments in the more than two years of negotiations that led to the agreement.

The results represent "a reaction against radicals" from the electorate, Amir Mohebbian, an analyst with close links to politicians of all political hues, told AFP.

"But mistakes by the conservatives who supported radicals during the campaign were also to blame" for their losses, he said.

The elections were seen as a crucial indicator of the future direction Iranians want for their country. From a population of almost 80 million, 62 percent of its 55 million electorate voted.

Khamenei himself stressed their importance ahead of the elections, urging the electorate to participate in both polls.

Although Rouhani secured the nuclear agreement last July, ending a 13-year standoff over Iran's atomic ambitions, and sanctions were lifted last month he has so far been unable to deliver significant domestic changes.

Support from reformists in the next parliament should make that easier, but the resurgent group is also likely to pressure the president for change and concrete progress on long-avoided difficult issues such as demands to free political prisoners, which could lead to conflict with conservatives.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down US President Barack Obama's invitation for talks later this month in Washington, a "surprised" White House said Monday.

The episode was just the latest sign of frosty relations between the two leaders on the eve of US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel.

An Obama aide said the Israeli government had requested a meeting to take place on March 17 or 18, and the White House had responded selecting the latter date two weeks ago.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.

"Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister's schedule are false."

Israel and the United States have been seeking to move past deep disagreement over the Iran nuclear accord, which Netanyahu strongly opposed, and work out a new 10-year defense aid package.

The current deal grants Israel some $3.1 billion annually, in addition to spending on other projects such as missile defense.

Netanyahu's visit in Washington would have coincided with the annual conference of pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC in which he has previously participated.

Biden's trip, due to begin Tuesday, comes amid a five-month wave of Israeli use of force against Palestinian protesters in the occupied Palestinian territories that has killed 181 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

The White House said on Friday that Biden would not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit.

Obama has acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

His administration's tough criticism of Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank has added to tensions between the two longstanding allies.

In recent months, however, the US and Israel had sought to reaffirm the strength of their ties.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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A radical Muslim preacher in Algeria was given a six-month jail term on Tuesday for demanding the death of journalist and author Kamel Daoud whom he accused of "apostasy".

The court in Oran also fined Abdelfatah Hamadache Ziraoui 50,000 dinars (450 euros) after he was prosecuted for making death threats.

In December 2014, Ziraoui urged the North African country's authorities to put Daoud to death, in a statement posted on his Facebook page.

Ziraoui accused Daoud of "apostasy" after the writer, during an appearance on a French television show, criticised the relationship Muslims have with Islam.

The radical Sunni Salafist preacher, who campaigns against alcohol and swimwear, charged that Daoud's remarks were tantamount to "a war against Allah, his prophet, the Koran and the sacred values of Islam".

He called for him to be put to death under Islamic law.

Daoud, a columnist with the Quotidien d'Oran newspaper based in the western Algerian city where he lives, was once attracted by Islamist ideology but later turned his back on it.

In 2015, he won the prestigious French Prix Goncourt for a debut novel -- "The Meursault Investigation", a retelling of Albert Camus's classic "The Stranger".

In court on Tuesday, where he appeared unrepresented, Ziraoui stood by his comments.

Daoud's defence team had demanded a conviction but a symbolic sentence of a fine of one dinar.

Last month, Daoud said in a letter published by the French newspaper Le Monde that he was giving up public debate and journalism, after a group of university professors accused him of "fanning the fantasies of Islamophobes".

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A Houthi delegation has arrived in the Saudi city of Abha for talks with Saudi security officials on Monday, Yemeni sources told Ahram Online.

According to the sources, the Saudi officials who met with Houthi representatives are neither responsible for leading the military operation in Yemen nor involved in the conflict settlement process, adding that the militants demanded direct talks with Saudi leaders.

The sources, speaking anonymously to Ahram Online from Riyadh, Dubai, and Aden, stated that Saudi Arabia has not yet reached a decision regarding the Houthi demand, especially as the former lacks trust in both the Houthis and ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A Saudi-led coalition along with fighters loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are battling Houthi militias and loyalists of the country's former leader Saleh in a war that has drawn on for a year and resulted in the death of over 6,000.

One of the sources revealed that the leading Houthi figure Mohamed Abdel Salam is heading the delegation to Saudi Arabia, pointing out that Houthi forces have released a Saudi hostage without prior negotiations and without the return of any Houthis currently detained by Saudi authorities.

Another source stated that talks of a settlement this time around will be based on a Saudi plan, which stipulates that Saleh's troops and the Houthis will give up their control over Sanaa.

The source added that many details are yet to be examined, especially those related to the future of Saleh's party and the issue of the military that should supposedly undergo restructuring.

According to the sources, such development is related to the "state of attrition" that Saleh's troops and the Houthis are suffering from.

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Two people, including a young child, were killed and another two people were wounded when the southern Turkish town of Kilis came under repeated rocket fire from across the Syrian border on Tuesday, the local mayor and security sources said.

Kilis, which is near the border, was hit by eight rockets in what was believed to be a deliberate attack from an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) group militants, Mayor Hasan Kara told Reuters.

"The first rocket landed in an empty field. Then, when people started gathering, they started firing around those areas," he said.

"They are being fired intentionally. We are guessing that the rockets came from an area under Daesh control."

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for IS group.

One rocket landed in an area near a hospital, Kara said, adding that one of those killed was a child born in 2011.

A residential area near a high school was also hit and the Turkish military returned fire into Syria, Turkish security sources said.

A large explosion was heard, followed by a plume of black smoke rising up from nearby buildings, live footage from state-run broadcaster TRT World showed.

Kilis schools have been closed but the town is calm, Kara said.

The rocket fire came a day after the U.S. military said coalition forces had targeted IS group in Iraq and Syria with two dozen strikes near 15 cities.

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Nearly half of Israeli Jews believe Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel, according to a survey on the political views of Jewish religious and secular communities.

The poll released on Tuesday by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank, also found that many Israelis - Jews and Arabs - appeared to have lost hope for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Forty-eight percent of Israelis said they agreed with the statement that Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel, where they make up 19 percent of the population of 8.4 million.

While 54 to 71 percent of Israelis who defined themselves as ultra-Orthodox, religious or "traditional" supported such a step, only about 36 percent of the secular community did.

President Reuven Rivlin called the findings a "wake-up call for Israeli society".

According to the poll, 89 percent of Israel's secular Jews want democratic principles to outweigh Jewish ritual law when the two clash. An identical percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews take the opposite view.

In addition, about 8 in 10 Arabs complained of heavy discrimination in Israeli society against Muslims, the largest religious minority, while 79 percent of Jews questioned said Jewish citizens deserved preferential treatment.

"It pains me to see the gap that exists in the public's consciousness - religious and secular - between the notion of Israel," Rivlin said in a statement after receiving the report. "A further problem is the attitude towards Israel's Arab citizens."

In the poll, 9 percent of Israelis identified themselves as ultra-Orthodox, 13 percent as religious, 29 percent as 'traditional' and 49 percent as secular.

It found devout Jews largely lean to the right politically, while secular Jews mainly see themselves as centrists.

Among the many divides on social and religious issues, the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox and religious Jews supported a long-standing shutdown of most public transportation on the Jewish Sabbath, while 94 percent of secular Jews took the opposite view.

Most secular Jews saw themselves as "Israelis first", while 91 percent of ultra-Orthodox and 80 percent of religious Jews in general said they were "Jews first".

About 40 percent of Israeli Jews believe a way can be found for Israel to co-exist with a future Palestine, while a similar percentage believe this is not possible, according to the poll.

Among the Arab population, about half saw such co-existence as possible, compared with 74 percent in 2013.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014, just before a seven-week of the 50-day Israei assault on Gaza.

The researchers conducted 5,601 face-to-face interviews with 3,789 Jews, 871 Muslims, 468 Christians and 439 Druze in Israel from October 2014 to May 2015.

*The story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Three Palestinians including one woman were killed on Tuesday by Israelis after claiming they attempted stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israeli troops said.

One Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces after he wounded two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli authorities and medics said.

The gunman opened fire on a group of police officers on a major commercial artery in annexed east Jerusalem near the Old City and wounded two, police claimed.

A police spokesman said the attacker used an automatic weapon.

Earlier, a Palestinian was killed in a liquor store in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv after the store owner and an ultra-Orthodox Jew claimed he stabbed the Jew.

Police said they suspected it was a "terrorist" attack but had not excluded other possible motives.

The two attacks came shortly before US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders amid the ongoing wave of violence. It was the latest incident in an almost six-month long surge of Israeli-on-Palestinian deadly repression met with violent responses by Palestinians against settlers and Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, almost daily stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks by frustrated and unarmed Palestinians have killed 183 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean since October 1.

A Palestinian woman was also shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem's Old City over allegations of stabbing Israeli police.

The current wave of protests by Palestinians and repression by Israeli occupation forces started in late July when toddler Ali Dawabsha was burned to death and three other Palestinians were severely injured after their house in the occupied West Bank was set on fire by Israeli settlers.

Settlement-building, racial discrimination, confiscation of identity cards, long queues at checkpoints, as well as daily clashes and the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque, describe Palestinians' daily suffering.

The anger of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem has increased in the last three years after the Israeli authorities allowed increasing numbers of Jewish settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The surge in violence has been fuelled by Palestinians' frustration over Israel's 48-year occupation of land they seek for an independent state, and the expansion of settlements in those territories which were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinian leaders say a younger generation sees no hope for the future living under Israeli security restrictions and with a stifled economy. The latest round of U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in April 2014.

*The story has been edited by Ahram Online.

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On International Womens Day on 8 March, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition officially launched Women's Boat to Gaza to highlight the essential role of Palestinian women in the resistance movement and to break the 10-year illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, according to the Canadian Boat to Gazas statement today.

Womens Boat to Gaza, which will include only women on board, is planned to set sail mid-September and to arrive to the besieged Gaza Strip on 1 October 2016.

An Israeli naval and land blockade has restricted the movement of 1.8 million Palestinians and goods to and from Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement won parliamentary elections and became its de-facto ruler in 2006, inflicting increasing hardship on the impoverished population.

We believe that it is essential to highlight the vital role women play not only in the resistance movement but in the survival of the Palestinian people as a whole," said the statement sent to Ahram Online by Wendy Goldsmith of the Canadian Boat to Gaza campaign.

"We intend to raise awareness about the ongoing struggle of women in Gaza, the West Bank, inside the green line and in the diaspora.

Womens Boat to Gaza is supported by a number of women's organisations from around the world, such as Gazas Women's Affairs Centre, the Coalition of Women for Peace of Israel, Spains Forum de Politica Feminista, Women's Front in Norway, Coordinadora de Solidaridad Palestina of Mexico, CODEPINK Women for Peace of the US, and the Federation des femmes du Quebec in Canada, according to the statement released today on Canadian Boat to Gaza website.

Even though the boat will include only women as passengers, the statement said that men and women from campaigns around the world are organising this project.

Within this struggle, men and women play equal roles. In this particular project, it has been decided that women will take on the major role of confronting the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). This does not minimise in any way the role that men take in both the organising and planning stages, the statement said.

The boat, which plans to dock at a number of Mediterranean ports along its route, is the fourth Freedom Flotilla mission after the last attempt in 2015 ended with the seizure of the boat by the Israeli army in international waters.

The first attempt to break the siege with a flotilla, which was organised in 2010, ended in the killing by Israel of nine activists in international waters on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara.

A second attempt was organised out of Greece in 2011, but the vessels were turned back by the Greek coastguard.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition is an international Coalition composed of civil society organisations and initiatives challenging the illegal and inhumane Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition campaigns participating in the Womens boat to Gaza are Ship to Gaza-Sweden, Ship to Gaza-Norway, Canadian Boat to Gaza, Freedom Flotilla-Italy, Palestine Solidarity Alliance-South Africa and Rumbo a Gaza-Spain and partners: US Boat to Gaza and Kia Ora Gaza-New Zealand-Aotearoa.

"Womens empowerment is linked to the general struggle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and in particular the dire need to lift the blockade. They are an inspiration and role models for all women and men who dream of a better world, the statement said.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) called on Tuesday for urgent research into different strains of the Zika virus and said that health services in affected areas should be ready for potential increases in the incidence of neurological syndromes and/or congenital malformations.

The United Nations agency, acting on advice from independent experts led by Dr David Heymann, said in a statement that pregnant women "should be advised not to travel to areas with ongoing Zika virus outbreaks", but did not recommend any general trade or travel restrictions.

"We can expect more cases and further geographical spread," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told a news briefing. "Sexual transmission is more common than previously assumed."

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Turkey and Greece pledged Tuesday to work together to implement a "game-changing" proposal to ease Europe's migrant crisis, even as the United Nations and rights groups sounded grave concerns about the plan's legality.

European Union leaders, struggling to cope with the continent's worst migrant crisis since World War II, in principle backed a Turkish proposal to take back all illegal migrants landing on the overstretched Greek islands, at talks in Brussels on Monday.

Ankara also proposed an arrangement under which the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece, in a bid to reduce the incentive for people to board boats for Europe.

EU officials have hailed the deal as a breakthrough, but the head of the UN refugee agency cast doubt on the legality of sending people back to Turkey, while Amnesty International said the plan "dealt a death blow to the right to seek asylum".

"As a first reaction I'm deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

He said the plan, which EU leaders hope to agree formally at a summit next week, did not offer sufficient guarantees under international law, adding that refugees should only be returned to a country if it could be proved that their asylum application would be properly processed.

Grandi called for refugees to be screened before being sent away from Greece "to identify highly at-risk categories that may not be appropriate for return".

Rights group Amnesty International said the proposal was full of "moral and legal flaws" and along with Human Rights Watch, challenged the idea that Turkey was a "safe country" to which migrants could return.

"The idea of bartering refugees for refugees is not only dangerously dehumanising, but also offers no sustainable long-term solution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis," Amnesty's Iverna McGowan said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- a key player in the migrant drama -- said he was "concerned that many EU countries are adopting increasingly restrictive asylum policies".

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, who called the plan a "real game changer", insisted that it was "legally feasible".

Turkey is the main launching point for migrants making the dangerous crossing over the Aegean Sea to the Greek islands.

It already hosts 2.7 million refugees from the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, more than any other country.

After meeting his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras in the western city of Izimr on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the plan would turn the Aegean from a "sea of despair in which people lose their lives" into a "sea of happiness and joy".

"In the decisions we have taken yesterday in the execution the cooperation of Turkey and Greece will be critical," Davutoglu said.

Tsipras said the situation in the Aegean Sea, where hundreds of migrants have drowned already this year making the perilous crossing in rickety boats, was a "shame and disgrace to our culture".

Greece and Turkey also renewed their commitment to a 2002 protocol on the readmission of migrants, which has rarely been activated before now, in the hope that its use could transform the refugee crisis.

For Turkey, perhaps the biggest gain in Brussels was the EU's agreement to bring forward to June visa-free travel to the EU's Schengen passport-free area for Turkey's 75 million people, provided that Ankara honours its promises.

Davutoglu further pushed for the opening of five more policy "chapters" in Turkey's long-drawn out EU accession process -- so far it has only completed one out of more than 30.

But securing a deal next week may still be difficult given the deep divisions that the migration crisis has sown in the bloc.

Hungary's hardline anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orban may veto the resettlement deal, while Cyprus said it remained opposed to accelerated EU accession talks for Turkey.

The Cyprus government -- not officially acknowledged by Ankara -- said Turkey must fulfil longstanding demands for official recognition and the opening of trade, ports and airports, before it would agree.

Deep rifts emerged in recent weeks over the main migrant route through the Western Balkans to wealthy Germany, after border restrictions by Austria triggered a domino effect of frontier closures that left tens of thousands of migrants stranded at the border between Greece and non-EU Macedonia.

In their closing statement, the EU leaders said that "irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end".

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Egypts second largest mobile operator Mobinil has officially adopted the brand of French multinational Orange, one of the worlds leading telecommunications operators, the company announced on Tuesday at a Cairo press conference.

Formerly France Telecom, Orange intends to invest around EGP 2.5 billion ($319 million) this year to upgrade networks and deliver better services, quality and more benefits for some 33 million customers in its single-largest national market, according to Oranges chairman and CEO Stephane Richard.

To finance the planned investments, the Paris-based company plans a capital increase as early as "in a few months time" to offer roughly 20 percent of Orange Egypt shares to shareholders in an IPO, though the exact timing will depend on market conditions, Richard said.

The re-branding comes a year after Orange completed its 99 percent buy-out of the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (Mobinil), which was founded in 1998 by Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, in a deal worth some 210 million euros.

The company plans to invest heavily in mobile broadband, said Richards, and intends to bid for the 4G license, given that it is offered within a viable framework.

Almost 86 percent of Egypts internet users are broadband subscribers, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology website.

Of course we hope that the financial and technical conditions of the licence and the spectrum will take into account the economic reality of the industry and the big investment that is needed after the spectrum, he explained.

Orange Egypt is the second largest mobile operator in Egypt after Vodafone Egypt, with a 33 percent market share.

It posted an EGP 10.4 million consolidated net profit in 2015, compared to a loss of EGP 399.7 million in the previous year.

However, its subsidiary internet service provider, Link DSL, has a market share of below 20 percent, according to Link CEO Waseem Arsany, after losing many customers to majority state-owned Telecom Egypt, which it accuses of exploiting infrastructure works to poach customers.

Link, which like other ISPs relies on TE infrastructure to provide its services, has lost some 80,000 customers and suffered LE110 million as of the end of February 2016 to TE since it began switching from copper to fibre-optic cables nationwide in 2014, allegedly leaving subscribers of other ISPs with no internet access unless they joined its ISP TE Data, Arsany told Ahram Online at the conference.

The company also announced the opening of its first Smart Store in Egypt and the seventh worldwide.

Orange Group, which boasts a worldwide customer base of 263 million, registered some 40 billion euros in sales revenues in 2015.

(Official exchange rate is currently $1= EGP 7.73)

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Orange CEO Yves Gauthier warned on Tuesday that a fourth mobile operator in Egypt could cause the country's telecom market to shrink and harm investment.

Gauthier is concerned about the prospect of a mobile operator licence being awarded to Telecom Egypt, he told Ahram Online at a launch event in Cairo of Orange Egypt, formerly Mobinil.

I hope that the government will evaluate the impact of granting a fourth licence, because all countries where there are four operators see their market contract due to pricing wars, with negative effects on investments, said Gauthier, citing France, where Orange is in talks with Bouygues Telecom to buy it out.

Egypt, a country of 90 million where the mobile phone penetration rate exceeds 100 percent, has for years delayed a plan to award its only fixed line operator, majority state-owned Telecom Egypt (TE), a licence to become Egypts fourth mobile operator, as well as its fourth Internet Service Provider.

The plan has been criticised by mobile operators, who rely on TEs infrastructure to provide the majority of their services at a fee, and who have complained of high costs as well as the fact that TE owns a 45 percent stake in market leader Vodafone Egypt.

Gauthier also questioned the fairness of the arrangement.

In this case, they should offer us the fixed [licence], they should offer us the chance to lay our backbone [infrastructure], the fixed voiceyou cannot give everything to somebody and just a little to the other, he said.

Gauthier stopped short of threatening to resort to international arbitration, however.

International arbitration is exaggerated, the government has the right to give the licence they want, he said.

The CEO also pointed to Egypts current dollar crunch as a reason to reconsider the plan.

I think it is prudent to analyse it beforehand, because if you give a fourth licence, the fourth operator has to build a network with materials from [abroad], so if the country does not have enough dollars, it is not the right moment to generate more imports.

Orange Egypt, which became almost 99 percent owned by French multinational Orange one year ago and rebranded itself from Mobinil on Tuesday, is the second largest mobile operator in Egypt after Vodafone Egypt, with 33 million subscribers.

The third player is the Egypt subsidiary of United Arab Emirates-based Etisalat.

The remaining 1 percent of Orange Egypt's shares are in free float on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

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Their new album is set to be released during the summer

The Egyptian independent band Egoz returns to the scene with a new album titled Bedaya (Beginning).

As a teaser for the album launch, they released one track titled Bedaya on Sunday on the bands SoundCloud page.

A concert will be held at Darb 1718, as part of Mazzika X Sat7 (Music on The Roof), where Egoz will perform a selection of songs in their upcoming first Arabic spoken album.

The four-member band is comprised of Hany Must on vocals, guitar and keys, Muzty on guitar, Balaha on drums and Moe on bass and backing vocals.

The new music is alternative rock Arabic music with a hint of ambiance.

According to the production agency Nanopsych, They have been working on this album for around three years. This track symbolises their new beginning, a new start.

Since 2006, Egoz has been performing across Cairo in various venues including The British Council, El-Sawy Culturewheel, Cairo Jazz Club and The British Club in Cairo.

They have also appeared on national television several times, and have joined some big concerts such as S.O.S, Nokia XpressMusic Festival, as well as The HIV Dance 4 Life.

In 2013, Egoz released Temple Of Small Things, their debut album, which includes all the highlight songs that created the bands sound and image. Before that they were releasing singles.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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(Beijing)  Delegates to the country's legislature, the National People's Congress, meeting in the capital every year often use a session with the media to promote the economy and business opportunities back home.

But in a rare bit of openness, Wang Rulin, the Communist Party secretary of the northern province of Shanxi, spoke about how corruption has impeded the coal-rich province's economic development and governance.

Shanxi has been jolted by a slew of graft scandals implicating high-profile government officials since the party's general secretary, Xi Jinping, launched a major anti-corruption campaign in November 2012.

When Shanxi's NPC delegates held their session with the media on March 6, Wang spoke about three cases to illustrate the extent of corruption in the province.

In one case, he said that the president of a financial institution demanded debtors pay an extra 2 percent of the loans they got every year into a company she controlled as a "consultation fee."

Wang did not say who the executive was or how much she pocketed. A Shanxi official with knowledge of the matter told Caixin that the person is Shangguan Yongqing, a former party secretary and president of state-run Shanxi Guoxin Investment Group Co. Ltd.

This executive also forced 12 business associates pay 34.2 million yuan each so she could buy a private jet, Wang said.

The Shanxi official Caixin spoke to said the executive could do this because the business associates needed her approval for loan programs she oversaw.

Shangguan, 53, became president of Taiyuan-based Jinshang Bank in 2009 and took over as party secretary and president of Shanxi Guoxin Investment, a state-run company linked to the provincial government, in 2014.

She was detained in July last year, provincial graft busters said. Authorities have not provided many other details on her case.

Investigators found 70 cases of gold memorabilia coins at homes she owned, the China Business Journal newspaper reported.

Wang also said during the media session that a vice mayor in Shanxi took 644 million yuan in bribes, but did not provide other details.

Wang was talking about Zhang Zhongsheng, a former vice mayor of Luliang, a city in Shanxi's west, a mid-ranking official from the city said. Zhang, 63, was detained on suspicion of corruption in May 2014, and in January provincial prosecutors charged him with taking bribes.

Zhang was a vice mayor of Luliang from 2003 and 2013, overseeing the formerly booming coal industry, the official said. He got most of the bribe money from 11 companies, and in return helped them with matters such as getting business licenses.

At least two mine owners have been arrested, the official said.

Wang also offered shocking details about a third case of bribery.

He said that a businessman once went to an official to ask for help with a matter. The department head hesitated because he did not know the businessman, Wang said, citing official investigation.

The businessman then took a blank piece of paper from the official's desk and wrote: "How about if I give you 30 million?"

"The businessman then showed the note to the department head and swallowed the piece of paper in front of him," he said.

The official would up taking the bribe, Wang said.

An official from Shanxi's anti-corruption agency said Wang was referring to Li Jiangong, who served as head of the province's land resources department from June 2009 to December 2014.

Graft fighters announced they were probing Li over bribery and influence peddling in November 2014. His case has been turned over to the courts.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)
A police notice about Wu Xieyu, the main suspect in the killing of his mother, Xie Tianqin

(Beijing)  The case of a Peking University economics student wanted by police on suspicion he killed his mother has prompted a debate about the moral education of China's students and how universities are run.

Middle school educator Xie Tianqin was found dead at the teacher dormitory where she lived in Fuzhou, in the eastern province of Fujian, on February 14, according to a police notice circulating online.

The notice said her 22-year-old son, Wu Xieyu, is a prime suspect in her death and he "had fled for fear of being punished."

A person with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the notice is authentic.

Police have not said when or how Xie was killed, but the source told Caixin that the death likely occurred in early July last year.

Police checked payment records on Wu's smartphone and found that he bought knives, waterproof cloths and doctors' coats from online stores in June 2015, the source said.

In July, probably after the killing, he purchased activated carbon and large plastic sheets, the source said. Xie's body was found wrapped in plastic sheets with activated carbon tucked into them, apparently to lessen any odor.

The room was sealed to prevent odor from escaping, the person close to the probe said. Surveillance cameras believed to be linked to Wu's phone were installed in the room.

Wu apparently faked a resignation letter penned by his mother and sent it to her school, the source said. He then borrowed 1.44 million yuan from relatives by sending messages from his mother's smartphone. Wu told them the family needed the money to move to the United States.

Xie's body was finally found when a relative came to the dormitory to visit her, the source said.

Wu was accepted into Peking University, one of the country's most prestigious colleges, in 2012. He won scholarships there and was preparing for graduate school in the United States, his classmates said.

The case surprised Xu's classmates, who described him as friendly and warm-hearted. "There was no trace of him acting abnormally," one of them said.

Some Internet users said the case is a sign that China's students focus too much on doing well on tests and not enough on moral education.

"The bloody case again reflects a lack of moral education in universities," one wrote on a microblog. "Not only does some student at Peking University have serious problems with his morals, but also there is no doubt Peking University's education is insufficient."

Others said colleges should do more to address students' mental health issues.

"When talking about Peking University, people always think students are favored by God and have tremendous talent, but they forget they are just ordinary people who happen to do well at school," one Net user said. "They're limited and confused too."

Ren Fang, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, told state media on March 8 that news organizations should not make too much of the case, but said colleges should strengthen their mental health counseling programs.

Some Net users also said Peking University should bear some responsibility in the case. A classmate of Xu's told Caixin that he missed some of his final exams and had disappeared from campus in September.

Said another Internet user: "He didn't take exams and teachers didn't investigate? Did he register for the new semester? If he didn't, did the school look for him?"

The university said on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, on March 3 that it is cooperating with the probe.

Calls to Peking University's School of Economics were not answered.

(Rewritten by Chen Na)
According to travel agency Cosmojin on Monday, the number of foreign visitors to the Demilitarized Zone so far this month rose more than 30 percent compared to March. It said phone inquiries for tours to the border also increased almost 50 percent.

Despite intensifying threats from North Korea, the number of foreign tourists visiting the heavily-armed border separating the two Koreas keeps growing.

In a straw poll of 518 of them from April 5 to 12, 53 percent said they went out of curiosity. "We found out that many people are interested in finding out about the world's last Cold-War frontier," a Cosmojin staffer said.

Some 35 percent said visiting the border peace village of Panmunjom, where North and South Korean soldiers face each other just across a white line, was the most interesting part of the trip.

Twenty percent cited a meeting room at Panmunjom as the most interesting, followed by visits to border outposts in the DMZ.

As many as 72 percent said that the chances of a war on the Korean Peninsula are low.


Ankara wants the European Union to double the aid it is is giving to Turkey to deal with the migrant crisis, the European Parliament's president said Monday.

As EU representatives discussed the crisis with their Turkish counterparts at a summit in Brussels and thousands of people remained stranded at the Greece-Macedonia border, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said Turkey had asked for an additional $3.3 billion to help curb the flow of migrants to the continent.

Last November, the EU agreed to give Ankara $3.3 billion for help in dealing with the refugee crisis.

Reuters reports a draft EU-Turkey agreement on migration says Turkey will agree to take back temporarily "all irregular migrants" arriving in the Greek islands from Turkey. In return, the EU will lift visa requirements for Turkish citizens by end the June and speed up the process for Turkey joining the EU, the news agency reported.

Countries from Macedonia on north have shut their borders, preventing people mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq from traveling on toward Germany and Scandinavian nations.

The influx of nearly 1 million people arriving by sea in Greece since the beginning of 2015 has European leaders looking to persuade Turkey to both keep migrants from taking the dangerous route and also take back thousands who don't qualify for EU asylum.

Turkey is hosting more than 2.7 million refugees from Syria alone, and, like European nations and other Syrian neighbors, has struggled with the burden of providing services.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Apple and left intact a ruling that the company conspired with publishers to raise the prices of electronic books.

The decision paves the way for a $450-million settlement to be paid by Apple to e-book purchasers under the California firm's July 2014 agreement to settle damages in the case brought by the attorneys general of 33 states and territories, and a private class of e-book purchasers.

Apple had tried to challenge Amazon's dominance of the market. The justices' order lets stand an appeals court ruling, though, that found Apple violated antitrust laws in 2010 when it worked with five top publishers to set the prices of e-books at significantly higher prices than those charged by Amazon.

Prior to the trial, Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook said Apple would not settle, asserting it had done nothing wrong and was carrying out normal business practices.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department's Anittrust Division said, "Apple's liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers to raise the prices of e-books is settled once and for all."
The Republican nominating contest for president could be consolidating into a two-man race between businessman Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. By gobbling up the lion's share of delegates awarded state-by-state, Trump and Cruz are eclipsing two other rivals: Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio governor John Kasich.

Rubio did pick up a victory Sunday in Puerto Rico's primary, only his second win of the 2016 cycle. For now he appears to pose no threat to Cruz or Trump.

Cruz beat expectations by winning nominating contests Saturday in Maine and Kansas, and finishing a close second to front-runner Donald Trump in Louisiana and Kentucky.

"I am very encouraged because if we continue to unite we are going to win this nomination," said a jubilant Cruz.

Trump expressed no disappointment with the results. "I am very, very happy about it. Thank you Louisiana and thank you Kentucky," he said.

While Trump retains a lead in the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination, Cruz narrowed the gap by winning five states last week.
Orion Confectionery, the manufacturer of the global hit Choco Pie snacks, celebrated its 60th anniversary on Monday. The confectioner is considered one of the most successful Korean food companies in the global market.

Founded by Lee Yang-gu, the father-in-law of the present chairman Tam Chul-gon, in 1956 under the name Tongyang Confectionery, Orion started entering foreign markets in the 1990s and is now exporting its confectionery to about 70 countries worldwide.

It now has factories in China, Russia and Vietnam.

We posted about 70 percent of our W2.24 trillion in sales overseas last year, said Lee Young-gyun, an executive at the company (US$1=W1,206).

The confectioner is the second largest in China with sales of W1.33 trillion.

Orion became a global food company thanks to the popularity of its Choco Pie, which was released in 1974 and is selling more than 2.1 billion packs every year in some 60 countries. Its research team developed it after they tried chocolate cookies at a cafe abroad.

To mark its 60th anniversary, the company on Monday launched a banana-flavored Choco Pie. The new Choco Pie, developed over three years, contains real banana.
Seoul will announce a list of separate sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday afternoon that include financial curbs on 70 North Korean individuals and agencies.

The targets of the sanctions are suspected of involvement in developing weapons of mass destruction and lining leader Kim Jong-un's coffers. Any ships that have docked in North Korean ports will be banned from South Korean ports for the following six months.

The UN Security Council last week also tightened sanctions against the renegade country. Targets of the South Korean sanctions include key officials who are in charge of conducting nuclear tests, managing Kim's coffers and hard-currency earners. The UN Security Council separately blacklists 28 North Korean individuals and agencies.

Seoul's targets do not include the Workers Party Secretariat, which manages the regime's foreign reserves, and its chief Kim Yo-jong, leader Kim Jong-un's younger sister.
A threat to the lives of some 20 apparently random Koreans by the terror group Islamic State or ISIS has been traced to a Kuwaiti IP address.

ISIS hackers accessed the computer network of a news website here and retrieved the personal data of the 20, which it then published on YouTube together with a call to followers to "kill them wherever you find them."

Seoul police said investigators analyzed the logs of the server from which the data was stolen and found that the hackers used an IP address in Kuwait.

Police are not ruling out that the hackers rerouted their IP address and are enlisting the help of international law enforcement agencies to investigate the source further.
Sexual abuse of women is endemic in North Korea and there exists no concept of women's dignity, activists here said Monday.

A civic group of female North Korean defectors held an event a day ahead of International Women's Day on Tuesday in Seoul and testify to their plight in the North.

"There is no concept of a woman's dignity in North Korea," said one defector. "They are merely objects of sexual abuse and labor exploitation."

Defectors said women are forced to work in squalid conditions where sexual abuses and rape are common, and most of the victims are not even aware that such acts constitute abuses of their rights.
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S Rajendran was accused of sabotaging the party's efforts in the 2021 Assembly elections. The three-time MLA was suspended from the party ranks shortly after.
#coronavirus-additional cases New COVID-19 cases under 30,000 for 4th consecutive day South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed below 30,000 for a fourth straight day Saturday with the daily death toll down to its 14-week low for a Saturday. The country reporte...

#BLACKPINK BLACKPINK to headline BST Hyde Park festival next year K-pop sensation BLACKPINK will headline British Summer Time (BST) Hyde Park in London next year, the group's agency and the festival announced Saturday. The four-member act will...
Easily one of our most anticipated films in recent years, The Predator is already shaping up quite nicely if this news is anything to go by.

It's been confirmed that Arnold Schwarzenegger is meeting with writer / director Shane Black to discuss the possibility of starring in the 2018 release. Schwarzenegger, who starred in the 1987 classic as Major 'Dutch' Schaefer, has been lining up roles and is open to talking with Black about reprising the character.

As it stands right now, the Governator is currently hosting The Apprentice on US television and has to finish off a few other bits and bobs before he can officially sign on. "I havent talked with him (Shane Black) yet but Im going to meet with him for lunch sometime soon. Just as soon as Im finished with this and The Apprentice and all this stuff. But I will get together with him."

Black himself starred in Predator as Hawkins, the guy that catches the pink-ball thing in the helicopter and gets killed off pretty early in the film. Since then, Black's pretty much created and defined the buddy cop genre with Lethal Weapon and directed the best Iron Man film of the series, namely Iron Man 3.

If Black is seriously considering bring back Dutch for The Predator, we'd also like to put in a request to get Jesse Ventura's character, Blain, back in there.

Yes, he died in the first one. So what? HE'S A GODDAMN SEXUAL TYRANNOSAURUS.

Black and his co-writer, Monster Squad's Fred Dekker, have submitted the film to Fox and has been tentatively scheduled for March 2nd, 2018.
Yikes. The relationship between Graham Nash and David Crosby has always been fractious, to say the least - but it seems that Nash has delivered a deciding blow with his latest comments on his sometime bandmate.

The pair, who were joined by Stephen Stills (and in the past, Neil Young) in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, toured together as recently as last year - including a date at Dublin's Bord Gais Energy Theatre last September.

However, in a new interview with Dutch magazine Lust for Life, Nash said that Crosby had been 'awful' to him in recent times and has been sending him 'nasty emails'.

"I dont like David Crosby right now," he said. "Hes been awful for me the last two years, just fucking awful. Ive been there and saved his fucking ass for 45 years, and he treated me like shit. You cant do that to me. You can do it for a day or so, until I think youre going to come around. When it goes on longer, and I keep getting nasty emails from him, Im done."



He added: "Fuck you. David has ripped the heart out of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young... How can I not be sad? Look at the music we probably lost. How can I not be sad about that? The truth is, after being totally immersed in me and David and Stephen and Neils music, Im done. Ive had 10 years of it. Leave me the fuck alone. I need to concentrate on me now."

As NME report, Crosby also called actress Daryl Hannah - the partner of Neil Young - a "purely poisonous predator" in 2015, comments which he later apologised for.

There hasn't been a CSNY album since 1999, and it looks like we won't see another one at this point...






















Link to Profile... NB: Unsigned comments will probably be deleted.

This is a polemical Catholic Royalist blog. It will also attempt to provide a window onto various events, situations and personalities not generally or favorably presented to the purview of the general public in the English speaking world. It also hopes to be a bridge for those who wish to cross over, unite and fight for the truth.Just remember, the Rhine still flows into the Tiber.Dedicated to the Immaculate and Sacred Hearts.
An EU representative said on Friday (4 March) that the European Union disagreed with the court ruling rendering the farm trade deal with Morocco illegal under international law. The EU has appealed the decision of a European court in mid-December last year to cancel the deal with the North African country in response to a lawsuit filed by the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi rebel movement, which aims to end Moroccan presence in the Western Sahara. Morocco that has controlled most of the territory of Western Sahara since 1975 claims sovereignty over one of the least scarcely populated regions in the world, which is, however, rich in phosphates and has oilfield potential.

The lawsuit that was initiated in 2012 involves processed agricultural products, trade in agricultural products and fisheries. The court ruled that the deal should not apply to the disputed territory of Western Sahara. As a result of the ruling and as a demonstration of protest, Morocco has suspended contact with European Union institutions. EUs chief of diplomacy, Federica Mogherini made an unplanned visit to the Moroccan capital to calm down the tensions. The (European) Council disagrees with the ruling of 10 December  that is why an appeal has been lodged at the European Court, Mrs Mogherini reaffirmed the EUs position on the matter emphasizing that the EU remains convinced that their accords with Morocco do not violate international laws.

Mrs Mogherini further assured that the mutual trade between the EU and Morocco would not be affected as a result of the ruling, which will remain the case while the ruling is being appealed. The total mutual trade between the two parties was approximately 29.25 billion in 2014, dominating three main areas  machinery and transport equipment, textiles and clothing and agricultural products. The EU is Moroccos most important trading partner.
Chinese cosmetic brands outsold foreign peers Updated: 2016-03-08 08:16 By Shi Jing(China Daily)

Chinese skincare brand Pechoin's counter at a shopping mall in Nanning, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Despite economic slowdown and intense competition from Japanese and South Korean cosmetic and skincare brands, Chinese players are fighting back to regain consumers.

According to the China Shopper Report 2015, released by consulting firm Bain & Co in July last year, Chinese retailers contributed 87 percent to the overall market growth in 2014, accounting for about 70 percent of the market value in 26 monitored categories.

They outsold foreign brands in 18 categories, making the biggest gains in skincare and color cosmetics.

Bruno Lannes, partner at Bain's Shanghai office, said Chinese cosmetic brands made gains by executing smart strategies designed to appeal to local shoppers.

"For example, Chinese skincare brand Pechoin advanced by starting from smaller cities and expanding into larger markets with upgraded products and a premium brand image.

"Media-heavy investment helped cosmetics brand Kans boost its penetration in offline channels to gain market share from foreign competitors."

Expectation of a rise in demand in the future has also driven domestic retailers to increase the pace of opening stores, according to Deloitte China.

On the other hand, overseas retailers have a more conservative approach to allocating their resources. They face intense competition from local companies on top of uncertainty over domestic and global economic growth.

Xie Wenjian, general manager of Shanghai Jahwa United Co Ltd, said that from a cultural perspective, the rise of local brands is the result of "the rising oriental natural power".

Chinese consumers' preference for herbal and traditional Chinese medicine has prompted the growth of local brands, he said.

Shanghai-based Jala Group, known for its leading brands including Chando and Maysu, has been one of the successful players. In 2015, the group saw its total sales revenue rise by 15 percent year-on-year.

Sales of its products at department stores and supermarkets grew by a more significant 19 percent. Three skincare products under the group's key brand Chando managed to clock annual sales of more than 100 million yuan ($15.3 million) each last year.

According to Zheng Chunying, chairman of Jala, 2014 was a turning point for Chinese domestic brands. In that year, their collective sales overtook that of foreign brands for the first time.

Much of that success can be attributed to research and development in which Chinese companies invested heavily. Jala, for instance, invested 5 percent of its annual turnover in R&D in 2015.

This meant the quality of Chinese products improved to be comparable with foreign brands. In some cases, Chinese products were even considered superior.

"Of course, the rise of Chinese domestic brands is also due to government support. The central government has been educating consumers about domestic brands. Chinese consumers now have a rational understanding of local brands, and are not unduly swayed by the notion that all foreign brands must be superior by default," he said.

Chinese e-commerce websites have also provided more opportunities for cosmetics brands to grow. During the Nov 11 online shopping festival last year, Chando's sales reached 103 million yuan, double the previous year's figure.

Among the 500,000-plus consumers who bought Chando products that day, 85 percent were first-time buyers. From Nov 1 to 10, Chando's offline sales also surged by more than 60 percent year-on-year. Sales of its makeup products alone increased by 52 percent year-on-year.

Many other domestic cosmetic and skincare brands seized the Nov 11 opportunity and competed with celebrated global brands. Flash sale giant Vipshop Holdings Ltd hosted many Chinese brands on its online platform, such as Shanghai-based Kans and Pechoin, and Beijing-based Dabao, which squared up against many European and US brands, including Estee Lauder, Olay and Elizabeth Arden.

"Domestic players now understand the importance of brand-building. This has greatly helped their sales in China. We have seen rapid increase in sales of Chinese makeup and skincare brands on our platform," said Zhang Dan, public relations manager of Vipshop.
28 companies sign up for Shanghai Hongqiao CBD core zone Updated: 2016-03-08 16:40 By Tang Zhihao(chinadaily.com.cn)

Twenty-eight companies signed agreements Friday to open offices in the core zone of the Shanghai Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD), aiming to seize opportunities in the rapidly developing Yangtze River Delta region.

The 28 companies, including Chinese fashion e-retailer Vipshop Holdings and German company KSPG, will occupy 155,000-square-meter office areas and bring 11.7 billion yuan ($17.96 million) in capital to the zone.

"Hongqiao CBD development is a key strategic decision made by the Shanghai government to promote the city's business upgrade and transformation," said Min Shilin, executive deputy director of the Shanghai Hongqiao CBD Administrative Committee. "Today's signing ceremony marks the zone's development entering a new era."

Among the 28 companies, 13 plan to move their headquarters into the core zone, according to Min.

"We will set up a sub-headquarters mainly for the online financial service sector in the Hongqiao CBD to support Internet industry development," said Yang Donghao, chief executive officer of Vipshop.

Over 600 companies have decided to move into the core zone, including Roche and Grundfos, Min said.

The Hongqiao CBD, situated in the western part of Shanghai, covers 86.6 square kilometers. It has a 27-square-kilometer main function area and a 59-square-kilometer expansion area. Its core zone covers 4.7-square-kilometers and will focus on developing a headquarters economy and high-end business.

Travel time on foot from Hongqiao CBD to Hongqiao High-speed Railway Station and Hongqiao Airport ranges between 7 and 15 minutes, which allows business people to travel between cities very conveniently.

The zone will accelerate core zone construction and develop more facilities that support business in 2016.

Min revealed that the city's first tour route and demonstration area, with a fusion of business, tourism and culture, will be launched in May, which will let visitors see Hongqiao CBD's characteristic development.
Chinese kids abroad need Chinese schools Updated: 2016-03-04 07:59 By Fu Jing(China Daily Europe)

Nation should follow example of countries which have schools in other nations for children of their nationals

A Belgian friend, who runs a medium-sized chemical company and employs four Chinese nationals, recently said a multinational is not worth its name today if it does not employ Chinese and do business with China. His business instinct also led him to open an account at the Shanghai Stock Exchange two years ago, which, however, is being managed by his 15-year-old son. By doing so, my friend says he is guiding his son to fully understand the Chinese economy because he has to rely on it to earn his living in the future.

The urge to know China and share its prosperity have been rapidly growing among Europeans, Americans, Africans and people in the rest of the world. Many of them send their children to special classes to learn Chinese, study Chinese painting or martial arts; some even send their wards to Chinese universities for higher education.

Concurrently, Chinese communities are growing in major cities across the globe such as London, New York, Paris and Brussels as more Chinese enterprises and investors seek opportunities outside China, and more diplomats and journalists are posted overseas. Amid all this, Chinese expatriates are trying to ensure their children do not lose track of the Chinese language and culture while attending schools in foreign cities.

But this is easier said than done. I have been hunting for a secondary school in London for my son, who will finish his primary school education in Brussels in a few months, because I will soon move to the United Kingdom. But it seems my son cannot attend an English-Chinese school in London, for I couldn't find one. Instead, he can apply to about 10 bilingual schools (with either English or French as a compulsory medium), for he has mainly had French as the medium of instruction in Brussels.

The French government has been offering part financial support to schools overseas with its education authorities providing curriculum help. Besides, France has special ministerial-level organizations to take care of such schools worldwide. The French government has also sent 6,500 educators worldwide who work with 15,000 local teachers in about 500 French schools that provide education to about 330,000 students. In fact, France says no other country runs such a big education network overseas.

The United States, the UK, Canada, Japan, Germany and other major economic powers have also opened such schools abroad, which offer more options to their citizens working overseas to get their children educated in their language and culture.

China is a latecomer in this area. Only a couple of decades ago, especially in the previous 10 years, Chinese businesses started expanding abroad and employing Chinese nationals. But since the number of Chinese enterprises and nationals abroad has increased sharply in recent times, we should study and follow the examples set by France and other countries.

Indeed, China has opened many Confucius Institutes in other countries but they mainly work in cooperation with foreign universities. Primary and secondary school education remains neglected while demand keeps rising by the day. It is thus time the Chinese government considered remodeling its overseas education network and raised it to the level befitting the world's second-largest economy. In this regard, apart from focusing on how to finance basic education for Chinese children overseas, the government should also design incentives to attract private partners to ease its financial burden.

Of course, it will not be easy to get the support of foreign countries for the move or design a tailor-made curriculum to meet demand. Perhaps China should use a mutually beneficiary way to win over the other countries' support, citing the example of Beijing and Shanghai, which already have many foreign schools. The idea should be to move gradually forward by, say, opening pilot primary and secondary schools in New York, London, Paris and Berlin.

The author is China Daily chief correspondent in Brussels. Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
'Grow people' for long-term China-UK relations: Chinese ambassador Updated: 2016-02-27 19:17 By Song Wei in London(chinadaily.com.cn)

China Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming delivers a keynote speech at the inaugural event of the Generation UK : China Network in London on Feb 26, 2016. [Photo by Song Wei/chinadaily.com.cn]

London  China and the UK can plan for "a hundred years - even a thousand years of relations" by "growing people", Liu Xiaoming, China ambassador to the United Kingdom said, addressing the inauguration of Generation UK : China Network in London on Friday.

Citing British Prime Minister David Cameron, when he adapted a traditional Chinese saying at a Chinese New Year reception this year "If you want one year of prosperity, you grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, you grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, you grow people. If you want a thousand years of prosperity, you grow relationships between peoples," the ambassador highlighted the importance of people-to-people exchanges as "a most active and key role to play as China and the UK embark on a 'Golden Era' of relations".

The inauguration of the Network on Friday is the "natural outcome of decades of student exchanges between China and the UK", said Liu.

Statistics show about 35,000 British students have studied in China over the past 40 years, and now among the more than 377,000 world students in China, 7,000 are from Britain.

As China will soon begin a new journey with the adoption of the 13th Five-Year Plan, and China and the UK are also beginning a new journey, when much can be achieved as the two countries work together, the ambassador said.

"I hope that young Chinese and British students will pool their wisdom and strength, and work together to create a more splendid 'Golden Era' of China-UK relations."

The ambassador also announced a new short-term Chinese government scholarship scheme - the first of its kind for UK students as "a special gift" for the inaugural event. In the academic year 2016-2017, this short-term scheme will fund 150 British university students for a two-month study or internship in China.

The Generation UK : China Network, jointly organized by the British Council and the Chinese Embassy in the UK, is an association of alumni joined by British individuals who have studied and worked in China .

Aiming to extend and deepen the engagement of young British nationals with China once they have returned to the UK, the network revolves around an interactive and events-focused LinkedIn group.

Elena Christodoulou, Business Manager of BT Global Services UK and Global Banking Financial Markets, shared how valuable experience of China can be as one of the Leading Lights for the Network. The Leading Lights are successful individuals who have benefited from their time in China.

"The benefits of being in China were vast. I got to see first-hand how one of the world's fastest growing economy was transforming; how people were founding a new way of working blurring industry lines and pushing boundaries, empowered by the ethos of entrepreneurism and enabled by technology," said Elena, recalling her six-month work rotation in Beijing back in September 2014.

James Kynge, Emerging Market Editor of the Financial Times, another Leading Light of the Network, said by drawing on his 25-year experience living abroad, "China is a place for great humor and immense fun... China is by far the most conversationally free and vigorously debating society I've ever been in."

Kynge emphasized the slogan "Be China ready, and play total China" for members of the Network. "It doesn't matter whether you are in China, or here or in a third country, you need to be able to interact with Chinese, you need to have an understanding of Chinese economy and business, and most important of all, you need to operate in Chinese."

Kynge, who went to study in China in 1982, is also the President of the Association for Speakers of Chinese as a Second Language. China has been the consistent thread in his career as a researcher, journalist and businessman.

Sir Ciaran Devane, Chief Executive of the British Council, said: "The idea of the Network is more than an alumni association... It's about remembering to stay engaged with China, to continue to be involved with that engagement."

Devane asked the fellows of the Network to maintain the connection and love with China, and encourage others to do so.

The Network is a key element of a larger campaign of British Council named "Generation UK-China," which was launched in 2013. Through this campaign, the number of British students who have study or work experience in China is expect to reach 80,000 by 2020.

To contact the reporter: songwei@chinadaily.com.cn
China, EU sign short stay visa waiver deal for diplomatic passport holders Updated: 2016-03-01 09:20 (Xinhua)

BRUSSELS - China and the European Union (EU) here on Monday signed a reciprocal short stay visa waiver agreement for holders of diplomatic passports.



This agreement will allow visa free travel to the EU for citizens of China holding a diplomatic passport for stays up to 90 days (within any 180-day period) as well as for EU citizens travelling to China and holding a diplomatic passport or an EU laissez-passer.



The agreement will not apply to the United Kingdom and Ireland. And the agreement will provisionally enter into force on the third day following the date of signature.



EU Commissioner for Migration, EU Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said ahead of the signing of the agreement that this is an important agreement not only because it is the first international agreement between the EU and China in the field of home affairs but also because it represents an important step towards greater cooperation on issues of mutual concern, especially in the areas of migration and mobility.



Yang Yanyi, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, said at the signing ceremony that the signing of the agreement undoubtedly marks a concrete step in visa facilitation and commits the two sides to work together more closely to broaden and deepen the cooperation, and help further negotiations so as to provide facilitation for the greater public to travel between China and the EU.



In the past year, among the 120 million outbound Chinese tourists, 2.5 million paid visits to Europe.

Representatives of the European Commission and the Dutch EU Council Presidency also attended the signing ceremony.
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Aging Plant Nuclear Power Radiation tainted water is spreading into Biscayne Bay.

"...water sampling in December and January found tritium levels up to 215 times higher than normal in ocean water. The report doesnt address risks to the public or marine life but tritium is typically monitored as a tracer of nuclear power plant leaks or spills. County staff concluded the findings are the most compelling evidence that canal water has spread into the bay.



Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article64667452.html#storylink=cpy

The study comes two weeks after a Tallahassee judge ordered the utility and the state to clean up the nuclear plants cooling canals after concluding that they had caused a massive underground saltwater plume to migrate west, threatening a wellfield that supplies drinking water to the Florida Keys. The judge also found the state failed to address the pollution by crafting a faulty management plan.



This latest test, critics say, raise new questions about what theyve long suspected: That canals that began running too hot and salty the summer after FPL overhauled two reactors to produce more power could also be polluting the bay."

Live Near the plant? Keep those Iodide Tablets handy....

Miami Dade County has found tritium in Biscayne Bay. The level in canals at the Nuke plant is at 215 times normal levels and almost the same levels have been found in our aquatic preserve, Biscayne Bay according to the Miami Herald
A new online visa and permit application service for foreigners in Beijing is set to be launched on Tuesday by the city's Public Security Bureau. It will simplify procedures for obtaining documents and shorten approval time.

Foreigners will be allowed to apply for a visa, a stay permit or a residence permit through the public service section of the website, according to a statement on Sunday by the bureau's Entry and Exit Department.

After filling out an online application form and making a reservation, applicants are directed to a designated window at the department, located at No 2 Andingmen Dongdajie, to hand in their materials.

Lin Song, a department official, said foreigners who intend to live in Beijing must register their dwelling places at a local police station before they apply.

"When they go to the window to hand in papers, they must bring with them the printouts of their online application forms with the barcodes," he added.

Another new policy issued on Sunday is designed to help foreigners stay in Beijing without a visa obtained in advance.

Foreigners normally are required to obtain a visa before they arrive in China. They are now allowed to apply on the website and get a visa upon arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport if they had to rush to China for an emergency matter.

Lin said those who arrive in Beijing at the invitation of a Chinese host for an emergency issue, can apply online and hand in paperwork at offices authorized by the Entry and Exit Department at Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 at the airport, where they can get an M or F visa.

The Public Security Bureau has also created policies to assist foreigners' visits to Beijing. They took effect at the beginning of this year.

For example, a policy was created that allows a foreign family member of a Chinese citizen to stay in Beijing for two years, extending the previous policy by one year. The two-year permits are renewable.

A family member of a Chinese citizenincluding a spouse, spouse's parent, spouse's child, or spouses of childrenis now allowed to live in Beijing for two years. Formerly, their permit required renewal annually.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan (R) gestures during a press conference on March 8, 2016 in Geneva, after a second emergency committee on Zika virus outbreak (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization on Tuesday advised pregnant women not to travel to areas affected by the Zika virus outbreak, saying the new advice was issued amid mounting evidence that Zika can cause birth defects.

"Pregnant women should be advised not travel to areas of ongoing Zika virus outbreaks," the UN agency said in a statement released after an emergency committee meeting on the rapid spread of the mosquito-borne virus.

Previous WHO guidelines issued after the first Zika emergency committee meeting on February 1 called for women to be warned of the risk of travel.

WHO chief Margaret Chan noted that link between Zika and microcephaly, a severe deformation of the brain among newborns, has not yet been definitively proven.

But, she said, "we do not have to wait until we have definitive proof" before advising pregnant women against travel.

"Microcephaly is now only one of several documented birth abnormalities associated with Zika infection during pregnancy," she said.

"Grave outcomes include foetal death, placental insufficiency, foetal growth retardation, and injury to the central nervous system," she added.

Despite the new travel guidelines for pregnant women, WHO said "there should be no general restrictions on travel or trade with countries (or) areas...with Zika virus transmission."

Chan described the latest research on Zika as "alarming," including growing evidence that the virus triggers the severe neurological disorder Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which can cause paralysis or death in extreme cases.

Nine countries have reported rising incidents of GBS with a strongly suspected link to Zika.

Two countries have registered a spike in microcephaly with a presumed connection to Zika, French Polynesia and Brazil, the hardest-hit country in the outbreak by far.

But Chan warned that incidents of microcephaly could spread, including possibly to Colombia, where "intense surveillance for foetal abnormalities is currently under way."

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- More research, urgent action -

The WHO meet, which included representatives from the Americas region where Zika is spreading rapidly, sought to prioritise areas for further research as public health officials seek to understand a virus which previously caused little concern.

Zika was first discovered in Uganda in 1947 and was only known to cause moderate cold and flu-like symptoms, but rising global anxiety about the virus has been driven by its presumed connection to multiple neurological disorders.

Because the current outbreak has marked a clear shift in the nature of the virus, WHO said "particular attention should be given to generating additional data on the genetic sequences and clinical effect of different Zika virus strains," in hopes of understanding what has changed.

Chan stressed that proving the causal link between Zika and certain neurological conditions was vital.

But, she added, "strong public health action should not wait for definitive scientific proof."

Zika is spread among humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is found in 130 countries. But recent evidence appears to indicate that it can also be sexually transmitted by men carrying the virus.
Seniors are living longer but have more disabilities, new survey finds

The aging of China's population will present serious challenges in the decades ahead, particularly in healthcare, according to the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey conducted by Renmin University of China's National Survey Research Center.

About 11,000 seniors from 134 counties and districts responded to the survey, which was released over the weekend.

More than 75 percent of the survey respondents reported suffering from chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.

By the end of last year, China had 222 million seniors, more than 4.4 million of whom suffer from severe disabilities that require long term care.

Deteriorating mental health was another concern, with 25 percent of seniors polled saying they were lonely and half saying they lived on their own with no children to care for them.

China's population, on average, is expected to become significantly older between 2022 and 2040 as members of the country's baby boom generation become senior citizens.

This aging, coupled with a labor shortage, could be the greatest demographic challenge China has ever faced, according to Zhai Zhenwu, professor of sociology and population studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

"The universal second-child policy introduced late last year will delay this trend but cannot reverse it," Zhai said.

According to Du Peng, a professor of gerontology who led the survey, "it's an aging society but not very old."

Although the effects of aging are manageable at present, Du said, baby boomers will propel China toward becoming an intensively aging society in the coming years.

China's last baby boom started in the early 1960s and lasted until the 80s, with an average of more than 20 million children born every year.

It peaked in 1963, when about 29 million children were born, and came to an end when the recently rescinded one-child policy was introduced. Last year, China had 16.5 million newborns, government data show.

According to the survey, seniors are living longer but are also suffering from various disabilities that can create a heavy burden for their families and society in general.

Du suggested that the government adopt measures that would help counteract the effects of the aging population.

"Long-term care insurance could be a major tool in this regard," he said.

shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn

Doctor Wang Yunde from the Zhangqiu No 2 People's Hospital evaluates an elderly patient at a nursing home in Jinan, Shandong province, on March 1. Guo Xulei / Xinhua

(China Daily 03/07/2016 page7)
Ai Takagi (right) was the editor and owner of "The Real Singapore" website, which was shut down after she and her husband Yang Kaiheng (left) were arrested while visiting Singapore last year (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman) (AFP/File)

An Australian woman who admitted fabricating anti-foreigner articles on a Singapore website to boost advertising revenues was convicted on Tuesday of sedition.

Ai Takagi, 23, pleaded guilty to four of seven sedition charges lodged against her and her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng, 27.

The three other charges, as well as an additional charge of withholding information from the police, will be taken into consideration during her sentencing on March 23.

Yang, however, is claiming trial.

Both were based in Australia but arrested in February last year during a visit to Singapore. They are currently out on bail.

Takagi, described by prosecutors as the owner and chief editor of the now defunct site "The Real Singapore", was teary-eyed as a statement of facts in the case was being read in court.

The site was forced to close by the media regulator last year for playing up articles seen as fomenting racial hatred.

Immigration has been a hot-button issue in Singapore in recent years.

Yang and Takagi were also charged with withholding from police information on the website's advertising revenues, which were estimated at Sg$473,000 ($342,000) over a 17-month period.

Court documents showed its Facebook page had more than 400,000 likes, while the site itself had almost 13 million views a month.

At a district court on Tuesday, Takagi pleaded guilty to fabricating two articles attacking Filipinos and another targeting mainland Chinese.

They included an article which said that a Filipino family instigated a fracas at a Hindu festival, and another alleging that a Chinese woman made her grandson urinate into a bottle inside a metro train.

These articles tended to "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility" between different races and between Singaporeans and foreigners working in the city-state, court documents said.

Singapore's sedition laws make it an offence to promote hostility between different races or classes in the multiracial city-state, which is mainly ethnic Chinese.

Story continues

About 40 percent of the labour-starved island's 5.5 million people are foreigners.

Each sedition charge carries a penalty of up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of Sg$5,000 ($3,620), or both.

They also face one month in jail and up to Sg$1,500 in fines, or both, for withholding information from police.

Last September, Filipino nurse Ello Ed Mundsel Bello was jailed for four months for sedition after insulting Singaporeans online and calling on his countrymen to take over the city-state.

In 2009, a local Christian couple, Ong Kian Cheong and Dorothy Chan, were jailed for eight weeks each for distributing and possessing anti-Muslim and anti-Catholic publications.
(Repeats without changes from earlier on Monday)

By Claire Milhench

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - A long-running dispute over the leadership of Libya's $67 billion sovereign wealth fund reaches London's High Court on Monday, potentially paving the way for litigation against two global investment banks to move forward.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) wants to pursue Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale in the English courts for more than $3 billion it claims was mismanaged. Both banks have rejected the allegations.

The fund, however, is mired in a power struggle between two rival chairmen, Hassan Bouhadi and AbdulMagid Breish. The dispute mirrors the fragmented nature of the country following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Bouhadi was appointed as head of the LIA in October 2014 by the LIA's board of trustees, populated by leaders of the House of Representatives.

But his Tripoli-based rival Breish says he in in charge, reinstated as head of the fund following a decision by Libya's Court of Appeal.

Bouhadi initiated proceedings in London's Commercial Court in September 2015 to determine this question of authority.

The issue needs to be settled to provide the legal clarity to allow the litigation against the two investment banks to move forwards. If the LIA wins these cases it could result in an award of billions of pounds.

As an interim measure, advisers BDO were appointed by the court in July 2015 to manage the litigation on the LIA's behalf. This has allowed the pre-trial work on the bank litigation to continue, such as the taking of witness statements and gathering of expert evidence.

At the time of BDO's appointment, it was hoped Libya would soon form a national unity government and determine the question of LIA leadership for itself, but hardliners are resisting a formal vote in Libya's elected parliament to endorse the new UN-backed government.

In the absence of any decision from Libya, an English court now has to rule on who has the authority to bring the litigations against the banks, regardless of the merits of those cases.

Story continues

To do this, the judge, William Blair, the brother of former British prime minister Tony Blair, must first decide which is the legitimate government of Libya, using some procedures once developed to decide who was in charge in Somalia.

He will consider who has the constitutional right to govern in Libya; who has administrative control; whether there is any indication from the British government as to what it regards as the legitimate government; and what the international community regards as the legitimate government.

The case could run into a second week, and a judgment is not expected immediately. The judgment may also be appealed against.

(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
BRASILIA, March 7 (Reuters) - Brazil's government unveiled on Monday a series of measures to ease financing for infrastructure projects, as President Dilma Rousseff struggles to increase investment in a deep recession.

Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa proposed simpler rules to accelerate approval of infrastructure bonds, according to a ministry statement. State development bank BNDES also said it would lower the cost of financing for infrastructure projects by as much as two percentage points.

A finance ministry official also said 500 million reais ($130 million) worth of government real estate would be transferred into a fund offering guarantees to minimize preoperational risks for infrastructure projects.

Rousseff has frequently courted private investment to tackle Brazil's notorious transportation bottlenecks since she was first elected in 2010, but the country's investment rate continues to slide in the second year of a steep downturn.

A corruption scandal stemming from state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has also snared many of the country's biggest engineering conglomerates, slowing or sidelining their work on major civil construction projects.

($1 = 3.8 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
(New throughout, updates prices and market activity, adds comments from portfolio manager, details on Encana)

* TSX ends down 72.55 points, or 0.54 percent, to 13,311.05

* Six of the TSX's 10 main groups were lower

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO, March 8 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index broke an eight session winning streak on Tuesday as lower commodity prices and weak Chinese data weighed on resource stocks, but financials and defensive stocks rose and the index still held near three-month highs.

The energy group retreated 3.0 percent, while the materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, lost 2.5 percent.

Commodity related stocks succumbed to profit taking after recent sharp gains, said Kevin Headland, director of capital markets and strategy at Manulife Asset Management.

Strength in those sectors has helped lift the index more than 15 percent since it hit an almost 3-1/2-year low in January.

The Bank of Canada monetary policy decision on Wednesday encouraged a "wait and see" approach, Headland added.

The most influential movers on the index included Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, which fell 3.3 percent to C$33.56, and Encana Corporation, which declined more than 13 percent to C$6.99.

Encana is exploring the sale of more non-core assets in the United States and Canada, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Oil prices fell as Goldman Sachs suggested the rally was unsustainable and an industry group said U.S. stockpiles swelled to record highs again last week.

U.S. crude prices settled at $36.50 a barrel, down 3.69 percent. Copper retreated further from last week's four-month highs and gold dipped 0.5 percent, hovering just below 13-month high.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd tumbled more than 16 percent to C$6.12, while Barrick Gold Corp was down 3.2 percent at C$17.86.

Far worse than expected Chinese trade data stoked concerns about the health of the global economy, although the data was affected by the timing of the Lunar New Year holidays.

Story continues

China is a major consumer of raw materials, among them Canadian.

However, fears of a "hard landing" in China were played down by Headland, who pointed to an improving domestic economy.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index fell 72.55 points, or 0.54 percent, to 13,311.05. Six of the index's 10 main groups were in negative territory.

Consumer staples rose 1.1 percent and telecommunication stocks advanced 1.2 percent as defensive sectors outperformed.

Bce Inc rose 1.5 percent to C$58.44, while Loblaw Companies Ltd was up 1.2 percent at C$71.90.

The financials group rose 0.6 percent, including a 1.2 percent advance in the shares of Bank of Nova Scotia to C$61.23.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by David Gregorio)
By Xiaoyi Shao and Pete Sweeney

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's February trade performance was far worse than economists had expected, with exports tumbling the most in over six years, days after top leaders sought to reassure investors that the outlook for the world's second-largest economy remains solid.

Exports fell 25.4 percent from a year earlier, twice as much as markets had feared as demand skidded in all of China's major markets, while imports slumped 13.8 percent, the 16th straight month of decline.

The export drop was the biggest since May 2009, but economists said it may not necessarily point to a significant worsening in economic conditions due to sharply reduced business activity during the long Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in early February this year.

Still, January-February exports on a combined basis, which should iron out some of the holiday effect, fell 17.8 percent and imports 16.7 percent, pointing to persistently weak demand at home and abroad that is weighing on the economy of the world's largest trading nation.

"Exports were very strong last year in February because the Lunar New Year started so late and much of the usual disruption from the holiday was pushed into March. So the implication is that we'll probably see a significant reversal and a stronger number next month," said Julian Evans-Prichard, China Economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.

"We suspect that overall exports remain weak but we dont see much evidence of marked deterioration, for instance there was no sudden drop-off in export orders in the Markit PMI (activity survey), and they generally do a pretty good job of adjusting for seasonality."

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected February exports to fall by 12.5 percent, with imports seen down 10.0 percent.

China posted a trade surplus of $32.59 billion for the month, down from $63.29 billion in January, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday.

NEW 2016 GROWTH TARGET ALREADY AT RISK?

Story continues

After missing trade goals repeatedly in recent years, China's leaders did not give an estimate for trade growth in 2016 when they set out key economic targets in parliament on Saturday, reflecting deep uncertainty about global demand.

Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said last month that he was confident that China's trade conditions would stabilise and improve in 2016, though most analysts see no improvement in sight.

"The sharp drop in imports also shatters the hope that China is rolling out a stimulus package that would boost the demand for commodities," said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore.

"The recent rally in bulk commodities, led by iron ore, might be only short-lived."

Spot iron ore prices rocketed nearly 20 percent to the highest in more than eight months on Monday, buoyed by expectations that Chinese steel mills are planning an output boost ahead of an expected crackdown on air pollution.

China's iron ore imports rose 6.4 percent in Jan-Feb, though anti-dumping measures are squeezing steelmakers who are trying to keep mills running by increasing sales overseas.

Goldman Sachs, however, said the iron ore rally would not last in the absence of a significant improvement in Chinese domestic steel demand, sticking to its bearish take on one of this year's biggest commodity comebacks.

China's leaders set an economic growth target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent for 2016 as they opened the annual session of parliament last week, compared with 6.9 percent last year, the country's slowest expansion in a quarter of a century.

As part of efforts to stimulate activity, policymakers have proposed raising the 2016 fiscal deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, from 2015's budgeted 2.3 percent.

Economists also expect further reductions this year in interest rates and the amount of money that banks must hold in reserve, extending a year-long stimulus blitz. In late February, the central bank cut bank reserve ratio requirements, releasing an estimated $100 billion in cash for lending.

"Overall, today's trade data, together with high-frequency data and leading indicators, suggest that growth momentum weakened further in January-February," economists from Japanese bank Nomura said in a research note.

"We maintain our forecast of real GDP growth slowing to 5.8 percent in 2016 from 6.9 percent in 2015."

Premier Li Keqiang acknowledged in parliament on Saturday that leaders face "a tough battle" to keep the economy growing by at least 6.5 percent over the next five years, while pushing hard to create more jobs and restructuring state-owned enterprises.

(Reporting by Xiaoyi Shao, Pete Sweeney; Additional reporting by Jianxin Lu and Nathaniel Taplin; Editing by Kim Coghill)
* China's Feb exports and imports shrink more than expected

* Exports -25.4 pct, worst drop since May 2009; imports -13.8 pct

* Domestic, global demand weak but holiday may have skewed numbers

* More stimulus still expected as economy cools (Adds additional economist's view, expected stimulus measures)

By Xiaoyi Shao and Pete Sweeney

BEIJING, March 8 (Reuters) - China's February trade performance was far worse than economists had expected, with exports tumbling the most in over six years, days after top leaders sought to reassure investors that the outlook for the world's second-largest economy remains solid.

Exports fell 25.4 percent from a year earlier, twice as much as markets had feared as demand skidded in all of China's major markets, while imports slumped 13.8 percent, the 16th straight month of decline.

The export drop was the biggest since May 2009, but economists said it may not necessarily point to a significant worsening in economic conditions due to sharply reduced business activity during the long Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in early February this year.

Still, January-February exports on a combined basis, which should iron out some of the holiday effect, fell 17.8 percent and imports 16.7 percent, pointing to persistently weak demand at home and abroad that is weighing on the economy of the world's largest trading nation.

"Exports were very strong last year in February because the Lunar New Year started so late and much of the usual disruption from the holiday was pushed into March. So the implication is that we'll probably see a significant reversal and a stronger number next month," said Julian Evans-Prichard, China Economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.

"We suspect that overall exports remain weak but we don't see much evidence of marked deterioration, for instance there was no sudden drop-off in export orders in the Markit PMI (activity survey), and they generally do a pretty good job of adjusting for seasonality."

Story continues

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected February exports to fall by 12.5 percent, with imports seen down 10.0 percent.

China posted a trade surplus of $32.59 billion for the month, down from $63.29 billion in January, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday.

NEW 2016 GROWTH TARGET ALREADY AT RISK?

After missing trade goals repeatedly in recent years, China's leaders did not give an estimate for trade growth in 2016 when they set out key economic targets in parliament on Saturday, reflecting deep uncertainty about global demand.

Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said last month that he was confident that China's trade conditions would stabilise and improve in 2016, though most analysts see no improvement in sight.

"The sharp drop in imports also shatters the hope that China is rolling out a stimulus package that would boost the demand for commodities," said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore.

"The recent rally in bulk commodities, led by iron ore, might be only short-lived."

Spot iron ore prices rocketed nearly 20 percent to the highest in more than eight months on Monday, buoyed by expectations that Chinese steel mills are planning an output boost ahead of an expected crackdown on air pollution.

China's iron ore imports rose 6.4 percent in Jan-Feb, though anti-dumping measures are squeezing steelmakers who are trying to keep mills running by increasing sales overseas.

Goldman Sachs, however, said the iron ore rally would not last in the absence of a significant improvement in Chinese domestic steel demand, sticking to its bearish take on one of this year's biggest commodity comebacks.

China's leaders set an economic growth target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent for 2016 as they opened the annual session of parliament last week, compared with 6.9 percent last year, the country's slowest expansion in a quarter of a century.

As part of efforts to stimulate activity, policymakers have proposed raising the 2016 fiscal deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, from 2015's budgeted 2.3 percent.

Economists also expect further reductions this year in interest rates and the amount of money that banks must hold in reserve, extending a year-long stimulus blitz. In late February, the central bank cut bank reserve ratio requirements, releasing an estimated $100 billion in cash for lending.

"Overall, today's trade data, together with high-frequency data and leading indicators, suggest that growth momentum weakened further in January-February," economists from Japanese bank Nomura said in a research note.

"We maintain our forecast of real GDP growth slowing to 5.8 percent in 2016 from 6.9 percent in 2015."

Premier Li Keqiang acknowledged in parliament on Saturday that leaders face "a tough battle" to keep the economy growing by at least 6.5 percent over the next five years, while pushing hard to create more jobs and restructuring state-owned enterprises.

(Reporting by Xiaoyi Shao, Pete Sweeney; Additional reporting by Jianxin Lu and Nathaniel Taplin; Editing by Kim Coghill)
This is hardly the first time it has looked as if Hillary Rodham Clintons presidential ambitions were on the ropes, and each time she has found a way to bounce back. But as she heads into critical Democratic primary contests in Nevada and South Carolina, the former Secretary of States campaign seems to be reeling.

After the 22-point shellacking administered by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire last week and her squeaker of a win in the Iowa Democratic caucuses the week before, Clinton has been counting on a couple of solid performances in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday and the South Carolina primary a week later to demonstrate her appeal in more racially and ethnically diverse terrain.

Related: Clintons Lead in Nevada Evaporates as Sanders Continues to Surge

But as hard as she tries to portray Sanders as a Johnny One Note on income inequality and the evils of Wall Street, with little appeal beyond college campuses and progressive strongholds, he continues to confound her with shrewd tactics, mass rallies, aggressive and well-staffed ground operations and a gold-plated media campaign  all thanks to unprecedented grassroots fundraising.

Clintons one-time air of invincibility has given way to pangs of desperation and lowered expectations of how well she will do in Nevada and South Carolina. Jon Ralston, a veteran political reporter in Nevada, wrote on Tuesday that the Clinton panic is palpable and that no one on either side has asserted the race is not in reach for Sanders.

Saturdays Nevada Democratic caucuses were once touted as a field day for the former First Lady and New York Senator because of her close ties to Hispanic voters and powerful labor union leaders. Yet Sanders has made inroads with the young, working-class Latinos and rank-and-file union members.

Similarly, Clinton was thought to hold a huge edge over Sanders in South Carolina because of its large African-American population, but that was before Sanders showered voters with promises of free college tuition and health care and spoke out angrily about police violence against young blacks and the inequities of the criminal justice system.

Story continues

Related: Clinton Scrambles as Sanders Puts the Black Vote in Play

Clinton has every advantage and should win handily in South Carolina, University of Virginia political scientist Larry J. Sabato said on Tuesday in an email. If she loses or it is close, the calls to [Vice President] Joe Biden will start.

If Clinton does well [on Super Tuesday] on March 1, shell regain her traction, he added. If not, Biden will have to install more lines.

Any thought that Biden might ride to the rescue of the Democratic Party after taking himself out of the race late last year is remote at best. But it helps to underscore that Clintons problems are legion and may in the end be too great to surmount against the surging Sanders.

She suffered incalculable damage from Republican attacks against her for her ill-advised use of personal email for top-secret government business during four years at the State Department and her role in the lead up to the terrorist attacks against a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, turned off many voters by cashing in after their government service by accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in speaking fees and honoraria from special interest groups and universities. Dozens of polls in recent months confirm that while Democratic voters view her as more experienced and better prepared than most to lead the country, shockingly high majorities say that they question her honesty and integrity and dont believe she has their best interest in mind.

Related: How Bernie Sanders Just Shook Up the Democratic Primary. Again

In a new era of politics in which voters fawn over anti-establishment candidates like Donald Trump and Sanders as they shatter political traditions, Clinton finds herself at a huge disadvantage. She is offering herself as a pragmatic progressive who would take a commonsense approach to winning support in Congress for a realistic agenda  hardly an exciting selling point to many young voters.

During a nationally televised Democratic debate last weekend, Clinton said that if Sanders agenda of national health care for all, free college tuition, and other expanded social programs were enacted, it would increase the federal government by 40 percent and drive the deficit into the outer-stratosphere. While Sanders and his campaign advisers argue that his proposals would all be offset by higher taxes  mostly on the rich and Wall Street traders  Clinton and some independent analysts insist that the Vermont senators numbers dont add up.

According to The New York Times, some left-of-center economists have concluded that Sanders proposals would add $2 trillion to $3 trillion a year on average to federal spending. President Obamas fiscal 2017 budget calls for total government spending of a little more than $4 trillion. While Clinton and other critics may dismiss Sanders proposals as budget fantasy and wishful thinking, many of the Democrats rallying to his side view those plans as exciting and inspiring.

Clinton could still win in both states  especially if her voter turnout operations prove to be far better than they were during the first two contests. But in both cases, Sanders will demonstrate that he commands support from a much wider slice of the electorate than Clintons camp has been willing to acknowledge.

And even if Clinton ultimately prevails  with the help of super delegates and more conservative voters throughout the South, Midwest and West  the Democratic campaign will likely prove to be a tough slog all the way to the Democratic National Convention this summer. In 2008, Clinton fought another long, hard primary battle against Barack Obama, only to lose.

Related: Sanders' Landslide Win in New Hampshire Puts Huge Pressure on Clinton

One saving grace for Clinton is that she has held substantial, double-digit leads over Sanders in national polling, suggesting that there is still a large reservoir of support for her once the campaign moves into high gear. However, a NBC News/Survey Monkey Tracking Poll released today shows Clinton leading Sanders by just 10 percentage points  50 percent to 40 percent, her smallest margin in seven weeks.

Whats more, a third of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters say they now believe Sanders will be the eventual nominee. Thats more than before, but it still leaves two thirds of Democrats convinced that somehow Clinton will prevail in the end.

A Washington Post report out of Nevada nicely encapsulates Clintons problems in repelling a tough challenge from Sanders. A multi-ethnic coalition of Sanders supporters, energized by his promises of big social spending programs, immigration reform and social justice, are eager to dump the presumed Democratic frontrunner in favor of the self-styled democratic socialist.

A dozen Sanders campaign offices have sprung up across the state, from Las Vegas to Reno, with more than 100 paid staffers. And Sanders  who raised over $6 million following his big victory in New Hampshire  is outspending Clinton on TV ads by roughly 2 to 1, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Many of the ads target Spanish-speaking voters.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders campaign manager, told The Washington Post that a victory in Nevada is a chance to disprove this firewall fantasy that the Clinton campaign has put out there.

If we do well, it destroys that myth, he said.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
The Hearst Health Prize, in partnership with the Jefferson College of Population Health, is a program in which a $100,000 cash prize is awarded in recognition of an organization's or individual's outstanding achievement in managing or improving population health.Click here for high-resolution version

NEW YORK, NY and PHILADELPHIA, PA--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - Hearst Health, a division of Hearst, and the Jefferson College of Population Health of Thomas Jefferson University, today announced that Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) in Raleigh is the winner of the inaugural Hearst Health Prize, a $100,000 award given in recognition of outstanding achievement in managing or improving health. The announcement was made by Gregory Dorn, MD, MPH, president of Hearst Health, and David B. Nash, MD, MBA, dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health, at the 16th annual Population Health Colloquium in Philadelphia.

Community Care of North Carolina is recognized for its model for managing transitional care for North Carolina Medicaid beneficiaries discharged home after hospitalization. The program is delivered to 2,600 Medicaid recipients a month, with a strong focus on identifying individuals with chronic medical conditions at risk for hospitalization or readmission. Program participants receive medication management, education for condition self-management and timely outpatient communication with the medical home to follow up on clinical and social issues that can affect their health outcomes, such as medication confusion, behavioral health or substance abuse issues, transportation or cost barriers, low health literacy, and social isolation.

The statewide program achieved measurable improvements. The rates of hospitalization and readmission for the target population have declined by 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively, since 2008. Total Medicaid costs were reduced by 9 percent (cited by the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor). The program also established real-time data connections with 87 hospitals, representing 78 percent of all Medicaid hospitalizations in the state.

"On behalf of Community Care of North Carolina, Dr. Annette DuBard and her team, and all the dedicated healthcare providers in North Carolina, I want to thank Hearst Health and the Jefferson College of Population Health for this recognition," said L. Allen Dobson, Jr., MD, President and CEO of Community Care of North Carolina. "The use of robust health analytics along with a statewide infrastructure and a network of physicians and hospitals has allowed us to manage the toughest patients well. Our drive to improve the health of North Carolinians has been grounded in collaboration and the use of data that have shown us how to improve outcomes and to reduce costs. We are pleased to receive this honor, but even more pleased to have improved care for millions of North Carolinians and to have helped advance the national knowledge over what works in healthcare, and how to innovate successfully on a large scale."

"We are delighted that Community Care of North Carolina has been awarded the first-ever Hearst Health Prize for its transitional care management program that improves clinical outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries and lowers costs in a healthcare system that serves 1.4 million people," Dorn said. "Community Care of North Carolina's program is highly scalable and replicable and it is our hope that the Hearst Health Prize provides a new national forum to share these practices with other programs to improve the health of vulnerable populations."

"The more than 125 submissions the judges evaluated for the Hearst Health Prize reflect the broad range of models and interventions that are being implemented in the U.S. as health systems attempt to transform from acute episodes of care to patient-centered accountable care and community-integrated service delivery," said Nash, who served as a judge for the Prize. "Community Care of North Carolina's successful care transition program is an important contribution to the field of population health and its impact is far-reaching, as we hope other programs across the country will gain insights from this model."

Community Care of North Carolina earned the highest overall score for the following criteria established for the Hearst Health Prize: the program's population health impact or outcome, demonstrated by measurable improvement; use of evidence-based interventions and best practices to improve the quality of care; scalability and sustainability; promotion of engagement, collaboration and communication; and innovation. The evaluation was made by a distinguished panel of judges:

Nancy-Ann DeParle, JD

A. Mark Fendrick, MD

Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS

H. Stephen Lieber, CAE

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD

David B. Nash, MD, MBA

Valinda Rutledge, MBA, MSN

James M. Schibanoff, MD

Mark D. Smith, MD, MBA

"I was impressed with the Hearst Health Prize applications, which were incredibly inspiring," said A. Mark Fendrick, MD, director, Center for Value-Based Insurance Design and a professor in the department of Internal Medicine and the department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan, and one of the judges. "I have served on a number of award selection committees, but have yet to be in a situation with so many outstanding and worthy applications."

Community Care of North Carolina was the winner among three finalists. The two other finalists for the Hearst Health Prize were:

Centering Healthcare Institute for CenteringPregnancy, an innovative approach to prenatal care that has reached more than 125,000 pregnant women in 400 practice sites across the country. It is a group care delivery model that brings together women with similar due dates for an extended time with their clinical provider to receive three components of care: health assessment, interactive learning and community building.

Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health for the Wealth from Health, Inc. program, which provides incentives to engage patients, families and caregivers in education, care management and healthy behaviors. It serves adults and children with complex chronic diseases, including asthma, sickle-cell anemia, HIV, renal stage disease and behavioral health issues (approximately 2,500 individuals).

The call for submissions for next year's Hearst Health Prize will open in the spring of 2016. For more details about the Hearst Health Prize, go to http://www.jefferson.edu/HearstHealthPrize.

About Hearst Health

The Hearst Health network includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health, MCG, Homecare Homebase, Hearst Health International, Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab (http://www.hearsthealth.com). The mission of the Hearst Health network is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person's health journey. Each year in the U.S., care guidance from the Hearst Health network reaches 84 percent of discharged patients, 174 million insured individuals, 41 million home health visits, and 4 billion prescriptions.

About the Jefferson College of Population Health

The Jefferson College of Population Health (JCPH) is the first and only school of its kind in the country. Established in 2008, it is part of Thomas Jefferson University, a leading academic health center founded in Philadelphia in 1824 as Jefferson Medical College (now Sidney Kimmel Medical College). The College is dedicated to exploring the policies and forces that define the health and well-being of populations. Its mission is to prepare leaders with global vision to examine the social determinants of health and to evaluate, develop and implement health policies and systems that will improve the health of populations and thereby enhance the quality of life. Jefferson College of Population Health provides exemplary graduate academic programming in population health, public health, health policy, healthcare quality and safety, and health economics outcomes research. Its educational offerings are enhanced by research, publications and continuing education and professional development offerings in these areas.

About Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC)

CCNC is a community-based, public-private partnership that takes a population management approach to improving health care and containing costs for North Carolina's most vulnerable populations. Through its 14 local network partners, CCNC creates "medical homes" in all 100 counties for Medicaid beneficiaries, individuals that are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, privately-insured employees and uninsured people. http://www.communitycarenc.com

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/3/7/11G086516/Images/HearstHealthPrize_new-e1a275d367f48d02a301ca3cd787ec6e.jpg


Even if Donald Trump is really richas he reminds the world frequentlyhe doesnt have nearly enough money to fund a general-election campaign, if he ends up being the Republican nominee for president.

Trump has made it this far mostly by self-funding his campaign, with help from donors who have sent in around $7.5 million in contributions of $2,700 or less. But that model wont work in the fall if its Trump v. the Democratic nominee, most likely Hillary Clinton. Well see an end to the self-funding if he becomes the nominee, says Republican strategist Ford OConnell, who worked on the 2008 McCain-Palin campaign. Hell have to raise in excess of $1 billion.

Republican donors have plenty of money to give, but Trump is in a tricky spot because he has sworn off super PACs, the groups able to raise unlimited amounts from wealthy contributors. Trump says donors writing six-, seven- or eight-figure checks have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long, and has vowed not to accept big donations.

But hes going to need a lot of money from somewhere. Trump has said hell spend up to $100 million of his own funds on the campaign, while insisting hes worth around $10 billion and has at least $600 million in liquid assets, should he need cash in a hurry. Some analysts say Trump greatly overstates his wealth, and hes not completely self-funding his campaign, given the prominent DONATE buttons on his web site. Whatever the size of Trumps bank account, hell need outside money to compete in the general election if all he does is fulfill his pledge of spending $100 million.

In the 2012 presidential race, each side spent around $1 billion, including outlays by the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns, super PACs supporting each, and the Republican and Democratic national committees that did a lot of politicking on behalf of their candidates. Trump has run a very thrifty campaign so far, spending about $25 million through the end of January. But the general election will be far costlier, with Hillary Clintons campaign saying it could spend as much as $2 billion.

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What will Trump do? Here are three scenarios:

Embrace super PACs. It would be a flip-flop if he did, but maybe that wont matter. He could just change his mind, like he does with everything else, says Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. It hasnt hurt him so far. And Trump could benefit from super PAC money while still keeping his distance from such groups. Though theyre often aligned with a particular campaign, super PACs must, officially, be independent, and theyre not even supposed to coordinate with a candidate. Democrat Bernie Sanders denounces super PACs, yet theres at least one that campaigns on his behalf, without his approval. Trump could claim the same hands-off arrangement, saying he cant control what other people do with their money.

In 2012, Romney hauled in about $316 million from big donors, most of it coming through super PACs. Obama raised $423 million from big donors. That money is crucial for funding attack ads, robocalls, mailings and other types of electioneering. Would the GOPs moneyed donors pony up for Trump, who has smashed china in just about every chamber of the GOP establishment? He can attract good GOP fundraisers, says Fred Malek, a longtime Republican power broker. They may not be wildly enthusiastic about Trump as a candidate, but theres a desire to win and a fear the country has gone dramatically off track.

Accept public funding from the government. Though it has fallen out of favor, the government still offers public fundingfinanced by the $3 donation taxpayers can make voluntarily when they fill out their tax formsto presidential candidates in the general election who agree not to accept donations from other sources. The last presidential candidate to do this was John McCain in 2008, with Obama and Romney both deciding in 2012 to forego public funding because they figured they could raise more from donors (which they did). Still, this could be a shrewd tactic for Trump. The maximum amount of public funding available this year is $96 million. Trump so far has only spent about $18 million of the $100 million in personal funds he pledged to spend, so if he took the $96 million for the general election, to a large extent he'd be using public funds instead of his own. His campaignb wouldn't be able to raise money from ordinary donors, but nothing would prohibit super PACs and the Republican National Committee from campaigning on Trumps behalf. So he still might have hundreds of millions of dollars at his disposal, which Trump might be able to stretch pretty far, given his talent for generating free media coverage. .

Accepting public funding could accentuate Trumps populist appeal and toss a curve ball to his Democratic competitor. Hed have a real leg up on Clinton if he went the public funding route, says OConnell. Clinton is already battling the perception that shes too cozy with Wall Street banks, and shes got a well-funded super PAC thats sure to get fatter as Election Day nears. Trump, by contrast, could portray himself as the champion of the $3 donor if he plays it right.

Continue to go it alone. Trump could reject all of these ideas and continue to run a thrifty campaign, mostly on his own dime, thats heavily dependent on free exposure. For one thing, the conventional wisdom on the amount of funding needed to win the presidency might be wrong. I dont think you need a billion, says Malek. A lot of it gets wasted. At the end of the day youre throwing money at some long shot states. Trump already eschews the pricey consultants, sprawling ground operation and other trappings of traditional campaigns, so its not like he would have to downsize.

Trump might also turn out to be the first presidential candidate to replace conventional campaigning with vigorous social media activity. Social networks were a factor in 2012, but more people are on Twitter and Facebook now, plus Trump has pioneered a new tactic: Make provocative statements on Twitter that help him gain free airtime to explain what he meant to say (and anything else thats on his mind). "Trump may be proving that a lot of the old truisms of politics are wrong," says Kondik. Trump said recently, for instance, that hell counter attack ads run on radio and TV stations in Florida by responding on Facebook and Twitter. Commercials cost thousands of dollars to produce. An account on Facebook or Twitter is free. Whether Trump succeeds may depend not on how much he spends, but on how little.

Rick Newmans latest book is Liberty for All: A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.
By Balazs Koranyi

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Cyprus might soon be excluded from the European Central Bank's bond-buying programme because its credit rating is below investment grade and it is likely to exit its bailout programme at the end of March, an ECB spokesman said on Tuesday.

Cyprus is expected to conclude its bailout programme without maintaining a precautionary credit line, because it can fund itself after three years of financial aid and reforms, Cypriot and European officials said earlier.

The ECB had waived the minimum credit rating requirement for Cyprus, but the waiver was conditional on the country's being in a programme.

So the end of the bailout may mean that the ECB would have to stop buying Cypriot government debt in its 1.5 trillion-euro quantitative easing scheme.

"Lifting of the waiver/loss of the eligibility for the Public Sector Purchase Programme are a consequence of collateral rules and the end of the programme," an ECB spokesman told Reuters.

However, a source familiar with the situation said the consequence of falling out of QE should be limited for the country's banks, since they have improved their funding positions in recent quarters.

Analysts said Cyprus could be a test case for much bigger Portugal, which has just one investment grade rating left, putting the country at risk of dropping out of QE in case of a downgrade.

"Were DBRS to downgrade its Portuguese rating when it is next scheduled to review it on 29 April, Portugals bonds could become ineligible under the current rules," UBS said in a note to clients.

"We will be watching developments around purchases of Cyprus for clues on what might happen to purchases in the - much larger  Portuguese bond market if DBRS decides to downgrade Portugal," it added.

The ECB did not buy any Cypriot bonds in February and so far has purchased just 285 million euros worth of the countrys sovereign debt, compared with 140 billion euros worth of German bonds.

The ECB Governing Council could still come up with a new waiver for Cyprus, but its past behaviour on collateral waivers for other countries exiting bailouts suggests that it is unlikely to do so.

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Cypriot Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said he expected a continuation of policies that have eliminated the public deficit would ensure further upgrades by credit rating agencies. That in turn would bring down state borrowing costs, currently just over 4 percent.

"We need investment-grade (ratings)," he said.

The country's best rating, a BB- from S&P, is still three notches below investment grade.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, editing by Larry King)
By Sujata Rao

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays' decision to sell down its stake in a Johannesburg-listed venture is a consequence of past mistakes at European banks rather than a reflection of Africa's future prospects, South Africa's finance minister said.

Emerging markets are often "victims of policymaking" by developed nations and it is wrong to blame them entirely for recent problems such as the collapse in economic growth and the huge capital outflows they face, Pravin Gordhan told Reuters.

Recent news that Barclays Plc (BARC.L) would sell a 62 percent stake in Barclays Africa, reducing it to a minority holding, was seen by many as another blow for a continent hit hard by China's slowdown and low commodity prices.

But Gordhan rejected that idea.

"Barclays is not about Africa," he told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of an investment roadshow in London.

"It's about Europe and European banks and the way they mismanaged their affairs and...found themselves in difficulties in terms of capital requirements that the financial stability board established by the G20 and British authorities required of them for overseas operations."

He was referring to rules brought in after the 2008 financial crisis that make it more expensive from a capital perspective for banks to hold stakes in other banking organizations.

These rules would force more European banks to retreat from overseas markets in coming years, leaving U.S. and possibly Chinese lenders in the fray, he predicted.

Barclays' Africa chief has also said Barclays' move did not reflect on Africa, noting a 10 percent annual profit rise and 17 percent return on equity (ROE) there. The parent company has cut back across emerging markets, aiming to become a "transatlantic" bank with a U.S. and UK focus.

But in pounds, the numbers look less rosy. ROE for instance falls to 8.7 percent, below the parent bank's 11 percent target.

Legacy issues are also hurting: Barclays has doubled its provisions against regulatory missteps.

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"Barclays Africa will expand its operations and customer base and create more service centres in different parts of Africa... it will remain as an entity and thrive. What changes is the ownership of the enterprise," Gordhan added.

World powers need to find ways to direct surplus capital into long-term projects such as infrastructure rather than into short-term yield-seeking trades, he urged.

"Yes there are domestic issues each of the EMs have, but it's wrong to point fingers at EMs when all of us recognise that the side effects or the ramifications of the 2008-2009 great recession are still being felt around the globe," Gordhan said.

"Whenever it's convenient, emerging economies become less favoured and become victims of policymaking within advanced economies," he added.

South Africa embodies many of emerging markets' problems.

Appointed last December after the sudden sacking of a predecessor, Gordhan is battling to boost South Africa's growth which is running below 1 percent and to persuade ratings agencies not to cut his country's credit rating to junk.

Investors appear unconvinced however, despite Gordhan's prudent budget unveiled last month. A public spat between him and revenue service chief Tom Moyane has sapped confidence, and there are worries about whether Gordhan has the full backing of President Jacob Zuma.

Gordhan noted that his roadshow incorporated government officials, private sector leaders and representatives of South Africa's powerful trade unions, indicating a shared understanding of the country's challenges.

"We understand growth is the key issue, if that denominator changes everything changes with it," he said, adding that the budget's fiscal measures demonstrated the government's determination to act on the deficit.

On the alleged clash with Moyane, Gordhan said only:

"Mr Moyane is merely the administrative head of an entity and you cannot equate a minister in a government with the head of an administration."

"The president a week ago expressed confidence in the minister of finance, that's why the minister is here with his team and private sector team to meet with people who are invested in the South African economy," he added.

(Reporting by Sujata Rao; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Adam Jeffery | CNBC. "I think the iPhone is still, probably, the most valuable product in the world, and should continue that way for some time," John Sculley said.

While real estate mogul Donald Trump is known for controversial statements, the GOP front-runner's persona may be a strategically formulated facade, according to former Apple CEO John Sculley.

"What Donald does is he understands, just like Steve Jobs did, the master of perception," Sculley told " Closing Bell" on Monday. "He can create something where people don't care about the facts; what they care about is that he's appealing to the disappearing middle class."

The former executive said Monday that Trump's "smarter than the critics are giving him credit for." He predicts that in the scenario where Trump becomes the Republican nominee he will "pivot."

"He will change the perception for himself to be much more presidential; he still won't worry about the facts," Sculley said. "But he will come across much more as a leader and presidential than he's tried to."

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has been leading the delegate count despite losing both Kansas and Nebraska to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders this weekend. In the scenario that Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she could have former GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush's fate upon her, Sculley contended.

"[Trump] positioned Bush so that Jeb never recovered," he said. "That's exactly what he's going to try to do to Hillary Clinton."

Sculley said Trump redefined the image of Bush and Hillary could suffer the same fate in a general election contest.

But the challenges for Trump extend beyond his opponents, other GOP members are aggressively opposing him becoming the Republican Party's nominee. Last week, former presidential nominee Mitt Romney made a speech where he warned the audience against Trump.

"If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished," Romney said.

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Still, Sculley contends that Trump is "very, very smart and he gives the impression that he doesn't take time to study facts, [but] let's expect that he knows a lot more."

 CNBC's Javier David contributed to this article.





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Former investment adviser at JPMorgan Chase & Co Michael Oppenheim exits U.S. federal courthouse in Manhattan, New York November 5, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former JPMorgan Chase & Co investment adviser was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday after admitting that he stole at least $20 million from client accounts to fund a gambling addiction and to trade in stock options.

Michael Oppenheim, 49, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres to forfeit almost $20.2 million and pay restitution to JPMorgan after pleading guilty in November to charges of embezzlement and securities fraud.

According to U.S. prosecutors and securities regulators, Oppenheim worked with about 500 wealthy clients as a vice president and private client adviser in JPMorgan's midtown Manhattan offices.

Prosecutors said that from 2008 to 2015, Oppenheim persuaded clients to let him withdraw some of their money, in some cases millions of dollars, falsely claiming he would invest it in low-risk municipal bonds.

In other cases, Oppenheim, who lived in Livingston, New Jersey, simply took their money without permission, prosecutors said.

In court papers, Oppenheim's lawyer, Paul Shechtman, had urged Torres to be lenient in sentencing, saying his crime, while serious, was fueled by a "pathological gambling addiction that has haunted him for much of his adult life."

At the time of Oppenheim's initial arrest in April 2015, JPMorgan issued a statement saying it had alerted U.S. authorities to the matter, noting that it was "angry that this person violated the trust our clients place in us."

The case is U.S. v. Oppenheim, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-548.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley arrives at the parliament to present the federal budget for the 2016/17 fiscal year, in New Delhi, February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on Tuesday dropped a controversial proposal to tax pension withdrawals, caving in after an outcry by salaried workers threatened to undermine his party's prospects in upcoming state elections.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed in his Feb. 29 budget taxing lump-sum withdrawals exceeding 40 percent of an individual's retirement pot in the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), unless the sum is reinvested in an annuity.

At present, withdrawals from the EPF are tax-free.

The tax proposal sparked a backlash from small but vocal professional class, with some calling it a raid on the retirement savings of honest taxpayers. Only around 36 million of the country's 1.3 billion people contribute to the EPF.

The move also drew flak from opposition parties, forcing the government to change tack ahead of elections in five states in April and May in which Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eyes gains.

"The policy objective is not to get more revenue but to encourage the people to join the pension scheme," Jaitley said in a statement to lawmakers.

The climbdown underscores the challenges for vital but politically-sensitive economic reforms in Asia's third-largest economy. Protests by farmers last year forced Modi to abandon a bill to simplify rules for industrial land sales in India.

Critics of the surprise budget announcement say Modi should instead be looking to widen its revenue base and charge lower income tax rates to put the public finances on a steadier footing, rather than milk existing taxpayers for more revenue.

One aide said that Modi had intervened directly in the matter. "He felt that this will discourage people from using traditional means of saving," the official said.

Country's urban middle class, which mostly supported Modi in the 2014 general election, has shown resentment over a rise in its tax burden.

Apart from imposing a levy to fund Modi's clean India initiative, the government has taxed away half the windfall of a slump in oil prices. This year's budget hiked taxes on cars and aviation fuel, and introduced a new tax surcharge to pay for measures to aid the rural poor.

(Additional reporting by Rupam Jain,; Editing by Douglas Busvine & Shri Navaratnam)
French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said the goverment backed energy giant EDF's plan to build a nuclear plant in the UK: "The state, as the holder of a comfortable majority of the shares, fully supports the management team." (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini) (AFP/File)

Paris (AFP) - The French government supports the management of energy giant EDF and the "very profitable" plan to build a next-generation nuclear plant in Britain, despite the resignation of the company's finance director, Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said Monday.

"The state, as the holder of a comfortable majority of the shares, fully supports the management team," Macron said. "We re-affirm our full support for the project" to build the plant at Hinkley Point in southwest England, which will be "very profitable over the next 30 years", he added.
Germany is seeking a longer-term solution to the migrant crisis, a key ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel told CNBC, as European Union (EU) leaders came to a tentative deal with Turkey to stem the flow of people into Europe.

Michael Fuchs, vice chairman of Merkel's central-right party, the Christian Democratic Union, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that a solution to the crisis needed to be found at the source of the human influx.

"We need to have a solution which is including Syria and also Libya because both countries are still filled with refugees which are trying to enter either via Turkey into Europe or directly from Libya into Italy," Fuchs said.

But he admitted that working with migrants' home countries could be difficult.

"One of the problems is, for instance in Libya, to whom to talk. There are three different groups fighting each other: who to talk to? They don't have a foreign minister to talk to," Fuchs said.

The comments came after the European Union and Turkey agreed on Monday night local time the outlines of a deal designed to stem the tide of migrants that has flowed into Europe over the past six months.

Turkey agreed to take back migrants who crossed into Europe from its soil. In return, the EU may increase the 3 billion euros ($3.31 billion) of aid already set for Turkey to deal with the migrant crisis; it could also ease visa requirements for Turks traveling to Europe, as well as potentially expedite Turkey's talks to join the EU.

Speaking in Hong Kong, where he was set to deliver a speech at the Asia Society, Fuchs underlined the need for a speedy resolution to the issue.

"We have over a million refugees already in Germany, which is quite a lot," he said. Those figures are likely related to the number of asylum seekers in the country. "We have to find solutions because it cannot be double or three times more, because then it's coming to a difficult situation."

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The U.N. has estimated that more than a million migrants arrived in Europe via sea in 2015. Others have crossed into Europe overland from Turkey, which itself is estimated to be hosting around two million Syrian refugees. The U.N. also estimates more than 131,000 reached Europe through the Mediterranean so far this year. Southern European countries, Greece in particular, are struggling with the flow of people.

Many are fleeing civil war in Syria, although many are coming from impoverished countries in Africa and the Middle East and are seen as economic migrants rather than asylum seekers.

The flow of migrants has eaten away at European solidarity, creating deep tensions within the region and between countries. Austria, the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, which are conduits for migrants heading to richer northern Europe, have refused migrants entry. Some have closed borders and opposed the EU's plans to resettle migrants throughout the bloc using a quota system.

Germany, meanwhile, has been fiercely criticized by other EU nations for opening its borders for a period, which some EU leaders said encouraged additional migration.

But so far, Germany is sticking with its acceptance of refugees.

"The humanitarian way is still the best one," Fuchs said. "Germany is a big country and we are a rich country."

Holly Ellyatt contributed to this article.

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By CNBC.Com's Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter @LeslieShaffer1





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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greece must introduce a pension reform that will be credible and make the budget sustainable in the medium term, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday.

Dijsselbloem was speaking before a meeting of the ministers -- also Greece's biggest lenders -- who are to assess if the country has delivered on promises of reforms that were the condition for emergency loans from the euro zone.

"Let me make quite clear that we need credible and sustainable pension reforms and the budget needs to be on track also in the medium term," Dijsselbloem said.

Euro zone lenders and the International Monetary Fund have diverging views on how ambitious Greece's reforms, including on pensions, need to be to make the Greek economy sustainable.

But Dijsselbloem said the concerns were shared.

"That is not just something that concerns the IMF. It is something that concerns all the institutions and the Eurogroup. We need to stick to the agreement we had last summer: how to do that, how the pension reform will work out, what fresh fiscal measures are needed. Maybe we will hear today," he said.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
BRUSSELS, March 8 (Reuters) - The European Commission warned on Tuesday five EU states, including Italy and France, that they had excessive economic imbalances which weigh on their growth and need to be corrected.

The EU executive is in charge of monitoring public finances in the 28-nation bloc and of issuing warnings over potential bottlenecks in economies before the develop into crises.

Oversight procedures give the European Commission the power to reject national budgets and impose fines on countries that do not correct their imbalances, but so far the EU executive has refrained from pushing for sanctions.

This year's monitoring showed that Italy, France, Portugal, Croatia and Bulgaria had excessive imbalances, mostly due to large debts, high unemployment rates and weak banking systems.

The five countries were singled out already in last year's monitoring.

Another seven countries had regular imbalances, although deemed not excessive, the Commission said. They are Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Slovenia.

Last year, 16 of the 28 EU countries had imbalances, while this year the number has dropped to 12 since Belgium, Hungary, Romania and Britain are no longer considered to need special monitoring.

The Commission's analysis excluded Greece and Cyprus because they are monitored through separate bailout programmes.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Jan Strupczewski)
(Adds Renzi's quotes)

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS, March 7 (Reuters) - Italy's 2016 budget is at risk of breaking European Union fiscal rules even if Rome is granted all possible fiscal leeway by the European Commission, euro zone finance ministers said in a joint statement on Monday.

Italy has the second largest debt in the European Union after Greece and is running an expansionary budget in 2016 in a bid to revive sluggish growth.

This puts Rome at odds with EU fiscal rules which require significant cuts in public debt for countries with excessive indebtedness and corrections to reduce the structural deficit.

Stretching the rules, Rome asked for nearly 10 billion euros of further deficit spending in 2016 and urged the Commission, which monitors euro zone national budget plans, to grant it flexibility allowed by the rules.

The Commission will decide in May on Italy's request.

But euro zone finance ministers made clear in a joint statement on Monday that "even if the maximum potential additional flexibility is granted, the risk of a significant deviation (from EU budget rules) may remain."

To be in line with EU rules, Italy may be forced to find additional revenue to plug its fiscal gap this year, but Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi rejected such concerns.

"Italy's finances are completely safe. There will be no need for more revenues. There is nothing to be afraid of," Renzi told reporters in the early hours of Tuesday.

Finance ministers, gathered in Brussels for a regular monthly meeting, also raised concerns about Italy's debt which is to decline this year, but not by as much as the rules stipulate.

Italy's debt is projected at 132.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product in the latest economic forecasts of the EU Commission.

If a euro zone country does not respect EU fiscal rules, it can be subject to tighter monitoring procedures which are likely to affect its financing costs. EU financial sanctions are also foreseen for countries who repeatedly breach the rules, although they have never been applied.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio)
Jim Strugger of MKM Holdings suggested on Bloomberg Markets that investors should consider taking a long position in iShares MSCI Germany Index Fund (ETF) (NYSE: EWG) ahead of the ECB meeting. He wants to use options and buy the April 25 calls for $0.45.

Strugger also spoke about Diamond Resorts International Inc (NYSE: DRII). The stock is interesting for him because it might go private or become a takeover target. He thinks that there is going to be an announcement until August. If the deal happens or the company goes private, the stock should be valued between $32 to $35, thinks Strugger. To make a bullish bet, he wants to buy the August 25 call and sell two August 35 calls. He would have to pay a net premium of $2 for the trade.

The breakeven for the trade is at $27, but the profit is capped at $35 and it can maximally reach $8. Above $35, profit starts to decrease and it becomes negative above $43.

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
The engine and tail section of a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet is seen in its hanger at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland October 28, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron (Reuters)

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp, known for making big, expensive military satellites that take years to complete, is setting ambitious targets for lowering costs, shortening the time it takes to build new satellites, and adopting new technologies.

Rick Ambrose, who heads Lockheed's space business, said his goal over the next three to five years was to shorten the time it took to develop a new satellite by 40 percent, and to get to a point where satellites could be reprogrammed for new missions while already in orbit.

Lockheed is scrambling to become more agile and lower its costs as the U.S. Air Force nears decisions on how to replace and augment the large missile warning and protected communications satellites that Lockheed builds.

"Ultimately (the government) is going to go to a new architecture, so by reducing the cost, it helps the government and it also helps us get to the future," Ambrose told Reuters in an interview on Monday at the annual Satellite 2016 conference.

Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and other firms are determined to wrestle away a portion of the satellite business that Lockheed now dominates. The Air Force has not yet released its acquisition plans for the new satellite systems.

Ambrose said Lockheed had already cut $2.8 billion in cost from its main satellite portfolio, including the Space-Based Infrared System missile warning satellites and the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) protected communications satellites.

It had also lowered operating costs by shutting facilities.

The company, which has built 850 satellites in past decades, was also trying to lower the cost of its Global Positioning System satellites, and had shaved 20 months off the time it took to finish the first GPS III satellite compared with the previous model it built.

Increasing the number of common parts among satellites and standardizing interfaces for payloads would also help reduce the time it took to build new satellites, Ambrose said.

Story continues

Lockheed is adopting new technologies such as 3D printing, in which components are built by putting down layer after layer of powdered metals, he said. That process could lower costs and dramatically shorten production time, he said.

Ambrose said Lockheed expected to complete testing of a 3D-printed 26-inch propellant tank in the second quarter, and had just begun work on a much larger 46-inch tank.

Lockheed already has a 3D printed part on its Juno spacecraft which is due to arrive near Jupiter on July 4, and the Air Force is now testing a 3D printed part for use on the next AEHF satellite, Ambrose said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal)
NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Tuesday said it followed normal procedures in sending via an electronic network funds that appeared to be requested by Bangladesh's central bank.

Bangladesh Bank on Monday said its account held by the Fed had been hacked and money stolen. The U.S. central bank's New York branch has said there is no evidence that its systems were attacked or compromised, suggesting the problem lies elsewhere in the chain of finance.

"The payment instructions in question were fully authenticated by the SWIFT messaging system in accordance with standard authentication protocols," said the New York Fed, which manages accounts for some 250 central banks, governments and other institutions globally.

"The Fed has been working with the (Bangladesh) central bank since the incident occurred, and will continue to provide assistance as appropriate," it said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
(Repeats for additional subscribers with no changes to the text.) (Adds comments from SWIFT)

March 8 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Tuesday that it followed normal procedures in transmitting funds that Bangladesh's central bank has said were stolen by cyber criminals from its Fed account.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued a brief statement on the incident a day after Bangladesh's central bank disclosed the theft, saying its account at the U.S. Federal Reserve had been hacked. The New York Fed has said there was no evidence that its systems had been compromised.

"The payment instructions in question were fully authenticated by the SWIFT messaging system in accordance with standard authentication protocols," said the statement from the New York Fed, which manages accounts for some 250 central banks, governments and other institutions globally.

"The Fed has been working with the (Bangladesh) central bank since the incident occurred, and will continue to provide assistance as appropriate," it said.

SWIFT, a Belgian-based provider of messaging services for banks, issued a short statement late on Tuesday saying it was looking at the case.

"SWIFT does not comment on individual users or messages, but can confirm it is in contact with the parties concerned," the statement said.

"Messages sent over SWIFT are authenticated between sending and receiving institutions. There is no indication that our network has been compromised," it said. SWIFT was founded as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication in 1973.

Some 250 central banks, governments, and other institutions have foreign accounts at the New York Fed, which is near the center of the global financial system. The accounts hold mostly U.S. Treasuries and agency debt, and requests for funds arrive and are authenticated by a so-called SWIFT network that connects banks.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York and Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Sandra Maler)
DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - Mar 7, 2016) - O.penVAPE, the world's largest cannabis brand, in partnership with TGIG, a Nevada medical cannabis enterprise with a state-of-the-art production and cultivation facility, has begun producing and distributing O.penVAPE's best-selling CO 2 extracted cannabis oils.

Denver-based O.penVAPE licenses products and manufacturing services in the medical and adult-use cannabis industry. Through its network of licensees in nine states and Jamaica, it is the largest extractor of cannabis oil in the United States.

Demetri Kouretas, CEO of TGIG, said its valuable relationship with O.penVAPE will make it possible for patients to obtain cannabis oil processed through CO 2 extraction, a pure and safer form of cannabis oil. His company has begun wholesaling O.penVAPE products to current operating dispensaries and plans to make O.penVAPE products available to all of southern Nevada's 48 dispensaries by the end of the year.

"Employing the science and technology that O.penVAPE has perfected, we are manufacturing superior cannabis oil for customers who have been requesting a way to ingest cannabis in safer measured doses," Kouretas said. "We researched partnerships with other manufacturers and selected O.penVAPE because we share with O.penVAPE's leaders similar views about access to medical cannabis. We simply got along well."

Chris Driessen, Chief Business Development Officer of O.penVAPE, said TGIG is one of two Nevada enterprises that have entered into licensee agreements with O.penVAPE. TGIG holds four Nevada state licenses, making it possible for them to cultivate cannabis, produce O.penVAPE cannabis oil, and distribute and sell cannabis flower and O.penVAPE products. Per Nevada law, TGIG's license covers the southern portion of the state, which includes the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite, Laughlin and Clark and Nye counties.

"This strategic partnership makes our premium products available to medical cannabis patients who are residents of Nevada," Driessen said. "With our national reach and more than 42 million visitors to Las Vegas alone, we are particularly excited about the reciprocity in license which allows medical cannabis card holders from any state to legally purchase cannabis here."

Story continues

Kouretas said that his business's growth will allow him to create at least 20 new cultivation and manufacturing jobs this year. TGIG has already produced O.penVAPE RESERVE pure-oil offering and O.penVAPE strain-specific CO 2 extracted oils in 250 mg cartridges. These products are now available at Inyo Fine Cannabis, 2520 S. Maryland Parkway, Ste, 2, Las Vegas NV 89109; Euphoria Wellness, 7780 S. Jones Blvd., Las Vegas NV 89139 and The Grove, 1541 E. Basin Ave., Pahrump, NV, 89060.

About TGIG

TGIG is a vertically integrated medical marijuana enterprise that has brought together a team of experts who bring an extensive depth of knowledge in myriad industries, such as medical and horticultural, as well as culinary and the cannabis oil industry, and is applying this experience to its operation. TGIG operates a state-of-the-art cultivation and production facility and is dedicated to curating its selection of strains so it can offer patients a high-quality alternative.

About O.penVAPE
gay mcd

McDonald's knows how to attract protests  this time from antigay religious groups.

Last Friday, McDonald's Taiwan posted an ad for McCafe to its Facebook page, featuring a young man coming out to his father.

The 90-second video shows an emotional moment between a father and son at a McCafe, in which the young man passes a coffee cup to his dad reading "I like boys," reports Adweek.

The father withdraws from the table, upset, leaving his son alone to collect himself. Then, the father returns and picks up his son's cup of coffee, modifying it to read "I accept that you like boys."

The Facebook video has now been viewed more than 3.6 million times, with the original post gaining more than 92,000 likes and 11,800 shares.

But not all viewers support the ad's heartwarming message.

Chang Shou-yi, the secretary general of the Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of Family, has called for a McDonald's boycott following the ad, reports Shanghaiist.

"Because McDonald's is frequented by many children, it is especially important to oppose the promotion of same-sex behavior," Chang said in a statement on the ad. The group "rebukes and boycotts all enterprises that are polluting the next generation."

Despite the hate, social-media response to the ad has been overwhelmingly positive, in Shanghai and as it has crossed over to Western media outlets.

Post by Pandora Boxx .

Beautiful ad from McDonalds Taiwan of a son coming out his dad. Great look into the changing minds in Taiwan. #LGBThttps://t.co/RLaPHutFwX  It Gets Better (@ItGetsBetter) March 8, 2016

At this point, LGBT-supportive marketing is pretty much the norm. Brands from Bud Light to KFC have taken to social media to support gay rights. Even Chick-fil-A, a chain whose president infamously discussed his opposition to same-sex marriage, has a franchisee who donated food to a gay-pride picnic in June.

Story continues

If advertising that supports gay customers is a deal-breaker for consumers, then there are few fast-food chains left where they can order.

NOW WATCH: We tried Taco Bells new Quesalupa





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US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and his wife Jill arrive at Israel's Ben Gurion International airport on March 8, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jack Guez) (AFP)

Dubai (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday hit out at the state of domestic American politics, saying former president Ronald Reagan would these days not even get his party's nomination.

Biden made his remarks to a group of young entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates during a tour of the Middle East, and before flying on to Israel.

Speaking just two days after the death of Reagan's widow Nancy, Biden said that in today's atmosphere the former president would not stand a chance.

"If Ronald Reagan were alive today seeking nomination, he could no more get the nomination of the Republican party than I could get the nomination," said the vice president, a Democrat.

He added that American politics had become "petty and venal", but that Americans would demand a change.

His remarks came during a question and answer session when he turned to the state of American politics, saying unpopular but necessary decisions to rescue faltering banks during the financial crisis had led to a growing sense of anger.

"We are reaping the downside of what has become a nasty political environment," he said.

A political shift among conservatives towards the extreme right -- in part caused, he said, by the redrawing of congressional districts -- is becoming evident in the current election cycle.

Biden said this has squeezed out mainstream conservative ideology.

He spoke as US voters cast ballots in White House primaries in Michigan and Mississippi, with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton favoured to win their parties' latest tests of strength.
Produced in partnership with the IP & Science division of Thomson Reuters, the ranking factors in patent filings, published academic articles, performance and more

NEW YORK, MARCH 8, 2016 - Alternative Energies & Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Fraunhofer Society and Japan Science & Technology Agency top the Reuters Top 25 Global Innovators ranking of government research institutions. North America has seven institutions on the list include the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (No.4), the U.S. Department of Energy (No.8), the U.S. Department for Veteran Affairs (No.12) and the National Research Council of Canada (No.14).

Silicon Valley`s hoodie-wearing tech entrepreneurs are the poster kids of innovation. But the innovators who are really changing the world are more likely to wear suits and hold civil service jobs in Grenoble, Munich or Tokyo. That`s the conclusion of Reuters` Top 25 Global Innovators - Government, a list that identifies and ranks the publicly funded institutions doing the most to advance science and technology. It took a government agency to put a man on the moon, and even in the age of the Internet, governments are still moving science and technology forward. They do pure research that private companies often find it hard to justify and afford, and make discoveries that launch entire industries: publicly funded organizations split the atom, invented the Internet, and mapped the human genome.

European institutions dominate the list, accounting for nine out of 25 ranked institutions, more than any other continent. Asia comes in second with eight institutions. North America might have only seven institutions on the list, but taken on a country-by-country basis, the United States dominates, with six organizations ranked. France and Japan each have four, and Germany has three.

To compile the ranking, the IP & Science division of Thomson Reuters began by identifying more than 500 global organizations - including universities, nonprofit charities, and government-funded institutions - that published the most articles in academic journals. Then they identified the total number of patents filed by each organization and evaluated each candidate on factors including how many patents it filed, how often those applications were granted, how many patents were filed to global patent offices in addition to local authorities and how often the patents were cited by other patents. Candidates were also evaluated in terms of the number of articles published by researchers in academic journals, how often those papers were cited by patents and how many articles featured a co-author from industry. Finally, they trimmed the list so that it only included government-run or funded organizations, and then ranked them based on their performance.

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For more on the Reuters Top 25 Global Innovators - Government, including a detailed methodology and profiles of the institutions, visit www.reuters.com/global-innovators-government.

The Reuters Top 25 Global Innovators - Government

1 Alternative Energies & Atomic Energy Commission (France) 2 Fraunhofer Society (Germany) 3 Japan Science & Technology Agency (Japan) 4 U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (U.S.) 5 National Center for Scientific Research (France) 6 Korea Institute of Science & Technology (South Korea) 7 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan) 8 U.S. Department of Energy (U.S.) 9 Agency for Science, Technology & Research (Singapore) 10 French Institute of Health & Medical Research (France) 11 Helmholtz Association (Germany) 12 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (U.S.) 13 RIKEN (Japan) 14 National Research Council of Canada (Canada) 15 Max Planck Society (Germany) 16 Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) 17 Pasteur Institute International Network (France) 18 National Institute for Materials Science (Japan) 19 United States Navy (U.S.) 20 Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (Australia) 21 Spanish National Research Council (Spain) 22 Academica Sinica (Taiwan) 23 United States Army (U.S.) 24 National Aeronautics & Space Administration (U.S.) 25 Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian Federation)

Reuters

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Source: Thomson Reuters Corporation via GlobeNewswire

HUG#1992857


Florida Senator Marco Rubio is doubling down on his hometown state by vigorously campaigning there all this week. Over the weekend, Rubio had a disappointing showing on Super Saturday with third and fourth place finishes. He won the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday, his second win of the election season, but it hasnt done much to boost his standing.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is doubling down on his hometown state by vigorously campaigning there all this week. Over the weekend, Rubio had a disappointing showing on Super Saturday with third and fourth place finishes. He won the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday, his second win of the election season, but it hasnt done much to boost his standing.

Seriously Puerto Rico will not provide any momentum for Marco Rubio, but the thing about this Republican race is that it is so weird; We have never seen anything like it before, said Stephen Craig, a political science professor at the University of Florida.

If Rubio cant win Florida, he is dead meat. The question is whether winning Florida would be enough.

According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, Rubio trails Trump by 16% in Florida, with 28% support from likely Republican primary voters compared to Trumps 44%.

Before the winner- take-all primary on March 15, GOP candidates must win the Tuesday presidential contests in the states of Hawaii, Mississippi, Michigan and Idaho.

Craig says there are no indicators at this point that suggest Rubio cant turn the race in a new direction, however with the shift to new battleground states, he says Ohio Governor John Kasich could be more of a threat to him than [Texas Senator] Ted Cruz.

In a new Monmouth University poll, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump ranks first place among Republican primary voters in Michigan with 36%, while Cruz and Kasich are vying for second place. Cruz has 23%, close behind is Kasich with 21% and Rubio comes in fourth with 13%.

In a recent American Research Group (ARG) poll, however, Governor Kasich pulls ahead of Trump in Michigan. The survey conducted March 4-5 shows Kasich with 33% compared to Trumps 31% support among GOP primary voters in the Great Lakes State. This is a dramatic shift from the February poll, where Kasich had 17% compared to Trump with 35%.

Lets wait and see if Kasich can emerge in the Midwest, and certainly with Ohio coming up he could have a chance, said Craig. If Trump wins Michigan that will set him up well for March 15.

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On Sunday during a campaign rally in Idaho Falls, Rubio asked the crowd of nearly a thousand people for their help on Tuesday.

Its crunch time here. I need to win, said Rubio. He went on to tell supporters he is the conservative candidate that can actually win the presidency: Im the only one left who can unite us.

As the Rubio campaign zeroes in on the Sunshine State, Craig says there is no guarantee for a home state advantage or that Rubios strong endorsements will actually help.

Florida is definitive; If Rubio loses I dont see how he has any credibility if he cant win in Florida. If he does win in Florida, I still dont think he has much unless he wins one of these big states somewhere else, said Craig. Florida Republicans want their vote to count so if he looks like he is dead meat, why waste your vote on him?

Rubio was scheduled to hold a rally in Tampa, Florida Monday at 5 p.m. ET.

Related Articles
russia rocket

Russia just joined a new kind of space race: The race to develop reusable rockets to ferry wealthy people into space.

Space tourism is a growing business opportunity made possible by the advent of reusable rocket technology, which has only begun to take off in the last year.

In the lead are the privately owned American space companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but Russia's private space company KosmoKurs could soon offer some healthy competition.

Last week, Russia's space agency Roscosmos approved KosmoKurs' designs for a reusable rocket and spacecraft that could transport tourists into space, 124 miles above Earth's surface.

The approval puts into motion the design for a reusable space launch system that KosmoKurs hopes to start flying in 2020.

Each flight will last 15 minutes. For about five to six minutes of that time, passengers will float around like astronauts on the International Space Station. This trip is similar to what Amazon Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin is offering.

Blue Origin has now flown two successful unmanned test flights with its New Shepard launch vehicle (shown below). When it will start selling tickets, and how much they will cost, is still unclear.

blue origin launch

The other company deeply invested in space tourism is Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic, which plans to take paying customers to about 62 miles above Earth's surface, providing about 4 minutes of weightlessness, in a rocket-powered plane called SpaceShipTwo.

White_Knight_Two_and_SpaceShipTwo_from_directly_below

Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo earlier this year, and says it will soon begin conducting thorough tests. A ticket for a seat on Virgin Galactic will cost you around $250,000  which is about the same as what KosmoKurs plans to charge.

According to the Russian state-owned news agency, TASS, KosmoKurs will charge between $200,000 to $250,000 per ticket.

That's certainly steep for the average person, but it's nowhere near the $70 million per seat that NASA is shelling out to Roscosmos to send its astronauts into space.

Story continues

(In case you are wondering where SpaceX fits into all of this  it doesn't. SpaceX is in the business of transporting satellites and other payloads into space. Eventually it will transport astronauts, but it is not in the space tourism business.)

NOW WATCH: Watch Scott Kelly's awesome reaction to landing safely on Earth after his record-breaking time in space





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Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont needs a very strong showing in Michigans Democratic primary Tuesday night to keep alive his faint hopes of somehow overtaking former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidential nomination  but the political gods appear to be arrayed against him.

After taking a beating from Clinton in South Carolina and a string of other southern states with large African American populations, Sanders eyed Michigan, a major Midwestern industrial state with a smaller black population, as fertile ground for his campaign themes of income inequality, the abuses of Wall Street, a corrupt campaign finance system and unfair trade agreements like NAFTA that drove millions of U.S. jobs overseas.

Related: Could Clinton Choose Sanders as Her Vice President?

But Sanders has stumbled badly during the past week, especially during the two-hour nationally televised Democratic debate in Flint Sunday night, and has spent the fleeting hours of the Michigan campaign engaging in damage control.

A new NBC News/WSJ/Marist poll shows Clinton leading Sanders among likely Democratic primary voters by 17 points, 57 percent to 40 percent.

The survey shows Clinton once again far ahead of Sanders among African Americans, 76 percent to 21 percent, and favored by six in ten older men and women. Sanders, meanwhile, leads Clinton among independents, 60 percent to 36 percent, and those under the age of 45 by a margin of 61 percent to 36 percent. Their support is pretty evenly divided among white voters.

During Sunday nights debate, Sanders pummeled Clinton for her support of trade deals dating back to the 1990s and the administration of former President Bill Clinton, and for backing the 2009 financial bailout of Wall Street banks. He repeatedly attempted to connect those measures with economic decline in Michigan and other industrial centers.

Related: 18 Possible Picks for Hillarys Vice President

But Sanders was totally blindsided when Clinton blasted him for opposing an $82 billion relief package for the auto industry that was part of the larger TARP financial bailout legislation sought by President Obama in 2009. If everybody had voted the way he did, I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, Clinton declared, leaving Sanders shaking his head and complaining that she had delivered a low blow.

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Sanders the next day told supporters that Clinton had distorted his record and that in fact he had cast a vote in the Senate on Dec. 11, 2008, for an earlier version of an auto industry bailout that was never enacted. Sanders said that Clintons charge that Sanders had voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry was absolutely untrue, but it was too late to undo the damage.

There were plenty of other problems as well.

Sanders and Clinton have been tangling for months over gun control in the wake a spate of mass shootings. Clinton accused Sanders of opposing -- until recently -- tougher laws for regulating background checks of gun purchasers. She has also renewed her complaint that Sanders supported a 2005 bill that provided gun makers, sellers and trade associations with significant protection against lawsuits.

Related: Clinton and Sanders Demand Gov. Snyder Resign Over Flints Water Crisis

Sanders, who represents a small, rural state where guns are widely accepted, has occasionally sided with gun rights advocates on key legislation but other times has opposed their positions.

While he boasts of having a D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association, Sanders strayed into dangerous territory Sunday night in explaining his support for the legislation that shielded gun manufacturers from for liability for crimes committed by people who legally acquired their fire arms.

If you go to a gun store and you legally purchase a gun, and then, three days later, if you go out and start killing people, is the point of this lawsuit to hold the gun shop owner or the manufacturer of that gun liable?, Sanders said. If that is the point, I have to tell you I disagree.

Sanders didnt stop there. Warming to the subject, he warned that taken to a logical extreme, efforts to hold gun manufacturers and dealers responsible for crimes committed with guns they sold would cripple the gun industry. If they are selling a product to a person who buys it legally, what you're really talking about is ending gun manufacturing in America. I don't agree with that.

Related: How the Flint Drinking Water Crisis Became a Political Punching Bag

That is like the NRA position, Clinton protested.

And sure enough, the next day the NRA, the main lobby for the gun industry, tweeted that Sanderss position was spot on. It wasnt the type of endorsement Sanders and his campaign had been hoping for one day before the primary.

A spokesman for Clinton gleefully said that what more do we need to know about Sanderss record on gun control. Clinton supporters said that the NRAs compliment had proved that Sanders was out of step with most Democrats on the gun control issue.

Sanders had other problems at the debate: The 74-year-old senator seemed grumpy for much of the night. He frequently raised his eyebrows, grimaced and held up a finger to signal his displeasure with what Clinton was saying and to get the attention of the CNN moderator.

At one point he shushed the former first lady and said, Excuse me, Im talking. Clinton fired back: If youre going to talk, tell the whole story, to which Sanders replied: Let me tell my story, you tell yours.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
(Adds Shell comment, details, background)

CAPE TOWN, March 8 (Reuters) - South Africa will give the green light in the next 12 months to companies looking to explore for shale gas under the semi-arid Karoo basin, the government said on Tuesday, more than six years after firms such as Shell applied for licences.

Royal Dutch Shell, Falcon Oil & Gas and Bundu Gas & Oil are among five companies which have applied for exploration licences being reviewed by South Africa's Petroleum Agency, the regulator said on Tuesday.

The Petroleum Agency will submit its recommendations to the government by early May. The ministry of mineral resources will make the final decision on granting licenses.

"One area of real opportunity for South Africa is the exploration of shale gas," a statement from cabinet ministers responsible for the economy said.

"Exploration activities are scheduled to commence in the next financial year. This will lead to excellent prospects for beneficiation and add value to our mineral wealth."

Shell said last March it was pulling back from shale gas projects in South Africa due to lower energy prices and delays in obtaining exploration licences.

The energy major, however, said on Tuesday it could still have an interest in exploring in the Karoo.

"Should attractive commercial terms be put in place, the Karoo project could compete favourably within Shell's global tight/shale gas and oil portfolio," the company told Reuters.

The Karoo region is believed to hold up to 390 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas reserves.

A study commissioned by Shell said extracting 50 trillion cubic feet or 12.8 percent of potential reserves, would add $20 billion or 0.5 percent of GDP to the South African economy every year for 25 years and create 700,000 jobs.

Green groups and land owners in the Karoo, a vast semi-desert wilderness stretching across the heart of South Africa, have argued that exploring for shale by fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, would cause huge environmental damage.

Pretoria has been accused of dragging its heels in finalising policy for gas and oil exploration.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Additional reporting by Ed Cropley; Writing by Joe Brock, editing by David Evans)
Beirut (AFP) - Syria's regime said Monday it would attend renewed peace talks in Geneva starting March 14, but the opposition was still considering whether to go despite a major lull in fighting.

The United Nations is hoping to restart peace talks that collapsed last month, building on a ceasefire that has led to the first significant decline in violence in Syria's nearly five-year civil war.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has said he hopes talks can begin from Thursday, but officials have indicated it could take several days of preparations before they can start.

A source close to the Syrian regime delegation told AFP it would attend the new round of talks starting from March 14.

But the opposition has sent mixed signals, with the head of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee, Riad Hijab, refusing to commit.

"The HNC will assess the situation in the coming days and we will take the appropriate decision," he said.

Hijab said a small HNC delegation would travel to Geneva "in the next two days" to meet the international task force monitoring the truce.

His statements appeared to be a step back from comments by HNC spokesman Riad Naasan Agha, who said the opposition delegation would arrive on Friday to take part in talks.

- Aid deliveries rise -

The truce between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels is part of the biggest diplomatic effort yet to resolve Syria's conflict, which has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Russia and the United States are on opposing sides of the conflict -- Moscow backs Assad and Washington supports the opposition -- but have made a concerted push for the truce and further peace efforts to succeed.

Observers say the partial truce, which does not apply to the Islamic State group or the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, has largely held despite widespread scepticism before it took effect.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said Sunday had been Syria's "calmest day" since the ceasefire began.

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Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the average number of daily civilian deaths had fallen by 90 percent since the truce came into force, with an 80 percent decline among soldiers and rebel forces.

Aid deliveries have also improved, with the UN delivering supplies on Monday to a key rebel bastion east of Damascus, the third distribution since the truce began on February 27.

World Food Programme spokesman Hussam al-Saleh said 22 trucks would distribute food, flour and medical supplies to Hammuriya, Jisreen and Beit Sawa in Eastern Ghouta.

Residents have taken advantage of the ceasefire to stage daily protests.

In Aleppo city, dozens of men demonstrated, carrying the three-starred tricolour of the uprising and banners reading: "The world's silence is louder than the barrel bombs of death."

But an anti-regime protest in northwest Idlib city ended abruptly after Al-Nusra fighters threatened to shoot demonstrators.

Moscow, which has provided a daily account of ceasefire violations, said the truce was still "in general" holding apart from unspecified "isolated provocations and shelling".

It said Russian planes were still carrying out strikes against IS and Al-Nusra in three provinces, including on the main IS stronghold of Raqa.

In September Russia began a campaign it says is targeting "terrorists", but has been accused of hitting non-jihadist rebels in support of Assad's forces.

- Vow to 'squeeze' IS -

South of Aleppo city, Al-Nusra Front and allied jihadists late Monday seized a set of strategic hilltops held by pro-regime forces at Al-Eis, detonating five car bombs during their offensive, the Observatory said.

"Fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Jund Al-Aqsa, and other groups seized the central Al-Eis hilltop and surrounding hills as well," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The hilltops are important because they reinforce the regime's presence in the outskirts of Aleppo and gave them a presence near the main highway south towards Damascus," he said.

A plan agreed by world powers last year calls for a ceasefire, the creation of a transitional body, the drafting of a new constitution and fresh elections.

The main sticking point has been the fate of Assad, whom the opposition insists must step down for any transition to work.

The HNC's Hijab said that if it attends, the issue of a "transitional governing body with no role for Assad" would top its agenda.

Beginning a Middle East visit, US Vice President Joe Biden admitted that finding a political solution would be difficult but there was no other choice.

"So as hard as it is, we have to keep trying to reach a political settlement," he told Abu Dhabi newspaper The National.
Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, and Napster creator Sean Parker all attended an exclusive event where the "main topic" was preventing Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination for president, reports The Huffington Post.

That event, the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum, is a conference hosted on a private island off the coast of Georgia.

In addition to those tech leaders, attendees this year included Republican Party leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former presidential adviser Karl Rove, and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The forum is closed to the press, so it's not clear to what degree the tech leaders actually discussed Trump, whose controversial bid for the Republican nomination in the general election has alienated many in the party.

The report also says that Cook got into a debate with Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas on the subject of Apple's ongoing battle with the FBI and cellphone encryption. According to the report, Cotton was "hostile" toward Cook in support of the FBI to the point where onlookers were "a little uncomfortable."

Still, as The Huffington Post reports, conservative political commentator Bill Kristol sent an e-mail dispatch from the event identifying Trump as "a specter" haunting the World Forum. Notably, Rove reportedly presented findings from a focus group suggesting that the public doesn't see Trump as "presidential."

Business leaders attend events like this all the time, so it's dangerous to assume their political leanings from their presence  Cook may well have made the trip just to get in to those kinds of arguments. But it certainly shows the political weight that Silicon Valley's top leaders command.

NOW WATCH: Facebook is bidding to live stream NFL games





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FAIRBANKS, AK--(Marketwired - Mar 8, 2016) - Aconex Limited (ASX: ACX), provider of a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry, today announced that the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) has adopted the Aconex platform to manage information and processes for a US$245-million project to upgrade the institution's 50-year-old power plant. The new plant will include a new 240,000 lb/hr boiler that will generate up to 17 megawatts of power and an extraction steam turbine that will provide enough steam to heat 3 million square feet of academic buildings, research facilities and housing.

Successful, on-time completion of the project is essential to Alaska's economic health. UAF provides Alaskans with critical educational and workforce development services and is ranked in the top 150 of the nearly 700 U.S. academic institutions that conduct research. It is also a founding member of the University of the Arctic, a consortium of colleges, universities and research institutions dedicated to building strong education and research networks that address the needs of the circumpolar North, including an understanding of climate change.

UAF's day-to-day activities are dependent on the aging Atkinson Heat and Power Plant. Two cracks were recently discovered in the existing boilers, raising the specter of a catastrophic outage. Nearly every facility on the Fairbanks campus would suffer damage if the boilers were to fail in the winter, and billions of dollars in state infrastructure would be affected.

All Project Information Organized and Accessible on Single, Cloud-based Platform

Michael Ruckhaus, senior project manager at UAF, was determined to keep every phase of the power plant upgrade on track. He was also concerned that the university's existing project management tools would fall short of the project requirements. The university had never before used a project-wide collaboration platform, such as Aconex. Instead, it had relied on a mixture of FTP sites and stand-alone systems for handling submittals and documenting requests for information (RFIs). The new power plant was twice as large as any capital project ever undertaken by the university, and the sheer volume of project documents had the potential to overwhelm the existing solutions.

According to Mr. Ruckhaus, the university selected Aconex because of its excellent reputation as the leading platform for managing information and processes across large capital projects. "If document management gets out of control, you can lose your grip on the project," he explained. "If people can't find the documents they need, every process takes longer than it should. This creates unnecessary risk that can have a ripple effect on the schedule and the budget."

Aligning a Team from Alaska to Washington, Ohio and Japan

Aconex offered other advantages beyond document control that surpassed other construction management tools. As a neutral, cloud-based platform, Aconex provides security and control to all stakeholders, enabling them to share information that will increase the productivity of the entire team. Project files of all types and sizes, including multidimensional models, can be readily accessed regardless of whether a team member is in the office or on the project site, in Alaska or on another continent. This is particularly helpful to UAF, which awarded the construction package to a joint venture with offices in Anchorage, Alaska and Bellingham, Washington. Major vendors are located in Ohio and Japan.

In addition to managing documents, Aconex ensures that all project-related correspondence is located in one place and is available to team members when they need it. "The sorting and searching capabilities of Aconex Mail are pretty slick," Mr. Ruckhaus said. "With Aconex Mail, I can quickly find what I am looking for."

More Efficient Design Reviews

Mr. Ruckhaus said Aconex proved its worth during the design phase of the project earlier this year. UAF had previously used spreadsheets to gather feedback on designs that were shared using another program. The process was laborious and time-consuming. With Aconex, the drawings and mark-ups are reviewed using an online viewer. All of the comments are in one place, so each reviewer can read what others have written. Instead of describing a design item in words, a team member can zoom in and circle the relevant portion of a drawing. As a result, there is no question about which detail of the design is being referenced. "With Aconex, our meetings are very productive and to the point," Mr. Ruckhaus said.

The project has also benefited from the Aconex platform's drag-and-drop workflows. These automated processes keep things moving in every phase of the project. During the design phase, team members gained immediate insight into where a document was in the review process, and individuals were reminded of items that were due each time they logged in. "Aconex is like a virtual manager of people," Mr. Ruckhaus said.

Simpler Way to Handle Complex RFIs

The site for the new plant is currently being prepared for construction, and Mr. Ruckhaus expects additional efficiency gains as the next phase of the project gets underway. In previous projects, RFIs were handled by an in-house system. It was adequate for basic queries, but complex requests became hard to follow. With Aconex, RFIs will be handled as a separate category in Aconex Mail. Every step of the process will be transparent. "Resolving an RFI is easier if you can see the whole thread, particularly if a new person is getting involved," Mr. Ruckhaus said.

Unlike installed document management systems purchased with seat licenses, Aconex offers unlimited usage, data and support to scale with the project. New members of the project team can jump on at no extra cost and quickly familiarize themselves with the documents and decisions that have preceded them. "Whoever needs to use Aconex for the project can," Mr. Ruckhaus said. "That was a big deal for us."

Though the project is still in its early phases, Mr. Ruckhaus said Aconex has already exceeded his expectations. While some members of the project team were reluctant to learn a new system, they quickly warmed up to the Aconex platform. "The more time they spend on Aconex, the more they understand it, and the more enthusiastic they become," Mr. Ruckhaus said.

About Aconex

Aconex Limited provides a leading cloud collaboration platform for the global construction industry. The platform connects owners, contractors and their project teams in the construction, infrastructure, and energy and resources sectors, providing project-wide visibility and control between the many different organizations collaborating across their projects. With more than 60,000 user organizations and over $1 trillion of project value delivered in more than 70 countries, Aconex is the industry's most widely adopted and trusted platform. Founded in 2000, Aconex has 41 offices in 22 countries around the world, including headquarters in Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco, California. The company's ordinary shares are traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker code ACX.

Supporting Resources

For more information on Aconex, please visit:
The following factors are likely to influence Malaysian palm oil futures and other vegetable oil

markets.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Malaysian palm oil futures jumped on Monday to their highest in a week, tracking gains in

rival soyoil, although firmness in ringgit capped the upside.

* U.S. corn, soybean and wheat futures rose for the fourth day in a row on Monday, supported by

a round of short-covering after regulatory data released on Friday afternoon showed that

speculators had built the biggest net short on record in all three commodities.

* Global oil markets jumped more than 5 percent on Monday, with Brent hitting a 2016 peak above

$40 a barrel, after Ecuador said it was holding a meeting of Latin American crude producers as

OPEC sought a higher anchor price for oil.

MARKET NEWS

* Asian shares inched higher on Tuesday after global oil prices soared to three-month highs on

growing hopes of more coordinated measures from oil-producing countries to stem tumbling prices.

RELATED

> FOB Gulf Grain-Corn premiums slide as CIF basis falls

> U.S. Cash Grains-Bids mostly steady/lower after farmer sales

> European feeds-Soymeal up with short-covering, weaker dollar

> Heavy rain seen for U.S. Delta wheat belt; part of Plains to stay dry

> England rapeseed area could be lowest since 2009-AHDB

DATA/EVENTS

> Cargo surveyor ITS releases Malaysia's March 1-10 palm oil export data on March 10.

> Cargo surveyor SGS releases Malaysia's March 1-10 palm oil export data on March 10.

* For a table on Malaysian physical palm oil prices, including refined oil, Reuters Terminal

users can double click on or type.

* To view freight rates from Peninsula Malaysia/Sumatra to China, India, Pakistan and

Rotterdam, please key in and press enter, or double click between the brackets.

* Reuters Terminal users can see cash and futures edible oil prices by double clicking on

the codes in the brackets: To go to the next page in the same chain, hit F12. To go back, hit

F11.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0043 GMT

Story continues

Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume

MY PALM OIL MAR6 0 +0.00 0 0 0

MY PALM OIL APR6 0 +0.00 0 0 0

MY PALM OIL MAY6 0 +0.00 0 0 0

CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY6 5150 +60.00 5090 5184 680330

CHINA SOYOIL MAY6 5724 +14.00 5692 5756 250494

CBOT SOY OIL MAY6 31.17 +2.70 0.00 0.00 0

INDIA PALM OIL MAR6 488.50 +2.70 487.60 492.90 1130

INDIA SOYOIL MAR6 607.55 +2.20 607.40 611.00 6430

NYMEX CRUDE APR6 37.82 -0.08 37.81 37.99 4047

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne

CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound

Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne

India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg

Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel

Vegetable oils --

Malaysian palm oil exports --

CBOT soyoil futures --

CBOT soybean futures --

Indian solvent --

Weekly Indian vegetable oils --

Dalian Commodity Exchange --

Dalian soyoil futures --

Dalian refined palm oil futures --

Zhengzhou rapeseed oil --

European edible oil prices/trades --

(Reporting by Joseph Sipalan)
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's state-owned power producer has picked a local company and two Indian firms to build a $128 million hydro-power plant to generate 30 megawatts of electricity, an official said on Tuesday.

The Southern African nation last year experienced crippling power cuts but supplies have since improved from January after Zimbabwe resorted to imports from South Africa and Mozambique.

Noah Gwariro, the chief executive Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) said Intratrek Zimbabwe and its partners Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd and Angelique International Ltd would build the Gairezi power station to the east of the country. The plant is expected to take 30 months to complete.

"The project will start as soon as we reach financial closure. We expect the money to come from Afreximbank," Gwariro told Reuters, referring to Africa Export and Import Bank.

China's Sino Hydro since 2014 launched a 300 MW extension of Kariba hydro plant in 2014 and will also build an extra 600 MW at the Hwange coal-fired plant.

Power shortages in Zimbabwe have been blamed for keeping away potential investors in an economy expected to expand by 2.7 percent this year after a 1.5 percent growth last year.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia)
If you need more information, here is a brief list of

additional forced migration resources (research guides, information-rich websites, networks, and blogs).
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Many people have questions which arise when they read posts from this blog. Most of those questions are already answered in previous posts.
Female soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) march during the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II , in Beijing, Sept 3, 2015. [Photo/www.news.cn]

China's global status rose last year, and the Sino-Russia relationship was "satisfactory", according to a majority of participants in a recent survey.

More than 95 percent of respondents to the online survey said they believed China's international status rose, with nearly 61 percent saying the country's status "rose somewhat", while 35 percent said it "rose greatly".

The survey of public opinion of China's diplomatic work was conducted by the Horizon Research Consultancy Group from Feb 15 to 22, and covered 7,344 participants in 19 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Another example was President Xi Jinping's announcement at the United Nations in September that China would take a series of concrete measures to contribute to global development, Wang added.

He emphasized that China is "an active participant" that coordinates with other countries in the international community.
About Me Dave Leeke Suffolk, United Kingdom Born in black and white in an analogue era. I was around when a set of stairs could defeat a Dalek and a Stylophone was considered futuristic. I've still got one, actually. Nowadays a retired English, Film & Media teacher. Getting by in the 21st Century. Happy Traum and Keith Floyd taught me everything I know about playing guitar and cooking. Unfortunately, Happy taught me to cook and Keith taught me guitar . . . View my complete profile

Featured post beach scenes The Martello Tower and Golf Links Bleak and solemn was the view on which he took a last look before starting homeward. A faint yellow ... Blog Archive
Random thoughts on almost anything and everything, with an emphasis on defense, intelligence, politics and national security matters..providing insight for the non-cleared world since 2005.
Canadian crude oil imports increased 16 per cent in 2015 to 736 thousand barrels per day (Mb/d), reversing a three-year downward trend. The United States (U.S.) was the biggest gainer in the 2015 surge in imports, increasing its share of total imports to 62.4 per cent. Saudi Arabia also increased its market share in 2015 to 11.4 per cent, with all of its volumes received in the Maritimes. Nigerias share almost tripled, increasing from 1.6 per cent in 2014 to 5.2 per cent in 2015. Imports from Norway and Algeria increased slightly compared to 2014, after dropping significantly in previous years. Other import sources declined in 2015, with imports from Mexico and Iraq disappearing completely.morelated:
MSNBC had an awkward moment while trying to conduct a post-debate interview Sunday night, as reporter Kristen Welker appeared not to know she was live and told a Hillary Clinton aide what she would be asking her during their segment.She then interrupted the guest, Jen Palmieri, when she heard a delayed prompt from the studio.Ari Melber threw to Welker to speak with Palmieri, a flack for Hillary Clinton, but Welker was in mid-conversation with Palmieri and was telling her she would ask a question about Flint, Michigan, the site of Sunday nights debate, because of the water crisis there.And Im going to ask you about Flint, Welker said.Kristen, go ahead, youre live, Melber said. You know, we have Kristen Welker. Were looking at her. She couldnt quite hear me before. Can you hear me now? If you can, go ahead.Welker appeared to be receiving a delayed signal. Finally, she began the interview.So Jen, your initial reaction to tonights debate? Very fiery, Welker said.Very fiery. Also very substantive, Palmieri said. I think it was probably the most substantive exchange that weve had. Also, there were a little bit of fireworks, but I think that it was useful because we thinkWelker then cut over her when she apparently finally heard Melbers words about starting the interview.Ari, I can hear you, Welker said. Im here with communications director Jen Palmeri. Can you guys hear me back in the studio?Yes, were on a delay, but go ahead, Melber said.Can you guys hear what were saying here? Welker asked.Yes! Melber said.The interview started again, and Palmieri again mispronounced the word substantive as she praised the tenor of the debate.MSNBC has had its share of awkward on-air moments recently. In Nevada last month, a reporter did a live segment from a shooting range but his voice was drowned out by gunfire.
Christopher L. Hodapp is the author of Freemasons For Dummies, the worldwide, best-selling introduction to the Masonic fraternity; Solomon's Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of Washington D.C. ; and Deciphering the Lost Symbol. His most recent book, Heritage Endures, was published in January 2018.

Since 2009 he has been on the Board of the Masonic Library & Museum of Indiana, and serves as its Associate Director and Treasurer. In 2021, Chris was named as Public Relations and Marketing Director for the Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of the State of Indiana.

Chris is also the co-author with Alice Von Kannon of The Templar Code For Dummies and Conspiracy Theories And Secret Societies For Dummies.

As a Freemason, Chris is a Past Master of Broad Ripple Lodge No. 643 and of Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 under the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana; he is a member of Indiana's Schofield Lodge 1818 U.D.; and of Internet Lodge No. 9659 in the Province of East Lancashire of the United Grand Lodge of England. Most recently, he was named the Worshipful Master of the Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research U.D. in Indiana for 2019-21.

In 2018 he was awarded the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana for his "distinguished service to Freemasonry in Indiana and worldwide."

Chris is a 33 Mason in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite (NMJ), Indianapolis Valley. He is a Past Sovereign Master of Imhotep Council No. 434 of the Allied Masonic Degrees. He is a founding member of Levant Preceptory, a medieval Knights Templar period recreation degree team in the York Rite, and he is an officer of the Indiana College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis. He belongs to numerous other Masonic appendant organizations.

As a Masonic author, in 2012 he was named as Friar No. 101 in the Society of Blue Friars. Chris is a Founding Fellow of The Masonic Society, and was the founding Editor in Chief of The Journal of The Masonic Society. He remains a regular contributor today, and its Editor Emeritus.

He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith" by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focusing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Heredom, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications.

Chris was a commercial filmmaker for twenty-three years with Dean Crow Productions in Indianapolis. Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed scripts for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction.

Chris and Alice live in Indianapolis with Sophie the Flying Poodle who has them both answering to basic commands. However, they can frequently be found alarming the wildlife and dazzling the rustics in their Airstream trailer as they crisscross the country. Appropriately, their newest book together is RVs and Campers For Dummies, released in June 2021.
Our ninth week of session  Days 34 through 37 of our 60-day session  adjourned Thursday.

On Monday, and part of Tuesday, we debated and defeated LB371, which created the Nebraska Council for Educational Success.

The council would have consisted of 21 members, including the governor, the commissioner of education, the chancellor and president of the Nebraska state college system, commissioner of labor, and an individual representing the business interests. There also would have been one parent on the council with a child in any of grades K-12. The objective of this council would have essentially been to recommend policy changes to the Education Committee of the Legislature.

The proponents argued a new council was necessary because of term limits, since the council would help add consistency and permanency to Nebraskas educational policy.

Opponents countered two councils already exist with many of the same goals and individuals: the P-16 Council and the council created by Governor Ricketts. LB371 would have been duplicative and also carried a fiscal note of $50,000 from the states general fund and $250,000 from the Department of Educations budget. I voted no with the opponents.

LB919 advanced to Select File. This bill expands the use of problem-solving courts in Nebraska. Problem-solving courts use evidence-based outcomes to achieve positive results to address specific needs and problems that could not be addressed in traditional courts.

Problem-solving courts promote results that benefit the offender, the victim, and communities. Types of problems addressed by these courts are drug abuse, mental illness, DUIs, and domestic violence. The bill expands the use to include problem-solving courts for veterans to help address the issues unique to our nations soldiers.

Another bill debated was LB83  it advanced to Select File with a small majority. The amendment to LB83 replaced the bill entirely and redefined the word employer in Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-1220. For the purposes of discriminatory wage practices based on sex, employer shall now mean any person engaged in an industry who has two or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.

Prior to LB83, the definition of employer applied to any person engaged in an industry who has fifteen or more employees. The smaller number of two employees creates more burdens for our smaller, rural businesses, including women in agriculture. It was made into a gender issue on the floor of the Legislature. I did not support this bill.

Finally, an additional bill that merits mentioning is LB344. This bill was hotly debated on Thursday.

It would grant NRDs the authority to issue general obligation bonds for the purpose of financing all or part of the cost of non-revenue-producing water projects authorized by law. Issuance of the bonds shall be approved by two-thirds of the members of the board of directors of the district. I, along with other senators, argued that Nebraskans right now are struggling to pay their property taxes, so why introduce another avenue through which the people would be charged more property taxes? I oppose this legislation.

Please contact me; my administrative aide, Katie Wattermann; or my legislative aide, Brett Waite, with questions or concerns at (402) 471-2728 or by email at lbrasch@leg.ne.gov; or stop by Room 1016 if you are in the Capitol.

If you would like to follow the Legislature online you can visit http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/television/live-demand-state-government. Live broadcasting is also available on NET2.
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Political science PhD specializing in delegate selection rules, presidential campaigns and elections. Founder of FHQ Strategies LLC
IHG will rebrand the Sheraton Pattaya Resort, a luxury resort nestled in the Phratamnak Hills south of Pattaya Bay, to InterContinental Pattaya Resort.

The Resort will be operating under the InterContinental brand in April 2016. The 156-room beachfront resort located five-minute walk from the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Center, will offer a selection of superior, premium rooms and villas, in a lush, exotic locale, coupled with unparalleled service.

Guests can look forward to a variety of cuisine at the hotels all day dining and signature restaurant, and unwind by the three lagoon swimming pools, work out at the fitness centre or indulge in an array of relaxing treatments at the spa. In the months following the opening, the resort will also feature a Club InterContinental lounge and Planet Trekkers, a dedicated space for young guests, as part of the new offerings to reposition the property to an InterContinental Resort. Guest rooms will be renovated including the creation of Club InterContinental rooms on a dedicated floor. InterContinental Pattaya Resort will join Holiday Inn Pattaya to be the second resort managed by IHG in the popular beach destination.

Globally, IHG operates 184 InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, with 52 hotels due to open in the next three to five years.

In Thailand, there are three InterContinental Hotels & Resorts: InterContinental Bangkok, InterContinental Hua Hin Resort and InterContinental Samui Baan Taling Ngam Resort, and 15 other hotels across Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo. The company has 15 hotels and resorts in its development pipeline, due to open in the country within the next three to five years.
Melia Hotels International will open its 15th hotel in Indonesia and second on the island of Bintan.

Bintan, the largest island in the Riau archipelago, is blessed with pristine beaches and 23,000 hectares of white sandy coast facing the South China Sea. The island is a short ferry ride away from Singapore and Malaysia, and the addition of a new international airport will give travellers around the world greater access to this tropical paradise.

This new project is an exciting addition to our resort portfolio in Indonesia, where weve had over 30 years of experience, says Bernardo Cabot, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Melia Hotels International. Our momentum continues to be fueled by strong demand for our exceptional guest accommodations and service. Melia Bintan will provide discerning travelers a gateway to the one of the worlds newest meccas for luxury travel.

Melia Bintan is located in a privileged coastal enclave, with 280 rooms and villas covering and area of eight hectares. Managed under the Melia Hotels & Resorts brand, the hotel will have numerous amenities for guests enjoyment, such as the renowned Yhi Spa; the Level lounge and suites, where each detail is designed and crafted specially to create unique guest experiences; two beachfront restaurants; a swimming pool with water attractions; and a fitness and large-scale convention center.

Melia Hotels & Resorts is the most international brand of the group, highly valued by travelers worldwide and characterized by the personalized experiences provided through the Passion for Service culture of the brand. The brand has over 30 years of presence in Asia with the opening of Melia Bali, an iconic hotel since Melia Hotels International was the first international hotel group in the Island of Gods.

In 2016 Melia Hotels International celebrates its 60th Anniversary and maintains its robust momentum in Asia, aiming to double its portfolio in the region with the addition of 30 hotels in the next three years. The leading Spanish hotel has 32 hotels in the region, with seven of them due to open this year.
World Travel Awards (WTA) has revealed the nominees for its Grand Tour 2016, with thousands of hospitality leaders from across the globe in the running for the prestigious titles.



Voting is now underway ahead of the Latin America, Europe, Caribbean & North America, and Asia & Australasia Gala Ceremonies, so make your voice heard by registering to vote here.

World Travel Awards President Graham Cooke said: Revealing the nominees for our annual Grand Tour is always an exciting time of year for World Travel Awards.

"We have carefully selected the leaders in international hospitality, be that hotels, airlines, destinations, or operators, and offered our voters a chance to select the very best among them.

Sign up now to make your voice heard as part of our Grand Tour 2016.

Each year WTA covers the globe with a series of regional Gala Ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective successes within each key geographical region.

Each WTA Gala Ceremony offers unrivalled networking opportunities to members of the travel and tourism industry, with the events welcoming government and industry leaders as well as international print and broadcast media.

WTA was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.

Today, the World Travel Awards brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.

A full list of World Travel Awards nominees can be seen here.
MSFAU Tophane-i Amire Culture and Art Centre Single Dome Hall in Istanbul hosts Ottomans and Europeans: Pasts and Prospectives exhibition, curated by Beral Madra and Juan Esteban Sandoval. The exhibition presents the works of Leone Contini, Erol Eskici, Eda Gecikmez, Naci Gunes Guven, Driant Zeneli and Mary Zygouri.

The exhibition, realised for the artists to extend their individual ideas to the public through the artworks, presents an expedient ground for expanding and complementing the opinion of the artists about the existing cultural and socio-political context and problems. Inspired by the Battle of Gallipoli, Leone Continis work is conceived on the former battlefield. Erol Eskicis work discusses the demographic, politic upheavals; displacements and handovers, while tackling with the geopolitical in terms of geology on a symbolic and indirect representation. Eda Gecikmez developed her project on the African refugees whom she met in Genoa. Naci Gunes Guvens computer generated composition of Ottoman tombstones brings a particular and arbitrary interpretation to collective images of Ottoman grave typology and culture of death.

Digging like a virtual contemporary archaeologist, Driant Zenelis video work Venezia was realised in the southern town of Antalya. It evokes a shift of observation on history, focusing on the image and the imaginary triggered by a holiday resort that imitates Venice in its architectural design. Mary Zygouri has developed her project on a modest but historical hammam founded in 1911 in an Istanbul district of Dolapdere. In her performance enacted in the hammam on 30 January 2015 with the active participation of people of Armenian, Greek and Turkish origin, she interpreted the socio-historical meaning of the place, which according to the three Greek, Armenian and Ottoman inscriptions on its red ochre facade, was called The Bath of Constitution (Mesrutiyet Hamam) with reference to the Second Constitution Era (Young Turk Revolution), and changed to Freedom Hamam (Hurriyet Hamam) in 1923. The video and the installation on the show are the leftovers of that collective experience.

During June and July 2015, the exhibition artists came together for an artist residency programme named Blind Date Sessions in Cittadellarte-Pistoletto Foundations centre in Biella, where they had the opportunity to build theoretical collaborations and dialogue with senior participants Gulcin Aksoy, Ergin Cavusoglu, Guven Incirlioglu, Adrian Paci, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Igiaba Scego. The works to be featured at the exhibition titled Ottomans and Europeans: Pasts and Prospectives, are the artistic outcomes of these encounters. The exhibition is realised as the Turkey leg of Ottomans and Europeans: Reflecting on Five Centuries of Cultural Relations project supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union, and led by Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) Brussels.

Since 2012, the Ottomans and Europeans: Reflecting on Five Centuries of Cultural Relations project proposes a journey through five centuries of shared cultural history between Europe and Turkey to change perceptions of citizens and artists from both sides. Partners of the project are Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) Brussels from Belgium, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) from Turkey, National Museum in Krakow from Poland, Cittadellarte-Pistoletto Foundation from Italy, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna from Austria, and Witte de With for Contemporary Art from The Netherlands. The project partners organised exhibitions, conferences and artist residencies in various locations.
Construction of the Istanbuls Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge (YSS), which began in May 29, 2013, now unites the Asian and European sides of the Bosporus for the third time, as the last 9-meter segment was installed on Sunday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Transport and Communication Manager Binali Yldrm and Environment and Urbanism Minister Fatma Guldemet Sar, Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas attended to the ceremony held for the installment of the last bridge deck. Erdogan, Davutoglu and Yldrm made the final weld on the deck. Following the ceremony, Erdogan drove through the bridge with his official car.

May 2015 saw the enclosure of the suspension cables, and a construction record was broken in the last month with the installation of 10 steel aprons covering a distance of 238 meters. The bridge should open in July or August, along with the surrounding highways.

The opening of the bridge was delayed several times last year due to technical complications, but in February, Prime Minister Davutoglu pledged that the inauguration would take place this summer "barring an extraordinary situation." "About 88 percent of the project is complete, and both the bridge and the roads connected to it will hopefully be opened as soon as possible," Davutoglu said.

Thousands of employees and engineers are working nonstop so that the bridge can become operational by August. The bridge is expected to alleviate traffic volume on the existing Bosporus bridges and will help to ensure safe traffic flow in Istanbul.

The total length of the bridge is 2,164 meters. The bridge, which stretches 1,408 meters over the Bosporus, has eight lanes of highway and two lanes of railway. It will be the longest suspension bridge in the world that includes a rail system. The height of the tower in the village of Garipce on the European side is 322 meters and the tower in the Poyrazkoy district on the Asian side is 318 meters high. The bridge will have the highest abutments in the world.

The rail system crossing the bridge will run from Edirne to Izmit, will be integrated into the Marmaray and Istanbul Metro and will also connect Istanbul Ataturk International Airport, Sabiha Gokcen International Airport and the third airport, also currently under construction.

Source: Sabah Daily News
An IPO is in the cards for Paradox Interactive, as chief Fredrik Wester took to Twitter today to confirm that the 17-year-old company intends to go public this year.

What's especially intriguing about the long-private company's intent to turn public is that proceeds from sales of shares in the company will presumably afford Paradox an influx of cash, something it recently spent a great deal of in order to take White Wolf Publishing off of CCP's hands.

According to a roughly-translated version of an interview with Wester published today by Swedish-language outlet Di Digital, Paradox is interested in making further acquisitions in the future and expanding deeper into mobile and console game publishing.

Update: When reached for comment, Wester confirmed these details to Gamasutra and gave the following statement:

"We have grown a lot in the past years and are looking to continue the same way; gaining access directly to the capital market gives great opportunities to make acquisitions like when we bought White Wolf in October 2015.

We also want to spread ownership to people who work at the company and the people who play our games. We are first and foremost looking for long-term owners who want to take part in the Paradox journey."
League of Legends developer Riot Games is closing its Creative Services office in Brighton.

The studio is attempting to relocate the department to its European HQ in Dublin, and is discussing the move with staff in the hope that the majority will head to Ireland.

The Creative Services team supports Riot's other European operations, assisting with design, film, web development, writing, events, and production.

Riot confirmed the Dublin switch in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, explaining the move would help "harmonize functions."

"We are indeed planning to relocate the Brighton office over the next few weeks," said Riot. "Internal conversations are still ongoing with Rioters in Brighton, but it's hoped the majority of them will move with the function.

"For the last two years Brighton has been supporting other offices throughout Europe and the move to our European headquarters in Dublin is designed to harmonize functions."
Oskar Burman, GM of Rovio Stockholm, has announced his resignation on Twitter. The studio's creative director, Patrick Lui, will step in as acting GM for the time being.

Burman, who previously worked for Avalanche Studios and EA, was hired by the Angry Birds creator back in August 2012 to build out its new studio from scratch. Four years on, Burman feels it's a case of mission accomplished.

"Ive resigned from Rovio - but cant speak yet of the next step in my journey," Burman tweeted. "All in all, these four years have been a blast, building Rovio Stockholm up from scratch.

"[I'm] proud of launching some spectacular games, with Angry Birds 2 probably being the highlight of my career so far. Im proud of our inclusive studio culture, our process using game jams systematically to ideate, our next game, and our fan feedback."
LittleBigPlanet 3 developer Sumo Digital has brought in Karl Hilton, formerly MD of Crytek UK, to head up its new Nottingham studio.

The veteran director oversaw the successful development of Crysis 2 and 3 while at Crytek, and before that was a founding member and director at Free Radical.

Hilton has been made Studio Director of Sumo's second UK studio, which will work in conjunction with the developer's Sheffield and India offices on a number of upcoming projects.

Sumo CEO, Carl Cavers, has hinted at what those upcoming projects might entail, explaining the Nottingham studio will allow the developer to "explore new opportunities across consoles, PC, mobile, and VR."
English Lithuanian

Vilnius, Lithuania, 2016-03-07 15:43 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The resolutions of the extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting of INVL Technology, AB that was held on 7 March 2016:

1. Amendment of the Articles of Association of AB INVL Technology and approval of a new wording of the Articles of Association of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology

In view of the resolutions taken at the general meeting of shareholders of AB INVL Technology, held on 10 April 2015, regarding the transformation of the activity of AB INVL Technology so that it operates as a closed-ended type investment company in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Collective Investment Undertakings, to approve a new wording of the Articles of Association of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology prepared by the Management Board of AB INVL Technology, by replacing the text of the Articles of Association in full (enclosed).

To authorise Kazimieras Tonkunas, Director of AB INVL Technology to sign the Articles of Association of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology.

2. Approval of the Management Agreement of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology with the management company UAB INVL Asset Management (legal entity code: 126263073, address of the registered office: Gyneju g. 14, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania)

In view of the resolutions taken at the general meeting of shareholders of AB INVL Technology, held on 10 April 2015, regarding the transformation of the activity of AB INVL Technology so that it operates as a closed-ended type investment company in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Collective Investment Undertakings, to approve the Management Agreement of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology with the management company UAB INVL Asset Management (legal entity code: 126263073, address of the registered office: Gyneju g. 14, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania) (enclosed), prepared by the Management Board of AB INVL Technology.

3. Approval of the Depository Services Agreement of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology with AB SEB Bankas (legal entity code: 112021238, address of the registered office: Gedimino pr. 12, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania)

In view of the resolutions taken at the general meeting of shareholders of AB INVL Technology, held on 10 April 2015, regarding the transformation of the activity of AB INVL Technology so that it operates as a closed-ended type investment company in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Collective Investment Undertakings, to approve the Depository Services Agreement of special closed-ended type private capital investment company INVL Technology with AB SEB Bankas (legal entity code: 112021238, address of the registered office: Gedimino pr. 12, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania) (enclosed), prepared by the Management Board of AB INVL Technology.
Philadelphia, March 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Keeping body fat low as you age is more important than achieving a low number on the scale, according to an article published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Both low body mass index (BMI), a measure of a persons weight in relation to height, and high body fat percentage are independently associated with increased risk for death.

Recent studies have shown an association between mild obesity (as measured by BMI) and lower mortality risk. Known as the obesity paradox, these findings have been the source of debate, as physicians are advised to counsel obese patients to lose weight to decrease their risk for chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Because BMI is an imperfect measure of body fat, researchers hypothesized that greater body fat percentage, independent of BMI, would be associated with increased mortality.

They measured body fat using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and BMI for 50,000 men and women over the age of 40 to examine associations between BMI and percent fat  alone and in combination  with mortality. They found that having a higher percent body fat was independently associated with reduced survival, as was having a low BMI.

These finding suggest that body composition, not just weight, needs to be considered when assessing a patients health and risk of death. The authors say that in some people, higher BMI may actually reflect non-fat tissue such as muscle.

Additional Information



When it comes to death risk, how much fat you carry may be more important than the number on the scale. Investigator, Dr. Bill Leslie, explains the results of his research on body fat, body mass index (BMI) and mortality.



The Relationship Between Body Fat, BMI and Mortality article is available along with a research results video at http://www.internetvideorelease.com/acp.

Interviews with Dr. Leslie are available upon request.

About Annals of Internal Medicine

Annals of Internal Medicine is one of the most widely cited and influential medical journals in the world, with an impact factor of 17.810  the highest of any specialty journal in its category. Annals mission is to promote excellence in medicine, enable physicians and other health care professionals to be well informed members of the medical community and society, advance standards in the conduct and reporting of medical research, and contribute to improving the health of people worldwide. Established in 1927, Annals is the flagship journal of the American College of Physicians (ACP).
Getinge ABs annual report for 2015 can now be found on the company website www.getingegroup.com. A printed version of the annual report will be distributed by mail to all shareholders who have given notice to the company that they wish to receive the annual report. For further information: Kornelia Rasmussen Executive Vice President, Communications & Brand Management Phone: +46 (0)10 335 5810 Getinge Group is a leading global provider of innovative solutions for operating rooms, intensive-care units, hospital wards, sterilization departments, elderly care and for life science companies and institutions. Getinges unique customer offering mirrors the hospitals organization and value chain, and the solutions are used before, during and after the patients hospital stay. Based on first -hand experience and close partnerships, Getinge provides innovative healthcare solutions that improve every-day life for people, today and tomorrow. The information is such that Getinge AB must disclose in accordance with the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act.
San Francisco, March 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global powder coatings market is an emerging market in paint industry and projected to reach a worth of USD 12.48 billion by 2020. The term powder coating is associated with the application of coating in the form of dry powder. The production process of powder coatings includes the method of grinding mixtures of pigments, curatives, and raisins in powder form and then coating a surface by with it by spraying method.

Application of powder coatings on surface is followed by the melting process with the use of oven for even distribution of melted powder, which makes the surface super smooth. There are various methodologies used in application of powder coatings, such as, powder curing method, electrostatic spray method, fluidized bed method, and electrostatic fluidized bed method.

On the basis of usage, the powder coatings are divided into thermoplastics and thermosets powder coatings. Powder coatings have an edge over conventional paints with advantages like super quality finishing, abrasion-free surface, chipping-free area, protection from leakage, heat, and chemicals. There are many organizations like EPA promoting high usage of powder coatings over conventional liquids due to their environmental-friendly properties.

Browse to access In-depth research report on Global Powder Coatings Market with detailed charts and figures: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/powder-coatings-market-analysis

High demand of powder coatings is driven by growing need for superior quality items in consumer goods, furniture, automotive, architecture and general industry. The consumer goods lead the powder coatings market and attributed 22.1% of the total market volume in 2013.

Automotive sector is also projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% by 2020 with more focus on enhancing appearance of luxury-cars. High disposable income in Asia Pacific region has resulted in augmented demand for luxury cars and also accelerated the demand for powder coatings in the market.

The usage of powder coatings in furniture industry is still unexplored due to peeling up of thinner coatings from wooden surface. It is also forecasted to witness a higher growth in the future due to its multiple advantageous applications.

Request for free sample of this research report: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/powder-coatings-market-analysis/request

With growing automobile and electronic industries, Asia Pacific is expected to become the largest consumer of powder coatings in the future with a CAGR of 8.5% by 2020. China is the largest producer of automobiles with highest consumption-power of powder coatings in the global market. Developing countries like India, Brazil and Russia are also expected to become key consumers of powder coatings in the future. The North American and European market have reached the maturity stage and expected to grow at slow rate in the future.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Access press release of this research report by Grand View Research: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-powder-coatings-market

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ORLANDO, Fla., March 8, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Adacel announced today that the Company has been awarded a contract by Austro Control for the upgrade of Austro Control's air traffic control (ATC) tower simulators originally purchased from Adacel.

The major components of the upgrade to be performed by Adacel include the installation of Adacel's latest ICAO_MX software version and Adacel's new Insight visual system software. Adacel will also develop and install some customized radar interfaces specific to Austro Control's training requirements. Austro Control will be relocating their Training Center facilities in Vienna, Austria and the upgrade project will be conducted in concert with that move.

Adacel and Austro Control have a long history of working together to improve simulator effectiveness. The Austro Control training center will further enhance their impressive training capability with this technology refresh of their legacy systems.

Adacel's ATC simulators have proven to be very effective in developing higher proficiency and accelerating the learning process of controllers during their course of study and ongoing training. The Company is committed to designing advanced systems that provide ATC students with the realistic hands-on practice to reinforce learning the advanced skills required to be a competent controller.

About Adacel

Adacel is a leading developer of advanced simulation and training solutions, speech recognition applications and operational air traffic management systems. Adacel is particularly well known for innovations within the ATC simulation and speech recognition fields. The Company's products are widely used throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. For more information about Adacel, please visit www.Adacel.com.

A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=39318
Profile Evaluation Request [ #permalink

Hi,



Thank you in advance for evaluating my profile.



Background: LLB from Queen Mary and an LLM in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University.

Age: 23 (24 when I apply)



GMAT- I'm currently pre-GMAT but I believe that I can achieve a minimum of 700.



GPA Grad: 3.33

GPA Undergrad 3.6



School Grades: 6 A* 3A (GCSE), 2 A* 1A (A level)



Ethnicity: Persian



Work Experience:

I'm just about to start work at a small recruitment organisation whilst obtaining an MSC/LPC .



All of my work experience has been legal up to this point, however, these internships have been in 4 different countries (U.A.E, India, U.K and USA). In the US, I worked for an international anti-bribery compliance organisation, whilst in London I worked for an international shipping law firm and an international full service commercial law firm. In Dubai, my internships have been at two of the Magic Circle Law Firms and in India I have worked for two consecutive summers at a commercial law firm.



My Post-MBA goal is to leverage the fact that not many lawyers are MBA qualified and work in-house at a corporation as the current trend in the legal market is moving towards business partnering and lawyers supporting the business.



Extra Curricular



At undergraduate level, my responsibilities increased with each passing year. I started off as an Editor of the University legal paper, was promoted to member development manager (one of the events that I organised with my team was a speed event with 40 attendees and several international law firms. This culminated in my election as Executive Secretary of the Pro Bono Group.



I have also represented my community at Interfaith events at the House of Lords and the House of Commons as well as being part of a body that represents Zoroastrian youth across the UK.



I have organised food drives in India in conjunction with local charities as well as other welfare projects.



Studied abroad in UK, India, USA and UAE



Misc:

Speak 3 Languages

Practicing Zoroastrian Priest



I know my age and lack of work experience are likely to hinder me, but I feel that I can contribute to the program. I also know its hard for my profile to be evaluated given my lack of a GMAT score, but would top-20 schools be interested provided that I can ace the GMAT? In order to get into a top-20 Business School, what should be my target score? I'm looking at applying mainly to the USA, as I'm unlikely to meet the minimum work experience requirements. Furthermore, are there any realistic schools that I should consider or that you can recommend? I'm planning on applying in Round 1/2 next year.



I look forward to your help and guidance

Thanks again,

Shahyan
Estimados amigos,

Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.

Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.

Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.

There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

No soy alguien que sabe, sino alguien que busca.

Only Gold is money. Everything else is debt.

Las grandes almas tienen voluntades; las debiles tan solo deseos.

Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
Former mayor of New York City and current Honorary Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire Michael Bloomberg will never be president of the United States.

Bloomberg was considering a presidential run as an independent on the Adults Table ticketthe Times reports that he had produced a video ad, hired attorneys to help him clear any ballot issues, and had vetted Admiral Mike Mullen as his VP. Bloomberg even had a slogan: All Work and No Party.

Alas, the billionaire crunched the numbers and determined he would not win.

In an article for his eponymous news organization, Bloomberg detailed his thinking:

In a three-way race, its unlikely any candidate would win a majority of electoral votes, and then the power to choose the president would be taken out of the hands of the American people and thrown to Congress. The fact is, even if I were to receive the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, victory would be highly unlikely, because most members of Congress would vote for their partys nominee. Party loyalists in Congress -- not the American people or the Electoral College -- would determine the next president.

Bloomberg then goes on to describe the campaign of Donald Trump as the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, and Senator Ted Cruzs as no less extreme and no less divisive. He makes no mention of any of the other candidates.

I am not ready to endorse any candidate, but I will continue urging all voters to reject divisive appeals and demanding that candidates offer intelligent, specific and realistic ideas for bridging divides, solving problems, and giving us the honest and capable government we deserve, Bloomberg writes.

In other words: Hillary's got this.

From the Times:

Had both Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont appeared headed toward victory in the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries, Mr. Bloomberg was determined to run, according to his advisers, several of whom insisted on anonymity to speak candidly about confidential discussions. But Mr. Bloomberg balked at the prospect of a race against Mr. Trump andHillary Clinton, who has established a dominant lead over Mr. Sanders on the Democratic side. In his column, Mr. Bloomberg said he could not in good conscience enter a race that could lead to a deadlock in the Electoral College  and to the election of Mr. Trump, or perhaps Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Had he run, the Liberal Media may have brought up Bloomberg's obscene wealth ($41 billion), his refusal to disavow a racially biased and unconstitutional policing strategy that he championed, and the homelessness and affordable housing epidemics that exploded under his tenure. But now maybe he can just be Clinton's Treasury Secretary.
Police are searching for a man who fired a gun while walking a pair of dogs in Manhattan yesterday afternoon.

According to the NYPD, at about 2 p.m. on March 7th, the man was "walking with two dogs when he displayed and discharged a firearm at an unknown person while in front of 303 East 111 Street." There's video:

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
With its quills poking at the windows of adjacent 3 World Trade, Santiago Calatrava's great, asymmetrical Pokemon porcupine seems caught mid-thrash, or crouched to defend itself from its lumbering neighbors. It is imposing, but wounded: up close, those steel spines are paint-scraped and patched with seams.

Its clear that the building, if not quite frozen in battle with New York City, is much more a protrusion of the Port Authoritys underground fiefdom than a junction with Lower Manhattan.

This is particularly pronounced right now because the only free access to the Oculus is from an unassuming line of doors in 4 World Trade, some 800 feet of underground passage away. But it will be evident when the whole complex is finished. The great hall itself has only two doors to the street, and visitors from Church Street, instead of descending directly to the floor, will careen down a marble run of zig-zagging escalators.

That floor, though. Who could not be awed by the sculptural grace Calatravas design has maintained through years of permutations?

Critics say, disparagingly, that it is a monument for the Instagram age. Whats wrong with that? It literally makes people, even PATH commuters at the end of their morning rush, stop in their tracks. The narrow skylight frames 1 World Trade; the afternoon sunlight falls gently across the ribs, a dust-filtered crosshatch. Like a great Gothic cathedral, the space is mysteriously buoyant, and I found myself helplessly tracing the pressure of its weight.

Its quiet like a church too. Adults and children simply lie on the floor and look upas under the Blue Whale at the American Museum of Natural History. This is a testament both to the structures beauty and its general incommodiousness. Its supposed to be a train station, but it doesnt have a bench. It also doesn't have a clock. Or a one-shot exit to the street. Or very many passengers.

But we have known for a long time that this placeexcepting its lack of bencheswould never measure up to Grand Central. Even during the morning rush, the hall maintains its rarified air. There is no engine noise here; only the automated bellowing of the escalator messages. The crowds disgorged from the morning PATH trains slink along the perimeter, having neither the mass nor the reason to fill the expanse. As you have probably heard, the hundred-year-old Union Square subway stopand more than a dozen other subway stations  are busier and more important transit hubs.



(Getty Images)

What then is the primary purpose of this high-concept dish rack? Shopping! If Grand Central is a train station with some shops, the Oculus is a shopping center with some trains. Retail clients will include an Apple Store. It's as if Calatrava and the Port Authority, in its quest to supplant the streets of the world's greatest downtown with its Zamboni-smooth underground labyrinth, have decided to build a museum of all the rejected urban design ideas of the twentieth century.

It's a mall of disarming elegance. When I first visited, I overheard an awestruck visitor observe that in a few years, nobody's going to remember what this thing cost. (It cost $4 billion, twice its already-extravagant estimate.)

That doesn't have to be a parenthetical. In Mexico City, at the entrance to the Chapultepec Forest, there's a tower of quartz that a Mexican friend once described to me as a monument to corruption. In fact, the Estela de Luz (or Star of Light) is a monument to Mexican Independence, but it so exceeded its budget, and was completed so many months after the bicentennial commemoration in 2010, that Mexicans came to see it as a trophy of incompetence.

We can remember the World Trade Center PATH station that way if we want to. But recalling its dollar sum, which will come to seem insignificant compared to other regional projects, will ultimately mean less than musing on its opportunity cost.

Heres an idea from the alternate history of Ground Zero. At one point in 2003, a group of transit consultants realized that the obliteration of the underground infrastructure here provided an opportunity to link the PATH to the 6 train, which terminates at City Hall. From an engineering perspective, the 3,000-foot tunnel was challenging but not out of step with other elements of the New York subway system. Politically, it would have required unprecedented collaboration between the PANYNJ and the MTA. For the region, the connection between New Jersey and the East Side would have been transformative.

Instead, we have this "winged dove." If we remember it as a disgraceful misplacement of regional priorities (that is the PANYNJs job, after all) and a gross perversion of the responsibilities of public architecture (like many of Calatravas works), it can at least be an object lesson.

Because it sure isnt much of a train station.

Henry Grabar is a writer in New York. You can read more of his work here.
An 18-year-old former high school student from Milford, Connecticut has accepted a plea deal after allegedly stabbing and killing his classmate in 2014 after she rejected his invitation to prom.

Christopher Plaskon, 18, pleaded no contest to the charge that he murdered 16-year-old Maren Sanchez in the first floor hallway of the Jonathan Law High School on April 25, 2014, the day of their junior prom. At the time, local news outlets reported that Plaskon asked Sanchez, who had a boyfriend, to go to prom with him. She told him no, and "he allegedly tried to strangle her, push her down the stairs and stab her in the throat."

Witnesses say they saw Plaskon attack Sanchez and saw him toss a bloody knife; he also allegedly told police, "I did it; just arrest me."

Sanchez was junior class president at the time, as well as an active volunteer in the community, an athete, and a member of the National Honor Society. "She was very well respected and liked," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Elizabeth Feser told reporters after the stabbing.

Plaskon had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his attorneys had been considering an insanity defense, as the teen had been on anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications at the time of the stabbing. No contest is not technically a guilty plea, but judges will treat it as such, and the prosecution has recommended Plaskon be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. Plaskon has been at the Manson Youth Institute for the last two years, and he will be eligible for parole after 13 years because he has been charged as a juvenile offender.

Sentencing will take place on June 6th.
The city has agreed to pay $130,000 in taxpayer money to settle a lawsuit on behalf of disabled and senior tenants who argued they unjustly lost their rent freezes after their family members died.

Filed last June by Public Advocate Letitia James and Legal Services NYC, the federal suit named 10 residents aged 27 to 95 as plaintiffs, challenging alleged rent overcharges dating back to a rule change in 2014. The offending rule made household members of rent-stabilized tenants with rent frozen through the city's SCRIE and DRIE programs reapply for the benefit within 60 days of the relative's death or lose the subsidy (the city pays the difference between the frozen rent and the allowed increase under rent regulations). The previous deadline was six months.

Qiao Xiao He, a wheelchair-bound senior whose husband died in 2014, was among the plaintiffs because the rent on her Chinatown walk-up shot up to $790 from $523, more than her Social Security payment. She died at 95 before the suit concluded, along with two other plaintiffs. The settlement amounts to $5,000 and $6,000 per tenant, and will go to the estates of those who are deceased. The other $75,000 will go to pay the tenants' legal fees.

"This settlement will go a long way to protect our most vulnerable New Yorkers," Public Advocate James told the New York Times.

The city's Finance Department stopped enforcing the rule after the lawsuit was filed, and a new state law passed in December returned the deadline to reapply to six months.

A Finance Department official said in an affidavit that seven other households were cut off because they missed the deadline, and they too would be returned to their previous rent. The settlement mandates that the agency do more outreach to let tenants know how to reapply.

"Once the city was aware that there really was a legal problem, they were willing to engage with us to resolve it, not only for our clients, but for everyone who may have been affected by the 60-day rule," Legal Services lawyer Christina Clarke told the Times.

The city acknowledges no wrongdoing.
News

Taliban kill six Daesh members in raid in Afghan capital

The Daesh members killed in the raid on their hideout were involved in two major attacks in recent weeks, one on a city mosque and the other on a tutoring institute in which dozens of female students were killed, said the spokesman.
The Helena Family YMCA will kick off the public portion of its annual fundraising campaign at a 7 a.m. breakfast Wednesday at the Holiday Inn in downtown Helena.

At the event, the community will be asked to support the organization's work and provide scholarships for children and families. Last year the campaign raised $80,000, and this year's goal is $85,000. Funds raised go toward financial assistance for swim lessons, sports programs, camps, child care and membership.

Financial assistance helps Bryant Elementary and Helena Middle school kids have a safe place after school. Summer Day Camp lets parents know their child is active and healthy during the summer break. Camp Child, now in its 75th year, is a safe place for kids to be themselves. Treatment Court adults can have a membership for less than $10 per month.

The YMCA also offers free or reduced-cost programs and memberships to clients of other organizations in Helena, such as Center for Mental Health, the Friendship Center, YWCA and Florence Crittenton.

At the YMCA, nobody is turned away because they can't afford the services.
In late February, Greg Gianforte's press agents, Aaron Flint and Ron Catlett, raised my hackles when they sent out a release with the headline "GIANFORTE DISCUSSES IMPORTANCE OF SUPREME COURT NOMINEE":

"Bozeman, MT February 24, 2016 -- Bozeman businessman and high tech entrepreneur Greg Gianforte is urging the US Senate to stand firm and allow for the next President of the United States to select a successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

"One of Scalias last official actions before his recent tragic death was to vote in support of a 5-4 stay against the EPAs clean power plan regulations. The regulations, as written, would force the shutdown of the coal mine and power plant in Colstrip, Montana. If President Obama is able to appoint Scalias successor, Gianforte, the Republican candidate for Governor of Montana, fears the impacts will be felt on Montanas economy."

They continue with a quote, apparently from Gianforte's 61-stop Regulation Roundup tour: "Let me be clear -- a vote for an Obama nominee is a vote to close Colstrip. ... Weve already lost hundreds of high wage jobs across the state. We cannot afford to lose more."

If this press release in any way reflects the quality of Gianforte's thinking, he's even more dedicated to bringing about the rapture than I previously imagined. His advice here is terrible on many levels -- and the U.S. Senate sure doesn't need any encouragement to neglect its constitutional duties.

To go almost a year without a full complement of Supreme Court justices is a disservice to the checks-and-balances system that has served us pretty well since about 1789. The judicial branch checks the legislative branch by virtue of its power to declare a law unconstitutional. The executive branch balances the legislative branch by virtue of its power to appoint Supreme Court justices and veto bills. Any other scenario violates this balance and betrays a lack of trust in the wisdom of our Founding Fathers.

Here are some of the only slightly less obvious problems with the thinking behind this press release: (1) The death of a 79-year-old man by natural causes is not "tragic" -- not for him, not for us and not even for Colstrip. In the here-and-now (as opposed to biblical times), people get old and die. Noah's lifespan is hardly the norm anymore. (2) If the next president is more progressive than or as progressive as Obama, the Senate will have yet again disgraced itself pointlessly -- unless it stalls for another four years. (3) Donald Trump's sister on the Supreme Court? (4) An Obama-appointed justice simply could not pose a bigger threat to Montana's economy than 13.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually.

But the most alarming aspect of the press release has got to be the importance given, in the grand scheme of things, to Colstrip, which has already been pretty much doomed to closure by decisions made in Washington state and Oregon and by the fact that coal is poisoning the planet and going the way of the dinosaurs.

Gianforte's thing is jobs. We all get that. And in case we don't, Flint and Catlett will keep reminding us, as in a press release from Saturday: "Hes the founder of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, Montana, who created over 1,100 high wage jobs. The average Montana salary alone for his employees was close to $90,000 a year."

I'd sure like one of those jobs, as would, I imagine, most of the 360 souls clinging to their employment at the Colstrip Power Plant.

How about it, Greg? Doesn't it make more sense to bring clean, 21st century jobs to the residents of a tiny town facing an uncertain future than to subvert our nation's system of checks and balances -- just to keep them working at the nation's 15th-largest producer of greenhouse gases for a Dickensian industry?
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In this March 6, 1981, photo, Walter Cronkite talks on the phone at his office prior to his final newscast as CBS anchorman in New York City. Behind him is a framed Mickey Mouse cartoon and his Emmy award.
State Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley said Tuesday that reaction to her college-era anti-gay writings sparked a change in attitude toward homosexuality that continued as she grew older.

Bradleys comments in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal came as the newspaper uncovered other controversial writings she made as a Marquette University student more than two decades ago. They include a defense of the schools American Indian mascot and a comparison of abortion to the Holocaust and slavery.

Its difficult for me to pinpoint a particular person, or an experience, or something I went through because its really a composite of everything Ive gone through in life and people I met along the way, Bradley said in the interview to explain her change in attitudes toward homosexuality and people with AIDS. I know a lot of people have gone through an evolution and a great change in thinking on issues that relates to homosexuality and gay marriage. Its just something that happens over time as people educate themselves and interact with people who have different experiences.

Today, Bradley said she would be delighted to preside over the wedding ceremony of a gay couple.

The justice  appointed to the high court by Gov. Scott Walker last fall  is locked in a tight race to retain her seat. Her opponent in the April 5 election is state Appeals Court Judge Joanne Kloppenburg.

Bradley on Tuesday expressed remorse for the anti-gay opinions she published in 1992 in the Marquette Tribune. Bradley, now 44, said she was about 20 years old at the time. On Monday, liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now released to reporters two letters to the editor and one column that included anti-gay rhetoric from Bradley.

A State Journal review of the Marquette Tribune archives from 1989 to 1993 also showed Bradley defended the universitys former Native American mascot and wrote a column comparing abortion to the Holocaust and to slavery of African-Americans.

But it was for the anti-gay opinions that Bradley apologized for on Tuesday and called the unearthing of her comments mortifying.

Its been very difficult for me personally. Its extremely embarrassing to read the things that I wrote 24 years ago, she said. But I am concerned less with what Im going through personally. Im very much concerned about the people who are reading these words as if they are fresh.

Bradley said her views at the time resulted from the life she had lived up until that point  but emphasized the published opinions did not reflect her familys.

In the interview she declined to comment about her views on abortion because it is an issue that comes before the courts, but said she would follow existing law no matter what her personal views are.

Strong response

In letters to the Marquette Tribune, Bradley called gay people queers and labeled people living with AIDS degenerates.

But the strongest reaction came in response to a column about the 1992 presidential election of Bill Clinton she had written under a previous name, Rebecca Grassl.

One will be better off contracting AIDS than developing cancer, because those afflicted with the politically correct disease will be getting all of the funding, she wrote in that column. How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments.

The mostly negative reaction was so voluminous that the Marquette Tribune published a note nine days later saying it would no longer print response letters.

Bradley said she ceased writing columns for the Tribune likely because of lack of time, but said she couldnt remember specifically why she stopped writing for the paper.

Meanwhile, Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday said its irrelevant whether his appointment of Bradley would have been affected if he had known about inflammatory columns she wrote as a college student because voters will soon have a say.

Walker said Bradleys 1992 columns did not reflect the thinking of young conservatives like himself at the time.

The voters will decide come the primary in April and I think the contrast is pretty clear, Walker said.

A spokeswoman for Walker, who appointed Bradley to three judicial positions in as many years  including the Supreme Court last fall  said Monday that neither the governor nor our office was aware of the columns.

Bradley said Tuesday in a WTMJ radio interview she didnt disclose the writings in her application for the Supreme Court because the application process focused on her work as a lawyer and as a judge.

Walker also told reporters after a bill signing at Brown Deer High School that his vetting process for judges involves reviewing their legal opinions, columns theyve written as a lawyer and any writings from law school, but not any writings as an undergraduate.

I would challenge you to look back at any governors appointment process, and I doubt that youll find that every writing as a student is going to be brought up under any process, Walker said. At some point 20 years from now are we going to have the same questions about someone with a Tweet or a text or a Facebook post? Its an interesting debate out there.

Defending Bradley

On Tuesday, the president of the gay advocacy group Log Cabin Republicans of Wisconsin defended Bradley, saying what Bradley wrote 24 years ago did not reflect her current views.

I have no fear the Justice Rebecca Bradley will do everything in her power to ensure a fair court hearing every time she sits down in her Supreme Court Justice robes, Devin Gatton wrote on Facebook. Gatton also posted a photo of Bradley attending a fundraiser for LGBTQ advocacy group Fair Wisconsin.

But Fair Wisconsin executive director Megin McDonell said in a statement that attending one election-season fundraiser while a candidate is not enough to convince me that Justice Bradley has experienced such a radical transformation in her views about the LGBT community and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Democrats continued to blast Bradley on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan of Madison, who is gay, said Bradleys earlier apology Monday appeared to be offered to dodge responsibility for an extremist, hateful worldview expressed multiple times in past public diatribes.

Walker appointed Bradley, who is backed by conservatives, to the Supreme Court after the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks in September. Kloppenburg is backed by liberals.

The State Journal reported Monday that Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken said Kloppenburg didnt write any opinion columns in college.

The newspaper conducted a search of the online archive of the Yale Daily News that revealed no articles or opinion columns by Kloppenburg during her undergraduate career at Yale University. The UW-Madison Law School reference library found three articles that referenced her work in the Department of Justice.

Bradley attended the University of Wisconsin law school from 1993 through the spring of 1996. An Associated Press review of back issues of the Daily Cardinal, one of the universitys two campus newspapers, covering that span did not reveal any Bradley writings.

The Associated Press attempted to review back issues for the Badger Herald, the other campus newspaper, for that period but UW-Madison archivists said they were not available because the issues are archived only as microfilm negatives. An email left for the Badger Heralds editor seeking access to the back issues wasnt immediately returned.

According to the latest Marquette Law School Poll, each candidate has the support of 30 percent of those polled, while 31 percent remain undecided.
Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 16-03-08 Cyprus Press and Information Office: Turkish Cypriot Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/> TURKISH CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW No. 45/16 08.03.2016 [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS [01] Burcu says that they are ready to discuss the system of guarantees, but not Turkey's guarantees [02] Colak: "Mersin has always been a vessel for us" [03] Columnist argues that Eroglu is getting ready to return to politics [04] Akansoy: The number of applications for "white cards" increased since 17 February 2016 [05] Caglar and Berova are taking place in PACE meeting in Paris [06] Turkish MIT issued a warning to the breakaway regime for the possibility of a Turkey like bomb attack [07] EU pushes for 'breakthrough' Turkey migrant deal next week [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS [01] Burcu says that they are ready to discuss the system of guarantees, but not Turkey's guarantees Turkish Cypriot daily Star Kibris newspaper (08.03.16) reports that Baris Burcu, spokesman of the Turkish Cypriot leader, has said that the Turkish Cypriots are ready to discuss the system of guarantees, not Turkey's guarantees. In statements to Ada television, Burcu argued yesterday that the Turkish Cypriots need Turkey's guarantees and added: "We need Turkey's guarantees. [?] Turkey's guarantees are important for us. When we discuss the system of guarantees, we are ready to discuss the system, not Turkey's guarantees. This is what we are trying to explain. [?] In parallel to this, we are aware of the fact that the content of the solution will be different than the content in the 1960's.That is, in the content of the solution itself we will obtain some security elements. For example, in 1960 we did not have a separate police force. We did not have separate courts. Bi-zonality did not exist. All these new concepts will bring new security elements to us. While creating a new system of guarantees we could take these into consideration [?] If in the future we write a new security history, if Turkey obtains a new status in which we could be all together at the same ground like the EU, the new generations may then discuss whether there is a need for these guarantees in that conditions. However, today we do not have the luxury of being able to conduct this discussion [?] When we say that the Turkish Cypriots' security need should be respected, we are not saying that the guarantees issue should remain the same. We are taking into consideration the changing conditions. What we want is Turkey's active guarantee. In parallel to this, we are open to an arrangement which will not constitute a threat for the Greek Cypriot community by taking into consideration the changing conditions. I think that the same should be expected by the Greek Cypriot side in the property regime". Burcu said that developments will be happening in the negotiations, but not as quickly as in the past. He argued that they are very cautious when replying to some views and alleged: "[?] We are not looking for replying everything, make accusations on everything. However, there some issues sometimes that you cannot remain silent and you are obliged to make a bold statement. For example, the issue as to whether the solution will be continuation of the Republic of Cyprus or a new situation will come up is very important. You cannot remain silent to this. For example, the issue that no agreement can be reached if Morfou is not given. We want to overcome this as well". Referring to the elections in the government-controlled area of the Republic of Cyprus, Burcu argued: "They could cause wrong perceptions and spoiling of the atmosphere a little bit. By exhibiting a decisive stance in the beginning we made them understand that we would not permit this and prevented this from being turned into an endless debate. Therefore, I can say that we are experiencing a controlled trouble. Let them overcome the elections without any problems and after the elections a more intense negotiations timetable will begin. It is true that we will not sit back and wait until the elections. The negotiators are meeting three times a week and a good job is done [?]" (I/Ts.) [02] Colak: "Mersin has always been a vessel for us" Illegal Bayrak television (07.03.16) broadcast that "foreign minister" Emine Colak is in Mersin to attend the 8th of March International Women's Day event of the Mersin Bar Association. As part of her contacts in the city, Colak paid a visit to the Governor of Mersin Ozdemir Cakacak at his office. "There are important relations between the TRNC and Turkey. Mersin has an important bond with the TRNC. It is the closest point to the country. Although we have had many problems and embargoes for many years, we could always travel to Mersin. Mersin has always been a vessel for us and is always an important point", she stated during the meeting. For his part, Mersin Governor Cakacak said that there were rooted relation between Turkey and the "TRNC" and added that Turkey had always supported a just and permanent solution in Cyprus. [03] Columnist argues that Eroglu is getting ready to return to politics Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris Postasi newspaper (08.03.16) publishes information by the paper's columnist Gokhan Altiner who citing information in his daily column "Kulis" (Backstage) reports that former Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu is getting ready to return to politics. According to Altiner, Eroglu will get back to those "deputies" of the National Unity Party (UBP) who did not previously support him and will start a struggle against them. Altiner also writes that following the recent resign of Hakan Dincyurek, "deputy" with the Democratic Party (DP), more "deputies" of DP will leave the Party. He also writes that Hasan Tacoy, Ozdemir Berova and Mentes Gunduz are some of the DP "deputies" who are said that will resign from DP. Altiner also writes that it is very possible these "deputies" to ask to return to UBP. However; UBP's chairman Huseyin Ozgurgun is not willing to take them back for the time being. (CS) [04] Akansoy: The number of applications for "white cards" increased since 17 February 2016 Turkish Cypriot daily Detay newspaper (08.03.16) reports that Asim Akansoy, self-styled minister interior and labor of the breakaway regime in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus, has said that the number of applications for acquiring a "white card" increased since 17 February 2016, when the fee for filing an application decreased from 2,000 Turkish liras (TL) to 1,000 TL. In statements to the paper, Akansoy noted that by the end of 2016, the gains of the "white card" holders will increase, adding that they are working on the issue of the "white card" holders obtaining all the rights of a "TRNC citizen" except for the right to "vote and be elected" and that they are expecting to conclude this work by 2017. He also said that they have prepared a television spot for encouraging people to take "a white card" and the broadcasting of this spot will start soon. Akansoy noted that the number of the persons working in the occupied area of Cyprus having a "work permit" is around 40 thousand and that ten thousand persons have currently the right to file an application for a "white card", which is not obligatory now, because according to the existing "legislation" one can live in the occupied area of Cyprus having a "work permit". With the "legal arrangements" which will be made, he added, only those persons who possess a "white card" will be obtaining the right for the regime's "citizenship". (I/Ts.) [05] Caglar and Berova are taking place in PACE meeting in Paris Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen newspaper (08.03.16) reports that Mehmet Caglar "deputy" with the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and Ozdemir Berova "deputy" with the Democratic Party (DP) will participate in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) which is taking place between 7-8 of March in Paris. They will attend the "Political Affairs, Democratic, Law and Human Rights Committee". (CS) [06] Turkish MIT issued a warning to the breakaway regime for the possibility of a Turkey like bomb attack Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Bakis newspaper (08.03.16) reports that the National Intelligence Service of Turkey (MIT) issued a warning to the "national intelligence service" of the breakaway regime that a bomb attack, similar to the attack that took place in Turkey some time ago, could take place in the occupied area of Cyprus. The paper citing trusted information, writes that the "police" is alarmed for any suspicious movement and measures are taken towards this direction. (CS) [07] EU pushes for 'breakthrough' Turkey migrant deal next week Turkish Hurriyet Daily News (08.03.16) reports that European Union leaders on March 7 hailed a "breakthrough" in talks with Turkey on a deal to curb the migrant crisis but delayed a decision until a summit next week to flesh out the details of Ankara's new demands. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stunned his 28 EU counterparts in Brussels when he suddenly asked for an extra three billion euro ($3.3 billion) in aid and visa-free travel for Turks to the bloc by June. In return he proposed to take back all illegal migrants landing on the overstretched Greek islands, and suggested a one-for-one deal under which the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece. Davutoglu said that the one-for-one Syrian refugee swap deal was "game-changing" and denied that Turkey was "demanding" money, urging the world to share the burden of hosting Syrian refugees. In addition, Turkish daily Sabah (08.03.16) reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the European Union for a four-month delay in disbursing a promised 3 billion euro fund for refugees agreed under a readmission deal signed in November. "It's been four months. They are yet to deliver," Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara, as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held summit talks on the refugee crisis with EU leaders. "Mr. Prime Minister is currently in Brussels. I hope he will return with the money," said Erdogan. The EU has pledged to provide 3 billion euro [$3.2 billion] in aid for refugees hosted in Turkey, visa liberalization for Turkish citizens and speeding up of the candidate country's EU accession process. In exchange, the EU is expecting Turkey, which hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, to stop migrants and refugees from entering Europe via its neighbor Greece. Erdogan also noted that Turkey has spent 10 billion dollars on 2.7 million Syrian refugees in the country. TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION http://www.moi.gov.cy/pio (CS/AM) Cyprus Press and Information Office: Turkish Cypriot Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-08 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Tsipras: Summit results a step forward [02] PM Tsipras hails Eurogroup commitment to debt relief talks [03] Merkel stresses need to make humanitarian conditions in Greece viable [04] Greek-FYROM buffer zone remains closed [05] Greece pushing for solution that will include returning refugees, migrants to Turkey [06] 1,300 refugees and migrants to arrive at Piraeus port on Tuesday [01] Tsipras: Summit results a step forward BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA/ Aroni, Spinthourakis) - "I think that the results of the summit could only be described as a step forward," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras early on Tuesday said and stressed the need to make more steps forward, because the images from Idomeni are tragic. "If the officials are not moved by these images and if some believe that the problem does not concern the European civilization and the future of the EU, then they are wrong and there will be a huge impact on the EU," he stated. The Greek prime minister expressed his content over the change of climate in the EU summit and the fact that the discussion was set on a good basis. "The discussion was focused on finding a substantial solution for curtailing refugee flows from Turkey in cooperation with Turkey," he underlined adding that Turkey presented some "tempting proposals," surprising many. The prime minister stressed, however, that these proposals included some key details that need to be worked out. Tsipras stressed that the summit will continue on Tuesday in Izmir, where a "historic meeting" will take place on the updating of Greece-Turkey Readmission Agreement so that Ankara accepts all migrants who are entitled to international protection. "This agreement can be the first step for combating traffickers." "Not only Greece was not isolated in this meeting, but the countries that wanted to isolate Greece did so," he stated and added: "Fences were actually built for those who wanted to build fences." Tsipras estimated that the next summit on March 17-18 will be critical and stressed the importance of respecting the needs of each other. [02] PM Tsipras hails Eurogroup commitment to debt relief talks Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomed statements by the Eurogroup on Monday according to which Greek debt relief talks will start as soon as the first program review has concluded. "We welcome the Eurogroup's commitment to proceed with debt relief as soon as the review of the program is completed," Tsipras tweeted on his official account. [03] Merkel stresses need to make humanitarian conditions in Greece viable BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA/Ch. Vassilaki) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel early on Tuesday referred to the negative impact of the continuing flow of refugees and migrants on Greece. "In today's summit of the 28 member states, we looked into ways to improve the humanitarian conditions in Greece and make then viable," Merkel said in statements to journalists after the EU summit with the participation of Turkey. Regarding Turkey, the German Chancellor said that it has made important steps for the protection of its borders and the improvement of the refugees' living conditions. She also referred to the Syrian refugees' access to employment as well as programmes implemented for their support. Finally, the German Chancellor said that the readmission agreement will be implemented once a final agreement is reached in the next summit on March 18. [04] Greek-FYROM buffer zone remains closed Nobody has managed to cross the Greek-FYROM buffer zone as it remains closed since Monday morning. A total of 13,000 refugees are estimated to have gathered at Idomeni. [05] Greece pushing for solution that will include returning refugees, migrants to Turkey BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA/M. Aroni)  Greece is pressuring at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussels for a solution that will include returning refugees and migrants from Greece to Turkey, on the condition that it they will be directly resettled to EU countries, government sources said on Monday. According to the same sources, the Visegrad Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland) are disagreeing with the return of Syrian refugees to Turkey, claiming it is not a safe third country. The Greek government criticized this stance, saying its "hypocritical", as these countries are not accepting refugees, do not cooperate for any solution and at the same time they're closing the borders, the sources said. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is asking for a decision on the refugee crisis to be taken tonight, saying that if there isn't, then the Balkan route should reopen to allow refugees to continue their journey. The Greek side is also saying that if the "Plan A" is not accepted  the return of refugees and migrants to Turkey  then we must go to "Plan B" which entails returning only migrants to Turkey. [06] 1,300 refugees and migrants to arrive at Piraeus port on Tuesday Three ferries with 1,300 refugees and migrants from the islands of eastern Aegean are expected to dock at Piraeus port on Tuesday. More specifically, "Blue Star 1" will carry 795 refugees from Mytilene and Chios. "Diagoras" will carry 313 refugees from Rhodos and "Nisos Mykonos" will carry another 222 from Samos. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-08 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Tsipras: Aegean must become a sea of peace, cooperation and stability [02] Finance ministry extends sale ban of NPLs from banks to other financial institutions [01] Tsipras: Aegean must become a sea of peace, cooperation and stability Neither Greece nor Turkey were the cause of the problems currently facing central Europe, Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday, during joint statements with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Izmir. We will solve the problems of the refugee crisis together and no one will impose a solution upon us, the Greek premier added. "The Aegean must become a sea of peace, cooperation and stability," Tsipras said. With sophisticated technology at their disposal, he noted, an inability to find the traffickers bringing refugees to Europe was not acceptable. The future of relations between Greece and Turkey had to negotiate major challenges, one of which was dealing with the refugee crisis, he added. "We state together that what is happening in our sea is shameful for our culture. We must strengthen our relations, overcome mutual problems and build a better future for our people," Tsipras said. The Greek prime minister also referred to the Cyprus issue and the increased number of airspace and other violations by Turkey in the Aegean, noting that this was not compatible with cultivating a good atmosphere in relations between the two countries. Tsipras is in Izmir for the 4th High-Level Cooperation Council that focused on trade, transport and tourism, which ended with the signature of bilateral agreements. He is at the head of a large government delegation of 10 ministers and representatives of 36 Greek businesses and organisations. PM Davutoglu to Tsipras: 'We're seeking solutions to end the drama at sea' Greece and Turkey are sharing the burden of the refugee crisis, the Turkish prime minister said during the joint press conference, noting that Greece has been affected by the problem. He said the two sides are seeking solutions that will reduce refugee flows in the Aegean and end the dramatic situations at sea. ""We will all have to share the burden of the refugee crisis," Davutoglu said. He also commented on the bilateral agreements signed. [02] Finance ministry extends sale ban of NPLs from banks to other financial institutions The finance ministry tabled in parliament on Tuesday an amendment extending for the second time a ban on the sale of non-performing mortgage and business loans of small and medium-sized businesses from banks to other financial institutions until April 15. The first ban would expire on March 15. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
The truth about the South African icon is at odds with the public portrayal

by Pete Papaherakles

As South Africas 95-year-old Nelson Mandela lies in the hospital, the worldwide media portrays him as a larger-than-life heroic figure and the liberator of his people. But is that truth or fiction? And how will honest historians judge him?

The official story goes something like this: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in 1918 into the Thembu tribes royal family. He studied law at two prestigious universities and became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the African National Congress (ANC).

He was committed to non-violent protest in gaining sovereignty for blacks. In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government and was sentenced to life in prison.

An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990, and he was hailed as martyr of white racism by the international media.

This popularity propelled him to be elected president of South Africa in 1994, where he continued with his struggle to end ethnic tensions and bring about racial equality.

Over the years, Mandela has received over 250 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Soviet Order of Lenin.

Thats the official story. His critics, however, have a different opinion.

They point to the fact that Mandela was not imprisoned for opposing apartheid, or segregation, in Africa, but for being a communist terrorist murderer-bomber in service to the Soviet Union.

The ANCs guerrilla force, known as uMkhonto we Sizwe  MK, or Spear of the Nation  was founded in 1961 by Mandela and his advisor, the Lithuanian-born communist Jew Joe Slovo, born Yossel Mashel Slovo, who was officially named secretary general of the South African Communist Party in 1986.

Slovo had been the planner of many of the ANC terrorist attacks, as detailed in the book Victory or Violence: The Story of the AWB of South Africa, including the January 8, 1982 attack on the Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town, the Church Street bombing on May 20, 1983, which killed 19 people, and the June 14, 1986 car-bombing of Magoos Bar in Durban, in which three people were killed and 73 injured.

In 1962, Mandela was arrested along with 19 others, half of whom were White communist Jews, in a police raid of ANC headquarters at a farm owned by Andrew Goldreich, also a communist Jew, at Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb.

In the Rivonia Trial, which took place between 1963 and 1964, the defendants were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the government and conspiring to aid foreign military units, when they invaded SA to further the objects of communism.

The prosecutor, Percy Yutar said at the trial that production requirements for munitions were sufficient to blow up a city the size of Johannesburg.

Escaping the death sentence, Mandela was given life in prison.

By 1990, the communists behind Mandela had gained enough power to force his release. Apartheid was abolished in 1992 and the ANC was put into power in 1994 with Mandela as president. Slovo became his secretary of housing.

Shortly thereafter, Mandela and Slovo, along with a group of ANC leaders, were filmed chanting a pledge to kill all whites in South Africa.

Current South African President Jacob Zuma, also of the ANC, was also filmed as late as January 2012 singing a song called Kill the Boer in front of a crowd of thousands of blacks while they cheered and danced.

The song advocates the murder of the descendents of the original white settlers of South Africa, with lyrics encouraging blacks to gun down the farmers with machine guns.

Mandelas ex-wife Winnie, also a longtime ANC activist, prefers a method called necklacing, where a gasoline-filled tire is placed around the neck of a victim and set ablaze.

With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country, she is infamous for saying.

(Mandela was in solitary confinement at the time of the necklacing torture-murders. An estimated 3,000 victims died by necklacing.)

Since 1994, 68,000 whites have been brutally tortured and murdered by blacks in South Africa, in ways too gruesome to describe, including almost 4,000 Boers whose farms were confiscated by savage murderers, a combined area of over 25,000 square miles.

Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of blacks in South Africa arent natives, but came by the millions from neighboring countries only after the white Boers created a country with a thriving economy, education opportunities and medical benefits.

Under white rule, blacks in South Africa enjoyed better living conditions than any other African country, where blacks kill each other in tribal warfare.

In 1994, the same year Mandela took power, the Hutu tribe killed 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda. Similar tribal genocides have taken place in Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad, Mali, Zimbabwe, Angola and many more African countries. Tribal savagery and genocide has always been a way of life for Africans.

Since Mandela took over, South Africa has become a Third World country. It went from being the safest country in Africa, to being the rape and murder capital of the world. In Johannesburg, 5,000 people are murdered every year. Unemployment went from 5% in 1994 to 50% today.

South Africa also has the largest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the world. In 2007, over 18% of adults, or 5,700,000 people had AIDS. In 2010, an estimated 280,000 died of AIDS.

Looking beyond the media myth of a demigod Mandela as he faces his twilight, one can only say, good riddance.
By John C. Kluge March 5, 2016 | 3:56pm Trump finally admits that Hitler comparisons aren't a good thing Egyptian aviation student who threatened Trump to leave US Romney's attack on Trump backfired but GOP race is tightening overall This is what the wives of GOP hopefuls all have in common Let me say up front that I am a lifelong Republican and conservative. I have never voted for a Democrat in my life and have voted in every presidential and midterm election since 1988. I have never in my life considered myself anything but a conservative. I am pained to admit that the conservative media and many conservatives reaction to Donald Trump has caused me to no longer consider myself part of the movement. I would suggest to you that if you have lost people like me, and I am not alone, you might want to reconsider your reaction to Donald Trump. Let me explain why. First, I spent the last 20 years watching the conservative media in Washington endorse and urge me to vote for one candidate after another who made a mockery of conservative principles and values. Everyone talks about how thankful we are for the Citizens United decision but seems to have forgotten how we were urged to vote for the co-author of the law that the decision overturned. In 2012, we were told to vote for Mitt Romney, a Massachusetts liberal who proudly signed an individual insurance mandate into law and refused to repudiate the decision. Before that, there was George W. Bush, the man who decided it was Americas duty to bring democracy to the Middle East. And before that, there was Bob Dole, the man who gave us the Americans with Disabilities Act. I, of course, voted for those candidates and do not regret doing so. I, however, am self-aware enough to realize I voted for them because I will vote for virtually anyone to keep the left out of power and not because I thought them to be the best or even really a conservative choice. Given this history, the conservative medias claims that the Republican Party must reject Donald Trump because he is not a conservative are pathetic and ridiculous to those of us who are old enough to remember the last 25 years. Looking out for America Second, it doesnt appear to me that conservatives calling on people to reject Trump have any idea what it actually means to be a conservative. The word seems to have become a brand that some people attach to a set of partisan policy preferences, rather than the set of underlying principles about government and society it once was. Modal Trigger A Donald Trump supporter in Wichita, KansasPhoto: Getty Images Conservatism has become a dogs breakfast of Wilsonian internationalism brought over from the Democratic Party after the New Left took it over, coupled with fanatical libertarian economics and religiously driven positions on various culture war issues. No one seems to have any idea or concern for how these positions are consistent or reflect anything other than a general hatred for Democrats and the left. Lost in all of this is the older strain of conservatism. The one I grew up with and thought was reflective of the movement. This strain of conservatism believed in the free market and capitalism but did not fetishize them the way so many libertarians do. This strain understood that a situation where every country in the world but the US acts in its own interests on matters of international trade and engages in all kinds of skulduggery in support of their interests is not free trade by any rational definition. This strain understood that a governments first loyalty was to its citizens and the national interest. And also understood that the preservation of our culture and our civil institutions was a necessity. All of this seems to have been lost. Conservatives have become some sort of schizophrenic sect of libertarians who love freedom (but hate potheads and abortion) and feel the US should be the policeman of the world. The same people who daily fret over the effects of leaving our society to the mercy of Hollywood and the mass culture have somehow decided leaving it to the mercies of the international markets is required. I spent the last 20 years watching the conservative media in Washington endorse and urge me to vote for one candidate after another who made a mockery of conservative principles and values. Third, there is the issue of the war on Islamic extremism. Let me say upfront that I am a veteran of two foreign deployments in this war. As a member of the 1% who have served in these wars which movement conservatives consider so vital, my question for you and every other conservative is just when the hell did being conservative mean thinking the US has some kind of a duty to save foreign nations from themselves or bring our form of democratic republicanism to them by force? I fully understand the sad necessity to fight wars and I do not believe in blow back or any of the other nonsense that says the world will leave us alone if only we will do the same. At the same time, I cannot for the life of me understand how conservatives of all people convinced themselves that the solution to the 9/11 attacks was to forcibly create democracy in the Islamic world. I have even less explanations for how  15 years and 10,000-plus lives later  conservatives refuse to examine their actions and expect the country to send more of its young to bleed and die over there to save the Iraqis who will not save themselves. Modal Trigger George W. BushPhoto: Reuters The lowest moment of the election was when Trump said what everyone in the country knows: that invading Iraq was a mistake. Rather than engaging the question with honest self-reflection, all of the so-called conservatives responded with the usual How dare he? Worse, they let Jeb Bush claim that George W. Bush kept us safe. I can assure you that President Bush didnt keep me safe. Do I and the other people in the military not count? Sure, we signed up to give our lives for our country, and I will never regret doing so. But doesnt our commitment require a corresponding responsibility on the part of the president to only expect us to do so when it is both necessary and in the national interest? And since when is bringing democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan so much in the national interest that it is worth killing or maiming 50,000 Americans to try to achieve? I dont see that, but I am not a Wilsonian and used to, at least, be a conservative. I have these strange ideas that my government ought to act in Americas interests instead of the rest of the worlds interests. I wish conservatives could understand how galling it was to have a career politician lecture us about how George W. Bush kept us safe. Time for civility is past Donald Trump is the only Republican candidate who seems to have any inclination to act strictly in Americas interest. More importantly, he is the only Republican candidate who is willing to even address the problem. Trump may not have been right to say that we need to stop letting more Muslims into the country or, at least, examine the issue, but he wasnt crazy to suggest it either. And like when he said the obvious about Iraq, the first people to condemn him and deny the obvious were conservatives. Somehow, being conservative now means denying the obvious and saying idiotic fantasies like Islam is always peaceful or Our war is not with a radical strain of Islam. Uh, sorry, but no it is not, and yes it is. And if getting a president who at least understands that means voting for Trump, then I guess I am not a conservative. Fourth, I really do not care that Donald Trump is vulgar, combative and uncivil, and I would encourage you not to care as well. I would love to have our political discourse be what it was even 30 years ago and something better than what it is today. But the fact is the Democratic Party is never going to return to that, and there isnt anything anyone can do about it. Modal Trigger Trump holds a copy of The Economist.Photo: AP Over the last 15 years, I have watched the then-chairman of the DNC say the idea that President Bush knew about 9/11 and let it happen was a serious position held by many people, watched the vice president tell a black audience that Republicans would return them to slavery if they could, watched Harry Reid say Mitt Romney was a tax cheat without any reason to believe it was true, and seen an endless amount of appalling behavior on the part of the Democrats which is too long to list here and of which I am sure you are aware. And now you tell me that I should reject Trump because he is uncivil and mean to his opponents? Is that some kind of a joke? This is not the time for civility or to worry about it in our candidates. Fifth, I do not care that Donald Trump is in favor of big government. That is certainly not a virtue but it is not a meaningful vice, since the same can be said of every single Republican in the race. I am sorry, but the We are just one more Republican victory from small government card is maxed out. We are not getting small government no matter who wins. So Trump being big government is a wash. Sixth, Trump offers at least the chance that he might act in the American interest instead of the worlds interest or in the blind pursuit of some fantasy ideological goals. There is more to economic policy than cutting taxes, sham free-trade agreements and hollow appeals to cutting government and the free market. Trump may not be good, but he at least understands that. In contrast, the rest of the GOP and everyone in Washington or the media who calls themselves a conservative has no understanding of this. Insulting his supporters Marco Rubio would be nothing but a repeat of the Bush 43 administration with more blood and treasure spent on the fantasy that acting in other peoples interests indirectly helps ours. Ted Cruz might be somewhat better, but it is unclear whether he could resist the temptations of nation building and wouldnt get bullied into trying it again. And as much as I like Cruz on many areas, he, like all of them except Trump, seems totally unwilling to admit that the government has a responsibility to act in the nations interests on trade policy and do something besides let every country in the world take advantage of us in the name of free trade. Consider the following. Our country is going broke, half its working-age population isnt even looking for work, faces the real threat of massive Islamic terrorist attack and has a government incapable of doing even basic functions. Meanwhile, conservatives act like cutting Planned Parenthood funding or stopping gays from getting marriage licenses are the great issues of the day and then have the gumption to call Donald Trump a clown. It would be downright funny if it wasnt so sad and the situation so serious. It is not that I think Donald Trump is some savior or an ideal candidate. I dont. It is that I cannot for the life of me  given the sorry nature of our current political class  understand why conservatives are losing their minds over him and are willing to destroy the Republican Party and put Hillary Clinton into office to stop him. All of your objections to him either apply to many other candidates you have backed or are absurd. I dont expect you to agree with me or start backing Trump. I would, however, encourage you to at least think about what I and others have said and to understand that the people backing Trump are not nihilists or uneducated hillbillies looking for a job. Some of us are pretty serious people and once considered ourselves conservatives. Even if you still hate Trump, you owe it to conservatism to ask yourself how exactly conservatism managed to alienate so many of its supporters such that they are now willing to vote for someone you loathe as much as Trump. I am a Trump supporter. My father is a Trump supporter. We both went to war for this country. My father spent 40 years in the private sector maintaining this thing we like to call the phone system. I have spent the last 20 years in the Army and toiling away doing national-security and law-enforcement issues for the federal government. Just what exactly have any of the people saying these things ever done for the country? Where do they feel entitled to say these things? And more importantly, why on Earth do they think it is helping their cause? I dont want to be associated with a movement that calls other Americans bums and welfare queens because they support the wrong candidate. If I wanted to do that, I would be a leftist. Perhaps none of this means anything to you, and the movement has left me behind. If it has, I think conservatives should understand that it is leaving a lot of people like me behind. I cant see how that is a good thing. John Kluge is an attorney living in Washington. He served in the US Army for nine years, including two deployments in Iraq and Kuwait. This essay first appeared on Ricochet.com.
"Paul Schimpf is a leader who understands that it is the local job creators, not the politicians in Springfield, who are the key to revitalizing our economy," Maisch said. "He supports the reforms that are necessary to make Illinois competitive again."

WATERLOO IL - The Illinois Chamber of Commerce picked Republican Paul Schimpf over opponent Sharee Langenstein in the 58th Senate race.

Schimpf said, "The Illinois Chamber of Commerce plays a key in growing our economy and bringing good-paying jobs back to Illinois. I am both humbled and honored by the trust that they have placed in me with their endorsement."

Governor Rauner's political staff has been pushing groups like the Chamber to back Schimpf in the March 15th primary to fill retiring Senator Dave Leuchtefeld's seat next session.

However, Sharee Langenstein, a family attorney, has nabbed the backing of social conservatives and grassroots volunteers in the 58th GOP primary race.
That about sums up my job at Laystrom Manufacturing, the 41-year-old said when TMA visited his office.

The green arrow reminds Colin Cosgrove that its his job to increase sales and the red arrow reminds him to decrease costs.

CHICAGO  The first thing Laystrom Manufacturing Companys new president and CEO sees when he comes into his office every morning is a whiteboard on the wall. On that whiteboard are two arrows  one green, pointing up, and one red, pointing down.

Laystrom, founded in 1951, is a full-service provider of precision sheet metal fabrications and component parts, value-added assemblies, and low and high volume metal stampings. The third-generation company, which had been originally been involved in metal stamping, expanded to sheet metal fabricating in the 1980s.

Bob Laystrom, one of the founders grandsons, brought Cosgrove into the company as a sales manager. After six years at Laystrom, Cosgrove moved to Acme Industries for two and a half years. He was then asked to return to Laystrom, where he was recently chosen to be the new president.

I learned a lot at Acme and the other companies, Cosgrove said. I appreciate every person along the way that invested time helping me become better at my work. That includes men like Virgil Delay, Guy Cassidy, Fred Young and, more than anyone, Bob Laystrom.

Unlike many others, Cosgrove started in manufacturing with no special training. He got his first job in America in 1994 at age 20, when he migrated to the U.S. from the west coast of Ireland.

A cousin of mine knew the vice president of a manufacturing company, and he gave me the job at the floor level, Cosgrove said.

I dont see that I offered anything exceptional, he said, and here I am president of Laystrom now. I hope that encourages to others just getting started.

Cosgrove works Laystrom Manufacturings 60 employees, who come from diverse backgrounds. Since October last year, they have been meeting altogether in a huddle every morning to discuss the days work ahead.

We got the idea from Craig Zoberis at Fusion OEM, Cosgrove said. And the team is seeing more how we all work together to meet our goals.

The new interaction among Laystrom workers has been positive. While its important to train the next generation of machine operators and toolmakers the skills they need to do their jobs

well, Cosgrove says its also important to provide skills on how to think as a part of a team.

For instance, an operator could do his job and just pass on the products problems on to the next person, Cosgrove said. But if he has the ability to think and understand that he has an opportunity for input, perhaps he could figure out how to correct the issue, make suggestions to correct it, and not just pass it off.

We want our team to think of their responsibilities to fellow employees, to our customers and shareholders. That will happen, Cosgrove said while pointing to the whiteboard in his office, If theyre doing their work with these core values of safety, respect, collaboration, and continuous improvement in mind every day.

Keeping those important qualities in mind, over days, weeks, months and years, will cause them to become part of a strong workforce at Laystrom  not just doing a job, but living within a career.

Cosgrove says that a substantial part of his leadership philosophy comes from people hes met through TMAs network. While some manufacturers hesitate to network with others because they may compete for the same business, Cosgrove says hes found that there is a great deal to be learned from people with common experiences, and that sustained business and customer satisfaction today is based on a companys ability to deliver what they promise with top quality execution  not only in specific service and product specialties.

A lot of people push to find their marketing niche, their singular

areas of expertise, he said, but if a company isnt doing fundamental blocking and tackling  youre not going to succeed.

Laystrom Manufacturing deals with the challenges of being located in a Chicago residential neighborhood, where property taxes are high and new regulations place more pressure on the companys bottom line.

From time to time, there has been discussion about moving out of Chicago because all those negatives put companies like Laystrom at a disadvantage.

From pure business and cost perspective, if you have someone just 50 miles away over in Indiana that has a completely different cost structure and is able to offer the same work for lower prices, the customer in Kentucky doesnt care if were near great restaurants  theyre focused on the bottom line, Cosgrove said. Thats why we have to excel every day at our jobs and deliver a different level of value to that customer.

Despite the challenges, most important to Cosgrove is that his daughters  ages 3 and 1 - grow up to see through his life experience that hard work allowed the opportunity for him to climb from a shop floor to the executive level.

Thats endemic to America, he said. It really is the land of opportunity.

Laystrom Manufacturing is located at 3900 West Palmer in Chicago, among a middle class row of bungalows and it can be found on the Internet at www.laystrom.com.

By Fran Eaton. First published at Technology & Manufacturing Association's News Bulletin for February 2016. Used by permission.
SPRINGFIELD - "...And when I have the opportunity to find common ground, that doesn't make me a sellout to my own party," President Barack Obama said during his speech last month before the Illinois General Assembly. When Democrat House member Ken Dunkin rose to his feet, cheering in agreement, the president smirked, "Well, we'll talk later Dunkin, you just sit down."

The president's jab was all about Rep. Dunkin not showing up at the Capitol last fall during a crucial vote to override Governor Rauner's veto of a state employee union arbitration demand.

Dunkin's absence called down the wrath of Speaker Madigan, employee unions, the Democrat Party and district voters.

Monday, the president took last month's scolding one step further by endorsing Dunkin's primary challenger Juliana Stratton and narrating an ad for her campaign - an unheard of political maneuver for a president to get involved in a state rep race.
A boy with his younger brother. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

BEIJING - China's family planning policy will not change in the foreseeable future, and there are no plans for a complete relaxation currently, a top health official said Tuesday.

Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, made the remarks when addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

As of 2015, the Chinese population numbered 1.375 billion, compared to 320 million in the United States, the world's largest economy.

Li said China's per capita economic output was "considerably low" as was the average living standard.

"Our resources pale in comparison with our vast population. Until this changes, we will continue with the current family planning policy," she said.

"There is no timetable for the full relaxation of the policy [although] it will continue to be improved and adjusted," she added.

China this year allowed all married couples to have two children. This follows an earlier easing of the policy in 2013 that allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child.

The latest change ended the "one child" policy since it was implemented in the late 1970s.

The two-child policy will see 3 million more children born in China every year.
Planning to travel abroad? Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind before boarding that long-haul flight.

By Samonway Duttagupta: Wow! You have finally planned that long-awaited trip to Australia. Visa's arrived and you've packed your bags -- you're all set for a holiday. But wait. Are you sure? Well, if you are travelling to Melbourne, you are ought to board a 12-hour flight, at least. And if that's Adelaide, the duration increases for three more hours. Okay, let that be any good place on planet Earth that's far from India -- crossing those seas will take time, even when you are flying.

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Don't worry, we are not here to dull your spirits. We care for our fellow countrymen and want them to make the most of a holiday; including that long-haul flight. Here are a few tips to help you prevent boredom, dehydration, deep-vein thrombosis, sleep deprivation and the other things you might feel when you are trapped in that metal tube for an entire waking day of your life.

Also read: 5 ways to crack the best travel deal for the Holi long weekend



The clothes you wear: Remember to wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. Don't let your clothes make you feel trapped and suffocated. If you don't think it's the best of ways to board an aircraft in sweatpants for instance, change your clothes when the flight takes off. Grab a seat: Make good use of the frequent flier miles you have collected over time. They can help you get a nice business class seat. In case that doesn't happen, here's something you can try -- take note of empty rows in the aircraft and remember the seat number. After the flight takes off, ask the cabin crew if you can get a seat on that row. You will be able to sit more comfortably and catch a relatively better sleep. The stuff you consume: Be careful about what you eat and drink. We are not asking you to starve, that's even worse -- gastric problems due to an empty stomach is the last thing you would want in a flight. Avoid food that is rich in masala or is deep-fried. In short, don't eat something that is capable of causing an indigestion. Try and avoid too much of alcohol and coffee -- they can cause dehydration. Drink plenty of water throughout the duration of the flight. Take a walk: A common health advisory suggests that if a flight lasts longer than four hours, a person is likely to develop deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is essentially formation of blood clots in deep veins. Every hour or two, get up and take a walk on the aisle of the plane; flex and stretch your legs to encourage blood flow, especially in your calves. Sleep well: Sleeping is one of the best ways to kill time in a long-haul flight. When you are sitting in a plane, there's no fixed time to sleep. Just doze off at your will. You don't get that opportunity too often back on land. Besides, it helps you stay away from other long-flight-related problems, So, the moral: the longer you sleep, the better. Tip: Carry a neck pillow -- it will serve as a great sleeping aid. Soothe your ears: Noisy co-passengers and bawling babies can give you a headache. Make sure you have stuff that can come to the rescue. While noise-cancellation earphones are a great option, try and keep white noise or meditation sounds in your music player. They can even help you go to sleep. Have your own entertainment: Don't even think of boarding that flight without having your own entertainment sorted. That includes a book that can keep you engaged, music that you love, and movies that you can watch a zillion times. Well, you can also keep a few new movies to remain hooked most of the time. Don't forget to carry an extra power bank. Nothing disappoints more than a device full of entertainment but no battery.

Also read: Travelling offbeat: 5 places in the world you won't believe actually exist



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By India Today Web Desk: In a bid to refurbish the image of AAP, the Delhi government has decided to appoint at least 12 private communication consultants. The job of these consultants will be to propagate the works done by the AAP government.



Till date, the Information and Broadcast department was responsible to propagate the works of the govt, but the latter is unhappy with the development, said sources.



It is to be noted that when the Kejriwal government came to power in 2015, it had allotted Rs 526 crore for image building, cut down on the budget soon after.



Last year, the AAP government had also set up its own advertising agency, 'Shabdarth' , besides appointing an in-house media advisors for many AAP ministers.



Dissatisfied with all of these, the AAP government has now decided to bring private communication consultants who will propagate the government's work through print, digital and electronic mediums. They will also inform people about the social welfare schemes and policies of the government. The consultants will also spread awareness through various campaigns on a regular basis.



The AAP government has already started the selection process for the consultants. Apart from handling the social media, the team will also be responsible for a news desk which will deal with all kinds of AAP-related news across all platforms.

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They will also inform the respective departments in the government about the news.



The consultants will also provide the information related the government's achievement to the foreign media.



The consultants will be provided with a videographer and a photographer who will help them in preparation of a video and photo library. They will also be provided with the facility of editing, graphics and film production.



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By India Today Web Desk: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tore into the opposition Congress in Parliament today, accusing it of trying to fix "some BJP leader" in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.



"I am making a serious charge on how you made changes in the SIT constitution and how you bared the entire security apparatus of India because you wanted to fix some political leader. That was a matter of law, not intolerance," he said, without naming the leader.



BJP president and the then Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah's role was questioned after one of the accused police officers, suspended IPS officer G L Singhal, had given two pen drives to CBI, including one in which he had 'secretly' recorded the conversation between him and Shah about the encounter. Ishrat and three others were killed for allegedly plotting to kill Narendra Modi, then the Chief Minister of Gujarat.



Former home secretary GK Pillai in a recent TV interview has alleged that the then Home Minister P Chidambaram bypassed him and rewrote the affidavit submitted to the Gujarat High Court on the alleged gunfight of Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old Mumbra student, and three others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004.



TV reports had quoted Pillai as saying that the affidavit in Ishrat Jahan case was changed at political level. In August 2009, the Home Ministry under Chidambaram submitted an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court that referred to Ishrat Jahan's alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba links. In the second affidavit filed in September 2009, however, references to her alleged terror links were absent.



Those allegations, however, have been denied by former SIT official Satish Verma, who had probed the encounter. Verma has maintained that it was a fake encounter and denied any changes were made in the affidavits at the political level.



Verma had also questioned former bureaucrat RVS Mani's allegations that he was tortured by Verma to toe the government's line in the Ishrat Jahan case.



"National security cannot become a defence for the premeditated murder of a 19-year-old girl and be branded it as collateral damage. It is very unfortunate that naional security was being used as a phrase to condone the extreme illegalities of the most serious crime in the book. It cannot happen," " he told India Today TV.



In a recent video-conference deposition before a Special court in Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley from the US jail said he had heard of Ishrat Jahan being a suicide bomber of LeT.



Last week, Congress president Sonia Gandhi defended Chidambaram, saying the party sticks by its stand on Ishrat Jahan. "The former Home Minister and party leader P Chidambaram has already clarified the decision taken by the then UPA government," she said.

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Asked why the BJP was targeting the Congress leadership over the matter, she said her party is always attacked by the ruling party.

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Tension prevailed in the communally-sensitive northwestern city of Belagavi (Belgaum) in Karnataka, on Monday, as people belonging to two different religions, clashed over hoisting a religious flag in the Khadakgalli area.

By Mail Today: Tension prevailed in the communally-sensitive northwestern city of Belagavi (Belgaum) in Karnataka, on Monday, as people belonging to two different religions, clashed over hoisting a religious flag in the Khadakgalli area.

On Monday, while the festival Shivaratri was being celebrated, a house-owner allegedly deliberately hoisted a green-coloured flag atop his home leading to an argument in the neighbhourhood. Subsequently, another group hoisted a saffron-coloured flag in the locality.

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This escalated into a fight with men from two different religions trading blows. The police intervened in time and put the clash to an end. The police removed flags hoisted by the two different groups. Additional policemen were deployed in the locality to prevent any untoward incident.

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By Mail Today: Two men were arrested today by Bengaluru Police from New Delhi for allegedly siphoning off Rs 1.05 lakh from a Bengaluru-based lady's bank account.



According to the police, Dipak Kumar Pandey (26) from Sant Kabirnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Baban Singh of Vaishali district in Bihar, operated an elaborate phishing scheme.

They extracted bank account details, ATM card number, pin number and CVV from an unsuspecting woman customer of the State Bank of India. They siphoned off Rs 1.05 lakh from her account. The woman then filed a complaint.



The police traced the duo to New Dehi, and recovered 10 SIM cards, 16 passport size photos of different people, more than 5,000 contact numbers of customers belonging to different banks, from their house.

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The Bihar Police may have failed to arrest Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been absconding in the minor rape case for nearly a month, but the victim appears to be giving all it takes to fight back.

By Giridhar Jha: The Bihar Police may have failed to arrest Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been absconding in the minor rape case for nearly a month, but the victim appears to be giving all it takes to fight back. She is all set to appear in the matriculation examination beginning this week.

Allegedly raped by RJD legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav on February 6, the 15-year-old from Nalanda will now be appearing for her Class X examinations to be conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board from March 10. Though the girl is yet to recover from her agony, she has decided to take the examination in an apparent bid to pick up the threads of her life.

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She was initially supposed to appear for the examination from Sohsarai Kisan College, about 15 kilometres from her village, but her centre was changed after her father expressed concerns over the distance from their house.

Her father said that it would not be possible for his daughter to cover such a distance everyday under the security of police personnel.

"She will attract a lot of unnecessary attention. How will she take it? My daughter will certainly not be able to take the examinations under such circumstances," he said.

Taking note of the family's plight, Nalanda District Magistrate Thiyagarajan S M has now changed her centre to an undisclosed location near her place.

The girl's family, who was allegedly taken to the RJD legislator's house on the pretext of a birthday party by a woman named Sulekha on the day of her rape, has been living in fear even though the district administration has provided security to them. The delay in the arrest of the legislator has made them apprehensive.

Yadav has filed a bail petition in the Patna High Court, which is expected to be up for hearing soon

A court in Bihar sharif had rejected his anticipatory bail earlier. The Nalanda Police have already seized his properties in different districts, but he remains absconding.

The Bihar Police have set up six different teams to nab the legislator.

On the basis of a tip-off, a police team raided the house of his brother on Saturday night where he was said to have taken refuge but he was not found there. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has reiterated that the fugitive legislator would not remain out of police net for long.

The Bharatiya Janata Party called for Biharsharif bandh on Monday to protest against the delay in Yadav's arrest.

ALSO READ:

Bihar cops yet to arrest rape accused Raj Ballabh Yadav

Nawada minor rape: RJD MLA Ballabh Yadav absconding still, police seizes his property



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Marvel's upcoming film Captain America Civil War has been called "The Godfather" of superhero films by Robert Downey Jr. But directors Joe and Anthony Russo have claimed that the film has been influenced by Se7en and Fargo.

By India Today Web Desk: Marvel studios' upcoming film Captain America Civil War will release in May this year. But it seems like the film's star cast have already started making big claims. Robert Downey Jr, who once again dons the Iron Man suit in the upcoming superhero saga, has claimed that Captain America Civil War will be the best of the lot.

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ALSO READ: Captain America Civil War - Spider-Man too is in this film, reveals Iron Man

ALSO READ: Captain America Civil War trailer shatters all records with 61 million views in a day



"This is the Godfather of superhero movies," Robert Downey Jr told Fandango about the film.

This statement only means that the fans should expect something superior out of this film in terms of the storyline.

But Civil War co-director Joe Russo has made a reference to the number of characters in the upcoming film. He further explains the comparison with Godfather, as he says, "that's (also) a sprawling film with a lot of characters that tells very intricate stories."

However, the film's directors Joe and Anthony Russo are not looking to Godfather as a reference, but to Se7en and Fargo instead.

"The movies we've been referencing a lot on this one are Se7en, weirdly," Joe Russo said, "Se7en (and) Fargo, just as far as we're not making comparisons in terms of quality, we're just talking influences."

Well, now the audience knows what to expect out of the third instalment of this superhero film.

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By Ananth Krishnan: China's diplomacy will assume "a more active posture" in the coming year, which includes setting up infrastructure overseas to protect China's expanding global interests, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Outlining China's diplomatic priorities for the coming year during the on-going annual session of the National People's Congress or Parliament, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at his annual press briefing that China would be "more active" in protecting its interests, but "will not take the old path of expansionism travelled by traditional powers".

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In November, Beijing said it was in discussion with Djibouti to open its first overseas military logistics facility, on the Gulf of Aden. In a strategic location that will give the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) access to the Indian Ocean where it is has been carrying out anti-piracy patrols, the logistics facility will "help Chinese vessels better carry out UN operations like escort missions and humanitarian assistance", the Chinese Foreign Ministry said last year.

The move led some experts to ask if China was reconsidering its policy of not setting up overseas military bases, although the government termed the Djibouti facility as a "logistics centre", rather than a base.

Asked about the Djibouti facility, Wang said China was "trying to build necessary infrastructure and logistic capacities in a region where there is a concentration of Chinese interests."

"I think it is not just reasonable and logical but also consistent with international practice," he added, pointing out that China's overseas commercial interests were growing, with outbound FDI reaching $ 118 billion last year and overseas stock assets reaching "several thousand billion dollars".

Wang said over the past year Beijing had made "notable progress" in taking forward President Xi Jinping's pet Silk Road initiative, with 70 countries now signing on.

Among the projects that had made notable headway, he said, were the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor - which connects Xinjiang, through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, to the Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea - and the China-Mongolia corridor he said. Wang didn't mention the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor, which in comparison has been slow to take off.

On the tensions in the South China Sea, the Foreign Minister defended China's moves to beef up infrastructure on contested islands and reefs, saying Beijing was "exercising our right to self-preservation and self-defence under international law".

"China is not the first country to have deployed weapons in the Nansha [Spratly] islands. We are not the country that has deployed the most weapons and we are not the country that conducts most frequent military activities," he said.

Wang hit out at the United States, which has accused China of militarising the islands and has angered Beijing by carrying out freedom of navigations operations (FONOPs) to challenge Chinese claims. Wang said "this label [of militarization] is more suited to some other countries". "I want to remind some people," he added, "that freedom of navigation does not give licence to do what they want".

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ALSO READ

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China to create 10 million new urban jobs in 2016

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Comedian Jimmy Kimmel tweeted that he will hosting this year's Emmy Awards in September for the second time.

By Reuters: Late-night American television host Jimmy Kimmel will host this year's Emmy Awards in September, the awards show organizers said on Monday.

The host of talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live will helm the Emmy Awards to be held in Los Angeles in September.

"I hope to be able to do for the Emmys this year what Eddie Murphy did for the Oscars," Kimmel joked. Murphy pulled out of hosting this year's Academy Awards.

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Also read: Hollywood hottie Megan Fox turns palmist on Jimmy Kimmel Live!



It will be the 44-year-old comedian's second time hosting the awards, the television industry's biggest honours. He is also due to host the White House Correspondent's dinner in April.

Jimmy took to Twitter and confirmed the news saying, "I am hosting the #Emmys on Sunday Sept 18. Until then, have a great summer."(sic)



I am hosting the #Emmys on Sunday Sept 18. Until then, have a great summer. Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) March 7, 2016

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He often travels alone, and director Imtiaz Ali's recent solo trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina may just have inspired the story of another film. Here, his travel diary, in his own words.

By Geetika Sasan Bhandari: "A visit to any place starts with a point of interest. This one started with Alma Ferovic, who had sung Aur Ho in Rockstar. She made many trips to Prague where we were shooting Rockstar, and got us lots of goodies from Bosnia. I started talking to her and she would tell me stories of that place. Later, I met the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to India, and the country wanted to encourage filmmakers to shoot in Bosnia, so I finally ended up going for the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2015.

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Sarajevo is replete with history...

Sarajevo is a unique city; it is modern, but it was also under a siege for the longest time. It actually has remnants of the war in terms of bullet marks all over the buildings. It's in a time warp; there are some areas where things remain the same as they were 25-30 years ago. Sarajevo also has a lot of museums, especially war museums, and is a walled city. It has a lot of attraction in terms of history. The Duke of Ferdinand was beheaded there, the World War 1 started there. In terms of look and feel, parts of it merge with hard-core central Europe. It looks very European, with antique houses and old, cobbled streets. It's a traders' town and in winter it gets very cold. The people there have great pride though; they won't talk about the tragedy they've been through. The one thing that really touched me was the spirit of the people; the grace they have demonstrated under severe pressure.

Also see: Exclusive pictures from director Imtiaz Ali's solo trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina



Mostar is very picturesque...

Mostar is another city I visited. It has the very famous bridge (called Stari Most, meaning Old Bridge) that divides the city into two. On one side are the Roman Catholics, while on the other are the Bozniacs. It's is beautiful, it's touristy, and you'll often see a lot of people diving into the Neretva river from this bridge. It's also a great place to find artefacts. The town is very picturesque; the buildings are beautiful. Not only does it have natural beauty, it is also a great example of the beauty of civilization.



Stari Most, meaning the Old Mosque, in Mostar. Picture courtesy: Imtiaz Ali

The Dervish monastery is extremely beautiful...

I visited a very famous Sufi shrine, which is literally under a mountain of rock, on the exposed side of the rock, and has a gorgeous waterfall as well. It is in the village town of Blagaj. It is extremely spiritual and a lot of people sit around it. It is also immensely beautiful.



The Neretva River flows past the historic town of Mostar. Picture courtesy: Imtiaz Ali The Neretva River flows past the historic town of Mostar. Picture courtesy: Imtiaz Ali

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Being a meat-eating country, the brand of kebabs that they make ontawasis to die for. They also have this local dish where cream is basically stuffed into a roti, and it is delicious. Even the roasted lamb dishes are amazing. They have a lot of dhaba-type restaurants that are open 24 hours. In fact, on the way to Croatia there were these mass dhabas with more than 100 tables that I saw, and the lamb on skewers is mouth-watering. Also, I was fascinated by this one particular fruit, which belongs to the plum family, but looks just like a pear. You can literally just pluck it off the tree and eat as you go along. There's a lot of fruit that grown naturally and it's not regulated or commercialised.



Picture courtesy: Imtiaz Ali Picture courtesy: Imtiaz Ali

The souvenirs I picked up...

There's a lot of jewellery and stone work. You get antique rings and earrings. The metal craft is also famous; you get lighters etc in metal. In fact, the people have made converting bullet shells into artefacts, an art form. Since they had so many bullet shells lying around, they've figured out how to make it into something pretty and given it a lease of life. Personally, I bought pepper crushers and some jewellery.

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It stirred my imagination...

There is a saying that if you drink the water of Sarajevo, you will always go back. Indeed, I found it very charming and it made me want to go back more than some of the other places I've visited. I thought of the story of a film there. The air is very cinematic and dramatic, the people are dramatic. They get emotional. There are lots of places to shoot, to learn, and it's a place the imagination would love to soar in."

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Presenting the Union Budget for 2016-17, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to tax withdrawal of 60 per cent of accumulations in the EPF after April 1, 2016. However, Jaitley today said that the government will be reviewing the proposal.

By India Today Web Desk: The government today rolled back the Budget proposal to tax Employees' Provident Fund or EPF withdrawal after facing intense criticism from all quarters. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government will be reviewing the proposal.



"In view of representations received, the government would like to do a comprehensive review of this proposal and therefore I withdraw the proposal," Jaitley said. However, he added that 40 per cent exemption given to National Pension Scheme subscriber at the time of withdrawal remains unchanged.

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"Employees should have the choice of where to invest. Theoretically, such freedom is desirable, but it is important the government to achieve policy objective by instrumentality of taxation. In the present form, the policy objective is not to get more revenue but to encourage people to join the pension scheme," Jaitley said while explaining the rationale behind the tax proposal.

Presenting the Union Budget for 2016-17, the finance minister had proposed to tax withdrawal of 60 per cent of accumulations in the EPF after April 1, 2016. The move was hugely criticised by Opposition parties as well as by employee unions.

Taking note of the severe criticism around the unpopular move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last week, had reportedly advised Jaitley to review the tax proposal.

My pressure worked: Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi claimed that it was his tough stance over the issue which forced the government to announce a roll back of the widely criticised move.

"Finally the government was forced to listen to people and roll back the patently unfair tax on EPF," he tweeted shortly after Jaitley's clarification.

"The attempt to tax the safety net of millions of hard working middle class people was morally wrong and shows this govt's anti-people mindset," Rahul added.

Watch full video here:

ALSO READ:

Parliament LIVE: EPF tax proposal withdrawn, Jaitley says will review

PM asks Jaitley to reconsider taxing EPF withdrawal

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Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital withdrew its order facilitating "priority treatment" to patients referred by the ministers, bureaucrats or even those referred by the office of the medical superintendent.

By Astha Saxena: Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital on Monday withdrew its order facilitating "priority treatment" to patients referred by the ministers, bureaucrats or even those referred by the office of the medical superintendent (MS).

"Office order dated March 2, is hereby cancelled and withdrawn with immediate effect till further orders," said the new order issued by the MS on Monday.

Mail Today on March 6, had reported that the central government hospital was promoting VIP culture in treatment of patients. However, when contacted, Ministry for Health and Family Welfare officials promised swift action.

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Senior doctors are happy with the new order. "The administration has taken the right decision now. The order could have hampered functioning of the hospital," a senior doctor told Mail Today.

"The ministry has asked the hospital administration to withdraw the order," a senior Health Ministry official told Mail Today. "Doctors are requested to attend to VVIP patients, referred from the medical superintendent's office on a priority basis and report back to the undersigned immediately," stated the order dated March 2.

According to the doctors, the hospital treats around 15-20 VVIP and VIP patients. From bureaucrats to top officials in the health and family welfare department approach the hospital for treatment.

The hospital roughly has a footfall of 8,000-10,000 patients on any given day. The Delhi government is trying hard to get rid of the same in medical institutions. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain recently had expressed his willingness on converting special wards into general wards.

ALSO READ



Ordinary patients at Safdarjung please wait! Hospital will treat you only after the VVIP's

Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital has no vaccines for kids



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March 8 marks International Women's Day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took this opportunity to express gratitude to women all over the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanks all Indian women on International Women's Day for their role in the society (Pic: unausa.org)

By India Today Web Desk: March 8 marks International Women's Day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took this opportunity to express gratitude to women all over the country.

Saluting the accomplishments of all women on International Women's Day & gratitude for their indispensable role in our society. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 8, 2016

In a series of tweets he also talked about the schemes that his government has launched for women empowerment.

From 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' to better health & education facilities, our Govt's efforts towards women-led development are unwavering. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 8, 2016

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Following suit, other politicians also thanked 'nari-shakti'

???????????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??????. ?? ????? ???? ?? ??? ????, 365 ??? ???? ?????? Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 8, 2016

On International Womens Day, I convey my best wishes to all. Lets celebrate & cherish today, womens accomplishments in all walks of life.

Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) March 8, 2016



Also Read

#OneDayIWill: Google Doodle celebrates International Women's Day

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to nix his US visit marked the latest episode in a fraught relationship with US President Barack Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year's US-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's arch foe.

By Reuters: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said on Monday.

Netanyahu's decision to nix his US visit marked the latest episode in a fraught relationship with Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year's US-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's arch foe.

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The White House said the Israeli government had requested a Netanyahu meeting with Obama on either March 18 or 19 and that two weeks ago he was offered a March 18 encounter.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," White House spokesman Ned Price said in an emailed statement. "Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister's schedule are false," he said.

The White House has announced Obama's plans to be in Havana on March 21 and 22 for a historic visit aimed at moving closer toward normalized relations with Washington's former Cold War adversary.

There was no immediate word from Netanyahu's office about the cancellation, which also comes as the two close allies are struggling to negotiate a new 10-year, multibillion-dollar defense aid agreement for Israel.

Israel's Channel 10 TV, citing unnamed Israeli sources, said Netanyahu's decision to scrap the trip appeared to be motivated by reluctance to be perceived as interfering in the US presidential election campaign, should any candidates seek to meet him in Washington.

Netanyahu also saw little to show for such a trip, given that the new defense Memorandum of Understanding is "far from being agreed yet," Channel 10 said. Several Israeli media quoted Israeli officials as saying that no appropriate time could be found for the meeting before Obama's departure for Cuba.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit Washington this month not only to see Obama but to address the annual conference of the leading US pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. In the past he has sometimes spoken to the group via satellite.

The prime minister made a speech to the US Congress last March criticizing the then-emerging Iran nuclear deal and was denied a meeting with Obama during that visit in what was widely regarded as a diplomatic snub.

But the two leaders met at the White House in November and sought to mend ties.

In recent months, differences over defense aid have underscored continuing tensions over the Iran deal.

Netanyahu and his aides suggested in February if Israel were unable to reach an accord with Obama, it could wait for the next president to secure better terms. Current US defense aid to Israel, worth about $3 billion annually, expires in 2018. The two sides are seeking an extension before Obama leaves office in January 2017.

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US Vice President Joe Biden, on a five-day trip to the Middle East, is due to visit Israel later this week and hold talks with Netanyahu.

ALSO READ:

US, EU lift economic sanctions against Iran following nuclear deal



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Justin Trudeau stops by at the Toronto Zoo to greet his two furry little friends, the twin baby pandas who were born last October. He also unveiled their new names, while the male cub was given the name Jia PanPan (Canadian Hope), the female cub was given the name Jia Yueyue (Canadian Joy).

By India Today Web Desk: There was 'pand-monium' at the Toronto Zoo when the names to two adorable giant panda cubs were announced by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.

The twins were born at the Toronto Zoo on Oct. 13, 2015, and have become an instant internet sensation. While the slightly older male cub is named Jia Panpan, meaning "Canadian hope," the female cub is named Jia Yueyue, meaning "Canadian joy."

Introducing Jia Panpan (male on right) and Jia Yueyue (female on left) #TOPandaCubs pic.twitter.com/XnibJTYMPO The Toronto Zoo (@TheTorontoZoo) March 7, 2016

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Er Shun the mother of the two is on loan from China as part of a long-term conservation partnership, reports the CNN

In the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species the giant panda comes under the endangered category. Roughly 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild.

The Canadian PM tweeted pictures of him giving a tight snuggle to the furry little joyful panda cubs.

Great to meet Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue - @TheTorontoZoos new panda cubs! #TOPandaCubs pic.twitter.com/4EsdUrYdx4 CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) March 7, 2016

Er Shun the mother and another male panda Dao Mao arrived from China in March 2013 and they will be calling the Toronto Zoo home until spring 2018 states the Toronto Zoo website.



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Construction on the 135km KMP expressway, also known as the western peripheral expressway, has been on hold for over a decade. Once completed, heavy vehicles not destined for Delhi will not enter the Capital.

By Ajay Kumar: With the 54km stretch of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway set to become operational, the National Capital may get partial relief from traffic congestion and subsequent air pollution.

Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said the stretch will open for vehicular traffic from March-end. Construction on the 135km KMP expressway, also known as the western peripheral expressway, has been on hold for over a decade. Once completed, heavy vehicles not destined for Delhi will not enter the Capital.

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The minister said a deadline of 400 days has been set to make the entire stretch operational. "The six-lane KMP project will be completed within the next 400 days. It will bypass the National Capital from western side and thus reduce congestion in Delhi," he said while addressing the Haryana Happening Industrial Investment Summit in Gurgaon. The remaining 84 KM stretch from Maneser to Kundli situated on NH 1 will take more than one year.

Captain Abhimanyu has also assured to connect the last mile of the state through rail, road and air. Besides, the Haryana government has also proposed an international airport in Hisar to bring the northwestern part of Haryana close to the national Capital. The proposal for the airport has been moved to Union civil aviation ministry with the earnest request to start at least air cargo facility from Hisar as soon as possible.

Union surface transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari has also proposed a Delhi-Amritsar expressway via Gurgaon, running through a large part of Haryana that may lead to huge industrial boost. The airport will bring Hisar to the national Capital in just 20 minutes.

"It will provide investors with good commuting experience and eventually benefit districts like Sirsa, Jind, Kaithal and border areas of Punjab," Abhimanyu said.

Also Read:

Suresh Prabhu announces revival of Delhi's Ring Rail to curb pollution



Pollution watch to get more real with 3 new air quality monitoring stations



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Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha's national convention held in Mathura on Saturday and Sunday fell short of expectations of those who were hoping for some heavy artillery fire from BJP heavyweights.

By Siraj Qureshi: It was a convention that was expected to set the direction for the BJP's strategy for the upcoming 5 state elections as well as the UP elections that will be held next year. But the party's youth wing, Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha's national convention held in Mathura on Saturday and Sunday fell short of expectations of those who were hoping for some heavy artillery fire from BJP heavyweights.

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A convention that should have defined the role of party's youth in the coming elections, remained constrained to nationalist jingoism and anti-Rahul, anti-communism tirades from all senior leaders including Amit Shah. Mission 2017 was nowhere to be seen. Even the party's young workers were caught by surprise that the senior party leaders were addressing almost the same issues in the convention as were already being debated upon in the Parliament.

Talking to India Today, a BJP leader from Agra who had gone to Mathura to attend the two-day national convention said that we were hoping that there will be detailed discussion about the core-issues before the party, which includes Ram Temple and Krishna Janmbhoomi, but these topics were barely touched, making the party workers feel that the BJP too, was turning into a "politically-correct" party.

Interestingly, in his Sunday address, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley concentrated his barrage on the communist parties, calling them anti-national and anti-democratic, but he had no advise for the youth.

In all, it appears that the convention failed to address the real issues before the BJP, which were the falling popularity graph of PM Narendra Modi and his government and the growing discontent among the youth of the country. Instead of concentrating on training the youth to counter any anti-Modi strategies of the opposition by applying rationale, this convention has merely served as a home-pitch for the party leaders to settle their political scores with the opposition.

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Investigators believe the Boeing 777 crashed in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board after flying far off course and running out of fuel.

People whose relatives were aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 kneel and cry in front of the media near the Malaysian embassy in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

By AP: Nearly every day, the retired factory worker goes to the airline office, riding a series of buses across Beijing to hand-deliver a letter. And nearly every day, the letter says the same thing.

"Tell us the truth, and get our loved ones back to us."

Once she hands over the letter, Dai Shuqin gets back on the bus and goes home, back to a small apartment where boxes hold copies of hundreds of letters she has delivered over the past two years, all begging for news on her sister and four other relatives who vanished when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. There were 239 people on board.

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Most of the passengers on the plane, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, were Chinese. So across China, dozens of families are still wrestling with how - or if - to accept that their relatives are dead. Investigators believe the Boeing 777 crashed in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board after flying far off course and running out of fuel. But they have only theories to explain exactly what happened, or why. Only one confirmed piece of plane wreckage has been found, a battered, rowboat-sized wing part that washed up on an Indian Ocean island about eight months ago.

What can you do when you don't know what happened to people you loved?

Some of the grieving families have filed lawsuits, including 12 families who did so Monday. Some have accepted cash settlements with Malaysia Airlines in exchange for agreeing not to file suit. Many are still debating what to do.

And some, like Dai, find their only solace comes in believing that their relatives are still alive. Somewhere. Somehow. As a result, their lives are now consumed by demanding answers from an airline that has few answers at all.

"People say we are nuts," said Dai, a 62-year-old woman whose younger sister was on the flight, along with her sister's husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandson. "But for us, we have the feeling that our loved ones are still alive."

Officials "just tell us all the passengers are dead. We don't accept that. If they tell us the truth, or give us a convincing explanation, then we'll stop coming here every day."

She does not care if her quest looks impossible.

"I can't sleep and I can't get over this," Dai said.

Her apartment has few decorations beyond a large world map stuck to one wall. A folding metal table is covered with copies of letters sent to the airline.

"I have no other ways to handle this. ... Going to Malaysia Airlines every day gives me a bit of relief, and I feel I am doing something for my sister."

Many relatives believe the real story of MH370 has been hidden from them. They disagree on what may have happened, debating theories and trading facts and rumors. But few believe they know the entire truth.

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That suspicion is heightened in China, where widespread censorship and the official control of access to information has led to a general sense among Chinese that what they see in the media, or hear from the government, is not to be trusted. This widespread cynicism foments a quiet if deep-seated anger, and a willingness to accept conspiracy theories.

Kelly Wen, who runs a furniture store, is desperate to move on, to find a way to start her life again after her husband disappeared with the plane.

But she remains overwhelmed by the loss.

"My family is still in the shadow of the MH370 accident," said Wen, a 31-year-old Beijing resident with a 5-year-old son now left without a father. "I can't work like I did before because there are too many issues I need to handle in my family. But I do hope I can gradually walk out of the accident and go back to work."

With the second anniversary approaching, Wen increasingly believes she needs to make up her mind about what to do.

"I need to decide whether to accept compensation and reach agreement with Malaysian Airlines or file suit in court," she said.

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She and some 80 other relatives of MH370 passengers went together to meet Malaysia Airlines staff in late February to get updates on the situation. From the start, it did not go well. Outside the airline office were nearly two dozen policemen in case there was trouble.

When they left, few of the relatives were satisfied.

They had come with detailed questions about the status of the search and the investigation. Wen wanted to see security video of passengers boarding the aircraft. The search is expected to end in June, plane or no plane, and they wanted more details on that decision.

But no security video was released, she said, and little new information emerged. Few of the relatives have faith in the official investigation, which was set up by Malaysia and includes experts from Malaysia, Australia, China, Britain, the U.S. and France.

"We hope we can have a third-party, independent investigation when they stop search-and-rescue in June," she said.

After the meeting, about 10 members of the group ate lunch together in a nearby restaurant.

"This kind of gathering is very important for us," said Wen. "We are already so helpless. If we don't gather among other relatives, we will feel even more lonely," she said.

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Dai, however, doesn't think much about moving on. For the foreseeable future, her life is about delivering the letters that she and other relatives have signed.

A year ago, her only daughter had a baby, her only grandchild. Now, her daughter wants Dai to look after the little boy.

But Dai says that won't happen. Going to the airline office takes up too much of her time.

Also read:

Malaysia investigates second piece of debris two years after MH370 disappeared

Hijackers? Aliens? Theories over Malaysian Airlines MH370's fate abound

--- ENDS ---
Moments after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a roll back of the Budget proposal to tax EPF withdrawal, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took the credit for forcing the Modi government to relent.

By India Today Web Desk: Moments after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a roll back of the Budget proposal to tax EPF withdrawal, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took the credit for forcing the Modi government to relent.

"My pressure did work. Whenever somebody is being oppressed wrongly or victimised, I tend to try and help those people. Maine kaha tha salary class ko na dabaayein, toh achha decision hai. (I had said don't suppress the salary-class, so I think it is a good decision)," Gandhi said shortly after Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that the government has decided to review the tax proposal.

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"I felt middle-class people were being hurt by the government, so I decided to put some pressure on the government. I am happy that they've got some relief," Gandhi added.

Presenting the Union Budget for 2016-17, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to tax withdrawal of 60 per cent of accumulations in the EPF after April 1, 2016.

"In view of representations received, the government would like to do a comprehensive review of this proposal and therefore I withdraw the proposal," Jaitley said. However, he added that 40 per cent exemption given to National Pension Scheme subscriber at the time of withdrawal remains unchanged.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also welcomed the roll back decision describing it as a "victory for the common people".

"EPF Roll Back - a victory for the common people. Happy that we were the first to raise this issue. Good," the Trinamool Congress leader tweeted.

Also Read

EPF tax proposal rolled back, Jaitley announces in Parliament



--- ENDS ---
Bihar Minority Affairs Minister Abdul Ghafoor was seen feasting with murder convict Mohammad Shahbuddin inside the Siwan jail on March 6. The jail house feast took place in brazen violation of jail manuals.

By India Today Web Desk: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's good governance claim shattered on Tuesday after one of his ministers was caught on camera openly dining with a convicted killer.

Bihar Minority Affairs Minister Abdul Ghafoor was seen feasting with murder convict Mohammad Shahbuddin inside the Siwan jail on March 6. The jail house feast took place in brazen violation of jail manuals.

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The images are shocking since Shahabuddin had been convicted of brutally murdering two brothers by drenching them in acid 12 years ago. He has been sentenced to life in prison for the double murder.

Defending his actions, Abdul Ghafoor said he had only paid a courtesy visit to his former colleague Shahabuddin.

BJP ka koi kaam reh gya hai? Humse log milne jaate the jail mein to naashta-paani apna..cntd: Lalu Yadav pic.twitter.com/MeUEtafTWt&; ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

Isme kya apraadh hai?Milenge to khila rha hoga koi naashta-paani sabko: Lalu Yadav on Bihar Minister Abdul Ghafoor-Shahabuddin meeting&; ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

The BJP has slammed the Bihar government over the issue. It has also accused the state government of functioning with criminals from the jails.

However, RJD chief Lalu Prasad defended government by saying welcoming guests with snacks is a normal courtesy.

Shahabuddin, who was once considered to be very close to RJD boss Lalu Prasad, has been in prison since November 2005 after a special police team arrested him from his Delhi residence.

He represented Bihar's Siwan constituency in the Lok Sabha for consecutive four term.

--- ENDS ---
Meghalaya police personnel offering a 21 gun salute 'Salami' to former Lok Sabha Speaker and Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Late Purno Agitok Sangma at the state funeral held in Dikki Bandi Stadium in Tura on Monday. Photo: David Laitphlang

By David Laitphlang, Manogya Loiwal : A glorious and historical era in the politics of northeastern India came to an end with the mortal remains of one of the tallest public figures of the region, Purno A'gitok Sangma, former Lok Sabha speaker, union minister and chief minister of Meghalaya, laid to rest at his hometown in Tura on Monday.

Sangma referred to as "King of the Garos", and who was a sitting member of the Lok Sabha, was accorded full state honours, including a 21-gun salute at Dikki Bandi stadium at Tura, his political bastion.

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Meghalaya police personnel brought the casket carrying the mortal remains of Sangma to the stadium from his residence at 11 am for the state funeral, which was attended by over 15,000 people.

Meghalaya Speaker AT Mondal, Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma, his cabinet colleagues and parliamentary secretaries, Nagaland Speaker Chotisuh Sazo, former Nagaland chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio, former union minister Arvind Netam, Meghalaya opposition leader, Donkupar Roy, former Meghalaya chief minister DD Lapang, former Manipur chief minister Radhabinod Koijam were amongst thousands who took part in the funeral rituals.

In words of the various dignitaries, Sangma's death has brought an end to an era of politics in Garo hills. Speakers said that in his four-decade political career, he had connected the people of Northeast to the rest of India and emerged as the most prominent and acceptable face in India's politics, making the Garo tribe and the title "Sangma" globally known.

Meghalaya police personnel handed over the folded national flag to Sangma's wife Soradini, who was accompanied by Conrad, Sangma's youngest son, a former cabinet minister of Meghalaya.

His mortal remains were then taken around for a procession through the streets of Tura, which was witnessed by thousands, who thronged the 8 km stretch road from Dikki Bandi stadium to Cathedral Church at RC Road.

After the prayer service at the Cathedral, his mortal remains were interned at the cemetery near the Bishop House.

All in unanimity on the vast contribution made by Pa Purno

Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma expressing his condolences to Agatha Sangma at her late father's residence on Sunday. Photo: David Laitphlang

The final farewell to former Lok Sabha speaker and Meghalaya chief minister Purno A Sangma witnessed many moving moments as leaders across the political spectrum paid rich tributes to the departed political icon of the northeast.

A poignant Meghalaya chief minister Dr. Mukul Sangma recollecting his association with the departed leader said, "Voice has fallen silent but his (Sangma) deeds will always be remembered. He has been an inspiration to many young politicians. He has taught us the pull and pushes of political challenge."

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Endorsing the fact that Purno was highly instrumental in connecting the region to the nation and the world, Dr. Sangma admitted, "He has enlightened me in politics. We will all miss him and his works will always inspire us."

Echoing similar sentiments, former Nagaland CM, Neiphiu Rio, speaking on behalf of the Northeast MPs Forum said, "He (Sangma) fought for his commitment till his last. He was the pride of northeast and the tribal people of the country. His legacy will remain with us for all times to come and we will always feel his presence."

Former union minister Arvind Netam felt that Sangma should be reborn in Tura and work for the Garo hills and the nation while former Manipur CM, Radhabinod Koijam wished that Sangma be reborn in mainstream India, so that he can impact this great nation even more through his "innovative and progressive" philosophies.

Meghalaya opposition leader, Donkupar Roy hoped that someone from Sangma's family would take the mantle to fulfill his unfinished aspirations for Meghalaya and Garo hills in particular.

Shillong MP, Vincent Pala terming late Sangma as a "political titan" said, "His concern for the northeast will be cherished and all MPs of the region will champion his issues."



--- ENDS ---

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On his show To The Point, India Today's Karan Thapar asked the following question to a panel of experts. Is India seeing a new response from Pakistan on terrorism, or is it misleading and a deceptive conclusion?

By India Today Web Desk: On Saturday, Pakistan's national security adviser tipped off his Indian counterpart that 10 terrorists may have crossed over into India to carry out terror attacks. Last month, Pakistan's de facto foreign minister Sartaj Aziz told India Today that Masood Azhar was in police custody since January 14, 2016. It is now also known that soon a Joint Investigation Team from Pakistan will visit India to probe the Pathankot attack.

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On his show To The Point, India Today's Karan Thapar asked the following question to a panel of experts. Is India seeing a new response from Pakistan on terrorism, or is it misleading and a deceptive conclusion?

The experts included two former high commissioners to Pakistan - Satyabrata Pal and Satish Chandra - former additional secretary at R&AW Jayade Ranade, former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan and BJP spokesperson GVL Rao.

10 Big Questions Asked Is it high time India and Pakistan join hands to fight terror? Are we seeing a new Pakistan or is it a mask? Is the international pressure on Pakistan paying off? Is Pakistan's military establishment fully on board? A counter-terrorism cooperation on the cards? Is Pakistan trying to bridge mutual trust deficit? Is it too early to call this a game changer? Is the information given by Pakistan reliable or dead-end? Will Modi and Nawaz meet in Washington? Does India Pakistan ties seem inching forward?

Here are the highlights of the discussion

- India does not miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. We have been ridiculed every time we tried to cooperate genuinely. I don't think Pak is desperate to meet PM Modi in Washington, said former Pakistan envoy to India Aziz Ahmed Khan

- "If Pakistan really wants a new face, they should catch Hafiz Saeed first. The move to share terror tipoff is dictated by a desire to show that Pakistan is doing something. This Pak move of sharing terror tipoff is a con game," said former deputy NSA Satish Chandra

- "Pakistan has not leaked the information to the media, we quietly offered it," said Khan.

- "Pakistan has deceived the US earlier, there's no question why they wouldn't do it now. Pakistan knows where the terror camps are and why don't they start by dismantling first? Giving this information about terrorists certainly does not meet any yardstick," said Ranade.

- "In 2006, there was an agreement regarding cooperation between India and Pakistan, but then India took a step back," said Khan

- "If Pakistan knew about 10 terrorists crossing over the border, they could have caught them" said Chandra

- "We are speculating without knowing the details of inputs shared," said Khan.

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- "The mere act of sharing terror tipoff is not a con, but certainly it is not enough. There is huge trust deficit created by the lack of action on Pakistan's part. I am also sceptical of what Pakistan's NSA has done," said BJP's GVL Rao

- "If things go wrong, there'll be a time when the PM will have to pay the price," said Satyabrata Pal.

- "The PM is the final authority in decision making regarding foreign policy. The people of the country have reposed their faith in PM, he is in command of everything including foreign policy," said Rao.

- "The PM-level talks are meaningless if Pakistan is not serious about taking action," said Satish Chandra.

- Satyabrata Pal: "Gestures are important, but the prime ministers should not respond to gestures only."

Watch the full show here:

--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: A day after Vijay Mallya suffered a double blow with a case of money laundering filed against him as well as a freeze on his Rs 515 crore payout, a consortium of 17 banks today moved the Supreme Court seeking its directions to prevent him from leaving the country.



The petition filed by the State Bank of India and 16 other banks has requested the top court to ensure Mallya does not flee the country following the Enforcement Directorate lodging a money laundering case against the beleaguered liquor baron. It is feared that Mallya might become a fugitive from law by shifting base to a country where it might be difficult to make him face the Indian laws.



The Supreme Court will hear the matter on Wednesday.



Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airline owes the consortium a whopping Rs 10,000 crore, including compound interest over the remaining combined loans of Rs 7,800 crore borrowed between 2004-12 before it was grounded and shut down subsequently.



On Monday, moments before the ED in Mumbai lodged the money laundering case, the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Bengaluru barred British liquor giant Diageo from paying Mallya anything till a case against him was disposed off.



The tribunal barred Diageo from paying Rs 515 crore as a severance package to Mallya, who quit the chairmanship of its Indian company, United Spirits Ltd last month, till the pending case against the liquor baron before it is decided.



"Diageo plc and United Spirits Ltd shall not disburse the amount ($75 million) to Mallya or his nominees or agents till the disposal of the bank's original application. Amount as sought by the applicant banks stands attached," the order said.



The tribunal also directed all defendants to furnish details of the agreement on or before the next date of hearing (March 28), when it will hear the bank's three other interlocutory applications, seeking his arrest, impounding of his passport and seizure of his assets. It also ordered issuing notice on the bank's application to Diageo office in London through registered post.



In another major blow for Mallya, the ED on Monday registered a money-laundering case against him. Mallya and the top executives of the erstwhile KFA have been booked under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).



The measure follows an audit of the Rs 7,200 crore loan that the bank consortium had extended to the airline but was not repaid. The KFA is alleged to have diverted as much as Rs 4,000 crore of that money to international tax havens like Mauritius and Cayman Islands, which is being probed by the ED and the CBI.



The flamboyant businessman, who recently announced his plans to spend more time with his family in Britain, has refuted all charges against him and taken exception to being labelled as a "wilful defaulter" by some of the lender banks.



Mallya has also denied he was planning to flee the country and said he was ready to cooperate with the lenders and the agencies to settle the debt.



Perceived as the 'King of Good Times', Mallya was recently in the news when some former airline employees wrote an open letter, blaming him for the grounding of the airline and damaging the country's reputation in the aviation industry.



Once reputed as the most glamorous and luxurious private airline in the country, KFA fell into bad days and was grounded in October 2012 after a huge financial mess, including default of bank loans, dues to oil companies, airports and even staff salaries. amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;bamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Also Readamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/bamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/vijay-mallya-cant-withdraw-rs-515-crore-severance-package-rules-court/1/613712.html"amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;No sweetheart deal: Vijay Mallya barred from accessing Rs 515 cr Diageo deal moneyamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/i-am-not-an-absconder-will-continue-to-cooperate-with-investigators-vijay-mallya/1/613590.html"amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;I am not an absconder, will continue to cooperate with investigators: Vijay Mallya amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/vijay-mallya-cant-withdraw-rs-515-crore-severance-package-rules-court/1/613712.html"amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/ifraamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframeamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

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--- ENDS ---
On December 14 last year, she had moved Madras High Court seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu government to consider her representation for premature release, saying she has undergone imprisonment for more than 24 years.

Nalini is lodged in Special Prison for Women in Vellore.

By India Today Web Desk: The Madras High Court has granted a 24-hour parole to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini Sriharan. In her plea, Nalini had asked for a 3-day parole to take part in her father's memorial.

Last month, Nalini was granted 12-hour emergency leave to attend her father's last rites in Chennai.

Nalini is lodged in Special Prison for Women in Vellore after her death sentence in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu governor in 2000.

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Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.

On December 14 last year, she had moved Madras High Court seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu government to consider her representation for premature release, saying she has undergone imprisonment for more than 24 years.

WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE:



ALSO READ:

Nalini moves HC for 3 days leave to attend father's rites





--- ENDS ---
If Salman Khan took to Twitter to share the trailer of Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film Fan, even King Khan reciprocated the gesture by paying a surprise visit to Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor on the sets of Sultan.

By India Today Web Desk: If Salman Khan took to Twitter to share the trailer of Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film Fan, even King Khan reciprocated the gesture by paying a surprise visit to Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor on the sets of Sultan.

ALSO READ: Teaser of Salman Khan's Sultan to release with Shah Rukh Khan's Fan

ALSO READ: After Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan warns abusers against trolling other actors



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Ever since the two decided to bury the hatchet, Salman and Shah Rukh's friendship has been the talk of the town. From public gatherings to social media, the two never leave the chance to indulge in some public display of affection. And to keep up with the bromance, SRK decided to pay a visit to Salman in Film City Studio, where the latter is busy shooting for Ali Abbas Zafar's sports-based film Sultan.

Trade Analyst Taran Adarsh took to Twitter to share a picture from the sets of the film, where Shah Rukh can seen walking towards Salman to embrace him. The Dabanng actor, who was in the middle of a shot, also didn't let go off the gesture.

taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) March 8, 2016



Moreover, the trailer of Salman's Sultan will be attached to SRK's Fan. Sultan and Fan are produced under the Yash Raj Films banner and both the films have already up the curiosity level. While Sultan is a sports-based film wherein the Ek Tha Tiger actor will essay the role of a wrestler, Fan, on the other hand, will see SRK in a double role.



Salman's Sultan and Shah Rukh's Raees will release together this Eid. But both the Khans are unfazed by the box-office rivalry. While Salman is busy wrapping up the shooting of Sultan, SRK, on the other hand, has begun with the promotions of his upcoming film Fan.





--- ENDS ---
South Korea said on Tuesday it would impose new sanctions against 40 individuals and 30 entities because of suspected links to North Korea's weapons programme and would ban vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days.

By Reuters: South Korea said on Tuesday it would impose new sanctions against 40 individuals and 30 entities because of suspected links to North Korea's weapons programme and would ban vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days.

The new measures are designed to discourage shipping firms and trading companies from doing business with the North to further isolate it, South Korea said.

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The decision to issue more unilateral sanctions against the North follows a UN Security Council resolution triggered by the isolate state's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month.

Tension in the region is high as South Korean and US troops began military exercises on Monday in an annual test of their defences against the North, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

The individuals subject to financial sanctions announced on Tuesday include a Singaporean and a Taiwan national who are heads of a shipping firm and a trading company, the government said.

South Korea also blacklisted a Thai shipping firm called Mariner's Shipping & Trading and Taiwan company Royal Team Corporation.

South Korea will ban those on the list from engaging in financial transactions with South Korean entities and freeze assets that are held in the country, the government said.

After the North's rocket launch last month, South Korea suspended operations at the Kaesong industrial zone, just on the North Korean since of their common border, which had been run jointly with the North for more than a decade.

The industrial park, operated with investment from the capitalist South, was a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

South Korea would also discontinue participation in a pilot project that brought Russian coal to South Korea through the North Korean port of Rajin, a foreign ministry official told reporters in a joint briefing with other government agencies.

Trial shipments had been carried out in 2014 and 2015, under a consortium involving South Korean steelmaker POSCO, Hyundai Merchant Marine and railway operator Korail, from Rajin.

The three shipments, of a total 294,000 tonnes of coal, represented less than 1 percent of South Korea's overall imports for that period.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed an agreement in 2013 to cooperate and promote the project linking Russia's Khasan and Rajin.

Lee Suk-joon, minister of South Korea's office for government policy coordination, said the government continued to advise against South Koreans using North Korean restaurants overseas. South Korea views such establishments as a source of foreign currency for the isolated state.

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Also Read:

North Korea warns of preemptive nuclear attacks against US and South Korea



--- ENDS ---
Parrikar said the decision to employ soldiers for the construction of two pontoon bridges over Yamuna was taken to ensure there is no threat to the security of lakhs of people expected to attend the three-day event starting Friday.

To prevent any untoward incident, the Army has sought permission from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to build a pontoon bridge. (Photo: Mail Today)

By India Today Web Desk: Controversy continues to cloud spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar's mega event in New Delhi with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today defending the decision to deploy Indian Army soldiers for the construction of bridges over Yamuna, and the Delhi planning body defending its permission for the show.

Parrikar said the decision to employ soldiers for the construction of two pontoon bridges over Yamuna was taken to ensure there is no threat to the security of lakhs of people expected to attend the three-day event starting Friday.

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In an exclusive interview with Aaj Tak, Parrikar said the Indian Army has been participating in activities like the Kumbh Mela which attract a large number of people. "It was done with the sole purpose of avoiding accidents," he said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has also defended its permission to the event being held on the ecologically-sensitive Yamuna floodplains, a decision that was challenged by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

"Heavens won't fall if the event is held. We can see what needs to be done to restore the area, but today we are at the threshold of the ceremony," the DDA is reported to have told the NGT.

As his Art of Living, the organiser of the World Culture Festival, faced criticism for destroying Yamuna, Sri Sri sought to placate the fears. "I want Yamuna to be clean. We have not cut any tree, some trees were only trimmed," he said, adding that his foundation will leave the spot "a beautiful bio-diversity park".

On Monday, as pictures of soldiers working on the Yamuna bridge for the event began to circulate, President and Supreme Commander of the Army, Pranab Mukherjee, said he will not attend the World Culture Festival.

The president had earlier agreed to attend the opening ceremony on March 11 along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also Read:

Indian Army to build makeshift bridge on Yamuna for World Culture Festival

President says no to Art of Living

Campaign to shift Art of Living event venue gets over 2,800 signatures



--- ENDS ---
Massive joint US-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a "beheading mission" against Kim Jong Un himself.

An anti-war protester attends a rally opposing the joint military exercises, dubbed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, between the US and South Korea near the US Embassy in Seoul, South Korea on March 7. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

By AP: Massive joint US-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a "beheading mission" against Kim Jong Un himself.

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It's the kind of option military planners tend to consider but almost never use. Neither the US military nor South Korea's defense ministry has actually said it is part of the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises that began this week and will go on for about two months.

But Pyongyang, already feeling the squeeze of new sanctions over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, is taking a plethora of "beheading mission" reports from the South Korean media very seriously. That goes a long way toward explaining why its own rhetoric has ratcheted up a decibel - even by its own standards of bellicosity. It could also explain some subtle rejiggering afoot in the North's military strategy.

Here's a look at what's going on, what the North and South have been saying about it, and why it matters:

FIRST, WHAT IS A BEHEADING OPERATION?

That's what the North and South Korean media have been calling it. The military prefers to call them decapitation strikes. But, by whatever name, it's hardly a new concept.

They are targeted attacks to eliminate an adversary's leader, or leaders, in an attempt to disrupt or destroy its command chain as soon as a crisis breaks out or appears imminent. They are seen as particularly effective against enemies with a highly centralized command focused on a small group, or one leader. With the leader out of the way, the thinking goes, it's a lot easier to take the rest of the enemy's forces down - or at least keep them from maintaining a coordinated and sustained offensive.

North Korea is a prime example of such an adversary.

The US has used such strikes, often employing drones, to take out key figures in terrorist groups. Pyongyang tried one on South Korean President Park Chung-hee, current President Park Geun-hye's father, at his residence in 1968. So it's no surprise to anyone - especially Pyongyang - that Washington and Seoul would consider such an option if a war were to break out in Korea. That they wouldn't publicly trumpet training for it is also par for the course. And, officially, they haven't.

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All we really know is Washington and Seoul agreed last summer on a new plan for how to train for and deal with a major North-South crisis. It's called OPLAN 5015. The "O" stands for operation. Officials have not announced details of how the new OPLAN - which, like all OPLANs, is classified - differs from the previous one.

SO WHAT HAVE REPORTS BEEN SAYING?

Since about June, when the new plan was signed, South Korean media have been reporting the new operation plan includes pre-emptive and decapitation strikes. More has come out since the North's nuclear test in January and rocket launch last month, as Seoul's government has tried to underscore its tough stance vis-a-vis Pyongyang.

According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises will include training and simulations of surgical, pre-emptive strikes on nuclear and missile sites, along with training for a "beheading operation" aimed at removing Kim Jong Un and toppling his government in the event of a war. It has also reported that another set of exercises, now being held by US and South Korean marines, features training for amphibious landings on North Korean shores and, again, attacks on North Korea's leadership.

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The reports have generally been thinly sourced or anonymously reported. They have not given any details about how the troops would train for such attacks, though the presence of US special operations units has been noted as ominous.

North Korea, meanwhile, has been almost theatrically apoplectic over the ink being spilt that its leader has a target on his back.

The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army issued a statement late last month calling a decapitation plan the "height of hostile acts." Warning the doom of the US has been sealed, it said the North's weaponry is "ready to open fire." The day the exercises began, the North's Minju Joson daily said "a historical moment has just come" and its enemies "will sustain the bitterest defeat" from the North's "ground, naval, underwater, air and cyber warfare means, including nuclear strike means."

BUT WHAT'S BEHIND THE BLUSTER?

Potentially, quite a lot.

North Korea has increasingly shifted its military toward "asymmetrical" warfare tactics that involve surprise, stealth or other means to gain an outsized advantage against a bigger, better-equipped enemy. Its focus on cyber, special forces and nuclear weapons are classic examples.

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A decapitation strike could potentially neutralize all of that. Somebody needs to call the shots.

Its long-held ace in the hole, the threat of a massive artillery attack that would devastate Seoul, has also lost some of its credibility. Some experts believe its weaponry has grown older and less reliable. Seoul, meanwhile, has been testing new missiles with precision-strike and bunker-buster capabilities - exactly the kind of weapons that could figure into a decapitation strike.

Never one to roll over under pressure, the North last week made quite of a show of its latest answer to that problem: a large-caliber, multiple-launch rocket system with a range some experts believe could allow it to be positioned out of reach of US or South Korean counterattacks and fire projectiles hard to intercept with missile defense systems.

It is conceivable the North could design nuclear-armed shells for such a weapon.

Even before the current media barrages, experts have been seeing an "action-reaction" cycle fanned by the North's fears of a decapitation strike and signs Seoul and Washington are at least considering the option, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California.

"The appearance of a new long-range artillery system that is specifically linked to North Korean fears about decapitation strikes deserves our attention, even if the possibility of nuclear armament is only hinted at," he wrote in a recent analysis for the influential 38 North website. "Far more attention needs to be paid to North Korea's evolving nuclear doctrine, on the one hand, and South Korea's development of conventional doctrines that involve pre-emption and decapitation on the other."

--- ENDS ---
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would not mount an independent bid for the US presidency.

By Reuters: Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday he would not mount an independent bid for the US presidency because he feared it would increase the chances that Republicans Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could end up in the White House.

A billionaire media mogul who combined business-friendly fiscal policies with liberal views on gun control and other social issues, Bloomberg could have potentially appealed to centrist voters in a year when candidates from the far left and right of the political spectrum have gained traction.

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But Bloomberg, 74, said he had concluded that any candidate would be unlikely to win a clear majority in a three-person race. That would throw the election into the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which would be able to hand the White House to Trump, a real-estate billionaire, or Cruz, a conservative US senator from Texas.

"That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," he wrote on Bloomberg View, an opinion website that is part of his media empire.

Bloomberg never received much interest from American voters.

About 12 percent of likely voters said they would support him in a three-way race for president with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national poll conducted from Wednesday to Monday.

Among respondents, 41 percent said they would support Clinton and 31 percent would support Trump. The poll of 1,695 likely voters had a credibility interval of 3 percentage points.

Bloomberg said Trump, who is leading the battle to win the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, had backed policies that would undermine religious tolerance and threaten national security.

Trump has called for building a wall on the US border with Mexico, deporting the country's illegal immigrants and temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country.

"He has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears," Bloomberg wrote of Trump. He said Cruz, a favorite of evangelicals and the conservative Tea Party movement, was divisive as well.

'EXTREMISM ON THE MARCH'

Bloomberg also hit out at Clinton and her rival for the Democratic nomination, US Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, for criticizing free trade and the financial industry.

"Extremism is on the march, and unless we stop it, our problems at home and abroad will grow worse," he wrote.

Spokespeople for Trump and Cruz did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Bloomberg's criticism.

Bloomberg founded and is majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., a news and financial information provider that competes with Thomson Reuters Corp

The fear of a general election contest between Trump and Sanders, a democratic socialist, had driven Bloomberg to begin seriously exploring an independent run, a senior adviser said on condition of anonymity.

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But with Clinton pulling away from Sanders in the Democratic race, Bloomberg concluded the path to victory and the rationale for running were gone, the aide said.

Clinton reacted to the news with polite praise, saying she had the "greatest respect" for Bloomberg. "He has to make his own decisions, but I look forward to continuing to work with him," she said on Fox News.

Sanders, when asked about Bloomberg's decision not to run, said election laws should be changed to make it easier for people who are not rich, or not friendly with rich people, to run for office.

"I think it's a bad idea for American democracy that the only people who feel in many ways they can run for president are people who have so much money," he said on Fox News.

ALSO READ

Donald Trump's bigotry, bullying, bluster not popular, says Hillary Clinton



US election 2016: Clinton, Sanders divide 3 states; Trump, Cruz win 2 each

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Poole, who founded the controversial community, will likely work with Google's VP of Photos and Google+ Streams, Bradley Horowitz, though his role hasn't been specified yet.

By Sahil Mohan Gupta : The brain behind one of the biggest online communities in the world is joining Google. Chris Poole, the founder of 4Chan has announced in a blog post that he is joining Google. Poole, who founded the controversial community, will likely work with Google's VP of Photos and Google+ Streams, Bradley Horowitz, though his role hasn't been specified yet.

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"Today I'm excited to announce that I've joined Google. When meeting with current and former Googlers, I continually find myself drawn to their intelligence, passion and enthusiasm - as well as a universal desire to share it with others," wrote Poole in a blog post.

More importantly he hinted that he will be working with the Google+ team, which has been refining its communities. "I can't wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company," he added.

Even Bradley Horowitz announced that Poole is joining Google. "You may have see the news from @moot. Thrilled he's joining the team! Welcome Chris!" he tweeted.

You may have seen the news (https://t.co/jwjOBocqJk) from @moot. Thrilled he's joining the team! Welcome Chris! Bradley Horowitz (@elatable) March 7, 2016

In a report on Business Insider, it was confirmed that Poole will be working with Horowitz who founded Google+ in 2011 with former Google and Microsoft employee Vic Gundotra. Over the last few years Google+ has lost steam in wake of tremendous competition from Facebook, which is a dominating leader in the social space. Google's plans to integrate every product with the service have also been pulled back.

After Gundotra left Google, Horowitz has been in charge of the service and has rather split it into multiple elements like streams, communities and photos. Particularly, Google Photos has been a success story. Earlier in the day, the company also announced that Google Photos was adding support for Apple's Live Photos feature.

The communities feature of Google+ has seen some traction and perhaps, Poole has been brought in to augment it, in wake of his towering experience in the space. Poole, ironically never made much money from 4Chan and had to start another company called DrawQuest, but that shut down in 2014.

Poole founded 4Chan when he was 15 yeas old in 2004 and left the forum after 11 years at the helm in 2015.

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The iPhone has a way of making people do crazy things. Some sell kidneys, while some choose to sell new-born babies.

By Sahil Mohan Gupta : The iPhone has a way of making people do crazy things. The latest one is out of China. A 19-year old man has sold his new-born daughter to buy himself a new iPhone and a motorbike. This incident happened almost a year ago when a man from the eastern Chinese province of Fujian sold his 18-day old daughter to a stranger.

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The report, which comes from Chinese website Epoch Times states that the man met the buyer on popular Chinese social network QQ and sold his daughter for 23,000 Yuan which converts to around $3,500. This converts to about Rs 2,38,000. What's stranger is that the wife of the man didn't have any problem with the sale of her child.

That being said, it must be noted that the mother was a minor who was still to complete high-school and was doing multiple part-time jobs. The mother who left the city was eventually tracked down by the police and arrested.

"I myself was adapted and many people in my hometown send their kids to other people to raise them," said Xiao Me. Interestingly she claimed that she didn't know that selling the child was an illegal offence.

Even the father of the child, A Duan, has been handed a three years sentence, but the judge suspended the sentence of the mother to two and a half years after taking into account the difficult circumstance.

The buyer of the child has also turned himself in after the parents were arrested. The child, however, is still in the custody of the buyer's sister, as the parents have been arrested and are in no position to take care of their child.

People are known to do crazy things when it comes down to the iPhone. People have sold their kidneys to get an iPhone and in many instances people have flocked to sperm banks to donate their sperm to make money to buy an iPhone.

The iPhone is an expensive device, and people have show tendencies to go to extreme lengths to purchase one. In India too, the iPhone is very expensive, in fact, it is the most expensive place in the world to procure one. In China, things are different, but then it is also true that iPhone is one of the most popular gadgets in the market.



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Investigative reporting from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations This is the blogspot version InnerCityPress.com
Nina E. Kallen, Attorney At Law40 Florian StreetRoslindale, MA 02131ph: (617)363-0547fax: (617)344-6041While I am happy to have you contact me by telephone, surface mail, or email, merely communicating with me does not create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship is only established by an agreement between you and me that I will handle a particular matter. Please do not convey to me any information that you regard as confidential until an attorney-client relationship has been established. Any information I receive from you prior to the formal establishment of such a relationship may not be confidential.
Welcome to H&C,,, where I aggregate news of interest. Primary topics include abuse with "the church", LGBTQI+ issues, cults - including anti-vaxxers, and the Dominionist and Theocratic movements. Also of concern is the anti-science movement with interest in those that promote garbage like homeopathy, chiropractic and the like. I am an atheist and anti-theist who believes religious mythos must be die and a strong supporter of SOCAS.
To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
Time to reveal my first investment in a truly Japanese company (that is bought with Yen and only listed in Japan). What really triggered me to pull the gun...
It wasn't me....

"[I]ntellectual property metaphors provide the best of both worlds for rent seekers. They enable rent seekers to rely on the ostensible welfarist justification for intellectual property, in order to claim that it is efficient in theory, without actually ever considering what the efficient scope and term of intellectual property actually is. And they enable intellectual property owners to draw on moral intuitions about intellectual property ownership, without being obligated to actually justify the scope and duration of intellectual property in moral terms. In order to understand intellectual property, we must abandon intellectual property metaphors, and evaluate intellectual property in welfarist terms. Of course, it is probably impossible to abandon metaphor entirely, because it performs such a fundamental role in our conceptual systems. But we can certainly adopt metaphors that emphasize the welfarist justification of intellectual property, rather than obscuring it. For example, we could use the metaphor of privilege rather than property to describe those rights. Or we could use the metaphor of charity to think of the relationship between innovators and the public."

I am just a baby (UPC)! Who knows what

I will do?!

Are myth and metaphor the primary drivers of innovation in intellectual property law? First, I think the answer is no (knock the straw over). However, they likely play a role in shaping public opinion.As Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy warned in his parting comments , the traditional media needs to be watched when it comes to their positions on intellectual property. Even thecan make a mistake as Neil Wilkof recently pointed out . The media and the public love to run with a myth or a metaphor to point out oh the IP system is so broken. Even scholars, commentators and activists have no problem using a myth or a metaphor to their advantage (including me). Do myth and metaphor matterthe answer is likely yes.Who doesnt like a good story about a troll? Indeed, the troll metaphor is so prevalent, we have patent trolls, copyright trolls, trademark trolls, and even trade secret trolls. Recently, I gave a talk at the VIT University Law School in Chennai, India, and discussed patent trolls. A very bright student asked whether we could use the metaphor to describe the United States when it tries to push TRIPs standards on least developing countries (implementation delayed until 2021 and 2033 for pharmaceuticals .) My response was essentially--why not. The use of troll isnt tied to the story of the troll under the bridge anymore. It is a bad dude who everyone should not likeespecially when tied to IP. If you are on the side against the US, then why not use the term. There are, however, some good reasons we shouldnt use the language. In an excellent recent article entitled "IP as Metaphor," by Professor Brian Frye at the University of Kentucky (also a talented film maker) in the Chapman University Law Review, Frye states:As to myth, what comes to mind is the case law cause of, and the USPTOs reaction to, business method patents. Yes, business method patents can be a problemperhaps unneeded, overbroad and indefinite. The cause of the large number of applications for business method patents is often attributed to thecase (1998) authored by the venerable Judge Giles Rich. However, that case wasnt even a business method case! The claims at issue in State Street were system claims. All of that stuff about business methods was likely dicta. It set forth the useful, concrete, tangible result test, but still dicta as to business methods. It wasnt until(1999) that business method patents were arguably sanctioned by the Federal Circuit. Indeed, even though there was such a brouhaha over business method patents in the U.S. for quite some time, examiners at the USPTO were applying the  technological arts  test which minimized the issuance of some of those supposed odious patents until the Ex Parte Lundgren case (2005) by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. (It would take another 5 years to get to the U.S. Supreme Courtscase, which sanctions some business method patents, and is limited by the subsequent Alice decision.) Of course, quite a few business method type patents slipped through and we continued to have some not so great patents issued. However, the USPTO may have been  Rationally Ignorant  as Professor Lemley may say. And, the USPTO may have been savvy before Ex Parte Lundgren.Unfortunately, business method patents still appear to be troublesome even after the establishment of a prior user defense for business methods, the Alice case, and the recent America Invents Act broadly applicable prior user defense . Notably, the Federal Circuit issued an opinion,, on March 1, 2016, which takes a broad interpretation of the application of Covered Business Method Review by the USPTOs Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The decision, following precedent, takes a wide view of what is a financial patent, and a narrow view of what is a technological invention,(which takes a patent outside of the Covered Business Method Review.) It essentially sweeps more patents into review by the USPTO. Business method patents still haunt us, and intellectual property law innovation continues  hopefully not to the detriment of innovation.Professor Frye explores metaphors such as the farmer (reap where you have not sowed), the thief, as well as troll and others. As he notes, the metaphor obscures what we should be doing or asking, but is such a useful way to comprehend difficult to understand concepts. Yet because of the power of a metaphor, it can push reform. Metaphor is probably not a primary driver, but it does influence us. No one likes a bad actor. (I thought there were not bad people, just bad behavior). What does the future hold? At Patently-O, Professor Dennis Crouch, in a post titled  US Patent Applicants Heading to the EPO , notes that many practitioners believe that the EPO is less restrictive in its application of patent eligible subject matter than the USPTO. [Is that the beginning of a new myth? What do you think?] Interestingly, he also notes that recent data from the EPO supports that belief and that the Unified Patent Court will only make those EPO patents more valuable. Others have said it, but will the UPC be a troll friendly zone?
Much of the international medias coverage of the elections has suggested that they could pave the way to the reforms that were promised but never delivered following the 2013 election of so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani. Without saying much about this talking point, The Guardian outlines seven specific human rights issues that have persisted under Rouhanis tenure.

For some optimistic observers of Iranian affairs, progress on these points will be the proof of a moderating trend inside the regime. But others deny that such reforms are possible even after a major change in the makeup of the Iranian parliament. And the latter viewpoint received a good deal of expression in media reports and editorials on Friday.

The Guardian report arguably contributes to this perception of a lack of reform, in that it highlights some of the ways in which the Rouhani presidency has disappointed those who expected improvements in the domestic situation. It points out, for instance, that that presidency has been characterized by a steep rise in the rate of executions, as well as the continuation of executions of juvenile offenders and political prisoners. It qualified reports of a plan to eliminate the death penalty for some drug offenders, saying it is unclear if that effort is serious.

But for many critics of the Iranian regime, it is abundantly clear that neither this effort nor any claim of reform in the Islamic Republic is serious. An editorial in the National Interest claimed that the Iranian national elections had largely been an exercise in rebranding hardliners as moderates. It reiterated that almost all reformist candidates were eliminated ahead of the elections and that many of those who remained in the reformist camp have notorious records of contributing to campaigns of assassination and calling for the harsh punishment of opposition leaders and dissidents.

These apparently hardline records were highlighted soon after the elections in documents and press releases from the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The opposition groups president, Maryam Rajavi also attended an event at the Brussels headquarters of the European Parliament on Wednesday, according to an article published in The Street. In her remarks, Rajavi expressed the NCRIs view that reform from inside the regime is simply not possible, since the latest elections were only a race among present and former officials in charge of torture and executions.

An editorial that appeared on Friday in Asharq al-Awsat took a slightly different approach to the topic, denying the claim that the reformist camp even won the election but also saying that it would not matter if they had. The article repeatedly referred to the existing regime as un-reformable, and it sharply criticized Western narratives that suggest that the newly elected parliament or any other structure of Iranian government could lead toward reform.

At the same time, the Awsat editorial agreed with the assessment of the NCRI that the National Interest that those Iranian officials who have been championed as reformists both during and before the latest elections are actually reformists. In fact, the editorial notes that many such individuals have specifically avoided those descriptions, meaning that such terms exist only in the imagination of Obama and some delusional analysts in the West.

The Weekly Standard also published an editorial on this topic on Friday, in which it denied any evidence of the existence of what it called discreet evolutionary mullahs and laymen, who had exhibited any self-awareness about the fragility and social isolation of the regime. The editorial also said of those serious reformists who supported the Rouhani-affiliated List of Hope in the recent elections: Theyve become forlorn, desperate to see hope even in men who once literally gave the orders to jail and beat them.

And looking beyond past records, yet another editorial in Al Arabiya addressed current views on an important specific issue, namely Irans contribution to the war effort in defense of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The author finds no criticism of that issue by so-called reformists, and no apparent difference of opinion between them and hardliners. He adds that even if such a difference existed, it would not be expressed since the Syria issue has been highlighted as a political red line by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Within the Iranian system of absolute authority, crossing such a red line would effectively end the political career of a sitting official. Indeed, the NCRI communications regarding the electoral process emphasized that the vetting process for all candidates to high office specifically excludes people on the basis of apparent lack of adherence to the views of the supreme leader.
The Times contributed to this narrative by reporting that Rouhani had challenged a ban that was implanted last year on the public use of the name or image of former President Mohammad Khatami. However, the report implicitly tempered the expectations that might be associated with such apparent defiance. It pointed out that both moderate and hardline politicians have predicted that Rouhanis actions will not have any actual impact on the ban. Furthermore, Rouhanis mention of Khatami was a modest step in its own right, considering that his speech avoided any mention of the Green Movement leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Mousavi and Karroubi have been held under house arrest since 2009, owing to their support for protests decrying as fraudulent the reelection of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Four years later, Rouhani was seen by some as a moderating force and the answer to the Green Movement unrest. Fittingly, one of his leading campaign promises was the release of Mousavi and Karroubi, as well as an overall reversal of the policy of political imprisonment. But this talking point was largely abandoned soon after Rouhanis election, leading many of his former supporters to become disillusioned with the prospect of reform.

Others, notably the National Council of Resistance of Iran, never saw reform as a realistic prospect. In their minds, Rouhanis election served only to appease the Green Movement just enough to forestall further unrest, without leading to any meaningful reforms, with the arguable exception of the nuclear agreement with the West.

It is certainly possible to view Rouhanis latest moves in the context of these tactics. His focus on Khatami at the expense of Mousavi and Karroubi could be seen as a deliberate effort to give the impression of reform without addressing more serious underlying issues. Harsh critics of the Iranian regime have levied similar accusations against Iranian officials in other areas, including the prisoner swap with the US, which coincided with the January implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

On the one hand, negotiations for that swap did lead to the release of four US citizens who had been held on false charges in Iran for periods ranging from several months to more than three years. But many critics of a US policy of rapprochement felt frustrated by the fact that other Americans were left behind, especially in light of the fact that the US released or dropped charges on some 21 Iranians, and may also have settled a financial claim to provide even more incentive for the swap.

One of those left behind was Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who went missing on Kish Island in 2007 while conducting an investigation for a group of CIA analysts. It is widely believed that he has been held ever since by the Iranian regime. Tehran has never formally acknowledged knowing his whereabouts, but some individual Iranian officials have.

This week marks the ninth anniversary of his capture, and the Associated Press reported that a rally had been held on Saturday in his home state of Florida, led by his family and former colleagues. The event again gave voice to some peoples perception that the White House wasted its best leverage when it completed the prisoner exchange without accounting for Levinson. Naturally, supporters also expressed frustration with the apparent lack of cooperation from Tehran, even under the leadership of a supposedly moderate president.

The situation facing these prisoners raises questions about Rouhanis interest in or ability to reform the country, not only because Levinson remains behind bars, but also because the regimes behavior toward foreign nationals appears unchanged. This was demonstrated just before the elections when the IRGC arrested Namazis 80 year-old father an Iranian-American dual national, as well.

It was noted on Monday that UNICEF, a former employer of Baquer Namazi, had issued a statement expressing deep concern about the elderly mans health and wellbeing, and offering general support on the basis of his past record. Neither Baquer nor Siamak Namazi has been made aware of formal charges. Neither has any evidence of wrongdoing or espionage been presented against them. In this sense, their stories are highly reminiscent of the stories of recently-released American reporter Jason Rezaian.

As has been pointed out in several commentary pieces, unfounded accusations of an infiltration network could serve to discourage foreign nationals and members of the Iranian diaspora from challenging the Iranian regimes personal dominance over industries and businesses that are now beginning to open up for foreign investment. The same end could be served by other familiar government activities which the Rouhani administration has either participated in or declined to obstruct, including the countrys dramatic overuse of the death penalty.

Over the weekend, numerous international media outlets including Agence-France Presse reported that Iranian billionaire Babek Zanjani had been sentenced to death on the charge of spreading corruption on Earth, owing to accusations that he embezzled funds from oil sales during the Ahmadinejad presidency. He not the first to be sentenced to death on similar charges, and he will likely not be the last as the current government strives to continue giving the impression that it is carrying out meaningful reforms compared to the previous government.

But the AFP report pointed to a possible ulterior motive in the hanging of Zanjani and others like him. It noted that Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh used the case to warn foreign investors not to do business with independent entrepreneurs and domestic partners, but to deal directly with the Iranian government.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps alone is estimated to control more than 50 percent of Irans GDP under current economic structures. It has been speculated that the foreign investment that comes of the Iran nuclear agreement could begin to challenge that dominance. But the powerful paramilitary organization can be expected to fight back against this trend, and its chances of success will be amplified greatly if it has support from the supposedly moderate Rouhani administration.
Bloomberg also highlighted two interesting factors that apparently contributed to this shortfall. One is that Egypt and the Gulf Arab states, who are notably wary of Irans ascending regional power in the wake of changing relations with the West, are still barring Iran from accessing a pipeline from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, thus forcing Iranian oil to take a more circuitous route to Western markets.

The other factor is that in spite of the general shift in Western policy toward Iran, Western powers led by the US still face significant political pressures to constrain the Islamic Republics economic and political expansion. This has helped to create a situation in which many international banking institutions are unwilling to resume relations with Iran, out of fear that new sanctions or existing non-nuclear sanctions will make them subject to fines and punitive measures.

Bloomberg notes that this anxiety about the stability of the Iranian market has led some Western banking institutions to refuse processing of attempted sales of Iranian oil to key foreign markets. The Washington Free Beacon indicates that the Iranian government has shown sensitivity to this situation, and has used it as an outlet for persistent anti-Western sentiment, accusing the US of failing to uphold its obligations under the nuclear deal, due to the continued obstruction of Iranian access to international markets.

But the Free Beacon emphasizes that the US has upheld the letter of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which called only for the suspension of sanctions related to Irans nuclear activities. The agreement does not require the US to encourage, much less facilitate, the resumption of active economic relations between Iran and international banks or other companies. Neither does it call upon the US to suspend sanctions related to Irans support for terrorism, its human rights violations, or its ballistic missile program.

Indeed, the latter subject has been the source of several new sanctions enforcement measures since the conclusion of nuclear negotiations. In January, shortly after implementation of the deal, the US imposed new sanctions on eleven individuals and businesses, in response to Irans October test of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile, in violation of UN sanctions. And on Friday the Italian news agency ANSA reported that one Italian and five Iranian individuals had been arrested in three regions of Italy for attempts to sell technology to Iran that can be used in ballistic missile systems.

While no laws or agreements are broken by these sanctions or other political circumstances leading to wariness about reentering the Iranian market, it can certainly be argued that Tehrans frustration is justified, since there are some indicators that these factors are constraining the interest that would otherwise exist for oil purchases in line with Irans original projections.

Iran News Update has reported extensively upon the steady growth of interest in doing business with the Islamic Republic, as well as reporting upon the efforts of certain groups to push back against this trend. The denial of Iranian access to the SuMed pipeline is apparently one such effort. But the same goal has been cited as a partial explanation for other oil policies of OPEC countries led by Saudi Arabia.

The desire to limit Irans return to global oil markets may have helped motivate the Saudis to avoid cuts in OPEC oil output, thus contributing to sustained low prices. The Saudis seemed poised to partly reverse course last month as they and some OPEC partners spoke with Russia about the prospect of freezing output at January levels. But this would-be deal depended upon Iranian participation, which was refused.

Now it seems unlikely that those plans will go forward, and this perception is underscored by a Reuters report that indicated Saudi prices for heavy crude oil had gone down again on Wednesday. On the other hand, the same report indicates that despite its overall shortfall, Iran seems to be exploring the prospect of raising prices for its light crude, in response to rising demand from Korea, Japan, India, and parts of Europe.

Those prices, however, will remain below the regional average, meaning that at the same time that they signify Irans creeping progress toward projected increases in output, they are also indicative of the strong competition that remains between Iran and other regional OPEC countries.

These competitors may provide an alternative for countries that are undecided about future dealings with the Islamic Republic. For instance, another Reuters report indicates that Turkey wants to buy more Iranian oil, but also that it would have to ignore political differences over such hot-button issues as the Syrian Civil War in order to do so.

The report indicates that the potential Turkish contribution to Irans oil recovery could be a missed blessing for Turkey, giving the Eurasian country some of what it needs over the short term but also empowering an economic competitor and sometimes diplomatic adversary. The report quotes one Turkish official as saying, Turkeys purchase of more gas from Iran would be a positive development but it is not realistic in the current climate. And it is all but certain that some opponents of Irans recovery will take pains to go on contributing to that climate.
Such types of renting and sales are carried out in areas such as Behesht-e Zahra, Tehrans main cemetery, said Farahnaz Rafe, president of Irans Red Crescent Volunteers Organization.

Rafe raised this issue on February 29th in an interview with the state-run Tasnim news agency (associated to the Quds Force, the extra-territorial wing of the Revolutionary Guards).

This social dilemma has specifically grown amongst homeless women sleeping on the streets, Rafe added.

Studies show 5,000 of the 15,000 homeless people across the country are women, said Shaheendokh Molvardi, Hassan Rouhanis deputy for women and family affairs, in an interview on July 11th, 2015 with the state-run ILNA news agency. In other words one third of the countrys homeless people are women.

The true number of homeless people in Iran is believed to be far higher than officially-announced estimates. At a time when Iran fails to provide detailed figures on the number of homeless women and attempts to minimize this very serious social crisis, there are numerous signs of evidence showing that the number of homeless women in Iran is rising.

There are 25,000 homeless people in Tehran alone, of which 3,000 are women, said Adel Mazari, head of the social commission in the Iran Major Cities Secretariat in an interview on February 9th with ILNA. He indirectly referred to the root of this crisis and said cultural measures for a starving individual who cannot make ends meet for his/her family is pointless.

The International Transparency Organization has published a list of corrupt countries in the world for 2015, based on which Iran was ranked 130th in administrative and financial corruption.
The IAEA recently declared that the Islamic Republic of Iran remains in compliance with its obligations under the nuclear deal nearly two months after it was full implemented. Amano reaffirmed this conclusion on Monday but also made an apparent effort to assuage some of the concerns of those who feel that the international community is being too soft on Iran. He emphasized that Iran will have to remain in compliance for many years to come for the JCPOA to be successful. The clear implication is that the IAEA intends to continue vigorously monitoring the deal throughout that period, on the understanding that Iran might elect to cheat.

Indeed, this danger of cheating has been repeatedly brought back to the attention of Irans critics, largely through the Islamic theocracys publicly-declared unwillingness to comply with other international standards, including some that are closely associated with the text of the JCPOA.

The implementation of that deal on the European side was accomplished by a document that called upon Tehran to avoid expanding its stockpile of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, as well as to avoid testing them. But Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani quickly announced that they would not abide by such impositions. And this was underscored by two tests of those weapons  one in October and one in November  both of which were in violation of a UN Security Council resolution that was then still in effect.

For the first several years of the deal  assuming it remains in effect and unbroken  embargoes remain in place on the sale of ballistic missiles and certain conventions weapons to Iran. Sanctions also remain in effect where they are based on Irans support of terrorism and its human rights violations instead of its nuclear program.

But Iranian officials and their allies have repeatedly shown an interest in defying these restrictions as well. Since the July 14 conclusion of nuclear negotiations, this has opened up a number of individuals and business to new sanctions enforcement, with the latest such instances targeting Chinas ZTE Corp, according to Reuters. The penalties relate to the sale of telecommunications technology to Iran in absence of licenses for American components.

This violation may seem minor and technical, and it may also seem possible that it took place independent of Irans knowledge. But it is only one of several examples. Other recent violations have involved dual-use technologies that could have an impact on Irans further development of ballistic missiles  something that Iranian officials have promised to aggressively pursue. Furthermore, recent talks between Tehran and Moscow over possible arms purchases have been criticized for apparently including references to categories of weapons that cannot be sold to Iran for approximately five more years.

Moscow itself has reportedly stepped back from imminent plans to transfer advanced S-300 missiles to Iran, because recent intelligence has demonstrated that advanced Iranian weaponry is still being channeled into the hands of terrorists. The report that apparently motivated Moscows change of plan was related to the shipment of arms to Hezbollah forces fighting alongside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria. But it is understood that this is only a portion of Irans arms-trafficking activities.

The Houthi rebels in Yemen remain a common destination for illicit Iranian arms shipments, as was reiterated on Monday by the Associated Press. That report finds that Australian naval vessels in the Arabian Sea intercepted a fishing vessel which was found to be carrying nearly 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 100 rocket-propelled grenades. The cache was believed to have originated in Iran and to have been on its way to Yemen.

Alongside these naval shipments, airborne deliveries of arms have also apparently been leaving Iran on a fairly regular basis in recent months, mostly heading for Syria. Reports of these shipments have prompted US Senators and other critics of current Western foreign policy to urge even more enforcement measures, including but by no means limited to sanctions against Irans Mahan Air, the commercial airliner that has long been known to be used by the Revolutionary Guards as a front for arms shipments.

On Saturday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported that a group of Senators including South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham and Delaware Democrat Chris Coons had written a letter to the White House urging immediate sanctions on companies aiding Mahan Air. Strong and swift sanctions enforcement is vital to hold Iran to account for its ongoing support of terrorism, ballistic missile development, and human rights violations, the document concluded.
You send women there, then something happens to them and their reputation will be damaged, Nader Ghazipour had said.

Iran MP claims women dont belong in Parliament

Watch this video on YouTube

Ghazipour became an MP for the city of Orumiyeh, north-west Iran, following the February 26 election.

The controversial speech by this Iranian MP in February in the city of Orumiyeh has been widely spread in social networks. A video clip of Ghazipours speech, during his campaign trail, was filmed by an undercover reporter in his election campaign headquarters.

Speaking in Azeri dialect, Ghazipour states: We did not obtain the country easily to send any fox and foal there. Parliament is not a place for chits, nor is it a place for women.

Gazipour also referred to the Iran-Iraq war and said he was a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) at the time. He said he encountered 600 to 700 Iraqi soldiers in a border road and all of them surrendered but we did not have the capacity to keep them, and we had to get rid of them. He added: You may not have slaughtered as many chickens and roosters, but for the sake of the revolution, I had to do these things.

Gazipour, 47, has been a Member of Parliament in the Iranian regime for two terms. In the early 1980s he was in the election office of Irans then-President Ali Khamenei and at times served as governor of Piranshahr and Sardasht. He also has a military background and in 2003 was appointed as commander of the First Brigade Artillery Battalion of the 3rd Special Forces.

Following the revelation of his speech, the reporter who exposed him was beaten by unknown persons to an extent that he suffered serious injuries including to his cheek and left ear. There are reports that he has lost his hearing.
What You Can't Discuss:

This is a partial list of taboo topics within progressive-left venues around the Arab-Israel conflict. You cannot discuss this material because it undermines the "Palestinian narrative" of perpetual victimhood. This narrative is a club used by the Arab and Muslim enemies of Israel, along with their western progressive allies, to delegitimize that country in preparation for its eventual dissolution.



1) The centuries of Jewish dhimmitude under the boot of Islamic imperialism.



2) The recent construction of Palestinian identity, its connection to Soviet Cold War politics, and how this is an Arab people with a Roman name that refers to Greeks.



3) Arab and Palestinian Koranically-based racism as the fundamental source of the conflict.



4) The ways in which contemporary progressive anti-Zionism serves as a cloak for gross anti-Semitism.



5) The Palestinian theft and appropriation of Jewish history.



6) "Pallywood."



7) The historical connections between the Nazis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Palestinian national movement.



8) The perpetual refusal of the Palestinian-Arabs to accept a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one.



9) The progressive portrayal of terrorists as those fighting a righteous war of "resistance."



10) The Arab-Palestinian indoctrination of children with Jew hatred.



11) Human rights violations against women, children, and Gay people in the Muslim Middle East.



12) The fact that violent Jihadis call themselves "Jihadis" and claim to love death above life.



This is only a partial list, so please let us know the many more that we are missing.
I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.
[March 07, 2016] Industry Leaders Invited to Join the Top Internet of Things Developers Conference

TMC (News - Alert) and Crossfire Media announced today IoT Evolution Developers Conference is accepting speaking proposals through March 15th, 2016. The event, which is being held July 11-14, 2016 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada also features keynotes from AT&T (News - Alert), Goodyear, VMware, Weather Company. The conference will explore how to design and develop systems that monitor and manage the burgeoning IoT connected device market. "We are excited to work with OpenSystems (News - Alert) Media to deliver our IoT Evolution Developers Conference," said Carl Ford, CEO, Crossfire Media, executive director of content, IoT Evolution. "IoT developers are facing new challenges as management has greater expectancy for real time, relevant solutions." For full details and to submit a proposal, please visit the call for papers website. For questions, please contact Carl Ford. Please submit your speaking request on the following topics, or feel free to recommend a topic of your own choosing. Hands-on hardware and hypervisor security

PaaS Considerations for IoT developers Storage Analytics Developer tools/rules engines, device management, customization

Leveraging Analytics - Managing IoT data

Secure connected app development for critical sytems

ARM (News - Alert) Cortex-A, M, or R for embedded edge devices

Picking the right IoT OS

Open source for connected embedded systems

Security for the IoT Low-overhead encryption for IoT edge devices Applications Network Cloud Security

Protocols and connectivity frameworks to ensure IoT interoperability



Registration for IoT Evolution Developers Conference Powered by Embedded Computing Design is now open. For more information, contact Frank Coppola at 203-852-6800 ext. 131. For media registration, contact Jessica Seabrook. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages should contact Matthew Gleeson at 203-852-6800 ext. 145. For the latest IoT Evolution Developers Conference news, updates and information, follow the event on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IoTDevelopers.

About TMC Global buyers rely on TMC's content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. This presents branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities for vendors/sellers. TMC's Marketplaces: Unique, turnkey Online Communities boost search results, establish market validation, elevate brands and thought leadership, while minimizing ad-blocking.

Custom Lead Programs uncover sales opportunities and build databases.

In-Person and Online Events boost brands, enhance thought leadership and generate leads.

Publications, Display Advertising and Newsletters bolster brand reputations.

Custom Content provides expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts.

Comprehensive Event and Road Show Management Services help companies meet potential clients and generate leads face-to-face. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com. About Crossfire Media Crossfire Media is an integrated marketing company with a core focus on future trends in technology. We service communities of interest with conferences, tradeshows, webinars and newsletters. Crossfire Media has a partnership with Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) to produce events and websites related to disruptive technologies. Crossfire Media is a division of Crossfire Consulting, a full service Information Technology company based in New York. About OpenSystems Media OpenSystems Media works with industry leaders to develop and publish content that educates the embedded engineering community about new technologies, products, real-world examples of product applications, trends, and standards. OSM cultivates the largest global community of embedded designers with our various channels, including blogs, design articles, videos, news, and product information. Coverage comes in the form of digital (web sites, interactive magazines, newsletters, on-line education, apps, and traditional social media), print magazines, and live events such as trade shows and conferences. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160307006472/en/

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[March 08, 2016] Onion Dog, A 3 Year Old APT Focused On the Energy and Transportation Industries in Korean-language Countries Is Exposed by 360

BEIJING, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Helios Team at 360 SkyEye Labs recently revealed that a hacker group named OnionDog has been infiltrating and stealing information from the energy, transportation and other infrastructure industries of Korean-language countries through the Internet. According to big data correlation analysis, OnionDog's first activity can be traced back to October, 2013 and in the following two years it was only active between late July and early September. The self-set life cycle of a Trojan attack is 15 days on average and is distinctly organizational and objective-oriented. OnionDog malware is transmitted by taking advantage of the vulnerability of the popular office software Hangul in Korean-language countries, and it attacked network-isolated targets through a USB Worm. In addition, OnionDog also used darkweb ("Onion City") communications tools, with which it can visit the domain without the Onion browser, making its real identity hidden in the completely anonymous Tor network. OnionDog APT targets the infrastructure industry. OnionDog concentrated its efforts on infrastructure industries in Korean-language countries. In 2015 this organization mainly attacked harbors, VTS, subways, public transportation and other transportation systems. In 2014 it attacked many electric power and water resources corporations as well as other energy enterprises. 360's Threat Intelligence Center has found 96 groups of malicious code, 14 C&C domain names and IP related to OnionDog. It first surfaced in October 2013, and then was most active in the summers of the following years. The Trojan set its own "active state" time and the shortest was be three days and maximum twenty nine days, from compilation to the end of activity. The average life cycle is 15 days, which makes it more difficult for the victim enterprises to notice and take actions than those active for longer period of time.







Deadline Compilation time Activate state (days) Sep 8th, 2015 Aug 27th, 2015 12 Aug 8th, 2015 Aug 5th, 2015 3 Aug 8th, 2015 Aug 3th, 2015 5 Aug 8th, 2015 July 23th, 2015 16 Aug 8th, 2015 July 10th, 2015 29 July 13th, 2014 July 10th, 2015 3 Aug 9th, 2014 July 18th, 2014 22 Aug 9th, 2014 July 15th, 2014 25 July 13th, 2014 July 13th, 2014 18 Oct 25, 2013 Oct 10th, 2013 15

The life cycle of Trojan malware OnionDog's attacks are mainly carried out in the form of spear phishing emails. The early Trojan used icons and file numbers to create a fake HWP file (Hangul's file format). Later on, the Trojan used a vulnerability in an upgraded version of Hangul, which imbeds malicious code in a real HWP file. Once the file is opened, the vulnerability will be triggered to download and activate the Trojan. Since most infrastructure industries, such as the energy industry, generally adopt intranet isolation measures, OnionDog uses the USB disk drive ferry to break the false sense of security of physical isolation. In the classic APT case of the Stuxnet virus, which broke into an Iranian nuclear power plant, the virus used an employee's USB disk to circumvent network isolation. OnionDog also used this channel and generated USB worms to infiltrate the target internal network. "OCD-type" intensive organization In the Malicious Code activities of OnionDog, there are strict regulations: First, the Malicious Code has strict naming rules starting from the path of created PDB (symbol file). For example, the path for USB worm is APT-USB, and the path for spear mail file is APT-WebServer; When the OnionDog Trojan is successfully released, it will communicate to a C&C (Trojan server), download other malware and save them in the %temp% folder and use "XXX_YYY.jpg" uniformly as the file name. These names have their special meaning and usually point to the target. All signs show that OnionDog has strict organization and arrangement across its attack time, target, vulnerability exploration and utilization, and malicious code. At the same time, it is very cautious about covering up its tracks. In 2014, OnionDog used many fixed IPs in South Korea as its C&C sites. Of course, this does not mean that the attacker is located in South Korea. These IPs could be used as puppets and jumping boards. By 2015, OnionDog website communications were upgraded to Onion City across the board. This is so far a relatively more advanced and covert method of network communication among APT hacker attacks. Onion City means that the deep web searching engine uses Tor2web agent technology to visit the anonymous Tor network deeply without using the Onion Brower specifically. And OnionDog uses the Onion City to hide the Trojan-controlling server in the Tor network. In recent years, APT attacks on infrastructure facilities and large-scale enterprises have frequently emerged. Some that attack an industrial control system, such as Stuxnet, Black Energy and so on, can have devastating results. Some attacks are for the purpose of stealing information, such as the Lazarus hacker organization jointly revealed by Kaspersky, AlienVault lab and Novetta, and OnionDog which was recently exposed by the 360 Helios team. These secret cybercrimes can cause similarly serious losses as well. In view of OnionDog's pattern of activity, we are likely to observe a new round of attacks this summer. The relevant threat intelligence and technical analysis report will be updated by 360's Intelligence Center (https://ti.360.com). About Helios Team Helios Team is a senior threat research team at Qihoo 360 that is engaged in detecting and tracing APT attacks, internet security incident response, hacker industrial chain exploration and study. The team was established in December 2014. Within a year, it integrated the enormous security data at Qihoo 360 and realized the rapid correlation traceability of threat intelligence, and for the first time found and traced 10 APT organizations and hacker industrial chains. It broadened its horizon to the study of the hacker industry, filled the void of APT study domestically and has offered security threat evaluation and solutions output for many enterprises and government agencies. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onion-dog-a-3-year-old-apt-focused-on-the-energy-and-transportation-industries-in-korean-language-countries-is-exposed-by-360-300232441.html SOURCE 360 SkyEye Labs

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[March 08, 2016] Divinity Roxx Joins Forces With Digital Media Academy To Empower Girls In Music & Technology

LOS GATOS, Calif., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Media Academy is proud to announce a partnership with internationally renowned bassist and recording artist Divinity Roxx, as the official role model and spokeswoman for DMA's Made By Girls initiative. Most recognized for her time spent as Music Director for Beyonce Knowles and bassist of her all-girl band, Roxx is passionate about encouraging women to explore their creativity through technology. As Made By Girls spokeswoman and role model, Roxx has declared her song "We Are" as the MBG program anthem. As she describes, "'We Are' is my declaration to the world that we are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the ones who can positively affect the world." In addition, she will serve as a mentor for several of Digital Media Academy's course offerings for the summer of 2016, including Wearable Technology & Fashion, Music & Beat Production, and Filmmaking. "To think that my story could be inspiring to someone else leaves me without words," said Divinity Roxx of her new role with Made By Girls, in a recent visit to the DMA offices in Los Gatos. "I was once a little girl, sitting in a classroom, learning something that I didn't understand. But if I had been afraid to open my mind, I wouldn't be where I am today." For Roxx, understanding software and embracing technology have been paramount to her success in the recording studio. Having had to teach herself many of the production software programs in order to take control of her artistic voice, she knows firsthand how intimidating it can be to learn new skills. She encourages girls to push through their fear to realize their strength and potential: "Keep going. By opening yourself up to learning, you can unlock something you never knew you were capable of." For the Made By Girls' Wearable Tech and Fashion Design course, Divinity will serve as an important first client, challenging students to design accessories for her to wear on her European tour this fall. Girls will have the opportunity to design and program custom accessories that flash and light up using LilyPad Arduino, in addition to learning about circuitry, electrical engineering and programming. They will also use modeling software used by real fashion designers from our partner CLO Virtual Fashion, to design and model their own creations in 3D. Wearable Tech & Fashion Design is offered at six locations nationwide including Stanford, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Harvard. To learn more about Wearable Tech & Fashion Design, visit https://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/made-by-girls/. For DMA's co-ed Music & Beat Production and Filmmaking courses, Divinity Roxx's anthem, "We Are," and the song's official music video will serve as inspiration. She will challenge students to creae original works of music and film in response to the song. As a result, students will have the chance to receive credit from her as an official collaborator with promotion of their work on her website and on her tour. Music & Beat Production and Filmmaking courses are offered at 20 campuses nationwide. For a complete list, visit www.digitalmediaacademy.org.



"By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs available in computer-related fields but women are projected to fill only 3 percent of them. Lack of role models, negative stereotypes and isolation are significant barriers preventing girls from reaching their full potential. Girls who do not learn tech skills not only miss out on opportunities that are meaningful for their future success, their absence from technological fields limits innovation and breakthroughs that could make a better world," explains Made By Girls Program Director Peggy Lee. "The Made By Girls program is dedicated to supporting change by providing a safe environment where girls can learn and grow together with the support of strong role models. DMA believes that Divinity Roxx is one such role model whose story encourages girls to be brave, express their creativity and build the world they want to see." To watch this partnership unfold, follow #WeAreMBG on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About Digital Media Academy Founded in 2002 at Stanford University, DMA is an education company whose core business is developing and running technology camps and courses for kids, teens and adults at prestigious universities across the U.S. and Canada. DMA instructors and curriculum developers include industry professionals and outstanding technology educators with a driving passion for inspiring, teaching and mentoring.

Learn more at www.digitalmediaacademy.org. About Made By Girls Made By Girls is a DMA initiative dedicated to building tech confidence in young women. MBG courses are led by female role models and are built exclusively to support early positive experiences with technology. We know from research that role models, community and early exposure to STEM are crucial to building lasting confidence in girls and can help them reach their full potential as creators and innovators. MBG is now accepting scholarship applications for the 2016 summer season. To learn more about how to nominate yourself or another deserving girl to receive tuition support for an MBG course of choice, visit www.digitalmediaacademy.org/made-by-girls. About Divinity Roxx Divinity Roxx is an internationally known bassist and recording artist. Most recognized for her years spent as music director and bass player for Beyonce's all-girl band, her discography also includes appearances on albums by will.i.am, Beyonce, Victor Wooten and more. Her new album ImPossible, which includes the single "We Are," will be released in March 2016.

Learn more at www.divinityroxx.com and you can download "We Are" on iTunes. About CLO Virtual Fashion CLO is Digital Media Academy's official technology partner for the Wearable Tech and Fashion Design course. The CLO Atelier program is a virtual designer technology, used by real fashion designers, that lets artists design and model their own garment creations in 3D. MBG students can output their designs into 2D patterns that can be produced into real clothes.

Learn more about CLO at http://www.clo3d.com/. Contact:

Peggy Lee, Program Director, 510-771-7866, [email protected]

Joanna Doubleday, Public Relations, 831-566-1141, [email protected]

Jessica Sternick, Management for Divinity Roxx, 858-525-2953, [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341529

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341531

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341530LOGO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341528LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/divinity-roxx-joins-forces-with-digital-media-academy-to-empower-girls-in-music--technology-300232321.html SOURCE Digital Media Academy

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Itongadol.- As the debate over whether to divide the capital intensifies amid terrorist attacks that have politicians and security personnel scrambling for solutions, most Israelis believe that the model of a unified Jerusalem has failed, a poll found this week.

The Israel Democracy Institute conducted the survey by telephone interview with 600 Jewish and Arab Israelis from February 28 to March 1, constituting a representative national sample of the adult population.

With a maximum sampling error of 4.1 percent, and a confidence level of 95%, the surveyors repeated a question first posed to Israelis in 1999: Do you agree or disagree with the opinion that Jerusalem is actually already divided into two cities  East and West? A clear majority of Jewish Israelis (61%) agreed that Jerusalem is divided into a western and eastern city, while in 1999 the 44% of respondents thought so, while 49% disagreed.

Approximately 47% of Arab Israelis said the capital is divided, according to the current survey.

The survey found opinions largely drawn along political lines, with the highest proportions of those who said the city is divided coming from members of the Zionist Union (88.5%) and Meretz (85%), while Likud voters were split on the question (49% for each view).

Last month, Zionist Union and opposition leader Isaac Herzog proposed dividing the capital, when he presented a diplomatic plan at the Jerusalem Conference to relinquish Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinian Authority to improve security.

However, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat (Likud) has repeatedly rejected any division of the capital.

As for a connection between discrimination against Arabs and terrorism, a majority of the Israeli Jewish public (57%) says there is no connection between discrimination in the areas of healthcare, education and other services against Arab Israelis and Jerusalem Arabs recent involvement in attacks against Israeli Jews.

Still, a majority of Israeli Arabs (52%) disagree. They report that there is indeed a connection between discrimination against them and terrorism.

The survey also studied questions regarding the security situation, which began to deteriorate last October.

When Jewish Israelis were asked whether they agreed with a statement made in late February by Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Roni Alsheikh, that the Palestinians sanctify death while we sanctify life, an overwhelming majority (77%) strongly or moderately agreed.

Similarly, a sweeping consensus (90%) of the Jewish public thinks the IDF is operating in a very or moderately moral fashion in counteracting the current terrorist attacks.

Finally, the IDI study found that 50% of the Jewish public disagrees with the recommendation by Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Gadi Eisenkot that restraint should be applied in acting against the terrorists.
1. Comments must not be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted.

2. Comments must not involve little more than name-calling and insulting remarks.

3. Comments must not be made by "anonymous" or "unknown".

4. Comments must not try to sneak in some free advertising for themselves (like spam).

I invite anyone who wishes to comment on this blog to do so. I enjoy the comments, whether you agree with what I have said or not. But some people want to abuse the right to comment, and since this is my blog, I have decided to lay down the following rules. If your comment violates these rules, it will not be published.
FHI 360 is a nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. Our staff includes experts in health, education, nutrition, environment, economic development, civil society, gender, youth, research and technology  creating a unique mix of capabilities to address todays interrelated development challenges. FHI 360 serves more than 70 countries and all U.S. states and territories. We are currently seeking qualified candidates for the position of: Technical Advisor, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Description:

FHI360 seeks a qualified candidate for the position of Technical Advisor, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for the upcoming Growth through Nutrition Activity in Ethiopia.

The Technical Advisor, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) will be responsible for overseeing the quality of all WASH interventions funded through the Growth through Nutrition Activity. S/he will be responsible for achievement of expected WASH outcomes and integration of WASH into nutrition and agriculture activities. The Advisor will work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Advisor to coordinate and systematically disseminate lessons-learned with other USAID-funded WASH activities.

Note: Availability of position is contingent upon funding.

Job Summary / Responsibilities:

Advise on and monitor technical quality of deliverables associated with sustained water and sanitation services and adoption of key hygiene behaviors.



Ensure regional level WASH activities are implemented with consistent approaches and quality, in accordance with national and global policies and best practices.



Develop or review relevant guidelines, materials, trainings, job aids and tools to ensure the technical strategies are reflected to accurately.



Identify and collate evidence base of promising practices and support dissemination workshops improve existing practices and introduce new practices and/or ideas among partners and key stakeholders.



Review technical documents and other deliverables to ensure alignment with overall project strategy and USAID requirements.



Ensure that effective engagement is maintained with communities and with local government partners, to ensure responsive and sustainable programming.



Participate in relevant technical working groups and forums at the national, regional and global level.



Qualifications:

Advanced degree in a relevant field of study, e.g. civil or environmental engineering, public health, international development, economics, business administration).



Minimum of seven years of experience in the WASH sector, in areas related to successful Activity implementation such as provision of technical expertise for WASH, demand creation, and sanitation marketing.



Demonstrated experience building private sector capacity to provide WASH products and services, highly desirable.



Demonstrated experience building local government capacity to install, rehabilitate, and maintain water systems, highly desirable.



Prior experience in the Ethiopian WASH sector, preferably including experience with national level coordination under the One WASH Program (OWNP).



Preference for experience with USAID projects



This job description summarizes the main duties of the job. It neither prescribes nor restricts the exact tasks that may be assigned to carry out these duties. This document should not be construed in any way to represent a contract of employment. Management reserves the right to review and revise this document at any time.

We offer competitive compensation and an outstanding benefit package. Please click here to visit FHI 360s Career Center for a list of all open positions.

FHI 360 is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. FHI 360 is an equal employment and affirmative action employer whereby we do not engage in practices that discriminate against any person employed or seeking employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information or any other status or characteristic protected under applicable law.
I could not agree more with Deane Finnegans comments about the deplorable situation in Whiteclay and her comparison with the poisoned water in Flint, Michigan ("A stain on the soul of Nebraska," March 2). Elected officials in Michigan knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it. Elected officials in Nebraska, including the Attorney General, members of the Legislature, the Governor and members of the Liquor Control Commission, have known about Whiteclay for years and nothing has changed.

Ms. Finnegan was moved to write her comments after viewing the documentary "Sober Indian/Dangerous Indian," which has been shown at a number of public gatherings since the summer of 2015. It is also available online. At the February, 2016, meeting of the Liquor Control Commission, the two commission members present indicated they had not seen the documentary ("Whiteclay activists talk to regulators," Feb. 10). The executive director of the commission said he had watched some of the documentary but hadnt had sufficient time to complete it. Im certain a special viewing could be arranged for them.

Whiteclay is not a priority for any elected official in Nebraska despite our state receiving national notoriety. It is, therefore, the responsibility of Nebraska citizens to inform themselves, become outraged and insist on change.

Janice Walker, Lincoln
RACINE  SC Johnson has announced it will begin to sell its consumer pest control and air-care products directly to professional, office, health care and institutional markets in certain parts of the world.

The products include SCJs Raid and Baygon brand insecticide products, its Off and Autan brand repellent products and Glade and Brise brand air-care products.

In countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, professional and institutional purchasers can start to buy what SCJ said is a broad range of its consumer products direct.

We are excited by the prospect of directly representing our highly relevant brands in the professional, office, healthcare and institutional markets, stated SCJ Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson. Our purchase of the Deb Group in 2015 positions us for growth in these categories and will help us as we market a new line of professional products.

SCJ spokeswoman Kelly Semrau elaborated, noting the consumer products company split off the institutional/industrial market years ago with the offshoot first named Johnson Wax Professional. It became Diversey which is now a division of Sealed Air Corp.

SCJs purchase of the Deb Group gave the company a market foothold in many places in the world to expand institutional/industrial sales, she said.

In a continuation of that approach, SCJ said in 2017 it will launch a new professional line that it will announce this fall.

Distributors are encouraged to contact SC Johnson Professional directly if they have any questions about the new offerings.

Racine-based SCJ, with about $10 billion in annual sales, is privately owned by the Johnson family. The 130-year-old company employs approximately 13,000 people globally and sells products in nearly every country in the world.
RACINE  A Racine woman twice convicted of dealing drugs faces three new felony drug charges after Racine Police reportedly found a pound of cocaine, along with marijuana, in her car.

Victoria L. Waller, 36, of the 200 block of Mertens Avenue, appeared in Racine County Circuit Court Monday in connection with police searching her vehicle near her residence last Friday.

According to the criminal complaint, Racine Police executed a search warrant near Wallers residence on Friday. The warrant included Wallers car, the complaint said.

During the search of the car, police found 3.7 grams of marijuana and $1,638 in cash, the complaint said. Police said also found a shoe box with 16 ounces  one pound  of a white substance that appeared to be crack cocaine, the complaint said.

The substance later tested positive for cocaine, the complaint said.

Waller was charged on Monday with felony counts of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver as a repeater offender, possession of marijuana, and maintaining a drug trafficking place as a repeat offender.

If convicted on all counts, Waller could face 14 years in prison.

Court records showed Waller was previously convicted of felony cocaine charges in 1997 and 2000.

Waller was in the Racine County Jail on Monday, jail records showed. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 16, court records showed.
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West Virginia's Senate Overrides

Governor's Concealed Carry Veto

By Jenn Jacques. March 7th, 2016

West Virginia's senate voted 23-11 to override Governor veto on the conceal carry bill on Saturday. The measure was passed along after the house also voted to override the veto by a vote of 64-33. The measure makes it no longer necessary to apply for a permit to have a concealed weapon.

The legislation provides a $50 tax credit for anyone who voluntarily undergoes gun training and persons between the ages of 18-21 must still obtain a permit.

"As the chief legal officer of the state and the person in charge of criminal matters for the state at the WV Supreme Court and in federal courts, I know that this legislation will not impact public safety," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey said after the veto. "If this bill is enacted, we will not only expand freedom, but we will keep our citizens protected."......

"This bill allows West Virginians to protect themselves without the government's permission", stated West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole (R). Another state to now add to the still all-too-few, which is good news. "Permission" to excercise a right should never even be needed - please take note anti-gun states.

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Walt Kelly
Chinese lawyer and professor, Chen Taihe, fled [press release] his country and arrived in San Leandro, California, the Dui Hua Foundation [advocacy website] said Monday. Chen was detained last July as part of a crackdown on rights lawyers that had culminated in at least 242 people detained or questioned nationwide. He was detained [RFA report] for picking quarrels and stirring up trouble. Chens wife and son previously fled to the US where another son was born. The case is unique because Chinese authorities have rarely released a political prisoner already detained and permitted the detainee to leave the country. In a statement released through the Dui Hua Foundation, an organization that works to free political prisoners in China, Chen said, I am grateful to the Guilin police for dropping the charges against me and allowing me to be reunited with my family in the United States, and he thanked the US and his American friends for helping make it possible. Chen had been advocating for the adoption of the jury system in China.

Last month UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein expressed concern [JURIST report] over Chinas recent crackdown on lawyers and activists. Chinese state media recently criticized detained human rights lawyers for undermining the rule of law. In January Chinese authorities arrested [JURIST report] high profile human rights lawyer Wang Yu and her husband on charges of political subversion. Also in January Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] the Chinese government to overturn a verdict sentencing three human rights activists in the Guangdong province to up to five years in prison. In December Chinese authorities released [JURIST report] prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang after receiving a suspended sentence for causing a disturbance after he attended a weekend meeting that urged an investigation into the 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Florida Governor Rick Scott [official website] on Monday signed into law a bill [HB 7101 materials] revamping the states death penalty law. The changes are in response to the US Supreme Court ruling in January that the states previous sentencing scheme was unconstitutional [JURIST report]. The new legislation requires jurors to be unanimous on aggravating factors and for 10 of 12 jurors to recommend execution. The previous law was deemed unconstitutional because the state permitted judges to determined whether an individual should be sentenced to death rather than the jury. The uncertainty in the law had forced the state to delay scheduled executions [JURIST report].

Capital punishment [JURIST op-ed] remains a controversial issue in the US and worldwide. In February the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] rejected [opinion, PDF] a Georgia death row inmates legal challenge [JURIST report] to the death penalty. In January Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood [official website] stated that he plans to ask lawmakers to approve the firing squad, electrocution or nitrogen gas as alternate methods of execution [press release] if the state prohibits lethal injection [JURIST report]. The US Supreme Court in January ruled [JURIST report] in Kansas v. Carr [opinion, PDF] that a jury in a death penalty case does not need to be advised that mitigating factors, which can lessen the severity of a criminal act, do not need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt like aggravating factors.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Sunday urged [press release] the African Union to establish a hybrid court to prosecute members of the South Sudan government for war crimes committed in the Western Equatoria region. HRW said that there is evidence that killings, rapes and enforced disappearances have been committed against civilians in the region and that some of the targeting may have been ethnically motivated in a counterinsurgency operation against rebel forces. HRW also called for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] to impose an arms embargo in an effort to reduce violence against civilians,

Last month the UN Mission in South Sudan strongly condemned [JURIST report] the violence that took place between Shilluk and Dinka youths at one of its Protection of Civilians sites in South Sudan [JURIST archive]. The OHCHR reported in January that shocking crimes have been committed [JURIST report] in the war-torn South Sudan.
Thank you for responding to this Weblog (blog). We wish to maintain a high level of integrity and responsibility among our participants. In the spirit of camaraderie of the blogsphere, interested parties are welcomed to reproduce or quote materials published in this weblog WITH THE CONDITION that they are credited to akadirjasin.blogspot.com/akadirjasin.com to avoid misunderstanding.Thank you.
Rajendra Manandhar is the Dolakha correspondent for Kantipur Media Group.
Equality in true sense

Removing traditional barriers to achieving gender parity needs greater priority in Nepal
For the women

The mainstream women movement has a long way to go before it can claim to represent all Nepali women
Hugh Hefner's wife diagnosed with Lyme disease

Playboy boss Hugh Hefner's wife Crystal Harris has been diagnosed with Lyme disease, a bacterial infection spread by ticks.
India positive to normalise fuel supply to Nepal: Ambassador Rae

Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Ranjit Rae, has said India was positive to normalise fuel supply from India to Nepal. However, he blamed Nepal Oil Corporation that it did not demand the petroleum products needed to the country.
Nepal still needs to give women wider roles: UN

The United Nations has lauded Nepal for electing first ever woman president and a woman speaker in the countrys history while also noting that there is still a lot to be done to ensure wider female participation in both government and non-government sectors.
Mahashivaratri, Army day observed with fanfare

Hindu devotees all over the country celebrated Mahashivaratri by worshipping Lord Shiva at various rivers, ponds and temples.
NMC to verify certificates of all docs

The Nepal Medical Council has started verifying academic certificates of registered doctors and those who have applied for the licence to practice medicine.
Only 8pc of funds allocated for pride projects utilised

Only 8.13 percent of the money earmarked for national pride projects has been spent during the first six months of the fiscal year.
TourMin gets tough on single-engine aircraft

The Tourism Ministry has stopped registering new single-engine aircraft following the crash landing of an Air Kasthamandap P-750 XSTOL on February 26 in which its two pilots were killed.
Unknown gang torches GMR vehicle in Dailekh

An unidentified group on Monday torched a Jeep of GMR Upper Karnali Hydropower Limited that is developing a 900-MW project.
World Bank appoints new country director for Nepal

Qimiao Fan on Monday took charge as the World Banks new Country Director for Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
1. Yes. Its important to cast my votes early and avoid the lines on Election Day.

2. Yes. With nearly two weeks of early voting, its a more convenient way to take part.

3. No. Its better to wait until Election Day, in case any last-minute information surfaces.

4. No. Im not planning to vote early or on Election Day. It isnt worth my time.

5. Unsure. It depends on how the campaigns are shaping up. Ill play it by ear.

Vote

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The English Bourgeoisie Did Not Always Love its Monarchy. "A spectre is haunting Europethe spectre of Communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise th...

Diary of a Nobody-Part 1 This is the first post in what I hope will be an occasional meandering of thoughts and things happening in my world. I have started readin...

Reynolds, Nicholas. 2022. Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence. Mariner Books: New York and Boston. Nicholas Reynolds is a historian. Need to Know traces the rise of what ultimately has become known as the CIA, Central Intelligence Agency,...

The London Revolution 1640-1643: Class Struggles in 17th Century England-Michael Sturza-The Mad Duck Coalition, New York, 2022. 230 pp., $25 "The 'great' national historian Macaulay vulgarises the social drama of the seventeenth century by obscuring the inner strugg...

The Global Attack on Postal Workers Employing over 115,000 Royal Mail workers, Royal Mail is currently undertaking a fundamental restructuring of its core business. It aims to ...

Diary of a Nobody-Part 2 A long time ago, back in the day when I was more radical than I am now, a very important person high up in the political organisation I used...

Commentary on The London Revolution Review I am afraid that Sturzas account of the events of the 1640s and your analysis of its merits (and faults) is not correct, Keith. First of al...

Diary of a Nobody-Part 3 "Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois so that you may be violent and original in your work."  Gustave Flauber...
President Yoweri Museveni has re-echoed the need for Womens economic empowerment as a fundamental aspect of strengthening their rights and enabling them to have control over their lives.

The president was this afternoon speaking during the International Womens Day Celebrations held at Kololo ceremonial grounds in Kampala.

He said empowering women economically entails supporting them to access economic resources and opportunities including jobs, financial services, productive assets, basic education, skills development and market information.

Earlier, various women leaders used the event to demand that the government does more to ensure gender equality by 2030.

The UN Women Uganda Country Representative Hodan Addou said the day should be used to emphasize the need for increased participation of women as a prerequisite for successful implementation of Agenda 2030.

She says once equality is achieved, poverty and violence against women and girls will be a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, as part of celebrations, government has recognized a number of women for their outstanding contribution, loyalty and service to the nation.

According to the Chairman Awards Committee Gen Elly Tumwine, 399 medals have been given out and those recognized include the late Prof Rose Mboowa who composed the Uganda Womens Anthem.

The others are the late Joan Kagezi, Rhoda Tumusiime, Winnie Lawoko, Florence Okot, Dr. Grace Nambatya, local artists Mariam Ndagire & Annette Nandujja as well as rally champion Susan Muwonge.

Story By Damali Mukhaye
Trollfest '09

Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, How I sold out to da Man. Robbie Bell again performs: Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells and Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to Dancing with the Stars, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.



Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and Big Cat Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).



Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.



Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".



In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word jackass was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.



In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.



Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.



Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!



This is definitely a Beaver production.



Note: Security provided by INS.


We live in a world in which an authoritarian state, $-freeloader narcissistic U.S., controls the digital infrastructure, enjoys the dominant position in the world's technology platforms, controls the means of production for critical technologies, and harnesses a new wave of general purpose technologies, like biotech and new energy technologies, to transform the world society, economy and military, to continue feeding U.S.' parasitic needs. However, the really funny thing is that US smears China for exactly what US itself is.

Why didn't NATO (US) stop the real genocide and grave Human Rights violations (since 2014) in Ukraine?! And when Russia did, the NATO (US) attacked Russia. And what about the islamofascist Saudi dictator family's atrocities in Yemen - just to mention one from the Saudi pile?!





China is now not only outperforming the West technologically but also the capitalist country that has come the furthest in balancing greed for the good of the people. In contrast to communist dictatorships such as the Soviets, Mao's China, North Korea and others, modern China is more democratic than most Western countries. This is because, via a meritocratic system, political career is built from the bottom up, i.e. local politicians must show results in order to move forward, while together they later form a political communication link between Beijing and the people, which means that unlike dictatorships, it is the top that is most sensitive to grassroots dissatisfaction. And this is proven in several Western research projects which unilaterally show a popular support that is sky-high above, for example, the US. Peter Klevius art analysis: When kings possessed antidemocratic total power (as the Saudi islamofascist murderer and terrorist war criminal "king" still today), they could deliberately show off their personhood. However, when kingdom became art - not to say sign post - then a "good" king or queen became someone who like Elizabeth had to shut up and instead be filled with the content of "the eye of the beholder" - just like art, which is always excluded from its artist. My guess is that she could only really trust her husband - 'husband' is Swedish meaning 'hus' (house) and 'band' means ties like in 'bond'. However, her son Charles has an extremely poor record at that - which may be entertaining, especially for republicans.

US should be the "enemy" rather than modern China And when will Liz Truss declare the islamofascist "custodians of islam", the Saudi dictator family - who has murdered, tortured, terrorized and committed war crimes - an enemy? With the U.S. dollar as the world's main reserve currency - since 1971 criminally disconnected from its promised gold connection - and with the U.S. controlling global financial and monetary flow U.S. has raised massive debt while printing money - not "out of thin air" but out of the world. The U.S. economy hence rests on financial colonialism and imperialism, i.e. forcibly robbing its value from other countries. And when excess liquidity drives up global inflation, and the Fed raises interest rates and tightens monetary policy, it also widens its interest rate gap with other countries, while attracting international capital to the otherwise empty (and doomed) U.S. dollar. The Brits should blame US, the militant financial $-freeloader (since 1971) - not modern China, the peaceful tech and wealth building rescuer at home and around the world! Bank of England is a helpless pawn against the feds. At the very moment when especially UK but also the rest of the world needs China the most, then dangerous and militant (CIA steered?) Liz Truss declares China an "enemy". Hello! It's US that 2014 ignited the low scale Ukrainian civil war to a fullblown deadly genocide against Russians, and 2022 to a real proxy war via NATO threatening Russia for the ultimate purpose of attacking China. And it is the US' antidemokratic (decoupled from democratic institutions) Federal Reserve that is behind inflation and the fall of the pound and other financial problems outside US. US is the only country in the world that can survive heavy deficit by counterfeiting money. It's US that is the root of high inflation, energy costs, supply shortages etc. (because of modern China). The feds has since 1913 been the factual dictator of US, and when US became bankrupt after a costly Vietnam war and space (incl. military) program it 1971 unscrupulously cheated with the promised dollar connection to gold. US hence started a fullblown robbing of the world with the dollar as the world currency and now culminating in an untenable money printing that together with China's economic and tech rise threatens US criminal $-freeloading. US is a theocracy if measured by how much "in god we trust" is involved in policy and politics, and that the Supreme Court is 100% religious, in stark contrast to the huge number of Atheist people in US. This has also led to US using islamists against China.





How come that this US patriot shares Peter Klevius view on US?













Why trust Peter Klevius instead of BBC and other trolls? Because 1. Peter Klevius has a much higher IQ (beware of IQ-phobia) than most professors or world leaders 2. Peter Klevius has a long and clean life record when it comes to women, children, crimes, drugs etc. 3. Peter Klevius has no finacial or career ties to anything he writes about 3) Peter Klevius doesn't (sadly) know (20220326) a single Russian or Chinese, and has never visited the countries nor having any other connections 4) Peter Klevius groundbreaking scientific achievements (e.g. about evolution, consciousness, sex segregation, sociology, psychoanalysis etc.) can all be dated to publications, theses (and after 1998 also on the web) or correspondence with professors considered top of their game. Possibly all of them may also qualify as first of its kind - or at the very least certainly not copied from others - as others seem to do with Peter Klevius' works, without even giving him credit. 5. Peter Klevius had the most unprivileged start of life and adulthood - but also the most privileged when it comes to brain power, dopamin-serotonin balance and psychological stability - to an extent that he can't possibly believe in the psychological non sense excuse that "we're all a little mad".

US rape of the Maid of Finland



Peter Klevius to Boris Johnson: It was only half of the Brits who voted Brexit, and it was only half of the Ukrainians who voted for Ukrexit. However, in Ukraine it ended with civil war instigated by UK's ally $-freeloader rogue state US. You should really have kept your peaceful Huawei instead of being pushed to the militant F35!





US has already sunk below the surface but abuses the "West" as its snorkel. What most people don't realize is that by following US you step downwards in future development compared to China. Little Japan already showed the world how to beat the West in technology. China is more than ten times bigger. And when people - sooner or later - realize the difference, the backlash will be harsh. Peter Klevius asks: Which war (post WW2) has NOT been instigated by rogue state $-freeloader US? Korea, Vietnam, Serbia, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Libya, Yemen, Syria etc.. US, which has also used nukes, biological wepons, and torture, tops by far the list of war criminals - and US allies are gravely complicit!

We're constantly told "not to incite hatred against muslims" when we're just criticizing sharia islam for its lack of Human Rights. However, when US/CIA not only incites hatred but also weaponizes it, no one in the West seems to care. Why?! How many more should suffer and die because of US senseless behavior when facing a future where its $-freeloading is coming home to roost because of China's success?





20220221: BBC main news hour at 13:00 today for the first time didn't mention Ukraine and Putin at all - while the worst shelling against Russian populated parts of Ukraine significantly escalated, leading to a peak of over 50,000 refugees fleeing to Russia to escape the genocide the $-freeloader (and now desperate because of China's growth and success) US iniitiated, agitated and assisted with weapons (together with its coerced, or just stupid/evil Western puppets) - while continuing spitting on Putin/Russia.





World economies (CIA World Factbook 2022): 1 China 2/3 US, EU 4 India 5 Japan 6 Germmany 7 Russia 8 Brazil 9 France 10 UK

Dear reader, stop supporting/aiding dangerous rogue state US! Otherwise US $-desperation (i.e. that it will lose its financial stealing hegemony because of China's growth) will lead to it deliberately starting a WW3. Except for human suffering and lower standard, it would be the great reset for $-freeloader US to stand in the ruins and continue being a stealing and ruling world dictator. No other country poses a similar threat.

Religion is segregation. Judaism: We are the chosen people! Christianity: Christ will forgive, you sinner! Islam: Everyone is born muslim, you infidel! Human Right is de-segregation, you human!

Peter Klevius wonders if you can spot the difference between the People's republic of China, the Congress' republic of US, and the Parliament's/government's "democracy" of UK. Hint, the clue is in the word 'people' and the fact that Chinese are more satisfied with their democracy than US and UK people. Moreover, can you spot the difference between modern China and Stalin's, Mao's, Castro's, Pol Pot's etc. Communist countries? And when it comes to unjust sentencing, spying, surveilling, detaining/torturing/killing people, US is definitely worse than China. Not to mention US global meddling, militarism and dictatorial fiat $-freeloading. A US that can't manufacture its own chips but tries to hinder China from it. And if you aren't on US sponsored IS-Uyghurs side - why spit on China?! And if you aren't on US sponsored IS-Uyghurs side - why spit on China?! Why is US calling anti-islamism "human rights violation"?! And when will US stop dealing with Saudi, NATO (e.g. Turkey) etc. Human Rights violators?!Btw, Peter Klevius suggests buying Chinese property stocks now. After all, there are more rural Chinese than the entire US population, waiting for getting urban after this temporary slow down.

Why doesn't Peter Klevius publish his groundbreaking science in Nature? Because he has no peers! Peer review, according to Google, is the evaluation of work by people with similar competence. Peter Klevius healthy mind and total lack of institutional/financial/political/career bias combined with extra high intelligence is unique in science - and it's precisely therefore his best scientific achievments can't be evaluated by peer-biased people but need a blog to be presented because 1) they would never be peer approved in Nature 2) they would never be produced in a "proper" form with painstaking efforts to squeeze in citations/references etc. that contribute nothing. Whom should Peter Klevius quote about EMAH/consciousness out-of SE Asia , or about hetersosexual attraction and sex segregation ? When I made my phd on sex segregated resistance against female football I was asked to quote feminists. I did, and after every quote I had to negate it. Alternatively it would have silenced the women's voices in my in-depth interviews re. thair experience about resistance. After all, it was feminists behind the 1921 ban against women's football in England, and it was the most powerful feminists in Sweden who for a decade opposed girls and women playing football after the Swedish FA had included it. So instead of me testing Nature, you test me - before "anti-feminism", "anti-out-of-Africa" and "anti-religion" are criminalized as "hate speech"! - In anthropology fossils usually get all kinds of nicknames before scientifically "baptized". However, precisely because Homo floresiensis (the definite proof that humans evolved in SE Asia) was the "missing link" that afropologists wanted to find in Africa (how could an allround mover and allround eater ever evolve on a continent?!) they needed to dismiss it at every level incl. continue calling it a "hobbit". And when it comes to EMAH/consciousness it's extremely simple - yet not "simplistic" at all. However, the culprit is what humans are most proud about, i.e. language. By giving something one doesn't comprehend but wants to put in a package, a name, will continue to contain its blurred definition. This is why EMAH only deals with 'now' and the body of past this now lands on. Of course this leads to everything having "consciousness". A brick "remembers" a stain of paint as long as it's there - and with some "therapeutical" investgation in a laboratory perhaps even longer. And a stain of paint on your skin is exactly the same. However, unlike the the brick you've also got a brain that may also be affected by the stain. This could be compared with a hollow brick where the paint has vanished from the outside but submerged so that when cutting the brick it "remembers" it and tells the cutting blade about it. And for more "sophistication" just add millions of differect colors unevenly spread. Our brain is no different from the rest of the body. If Frankenstein with tomorrow's tech had created an adult human body, then that body wouldn't be able to walk or talk etc. because it lacked the body program we've been programmed with by living.

The US-led climate hoax against China : $-freeloader US uses its hegemony to cover up the worst global threat, i.e. itself. And targets China which challenges its hegemony. A sustained and coordinated campaign aimed at undermining the credibility of China. China is already way more democratic than US - especially when considering that its infrastructure today is already where it inevitably will be tomorrow in a technologically lagging US. In other words, technology itself puts ever more distinction on our behavior - compare e.g. the shift from unmarked cash to marked card/online payments. And as an extra bonus China has extremely low criminality, better privacy law, and incredible record of improving poverty and welfare both home and abroad compared to US. Just consider how US has painted itself into a corner by the 1971 cheating that disconnected the dollar from US' own means, hence creating a situation with no other return than lowering its standard (i.e. stopping printing dollar that the rest of the world have had to pay for due to US' global financial empire tentacles) or a new war (which US is already brewing). Where US uses CIA meddling, sanctions and militarism, China has risen with honest manufacturing and trade.

Peter Klevius: Do note that my klevius.info is an experimental webmuseum made 2003 and deliberately hasn't been touched upon since 2007.

20211103: Why is BBC 4 news so silent about CIA's murder plot and ongoing extradition request against Julian Assange, but instead has plenty of news time to repeatedly tell listeners about some cricket player (muslim?) who 'was allegedly hurt' because of 'verbal abuse'?

$-freeloader US is the main driver of dangerous global militarism and state terror. It's also a many times bigger per capita polluter than China. Why is BBC repeating the lie that "China is the biggest polluter" when in fact it's one of the smallest?! And the only reason to not use per capita would be that China, unlike e.g. similar size Africa, has a single government. But even then China shines as the by far best led country. China is the technological future that we all have to walk - not led by the Chinese, but by technology. And because of US's desperation as its dollar-thieving (since 1971) is now threatened by China irresistibly passing them technologically and economically, China actually serves as a protected "soft landing model" for the future AI world (China's new privacy law, tech crackdown etc.) is exactly what most people want), while aggressive U.S. is a threat to peace and prosperity. Google is precisely the state link Chinese companies are accused of being, and US's "alliance" with "colored" and muslims is basically Sinophobia, i.e. the fear of losing control of those whom it has abused - it simply divides the world into good colored/religious and evil Chinese/Atheists (and evil whites who disagree). US-led "anti-communism" is not about communism or any belief that China would attack the rest of the world (as the US has done, after all). Almost everyone understands that today's China has nothing in common with Cuba, the Soviet Union, Pol Pot, and Mao's China.

Peter Klevius has collected US Google News China headlines for years and never seen them (algorithms) so extremely anti-China as now. US' (+its puppets) Taiwan lies in perspective: UN Resolution 2758 which was approved on October 25, 1971 states that "The representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China are the only lawful representatives of China to the United Nations" and "decides to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek (i.e. Taiwan) from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it." Again, U.S.-linked disinformation campaign against China is made up as it goes along. So how much of US' "anti-Communism" rant is actually Sinophobia spized with greed and fear of losing its parasitic world sucking position? Btw, the worst polluters on measure of culpability as weighted annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution taking relative per capita income into account include the Anglosphere countries US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland. Isn't it shameful that these hypocrites point finger at China?! And why is BBC so silent about the volcanic catastrophe on La Palma that not only keeps continuing but also is getting more vicious by the day?! Volcanos can at any moment start an abrupt iceage - and we are anyway already overdue to the next statistical iceage.

20210926 UK became even more a totalitarian right wing militaristic one party state when Labour cut off its left wing. And unlike China, UK has no meritocracy demand on MPs, nor has it any people's democracy even close to that of China (just consider how the Western, US steered, media told you Xi ordered less gaming for kids when in fact it was a broad demand from parent). And China forces its companies to use less energy - and the Sinophobic West of course spits on this environmental effort when some energy companies break the limits and can't deliver.





The West, not China, is the biggest emitter of pollution. What's not to like about China?! Best privacy law: least crimes: best high tech: best tech control: best poverty extermination: best manufacturer: best meritocratic democracy happiness: best trust in leadership, applauded by OIC for treatment of muslims, etc. And badly behaving $-freeloader and financial (and militaristic) global dictator U.S. jailed Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in a foreign country for her normal business in an other foreign country (whose prsidential candidate was murdered by US in a third foreign country) that US didn't happen to like as it didn't like the success of Chinese Huawei.

How $-freeloader US has robbed the world since 1971

China hating bigoted and hypocritical West (i.e. US+puppets) - which strangly calls itself "the international community" - worries about Taliban sharia while West's close ally, the islamofascist Saudi dictator family (behind 9/11 and most other islamic terror) has the most medieval form of sharia of any muslim country! Btw, most feminists are sharia muslims - and feminism ticks most fascism boxes . Peter Klevius to his readers: Never forget that fascism emerged in the very midst of what is now in anti-China rhetoric called "the international community" or the West. And the roots of Western fascism has never been treated but live on. Ask yourself, what if China had behaved like the murderous terror rogue state $-freeloader U.S.?!













Islamism wants islamic "human rights". Feminism wants women's "human rights". Peter Klevius wants Human Rights. Together with their close ally Saudi Arabia, US and its puppet UK have among the worst Human Rights records - yet they blame China and Russia instead. Fact correcting BBC's lies: Rogue state $-freeloader U.S. is also the by far much worse per capita greenhouse gas polluter than China.

Peter Klevius serious questions to you "out of Africa" believer! Ask yourself: How come that the oldest primates came from outside Africa; that the oldest great ape divergence happened outside Africa; that the oldest bi-pedals are from outside Africa; that the only australopithecines with a Homo skull lived as far from Africa you can get; that the oldest truly modern looking skull is from eastern China (and to Chris Stringer - its slightly archaic bun fits a very old age); that the oldest Africans are mongoloid; that the latest genetic mix that shaped the modern human happened in northern Asia and is traced to SE Asia; that the earliest sophisticated art (e.g. a drilled and polished perfect shiny stone bracelet from Siberia, perfect paintings and figurines) and tools (e.g. a perfect sewing needle, flutes etc) are found from Iberia to Sulawesi - but not in Africa so far; that the oldest round skulled Homo sapiens in sub-Saharan Africa is much younger than similar skulls in Eurasia; that we lack ancient enough DNA from Africa to use as evidence (although afropologists happily do), etc. etc.? Peter Klevius theory answers all these questions - and more.

Peter Klevius (the only serious anthropologist?!) to afropologists: If you honestly and with simple words would explain the essence of the out-of-Africa myth/hoax to a child s/he wouldn't believe a word of your story: A cold adapted (mongoloid phenotype) population P1 (Homo sapiens), which eats everything and has almost infinite time and skills to move anywhere on land - lives all over a southern "island" (Africa) that has an easily accessible bridge (Sinai) to an other "island" (Eurasia), but somehow cannot get out for hundreds of thousands of years. And when they tried they couldn't survive on places where their primitive relatives (Homo erectus) for 2 million years had thrived all over the places from the tropics to the northern cold. Then the kid would probably ask why you keep telling things that make no sense. And when you answer by saying that this now living population P2 on the warm island - but with features seen in all cold adapted populations P3 far north of the bridge - has the oldest DNA, then the kid would probably ask you if you have ever considered the possibility that those genes were aquired in the cold north far on the other side of the bridge. And your last resort to convince the child concists of some bone fragments that fit in a shoe box together with a decent pair of shoes - and there is no agreement about what they really are - and are the only thing we have between the chimp-like Lucy and the human-like erectus. And what would you answer when the kid then asks how a tiny Lucy-like (poor bipedalism) population A4 could possibly make it out of Africa all the way over the Wallace line to Flores as well as to the Philippines, long before Homo sapiens managed to do so? Peter Klevius suggests you and your kids learn from the best: Peter Klevius theory Speciation needs isolation over time and the best evolutionary lab has been SE Asian archipelago. Like all primates, carnivores, ungulates etc. we also came out of SE Asia with a new brain setup (due to island shrinking and mainland enlargement of this new brain setup), got coldadapted in the north and then spread all over the world while mixing with other Homo sapiens in a pattern easily recognizable.

Peter Klevius evolution formula.



U.S. main brain asset is East Asians - same with China... East-Asians (mostly Chinese) also took most gold medals in Tokyo Olympics. China won shared gold in the gold-medal race (39 golds - why are some excluding Hong Kong's gold).

Peter Klevius suggests taking the knee for Human Rights instead of for certain "races" based on skin color, religion - or sex.

The main threat against Taiwan is U.S. starting a war. But China just has to wait until the Taiwanese anyway want to rejoin because of Cnina's fast growing superior R&D, high tech, infrastructure, privacy law, economy etc.. For U.S. it's just the opposite. And West's hollow rant about "liberty" and "party-democracy" echoes back against China's democracy where the Chinese vote for truly merited individuals and against corruption. And Chinese hightech will, after some political delay come near you anyway - while in the meantime being called "assertive threat from CCP". And there's no more "Communism" in China's progress than there is Christianity in U.S' militaristic war mongering, criminal sanctions, $-freeloading, extrajudicial murders, unfair justice, torture, spying on everyone, use of islamists etc.. U.S. "Americans"! Payback time! When Peter Klevius bought his Japan made Citizen Eco Drive chronograph watch it cost ~ $240 in US and ~ $340 in EU. Those ~ $100 is what "American" (i.e. U.S. people - not all Americans) $-freeloaders owe to the rest of the world because of benefitting locally by money printing and pricing the main global reserve currency - but the end is near. $100 trillions - or more?!

Apoorva Mandavilli (New York Times): "Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not yet here." Peter Klevius wonders what made her later delete it?! Fiat-money-world-$-freeloader-US' intention is not at all to clarify anything but instead to keep up hate against China. Would Fiat-money-world-$-freeloader-US and its UK puppet let Chinese inspect Fort Detrick and over 200 US bio-labs all over the world and UK's notorious military research at Porton Down, Salisbury. So while Chinese and "Chinese" looking people now are the most harrassed, BBC gives it no real attention while filling its news with BLM and "worries about islamophobia". Btw, if you poke any s.c. "free speech debate" you'll always find islamic efforts for "blasphemy" laws - and never laws against real blasphemy against basic negative Human Rights of 1948. When should islam pay for 1400 years of genocides? The West has abandoned Human Rights for the sake of sharia islam and is again becoming what it fought against - itself. Communistphobia (an "autoimmune" reaction now boosted by US' collapse and due aggression) led to Fascism, Nazism and WW2. Why do the worst (per capita and consumption) militant polluters and hypocrites (Fiat $-freeloader US, UK, Australia etc.) lie about China. the world's best source for cleaner tech?! Fiat $-freeloader US' influence behind Sinophobic attacks against China, the world's by far largest economy and future of tech, privacy law and Human Rights, and with less assaults, rapes and murders etc. than e.g. US and EU, while the "democratic West" turns sharia theocratic and militant. And why is islamism called "religion" and Confuzianism "propaganda"?! Peter Klevius: Why would religious precepts and Human Rights denial be more worthy of protection than political ones? After all, Human Rights are there to guide legislators and the Chinese trust their politicians much more than Westerners trust theirs. So there's a case to be made against anti-China hate propaganda which harmfully affects Chinese and "Chinese" looking people. The senseless flaw of monotheism: The pompous self-delusion of oneself as "god's" chosen individual while projecting one's "beliefs" on "god's" chosen "community" - which in turn projects a collectivist "belief" on its individuals. Freedom of thought doesn't mean freedom from law - and freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from Human Rights. The only "ideology" that flawlessly fits negative Human Rights is Atheism (not believeing in any supremacist "god"). Lod/Lydda in Israel should be a warning that convinces anyone about the necessity to abandon racist and sexist monotheist religions and instead support the basic negative Human Rights of 1948 to guide legislation and behavior for a positive human future for all. https://negativehumanrights.blogspot.com/2021/05/negative-human-rights-for-positive.html









US declares Turkish murder and islamization of more than a million Armenians a genocide while UK declares China's de-islamization and education of backward Chinese Uyghurs a "genocide".



Joe Biden: "China will not become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world on my watch! And history proves US is the dangerous one that wants to dictate and bully the world to keep its $-freeloader hegemony.

Xi Jinping: "China will never seek hegemony, no matter how strong it becomes." And he has the longest civilization to back it up with.



Peter Klevius warns the Brits about the danger posed by spy master Jeremy Fleming's delusional, dangerous and Sinophobic China "analysis" which, if followed, may lead to stagnation and even US initiated war. It's all about UK either chosing a dangerous puppet status under US decline and stagnation by supported US' populist riding on pre-existing anti-Chinese (and anti-mongoloid racism, compare e.g. footballer Son Heung-Min and BBC lacking to report hate crimes against Chinese etc) sentiments - or simply benefitting from China's success through cooperation. The "danger" of new Chibese surveillance tech becomes ok later on in the West. However, China has now better privacy protection than the West, and China's meritocratic political representation combined with the world's toughest anti-corruption, makes West look bleak in comparison. And unlike UK, China has a real written constituion that gives women the same rights as men without exeption - someting US is still lacking, as are UK's sharia courts.



20210416: US' puppet sidekick UK cowardly runs away when it cannot hide in the master's shadow anymore - leaving Afghanistan's women without protection against islamic evil.



Don't respect islam as long as islam doesn't respect Human Rights! And if you don't trust Peter Klevius (2001-) on this, then trust Council of Europe's (2019) basically similar criticism of islam's main worldly (except Gabriel) representative, Saudi based and steered OIC's Human Rights violating sharia declaration CDHRI! Moreover, the most pious muslims seem to be the ones furthest distancing themselves from Human Rights.



Peter Klevius to the women of Greenham Common: Aren't the Saudi allied and posturing "in cheat and global nUKes we trust" right wing Sinophobic Brexiters a bigger threat than Iran?



BBC is the world's main spreader of anti-Sinoist hate speech and populist Sinophobic propaganda on an industrial scale and therefore guilty of inciting crimes against humanity!



First spitting on China and then using China's reaction as an excuse for more spitting.



The original (negative) Human Rights (1948) means the individual is not to be imposed an action of another individual, group, government, religion etc. Negative Human Rights hence function as the guidance and guardian against unneccessarily restricting legislation. Sharia islam, i.e. in praxis Saudi based and steered OIC's notorious* sharia declaration, is the very opposite. However, UK and BBC seem to approve of islam's Human Rights violations while calling China's efforts to stifle them "human rights abuse". The original (negative) Human Rights (1948) means the individual is not to be imposed an action of another individual, group, government, religion etc. Negative Human Rights hence function as the guidance and guardian against unneccessarily restricting legislation. Sharia islam, i.e. in praxis Saudi based and steered OIC's notorious* sharia declaration, is the very opposite. However, UK and BBC seem to approve of islam's Human Rights violations while calling China's efforts to stifle them "human rights abuse". * Similarly criticized by Peter Klevius and the Council of Europe. Are both "islamophobes"?!

Global China for peace and wealth vs. "global UK" for more hate incitement, lies, threats, nukes, warmonger and miltarism under the shield of the militaristic world dictator and $-freeloader US. Compare this to UN's Resident Coordinator in China, Siddharth Chatterjee, who says "we stand in a unique position to cooperate with the Government of China and apply its successes of lifting hundreds of million people out of poverty globally. China has shown its firm belief in the principles of multilateralism. As I witnessed in Kenya, China's donations of personal protective equipment and other supplies played a critical role during the disruption in global supply chains in March 2020. And every day I am in China, I am inspired by what I see around me, what China has achieved and can achieve as a country."

But US/UK do their utmost to stop "assertive Chinese influence". And a Sinophobic parliament shouts "genocide" when China protects women's Human Rights.

Without a fair reason UK declares Chinese a "threat" while Brits and other "infidels" are constantly threatened by Human Rights violating islamism.

20210320: The world's master fake news troll farm BBC today still uses conspiracy theorist, warmonger and China hater Pompeo to smear China and spread anti-Sinoism - but nothing about islamist Human Rights violating atrocities (e.g. 50 children beheaded by islamists in Mocambique etc.), !? Btw, UK abducts proportionally many more children than China - and expose them to islamist child abuse. Peter Klevius feels truly ashamed of looking like a Westerner. Btw, how can you excuse US criminal behavior: First benefitting from monopolizing global web tech and then using this monopoly as a weapon against competitors?!

$-freeloader US and its UK puppet don't care about the wellbeing of Chinese but want only to damage China's success. Sinophobic UK parliament should just shut up talking about China and democracy. People living legally in their own state EU were robbed of their democracy by UK! And even UK nationals are just subjects, not citizens.



BBC, the world's worst war mongering and hate spreading propaganda troll farm, uses Chinese "Guantanamo"* prisoner fotage out of context as "evidence" of how "truthful" BBC is! * US detained muslim terrorist suspects outside US! BBC stereotypes whatever to fit "genocide" in China but doesn't mind US-UK-Australian torture and murder of civilians. Where China stands for tech and wealth development $-freeloader US + UK-Australia stand for spreadinng lies and militarist tensions. And why so silent about UK torture of Assange while declaring an Iranian spy suspect as "innocent" simply because she says so (Iran, like US, doesn't approve of double citizenship).



Uncritical democracy with islam inevitably means the death of Human Rights. Peter Klevius probably has some half of muslims on his side in saying so.



BBC welcomes Jo Johnson when he now says "China is authoritarian, almost neo-totalitarian regime". Peter Klevius wonders how that fits with a country which leadership is much more approved of than Western ones?! Even an idiot (but not BBC) can see that China's modern Communism has nothing to do with Maoism or Soviet Communism. The only criticism left the West can come up with is name calling. The welfare, progress and out of poverty success for Chinese people has nothing in common with "conventional Communism". On the contrary, it delivers exactly where s.c. "democracies" (one might even argue that China is closer to democracy than the West) often fail. "Democracies" are anyway one party states supported by at the most some half of the population compared to China's qualified majority. So China's "authoritarian" Communist "dictatorship" is as far you can get from the West's beloved Sunni islamist theocracy, steered by the murderous and war crimes committing Saudi dictator family. So why is China declared an enemy while Saudi is an ally! Moreover, China's new privacy law will protect the individual much better than any similar laws in in the West. Why? Because China's leadership thinks the individual's privacy is too important to fiddle with (read the draft). Something the West has given up (to US). And who was it that started smearing, lying, spreading rumours and conspiracy theories, military threats etc. against China in the forst place? Sinophobic racism from the West for the purpose of aiding the US $-freeloader.



Peter Klevius: Every muslim is responsible for muslims racism and sexism. So stop shouting "you're not a muslim" to a muslim who believes and knows the Koran by heart! Immigration is ok - if you criminalize anti-Human Rights sharia muslims (and their accompllices)!

In cheat we trust: UK decreases aid to Yemen while increasing weapons sale to the muslim Saudi dictator family and spending more on militarism. And BBC is more concerned about Uyghurs than Yemenites. And worries more about Buddhists who don't like to be attacked, raped, murdered etc. than about their radicalized muslim attackers.





Lord Palmerston, UK PM who supported the Confederacy in the US civil war, hoping a dissolution of the Union would weaken the US: "The Chinese are uncivilized and the British must attack China to show up their superiority as well as to demonstrate what a civilized nation could do."



US is now the worst global threat that only cooperating with China could mitigate - instead of being US' puppets. Peter Klevius: Why is US ordering 600 new nukes - i.e. the double of China's total?

Why is China the only NPT state to give an unqualified negative security assurance with its "no first use"?

Why isn't UK's parliament more interested in the real genocide in Yemen than the made up "genocide" in Xinjiang?!

Why is UK applauding the conviction of Syrian soldiers while UK soldiers go free from similar crimes against humanity.

Why isn't the real genocide that muslim Uyghurs have committed against non-muslim Uyghurs talked about?! When Dominic Raab visited Saudi Arabia he failed to raise the question of Saudi Human Rights abuses.However, in UN he lied about "China's industrial scale Human Rights abuses". He deliberately conflated unchecked BBC "reports" by East Turkestan jihadis with China's out of poverty and de-radicalization programs. And of course forgot to say sterilization was offered after three (3) children and with economical and educational incentives for muslim women tied at home by sharia.

The militant $-freeloader US' spread of misinfo about China has made Chinese the most hated ethnicity while sharia muslims are the most protected - and US' puppet UK's Dominic Raab keeps spitting Sinophobia while supporting anti-Human Rights islamism.



UK, which illegally still colonizes Chagos (but complains about China), in a secret ballot 'arranged' (helped by OIC) a sharia islamist to become leader of the International Criminal Court - i.e. someone who doesn't respect basic Human Rights! Should ICC now change to ICT (In Cheat we Trust)?

Peter Klevius (like e.g. most really intelligent Jews is an Atheist, not confined with "faith", politics, career, finance etc.): While the West accepts OIC's Human Rights violating sharia islamism, China defends Human Rights against islamism. And unlike US' constitution, China's constitution is fully aligned with women's rights in the 1948 Human Rights declaration. So to avoid the West turning into a full muslim theocracy (OIC sharia) fractioned in infighting, we better become Sinophils instead of Sinophobes! "Anti-democratic ommunism" is now the only (empty - the only difference is that MPs in China are under harder scrutiny) argument the West still swings.



Peter Klevius: SE Asia was the evolutionary laboratory that made human evolution possible. Africa doesn't tick a single box

20210127, BBC (fake) News: "We are memorizing 6 million Jews in Holocaust." Peter Klevius: So why not include the more than 6 million non-Jews?! See BBC's diabolically wild lies about Uighurs!





Many Afgan women's dream is to be treated like Uighur women in China. However, the criminal militaristic war mongering rogue state U.S. abandons them and instead declares islamist Uighur terrorists not terrorists anymore and accuses China's emancipation efforts for "genocide" and "human rights violation".



However, the criminal militaristic war mongering rogue state U.S. abandons them and instead declares islamist Uighur terrorists not terrorists anymore and accuses China's emancipation efforts for "genocide" and "human rights violation". The biggest scandal in anthropology: Afropologist John Hawks and faith creationists dismiss the hereto most important "missing link" in human evolution. How many have they brainwashed and kept misinformed?!



1990 islam officially and globally (via UN) rejected Human Rights (the Saudi based and steered OIC's sharia declaration witch gravely violates the most basic of Human Rights)!



If Atheist Chinese had reproduced like muslims, there'd be more s.c. "Mongoloids" than the whole world population today.

BBC is the world's biggest lying and faking propaganda troll - BBC's agenda has absolutely nothing to do with journalistic principles but is a mix of US pressure spiced with the worst of "Britishness" (UK cuts foreign aid from 0.7-0.5% and adds the same money to militarism) meeting in Saudi/OIC islamofascist sharia against basic Human Rights. BBC: UK has to aid Saudi war crimes and genocides cause else Russia and China would do it. UK's future is as a militaristic puppet for US (compare BBC's campaign against Johnson and Corbyn). Peter Klevius to BBC's Sinophobic muslim presenters in their ivory minaret: How many muslim women are detained in UK's sharia camps?



US secretary of state, Pompeo declares Islamic State Uighur jihadi not terrorists - so they can attack China and get support from US (as in Syria).









It's an irony that China now seems to offer the only defense of those very Human Rights it's accused of not following - while the West supports islamism that violates those Human Rights (compare Saudi based and steered OIC's global sharia declaration against Human Rights). Moreover, apostasy (i.e. leaving islam, which is the worst crime in islam) and the fact that the muslim man determines the faith for the children no matter who is the mother, together have to be added to any estimation of muslim population growth.

US' and its puppets' Sinophobia campaign rooted in UK's appalling opium wars against Chinese people



Why do Sinophobic BBC and UK parliament call it "deradicalization" in UK, US and Saudi Arabia, but "genocide" in China?! And why wasn't one-child policy against Atheist Han Chinese called "genocide" while Uighur muslims were allowed to have many children?! Btw, e.g. Sweden abducts many more children than China does in Xinjiang - and for extremely questionable reasons (read Peter Klevius' thesis Pathological Symbiosis and ask yourself why Sweden gets away with its Human Rights violations). Answer: It's all about U.S. being a lousy loser and therefore behaving appalingly badly with smear, threats, illegal sanctions, militaristic aggression etc! Btw, China is already number one in economy and most technology - and accelerating compared to US. So you stupid US puppets - take note! Shame on everyone who blinks Saudi based and steered OIC's anti-human rights sharia for all the world's muslims while spitting on China!

Should BBC and some politicians be put on a Nurenberg trial after this relentless and demonizing Sinophobia campaign and deliberate lies?

US is rottening fast and should therefore go for peace and cooperation! Despite using $-freeloading, sanctions, breaking treaties, murdering officials and politicians in other countries during state visits etc., hindering the use of tech previously used to monopolize US companies globally etc., US now wants to destroy Huawei and other Chinese companies, not for security but because US is inevitably losing the tech race. And no, it isn't the Chinese state support any more than US uses state support for force-feeding Apple, Google etc. and backed up by US state militaristic interventions, spying, interference, threats etc. globally. And China was the first to recognize the danger of Covid-19 - not "delaying" anything" but quite the contrary (see below)! BBC News' deliberately misleading and dangerous anti-China rant 20200706: "China ought to be our enemy! We can't do any business with China because of Hong Kong, and the sterilization of Uyghur muslims which some people (BBC and its cherry picked guests?!) think amounts to genocide". Peter Kleius: That Chinese muslims should follow the same laws as other Chinese, and that China uses similar deradicalization programmes proposed in the West, BBC thinks is "suppression". And volontary sterilization in the West BBC calls "genocide" in China. And Hong Kong's security law is similar to those in the West - and not as bad as US - and are definitely neccessary to keep "one nation" together under the immense pressure from US and its puppet regimes. 2020 4th of July: Peter Klevius wonders when US women will get the same rights as Chinese women - ERA is still lacking from US constitution? Article 2, Chinese constitution: Women shall enjoy equal rights with men in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life. Peter Klevius also wonders why aggressive and assertive US attacks peaceful China (every schism has US fingerprints) while siding with the war crimes committing murdeous islamofascist Saudi dictator family whose OIC sharia clearly denies eqaulity for women?! China is doing more good to more people than any other country today. Is this the reason?!



20200618: Why is the most cemtral witness, Inge Morelius (later aka Marelius) in the Swedish PM Palme's murder case, deleted by Google's search engine from

deleted by Google's search engine from Peter Klevius revealing murder analysis ?! 20200616: When China discovers Covid-19 with a European DNA profile on a cutting board for Norwegian salmon, the BBC thinks it's the communist party.

Why is BBC so quiet about Churchill's secret (until 2018) pact with Stalin in 1939 which would have divided Scandinavia between Russia and UK?! And US' NATO puppet Jens Stoltenberg repeats like a parrot his master's voice against China - while a civil war is going on inside NATO between Greece and Turkey. African Pygmy lives matter! Colonized and enslaved for more than 3,500 years by the Eurasian Bantu etc. intruders we now call Africans. It's a senseless irony that "Africans" (Bantus etc. newcomers) who enslaved and mixed with original Africans (Khoisan and especially Pygmies from whom they got their phenotype) and later were enslaved by muslim Arabs and their "African" collaborators now get a brain drop at the West African ports where islam exported slaves. Any old African genes come from Khoisan and Pygmies - and ultimately out of Asia - not Africa. "Out-of-Africa" and BLM are created by white idiots and only feed supremacism. Read "out-of-Africa" more dangerous than the Piltdown hoax

Peter Klevius 20200604: What if Floyd had been white or Chinese?! And the officers members of Nation of Islam? And how do we even know that any racism was involved? And what about a fair trial?

20200603: UK's Sinophobic right wing anti-EU migration Brexiters now want to import 3 million Chinese from Hong Kong!?

20200529: In its everyday Sinophobia rant BBC today managed in one sentence to accuse Chinese, China and Xi separately - and even missing the stock smear, i.e. the "communist party". However in a very near future China will develop and export a world leading ecosystem of non-US software, hardware, fintech, social media, telecom infrastructure etc. that everyone will long for. Stubborn and dumb stiff lipped Sinophobes will become Neanderthals in no time. Sadly few politicians understand how powerful Chinese tech development is. Japan did the same but wasn't hampered by Maoist communism and was ten times smaller. High IQ and an Atheist culture they both have in common.

The pro-Saudi and anti-China "party-within" UK's governing party is committing long term criminal harm to UK. China is the future and US is rottening with accelerating speed (the desperate sanctions against China tell it all). Only tech cooperation with China will benefit Brits and Americans. So why are UK politicians and BBC so eager to shoot their own PM and the Brits in the foot by being dictated by Pompeo, Trump and the Saudi dictator family, and boosted by a general Sinophobia racism? The "communist" scare mongering has no relevance because in practice China behaves in no way different than US - but is under constant smear and subversion attacks. And China's surveillance has actually developed less fast than that of US. US is a rogue state that murders and surveils in other countries (e.g. murdered top politician in Iran and surveilled Merkel - and you). And who likes ISIS and al-Qaeda etc. Uyghur jihadi terrorists anyway? Pompeo, Erdogan and Saudi steered islamofascists.



20200522: BBC and some right wing MPs call it a "draconian move" when China wants to stop foreign interference and people using Molotov cocktails. Really! So what about in UK?!



20200518: BBC again repeated the anti-China lie about "a silenced doctor" by inviting the former right wing and pro-Saudi (anti-)EU Research Group - now (anti-)China Research Group. How bad a journalist isn't Sarah Montague then when she didn't even try to question it - or is she muffled?! Eye dr. Li Wenliang wrongly spread out it could be SARS. It wasn't and just one hour later - and long before any police etc. had contacted him - he corrected his mistake (see fact check below).

$-freeloader US provoking China with war ships while simultaneously "leaking" "classified" rumours. Why?! Its Sinophobia is all about trying to stop China's success as the foremost spreader of wealth and high tech both in China and the world. It's not the leadership but China's success that US can't stand.



BBC sides with whoever Sinophobes - and would probably even have used Goebbels against China if he was still around. UK universities etc. are littered with dangerous Saudi (OIC) anti-Human Rights sharia jihad propaganda (incl. supprt of IS Utghur jihadi) - yet China has always been aggressively smeared all the way since UK's opium war attacks on China when it was declared "inferior" and "uncivilized". Today the problem seems to be that China is too superior and too civilized - but thankfully they have a "communist" party to blame, although the leadership has behaved better than most in the West. And when BBC talks about the "West" against China it actually means US spy organization Five Eyes (with the puppet states Australia, UK, Canada and NZ) and whoever other Sinophobes it can find elsewhere - like the Israel supporting and anti-muslim right wing Axel Springer, Europe's largest media (practically a monpoly) which is accused of e.g. censorship and interference in other countries (just like state media BBC).



Should China sue BBC and UK (not to mention US) and the far-right, anti-China and anti-muslim UK "think tank" the Jackson Society (with associated Sinophobic MPs and lords) - whose Sinophobia (disguised as "against communism" etc.) complements leftist and pro-sharia jihad muslims BBC which now so eagerly gives it a platform, as well as the closely connected US spy organization Five Eyes which has demonized China for years long before Huawei or Covid-19? The lies about China they have spread are indistinguishable from those of Pompeo and Trump. Is this baseless (compared to US/UK) hate mongering really conducive to the welfare of UK? And when China reacts to this massive Sinophobia campaign then BBC calls it "aggressive Chinese propaganda".



US "warns" about China "stealing" vaccine info because US knows that China now produces much better research than US.



BBC anti-China fake 20200506: "Hundreds if not thousands of people were likely to have been infected in Wuhan, at a time when Chinese officials said there were only a few dozen cases." Peter Klevius fact check: BBC deliberately conflates real time confirmed knowledge with calculations in retrospect.



US has made all the mistakes it accuses China for. Here's one from the top of the iceberg: Whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright, the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, pressed for urgent access to funding, personnel and clinical specimens, including viruses, which he emphasized were all critically necessary to begin development of lifesaving medicines needed in the likely event that the virus spread outside of SE Asia. He was then cut out of critical meetings for raising early alarm about the virus and ousted from his position.



Chinese 5G much more reliable than US' Five Eyes, the world's most dangerous misinfo and conspiracy spreading US spy and smear organization (together with its puppet states UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) which "leaked" a 15-page dossier alleging "probing the possibility" the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. As Peter Klevius has said before, it didn't come from bats to humans but from some other host animal. Fake news and anti-China propaganda videos are making false and unfounded claims about "delays" and "late" human to human transmission report. Again, it was only in retrospect anyone could have known the nature of early cases. Many weren't even connectded to the wet market and many weren't affected at all despite intimate contact. Moreover, the wrong early SARS diagnosis was corrected the very same day but spread by a "whistleblower" eye doctor (see fact check below). And despite being first affected China acted better than US etc. countries. 5eyes equals Nazi Goebbels in propaganda misinfo. Every single accusation so far has built on deliberate distortion of facts. And possble improvements in retrospect would have been exactly the same in even the best of Western countroes.



Peter Klevius to Chinese people: I'm not a racist - although I certainly look like one.



Origin of Sinophobia: The 19th century Opium Wars were triggered by UK's imposition of the opium trade upon China. Lord Palmerston regarded the Chinese as uncivilized and suggested that the British must attack China to show up their superiority as well as to demonstrate what a "civilized" nation could do. The resulting concession of Hong Kong compromised China's territorial sovereignty. There's also the background to South China Sea.



"God", "Allah", or whichever "monotheistic" idol is a pathetic fallacy and "monotheism" is a ridiculous and dangerous self-delusion because your "god" is used to defend the undefendable. There are equally many "gods" as there are individuals - and the collective "god" only functions as cherry picked confirmation of the individual's "god". However, the collective "god" may combine individual evil - never individual good, because that can only be achieved by (negative) Human Rights. After all, as Peter Klevius always has said, the only way of being fully human is to allow others full humanhood (what else could possibly unite all humans) - without religious impositions/exclusions.

Pentagon, islam - and China?!



Also check out Peter Klevius theory (1992) on "consciousness"/Thalamus - the only one that fits empirical evidence. And don't miss And don't miss Anthropologist Peter Klevius vs. Afropologist John Hawks - and how the British Piltdown hoax moved to Africa .

Peter Klevius asks for an independent international inquiry on BBC's racist Sinophobia and its support of sharia islamism - incl. how many victims and suffering it has caused because of its worldwide propaganda influence.

In the early 1990's US accused Japan of selling superior cars in US without buying crappy cars from US. And a congress woman warned for tech theft if selling US planes to Japan - but was told that those planes wouldn't even fly without Japanese high tech. At the same time EU was created to build a trade wall against Japanese products. However, Japan is more than ten times smaller than China - and isn't at the hotbed of different coronaviruses in SE Asia.



Dear reader, if you think Peter Klevius has a problem with self-assertion you're very wrong. Apart from it being connected to Peter Klevius criticism of citation cartels (see Demand for Resources, 1992:40-44) Peter Klevius main problem is your self-assertion.







Is this MP a clown?

Sinophobic BBC working hard for a Coup d'etat together with Saudi loving and China hating MPs against PM Boris Johnson.



Peter Klevius wonders why Sinophobic state media BBC (with Tom Tugendhat etc.) goes against the state (PM, MI6 etc.) in being so extremely worried about unfounded claims about China while having no problem with the threats posed by the worst of the worst, the islamofascist Saudi dictator family's influence over UK - and BBC?! goes against the state (PM, MI6 etc.) in being so extremely worried about unfounded claims about China while having no problem with the threats posed by the worst of the worst, the islamofascist Saudi dictator family's influence over UK - and BBC?!

20200417: BBC's Sinophobic muslim Razia Iqbal together with Tom Tugendhat arrange a pathetic propaganda theatre of BBC's 22:00 news hour for the most senseless and even childish smearing of China. And how can this clown (just listen to his laughter etc.!) be a leader of UK's foreign affairs committee?! Moreover, Razia Iqbal even uses Trump as an expert! Desperate...! arrange a pathetic propaganda theatre of BBC's 22:00 news hour for the most senseless and even childish smearing of China. And how can this clown (just listen to his laughter etc.!) be a leader of UK's foreign affairs committee?! Moreover, Razia Iqbal even uses Trump as an expert! Desperate...

20200416: State media BBC's Sinophobic Uganda rooted muslim Razia Iqbal lies about Chinese "racism" against Ugandans without telling that it was a local matter that was caused by some Africans linked to a cluster of cases in the Nigerian community in Guangzhou at a time when China had already curbed Covid-19. At least eight people diagnosed with the illness had spent time in the city's Yuexiu district, known as "Little Africa". Five were Nigerian nationals who faced widespread anger - not for being Africans but because of reports that they had broken a mandatory quarantine and been to eight restaurants and other public places instead of staying home. As a result, nearly 2,000 people they came into contact with had to be tested for Covid-19 or undergo quarantine. Guangzhou had confirmed 114 imported coronavirus cases  16 of which were Africans. The rest were returning Chinese nationals.

20200407a.m.: UK's best PM, Boris Johnson, is much shorter (same as Einstein and Klevius dad) than Trump - but also much more intelligent. It's OK to say so when Trump is white - and loves to play on height, right? 20200412: The reason the Chinese government wanted extra control of DNA results was the previous failed report (see below) which wrongly indicated SARS. However, British media (BBC etc.) blatantly lie about it and first accused Shi Zhengli's lab for spreading infected bats, while some weeks later making her a hero and accusing the government. And no, it didn't spread from bats - but possibly from civet cats. Suspected animals are now forbidden from the market.





Anthropologist Peter Klevius vs. Afropologist John Hawks - and how the British Piltdown hoax moved to Africa. And why would antelopes evolve in the very opposite direction to humans - at the same time?

UK/Matt Hancock (20200402): "We will work (against Covid19) with our friends and allies." Peter Klevius: That excludes the best, i.e. China, which you, on order from US, have declared an "unfriendly enemy"!



SINOPHOBIA RACISM. US tries to pull you away from Chinese high tech superiority so US can keep feeding you with its outdated tech and influence - just as it used to do with cars and wars. Your pick: US militarism with Saudi led islamofascism - or highspeed Chinatech towards Chinese democracy and global wealth. China is the very opposite to Cuba - and already, in practise, almost identical to Western governments. Excluding China only prolongs the democratic process - and even speeds up China's high tech inside its 1.4 billion market.



Peter Klevius fact check: "COVID-19 has a natural origin and there is no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered" (Nature). China swiftly sequenced and shared the genome worldwide. China's remarkable response on all stages was praised by WHO (but not BBC) and is in line with its superior tech advances (Mao's China would never have made it). There isn't a trace of an alleged (by BBC etc. fakes) Chinese Covid19 reporting "delay" that wouldn't have been bigger in the West. And the reason is that

for China good reputation is all that matters - now when it has already won the tech competition. China's defense against West's smear campaign is called "propaganda" - in the West. Dear US, it's time to behave! You lost the tech war to little Japan long ago. Now you've lost it against big China. Get over it. So Peter Klevius advises: Do as Wall Street, shake hands instead of producing unfounded Sinophobic smear propaganda!

Covid19 timeline " (Nature). China swiftly sequenced and shared the genome worldwide. China's remarkable response on all stages was praised by WHO (but not BBC) and is in line with its superior tech advances (Mao's China would never have made it). There isn't a trace of an alleged (by BBC etc. fakes) Chinese Covid19 reporting "delay" that wouldn't have been bigger in the West. And the reason is thatfor China good reputation is all that matters - now when it has already won the tech competition. China's defense against West's smear campaign is called "propaganda" - in the West. Dear US, it's time to behave! You lost the tech war to little Japan long ago. Now you've lost it against big China. Get over it. So Peter Klevius advises: Do as Wall Street, shake hands instead of producing unfounded Sinophobic smear propaganda! 17 November 2019: A retrospectively confirmed case.

1 December 2019: The first known patient started experiencing symptoms but had not been to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. No epidemiological link could be found between this case and later cases.

818 December 2019: Seven cases later diagnosed as COVID19 were documented; only two of them were linked with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

18-29 December 2019: Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) that will eventually be used for viral genome sequencing is collected from patients.

25 December 2019: Wuhan Fifth Hospital gastroenterology director Lu Xiaohong reported suspected infection by hospital staff.

26 December 2019: Zhang Jixian identified a CT scan that showed a different pattern from other viral pneumonia.

27 December 2019: She reported to Jianghan district CCDC with four cases. During the following two days, the hospital received three similar cases, who all came from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. The hospital reported to the provincial and city CDC directly which initiated a field investigation with a retrospective search for pneumonia patients potentially linked to the market. They found additional such patients and on 30 December, health authorities from Hubei Province reported this cluster to CCDC who immediately sent experts to Wuhan to support the investigation. Samples from these patients were obtained for laboratory analyses.

30 December 2019: Wuhan Municipal Health Committee informed WHO, Weibo etc. about an "urgent notice on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause". There had been "a successive series of patients with unexplained pneumonia recently." However, a DNA report inaccurately indicated SARS on one patient. Late same day (17:43) ophthalmologist Li Wenliang WeChatted "There were 7 confirmed cases of SARS at Huanan Seafood Market." He included a patient's CT scan. At 18:42, he admitted that it wasn't proven SARS.

31 December 2019: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were alerted by China of an unexplained "cluster of 27 cases of pneumonia in Wuhan.

US worst nightmare is a democratic China - which wouldn't change China but make it even more like one-party "democracies" in the West - because that would mean losing US only argument. US deliberately seeks Sinophobic confrontational aggression against China - which hampers the development and peace of the world.

US island puppets against China and EU. US, who used to treat Japan as it now treats China, is now parasitizing on former enemy Japan in an (in vane) effort to keep China high tech down, and on the much tinier UK ally to trouble EU.



Something sinister is behind when Sinophobic far right extremist politicians so desperately risk future development in UK with false accusations of "possible risks in the future", skewed presentations, and unfounded demonization of Chinese high tech. And while Klevius is posting this, all in his machine is spied on and sent to US. And why is BBC constantly only hosting Sinophobic guests who also happen to be supporters of the islamofascist Saudi dictator family and happy to allow US spying on you via US companies? The only risk Huawei poses is that the Chinese state gets fed up and makes it illegal to sell Chinese top tech to UK. China is the future of high tech, so stepping off the bus means retardation. Btw, the two main accusations against China could easily be made against US/UK as well. China wants to trade and therefore doesn't want to risk reputation. US doesn't bother about its reputation. And when it comes to clean up muslim "communities" from islamofascist extremists there's really no other difference than in numbers. Moreover, NATO/Turkey uses extremist Uyghurs against civilians in e.g. Idlib - and hypocritically accuse China when these jihadi return.



Klevius to women: NATO makes a deal with the Taliban to continue sharia oppression of women, and NATO+IS=true because NATO is the main culprit behind the suffering in Idlib. Without the support from NATO the worst muslim terrorist group would never have survived. Like IS, NATO ally Hayat Tahrir al-Sham wants to create an islamic state. Turkey/NATO backs SNA well knowing that it's together with HTS. I.e. a NATO member state invades its neighbor, sides with terrorists and gets full support from NATO when its soldiers get killed while helping the terrorists. And what about Yemen?! It's truly pathetic that muslims seem more worried about islamofascism than the West!







Peter Klevius to climatists: Sinophobia is a threat to the environment, because China has the slowest population growth and is the the least per capita polluter of main economies (see table below) and the main producer of alternative and conventional super high tech! Moreover, China lacks the same proportion of natural resources as e.g. Sweden, Norway etc. (e.g. hydropower) but instead has to deal with the dust smog blowing from the Gobi desert and the extreme cold from the north. And China bears the manufacturing pollution for products other countries then consume and profit on.



NATO (Turkey supported by US/UK) is siding with the worst muslim terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (some 10,000 IS jihadi) against the people of Idlib while BBC News spreads misinfo propaganda against Syria, Russia and Iran - and nothing about the Saudi dictator family.

BBC (20200217) wants to stop Chinese tech because China opposes islamofascist Uyghurs. Klevius suggests the world should stop dealing with US/UK because of involvement in war crimes and genoscides against Shia muslims.

Why is Wikipedia allowed to spread polemical, tendentious and deliberately misleading info about islam? And not a word about islam's original supremacist enslavement, booty and humiliation ideology?! This misinfo is the most harmful of all!

From a true (negative) Human Rights, as well as from a historical perspective, original islam may rather be seen as original fascism. The oldest Koranic texts and the historically verified beginning of islam both emphasize supremacism as the main tenet (blamed/excused on "Allah"). Islam conserves racism, sexism and supremacism as pointed out by true muslims (aka "fundamentalists") reinforced through sharia (e.g. by Saudi based and steered OIC's world sharia which is heavily criticized both by Klevius and the Council of Europe etc.). Islamic (and therefore muslim) supremacism is easily distinguished as it doesn't approve of Human Rights equality.

And why does Wikipedia deliberately conflate the history of islam with the fairy tales of believers in islam?!

Sinophobia is racism but "islamophobia" is criticism of an ideology. "Islamophobia" shouters are directly responsible for islamic hate crimes based on Koranic texts and hitting children of "infidels".



The Saudi-US-UK axis of evil



Chinese eyes less intrusive than Five Eyes (US and its puppets) - because China prioritizes trade and reputation while US prioritizes global spying, meddling and military control. The Saudi loving US puppets Duncan Smith, Davis, Paterson, Green, Ellwood and Seely etc. produce baseless "security" arguments for Sinophobic MPs.

U.S. flu this season Feb. 2020: 19 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations, and over 10,000 deaths (China has a third less common flu than US). 2019-nCoV, 6 Feb. 2020 (estim. total death rate 0.1-0.2%, i.e. same as common flu): 28,018 cases (not illnesses) and 563 deaths. Did the eye doctors SARS rant on social media delay response in China? It wasn't SARS but much closer to common flu - but without vaccine. Instead of assisting, US/UK/BBC did the utmost to smear China with it! Klevius warning to Finland (and the rest of the world): Don't be useful idiots in US' export of militarism! It will create tension and pull fire on you in a conflict. Four balancing power blocs is safer than one or two. Moreover, China will become the world's first true democracy thanks to AI. Don't let Sinophobia blind you. US is going down unless it starts cooperating instead of trying to rule the world. Non 5G iPhone sells well - in US - where there's no true 5G.

BBC's bigoted and hypocritical Pakistan rooted, Saudi raised and Cambridge schooled "muslim" (no veil, no Ramadan fasting, but yes to alcohol etc.) presenter Mishal Husain, like many Saudi/OIC supporters, represents the "security risk" between islam's "core" (OIC sharia) and "periphery" (e.g. "Euro-islam", "cultural islam" etc.).

Peter Klevius suggests cooperation instead of unfounded incl. religious) hate!

Klevius is ashamed over hateful, racist Western Sinophobia - and support of hateful sharia jihad. BBC's sharia supporting (?) muslim Mishal Husain now eagerly sides with Sinophobic extreme right wing politicians who support Saudi islamofascism but demonize China and Chinese (except if critcical of China). Sinophobes would treat China exactly the same if it copied US "democracy".



BBC today (20200129) forgot to tell about China already having isolated the virus for vaccine (and helped Australians to do so). However, BBC repeatedly lied that the death rate is 20%. Common flu and the new corona virus deaths (~2%) are extremely rare outside very vulnerable groups - who don't travel much.

BBC, who otherwise don't hesitate to spit on Trump, has no problem using his advisor when it comes to racist Sinophobia against Huawei. US is blackmailing UK so to hinder China's tech success and the "security issue" is actually US itself.

Niklas Arnberg, Swedish professor in virology: "Considerably higher mortality than ordinary flu." BBC: "Death toll rises as disease spreads from China."

Peter Klevius: Both are faking! Arnberg used overall death numbers although most (all?!) of these deaths have been people who could have died from ordinary flu as well. And do you really think BBC would ever have written similarly about the deadly camel flu from Saudi Arabia?!

Why is BBC spending so much more time on a 2019 flu from China than on the much deadlier 2019 camel flu from Saudi Arabia?!

Why is BBC only talking about Jewish victims - and why is BBC silent about the fact that most "anti-semites" (i.e. anti-Jews) are muslims? Holocaust: 6 million Jews and 11 million "others" were murdered by the German government for various discriminatory practices due to their ethnicity, Atheism, or LGBT+.

Hitler: "All character training must be derived from faith." Himmler: ""We believe in a God Almighty who stands above us; he has created the earth, the Fatherland, and he has sent us the Fuhrer. Any human being who does not believe in God should be considered arrogant, megalomaniacal, and stupid." Klevius (the Atheist "other"): That's a description of me by most Americans and muslims. Btw, why are muslim sex predators (compare Koran and sex slaves) from Pakistan called "Asians"?! And why have they been protected while Klevius has been muffled?!

Islam trumps LGBT rights in English schools - and hateful sexist and racist muslim supremacism defending BBC is silent as usual (e.g. about Parkfield Community School 2020). Klevius: Do you really support US/UK/BBC's disgusting racist Sinophobia madness - and their support and use of anti-Human Rights muslim islamism?! Wikipedia: In the Xinjiang riots Turkic speaking Uyghur muslims shouted/posted "kill the Han (Chinese) and Hui (Chinese speaking muslims)"!

Why is BBC so silent about Iran Air Flight 655 that was recklessly shot down by US over Iran territory killing 290 incl. 66 children?! Is it the new US puppet empire agenda? Did US aggression also cause the latest plane crash?



When BBC announces "the threats of 2020" the murders, terrorism and war crimes committing Saudi dictator family isn't included. As isn't US/UK militaristic meddling and proxy wars in Syria, Yemen, Iraq etc. However, China's peaceful trade and high tech manufacturing is!?



Saudi based and steered Human Rights violator OIC is the main legal guidance for the world's sharia muslims. BBC eagerly supports it by neglecting to criticize it while spitting on those who do. OIC's Cairo Declaration on "Human Rights" in Islam (CDHRI) is against freedom of religion - but abuses real Human Rights for the promotion of anti-Human Rights sharia islam. The CDHRI concludes in Articles 24 and 25 that all rights and freedoms mentioned are subject to the Islamic sharia, which is the declaration's sole source. OIC hence keeps the gate open for continued islamofascism in the "muslim world" - and as a convenient tool for meddling in "hostile states".



You believer in "islamophobia"! Doesn't it scare you that if Peter Klevius is right about islam but wouldn't say anything, then who would when you're doomed on the market if you do? If Marx had been called a "messenger" then Marxism would have been protected by freedom of religion, and critics called "Marxophobes". All "monotheist" religions make excuses not to fully accept Human Rights equality, but islam is by far the worst - not the least due to its origin and the fact that it's protected, unlike other threats to Human Rights. Whereas totalitarian Marxism used to be the enemy of the West, today US is on the totalitarian islamofascist side using it for Saudi gains against declared "enemies". It's truly a grim irony when BBC protects islamofascist terrorist groups by telling you that the suffering in Syria is due to the Syrian government and Russia. US could stop the muslim terrorist groups at any time - but doesn't because it wants the war and suffering to continue.





Peter Klevius fact/fake check: Why does Google (and BBC) lie and fake straight up your face about China ?! When searching for 'world's biggest per capita polluters' China comes up with extra big letters despite being When searching for 'world's biggest per capita polluters' China comes up with extra big letters despite being one of the least polluting of major economies (47th on a reliable polluters list). Moreover, China is not only the world leader for alternative technologies, but its pollution number also includes the biggest production of products exported and consumed all over the world outside China. Source: EDGAR and incl. all human activities leading to climate relevant emissions, except biomass/biofuel combustion (short-cycle carbon). US/UK (NATO) don't accept muslims like Uighur islamists (other than as proxy soldiers) - but demand China to accept them. NATO's Sinophobia is a threat to world peace, environment and prosperity. NATO is all about US monopolizing space for its own militarism and to block China's success? In 1990s Russia was proposed as a member of NATO but is now demonized by US/UK (and BBC) as the "main enemy" together with "the challenge from China" (sic). But NATO members are guilty of offensive wars, occupations, annexations, use of chemical weapons, use of islamist terrorists, foreign interventions, extrajudicial murderings in other countries - and use of similar muslim "re-education" camps as China (why not just criminalize original evil islam?!). NATO (US) threatens the free flow of tech and wealth, and provokes hate and defensive attitudes among Chinese - hence forcing China (world leader in tech) using its financial muscles more for defense (China can't be starved like USSR in 1980s) than environment. Btw, Chinese per capita GDP is 1/3 of US, and total GDP much bigger than US - and faster growing. A fraction of the effort given to demonize "islamophobic" islam criticim, would do wonders to reduce Sinophobic racism against Chinese. And stop using the "Communist threat". China is now a capitalist country similar to Western powers - except technologically much better (and the West copies everything China does in surveillance). Do you really think much would change if China would be fully democratic - except chaos caused by NATO? NATO (US/UK) would be equally Sinophobic. In fact, what is called "democracy" in the West functions quite similarly as the leadership in China. Media propaganda, lying politicians and empty promises combined with silencing the real issues (compare BBC's fake "news") - and therefore a truly democratic vote. Moreover, the only reason capitalist China has a non-democratic leadership for the moment is precisely its justified fear for leaving it vulnerable for what happened in the past when UK and US meddled and attacked with great suffering for the Chinese people. NATO should turn against the real evil, the islamofascist Saudi dictator family.

Peter Klevius Christmas greeting to BBC and Tesco: Ever thought about the possibility that muslim islamists don't like making Christmas cards but are encouraged by US/UK/BBC etc. to smear China. "We are foreign prisoners (muslims?) in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will (islamic Christophobia?). Please help us and notify human rights (ultimate bigotry if sharia muslims ask for HR) organisation (Saudi based and steered OIC?!)."



"British" nationalist hypocrisy: Get back control - and meddle, influence, intervene, spy and control all over the world.



More than half of muslims in UK are "islamophobes" (against sharia) - just like Peter Klevius, Council of Europe etc. - but opposite to BBC and many UK politicians (source: A survey of UKs muslim communities by Martyn Frampton, David Goodhart and Khalid Mahmood MP). (source: A survey of UKs muslim communities by Martyn Frampton, David Goodhart and Khalid Mahmood MP). BBC awards a white man who plays an odd sport few are interested in the title of "sports personality of the year 2019". Why?! Because cricket is a "british" colonial sports and also fits BBC's special interest in "asians" - but couldn't find a "british asian" good enough.

England voted (for the second time) against Merkels islam import from Turkey. Can islam be rehabilitated from its evil origin and deeds - and can unrehabilitated islam be allowed in public and private spheres? Why is Saudi based and steered OIC's Islamic State of Gambia accusing Aung San Suu Kyi for the consequences of islamofascism OIC's sharia protects - and why isn't the murderous islamofascist war criminal and genocide committing Saudi dictator "prince" accused of anything? And why is BBC's leading muslim extremist propaganda presenter Mishal Husain allowed to "present" an absolutely one-sided pro islamist picture for BBC's compulsory fee paying listeners? Peter Klevius fact/fake check: Why does Google lie and fake straight up your face?! When searching for 'world's biggest per capita polluters' China comes up with extra big letters despite being one of the least polluting of major economies (47th on a reliable polluters list). Moreover, China is not only the world leader for alternative technologies, but its pollution number also includes the biggest production of products exported and consumed all over the world outside China. Source: EDGAR and incl. all human activities leading to climate relevant emissions, except biomass/biofuel combustion (short-cycle carbon). US/UK (NATO) don't accept muslims like Uighur islamists (other than as proxy soldiers) - but demand China to accept them. NATO's Sinophobia is a threat to world peace, environment and prosperity.

NATO is all about US monopolizing space for its own militarism and to block China's success? In 1990s Russia was proposed as a member of NATO but is now demonized by US/UK (and BBC) as the "main enemy" together with "the challenge from China" (sic). But NATO members are guilty of offensive wars, occupations, annexations, use of chemical weapons, use of islamist terrorists, foreign interventions, extrajudicial murderings in other countries - and use of similar muslim "re-education" camps as China (why not just criminalize original evil islam?!). NATO (US) threatens the free flow of tech and wealth, and provokes hate and defensive attitudes among Chinese - hence forcing China (world leader in tech) using its financial muscles more for defense (China can't be starved like USSR in 1980s) than environment. Btw, Chinese per capita GDP is 1/3 of US, and total GDP much bigger than US - and faster growing. A fraction of the effort given to demonize "islamophobic" islam criticim, would do wonders to reduce Sinophobic racism against Chinese. And stop using the "Communist threat". China is now a capitalist country similar to Western powers - except technologically much better (and the West copies everything China does in surveillance). Do you really think much would change if China would be fully democratic - except chaos caused by NATO? NATO (US/UK) would be equally Sinophobic. In fact, what is called "democracy" in the West functions quite similarly as the leadership in China. Media propaganda, lying politicians and empty promises combined with silencing the real issues (compare BBC's fake "news") - and therefore a truly democratic vote. Moreover, the only reason capitalist China has a non-democratic leadership for the moment is precisely its justified fear for leaving it vulnerable for what happened in the past when UK and US meddled and attacked with great suffering for the Chinese people. NATO should turn against the real evil, the islamofascist Saudi dictator family.



DEMOCRACY DENIED: WARNING TO UK VOTERS ABOUT BBC's HUMANRIGHTSPHOBIA! WHO's RIGHT ON ISLAM - BBC OR THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE?

BBC undermines your most basic Human Rights. BBC's "islamophobia" propaganda machine (incl. Sayeeda Warsi) boosts OIC islam while neglecting Council of Europe's sharp ("islamophobic") criticism of OIC's world sharia (Cairo declaration). SO HOW COME THAT BBC IS ALLOWED TO MEDDLE IN THE VOTING PROCESS BY ATTACKING AND SMEARING THOSE CANDIDATES WHO SHARE THE VIEW OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE - not to mention the anti-fascist Universal Human Rights declaration of 1948?! And how come that racism against e.g. Polish people in UK is of no interest for BBC while the "problem" of "islamophobia" fills all BBC "news"?

Is BBC killing UK democracy and paving the way for islamofascism?BBC undermines your most basic Human Rights. BBC's "islamophobia" propaganda machine (incl. Sayeeda Warsi) boosts OIC islam while neglecting Council of Europe's sharp ("islamophobic") criticism of OIC's world sharia (Cairo declaration). SO HOW COME THAT BBC IS ALLOWED TO MEDDLE IN THE VOTING PROCESS BY ATTACKING AND SMEARING THOSE CANDIDATES WHO SHARE THE VIEW OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE - not to mention the anti-fascist Universal Human Rights declaration of 1948?! And how come that racism against e.g. Polish people in UK is of no interest for BBC while the "problem" of "islamophobia" fills all BBC "news"?

How Merkel paved the way for Brexit (Erdogan deal) and aided jihad in EU. NATO (US) with former fascist state Germany now sides with islamofascism - especially Erdogan's Ottoman aspirations - and supports Uyghur jihadism in hope of placing NATO (i.e. US) nukes between Russia and China. Peter Klevius wonders whether this ill-directed jihad propaganda will promote peace and safety?

The world bully U.S. thinks it owns and rules the world after having colonized it via dollar manipulation, infiltration, spying, meddling, sanctions and the unscrupulous use of militants and militarism. Thanks to the global dollar scam, Americans have been freeloaders on the rest of the world, the biggest per capita polluters and the U.S. by far the biggest threat to world peace via weapons built with money it stole from the world. Said by Peter Klevius who has been an anti-socialist all his life. Btw. the world's industrial revolution didn's start in England but in Sweden already in the late 17th century by inventor Christopher Polhem and capitalist Gabriel Stierncrona. Without Polhem's automation to get the rich Swedish iron ore from the mains, England had no chance to start real industrial production.







A nun's gear doesn't sign other women as "whores". However, what about a woman in an islamic "chastity" gear?



K.S. Lal (a giant among historians): Mahmud of Ghazni had marched into Hindustan again and again to wage jihad and spread the Muhammadan religion, to lay hold of its wealth, to destroy its temples, to enslave its people, sell them abroad and thereby earn profit, and to add to muslim numbers by converting the captives.

Is BBC 100% steered by muslims? Not only can you ever hear anything critical about islam and muslims - but all main channels are also occupied by sharia (OIC) supporting (i.e. against basic Human Rights equality) muslims. Nazir Afzal ('Moral maze', news, culture etc.), Mishal Husain (news, culture etc.), Samira Ahmed (news, culture etc.), Razia Iqbal (news, culture etc.). And they all keep cheating the public about it and instead pointing finger to "dumb and hateful xenophobes". Not a word about e.g. Council of Europe's harsh critcism (see below) of muslims biggest sharia organization, the Saudi based and steered OIC. Foreigners isn't the peoblem - sharia islam is!



BBC's muslims and their PC supporters also meddle in UK election by demonizing "islamophobia", i.e. trying to stop critcs of islamofascism.



Muslim child/youth fascism induced by an islam interpretation from family and strengthened by PC media, politicians etc.



Peter Klevius: Everyone - incl. every muslim who respects Human Rights - ought to make sure to vote for an "islamophobe"! BBC and Sayeeda Warsi will make their utmost to stop critics of islamofascism in the election. Don't be robbed of your democratic right. And of course you know that the only real problem with migration is islamofascism.

BBC's "man in Hong Kong" asked street terror leader Joshua Wong if they could possibly escalate violence. And they could. One day later they put a Chinese on fire in a murder attempt.

While US/UK aim for militarism and war, China aims for health and wealth.



One Atheism and three "monotheisms"







The Saudi Aramco and OIC scams



Peter Klevius: The Saudi Aramco sale is the biggest ripoff in the world. If there's any future in oil and you don't care about environment, then why buy what's at its peak when Venezuela's PDVSA is bigger and as low it can get?!

Are you an "islamophobe" if you don't like islamist Human Rights violations? Islam has (via OIC's sharia declaration) abandoned the most basic anti-fascist Human Rights from 1948. Islam is hence the only religion in doing so - not even the Catholics have needed to replace Human Rights with "Catholic human rights".



The seed for world fascism is dormant in Saudi based and steered OIC's world sharia - opposed by ECHR and Peter Klevius, but supported by Sayeeda Warsi.





Breakit instead of Brexit because what's the point of leaving one EU while still staying in an other called UK? England voted leave.



However, unfortunately BBC demonizes China on behalf of UK's relying on militarist meddling, weapons sales and islamofascist sharia finance. So you see the solution: Cut off sharia etc. islamofascist ties and open up for prospering with China - not the over-selfish game of spying and dying of US.



BBC boosts stupid nationalist "Britishness" with peculiar "sports" like cricket and rugby because the world has already "colonized" football and the English language is a global property.

Nigel Farage is like BBC against "islamophobia" and pro-Saudi - but Boris Johnson doesn't like letter boxes and was criticized by Theresa May for being critical against the Saudis while serving as her foreign minister. However, unfortunately BBC demonizes China on behalf of UK's relying on militarist meddling, weapons sales and islamofascist sharia finance. So you see the solution: Cut off sharia etc. islamofascist ties and open up for prospering with China - not the over-selfish game of spying and dying of US.BBC boosts stupid nationalist "Britishness" with peculiar "sports" like cricket and rugby because the world has already "colonized" football and the English language is a global property.Nigel Farage is like BBC against "islamophobia" and pro-Saudi - but Boris Johnson doesn't like letter boxes and was criticized by Theresa May for being critical against the Saudis while serving as her foreign minister.

China (laws against sharia islamofascism) and EU (Human Rights against sharia islamofascism) are now the only ones protecting basic (negative*) Human Rights. * Religious people and socialists don't like negative Human Rights simply because they prefer collectives ("communities") rather than individuals. That's why the web is full of misinfo about these rights. Read Peter Klevius definition instead if you want a deep view - or listen to Lauren Chen starting from 7:11 if you want it light The Saudi "custodian of islam" has some 1.5 billion "citizens" in the muslim world Ummah nation - and demands the world to bow them no matter what (as long they aren't Shia or so, of course). China, on the other hand, keeps its citizens and laws within its own borders. IS islam IS fascism and islam (even the archbishop agrees). So why is sharia fascism not separated from an "islam" that submits to basic Human Rights? As it stands now Saudi based and steered OIC's sharia (the 1990 Cairo declaration) still stands as the basic Human Rights violation via sharia muslims all over the world. And whereas China actively tries to erase sharia islamofascism, EU keeps promoting import of it while judicially telling us it's not right, yet doing nothing to stop it. Unlike the West, China hasn't aggressively meddled militaristically in other countries around the world, but rather being the world's foremost spreader of new technology and wealth. And whereas the West has eagerly supported Mohammed's totalitarian aims, China has, in practise, implemented in law most of the Human Rights advices that The Council of Europe has directed against OIC. Against this background West's Saudi backing and China smearing is deeply bigoted and hypocritical.



John le Carre: I'm depressed and ashamed of British nationalism. Nationalism needs enemies but today we really have no identifiable enemies except among ourselves.



North Atlantic (sic) Treaty Organization invades a country in Mideast and attacks (with chemical weapons) a people without a country. UK's Brexit business model: Sharia finance, weapons sale and militaristic meddling?UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (sic) and Global Neo-Imperialist and Militarist Meddling, Jeremy Hunt, 15 Oct. 2019: It's wrong to accuse Donald Trump - it's Americans isolationism because American taxpayers don't want to pay between 1/2 and 2/3 of the defense of Europe. And Turkey is very skilled at finding wedges and gaps between allies. UK should be EU's bridge to US.

Peter Klevius: No, EU should take care of its own defense - against whom? The Saudi dictator family who is the world's no 1 spender on weapons and islamic terror incitement and who hates EU's anti-sharia legislation? And UK taxpayers should not have to pay more for dangerous militarism. Militaristic meddling is a bad and dangerous business idea.

Read K.S. Lal (free online) on islam's evil spread!



A Google (i.e. U.S. web monopoly) search (20191006) reports 'islamists Hong Kong' "missing". Really! No islamists in Hong Kong? Peter Klevius also wonders if EU citizens in UK are UKongers and can peacefully demand the same rights as Joshua Wong violently demands (and eagerly broadcasted by BBC) for Hong Kongers?



Really! No islamists in Hong Kong? Peter Klevius also wonders if EU citizens in UK are UKongers and can peacefully demand the same rights as Joshua Wong violently demands (and eagerly broadcasted by BBC) for Hong Kongers? Peter Klevius cong r atulates Savid Javid for abandoning the islamofascist "islamophobia" smear. BBC s bigoted hypocrite Mishal Husain and others ought to follow!

BBC's Mark Mardell couldn't get a visa to China because of his extreme and hateful Sinophobia - but that didn't stop him/BBC from producing a fake anti-China program series while pretending to be there. Is Sinophobia really better than cooperation?

Are EU citizens in UK included in Tom Tugenhadt's "British people"?



Sinophobe Tom Tugendhat, chair of UK's Foreign Affairs Committee (who has studied islam and Arabic in Mideast) suggests that English speaking universities should consider banning Chinese students because "they might be used as leverage like Huawei". Peter Klevius wonders if one could be any more racist than this, and if he doesn't see any islamofascist sharia supremacist "leverage" at all? Btw, there are more than 50,000 Chinese muslims in Hong Kong. Peter Klevius wonders how many of them are "radical" ones and participate in BBC's lengthy anti-China propaganda "news" - while the world doesn't suffer from Chinese but from muslim violence and Human Rights violations?

US/UK destroyed the lives of millions of Chinese during some hundred years of evil militaristic meddling. BBC is now busy smearing China all the time while supporting Saudi islamofascism and violent Hong Kong demonstrators - but neglecting the mass of peaceful pro-China demonstrators. BBC also "worries" about Chinese "surveillance state" while the truth is China's technological superiority. US is much more insidious in its surveillance policies but lacks the techno - can't even produce a working 5G so far. US/UK follow exactly China but utilize the meantime to smear it. And who is really behind the Hong Kong riots? Someone who can't take China's success? But the Syria tactics won't work. US (and its UK puppet) wants to be able to meddle militarily near China - therefore its interest in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Tibet, Myanmar, Uyghur extremist muslims etc.

As Greta Thunberg is allegedly reported to the Swedish social authorities, Peter Klevius suggests that her parents read his thesis Pathological Symbiosis in LVU, Relevance, and Sex Segregated Emergence. Keeping in mind that Peter Klevius daughter was only 15 when she entered university and at 16 made her graduate paper about women in ancient times, it shouldn't be considered too sensitive for Greta either. Also read the attached email correspondence which clearly shows how democracy is manipulated. And why not consider Keeping in mind that Peter Klevius daughter was only 15 when she entered university and at 16 made her graduate paper about women in ancient times, it shouldn't be considered too sensitive for Greta either. Also read the attached email correspondence which clearly shows how democracy is manipulated. And why not consider Angels of Antichrist, the Social State vs the People (P. Klevius 1996) . And last but not least, Peter Klevius 1981/1992 Demand for Resources (original titel Resursbegar)

Peter Klevius and the Council of Europe share exactly the same "islamophobia". Council of Europe. Resolution 2253 (2019), Sharia, Saudi based and steered OIC's Cairo Declaration and the European Convention on Human Rights: Human Rights protect the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as enshrined in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The right to manifest ones religion, however, is a qualified right whose exercise, under Article 17 of the Convention, may not aim at the destruction of other Convention rights or freedoms.

Human Rights protect the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as enshrined in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. People in UK-land (especially women) will loose their Human Rights after Brexit - while sharia prevails in UK, and UK citizens in EU are protected by the European Court of Human Rights. Brexit was meant to protect UK from muslim invasion via Turkey's proposed visa free deal with Merkel. Even the possibility of temporary membership in ECHR (in case of a deal) isn't enough - especially considering UK will be out of reach of the European Court of Justice.

US loosing the tech war - and starting a real one?



A muslim wants to criminalize Peter Klevius islamophobia. Really!



West's indulgence of islamofascism (sharia) has made its boasting against China about "democratic values" empty. The risk of you being stabbed, raped etc. by a hateful jihadi is created by your political leaders, BBC etc. - who also have arranged so it's not even called a hate crime.

Peter Klevius stands for these "stops" and due huge implications - all shame on him if you can prove him wrong (click links if you need to educate yourself before saying something stupid): Stop using Stop using the misleading 'gender' instead of sex (sociology)! Stop islam's abuse of Human Rights (jurisprudence)! Stop saying humans came "out of Africa" (anthropology)! Stop talking about "consciousness" when you don't know what you're talking about (philosophy/ai).

Peter Klevius: BBC supports the islamofascist Saudi dictator family's strategic use of supremacist islam which has spred muslim hate all over the world's streets, institutions etc. (and usually not correctly, if at all, reported by BBC which instead doesn't hesitate to give long coverage of "alternative news" that better suits its propaganda) - while muslim terrorist organizations keep it within muslim territories. So if true Salafists became the "gurdians of islam's holy places" then that would mean less muslim terror elsewhere. And less to cover up for BBC. How big a contributor to the suffering of islamic supremacist hate crimes has BBC's fake (and lack of) info been? Will we in the future see BBC in an international court accused of crimes against humanity? As it stands now the spill over effect of BBC's cynical support of proxy evil is stained in blood and rape etc. over innocent p
HUDSON  A northeast Indiana native who is the founder of a comedy website is returning to the state and today will help put some money in the coffers of the Hudson Volunteer Fire Department.

Fort Wayne native John Resig, president of Texas-based Resignation Media, will visit the Hudson Fire Department today at 5:30 p.m. to donate $5,000 at a kickoff event before an expected windfall will be raised through his website, theCHIVE.com, later this week in whats known as a flash campaign, a news release said.

The fire company is just getting by and needs an infusion of cash, says rescue Lt. Justin Pense.

Currently our station is operating with the bare minimum with no funding at all for major repairs needed to the fire station, replacement fire engines that will be needed, etc., said Joshua Odom, fire captain and public information officer. The town of Hudson leadership is committed to the fire department and is doing everything is their power to provide as much funding as possible to the fire department, but with shrinking budgets year after year, we are feeling the effects.

Hudson Fire answers roughly 200 calls annually, said Pense.

Resig and his group of activists, known as Chivers, are coming to the rescue to help beef up the departments finances.

The 23-year-old Pense, a Chiver himself, knew the website was actively involved in the capacity of a charity for some time. He contacted Resig two months ago to make his plea for assistance.

I messaged John that my department is seriously struggling here, and he stepped up, Pense said. Were so thankful for this opportunity and cant wait to see him.

TheCHIVE.com, which has the active charity arm Chive Charities, has helped save another fire department from closing in the past, but this one is particularly close, says Resig, who  with theCHIVE CEO and brother Leo Resig  grew up in the area.

Their roof is caving in. Their equipment is terribly outdated, Resig said. Now wed like to come back, to return to our roots and help these guys get back on their feet. A community of this size cant and shouldnt go without fire and (fire rescue) protection.

After his visit, Chive Charities will open what it calls a flash charity event to raise the funds for the fire company later this week.

Think of it as a flash mob of philanthropy, but online, where do-gooders from around the Internet are asked to help the less fortunate raise funds.

Past campaigns have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, often within only a few hours. Recipients have included former military servicemen and women who were injured in the line of duty as well as children with rare and debilitating diseases.

Resignation Media boasts a thriving website, theCHIVE.com, which receives 30 million unique hits in the United States monthly. Company information says it is the No. 1 comedy website on the internet. TheCHIVE also has a flourishing eCommerce storefront, a live entertainment group and a burgeoning brewery. The company also influences a community of loyalists who visit their websites, advocate their brand, attend local functions and drive charity efforts. Under a single focus in connecting millions of like-minded, millennials, Resignation Media has united a fan base under the common ideals of kindness and generosity.
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I grew up in Oamaru where I worked as a journalist before moving to Dunedin and Radio New Zealand. I worked in both radio and newspapers for over 20 years in Oamaru, Dunedin and Christchurch before fate took a hand and I moved into administration, which I am good at but dont really enjoy. I was in an old brick historic building during the February 2011 quake and that experience plus post-quake stress, led me to quit my job to write. I am not too far from qualifying for the pension, have two adult children and two grandchildren (with my sons first child due any day now!). When I am not writing I am either backstage or singing in a theatre, or enjoying my animals (bald dogs, fluffy cats and grumpy guinea pigs).Murder mysteries were my obvious genre choice as thats what I read all the time. I like the gentle simplicity of the British cosy mystery, although my own turned out a bit more hard-edged than the usual small-village style stories. I like imagining bodies in strange places and wondering why they ended up there, so I have lots of ideas for future Avi Livingstone stories. Vampires in Christchurch theatres was an extension of the many hours I have spent backstage in theatres. It just seemed logical to find vampires in the black parts of the theatre, working on the dark. Theatre crew are odd people  being vampires didnt seem a big jump.I have never assumed that I am writing for the same audience. The murders are adult while the vampires are YA. And I write childrens stories as well, so I tend to assume a different audience for each. Urban fantasy suits the reader who likes science fiction but prefers it set in a world they can relate to. I think the idea of there being abnormal things among the normal suits the YA imagination.Sex, and sub-plots. The first Severn story,, originally had a sex scene between Riley and Severn, but when I realised I wanted it to be YA, and there was going to be more than one book, I took the sex out. The romance is still there, and Riley talks about sex, but the actual act doesnt happen. Which is one of the reasons I like writing YA  I hate writing sex scenes. And sub-plots  YA sub-plots tend to stress the growing up of the main character  in some way they all speak to the characters emergence into adulthood.I learned the hard way that a good idea without the work done to plot it out leads to a half-written story that gets lost in the middle. So I have an idea, let it sit in my head for months to develop from an idea into a plot, then draw up the skeleton plot to give me a framework to work to. The story might then meander away from the plot but the basic outlie keeps me on track.Yes  I was up-front from the start. I needed to know how NZ police differed from the way police are shown in British books, so I made an appointment and spent a very fruitful hour or so with a top detective who answered all my odd questions. I think he was pleased I was making sure I got it right, and he was amused and helpful.I tend to set my books in places I know well, so the research is usually around the odd things. For instance, my current work in progress is set at Lake Waihola so I am trying to learn about black swans and their nesting habits, and wild pig hunting. Thank heavens for google!The first of Severn is set backstage in the old Theatre Royal during a run of Singin in the Rain, even though those two facts are never specifically noted. The story came from when my (then teenage) daughter and I were part of the crew for that show, in that theatre. The lead vampires are based on other crew members. A lot of time was spent in the alleyway, the black coats are standard garb (mines still hanging in my wardrobe). It just occurred to me one night that the big rain truck for the famous street scene would be a perfect place to find a severed head  and what if the rain came down blood coloured. And the idea grew from there. The second story came from an outdoor show where I was operating sound. Again, it was watching people wading in the lake during rehearsal breaks that sparked the idea that becameI joined the Guild a couple of years ago when I was trying out the various writing groups to find one that suited me. I used to love the Waitaki Writers in Oamaru and I had missed the camaraderie of that group. I stayed with the Guild as it is very informal while the other groups seemed to concentrate too much on having a set agenda. I get a lot of inspiration from the random conversations and mutual support. I find the informality suits my style.I use Amazon but it is almost impossible to get into libraries or bookstores as an indie author. A formal publishing house name (even if its boutique) has more credibility in the marketplace. Plus I offer editing services to other writers, so a business name made sense.I sell mostly through Amazon and via the Millwheel Press website , although I am working on getting out to more places. I carry a small stock of printed copies for marketing opportunities that pop up.Marketing  I am the worlds worst sales person. Like a lot of writers, Im actually quite shy and get very anxious confronting a book store. I can sing, act or talk in front of thousands no problem, but one-to-one marketing scares me witless. I find cold selling an absolute nightmare.People see what they want to see, not what is there. It is too easy to miss typos because the brain reads over them. Also, if the writer is too close to their work, they wont see where it goes astray. Its really important to have someone who is unbiased but knows your genre check your work to make sure the characters stay in character and that there are no gaping plotholes. Also, if people are writing in a style that doesnt work, (too much tell, not enough show or overblown descriptions) they are not going to see that themselves  it needs someone else to point that out.Buyers still seem to like physical books but I, personally, prefer Ebooks. Publishing  I like the look of my printed copies on my shelf, but the cost of publishing is off-putting. I do like Createspace for print-on-demand so I am not paying for huge print runs that sit in boxes. I like the immediacy of publishing in Ebook format. Sales-wise adult novels are about equally Ebook and print, while YA and childrens are predominantly print.Plot the whole story, not just the first half and the very end. Think how the middle is going to work before you start. Work out all the red herrings and sub-plots before you start writing  its much harder to fit them in later.A mystery romance set at Lake Waihola with handsome Southern men, dead pigs, black swans, a fat pug and a severed arm  and a childrens book about a road cones earthquake adventure.editor@millwheelpress.co.nz
Editors note: This story contains a racial slur that readers may find offensive.

A former La Crosse police officer has filed a federal lawsuit against the department claiming race discrimination and retaliation.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court by Anthony Clark, who is black, restates the grievances he previously leveled against the department: that his colleagues subjected him to persistent racial harassment and that the agency retaliated with an unwarranted internal investigation designed to intimidate Clark for reporting the conduct.

Clark first raised his complaints with the state of Wisconsin in 2014 and last year, but he later dropped the claims to pursue the federal suit. He is seeking unspecified damages for pain and suffering and attorney fees, although his attorney Jim Birnbaum said he hopes the parties can resolve the case short of trial.

The case is not a sign that discussions have failed. Theyre ongoing, he said. The filing of the case was based on timing that had to be satisfied by federal law.

The department denies retaliating against Clark and will defend itself, Human Resources Director Wendy Oestreich said after Clark announced he would pursue a federal case. The La Crosse Police Department was issued a summons Tuesday and must respond by the end of the month.

The La Crosse Police Department is anxious for the facts of this case to be heard, Police Chief Ron Tischer stated.

In his first complaint, Clark said he was called white on the inside and asked by a colleague whether he used permanent marker for his skin pigmentation, while white officers and supervisors used the term jigaboo to describe black officers.

Clark contends the agency failed to address the harassment and retaliated when it changed partner assignments, reprimanded him for having garbage in his squad car and investigated him instead of his complaints.

A three-month internal investigation into that complaint recommended one sergeant and two officers face discipline for insensitive but isolated comments, but it cleared department members of serious wrongdoing.

Clarks second complaint accused the agency of launching an unwarranted internal investigation of him after his first complaint became public.

The police department investigated Clark in October 2014 for violating a host of department policies and argued a citizen complaint triggered the internal investigation that uncovered policy violations.

The agency disciplined Clark with a written reprimand for misconduct when he failed Aug. 31, 2014, to respond to a call about a gun left in a downtown bar, did not notify dispatchers when he said he left his squad car to make contact with who he said was a suspect in a violent crime and allowed Briante Banks, an unlicensed driver on probation, to leave a traffic stop without a citation.

Clark went on medical leave April 22 because the emotional distress, shame, humiliation, pain and suffering and mental anguish caused by the race harassment and retaliation made him unfit for duty, according to his lawsuit. His doctors later found that his depression, anxiety and PTSD rendered him unable to return to work.

His employment was terminated Oct. 28 for nondisciplinary medical reasons. Clark now lives in Georgia.
MADISON  A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker last year and who is running for a full term has come under fire for things she wrote as a college student, including that abortion was a "holocaust of our children" and that AIDS victims deserved no sympathy.

Justice Rebecca Bradley's 1992 opinion pieces, which were published in Marquette Tribune when she was a student at Marquette University, a private Jesuit school, were brought to light this week by a liberal attack group trying to prevent her from winning a 10-year term on Wisconsin's highest court. Bradley, who was appointed by the Republican Walker in October, is part of a five-justice conservative majority on the seven-person court.

The new light shed on Bradley's student columns has led to a strong backlash from Wisconsin Democrats. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat and first openly gay member of the Senate, has called it "hate speech," and other liberals have called on Bradley to resign.

Bradley, 44, apologized and said the calls for her to resign are absurd. And on Tuesday, Walker defended his appointment of her, saying Bradley has made clear that her views have changed since she wrote the anti-gay columns as a 20- and 21-year-old student.

"It was appropriate that she clearly stated that those are not her opinions now and that they haven't been in her professional practice as an attorney nor in any of the judicial positions that she's had," Walker said. "I think a good chunk of society has got very different views than they did in college, particularly for someone who (attended) almost a quarter of a century ago."

Bradley said Monday that she was embarrassed by the anti-gay writings, in which she referred to homosexuals as "queers" and "degenerates." Her campaign manager, Luke Martz, said Tuesday that Bradley has attended fundraisers for gay advocacy groups in recent years and donated money to a camp for children suffering from HIV and AIDS.

Bradley's campaign spokeswoman, Madison Wiberg, said Tuesday that she wouldn't comment on the anti-abortion column from 1992 because the issue could come before the state Supreme Court.

In that column, Bradley argued that life begins at conception and it was "incomprehensible" that people could argue that they have "a right to murder their own flesh and blood."

"Our society is turning a blind eye to this holocaust of our children, largely for the sake of the convenience, or perhaps the financial concerns of the women who choose abortion," she wrote.

Bradley faces state Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg in the April 5 election. The race is officially nonpartisan, but liberals are supporting Kloppenburg and conservatives are backing Bradley.

Walker previously appointed Bradley to two lower court vacancies before placing her on the Supreme Court four months ago.

Asked if he talked to Bradley about her views on sexual orientation before appointing her, Walker would only say that her experiences as an attorney and her bench rulings are relevant, not her college writings.

"It's really irrelevant in that it's right now up to the voters," Walker said. "The voters will decide come the primary in April. And I think the contrast is pretty clear."
MADISON, Wis.  Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley on Monday apologized for anti-gay opinion pieces she wrote as a college student 24 years ago where she referred to homosexuals as queers and degenerates.

Bradley, who faces state Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg in the April 5 election for a 10-year term on the states highest court, said what she wrote as a student at Marquette University does not reflect her worldview or current work as a judge.

The writings were revealed Monday by the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.

Gov. Scott Walker said he was not aware of the writings at the time he appointed her to the Supreme Court in October, or to the Milwaukee County circuit court and state appeals court prior to that.

In her writings from 1992, Bradley compares homosexuals with drug addicts, saying they essentially kill themselves and others through their own behavior. She wrote that people were better off getting AIDS than cancer because those with the politically correct disease would benefit from more funding.

How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments, Bradley wrote.

She describes newly elected president Bill Clinton as queer-loving and says his 1992 victory proves that the majority of voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil. Bradley also describes homosexuality as an abnormal sexual preference and says those who support it are dumb and degenerates who basically commit suicide through their behavior.

Bradley, who is 44 now and was 20 and 21 when the pieces in question were written for the Marquette Tribune, backed away from the comments Monday.

I was writing as a very young student, upset about the outcome of that presidential election and I am frankly embarrassed at the content and tone of what I wrote those many years ago, Bradley said in a statement.

One column was written after Clintons election, but two letters to the editor from Bradley speaking out against homosexuals and the spread of AIDS were written nine months earlier, in February 1992.

To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview, Bradley said. These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state.

Her opponent, Kloppenburg, blasted Bradley over the writings.

There is no statute of limitations on hate, Kloppenburg said. Rebecca Bradleys comments are as abhorrent and disturbing today as they were in 1992 as people were dying in huge numbers from AIDS.

And U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat and first openly gay senator to serve in the Senate, released a statement calling Bradleys comments hate speech.

One Wisconsin Now called on Bradley to resign, which her campaign manager Luke Martz rejected as absurd.

One Wisconsin Now director Scott Ross also criticized Bradley for not disclosing, when applying for three judicial appointments with Walker, that she had been a columnist for the Marquette student newspaper.

Walker said in a statement that Justice Bradley appropriately made it clear today that a column written in college does not reflect her views as a Supreme Court Justice, a court of appeals judge, a circuit court judge or as an attorney.

Bradley tried to downplay the release of her college writings as a blatant mudslinging campaign to distract the people from the issues at hand. This election is about diametrically opposed judicial philosophies.

Bradley is generally supported by conservatives, while Kloppenburg has the backing of liberals. The election is officially nonpartisan.

A shadowy conservative group Wisconsin Alliance for Reform, which does not disclose its donors, will begin running a television ad statewide Tuesday attacking Kloppenburg over a ruling from last year. She and two other state appeals court judges allowed a man convicted of child sex assault to get a hearing to withdraw his guilty plea. The hearing was held, but his request was denied.

The ad buy is for $770,000, based on data One Wisconsin Now said it collected from television stations. The conservative group previously spent $1 million on an ad supporting Bradley.

These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state. Rebecca Bradley,

state Supreme Court justice
Jane Klekamp

In July 2015, Jane Klekamp was recruited for a new position as La Crosse Countys first associate administrator. Klekamp previously served as the countys only manager of justice support services, which was more commonly referred to as justice sanctions. Earlier in her career, she became interested in support systems when she learned how few services there were for people in the criminal justice system. In October 2015, Klekamp was named the recipient of the Wisconsin Counties Association Friend in County Government Award, specifically for her work in the areas of effective justice strategies and finding alternatives to incarceration. This is the county associations highest honor. Her efforts and strategies, based on extensive research, have been recognized and praised around the state and also around the nation.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse announced last week that it is looking at funding cuts.

Last year, it focused on vacant positions. This year, here are suggestions for making college more affordable. The keys are to get students through faster and increase productivity.

Get students through faster: Offer advanced placement tests for every course. If a student passes the test, he or she doesnt have to take the class and gets full credit.

Take more classes: Often freshmen are encouraged to take a light load of only four classes (12 credits) a semester so they can ease their way into the university. Thats bad advice. Get them used to working hard right away. Every student should take 18 or more credits every semester. Encourage summer school and between-term courses.

Let students decide: Eliminate the requirement that general education courses must be completed before taking advanced courses. Let students take courses when they want to, not when the university says they are allowed to.

Increase high demand courses: Offer more sections of high-demand courses so a student doesnt have to wait for a course.

Increase productivity and teach more: It reminds me of the same UW-L budget cut situation a few years ago. At our department meeting I made a motion that we all teach a class for free. Silence. The motion wasnt seconded or recorded in the minutes. I was never invited to another meeting in that department. There is no reason faculty cant teach more classes.

Require fewer bunny courses: Academics insist students waste their time and money on general education courses either because they think they know whats better for the students education than students do, or they want to protect their jobs. Allow students to choose between the universitys whole person well-rounded degree and a student-designed express degree. Guess what? Humanities classes would plummet. Students are not stupid. They understand what they need for success in the real world.

Eliminate low-demand junk courses: If there is insufficient enrollment, kill it. Let the marketplace decide.

Cut the fluff: There are lots of costly nice-to-have departments and services appealing to every possible segment to enhance the student experience. Do we really need a department or program for Greek Life, Social Activism, Affirmative Action, Diversity, Campus Women, Pride Center, Residence Life and on and on? Those programs add up to be real money. If students want to start a group, let them. How did universities ever survive before these departments?

Less research: Science and medically related topics should conduct research. If one wants to do research in another discipline he should do it on his own time and get private funding  not taxpayer funding.

Revolutionize accreditation: Science and medically related areas do need to be accredited as is currently done. For other disciplines it is a scam set up by doctorates guaranteeing jobs for each other and should be scrapped. Accreditation for these other disciplines should be student-centered based on teaching excellence, the number of graduates getting jobs, their starting salaries and their student debt. Notice how Viterbo proudly advertises both their student placement rate and starting salaries.

Universities also should move to lower-cost textbooks, reduce redundancy in course offerings and use more money-saving technology.

Sorry, liberals. We dont need taxpayer money. If we move students through faster and increase productivity, college will become more affordable.

The future is even better. With the exception of hands-on labs most classrooms and buildings will become obsolete with virtual classrooms as typical brick-and-mortar universities fall to the Amazons of tomorrow.
Deer hunters in Wisconsin no longer need to wear identifying tags on their backs under a law signed this month by Gov. Scott Walker.

Backtags gave conservation wardens and police officers a fast way to determine if a hunter was properly licensed, and an easy method for identifying those who trespass or break other laws, but lawmakers said they were ineffective, troublesome and cost money.

I believe the vast majority of Wisconsin hunters are ethical, and requiring a backtag is not going to change their ethics, said the laws lead author, Rep. Joel Kleefisch, a Republican from Oconomowoc who likes to hunt. Those who go into the woods to break the law are going to find a way to do it, backtags or not.

Wisconsin was one of only two states requiring backtags. Kleefisch said the hunters group Safari Club International asked for the law. He said he wasnt sure if the National Rifle Association joined Safari Club in asking him to introduce the bill. Those groups, another firearms group and an organization for bear hunters also registered in favor of the legislation, which removes the only backtag requirements for Wisconsin hunters.

Kleefisch said he worked with the state Department of Natural Resources in drafting the law.

But in its written testimony to two Legislative committees, the DNR advised lawmakers that backtags appeared to deter people from hunting without licenses, and they were occasionally a factor in catching violators.

Conservation wardens used binoculars to read the tags of hunters from a distance allowing them to check for compliance more quickly than if they needed to approach and speak with each hunter individually.

With the new law, it will take more time to check the same number of hunters for proper licensing, and that could have a cost for hunters, too, the agency said in its testimony.

In-person license checks may cause hunters to search for their licenses in their bags or pockets, which may include digging through several layers of clothing during cold winter hunts. From the hunters perspective, this may increase the duration and unpleasantness of in-person license checks.

But the tags caused other inconveniences, said Sen. Terry Moulton, R-Chippewa Falls, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

Hunters usually pinned tags in place between layers of clear plastic that could make noise when blown by the wind, Moulton said.

The law required tags to be worn on the outermost garment, so hunters would need to pin and unpin them from backpacks, vests and jackets, as they changed gear, he said.

You had to keep punching holes in your clothes and it was just a nuisance, said Moulton. He said he was happy to offer the companion to Kleefischs bill because he had heard complaints about tags from customers of a store he owns that sells archery equipment and other sporting goods.

But Tom Thoreson, a retired DNR deputy chief warden, said he caught hunters trespassing who hid their licences to make it more difficult to identify them.

And in 2004, backtags helped quickly identify a man who shot six hunters to death in Sawyer County before he could hurt anyone else, Thoreson said. Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul, Minnesota, fatally shot six white hunters after being found trespassing on land in Sawyer County. He testified the victims shouted racial epithets at him and one opened fire first, but two wounded survivors said Vang shot first.
State Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley said Tuesday that reaction to her college-era anti-gay writings sparked a change in attitude toward homosexuality that continued as she grew older.

Bradleys comments in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal came as the newspaper uncovered other controversial writings she made as a Marquette University student more than two decades ago. They include a defense of the schools American Indian mascot and a comparison of abortion to the Holocaust and slavery.

Its difficult for me to pinpoint a particular person, or an experience, or something I went through because its really a composite of everything Ive gone through in life and people I met along the way, Bradley said in the interview to explain her change in attitudes toward homosexuality and people with AIDS. I know a lot of people have gone through an evolution and a great change in thinking on issues that relates to homosexuality and gay marriage. Its just something that happens over time as people educate themselves and interact with people who have different experiences.

Today, Bradley said she would be delighted to preside over the wedding ceremony of a gay couple.

The justice  appointed to the high court by Gov. Scott Walker last fall  is locked in a tight race to retain her seat. Her opponent in the April 5 election is state Appeals Court Judge Joanne Kloppenburg.

Bradley on Tuesday expressed remorse for the anti-gay opinions she published in 1992 in the Marquette Tribune. Bradley, now 44, said she was about 20 years old at the time. On Monday, liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now released to reporters two letters to the editor and one column that included anti-gay rhetoric from Bradley.

A State Journal review of the Marquette Tribune archives from 1989 to 1993 also showed Bradley defended the universitys former Native American mascot and wrote a column comparing abortion to the Holocaust and to slavery of African-Americans.

But it was for the anti-gay opinions that Bradley apologized for on Tuesday and called the unearthing of her comments mortifying.

Its been very difficult for me personally. Its extremely embarrassing to read the things that I wrote 24 years ago, she said. But I am concerned less with what Im going through personally. Im very much concerned about the people who are reading these words as if they are fresh.

Bradley said her views at the time resulted from the life she had lived up until that point  but emphasized the published opinions did not reflect her familys.

In the interview she declined to comment about her views on abortion because it is an issue that comes before the courts, but said she would follow existing law no matter what her personal views are.

Strong response

In letters to the Marquette Tribune, Bradley called gay people queers and labeled people living with AIDS degenerates.

But the strongest reaction came in response to a column about the 1992 presidential election of Bill Clinton she had written under a previous name, Rebecca Grassl.

One will be better off contracting AIDS than developing cancer, because those afflicted with the politically correct disease will be getting all of the funding, she wrote in that column. How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments.

The mostly negative reaction was so voluminous that the Marquette Tribune published a note nine days later saying it would no longer print response letters.

Bradley said she ceased writing columns for the Tribune likely because of lack of time, but said she couldnt remember specifically why she stopped writing for the paper.

Meanwhile, Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday said its irrelevant whether his appointment of Bradley would have been affected if he had known about inflammatory columns she wrote as a college student because voters will soon have a say.

Walker said Bradleys 1992 columns did not reflect the thinking of young conservatives like himself at the time.

The voters will decide come the primary in April and I think the contrast is pretty clear, Walker said.

A spokeswoman for Walker, who appointed Bradley to three judicial positions in as many years  including the Supreme Court last fall  said Monday that neither the governor nor our office was aware of the columns.

Bradley said Tuesday in a WTMJ radio interview she didnt disclose the writings in her application for the Supreme Court because the application process focused on her work as a lawyer and as a judge.

Walker also told reporters after a bill signing at Brown Deer High School that his vetting process for judges involves reviewing their legal opinions, columns theyve written as a lawyer and any writings from law school, but not any writings as an undergraduate.

I would challenge you to look back at any governors appointment process, and I doubt that youll find that every writing as a student is going to be brought up under any process, Walker said. At some point 20 years from now are we going to have the same questions about someone with a Tweet or a text or a Facebook post? Its an interesting debate out there.

Defending Bradley

On Tuesday, the president of the gay advocacy group Log Cabin Republicans of Wisconsin defended Bradley, saying what Bradley wrote 24 years ago did not reflect her current views.

I have no fear the Justice Rebecca Bradley will do everything in her power to ensure a fair court hearing every time she sits down in her Supreme Court Justice robes, Devin Gatton wrote on Facebook. Gatton also posted a photo of Bradley attending a fundraiser for LGBTQ advocacy group Fair Wisconsin.

But Fair Wisconsin executive director Megin McDonell said in a statement that attending one election-season fundraiser while a candidate is not enough to convince me that Justice Bradley has experienced such a radical transformation in her views about the LGBT community and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Democrats continued to blast Bradley on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan of Madison, who is gay, said Bradleys earlier apology Monday appeared to be offered to dodge responsibility for an extremist, hateful worldview expressed multiple times in past public diatribes.

Walker appointed Bradley, who is backed by conservatives, to the Supreme Court after the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks in September. Kloppenburg is backed by liberals.

The State Journal reported Monday that Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken said Kloppenburg didnt write any opinion columns in college.

The newspaper conducted a search of the online archive of the Yale Daily News that revealed no articles or opinion columns by Kloppenburg during her undergraduate career at Yale University. The UW-Madison Law School reference library found three articles that referenced her work in the Department of Justice.

Bradley attended the University of Wisconsin law school from 1993 through the spring of 1996. An Associated Press review of back issues of the Daily Cardinal, one of the universitys two campus newspapers, covering that span did not reveal any Bradley writings.

The Associated Press attempted to review back issues for the Badger Herald, the other campus newspaper, for that period but UW-Madison archivists said they were not available because the issues are archived only as microfilm negatives. An email left for the Badger Heralds editor seeking access to the back issues wasnt immediately returned.

According to the latest Marquette Law School Poll, each candidate has the support of 30 percent of those polled, while 31 percent remain undecided.

Contact Molly Beck at 608-252-6135 or mbeck@madison.com. Contact Matthew DeFour at 608-252-6144 or mdefour@madison.com.
State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has asked Madison and Dane County leaders for records of their communications with Kraft Heinz officials  the latest round in a blame game between elected officials for the planned closure of Madisons Oscar Mayer plant.

Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in a Tuesday news release that he asked the offices of Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi to produce the records.

Fitzgerald also pointed a finger at Soglin for the Kraft Heinz announcement that it will shutter the Madison Oscar Mayer plant, which employs 1,000 workers and is a century-old fixture on the citys East Side.

The closure of the Oscar (Mayer) facility took place in the City of Madison under Mayor Soglins watch, Fitzgerald said in the release. His misguided attempts to shift blame onto (the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.) or other state business groups are no more than a smokescreen to disguise his offices culpability.

Soglin, in a statement to the Wisconsin State Journal, said he expects to hold a press conference Thursday to discuss the matter.

Sen. Fitzgerald is going to have to do better in terms of explaining his handling of the matter, Soglin said.

The State Journal reported last week that WEDC did not contact Kraft Heinz after learning other states wanted to lure its facilities out of Wisconsin, after being dissuaded from doing so by an executive of the state chamber of commerce, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

Soglin, responding to the report last week, slammed WEDC and WMC for their response. He said the Legislature should investigate why WEDC didnt reach out to Kraft Heinz after the companys merger with Oscar Mayer was announced in March.

Soglin said last week his office contacted Oscar Mayer on March 30 based on his instinct that the Kraft Heinz merger, announced earlier in March, could result in layoffs and plant closures. He met with company officials on July 29, before the companys August announcement of an initial round of 165 layoffs at the Madison plant.

Fitzgerald said Tuesday those entreaties raise more questions about what Soglin knew and how he responded.

If the Mayor did have advance knowledge of changes at the Madison location as he has suggested, the citys residents deserve an explanation as to why no action was taken, Fitzgerald said in the statement.

Speaking in November after the plant closure was announced, Soglin said he told Oscar Mayer executives in August that city resources were available, but the company never sought assistance.
TUNIS, Tunisia  Exceptionally deadly clashes between Tunisian forces and extremist attackers left at least 53 people dead Monday near Tunisias border with Libya, the government said, amid growing fears that violence from Libya could destabilize the whole region.

Gunmen attacked the city of Ben Guerdane at dawn Monday and fighting continued past nightfall. Tunisia closed its border with Libya and the Tunisian interior and defense ministers traveled to the town to oversee the operation, according to a joint statement from their ministries.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hassid Essid said on Wtaniya television that the attack was an Islamic State attempt to carve out a stronghold on the border. No group claimed immediate responsibility, but two IS-affiliated websites said Islamic State group militants were engaged in the fighting.

This is an unprecedented attack, planned and organized. Its goal was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said.

At dawn Monday, gunmen targeted a police station and military facilities in Ben Guerdane, Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Yasser Mosbah told The Associated Press. A night curfew was ordered in Ben Guerdane until further notice.

The attack and ensuing fighting left 35 attackers, seven civilians and 11 members of Tunisias security forces dead, according to the joint government statement.

A 12-year-old girl was among those killed.

A witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of repercussions from the attackers, said the gunmen spoke of creating a caliphate and liberating the town.

Tunisian forces have repeatedly clashed with extremists on the borders of Libya and Algeria in recent years, but Mondays fighting was unusually bloody. Tunisia has been as a model of relative stability for the region since an uprising five years ago ushered in democracy and inspired Arab Spring protests against dictatorships across the region.

An uprising in neighboring Libya led to the ouster and killing of longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, but since then the country has fallen into chaos, allowing the Islamic State group to take control of several cities. The divided country is ruled by two parliaments: an internationally recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival government, backed by Islamist-allied militias, that controls the capital, Tripoli.

Tunisia is especially worried about the IS presence in Libya after dozens of tourists were killed in attacks in Tunisia last year. IS extremists claimed responsibility for those attacks, and Tunisian authorities said the attackers had been trained in Libya.

Defense Minister Farhat Horchani said last week that German and American security experts were expected to arrive Monday in Tunis to help Tunisia devise a new electronic video surveillance system of its border with Libya.
Dairy farmers and cranberry growers are some of Fort McCoys best friends, the installations outgoing commander said Monday.

U.S. Army Col. Steven M. Nott delivered an optimistic outlook on Fort McCoys future Monday during his final press conference as garrison commander. He said the lack of urban encroachment is a major factor that keeps the installation from appearing on base-closure lists.

Ive met several cranberry farmers, dairy farmers and other farmers in the region, and I always tell them, I thank you for what you do  you are crucial to our strategic relevance, he said. As soon as you get major encroachment on your border, you are at huge risk for closure. We have no encroachment.

Notts command ends Friday, when he will be succeeded by Col. David J. Pinter. He said his four years and one month as commander has been marked by significant growth. During that time, the number of soldiers trained at the base has grown from 122,000 to over 150,000.

If anything, we expect that number to increase, he said.

Nott, 51, said the installations positive relationship with the community extends beyond farmers. He said Fort McCoy has taken steps not only to improve communication but to interact with surrounding communities.

What happens outside the fence is at least just as important as what happens inside the fence, he said. Were not Alcatraz. We need to feel comfortable getting out and becoming full-fledged members of this region.

Nott, a native of Madison, will remain in the area. He has accepted a job in La Crosse, and his children will continue to attend La Crosse Aquinas High School. He also has a son who will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army after graduating from college this spring.

Nott will join a long list of military personnel who have made western Wisconsin their permanent home.

I cant tell you how many people plant their flag in the area, he said.

He described his four years at Fort McCoy as an unusually lengthy tenure of command and appreciated the chance to remain at one installation for that long. He said it was the most rewarding experience of his 31-year military career.

Ill be written into the history of Fort McCoy, and I dont take that lightly, he said. Ive been very, very blessed  its not usual for a commander to have an opportunity like this for four years ... We have a gold-standard staff at Fort McCoy.

Ill be written into the history of Fort McCoy, and I dont take that lightly. Ive been very, very blessed. U.S. Army Col. Steven M. Nott, outgoing Fort McCoy garrison commander
Nicaragua once was considered the "breadbasket" of Central America. Through the end of the 1960's and into the beginning of the next decade, money could be made in cattle, coffee and cotton. A lot of things happened from then to now, among them, the grim realization that cotton was no longer viable in Nicaragua, and the soils where it had been farmed were now laden with heavy loads of pesticides. These brownfields lined the roads in Leon and Chinandega departments in western Nicaragua. Other things happened as well, such as the realization that many people really did not benefit from any of the supposed prosperity previously lived in the country. Large numbers of people have no reasonable place to live, where they can work, and provide consistently for their families.





Some of the former cotton fields, lying fallow for decades, have been converted to residential neighborhoods for poor people. These lands have been divided into lots about 15 per acre, and people moved onto the plots into shacks made of scrap metal, plastic, sticks, cardboard and other materials improvised into houses. Electricity was supplied through pirated connections on the edge of the neighborhood, using uncoated barbed wire instead of real electrical cables. Water mains were inexistent initially, and people were subjected to purchasing water from trucks, filling open barrels they maintained on their properties. Little by little, these people invested in construction materials to build walls and roofs, piece by piece.

A former cotton field has become home for many people living in marginal conditions in the Ruben Dario neighborhood in Leon. Beyond the residences, peanuts are cultivated.

Staff and members of the board of directors of Nicaragua Christian School.

Children and parents are assembling in the auditorium at Nicaragua Christian School, for the 2015 graduation ceremony.

Murals with inspiring messages have been placed in several classrooms with the help of volunteers from the United States.

Many happy children (and parents) could be found on graduation day.

In this neighborhood, the mayor of Leon and the board of directors of Nicaragua Christian School agreed to place a school. The people living in this neighborhood can find work these days in a variety of sweatshops, where clothing and other light assembling industries are found in free trade zones. The salaries start at around 88 dollars per month, and do not include any benefit such as lunch, coffee, or even transport to the workplace. The more fortunate people in this neighborhood, the ones who can get and keep jobs in factories, have hard lives. Other folks have harder lives.





Anyone who enjoyed a stable childhood with a loving family realizes the importance of the school as a pillar in the process of growing up. The role of a school extends far beyond learning math and reading; it has a role in the spiritual and emotional health of the adult which each child becomes, even more when so many disruptions are part of the family experience. Families who migrate are often responding to disruptions in their family life and moving is, for the children, yet another huge disruption which can make growing up very difficult.





Migrants in humble circumstances are all too often received with indifference or hostility, as one humble family learned over two thousand years ago. The difficult experiences of the parents and children of Nicaragua Christian School parallel those lived by Jesus and his humble family. It is hard to overstate the difficulties facing the parents and children of Nicaragua Christian School. All the families are migrants from what must have been even worse situations, into a problematic, impoverished neighborhood. What were cotton fields during the economic boom of the 1960's and 1970's had long since become useless, contaminated brownfields which no one wanted. A free trade zone with factories making clothing and other articles for the US consumer markets has recently developed along the margins of this abandoned farmland, and the fields have been filled with low-cost housing. Tens of thousands of the poorest Nicaraguans have migrated into this area in search of a better life, some of them poor, others poorer. Several sections of the neighborhood face dismal circumstances, in which people live under nothing more than a plastic sheet suspended by sticks. The factories employ unskilled and semiskilled workers and provide dismal wages, which nonetheless far exceed any other economic opportunity for most people in the area.









It is precisely this impoverished neighborhood which the Nicaragua Christian School serves as an anchor in many ways beyond an ordinary school. The success of Nicaragua Christian School is easily noted by the way the community is involved there. Parents of the students clean, cut grass, and perform all kinds of chores at the school. School events are always well-attended by family members, who take an exceptional interest in their children. The students are particularly orderly and respectful, in contrast to other schools in Nicaragua. Sundays, the auditorium is ringing with songs from a church service, attended by many families in the neighborhood. Local sporting events and community meetings are often held on the campus, bringing the school to the larger community in the neighborhood.





The students and the school have won a few notable awards for scholastic activity, too. But, the best awards are children who grow into adults whose despair is replaced by hope and faith. A strong education under the guidance of principled, well-qualified teachers in a program which emphasizes Christian values is a great attraction to the parents throughout the neighborhood. The school has often been visited by mayors, ministers and even members of the National Assembly, but the schools teachers and administrators are clear that the most important people at this school are the parents and children of this poor neighborhood.









Every person associated with the Nicaragua Christian School is aware that someone gave from their savings to provide the books, the salaries for the teachers, the electricity and the buildings. The good will demonstrated by so many from afar is sensed by the parents who respond willingly by helping in all kinds of ways, as they can. Not everyone who donates has the opportunity to visit Nicaragua Christian School, but those who do can confirm that gratitude and love abound among the students and families of the school. The school has become an important pillar for their fragile existence in a new neighborhood, as they seek to create a more stable life for their families a day at a time.

No better title to the school can exist than, "Sharing God and his love", as is emblazoned across the website for the Nicaragua Christian School . The children learn that they are loved at all moments in a very positive atmosphere. If you would like more information about Nicaragua Christian School , write us at Gaia or directly to the folks at the school here . We believe in this project, which is transforming lives and families materially, academically, and spiritually. Below are some videos from the 2015 graduation experience.




















*By Julie Carter* I know many cowboys that, if close to a pond or other some such fish habitation, like to throw a line in from time to time. Curly, Robby,...
Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against a woman who had adopted the children that her then same-sex partner had conceived during their relationship. The women, who lived in Alabama, had traveled to Atlanta to seek the adoption since they were told Alabama courts would be hostile and that Georgia was the better forum. However, their relationship later came to an end and resulted in a bitter dispute between the two concerning ongoing contact between the adopted mother and children. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that they did not have to give full faith and credit to the Georgia adoption but the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay in December and on Monday overruled the lower court stating that the adoption was valid and must be respected.

See, Supreme Court voids Alabama ruling against lesbian adoption, Fox News, March 7, 2016.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2016/03/supreme-court-overturns-alabama-supreme-court-on-same-sex-adoption.html


Two suicide bombings in Pakistan and Iraq have killed at least 70 people and injured 100.

South of Baghdad, a suicide truck bombing killed 61 people on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

In northwest Pakistan, a suicide bomber attacked an entrance to a court on Monday. The AP reported 11 people are dead in that attack.

The Islamic State, or IS, claimed responsibility for the bombing in Hillah. The town is about 95 kilometers from Baghdad.

Suicide attacks claimed by IS killed more than 170 people in the past months, according to AP.

Sundays bombing was the third bombing in more than a week against security forces and the countrys Shiite majority.

In the Pakistani town of Shabqadar, police, women and children were killed and wounded.

The attacker tried to enter the court. Security officials intercepted him. When police tried to grab him, the bomb was detonated.

Pakistani security official Tariq Hassan said: One of the police officials grabbed [the bomber].  In the struggle, the suicide bomber was left fully confused  to locate his target before blowing himself up.

A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban named Jamut-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility.

Two policemen and a policewoman were among the dead in the Pakistan bombing, the police reported.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

Ayaz Gul wrote this story for VOANews.com. Jim Dresbach adapted the story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

kilometers  n. a unit of length equal to 1,000 meters

confused  v. to make something uncertain or unable to understand something

detonate  v. to explode or to cause something to explode


International Womens Day on Tuesday is all about better education and better jobs for women.

That includes one job in particular: Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is the UNs top post and no woman has had that post.

The UN was founded in 1945, and has had eight male secretaries-general.

A woman secretary-general, says Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York, would serve as a powerful symbol to the approximately 3.6 billion people in this world who are women.

Ban Ki-moon of South Korea has said he will give up the secretary-general post at the end of the year. He has been secretary-general since 2007.

Among the candidates to replace Ban are three women, Irina Bokova, now director-general of the UN Organization for Education, Science and Culture; Natalia Gherman, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Moldova; and Vesna Pusic, first deputy prime minister of Croatia.

Male candidates include Danilo Turk, former president of Slovenia, and Kevin Rudd, Australias former prime minister.

The Financial Times recently wrote that German Chancellor Angela Merkel might be a surprise candidate for secretary-general.

Jeane Krasno is chair of the group Campaign to Elect a Woman UN Secretary-General.

Krasno said she will observe International Womens Day in New York. An event there will recognize important work women do for the UN. That includes providing food, housing and security for families during famines and armed conflicts.

The argument has been in the past that there arent enough qualified women to choose from, Krasno told VOA. That argument no longer holds water.

She said her group has identified 38 women with incredible experience, achievement and qualifications.

The United Nations tends to select secretaries-general on a rotating basis to make sure each world region gets a person in the top UN job. For this election, the UN is said to be looking at an official from Eastern Europe, according to multiple news reports.

If that argument is valid, what about representation for women who make up over half of the worlds population?, Krasno asked.

Krasno teaches political science and international relations classes at Yale University, Columbia University and the City University of New York.

I'm Kathleen Struck.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views on our Facebook Page. Tell us who you would like to see be the head person at the UN.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

particular  adj. used to show that one individual or thing is being described

symbol  n. an action, object or event that expresses or represents a particular idea or quality

approximately  adv. almost correct or exact

incredible  adj. extremely good, great, or large

achievement  n. something that has been done through effort or hard work

qualification  n. special skills, experience or knowledge that makes someone able to complete a job or activity


Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party candidates for the U.S. presidential nomination, say they welcome opposing Donald Trump in the general election.

Both candidates were asked during the debate Sunday in Flint, Michigan, how they expect to compete against Trump.

Clinton addressed the question by saying she thinks that Donald Trumps bigotry, his bullying, his bluster, are not going to wear well on the American people.

Trumps campaign slogan is Make America Great Again.

Clinton is ready to challenge Trumps slogan.

You know, I don't think we need to make America great again, Clinton said. America didn't stop being great. We have to make it whole again.

Sanders, a senator from Vermont, told the CNN panel and the audience: I think we can beat Trump.  Our campaign is generating an enormous amount of excitement. I think we are exciting working class people, young people who are prepared to stand up and demand that we have a government that represents all of us.

Clinton and Sanders also debated the water crisis in Flint. Pipes in the city water system were lined with lead and the water dangerous and toxic. Both Clinton and Sanders demanded Michigan Governor Rick Snyder should resign.

The candidates also debated gun control, trade agreements, environment and mental health.

Clinton leads Sanders in the number of delegates who have said they will vote for her at the party convention. The convention is where the candidate is decided by the delegates.

Clinton has at least 1,123 delegates. Sanders can claim 484 delegates.

A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to claim the Democratic nomination. Close to 4,000 Democratic delegates are available.

Im Jim Dresbach.

VOANews reported on this story. Jim Dresbach adapted the report for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

bigotry  n. acts that shows a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people or ideas

bullying  v. to frighten, hurt, or threaten a smaller or weaker person

bluster  n. voice or personality that blows loudly or violently

slogan  n. a word or saying that is easy to remember and is used by a group or business to increase recognition

toxic  adj. containing harmful or poisonous substances

convention - n. a meeting or conference


The world needs to take urgent action to end female genital mutilation (FGM) says a leading advocate for stopping the practice.

FGM is a hugely harmful violation of a girls rights. It causes major medical and psychological harm. We do not know how many girls have died from it, but many have.

The comments come from Mary Wandia in a VOA interview. She is FGM program manager for Equality Now, which works to stop the practice.

The harm done by female genital mutilation is expected to get attention Tuesday on International Womens Day. Sponsors say the day is designed to build opportunities for women, including in education and medical care.

A United Nations report issued last month said 70 million more girls and women are victims of female genital mutilation than previously thought. It said at least 200 million girls and women in 30 nations have been mutilated.

FGM is the cutting, sewing or destruction of a females genitals. It is practiced by various religions and cultures. It has been practiced for centuries.

It causes severe pain and prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and even death, the UN report said. Broadcast reports show girls writhing in pain and shock. The mutilation is typically done without pain relief.

By most who practice it, FGM is believed to control female sexuality and increase fertility. However, doctors have long disputed this view. Medical researchers in Sudan found that girls who went through the procedure were more likely to be infertile.

Last September, the UN set a goal of ending the practice by 2030.

Cultures in the Nile River Valley in Egypt and Sudan have practiced FGM, but it is more widespread.

One reason for the higher numbers is that the UN reported numbers from Indonesia for the first time. Half of Indonesian girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice, according to the UN.

Immigrants to other countries where FGM is not practiced often return their girls to their home country to have FGM.

Wandia said the most success in stopping the practice is where governments have shown leadership.

Wandia said Kenya reduced FGM rates for teenage girls to about 11 percent. By comparison, half of adult women have had FGM, she said.

Liberia and Burkina Faso are also reducing FGM, Wandia said.

But she said progress is offset by population growth.

Wandia said some countries, notably Liberia, Mali, Sudan and Sierra Leone, have not banned the practice.

Countries such as Egypt and Indonesia must prevent doctors and other health workers from carrying it out, she said.

In her interview with VOA, Wandia said it is time for the world to make sure that we finally get to grips with this extreme form of violence against girls.

We cannot have any more excuses, she said.

Somalia has the highest rate of female genital mutilation, the UN said. It affects 98 percent of the female population between the ages of 15 and 49. Guinea and Sierra Leone also have very high rates.

I'm Bruce Alpert.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views or experiences on our Facebook Page. ________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

genital  n. of or relating to the sexual organs

mutilation  n. the act of tearing up a persons body parts

psychological  adj. of or relating to the mind

opportunity  n. an amount of time or a situation in which something can be done

infertility  n. not able to reproduce

writhing  v. to twist your body from side to side because of severe pain

relief  n. the removal or reducing of pain

grips  n. getting control of a problem


Nearly twice as many girls are denied an education as boys.

That is according to a new report by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The report was released to mark International Womens Day on Tuesday.

A lack of educational options stunt the lives of girls and women from one generation to the next, said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, 9.5 million girls will never walk into a classroom, compared to 5 million boys, according to the UNESCO report. More than 30 million children aged six to 11 are out of school across the region.

The gender gap is wider in South and West Asia, where 80 percent of girls will never enter formal education -- compared to 16 percent of boys, according to the report.

Girls are the majority of the millions of children denied school in Arab nations, UNESCO said. But the organization said exact numbers are not available because of conflicts in the region.

Discrimination against girls and women drew worldwide attention in 2012 when Malala Yousafzai, then 15, was shot in the head on her way home from school in Pakistan. The Taliban targeted her and her family because they called for more and better education for girls.

Malala survived the attack, after successful surgery in England, and continued to advocate for girls education. She gave a speech on her 16th birthday to the United Nations. She wrote a book, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.

In 2014, Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alice Albright, chief executive of the Global Partnership for Education, said Malala Yousafzai helped show the plight of girls and women.

Albright said discrimination against girls is even worse after elementary school.

Girls face more barriers than boys to further their education.

The reasons differ, but include parents deciding they need their children to work in fields or do other work, Albright said. She adds that it is far more likely that girls are chosen for these tasks.

Another reason is that girls are often forced into marriages after elementary school.

Girls are also more likely to have no way of getting safely to school -- given military conflicts and crime problems in some countries.

And sometimes, girls or their parents decide against continuing education because, at many schools, girls and boys share the same bathrooms, Albright said.

Adding to the problems girls have getting an education is a lack of school buildings and teachers in many poor nations. Boys often get the chance at scarce resources.

I do think some progress is being made, but by no means is it enough progress, Albright told VOA Learning English.

The challenge to improving access includes changing long-held cultural views, she said.

She said it is important that her group and others show the many benefits of improving access to education for girls.

In a recent report, the Global Partnership for Education said educated girls are far more likely to get better jobs and more income. They are also likely to give birth to healthier children. And girls that remain in school past elementary school are less likely to be put into forced marriages or to marry as children.

A recent Brookings Institution report said better educated girls and women generally have fewer children. And that could reduce population growth in some of the worlds poorest nations.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views or educational experiences on our Facebook Page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

stunt  v. to stop someone from growing or developing

plight  n. a very bad or difficult situation

elementary  adj. first grades of school

bathroom  n. a room with a sink and toilet

challenge  n. to test the ability, skill, or strength of someone

generally  adj. in a way that is not detailed or specific


A human rights group has evidence of killing, rape and disappearances committed by both sides in South Sudans civil war.

Human Rights Watch, an organization that monitors human rights, said serious violations have been committed by both Sudan's army and Sudanese rebels in the East African nation.

The watch group visited Western Equatoria in February. At that time, witnesses reported that soldiers attacked homes. The military also stole property and displaced civilians, said eyewitnesses.

Human Rights Watch has asked for the African Union to establish a court to try the most serious cases of violence. Human Rights Watch and other groups have called for an arms embargo on South Sudan.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the past two years in South Sudan during the civil war. More than two million people have been displaced because of the violence.

Im Jim Dresbach.

VOANews.com reported on this story. Jim Dresbach adapted the story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

committed - v. carried out

monitor - v. to watch or observe

embargo  n. a government or organization order that limits trade in some way


Iran said Tuesday it conducted ballistic missile tests to defy U.S. sanctions and to show its "deterrent power" and ability to confront any threats.

The tests came two months after the United States imposed new sanctions against Iranians and companies with links to Irans missile program.

Iranian state television reportedly showed a missile being fired from underground silo at night. The announcer said it was a medium-range Qiam-1 missile, according to Reuters.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is the security force under Irans supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. On its official website, it said Tuesday's test was "to show Iran's deterrent power and also the Islamic Republic's ability to confront any threat against the (Islamic) Revolution.

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh is the head of the IRGCs space program. He said the missile struck a target 700 kilometers away.

Last July, the U.S. and world powers reached an agreement with Iran on its nuclear activities. Iran agreed to remove most of its nuclear fuel and to avoid testing nuclear-capable missiles in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

After two Iranian missile tests last October, the U.S. announced new sanctions in January against Iranians and companies for helping Irans ballistic missile program.

The U.S. said the tests violated a U.N. resolution. The resolution banned Iran from any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."

Iran has always denied any link between its missile program and the disputed nuclear activity.

I'm Mario Ritter.

VOANews.com report on this story. Hai Do adapted the report. His story also includes information from the Reuters news service and the New York Times. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section and our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

deterrent  adj. able or intended to stop the progress of development of something

silo - n. underground chamber in which a guided missile is kept ready for firing
Digitally savvy women are helping to close the gender gap in the workplace. And digital fluency, the extent to which people embrace and use digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective, plays a key role in helping women achieve gender equality and level the playing field.

A new research report from Accenture titled Getting to Equal: How Digital is Helping Close the Gender Gap at Work, provides empirical proof that women are using digital skills to gain an edge in preparing for work, finding work and advancing at work. While women still lag behind men in digital fluency in all but a handful of countries, improving their digital skills can change the picture.

If governments and businesses can double the pace at which women become digitally fluent, gender equality could be achieved in 25 years in developed nations, versus 50 years at the current pace. Gender equality in the workplace could be achieved in 45 years in developing nations, versus 85 years at the current pace.

Women represent an untapped talent pool that can help fill the gap between the skills needed to stay competitive and the talent available, said Pierre Nanterme, Accentures chairman and chief executive officer. There is a clear opportunity for governments and businesses to collaborate on efforts that will empower more women with digital skills  and accelerate gender equality in the workforce.

Although digital fluency helps women advance in their careers, its impact has not closed the gender gap among executives -- or extended to pay equality. Men are still, by far, the dominant earners by household for all three generations. This will change as more millennial women and digital natives move into management. The research found that, in India, 75 percent of millennial and Gen X women surveyed aspire to be in leadership positions.

In India, men use digital to prepare for and find work more frequently than women (81 percent and 74 percent, respectively). Yet, the research found that, when women and men have the same level of digital proficiency, women are better at leveraging it to find work. Nearly 60 percent of all survey respondents in India  men and women combinedagreed that digital enables them to work from home; 50 percent said it provides a better balance between personal and professional lives; and 506 percent report digital has increased access to job opportunities.

India had the second lowest score for its ability to close the gender gap through digital skills, according to the research model. The model helps measure how digitally fluent women are compared to men, as well as how much that fluency is helping to drive positive changes in their education, employment and advancement at work.

Digital fluency has also had a more positive impact on the education of women in developing countries like India. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of women compared to 44 percent of women in developed countries said that the Internet was important to their education. Survey data also shows that women in developing countries are much more positive about the power digital has to level the playing field for women, 80 percent and 62 percent respectively.

There are many ways to narrow the gender gap in the workplace, but digital is a particularly powerful avenue, said Joydeep Mukherkjee, a managing director and lead for Financial Services Industry Group. Although gender equality will not happen overnight, investments made in building womens digital skills  through education, training and on-the-job learning  will help speed their progress at every career stage.

The survey assessed results from an online survey conducted in December 2015 and January 2016 of more than 4,900 working women and men in 31 countries, according to an Accenture press release.
The road ahead for Vijay Mallya, once the country's flamboyant business man, is getting tougher day-by-day.

A section of former women staffers of Kingfisher Airlines has accused its chairman Mallya of misleading government and the employees on the revival plan.

In an open letter, which came on the occasion of International Women's Day, the employees accused the beleaguered industrialist of "killing" two airlines and rendering hundreds of people jobless.

"You say that you are not a defaulter. But you confidently told us during the meeting that banks won't be able to recover more than 5-10 percent of debt amount. That speaks volumes of your malicious intentions. In the same meeting, you promised revival, payment of our salary... This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/DGCA," the women staffers alleged in the letter.

As if that wasn't enough trouble, a consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India asking Supreme Court to restrain him from leaving India.

The move comes after Mallya and Diageo struck a deal, late last month, wherein the former would be paid $75 million or about Rs 500 crore by the UK-based liquor giant to cede control of United Spirits, the company once controlled by the Indian spirit major.

In further trouble for beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, white collar crime probe agency SFIO has launched an investigation into alleged fund diversion and financial irregularities at long-grounded Kingfisher Airlines.

Mallya is already facing the heat from lenders over loan defaults, while Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case against him and others.

Regarding the probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said in written reply to a Rajya Sabha question that the investigation is current "under progress". The agency is looking at alleged "diversion of funds and financial reporting frauds".

Giving details about various probes being conducted by SFIO, Jaitley said the agency has been asked to investigate 42 companies in the current fiscal till 31 December, 2015.

As the man, who was once referred to as 'King of Good Times' faces further probe by the various agencies, here is a look at how the series of events unfolded in the run-up to the Kingfisher saga.

1) Mallya's empire, which ran into troubles beginning with collapse of Kingfisher Airlines four years ago, managed a good deal last month to end a year-long boardroom battle at United Spirits Ltd (USL), wherein he had sold controlling stake to Diageo in a multi-billion dollar deal.

2) Post the announcement of the 'golden parachute' or 'sweetheart deal', markets regulator Sebi, which has begun looking into possible violations of corporate governance and other norms because of this deal, said it would scrutinise the exit offer. Sebi said it is scrutinising intricacies of the deal and may soon seek further details from USL, Diageo, Mallya and others.

3) Recent reports suggested that the Bengaluru debt recovery tribunal has ordered that Mallya cannot access the $75 million severance fee he has been paid by UK drinks major Diageo for stepping down from United Spirits charimanship.

4) Meanwhile, SBI moved four applications at the DRT in Bangalore, seeking impounding Mallya's passport, getting him arrested, securing the lenders' first right on the payout from Diageo and getting full disclosure of his assets in the country and abroad

5) Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case against Vijay Mallya and others in connection with the alleged default of over Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI Bank. Official sources said the agency recently filed charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR registered last year by CBI in the same case.

6) The CBI had booked Mallya, director of Kingfisher Airlines, the company, A Raghunathan, Chief Financial Officer of the airlines, and unknown officials of IDBI Bank in its FIR alleging that the loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits. The CBI action came as part of its wide probe into criminal aspects of loans declared to be non-performing assets by public sector banks. The ED is looking into the "proceeds of crime" that would have been generated using the slush funds of the alleged loan fraud, they said.

7) Vijay Mallya, who is already facing a wilful defaulter tag from several state lenders, has been under attack from all corners, especially after Kingfisher Airlines defaulted on loans worth Rs 7,000 crore.

8) Meanwhile, a former Kingfisher Airlines employee Sanjay Dey said they didnt get salaries and were assured that an investor would invest in KFA, but no one came for the investment.

With inputs from agencies
Flexible timings, a policy for extended maternity leave, creches at the work place are some of the women-friendly policies that some companies in India Inc have put in place to make women employees comfortable to continue working. On Monday, ICICI Bank came out with a policy that allows women to work from home for as long as a year. Though some in India Inc are sensitive to gender issues, the large majority are far removed from women-friendly policies. Would a rule by law help? What can organisations do to make the workplace a friendly place for women with changing needs after marriage and childbirth? Here are a few suggestions:

Fifty percent representation of women in workforce: No matter how many women-friendly policies are introduced in the workplace, would much be achieved if the number of women in the workplace is less than that of men? What India Inc needs to do is bring about a policy that makes it mandatory to have 50 percent of workforce comprising of women employees, says Sriram Vaidhyanathan, HR Head, BankBazaar.com. In our organisation, we have 38 percent women in the workforce which we would like to raise to 50 percent. If this policy is introduced, all the others such as work from home, cover on maternity, etc will fall in place, says Sriram.

Flexibility at the workplace: Personal exigencies for women are different from those of male employees. Though some organisations in India Inc provide flexibility to women so as to be able to balance work and home, not many organisations follow this policy. Richard Lobo, SVP and Head - HR, Infosys says, Facilities such as satellite offices for expecting or new mothers, telecommuting for employees on a need basis, work from home options on temporary basis, etc. are some of the interventions provided by us. At Infosys, the work from home facility is available to all employees. Our experience has been that, when used appropriately, such interventions aid productivity and help employees contribute their best.

Mentor men to accept women bosses: ICICI has taken the lead in gender diversity at the workplace. Women at the helm in ICICI have become a norm. But are male employees as accepting of women bosses? At West Coast, we have had women directors even before it became mandatory to have women directors on board, says Shweta Vakil, director, WestCoast Group. Vakil says that mentoring for women is often talked about when women want to take maternity leaves and rejoin organisations, for instance. But what about mentoring men? Male employees are not open to working with women bosses. Mentoring should be provided to men to be more accepting of women bosses at the workplace. If that is done, half the battle is won, says Vakil.

Ingrain women with a sense of self: The home is the first place a girl child gets a sense of self. Is the girl child given equal treatment at home? Saurabh Saxena, CEO, Holachef, says parents should raise children with a strong sense of gender equality. It will ensure that at home and at workplace women wont need to fight for their empowerment, he says.

Equality in salary: It is a boys' club at the workplace and that is a mindset that needs to change. Men decide on salaries, work culture, etc. "When women do the same job as men, they don't get the same salary," says Smita Gaikwad, senior vice president, Global Corporate Communications, Hinduja Global Solutions. "When a woman does the same job as a man, it is found that many organisations do not pay her at par with her male counterpart. Culturally, the mindset is to see women in secondary positions at home and this seeps into the workplace," she says. Parity in pay would go a long way in women feeling valued, adds Gaikwad.

Implement a work from home policy: Though a lot has been spoken about the work from home policy, not many companies follow it. Some have introduced it and have revoked it as many employees have misused it. Ameen Khwaja, founder and CEO, LatestOne.com, believes that if more companies adopt the work from home policy, women can utilise their capabilities to seek economic independence and prove their mettle.

Creches at work place: Though MNCs and a few Indian companies have creches at the workplace, a large number of companies in India Inc dont have any such facilities. Ankita Tandon, chief operating officer, CouponDunia, says if more organisations in India Inc have facilities such as creches at the workplace, it would give the new mother motivation to join the work force.

Engage with women employees: A Dale Carnegie Training Gender Engagement Study found that only 39 per cent of Indian women are completely engaged in the workplace. Women (especially disengaged employees) were far more likely to leave the organization than their male colleagues at every level. The survey found that women tend to feel undervalued compared to their male counterparts with 49 per cent of women feeling that the sort of work they do was not contributing to the overall success of the organization against 63 per cent of men who felt that their jobs had a significant impact. "It is therefore vital for organisations to focus on engaging and coaching with their female employees and showing them a clear growth path that will convince them that there is no glass ceiling, said Pallavi Jha, Chairperson & Managing Director, Dale Carnegie Training India.
New Delhi: Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport(IGIA) witnessed over 60 unidentified objects in its air space in three months from October last year.

CISF Director General Surender Singh, during an annual interaction with journalists here, said a total of 62 such incidents have been reported from October 27 last year till Tuesday.

"These objects, however, like toy balloons, kites, Chinese balloons among others. It is very difficult to make out (about the kind of the flying objects with naked eyes)," Singh said.

Singh said the government will soon come out with "operational guidelines" to deal with such cases after a similar incident was reported late last year when a suspected

drone-like object was spotted near Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) runway.

"This is a general problem which is not only at the airport. There are other sensitive installations too (near the airport area). Soon guidelines will be out determining the

responsibility of each agency in such cases," the CISF boss said.

While the Central Industrial Security Force is the overall in-charge for airport security in the country, it is assisted by local police and the Indian Air Force, more pro-actively at sensitive facilities like IGIA.

Officials said new guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all airports are required while dealing with such potential threats as there are multiple stakeholders

in civil aviation security and hence, a clear chain of command and task is required to thwart a possible aerial attack by using these gadgets.

The CISF boss was also asked about the menace of hoax calls received at airports.

The DG said while 44 such calls were received last year at across various airports the force is deployed at, 16 such calls have been made till now this year.

"These instances are considerable...but we take them all very seriously. We assume them to be genuine and all the procedures are undertaken to check them," he said.

The DG said that the idea of a much-talked about proposal to deploy CISF men on-board Indian merchant vessels to protect them in pirate-infested waters has been "shelved".

"The Ministry of External Affairs has not been favourable to the idea..this (the proposal) is not under active consideration," he said, adding that deploying armed men on ships sailing in international waters has "legal ramifications."

The proposal was mooted in the aftermath of two Italian marines allegedly killing two Indian fishermen in February, 2012 off Kerala coast.

At present, vessels, sailing with Indian flags rely on security agencies employing foreign nationals in waters vulnerable to piracy.

Talking about VVIP security, the CISF DG said considering the increasing role of the central force in this domain, it has sought more manpower as the existing number of commandos are not "considerably sufficient."

He said the force, which is tasked with the security of 55 such people, has put more people for the VVIP security job from its own reserves but it is desirous of getting more

sanctioned posts in this regard.

PTI
Lucknow: A Class 11 student was set on fire by family members of her harasser in Aligarh, police said on Tuesday.

The severely burnt girl, who was set on fire late Monday, was battling for life in the trauma centre, a police official said.

Owing to her critical condition, the magistrate could not record her statement, the official said.

The girl's family alleged the girl was set on fire by family members of the man who had tried to molest her a few days back.

The family had complained to the police and the man was sent to jail.

To take revenge, the family of the arrested man set the girl on fire when her parents were not at home.

The elder sister and younger brother of the victim were on the first floor and suddenly heard their sister crying for help.

Police were investigating the incident and examining if the girl attempted suicide in wake of possible threats by the man's family.

IANS
New Delhi: The first batch of women fighter pilots, comprising three cadets, will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on 18 June.

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said three women trainee officers have volunteered to be inducted in the combat role.

"We inducted women as pilots in 1991, but on only helicopter and transport (planes). I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved the IAF's proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. Very soon...on 18 June, the Air Force will get women fighter pilots.

"As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training...they are on par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on 18 June," Raha said.

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Women in Armed Medical Corps' organised to mark International Women's Day in New Delhi, which was also attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The Defence Ministry had cleared the proposal of inducting women as fighter pilots in October last year.

Parrikar also lauded Raha's insistence to push forward the proposal to induct women as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force.

"Though I approved and support the proposal, it was he who was consistently pushing the file to the MoD (Ministry of Defence) level.

"I congratulate you for initiating the seminar which will go a long way in deciding the role of women in uniform and not only in the Armed Medical Corps," Parrikar said.

PTI
New Delhi: A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped and set ablaze by a youth in Greater Noida in yet another horrific instance of crime against women in the NCR area.

The girl suffered over 95 per cent burns and is fighting for her life at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi following the

incident that occurred on Monday in Tigri village in Greater Noida West.

The accused, aged 18 years, has been taken into custody, police said. He was a neighbour of the victim's family and, according to her father, had become friendly with her.

Circle Officer Rakesh Yadav said a police team has been deployed in Tigri to deal with any untoward incident arising from the alleged crime on Monday.

Police said the youth allegedly went to the girl's house on Monday and met her on the roof where he raped her and set her ablaze. He then fled the spot.

Officials at Safdarjung Hospital said the girl is admitted in the Burn ICU and her condition is critical.

"She is extremely critical. She was brought in with around 95 per cent thermal burns in a case of sexual assault as

alleged by her parents.

"There are burns all over her body except for the upper portion of her face and head. Our priority now is to control the infection," said Poonam Dhanda, PRO of Safdarjung Hospital.

However, doctors said they have not yet been able to perform any examination on her to confirm sexual assault due

to the grievous nature of her burns.

According to the girl's father, his family had complained to the accused youth's kin around a year back about him

harassing the victim. But despite an assurance from his family members, he continued to trouble her.

The incident is yet another in a chain of crimes against women in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR)zone, where the Nirbhaya gangrape case of 2012 had led to nationwide outrage and a revision of rape laws.

PTI
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This International Womens Day, lets not succumb to petty tokenism, but take a hard look at the past year where women have achieved great things, started movements and took a step towards gaining an equal footing in the Indian patriarchal society. Listed below are five positive milestones in the struggle for equal rights as they resulted in Indian society talking about issues which till then hardly managed to step into the national limelight. Topics like menstruation,which were always frowned upon, are now garnering national debate. Some of these campaigns are yet to achieve the desired results but they have started a national dialogue which is making people rethink their positions in the debate.

Women in combat roles



On 23 February, President Pranab Mukherjee announced that women will soon occupy combat roles in all sections of its army, navy and air force, indicating gender equality in one of the worlds most male-dominated professions.

My government has approved the induction of women as short service commission officers and as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force. In the future, my government will induct women in all the fighter streams of our armed forces," said Mukherjee

Only four countries around the world employ women in combat roles. They are United States, Israel, Germany and Australia, according to Al Jazeera.



According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the government approved an IAF plan in October 2015 making women eligible to fly warplanes from June 2017. Three women who had been training at the Air Force Academy were found suitable to fly warplanes and in the near future we can see them becoming Indias first female fighter pilots.

Government increases maternity leave in private sector to 26 weeks



Maternity leave has been an issue every would-be working mother has faced. For the longest time, women were afraid to step into work places for fear of pregnancy-related taboos. In recent times, we saw a ray of hope in form of an amendment, which gives women confidence to step into work places.

On 28 December 2015, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, announced that the Ministry of Labour agreed to increase the maternity leave for women employed in private firms to six-and-a-half months.

According to the Maternity Benefit Act 1961, women were entitled to only 12 weeks of maternity benefits with full wages for the period of leave. Officials at the Women and Child Development Ministry were quoted saying in The Indian Express, that they will push to extend the leave to eight months or 32 weeks for women employed in both private and government sectors.

While we are glad about the announcement for maternity leaves, we can't say the same for paternity leaves. According to another report in The Indian Express, fathers with fewer than two children are allowed 15 days of fully-paid leave which can be combined with the others.

According to a report in The Guardian, since April 2015 parents in Britain enjoy 12 months of leave after the birth of the child; Sweden enjoyed that since 1974. Countries like Norway, Sweden and Iceland, have adopted a so-called daddy quota that reserves part of the parental leave period exclusively for fathers: if Dad does not take his allotted period of leave, the family loses it. We are lagging far behind the Nordic countries, but the process of catching up is on.

Practice of talaq-e-bidat

The case of the triple talaaq was in the news when Shayara Banu, a Muslim woman estranged from her husband , filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking it to declare the practices of talaaq-e-bidat (instantaneous triple talaaq), nikah halala (bar against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with another man), and polygamy under the Muslim personal laws as illegal and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution, reported India Today.



According to the report, she had been divorced by her husband by the way of triple talaaq after her family was unable to meet the demands for additional dowry.

On 29 February, 2016, the Supreme Court sought the response of the Centre on this petition where a bench of Justices Anil R Dave and AK Goel issued notice after hearing senior counsel Amit Singh and counsel Balaji Srinivasan.

Various noted scholars have said that talaq-e-bidat has no foundation in the Holy Quran but the Muslim Personal Law Board keeps insisting on the validity of the law. We are waiting for the day when this abominal law would be wiped out of existence.

Till date, many Muslim women have registered complaints of being abandoned by their husbands, especially without a legal procedure. This case is a reminder to the system for the work that needs to be done to give Muslim women a say in their own marriages. The decision to end a marriage should lie in the hands of both man and woman.

Gaining entry into the sanctum sanctorum  The Bhumata Brigade

The Bhumata Brigade led by Trupti Desai, mobilised some 150 women to enter the Trimbakeshwar temple on 7 March 2016. Campaigning against gender bias, the brigade sought to break the bar on female devotees entering the inner sanctum of the Lord Shiva temple in Nashik, according to a report by The Indian Express.

On this auspicious day, we feel that the local administration will allow us inside the inner chamber of the temple and if we are restricted, it would be an insult to women on the eve of International Womens Day and on the day of Maha Shivratri, Desai was quoted saying as she left for Nashik on 7 March.

Desai had started a national dialogue on gender bias in the religious places of the country, when the brigade attempted to enter the inner chauthara at the Shani Shingnapur temple on 26 January, 2016. The brigade faced heavy opposition from the temple authorities and was stopped 70 km away from the shrine. The movement garnered a lot of support.

Soon afterwards on 28 January several Muslim women activists held placards demanding entry for females into the sanctum sanctorum of Haji Ali. On 3 February 2016, the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to give its opinion on a public interest litigation, challenging the decision of Haji Ali Trust to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum, according to a DNA report.

According to a report on indiatimes.com, there are still several religious places which restrict entry of women due to various reasons. These include Patbausi Satra in Assam, Lord Kartikeya Temple in Pushkar and Jain Temple in Ranakpur.

According to a report by India Today, the administering Travancore Devaswom Board prohibited women between 10 and 50 years (those of menstruating age) from entering the Sabarimala temple for the past half century. This customary ban has also been codified in Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965. The Kerala High Court had upheld the rules and allowed the Devaswom Board to enforce the ban.

The Right To Pray campaign has been supported by various other campaigns with similar objectives. The menstruation discussion which is usually tip-toed around has been brought to the forefront when discussing Right to Pray. Here is a campaign which is working towards normalising bleeding.

Happy To Bleed



In November 2015, to start a discussion on menstruation, a college student  20-year-old Nikita Azad  started the movement Happy To Bleed. It started with a Facebook page and moved on to various social media platforms, where women started talking openly about their experiences and the stigma against menstruation.

According to a report in Firstpost, Nikita Azad first spoke up on the topic, in an open letter to the Travancore Devaswom Board president, Prayar Gopalakrishnan who had said that women could enter Sabarimala after machines are made that can scan whether a woman is menstruating or not; hence judge how pure they are. The Sabarimala shrine has historically been open to only male devotees because women experience menstruation and that is traditionally considered impure. The severe austerities and rituals that Sabarimala devotees are expected to perform before their pilgrimage cannot be performed by women because of their biology. These comments by the president sparked social media outrage A few hours after Azad started the movement, hordes of users started posting pictures of tampons and sanitary napkins with the hashtag Happy to Bleed.

The campaign which meant to normalise menstruation, acknowledged that bleeding is a natural activity and it is essential to fight against age-old practices which shame women for these acts of nature.

The campaign meant to get women talking about their bodies and their experiences. As a part of the Happy to Bleed campaign, on 16 February 2016, students moved the Supreme Court questioning the discrimination against them when it came to entering religious places.
New Delhi: At a time when a raging debate about student politics is on in the country in wake of the ongoing JNU row, students of Jamia Millia Islamia are still fighting for their demand for reinstating the students' union, scrapped nine years ago.

Jamia students who have extended their support to JNU where six students have been booked for alleged sedition over an event against hanging of Afzal Guru, believe their solidarity comes from being "toothless" participants.

"We as Jamia students can only help others on individual basis but not collectively as students of a varsity. It is ironical that the varsity finds student politics to be an activity which interferes with academics. We continue to be toothless participants of any protest," a student said on condition of anonymity.

Another student said, "There are examples of students' union in DU and JNU. The entire country is talking about freedom of speech and here we are having a school headmaster approach where there is no scope for activism or raising any demand."

"There is a fear among students that whenever they speak, the administration acts against them. If there is a leader or elected representative, it will be easier for students to communicate their issues to the authorities," the student added.

Jamia students and alumni have written to the Vice-Chancellor and the University Grants Commission repeatedly since elections were "banned" in the university in 2006 after the students' union allegedly "started interfering with the administrative matters of the institution".

Challenging the university directive, three students had moved the Delhi High Court in 2011 and the matter is still pending.

While the university officials maintained that the poll process was banned as the students' union activities were "vitiating" the academic atmosphere on the campus, they refused to comment on the possibility of reviving campus politics saying the matter is sub-judice.

"We cannot decide on the matter on our own as the matter is sub-judice. Once the court gives a nod, further formalities and processes will be set in motion accordingly," a university official said.

The last time the university went to polls to elect a new students' body was in December, 2005. The university had dissolved the elected body within four months of the taking over charge in March, 2006.

All the elected officer-bearers had at that time launched a protest against the dissolution of the elected body but they had to withdraw the agitation.

PTI
New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "failing to empower women" despite getting a historical mandate and demanded that he break his silence on his government's stand on the Women's Reservation Bill.

"I stand here as a woman policy maker from my party to urge the Prime Minister to break his silence. I was deeply disappointed to see that the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India and most of the woman Members of his Council of Ministers were absent from the Lok Sabha, when an impromptu debate took place on the International Women's day today," party spokesperson Sushmita Dev told reporters.

Dev lamented the Prime Minister's silence at a time when the "loudest voice and the common voice of consensus" has emerged over the last 3-4 days.

She said she was "deeply disappointed" because despite a historical mandate, with absolute majority, the Prime Minister has "failed to use it to empower women."

"Today, he has used that mandate; he has used his powers and compelled the Executive to use its powers for several ordinances and to reverse many farmers and labour-friendly laws to amend them, to change them. Repeatedly, we have seen them go down the Ordinance way but I am deeply saddened to say while the nation is looking at Planet 50:50 by 2030 i.e parity between men and women, free of gender bias, that our Prime Minister lets us down with no assurance with his absence in Parliament," she said.

She wanted the Prime Minister to make a statement and clarify his position when he will bring this Bill, what are his views on the Bill, which has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha.

Dev, in a statement, also accused the government of having the "habit" of confrontation with the opposition on partisan matters and has made issuing ordinances to bypass Parliamentary accountability a "norm."

"However, on issues where it is assured of bi-partisan support, there is not a single word, leave apart a step forward on part of the government", she said.

Seeking to embarrass the women Ministers, she wondered what Sushma Swaraj, an old supporter of Women's Reservation Bill, Uma Bharati, Najma Heptullah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Maneka Gandhi, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Smriti Irani were going to do about the bill now that their government has requisite majority in the Lok Sabha.

She wondered if the Prime Minister envisages a role for women beyond procreating, "waiting for their spouse to come home before she puts burnol on her burnt finger".

PTI
New York: A month ago, on 9 February, what happened in JNU? What did JNU student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar say, why was he arrested, why the sedition tag, why has he been let off with a lesson on thoughts that corrupt, whats the sanctity to a six month bail?

All we have are question marks, the whole ruckus is now sub judice.

Heres what we know for sure: BJPs self styled hard hats have announced "prize money" of Rs 5 lakh to anyone who cuts off Kanhaiya Kumars tongue and double that - Rs 11 lakh to kill him.

Reporting on how the Narendra Modi government seeks to define patriotism and then own it, Economist says  the damage to Indias image is painful.

Faith in the police and other institutions has been undermined. Vigilante violence has seemed to win official backing. This is not the outward-looking, investor-friendly image India hopes to project. And it threatens its liberal traditions of free speech.

Meanwhile, Kanhaiya Kumar has been propelled into speedy stardom, delivering fiery speeches fuelled by the gall of persecution. The fake tweet that provoked the Indian government into saying anti-national and the doctored video which trapped Kanhaiya Kumar were swept away in a twister. Echo chambers parroting spittle spattered rhetoric took over, Kanhaiya Kumar got beaten up, thrown behind bars.

The sequence of events remains shadowy at best.

In 30 days Kanhaiya Kumar has made it to the edit page of New York Times and a full pager in The Economist - all this began with a few minutes of doctored visuals broadcast on a private TV channel of Kumar shouting anti-India slogans.

Links: #JNURow: Social media tools are snapping back

"'Pakistan zindabad' slogan was never there"

Digital wildfires in a hyperconnected world

In a hyperconnected world, one piece of un-vetted, unchecked news sparked a digital forest fire on social media - free, urgent and typically polarising. The etymology and imagery of the wildfire finds its roots in mathematical models of how forest fires erupt, made famous by the Erdos Renyi random graph models.

It is well accepted across social media that the first sign of crisis is when any misinformation makes it into the news - print or TV. So, by the time it gets to Twitter and Facebook, its already late. For Kanhaiya Kumar, was it a crisis? At a personal level, certainly. But by then, he was a disempowered citizen against a twister. Nothing says it better than this searing headline of the Delhi Police status report on his bail plea: Kanhaiya Kumar versus State.

Massive digital misinformation a global risk

The #KanhaiyaKumar story is the sort of prototype that informs a remarkable essay by the World Economic Forum on the global risk of massive digital misinformation that sits at the centre of a constellation of technological and geopolitical risks ranging from terrorism to cyber attacks and the failure of global governance.

The Kanhaiya Kumar case offers a striking parallel narrative to the examples in the WEF report that speaks of misuse of an open and easily accessible system and the greater danger of misguided attempts to prevent such outcomes.

Polarised echo chambers and confirmation bias are two terms that repeat through the study - the result of a many-to-many ecosystem where everyone can produce or find information consistent with their own belief system.

Walter Quattrociocchi, Head of the Laboratory of Computational Social Science, IMT Lucca who wrote the WEF report, explains an echo chamber and its many dangers:

Echo chambers confirm bias, polarise

An echo chamber is an isolated space on the web, where the ideas being exchanged essentially just confirm one another. It can be a space of likeminded people sharing similar political views, or a page about a specific conspiracy theory. Once inside one of these spaces, users are sharing information that is all very similar, basically "echoing" each other.

Once engaged in a conspiracy corpus, a user tends to join the overall conversation, and begins to "jump" from one topic to another. The probability increases with user engagement (number of likes on a single specific topic). Each new like on the same conspiracy topic increases the probability to pass to a new one by 12%.

Highlights in the WEF report include:

-- What kind of rumours are spreading?

-- What is an echo chamber?

-- Methodology in studying global misinformation

-- How people react on social regardless of information source detailing or bonafide.

-- What can be done to fight misinformation?

Trolls "most fascinating" social dynamic

Calling the sewage pit that is trolling on social by an elegant name - alternative narratives, WEF says its a most fascinating social dynamic.

There was a time when trolls would just work up a crowd and get happy, now they have evolved.

Trolls activities range from controversial and satirical content to the fabrication of purely fictitious statements, heavily unrealistic and sarcastic.

These jokes often end up as evidence in online debates from political activists.

Over six months of poring over 50 Facebook pages, heres what the WEF team found, among other patterns: Posts containing unsubstantiated claims, or about political activism, as well as regular news, all had very similar engagement patterns.

An even more detailed report published by the highly regarded National Academy of Sciences of United States and authored by 8 heavyweights inlcuding Walter Quattrociocchi says that algorithmic solutions are not good enough to break the troll and conspiracy mafia creating mistrust and paranoia.

Back from jail, Kanhaiya Kumar fires back

After 23 days in jail, Kanhaiya Kumar stepped out of Tihar to a heros welcome and belted out a rock star speech tailor made for social watched by millions - brimming with humour, sarcasm and anger, delivered in a white tee and black jacket, scruffy and honest. This was his echo chamber, the joke was on them.

Like trolls pump conspiracy theories by reducing the complexity of reality, Kanhaiya Kumar paid it back: Azaadi, not from India but inside India, Har Har Modi, Thanks to their police

This too finds mention in the WEF report - homophily" - where a users engagement in a specific narrative goes hand in hand with the number of network connections having a similar profile.

Considering Indias young population is the worlds largest and smartphone uptake even in Tier 3 cities has been phenomenal, an angry young mans speech after 23 days in jail was bound to rock it.

As for Kanhaiyas future in the Left and plans for a "revolution", Manu Joseph writes in Hindustan Times: May I suggest a more popular and contemporary word to comrade Kanhaiya  disruption.
Pathankot: Citing lack of space in its mortuary, Pathankot Civil hospital has demanded shifting the bodies of four terrorists killed during the attack on the Air Force base here in January, as they have been lying in the mortuary for over two months.

"We've demanded the bodies of four militants be shifted to some other place because there is severe shortage of space in the mortuary here," Civil Surgeon Ajay Bagga said.

"The mortuary can keep only five bodies and with four occupied with the terrorists', only one is left," he said.

He said the bodies could be shifted to one of the medical colleges in Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot.

The hospital authorities have written to Punjab Principal Secretary (Health) Vinni Mahajan, Director Health H S Bali, and Pathankot Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

Bagga further said the Principal Secretary had taken up the matter with the state DGP, Suresh Arora.

Police guards have been deputed outside the mortuary where the bodies are kept.

Official sources said only NIA, which is investigating the matter would take a call on when to dispose of the bodies.

Heavily armed terrorists had attacked the Air Force base here on January 2 and were eliminated by the security forces.

PTI
Nalini Sriharan, serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has been granted a 24-hour parole by the Madras High Court, CNN-IBN reported. She had asked for the parole to attend her father's memorial prayer.

Nalini had moved the Madras High Court seeking three days leave starting from Tuesda for attending the 16th day prayer of her father, who passed away last month, to held in Chennai on 9 March.

In her petition, Nalini submitted that she had made a representation on 2 March to the Superintendent of Special Prison for Women in Vellore, where she is lodged, seeking three days leave but the official had not responded so far.

She said she was granted parole for 12 hours on 24 February to attend the cremation of her father Sankaranarayanan. The 16th day obsequies of her father was scheduled to be held on 9 March in Kottur here and sought three days' leave from tomorrow to enable her participate in it.

Nalini was sentenced to death by a trial court in the case on 28 January, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to a life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on 24 April, 2000.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures in Yamuna flood plains for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living three-day 'World Culture Festival'.

"You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains," a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.

The direction came after counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said that they have found no debris at the site, when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

The Green Panel also questioned the building up of pontoon bridge by the Army on river Yamuna for the festival, and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as who gave the permission for setting it up.

DDA, Delhi government, MoEF said that they have no relation with the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge as all the three said that they are concerned only with different issues.

While DDA said it was only required to give no objection certificate for the bridge, Delhi government submitted that its role for the pontoon bridge comes only at the time of flood and MoEF passed the buck on Ministry of Water Resources.

Advocate Rajiv Bansal appearing for DDA backed the authority's decision to grant permission for the event saying that it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.

"The area is meant for recreational activity. The area is with DDA and it is the competent authority. Permission was granted after taking proper legal opinion which was conditional that no permanent structure will be constructed and also that it will be subject to permissions from other concerned authorities," he said.

Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.

The bench after hearing the matter adjourned the matter for tomorrow.

The NGT is hearing pleas seeking stoppage of ongoing construction on the flood plains for the Cultural festival.

During the hearing, DDA said that the plea seeking stay of construction activity was filed with a delay after activity had started at the site and it needs to be dismissed.

It said that constant watch is being maintained that no debris or municipal waste is being dumped in Yamuna flood plains and a running contractor is there to remove the debris, if any dumped.

The bench then said that DDA just can't wash its hand off by saying no debris is there as the photographs on record does show the presence of waste at the site.

"In October, November and December, till the time we handed over the site to the organizers, there was no debris at the site. We are telling this with utmost responsiblity that there was no debris," Bansal said.

DDA said that it had granted permission for 24.44 hectare for holding of the event in which 3.5 lakh to 5 lakh people are likely to participate and has till now not found any violations of its conditions by organizers of the event.

The bench asked the Uttar Pradesh government that under what authority of law was the parking area alloted, does the parking area fall under flood plains area, does the area permitted has been exceeded by the organizers and how much money been spent to clear the debris from the alloted area.

Counsel appearing for Uttar Pradesh government said that no debris was found at the alloted area, so there is no question of money being spent.

The counsel further said that permission was granted as per the notification in which flood plains could be alloted for parking purposes during non-monsoon seasons so that there is no damage to environment and no permanent structures could be constructed.

The bench, asked the counsel whether thousands of cars making emission will not cause pollution to the environment.

It asked all the parties to consider the impact of the such a event on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity.

"Assuming that all necessary permissions were taken for the event but has anybody considered what the impact will be on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity. Has any study being conducted in this regard," the bench said.

It also asked the AOL, whether it has carried out any Environment Impact Assessment study of the event and how did it had satisifed the DDA to grant permission for the function.

PTI
Kurukshetra (Haryana): For middle-aged Bhanmati, who ekes out a living working at a brick kiln here, the International Women's Day is an alien concept. A calendar event held annually on 8 March, Women's Day is celebrated globally with a host of seminars, workshops and promotional events, participated in India largely by the urban womenfolk.

"Babuji hame nahi malum Mahila divas kya hota hai' (Sir, we do not know what is this women's day)," says Bhanmati, when asked about the day's significance. For her, 8 March remains just another day, and she says she has to worry about scraping together two meals for her family.

Many women like Bhanmati, who work at the lowest rung of the society, also do not have any consciousness of the significance of this day, which attracts massive attention in cities and other urban areas.

Chameli, Daya, and Rambhateri, who all earn their bread doing odd jobs said they "do not know why and when is Women's Day is celebrated." Several women in many towns and villages in the state remained busy today picking plastic and paper from garbage dumps to earn a modicum of living.

The hand-to-mouth existence of these women stands in stark contrast to their well-to-do counterparts who celebrate the day by participating in seminars and workshops in air-conditioned halls in big cities.

Hasina and Rubia, both ragpickers said they have not heard of anything like Women's Day or about women's rights.

They appealed that government must do something so that they could get some work.

Babita, a teacher, said nothing can be achieved if only a limited section of women becomes financially strong. "Every woman has to become strong and fight against injustice," she said.

Vineeta Arora, a doctor, while addressing the staff and students of an institution, exhorted women to become independent and self-reliant and stressed on their empowerment.

Centre's 'Beti Bachchao Beti Padhao' drive launched last year seeks to end female foeticide and promote girl education. The campaign was launched in 100 worst-affected disticts including those in Haryana.

PTI
This is the story of 23-year-old Manjula Balakrishnan from Chennai.

When she was just 10 years old, her father, then working as a building contractor at a daily wage of 100 rupees a day, suffered from an attack of paralysis that rendered him unfit to continue with his work. The family had already been feeling the pressures of low income that barely sustained their daily expenses, but this sudden loss of income hit them even harder as affording bare necessities was impossible without a steady income.

These circumstances forced Manjula's mother to start working as a housemaid, with she joining her mother on weekends and holidays to earn some extra income. Even then, there were times when their combined efforts fell short of providing them with sufficient money, and they often had to rely on financial support from their relatives. At times, the mother would bring leftover food from her employers to feed her family. Paying the house rent was another expense the family had to bear, which added to the financial pressure.

Despite all odds, Manjula did well in her state board exams by securing 86% in Class 12, making her family proud and surprising many.

Her good score ensured that she got admission in a government college in Chennai, but the additional cost of the college tuition fees stared Manjula in her face. This forced her and her mother to work for longer periods, taking up more jobs so that the fee could be paid.

After three more years of hardship and juggling between studies and helping her mother in her work, Manjula finally had a college degree. But soon, Manjula found that having a degree was not enough to get a job. Of the many interviews that she attended, her lack of good communication skills and presentation skills led to a series of rejections from various companies.

That's when a friend asked her to join the ICICI Academy for Skills (where she herself was studying), an academy that offered free-skill training to the underprivileged youth and made them employable. Manjula applied and got selected, and joined the Chennai centre of the academy to pursue a three-month course in Office Administration.

At the academy, Manjula learned different aspects of Office Administration such as office communication and etiquette, accounts, computer operation, etc. and also received training in presentation skills. All the training was imparted not just theoretically but also from a practical perspective. Discussions and role-plays were an integral part of the pedagogy and gave her a first-hand experience of practical problems and their solutions.

The faculty continuously encouraged her to ask questions and gave her the confidence to handle real-life situations on her own. Further, regular home assignments given by the faculty encouraged Manjula to gather more information on her own using reference books and the internet. The time spent at the academy also helped Manjula inculcate good habits such as setting personal goals, planning her activities and scheduling her tasks based on priorities.

These additional skills proved helpful when Manjula appeared for her first interview after completing the course. She could answer all the questions asked in the interview confidently and finally succeeded in getting her first corporate job.

Today, Manjula works at Dell BPO as a Senior Operations Associate (Healthcare) and earns a good salary. Her family's standard of living has improved and their continuous financial crunch has abated. Manjula is now helping her family build a new home for themselves!

From being a part-time housemaid to becoming the primary breadwinner for her family, Manjula is a shining example of how strong will coupled with right support and guidance can help the youth realize their true potential. Her story is also a heartening reminder of the adage that no dream is impossible if we really put our heart and soul into achieving it.

If you know any underprivileged youth like Manjula who have potential and desire but do not have the right skills or support to get a better livelihood, simply log in to giftalivelihood.com and refer them to the ICICI Academy for Skills for free-skill-based training. The Academy offers exclusive centers or women which are managed and run by dedicated faculty comprising only women. With 22 centers and 13 courses, the candidates have a lot to choose from. This free training, an initiative by ICICI Foundation, is imparted to youth below the age of 30 with household income of around 1.5 lakh per annum.

This is a sponsored post.
Following widespread concern over the proposed tax on withdrawal from the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) contributions, the government has decided to withdraw the proposal. The announcement was made by Finance MInister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

"In view of representations received, the government would like to do a comprehensive review of this proposal and therefore I withdraw the proposal," Jaitley said in a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha, amid cheering from his party colleagues in the Parliament. He also clarified that the intention was not to make revenue from the EPF but to push the private sector employees to take up annuity schemes.

He, however, stated on Tuesday that 40 percent exemption given to National Pension Scheme (NPS) subscriber at the time of withdrawal remains.

"Employees should have the choice of where to invest. Theoretically such freedom is desirable, but it is important the government to achieve policy objective by instrumentality of taxation. In the present form, the policy objective is not to get more revenue but to encourage people to join the

pension scheme," Jaitley said explaining the rationale for the taxation proposal.

The minister had made the proposal to tax 60 percent of the EPF corpus at the withdrawal in the Budget 2016. The proposal had given rise to widespread protests from the salaried class. What made matters worse for the government was that it took the decision at a time when there is a mistrust among the general public that the Narendra Modi government has failed to live up to the promises made before the elections.

The announcement drew quick reactions on Twitter, with some thanking the union government for the rollback, and some others

Good EPF tax rolled back. But 1 big budget announcement, 4 different clarifications. Maximum government, Minimum governance! #ModiSarkar  Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) March 8, 2016

EPF tax rolled back: guess govts do respond to what trends on Twitter sometimes!!  Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) March 8, 2016

EPF levy is to be withdrawn on the insistence of Namo. But watch Buddhu--he will claim credit.  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 8, 2016

Finally EPF Tax withdrawn !

This is not the victory of any political party but of entire middle class who raised their voice against it    (@Komal_Indian) March 8, 2016

"This is a draconian act and will be a killer blow to already tax burdened salaried class which pays 30% income tax + 30% taxes in indirect form i.e customs, excise, service tax etc," an online petition seeking to withdraw the tax said.

The trade unions have said the tax amounts to forcing employees to invest in pension annuity schemes.

The proposal would not have impacted 3.26 crore EPFO subscribers drawing statutory wage of upto Rs 15,000 per month. Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has a total subscriber base of 3.7 crore.

After the protests, there were reports that the officials of Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the finance ministry and the labour ministry met to discuss the issue.

Even the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) also opposed the proposal and demanded a complete rollback.

"We are talking to government representatives and they are considering our concern. We are in regular touch with them. We hope some announcement in a day or two," BMS general secretary Vijesh Upadhyay had told IANS.

The BMS leaders have met Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and some other government representatives in this regard.

With PTI and IANS
Hyderabad: CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy on Tuesday cleared the air regarding the party's connection with student wings saying that CPI does not have any affiliated organisations and the outfits like AISF are independent but "friendly" towards the party.

His remarks came in the context of the row involving JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar who belongs to AISF (All India Students Federation).

"We want to make it clear, we don't have any affiliated organisations. There is a difference between affiliated and those who are friendly with us. We don't have students' wing, youth wing or trade union wing and all that," Reddy told reporters.

"All those in students' federation are not our party members. Kanhaiya Kumar definitely belongs to our party family...," he said.

AISF was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru in a meeting presided by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 1936, Reddy said.

Former Prime Minister and BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also a member of AISF once upon a time, Reddy mentioned, adding that it could have happened because AISF was the only students' association those days.

"...The general students in AISF may take their own political line. We don't nominate AISF presidents or secretaries. We have no right to remove them because we don't nominate them. Parties nominate in other unions. Our party members work in women's, students, trade unions, so they are friendly to us. They are independent organisations, supported by Left and supported by general democratic sections of the

society," Reddy said.

Asked if Kanhaiya Kumar would campaign for Left in the coming polls in five states, the CPI General Secretary said it was not discussed, but the JNUSU president may campaign as he did in Bihar election.

PTI
Panaji: Ruling out chances of advancing Assembly polls in Goa, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday said it is for the BJP leadership to decide who should lead the party next time and rejected suggestions that defeat in the Panaji City Corporation elections was a setback for the party.

"The elections will not be held this year. They will be either in second-half of February or first-half of March next year," Parsekar said in an interview on the eve of completion of four years of the BJP-led government in Goa.

After winning the polls on 9 March, 2012, Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister of the state and Parsekar succeeded him after his elevation as the defence minister at the centre in November 2014.

Responding to a query on the leadership issue, Parsekar said it is for the party to decide who should be the next chief ministerial face in Goa.

"I have nothing to do with it. It will be the party's strategy," he said.

"I am running the government which was formed on the mandate given to Manohar Parrikar. Though the party got the majority, we had projected Parrikar as legislative party leader during 2012 polls," he said.

"Now I feel that during 2017 polls, it is my responsibility to secure the same mandate for the party," Parsekar said.

On the BJP's defeat in Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) polls, the results of which were declared on Tuesday, he said he did not consider it as a setback to the party.

The BJP candidates were outsmarted by nominees fielded by expelled Congress legislator Atanasio Monserratte, who secured a clear majority in the 30-member civic body.

The CCP, which covers Goa's capital city of Panaji, was ruled by the BJP-led council prior to the elections on 6 March.

Monserratte's panel won 17 wards, while BJP managed victory only in 13 seats and the Congress, which had fielded candidates in nine wards, drew a blank.

"The CCP poll results are not a setback for the party. We have maintained our numbers. We had 13 corporators in the earlier council and we have retained it," Parsekar said.

The BJP had controlled the council by joining hands with various smaller groups (independents).

He also said the result will not have any impact on Panaji Assembly segment, which was earlier held by Parrikar and is now represented by Siddharth Kuncolienkar of the BJP.

"Siddharth did a good job, especially when Parrikar is busy in Delhi. I congratulate him," Parsekar said.

Monserratte, however, said the civic body results indicated that the voters want a "BJP-mukt" (free from BJP) Goa.

PTI
The Narendra Modi government has bowed to public pressure and completely withdrawn its unpopular budget proposal to tax 60 percent of an individual's EPF corpus at the time of withdrawal.

The fact that the issue was listed as a business to be taken up today in the Lok Sabha soon after the Question Hour itself was an indication that the government was very keen to put an end to the controversy, which was heavily tilted against the Modi government.

Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received adverse feedbacks on this budgetary proposal from various quarters, including those from his own party. He had spoken to the finance minister and advised him to withdraw it. As for the official niceties, it was decided that the government would do a comprehensive review of the subject before mulling over its future course of action.

The move was widely criticised and seen as a proposal that negatively impact the salaried class.

The feedbacks Modi received was so strong, as also the outrage of the salaried reflected on the social media, that he didnt want to wait for long to take an otherwise difficult call to roll back.

It was thus decided that the Finance Minister would make an announcement to this effect in the Lok Sabha on Friday. However, it did not happen because the House was adjourned for the day due to death of former Speaker PA Sangma.

On account of Shivratri, Parliament did not function on Monday and thus on the first available opportunity on Tuesday Jaitley made the brief statement about the rollback.

The argument was that the employees should have freedom to invest, he said, adding that the idea was not to get revenue but to encourage the employees to invest in pension annuity schemes. However, given the representations the government received including from the MPs, a comprehensive review would be done.

The governments move to tax major part of EPF withdrawal had taken the sheen out of the Budget 2016, which has been seen positively otherwise for the emphasis on agriculture, rural India and infrastructure.

Tax on EPF withdrawals was the single biggest negative point that could have impacted the public perception about the government. Remember, the salaried class has been Modis strongest and vocal supporters in the run-up to 2014 parliamentary elections.

On his part, Modi too had been focussing on the issues the middle class faces. In fact, it is after a long-long time any politician of his stature is talking about the middle and neo-middle class. Tax on EPF was something that couldnt be taken kindly by the class which vigorously rooted for him. It was somewhat incumbent on Modi to do a course correction.

Also Modi had placed his personal stakes in 2016 annual budget. No prime minister had ever done it. This why he said in his Mann Ki Baat that presentation of the budget for the year was like a board exam for him where 125 crore people of the country would be his evaluators.

Now that he has done away with the controversial tax proposal on EPF he can safely consider himself passed the exam. He will have to work harder on delivery to fetch better marks.
Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel on Monday praised jailed Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel, saying he has "brought the community together".

"When I was coming, people shouted 'Jai Sardar (an invocation to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel). I also shouted 'Jai Sardar'. We are all marching ahead on the call of 'Jai Sardar'. This community (Patidar) has today come together because of that boy," he said without taking the name of the 22-year-old Hardik.

The 87-year-old politician, an important leader of Patels who still enjoys clout in the State, was speaking at an event organised by the Patidar community near the temple town of Somnath, around 400km from here.

Keshubhai, once a rival of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, quit BJP in 2012 and floated Gujarat Parivartan Party to contest the Assembly elections that year.

However, he resigned from the fledgling outfit after it won just two Assembly seats in a 182-member House. The veteran politician, who himself won from Visavadar in Junagadh district, later resigned as MLA due to ill health.

Though the two-time BJP Chief Minister had met Hardik at least once during the height of the quota agitation last year, this is possibly the first time he has showered praise on the young community leader from a public forum.

Before his arrest, Hardik had come calling on Keshubhai before meeting Chief Minister Anandiben Patel in September last year.

Hardik, lodged in Surat's Lajpore Jail, faces charges of "sedition" and "waging war against the government" in cases filed in Ahmedabad and Surat. An order on his bail plea in Ahmedabad is likely to be pronounced by a court tomorrow.

Hardik has been leading the agitation for quota under the banner of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS).

PTI
Srinagar: Two people were injured when security personnel opened fire at protesters in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district on Tuesday after being attacked by people while laying a cordon to trap separatist guerrillas.

A senior police officer said two people were injured, one of them seriously, in Ashmuqam (Pahalgam) village when security forces fired at a group of protesters who attacked them.

It occurred when the security forces were laying a cordon following specific information about hiding guerrillas there.

"The injured have been shifted to hospital for treatment. Senior army and civil administration officials have rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation", the officer said.

IANS
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party leader and tribal activist Soni Sori on Monday visited Jawaharlal Nehru University here to express solidarity with the students agitating for the release of those still in judicial custody in a sedition case.

Sori, who was attacked in Bastanar in Chhattisgarh by unknown assailants on 20 February, also addressed the students in front of the varsity administration block and assured of support to the students.

Two JNU students  Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya  are currently in 14-day judicial custody.

"The moment (JNU Students Union president) Kanhaiya Kumar came back from prison, I was extremely happy. We all are now waiting for the other two students to come out and be amongst us again," Sori said.

"When I was studying, I was told that children and students are the country's future. Now those very students are branded anti-nationals. How will the country progress like this? It is sad to see the fight you all involved in," she said.

Sori also spoke about her struggle against the Chhattisgarh government for targeting of tribals in the state.

"It is the tribals who are struggling in this fight between the government and Maoists. We are tormented in the name of Maoists. Even we want azadi (freedom) from all of this. Today, I'm happy to be able to keep this issue in front of you since JNU students have always stood for our struggle," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

Six JNU students, including Khalid and Bhattacharya, were charged with sedition after anti-India slogans were raised at an event held on the campus on 9 February to protest against the execution of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in Tihar jail in 2013.

IANS
Dhaka: Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a top Islamist leader for war crimes during the country's independence struggle against Pakistan in 1971, paving the way for his execution.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha announced the apex court's verdict to dismiss the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's liberation war.

"The sentence (death penalty) is maintained," Sinha announced in a crowded courtroom.

The decision of the five-member bench of the top court came 16 months after the country's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced 63-year-old Ali to death for atrocities committed during the liberation war in 1971. He had challenged the verdict.

He was convicted of running a militia torture cell, Al Badr, that carried out killings of several people.

The court found as valid most of the charges against him, including carrying out murders and tortures siding with the Pakistani troops in line with the policy of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.

Ali headed a media corporation aligned with Jamaat before his arrest in 2012.

He was the Al Badr's third most important functionary after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.

Political analysts said his funding helped the Jamaat secure a strong foothold in independent Bangladesh.

Officially, three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the 1971 liberation war.

Ali faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court or he is granted clemency by the president.

Three senior Jamaat officials and a leader of the main opposition party have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes.

PTI
London: Britain will deploy military naval ships to join a Nato mission in the Aegean Sea to reduce the flow of migrants from Turkey to Europe, the media reported on Tuesday.

The Royal Navy will send amphibious landing ship royal fleet auxiliary (RFA) Mounts Bay alongside two border force cutters to join the Nato mission, Xinhua quoted British Prime Minister David Cameron as saying on Monday.

RFA Mounts Bay, supported by a Wildcat helicopter, is expected to start operations in the coming days to identify smugglers taking migrants to Greece and passing the information to the Turkish Coast Guard so they can intercept these boats.

They will be supported by three border force boats, including standby safety vessel VOS Grace which is already in the Aegean and two cutters.

"We've got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey," Cameron said.

"That's why this Nato mission is so important. It's an opportunity to stop the smugglers and send out a clear message to migrants contemplating journeys to the Europe that they will be turned back," he added.

At an EU summit in Brussels on Monday, Cameron urged its European partners to break the link between migrants' getting on a boat and getting resettlement in Europe by "smashing the trafficking gangs and increasing the return of illegal migrants."

He also called on the international community to act together and stem the flow of migrants making the "perilous journey" from Turkey to Greece, according to the British government.

IANS
Islamabad: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that Pakistan was fighting terrorism as part of a "moral obligation" to eliminate the scourge from the country, a day after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 17 people in the restive northwestern region.

Sharif stated this in a meeting with visiting British Secretary of State Philip Hammond who called on him.

According to a statement, Sharif said that "fighting the war against terrorism is the moral obligation of Pakistan" and that his government is leading the war on terror to "ensure a peaceful tomorrow for the country and our future generations".

"We strongly condemn terrorist activities anywhere in the world whether perpetrated by individuals, groups or states," he said.

He said the ongoing military offensive against all terrorist groups - Operation 'Zarb-e-Azb' has broken the back of terrorists.

The prime minister said his government faced major challenges of terrorism, economic degradation and energy deficiency after he assumed office.

"We are overwhelmingly contented that our government has delivered on all these fronts. We evolved broad based consensus on National Action Plan, which has yielded very positive results in eliminating the scourge of terrorism from our land," he said.

Hammond praised the Pakistan government for its domestic reform agenda and legislation and national policies to protect women and minorities.

"You are doing the right thing by reaching out to your neighbours. Your message of peace is in fact reaching the entire world, which is reassuring," he said.

Sharif said that Pakistan has a vital stake in peace, stability and development in Afghanistan and supports efforts for promoting peace and reconciliation through Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.

PTI
Islamabad: A day after a suicide attack killed 17 people Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting of military and government officials to discuss the security situation in the country.

The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, special assistance on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, National Security Advisor Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua, ISI chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry and other senior government officials.

Issues pertaining to national and internal security were discussed during the meeting, as per an official statement.

The meeting strongly condemned Monday's attack in Charsadda in the restive northwestern region which killed several civilians and security personnel.

"The meeting agreed that elimination of terrorism from our soil is a national resolve," it said.

Pakistan has lost more than 55,000 people in terrorist violence after the invasion of Afghanistan by NATO in 2001, according to the interior ministry.

PTI
Islamabad: The kidnapped son of a liberal governor assassinated by his bodyguard was found Tuesday, senior officials said, just over a week after his father's killer was hanged.

Shahbaz Taseer had been kidnapped by Islamist gunmen, reportedly the Taliban, from the city of Lahore in August 2011, months after his father Salmaan was killed for opposing the country's controversial blasphemy laws.

Aitzaz Goraya, head of the Counter-Terrorism Department of southwestern Balochistan province told AFP: "Yes, we have recovered him."

"Acting on a tip off, intelligence forces and police went to a compound in the Kuchlak district some 25 kilometres north of Quetta," Goraya added.

"We surrounded the compound and we raided it. We didn't find anyone. A single person was there and he told us my name is Shahbaz and my father's name is Salmaan Taseer."

Goraya described Taseer, who is in his early thirties, as being in "feeble" health.

Anwarul Haq Kakar, spokesman for the Balochistan government, told the private TV news channel 92 news: "I can confirm that Shahbaz Taseer has been safely recovered. He is in safe hands."

Last week Pakistan hanged Mumtaz Qadri, the police bodyguard who shot the governor 28 times in Islamabad in January 2011.

Analysts described the execution as a key moment in Pakistan's long fight against militancy, saying it demonstrated the government's resolve to uphold the rule of law rather than allow extremism to flourish.

But Qadri's funeral brought up to 100,000 people on to the streets who hailed him as a hero, highlighting the country's deep religious divide.

AFP
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey A young child and another person were killed on Tuesday when rocket fire hit the Turkish town of Kilis from across the Syrian border, the mayor and security sources said, in an attack that Ankara blamed on Islamic State militants.

Kilis, near Turkey's southern border with Syria, was hit by a series of eight rockets, with one landing near a hospital, mayor Hasan Kara said.

Turkish security sources said two more people were injured.

"The first rocket landed in an empty field. Then, when people started gathering, they started firing around those areas," Kara said. "They are being fired intentionally."

A residential area near a high school was also hit and the Turkish military returned fire into Syria, the security sources said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Islamic State militants were responsible for the attack.

The attack showed how "fragile" the Syrian ceasefire is, he said. Davutoglu was speaking at a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

The ceasefire agreement, accepted by the Syrian government and most of those fighting against it, has reduced violence in Syria since it took effect on Feb. 27, the first truce of its kind in a 5-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people and caused the world's biggest refugee crisis.

Islamic State is one of the Islamist insurgent groups not taking part in the ceasefire.

The area of Syria from where the rockets probably came is believed to be under the control of Islamic State, Kara said.

On Monday, the U.S. military said coalition forces had targeted the militant group in Iraq and Syria with two dozen strikes near 15 cities.

Live footage from broadcaster TRT World captured the sound of a large explosion, followed by a plume of black smoke rising from nearby buildings.

Local schools had been shut but the town was calm, Kara said.

(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir and Akin Aytekin and Yesim Dikmen in Istanbul and Dasha Afanasieva in Izmir; Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley and David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Louise Ireland)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The wife of former Eagles band member, bassist Randy Meisner was killed when a rifle she was handling accidentally discharged and shot her in the head, Los Angeles police say.

Police said on Monday officers found 63-year-old Lana Rae Meisner dead on Sunday from a single gunshot wound at the couple's home in the San Fernando Valley.

Randy Meisner.

Investigators say Lana Rae Meisner lifted the rifle from a storage case when another item inside shifted and hit the trigger, causing the gun to fire.
A dispute over a man's electricity led to a police officer doused in petrol and a chainsaw-wielding man being lit on fire in a bizarre incident in the city's north west.

Neighbours say employees of an energy provider turned up to a home in Riverstone, near Windsor, on Tuesday morning to tell the resident they would be cutting his power.

The resident - a 51-year-old man known to neighbours only as Bear - allegedly turned hostile, picking up a chainsaw and threatening to cut the power pole on the street outside his house.

Police say the man made a few cuts into the power pole outside his Regent Street home.
Humanitarian disaster is looming in the western Iraq city of Fallujah, an Islamic State stronghold under siege by security forces, where tens of thousands of people face food shortages, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Tuesday.

There is no flour, rice, sugar or oil available in Fallujah and the prices of the little food that is left have risen sharply, the agency quoted Fallujah residents as saying.

Fuel and cooking oil are no longer available and the price of a kilo of flour jumped to 24,000 IQD ($20) in January, up more than 800 percent from December, the WFP said.

The Iraqi army, police and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias  backed by airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition  imposed a near total siege late last year on Fallujah, located 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad in the Euphrates River valley.

"The humanitarian situation in Fallujah is dire and residents need immediate assistance," WFP spokeswoman Marwa Awad told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "We are aware that no food is going into the city and that militant groups are controlling the remaining food supplies."

Iraq not seen as priority

It has been too dangerous for the WFP to reach the area since September, when it delivered a one-month supply of food to 400 families in Garma, 10 km (6 miles) from Fallujah, she said.

"We are deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation inside Fallujah, where many people require immediate food assistance," Awad said. "We are ready to help, but we are on standby until ... the authorities give the green light to go in."

Of the estimated 30,000 to 60,000 residents of Fallujah, a "significant number" are surviving on potatoes and other local food, after moving toward rural areas on the outskirts of the city, Awad said by phone from Iraq.

"We call on all parties to allow access to prevent a humanitarian disaster," she said. "Sadly, everyone is focused on Syria and Yemen, and the international community is no longer prioritizing Iraq. That's the problem."

In January, 32 people were reported to have died from starvation in Syria in areas that had been under siege for months.

Fallujah, a long-time bastion of Sunni Muslim jihadists, was the first Iraqi city to fall to Islamic State, in January 2014, six months before the group swept through large parts of northern and western Iraq and neighboring Syria.
As businessman Donald Trump moves closer to winning the Republican presidential nomination, many Latinos in the United States say they are put off by his anti-immigration rhetoric and will vote for someone else.

At the start of the election season, Salvadoran-American Rene Burgos and his wife, Mexican-American Maria Elena Burgos, said they would vote for the candidate who would best reflect their Christian values.

Someone who is more compassionate, more caring for the people, Rene Burgos said.

Rene Burgos said his Christian faith shapes what he does and the decisions he makes, including picking the next U.S. president. Burgos and his wife had been leaning toward voting for a Republican until Trump started winning primaries and caucuses.

When I started seeing the debates and the results, I was depressed. I was like, 'Oh no, Maria Elena Burgos said.

Anger, disappointment



Trumps proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and his statement about undocumented Mexican immigrants ... bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," have caused strong emotions among many Latinos.

I would say anger, also disappointment, Maria Elena Burgos added, saying, the United States has been made of many, many cultures together, so if we start making walls, or dividing, or sending people away; we are destroying the country. We are not building it up.

We are here trying to contribute to make this nation a great nation. We do it by hard work and by honest work. I dont think building a wall is a good way to address these issues, said Rene Burgos.

Now an American citizen, Rene Burgos escaped the civil war in El Salvador and came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant. He received amnesty under the Reagan administration. He said contrary to Trump's anti-immigrant views, Latino immigrants are having a positive impact on the U.S.

New generation of voters



Republican political consultant Luis Alvarado said while Latinos have traditionally voted for a Democrat, many Latinos who make up the new generation of voters remain undecided. He said Trumps success may prompt many Latinos to take action.

They (Latinos) will vote for Hillary Clinton not because they support her ideas or her presidency or her policies, but just to punish Donald Trump. Alvarado added, There is nothing more powerful in any electoral campaign, for any electoral group than an enraged electorate.

Maria Elena Burgos agreed, if its a decision between Trump and Clinton, she will vote for Clinton, a Democrat.

Not that I agree with any of her policies, but (I will vote for Clinton) just to save America from Trump.

In the weeks leading up to Easter, the Burgos faith and values are constantly on their minds. Maria Elena Burgos said she will pray that the best person for the job will become the next president of the United States.
The United States is trying to determine if an airstrike last week in Syria killed a top Islamic State leader.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said a coalition strike Friday near the town of al-Shaddadi targeted Tarkhan Batirashvili, also known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, or "Omar the Chechen."

"At the time of this strike, Batirashvili had been sent to al Shaddadi to bolster ISIL [IS] fighters following a series of strategic defeats by local forces we are supporting, cutting off ISIL operations near the Syria-Iraq border," Cook said.

Earlier in the day, an official told VOA on the condition of anonymity that the Islamic State commander was believed to be in the area to assess the strength of his forces and "try to boost morale" after major territory gain by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

As many as a dozen Islamic State fighters were killed in the strike, according to the official.

CNN was the first to report the airstrike.

The U.S. had a $5 million reward on the IS leader's head and said he "coordinated closely" with Islamic State's financial section.

This follows reports last week of an airstrike near Aleppo that killed IS official Amr al Absi, also known as Abu al Athir.



U.S. officials tell VOA they have not been able to confirm al-Absi's death and say that if he was killed in an airstrike, it wasn't one carried out by the United States.
Taiwanese lawmakers passed a resolution on Monday to withdraw the new section of legislation that prevents pro-Taiwanese independence activists from having Republic of Taiwan stickers on their Republic of China passports.

The Legislatures National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee passed the non-binding resolution which was proposed by several opposition lawmakers in order to revoke Article Three of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act, according to a China Post report.

The article prohibits Taiwanese citizens from placing Republic of Taiwan stickers on the cover of their passports. Failing to observe this law may result in a passport revocation by government authorities.

New Power Party lawmaker, Freddy Lim, said that Article Five of the Passport Act only specifies that passport holders cannot make changes on the inner pages of their passport, however, the foreign minister modified the law to further specify that no alterations should be made on the front cover of a passport.

Lim, the proponent of the resolution, then criticized the move saying it had already violated the original act itself, thus should not be effective in the first place.

Lim also argues that many nationals place the stickers on their passports so as to prevent Taiwanese citizens to be wrongly identified as a Chinese national.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister David Lin clarified that the regulation is only meant to protect the rights of Taiwanese citizens traveling overseas since the use of the stickers could undermine the credibility of the countrys passport.

Lin mentioned the concerns of many countries over the use of such stickers, which could lead to visa denials by foreign authorities, including those in the U.S., but promises to review Lims proposal.

At least 15 Taiwanese citizens holding passports with the Republic of Taiwan stickers have been refused entry into Macau since the beginning of this year.
A screening of the award-winning animation, The Triplets of Belleville, will be held at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) tonight accompanied by a live orchestral performance led by the original film score composer, Benoit Charest.

The cine-concert combines what is usually considered animator Sylvain Chomets most high-profile film, nominated for two Oscars in 2003, and Charests diverse musical cast including trumpet, trombone, accordion players and percussionists.

In animation you need to have a very precise idea of the timing, Charest said yesterday during a press conference. I created a lot of the music without the animation after having the scene described. Later the animation would be created to synchronize with the soundtrack.

I think every film is a special event. You need to adapt to the needs of the director; that is what makes a good [score composer], along with meeting the right tone for the movie, Charest argued.

The award-winning animation tells the bizarre story of a young and fat Tour de France cyclist who is kidnapped by mysterious square-shouldered mafia henchmen and taken to a brimming metropolis. His near-sighted grandmother and faithful dog give chase to the kidnappers and along the way get taken in by a trio of eccentric jazz divas.

According to Charest, the performance of the cine-concert in Macau is the first in Asia. They will next perform in Taipei, before heading to the U.S. in April, and possibly Australia in autumn.

Charest adds that a part of the reason that he joined the orchestra for the cine-concert tour is [to get] a chance to get out of the studio. Why not? I wrote it, so lets try it.

The performance will be held tonight at 8 p.m. in the Grand Auditorium at CCM, and will run for about 75 minutes without intermission. DB
An anti-graft inspector for Chinas Communist Party, Liu Qiufang, revealed in Beijing that she is in charge of overseeing that mainland officials in the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office are not involved in corrupt practices, a RTHK report indicates.

Li, a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the partys department in charge of anti-graft campaigns for the country, said she was sent to the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing earlier this year to oversee all their staff.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, she did not comment on any specific case.

Since 2014, when Beijing launched its anti-corruption campaign, the local casino industry has been hit by a decline mostly due to the lack of VIP gamblers who have been responsible for about two-thirds of the gross gaming revenue that has seen sharp declines over 2015.

More recently with the investigation of high ranking officials, which includes the former Public Prosecutor General, Ho Chio Meng, who is currently in preventive custody, the MSAR has been reported as having started its own anti-graft drive following in the footsteps of the mainlands almost two-

year program.
Swiss authorities have arrested 15 people sought by neighboring Italy as suspected members of the ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.

The Federal Office of Justice said the Italian citizens were arrested yesterday in three Swiss regions, most of them in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau. They are suspected of belonging to a cell in Frauenfeld, in Thurgau, of the Calabria-based ndrangheta.

The suspects are being held pending possible extradition to Italy. Swiss authorities say their arrests were based on Italian extradition requests filed between February last year and January on charges of membership in a criminal organization. A court in Reggio Calabria already has imposed prison sentences on two of them.
Nearly every day, the retired factory worker goes to the airline office, riding a series of buses across Beijing to hand deliver a letter. And nearly every day, the letter says the same thing.

Tell us the truth, and get our loved ones back to us.

Once she hands over the letter, Dai Shuqin gets back on the bus and goes home, back to a small apartment where boxes hold copies of hundreds of letters she has delivered over the past two years, all begging for news on her sister and four other relatives who vanished when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. There were 239 people on board.

Most of the passengers on the plane, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, were Chinese. So across China, dozens of families are still wrestling with how  or if 

to accept that their relatives are dead. Investigators believe the Boeing 777 crashed in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board after flying far off course and running out of fuel. But they have only theories to explain exactly what happened, or why. Only one confirmed piece of plane wreckage has been found, a battered, rowboat-sized wing part that washed up on an Indian Ocean island about eight months ago.

What can you do when you dont know what happened to people you loved?

Some of the grieving families have filed lawsuits, including 12 families who did this week. Some have accepted cash settlements with Malaysia Airlines in exchange for agreeing not to file suit. Many are still debating what to do.

And some, like Dai, find their only solace comes in believing that their relatives are still alive. Somewhere. Somehow. As a result, their lives are now consumed by demanding answers from an airline that has few answers at all.

People say we are nuts, said Dai, a 62-year-old woman whose younger sister was on the flight, along with her sisters husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandson. But for us, we have the feeling that our loved ones are still alive.

Officials just tell us all the passengers are dead. We dont accept that. If they tell us the truth, or give us a convincing explanation, then well stop coming here every day.

She does not care if her quest looks impossible.

I cant sleep and I cant get over this, Dai said.

Her apartment has few decorations beyond a large world map stuck to one wall. A folding metal table is covered with copies of letters sent to the airline.

I have no other ways to handle this. [] Going to Malaysia Airlines every day gives me a bit of relief, and I feel I am doing something for my sister.

Many relatives believe the real story of MH370 has been hidden from them. They disagree on what may have happened, debating theories and trading facts and rumors. But few believe they know the entire truth.

That suspicion is heightened in China, where widespread censorship and the official control of access to information has led to a general sense among Chinese that what they see in the media, or hear from the government, is not to be trusted. This widespread cynicism foments a quiet if deep-seated anger, and a willingness to accept conspiracy theories.

Kelly Wen, who runs a furniture store, is desperate to move on, to find a way to start her life again after her husband disappeared with the plane.

But she remains overwhelmed by the loss.

My family is still in the shadow of the MH370 accident, said Wen, a 31-year-old Beijing resident with a five-year-old son now left without a father. I cant work like I did before because there are too many issues I need to handle in my family. But I do hope I can gradually walk out of the accident and go back to work.

With the second anniversary approaching, Wen increasingly believes she needs to make up her mind about what to do.

I need to decide whether to accept compensation and reach agreement with Malaysian Airlines or file suit in court, she said.

She and some 80 other relatives of MH370 passengers went together to meet Malaysia Airlines staff in late February to get updates on the situation. From the start, it did not go well. Outside the airline office were nearly two dozen policemen in case there was trouble.

When they left, few of the relatives were satisfied.

They had come with detailed questions about the status of the search and the investigation. Wen wanted to see security video of passengers boarding the aircraft. The search is expected to end in June, plane or no plane, and they wanted more details on that decision.

But no security video was released, she said, and little new information emerged. Few of the relatives have faith in the official investigation, which was set up by Malaysia and includes experts from Malaysia, Australia, China, Britain, the U.S. and France.

We hope we can have a third-

party, independent investigation when they stop search-and-

rescue in June, she said.

After the meeting, about 10 members of the group ate lunch together in a nearby restaurant.

This kind of gathering is very important for us, said Wen. We are already so helpless. If we dont gather among other relatives, we will feel even more lonely, she said.

Dai, however, doesnt think much about moving on. For the foreseeable future, her life is about delivering the letters that she and other relatives have signed.

A year ago, her only daughter had a baby, her only grandchild. Now, her daughter wants Dai to look after the little boy.

But Dai says that wont happen. Going to the airline office takes up too much of her time. Peng Peng & Tim Sullivan, Beijing, AP

malaysian pm says hopeful that missing plane will be found

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday he is hopeful that missing Flight 370 will still be found as lawmakers observed a moment of silence in Parliament to mark the second anniversary of the planes disappearance.

Najib said the wing part found on Frances Reunion Island last July was evidence the flight tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean. An ongoing search is expected to be completed later this year and he said Malaysia remains hopeful that the plane will be found.

If the search turns up nothing, he said, Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a meeting to determine the way forward.

The search has been the most challenging in aviation history, Najib said in a statement. We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonizing mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost.
Nearly 70 years after Abeer al Hosarys parents fled Palestine, she is reliving their fate, forced to leave home with nearly nothing and start again from scratch in a foreign land.

She grew up in the apartment upstairs from the bakery they built in Syria, part of the new life they created for themselves after they met in the Yarmouk refugee camp for Palestinians fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. She heard about Palestine from her parents but has never seen it, and she considers Syria her homeland. More than anything, she yearns to return and to see her family whole again.

Syria is the country that has fed us with its blessings, said al Hosary, 48, tears of homesickness and despair welling in her eyes. Im a Palestinian by name only, and by my roots. But the air, the sun, the breath  its Syrian. [] To me, Syria was paradise on earth. We never expected this to happen.

Now shes one of an estimated five million Syrians in a terrible exodus from a country torn apart by war. She and her husband and daughter are stuck with about 14,000 others at the Greece-Macedonia border, where sharp stones poke up through the thin bottom of a small tent donated by the Red Cross that is their temporary home.

Al Hosarys family is scattered across the continents. Her youngest son Emad is in Sweden  he made it there three years ago when he was just 17, after boarding a boat in Egypt bound for Italy and then making his way north. Smugglers paved the way, but the price  6,500 dollars in all  was too high for the family to afford sending more than one person.

Now all she, her husband and daughter want is to be reunited with him.

She sent him away right after her eldest son, who would now be 28, was arrested by the police in Syria while checking on the home they had fled in an area that came under rebel control. They havent heard from him since.

Emad was well-built and of military age, and al Hosary was terrified he would be next, or that soldiers would forcibly recruit him into the army.

She herself didnt want to leave Syria, a country she loves passionately. But after a while, staying just wasnt an option.

My fear was for my husband and my daughter, al Hosary said. For me, I can sit at home and wait for my death. But they have to go to work. And going to work meant risking their lives.

The shelling, the shelling, the shelling. War, war, war. We just couldnt take it, al Hosary said.

On Feb. 20, she, her husband Ali Mohammed Aboud and their 22-year-old daughter Israa Aboud packed up a few belongings and their large white and ginger tomcat and fled.

They tucked Taboush 

which means fatty in Arabic  into a baby carrier and hid him under blankets for the terrifying escape from Syria.

We smuggled him out, she says of the cat, who romps around inside the tent, leaping at the shadows passers-by cast on the tent walls. Its amazing, when we went through the roadblocks, he was so quiet and wouldnt even poke his head out. Its as if the cat knew.

They made their way through Turkey and then onto a boat bound for the Greek island of Chios. From there they took a ferry to the mainland, and then headed north until they reached the Greek-Macedonian border a week ago.

And here, in an increasingly fetid field of tents near the railway tracks near the village of Idomeni, they were forced to stop  along with up to 14,000 others. The Macedonians were restricting the flow of refugees through their border to barely a trickle, and on Monday, nobody crossed. After a European Union-Turkey summit in Brussels, it appeared increasingly likely their route forward would be blocked for good.

At this rate, I dont think well get through. We leave it up to God to decide, al Hosary said. Although the journey to get here was fraught with danger, sitting in a field day after day, with scant opportunity to wash and hope draining away by the hour, is no easier.

These conditions are also very difficult, she said. Were not used to this. [] Today Im so pessimistic. Ive reached my limit.

The family has no home to go back to. The only future they can see is to move forward, and above all to be reunited with Emad in Sweden.

But European leaders have balked at the immensity of the problem they face: dealing with the seemingly endless flood of men, women and children desperate for safer, better lives in their countries. One by one, the border restrictions have grown along the western Balkan route.

Going back is impossible. Sitting here is impossible. Crossing is impossible. Where is this Germany that told us to come? al Hosary asked. The Arabs shut the doors in our faces, and the Europeans opened them. Where are they now? Elena Becatoros, Idomeni, AP
The New Macau Association found suspicious traces that government departments may have contributed to expedite the bureaucratic procedures for the construction company regarding the proposed 100-meter skyscraper planned for Coloanes hill (Estrada do Campo). The association delivered a complaint to the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) yesterday, showing several documents that raise suspicions of favoritism from government departments.

The complaint is based on several decisions taken by the administration over a four year period (2009-2013) that converged to help this specific development project, the leader of New Macau Association, Scott Chiang, told journalists when delivering the documents to Macaus corruption watchdog.

Chiang explained, back in 2007 there was a plan clearly stating that the construction height for that entire area could not exceed 12 meters but in 2009 an updated version of the same plan excluded precisely the area in question without further explanation or reason, adding that a few years later in 2012 the developer had already applied for the development and with very suspicious efficiency the government issued a temporary project license, which preceded the environmental impact assessment.

According to Chiang, back in 2012 when the government issued the first temporary license for the project, it was only valid for 12 months. Although we are now in 2016 it seems that condition is still valid and we have to question why. () It seems like the government rushed the process so it could give an assurance to the development before the enforcement of the new Urban Development Plan of 2014.

Questioned by reporters about what the worst impact of the building could be (should it be built), Scott Chiang said that there are serious worries at two different levels: First, this project will dig up half of the hill which will have a terrible impact on the environment in Coloane, the last piece of natural environment we can find in Macau. More importantly, according to him, is what he deems as the B2 effect: Once you allow a project of such height in this location, all the surrounding landowners will say why cant I do the same thing? so all of Coloane Island would be effectively gone.

This development has been in the line of fire over the last week with several people and organizations expressing their discontent.

The government issued assurances that the project has not yet been granted a construction permit by the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT). A statement from the Government Information Bureau reiterated that starting construction on any project without a building permit is against the law.
Local lawyer Paula Ling Hsiao Yun and three other female delegates from Macau to the National Peoples Congress (NPC) have expressed their concerns about womens entitlement to holidays in addition to the 56 days of maternity leave, Macao Daily News reported.

According to the Labor Relations Law, women, in general, are granted a period of 56 days of maternity leave, whereas, in particular, female civil servants are granted a full three months, which is similar to the mainland entitlement (98 days). Ling complained that 56 days are definitely not enough. Female workers should be entitled to the same maternity leave as civil servants.

Four out of the 12 NPC delegates from Macau are female. According to Iong Weng Ian, leader of Macau Womens General Association, the number of female members of local organizations and committees has been increasing but the ratio between men and women is still disproportionate. In her words, I hope that the government creates more opportunities for women.

Currently, local residents enjoy 10 mandatory holidays of paid leave, against seven in the mainland. Ho Sut Heng, chairwoman of the Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM), considered that the maternity leave issue is not up to pace with social development and thinks women need more time for themselves.

Besides maternity leave, Leong Iok Wa, leader of FAOM, suggested that employed women, especially those on frequent rotational shift work, could be offered better organized working schedules.

Regarding womens status in society, the four delegates informed the media, while in Beijing, that female employees normally take responsibility both at home and at work, and that the pressure on local working-class women is quickly increasing. They suggested that extended maternity leave, as well as providing better services to the elderly and infants would bring improvements to the community.
The head of a Philippine Muslim rebel group warned yesterday that the Islamic State group could gain from frustrations in the countrys south following the failure of the Philippine Congress to pass an autonomy bill as part of a peace agreement.

Murad Ebrahim, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said the militant IS group has attempted over the past year to recruit supporters in Mindanao but his group has worked to convince them that the peace pact signed with the government in 2014 was the best solution.

But he said the delay in enactment of the bill that aims to establish a more powerful and better-funded autonomous region for minority Muslims has led to frustrations that could be capitalized by the IS and other small hard-line rebel groups.

Malaysia is a facilitator in the peace talks, and Murad spoke while passing through Kuala Lumpur.

There have been some efforts of penetration [by IS] but they have not succeeded in establishing a stronghold in Mindanao, he said during a news conference. But now after the non-passage of the [bill], we are quite concerned that they can capitalize on this because the [frustration] of the people in the area is now very strong.

The 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberalization Front dropped its secessionist bid and settled for broader autonomy for minority Muslims in the south of the largely Roman Catholic nation in a Malaysian-brokered pact it signed with Manila in 2014. The conflict has left 150,000 people dead and stunted development in the countrys poorest region.

Under the deal, a bill was submitted to Congress to create the autonomous region to be called Bangsamoro. The bills early passage was stalled by anger over the killing last year of 44 police commandos in fighting that involved some fighters from the Moro group.

Lawmakers ended the last regular session of their term last month without passing the bill.

Murad said his group will not completely abandon its arm struggle but will not revert to violence as long as the peace process has a chance to move forward. He said he is hopeful that the new president, to be elected later this year, will support and continue the efforts for peace. AP
Guangzhou may be the first of the mainlands four tier-one cities to lift restrictions on homebuyers from Hong Kong and Macau, but industry experts doubt the move will boost property sales in the region.

Industry experts are skeptical that Guangdong will clear its target of 160 million square meters of empty housing stock by 2018.

The Times earlier reported that Guangdongs provincial government may lift home-purchase restrictions for buyers from Hong Kong and Macau, and will be entitled to the same benefits as locals in eligible cities.

However, the new measure is not expected to draw buyers from Hong Kong, where prices have fallen nearly 11 percent after peaking last September.

The relaxation, if it materializes, will create potential demand from Hong Kong but not in a big way, Joseph Tsang, managing director at JLL Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post.

Meanwhile Thomas Lam, head of Valuation and Consultancy at Knight Frank, said Hong Kong was still a favorable investment among local investors, and added that investors are mainly concerned with the mainlands slowing economy.

According to mainland data provider Real Estate Information, prices for new flats in Guangzhou  which dominated total residential transactions  rose just over 36 percent since 2010, compared to Hong Kongs 88 percent rise over the same period.

Prices for new homes in Guangzhou had a month-

on-month increase of 0.64 percent in February.
The U.S. Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top U.S. general said yesterday.

Gen. Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged other nations to exercise their freedom to fly and sail in international airspace and waters claimed by China in the South China Sea or risk losing it throughout the region.

Weve watched the increased military capability on those islands, whether its the fighters, whether its the missiles or the 10,000-foot runways. We will continue to do as weve always done, and that is fly and sail in international airspace in accordance to international rules and norms, Robinson told reporters in Australias capital, Canberra, where she will address the Royal Australian Air Forces biennial Air Power Conference next week.

Robinson declined to say how the United States would retaliate if a U.S. plane was shot down by the Chinese.

Several governments have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, a major conduit for world trade. The U.S. lays no claims to the waters, but says it has an interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and non-use of force and coercion to assert claims.

Robinson conceded there was a possibility of a miscalculation leading to conflict in the increasingly militarized region.

But she said that the United States and China had signed an agreement on air-to-air rules of behavior in international airspace in September and would continue discussions on the subject this year.

That has allowed us to have continuous dialogue with the Chinese about how to conduct safe intercepts and intercepts in accordance with international rules and norms, Robinson said.

She said Russian long-range aircraft were also increasingly active in the Pacific, flying around Japan and Guam.

As part of U.S. plans to increase its military presence in the Pacific, Robinson said discussions were underway with the Australian military to rotate U.S. bombers through the northern Australian air force bases at Darwin and Tindal.

It gives us the opportunity to train our pilots to understand the theater and to strengthen our ties with our great allies, the Royal Australian Air Force, Robinson said.

U.S. Marines already rotate through Darwin in a sign of an increasingly close military bilateral alliance that riles China, Australias most important trade partner. Rod McGuirk, Canberrra, AP
CHINA has no plans to allow couples to have as many kids as they want after changing the one-child policy rule, a health official said yesterday. Chinas population reached 1.375 billion last year and it had to bear in mind its large population and stress on resources when making decisions, said Li Bin, director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

KOREAS South Korea said yesterday it is imposing unilateral sanctions on the North over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, including a ban on financial dealings with 40 individuals and 30 entities. The announcement came after North Korea warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes in response to the start of U.S.-South Korean military drills it views as an invasion rehearsal.

INDIA A 15-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a New Delhi hospital after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her familys home in a village outside the city, police said. The attack is just one of several recently reported cases of rapes of women or children in India  underlining the persistence of such violence despite stronger laws against sexual assault that were implemented.

THAILAND The govt has dropped a case against Hong Kong photojournalist Hok Chun Anthony Kwan who was arrested last year for possessing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, which are considered weapons in Thailand, two court officials said yesterday. The Foreign Correspondent of Thailand welcomed the decision, stating [those]who need to work in dangerous areas, [must] be able to use appropriate protective equipment legally in Thailand.

AFGHANISTAN Six months after fleeing a Taliban assault on her city, Zarghona Hassan, the owner of an Afghan radio station devoted to womens rights is back home and returning to the airwaves.

AUSTRALIAs prime minister leaves open the possibility of a national election as early July as a new opinion poll suggested his leadership honeymoon with voters has ended. Malcolm Turnbull has until May 11 to announce a rare early election on July 2, July 9 or July 16.

UK Bank of England Governor Mark Carney says the bank wont make a recommendation on whether Britain should remain in the European Union. In testy exchanges before a House of Commons committee, Carney stressed that the bank would remain focused on safeguarding financial and monetary stability and that it wouldnt be drawn into taking a stand on EU membership.
BOISE  A law to speed up testing of sexual assault evidence kits passed a Senate committee unanimously Monday and is heading to the full Senate.

Sponsored by Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, it requires local law enforcement to submit rape kits to the state police forensics laboratory within 30 days, and for them to test them within 90 days. It also creates a tracking system and requires an annual audit and report to the state Legislature.

Currently, rape kit submission and testing rates vary widely statewide from police agency to agency, as the Idaho Press-Tribune reported recently, and state police Director of Forensic Services Matthew Gamette said Monday that the average turnaround time now for testing in a non-priority DNA case is seven months.

Theres just been some miscommunication and lack of consistency, and I think this bill will help that, Wintrow told the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee.

Nobody testified against the bill, and several testified in favor. Kelly Miller, head of the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, talked about the impact of rape on the victim and about how timely testing is critical to securing justice.

Each sexual assault kit is an actual human being, Miller said. Its someones daughter, sister, niece, girlfriend, wife, son.

It would cost an extra $222,300 a year in 2016-2017 and an extra $207,300 a year thereafter, the cost of doing more testing and hiring two additional technicians. The bill has already passed the House unanimously.

Law enforcement would not be required to submit kits for testing in cases where the victim doesnt want it or where police have already determined no crime has been committed.
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WASHINGTON, March 8, 2016 - Concerns about the toxicity of glyphosate and its formulations have delayed a decision on reauthorization by European officials.

A closed-door meeting of the European Commissions Standing Plant Animal Food and Feed (PAFF) Committee ended without a vote to grant glyphosate a license for use in the EUs 28 member states. Published reports prior to the meeting seemed to indicate smooth sailing for the controversial herbicide, the active ingredient in Monsantos Roundup.

But France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy all opposed an effort to relicense the herbicide for use for the next 15 years, The Guardian reported.

The current authorization expires at the end of June. The PAFF committee meets again in May, but the issue could be raised before then, a European Commission source said. The EC is the executive arm of the EU.

The Netherlands is calling for the relicensing to be put on hold until after a separate evaluation of glyphosates toxicity next year, The Guardian reported.

The EC source said that one concern countries have is the co-formulants used to make glyphosate more effective. The Guardian reported that the commission could single out one or more of those substances for prohibition.

The EC source mentioned polyethoxylated tallow amines in particular. Also known as POEA, tallow amines are used in some glyphosate formulations and have known toxic effects on aquatic organisms, the U.S. Geological Survey says. Glyphosate makers and distributors disagree, arguing that the surfactants dissipate rapidly and thus are unlikely to have much effect on aquatic life.

A likely contributor to the concerns of some EU member states is the conclusion reached a year ago by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans.

The European Food Safety Authority, however, gave glyphosate a clean bill of health and has responded to criticisms of its work by one member of the IARC panel.

Not an Agri-Pulse subscriber? Get our Daily Harvest email and Daybreak audio Monday through Friday mornings, a 16-page newsletter on Wednesdays, and access to premium content on our ag and rural policy website. Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





Monsanto Europe did not appear too worried about the delay.

It is common for the Standing Committee to have an exchange of views at one  or even more than one  meeting and then to vote on the renewal of an active substance at a subsequent meeting. This allows Member States to have a robust discussion. In fact, it would have been somewhat unusual for the Standing Committee to vote during the first meeting at which glyphosate was on the agenda for an exchange of views and possible vote, the company said.

We expect this process to move forward in the coming weeks and that a vote of Member States will take place in due course, the company said.

The European Glyphosate Task Force also issued a statement, similar to the one posted by Monsanto Europe.

#30
About Me Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah I am Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, who resides in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I hold a post-graduate law degree from the United Kingdom. I blog to tell MALAYSIANS THE TRUTH. View my complete profile

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There are worse things than fleeing the bleak New England midwinter for warmer climessuch as Jaipur, Indias famed Pink City. So cold was it when I departed Providence last month that the nozzle on my planes fuel hose froze shut, grounding the plane until the crew could unfreeze it.





Frolicking around in shirtsleeves at a Mughal dynasty fort in Rajasthan was a welcome relief from frostbite. The occasion for the trip, though, was three days of quad-plus dialogue about sundry topics important to Indian Ocean powers. The quad, or standing membership for these unofficial track II gatherings, refers to India, Australia, Japan and the United States. Sri Lanka is the plus, or rotating participant, for this year.





Maritime governance in the Pacific and Indian oceans was the subject of my panel. China came up repeatedly during the gathering, which should shock no one. After all, Chinaa great power on the makeconstitutes a menace to freedom of the seas in East Asia. Communist Party apparatchiks and ordinary Chinese alike seem to view water and sky as territory to be occupied, controlled and ruled through domestic law. And the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), predictably, is militarizing the South China Sea with verve, protestations from top leaders notwithstanding.





How to manage a great-power challenge to nautical freedom is a question of a higher order altogether than how to police the Indian Ocean. Think about it. Neer-do-wells like corsairs, weapons traffickers and seagoing terrorists are the main threats to free navigation in maritime South Asia. Everyone, including Beijing, can agree to work together to combat brigandage in the Gulf of Aden or Bay of Bengal, expanses largely free of great-power entanglements. China plays reasonably well with others to the west of Malacca.





To date, anyway. During the Q and A following our panel, I got into a cordial shouting match with a retired Indian admiral and general about how long the present era of good feelings would endure. (We almost had to resort to pistols at daybreak.) The debate boils down to this: When will the PLA Navy be strong enough to overpower the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean, an expanse that New Delhi considers an Indian preserve, if Beijing gives the word?





The good news: we all agreed that doom is not nigh. While occasionally irksome, the burgeoning PLA Navy presence in regional waters poses little threat for now. But we arrived at that happy conclusion by different routes, and drew different implications from it. The Indian delegates cited shortfalls in Chinese capability, opining that it will take the PLA Navy at least fifteen years to station a standing, battle-worthy naval squadron in the Indian Ocean. Such a sanguine view rules out a Chinese threat; it lulls Indians.





That might not be such a good thing, considering the growth of Chinese military might over the past couple of decades. Nonetheless, lets parse the optimists view. What constitutes capability for the PLA Navy? By that, Indians must be referring to some amalgam of technologically sophisticated hardware; the number of ships, planes and armaments cranked out by defense production lines or procured abroad; and the seamanship, tactical prowess and elan displayed by the mariners who operate this shiny new kit.





Capability also encompasses logisticsespecially when a navy contemplates instituting a standing presence in distant seas. Modern navies are far from self-sufficient. Ships of war, even nuclear-powered ones, cannot ply the briny main for long without a ready supply of bullets, beans and black oil. Thats U.S. Navy shorthand for the manifold stores demanded by fuel- and maintenance-intensive vessels. And ships and warplanes need regular upkeep. Its most convenient to perform maintenance in the theaterclose to likely hotspotsrather than subject hulls and crews to long voyages back home for overhaul.





To deploy a fleet permanently to remote waterways, in short, a navy needs basesfacilities complete with supply and ammunition depots, dry docks, all manner of workshops, and more. Without one or more lavishly appointed naval stations, Beijing will find it hard to stage more than a fitful presence in the Indian Ocean.





It may be taking steps to correct the logistical shortfall. Last month, engineers broke ground on what reporters touted as Chinas first overseas naval base, at Djibouti in East Africa. Well, maybe. In all likelihood the facility will remain a more humble affair than American naval stations such as Yokosuka and Sasebo, which anchor the U.S. Seventh Fleet presence in Japan. Its worth pointing out, moreover, that the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force also operate out of Djibouti.





And China does need some sort of logistical hub. The PLA Navy generally keeps a three-ship squadron on station for antipiracy duty. A small flotilla demands logistical support, but can get by without a true naval base. Each flotilla rotates back home once another takes its place. Returning ships undergo major maintenance at Chinese shipyards.





Nevertheless, construction at Djibouti furnishes an index for tracking Chinas naval ambitions in the Indian Ocean. Monitoring what Chinese engineers build and how seafarers use it may help fellow Indian Ocean powers glimpse what comes next for the PLA Navy in the region. Minimal infrastructure implies a transitory presence, commensurate with police duty, while major infrastructure suggests something bigger. Beijing may want to lay the groundwork for a presence aimed less at scouring the sea of lawbreakers and more at entrenching Chinese naval power in South Asia.





Indians afford such developments close scrutiny, as they have for at least a decade. I lost count of the number of times various quad-plus interlocutors stated, more or less as fact, that China is fashioning a string of pearls in the region. Thats the commonplace imagery for an array of Chinese naval bases. It could mean full-fledged naval stations. It could connote lesser arrangementssay, agreements with coastal-state governments that open their seaports to China, letting PLA Navy vessels tarry there routinely but impermanently.





Or a string of pearls could combine both types of arrangements, much as U.S. Navy fleets make their homes at hubs like Yokosuka and Bahrain, yet call at harbors like Singapore for sustenance and R&R from time to time.





And China? Its doubtful that China is operating under some grand plan to make itself master of the Indian Ocean. In all likelihood, Beijing is amassing options for itself should it someday see the need for a standing presence in the region. Bankrolling development of strategically located seaports like Gwadar in western Pakistan, or Colombo in Sri Lanka, stores up goodwill with prospective host nations while presumably creating a sense of indebtedness on their governments part. China could call in such favors during future negotiations over naval access.





It would consolidate its strategic position in the Indian Ocean in the process. The phrase string of pearls, accordingly, has taken on sinister overtones for many Indian observers. One quad-plus delegate upbraided China for encroaching on Indias environs, voicing a wish that New Delhi and friendly governments will prod Beijing to keep its naval expeditions in the region brief, episodic and geared to specific missions, such as succoring those struck by natural disasters. Indians, in short, want China to forego permanent basesthe logistical pillar of sea power.





One Chinese ship type in particular rankles with Indians: submarines. The Indian delegates at Jaipur fretted repeatedly at PLA Navy subs presence in regional waters. Beijing has pushed the official line that Chinese boats cruise the Indian Ocean to battle piracy. Indians regard this as a charade. Undersea craft are decidedly suboptimal platforms for chasing speedboats around the Gulf of Aden. Skeptical Indians thus view Beijings story as flimsy cover for missions that are meant to acquaint Chinese submariners with future patrol grounds.





Taken in total, this seems to be what Indians mean by capability: naval hardware, access to seaports, the human factor and familiarity with operating terrain. Whether it would really take the PLA Navy fifteen years to amass the makings of Indian Ocean sea power, however, remains an open question. Resolute nations have built great regional navies from scratch in about fifteen years, global navies in about thirtyand China is hardly starting from scratch, two decades into its naval enterprise. The Indian take on Chinas maritime prospects seems unduly upbeat.





As for me, Id say Beijing could stage a potent force in the Indian Ocean almost overnightif it were prepared to make the PLA Navy battle fleet an expeditionary fleet, and thus if it accepted major risk to its interests and purposes in the China seas. And, of course, such a strategy would turn on whether regional partners proved willing to host such an imposing fleet while riling up India, South Asias natural hegemon.





The bottom line is that, if China trusted its anti-access/area-denial weaponry to fend off competitors closer to home, then it could outmatch the Indian Navy in its home region. Do the arithmetic: the PLA Navy boasts the numbers to do so.





Thats a lot of ifs, though. Diverting most of the navy would leave the China seas largely unguarded by heavy forcesan unappealing prospect for Beijing. China will keep its strategic priorities straight unless something truly dire happens in the Indian Ocean, reconciling the leadership to hazards at which it would usually blanch. Those priorities lie mainly off the East Asian coastmandating that the fleet remain close to home to defend them.





In short, strategynot capability per sewill dissuade Chinas leadership from mounting a major naval presence in South Asia. Look to the strategic canon to see why. Sea-power sage Alfred Thayer Mahan explains how to size fleets for battle. Says Mahan, naval officialdom must apportion a fleet enough ships and armaments to fight, with reasonable chances of success, the largest force likely to be brought against it. Shortchanging a formation on numbers or capability, or ignoring what a foe is apt to do with its navy, courts defeat and disaster.





All well and good. Estimating relative combat power is far from simple, but it is doable: tabulate the quality and quantity of platforms deployed by each contender, estimate how a foes tactics and skill measure up to yours, add a little surplus, and you have a contingent that can enter the lists with reasonable prospects of success. But what about Mahans element of probability? How big a fraction of its strength is that opponent likely to commit to potential scenes of action?





Do some red-teaming to find out. Get to know the adversary and the logic impelling its decision calculus. For that, theres no better than to start with another of the greats, a man who scarcely acknowledged that oceans and seas existnamely, Prussias Carl von Clausewitz. Clausewitz was forever urging statesmen and generals to stay on target. Once military leaders define an enemys center of gravity, they should rain blow after blow against that hub of all power and movement until the foe either calls uncle or can no longer put up a fight.





Clausewitzs monomania primed him to set a high standard for diverting manpower and material into secondary theaters or operations. A combatant, he writes, should refrain from lesser pursuits unless deemed exceptionally rewarding. But even if the likely rewards appear exceptional, generals should abjure secondary endeavors unless undertaking them wont imperil the main theater. For Clausewitz, then, only decisive superiority of forces in the main theater warrants detaching resources for peripheral efforts. Stay on target!





And China? Its far from clear that the PLA Navy commands decisive superiority in the China seas, even when backed up by shore-based fire supportas it is when cruising within reach of airfields and missile batteries arrayed along the mainlands coastlines. Nor does China stand to gain anything exceptional in the Indian Ocean at present. Yes, Beijing cares deeply about the safety of merchantmen crisscrossing the Indian Ocean. But the PLA Navy can help ward off nonstate scourges like pirates without running undue risk in East Asiaas it has since joining the antipiracy expedition seven years ago. Modest rewards, for modest expenditure of naval resources.





Heres the crux of our dispute in Jaipur: the Indian dignitaries seem to think China cant mount a naval threat to India in the Indian Ocean, whereas I think it could but has little incentive to do so. Change the incentives, though, and the situation could change abruptlyto Indias detriment. Never discount the possibility of a Black Swan. And bear in mind that Clausewitzian logic will prove less and less forbidding for Beijing over time. As the PLA Navy matures and swells in numbers, China may come to command decisive superiority in the most crucial theater (the Western Pacific) with forces to spare for Indian Ocean adventures. The ghosts of Clausewitz and Mahan will smile.





So the quad-plus dialogue exposed a significant difference in perspectivesone worth belaboring. Lets not assume away the potential of Chinese sea power, and lets not assume away Chinese political resolve, the instigator for martial enterprises. Last week one leading Chinese commentator, Fudan Universitys Shen Dingli, prophesied that Beijing could summon the resolve to dispatch aircraft-carrier task forces to the Indian Ocean to hurt India. If India joins a seafaring league alongside America and its allies, says Shen, of course we can put a navy at your doorstep.





PLA Navy flattops at Gwadar: that prospect should give Indians pause.





About the author - James Holmes is Professor of Strategy at the Naval War College and coauthor of Red Star over the Pacific and Indian Naval Strategy in the 21st Century. The views voiced here are his alone.





 THE NATIONAL INTEREST ( ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)





Original link to the article- http://nationalinterest.org/feature/look-out-india-chinas-navy-pushing-west-15426




On a spring night in 2003, Martha Puebla, age 16, was shot in the face while sitting outside her home in Sun Valley, California, near Los Angeles. Her death was ordered by a gang member on trial for a murder she had witnessed.

On July 13, 2008, in San Ignacio, Paraguay, Maria Riveros took her pregnant 16-year-old daughter to the home of an obstetrician and asked her to perform an abortion. The fetus of about 4 mo. was buried outside the home, but there were complications and the next day Maria had to rush her daughter to a hospital, where a hysterectomy was performed. The obstetrician and her daughter, a nurse, were arrested and charged with performing an abortion.

This blog is dedicated to Martha, Maria and all women who courageously negotiate their lives in this world filled with gang warfare and international warfare, poverty and wealth, drug trafficking and addiction, and lack of access to birth control, legal abortion, and other health care.
Following the terrorist attacks that targeted Monday at dawn a military barracks and two National Guard stations in Ben Guerdane, Tunisian Prime Minister Hassid Essid said the assault by the Islamic State group was meant to set up a stronghold on the border with Libya.

The goal of this unprecedented, planned and organized attack was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate, said the Tunisian Premier in a televised statement.

The fierce clashes between the attackers, armed with heavy weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenades, and Tunisian security forces that lasted for several hours killed 53 people, including 36 assailants. Security forces lost 11 men while 7 civilians were also killed in the process.

Premier Essid hailed the rapid and efficient response of the security forces and announced that authorities are closing border with Libya, decreeing a curfew in the eastern town of Ben Gardane and conducting large-scale combing operations in the area.

Clashes between armed groups and Tunisian security forces have increased recently along the countrys border with Libya and Ben Guerdane is considered as a gateway to the war torn country because of its strategic location. It is known to be a major point for trafficking and smuggling.

Tunisia launched a security and military campaign last week stating that terrorist groups have secretly entered the country, despite the 200 km-long wall recently built at the border with Libya. The wall only covers about half of the border line. Analysts think that militants of the Islamic State group in Sabratha, Libya, could be fleeing to Tunisia after the February 18 US airstrike on a training camp killed dozens of fighters, including Tunisians, and hostilities against the group increased in the city.

Tunisia has suffered several terrorist attacks over the past couple of years. The most deadly assaults in 2015 were reportedly planned in Libya and carried out by Tunisians trained in IS camps in the war-torn country.
Sweden is offering tailor-made innovative and entrepreneurship development solutions to Qatar, part of efforts to establish a knowledge-based society.

Doha is battling to diversify its economy as low global hydrocarbon prices affect its economy and finances. Swedish Ambassador to Qatar, Ewa Polano, on the sidelines of the 3rd Entrepreneurship in Economic Development Forum said that they want the Gulf State to become a knowledge-based society.

The Swedish ambassador urged Qataris to make use of access to information and technology as she took Sweden as an example saying that it is a small country that has a lot of companies active in the global market. Some of the Swedish innovations include refrigerator, tetra pack, ATM, Skype, Bluetooth among others she stated.

Qatar has taken steps in being a knowledge-based society with its Qatar National Vision 2030 ambitions but Ambassador Ewa thinks that Sweden could contribute to the educational, healthcare, sports, medical tourism and other domains after acquiring a 100-year entrepreneurship experience. Ewa cited the importance of allocating some of the state resources to research and development to promote Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

A delegation from Lund University will visit Qatar next week and would meet with senior government and academic officials as part of a follow up to the visit by Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research Hellmark Knutsson. Several agreements are expected to be signed.

An optimistic Ewa said the partnership proposal being made by Stockholm would offer Qatar an education for national administrator, for people from government, universities and the private sector while the national innovation system to be developed will have all that it takes to have a triple-helix approach between the government, local universities and the private sector.
Official reports from the Arab League have confirmed that the Egyptian government has nominated Ahmed Aboul Gheit in replacement for the Leagues outgoing Secretary General Nabil Al Arabi who stated recently that he has no intention to seek a second term in office when his mandate expires on June 30.

Gheit is a seasoned diplomat whose career span over more than four decades beginning from 1967 when he joined Egypts foreign service.

He held diplomatic posts in Rome, Moscow before serving as Egypts permanent representative to the UN as well as partaking in the Camp David negotiations which ended with the signing of the controversial Israel-Egypt peace treaty in 1979. His last post was that of foreign minister from July 2004 until the ousting of President Hosni Mubaraks government in 2011.

The veteran diplomats nomination will be examined by the foreign ministers of Arab League member states on Thursday. According to the deputy chief of the organization, Ahmed Ben Helli, they are yet to receive any notification of a prospective candidate from other member countries. Egyptians have usually headed the Arab League except for a period when it was headed by a Tunisian when member states transferred the league headquarters to Tunis to protest the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Gheit, 73, had stayed away from politics after the end of the Mubarak regime and focused on writing although he is still remembered as a staunch critic of Iran.

Secretary General al Arabi, 80, has not made public his reasons to step down at the end of his mandate. He replaced fellow Egyptian Amr Moussa in 2011.
Muslim world leaders gathered in the Indonesian capital Jakarta Monday called for a boycott of Israeli products produced in the occupied territories and reiterated their full support to Palestinians rights.

The call is part of resolutions adopted by the 57 Muslim leaders including Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas.

Leaders of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the end of the Jakarta extraordinary summit urged member states and the countries around the world supporting the Palestinian cause to ban products produced in and by illegal Israeli settlements from their market.

The OICs call for boycott followed a recent decision by the European Union last year which also demanded labelling of products from the illegal settlements. Even though Tel Aviv minimized the impact of the decision, it affected the Israeli economy pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze ties with the EU bloc until last month following a meeting with EU Foreign Policy Chief.

Palestinians argue that illegal settlements have been the thorny issue in the peace talk process which has been halted for more than two years now.

OIC Leaders also pledged full support to the Palestinians political, diplomatic and legal efforts to achieve their inalienable rights.

Tensions between Palestinians and Israelis have risen dramatically over the past months marked by repeated Palestinian stabbings and car ramming of Israelis and Israeli extrajudicial killing of Palestinians. Latest violence reportedly claimed lives of 181 Palestinians and 28 Israeli mostly soldiers.

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Benins Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou, highly favored to succeed President Boni Yayi, will face a run-off against prominent businessman Patrice Talon after he won only 28.4 per cent of the votes.

Voters in Benin went to the polls on Sunday in an election with a record number of independent candidates as outgoing President Thomas Yayi Boni is set to hand over power after two terms in office.

Patrice Talon, who made a fortune importing fertilizers for the cotton industry, got 24.8 per cent of the votes, results from the national electoral commission showed on Tuesday.

No violence was reported throughout the Sundays election, which was contested by 33 candidates.

Yayi Boni has finished his five year two terms in office.

About 4.7 million people in the nation of 10 million were eligible to vote, according to the national electoral commission.

The date for the run-off was not announced, but according to the President of the Constitutional Court, Professor Theodore Hola, the court will always protect the laws of the land and the interest of the people in all its decisions

The $9 billion-economy relies mainly on cotton exports. Benin is Africas fourth-largest cotton producer.
The International Criminal Court on Tuesday resumes trial in the case of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and former Ivorian political leader Charles Ble Goude.

The trial of Gbagbo, 70, and his firebrand youth militia leader Charles Ble Goude, 44, opened on January 28, and is set to last three to four years.

According to RFI, the new week will be devoted to hearing the fifth prosecution witness.

The former President of Ivory Coast has denied charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on the first hearings day of his trial at the ICC.

Charles Ble Goude is accused of crimes against humanity committed after the October 2000 presidential election.

Laurent Gbagbo lost the election in the country in 2010.

The charges relate to the civil unrest that erupted afterwards, in which an estimated 3,000 people were killed.

Gbagbos co-accused, former militia leader, 44-year-old Charles Ble Goude also denies the charges.

Their supporters accuse the court of the selective prosecution of the former president and his allies.

They also say he is being punished for standing up to the former colonial power, France. Both men face life imprisonment if found guilty.
At least six people including two African Union soldiers were injured Monday in an explosion at the airport in Beledweyne, Somali authorities said.

According to police Lieutenant Colonel Ali Dhuh Abdi, a laptop exploded in the safety control area where bomb experts also defused two other explosive devices.

A laptop packed with explosives exploded at the front gate of the airport, as the security officers were trying to inspect a car carrying the devices, six people were injured, two of them police officers, Ali Dhuh Abdi told reporters.

Six people were wounded, two of them policemen. He said.

The bomb exploded at a checkpoint in the small central town of Beledweyne, some 325 km north of the capital Mogadishu.

Colonel Ali said the explosion was similar to the February attack when a blast occurred inside a Daallo airline flight bound for Djibouti, an attack that al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for.

The Al Qaeda-linked Shabab has remained a potent antagonist in Somalia attacking government institutions after being driven out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011.

The group was also behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda, which both contribute troops to the African Union  AMISOM- peacekeeping force in Somalia.
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The use of antidepressants increase the odds of implant failure by four times. Each year of antidepressant use doubles the odds of failure.

Antidepressants, commonly used to treat anxiety, pain and other disorders, may play a role in dental implant failure, according to a new pilot study by University at Buffalo researchers.

The research found that the use of antidepressants increased the odds of implant failure by four times. Each year of antidepressant use doubled the odds of failure.

While these drugs are often used to manage mood and emotions, a side effect decreases the regulation of bone metabolism, which is crucial to the healing process.

For an implant to heal properly, new bone must form around it to secure it in place, says Sulochana Gurung, lead investigator and a doctor of dental surgery (DDS) candidate.

"Antidepressant medication may relieve depression symptoms and help millions of patients worldwide, however, their benefits must be weighed with the side effects. Patients should cooperate with their physician to reach the right balance," says Latifa Bairam, DDS, MS, an investigator on the study and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Restorative Dentistry in the UB School of Dental Medicine.

"Four of the many known side effects that are reported in the literature are a big concern to us as dentists in regard to oral and bone health."

Additional side effects of the drug include osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become weak and brittle; akathisia, a disorder characterized by the need to be in constant motion, including the head and jaw; bruxism, or teeth grinding; and dryness of the mouth, all of which affect the implant healing process, says Bairam.

The research, "A Pilot Study: Association between Antidepressant Use and Implant Failure," was funded by the Student Research Program through the SDM Dean's Vision Fund.

Gurung will present the findings at the 45th annual American Association for Dental Research conference on March 19. She also presented at the School of Dental Medicine's 2016 Student Research Day on Feb. 25.

She completed the study under the mentorship of Bairam, Sebastiano Andreana, DDS, MS, associate professor and director of implant dentistry, and Mine Tezal, PhD, DDS, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Oral Biology.

The research began to take shape after Bairam and Andreana, who have previously studied implant failure, noticed that a growing number of their patients reported use of antidepressant medication.

After analyzing data from the medical charts of UB Dental Clinic patients in 2014, the researchers found that of the few patients who experienced implant failures, 33 percent used antidepressants. For patients who did not experience failures, only 11 percent used the drug.

"We decided that the dental community and the world should be aware of this, and that triggered the preparation of the research," says Andreana. "The difference between 33 percent and 11 percent is quite remarkable and needs further in-depth analysis."

More than one in 10 Americans over the age of 12 use antidepressants, making it the second most prescribed type of drug in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and IMS Health.

And the rate is increasing. Antidepressant use has surged 400 percent between the periods 1988-94 and 2005-08, according to the CDC.

The researchers plan to build on the study by retesting their results on a larger scale. For now, they advise those using antidepressants to consult with their physician about the drug's side effects and alternative methods of managing depression, anxiety or pain.
Graphic depiction of gay versus heterosexual behaviors based on body image. Credit: Chapman University

A Chapman University psychologist has just published the results of a national study examining how men feel about their bodies and their attractiveness. Long thought to be an issue primarily faced by women, body dissatisfaction was identified as a common issue among men in the largest examination of body image to date.

"We analyzed reports from 116,356 men across five national studies. Between 20 and 40 percent of men reported feeling dissatisfied with their overall physical appearance, weight, and/or muscle tone and size," said David Frederick, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Chapman University and lead author of the study. "The majority of men also felt that they were judged based on their appearance and reported that they compared their appearance to that of others at social events."

Men classified as "normal" weight tended to feel positively about their appearance, whereas men who were" obese" tended to feel negatively. However, in an interesting twist, most men who were classified as "overweight" felt satisfied with their appearance.

"Men can feel pressure to appear strong and powerful, so having some additional mass does not necessarily lead to body dissatisfaction" said Dr. Frederick. "The fact that most 'overweight' men felt satisfied might seem surprising, but the medical category for overweight does not correlate well to what people consider to be overweight sociallyfor example, George W. Bush was medically 'overweight' during his presidency."

Heterosexual and Gay Men

The research also looked at differences between heterosexual and gay men. Much of the existing research looking at these differences has been based on small samples, where gay men are recruited from political or social support organizations. This study's large sample size allowed the researchers to look at gay men and heterosexual men who were recruited in the same manner.

The study showed that gay men were much more likely than heterosexual men to report feeling pressure from the media to look attractive, to avoid having sex because of how they felt about their bodies, and to desire cosmetic surgery.

People's weight and sexual orientation were both related to their feelings of comfort during sex. Among heterosexual men, 20 percent of normal weight men reported hiding an aspect of their body during sex, most often their stomach, and this was also true for 29 percent of the obese men. Only 5 percent of normal weight heterosexual men had avoided having sex at least once in the past month because of how they feel about their bodies compared to 10 percent of obese men. Among gay men, the rates were much higher, with 20 percent normal weight gay men avoiding sex and 32 percent of obese gay men avoiding sex.

Some of the other key findings included:

Gay men were more likely than heterosexual men to feel uncomfortable wearing a swimsuit in public (26 percent vs. 16 percent), to be dissatisfied with physical appearance (29 percent vs. 21 percent), and to be dissatisfied with muscle tone and size (45 percent vs. 30 percent).

Gay men were more likely than heterosexual men to report interest in cosmetic surgery (51 percent vs. 23 percent), to have considered cosmetic surgery (36 percent vs. 12 percent), and to have had cosmetic surgery (7 percent vs. 1 percent).

Gay men were more likely than heterosexual men to have been on a weight loss diet in the past year (37 percent vs. 29 percent) and to have use diet pills (12 percent vs. 5 percent), but did not differ in whether they had exercised in an attempt to lose weight in the past year (57 percent vs. 55 percent).

Gay men were more likely than heterosexual men to report feeling judged based on their appearance (77 percent vs. 61 percent), to routinely think about how they look (58 percent vs. 39 percent), to compare their appearance to others at social events (68 percent vs. 51 percent), and to feel pressure from the media to be attractive (58 percent vs. 29 percent). However, they were less likely to feel pressure from a partner to lose weight (6 percent vs. 10 percent).

The study, called, Male Body Image: The Roles of Sexual Orientation and Body Mass Index across Five National Studies, examined five national datasets with sample sizes ranging from 3,237 to 42,332 participants. The total sample size across the five studies was 111,958 heterosexual men and 4,398 gay men. Participants were asked questions about how dissatisfied to satisfied they were with aspects of their body, whether they engage in attempts to modify their appearance, and whether they felt social pressures related to their appearance. The study is published in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity which is affiliated with the American Psychological Association. The average ages across the samples ranged from 35 to 50.

Explore further Research team explores how number of sex partners differ by height and body mass

More information: The link to the paper at the journal website can be found here: Journal information: Psychology of Men & Masculinity The link to the paper at the journal website can be found here: psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2016-07277-001/
The United States lags behind 22 other highly ranked countries in terms of economic and human development when it comes to mandating employers to provide paid sick leave. In the U.S., only four states (Connecticut, California, Massachusetts and Oregon) along with a few dozen municipalities, now mandate paid sick leave as an employee benefit. That leaves 49 million U.S. workers without paid sick leave, causing an even greater divide in health care disparities as well as undesirable health care outcomes.

A study published in the March issue of Health Affairs by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Cleveland State University, is the first to examine the relationship between paid sick leave benefits and delays in medical care and forgone medical care for both working adults and their family members. The researchers also analyzed the risk of emergency department use and the risk of missing work because of illness or injury by paid sick leave status, as well as the interaction effects between paid sick leave and family income and health insurance.

"Paid sick leave is an important employer-provided benefit that helps workers and their dependents receive prompt preventive or acute medical care, recuperate from illness faster, and avert more serious illness," said LeaAnne DeRigne, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor in the School of Social Work at FAU. "Results from our study contradict public health goals to reduce the spread of illness, and policy makers should consider the potential public health implications of their decisions when contemplating guaranteed sick leave benefits."

Key findings from the study, which are representative of the nation, showed that regardless of income, age, race, occupation, full-time or part-time work status, health status or health insurance coverage, workers without paid sick leave were three times more likely to delay medical care than were workers with paid sick leave. They also were three times more likely to forgo needed medical care altogether. Furthermore, families of workers without paid sick leave were two times more likely to delay medical care and 1.6 times more likely to forgo needed medical care. The lowest-income group of workers without paid sick leave were at the highest risk of delaying and forgoing medical care for themselves and their family membersmaking the most financially vulnerable workers the least likely to be able to address health care concerns in a timely manner.

The researchers also found that working adults with paid sick leave benefits missed one-and-a-half days more of work because of an illness or injury compared to workers without paid sick leave, indicating that they were more likely to take time off work to care for themselves or family when needed.

"There are so many positive outcomes related to providing paid sick leave that more employers should consider voluntarily offering this benefit," said Patricia Stoddard-Dare, Ph.D., associate professor of social work at Cleveland State.

For the study, DeRigne and her collaborators used data from the 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an ongoing data collection initiative which began in 1957 and was designed to provide information on a broad range of health topics. The analytic sample included 18,655 working adults ages 18-64 - identifying 10,586 working adults with paid sick leave benefits and 7,879 without paid sick leave benefits. They used 13 control variables in the study including race, ethnicity, marital status, education, family size, occupation, full-time or part-time work status, health insurance coverage, age, presence of a limiting condition, and total annual family income.

"The personal health care consequences of delaying or forgoing needed medical care can lead to more complicated and expensive health conditions," said DeRigne. "U.S. workers with paid sick leave are more likely to take time off work to care for themselves or for family when needed. More importantly, it enables workers to 'self-quarantine' when necessary, without the worries of losing their job or income while also not spreading illness to others. This is especially important for food service, health care and child care industries where the spread of illness can have large public health impacts. In recent news, corporations such as Chipotle are enacting new paid sick leave benefits to try and stop the spread of viruses such as Norovirus and E-coli."

DeRigne further underscores the importance of paid sick leave. "During the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people infected stay home. Yet, estimates suggest that employees who did not stay home infected an additional 7 million people, and that lack of paid sick leave resulted in about 1,500 additional deaths during this outbreak."

Stoddard-Dare observes, "Workers who come to work when ill are also more prone to injuries and mistakes; therefore, offering paid sick leave may make good business sense."

Explore further Two percent of US employees go to work each week despite being sick

More information: L. DeRigne et al. Workers Without Paid Sick Leave Less Likely To Take Time Off For Illness Or Injury Compared To Those With Paid Sick Leave, Health Affairs (2016). Journal information: Health Affairs L. DeRigne et al. Workers Without Paid Sick Leave Less Likely To Take Time Off For Illness Or Injury Compared To Those With Paid Sick Leave,(2016). DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0965
(HealthDay)Patient-related determinants of care gaps have been identified in adolescents with chronic conditions; the findings were published online March 3 in Pediatrics.

Eva Goossens, Ph.D., R.N., from the KU University of Leuven in Belgium, and colleagues conducted a systematic review to examine determinants of care gaps in young people with chronic conditions as they transition to adulthood. Ten publications that discussed care gaps in patients aged 10 to 25 years were reviewed. Using thematic analysis, determinants were categorized into four groups.

The researchers identified 11 risk factors and nine protective factors for care gaps, all of which were related to patient characteristics. Significant determinants of care gaps in adolescents with chronic conditions were demographics, disease-related characteristics, health care service use, and patient health behaviors and beliefs.

"This systematic review identified patient-related determinants of care gaps," the authors write. "Unfortunately, the internal and external validity of the study findings are limited, warranting future prospective, multilevel studies that address remaining knowledge gaps."

Copyright  2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are studying the detection of prenatal marijuana use in a legalized environment. The study of marijuana use in pregnancy is only possible in a few states.

Although physicians tell women they should not use marijuana in pregnancy, it is difficult to provide them with data to support the recommendation. The need for data-supported information grows as marijuana laws change nationwide.

The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute recently awarded a Child and Maternal Health Pilot Grant to Assistant Professor Torri Metz, MD, to develop a questionnaire for new mothers about marijuana use during their pregnancy.

"If you look at the literature now, you find very mixed results," Metz said. "About half of the studies say there is an association between marijuana use and adverse outcomes; about half say there is no association."

As a high-risk obstetrician and maternal-fetal medicine specialist, Metz provides care for pregnant mothers and delivers babies at University of Colorado Hospital.

"I am seeing more and more self-reported marijuana use in the clinic," Metz said. "I don't know if this is a reflection of women using more marijuana or of the women being more willing to tell us about their use."

The study will enable Metz and her colleagues to develop a survey tool for new mothers to ascertain self-reported marijuana use. With the patients' consent, researchers will administer a survey to the new mothers and, upon delivery, take a sample of the umbilical cord to determine if the mother did use marijuana through pregnancy and to what extent. Researchers will compare the self-report with the umbilical cord sample, allowing researchers to determine the best way to collect information about marijuana use during pregnancy for future studies.

Further study is needed on the association between marijuana use and fetal growth restriction, hypertension in pregnant mothers, stillbirth, spontaneous preterm birth and other conditions.

"These are the obstetric issues we face every day and we don't understand the impact of marijuana use on these outcomes," Metz said. "I want to change that."

Child and Maternal Health Pilot Program grants are provided to young investigators whose work will ultimately improve child and maternal health and prevent diseases that begin early in life. The program is funded by Children's Hospital Colorado's Research Institute.

Explore further Marijuana use during pregnancy exposes mom and baby to health risks
Renal cell carcinoma: therapy change can significantly improve treatment result

A research team of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) of MedUni Vienna and AKH Vienna was able to demonstrate that a therapy change in the area of metastasising renal cell carcinoma significantly increases the life average expectancy and clearly improves the compatibility of the therapy. The extent of the influence of the administration rhythm of Sunitinib, an effective ingredient which is utilised in the target-oriented therapy, on the treatment results was examined. The result: In 71% of the patients, the therapy change resulted in an average survival extension of 33 months to approximately 75 months.

Sunitinib, a so-called "small molecule", inhibits the growth of the tumour cells by interrupting certain signal paths of the cell and has been applied in the treatment of metastasising renal cell carcinoma for many years. Manuela Schmidinger, University Clinic for Internal Medicine I of MedUni Vienna and the AKH Vienna as well as member of the CCC, about the work: "We are permanently working on the improvement of therapies available to us. This means that we not only research new substances, but also try to combine existing substances efficiently or optimise the dosage or administration scheme. With this therapy we want to test whether our patients benefit from a different administration rhythm."

Cycle truncated

Generally, the effective ingredient is administered once a day in form of a capsule over a period of four weeks. This is followed by a two-week break. The treating physician decides over the number of necessary cycles. In the context of the therapy change, the preparation was only administered for two weeks, followed by a mere one-week break.

The results are clear: the change of the administration rhythm has led to an average extension of life expectancy of 33 months to approx. 75 months in 71% of the patients. This improvement, compared to historical data, can be explained with the fact that a two-week therapy break is too long, allowing the tumour to grow again. Another reason for the improved life expectancy could be that the therapy is more compatible due to this administration rhythm, thus allowing fewer dosage reductions. In this context, Schmidinger and her colleagues detected a reduction of the side effects to the therapy. For example, conventional side effects such as fatigue, inflammations and pain in the oral mucosa, nausea or the hand-foot syndrome could be significantly reduced. The data was presented at ASCO 2015, the world's largest cancer congress. In autumn 2015, an update of the data confirmed the results.

About renal carcinoma

Every year, approx. 1,230 people in Austria face the diagnosis of renal carcinoma. Most of them suffer from a renal cell carcinoma, the most frequent type of malignant kidney tumours. The chances of a cure depend strongly on the stadium at which the tumour is diagnosed. If the tumour has already formed metastases, the prognosis is poorthe average life expectancy is 33 months.

MedUni Vienna and AKH Vienna offer welcoming news also in the immune therapy sector: in the context of a "Named Patient Program", the substance Nivolumab is already used in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma. Schmidinger: "This is extremely positive, because the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) is expected to approve the mediation for this application sector only in spring. The reason why we are able to apply Nivolumab in a "Named Patient Program" is that a phase III study has demonstrated a clear survival advantage of the patients.

Nivolumab is already approved for the treatment of malignant melanomas and lung cancer. A "Named Patient Program" is a program whereby therapies are applied which are only approved for other indications or in other countries. Patients, who have exhausted all therapy options or do not comply with study criteria, benefit from this program if a significant therapy success can be expected.

Explore further Neoehrlichiosis successfully treated in patients without immunodeficiency for the first time
For a period, 2001-2014, there were numerous visits to Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Hope you enjoy reading my emotional outpourings, written on the road.. from a lover of Cuban Mind and Affections inside the island and the innocence of the Indigenous peoples..







We live with great expectation that the new rapprochement with the Govt of President Obama, will bring more changes, intellectual and cross cultural contacts and a broadening of the minds on both sides of the Straits.





I highly recommend that you come to visit CUBA now..

Ever since I was a child, I have lived in two countries at a time and the countries changed: Brunei, Australia, Sweden, USA, England, Jamaica, various places in the USA..Now Cuba and USA with a definite commitment to the North American Indians (Los Indios)..
The News in Brief

Petriashvili Undergoes Additional Surgery After Being Shot and Wounded



Alexi Petriashvili, one of the leaders of the Free Democrats opposition party, who suffered three gunshot wounds in an attack on February 26, has undergone additional surgery.



The additional surgery was required to address a complication from one of the gunshots ,according to his doctor.



He is in a stable condition, said Vladimer Papava, a doctor at the Tbilisi Republican Hospital, where Petriashvili remains for further treatment.



Petriashvili, who served as the state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, was beaten and then shot by two unknown men while visiting a grave of his late friend at the Saburtalo cemetery in Tbilisi on February 26.



There is still no official word from police on the identities or motives of the attackers.



Leaders of the Free Democrats (FD) party have called for a meeting with PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Interior Minister Giorgi Mgebrishvili to receive information about the ongoing investigation.



The Interior Ministry said that the investigation is ongoing under Article 117 of the Criminal Code, which concerns the intentional infliction of a serious injury.



Leaders of the FD party say that the police should treat the case as an attempted murder.

(Civil.ge)







Hundreds rally against Ivanishvilis Panorama Tbilisi project



Activists demand the suspension of a large construction project amidst environmental, urban, social, and conflict-of-interest controversies.



Up to 400 activists gathered on Tbilisis Freedom Square on 27 February in order to protest against the construction of Panorama Tbilisi above the Old Tbilisi and Sololaki districts.



The protest was organised by a coalition of more than twenty organisations and social movements called Ertad (Together). The activists marched from the Freedom Square to the State Chancellery holding posters saying PaNOrama, extending arms with the word No written on their palms.



The Panorama Tbilisi project is managed by the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, which was established by businessman and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in 2013. Mr Ivanishvili appears to be so far the only investor in the project, whose worth is estimated at 500 million dollars.



Activists argue that the project is not sustainable ecologically and that it will bring an end to Tbilisis bid to have its old district registered as a World Heritage site, while the authorities argue that the project will increase tourism.



We gathered today in order to protest a project that will ruin this city. This projects scope is so large that it will affect the whole city. It doesnt take into account urbanisation issues, social aspects, environment protection, or protection of cultural monuments. The City Councils aim is to achieve gentrification  a phenomenon which is destructive to the non-elite segment of the society. Economically unprivileged people in the area will be forced to move to the outskirts, Nika Tsikaridze, an activist for Green Fist, told DF Watch.



The Panorama project is a gross violation of the will of Tbilisis residents. It doesnt only harass the old citys cultural heritage, but its also a one-man project. We all know whos standing behind it. We dont want to sacrifice our city to one mans weird phantasies, Khatuna Gvelesiani from Iare Pekhit (Walk) told DF Watch.



This project will significantly damage the old part of the city. It is also a project which is clearly in certain peoples business interests, not for the sake of ordinary citizens. Were protesting not only against this one project, but also against everything that has been going on with the urban development  or undevelopment  in Tbilisi. We have no recreational zones, all the squares are being taken down for residential buildings, churches, restaurants. We have no green space and no space for citizens to even gather,' Natia Gvianishvili, the director of the Womens Initiatives Support Group told DF Watch.



The main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), has suggested that Tbilisi City Hall has recently appointed a number of officials who used to be employees at Mr Ivanishvilis Cartu Bank, which raises questions about a possible conflict of interest regarding the implementation of infrastructure projects related to Panorama Tbilisi.







Its unacceptable to close Tkibuli mines  MP Eliso Chapidze



As Tkibuli representative to the Parliament, MP Eliso Chapidze, says it is unacceptable to close the Tkibuli mines. According to her, she hopes the parties will hold negotiations to resolve the ongoing issues.



It is unacceptable to consider closing the Tkibuli mines. Many people have been engaged in the process of resolving this problem, such as the Public Defender and members of the Presidential administration. I am personally offering the parties to present a signed memorandum to the court and simultaneously resume the mines' working process, Eliso Chapidze said.



The miners still continue to protest in Tkibuli, in the western Imereti region.

(IPN)




WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY? I can no longer remain in todays Demo Party that is now under the control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively undermine our freedoms, are hostile to people of faith, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after opponents.TULSI GABBARD
written to entertain my American friends in Freiburg's sister city Madison, WI, with odd stories from Freiburg, Germany, and tales about my travels.
@JeremySWallace

The Florida Legislature took its first big step toward addressing decades of torture and abuse at a former state-run reform school by committing $500,000 on Tuesday toward reburying the remains of children found in unmarked graves.

Families of the more than 50 children found at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys would be eligible for up to $7,500 each to give proper burials for the children and find family members of those yet to be identified. In addition, the state would create a task force to begin making a decision on what type of memorial should be erected at the school in Marianna, a small North Florida town just west of Tallahassee.

The Florida House voted 114-3 for the bill sponsored by Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, and Rep. Ed Narain, D-Tampa. The same bill passed the Senate last week. The Legislation now goes to Gov. Rick Scott for his review.

"More than a tragedy happened at Dozier," Narain said during an impassioned plea for the legislation on Tuesday. "In the eyes of any human being with a heart and a soul, the unimagineable happened at Dozier."

Narain said on Tuesday that the boys put in the hands of the state deserve better than unmarked graves and their families better than false stories that their children ran away, as many were told.

Stories have swirled for decades about the harsh conditions at the school, open from 1900 to 2011. In 2012, University of South Florida anthropologists began investigating burial grounds on the campus, where pipe crosses marked what was said to be the final resting place for 31 boys who died at the school. Using ground penetrating radar and excavation techniques, they found 55 graves, many in the woods outside the marked cemetery. Remains were found buried under trees and brush and under an old road.
@ByKristenMClark

Among the bills to clear the Legislature during this last week of the 2016 session is a proposal that cracks down on illegal credit-card skimming devices at gas stations.

SB 912 passed the House unanimously on Tuesday, after unanimously clearing the Senate last week. It now goes to Republican Gov. Rick Scott's desk for his signature.

"Skimmers" are devices that steal credit and debit card information. The legislation requires gas pumps to have certain security measures to better thwart criminals' attempts to install the devices and steal customers' financial information. It also increases law enforcement's ability to make arrests and prosecute criminals with harsher potential penalties.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, and House Majority Leader Dana Young, R-Tampa, with support from state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services regularly inspects the state's nearly 8,000 gas stations and has found more than 190 skimmers since the start of 2015, Putnam's office said.

This past week, inspectors found one device in Pompano Beach, two in Tampa and one in Orlando, the office said.

Protecting consumers from identity theft at gas pumps requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. I thank Senator Flores, Leader Young, the Senate and the House of Representatives for their support of this key consumer protection legislation, Putnam said today.

Flores and Young added in the statement that the legislative approval is a "victory for consumers."

Consumers shouldnt have to worry about identity theft when filling their gas tanks, and this legislation will help protect Floridians and visitors from skimmers," Flores said.

About 100 consumers are victimized by each skimmer, resulting in $1,000 stolen from each victim on average. Each skimmer represents an estimated $100,000 threat to consumers, Putnam's office said.
@PatriciaMazzei

Miami is the poster-child city for climate change. And with two presidential debates here this week, some local politicians want to make sure the candidates for the White House get pressed about the issue.

Twenty-one mayors signed letters to debate moderators imploring them to ask about climate change, and offering a few suggestions.

"It would be unconscionable for these issues of grave concern for the people of Florida to not be addressed in the upcoming debate you will be hosting in the state," write the mayors. Most hail from South Florida, though a handful are from elsewhere in the state.

The letter to moderators of Thursday's Republican debate singles out Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: "In particular, Senator Rubio represents this state and should not be allowed to fail to provide, or side step, substantive answers to these questions," the letter says. The Democratic debate will be held Wednesday.

The leading signature on the letter is from Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, a Democrat and former state lawmaker. Most, but not all, of the mayors on the list are Democrats too.

Fifteen of the mayors had sent letters in January to Rubio and then-Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush urging them to meet with local leaders to discuss climate change, after neither candidate made the topic a campaign priority.

The new mayors on the list are Bob Buckhorn of Tampa, Alice Burch of Miami Shores, David Coviello of Biscayne Park, Andrew Gillum of Tallahassee, Rick Kriseman of St. Petersburg and Philip Levine of Miami Beach.

Read the letters.
@MichaelAuslen

A sweeping rewrite of the Floridas divorce laws is headed to Gov. Rick Scott after being passed by the Legislature.

Under SB 668, judges could no longer grant lifetime alimony payments, and much of the discretion in negotiating each case would be gone. Instead, the amount and duration of alimony would be determined by a formula written into law.

But the component that has caused the loudest outcry has been a premise that children split time equally between both parents. Judges would have to adjust from that point based on a variety of factors.

Everything should be in the best interest of the child, and this is making the best interest of the child secondary, said Rep. Lori Berman, D-Lantana.

The bills House sponsor, Rep. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, said Tuesday that the legislation will make circumstances a little bit easier during a really emotional and trying time for families.

It passed the House 74-38 Tuesday after clearing the Senate last week. It now goes to Scott, who vetoed a similar measure two years ago. That vetoed legislation would likely have been retroactive. SB 668 is specifically not retroactive in dealing with children, but it is not clear whether courts would consider back alimony cases using the new rules.

Opponents have argued that the alimony rewrite is essentially an assault on women, who make up 96 percent of recipients.

That wife who gave up her career aspirations and her dreams for children and her husband, she did it for love, said Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami. Under this bill, this sacrifice for love could be a disadvantage if they divorce.

For some the state lawmakers pushing the bill, however, this is personal.

Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, has long been an advocate of such reforms after his own 2010 divorce from his wife, Tiffany. He told that story on the House floor, saying that what matters most to him is the 50/50 time split with children. In his case, he said, he had to fight to gain equal time with his kids.

It was the same thing as issuing me a death warrant, he said. You may as well give me the razorblades and a warm bath if I could only see Bailey and Sophie on Wednesday nights and weekends.
via @adamsmithtimes

TAMPA -- Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz agree on one thing: The Republican presidential primary is down to a two-man race, and voters need to coalesce around the guy who can beat Donald Trump.

A vote for John Kasich or a vote for Ted Cruz in Florida is a vote for Donald Trump, Rubio told reporters before a rally at the Tampa Convention Center on Monday. If you dont want Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee, you have to vote for Marco Rubio.

Ted Cruz, campaigning at almost the same time in Mississippi, said much the same thing: I would note right now that in this race it is clear a vote for any other candidate, a vote for Marco Rubio or a vote for John Kasich, is a vote for Donald Trump.

The clock is ticking down toward what could be Rubios last stand, Floridas March 15 primary, and good news has been scarce for the senator.

Rubio has won just two of 20 primary contests to date, he has half as many delegates as Cruz, and he is expected to lose Tuesdays elections in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii.

It always comes down to Florida, and it should in many ways because this state symbolizes everything that makes this country so special and unique, Rubio told a crowd of about 1,000 in a partially filled room in the Tampa Convention Center.

He finds himself in much the same position as former Gov. Jeb Bush did near the end of his presidential campaign, constantly responding to reporters asking if hes about to suspend his campaign.

Were not focused on hypotheticals right now. Were going to win Florida, Rubio said when asked yet again if his campaign is over if he loses Florida.

More here.

Photo credit: Paul Sancya, Associated Press
@PatriciaMazzei

The latest TV ad on Marco Rubio's behalf returns to his most successful message -- that he embodies immigrants' dreams for their children in the U.S.

The spot, by Conservative Solutions PAC, says Rubio "believes in the American Dream, because he's lived it."

"Marco Rubio: His parents fled dictatorship, then worked their way to a better life."

Rubio's parents, it should be noted, left Cuba before s 1959 revolution. They briefly returned afterward before leaving the island for good.
@PatriciaMazzei

Ted Cruz is making good on his pledge to campaign in Florida.

The Republican presidential candidate will hold his first Miami campaign rally Wednesday at Miami Dade College. That's a day before the GOP debate at the University of Miami -- and a mere hours before rival Marco Rubio's rally in Hialeah.

Cruz had said he would "vigorously" contest Florida, even though he has yet to advertise in the state's 10 media markets ahead of next Tuesday's primary. His campaign opened 10 offices across Florida last week but they appeared thinly staffed early on. The Texas senator has held a single public event in Florida, in Orlando last November.

One of his allied super PACs, however, produced three ads hammering Rubio and plans to air them in Florida, according to Politico. And Cruz's wife, Heidi Cruz, will headline a campaign fundraiser Thursday in Miami. Whether all that will amount to a full-blown campaign considering hundreds of thousands of Republicans have already voted early remains to be seen.

Cruz hopes to turn the Republican primary into a two-man race between himself and Donald Trump, and has argued a vote for Rubio or the fourth candidate in the race, John Kasich, only benefits Trump. By competing in Florida, Cruz might help Trump knock Rubio out of the race -- a risky strategy since then Trump would win the state's coveted 99 nominating delegates.

Rubio has countered that a vote for Cruz is one for Trump, because the remaining primary calendar has fewer states like the ones Cruz has shown he can win.

An online invitation says Cruz's Wednesday rally will begin at 10 a.m. at Miami Dade College's Chapman Conference Center in downtown Miami.
@ByKristenMClark

The Florida Senate this morning confirmed a former state lawmaker and former interim president of Citizens Insurance to the State Board of Education.

Tom Grady has been serving on the board since late last year, after Republican Gov. Rick Scott, a close friend, appointed him to a vacant seat last fall. His appointment was subject to the Senate's approval.

Grady's appointment was approved Tuesday unanimously en masse with 15 other education-related appointments. In such cases, senators have the option to record with the Senate secretary a "no" vote on any individual appointee.

Grady, a 57-year-old wealthy securities lawyer from Naples, most recently served on the Florida Gulf Coast University board of trustees, also as a Scott appointee.

In the 1990s, Grady was a director of the Collier County Education Foundation. He served one term in the Florida House from 2008 to 2010.

Grady sparked controversy for his hefty travel spending during his brief tenure in 2012 as interim president of Citizens Property Insurance.

In less than two months overseeing the state-run provider, he spent nearly $10,000 on expensive hotel rooms, airplane trips, a limo ride and a three-night stay in Bermuda. Grady defended the spending, saying he was actually very frugal. He lost the permanent job to a Maryland insurance executive, amid questions raised by the Tampa Bay Times about his spending habits. He returned to the private sector.

Grady's term on the State Board of Education ends on Dec. 31, 2018.

Photo credit: Gov. Rick Scott, right, greets Tom Grady during the Aug. 2, 2011 Cabinet meeting in which Grady was appointed head of Financial Regulation. Bill Cotterell / Tallahassee Democrat
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
Looking southward over the northern dam at Wuchieh; the pathway along the top of the dam is inaccessible to the public.

The water intake for the original Japanese diversion tunnel; it was from here that Sun Moon Lake was fed water from the Zhuoshui river for over seventy years.

I was surprised to learn that, contrary to what I had previously thought, there was an easily accessible spot from which the upstream face of the southern dam could be photographed in its' entirety; on the road bridge just before it tunnels through a mountainside.

Crested serpent eagle: too distant to get a really good shot.

Overlooking the water toward the dam gates in the south east corner of the reservoir.

Close up on the hydraulic dam gates taken with the 300mm. Here's something I don't know: are these "standard" Tainter gates, or are they some other, alternative design as at Chiayi's Renyitan reservoir? The problem is that with the spillway on the downstream side being so steep, there may not be sufficient space for walls on which to mount trunnion pins for the radial arms that Tainter gates require. Until I can actually see the downstream face of the dam for myself I can't tell because there are precious few photographs of it available online.

Water intakes for the hydroelectric power station downstream.

These two tall structures are most likely sluiceway gates, which are probably so tall because their corresponding gates are at some tens of meters of depth below the surface.

On Sunday I visited Wan-Da reservoir in the north of Nantou County for only the second time. My first trip was eighteen months ago and had been a disappointment in one important respect. Although the weather had been ideal for taking landscape shots, I had been restricted to views across the reservoir from the road straddling the north, south and west banks; the eastern shoreline is inaccessible except by boat and the area downstream from the reservoir housing the hydroelectric power station was closed to the public. More frustratingly still, the downstream face of the dam is entirely unapproachable from any other direction. These problems have been at the back of my mind since that first trip in September 2014.Yet I began this trip without these specific problems in mind. Instead, my aim was to collect a few more shots of the northern dam at Wuchieh before retaking the 83 north alongside the river all the way up to Wan-Da; there I had no more clear objective than scouting around looking for interesting and unusual spots to photograph the reservoir and the dam.As it happens, I was in for a few surprises...After the surprise view of Wuchieh's southern dam on the Nantou 83, I was pleasantly surprised by something else; the quality of the road surface has been greatly improved from the hour-long torture it had previously been eighteen months ago. It was so good in fact that I was able to make the drive from Wuchieh to Wan-Da in about twenty minutes, arriving at just after 12.30 p.m.And then there was the big surprise. The area downstream from the reservoir which houses the hydroelectric station and its' switch yard is also a kind of park and just happened to be open whereas it had previously been closed. Presumably only Taipower employees and local aboriginals are allowed to drive vehicles inside because although I later saw a couple of motorcycles and a car inside the grounds, I was told to park my motorcycle elsewhere and make the trip through the park on foot. I signed myself in and handed over some ID in exchange for a visitor's pass. As I had woken up to the prospect of perhaps being able to see the downstream face of Wan-Da reservoir's dam, I strode through the park at what must have looked like a murderer's pace to close the distance between myself and the dam as quickly as I could and finish the job in a reasonable time.The park is interspersed with various footpaths which double up as roads for vehicular access to the power station. Between these roads there are green spaces with various plants, flowers and trees maintained for their botanical interest (e.g. Formosan soybean). However the "you-are-here" site map for the park contained no visual reference to either the dam or the reservoir.Not an encouraging sign.The one path which led eastward beyond the power station and toward the dam had no signs of any kind. It begins by sloping gently uphill and rounds a bend beyond the power station. It became narrower and narrower the further I walked upward until eventually I came to a precipice where part of the cliff face had collapsed into the river a couple of hundred feet below. However, the path did not end there. Instead, it turned right, climbed up the side of the mountain and then ran further eastward along the edge of the precipice.Because it runs so close to the edge of the precipice, it's not a walk to take if you are afraid of heights.After a distance of less than a hundred yards, the path begins a steep and tricky descent (at this point it is covered with broken shale which just loves to slip and slide underfoot). The descent is shallow, perhaps thirty feet or so before striking off flat eastwards again into dense undergrowth. That undergrowth became denser the further I walked and I crossed two small streams before arriving at a stripped, terraced outcrop of soil being prepared for farming. I left the path and walked out northward across the soft terraced soil to the small farmhouse. The bloke who met me said there was no further road and that I would have to follow the riverbed itself if I wanted to get to the downstream face of the dam. I turned back and returned westward along the narrow path; I even tried following one of the small streams I had crossed hoping to find a way down to the river, but the reeds were so dense I would have needed a machete to get through them.Disappointed, I returned to the narrow path and climbed back up the precipice and along to the western side pausing only to try to photograph an eagle who had ventured out to find food whilst there were no fireworks going off...When I arrived back at the park grounds it was getting on for 3 p.m. and there were few tourists left. I followed another path and found that there was indeed an easy path down to the riverbed. It was too late to try and I didn't have the right kit with me to do that walk properly in any case. Leaving the park I collected my motorcycle from the adjunct parking area and (after feeding a stray dog there some of my beef jerky) drove on up to the reservoir itself.The road along the reservoir's western bank is set quite high up above the shoreline. Yet not far north from the southernmost point there is an access road running downhill to the southwest corner of the reservoir. At the end of this road, there is a checkpoint beyond which are the water intakes for the hydroelectric power station. I switched my engine off and rolled down to a point about half a kilometer from the checkpoint. The guard dog still heard me and started barking, so I beckoned him to come and get some beef jerky while I took pictures.Once I had taken my pictures and fed the dog two or three packets of beef jerky, I drove back south down the Nantou 83, stopping briefly for a drink and a rest at a little place with its' own car park, and then all the way back to Wuchieh and beyond to Erhsui in Changhua, making the 6 p.m. train back to Tainan.My next trip may not include any reservoir work at all. I want to return to Ershui, find a motorbike shop and order a rear rack for the black motorbike, as I have on the red motorbike. I am recurrently suffering from strains to my left latissimus dorsi and thoracolumbar fascia. I don't think these are caused by my exercise routine but by other things such as slinging that bag over one shoulder, sitting at low coffee tables and carrying one dog under my left arm while going to the park. A rear rack for the black motorbike, if it's big enough, will mean I won't have to carry anything while driving. And that will make forthcoming trips more comfortable.
The resignation of Cold Springs Elementary School's principal is the most recent in a line of building administration changes in Missoula County Public Schools.

MCPS announced Friday that Hellgate High Principal Lisa Hendrix will be reassigned to lead C.S. Porter Middle School next school year. She's been with MCPS for more than 10 years, and spent four of those at Porter as a teacher and assistant principal until 2010. She spent two years as principal of Meadow Hill Middle School and in 2012 moved to the principal position at Hellgate.

The switch comes on the heels of Porter Principal Julie Robitaille's move to one of the executive regional director positions.

Jill Sheridan has served as Cold Springs' principal for the past two years. Superintendent Mark Thane said Sheridan's resignation letter cited "personal reasons" for her departure. Sheridan could not be reached for comment.

Sheridan returned to Missoula, her childhood home, in 2014. She had attended the University of Montana for her bachelor's degree and Idaho State University for her master's. Before taking over at Cold Springs, she was an elementary principal for 12 years in Idaho. She was a middle school leader for five years and a teacher for seven years before that.

The MCPS shuffle leaves four administrative positions open for next school year: principals at Hellgate High, Paxson Elementary and Cold Springs Elementary, as well as the executive director of teaching and learning.

In December, Paxson Principal Kelly Chumrau announced that she will retire at the end of the school year. She and husband Brad Chumrau, a fourth-grade teacher and coordinator of the International Baccalaureate program at Lewis and Clark Elementary, accepted positions at the International School of Dakar in Senegal next year.

The job postings will stay open until March 25, Thane said, at which point the district will begin screening applicants.

Interviews will likely happen the week of April 11 using a multi-tiered process. Executive regional directors and human resources will screen initially, then an interview team of certified and classified staff, parents, an administrative team member and, if appropriate, students, will interview the candidates.

After the finalists have been narrowed, a parent forum and staff forum will be held to give the interview team feedback before offers are made.

MCPS building administration switch-ups are not new. Principals and assistant principals are frequently reassigned, often due to retirements or other reassignments, according to MCPS personnel reports.

"I think it's fairly common ... a number of those, as you would note, are because people opted voluntarily to transfer to other positions in the district," Thane said. "I was a building principal and moved to a central office position. ... Dave Rott (moved from principal at Chief Charlo Elementary to the human resources position), Trevor Laboski (moved from principal at Big Sky High to executive regional director) ...

"I would hope that we're in a position where the vision and mission for a building is not solely dependent on one person. We need to look at distributive leadership options and engage staff in programs and activities implemented in the buildings."

Since this time two years ago, a building administrative change or the announcement of an upcoming change have taken place at Big Sky, Hellgate and Sentinel high schools; all three middle schools; and at Chief Charlo, Cold Springs, Franklin, Paxson and Rattlesnake elementary schools.

"Certainly, any time there's a change in the leadership of a building, it takes time to build rapport," Thane said. "It's not something we take lightly ... but by the same token, it's an opportunity for a fresh set of eyes and an opportunity for the direction of a building to be reviewed, enhanced and hopefully refreshed."
The Missoula City Council received several public comments Monday night about a Bozeman developer's proposal to demolish the Missoula Mercantile building for a new hotel.

HomeBase Montana has unveiled a plan to replace the downtown building with a $30 million, 154-room Marriott hotel.

Steve Adler, a member of the Missoula Historic Preservation Commission, said during public comment he was speaking only for himself when he asked the council to change the approval deadline in the city's demolition ordinance from 90 to 180 days.

"One thing I've found, and that includes the ramping up of the rumor mill before last Thursday, is the community is panicking," he said. "90 days to work through a problem is a fast track for a problem like this in the community. We would like to see the city find some compromises for a problem like this in the community. To do that in 90 days is a tall order."

Adler said he has heard HomeBase will be applying for a demolition permit within the next week or two.

"Changing it to 180 days would give us some time to work through a better solution than what was proposed last Thursday night," he said.

He said there are certain ways the council could change the ordinance without a long bureaucratic process.

Jeff Stevens called himself a "self-appointed public gadfly."

He gave a brief history of the building, construction of which began in 1877, and its important role in Missoula's history.

"It was the economic, retail and social center of Missoula, and it was the largest department store between Minneapolis and Seattle," he said.

Stevens then updated the building's history to include when it was purchased by Octagon Partners in 2011, a real estate investment firm.

"That's when the trouble began," he concluded. With that, he walked back to his seat.

Solomon Martin, who also serves on the Historic Preservation Commission, said the building is not beyond saving.

"There are legion economic and social reasons to save the building and some myths surrounding the current proposal that need dispelling," Martin said. "The building is in no danger of falling down. Multiple engineering firms have determined that. The asbestos within the building has already been abated or encapsulated."

Martin said demolition would only disturb the remaining asbestos in the roof.

"With maintenance, the masonry could last for centuries," he said. "It is entirely possible to preserve the historic facade and build a new building behind it."

Martin said saving the building would be an economic benefit to the city.

"Historic and cultural resources such as a downtown full of historic buildings draw in tourism and increase spending from outside the city," he said.

***

Several people asked the council to put the city's ongoing efforts to purchase Mountain Water Co. through eminent domain laws up for a public referendum.

Michelle Halley, who identified herself as an employee of Mountain Water Co., said the city doesn't have enough money to pay the company's employees.

"I ask you to put any further condemnation efforts to a city vote," she said. "My fear is we will all lose, including all 39 employees. Mountain Water already provides clear and clean and affordable water. We have no job security. We have seen your operational plan. There isn't enough money to pay for the water system and also pay for the wages and benefits that are already built in."

She said that if the city can't afford to buy the water system and keep paying employees what they are making now, the city should end its efforts to condemn the system.

The council also repealed two ordinances that require hotels and other accommodations to maintain a register of room occupants and to make it available for the public and law enforcement.

According to council member Marilyn Marler, who sponsored the ordinance to repeal the hotel registry ordinance, the law is outdated and Police Chief Mike Brady and City Attorney Jim Nugent have confirmed that law enforcement doesnt need it to work effectively with hotels.

Marler also said privacy advocates have pointed out that the ordinance is problematic. A Supreme Court decision in 2015, Los Angeles v. Patel, found that such laws are illegal, and the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sent Nugent a letter requesting the city make changes to the law.

The council also voted to vacate a public right-of-way in the 800 block of Howell Street on Missoula's Northside.

The move gives the property owners an extra 20 feet of space to construct a parking area for a proposed cafe/market. The owners of the property declined to comment on the project, except to say that it is still years from happening. They have not applied for any building permits yet.

The council also authorized Mayor John Engen to sign an agreement with Montana Community Development Corp. to manage the citys Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund

The fund provides grants and loans to nonprofit and for-profit organizations to clean up properties within city limits that have identified environmental issues.

The current owners of the Missoula Mercantile took advantage of one of the low-interest loans from the city to conduct asbestos abatement within the building, although they didn't remove all of it.
We used to think wildland firefighters hibernated like bears after chasing smoke all summer.

If so, Mike DeGrosky would like to know why his Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation firefighters have already responded to 38 wildfires by the first week of March.

Its sport-burning season as we call it, the new bureau chief of Fire and Aviation Management said at his Missoula headquarters. Those fires are all human-caused, and mostly debris burns that get out of control. While the higher elevations are hanging on to something close to average snowpack, theres no snow below 6,000 feet. Down in the valley bottoms, fire season is already here.

DeGrosky took the top state fire job in February after 38 years as both a public fire manager and private fire consultant in Wyoming, Wisconsin, Washington and Idaho, as well as Montana. A commemorative rock in his office memorializes dropping 100,000 gallons of water and retardant on the Hellgate Canyon fire east of Missoula in 1985.

That was my first-ever division supervisor assignment, DeGrosky said. They assigned me to a low-intensity division that turned out to be the head of the fire. That was a very crazy three days. A strike team from Minnesota built this really long hose lay to hold one flank of the fire, and the entire hose lay got burned over. This is a piece of that hose.

***

Replacing fire-wrecked supplies like that hose and repairing fire equipment is how DRNC fire workers spend their off-season days. DeGrosky said changing climate conditions and growing human encroachment into fire-prone areas has cut into that down-time.

Theyre already expecting to have a terrible time around the Great Lakes and the Northern Plains states, he said of the national fire forecasts. And Billings set a temperature record over the weekend. Now, it could start to rain in June and make everything different. But right now, the call is for significant warmth and continued drought, especially in central and southeast Montana.

Fires in that part of the state differ from the blazes western Montanans are used to. They often strike grasslands and prairies where a stiff wind can char thousands of acres in an afternoon. That puts huge focus on the fires early stages, which in turn highlights one of DeGroskys strategic challenges.

Almost all the initial attack is performed by the counties, and out there, volunteerism is a huge issue, he said. Youve got a lot of counties where you used to have a volunteer fire department with 25 volunteers and a young, vital crop to recruit from. Now, its six guys and the average age is 68.

Drier fire seasons and declining local firefighter pools combine with a third problem on DeGroskys strategic horizon: more things to protect.

Unregulated growth on the urban interface is a huge problem for us, he said. Weve got more and more people living in fire-prone areas. Were beyond the time where we think about, What if a fire occurs? Its a question of when a fire occurs  not if. Communities need to think about how they can adapt to survive when impacted by fire. Because we often cannot protect those communities.

***

In the shortened off-season, DNRC maintenance crews spend a lot of time repairing or rebuilding wildland fire engines. This winter, 30 rigs are in the shop. Shop foreman Rick Rich said 25 of those will be dispatched to county fire protection services, while five will go to DNRC land offices.

Theres been a huge change in the fleet over the last 20 years, Rich said. Now, we get about 10 years out of a direct-protection engine, and the county folks get about 18 years. It used to be the average-age wildland fire vehicle in the county was 42 years. Thats really hard to find parts for.

The agency has taken advantage of a lot of military surplus as well. Rich showed off a massive six-axle tanker truck originally designed for recovering broken Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Its been repurposed to haul 2,600 gallons of water virtually anywhere.

Were constantly thinking how we can best position ourselves for whats coming 10 to 15 years down the line, DeGrosky said. Thats what drives us as the fire season gets longer and longer. Now, it seems to end in October and start up again in February.

Minutes after the interview ended Monday, three wildland fire engines went speeding down Reserve Street, heading to an out-of-control debris fire.
Today is International Womens Day.

"Let us devote solid funding, courageous advocacy and unbending political will to achieving gender equality around the world. There is no greater investment in our common future."  United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban in October of 2012, is not only an advocate for girls education, but also a prime example of the power of educating girls. Today is a good day to remind ourselves of the importance of educating all girls throughout the world.

Malala grew up with her two younger brothers in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan. Her father is a writer and educational activist and runs a chain of private schools. From an early age, her father made certain that his daughter was educated as well as her brothers.

When she was only 11 years old, Malala began writing a blog for the BBC about her life under the Taliban. At age 12, she was featured in a New York Times documentary as the Pakistani military pushed the Taliban out of her region. That led to numerous interviews for newspapers and television promoting education and human rights.

On the afternoon of Oct. 9, 2012, Malalas school bus was stopped. A Taliban gunman asked for her by name, then pointed a pistol at her and fired three shots. Fortunately for the world, he did not kill her. Instead, she became famous and beloved throughout the world.

Malala fought to regain her life. Her first public speech after the attack was on her 16th birthday. On that day she addressed the United Nations:

"The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born ... I am not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I'm here to speak up for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all terrorists and extremists."

The following year she was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest ever Nobel laureate. That is the power of educating a girl!

Right now, 62 million girls worldwide are not being given any schooling at allno reading, no writing, no math. They do not have the basic skills they need to become productive members of their communities.

We all know the importance of quality education to gaining employment as an adult. But the advantages of education for girls and women go beyond that.

An educated woman not only has better employment opportunities, but she marries later and has fewer children. She can invest more time and money in caring for the children she does have. An educated woman understands the importance of good nutrition and how to provide it.

Better nutrition is one key for success in life and learning. The educated mother sends all her children to school, another key to creating successful, independent adults. Ultimately, entire communities benefit from educating all their children. Studies have even shown that educating girls as well as boys raises an entire countrys GDP.

Lets spend a few minutes of International Womens Day to call or email Sen. Steve Daines, Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Ryan Zinke. Tell them to support programs that educate all children. As Malala said, Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.
DEARBORN, Mich.It is here in the industrial Midwest, not in the South, where Ted Cruz's audacious theory of the 2016 race was supposed to be put to one of its most important tests. Michigan's primary on Tuesday  and especially what happens this day in the Detroit suburbs that in 1980 were ground zero for a new political species, "Reagan Democrats"  will answer this question: Can Cruz locate and motivate legions of recently nonvoting conservatives, millions of them nationwide, especially whites without college experience, who can be pulled back into voting in numbers sufficient to determine the election in November?

But the best-laid plans of mice and men and even senators often go awry, and one problem with Cruz's plan is that it was formulated in olden days, in the world B.D.T.  Before Donald Trump. He, too, is courting this cohort of the disaffected, whose grievances about politicians certainly cannot this year include being ignored by them. But although Trump may bestride the political scene mastodon, Patrick Colbeck and Wendy Day are undaunted.

Colbeck, 50, was an engineer with no interest in politics until, six years ago, he did something almost unprecedented even among members of the national legislature: He read the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. He concluded that "this is about control and has nothing to do with care." Now he is a Republican state senator, the first Michigan legislator elected from the tea party, and a thorn in the side of the GOP's legislative leadership on spending and other matters. Which is to say, he is somewhat like Ted Cruz, of whose Michigan campaign Colbeck is chairman.

Day, 43, is the wife of a soldier who has a Purple Heart from two tours in the Middle East, and the mother of a 19-year-old soldier just back from his first deployment, in Kuwait. She was working with war widows before becoming state director of the Cruz campaign because "he's been to Babylon and survived." Meaning he's resisted "the seductive nature of Washington." Now she travels with a spreadsheet, supplied by Cruz's national campaign headquarters in Houston, detailing the expected March 8 vote in all of Michigan's 4,500 precincts and the number of votes Cruz needs to get in each in order to win the state.

Houston projects that Cruz needs 345,000 of the 1.08 million votes the campaign expects to be cast. Day has on her phone a picture of two of those voters who, with no prompting from the campaign, set up a table outside a tractor supply store to educate voters about Cruz's enthusiasm for the Second Amendment. Other volunteers held a fundraiser at a gun range to pay for a Cruz billboard.

Yes, each such anecdote testifies to Cruz's ability to energize a passionate cadre, and, yes, as has been said, the plural of "anecdote" is "data." Today, however, much more than when Winston Churchill said so eight decades ago, "We have entered the region of mass effects." In Michigan, as in many of the Super Tuesday states, the Cruz campaign mounted the most ambitious efforts to create telephone-and-shoe-leather get-out-the-vote operations, all of which strengthen the sinews of American democracy. In its approach to Iowa, the campaign identified 150 clusters of Iowans for special attention, including a group of 60 who signed a petition seeking legalization of the sale of fireworks in the state, a group that received a blessing from Cruz in his libertarian mode.

But today's saturation journalism about presidential politics  and especially the insatiable appetite of television for the garish sights and sounds of Trump, whose campaign consists almost entirely of feeding this appetite  can raise waves of passion and distraction that wash away more methodical ways of engaging with voters.

A Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll, taken Feb. 14-16, after Iowa's caucuses and New Hampshire's primary but before South Carolina's primary and Nevada's caucuses, presented a microcosm of the GOP's national problem: Trump 25.2 percent, undecided 21.3, Cruz 15, Marco Rubio 11.8, John Kasich 10.5, Ben Carson 9, Jeb Bush 5.3. Trump had the highest unfavorable rating (41.3), but the combined 37.3 percent of the three serious Trump rivals still in the race is too fragmented to derail him. And Kasich, from contiguous Ohio, is targeting Michigan.

Michigan's primary comes a week  an eternity  after Super Tuesday's 11 primaries altered the political landscape. Michigan is one of the 18 states (and the District of Columbia)  with 242 electoral votes  that Republicans have lost in six consecutive presidential elections, so attention must be paid.
Throughout my life and exploration of true world history and attempts to combat poverty, illiteracy, lack of productivity, victimization due to dictators or disasters, I find all that I need is to weigh the U.S. Constitution of 1783 with the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and some consideration of certain philosophers, such as Buddha and Confucius, and wisdom of the Age of Enlightenment and of indigenous peoples.

I offer the online Merriam Webster dictionary definition of altruism: feelings and behavior that show a desire to help other people and a lack of selfishness.

True altruism is built into any Christian person. The impulse to do what a person can in any situation is good, and to bring his own resources or another person's abilities is good. Volunteerism can accomplish tremendous feats.

Unfortunately, too many people try to attach altruism to government and tax-based programs. Mistake!

When altruism comes from private citizens and truly inspired motivation, it is beautiful.

When it comes from people who want to expand government or their political careers, make a profit and ultimately bill taxpayers to support people who threaten taxpayers' very existence and liberty, and demand situations contrary to their morality, or kill them, that altruism is an ego trip.

Islam was invented seven centuries after Christ's death, including world conquest, horrendous subjugation of conquered people and barbarism toward women.

Few people realize that there is no tax base without private enterprise. No one anywhere can succeed without individual initiative. All nations, including the U.S., depend on free enterprise, so all those high-salaried bureaucrats and bunglers are killing the goose that laid the golden egg just so they can appear to be altruistic while they take their high salaries.

Linda Brooks-Curtis,

Missoula
HARDIN  Almost 17 years ago, Kathryn Lairds bruised body was found in the water in the Yellowtail Dam Afterbay near Fort Smith.

On Monday, a jury in Big Horn County convicted Brian David Laird, 46, of murdering his wife.

The panel of eight women and four men deliberated for five hours before finding Brian Laird guilty of deliberate homicide in the July 31, 1999, death of Kathryn Laird, 28.

The case had gone dormant until 2012, when the FBI talked to a couple who had been neighbors of the Lairds but had not been interviewed about what they observed the night Kathryn Laird died.

Kathryn Lairds mother, brother and sister, who all testified against Brian Laird, gasped, sobbed and hugged each other as the clerk read the verdict. The family called the verdict justice for their daughter and sister.

The victims mother, Marylou Little, from Arlington, Texas, said later, Im so elated. Its hard to explain. She can rest in peace now.

Kathryn Laird is buried in Fort Worth, Texas.

I never gave up hope, said sister Sheri Harber, of Grand Prairie, Texas. Its been worth it to know he wont be free anymore.

Harber said she got suspicious of Brian Laird almost immediately when he suggested that Kathryn Laird had committed suicide. I assure you my sister did not drown, she said, adding her sister was an experienced swimmer.

Kathryn Lairds brother, Thomas Little, of Arlington, Texas, said he immediately suspected his brother-in-law. He had an unbelievable temper, he said. His sister told him of Brian Laird abusing her from when they knew each other in college and that he saw bruises on his sisters arms and face, he said.

I carry a lot of guilt I didnt do more for her, Thomas Little said.

The jury went into deliberations shortly before noon on Monday. The trial began on March 1 in the Big Horn County Courthouse with District Judge Michael Hayworth of Miles City presiding.

After the verdict, Hayworth revoked Brian Lairds $250,000 bond and ordered him into custody immediately. A sentencing date will be set later.

Brian Laird faces the death penalty or a minimum 10 years in prison. He did not testify and showed no apparent reaction to the verdict.

Defense attorneys Matt Wald of Hardin and Sandy Selvey of Billings said they will appeal the verdict.

The Lairds, who had been married only five months at the time of Kathryn Lairds death, lived in a trailer park at Fort Smith and worked in the fishing business.

Brian Laird, a former fly-fishing guide and lawyer, was arrested in 2014 in Fort Collins, Colo., on the Montana murder charges. Neighbors of the couple, who apparently were not questioned in the case until an FBI interview in 2012, reported hearing a bitter argument the night of Kathryn Lairds death.

Closing arguments

In closing arguments on Monday, Montana Assistant Attorney General Chad Parker said Brian Laird murdered his wife by strangling or throttling her and dumping her in the Afterbay water, where she drowned.

Witnesses, he said, described hearing a running argument between the couple on July 30, 1999, and Parker argued Brian Laird lied about what happened.

Defense attorneys said the states case was built on speculation. The prosecution oversold and underdelivered, Wald told the jury.

Prosecutors, Wald said, tried to discredit testimony from defense witness Dr. Tom Bennett, a Billings forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Kathryn Lairds body, because they didnt like what he said. Bennett was the defenses main witness.

The prosecution witnesses included Eric and Kathleen Anderson, who had a trailer next to the Lairds and who were first interviewed in 2012 about the night of July 30, 1999. They described hearing the couple arguing previously, but the fight they heard on July 30, 1999, was worse than any other, Parker said.

The couple heard a man yelling, You F-ing bitch over and over, he said. Kathryn screamed out, No, no, no, Parker said. We never hear from her again, he said in closing arguments Monday.

The Andersons told the FBI that about 20 minutes later, they saw the Lairds white Toyota 4Runner drive by slowly. Kathleen Anderson identified the driver as a man. It was him, Parker said, referring to Brian Laird.

About an hour later, the Andersons dog started going crazy and barking in the direction of a pathway. Parker said the dog didnt like men and reacted by barking.

Prosecutors argued the evidence showed that Brian Laird strangled his wife, put her body in the Afterbay water where she drowned and then walked back to his trailer, which was less than a mile away. Brian Laird later claimed that his wife had driven off in the 4Runner after an argument and that he never saw her again, prosecutors said.

The state doesnt have to prove how or why Brian Laird killed his wife, Parker said. Rather, he said, the government has to show that Brian Laird caused her death and acted purposely and knowingly.

But for Brian Lairds actions, Kathryn Laird would not be dead, Parker said.

Brian Laird, Parker said, lied to the Missouri Board of Law Examiners, which questioned him extensively about the case in 2002 when he sought a license to practice law.

Laird denied having arguments with his wife, Parker said. He told the board that he had no anger control issues or outbursts at any time in his relationship with his wife.

Brian Laird told the board that his wife would get argumentative with him prior to her monthly period, according to a transcript of the hearing read at trial.

Autopsy reports

Much of the trial focused on autopsy reports. Medical examiners ruled that Kathryn Laird died from asphyxia by drowning and had unusual bruises to her neck muscles. But the manner of death remained undetermined after autopsies, and it was not clear from court documents exactly how authorities believe she died.

The prosecution team, which included Assistant Attorney General Ole Olson, advised the jury to disregard the testimony of Bennett, the forensic pathologist who performed one of two autopsies on Kathryn Laird the day after her death.

Bennett, the prosecutors said, had a new opinion at trial from one when he met with state investigators in which he used the terms strangulation and throttling regarding Kathryn Lairds death.

Bennett testified that Kathryn Laird died from freshwater drowning and not at the hands of another. In addition, he told the jury, the only premortem bruising was on her left thumb.

Bennett, however, during testimony acknowledged under prosecutor questioning that his findings said bruises in Kathryn Lairds neck muscles were, in his opinion, clearly real and premortem.

His autopsy report also included the statement that he believed the bruises were significant factors and warrant inclusion on the death certificate under the other significant condition heading.

During the first autopsy performed by Dr. Kenneth Mueller, a Billings pathologist now deceased, Mueller noted the neck bruising and called it troubling, said FBI Special Agent Randy Jackson at trial. Jackson, who conducted the initial investigation and was present at both autopsies, said Muellers comment changed the tone of the investigation.

Prosecutors attempted to discredit Bennetts testimony saying he had been terminated as an associate state medical examiner in 2015 after concerns and controversy arose about his autopsies on children. Bennett contended he had never been appointed by the state.

Defenses closing

Defense attorneys in closing arguments focused on Bennetts testimony that bruises in Kathryn Lairds neck muscles came from drowning and not from strangulation or an assault.

The bruising looked worse, Wald said, because Kathryn Lairds body had been embalmed before the autopsies.

With the case almost 17 years old, Wald questioned the memory and reaction of some prosecution witnesses.

The Andersons didnt talk about hearing the Lairds arguing until 13 years later, Wald said. It was an annoyance. This wasnt a big deal to them, he said.

Mike Anderson, Selvey said, didnt call the police because it was a domestic squabble and he didnt want to get involved.

The Andersons also did not identify Brian Laird in the courtroom, Selvey said.

Brian Laird didnt lie about arguing with his wife, Selvey said. Rather, he told authorities that they got into argument and that she left the residence, he said.
BUTTE  A former Montana State Hospital doctor who was arrested Friday on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and possession of dangerous drugs pleaded not guilty in Butte City Court on Tuesday morning.

Mark Jay Catalanello made his initial appearance before city Judge Glen Granger. Catalanello requested a jury trial. He also told the judge he has a private attorney.

Catalanello's court date has not been set. He faces two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of criminal possession of marijuana, all misdemeanors. He was released from the county jail Saturday on a $955 bond.

Catalanello was a staff physician at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs and served as the medical director at the Montana Chemical Dependency Center in Butte until October 2015, when the Montana Board of Medical Examiners temporarily suspended his medical license because of accusations he was using illegal drugs.

The state placed Catalanello on paid administrative leave after his Sept. 29 suspension and his last day working for the state was Oct. 19.

Catalanello has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and has had his medical license suspended in Montana and revoked in California following felony drug arrests in 2001 and 2005.

Catalanello was taken into custody early Friday evening after he allegedly yelled and screamed at police as well as an owner and bartender at the IT Club in Rocker. Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich said Monday that Catalanello was reportedly belligerent, angry and made vulgar comments.

Police had earlier responded to the Living Water Coffee Co. in Rocker, where an employee reported that Catalanello yelled and screamed at her as he waited in the drive-through. His black 2016 Dodge Ram pickup truck was located at the nearby IT Club, where he was found inside.
GREAT FALLS (AP)  A judge has sentenced two former leaders of a Chippewa Cree online lending company to more than three years in prison for stealing money from the company and taking bribes.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris sentenced Neal Rosette to 38 months and Billi Anne Morsette to 41 months on Monday.

Morris also ordered the pair to pay $1.4 million in restitution.

Rosette and Morsette used to run Plain Green, a short-term Internet lender that charges high interest rates. They also ran the tribe's first lending company, First American Capital Resources.

They pleaded guilty in December to accepting bribes, conspiracy to embezzle tribal funds and to tax fraud charges.

Prosecutors say they took money in a bribery scheme with a Nevada company that received a portion of Plain Green's revenues.
HELENA  The hardest thing in the mining industry is finding a quality project, and the Black Butte Copper Project near White Sulphur Springs is fantastic, said Sandfire Resources CEO Karl Simich.

Australia-based Sandfire last year became majority owner of Tintina Montana Inc., the company proposing a controversial copper mine in the Smith River watershed. Conservation and fishing groups launched the Save the Smith campaign in response, challenging the projects risk to the iconic river. Supporters of the project see it as a catalyst for economic growth in Meagher County while touting modern, environmentally responsible mining.

With mining projects all over the world, Sandfire is interested in the best opportunities it can find, Simich said, and he likes to be directly involved. With a pending mine permit before the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, he is excited about the momentum that comes when a project starts to get traction.

From our point of view, were very genuine about being in the middle of this industry and business, Simich said last week. Were very serious about it and were obviously very concerned along with everyone else that it has a positive contribution to the environment, to White Sulphur Springs and Montana. We think it has some great prospects to be an uplifting experience.

Simich and his partners launched Sandfire about 16 years ago, and he has been CEO for about the last eight years. Each project, whether in Montana, Australia, Canada, New Zealand or Africa, comes with a unique set of permitting requirements and challenges.

Critics of Black Butte point to minings poor environmental record in the state and numerous bankruptcies leaving taxpayers with cleanup costs. Mining companies often promote jobs and responsible practices to the public before a boom and inevitable bust, critics say, while questioning why Tintinas similar sales pitch should be believed.

Simich has heard the message from Tintinas critics, which he called subjective compared to the objective numbers that come with mining technology and practices.

Its a bit of a process where things can sometimes deviate and they get off course, get bogged down and be delayed, Simich said. Possibly they become less scientific and less objective and the processes can get caught up in many, many subjective issues.

We really want to demonstrate and inform people so that they can be fully informed about what is happening and how it operates, how matters and risks are dealt with. Sometimes a lack of information and lack of understanding leads to the wrong conclusions that people may have.

Critics also question whether a foreign company and out-of-state board of directors will mine responsibly if it cuts into the bottom line.

***

Simich believes Tintina is evolving as a company, moving away from financial investors and bringing in mining people that have a track record of seeing projects to fruition and see the industry as their livelihoods. He highlighted Sandfires history of safety, and said his company wants to lead by example and be in front of the curve in terms of innovation.

Were focused on what we do, were extraordinarily professional and diligent and concerned, he said. It is our livelihood and our reputation and we have done and will always continue to do the right thing. At the end of the day, were as good as the reputation weve gotten from the things weve done.

The contracts Tintina signs and permits it obtains make it responsible regardless of the location of corporate hierarchy, Simich said. As a modestly sized company, Sandfire matches well with a modestly sized project like Black Butte, he added.

We are all normal people living in normal households around the globe and wherever we may come from we want to ensure that the impact is minimized, he said. Its fine to throw out lots of noise but at the end of the day, judge us by what we do and the examples that we set.

The economic realities of copper prices reaching their lowest point in years makes the quality of a project all the more important, Simich said. The high percentage of copper within Black Buttes ore makes the project economically feasible when other mines could not turn a profit, he said.

As Tintina works toward permitting, it has also pitched investors on long-term potential for expansion. That has critics of the mine concerned about a 50-year mining district compared to the smaller size and 11- to 14-year life of Black Butte.

Our primary concern here is what theyre selling Montanans is a small footprint, underground mine with a relatively minor impact, when in reality what theyre telling investors is this is a much larger project that will create an industrialized zone, Derf Johnson, Clean Water Program director and staff attorney for Montana Environmental Information Center, said in a previous interview.

Simich responded that he hopes Black Butte can serve as an example for the public of how Tintina will responsibly mine and would develop any future projects.

If we can build a solid foundation off the development of the Black Butte Project into a very successful, transparent mining operation and show by way of example what can occur ... that will give us social license, I suppose, to then look at other opportunities and look at being more proactive, he said.

The project has generated significant local support from White Sulphur businesses and elected officials eager to stimulate the economy and tax base. Simich hopes that the critics will eventually see the opportunity for the area.

The local support is really, really positive, he said. We appreciate there are other stakeholders and other groups  the outfitters and fishermen  and understand and acknowledge all that. Obviously, we think theres a great opportunity to work with each other and not to have any sort of difficulties.
Government

CARAS PARK Extraordinary Events Committee, 11 a.m., Headwaters Conference Room at Currents, 600 Cregg Lane.

PARKS AND RECREATION Board, noon, Headwaters at Currents, 600 Cregg Lane.

MISSOULA COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS Board of Trustees' regular meeting, 6 p.m., Business Building Boardroom, 915 South Ave. W. Agenda available at mcpsmt.org.

MISSOULA RURAL FIRE District Board of Trustees' regular meeting, 7 p.m., MRFD Station 1, 2521 South Ave. W.

TARGET RANGE SEWER & Water District Board, 7 p.m., Target Range School library, 4095 South Ave. W.

Public events

"CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Kelso's Choice," 6 p.m., Paxson Elementary School. Child care free. Call 721-7690 to register.

MISSOULA PUBLIC LIBRARY, 301 E. Main St., 721-2665: Open hours in MakerSpace, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tiny Tales, 10:30 a.m.; Frenchtown branch Lego Club, 4-6 p.m.; Community Creative Writing Workshop in the MakerSpace, 6-7:30 p.m.; System Check, 6:30 p.m.; 2nd Tuesday MPL Book Group discusses "If Not for This " by Pete Fromm, 7 p.m.

BITTERROOT PUBLIC LIBRARY, 306 State St., Hamilton, 363-1670: Open technology lab, 10 a.m.-noon; adult coloring, 10 a.m.-noon; Genealogy Group, 2 p.m.; Socrates Cafe, 7 p.m.

NORTH VALLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY, 208 Main St., Stevensville, 777-5061: Map and compass course, 6 p.m.

Organizations

BIG SKY A'S Model A Club, 7:30 p.m., Southgate Mall Community Room.

MISSOULA SENIOR CENTER, 705 S. Higgins Ave., 543-7154, missoulaseniorcenter.org: yoga, 9 a.m.; Book Club, 11:30 a.m.; lunch, 11:30 a.m.; bingo, 12:45 p.m.

BITTERROOT TOASTMASTERS, 12:30 p.m., Hamilton Senior Center, 820 N. Fourth St. Call Douglas at 381-3214 or visit bitterroot.toastmastersclub.org.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE open game, 6:30 p.m., 2825 Stockyard Road, Building I-3. Visit missoulabridge.org.

MISSOULA SHOOTIN THE BULL Toastmasters, noon, Florence Building, 111 N. Higgins Ave., ALPS Board Room. Visit shootinthebull.info.

KIWANIS CLUB of Missoula, noon, Florence Building, 111 N. Higgins Ave.

On campus

UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA

Semester Bike Rental Extravaganza, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., University Center First Floor Retail Space (next to Shear Perfection). Want to check out a semester-long bike rental? It normally costs $60 for the whole semester, but during this extravaganza on Monday and Tuesday, March 7 and 8, bike rentals will cost just $40. All semester bikes come with a helmet, U-lock, lights and free maintenance. 243-4599, sandy.broadus@umontana.edu.

LunchPad Workshop: Business Creativity: Realizing Opportunities and Putting Out Fires, noon-1 p.m., Blackstone LaunchPad, University Center. Learn how to apply creative problem-solving tools and techniques to increase the probability of success in your new business venture. Register for free in advance at podio.com/webforms/14920158/1000388. 243-5723.

Mansfield Center Lecture: The Confluence of Renewable Energy and Human Health: Putting Ourselves to Work for a Human-Powered Future, 12:10-1 p.m., University Center Room 332. UM associate professor Bradley Layton will discuss several examples of how our energy consumption habits are at odds with human health concerns. 243-2988, umt.edu/mansfield/events/brownbaglectures.php.

Peace Corps Application Workshop, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Lommasson Center Room 154. Attendees will to learn how a recruiter assesses applicants to match them to available assignments and how to strengthen their application. 243-2839, peacecorps.gov/volunteer/learn/meet/events/23539/.

UM Forum for Living with Appropriate Technology Workshop: Appropriate Technology and Capacity Building, 6 p.m., UM FLAT Studio, 633 S. Fifth St. E. Chris Guttenberg will discuss building techniques, renewable energy science and methods and the role each plays in the big picture of social constructivism. (440) 832-0675, umflat@gmail.com.

Community Lecture Series, 7-8:30 p.m., University Center Theater. UM philosophy UM English associate professor Quan Ha presents Vietnam War: Literature & the Politics of Remembrance. Tickets $20 for series ($10 for UM Alumni Association members) or $10 students. Individual lectures cost $5 at the door. 243-6439, grizalum.org/events/cls/default.php.

Wilderness Lecture Series: Conservation Economics: The Value of Protected Lands and Wilderness, 7:10 p.m., Gallagher Business Building Room 122. Evan Hjerpe, executive director of the Conservation Economics Institute, presents as part of the 2016 Wilderness Lecture Series. Free and open to the public. 243-5521, cfc.umt.edu/wi/education/lecture-series/default.php.

Student Ensemble Series: Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble I, 7:30 p.m., Dennison Theatre. $11 general, $6 seniors or $5 students. 243-6880, umt.edu/music.

Births

Lindsey Delin and John West, Bozeman, girl, March 5

Christine and Adam Hollenback, Missoula, boy, March 6
LONDON  Less than a year after his unexpected general election victory, Prime Minister David Cameron has undertaken an even greater challenge. Staking his future on the outcome, he is holding a referendum on June 23 to decide whether Britain should stay in the European Union, or leave.

Mr. Cameron is said to be a lucky politician, good in a crisis. But is this a gamble too far?

Not since 1975 have Britains voters been given a specific say on their countrys participation in the union, which has undergone a transformation in the intervening years, evolving from a free-trade pact into an integrated political and economic alliance with many of the features of a superstate. Those who favor Britains departure, or Brexit, claim that too much control has been lost to the European Commission in Brussels and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Like a majority of Conservatives of his generation, Mr. Cameron himself is a euroskeptic, firmly opposed to European federalism. Yet he believes with no less vigor that Britain can have the best of both worlds, and would suffer economically, diplomatically and strategically outside the union.

As evidence of his determination to strike a sensible balance, the prime minister promised to renegotiate Britains terms of membership before putting the matter before the electorate. This deal, struck in Brussels on Feb. 19 after more than 30 hours of talks, is considerably better than most of the critics will admit. On a range of issues  Britains exemption from the goal of ever closer union, the benefits it must pay to European Union migrants, the position of the City of London, the ability of national parliaments to resist European law  Mr. Cameron won significant concessions.
MANILA  The Supreme Court of the Philippines on Tuesday ruled that a popular senator, seen by some as likely to carry forward the policies of President Benigno S. Aquino III, is eligible to run for the presidency.

Senator Grace Poe, the adopted daughter of one of the countrys most famous movie stars, has consistently ranked among the most popular of the candidates. In December, the Commission on Elections disqualified her after complaints claimed that she was a United States citizen and had not lived in the Philippines long enough to run.

According to Ms. Poes account, she was abandoned on the doorstep of a church on the central Philippine island of Panay in 1968 and was adopted by the movie star Fernando Poe Jr.

She later moved to the United States, where she obtained citizenship and lived for several years before returning to the Philippines and entering politics. In 2013, she surprised many people in the country by running for the Senate and winning with more than 20 million votes  the highest number among the more than 30 candidates.
Archaeology and History of the Silk Road
The zoning-board staff said in an analysis that they don't believe the salon will have an adverse impact on the neighborhood. They plan to recommend approving the variance so long as the business will be limited to Danelle Hooker, the salon will limit its hours to 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and the salon entrance will reside on Sanders Street.
ASSAULT

Tyler Bennett, 22, of Butte was arrested for allegedly punching the nose of a man, 19, after an argument over a woman on the 1500 block of Third Street in Walkerville on Friday. Police say the woman was an ex-girlfriend of Bennetts. He is facing a charge of misdemeanor simple assault.

MORE FIGHTS

Police officers broke up three separate fights involving at least six people in the Acoma bar, 60 E. Broadway St., about midnight Saturday. Police said Zane Allen, 23, of Butte continued to argue, fight and attempted to re-enter the bar.

He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Two males reportedly tried to serve themselves beer and then pushing and shoving ensued, which led to a melee, police said.

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

Samuel Suddeth, 35, of Butte is facing a disorderly conduct charge after police say he was highly intoxicated at St. James Healthcare, 400 S. Clark St., about 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

TRAFFIC STOP ARREST

Anthony Fleming, 34, of Butte was stopped by police about 12:40 a.m. Sunday on the 1100 block of California Avenue for not having working headlights. He was wanted on a misdemeanor Montana Highway Patrol warrant. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.

SHOPLIFTING

Jessica Awes, 31, of Alvarado, Minn., was seen by a Town Pump clerk taking two tie-dye Beanie Babies, a candle and three coloring books at the convenience store, 2711 Harrison Ave., shortly before 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The value of the items was $67. She is facing charges of misdemeanor theft and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Police found a glass marijuana pipe.

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

Todd Rainville, 28, was arrested for disorderly conduct about noon Sunday after police say he argued with an ex-girlfriend at her residence on the 900 block of Evans Avenue. It escalated to yelling, screaming and the homeless man allegedly attempted to break items.
A former Montana State Hospital doctor who was arrested Friday in Butte on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and possession of dangerous drugs pleaded not guilty to those charges in Butte City Court Tuesday morning.

Mark Jay Catalanello made his initial appearance at about 11 a.m. before city Judge Glen Granger. Catalanello requested a jury trial. He also told the judge he has a private attorney.

Catalanello's court date has not been set. He faces two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of criminal possession of pot, all misdemeanors. He was released from the county jail Saturday on $955 bond.

Catalanello was a staff physician at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs and served as the medical director at the Montana Chemical Dependency Center in Butte until October, when the Montana Board of Medical Examiners temporarily suspended his medical license because of accusations he was using illegal drugs.

The state placed Catalanello on paid administrative leave following his Sept. 29 suspension and his last day working for the state was Oct. 19, 2015.

Catalanello has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and has had his medical license suspended in Montana and revoked in California following felony drug arrests in 2001 and 2005.

Catalanello was taken into police custody early Friday evening after he allegedly yelled and screamed at police as well as an owner and bartender at the IT Club in Rocker. Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich told The Montana Standard on Monday that Catalanello was reportedly belligerent, angry and made vulgar comments.

Police had earlier responded to the Living Water Coffee Co. in Rocker, where an employee reported that Catalanello yelled and screamed at her as he waited in the drive-through. His black 2016 Dodge Ram pickup truck was located at the nearby IT Club where he was found inside.
DARBY  For the second time in a little more than a week, a public body in Darby will host a special meeting to discuss a planned presentation on Islam by a longtime University of Montana professor.

The Darby School Board will hold a special board meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the high school library to talk about a plan to host UM Professor Samir Bitar on Wednesday.

Bitar is the featured Humanities Montana speaker at the Darby Community Librarys Life-Long Learning Series on the same night.

The school district plans to have Bitar speak to high school social studies classes earlier in the day.

Last week, the library board held a special meeting about Bitars presentation after receiving about seven written complaints and some calls of opposition. After taking public comment, the library board voted to move forward with the presentation.

Darby School Superintendent Loyd Rennaker said some school board members have heard the same type of complaints and decided to allow the community a chance to voice its concerns or support.

Students are already required to have a permission slip signed by their parents or guardians to attend the class.

We saw the potential for controversy, so we gave parents the opportunity to make the decision for their children, Rennaker said.

Bitar is a professor of Arabic languages and cultures at the University of Montana. A native Palestinian, Bitar moved to Montana when he was 16. He has been teaching at UM since 1999. He has a masters degree in linguistics, teaching methods and cultural geography. Bitar has trained members of the Montana National Guard in essential Arabic language and culture.

His talk at the library is titled Perspectives on Islam.

An informational blurb about the talk says, Life in Muslim societies is an intersection of religious, social, cultural, and political realities. Thus, for one to develop a well-rounded understanding of Muslims, their perspectives and aspirations, one must look at all the dimensions of Muslim life.

Bitar uses literature, film and other resources to familiarize audiences with the heritage of Islamic civilizations and the religion of Islam.

As the founder of UMs Arabic Program, Bitar said hes dedicated his life to being a lifelong learner and, more importantly, to passing on knowledge to others.

Bitar said people should come hear his presentation for information.

First of all, our current environment in the United States at large is, in an indirect way, asking us Americans to look at this issue to become informed, Bitar said. We live in a democratic pluralistic system, and we all have to be active in order for it to work. In order for us to be active and participate, because democracy is a process, we have to participate to preserve our way of life. In order for us to be able to do that and contribute, we have to be informed.

Bitar said when people formulate opinions, those should be based on real, factual data.

No one can simply look the other way; it affects our daily life as Americans, and I believe education is important for every society, Bitar said. I wish to give back to Montana, my home. We have to overcome fear with love, and we do that with knowledge because knowledge is light. Only light can overcome darkness. With love, we can obtain the highest in human existence.

I love teaching, he said. I love what I do.

Darby Community Public Library Director Wendy Campbell said Bitar will provide a unique educational opportunity.

The community program at the library begins at 6 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Partial funding for the program comes from a legislative grant from the Montana Cultural Trust and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Its rare to see a wolverine in Montana, even in the reclusive weasels remote and mountainous strongholds. So the tenacious carnivore certainly wasnt what Havre-area farmer Dave Chinadle expected to see in the middle of a stubble field last week.

Chinadle was driving one mile north of Hingham, about 35 miles west of Havre, when he saw what he thought was a neighbors dog running across a stubble field. As he got closer and slowed down, the animal saw him, stopped, and took off in the opposite direction.

I thought that was kind of weird, so I got out my field glasses and realized, thats no dog, he said. It bounced away just a little bit and I got a heck of a profile. Theres no doubt it was a wolverine.

After seeing a high-resolution photo, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks furbearer coordinator Bob Inman called it very convincing, citing the bushy tail and brown striping as distinguishing wolverines from other likely animals.

"Everything looks like a wolverine as opposed to anything else to me," he said.

Chinadle watched the animal for about 10 minutes, describing the encounter in detail. It was twice as big as a badger and stood twice as high at the shoulder as the 12-inch stubble. It ran with a slight hump in its back and brown striping outlined its back and rump.

A truck traveling down another road spooked the animal, and it came closer to Chinadle again.

I couldnt believe how fast he moved, and what surprised me was he went right by some trees to the north of him and ran right by a rock pile he couldve buried himself in, he said. I thought he was going to hide, but he just kept going cross-country.

The animal seemed to be coming from the Sweet Grass Hills to the northwest and traveling across the prairie toward the Bear Paw Mountains to the southeast.

Chinadle started snapping photos with his cellphone before it crossed the road about a quarter mile in front of him.

I just thought, this is crazy, but I was really regretting not having a better camera with me, he said. He was flat-out running too -- I actually dont think I ever seen him walk.

After the animal went out of sight, Chinadle continued about his business, but as he drove across the point where it had crossed the road, his old dog riding in the cab growled at the unfamiliar smell.

A photo went up on Facebook and Chinadle only heard from one man who reported another Hill County wolverine sighting near Kremlin in the 1970s.

It was really something cool, Chinadle said.

Wolverines, the largest members of the weasel family, typically occupy the snowy peaks of places such as Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, although they have been known to travel long distances. Researchers tracked a lone male in 2009 as it traveled more than 500 miles from northwest Wyoming to Colorado, making it the first wolverine documented in that state in nearly a century.

Sightings such as Chinadles far away from classic habitat are rare but do happen occasionally, Inman said. He noted a 2013 study that estimated populations as well as potential range for dispersing individuals. The dispersal range extends from the core habitat and fairly close to Chinadles sighting.

It is unlikely that the nearby Bear Paws hold any sort of resident wolverine population, Inman said, although there have been sporadic historic reports. The nearest resident populations and likely source of the animal seen last week is the Bob Marshall Wilderness or Little Belt Mountains, he added.

State wildlife agencies in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington along with their partners began a multistate wolverine study last year that will fully launch this winter. The study aims to establish a baseline of occupied areas and linkages between habitat as well as a population estimate. The current population estimate of about 300 animals in the lower 48 is based on known habitat and typical home range size per animal.

Wolverines were considered but denied listing under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. Several environmental groups have challenged that decision in federal court.
Our hearts have been saddened by the recent passing of Mary Gerianne Geri Shea.

Ger was born in Butte, Montana, on March 19, 1955, to John T. and Evelyn F. Shea and passed away in her home surrounded by friends and family on March 7, 2016.

Geri attended Catholic schools in Butte, graduating from Butte Central in 1973. She then attended Carroll College, being a member of the first four-year graduating class in nursing in 1977. Ger was extremely proud to be a practicing nurse for nearly 40 years. One of the hardest things she had to do was retire from her nursing duties.

Nursing took Geri through many different aspects of the profession. Started as a floor nurse at the Crest Nursing Home after her graduation from Carroll. She then took a huge leap by taking a position in Honolulu, Hawaii, working there for over a year. Many friends and family were happy to "have" to go visit. Upon her return to the states, Geri took a position at the Butte Park Royal as the night shift supervisor. She also had a supervisor position in Anaconda before taking the day shift supervisor position at Butte Convalescent Center. This move led her to a 31-year career at the facility. Geri had many positions at BCC/BCIU Genesis  however the past 25 years she was the Director of Nursing at the facility.

Geri had the "Heart" of a nurse. She felt the pain of every resident and family member that entered under her care. She would laugh with them, cry with them and hold them when needed. The standards were set high and she wanted everyone to receive the best care possible. For her, all that really mattered at the end of the day was that each and every resident was well cared for.

Geri was always the consummate professional. She supervised many nurses and CNAs over the years. She became a teacher, mentor, friend and family to nearly all that worked at the facility.

She was a very private person, not sharing much about herself. She was always the "big" sister to Dan, John and Becky. Never showing any sign of weakness or sickness along the way.

Her greatest joy in life was spending time with her nieces and nephews. Auntie Ger or (auntie ATM) was the center of all family functions for the kids. From water fights to acting out the Wizard of Oz, Ger was the active participant. Many miles of vacation time was logged and Ger enjoyed every minute she had with them. Her bucket list at the end still was centered around the nieces and nephews. All of them knew that she loved them dearly.

Geri is survived by her father, John T. Shea; brothers, Dan (Rose) Shea, John (Jan) Shea and her, sister Becky (Robb) Soltesz; her companion and friend, Jennelle Durkin; nieces/nephews, Tammy Williams (T.R.), Cindy Winston (John), Jenny Brown (Travis), Shelby Durkin Bragg (Kris), John R. Shea, Caitlin Soltesz and Quinn Soltesz; great-nieces/nephews, Tucker Winston, Grady Winston and Neveah Williams (coming soon Baby Girl Bragg). Geri is also survived by her aunts, Rose Mihelich, Helen Lynch and ElDeane Jacobson, as well as many cousins and close friends.

She was preceded in death by her mother, Evelyn F Shea, grandparents and cousin, Karen Moe.

The family would like to thank Dr. Antonioli for his years of working with and for Ger. Also, Dr. Hueftle and his staff that followed Ger on this journey for the past eight years.

A huge thank you goes out to the "support group" that helped make the last five weeks somewhat easier for Ger. So to Tami Farabee, Mary Immel , Amber Dayhuff, Joyce Wilkins and Sandi Stover  thank you for going above and beyond with sharing your gifts of love and friendship with Geri.

Relatives and friends may call Friday after 5 p.m. at the Chapel of Duggan Dolan Mortuary. Parish Vigil services will be conducted at 7 p.m. in the chapel. Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Saturday in St. Anns Church. Rite of Committal will be in Holy Cross Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, a Mary "Gerianne" Shea Memorial Scholarship in Nursing has been established at Carroll College. We would ask for any donation to be sent to the Office of Institutional Advancement at Carroll College 160l N. Benton Helena, Montana 59625 Attn: Candi Cain, earmarked for this scholarship fund.

Express condolences at www.mtstandard.com.
A former state doctor who is facing an indefinite suspension of his medical license for alleged illegal drug use was arrested in Butte Friday night on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and possession of dangerous drugs.

Mark Jay Catalanello was a staff physician at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs and served as the medical director at the Montana Chemical Dependency Center in Butte until October, when the Montana Board of Medical Examiners temporarily suspended his medical license amid accusations that he was using illegal drugs.

The state placed Catalanello on paid administrative leave following his Sept. 29 suspension and his last day working for the state was Oct. 19, 2015.

Catalanello has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and has had his medical license suspended in Montana and revoked in California following felony drug arrests in 2001 and 2005.

An MTFP investigation into Catalanello that began more than a year ago uncovered a lengthy record of drug and alcohol abuse, felony arrests, failed rehabilitation, refusals to participate in mandated drug and alcohol screenings, and suspended and revoked medical licenses in Montana and California.

Catalanello was taken into police custody early Friday evening after he allegedly yelled and screamed at police as well as an owner and bartender at the IT Club in Rocker. Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich told The Montana Standard on Monday that Catalanello was reportedly belligerent, angry and made vulgar comments.

Police had earlier responded to the Living Water Coffee Co. in Rocker, where an employee reported that Catalanello yelled and screamed at her as he waited in the drive-through. His black 2016 Dodge Ram pickup truck was located at the nearby IT Club where he was found inside.

He was very irate, Skuletich said.

Catalanello may appear at an initial appearance in Butte district court as early as Tuesday. He faces two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of criminal possession of pot, all misdemeanors. He was released from the county jail late Saturday afternoon on $955 bond.

Last month Catalanello failed to show up at a trial before a Montana Department of Labor hearings examiner to defend himself against allegations leveled in October that he relapsed in violation of the board-imposed terms that allowed him to get his medical license back following a 2005 suspension.

An adjudication panel of the Montana Board of Medical Examiners is expected to take up Catalanellos case at a meeting in Helena on March 11. The panel is expected to consider a recommendation that Catalanellos medical license be suspended indefinitely.
In meetings with the editorial boards at the Helena Independent Record and the Billings Gazette recently, Greg Gianforte, whos running for governor, has laid out a plan for tax cuts and infrastructure spending that frankly has no basis in reality. Gianforte, a former businessman, is a Republican outsider with no experience in governing, which may explain how he has come up with a proposal that would make a mess out of the states budget.

According to Gianforte, the state has a surplus of almost half a billion dollars. With that money, he figures, we could eliminate the business equipment tax, which he claims is the most regressive tax on the books. We could also adopt one of the income tax measures that failed in the 2015 Legislature. And after both of those tax cuts, Gianforte figures we would have enough left to spend $200 million on infrastructure projects.

Consider Gianfortes claim that we have a surplus of half a billion dollars. He appears to be referring to the $455 million the state had in the bank at the start of the current biennium. But he doesnt seem to realize that at the beginning of the next biennium, cash on hand is projected to be $357 million, and its only then that Gianforte, if elected, could begin to cut taxes or spend more on infrastructure. So he would be setting his first budget with $98 million less than he thinks.

But it gets worse. Right now, the amount of ongoing revenue the state takes in just about equals the amount that it spends. The budget is currently balanced; there is no surplus or deficit. The money thats in the bank has been set aside, as a reserve, out of past surpluses. So if Gianforte really did cut taxes and increase spending, the state would run a deficit, and the only way we could pay for it would be by eating up our reserves.

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And with Gianfortes plan, those reserves would disappear very quickly. Assuming that the state would make up for the loss to local governments, eliminating the business equipment tax would cost at least $160 million over the next biennium. Depending on the details, cutting the income tax could easily cost another $100 million. And then theres the $200 million Gianforte says he will spend on infrastructure. All that adds up to $460 million, which means that we would blow through our $357 million cash reserve well before the biennium was over, and would still be running a serious deficit with no way to pay for it. Needless to say, running a deficit and cannibalizing our reserves would obliterate the track record for sound fiscal management put up by Gov. Steve Bullock. And the states credit rating, which right now is excellent, would go in the tank. Nobody would want to lend money to a state that had lost all sense of fiscal discipline.

Quite aside from being fiscally irresponsible, Gianfortes proposal to eliminate the business equipment tax is misinformed. Several past legislatures have already substantially reduced the tax, and in 2013, eliminated it entirely for 60 percent of Montanas small businesses. The bulk of the tax is now paid by large businesses, meaning that it is not regressive, as Gianforte claims.

Another big problem with eliminating the business equipment tax is that it puts a big dent in the budgets of local governments, which means that either they cut services or shift the tax onto other taxpayers, mainly homeowners. To prevent that from happening, the legislature has had to make up for the loss of local revenue with state funds. That works, but it simply means that the dent is now in the state budget.

Gianfortes taxing and spending plans dont pencil out, but you shouldnt let that worry you too much. Because even though Gianforte doesnt seem to know it, the state Constitution requires the budget to be balanced. So his plan is simply unworkable. Theres some comfort in that, although its alarming to think that there is a candidate out there who doesnt seem to know or care that he is pitching a plan that can never get off the ground.

-- Sen. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, represents Senate District 45 in the Montana Legislature.
(Weapons and Warfare) The Iran-Iraq War was one of the longest and deadliest in recent histories. Iran full of zeal after its revolution...
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
A Mature, Intelligent 5 Yr. Old.A Child Will Do Childish ThingsFacebook is not an addiction or priority..It's my[jwh]Humility, when worn like a Badge becomes' [jwh]Only a person with whom you share a deep love ..[jwh]The only way to never experience great pain is to never have experienced a Great Love~ jh + many others 2013

Timely Thoughts

About Time and the days of our lives



Mail is sent and received instantly.



Work schedules are flexible.



Hardwood floors are EEZZ care.



Machines Wash & Dry Our Clothes.



Ditto the Dishes!



Ironing... What's that?



We often say, "Let's make time."



We can't make time of course,



But we do need to use it better.



We have longer 'talks' with Internet contacts..than family and friends.



We enjoy talking.. often saying little.



We hear ...not always listening or is it the other way around-we listen..without actually 'hearing'.



What a joy one whole day would be with dear ones in my life. We can't seem to make it happen.



These are 'The Days of Our Lives'...but for a short while.










Screen capture of unidentifed man ( i suspect he is Wee Sin Choe)

(source: National Archives of Singapore)

Screen capture of the bride, Wee Kim Neo

(source: National Archives of Singapore)

Wee Sin Choe's daughter, Wee Kim Neo and Low Peng Hee (source: NewspaperSG)









The Joint Technical Symposium (JTS) 2016 , co-organised by National Archives of Singapore (NAS) and South East Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA), was officially opened on 7th March 2016 by Minister for Communications and Information, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim. The Symposium brings together industry practitioners to discuss the challenges in todays preservation and restoration of audio-visual records as well as share new technologies and best practices in the industry of audio-visual archives. JTS is hosted in Singapore and Asia for first time since its inception in 1983.One of the more interesting audio-visual artifact featured in the factsheet i received from the Symposium which caught my attention is the Black and white footage of wedding preparation for the wedding of Law Peng Hoe (Low Peng Hee) and Wee Kim Neo on 17 November 1940 . The bride, Wee Kim Neo is the grand daughter of Majoor Oei (Wee) Boon Teng , of Selat Panjang, East Coast of Sumatra and daughter of Wee Sin Choe, managing director of Cheong Koon Seng and Co The video includes not only the wedding preparation footage only, but also on Performers rehearsing, Colonial street scene (you will see lots of rickshaws), Peranakan household scenes of children playing, elderly ladies and family together with beach scenes. This video is a home video from the Tan Geok Choo Wee Law Collection and caption title is:The names i have hyperlinked have connections back to Bukit Brown Cemetery. Also from my previous research, is a picture from the NewpaperSG of the actual wedding donation from the bride and group of $500 for the War Fund effort.Another feature showcased was the Berita Singapura: Singapore Grand Prix 1966 . Hopefully more interesting nuggets will be released for online viewing from National Archives Audio-visual website.
As owner of this blog, I bear no responsibility to what other contributors/bloggers may post. I encourage all to speak freely without indulging in libel or defamatory content. Anyone who feels offended by any posting can email me and I will remove the offending article if appropriate. Contact me at redbeansg@yahoo.com redbean
A 19 year old girl is lucky to have survived what can least be explained as the height of brutality after two policemen gang raped her then shamelessly went ahead to imprint their names on her thighs the past month.

However, this is not her first rape case. In her early teenage years, back in 2012, Daisy Karimi was raped after suffering an epileptic attack that left her unconscious, granting a pervert the opportunity to take advantage of her helpless self. After this first rape incidence at the age of 14 years, Karimi is said to have became pregnant and gave birth to two kids through a C-section.

Despite undergoing through the hell of time back then, her unforgiving devil struck again last year on December 28th when two policemen kidnapped her in Muthurwa and dumped her in Naivasha on the 31st of same month after doing all sorts of unthinkable acts on her body. She was later picked by good Samaritans who took her to hospital where she has been undergoing thorough treatment until February 12th 2016 when she was to leave hospital.

However, despite being in the hospital bed for two months, the devil was not yet done with tormenting her as she was yet to face another brutal rape from the same policemen. This time, they drugged her immediately after she had left the hospital, drove her to an unknown place but she miraculously survived to tell yet another painful story.

Daisy is now in hospital recuperating from her recent attack. Compassionate people who have heard her sad tale have said that enough is enough and have decided to tell her story and push for her justice. Currently there is hash-tag #JusticeForDaisy that is out to see those guilty of abducting and molesting the 19 year old get axed by the law.

May the guilty get apprehended and served with stern sentences.

Story Courtesy: Capital FM


Congratulations drinking Kenyans, your drinking prowess has been noted and your money highly appreciated by Scotch distillers!

A report by a Scotland-based association which monitors the industry shows that Kenyans guzzled Sh 568 million worth of Scotch whisky last year as a growing middle class splashed on middle to high-end alcoholic spirits.

This represented a six per cent growth from the previous years Sh534 million, according to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) whose members include Diageo, the East African Breweries Limiteds (EABL) parent firm.

Kenya has recorded over the past five years significant growth in whisky sales driven by demand from the growing, well-travelled middle class with high disposable incomes.

This uptake of Scotch is being driven by Kenyas increasingly sophisticated middle class as well as the countrys growing economy, Helena Mumdzjana, SWAs trade policy manager for Africa, said in an interview.

The association gathers its data from UK customs officials and internal research, implying that its figures exclude Scotch that gets into the country through non-formal entries.

SWAs data only looks at Scotch whisky, indicating that Kenyans drunk more than the reported Sh568 million when whiskeys from American and Irish distilleries are included.

The data includes brands such as Dewars Ballantines The Glenlivet, Cutty Sark, Famous Grouse, the Johnnie Walker range, Cragganmore, Cardhu, J & B, Talisker and Vat 69 among several others.

Additional Reporting by Business Daily.
Respected California chef Victor Scargle is returning to Copia.

The former executive chef of Julia's Kitchen at Copia has been appointed executive chef of The Culinary Institute of America at Copia, now part of the college's Napa Valley-based California campus. In this role, Chef Scargle will oversee a new restaurant, along with wine-tasting experiences, food enthusiast programs, and other special events at the venue in the city of Napa.

Before rejoining the CIA staff in his current role, Scargle served on the faculty of the college's Greystone campus in St. Helena from 2009 to 2011. He was at Julia's Kitchen from 2003 to 2007.

"I am just very excited to be around so many talented and passionate culinarians with the CIA and cannot wait to open a restaurant that is accessible to everyone," Scargle said. "The vision that the leadership of the CIA has for Copia will be unique and very exciting to visitors to the Napa Valley and locals alike."

"Chef Scargle's return to Copia is a 'coming home' for someone who is truly at the forefront of California cuisine," says Thomas Bensel, managing director of the CIA's California campus comprising both the St. Helena and Napa locations. "Importantly, it also signals the first of more than 60 new jobs the CIA expects to bring to Napa with the college's revitalization of a venue that has been closed for eight years."

During more than two decades working in top restaurants in California and elsewhere, Scargle was executive chef of Lucy Restaurant & Bar at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, Go Fish Restaurant in St. Helena, Grand Cafe at the Hotel Monaco in San Francisco, and Pisces in Burlingame; chef de cuisine at Jardiniere in San Francisco; chef at Aqua in Las Vegas and San Francisco; sous chef at Tribeca Grill in New York City; and tournant at Aqua in San Francisco, Patria in New York City, and Colony Bistro in Miami Beach.

Scargle was named a Rising Star Chef by both the San Francisco Chronicle and KRON television. The Chronicle also awarded three-and-a-half stars to Julia's Kitchen and three stars to Pisces withf Scargle at the helm. He was featured in Sunset magazine's "Chefs of the West" story in 2001. Scargle studied economics at the UC Santa Barbara before pursuing his culinary career.

The CIA is still determining the concept for the new restaurant at Copia, which is scheduled to open in late spring.
Within minutes of Donald Trump asking thousands of his supporters at a rally in Orlando on Saturday afternoon to raise their right hands and solemnly swear to vote for him, the comparisons were being made.

Taken out of context, photos and video of the pledge looked like a large crowd saluting the Republican presidential front-runner, which was reminiscent to some of Nazis saluting Adolf Hitler. When a Politico reporter asked Trumps spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, about these comparisons on Saturday, she responded: What a disgusting thing to ask. A disgrace.

The comparisons continued on Sunday and Monday, with the Times of Israel publishing an article that quoted former Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman, a Holocaust survivor, calling the pledge a fascist gesture and saying: He is smart enoughhe always tells us how smart he isto know the images that this evokes. That same day, Trump repeated the pledge with rally crowds in North Carolina and Mississippi.

Most presidential campaigns are equipped with rapid response teams that are tasked with spotting these sorts of trends on social media before they go viral and are widely picked up by the media. But Trump runs a small shop and usually acts as his own one-man rapid response team, immediately responding to controversy on Twitter. Trump usually seems to have his finger right on the pulse of social media, but in this case it appears that no one briefed the boss before he called into the Today Show on Tuesday morning.

Todays Savannah Guthrie brought up Foxmans comparison to a Nazi salute and asked Trump: I wonder how you feel about that comparison and whether it would make you want to perhaps not do it anymore, if people do feel that way?

Well, I think its ridiculous. I mean, were having such a great time, Trump responded, listing off his latest crowd counts. Sometimes, well do it for fun. . . . Theyll start screaming at me: Do the swearing! Do the swearing. I mean, theyre having such a great time. . . . Honestly, until this phone call, I didnt know it was a problem.

Guthrie asked if Trump would now reflect on it.

Almost everybody in the room raises their hand, Trump said. Were having a good time. I never knew it was a problem.

Todays Matt Lauer then jumped in: I think its also in combination, Mr. Trump, with some of the rhetoric youve used on the campaign trail over the last several months, targeting groups like Muslims and Mexicans  that evokes images of Nazi Germany and the scapegoating of Jews there back in the 1930s and 40s.

Well, I think thats a big, big stretch, Trump said, before again listing off his latest rally crowd counts and saying how much fun his fans have at the rallies. Im very surprised to hear it.

Asked if the comparison bothers him, Trump replied: If its offensive or if theres anything wrong with it, I wouldnt do it. But when I say, Raise your hand, everybody raises their hand. Theyre screaming to me to do it: We want to do it. And its really  you know, were all having a lot of fun. I never thought it was anything offensive.

Trump closed out the interview by saying that he would look into his use of the pledge at rallies.

Well, Ill certainly look into it, Trump said. I mean, Id like to find out if thats true. But I would certainly look into it because I dont want to offend anybody. But I can tell you that its been amazingly received, well received. But I will certainly look into that.
There is lots of prejudice among our communities. Just because of how a person looks makes another person think they are lower than them and cannot compare to them, causing them to completely destroy their individual identity, causing communities to separate.

Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others.

Some examples that show that racism still exists are the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the beating of Rodney King. These events might have been years apart but their effects have caused an awakening for those who see racism is still an issue.

Racism is something we've all witnessed. Many people fail to believe that race isnt a biological category, but an artificial classification of people with no scientifically variable facts. Racism exists everywhere and there are always going to be people to oppose it. The "Black Lives Matter" movement proves there will always be people who believe black people should get the same respect as any other race, skin color, ethnicity, etc.

One example took place Jan. 18 on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Five lanes on the Bay Bridge were halted westbound for nearly an hour as passengers passed chains through car windows as part of protests. Protesters blocked the traffic on the westbound span as part of a long weekend of protests aimed at reclaiming Martin Luther King Jr.s legacy of radicalism. Some protesters held up signs that read "black lives matter" and "black health matters."

Today is the day when we reclaim MLKs radical legacy, said April Thomas, who was one of the protesters. Im out here for Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd, for my mother, myself, for Harriet Tubman.

April Thomas and many others have put themselves at risk of being put in jail because they believe in a society where black lives matter and there is no racism.

Another example took place on Monday, Feb. 8. A Black Lives Matter activist fatally shot himself on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse. State Highway Patrol officials told The Columbus Dispatch that MarShawn M. McCarrel shot himself outside the front door of the Statehouse. My demons won today. I'm sorry, the activist stated before his body was found near the Statehouse.

Beyonces performance at Super Bowl 50 is another action that was taken in honor of the Black Lives Matter movement. Beyonce dressed in honor of Michael Jackson and her backup dancers dressed in honor of Black Panthers. There are many people who think that this action from Beyonce should not have happened. "I think it was outrageous," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Fox News, adding he didn't get it from an artistic standpoint and didn't agree with the pop diva's politics and her support of Black Lives Matter.

There are supporters of this performance. Black Lives Matter activist Erika Totten said Beyonce's message accomplished exactly what the movement is supposed to. "I think the message absolutely belongs in the Super Bowl," Totten said. "Our goal is to disrupt the status quo and bring the message wherever the message may not be heard."

Many people of color are reeling from a series of events that they interpret as evidence that American society finds them of no value. White police officers were caught on video beating African-American citizen Rodney King after after a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. The officers pulled him out of the car and beat him viciously, while George Holliday caught it all on video. The four officers -- Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Stacey Koon -- were charged with criminal offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon.

King was eventually awarded $3.8 million in a civil trial for the injuries he sustained. He was a symbol of racial tension in America.

In 2012, King discussed the incident with The Guardian, stating, "It's not painful to relive it. I'm comfortable with my position in American history. It was like being raped, stripped of everything, being beaten near to death there on the concrete, on the asphalt. I just knew how it felt to be a slave. I felt like I was in another world."

This unfortunate action against Rodney King triggered riots in South Central Los Angeles. More than 50 people were killed, more than 2,000 were injured and 9,500 were arrested for rioting, looting and arson, resulting in $1 billion in property damage.

Rodney King is just one of the many African-American citizens who have been treated brutally based on racism.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the beating of Rodney King are just two examples of racism. There are so many more events and actions that have happened that it is hard to ignore.

But their are people who believe that racism does not matter and after reading this essay, I hope you will do something about it. Whether it is donating money to anti-slavery programs or spreading the word, we have the power to stop this.

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you are a man, you take it. -- Malcolm X.

Saleena Bains is an eighth-grader at American Canyon Middle School. She wrote this as part of a class project.
According to Erika Trez, youth minister at Grace Episcopal Church, understanding the plight of the needy can be the most difficult awareness to instill in a teenager. But, reaching that awareness, and activating a desire to help, can be the most fulfilling result of a World Vision event called 30 Hour Famine.

St. Helena is a privileged community, Trez said. And for many of the teenagers growing up here the struggles of kids in other countries  in developing areas of the world  is not something they often think about.

Downstairs in the activity room there were 28 students getting ready for the next mini-workshop. It was Saturday at noon. Lunchtime! But theyd been fasting  a key part of the program  and theyd had nothing to eat since the previous evening.

Now  in lieu of lunch  they were being challenged with a set of exercises aimed at helping them understand the difficult real-life choices that shape the lives of less-fortunate children.

The exercise is a bit like a Choose your own adventure story, Trez said. Were given a problem faced by another person or family, and  based upon our choices as a group  we see the consequences.

The teenagers listened to a description of a girl and her family living in the countryside of Kenya. The family had just experienced a devastating storm. It destroyed their home and their crops. Now they had no food, no shelter, and no money. What should this family do?

The group was asked to put itself in the place of this poor family to make the life-changing decisions that might lead them to safety.

Should the family try to rebuild the farm  with no money and no food and no help  or should it sell what little is left and migrate to the city?

The teenagers quickly chose the second option  moving to the city  and for a while in the story this seemed like the best choice. The father found a job; the mother cared for the youngest; and the little girl  the heroine of the story  was able to go to school for the first time.

But then a second tragedy struck the family and the father is killed at work; and then a third and a fourth. As each tragedy was revealed the little girl was called upon to decide: Should she stay in school, stay at home to care for her siblings, or go to work?

The students argued and discussed each decision. Quite often one or more of the participants would change a previous choice. Trez reminded them that there were no right or wrong choices, but only a set of resulting consequences in a difficult, impoverished country.

Step-by-step at each juncture the discussions continued until, finally the majoritys choice was followed.

For these students  already hungry from fasting for 20 hours  this choose-your-own-adventure-style exercise became a hands-on experience to strengthen their decision-making skills while instilling a sense of consequences and compassion.

After this exercise the teenagers were divided into separate groups with assignments. Some were sent to work on baking things. Some were assigned to sell the baked goods. The money earned would go to help those in need. Another group was assigned to sort out clothing donations.

William Bell was one of those assigned to sort clothes. He said that hed participated in many past 30 Hour Famine fasts over several years. Now, this year, as a youth leader in the program he was looking over the pile of clothing donations on a table.

Last year we slept outside in cardboard houses, to get a feel for what that was like, he said. But this year, because of the storms, we slept in the churchs sanctuary. Asked if he would recommend the 30 Hour Famine program to other teenagers, he did not hesitate. I come back because it puts me in touch with others, like me, who want to make a difference, he said.

The 30 Hour Famine program event was developed by World Vision International, a global Christian relief organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty. The organization devised the 30 Hour Famine event 25 years ago, and Grace Church has been implementing it yearly for the past nine years, according to Trez. This year the St. Helena Catholic Church joined Grace Church to participate in the event.

For more information about the 30 Hour Famine program, go to 30HourFamine.org. For information about World Vision International, visit wvi.org.
In an effort to help rebuild Lake County after last Septembers devastating Valley Fire, the wine industry community has banded together in support of #LakeCountyRising.

A charity wine auction will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 20, at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone to support the long-term rebuilding efforts in southern Lake County. The event is in the Vintners Hall of Fame at the CIA, 2555 Main St. in St. Helena. The event is presented by #LakeCountyRising, a collaborative fundraising effort of the Lake Country Winegrape Commission, Lake County Winery Association and Lake County Wine Alliance.

The Valley Fire tore through Northern California last September, scorching more than 115 square miles, destroying more than 1,300 homes and taking the lives of four Lake County residents, making it the third most destructive wildfire in Californias history. The fire damaged numerous businesses, decimated vast expanses of forest land, and left thousands of residents suddenly homeless.

Lake County grapegrowers and winery owners, along with North Coast industry partners, quickly mobilized to launch the #LakeCountyRising Valley Fire Relief Fund to help members of the Lake County community cope, adjust and rebuild.

Since launching this campaign, the fund has received donations from across the state and beyond, raising more than $800,000 to date. Community members and wine industry guests can make a difference as they raise their paddles to bid during a live auction with the nations leading wine auctioneer Fritz Hatton. In addition to live auction items, attendees will be able to bid on silent auction wine lots and experiences from wine regions across California.

Attendees will enjoy light hors doeuvres prepared by students at the Culinary Institute of America and have an opportunity to taste Lake County wines in a walk-around tasting. Seating is limited and advance registration is required. Tickets are $150 and may be purchased at lakecountyrising.org/charity-auction. Those who arent able to attend but want to help can click Donate at the top of the page to make a donation in any amount. Donations are tax-deductible.
BUCHAREST, Romania  After losing my sister Ellen in 2014, an urgency to find my Romanian family roots began to obsess me. She was the final link in my family, and the need to find my Romanian family intensified.

Typical of most kids, I was never motivated to question where our family originated. Now that I am the last member standing, I want to find a genetic link, especially in Romania. With the ships manifest in hand, I knew that my Jewish paternal grandfather emigrated from this beleaguered eastern European country on the U.S.S. Rotterdam, to the Bronx, New York, in 1901.

I found myself returning to the same part of the world from which I had just returned. Thirteen days before I had been in St. Petersburg, Russia.

As I was standing at the Bucharest Airport, praying that my guide, Costin, was going to be standing there holding a sign, the thoughts whipped through my head: What was I thinking? I was preparing myself to be abandoned and totally alone in Romania.

This was a huge risk, even for me.

The gods were with me; a smiling Costin whisked me into Romania with a smiling charm that melted my heart. Without skipping a beat, Costin assessed my stamina level, surmising that an authentic Romanian restaurant, complete with costumed dancers and several shots of tuica (the powerful local schnapps), would properly initiate me into Bucharest.

Within minutes, I was up and dancing with the folklorists.

When you travel with a private guide, it is a game of chance. Amazingly, Costin and I melded into a gentle, rhythmic pattern for over two weeks of intense travel.

Costin knew that I wanted to find my family, but he communicated, Be patient, Donna. The wheels of bureaucracy do not turn quickly. Putting my immediate goals into the background, we began our journey through the surprisingly diverse landscape of Romania.

Open about his familys years under communism, Costin was a treasure-trove of honest communication. From early in the morning, when we met for lets-start-the-day breakfasts, until late at night, with dinners filled with local schnapps, goulash, dumplings and every form of pork, I was soaking it all in about the history, geography and people of off-the-beaten-track Romania.

We began our journey in Bucharest, the capital, where the less-than-warm reception from hospitality personnel was a surprise. As we traveled throughout the country, other Romanians echoed this feeling. As I was looking at them, with an eye of a photographer to capture the moment, they were staring at me.

Tourists outside Bucharest are a rarity. This is a country  whose stunning Carpathian Mountains, verdant green fields, with colorfully paint-brushed deciduous trees, and intermittent green pines dotting the landscape, populated by turn-of-the-century-attired peasants  continuously took my breath away.

Romania is the country of fortifications: Most cities have large remnants of encircling walls built to keep out the Ottoman Turks, among others. Bran Castle, impetus for Bram Stokers Dracula, is perched on a precipitous hill. Hunedoaras 15th-century Gothic Corvin Castle, and King Carol Is immense Peles Castle are all well-fortified.

Costin took a road-twisting detour, with intense fall colors at every turn, to the impossible-to-climb ruins of Vlad Tepes (the impaler of the Ottoman Turks) fortress, at Curtea de Arges.

Due to the geographic isolation between villages at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, peasants maintained their individual dress and customs. Belief in folklore, witchcraft and old superstitions is still pervasive. Spotting a tree decorated with colorful pots and pans (signifying that a daughter is available for marriage inside), Costin slammed on the brakes, grabbed my camera, then ran back to create a memory for me.

Surprising me, Costin brought me to spend an evening with a multigenerational gypsy (Roma) family, who opened their arms to me. Klara (aka Rebel Gypsy) wanted to answer my questions, openly and without hesitation. Some myths were dispelled, while others proved true, such as child marriage: They marry young, move the female child into the household of the husbands family, and can then attest to the purity of that young girl. I was fascinated with the caste system among the gypsies, and the three levels of class within each stratum. Metal workers and business owners, for example, are treated upper class.

The days ambling through Bucovina, Moldava, were filled with distinctive charming villages, each with specific, culture-related house designs. The highlight of my Romanian adventure was the 14th-15th century Painted Monasteries of Bucovina, built by the Moldavian Stephen the Great, and his son, Petru Rares. Run by orthodox nuns and monks, the 400-year-old religious vivid frescoes have brilliantly survived the environmental weathering, pollution and wars. Painted exquisitely inside and out with Byzantine and Moldavian art, their unique architecture, ethereal art and the religious solemnity of the grounds more than reward the visitor.

As we were driving, often in the villages there was a pervasive haze hanging in the sky. Harking back to days of old, all the peasants burn their leaves, branches and foliage, creating a hard-to-breath environment at times. The smell was reminiscent of thousands of fireplaces emitting smoke at the same time.

As I was viewing the peasant hats in the hotel tiny gift shop, the general manager engaged in welcoming, open chatter. He invited me to partake of palinka, another 50 percent alcohol regional schnapps. After insisting on giving the hat to me, I was invited to a bonfire/party/dinner with free-running palinka, wine and local delicacies offered around. I found myself ensconced in a rip-roaring Romanian-language private company party, complete with exuberant ethnic dancing/music, singing and toasts  where friendships began and ended within five hours.

Romania: Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia, filled with medieval towns, fortified churches, painted and wooden monasteries, Dacian ruins, as well as sincerely welcoming people, creating a nonpareil cultural heritage.

What made these two weeks so memorable was traveling with a Romanian native. As we traveled the back roads, over the Carpathian Mountains, we explored the foods, alcohols, sights and people (many of whom he knew). This was a unique way to travel. Along the way, Costin and I were open to serendipitous adventures. In Brasov, we were befriended by Jimena, a graphic artist from Mexico City, and invited her into our little group for a day. While exploring a dirt road through a gypsy village, Costin noticed a senior Romanian woman surrounded by gypsy children. He stopped the car suddenly, told her to get in, and we whisked her away. We spent hours with her, as she shared her special bread with us. By the time we dropped her on the highway to continue her courageous hitchhiking adventure, we were both in tears as we hugged goodbye.

I will never forget the night I joined the protests with frustrated, angry Romanian college students after the horrendous nightclub fire in Bucharest. Left to my own devices that night, I snuck out, found the marchers and joined in. The amazing bellman at my hotel was able to go with me, openly sharing with me the story of what was happening, and why they were calling for the resignation of the prime minister. It was exciting, happening and in real time.

One time, we passed two peasant women, sitting on a bench outside their house, knitting. I jumped out of the car, hoping to get a photo. Unable to communicate a word in English, other family members started joining us. I was a rarity in their midst. Not even the young people could understand me. Through sign language, I offered to buy the socks they were creating. The next thing I knew, some of them ran back inside, bringing out many pairs. I was being inundated. I ended up with the most expensive pair of hand-knitted socks, made with the finest Romanian wool. It was worth every leu.

The personal experiences I had were made so much richer because of Costins storytelling, spur-of-the-moment meandering, amazing memory and willingness to share.

He hand-delivered me to Budapest, Hungary, where I was embarking on another adventure, a Danube River cruise, organized by Don and Kathy from Platypus Tours (Ama Waterways/AAA). As Costin and I walked into the lobby of the Palazzo Vichy Hotel, shrieks and hellos from other Napans distracted me.

I turned around, and Costin was gone.
Kane Brown recently signed a record deal with Sony Music Nashville, soon thereafter releasing his debut single Used to Love You Sober. The fast rising single is just one track that Kanes fans will find on his first EP, Chapter 1.

Included on the disc will also be pieces of work on which Kane collaborated with some of Nashvilles most renowned writers, including Chris Young, Corey Crowder, and Josh Hoge. The Number 1 writing team (Im Comin Over) has credits on four of the five tracks on the forthcoming album.

In discussing his album, Kane shared:

Im so excited to release Chapter 1  my fans have been so patient and supportive as Ive worked on this project! From the writers room to the studio to playing these songs night after night on tour, its been an incredible experience. Im grateful to my fans and cant wait for whats to come in the future but right now lets start with Chapter 1!
On International Womens Day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Allies and partner countries to a Barbershop Conference on gender equality at NATO Headquarters on Tuesday (8 March 2016). Hosted by Iceland and Canada, and facilitated by Ambassador Marriet Schuurman, NATOs Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security, the Conference aims to dispel gender stereotypes and encourage participants to talk freely  as in a barbershop  about working towards gender equality.

The Secretary General stressed that gender equality isnt optional, its fundamental, and outlined three reasons why gender equality is an important issue at NATO and in all militaries. Firstly, he highlighted that NATO is a values-based organization and none of the Alliances fundamental values  individual liberties, democracy, human rights and the rule of law  work without equality.

Secondly, he noted that it is more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in conflict zones, which inspired the initial adoption of the No Women, No Peace United Nations Security Council Resolution. If peace is to be sustainable, you cannot ignore half the population, said the Secretary General.

Thirdly, Mr. Stoltenberg underlined that diversity yields strength, effectiveness, and allows NATO to recruit the best and the brightest. We learned in Afghanistan and in the Balkans that by integrating gender within our operations, we make a tangible difference to the lives of women and children, said the Secretary General. He stressed that NATO is proud of its record in embedding gender perspectives within its practical work: from planning and executing operations and missions, to implementing new guidelines on eliminating gender-based violence.

The Secretary General also highlighted that gender is a key principle of NATOs Defence Capacity Building Initiative, and that Allies are now working with Jordan on gender training for their armed forces. While the Alliance is a trendsetter in this respect, the Secretary General emphasised that NATO needs to do more, particularly when it comes to increasing the number of women in senior leadership positions at NATO. Reviewing the importance of gender equality, Mr. Stoltenberg stressed that this conversation should not be limited to special occasions. We should have it every day, and act on it every day.
(As delivered)

So Prime Minister Ciolos, you are really warmly welcome here at NATO headquarters because it is great to have you here and to be able to meet with you and to discuss common challenges.

And Romania is a highly valued member of our Alliance. Contributing actively to NATOs missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo. To Black Sea security. And to our support for Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. Helping them to build their own defence capacities.

Romania is also hosting important NATO assets. Like the Multinational Division South East, which was activated in December. It will strengthen the defence of our Alliance.

Last year I visited the NATO Force Integration Unit in Bucharest, one of the eight small new headquarters we are setting up in the Eastern part of our Alliance. It will contribute to planning, exercises, and help ensure NATO troops can deploy to Romania quickly, if needed.

Romania will also host a vital part of the NATO missile-defence system in Deveselu.

I commend Romania for increasing your spending on defence in 2015. And for your commitment to continue this increase in the years ahead. This is key for our Alliance as we respond to security challenges in a changed world. Where we all face a new and demanding security environment.

Romania does a lot to contribute to a strong NATO. And a strong NATO is the best guarantee for security in Europe.

Especially today, when we face the biggest security challenges in a generation. Our Alliance is responding to these challenges. We are increasing the readiness of our forces. We have stepped up our presence in the Eastern part of the Alliance. And NATOs presence will get stronger as we prepare for our Summit in Warsaw in July.

We are also working closer than ever with the European Union.

In supporting the response to the migration and refugee crisis. On dealing with hybrid threats. And in supporting partners like Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia.

A strong NATO is also the best foundation for dialogue with a more assertive Russia. We do not seek confrontation. On the contrary, we are working to restore predictability in our relations with Russia. And transparency related to military activities.

There is no contradiction between strong defence and dialogue with Russia. We need both. More defence  and more dialogue.

This is even more important when times are as difficult as they are now.

So, NATO is adapting to wide-ranging and complex challenges.

In this, we count on Romania. And Romania can count on NATO.

So welcome again, mister Prime Minister. I look forward to working with you in the busy months ahead of our Warsaw Summit.

So welcome once again.

OANA LUNGESCU (NATO SPOKESPERSON): Well go to Radio Romania, over there, lady in green.

Q: I have two questions. Secretary General first, you were mentioning yesterday after the meeting with Mr. Prime Minister of Turkey that NATO is going, has started already to be present in Aegean both in the maritime waters of Turkey and Greece. How challenging is this for the south, Romania being part of the south, and how challenging is this taking into account that Syria conflict, ceasefire, we see no progress yet and you are mentioning Russia here as an assertive challenge for the alliance. [Speaking foreign language with translation]. Mr. Prime Minister, you have talked about the defence budget, Romania has committed to apply, to put in practice this commitments. Can you develop? And Moldova remains a priority for us and I wanted to know if Mr. Secretary General assured you of a very active collaboration in this regard? Thank you.

JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General): First about the Aegean Sea. NATO decided at our defence ministerial meeting the 11th of February to assist, to help the European Union, Greece, Turkey to cope with the migrant and the refugee crisis. This is the biggest migrant and refugee crisis in Europe since the end of the Second World War and of course when allies are asking for our support and when the European Union asks for our support then we do our utmost to respond in a positive way. And therefore we decided to deploy the NATO Maritime Standing Naval Group to the Aegean Sea and we deployed the first ships just 24 hours after we made the decision the 11th of February. But during the weekend, so during this weekend, we decided to expand and to step up our support and we decided to do that in three ways. Partly by expanding the area of our presence of our activity.

So we are now moving into the territorial waters of Turkey and Greece and we have started to do that by yesterday, we started to do that already yesterday. The second thing is that we have established much closer cooperation with the European Union border agency Frontex and the third element is that we are increasing the number of ships, of NATO ships which are deployed in the Aegean Sea. And I welcome announcements from UK and France that they will deploy additional ships. All of this is something we do to support. NATO is not going to turn back the boats with migrants and refugees but we are going to do surveillance, reconnaissance and monitor the situation and then share real time information with the Turkish Coast Guard, with the Greek Coast Guard, with Frontex enabling them to handle and to cope with the situation in the Agean Sea.

This is only one element of a more comprehensive and broad response and the Prime Minister updated me about the discussions in the European Union which are related to how the European Union can work with Turkey when it comes to the return of migrants and refugees and then have a more legal and better organized way of accepting refugees coming to Europe. So we are playing our part, we are supporting the efforts and NATO plays one important role in the more comprehensive international response to the international migrant and refugee crisis.

But of course the main issue is to stop the war in Syria and it is important to support the agreement and the full implementation of the cessation of hostility which was agreed between Russia, United States and some of the other stakeholders in the region. We have seen violations of the ceasefire but I think its extremely important to continue to support the full implementation because cessation of hostilities, the ceasefire, is the only possible platform for renewed efforts to have a peaceful negotiated solution to the crisis in Syria and NATO is strongly supporting those efforts because we need a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria.

DACIAN CIOLOS (Prime Minister, Romania): [Speaking with translator]. With regard to the defence budget, as you know Romania has taken this commitment, its a political commitment from the political parties and from the President of Romania and our government has committed to continue this effort in order to reach 2 % of the GDP we hope starting from the next year and to maintain this level for the next 10 years. This, these funds will be used, will be allowed in order to enhance the quality of life for the military professionals and to equip the army because Romania wants to have an enhanced military presence on the eastern flank, Romania wants to be a proactive NATO member. We want to receive defence and protection and we want to be able to offer this protection and defence capability and this is the way we want to see our membership in NATO.

As you have seen we have 1.7 % from the GDP allowed to military expenses compared to 1.5 % for the last year. In regard with the cooperation with Moldova, in our quality of NATO member state we have been assured by Mr. Secretary General that NATO wants to cooperate with the countries from the eastern region that want and demand for these cooperation and this is the case for Moldova. We want to enhance this cooperation not, this is not an act against Russia but Romania as a European Union member state and a former partner of Russia wants to cooperate with this neighbour but at the same time we want to be assured of our security. As you know for the last years our security has been very shaky, so the commitment Romania has in as a NATO country have this approach of defence and not, are defensive and not offensive and this is the spirit, this is the state of mind in our cooperation with Moldova.

Q: [Speaking foreign language with translator]. Sedra Voiku from DG24 (sp?). You have talked about concrete measures in the Aegean Sea. Whats the strategy, what are the measures in order to enhance security in the Black Sea?

JENS STOLTENBERG: The Black Sea [inaudible  no microphone]. But the whole of the NATO alliance and we have seen a significant Russian military build-up in the Black Sea region, especially after the illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea. We have seen that NATO, no that Russia excuse me, is deploying advanced weapons systems and that they are developing what the experts are calling anti-access air denial capabilities and this is part of a pattern where Russia is investing heavily in different kinds of modern defence equipment and when, and where they are deploying them close to NATO borders. Both in the Bering Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and now also in the eastern Mediterranean with the increased Russian presence in Syria. And therefore NATO is responding and the way we are responding is partly by increasing our forward presence, increasing our military presence in the eastern part of the alliance including in Romania.

And I mentioned this, both the new small NATO headquarters, the NATO Force Integration Units, but also the importance of, of increased military presence in other ways and we are also looking into how we can increase the responsiveness, the readiness of our forces so they are able to deploy very quickly if needed. And one of the issues we are discussing now as part of our preparations for the NATO summit in Warsaw in July is how we can do more, both when it comes to forward presence of multinational forces, making sure that we send a very clear signal that an attack on one ally will be an attack on the whole alliance and also how we can further increase the readiness of our forces so they can deploy very quickly if needed. So the Black Sea is part of a, of a changed security environment and NATO has already responded and we will continue to adapt so we make sure that NATO also in the future is able to respond to a more challenging security environment.

OANA LUNGESCU: Thank you very much. This concludes this press point. Thank you.
Question -- What is the goal of this website? Why do we share different sources of information that sometimes conflicts or might even be considered disinformation?

Answer -- The primary goal of Nesaranews is to help all people become better truth-seekers in a real-time boots-on-the-ground fashion. This is for the purpose of learning to think critically, discovering the truth from withinnot just believing things blindly because it came from an "authority" or credible source. Instead of telling you what the truth is, we share information from many sources so that you can discern it for yourself. We focus on teaching you the tools to become your own authority on the truth, gaining self-mastery, sovereignty, and freedom in the process. We want each of you to become your own leaders and masters of personal discernment, and as such, all information should be vetted, analyzed and discerned at a personal level. We also encourage you to discuss your thoughts in the comments section of this site to engage in a group discernment process.





"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."  Aristotle

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*" ...But we have crossed millions of miles of nothingness. We have visited another world. And our Locar had said `Why bother? What is the wo...

4 years ago
Japan and U.S. will hold joint military exercises

France withdraws from Energy Charter Treaty

CNN: White House is in talks with Elon Musk to create satellite Internet service Starlink in Iran

Baku outraged by Iran's statements and frightened by IRGC military exercises

Who are main beneficiaries of 'Zangezur' corridor?: Another anonymous article by 'Haykakan Zhamanak' newspaper

Ankara decides to stand up for Riyadh amid deteriorating relations between Saudi Arabia and U.S.

French Foreign Minister considers it vital to keep lines of communication with Russia open

Pentagon refuses to give details of conversation between Austin and Shoigu

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: Head of Caucasus Muslims Department again made slanderous and false statements

Erdogan denies using chemical weapons against Kurds and threatens those who dare to talk about it

Saudi Arabia and China will strengthen their ties in energy sector

Governor of Gegharkunik province receives representatives of OSCE fact-finding mission

Penny Mordaunt runs for Prime Minister of Great Britain

Sweden expects ratification of NATO membership application by Hungary and Turkey to be completed soon

European Union will allocate 1.5 billion euros per month to Kiev in 2023

An Israeli-built flight school opened in Greece

Russian Railways is negotiating with Azerbaijan and Iran to launch the Rasht-Astara route

Overchuk: Construction of road through Meghri, whose sovereignty is not in question, depends on Armenia's position

Armenian Defense Minister's working visit to India is over

Hungary will not agree to limit prices for imported gas

Iranian Foreign Minister: Iran considers Armenia one of most important transit countries

Naribekyan participates in meeting of secretaries general of PACE parliaments

Delegation from United Arab Emirates visits Armenia at invitation of head of MONKS: Two agreements signed

Dollar, euro drop in Armenia

Iran consul general in Armenias Kapan: We do not accept any change of borders

Baza: Mobile military registration and enlistment offices will be removed on Russian-Georgian border

Iranian Consul: Countries of region do not need presence of foreign armed forces

Armenia FM: Iran consulate general in Kapan will be important for regional security

Iranian Consul General advises Kapan residents not to worry anymore: Iran is here for Armenian people

FM reaffirms Armenia plan to open consulate general in Irans Tabriz

Turkey to open consulate in occupied Armenian Shushi city of Artsakh

Turkish Ministry of Finance: Ankara can buy Russian oil without Western funding

Armenia Security Council chief briefs European Parliament rapporteur on recent Azerbaijan military aggression

British bookmakers name favorite for post of prime minister

Erdogan: Armenia-Azerbaijan relations progress will contribute to Armenia-Turkey relations normalization

Iranian Consulate General opens in Kapan

Erdogan: Turkey is looking for alternative to American F-16 fighters

Iran consul general: We are here for Armenian people

Turkey FM slams OSCE decision to send needs assessment mission to Armenia

Peskov reacts to Erdogan's words about Putin's softening on Ukraine negotiations

European Parliament rapporteur on Armenia visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

European Parliament rapporteur on Armenia to legislature speaker: Attack was from Azerbaijan, naturally

Armenia President to EEU PMs: We will manage to take another confident step by respecting mutual interests

EUSR Toivo Klaars exclusive interview with NEWS.am on EU Monitoring mission,Nagorno Karabakh future and violence videos

Explosions rock Ukraines Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia

President meets with newly formed Artsakh Public Council members

Armenia PM: We need understanding in price horizon, at least in medium term

Lawyer: 20 of fallen solders parents detained from Yerevan military pantheon are recognized as injured party

PM: Armenia trade with other EEU countries increased by 74%

France region to provide 300,000 to Armenias Syunik Province affected by Azerbaijan military aggression

Eurasian Intergovernmental Council extended meeting underway in Yerevan

MOD: Armenia did not fire at Azerbaijan positions, vehicle

MPs in Strasbourg, present threatening dangers: Armenia has powerful support in European Parliament

Years first snow falls in Armenias Shirak Province

World oil prices on the rise

Newspaper: Russia dismisses Armenia PM's news on Karabakh

Russia PM in Yerevan, to discuss with EEU colleagues single oil, natural gas markets formation

Newspaper: Why is Iran in hurry to open consulate in Armenias Syunik Province?

France, Spain, Portugal agree to build Barcelona-Marseille natural gas pipeline

Admiral: U.S. should now prepare for Chinese 'invasion' of Taiwan

Harutyunyan: I cannot imagine Artsakh's future without presence of Russia

Harutyunyan: Without questioning path of our independence, we must meet with Baku

Prime Minister of Finland does not think that Hungary and Turkey will block country's application for NATO membership

Iranian FM: U.S. made hasty statements in connection with protests

Former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim involved in car accident in Karabakh

Arayik Harutyunyan: Artsakh people's right to self-determination is non-negotiable

Iranian MFA calls it important to form platform with Armenia and India on North-South corridor

Details of EU monitoring mission in Armenia are known

Foreign Ministry: It seems Ankara is more interested in opening corridor through Armenia than Azerbaijan

Mirzoyan: Unexpected third countries support Azerbaijani interpretation of road to Nakhchivan

Foreign Ministry: Armenia, Iran and Bulgaria initial agreement on creation of Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor

Israeli Defense Minister to visit Ankara

Armenian Foreign Minister names main obstacle to solving problems with Azerbaijan

Erdogan once again raises issue of so-called 'Zangezur corridor'

Armenian and Iranian FMs to open Iranian Consulate General in Syunik province tomorrow

Abdollahian: Aliyev assured that he does not want border changes, Iran will prevent implementation of such idea

Iranian Foreign Minister in Yerevan supports '3+3' platform

Iranian Foreign Minister recalls Tehran's 'red lines' in regional issues

Mirzoyan: We highly appreciate Iran's principled position regarding territorial integrity of Armenia

UK imposes sanctions against Iran for alleged delivery of drones to Russia

Yerevan hosts meeting of Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in narrow composition

Armenian and Iranian Foreign Ministers meet in Yerevan in extended format

Charles Michel: EU energy deal possible, but difficult

Erdogan says Baku should demand 'compensation' from Yerevan

Pashinyan: EEU mechanisms are of great help, trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus has doubled

Yair Lapid: Russia-Iran relations are serious problem for Ukraine, Europe, and whole world

Amir-Abdollahian: Iran is against presence of foreigners in this region, both in Azerbaijan and Armenia

Pashinyan at EAEU meeting: Fundamental principles of world economic system in question

Iranian Foreign Minister's official visit to Yerevan begins

Macron says Germany should not isolate itself in Europe

EU begins deployment of mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Trump's son made fun of Zelenskyy's ability to ask West for money

EU to provide emergency aid for Armenia residents affected by recent Azerbaijan military aggression

Azerbaijan army units fire at Armenia positions

Mikhail Mishustin arrives in Yerevan

EU approves new sanctions against Iran over alleged drone deliveries to Russia

Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting begins in Yerevan

Baku calls OSCE mission to assess situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border 'private visit'

On fourth day of IRGC military exercises on border with Azerbaijan, artillery destroys planned targets

Liz Truss quits as UK Prime Minister
A credit card skimmer was discovered at a gas pump on Monday in Port Saint John, Florida



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According to the Brevard County Sheriffs Office, the Florida Department of Agriculture discovered the skimmer installed on one of the gas pumps while conducting routine inspection as the Sunshine Express Shell Gas Station located at 7490 Grissom Parkway. Sheriffs deputies were notified and responded to the scene.



Agents with the Economic Crimes Task Force are working with the store management and the Department of Agriculture to determine how long the skimmer was installed and to identify if anyone may have had their credit card accounts compromised.





Anyone with information regarding the credit card skimmer is asked to contact Agent Tim Anliker at (321) 633-8410 or CRIMELINE at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).




"Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis" Saturday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. Tull Auditorium, Gambrell Hall The event opens with a reception at 5 p.m. and features a panel discussion with Lewis and director Kathleen Dowdey at 6 p.m., followed by the film showing. The event is free. Register 

When U.S. Rep. John Lewis was a child growing up in the segregated South, his mother gave him advice that he refused to heed, but still recalls: "My mama told me not to get in the way, not to get in trouble," Lewis says in a new film about his life. "I got in trouble."

Emory School of Law will screen "Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis," on Saturday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. in Tull Auditorium, Gambrell Hall. The event, sponsored by Atlanta Gas Light, opens with a reception at 5 p.m. and features a panel discussion with Lewis and director Kathleen Dowdey at 6 p.m., followed by the film showing. The event is free, but you must register.

"Get in the Way" is a biographical account of Lewis' legendary, lifelong fight for racial justice and the ways he chose, always nonviolently, to trouble the conscience of American society.

Born to sharecroppers outside Troy, Alabama, Lewis asked "why" in the face of "colored" and "white only" signs in his hometown. Inspired by the Montgomery bus boycott in the mid-1950s, he joined the era's lunch-counter sit-ins, was a Freedom Rider challenging the segregation of interstate buses and became a founding member, and later president, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

At the age of 23, Lewis was an architect of, and keynote speaker at, the historic March on Washington in 1963. On March 7, 1965, he and Hosea Williams led 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. As the marchers stopped to pray, they were beaten with nightsticks and pelted with tear gas; Lewis's skull was fractured. Before being taken to the hospital, Lewis spoke in front of television cameras, calling on President Johnson to intervene in Alabama. Eight days later, the president appeared before a joint session of Congress to demand passage of the Voting Rights Act.

As Lewis' friend and former college roommate, Bernard Lafayette Jr., a distinguished senior scholar-in-residence at Emory's Candler School of Theology, comments in the film, "John put the force of his soul against the system."

Commitment to social justice

Each additional step in Lewis' career  from serving as director of the Voter Education Project to heading the federal agency ACTION under President Jimmy Carter  has demonstrated the courage and resolve for which he is admired.

In 1986, Lewis, whose own parents had been prevented from voting, was elected to represent Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, winning reelection since then by overwhelming majorities. In 2010 Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dowdey, the film's director and producer, has a background in documentary filmmaking, including the theatrically released "A Celtic Trilogy." Her narrative feature, "Blue Heaven," examined the hidden world of domestic violence, while "Dawn's Early Light" was a biography of Southern newspaper editor and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ralph McGill.

Emory Law is a fitting venue for an event in honor of Lewis. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree at Emory University's 2014 commencement, where he was the keynote speaker, and also spoke at the Emory Law commencement the same day.

"Our country is a better country and our people are a better people because of the law," Lewis told law students then. "So go out there and do your best to seek justice. And never, ever turn back; never, ever give up; but keep the faith and continue to work for what is right, for what is fair, and for what is just."

In April 2015, Emory Law received a $1.5 million donation to establish a John Lewis Chair in Civil Rights and Social Justice.

"Honoring John Lewis  someone who is so important to the conversation on civil rights  is a wonderful way to inspire the Emory community with our ongoing commitment to social justice and academic excellence," Dean Robert Schapiro said at the time. "The gift builds on Emory's history as a leader in civil rights and social justice, dating as far back as the 1962 lawsuit that helped integrate private colleges and universities in Georgia."
Cash aid to households is most effective in reducing insurgency threats, Stanford research shows

Stanford researcher Joseph Felter found that direct cash assistance to households in the Philippines decreased insurgent-led conflicts and weakened their influence in those villages.

Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock Poor Filipino villagers who receive cash grants from the government are less likely to fall under the influence of insurgents, Stanford researcher Joe Felter shows in a new study.

How people receive aid in countries wracked by civil wars can have a major impact on both the level of insurgent violence and insurgents' influence in those communities, new Stanford research shows.

In the case of the Philippines, the study found that the type of aid provided by the government and how it is administered can be a major factor in reducing insurgent violence against civilians and government security forces.

"Visibility in aid matters," said Joseph Felter, a senior research scholar at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, who co-authored the study. "The higher profile the aid is, the more the insurgents are likely to anticipate its ability to undermine their position relative to the government and take actions to sabotage it. When money is wired to the bank account of a family household, insurgents are less likely to know about it and are constrained in their capacity to respond."

Since the end of World War II, more than half of all countries in the world have experienced civil strife  wars within their own borders  leading to the deaths of more than 16 million people, as well as lower levels of economic growth than in more stable countries, according to Felter and his colleagues.

As a result, the global community has provided significant financial aid through the years to countries facing insurgency and civil wars. Still, the question remains: what is the best form of aid, and how should it be delivered to better reduce the violence associated with civil conflicts?

Felter noted that aid can take several forms, ranging from specific cash payments to households to money funneled more generally and visibly to communities through infrastructure projects such as bridges, roads and clinics. The latter tend to attract attention from insurgents.

In this case, Felter and his fellow researchers examined the effect of cash payments to Filipino households  a type of aid known as a "conditional cash-transfer" program that took place from 2009 to 2011. This program distributed cash payments in the range of $200 to $370 to poor households. In the Philippines, it is known as Pantawid Pamilya.

Over the past decade, the program became one of the most common ways for the Filipino government to fight poverty and insurgency at the same time. The country faces a few different major internal threats, including rebels associated with a Maoist Communist insurgency in rural areas and Islamic groups in the southwestern provinces.

Felter's study involved 130 villages in the Philippines and used data from the World Bank and the Philippines government and military. "Conflict" is defined as violent incidents associated with insurgents in a given village. "Influence" is defined as insurgent activities such as coerced taxation and rent demands.



Key findings

The findings revealed that the cash-transfer program led to a substantial decrease in conflict incidents for villages that received aid. Villages receiving aid from the program experienced over 50 percent fewer conflict episodes than villages in the control group that did not receive this aid.

Felter also found evidence that villages receiving those payments experienced a decrease in insurgent influence compared with control villages, suggesting that the program weakened rebel presence. The villages that received aid saw nearly a one-third reduction in insurgent influence.

"Our research suggests that the effects of cash-transfer programs on civil conflict differ from other types of aid interventions based on the type of aid provided and how it is implemented," Felter said. The fact that the Pantawid Pamilya helped reduce the presence and influence of rebel groups in the targeted villages is especially important as well, he added.

Felter explained that it is critical for government assistance programs to not only reduce violence but also to weaken insurgent influence over villages, as these groups can still undermine the rule of law and oppress citizens without resorting to armed violence.



Exacerbating conflict

Felter said this research suggests that cash aid directly to households carries less risk and may be more effective than other types of high-profile aid interventions, such as community-driven development, rural employment projects, clinics, roads, bridges and food aid.

In fact, Felter said, prior research has shown the more highly visible types of aid may actually exacerbate conflict. In these cases, insurgents attack and derail these economic assistance efforts because they believe this form of aid will boost people's support for the Filipino government.

Felter co-wrote the journal article, "Conditional cash transfers, civil conflict and insurgent influence: Experimental evidence from the Philippines," which appeared in the Journal of Development Economics. His co-authors included Benjamin Crost, an economist at the University of Urbana-Champaign, and Patrick B. Johnston, a political scientist with Rand Corp.

Media Contact

Joseph Felter, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies: (650) 723-9866, joseph.felter@stanford.edu

Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, cbparker@stanford.edu
Texas A&M official named next UF vice president for student affairs

David W. Parrott, executive associate vice president and chief of staff in the division of student affairs at Texas A&M University, has been named vice president for student affairs at the University of Florida.

His appointment will begin May 16, and Parrott will begin his duties as vice president June 1.

Parrott has held his position as executive associate vice president since 2008. Prior to that, he held several positions in the Texas A&M Division of Student Affairs, including interim vice president, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of student life, and dean of student life.

Before joining Texas A&M in 2001, he held positions in student affairs at Western Michigan University and Western Kentucky University.

Parrott has been a member of the graduate faculty at Texas A&M since 2006. He holds a doctor of education degree from the University of Louisville, and masters and bachelors degrees from Western Kentucky University. He will have an academic appointment at UF as a clinical associate professor in the College of Education.

Parrott is married to Dr. Kelli Peck Parrott and has two sons, Jackson, 11, and Jason, 9. He will succeed Dave Kratzer, who is retiring.
I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process. Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process, Hammond was quoted by Express News as saying during a joint press conference with Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad.

The British foreign secretary advised Pakistan to speed up the investigation into January 2 terror assault on Indias Pathankot airbase in northern Punjab state which India has blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.

I welcome Pakistan commitment to vigorously pursue Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation, he said.

Hammond also lauded Islamabads role in the fight against terrorism and said Britain will continue its support to Pakistan in war on terror.

I salute Pakistans efforts in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is the victim of terrorism and we want to work with Pakistan to take on the threats it faces. British and Pakistan will remain partner against terrorism, Hammond added.

--Indo-Asian News Service ahm/vt

( 212 Words)

2016-03-08-14:55:33 (IANS)
The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that both Bollywood actress Karishma Kapoor and her estranged husband Sanjay Kapur have agreed on all terms of settlement for parting ways and only they have to work out a few modalities before this could be signed. "Parties have, by and large, agreed on all the terms on which settlement can be recorded. However, before the settlement can be signed, few modalities have to be worked out" before formal parting of ways, a bench of Justice A.K.Sikri and Justice R.K.Agrawal said in their order after the hearing. Speaking to IANS, senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani who has appeared for the actress said that the terms of settlement leading to divorce would include maintenance of their two children. Holding the hearing in their chamber with both parties present with their lawyers, the court noted in its order that "It is stated by the petitioner (Sanjay Kapur) that those (terms of settlement) would be completed by the end of March 31, 2016." The court then directed posting of the matter at 12.45 p.m. on April 8. It permitted Sanjay Kapur to meet his two children, whose birthday falls on March 11 and 12, at the residence of Karishma or at the venue where birthday celebrations would take place. "We are also informed that the birthdays of the children of the parties are falling on 11th and 12th March, 2016 respectively. The petitioner (Sanjay Kapoor) has expressed his desire to meet the children on their respective birthdays. He can visit and meet the children at the residence of the respondent (Karishma) or at the venue of the birthday celebrations," the court said in its order. Jethmalani told the court that after the last hearing, "they have informed the police about the talks between the parties under the aegis of this court and instructions are given not to take any precipitating step or arrest of the petitioner or his mother on their visit to Mumbai or otherwise". Recording the submission, the bench said: "We expect the police to act accordingly." It further said that on the first hearing of the matter on February 12, it had issued notice to Delhi Police. However, the court said that in view of the developments which have taken place, hereafter, the presence of Delhi Police is not required. The judges also hear a plea by Sanjay Kapoor seeking transfer of their divorce proceedings from Mumbai to Delhi, alleging that he was getting threat calls from the underworld. Though the hearing of the matter was listed to take place in the judges' chamber only but due to some communication gap, the apex court reception issued them a pass for the court instead. As presence of Bollywood actress was creating difficulty in coming in and going out of the courtroom due to the large crowd gathering, senior counsel Dushyant Dave urged the bench to hold the hearing in their chamber. "Supreme Court is inflicted by the star power," Dave said, pointing to the difficulty lawyers were facing in accessing the court room. At this, the court said that it would hear the matter in the chamber. Thereafter, Karishma was escorted out of the courtroom and through the crowded corridor towards the chamber while many people tried to photograph her on their smartphones. --Indo-Asian News Service pk/vd ( 565 Words) 2016-03-08-20:59:32 (IANS)
Superintendent of Police Dr. Rajeev Pachar on Sunday said following an input by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that some people with wrong intentions have entered Rajasthan via Gujarat, the local police alerted various security agencies such as BSF, army and air force. "We have spoken to various security agencies such as Border Security Force (BSF), army and air force in this connection and alerted them," he said. "The local police are conducting regular searches of inns, hotels and lodges. Besides, police in civil dresses have been deployed at several places, said the SP. He said at Ramdevra and Sam, which are important points from the point of pilgrimage and tourism, respectively, police have deployed armed men to prevent any untoward incident. When asked which way they entered Rajasthan, the officer said he doesn't know abjectly. The development came a day after Gujarat was put on high alert, following an intelligence input from Pakistan's National Security Adviser (NSA) Nasir Khan Janjua to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval that 10 terrorists had entered the state to carry out strikes. He said security has been tightened around air force bases in Chandan and Jaisalmer in view of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit. "Police are carrying out door-to-door survey of the people living around the air bases. Besides, all intelligence agencies, including district-level agency, have been put on alert, while at the venue of the function, arms pickets have been deployed, who are verifying identity of people going there," he added.(ANI)
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar will hear the matter today.

Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments will make their submissions with regard to grant of permission to the festival.

On March 3rd, DDA had submitted that it had granted conditional permission for organising the event.

However, DDA had told the NGT bench that it had no idea about the magnitude of the programme.

Meanwhile, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has confirmed that President Pranab Mukherjee will not attend this event due to unavoidable circumstances.

The President had earlier agreed to attend the valedictory ceremony of the festival. (ANI)
A new U.S. export restriction against China's ZTE Corp for alleged Iran sanctions violations is likely to disrupt the telecom manufacturer's sprawling global supply chain and could create substantial parts shortages, according to sanctions experts.Under the measure announced by the Commerce Department on Monday, ZTE, which is a major global supplier of telecom-networking equipment, U.S. manufacturers will be banned from selling components to ZTE. In addition, foreign manufacturers will be prohibited from selling products containing a significant amount of U.S.-made parts to the Chinese company.The Commerce Department, confirming the decision that was first reported by Reuters on Saturday, said ZTE planned to use a series of shell companies "to illicitly reexport controlled items to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws." It said ZTE acted "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."While ZTE suppliers can apply for an export license to ship any American-made equipment or parts, the Commerce Department said such license applications generally will be denied.The export restriction, which does not stop ZTE from selling handsets in the United States, is expected to have a global impact."It is going to have a large ripple effect. It's very significant to many companies both in the U.S. and [outside the] U.S.," said Doug Jacobson, an export attorney at law firm Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC, who said he has been fielding calls from clients who supply ZTE since Reuters broke news of the impending export restrictions.For example, a Taiwanese chipmaker that uses American-made components to make processors for ZTE handsets would likely have to cut off those sales. If the Taiwanese supplier only procures components from outside the United States it can continue to sell to ZTE, experts said."I am telling all my clients today that anything (for ZTE)not already on board an airplane going to China, you cannot ship it starting tonight. They have to scrub and screen their customers lists - pending orders and future orders - to make sure that any transactions with ZTE are flagged and stopped."ZTE, which has annual sales of more than $15 billion and is the only Chinese smartphone maker with a meaningful presence in the U.S. market, can appeal the decision.ZTE is among the largest companies that the Commerce Department has hit with a near-total export ban, according to public records. In 2014, the department restricted exports to Russian energy companies Lukoil OAO and Gazprom OAO, but those restrictions only stopped American companies from supplying certain types of oil-production projects, such as Arctic offshore and deepwater drilling.EFFECT ON HANDSET PRODUCTIONZTE is the No. 4 smartphone vendor in the United States, with a 7 percent market share, behind Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc , according to research firm IDC. It sells handset devices to three of the four largest U.S. mobile carriers - AT&T , T-Mobile US and Sprint Corp.Although ZTE is not being banned from selling handsets in the United States, the restriction could disrupt handset production if ZTE sources U.S.-made parts to manufacture its handsets, experts said.AT&T declined to comment, and T-Mobile and Sprint did not respond to requests for comment.A ZTE website states that several leading U.S. technology companies, including Microsoft, Intel Corp, IBM and Honeywell International Inc, are "key strategic partners." The terms of the partnerships are not described.Intel and Qualcomm confirmed they were ZTE suppliers, but did not elaborate on specific products sold to the Chinese company or how sanctions would affect their businesses.Texas Instruments, which has also said it provides processors for the Chinese company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The impact of the new restrictions on these three companies was not immediately clear as most of them produce components both in the United States and overseas.A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company had a licensing agreement with ZTE but could not confirm if the Chinese company purchases other products, such as software. The other U.S. companies did not respond to requests for comment.The U.S. decision could even prompt suppliers to halt the sales of non-U.S. components that are still allowed, said Kay Georgi, an export attorney at law firm Arent Fox LLP."When you get placed on one of these lists nobody wants to do business with you at all," Georgi said. "They just write you off."The United States has long banned the sale of U.S.-made technology products to Iran as part of its sanctions, even as China maintains close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties with the Tehran government. Last year, the United States and major world powers reached a deal with Iran to loosen economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear program."We hope this sends a strong message to ZTE, to China, and to other Chinese telecommunications companies who present serious national security risks not only by evading export controls, but by purposefully compromising supply chain security," said U.S. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. REUTERS DS RK0438 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0140-625980.Xml
With an eye on 2017 Assembly polls, the Uttar Pradesh government has announced to provide free bus rides to students attending their colleges and universities in the state. State Transport Minister said on the occasion of International Women's Day, the government had already announced free ride to women today on government buses while on radio taxis, they would get 50 per cent discount. Today, UP State Transport Corporation will run special pink bus between Lucknow and Anand Vihar in Ghaziabad for women passengers and they will be given one additional free coupon which can be used any time within a month.Mr Shah said in the first phase, the free rides to students would be available in Lucknow and Allahabad cities and later on, it would be extended to other cities. "In Allahabad, there would be six buses and in Lucknow, 10 buses which will provide the facilities to students for going and returning from their colleges and universities," the Minister said, adding that the students will have to show their identity cards to avail the free ride. These buses would commence at 0900 hrs in the morning and would not operate on holidays. UNI MB SV 0951 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-626033.Xml
Congress leader KC Venugopal gave the adjournment motion.

Meanwhile, the Centre has sought a report from Chhattisgarh government on the vandalism of the church and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju asserted that police have already taken necessary action and the guilty will not be spared.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the church.

Some people attacked and vandalised a church during Sunday prayer in Raipur.

As per reports a group of youth stormed the church and attacked worshippers alleging religious conversion.

Five people, including two women, sustained minor injuries.

The Chhattisgarh Christian Association has demanded stern action against the vandals. (ANI)
The Karnatakas forest-dwelling tribal communities today putforth a demand to the state government for a separate allocation towards the development of Adivasis and higher funds for their welfare in the forthcoming Budget. The demand for separate funding stems from the fact that non-forest dwelling tribes among the notified Scheduled Tribe (ST) category get a greater chunk of the allocation usually, leaving very little for the Adivasis. Tribal activist S Sreekanth of Development Through Education (DEED) told UNI that out of nearly Rs.4,000 crore allocated for social welfare programmes last time, Adivasis did not get even Rs.5 crore. There are nearly 35 lakh STs in the State, of which the Nayaka community alone is about 25 lakh. The nomads and others constitute about 5.5 lakh while the genuine Adivasis constitute about 4.5 lakh, Mr Sreekanth said. Hence, the forest-dwellers have sought the constitution of a separate Tribal Development Board for the welfare and development of Adivasis. The community leaders were invited for a pre-budget talk by the Minister for Social Welfare H. Anjaneya in Bengaluru recently. About 150 community leaders met the Minister and presented their demands to him. This is the first time the government has invited us for a pre-budget talk. We are confident some of our demands will be met, Mr Sreekanth added. Among their demands are rehabilitation of nearly 2,000 tribals employed in plantations in Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru, establishment of a tribal university to protect tribal culture and traditions, and shoring up the quality and standards of tribal ashram schools. There are nearly 1,300 tribal hamlets in the State. Of them, about 500 are still inside forests and cannot be declared as revenue villages. The government should take steps to declare the remaining 800 as revenue villages in order to expedite their development, he added.UNI BSP CS 1116 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-626109.Xml
In a historic move, Telangana and Maharashtra today signed agreements on the construction of five barrages across the river Godavari and tributaries in Mumbai,today. Besides the ongoing projects on the river, future projects to be conceived by the state would also be covered by the accord. The agreements were inked in the presence of Telangana and Maharashtra Chief Ministers K.Chandrasekhar Rao and Devendra Fadnavis at Sahyadri Guest House . Talks between the two Chief Ministers preceded the signing of the accords. The agreements signed for the construction of Chankha-Korata, Rajampet and Penpahad barrages as part of the inter-state lower Penganga project pending for about 40 years. The three barrages will come across the Penganga river to benefit farmers of both the states.MORE UNI SMS CS 1240 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-626224.Xml
With the Assembly election dates out and the political parties in Tamil Nadu were busy providing final touches to their manifesto and holding interviews with the aspiring candidates, the Opposition DMK today exuded confidence that the DMDK led by actor Vijayakanth would definitely ally with the DMK-led front for the May 16 polls. Talking to newsmen after completing the interview of candidates at DMK Headquarters 'Anna Arivalayam' in the city, Party President M Karunanidhi said he was extremely confident that the DMDK would join the DMK-led Front. Asked whether the alliance between the two parties was finalised, the DMK Chief, quoting a popular Tamil idiom and said, ''the fruit is getting ripened...it's not finalised when it will fall into the milk''. On the reason for the alliance getting dragged and the delay in finalising it, Mr Karunanidhi, without elaborating said ''the issue is not getting dragged''. The five-time Chief Minister also said the DMK has not extended invitation to any other party to join the alliance. He said the DMK, which had interviewed a total of 4,433 candidatesfor the 234 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu and 30 in Union Territory of Puducherry, would be releasing its poll manifesto in the next two or three days.MORE UNI GV JK 1200 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-626173.Xml
Vouching for more participation of women in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mohsina Kidwai on Tuesday said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government announces to table the Women Reservation Bill in the ongoing session then it would be the best possible gift for the females. "It will be the biggest gift for the women of the nation from the side of the Modi Government if they pass this Reservation Bill in the Parliament," Kidwai told ANI when asked to respond on the occasion of International Women's Day. "We all should thank Rajiv Gandhi for bringing 33 percent reservation taking into account the importance of women participation in workforce of the country," she added. The Women's Reservation Bill proposes to amend the Constitution of India to reserve 33 percent of all seats in the Lok Sabha and in all state legislative assemblies for women. The Rajya Sabha passed the bill on March 9, 2010. (ANI)
Dacoits looted valuables worth more than Rs 12 lakh from the house of a journalist at Durbabadi Mohallaunder Civil Lines police station area here in the wee hours today. Senior Police Superintendent Garima Mallik said here that six desperadoes raided the house of Azhar Jama and took family members captives at gun point. Later, they looted valuables, including jewellery worth Rs. 12 lakh, and fled.A manhunt has been launched to nab culprits.UNI XC DH PL SV AS1418 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0211-626294.Xml
Pitching for greater media connectivity between the two countries, Indian and visiting Pakistani legislators and journalists today called for joint TV channels and newspapers to report positive stories from both sides of the border. The idea was floated at a session of '' Third India-Pakistan legislators and Public Officials Dialogue on sharing of Experiences on Governance and Democracy'' organised here by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, a not for profit indigenous think tank of the neighboring nation. Vijay Darda, a Rajya Sabha MP and owner of a Marathi media group, said a jointly collaborated newspaper between India and Pakistan must come into existence to bring out human interest stories on both sides as it will help in busting 'misconceptions', which both countries' people have about each other. Citing recent crackdown of Pakistan on extremist elements inside their country, Abdul Qayyum, a senator of country ruling Pakistan Muslim League, voiced disappointment, saying the military action against terrorists in his country hardly made any news in India. ''We should have a south East Asia based TV channel or newspaper, where Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan, everybody can have equal say,'' Mr Qayyum said. Javed Jabbar, former Pakistani Information Minister, also backed the idea. However, he said it must be free from commercial, government and political interests. Ashutosh, TV anchor-turned-politician, said it was unfortunate that channels were bashing Pakistan only to grab eye-balls and TRPs rather than discussing issues and added that nowadays, debates on Indo-Pak relations have been reduced to 'shouting and screaming.' Sumit Tandon, a veteran journalist, said media must not 'demonized' for its current reporting style on Pakistan as it was still showing all shades that goes into Indo-Pak relations. ''When it comes to foreign policy, media cannot alter the perceptions. The greater responsibility lies with both countries' regimes to improve the relations,'' he added. Calling for greater interaction between the journalists, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Pakistan, said channels and newspapers of both countries must have correspondents in their neighbouring nations. ''If wish if we could build some lounges on Atari Border in Punjab where journalists from both countries could come without any visa and meet each other over a cup of coffee,'' Mr Rehman said. UNI RG SW/RSA 1539 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-626518.Xml
The Sumi Hoho (SH) delegation, who met several NSCN (K) senior functionaries including its chairman, SS Khaplang in Myanmars Taga region, appealed to them to take positive steps through peaceful means in the larger interest of the Naga people.According to a statement today, SH said that a four-member Sumi Hoho delegation along with others undertook a nine-day courtesy and goodwill visit to NSCK (K) Council Headquarters (CHQ) at Taga, Myanmar from February 15 to 23 last. During the meeting, both the sides held a through deliberation and positively sought for right direction at the right time. Two senior civil and military leaders of NSCN (K), Naga Army commander-in-chief (C-in-C) gen. Khumchok and defense kilonser (minister) Sangkhanchu also met the SH delegation.The statement said that Khumchok told the SH delegation that the NSCN (K) stood for independence and sovereignty irrespective of region or political boundary (s) including both Indian union and Burmese/Myanmar territory. He said that the Shillong Accord battered the Naga Rights and maintained that, August 3 Framework Agreement was just a surrender and compromise of Naga rights and sovereignty.Defense kilonser (minister) Sangkhanchu, lauded the initiative taken by Sumi Hoho to meet them and termed it as historic and also the visit of the Naga Mothers Association earlier. With regard to the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the Myanmar, Sangkhanchu maintained that the NSCN (K) Government did not participate in the talks or signed the ceasefire since it was against and anti-Naga revolutionary movement. He also highlighted the policy, history and the contemporary political development of the Myanmar government/the Military Junta and transition of democracy and maintained that, it will be a very crucial factor in determining the Naga Struggle and we are anticipating for the positive outcomes arising out of it. He further requested and appealed to SH to convey the message of brotherhood and revolutionary spirit to the other NSCN groups (IM and KK) not to wage offensive against ourselves or fall prey to the common enemy. Further, Sangkhanchu also apprised the SH team about the formation of the United National Liberation Front of Western South-East Asia (UNLFWSEA) under the leadership of SS Khaplang, the statement added. UNI AS AD ADG PM1510 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-626171.Xml
Uttar Pradesh Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Azam Khan today questioned the act of the Raj Bhawan in delaying assent to a Bill related to urban local bodies to curtail the power of the Mayors. The Minister, who had earlier made critical comments on Governor Ram Naik in public in the past, raised the issue in the Assembly. " It is very unfortunate that the Governor is sitting on the Bill passed by the House for the past one year. It seems that the Raj Bhawan is trying to protect the illegal acts of the Mayors and was favouring a particular political outfit," Mr Khan commented. BJP lawmakers protested that the issue against the Governor could not be raised in the Assembly. Mr Khan, in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, said if there were any irregularities in the Bill then the Governor should have returned it or sought clarification. " But by sitting on the Bill, the Constitutional head of the state is not doing justice and is promoting illegal acts by the Mayors," the Minister asserted. Mr Khan said the bill makes the Mayors answerable in cases of financial irregularities or any other lapses. "When other people in the local bodies are answerable to the people then why the mayors should not be included in it," he questioned. " As most of the mayors are of a particular political party, hence they are opposing it and Raj Bhawan, too, is supporting them," he alleged. BJP's Suresh Kumar Khanna opposed the statement of the Minister, wondering how can the House debate the acts of the Governor. He also asked the chair to expunge the remarks of the minister made against the Governor. Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey said he will personally convey the feeling of the Minister to the Governor and assured the BJP members that he will look into the statement and expunge those parts which are unconstitutional. UP Nagar Nigam (Amendment) Bill was passed by the state assembly on March 26, 2015 amid BJP allegations that it was a direct assault on the powers of elected mayors. Nine of the 14 mayors in UP Nagar Nigams are from BJP.UNI MB AE RP AS1535 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-626432.Xml
Amid a high alert across the country in the wake of intrusion of Pakistan based terrorists through Gujarat, police today arrested eight Bangladeshi infiltrators at Sara Mohanpur village under Sadar police station area in the district. Police Superintendent (City) of Darbhanga Hari Kishore Rai said here that the nabbed Bangladeshi youths were here to get their passports prepared on the basis of fake ID cards and birth certificates which they had managed to get with the help of an agent here.They were arrested from a house in which they had been staying as tenants, he added. He said the Bangladeshi nationals claimed that they were working as labourers in Mumbai and since their employers used to demand ID cards from them they had come here to get their documents. Besides forged documents, police recovered mobile phones with SIMs of both Indian and Bangladeshi telecom companies and also Bangladeshi currency notes from them. Nabbed Bangladeshis are natives of Nauakholi in Bangladesh, police said, adding that they would be interrogated. Bihar has been plagued by infiltration from Bangladesh for quite sometime because of the porous border and they are difficult to differentiate from local people because of their colour and built.Thousands of Bangladeshi nationals are living in the bordering districts of Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnea. Police said they act against them when something concrete was found against them. Seven Bangladeshis were arrested recently for having alleged link with terrorists in Siwan district. Another Bangladeshi was nabbed while he was found loitering around Passport Office in the state capital on January 15. UNI XC DH IS PL AE AS1545 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0211-626462.Xml
Subhash Yadav, Commissioner of Police, Faridabad and Hanif Qureshi, Inspector General of Police, Karnal Range, Karnal will swap their respective places of posting, an official statement said here.

Also, S P Gupta IAS (Retd.) Director General, Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA), Gurgaon has been given additional charge of Director, Haryana Academy of History and Culture located at HIPA, Gurgaon, in addition to his present duties against a vacant post. His orders have also been issued with immediate effect.UNI KS AE AS1528

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Currently in judicial custody in Mumbai, Indrani had reportedly claimed before her husband Peter Mukerjea that Mikhail had killed Sheena and she had only helped him in disposing the body.

"I have no link with Sheena's murder. If I would have had any link, the CBI (which is probing the case) would have arrested me," he told television channels here.

Mikhail added, "Everyone knows Indrani Mukerjea is a liar. She was someone who lied about her children, introducing Sheena and me as her siblings." He reiterated his earlier allegation that Indrani had also plotted to kill him.

The CBI had filed its charge sheet in the murder case before a court in Mumbai in November last year, naming Indrani as the main accused, Indrani, her second husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyam Rai.

Media tycoon Peter Mukerjea, who is Indranis third husband, has also been arrested in connection with the case. Sheena and Mikhail are children from an earlier relation of Indrani. More UNI SG PL AE RP NS1620

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Sworn-in as an Additional Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 30, 2011, Justice Sanghi was to retire in June 2017. In 1996, he became Haryana Deputy Advocate General and in 2007 he became Punjab Additional Advocate General.

Justice Sanghi had taken suo moto cognisance of news reports on the alleged Murthal mass gangrape incidents during the Jat agitation in Haryana.

He was born in the illustrious family of lawyers at Narnaul on June 5, 1955.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today expressed grief over the sad demise of Justice Sanghi.

In a condolence message here, Mr Khattar described Justice Sanghi as a legal luminary and eminent jurist. He was held in great respect as a public figure not only for his vast understanding and knowledge of law and the many path-breaking judgements he delivered as a Judge, but also for his deep sensitivity to the concerns of the common man and his fierce commitment to the public good.

The Chief Minister conveyed his heartfelt sympathies to the members of the bereaved family and prayed to the Almighty to grant peace to the departed soul and give strength to the family to bear this loss.UNI DB AE AN1617

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Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje today presented the state budget for the year 2016-17 with an estimated revenue deficit of Rs 8, 801.99 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 43,147.24 crore which is 5.62 per cent of GSDP. The estimated total revenue receipts for the year is pegged at Rs 1, 23, 250.53 crore, with an estimated own tax revenue collection of Rs 53, 300.01 crore.The Chief Minister blamed the previous Congress government for the state finances going haywire because of the Rs 60,000 crore debt of power distribution companies inherited by her government, which was now being taken up under the UDAY scheme. Ms Raje, who also holds the Finance portfolio, in her about three hour-long budget speech, tried to strike a balance by imposing fresh taxes worth Rs 300 crore, while giving away tax relief of Rs 325 crore. The Chief Minister reduced the VAT from 14.5 to 5.5 per cent on all plastic goods, pickle excluding branded ones, dental filling and fixtures, all types of carpets, switch gear, SD card, memory card, pen drive, health and fitness equipment, while totally exempted from entry tax, ACSR conductors, all kinds of telephone, insulators, photocopiers, stay wire, television sets, tin containers, aerated water and mineral water and water sold in sealed containers. Stay in luxury hotels will become dearer from April. Hotels having a rent of over Rs 10,000 per day would invite an additional two per cent tax over the existing 10 per cent. Similarly, VAT on aerated drinks has gone up from 15 per cent to 20 per cent. Semi-stitched garments, Guar gum and guar gum powder would invite 5.5 per cent VAT. VAT on all types of cigarettes would attract additional 15 per cent VAT over the the existing VAT. Special road tax on Tourist and contract carriage permit buses increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 32,000, while the government has imposed an entry tax of 5.5 per cent on e-commerce items.. UNI PJJ RP-RJ1745 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0098-626881.Xml
Talking to newspersons here, CCCI President P Gangadharan and Secretary Abdulla Maliyekal said the delegation on March 11 would hold discussions with authorities of Dubai Healthcare City, Emirates Airliner and Fly Dubai aviation firm in three groups during the six-day visist.

They would also explore possibility of launching medium sized aircraft in Kozhikode-Dubai sector in the wake of cancellation of wide-bodied aircraft.

The delegation would also attend a reception hosted for them by Pravasi organization in Dubai on March 12, call on Indain Ambassador to Abu Dhabi and participate in a meet at Abu Dhabi Chamber and and reception by NRIs on March 13.

Itinerary included interaction with the Dubai Chamber office bears and Hamaria Free Zone authorities on exploring mutual business opportunities and attend reception to be hosted by Sharjah Chamber of Commerce on March 14 and 15, they said, adding, the delegation will return home on March 16.UNI PCH KVV AK 1700

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: Honouring eminent women, seminars and cultural events marked the international women's day celebrations in the two Telugu States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana today. Several women's and social organisations put up cultural shows, depicting achievements of women in different fields in various parts of the two states. The Andhra Pradesh Chief minister N.Chandrababu Naidu cut a cake in his chamber in the Assembly complex to mark the occasion, which was attended by several women members of the House. The Assembly also adopted a resolution, urging the Centre to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies. In a function organised by the women development department of Telangana Government in the city, Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao will felicitate women achievers later this evening. 'Nani Kali', a cultural body, arranged Smita Patil, retrospective to screen celebratedfilms of the noted actress of yesteryear to mark the women's day.UNI SMS KVV AK 1705 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-626695.Xml
: Communist Party of India (CPI) has announced that it will forge poll alliances with like minded parties for the forthcoming assembly elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pudicherry, West Bengal and Assam. Talking to newspersons here , CPI National General Secretary Suravaram Sudakar said in Kerala, the party will contest the election along with CPI (M) and others. The party will be contesting in 29-30 seats this time, while they had contested 27 seats in the last elections. The final decision will be taken over next two days in this regard. Mr Sudakar said in Tamil Nadu and Pudicherry, the party will contest all the seats in alliance with CPI(M), MDMK, RSP and Forward Bolck, while in Pudicherry it will contest in 12 seats. The CPI leader said in West Bengal, the party will contest 16 seats as against 14 during last elections in alliance with CPI (M), RSP and Forward Block, while in Assam the party will contest 18 seats in alliance with CPI(M), RSP, CPI (ML) and Forward Block.UNI VV SMS KVV AK 1740 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-626698.Xml
:The two day meeting of the National Executive of the Communist Party of India, that concluded here today has called upon the party rank and file, as well as all secular democratic forces to launch a mass campaign to counter the fascistic offensive of the Modi Government and Sangj Parivar. Telangana State Seceretary Chada Venkat Reddy presided over the meeting. CPI National General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy presented a report on political developments since last National Council meeting held at Guntur in early January, covering issues like developments in JNU, Hyderabad Central University and several other Universities and institutes of higher education, apart from Jat reservation agitation in Haryana. He also listed organizational tasks. Talking to newspersons here, Mr Reddy said almost all participants in the discussion concentrated on developments in JNU, particularly the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar who is a leader of AISF, as well as the attack on autonomy and saffronisation of education. The CPI leader said the meeting also noted the suicide of Rohit Vemula, the Dalit student of Hyderabad Central University. The NE has decided to launch a counter ideological offensive against the fascistic onslaught of Modi Government and Sangh Parivar. The National Executive has noted certain misconceived observations in the Delhi High Court judgement granting interim bail to Kanhaiya Kumar and considered avenues for challenging it legally, Mr Reddy said and added the executive adopted three resolutions that are annexed. The CPI leader said the resolutions were counter fascist offensive of Modi government and Sangh Parivar. Even before completing two years in power, the Narendra Modi Government was facing wrath and anger from different segments of the people, as it has heaped huge economic burden, denying the benefits they were enjoying, he said, alleging granting concessions after concession to Corporate Houses and International Finance Capital by shamelessly imposing the remaining agenda of disastrous course of economic neo-liberalism.MORE UNI VV KVV AK -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-626758.Xml
Alleging that doctors in Kashmir are paid less than their counterparts in rest of the country, Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) said this pay disparity has hit the patient care. President DAK Nisar ul Hassan in a statement here this afternoon said poor wages are responsible for migration of highly qualified doctors to new pastures which is having a knocking down affect on health sector and has badly hit the patient care. "We have lost the best trained doctors due to bad pay and poor working conditions and nothing is being done to hold back these expensively trained doctors", he said. While in a government-run hospital at Delhi, a postgraduate is paid Rs 80,000 per month, in Government Medical Collage (GMC) Srinagar it is a paltry, Rs 24,000. The salary of a senior resident in Delhi is up to Rs 1 lakh, while in GMC it is just Rs 42,000. The entry level faculty member at AIIMS Delhi draws Rs 1,21,000 which is three times the pay of his/her counterpart in GMC who is paid miniscule, Rs 47,000. There is nothing to motivate you in Kashmir. It is not only wages, but poor working and living conditions, infrastructural deficiencies, lack of transparency and political and bureaucratic meddling that pushes people away," Dr Hassan said. Dr Hassan said to retain doctors once must treat them well. Policy makers should create a conducive environment for doctors to work comfortably at home and also attract those who have left. If the trend is not reversed now, situation could even worsen.UNI BAS ASM AE NS1734 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0332-626703.Xml
A 12-day National Integration Tour and a cycle rally to spread the message of cleanliness under the 'Swatch Bharat' drive were flagged off by Tripura Governor Tathagatha Roy. Both events have been organized by the 4 battalion Assam Rifles (AR) under 21 Sector AR on the eve of 181 rising day of AR, the oldest paramilitary force of the world, to be celebrated on March 23. Twenty five special children (deaf and dumb) from the Ferrando School for Speech and Hearing (FSSH) along with four teachers and a team of 4 AR, will be visiting Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Shillong as part of the Civic Action Project undertaken by Assam Rifles. The members of the tour, who for the first time are visiting outside the state, were very excited getting an opportunity for the first time of travelling by flight and train. "They all want to experience the places outside our state and this will be their first experience of flying by air and travelling by train. They are visiting places outside our state and meeting people and taken this as a great chance that Assam Riffles is proving them. This will bring them great learning in their mind and on return shall share it with others students who are at Ferrando," said Sister Seni, Principal of FSSH. She added the tour will help in national integration as youth from the north-eastern region shall be able to know their nation better by visiting places and interaction with people outside the region. "Of course, it is going to bring a new change in the minds of our students and as well as parents of our students because they never got a chance so far and this tour they are going to make outside the state is going to unite them in one way or another by interacting with the people outside. That will bring them wider knowledge of themselves and outside the world," she added. During their visit to Delhi, the students will get an opportunity to interact with President Pranab Mukherjee and meet high ranking Army officials. Governor Roy, after interacting with the students, appreciated the efforts taken by Assam Rifles for promoting such a noble cause. He expressed that before coming here he like most of the people was not aware that the security forces and army other than protecting people and guarding the border from foreign invasion is involved in such civic action and which needs to be propagated to counter misconception spread against forces by a section of people and with vested interest. "In fact, I had no idea that the Assam Rifles carries out social interaction with the people of the Northeast. ... But right after coming here I saw that they are bringing school children, showing them around the Raj Bhavan, they are getting the Governor to address them and this is news to me and this is wonderful one," said Roy. "What I find missing is that this thing is not finding adequate publicity to the rest of India.today this is the age of information; this is the age when you need publicity and simply doing will not do. You also need to tell people you are doing what," he added. The tour is aimed at providing the students with an exposure to the rich cultural heritage of our country and an opportunity to visit various places as also interact with dignitaries. Nishant Sharma, Commandant, 4 battalion of AR, said, "Focus of the tour which has been organized by the Assam Rifles is an attempt for national integration. We take these children of Tripura and show them the development and cultural heritage of India and also educate and aware them. Apart from that for these children we are organizing computer certified course so that tomorrow as adults they are not deaf and mute as they are so called today, they are capable and equipped young people of the nation who can generate their own employment." As a grand finale to the tour, the children on return to Shillong will be given an opportunity to attend the Assam Rifles Day Celebrations at HQ DG AR amidst numerous dignitaries of the Army, Assam Rifles, Civil Administration and the State of Meghalaya. (ANI)
Responding to attacks by Opposition on the NDA government on issues like intolerance, the police crackdown on the JNU and the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today stressed the need for the Opposition to work together with the government to fight basic issues like poverty. Intervening in the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament, Mr Jaitley also charged the Congress with supporting those raising anti-national slogans at the recent event in the JNU. Referring to the controversy over the second affidavit on the Ishrat Jahan case, Mr Jaitley charged the previous UPA government with compromising on national security. On the issue of the alleged anti-national slogans raised at the February 9 event at the JNUto observe the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Mr Jaitley, responding to criticism by the Congress of the government trying to frame JNUSU leader Kanhaiya Kumar in the sedition case, said, ''The unity of the country is paramount and if we are to keep the country together, we have to make sure that we do not support those who talk of the breakup of the country. ''In case of anybody who raises his voice against the unity of the country, we must ask the law agencies that law should be allowed to take its own course. I was surprised at the Congress supporting fringe elements.''Mr Jaitley said most people of India would not support an idea of organising events in support ofthose involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks or those throwing ideas of working against the country.On the Congress charge of the NDA victimising Kanhaiya Kumar , he said, ''Nobody has anything against a student. However, I expect mainstream parties like the Congress to be in the forefront against such forces who talk of breaking India.''More UNI AR RSA 1830 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-627091.Xml
The Communist Party of India (M) today expresses solidarity with womens struggles for equality and emancipation on the eve of the International Womens day. Addressing the convention on International Womens day, CPI(M) leader and MLA Kulgam Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said that this day draws its history from March 8,1857, when women across classes, regions, and communities raised the demand for women emancipation. He said that it is not a coincidence but a consequence of the failures of the systems, the inequality between nations, social classes, the rich and the poor and between men and women making lives of masses, particularly women more difficult. Mr Tarigami said that on this day, therefore, women pledge to fight for a better world, where they would be free from exploitation and gender based discrimination. The exponential increase in violence against women require contrary effort to build up broad based resistance through united actions by women organisations and groups, he stressed. State Secretary CPI(M) G N Malik in his address said that women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievements worldwide but progress towards gender parity has unfortunately slowed. He said that this day is a collective day of global celebrations, which also makes a call to action for accelerating gender parity.UNI BAS ASM RJ BL1820 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-626795.Xml
The leaders of opposition and group leaders of all opposition parties including Congress NCP, PWP, RPI (Kawade) decided to boycott the customary tea party organised by Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis. Speaking to mediaperons after all opposition party leaders at his residence LoP in Assembly Radhakrushna Vikhe Patil announced the decision to boycott the CMs meeting. He said this government is not at all serious about the farmers plight in light of drought situation. Seconding him LoP in Council Dhananjay Munde said the governments apathy about farmers is such that minister and their PAs are beating farmers who come to place their problems to government. He was referring to an incident where PA to Minister Vinod Tawde had beaten a farmer in Usmanabad district when they visited the drought affected area there. Both the LoPs demanded resignation of Tawde on the issue. About functioning of legislature from tomorrow both Vikhe and Munde said they will decide oppositions strategy from time to time.Vikhe said todays meeting of opposition was attended by Ajit Pawar, Chagan Bujbal, Jayant patilof NCP, Ganpatro Deshmukh and Jayant Patil of PWP, Manikrao Thakre, Sharad Ranpise of Congress, Abu Azmiof SP among others. He said the government should explain what they achieved by visiting Marathwada in a single day with all ministers going to Taluka places this was only tourism and nothing else .Dhananjay Munde demanded that the government should come out with a white paper about the 10 lak Cr MOUs they signed in Make In India Week.UNI XR SHS AE AN1855 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-627012.Xml
Chairman of Legislative Council Ramraje Nimbalkar and President of Assembly Haribhau Bagde today held a joint meeting of all party group leaders in both the Houses. Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis also attended the meeting. Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Mr Nimbalkar said the meeting was called to discuss the smooth functioning of proceedings of legislature. Such a meeting is regularly held in Parliament. Todaywas the first time that such a meeting was held in Maharashtra Legislature, he said. According to Mr Nimbalkar all party leaders assuredcooperation in the functioning of business before the House. The budget session of Assembly and Council will start tomorrow, with the address of the Governor to the joint session of the legislature.UNI XR NP SHS AE VN1844 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-627013.Xml
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today ridiculed the competitive lies being told by the Aam Aadmi Party and the Akali Dal in an apparent aim to befool people of Punjab. "Sukhbir and Kejriwal have entered into a mad rat race to outsmart and out-lie each other without realising that they are getting badly exposed in the process," he remarked, while adding, "it seems they have entered into a competition of lies". He also demanded statewide girdawri across Punjab to assess losses to the crops due to recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm. "Sukhbir Badal and Arvind Kejriwal have entered into an unabashed and shameless competition of telling lies and make bogus claims at the cost of tax payers money," Capt Singh said in a statement issued here in response to multi-page advertisements released by the Akali-BJP government in the state in competition with the AAP government of Delhi. The PCC president pointed out, the state government does not have money to pay salaries and pensions which are pending for last six months and still it has gone into wonton overdrive of spending crores of rupees on advertisements in the newspapers. "It is so characteristic of Sukhbir's megalomaniac vanity that while his government has turned the state bankrupt and development has come to a standstill, he will claim that Punjab is ranking top", he remarked. He said, the Akali-BJP government in Punjab, like the AAP government of Delhi, was flouting all moral, ethical and legal norms in its publicity campaign. "Besides using the bogus and unethical means of paid news, they are both spreading lies only while having done nothing to claim what they are claiming", he said, while adding, this was brazen abuse of public money. Giving the example of fake and bogus claims, Capt Amarinder referred to Sukhbir's claims of Punjab being power surplus when majority of the cities, towns and villages do not even get 12 hour power supply. "No doubt the availability of power has increased as most of the industry has shut down in Punjab, but even then the state has not become power surplus", he asserted, while adding, "this is a classic and characteristic gossip Sukhbir has now become (in)famous for". "Progress and development are always self speaking and you don't need to tom-tom these", he told Sukhbir, while remarking, "but if you think you can sell lies while misusing public money, you are miserably mistaken". He said, no matter what amount of money Sukhbir spends and no matter how much paid newspaper space he consumes he cannot change the ground realities which are so obvious and in full public knowledge. Referring to the special girdawri ordered by the state government in Muktsar district, Capt Singh said, there are other parts of the state where damage to the standing crops is as much as 80 per cent. That is why, he added, it is important to conduct statewide girdawri and not the Chief Minister Badal's home district alone.UNI KS DJK AS1844 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-626970.Xml
: National Convention of tribal women village Sarpanches will be held in Vijayawada on March 19, for which, village Sarpanches of tribal areas in 18 states and Union Territories will attend. Panchayat Raj department Additional Secretary, A K Goel, addressing a meeting here today said that as per the fifth scheduled of Article 244/1, the Union Panchayat Raj department had decided to hold the national Tribal women Panchayat Sarpanches convention here on March 19. He said various issues, including the development programmes being carried out in their respective villages, the roll being played by the women Sarpanches in the implementation of welfare programmes, problems being faced by them would be discussed, besides suggestions would be taken from them. Krishna District Collector Babu A said a get together would be convened on March 18 for the women Sarpanches in the Bhavani Island here. The conference would be held at the A1 convention centre here.UNI DP KVV AK 1920 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-626968.Xml
:Agri Horti Tech India 2016, an international exhibition on Agriculture and Horticulture Technology will be held at HITEX here from April 22. The three-day event organiSed by Radeecal Communication aimed to introduction of latest technologies, leading to an increased demand in the food produce, flowers and landscaping, ornamental plants, irrigation technology, seeds & Bio-Technology, tgriculture equipment and dairy technology Industry were anticipated to attract major participation ever by the established national and international players. As a pre-event, a press conference was held here today where Telangana Agricultrue Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Seed Corporation Managing Director A Murali, ICRISAT Director Jonna Kane Pataka and Radeecal Communication CEO Sanyal Desai participated. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Pocharam said I hope it will be useful for the farmer of Telagnana state as well other participants of the country. He said agriculture sector was a big subject in the country. A large number of people depending on it as next to the industry. Both sectors were providing maximum employment in the country. He requested the participants of the industries to come with concert proposals for the useful of farmr ofther wise there is no useful to conduct such exhibitions. Every event or exhibition on agriculture should be pro-farmer as farmers suicides were increasing day-by-day across the country because of increasing investment and degreasing profits, the Minister said. He said to encourage horticulture corps like vegetable, fruits, flowers, pices in a big way in the state, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao proposed to establish Horticulture Development Corporation.. Already issued a GO in this regard. Mr Pocharam said the Corporation will establish Agro Processing units at a cost of Rs 400-500 crore in 200 acres of land at Mulugu in Medak district. For this, the Chief Minister asked us (Agricultre Department) to visit abroad to know the available best technowledge on processing units. To encourage horticulture farmers in the state, the government will provide maximum subsidy for drip irrigation upto 75 per cent for general farmers and 100 per cent for Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes, the Minister said and added this year the Chief Minister indicated to provide Rs1000-1500 crore for drip irrigation. MORE UNI VV KVV AK 2005 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-627112.Xml
The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court (HC) today quashed criminal proceedings against former AIADMK Minister Agri S.S.Krishnamoorthy in a sensational abetment to suicide-cum-corruption case. Justice V.S.Ravi passed the order, relieving Krishnamoorthy from the case relating to the suicide of M.Muthukumarasamy, Assistant Executive Engineer of Tamilnadu Agricultural Engineering Department, on the grounds that there was no prima facie case against him. Krishnamoorthy had filed an application before the Madurai Bench seeking the court direction to quash the proceedings pending against him before the Judicial Magistrate (JM) Court in Tirunelveli in the case. When the case came up for hearing on February four last, Justice V.S.Ravi observed that the issue had been so complicated that it was necessary to send the records from the lower court by March one to help the HC to take a decision on the issue one way or the other. The petitioners counsel stated that CB-CID police had booked Krishnamoorthy under Section 306 (abetment of suicide), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code and Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and arrested him on April 04, 2015, after Muthukumarasamy committed suicide by jumping before a train at Thatchanallur in Tirunelveli district on February 20, 2015. According to the prosecution, the victim had committed suicidesince he was allegedly unable to bear pressure exerted on him by his superiors to pay Rs 12.25 lakh to the petitioner for having appointed seven drivers in the department. However, the police filed a charge sheet before the JM, who had no jurisdiction to take cognisance of an offence booked under the PCA. The Magistrate too did not return the charge sheet. Instead, after the filing of the quash petition in the HC, the Magistrate forwarded the case to a Special Court designated for hearing the corruption cases, the counsel said. He further said the Special Court, in turn, refused to accept the case since it was legally not bound to accept a case transferred by a Magistrate. Ideally, when a case is booked for offences under the IPC as well as PCA, Section 4 of PCA empowers the Special Court to take cognisance of offences under both the laws and try them together. However, a regular criminal court cannot try a charge under the PCA, he contended. The government counsel argued that there was direct evidence to prove the charges of criminal conspiracy and abetment of suicide against Krishnamoorthy. After hearing the arguments from both sides Justice Ravi quashed the criminal proceedings against Krishnamoorthy and relieved him from the case. UNI GSM KVV AK1920 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-627313.Xml
Punjab Congress has given notice of breach of privilege against Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for the alleged misbehaviour and manhandling of the party legislators by the police at the entry gate of the assembly today. In a statement here, Congress Legislature Party leader Charanjit Singh Channi alleged that the legislators were prevented from entering the Assembly which is clearly the privilege of the elected representatives. He further alleged that Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was responsible for the black day of democracy. The legislators had to fight for their right, they jumped the barricading and opened the locked gates from inside to make their entry into the Assembly. Even the women legislators had hard time crossing the police barricading. He alleged that the police force also manhandled a woman MLA. A resolution to condemn the action was also brought in the CLP meeting. The Congress MLAs led by Mr Channi also staged a walkout during Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki's address inside the House. "We have walked out of the House in protest against the speech of the Honourable Governor of Punjab. We met the Governor on the issues of farmers suicide and atrocities on Dalits, submitted a memorandum also but nothing was done . The Governor's address is the replica of last year's speech in which most of the content remains unfulfilled till now", Mr Channi said. Earlier in the day, the Congress MLAs marched towards the Punjab Assembly, wearing black badges and showing black flags. They raised slogans against the SAD-BJP government on the issue of Satluj Yamuna Link canal. The march was in protest against the Union government filing affidavit in favour of SYL in the Supreme Court. Mr Channi said the BJP-led government at the Centre has betrayed the interests of Punjab by filing affidavit in favour of Haryana. He appealed to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to withdraw his daughter-in- law Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Narendra Modi ministry as a mark of protest.UNI DB AE-RP NS1937 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-627054.Xml
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir, who arrived here on a two-day visit, today discussed a whole range of bilateral and regional issues with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, ahead of Mr Modi's visit to his country next month.The visiting dignitary called on the Prime Minister and conveyed to him that Saudi Arabia accorded a high priority to relations with India in its foreign Policy. Mr Modi also said that for India, ties with Saudi Arabia were very important.''Both leaders exchanged views on further strengthening bilateral relations, including in the fields of trade, investment, energy, and security cooperation. They also discussed regional situation. They agreed that the two countries have shared interest in peace and stability in the region,'' a statement from the PMO said. The Prime Minister expressed confidence that his forthcoming visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would provide an opportunity to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a new level, the PMO said. Earlier, during his meeting with Ms Swaraj, the Saudi Minister is understood to have discussed issues relating to the coming visit of Mr Modi to Saudi Arabia, among other bilateral and regional issues. Ms Swaraj and Mr Al Juber had previously met on the sidelines of the First India Arab League Ministerial meeting in Manama, Bahrain on January 24. India and Saudi Arabia established 'Strategic Partnership' in 2010, envisioning a deeper engagement in political, economic, security and defence areas through Riyadh Declaration. In recent years, there has been significant progress in bilateral cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including energy, security, trade and infrastructure development projects. Saudi Arabia has become India's fourth largest partner with bilateral trade reaching USD 40 billion in 2014-15. Saudi Arabia is also India's largest crude oil supplier, accounting for about one-fifth of India's total imports. Indians form the largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia and their positive contribution in the progress and development of their host country is well recognised. There are over 2.96 million Indian nationals presently working in Saudi Arabia.UNI NAZ RJ 2048 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-627521.Xml
: Slamming Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for signing a pact with the Maharashtra Government over water sharing of Godavari River water, Congress party has termed it as Maha Daga (mega cheating) in the history of Telagnana. Talking to newspersons here today, Leader of Opposition in Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said by materialising this agreement with the neighboring state, Mr Rao has done a great injustice to the people of Telangana. Mr Shabbir said, When KCR returned from Mumbai after signing an agreement on water sharing, State government, TRS party and others are celebrating on every forum as if a great deal has happened. Whereas, the fact is, KCR has done a great injustice to the people. There is nothing to celebrate. It is injustice because the height of the barrages that would be constructed on Godavari was decreased to 148 meters from the earlier proposal of 152 meters. The barrages are coming up at Medigadda, Tummidi-Haiti on Pranahita, Chanakha-Korata on Penganga, Pinpahad and Rajapeta, the Congress leader rued. Showing the copies of the similar agreement signed on May 5, 2012, Mr Shabbir said the then Chief Ministers Kiran Kumar Reddy and his Maharashtra counterpart Prithvi Raj Chauhan signed an agreement in the presence of then Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal for the construction of barrage at Tummidi-Haiti at 152 Metres height. He sought to know how come the Chief Minister try to manipulate the facts in such a way that he was showing the already done agreement as his achievement and celebrating as if he has done something great for the people of state.MORE UNI VV KVV AK 2024 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-627387.Xml
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) today announced seventy five constituencies from which it will fight in the upcoming Assembly poll in the state. Pradesh Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stated that the party is on its way of negotiation with Left Front regarding certain seat confusion. Our discussion on alliance is on with Left Front. We have concluded 75 constituencies free from disputes. The decision is impartial. The output of the discussion will be conveyed to you accordingly, PCC president told mediapersons here. The names of Congress candidates for the 75 constituencies would be announced after receiving green signal from the party high command in New Delhi, Mr Chowdhury said. The Left Front in West Bengal yesterday announced names of candidates for 116 seats, out of a total of 294 Assembly constituencies, which would go to poll from April 4. Mr Chowdhury said the Congress has targeted more than 100 seats. Regarding vote campaign, he said that each party will do it in their own way. We will campaign in our own way. Left will fight on their own. There was no problem even if there was a joint campaign. Our main objective is more or less identical. Hence there is no point in playing hide and seek, said Mr Chowdhury. Left Front although in its first list declared candidates for two areas which they were told to keep free by Congress namely Hariharpara and Domkal. Regarding the independent step taken by Left Front, the PCC president said to go for a friendly competition. If we find both the parties colliding regarding certain seats, then there would not be any problem. It will be treated as a friendly contest, Mr Chowdhury added. West Bengal will witness sixth phased elections for seven days starting April 4 and 11, while the second and third phases will be conducted on April 17 and 21, respectively. The last three phases of elections will take place on April 25, 30 and May5, whereas the votes will be counted and results will be announced on May 19.UNI BM SHS VN2120 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-627522.Xml
Patna High Court today granted bail to incarcerated Independent MLA Anant Singh in connection with Puttush Yadav murder case. The Independent MLA, however, would remain behind bars as he is also facing several other criminals cases in which he is yet to get bail or exonerated in some cases.Justice Jitendra Mohan Sharma granted bail to Mr Singh after hearing arguments of his counsel and that of the prosecution.The counsel appearing for the MLA, submitted before the court that name of Mr Singh did not appear in FIR lodged in connection with the murder of Puttush Yadav alias Pawan Kumar. He was falsely implicated in this case and his name was added in FIR at later stage, the counsel pointed out.Puttush Yadav alias Pawan Kumar and three others were kidnapped from Barh police station area in Patna district on June 17, 2015. Three youths were released by the abductors after they thrashed them while the body of Puttush was recovered near Ladma village in Barh, next morning. Mr Singh was included as accused in FIR at later stage during the investigation. He was sent to jail in connection with other cases including kidnapping.Mr Singh was JD(U) MLA when the incident took place in June 2015, sparking controversy in political circle. Sensing the sensitivity of the case, JD(U) expelled Mr Singh from the party but he managed to win election as Independent from Mokama in state assembly election held in October-November last year.UNI XC KKS BM SHS BD2121 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-627551.Xml
Chief Minister TR Zeliang today said Nagaland needs smart plans for the townships considering the fact that urbanisation in the state is taking place at a rapid pace. In a statement issued by the media cell of CMO said inaugurating Shamator Town Council under Tuensang district this morning, Mr Zeliang said people are thronging to the towns from villages and the need to have smart plans for basic civic amenities in Nagaland is strongly felt. Urbanisation is a global phenomenon and the Government of India, realising the need for building smart towns and cities have come up with "Smart City" projects, he said. Even those towns and cities which are not eligible for this Central Smart City project equally need smart plans and development. "That is why my Government had decided to create a new Department called Department if Municipal Affairs, with Mr Tohanba as the first Parliamentary Secretary to take charge. Shamator, being his constituency, I am confident he will not only over see the functioning of the town council but usher in smart plans so that people of the town do not face civic problems most of the older towns in the state are facing, the Chief Minister said. Mr Zeliang also called upon the people to cooperate with the authorities for the overall development of the towns. "We must imbibe civic sense and cooperate with the authorities concerned at all time. We must remember that the common good is greater than individual interests," he said. Reminding the gathering that Tuensang district is the pioneer district which existed even before statehood, the Chief Minister urged the people of the district to show the way forward. Continue to be the pioneer in uniting the Nagas for our common cause; he exhorted the people of the district. Unity of the Naga people is the most desirable necessity and prerequisite at this crucial moment when the Union government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to solve the vexed and protracted Naga political problem, and all the 60 elected Members have come together for the same purpose. In crucial juncture, the public should also join hands in support for an early solution and also urge all Naga Political Group (undergrounds) to come together. In this way our young generation can move forward for peace and prosperity, once peace is insured in our land we have every opportunity to explore tourist destination in various parts of our state and economy of the people will also be secured," he said. Earlier the Chief minister also inaugurated the newly constructed ADC Office Complex and Town Council Office at Shamator. UNI AS BM PY SHS BL2223 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-627619.Xml
Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna recorded statement of the complainant, the then minister of state for home Ajay Maken as the prosecution witness in the case. Maken was also cross examined by the counsel for accused in the case.

During the hearing, Tytler and Verma were also present in the court room.

The court on December 9 had framed charges dealing with cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy of Indian Penal Code and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Tytler and Verma had pleaded not guilty and claimed innocence in the case.

The case was filed on a complaint of Maken that a forged letter on his letterhead was written to the prime minister by Verma.

The CBI has alleged that Tytler had "actively connived" with Verma to cheat a Chinese telecom firm and the Congress leader had first shown a "fake and forged" letter to the company's officials, claiming it was written by Maken to the then prime minister.

--Indo-Asian News Service gt/vd

( 218 Words)

2016-03-08-22:53:32 (IANS)
The International Women's Day, celebrated on March 8, is a global event aimed at inspiring women and celebrating their achievements.

Google posted a short video on its home page in which some women are seen sharing their aspirations, completing the sentence "One day I will..."

Liat Ben-Rafael, who co-created the doodle, told Mirror Online it was important to her to feature real women in the video, rather than animated characters, which usually appear in Google doodles.

"International Women's Day is a celebration of the women who are here today working towards a better future, and in that sense it was important for me to make sure that we celebrate the real women," she said.

"It's the unsung heroes, this is what we're celebrating, so not showing the real women behind this would be a big loss."

Google users can watch the video on by clicking on the play button on the Google home page in their browsers on March 8.

Users are also encouraged to share their own aspirations on social media, using the hashtag #OneDayIWill.

--Indo-Asian News Service pku

( 217 Words)

2016-03-08-05:13:32 (IANS)
A Swedish diplomat acting on behalf of the United States last week visited a US student who has been held by North Korea since early January, the US State Department said.According to North Korean official media, Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was detained for trying to steal a propaganda slogan from his Pyongyang hotel and has confessed to "severe crimes" against the state.State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that a representative from the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which acts as the "protecting power" representing US interests in North Korea, had visited Warmbier on Wednesday."We are in regular, close coordination with the Swedes and I have nothing additional to add," Kirby said.The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations and are at odds on many issues, including the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons and its proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies.US and South Korean troops began annual military exercises on Monday to test their readiness against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.REUTERS DS RK0410 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0140-625975.Xml
The United States renewed its appeal to the Taliban to join peace talks and said Afghan and US forces would have to prepare themselves for the prospect of increased violence in the spring and summer if the insurgent group did not agree to negotiations.The Taliban said on Saturday it would not take part in peace talks brokered by representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, casting doubt on efforts to revive negotiations.State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States backed a call by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for the radical Islamists to join talks with the Kabul government."They have a choice. Rather than continuing to fight their fellow Afghans and destabilizing their country, they should engage in a peace process and ultimately become a legitimate part of the political system of a sovereign united Afghanistan," Kirby said yesterday."There is and should be a sense of urgency around getting these talks up and running," he told a regular news briefing."If there's no peace process in place and the Taliban's not willing to come to the table and talk about a reconciliation ... we would and the Afghan security forces would have to prepare themselves, for the potential for increased violence in the spring and summer months."It's the so-called fighting season, and we've seen this before, when the weather warms up. ... I want to stress that's not what we want to see."The Taliban, ousted from power in a US-led military campaign in 2001, has been waging a violent insurgency to try to topple Afghanistan's Western-backed government.Following a meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group in February, officials said they expected direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to begin in early March.A previous peace effort broke down last year following the announcement that the Taliban's founder and longtime leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, had died about two years earlier.New leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has laid down conditions for taking part in any talks as he struggles to overcome factional infighting, with some breakaway groups opposing any negotiations.Heavy fighting has continued over the winter from Helmand in the south to Jowzjan province in the north, while suicide attacks have been launched in the capital, underlining the difficulty of restarting the peace process. REUTERS DS RK0427 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0140-625979.Xml
China is not looking to supplant the United States or become another United States, China's foreign minister said on Tuesday, suggesting Americans should look at China's 5,000 years of history to see how things will develop.China and the United States regularly clash on everything from trade and human rights to China's claims in the disputed South China Sea, and candidates for this year's U.S. presidential election have routinely criticised China.Speaking at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was natural for the two countries to have areas of friction, though they had proved they could work together on areas like climate change."The root of these frictions is that some people in the United States still have strategic misgivings about China, and are worried China will one day replace the United States," Wang said."I want to stress here again, China is not the United States, and China cannot possibly become another United States," he added."We've no intention of replacing or leading anyone, and I suggest American friends study and understand more about China's 5,000 years of accumulated historical and cultural traditions and not just blindly apply American thinking to judge China," Wang said."If they're clear on this point, the prospects for Sino-U.S. ties will become bright."It is not clear to what part of history he was referring, but Chinese empires in the past have included all of the Korean peninsula, modern Mongolia and parts of Russia and Southeast Asia.REUTERS CJ SB1315 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-626288.Xml
Pakistan has played down the Taliban's rejection of proposed peace talks with the Afghan government, saying today that it hoped for progress "in coming days".Sartaj Aziz, foreign policy adviser to Pakistan's prime minister, said his country, the United States and China would use their influence to persuade the Taliban to come to the table to try to end a nearly 15-year-old war."I hope in the coming days some progress (can be made) ... at some level, and once we start, we hope they will gather momentum," he told a press briefing in Islamabad alongside British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond.Officials had said they expected direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to begin in early March following a meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group, made up of representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, in February.But the Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said last week it would not participate.The group said it would only join talks once all remaining foreign troops left Afghanistan, its leaders were removed from a UN terrorist blacklist and its prisoners freed from Afghan jails.Pakistan's Aziz said he felt the Taliban could be persuaded."Many of the preconditions that they are looking for can come as a result of negotiations and not in advance of them," he said, adding that the Afghan government had in the past expressed willingness to exchange prisoners.Violence has increased in Afghanistan since the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops in 2014, leaving the newly trained Afghan police and army to fight the Taliban.Last year, the Taliban captured a provincial capital for the first time since their hard-line Islamist government was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001.REUTERS PY VN1956 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-627411.Xml
creepy robot

REUTERS/Edgar Su

Good morning! Here's what you need to know.

Bonuses are falling. The average Wall Street bonus fell 9% to $146,200 in 2015 as volatile financial markets hurt profits at New York's broker dealer firms, according to a report released by a top New York state financial watchdog.

The Bank of England is preparing for Brexit. The central bank is preparing liquidity auctions to keep the banking system going in the event of the UK voting to leave the EU.

Turkey is looking for cash. Turkey is seeking an extra 3 billion in aid under a deal with the EU to curb the flow of migrants to the continent, European Parliament head Martin Schulz said Monday.

The UK government stood by EDF. The UK government supports plans by French energy company EDF to build a new nuclear power station in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokeswoman said after the company's finance director resigned.

Alibaba's finance unit is worth a lot of money. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding's finance arm, Ant Financial Services Group, could be valued at nearly $50 billion in its current round of funding, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Facebook won't be prosecuted by the EU. Facebook is unlikely to come under separate EU antitrust scrutiny since Germany, which launched an investigation into the social network last week, is well placed to handle the case, Europe's antitrust chief said.

VW thought it could keep its emissions scandal private. Embattled German automaker Volkswagen believed it could clear up emissions-cheating allegations with US authorities amicably and was caught offguard by them going public instead, a key company document revealed Monday.

Valeant had good news. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, the subject of intense scrutiny over its business practices and pricing policies, said it would release preliminary quarterly results and guidance on March 15, raising hopes the company will serve up some positive news after months of uncertainty.

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Iran's stance could be softening. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Monday praised a reformist predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, for helping reformists and moderates to triumph in February elections, defying a media ban on any mention of the ex-leader who championed detente with the West.

The EU is going back to Greece for the bailout. Greece's bailout inspectors are likely to return to Athens to complete a much-delayed review of the government's adherence to its economic reform commitments.

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Did Donald Trump's disappointing performances in last weekend's nominating contests represent a temporary setback on his path to the Republican presidential nomination, or did they portend a perilous path ahead for the longtime frontrunner?

The GOP contests in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii on Tuesday will go a long way toward answering that question, and set the tone for the on March 15  by which point we'll have a pretty good idea if Trump is going to clinch the nomination this spring, or if we're headed to the first contested convention in decades.

With Marco Rubio faltering, Ted Cruz ascendant and John Kasich showing flickers of life, the contours of the GOP race have shifted from just one week ago, when the conventional wisdom held that the race was effectively a two-man contest between Trump and Rubio.

Notching wins in Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska, Cruz eclipsed Rubio on Super Tuesday, but it remained unclear how serious a threat he posed to Trump's commanding delegate lead. Cruz's resounding wins in Kansas and Maine on Saturday, along with his near-upsets in Kentucky and Louisiana, solidified his status of Trump's chief rival, even if the lay of the land in later contests puts him at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off in Michigan and Mississippi on Tuesday  both contests Clinton is heavily favored to win. The question for Sanders: Can he cut Clinton's margin in these states, showing an ability to make inroads with skeptical constituencies?

Here's a guide for watching the day's contests.

Michigan

The onetime crown jewel of American industry and manufacturing, Michigan has fallen on hard times in recent decades, with a large population of disaffected working-class whites  a core Trump constituency  reeling from the effects of deindustrialization.

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To stave off further doubts about his durability, the billionaire populist needs a win here. He's likely to get it, with every recent poll save one outlier finding him with a double-digit lead. However, a Monmouth poll released Monday showed Trump's lead narrowing in recent days.

Surveys show a tight race for second place between Kasich, who's made an aggressive play for the state, and Cruz. Meanwhile, Rubio lags far behind, barely cracking double-digit support in the RealClearPolitics polling average. , he won't receive any of the state's 59 proportionally awarded delegates.

On the Democratic side, Sanders is at risk of being walloped, despite his s on Clinton's past support for free trade agreements. Of four recent polls, two show Clinton besting Sanders by about 25 percentage points, while the other two show her lead lower, around the teens.

Keep an eye on how Sanders does with African-American voters in cities like Detroit and Flint. If Clinton buries him with black voters there, it will indicate that her are a matter of more than regional dynamics, instead pointing to an impenetrable advantage with a vital Democratic constituency.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Mississippi

While Michigan may be the day's largest delegate prize, Mississippi also comes with high stakes for Trump. After dominating the South on Super Tuesday, he eked out just a 3.6-point win over Cruz in Louisiana on Saturday, despite polls showing a massive Trump lead. The frontrunner hopes to avoid a repeat  or worse  in the Magnolia State.

The state's 40 delegates are a hurdle Trump and Cruz are sure to clear. It's less certain that Rubio will. A Magellan poll conducted in late February, before the tide turned against Rubio, found Trump leading with 41% support, followed by Cruz at 17% and Rubio at 16%.

Cruz received a major boost in the state on Monday, when Gov. Phil Bryant endorsed his candidacy.

In the Democratic contest, Clinton will go home with the lion's share of the s. Powered by a s, Clinton boasts a 63% to 19% lead over Sanders in the RealClearPolitics average.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Idaho

An Idaho Politics poll released Sunday found Trump with an 11-point lead over Cruz, claiming 30% support to Cruz's 19% and Rubio's 16%.

The poll was conducted entirely in February, though, and Idaho's strong conservative bent means that Cruz, who secured the endorsement of tea party Rep. Raul Labrador in mid-February, stands an excellent chance of victory.

The state's 32 delegates will be awarded proportionally to candidates who

S

Hawaii

The good news for Marco Rubio: With a history of backing establishment-minded Republicans like former Gov. Linda Lingle, the Aloha State offers him his best chance of a victory Tuesday.

The bad news? The state's caucuses only award 19 delegates  and they're doled out proportionally. There haven't been any public polls of the state, so it's not even clear how strong Rubio is there.

Given Hawaii's remote Pacific location, results won't come in until late. Its caucuses end at 1 a.m. Eastern.
A video journalist is suing ABC over a clip of former congressman Anthony Weiner, which he says the news outlet used without paying for.

In a copyright infringement suit filed Monday against American Broadcasting Company, Paul Adao is described as a "visual journalist" who specializes in taking candid photographs and video footage of celebrities and licensing them to online, print and television outlets for a fee. (If Adao's name sounds familiar, it might be because he was the freelance photographer who got into a scuffle with Alec Baldwin back in 2013.)

During his 2013 New York City mayoral campaign, Weiners press secretary Barbara Morgan went on a tirade calling campaign intern Olivia Nuzzi numerous expletives after Nuzzi wrote an article for NY Daily News about her experience as an intern, according to the complaint.

That prompted Adao to ask Weiner on video if Morgan was still with his campaign, to which the embattled politician replied "You bet." Adao then licensed the video to the New York Post, which featured it in an online article.

ABC, the suit claims, did not have a license or other permission to air the video.

"ABC infringed Plaintiff's copyright in the Video by reproducing and publicly displaying the Video during its telecast of ABC World News on or about July 31, 2013," states the complaint. "ABC is not, and has never been, licensed or otherwise authorized to reproduce, publicly display, distribute and/or use the Video."

Adao is seeking either actual damages and defendant's profits attributable to the infringement or statutory damages of up to $150,000 per copyrighted work infringed.

This suit comes on the heels of a copyright infringement settlement between Fox News and North Jersey Media Group. In that case, on the anniversary of 9/11, Fox News staffers posted on Facebook Thomas Franklin's now-iconic photo of three firefighters raising the American flag at the ruins of the World Trade Center site alongside the historic photo of four U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II, with a caption of "#neverforget." The terms of the settlement are confidential.

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An ABC spokeswoman had no comment on the lawsuit.

Read More: Fox News Heads to a Jury Trial to Defend Its Use of 9/11 Photos on Facebook
Santo Domingo (AFP) - A Frenchman suspected in a cocaine smuggling case in the Dominican Republic should not be freed on bail because he poses a serious flight risk, the attorney general said Tuesday.

The official spoke a few hours before Christophe Naudin, extradited from Egypt last week, appeared in court to have charges read out against him in a case known as "Air Cocaine."

Naudin will now learn on Thursday if he is to be granted bail after the defense requested time to review a file.

The case involves a failed attempt to smuggle 680 kilos (1,500 pounds) of cocaine in a private jet bound for France.

Naudin is suspected of helping the two French pilots, who were first arrested in the Dominican Republic in 2013, flee to France.

"I hope the courts understand that there is a serious flight risk. Mr. Naudin must not be freed," Attorney General Francisco Dominguez said.

Since arriving in the Dominican Republic overnight Thursday into Friday, Naudin has been detained at the Palace of Justice.

Naudin, a 53-year-old criminologist and aviation security expert who was arrested in Cairo on February 4, was sought by the Caribbean nation on suspicion of helping pilots Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos flee to France in October after they had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking.

The pair, who maintain their innocence, were arrested in March 2013 as they were about to depart from Punta Cana in a private jet found to be carrying the big cocaine cargo.

Convicted of drug trafficking in August, they were released pending appeal but barred from leaving the Caribbean nation.

They somehow managed to flee and return to France -- an escape that Dominican prosecutors allege Naudin facilitated.

Fauret and Odos fled back to France vowing to clear their names, but were rearrested in November near the French city of Lyon.

On February 11, an appeals court in the Dominican Republic upheld the 20-year prison sentences for the two pilots.

Paris has ruled out extraditing them.

The affair has prompted keen interest in France, after Interpol in November issued arrest warrants for Fauret and Odos, as well as a far-right member of the European Parliament accused of involvement.
By Lamine Chikhi SIDI REZINE, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian energy company Sonatrach will invest $3.2 billion over four years to increase pipeline capacity as natural gas output rises from new and existing fields, a top company official said on Tuesday. OPEC member Algeria has been hurt by a 70-percent fall in oil prices since mid-2014. Its revenue from energy fell by half last year, forcing the government trim spending and freeze some infrastructure projects. But the government, despite struggling to attract foreign oil companies in recent energy bidding rounds, is determined to increase oil and gas production to keep up exports and meet growing local demand. "Sonatrach will invest $3.2 billion from 2016 to 2020 to boost its transport capacity, including $530 million in 2016," Arbi Bey Slimane, Sonatrach's vice president for pipeline transportation, told Reuters at the company's Sidi Rezine office east of Algiers. He said the company wanted to guarantee increased supplies to European clients. The additional transport capacity aims to deliver more volume as new fields in southeast and southwest add production soon. He did not give specifics on amounts or timing. Algeria produces 1.1 million barrels per day of oil, and 27.44 billion cubic metres of gas, according to official figures. Sonatrach's CEO Amin Mazouzi has pledged a "sizeable increase in production" in 2016 as Algeria looks to end more than a decade of stagnation in energy production. "We will build 1,650 km of pipeline, and six compression and pumping stations by 2020. Our goal is to transport output from new fields located in the south east and south west," Slimane said. Algeria is in talks with the European Union as the EU looks to diversify its energy sourcing away from Russia, which supplies around 30 percent of the EU's gas. Slimane said Algeria would remain a stable gas supplier for southern Europe. "The volume exported in 2015 increased by 2 million tonnes equivalent oil (TEP) to reach 99 million TEP. The 2 million were delivered to southern Europe," he said. (Editing by Patrick Markey and Jason Neely)
By Jim Finkle (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said it plans to restore an encryption feature on its Fire tablets after customers and privacy advocates criticized the company for quietly removing the security option when it released its latest operating system. We will return the option for full-disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring, company spokeswoman Robin Handaly told Reuters via email on Saturday. Amazon's decision to drop encryption from the Fire operating system came to light late this week. The company said it had removed the feature in a version of its Fire OS that began shipping in the fall because few customers used it. On-device encryption scrambles data so that the device can be accessed only if the user enters the correct password. Well-known cryptologist Bruce Schneier called Amazon's removal of the feature "stupid" and was among many who publicly urged the company to restore it. Apple Inc's legal battle over U.S. government demands that the iPhone maker help unlock an encrypted phone used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook has created unprecedented attention on encryption. Amazon.com this week signed on to a court brief urging a federal judge to side with Apple. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Two years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, answers remain elusive with international investigators yet to arrive at a conclusion over what happened to the jet. The international team looking into the aircraft's disappearance said in an interim statement released on Tuesday it was still reviewing key information. "At this time, the team is continuing to work towards finalizing its analysis, findings, conclusions and safety recommendations on eight relevant areas associated with the disappearance of flight MH370 based on relevant information," the team said in a statement, read out on state television by lead investigator Kok Soo Choon. The team is led by Malaysia and includes investigators from the United States, Britain, China, France and Australia. The Boeing 777-200ER plane vanished from radar screens shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, early on March 8, 2014, becoming one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Investigators believe the plane, with 239 passengers and crew on board, was flown thousands of miles off course before crashing into the ocean off Australia. Wreckage and impact information was being considered based on the discovery of a wing part, known as a flaperon, in July last year, the team said. The flaperon, washed up on Reunion island off Madagascar, has been the only confirmed piece of wreckage from the aircraft to be found though Malaysia is investigating two new pieces of debris found in Mozambique and Reunion. The team said the eight areas being looked into included the plane's diversion from its flight plan, crew profiles, airworthiness and maintenance of the aircraft as well as the aircraft cargo consignment. Some 120,000 sq km (46,300 sq miles) of the sea floor is being scoured at a cost of about A$170 million ($124.17 million). The team said a full report of its work would only be released in the event wreckage of the aircraft is found or the search ended, whichever comes first. Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement the search was expected to be completed later this year, and he remained hopeful the aircraft would be found. "If it is not, then Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the way forward," he said. Families of those on board say the search must go on beyond a June deadline. Investigators said in a report released a year ago there was nothing suspicious in the financial, medical or personal histories of pilots or crew. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Washington, D.C., Austin, TX (March 8, 2016)In the midst of an election season driven by fiery debate over opportunity, success, and what it means to win in America, The Atlantic Media/Pearson Opportunity Poll, released today, reveals that a strong majority of Americans believe they would get better and higher paying jobs if they obtained more skills; but they also see barriers -- mostly financial-- in their way. Despite popular campaign rhetoric, most whites, Hispanics, and Asians broadly rate their opportunities for employment as equal to, or better than, other Americans; only 8% of white respondents believe they have worse access to employment opportunities compared to other groups. African Americans have an opposite view: 55% of those polled believe they have worse access to opportunity than other groups. The Atlantics Next America project is reporting the results of the poll beginning today with the first

in a series of articles, "What Do Americans Believe Will Help Them Get Ahead?" Full results will be posted later this morning and further coverage and analysis of the key findings will be published throughout the week.

Recommended: The Republican Party Decides ... to Settle on Ted Cruz

Among ethnic groups, Hispanics express the most concern about their skill levels, with only 33% feeling they have above-average skills; Asian Americans and African Americans also register more concern than whites. Looking over a ten-year period, a majority of Hispanics (51%) say they are concerned their skills could be obsolete. The poll found that blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites and Asians to say they could obtain a better job with more education and training.

Overall, workers look to employers as the single best source for upgrading their skills, more than double their reliance on state, local, or federal government, or non-profit groups. Cost ranked as the biggest barrier to obtaining more training, especially for African-Americans (39% rated cost as a barrier) and Hispanics (34%). Lack of time due to work or family obligations followed for all groups. Only small percentages said their biggest obstacle was a lack of knowledge about where to obtain more training -- or a belief that it wouldnt help them earn more.

The Atlantic Media/Pearson Opportunity Poll gauges the mix of public policies and individual actions that Americans believe will provide themselves and their children the best pathways to success. This is the inaugural Opportunity Poll. Key results are laid out below, and will be presented by The Atlantics senior editor Ronald Brownstein later this morning at an event on workforce development and skills training in Austin, Texas.

Recommended: Live Coverage of the Presidential Primaries

The poll makes clear that Americans have gotten the memo: they recognize that in the information age the more you learn, the more you earn, said Brownstein. But the survey also shows that Americans see a thicket of obstacles that inhibit them from obtaining the training and education they believe they could help them get ahead, with cost an especially elevated concern for African-American and Hispanic workers.

While there continue to be many Americans who feel economic opportunity is out of reach, we still share a common faith in the value of education, said John Fallon, Pearsons chief executive officer. Education has never been more important as the key to unlocking a better job and a better life. All of us have a role to play and communities must work together toward that goal.

Among the topline findings:

African Americans and Hispanics believe country is heading in the right direction; whites disagree.

Only 25% of white respondents believe that the country is heading in the right direction while a majority 66% believe its on the wrong track. The sentiment among blacks and Hispanics paints a different outlook: 56% and 43% of those polled, respectively, think the country is on the right track, with 31% and 50% claiming the opposite.

On President Obamas approval, blacks and Hispanics had high approval (of 90% and 61% respectively), while whites registered more disapproval (56% disapprove).

A narrow majority believes government should provide free public college.

When it comes to government funding collegea central campaign tenet on the Democratic sidea narrow 51% majority of those polled believe that the government should provide free public college, while 44% endorsed the competing statement that it is too expensive.

Of those who support free college, 74% said they would be willing to pay more in federal taxes as a result.

Americans are uneasy about whether schools are equipping young people to succeed, and uncertain whether they need a four-year college degree to do so.

A narrow 53% majority said going to college gives young people the best chance to succeed, followed by vocational training with 37%. Hispanics and Asians were most likely to consider a four-year degree indispensable. Whites and blacks both leaned towards no.

Asked if schools in their neighborhood were equipping young people to succeed, only a slim 49-46% plurality of all respondents say yes; this is a steady decline since a highpoint of 62 percent in a 2012 Next America Poll.

Americans are more likely to see barriers of class than race:

Respondents identified the biggest barriers to their own personal advancement as: wages not rising fast enough (40%), a lack of good jobs in their community (30%), not having enough education (28%), not having enough technical skills (23%) and a lack of promotion opportunities at work (21%).

African Americans and Hispanics were much more likely than whites to describe almost all of these as major barriers, with Hispanics particularly concerned about not having enough education (50%) and African Americans heavily worried about wages (64%) and lack of good jobs in their neighborhood (47%).

African Americans are much more likely than other groups to express concern about opportunity and police relations in their neighborhoods:

While 77% of whites, 73% of Hispanics and 71% of Asian Americans say children of color in their neighborhood have the same opportunities as whites, only 41 percent of African Americans agree.

Only 13% of black say they can trust the police in their neighborhood to do whats right almost always, compared to 45 percent of whites, 48 percent of Asian Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics.

The Atlantic Media/Pearson Opportunity Poll is part of The Atlantics Next America project, which explores how changing demography is changing the nation, through the lens of politics, socioeconomics, criminal justice, education, culture, workforce, and more. Next America was conceptualized under National Journal in 2012 and was adopted by The Atlantic earlier this year.

Recommended: Michigan Voters Are Craving Change

Led by Brownstein, the initiative includes editorial reporting, events, and polling. A series of articles based on results from this poll will be published across the coming days.

Survey Methodology:

The Atlantic Media/Pearson Opportunity Poll gauges the mix of public policies and personal choices that Americans believe will provide them and their children the best chance of success. The poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from February 10-25, 2016. The survey included a sample of 1,276 adults age 18+, with a special oversample that allows unusually detailed comparison of attitudes across racial and ethnic lines. The breakdown of group sampled follows: 597 white/non-Hispanic; 266 black/non-Hispanic; 258 Hispanic; 107 Asian/non-Hispanic. Respondents were given the choice to take the survey in English or Spanish. The overall margin of +/- 4.3 percentage points.

####

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
She went home on week five, but Jubilee Sharpe was one of the most talked about women on Bachelor Ben Higgins' season, in part because of her heartbreaking past. And for the first time, Sharpe, who told Higgins that her entire family passed away, is opening up about what really happened.



"I told Ben the story of my family, but I left out the biggest part," Haitian-born Sharpe tells PEOPLE. "My three brothers and my parents died, but I don't know the details. I was 6, but I don't remember my parents. My 4-year-old little sister and I went to live with my grandmother but she had leprosy and was dying and too sick to take care of us. So she put me and my little sister in an orphanage."



Continues Sharpe, "My dad came to Haiti to do relief work and he showed up to the orphanage and [wanted to adopt me]. He tried to adopt my sister, but after they went through the medical process, they found out she had an incurable disease and wasn't able to be adopted."



A couple of years ago, Sharpe, 25, tried in vain to find her sister.







"The person who did my adoption told me she was probably dead," says Sharpe. "That's where my guilt had come from."



 PEOPLE's collector's edition The Bachelor, with new interviews and updates on your favorite contestants, is on sale now in stores and online!





The Bachelor's Jubilee Sharpe Reveals Her Heartbreaking Family Backstory| ABC, Reality TV, The Bachelor, TV News, Ben Higgins

Confronting her emotional past wasn't the only difficult experience Sharpe had on the show. During Monday night's Women Tell All, Jami Leitan and Amber James accused Sharpe of making offensive remarks. Sharpe insists she would never do such a thing.



"I said I am the one full black girl in the house," says Sharpe. "I think of that as a fact. The way they tried to portray me really got to me, like I was the racist black girl. Race has never been a thing for me. My whole [adopted] family is white. I wasn't raised seeing color."



The Bachelor finale airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
- Lee Chong Wei says his sensational comeback last year has him daring to dream of returning to world number one ahead of the Rio Olympics as he begins his quest for a fourth All-England Open title in Birmingham this week. Despite his 33 years, Malaysia's Lee extended an unbeaten streak to 21 matches last year while climbing from 182 to world number two on his return from an eight-month doping ban in May last year. "I'm really surprised with my progress," Lee admitted. "I have come a long way. It hasn't been easy to get back to where I am. If you had asked me nine months ago if I ever dreamt of being world number one again, I would probably have told you that it's not possible. Now I dare to dream again, and I'll try to regain the number one spot, hopefully before the Olympics."

AFP
COTONOU (Reuters) - Benin's Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou gained 28.4 percent of votes in a presidential election and will face a run-off against prominent businessman Patrice Talon, results from the national electoral commission showed on Tuesday. Sunday's election, which was contested by 33 candidates, is to choose a successor to President Thomas Boni Yayi, who is stepping down from power in the small West African state after two terms as mandated by the constitution. (Reporting by Allegresse Sasse and Samuel Elijah; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Alison Williams)
The Defense Departments top money man on Monday repeated the agencys plea to Congress for a new base closure review. Unlike previous years, current budget conditions and new data give the idea a fighting chance of becoming reality.

The Pentagons fiscal 2017 budget request marks the fifth year in a row defense officials have requested a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round. The request has typically gone right into the shredder, with lawmakers worried that the process would target military installations in their districts.

Related: Half a Trillion for the Pentagon? Why Defense Spending Is Only Going Higher

Add to those parochial interests the fact that the last BRAC, conducted 2005, wound up costing the Pentagon around $35 billion to implement in order to achieve roughly $4 billion in future annual savings, putting the department in the red until at least 2018.

But the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a policy roadmap for the Pentagon, contains language allowing for a department-wide examination of excess infrastructure. The bill stopped short, however, of saying the data gleaned would lead to a new round of base closures.

A BRAC has been an aspirational goal for several years now  the studies the department has done generally find 20 percent to 25 percent, sometimes more surplus infrastructure in most of our mission areas, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord said Monday during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

He argued that the most important costs are associated with keeping personnel at outdated installations, rather than the cost of maintaining defunct facilities or owning more real estate than the department needs.

We are operating with a constant physical infrastructure with a lot of overhead to maintain it, McCord said.

Related: Russias Military Buildup Continues with Big New Fighter Jet Order

Defense leaders estimate a new base closing round will save billions annually, and vow the process would be more efficient than in 2005, when the focus was on shifting the U.S. military toward fighting nonconventional wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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It's critical to note that the department is not happy with what happened in the 2005 BRAC round in terms of cost takeout. We've rebalanced the force in some useful ways, but we think a future BRAC round would have a much different financial ramification, said McCord.

The timing of the comptrollers pitch, one repeated by various service officials in recent weeks as they have defended their budget requests in front of Capitol Hill lawmakers, is important because work on the next NDAA is set to begin next month.

The various subpanels of the House Armed Services Committee are slated to begin next month hammering out the policy roadmap for the Pentagons nearly $583 billion budget request; its Senate counterpart is expected to follow suit soon thereafter.

Related: $583 Billion Defense Budget Covers Russia, China, and ISIS with New Weapons

The House panels chair and many off its senior members are embroiled in a funding war over the 2017 budget. Fiscal hawks want $30 billion shaved off the $1.07 trillion top-line set by last years budget deal, while defense hawks want the Pentagons war account increased by over $20 billion.

While the entire budget process could get scrapped in the next few weeks, its possible that lawmakers will look to a BRAC as a way to earn future savings, or appease penny-pinchers on the right.

Even if the stars align, McCord said the Pentagon knows BRAC is a difficult -- a political topic. We understand that.

But the department is going to, I think, remain consistent in the method that we just need to move forward on this to enable a whole bunch of cost takeout, to drive more combat capability out of each taxpayer dollar.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Brasilia (AFP) - Brazilian construction tycoon Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced Tuesday to 19 years in prison for corruption and money laundering in the giant Petrobras embezzlement scandal shaking Latin America's biggest country.

Odebrecht, 47, one of Brazil's highest-profile executives, was sentenced to 19 years and four months after his conviction in the probe dubbed Operation Car Wash.

Odebrecht, who has been behind bars nearly nine months, was CEO until December of the global construction company Odebrecht SA, which is alleged to have been one of the main players in a bribes and embezzlement scheme that cost state oil company Petrobras at least $2 billion.

The authorities say that Odebrecht SA, a construction giant with projects in 23 countries, was among the major contractors paying bribes to Petrobras executives and politicians to win contracts. The contracts were allegedly then massively overbilled, in collusion with executives.

Odebrecht paid bribes to Petrobras amounting to 18.8 million reais ($28.7 million) and another $35 million, prosecutors said.

In a statement, Odebrecht's defense team called the sentence "manifestly unjust and unfair because it does not have any basis in the evidence produced."

"The sentence produced can only be seen as a serious miscarriage of justice or as the pure will of the judge," the statement said. The defense said it would appeal.

- Cartel -

Judge Sergio Moro, who heads the Car Wash probe, said the Odebrecht group joined other companies "in a cartel to collaborate systematically to manipulate Petrobras tenders for the construction of large-scale works from 2006."

The scandal has already seen dozens of businessmen and politicians arrested or put under investigation, including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who faces allegations of taking bribes and laundering money from Petrobras-connected companies.

Among the alleged sources of bribes to Lula is another construction company, OAS.

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Lula, who has not been charged, denies any corruption. However, shockwaves from the scandal are fueling calls for his successor President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment.

The political temperature rose sharply last Friday, when police briefly detained Lula and searched his house and the offices of his foundation, prompting sharp criticism from Rousseff.

Supporters of the Workers' Party, which Lula founded, have promised a series of street protests, while the opposition is planning what is expected to be a set of huge nationwide demonstrations on Sunday.

So far, the pro-government protests have been relatively small but noisy. On Tuesday, a mostly female crowd marking international Womens' Day gathered in Sao Paulo.

"We are defending democracy and rejecting the witch hunt in place against the Workers' Party," said demonstrator Lea Portuense, 55.

- Who's Who of scandal -

The Car Wash probe has been running for two years, uncovering what prosecutors say is a gargantuan web of corruption centered on the flagship state oil company but expanded through economic and political elites.

A Who's Who of business and political figures have been implicated at some level -- some of them charged, some already imprisoned, others merely called in as suspects.

At the business end, they include Odebrecht, former international chief for Petrobras Nestor Cervero and billionaire banker Andre Esteves.

The political line-up is just as star-studded, including Workers' Party Senator Delcidio Amaral, former party treasurer Joao Vaccari Neto, lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha, Joao Santana, a former campaign guru for Lula and Rousseff, and now Lula himself.

The scam ran through much of Lula's 2003-2010 presidency, when Rousseff served most of the time as chairwoman of Petrobras. She has not been implicated directly in the scandal.

However, the Brazilian media has reported Amaral as telling prosecutors in a draft plea bargain that Rousseff tried to obstruct the enquiry. There has been no confirmation of the report.
Sao Paulo (AFP) - Brazilian music legend Gilberto Gil has been hospitalized for nearly two weeks with high blood pressure, doctors said, raising fears for the long-term health of the 73 year old.

Gil has been at a hospital in Sao Paulo since February 25 but it was giving away few other details other than to say he was under observation and having treatment.

Gil and Caetano Veloso shook the foundations of Brazilian music in the 1960s with Bossa Nova, a fusion of samba and jazz.

Gil, who once served as Brazil's culture minister, is one of the most respected musicians in the country, while also making a name for himself on the international stage.

The duo is scheduled to return to the stage in April with performances in Chile, Peru, the United States and Europe.
Sao Paulo (AFP) - Brazilian music legend Gilberto Gil is due to leave the hospital in Sao Paulo on Wednesday after treatment for blood pressure and kidney problems, a spokesman said.

Gil, 73, has been hospitalized in Sao Paulo since February 25.

"He was having routine exams at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital when doctors detected symptoms of high blood pressure and kept him for observation. He also had a kidney crisis, but he will be able to leave tomorrow," Marcus Vinicius, spokesman for Gil in Rio de Janeiro, told AFP on Tuesday.

Gil and Caetano Veloso shook the foundations of Brazilian music in the 1960s with Bossa Nova, a fusion of samba and jazz.

A former Brazilian culture minister who is one of the country's most respected musicians, Gil has also made an international name for himself.

The duo is scheduled to return to the stage in April with performances in Chile, Peru, the United States and Europe.
Kiev (AFP) - Hundreds of angry Ukrainians picketed Moscow's embassy in Kiev on Tuesday as global calls grew for the release of a hunger-striking military helicopter pilot on trial in Russia.

Nadia Savchenko is on trial for alleged involvement in the death of two Russian state television journalists in a mortar attack that occurred two months after Ukraine's pro-Moscow eastern revolt broke out in April 2014.

The 34-year-old Iraq war veteran faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted in a case that has drawn global attention and been attended by Western monitors concerned about Russia's record on human rights.

Savchenko denies the charges and has refused all food and drink since her hearing was adjourned last Thursday before she was given a chance to make a final statement.

Around 300 protesters gathered outside Moscow's fenced-off mission holding up banners reading "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin will not break us" and "#FreeSavchenko" -- the Twitter hashtag used by her supporters worldwide.

"The Kremlin thought that this woman will submit to it and that it would thus be able to dictate its conditions to Ukraine," pensioner Volodymyr Marushchak told AFP.

"But Ukraine will remain free as long as it has people like Savchenko."

The protest ended after Russian officials allowed two Ukrainian lawmakers to enter the embassy and hand over a petition addressed to Putin calling for Savchenko's release.

The pilot's case is seen by many Ukrainians as a symbol of resistance against what Kiev's pro-Western leaders view as Russian aggression in the eastern industrial heartland of the former Soviet state.

The 23-month conflict has claimed the lives of more than 9,100 people and plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

Russia rejects Ukrainian and Western charges of instigating and backing the unrest in reprisal for the February 2014 ouster of Kiev's Moscow-backed leadership.

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- 'Save my child' -

US Vice President Joe Biden added his voice to concern expressed by the European Union about Savchenko's fate.

"Nadiya has been unjustly imprisoned in Russia since 2014 -- detained and facing trial on trumped-up charges," Biden said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

"Her unlawful continuing detention is a clear violation of Russia's commitment under the Minsk agreements, and she should be freed at once," he added in reference to a deal signed in the Belarussian capital aimed at ending Ukraine's separatist war.

The European Union described her hunger strike as "extremely worrisome".

"Russia bears responsibility for the health, well-being and observance of the human rights of all persons it detains," an EU spokeswoman said Monday.

Prosecutors argue that Savchenko helped Ukrainian forces direct fire at the two Russian journalists in the separatist region of Lugansk.

She counters that she was in the area of the attack incidentally and was kidnapped and smuggled into Russia.

Savchenko's supporters fear that her refusal to drink may irreparably damage her health or even kill her before her next hearing on Wednesday.

A Ukrainian lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko's party said a team of doctors would leave on Tuesday for the southern Russian detention centre where Savchenko is being held.

"Ukrainian diplomats have been able to wrest an agreement from the Russian authorities to allow our doctors to see (Savchenko) on March 9," Iryna Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook.

Savchenko's Russian attorney said that a check by Ukrainian officials on Tuesday had shown "no visible deterioration" in his client's health.

"Savchenko is firmly determined to make her court statement on Wednesday," Nikolai Polozov wrote on Facebook.

But Savchenko's 78-year-old mother said she feared her daughter had just days to live.

"I am so nervous, I forgot what it is like to sleep," Maria Savchenko said in a video statement issued on Monday.

"I appeal on world leaders to save my child."
TORONTO (Reuters) - The head of Canada's biggest Catholic group opposed the country's pending doctor-assisted suicide legislation in a statement to be read at 225 Toronto churches on Sunday, saying it was "unjust" to force doctors to act against their conscience. "It is unjust to force people to act against their conscience in order to be allowed to practice as a physician," Cardinal Thomas Collins, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said in the text of his statement. Canada's Supreme Court struck down a ban on assisted suicide in 2015 and gave lawmakers a year to come up with legislation to regulate the practice. The newly elected Liberal government was given a four-month extension this year to a develop a national law for the practice, under which doctors opposed to assisted suicide have to recommend someone willing to perform it. Collins who is expected to deliver his statement personally during mass at St. Paul's Basilica, home to Toronto's oldest Catholic congregation, said while assisted suicide is "never justified," those with terminal illnesses could refuse treatment. Collins also criticized what he says is the broadness of the proposed law, which offers assisted suicide to minors and those with psychiatric conditions. The French-speaking province of Quebec had already put its own law into effect in December. Since the change in provincial law on Dec. 10, at least one person carried out an assisted suicide in Quebec City. Polls show physician-assisted suicide has broad support but the issue has divided politicians in Parliament as they grapple with how to protect vulnerable Canadians while respecting their rights and choices at the end of life. (Reporting by Ethan Lou; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian lawmakers voted symbolically Tuesday to support the government's rejigged contribution to the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month the withdrawal of Canadian fighter jets from the fight, while tripling the number of special forces training Kurdish militia in northern Iraq to about 210.

Canadian CC-150T Polaris refueling and CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft were also left to continue to play roles in the coalition.

Members of parliament voted 178 to 147 in support of the new mandate on Tuesday, which also included expanding Canada's intake of refugees and humanitarian aid for the Mideast region ravaged by war.
Ottawa (AFP) - Canada aims to take in up to 57,000 refugees this year, double the number from 2015, Immigration Minister John McCallum said Tuesday.

"Our plan will not only support our efforts at welcoming Syrian refugees across 2016, but will also help us to... welcome refugees from other countries of the world," he told a press conference to unveil the government's new immigration targets.

By the end of 2016 Canada will have welcomed between 280,000 and 305,000 new permanent residents, including the refugees, he said.

That is up seven percent from last year's plan and "the highest number of projected immigration admissions put forth by the government of Canada in modern times," according to McCallum.

The government has called for reuniting more families by allowing in 80,000 people with Canadian family ties, up from 68,000 last year.

The number of economic migrants, which represents traditionally the largest group, is expected to fall by 10 percent this year to a bit more than 160,000.

Canada welcomed more than 26,000 Syrian refugees over the past three months, in accordance with the Liberals' campaign pledge, and is processing asylum bids for another 12,000 refugees living in camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
Ottawa (Canada) (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will bring panache and progressivism on his first official visit to Washington, where he and his wife will be guests of honor at a White House state dinner on Thursday.

"There's a buzz in Washington," said Matt Browne, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think tank in the US capital. "People are really very excited to be around him, speaking with him and learning more about his vision."

Trudeau will be the first Canadian leader to be feted in Washington in almost two decades.

Over the coming days there will be cocktail parties, toasts with champagne, music and celebrities, a wreath-laying at Arlington Cemetery, a Q&A with students, speeches, and more.

As well, the trip presents an opportunity to reset the Canada-US relationship strained under previous administrations.

"It will be refreshing to have some inspirational and issues-based politics rather than bickering," said Browne, contrasting Trudeau's push for diversity, inclusiveness and a progressive economic agenda with recent US presidential debates in which Donald Trump refuted disparaging accusations about his "small hands" and genitals.

"(Railing) against intolerance and politics of fear and division and ideas such as the need for the state to invest in infrastructure and job creation, it's all part of a new progressive agenda that Trudeau is leading, and there's a lot of interest in his vision," said Browne.

But don't expect the Canadian prime minister to hog the spotlight. "There's a keen interest in Sophie too," he observed, referring to Trudeau's wife, the television host Sophie Gregoire.

Trudeau, 44, and Gregoire, 40, were featured on the cover of Vogue magazine's December issue, while The New York Times and The Washington Post recently published flattering portraits of the prime minister.

"Clearly the Trudeaus are a glamor couple, perhaps like the Kennedys, and that adds to the mystique and the buzz around town," Browne said.

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- 'Pay attention' -

The Trudeaus will be officially welcomed by US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle at a ceremony on the White House South Lawn on Thursday morning, followed by a luncheon hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry and finally the big event -- a state dinner that evening (followed by an after party at a swank hotel).

Between courses, Trudeau and Obama are expected to firm up new bilateral agreements on trade and the environment, which are to be announced during the visit.

Ahead of the trip, Canadian public safety and environment ministers have been talking up proposals for tighter fuel emissions standards, promoting greater use of electric cars, regulating upstream oil and gas emissions, sharing border exit and entry records, and expanding US customs preclearance at more Canadian airports.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, travel across the world's longest border has been bogged down by security measures. According to government figures, the number of cars and truck crossings plunged from 97 million in 2000 to 65 million in 2014.

But far more than that, the 120-seat state dinner is a chance to schmooze with shakers and movers.

"It's not just fun," Canadian Senator Art Eggleton, who attended a 1997 state dinner at the White House as trade minister with then prime minister Jean Chretien, told AFP.

"It's an opportunity to get to know each other and build relationships," he said. "The United States is our closest ally and neighbor and by far our biggest trading partner so building relationships is very important."

In an exclusive interview with US television news magazine 60 Minutes, Trudeau said: "Having a little more of an awareness of what's going on in the rest of the world, I think is, is what many Canadians would hope for Americans."

"I think we sometimes like to think that, you know, Americans will pay attention to us from time to time, too," he added.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that declared it illegal to dismiss workers for striking outside of a formal collective bargaining process, a decision that could have ramifications for future labor disputes. The ruling is potentially significant for mining companies in the world's top copper exporter, which in the past have dismissed and replaced workers after unauthorized strikes without legal repercussions. It comes at a time when businesses are already girding for increased costs due to a wide-sweeping labor reform making its way through Congress, set to give unions more power. In the decision late Monday, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of a lower appellate bench that had overturned the dismissal of two call center workers after they led their colleagues in a walk-off. "If striking is a fundamental right, then the business measures that limit it, like replacing striking workers...must be seen as schemes that should be eliminated," the appeals court said in its original October ruling. One of the most hotly debated aspects of the upcoming labor reform legislation is a provision that would make replacing striking workers more difficult. The bill is opposed by business leaders and the right-wing opposition, and centrist members of the governing coalition have balked at key aspects, repeatedly delaying its passage. Multiple sections of the bill are expected to face a legal challenge from a tribunal that rules on the constitutionality of pending legislation, lawyers say. (Reporting by Erik Lopez and Gram Slattery; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China hinted on Tuesday that it was planning more global bases following the setting up of its logistics center in Djibouti, what the Horn of African country's government calls a military facility that will be China's first overseas. China plans to use it to support is anti-piracy operations in the waters off the strife-torn nations of Somalia and Yemen. Beijing has been keen not to call it a military base, but state media increasingly uses this language to refer to it. China's Defense Ministry said last month building had begun on the base, something China describes as naval "support facilities" in Djibouti, which has fewer than a million people but is striving to become an international shipping hub. Djibouti, strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal, is already home to U.S. and French bases, while other navies often use its port. Asked about Djibouti at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China was fulfilling its international obligations to protect shipping. "We are willing to, in accordance with objective needs, responding to the wishes of host nations and in regions where China's interests are concentrated, try out the construction of some infrastructure facilities and support abilities," he said. "I believe that this is not only fair and reasonable but also accords with international practice," Wang said, without elaborating. China, the world's second-largest economy, is seeking to expand its capacity to respond to growing threats to its interests abroad. President Xi Jinping is reforming the military and investing in submarines and aircraft carriers, as China's navy becomes more assertive in its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. China is also expanding its peacekeeping role, with Xi pledging in September to contribute 8,000 troops for a United Nations stand-by force that could provide logistical and operational experience the military would need to operate further abroad. While China has been getting more involved diplomatically in trouble spots such as the Middle East, it is adamant that it does not interfere in the affairs of other countries, and is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council which has not taken military action in Syria. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Beijing (AFP) - China on Tuesday criticised a move by Washington to slap restrictions on one of the country's biggest telecommunications equipment companies, ZTE, for violating US trade sanctions on Iran.

The US Commerce Department said ZTE Corp. and related companies set up a scheme to circumvent sanctions and "illicitly export" controlled items to Iran, violating United States laws.

ZTE, China's second-biggest telecom equipment maker, must now apply for permission on exports from the US to the company, it said. Such limits could hamper ZTE's ability to purchase technology hardware and software in the US.

"China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this," China's ministry of commerce said in a statement, quoting an unnamed official.

"The US move will severely affect the Chinese company's normal business activities," it said, but added the government hoped to negotiate over the issue.

Founded in 1985, ZTE offers both telecom equipment and services, with customers in more than 160 countries, according to the company.

On the sidelines of China's annual meeting of lawmakers, foreign minister Wang Yi told reporters: "This is not the correct way to handle economic and trade disputes. It will hurt people without benefitting oneself."

The case dates back to 2012 when the US Department of Commerce first began investigating the transfers of US technology to Iran, according to media reports.

The US government agency said on Monday that ZTE used a series of shell companies to illicitly reexport controlled items to sanctioned countries.

In a separate statement Tuesday, ZTE said it hopes to resolve the matter.

"ZTE Corporation is committed to abiding by international industry conventions and the laws and regulations of the countries it is present in," it said.

The statement added ZTE "is committed to seeking a plan to resolve the matter as soon as possible."

Story continues

Washington in January eased several restrictions on doing business with Iran, following an international agreement over the country's nuclear programme.

But sanctions tied to accusations that Tehran supports terrorism remain in effect, still largely blocking US companies from business with Iran.

Shares of ZTE were suspended for a second day on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges, where they trade.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China sees little reason for optimism that relations with Japan will improve, China's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, accusing "two-faced" Tokyo of constantly seeking to make trouble. China, the world's second-largest economy, and Japan, the third largest, have a difficult political history, with relations strained by the legacy of Japan's World War Two aggression and conflicting claims over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets. While ties have been thawing, with meetings between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing remains deeply suspicious of Japan, especially of Abe's moves to allow the military to fight overseas for the first time since the war. Speaking at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of China's annual parliament meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he hoped bilateral ties could improve as the two have a "tradition of friendship". "Thanks to the efforts of wise people on both sides, there are signs of improvement in the China-Japan relations, but there is little ground for optimism," he said. "Of course we want to see the China-Japan relations truly improve, but as a saying goes, to cure diseases, you have to address underlying problems," Wang added. On one hand, Japanese leaders say nice things about wanting to improve relations, but on the other they "create troubles for China at every turn", he said. "This is what I would call a typical case of being two faced." Japan has also been keeping an eye on China's activities in the South China Sea, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga saying in February that Japan was gathering and analyzing information on China's moves there with "serious interest". China claims most of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. Beijing is feeling public pressure at home to show it can protect its claims to the waters after the United States began conducting "freedom of navigation" operations near islands where China has been carrying out controversial reclamation work and stationing advanced weapons. "All ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) states hope for freedom, democracy and the rule of law," Suga told reporters, when asked about Wang's comments. "Isn't it a rule in the international community that any country can say what it has to say on an unilateral attempt at dominance with force?" Suga reiterated, however, that nothing has been changed to Japan's stance that the door to dialogue with China remained open. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The South China Sea is one of the world's freest and safest shipping lanes, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday, arguing that Beijing's control over the disputed waters was justified because it was the first to "discover" them. China has come under fire from the United States and its allies in recent months over its land reclamation activities in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually. The U.S. Navy has carried out freedom of navigation exercises, sailing near disputed islands to underscore its rights to operate in the seas. Those patrols, and reports that China is deploying advanced missiles, fighters and radar equipment on islands there, have led Washington and Beijing to trade accusations of militarizing the region. The freedom of navigation does not equal the "freedom to run amok", Wang told his yearly news conference on the sidelines of China's annual parliament meeting. "In fact, based on the joint efforts of China and other regional countries, the South China Sea is currently one of the safest and freest shipping lanes in the world," Wang said. "China was the earliest to explore, name, develop and administer various South China Sea islands. Our ancestors worked diligently here for generations," Wang said. "History will prove who is the visitor and who is the genuine host," he said, adding that China would "consider inviting" foreign journalists to islands under its control when the conditions are right. China was neither the earliest country to deploy weapons to the South China Sea nor the country with the most weapons there, Wang added, without saying which country was. Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has warned of "specific consequences" if China takes "aggressive" action in the region. He has said the U.S. military was increasing deployments to the Asia-Pacific region and would spend $425 million through 2020 to pay for more exercises and training with countries in the region that were unnerved by China's actions. Wang was also asked about the Philippines case against China in an arbitration court in The Hague on the South China Sea dispute. Manila has asked Beijing to respect the decision, which is expected in May. China refuses to recognize the case and says all disputes should be resolved through bilateral talks. Wang repeated that China was quite within its rights not to participate and accused unnamed others of being behind the case. "The Philippines' stubbornness is clearly the result of behind-the-scene instigation and political manipulation," he said, without elaborating. (Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Michael Perry)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is pursuing efforts to resolve the problem of a stalled dam project in Myanmar, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, adding that Beijing had confidence in the incoming government of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party. In 2011, Myanmar President Thein Sein angered Beijing by suspending the $3.6-billion, Chinese-invested Myitsone dam project, some 90 percent of whose power would have gone to China. Other Chinese projects in the former Burma have proved controversial too, including the Letpadaung copper mine, against which residents have repeatedly protested, and twin Chinese oil and gas pipelines across the country. China wants to help Myanmar to have better and quicker development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his yearly news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament. "The Myitsone dam is a commercial cooperation project, and had all its approvals completed. Difficulties in cooperation are 'growing pains'. Both countries will continue to proactively appropriately handle it," Wang said. "We have confidence in the future of Sino-Myanmar mutually beneficial cooperation." He did not elaborate on how or when the dam issue might be resolved. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) took some 80 percent of elected seats in November, enough to push through its president, but Suu Kyi is blocked from holding the country's highest office because her two sons are not Myanmar citizens, nor was her late husband. The NLD has no number two after Suu Kyi, who has said she will control the government from "above the president," and rumors have swirled over who might fill the top post. While Beijing had strong ties with Myanmar's military junta, it has also moved to cement relations with Suu Kyi, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last year. Wang said China's strong links with Myanmar would not change because of its domestic situation. "Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD she leads have always had friendly exchanges with China, and mutual understanding and trust continue to increase. We also have full faith in Myanmar's future." (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Ju-min Park and Ruby Lian SEOUL/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has barred a North Korean freighter from one of its ports and South Korea announced a crackdown on individuals and companies linked to Pyongyang's weapons program, stepping up sanctions against the isolated state. North Korean general cargo ship Grand Karo arrived at Rizhao port in northeastern China a few days ago, but the port did not allow the ship to berth, said a person at the Rizhao Maritime Authority, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The ship is among 31 vessels blacklisted by China's Ministry of Transport after they were covered by harsher sanctions on North Korea that were approved by the U.N. Security Council last week. At least two other ships on the list of barred freighters are now sailing away after being anchored off Chinese ports, ship tracking data on the Reuters Eikon terminal showed on Tuesday. Another of the vessels has been banned from leaving port in the Philippines until safety deficiencies, found during a security and safety inspection of the vessel, are rectified. The 6,593 deadweight tonne (dwt) Grand Karo is now anchored about 35 km (22 miles) from Rizhao, ship tracking data showed. "The vessel operator will have to decide what they can do," the Rizhao maritime official said. "If non-sanctioned North Korean ships enter the port, officials will ask senior authorities for instructions on how to deal with them," the official added. In Seoul, the government said on Tuesday it would impose new sanctions against 40 individuals and 30 entities because of suspected links to North Korea's weapons program and would ban vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days. "We will expand financial sanctions related to North Korea, including 38 North Korean individuals and 24 entities responsible for developing weapons of mass destruction, and two individuals and six entities of third countries that have indirectly supported the North," a statement issued jointly by several ministries said. The individuals subject to financial sanctions announced on Tuesday include a Singaporean and a Taiwan national who are heads of a shipping firm and a trading company, the government said. South Korea also blacklisted a Thai shipping firm called Mariner's Shipping & Trading and Taiwan company Royal Team Corporation. South Korea will ban those on the list from engaging in financial transactions with South Korean entities and freeze assets that are held in the country, the government said. BARRED SHIPS Officials of Mariner's Shipping & Trading declined comment. One of them referred queries to the Thai foreign ministry and said: "All this has been very bad for us. Very bad for trade." Mariner's Shipping & Trading, with its head office in Bangkok, has operated and financed vessels associated with Ocean Maritime Management Co. Ltd, a North Korean company that has been blacklisted along with the 31 ships it controls. Taiwan's Royal Team Corporation, which is believed to have sold parts that were used in North Korea's long-range rocket launched in 2012, according to a U.N. panel, did not immediately have comment. Nineteen of the 31 ships have their automatic identification systems (AIS), a mandatory vessel tracking safety device, switched off, according to Reuters data. Some have gone silent in the last few days while others have not been online since 2014. One vessel, the 5,686 dwt Hui Chon, is moored at the Russian Far East port of Vostochny. Port officials could not be contacted because it is a public holiday in Russia. Eight vessels are sailing, while there is no record on Reuters and shipping databases of one of the sanctioned ships. The Grand Karo, which was turned away at the Chinese port, is owned by Yuanyao Shipping Ltd and managed by Aoyang Marine Company, two Hong Kong-registered firms, according to the Reuters' Eikon and the Equasis shipping database, although is no telephone number listing for either company. Of the two ships sailing toward North Korea, the 14,379 dwt Dawnlight, now renamed First Gleam, was heading to the port of Wonsan, after being anchored in the outer Yangtze River estuary near Shanghai until early on Tuesday. The 6,901 dwt Ever Bright 88, owned and managed by Hong Kong companies, Pantech Shipping Ltd and Baili Shipping & Trading Ltd, was sailing towards North Korea after being anchored off China. A Shanghai Maritime Bureau official who was only willing to give his surname as Yu confirmed the bureau had received the transport ministry notice but had not dealt with any of the ships. Shanghai Port was unavailable for comment. Maritime safety and port officials in the Chinese ports of Longkou, Yantai and Shandong and Lianyunggang declined to comment. (Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in Singapore, Jack Kim and James Pearson in Seoul, Shanghai Newsroom, Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Amy Lefevre in Bangkok; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is not looking to supplant the United States or become another United States, China's foreign minister said on Tuesday, suggesting Americans should look at China's 5,000 years of history to see how things will develop. China and the United States regularly clash on everything from trade and human rights to China's claims in the disputed South China Sea, and candidates for this year's U.S. presidential election have routinely criticized China. Speaking at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was natural for the two countries to have areas of friction, though they had proved they could work together on areas like climate change. "The root of these frictions is that some people in the United States still have strategic misgivings about China, and are worried China will one day replace the United States," Wang said. "I want to stress here again, China is not the United States, and China cannot possibly become another United States," he added. "We've no intention of replacing or leading anyone, and I suggest American friends study and understand more about China's 5,000 years of accumulated historical and cultural traditions and not just blindly apply American thinking to judge China," Wang said. "If they're clear on this point, the prospects for Sino-U.S. ties will become bright." It is not clear to what part of history he was referring, but Chinese empires in the past have included all of the Korean peninsula, modern Mongolia and parts of Russia and Southeast Asia. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
It's time for your daily dose of trending tickers, the stocks you're following based on your Yahoo Finance ticker searches.

comScore (SCOR)  Shares are tumbling after the company announced it will miss its 10-K filing deadline and suspend its share repurchase program.

Dunkin' Brands (DNKN)  The company was downgraded by Guggenheim from buy to neutral, citing fewer potential drivers for upside in future earnings reports.

Marvell Technology (MRVL)  The New York Post is reporting that the semiconductor maker is open to a sale, and a possible buyer is Broadcom, the product of a giant recently-closed merger between Avago and Broadcom.



Apple (AAPL)  Hackers with ransomware targeted Mac users for the first time. Ransomware steals computer data and charges ransom to the machine's owner in order to get the data back.

Amazon (AMZN)  The online retail giant reversed its decision over its Fire tablet encryption. Amazon removed disk encryption when it released Fire OS 5 last year. The company said it will return the option for full disk encryption with a Fire OS update this spring.

United Continental (UAL)  The airlines CEO Oscar Munoz will return to work on March 14 after going on medical leave last year following a heart attack. Munoz underwent heart transplant surgery on January 6.

VALE S.A. (VALE)  Shares of Brazils Vale are soaring after iron ore prices skyrocketed to their highest level in more than eight months.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday put on hold an order by the Federal Communications Commission cutting U.S. prison telephone rates for local and long-distance calls to 11 cents a minute, from levels as high as $14 a minute, for more than 2 million U.S. prisoners.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington issued an order putting on hold the new, lower rate caps and a related rule limiting fees for certain single call services. But it allowed the elimination of ancillary fees to take effect immediately.

The elimination of those fees will take effect on March 17 for prisons, and June 20 for jails. The stay does not affect interim rates set by the FCC in 2013.

Prison phone companies had sued the FCC, asking the court to overturn the rate cut. The court opted to put the reduction on hold pending a full briefing and oral arguments.

"While we regret that relief from high inmate calling rates will be delayed for struggling families and their 2.7 million children trying to stay in touch with a loved one, we are gratified that costly and burdensome ancillary charges will come to an end," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a joint statement. "These fees can increase the cost to consumers of a call by nearly 40 percent."

The FCC voted 3-2 in October to cut all local and long-distance rates to 11 cents a minute for debit and prepaid calls from state and federal prisons. It provides tiered fees for jails to account for jails' higher costs.

The commission had cut interstate rates in 2013 to an interim rate of 21 cents a minute on debit and prepaid calls.

The cost of a prison call had risen to as much as $14 a minute when extra fees were tacked on.

Many U.S. states have sought to join lawsuits opposing the caps, citing security costs. They include Wisconsin, Nevada, Arkansas, Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Indiana -- joining the state of Oklahoma.

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The FCC said in a court filing last month that its order was a "firmly grounded exercise of the FCCs statutory authority to ensure that charges for inmate calling services - including for intrastate calls - are 'fair,' not excessive."

The lower fees are aimed at helping prisoners maintain contact with family and friends, the FCC said. Greater contact lowers the likelihood that inmates will return to prison after release, the agency said in October, and the FCC move is part of the U.S. prison reform effort.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Frankfurt (AFP) - German postal giant Deutsche Post said Tuesday it plans to buy back up to 1.0 billion euros ($1.1 billion) of its own shares over the next year.

"The share buyback programme starting in March 2016 is restricted to a duration of one year and a notional amount of up to one billion euros," Deutsche Post said in a statement.

"The purchased shares will either be cancelled, used to service long term management incentive programmes or to meet possible obligations" for convertible bonds, it added.

A company normally buys back its own shares if management thinks the shares are undervalued, as repurchasing them will reduce the number of outstanding shares and push up the price.

The company can buy shares directly from the market or offer its shareholder the option to tender their shares directly to the company at a fixed price.

Deutsche Post said it would "keep the capital market informed about the progress of the share buyback programme on its web site."

"The decision to initiate a share buyback programme is in line with the group's corporate finance policy and is to be seen against the background of the strong free cash flow generation" for 2015, the statement said.

Investors welcomed the news and Deutsche Post shares were the biggest gainers on the Frankfurt stock exchange following the announcement, shooting up 6.9 percent to an intraday high of 24.12 euros in a largely stable market.
In an unusual medical case, a man in Australia lost his sense of smell for more than a year after he was bitten by a venomous snake, according to a new report of his case.

The man has since regained some of his sense of smell, but he is still unable to fully detect smells the way he did before his encounter with the reptile, called the mulga snake, said the doctors and other experts who examined the man's neurological condition about a year after he was bitten and who wrote the report of his case.

"As far as I know, he is still affected but somewhat improved," said Kenneth D. Winkel, a toxinologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, who co-authored the report.

The otherwise healthy 30-year-old man went to a neurology clinic at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, telling doctors that he'd lost his sense of smell about a year before and had not regained it. The man first noticed this bizarre symptom a week after he was bitten by a snake while he was traveling in the Australian outback.

The snake bit the man on two of his fingers while he was washing his hands at a roadside restroom, the man told the doctors. A local resident helped out, trapping the snake in the sink and killing it. The man preserved the snake in a jar of alcohol. [3 Unusual Snakebite Reactions]

Shortly after the incident, the man went to the emergency department of a regional hospital. The doctors who treated him there found that he had temporary problems with blood clotting, too much protein in his urine and blisters that oozed with a clear liquid.

The man stayed at that hospital for three days, during which his doctors gave him medication to prevent the bite wound from becoming infected.

However, those doctors did not give the man anti-venom because they considered his symptoms to be "mild enough to not warrant anti-venom administration," according to the report, published Feb. 17 in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience. The administration of anti-venom is normally recommended when a person is experiencing severe symptoms from a venomous bite, the authors of the report said.

Story continues

A few days after the man was released, he noticed his sense of smell began to deteriorate, and within weeks, he completely lost the ability to smell.

A year later, when the man went to the neurology clinic at a different hospital, neurological tests confirmed that he was unable to detect smells  a condition that doctors call anosmia.

However, the examination of his nose and nervous system did not reveal any other abnormalities, which meant his anosmia did not have a structural cause and therefore was most likely caused by the snakebite, the researchers said.

Because more than a year had passed since the man was bitten and his loss of smell was severe, there was not much his doctors could do to treat his condition at that point.

Meanwhile, the snake specimen that the man had kept in the jar was sent to the Queensland Museum's herpetology department, where experts identified it as the mulga snake (Pseudechis australis).

The mulga snake is the largest terrestrial venomous snake in Australia, according to a previous study on mulga snake bites. In that study, which looked at 27 cases of people bitten by mulga snakes, the researchers noted that although the bites can be fatal, the most recent case of a fatal mulga snakebite was reported more than 40 years ago.

In most cases, bites from a mulga snake can cause symptoms such as inflammation at the bite site, muscle pain and destruction of blood cells. But effects on the nervous system rarely have been reported for bites inflicted by this snake species, the researchers said. However, cases of long-term and permanent anosmia attributed to bites by other types of snakes have been reported, the researchers said. [Oddest Medical Case Reports]

It's unclear how often people may develop anosmia after a snakebite, Winkel told Live Science. Overall, it appears to be "uncommon, but not rare," he said.

In a previous study done in Australia, researchers examined the effects of the bites from the red-bellied black snake, and found that 1 in 57 affected patients developed anosmia, he said. The red-bellied black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) belongs to the same family of snakes as the mulga snake, called elapids.

It is not clear whether administering anti-venom soon after a person is bitten may help prevent anosmia, the researchers said.

Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Donald Trump is dismissing critics who have recently compared the billionaire businessman to Adolf Hitler.

Over the phone Tuesday morning, the GOP presidential frontrunner told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America that likening him to Hitler is "terrible" and that he is "not happy."

Trump said he was not aware celebrities, including Louis C.K., and some world leaders, such as Mexican president Pena Nieto, were comparing him to Hitler. "I don't want that comparison," he added.

Over the weekend, C.K. made headlines after telling fans in an email blast: "Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s."

Trump has also drawn compressions to Hitler after asking supporters at multiple rallies to raise their right hand and swear to vote in their primaries. Pictures of the incidents posted to social media show a display some call reminiscent of the Nazi salute.

Asked by Stephanopoulos if the comparison perhaps means he should "tone down" his rhetoric and tactics, Trump replied, "maybe so." He then quickly added that he has a large following, and "I have to be strong."

During the same interview, Stephanopoulos also mentioned comments made by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who on Monday announced he would not seek an independent bid for the White House, and, at the same time, blasted Trump.

"I have known Mr. Trump casually for many years, and we have always been on friendly terms," Bloomberg said in his announcement. "But he has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on peoples prejudices and fears. Abraham Lincoln, the father of the Republican Party, appealed to our 'better angels.' Trump appeals to our worst impulses."

Trump's response was short.

"I guess he disagrees with what Im saying, but a lot of people agree with what Im saying," he said.

Read More: Michael Bloomberg Says He Will Not Run for President
Today in One Paragraph

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he wont run for president. U.S. airstrikes in Somalia killed more than 150 al-Shabaab fighters over the weekend, the Pentagon said. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed an Alabama courts decision that refused to recognize same-sex adoption. Former first lady Nancy Reagan will lie in repose on Wednesday and Thursday, and her funeral will be held on Friday. European Union leaders met with Turkey on the refugee crisis, offering the country more than $3 billion in aid to reduce the flow of migrants. And another lawsuit has been filed against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, as a result of the citys water crisis.

Top News

Nevermind. Michael Bloomberg announced on Bloomberg View that he will not be running for president. The former New York mayor had been quietly planning to enter the race as an independent, but said he feared a three-way race would enable Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to win the presidency, which he says is not a risk I can take in good conscience. (Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns, The New York Times)

Recommended: The Republican Party Decides ... to Settle on Ted Cruz

U.S. Airstrikes Hit al-Shabaab Training Camp. More than 150 al-Shabaab fighters were killed in U.S. airstrikes in Somalia on Saturday, according to Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis. The site posed an imminent threat against U.S. and African forces, according to Davis, and had been under surveillance for several weeks. (Phil Stewart, Reuters)

Court Upholds Lesbian Mothers Parental Rights. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed an Alabama Supreme Court decision that refused to recognize an adoption granted to a same-sex couple. A prior court in Georgia had recognized the womans rights in granting her the adoption, the Court said in an unsigned opinion, and the Alabama court had failed to give full faith and credit to that decision. (Chris Geidner, BuzzFeed)

Story continues

Nancy Reagans Funeral Announced. A private service for the former first lady, who died Sunday at age 94, will be held on Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Her body will lie in repose at the library in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday and Thursday. President Obama has ordered all flags at half-staff. (Jason Kandel, NBC Southern California)

Turkey Asks EU for More Money. At a meeting in Brussels, European Union leaders asked Turkey to stem the flow of migrants into Europe, offering $3.3 billion for the country to take some of the migrants back. Turkey, already sheltering more than 2.7 million refugees, has agreed but is asking for double that amount. (BBC News)

Recommended: Live Coverage of the Presidential Primaries

Flint Sues Michigan Governor. Seven families in Flint, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the citys residents against the states governor Rick Snyder and other government officials. The lawsuit alleges that thousands of people suffered physical and economic injury as a result of dangerous levels of lead in the water, while officials downplayed the severity of the contamination. (The Associated Press)

Tomorrow in One Paragraph. Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio will be campaigning in Florida. John Kasich will split his time between Michigan and Ohio. Voters in Michigan and Mississippi will head to the polls for the states primaries, as well as in Idaho for the states Republican primary. And in Hawaii, Republicans will caucus. Its also the last day of the Democrats Abroad presidential primary in 40 countries around the world. Join The Atlantic staff here as we follow it all live.

Follow stories throughout the day with our new Politics & Policy page. And keep on top of the campaign with our 2016 Distilled election dashboard.

Top Read

In American politics today, theres power in being oppressed. Belonging to an oppressed group gives us a pass on civility, it seems; if we can prove that were being discriminated against, we are suddenly justified in discriminating against others. The National Reviews Jane Clark Scharl on how Donald Trumps presidential rallies are the political equivalent of college campus safe spaces.

Top Lines

Filling the Vacancy. Heres a rundown of the handful of federal judges President Obama is reportedly considering to take the late Antonin Scalias place at the high court. (Amy Goldstein, Jerry Markon, and Sari Horwitz, The Washington Post)

Recommended: Michigan Voters Are Craving Change

Gridlock on Privacy. Digital privacy has typically been a bipartisan issue in Congress, but the public fight between Apple and the FBI has revealed that the issue of privacy legislation is beginning to split along party lines. (Kaveh Waddell, The Atlantic)

Top Views

So, Whos Winning? Check out this interactive graphic from Bloomberg for the latest on the presidential delegate count.

We want to hear from you! Were reimagining what The Edge can be, and would love to receive your complaints, compliments, and suggestions. Tell us what youd like to find in your inbox by sending a message to newsletters@theatlantic.com.

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This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
(Reuters) - An Egyptian aviation student in California who made a threatening Facebook post toward U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has agreed to leave the country and could be gone by the end of the week, his attorney said on Monday.

Emadeldin Elsayed, 23, was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) in February and his attorney, Hani Bushra, told Reuters that a judge granted Elsayed's request to voluntarily leave the country instead of fight the case in court last Friday.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's before the end of this week," Bushra said when asked how soon Elsayed may return to his native Cairo. "I think our government really wants this to move quickly."

ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said on Monday that Elsayed was still in custody and officials were arranging his repatriation. The agency said he would be escorted by immigration agents on his flight back to Egypt.

Bushra said Elsayed on Feb. 3 posted an article about the Republican frontrunner on Facebook along with a comment reading: "I literally don't mind taking a lifetime sentence in jail for killing this guy, I would actually be doing the whole world a favor."

Bushra said the Secret Service interviewed Elsayed the very next day, and that he had his property and phone searched before his arrest nine days later.

Bushra said he doubted the government considered Elsayed an actual threat, as he was flying planes and taking classes at Universal Air Academy for more than a week after he was first interviewed.

Bushra said the U.S. Attorney for Southern California decided against bringing criminal charges against Elsayed, who moved to the country last September and was living in the Los Angeles-area city of El Monte.

The government did however revoke Elsayed's visa and directed the owner of the flight school he attended to revoke his enrollment there as well, Bushra said.

Donald Trump, who maintains a healthy lead over his Republican rivals for president, sparked global backlash last year after calling for a ban against Muslims from entering the United States.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Michael Perry)
By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Dozens of university students protested in Ethiopia's capital on Tuesday, demanding an end to police crackdowns that followed months of demonstrations over plans to requisition farmland in the country's Oromiya region late last year. The government wanted to develop farmland around the capital, Addis Ababa, and its plan triggered some of the worst civil unrest for a decade, with rights groups and U.S.-based dissidents saying as many as 200 people may have been killed. Officials suggest the figure is far lower but have not given a specific number. Ethiopia has long been one of the world's poorest nations but has industrialized rapidly in the past decade and now boasts double-digit growth. However, reallocating land is a thorny issue for Ethiopians, many of whom are subsistence farmers. Authorities scrapped the land scheme in January, but sporadic demonstrations persist and, on Tuesday, students from Addis Ababa University marched in two groups toward the embassy of the United States, a major donor, holding signs that read "We are not terrorists. Stop killing Oromo people." Such protests are rare in a country where police are feared as heavy-handed and the government is seen as repressive. A government spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has promised to address grievances in the Oromiya region and says he blames rebel groups for stoking violence. Opponents blame harsh police tactics. "The aim was to highlight the abuses carried out in the region," one student told Reuters, saying he did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. "We waved white cloth to indicate that we were peaceful protesters. But police started beating us up," he said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said last month that protesters it spoke to and who had been detained after the outbreak of demonstrations in November had been subjected to severe beatings and never appeared before a judge. The group said women suffered sexual assaults and mistreatment. It said one 18-year-old student was "given electric shocks to his feet". Officials dismissed the report as not worthy of comment. (Editing by Edith Honan and Louise Ireland)
BRUSSELS - European Union antitrust enforcers have resumed their investigation into U.S. oilfield services provider Halliburton Co's proposed takeover of Baker Hughes and will decide by July 11 whether to approve the $35 billion deal. The European Commission, which halted the investigation on Feb. 18, said it had received further information from both companies. "Once we received the information from the parties, we restarted the clock and set a new deadline," Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said. It would make a decision by July 11, a filing on its website showed on Tuesday. Halliburton is likely to submit a package of concessions shortly to address regulatory concerns about possible price hikes and less innovation following the merger. It is ready to sell businesses with combined 2013 sales of $5.2 billion. U.S. antitrust regulators are also examining the bid which has secured approval in Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, South Africa and Turkey. Since the deal was announced, the industry has been battling falling oil prices and reduced drilling activity as oil producers mothball rigs and cut spending. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By Humeyra Pamuk and Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders welcomed Turkey's offer on Monday to take back all migrants who cross into Europe from its soil and agreed in principle to Ankara's demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel in return. However, key details remained to be worked out and the 28 leaders ordered more work by officials with a view to reaching an ambitious package deal with Turkey at their next scheduled summit, on March 17-18. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others hailed the surprise Turkish proposal at an emergency summit in Brussels as a potential breakthrough in Europe's politically toxic migration crisis. More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015, most making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, then heading north through the Balkans to Germany. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told EU leaders that Ankara was willing to take back all migrants who enter Europe from Turkey in future, including Syrian refugees, as well as those intercepted in its territorial waters. "With this game-changing position in fact our objective is to discourage illegal migration, to prevent human smugglers, to help people who want to come to Europe through encouraging legal migration in a disciplined and regular manner," he told a news conference after the summit. In exchange for stopping the influx, he demanded doubling EU funding through 2018 to help Syrian refugees stay in Turkey and a commitment to take in one Syrian refugee directly from Turkey for each one returned from Greece's Aegean islands, according to a document seen by Reuters. He also asked to bring forward EU visa liberalization for Turks to June from end-2016 and to open five more negotiating chapters in Turkey's long-stalled EU accession process. The EU leaders agreed to the earlier target date for visa-free travel provided Ankara meets all the conditions including changing its visa policy towards Islamic states and introducing harder-to-fake biometric passports. They left open how much additional aid they would provide for refugees in Turkey and made only a vague reference to preparing for a decision on opening more areas of membership talks - a particularly sensitive issue for Cyprus. European Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the summit, said the outcome would show migrants that there was no longer a path into Europe for people seeking a better life. "The days of irregular migration to Europe are over," he told a joint news conference with Davutoglu. Merkel, who requested the special summit to show results before regional elections in Germany next Sunday, said: "The Turkish proposal is a breakthrough, if it is implemented, to break the chain from getting into a boat to settling in Europe." Desperate to end the influx of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others, EU leaders brushed off warnings from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees that the EU should not shut its doors and should be willing to take in hundreds of thousands more refugees from Turkey. Davutoglu said the summit showed how indispensable Turkey was for Europe, and Europe for Turkey. At a preparatory meeting with Merkel and Rutte on Sunday night, he demanded double the 3 billion euros ($3.29 billion) earmarked so far to support Syrian refugees in Turkey. Diplomats said Merkel and Rutte pressed hard for a deal on the Turkish plan but met resistance from central European states opposed to taking refugee quotas, as well as from Greece and Cyprus which have conditions for the Turkish accession talks. Three days after the Turkish government seized the best-selling opposition newspaper Zaman, the leaders said they had discussed the situation of the media in Turkey with Davutoglu. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he had insisted on a reference to media freedom in the final statement. USE FORCE? Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, one of several central European leaders who has resisted pressure to accept a quota of refugees, said the Turkish proposal, if honored and implemented, would be a big step toward solving the migrant crisis. The EU leaders pledged to help Greece cope with a backlog of migrants stranded on its soil and welcomed NATO naval back-up in the Aegean Sea to help stop people smugglers. Merkel refused to endorse border closures by Austria and Balkan neighbors that have stranded over 30,000 migrants in Greece, but the statement noted: "Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end." The German leader, facing a possible political backlash in three regional polls over her welcoming of the refugees, said the question of Turkish EU membership was "not on the agenda today" but strategic cooperation with Ankara was in Europe's vital geopolitical interests. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the bloc must speed up the process of relocating asylum seekers from Greece to other EU countries as promised last September. EU states have so far taken in only a few hundred of a promised 160,000 people and central European countries have rejected the whole principle. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance had begun patrols in the Aegean to support efforts to locate migrant boats, overcoming territorial sensitivities in Greece and Turkey to patrol in the waters of both NATO states. "NATO is starting activities in territorial waters today," he told a joint news conference in Brussels with Davutoglu. "We are expanding our cooperation with the EU's border agency, Frontex, and we are expanding the number of ships in our deployment," he said, adding that France and Britain had agreed to send ships to the Aegean. Germany is leading the NATO mission that was agreed on Feb. 11, which also includes ships from Canada, Turkey and Greece. Until now, ships had been in international waters. Britain's Cameron said he was sending a naval force to the Aegean to join the NATO force even though Britain is outside the Schengen zone of passport-free travel and has refused to take any share of the migrants from Europe. While Cameron stressed Britain would take no part in any common EU asylum policy, further migrant chaos could damage his efforts to win a June referendum and keep Britain in the EU. ($1 = 0.9122 euros) (Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Robert-Jan Bartunek, Renee Maltezou, Philip Blenkinsop, Jan Strupczewski, Alissa de Carbonnel, Paul Taylor, Alastair Macdonald and Robin Emmott in Brussels; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Paul Taylor; Editing by Sandra Maler)
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - A former president of El Salvador, Antonio Saca, will stand trial for illegal enrichment, the country's supreme court said on Monday, in a case centering on the ex-leader's inability to explain how he acquired $5 million at the end of his term. Saca, a businessman who served as president of the small Central American country from 2004 to 2009, has also had his bank accounts and properties frozen, the court said. The ex-president was expelled from his political party, the conservative Nationalist Republican Party (Arena), in 2009 due to alleged irregularities. Last month, former president Mauricio Funes was also ordered to stand trial for more than $700,000 that he was not able to account for following his 2009-2014 term. Funes, a former TV journalist, was leader of the leftist political party Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. In January, another ex-president of El Salvador and Arena leader, Francisco Flores, died after suffering a stroke as he waited to face trial over embezzlement charges. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York finance executive on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to murdering his pediatrician wife, who was stabbed 22 times with a kitchen knife as she showered in their suburban Scarsdale home, authorities said.

Jules Reich, 62, who at the time of the Jan. 20 crime was listed as a partner at Manhattan based-accounting firm WeiserMazars on its website, was arraigned on an indictment for second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

"In what can only be described as an ambush, the defendant entered the bathroom while his wife was showering and repeatedly stabbed her to death," acting Westchester County District Attorney James McCarty said in a statement.

An 8-inch kitchen knife was used in the attack on Robin Goldman, 58, who worked as a pediatrician at the Childrens Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx borough of New York City.

The killing was the first in upscale Scarsdale in nearly 40 years. The village of about 17,000 in New York City's northern suburbs has an average annual family income of more than $290,000.

The couple was in the middle of a divorce proceeding but was living in the same residence, a multimillion-dollar home 20 miles (30 km) north of New York City, the prosecutor said.

After the murder, a judge signed orders of protection for the couple's three adult children.

"Reich stabbed the victim 22 times resulting in wounds to the hands, chest, abdomen and back," McCarty said. "She suffered punctures to her lung, heart, diaphragm, liver and kidney. She died at the scene."

After the attack, Reich went downstairs and called 911, prosecutors said.

Reich, who wore a suit to his arraignment in Westchester County Court in White Plains, is due back in court on April 5, said Robert Wolf, a Westchester County District Attorney spokesman.

If convicted of the murder charge, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

An attorney for Reich, John Pappalardo of Scarsdale, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reich was previously represented by Kerry Lawrence of White Plains.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Marcus E. Howard and Steve Orlofsky)
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Two Iraqi men have been charged with war crimes by Finnish prosecutors, the Helsinki prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. The men are charged in connection with incidents that took place in Iraq in 2014 and 2015 and involved the desecration of bodies, according to Juha-Mikko Hamalainen, the Helsinki district prosecutor in charge. The incidents were not related, he said. The charges were based on images and information found on the internet, Hamalainen said. Both suspects have denied any wrongdoing. "Both of the men said they had fought against Islamic State," Hamalainen said. He declined to say which forces they had served with. Both men came to Finland last year. Hamalainen declined to say whether the suspects were seeking asylum. More than 32,000 people sought asylum in Finland last year, most of them from Iraq. In December, Finnish police arrested two Iraqi men on suspicion of shooting 11 unarmed prisoners in Iraq in 2014 in killings that were filmed by Islamic State. (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, editing by Larry King)
PARIS (Reuters) - Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a former campaign spokeswoman of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, on Tuesday joined an already crowded race for the center-right's presidential nomination in a primary due in November. Known in the French media by her initials "NKM", the 42-year-old mother of two has distanced herself from the former conservative president in recent months, criticizing a stance she says panders to the far-right National Front. She will now stand against him and at least eight other candidates in the center-right primaries to be held in November, six months before the 2017 presidential election. "These candidates only talk about themselves. They say 'I have changed', 'I'm new', 'I'll do better next time'. In this campaign, I want to talk about the French," she said on France's most-watched news bulletin, hoping to capitalize on International Women's Day on her status as a rare female high-flyer. Credited with only 9 percent of the votes in a BVA opinion poll on the primary last month, her more moderate views are likely to make her more of a nuisance for Alain Juppe, the former prime minister who has emerged as Sarkozy's main rival. Once dubbed "L'Emmerdeuse" - the pain in the neck - by former leader Jacques Chirac, she was expelled from the management of Sarkozy's Les Republicains conservative party in December, a move she denounced as a "Stalinist" purge. Kosciusko-Morizet, whose grandfather was an ambassador to the United States, trained as an engineer at the elite Ecole Polytechnique before joining the ENA post-graduate school, the traditional grooming ground for French politicians. Socially liberal, she supported gay marriage and has cultivated pro-environment credentials that make her popular with some center-left voters, but is also a fierce free-market advocate who wants to scrap the cherished 35-hour working week. A member of parliament for the Essonne area south of Paris, home to wealthy grain farmers, she failed to dislodge the Socialists from Paris city hall in 2014, as she struggled to shake off a reputation for haughtiness. Kosciusko-Morizet bolstered her critics' charges that she was out of touch when she told Elle magazine during the mayoral campaign that she thought the Paris underground train network was a "place of charm" with unexpected pleasures. The comments prompted a barrage of mockery from Parisians forced to brave the crowded and often foul-smelling Metro each day. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Andrew Callus and Gareth Jones)
Paris (AFP) - French prosecutors have opened a serious fraud investigation into Volkswagen over devices the German automaker fitted into cars to cheat emissions tests, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.

VW, a former paragon of German industry, has been plunged into its deepest-ever crisis after acknowledging that it had installed emissions-cheating software into 11 million diesel engines worldwide.

The probe, launched by Paris investigators on February 19, concerns Volkswagen cars sold in France, the source said. It is being handled by three investigating magistrates and follows a preliminary inquiry that started in early October.

Serious fraud office chief Nathalie Homobono said at her annual news conference Monday that investigators had already established that Volkswagen had cheated "with intent".
PARIS (Reuters) - France has opened a formal investigation into suspected "aggravated fraud" by Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> following revelations the German carmaker rigged vehicle diesel emissions tests, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

The prosecutor had already opened a preliminary inquiry in October, and French police had carried out searches at the German carmaker's offices in France, seizing computer material.

Volkswagen has said 946,092 vehicles in France were equipped with the EA 189 engines potentially affected by the emissions data manipulation carried out by the company worldwide.

The probe concerns vehicles sold in France, according to the prosecutor's office.

(Reporting by Gerard Bon; Writing by Michel Rose; Editing by James Regan)
A French court approved Tuesday extraditing to South Korea the daughter of a tycoon blamed for the deadly 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, although the prime minister must now sign off on the decision.

Even if Prime Minister Manuel Valls signs the decree for the extradition of Yoo Som-Na over the catastrophe that killed more than 300 people, the decision can still be contested in France's highest administrative court.

A lawyer for Yoo said extradition would be "unjust" and that her legal team would continue to fight.

"We're not going to stop there, certainly not," Herve Temime told AFP.

Yoo, who was detained in Paris in May 2014, is wanted in South Korea on suspicion that she embezzled millions of dollars from subsidiaries of her family's company, Chonghaejin Marine Co.

South Korean authorities believe the alleged embezzlement contributed to safety defects that led to the April 2014 disaster that claimed the lives of 304 people, most of them high school children.

Yoo strongly denies the accusations.

Her father Yoo Byung-Eun had been the target of a massive manhunt in South Korea after he refused to respond to an official summons following the ferry disaster.

The tycoon, who in addition to his substantial business interests also ran a religious group, was found dead in a plum orchard two months after the disaster.

An autopsy on his badly decomposed body failed to determine the cause of death.

The overloaded 6,825-tonne Sewol was carrying 476 people when it capsized off the southern coast of South Korea.
Many school districts are gearing up to hire new educators for the next school year.

For prospective high school teachers, getting a job isn't always easy. Job opportunities for high school teachers can vary by region and subject area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many schools have trouble filling high school teaching positions in math, science, English as a second language and special education, according to the bureau.

Prospective high school teachers need to be very knowledgeable in the subject area they plan to teach to get hired, says John Mayo, chief human resources officer for Baltimore County Public Schools. And applicants need to make sure they have or are in the process of obtaining necessary credentials to teach in the state they plan to work, he says.

But applicants will need more than just the required credentials. New high school teachers can try the following to get hired.

Consider [thinking outside the box with these hot education careers.]

-- Set yourself apart: New high school teachers won't have years of experience to stand out among dozens of applicants vying for one position, but they should have strong references and highlight all experience relevant to teaching on their application, says Robert Bishop, principal of Arvada West High School in Colorado. That might include experience as a youth leader or camp counselor, he says.

Prospective teachers can also stand out by obtaining a second certification, such as in special education or English as a second language, he says.

Twitter users suggested applicants show their passion for the subject area they plan to teach, among other things.

@alipannoni @usnews Sell the diversity of your experiences. (And if you don't have that, get it or make a plan to do so.)

-- Stacey Brown (@MrsBrownNHS) March 4, 2016

@alipannoni @USNewsEducation @usnews passion about the subject matter, know how you can make it all relevant, KNOW your subject!

-- Ms. Miller (Millz) (@RMillerWRHS) March 4, 2016

Story continues

@alipannoni @usnews Pursue M.A.T., pass multiple certifications, research job fairs. Don't be picky, best opps. are in areas w/ high turnovr

-- Dan Stouffer (@MisterDStouffer) March 3, 2016

-- Network with other educators: There's nothing wrong with emailing principals and officials in school districts indicating your interest for a job, says Mayo.

"You have to be aggressive in your career if you want something," he says. "What's going to make you stand out better than the 20 or 50 other people that are applying for the same position that you are going to apply for?"

But Mayo cautions prospective teachers not to be overly aggressive. For example, constantly following up after an interview could be a turnoff -- one courtesy thank-you email after is enough, he says.

Candidates generally land jobs within the school systems where they do their student internships, he says.

Prospective teachers have the opportunity to make a lasting impression with the school's leadership team during the internship, and build relationships with teachers, students and parents -- which could enhance their chances of being hired by the district, he says.

Twitter users said networking and understanding how a school operates can be helpful in the job hunting process.

@alipannoni don't w8 4 jobs 2b posted! Email dept chairs&research dept philosophies/school philosophies. Cite those in your correspondence.

-- Ms. Newman (@MsNewmanEnglish) March 3, 2016

@alipannoni Become a sub. Pick up all the assignments you can. Be known. Be the one teachers ask for when they are out. Network at work.

-- Wakeland Sports Mgmt (@WHSSportsMgmt) March 4, 2016

-- Be prepared for interviews: The interview process can vary from district to district, and school to school, Mayo says. Sometimes candidates will be asked a series of questions on content knowledge or teaching methodologies, for example. And a candidate may be asked to teach a lesson to a classroom of students -- though one is usually given ample notice to prepare for this task, Mayo says.

Providing detailed lesson plans was also among the advice offered by Twitter users.

@alipannoni @usnews is differentiated. Be able to give examples from past experiences of successful collaboration.

-- Susan Siemer (@SFSiemer) March 4, 2016

@alipannoni @USNewsEducation @usnews go to interviews with sample lessons and student work. Just going that extra mile may set you apart.

-- Katie Henderson (@MrsHendersonHB) March 4, 2016

And it sounds simple, but adhering to basic interviewing tips like wearing professional attire and not getting flustered during an interview -- even if the applicant messes up -- are important, says Bishop, the high school principal.





Get [more must-read advice for new high school teachers.]

Most importantly, would-be teachers need to know who they are and what they would bring to the school, he says.



Have something of interest to share? Send your news to us at highschoolnotes@usnews.com.



Alexandra Pannoni is an education Web producer at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at apannoni@usnews.com.
Republicans need to tune out the gleeful reports in the liberal press predicting the implosion of the GOP, the frantic chatter about blocking a Trump nomination through a brokered convention, and focus on defeating Hillary Clinton. Focus also on the good news in this cycle: Republican ranks are swelling while turnout for Democrats is collapsing. The GOP tent is getting bigger, and if the party doesnt self-destruct, the country will elect a Republican president.

In 1968, at one of the last such gatherings, Democrats attacked each other savagely, riots broke out in the Chicago streets and Republicans won enormous help in electing a not very popular Richard Nixon. The contest pitted Vice President Hubert Humphrey (the establishment union-Daly-LBJ choice, perhaps the equivalent of Marco Rubio today) against ideologue Robert Kennedy (Cruz?) and against anti-war Eugene McCarthy.

Related: Newt Gingrich: Wake Up, Republicans  Its Either Trump or Clinton

Democrats lost because of real schisms on policy, and because Democrat George Wallace, running as an independent, captured nearly 14 percent of the vote. The race was close, with only half a million votes being the margin of Nixons win; Wallace cost the Democrats the election. Equally significant, Humphrey attracted 31 million votes; in the 1964 election, Johnson won with 43 million votes. Not only did Wallace hurt the party, a great many McCarthy fans stayed home.

That is what the Democrats want to inflict on the GOP. A convention that tosses the front-runner will likely throw the election to Hillary Clinton (or whoever runs in her place, if she is indicted for destruction or mishandling of government information). Trumps supporters will not go quietly into the night--they will sit out the election or they will encourage him to run as a third-party candidate. Given the billionaires arrogance and self-confidence, and repeated threats to exit the party, no one will hold him back.

Story continues

Given what is at stake  the remaking of the Supreme Court, and the future of Obamacare, for instance  keeping Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office is the only priority.

Here is the real message to the GOP: give Trump a chance. There have been plenty of presidential elections during which candidates vent their spleen at one another, only to kiss and make up down the road. Think about Johnson and Kennedy, or George. H. W. Bush and Reagan, or Hillary and Barack; all bitter rivals who managed to swallow their animus and work together.

Related: If Trump Prevails, Conservatives Could Rip the GOP Apart

Could Trump haul Marco Rubio into his administration? Seems unlikely, but then it was only a few weeks ago that Chris Christie was telling the nation that The Donald was unfit to be president. Now the New Jersey Governor is Trumps favorite backdrop.

Donald Trump is boorish, arrogant and reckless, but hes not stupid. He understands that much of the country  even many in his own party  find him abhorrent. In the latest CNN poll, 29 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of Republicans combined with right-leaning Independents said they definitely would not support Trump. That compares with only 20 percent of Democrats and left-leaning Independents who will not vote for Hillary Clinton. The difference could prove the margin of victory for Clinton.

Trump needs to correct this, and he probably can. He must end the vulgar tit-for-tat with Rubio that affronts so many people, he needs to confront some of the issues raised by Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney by releasing his tax returns and the recording from his New York Times interview and he should provide more details of his policies.

The Issues section of his web site currently features 17 videos of Donald Trump talking into a camera on various topics. Its clear the films were all made the same day, as his wardrobe remains constant. On education, the developer says Common Core is an absolute disaster and that education decisions should be made locally  solving our schools crisis in under a minute! On the drug epidemic, Trump vows to cure the drug epidemic by building a wall that will stop the flow of drugs into the country  done in 33 seconds.

Related: Is Trump Leading the Republican Party to the Edge of a Cliff?

Its weak-- its not serious, and Trump owes the country more. My guess is he will begin to take his probable victory more seriously, and begin to flesh out his so-far flimsy platform. He actually needs to start hiring staff who can help him prepare for the issues he will confront in future debates, and especially if he is to face Hillary Clinton.

He should also start to reach out to people in the party, and to well-regarded business leaders, and try to bring them aboard. His is a forceful personality; he can probably do this. The only financial person he has referenced is Carl Icahn, a controversial short-term focused corporate raider. A recent piece by Steve Malanga from The Manhattan Institute points out that a survey by Chief Executive Magazine found Trump leading all Republican candidates with 21 percent of support from top executives, followed closely by Marco Rubio.

Moreover, Malanga reports, campaign-contribution data by the Center for Public Integrity found that, other than retirees, the heaviest concentration of Trump donors were individuals identified as owners, presidents, and CEOs of businesses. Some of those CEOs could be asked to join a kitchen cabinet, charged with laying out a plan to bring jobs back to the U.S.

Establishment Republicans are horrified that the nominee may not be one of them. My advice: get over it. Start to find common ground with Trump and help him beat Hillary, or he will indeed destroy the party.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton lost her chances of becoming president after alienating two key states, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist said Monday.

"Under her new rules, fracking would exist almost nowhere," the president and founder of Americans for Tax Reform told CNBC's " Squawk on the Street ." "Democrats used to be able to insult the energy industry because they lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alaska [and] they don't vote Democrat. But she declared war on Pennsylvania and Ohio with that statement. That's not the way to win the election."

Clinton said in a debate Sunday in Flint, Michigan, she does not support fracking.

The Marcellus shale formation stretches underground across Pennsylvania and into several other states. The advent of hydraulic fracking set off a natural gas boom starting in 2008 in those states.

Read More 16 questions for Hillary Clinton



Norquist also said Clinton took herself out of contention with her comment on guns, alienating a "bloc of the electorate that didn't exist 20 years ago."

In the debate against Sen. Bernie Sanders, she said: "I think we have to try everything that works to try to limit the numbers of people and the kinds of people who are given access to firearms."

Said Norquist: "Hillary Clinton is old enough that she doesn't know that, since she got involved in politics, 13 million Americans have active concealed weapon permits, 5 percent of the adult population. She announced it was her policy to reduce the number of people who have guns, not bad people; she said 'people' who have guns."

Norquist has not made an endorsement, but said he is confident that the GOP can unite one behind one candidate when the general election comes.

"Hillary Clinton is a uniter, not a divider."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Read More Hillary: I'm against bad behavior, not business







More From CNBC


By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Nearly half of Israeli Jews believe Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel, according to a survey on the political views of Jewish religious and secular communities. The poll released on Tuesday by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank, also found that many Israelis - Jews and Arabs - appeared to have lost hope for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forty-eight percent of Israeli Jews said they agreed with the statement that Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel, where they make up 19 percent of the population of 8.4 million. While 54 to 71 percent of Jews who defined themselves as ultra-Orthodox, religious or "traditional" supported such a step, only about 36 percent of the secular community did. President Reuven Rivlin called the findings a "wake-up call for Israeli society". The survey also addressed the role of religion in a modern-day democracy founded as a Jewish state, exposing wide gaps between Orthodox and non-religious Jewish respondents. According to the poll, 89 percent of Israel's secular Jews want democratic principles to outweigh Jewish ritual law when the two clash. An identical percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews take the opposite view. In addition, about 8 in 10 Arabs complained of heavy discrimination in Israeli society against Muslims, the largest religious minority, while 79 percent of Jews questioned said Jewish citizens deserved preferential treatment. "It pains me to see the gap that exists in the public's consciousness - religious and secular - between the notion of Israel as a Jewish state and as a democratic state," Rivlin said in a statement after receiving the report. "A further problem is the attitude toward Israel's Arab citizens." In the poll, 9 percent of Jews identified themselves as ultra-Orthodox, 13 percent as religious, 29 percent as 'traditional' and 49 percent as secular. It found devout Jews largely lean to the right politically, while secular Jews mainly see themselves as centrists. Among the many divides on social and religious issues, the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox and religious Jews supported a long-standing shutdown of most public transportation on the Jewish Sabbath, while 94 percent of secular Jews took the opposite view. Most secular Jews saw themselves as "Israelis first", while 91 percent of ultra-Orthodox and 80 percent of religious Jews in general said they were "Jews first". About 40 percent of Israeli Jews believe a way can be found for Israel to co-exist with a future Palestine, while a similar percentage believe this is not possible, according to the poll. Among the Arab population, about half saw such co-existence as possible, compared with 74 percent in 2013. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014, just before a seven-week war between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. The researchers conducted 5,601 face-to-face interviews with 3,789 Jews, 871 Muslims, 468 Christians and 439 Druze in Israel from October 2014 to May 2015. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Melody Hahm



I may be a 20-something gadget junkie whos never more than 6 inches away from her iPhone, but sometimes you just need to speak with an actual human.



As I prepare to file my 2015 taxes, I had a few questions. So I decided to do the unthinkable  pick up the phone and call the Internal Revenue Service to get some one-on-one help.



Given the IRSs reputation, my expectations were low. The agency has had a rough couple of years  its budget has been slashed by 18% since 2010, which have meant a reduced workforce, scaled back employee training, and delays to IT system upgrades. There are 17,000 IRS customer service representatives who answer phones, emails and letters. Two years ago, the IRS had about 800 more employees on board, but its in the process of hiring 1,000 additional workers. (About half of IRS employees are seasonal and work primarily during tax-filing season.)



Most folks are going to find it difficult to get through to them. Ive heard that people have had to wait between 15 minutes and 2 hours, says Andrew Poulos, principal of Atlanta-based Poulos Accounting & Consulting. The customer service team is trying to push more taxpayers onto their website to find the information online.



The IRS provides a few different phone numbers depending on your situation, with separate hotlines for business owners, people with hearing impairments, and taxpayers who live outside the U.S. I chose the first line  telephone assistance for individuals.



The call

I rang around lunchtime (12:16 pm EST to be exact). The automated response told me I should use the IRSs website, which it calls the interactive tax assistant. After working my way around the phone tree a bit, I was told that customer service was experiencing very high waiting time and that I should go online. After resigning myself to being on hold until I have grandchildren, I put my phone on mute and started working on other things while I waited.



To my surprise, about one minute later I heard a dial tone and was connected to a person who asked what I was calling about. I told her I wanted to know about the deadline to file and what happens if I suspect someone has filed their taxes using my social security number. She said she had to transfer me to the filing department. That was at 12:20 pm.



Then a robot told me my estimated wait time would be 10 to 15 minutes. Amid the mind-numbing elevator music, a relentless voice kept telling me, Theres no need to wait for telephone assistance. Go to irs.gov.



Message received! But I was still determined to talk to someone.

Story continues

At 12:33 p.m. Miss Cheryl jumped on the phone and told me that shell be asking me several questions, and that there might be a bit of a delay because her computer was slow. Some of the questions may sound strange, she said. Thats because were trying to give you the best responses possible.



All IRS assistors are required to have a college degree or equivalent experience, but are not certified public accountants. Their get on-the-job training by shadowing existing instructors and other web tutorials. This might be a red flag to some, but it also explains why getting tax help from the IRS is free. Cheryl, whos been an IRS rep for 11 years, said I should check the website before calling. I said I understood, but I preferred to speak to a human being. I very much appreciate you saying that, being the human assisting you, she said.

What happens when theres fraudulent activity?

Next I asked her about fraudulent activity and whether I should be worried about someone getting their hands on my Social Security number. (More than 700,000 taxpayer accounts were hacked in 2015; the IRS had initially said 100,000 accounts had been compromised.) She told me if I were a victim, Id have to send in an affidavit  which is something I wouldnt have found on IRS.gov.



Over the last three to four years, the problem has gotten larger, but once we realized this was happening, we started implementing new procedures. There were fraudulent refunds we didnt realize until people called to report them, so we got more filters put in place. Were trying to be more proactive and randomly checking more filings, Cheryl said.



She emphasized there are other agencies you should alert when you discover youre a victim of ID theft  like the Federal Trade Commission, the Social Security Administration, and your credit card issuers.



She then mentioned the website again (at this point I lost count of how many times Ive been directed to IRS.gov) and told me if I want more a more comprehensive picture to search identity theft.



Can I get an extension?

Next question for Cheryl: When is the absolute final deadline to file my taxes? To determine if Id be eligible for an extension, I had to answer some questions.



-Did I serve in a combat zone in 2015? (No)

-Did I work in a hazardous area in 2015? (No)

-Was I hospitalized as a result of injury in a combat zone (No)

-Will I be living outside the U.S. in Puerto Rico on 4/18/16 (No)

-Will I be in the military on active duty in Puerto Rico on 4/18/16 (No)

-Am I expecting a tax refund or am I not sure? (Not sure)



Let me read this response, its a bit lengthy. And these publications are federal tax law, she said.



It was a long-winded way of saying my deadline is April 18 like most of America. (April 15, 2016 falls on Emancipation Day, a D.C. holiday; according to the IRS, D.C. holidays are treated as federal holidays, which means Tax Day is pushed to April 18. And if I lived in Maine or Massachusetts I would have until April 19 because of Patriots Day.)



To see if and how Id be able to file an extension, Cheryl asked:



-Do you have any foreign income? (No)

-Do you reside in or assist in release efforts or tax efforts in a federal disaster area? (No)



Cheryl proceeded to repeat the entire answer above (her training requires her to). She said I can get an automatic six-month extension, but I have to file form 4868 electronically or in paper form by April 18, otherwise I dont get an extension (due in October). As many taxpayers already know, if you file your taxes late, you get your refund late. If you owe taxes and you dont file on time, you can get a penalty of up to 10 times higher (more details on that here). Cheryl cautioned that even if you think youre going to get a refund, you should file on time because your circumstances may change.



A trickier question

Time check  12:57 p.m. At this point things were going smoothly and I was actually learning a lot. I wanted to throw Cheryl a curveball. I asked her whether automated investments would be taxed.



Stumped, she said shed have to do a search because its not her area of expertise. I was put on hold at 1:00 and she came back on the line at 1:04 to tell me to hold again. She was back seven minutes later and told me shed transfer me to the D department which focuses on questions about capital gains and losses. (For more on capital gains, click here.)



An automated voice told me my estimated wait time would be between four and seven minutes.



I had been on hold for 10 minutes when Miss Waley got on and told me that if I sold any stocks in 2015, my broker would issue me Form 1099-B, which summarizes proceeds of all stock transactions. And this should be reported to the IRS. Miss Waley also reiterated  you probably guessed it!  that a lot of this information is available on the IRSs website.



I said thank you, no further questions and hung up. Total call time  1 hour and 13 minutes.



All things considered, talking with IRS customer service reps wasnt as awful as I thought it would be. A tougher challenge might be to try to get someone on the phone the week of April 15 (note to editors: please dont make me!). Maybe I just got lucky this time around. Whatever the case, I wont be ringing up Miss Cheryl or Miss Waley for fun (I actually cant because youll never be reconnected with your original responder). Im sure IRS.gov has all the answers I need.

Have a question about taxes? Yahoo Finance is answering your questions on Tumblr! Email us at yfmoneymailbag@yahoo.com.
Washington (AFP) - Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton will take a break from presidential campaigning to attend fellow former first lady Nancy Reagan's funeral, her team said Tuesday.

"Hillary Clinton is going to drop off the trail briefly on Friday to attend Nancy Reagan's funeral services in California," Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said on Twitter.

Reagan, the fiercely protective wife of late conservative icon Ronald Reagan -- who served as president from 1981 to 1989 -- died Sunday at age 94.

In a statement Sunday Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, praised her as "an extraordinary woman," a "gracious first lady" and devoted wife who left a remarkable legacy, particularly regarding her tireless advocacy for Alzheimer's research.

The Clintons occupied the White House four years after the Reagans, from 1993 to 2001.

Reagan will be buried next to her husband -- who suffered from Alzheimer's -- at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Clinton's break from the campaign comes at a critical juncture in her race against Senator Bernie Sanders, just four days before the March 15 primaries that include key large states Florida, Illinois and Ohio.
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc agreed to pay at least $19.5 million to compensate U.S. consumers harmed by a 2014 data breach affecting more than 50 million cardholders. The home improvement retailer will set up a $13 million fund to reimburse shoppers for out-of-pocket losses, and spend at least $6.5 million to fund 1-1/2 years of cardholder identity protection services. Home Depot also agreed to improve data security over a two-year period, and hire a chief information security officer to oversee its progress. It will separately pay legal fees and related costs for affected consumers. Terms of the preliminary settlement were disclosed in papers filed on Monday with the federal court in Atlanta, where Home Depot is based. Home Depot did not admit wrongdoing or liability in agreeing to settle. The settlement requires court approval. "We wanted to put the litigation behind us, and this was the most expeditious path," spokesman Stephen Holmes said. "Customers were never responsible for any fraudulent charges." Home Depot has said the breach affected people who used payment cards on its self-checkout terminals in U.S. and Canadian stores between April and September 2014. It has said the intruder used a vendor's user name and password to infiltrate its computer network, and used custom-built malware to access shoppers' payment card information. The accord covers about 40 million people who had payment card data stolen, and 52 million to 53 million people who had email addresses stolen, with some overlap between the groups. Home Depot said it has booked $161 million of pre-tax expenses for the breach, including for the consumer settlement, and after accounting for expected insurance proceeds. Lawyers for the consumers said the accord compares "favorably" with other data breach class actions, including Target Corp's $10 million settlement over a 2013 data breach that compromised at least 40 million cards. Legal fees and costs for the lawyers could top $8.7 million, court papers showed. At least 57 proposed class action lawsuits were filed in U.S. and Canadian courts over the data breach. The U.S. cases were consolidated in the Atlanta court. The case is In re: Home Depot Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, No. 14-md-02583. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Chris Reese, Richard Chang; and Alistair Bell)
Two more refugees resettled in Cambodia from an Australian detention camp have returned home, the government said Tuesday, sparking renewed criticism about the Aus$55 million ($40 million) scheme.

Under Canberra's hardline policy to stop asylum-seeker boats reaching its shores, those arriving by sea are denied resettlement in Australia even if found to be genuine refugees.

Instead they are turned back to their country of departure or sent to the tiny Pacific state of Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

The government also struck a deal with Phnom Penh in September 2014 to take in refugees in exchange for millions of dollars in aid, a move condemned by rights groups and questioned by the UN.

Initially, only four people held on Nauru -- three Iranians and one ethnic Rohingya man from Myanmar -- volunteered to move to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, which has a weak record of upholding human rights. A fifth, another Rohingya, later joined them.

One of the Rohingya decided to return home last October, citing homesickness. Now two of the three Iranians have also left.

"Refugees can elect to return to their country of origin at any time, which is what an Iranian couple in Cambodia decided to do recently," said a spokesman for Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

A Cambodian immigration spokesman said the couple were "quite happy living in Cambodia, but they returned to Iran because they were homesick after a long time away".

Despite the recent departures, Cambodian officials said there are no plans to suspend the programme.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is assisting Cambodia with the resettlement, confirmed that Australia has continued to fund the programme, though not all of the allocated budget has been used.

"IOM continues to receive funding from the Government of Australia to implement settlement services in Cambodia but that funding has not amounted to Aus$15 million given the limited number of refugees arriving from Nauru to date," IOM spokesman Joe Lowry told AFP.

Story continues

Australia's Labor opposition party, which supports the detention of asylum-seekers at the remote Pacific facilities, said with so few opting for resettlement the Cambodian scheme was a "dud".

"Not only has the coalition (government) wasted Aus$55 million of taxpayers' money on this dud deal, they have also left more than 2,000 people on Manus and Nauru in limbo for nearly three years on their watch," said shadow immigration spokesman Richard Marles.

Dutton defended Sydney's policy and the arrangement with Phnom Penh.

"The government remains committed to supporting the government of Cambodia to implement settlement arrangements in Cambodia and encourages refugees temporarily in Nauru to explore this settlement option," he said.
We might only be heading into spring, but 2016 has already revealed some exciting beauty collaborations. From Gwyneth Paltrow to Kylie Jenner, here are some of the stars making a move on the cosmetics industry this year.

Gwyneth Paltrow x Goop

Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle company Goop hit the headlines earlier this month with the launch of its first-ever branded product line "Goop by Juice Beauty." The "age-defying" skincare range comprises six products made from certified organic ingredients and plant-based juices to rejuvenate skin, with the line aiming to target fine lines and wrinkles and brighten the complexion. The line launched on March 1.

http://shop.goop.com/collections/skincare-by-goop

Lancome x Sonia Rykiel

Earlier this month, French beauty brand Lancome announced fashion house Sonia Rykiel's first step into the beauty industry, with a collaborative new make-up collection. Set for release this fall, the limited edition range was inspired by the joyful and liberated spirit of the Left Bank Parisian neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the birthplace of the Rykiel fashion house, and will focus on colorful cosmetics.

www.lancome.com

Kylie Jenner x Sinful Colors

Teen beauty queen Kylie Jenner had already established herself as the go-to designer for lip color with the launch of her "Kylie Lipkit" back in late 2015, but this year she is getting her perfectly manicured claws into the nail industry. Created in collaboration with US brand SinfulColors, her latest project comprises three limited-edition collections which are being released under the name "King Kylie SinfulShine." The first collection, featuring 20 jewel-toned hues in a gel-like formula, hit the shelves in March, and the remaining two installments will launch in April and May.

http://www.sinfulcolors.com/Kylie

Caitlyn Jenner x MAC

Kylie's father Caitlyn Jenner is also keen to flex her beauty muscles and has signed up with cosmetics giant MAC to create a new lipstick shade for the group's "Viva Glam" range. Named "Finally Free," the rosy nude hue is set to launch in April and 100 percent of its sales proceeds will go to the MAC AIDS Fund Transgender Initiative.

http://www.maccosmetics.com/

Grace Coddington x Comme des Garcons

Former Creative Director of US Vogue Grace Coddington is teaming up with Comme des Garcons to make her debut into the fragrance industry, with "Grace by Grace Coddington," set to hit shelves in April. The rose-centric scent will be packaged in an "Alice in Wonderland"-themed bottle designed by Fabien Baron, capped by a top depicting the famous Cheshire Cat that was dreamt up by Coddington herself.

http://www.comme-des-garcons.com/
Tehran (AFP) - Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami, who is under a media ban for supporting reformist candidates in the 2009 presidential election, on Tuesday urged fewer restrictions and a more open atmosphere.

The comments, in a statement published on Khatami's website, follow an influential strategic role he played in February 26 elections in which reformists won many parliamentary seats.

Iranian media are not allowed to use pictures of Khatami, who was president between 1997 and 2005, or to quote him, because of a ban imposed by Tehran's prosecutor.

The restrictions were imposed after Khatami backed Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the defeated reformist candidates in a disputed presidential vote in 2009 which saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected.

Khatami, however, said the most recent elections showed "we are in and with the system (of the Islamic republic) and do not oppose or have enmity towards anyone", and a "new phase" should begin.

"Compared to the issues after the 2009 election, right now the whole of society and political groups have a relative feeling of satisfaction, although this satisfaction is not complete," he was quoted as saying.

"The security atmosphere and the climate that exists right now... is not befitting to the people of Iran.

"We must all try so that the reputation of the system is not damaged and to have an open atmosphere for everyone's participation, to remove restrictions and limitations."

Reformists largely boycotted parliamentary elections four years ago, because of the arrest of Mousavi, his wife and Karroubi, but Khatami said their participation in last month's polls showed they accepted the rules.

"The participation of these three honourable figures was very influential in encouraging people to come to the ballot boxes.

"Today this situation should be paid attention to. No one should feel in this election that they have been defeated."
London (AFP) - Ireland's parliament may to fail to appoint a head of government when it meets this week for the first time after an inconclusive election, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Monday.

His remarks follow an election that produced no clear winner but stripped his outgoing coalition of its parliamentary majority, as voters expressed anger over continued austerity policies despite a return to economic growth.

The newly-elected lawmakers are due to gather in parliament on Thursday and in theory appoint a prime minister, and Kenny and other party leaders are expected to be proposed to lead a government.

But despite efforts to court smaller parties and independent politicians, Kenny warned it was possible no one could reach the required support of half the 158 representatives in the house.

"The indications are that nobody will be elected as taoiseach (prime minister) on Thursday," Kenny told reporters, according to the Irish Independent.

Kenny indicated that he would continue as acting prime minister until a government could be formed.

"For me the work of government goes on," Kenny said.

"I am prepared obviously in my capacity as taoiseach to work for the formation of a government that the country deserves and that the people need."

The election last month returned no obvious grouping with the ability to form a government, leaving Ireland the latest eurozone country to face political uncertainty, echoing results in Portugal and Spain.

Kenny's Fine Gael has 50 seats and nearest rivals Fianna Fail have 44, both far short of the 80 needed for a majority.

Analysts have said the clearest option would be for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to strike a deal together for a minority government or a coalition, but though the two are both centrist parties they have deep divisions dating back to a 1920s civil war and any agreement would be politically difficult.
By Phil Stewart and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A red-bearded Islamic State commander described by American officials as the group's de facto minister of war may have been killed in an air strike in Syria on Friday by the U.S.-led coalition, several U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, ranked among the most wanted militants under a U.S. reward program that offered up to $5 million for information to help remove him from the battlefield. Born in 1986 in Georgia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union, Shishani had a reputation as a close military adviser to Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was said by followers to have relied heavily on him. He may have been killed during a coalition strike on March 4 near the town of al-Shadadi, which U.S.-backed forces from the Syrian Arab Coalition captured from the Islamic State last month. Still, the United States still appeared unwilling to declare Shishani dead. Two U.S. officials expressed optimism about the strike but acknowledged that a determination about Shishani's fate was not certain and that the results of the operation still were being reviewed. A third official limited himself to saying Shishani was targeted in the strike. A fourth official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the strike targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying Shishani, but declined to offer further details. An official in the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has been fighting Islamic State in the al-Shadadi area, said it had received information al-Shishani was killed but had no details and had been unable to confirm the death. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. The U.S. State Department described Shishani as a senior Islamic State commander and Shura Council member based in al-Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria. It said he was identified as the Islamic State's military commander in a video distributed by the group in 2014. Shishani, whose name was originally Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, oversaw a prison facility near Raqqa where Islamic State possibly held foreign hostages. If confirmed, the strike would be one of the most successful operations to take out Islamic State's leadership in Iraq and Syria since May, when U.S. special operations forces killed the man who directed the group's oil, gas and financial operations. In November, a U.S. air strike killed Islamic State's senior leader in Libya, known as Abu Nabil. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Bill Trott)
True to her word, just a day after unveiling History of Magic in North America  a series of short pieces of original writing aimed at introducing audiences to the pre-Harry Potter world of the upcoming spinoff series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  J.K. Rowling has published the first chapter on the Pottermore website.

Entitled Fourteenth Century  Seventeenth Century, the short explains how the magical communities in North America and Europe had known of each other "long before the immigration of European No-Majs." No-Majs are, of course, the American equivalents of Muggles (as first explained last year).

As with their European counterparts, Rowling says, certain Native American families were "clearly magical," while magic also appeared unexpectedly in families where there hadn't been any known witches or wizards. In a possible nod toward a story that will feature in the trilogy of upcoming films, she describes the legend of the "skin walker," an evil witch or wizard who can transform into an animal at will.

"A legend grew up around the Native American Animagi that they had sacrificed close family members to gain their powers of transformation," she writes. "In fact, the majority of Animagi assumed animal forms to escape persecution or to hunt for the tribe. Such derogatory rumors often originated with No-Maj medicine men, who were sometimes faking magical powers themselves, and fearful of exposure."

Read More: 'Fantastic Beasts' Teaser: Meet the Heroes of 1920s New York

Rowling also explains how, while wands originated across the Atlantic, North American practitioners excelled in animal and plant sorcery, with their "potions in particular being of a sophistication beyond much that was known in Europe."

The second story, to be posted Wednesday, will look at the dangers of being a North American witch or wizard in the 17th century, while Thursday's short will examine the manner in which the local wizarding community was driven deeper underground in the 18th century. The final section of History of Magic in North America, to be posted on the Pottermore website Friday, goes through to the Roaring 1920s, the setting for Fantastic Beasts.
By Robin Respaut and Brian Thevenot (Reuters) - Near the end of his eight years as Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal, a tax-slashing conservative and presidential hopeful, acknowledged that the state's business tax breaks had gone too far. "The truth is, we have a system of corporate welfare," Jindal said during an April speech to legislators. The comment resonates now as the state faces its worst budget crisis in three decades - largely because of the soaring cost of subsidies, as well as personal income tax cuts, championed by Jindal. Business tax subsidies peaked in 2012, when the state exempted 88 percent of corporate income taxes, or about $1.8 billion. It has exceeded 80 percent since then, according to the Louisiana Department of Revenue. For a graphic showing how corporate tax exemptions soared as state revenue fell, see http://tmsnrt.rs/1T7qbm9 Plummeting oil prices dealt the latest blow to state revenues. Deficits are projected at $940 million for the fiscal year ending June 30 and about $2 billion for next year. Its gotten pretty bad, pretty rapidly, said the state legislature's chief economist, Greg Albrecht, who believes Louisiana is heading into a recession. Jindal has kept a low profile since leaving office in January and could not be reached for comment. In a January speech, he highlighted efforts to cut government and stimulate the economy without raising taxes. "You look at the projects  the employers coming in and those who are expanding  weve seen tremendous progress," he said. RISING STAR In 2008, when Jindal became governor at 36, he was a rising GOP star, often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate. He cultivated that image, staking his political fortunes on a platform of slashing taxes, dismantling big government and attracting business. The next year, Jindal helped push through legislation to cut personal income taxes and worked to enhance Louisiana's already robust corporate tax breaks. In July of 2009, he signed bills that created or expanded nine tax credits to sectors including film, port cargo and infrastructure. The credits are typically worth 20 to 40 percent of a company's in-state spending, or in some cases spending on payroll or research. In all, annual corporate tax exemptions rose during Jindal's term by about $1 billion, to $1.96 billion in 2014, according to state data. His tax-cutting hit a wall in 2013 when he failed to convince a Republican-controlled legislature to abolish personal and business income taxes. "He really wanted to go to a national stage, run for president, and say he repealed the personal income tax," said Robert Travis Scott, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, a nonpartisan organization. Many of Jindal's political successes had consequences for Louisiana's budget. A state-commissioned study found that film tax credits, for example, cost the state an estimated $171 million in 2014. The state ends up with the short end of the stick, said Loren Scott, author of the study, which also found some economic benefits. Among the biggest beneficiaries of Louisiana subsidies is the petrochemical industry. One massive project under construction in Southwestern Louisiana - Sempra Energy's $6 billion liquefied natural gas processing complex and export terminal - will receive a $2.2 billion property tax break over a decade, records show. The plant will create 130 permanent jobs with average salaries of $80,000, records show. The California-based company also got rebates on some payroll costs and a capital investment tax credit. Louisiana's subsidies are getting more scrutiny in the budget crisis. Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, who took office in January, has proposed cutting incentives but faces resistance from Republican legislators and business groups. The previous administration," Edwards said, "blew a hole in our state budget by writing checks for tax credits, rebates, or refunds to corporations with no consideration of whether Louisiana receives a good return on our investment. Jindal advisor Curt Anderson said the subsidies resulted in new jobs and higher wages. His decision to shrink the government and grow the private sector economy was purposeful." Business groups continue to support the incentives, saying they are invaluable to the state economy. "In terms of economic development, Jindal was an outstanding governor," said Michael Hecht, president of Greater New Orleans Inc. "Corporations are being scapegoated." Falling oil prices and personal income tax cuts also played major roles in the crisis, according to state data. Oil-related revenues are projected to drop by nearly $400 million this fiscal year, the data shows. Personal income tax breaks pushed by Jindal and predecessor, Democrat Kathleen Blanco, reduced revenues by about $800 million annually, said Albrecht, the state economist. Most Louisiana business subsidy programs preceded the Jindal administration, but their use and cost shot up during his tenure, said Jan Moller, director of the nonpartisan Louisiana Budget Project. The governor, he said, directed state economic development officials to "aggressively pursue companies and give them as many incentives as possible." CRISIS MANAGEMENT As Louisiana faced mounting shortfalls, Jindal sought solutions that didn't involve raising taxes. Despite the fact that the state was hemorrhaging money, he just wanted to keep his tax virginity for his presidential campaign, said Edward Chervenak, a political science professor at the University of New Orleans, echoing a theme common among Democrats and Republicans alike in the state. Having signed a pledge not to raise taxes, Jindal turned to one-time fixes, such as offering tax amnesty to delinquent taxpayers and raiding state trust funds. That included drawing down $520 million from the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly and $540 million from a reserve fund for state employee healthcare, according to Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy. Jindal failed last year to sell the state's tobacco settlement, worth $1.2 billion over time, for an upfront lump sum of $750 million - a move Kennedy compared to "a junkie selling his TV or smartphone to buy another fix." Lawmakers now face tough choices. Healthcare and education budgets - particularly colleges - already have been slashed and could see more cuts. And legislators are considering raising sales taxes by up to 2 cents. State Representative Julie Stokes, a Republican from the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, said her GOP colleagues have been reluctant to raise taxes, and she understands. "Look, I dont want to talk about it - Im a conservative Republican from a conservative Republican district," she said. "But I just feel like weve got to lose the talking points and have an honest dialogue. (Editing by Sue Horton and Lisa Girion)
By Duncan Miriri NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Uchumi Supermarkets plans to draw up a timeline for a much-needed capital injection after it receives a report this week from advisers lining up investors, the chief executive said. Uchumi has been battling to stay afloat since it fired its previous CEO in June for "gross misconduct", launched an audit into where cash from a rights issue had gone and reported an annual loss of 3.6 billion shillings ($35.5 million). New Chief Executive Julius Kipng'etich was appointed five months ago to rescue Kenya's only listed supermarket chain. He has overseen the closure of its loss-making Ugandan subsidiary, more than halved the workforce and announced land sale plans. "The big decisions have been implemented. Injection of capital is the only piece remaining," he told Reuters. "We are looking for somebody who wants to build on the Uchumi name, its current locations, the goodwill it has as a 40-year old company," he said in an interview. Uchumi secured shareholder approval in January for a recapitalisation of up to 5 billion shillings to help turn the firm around and appointed Kenya's Pamoja Capital to lead the search for a potential investor. "Pamoja Capital is working on inviting a new shareholder so this week they will give us feedback and then we shall draw a timeline," Kipng'etich said. "If it is a private equity fund, for example, who is looking at the next five to seven years. That would be nice." RETAIL COMPETITION Uchumi shares have more than halved in value so far this year and are down 63 percent from last year's peak. Competition in Kenya's retail sector has been growing as foreign firms look to capitalise on low penetration of the formal retail sector, estimated by analysts at just 25-30 percent of the population. Kipng'etich said he was not worried by the entry of French retail giant Carrefour through a franchisee, as it was targeting affluent shoppers while Uchumi was focused on middle income earners. He said the cash from the recapitalisation was needed in tranches over the next one and a half years, for Uchumi to settle debts with suppliers and restock. Uchumi reported losses of 1 billion shillings in the six months to the end of December after a loss for the 12 months to the end of June 2015 of 3.6 billion shillings, which was restated from 3.2 billion due to the malpractices uncovered. The new investor would need patience at first but could expect strong returns in two years, he said, adding that Uchumi was also talking to existing shareholders about the injection. "It can be anybody, even an individual with deep pockets and patience at the beginning, because it will take one or two years to clean up house and then we can look at exponential growth." Kipng'etich said Uchumi plans to double its stores to 50 in the next three years before expanding into other African markets using the franchise model. "There is nothing wrong with expansion but we have to do it right. Of course if you choose the wrong locations, you will get burnt," he said, blaming the poor locations of its stores in Uganda for forcing them to shut. "Once you get it right and duplicate it across Africa you will be a winner," Kipng'etich said. ($1 = 101.4500 Kenyan shillings) (Editing by David Clarke)
The kidnapped son of a slain Pakistani governor was reunited with his family on Wednesday, declaring it was "good to be back" after nearly five years in Taliban captivity.

Sporting a freshly-trimmed beard and long hair in images released by the military, Shahbaz Taseer appeared healthy as relatives greeted him at Lahore airport just over a week after his father's Islamist killer was hanged.

"We're very, very, very happy and this is the start of a new life for us," his sister Sanam Taseer told AFP over the phone. "It's a beautiful day."

"We're so happy," added his aunt Ayesha Tammy Haq.

Taseer later posted a public message on Facebook via his wife Maheen's account. "I dont know my facebook password. But good to be back dude!- shabby," he wrote, signing off with his nickname.

The circumstances surrounding Taseer's freedom from captivity remain murky.

On Tuesday authorities announced they raided a compound in the Kuchlak district of restive southwestern Balochistan province, where they found Taseer alone. It was not immediately clear when the raid took place.

Taseer had been abducted by Islamist gunmen from Lahore in August 2011, months after his father was killed for opposing the country's controversial blasphemy laws.

The governor's assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29 in what analysts described as a "key moment" in Pakistan's long battle with extremism. The execution, together with Shahbaz's release, have come as welcome news to Pakistan's long beleaguered liberals, under fire since an Islamist insurgency rose up against the state more than a decade ago.

- Restaurant raid? -

The official account of a raid on a compound has been contradicted by two brothers who own a roadside restaurant in Kuchlak.

Speaking to AFP on Wednesday, the younger brother said Taseer, looking unkempt with a straggly beard, had walked in about 5:30pm on Tuesday, appearing nervous and repeatedly asking to borrow a phone.

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"I refused because he looked suspicious and I did not want any trouble," the owner told AFP.

The young man then approached a group of Pashtun men whom he spoke to in their native Pashto language.

"He then went outside and looked like he was waiting for someone. I think he was able to borrow someone's phone and send out a message," the owner added.

A group of around a dozen paramilitary troops and plainclothes officials arrived, and Taseer was bundled into a four-wheel drive vehicle which then sped off, he said.

- On the move -

During his custody, Taseer was moved between locations in the tribal areas and militant outfits, according to multiple rebel commanders.

A Taliban commander in the country's northwest told AFP late Tuesday that Taseer was initially abducted by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian group that is mainly based out of Punjab, which handed him over to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).

Taseer spent most of his time with TTP fighters who kept him in separate locations in North and South Waziristan, and in areas close to the Afghan border, he added.

Two other militant commanders said he was later handed over to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan which maintains close ties to Al-Qaeda.

They insisted he was treated well. "Taseer liked to play cricket and so militants had provided him a bat and ball," one commander told AFP.

Speculation has been rife that Taseer was released as a result of a ransom being paid to his Taliban captors, with some militant sources placing the figure at tens of millions of dollars.

But a senior intelligence official in Quetta however told AFP Taseer had managed a daring escape. "He is a brave man and fought well. We must praise him," he said.
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and nine others were wounded by a Palestinian wielding a knife in the popular Jaffa port area of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, authorities said, while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was in a meeting a few kilometers away. The attack took place along a boardwalk near a beach popular with tourists. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said four of the wounded had severely injuries. "A terrorist, an illegal resident who came from somewhere in the Palestinian territories, came here to Jaffa and embarked on a run ... along the boardwalk. On his way he indiscriminately stabbed people," Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai told Army Radio. He said a police officer had eventually caught up with the attacker and shot him dead. Biden arrived in Israel late on Tuesday for a two-day visit, and was meeting former Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jaffa around the time of the boardwalk attack. Three Palestinian assailants were killed earlier on Tuesday after carrying out separate attacks against Israelis. (Reporting by Rami Amichay; Writing by Ari Rabonovitch; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
The Hague (AFP) - A special court set up to try the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Tuesday quashed on appeal the conviction of a senior TV journalist accused of obstructing justice.

Al-Jadeed television's deputy chief editor, Karma Khayat, had in September been cleared of one charge of contempt of court after her station published details of the witnesses in the highly-sensitive trial.

The television station had also been cleared of all accusations of contempt brought against it.

But Khayat was found guilty by the tribunal based in The Hague on a lesser charge of obstruction of justice for failing to remove the broadcast from the TV's website and social media as ordered.

On Tuesday, an appeals hearing agreed Khayat should also be acquitted of this charge.

It also dismissed an order that she pay a 10,000 euros ($11,000) fine and upheld the acquittal of the TV station, which the prosecution had sought to appeal.

The appeals court "reverses Ms Al Khayat's conviction ... for knowingly and wilfully interfering with the administration of justice by failing to remove from Al Jadeed TVs website and Al Jadeed TVs YouTube channel information on purported confidential witnesses," the panel ruled.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up in 2007, and is the only international ad-hoc tribunal with the jurisdiction to try an act of terror.

It is specifically trying suspects charged with the murder of Hariri, killed with 22 others in a massive suicide car bombing on the Beirut waterfront on February 14, 2005.

Al-Jadeed -- which had been critical of Hariri -- broadcast five programmes in August 2012 on the alleged witnesses due to testify at the trial.

Five suspected members of the Iran-backed powerful Lebanese Shiite militia, Hezbollah, have been indicted by the court.

Their trial in absentia opened in January 2014, but despite international warrants for their arrest, the five are yet to appear in court.
By Claire Milhench LONDON (Reuters) - A court case over the leadership claims of two rival heads of Libya's $67 billion sovereign wealth fund was adjourned in London's High Court on Monday, the judge declaring it would be premature to rule while moves were afoot to form a government of national accord. Both Hassan Bouhadi, appointed by the internationally recognised government based in Tobruk, and AbdulMagid Breish both claim to be rightful chairman of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) - a long-running dispute that mirrors the fragmented nature of the country since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Tobruk government is challenged by a rival administration backing Breish and based in Tripoli. Both claim rights to the country's resources. Judge William Blair's decision on the first day of a hearing followed arrival of a letter from the British Foreign Office, which was read out in court, on prospects for establishment of a Government of National Accord under U.N auspices that could effectively end the dispute. Fayez Serraj, named in the Libya Political Agreement as head of the presidency council, was currently putting together a cabinet of ministers. The leadership of the LIA would be clarified as soon as possible after approval of that cabinet. "In those circumstances, the court considers that it would be premature today to decide the issues before it," said Justice Blair, adjourning the case. The LIA wants to pursue Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale in the English courts for more than $3 billion it claims was mismanaged. Both banks have rejected the allegations. Breish welcomed the decision. "We must not lose sight of the main objective  to return the assets that we believe have been stolen from the Libyan people," he said. Bouhadi said he was optimistic there would soon be an established government of national accord. "However, until then, the board of directors of the LIA has a duty to do everything it can do to protect the assets of the LIA." (Reporting by Claire Milhench; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Over 500 authors, actors, experts and luminaries including Buzz Aldrin, Carrie Brownstein, Arianna Huffington and James Patterson are scheduled to appear at this year's two-day event, taking place from April 9

Billed as America's largest literary and cultural festival, it's an event focused as much on the exchange of ideas and creativity as it is on celebrating the written word.



As such there will be over 100 ticketed conversations dissecting everything from the presidential elections to the art of the short story alongside art exhibitions, live musical performances and of course the LA Time Book Prize ceremony.

As well as 10 nominated categories, this year's ceremony will see James Patterson receive the Innovator Award and US poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

The 2015 Annual Festival of Books will be held at the University of Southern California.
Bamako (AFP) - Two hundred young Malian jihadists are ready to lay down their weapons as part of a new government and civil society deradicalisation programme, its organisers said Tuesday.

Some of the youths, aged between 16 and 30, had mounted attacks in the central Mopti region over the past year as members of the Macina Liberation Front, sources within the campaign said.

"For the last few weeks, we have overseen talks with and an awareness campaign for young people who had joined radical armed groups in the centre of Mali," said Hama Cisse, a former mayor of a Mopti district.

"Two hundred of them agreed to lay down their weapons and leave the ranks of the jihadists," he added.

"They are currently still in the Mopti region to convince their peers to give up their weapons," Cisse said.

Mopti borders the northern area of Mali that was overrun by Al-Qaeda-linked extremist groups and Tuareg-led rebels in 2012.

Those involved in central Mali's jihadist demobilisation drive include representatives from central and local governments, religious leaders and other prominent figures, campaigners told AFP.

The young people were not being paid to leave but had received free meals, they said.

Some of them had supplied information about attacks they were involved in, said Ousmane Diallo, a member of the collective, while others admitted they were part of small cells attacking civilians and symbolic government targets.

"These young people are our children. The majority didn't really know what they were doing. It makes sense to have intervened," said imam Hamadou Cisse, a civil society group member.

Malian, French and UN forces are attempting to maintain order over vast stretches of desert where extremist groups roam after being ousted from key northern towns after a French-led intervention in 2013.

The encroachment of armed groups beyond the country's troubled north and into the centre and south of the country was raised as an area of concern by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report last month.
On paper, the notion of Marco Rubio as the Republican nominee for president made sense.

The Florida senator was supposed to be the new face of the Republican Party. He had an inspiring, made-for-TV-ads life story: A son of working class Cuban immigrants, Rubio fought his way through Florida state politics to the United States Senate. His struggles with student debt allowed him to speak personally about the price of getting ahead. Though young, his wife and four children grounded him and made him a family man who could speak about wanting a secure, prosperous future for his kids.

But now Rubio is reeling, and he finds himself far behind Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the race for delegates. His campaign is making its last stand in Florida, but even a victory there would still leave him with a decidedly narrow path to the nomination, one that would involve a knock-down, drag-out fight on the floor of the convention.

When CNN reported Monday that the Rubio campaign was embroiled in an internal debate about whether to get out of the race before the Florida primary, based in part on sources' expectations of a weak Tuesday showing, campaign spokesman Alex Conant pushed back hard. He called the CNN story  which also described Rubio himself as still bullish on forging on  "utter nonsense" and "100% absolutely false," and forecasted "a new day on the campaign after we win Florida."

But, campaign denials notwithstanding, the delegate math remains the same. Without a come-from-behind victory on March 15, the senator's own Sunshine State could mean the sunset of his presidential ambitions.

A daunting climb ahead: Rubio's most passionate supporters saw a Republican Jack Kennedy, a scrappy man bursting with energy who could unite a fractured GOP  appealing to social conservatives while sending a message, in fluent Spanish if need be, that the Republican Party wasn't just for old white guys.

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"What's great about Marco is this election is not just about the White House. This election is about the future of the Republican Party," Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, Rubio's New York State chair, told Mic.

"[He is] someone who, because of his life experience, and his ethnicity and his youth, can grow our party and bring new people [who] have never voted before," said the 35-year-old lawmaker, herself the daughter of immigrants from Cuba and Greece.

Rubio has battled his way to the Final Four of the fight for the GOP nomination, staying in the race against frontrunner Donald Trump, fellow Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

But the losses have piled up. A pair of robotic stumbles made Rubio seem plastic in New Hampshire, where he finished fifth. Trump then won a decisive victory over him in South Carolina, despite Rubio's marquee endorsements from Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy. Rubio then finished a distant second in Nevada, where Trump ran up the score with his biggest victory at that point in the campaign.

Rubio won only one state on Super Tuesday, pulling out a victory in Minnesota. Under fire from Trump, Rubio went to the mat in Thursday's Republican debate. The ensuing verbal firefight degenerated into personal sniping about the size of hands and other things  and may have resulted in more damage to Rubio's image than his rival's.

On Super Saturday, Trump went on to victories in Louisiana and Kentucky while Cruz carried Kansas and Maine. Despite a final sprint on the stump, Rubio finished fourth in Maine and third everywhere else. Both Cruz and Trump called on him to quit. Rubio won Sunday's Puerto Rico primary, earning just his second victory to date.

Rubio's prospects for Tuesday, when voters head to the polls in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi, aren't encouraging. Michigan is the biggest prize, and the latest surveys suggest Rubio may not even reach the 15% support threshold needed to score at-large delegates there.

Fight for Florida: Third or even fourth place finishes on Tuesday aren't going to provide the kind of adrenalin Rubio needs as he takes the fight to his home state, which votes in a week.

"I think he's in trouble in Florida," Daniel Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida, told Mic.

Smith notes that Rubio won his Senate seat in a three-way 2009 race without capturing a majority of the vote, "So it's not like his statewide base is extensive, nor deep, and the fact of the matter is that we had quite a bit of the party establishment behind Jeb Bush."

Bush, the former Florida governor and the brother and son of Presidents George W. and George H. W., suspended his campaign after an underwhelming finish in South Carolina.

But thanks to state laws that allow voting well before the physical polls open, Smith said, "Many people actually cast ballots when Jeb Bush was still in the running here in Florida, and you can't take those back  and I think we just have not seen a presence of a ground game here in this must-win state for Marco Rubio."

Importantly, Smith noted, about a third of voters under 30 in Florida are not registered with a party  so they can't vote in the closed primary.

While Florida's Latino population isn't just limited to people of Cuban heritage in the Miami-Dade area  the Puerto Rican population is growing fast around Orlando, for example  Smith says many of those voters are also either not members of a party or are registered as Democrats.

The upshot: Among Florida's young and Latino voters, "There may be an anti-Trump sentiment," Smith said, "but it's not going to be expressed in the primary."

"You've got to win Florida": From a primary standpoint, the second-place finisher in the Sunshine State really is the first-place loser. Unlike other states, Florida will award its 99 delegates on a winner-take-all basis, not proportionally.

Losing Florida would be a humiliating blow to Rubio. He would still have delegates in his column, but showing the party and nation that even his own state prefers another candidate could spook donors and bring his entire rationale into question.

The freshest Florida polls, including one released Monday by Monmouth University, do have some good news for Rubio. The senator trailed Trump by just eight percentage points  a better showing for Rubio than in a Feb. 25 Quinnipiac poll that had him lagging by double digits. Rubio outdid Trump in south Florida and trailed him more closely in the north than statewide.

Rubio's "getting creamed in central Florida, and it looks like Ted Cruz is going to spend a lot of money in central Florida to keep those numbers down," Monmouth's Patrick Murray told Mic. "He's looking to get Rubio out of the race as quickly as possible."

The Monmouth poll found Rubio leads among those who have already voted, but Trump is ahead among those who have yet to do so, and his supporters express the highest degree of loyalty.

It's also possible, Murray said, that Rubio's message is unhelpfully muddy: "He doesn't have a clear identity because he's being sold as the establishment candidate, but he's a favorite among social conservatives as well."

As Heath Brown, a professor at the Graduate Center, CUNY, put it, Rubio "can't run to the right of Cruz and  because of his flirtations with the Gang of Eight  can't run to the right of Trump on immigration."

So Rubio, Brown told Mic, "has been left running as a moderate  but an awkward moderate, given how strongly he allied himself with the Tea Party just six years ago."

Low road peril: Yes, Rubio did "get Trump to reference his genitalia" in the last debate, which Murray said "turned off some people" and illustrated "why you actually have to go down to Trump's level" to really set him off and inflict damage.

The problem? Going there "means you're willing to sacrifice yourself," Murray told Mic, and "I don't think Rubio was willing to sacrifice himself."

Rubio will have to walk the Trump-Cruz tightrope again when the GOP candidates face off Thursday for their next debate in Miami.

But first, on Wednesday, Rubio will take center stage  without his competitors  in a town hall forum sponsored by MSNBC at Florida International University. During that hour of questioning, the Floridian may have his best chance to make his case to his state, his party and his country.

If he doesn't prevail on Tuesday, despite his insistence that he's committed to the fight, Rubio might have to face the stinging reality that this quest for the White House will end in Florida, where it all began.
By Victoria Bryan BERLIN (Reuters) - Hotel group Marriott International is concerned about tourist bookings in Paris this summer after November's attacks on the French capital, an executive at the firm said on Tuesday. Marriott, whose brands include the Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Autograph and Courtyard and which has 15 hotels in Paris, is working with the city's tourist office and adapting some of its pricing in a bid to get travelers back there. "Paris is the one that concerns us, but for the rest of(Europe) we don't think there's any reason why we shouldn't get strong leisure travel," Amy McPherson, Marriott Europe head, told Reuters at the IHIF hotels conference in Berlin. McPherson said business travel bookings were doing better than expected right now, with January and February being ahead of budget and she expected the good momentum to continue. Europe's hotel industry grew faster than the United States in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the first time since 2010, with growth of 6.9 percent to $83.94 against a rise of 6.3 percent to $78.65 for the U.S., a report from analysts STR said. Europe benefited from the weak euro and also attacks in North Africa pushing demand to Europe, the report found. McPherson said places such as Barcelona, London and Portugal were enjoying increased demand. While Marriott had expected RevPAR to fall in Russia last year due to the crisis there, it had actually increased because Russians chose to travel within their own country instead of abroad, more than making up for a decline in overseas guests. Earlier Marriott said it will double in size in Europe due to its takeover of Starwood, announced late last year. Marriott has 61,000 rooms open in Europe, to which Starwood will add 40,500. The two companies' pipeline of 21,500 planned hotel rooms means it will have more than 123,000 open or signed rooms once the deal completes in mid-2016. The combined group will have 30 brands, but McPherson said there were no plans to get rid of any of them because they appealed to different customers. (This story has been refiled to add dropped word "Europe" to quote in paragraph 3) (Editing by Alexander Smith)
Commentry (France) (AFP) - Race leader Michael Matthews took his second stage victory at this year's Paris-Nice after Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni was disqualified from Tuesday's sprint finish.

Australian Matthews was blocked in by Bouhanni, who swerved wildly towards the Orica GreenEdge rider just 20 yards from the line.

The 25-year-old Matthews, the race leader who also won Sunday's opening prologue, looked set to storm past the Cofidis rider down the inside before Bouhanni leant into the Aussie, practically pushing him into the side railing.

"I think Bouhanni changed his line. I nearly crashed," said Matthews, who was visibly upset with the Frenchman after crossing the finish line.

"It's always difficult to sprint at the end of such a long stage.

"It's unfortunate but either way I would have won because I was coming around him and I would have won if we hadn't touched. Two out of three, it's exceptional."

His stage two victory allowed Matthews to extend his race lead as he took a 10-second bonus on the line.

Italy's Niccolo Bonifazio was promoted to second with Bouhanni, 25, demoted to third on the stage, a 214km run from Contres to Commentry.

A furious Bouhanni refused to accept responsibility for his error.

"It's nonsense! It was very tight at the end," he said.

"I moved left and tried to get to the barriers. He (Matthews) was next to the barriers.

"We touched in the last 20 metres. He was the first one to initiate contact."

Matthews now leads Dutchman Tom Dumoulin by 14sec in the overall standings with New Zealander Patrick Bevin third at 19sec, the same time as Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, one of the favourites for the final victory.

Reigning champion Richie Porte of Australia is 10th overall at 27sec with two-time former Tour de France winner Alberto Contador 18th at 33sec.

A four-man breakaway of Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay, Matthias Brandle, Anthony Delaplace and Evaldas Siskevicius had spent almost 200km in the lead but the last two remnants, Brandle and Siskevicius, were finally caught 12km from the end.

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That set up a sprint finish in which Matthews, racing in his first event of 2016, came up trumps after a review by the race commissaires.

Wednesday's third stage is a 168km run from Cusset to Mont Brouilly, north of Lyon, with its 3km finishing climb at an average 7.7 percent gradient that favours specialist punchers.

Matthews is expecting the challengers to come thick and fast on the uphill finish.

"Of course tomorrow (Wednesday) will be hard for everyone. We climbed Mont Brouilly in Paris-Nice two years ago but we finished at the bottom, not the top," said the Orica man.

"It will definitely be interesting to see what I can do and how the other teams will react."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is presenting an exhibition entitled "Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play" that explores photography and crime featuring 70 works drawn from the Met's collection. It runs from March 7 until July 31, 2016.

This exhibition will provide visitors with an overview of how photographs have been used in criminal investigations, evidence gathering and to identify suspects and their wrong-doing. The works on display will range from the 1850s to the present. In addition to photography, the "Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play" exhibition will have education programs that include exhibition tours and gallery conversations.

Exhibition Highlights:

Among the highlights of the exhibition is Alexander Gardner's photographic documentation of the events following the assassination of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865, including an image of Lewis Powell, who was a conspirator in the assasination. He also attempted to kill the then U.S. Secretary of State, William H. Seward. Also on display will be rare forensic photographs taken by the French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon. He is responsible for creating the system of criminal identification that led to the modern mug shot we know today. The exhibition will also feature a selection of vintage news photographs related to world famous criminal cases including a study of bank robber John Dillinger's feet in a morgue in Chicago in 1934. Further highlights include a 1963 photo of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, the man responsible for the assassination of U.S. John F. Kennedy.

Crime Inspired Photography:

In addition to examining photography's use in criminal investigations, "Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play" will present photographs by artists who have drawn inspiration from the criminal world, including pieces by Richard Avedon, Larry Clark, Walker Evans, John Gutmann and Andy Warhol.



"Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play" will be held in The Howard Gilman Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue. It is organized by a team in the Department of Photographs. For more information and to buy tickets see: http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/met-fifth-avenue
Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's government sought Monday to counter a PR offensive by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, vowing to maintain his tough prison conditions and denying claims that the drug kingpin had sneaked into the US while on the run.

Guzman's relatives and lawyers have given a series of interviews in recent weeks, claiming that the authorities were mistreating him and putting his health at risk by waking him up in the middle of the night.

"The government warns that there is an open media strategy by this individual, his defense team and other people," National Security Commissioner Renato Sales told a hastily arranged news conference.

"We will not cede to speculations whose only goal is to divert attention and victimize this person to soften his surveillance."

Sales defended the measures taken by the government to prevent the Sinaloa drug cartel leader from escaping prison for a third time, saying that the law allows the authorities to implement special security for organized crime suspects.

A guard wearing a camera on a helmet is permanently posted outside his cell, authorities wake him up every four hours to ensure he is still alive, and they regularly move him to new sleeping quarters without warning.

"We can't forget that Joaquin Guzman Loera has deeply harmed our society," Sales said.

Guzman humiliated President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration when he escaped in July through a hole in his cell's shower, which led to a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel. He was recaptured on January 8 in his home state of Sinaloa.

Sales also rejected claims made by a woman identified as one of Guzman's daughters, Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, a California resident who was interviewed by the Guardian newspaper.

She told the London-based daily that the capo visited relatives in the United States twice while he was on the lam and that he was protected by corrupt Mexican officials.

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"These are allegations that lack supporting evidence, whose only goal is to discredit the institutions," Sales said in the first official response to the report.

The Guardian said it had verified her identity, but the Mexican attorney general's office said it was working to confirm if she is really Guzman's daughter.

Prosecutors said they would nevertheless investigate the woman's claims.

Guzman's lawyer said last week that his client's prison conditions have become so unbearable that he now wants to be extradited to the United States as soon as possible.

But Jose Manuel Merino, a senior official at the attorney general's office, told a news conference that the government was not aware of any such bid by Guzman.
(Reuters) - Democratic senators in Missouri were in the 20th hour of filibuster on Tuesday, trying to block a Republican-proposed amendment to the state constitution that would prohibit penalties on religious groups that discriminate against same-sex couples. The Democratic caucus began the filibuster at 4 p.m. on Monday and members said they planned to continue until Wednesday. A filibuster is a prolonged debate - often around the clock - aimed at blocking progress of an initiative. The proposed amendment in Missouri is the latest in a series of measures introduced around the country by conservatives in reaction to last year's U.S. Supreme Court legalization of same-sex marriage. The measures seek to protect religious groups and companies from being fined or punished if they decline to provide services such as wedding cakes or flowers to same-sex couples. "The most offensive thing is that it would put discriminatory language into the constitution of the state. But it would also put general revenue of the state at risk," Senate Minority Leader Joe Keaveny, a Democrat, told Reuters. He pointed to a similar Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana that led to groups threatening to cancel conventions in Indianapolis. If the resolution to amend the constitution, SJR 39, passes the Senate, it would go to the state's House of Representatives and then to Missouri voters for approval. Republicans dominate both houses of Missouri's General Assembly, with 24 of 34 Senate seats and 116 of 163 House seats. Keaveny said Republicans could respond to the filibuster by forcing a vote on the resolution to amend the constitution, but said that would be an unusual step. They could withdraw the resolution, or put it on an informal calendar to debate at a later date. Republican Senator Bob Onder, who sponsored the resolution, said the resolution does not discriminate, but protects vulnerable religious institutions. "We are fighting for fairness and the right for people to freely live out their faith while not infringing on the rights of others," he said. The language of the proposed amendment says it "prohibits the state from imposing a penalty on a religious organization who acts in accordance with a sincere religious belief concerning same sex marriage, which includes the refusal to perform a same sex marriage ceremony or allow a same sex wedding ceremony to be performed on the religious organization's property." Although the amendment does not mention companies, Keaveny said Democrats believe it would allow businesses to claim religious belief as a defense for refusing service to same-sex couples. (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Dan Grebler)
A mysterious, mile-long landing strip in the remote Nevada desert could be the home base for testing sensors on a top-secret fleet of drones, security experts speculate.

The asphalt landing strip is in Area 6 of the Yucca Flat test site, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of the infamous Area 51 that has long been the subject of conspiracy theories. In Area 6, a handful of hangars with clamshell doors are clustered at one end of the airstrip, images from Google Earth reveal.

The area, which does not have a name, is fenced off and can be seen from the road by those touring the pockmarked Nevada National Security Site of Yucca Flat, where the military conducted hundreds of nuclear tests over several decades. [14 Strangest Sights on Google Earth]

While little is known about Area 6, the Yucca Airstrip is used by both the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, Darwin Morgan, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"They come here to test their own sensors," he recently said after evading questions from the newspaper about Area 6 for months.

Drone base?

Though officials with the government have been extremely reticent to reveal any details about the site, a few details have leaked out.

A 7,500-page tome on nuclear safety at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project includes a brief paragraph describing Area 6 as an "aerial operations facility."

The purpose of this facility is to construct, operate, and test a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles. Tests include, but are not limited to, airframe modifications, sensor operation, and onboard computer development. A small, manned chase plane is used to track the unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a 2008 report in the Yucca Mountain repository license application filed by government contractor Bechtel SAIC, which built the airstrip for $9.6 million.

The airspace above the strip is controlled, which reduces the risk of planes or satellites in space getting a detailed look at the surroundings. It also prevents the public from unintentionally stumbling upon the site, Morgan told the Review-Journal.

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Based on its size, the hangars could house up to 15 MQ-9 Reaper planes, the type of drones used to perform reconnaissance, Tim Brown, an imagery analyst at the defense information website GlobalSecurity.org, told the Review Journal. The runway is too small for fighter jets or bombers, he added.

One possibility is that the remotely piloted planes do practice runs for reconnaissance work. Yucca Flat's high desert terrain echoes that found in the most remote regions of Libya, where Al Qaeda or ISIS operatives could be hiding out, he said.

If that's the case, the government may be testing out sensor arrays  essentially fields of hundreds of smartphone-type cameras that are mounted on planes such as the MQ-9 Reaper to take time-lapse photography. The idea is that anything out there that's moving could, in fact, be moved by a potential terrorist or bad actor, Brown said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Almost 40 years after it gave chase to the space shuttle Enterprise, a NASA jet is about to catch up with the prototype winged orbiter at a museum in New York City.

The two-seat, supersonic T-38 Talon jet, tail number 913, is set to land on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, a converted aircraft carrier berthed on the west side of Manhattan, in early April. Enterprise has been on display at the Intrepid since 2012.

"This is the perfect airplane to enhance Enterprise's story," said Eric Boehm, the curator of aviation at the Intrepid, in an exclusive interview with collectSPACE.com. [Photos: NASA's Amazing T-38 Supersonic Jet Planes]

The no. 913 T-38 was one of several such jets that flew as the chase planes for NASA's 1977 Approach and Landing Test (ALT) program. Carried piggyback and released from atop a modified Boeing 747 jet, the Enterprise proved that the space shuttle orbiter could safely land as a glider.

"It was an amazing test program that had to happen before the other orbiters flew in space," said Boehm.

After the ALT program, T-38 913 (N913NA) was used as a training jet, flown by astronauts to gain experience working in a high-pressure environment and to keep up their flight proficiency. Built by Northrop (now Northrop Grumman) in 1965 and delivered to NASA in 1969, T-38 913 flew for 38 years in support of the space program.

Landing 913

Boehm knew that he wanted a T-38 from the ALT program since Enterprise arrived at the Intrepid and took its place in its Space Shuttle Pavilion.

"We have always had space exhibits here with the Intrepid having recovered Mercury and Gemini missions. But with Enterprise here, now we have this whole new tangent," he said.

Hearing that NASA was surplusing part of the fleet, Boehm watched the listings of the General Services Administration (GSA) until he spotted a plane that matched his criteria.

"I had four tail numbers I could for sure say were there for the 1977 ALT program and I just started stalking them," he said. "If I recall, there were five states' historic preservation offices that were vying for this plane. I thought we were a shoo-in given the tie to Enterprise and it turned out that we were, because we got it."

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Boehm recruited Whisler Aviation, a company specializing in the disassembly and transportation of aircraft, to pick up T-38 913 from NASA's depot in El Paso, Texas and deliver it the Intrepid in New York City. But first, it needed a paint job.

Going retro

"It is very important to us to tell the Enterprise's story with this airplane," Boehm explained. "So we're backdating the paint scheme to its 1977 livery."

Although NASA's T-38 jets have always been mostly white with two-tone blue stripes running down the sides, their tail markings have changed over the past four decades. When it was retired, 913's vertical stabilizer displayed the current livery featuring a basic version of NASA's vector logo. But at the time it accompanied Enterprise in flight, its tail was different.

"It had a raw yellow band with black cheat lines on either side of the yellow and 'NASA' in black italicized," described Boehm. "For the most part, it had a similar paint scheme [to the modern livery], it just didn't have the NASA swoop."

Fortunately for Boehm, Whisler Aviation also had a paint shop that could do the job at its fixed-based operation in Seward, Nebraska. But the Intrepid did not have the funds to underwrite the livery-change.

Enter Charles de Gunzburg, the former co-chairman and a current trustee at the Intrepid, with his wife Nathalie.

"We were able to afford to move this airplane from Texas to New York, but I really wanted that paint job and Charles stepped right up," Boehm said. "Charles has been a great friend of this museum. An aviation enthusiast, Charles has donated for our education programs, he's donated for our aircraft programs and with this airplane."

"We owe Charles a great debt of gratitude for helping us acquire this airplane," Boehm said. [Retired Astronaut Clayton Anderson Describes His First, Wild T-38 Ride]

On approach

T-38 913 is scheduled to arrive at the Intrepid by way of a Whisler Aviation truck from Nebraska in early April.

"It is not an oversize load, so it will come over the George Washington Bridge," Boehm said. "We will reassemble the aircraft and it will be here for a day and a half to two days before its lifted by crane onto the flight deck."

No longer flightworthy  NASA removed the engines and most of the cockpit instruments to be used as spares for its active T-38 fleet  the Intrepid will need to fabricate some replacement panels and a landing gear door to complete 913's display. The museum will also prepare the jet for its outdoor exhibit.

"Since we are an outdoor museum hanging out over a salt-water environment, we do some further sealing and protect the cockpit by putting a coating on the canopy," explained Boehm. "It makes it look like a big model airplane, but it is more important to keep UV [light] out of the cockpit and the coating can be pulled off quite easily if needed.

"We will also spray the inside with a preservative to inhibit any corrosion," he said.

The Intrepid is planning to celebrate 913's "landing" with a member event and activities for its student visitors (date to be announced). Invitations are also being sent to some of the NASA astronauts who flew the jet, including Karol "Bo" Bobko, who was prime chase pilot for the ALT program.

Although its exact placement is still to be determined, T-38 913 will be displayed near the Space Shuttle Pavilion that houses Enterprise.

"It is going to be a jewel on the flight deck," Boehm said.

See more of Story Musgraves photos of T-38 913 as reprinted from his book, "The NASA Northrop T-38: Photograhic Art From An Astronaut Pilot" at collectSPACE.com.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A mysterious, three-mile high dome seen on Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, has left NASA scientists stumped.

The Dawn probe team has christened the strange mountain Ahuna Mons as the probe circled Ceres at increasingly low altitudes.

From afar, Ahuna Mons looked to be pyramid-shaped, but upon closer inspection, it is best described as a dome with smooth, steep walls.

Dawns latest images of Ahuna Mons, taken 120 times closer than in February 2015, reveal that this mountain has a lot of bright material on some of its slopes, and less on others.

On its steepest side, it is about 3 miles high

No one expected a mountain on Ceres, especially one like Ahuna Mons, said Chris Russell, Dawns principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles.



We still do not have a satisfactory model to explain how it formed.

Ceres has defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways, thanks to a years worth of data from Dawn. We are hard at work on the mysteries the spacecraft has presented to us, said Carol Raymond of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.


The process for switching financial advisors is fairly simple -- usually, it's just signing an electronic form at your new firm. But be warned: You might be setting yourself up for increased tax liability, transfer fees and a roll of red tape.

It helps to understand your real reasons for switching so you can find an advisor who meets your needs. The biggest reasons people switch are a lack of communication, high fees and that many advisors don't get to know their clients before investing for them, says Francesca Federico, co-founder of Twelve Points Wealth Management in Boston.

"This is a very hot topic lately," Federico says. "With the market extremely volatile, where has your advisor been?"

Check your new advisor. If you're considering a switch, use caution. Beware of advisors who promise returns that are better than 10 percent or a withdrawal rate of more than 7 percent. Also see how they are paid and what fees they charge. Variable annuities, for example, shouldn't cost more than 1.5 percent of assets per year. Also check the potential new advisor with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to see if there is any regulatory action against him or her, or if he or she bounces among firms.

Ask if your investments are locked down. Some may carry contracts that tie them up for a certain amount of time. Other products may be proprietary to your former firm. "If your current advisor has sold you an annuity contract and you decide to cash it out and let your new advisor invest the proceeds, you could incur fees over 10 percent of the contract value, which are known as deferred sales charges," says Ryan Kay, financial advisor for AMI Investment Management in Kendallville, Indiana.

Certain mutual funds also have holding period requirements. "If you sell before the period ends, you will incur a penalty fee -- usually about 1 percent," says Carla Dearing, founding CEO of the online financial planning service, SUM180 in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Have your paperwork. At your first meeting, bring a bank statement or copy of a canceled check from your primary checking account, a copy of the last statement for any investment accounts, insurance and annuities that you own. "A screen print of the assets is not enough. It must be a statement and list all of the assets you hold," says Shanna Tingom, co-founder of Heritage Financial Strategies in Gilbert, Arizona. Also bring a copy of your trust -- and for any beneficiaries, you need their names, Social Security numbers and birth dates, Tingom says.

Know the transfer form. Once you've decided where you'll switch, "most accounts are transferred by signing a simple form authorizing your current advisor to send the funds to your new advisor," Kay says.

Make sure information matches. When multiple account transfers occur, the transfers may be rejected, says Fred Hiatt, chief operating officer at Red Door Wealth Management in Memphis, Tennessee. "The No. 1 reason for this is that registration of how the accounts are titled do not match or the Social Security numbers don't match. In other cases, the trust document hasn't been provided," Hiatt says.

Don't ask for a physical check to transfer funds. "The IRS only allows one rollover per year, so if someone has two or three IRAs and they receive checks for the proceeds of all the accounts and deposit with their new advisor, they have violated this rule and will likely be subject to taxes and penalties," Kay says. "Additionally, for nonretirement accounts, if you request a check, your advisor has to liquidate the account and corresponding investments held inside of it. This may subject you to capital gains that could have otherwise been prevented by transferring assets in kind."

Cutting transfer fees. "Some brokerage firms have transfer out fees of $50 to $150 per account, regardless of the size of the account," says Michael J. Howley, relationship manager in Marlton, New Jersey. The fees will likely be listed on the firm's website, but your new firm might help by eating some or all of them if you ask.

Termination fees. Advisors will likely have a management contract and will request a signed letter to terminate a relationship. "Some may have a termination fee that might be based on the term of a relationship, so look closely," Howley says.

The transfer may take a while. Whether your transfer is complicated depends on what you own. Usually stocks, bonds, cash and most mutual funds don't move at all because they're owned by a third party. "The authorization to access them will just change from your old advisor to your new advisor," Dearing says. "On the other hand, if you were invested in proprietary funds offered by your old advisor, it could take months to liquidate your holdings and transfer them."

Taxes. It pays to be careful and ask questions about how the new advisor plans to manage your assets. "There can be serious tax issues if they decide to sell everything in a taxable account in the transfer," Federico says. "I usually suggest moving everything over in kind, so not selling anything and having all of your current investments come over exactly as they were with your current advisor."

Clients should also be aware of any gains that would be generated by the sale and transfer of an account, says Pedro Silva, financial advisor of Provo Financial Services in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

Surrender fees. "Also look for 'B' class shares, which are back-end loaded funds that will charge a termination fee if sold within less than five years. Most insurance annuities will generally have surrender fees that can sometimes take more than 10 years to expire. This information should be in their contract or on the Dec. 31 statement," Howley says.

Ask for a review. Ask your advisor to review your assets and to identify any positions he or she cannot hold, such as a limited partnership or real estate investment trust, Hiatt says. If life insurance or annuities have surrender charges, it is important to make sure your new advisor can accommodate, manage, oversee and become the advisor of record on these products.

Get proof that your former advisor has let go. Once you activate your accounts with your new advisor, it will trigger the transfer from your former firm. You can request that your new advisor handle this step on your behalf; you sign the transfer papers and allow your new advisor to take it from there. "However, don't leave it at that," Dearing says. "Contact your old advisor and obtain proof of rescission of his or her authority to trade your account."

Make a phone call. You'll likely want to skip the face-to-face exit meeting with the old advisor, which has the potential to get emotional, Dearing says. But a courtesy call can facilitate an easier transition, especially since trading should stop during the transfer, and some money market funds may need to be converted to cash to be transferred, says Timothy Shanahan of Compass Securities Corp. in Braintree, Massachusetts.

Follow up. Ask your new advisor to stay on top of the post-transition and to make sure there are no small sums of money that have been deposited into old accounts if dividends or short-term distributions didn't automatically transfer after your transition, Hiatt says.

Christine Giordano is a freelance business journalist with a passion to help consumers make educated decisions. Also a columnist for Newsday, you can follow her on Twitter @chrisgiordano.
Pristina (AFP) - Kosovo's president-elect has pledged to "fully support" a new war crimes court prosecuting members of the guerrilla group he once led -- despite a question mark hanging over whether he himself will be indicted.

Hashim Thaci, elected by parliament in February as the next head of state, made his name as political leader of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought against Serbia for independence in the late 1990s.

But as he prepares to step into the top job next month, speculation is mounting over whether he could be summoned to a court due to open in The Hague this year, trying crimes allegedly committed by senior KLA members.

The court's creation stems from a Council of Europe report in 2011, when Thaci was prime minister. It accused him of heading a mafia-style network involved in assassinations, unlawful detentions and even trafficking captives' organs during and after the war.

Thaci, whose nom de guerre was "the Snake", has consistently denied the explosive claims, telling AFP ahead of his election to the presidency that "under no circumstances did I violate international law".

"I know that the Kosovo struggle and the KLA struggle was a clean and just one. Nobody can rewrite history," the 47-year-old said, stressing Kosovo's full cooperation over the EU-funded court.

"We have met all the requests and demands, and because we have nothing to hide we fully support any attempts to do justice."

The 1998-1999 conflict came to an end when Serbian forces retreated from Kosovo following an 11-week bombing campaign by NATO. Kosovo subsequently became a United Nations protectorate and, under Thaci's leadership, declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

- 'Raising the stakes' -

Seventeen years after the war, the officially-titled "Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution" is being established under Kosovan law, but situated in The Hague to ensure witness protection in the highly sensitive cases.

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Made up of international judges, it is to try "serious crimes allegedly committed in 1999-2000 by members of the KLA against ethnic minorities and political opponents," the Dutch government announced in January.

The indictments will be based on the findings of an EU Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) formed in 2011 to probe allegations in the Council of Europe report.

The SITF's former chief prosecutor said in 2014 that their findings were largely consistent, and included "compelling evidence" to indict certain senior KLA officials for crimes against Serbs, Roma, other ethnic minorities and Albanian opponents.

"On this basis, Thaci should figure among those who will be indicted before the end of this year," a Western diplomat in Kosovo told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Though building a solid prosecution case against Kosovo's most senior political figure will depend on who is willing to testify against him."

The diplomat said Thaci's ascension to head of state "will raise the stakes in any indictment", but he added that the new president "will be eager to clear both his own name, and the reputation of the KLA".

The new SITF chief prosecutor, David Schwendiman, told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network last week that there was "no amnesty" for anyone who violated international humanitarian law.

- 'Political manoeuvre' -

Both ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs in Kosovo are however sceptical about what the new court will achieve and the motivations behind it.

Some witnesses have died, others will have poor memories of events and intimidation is a major concern, analysts say. During previous trials of KLA members, witnesses disappeared or died in suspicious circumstances.

Sceptics also question why action was not taken earlier, either during UN protection or since 2008 by the EU's Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Kosovo.

"The idea for an external court was more of a political manoeuvre by the EU in an attempt to save face after (the) near failure of the EULEX mission," said political scientist Krenar Gashi.

He worried the court was "raising high hopes" among Serbs "for some kind of a political balance" in terms of war crimes trials, which could jeopardise ongoing EU-mediated talks to improve relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

While Thaci, under international pressure, has supported the court's creation, his political rivals -- including some former KLA allies -- have opposed its establishment, seeing it as unconstitutional and an affront to the guerrilla struggle.

Leading opposition figure Albin Kurti suggested a more pressing need was to tackle alleged post-war corruption.

"I don't think that Thaci did many wrong things during the war, I think he did too many wrong things after the war," Kurti said.

As Kosovo struggles to win full recognition of its independence -- still denied by several countries including Serbia -- political analyst Bekim Kupina said the president's indictment would be "a very risky step".

"He represents all citizens of Kosovo... His burden would fall on the whole country."
By Abdoulaye Massalaki NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's opposition coalition said on Tuesday its candidate, Hama Amadou, would not contest a run-off election on March 20, increasing the chances that President Mahamadou Issoufou will win a second term. Amadou has been in prison since November on charges relating to baby-trafficking. He says he is innocent and a victim of political repression. The government denies wrongdoing and says it follows the law. "The Coalition for an Alternative has decided to suspend its participation in the electoral process and asks its representatives to withdraw from the electoral commission," it said in a statement. The coalition denounced Amadou's detention and justified its decision to withdraw by saying the constitutional court had not followed procedure when it announced definitive first-round results on Tuesday and had also not proven its independence. The coalition, which unites about 20 political parties including Amadou's MODEN, also asked its deputies to cease activities at the National Assembly. Issoufou fell just short of outright victory in the first round on Feb. 21 and was expected to win the run-off as several smaller parties have said they will support him. He campaigned on a promise to clamp down on Islamist militants and revive the economy in Niger, one of the world's poorest countries. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in Nigeria, has staged a series of cross-border attacks in Niger's southeastern Diffa region, forcing the government to impose a state of emergency there. Niger produces uranium and oil but is ranked last in the United Nations' Human Development Index and has one of the world's highest fertility rates. It ranks 114th out of 142 countries in the 2015 prosperity index run by the British-based Legatum Institute. (Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Ted Siefer CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors urged a federal judge on Monday to keep a New Hampshire man behind bars while he awaits trial for allegedly helping to orchestrate a high-profile 2014 armed standoff with federal agents. Jerry DeLemus was one of 14 people arrested last week in connection with the confrontation at the Nevada ranch of Cliven Bundy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Johnstone in Concord, New Hampshire, said she would determine at a later date whether to release DeLemus on bail pending his trial. Dozens of flag-waving DeLemus supporters demonstrated outside the courthouse and packed the courtroom during the hearing, applauding as he entered. DeLemus co-chairs the New Hampshire "Veterans for Trump" coalition organized by the presidential campaign of Republican candidate and businessman Donald Trump. Nineteen people, including Bundy and two of his sons, have been indicted in the case brought by Nevada federal prosecutors. The charges stem from a standoff that began when federal agents seized Bundy's cattle over unpaid grazing fees. Militia groups rallied to Bundy's defense, and the government eventually released the cattle it had seized, citing a desire to avoid violence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Zuckerman said in court on Monday that DeLemus was too dangerous to be released, noting that he had brought a large .50 caliber machine gun to the ranch. "With respect to dangerousness, our argument begins and ends with that weapon," he said. But DeLemus' attorney said he was law-abiding and devoutly religious, and that he had sought to bring a peaceful resolution to the standoff. "The government knows he's not dangerous because he's been out for two years and hes been in communication with the FBI," attorney Jonathan Saxe said. Three Republican state legislators and a neighbor testified on DeLemus' behalf. His wife Susan is also a state lawmaker. DeLemus made headlines in January when he traveled to remote eastern Oregon to meet with armed protesters who had taken over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The occupiers were led by Ammon Bundy, another son of Cliven Bundy, who became a symbol of defiance for conservatives following the Nevada standoff. DeLemus said at the time that he was acting on his own and not as a representative of the Trump campaign. He also drew national media attention in June when he proposed holding a contest to draw Muhammad, the prophet in Islam. (Reporting by Ted Siefer; Editing by Joseph Ax and Lisa Von Ahn)
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country has miniaturized nuclear warheads to be mounted on ballistic missiles, the North's KCNA news agency reported on Wednesday. "The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them," KCNA quoted him as saying as he inspected the work of nuclear workers, adding "this can be called true nuclear deterrent." The comments were Kim's first direct mention of the claim previously made repeatedly in the country's state media to have successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead to be mounted on a ballistic missile, which is widely questioned. Kim also inspected the nuclear warheads designed for thermo-nuclear reaction, KCNA said, referring to a hydrogen bomb that the country claimed to have tested in January. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and claimed it was a successful hydrogen bomb test, which was disputed by many experts and the governments of South Korea and the United States. The U.N. Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the isolated state last week for the nuclear test, and Pyongyang has stepped up its belligerent rhetoric through state media. Last week Kim ordered his country to be ready to use nuclear weapons at any time in the face of growing threats from enemies. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by G Crosse and James Dalgleish)
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has tried to hack into email accounts of South Korean railway workers in an attempt to attack the transport system's control system, South Korea's spy agency said on Tuesday. South Korea has been on heightened alert against the threat of cyberattacks by North Korea after it conducted a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month, triggering new U.N. sanctions. South Korea had previously blamed the North for cyberattacks against its nuclear power operator. North Korea denied that. South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement it had interrupted the hacking attempt against the railway workers and closed off their email accounts. The agency issued the statement after an emergency meeting with other government agencies on the threat of cyberattacks by the North. The agency detected hacking attempts by the North against workers for two regional railway networks this year, the spy agency said. "The move was a step to prepare for cyber terror against the railway transport control system," the agency said. It did not elaborate on what it thought North Korea's specific objective was in hacking into the system. An agency official reached by telephone declined to comment. North Korea has been working for years to develop the ability to disrupt or destroy computer systems that control public services such as telecommunications and other utilities, according to a defector from the North. The United States accused North Korea of a cyberattack against Sony Pictures in 2014 that led to the studio cancelling the release of a comedy based on the fictional assassination of the country's leader, Kim Jong Un. North Korea denied the accusation. In 2013, South Korea blamed the North for crippling cyber-attacks that froze the computer systems of its banks and broadcasters for days. New fears of attacks on South Korea's computer systems came as South Korean and U.S. troops conducted large-scale military exercises which North Korea denounced as "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out military offensive. (Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Jonathan Leff

(Reuters) - Major OPEC producers are privately starting to talk about a new oil price equilibrium of $50 a barrel, adding to signs that the market's long, deep rout is officially over, says one of the industry's leading prognosticators.

Gary Ross, the founder, executive chairman and chief oil soothsayer at New York-based consultancy PIRA, told clients 2-1/2 weeks ago that he reckoned the "lows are in" for crude, which was then about $30 a barrel. U.S. futures <CLc1> have rallied since then to close at nearly $36 on Friday, with a handful of analysts also cautiously calling a bottom.

In an interview with Reuters, Ross said oil should recover to $50 a barrel by the end of the year, potentially aided by eventual supply cuts from leading producers among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"They want $50 oil, this is going to become the new anchor for global oil prices," said Ross, one of the industry's most respected forecasters for his bold price predictions and decades-long history of consulting with OPEC members.

"While it may not be an official target price, youll hear them saying it. Theyre trying to give the market an anchor."

If Saudi Arabia and other powerful Gulf OPEC members begin invoking $50 as "fair price for producers and consumers" - a once-favored phrase that has been absent for several years - it may could signal the end of an unusual and extended period in which the group abandoned efforts to manage the market.

After years of signaling satisfaction with prices hovering at around $100 a barrel, top exporter Saudi Arabia in late 2014 led OPEC in its most dramatic policy shift in decades. No longer would the world's top oil exporter, or its OPEC allies, agree to cut their own production to support such high prices, which they feared would erode their share of the world market.

Instead, they would keep pumping and allow prices to fall. While they did not anticipate the longest and deepest oil price rout since the mid-1980s, the effort has at last begun to curb the rise of rival higher-cost producers such as U.S. shale drillers, another sign that prices may have found a bottom.

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In his note to clients, Ross also pointed to the recent agreement between major OPEC members and leading non-OPEC producer Russia to "freeze" production at January levels as a factor boosting market sentiment after a brutal period when the only safe trade seemed to be sell.

The pact will do little to curb immediate oversupply, especially with Iran exports still swelling after the end of sanctions. Still, working together on "verbal intervention" was a positive start that "could lead to eventual cuts" after a period in which Saudi Arabia and Russia made little effort toward any kind of cooperation, he said.

"Russian production is going down anyway, why not agree to a freeze and then cuts?" Ross told Reuters.

The $50 figure was in line with analysts' consensus for 2017 U.S. prices, according to the last Reuters poll, although much higher than the $38 a barrel median for this year. <OILPOLL>

Ross, whose forecasts are not normally made public, was among the few analysts to anticipate OPEC's decision to let prices fall in 2014.

While he was wrong-footed in the first part of last year, when crude's rebound to around $60 a barrel proved temporary, he joined others such as Goldman Sachs in taking a much more bearish view in more recent months, predicting in December that U.S. crude would drop below $30 a barrel in February.

Ever since the market detached from the $100 a barrel figure that anchored it from 2010 to 2014, analysts, traders and executives have struggled to pinpoint where it might ultimately settle, agreeing only that it would be a period of extraordinary volatility in the absence of any overt OPEC guidance.

Officials from less influential members such as Venezuela or Angola have occasionally referenced specific prices, generally in the vicinity of $70 to $80, but the bigger Gulf producers have largely avoided any public mention of a new reference point, leaving the market adrift.

(Reporting by Jonathan Leff; Editing by David Gregorio)
Tel Aviv (AFP) - A Palestinian went on a stabbing spree along the Tel Aviv waterfront Tuesday leaving an American tourist dead and 12 people wounded, police said, as US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in the city.

The attacker, around 21 years old, was from the town of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank and was shot dead by police, Israeli authorities said.

Video showed a man running down a road and lunging at someone through a car window while being chased.

The attack caused panic, and one witness told Israeli television he hit the assailant with his guitar, with a hole visible in the wood of his instrument.

Police said the attacker wounded a number of people in the Jaffa port area, a tourist zone of Israel's commercial capital, before going on toward a restaurant and stabbing others.

Around a 15-minute walk from where the stabbings occurred, Biden met former Israeli president Shimon Peres.

Biden "condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack which occurred in Jaffa during his meeting with president Peres, and commented that there is no justification for such acts of terror," his office said.

"He expressed his sorrow at the tragic loss of American life and offered his condolences to the family of the American citizen murdered in the attack, as well as his wishes for a full and quick recovery for the wounded."

One woman at the scene said "I heard two guys screaming that there was an attack."

"I ran in the opposite direction and ran into a man who was on the ground in his blood," said the woman, who gave her name as Emily.

She said she "covered him with my jacket. He was badly injured and we waited together for the ambulances to come."

The US State Department identified the dead American as Taylor Allen Force, a 29-year-old native of Texas and a US army veteran, and denounced the attack.

- Wave of violence -

Violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October has killed 184 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

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Most of the Palestinians were killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes or demonstrations.

Biden is due to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday.

When meeting Peres on Tuesday, he spoke of an "unvarnished, complete commitment to the security of Israel. And I hope we will make some progress."

The White House has said Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit despite the wave of violence.

The number of attacks had diminished recently, but there were four separate assaults Tuesday.

Two occurred in Jerusalem, including one that saw a Palestinian shoot and seriously wound two Israeli police officers before being shot dead.

Earlier, a Palestinian woman attempted to stab Israeli police forces in Jerusalem's Old City before being shot dead.

Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jew in a liquor store in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.

The victim and owner of the shop pounced on the attacker, seized his weapon and killed him, police said.

Police said they suspected it was a "terrorist" attack but had not excluded other possible motives.

Before Tuesday's violence, Biden's visit had been overshadowed by a new blow to the rocky relationship between US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's decision not to accept an invitation for talks with Obama in Washington later this month "surprised" the White House, which first learned of it through news reports.

Biden's visit comes with Obama having acknowledged there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

- Expecting 'nothing' -

Talks are expected to include discussions on a defence aid package, currently worth some $3.1 billion annually in addition to spending on projects such as missile defence.

Biden and Netanyahu also plan to talk about the fight against the Islamic State group.

But while Obama has resigned himself to not achieving any major breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there have been suggestions he may seek to somehow kick-start peace efforts at a complete standstill for two years.

That has included speculation the United States could break with traditional practice and support a UN resolution related to resolving the conflict, which Israel strongly opposes.

The United States has traditionally vetoed resolutions at the UN Security Council opposed by Israel.

After his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Biden will travel to Jordan.
By Mathieu Rosemain CAIRO (Reuters) - Orange Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard has said he might look into the possibility of a merger deal with Telecom Italia if French billionaire Vincent Bollore invited him to, but does not think that would happen. Bollore is chairman and the biggest shareholder of French media group Vivendi, which since last year has built up a 23.8 percent stake in Telecom Italia. "If one day Mr. Bollore tells me, 'the best thing would be to make a deal between us and make Orange buy Telecom Italia', then we'll see," Richard said on the sidelines of an event in Cairo late on Monday. "I don't think it's in his intentions," he added, saying that he met Bollore regularly. Vivendi and Telecom Italia declined to comment. Asked about the possibility of a Franco-Italian tie-up in the telecoms sector, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Tuesday that Italy was happy to welcome foreign investors. "Naturally we will leave it to the market to decide," Renzi said following bilateral talks in Venice with French President Francois Hollande. "Whoever has money, whoever has projects, whoever creates employment, whoever has intriguing ideas should know that Italy is the right place to show off their skills." In December Vivendi won four seats on Telecom Italia's 17-member board, with its new board representatives including Chief Executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine. "(Bollore) almost controls the board of directors," Richard said, referring to Telecom Italia. "He has the keys to the future of the company." However, De Puyfontaine said in January that Vivendi's investment in Telecom Italia was not a point of entry for Orange, rejecting media reports suggesting that Bollore could broker a deal between the two telecoms companies. A year ago Richard was quoted as saying that Telecom Italia was "an attractive European consolidation opportunity" but said last month his company had no plans to merge with the Italian group. Telecom Italia, which has net debt of around 27 billion euros ($30 billion), is widely seen as a potential takeover target in a consolidating industry, partly because of its relatively small size. Its main markets are now only at home and in Brazil, and it offers untapped potential in Italy, where it faces no competition from any nationwide cable operators. Any tie-up between Orange and Telecom Italia would require French state backing as it owns 23 percent of the phone group Meanwhile Orange has been in talks since early January to buy smaller French market rival Bouygues Telecom in an outline 10 billion-euro ($11 billion) cash-and-shares deal that would make Bouygues the biggest shareholder in Orange after the French government. Richard's comments follow market speculation that Vivendi has been growing increasingly impatient for change at Telecom Italia and might force a reshaping of the group with or without the current Chief Executive Marco Patuano. Telecom Italia's shares were up 1.1 percent by 1456 GMT, when Orange shares were down 1.4 percent at 15.55 euros and the Stoxx Europe 600 telecoms sector index <0#.SXKP> was down 0.7 percent. (Additional reporting by Agnieszka Flak in Milan, Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris and Crispian Balmer in Rome; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) - A leader of the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge killed by police was shot three times in the back, a county prosecutor said on Tuesday, calling the shooting "justified and necessary."

Robert "LaVoy" Finicum died at the hands of Oregon State Police on Jan. 26 after he ran from his pickup truck at a roadblock along a snow-covered roadside during the occupation by lands rights protesters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Relatives of Finicum, who was a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the refuge, have previously said that he posed no threat to police during the confrontation and have rejected official assertions that he was armed.

Speaking at a press conference in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said a loaded 9mm handgun was found in Finicum's jacket pocket following the shooting.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said eight shots were fired at Finicum, six of them by Oregon State Police officers and two by FBI agents.

An autopsy found that three of the bullets fired by Oregon State Police officers struck Finicum in the base of the neck, shoulder and lower back and led to his death, Norris said.

"The six shots fired by the Oregon State Police were justified and in fact necessary," Norris said.

During the press conference, officials played video and audio tapes of the confrontation, during which Finicum can be heard telling law enforcement officers: "Go ahead, put the bullet through me."

At another point he is heard to say: "If you want a bloodbath, it's on your hands."

The videotape had been released previously but was newly synced with video and audio taken from inside the pickup truck by a protester. The original videotape was played in slow motion at times to show what law enforcement officials said was Finicum reaching for his weapon immediately before he was shot.

The deadly encounter unfolded moments after Finicum sped away from law enforcement officers who had just taken protest leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy into custody, then tried to run a police roadblock, plowing into a snowbank and narrowly missing an FBI agent.

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Finicum can be seen raising his hands as he emerged from his vehicle, then turning as he apparently flails his arms and then falls to the ground. His precise movements are difficult to discern from the video.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that its inspector general's office was investigating the actions of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team in the Finicum shooting.

The takeover, which began on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

It also marked the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

Whats important to me is what was going on in Mr. Finicums head," said Mike Arnold, a lawyer for Ammon Bundy who said "non-lethal rounds" were fired by law enforcement officials as Finicum pulled away from police in his pickup.

"By the time he got to the roadblock in his mind he believed that he was being fired upon unlawfully and that this was an ambush, Arnold told reporters after Tuesday's press conference.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that members of the Finicum family were expected to issue a statement later on Tuesday.

The final four holdouts were taken into custody on Feb. 17, ending the 41-day standoff. At least 16 people have been charged in connection with the occupation.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Eric Johnson and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler and Tom Brown)
Malgorzata Szumowska's Ciao (Body) won the best film honor at Poland's Eagle Awards, the country's equivalent to the Oscars, in Warsaw late Monday.

After winning Szumowska the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival last year, the movie also earned Szumowska the best director Eagle.

Body's female lead Maja Ostaszewska picked up the best actress award during Monday's ceremony, and her partner Janusz Gajos won best actor. Overall, this gave the film four Eagles.

Paolo Sorrentino's Golden Globe- and Oscar-nominated film Youth was honored as the best European film at the Polish Oscars.

Anna Dymna and Wojciech Pszoniak won the best supporting actress and actor awards, respectively, for their roles in Janusz Majewski's Excentrycy, czyli po sonecznej stronie ulicy (Eccentrics, or On the Sunny Side of the Street).

Poland's entry in this year's foreign-language Oscar race, Jerzy Skolimowski's 11 minut (11 Minutes), picked up only one award  for best editing.

Arkadiusz Tomiak collected the best cinematography statuette for his work on Krzysztof Lukaszewicz's Karbala.

Read More: EU Probing Poland Over Controversial Media Law
PARIS (Reuters) - Reports that Iran has conducted new ballistic missile tests capable of carrying nuclear weapons are a concern and would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions if confirmed, a French diplomatic source said on Tuesday. "We are checking this information. Iran's ballistic weapons program constitutes a source of preoccupation," a French diplomatic source said. "The design by Iran of missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons would contravene U.N. Security Council resolution 2231 which calls on Iran to abstain from all activity in this field," the source added. The source said it was too early to discuss what measures could be taken if the tests proved true. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Alison Williams)
Rome (AFP) - The heiress of Italian fashion house Emilio Pucci is under investigation for manslaughter after the death of two Egyptians killed when a tree on the family's property fell onto their car, media reports said Tuesday.

Mohammed Fuad and his brother Mahamaoud Fuad were in the front seats of the car when it was crushed by a large pine tree in Rome. Mohammed Fuad's wife, who was sitting in the back, was seriously injured.

The 80-year old tree, which appeared to be diseased, was on the land of the Pucci family's Rome estate.

Laudomia Pucci, daughter of the Florentine Marquis Emilio Pucci who founded the fashion house, risks being charged with manslaughter for failing to look after the trees on a property the family rarely uses, the reports said.

Il Messaggero daily said neighbours had made a complaint to the council about the trees, which they warned were at risk of falling, but had seen no action taken. The property's caretaker was an elderly widow, it said.
Beirut (AFP) - At least 250,000 Syrian children are living under siege, with many forced to eat animal feed or leaves to survive, Save the Children said Wednesday, as the war's fifth anniversary looms.

"They and their families are cut off from the outside world, surrounded by warring groups that illegally use siege against civilians as a weapon of war," the charity said in a report.

"At least a quarter of a million children are living under brutal siege in areas of Syria that have effectively been turned into open-air prisons," it added.

With doctors operating without electricity and "sick children dying while the medicine they need is on the other side of a checkpoint", the report paints a grim picture based on the testimonies of families, aid workers, medics and teachers in besieged areas.

Doctors working in a rebel bastion east of Damascus have seen children die from preventable diseases.

"Some deaths resulted from malnutrition and others from the lack of medications and vaccines. Children here have died of rabies because the vaccine was not available," said one only identified as Dr Nizar.

"Skin and stomach diseases have spread because the regime cut off the water supply and people rely on surface water wells which are often polluted with sewage.

"Children are particularly affected by lung inflammation and infections from the large amount of smoke emitted from the explosions."

Obstetric care is often non-existent in besieged areas like in the north of Homs province.

"Many deaths have happened due to bleeding and the inability to perform surgery, as births occurred at home without the help of midwives," said Amira, a mother in the battered province.

"There are no incubators available for newborn children. Infants have died as a result," said Aboud, a health worker near Damascus.

- Children told grass edible -

Food is in short supply in besieged towns across Syria, with some areas completely cut off, leaving children with nothing to eat but animal feed or grass.

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"When we didn't find food, we were eating grass. I used to lie to my children and tell them that the grass is edible. But who am I kidding? The grass wasn't edible," said Hassan, a father from Deir Ezzor near Iraq.

Many families interviewed by Save the Children said they were sometimes unable to eat even once a day.

"Since the siege began I've lost a third of my weight," said Marwan, a boy living under siege east of Damascus.

Syria's hunger crisis triggered global outrage when images of emaciated children emerged earlier this year from the besieged town of Madaya near Damascus.

But even when UN aid has reached Madaya and other besieged areas, it has barely been enough to cover the needs, said Save the Children.

"Sometimes my brothers and sisters and I go to bed and we haven't eaten anything at all since the day before, because there is no food," said Sami, a boy in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

With minors also being killed in air strikes and shelling "with shocking regularity", the charity says children under siege live in constant fear and with deep psychological wounds.

"When I hear the sound of a shell or a plane then I get very afraid and I hurry to escape and hide under my bed," said Ahmed, a boy in Douma east of Damascus.

Syria's civil war erupted in 2011 when security forces turned their weapons on protesters demanding President Bashar al-Assad's ouster, sparking the all-out conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
A section created in collaboration with Japanese gaming giant Nintendom, at Osaka's Universal Studios theme park, is to open in time for the 2020 Olympic Games, according to a new report.

The Nintendo-themed attraction is intended to occupy both old and new land on the east side of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, a site which welcomed 11.8m visitors in 2014 and 12.7m visitors in 2015.

Video game company Nintendo has been looking at ways to branch out, providing extra merchandizing through its 2014 launch of its Amiibo figurines, an upcoming selection of mobile apps (including "Pokemon Go"), and an expanded social network system that makes room for real-world attractions: cinemas, stores, and theme parks.

A partnership with Universal Parks and Resorts was announced in May 2015 and Japanese financial broadsheet Sankei Shimbun relays news of more concrete plans involving Universal Studios Japan.

Some 40 billion yen ($351m USD) will be poured into the Osaka expansion, whose physical size will be similar in spread to that of another licensed area, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

For comparison, USJ's Y45bn iteration of the Wizarding World contains the Ride of the Hippogriff rollercoaster, dark ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the Black Lake in front of Hogwarts Castle, and a nearby Hogsmeade village stuffed with boutiques and toy stores.

The proposed Nintendo land would mean that USJ expands its outside of current perimeters, with Sankei indicating an eastern portion of the park becoming the plot destined for Mario and friends.

But the Universal Studios Japan park has moved to dampen expectations of the Nintendo attraction, as described by Sankei.

Plans for the attraction were moving forward, USJ's Corporate Communications General Manager, Johta Takahashi, told the Hollywood Reporter, but "details in the article were incorrect."

Takahashi had been announcing that over 1 million of the site's 2015 visitors had come from outside of Japan; with its Osaka campus 4 hours by train from Tokyo, and plenty of hotels nearby, a Nintendo land opening for the 2020 Olympics could yet bolster the USJ's appeal alongside fellow amusement parks including Mount Fuji's Fuji Q Highland, the Nagashima Resort, and Tokyo's Disneyland and DisneySea.
Madrid (AFP) - It is the biggest contract Spanish firms have ever undertaken abroad, a high-speed railway linking Islam's holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia -- but sand is covering the tracks and now the building partners are arguing over who should clean it up.

Spanish construction and engineering firm OHL, one of the companies behind the project, refuses to remove sand for free in a letter sent to its consortium partners which was published Tuesday by news site El Confidencial.

In 2011, Saudi Arabia awarded the contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) to the consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms for a project which aims to improve transport connections during the annual hajj pilgrimage.

The contract is for laying the 444 kilometres (275 miles) of track between the two cities as well as supplying 35 trains and operating and maintaining the line for 12 years.

The leading firms in the consortium - train maker Talgo, state-run train operator Renfe and state track operator Adif  have extensive experience with Spain's own high-speed network, the world's second largest after China's.

The Saudi project is the first such line to be built across a desert. The rail line crosses the Arabian Desert, where sandstorms are frequent and large dunes can suddenly form.

In a copy of the letter dated February 7 which was seen by AFP, OHL said it was not "paid to clear the track of sand in order to facilitate the work of other consortium members."

Talgo wants to start test runs of its trains on the track.

OHL said it was "very willing to carry out extra works to clear the tracks" but only after an agreement with the other members of the consortium is signed spelling out what its exact responsibilities would be.

OHL declined to comment on the publication of the letter.

Public Works Minister Ana Pastor, who visited the work-in-progress in 2014, downplayed the row.

"We knew from the beginning what we would find. This is not a new question and it is up to Spanish engineers to solve this challenge," she told reporters.

The high-speed railway was initially scheduled to open at the end of 2016 but the deadline for its completion has been moved to the end of 2017.
The empire has struck back  a conservative coalition aired nearly 7,000 advertisements in the past week attacking anti-establishment candidate Donald Trump in a last-ditch effort to prevent the real estate billionaire from winning the Republican nomination for president.

Since last Tuesday, a whopping 76 percent of all attack ads in the presidential race targeted Trump, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data provided by Kantar Media/CMAG, an advertising tracking firm.

The pro-Marco Rubio Conservative Solutions PAC aired about two-thirds of these ads. Rubio is fighting for his political life having staked his campaign on winning the Florida primary, which is a week away. The last/best hope for the Republican establishment, the U.S. senator must win his home state to have any realistic chance of staying in the race.

One ad titled Fools accounted for more than a third of those aired by the super PAC.

Donald Trump: puts himself first and us last, the ads narrator says. The ad accuses Trump of abusing bankruptcy laws, banning homeless veterans from loitering in front of his high rise and using eminent domain laws to seize property.

The latest ad barrage arrives in the midst of the GOP frontrunners mounting victories in state nominating contests. If Trump wins Florida or Ohio, also hosting a primary on March 15, he will only need about 50 percent of the remaining delegates to earn the nomination.

The two states are especially critical given that they are winner take all in terms of delegates.

The anti-Trump ad flurry mirrors a concrete fear felt among the Republican establishment: Trump may actually win the nomination. Derailing Trumps momentum was the main topic this weekend at a secretive American Enterprise Institute meeting attended by Republican power players, according to reporting from the Huffington Post.

Establishment Republicans are concerned about Trumps offensive remarks regarding minorities and women, past liberal positions and probable weak showing in the general election and would prefer a more traditional candidate.

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Related: Where TV ads hit Trump

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Our Principles PAC, headed by an ex-Mitt Romney campaign staffer and bankrolled by billionaire Marlene Ricketts, is one of the most prominent anti-Trump forces on the airwaves. Formed in January, the super PAC is dedicated to stopping Trump.

The super PAC aired 292 TV ads since last Tuesday. Of all of its ads, 92 percent targeted voters in Florida. Formed in January, Our Principles PAC  which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money  has already spent more than $8 million calling for Trumps demise, according to Federal Election Commission documents. These expenditures include direct mail, voter calls and TV ads.

Donald Trump belongs in the 3 a.m. infomercials  not here, says one ads narrator as the video cuts to a photo of the White House.

The ad by Our Principles PAC pinpoints the real estate moguls defunct Trump University. A series of American Future Fund TV ads do the same, but instead use former students to portray the venture as a scam.

American Future Fund, a politically active nonprofit, reported spending $1.5 million on media placement early Monday, according to the FEC.

American Future Fund and Our Principles PAC are not affiliated with a candidate.

Also attacking Trump is the campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a pro-Cruz super PAC, Stand for Truth and conservative super PAC Club for Growth Action.

Meanwhile, voters today went to the polls in Michigan, Mississippi, Hawaii and Idaho.

This story was co-published with TIME.

This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

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Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
By Rod Nickel TORONTO (Reuters) - Russian-controlled Uranium One [UOII.UL] and partner Kazatomprom are ramping up uranium production in Kazakhstan during the next three years, but Uranium One will hold off on building a new mine in Tanzania until prices rise more than 70 percent from current levels, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Toronto-based Uranium One, the world's fourth-largest uranium producer, looks to start construction of the Mkuju River mine in Tanzania once spot uranium prices appear likely to stay above $55 per pound, Chief Executive Officer Feroz Ashraf said in an interview. Prices have not reached that level since May, 2011. Uranium currently trades around $32.15 per pound. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Toronto; Editing by David Gregorio)
The Mzansi experience is a new Google Maps feature that will let anyone with an internet connection take a virtual tour of South Africa

Announced on Tuesday, the new virtual trip uses Street View for 360-degree exploration of everything from Kruger National Park including elephants, lions and leopards, to the summit of Table Mountain.

The Mzansi experience may not cover every square centimetre of South Africa but Google hopes it will be sufficient to "Inspire a deeper appreciation for the country, its wildlife and show the beauty of the African continent."
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris said on Tuesday he would look to acquire an electronic brokerage firm following the merger of Beltone Financial and CI Capital. Sawiris' company OTMT has interests in media, technology and cable businesses as well as energy, transport and logistics, and is expanding into financial services. It plans to merge Beltone Financial, which it bought for almost 650 million Egyptian pounds ($83 million), with its recently acquired CI Capital. Commenting on the Beltone-CI Capital merger, Sawiris said on Tuesday the merged entity would offer the market an alternative to competitor EFG Hermes, one of the Middle East's largest investment banks. "Now we will have two big players in the market," it said. Sawiris said the merged company would pursue business in microfinance, and pursue more regional as well as international opportunities. ($1 = 7.8300 Egyptian pounds) (Reporting by Asma Alsharif; writing by Eric Knecht; editing by Jason Neely)
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A young child and another person were killed on Tuesday when rocket fire hit the Turkish town of Kilis from across the Syrian border, the mayor and security sources said, in an attack that Ankara blamed on Islamic State militants. Kilis, near Turkey's southern border with Syria, was hit by a series of eight rockets, with one landing near a hospital, mayor Hasan Kara said. Turkish security sources said two more people were injured. "The first rocket landed in an empty field. Then, when people started gathering, they started firing around those areas," Kara said. "They are being fired intentionally." A residential area near a high school was also hit and the Turkish military returned fire into Syria, the security sources said. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Islamic State militants were responsible for the attack. The attack showed how "fragile" the Syrian ceasefire is, he said. Davugtoglu was speaking at a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir. The ceasefire agreement, accepted by the Syrian government and most of those fighting against it, has reduced violence in Syria since it took effect on Feb. 27, the first truce of its kind in a 5-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people and caused the world's biggest refugee crisis. Islamic State is one of the Islamist insurgent groups not taking part in the ceasefire. The area of Syria from where the rockets probably came is believed to be under the control of Islamic State, Kara said. On Monday, the U.S. military said coalition forces had targeted the militant group in Iraq and Syria with two dozen strikes near 15 cities. Live footage from broadcaster TRT World captured the sound of a large explosion, followed by a plume of black smoke rising from nearby buildings. Local schools had been shut but the town was calm, Kara said. (Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir and Akin Aytekin and Yesim Dikmen in Istanbul and Dasha Afanasieva in Izmir; Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley and David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Louise Ireland)
PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Slovak National Party (SNS) will negotiate on forming a new government only with current Prime Minister Robert Fico for the time being, party chairman Andrej Danko said. "As of today we'll negotiate only with the leader who accepts the president's mandate to form a government," Danko told reporters. Prime Minister Robert Fico has the first chance to form a cabinet after his leftist Smer party won Saturday's national election but lost its majority in parliament. He may struggle to find partners, however, with six out of seven other parliamentary groups saying on Monday they would not join a Smer-led cabinet. (Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Alison Williams)
Ljubljana (AFP) - Migrants hoping to trek from Greece towards northern Europe found their path blocked after a string of western Balkan nations slammed shut their borders, exacerbating a dire humanitarian situation on the Macedonian frontier.

Slovenia and Croatia, two of the countries along the route used by hundreds of thousands of people in recent months, barred entry to transiting migrants from midnight. Serbia indicated it would follow suit.

EU member Slovenia said it would make exceptions only for migrants wishing to claim asylum in the country or for those seeking entry "on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with the rules of the Schengen zone".

Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the move meant that "the (Balkan) route for illegal migrations no longer exists", while EU President Donald Tusk said on Twitter, "Irregular flows of migrants along Western Balkans route have come to an end".

"Not a question of unilateral actions but common EU28 decision... I thank Western Balkan countries for implementing part of EU's comprehensive strategy to deal with migration crisis," Tusk added.

As the 28-nation EU battles the worst migration crisis since World War II, the fresh measures ramped up the pressure on the bloc to seal a proposed deal with Turkey to ease the chaos.

- Hoping for a 'miracle' -

Austria's decision in February to cap the number of migrants passing through its territory had already led to a gradual tightening of borders through the western Balkans -- and a backlog in Greece.

"This is putting into effect what is correct, and that is the end of the 'waving through' (of migrants) which attracted so many migrants last year and was the wrong approach," Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said.

Authorities in Greece, the main entry point into the EU across the sea from Turkey, said Wednesday that nearly 36,000 migrants were now stranded there. Police said a further 4,000 were unaccounted for.

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The UN refugee agency estimated Wednesday there were also as many as 2,000 migrants stuck in Serbia.

There are fears that some will turn to people-smugglers and try their luck getting into Albania, and from there to Italy, or into Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, more than 14,000 mainly Syrian and Iraqi refugees have camped out on the Greece-Macedonia border crossing -- many of them for weeks -- at a squalid camp.

Macedonia has not let anyone enter since Monday.

"We are hoping a miracle will happen," said Ola, a 15-year-old from war-scarred Aleppo who has lived in a tent at Idomeni with her mother and two younger brothers for two weeks.

"We thought Germany wanted us. That's why we took the boat and came here."

Greek officials on Wednesday were trying to coax refugees to leave Idomeni for migrant centres elsewhere in the country. Many are reluctant to do so, however, fearing this would mean the end of their journey north.

- Merkel's open door -

More than a million people have crossed the Aegean Sea into Greece since the start of 2015, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and most aiming to reach wealthy Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.

This has caused deep divisions among EU members about how to deal with the crisis and put German Chancellor Angela Merkel under severe pressure domestically for her open-door asylum policy.

Speaking during a visit to Washington on Wednesday, Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said Merkel had underestimated how many people would arrive after "sending out invitations to refugees around the world".

But Merkel, heading for a bruising in regional German elections on Sunday, hopes that a controversial deal discussed with Turkey at an EU summit on Monday, and due to be finalised on March 17-18, will be the answer.

The accord would see Turkey, currently hosting 2.7 million refugees from the five-year-old Syrian civil war and the main springboard for migrants heading to the EU, take back all illegal migrants landing in Greece.

Ankara proposed an arrangement under which the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece, in a bid to reduce the incentive for people to board boats for Europe.

In return though, Turkey wants six billion euros ($6.6 billion) in aid, visa-free access to Europe's passport-free Schengen zone and a speeding up of Ankara's efforts to join the EU -- demands that go too far for some.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's biggest lender by market value FirstRand Ltd is looking for growth in developed economies in a strategic revamp prompted by slowing growth and rising risks elsewhere in Africa, it said on Tuesday. The bank, which operates in Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia and Botswana among other African countries, is the latest company to cast doubt on the continent's prospects. Last week South African insurer MMI Holdings said it could exit some African markets, while British bank Barclays Plc said it would sell down its Africa business, a move that could mean the end of its presence after more than a century on the continent. FirstRand reported only a slight increase in half-year profit on Tuesday as Africa, once at the heart of its expansion plans, has been depressed by a slump in prices of oil and other commodities - export mainstays of many economies - partly due to a slowdown in leading consumer China. "Given the elevated risks, given the impact of lower commodity prices on many of these countries, we will become more cautious in the speed deploying capital in those markets," FirstRand's Chief Executive Officer Johan Burger told Reuters on the sidelines of the company results presentation. Burger said FirstRand would instead invest in expanding its fast-growing London-based car finance business, Motonovo Finance, in the UK and Channel Islands. FirstRand reported headline earnings of 185.4 cents per share (EPS) in the six months to end-December, hardly growing as the effects of weak consumption and investment spending at home and the rest of Africa weighed. Headline EPS is the main profit measure in South African that strips out certain one-off items. Shares in FirstRand were down 3 percent by 1240 GMT. "The group's view is that over the medium term, developed market dynamics represent an attractive risk/return profile for shareholders," FirstRand said in its results filing. Lending to companies had become the mainstay for banks in South Africa as lenders retreated from the high margin but risky business of giving personal unsecured loans. But FirstRand said a slowing South African economy, estimated to grow at less than 1 percent in 2016 due to drought and the collapse in commodity prices, had tempered corporate credit demand. The bank's net interest income, the difference between what banks charge borrowers and pay out to depositors, rose 9 percent to 20.8 billion rand ($1.35 billion) in the six months through December, with cross-border African business posting the slowest rate of growth. ($1 = 15.3742 rand) (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By Minami Funakoshi, Thomas Wilson, Ami Miyazaki and Mari Saito TOKYO (Reuters) - In the 13 months before Niculas Fernando died in a Japanese immigration detention center in 2014, three other men suffered the same fate.  Anwar Hussin, 57, a Rohingya from Myanmar, died on Oct. 14, 2013, after suffering a stroke while being held at the same detention center as Fernando.  Saeid Ghadimi, a 33-year-old Iranian, choked on food and died on March 29, 2014, at the East Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ibaraki prefecture, a sprawling complex set among rice paddies northeast of Tokyo.  Flaubert Lea Wandji, a 43-year-old Cameroonian, died at the same center the next day, most likely due to acute heart failure. The names of Ghadimi and Wandji, and many of the details of their deaths, have not been previously reported. Like Fernando, Wandji died after being moved to an observation cell so his condition could be monitored. But the guards failed to grasp the need to take Wandji to hospital, the watchdog committee that monitors Japans detention centers said in a report last March to the national Immigration Bureau, which is part of the Justice Ministry. The report was reviewed by Reuters. The watchdog report drew attention to what it said was the heavy prescription of drugs to detainees. At the time he died, Ghadimi had been prescribed 15 different drugs, including four painkillers, five sedatives  one a Japanese version of the tranquilizer Xanax  and two kinds of sleeping pills, the report said. At one point during his incarceration, he was on a cocktail of 25 different pills. It is not an exaggeration to say he was in a so-called drugged-up state, Teruichi Shimomitsu, a doctor and retired member of the watchdog body, wrote in a letter last May to then-Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa. Naoaki Torisu, a senior Justice Ministry official responsible for overseeing immigration detention centers, said parts of the committees report were unclear. Detainees take pills prescribed according to their medical needs, he told Reuters. I cannot grasp the exact intent behind the committees statement. Two psychiatrists cited in a November 2014 national Immigration Bureau report said the Iranians medications did not cause him to choke. The prescription of sedatives and antidepressants is common in Japans detention centers, say doctors and detainees. Some inmates told Reuters they were given sedatives after arguing with guards or other detainees. Others said they became dependent on the drugs as they faced indefinite detention. Checks are needed to ensure doctors do not prescribe massive amounts of sedatives to keep rebellious detainees quiet, Shimomitsu wrote in his letter to then-Justice Minister Kamikawa. The Justice Ministrys Torisu disputed that sedatives were used to pacify troublesome detainees. Psychiatrists prescribe them because they are deemed medically necessary, he said. (Edited by Peter Hirschberg)
By Thomas Wilson, Mari Saito, Minami Funakoshi and Ami Miyazaki TOKYO (Reuters) - Niculas Fernando died at a Tokyo immigration detention center sometime between 9:33 a.m. and 10:44 a.m. on November 22, 2014, according to the coroner. But it wasnt until shortly after 1 p.m. that day that guards realized something was badly wrong  even though Fernando had been moved to an observation cell monitored via closed-circuit television after complaining of sharp chest pain. An inmate had to alert the guards before they rushed into Fernandos cell and tried to revive him. They found him lying face down on a mattress stained with his urine. He was lifeless. A devout Catholic from Sri Lanka, Fernando had come to visit his son, who lives in a Tokyo suburb where he works in a restaurant kitchen. He was the fourth person to die in Japans immigration detention system in 13 months. In total, 12 people have died in immigration detention since 2006, including four suicides. In 2015, 14 detainees tried to kill or harm themselves at the detention center where Fernando died, according to data from the facility. A Reuters investigation into the circumstances surrounding Fernandos death, including dozens of interviews with detainees, immigration officials and doctors, revealed serious deficiencies in the medical treatment and monitoring of Japans immigration detention centers. Guards with scant medical training make critical decisions about detainees health. Doctors visit some of the country's main detention centers as infrequently as once a week. And on weekends there are no medical professionals on duty at any of the immigration detention facilities, which held more than 13,600 people in 2014. Three of the four deaths in detention between October 2013 and November 2014, including Fernandos, occurred when there were no doctors on duty. Like Fernando, another one of the detainees died while in an observation cell. Japans immigration system is under increasing strain. As a torrent of refugees pours into Europe, Japan also has record numbers of people landing on its shores in search of refuge. As of June last year, it had 10,830 asylum applications under review  small by Europes standards, but a new high for Japan, a nation that has long been reluctant to take in outsiders. 'I WANTED TO SHOUT AT THEM' In February, more than 40 detainees went on hunger strike at a facility in Osaka to protest their conditions. Their main complaint: Poor medical care. The systems oversight, too, is limited. Members of the watchdog body tasked with monitoring Japan's 17 detention centers are appointed by the justice minister, who oversees the detention system. The findings of the watchdog are edited by the Justice Ministry before being made public, and the ministry has failed to act on repeated recommendations for improving medical care, say its members. I wanted to shout at them when I heard that guards left him alone for such a long time, said Tooru Tsunoda, a doctor and vice chairman of the watchdog body that monitors the center where Fernando died. A report by the oversight group said guards misjudged the seriousness of Fernandos condition. By not sending him to hospital immediately, the report found, they missed opportunities to avoid his death. Justice Minister Mitsuhide Iwaki said the reports he received showed that in all four deaths, appropriate medical steps had been taken. I do not acknowledge there were problems in the responses or the medical care provided. Fernando, who ran a travel agency back in Sri Lanka specializing in pilgrimages, hadnt seen his son George for eight months when he reached Japan. Before he left home, he visited the many churches in his coastal hometown of Chilaw and prayed for 24 hours, said his wife, Magret. A framed picture of Fernando sits on a table in the home where he and Magret lived from the time they wed in 1983. They had fallen in love and married within a month, even though Fernandos family had initially opposed the union because Magret was nine years his elder. The day before he died, Fernando called Magret from a payphone for inmates in the detention center. He was not ill, she said. Sitting on a sofa and weeping quietly, she recalled Fernandos last words before boarding the plane for Japan: Ill come back. Look after the children. He never returned. In fact, Fernando never made it through immigration at Tokyos Haneda Airport. George and his wife waited in the arrival hall for Fernando after his plane landed at around 11 p.m. on Nov. 12. At 2 a.m. they learned Fernando had been detained by immigration officials who did not believe he was a genuine tourist. We would have loved to hear our fathers voice, but they didnt give him the chance to talk to us, said George, 27, speaking in Sinhalese through an interpreter at his apartment. Two days later, George got to see his father. They met in a small room at Haneda Airport, separated by a glass partition. We couldnt touch or hug, said George. 'A VERY PIOUS PERSON' George and his two brothers portray their father as a devoted family man who prayed daily, never drank and often took his family with him on work trips around Sri Lanka and India. Hed pray for at least an hour every morning, bowing down, said his eldest son, Jerad, standing outside the home of a relative in a village near Chilaw. His knees were black from the marks made from praying. One family photo shows Fernando playing a guitar as Catholic pilgrims dance behind him during a 2012 tour of churches in the north of Sri Lanka. George recalls his father joining a peace mission to a Tamil Tiger-controlled area in the late 1990s led by Bishop Malcolm Ranjith during Sri Lankas civil war. Fernando voluntarily joined our group and went as part of our pilgrimage, Ranjith, who is now archbishop of Colombo, told Reuters. He described Fernando as a very pious person. Fernando also was active in one of Sri Lankas main political parties, and that background may be key to understanding a surprising decision he made during his detention - to ask for asylum. George said his father was a supporter of the United National Party (UNP), which now heads the ruling coalition in Sri Lanka, and had been the target of political violence in the past. With speculation growing that national elections were imminent, Fernando timed his visit to Japan so he could sit out the vote and escape any potential violence, George said. But facing deportation after his arrest at Haneda Airport, Fernando decided to seek asylum, which would have allowed him to stay in Japan while his request was processed. He was going to return home once any election-related violence had subsided, his son said. Elections in Sri Lanka were formally announced on Nov. 20. Fernando died two days later, before he could file the asylum papers, George said. George and his Sri Lankan wife have been seeking asylum themselves in Japan for almost two years. A copy of his application says George faced death threats from political rivals when he worked for the UNP, which was in opposition at the time he sought asylum. Asylum applications have jumped more than six-fold since Japan altered its immigration rules in 2010. The change allowed asylum seekers to obtain six-month renewable work permits while their applications are reviewed. But Japan is sparing when it comes to granting asylum: Only 27 people were approved in 2015. The rule change, combined with Japans chronic labor shortage and strict immigration policy, has spawned a system of backdoor immigration, as Reuters illustrated last year in an article detailing Subarus heavy reliance on asylum seekers who toil in the factories that supply it with car parts. SHARP CHEST PAIN Five days after arriving, Fernando was transported from a lock-up at the airport to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, a tower block overlooking the docks and a waste-incineration plant. A one-stop shop for visa renewals, asylum interviews and deportation orders, the complex also serves as a detention center for up to 800 people. Fernando was placed in a cell in G-Block with two other detainees, from China and Peru. Fellow detainees described him as a serious man obsessed with cleanliness. On the Saturday morning Fernando died, James Burke, a Canadian in the adjacent cell, was awakened by the Sri Lankans cries. It was around 7 a.m. Noise travels easily on the block and Fernando was in obvious pain, Burke said. He was moaning and moaning and moaning. Fernandos Peruvian cellmate called the guards and told them the Sri Lankan wanted to go to the hospital because his chest was hurting. The guards refused, saying the hospitals were closed on Saturdays, according to Burke and two other detainees who witnessed the events and asked not to be named. At least two hospitals within a few miles of the detention center are open around the clock on weekends, including Saiseikai Central Hospital, where Fernandos body would be taken later that day. Naoaki Torisu, a senior Justice Ministry official who oversees immigration detention, declined to comment on what specifically the guards told Fernando. His symptoms didnt seem that serious, Torisu said. If his condition had worsened, we would have called an ambulance or taken him to hospital without hesitation. At 7:30 a.m., guards measured Fernandos pulse and blood pressure, according to an internal report by the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau that was reviewed by Reuters. They found no abnormality, Torisu said. But Fernando soon called for the guards again, this time more loudly. Hes in real discomfort, recalled Burke, who was being held at the time for overstaying his visa and is now on provisional release from immigration detention. He was begging them, Im a Christian and I wouldnt lie. I need to go to hospital or Im going to die. Just before 8 a.m., guards led Fernando to a room to check his condition. A report by the national Immigration Bureau, which is part of the Justice Ministry, said the guards could not grasp the seriousness of the situation because another Sri Lankan detainee who was acting as an interpreter did not translate Fernandos words accurately. But the Justice Ministrys Torisu told Reuters the guards did understand what Fernando was saying. When the Sri Lankan returned to his cell a short while later, he looked relieved, said Burke. He gathered his Bible and clothes. You could see it in his face  he was getting his stuff, thinking he would get help. HE STOPPED MOVING But Fernando wasnt taken to hospital. At 8:16 a.m., guards moved him to an observation cell fitted with closed-circuit television for around-the-clock surveillance of detainees who are ill, unruly or have tried to harm themselves. Around 9 a.m. Fernando again called the guards from the cell. They told him to wait until the morning roll call was over, said Burke and two other detainees. At 9:22 a.m., Fernando washed his hands and appeared to vomit. He then lay face down on a futon, according to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau report on his death. At 9:33 a.m., he stopped moving. A few minutes later, a guard brought a television to Fernandos cell. He called out but Fernando didnt respond. Thinking the Sri Lankan was asleep, the guard didnt check to see if he was all right, the report said. For the same reason, guards did not check Fernando for the next several hours. Immediately after cell doors opened at 1 p.m. to allow detainees out for the afternoon break, the Sri Lankan who had interpreted for Fernando hurried to the observation cell. Fernandos breakfast  the standard white bread, jam and boiled egg  lay untouched. Fernando wasnt moving. His body was cold. Alerted by the detainees, guards rushed into the observation cell. It was 1:03 p.m.  three and a half hours since Fernando had last shown any signs of life. Detainees described scenes of pandemonium as inmates crowded the corridor leading to Fernandos cell. Anticipating unrest, some guards laid out helmets, shields and batons. A guard performed CPR on Fernando, but it was too late. An ambulance was called and his body was carried out of G-Block on a stretcher, his face uncovered, two detainees said. Two hours later, he was pronounced dead. He was 57 years old. HUNGER STRIKE Koichi Uemura, a coroner asked by the national Immigration Bureau to write an in-depth autopsy report on Fernandos death, told Reuters he was allowed to view the video footage of the Sri Lankan in the observation cell. He said it was possible to tell from the images that Fernando was struggling and moaning before he lay down in the cell. Uemura said he was asked to compile a report after the Immigration Bureau had investigated Fernandos death and found that there was quite a high possibility that (the detention center) did not provide adequate medical care, and that his illness got worse because he was left unattended. A doctor at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University who performs autopsies for the police and courts, Uemura stopped short of saying that Fernandos death could have been avoided if guards had taken him to hospital. The Justice Ministry rejected a public disclosure request by Reuters to view the video footage of the observation cell, citing privacy reasons. Since 2010, the Immigration Detention Facilities Visiting Committee  the watchdog body  has repeatedly called for improvements to medical care at detention facilities. Six current and former members of the 20-person oversight body told Reuters that key recommendations have not been implemented. Inmates voice a similar grievance. In two handwritten letters, the hunger strikers at the detention center in Osaka complained about limited access to doctors and said guards without medical training were making judgment calls about the health of detainees. Their protest didnt impress the authorities. Tomohisa Takayama, a spokesman for the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau, said there was no rational reason for the complaints, and that the hunger strike ended after five days. In May, a former member of the watchdog wrote to then-Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa calling for full-time doctors at detention facilities, better monitoring of detainees who are unwell and improved psychiatric care. But the watchdog lacks teeth. It doesnt perform surprise inspections. Its visits to detention centers are pre-arranged, and its members are escorted by immigration officials. REDACTED REPORT There has been little change since the deaths. Guards have been given fresh instructions to call ambulances in situations where they are having trouble making judgments, said the Justice Ministrys Torisu. And two guards are being trained as assistant nurses in the entire detention system, which on Nov. 1 last year was holding 1,070 inmates. It is probably insufficient that there are no doctors on duty at weekends, but that doesnt mean medical care is lax, said Torisu. On Nov. 22, the day Fernando died, George got a call from a family friend. He asked me to calm down, to sit down, George recalled, his eyes filling with tears. He told us my father had passed away I asked God why he took my father. The next day, George tracked Fernandos body to a police station near the detention center. Officers there tried to stop him from opening the white body bag that contained his fathers body. But I opened the bag, he said. I asked them if they were investigating my fathers death. They said they were, and when they had the report theyd tell me. George has never received any of the reports on his fathers death. On Dec. 19, almost a month after he lost his father, George received the death certificate. It didnt contain the answer hed been seeking: Cause unknown, it said. That same day, Fernando was cremated about three miles from the detention center where he died. His family had hoped for a Catholic burial in Chilaw, but could not afford to fly his body home. His third son, Jude, who traveled to Japan for the funeral, is also now seeking asylum. It would be another three months before Fernandos family learned from Sri Lankas Foreign Ministry that he had died of a heart attack. I can't believe that I lost my father, said George. Japans immigration authorities must take responsibility for my father's death. The Justice Ministry has not made public the findings of the investigation into the case nor released them to Fernandos family. In response to a public disclosure request, Reuters received a copy of the national Immigration Bureaus report from March last year. It was heavily redacted. Under a section titled Problems, every line had been blacked out. (Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez in Chilaw and Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo. Edited by Peter Hirschberg.)
The Philippines' Supreme Court gave the go-ahead Tuesday for leading presidential candidate Grace Poe to run in May elections, removing a major obstacle in her bid to become the country's third female leader.

The court rejected a December ruling by the election commission that Poe, the adopted daughter of movie star parents, should be disqualified on the grounds she was not a "natural born" Filipino and she had not lived in the Philippines long enough.

"The petition (of Poe) is granted 9-6," court spokesman Theodore Te told reporters, but did not discuss the judges' reasoning.

Poe, a senator who is narrowly leading most opinion polls to succeed President Benigno Aquino in the May vote, immediately hailed the decision.

"This is a victory not only for myself, but also for the poor and the downtrodden... as well as for all women," 47-year-old Poe told cheering supporters at an International Women's Day rally in Manila.

The constitution defines natural-born Filipinos as "those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their citizenship".

Critics contended Poe failed this test since it was not known if her biological parents were Filipino citizens.

They also alleged Poe, who at one time acquired and then later renounced US citizenship, had not been a resident of the Philippines continuously over the past 10 years, a requirement for the post.

Poe says she was abandoned soon after birth at a Catholic church nave and adopted by the country's most famous film star couple when she was five.

With no political experience at the time, Poe was a surprise top vote-winner in the 2013 senatorial election, helped by a fresh, outsider image with an electorate that had grown weary of rampant corruption.

She mostly benefited from sympathy votes for her late adopted father, Fernando Poe, who was allegedly cheated into second place in the 2004 presidential election by Gloria Arroyo.

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Campaigning in a celebrity-obsessed culture that has voted movie stars in the senate and even the presidency, Poe has taken full advantage of her film royalty status, frequently invoking her father's name on the stump.

She has vowed to pursue her father's pledge "to help the poor, fight oppression and forge a prosperous and just society".

Poe's main rivals are Aquino's close ally and preferred successor, Mar Roxas, Vice President Jejomar Binay and provincial politician Rodrigo Duterte, who styles himself as a "Dirty Harry" anti-crime crusader.

The four are in a near statistical dead heat, with Poe just ahead, according to one reputable poll released last week.
(Reuters) - Swansea City manager Francesco Guidolin will return to the dugout for Saturday's Premier League trip to Bournemouth after recovering from a chest infection that caused him to miss two matches. The 60-year-old Italian was hospitalised with a chest infection before Wednesday's 2-1 away win over Arsenal and also missed Saturday's 1-0 home win against Norwich City, which lifted the club nine points clear of the relegation zone. "Francesco Guidolin has been released from hospital after making a good recovery and will resume duties this week," Swansea City tweeted. (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria and Switzerland have signed an agreement that paves the way for the return of more than $300 million confiscated from the family of the Nigeria's former military ruler, Sani Abacha, the office of Nigeria's vice president said on Tuesday. Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, has accused Abacha of stealing up to $5 billion of public money during the five years he ran the oil-rich country, from 1993 until his death in 1998. Laolu Akande, a spokesman for Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said Nigeria's attorney general signed a letter of intent, under the terms of which Switzerland will award Nigeria $321 million "acquired by the Abacha family," Akandesaid in an emailed statement. Swiss authorities said the letter of intent was also signed by its head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, and "marks an important step towards the return of assets monitored by the World Bank". Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who took office last year, has made combating corruption a priority. He has asked Britain and the United States for help recovering money stolen by some of the country's elite over several years. An economic crisis in Africa's biggest economy and oil producer, brought on by a plunge in crude prices, has made the need to recoup money lost to corruption more acute. In 2014, Nigeria and the Abacha family reached an agreement for the West African country to get back the funds, which had been frozen, in return for dropping a complaint against the former military ruler's son, Abba Abacha. He was charged by a Swiss court with money-laundering, fraud and forgery in April 2005, after being extradited from Germany, and later spent 561 days in custody. In 2006, Luxembourg ordered that funds held by the younger Abacha be frozen. (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram, Felix Onuah and Zurich newsroom, editing by Larry King)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian army backed by allied forces recaptured a village from Islamist insurgents hours after Nusra Front and others seized the area south of city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. The al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and Islamist group Jund al-Aqsa and others took the village of al-Ais on Monday, in the first advance of the group this year but government forces quickly launched a counter assault and pushed them out, the Britain-based monitoring group said. Nusra Front is not covered by the U.S.-Russia truce agreement to halt the fighting in Syria and Moscow and Damascus said they will continue fighting groups outside the deal. Foreign powers hope the pause in fighting can lead to peace talks to end the conflict. But the agreement, which has not been directly signed by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding than a formal ceasefire, is very fragile and each side has accused the other of breaking it. A Syrian rebel group said it came under government attack on Tuesday in the Kabani hill in the province of Latakia. "There is a major attack in but they haven't advanced. It has been going on for more than three hours," Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for First Coastal Division, told Reuters. He said that Syrian and Russian warplanes were also seen in the sky. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny and Tom Perry; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Kurdish PYD party on Tuesday accused opposition groups backed by Saudi Arabia of throwing obstacles in the way of peace talks and said the U.N.-led effort to convene negotiations faced "many hurdles". PYD co-leader Saleh Muslim, whose party exercises wide influence over Kurdish areas of Syria, also said the United States and Russia must do more to enforce a cessation of hostilities agreement after shelling by insurgent groups killed 16 people in a predominantly Kurdish district of Aleppo. Diplomats hope the cessation of hostilities agreement, which has brought about a lull in the five-year-long Syria conflict, will allow for peace talks. The United Nations said on Tuesday it planned to start "substantive peace talks" by March 14, five days later than a previously announced planned start date. Despite emerging as a major player in Syria, the PYD was excluded from an aborted attempt to hold talks earlier this year, in line with the wishes of Turkey which deems the group part of the PKK - a designated terrorist group in the West. Muslim, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said his party had yet to receive an invitation this time. He said the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) was obstructing efforts by setting preconditions - a reference to its demand for an agenda focused on creating a "transitional governing authority" which would lead to President Bashar al-Assad's removal from office and is opposed by Damascus. Muslim said the first priority should be to secure a full ceasefire and to agree which armed groups should be deemed terrorists and then discussing the future of Syria, Muslim said. He said that beyond al Qaeda's Nusra Front and Islamic State - both excluded from the cessation agreement - there were other armed groups in Syria that needed to classified as terrorists. "The obstacles are emerging from the Riyadh opposition," he said. ASSAD'S FATE Assad, buoyed by five months of Russian air strikes, has ruled out demands of opposition groups that he step down, or any other proposal that contravenes the existing constitution. Muslim said regional states that back the opposition - Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar - "are trying via all tools to thwart the track of the political solution". All three states say they support a political solution to the war. Syrian rebels fighting Assad view the PYD and the affiliated YPG militia as allies of the Syrian government - a charge denied by the Kurdish groups. The YPG is an important ally of the United States in the war against Islamic State. Tensions between the YPG and rebels fighting Assad have recently spilled into open war in and around the northern city of Aleppo. Over the weekend, the YPG accused rebel groups of breaching the cessation of hostilities agreement by attacking the Aleppo district of Sheikh Maksoud. Muslim said "the situation in Sheikh Maksoud is very tragic and needs someone to put an end to it". Asked about recent Russian statements that federalism could be a possible model for Syria, Muslim said: "What you call it isn't important. We have said over and over again that we want a decentralized Syria - call it administrations, call it federalism - everything is possible". (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Think of our tax system like an old house you just bought: The roof leaks, the floorboards are rotten, the pipes burst long ago and the foundation walls are crumbling. The solution is obvious. Call in the demo squad. The tax systems not just a mess (my words), its a sewer, says Daniel Mitchell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Dont stop reading just because Ive quoted a tax expert from a libertarian organization supported by conservative activists David and Charles Koch. If you do, then you might be part of the problem.

Most people, left and right, agree on the problems: The tax code is too complicated, with too many loopholes that narrow the tax base, and too expensive to administer  and distorts economic behavior, too. Most agree on many of the solutions, too. They cant stop talking past each other. The right talks mostly in terms of supporting economic growth, while the left talks more about fairness and redistribution, and the system only gets more baroque.

But heres the dirty little secret: Both sides could get most of that  fairness and growth promotion  in a neutral tax system, one that has minimal effect on peoples behavior. Design it to collect the revenue needed to operate the government, and stop trying to use it to re-engineer American life in an obscure, underhanded and ultimately ineffective way. If everyone could agree on that, we could design a system thats simple, transparent and broadly based with lower rates, and would save hundreds of billions on tax preparation costs because  heres the grand prize  we could just do away with individual tax filings. Sorry, H&R Block!

First, get rid of tax expenditures: tax deductions or credits that reduce money collected by the government. At more than a trillion dollars a year, they rival the size of the federal discretionary budget and they mainly subsidize the rich. We think were supporting apple-pie stuff like home ownership or health care, but 51 percent of the total benefits went to the highest 20 percent of earners in 2013, while just 8 percent went to the lowest earners, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Whos surprised to learn that 68 percent of the preferential tax treatment for capital gains and dividends went to the top 1 percent?

And then, hardly anyone can understand the crazy quilt of contradictory incentives. The kaleidoscope of tax and income-related policies  including Medicaid, food stamps, earned income tax credit, retirement plans and all the other deductions  can penalize work and savings by the poor, or create great loopholes for the wealthy whod be building more wealth anyway.

Neutral tax policy would require the slaughter of a thousand sacred cows.

A few years ago, Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff proposed what he called a purple tax system, mixing blue and red. It calls for ending income tax, a new 15 percent national sales tax on all consumption (corporate and private), a payroll tax (for social security and Medicare) that starts at $40,000 income and goes up without limit and a few offsets for the less well-off. Presto! No more tax returns! Its bound to be pro-growth and could be as progressive as politicians can agree on. The elements of Kotlikoffs plan might not be right, but the idea surely is.

It wont happen, probably, unless the political stars align in miraculous fashion. Neutral tax policy would require the slaughter of a thousand sacred cows, for starters. And politicians and policy wonks are so immersed in the current tax system that few can see beyond incremental change.

But lets not give up. Make the tax code simple; make it neutral. And then just stop. Once you start adding special provisions, you know the politicians will load it up like a Christmas tree.

Heres another way to put off filing: Leave us a comment.

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A Utah man who inspired thousands with his bravery and love for life after learning he had cancer throughout his body has died.



Paul Moore, 36, who was profiled by PEOPLE last November and was the inspiration behind the Paul Moore Foundation to help other parents facing terminal diseases, died quietly at his home in Farmington on March 5, surrounded by family and with his wife, Joni, holding his hand.



"My heart is heavy as the reality of this world without my little brother in it sinks in this morning," Joel Moore, 39, who is Paul's brother, tells PEOPLE. "I couldn't have asked for a better brother and friend. I'm glad there's been an end to his pain, but the void he leaves is painful."



Paul, who was the father of two young daughters, Ellie, 6, and Reese, 3, lived slightly more than a year after an emergency room visit for what he thought was a pulled muscle revealed that he had more than 40 tumors throughout his body, including his brain. Additional tests revealed that he had terminal renal cell carcinoma, which had seeped into his bones.



"It was devastating," Paul, a former human resources manager, told PEOPLE in November. "My first thoughts were about my family. Who would provide for them? What would happen to them? I couldn't think about anything else."





Terminally Ill Utah Father Dies Leaving Thousands Inspired by His Emotional Message| Medical Conditions, Real People Stories, Real Heroes

Friends and neighbors in his Mormon congregation stepped up to help in a way that will continue to make an impact in Paul's name. After starting the Paul Moore Foundation, they raised raised more than $40,000 through a 5k race and silent auction to help the Moores. A GoFundMe account brought in an additional $50,000 to help pay off medical bills from multiple surgeries.



"Paul is leaving a legacy for a great cause to help families like his," Ashlyn Chugg, president of the foundation, tells PEOPLE. "But the greatest legacy he leaves behind is his love for his wife and daughters."



After Paul learned there was nothing more he could do to fight cancer, he decided to make his remaining months matter. He recorded himself reading favorite bedtime stories such as Goodnight Moon, and wrote emotional letters to his daughters, telling them to be humble, loving and kind.



"It was difficult, but I wanted to give them some lessons to take through life so they'll know who I am, even though I won't be here," he told PEOPLE.





Terminally Ill Utah Father Dies Leaving Thousands Inspired by His Emotional Message| Medical Conditions, Real People Stories, Real Heroes

He and Joni spent the past year taking the girls on simple outings to the park and the local swimming pool, along with stays at nearby hotels so they could jump on the beds with abandon and feel as though they were on vacation.



In recent months, with Paul too weak to stand for more than a few minutes at a time, he spent most of his time in a recliner, reflecting on the goodness in his life and saying goodbye to friends and loved ones.



"I think everyone who met him would agree that you could talk to him about anything and his sense of humor never wavered," Erin Jemison, 38, Paul's sister-in-law, tells PEOPLE. "We are so grateful for the time we had with him. But there is a hole now that will never be filled."



"He was funny, accepting, loving and true," adds Joel Moore. "There are so many ways that he brought joy to people. I feel like I could start listing them and never stop."



Paul's funeral will be held March 11 at his church in Farmington, where hundreds are expected to turn out to show their appreciation for his life. They'll remember Paul's positive outlook, says Ashlyn, along with the message he shared with PEOPLE last fall:



"I could sit here and be depressed, but what good can come from that?" Paul said. "I'm grateful for all that I've been blessed with. I feel love and support each and every day. Each and every day, I am humbled."
Photo by Reuters

Terrorism in Bangladesh is under control and that the case of the 27 Bangladeshi workers who were arrested in Singapore in January for suspected terror links was a very isolated trend, said political and security analyst Arman Ifti Rashid, 34.

The Bangladeshi analyst was in Singapore on 3 March to speak at a seminar on the dynamics of politics, religion and security in Bangladesh.

Speaking to Yahoo Singapore after the talk organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Ifti said terrorism in Bangladesh has been under control as the current Awami League government, under the leadership of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has an explicitly stated policy that has zero tolerance to terrorism.

Some of the actions the country has taken to combat terrorism include using counter narratives to messages of extremism, and forming a unit under the police force to counter terrorist groups, he said.

In 2009, the Bangladeshi government had also enacted the Anti Terrorism Act, which was specifically designed to combat terrorism.

In January this year, 26 of the Bangladeshi workers who were arrested in Singapore for suspected terror links were deported to Bangladesh. The last one was to be repatriated after serving a 12-week jail term for trying to leave the country illegally. Fourteen of them were later found to be members of banned terror group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), and subsequently charged by Bangladeshi authorities.

ABT is an ultra violent homegrown group with a very violent message I would say the Bangladeshi government has done very well in terms of containing the extension of the ABT. They (ABT) are facing a crackdown, leaders are being arrested, and also their hideouts have been busted, said Ifti.

He also emphasised that Islamist groups have always remained on the fringe in Bangladesh.

Case of Bangladeshi workers deported from Singapore an isolated threat

When asked if there is a possibility that Singapore would need to arrest more Bangladeshi militants in the future, the analyst said he does not see that happening anymore.



Bangladeshi workers have been in Singapore since the 80s and we havent seen this before, so this is an isolated threat. We have also not seen such trends amongst the almost 6 million Bangladeshis in the diaspora across the world, he said.

He also explained that the arrest and deportment of the workers in January sent strong messages, both by the Bangladeshi and Singaporean government.

Sending back one or two individuals would not have made the statement. But youve sent back 26 at a go. Bangladesh government has arrested the majority of them, while a few others remain under constant surveillance. This shows both sides have taken it seriously , he added.

Ifti, who is currently a PhD candidate at the National Centre for South Asian Studies at Monash University, also mentioned that the Bangladesh labour market has not had a reputation linked to terrorism. Instead, their labour workers are known to be hardworking.

Usually for labourers, they are working day and night, they dont have time for this (terrorism) as well. They are sending whatever little money they have back to their families, he said.
The U.S. economy appears to be in good shape, with recent data on manufacturing and employment improving.

But the US and its markets remain under threat from the rest of the world.

A critical story for the stock market and also for the economy and for the Federal Reserve for quite some time has been that the U.S. is good and the rest of the world is not so good, said Deutsche Banks Chief International Economist Torsten Slok.

Of particular concern is China, the worlds second largest economy, which has been slowing.

Chinas National Peoples Congress got underway last weekend, with policymakers pledging to spend more money in their efforts to avoid a hard landing as GDP growth decelerates. All of this has important implications for emerging markets that export to China and to the U.S. market, according to Slok.

One of the items hindering growth in the second largest nation? Wages have increased significantly in China over the last 15 years while US wages have remained relatively stable. In other words, the cost of manufacturing goods in China is on the rise. This is incentivizing companies to move their production out of China to other low-cost countries.

Meanwhile, the market is trading in anticipation of Thursdays European Central Bank meeting, which is widely-expected to issue further stimulus measures as it aims to bolster the lackluster eurozone economy.

The bottom line: The economy right now reflects a stark contrast in U.S. economic stability and international economic weakness, but the future of the U.S. markets may ultimately be determined by actions of international players.
Kinshasa (AFP) - Three kidnapped employees of Save the Children were released Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive east after nearly a week in captivity, the international charity said.

"I confirm that our three employees were freed and are in good health," Save the Children's DRC director Heather Kerr said.

The three Congolese men were in a convoy of two vehicles driving through the Lubero region when one of the cars was stopped and attacked on Thursday. They were then taken to the bush.

Kerr did not reveal where the hostages were released, the circumstances leading to their liberation or who their abductors were.

The UN office for humanitarian affairs OCHA had demanded their immediate release and deplored the increasing trend of kidnapping humanitarian workers.

In March 2015 two local employees of the charity were held hostage for 48 hours by unidentified kidnappers in the south of the country's Nord-Kivu province until they were freed by Congolese authorities.

The country's east has been plagued by two decades of instability caused by armed groups battling for control of the region's vast mineral wealth alongside ongoing ethnic and political violence.
In a sign of the times, a number of tech luminaries over the weekend, a group which included Tim Cook, Elon Musk and even Napster co-founder Sean Parker, all congregated on a private island resort off the coast of Georgia where the topic of discussion centered on how to stop the growing momentum of Donald Trump.

DONT MISS: iPhone 6s Plus crushes Galaxy S7 edge in side-by-side speed test

Originally relayed by The Huffington Post, the somewhat secretive meeting transpired at the American Enterprise Institutes annual World Forum.

A specter was haunting the World Forumthe specter of Donald Trump, [Bill] Kristol wrote in an emailed report from the conference, borrowing the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto. There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why hes done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated.

In addition to the aforementioned group of tech bigwigs, a group which also included former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, there were also a number of political figures in attendance, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Karl Rove.

Though Trumps Presidential run may have initially been viewed as something of an entertaining joke, many Republicans are none too thrilled that the controversial Trump remains a frontrunner this far into election season.

In addition to all things Trump, one of the issues discussed at the resort focused on mobile device encryption, a hot-button issue in the wake of Apples reluctance to assist the FBI in hacking into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Specifically, the report relays that Tim Cook got into a particularly heated debate with Arkansas senator Tom Cotton on the topic.

Cotton was pretty harsh on Cook, a source told The Huffington Post, everyone was a little uncomfortable about how hostile Cotton was.

Returning to Trump for a second, the Presidential nominee has been rather outspoken about his support for the FBI as it battles Apple over mobile encryption.

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Just about three weeks ago, Trump said that Americans should boycott Apple products unless the company agrees to help the FBI.

To think that Apple wont allow us to get into her cellphone? Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it, Trump explained at a rally last month. I agree 100% with the courts. In that case, we should open it up. I think security overall  we have to open it up.

Related stories

Watch Tim Cook's full 30-minute interview on Apple's war with the FBI

Tim Cook says FBI wants Apple to create the 'software equivalent of cancer'

Tim Cook sits down to talk about Apple's ongoing battle with the FBI on ABC News

More from BGR: iPhone 6s Plus crushes Galaxy S7 edge in side-by-side speed test

This article was originally published on BGR.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Pentagon and Air Force officials will meet on Tuesday with Raytheon Chief Executive Tom Kennedy for another "deep dive review" of the company's long-delayed ground control system for next generation GPS satellites, U.S. defense officials said. Pentagon chief arms buyer Frank Kendall, Air Force Secretary Deborah James and other officials will meet with the Raytheon Co leader in Colorado to review progress made by the company as it struggles to complete the $3.6 billion program after years of schedule delays. The U.S. officials also will receive a new estimate for the cost of delaying the program's completion by another two years, a decision that was taken last year. Raytheon had no immediate comment about the meeting. Company officials have said they are committed to meeting the Air Force's requirements for the next-generation control system. Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, who heads the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, last month described Raytheon's GPS Operational Control System (OCX) as the Air Force's "No. 1 troubled program." He said the program could be canceled if the company did not improve its performance on the troubled system. Officials have stopped short of canceling the OCX program, which has seen costs double due to increased cyber requirements and poor contractor performance, citing the importance of the system at a time when China, Russia, Iran and other countries are aggressively attacking U.S. military systems such as GPS. OCX will be the first satellite control system designed after the advent of significant jamming and other cyber threats. The Air Force has contingency plans that include having Lockheed Martin Corp , which is building the actual new Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, modify the current GPS ground system to work with the new satellites. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Alan Crosby)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Relations between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been fraught since both men took office in 2009.

Here is a summary of their troubled ties:

- 2009

On his first White House visit, in May, Obama officials were said to be irked that Netanyahu, in remarks to the media, avoided endorsing Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu in his turn took offence the following month when Obama, on one of his first overseas trips, visited neighbouring Egypt and Saudi Arabia but left Israel off his itinerary.

To add insult to injury the US president delivered a speech in Cairo in which he said that the US "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements".

- 2010 -

Settlements were at the root of a flare-up in March when, as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting, Israel unveiled plans to build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem. Visiting the White House later that month Netanyahu got the cold shoulder and was denied the privileges customarily granted to foreign dignitaries, even the ritual handshake photo.

- 2011 -

On a May visit, Netanyahu again got under Obama's skin by publicly lecturing him in the Oval Office on the historic struggles of the Jewish people -- live on television. In November, during a private conversation at the G20 summit in Cannes with then French president Nicolas Sarkozy on the topic of Netanyahu, Obama was overheard telling his host, "You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day."

- 2012-2013 -

During Obama's re-election campaign White House officials saw the conservative Netanyahu as openly backing Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who visited Jerusalem and slammed what he said was Obama's weak and misguided Middle East policy.

- 2015 -

Tensions hit a new high when Netanyahu, fighting Obama's policy for a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme, accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress on the issue in March, denouncing the accord as it was being negotiated.

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Obama refused to meet Netanyahu during his stay in Washington.

After the premier's return home he further angered the president with remarks he made during the Israeli general election, when in a polling-day bid to energise rightwing voters Netanyahu warned that Arab Israelis were going to the polls "in droves" -- a comment for which he later apologised.

- 2016 -

Netanyahu declined an invitation for March talks with Obama, leaving the White House "surprised" and saying it first learned of the cancellation through news reports.
Washington (AFP) - Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed forcefully on the debate stage Wednesday, with the Democratic presidential rivals opening lines of attack on immigration in the aftermath of Sanders' stunning upset win in Michigan.

With their Miami debate showdown coming just six days before the critical Florida primary, the two candidates were repeatedly pressed on immigration issues, including whether they would deport undocumented children from the United States.

Both said they support comprehensive immigration reform and pathways to citizenship for many of the 11 million people living in the shadows.

In stark contrast, Republican candidates all say they want no such track to citizenship. Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, wants to deport millions.

But with Florida home to a large Hispanic community, frontrunner Clinton and her sole Democratic rival Sanders openly courted the Latino vote -- each quickly said they would not expel the children of illegal immigrants, or undocumented adults with no criminal records.

It marked a break, too, of sorts from President Barack Obama's administration, which has come under fire for its aggressive deportation policies.

"I would not deport children," Clinton said.

"My priorities are to deport violent criminals, terrorists and anyone who threatens our safety."

But she also wanted to "stop the raids, stop the round-ups, stop the deporting of people who are living here doing their lives, doing their jobs."

Sanders was more blunt on disagreeing with Obama. "He is wrong on this issue of deportation," Sanders said. "I disagree with him on that."

Clinton slammed Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, for voting against an immigration reform bill in 2007.

But Sanders shot back that Clinton had taken anti-immigrant positions in the 2000s, such as prohibiting the issuing of driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

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They also clashed on the war in Iraq, Clinton's relationship with Wall Street and corporate America, health care policy and tuition for state universities.

"Madame secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week," Sanders boomed.

- 'This is a marathon' -

The pair sharpened their attacks, with Sanders sensing momentum after a remarkable win 24 hours earlier in Michigan, where Clinton had been expected to prevail.

Clinton has nonetheless passed the half-way point in the race to the 2,383 delegates needed to win the party's presidential nomination, after she handily defeated Sanders in the southern Gulf state of Mississippi.

Yet the Vermont senator's upset win in Michigan raised questions about the former secretary of state's ability to win over key industrial states in the general election in November.

Clinton has won 13 out of 22 contests and despite the Michigan setback her team remain confident, explaining that her blowout win in Mississippi meant she walked away with the majority of Democratic delegates and is inching closer to an "insurmountable" delegate lead.

But Sanders has shown remarkable resilience and the intensity of the debate suggested Clinton was taking his challenge seriously.

"This is a marathon," Clinton acknowledged.

She faced probing questions about her use of a homebrew email server and private account when she was secretary of state.

Clinton reiterated she made a mistake but said she was "not concerned."

Asked whether she would drop out of the race if she is indicted over the scandal, she bristled.

"Oh for goodness... that is not going to happen. I am not even answering that question," Clinton said.

- 'Un-American' rhetoric -

Trump emerged strengthened by victories Tuesday in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii.

He has now won 15 of 24 races and looks to next week's primaries that could be crucial to his effort to seize his party's nomination since, on the Republican side, Florida, Ohio and Illinois are winner-take-all in the delegate race.

Tuesday's big loser was Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He has been seen by party luminaries as the best mainstream hope of derailing Trump, but he has performed dreadfully in several recent primary contests, including those Tuesday.

With his campaign appearing to be on the verge of fizzling, he was reflective when he spoke to MSNBC, saying he was "not entirely proud" of stooping to using dirty jokes or mocking Trump's appearance in recent weeks.

"My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again I wouldn't," Rubio said.

He and Ohio Governor John Kasich face must-wins in their respective home states on March 15. Trump leads polls in those battlegrounds and he made clear he aims to snag them both.

"If I win those two I think it's over," Trump told CNN.

The New York real estate mogul's caustic style and incendiary rhetoric has angered some voters and influential Republicans, but he insists he can reunite the party and draw millions more to the polls.

"I think Islam hates us," Trump told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday in the latest example of such overheated rhetoric.

Clinton attacked Trump's use of words as "un-American."

"I'm not going to engage in the kind of language that he uses," she said.

Republican white House hopefuls take to the debate stage Thursday night.
It may be little more than a meaningless blip on the radar screen, but the Republican presidential frontrunner appears to be losing altitude in two important upcoming races, in Michigan and Florida.

Amid an Anybody but Trump drumbeat struck by establishment Republicans, conservative purists and well-heeled outside groups, the billionaire businessman is trying to regain his momentum after a dismal performance in last Thursdays Republican debate and then a mixed performance in the Super Saturday primaries and caucuses.

Related: Trumps Delegate Math Points to a Long Slog Ahead

Until then, Trump was expected to easily roll to victory in Michigans Tuesday primary and humiliate Rubio and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio in the crucial Florida and Ohio primaries on March 15. With Rubio and Kasich out of the way, Trump could then turn his full attention to defeating Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has won six contests, including Saturdays victories in Kansas and Maine.

But two new surveys by Monmouth University out on Monday suggests that the GOP races in Michigan and Florida are beginning to tighten, and that Kasich and Rubio have begun to creep up in the standings.

In Michigan, Trump is leading the GOP field with 36 percent of likely GOP primary voters, followed by Cruz with 23 percent, Kasich with 21 percent and Rubio at 13 percent. However, Trump did much better in voter interviews conducted before his controversial debate performance than after. The Saturday and Sunday interviews showed Trump with just 32 percent support, with 26 percent for Kasich, 25 percent for Cruz and 12 percent for Rubio.

After this past weekends mixed bag of results, Trump appears positioned for a win in Michigan, but the race may be tightening in the final hours, said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. Trumps support may be dropping, while Kasichs star could be rising.

Related: Newt Gingrich: Wake Up, Republicans  Its Either Trump or Clinton

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Indeed, Trumps lead had been 19 points or more in the previous five surveys in Michigan, so something seems to be giving.

The same could be said for Florida, where Rubio, the freshman senator, is betting everything on beating Trump in order to revive a campaign that has badly faltered and has produced only two wins out of 20 contests  in Minnesota and Puerto Rico. Rubios relationship with Trump is so poisoned that the New York billionaire regularly refers to him as Little Marco who couldnt be elected dog catcher. Rubio has denounced Trump as a con man and phony conservative, and the two achieved new lows in the debate last Thursday.

The Monmouth poll out of Florida shows Trumps lead shrinking to just eight percentage points. Of the likely Republican voters interviewed last Thursday through Saturday, 38 percent chose Trump while 30 percent favored Rubio. Notably, Rubio leads Trump among the one in five voters who have already cast their ballots, 48 percent to 23 percent, while Trump leads among those who havent voted yet, 42 percent to 26 percent, according to the poll.

That suggests that Rubio still has time to change the minds of Trump supporters before they head to the polls.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said on Tuesday Islamic State militants had carried out the huge raid on Ben Guerdan on Monday that killed 55 people in an attempt to control the town and expand their territory. Tunisia has become increasingly concerned about violence spilling across its frontier as Islamic State has expanded in Libya, taking advantage of the country's chaos to control the city of Sirte and setting up training camps there. Dozens of militants stormed through the border town of Ben Guerdan on Monday attacking army and police posts and triggering street battles during which troops killed 36 fighters. Twelve soldiers and seven civilians also died during the attack. Essid said officials were still investigating whether the group of 50 militants had infiltrated across the frontier from Libya, though officials found three caches of arms, explosives and rockets in Ben Guerdan after the attack. "They wanted to take over the barracks and police stations and gain territory, but our forces were ready," Essid told reporters. "They thought it was going to be easy and the people of Ben Guerdan would help them. But Tunisians would never accept them." The attack was one of the worst in Tunisia's history and followed three major Islamic State assaults last year, including gun attacks on a museum in Tunis and a beach resort in Sousse that targeted foreign tourists. Since its 2011 revolt to oust autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has battled a growing Islamist militancy at home and more than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight for Islamic State and other jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. But the increasing chaos in Libya, where two rival governments and armed factions are battling for control, has allowed Islamic State to thrive just over Tunisia's border, and the government has been preparing for potential attacks. The United Nations is trying to bring Libya's factions behind a national unity government that would allow Western governments to help them fight Islamic State. But the group's rapid growth has also prompted Western governments to consider air strikes and special forces operations in Libya. Last month, a U.S. air strike killed more than 40 militants in Sabratha, a coastal town near the Tunisian border. Officials say many were Tunisian fighters. (Writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Ralph Boulton)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have seized control of the Cihan news agency, the agency said, widening the crackdown against supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, an influential foe of President Tayyip Erdogan. Cihan said on its website late on Monday an Istanbul court would appoint an administrator to run the agency on a request from a state prosecutor. The action comes days after authorities seized control of the leading Gulen-linked newspaper, Zaman. In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that the action against Cihan was "just another example of an unnecessary crackdown on journalism" and urged the Turkish government to ensure full respect for due process. The seizure of Zaman prompted international alarm about press freedom in Turkey and was discussed at Monday's European Union summit with Ankara over the migration crisis. France's foreign minister said the decision to seize control of Zaman, Turkey's largest newspaper by circulation, was "unacceptable" and went against European values. Both Cihan and Zaman are part of the Feza Gazetecilik media company. Erdogan accuses Gulen of conspiring to overthrow the government by building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media. Gulen denies the accusations. The two men were allies until police and prosecutors considered sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption investigation into Erdogan's inner circle in 2013. At the start of March, Turkish authorities shut down media businesses seized last year from Koza Ipek Holding, a conglomerate linked to Gulen. (Additional reporting by Washington Newsroom; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan and Larry King)
By Jim Finkle (Reuters) - Officials with the nonprofit Simon Wiesenthal Center praised Twitter Inc on Monday for increasing efforts to thwart Islamic State's use of its platform for recruitment and propaganda. The center's Digital Terrorism and Hate Project gave Twitter a grade of "B" in a report card of social networking companies' efforts to fight online activity by militant groups such as IS. "We think they are definitely heading in the right direction," the project's director, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of Monday's release of the report card at a press conference in New York. He said the review was based on steps that Twitter has already taken and information that center staff learned in face-to-face meetings with company representatives. Islamic State has long relied on Twitter to recruit and radicalize new adherents. The Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, has been one of toughest critics of Twitter's strategy for combating those efforts. Some vocal Twitter critics have tempered their views since December, when the site revised its community policing policies, clearly stating that it banned "hateful conduct" that promotes violence against specific groups and would delete offending accounts. Researchers with George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism last month reported that Islamic State's English-language reach on Twitter stalled last year amid a stepped-up crackdown by the company against the extremist group's army of digital proselytizers. Last year, the center gave Twitter a grade of "C" in a report card that covered efforts to fight terrorism along with hate speech. This year it gave two grades, awarding Twitter a "D" on hate speech, saying the company needed to do more to censor the accounts of groups that promote hate. A Twitter spokesman declined comment, but pointed to a statement on the company's blog posted Feb. 5 on combating violent extremism. (bit.ly/1nSxlO7) "We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service," Twitter said in the blog. Among other major Internet firms included in this year's survey, Facebook Inc got an "A-" for terrorism and a "B-" for hate. Cooper said Facebook "understood" the gravity of the issue before most companies, set up a team of monitors worldwide to catch the posts in question and created technological fixes to prevent extremists from creating new accounts. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc's YouTube got a "B-" for terrorism and a "D" for hate due to what Cooper said is a "reactive" response to videos posted rather than a proactive approach to keeping them off the site. He pointed to a video published last year on YouTube by the Al Shabbab fundamentalist group that listed Mall of America in Minnesota as a potential attack site. He said that video was pulled from YouTube after several hours. YouTube declined to comment. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston. Deborah M. Todd in San Francisco contributed.; Editing by Peter Cooney, Jeffrey Benkoe and David Gregorio)
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Two workers at Glencore's Katanga Mining copper and cobalt operation in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo died on Tuesday and five remain missing after a pit wall collapsed, the mine's chairman told Reuters. "We have found two bodies," said Gustave Nzeng, chairman of Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), the joint venture that runs the mine. Glencore said earlier that seven workers had gone missing in the landslide. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
Kinshasa (AFP) - Two people were shot dead in DR Congo's far north in clashes fuelled by tensions over wildcat miners wanting access to one of the largest gold mines in Africa, an official said Tuesday.

Security forces clashed with the protesters over two days at Durba near the Kibali goldmine, Celestin Bondomiso, a senior official of the Haut-Uele province, told AFP.

"One person was killed yesterday and we recorded one more death today, " he said.

Kibali Goldmines, a joint venture between mining giants Randgold, AngloGold Ashanti and the Congolese parastatal SOKIMO, started mining activities in the area in 2013 and expelled locals living on its concessions.

That led to tensions and local artisanal miners have since been demanding access to the pit.

"We are keeping a close watch and we have just deployed extra police to quell this movement which seems to be a nascent rebellion," Bondomiso said.

"We have asked the army to remain alert."

In a report in October, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo and Dutch non-governmental organisation PAX asked Kibali to let local residents mine in a part of the pit.

The report said while wildcat mining was against the law, "security forces often use force to ensure that KibaliGold's operations go on smoothly."

The Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the world's least developed economies, but growth has been constant over recent years, pulled by the country's immense mining resources including gold, copper, cobalt, diamonds, uranium and cassiterite -- the most important source of tin.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday renewed its appeal to the Taliban to join peace talks and said Afghan and U.S. forces would have to prepare themselves for the prospect of increased violence in the spring and summer if the insurgent group did not agree to negotiations. The Taliban said on Saturday it would not take part in peace talks brokered by representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, casting doubt on efforts to revive negotiations. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States backed a call by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for the radical Islamists to join talks with the Kabul government. "They have a choice. Rather than continuing to fight their fellow Afghans and destabilising their country, they should engage in a peace process and ultimately become a legitimate part of the political system of a sovereign united Afghanistan," Kirby said. "There is and should be a sense of urgency around getting these talks up and running," he told a regular news briefing. "If there's no peace process in place and the Taliban's not willing to come to the table and talk about a reconciliation ... we would and the Afghan security forces would have to prepare themselves, for the potential for increased violence in the spring and summer months. "It's the so-called fighting season, and we've seen this before, when the weather warms up. ... I want to stress that's not what we want to see." The Taliban, ousted from power in a U.S.-led military campaign in 2001, has been waging a violent insurgency to try to topple Afghanistan's Western-backed government. Following a meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group in February, officials said they expected direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to begin in early March. A previous peace effort broke down last year following the announcement that the Taliban's founder and longtime leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, had died about two years earlier. New leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has laid down conditions for taking part in any talks as he struggles to overcome factional infighting, with some breakaway groups opposing any negotiations. Heavy fighting has continued over the winter from Helmand in the south to Jowzjan province in the north, while suicide attacks have been launched in the capital, underlining the difficulty of restarting the peace process. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Joel Schectman and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new U.S. export restriction against China's ZTE Corp <000063.SZ> for alleged Iran sanctions violations is likely to disrupt the telecom manufacturer's sprawling global supply chain and could create substantial parts shortages, according to sanctions experts. Under the measure announced by the Commerce Department on Monday, U.S. manufacturers will be banned from selling components to ZTE, which is a major global supplier of telecom-networking equipment. In addition, foreign manufacturers will be prohibited from selling products containing a significant amount of U.S.-made parts to the Chinese company. The Commerce Department, confirming the decision that was first reported by Reuters on Saturday, said ZTE planned to use a series of shell companies to illicitly reexport controlled items to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws." It said ZTE acted "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States." While ZTE suppliers can apply for an export license to ship any American-made equipment or parts, the Commerce Department said such license applications generally will be denied. The export restriction, which does not stop ZTE from selling handsets in the United States, is expected to have a global impact. It is going to have a large ripple effect. Its very significant to many companies both in the U.S. and (outside the) U.S., said Doug Jacobson, an export attorney at law firm Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC, who said he has been fielding calls from clients who supply ZTE since Reuters broke news of the impending export restrictions. For example, a Taiwanese chipmaker that uses American-made components to make processors for ZTE handsets would likely have to cut off those sales. If the Taiwanese supplier only procures components from outside the United States it can continue to sell to ZTE, experts said. I am telling all my clients today that anything (for ZTE)not already on board an airplane going to China, you cannot ship it starting tonight. They have to scrub and screen their customers lists  pending orders and future orders  to make sure that any transactions with ZTE are flagged and stopped. ZTE, which has annual sales of more than $15 billion and is the only Chinese smartphone maker with a meaningful presence in the U.S. market, can appeal the decision. ZTE is among the largest companies that the Commerce Department has hit with a near-total export ban, according to public records. In 2014, the department restricted exports to Russian energy companies Lukoil OAO and Gazprom OAO, but those restrictions only stopped American companies from supplying certain types of oil-production projects, such as Arctic offshore and deepwater drilling. EFFECT ON HANDSET PRODUCTION ZTE is the No. 4 smartphone vendor in the United States, with a 7 percent market share, behind Apple Inc , Samsung Electronics Co <005930.KS> and LG Electronics Inc <066570.KS>, according to research firm IDC. It sells handset devices to three of the four largest U.S. mobile carriers - AT&T , T-Mobile US and Sprint Corp . Although ZTE is not being banned from selling handsets in the United States, the restriction could disrupt handset production if ZTE sources U.S.-made parts to manufacture its handsets, experts said. AT&T declined to comment, and T-Mobile and Sprint did not respond to requests for comment. A ZTE website states that several leading U.S. technology companies, including Microsoft , Intel Corp , IBM and Honeywell International Inc , are "key strategic partners." Intel and Qualcomm confirmed they were ZTE suppliers, but did not elaborate on specific products sold to the Chinese company or how sanctions would affect their businesses. Texas Instruments , which has also said it provides processors for the Chinese company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The impact of the new restrictions on these three companies was not immediately clear as most of them produce components both in the United States and overseas. Microsoft, in an emailed statement, said, "We follow U.S. law and will review new U.S. restrictions." A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company had a licensing agreement with ZTE but could not confirm if ZTE purchases other products, such as software. The other U.S. companies did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. decision could even prompt suppliers to halt sales of non-U.S. components that are still allowed, said Kay Georgi, an export attorney at law firm Arent Fox LLP. "When you get placed on one of these lists nobody wants to do business with you at all," Georgi said. The United States has long banned the sale of U.S.-made technology products to Iran as part of its sanctions, even as China maintains close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties with Tehran. Last year, the United States and major world powers reached a deal with Iran to loosen economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear program. "We hope this sends a strong message to ZTE, to China, and to other Chinese telecommunications companies who present serious national security risks not only by evading export controls, but by purposefully compromising supply chain security," said Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. (Reporting by Steve Stecklow in London, Susan Heavey in Washington, Yimou Lee in Hong Kong, Dan Burns and Malathi Nayak in New York; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Leslie Adler)
Lets leave aside, for the moment, the question of whether Puerto Ricans do or should want statehood, because its fundamental but ultimately secondary to whether the United States is conceivably willing to grant it. To use an analogy, Puerto Rico is basically a diner at a restaurant, trying to decide what to order. The steak may be on the menu, but is it really an option if the chef is going to decline to cook it?
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The problems that led to Flint, Michigan's water crisis must not be repeated in other U.S. cities and states, the top U.S. environmental health official said on Monday. "The situation has to change. We need a national conversation to make sure this never happens again," Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told local government leaders at the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference. The crisis in Flint, a predominantly black city of 100,000, was triggered when an emergency city manager installed by Governor Rick Snyder switched the city's water supply from Lake Huron to the nearby Flint River to save money. The change corroded Flint's aging pipes and released lead and other toxins into the water supply, exposing thousands of residents including children to high lead levels that have sparked serious health problems. The crisis prompted national outrage and led to calls for Snyder to resign. A group of Flint parents and their children filed a class action on Monday alleging that 17 children have elevated levels of lead. McCarthy said she sent letters last week to the 50 U.S. governors and top state environmental and health officials telling them it is "time to work together with EPA to keep our drinking water safe." The Feb. 29 letters to state environmental officials asked for a response within 30 days to confirm states are in compliance with federal rules to address lead risks. EPA has said fixing U.S. water infrastructure will cost more than $600 billion over the next 30 years. "Let's start getting serious," McCarthy said. "Grow up. Let's tackle this issue." McCarthy and Snyder will testify before Congress on the Flint water crisis on March 17. McCarthy blamed financial reasons for Michigan's approval of the decision to shift Flint's water supply to the Flint River. "There was simply one reason that I can think of - it is called money, money," she said. Snyder has denied that. "This was never about money. This was a failure of government at all levels that could be described as a massive error of bureaucracy," he said on Twitter on Sunday. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have called on Snyder to step down over his handling of the crisis. The EPA is investigating why it failed to do more to address Flint's water concerns. The regional head of the EPA resigned after criticism of EPA actions on Flint. McCarthy said "where there is a problem we admit it and we take action." EPA staff plans to meet with all U.S. state top water officials as the agency prepares to implement a new rule on lead and copper in drinking water. McCarthy wants states to do a better job of alerting the public quickly to lead problems and ensuring they are fully enforcing current rules. (Editing by Matthew Lewis)
(Reuters) - First lady Michelle Obama will attend the funeral on Friday of Nancy Reagan, who will be buried next to her husband, former President Ronald Reagan, at his presidential library in California, officials said on Monday.

Reagan will lie in repose at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Wednesday and Thursday. A private funeral is planned for Friday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation said.

"First lady Michelle Obama will be attending Mrs. Reagan's funeral," a White House official said on Monday.

Reagan, the former actress who was fiercely protective of her husband through a Hollywood career, eight years in the White House, an assassination attempt and his Alzheimer's disease, died on Sunday at age 94.

The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said a spokeswoman for the Reagan presidential library. She died at her Los Angeles home.

In Washington, President Barack Obama ordered that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at the White House, public buildings, military posts and other facilities as a mark of respect, the White House said on Monday.

Reagan became one of the most influential first ladies in U.S. history during her Republican husband's presidency from 1981 to 1989.

Her husband, who affectionately called her "Mommy," while she called him "Ronnie," died in 2004 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's, the progressive brain disorder that destroys memory.

Obama, a Democrat, and his wife, Michelle, said Nancy Reagan redefined the role of first lady.

"Nancy Reagan once wrote that nothing could prepare you for living in the White House," the Obamas wrote in a joint statement on Sunday. "She was right, of course. But we had a head start, because we were fortunate to benefit from her proud example, and her warm and generous advice."

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, and Roberta Rampton and Will Dunham in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
A&Q is a special series that inverts the classic Q&A, taking some of the most frequently posed solutions to pressing matters of policy and exploring their complexity.

Theres nearly bipartisan consensus these days that something has gone wrong in the relationship between police and the public in the United States.

Shootings of unarmed people, videos of excessive force, and massive protests from coast to coast attest to the problem.

But recognizing the problem is different from solving it. How can communities across the U.S. improve police accountability?

ANSWER

The obvious place to start is to dig into the data and get a better understanding of the scope of the problemanything else risks missing the point.

QUESTION

Thats a logical conclusion, but where are you going to get that data? The lack of reliable information on policing has been a major hindrance to discussions.

For example, how many people do the police shoot every year? No one knows. Forget trying to figure out how many of those were unarmed, or what the demographic breakdown of the the people they shot was. Theres a law on the books that purports to gather the relevant information, but it doesnt work. It requires states to gather information and uses federal grants as a carrot. But the incentive doesnt work, in part because states often dont have the requisite information at their disposalonly local police departments do.

Its ridiculous that I cant tell you how many people were shot by the police last week, last month, last year, FBI Director James Comey said last spring. The lack of decent stats led both The Washington Post and The Guardian to mount data-collection efforts, and in December 2015, the FBI announced it would try to create a more effective data-gathering effort. That wont start until 2017, though.

ANSWER

Okay. Well, in the meantime, prosecutors need to do a better job of holding police who break the law accountable through strict prosecution.

QUESTION

How much real ability do district attorneys and prosecutors have to solve the problem? Attempts to prosecute cops encounter a whole range of issues. Its true that a vanishingly small number of deaths in police hands result in criminal charges, and a smaller number still result in convictions. (Of course, deaths are only a tiny share of cases where police are subject to allegations of misconduct. Theyre just slightly easier to track.)

Story continues

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Because the police are essential to every criminal caseas witnesses and as investigatorsa prosecutor who wants to go after a cop is risking alienating the very officers she relies on in every other case. Even setting all that aside, grand juries and juries alike are often reluctant to second-guess police and so decline to indict or convict. The Freddie Gray case, in which Baltimore City States Attorney Marilyn Mosby aggressively pursued charges against police, is a cautionary tale. Though she won praise for bring charges, the first case resulted in a hung jury, and the rest are currently in limbo.

ANSWER

If local prosecutors are unwilling or unable to deliver accountability, then the Justice Department will have to be the enforcer.

QUESTION

Does the federal government intervening with local police departments provide a good path to reform? Yes and no. Justice Department lawsuits have forced police departments around the country to clean up their actsfrom Seattle to Puerto Rico and Cleveland to New Orleans. The DOJ offers a great deal of heft, and while its certainly not immune to political pressures, it is insulated from local politics.

Justice Department lawsuits have their own limitations, though. While they have been praised for the their effectiveness in identifying systemic abusesthe DOJ investigation into the police in Ferguson, Missouri, was a stunning chronicle of malfeasancetheyre less effective at dealing with specific cases. Hopes that the DOJ would prosecute Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown overlooked the high standards required for a federal civil-rights case. Even when DOJ is able to procure strong agreements, it sometimes finds itself returning again before too long when departments fail to clean up their acts. Meanwhile, the recent focus on police abuse has nearly overwhelmed the unit in charge of police accountability.

ANSWER

Victims can always file civil suits against police. Lots of victims and their families have procured huge settlements.

QUESTION

Do civil lawsuits promote better practices within police departments? The evidence is thin. Baltimore is instructive again. The city paid out millions in cases involving police over several years, but often the costs just get passed on to taxpayers, while departments resist reformproducing incidents like Freddie Grays death. Besides, is a civil suit any substitute for a functioning criminal-justice system?

ANSWER

Police immunity laws are the problem there.

QUESTION

Are immunity laws really a major part of the picture? The Supreme Court recognizes qualified immunity from lawsuits for officers doing their jobs. If something they do doesnt violate clearly established law or constitutional rights as far as a reasonable person would understand them, officers cant be sued. Critics have brought up examples where qualified immunity could be wisely trimmedfor example, cops who violated department procedures might lose itbut immunity is both constitutionally guaranteed and doesnt seem to be one of the biggest issues constricting police accountability, anyway.

ANSWER

Forget the justice systemthere are good ways to prevent things from going wrong in the first place. Body cameras seem like a great use of technology to create accountability.

QUESTION

Body cams are all the rage in police-accountability discussions, but are they the sweeping solution some people would suggest? There have been some very promising cases of body cams producing prosecutions, but there are plenty of others where footage has made little difference (like Eric Garners death).

First, theres still not a great deal of data about how they affect police behavior. Early results were generally promising, but inconclusive. More recent studies have suggested that there are fewer complaints and fewer violent incidents when police wear cameras, but the data is still sparse.

Skeptics see body cameras as similar to previous supposed policing panaceas. Granting that they can make a difference, however, body cameras bring up a host of other issues in implementation. When should cameras be filming? Who stores the film, for how long? Who should have access to footage?

ANSWER

Departments rot from the top. There needs to be civilian leadership or review to keep a check on cops.

QUESTION

How effective is civilian leadership on its own? Many cities have instituted or considered some sort of civilian oversight of the police, with the specifics taking many different shapes. The Justice Department has sometimes mandated more civilian involvement in police-complaint procedures when it sues cities.

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But here, too, the details make all the difference. Even when outside a police department, civilian overseers are subject to regulatory capture. Chicago has an Independent Police Review Authority thats housed outside the police department and staffed by civilians, but the board has come in for withering criticism in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting and other incidents, where it appears to have swept abuses under the carpet and doled out minimal punishment.

ANSWER

Police are just too removed from the community. If they spent more time on the beat talking to citizens, they would behave better.

QUESTION

How much difference does community policing make? Once again, it depends. Cincinnati has been hailed as a paragon of police reform since the Queen City overhauled its department after riots in 2001. One of the keystones of that effort has been better community involvement. Elsewhere, though, the results are mixed. Where community-oriented policing means just putting more cops on the beat without other reforms, it risks escalating situations, rather than defusing them. In the first trial related to Freddie Grays death, Officer William Porter testified that he knew Gray well and that they enjoyed a mutual respect. That didnt prevent Grays death.

* * *

The new focus on police reform and accountability is delivering not only improved data and more focus on solutions like these. Its also awakening interest in a whole set of new policies that are less explored.

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Can improved and overhauled training of police cadets prevent serious problems once theyre on the force?

Would recruiting more diverse police forces that better reflect the communities they serve reduce tension?

Can implicit-bias training avoid racially disparate results in policing?

Would U.S. police forces be well served by following the British model of not arming police with firearms?

Maybe theres an answer we havent considered yet. Drop your thoughts into an email to hello@theatlantic.com.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States launched an air strike in Somalia that killed more than 150 fighters with the al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab following U.S. intelligence on preparations for a large-scale militant attack, the Pentagon said on Monday. The Saturday strike, using both manned aircraft and unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drones, targeted al Shabaab's "Raso" training camp, a facility about 120 miles north of the capital Mogadishu, the Pentagon said. The U.S. military had been monitoring the camp for several weeks before the strike and had gathered intelligence, including about an imminent threat posed by those in the camp to U.S. forces and African Union peacekeepers, officials said. U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James described the strike as "defensive" in nature. "There was intelligence ... these fighters would soon be embarking upon missions that would directly impact the U.S. and our partners," James told reporters. Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the targets were U.S. forces and African Union fighters in Somalia, but declined to offer additional details. Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the United States believed the threat was "imminent" and that the fighters were poised to soon depart the camp. Al Shabaab could not be reached for comment. Somalia's Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer said the Somali intelligence agency had provided information about the camp to the United States in the run-up to the attack. "There has to be intelligence on the ground for this to happen. Our intelligence had helped," Omer told Reuters. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011 but has remained a potent antagonist in Somalia, launching frequent attacks in its bid to overthrow the Western-backed government. The group, whose name means "The Youth," seeks to impose its strict version of sharia law in Somalia, where it frequently unleashes attacks targeting security and government targets, as well as hotels and restaurants in the capital. Al Shabaab was also behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda, which both contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. Omer said the U.S. drone strike was a major blow to al Shabaab. "Instead of al Shabaab attacking civilians, it was a military target that was hit and there was a high success rate," Omer said. Davis said as many as 200 fighters were believed to be training at the Raso camp at the time of the strike and expressed confidence there were no civilian casualties. "Their removal will degrade al Shabaab's ability to meet the group's objectives in Somalia, which include recruiting new members, establishing bases and planning attacks on U.S. and Amisom forces there," Davis said. He added that no U.S. forces on the ground participated in the strike, the largest in recent memory against the militant group, in terms of the number of fighters believed killed. (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in Nairobi; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Ralph Boulton and Andrew Hay)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department sent German automaker Volkswagen AG a subpoena under a bank fraud law in its diesel emissions probe, a person briefed on the matter said Tuesday. The government is using the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act to issue the civil subpoena, a 1989 law used in investigating large financial institutions, said the source who requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the ongoing probe. The law allows the government's civil division to investigate fraud over the last 10 years. VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan declined to comment on talks with regulators, but said the automaker "will continue to cooperate with all relevant government agencies." The Wall Street Journal reported the subpoena earlier Tuesday. The law has been used to subpoena auto loan finance companies in recent years, among other companies. VW faces investigations around the world after it admitted in September to installing software in up to 11 million vehicles that allowed them to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution in real world driving. Last month, a federal judge imposed a March 24 deadline for Volkswagen to state whether it has found an emissions fix for 600,000 U.S. diesel vehicles that is acceptable to U.S. regulators. The U.S. Justice Department in January sued Europe's Volkswagen for up to $46 billion for violating U.S. environmental laws. VW and its Audi and Porsche brands are barred from selling any new 2016 diesel models in the United States. VW also faces more than 500 lawsuits from U.S. owners. Settlement talks are still ongoing between the Justice Department, EPA and California Air Resources Board that could include buyback offers and fixes for vehicles. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Chang, Bernard Orr)
London (AFP) - Around 40 migrants a day were detained after crossing the Channel from France to Britain last summer, according to an official report on Tuesday which criticised the authorities' response as "inadequate".

The report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), which contained figures on arrivals that are not normally made public, showed 3,603 migrants were detained in July, August and September at the height of a surge in numbers attempting to cross the Channel.

The migrants arrived in Britain hidden in vehicles on cross-Channel ferries or on freight trains using the Eurotunnel, the report said.

Most were held at a facility at Dover Seaport, with the rest detained at an overflow facility in nearby Folkestone.

"There is no doubt that the increases in migration initially overwhelmed the existing facilities and an emergency response was required," said chief inspector Peter Clarke.

"It was unacceptable that arrangements were still not in place to process detainees quickly, efficiently and decently, while ensuring that the most vulnerable, such as children, were safe and that the basic physical needs of all detainees for food, rest and clothing were met."

The report did not say how many of the migrants made asylum claims or were returned.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire accepted that the use of an overflow facility "was not acceptable" and insisted it would not be used in the same way in the future.

"Since this inspection we have improved the facilities at Dover Seaport and continue to work on plans to open a new centre to deal with clandestine arrivals at Kent ports," he said.

Immigration has once again become a hot topic in Britain as it prepares to vote on whether to stay in the European Union.

Prime Minister David Cameron's office warned on Monday that a so-called Brexit could mean migrant camps being set up on British shores if UK border checks were removed from Calais.

"Should Britain leave the EU there's no guarantee those controls would remain in place," Cameron's spokesman said at a daily briefing last month.

"If those controls weren't in place there would be nothing to stop thousands of people crossing the Channel overnight and arriving in Kent (southeast England) and claiming asylum," he said.
Washington (AFP) - The United States chided its ally Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for cutting off its supply of weapons to Lebanon's official armed forces.

The oil-rich Gulf kingdom, until recently Beirut's main source of funding for arms, has cut off supplies in protest at Hezbollah's influence there.

Saudi Arabia sees the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia movement as a threat and has blocked $4 billion in military aid and urged its citizens to leave Lebanon.

Like Riyadh, Washington regards Hezbollah as a terror group. On Tuesday US officials said supporting the Lebanese army would dilute the militia's influence.

"We believe that the Lebanese armed forces deserve the support of the international community," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

"Assistance to the Lebanese armed forces and to other legitimate state institutions is essential to help diminish the role of Hezbollah and its foreign patrons," he said, in an implicit swipe at Iran.

"We've raised our concerns about the reports of aid cut off with the Saudi authorities. I'm not going to talk about the details of that."

Over the weekend, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the kingdom would honor a $3 billion contract with France to buy arms for Lebanon, but would then keep the weapons for itself and not pass them on.
Washington (AFP) - The United States warned Tuesday that Iran's latest reported missile test would be in breach of UN resolutions and that Washington could take the matter to the Security Council.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said he could not confirm Iranian state media's claim that Iran had conducted multiple tests, but warned Washington might take unilateral or international action in response.

Kirby said however that the tests would not constitute a breach of the Iran nuclear deal, despite this agreement having been enshrined in international law under the same resolution, UNSC 2231, that banned missile tests.

"I do want to make it clear that such tests, if they are true, are not a violation of the JCPOA," he said, referring to the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" -- the nuclear deal implementation mechanism.

"We have and we will use unilateral and multilateral tools to address this. If these latest reports are true, we'll take them up appropriately," he said.

"We're not going to turn a blind eye to this... I'm just trying to get to a technical point here, which is that it's not a violation of the Iran deal itself."

Earlier, Iranian state media announced that precision guided missiles had been fired from several sites over ranges between 300 and 2,000 kilometers.

In January, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran's missile program just 24 hours after separate embargoes targeting its nuclear program had been lifted.

Also on Tuesday, some of the United States' top military commanders raised concerns about what they called Iran's continued "destabilizing behavior" in the Middle East.

CentCom commander General Lloyd Austin, head of US forces in the Middle East, told lawmakers: "A number of things lead me to believe, personally, that their behavior has not changed course yet."

Austin cited the continued missile program, Iran's attempts to develop a cyberwarfare capability, its support for armed militants around the region and Tehran's threat to block the oil export route through the Strait of Hormuz.

And he said Russia's decision to supply Iran with advanced anti-aircraft systems and shore-defense cruise missiles is also a concern, despite a similar build-up by US allies on the other side of the Gulf.
Tegucigalpa (AFP) - US investigators have joined a Honduran probe into the killing of a prominent indigenous environmental activist who was leading a campaign against a hydroelectric dam at the time of her murder.

Berta Caceres, who headed the Civic Council of Indigenous and People's Organizations (COPINH), was brutally assaulted and shot dead Thursday in her home in the western town of La Esperanza.

Her death sent shockwaves across Central America and was highlighted in demonstrations in the region on Tuesday marking International Women's Day.

"The government has to investigate the murder," with a focus on the company involved in the dam project, activist Suraya Martinez told AFP during a march of hundreds of women in Tegucigalpa.

In the Nicaraguan capital Managua, where 400 people demonstrated, organizer Sandra Ramos said: "We are demanding justice from the Honduran government, so that this does not go unpunished."

- Crime scene 'altered' -

Honduran Attorney General Oscar Chinchilla said a team of US investigators arrived Sunday in La Esperanza to help Honduran authorities with their probe.

US Ambassador James Nealon said Washington was committed "to assist in bringing those responsible for her murder to justice."

Caceres's brother says the attack was carried out by two hooded gunmen who broke into her home while she was sleeping.

She got up to investigate a noise and confronted the men, who broke her arm and leg before shooting her at least eight times at point-blank range, he said.

A Mexican activist, Gustavo Castro, was reported to have been wounded in the attack. He was detained over the weekend as a witness and prevented from leaving Honduras.

In a letter that he wrote while in custody, Castro charged that "the crime scene was altered and modified," but provided no details.

"The government continues preparing arguments to present Berta's assassination as due to internal conflicts when there are lawsuits pending against those who wanted to kill her implicating a hydroelectric company protected by the state," the letter said.

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- Amnesty criticism -

Amnesty International criticized the Honduran government's "absolute lack of willingness to protect human rights defenders in the country."

In a statement, it accused Honduran authorities of failing to investigate "that Berta had been receiving serious death threats related to her human rights work for a very long time."

Caceres, a member of the indigenous Lenca people, was leading a campaign against a hydroelectric dam that would flood large areas of native land and cut off water supplies to hundreds.

She was awarded the 2015 Goldman Prize, considered the world's top award for grassroots environmental activism.
Washington (AFP) - The commander of US special operations said Tuesday that while coalition forces have put the Islamic State group under pressure there is no immediate battlefield plan to take its de facto capital.

Briefing US lawmakers in Washington, senior generals said the US-led anti-IS coalition was working with local ground forces to isolate the group's Syrian stronghold in the city of Raqa.

But General Joseph Votel, head of Special Operations Command, said this broad strategy does not yet amount to a plan to storm Raqa, despite recent advances by US-backed fighters grouped under the "Syrian Democratic Forces" banner.

"There is currently not a plan," he said.

Asked whether the coalition has a plan to hold the city after it falls, he added: "I would say no, there is not a plan to hold Raqa."

General Joe Dunford, who is the US military's highest-ranking officer, later told reporters that any move to retake Raqa would be contingent on a variety of factors.

"We dont have a timeline along which I would tell you that I know we are going to retake Raqa," he said during a work trip to Florida.

"It's going to be conditions-based. It will be based on the size of the force... it will be based on enemy disposition."

Dunford pointed to recent gains in and around the town of Shadadi, which US-supported local forces recaptured from the IS group last month, as evidence of momentum for an eventual recapture of Raqa.

"This is all part of tightening the noose on ISIL in Syria," he said.

General Lloyd Austin, who currently heads the US military's Central Command, which manages Middle East operations, told lawmakers it might be time to revisit a contentious program to train and equip groups of Syrian fighters to hold recaptured territory.

"I've asked for permission to restart the effort by using a different approach," Austin said, adding the revived program would focus on training smaller numbers of fighters.

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The program attracted scorn after it emerged some trainees had given gear and ammunition to an Al-Qaeda-linked affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front.

Votel also faced questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee on the composition of the SDF units that the US-led coalition relies upon for ground operations in the Raqa area.

He said the group is "probably about 80 percent" Kurdish. The US-led coalition has been criticized for its overreliance on Kurdish allies, who may struggle to win over civilians in a mainly Arab town like Raqa and are considered suspect by neighboring Turkey.
Politics

U.S. to announce further easing of Cuba restrictions ahead of Obama trip

President Obamas administration will announce further measures to ease travel and trade restrictions on Cuba on March 17, ahead of his historic visit to the communist-ruled island later this month, U.S. congressional sources said on Tuesday. The anticipated announcement appears timed as a gesture toward Cuba just days before the president flies to Havana on March 21, in another step aimed at ending decades of animosity between the former Cold War foes.

The White House wants to make a splash on the economic front before Obama gets to Havana, and this is one way to do it. It will come a couple of days before he leaves. Reuters source

The new rules will mark the latest effort by President Obama to use his executive powers to sidestep Congress and chip away at the more than half-century-old economic embargo against Cuba. The measures are expected to include changes to make it easier for individual Americans to visit Cuba if they qualify under 12 authorized categories of travel, such as educational or cultural visits, as well as the further loosening of trade and banking rules, said the sources, who were briefed on the matter by administration officials.
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's opposition called Tuesday for the "largest movement that has ever existed" to oust President Nicolas Maduro, vowing to pursue all means to force him from power, including a referendum and protests.

The opposition, which has been on a collision course with Maduro since winning control of the legislature in December, spent weeks deciding on its strategy to remove the socialist president, whose popularity has plunged in the face of a crippling economic crisis.

In the end, after a heated debate over the merits of a referendum, a constitutional amendment or the drafting of a new constitution, it announced its plan was all of the above, and more.

It placed special emphasis on its call for protests, starting from Saturday -- a potentially explosive path amid the tensions tearing at Venezuela, after anti-government demonstrations in 2014 left 43 people dead.

"The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) has taken the unanimous decision to call on the Venezuelan people to launch the largest popular pressure movement that has ever existed, to activate all -- I repeat, all -- mechanisms for change," said the opposition coalition's executive secretary, Jesus Torrealba.

That, he said, includes organizing a recall referendum, which enables voters to remove elected officials midway through their terms -- six years, in the case of the president.

Maduro was elected in 2013, a month after succeeding mentor Hugo Chavez following his death from cancer. Maduro reaches the midway point of his term in six weeks, on April 19.

To call a referendum, the opposition would need to get a petition signed by 20 percent of registered voters, or 3.9 million people, over a period of three days.

The referendum, to be organized within seven months, would then need to gather more votes than Maduro won with in 2013 -- some 7.6 million.

Torrealba said the opposition will also use its legislative majority to draft a constitutional amendment reducing the presidential term.

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An amendment would also have to win approval in a referendum.

Torrealba said the opposition will consider calling a constitutional assembly to draft a new constitution if the government continues its "irresponsible practice of trying to block the constitutional mechanisms for a peaceful solution to the crisis."

- Court stands in way -

The opposition's landslide win in December's legislative elections is the biggest challenge yet to the socialist "revolution" Chavez launched in 1999.

It comes against the backdrop of a deep economic morass exacerbated by the crash in the price of oil, which long funded Chavez and Maduro's lavish social spending.

Despite holding the world's largest crude reserves, Venezuela's economy contracted 5.7 percent last year, its second year of recession.

The crisis has stoked outrage in the South American country, where chronic shortages of basic goods, long lines and soaring prices have become the norm.

"We can't bear this anymore. We are the victims of the worst crisis in the country's history. Nothing works. That's why Venezuela has chosen the path of change," said Torrealba.

Political analysts say all the constitutional options to force Maduro from power face likely rejection by the Supreme Court or the National Electoral Council, both of which the opposition accuses the president of packing with allies.

The Supreme Court has struck down the opposition's powerful two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and dealt it a series of other blows.

"All these paths can be torpedoed by the constitutional chamber (of the Supreme Court), in an abusive exercise of its authority," said constitutional law expert Jose Ignacio Hernandez.

A top Maduro ally, legislative minority leader Hector Rodriguez, said the president was ready for a "battle" and would not be pressured to resign.

"Nicolas isn't going to resign, he's going to dedicate himself entirely to governing for the majority of the country, including for them (his critics)," he told AFP.
Berlin (AFP) - German car giant Volkswagen will not renew sponsorship deals with Bundesliga club Schalke 04 or second division Munich 1860, the company said on Tuesday.

Both contracts are due to expire at the end of June.

Some sources say the car manufacturer will, however, continue to sponsor the German Cup, which it began doing in 2012.

"Volkswagen will not extend its contracts with Schalke 04 and Munich 1860 at the end of the current season," a company spokesman told AFP.

Since last September, the Volkswagen Group has been embroiled in an emissions scandal after deliberately trying to circumvent Clean Air Act regulations in the United States.
WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Volkswagen's <VOWG_p.DE> emissions scandal will inflict "substantial and painful" financial damage on the carmaker, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said on Tuesday.

It will take years to fully gauge the financial implications of the scandal, Mueller told a gathering of workers at VW's base in Wolfsburg.

Volkswagen (VW) last year set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.39 billion) to cover costs of recalls of about 11 million affected diesel vehicles globally.

The implications of the scandal will keep VW busy "for a long time," the CEO said, adding the carmaker has made no attempts to conceal its wrongdoings.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Edward Taylor)
By Andreas Cremer

WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - German insurer Allianz <ALVG.DE> plans to sue Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> over the sharp drop in its shares as a result of the carmaker's diesel emissions scandal, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

If successful, the lawsuit would add to financial pressures on Volkswagen that its chief executive said on Tuesday would be "substantial and painful".

At the same time, the company's labour leader warned that the extent of possible job cuts at VW would depend "decisively" on the level of U.S. fines for its cheating of emissions tests.

"Should the future viability of Volkswagen be endangered by an unprecedented financial penalty, this will have dramatic social consequences," works council chairman Bernd Osterloh told more than 20,000 workers at company headquarters in Wolfsburg.

The 'Dieselgate' scandal has forced out the previous chief executive, tarnished one of Germany's most renowned corporate brands and driven down VW's share price by 31 percent since it emerged last September.

According to Thomson Reuters data, Allianz Global Investors holds 0.06 percent of VW preference shares and just 10,000 ordinary shares, so will have lost some 8.6 million euros ($9.5 million) on its stake.

The source said the Allianz lawsuit would happen "within this month." Allianz said in a statement it had not yet filed an actoin against VW but was weighing a suit.

The action will add to VW's litigation risks in Germany, where the carmaker already faces dozens of private lawsuits.

But it is dwarfed by the potential costs in the United States, where the Justice Department has sued VW for up to $46 billion for breaching U.S. environmental laws.

More than 500 lawsuits have been filed against the company in the United States, and there is still no fix for nearly 600,000 cars affected there.

RISK TO JOBS

Osterloh, who also sits on VW's 20-member supervisory board, called on the U.S. authorities to consider the risk of possible job cuts in deciding on penalties. "We very much hope that the U.S. authorities also have an eye for this social and employment-political dimension," he said.

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Europe's largest automaker employs over 600,000 people at around 120 factories worldwide, including 270,000 in Germany. Its U.S. plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee employs about 2,200 people.

Speaking at the Wolfsburg meeting, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said the scandal would inflict "substantial and painful" financial damage on the carmaker, without elaborating.

Volkswagen last year set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.39 billion) to cover the expected costs of recalling about 11 million diesel vehicles globally. It has postponed the release of its 2015 results by more than a month until April 28 to better assess the financial implications of the crisis.

Outside the United States, France has opened a formal investigation into suspected "aggravated fraud" by VW, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

"The software manipulations and its consequences will keep us busy for a long time," Mueller said, adding that it would take years to determine the full extent of the financial impact.

The state of Lower Saxony, VW's second-largest shareholder, expects more "unpleasant news" to emerge over the months ahead but remains confident that the company has the financial strength to cope.

"We will this year probably every now and then be confronted with unpleasant news related to 'Dieselgate'," Stephan Weil, prime minister of Lower Saxony, told the Wolfsburg meeting.

"The damage will, on balance, not be minor, that much can already be said today, but Volkswagen luckily has a strong economic base," Weil, also a member of the supervisory board, said.

The Western German state, which holds 20 percent of VW's common shares, has "no reason" to alter its commitment to the carmaker despite the crisis, said Weil, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners.

Separately, German prosecutors said on Tuesday they have widened their investigation into the emissions scandal and are now targeting 11 more employees.

Klaus Ziehe from the state prosecutor's office in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, which is leading the German case against VW, said 17 people were now being investigated, up from six previously.

"The number of suspects has risen, although none are from the management board," Ziehe said.

(Additional reporting by Edward Taylor and Jonathan Gould in Frankfurt; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen (file photo).



Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said Monday that his ministry should waive the legal costs that the family of late Private Dominique Sarron Lee must pay after their lawsuit against the Singapore Armed Forces and two of its officers was thrown out.



In a Facebook note posted near midnight on Monday, Ng noted that the High Courts judgement in awarding the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) costs was based on sound legal grounds and precedents.



But we need not add to the pain and anguish of the family of the late PTE Lee. We should waive the costs to the family, he wrote.



On 3 March, the court ruled that Pte Lees family has to pay legal costs of $22,000 to all three defendants.



In addition, Ng said the ministry should also emphasise to SAF commanders that they should continue to train their men professionally, with due regard for safety regulations.



We must learn from every accident, fix lapses and improve. This is the way we honour all those who have given their all to build a strong and honourable SAF, he added.

Ngs post came four days after the High Court dismissed the suit that Felicia Seah, the mother of Lee, filed last year against the SAF, platoon commander Najib Hanuk Muhamad Jalal and safety officer Chia Thye Siong for being negligent during the training of her son.



Lee, 21, died in 2012 after an allergic reaction to zinc chloride fumes from smoke grenades used during a military exercise. Najib was found to have detonated six smoke grenades instead of two, specified as the limit in safety regulations.

All three defendants applied to have the lawsuit struck out, relying on a provision in the Government Proceedings Act to argue that they had immunity against suits of negligence if a death occurred during service.

Judicial Commissioner Kannan Ramesh reportedly agreed that the Act covered Lees case and dismissed the suit. He also ruled that the family had to bear the costs for the lawsuit.



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The ruling caused an uproar among Singaporeans on social media after Lees mother wrote a Facebook post on Friday about her feelings on the decision.



Dom, how can I possibly pay them for taking away your life? Where is the justice? It seems, the price I paid has not been enough, Seah said in the post addressed to her dead son.



Also, earlier on Monday, SAF issued a statement to dispel the perception that SAF servicemen who are injured or killed due to negligent acts cannot seek legal recourse under military rules.



Brigadier General Chan Wing Kai, Commander Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), said, SAF personnel can be charged and punished in the criminal courts for Penal Code offences of committing rash and negligent acts, even during the course of their military duties.

While no criminal charges were brought against the two officers, BG Chan said that administrative and disciplinary actions have been taken against them. However, he did not specify what the actions were.

SAF said it has also extended support to the Pte Lees family by disbursing welfare grants and offering compensation. He did not specify the value of the compensation and whether the family has accepted it.
Supreme Court reverses Alabamas denial of lesbians adoption: The states Supreme Court had refused to recognize the adoption that was granted in Georgia to the woman and her former partner. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed that decision. The case was V.L. v E.L.

The EUs meeting with Turkey on migration: Turkey says it will do more to slow the flow of migrants entering the blocbut with certain conditions. Europe is struggling with the most-severe refugee crisis since World War II. Most of those people fleeing the civil war in Syria live in Turkey.

Honoring Nancy Reagan: President Obama has ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff as a mark of respect for the memory of Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday at age 94. The flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day shes buried next to President Reagan in Simi Valley, California.

News from the morning here

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
More primaries and caucuses: The Republican presidential candidates are vying for four states today: Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, and Mississippi. The Democrats are competing in Michigan and Mississippi. Donald Trumps Republican rivals are hoping to stop his momentum. Bernie Sanders is banking on a win in Michigan.

Still no definite answers: It has been two years since Malaysia Airline Flight 370 vanished with 239 people on board. Last July, a flaperon that washed up in Reunion, the French island in the Indian Ocean, was said to be from the missing plane. The Australian official who is in charge of the search operation said its very likely the plane will be found.

Maria Sharapovas costly unforced error: Nike has suspended its sponsorship deal with the five-time Grand Slam winner, while Tag Hauer says it has pulled out of talks to renew a deal with her. Sharapova said yesterday she had failed a drug test at the Australian Open in January.

News from last night here

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Washington (AFP) - The White House for the first time will release casualty figures from its controversial drone program, officials said on Monday, amid criticism that the airstrikes often kill civilians instead of the intended terror targets.

Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama's top homeland security adviser, said the administration will publish a review of its air strikes on terror targets worldwide, disclosing casualty figures for both fighters and civilians.

The planned report comes after a 2013 pledge by Obama to provide more transparency in its drone program that has become a keystone in America's counterterrorism efforts, amid criticism that the program is too opaque and frequently kills innocent civilians.

"In the coming weeks, the administration will publicly release an assessment of combatant and non-combatant casualties resulting from strikes taken outside areas of active hostilities since 2009," Monaco said in remarks made during a speech at a Washington think tank.

The report will be published annually, she said.

A seemingly ever-expanding global war against extremist groups means the United States relies heavily on drones to monitor hostile lands and launch missiles at suspected extremists in countries such as Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

Obama has drastically expanded the drone program during his tenure, but his administration provides scant information on strikes.

Critics say many drone strikes kill civilians, and the aircraft alienate and radicalize local populations on the ground.

A report by the nonpartisan Stimson Center think tank last month gave the Obama administration a failing grade in three areas: a lack of progress on releasing information on targeted drone strikes, developing better accountability mechanisms and explaining the US lethal drone program's legal basis.

US strikes have sometimes killed Westerners, such as in January 2015 when Al-Qaeda hostages American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto were killed in a raid. Obama expressed his "deepest apologies" to their families.

According to the Stimson Center, the US has drone bases in more than a dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Niger, the Philippines, Qatar, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.
By Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are set to discuss new ideas for curbing climate change and expanding trade during an Oval Office meeting this week, White House officials said during a preview on Tuesday. Trudeau, who pledged to repair frayed ties with the United States when he took office in November, will meet with Obama on Thursday ahead of a star-studded state dinner. The White House, which sees a natural partner in Trudeau, hopes the two countries can commit to cut methane emissions from the energy sector by 40 percent to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025, and endorse an initiative to stop routine flaring from oil and gas fields, said Todd Stern, the U.S. climate envoy. The commitment of both leaders to addressing this global challenge is clear and I expect under their leadership North America will make significant progress this year, Stern told reporters. Stern said the two countries also are looking at ways to make carbon emissions from the aviation sector "neutral," starting in 2020 through the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization. The United States also hopes to accelerate the timetable to phase out HFCs, industrial gases that have far more potential to trap the earth's heat than carbon dioxide, through an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, Stern said. On trade, a hot-button issue for both Democrats and Republicans in the race to succeed Obama in the Nov. 8 presidential election, the leaders are likely to discuss two longstanding irritants, softwood lumber and meat labeling. A deal governing Canadian softwood lumber exports expired last year, and the two nations are talking about a new arrangement, said Mark Feierstein, the White House National Security Council's senior director for the Western hemisphere. "Were open to exploring all options with Canada at this point," Feierstein said, declining to put timelines on when a deal may be reached. The White House also hopes Canada will formally end its World Trade Organization case against a U.S. labeling law that the WTO ruled hurt Canadian beef and pork exports, he said. The United States repealed the law in December. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Having more women participate on company boards may be a lucrative strategy for investors.

Richard Kersley and his team at Credit Suisse examined the impact of female representation on boards of directors, and they published their findings in a 2014 report. They reviewed 3,000 companies and found that companies with women on the board outperformed those without women.

Specifically, large companies  those with market caps over $10 billion market cap  with at least one woman on the board outperformed those without any by 26% over the six years ending December 2011.

And that momentum persisted beyond that initial measurement period.

From the start of 2012 to June 2014, we have seen 5% outperformance on a sector neutral basis by those companies with at least one woman on board, they wrote.

Source: Credit Suisse

The analysts found the divergence was even more pronounced when they measured boards with above-average concentrations of women versus those that were below average. Large global companies above the average outperformed those below by 36% (or 3.7% per year) from 2005 through the first half of 2014.

Source: Credit Suisse

Additional research has shown that more women on boards and in senior management can also increase profitability. The Peterson Institute for International Economics and Ernst & Young LLP released a study earlier this year looking at over 20,000 publicly traded companies globally and found that those with 30% female directors and executives added as much as 6 percentage points in net margins.

Activist investors have taken heat for the underrepresentation of women they nominate to corporate boards. On this International Womens Day 2016, with female representation on corporate boards standing at around 13%, investors may want to think about being more aggressive of about increasing gender diversity.








By Andrius Sytas and David Mardiste VILNIUS/TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are tightening ID controls and erecting fences on their eastern borders, worried the Baltic region will become a new entry point for refugees as migrant routes through the Balkans becomes harder. Governments fear they could see thousands of refugees cross from former ruler Russia - the focus of long historical mistrust - and Belarus. Concerns have grown since around 6,000 asylum seekers crossed into Finland and Norway from Russia last year. Latvia and Estonia have begun to fence off their border with Russia. Security concerns also played a part after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean region and accusations an Estonian security officer was kidnapped on the border region in 2014. Hundreds of Lithuanian border guards, police and soldiers started an exercise this week over handling a border crisis. The reintroduction of ID checks on part of the border with its northern neighbor Latvia will also be tested at the exercise. "Until last year, neither Norway nor Finland had any migration problems on the Russian border," commander of the Lithuanian state border guard Renatas Pozela told Reuters. "Then migrant flows on that border jumped up in a single week, as if by the wave of a magic wand." As controls tighten over the direct route from Greece into continental Europe, the route through Moldova, Ukraine and into the Baltic may become more popular, officials say. Estonia is installing surveillance devices, such as those already on the Lithuanian border with Belarus, to thwart both smuggling and illegal migration. "It's unfortunate that we would need that (a border fence)," said Ojars Eriks Kalnins, a member of the Latvian parliament European Affairs Committee. "But given the circumstances in Europe right now, the whole refugee crisis, it may be necessary." So far the number of refugees has been a trickle. Finland criticized Russia in January for allowing asylum seekers across their Arctic border, after their numbers at the major Salla border crossing reached 20 per day. About 5,000 asylum seekers arrived in Norway in 2015 via Russia, out of the total 31,000 asylum seekers that came last year. But the flow of migrants from Russia to Finland has halted in March, according to Finnish border guard. (Additional reporting by Gederts Gelzis in Riga and Tuomas Forsell in Helsinki; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Ralph Boulton)
- British sailor Elliot Willis has withdrawn from Great Britain's squad for this year's Olympic Games due to ongoing treatment for bowel cancer. Willis, 32, was diagnosed in December and his radiotherapy treatment means that he will not be able to take part in much of the build-up to the Rio de Janeiro event. His 470 partner, Luke Patience, has been de-selected as a result and must seek to qualify with a different partner, Chris Grube, but he expressed sympathy for his ailing team-mate. "Clearly Elliot's situation is one neither of us foresaw when we embarked on our campaign together and I'm sad that we won't be able to compete together in Rio this summer," Patience said.

AFP
Boy, 15, held for teens murder

Singh, 17 and Hall, 16 were shot dead on February 23, in a track off St Johns Road, St Augustine. The accuseds mother was contacted by a Homicide officer who informed her that her son was wanted for questioning. The boys attorney, Fareed Ali said when he was handed over to the Homicide officers, he appeared to be in good health.

Three teenagers were identified by police as the prime suspects in the murder of the two boys. Police said a recording of a conversation Hall had with associates from a criminal gang he was in, played a critical role in the identification of the three teenaged killers .

A 16-year-old boy handed over the voice mail recording to police.

Hall was killed for his involvement in the fire-bombing of a car in Tunapuna last weekend . Singh was killed to leave no eyewitness to Halls murder . Hall was shot several times in the neck and chest while Singh was shot in the chest, arms and at the back of the head. Hall was found with a .38 revolver stuck in his pants waist.

According to reports, on the afternoon of the murders, residents contacted the police after hearing rapid gunfire from a river close to a track off St Johns Road. Three men were seen running along the road.

One was holding a gun as he ran.

The investigation is continuing
Suspect still in custody

She is also nursing chop wounds to the head.

The accounts clerk of Sancho Road, New Grant remains warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the San Fernando General Hospital.

Relatives yesterday told Newsday, Rampersad was in excruciating pain.

According to a police report, at 1.40 pm on Saturday, Rampersad was awakened by an intruder who attacked her as she slept on a bed.

She was chopped on the head and on the hands. Rampersad managed to drag herself out of her bedroom and call on her mother, Irma Soodeen, 72, who was asleep in another room.

Neighbours rushed the injured woman to hospital where she was treated and subsequently warded.

She underwent emergency surgery to remove the right hand and fingers which was left hanging by a thin skin on the left hand in the attack. She is in real pain right now, said sister Devi Soodeen who wanted it known that her sister who lost her husband five years ago was not involved in any romantic relationship.

She focused all her energies in church, she did Bible classes every week at Miracle Ministries in Chaguanas.

Her wallet with her drivers permit and identification card and money is missing. The police must find the man who tried to kill my sister. Investigators believe the intruder may have had a key for the house.

Only on Friday, Rampersad traded- in her used vehicle for a new van - police said they were told that she had forgotten her house keys in the vehicle that she sold, and was expected to collect it on Saturday.

Yesterday a senior police officer said that officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Southern Homicide Bureau were also actively engaged in enquiries into the acid attack on La Romaine housewife Rachael Chadee, 30, and the murder of geriatric nurse Amina Mohammed, 35.

Chadee was locked in her mothers bedroom by an estranged male relative, and forced to drink acid - the corrosive substance was also thrown on her and her face slashed. The mother of three, remains warded under police guard at the SFGH. Roger Bissoon, who has been deemed a Wanted Man in connection with the incident, is still on the run. In the case of Mohammed , who was found with her throat slit at the side of the road in Retrench Village last week Friday, police said they are yet to make an arrest. Mohammed was expected to appear in court yesterday on a domestic related matter. Investigations are continuing
Fuad charged with assaulting WPC

The charge alleges that Bakr assaulted WPC Cindy-Ann Chase by beating on July 23, 2015, while she was on duty at the Belmont Police Station. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

A second charge alleges that on the same date, Bakr committed acts amounting to disorderly behaviour in contravention of Section 52 of the Summary Offences Act.

The matters, which came up before Magistrate Carl Quamina in the Port-of-Spain Third Magistrates Court, were adjourned to May 10 for the purpose of disclosure of statements
FROM CONDO TO JAIL

She was jailed after appearing before Magistrate Christine Charles in the Port-of-Spain First Court on 40 fresh charges, brought against her in relation to activities spanning the years 2012 to present.

The new charges  involving transactions at districts in Port-of- Spain, San Fernando, Chaguanas, Tunapuna and Siparia  added to 138 pending charges brings to 178, the total amount of charges Boodram is facing in various courts.

Those 138 previous charges are from activities alleged to have occurred between 2009 to 2012, according to information given in court.

The Magistrate denied bail due to the fact that the fresh charges were similar to matters for which Boodram had previously been granted $2 million bail. The accused was also remanded because of uncertainty over just where exactly, is her fixed place of abode. Boodram appeared in court yesterday at 11.34 am, in handcuffs. Throughout her entire appearance in court, she did not look back at the public gallery behind her. No member of her family attended.

In relation to her fixed address, the court heard how Boodram had told members of the Fraud Squad that she lived at home with family at 34 Campbell Street, Siparia and that she also rented an apartment at One Woodbrook Place, due to her job in the capital where she worked as a consultant. However, when checks were done, doubts arose.

The address given by the accused was checked by the Fraud Squad, Police prosecutor Sgt Callister Charles told the Magistrate.

They were informed that she was not living there for about a month....The father of the accused, Ramjass Boodram, gave the officer the information. When members of the Fraud Squad checked out Apartment 4C of Tower 3 of One Woodbrook Place, St James, that too drew a blank.

They were informed by management there, that she was not registered as being there, the police prosecutor said. However, the accused has a swipe card and a key to access the apartment condo. The accused went with officers and she went into the apartment with the swipe card. In these circumstances, the prosecution is objecting to bail. But Boodram offered an explanation to the court, saying her home address was still at Campbell Street, Siparia.

That is still on my ID card, she said. (Trinidad and Tobago ID cards do not carry addresses.) She further stated, I still do live with my parents. Because of my job in Port-of-Spain where I work as a consultant, there was no harm in me renting an apartment. I was not registered because it is rented under another name. For persons who do not live there, it is impossible to enter the premises without a swipe card. The police prosecutor said while the accused was not registered as the owner of the apartment, the premises were registered in the name of a company.

Earlier, the Magistrate took 20 minutes to read out all 40 of the new charges. They included allegations that, during the period January 14, 2014, to September 31, 2014, Boodram obtained $417,400 in credit from WIN TV by fraud. A fraudulent FCB cheque was issued to WIN TV in the sum of $350,000.

The charges further alleged that Boodram, on August 28, 2014, attempted to obtain from Darren Balkissoon a $216,000 Toyota vehicle by falsely presenting an FCB cheque payable to the said Balkissoon.

She is also accused of uttering a false RBC cheque to the value of $104,604 in January 2016, meant to be drawn on the account of Veti- Furlonge-Kelly & Co.

The charges additionally allege Boodram uttered several bank branch cheques  purporting to be from First Citizens Bank, RBC, and RBTT  in relation to several transactions. A series of charges allege Boodram stole cash, in sums ranging from $3,000 to $24,500, from a list of individuals including: Kerline Alexander; Francis Mongoo; Simon Joseph; Fayola Campbell Alexis; Sheldon Alleyne; Rose Angeline Hernandez; Sherma St John Mitchell; Michelle Simon; Patricia Richards; Amy Villereal and others.

Boodram told the court yesterday that she was looking for a lawyer. I will be seeking legal representation, she told the Magistrate.

Some of her charges were adjourned to March 10, others March 11, others March 15, and yet others to March 17, with each set being transferred to different courts all over the country.

At one point the police prosecutor implored the Magistrate to not adjourn one of the charges to todays date, noting it was International Womens Day and female police officers (who would normally accompany the accused to court) would be engaged in specific exercises.

Tomorrow is International Womens Day and all female officers will be involved in an exervise, so I am asking the court to avoid tomorrow, said Charles.
Cops investigate rape of women

According to reports, the woman accepted the lift and it was while they were on their way home, the man drove into a lonely trace at Guaracara Road, off Tabaquite and placed the children in the front seat of the vehicle.

He then ordered the woman out of the vehicle and proceeded to rape her. The man then drove the woman and her children to her home and left.

The woman made a report to the Gasparillo police and she was medically examined by District Medical Officer Dr Ragoobar.

Investigators said yesterday that an arrest is imminent. In the second incident, at about 7.30 pm on Sunday, a 22-year-old woman of La Romaine boarded a car at Library Corner in San Fernando and asked the driver to take her to Duncan Village in San Fernando.

The driver later took the woman to a lonely trace in Debe where he raped her. The woman was then dropped off after the attack and made a report to the San Fernando Police. She was medically examined by a DMO and investigations are continuing.
Students block road

The youngsters, some in school uniform, placed school chairs in the middle of the road and sat on it during the protest.

The children were supported by their parents and other villagers. Many students have not attended classes since the re-opening of school in January. For the past two years, students from the rural school with a population of 89, have been attending classes in containers which according to PTA president Miranda DeVerteuil-Mendoza is not fit even to house livestock.

Newsday was told the new school was constructed by the previous Peoples Partnership administration and was scheduled to be opened last August.

With Government changing hands, the parents feel that politicking is behind the school not being opened. Protests were held earlier this year in front the Ministry of Education, but the school remains locked.

We tried to get Minister of Education Anthony Garcia to help us just as we did with former minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh...but nothing has happened.

No one is hearing us not even our MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar, said a protestor. De Verteuil-Mendoza said their protest action will continue today and tomorrow until they get some attention
UWI, Japan for exchange students

Among Sophias notable alumni are actor, George Takei, who played Mr Sulu in sci-fi mini-series, Star Trek, and Japans former prime minister (1993 to 1994), Morihiro Hosokawa.

A Japanese delegation recently met Ministry of Education officials, and will today meet UWI officials.

Japan ambassador, Mitsuhiko Okada, Sophia Universitys Prof Toshiaki Koso and others last Friday visited the Ministrys Permanent Secretaries, Gillian MacIntyre and Angela Sinaswee-Gervais; Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan, and Sector Specialist, Davin Jagessar.

The delegation asked for the Ministrys support to build ties between the St Augustine Campus and Sophia University.

UWI has agreed in principle to an exchange programme with Sophia University, to allow student exchanges between the two institutions, and expose the youngsters to different cultures and academic environments. Todays meeting is to herald the signing of an MOU between UWI and Sophia University.

UWI St Augustine principal, Prof Clem Sankat, told Newday he had met the Japanese delegation including the chancellor and ambassador last Saturday.

He said he had expressed his deepest condolences on the murder of visiting Japanese pannist, Asami Nagakiya. The delegation had accepted the apologies, and had noted this nations outpouring of grief over the tragedy. Asked if the MOU was spurred by Asamis death, Sankat said no because it has been two years in the making.
Carmona stranded for hours

According to reports, Carmona attended the Hugh Wooding Law School Founders function last week and was scheduled to return home on Sunday night.

But when the President went to the airport to board the aircraft, he was one of several persons informed of the delay. Sources revealed he was treated very well by the airline before his return to Trinidad.

Newsday understands that due to the delay, the US Secret Service and other agencies were forced to work long hours during the time the President had to await his flight, while locally, Special Branch officers, the chauffeur, police officers and other staff were also kept waiting at the Piarco International Airport for his arrival.

Sources also added that it is the Protocol for the Acting president to receive the President upon his re-entry into the country, however it could not be ascertained if the Acting President Christine Kangaloo was on hand to receive the President at the time he arrived at Piarco at 2.30 am.

Last December, during one of his foreign trips, Carmona suffered a similar experience on an American Airlines flight in Miami.
Lake Asphalt workers protest

Vice president of the Contractors and General Workers Union (CGWU) Joseph Phillip who led the march in front the companys Brighton head offices, said that the company has been given an ultimatum by workers, meet with the union for dialogue or prepare for massive protests outside the Chief Personnel Officers (CPO ) office this week.

Phillip said that the workers were fed-up and have waited too long for answers from the company.

No one is telling us anything about negotiations and we feel disrespected and want immediate answers from the Board of Directors to know what is happening with negotiations, Phillip said.

He added that last September, the Board and union met and a settlement was arrived at, by both parties, which was documented.

Up to now, there has been no word coming to the union concerning the outcome of negotiations, he claimed.

All we are saying, since we accepted the offer by the company, we want to know what is the position of this acceptance. We want to sign the agreement and get our backpay.

Workers need to know what is going on, Phillip said.

He said the union is willing to reopen negotiations with the company and have further dialogue as to what the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) feels the union should settle for.

We might accept...

but nobody is telling us anything. Nobody has seen it fit to call the union and say, look we cannot pay Y we could pay X. We are asking the powers that be, please call us and let us have some dialogue. Efforts yesterday to contact officials at Lake Asphalt proved futile.
Search continues for lost hiker

Head of the Fitness Walkers Club Mario Russell who assisted in the search on Sunday said Arthur appears to be very fit and could handle himself wherever he is but added that he is anxious to find the missing hiker soon.

On Saturday Arthur was an eight hour one-way hike from Acono Maracas St Joseph to Yarra river in La Fillette.

Russell told Newsday, at 2 pm on Saturday, on reaching the Yara River, Arthur left the group and decided to make his way over the mountains rather than come down the river. He left his life jacket at the river and did not inform any of the leaders, who were nearby, of his choice. Before the hike, Arthur expressed fears for the water but decided to proceed anyway. He added that finding the correct tributary to return back to the original trail was more difficult than coming down the river.

For the past ten years, the group has been going on hikes through mountainous trails. Russell said that before the start of any hike, safety instructions and the course trail are explained in full detail to hikers, along with places to regroup.

Life jackets are given to all hikes
Govt concerned about violence against women

They expressed this concern in a joint statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister to commemorate International Womens Day today.

The Prime Minister and Webster-Roy observed that while nationally the rights of women in different spheres of life have improved, the Government remains concerned about the levels of domestic and other forms of violence and abuse that are being recorded against our women and girls. They said Government, through the Division of Gender and Child Affairs and its agencies, remains strongly committed to ensuring that our women and our girls not only enjoy gender parity but are safe in their homes, the workplace and/or communities. Stressing that women must be given every opportunity to transcend abusive and repressive environments and circumstances, they added that the Office of the Prime Minister continues to develop and execute projects and programmes toward achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. These initiatives include the Women in Harmony Programme, campaigns and workshops geared at sensitising the public to gender issues and a public education campaign to curb domestic violence, their statement said.

We also collaborate with key service providers to facilitate counselling and response services, as well as integral legislative reform, Rowley and Webster Roy stated.
Women still face challenges

Crediting TTs strides in gender equality over the past ten years at least in part to the work of organisations such as the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women, he questioned what members of the public were doing to stop domestic abuse and violence on the occasion of International Womens Day.

The British High Commission, he said, was celebrating IWD 2016 in a number of ways including having local inspirational women share their stories, and to encourage the high commissions staff to shadow each other and to step into each others shoes to see life from a different perspective.

IWD, he said, mattered to him personally for a number of reasons including the fact that he was a father of a daughter.

Ive tried to bring her up to be strong, independent- minded and knowing her strengths, so she can make her way in what is a tough, competitive world, he said. His responsibilities, he said, go beyond his daughters and include shaping the workplace, so that it offers women of his daughters generation greater equality of opportunity and respect. His senior leadership team that decides on decisions taken and policies put in place to develop Britains partnership with the people and government of TT, he said, was composed equally of men and women, not due to some neat or rigidly imposed quota system, but because it works.

As a diplomat, dealing with international conflict for much of his career having served in Bosnia, the Middle East and North Africa, he said, he has seen shocking oppression of women including the extreme use of sexual violence in conflict, the denial of the rights of women to have a political voice, the denial to enjoy independence through equal opportunity, and the denial to be able to shape their futures.
Expert: HPV cancer on the rise

Myers was speaking at the Caribbean Association of Otolaryngology (CAO) 24th Annual Clinical Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Portof- Spain, yesterday morning.

Cancer of the head and neck was an uncommon disease until the end of the 19th century when cigarette factories evolved, and cigarettes became cheap, and readily available.

Alcohol was mass produced and became readily available in the market place. It was at the end of the 19th and early 20th century that there was a notable increase in cancer of the head and neck, Myers noted. However, today, HVP was the causitive factor in laryngeal cancer. What we are seeing now is fewer in those patients, because of the decrease in smoking, at least in the United States. Most of the patients now we see with cancer are those with HPV infection.

Weve known for a long time what happens with HPV, and thats cancer in the female, the cervix, so this is the same type of virus. Most of the patients now that we see in the US are patients who have laryngeal cancer caused by this virus, Myers said.

He said when this discovery was made, they evaluated the patient population and found out that the patients who had HPV were younger than the patients who had tobacco and alcohol induced, healthier, and decided to be treated non-surgically. The reason for that is the surgery itself is rather debilitating if done externally with removal of the back of the tongue which could be debilitating terms of speaking and swallowing, there would be scarring around the neck, and they would have a tracheotomy and a feeding tube inserted, Myers explained.

He noted that patients who had treatment with chemoradiation for HPV-induced cancer had a higher cure rate than the patients who had the traditional cancer based on tobacco and alcohol.

President of the TT Association of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Dr Solaiman Juman, said there was need for more ENT specialists in TT. He said at present there were just about six or seven ENT specialists when there was need for 15 to treat with the countrys population.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery (TTSOHNS), Dr Solaiman Juman, said there was a shortage of Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists in the country.

It is estimated that for 100,000 citizens, we need at least one ENT specialist. We need about 15 in the country, but right now we just have six or seven, he said.

Juman said there has been a notable increase of patients with throat cancer through the HPV virus which could be spread through oral sex. We need to look at and identify within the main hospitals units, which are dedicated for ENT that they have the resources, and that means manpower and operating time. I work at Mt Hope and the problem is, that we are not getting enough operating time in the theatres, Juman said.
Blind Welfare jewels in concert again

The concert will be under the patronage of the wife of the President, Reema Carmona.

Kenneth Suratt, chief executive officer of the association, said yesterday the associations mission is to establish and develop services and programmes which will impact the lives of blind and visually impaired people.

The aim, he added, is to assist individuals who are blind and visually impaired in achieving independence and self-reliance in society. Suratt said all proceeds from the concert will be used to fund their music programme.

We need to pay tutors to come in and teach different musical instruments, he said.

The concert will highlight the musical and vocal talents of people who are blind and visually impaired.

The concert will be held at the Sundar Popo Auditorium, Southern Academy for the Performing Arts, San Fernando, on May 15, from 4 pm to 7 pm. Tickets are now on sale and members of the public can visit or call the associations offices for further information.

They can also contact Deonarine Ragoo, manager of the southern branch, at 652-2079 or 681- 6963 (cell), or Suratt at 718-6373
President Carmona pays respect

There was an air of deep sadness as President Carmona recalled the hopes and aspirations of Frederick who joined the United States Army while pursuing his US citizenship and was killed in Iraq on October 19, 2005. He was 21 when he died without receiving US citizenship, a situation that was later regularised by the US Government.

President Carmona also offered a prayer and noted that in war, we all losenobody wins. He said that Frederick was apparently searching for a better way of life and though that becoming a US citizen could help him along that path. To quicken the process, Frederick joined the US Army and was later posted to Iraq but was killed while actually pursing that goal. He had gone to a nearby army base to have his misplaced fingerprints from his application file retaken and was returning when a roadside bomb exploded, killing him.

His death became a rallying cry for soldiers similarly circumstanced.

Congress later passed a law that would provide for non US citizens in their army to receive citizenship. Frederick, who held the rank of Specialist when killed was posthumously granted his US citizenship, elevated to the rank of Sergeant and awarded three medals - a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and a Meritorious Service Medal.

Minutes earlier, in a very solemn and sombre ceremony, President Carmona, who is also Commander - in - Chief of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery where Silence and Respect are rigidly observed.

The laying of the wreath by President Carmona which took place soon after the changing of the guards, turned out to be a very emotional moment for the President and the scores of people present. These guards keep watch 24-7.

Prior to the laying of the wreath, President Carmona and his entourage were given a tour of the Memorial Amphitheatre Display Room by Katharine Kate Kelley, superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery and Roderick Gainer, Curator. Kelley told President Carmona, It is a great honour for the war dead to be respected by you Sir and on behalf of the US Military, I thank you. President Carmonas entourage included his wife, Her Excellency Reema Carmona; Major Dwayne Edwards, Aide-de-Camp to His Excellency; Mr. Colin Connelly, Charge de Affaires and acting Ambassador at the Trinidad and Tobago Embassy in Washington D.C.; Colonel Darnley Wyke, the Embassys Defence and Military Attach?; Kaanita Shah, Second Secretary, Zauditu Isis Lessey-Perreira, Second Secretary; Cpl Patrice, Special Branch and members of the Secret Service.

President Carmona also took the opportunity while at the cemetery to visit the internment site of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy where an eternal flame burns.
PM to speak at Anti-Corruption conference

The conference begins at 8 am and ends at 4 pm.

Also scheduled to address the conference are Transparency International chairman Jose Carlos Ugaz and TTTI chairman Deryck Murray.

Trinidad and Tobago has improved its score on the 2015 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which was released on January 28. Out of a total of 168 countries, TT is ranked 72 with a score of 39 out of 100 on the 2015 CPI. A score of zero means a country is perceived to be highly corrupt while a score of 100 means a country is perceived to be very clean This country received scores of 39, 38 and 38 in 2012, 2013, 2014 respectively, under the then Peoples Partnership (PP) government
February went by very fast! Again, it was another busy month. Though our long trip to the USA is drawing near, Stephen had to make another ...
What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames

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Coming to us soon - us as in those living in Palma - will be the Hazte Oir "bus of hate", as it has been branded. The bus is sched...
The 7.8 magnitude, shallow undersea quake hit late Wednesday off Sumatra, Indonesia's main western island, sending panicked residents fleeing for the hills and briefly triggering a tsunami alert.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, he said.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake struck the eastern coast of Sumatra island, causing a tsunami that killed around 230,000 people as it tore along the coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

"That made it hard to determine whether or not the natural disaster triggered a tsunami", Sutopo said on Thursday.

Millionaire Chinese investors are funding Trump tower in exchange for visas

State Department officials told the GAO that there is "no reliable method to verify the source of the funds of petitioners". The program offers 2-year visas to those investing at least $500,000 in a project that will create jobs.

The tremor hit 500 miles (804 kilometers) southwest of Padang in Sumatra at a depth of about 15 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

A USGS map showing the location of the M7.9 quake (large red dot) near Sumatra, Indonesia.

Like the Philippines, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because it is located in the Pacific "Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone where neighboring tectonic plates violently clash. An AFP journalist there said people ran out of their homes to higher ground. Aceh was among the areas covered by the tsunami warning issued on 2 March, which included the provinces of West Sumatra and North Sumatra.

Heronimus Guru, deputy head of operations for the country's search and rescue agency, said: "There are some who have died", but was unable to give further details.

Scott Kelly Back On Earth After Year In Space

In a previous interview with CNN , Kelly said Earth's atmosphere "looks very, very fragile" from the space station. Joining his return trip aboard a Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft was Sergey Volkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The epicentre was 808km south-west of the coastal city of Padang.

Indonesia's national meteorological agency has issued an early tsunami warning.

Similarly, Australian officials canceled tsunami warnings for Cocos Island and Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, according to news reports. No evacuations were ordered but locals were warned of potentially unsafe rips, waves and strong ocean currents.

Thus, keeping the same in mind, the government of affected nations carried out a more affected tsunami monitoring system.

MSU's Valentine dominant in home finale

But we'll take a shot anyway, and I'm sure there are plenty of folks that will question how educated it happens to be. Just one week earlier, Michigan State (24-7) needed triple overtime to get past the Buckeyes 107-105 in East Lansing.

A tsunami is caused by the massive displacement of sea water which occurs when a powerful natural disaster lifts the ocean floor.
Reaction is coming in this afternoon from around the region and state at news of the death of Cornell University President Elizabeth Garrett. On Feb. 19, she was released from intensive care at the hospital following surgery for the disease. "Her bravery in spite of the enormous challenges throughout her presidency are personal attributes that I can only hope to one day emulate".

"Beth was simply a remarkable human being - a vibrant and passionate leader who devoted her life to the pursuit of knowledge and public service", Harrison said. "Her lasting legacy of a vision for this school and vitality she brought to issues of higher education, and humanity more broadly will forever be remembered".



Cornell students gather for a moment of silence for Elizabeth Garrett who passed away Sunday

The university offered its condolences to Garrett's husband, Prof.

Full disclosure: Cornell University is a WSKG underwriter. "On behalf of students all across the state of NY I wish her family, both on campus and off, our condolences and prayers". "She will be missed by all who have known her".

'We want freedom in India, not freedom from India'

The sacrifices of our (army) jawans and our farmers who commit suicide... and Rohith Vemula... will not go waste. Addressing the students in JNU campus, Kanhaiya also said that the taxpayers' money is absolutely safe.

Chris Arce '19 said he and his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, proposed the idea of gathering to sign and send a card to Garrett's family today, adding that the idea was met with tremendous student support. Established by the board of trustees, the process of how the college will be created and structured began over the past two months through meetings and forums with stakeholders. During her time at OU, she interned for OU President David Boren when he served as a senator.

Commissioner, California Fair Political Practices Commission (2009-2015).

Lab tests reveal link between Zika and microcephaly

More than 80 percent of the women with symptoms such as fever and rash tested positive for Zika in the blood, urine or both. Nielsen said microcephaly may be one of many abnormalities in what she referred to as Zika Virus Congenital Syndrome.

Garrett was elected the university's 13th president on September 30, 2014.

A distinguished legal scholar, Garrett was a 1985 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of OU, where she earned her bachelor's degree in history with special distinction. Before entering academics, Garrett served as budget and tax counsel and legislative director for Sen.

Bill Clinton, with a recorded message, calls NC voters

What are we to make out of these - and many more like them? When Clinton greeted Rev. Kenneth Flowers of the Greater New Mt.

Law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court (1989-1990).
"I would say to all the women's firstly don't celebrate Women's Day on Women's Day".

Alia was in playful mood during the promotions.

4chan founder Chris Poole joins Google

If the speculations of the market are to be believed, Poole might be working on enhancing the social platform of Google 'Google+'. Nevertheless, it seems Poole has been brought into the Google fold to help build up some kind of social business.

In an interview when asked how he reacts to all the female attention he receive from Pakistan as well as India, he said, "It makes me blush, it gets me pink in the face".

Giving advice, Alia said, "One advice I want to give all the girls out there is that your life is your life".

Sponsors suspend ties with Sharapova after failed drug test

Haggerty, declined to say where Sharapova was put on the drug or where she gets it now, citing the ongoing process with the ITF. She said her family doctor prescribed the drug and that it helped her. "At the end of day, everything you do is about you".

Talking about the dysfunctional family during the unveiling of her Femina cover, the 22-year-old actress said, "I won't use the word dysfunctional only because I don't want it to sound negative. To excel at such a young age so fast and be able to stand toe to toe with experienced actors, is quite an achievement". He will also be sharing screen space with the likes of Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor in the Shakun Batra directorial. The dashing actor started off his career with the film 'Khoobsurat' opposite Sonam Kapoor and since then his fans have been increasing on an uncountable rate. The actor, who seems to have won hearts of Indians too, has now given us yet again a glimpse of his suave persona in this month's edition of The Man.
This year was one in a long while where I actually failed to get a true sense of the film industry and its trends. Usually even as I miss out on most fil...

6 years ago
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One of the reasons people flee shithole countries like Iran is because they are gay and face persecution. If they make it New Zealand, we recognise them as refugees and resettle them. If OTOH they go to Australia, the government sends them to Nauru - where they face further persecution and abuse:



Two gay refugees who fell in love at the Nauru detention camp say they are virtually prisoners in their home: holed up in fear for their lives after being bashed and verbally abused in a nation where homosexuality is illegal.



As Sydney prepares for Saturday night's Mardi Gras parade - an event that showcases Australia as a global model of acceptance of gay and lesbian people - the federal government is refusing to rescue the two young Iranian men it sent to a country where they could be jailed for their sexual orientation, according to lawyers.



Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has so far refused to help the refugees, who say they have been repeatedly beaten, had rocks thrown at them and been called "human rubbish". His department says refugees at Nauru can accept resettlement in Cambodia.



Pretty obviously, "you can go somewhere else" is not meeting Australia's obligations under the Refugee Convention. And neither is sending them to Nauru in the first place. Sending a refugee to another country where they face further persecution is explicitly outlawed by the ban on refoulement. But its been clear for a while that Australia no longer cares about its legal obligations, let alone its moral ones. Shouldn't there be some consequences for that?As for the specific case, these two men very clearly have a well-founded fear of persecution - from Iran, from Nauru, and from Australia. We should grant them refugee status in New Zealand.
" ... How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public... "

[From George Washington's farewell address.]

Other Quotes:

"Don't worry about genius and don't worry about not being clever. Trust rather to hard work, perseverance and determination. The best motto for a long march is ' Don't grumble. Plug on.'....Be honest. Be loyal. Be kind. Remember that the hardest thing to acquire is the faculty of being unselfish. As a quality it is one of the finest attributes of manliness." Sir Frederick Treves

"...To be clear, the Constitution of the United States of America is the United States of America. They are one and the same. Any individual or agency which seeks to subvert the Constitution and wage political and/or rhetorical war on it, are self-declared enemies of the United States of America, as they are subverting and waging war on the United States of America." - Pat Dollard

The truth to the matter is that Obama lies but he does it with such finess that the easily fooled are easily fooled. ~ Norman E. Hooben

"Going for the grandest illusion of all, [Obama] ... told the New York Times: 'We've actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles.' Excuse me while I pick my jaw off the ground. Everyone knows -- or should know -- that putting more and more of the government in charge of more and more of the economy is entirely inconsistent with free-market principles. This means that the president's statement to the contrary is what is known as a big lie." --columnist Diana West



When you trust a stranger more so than your friend, you become stranger than the stranger; Barrack Husein Obama is a stranger. - Norman E. Hooben

We the peopleWe the people now have a New World Order that we the people did not order. Norman E. Hooben

"We are now in a great civil war of words and you have the honor of participating as a true patriot. The battle has not been won but you will be there when we are victorious. The pen is mightier than the sword and you will inscribe your name in the book of freedomand that, my friend is an honor

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves ." -

Winston Churchill

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

-

Ronald Reagan

Thomas Sowell

For those who promote a race they are called, "racists". For those that promote American they are called "American". For 'American' is a 'concept' and no racial tones are tolerated either in shades or sounds. -Norman E. Hooben

(In reference to Lourdes Galvan of San Antonio, Texas racial bigotry regarding American military heroes.)

Note to NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA RAZA (

Hola! I know you are watching):

Will Rogers never met Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. -

N. E. Hooben, July 2008

Harvard University was once an all boys school...today they have no balls at all. - N. E. Hooben

I will stand with the Constitution For The United States of America should the political winds shift in an ugly direction

Politicians are like vampires...

Whether its blood or money they want to suck it out of you till you die. ~ N. E. Hooben

(Norman E. Hooben in response to a writer who complained of not having the honor of serving in the U.S. Military)Back in the days of "The Lone Ranger" program, someone would ask, "Who is that masked man?" People need to start asking that question about Barack Obama. -N.E. HoobenThe Police State of Massachusetts is now imposing laws against nature. Massachusetts is by far the most un-Constitutional government of the State, by the State, and for the State than any among the the fifty that hold a star on the banner of freedom. It is run by Socialists and hypocritical so-called Christiansthe worst among them are the Catholics who go to Church on Sunday and forget what they Prayed for on Monday. - Norman E. Hooben - "A proud Catholic proud of my Faith. A proud Catholic NOT so proud of my Church!" - July 16th 2008 N. E. Hooben

When a people are satisfied with receiving gifts paid with their own taxes as a way of life Anarchy is sure to follow. - Fred Boutin 2008

From the first time I heard about the boogey-man as a child to the first time I got shot at in Vietnam, nothing in my entire lifetime, THAT'S NOTHING! has put more fear into me than this man Obama. - Norman E. Hooben - July 2008

We are here for only a mini-second in the sands of time. Then we become the dust that makes the sand; and the Hand of God molds us anew. Take care my friend and may God Bless... - Norman E. Hooben on the death of our dearly beloved pet dog, Stirling

The evidence is overwhelming!

In order to save America we must destroy the Socialst Marxist Party... - N. E. Hooben

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within." -- Josef Stalin --

When it comes to lying, prudent people are guided by a Higher Authority driven by thou shall not written in stone. Whereas Bill Clinton has no Higher Authority to guide him, thou shall not has no conscious objections; for without a conscience there is no guilt. - Norman Hooben

The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. - Adolph Hitler

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. - James Madison, the Federalists Papers

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some Exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back And stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked,'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly, the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity. The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America.

The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms- just a little at a time.

One should always remember 'There is no such thing as a free Lunch!' Also, 'You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

You apparently don't share a sense of patriotism, Americanism, freedomism, or whatever kind of 'ism' that true Americans believe in... You do however, display a bit of socialism, communism, marxism or whatever kind of 'ism' that you make excuses for... ~ Norman E. Hooben (in response to an Obama supporter's views about the ACS census)

A nation that knows not from where it came, knows not where it is going! Today, Americans know too little about the foundations of our nation. The result is a nation now in chaos, its people unable to discern what is wrong with the transformation (paradigm shift) of our society and form of government that, if left unchecked, will destroy every facet of freedom, liberty and justice. The price of freedom is vigilance; the price of vigilance is knowledge. Many of America's founding documents are now available on the web. ~

Learn USA
Jihadists who launched twin and coordinated attacks against military and security forces in the town of Ben Guerdane, near Libyan border planned to establish an Islamic Emirate, Prime Minister Essid revealed in a televised address Monday.

The purpose of the attack was to disrupt the security situation in our country and establish a Daesh emirate in Ben Guerdane, Habid Essid said.

But thanks to all the efforts, to the cooperation between our national army and our internal security forces, the reaction was strong and fast, he added.

The attacks which started at dawn continued till night according to the Interior Ministry. The death toll soared to 53, mostly among the jihadists who lost 36 men. 11 security forces and 7 civilians were also killed in the clashes. Forces also reportedly discovered caches of weapons.

Prime Minister Essid also announced establishment of a curfew from 07pm to 05am and combing of the city to get rid of the last pockets of assailants.

On his part President Caid Essebsi also hailed the people of Ben Guerdane for their collaboration with forces. He also explained that given current developments and looming threats, Tunisia is compelled to close borders with Libya, housing the terrorists.

This latest clash between forces and assailants is the second near the Libyan border in less than a week. On Wednesday, security forces hunted down a group of terrorists coming from neighboring Libya. Five of them were killed and several made captives. One military commander was injured in the clash which also claimed the life of a civilian who was accidentally killed in the cross-fire.

Tunisia is battling against illegal crossings of jihadists trained in Libya where IS has established nerve center launching attacks in Tunisia.

Authorities have stepped up security at the border with war-torn Libya. They have built sand barrier and trenches along the border. Sunday Defense Minister also announced the arrival of German and American experts who will help install a monitoring electronic system at the border.

Security level has been tightened as well after reports revealed that Tunisian jihadists killed in the Libyan western city of Sabratha in a US air raid on February 19 were planning further terrorist attacks similar to those which occurred at the Bardo Museum in March and in Sousse in June, last year.

December last year a group of Tunisian IS fighters based in Libya released a video celebrating the terror attacks which struck the country. They also announced fresh attacks to kill lives and free fellow fighters clocked in Tunisian prisons.

A UN working group last year issued a report indicating that more than 5, 000 Tunisians aged between 18 and 35 left the country to join terror groups in hotbed conflict zones.
The emergency meeting between Turkey and EU leaders over the migration and refugee crisis, in particular as regards the Western Balkans route, made progress in the implementation of the Joint Action Plan.

Turkey confirmed its commitment in implementing the bilateral Greek-Turkish readmission agreement to accept the rapid return of all migrants not in need of international protection crossing from Turkey into Greece and to take back all irregular migrants apprehended on Turkish waters, said the EU Council in a statement Tuesday.

The daylong meeting also agreed to speed up the disbursement of the initially allocated 3 billion to ensure funding of a first set of projects before the end of March and decide on additional funding for the Refugee Facility for Syrians.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said the leaders had made a breakthrough that sent a very clear message that the days of irregular migration to Europe are over.

The United Nations however expressed concern about the deal on Tuesday. The UN said it had reservations about any deal involving the blanket return of all individuals from one country to another, without their protection under international law being spelled out adequately.

Legal safeguards would need to govern any mechanism under which responsibility would be transferred for assessing an asylum claim, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

At the Monday meeting, it has been convened that, as requested by Turkey, for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian from Turkey will be resettled in the EU Member States, within the framework of the existing commitments.

EU member states are however divided over the issue as Central and Eastern European leaders stressed that they would reject the automatic resettlement of a Syrian refugee for every asylum seeker sent back to Turkey. Ankara is sheltering around 2.5million Syrian refugees.

Likewise, the meeting decided to speed up the implementation of the visa liberalization roadmap with all Member States with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016 and to revive the stalled Turkeys EU membership negotiations.

More than 2,000 migrants arrive daily in Greece from Turkey across the Aegean Sea and numbers are expected to increase as summer nears. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said this is our common problem and NATO plans to deploy warships to the area.

The proposals will be submitted to EU leaders at a European Council meeting scheduled for March 17 and 18.
IS group is planning major, Paris-style attacks in the UK and may choose the Queens Birthday celebrations as target events to strike, Britains top anti-terror officer warned on Tuesday. Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley stated that IS is aiming at the UK and that intelligence gathered revealed that the expanding group is determined to launch attacks on British soil.

He said that the group has embarked on recruiting people in Britain, among whom an increasing number of women, and is resolved to attack western life styles as it happened in Paris in November last year.

IS may target important national events such as Queens 90th birthday celebrations in April, May and June to stage the attacks, he said, explaining that the terror group has moved on from narrow targets to bigger targets and now aims at world landmark places and events.

The British high ranking police officer also pointed out that the group is ever becoming alarming in UK, with daily enlargement of the group. Police forces today and every day arrest suspect terrorists, he revealed.

He also explained that over the past three years, the number of suspected terrorists arrested has risen by 57 per compared to the three years before that.

Women, girls and youths under 20 are becoming more radicalized according to data.

Furthermore British Daily Mail argues that more than 20 British families and 50 young people have gone through family court proceedings over concerns about radicalization in the past year.

It also explained that in the wake of the Paris attacks, the Scotland Yard has begun using psychologists who can provide advice both about how to deal with those at risk of being influenced by extremists, as well as terrorists in the event of an attack.

London has also enhanced intelligence exchange programs with other European countries mainly France and Belgium.
Morocco has renewed its unflinching support to Palestinian statehood and to any initiative seeking the end of Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with Al Quds as its capital.

We welcome and support any serious initiative aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian State, within the 1967 borders, with Al Quds as its capital, Said King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

In a message to the 5th extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, held in Jakarta on Monday to debate the cause of Palestine and Al Quds, the sovereign expressed hope that the summit will be crowned by the adoption of initiatives likely to secure peace and bring the issue out of the deadlock.

The Sovereign blamed Israeli occupation authorities for their obvious responsibility in violating the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, for their intransigence that undermines the two-State solution, for their ongoing aggressive practices, as well as for their occupation policy and expansion projects.

The King who welcomed the participation of the international quartet in this extraordinary summit and its symbolic importance, expressed strong support to the Palestinian Presidents call for holding an international peace conference aimed at ending the Israeli occupation. He also voiced support to the tireless efforts made by France, which sponsors this initiative, along with other friendly countries, to resume negotiations, according to a specific timetable, and to achieve a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict based on the two-State solution.

King Mohammed VI, who is the chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, an offshoot of the OIC set up to defend the holy city, underscored the necessity to combine political action and diplomatic efforts with field work, for, he said, we believe in the need to focus efforts on improving the daily lives of Palestinians and supporting their resistance.

Defending occupied Palestinian land and protecting the holy city of Al-Quds against Judaization attempts, as well as supporting the resistant population cannot be achieved with hollow slogans, let alone the exploitation of this noble cause in sterile arguments. It is rather through efforts in favor of Palestine and Palestinians, the king said.

The Sovereign underlined the role of Bayt Mal Al Quds, one of agencies of Al-Quds Committee, in protecting the Holy city against any attempts to alter its identity and landmarks, in assisting Al Quds inhabitants have a decent life, and protecting Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy places.

The King who recalled that Morocco contributes 85 pc of the Agencys budget said Bayt Mal Al Quds also seeks to preserve the citys civilizational, religious, cultural and urbanistic heritage, as well as its specific legal status, in accordance with international resolutions.

King Mohammed VI also deplored the resurgence of crises and the alarming increase of tensions in the Islamic world, in addition to the exacerbation of security and terrorist threats and the upsurge of extremist, violent and sectarian trends.

These trends are rejected by Muslims but are exploited by their enemies as a pretext to undermine their cultural and civilizational values or as an abject means to distort the essence of Islam, he said.
The Secret to Happiness is the Joy of the Lord;

and the joy of the Lord is His manifest presence in your life.





It is our Privilege and Responsibility to Glorify God;

and we glorify God by manifesting His character every moment and in every situation.





Humility and Pride

You can tell a humble man that he has a problem with pride and he will agree with you;

but if you tell a proud man that he has a problem with pride, he becomes your enemy.





This one thing I know for sure, that whenever there is a problem with my relationship with the Lord, it is not His fault.





Some people are just plain lazy;

some people are just overly sensitive to gravity;

others are simply economical with their energy.





It's not enough to preach the Gospel; you must be the Gospel.





If you can describe your life in a nutshell, there's a good probability that you're a nut.





As a good Canadian, I'd like to apologize in advance for anything I might say that offends you; sometimes my mouth hits high gear while my brain is still in low.





Never allow the thought, "I am of no use where I am"; because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Oswald Chambers





We cannot even begin to approach the Truth until we are willing to go wherever the Truth leads us.





The newest object of idol worship is 'my opinion'!





Suffering is the only experience we have in common with every other human who ever lived.




Confira o preco do seguro para o Chevrolet Onix

Saiba quando voce gastaria com o seguro do carro mais vendido do Brasil
The familiar emergency alert system, the one where we in the U.S. occasionally hear a radio or television broadcast interruption that...
Senor Cristobal does not know this Chris Christie you speak of. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Donald Trump has foolishly allowed Chris Christie and his family to venture outside of their cell, and the governor is not going to let the people of New Jersey mess up this escape opportunity. With six newspapers calling for his resignation and his postTrump endorsement approval-rating dropping to 27 percent, state residents probably wouldnt be thrilled that Christies taking a vacation to celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary under the best of circumstances. But when Christie leaves the state on Tuesday for an undisclosed warmer location, New Jersey will be in the midst of intense negotiations to avert a NJ Transit strike.

The nations third-busiest commuter railroad is set to shut down at 12:01 a.m. Sunday if NJ Transit officials cant reach a deal with 11 labor unions, which havent had a contract in five years. While New York governor Andrew Cuomo was credited with stepping in to avert a Long Island Rail Road strike in 2014, Christie said its not the job of the governor to negotiate personally.

Im sure that Ill be taking calls and giving instruction and direction. Thats my job, Christie told reporters. But your 30th wedding anniversary only comes once. Hopefully, the NJ Transit strike never comes. If New Jerseys transit system does devolve into chaos next week, many of the states 100,000 rail riders will blame Christie  but hell be on the lam by then, so who cares?
Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto is not a fan of the Donald. Photo: Jason Alden/ 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP

Between the KKK controversy, the simple, direct rhetoric, and the eerie photos of supporters with their right hands raised in support, its becoming more and more popular to compare Donald Trump to a certain polarizing historical figure with a penchant for extremist views. Earlier this week, comedian Louis C.K. sent out an email comparing Trump to Hitler (The guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming?) and begging fans not to vote for Trump. On Monday, Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto issued a similar warning in an interview with Mexican newspaper Excelsior, making the strongest anti-Trump comments of any foreign leader so far.

Pena Nieto, who until now has refrained from criticizing Trump directly, said the Trump campaign offers very easy, simple solutions to problems that are obviously not that easy to solve. He went on: There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations. Thats how Mussolini got in, thats how Hitler got in  they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time. We dont want that happening anywhere in the world.

Related Stories Donald Trump Is Making Hispanic Americans Register to Vote Again

The president also addressed Trumps precious border wall, which Trump insists the Mexican government will finance using its trade deficit. Pena Nieto said there is no scenario under which he would consider paying for the wall. I regret that I cant agree with this American politicians position, he said, adding that in an ideal world Mexico would work with the United States to solve problems and foster an atmosphere of mutual respect.

His statements echo those of Mexican finance minister Luis Videgaray Caso, who called the wall a terrible idea with no foundation in reality. Between the Mexican officials who hate him and the large number of Hispanic-American voters who also hate him, Trump is right  he really brings people together.
Not a Ferrari. Can you tell? Photo: Governor Andrew Cuomos Office

Your daily commute may be delayed way too often, but the MTA is at least making it easier for you to distract yourself while you wait. Wi-Fi coverage, already in place at some subway stations, will next month be available on new buses that will also have 30 or so USB charging ports. At a press conference Monday, Governor Cuomo and MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast said that the first 23 buses will hit the road next month, with 52 more coming by the end of the year. By 2020, the MTA plans for 2,042 of the state-of-the-art buses, replacing nearly 40 percent of the current fleet. Some existing buses will be retrofitted with the new technology, too; all Express Buses with have W-iFi and USB ports by the end of 2017.

Cuomo  well known as a car buff  said the new bus has a European flair and joked that it has almost a Ferrari-like look. We get more of a 70s-conversion-van vibe, but point taken.



Photo: Governor Andrew Cuomos Office

People spend time on a bus, you spend time on a subway car, you spend time in a subway station, you want that time to be productive, said Cuomo. If your electronic device is not working, youre out of commission in so many ways. (Its perhaps worth noting that unlike commuters waiting in underground subway stations, bus riders have always at least had access to wireless-phone signals.)

Prendergrast said the MTA was trying to meet the demands of its plugged-in millennial riders. Via Newsday: As more and more millennials enter the system and use it daily  these are expectations, not desires on their part, he said. Many of the young people using our system today grew up with a smartphone in one hand and a tablet in the other.

Others, though, wondered if such amenities will really matter to that audience:

Do we really need USB ports on buses and in subways or do we want subway service that's more frequent and reliable and less crowded?  Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) March 8, 2016

If Cuomo really thinks millennials are clamoring for USB ports and that will drive bus ridership, boy, does he have a thing comin'.  Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) March 8, 2016

The new buses, which officials said are federally funded, cost $755,000 each. Theyll also be equipped with two to three LCD screens inside the bus that will provide announcements, transfer information, news, weather, and advertising.


Somehow Marco managed to get stuck in the Mittle. Photo: Larry Marano/Getty Images

These days, even good news for Marco Rubio is kind of sad. The New York Times reports that Mitt Romney has recorded a robocall for the Rubio campaign that is going out to voters in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, and Hawaii, the four states holding GOP contests on Tuesday. Yet, the former Republican presidential nominee could not bring himself to actually endorse Rubio. Romney notes at the beginning and end of the carefully worded message that hes calling on behalf of Rubios campaign, but he only asks voters to cast their ballots for a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud  i.e. anyone who is not Donald Trump. If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, I believe that the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished  and Im convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton, Romney says.

During his anti-Trump press conference last week, Romney said hed vote for Marco Rubio in Florida, for John Kasich in Ohio, and for Ted Cruz or whichever of the other two contenders that has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump in a given state. Rubio does not have the best shot at beating Trump in any of the states voting tomorrow; as New Yorks Ed Kilgore noted today, Hes unlikely to finish higher than third anywhere, and is in danger of falling short of the 15 percent minimum thresholds for delegates in Michigan, Mississippi, and Idaho. (Its unclear what will happen in the Hawaii caucus.)

It does not appear that Romney recorded calls for Cruz or Kasich, so its safe to assume he has some kind of preference for Rubio. But he still doesnt like the Florida senator enough to give him his full-throated endorsement. Or perhaps this is just more evidence that Mitt Romneys favorite 2016 GOP candidate is Mitt Romney.

The editorial board of the Florida Sun Sentinel was much clearer about their reasons for not endorsing Rubio  or any of the remaining GOP candidates. We cannot endorse businessman Donald Trump, hometown Sen. Marco Rubio or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz because they are unqualified to be president, the board wrote Monday. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the best of the bunch, but if you measure a candidate by the caliber of his campaign, Kasichs lack of traction and organization make a vote for him count for little.

The Sun Sentinel previously endorsed Jeb Bush, and the editorial board told voters to go ahead and vote for Rubio on March 15 if they think he can unite the GOP. But they reminded voters that hes done little but run for office, and when he gets there he doesnt go to work very much. Because Rubio has failed to do his job as a senator, broken the promises he made to Floridians and backed away from his lone signature piece of legislation on immigration, we cannot endorse him for president, the paper said.
An Altamont Corridor Express (otherwise known as an ACE) commuter train traveling from central California to the San Francisco Bay Area derailed Monday night and crashed into a creek, injuring 14 people. According to the Alameda County Fire Department, all passengers have been removed from the train, which derailed shortly after 7:15 p.m. near Niles Canyon Road in Sunol, California. Of the 214 passengers on the train, four suffered serious  but not life-threatening  injuries, and ten more had minor injuries.

Rescue crews had to fight the fast-moving creek to get passengers to safety. It was dark, wet, it was raining. It was very chaotic, Alameda County Sheriffs Sgt. Ray Kelly told KOTV6. This is an absolute miracle that no one was killed. Authorities say the crash was caused by a large tree that had fallen across the tracks. The train collided with the tree, sending the first car into the Alameda Creek. A second car derailed but remained upright, and all other cars stayed on the tracks.

The Los Angeles Times reports that buses picked up stranded passengers at the crash site Monday night; railway officials announced there would be no ACE train service Tuesday.

This post has been updated throughout.
Big Brother. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Trigger warning: If you suffer from Trump Anxiety, consult your psychoanalyst before reading this post.

Theres no shortage of reasons why President Donald Trump is a terrifying prospect, but the moguls attitude toward dissent should be near the top of anyones list. Granted, no politician enjoys having his or her speeches interrupted by protesters calling them fascist. But few have leaned into that accusation with as much vigor as the Donald: Trump now employs plainclothes private intelligence officers, who are tasked with preempting the expression of anti-Trump sentiments, according to Politico:

On Friday, two members of Trumps private security team wore street clothes to a rally in New Orleans. One of them, Eddie Deck, explained to reporters that his duties were now weighted towards intelligence work researching potential protesters and assisting uniformed security personnel under the direction of Trumps head of security.

Besides forming a ragtag spy squad, the GOP front-runner has sought to better control the atmosphere of his events by instituting a rally-opening loyalty oath and placing new restrictions on his media pens.

From a certain angle, it may be tempting to dismiss the significance of such measures. Trump has a legitimate protester problem. He faces more disruptions per stump speech than any other candidate, so it makes sense that hed take unique actions to counter those disrupters. And it sounds like his intelligence officers primary spy technology is their own eyeballs; from Politicos description, they are basically bouncers. At a rally in North Carolina, one of their intelligence breakthroughs was discovering that a man in a Fascist Trump T-shirt did not intend that description as a compliment.

But the moguls foray into preempting dissent is a potent reminder of how dangerous it would be to entrust a pathological narcissist with the powers of the presidency. Although many have linked Trumps rise to that of Adolf Hitler, one doesnt need to violate Godwins Law to find an ominous analogy for a Trump presidency. That other champion of the Silent Majority, Richard Nixon, wasnt too keen on protesters, either. And under his administration, the CIA ramped up its spying on domestic dissenters, while his private intelligence officers expanded the definition of subversives to include the Democratic National Committee. Trump has repeatedly requested that his crowds punish dissent in their midst with violence, even offering to personally pay the legal fees of any supporter who knocks the crap out of a protester. What happens when Trump doesnt just have the power to pay legal fees, but to direct federal law enforcement? When he doesnt merely have the power to request mob violence, but to assert the states legitimate monopoly on it?
Chirlane McCray speaking about HeForShe Arts Week at the Public Theater. Photo: Ryan Brown

Onstage at the Public Theater in New York City on Tuesday morning, Emma Watson explained why we need more active bystanders in effecting change for gender equality. When you talk to most women and when you talk to most men, they can name a moment in their lives when they were witness to a moment where a man or a woman was treated unfairly because of their gender, she said. It just takes someone calling it out and it can be done in lots of different ways.

Its a daily practice, Watson claims, and one that she herself is committed to: After being named the Global Goodwill Ambassador for U.N. Women in 2014, Watson has taken on a full-time role as an advocate in the U.N.s HeForShe campaign. And today, alongside NYCs First Lady Chirlane McCray, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of U.N. Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UNESCO and U.N. Advocate on the Sustainable Development Goals Forrest Whitaker, and Oskar Eutis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, HeForShe Arts Week had its launch in New York City.

Awareness alone is not enough, McCray explained. We are calling for action. The initiative, which was announced on International Womens Day, will see some of NYCs great art institutions highlighting womens arts and donating subsequent partial proceeds to U.N. Women. Chirlane McCray  poet, writer, feminist, advocate for the arts, all long before becoming the wife of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio  spoke to the Cut about why its so important that NYC be the launching pad for the U.N.s first focus on bolstering art made by, for, and about women.

Why do you think its important that women see the arts as a stable career choice in New York City?

Its hard to point to any industry that is more powerful than the arts in terms of symbol, in terms of representation, in terms of something that immediately captivates the imaginations of people around the world. Its important that women be involved at the highest levels. I think its very important for women to see [the arts] as a stable career choice: This is where I can go and grow and be a decision-maker.

In terms of your work with destigmatizing mental health, is there a connection between arts work and the work that youve done [in that field] before?

Absolutely, in so many ways! First of all: In terms of images, art has the ability to change the way we think about something, the way we behave. Art is important for that reason. Giving different types of images and models for people to look at and think about. [Secondly], its important because its a coping mechanism for so many, which is why I get very upset when I hear about arts programs being defunded, especially in our schools, because children and young people (all of us really), but especially our children and our young people need arts as a way to cope. To sing a song, its not possible to sing a song and feel the same way after youve sung the song, or play an instrument. It changes the way you feel inside, it changes how you behave, and the same thing for writing a poem or doing a dance. It has just such amazing power over our emotions.

The third thing is the power of narrative, the ability to sit and tell your story and write whats happened to you. There have been many studies that show how it has such a healing effect. Its shown to also be true for children who have been through traumatic situations, or anyone who has been through trauma, actually. The power of writing ones story, writing the narrative, changes the way one thinks about and how one feels and thinks about what happened.

We need art! Its essential for our growth, our development, even just for moving through life.

From a womans perspective specifically  as either a woman artist or as a woman who is consuming art  how do you think that also connects? Why do women need art in New York City in order to survive, or feel stable, or feel safe here?

The world is not a safe place for us yet. Thats part of what HeForShe is all about: making the world a safer place for women, making sure there is fairness, that there is equity. Women have to be a part. Women need to use art to show the world that can be. To give us a vision, to help us get there.

After the HeForShe Arts Week has concluded, how will we push that into the future to make sure that the initiative keeps growing and keeps bolstering women to make art in New York City?

I would like to see a HeForShe Arts Year, myself. Really. I think that we need to create more pathways for movements like that. I think its really more of a movement. I was part of Art Against Apartheid back in the day and I think that had a tremendous effect on galvanizing people who would not ordinarily be involved in something they thought of as political or racial. It brought everyone in, using their own platforms for change. I think that we could do that with HeForShe. We could get all these men and boys involved who might not think that this is about them, but help them to see that it is really about the world that we live in and [having] women and girls as partners [in it].

Do you think that this initiative will require refocusing energies away from male art or is it going to exist in tandem?

It definitely will not take away from male art. Its only going to add to the art. Its going to add to the abundance. Its going to help nourish and rejuvenate the art that we see. It will add new perspectives.

What is some art (by women) youve seen in New York City during the years youve been in your position that you feel has invigorated the city?

This is like, Who are your favorite children? Its a very tough thing to do. Most recently I saw MotherStruck by Staceyann Chin, a one-woman show. It was very powerful, it really made me think about things. Im going to see Lupita Nyongo on Friday in Eclipsed, which Im really looking forward to. There is so much, there really is. I went to a performance (or should I say a lot of performances) last week in celebration of what would have been Audre Lordes 82nd birthday. It was incredibly moving. Her words stay with me. Theres not a week that goes by where something shes written I dont find relevant to something Im doing or thinking about. We have so many female artists. We should be elevating and encouraging and supporting them. And it would be a better world if we could just give them the attention and support that they need.

This interview has been condensed and edited.
Katie Roiphe. Photo: Jason Andrew

It is breakfast time at the Bowery Hotel and I am sitting with the writer Katie Roiphe, talking about death. The occasion is the publication of Roiphes new book, The Violet Hour, which looks at how five writers  Freud, Sontag, Updike, Dylan Thomas, and Maurice Sendak  dealt with the end of their lives. For those who think of Roiphe only as an unapologetic provocateur, perpetually irritating the womens movement, the books subject may seem a departure. For Roiphe herself, however, it has been brewing for decades.

Roiphe lays each case study out in stark detail. She describes, for instance, Susan Sontags decision, when diagnosed with a terminal cancer at the age of 71, to opt for an agonizing, against-all-the-odds treatment. Sontag suffered for months in a hospital room in Seattle, and implicitly forbade conversation about what loomed, even when it became clear that the treatment had failed. Freud, on the other hand, dying in London of cancer of the mouth and throat on the eve of World War II, refused painkillers in order to be clear-eyed and present for the last experience of his life.

It is, inevitably, a harrowing read, and so Roiphe decided she better not make it too long, narrowing down her list of subjects to a strict five, plus James Salter in the epilogue. At a certain point I realized I could be working on this book for the rest of my life, she says. In all, it took seven years, and Roiphe found the long process to be, far from morbid or depressing, invigorating. It took me to this place where youre really on the edge of civilized conversation. Youre talking about things that are just barely socially acceptable, or not socially acceptable. That was part of what was so exhilarating about it.

All of Roiphes books share this in common: The edge of civilized conversation is where she gravitates. Shes taken on a number of sacred cows: feminism, in her controversial debut, The Morning After; sex, in her follow-up, Last Night in Paradise; monogamy, in her study of marriages in literary London in Uncommon Arrangements; and parenthood in In Praise of Messy Lives, her collection of previously published essays. And yet, she believes, The Violet Hour breaches new boundaries. Ive written about all kinds of things you might think were taboo subjects, but theres something about this thats more of a taboo. Asking somebody what was it like in the room when your father died, is a really different kind of question.

That example is a particularly loaded one for Roiphe: Her desire to write The Violet Hour came, in part, from the death of her own father 11 years ago. He had a heart attack as he crossed the lobby of his apartment building, and was dead by the time Roiphe and her sister arrived at the hospital. Her sister, a psychoanalyst, told her she should look at the body, because if you dont see the body, there is no body. She couldnt bear to, though. But now, it might be said, she has spent the last seven years looking closely at bodies.

In person, Roiphe is a tall, slinky presence in bell-bottoms and very high heels, despite the early hour and the driving rain. She seems infinitely more vulnerable in real life than she does in photographs, from which she tends to glower from beneath her long blonde curls, looking a bit like the MGM lion, seconds before the roar. She grew up one of five sisters in a townhouse on the Upper East Side  her mother, Anne Roiphe, is a well-known writer and feminist; her father was a psychoanalyst. As Roiphe writes in her new books introduction, she became so sick when she was 12 that she spent months in and out of the hospital, occasionally coughing up blood but not telling her doctors, finally having to have a portion of one lung removed. She didnt entirely expect to see the eighth grade. Her illness was one of her lifes defining moments, she says: It created this fierceness in my personality that would not have existed otherwise.

That quality is evident in her writing: Roiphe is the kind of writer whose articles and books have produced a constant firestorm of reaction, with a mob of people  mostly women  who might proudly identify as Katie Haters, a term born in an internet headline, regarding her as an anti-feminist, an obstacle to the cause yet one too talented to be dismissed, which for some just really rankles. I have noticed that I continue to write things that annoy and irritate people, she coolly remarks, between sips of cappuccino.

Nothing perhaps as much as her first book, however. When Roiphe published The Morning After, at the age of 25, she started getting death threats at bookstore readings. Roiphe wrote The Morning After to push back against what she saw as a growing tendency on college campuses  first noticing it as an undergraduate at Harvard, then later at Princeton, where she got her Ph.D. in literature  to claim women as fragile and pure, in need of vigilant protection from a world teeming with would-be attackers. She questioned, among other things, exactly how real the date-rape crisis (then being so frequently trumpeted and discussed) was. I didnt spend much time thinking about feminism. It was something assumed, something deep in my foundations, Roiphe wrote in the very first pages of The Morning After. It seemed odd to her that a vision of women as inherently victims, inherently victimized, should pass for feminist, but she was aware shed be ruffling feathers by making that argument.

She was right: Roiphe has been accused ever since then of having set back the womens movement, of denying that rape and sexual assault were problems, of assigning full responsibility to women for their physical safety from men. Writing in The New Yorker, for instance, Katha Pollitt accused her of distorting facts. Writing in Salon, Rebecca Traister described her book as an instance of Im too sexy for this movement provocation. Others found her worldview intensely small and solipsistic, as if it hadnt occurred to her to look beyond Ivy League campuses to construct her arguments. Aspects of sexual politics that Roiphe documented in these early years of her career, like the beginnings of consent culture taking hold at Antioch University in the 1990s, are, of course, still with us. I think not much has changed, Roiphe tells me, and not in a good way. She says much the same thing about where the womens movement has come since she first tangled with it. It seems like theres a lot of anger and a lot of group-think. The internet is creating this kind of culture thats not really the most intellectually sophisticated version of the movement  Theres a certain kind of internet talk, where youre preaching to the choir, and if you dont share their ideas, youre a troll, youre the enemy. I dont think theres a space for the exchange of complicated ideas.

The years of hoopla mean that it is now almost de rigueur, when writing about Roiphe, to frame her against whatever the state of contemporary feminism happens to be. Is she a feminist, or isnt she? What kind? Does she really believe that feminists have gone too far and taken womens sense of joy and agency around sex away from them? Its almost as if Roiphe becomes a fun-house mirror, reflecting back whatever issue or controversy others might want to rage against. Despite the furor, it isnt always clear exactly what it is about Roiphe that so provokes. Maybe her greatest sin of all is that she doesnt abide by girl-code, skipping the winks and gestures meant to reassure that she is, after all, just one of the crowd. Instead, she writes from an aristocratic remove, and the crowd is not pleased.

In some profound way, Roiphe herself seems bored by these kinds of inquiries. When I ask about the state of the womens movement today, there is a palpable draining away of energy from her replies, as if the words have been repeated so many times by now that she doesnt even quite know why shes still having to say them. In fact, her books are notable exactly for their evolution. The coldly precocious voice of The Morning After is something of a chore to return to, when one has read the gorgeously rendered work that followed. I didnt know The Morning After would shadow me for so long, Roiphe tells me. Then: Im not consciously trying to make people angry with my writing.

Roiphe approves of the label someone else once gave to her  an uncomfortabilist, challenger of social mores, a swimmer against the tide. In her 2012 essay collection, In Praise of Messy Lives, she wrote, for instance, about the subtle (and not so subtle) judgments she encountered among friends and acquaintances when she got divorced and became a single mother. She was particularly struck, she wrote, that it was her friends and acquaintances who seemed to expect, or even want, her to disintegrate into catastrophe-mode in the wake of her divorce. A few years later, still unmarried, but pregnant again, she bumped into a writer she knew in Washington Square Park. You could just wait and have a regular baby! he said. This is a regular baby, Roiphe wrote in her essay The Alchemy of Quiet Malice, in which she showcased the assorted hypocrisies of the left-leaning New Yorkers she is daily surrounded by.

This is my goal: Its like the romantic poetics say, making the familiar strange. Its the idea of taking a subject we think we know about, say single mothers, and saying, wait, this really means something different, Roiphe tells me. Getting people to look at some familiar object really differently  it sounds like a very simple thing to do, but its actually a really hard thing to do, because mostly people are very set in their views. And you cant get anyone to rethink anything. So people getting angry at me  well, if youre so angry, at least youre not bored.
A family. Photo: Broadly/Vice

Maternity Leave: How America Is Fucking Over Its Mothers is an hour-long documentary by Broadly, Vices womens vertical, and it could not have come at a better time.

In the midst of a presidential primary where the question should women vote for a woman because she is a woman has come up often and seems to be rankling feminists all over the place, Broadlys film, hosted by EIC Tracie Egan Morrissey, makes the case, pretty bluntly and effectively, that in America, we dont have paid maternity leave because women simply arent equal in our society.

The film drops some quick facts: 88 percent of women have no paid leave at all when they give birth. Women make up two-thirds of the minimum-wage workers in the U.S. Anne-Marie Slaughter and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who are featured in the film, both say that our system is designed based on a simple assumption: that women do not work, despite the fact that eight out of ten mothers do. What is our system, exactly? We have no mandated parental-leave policy at all. And, as is often cited, were the only nation in the ENTIRE world without one, besides Papua New Guinea.

In fact, the Broadly team traveled to Papua New Guinea to check out what the other nation with no leave policy looks like. Its pretty grim! But even Papua New Guinea is making strides to improve the state of its leave  and already has it for women who are nurses, teachers, doctors, and midwives.

In the U.S., the only people with guaranteed paid leave are federal employees, who get six weeks regardless of gender, and this was only enacted as law in 2015. Broadly also heads to Sweden, which has the best paid-leave policy in the world, and is also the most gender neutral, in that it encourages both mothers and fathers to take their allotted time  11 months each!  to spend with their child. Watching the clearly happy Swedish parents featured in the film, juxtaposed as they are with several counterexamples of American parents, all of whom suffer from terrible worries due to a lack of leave, its hard not to walk away feeling physically ill. And thats surely the point: to make people face the stark, sometimes deadly realities of not valuing mothers and their children at all.

Tracie Egan Morrissey spoke to the Cut about some of the more interesting questions raised by the film, which is, in fact, full of interesting questions.

Why did you want to do this particular film about this particular issue?



Paid leave is an important issue because its not something you think about until it happens to you, and when it does, you realize just how much the system is stacked against women. We obsess about post-baby bodies and the way that women look in the weeks after giving birth, yet we dont value the time they need to spend with their infants. Its an injustice, and its one that we need to address and prioritize because we should be deeply embarrassed that were the only developed country in the world without a paid-leave plan.

Senator Gillibrand remarks that if half of Congress were women (it currently hovers around 20 percent), this wouldnt be an issue because wed have paid leave and it would no longer be a divisive party issue. Why do you think were having such a hard time electing women?



I guess it could be due to innate gender biases, but thats just a more polite way to say that were fucking sexist.

It seems like in Sweden, which has the best paid-leave policy, its pretty important to note that not only do both parents get leave, but theyre both encouraged to take it, legally. What do you think is missing in the American conception of maternity leave if we only focus on the mothers?



Thats so true! While its generally accepted that women can and should have the kinds of careers their fathers did, were still very much stuck in this concept that caretaking is womens work. And womens work typically isnt as valued as traditional male roles. So of course people understand why women would want to work outside of the home and be like a man. Its as though we consider gender neutrality to just be the male standard  except its not. For true equality, it needs to go both ways, with men having the ability to step into traditional womens roles without it being embarrassing or an insult. And the more the work is divided at home, the more women will prosper in the workplace. That being said, the idea of mothers, specifically, spending time with their newborns isnt exactly a social construct, if they are breast-feeding and are their babies food source. But ultimately, paid leave is really a family issue, at its core.

One of the women you interview in Sweden remarks how when she went back to work and her husband picked up the slack, people thought she was not into having a kid, since she wanted to go back quickly  while her husband was really going above and beyond in his duty. Do you think we keep perpetuating this idea that the role of Mother is somehow genetically more important or more natural than the role of dad?



The only people who are perpetuating the role of mother being more natural than the role of father are men who dont care for their children. Men can make really great, nurturing dads, and we do them an injustice by not acknowledging that.

Its hard not to come away with the sense that some Americans simply hate women and children. Do you think young feminists demanding change will get us the leave we need?



Yes, I really do! Its a start, at least. Look, if we can get the country to understand that Bruce Jenner is actually a woman named Caitlyn, we can change the way people view the issue of paid leave. In fact, the womens movement should look to LGBTQ activism, which has been extremely effective and influential in policy-making and social acceptance in recent years. If nothing else, its taught us that we dont have to allow other peoples prejudice or ignorance to determine the way we live.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
First of all, we take a quick look at some of the critical figures and data in the energy markets this week.

We will then look at some of the key market movers early this week before providing you with the latest analysis of the top news events taking place in the global energy complex over the past few days.

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Chart of the Week



(Click to enlarge)

Related: Will Russia End Up Controlling 73% of Global Oil Supply?

 The coal industry has seen its position in the United States rapidly erode in just a few years. With the writing on the wall, coal miners have hoped that exporting abroad would offer a lifeline.

 But coal exports from the U.S. are also collapsing, falling by 23 percent in 2015 alone. That was the third consecutive year of declining exports. Exports are nearly half of what they were at their peak in 2012.

 Coal exports at nearly all destinations declined, including Europe and Asia. Only India represents a growth opportunity for American miners.

Market Movers

 Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) has announced its decision to abandon oil exploration in Alaska. Citing low oil prices, the company would allow its leases to expire at the end of this year and leave the state. Apache had been exploring for oil in the Cook Inlet.

 Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) has paid 1.77 billion euros to the National Iranian Oil Company to settled debts stemming from oil cargoes that Shell was unable to pay for because of sanctions. The payment could clear the way for Shell to make investments in Iran.

 Electricite de Frances (OTC: ECIFF) chief financial officer quit due to his opposition to the Hinkley Point nuclear reactor in the UK, a deal that could put the company in financial jeopardy, he says. The partially state-owned company has yet to make a final investment decision on the $26 billion nuclear project, but that could come as soon as next month.

Tuesday March 8, 2016

Oil prices are showing some life, with Brent breaking the $40 per barrel threshold for the first time in months.

More shale declines. The EIA released its monthly Drilling Productivity Report, which projects that major U.S. shale basins will see production fall by 106,000 barrels per day in April, the sixth consecutive month of declines. It will also mark the second largest decline on record. All the major basins see output fall, including the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Niobrara and even the Permian basin, which has help up amid the collapse in prices. The bulk of the declines will come from the Eagle Ford (down 58,000 barrels per day), a trend that has become commonplace in recent months.

Oil prices post tenuous rally. The solid production declines are raising hopes that the oil markets are slowly moving into balance. WTI bounced above $37 per barrel on Monday and Brent surpassed $40 per barrel, the highest prices since the beginning of the year. Oil prices have rallied by over 30 percent since early February. The price increase is starting to trickle down to the pump. Retail gasoline prices in the United States rose from $1.73 to $1.78 per gallon in the last week of February, the first full-week increase in over eight months. Related: Shell Hopes To Sell $30 Billion In Assets, But Timing Is Terrible

The oil industry and its investors are hoping that the worst is over, but not everyone is convinced. Only a real physical deficit can create a sustainable rally which is still months away should the behavioral shifts created by the low prices in January and February remain in place, Goldman Sachs wrote in a new report.

Chinas oil imports hit record. China stepped up oil imports to take advantage of cheap oil while it lasts. There are some other forces at work as well that are pushing up imports. The Chinese government has decided not to cut retail fuel prices when oil falls below $40 per barrel, meaning that Chinese refiners can make more money selling within China than exporting. As a result, Chinas exports of refined products are falling. At the same time, the government has granted more licenses to refiners, allowing the market to grow. That is increasing the demand for crude  resulting in higher imports. February imports jumped by 19 percent compared to January, pushing it over 8 million barrels per day, a new monthly record.

Latin American oil producers to meet. The oil ministers of several oil-producing countries in Latin America are planning to meet in order to come up with a common strategy in the face of low oil prices. The meeting will take place in Quito, Ecuador on March 11, with the oil and foreign ministers of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico expected to be in attendance. "It will be an important step ... to adopt a common position in Latin America ... in view of the next OPEC summit, Ecuadors foreign minister Guillaume Long said, according to Reuters. Venezuela and Ecuador are members of OPEC, but Colombia and Mexico are not.

Vaca Muerta production rises. The CEO of the Argentine oil company YPF says that oil and gas production from the Vaca Muerta shale is rising, and the company now produces 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. While that is good news, CEO Miguel Galuccio also said that production was marginal, a worrying sign given that Argentina has regulated oil prices that are substantially higher than the prevailing international price, which bottomed out below $30 per barrel earlier this year. In other words, producing in Argentina is expensive. YPF said that it would slash capex this year and also idle rigs. Nevertheless, the promise of the Vaca Muerta remains large  as a relatively new shale basin in terms of exploration, oil companies still believe that they can achieve large cost reductions as they gain experience. Horizontal well costs have already declined from $16 to $13 million, Galuccio says, and should drop to $10 million this year. Related: Natural Gas Prices Could Plunge Below $1 Here

Shell suspends drilling in Nova Scotia. Shell Canada revealed on Monday that a piece of equipment broke off a drill ship and fell to the seafloor. Bad weather contributed to the complications, as Shell scrambled to seal the well with a blowout preventer and withdraw from the site. Shell was drilling an exploratory well off the coast of Nova Scotia in the Shelburne Basin but bad weather forced a retreat. Drilling operations have temporarily been suspended as a result of the incident. "Shortly after the well had been secured and the rig moved away from the well location, high waves and heave caused the riser tensioner system to release, resulting in the riser and lower marine riser package  which connects the rig to the well during drilling  to fall to the seabed," Cameron Yost of Shell Canada told the CBC. No drilling fluid was released and no workers were hurt, but the riser broke off and fell to the floor.

Gorgon LNG begins. Chevron announced that it has started up its gargantuan LNG export facility in Australia, a $54 billion behemoth that suffered from delays and cost overruns. Gorgon enters an oversupplied market and it is hard to imagine any companies greenlighting additional mega-LNG projects like Gorgon for the foreseeable future given the prevailing market conditions.

Brazilian President on the rocks. The WSJ reports that the unfolding drama in Brazil could knock the Brazilian President out of office. President Dilma Rousseff has been suspected of involvement in the Petrobras corruption scandal, although she has yet to be personally implicated. Separately, she has been accused of cooking the budget books. While these allegations are not new, the drama is picking up pace as the economy hit its worst recession in decades and a growing number of politicians abandon her.

By Evan Kelly of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Perhaps the only major sector of the economy that has changed more than energy in the last decade is the defense industry. Military technology today differs radically from what was available a decade ago, with military news stories these days filled with talk of drones, rail guns, directed energy weapons, stealth fighters, stealth destroyers, and cyber warfare. Not all of these technological advances are staying limited to the defense industry though.

Take drones for instance. Drones represent a paradigm shift for military power  now aircraft and even some ground vehicles can be operated from thousands of miles away through a combination of remote human operation and preprogrammed computer routines. This type of technology is now radically altering many aspects of the oil and gas industry in ways that are both good and bad for U.S. companies. Related: Shell Hopes To Sell $30 Billion In Assets, But Timing Is Terrible

On the positive side, drones are quickly becoming one of the best cost cutting tools in the oil patch. Rather than paying people to travel from site to site or along pipelines looking for problems, oil companies can dispatch drones to do the dirty work. Site exploration, production monitoring, and security concerns can all be handled with drones, which in many cases are self-piloting and are available from a variety of U.S. suppliers at reasonable prices.

Yet there is also a darker side to drones for U.S. oil companies and one that could threaten their ability to compete in foreign markets in the future. That threat comes from China. Military drones are arguably most useful for carrying missiles to attack ground targets in a way that is very low cost compared to conventional field armaments. In the U.S., a typical military drone might retail for around $5M. In China, that same drone might cost $1-2M. Both sets of drones are a pittance compared to a traditional fighter aircraft, which almost universally cost tens of millions. U.S. drones are superior to Chinese drones on a variety of technical metrics, but both sets of drones are functionally very useful for third world militaries that are looking for cheap airpower. Related: Climate Action Could Save $250 Billion Per Year In 2030

The problem for the U.S. and American firms is that the country is a signatory to a defense treaty from the Cold War Era that was intended to curtail the sale of missiles to launch nuclear warheads. This treaty, called the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), is now commonly applied by the government to stop the sale of drone technology even to U.S. allies. So far, only two major nations have been approved to buy U.S. drone tech  the UK and Italy.

How does all of this relate to oil?

The Chinese are not signatories to MTCR and thus face no such restriction on the sale of their drones. As a result, Chinese drones are turning up in the arsenals of countries like Iraq and Nigeria. But the Chinese are not just selling drones to these countries, they are also using these drone sales as a bargaining chip to secure advantageous terms related to oil in these countries. Related: Big Oil Eyes Upcoming Auction In Iran

Take Nigeria for instance. China is reportedly very interested in Nigerias oil. China has invested billions of dollars in hydrocarbon infrastructure in Nigeria because China sees Nigeria as having a rising degree of importance in the world and the oil markets. By 2050, some projections suggest Nigeria will have the third largest population in the world. As that development occurs, there will be more opportunities to exploit Nigerian oil and greater demand by the country for oil. The Chinese want a piece of both sides in that growth.

The Chinese demand for oil makes it second in the world behind the U.S. in consumption, and as a result Chinese involvement in foreign oil markets is not going to change anytime soon. From the American governments perspective, this may not be a problem, but for companies like Exxon and Chevron that rely on fair access to overseas oil production opportunities, Chinas drones may be the ace in the hole that gives the nod to Chinese firms over U.S. companies. And with the future of shale oil in question given current low oil prices, that advantage is definitely something that U.S. shareholders should care about when considering potentially cheaper foreign oil sources.

By Michael McDonald Of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Back in late February, when crude prices had just hit a 13 year low, one catalyst unleashed a furious short-covering rally: a WSJ report which cited a delayed SkyNews interview with the UAE energy minister, according to which OPEC would freeze, if not cut production. Since then we learned, courtesy of the Saudi oil minister Al-Naimi himself, that the Saudis will never reduce output, however, in a utterly meaningless gesture, Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to "freeze" production at levels which are already at maximum capacity and under one condition: that all other OPEC members join the freeze, with the possible exception of Iran which may be allowed to produce until it hits its pre-embargo export levels.

Of course, even the said "freeze" is nothing but a stalling tactic employed by an OPEC member (Saudi Arabia), to give the impression that OPEC still exists as a production-throttling cartel when OPEC ceased to exist in that capacity in November 2014. Everything since then has been one surreal redux of "Weekend at Bernies" where everyone pretends not to notice the corpse in the room.

However, while many had pretended to at least play along with the charade, today a core OPEC member effectively broke ranks when Kuwait said it would only agree to an output freeze if all major producers take part including Iran.



Related: Six Reasons The Current Oil Short Covering May Have Legs

According to Reuters, Kuwait's oil minister said on Tuesday that his country's participation in an output freeze would require all major oil producers, including Iran, to be on board.

"I'll go full power if there's no agreement. Every barrel I produce I'll sell," Anas al-Saleh told reporters in Kuwait City. And since Iran has made it very, very clear that it will not join the production freeze at its current mothballed output, and will need at least 9-12 months before it regains its pre-embargo capacity levels, one can forget about a production freeze well into 2017, if not forever, since by then at least one if not more OPEC members will be bankrupt (they know who they are: they are the source of those "ALL CAPS" flashing read headlines every day).

Putting Kuwait's production in context, Kuwait - the small Gulf state Saddam invaded 25 years ago - is currently producing 3 million barrels of oil per day. Incidentally, this is precisely how much the oil market is oversupplied each and every day, and why in addition to PADD1, 2 and 3 being almost full, and excess oil now being stored in ships, pipelines and trains, and re-exported to Europe, quite soon empty swimming pools will be full with the "black gold" as the algos continue to refuse to pay any attention to the constantly deteriorating fundamentals.



Related: Oil Prices Fall As U.S. Inventory Build Seems Inevitable

Kuwait's announcement followed a report by Goldman overnight in which, as we reported, Jeff Currie said that the "commodity rally is not sustainable" and it is time to sell crude.

"While these dynamics (rising prices) could run further, they simply are not sustainable in the current environment," the analysts wrote. "Energy needs lower prices to maintain financial stress to finish the rebalancing process; otherwise, an oil price rally will prove self-defeating, as it did last spring."

Perhaps, but not just yet: in addition to China's abysmal exports, we also learned that in February its crude imports soared 19.1% to 31.80 million tons, or about 8 million barrels per day, an all-time high, suggesting China - like the US - is filling every available container including its SPR at a time when prices are relatively low even if organic demand continues to deteriorate.



Related: The U.K. Is About To Boost Oil Exploration With An Old Trick

As Reuters writes, "despite strong oil demand, questions about the sustainability of growing consumption weighed on markets after China's overall exports tumbled by a quarter in February."

China's February vehicle sales, a key driver for gasoline demand, were down 3.7 percent year on year, data from the country's Passenger Car Association showed. "This is really a poor start for trade this year," said Zhang Yongjun, senior economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges.

However, judging by the latest bounce in crude in the last hour of trading, the only thing that still matters is who the daily short squeeze will rip higher. By the looks of things, at least one major trader already got the tap on the shoulder.

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
American Craft Beer Week kicks off today and Milwaukee has no shortage of great options to grab a cold fresh brew for it. Cheers to this list of some of Milwaukee's best.

It only makes sense that a city that loves beer as much as Milwaukee does would also host several bars with impressive beer lists. Our OnMilwaukee "Best of Bars" has always been here to help! Picking favorites is a hard task  but for six years in a row, OnMilwaukee readers have determined that Sugar Maple, located at 441 E. Lincoln Ave. in Bay View, has the finest beer list of them all.

With 60 American craft beers currently on draft, it's hard to argue with the readers' vote ... but the OnMilwaukee editors did anyway, selecting the beer list at Palm Tavern as their personal choice.

Finishing closely behind Sugar Maple in second place was Cafe Hollander, while Stubby's Pub & Grub, Burnhearts and Von Trier rounded out the rest of the readers' top five. And between those five readers picks and the OnMilwakee editors' choice, it's safe to say that if your mission is a happy variety of hoppy libations, Milwaukee bars have you more than covered.

OnMilwaukee editors' choice: Palm Tavern

1. Sugar Maple

2. Cafe Hollander

3. Stubby's Pub & Grub

4. Burnhearts

5. Von Trier

6. Nomad

7. Benno's

8. Rumpus Room

9. Roman's Pub

10. Palm Tavern
2021 marks a milestone for Gloriosos Italian Market, 1011 E. Brady St., which has officially been a Milwaukee staple for 75 years.

In celebration of their semi-sesquicentennial  and to thank the community for their years of support  the East Side grocer has planned a year-long series of events and promotions, which will kick off with a celebratory sale Feb. 12-21 on popular Gloriosos branded products, including Glorioso family recipe sauces, giardiniera, muffaletta, artisan pasta, Italian cheeses, imported deli meats, Gloriosos Family Collection wines.

Gloriosos is one of Milwaukees top destinations and a Milwaukee institution, notes Ted Glorioso, one of the original founding brothers and current owner.

Its been family-owned and operated since 1946. Weve been able to maintain the commitment to the product and our customers in keeping with the tradition started 75 years ago. As a family and a company, were proud to be celebrating this amazing milestone.

75 years and counting

Stand even for a moment on the landing just inside the doors of Gloriosos Italian Market on Brady Street and your olfactory system will be stimulated, not only by the spicy, yeasty and vegetal odors of a typical grocery environment, but also by the pungent aromas of Italian cheeses and spicy Italian sausage.

"People from Philadelphia or New York will stand on the landing crying," says Michael Glorioso, general manager of the family-owned grocer. "And theyll tell us: This reminds me of my grandma or grandpa taking me to the Italian grocery store when I was a child."

And those moments, Michael notes, are at the heart of the family business, which was founded in 1946.

"Everything about Gloriosos has always centered around family and food," he says. "It was always about people, whether it was family or community  about sticking together and supporting one another. And that's still what makes this business special."

Humble beginnings

The story of Gloriosos begins, as you might expect, with a tale of immigration. Felice Glorioso was about twenty years old when he made the journey from his home in Sicily to join his cousin in Milwaukee. Although he envisioned hed continue his livelihood as a fisherman in the American city by the lake, he soon became rapt by a city filled with Italian immigrants for whom the produce business was a mainstay.

He soon nabbed a job on the old Commission Row on Broadway, buying and selling produce. For years, he manned a horse drawn wagon from which hed peddle fruits and vegetables to neighborhoods across the city.

"You cant sell off of an empty cart," hed say  a maxim that has been passed down through the Glorioso family for nearly a century.

Eventually, Felice met Theresa, a young Siclian girl whose family had also settled in Milwaukee, and they were married and started a family which included six boys and a girl: Joe, Eddie, Nicky, Teddy, Rosalie, Anthony and Charles.

When the boys got to be teenagers in the early 1940s, they enlisted in the armed services. Each took a different post, with Joe serving as Dwight D. Eisenhowers personal assistant.

When they returned to Milwaukee, Joe and Eddie secured just over $1,000 from Mr. Gagliano, their fathers Third Ward employer. After acquiring matching funds from the bank, they purchased the original store at 1018 E. Brady St.

And on Feb. 14, 1946  armed with passion, a 150-pound wheel of provolone, and an interminable work ethic  the brothers opened Glorioso Brothers Foods.

At the time, the Brady Street business district was in a transition. Once an Irish, Polish and German neighborhood, it was slowly filling with Italians. And that bode well for the new shop, which was in good company. At the time, there were likely 50 other Italian grocers operating across the city.

Teddy, who had been working from the time he was nine at an Italian grocer in the Third Ward, quit school at 15 to help support the family business  bleaching floors, stocking shelves and unloading goods off of delivery trucks and into the windows of the basement storeroom.

Eddie, who was 22 when the grocery opened, had already spent years working for Busalacchis. At Gloriosos, he handled deliveries. He also held down a job at the Heil Co., using the extra cash to help out the family business.

Meanwhile Joe, who had started his career with a Jewish owned grocer Seemans on Port Washington Road, ordered everything from fruits and vegetables to imported olive oil and pasta, supplying the community with a variety of items that they couldnt find anywhere else.

"In the early years, Italian products just werent available  canned tomatoes, olive oil, cheeses," remembers Michael, who grew up in an apartment behind the store. "There were no distributors in Milwaukee. So every Monday theyd go down to Chicago and pick up whatever they could find. And theyd stop at Lezzas bakery and bring back cannoli for my grandmother and the family."

In the beginning, Gloriosos meat counter was managed by cousin Ted Russo, who ran the business under the moniker Russo Meats. But in 1950, when Joe married Mary Frinzi, an Italian girl whose family had run Italian grocery stores on Water and Broadway, Mary helped to pull the Gloriosos into the meat business. With her help, the family began producing fresh Italian sausages using a recipe Felice had brought with him from Sicily.

For 65 years, Gloriosos maintained its business on Brady. For a time, the Gloriosos started a wholesale business, which not only allowed them to carry more products, but also offer them in larger quantities. Eventually, they were the only Italian grocers left among the 50 that once inhabited the area.

Gloriosos restaurants

While Gloriosos is known primarily for its grocery business, the family also forayed into the restaurant business for a number of years.

Around 1951, the brothers noted a new phenomenon. Pizza joints were slowly cropping up around the city, and the notion of starting their own gained momentum.

"My dad [Teddy] went and learned how to make pizzas, and they opened up their first place in the back of a bar on the corner of 1st Street and Kinnickinnic," says Michael.

Eventually, the brothers purchased the space next door to Gloriosos and established a small pizzeria, which they called Trios.

"It was probably the third pizza restaurant in the city in the early 1950s," says Michael. "And they were the first pizza place to offer delivery."

In 1960, they also bought the property to the west of Trios at 1010 E. Brady St.  then a gas station  and opened a full service fine dining restaurant, which they called Gloriosos Italian Villa. The restaurant offered up sit down dining along with a bar and party room that was used frequently for weddings and a variety of gatherings. Gloriosos operated there for nearly 40 years, closing up shop in the '90s and giving way to Emperor of China, which now inhabits the space.

Along the way, Michael says he grew familiar with certain aspects of the restaurant business, though his memories today focus primarily on the long hours his parents put in and the mischief he got into along the way.

"Dad was the cook and mom was the waitress," he notes. "So, for a while my older sister Terry and I had a nun from St. Hedwigs who used to babysit for us in the evenings."

Michael recalls secret excursions to Campanellis grocery, which was located just across the street, to trade in soda bottles for penny candy.

"The grocery store would stack the wooden crates for soda bottles right next to our apartment door," he says. "So, whenever I needed candy, Id sneak down and grab a few bottles, and cash them in."

Years later, when Michael confessed that hed been trading in the familys bottles to another grocer, family members nodded. "Oh, we knew," they said. "We were more worried about you crossing the street."

The modern Italian grocery

Seventy-five years later, Gloriosos has grown. In 2010, the grocery store moved into its current location at 1011 E. Brady St. The new location took the business from 1,000 square feet to 10,000, allowing the once tiny grocery store to stock its shelves with more than 12,000 different products.

In the years that followed the move, Glorioso's put their energy behind the expansion of their Gloriosos branded food products, many of which are derived from family recipes. They also strengthened their offerings in areas like Italian cheeses and charcuterie, and put reporting systems into place which allowed them to track purchases and better predict what customers want to see on the shelves.

In 2019, the grocer also moved forward on the creation of Gloriosos Appetito, a combination cooking school, event space and kitchen, which made new use of the original Glorioso's storefront and allowed the business to expand both its catering and educational programs.

A grocer powered by family

Despite growth and myriad changes over the years, the Glorioso family is still at the helm. Joe passed away in 2013 at the age of 91, making Teddy the sole owner. And for years  until he passed in July of 2019 Eddie shared smiles and his bright demeanor with customers from behind the sausage and meat counter. X

Meanwhile, Joe's son Felix (Felice), who has worked in the store since he was a child, is now store manager. And Teddys son, Michael, general manager, joined the grocery stores team around 2008 after retiring from 28 years working in the corporate world.

"I came in with a lot of respect for the family business -- which includes my cousin Felix, who really worked to help get us where we are now," says Michael. "We got computerized. We put ordering systems in place. We got managers. And we changed the business to fit not only the trends, but also what people here want from us."

"Its a family business," notes Michael. "And as much as we love each other, we dont always agree. And it takes a lot of patience sometimes. It took a long time to get past the way weve always done things. But, one of the big reasons weve gotten better is that we began surrounding ourselves with people who know more about wine, more about cooking, more about their individual areas than we do."

As for additional expansion, Michael says hell never say never.

"People always ask: Would we ever build another store?" says Michael. "And the answer is, probably not in the near future. But, its definitely a possibility down the road. The store has always been the heartbeat of our family. We have a great brand. Its a great business to be in."
Continuing its vital work to protect and improve water quality, the Fund for Lake Michigan has just awarded nearly $1.4 million in private grants aimed at improving beaches, reducing polluted runoff and restoring critical habitat in Wisconsin.

The 26 different projects receiving money stretch from Kenosha to Marinette and range from restoration of Harrington Beach State Park north of Port Washington to helping advance one of the countrys largest fish passage projects on the Menominee River.

"With water problems increasingly in the news, the Fund is delivering on its promise to help protect water resources right here in Wisconsin," says Vicki Elkin, executive director of the Milwaukee-based organization.

The Fund is also backing crucial research and planning as Milwaukee builds upon its reputation as the freshwater business capital of the world.

To that end, the Fund is supporting The Water Council as it launches the Alliance for Water Stewardships new water use standard in North America. Similar to LEED Certification for buildings, the standard requires a building or site owner to ensure sustainable water use within a facility. The standard goes beyond LEED, however, by requiring the building owner to understand how their operations impact the surrounding watershed.

"The new AWS standard will help every business that uses water across the Great Lakes region and throughout North America assess their water use and as a result have a duel impact of improving water stewardship and helping the bottom-line of their budget," says Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of The Water Council.

The Fund for Lake Michigan was established in 2011 by We Energies, Madison Gas & Electric and WPPI Energy to safeguard the lake and improve water quality in the region.

To date the fund has:

Distributed over 150 grants totaling roughly $12 million

Created the equivalent of 480 full-time, family-supporting jobs

Added $35 million to the local economy

Raised private property values by $45.5 million

Leveraged another $35 million in public and private investments in water quality

"Our partnership is providing long-term benefits in safeguarding the Lake Michigan watershed for the entire community," said Robert Garvin, executive vice president at We Energies.

The largest grant in this round is $190,000 to the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences to conduct an extensive aquatic habitat survey of the citys harbor. The university will be working with the Department of Natural Resources, Army Corps of Engineers, Harbor District, Inc. and other stakeholders to advance harbor rehabilitation.

"The long-term goal of this study is to restore a thriving recreational fishery and vibrant wildlife population in the heart of urban Milwaukee," says Elkin. "In the meantime, were sure to see immediate improvements to the Milwaukee harbor and its larger estuary as a result of this grant."

Other projects slated for funding this year include the creation of a linear park along the recently-completed Beerline Recreational Trail. A collaboration of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and Riverworks Development Corporation, the project aims to spur economic development on the citys north side.

The projects are fairly well distributed geographically, with the majority directly impacting the Lake Michigan coastline and near shore areas. The remaining projects are located in watersheds that feed into the lake and have been identified as priority areas for reducing pollution or improving fish and wildlife habitat.

A full of list of grants is available at fundforlakemichigan.org/images/pdf/Grantsummaries.pdf.
It would seem that Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-professed "Social Democrat," has a "Black problem." But not in a bad way. And it's not just about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton who has the Black vote all but sown up. It's that the African-American population in the United States is not "feeling the Bern." African-American voters just don't know Senator Sanders. And the reasons for not "feeling the Bern" are many and varied but all of the challenges, obstacles, and hurdles that present to make it difficult for the progressive Left senator from Vermont to get Black support in the 2016 United States presidential election, can be boiled, distilled, and rendered down to one thing and one thing only: institutionalized white racism.

While white politicians routinely ignore the crippling effects of white racism and white privilege on America's political and socio-economic systems, playing ostrich and burying heads in the sand does nothing to shred to pieces the reality of today's American society. True, as Black people we've come a very long way from slavery and segregation. That way was paved with rivers of blood, mountains of sweat and a many, many tears. Today, in this presidential election cycle Blacks continue to "feeling the pain," of racial discrimination, high and pervasive unemployment, poor health outcomes, economic uncertainty, and a system that still treats them as "third class citizens."

That's the reality. Forgive me if I, as many Blacks are now doing, taking a look at the record of the senator from Vermont -- one of the whitest places in America -- and his history of supporting and or articulating Black issues and causes. And for me a brief arrest during the Civil Rights protests of 1965 is not enough to convince me that the good senator, well-meaning thought he is, has a history of and has been a staunch and reliable supporter of Black causes. That's the first issue/problem that Senator Sanders has with garnering Black support: where were you when Black people were being brutalized, stigmatized and ostracized at the hands of the white supremacist power structure?

So pardon my bluntness senator: I know that you are a good and decent man and you've put on the national agenda issues that hitherto been given little credence and importance. Issues like hiking the minimum wage, housing equality, income inequality, and, yes, racism and its effects on the Black community. You've also articulated your anger against police brutality and the killing of unarmed Black males by white cops. All that is well and good.

But are you a "Johnny Come Lately?" You have not gone on record against a system that gives more benefits to the poorest whites than the richest Blacks. You have not spoken out against the fact that very simple everyday Black encounters with white cops can, and often do, turn deadly. Remember Tamir Rice? Shot for playing in a park with his sister by a white cop that "mistook" a 12-year old child for a "threatening Black man." I would have liked to hear you, Senator Sanders, rail against institutionalized racism and discrimination a bit more and not simply as a response to now trolling for the Black vote.

Moreover, I cannot agree with Senator Sanders that all of these problems that confront the Black community each and every day are rooted solely in America's class structure. That lets white, institutionalized racism off the hook. You see, the very notion of class is a social construct is based on any number indicators. Money, prestige and upward mobility can lift a poor Black individual from the ranks of the working poor to that of the middle and upper middle class. But that does not protect him or her from being viewed as a threat by a white cop, stopped and questioned because he's "Driving While Black," or being followed around in a department store in Manhattan by a white employee fearful that he or she is there to steal something.

That's the cancer of white racism in the United States; it permeates EVERYTHING -- consciously and unconsciously. Thing is that Blacks of EVERY SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS are not immune from the ravages of this pervasive and endemic system of white privilege, no matter that many are uncomfortable to speak or address it. America, especially white America, still suffers from the Peter Pan Syndrome and until "we grow up" and confront the demons of our past, racism and white supremacy will endure, putrid, alive and well. Black people, even those well-to-do ones, will still be red lined and discriminated against by banks that feel they will "degrade the neighborhood" as evidenced by America's most liberal of cities, New York City, where the public schools system is the most segregated in the nation and where people are bundled into some 53 "unique neighborhoods."

Senator Sanders needs to earn Black confidence and trust by speaking out against the unjust system that holds, to borrow from Emperor Haile Selassie, "one race superior and the other inferior." A system that allows poor whites to live in better neighborhoods, have access to better paying jobs and more resources than poor Blacks. In a word, until Senator Sanders understands and fully comes to terms with the legacy and realities of white racism and its impact on Black and Brown peoples, the Black vote will elude him at every turn no matter what he does and says.

You see, ALL white candidates can and will promise to help Blacks and speak eloquently, forcibly and loudly about changing things. But unless this is backed up with real concrete, demonstrative actions then Blacks, as a manner of speaking, will "trust the devil that they know," and I'll not be so presumptuous as to call Hillary Rodham Clinton the devil.

Moreover, without a thorough understanding of Black struggles, Black issues and Black history how can a senator from one of America's whitest states ever hope to help Black folks or articulate and speak intelligently about their struggles? We ask too much of Good Ole Bernie.

So what, in a nutshell, does he have to do?

Well, for starters he has to understand why Black people and voters support Hillary Clinton. Granted, President Bill Clinton passed some draconian laws that negatively impacted the Black community. But OVERALL his tenure as president was the LAST one that saw Black standard of living and life actually improve. It was Bill Clinton who helped to solidify Black allegiance and loyalty to the Democratic Party as a "place for Blacks to go" because of the Republican Party's racism and policies that run counter to Black aspirations. It is a problem that the Republican Party has even today as it continues to be perceived as a "whites only" party built on white supremacism and racism. Bernie has to understand this.

Bernie also has to understand that while Black people are instinctively progressive on most social and economic issues that do not make them so when it comes to other things. Take religion for example, Blacks are without a doubt the most religious community in the Unites States even though the mainstream media often peddles the fallacy that its "white Christians and so-called Evangelicals." They've even equated the "Evangelical vote" with Texas Senator Ted Cruz. But the fact is that a recent survey found that "70 percent of Black people -- church goers and non-church goers" said they read the Bible compared to 44 percent of whites.

The Black Church has historically been a bastion of Black activism and politics and a champion of civil and human rights. Some of the most important leaders of the past century came out of the Black Church. So in essence Blacks are more socially conservative because of the influence of the church and religion in their daily lives. It is the Black Church and Christianity that give the Black Liberation Struggle its moral character and so impacts the modus operandi of Black political activism today. Bernie has to pay more visits to the Black Church across the United States if he's ever going to win or, at least, be competitive with Hillary Clinton for the Black vote.

Finally, Senator Sanders has to understand that not because he's progressive and speaks to Black issues and concerns that the Black community will drop its historical relations and follow him. Blacks are supporting Hillary Clinton in part because she's embraced the Obama Agenda and Blacks love our first Black President, not simply because he's Black, but because of the sheer power of his example and symbolism for young Black boys and girls. They now know that they too can one day become President of the United States. And Hillary Clinton is getting the benefit of the situation and support for her candidacy because of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who despite what anyone says, improved the quality of the lives of the Black poor and Middle Class during his presidency. In essence and reality, Hillary is not a "just come lately" to the Black community -- we know her.

All of this is not to cast aspersions on the candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders. He's a vital part of the national democratic conversation. He's a decent, honest and well-meaning individual and trustworthy to boot. I will put it this way: Hillary Rodham Clinton is the best and most experienced candidate for president within the nuances and realities of the American Political Establishment system. Bernie Sanders is the outsider candidate, not fettered by the trappings and baggage of the Establishment. But in a contest where the establishment sets the rules, it's very difficult to overcome an old battle-tested hand like Hillary Clinton.
Micah White is that rare blend of activist and gifted writer, and his book comes just as we're wondering whether we'll be able to halt the descent toward fascism that Donald Trump represents. More than suggesting that 'another world is possible', it lays out coherent guidelines, broadening the discourse from nuts and bolts to theories and memes by blending the Ph'd's reading list with the eager mind of the iconoclast.

White took the best that academia has to offer, but also acted as a human shield in the occupied Palestinian territories, learning what it means to allow one's life to depend on the solidarity of others. His trajectory from Swarthmore college to Occupy via the Middle East and Adbusters has fashioned a modern-day renaissance man, evocative of Che Guevara for his ability to combine action with philosophy and who, while involved in the daily life of a small settlement, sees the world in all its complexities, past and present.

Adbusters can hardly be accused of mysticism, and most observers saw Occupy encampments around the world drawing together every imaginable strand of secular protest. They will be surprised when White mentions casually that he is no longer an atheist, suggesting a return or a turn toward Christianity. They will be even more surprised to see his denunciation of "intolerant secularism" paired with a "spiritual understanding of revolution'. White's "unified theory" gives equal importance to theurgy, an approach to politics epitomized by the feminist/Wiccan Starhawk, as to structuralism, subjectivism and voluntarism.

I actively entertain the possibility that revolutions may indeed be a supernatural phenomenon and therefore inexplicable, immeasurable, unpredictable and potentially outside the natural order. Leaving open the possibility that revolutions may be a supernatural (or divine) process allows us to find elements of truth within theurgism and unblind ourselves to approaches to social change that reigned in previous historical periods". Theurgists believe that divine forces can be made to intervene in the world.

White is fascinated by the ancient history of revolt and does not hesitate to call up figures little known outside academia, seeing the strands that unite the Ghost Dancer Voyvoka of Wounded Knee fame and the Nika revolt against the Byzantine Empire in 532. How better to drive home the fact that revolution and revolt are as eternal as the defense of one's tribe or country?

Again and again, however, White is drawn to Christianity, detailing the origin of the Chi Ro, a sign in the heavens composed of a heart and a cross that is said to have inspired Constantine's victory over a rival emperor and his conversion in the 4th century. White notes that:

Contemporary social movement often tell only one story about the signs that will precede the revolution: lots of people will be in the streets. The victory of Christianity challenges activists to wonder whether another story might be told, one in which an unexpected and rare natural phenomenon heralds a paradigm shift. Perhaps three hundred years from now a leader will be swayed to embrace our people's movement by a long-prophesied event - an earthquake - that strikes on her inauguration day.

White comes down repeatedly on the side of women who are 'on the brink of rising up against a male culture that has been fatally poisoned by pornography and video games," echoing, perhaps inadvertently, Vladimir Putin's and Western post-modernists' condemnation of the decay of Western culture that is also at the root of Islamist attacks. And while White is clearly more taken with witchcraft and miracles than with liturgy, like many of today's thinkers, he shares their conviction that humans have spiritual needs.

In A Taoist Politics: the Case for Sacredness, I explore the commonalities between ancient wisdom and modern physics, inviting the scientifically literate to see belief in God as a way of naming the order/disorder dyad of modern physics and the ancient Chinese Yin/Yang. Where White sees divine forces intervening in the world, I see the flow of energy through systems creating instabilities which, through bifurcations, can lead to revolutions. Noting that the idea of a steady state has been misinterpreted in the public mind as 'static', I describe it as "a magic moment in the vibrant regime of order/disorder, poised far from equilibrium at the edge of chaos". For White, revolutions are "a magic moment that leads to a new order, in a process repeated ad infinitum ".

White's view of activism gives an oblique nod to Malcolm Gladwell when he says that: "Voluntarists often think of activism as a ladder of engagement that begins with non-action ... and climbs toward direct action, the goal being to escalate engagement up the ladder." According to Gladwell, by disseminating information, networks create weak-tie connections, while strong-tie connections are needed to persevere in the face of danger. The difference between people who abandon an action and those who stay is not commitment, but a personal connection to the movement: close friends who are participating create the 'strong tie' necessary for high-risk activism. Requests for aid on the internet that demand little personal commitment may bring many responses but the ties they create, if any, are 'weak'. Networks make it easier for activists to express themselves, but harder for that expression to have any impact.

While apparently accepting Gladwell's analysis, White approaches activism from a more theoretical point of view. diagramming his 'Unified Theory of Revolution" in four quadrants: subjectivism, theurgism, voluntarism and structuralism. Encouraging activists to think outside the box, he states that "the playbook must be rewritten by each generation", usefully noting that "repressive democracies encourage forms of protest that are least revolutionary and most ineffective."

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Series: (14 Articles, 12587 views) Tuesday, November 12, 2013This is the tenth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree. All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (14 Articles, 12587 views)

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The Politics of Dignity This is the ninth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree.

Series: (14 Articles, 12587 views) Tuesday, November 5, 2013This is the ninth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree. All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (14 Articles, 12587 views)

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The Social Contract in a Dignitarian Society This is the eighth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree.

Series: (14 Articles, 12587 views) Tuesday, October 29, 2013This is the eighth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree. All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (14 Articles, 12587 views)

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Rankism Can Be Harmful to Your Health This is the seventhth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree.

Series: (14 Articles, 12587 views) Tuesday, October 22, 2013This is the seventhth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree. All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (14 Articles, 12587 views)

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Dignity in Education This is the sixth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree.

Series: (14 Articles, 12587 views) Tuesday, October 15, 2013This is the sixth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree. All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (14 Articles, 12587 views)

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Dignity in the Workplace This is the fifth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree.

Series: (14 Articles, 12587 views) Thursday, October 10, 2013This is the fifth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree. All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (14 Articles, 12587 views)

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Greta Thunberg Punches Back After Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Jabs at Her Youth Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pretended not to know who Greta Thunberg is, and then he told her to get a degree in economics before giving world leaders advice. Mnuchin, at a press conference, dismissed her completely, pretending not to know who the TIME Person of the Year is. Saturday, January 25, 2020Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pretended not to know who Greta Thunberg is, and then he told her to get a degree in economics before giving world leaders advice. Mnuchin, at a press conference, dismissed her completely, pretending not to know who the TIME Person of the Year is.

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945 Toxic Waste Sites at Risk of Disaster From Climate Crisis The EPA has continued to deny the climate crisis as a threat to the Superfund sites. The EPA does not include the climate crisis in its agency-wide policies. Its refusal to take the climate crisis into account has not only angered lawmakers, but also baffled experts. Friday, November 22, 2019The EPA has continued to deny the climate crisis as a threat to the Superfund sites. The EPA does not include the climate crisis in its agency-wide policies. Its refusal to take the climate crisis into account has not only angered lawmakers, but also baffled experts.

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Trump Proposes Buying Greenland President Trump has made repeated inquiries into the possibility of buying Greenland, an autonomous territory, from the Danish government. He has raised the issue during meetings and dinners and even gone so far as to have White House counsel examine the possibility. Danish politicians wasted no time in ridiculing the idea. Saturday, August 17, 2019President Trump has made repeated inquiries into the possibility of buying Greenland, an autonomous territory, from the Danish government. He has raised the issue during meetings and dinners and even gone so far as to have White House counsel examine the possibility. Danish politicians wasted no time in ridiculing the idea.

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EPA Releases Report Advising Communities to Prepare for Climate Change-Related Disasters Policymakers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report in the Federal Register outlining how local communities should start planning for near-future catastrophes associated with climate change. It addresses how local communities can cope with debris and disaster following floods, hurricanes, wildfires only intensified by a changing climate. Saturday, May 4, 2019Policymakers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report in the Federal Register outlining how local communities should start planning for near-future catastrophes associated with climate change. It addresses how local communities can cope with debris and disaster following floods, hurricanes, wildfires only intensified by a changing climate.

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Teacher Confronts Scott Pruitt at Restaurant, Asks Him to Resign Kristin Mink, a schoolteacher and mother of a 2-year-old, confronted Scott Pruitt, the embattled administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Monday and urged him to resign. Wednesday, July 4, 2018Kristin Mink, a schoolteacher and mother of a 2-year-old, confronted Scott Pruitt, the embattled administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Monday and urged him to resign.

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Pentagon Watered Down Climate Report for Trump-Era Publication, Draft Reveals According to The Washington Post, the 2018 report edited out 23 direct references to "climate change" and only used the term once. It also edited out more than one mention of the decline sea ice in the Arctic. Military officials said they did not believe the wording of the report would have a significant impact on how the military responds to climate change. Saturday, May 12, 2018According to The Washington Post, the 2018 report edited out 23 direct references to "climate change" and only used the term once. It also edited out more than one mention of the decline sea ice in the Arctic. Military officials said they did not believe the wording of the report would have a significant impact on how the military responds to climate change.

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490,000 Pounds of Toxic Pesticides Sprayed on National Wildlife Refuges In 2016 more than 3,000 acres of corn and soybean crops on refuge lands were treated, mainly through aerial spraying, with approximately 6,800 pounds of pesticides containing paraquat dichloride, known to be toxic to crustaceans, mammals, fish, amphibians and mollusks and so lethal it is banned in 32 counties, including the European Union. Friday, May 11, 2018In 2016 more than 3,000 acres of corn and soybean crops on refuge lands were treated, mainly through aerial spraying, with approximately 6,800 pounds of pesticides containing paraquat dichloride, known to be toxic to crustaceans, mammals, fish, amphibians and mollusks and so lethal it is banned in 32 counties, including the European Union.

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Scott Pruitt Has Betrayed the Mission, the National Interest and the Public Trust As administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pruitt has a single overriding responsibility: to protect the environment and public health. Instead, he's protecting big polluters as he moves to delay or weaken needed safeguards at the direct behest of one industrial lobbyist after another. It's time for him to go. Monday, April 16, 2018As administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pruitt has a single overriding responsibility: to protect the environment and public health. Instead, he's protecting big polluters as he moves to delay or weaken needed safeguards at the direct behest of one industrial lobbyist after another. It's time for him to go.

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6 Ways Trump Is Bad for Food, Health and the Environment In the past year, Trump and his enablers have been unrelenting in their attacks on food safety, environmental protections, climate change, government transparency and so many other values we hold dear. We are in the midst of the most significant environmental and public health challenges imaginable. We're no longer dreading the harm the Trump administration could do to our health and environment -- we're living it. Tuesday, February 6, 2018In the past year, Trump and his enablers have been unrelenting in their attacks on food safety, environmental protections, climate change, government transparency and so many other values we hold dear. We are in the midst of the most significant environmental and public health challenges imaginable. We're no longer dreading the harm the Trump administration could do to our health and environment -- we're living it.

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Trump Administration Repeals Obama Rule Designed to Make Fracking Safer Environmentalists and public health advocates have long warned that fracking -- which involves pumping large volumes of water, sand and chemicals underground to extract oil and gas -- causes groundwater contamination, puts human health at risk and releases the potent greenhouse gas methane. Saturday, December 30, 2017Environmentalists and public health advocates have long warned that fracking -- which involves pumping large volumes of water, sand and chemicals underground to extract oil and gas -- causes groundwater contamination, puts human health at risk and releases the potent greenhouse gas methane.

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Trump Administration, Which Wants More Offshore Drilling, Shuts Down Study Into Its Safety Sierra Club's Kelly Martin said the move was in line with the Trump administration's push for a major expansion of offshore drilling. "I think this is an example of Trump demonstrating he wants to open up federal waters to more drilling at the expense of people on the planet," Martin told the Associated Press. "He is much more supportive of corporate polluters than protecting people's safety." Saturday, December 23, 2017Sierra Club's Kelly Martin said the move was in line with the Trump administration's push for a major expansion of offshore drilling. "I think this is an example of Trump demonstrating he wants to open up federal waters to more drilling at the expense of people on the planet," Martin told the Associated Press. "He is much more supportive of corporate polluters than protecting people's safety."

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GOP Tax Bill: How the Environment Lost The Republican tax bill has major repercussions for our precious environment. Environment America noted that the bill continues massive incentives for fossil fuel production amounting to tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. The deep-pocketed Koch Brothers have spent more than $88 million in traceable funding to groups attacking climate change science, policy and regulation. Wednesday, December 20, 2017The Republican tax bill has major repercussions for our precious environment. Environment America noted that the bill continues massive incentives for fossil fuel production amounting to tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. The deep-pocketed Koch Brothers have spent more than $88 million in traceable funding to groups attacking climate change science, policy and regulation.

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Trump to Drop Climate Change as National Security Threat According to the Federalist, which first obtained a draft document of the national security strategy, the Trump administration would actively oppose efforts to reduce the burning of fossil fuels for energy. The new Trump doctrine is seemingly at odds with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis' views on the issue of climate change. Monday, December 18, 2017According to the Federalist, which first obtained a draft document of the national security strategy, the Trump administration would actively oppose efforts to reduce the burning of fossil fuels for energy. The new Trump doctrine is seemingly at odds with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis' views on the issue of climate change.

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While America Focuses on Tax Bill, Congress Quietly Tries to Open Arctic Refuge to Oil Drilling The U.S. Senate has passed a Republican tax-reform package that contains a provision to authorize oil drilling on the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, placing the biological heart of one of our last pristine, untouched places in severe peril. Monday, December 11, 2017The U.S. Senate has passed a Republican tax-reform package that contains a provision to authorize oil drilling on the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, placing the biological heart of one of our last pristine, untouched places in severe peril.

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Massive Pipeline Leak Shows Why Nebraska Should Reject Keystone XL About 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of oil leaked Thursday from TransCanada's Keystone oil pipeline near Amherst, South Dakota, drawing fierce outcry from pipeline opponents. The leak, the largest spill to date in South Dakota, comes just days before Nebraska regulators decide on whether its controversial sister project -- the Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline -- will go forward. Friday, November 17, 2017About 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of oil leaked Thursday from TransCanada's Keystone oil pipeline near Amherst, South Dakota, drawing fierce outcry from pipeline opponents. The leak, the largest spill to date in South Dakota, comes just days before Nebraska regulators decide on whether its controversial sister project -- the Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline -- will go forward.

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Shadow U.S. Climate Delegation Promises World #WeAreStillIn Paris Agreement A group of U.S. leaders, including California Gov. Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reaffirmed the country's commitment to its Paris agreement targets this weekend at the COP23 talks in Bonn, Germany. Tuesday, November 14, 2017A group of U.S. leaders, including California Gov. Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reaffirmed the country's commitment to its Paris agreement targets this weekend at the COP23 talks in Bonn, Germany.

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U.S. Now the Only Country Not in Paris Climate Agreement After Syria Signs On The U.S., under President Trump, is now completely alone in this global consensus to limit temperature rise to well below 2 degreesC to avoid dangerous climate change. Under the terms of the Paris agreement, the earliest the U.S. can officially exit the pact is the day after the 2020 election. Wednesday, November 8, 2017The U.S., under President Trump, is now completely alone in this global consensus to limit temperature rise to well below 2 degreesC to avoid dangerous climate change. Under the terms of the Paris agreement, the earliest the U.S. can officially exit the pact is the day after the 2020 election.

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Rick Perry Tells Africa to Drill, Frack and Dig Coal Given the agenda of the Trump Administration and given that Perry was governor of oil rich Texas, Perry said they were keen for those partnerships to include fossil fuels. There is nothing clean about what Perry is advocating. There is no such thing as clean coal: it is a misnomer. Parry's strategy is basically: drill Africa drill; frack, Africa, frack and mine for coal, Africa, mine for coal. Monday, October 30, 2017Given the agenda of the Trump Administration and given that Perry was governor of oil rich Texas, Perry said they were keen for those partnerships to include fossil fuels. There is nothing clean about what Perry is advocating. There is no such thing as clean coal: it is a misnomer. Parry's strategy is basically: drill Africa drill; frack, Africa, frack and mine for coal, Africa, mine for coal.

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Report: EPA Hires 12 More Bodyguards for Pruitt, Costing $2M Annually for Full Security Team The EPA is expanding Pruitt's security detail with an additional 12 agents, meaning his total security fleet stands at 30 bodyguards. This will cost the department $2 million a year in salaries alone and does not include training, equipment or travel. No other administrator has needed 24/7 security but Pruitt has reportedly received more death threats than any other EPA chief. Tuesday, October 24, 2017The EPA is expanding Pruitt's security detail with an additional 12 agents, meaning his total security fleet stands at 30 bodyguards. This will cost the department $2 million a year in salaries alone and does not include training, equipment or travel. No other administrator has needed 24/7 security but Pruitt has reportedly received more death threats than any other EPA chief.

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EPA Pulls Scientists From Talk on Climate Change, Highlighting Fears Agency Is "Muzzling" Staff Ever since Scott Pruitt took the helm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he has worked to undo decades of hard-fought climate protections, denied that carbon dioxide is a "primary contributor" to climate change, and even removed mentions of the term "climate change" from agency websites. Monday, October 23, 2017Ever since Scott Pruitt took the helm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he has worked to undo decades of hard-fought climate protections, denied that carbon dioxide is a "primary contributor" to climate change, and even removed mentions of the term "climate change" from agency websites.

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by NW Spotlight

Oregon now has the highest minimum wage in the country

Last week Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed the bill that incrementally raises Oregons minimum wage. The bill goes into effect in July and according to KOIN gives Oregon the highest minimum wage in the country. The Oregonian also reported The bill gives Oregon the highest statewide minimum wage rates in the nation.

Speaking to the specifics of the three-tiered minimum wage, KOIN reported The incremental increases will eventually bring the minimum wage to $14.75 an hour inside the Portland city limits by the year 2022. On the coast, Willamette Valley and Cascade foothills, the minimum wage will top out at $13.50 an hour. In remote areas, eastern Oregon and 3 rural counties in southern Oregon, the hourly wage will be raised to $12.50.

Gov. Brown claimed a major win for Democrats and promising to uplift the working poor.

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said the minimum wage increases will benefit our small businesses by adding to consumer purchasing power.

Apparently not all small businesses agree with Avakian.

Keizers Merchant of the Year closing due to min wage hike/mandatory paid sick leave

The Big Town Hero sandwich shop in Keizer will close on March 25th. Rep. Bill Post (R-Keizer) noted that There will be at least 13 people affected by this in losing jobs.

The owner told the Keizertimes newspaper increases to minimum wage compensation and employee sick leave will have a significant impact on our bottom line. We feel like it will compromise our ability to provide the same level of service and quality products at the retail location.

In addition to the minimum wage hike, last year Oregon passed mandatory paid sick leave for employers with 10 or more workers (6 or more in Portland)  making Oregon the fourth state to require employers to provide paid sick leave.

For those 13 employees, their new minimum wage will be $0 an hour and they will get 0 weeks of paid sick leave from this employer.

The owner and his family will now focus on their catering business, operated from their home.

The owner of Keizers Big Town Hero, Scott White, won Merchant of the Year in January at the Keizer Chamber of Commerce First Citizens Award banquet. At the award ceremony, White and his family were praised for their community service: theyre always out there doing things in our community, noting as an example Scott came up with an Outstanding Card, which teachers can give to students doing good work at school to earn a free sandwich [at Big Town Hero].

Business lesson from Eugene co-owner of a small business

Russell Schmitt wrote a piece yesterday for the Eugene Register-Guard on the minimum wage hike. Schmitt describes himself as a lifelong resident of Lane County and co-owner of a small business in Eugene, who is not a Republican. He writes that hes not a greedy CEO, just a consumer who happens to own a small business and is perhaps seeing this issue through a different set of eyes than most people.

Schmitt explains that his small business already pays above current minimum wage, provides health, dental, and vision insurance  and they were paying for vacation/sick leave before they had to.

Even with those excellent benefits, Schmitts business has had difficulty finding quality workers. He writes that way too many job applicants are not worth it.

At least two people have been hired, only to never show up for the first day of work. Only 1 in 4 applicants even show up for the interview. Too many applicants dont even have a valid Oregon drivers license. 2 or 3 employees showed up for several days, then just vanished.

Given the difficulty finding quality workers, Schmitt worries about other businesses: I am offering more than the state minimum wage now, how is someone who is paying minimum wage going to fare? He then asks if employers will see an increase in productivity on par with the extra payroll? In a very basic sense, how can an employer not raise prices to compensate?

Schmitt brings up how this wont just effect how much is paid to the lowest level employees: what about the domino effect that could possibly develop within each company? Is it fair to give $1,000 raises to only a few? What about the worker already making $12 an hour? Do they get some of this action?

He also points out its not just an increased wage hike for employers: payroll taxes also will go up  this is not optional. This is on top of the sick leave pay the employer is on the hook for.

Unintended consequences of government help

Where will all this extra money come from?

Businesses that plan to continue are going to have to either raise their prices or reduce their workforce and hope that they can somehow get increased productivity from the remaining workers.

For business that do have to increase their prices, depending on their products, they will be competing with businesses in other states and other countries who have lower worker costs.
Deadline today: Choosing Oregon party delegates to elect president by becoming a precinct person

By Taxpayer Association of Oregon PAC

For the first time in generations both the Democrat and Republican Primaries may turn into a contested convention this summer. If the front runner does not have enough votes, the second vote at the convention allows delegates to vote for whomever they wish  absolute chaos!

YOU could be an Oregon delegate who gets to choose your partys president in this monumental time of unpredictability. Or you can choose who those Oregon delegates are. You must first file to become a neighborhood precinct person for your party. That deadline is today! Nearly 90% of people who file to become precinct persons are chosen because there are never enough people to fill the positions.

Once a precinct person, you can file to run as an Oregon delegate or you can vote for which Oregonians should be an Oregon delegate. The Taxpayer Association of Oregon PAC encourages precinct persons to elect only Oregon delegates who are for lower taxes, free enterprise and protecting freedom. This is why you need to run. As a bonus, you will also get to vote for the delegates who also will vote for the state chair of your political party.

With contested conventions in sight, we must not let our political party nominees be chosen by strangers. If you are a Democrat or Republican PLEASE file today as a local precinct person by filing out the form and turning it into your local County Election office before close of business day today! Some County Election Offices allow you to email the form.

Questions call 503-603-9009
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a searingly astute summation concerning the truth behind the U.S. presence in the Middle East  its subservience to the fossil fuel industrys most precious commodity: OIL.As we focus on the rise of ISIS and the search for the source of the savagery that took so many lives in Paris and San Bernardino, we might want to look beyond the convenient explanations of religion and ideology and focus on the more complex rationales of history and oil, which mostly point the finger of blame for terrorism back at the champions of militarism, imperialism and petroleum here on our own shores, Kennedy advised in an editorial for Ecowatch Kennedys critical look at the United States history of meddling, interventionism, and hegemony  almost exclusively to maintain the flow of oil  makes apparent its role in destabilizing the entire Middle East, particularly Syria. Indeed, more than fifty years of violent intercession  ultimately in the interest of the fossil fuel industry  has stoked enormous resentments. Essentially, American geostrategic corporatism  under the guise of militaristic peacekeeping  created the same violent Islamic Jihadism the U.S. now battles against.Beginning during the Eisenhower Administration, Arab sovereignty and the Middle East nations Cold War neutrality were perceived as threats to American access to oil.First in the order of business for Eisenhowers Presidency was Irans first elected leader in 4,000 years, President Mohammed Mosaddegh. Mosaddeghs desire to renegotiate Irans unfavorable oil contracts with British Petroleum led to a failed coup by British intelligence  whom he promptly expelled from the country. Despite Mosaddeghs favorable view of the U.S.  a model of democracy he sought to employ for Iran  Eisenhower, with the aid of the notorious Allan Dulles, ousted the leader. Operation Ajax deposed Mosaddegh and replaced him with Shah Reza Pahlavi  a leader whose bloody reign culminated in the Islamic revolution of 1979 that has bedeviled our foreign policy for 35 years, Kennedy wrote.Perhaps one of the larger threats lay in Syrias reluctance to approve the Trans Arabian Pipeline  intended to cross Syria in order to connect Saudi oil with ports in Lebanon. When the democratically-elected, secular Syrian president balked, the CIA engineered a coup in an attempt to replace him.The CIAs plan was to destabilize the Syrian government, and create a pretext for invasion by Iraq and Jordan, whose governments were already under CIA control, explained Kennedy. It did not work. An astonishing failure, anti-American riots and violence erupted across the region. Syria barred several American attaches, and then outted and executed all officials who harbored pro-American sentiment. Indeed, the U.S. very nearly sparked all-out war with Syria over the incident.Repercussions from that attempted coup  as well as more successful installments of puppet regimes elsewhere  still play out in foreign policy and geopolitical dealings in the present. A more successful leader removal and replacement involved a name everyone in the U.S. is familiar with: Saddam Hussein After failed attempts to depose Iraqs leader, the CIA ultimately installed Hussein and the Baath Party to power. As Kennedy noted, Interior Minister Said Aburish once said of that plot, We came to power on a CIA train. James Critchfield, the CIA Station Chief in charge of the both the successful and failed coups, later said the CIA had essentially created Saddam Hussein  also supplying him weapons, intelligence, and chemical and biological weapons.At the same time, the CIA was illegally supplying Saddams enemy  Iran  with thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to fight Iraq, a crime made famous during the Iran Contra scandal  [M]ost Americans are unaware of the many ways that blowback from previous CIA blunders has helped craft the current crisis.While Americans widely believe the mainstream press and governmental narrative that the current U.S. role in Syria amounts to humanitarian goals, beginning with the Arab Spring in 2011, Instead, it began in 2000 when Qatar proposed to construct a $10 billion, 1,500km pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey, Kennedy explained The proposed pipeline would have linked Qatar directly to European energy markets via distribution terminals in Turkey which would pocket rich transit fees. The Qatar/Turkey pipeline would have given the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, Americas closest ally in the Arab world.The E.U. currently gets 30 percent of its gas from Russia, Kennedy noted , and Turkey, Russias second largest gas customer, was particularly anxious to end its reliance on its ancient rival and to position itself as the lucrative transect hub for Asian fuels to E.U. markets. The Qatari pipeline would have benefited Saudi Arabias conservative Sunni Monarchy by giving them a foothold in Shia dominated Syria []Wikileaks cables from as early as 2006 show the U.S. State Department, at the urging of the Israeli government, proposing to partner with Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt to foment the Sunni civil war in Syria to weaken Iran. The stated purpose, according to the secret cable, was to incite [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad into a brutal crackdown of Syrias Sunni population.As predicted, Assads overreaction to the foreign-made crisis  dropping barrel bombs onto Sunni strongholds and killing civilians  polarized Syrias Shia/Sunni divide and allowed U.S. policymakers to sell Americans the idea that the pipeline struggle was a humanitarian war.Kennedys lengthy historical context for the current imbroglio absolutely warrants a thorough perusal. Its unmistakable message should serve as a critical reminder that the United States government and its mouthpiece in mainstream press  as convincing as they may seem  are never telling you the whole story.Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/kennedy-syrias-oil-pipeline/
"Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." --Ford Madox Ford
Another MQM leader joined rebel group

KARACHI  Dr Sagheer Ahmed  a key Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader  on Monday joined former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal's new party, announcing his resignation from the Sindh Assembly.



"I am here as I am going to stand alongside Anees Kaimkhani and Mustafa Kamal, and will play a positive role in helping Pakistan grow," said Ahmed, who also kicked off the press conference in Kamal and Kaimkhani's presence.



He was associated with the MQM for 28 years, and was elected to the provincial assembly seat from PS-117. During his time as an elected representative, Sagheer served as the provincial minister for environment and as the minister of health.



"I announce that I quit my provincial assembly seat and apologise to my voters and supporters who gave me their trust. I have been unable to serve them as I was serving someone else," a visibly disturbed Sagheer said.



He elaborated that he - along with other party members - had served MQM supremo Altaf Hussain as if he was a god.



The development comes after Mustafa Kamal and Anees Kaimkhani ended their decades-long association with the Muttahida, last week. Kamal also announced the formation of a new political party, which he said is yet to be named.
OIC calls for banning Isreali products

JAKARTA, INDONESIA: A global Muslim body called on Monday for a ban on products from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and pledged full support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinians.



The call came at the end of an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country, which brought together representatives from 57 states.



An OIC resolution urged member states and the wider international community to ban products produced in or by illegal Israeli settlements from their markets. However, the move was not binding on member states.



Settlements refer to Jewish communities built in areas occupied by Israel since 1967. Such settlements are illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace efforts, with those in the West Bank and East Jerusalem built on land which Palestinians see as part of their future state.



The issue of goods imported from settlements has caused tensions with Israel in the past.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November suspended diplomatic contacts with the European Union about the Middle East peace process  which has been stalled for almost two years  over the blocs decision to label imported produce from the settlements as such rather than Made in Israel.



The suspension was ended last month when Netanyahu held talks with the EUs foreign policy chief.



At the end of Mondays summit, the OIC also pledged full support to the political, diplomatic and legal efforts to ensure the Palestinians achieved their inalienable rights.



The Jakarta meeting was attended by leaders including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, who is wanted for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court.



It came amid a five-month wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that has killed 181 Palestinians as well as 28 Israelis.



Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and since then the situation has deteriorated, with the prospect of fresh dialogue appearing more remote than ever.
Pak govt and ppl always stood with Palestinian: Mamnoon Hussain

JAKARTA: President Mamnoon Hussain has said that the Pakistani government and people always stood steadfastly with their Palestinian brethren for their just cause and would continue to extend diplomatic and moral support to them.



In a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of fifth extraordinary meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday, President Mamnoon called for an independent state of Palestine and end to all illegal settlements of Israel. President Mamnoon termed Israels policy of grabbing land for settlement as an ugly, immoral and illegal act and added that the government and people of Pakistan follow the events in the Middle East with great concern. He said that Pakistan supported the admission of Palestine to United Nations as full member. He said that besides Palestinians, the people of Kashmir had long been suffering at the hands occupation forces and being denied the right to self-determination. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas thanked President Mamnoon for Pakistans resolute support for Palestine and said that Pakistan could play an important role in convincing the international community for settlement of Palestinian issue.



Meanwhile, extraordinary meeting of OIC has vowed to continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support for the just resolution of Palestine dispute. This was stated in a joint communique issued after the two-day conference of the heads of OIC states in Jakarta. Reiterating support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the communique condemned the persecution and maltreatment of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israeli forces.
ISRAEL - LIGHT TO THE NATIONS

It's not exactly what you think.




From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
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I'm not giving examples of fake news items, because research has shown that when this is done, many people will remember the debunked &q...
For Immediate Release

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is deeply concerned by the reported February 18 raid by Afghan forces on a health clinic funded by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) and the subsequent execution of three patients. Hospital and SCA staff have told investigators that Afghan Ministry of Interior Special Forces entered the clinic in Wardak Province and restrained medical personnel under the force of arms, after which they detained and removed two adult patients and a boy from the hospital. The SCA says the three were later summarily executed.

Denial of health care for the wounded and summary executions are clear violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. PHR calls upon the government of Afghanistan to respect the protected status of medical facilities, staff, and patients. Allegations of violations must be immediately and independently investigated, with a view to holding perpetrators criminally responsible.

Doctors are ethically bound to treat any person in need of care, without bias. Security forces must respect this imperative, said Widney Brown, director of programs at PHR. It is unlawful to seize and summarily execute someone  let alone someone who is wounded or ill.

International humanitarian law, in common Article 3 of all four Geneva Conventions, calls for civilians and members of the armed forces who are sick or detained to be treated humanely and without discrimination, and specifically prohibits violence to life and person, hostage-taking, outrages upon personal dignity, and extrajudicial executions. Common Article 3 also establishes an obligation to collect and care for the wounded and sick.

Further, the United States, the European Union, and individual European governments have, over the years, invested billions of dollars in training and equipping Afghan military and police forces. The international community therefore has a vested interest in ensuring its funding is not being used to train and support security forces that engage in criminal behavior, and it should demand a full and independent investigation of this incident.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.
Partnership designed to drive financial inclusion of women, beginning with Nigerian pilot

Purchase, N.Y.  March 8, 2016  Around the world, nearly 2.4 billion people live without any form of official personal identification, and the majority of them are women. As part of broader International Womens Day activities, MasterCard and UN Women signed a Memorandum of Understanding to address this imbalance and advance gender equality and womens economic empowerment.

The first initiative in this relationship is the launch of a pilot in Nigeria, which aims to provide half a million Nigerian women with ID cards enabled with electronic payments functionality.

Research has shown that as soon as a person has a formal identity and access to electronic payments, they can prosper in ways they havent imagined before, said Martina Hund-Mejean, chief financial officer of MasterCard. Our relationship with UN Women will help make a real difference in these womens lives as they are more fully empowered to achieve their true potential.

According to the World Bank, only 47 percent of women worldwide have access to formal financial services, compared to 51 percent of men. In Africa, this number increases to more than 70 percent of women.

One of UN Womens main objectives is to increase womens economic empowerment. The partnership with MasterCard will help pave the way to economic freedom and financial inclusion for women, initially in Nigeria, says Lakshmi Puri, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Deputy Executive Director. We look forward to working together and see the potential of expanding the model to benefit women also in other countries. It is also encouraging that we will collaborate on knowledge generation, advocacy and resource mobilization for greater investment in gender equality and womens empowerment  reflecting MasterCard and its CEOs deep commitment to a Planet 50/50 and to supporting UNWOMENs efforts, she added.

Under the program, MasterCard and UN Women will further explore how and when Nigerians have signed up for the countrys national identity card program. Based on these insights, a targeted program will be launched to educate women on the benefits of the program and enroll them for the identity card.

This campaign will help at least half a million women in Nigeria gain access to financial services, many for the first time, and the support they need to enter the countrys formal economy, says Omokehinde Ojomuyide, vice president and business lead for West Africa at MasterCard.

About UN Women

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. For more information, visit www.unwomen.org. UN Women, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, New York. Tel: +1 646 781-4400. Fax: +1 646 781-4496. Read more



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Every now and again, we like to look at the historical data that underlies our ongoing series of analysis on the topic of trade between the U.S. and China. In our first chart, we're presenting the value of goods and services that the U.S. exports to China, both in terms of U.S. dollars, which is what the U.S. economy sees, and in terms of Chinese yuan, which is how China's economy sees the value of the same goods.

Since 2013, we've seen what had been an exponential growth trajectory turn more into a S-shaped logistic curve, which corresponds to the deceleration of economic growth within China's economy.

Let's next look at the historical data for the value of the goods and services that the U.S. imports from China, spanning the same period from January 1985 through January 2016. Once again, we're presenting the value of the goods in terms of U.S. dollars and in Chinese yuan.

In this chart, we see that the value of goods that the U.S. imports from China in recent years is somewhere between three and four times the value of the goods that the U.S. exports to China. The chart reveals that the value of the goods imported by the U.S. grew at an exponential rate up until 2006, after which it stalled out with the onset of the deflation phase of the first U.S. housing bubble, before crashing during the Great Recession and then resuming a more linear uptrend in the years since 2013, coinciding with a period of slow economic growth in the U.S.

Our final chart shows the year over year growth rate of the value of goods that the U.S. imports from China, in terms of the U.S. dollars that the U.S. economy sees those goods, and the value of goods that the U.S. exports to China, in terms of the Chinese yuan that China's economy sees those goods. With that being the case, this chart provides a strong indication of the relative economic health of both nations' economies.

Through January 2016, it would appear that while both nations have rebounded over the low values set in December 2015, both remain in the negative growth territory that they have been in over the last four months.

Data Sources

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. China / U.S. Foreign Exchange Rate. G.5 Foreign Exchange Rates. Accessed 6 March 2016.

U.S. Census Bureau. Trade in Goods with China. Accessed 6 March 2016.
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association

Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
Cambridge-Greenwich Police Department February 2016 police blotter:

The following material is for informational purposes only. The information provided may not be used to Injure, Harass or Commit Criminal Acts against any person; any information used in such manner can result in criminal prosecution.

On 02/02/2016 at the time of 9:40PM on North Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, James Williams, age 28 of Granville was arrested on a Bench Warrant out of Hudson Falls Court. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Sgt Tefft; Assisting Officer: Ptl Saunders

On 02/05/2016 at the time of 8:15PM on Van Ness Ave in the Village of Greenwich, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Travis Abare, age 46 of Corinth was arrested and charged with Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, a violation of the New York State Penal Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Barber

On 02/07/2016 at the time of 7:35Pm on West Main Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Renee Daiuto, age 23 of Cambridge was arrested on a Bench Warrant out of Fort Edward Court. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Saunders

On 02/08/2016 at the time of 9:04PM on North Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a Bench Warrant, Charles Robinson, age 42 was arrested and transported to the Cambridge Village Court. Arresting Officer: Ptl Missenis; Assisting Officer: Ptl Saunders

On 02/09/2016 at the time of 12:21AM on North Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Leonard Patalino, age 27 of Cambridge was arrested and charged with Operating a Motor Vehicle with Suspended Registration, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Saunders; Assisting Officer: Ptl Danko

On 02/12/2016 at the time of 1:45PM on South Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Robert Conley, age 20 of Bennington, VT was arrested and charged with Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, a violation of the New York State Penal Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Brundige

On 02/14/2016 at the time of 8:20Pm on North Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Stefan Zdziarski, age 20 of Southfield, MA was arrested and charged with Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, a violation of the New York State Penal Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Saunders; Assisting Officer: Ptl Missenis

On 02/16/2016 at the time of 6:33PM on South Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Jeffrey Ture, age 50 of Saratoga Springs was arrested and charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation 2nd, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Sgt Tefft; Assisting Officer: Ptl Saunders

On 02/16/2016 at the time of 11:03PM on East Main Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Josnelly Cerda, age 23 of Salem was arrested and charged with Obstruction of Governmental Administration, and False Personation, both misdemeanors of the New York State Penal Law. She was also charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Saunders; Assisting Officer: Sgt Tefft

On 02/20/2016 at the time of 2:44AM on North Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Caitlin Young, age 31 of Cambridge was arrested and charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation 3rd, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Missenis; Assisting Officer: Ptl Wagner

On 02/20/2016 at the time of 2:15PM on Cambridge Road in the Village of Greenwich, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Justina Meier, age 30 of Hoosick Falls was arrested and charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation 3rd, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Morrill

On 02/25/2016 at the time of 4:00PM on Jerome Drive in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a complaint and an investigation, Peter Telford, age 25 of Cambridge was arrested and charged with Criminal Mischief 3rd, a felony of the New York State Penal Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Missenis; Assisting Officer: Ptl Saunders

On 02/26/2016 at the time of 12:02AM on Academy Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Zachary Carle, age 24 of Cambridge was arrested and charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation 3rd, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Brundige

On 02/26/2016 at the time of 10:10PM on North Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Jason Mortara, age 40 of Prospect, CT was arrested and charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation 3rd, a misdemeanor of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Missenis

On 02/28/2016 at the time of 4:49PM on South Park Street in the Village of Cambridge, as a result of a routine traffic stop, Cody Longe, age 19 of Petersburg was arrested and charged with Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, a violation of the New York State Penal Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Brundige; Assisting Officer: Ptl Saunders

On 02/29/2016 at the time of 8:00PM on Academy Street in the Village of Greenwich, as a result of a complaint and an investigation, Amber Young, age 29 of Cossayuna was arrested and charged with Aggravated Harassment 2nd, a misdemeanor of the New York State Penal Law. Investigating and Arresting Officer: Ptl Woodworth; Assisting Officer: Sgt Tefft
ANOTHER BLOG FROM NEVILLE STEPHENS ON BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY.
Discussions around gender equality in land governance in sub-Saharan Africa often highlight the fact that only a small percentage of women own land, and many projects addressing land and gender in the region focus on womens ability to acquire land. But this framing does not fully convey the breadth of challenges women face in relation to land stewardship, such as involvement in decision making. Based on learning from an event that brought together 28 NGO practitioners and academics from East and West Africa, this briefing suggests that any attempt to tackle gender inequalities in land governance must also take into account local contexts and gender dynamics. Projects must start at a household level, put aside easy assumptions about customary practice, and  perhaps most crucially  ensure that womens voices are solicited and heard.
Across Africa interest in agricultural investment as a source of employment growth and profit is growing. In South Africa, the National Development Plan identifies agriculture as the potential basis of one million new jobs.

But how realistic are these hopes? In our globalised and competitive world, agricultural development is not a great direct generator of jobs. In fact, increases in the intensity, efficiency or competitiveness of agriculture often push large numbers of people off the land. Farm workers, less efficient small farmers, and women often get the short end of the stick.

Policymakers often assume that this is an inevitable part of progress. In the past, displaced rural labour has often found alternative employment in the cities. But in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, the prospects for this are slender. Agricultural development may enrich a few  but it can also swell the numbers of the urban poor.

Agricultural development can only serve inclusive growth if it contributes to an inclusive and diverse rural non-farm economy. Unfortunately, policymakers tend to ignore this issue. Agricultural policy is not much concerned with labour markets, while industry and trade ministers tend to concentrate on urban issues.

This is an important gap. Policymakers need to ask how different pathways of agricultural development affect non-farm employment.

A different approach

A recent multi-country research project funded by DfID and the ESRCsuggests that the right kind agricultural development can indeed stimulate rural non-farm job creation. But the links are neither simple nor direct.

The study by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape investigated linkages between agriculture and the non-farm economy. It focused on three rural districts: Weenen in South Africa, Mchinji in Malawi, and Mazowe and Masvingo in Zimbabwe.

Rather than the social accounting matrices usually used for this kind of research, PLAAS and its partners took a qualitative approach. They carefully mapped the flows of money and resources that connect local agricultural enterprises to upstream and downstream markets.

What has emerged is a complex picture. What is good for the farmer is not necessarily good for the non-farm economy. Farmers with deeper pockets may not always spend their gains in ways that benefit their neighbours. Rather, beneficial effects depend on the local political economy.

Three factors are particularly important:

Different landscapes

Each case study revealed a very different scenario. In Mchinji small-scale farmers on communal land accessed local fresh produce markets by venturing into horticulture. Many new local livelihood opportunities were created  but these were small and vulnerable.

In Mazowe, small-scale tobacco growers who benefited from Fast-Track Land Reform made good money from distant markets, particularly China. This in turn created many opportunities for specialised local entrepreneurs.

In Weenen, large-scale agriculture turned out to be disconnected from the local economy. It had upstream and downstream links to distant markets but contributed little to employment in the area.

What works?

An analysis of the spatial patterns revealed by these case studies suggested some important insights. Simply being connected to distant markets is not enough to guarantee that agricultural development benefits the local non-farm economy.

Access to distant markets can support local employment. But this only happens if such farms are located in dense local networks that are socially embedded and not characterised by highly unequal power relations.

Where there are such networks, the local economy can benefit from trade and income flows. These benefits accrue through the purchase of intermediate inputs, and from local consumption and investment expenditure. They also come about through local retail, processing and transport of agricultural produce.

The scale of agriculture is an important factor too. In the South African case study, large-scale commercial farmers gained good incomes from highly efficient farms that served distant markets. But they also bought their inputs from distant suppliers. They provided little employment locally, and most of their spending on goods and services took place elsewhere. In Malawi, the same tended to be true of large estate farms.

This contrasted strongly with Zimbabwe where, for instance, the opportunities linked to small livestock farming and to small tobacco farmers windfalls from trade with China circulated in the local economy.

In all these cases, a common pattern emerges. Where large-scale agriculture is owned by distant players or by a farming elite with few local political or social commitments, the economic networks they create are unlikely to stimulate local opportunities.

Similarly, some kinds of economic integration can actually worsen marginalisation and unemployment. The positive spin-offs of agricultural development in Zimbabwe and Malawi, for instance, seem to be strongly linked to the absence of powerful, vertically integrated and internationally owned corporate food retail chains and supermarkets.

When big supermarkets enter, they create some formal sector jobs. But they also marginalise local farmers, compete with local traders, and suck money out of the local economy. In contrast, small and locally owned retail enterprises and markets are a key element of the agrarian structure. While often modest and not very glamorous, they are crucial for circulating money and economic opportunities.

In all three countries, the research suggests that ensuring an inclusive rural economy is about much more than growth in agricultural trade. Aside from exporting agricultural produce, rural economies tap into national and urban economies via social grants and public service salaries.

Links are also developed through the expansion of the non-agricultural urban economy into rural areas. The existence of migrant networks and stretched households that straddle the urban-rural divide also helps.

Additionally, many agricultural entrepreneurs also depend on other, non-agricultural service industries. These include tourism, hospitality, the building trade and small town services.

So, while agriculture can contribute to local employment, it is better able to do so when there is a diverse, rural non-agricultural economy. This diverse economy can ensure that more money is circulating in the local markets, benefiting farmers and other entrepreneurs dependent on agriculture.

Implications

These findings have important implications for agricultural and economic policy.

First, they suggest that agricultural policy should promote smallholder agriculture  not simply as a contribution to food security, but also as a source of employment, and as a powerful hub for forward and backward linkages into the local economy.

In South Africa, while there has been lots of pro-small farmer rhetoric, agricultural and land reform policy is in practice still biased towards large scale farming. The time is overdue for genuine pro-small farmer land reform.

Where rainfall and markets allow, this kind of land reform can make an important contribution to the rural economy and the survival and welfare strategies of poor South Africans. Such a policy would also enable beleaguered medium-scale white farmers  who contribute little to food security anyway  to exit the market.

Elsewhere in Africa, land and investment deals that create large-scale farming enterprises, externally owned and plugged into distant export markets, are unlikely to contribute to local employment. They should not be supported in the mistaken belief that they do.

Maximising the economic benefit from agricultural development and smallholder farming requires better support for local retail and informal markets often disregarded by urban planners. These markets include those for livestock and fresh produce.
The annual Banker Africa award is a continent-wide assessment open to all banks and financial institutions in Africa, with the aim of recognising outstanding performance and excellence in the financial services industry.

Head of Agricultural Finance at ADB Sylvia Nyante indicated that the award was an endorsement of the banks commitment to investing in agriculture.

Though many of our competitors are shying away from investing in the [agricultural] sector, we remain committed and over the past five years we have invested over 300 million Ghana cedis in different areas within the agriculture sector, she said, adding that ADB has been the proud major sponsor of the annual National Farmers Day event and has consistently donated a three-bedroom house to the ultimate winner.
He also said his planned oil refinery would have a capacity of 650,000 barrels a day, up from an initial plan of 400,000 bpd.

"We can actually build ... 30 percent cheaper than previously," Dangote said, referring to lower construction cost as a result of cheap global steel prices.

The refinery and petrochemical complex will go online around 2018, company officials have said.

He said Dangote Group was also constructing a gas pipeline beneath the sea to link Nigeria's oil-producing Delta region to West Africa.

The pipeline will be able to transport 1.5 billion standard cubit feet of gas per day, he said, without giving more details.
They are also asking for a reduction in the 17.5% Value Added Tax on businesses.

Executive Member of the Forum and the President of the Ghana Union of Traders' Association, George Kwaku Ofori told Pulse.com.gh that the forum has resorted to a more intense approach after government failed to respond to their concerns last week.

This month we will continue our agitations with diverse strikes because government has since not responded to our concerns. We will also embark on a series of demonstrations to press home our demand. This month will be very hot for government if they do not respond to our concerns Kwaku Ofori said.

The Joint Forum embarked on a three- day strike last Monday, demanding that government responds to their concerns over the Common External Tariffs, but government did not budge. The traders felt particularly disappointed and deceived when government asked them to restrict their strike to Accra alone while government works on an amicable solution. However, Ghana Importers and Exporters Association, Samson Awingobite told Pulse Business last week that government has since not responded to their concerns.

On the ECOWAS Common External Tariffs, the traders are asking government to reduce its import duties in line with the stipulations of ECOWAS, as the CET has the aim to even out custom tariffs charged in ports in the West African Sub- region. However, the traders say government is adamant in reducing its tariffs in line with the stipulated tariffs under the CET.

According to Samson Awingobite, whereas the CET imposed 10% tariff on imported rice, the government is charging 25 in addition to other taxes of 23%. This means rice importers in Ghana are charged about 53%.
"Let us continue to work together to enhance the trade between our two countries which continues to record steady growth, let us continue to engage each other through our business communities and attract investment to our capitals, and let us continue to interact with each other so as to forge partnerships that will lead to more business, more skills transfer and complement the magnificent tourism sector that exists in our two countries," he said.

President Kenyatta said Ghana and Kenya must harmonise their vision with the continents vision of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) which he underscored has received great support from Economic Community of West African States and the East African Community.

"At the end of it all, let us harmonize our vision with the continents vision of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), which I must underscore, has received great support from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC)," he said.

"We take pride in the fact that visa requirements between our two countries are non-existent, and our National Carrier Kenya Airways has daily flights to Accra," he said.
President of the Ghana Employers Association, Terrence Darko, in a press briefing in Accra said employers will have to lay off more workers if the negative macroeconomic environment continues.

Cost of borrowing is currently as high as 35% in most cases. This means, it is close to impossible to get access to credit for expansion, not only to employ more people but to retain old staff. Legitimate businesses are struggling to compete with counterfeiters and piracy, as illegal companies do not spend money on research and innovation he stressed.

Government has increased borrowing on the domestic market, therefore competing with domestic businesses for available credit.

Mr. Darko says the situation is crippling access to credit for the private sector.

Banks consider government less- risky to lend to as compared to private businesses, making it difficult for us to acquire to credit. Yet government expects us to keep hiring. How can we do that under these economic conditions? he asked.

In a related development, the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research in 2015 revealed in their report on the Economic Effects of Energy Crisis on Ghanaians revealed that over 1 million jobs were lost to the energy crisis and other related economic conditions between 2014 and 2015.
He said he would institute his own mechanisms and initiative to end the conflicts, but did not state which form these would take.

The Asantehene, who was addressing a group of chiefs and elders of the Ashanti Kingdom on his return from South Africa, promised to protect his kinsmen and resolve the conflicts in the two areas.

Old Tafo clashes

Some residents of the Muslim community at Tafo in Kumasi on Wednesday, February 10, 2016, clashed with some loyalists of the Tafo traditional council over disagreements on a piece of land at the Tafo cemetery.

More here: One man arrested in Old Tafo violence

The clashes were said to have resulted in two deaths and others sustained various degrees of injuries.

Several cars were vandalised, and a bank, a Mosque and six churches were set ablaze amidst riots and gunfire. Military and police officers had to be deployed to the area to maintain peace.

Agogo Fulani conflict

The Agogo residents have since 2007 been engaged in clashes with the Fulani herdsmen for allegedly destroying their crops and killing farmers and relatives .

The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC), and the military have since launched a campaign to rid the area of Fulani herdsmen.

Meanwhile, residents of Agogo have boycotted the district celebration of Ghanas 59th Independence citing governments failure to address the Fulani crisis in the area.
This Tuesday is International Women's Day, and the campaign theme is #PledgeForParity which includes calls for women to be better represented in leadership roles across the world.

This is something Jemima Anita De Sosoo has been fighting for in Ghana. For four years she was the NDC womens' organiser and is now a vice chairperson for the party.

She worked hard to increase the number of female NDC members of parliament, raising the numbers from five in the last two terms, to 14 currently. But she's fighting a prejudice against women, and to overcome this women need to be strong and determined to go into the political sphere, she says.

As women when you enter into politics you need to be courageous, because of insults like 'you are a prostitute, you are this, you are that,' so first of all I have to build their confidence to assure them I am also part of the system, though they have been insulting my name, but because I have a vision that is why I am here. I want them to learn from me.

You have to assure yourself that 'no I will not allow anybody to destroy my future.' You focus.

Aside from fearing insults, female politicians have to overcome the financial and family demands of running a campaign De Sosoo says.

In some ways, society also discourages women from joining politics, she adds.

If you are married and your husband does not understand politics he can discourage you or even threaten you that either you take care of the home or you walk out of the marriage.

To encourage more women into politics, the NDC reduced the filing fee for women in the primaries by 50 percent and is working on programmes to get more women involved in the party.

Aside from in her party, De Sosoo wants to see more women step up across the political spectrum, or things may get worse.

We need to continue. As women, people see us as enemies...Until we keep on lobbying each other, discussing our problems, trying to resolve those challenges then I am afraid the number may decrease.

And those there already need to speak up as well.

We want to hear more of them debating on the floor of parliament. Not only in parliament but to have programmes, to come on radio, come on TV debating among women.

It's only in parliament we can come up with policies to help the women. If women in parliament are few it will be very difficult for us to come up with policy that will enhance the women.

While it doesn't look like the numbers of women will change much in this year's election, de Sosoo is optimistic about the future.

This is what I have been fighting for. I want more women to be in parliament because I believe if there are more in parliament then our needs will be addressed but if there are few, I am afraid.

We are the majority but in terms of decision making we are the minority and it is not good for this world.

The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection working to increase the number of women in parliament and across the public sector.

Its Affirmative Action Gender Equality Bill, expected to be passed into law this year, seeks to empower women across Ghana.

It calls for there is to be a quota of 40 per cent women in governance and decision-making positions, in the public service generally and Ministerial positions, the Council of State, the independent constitutional bodies and boards of state institutions. It calls for each public sector institution to have a gender equality policy.

The Bill seeks to identify and redress areas of social, cultural, economic and educational imbalance in Ghana, especially as they relate to discrimination against women, and to promote the full and active participation of women in public life by providing for a more equitable system of representation in electoral politics and governance.

It aims to ensure the progressive achievement of gender equality in political, social, economic, cultural and educational life within five years, address the gender imbalance in the public and private sector, calling for gender balance in the recruitment and appointment of public officers and appropriate measures are to be taken in the public and private sector for the full integration of women into the mainstream of economic development.

The Bill is currently before Cabinet, and it is expected it will go through its readings to Parliament this year, to be passed by the end of 2016.

Non-Government Organisation Action Aid Ghana has been working with the Government to try and increase numbers.

Benjamin Tawiah, a spokesperson for the NGO that works to end injustice and poverty, said Ghana's 29 women in power shows inequality, and that needs to be overcome.

It's a patriarchal society where men have been in charge for a long time and that has implications on development, he explains.

Action Aid supports the Affirmative Action Bill, and wants to see it passed into law.

If Ghana wants to grow it needs to build the capacity of women, Tawiah says.

Action Aid works to advance the political influence of women and to reduce the hours of unpaid work they are expected to do, so they have time to focus on politics and leadership.

Men are always ahead of them because women have to finish house chores, care for sick, fetch water for the house, so at the end of the day they don't have enough time to peruse their vision in life.

Action Aid has a range of programmes to encourage women into leadership, including a young female's parliament where they teach participants how to engage in decision making processes, leadership and communication skills.

There's also a young urban women's project, where 2000 girls in Accra and Tamale have worked to build their confidence to engage with policy makers. Action Aid has also focused on girls from rural and deprived communities where it runs a camp each year to encourage them to be leaders in their communities.

We get girls the free space where they can operate and and get into decision making spaces where they can impact society.

When women are ready to campaign, Action Aid supports them by helping design posters and campaign material and helping with communication and building confidence.

They also work to get men to support women in politics, rather than threaten them with divorce at the mention of contesting a seat.

A woman in power is good for everyone, but if it remains the status quo, everyone will suffer, Tawiah says.

Once women are not given that position to impact whatever happens in terms of decision making it will mean that the inequality will always remain, he says.

Once women speakers are not catered for it means that things that concern women the most will not be catered for because women are best able to articulate what concerns then than men can do.

So if we still have that imbalance where women are only found in small spaces and there isn't a lot of space for them to function and also impact decision making, it will also mean they will always be kept where they are, they will be involved in unpaid work where their rights will be trampled and where domestic violence will be increasing.

There's a long way to go, but Action Aid is holding out hope for a more equal future.

It's been a man's world for a long time. Even though we are hopeful, its not going to change immediately - it will still take a lot of work.

Also heavily invested in the fight for female empowerment and getting more women into leadership roles is the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (GSHRDC).

Based in Accra, the centre runs training workshops throughout Ghana to inspire and encourage women to become leaders.

One of the things they [the women] talk about is a lack of confidence and skill. We equip them with the skills so they will be able to better perform if they are selected as leaders, Programme manager for the centre, Evelyn Nuvor says.

There are many barriers that stop women getting into power in Ghana, sometimes political parties do not support women.

There's only limited support for women candidates, Nuvor finds.

She says some parties do not deem it important to support women to get into power.

And like De Sooso says, finances are also a barrier.

Campaigning is very expensive in Ghana, it requires a lot of money. There are huge demands on candidates.

Female representation is a human rights issue and a pillar of democracy, she adds.

She was pleased to note that in last year's District Assembly elections through Ghana some districts increased numbers of women which could be attributed to the Centre's work.

The Gender Centre ran a 12 month project in the Wenchi municipality to increase womens participation in governance and increase the assemblys responsiveness to issues that affect women in the Wenchi assembly.

The centre worked to train and sensitize community members on actively participating in governance and other decision making positions and on holding their leaders accountable to being responsive to their needs. The participants were trained on human rights, gender based violence, leadership and assertiveness.

The women then went into their communities to educate others on their human rights, domestic laws and the need for women to actively participate in governance and decision making processes.

The centre said the project empowered women to speak out and demand accountability from their assembly members.

But for all the work and talk about needing more women in power, in this year's election, numbers do not look set to change drastically.

The Special Representative and head of the United Nations Office for West Africa late last year expressed disappointment in the lack of female representation for Ghanas 2016 election.

Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas said that with the completion of the primary selections of NPP and NDC candidates for the 2016 election, he was concerned about the lack of female representation, which could mean a drop in the number of women in parliament this year.

We are most likely going to see fewer women in our next parliament. This is one area in which Ghana does not provide good democratic practice. We must challenge ourselves and come up with creative and innovative approaches to get more females political and at a decision making level.
Independence?Ghana is now 59 years old and yes, we should celebrate it. It is good to be an independent nation with the freedom to make our own choices. This is another opportunity to thank our founding men and women, all of them, for the sacrifices they made to launch this nation, Ghana.But we must know that we have a lot more work to do to become truly independent. The promise made at independence to prove that we are capable of managing our own affairs has not been kept.We the people live with a Constitution, designed by us that denies the people independence  the right to elect our own local chief executives. We still struggle with Pneumococcal Meningitis, needless death through road accidents from a lack of good emergency medical care and the majority of our children do not go on to high school. The quality of Ghanaian life for the most of our people is not good and has not seen any marked improvement in decades.Our government has chosen to solve its incompetent handling of the nation's finances by piling on more taxes on the shoulders of the few businesses and employees known to the system. The high cost of doing business in Ghana is making our goods and services uncompetitive, resulting in increasing imports.Luckily, the people have another opportunity this year to choose leaders, who will not oppress their own people. I pray that Ghanaians elect leaders, who will free the people and unleash their enterprise.Independence must lead to a better quality of life, a great and strong nation and a prosperous people. We can do this.And no more parades of schoolchildren. Community celebrations to remember our history and the work ahead of us to build a better future, yes. If I get the chance, the parades will be thrown into the dustbin not to be repeated.
"The Department, which authored the content of the brochure, accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development", the statement said.

But, workers at the ISD have expressed anger at the development and are wondering why the Acting Director should take blame for the errors.

"We don't know anything about it. We don't know who printed it," an angry worker told Accra-based Joy FM.

Another worker also believes their acting director probably took blame for the errors because "he is at the top management level and probably anything that has to do with government information might be something that government needs to come out and apologise for. For me, I should think he is playing his normal official role as the director of the ministry. For me, I think he shouldn't have taken blame for this anomaly unless whoever printed it is from the government and he feels that it is good and professionally practical to come out to render an apology."

The official brochure distributed to the Kenyan President and his colleague from Guinea Bissau and their wives, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and many other senior dignitaries from Ghana, was froth with so many mistakes.

The errors ranged from the wrongful designation of Uhuru Kenyatta as Ghanas President to errors in grammar and spelling.

Many Ghanaians have expressed anger at the incident, adding that it is an embarrassment and a dent on the country's image.
The Omanhene of the Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Kwame Akuoko Sarpong, has called for a new constitution that will reflect the realities of the Ghanaian system.

I AM NOT NDC  ASANTEHENE

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has dismissed rumours that he is a member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), saying he is a Ghanaian and a father figure of his kinsmen.

CONSULTANT SUES KEMPINSKI

An Accra-based business development consultant has sued GCC Resorts Limited, owners of Kempinski Hotel, for what he says is unlawful termination of his appointment as a director of the company.

GNPC BOWS 5M ON RENT

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has defied the order given by Parliament and gone ahead to rent an office space costing a whopping million for just a year.

APAU REWARDED FOR NANA JOB  NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made a sensational claim that Judgement Debt Sole-Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Mahama because of the hatchet job he did for the government on its (NPPs) presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

WE GOOFED: ISD ACCEPTS BLAME FOR ERRORS

The Information Services Department (ISD) says it has accepted responsibility for the error-laden brochure used for the 59th Independence Day parade in Accra last Sunday, March 6, which depicted the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as President of Ghana.

EX-DCE, 4 OTHERS HOT OVER ALLEGED PROCUREMENT FRAUD

Three staff of the Wassa Amenfi East District Assembly in the Western Region have been interdicted on alleged procurement fraud in the award of several contracts running into millions of cedis.

NATIONAL SINGLE WINDOW TO SAVE ECONOMY $200M

The full implementation of the Ghana National Single Window Project, an important drier for the simplification, harmonization and automation of trade processes is expected to save the economy $200 million annually.

KORLE BU EYE DEPARTMENT TO CLOSE DOWN FOR CONSTRUCTION WORKS

From Wednesday, March 9, the Eye Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital will be closed for additional construction works.

OVER $6M GHANA GOLD STOLEN

Available information from Indian government agency, Zauba Technologies & Data Services showed that between January 2014 and January 2016, a total of 101,179 kilogramme of gold valued at $3,607.415,756.36 was shipped out of Ghana without going through the necessary processed, a situation that ripped off the state an amount of $6,367,088.81 in revenue in terms of royalty .

$100,000 FREE CASH FOR ENTREPRENEURS
They have nearby communities so the moment it starts, they just rushed to the various nearby communities, and so as we speak now, some of them are at Kadirisu others are at Golompe," he added.

One person was killed in a gun battle involving two factions in a chieftaincy dispute last Friday. Several houses were also burnt in the process.

Residents believe a long-standing chieftaincy dispute between two chiefs could be behind the latest clashes.

Some residents indicated that one of the chiefs subsequently left town following the clashes. But upon his return, residents from one of the factions in the conflict are demanding he leaves the town.

The angry residents started firing shots on Friday morning around 8 in protest over the chief's arrival.

Meanwhile, an unspecified number of people who have been arrested in connection with the latest clashes are being interrogated in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital.
The study examines over 440 cities, and based on certain criteria, Mercer then decides which 230 make the cut. The cities are chosen and ranked according to a variety of factors, such as the political and social environment, economic conditions, education, and public services, to name a few.

This annual study is viewed as one of the best of its kind, and as such, a citys quality of living can be an important factor when employers consider where to assign their mobile employees.

Only five African cities are ranked in the top 100. Port Louis (83) in Mauritius  according to the survey  has the best quality of living on the continent. It is followed by South African cities Durban (85), Cape Town (92) and Johannesburg (95), with Victoria (97) in the Seychelles featuring in 97th position.

The majority of the lower rankings are dominated by African cities. A few that are placed near the bottom-end are Bangui (239), Khartoum (226), NDjamena (225), Brazzaville (223) and Kinshasa (222).

Quality of life survey rankings: African cities

Safety rankings

Mercer also published a second list that ranks cities according to the security and personal safety of expats and their families. Five out the 10 least-safe cities in the world are African. They are Bangui (227), Kinshasa (226), Nairobi (224), Conakry (223) and Khartoum (222).

Safety plays a big role in the decision process multinationals undergo when they consider sending expat workers abroad. These rankings can assist multinationals to fairly compensate, and provide for, employees that are placed on international assignments.

In a press release, Ilya Bonic, senior partner and president of Mercers talent business, expanded on the topic:

Heightened domestic and global security threats, population displacement resulting from violence, and social unrest in key business centres around the world are all elements adding to the complex challenge facing multinational companies when analysing the safety and health of their expatriate workforces. Multinational companies need accurate data and objective methods to determine the cost implications of deteriorating living standards and personal safety issues when compensating expatriates.
In a statement signed by the First Lady, she stressed on the need to maintain gender parity by ensuring the end to child marriages

"We must support and give a voice to the young girls who stand the risk of being married off or already married off to men far older than them and yet are required to remain silent. The First Lady said.

"Today, I call on you, our leading women, to reach out to the young ones, and to the men I say, take a stance to commit towards parity at the work place, home and school, because a stronger woman does not make a weaker man but a better home, workplace and school, she added.

Below is the full statement:

STATEMENT FROM THE FIRST LADY OF GHANA

2016 INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY

8TH MARCH

I am glad to join the world in celebrating the enormous contributions made by women of diverse backgrounds to the sustenance of our families, economy and society as a whole. These contributions, both at home and in our social life, have contributed so much to the world today.

Today, a young lady is hardly hindered in many places including going to school to pursue a course that was previously reserved for men. However, this is not enough. We can do more as a society and a country.

During the recent meeting of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV & AIDS here in Accra, my husband President John Dramani Mahama launched the Ending Child Marriage Campaign.

I am committed to this campaign because it will open doors to many more girls who would like to have a future with better economic and social prospects instead of falling into the traditional quagmire of yesterday.

We must support and give a voice to the young girls who stand the risk of being married off or already married off to men far older than them and yet are required to remain silent.

We will continue to make opportunities available not only to those who will reach out but also those who may not have the hands to stretch out due to ignorance or poverty. This is because, just as every boy and man can, so must every girl and woman be able to, reach out to a better world.

I join today, in commemoration of International Womens Day, in Pledging for Parity as is being done across the world.

We are not asking for help. We are asking for our part in this great world of humanity. It is a great injustice to deny those who contribute to life the ability to participate in its offerings.

Parity also means having the knowledge to make the right choices. That is why this year, in addition to the activities of the Lordina Foundation, we will also focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.

At the just ended 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, which I hosted in Accra, we strategized on measures to educate our young people on a topic most of us, as parents, have neglected- their sexuality, their choices and their rights. This will provide us an avenue to reach out to many young girls and women to make the right choices as far as their sex is concerned.

It is great to be a woman but it is greater to be a model and to help others to excel.

Today, I call on you, our leading women, to reach out to the young ones, and to the men I say, take a stance to commit towards parity at the work place, home and school, because a stronger woman does not make a weaker man but a better home, workplace and school.

Lets #PledgeForParity

HE Dr. Nana Lordina Dramani Mahama

First Lady of the Republic of Ghana &
According to the minerals commission part of the concession would be given out to small scale miners.

This comes few weeks after a member of AngloGold management died following a confrontation between the company and illegal miners popularly referred to as galamsey operators.

AngloGold Ashanti has laid-off close to 5000 workers in the last two years following the fall in the price of gold on the world market making their operations less profitable.

The Company that owns large concessions in Obuasi in the Ashanti region as part of the restructuring of their operations has been negotiating to cede majority of those concessions to government.

According to the Dr. Aubyn , the company has been negotiating with government even before the recent unfortunate incident
After three earlier failed timelines last year , the first powership arrived in Ghana on November 28 and is currently adding 225 MW to the national grid helping stabilize power supply to various homes and industries.

According to the energy policy think tank position on the state of the power sector of Ghana, Government should take steps to abrogate all emergency power contracts who have not fulfilled their agreements relative to timelines .

Alternatively, ACEP is demanding government re-negotiates or converts these emergency power solutions to the traditional IPP projects to reduce the high cost associated with emergency power deployment.

The Director of Operations and Resource Mobilization at ACEP Ben Boakye said , these moves will help safeguard Ghanaian consumers from any further adjustments in tariffs resulting from capacity charges.

In July 2015, we said that emergency power was very expensive; and predicted that tariffs were going to be increased by 60%. We were right. The PURC increased tariffs for electricity by 60%, he charged.

By June 2015 the following short term and emergency solutions were lined up:

All these proposed plants (totalling 1800MW) had expected delivery period of between 3- 6 months from July 2015.
He said his position as a traditional leader makes it imperative for him to work with all Presidents regardless of their political parties.

According to him, all he is interested in as a Ghanaian is the betterment of Ghana and the Ashanti Kingdom stating that his duties can clearly be seen in his contribution to all past and present presidents devoid of partisanship.

Addressing a group of chiefs and elders of the Ashanti Kingdom on his return from South Africa on Sunday, Otumfuo said he is a Ghanaian and a father figure for his kinsmen.

See also: One man arrested in Old Tafo violence

Speaking on the Agogo and Old Tafo impasse, he said, he would institute his own mechanisms and initiative to end the conflicts, but did not state which form these would take.
His decision follows the death of the aspiring parliamentary candidate, Desmond William Ocloo who died in a ghastly accident at Juaso in the Ashanti Region on Friday, March 4, 2016.

Read more: S

The MP in a telephone interview with Pulse.com.gh said he will not contest if the NDC opens nominations.

"No, no, I won't contest," he said.

Assuming, earlier speaking on the floor of Parliament, said it was with a "heavy-heart" that he was on his feet to debate the Presidents address "for the last time."

Assuming lost to the late parliamentary candidate in the NDC primaries in November 2015. Ocloo's death has occasioned another primary in the Shai Osudoku area but the incumbent MP wont try to stage a a come back.

William Ocloo during the NDC primaries pulled 4,350 over Dr. Kpessah Whyte who pulled 3,189, David Tetteh Assumeng, 1,280 and Ebenezer Adzakli pulled 393 to become the 2016 parliamentary candidate for the Shai Osudoku constituency.

Meanwhile, President John Mahama said he is saddened by the tragic death of Ocloo.

The President in a tweet described him as a promising youngman.

Read more:Shai Osudoku NDC parliamentary candidate dies

He tweeted "The loss of our parliamentary candidate for Shai Osudoku fills me with sadness. He was a promising youngman. Condolences to his family."
In a statement, the PPP also said, "The National Committee (NC) of the Progressive Peoples Party on February 24, 2016 decided not to contest the by-election in Abuakwa North which is scheduled for March 29 this year."

The PPP, therefore, called upon the constituency executive to go ahead with their strategy of organising at the polling station level to ensure victory come November 7, 2016.

The CPP said its "decision is strictly informed by our party's analysis of the situation".

However, it served notice that it would contest the seat in the general election in November".

A statement signed by Kadiri Abdul Rauf Issifu, CPP Director of Communication, said, "We continue to mourn with the people of Abuakwa North and the NPP. It is our prayer that finality would be brought to the unfortunate murder of the late MP by ensuring justice is served."

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Wednesday, March 3, 2016, pulled out of the Abuakwa North constituency by-election.

According to the NDC the circumstances surrounding the MPs "gruesome murder that brought the nation to a standstill" make it impossible for it to contest.

General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia in a statement said "We were stunned by the death of the late Member of Parliament (MP) Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu of the Abuakwa North Constituency, particularly circumstances surrounding his gruesome murder that brought the nation to a standstill."
The

There are easily reasons why the piece has become a style phenomenon across the globe and these 7 form reasons they remain evergreen all the world over:

-The Vibrant Patterns

Ankara made its way from the Indonesian industry it was created for into West Africa and became a style phenomenon. A common fabric in Africa because of its colorful features and tribal-like motifs, it is usually presented in 100% cotton with bold vibrant patterns.

-The Versatility

The Ankara print has gained a fashionable global audience as its used on pieces everywhere around the world.

Known in different names in different places, its called Dutch wax in Ghana, Kanga prints in Tanzania and other East African countries, known as Ikat, Batik, mud cloth and so on.

Ankara is also referred to as /African prints/African Wax Prints/Holland Wax and more but one thing remains, they feature bold prints in different designs.

-Usually Colourful

Ankara was first introduced to the market as cheap mass produced imitations of Indonesian batik materials before they became synonymous with Africa (West Africa particularly)

-It's made via a Wax-Resist Dyeing Technique called Batik

The Ankara print materials are made through an Indonesian wax-resist dyeing technique called Batik which entails a technique to make the fabric resist the dye from getting through to the entire fabric, thereby creating a pattern (the ultimate print thats so desired)

-Origins are not totally African!

Ankara print fabrics are presented in whole; twelve (12) or half; six(6) yards . The now famous print was originally made for the Indonesian market but it became accepted in West Africa due to its flashy colors and bold tribal tendencies and became a symbol of traditional fashion till date.

From West Africa, this fabric became acceptable in different parts of the world influencing the works of notable designers who have at a time infused the fabric into their work or influenced their print details on pieces.

-Intentionally made for the Indonesian market by the Dutch but West Africa embraced it

Ankara has become a piece seen on A-list celebrities around the world, Rihannas famous Stella Jean look is purely ankara/print detailed, Solange knowles has been pictured in bold print looks and many more.

This made way for Nigeria based designers including Lisa Folawiyo known for her embellished ankara pieces shown over major runways in the world, as well as pictured on celebrities all over the world.

-Comes in 100% cotton material
In a statement by the command, the tyres belonged to a businessman in Apapa and were stolen from a warehouse in Apapa area of the state and were being taken to Sagamu, Ogun State, for sale, when they were intercepted in Ijebu Ode by policemen, who had been on the trail of the criminals from Lagos.

Michael, who acted as the owner of the goods, had approached the blind suspect to help him get a way-bill so the security agents would not question his ownership of the items and Iruanya, who was released from the Kirikiri Prison for stealing in 2010, helped Michael procure the waybill, which listed the stolen items and the destination, after a promise of N100,000 from the proceeds.

Iruanya told the police that he wanted to use the money to treat his eyes, adding that he did not know the tyres were stolen.

I was a transporter and had many cars. I was arrested in 2010 for stealing some spare parts, but I was later released. I became blind in 2012. My friend, Michael, came to me that he needed a waybill.

I got it at Tincan in Apapa and he promised to give me N100,000 to treat my eyes.

We were together at Sagamu waiting for the truck to arrive when the police arrested us. I did not know the content of the truck and whether the items were stolen.

The driver of the vehicle conveying the tyres, Francis, said the tarpaulin they used to cover the goods had torn and they were trying to replace it when the police swooped on them at Ijebu Ode.

It was a friend, Peter that invited me to the deal. But he fled at Ijebu Ode while we were looking for a tarpaulin to cover the tyres, he said.
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The suspect identified as Lizzy Idahosa, 26, also reportedly made the young women eat live snakes while under her spell.

Idahosa has been ordered to pay the ladies 20,000 out of her profits which is reportedly estimated at 186,000, made off the Nigerian women.

The reports reveal that the women had been terrified of her with her use of black magic, as well as having been forced to see a witch doctor for a 'juju' ceremony.

Idahosa as well as her husband, Jackson Omoruyi, 49, had been arrested at their home in London, while denying the charges but upon police investigation into their bank accounts, which showed a series of transfers with Omoruyi acting as a 'financial middle man,' the arrest had been justified.

The suspect had reportedly claimed to be a victim who had been forced into prostitution after her arrest, denying forcing the women to take part in a black magic ceremony, denying any knowledge of the women's traficking.

Idahosa, reportedly heavily pregnant, added that she had made an oath with her trafficker before leaving Nigeria and had been forced to eat the roast heart of a cockerel.

The victims aged 23 and 29, had their pubic hair shaved, forced to eat live snakes and snails as part of the ritual before being flown to Britain where they were forced to sleep with men across the country.

Speaking on her horrific ordeal, a 29-yr-old victim said:

"It was not a big snake, but it was alive. I just closed my eyes and put it in my mouth.

"They told me if I messed if up, I would get sent back to Nigeria and Lizzy would kill me. I wanted to stop. I was ashamed of myself and I had no life."

The women had reportedly arrived in the UK where they had been put to work as prostitutes, working in brothels as well as massage parlours across England and Wales.

The victims had been been told they were to give all the money they earned to Idahosa, believing the black magic curses would make them run mad or die if they failed to comply.

Idahosa had reportedly been found guilty of trafficking the women at Cardiff Crown Court and had been jailed for 8 years in November 2014 alongside Omoruyi, with a 2-yr sentence.

The prosecutor, Eugene Egan revealed to Cardiff Crown Court that investigators had only found 21,900 in Idahosas bank accounts.
74% of Pulse Nigeria Poll voters say this is a barbaric custom while 26% believe he should go ahead to prove his innocence.

Read his letter here:

"My name is Eze and I am from Anambra State. As I write this, I am in serious mourning: my late wife on the other hand, and the persecution I am going through in the hands of her family.

I met my late wife, , an Akwa Ibom lady, about eight years ago and started living together and we had three children. Though we were not officially married, I had gone to her hometown in Oron Local Government Area of the state, to introduce myself and also make my intentions known to them.

I had promised them that I would come and do the necessary marriage rites when I was financially capable but it was not to be as my business crumbled shortly after that. My wife's family kept getting on my neck to come and do the right thing and even when I told them things were not very okay with me and that they should give me time, they kept at it.

Late last year, Gladys fell sick in the seventh month of her pregnancy and as we moved from one hospital to another, doctors said they could not find anything wrong with her. As a last option, I had to take her to a spiritual church where the prayer warriors tried all they could to save her but to no avail.

My wife died on January 1, 2016, with the baby already dead in her womb. I was shocked when, two minutes after Gladys gave up the ghost, my phone rang and it was one of her uncles who asked me how my wife was doing.

I told him she was fine but he told me clearly that I should be ready to eat her corpse if anything happened to her. I did not tell any of them that my wife was sick but how they got to know was a big surprise to me.

Later that day, I had to call them to break the news to them and instead of even sympathising with me over the loss of my wife and child, they told me I must marry the corpse of my wife before she could be buried.

I went to their place last month with my family to discuss how I can bury my wife but they, instead, gave me a marriage list that ran into millions of naira. Aside the list, they also said I must drink the water they would be used to wash the body of my late wife to show that I did not kill her.

They have been insistent on this and with the body of my late wife in the mortuary, I don't know what to do.

Eze."

How Nigeria voted:

74% - No, it is a barbaric culture

26% - Yes, nothing would happen to him if he is innocent
"This is a single case and there is no epidemic and no outbreak. The Department of Health is prepared in terms of detection, isolation and treatment of those who could possibly be infected by the virus, Coloma said.
Representatives of the Swiss government will expectedly visit Nigeria this week to discuss the means by which the funds will be returned, according to Premium Times.

Yes, our foreign Minister is on his way to Nigeria on Tuesday. He is coming on a working visit to Nigeria, an official of the Swiss Embassy, Pascal Holliger said.

During the visit, he will open the Consular Generals office in Lagos and meet with the Vice President of Nigeria and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss the issue of the repatriation of the second tranche of the Abacha loot, he added.

Funds looted by the late dictator have also been recovered from Liechtenstein, and Channels Island.

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Ambode, represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Adebule, said this at the 2016 International Women's Day programme, organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA).

He said that the government would also continue to provide a level playing ground for women and ensure parity in public administration.

"We live in a world where women are largely exploited as support and back-up; only to be seen and not heard.

"As a government, we will ensure that women are protected from sexual and domestic assaults, and we will continue to accord women their right of place in the society.

"We will also ensure that no woman or girl-child will be made vulnerable or disenfranchised on the basis of gender, religion or social status in the state," he said.

Ambode appreciated the role of women in the state's civil service, community development, policy formulation and governance.

Also speaking, Mrs Bolanle Ambode, wife of the Lagos State Governor, urged government at all levels to redouble their efforts in the area of women empowerment and education of the girl child.

"If we succeed in educating the girl-child in the country, then we have educated virtually the entire country.

In her remarks, Mrs Lola Akande, the Commissioner, WAPA, said the participation and empowerment of women were key requirements for development and peace in the country.

Akande called for more advocacy and action on gender equality, to encourage more women participation in governance.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the International Women's Day is marked every March 8.

The day is usually set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women as well as step up commitments on gender equality, womens empowerment and womens human rights.
Buhari made the disclosure today, March 8, 2016, during a joint press conference held after a meeting with South African President, Jacob Zuma, The Nation reports.

This is the first time I will be personally as a president making a public comment about it. The concern of the federal government is basically on the security and not the fine imposed on MTN, Buhari said.

You know how the unregistered GSM are being used by terrorists. And between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram.

That was why NCC asked MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM. Unfortunately, MTN was very, very slow and contributed to the casualties, he added.

Earlier reports also had it that MTN was fined heavily because the persons who abducted former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Olu Falae in September 2015 had used unregistered MTN SIMs.

[Falaes] kidnappers used MTN SIM cards and MTN was unable to provide any registration data for those SIMs, an official of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had been quoted as saying.

The government insisted they must be sanctioned to make the right statement. In South Africa you cant break their laws and get away with it. So why come to Nigeria and flout the laws? the official added.
The battle is said to be taking place in Bita town near the Gwoza area of the state, according to Daily Trust.

The battle is said to have persisted throughout Monday night and continued into Tuesday.

The militarys efforts were said to have been boosted by fighter jets which were deployed from Yola to support ground troops who were almost overwhelmed by the terrorists.

Gwoza was recently in the news after 76 hungry Boko Haram members surrendered to the military in the town.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the sect is no longer a threat to Nigeria.

------------------------------------------------
This was disclosed by the spokesperson for the Nigerian Defence Headquarters, Rabe Abubakar via a statement.

The statement reads:

The Chief of South African National Defence Force promised to support Nigeria in its quest to end Boko Haram in the country.

General Shoke further maintained his Armed Forces commitment to the development of the Nigerian military in the area of capacity building, exchange programme and logistics support, among others.

He said Nigeria is very important to South Africa, hence the need to working together for the benefit of both countries, especially now when Nigeria is fighting Boko Haram.

While responding, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olonisakin thanked the South African Chief of National Defence Force for the visit and solicited for more cooperation in defence related matters. This, he said would go a long way in strengthening the two countries bilateral cooperation.

General Olonisakin also requested for training of more Special Forces and other equipment that could be used in the operations against Boko Haram which has been substantially decimated and degraded. He said the war against terror is closing up and would soon end.
The Army Spokesman, Col. Sani Usman, said in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday that several arms and ammunition, vehicles and other items were recovered from them.

He noted that "today, troops of 114 Task Force Battalion came under three-pronged attack by Boko Haram terrorists fanning out of Sambisa forest from Damboa, Tokumbere and Pulka axis of Borno.

"At the end of the debacle, two Boko Haram insurgents paid for their atrocities with their lives, while several others sustained gunshot injuries.

"The fate that befell those that attacked Pulka was more dreadful as all the 16 attackers were killed and one was captured alive.

According to Usman, the troops also recovered 11 AK-47 rifles, three General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs), one Browning Machine Gun (BMG) and two Toyota Hilux vehicles.

Other items recovered from the insurgents include a 60mm ortar tube, seven boxes of 12.7mm ammunition and a belt of 12.7mm ammunition.

The spokesman added that there was no casualty on the side of the troops except for three soldiers who sustained minor injuries.
Speaking on Sunday when Northern Online Publishers conferred on him a title of a Patron, Sani said Buhari is the last hope of Nigerians adding that all must support him to succeed.

If Buhari fails, Nigerians will be heading to a revolution. If this change fails, Nigerians will be going for a natural revolution. We don't have four years, every government has only two and half years Sani said.

He said if politicians did not achieve anything in two and a half year during their stay in office, there will be a problem.

But we also know there is a longtime achievement Sani added.

The senator, who also expressed confidence that Buhari will deliver Nigeria to the promise land, added that the president needs chariots of patient and understanding.
Ese was said to have been taken to Kano by one Yunusa since last year. Reports said Ese, upon her rescue in Kano was said to be five months pregnant.

But Human Right activist Shehu Sani who said Nigeria has a lot to do on the issue of abduction, added that the young teenager should not be dehumanized through various media reports.

Shehu Sani while speaking to online publishers in Kaduna said Ese should be encourage to live a fulfilled life.
Buhari announced Nigerias membership of the group during a recent interview with Al Jazeera in Qatar.

We are part of it because weve got terrorists in Nigeria that everybody knows which claim that they are Islamic, he said.

So, if theres an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism, Nigeria will be part of it because we are casualties of Islamic terrorism," the president added.

Buharis decision to include Nigeria in the group has been met with stiff opposition by many, some of whom have accused the president of plotting to islamize the country.

I want to reveal one secret here; they have started subtle moves to make Nigeria an Islamic nation. But God will not allow it. This was done in 1984, but it failed, Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose said during a recent political event in Rivers State.

His sentiment was mirrored by former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode who had earlier praised Buhari for refusing to include Nigeria in the coalition.

I am glad that President Muhamnadu Buhari has said that our country will not join the military coalition of Islamic nations that Saudi Arabia is putting together. This is a welcome development that has allayed the fears of many but it is clearly not enough and he must go further, Fani-Kayodes statement was based on previous reports that the president had declined the offer to register Nigeria in the group.

I must thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the recent creation of a coalition to address the menace of international terrorism. Even if we are not a part of it, we support you, Buhari had been quoted as saying at a recent bilateral meeting between the two countries.

President Buharis announcement of Nigerias participation in the alliance on a foreign television station, with his people having no prior knowledge of it, was tactless and showed a lack of sensitivity that is fast becoming the trademark of his administration.

However, the inclusion of Nigeria in the group is, in itself, a step in the right direction.

This is because, as Buhari mentioned, Nigeria is dealing with Boko Haram, a terrorist group that claims to be furthering the cause of Islam with its atrocities.

Also, Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to ISIS and some of the Nigerian sects fighters have reportedly been moving to Libya to participate in terrorist activities. This means that a wider approach involving countries that are dealing with ISIS is required, hence the need to join the coalition.

The situation is delicate and Buhari should have known better than to announce the move so brashly, bearing in mind the intense division along religious lines that is the order of the day in Nigeria.
Pulse gathered that the introduction of Civilian Joint Task Force in most of the Hausa speaking communities followed unrest in the area that has led to the killing of many people.

The JTF, it was gathered, is making immense contribution leading to arrest of bad gangs, drug dealers and other groups carrying out nefarious activities in the state.

The Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) also known in Hausa Language as Yan Kato da Goro, according to Malam Shuaibu Sani, they are helping security forces to combat crimes within communities in Kaduna state.

The JTF members were sighted on duty by Pulse Camera at Malali Gabas, in Igabi Local Government Area. The youth in their hundreds, move from one street to another arresting suspected criminals.

We have the permission of the Police to carry out our duties One of the members who dont want his name mention said.

Since our establishment we have assisted greatly in dealing with youth gangs that have being terrorizing communities within the metropolis he added.
In a message of condolence issued in Sokoto by his spokesman, Malam Imam Imam, Tambuwal said Ocholi's death has robbed the country of one of its finest administrators and legal minds.

He said having worked for long to institute positive changes in how the country is governed; death has now prevented him from realising his dreams of a prosperous, united and stable Nigeria.

While condoling with the immediate family of the deceased over the death, Tambuwal said losing his wife and son in the tragic incidence makes his loss more painful.
Ocholi and his family died on Sunday, March 6, after the tyre of the SUV they were traveling in burst and somersaulted several times.

According to Vanguard, that the deceased family picked the tentative burial dates when the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige visited them. He is expected to communicate the arrangement to the Presidency.

It is only if it is a celebration of life for one that is old that we delay the corpse. The minister did not die at the ripe age so there is no way we could continue to delay the burial. His death is pathetic to us, a family source told Vanguard.

The accident that took the minister's life occurred along Kaduna-Abuja road on his way from a church programme with his wife, Blessing and second son, Joshua.Since his death, sympathizers have been flooding his No. 4 Dagash Street, Kado Estate, Abuja residence, including top government officials.
Well, the picketing of electricity distribution companies across the country which culminated into rally in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was aimed at protesting the obnoxious increment in the electricity tariff in Nigeria which of course is now before the National Assembly. The issues are very straight forward, we got to hear of the intolerable increment from the media that the National Electricity Regulatory Commission and the distribution companies (DISCOs) had agreed and announced the new tariff structure over the next ten years.

And for the immediate, the increment represented a jack-up of tariff across the country. Different discos have different rates, but on the average, it came to about 45 per cent increase on the existing tariff. There are cases in which it was as high as 66 per cent and we felt that it was certainly unacceptable on the following grounds: one, the process of review of electricity tariff is guided by law.

The law that established the setting up of National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) as well as privatization law stipulates the process which must involve engagement with stakeholders so that everybody is able to discuss and see the fact before agreeing on what the magnitude of tariff increment would be. In the present case, certainly that was not done, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) representing a quite proportion of the consumers were not consulted and even when we reached out to NERC on our own when we heard of the plan, we were denied that opportunity of fair hearing.

We then wrote the commission requesting that we needed to engage with them but they refused to avail us the opportunity. They claimed that the date we gave was not convenient to them as they had already planned other engagement for that date. We therefore, called on them through formal communication that we are rejecting through our organ, the purported increment, urging them to put it on hold. Of course, they disparaged our position and went ahead and implemented it on the February 1.

That was why on February 8, we held that protest which was more like a warning to signify the anger of Nigerians and consumers generally about the hike. The grouse therefore, was that the appropriate consultation was not made. Secondly, even before the increment, there was already a contestation of the process in the court and a Federal High Court in Lagos had given an order restraining NERC and the Discos from implementing any increase. They ignored that court order and we insisted that the rule of law should be adhered to.

They cannot just ignore court order, of course we are all aware that the legal process is still ongoing and we are waiting for the final outcome. Basically, those are the two major contestations but there is the third ground which was that the quantum of the increment in the current economic reality is certainly not sustainable, particularly when the majority of consumers are not even metered.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the Discos signed when the privatization took place spelt out certain conditions. Top on the list of those conditions was they were given 18 month period within which to meter all consumers. But more than 30 months after that agreement, more than 60 per cent of electricity consumers in Nigeria are still not metered and therefore depend on estimated billing. So when you allow such a massive increase with estimated billing, it is a recipe for just exploiting consumers because even when you have no light at all they will bring bill for you and even escalate these bills.

Consequently, we believe that if any major increment is to take place, they need to first increase supply so that consumers would not be paying to them and also be spending huge sum of money to run generating sets. They need to make investment to improve power supply. As a matter of fact, they can improve their profitability through volume. If they increase the volume of power that is supplied, the unit cost of production and distribution will fall and the larger the people that they sell to. So we think that that is what they need to do first before increment.

We also believe that in the present circumstance, given that they had not been able to make such investment, it then calls to question the whole privatization process because, what was the privatization made to achieve? It was to bring in investors who are ready to bring in both financial and technical expertise to invest in the sector and therefore through that increase efficiency and make long run profit. But now government and NERC are arguing that in order for them to make investment they need consumers to hike-up what they pay. You are not going to use consumers collection today to make and investment.

It then means that the criterion that qualifies those that took over the Discos and GENCOS were violated. This is because they ought to have looked at their capacity to invest certain amount of resources into the sector in addition to their technical input. But unfortunately, those things were not taken into cognizance before giving away these national assets. So we wonder if there should not be a revisit and a review of the whole process which led to the distribution of the national resources to few individual who have no technical knowledge in the area and have no financial muzzle to make the needed investment in the sector.

There are also technical issues as to what is the methodology of actually determining what the tariff should be. Here, NERC is using a model where they said it is a lost recovery approach. This means that if DISCOS got so many kilowatts of power, depending on what it was able to sale or distributes, if there is a gap, then that lost would have to be computed and reused in raising the tariff.

That is a recipe for inefficiency; if a DISCO receives x kilowatts of power and do not invest in infrastructure to properly distribute it and that is wasted and they incurred a lost, why should they force the consumers to pay for that inefficiency? That amount to paying for darkness! And we believe that Nigerians should not be subjected to such kind of situation, these are the issues we are canvassing for.

We had called on government and the National Assembly that the right thing to do is to return to status quo ante, stop the increment and let the process follow the laid down procedure, through proper engagement and looking at the information available and agreeing on what methodology to use and at the end of the day we can then decide going forward what the process should be.

It is really worrisome, that those who had taken over the power sector do not have the technical know-how and financial capability to revive and reposition the sector for better efficiency and steady supply of power, would you as a union push for the revisal of the privatization of the sector?

In the process of the ongoing contestation, we have canvassed for it and in our position paper that we sent to the Joint Committee of Senate and House of Representatives, it is part of what we have prayed for. We posit that based on these incapability of those who have taken over this sector, there is need to revisit the whole process of the privatization so that the country can be on the strong footing in trying to solve the power problem.

Why is government not exploring other sources of power generation like solar, nuclear and wind?

Well, when you have people who are using private ownership system and investment to try to provide power, then, you are going to do a cost analysis as to which cost is cheaper for them to use whether it is though a gas turbine, hydro, wind or solar. Of course we know that renewable energy is now more en-vogue and emphasis across countries is tilted towards solar and wind but in terms of cost effectiveness as of today, those are still generally higher cost sources.

Going forward however, it is expected that those prices may fall and I think that government has a role to play here. Take solar panel for instance; they are not produced in this country, so government has to encourage investment in the production of solar panel or wind turbine etc. But even while we are not yet producing them, government can use fiscal measures to try to promote the use of the energy of the future. For example, solar panel are dutied in Nigeria, in a number of countries, solar panels are duty free, in order to encourage people to patronize the product.

So I think we need to think through the whole energy mix policy both in the static and in a dynamic sense, dynamic in terms of where do we want to be in the future with the push for green economy, renewable energy and all of that. What steps do we need to take today in order to make sure that in the future we would reap the full benefit of such moving away from fossil fuel and the likes? I think that government needs to revisit that whole policy mix and then use policies to try to promote those others.

As of today, I do not know of the major Electricity Generation Companies (Gencos) in the country that had moved into either solar or wind. They are still using gas and water driven system. But with time, particularly for rural areas where the main grid is not readily available, government can encourage solar and wind system that will service smaller communities. This is where I feel state government need to start playing dynamic role in trying to do this in order to promote energy coverage across the country.

Do you suspect any form of compromise on the part of NERC against the interest of consumers in the country?
It reads:

My attention has just been drawn to a spurious online publication alleging that I recently made comments on the state of the nations economy.

This falsehood must have sprung from the writers imagination, as I was neither at any forum requiring my interventions on the state of the economy, nor met with any group of newsmen, as claimed in the write-up.

I will simply urge Nigerians to disregard such fabrication, and rather concentrate on working for the good of our nation.

President Muhammadu Buhari has been frequently criticized over the current state of the economy with many faulting his decision not to devalue the naira.

---------------------------------------------------
Speaking while addressing members of the party in Aba, Abia state, Oye said APGA is Ndigbo's best chance at producing a Nigerian President.

He said: Ndigbo should know that charity begins at home. If all Igbo people are APGA, how will anybody steal our votes? We dont vote in one direction, that why there is confusion. If all of us vote APGA, it will be difficult for anybody to rig elections in the South East. APGA is the party for Ndigbo. Unless we start from home and win the five South East states for APGA, we wont make any progress. Every Igbo man should know that Ndigbo are nowhere in Nigerias political equation.

Ndigbo should have produced the Senate President, but we failed to put our acts together and the position went to the minority. Ndigbo should shine their eyes. Unless Ndigbo wins the five South East state for APGA, it would be difficult for an Igbo to emerge Nigerian President. 2019 is another election year. We must get things right.

Oye expressed confidence that APGA would control the South East zone in 2019, which is the next political dispensation.

We came to office in June 2015 and since then; APGA has spread to every nook and cranny of the country. In Bayelsa state, we have two State House of Assembly seats. In Taraba, we have one Assembly seat and one House of Representatives seat. In Anambra, we have 28 out of 30 seats.
The Deputy Chairman (South) of the party, Segun Oni, said this in Abuja on Tuesday while briefing newsmen at the end of a special session of the National Working Committee (NWC).

It would be recalled that some yet-to-be-identified gunmen invaded the house of the chieftain of the party, Mr Franklin Obi, killing him alongside his wife and son, on Sunday.

Oni, a former governor of Ekiti and APC Acting National Chairman until Friday, also berated newsmen for under-reporting the event.

He stressed that such atrocities should not be swept under the carpet.

"The media did not give adequate reportage of the attacks against members of the APC in Rivers and other places.

"The security agencies should rise up and stem the tide of violence in the state.

"The police and other security agencies should take responsibility for what is happening in Rivers State.

"This is a very serious issue and you as members of the press should see what is happening as real emergency that should not be treated with kid gloves, he said.

The APC chieftain said that the special session of the NWC was convened for "immortalisation of the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr James Ocholi.

Ocholi died on Sunday in a car crash along Kaduna-Abuja highways alongside his wife and second son.In his tribute, the National Vice-Chairman (South-South), Mr Hillard Etta, described Ocholi as a "perfect gentle man.

"You could smell his humility miles away. He was one of the most approachable ministers in the cabinet, he said.

Also speaking, the APC National Secretary, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, said the late minister lived a fulfilled life and was a committed party member.

"His demise was a great loss to this party, this nation and the people of Kogi.

"We must take solace in the fact that death is inevitable and one thing that cannot be predicted.

"We as a party must do everything possible to ensure that Ocholi is properly immortalised, he said.

The APC National Organising Secretary, Sen. Ozita Izunaso, going down memory lane disclosed that most of the things in the party's constitution were made possible by the late minister.
This is coming barely a week after an APC chieftain Franklyn Nkukuru Obi, his wife and son were also murdered in cold blood by assassins, in the state.

Guardian reports that there was shooting in the area for about an hour, after which the killers burnt the body of Amachree and abandoned it on the street.

The APC Governorship candidate in the 2015 elections, Dakuku Peterside, condemned the killings in the state, describing it as frightening.

The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the state HAS CALLED ON ALL POLITICIANS TO JOIN HANDS WITH Governor Nyesom Wike to combat the menace.

Also, confirming the incident was the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmad Mohammad.

Mohammad also said There was a security breach in Buguma this morning, (yesterday) but security agencies have intervened. What is paramount to us now is restoring normalcy to the area. As I speak security agencies have effectively secured the area and restored order to the town.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The suspect identified as, Matthew Lane Durham, 21, had reportedly committed the "heinous crime on the most vulnerable victims," according to a US court.

the reports reveal that Durham had targeted orphans while working as a volunteer at the Upendo Children's Home in Nairobi, Kenyal, between April and June, 2014.

According to reports, Durham is not the first charity worker in Kenya to be convicted of sex crimes against their wards.

Despite denying the charges, Durham has said he was sorry that the accusations against him had damaged the orphanage.
The call is contained in an open letter which has been signed by media mogul, Oprah Winfrey, Melinda Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Sir Elton John and Nigerian musicians, Dbanj and Yemi Alade among others.

A press statement issued by ONE on the initiative reads:

Ahead of International Womens Day, influential figures urge world leaders to act on promises to end extreme poverty faster by investing in girls and women.

New analysis in ONEs 2016 Poverty is Sexist report ranks the toughest countries in which to be born a girl, with Niger topping the list, followed by Somalia and Mali. Compared to their brothers, girls here have less education, lack access to opportunities, such as opening a bank account, and are less likely to get paid work when they grow up.

Sixteen of the 20 countries that top the list are found in Africa, making it imperative for African leaders to fast-track efforts in improving womens development.

2016 offers two major political opportunities to make a difference for girls and women and to kick start progress towards achieving the end of extreme poverty: the replenishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the Nutrition for Growth Summit.

These are crucial moments for nutrition and health because 40 per cent of women in Africa suffer from anaemia, which results in 20 per cent of maternal deaths  and girls account for 74 per cent of all new HIV infections among adolescents in Africa. Smart investments in the Global Fund and Nutrition for Growth will make significant headway against these diseases, and targeting girls and women will ensure a maximum return on investment.

The ONE Campaigns Poverty is Sexist report also calls for policies that ensure legal equality for all and increased access to safe and reliable energy, which will particularly benefit girls and women. There must also be concerted efforts to connect everyone to the internet and further ensure that governments, businesses and civil society open up their own data so the public are able to see and account for progress towards achieving the Global Goals indicators.

ONEs open letter, signed by numerous influential figures, including Selmor Mtukudzi, Vanessa Mdee, Victoria Kimani, Amy Poehler, Danai Gurira, Angelique Kidjo, Shonda Rhimes, Jessie J, Colin Farrell and Robert Redford shows the incredible strength of feeling across the global community for leaders to step up for girls and women everywhere.

CALL TO ACTION:

ONEs Poverty is Sexist campaign 2016 launches on International Womens Day and will run throughout the year. ONE will work in close partnership with organisations engaged on thematic issues, and on gender, to make sure that investments targeted towards girls and women deliver the empowerment and equality needed.

The Poverty is Sexist campaign invites everyone who cares about gender injustice globally to sign on to the open letter and take action in support of girls and women throughout the year:one.org/letter

Nachilala Nkombo, acting Executive Director of ONE Africa said:

ONEs Poverty is Sexist report shows that the 20 toughest places to be born a girl are also among the poorest places on the planet. Until leaders tackle the injustices that pervade the lives of girls and women and invest in fighting poverty, half of the worlds resources will remain untapped and social and economic progress for everyone will be constrained.

This year governments around the world have the opportunity to step up in historic ways to fund replenishments at the Nutrition for Growth and the Global Fund. Investing in nutrition and health is essential for both women and girls and the fight against extreme poverty. 

Yemi Alade said:

"We live in a world where women and girls are most disadvantaged by extreme poverty - where being born female guarantees you the raw deal. Socially, economically, legally  girls and women living in the poorest countries get a raw deal simply because they are born female. Every day, in every corner of the world, they are stopped from reaching their full potential. That is why I was part of ONEs Strong Girl campaign and that is why I continue to join other leaders to raise my voice today .

Dbanj said:

Think about the world wed live in if more girls had the chance to grow up to be empowered women. Where all women went to school, were not forced into early marriages, where they had real opportunity. Extreme poverty is choking the potential of generations of young women in the developing world. Poverty is sexist. It hits girls and women harder than it does boys and men, creating a real urgency that world leaders must address. Women need to be empowered in areas such as agriculture and healthcare, so that they can contribute their best to the development of Nigeria. Women need better access to land, inputs, and better maternal healthcare, among others. Thats why Im raising my voice and asking others to do the same."

Angelique Kidjo, Grammy Award-Winning Artist and Activist said:

"The future of Africa is in the hands of its young women. If they are educated, they will educate their communities. If they are healthy, they will ensure others grow up healthy. If they are empowered, they will change the world. We can break the cycle of poverty, but we have to invest in girls and women to do it."

Sir Elton John, Founder, The Elton John AIDS Foundation said:

"Three out of every four adolescents in Africa who contract HIV are girls, and on average, women in sub-Saharan Africa who contract HIV will do so five to seven years earlier than men. Its heart-breaking. Stopping the spread of HIV will mean doing more to protect girls and young women. The Global Fund is doing powerful work helping treat and prevent AIDS and deserves expanded support from world leaders. We have the chance to stop HIV/AIDS in our lifetime, and we need to raise our voices now to make sure it happens."

Read the open letter below:
Dawn Patch tossed her Ryan's apron on top of a heap of uniform shirts and other apparel laid Monday like a memorial at the door of the closed Ryan's restaurant in Moline, muttering, "Thanks for nothing."

The Silvis woman, who has worked five years as a server at the steakhouse, was among a group of more than 20 displaced employees who arrived Monday afternoon at the restaurant, hoping to pick up their final paychecks and get answers about Ryan's closing a day earlier.

Patch said she was getting ready for work Sunday morning when a co-worker called and told her "they'd closed the doors."

"I was supposed to open at 8 a.m.," she said.

The Quad-City restaurant was among an unknown number of restaurants in the Ovation Brands family that closed over the weekend ahead of a bankruptcy filing Monday. According to a report by Reuters, Ovation Brands Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, its third bankruptcy in eight years.

Ovation was seeking bankruptcy protection from creditors for its family of restaurants, including HomeTown Buffet Inc., Old Country Buffet, Ryan's, Fire Mountain and Tahoe Joe's, Reuters reported, quoting court documents.

Ovation did not return a telephone call to the Quad-City Times. A Ryan's representative, who answered the door at the locked Moline store, said he could not comment. A sign on the door said the location was closed for asset inventory.

Outside, employees arrived one by one to discover that a meeting they were told to come to had been canceled. As they gathered, the two dozen employees hugged one another, shed a few tears and looked for answers.

Kamola Juraeva of Moline has worked nine years as a waitress at Ryans.

"We don't know what's going on," she said. "They are emptying the place out."

Eloise Chairs of Rock Island, who is pregnant with her third son, does not know what she will do next.

"I cried about it, but what can you do," she said. "I wish it would have been 12 more weeks; then my baby would be here."

Even Dave Walz, the restaurant's general manager and a 15-year employee, learned the news just as his employees did  when he arrived early to work Sunday.

"There's a lot of sad people here,'' he said after handing out an informational sheet to his workers. "I'm an optimist. Things will work out in the long run. If I could put them all back to work, I would love to."

The restaurant employed 30 people.

"The thing that is most sad is in the 10 years I've worked here, we have so many regulars who have connected with us," said Kim Clarke, a server from Erie, Ill. "They're like family."

One of those regulars, Roger Wolken of Moline, showed up with his camera after an employee called him.

"I ate here daily," he said. "They're just like family. I know about everyone here."

In a news release in August, Food Management Partners announced it had acquired Ovation Brands bringing its portfolio to 500 restaurants with more than $1 billion in annual sales. But Ovation shuttered 74 restaurants last month as part of its national restructuring plan.

Reuters reported that Buffets LLC, an affiliate of Food Management Partners, paid an undisclosed amount for the chains. The chains, which operate 150 restaurants, were part of the bankruptcy filing on Monday.

Citing documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas, Reuters said the bankruptcy filing is the third in eight years for Greer, S.C.-based Ovation, previously known as Buffets Inc.

Buffets Inc. and the Ryan Restaurant Group merged in 2006, creating the largest U.S. buffet chain. In early 2008, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closing some of its 626 locations and cutting $700 million in debt. It returned to bankruptcy in 2012 to decrease from its 494 restaurants, the news agency reported.

The chains owner blamed the latest bankruptcy filing on a lawsuit that was not disclosed at the time of the acquisition, which resulted in an $11.4 million judgment, Food Management Partners told Reuters.
Jimi Nickersons morning routine is different from most.

Known among his friends as bird man, the 69-year-old starts his day, when its warm enough, on the Great River Trail in Rock Island, where he feeds a colony of squawking seagulls.

Theyre my buddies, he said Sunday, as he unloaded a second box of bread for the birds. Im at peace out here, and it gives me something to do.

The self-proclaimed country boy and river rat, who grew up on a farm near Canton, Mo., said hes always had a deep appreciation for the Mississippi River and the animals that call it home.

In Rock Island, Nickersons pals typically congregate around the Landing Boat Docks at Schwiebert Riverfront Park, but once he starts tearing and tossing loaves, the birds launch into flight.

They make a lot of noise, but what we might consider noise, they call communication, added Nickerson, who lives at Spencer Towers, a subsidized high-rise property managed by the Rock Island Housing Authority.

Nickerson, a Vietnam War veteran and a recovering alcoholic, moved into the nine-story complex, which primarily assists disabled and elderly individuals, in January 2015.

Since October, when Nickerson, who also receives disability benefits, last had a drink, those around him say hes made major strides as a member of the community there.

When I first came in, Jim wasnt in the best spot, but his story is one of our success stories, said Zack Sullivan, who has served as the assistant property manager at Spencer Towers since last July. Its been cool to see him actually improve as a person so much in such little time.

Sullivan also noted that Nickerson uplifts the mood in the building, treats other tenants with respect and even pays rent ahead of time.

Looking back, Nickerson said he started drinking to emulate his father, a mistake he regrets.

I feel like I have one more lap to run in life, and right now, what its all about is being sober, he said. Im happy, and thats all I need right now.

Crews rescue bridge jumper

Davenport rescue crews retrieved a man, who was taken to a hospital, after he jumped from the Centennial Bridge about 10:45 a.m. today, Linda Cook reports.

Davenport firefighters used a rescue boat to bring him back to the landing at Marquette Street and transported him by ambulance to a local hospital.

Bettendorf parents speak up

Bettendorf parents are frustrated with district administrators after the school board approved plans to expand an elementary school during a special meeting over the weekend.
A Sioux Falls foster mother is facing charges including murder in the January death of a 2-year-old child in her care.

Thirty-two-year-old Mary Beth Jennewein was arrested Monday and was being held on $1 million bond. She was scheduled to make a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

The boy died Jan. 6. Police spokesman Sam Clemens says an autopsy indicated traumatic brain injury was the cause of death.

The boy originally had been taken to the hospital Jan. 4 for a breathing problem, but a radiologist detected a skull fracture. The boy died after being taken off life support.

Clemens says the child had been placed in Jennewein's care in September.
No bull.

In 1949, the South Dakota Legislature designated the coyote as the state animal, despite a legislator who recommended the bull instead.

The word coyote has been traced back to Mexican Spanish, around 1759. Coyotes can be found in almost all the North American continent, from Alaska to Central America.

The coyote has a long history in South Dakota.

In American Indian folklore, the coyote is often cast as a trickster and deceiver.

American Indian Myths and Legends contains a story about a coyote from Jeremy Leading Cloud of the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The coyote took off the thick blanket he was wearing and put it on the rock, Iya, to keep the rock from freezing. Coyote soon grew cold andwanted the coat back, but Iya would not give it to him, saying, What is given is given. Iya became a big rock, crashing upon the coyote and flattening him.The story has a moral, and it is: Always be generous in heart. If you have something to give, give it forever.

Those in the Lewis and Clark Expedition referred to coyotes as prairie wolves. On Sept. 18, 1804, near the White River in what is now South Dakota, William Clark wrote, I killed a Prairie Wolf, about the Size of a Gray fox, bushy tail, head and ears like a Wolf, Some fur, Burrows in the ground and barks like a Small Dog. What has been taken heretofore for a Fox was those Wolves 

The name coyote has even been applied to the people of South Dakota. This originated in the fall of 1863, when a horse owned by members of Co. A. Dakota Cavalry beat a horse owned by a major in the 6th Iowa Cavalry in a race at Fort Randall. It was said the Dakota horse ran like a coyote, and its owners at once gave the horse that name, which almost immediately afterward was applied to the entire Dakota Company.

In 1924, a coyote standing on a wreath was approved for the crest of the South Dakota Army National Guard. The Guards training exercises are called the Golden Coyote. The South Dakota Air National Guard is nicknamed the Lobos. Lobo is Spanish for wolf. The wolf, coyote, fox and domestic dog are all members of the biological family Canidae.

The mascot of the University of South Dakota is Charlie Coyote. When the schools first yearbook was published in 1902, the editors had already dubbed its athletic teams the Coyotes. A bronze statue of a coyote is located on the USD campus.

Among current South Dakota high school sports teams, coyotes are the mascots of Jones County and Waverly-South Shore high schools. Kimball High School uses the spelling Kiotes.

The coyote has been called the most vocal of North American wild mammals. A coyote known for her singing skills was Tootsie. Fred Borsch, who owned a liquor store in Deadwood, was given a coyote pup in 1947. He named the pup Tootsie and taught her to howl as he sang. The two cut a record called South Dakota Tootsie. The duo often appeared inparades and events in Deadwood. On Aug. 6, 1949, Gov. George T. Mickelson declared Tootsie South Dakotas Official Animal at the Days of 76. At the height of their fame, Borsch and Tootsie took a 10-day tour that included a visit to the White House. Tootsie died in 1959, but she still lives on in Deadwood. A giant neon sign of a howling coyote is located on historic Main Street near the original location of Freddies Spot Liquor Store and a display about Tootsie can be seen at the Adams Museum.

Not all coyotes are as fortunate as Tootsie. Although honored as the state animal, a bounty has often been placed on coyotes heads. The coyote has been blamed for many dead calves or lambs on the prairie, and for missing dogs and cats. Efforts to reduce the coyote population in western states through poisoning, trapping and bounty hunting have not had much effect, as wildlife officials found that 70 percent of the entire population had to be killed every year to make a dent in the numbers. Coyotes have a biological mechanism that triggers larger litters whenever their numbers drop.

The coyotes ability to adapt is one of its greatest skills.The coyote can change its breeding habits, diet and social dynamics to survive in a wide variety of habitats.

That resilience is why the coyote was adopted as South Dakotas official state animal.

The coyote has managed to get along in the face of civilization that is encroaching upon him, State Sen. Alfred Roesler told his colleagues in 1949.Again, you might say his spirit to survive is a lot like the citizens of South Dakota who have gone through adverse conditions.

This moment in South Dakota history is provided by the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Find us on the web at www.sdhsf.org. Contact us at info@sdhsf.org to submit a story idea.
New Orleans, LAGordon Stoner, a wheat grower from Montana, was elected to serve as the new President of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) at the Associations Board of Directors meeting at Commodity Classic.Im looking forward to the year ahead and the challenges facing the American wheat farmer says Stoner. In collaboration with our industry partners, NAWG is developing the National Wheat Action Plan which seeks to chart the path forward in returning profitability to wheat and reversing the long term decline in U.S. wheat acres. I see these challenges as opportunities to make the industry stronger, and am excited to meet them head on.Gordon manages a fourth-generation farm near Outlook, Mont., in the northeast part of the state. Stoner Farms is a 100 percent no-till, continuous cropping operation raising durum, peas, corn, oil seeds and lentils, along with a commercial cow/calf operation. Gordons farm celebrated its centennial in 2009.Prior to returning to the family farm in 1980, Gordon received a bachelors degree in business administration and economics, obtained his CPA and continued working winters at a local accounting firm though 2002. Gordon and his high-school sweetheart, Bonnie, have four adult children pursuing careers in the Chicago area and on the East Coast.Additionally, NAWG gained another new officer, Ben Scholz. Ben is a wheat grower from Lavon, Texas. Upon graduation from college in 1969, he began a career in farming/ranching in partnership with his father that continues today with his wife, Beth, as partner in B Scholz Farms. In 1999, Ben diversified his interests by becoming president/CEO of Producers Compress Inc., a business offering warehouse space for lease and cotton storage. Bens farming operation consists of wheat, grain sorghum, corn, cotton, soybeans and hay in various rotations year to year.Ben has been named Farmer of the Year by the Collin County Soil and Water Conservation District; Alumni Ambassador, the highest award an academic department can bestow upon a graduate, awarded by the Agricultural Department of Texas A&M-Commerce University; and won the Brother of the Century award from the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity.Im excited for this new opportunity to serve my fellow farmers and our national association, said Scholz. I look forward to getting to know our growers better, so that I can be a stronger voice for our industry. I will strive to assist the officer team to strengthen our association on the local, state and national levels.Other NAWG officers elected and installed at the meeting include: David Schemm, Kans., vice president Jimmie Musick, Okla., treasurer Brett Blankenship, Wash., immediate past presidentMembers of NAWGs Executive Committee, known as officers, commit to serve five years when they first run for the role of secretary. The NAWG Nominating Committee and NAWG board reaffirm their selection each year as they move into new roles on the officer team.
The Recollections of WWII blog has been created to bring attention to the hundreds of books, especially (but not limited to) personal memoirs about WWII that have been printed in the last 70 years, many of which never make it to the shelves of the big bookshops.Some of these books have tiny print runs, many are privately published and are out of print, and most don't have descriptions on Amazon - so there is little information online for potential readers.Many of the books featured are from my collection, some have been brought to my attention by the author or publisher, and others are ones I have come across by chance in bookshops or online.When books can be purchased directly from the publisher, a link will be given. For out of print titles there are links to Abebooks, Alibris or Amazon. There are even a few which are free to download.If you want to suggest a book to be featured, or you have published a book that you think will be of interest, please contact me
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Author and radio show host Lanea Stagg writes about music and more!
Saudi warplanes wage raids on Taiz

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TAIZ, March 07 (Saba) - The Saudi war jets launched on Monday air raids on Taiz province causing serious damage to many houses and public facilities.



The Saudi aggression targeted Sala district with two sorties which damaged dozens of houses and public and private properties. The bombing launched on the eastern areas of Salah hours after the army and popular committees defeated Riyadh's hirelings and killed many of them.



Earlier, two civilians were killed and many other were injured by Saudi bombing on two cars at Sha'abwa area in al-Waze'aya district.



HA/AF

Saba

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[07/March/2016]
"Honey, let's quit work, sell everything and move onto a boat with our tiny daredevil children." "Okay!"
Hashtag #usaweaponskillsyemenis Goes Viral, Reaching 250 Million Tweets

The Wall Street Journal, in a scathing attack on Obama's policy in the Yemeni crisis, claimed that America has violated the laws of war by taking a side in the hostilities.







(SANA'A, Yemen) - Last Wednesday, American anti-war activists launched the hashtag #usaweaponskillsyemenis campaign and inundated social networking websites with waves of international condemnation against the negative U.S. negative in the so-called 'Arab Spring' countries, namely Washington's cowardice support for Saudi-led war on Yemen.

The campaign allegedly reached a record high of 250 million tweets and topped a list of hot hashtags for several hours with hundreds of articles and pictures explaining U.S. complicity in Saudi atrocities.

Human Rights Watch in its report dated on November 26, 2016, blamed the Obama administration for violating Human Rights, conniving Saudi barbarous aggression against innocent civilians and being directly responsible for the killing of hundreds of Yemenis by selling unconventional arms to Saudi regime.

On 26 March 2015, following the fall of its puppet dictator Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Saudi regime launched an all-out war on Yemen accompanied by its satellite Gulf sheikdoms, targeting Yemen's infrastructure and army.

Riyadh's insistence to not allow a popular government rise to power in Yemen for fear of jeopardizing its interests in that vital part of the Arabian Peninsula was reinforced by Britain and United States.

The Wall Street Journal, in a scathing attack on Obama's policy in the Yemeni crisis, claimed that America has violated the laws of war by taking a side in the hostilities and the clear fact that the U.S. provides the Saudi regime with banned ammunition, (e.g. cluster bombs).

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First, note that this is NOT a blog....it's a collection of essays similar in nature to what the Greek Plutarch attempted to write.





Second: NO, there will be no Facebook connection to the essay collection. Besides the negativity with FB, there is just too much potential in the future for censorship with FB.





Third, this log of essays is written by an American (not a German). If you are a German seeking commentary written by a German, on Germans....look elsewhere.





Fourth, I will offer wit and sarcasm on Germany, Germans, Germanology, German political figures, German TV, German beer, German food, German humor (or lack of), German habits, German weirdness, German news, German autos, German brilliance, German stupidity, German customs, German Nazis, German history, and German stubbornness.





Fifth (new), the essays are not about ethnic pathways to your grandfather or great-grandmother who was German. It relates present day Germans. If you are trying to get some understanding to your ancestor who packed up and left sixty years ago from the old 'homeland', then this blog is probably not for you.





Final note: I generally only delete comments that are spam-related, or hype over pure Nationalist Socialist agendas. I generally won't support one-sided arguments/agendas. I also don't think accusations of racism or nationalism are generally proven, and can reflect poorly upon the person making the accusations.

I was one of those Americans who did over twenty years of military time....married a German....and eventually returned as a retiree.I'm one of the few who stood under the German umbrella.....paid German taxes for some years.....German social security.....and felt the various pains like Germans.So, this is my all-purpose commentary essay, designed for non-Germans mostly (and those Germans who accidentally discover it). I tend to put German culture into the spotlight of sarcasm, wit and humor. I'm simply pointing out the richness and craziness of life in Germany, which even some Germans can't understand.The amusing thing is that I'm merely repeating the exercise that Mark Twain performed in 1880, when he published "A Tramp Abroad". Various comments were dished out on the Germans....which apparently did not trigger any wars, chaos, climate change, or ill feelings.
" " Chocolate is the one of the most beloved foods on Earth. Diana Miller/Getty Images

Love chocolate? You're not alone. In fact, the industry boasts a stunning worldwide value of more than $131 billion [source: Markets & Markets]. Whether you yearn for gourmet truffles, a gas station candy bar or a confection somewhere in between, some sort of chocolate-flavored product is likely your Achilles heel. Indeed, chocolate is so beloved that some people wind down a long, stressful day with a bit of chocolate rather than a glass of wine or a beer.

Although chocolate has been consumed since at least 1500 B.C.E., the way it's enjoyed today is a huge departure from how the original chocoholics tried it. Mesoamericans, who were the first to crack the potential of the cacao bean, simply fermented, roasted and then ground the beans to produce a bitter beverage. No sweeteners, no added sugar, just beans. The taste is fairly akin to taking a bite of today's unsweetened baking chocolate. Although it might not sound like such a delicacy, cacao drinks were often enjoyed on celebratory occasions, or to show one's status in society [source: Garthwaite].

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Europeans later added sugar and milk, but they were still drinking chocolate instead of eating it until the Industrial Revolution. If entrepreneurs hadn't figured out how to process it further to make it easier to eat (and less expensive), chocolate might never have morphed into the pervasive treat that it is today. Can you imagine? Americans eat up to 12 pounds (5 kilograms) of chocolate every year, but they aren't the winners by far when it comes to chocolate consumption  that honor goes to the Swiss, who wolf down 22 pounds (10 kilograms) a year [source: World Atlas of Chocolate].

Next up, let's dive a little deeper into the sticky sweet history of chocolate.
 Judge John Gleeson invents and issues a "federal certificate of rehabilitation" | Main | "Criminal Injustice: A Cost Analysis of Wrongful Convictions, Errors, and Failed Prosecutions in California's Criminal Justice System" 

March 8, 2016

Quick (inside-the-Beltway) reflections on the latest odds of those inside-the-Beltway getting federal sentencing reform done in 2016

As I briefly mentioned in a prior post, yesterday and today I have been attending and participating in the Alternative Sentencing Key-Stakeholder Summit (ASKS) taking place at the Georgetown University Law Center. In addition to being greatly impressed by all the speakers and attendees, I have particularly benefitted from hearing this afternoon directly from Senator Charles Grassley and other key players involved in federal sentencing reforms efforts. After hearing these folks discuss their work and the possibility of enactment of federal sentencing reform this year, I wanted to share some (too quick) reflections in the form of good news and bad news:

Good News regarding prospects for reforms making it through Congress: Senator Grassley is clearly interested in and now seems quite committed to getting some form of federal sentencing reform through Congress this year. He stated that work is afoot to modify his Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act to respond to concerns expressed by Senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz and others. This Reuters report on Senator Grassley's short speech provides the details, and here are the basics:

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said on Tuesday that amendments to a bill to lower sentences for certain non-violent drug offenders are close to being finished. Grassley said the amendments, which go further to ensure violent offenders are not released, will build more support for the bill among Republican leadership in the Senate, which will decide whether to bring the bill up for a vote. "We are very close to making some changes in this bill so we can get it brought before the United States Senate," Grassley said.... Grassley called Cotton's concerns "legitimate and reasonable" when speaking at Georgetown University Law School on Tuesday. Though he did not provide specifics on the amendments, Grassley did say his team of legislators may have to drop parts of the bill that would have allowed offenders caught with firearms in their possession to have their sentences lowered. "We may have to jettison some changes in the firearm offenses and we may be able to do a better job to make sure that no one with a serious history of violence can get any relief under the bill," Grassley said.... "I'm confident that with the changes that we're making in the bill that we'll get even more support for our bill," Grassley said. "And with more support, I'm confident that we will be able to go to the leaders in the Senate and persuade them that this bill is exactly what the American people need to see happen in the United States Senate."

As this last quote hints, Senator Grassley also spoke about all the complaints he receives back in Iowa and elsewhere about leaders in DC spending all their time fighting over politics and not getting anything actually done. Senator Grassley's comments have me now thinking that he and other GOP members of the Senate are likely to stress bipartisan work on sentencing reform when attacked by Democrats and others for "not doing anything" in response to the coming SCOTUS nomination or on other priorities. And work on sentencing reform will not seem all that meaningful if a bill does not come to the floor of the Senate at some point.

Bad News regarding prospects for reforms making it through Congress: Though not mentioned by Senator Grassley, getting a bill to the Senate floor and passed with a majority vote is only half the battle, of course. The House of Represenatives also needs to pass a parallel bill, and there are continuing reasons to fear that the House will not move forward on sentencing reform bills unless and until mens rea reform is a part of the equation. I am not sure concerns about mens rea reforms will alone scuttle reforms in Congress, but it already seems to have slowed the momentum for reform in various ways. And every day that goes by without the legislative process moving forward tangibly is yet another day lost before the congressional election season gets into full swing when members of Congress start focusing more on November voting dynamics rather than whether they get anything done on a complicated policy issue that involves lots of compromises and intricacies.

Speaking of compromises and intricacies (as well as the coming election season), there may end up being some significant voices on the left that jump off the reform train after Senator Grassley makes his already modest Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act even more modest. The original SRCA was so modest that some significant advocates for reform, including elected officials and policy groups, have already express serious concern that it does not mearly go far enough. We likely will hear more of these complaints after we see the modified SRCA, and that in turn may lead advocates on both sides of the aisle to be content to wait and hope that their preferred candidates win in November and then to try again in 2017.

A few prior related posts:

March 8, 2016 at 03:59 PM | Permalink

Comments

Its clear to me that the bill will not gonas far as it should. But we need to rake in what we can get, then keep working forward.

It does corn me with the wording violent criminal history. Congress and Senators gave no clue what is violence and how to define it. As evidenced by the residual clause.

Ok, enough if that... Mens Rea.....how about digging up Judge McConnels dissent for Owi in the Begay case. He did a good job in relating it to owi.

But, I have missed the mark Yes, its the definition of Mens Rea. I think Inwould use McConnel, ( is this the mans name, I hope so ) as a warmup refresher. Then review the current issue with it, then reach out to people like the Ussc, and other Federal Judges that want to reform the guidelines. If a person was connected and took an interest, I think in 2 weeks, one could have a good base to present. Then maybe the senate will move forward with reform.

Doug, your spot on about each counts, as we are marching closer to the election, that will shut down all efforts. At least for quite a spell.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Mar 8, 2016 8:16:23 PM

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About the Service-Learning Center

We are a group of students and administrators working in the Service-Learning Center at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As a group we are committed to creating places where a reciprocal exchange can take place between people in community, where individuals both serve and learn at once. This blog is an effort to generate vibrant conversations about issues of justice, community, and service towards the goals of living better and seeking shalom.


This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world.




An Altamont Corridor Express train traveling from San Jose to Stockton ran into a mudslide Monday night and derailed, sending the front car of the train into a rushing creek. The accident, as CBS 5 reports, happened at 7:30 p.m. with 214 people aboard the commuter rail, and though injury counts varied through the night, ABC News and the SF Chronicle are now reporting that nine people were injured, four of them seriously. None of the injuries are said to be life-threatening.

Alameda County Fire posted the above photos to Twitter at 8:21 p.m. as rescue efforts were underway.

Initial reports stated that the ACE train had run into a fallen tree on the tracks, but it appears that a mudslide was to blame, and that there was a tree within the mudslide. This all occurred in the rural area of Niles Canyon 45 miles east of San Francisco, near Niles Canyon Road and Sunol, and despite the relatively few number of injuries, passengers described a chaotic and terrifying scene that unfolded over a half hour before the train was evacuated.

Per the Chronicle:

Passenger Tanner McKenzie was in the second car, which derailed and then slid for what seemed a long time through the mud, he said. People were screaming. There was an impact, the power went out, he said. I was just sure at any moment we were going to flip over.

As the Mercury-News reports, the rain swollen creek was rushing hard enough that it made the job of first-responders especially difficult in accessing the front car of the train, which began sliding into the water. Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Anthony King said, "It was like the movies. It reminded me of a ride at Universal Studios."

Also from Merc:

Authorities said it was "an absolute miracle" no one was killed. Four of the injuries were serious, though not thought to be life-threatening, according to the Alameda County Fire Department. .... In frantic phone calls to loved ones after the crash, passengers described the chaos, as the train spilled over an embankment sending bodies flying and crashing into glass. When the car rolled into the creek, the panic grew as water started rushing in.



Below is video, also from Alameda County Fire, showing a firefighter attempting to break out a window of the submerged front car of the train, searching for trapped survivors. As the New York Times put it, the entire incident and rescue "play[ed] out on social media."

VIDEO: #ALCOFirefighters conduct a search of the derailed train in #Sunol. pic.twitter.com/fA2XeTENWU  Alameda County Fire (@AlamedaCoFire) March 8, 2016

Because of the remote location of the crash, uninjured passengers had to walk a half mile along a fire trail before getting shuttled to the ACE parking lot in Pleasanton, which was the next stop the train was scheduled to make. Many did not make it home until 1 a.m.

You can listen to audio from the first responders reporting the incident here.

This was the ACE No. 10 train, and apparently the No. 8 train had traveled the same route just an hour before without incident.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
An evening with Courtney Love and musical collaborator Todd Almond, announced last month, happened last night at The Curran, and it was a conversation both about Kansas City Choir Boy  the two-person narrative concert piece that Almond wrote and Courtney lent some of her own influence to  and about Love's past in San Francisco, her current artistic aspirations, and few coy bits about her personal life as well.

Though she wouldn't say his name aloud, after a bit of needling by longtime friend and SF-based writer Kevin Sessums (who famously profiled Love for Vanity Fair the year after Cobain's death, in 1995), Love admitted she was dating, and possibly now living with, a younger man. She hasn't been afraid to name him on Instagram, however, and he's male model James Norley.

Responding to tabloid stories about how she was not invited to attend her own daughter, Frances Bean Cobain's wedding, Love posted the following photo with Norley last fall.





In between a few terrific songs from Kansas City Choir Boy, in which Love plays a character named Athena who escapes the Midwest only to go missing and meet a bad end in New York City, she told the audience that she had given up cigarettes 67 days ago, at the age of 51, and she is excited to perhaps further pursue a theatrical career now having worked on this project with Almond over the last year.

Regarding her relationship to her daughter, she said, "She's 23 and she's married now. We talk a lot. Sometimes she calls me mom. Sometimes she calls me Joan. When she's really angry she calls me Courtney."

Sessums asked her if she was ready to be a grandmother, and Love just covered her face with her hair and shook it violently, silently screaming, and then finally said, "I don't think she's planning to do that anytime soon anyway. So let's not think about it."

Love delighted longtime fans by closing the evening with a cover of a song by one of her own idols (and Almond's), PJ Harvey, "To Bring You My Love," with Almond accompanying on piano. She described Harvey as "Just incredible, and in her early stuff just so talented, and way better than me. And thank god. Because I don't have to be the best all the time." Love sounded, during this and her other numbers Monday evening, as calculatedly raw and inimitably needful as she always has, her voice having lost none of its original power to cut you.

And, of course, somebody took some cell phone video.



Love, who admits that she is "much more mellow" and more of a homebody these days than ever before, talked about her early childhood, and then her adolescence in San Francisco, and doing "a lot of drugs" with her first boyfriend Jeff  who she said inspired the Hole song "Malibu." "I know every inch of this city, still," she said.

When asked by Sessums about her wealthy grandparents, who were actually her mother's adoptive parents, she admitted that the story about them being heirs to the Bausch & Lomb fortune was "a total lie." The detail remains on her Wikipedia page, but Love said, "That was just one of a number of lies I tried to put out there... My grandfather had some money that he made in the optical industry, and I just kind of elaborated on that."

She said that her grandparents, who provided her with a small trust fund of $500 a month that she says lasted from the ages of 16 to 22, lived in the posh 999 Green Street (a.k.a. Eichler's Summit Tower), which she could see from her hotel window at the Fairmont yesterday.

When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay ...... #sanfrancisco A photo posted by Courtney Love Cobain (@courtneylove) on Mar 7, 2016 at 8:59am PST

Despite some talk of love getting into the fashion business, and a recent collaboration on some 90's-styled looks with the label Nasty Gal, Love says she's not willing at this point to devote years of her life to building a brand. Nor, she says, is she willing to go on lengthy concert tours at her age  she performed in eight cities alongside Lana Del Rey last summer, and said, "They asked if I wanted to do all 120 cities, and I was like, 'Hell no.'"

Likening herself in a few years, attitude-wise, to another idol, Patti Smith, she recalled a birthday concert that Smith did in New York with friend Michael Stipe  something that's become an annual tradition  in which Love shouted at the stage, from the audience, "Bring it!" Smith replied, drily, "Look, I'd rather be home reading Ulysses right now."

"If anybody shouts 'Bring it' at me when I'm her age," Courtney quipped, "I'm going to say the exact same thing."

Naturally, during her rendition of "To Bring You My Love," someone in the audience shouted "Bring it!" and Love just smiled, and kept singing.
Six UC Santa Cruz fraternity and sorority members were arrested last Friday for running what federal agents allege to be a large MDMA  a drug also known as "Molly" or "Ecstasy"  "organized drug sales ring." Authorities seized over 5,000 tablets, and note that the street value of the drugs is estimated at $100,000. Mariah Dremel, Benny Liu, Cesar Casil, and Nathan Tieu were arrested for conspiracy and possession of a controlled substance for sale. Hoai Nguyen and Cecilia Le were just arrested for possession.

Santa Cruz Police helpfully inform us that "the use of MDMA is done in a variety of contexts and is commonly associated with dance parties, raves, and electronic dance music."

All of the students are 21 years old, and officials note that three of them are affiliated with the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity and three with the Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority. The Santa Cruz Police Department worked with Homeland Security and US Postal Service Inspectors on the case.

"Over the past few weeks, the Santa Cruz Police Department became aware of several packages of MDMA tablets being shipped through the US Postal Service," notes the Santa Cruz Police Department. "The packages were shipped from overseas and were bound for three addresses in the city of Santa Cruz."

A search warrant was served on three homes, apparently after drugs had been delivered through the mail.

Without getting into the widely-acknowledged-to-be-absurd War On Drugs, it is perhaps worth taking a moment to remind everyone of the sage advice of Mitch Hedberg (RIP) when it comes to sending drugs through the mail.

I like the FedEx guy, cause hes a drug dealer and he dont even know it! And hes always on time.

Related: 35-Year-Old Possibly Facing Life In Prison On LSD, Ecstasy Charges
Welcome to my corner of the world! Glad you dropped by. Browse around and discover a collection of QSL cards from international broadcasters, old and new. Read an article or two about radios and the hobby of radio listening. Happy DXing!!!
There are many fitness goals out there that we desire. Some of us want to be leaner and others wish to put on muscle mass. The thing is, for you to achieve your fitness goals, you need to
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Mary Marcella Weimer of La Plata, Maryland died on Monday, March 07, 2016 at the Charles County Hospice House in Waldorf. She was 83 years old. Born on March 8, 1932 in Greenville Township, Pennsylvania, she was daughter of the late Rosa Flora and the late George Clarence Weimer.



She worked as a Certified Medical Assistant at the Garfield Memorial Hospital as well several physicians practice. She was a member of the American Association of Medical Assistants. Her passion included color photography, hand-quilting that she won numerous awards with and her two cats, Missy and Muffy.



In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother Major Bernard L. Weimer and her brother-in-law Joseph V. Stakem. She is survived by her sister Beulah R. Stakem; her sister-in-law Virginia L. Weimer; also survived by four nieces, two nephews, numerous great nieces and nephews.



A gathering will be held on Friday, March 11, 2016 from 10AM until time for Mass to begin at 11AM at the Mount Carmel Monastery, 5678 Mount Carmel La Plata, MD 20646 with Monsignor James V. Lockman officiating. Interment will be held on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at the St. Ann's Cemetery in Avilton, MD. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made in Mary Weimer's name to the Sisters of Carmel of Port Tobacco 5678 Mount Carmel Road La Plata, MD 20646-3625. Arrangements provided by Raymond Funeral Service.
LA PLATAThe College of Southern Maryland has been advised to expect delays on Mitchell Road between U.S. 301 and the main entrance to the college's La Plata Campus on March 9 due to utility work. Comcast will be replacing aerial cable along the north side of Mitchell Road beginning at 8 a.m. and they anticipate completing the work the same day.The westbound lane of Mitchell Road will be blocked by the construction crew from U.S. 301 to the college's main entrance, and flaggers will control traffic around the closure. Traffic leaving the college will be directed to avoid the area and to exit to the right onto Mitchell Road when departing from the campus.As work progresses, the road closure will move westward, ending at the college entrance. Efforts to keep traffic from backing out onto U.S. Route 301 will be made and warning signs will be placed at U.S. 301 and Mitchell Road for drivers to avoid the area.Individuals traveling to the La Plat a Campus on March 9 are encouraged to use Maryland Route 225 (Hawthorne Road). Those traveling from La Plata's U.S. 301 and Route 225 intersection should proceed to the traffic light at Valley Road and Mitchell Road, turn right onto Mitchell Road and use either of the campus entrances on the left. For directions to the campus, view the campus map at csmd.edu/about/locations/la-plata-campus/ . For questions, contact the Public Safety and Preparedness Department at 301-934-7888.LEONARDTOWNThe Commissioners of St. Mary's County will host their sixth Code Home public hearing, on Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at the Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department. The address is 22733 Lawrence Avenue, Leonardtown, MD 20650. The hearing begins at 6:30 p.m.A move to Code Home Rule would give county commissioners authority to enact local laws on a number of subjects without having to await action by the Maryland General Assembly. Under Code Home Rule commissioners could not enact any new taxes or regulatory fees.Code Home Rule gives the commissioners legislative authority throughout the year. Public hearings on legislation would be held in Leonardtown, rather than in Annapolis during the winter. The public could demand a referendum on any new public local law, something which does not currently exist. St. Mary's County is one of six counties in Maryland which has yet to adopt some form of home rule.St. Mary's County voters would have to approve a referendum to adopt Code Home Rule on the ballot in the November, 2016 general election.The final Code Home public hearing will take place:Tuesday, April 12, 2016Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire DepartmentStation 2229848 Therese CircleMechanicsville, MD 20659More information about Code Home Rule can be found at www.stmarysmd.com/pio/codehome.asp . Questions and comments can be sent to: CodeHomeRule@stmarysmd.com.WALDORFCharles County Government has been informed that they are eligible for federal assistance following the January 2016 blizzard. This aid is available following a major disaster declaration being issued by President Barack Obama. On Feb. 19, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan sent a formal letter requesting a federal declaration for the State of Maryland and affected local jurisdictions, including Charles County, as a result of that winter storm. By granting the declaration, federal assistance will be made available to communities in Maryland through state and local agencies and public safety partners that served them during the storm.The decision for a disaster declaration comes after the Charles County Department of Emergency Services conducted joint damage assessments with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) last month.In addition to Charles County and the state, the following local jurisdictions are included in the declaration and are eligible for aid: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Washington, and Worcester Counties and the City of Baltimore.LEONARDTOWNThe Healthy St. Mary's Partnership (HSMP) has announced an upcoming community presentation on the Integrated Health Literacy Program (IHLP) currently being implemented in Worcester County, Maryland. The HSMP is a community-driven coalition of partners working together to improve health in St. Mary's County. The coalition mobilizes members through four action teams to address the priority health issues in St. Mary's County including Access to Care, Behavioral Health, Healthy Eating & Active Living, and Tobacco Free Living.The upcoming presentation will be hosted by the Access to Care Action Team on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. at the St. Mary's County Health Department, located at 21580 Peabody Street in Leonardtown. Health literacy is the ability to obtain, process, understand, utilize and apply basic health information, allowing an individual to make appropriate health decisions. According to the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Adult Literacy, only 12 percent of adults have proficient health literacy. The study found that individuals with a health literacy level below basic were much more likely to report their health as being poor and less likely to use preventive health services than their peers."The Access to Care team is excited to bring this presentation to St. Mary's County to start a discussion on health literacy in our community and the need to start this learning process as early as possible," said Lori Werrell, Director of Health Connections at MedStar St. Mary's Hospital and Co-Chair of the Access to Care Action Team. "When empowered with the knowledge needed to make healthy decisions throughout life, chronic conditions can be prevented or delayed and quality of life can be enhanced for many coping with chronic conditions."This presentation is open to any community members who are interested in learning more about improving health literacy. Visit healthystmarys.com or call 301-475-4323 for more information or to sign up for the free HSMP e-newsletter. Healthy St. Mary's Partnership membership is free, and all interested organizations and community members are invited to join.LEONARDTOWNSt. Mary's County Recreation and Parks will host the third annual Mother-Son Kickball, for boys and moms alike, on Sunday April 3. The Hall of Fame Building at Chancellors Run Regional Park will host this popular event. Each participant receives a commemorative t-shirt and pizza for lunch.Mother-Son Kickball takes place from 35 p.m. The cost is $25 per couple and $7 for each additional son. Everyone who registers before March 14 will be guaranteed a shirt in their size.Online registration is available at www.stmarysmd.com/recreate or in person at the Recreation and Parks office in Leonardtown.For more information call 301-475-4200 ext. *1800 or *1801.PRINCE FREDERICKThe Maryland State Police in cooperation with CAASA (Calvert Alliance Against Substance Abuse) and the Calvert County Sheriff's Office will host a Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, March 26, 2016.The drop off locations are available seven days a week, 24 hours a day in a continuing effort to keep prescription medications out of the wrong hands. Keeping a household free of unused prescription medications is an important step to curtailing the prescription drug abuse issue in Calvert County.The drop off locations are located at Maryland State Police, Barrack U and the Calvert County Sheriff's Office;
Calvert County Public Schools Hosts International Night March 8



PRINCE FREDERICKThe English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Department of Calvert County Public Schools will host an International Night at Calvert High School on Tuesday, March 8 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The community is invited to attend.



The event will feature displays from many of the countries represented by students in the school system, including Latvia, India, China, Pakistan, Brazil, Honduras, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, the Ukraine, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Germany, Nigeria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Venezuela and many others.



Activities are family oriented and will be led by students, staff and parents. Internationally themed stations include origami, henna tattoos, foreign board games, world language book reading, kid's yoga, character name writing, bingo and tinikling, a traditional Philippine dance.



Representatives of the Calvert High School Choir will sing at 6:00. Other musical performances include an African drumming group and traditional songs performed by students.



Jessica Rosnage Wins First Place in Essay Contest



PRINCE FREDERICKJessica Rosnage, 5th grader at Plum Point Elementary School, won first place in the Maryland State Conference NAACP Black History Month Student Competition. The writing contest, co-sponsored by Verizon, is held annually in recognition of Black History Month. The theme of the 2016 contest was, "We all matter. Together we can make a better world."



Beth Morton, principal of Plum Point Elementary, said, "Plum Point Elementary is exceptionally proud of Jessica's accomplishment as a first place winner. She is establishing herself as a rising author. We look forward to her future published works."



Jessica's essay, titled, "To Inspire Peace," was chosen as the winner from among hundreds of entries. She received a prize of $100 during a ceremony held at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore, Maryland.



The competition is open to students in elementary, middle and high school, and winners are chosen at each level. Students may submit either poetry or an essay.



Rising Freshman Orientation Nights



LEONARDTOWNSt. Mary's County Public Schools will host three Rising Freshman Orientation Nights mid-March. The purpose of the events is to provide an opportunity for rising 9th graders and their families to preview 9th grade course selections, learn about available Academies and Pathways, tour the schools and meet counselors and school administrators. The Rising Freshman Orientation Nights will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15 at Chopticon High School; Wednesday, March 16 at Leonardtown High School; and Thursday, March 17 at Great Mills High School.



Families are welcome to attend any night. All information will be repeated each night. For more information contact the Department of Teaching, Learning and Professional Development at 301-475-5511, extension 32104 or email classof2020@smcps.org.
Karleen and Loic Jaffres in front of the restaurant they honed for 17 years. (Photo: Crista Dockray)

HOLLYWOOD, Md.

Chef Brian Wilson, the executive chef of Montmartre, a French restaurant on Capitol Hill, has purchased Cafe Des Artistes."It was a dream come true, we were so worried about leaving this big hole here we thought we would just be shutting down," said owner Karleen Jaffres.According to Karleen, the deal went through Tuesday night (March 1) when Wilson signed the lease to the building and purchased the restaurant.Wilson said he had found out about the restaurant through his father, who was classmates with one of the Cafe's customers, and approached the Jaffres just after the first of the year to express his interest.Wilson told the County Times that this is the first restaurant he has owned. He said that it has been a dream of his for sometime to take the next step from executive chef to owner.With the purchase finalized, the Cafe closed its doors this past Sunday to take an allotted three weeks to clean up and move out."We have spent more time here than our our home for the last 17 years," said Karleen. Wilson will then come in around April to set up and then plans to open somewhere around late May into early June.The new restaurant will be keeping the French style, but according to Wilson, the menu will be tweaked a bit to include a combined rustic country, classic, and modern feel.Wilson said that he has had much experience with French food, including his first job and current job, and considers Mediterranean food his main focus and specialty.Although the menu will still have the same types of food, the name of the restaurant will be changed. The name has yet to be set in stone as Wilson is still contemplating what will be a good fit for the restaurant and Leonardtown."I hope to continue the same mentality, hospitality and warmth as Cafe des Artistes and I hope that customers will feel as welcome in my house and they did in the Jaffres," said Wilson.Karleen and Loic are very pleased about the new owner."Not only is Brian a good chef, he is also very intelligent," said Karleen.They are happy that he will be continuing the French theme.I've had so many people say 'Where am I going to get my escargot?' and 'I've never tasted foie gras like this'. They are still going to be able to get it and that's what's great," said Karleen.As for Loic and Karleen after their last day, they will be flying down to Florida to help Karleen's parents move to Pennsylvania. For now, they will be keeping their home base in St. Mary's County until they figure out their future plans.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The founder of an LGBT-friendly St. Patrick's Day parade said Saturday that the inclusive celebration will go on even though the city's big St. Patrick's Day procession in Manhattan has dropped its ban on gay groups.

St. Pat's for All founder Brendan Fay said he expects 2,000 marchers at Sunday's event in Queens.

Organizers of the Manhattan parade, on Fifth Avenue, had banned gay groups marching under their own banners. But the groups will be allowed at this year's event, the nation's largest, on March 17.

Fay said, ``The original reason for the St. Pat's for All is gone, but it has grown more diverse and more inclusive over the years.''

He said the Queens parade will now focus on diversity in all forms. Participants this year include members of several ethnic communities, including Koreans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, and poets, artists, musicians and athletes.

The parade will start with a moment of remembrance honoring men and women who spent years fighting for gay rights, especially activists who tried to walk in the Manhattan celebration and were arrested.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, was among the marchers in the Queens County St. Patrick's Day Parade in the Rockaways, a waterfront community once known as the Irish Riviera for its large ethnic Irish population.

De Blasio, serving his first term as mayor, had declined to march in the big Manhattan event the last two years, but he said this week he has ended that boycott now that it has fully dropped its longstanding ban on allowing gay and lesbian groups to march under their own banners.
LISA ESA

After completing a long series of tests on the spacecraft and payload, the ESA mission LISA Pathfinder has started its science mission.

Over the next six months it will conduct hundreds of experiments to pave the way for future space-borne gravitational-wave observatories like eLISA. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) and the Institute for Gravitational Physics of Leibniz Universitat Hannover are leading mission partners.

LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator satellite mission, about 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth towards the Sun. There, mission scientists have now set up a space laboratory to study the perfect free fall of two cubic test masses. The team will use it to test technologies necessary for future space-borne gravitational-wave observatories.

We are now just starting the second week of the LISA Pathfinder science operations. We are absolutely thrilled by how well our first set of experiments went, says Prof. Karsten Danzmann, director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz Universitat Hannover, who also is the Co-Principal Investigator of the LISA Technology Package. For the next weeks we have a tight schedule of experiments to run on the satellite, which will ultimately show that we can build a full-scale gravitational-wave observatory in space.

Measuring gravitational waves in space

Einstein predicted gravitational waves from his theory of general relativity. They were  100 years after the prediction  recently measured for the first time by the ground-based Advanced LIGO detectors. Space-borne observatories such as eLISA will complement the existing ground-based detectors by measuring low-frequency gravitational waves inaccessible on the Earth.

Observatories such as eLISA rely on placing test masses in perfect free fall, which are isolated from all external forces except gravity. The squeezing and stretching of space-time induced by passing gravitational waves will be detected by constantly monitoring the distances between two free falling test masses. These test masses will be placed in three satellites, separated by millions of kilometers. Lasers will be used to measure their distances.

LISA Pathfinder takes one of these so-called laser arms shrunk to 38 cm to fit inside the satellite. There, a pair of identical gold-platinum cubes measuring 46 mm each  is placed inside the spacecraft in vacuum chambers. Mission scientists are now verifying that the masses are truly moving under the effect of gravity alone. The construction of the precise optical measurement system used for this was led by scientists of the Max Planck and Leibniz Universitat researchers in Hannover.

Even in space, far away from all disturbances, different internal and external forces are still influencing the cubes motions. LISA Pathfinder monitors the motions and uses micro-Newton thrusters to always keep the spacecraft centered on one cube. Additionally, both test masses can be gently moved and controlled by applying electrostatic fields from special housings.

The perfect free fall

To understand how different forces act on the test masses and disturb their perfect free fall, the team will deliberately apply these forces to the masses and study their reaction. In one of these experiments the scientists will raise the temperature inside the test masses vacuum chambers, heating up the few gas molecules left there to measure if this has any effect on the motion of the cubes. Similar tests can be performed by applying increasingly stronger magnetic or electric forces to the test masses, to assess their influence.

Our aim is not only to reduce the impact of forces that we already know are disturbing the cubes, but also to learn more about the remaining effects that are hidden in the noise, says Karsten Danzmann.

Data analysis for LISA Pathfinder in Hannover

The scientific mission of LISA Pathfinder officially started last week, on 1 March, with a review of the commissioning period presented on 7 March. The science operations will last six months, split between 90 days for the LISA Technology Package, and 90 days for the Disturbance Reduction System, an additional experiment provided by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

During the entire operations phase, Max Planck and Leibniz Universitat researchers in Hannover are partners in the data analysis which plays a central role in extracting the crucial information from the science data. They have played a leading role in the development of the software use, too. The institute has set up an operations control room in Hannover to function as back-up for the control room at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt and for in-depth studies of the data. Since an immediate data analysis is required for the configuration of follow-up experiments, scientist from the institute will also take part in the around-the-clock shifts at ESOC.
Exchange programmes open a new world to students, but also US employers.

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AMONG the biggest benefits of the US Visa Exchange Programme is that young people leave the nest and start taking care of themselves.

They are forced to work, but also learn the language and the culture of the country they temporarily live in, says Robin Lerner, deputy assistant secretary for Private Sector Exchange at the US Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

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They find themselves achieving something that they even didnt know they have in them, Lerner, who oversees the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program, added.

The exchange programmes are familiar also to Slovaks as more than 3,000 exchange visitors from Slovakia went to the United States in 2014 via various categories. The majority of them (2,544) participated in the Summer Work Travel programme open to university students.

The Slovak Spectator and the Sme daily spoke to Lerner about the beginnings of the exchange programmes, the interest of Slovaks in them and also about the interest of Americans to study in Slovakia.

The Slovak Spectator (TSS)/SME: Could you, please, describe the beginnings of the exchange programmes in the US?

Robin Lerner (RL): What we call the Exchange Visitor Program began with the Fulbright Hays Act of 1963. There were some informal exchanges before but through the Fulbright Hays Act of 1963 the State Department was able to initiate formalised exchange programmes. The government had to enact the regulation and start to build the system to implement the programme.

But it really began at universities. They have been conducting academic exchange for decades. A lot of what the Fulbright Hays Act sets up is exchanges for the purpose of mutual understanding and educational and academic exchange.

TSS/SME: Was it hard to promote these programmes among young people?

RL: The Summer Work Travel, for example, was heavily promoted with Ireland. The mechanism for the youth of Ireland and other countries of Europe was to actually come over, work and see the United States and then go home. No brain drain. This programme is implemented by exchange organisations. What we at the State Department do is that we have an office that accepts applications from American organisations or entities. They do the application to be designated by the State Department as a sponsor of a J-1 exchange. Once they go through the process, they get the J-1 visa forms to bring people on. They pick the countries, find the partners and spread the word. In Slovakia we have about 10 agencies today whose job is to promote the programme across all the different categories.

TSS/SME: Which programmes are the most popular with Slovak students? How has the structure of participants in this student exchange programme changed over the years?

RL: The highest interest from Slovakia is in the Summer Work Travel programme. The eligibility for that category has always been university students. They have to show proof that they are university students and they can come anytime during their studies, whether they are bachelors, masters, PhD students. Or during the last summer, after they finish their final exams. That has never changed.

What they can or cant do on the programme, that is different now. Weve taken out certain jobs and created more clarity on the kinds of jobs that are appropriate for an exchange programme. Ultimately, this is a cultural exchange programme. It allows Slovak youth to get a more actual experience of US culture. We allow them to work for up to three months and then they can travel for a month. And during that whole time they are speaking English, making friends, living in the US and learning what thats about.

TSS/SME: What other programmes are popular, except for Summer Work Travel?

RL: The au-pair programme is popular here. Its very different from the European au-pair programme. We also have sponsors who are responsible for that programme, for finding the host families. The host families have to be selected and must show that they are eligible. They have to have a certain size of the room for au-pair. The au-pairs are limited in how many hours they can work per week and they have to get time off. We regulate they can only do work for children. They can stay for up to two years.

Also the high school exchanges are popular. There were 254 in high schools in 2015. Its quite an expensive programme; the families are making investments to send their child. The other one is a Camp Counselor programme.

TSS/SME: Is there any interest among American students to come for an exchange to Slovakia? What is their motivation to choose Slovakia?

RL: My first-hand experience is only in inbound programmes in the US. But an Open Doors report shows there is an increase in students studying here. We have a Fulbright programme which does allow for two-way research and we have a Fulbright Commission. They do a lot of work here to promote the programme, to find funding for other programmes. Americans dont study abroad as much as other countries study abroad. Its something we work on a lot: to try to increase the number of Americans going abroad.

TSS/SME: What have been the best moments for you since you have been appointed to the post?

RL: I came in 2012 and we actually needed to make some fixes to Summer Work Travel. We began major monitoring trips in the summer. I sent all my staff out, they went to every corner of the US to meet participants in the programme and ask them lots of questions about how the programme is going. We continue to do that. In 2014 I started a blog where I highlighted successful programmes. There are countless stories of how this programme has just changed peoples lives. But what I love about the J-1 is that young kids leave the nest. They find themselves achieving something that they even didnt know they have in them.

On the other side, Ive seen the host employers who show you a map and the pins of where the students came from and all the presents theyve gotten over the years from the students that came. They dont even know how to pronounce the name of the country, but they still get emails. That has opened their world so much.

TSS/SME: Do you also have any negative experiences?

RL: What really breaks my heart is when students come and they end up with a bad landlord or somebody who takes advantage on them. And they just dont know thats not the way theyre supposed to be treated. Also, it breaks my heart when young women come to the US and they just dont bring their self-awareness with them. They need to understand that you need to be careful in the US. People who come on this programme have got to be safe and safety always comes first  thats what I really want more than anything. They should always ask questions if something doesnt feel right to them. They need to make sure that they have a contract that they feel good about before they go.

TSS/SME: Would you personally join such a programme?

RL: I did one. I was a camp counsellor in Switzerland in college. I dont even know if I made any money, but it was great. I spoke French, met people from all over the world, travelled all over Europe. It allowed me to be there the whole summer.

TSS/SME: Slovakia often struggles to lure the talents to return from abroad back home. Based on the US experience, what would you recommend the country to change, so these people want to return?

RL: I am not specifically familiar with Slovakia enough, but I would just say a country that wants to attract people has to think about what the young people want and what they need. The J-1 programme works because young people want work experience, they want to learn English and they want to travel and have fun. I often find other governments want to do the same thing, but they need to create a visa for it. We created a structure around it, which makes it easy. Im not sure how many people are looking to learn Slovak, but you have to look what else you have and build on it.
THE MEAL voucher scheme has long been criticised for the profits it generates for just a handful of stakeholders.

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Now, the Antimonopoly Office has joined the criticism and imposed a hefty fine after discovering that the five companies issuing meal vouchers violate free market principles.

Competition has completely failed on this market; this means that the market is a cartel or was a cartel in the given period and we also think that this market is very prone to other cartels in the future, said Radoslav Toth, vice-chairman of the Antimonopoly Office (PMU), in late February, as cited by the SITA newswire. He went on to call on the Labour Ministry to abolish the vouchers and replace them either with money directly paid to employees or an electronic voucher scheme.

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The PMU found five companies issuing meal vouchers guilty as part of two cartel agreements and imposed an aggregate fine of 2.96 million. The affected companies still can challenge the verdict, so the PMU has refused to identify them.

Based on information and documents PMU obtained during a one-year investigation, it claims that the companies have restricted competition with a cartel agreement under which they, between 2009 and 2014, divided up the market amongst themselves. The companies involved agreed not to lure away an existing client of another voucher issuer. When companies held a tender to find a voucher supplier, only one company offered acceptable conditions. Others submitted only pro forma bids. This way they kept their market share stable and only really competed for new clients.

Within the second cartel the voucher issuers pressed on retail chains to accept a maximum of five vouchers per shopping trip. This way they wanted to push people to spend vouchers in restaurants. The second cartel agreement, even though retailers have never implemented such a restriction, lasted from 2011 and 2014.

The Association of Issuers of Meal Vouchers does not see a reason to comment on the PMUs verdict, the organisation informed on its website.

Meal voucher scheme

In Slovakias Labour Code for nearly 20 years employers have had to contribute to the meals of their employees. As only large companies usually have a canteen, others give their employees meal vouchers issued by voucher issuing companies of which the biggest include Doxx, Endered, Le Cheque Dejeuner and Vasa Slovensko.

Employers buy vouchers from the issuer; with voucher values ranking between the obligatory minimum 3.15 and 4.20. It must pay the issuer a commission that is capped by law at 3 percent. Then the employer distributes the vouchers to its employees, while the employer pays 55 percent of the value of the voucher at least and the employee the rest. Afterwards the employee can use the voucher for buying either a meal in a restaurant or food in a shop. The restaurants or shops return to the voucher issuer and exchange the vouchers for money. This transaction is also subject to payment of a commission to the issuer and restaurants pay a bigger commission than retailers.

About 750,000 employees receive meal vouchers from their employers.

Scrapping the scheme

The PMU proposes dissolving the voucher scheme with employees instead receiving a direct financial contribution to their salaries, or a shift to a voluntary system, with employees deciding for themselves whether they want to receive meal tickets or cash. In case of the latter, employers will directly pay the benefit to employees when it would be exempt from taxation and levies as is currently the case of meal vouchers.

In their reaction the Labour, Social Affairs and Family Ministry stated that if meal tickets were scrapped, peoples interest in having meals at restaurants would fall dramatically and they would use the money for other purposes than buying a meal. This can have a negative impact on their eating habits resulting in worsened health conditions as well as on employment in the restaurant sector.

The Association of Issuers of Meal Vouchers shares the latter opinion, arguing that if vouchers are scrapped, sales of restaurants would decline by 209 million annually and that thousands of cooks and waiters would be out of a job.

Criticism of the voucher scheme

Opposition politicians and some economic analysts have repeatedly criticised the meal voucher scheme arguing that vouchers are only a useless interlink between employers and employees securing a highly profitable business for the voucher companies. Moreover, it brings more red tape to employers as well as restaurants and retail chains.

There have already been several attempts to scrap the scheme, but they have failed so far as the Labour Ministry remains a strong advocate.

Companies issuing meal vouchers have secured hundreds of thousands of clients, said Radovan Durana, an analyst at the think tank Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), as cited by the Sme daily. They can keep high rates for usage of meal vouchers, moreover with only small concerns in terms of the future.

Restaurants also criticise the scheme when they point to increasing commission for re-purchase of vouchers by their issuers.

Retailers join the criticism pointing out that the original idea of meal vouchers is now so broken that they are useless in their current form. Pavol Konstiak, the president of the Association of Trade and Tourism, recalled that the employee was able to get a warm meal via the voucher in the past. The usage of the voucher is by law limited to the purchase of meals and it is not possible to pay for alcohol or cigarettes.

But this has changed in such a scope that you can today actually buy anything with the voucher, said Konstiak, as cited by the Hospodarske Noviny daily. Vouchers should be cancelled in any form because it is a profit-making activity of just a few companies.
International prestige of Slovak wine recognized.

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Slovakias winemaking has once again found success when Slovak winemakers won the third highest number of gold and silver metals out of foreign participants at Vinalies Internationales Paris, considered to be the most prestigious wine competition in the world. Altogether they earned 18 gold and 37 silver metals, the highest number so far, the Pravda daily reported.

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The competition Vinalies Internationales Paris is known for objective and unprejudiced evaluation, said Edita Durcova to the Pravda daily. She represented Slovakia at the 130-member jury but also contributed to production of one gold-awarded wine when she cooperated with Milan Pavelka in production of Cuvee Pinot 2014. During five tasting days I did not have any Slovak wine in the commission. It was colleagues-tasters from 33 countries who gave high evaluations to Slovak medal holders.

The 22nd edition of Vinalies Internationales Paris took place between February 26 and March 1. This year was strong in terms of competition when 38 countries sent a total of 3,441 wines. Among them, were 192 wines from 43 Slovak winemakers.

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Slovaks succeeded with typical central European varieties like Veltlinske Zelene or Rizling Vlassky but also with Pinot with multiple colour variations. Slovakia succeeded especially in the category of white wines when winery Mrva&Stanko represented Slovakia well and won three gold medals. Chateau Topolcianky and Martin Pomfy from Vinosady each won two gold medals and five silver medals. The young generation of winemakers showed off too, when brothers Lukas and Matus Berto from Strekov sent two wines to Paris and both won gold. High hopes were pinned also on young Daniel Simonovic from Modra, whose wines found success with one gold and one silver. Jaroslav Ostrozovic again confirmed that Slovak Tokay wine belongs to the world's top class. Other awarded winemakers included Peter Matysak (one gold and five silver medals), Juraj Zaprazny and Roman Janousek (one gold and two silver each), Pravda wrote.

This year of the competition showed that a new ambitious and talented generation of winemakers is taking hold in Slovakia.

As students we looked at Paris as at an Olympus, that is let only to the biggest Slovak stars and now we seized it during the first attempt, said Lukas Berta as cited by Pravda. It is an excellent feeling but especially a huge commitment in order that our wines meet the big expectations of Slovak wines fans.

The success of Slovak wines in Paris means a upgrade to the reputation of Slovakia as a wine-making country.

If we repeat it [the success] several times, the world starts being interested in Slovak wines and our winemakers can receive orders also from foreign merchants interested in specialities, said Vladimir Mrva of Mrva&Stanko.
Kotlebas party will receive more than 5 million.

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Good results in parliamentary elections do not mean only seats in parliament or cabinet but also financial support from state coffers. Each party that received more than 3 percent of votes will get a sum equaling 2 percent of the average nominal wage from the last year before elections as well as those making it to parliament will get additional subsidies for their MPs. This means that the far-right Peoples Party-Our Slovakia (LSNS) chaired by Marian Kotleba will receive more than 5 million, the Sme daily estimated.

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While the state subsidized eight political parties so far, after the March 5 elections it will led financial support to 10 parties including LSNS; which will get money from the state for the first time.

The Slovak Statistics Office will release the average nominal wage for 2015 on March 8, while the National Bank of Slovakia has estimated it at 882.

Based on the estimate, the parties will receive 1 percent or 8.82 per ballot cast and an additional 8.82 for their operation. The state will pay out these contributions in two portions - the first one shortly after elections and the second one gradually over the following four years.

Those parties, that passed the 5-percent threshold, will get a contribution for mandates in parliament. Parties with less than 20 mandates will get 26,460, i.e. 30-fold of the nominal average wage in 2015, annually during the next four years. Those having more than 20 MPs will get 20-fold of the nominal average wage, i.e. 17,640, while this lower subsidy will pertain to Smer and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) parties. LSNS will get 1.48 million for its 14 MPs.

In total the state will pay about 60 million to political parties during the following four years, while it was 48 million during the previous election term.

The reason why the state should subsidize political parties is that otherwise they will be financed by oligarchs, who then would seek to push their own interests through via the parties, Sme wrote citing Grigorij Meseznikov.
Bratislava and Banska Bystrica held protest rallies.

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Up to 2,000 people marched silently through Bratislava in response to the election result of the extreme right Peoples Party-Our Slovakia (LSNS), chaired by Marian Kotleba, governor of the Banska Bystrica Region. It received 8.04 percent of votes earning it 14 seats in the 150-member parliament.

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We want to show in this way that there are people in Slovakia who will always stand up against fascism and will defend the ideas of European humanism, one of organisers of the march Robert Mihaly from the initiative Bratislava without Nazis as cited by the SITA newswire.

The event, called Anti-Fascist Mobilisation  You Can Never Pass! was an ad hoc spontaneous event that arose as an instant response to the election results, Eva Riecanska, one of organisers of the event told the TASR newswire.

video //www.sme.sk/vp/33348/

When explaining why they are protesting she recalled that Hitler rose to power in the 1930s in a democratic way, while the following development ended in the total dismantling of democracy.

The protest march, which led from the SNP Square via the historical centre back to the SNP square where its participants lit candles, was attended by people of all ages but mostly young people. Many protesters held anti-Kotleba banners and banners with crossed swastikas.

Protest in Banska Bystrica

Another protest took place in Banska Bystrica, where Kotleba is governor. More than 200 people holding candles gathered in the downtown to protest against the election result of LSNS. Some of the protesters were holding banners, for example with the following inscriptions: Banska Bystrica is mot ultra-right, Lets not allow history to be repeated, and Goodbye common sense. Others had banners with crossed swastikas.

We do not agree with a party featuring fascists among its members to be a legitimate part of the national parliament, said protest organiser Dorota Martincova from civil platform Not in Our City as cited by TASR.
THE NEW forces in Slovak parliament seem unlikely to change Slovakias critical attitude to refugees.

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Richard Sulik, chair of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) which gained the second highest support in the March 5 general election and MEP, criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel and repeated his anti-refugee statements in the talk show broadcast by German television ARD on March 6.

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Sulik has a chance to form the new government if talks led by the election winner, Robert Fico, fail.

In the beginning of his speech, Sulik said that the upper limit of accepting refugees in Slovakia is zero, which he later added is what Slovaks really want, as reported by the Dennik N daily.

He went on to say that police officers do not have to kill refugees immediately, but they should use violence to protect borders. A similar opinion was voiced by head of the far-right party Alternative for Germany Frauke Petry who claimed that police officers should shoot migrants who try to cross borders illegally.

When talking about solutions to the crisis, Sulik mentioned closing the borders. In this respect he mentioned Spain which, unlike Greeks, can protect its southern, coastal borders.

If we close the border, people will stop coming and no big number of people will drown there, Sulik said, as quoted by Dennik N. Europe should protect itself.

Sulik was also critical of Merkel, saying that on one hand she wants to close the borders, but on the other she wants to pay Turkey for closing its borders. Such an approach is cowardly and duplicitous, he added.

He was also critical of the EU funds, saying they only create space for corruption in Slovakia. The country should stop drawing them, according to Sulik.

Fico praises V4 role in the summit

Meanwhile, the leaders of the European Unions member states met in Brussels on March 7 to discuss solutions to the migration crisis. The countries basically accepted the proposal to speed up the liberalisation of the visa regime for Turkeys citizens. They also agreed on new ways to stop illegal migration, like the right for the EU to return illegal Syrian migrants back to Turkey. In return the EU will accept war refugees from Syria in a legal way, said President of the European Council Donald Tusk, as reported by the TASR newswire.

The final document, however, does not contain any mention about the so-called Balkan migration route being closed, TASR wrote.

The EU will continue in talks with Turkey about details of the agreement. It is expected the final deal will be made at the March 17-18 summit.

Slovak Prime Minister Fico said after the negotiations that they received a new proposal of the agreement with Turkey, based on which Greece would withdraw the migrants from all of its islands to the mainland in the near future. Since they saw it for the first time, they could not agree with it immediately and thus it will be discussed at the next summit.

He also praised the role of the Visegrad Group (V4) at the summit. The countries succeeded with its proposal that the number of refugees the EU will take instead of returned migrants will not be higher than 160,000, the number approved within the relocation quota scheme. This means it will not impact Slovakia which disagreed with the mechanism and submitted a lawsuit, Fico added.

Without its coordinated approach, the decisions that are at odds with our interests would be adopted, Fico said, as quoted by TASR.
PRESIDENT Andrej Kiska will appoint Smers chair Robert Fico to form a new government only on March 9.

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The meeting between Kiska and Fico was originally planned to take place on March 8, but it was postponed.

The meeting was postponed based on Robert Ficos request due to his late return from Brussels, said Martin Liptak of the Presidents Office press department, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

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The representatives of the centre-right parties, whom Kiska met on March 7, have, however, refused the possibility to cooperate with Smer. Following these meetings, Richard Sulik, chair of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) which finished second in the March 5 general election, said he plans to start unofficial talks with representatives of the centre-right parties.

He has already addressed the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO-NOVA), the Slovak National Party (SNS), Sme Rodina (We Are Family) of Boris Kollar, Most-Hid and Siet, the SITA newswire reported.

Sulik hopes he can create a stable government which will fight against corruption, create conditions for fair punishments of those who steal from the country, and adopt changes in economy to boost employment.

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We can create a stable coalition with 87 mandates, Sulik told the press on March 8, as quoted by SITA.

He hopes that the party can act as a mediator between Most-Hid and SNS which differ in their opinions on several topics.

Sulik went on to say he respects Kiskas decision to appoint Fico to form the government. If Fico succeeds in forming the government, he will respect it as well, the SaS chair added.

Kollar already said that his party, which will hold 11 seats in the parliament, will support a centre-right government, although it does not want to join a coalition, as reported by the TASR newswire.
CANDIDATES of the parties winning more than 5 percent of votes in the general election will officially get a certificate confirming they were elected members of parliament on March 11.

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The winner of the election, Smer, will have altogether 49 MPs in the 150-seat house. Freedom of Solidarity (SaS) will have 21 MPs, Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) 19 MPs, Slovak National Party (SNS) 15 MPs, Peoples Party  Our Slovakia (LSNS) 14 MPs, while Sme Rodina (We Are Family) and Most-Hid will have 11 MPs each. The smallest party in the parliament will be Siet with 10 MPs, the SITA newswire wrote.

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There will be a total of 29 women sitting in the 150-seat parliament, which is two more than between 2012-2016. Most of them will be from OLaNO: six. SaS will have five female MPs, while Smer and Siet will have four each, the Dennik N daily reported.

The Slovak laws stipulate that President Andrej Kiska has to summon the first session of the new parliament in 30 days after confirming the election results (i.e. by April 4). There is a rumour that the first session will be held on March 30, but nobody has confirmed it yet, SITA wrote.

The MPs will be sworn in at the first session and they will elect its speaker and deputy speakers, as well as representatives of parliamentary committees.
Sakae is a shopping district in Nagoya known for its high-end fashion stores. Here in the heart of the city, pedestrians crowd the streets peering into the windows of Louis Vuitton and Tokyu Hands. As I walk amidst the boutiques and classy department stores, Im surprised to stumble upon a coffee stand on the sidewalk in front of a clothing shop. The portable kiosk offers Hario V60 pour-overs as well as AeroPress and features beans from two of Tokyos top roasters: Switch Coffee Tokyo and Onibus Coffee. Its shocking to find such offerings in an otherwise heavily corporate coffee area, so I strike up a conversation with the barista manning the stand. He points above his head to reveal that up a flight of stairs is his cafe, Maison YWE (pronounced like the letter Y).

Up the stairs Im greeted by a two-group Slayer on the counterthe only Slayer in Nagoya at this timewhich is a promising sign. To the side of the Slayer is a crowded pour-over station. The coffee and kitchen share a workspace in the center of the cafe and customer seating can be found on either end of the store. Its unconditionally hip here. The decor is a combination of dried plants, raw concrete, and light wood tones. Towards the staircase entrance there is veranda seating, which is encased in thick plastic during the winter to keep the cool air out. A kerosene heater in the center of the room keeps the chatting clientele warm in this semi open-air space. The opposite side of the cafe has more interior seating and large glass windows allowing natural light to flood in. The short hallway connecting the two customer areas is lined with bar-style seating. Theres very little wasted space here.

Maison YWE is a sit-down-style cafe, meaning the servers come to you. The staff scrambles to get coffee and pastry orders in while the baristas try to time their coffee preparations so that food and drink can be served simultaneously. This attention to detail isnt uncommon in coffeehouses around here, but the coffee being served at Maison YWE is. The new wave coffee style still hasnt made much of a splash in Nagoya, where dark roast reigns supreme. It seems that for now the majority of people prefer smoky chocolatey flavors in their cup, but some are beginning to give lighter roasts a go, and Maison YWE is happy to facilitate.

Takumi Oiwa, store manager at Maison YWE, tells me that they wanted to serve coffee that matched their tarts and pastries. Their baked offerings are slightly sweet, light, and delicate, so coffee with the same characteristics was the natural choice. I asked whether customers are surprised by the flavor profiles in this style of coffee. Takumi laughs when he tells me that once a customer took him aside and told him frankly, Youve made a mistake with my drink. But overall, most are pleased. The Maison YWE team decided to feature coffee from Tokyo because they wanted to have interesting beans not usually available in this area, hoping to draw in coffee enthusiasts. Most of their clientele is brought in by word-of-mouth recommendations. Coffee lovers seek out good coffee, Takumi says.

Looking around, it seems that perhaps this experiment is a success. Customers are happily sipping their drinks and munching little cakes all around me. On this cool day there is an hour wait just to sit down, and people are willing to do so. I guess that explains the mobile coffee stand downstairs serving to-go beverages. Its a sort of overflow control. Sometimes the Maison YWE stand can be found at local markets and events, helping to spread this newer style of coffee culture to the area. Heres to hoping they succeed.

Eric Tessier is freelance journalist based in Tokyo. This is Eric Tessiers first feature for Sprudge.com.
Sometimes, as a Sprudge writer, you find yourself in peculiar situationsones where you might otherwise be concerned for your well-being. Take, for example, the trip I took one day recently, about 10 kilometers northeast of the city of Adelaide, into a semi-industrial neighborhood, looking for a couple of guys in a shed using a bunch of machinery to cook up some tasty treats. On the surface this scenario could seem quite sinister, but luckily I was just going out to see a neat little roastery by the name of Monastery Coffee.

Founded in 2013, Monastery Coffee was set up by Adam Marley, Daniel Milky, and Nader Shahin, three fellows who at the time were simultaneously disillusioned and passionate about changing thingslocally and globally, as Marley describes. With university educations in economics, finance, and geophysics, respectively, Marley, Milky, and Shahin set out to fill what they saw as a gap in the coffee industry in Adelaide at the time, aiming to create a roastery that represented quality, consistency, and traceability.

Nearly three years down the track, Monastery is now operating out of a shed within a shed (essentially a cool-room infrastructure within a typical shed structure). Here they roast on a 12-kilogram Diedrich using Cropster software, and a range of machinery for quality control, including a Mahlkonig EK 43, an espresso machine made by Shahin himself, a Nuova Simonelli Mythos One, and a Mojo refractometer. Green coffee is sourced through the likes of Melbourne Coffee Merchants, Cafe Imports, Handpickers, Silo Coffee, MTC Group, and Latorre & Dutch. Marley has also previously traveled to Burundi to meet with and source coffee from the Long Miles Coffee Project.

In a town with a slowly growing specialty-coffee industry, Monastery has, perhaps expectedly, experienced some pushback, as Marley explained: I regularly hear a variation on, Wow! Thats some of the nicest coffee Ive tried, and we love what youre doing ethically. However, we just dont think our customers will appreciate the difference, and our margins cant accommodate the higher price, sorry.  In this, the challenge to Monastery (and other small roasters) is plainwhether to make an effort to highlight to their current clientele the reasons of quality and traceability that account for why their coffee costs more than others, or to try and attract a new demographic.

Marley, however, is optimistic as regards the way the Adelaide specialty-coffee industry is progressing. What Id like to see is a day where the average customer is informed and inquisitivewhen the consumer starts demanding transparency and quality, the market for ethical, and delicious, coffee will grow. So long-term, and philosophically, we want to help educate coffee drinkersnot just specialty-coffee drinkers, but all coffee drinkers.

Eileen P. Kenny (@eileenpk) is a Sprudge.com staff writer and the publisher of Birds of Unusual Vitality, the coffee interview magazine. Read more Eileen P. Kenny on Sprudge.
Asked whether the US would retaliate should an American jet be shot down by Chinese forces, Robinson declined to comment, but noted that two nations' military forces signed an agreement on air-to-air rules of behavior in international airspace in September and would continue discussions on the subject this year. According to Robinson, this will reduce the "possibility of miscalculation" that could lead to an all-out war in an increasingly militarized region.

"That has allowed us to have continuous dialogue with the Chinese about how to conduct safe intercepts and intercepts in accordance with international rules and norms."

As part of the region's militarization, General Robinson noted that Russian long-range aircraft have reportedly been increasingly active in the Pacific, flying near Japan and Guam.

The US aims to increase its presence in Pacific region by negotiating the rotation of its bombers through air bases in Northern Australia, Robinson added.
The countries of the European Union must form a TTIP-like trade deal with Russia, according to Georg Kapsch, the head of the Federation of Austrian Industry, an influential business lobby in Austria.

The TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), is an exclusive deal between the United States and EU countries concerning business regulation, the reduction of tariffs and settlement of disputes between states and corporations. In addition to the TTIP, the US is negotiating a TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), a potentially more comprehensive agreement with countries in Asia and the Americas.

"I am convinced of that. We need a TTIP-like deal with Russia. We need to create this bridge, otherwise we have no chance to compete with Asia," Kapsch told Austrian business daily WirtschaftsBlatt in an interview.
Touching on the Hesse election's results, Patzelt said that "they will certainly bring more momentum to the Alternative for Germany party, which we expect to enter three new state parliaments with about 15 per cent of votes."

He also said that the party is almost certain to have an indirect influence on Germany's policy-making in the near future.

"With the AfD's possible entry into the three more state legislatures, Chancellor Merkel will be in a difficult position in her own political party because losing votes is really dangerous for Christian Democrats. This, in turn, will be fraught with consequences for Merkel's standing in Europe," Patzelt said.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the Alternative for Germany party is also polling strongly in the run-up to the three key state elections; in some municipalities it claims more than 20 percent-voter support.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Turkey's proposal to exchange illegal migrants arriving in Greece for Syrian refugees from Turkey would be a "breakthrough" if it were implemented.

European Council President Donald Tusk said that illegal immigration to the European Union would not take place anymore.

"We agreed to work on the basis of the following principles: the return of all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into the Greek islands, the acceleration of the implementation of the visa liberalization roadmap, the speeding-up of the disbursement of three billion euros and additional funding for the refugee facilities for Syrians, the preparation for the opening of new chapters in the accession negotiations, the possibility of establishing in Syria areas which will be more safe and, finally, the resettlement of Syrian refugees on a one-for-one basis," Tusk said.

The European Union also intends to support Turkey's efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in several areas of Syria in order to allow the population to live in a safer environment, according to a joint statement issued by the EU heads of state or government on Tuesday.

Ankara has repeatedly called for the establishment of a no-fly zone in northern Syria, and criticized the United States for not backing the proposal. The European Union has not supported the initiative.

Schengen Saved, No More Balkan Route

The migration agreement and cessation of the influx of illegal refugees also puts an end to the Balkan route used by migrants who have been traveling from Greece through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary to Austria and Germany.
The group is supporting migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Syria through organizing a small camp in one of the churches in Lausanne. Aleene F. informed that 34 people had not been deported back to Italy or Spain owing to their initiative and support.

According to the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), close to 40,000 people asked for asylum in Switzerland in 2015, more than twice the number registered in the previous year.

The organization's member noted that Switzerland used to provide a special housing for refugees with small rooms where several people could live before they got a small room or a studio if their application was accepted in Switzerland.

However, due to the number of migrants currently arriving to Switzerland, the situation with refugees' accommodation is tense as the Swiss authorities say they do not have enough place for people in these special camps. "Some of them have to live underground in the bunkers without proper air-circulation and light. It is really difficult living conditions without any privacy," Aleene F. highlighted.
"I believe, it is not a good idea when it comes to the intelligence and security agencies, as I would prefer to rely on different channels of information when it comes to the governments battle against terrorism," Dhuicq said.

On November 13, a series of terrorist attacks across Paris left at least 130 people dead. The Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in Russia and many other countries, claimed responsibility for the tragedy.

Following the attacks, a state of emergency was announced in France for three months. The measure was expanded in February, as the government believes that the threat of terror attacks persists in the country.

France has ideas to implement deradicalization measures within the framework of country's counterterrorism efforts to balance "traditional" security efforts, a member of the French legislative defense commission said.

"We are going to have two ideas while implementing our counterterrorism strategy that should balance traditional security efforts. First of all, there are plans to open 3 special deradicalization units that would provide differentiated psychological support to those who are known to be involved in the jihadist organizations," Nicolas Dhuicq said.

He added that the second part of the plan involved the creation of deradicalization prison units that would segregate the terror convicts.

France stepped up counterterrorism measures following a series of terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured over 360 on November 13, 2015. The Islamic State jihadist group, which is outlawed in a number of countries, including the United States and Russia among others, took responsibility for the bloodshed.

The European Union should go beyond using intelligence at the EU level, and cooperate with Russia and Syria amid the current threats of radicalization and terrorism, a member of the French legislative defense commission said.

"Amid the attacks in Paris and the growing threat of radicalization and terrorism, the EU states need to step up beyond the use of intelligence at the European level expending this cooperation to the international partners such as Russia and the Assad's regime," Nicolas Dhuicq said.

According to Dhuicq, Syria could help by providing a list of people fighting for the Islamic State militant group who may become involved in terrorism-related acts in Europe. Russia has expertise in fighting terrorism.

The Daesh militant group has been operating in Syria amid the civil war in the country. The organization is banned in numerous states, including Russia. More than 36,500 foreign fighters have traveled to join the war in Syria from over 120 countries since 2012, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said last month.

Russia and the United States lead separate campaigns against the group in Syria. Russia began launching airstrikes against the Daesh positions since 2015, while a US-led coalition, which includes France, has been conducting an operation in Syria since 2014. The coalition does not have permission from Damascus, as it considers the current Syrian government illegitimate.

The prolonged hostilities in Syria have led to a massive refugee crisis, triggering concerns that terrorists could be entering Europe as asylum seekers. Concerns have also been raised over foreign nationals fighting in Syria returning to their home countries to carry out attacks.

On November 13, extremists carried out a series of coordinated attacks at various locations in the French capital, killing 130 people and injuring over 350. IS claimed responsibility for the incident.
Following the inspection, the UK's Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Hardwick recommended that Longport freight shed should no longer be used to hold detainees.

"The events of the summer and early autumn of 2015, in terms of the numbers of migrants arriving through the Channel Tunnel, were indeed unprecedented but they were not unpredictable," said Mr Clarke who asks why contingency plans weren't put into place to cater for the number of migrants, "so that they could be treated in an appropriate manner."

Dover Seaport

Dover Seaport "was crowded and poorly ventilated and smelled badly" and "did not provide a safe environment for the detention of women and children," said Clarke. Detainees had to seek permission to shower, "which was an unnecessary restriction that impeded hygiene and decency," according to the report.

From November 2014, to September 2015 the number of unaccompanied children increased from 83 to 370 and many were found to be detained for "excessive periods."

Frontier House

Frontier House for adult males had no showers, no windows and nowhere to rest. Despite only being suitable for stays of a few hours only, some men had been detained there for more than 24 hours and all were handcuffed while being taken from an escort van to the detention center.

"This was particularly inappropriate in light of the fact that all were asylum seekers who were normally released shortly afterwards," the report states.

Ninety-seven percent of detainees in Longport freight shed were male  from 15 different countries, with Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria being the most common countries of origin.
"Thus, we have to protect the border between Greece and Macedonia. We have to make sure that Greece is in a better position to look after these migrants and refugees so as to make the situation in Greece sustainable," the German leader stressed.

Ankara pledged to take back all illegal migrants that had arrived to the European Union and send in their place legal Syrian refugees to the EU on a one-for-one basis.

The migration crisis resolution is in progress and "moves in the right direction," German Chancellor said.

"Overall, everything moves in the right direction," Merkel told the SWR radio station in an interview, commenting on the process of solving the crisis.

The chancellor added the EU-Turkey summit was quite constructive.

"Everyone said that we needed to protect our external borders, everyone said we must fight illegal migration, everyone supported the participation of a NATO mission in the Aegean Sea and everyone welcomed the new proposals," she said.

Merkel criticized Austrian unilateral decision to close the country's borders to curb the migrant influx.

On Monday, the Turkey-EU summit on migration took place in Brussels. The summit focused on stemming migration flows into the European Union. During the event, the sides discussed cooperation on migration, focusing on a speedy implementation of the EU-Turkey action plan approved in fall 2015.
NATO warships have been called in to facilitate the processing. Britain this week announced that it is sending a large amphibious landing ship for the unspoken but obvious purpose of relocating people en masse.

Ostensibly, the EU is committed to eventually take back an equal number of Syrian refugees for asylum. But dont count on that. Out of 160,000 refugees that the EU vowed to domicile last year, so far only 700 individuals have been distributed among the 28-nation bloc. Dont be surprised if the camps in Turkey become permanent features like refugee centers in Lebanon and Jordan.

What we have here is a sordid bargain. The EU establishment gets to ship back migrants to Turkey, and to stop the flow of refugees. That influx was straining the very fabric of the EU, not because of the absolute numbers of migrants involved, but because of the bickering between the various member states.

So to the immense relief of the Eurocrats, the problem is solved, at least on the short term. Violating its own lofty principles, the EU is to dump the migrants into camps in Turkey. And the Ankara authorities not only stand to collect $6.6 billion from the EU, this week Erdogans sidekick prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu also extracted other concessions: visa-free travel for 75 million Turks to Europe to take effect within four months, and a promise from Brussels to speed up Turkeys accession to the EU.

The strong-arming of the EU by Erdogan was no doubt emboldened by Brussels weak-kneed response to his brutal crackdown last weekend on independent news media. The violent seizure by riot police of Turkeys biggest opposition newspaper, Zaman, was met with cowardly silence from the EU.
Oleg Tsarev, a Ukrainian politician who served as one of the earliest and most virulent opponents of the events of Maidan, commented on Yanukovych's plans, saying that the ex-president may yet play a role in resolving Ukraine's dramatic political legitimacy crisis.

"For anyone with even the slightest knowledge of Ukrainian law, it is absolutely obvious that Yanukovych and the parliamentary MPs elected together with him, along with [Prime Minister] Mikola Azarov's cabinet, are the only legitimate authority in Ukraine. This is the conflict we face today: de jure, Yanukovych is the president, but de facto, it's [Petro] Poroshenko," Tsarev noted, in an op-ed for Russia's Svobodnaya Pressa online newspaper.

From the legal point of view, the politician continued, everything Yanukovych's lawyer said in his interview was correct. "As far as the Ukrainian Constitution is concerned, all the laws and appointments in Ukraine since the victory of the Maidan are illegal. Poroshenko's election is illegitimate, since the elections law, and the necessary procedures were not signed off on by Yanukovych."

"For the same reason, not only is Poroshenko the illegitimate president  so is the entire cabinet of ministers, and the current Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine's parliament]. Yanukovych did not sign off on the appointment of lower-ranking officials  the heads of regional and district administrations, ambassadors, the heads the security organs, either."

This, Tsarev suggests, means that "the entire vertical of power in Ukraine today is de jure illegitimate." In essence, this means, for instance, that "the foreign loans now being taken out by [Prime Minister Arseniy] Yatsenyuk will not have to be returned, because his signature on these documents has no legal authority."
"This 35K [US$50] threshold determines the worth of an individual based solely on income rather than contribution to society, which is not just inhumane  it's short-sighted. The UK will lose essential staff like nurses, teachers, and care workers, and for what?

"I sincerely hope that Parliament will think better of this fooling knee-jerk policy," she states, as read out by Stuart McDonald.

#ImmigrationBill is nasty, punitive & lacking evidence base, & will undermine precisely the social cohesion Minister says she cares about  Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) October 13, 2015

Tommy Sheppard SNP MP for Edinburgh East suggested that:

"If we had not had immigration or migration over the centuries, this world would be a much more miserable and unlivable place than it is today."

The debate was the first time MPs had the chance to analyze the US$50,000 threshold for non-European Union workers since it was pushed through without a Commons vote in 2012. It's due to come into effect in April and will mean migrant workers who have lived in Britain under the Tier II visa system could be deported unless they prove they will earn at least US$50,000.

'Ludicrous & Arbitrary'

"Tier II visas, let us remind ourselves are given to people who are coming to work here in a job that has already been advertised locally," Mr Sheppard argued.

"I want to question the rationale, the logic, behind saying people have to earn a certain amount of money, a certain salary, to be able to come here, but a different amount of money, a different salary, to be able to stay here That seems ludicrous; and the 35,000 [US$ 50,000] a year figure is arbitrary."

Mr Sheppard also read out a letter written to him by one of his constituents who believed the Home Secretary's proposals reflected a preference towards high earners in private sectors over non-EU migrants working in the public sector and creative industries.

"The Secretary of State has a value system behind this  that they view some jobs as more important than other and that if someone is working in banking or financing and earning a good salary, they are regarded as inherently more valuable and someone we would want more than someone who is working in a lower-paid job in our public services or the arts and creative industries," the letter stated, as read out by Mr Sheppard.

Honing in on the point that the creative industries in Britain would suffer from the threshold, Mr Sheppard said you can't tell people: "to practice the arts here, you have to be in a job earning 35,000 [US$50,000] a year or you can't do it.

"As soon as we begin to do that, not only will that culture begin to ebb away and things will get that much duller, less creative and less exciting as a result people will go elsewhere," Mr Sheppard argued.

The Stop35Kcampaign released a statement following the debate:

"We urge the government to reconsider the implementation next month, and give the Migrant Advisory Committee an opportunity to complete a thorough assessment of suitable pay thresholds across jobs and geography in the UK."

The commodification of non-EU immigrants is set to come into force next month. Theresa May was criticized for not being present at the debate which was only attended by seven SNP MPs, three Conservative MPs and two Labour MPs.
"The extraordinary March 7 summit on migration issues in Brussels suggests that [the continent's leaders] have realized, belatedly, what's going on. Convened on the initiative of the German chancellor, who has become the de facto leader of the continent, the summit focused on two priorities: an agreement with Turkey urging Ankara to hold back some of the refugees, and the closure of the migration's Balkan route."

As far as the first question is concerned, Teas argues that it is completely legitimate for Europe to demand that Turkey keep a portion of the refugees it accepts, since "one of the overriding principles of asylum law is that the victims of persecution do not have the right to choose the place where they are held," and must settle in the first place where they are made safe.

"As for economic migrants, in other words  illegal immigrants, Turkey should not push them into Europe. Ankara's role, under international law and readmission agreements, is to return them to the country from which they came."

At the moment, Teas suggests, "Mr. Erdogan's Turkey seems to be engaged in a showdown with Europe, using a form of blackmail by conditioning its aid to migrants to accession to the EU, which would open it unlimited access to the European labor market and billions in structural funds. Yielding to these conditions would make Europe Turkey's hostage."


MOSCOW (Sputnik)On Monday, the Turkey-EU summit on migration took place in Brussels. Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants that had arrived to the European Union and send in their place legal Syrian refugees to the bloc on one-for-one basis in exchange for the acceleration of visa liberalization negotiations and EU accession talks.

"We believe that it [the resettlement of people] is against Hungarian and EU interests, so further negotiations are in need to be able to handle this situation," Kovacs said.

The migration agreement and cessation of the influx of illegal refugees also puts an end to the Balkan route used by migrants who traveled from Greece through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary to Austria and Germany.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States is discussing with Russia and members of the International Syrian Support Group (ISSG) allegations of ceasefire violations in Syria in the past two days in order to verify the claims credibility, US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner told Sputnik.

I know the Russian Ministry of Defense has been putting out a list of [violations], we have seen them, Toner stated on Monday. Its not been perfect; every day there is allegations of violations. We look into them via the task force when we sit there with Russia, with other members of the ISSG, to explore them, to better validate which ones are credible, which ones arent.

Toner underscored the situation in Syria is very complex, but noted that the United States has seen a reduction in the overall level of violence.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)According to Mehr News Agency, the tests were meant as a "demonstration of force" which would check the readiness of all layers of Iranian society to counter any threats "to the revolution, order and territorial integrity of the country."

The international community has long suspected Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon, and the UN Security Council imposed two resolutions on Tehran in an attempt to curtail its activities involving ballistic missiles.

On July 14, Iran and a group of six international mediators  Russia, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany  signed an historic deal to guarantee the peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. On January 16, the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran had met its requirements under the deal, paving the way for sanctions relief.
He further questions why such border interdiction operations havent been done before, and in fact, why these rebels who are admittedly harbored, trained, funded, and armed in Jordan and Turkey to begin with, didnt first begin by securing Syrias borders to prevent Daesh from entering the country in precisely the same areas rebels are supposedly operating?

His answer is very simple: the West had no intention of stopping Daesh.

In fact, Daesh are the rebels and the rebels are Daesh. Their taking of the Syrian-Iraqi border is superficial at best. The weapons, cash, and fighters will still flow, just as they do past NATO forces along the Turkish-Syrian border. The only difference is that now these terrorists will be flying the FSA flag, lending them protection amid a ceasefire agreed to in good faith by the Syrian government and its allies.

Taking full advantage of the ceasefire, the FSA is now suddenly appearing as if rising from the dead, everywhere Daesh and Al Qaeda have dominated for years, he says.

It appears that  having exhausted all other options  the West has decided to change as many of those black banners back to the rebel green, white, and black (the colors of the Free Syrian Army) as possible, before the conflict draws to a close, giving the West the most favorable position achievable ahead of peace talks.

During early victories against the Wests proxy forces, Al Qaeda and Daesh militants would dress as women to flee the battlefield. Now, they are dressing up as the otherwise nonexistent FSA, the author concludes.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US-led coalition launched 24 airstrikes against Islamic State (IS or Daesh) terrorist group members in Syria and Iraq targeting weapons caches, fighting positions, and IS headquarters, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in a statement on Tuesday.

"In Syria, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes using ground-attack, attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets," CENTCOM said. "Additionally in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 17 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using rocket artillery, attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets."

Coalition forces launched seven airstrikes throughout three Syrian cities on Monday, destroying an Daesh house borne improvised explosive device near Ayn Isa, a large tactical unit, gas and oil separation plant modular refinery close to Dayr Az Zawr, as well as a heavy machine gun position, tactical units and a facility near Mara.
Russias reconciliation center at the Hmeimim air base in Latakia launched a daily bulleting providing data on the progress of the ceasefire on the second day since the truce entered into force on February 27.

Ceasefire deals have been reached with commanders of two militia units in the Syrian province of Damascus in the past 24 hours, the Russian center on Syrian reconciliation said.

"Truce deals have been reached with commanders of two units of 300 people in total acting in the Damascus province in the past 24 hours. Therefore, the number of illegal armed formations who announced their commitment to the implementation and adoption of the conditions of the cessation of hostilities stands at 37," the center said as quoted by the Russian Defense Ministry.

The number of settlements with heads of which ceasefire deals have been reached stands at 42.

The Russian center on Syrian reconciliation said Tuesday it had passed on 4.2 metric tons (4.6 US tons) of humanitarian aid in 24 hours to the residents of the Syrian town Al Tal in the province of Rif Dimashq.

"The Russian Center on Reconciliation of the Syrian Arab Republic continues providing humanitarian assistance. [The center] passed on 4.2 tonnes of humanitarian aid, mainly foodstuffs, to the residents of the Al Tal settlement [Damascus Countryside province]," the center said, as quoted by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Over 400 delegates from dozens of communities across Syria's Hama province have gathered to take part in Syria's national reconciliation talks, agreeing to uphold the ongoing ceasefire in the country, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Participants of national reconciliation met in the Hama province at the governor's initiative and with widespread support among the population. Over 400 delegates representing 82 communities have affirmed the need to preserve Syria's unity by abandoning arms and establishing an intra-Syrian political dialogue," the ministry said, quoting the Russian center on Syrian reconciliation operating at the Hmeimim air base in Latakia.

A US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force on February 27 across Syria. It was supported by Damascus, as well as by dozens of opposition groups on the ground. The Islamic State and the Nusra Front, both outlawed in Russia, are not part of the deal.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russian and Syrian air forces have conducted no airstrikes on opposition groups which had joined the Syrian ceasefire and informed Russian and US reconciliation centers about their location, Russian center for Syrian reconciliation said in a bulletin published on the Russian Defense Ministrys website Tuesday.

The Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Air Force have not conducted any airstrikes on armed opposition groups, who have declared the cessation of hostilities and reported their whereabouts to a Russian or US reconciliation center, the statement said.

Over 400 delegates from dozens of communities across Syria's Hama province have gathered to take part in Syria's national reconciliation talks, agreeing to uphold the ongoing ceasefire in the country, the Russian Defense Ministry said.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)All parties wielding influence on conflicting sides in the Syrian civil war must exert pressure for the peace talks in Geneva to resume, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday.

"We also need more pressure from all parties that have influence for the peace talks between the regime and the opposition in Geneva to be resumed in the next few days, and then there can be progress towards a political transition," Steinmeier said in an interview with the German General-Anzeiger newspaper.

Last week, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura stated that the negotiations were due to officially kick off on March 9. Earlier on Tuesday, the envoy's office confirmed delays with some delegations arriving later with substantive meetings beginning on March 14 at the latest.


WASHINGTON (Sputnik)Irans alleged ballistic missiles tests, even if confirmed, would not violate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed on last July, US Department of State spokesperson Mark Toner said on Tuesday.

We're aware of and following closely the reports that Iran has just conducted several ballistic missile tests, Toner stated. To be very clear, such tests are not a violation of the JCPOA.

However, if the US government does confirm the reports alleging Iran recently conducted several ballistic missile tests, it will raise the issue with the UN Security Council, Toner added.
The complaint cites the fact that only eight out of 290 requests to conduct anti-terror operations by the Turkish Armed Forces were granted during election periods.

As evidence, Tezcan cited a secret meeting between leaders of the AKP and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The complaint follows statements made by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accusing the AKP of aiding terrorist organizations by "overlooking the stockpiling of weapons by the PKK."

Highlighting unrest within the Turkish government, the nations highest court opened its own investigation into government links to the PKK last summer. This followed a criminal complaint by the ruling AKP against the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP).

Critics claim that the AKPs complaint is political, attempting to force the HDP to comply with the Erdogan government.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Syrian opposition fighters have shelled the Kurdish-controlled Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo using white (or yellow) phosphorus munitions, Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) spokesperson Redor Khalil said Tuesday.

"Today, on March 8, a bombardment involving chemical weapons believed to contain yellow phosphorus, occurred in the Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood," Khalil's Facebook account said, adding that the attack may have been carried out by the Islamist Ahrar ash-Sham group, among other opposition groups.

Ahrar ash-Sham, as well as other terrorist groups, including the Nusra Front, has been excluded from the Russian and US-back ceasefire deal. The ceasefire took effect at midnight on February 27, Damascus time.
A UK investigation into Daesh (also known as Islamic State or IS) funding has heard the terrorist group's financial status has been damaged by US-led attacks on oil facilities , and the group is now dependent on donations from various Gulf states.

Luay al-Khatteeb, from the Iraq Energy Institute, told a Commons foreign affairs select committee that Daesh maintains its operations with wealthy Gulf donors and profits from foreign exchange sales.

According to the UK government, Daesh profit from oil sales amounts to 40% of their total budget. Extortion and taxation provide another 40% and the other 20% comes from sales of antiquities and donations.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US Air Force has resorted to its more than half-a-century-old B-52 bombers to pick up the bombing burden against the Islamic State, or Daesh, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told reporters.

"The B-1s will be receiving much needed modernization and maintenance," James stated in a press conference on Monday. "The venerable B-52, with its similar capacity and accuracy and endurance, remains able and ready to meet combatant requirements."

James admitted the US Air Force had been forced to call in its ageing B-52 bombers into the air campaign because of the wear and tear operations had taken on the more modern, stealth-capable B-1 Lancers.
From strategic bombers to all-weather attack aircraft to spy planes and heavy duty transports, the contemporary Russian Air Force has aircraft in its arsenal whose designs stretch back to the 1950s.

Naturally, with the passage of time, the legendary warplanes have received all sorts of upgrades, some becoming almost unrecognizable compared to the characteristics and capabilities of their forefathers. The upgrades include modern instrumentation, more powerful engines, upgraded weapons systems, and sometimes even changes to the air frame. Still, in the case of these planes, the well-known adage of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' definitely seems to hold true.

With that in mind, looking back at the designs which continue to serve the motherland, some now over half-a-century after their initial introduction, Russian journalist, novelist and military analyst Vladimir Tuchkov wrote a piece for the independent Russian newspaper Svobodnaya Pressa on the subject.
"Simultaneously, the Turkish military provoked an end to a three-year ceasefire with the Kurdish PKK, unleashing the army into the Kurdish towns of southern Turkey on a scale that has left some the mirror image of burned-out Syrian towns just across the border."

However, the journalist warned, "all this is nothing compared to the strength of the hand Erdogan has yet to play. With failed or failing states now in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, the more Turkish democracy fails, the more the West has to support him. And the more the European Commission, in particular, hangs on to the conceit that Turkey will one day join the EU, the more it strengthens forces in Europe who want to leave the union altogether."

"Transcripts leaked to a Greek website last month appeared to show Erdogan overtly threatening Europe with an uncontrolled flood of refugees unless he was given money and rapid accession to the EU."

And while Mason oddly suggested that the transcripts may have been produced by "Erdogan's newest enemy, the Russian secret service," the basic truths that they reveal, he noted, are undeniable: "Real or fabricated, the tragedy is that they cannot be far from the truth: Europe is already turning a blind eye to the erosion of democracy, to collusion with people traffickers, and to military action against civilians."

Subsequently, the journalist noted, those in Europe who truly care about ideals including democracy and human rights must be willing to put European officials and national governments' feet to the fire.

"What happens next must be done calmly and proportionately. The citizens of the EU have a right, first of all, to demand honesty from their own governments, and the [European Commission] itself. The EC's 'progress report' in November was an exercise in hypocrisy: while noting the slide to despotism, censorship and brutality, the report praised Turkey for its economic progress. Imagine what the same rapporteurs might have made of an accession request by Mussolini's Italy."
People were dead, and the tragedy launched a very emotional anti-Russian wave. But we managed to cool down all the heat, as the facts spoke for themselves and the Malaysian leadership has taken a very balanced stance.

As a woman and mother Lyudmila sincerely sympathized with the Malaysians. She finds that her gender is usually an advantage in her role. Although at times I was not taken seriously, she admits.

However Lyudmila freely admits that being a woman poses a challenge that is unique to her gender, namely her family.

It is hard when your family is so far away, she confides, but you learn to deal with these things.

Her only daughter is back in Russia, preparing to enter High School.

Besides, it helps that my husband has been very supportive and understanding, she says in an interview with The Leaders website. Behind every successful man is a woman. And behind every successful woman is a man. I believe that wholeheartedly.

Sometimes I tell him that I do not need a husband, I need a wife, she laughs while answering the question whether it was it hard to convince her husband to leave everything behind.

Even if it is difficult, she states, Gender should never be the deciding factor.

Another very successful Russian diplomat is Eleonora Mitrofanova, the Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 is not only an extremely expensive aircraft, but is also probably the most software-driven plane ever constructed. And ironically, it is a new software glitch that now threatens the US Air Forces plans to finally declare F-35 operationally deployable in the near future.

According to IHS Janes, the problem lies with the current version of software that runs the warplanes radar, making it unstable and thus affecting the aircrafts performance against other airborne targets.

"What would happen is they'd get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail something that would force us to restart the radar," Harrigian explained.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States has imposed an asset freeze and other economic sanctions against the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), a terrorist group that has preyed on children in East Africa for the past quarter century, the US Department of the Treasury announced in a press release on Tuesday.

"From murdering innocent civilians to pillaging villages, the Lords Resistance Army is responsible for notorious acts of violence," the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control Acting Director John Smith said in the release.

Smith further noted that Treasury Departments action supports its broader effort to "dismantle this militia group and seek a more stable and secure future for the people of the Central African Republic and region."
The poisoning of Flints water began in April 2014, when the city stopped receiving its supply from Detroit, instead shifting to water taken directly from the Flint River, a source known to have a high corrosive salt content. Corrosive salts in the water damaged the pipes, which contain lead, causing that material to be released into the water, and contaminating it.

The top spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was saying to the community, relax, this water is safe to drink, Hurwitz explains. The only thing they were concerned about, if anything, was that this was a huge public relations problem for them. They didnt care what kind of serious public health problem was being created by their continuing refusal to tell the truth to the community or take any steps to fix it.

In October, the state changed the citys drinking water source back from the polluted Flint River to the Detroit water system, but warned that the water remains unsafe to drink. Governor Snyder has resisted growing calls for his resignation over the scandal.

The lead levels in children and others, the 100,000 or so people who live in Flint, and who knows how many who visit and work in Flint and were exposed to these dangerously high levels of heavy metals and other dangerous chemicals, Hurwitz tells Loud & Clear.


CAIRO (Sputnik)Iraq is not against the Russia-Iran-Syria coalition fighting against terrorism, but it does not mean Baghdads support for the Damascus government, President Fuad Masum said.

"The danger of Daesh [Islamic State militant group, banned in Russia] is the major danger, first of all, for Iraq and Syria. We are in no way against the existing coalition between Russia, Iran and the Syrian government. This does not mean that we support the existing regime [Damascus government], but countering terrorism comes before, it is more important," Masum told RIA Novosti.

The president said that even though Russia and Iraq had good relations, Baghdad did not join the coalition.
"They film scary films in which Russians start nuclear wars. Sometimes I wonder, are we living in 2016 or 1962?" Medvedev said.

Sturmer wrote that this adversarial depiction of Russia is a consequence of the lack of strategy in US foreign policy, beyond a desire to expand for expansion's sake, and that this aimlessness has brought new dangers since 1990.

US forces stationed in Europe during the Cold War were "both hostage and guarantee that the US was honest in its intentions. In retrospect, 1990 was the end of a long nuclear peace, and of a world power cartel of war aversion," Sturmer wrote.

"In a word: the Cold War was better than its reputation. The rules were set out in the conventions on arms control and ranged from reciprocal inspections of nuclear weapons to confidence and security building measures in the conventional [weapons] sector."

Since the Cold War NATO has been left without a convincing purpose, and is claimed variously to exist to prevent emergencies, make deterrence credible and provide security; "strategic orientation and political purpose have not matched for a long time."

Sturmer wrote that while NATO claimed to be the answer to security concerns, its expansion to the east came with military waivers: no nuclear weapons, no stationing of troops, no permanent military installations. This was a "hollow expansion" which nonetheless failed to convince Russia of its contribution to stability in Europe.

"NATO's eastern expansion was on paper, but not on the terrain. Was Russia the biggest foe or best friend? One couldn't and didnt want to decide."
On Monday, March 8 in Alberta, a small group of provincial horsepeople voiced their displeasure with Northlands Parks decision to not offer live horse racing beyond the 2016 season.

As an article by the Edmonton Sun explains, Monday marked the last day of public consultations in regard to Northlands Vision 2020 proposal, which calls for the Edmonton raceway to be redeveloped into a multi-purpose public park that will have the ability to host tens of thousands of people for large-scale festivals and outdoor concerts.

On Monday, the group of horsepeople that were in attendance took the opportunity to say that they did not believe that enough was being done to make a day at the track an enticing sell to the younger demographic, which are often commonly referred to as millennials and seen as an extremely important in future growth and interest in the product.

The importance of marketing to millennials has been well covered in gaming circles as of late, and the horsepeople in question conveyed that message yet again on Monday.

Thirty-year-old Northlands chart caller Amy Welch, who is also the wife of star Alberta jockey Quincy Welch, said that everything is about an experience for us millennials and insinuated that a strong social media presence promoting the product would go a long way in helping Northlands reach prospective customers.

Seventy-year-old Linda Smith, whose family has been involved in horse racing for five decades, said that Northlands recent announcement did not go over well whatsoever.

She also stated that she believes that there are so many people who don't even know that there is racing going on in their own backyard.

When Northlands Vision 2020 proposal was unveiled last month, the organizations president and CEO, Tim Reid, did explain that there is always a chance that something could change. He cited negotiations between Horse Racing Alberta and the provincial government, which could, in theory, see Northlands racing saved.

None of these pictures (that were displayed in the presentation) are final, Reid said. Theyre just images and theyre thoughts and theyre conversation starters.

We have been clear with the horse racing industry that we think we need to progress beyond horse racing to activate that 52-acre site. That being said, if the discussions between the province and the HRA (Horse Racing Alberta) came back and the business model changed dramatically, wed be very thankful we had pictures and not final decisions.

And, so, were willing to work with the industry, and we have all along, and we are very interested in what the outcome of that conversation will look like, but our sense on it right now is (that) we need to build on a future sustainability of Northlands, and not hedge our decision on what happens between the province and HRA.

(With files from the Edmonton Sun)
Harness Horsemen Internationals annual meetings got underway on Monday (March 7) at the Embassy Suites Deerfield Beach Resort & Spa, Deerfield Beach, Fla.

Tom Luchento, HHI president, opened the general session with welcoming remarks to the group's members from the United States and Canadian harness racing associations.

American Horse Council President Jay Hickey also spoke, followed by HHI association reports and a lengthy and lively discourse concerning current harness racing commission issues and concerns.

Keynote speaker Dr. Mary Robinson of the University of Pennsylvanias New Bolton Center, Chester, Pa., will speak Tuesday morning, beginning at 9 a.m., on medication issues, along with the USTAs Executive Vice President Mike Tanner, followed by HHI meetings and discussions that include insurance, finance, legal, convention and scholarship.

On Wednesday, the general session begins at 9 a.m. with featured speaker Joe Pennacchio, president and executive director of Floridas SBOA, discussing the issue of de-coupling that has plagued the Sunshine States harness horsemen for the past month.

The HHI annual awards luncheon will follow at 12:30 p.m., honouring USTA Executive Vice President Mike Tanner, PHHAs retiring executive director Ron Battoni and Harness Racing Communications' Ken Weingartner with HHIs top awards.

The HHI annual meetings will conclude with a farewell breakfast on Thursday.

HHI is comprised of horsemens associations from the United States and Canada who collectively represent the agriculture based industry of harness racing in North America. HHIs governing body consists of representatives from its member associations.

(HHI)
First official trip - to Asia. We are so proud of you! Beauty, brains, compassion, talent, and the sweetest disposition.
The limits to productivity growth are set only by the limits to human inventiveness says John Kay. This understates the problem. There are other limits. Id mention two which I think are under-rated.

One is competition. Of course, this tends to increase productivity in many ways. But it has a downside. The fear of competition from future new technologies can inhibit investment today: no firm will spend 10m on robots if they fear a rival will buy better ones for 5m soon afterwards. As someone said, it is the second mouse that gets the cheese. It might be no accident that techno-optimism exists today alongside low investment, weak stock markets and high corporate cash piles.

The second is that, as Brynjolfsson and MacAfee say, "significant organizational innovation is required to capture the full benefit oftechnologies."

For example, Paul David has described (pdf) how the introduction of electricity into American factories did not immediately raise productivity much, simply because it merely replaced steam engines. It was only when bosses realized that electric motors allowed factories to be reorganized  dispensing with the need for machines to be close to a central power source  that productivity soared, as workflow improved and new cheaper buildings could be used. This took many years.

It's not just organizational change that's needed, though. So too, sometimes, is social change. For example, household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines have allowed women to join the labour market. But it is taking decades to reap this benefit, because it also requires a change in social norms to accept women as workers of equal potential.

Similarly, I suspect that if IT is to have (further?) productivity-enhancing effects, they require socio-organizational change. IT should make it easier to communicate knowledge, but this only raises productivity if it is accompanied by a breaking down of silos and methods to facilitate co-operation and the exchnage of ideas within companies. It also should facilitate working from home, which could increase aggregate productivity by reducing house prices thus shifting spending away from a sclerotic sector of the economy towards more dynamic ones.

Without these changes, the internet might be like Hero of Alexandrias aeolipile  an impressive device of little macroeconomic consequence.

However, there are always obstacles to the social and organizational change necessary for technical change to lead to productivity gains. These might be cognitive  such as the Frankenstein syndrome or not invented here mentality. Or they can be material. Socio-technical change is a process of creative destruction, the losers from which kick up a stink; think of taxi-drivers protesting against Uber.

Worse still, these losers arent always politically weak Ludditites. They can be well-connected bosses of incumbent firms, or managers seeking to maintain their power base.

So great are these obstacles that Joel Mokyr has coined the phrase Cardwells law:

Every society, when left on its own, will be technologically creative for only short periods. Sooner or later the forces of conservatism, the "if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it," the "if-God-had-wanted-us-to-fly-he-would-have-given-us-wings," and the "not-invented-here-so-it-can't-possibly-work" people take over and manage through a variety of legal and institutional channels to slow down and if possible stop technological creativity altogether.

Hell not thank me for saying so, but this echoes Marx:

At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or  this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms  with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters.

The big question facing us is, therefore: do we have the right set of institutions to foster the socio-organizational change that beget productivity growth? These require a mix of healthy markets, to maximize ecological diversity; a financial system which backs risky new-comers; property rights which incentivise innovation; and state intervention that facilitates all these whilst not being captured by Luddites. If our politics werent so imbecilic, this question would be getting a lot more attention than it is.
SEATTLE  When he dropped out of high school in ninth grade, Timothy Woodiwisss biggest ambition was to manage the Ritzville, Wash., McDonalds.

At 18, he joined the Washington Army National Guard and, after working in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, decided he wanted to do something bigger with his life than serving Big Macs and french fries. So he enrolled in community college, where he started in remedial math  basic algebra.

Over the next nine years, he cycled through a half-dozen majors and career ideas, from firefighter to accountant to veterinarian. His studies were interrupted by two military deployments, but he always returned to college. He also got married, started a family and worked full time, but stayed in college.

His could have let his career be sidelined by any one of these events, but Woodiwiss never gave up.

I failed so many times in my life, said Woodiwiss, who has a shaved head and a gentle, boyish face.

At one point I got fired from McDonalds. Hegot a D in organic chemistry the first time he took the class  a failing grade. Over and over, he said, I felt like a miserable failure.

Yet today, he is a first-year medical student at the University of Washington, after graduating with honors last year from Washington State University with a bachelors of science in biochemistry, and minors in microbiology and animal science.

And last month, the 29-year-old was one of 34 students honored by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges for using a two-year college education as a springboard to a new life.

All those students embody tenacity and grit. Many were high-school dropouts. Some overcame poverty, drug addiction and homelessness, fled abusive parents, joined gangs, attempted suicide, went to prison for breaking the law.

Some were raised by alcoholics and junkies. A few managed to keep going to school despite physical disabilities. Many attended college while working and raising children on their own.

You just read these and you cry, you cry, literally, said Joanne Schwartz, a trustee for Centralia College, who has been helping select the award winners for the last five years. Because you cant help it. Youre so overcome with peoples desires to do better, to get beyond all the obstacles.

Personal character and resilience play a key role, as they have in Woodiwiss case. But the students who succeed almost always found a helping hand as well, Schwartz said. That person might be a teacher, a counselor, sometimes even a fellow student. They discovered someone who really cares about them, Schwartz said.

Starting small

Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash., was Woodiwiss springboard to college. But when he first enrolled, he feared that if he asked a stupid question, hed be discovered for what he was  a high-school dropout.

I was really terrified, he said. I was scared I wasnt smart enough. I felt like I was missing this foundational knowledge  and someone like me shouldnt be there.

Hed grown up in the small Eastern Washington town of Lind, the sixth of 12 children. His father was a postal worker, his mother a stay-at-home mom, and neither had attended college. In high school, Woodiwiss didnt see much point in going to college, either.

He dropped out at 16, and put in long hours at McDonalds, working his way from a member of the crew to shift manager. Woodiwiss took the GED test at Big Bend so he could work full-time during school hours. Because he couldnt afford the gas to drive to Moses Lake  41 miles away  for GED prep classes, he took the test anyway, and passed.

Shortly after his 18th birthday, Woodiwiss joined the Washington Army National Guard, and soon after was sent to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, where he witnessed the anguish of people who had lost everything in the storm. When he returned to Washington, his aspirations had moved beyond McDonalds, and he moved to Moses Lake and enrolled at Big Bend.

There he met Barbara Whitney, a math instructor who treated every question with patience, without ever making a student feel inferior for not grasping a math concept. She was so kind, he recalled.

Whitney still teaches at Big Bend, and she still treats every student equally, regardless of how much  or how little  they understand algebra.

Thats important, said Whitney, a 27-year veteran of the community college system. They pay good money, and theyre here to learn. Theres a saying: The only question thats stupid is the one you dont ask.

Whitney remembers Woodiwiss as a quiet, reserved student who sat in the front of the classroom. He didnt have a lot of family support, but he had a lot of drive, she said.

Woodiwiss was influenced by other teachers, too  an English composition teacher who encouraged his writing, and a history teacher who gave him his first A, on a paper about the history of the Balkans.

I thought my ideas were so small, but my history teacher loved it, Woodiwiss said.

Looking back, Woodiwiss thinks his insatiable appetite for reading as a teenager helped get him through the first quarters of college. He learned discipline in the military, and his faith also played an important role in what hes achieved. But community college was pivotal.

Without community college, I never would have had a chance to go to university, he said. It was the perfect setup for someone like me.
The group organizing plans for a swimming pool and recreation center in Woodland will hold a fundraiser called "Tiptoe through the Tulips," a kickoff invitation-only event March 19 at Holland America Bulb Farm.

The Woodland Community Swimming Pool Committee wants to build a pool and recreation center near Horseshoe Lake that will be operated by the YMCA of the Columbia Willamette.

The land has been purchased but the More than a Pool Campaign, as it will be known, needs to raise $12.6 million.

"This is the first of several events we plan to have in Clark and Cowlitz counties," Benno Dobbe, co-owner of the bulb farm and president and chairman of pool committee, said in a news release. "Each will have its own theme, depending on who is hosting and where. It seemed appropriate that we host the first one at our place."

To learn more about the More than a Pool Campaign, email info@woodlandymca.org. For more information about the Woodland YMCA project, visit WoodlandYMCA.org.
Assault  Longview police arrested Sunday Emily Raeann Gray, 28, of Longview on suspicion of third-degree assault, fourth-degree assault/domestic violence, obstructing a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

Another assault  Longview police Sunday arrested Spencer L. Ward, 55, of Longview on suspicion of second-degree assault/domestic violence.

Stolen vehicle  The Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office Sunday arrested Samuel Antonio Scory, 27, of Vancouver on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle.

How now brown cow?  Someone called the sheriffs office Sunday evening to report that a brown cow was on Abernathy Creek Road at Slide Creek Road. No further information about the bovine was available.

Naked lady  A Kelso resident called police Sunday afternoon that a woman on Ross Avenue came to the door naked and let her dogs out.

Naked man  A woman called told Longview police that a naked man was sitting in his vehicle Sunday evening on the 300 block of 17th Ave, with the door open and the lights on. The callers husband talked to the man, who reportedly got dressed and left stumbling towards Alabama Street. The reportedly undressed man denied the allegations to police and was not charged.

Burglaries

 100 block of Penny Lane, Kelso. Sunday.

 300 block of First Avenue, Kelso. Sunday. Fishing rods taken from shed.

 1900 block of West Side Highway, Kelso. Sunday. Fishing rods taken from shed.

 2000 block of Pacific Avenue, Kelso. Sunday. Storage unit entered.

 100 block of Villa Road, Kelso. Sunday. Gun safe and contents taken.

 100 block of Bethany Lane, Winlock. Feb. 26-28. Chainsaw and welder worth $1,000.

Vehicle prowls

 100 block of Penny Lane, Kelso. Sunday. Bowling ball, shoes and bag taken.

 100 block of Chelsea Avenue, Castle Rock. Sunday.
Officials last week released a draft environmental impact study of a proposed methanol plant at the Port of Kalama, more than two years after a China-backed company pitched the project.

This is the first time the public has seen this much information about the effects that the $1.8 billion methanol plant on the air, water, traffic and other resources.

Its not going to have road or rail traffic. Its not going to be a big polluter. Its going to be a clean set up. Were just excited about that, Alan Basso, Port of Kalama commission president, said Monday

Were cutting down on traffic. Were cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions in China while also adding steady work for local construction workers, Basso said.

Northwest Innovation Works says its plant would create 1,000 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs. The plant would convert natural gas to methanol, which would be stored on site and then shipped to Asia. There, the methanol would be used to produce olefin, a primary component used to produce plastics for many everyday products. Using natural gas is considered a cleaner method than coal, the typical feedstock for olefins in China.

A 3.1-mile natural gas pipeline, owned by Northwest Pipeline LLC, would supply the plant. Additionally, Cowlitz PUD would need to upgrade the existing transmission line, build a substation on site and construct an alternative electrical supply. Both the pipeline and the utility work have separate environmental reviews.

For the methanol project, the draft environmental impact statement evaluates two ways to manufacture methanol from natural gas: one, using traditional technology or, two, an ultra low emissions method would cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75 percent compared to typical techniques, according to Northwest Innovation. The company says its favoring the cleaner approach.

Odor from this project would be limited, and no toxic air pollution would be detectible off the plant site, according to the study.

Depending on the alternative, between 50 to 100 megawatts of electricity would be required per a product line, which would result in emissions between 133,000 and 266,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.

(The big demand for electricity at the Kalama and two other proposed Northwest Innovations methanol projects  nearly the output of Bonneville Dam  has raised some questions about using this regions cheap hydropower to support Chinas plastics industry.)

The plant could pose small risks to water quality, largely through potential spills and stormwater runoff. Methanol is flammable and explosive, but it is used in dozens of household products. It occurs naturally in wood (hence its informal name, wood alcohol) and is emitted by cars, trucks and by burning trash and plastics.

The report doesnt anticipate water or road traffic to increase substantially. According to the report, the addition of 36 to 72 vessels per year as a result of the project is within the historic range of Columbia River vessel traffic.

The report is open for public comment until April 18. A public hearing will be held 6 p.m. March 22 at Kalama High School.

Check The Daily News this Sunday for an expanded report.
Editors note: Todays editorial originally appeared in The Seattle Times . Editorial content from other publications is provided to give readers a sampling of regional and national opinion and does not necessarily reflect positions endorsed by the Editorial Board of The Daily News.

The state Legislatures effort to prop up Washingtons rickety mental-health system this session has produced one good, bold new idea  and one lousy one.

Fortunately, state lawmakers in both parties and both chambers agree Western State Hospital, the regions long-term psychiatric institution, is broken. Federal auditors are piling up citations, staffers claim retaliation for raising safety risk, and patients remain stuck at the institution because of chronic staffing shortages. A mess.

The most comprehensive proposed fix, SSB 6566, sponsored by Senate budget writer Andy Hill, would shrink the 827-bed hospital by giving local officials far more flexibility and responsibility to find local alternatives.

Its a good, compelling idea. The Redmond Republican would give King County and other county-based mental-health-treatment networks control over tens of millions of dollars currently being sent to Western State. The county networks could buy beds at Western State, or they could create a broader array of treatment options to help people avoid hospitalization.

King County officials are enthusiastic, so long as the concept is fully vetted.

We should look freshly at right-sizing Western State, making it smaller and moving out into the local communities, said David Johnson, CEO of the West Seattle-based Navos, which runs a 70-bed community psychiatric hospital and outpatient services.

The need for a change is clear. Dysfunction at Western State Hospital is so severe it has periodically stopped accepting new patients. Waiting lists for admission have ballooned, and psychiatric patients are once again routinely boarded in community hospitals, in violation of a 2014 state Supreme Court ruling that outlawed the inhumane and grossly inefficient practice.

Lawmakers and Gov. Jay Inslee agree on pay bumps and recruitment bonuses at the Lakewood hospital. Those are fine, but they are Band-Aids. The Legislature should carefully plan for long-term solutions. Hills proposal is a good place to start.

Hill has another big idea, but it is a bad one. His 2016 supplemental budget proposes yanking $76 million from the reserve accounts of those same county-based mental-health-treatment networks and using the money to prop up Western State.

Reserves that large, in a system that badly needs more treatment options, raise a red flag for budget hawks in Olympia. If the goal is to force the networks to spend, rather than save, cap the size of reserve accounts.

But swiping the reserves entirely would start a cascade of bad consequences. Next month, those community mental-health networks are required to assume broad new responsibility for providing chemical-dependency treatment.

The problem for those networks is that the state payment rates for drug treatment are untenably low. Two King County treatment centers closed last year. Other providers cant recruit staff for what the state will pay.

So those big savings accounts were intended to boost the super-low rates and ensure treatment. If Hills bad idea goes through, King Countys Jim Vollendroff said the county would lose up to $7 million intended to boost the number of chemical-dependency providers  in the midst of a heroin and opioid addiction crisis.

The Legislature needs to keep plugging away at provocative reforms, such as those Hill suggests, to a mental-health system that consistently ranks near the bottom of the country for access. But it must not do harm at the same time.
On Saturday, two members of Bowdoin Colleges student government will face impeachment proceedings. What heinous transgression did they commit? Theft, plagiarism, sexual assault?

Nope. They attended a party where some guests wore tiny sombreros.

Two weeks ago, some students threw a birthday party for a friend. The email invitation read: the theme is tequila, so do with that what you may. Were not saying its a fiesta, but were also not not saying that :). The invitation  sent by a student of Colombian descent, which may or may not be relevant here  advertised games, music, cups and other things that are conducive to a fun night.

Those other things included the miniature sombreros, several inches in diameter. And when photos of attendees wearing those mini-sombreros showed up on social media, students and administrators went ballistic.

College administrators sent multiple schoolwide emails notifying the students about an investigation into a possible act of ethnic stereotyping.

Partygoers ultimately were reprimanded or placed on social probation, and the hosts have been kicked out of their dorm, according to friends. (None of the disciplined students whom I contacted wanted to speak on the record; Bowdoin President Clayton Rose declined an interview and would not answer a general question about what kinds of disciplinary options are considered when students commit an act of bias.)

Other students closed ranks, too.

The school newspaper editorialized about attendees lack of basic empathy and placed the event in the context of two other controversially themed parties from the past two years: a gangster party (at which some students showed up with cornrows and gold chains) and a racially insensitive Thanksgiving party (where some dressed as Pilgrims and Native Americans).

Within days, the Bowdoin Student Government unanimously adopted a statement of solidarity to [stand] by all students who were injured and affected by the incident, and recommend that administrators create a space for those students who have been or feel specifically targeted.

The statement deemed the party an act of cultural appropriation, one that creates an environment where students of color, particularly Latino, and especially Mexican, students feel unsafe. The effort to purge the two representatives who attended the party, via impeachment, soon followed.

To outsiders, as well as some students on campus, all this fuss over a tequila party may seem a little extreme.

Probably most 21st-century Americans would agree that wearing, say, blackface or Native American war paint is generally outside the accepted bounds of taste, civility and human decency.

But tequila and tiny sombreros? I am not of Latino heritage, and I wouldnt deign to tell those who are what they should or should not be offended by, especially on a mostly white campus. But even Bowdoins Latino students are divided about the propriety of the party and ensuing punishments.

Such divisions on campus are unsurprising. Unlike with blackface, there does not seem to be any sort of settled social norm about the offensiveness or inoffensiveness of sombreros. Go to Chilis, Chevys or other Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants, and youll likely find similar decor and garb.

If your litmus test for the suitability of a party theme is something like, Could this plausibly be a national chain restaurant? then a tequila party probably seems safe.

The schools reaction seems especially arbitrary when you learn that  on the very same night of the tequila party, just across campus  Bowdoin held its annual, administration-sanctioned Cold War party. Students arrived dressed in fur hats and coats to represent Soviet culture; one referred to herself as Stalin, making light of a particularly painful era in Slavic history.

What principle makes one theme deserving of school sponsorship and another of dorm expulsion? Perhaps race is the bright line, but not long ago people of Slavic heritage werent considered white either. Does intent matter? What about distance (geographic or chronological) from the culture being turned into a party theme?

These are worthwhile questions, ones tailor-made for academic debate. But they are also ones that Bowdoins students  like students on other campuses roiled by cultural appropriation controversies  now avoid discussing publicly for fear of being labeled a bigot. Many have instead taken to Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform that the administration has repeatedly urged them to abandon, because anonymity lends itself to ugliness.

But this necessary conversation has no place else to go so long as colleges remain unsafe spaces for free and open dialogue.
hidden

If you are bogged down by notifications sent by the known but deceased people in your timeline on Facebook, do not get surprised by this news. According to researchers, the social networking giant will become the world's biggest virtual graveyard by the end of this century as there will be more profiles of dead people than of living users.

"Social media website Facebook, which currently has 1.5 billion users worldwide, will turn into the world's biggest virtual graveyard by 2098," Dailymail.co.uk quoted statistician Hachem Sadikki from University of Massachusetts as saying.

This will happen because the website refuses to delete dead users and instead turns the account into a "memorialised" version.

"Facebook's refusal to automatically delete dead users and the plateauing membership of the site means that the living will be outnumbered sooner than you might think," the report said.

Sadikki, PhD candidate in statistics at University of Massachusetts, said he worked out the figure by assuming that Facebook's growth will begin to slow soon.

A blogging company Digital Beyond has claimed that nearly 970,000 Facebook users will die this year alone across the world which is far more as compared to 385,968 in 2010 and 580,000 in 2012.

Sadikki also assumed that the social media website will retain its existing policy on how to handle dead users.

The website's policy has attracted criticism from users in the past as it showed the photos of dead ones in its "year in review" videos (till 2015). Facebookers have also complained about receiving the birthday alerts of dead users.

Facebook has tried to solve this problem by asking users to appoint a "Legacy Contact" before they die.

The "Legacy Contact" is able to administer the page after a user passes away by writing one last post and even approving new friend requests. The contact can even update cover and profile photo.

According to the report, Facebook declined to comment.

IANS
Karrishma Modhy

Let's face it. Cyber crime against women has reached it's highest peak, or maybe not. It can get worst in time. And that's why being safe, particularly on social media, is of prime importance. In 2016, a time when everything around is going digital, social media plays a crucial role in communication. It has created a world that is more open and connected, enabling people to share the most important parts of their lives with families, friends and communities.

As we celebrate Women's Day, the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), Centre for Social Research and Facebook have teamed up to offer a few tips on how to help maintain safety and control over your information.

How strong is your defense?

For starters, it's all about how strong the password is. Passwords should be easy for you to remember but hard for someone else to figure out. A statement that sounds very obvious, but that still doesn't stop passwords from being the most common and easy to decipher. You should always try opting for a new or different password for different accounts, such as email or bank accounts. In case of Facebook, the service sends you a notification if someone tries logging into your account from a new device or browser. For extra security, Facebook also asks users to enter a special security code each time they try to access their account from a new computer, phone or browser.

In addition, you also need to be sure as to where you are signed in. Security settings for ever social media service shows users a list of browsers and devices that have been used to log into your account recently. Most importantly, always choose to have trusted contacts on social media. You don't really want someone creeping into your profile and making unethical comments.

Taking control of your privacy

Never choose to have your profile open to all on social media. Some level of privacy is necessary. For instance, sharing words on Twitter or updating a status on Facebook also offers you the option of limiting its visibility, use it. Customised tools are available which allow users to determine who sees what you share. Facebook also offers two options within the Timeline and Tagging Settings for reviewing content that is tagged. The first allows users to approve or dismiss posts that you are tagged in before they appear on your Timeline while the second option allows users to approve or dismiss tags that people add to their posts.

Thanks to GPS, our location sometimes automatically gets shared online in various forms such as with apps, by checking-in, via private messages, or by someone else tagging you too. One should always be cautious while sharing their location and with whom, in an effort to protect your location when possible.

Can everyone be trusted online?

Social media is the online space where you connect with friends, family, classmates and co-workers. Many people online try to use tactics such as impersonating a friend to gain access to personal information. While receiving a friend request or approving any sort of requests online, one must make sure that the profile looks genuine and you have at least a few common friends. If you want to meet new people online, try connecting with Pages and groups that interest you.

Extreme measures, when required!

If you feel that someone is making you uncomfortable with their comments on social media, you should quickly unfriend them. In addition, blocking a person ensures they can no longer see things you post on your profile, tag you, invite you to events or groups or start a conversation with you. Worst case scenario, users can also report them to the service. A global team of any social network reviews and removes anything that violates their terms. If someone is harassing you, threatening you or making you feel unsafe, you can talk to a local domestic violence victim advocate or law enforcement official about your options.
tech2 News Staff

While Apple still remains a front-runner in creating a more realistic sense of touch in its mobile device screens with 3D Touch technology -- most recently seen in the iPhone 6S, Android smartphones might not be too far behind. With the 2016 Google Nexus smartphone, the tactile technology might just become slightly more of a common feature.

According to Times of India, HTC, which will be manufacturing the next Nexus handset will be using a 3D Touch like pressure sensitive display technology in the Google smartphone. It is possible that Google might look at making the feature a standard for Android. The report adds that Chinese smartphone brands like Xiaomi, Meizu, Oppo and Vivo are also working on handsets with this technology. Most recently, Gionee unveiled its Elife S8 phone that boasts of the 3D Touch feature too.

The lack of support from app developers has so far hampered the proliferation of the technology for Android devices. With Google getting on board, notes the Times of India report, developers are likely to integrate support for the feature in their apps and make it more popular on Android.

3D Touch allows users to interact more intuitively with their devices via a pressure-sensitive screen which mimics the feel and response of real buttons. In the long run, the force-sensitive technology also promises new or better applications, from more lifelike games and virtual reality to adding temperature, texture and sound to our screens as well.
tech2 News Staff

The recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge at the Unpacked event will arrive in India on March 8, according to a report by The Times of India. The report also adds that Samsung plans to invest about Rs 100 crore on marketing the new flagship devices in the bid to outdo arch rival Apple. The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are expected to go on sale from the third week of March. There is no word on the India pricing, but it is likely to match iPhone 6s models.

The pricing of Samsung models is speculated to start around Rs 45,000. The Times of India pegs prices between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000. (Also read: Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 and others) Citing people related to the matter, an earlier report added that Samsung has planned additional consumer promotion as well.

It is also planning to cut down prices of some of its older models. On the other hand, the report adds that Apple has also planned something 'big'. It was just recently that Samsung announced Galaxy A5 and A7 2016 editions for the Indian market. On the other hand, Apple has planned a 4-inch iPhone model to be launched on March 21, and likely to hit emerging markets like China and India.

Unveiled recently at a pre-MWC2016 event, the S7 comes with a 5.1-inch super AMOLED dispay with 2550 x 1440 pixels. Although the US market would get the Snapdragon 820 variant, global markets would find their Galaxy S7 powered by a Samsung Exynos chipset instead. In this years version of its flagship, Samsung has bumped up the RAM to 4GB.

Similar to the Galaxy S7, its curved sibling also boasts of 4GB RAM. However, it comes with a 5.5-inch display with 2550 x 1440 pixels as compared to the 5.1-inch in the Samsung Galaxy S7. The devices in most others areas are identical spec-to-spec. The other difference being the 3600mAh battery in the S7 Edge compared to the 3000mAh battery in the S7.
Naina Khedekar

We have a fairly large base of urban educated women and many have taken the entrepreneurial path which includes presence in the now-buzzing startup sector. But heres a startup that has taken to hand the task of ensuring no woman has to forgo her career after marriage or raising her kids.

Sheroes is a career support platform that takes into account the life stages to help women choose work opportunities that suit them the best. The career eco-system has been build to bring opportunities to women in varying work formats  full time, flexible work options, entrepreneurial work options, internships, projects, etc., she further explains.

Founded in January 2014 by Sairee Chahal as an outcome of her previous venture fleximoms, Sheroes has helped over 40,000 women find careers of choice and over a million women have found help via their communication channels. More than 7000 companies use Sheroes to connect to women professionals which includes ladies from far flung towns like Theni and Champaran, Chahal who has a business degree from IMT Ghaziabad and an M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi tells us. For instance, she says a priest's wife from Gorakhpur had called for a career opportunity as she had studied but never ever worked before.

Womens careers are not really a national priority, we are still fighting for fundamental rights for women. But India has a large base of urban educated women who can do with better professional presence and support, adds Chahal. This has also been one her early challenges as the startup isnt about a product for women, like in most cases, but about creating job opportunities, and careers for woman arent seen as significant as in case of men.

An individual or a company can put up a job listing for free, and it wont be charged. There is a fee attached only for value adds such as companies looking for premium jobs, more assistance in hiring, women centric initiatives and so on. Our revenue is B2B dependent, where companies pay to use various hiring, engagement and marketing services, she adds.

So, anyone can post a suitable job listing on Sheroes. However, the team moderates and does some background checking to ensure it isnt fraudulent or no woman is getting a raw deal. However, it isnt limited to just providing job opportunities. Sheroes has a vast community with support channels to help women via mentorship. The mentor board includes 70 members. There is a phone number, web chat presence on its site, an Android app and social channels via which women can post queries and Sheroes will answer them. They also conduct timely skill building workshops, and has partnered with over 250 women related organisations and likewise to help reach out to more women. The core team includes 40 members, and the startup is now trying to increase their sales team and also bring more value to what they've been offering women.

Sheroes hasnt been incubated in a formal incubator, but Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Paytm have been partners throughout and have helped SHEROES find its place, Chahal points out. The startup has raised seed funds from Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur led Quintillion Media, 500 Startups and a group of individuals including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rajan Anandan, Binny Bansal, Mekin Maheshwari, Girish Mathrubhootham, Indus Khaitan and Krishna Mehra in August 2015.
tech2 News Staff

This may seem like a dramatic plot from a movie with words like secret meeting, isolated island and assorted billionaires strewn around. Now, just add top members of the Republican senators, biggest tech companies and Donald trump, and it could get all the more interesting.

However, this is no movie, and citing sources related to the matter, a new report by Huffington Post states a secretive meeting wherein top CEOs and members of the Republican flew off to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia for the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum. Interestingly, the main topic of discussion remained on how to stop Donald Trump.

The meeting reportedly included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Sean Parker, and Elon Musk. Other attendees included Tim Scott, Rob Portman, Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Tom Cotton, Karl Rove, Cory Gardner and Ben Sasse. The closed meeting has the dignitaries discuss how to stop Donald Trump from getting nominated, claims the report. The report also cites it as the 'main topic' of discussion.

Karl Rove reportedly also gave a presentation at the event and discussed the weaknesses of Trump. "The business mogul's greatest weakness, according to Rove, was that voters have a very hard time envisioning him as "presidential" and as somebody their children should look up to. They also see him as somebody who can be erratic and shouldn't have his (small) fingers anywhere near a nuclear trigger," adds the report.

Finally, the report also adds that the conversation around Trump was about "how this happened, rather than how are we going to stop him."
tech2 News Staff

The internet is one of the finest creations of the human mind and it cant be the monopoly of a select few, Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister for communications and information technology, said, according to this report.

The minister, while delivering his speech at a conference of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at Morocco, as said that the internet should be open, plural and inclusive and access should be without discrimination. "While fully endorsing the multi-stakeholder model, the issue of security should also remain in focus, where the government has a very important role to play, as safety and security remains the primary responsibility of the government," he added, says the Business Standard report. He also mentioned that the internet is increasingly being abused by some people to unleash terror and cyber crime, and that needs to be checked.

On a similar note, Prasad recently applauded the telecom watchdog TRAI's stand on discriminatory pricing. The minister had said in a statement that differential pricing on data is just not acceptable and the internet must be available without discrimination.

Prasad further said the government fully respected the freedom of expression and discourse on social media and Interned adding that Our government is committed towards digital inclusion.

He said that the government was expanding Digital India into every nook and corner of the country, and taking extraordinary steps to empower the people through technology, to create a knowledge economy, the very concept, in order to bring about digital inclusion.
tech2 News Staff

Along with the Mi Box 3 Enhanced Edition, Xiaomi has launched its new 10,000mAh Mi Power Bank Pro with USB Type-C in China.

Needless to say, the Mi 5 comes with USB Type-C support, the reason why Xiaomi launched the new Pro power bank. However, it also includes a standard USB 2.0 port and further promises micro-USB Type-C adaptor and a two-way fast charging technology. This appears to be a great feature, considering how power banks are known for slower charging times.

"You may charge Mi Note for 2.5 times, Iphone 6 for 4 times and Ipad mini for 1.5 times," Xiaomi claims.

"We came across lots of threads on this forum complaining Mi Powerbank does not charge up gadgets such as Mi Band and Mi Bluetooth Earphone.We heard your feedback and this powerbank can do the job for you ! By double tapping on the power button it will switch the mode and able to charge up small voltage devices," Xiaomi adds.

The 10000 mAh Mi Powerbank Pro is priced at 149, translating to approximately Rs 1542.

Besides, Xiaomi has also launched the Mi Box 3 Enhanced Edition, which is an updated version of the Mi Box 3 media player, now available at a price of 399 yuan (approximately Rs 4,100) in China.
This is a site where I try to give you an opinion of a movie that I have not seen. Basically, it is my uneducated opinion of movies coming out that I have no real knowledge of. I look at the trailers and the descriptions and try to give the audience an idea of whether or not they should spend their money seeing it in the theater or waiting until it is more readily available.
SC upholds gallows for Mir Quasem Ali

Mir Quasem Ali

UNB, Dhaka: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday upheld the death penalty of condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, will pronounce the judgment. The other judges of the bench are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Bazlur Rahman. The apex court upheld the punishment on one count of charge and acquitted him on another. After the closure of arguments, the Appellate Division on February 24 first set March 2 for delivering the judgment but later shifted the date to March 8. The appeal hearing of Mir Quasem Ali began on February 9. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state while Khandker Mahbub Hossain stood for the Jamaat leader during the appeal hearing. On November 30, 2014, Mir Quasem Ali filed the appeal with the SC challenging the death penalty awarded to him by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. On November 2 the same year, the tribunal had condemned the Jamaat-e-Islami leader to death for his crimes against humanity during the war. Meanwhile, the attorney general expressed the hope that the court will uphold the capital punishment of Mir Quasem Ali. Like other cases, weve submitted our written arguments in this case, too. We hope the court will deliver fair judgment tomorrow, he said. While briefing reporters at the Supreme Court on Monday, the chief state law officer said the speech of a minister, politician or a lawyer does not influence the trial proceedings. The court conducts the trial proceedings based on evidence and witnesses. Replying to a query, he said it is not right that the lower court verdict will always be upheld by the Appellate Division. If the case is so, theres no need for the Appellate Division. Asked whether he would lodge any written complaint with the court against the two ministers for their controversial remarks about the chief justice, Mahbubey Alam ducked the question, saying, Ill make no comment. On the other hand, Mir Quasem Alis counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain said they would accept what verdict the court delivers after reviewing evidence and witnesses. About the comments of the two ministers, he hoped that the court will take actions in this regard because people will lose their faith in the judiciary following such comments. Earlier on Saturday, Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque demanded resignation of the chief justice for his reported remarks that the prosecution is doing politics with the trial of condemned war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali. The two ministers made the demand at a roundtable discussion organised by Ekatorrer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee in the city.
Tight security in city for hartal

Around 10,000 policemen will be on duty across the capital to ensure smooth activities of the city dwellers during Wednesdays Jamaat-sponsored countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal. Besides, 14 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh already started patrolling the city street from Tuesday evening, several hours ahead of the shutdown. Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday called the daylong hartal for Wednesday protesting the Supreme Court judgment that upheld the death penalty of condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning upheld the death penalty of Mir Quasem Ali for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Contacted, Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Md Maruf Hossain Sorder said adequate numbers of uniformed police alongside plainclothes ones will be deployed from 5am on Wednesday to avert any unpleasant incident in the city. Besides, plainclothes men carrying still and video cameras will remain standby in different strategic city points to identify the troublemakers during the hartal hours, the DC (Media) added. Sources at the BGB headquarters said 14 platoons of BGB were patrolling the city streets from 6pm Tuesday to strengthen security patrolling alongside other law enforcement agencies. They will continue patrolling till 6am on Wednesday.UNB, Dhaka
Navy rescues 23 fishermen from Bay





The Bangladesh Navy personnel rescued 23 fishermen from an inoperative fishing boat in the Bay of Bengal, 30 miles off to Cox's Bazar Light House on Monday.

Navy sources said that Bangladesh Navy ship 'Allhar Dan' rescued 23 fishermen alongwith the inoperative fishing boat, BN Chittagong sources said.

The fishermen went to deep sea on March 4 for fishing but their boat became inoperative due to mechanical fault.

The Bangladesh Navy provided foods, water, and other assistance to the rescued fishermen. Later, they were handed over to their boat owners.




Electric pole kills school boy in Gaibandha

UNB, Gaibandha :

A schoolboy was killed by an electric pole that fell on him at Dholbangha area of Palashbari upazila on Tuesday morning.

The deceased was identified as Talha, 9, son of Abu Tayeb, resident of Bhagabanpur village and a class four student of Rangpur Kindergarten KG School.

Firoj Kabir, officer-in-charge of Palashbari Police Station, said workers had been removing electric poles from the area over the last several days. The electric pole fell on Talha when he was returning home in the morning, leaving him dead on the spot, added the OC.
Husband awarded death penalty for killing wife

Bagerhat Correspondent :

Md Zakaria Hossain, Additional District and Session Judge, Bagerhat, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, convicted Shahidul Islam alias Sayeedul (45), son of one late Shahab Uddin Shaikh of village Baranababpur under Rampal Upazila in Bagerhat district and sentenced him to be hanged till his death on the charge of killing his wife Nazma Begum (42).

The prosecution story, in short, is that after the death of her first husband Zahidul Islam, Nazma was given married to her brother-in-law (younger brother of the husband) Shahidul Islam. After the second marriage she gave-birth a male child named Junayed (7). But her second husband used to live an idle life. As a result, Nazma Begum was forced to work in the houses of others as a maid servant in order to maintain her family. But the husband did not like it. Following the matter quarrel used to take place very often between the husband and the wife. On February 21 at night in the year 2012 she was asked by her neighbourer Asia Begum to do some household works. But she failed to do so in the face of her husband's resistance and at one stage she went to bed along with her son Junayed and fell asleep.



In the following morning (on February 22) when Nazma Begum was taking preparations to go to the house of Asia Begum to discharge her duty as a maid servant the husband tried to blame her to be a prostitute. As a result, a quarrel took place between the tow and at one stage the husband became furious and chopped her with a sharp knife left and right. As a result, she was fatally injured and she succumbed to her injuries on the way to the hospital. On the same day her elder son Abdullah Al-Mamun registered a case with Rampal PS accusing his paternal uncle Shahidul Islam. Police investigated into the matter and submitted a charge sheet to the court against Shahidul Islam.

The learned judge examined the evidences and witnesses and found the accused guilty and awarded him the aforesaid punishment.




EU-Turkey deal to ease refugee crisis

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is welcomed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (L) and European Council President Donald Tusk (R) during an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels on Monday.

Agencies, Brussels :Turkey and the European Union have reached an agreement on the main points of a proposal to tackle the massive influx of refugees into Europe.Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said the leaders had made a "breakthrough" that sent "a very clear message that the days of irregular migration to Europe are over".The announcement came at the end of a long day of meetings in Brussels, during which Turkey is known to have asked for an additional $3.3bn in return for checking the flow of refugees across the Aegean Sea.The next step involves the presentation of the proposal to EU leaders at a key European Council meeting due to be held on March 17 and 18.Turkey is due to receive $3.3bn until the end of 2018 to cover the costs of dealing with refugees, but it reportedly asked for double the amount during Monday's talks.Martin Schulz, head of the European Parliament, confirmed that the request for additional money came at the summit between Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's prime minister, and EU leaders.After protracted negotiations, Martin Selmayr, spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said on Twitter: "Deal. Breakthrough with Turkey."The agreement could see Turkey and the EU cooperate to end the flow of irregular refugees to Greek islands and start resettling Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to the EU. In exchange for readmitting refugees from Greece to Turkey, Brussels is expected to grant Turkish citizens the right to travel to the EU's Schengen zone without a visa by end of June 2016.The Turkish government is also trying to secure the country's EU membership."Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," Davutoglu said before the summit. Turkey is a temporary home to an estimated 2.75 million refugees, many from the conflict in Syria.It is also a transit country for waves of people heading to Europe from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq."We are not sending them. They are going [to Greece] by sea and many of them are dying," Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, said, criticising the EU for its reluctance to take in more refugees as well as its demands on Turkey to halt the flow of people."We have rescued close to 100,000 from the sea. Others are puncturing their boats and causing their deaths."On Sunday, at least 25 people drowned off the Turkish coast while trying to reach Greece.The Greek coastguard launched a search-and-rescue mission for people believed to be missing from the accident near the Turkish town of Didim.At least 15 people were rescued and brought to land in the care of emergency aid workers.About 13,000 people are living in precarious conditions in Greece as they wait for authorities to let them into Macedonia so they can move towards Western Europe.The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says a humanitarian crisis is quickly unfolding at the border, with refugees living in makeshift camps and in the open, as authorities allow only 250 a day to pass through.More than one million asylum seekers have arrived in Europe since the start of 2015 - the majority fleeing the war in Syria - with nearly 4,000 dying while crossing the Mediterranean.
Urmila out of country for one month

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :

Viewers choice popular TV actress Urmila Srabonti Kar went to Bangkok for one month. To work in a single episode play and a serial Urmila left Dhaka on Tuesday.

During this time Urmila will take part in shooting of Fahmida Irfans a single episode play titled Tomar Muthoi Bondi Akash and Aniruddho Russells a serial titled Time. These will be made under the banner of Drik.

The first one will be made by Fahmida Irfan under the story written by Ezaz Munna, while the second one will be made by Aniruddho Russell under the story written by Naznin Hasan Chumki.

Before leaving Dhaka while sharing her feelings about the play and the serial actress Urmila told this correspondent, Scripts of both these two have touched my mind in a word. I have been going to Bangkok to work in these play and serial with a great liking and interest. Everybody pray for me as I can successfully finish my works.

Director Aniruddho Russell said, With a new challenge I am going to make the serial Time. I hope it will be made for the viewers likings. I am always grateful to Drik family. They always give me full freedom to work. As an actress, now Urmila is doing well. For this reason, I try to keep her in my works according to the roles. Viewers will get a new Urmila in this serial.

Urmila informed that after finishing shooting she will return to Bangladesh on April 10. Urmila acted and Sakhawat Manik directed a new serial titled Meghey Dhaka Shohor will go on air soon in a satellite channel.

In last Valentines Day, Urmila acted two plays were appreciated by the viewers. These were: Kajol Arefin Omis No Answer and Russell Shikders Guitar. Afran Nisho and Irfan Sajjad were her co-actors in these plays.


Maldives urged to take manpower from BD

UNB, Dhaka :Dhaka has asked the Maldives to hire more skilled manpower from Bangladesh.Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam, BSc, came up with the request when Maldives High Commissioner in Dhaka Dr Mohamed Asim met him at his office in the capital on Tuesday.During the meeting, they discussed issues related to sending manpower to Maldives from Bangladesh.Highlighting existing friendly relations of two Saarc countries - Bangladesh and Maldives, Nurul Islam said Maldives is a potential labour market for Bangladesh.He urged the Maldives government to recruit Bangladeshi IT professionals, accountants, front desk managers, physicians, engineers, and pharmacists. Maldives envoy Asim said he will discuss the issue with his government to hire more skilled manpower from Bangladesh.
Cop injured in Khulna mass beating

UNB, Khulna :A policeman was injured in a mass beating as he allegedly campaigned for ruling Awami League-nominated chairman candidate for Jalma union parishad election in Batiaghata upazila on Tuesday.The injured was identified as Munshi Qamruzzaman Linkon, a constable of a police station in Jessore.Locals said when a man, Shaheed, was setting up acampaign office for BNP-nominated chairman candidate Ashiquzzaman in Harintana area, constable Linkon obstructed him. Linkon reportedly went there to take part in the election campaigning for AL-nominated chairman candidate Anup Goldar.At one stage, outraged by the activities of Linkon, locals give him a good beating. Another man named Miraj was also injured in the incident.Injured Linkon went into hiding after the incident. Miraz was taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH). Officer-in-charge of Labanchora Police Station Sardar Mosharaf Hossain said the incident took place as Linkon, despite being a police member, campaigned for a chairman candidate.
'Militant' killed in shootout with cops in city

Staff Reporter :

A man was killed in a 'gunfight' with police in the city's Khilgaon area during the small hours of Tuesday.

The deceased is yet to be identified, but it is suspected that he was an activist of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), claimed police.

The shooting incident took place near the railway lines, at a short distance from a private hospital, between the Malibagh and the Khilgaon level crossings, said Khilgaon Police Station Sub-Inspector Rayhanul Islam.

"The deceased was injured in an exchange of fire between a group of JMB men and a Detective Branch (DB) team. He was rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared him dead," said the police officer.

A pistol, three bullets, three hand grenades and some explosives were recovered from the spot, he claimed.

DB Deputy Commissioner Mashruqur Rahman said that their team went to the spot after getting information that some JMB operatives had gathered there.

"When the DB team reached there, the militants opened fire, triggering a gunfight. The youth was injured as a result of shooting," the police official said.

The body had been kept at the DMCH morgue, he said.


17 BCL men sued, 15 injured

Staff Reporter :

A case was filed in connection with a factional clash taking place on Monday between two groups of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) workers at Sylhet MC College that left at least 15 activists from both the groups injured.

Seventeen leaders and activists of the BCL, including BCL's Sylhet district unit General Secretary Rayhan Chowdhury, were sued in the case. The case was filed with Shahporan Police Station. Rubel Ahmed, an activist of the organisation, filed the case on Monday night, Officer-in-Charge of the police station Nizam Uddin Chowdhury told the media on Tuesday.

According to the police and the BCL leaders, the clash took place on the MC College campus on Monday over establishing supremacy. During the clash, two BCL activists received serious bullet injuries. They are Khairul Alam Shaheen and Ratan Gupto. They were admitted to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital. Shaheen has been shifted to Dhaka.

Police said that the fighting took place between the factions of Raihan Chowdhury and former district unit President Hiron Mahmud Nipu. Incumbent Joint-Secretary Kamrul Islam is now leading the Nipu's group and the bullet hit two BCL men are supporters of the group.

Campus sources said that a supporter of Nipu had an altercation with Rayhan on the campus. Later, activists of both the groups were locked in the clash. Witnesses said that the BCL men used machetes, sticks, iron rods, and shotguns. It was linked to Sunday's incident of an activist of Raihan's faction slapping a senior activist loyal to Kamrul.

On information, police rushed to the spot and fired gunshots to bring the situation under control. Police arrested two BCL men in connection with the incident. They are Taj Uddin and Safayet Hossain Pulok.

OC Nizam Uddin said it was linked to the establishing supremacy on the campus. Abdus Samad, president of Sylhet district BCL, said that the fighting was centered on an altercation over a senior-junior issue.


Federal Reserve Bank denies BB`s charge

Legal battle on the card

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Tuesday said that it had no evidence of any breach of its systems related to an account held there by Bangladesh Bank (BB).The denial by the US Federal Reserve Bank that any Bangladesh government's fund deposited with it has not been stolen has further complicated the issue as raised by the BB.BB. the apex bank of Bangladesh, on Monday said that its account held with the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York had been hacked and $100 million had been stolen from it.The theft occurred on February 5."To date, there is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and there is no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised," Andrea Priest, a spokeswoman of the bank said in response to queries about the claim.Some 250 central banks, governments and other institutions have foreign accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They hold mostly US Treasuries and agency debt.Reacting on the Federal Reserve's denial, Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said that the money had been stolen from their custody and as custodian they are responsible to get safety of the fund.He said the government will file a case against the Federal Reserve Bank if it continues to deny the theft by some unidentified hackers."The Federal Reserve Bank cannot avoid its responsibility in any way, and of course a case will be filed against it," Muhith said while talking to reporters at his Finance Ministry office on Wednesday noon. Replying to a question, the Finance Minister said, "BB will give explanation about the funds hacked from its foreign exchange reserve in US, but the central bank has no fault regarding the hacked funds on February 5."Echoing with the Finance Minister, a senior BB official requesting anonymity told The New nation that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York would be sued following the hacking of around $100 million from BB's foreign currency account. "BB is getting ready to take legal actions against the Federal Reserve Bank to recover the money, which was stolen from the Fed account in the United States," he added. "Almost the entire amount was transferred online to the Philippines banking system after breaching the Federal Reserve Bank's payment system. We have concrete evidences in this regard," he clamed.The BB official further said that there was previous evidence of breaching Federal Reserve Bank's servers by the hackers. A British citizen was accused in 2014 for hacking its servers and posting private data. When asked, he also said that BB is in touch with the Filipino authorities to trace how the money was laundered to the Philippines banking system. Later, some portion of the stolen money was diverted to Sri Lanka. "A small portion of the stolen money has already been recovered from Sri Lanka. But the money, which is in the Philippines, is yet to be recovered," he added.Replying to a question, the BB official said, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) had remained active with anti-money laundering authorities of the Philippines to recover and get back rest of the money. The anti-money laundering authorities of the Philippines had also filed a case regarding the incident and had started collecting information about all the frozen bank accounts related to the hacking incident."Legal steps would be taken once the Philippines anti-money laundering authorities concluded their investigation into the incident," said the BB official, adding that if necessary, it would engage the Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) of the World Bank (WB).He also said that an expert and a forensic investigation team of the WB have been working with the BFIU team over the incident.Despite its official denial, the Federal Reserve Bank, however, launched an official investigation in this regard.
Remarks on CJ naked interference in judiciary

SC summons 2 Ministers

SM Mizanur Rahman :The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque to appear before it on March 15 to clarify their comments on Chief Justice S K Sinha over the appeal hearing of Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali. A nine-member full bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice issued the suo moto order asking the two ministers to appear before the court at 9:00am on that day to explain why contempt rule should not be brought against them.The Chief Justice said that the justices of the Supreme Court were taken into aback by the remarks of the two Ministers which were telecast. He also termed their remarks as "naked interference" in the free judiciary. The full bench of the apex court also asked the two Ministers to submit in writing their explanations over their comments a day ahead of their personal appearance."The apex court has got stunned following the two Ministers' disgraceful remarks. And the court considers such remarks as naked interference in the free judiciary," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told journalists at his office yesterday. He said, the two Ministers will have to appear on March 15 but submit their explanations a day ahead on March 14."The rule also asked them to explain why they would not be exposed to punitive actions on contempt of charges," Mahbubey Alam said. Earlier, Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque demanded resignation of the Chief Justice for his reported remarks that "the prosecution is doing politics with the trial of condemned war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali."The two Ministers made the demand at a roundtable discussion organised by Ekatorrer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee in the city on March 5.Earlier, on February 23, during the hearing of arguments on Mir Quasem Ali's death row review petition, the Chief Justice purportedly expressed dissatisfaction over the activities of the prosecution and the investigation agency.Meanwhile, Law Minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday called upon all to refrain from making any statement regarding any sub-judice matter. "Supreme Court is an institution and the judges are part of it. It's not right to comment on a case pending with the judges," he told reporters at his Secretariat office.He said the honour of the institution is tarnished and damaged, if any comment is made about a sub judice matter. "Subsequently, the honour of the country is damaged," Anisul Huq said. He said the country's judiciary became stronger during the regime of the Awami League government.Talking to journalists at his Secretariat office, Food Minister Quamrul Islam on Tuesday said he would seek time to answer a contempt rule and summons as he was scheduled to leave Dhaka for Malaysia yesterday on a government trip. "I will be filing a time petition with the court through my lawyer. I shall return home within March 17," he said.I'm respectful to the court. I will proceed on as per court order," he said, terming his remarks about Chief Justice S K Sinha as a freedom fighter and not a member of cabinet.On Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made angry reaction on the Ministers' comments in an unscheduled discussion at the Cabinet meeting saying the government would disown liability of any such remarks. Besides, a Supreme Court lawyer on Monday served a legal notice to the two Ministers requesting them to explain their comments about the Chief Justice over the appeal hearing of war criminal Mir Quasem Ali.
Readers Forum

Cruelty against children



Child killing has become a common occurrence in our country. Children epitomise innocence, and such violence against them is unacceptable. In many cases, the law enforcers are unable to apprehend the perpetrators and punish them. As the perpetrators are not apprehended, the common people have lost faith in the ability of the law enforces. They are living in a state of constant fear.

We hope this killing spree will stop and every child will have a safe environment to live in.



Zabed Wali

Chittagong





Making democracy stronger



In the US, no person can hold the office of President for more than two terms. So there is no chance to hold the highest powerful position for a long time or lifetime as absolute power may corrupt a person absolutely. Article 50 (2) of Bangladesh Constitution also contains the same provision: "No person shall hold office as President for more than two terms, whether or not the terms are consecutive." It's a good provision but the thing is, in Bangladesh, the position of the President is largely ornamental, Prime Minister holds the real power. There is no bar in the Constitution to hold the office as PM. We think there should be also a provision fixing the term of the office of the PM like the one for the President. If we can do this, our democracy will be stronger than now.

Md. Golam Azam

Natore
Ending the Syrian War

Jeffrey D. Sachs :

Syria is currently the world's greatest humanitarian catastrophe and most dangerous geopolitical hotspot. The Syrian people are caught in a bloodbath, with more than 400,000 dead and ten million displaced.

Violent jihadist groups backed by outside patrons mercilessly ravage the country and prey on the population. All parties to the conflict - President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the anti-Assad forces supported by the United States and its allies, and the Islamic State - have committed, and continue to commit, serious war crimes.

It is time for a solution. But such a solution must be based on a transparent and realistic account of what caused the war in the first place.

The chronology is as follows. In February 2011, peaceful protests were staged in Syria's major cities, amid the region-wide phenomenon dubbed the "Arab Spring." The Assad regime reacted with a shifting mix of violent repression (shooting at demonstrators) and offers of reform. Soon, the violence escalated. Assad's opponents accused the regime of using force against civilians without restraint, while the government pointed to the deaths of soldiers and policeman as evidence of violent jihadists among the protestors.

It seems likely that as early as March or April 2011, Sunni anti-regime fighters and arms started to enter Syria from neighboring countries. Many eyewitness accounts tell of foreign jihadists engaging in violent attacks on policemen. (Such accounts are, however, hard to confirm, especially after almost five years.)

The US and its regional allies tried to nudge Assad from power in the spring of 2011, thinking that he would fall quickly like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Many observers assert that Qatar funded an increase in anti-regime activity within Syria and used the Doha-based broadcaster Al Jazeera to boost anti-Assad sentiment worldwide, though such claims are hard to pin down definitively.

The US imposed a tightening noose of trade and financial sanctions on the regime. The Brookings Institution, a bellwether of US official policy, called for Assad's ouster, and anti-Assad propaganda in the US media soared. (Until then, Assad was considered in the US media to be a relatively benign, albeit authoritarian, ruler, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted as late as March 2011 that many in the US Congress regarded Assad as a reformer.)

The launch of the war can be dated to August 18, 2011, when President Barack Obama and Clinton declared that "Assad must go." Up to that point, the violence was still containable. Total deaths, including both civilians and combatants, ran perhaps to around 2,900 (according to one tally by regime opponents).

After August, the death rate soared. It is sometimes claimed that the US did not act vigorously at this point. Obama's political foes generally attack him for having taken too little action, not too much. But the US did in fact act to topple Assad, albeit mostly covertly and through allies, especially Saudi Arabia and Turkey (though neither country needed much prodding to intervene). The CIA and Saudi Arabia covertly coordinated their actions.

Of course, the chronology of the war does not explain it. For that, we need to examine the motivations of the key actors. First and foremost, the war in Syria is a proxy war, involving mainly the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran. The US and its allies, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, started the war in 2011 in order to overthrow Assad's regime. The US alliance was met with escalating counterforce by Russia and Iran, whose Lebanese proxy army Hezbollah is fighting alongside Assad's government.

The US interest in overthrowing Assad's regime was precisely its reliance on Iranian and Russian backing. Removing Assad, US security officials believed, would weaken Iran, undermine Hezbollah, and roll back Russia's geopolitical reach.

America's allies, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, were interested in replacing Assad's Alawite regime in Syria with a Sunni-led regime (Alawites are a branch of Shia Islam). This, they believed, would also weaken their regional competitor, Iran, and curtail Shia influence in the Middle East more generally. In believing that Assad would be easily overthrown, the US - not for the first time - was relying on its own propaganda. The regime faced deep opposition, but also had considerable internal support. More important, the regime had powerful allies, notably Iran and Russia. It was naive to believe that neither would respond.

The public should appreciate the dirty nature of the CIA-led fight. The US and its allies flooded Syria with Sunni jihadists, just as the US had flooded Afghanistan in the 1980s with Sunni jihadists (the Mujahideen) that later became Al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and the US have regularly backed some of the most violent jihadist groups in a cynical miscalculation that these proxies would do their dirty work and then somehow be pushed aside.

According to the US and European mainstream media, Russia's military intervention in Syria is treacherous and expansionist. The truth is different. The US is not allowed under the UN Charter to organize an alliance, fund mercenaries, and smuggle heavy weapons to overthrow another country's government. Russia in this case is reacting, not acting. It is responding to US provocations against its ally.

Ending the war requires adherence to six principles. First, the US should cease both overt and covert operations to overthrow Syria's government. Second, the UN Security Council should implement the ceasefire now under negotiation, calling on all countries, including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and Iran, to stop arming and funding military forces within Syria.

Third, all paramilitary activities should cease, including those of so-called "moderates" backed by the US. Fourth, the US and Russia - and, indeed, the UN Security Council - should hold Syria's government strictly responsible to desist from punitive actions against regime opponents. Fifth, the political transition should take place gradually and with confidence building on all sides, rather than through an arbitrary, destabilizing rush to "free elections."

Finally, the Gulf States, Turkey, and Iran should be pressed to negotiate face to face on a regional framework that can ensure lasting peace. Arabs, Turks, and Iranians have all lived with each other for millennia. They, not the outside powers, should lead the way to a stable order in the region.

(Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is also Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals).

Courtesy - Project Syndicate
Looting of our money easy even outside

The removal of $100 million Bangladesh government fund; which is equivalent to Tk 800 crore from an account of Federal Reserves in New York by hackers has come as a big shock to the nation at a time when the country's' banking system is trying to cope with the breaking of ATM booths in the capital by foreign gangsters. Bangladesh Bank (BB) made the disclosure of the new electronic theft on Monday saying hackers have moved out most money to the Philippines, except a part of it to Sri Lanka and BB has already recovered it. It also shows how the high tech e-Banking system is increasingly becoming vulnerable with threats to safety of reserves from hackers at home and abroad. Bangladesh Bank claims Chinese hackers have mainly removed the money but investigators believe that some local BB officials may be equally involved. Particularly an official has reportedly cleared the electronic transfer request to release the fund without sensing the hands of the fraudster behind it. But how the Federal Reserves can release the fund without further verification is the big question. They have surely neglected their oversight duty.

At home front, acting on suspicion, Detective Branch (DB) police seized the passports of five BB officials yesterday who work at bank's accounting and budgeting departments.

What appears quite surprising is the immediate denial of Federal Reserves at New York that any such theft of Bangladesh government funds has taken place. Such claim has made the matter more complicated. Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said Bangladesh government would sue the Federal Reserves for failing in its responsibility to protect the funds and demand the return of the money.

Meanwhile BB said it has already identified the foreign nationals who have stolen the money and a team of its Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) recently visited Manila to talk about the recovery of the fund. The team said anti-graft authorities in that country has also secured court orders to freeze the accounts of those involved in the theft.

But notwithstanding such development, Federal Reserves officials on Tuesday said their payment system was never before compromised and was not also compromised in this case. What we fear is such claim and counter claim may create a highly critical situation when both sides are required to work together to uphold the high level of integrity in addressing the issue.

This is a highly crucial issue for Bangladesh as stands to lose a big amount of money while the hacking shows that the safety of the remaining reserves is also at high stake. The Federal Reserves also face the big integrity question as it holds reserves of many other countries. Such story may send the wrong signal.

But question arises as to how the hackers were able to get access to highly secretive passwords and swift code number, which hold the key to place the order for transfer and make it effective. Hackers are everywhere now throwing big challenge to corporate secrecy and safety to bank vaults.

What we believe, the electronic transfer system can't be erased and it gives the best hope to ascertain the theft at New York Federal Reserves. Bangladesh has around $28 billion in foreign currency reserve and nearly one-third of it is in liquid assets with the Federal Reserve in the USA and the Bank of England. The rest is invested in bonds and gold.

The latest incident not only calls for working together with the Federal Reserves and others to protect our reserves at home and abroad it also underlines the need for developing more secured electronic custody and transfer system at banks that can detect and defeat cheating by electronic thieves.
The Elites Want Genocide This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a ...
Bill Clinton (Former President)

(Former President) Hillary Clinton (U.S Presidential Candidate)

(U.S Presidential Candidate) George W. Bush (Former U.S. President)

(Former U.S. President) Colin Powell (former U.S. Secretary)

(former U.S. Secretary) George Maior (chief of the Romanian Intelligence Service)

(chief of the Romanian Intelligence Service) John Tenet (State Director of Central Intelligence for the United States CIA)

(State Director of Central Intelligence for the United States CIA) Richard Armitage (Republican politician)

(Republican politician) Lisa Murkowski (U.S. Senator and former Secret Service Agent) and many more.

Upon the request of US authorities, Marcel Lazar Lehel, well known as, has finally been approved to extradite to the United States to face Computer Intrusion and Identity Theft Charges for 18 months.Guccifer is an infamous Romanian hacker who was arrested in Romania for hacking into the emails and social networking accounts of numerous high profile the US and Romanian Politicians.Romania's top court has approved a request by US authorities to extradite Guccifer to the United States, a source within Romania's DIICOT anti-organized crime and terrorism unit told Reuters.Guccifer's well known political targets included:Guccifer rose into the popularity in 2013 after hacking into the email account of George W. Bush and leaking Bush's personal photographs and artwork , including two self-portraits: one in the shower and one in the bathtub.The same hacker was responsible to crack into the AOL Account of Bush's Sister, Dorothy Bush Koch and targeted a number of high-profile celebrities, including, Comedian, Actor, Actress, 'Sex and the City' author, Biographer, released some ofand many more.The 42-year-old hacker had also claimed that Bush was a member of Ku Klux Klan  a White Supremacist Racist group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, allegedly having total 5,000 to 8,000 members.This intensified leakage had caused many repercussions on many topics like the romantic relationships between(Romanian Politician), even though both denied the statement.If you want to explore more about the Guccifer Leaks, you may visit the site named ' The Smoking Gun ' to which he published the leaked contents (don't expect a Wikileaks model).Guccifer was serving as a Taxi Driver when Romania's DIICOT anti-organized crime and terrorism unit arrested him. He kickstarted his career as a Hacker at the age of 35.According to his wife, Guccifer did most of his hacking from the quiet Sambateni, which is located in the Draculan Village Transylvania.Guccifer was sentenced for intrusion charges to popular profiles by the Romanian court to four years in jail in 2014 "with the aim of getting ... confidential data" and is serving another three-year term for other offences.
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
Monet rahapelien ystavat ovat viime vuosina loytaneet netticasinot ja olleet ihmeissaan. Verrattuna kotimaisen Veikkauksen kivijalkarahapeleihin puhutaan aivan eri tason palautusprosenteista ja lisaksi pelaaminen on aarimmaisen helppoa ja turvallista. Netticasinoiden maara on tana paivana todella suuri ja niita loytyy jokaiseen lahtoon, suurin ongelma aloittelevalla pelaajalla onkin tehda valinta siita, minka netticasinon valitsee. Kaikkien netticasinoiden mainospuheet naet lupaavat kauniita asioita ja niiden lapinakeminen on tietysti tarkeaa. Nyrkkisaantona voidaan kuitenkin jo kattelyssa todeta, etta jos valitsemasi netticasino on lisensoitu ETA-alueella, sen kanssa ei tule olemaan ongelmia, ellei niita itse jarjesta. Kay tutustumassa parhaisiin netticasinoihin osoitteessa www.ilmaiskierroksia.info!

Ensimmainen nyrkkisaanto on siis varmistaa, etta valitsemallasi netticasinolla on ETA-alueen lisenssi. Suurimmassa osassa tapauksista se on Maltan eli MGA:n lisenssi. Myos Viron, Englannin ja Gibraltarin lisensseja nakyy ja naissa valvonta on jopa Maltaa tiukempaa. Lopputulema on kuitenkin se, etta ETA-alueen lisenssi takaa suomalaisille verovapaat voitot seka sen, etta niita valvotaan kontrolloidusti. Maailmalla on iso nippu Curacaon lisenssilla toimivia netticasinoita ja niistakin suurin osa on laadukkaita. Ne eivat kuitenkaan ole suomalaisille asiakkaille verovapaita, joten emme suosittele niita.

Tana paivana markkinoille on ilmaantunut paljon ETA-alueella toimiva netticasinoita ilman rekisteroitymista. Jos tarkoitus on vain pelata yksittaisia pelikertoja, on varsin helppo suositella naita. Netticasinot ilman rekisteroitymista tarjoavat palvelun tunnistautumisen verkkopankin avainlukulistan avulla ja saman palvelun kautta tapahtuvat talletukset ja mahdolliset voittojen nostot silmanrapayksessa. Normaaleihin netticasinoihin pitaa asiakkaan rekisteroitya, tehda talletukset ja tunnistautua dokumenttien avulla. Tama on lisenssiehtojen mukainen kaytanto, eika kovinkaan monimutkainen, mutta silti monet asiakkaat haluavat yksinkertaista ja nopeaa palvelua. Toki normaalit netticasinot tarjoavat usein asiakkailleen laadukkaita talletusbonuksia ja erilaisia kampanjoita, joten kannattaa tarkkaan punnita, kumman ratkaisun valitsee. Kannattaa myos muistaa, etta tunnistautuminen tehdaan vain kerran, joten mikaan jatkuva riippakivi se ei ole.

Suomalaiset asiakkaat ovat netticasinoille tarkeita, joten kaikilla vahankin laadukkailla netticasinoilla on suomenkieliset sivut seka suomenkielinen asiakaspalvelu  suomenkielisyys kannattaakin ottaa netticasinoa valittaessa nyrkkisaannoksi. Vaikka tana paivana englanninkielisyys on harvoille ongelma, on suomenkielisten netticasinoiden maara niin valtava, etta suosittelemme niiden kayttoa. Rahansiirrot ovat tana paivana niin hyvassa mallissa, etta niiden kanssa tuskin tulee mitaan ongelmia. Kolme tarkeinta segmenttia: Suomalaiset verkkopankit, luottokortit (Visa, Mastercard) seka nettilompakot (Skrill, Neteller) loytyvat jokaisesta laadukkaasta netticasinosta. Viime vuosien trendiksi noussut verkkokauppa on kehittanyt rahansiirrot niin laadukkaiksi ja nopeiksi, etta niiden suhteen ei ole enaa vuosiin ollut ongelmia. Luonnollisesti netticasinot kayttavat naita samoja palveluita ja hyotyvat kehityksesta.

Naiden isojen linjojen jalkeen netticasinon valintaan vaikuttavat luonnollisesti tarjottavat tervetuliaisbonukset  uudet asiakkaat saavat tana paivana kovan kilpailun myota merkittavia etuja netticasinoilta ja niita kannattaa luonnollisesti vertailla. Erilaiset talletusbonukset, ilmaiskierrokset seka ilmaiset pelirahat tuovat suuriakin rahanarvoisia etuja ja niiden vertailu on ehdottomasti kannattavaa. Myoskaan useampien tilien avaaminen ja tervetuliaistarjousten kayttaminen ei missaan nimessa ole huono idea.

Kun edella mainitut asiat ovat mieleisia ja vaihtoehtoja on vielakin jaljella, mennaan jo nyansseihin. Toki pelivalikoima on yksi kriteeri, mutta taman paivan netticasinoissa tamakin asia on paasaantoisesti varsin samanlainen. Toki useamman samantasoisen netticasinon vertailussa kannattaa yleensa valita se, jossa on eniten peleja tarjolla. Vaikka omat suosikit loytyisivatkin useammasta, voi tulevaisuudessa mielenkiinto nousta joihinkin muihin peleihin ja silloin on tietysti mukavampaa, etta ne loytyvat valikoimista. Viimeisena voidaan nostaa esiin kaytettavyys  joidenkin netticasinoiden sivut ovat vilkkuvia, valkkyvia ja epakaytannollisia. Omaan silmaan ja kaytettavyyteen sopiva sivusto on luonnollisesti aina se paras valinta. Tarjonta netticasinoissa on tana paivana valtava ja jokaiselle loytyy varmasti se oma netticasino  onnea matkaan!
MSPs transit investments  the METRO bus and light-rail system, the emerging arterial bus rapid transit (aBRT) system, enhanced bus service and more  are helping to build a more populous, prosperous region.Other cities are taking note. A recent Chicago Magazine piece heaped effusive praise on MSPs efficient transit system and forward-thinking policies, contrasting our fair regions transportation infrastructure with Chicagos creaky, ineffective network. Writer Whet Moser marveled that transit-oriented development (TOD)  dense, often mixed-use projects built near major transit lines and designed with transit users in mind  actually get built in MSP.Moser pointed to MSPs unique system of regional governance  the Metropolitan Council  as a key driver for equitable TOD. Lucy Galbraith, the Met Councils director of transit-oriented development, agrees.MSP and Portland, Oregon, are the only two major U.S. metros with strong regional government bodies, she says. That doesnt necessarily preclude strong transit authorities or ambitious transit projects: the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a sprawling, 13-county area thats much larger than MSP and has no direct analogue to the Met Council, boasts 90 miles of light rail track. MSP has just 23.But thanks to the Met Councils historic support of transit-oriented development (TOD), and lately Galbraiths own work, MSPs development patterns align well with the Metro Transit system  at least in the core cities and in many suburbs.Our job is to explain to cities and stakeholders why TOD is a good thing, Galbraith says. We are the regions resource on TOD matters: a one-stop shop for local governments, developers, institutions and community groups.Bus and rail lines arent uniformly distributed across MSP, so its no surprise TOD isnt, either. Still, lets look at three transit-rich neighborhoods embracing, shaping and pushing back on TOD in their own ways.Since the first conceptual plans were released in the mid-2000s, the Green Line has been a source of hope, apprehension and controversy for Frogtowns diverse, largely working-class population. Locals rightly worried whether market-rate station-area TOD would price them out of the district. Business owners along University Avenue fretted over the financial impacts of scarce parking.The predicted ill effects largely havent materialized, thanks to strong public-private partnerships anchored by empowered local stakeholders (like Aurora/St. Anthony Development Corporation or ASANDC) and community-driven regional organizations ( like Twin Cities LISC). The Frogtown area is seeing a slow, steady, transit-driven improvement in its fortunes We believe this work weve done on a neighborhood level is a model for other light-rail communities locally and nationally, Nieeta Presley, ASANDCs executive director , told The Line in 2014. Frogtowns TOD resurgence actually started when the Green Line was still just a gleam in city planners eyes and the 16 bus ruled the University Avenue roost. University Dale Apartments, a hulking structure at the southwest corner of University and Dale, went up in the mid-2000s and provided workforce housing in an area that sorely needed it. More importantly, University Dale pushed the limits of what was then deemed possible in Frogtown, paving the way for future TOD. And, as the home of the Rondo Community Outreach Library, its a key gathering place for local residents.Kitty-corner to University Dale sits Frogtown Square, a newer mixed-use structure completed in 2011, three years before Green Line trains started running. The buildings first-floor retail space is a nice mix of locally owned and chain-operated businesses, all catering to locals; 50 units of senior housing occupy the upper floors. Across University, suburban-style Unidale Mall is ripe for a redevelopment push that preserves the vibrant, little-known summer farmers market  now thick with transit riders on warm, sunny days  in its front parking lot.Frogtowns community-driven TOD accelerated after the Green Lines opening, when ASANDCs Western U Plaza sprang up in and around the historic Old Home Dairy Building near Western Avenue Station. Like Frogtown Square, Western U mixes ground-floor retail and upper-floor housing, including (in a sign of the areas improving economic fortunes) some market-rate units. The project is a powerful affirmation that workforce TOD doesnt have to be drab, utilitarian or anti-historical. And its sure to serve as a model for Frogtowns next crop of TOD projects.Not every Frogtowner lives in multi-unit TOD along University Avenue, of course. Local homeowners who want to contribute to the neighborhoods growth may soon have a gentler outlet: accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on owner-occupied, single-family lots. St. Pauls proposal calls for ADUs within a half-mile radius of University Avenue. Though the idea isnt without controversy, Minneapolis ADU program seems to be working well , and Frogtown-area ADUs could provide a valuable source of income for owner-occupants  not to mention more foot traffic for University Avenue businesses.St. Pauls skyline isnt teeming with cranes. Thats not for a lack of TOD in its downtown core. Rather, much of the transit-oriented development happening in St. Pauls historic heart involves repurposing and refurbishing underutilized buildings for 21-century uses. Projects like Rayette Lofts , Custom House and the Macys Building redevelopment, all within walking distance of the Green Line and several high-frequency bus lines, are drawing new residents and businesses to the area.Thats good news for the local tax base. But its not so welcome in Lowertowns creative community, which is feeling the squeeze from rising rents. Constrained by its compact geography and historic building stock, Lowertown isnt likely to add millions of square feet of new commercial and residential space (as is currently happening in Minneapolis Downtown East district). As millennial-friendly companies like Three Deep Marketing and West Academic move to the area from suburban office parks , long-established artists and craftspeople are looking for cheaper space along West 7th Street and farther-flung neighborhoods.Our biggest concern around transit-oriented development is displacement, says Galbraith. There was a time, not long ago, when developers wouldnt touch downtown cores. Often, once a demonstration project is built and demand surges, theres a wholesale [development] rush into the area  and then, suddenly, everything is unaffordable.Thats why community-led development initiatives that preserve affordable housing and mixed-use streetscapes are so critical. Galbraith cites St. Pauls Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ) centered on the Green Lines Raymond Avenue Station, as an example of a mixed-use area thats developing equitably. Particularly crucial, she says, is CEZ's "freight-oriented development" model: development patterns that preserve and accommodate light-industrial uses, including fabrication facilities and warehouses, without impeding pedestrian-friendly residential and retail.Ideally, community-led initiatives are paired with city-developed station area plans, like the plans governing Lowertowns Green Line stops. Cities and neighborhood councils are being more intentional about zoning and planning along transit corridors, says Galbraith.These plans set out a vision and framework for equitable (or at least organized) development. In Lowertown, advance planning has likely prevented wholesale displacement to this point, though its hard to assign clear cause and effect.A few miles west of Lowertown, Snelling Avenue is among MSPs liveliest TOD corridors. The A Line, the first of a dozen proposed aBRT lines around the metro, is slated to connect Rosedale Mall with the Blue Lines 46th Street Station, with Snelling and Ford Parkway as its primary rights of way.By connecting MSPs two busiest transit lines with considerably faster and more frequent service than the existing 84 bus, the A Line will dramatically change the transit calculus in an already busy corridor.Consider this, Galbraith says, by way of comparison: In the early days of the telephone network, when there were just a handful of users, phones werent very valuable. You could only call so many people. Today, nearly everyone has a phone and its hard to live without one. The same principle, albeit in less dramatic fashion, applies to transit. Now that its much easier to take transit to key points on Snelling, interest in TOD is accelerating there. (The Green Lines opening had a similar effect on the Blue Line, adds Galbraith: connections create value.)The new Vintage on Selby , for instance, a joint venture of Ryan Companies and Excelsior Group, is a massive structure including more than 200 apartments, townhomes and penthouses arrayed above and around a gleaming new Whole Foods Market. Its 20 floorplans are named for classic film stars (Bogart, Astaire, Monroe). Rents for one-bed, one-bath units start at $1,350: workforce housing this is not. But for affluent professionals taken with the eclectic, up-and-coming Merriam Park neighborhood and enticed by the prospect of a 25-minute transit ride to either downtown, it may be enticing.Vintage on Selby probably wont be the last out-of-scale market-rate development to plop down at a major Snelling intersection. And at the moment, local stakeholders are interested in a much bigger prospect: the Minnesota United stadium and adjacent Midway Superblock redevelopment , slated to transform 34.5 acres of prime, currently underutilized real estate near the Snelling-University intersection.It appears likely that the stadium will be built, though much needs to be worked out: parking , traffic flow, pedestrian connections, water infrastructure upgrades. The Midway Superblock is a bit hazier, but its likely to include a rebuilt street grid, office buildings, market-rate and subsidized housing, retail, a high-end cinema, ample public space and district systems components (such as shared stormwater management).Though the project is city-sanctioned and draws on input from local stakeholders, the stadium-area redevelopment clearly isnt community-driven (Frogtown) or historically aware (Lowertown). Its big, ambitious, disruptive, and potentially game-changing for whats now among MSPs most transit-rich districts. Done right, itll create the A Lines single most popular destination, and the Green Lines top three or four (after the two downtowns and the East Bank). It could also foment an entirely new community  what St. Pauls plan describes as a new neighborhood district respective to surrounding existing neighborhoods.Frogtown, Lowertown and the Snelling corridor dont have a monopoly on TOD in MSP. Other districts along major transit lines, notably Prospect Park and the North Loop, are changing dramatically, too.The effects of these changes arent always clear. The North Loop has thus far avoided the displacement issues vexing Lowertown, largely because there werent many residents there before, says Galbraith, though newly established residents now appear to be finding their collective voice and pushing back on out-of-scale projects, for better or worse. Prospect Park is in the throes of a residential building frenzy, but city-sanctioned plans for a futuristic innovation district there  MSPs first true live-work-play neighborhood built around 21-century technology  present a host of unknowns for current residents.How might future transit projects, and associated TOD, affect other transit-dependent communities across MSP? On the Northside of Minneapolis, Metro Transits long-term planning calls for three aBRT lines there, plus a segment of the Blue Line extension. The Northsides first BRT line, the Penn Avenue C Line, could enter service as early as next year. Community-driven, public-private developments like Penn Commons and Broadway Flats offer promising clues about what future TOD could look like along Penn Avenue.But, per Galbraith, more transit means more value: whats to stop the North Loops $1,500 studio rents from creeping north and west, dragging working-class, transit-dependent Northside residents in their wake? Similar issues loom on the horizon for St. Pauls Greater East Side and West End districts, whose newly affluent pockets may one day connect to the citys revitalized downtown via aBRT or streetcar.In the end, its probably best for local stakeholders to internalize Frogtowns simple, powerful lessons: build what locals need and want, when they need and want it, and adjust as those needs and wants evolve.Brian Martucci is The Lines Innovation and Jobs News Editor.
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
To the Editor:

Many are leaving the state due to the combination of unemployment, taxes, the pension situation, the state's unpaid bills, worker's compensation costs, the ever-dropping credit rating and on and on.

Is this all happening because the state has no budget? If so, who is responsible for the budget? The people of the State of Illinois have elected a new governor who said he was going to shake hings up in Springfield. The state certainly needs a shake-up, because things have been getting worse for years. The governor inherits a legislature of the opposition party; one that's been in power for many years. For many of these years the governor was also a Democrat. And the legislature has failed to come up with a budget that would allow the governor to approve or veto.

Why won't they act when things are getting worse each day? Is it because the Speaker of the House, from Chicago, has a stranglehold on the State of Illinois and keeps its members in lockstep in Springfield?

For his information, there is an angry mood in the USA that just might ignite throughout Illinois. The people are fed up with their representatives not listening to them. They are saying: There must be a change! If that ground swell grows and captivates Illinois, many of those in lockstep with the speaker could find themselves out of office on November 8th. May the Lord's will be done.

Ed Pool

West Frankfort, IL
"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."

- St. Augustine





"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James





"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." -- Ronald Reagan



A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."

-- Edward Abbey





"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANONA nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,Congressman Steve King (R-IA),Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be cured against ones will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis
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Disclaimer!

THE TIMES OF AHMAD is NOT an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites. Times of Ahmad is an independently run and privately managed news / contents archival website; and does not claim to speak for or represent the official views of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Times of Ahmad assumes full responsibility for the contents of its web pages. The views expressed by the authors and sources of the news archives do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Times of Ahmad. All rights associated with any contents archived / stored on this website remain the property of the original owners.
/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Baku backs transition of the OSCE Minsk Group, established to mediate for peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to activity in full format.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov made the statement while talking to ANS TV channel.

With transition of the Minsk Group to activity in full format and holding meetings in full squad, we will achieve another tool for increasing the international communitys pressure on Yerevan, he said.

Armenia's territorial claims in the late 1980s accompanied with bitter military aggression resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, and seven surrounding regions. More than a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs in the aftermath of the war between the two South Caucasus republics.

Azimov believes that Armenia feels comfortable with the current format of the MG. Overall, the international community get little information about the conflict, little pressure is placed on Armenia. Thats why it is not suitable for us, he said.

He noted that the talks carried out within the mandate of the OSCE MG co-chair countries - France, Russia and the U.S.- mainly serves to the interest of these three states.

When the relations between the United States and Russia strain, we can feel the same within the Minsk process, he said, noting the importance of resuming the activity of Turkey, Germany and Sweden within the MG.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs, dubbed the Madrid Principles.

However, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries for over 20 years.

Azimov, commenting on Russias weapon supply to Armenia, said the military-political alliance of Russia and Armenia does not surprise anyone.

The two countries have a long-term contract and under this deal, Russia keps its military presence in Armenia, bring new weapons to the country and keeps it under its focus, he said.

Noting that Russia ensures the air defense of Armenia and observes the borders of this country, he said that 70 percent of Armenias economy is owned by Russia.

Russia backs Armenia inside its territory and inside the territory of Armenia, However, in case the war broke, Azerbaijan will be fighting in its territory. Azerbaijan, being in its territory, rightfully will defend itself and take steps for defending its territorial integrity. In this case, from a legal point of view, Russias joining the conflict from Armenian side is illegal, he said.
The Mayor`s Office of the city of Hallandale Beach, the state of Florida, U.S., has adopted a proclamation on the 24th anniversary of Khojaly genocide.





The proclamation says: On February 25-26, 1992, the population of the town of Khojaly of Azerbaijan was subjected to a massacre, resulting in the death of over 600 innocent civilians, including many children, women, and elderly. The renowned international humanitarian organization, Human Rights Watch called this tragedy the largest massacre in the region.





This event in Khojaly is a sobering reminder of the terrible damage that can be inflicted in wartime and the enduring need for the greater understanding, communication, and tolerance, among people all over the world, the proclamation says.





Azerbaijanis living in Hallandale Beach and around the globe observe February 26th every year, as a day of remembrance, honoring victims of the Khojaly massacre.





Therefore, I, Joy F.Cooper, Mayor of the City of Hallandale Beach Florida, on behalf of City Commission, do hereby proclaim February 26, 2016 as Khojaly Remembrance Day.





The proclamation was presented to president of Florida Azerbaijan Association Tohfa Eminova.




The Global Baku Forum is a very important event that provides an opportunity to discuss the most pressing modern challenges, says Jean Chretien, Canadas former prime minister.

He made the remarks speaking to Trend March 8 on the sidelines of the 33rd plenary session of the Canadian InterAction Council, held in Baku on the eve of the Global Baku Forum.

Chretien said the leaders from all parts of the world meet every year in Baku and study the worlds problems, offer solutions, prepare recommendations and present them to governments.

The people who have gathered at the Forum have extensive experience in different areas, he added.

Nearly 300 people, including influential politicians, heads of states and governments of Albania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Georgia will take part in the event.

The conflicts on ethnic, religious and political grounds, global challenges in the democratic development, education, environment and energy security will be the topics of the upcoming Forum.

Club of Madrid, InterAction Council and Library of Alexandria are the partners of the event.
By Aynur Karimova

Turkey, which eyes to give a new impetus to its trade ties with neighboring Iran following removal of international sanctions, intends to take the rising golden opportunity in Iran's economy and to play a more active role on the Islamic Republic's market by its private sector.

The first step towards achieving this goal has already been taken: on March 5-6, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who led a high-ranking delegation, was on a two-day visit in Tehran. This visit was the first official visit by a Turkish premier in the wake of the nuclear Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

He was accompanied by ministers of economy, customs and trade, energy, transport, communications and development, government officials and representatives of major Turkish media.

Davutoglu first met with Eshaq Jahangiri, Irans First Vice President, and the sides discussed regional issues, as well as the issues of mutual interest.

Later, speaking at a joint press conference, Jahangiri said that Iran and Turkey are determined to deal with their differences regarding the regional issues in order to safeguard security in the region.

He also noted that Tehran and Ankara share the same viewpoint on many issues, while there are differences on some regional matters.

He further said the two countries share mutual interest in establishing security and stability in the entire region.

Jahangiri added that terrorist groups are negatively affecting security in the region.

The officials from the two sides have held fruitful talks on cooperation in oil and energy fields, as well as transportation, customs issues, preferential tariffs, banking ties, as well as tourism, he stressed.

Jahangiri went on to add that Turkey is the main target for Iranian tourists. He also expressed hope that Turkish investors will invest in Irans tourism sector.

The two sides are determined to boost annual trade to $30 billion, Jahangiri added.

He said it was agreed that the next round of Iran-Turkey joint commission on economic cooperation will be held in a month to settle the barriers ahead of materializing this purpose.

Iran and Turkey, the Middle Easts two powerful players, share very close economic ties despite taking part in opposing political blocs.

Tehran and Ankara are already clashing over a number of issues, in particular their supporting opposing sides in the Syrian crisis. However, both sides are determined not to allow the political tensions to affect their economic goals.

Tehran and Ankara intend to increase their trade volume to $30 billion. The two states have signed a preferential trade agreement that could pave the way for a rise in the bilateral trade. The two countries trade turnover stood at $13.7 billion in 2014, according to the data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute.

The trade turnover between Turkey and Iran stood at $22 billion in 2012 before dipping to $14.5 billion in the following year due to the economic sanctions imposed on Tehran by the West.

Davutoglu, in turn, said that the removal of sanctions on Iran opens up new opportunities for Turkey.

He said that Turkey always supported Iran in the period of sanctions.

Despite a number of differences between Iran and Turkey, our peoples have much in common, the Turkish premier added. Iran is Turkeys gateway to Asia, and Turkey is Irans gateway to Europe."

Iranian market promises a huge opportunity to Turkey in various sectors, including tourism, automotive industry, clothing, textiles, machinery, chemistry, petrochemistry and energy industry, as well as banking, telecommunications and transportation. Apparently, Turkey is not going to lose this tempting market for political disputes.

Turkish prime minister also said that energy issues were discussed during his meeting with Jahangiri.

Iran is an important gas supplier and Turkey is an important market, he added.

Davutoglu believes that Turkey and Iran also have significant potential to withstand the growing radicalism in the region.

Iran and Turkey should prevent external interference in the region, he added.

He also noted that the Iranian-Turkish cooperation is for the benefit of the entire region.

Davutoglu also met with President Hassan Rouhani to discuss mutual relations and the latest developments in the Middle East, particularly the Syrian crisis.

Rouhani expressed hope that cooperation between Tehran and Ankara will consolidate bases of stability in the region.

He also emphasized positive impact of the Tehran-Ankara cooperation on settlement of regional issues.

"Iran and Turkey share common goals and interests and they should consolidate bases of stability and peace in the region through cooperation, as well as coordinating and focusing on campaign against terrorism as common enemy," he said.

He added that Iran and Turkey are two brotherly neighboring countries, sharing abundant religious and cultural commonalities. "The basis of religious ideology of the two countries is totally different with that of certain violence seeking countries."

The president underlined the need for campaign against terrorism as a common danger and threat to all nations and said that foreign countries are not after drastic settlement of regional problems and only seek their own interests.

"So, we believe that regional problems should be solved by countries and nations of the region and undoubtedly, Iran-Turkey cooperation will play a constructive role in establishment of durable peace in the region," he added.

Rouhani believes that certain regional problems have not harmed Tehran-Ankara relations.

"There is no obstacle on the way of expanding bilateral relations and today there is a suitable opportunity to make optimum use of potential available to expand bilateral ties in line with interests of the two nations," he noted.

He also said Tehran and Ankara enjoy many capacities for growing relations in various domains, especially in the transportation, energy, trade, joint investment, tourism, scientific and technological sectors and they are ready to start common cooperation in all the fields.

President Rouhani underlined further activation of Iran-Turkey Joint Cooperation Commission and hoped that compilation of operational mechanism in the near future will bring a new change in bilateral relations.

Davutoglu, for his part, underlined the need for Tehran-Ankara regional cooperation to fight terrorism, saying "as far as regional issues are concerned, we should join hands and stand the barbaric methods of the terrorist groups."

He emphasized that Turkey is ready to have full cooperation with Iran in fighting terrorist groups in the region.

The Turkish prime minister said Turkey's foreign policy is based on respecting national sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-intervention of foreign countries, and right of people of countries to decide their fate.
Turkmenistans Ahal province has started to receive natural gas transported via the recently commissioned East-West gas pipeline, said a message from Turkmenistans Oil and Gas Ministry.

The pipelines length is 733 kilometers, while its capacity is 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Meanwhile, the construction of the Shatlyk compressor station is underway.

The natural gas, transported via the East-West gas pipeline, will be considered as a source for the gasoline production enterprise that is now under construction and for the agricultural fertilizer plants, and will be delivered to gas turbine power plants in the Ahal province.

Turkmenistans Oil and Gas Ministry has said that by uniting all large gas fields in one system, the East-West gas pipeline also creates conditions for exporting Turkmen fuel to world markets in any direction.

Earlier, it was reported that the export of energy resources to Europe is one of the priorities of Turkmenistans energy strategy.

Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of its natural gas reserve volumes. Currently, the country exports gas to Chinese and Iranian markets. Russia suspended the purchase of Turkmen gas in 2016.
Although the SWIFT service is running in Iran and banking operations such as opening credits are performed right now, the level of the established banking relations doesnt satisfy the country, said Seyyedeh Fatemeh Moqimi, secretary of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce.

Banking relations may not have reached the desirable level yet. However, the problem is not a general one. Negotiations over the details of the operationalization of the relations will take some time, Moqimi told Trend March 7.

In recent days there has been much talk whether Iranian banks are really able to use international transactions, with contrary statements from the government and private sector, as well as media outlets affiliated to political rivals of the government.

A few days ago, Tehran Chamber of Commerce member Asadollah Asgar Oladi said government vows have not been fulfilled and businessmen cannot use Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) even as nearly two months have passed since the implementation day of Irans nuclear deal with world powers, which removed economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

But the Central Bank of Iran President Valiollah Seif has made contrary remarks, noting that Iranian bankers are normally performing international transactions.

Irans President Hassan Rouhani, answering a question at a press conference on March 6, said, Transactions between our banks and foreign banks have started. However, some banks are still afraid of establishing relations with us.

Iran complained on March 5 that European banks and companies were too wary about renewing business ties and said it had asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease their concerns.

There is still Iranophobia in the banking sector that we are trying to overcome, Hamid Tehranfar, a vice governor of Iran's central bank, was earlier quoted as saying.

Iranian businessmens efforts to quickly make deals with foreigners have been hampered in part by foreigners reluctance.

Zagros Airlines chief Hushang Seddiq said March 7 that his company intends to buy 20 aircraft from Brazils Embraer, but expressed concern that bringing them into the country would require a green light from the US.

Regarding the issue, Moqimi told Trend that the problem springs in great part from the current political vibe in the US as the country is expecting a presidential election and party rivalry is high.

Surely, the situation will move toward considering a win-win game and the problems will be solved, however after some time, she said.

Problems with the American banks, however, are not solved yet, the Tehran Chamber of Commerce secretary noted.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has signed a decree on setting the appropriate customs duties on the vehicles imported into the country.

The document has been signed to protect the interests of consumers in Turkmenistan in terms of using the environmentally friendly and comfortable vehicles for people, as well as controlling the import of vehicles from foreign countries.

According to the document, the Turkmen State Customs Service, the Ministry of Economy and Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Main State Tax Service together with the Ministry of Justice have been charged with preparing a suggestion to amend and change the country's legislation within one month and submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers.
Everton get green light for Moshiri deal

, 8 March,



The League has considered submissions from the club regarding the Iranian-born billionaire's proposed investment and have now given the deal the go-ahead.

Moshiri sold a 15% holding in rivals Arsenal to his long-time business partner Alisher Usmanov last month to pave the way to becoming Everton's largest shareholder.

His arrival sees Chairman Bill Kenwright and Jon Woods each sell a 13% stake in the club.

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Welcome to Trading for a Living, a technical analysis blog on stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange(SGX). Objective of this blog is to share ideas in trading stocks. Please note postings in this blog are based on my personal opinions which are neither investment advice nor inducements to trade. The blog owner does not accept any claim for any loss incurred by any reader acting on these postings. You are encouraged to seek professional advice when in doubt. Good Luck and Happy Trading!
ZRE, the developer of the Beirut Digital District (BDD), plans to start Phase B of the project in May, for a construction cost of $35 million, a top official said.



Phase B, which is expected to be completed in 2019, will consist of 17,500 sq m of offices with integrated ICT technology, Mouhamad Rabah, ZREs general manager was quoted as saying in a Business News report.



We are in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cooperation with the Spanish embassy to learn how Barcelona has become one of the smartest cities in the world, he said.



BDD, a 15-year venture launched in September 2012, currently consists of five buildings with a built-up area of 15,000 sq m, the report said, adding that it hosts 50 companies employing 1,200 people.



BDD will focus on providing legal consultancy services and helping entrepreneurs establish limited liability companies, the report said.
Bahrain-based Impact Estate has joined forces with leading developers in the United Kingdom to offer special packages to regional investors who are keen to enter the British property market.



An exclusive stand will be set up at the City Centre Bahrain from March 10 to 12 where the sales team of the companys International Properties Department will explain the various investment opportunities available in the UK.



The expansion into the international property market is a new and exciting chapter for the award-winning company, said a statement from the Bahraini developer.



The stable and secure property market in the UK has been attracting property investors from around the globe, it stated.



The companys ever-growing property portfolio now includes exclusive projects in York, Manchester, Liverpool, and Nottingham, it added.



Among the projects which will be presented by Impact Estate in the gallery of the City Centre are student accommodations in Liverpool and York as well as waterfront apartments in Manchester.



With the prices starting from BD38,000 ($100,113), all properties have advantageous location, high quality modern design and six to eight per cent annual returns.



The developers representative from the UK will be available at the stand to answer questions and give investment information about the projects.



Additionally, Impact Estate will run a raffle for those who book one of the units during these three days of the promotion at City Centre and the lucky winner will get a return ticket to the UK and also visit the property.



Oksana A Konyshevska, the general manager of Impact Estate, said: "We are excited to offer new investment opportunities to our clients. Eventhough Bahrain is very attractive in terms of property investments, some buyers are looking for real estate outside of the kingdom."



"With the UKs property market considered as one of the safest investment in the world, we are confident to offer our clients international projects with high levels of consistent capital growth and dependable returns," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
Leading regional developer Emaar is all set to launch its new 'The Address Residences Tower II' at the Opera District, a stylish cultural destination in Downtown Dubai, UAE.



This unique development will boast spacious residences with a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, all with terraces and balconies, said a statement from real estate brokers Coldwell Banker.



It is located in The Opera District, a new cultural district in the heart of Downtown Dubai which will feature luxury hotels, elegantly-designed residential and serviced apartments, a retail plaza, waterfront promenades, recreational spaces and parks, it added.



The project is strategically located close to Dubai Opera, the new 2,000-seat multi-format performing arts centre and at the intersection of Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, Downtowns palm-lined thoroughfare filled with chic pavement cafes and inviting restaurants, said the statement.



The Address Residences Dubai Opera is just a few minutes walk to The Dubai Mall and the nearest metro station, creating a walkable community for easy accessibility all year round.-TradeArabia News Service
India-based Ramco Systems, a leading enterprise software provider, has joined hands with Middle-Eastern third-party logistics (3PL) service provider, RSA Logistics, to implement integrated freight management system (IFMS) to better manage operations.



Ramcos IFMS is an end-to-end solution suite that addresses the complete process flow of the shipping and transportation industry, said a statement.



RSA Logistics is a multi-award winning third-party logistics provider based in Dubai, UAE, with global alliances that help extend its reach to every corner of the world. The company offers storage and 360-degree supply chain solutions, including distribution, transportation, and international freight.



RSAs clients hail from a diverse portfolio of industries that include automotive, power generation, petrochemicals and chemicals and food and beverage. RSA further deploys its expertise by offering on-site logistics to companies that operate their own warehouses  bringing sophisticated and tailor-made people, process and technology solutions to the clients doorstep.



The agreement with Ramco will comprise freight forwarding, customer relationship management (CRM), finance, purchase, inventory and human resources (HR) modules to better manage key freight and logistics operations, added the statement.



Virender Aggarwal, CEO, Ramco Systems, said: With the onset of technological transformation in the logistics industry, players today are under significant pressure to deliver near-perfect performances.



In such disruptive scenarios, traditional models of transportation and logistics management are proving to be ineffective. The need for complete visibility of operations, capacity and route planning and scheduling is driving organisations to adapt technology, he said.



Through multiple client wins in this industry, Ramco has testified its ability to address this industry need. With our companys cloud and mobile-enabled enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering, RSA will be able to streamline their functions, thereby improving visibility and enhancing productivity, across all levels of operations, he added.



Abhishek Ajay Shah, managing director, RSA Logistics, said: As a third party logistic solutions provider, RSA has a reputation for being aggressive in its adoption of innovative technologies.



Implementing a cloud based ERP is a strategic step for us to set ourselves up for our next stage of multi-geographic growth. The ERPs extensive modules, in particular the transportation module, has completed our quest for a fully integrated ERP, he added.



Uday Menon, IT manager, RSA Logistics, said: With Ramcos implementation, we will have better visibility and control over our transactional processes and data, with which we can generate reports as per the organisational requirement to improve efficiency, thereby ensuring enhanced customer satisfaction.  TradeArabia News Service
Siemens, a global technology leader, has unveiled a concept for a premium high-speed capacity intercity train, tailored for the Gulf region at the Middle East Rail event in Dubai, UAE.



The Hesan Alkhaleej or Horse of the Gulf is a comfortable, reliable and efficient alternative to road and air travel and incorporates proven technology from the Siemens Mobility portfolio, and integrates special features for the Gulf, the company said.



The Hesan Alkhaleej is a premium intercity train; our vision of a real alternative to road and air travel in the Gulf region, said Joerg Scheifler, senior executive vice president, Mobility, Siemens Middle East.



Mobility between cities is a key driver of economic stimulus, and while there are already a number of modern city transit systems in the region, we see the need arising for fast, safe, luxurious and efficient intercity services to link these together.



We have been in the rail business for more than 160 years and we draw on this global experience to combine proven technology with local knowledge, in order to develop solutions that are tailor-made for the region.



The Hesan Alkhaleej concept is designed to withstand ambient temperatures in excess of 55 degrees Celsius, and incorporates sand-filtering technologies to ensure reliable service in the regions challenging climate. Unprecedented levels of redundancy, especially with regard to air conditioning and power supply, ensure that even in the event of multiple failures the train will be able to continue its journey and protect passengers.



The Hesan Alkhaleej would also be equipped to run on tracks suitable for heavy freight services, enabling mixed-use services to accommodate the varied future requirements of the regions rail systems.



Rail networks on the Arabian Peninsula are chiefly built around freight operations, but we also recognise the needs of growing populations and an increasingly diverse economic landscape, said Scheifler. It is key to the efficient use of investment and infrastructure that passenger and freight services can be combined in a mixed-use solution, integrated with whats already in place and achieve the speed, luxury and convenience levels required to compete with air and road travel. This is the Hesan Alkhaleej concept.



Digitalization is the key

At Middle East Rail 2016, which will run till March 9 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition, Siemens is showcasing its full portfolio for rail and mobility innovation, including rolling stock, rail automation, rail electrification and seamless mobility solutions. Whether its energy-saving driverless trams, app-based e-ticketing for intermodal mobility or remote diagnostics for optimized maintenance, Siemens electrification, automation and digitalization technology is equipping mobility to be a driver of truly smart cities in the Middle East.



The Middle Easts rail networks are at varying stages of maturity, and more developed networks can be significantly enhanced by digitalization technology to increase the availability of infrastructure, optimize throughput and improve passenger experience, said Scheifler. This is an important part of developing rail infrastructure into a valuable asset as part of a truly smart city, by lowering operational costs, boosting quality of life for residents and reducing environmental impact.



The Siemens portfolio offers technology to enhance availability with digitalized technology that allows predictive maintenance, optimized spares and active energy management. The throughput is managed more efficiently by smart train driver advisory systems, autonomous driving technology and integrated resource and intelligent asset management.



Finally, the passenger experience is improved with automated fare collection and ticketing systems, and technology for intermodality, to create intelligent, networked systems which provide an attractive, simplified service to passengers, the company said.  TradeArabia News Service


Iran-allied Houthis and their Saudi foes have begun talks to try to end Yemen's war, two officials said, in what appears their most serious bid to close a theatre of Saudi-Iranian rivalry deepening political tumult across the Middle East.



A delegation from Yemen's Houthi movement is in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, they said, in the first visit of its kind since the war began last year between Houthi forces and an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, a foe of Tehran.



The reported talks coincide with an apparent lull in fighting on the Saudi-Yemen border and in Saudi-led Arab coalition air strikes on the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa.



Underlining the regional rifts, a senior Iranian military official meanwhile signalled that Iran could yet send military advisers to Yemen to help the Houthis.



Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, suggested Iran could support the Houthis in a similar way it has backed President Bashar Al Assad's forces in Syria, in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.



Asked if Iran would send military advisers to Yemen, as it had in Syria, Jazayeri said: "The Islamic Republic ... feels its duty to help the people of Yemen in any way it can, and to any level necessary."



Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of backing Yemen's armed Houthi movement, which drove the internationally-recognised government into exile, triggering a Gulf intervention in March.



The UN says nearly 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen's fighting. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.



The two senior officials from the administrative body that runs parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis said the Houthi visit to Saudi Arabia began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi authorities, following a week of secret preparatory talks.



The Houthi delegation in Saudi Arabia is headed by Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis' main spokesman and a senior adviser to Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the officials said. Abdel-Salam previously led Houthi delegates in talks in Oman that paved the way for UN-sponsored talks in Switzerland last year.



A spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power could not immediately be reached for comment. A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman could also not be reached.



Like Syria, Yemen is contested turf in Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia's power struggle across the Middle East, which has played out along largely sectarian lines.



Tehran views the Houthis as the legitimate authority in Yemen but denies providing any material support to them. The Houthis say they are a fighting a revolution against a corrupt government and its Gulf Arab backers.-Reuters
The British Embassy is partnering with Khalifa Shaheen Productions (KSP), owner of Bahrains largest privately held photography archive, to bring to the forefront iconic imagery commemorating the kingdoms historic, diplomatic and cultural relations with the UK.



The images, some dating back more than half a century, were shortlisted by Sophie Martin, wife of British Ambassador Simon Martin, during a visit to the studio.



She met with pioneering Bahraini photographer and archivist Khalifa Shaheen to discuss a number of opportunities to showcase the imagery in celebration of the anniversary this year of 200 years of Bahrain-UK diplomatic and cultural relations.



KSPs collection is a unique treasure for the kingdom, the result of having been present to record many of Bahrains milestone events over the years. We look forward to working with Khalifa on showcasing these historic photographs at our commemorative event through an exhibition which will be announced soon, said Martin.



KSP is set to launch its exclusive online image stock library at the end of the first quarter of 2016. The image bank, titled Arabia Gallery, will offer over one million Bahrain images dating back to the 1950s, as well as a collection of modern photography pertaining to the Gulf region as a whole.



We are honoured to have the opportunity to support the embassy and tell the story behind some of our most historical Bahrain and Britain-related imagery, many of which I took myself since I began my photography career in the 1950s. We have worked for a range of Bahrain-based entities, including ministries and other government agencies, and are happy to share with the public the photographs we have amassed over the years, said Shaheen.



As a part of the companys latest rebrand, KSP also announced a new website, new logo, and stronger social media presence. KSP is an OSK Partners company. - TradeArabia News Service
A delegation from the Houthi movement is in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending Yemen's war, two senior officials said, in what appeared to be the most serious attempt to date to end the conflict.



The visit is the first of its kind since the war began in March last year between Iran-allied Houthi forces, and an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Iran's main regional rival.



The visit began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi authorities, following a week of secret preparatory talks, said the two senior officials from the administrative body that runs parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis.



About 6,000 people, half of them civilians, have died in the fighting in Yemen, raising fears of a wider regional confrontation between Shi'ite power Iran and Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia.



Underlining the regional rifts, a senior Iranian military official signalled on Tuesday that Iran could send military advisers to Yemen to help the Houthis.



The Houthi delegation in Saudi Arabia is headed by Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis' main spokesman and a senior adviser to Houthi leader, Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi, the officials said.



Abdel-Salam previously led Houthi delegates in talks in Oman that paved the way for UN-sponsored talks in Switzerland last year.



A spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been fighting to restore Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power since last year could not immediately be reached for comment on the reported talks.



A spokesman for the Saudi foreign ministry could also not immediately be reached. Two members of the Houthi-run Revolutionary Committee, which administers parts of the country controlled by the group, said the talks were taking place.



A regional diplomat who follows Yemen confirmed that "there were direct contacts and talks between Saudis and Houthis".



The Houthi visit coincides with an apparent lull in the fighting on the Saudi-Yemeni border, one of the bloodiest fronts in the conflict, and in Arab coalition air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa. - Reuters
The UN's aviation agency has announced new requirements for the real-time tracking of civilian aircraft in distress, following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 two years ago.



The International Civil Aviation Organization's governing council approved proposals for planes to carry tracking devices that can transmit their location at least once a minute in cases of distress. Plane operators will have to ensure their flight recorder data is recoverable, while the duration of cockpit voice recordings is being extended from two to 25 hours, ICAO said.



The requirements for the one-minute tracking and flight recorder data are performance-based, meaning individual airlines and plane-makers can choose the best option for them, from among existing and emerging technologies, ICAO said.



The changes will take effect between now and 2021.



Last year Malaysia called for real-time aircraft tracking to become a priority for the aviation industry following the loss of MH370. The flight disappeared on March 8, 2014 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people aboard.



"Taken together, these new provisions will ensure that in the case of an accident the location of the site will be known immediately to within six nautical miles, and that investigators will be able to access the aircraft's flight recorder data promptly and reliably," said ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu in the statement.



"They will also contribute to greatly improved and more cost-effective search and rescue operations."



Two years after the tragedy, MH370 has still not been found. On Monday, Malaysia was investigating a second piece of debris found on the small Indian Ocean island of Reunion, suspected to be from the plane.



So far, only a piece of wing, known as a flaperon, discovered in July last year has been confirmed by authorities to belong to the missing Boeing 777.  Reuters
Ladies can treat themselves to a day of fun today (March 8) at the newly-opened Al Seef Resort & Spa by Andalus in Abu Dhabi, which is celebrating International Womens Day with a special room package and discount vouchers.



In addition to enjoying the limited opening package of Dh600++ ($163.3++)at the brand new Al Seef Village, the hotel is offering female guests staying in a pool-facing suite today a 20 per cent discount on dinner at Lebanese restaurant Zaytinya, 20 per cent discount on breakfast packages at La Brioche as well as have their professional picture taken, complimentary from Al Karmel Studio.



Caroline Delbecque, chief executive officer of Andalus Hotels & Resorts, said: Women in the UAE are strong role models, and we are happy to be able to celebrate womens empowerment with the rest of the world. - TradeArabia News Service


Adnoc Distributions Aviation Division is showcasing premium aviation fuels and services at Abu Dhabi Air Expo 2016, a leading aerospace that commenced yesterday (March 7) at Al Bateen Executive Airport.



As part of the Abu Dhabi Aviation and Aerospace Week, the three-day Abu Dhabi Air Expo is held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.



Sheikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of Crown Prince Court, visited the Adnoc Distribution Chalet during Abu Dhabi Air Expo 2016.



As Platinum Sponsor of Abu Dhabi Air Expo, Adnoc Distribution is leveraging the platform to showcase the premium aviation fuels and services of Adnoc Aviation, its aviation sales and operations division. Adnoc Aviation delivers integrated services and niche aviation fuels such as Jet A-1, AVGAS 100LL and JP8.



Abdulla Salem Al Dhaheri, CEO of Adnoc Distribution, said: We are pleased to leverage this annual participation at Abu Dhabi Air Expo - now billed as a definitive calendar event for the international aerospace industry - to present Adnoc Aviations expanded portfolio and operations for the benefit of our customers and stakeholders. We seek through our participation to strengthen our relationship with our loyal customers and exchange best international practices and experiences with end-users from the industry.  TradeArabia News Service
The Museum of the Bavarian Kings in Hohenschwangau in Fussen offers insights into the history of the royal house of Wittelsbach from its be...
DeGraw took over as Fremont County coroner in August. He formerly worked as a Casper Police detective and as an investigator in the Natrona County Coroner's Office.
The hardest year now in its past, Phoenix-based Banner Health is moving forward by investing $500 million into a new hospital and clinic in Tucson.

The nonprofit company, which is the largest private employer in Arizona, on Monday celebrated its one-year anniversary in the Tucson market.

Banner Health CEO Peter S. Fine talked to employees at a town hall Monday morning, giving them kudos for getting through the transition of having new ownership.

Change is always disruptive, Fine said. Health care is a disruptive industry right now. ... This is just part of a process of an industry in change, and we together are part of a very bold experiment, one that we may not know for a decade how successful we are.

As Fine spoke to employees, construction crews worked on prepping land for a new 670,000 square-foot nine-story hospital tower to be built west of the existing Banner-University Medical Center Tucson. The hospital is Southern Arizonas only academic medical center.

Banner became the surviving entity last year when it merged with the $1.2 billion University of Arizona Health Network, acquiring, among other things, two local hospitals  Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. and Banner-University Medical Center South, 2800 E. Ajo Way.

The new $400 million hospital is being referred to as a replacement for the existing main Campbell Avenue hospital. Diamond Childrens and a recent expansion project that included a new emergency department will be incorporated into the new facility. The replacement hospital is expected to open in the second quarter of 2019.

Besides being the areas only academic medical center, Banner-University Medical Center Tucson is Southern Arizonas only top-level trauma center.

Once the construction project is complete, the new hospital entrance will be on the north side of the campus and will no longer face Campbell Avenue

The new vehicle entrance will be via an enhanced and larger intersection at North Campbell Avenue and East Elm Street.

Banner is also planning to build a new 200,000 square-foot outpatient clinic alongside the University of Arizona Cancer Centers North Campus just north of Prince Road at North Campbell Avenue and East Allen Road.

The new clinic will be a multispecialty center where health-care providers will take a team approach to treating patients. That clinic is expected to open in early 2018, Banner officials said Monday.

The expansion anticipates a future when more health care will be done on an outpatient basis and only the sickest patients will be hospitalized. For that reason, outpatient surgery will be part of the clinic.

The hardest year is behind us, Kathy Bollinger, senior vice president of Banner-University Medicine, said in an interview. We spent a lot of time getting to know one another. ... 2016 is a year to be much more strategic.

Banners entry into the Tucson market was somewhat unique because it was a private company acquiring an academic medical center that employs doctors from a public university. The company has about 6,300 employees in Tucson.

The deal included a 30-year academic affiliation agreement that transitioned Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix into a faculty-based academic medical center to support the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix.

The academic agreement also calls for Banner to provide financial support to the UA College of Medicine in Tucson and to the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix.

And the deal was expensive, with Banner taking a financial hit in the first year.

Were not doing anything here that you can go and pull off the shelf. Were inventing something here, Fine told employees. Were inventing the ability to create a sustainable academic enterprise for the long term.
University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart has accepted a $70,000 position on the board of a for-profit college firm thats being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly deceiving students.

A spokesman for Hart said her association with DeVry Education Group, parent firm of DeVry University, is a personal endeavor unrelated to her job as the UAs CEO.

Hart will receive $70,000 annually plus $100,000 a year in stock as a DeVry board member, according to corporate filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission website. Her UA pay package is worth $665,500 this year.

I will remain on the (DeVry) board for the same reasons I accepted the appointment  I believe my experience helping public university students achieve their academic goals will benefit DeVrys students, Hart told the Arizona Daily Star.

Her statement came as controversy engulfed another public educator who joined the DeVry board the same day Hart did but quit soon after.

University of California-Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi resigned her DeVry seat within days after critics said Katehi had tarnished her schools reputation by lending her name to a firm accused of misleading students about their career prospects.

The FTC announced Jan. 27 that it had filed suit against DeVry because the firm deceived consumers about the likelihood that students would find jobs in their fields of study, and would earn more than those graduating with bachelors degrees from other colleges or universities.

DeVry officials have denied wrongdoing and vowed to fight the federal enforcement action. The company has three locations in Arizona, all in the Phoenix area.

Hart and Katehi assumed their DeVry posts at a four-day meeting and board orientation session Feb. 15-18 in Florida. Katehi quit the board March 1.

UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson said Hart used personal time to attend the Florida event, and said DeVry paid her travel expenses. Its the first time since joining the UA in 2012 that Hart has received outside compensation, he said.

In her emailed statement to the Star on Wednesday, Hart said she accepted the DeVry position with the full knowledge and support of the Arizona Board of Regents leadership and general counsel.

Regents spokeswoman Sarah Harper said Hart did not seek regents permission because, unlike in California, Arizonas university presidents arent required to get permission for extracurricular ventures. They need only to provide notice and file financial disclosure statements about their activities. Hart complied, Harper said.

The California university system has a 10-page policy governing outside professional activities by senior management, which includes an application and approval process. Katehi, of UC-Davis, was found to have violated the policy by accepting her DeVry board seat without permission.

Arizonas rules say only that presidents must give their day jobs top priority, and that they can engage in outside activities as long as they dont interfere.

On Thursday and Friday, the Star requested copies of financial disclosure statements filed by Hart and the states other two university presidents. Harper said late Friday that more time would be needed to produce those documents.

Hart said a headhunter for DeVry first approached her last summer about joining the board. She said she vetted the company thoroughly before she agreed.

The federal investigation of DeVry definitely raised concerns for me, but not to the degree that it affected her decision, she said.

Other schools face accusations of using misleading job placement statistics, Hart said.

There have been stories and questions in recent years about claims made by not-for-profit colleges and universities, as well as by law schools and other professional schools, about employment rates of graduates. Debates rage currently about what employment in ones field of study means, and all of us must pay attention to the accuracy and clarity of these statements, she wrote.

Hart said she intends to serve as an advocate and influence for quality in the companys schools, and said she hasnt had any negative feedback at the UA over her DeVry appointment.

I have received only congratulations and expressions of interest in what can be learned and the influence such an opportunity makes possible, she said.

But Harts new job doesnt seem to be very well-known within the university. Lynn Nadel, the chair of UAs faculty, said he hadnt heard about it and couldnt comment without looking into the matter.

The companys news release on Harts appointment highlighted her status as a public educator.

Dr. Hart is currently the president of the University of Arizona and also holds an appointment as professor of educational policy studies and practice in the College of Education, it said, going on to list Harts achievements at the UA and other institutions at which she has worked.

Kevin Kinser, an associate professor at the State University of New York at Albany and an expert in the for-profit education industry, said firms like DeVry are eager to find public education leaders willing to join their boards.

Doing so can lend an air of prestige to such firms, while bringing fresh ideas from outside to counter the business-corporate mentality that tends to dominate, he said.

But in an era when the for-profit education industry in general is under a cloud, its not unusual for public university presidents who join forces to be criticized for making a deal with the devil, he said. Its not like joining the board of a charitable foundation. This is a sector that many people look at the same way as the pharmaceutical industry or big oil.

Ideally, outsiders like Hart can function as the conscience of the institution, Kinser said.

On the other hand, getting six figures for doing it may suggest some compromises to independence.
PHOENIX  Newspapers appear to be safe from losing a source of their revenue, at least for the time being.

On a 16-13 vote, the state Senate on Monday defeated legislation that would have eliminated the requirement for new businesses in the states two largest counties to publish their articles of incorporation and other legal notices in newspapers.

Proponents could try to resurrect HB 2447 later in the session. The measure was approved by the House, 33-26.

Mondays vote is a victory for the Arizona Newspapers Association, which had lobbied heavily to defeat the measure even though it likely affects just a handful of its members.

But there clearly was a fear that if publication requirements for corporations are killed in Maricopa and Pima counties, the next step would be to extend it to the other 13 counties. It also raised the possibility that once the Legislature kills publication requirements for businesses, it is only a small leap to eliminate the mandate for publication of legal notices for cities, counties, school districts and government agencies.

The measure, crafted by House Majority Leader Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, would have required the Arizona Corporation Commission to set up a website where new businesses would post articles of incorporation. Those documents would remain available there in searchable form for 90 days. After that, the records would go into an existing online database.
PHOENIX  Parents wont be able to opt their children out of standardized tests in public schools.

But their children may get some additional choices.

On an 18-11 vote, the Senate on Monday killed SB 1455, which would have expanded what is essentially a parental bill of rights. It specifically would have said that parents could refuse to let their children take assessments approved by the state Board of Education.

Arizona does testing to ensure that students are making satisfactory progress. The tests also allow comparison among students at different schools.

Theres also a requirement under federal law for states to test at least 95 percent of all students every year, with those who do not comply potentially facing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal aid.

Much of the opposition has focused on the AzMERIT test, which has been adopted by the education board. It is linked to the Common Core academic standards that have provoked a great deal of controversy.

But Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said the issue is deeper than that.

These parents that have been contacting me about this issue believe that their inalienable rights over their children take precedence over what you say they should do, Allen told colleagues. Its important that we empower parents, that we tell parents that they are in charge of their children. When we have a vote like that, we are telling parents, No, we know whats best for your children.

Allen also said parents never get to see the test results, but instead only get a score. Who does get that information, she complained, is a behavioral company that designs the tests who has all kinds of ideas about how you should test children, not just on the knowledge that they know but how they think.

Senators were much more kind to HB 2544.

It requires the state Board of Education to adopt a menu of achievement assessments from which local school districts can choose. And if the schools dont like whats on that list, they can petition the board to add something else.

That measure, which already has been approved by the House, now goes to the governor.

Rep. Paul Boyer, R-Phoenix, who crafted the measure, said he believes that testing is appropriate. But Boyer said he does not necessarily believe that AzMERIT  or any other specific test  is always the right choice in every situation.

He said this is not a wide-open invitation for schools to simply come up with their own tests and then declare that all their students are doing well. Instead, it requires the board, in deciding which are acceptable, to approve only those where there is evidence that the assessment is of high quality and that the tests meets or exceeds the boards adopted academic standards.

For example, Boyer said the Scholastic Aptitude Test taken by high schoolers for college admission might qualify.

He acknowledged that allowing students in the more than 200 school districts to take different tests might lead to problems in comparing academic performance. But he crafted the measure to require proof that the test results can be equated for state accountability programs to ensure there is an apples-to-apples evaluation.

Boyer said theres another benefit to allowing alternatives to the current AzMERIT test. He said it could reduce the number of duplicative tests now being administered and the classroom time involved.

Not every school will have the same freedom. Schools with a D or F rating on academic performance would still be required to administer only the test chosen by the state education board.
OPINION: "Pima Community College belongs to the entire Tucson community. The governing board is the communitys way to hold the college accountable and to steer the institution toward best serving the greatest number of people. Help secure the brightest future for our community college and join us in supporting Theresa Riel for the District 2 seat on the PCC Governing Board," writes Makyla Hays, president of the Pima Community College Education Association.
PHOENIX  Lawmakers agreed Monday to alter state law so the newest member of the Arizona Corporation Commission can vote on pending electric rate cases.

But this is not the last word.

HB 2123 specifically would allow Andy Tobin to participate in debates and vote on requests by power companies to increase charges to customers who generate some of their own power through rooftop solar units. The electric companies contend they are not paying their fair share of fixed costs.

As approved, it redefines the statutes so that the fact that Tobins vote could affect the employment of his son-in-law would no longer be an illegal conflict of interest.

Rep. John Allen, R-Scottsdale, said the measure is no big deal.

He pointed out that the employment of a family member is considered only a remote conflict of interest that does not preclude a state legislator from voting on an issue. Allen said all this does is extend the same standard to the five-member commission.

But Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, chided his colleagues for using a standard for a 60-member House and 30-member Senate for a five-member board.

We are completely different animals, he said.

Farnsworth, however, agreed to provide the margin of victory to push the measure out of the House after Allen promised to make changes when it goes to the Senate.

Allen insisted after Mondays vote theres nothing particularly wrong with the language he brought to the House floor. But he conceded that changes are necessary to get final approval.

What he does not know is exactly what he will alter.

The problem is so-called net metering, where utilities are required to purchase the power generated by customers with solar cells.

Utilities want to reduce what they are required to pay or eliminate the requirement entirely. And they also are proposing peak demand charges for their solar customers, charges they say ensure that everyone pays a fair share of maintaining the electric grid.

Tobins son-in-law is an inventory-control specialist for SolarCity, a firm that manufactures and installs solar units. SolarCity also has taken an active role in opposing utility efforts to change the system.

More to the point, when Nevada utility regulators adopted changes sought by utilities in that state, SolarCity laid off workers. That raises the question of whether a similar decision by the commission here would endanger the job of Tobins son-in-law.

Based on that concern, a commission attorney told Tobin he could not vote on any matters involving SolarCity.

Allens crafted changes would say that situations like Tobin finds himself in are a remote conflict of interest that would not require him to abstain. Allen said thats the same standard used by legislators in deciding whether they can vote on proposed laws.

We all are members of a community and we all have interests, he said. Allen said thats why, You elect people of high moral standards.

And he said that, in situations like this, Thats up to the individual to decide.

Its ridiculous to think that someone would be so easily compromised, Allen said.

Rep. Lela Alston, D-Phoenix, acknowledged that lawmakers use a standard that there is no conflict  and no requirement to abstain from voting  if someone is only one member of a class which is affected. Using that standard, any legislator who has a relative simply employed by a solar company could vote on issues affecting that industry.

But Alston said what the commission does is far different  deciding how much utilities can charge and who pays.

The Corporation Commission has immense power, she told colleagues.

Because of that, they have a higher standard of conflict than legislators, she continued. And their standards are more like judges because, in many ways, they are judges.

Thats also the way Farnsworth sees the issue.
Tim and Jim

Summit Motorway

Baboquivari peak in the distance

Today, I headed down to Tonto Canyon in the Pajarito Mts west of Nogales/Rio Rico, an area I had never been to before, along with my fellow explorers, Jim Gessaman and Pete Bengtson. I came across this area in a couple of papers reporting on surveys for Five-striped Sparrows in Southern Arizona, one from the 70s and the other a follow-up from the 90s. In both cases, they were able to find breeding FsSps during summer using playback. Interestingly, this area is an eBird hotspot, but it only has three checklists, all from Atascosa CBCs and the last one from 2012.To get there, take Ruby Road west from I19 and pass the turn-offs to Pena Blanca Lake and Canyon. A few miles west, you come to the turn-off to the south, clearly signed as FR39A but more commonly known as the Summit Motorway. Good name, it essentially skirts south, following ridge lines all the way to the border. Great road, essentially no different than Ruby Road in quality, so passable by any high clearance vehicle and even most sedans. Before reaching the border, we turned west onto a side road, signed as FR4189 (N31 22.114 W111 09.613), and after a short distance then southwest onto a short side spur, unmarked (N31 22.582 W111 09.865), that ended at a small parking area and the wilderness boundary. We parked here, which represents the head of Tonto Canyon, packed up, and headed out.Wow, a very nice, walkable trail, and not one that I expected. Very well worn, both by cattle but as well by our international visitors heading north. Birds were already singing when we started out and we quickly got the two most common birds of the day, BEWICKS WREN and RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW. The habitat here is richer than I expected, not as dry as many other drainages in this area. Northern slopes were primarily grasslands with Desert Spoon and other plants of arid highlands; south slopes were grassland with scattered but larger oaks. Trailside included a lot of surface seep water, with some richer vegetation, willows, junipers, even pines in protected areas. Some the draws draining into this canyon had some impressively dense copses of oak and other shrubs.Consequently, we did a little better than I expected for this area for this time of year, mainly getting the expected residents for these habitat types: CHIPPING SPARROW, CANYON TOWHEE, ROCK and CANYON WREN, BRIDLED TITMOUSE, etc., even a couple of calling GREATER ROADRUNNERS. A little bit of owling in some of the more promising copses and draws drew out some other birds, including BLACK-THROATED GRAY and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, but also affording us a nice opportunity to again compare RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET with HUTTONS VIREO. Perhaps our most interesting avian experience for the morning was when three MONTEZUMAS QUAIL exploded under my feet and zoomed off. Jim and I both noted that all seemed to be females, instead of the mixed flocks that I tend to see. Asking Pete, he had never heard the call of the MoQu, so I played the unique UFO song of the male just for him. Surprisingly, the female quail immediately responded with their own distinctive call from far uphill. I wasnt trying for a response and am not sure I have ever had that happen before? We wondered if they were indeed traveling without a male and were intrigued by the possibility of a local unattached bachelor?After about a mile and three quarters, the trail became a little tougher, as the canyon narrowed and we had to pick our way through the rocks and dodging small but deep water holes, really slowing our progress. We decided to break for lunch after ~2.5 miles, as the way ahead looked to continue to be a bit rough and dropping even more in elevation. Looking in Google Earth at this point, we were less than 1000 ft from the border as the crow flies but the trail itself meanders on parallel to the border for another 3/4 to a mile before crossing it into Mexico. At that point, it is also less than 500 ft away from where Sycamore Canyon also crosses the border just to the west and the two merge shortly afterwards. The nice trail we had at the start really deteriorates where we stopped, and involves a lot of rock-hopping in the bottom of the narrow canyon, so we just headed back. Stopped and played for Five-striped Sparrows in a couple of promising areas (brushy north-facing slopes), but not surprisingly for this time of year, no response.Getting back to the car, I then drove the rest of the way south to the border, a thin three wire fence coming down the hillside and stretching to the west over a far hill with one of the border obelisks beside it. If only Donald Trump could see what the actual border looked like in this area, he would go apoplectic. We were also treated to some great vistas on our way out, to the south far into Mexico with no evidence of any human disturbance of any kind visible. To the west we could see Baboquivari on the horizon and a small glimpse of Kitt Peak. Off to the north, there were some impressive heights and much further to the northeast, a good view of Mt. Wrightson in the Santa Rita Mts. Well worth the drive down just for these views. RED-TAILED HAWKS swooped and zoomed off to the sides in the flanking draws and we saw a small flock of meadowlarks that appeared to be EASTERN MEADOWLARKS. There were also a diverse selection of ducks in a few tanks on our way back as well.Backcountry Safety Tip: When youre out with stronger hikers than yourself, always be the driver. It was pretty warm on the way back to the car and I was really lagging behind, having badly stubbed my toe while boulder-hopping in the canyon bottom. Now I would never suggest that Pete and Jim are the kind of guys who would have just left me behind, but I felt a lot more relaxed with that car key in my pocket.
"Over a hundred rebel unit commanders agreed to the ceasefire and signed a corresponding agreement. Over 1,000 militants laid down their arms in the Damascus province and have since been relocated from the battlefields.

Field commanders of Mujahideen Khora and El-Furqan formations which operated south of Damascus in the Kafar-Shams district likewise signed ceasefire documents, as did Maamum Shukru al-Habbusa, the leader of Burkan Khoran. This meant 600 more militants laid down their arms.

Two major formations in Deraa province, Armiya al-Ababil and Jaysh al-Yarmuk, agreed to the ceasefire and their leaders signed the declaration forms. This action took 2500 militants off the battlefield." Southfront

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Wall to wall, the R+6 are progressing in the task of running a marvelously successful ANTICOIN campaign. The Syrian government has declared an amnesty for non-jihadi rebels. As you can read above that seems to be doing well. It is better to work on re-integrating them than to kill them all which is the alternative policy choice.

Across the country the war goes on against the jihadis. ground is being regained everywhere, ground that will be useful in the final battles needed to make Syria jihadi free. The attritional battle is also going well.

Turkey appears to be stymied by the threat of Russian arms and the War Party hawks in the Borgist US government is "turning and burning" in frustration. The post-Dempsey US Defense Department and JCS is now completely in the hands of the Borgist war party who obviously lust for a confrontation with Russia. It would be tempting to attribute this "bloody mindedness" to male hormonal excesses but, unfortunately the worst of the worst are women.

IMO the war in western Syria will be largely ended in the next couple of months. After that, the R+6 will make their contribution to the destruction of IS (the enemies of God).

The Iraqis? We will see... pl

https://southfront.org/syria-battlefield-update-march-2/

PS Don't let Southfront starve to death. They are hard up. pl
Help India!

By News Agency of Kashmir

Jammu: A day after some locals set an example of communal harmony; a group of unidentified VHP, BJP activists marched towards a local mosque and hoisted Indian flag over it in Village Jorian of Akhnoor area this afternoon.

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Sources said that some miscreants from adjoining villages broken open locks of the Masjid in Jorian area this morning. The miscreants hoisted Indian flag over the Dome of the mosque, a local resident told News Agency of Kashmir.

Two days before, the local Hindus set an example of communal harmony and brotherhood by saving the same Masjid from a mob who tried to damage it.

Reports said that a group of protesters marched towards village Jorian and tried to throw stones on the Masjid, before the local Hindus could stop them the miscreants suspected to be VHP activists stormed in the Masjid and hoisted an Indian Flag on it.

The flag was immediately removed by the police personnel, said the villagers.

We tried to stop the mob but they threw stones on us and threatened us of serious consequences a local village told NAK adding we feel ashamed of the act they did.

The mob threw stones on police injuring five of them critically during the hour long battle. Police cane charged and used tear gas to disperse them; three protesters have received minor injuries.

Sub-Divisional Police officer Atul Sharma, when contacted told NAK that police has registered a case against the people involved and they will be arrested soon. He said we have deployed a heavy contingent of force in the village and a peace rally by the members of all communities will be taken out in the area for maintaining the peace and communal harmony.

[Photos by NAK]
Help India!

By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: Is being a Muslim itself a cause of suspicion? Yes, at least in Delhi where Muslims are suspected not only by the police but also a majority of the majority community. The case becomes crystal clear when it comes to renting flats in the city where Muslim ruled for about 1,000 years.

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Meet Naqueeb Ahmad, 24, a promising IT engineer. He works with HCL, a premier computer software company. His office is in Noida, some 15 km from New Delhis Jamia Nagar area where he lives in a two-room flat. With good salary and a well-known company tag, he wanted to reside in some posh areas but he landed in Jamia Nagar, one of the largest Muslim ghettoes in Delhi.

Why? I tried to get a two-room flat in Chirag Dilli area, got one and had the first meeting with owner of the flat over rental, says Ahmad, a bachelor planning to be engaged this year talking to TwoCircles.net. Everything was going well. The flat was fine and the rate was affordable, too. The owner offered me tea and during conversation he absent-mindedly asked my name. When he knew I am a Muslim that was enough to seal the deal. He said he would rent to a family, not bachelors. He forgot that in the beginning of the talks he had said he had no problem with bachelors, recounts Ahmad.

Ahmad also tried to get a rented flat in Pushp Vihar, Connaught Place and South Extension localities but everywhere his application was turned down on one ground or the other. Shocked by the discrimination, he went to Connaught Place area, not alone but with a Hindu friend. But in vain. In South Extension area which is more popular for markets but has some residential flats, Ahmad had a Sikh friend Manpreet Singh. He wanted to share his room. His friend agreed but when the lady owner of the flat came to know about it, she denied saying that the Muslim would be a non-vegetarian.

Not only Naqueeb Ahmad, there are many Ahmads who are facing humiliation from Hindu homeowners in Delhi.

Ahmads friend Faheem is a System Administrator at an MNC. He lived in Sarita Vihar area that is near the Apollo Hospital where his elder brother works as a physician. In the wake of growing anti-Muslim feeling following terrorist bombings for which Muslims are accused by default, Faheem and his brother were asked by the flat owner to vacate it without giving any reason.

Not only a particular area but entire Delhi is playing stranger to Muslims. To gauge the situation, Abhishek Sharan of Hindustan Times set out for a flat in posh colonies. He assumed the identity of one Imran Sheikh, a software professional from Aligarh. Wherever he went with this identity for a rented accommodation, be it Malviya Nagar, Vasant Kunj or Model Town, he failed. He revealed it in an article.

In Malviya Nagar he got a flat and over final talks when he revealed his identity, the owner had a quick, furtive look at him and denied. The broker later told him that the owner is a conservative and does not want to give flat to a Muslim.

In Vasant Kunj area the broker grilled him on the phone about his education, background and company and when he came to know he was Imran Sheikh he tried to cut the line instantly but being persisted for the reason he said he would have to get his identity particulars verified by the local police, by the Aligarh police and also by the employer.

This is not the process in practice. Generally a tenant has to fill a single form comprising his identity particulars which are meant to be verified by local police.

In Model Town, the flat owner after knowing he is a Muslim asked about passport. When Imran Sheikh (Abhishek Sharan) said he did not one, the owner said he had to get one.

Notwithstanding what politicians say and how many welfare programs the government announces, the ground reality is that Muslims are being victimized. And this is resulting in ghettoisation.

According to 2001 Census, 16,23,520 Muslims are in Delhi. An overwhelming majority of them are living in ghettoes like Jamia Nagar, Okhla, Nizamuddin and Seelampur. A sizeable chunk of the Muslim community lives in the Walled City area that includes Jama Masjid ara, Chandni Chowk, Ballimaran, Darya Ganj and Matia Mahal.

The Muslim legislators who are in the Delhi government today represent these ghettoes: Perwez Hashmi (Okhla), Chaudhry Mateen Ahmad (Seelampur), Shoaib Iqbal (Matia Mahal) and Haroon Yusuf (Ballimaran).

The hatred Muslim tenants facing at the hands of Hindu landlords is mainly because of the anti-Muslim atmosphere created in the wake of terror attacks in Delhi and other parts of the country. For this credit should go to the police and media, particularly electronic media which present suspects as convict.


Help India!

By IndScribe

Telegraph, the Calcutta-based English newspaper, has redefined the front pages of newspapers.

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Creative, catchy and often shocking headlines, apart from unique presentation has brought this Kolkata based paper in discussions everywhere.









For decades, Telegraph has been a major English paper in India, but was confined to Eastern part of the country.

However, its sharp and attacking headlines, have now brought it popularity across the country.

Take for instance the front page on the left. The Nashun, on how govt shunned its responsibility.

Bold, anti-establishment line

Major Delhi-based newspapers arent too attacking [against government] in their approach.









Though there is an exceptionIndian Express. But, Telegraph has no problem in taking a clear, strong anti-establishment line.

Whether against TMC led Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal or BJP government at the Centre.









After a big event, people now wait to see how Telegraph carries the story. Because, they are sure it would be different and unique.

Headlines to shock the readers

The paper has a circulation of over a million but it has never been serious about its online presence.

It does have a website. However, website or not, people click photograph of the Telegraph. The images of the front page are circulated through Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter.









It is not always that the headlines are shocking, sometimes they are simple too.

Bizarre headlines test your brain

And, at times, the headlines are bizarre. An example is the screenshot of the paper when symbols were published in the headline on the front page.

An effort is made to create a unique front page everyday. Sometimes you may need to put an effort to understand and you have to read the news to understand.

Redefining the rules in print media

Yes, in an era, when it was said that everything has to be straight as reader doesnt have time, Telegraph redefines the rules.

The stories are long. They arent finished in 300400 words. The reports are exhaustive.

And yet, Telegraph is read, liked and its popularity is growing. Telegraph was established in 1982.

MJ Akbar was the editor, initially. Owned by Anand Bazar group, its current editor is Aveek Sarkar.









Once, The Statesman was the leading English paper in Kolkata then. Over the years, Telegraph became the most popular paper in the region. The group seems content with its reach. and hasnt started Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai editions till now.

This post shows TEN FRONT PAGES of The Telegraph.

See some of the most talked about front pages of the Telegraph, with this post.














Help India!

Ahmedabad: A delegation of Patidar community leaders, including BJP MP from Porbandar Vitthal Radadiya, who is mediating between the state government and the agitating Patels, on Tuesday called on Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and state BJP president Vijay Rupani and handed over a 27-point charter of demands to them.

Besides Radadiya, Jairam Patel, a prominent leader of a religious trust of the community in Sidsar, and Hardik Patels father Bharat Patel were also part of the delegation. Anandiben was accompanied by senior cabinet minister Nitin Patel.

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Later, talking to the media, Radadiya said they have handed over an envelope containing a list of issues.

The government will study the issues and hopefully express its view in three to four days. I will meet (Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader) Hardik Patel again after that, he said.

Radadiya refused to divulge the letters contents but it is said to contain the chief demand of quota for the Patels in jobs and educational institutions as well as setting up a Patidar commission to look into the issues facing the community.

It is also said to include the demand withdrawal of all cases related to quota stir and release of all jailed agitation leaders.

On March 2, around 10 leaders of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti from South Gujarat and Saurashtra met Hardik Patel in the Lajpore central jail in Surat and later issued a 10- day ultimatum to the state government to act on the 27 demands.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad sessions court rejected the bail plea of Hardik Patel in a sedition case slapped on him by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.

Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Dave, rejecting the bail application, said, Considering the seriousness of the offence and the role played by the applicant, this court is not inclined to exercise discretion in favour of the applicant. Hence, the application filed by the applicant is hereby rejected.
How can you not like Smurfs? Their sole reason for existence is to live a peaceful life full of fun, dancing, singing, and love? Not to mention they live in cool mushroom houses in the forest and all wear the same outfit. If youve wondered what those little blue creatures have been doing since the first film, you can rest easy, as life in the Smurf village has been Smurftastic. Im sure the only reason we have a sequel is because the first movie made almost $560 million. With this outing, you can expect the same visual pleasantries, but beyond a couple of lines of dialogue that garner a chuckle, I dont see the unimaginatively-titled 'The Smurfs 2?' playing to anyone over the age of five.

As I said, life is going very well in the Smurf village as everyone prepares a giant surprise celebration for Smurfettes birthday. However, Smurfette herself (Katy Perry) thinks that the other Smurfs have forgotten her special day. As she questions her own creation, she begins to think that she doesn't belong with the Smurfs, but rather with her creator, the evil and dim-witted Gargamel (Hank Azaria).

Meanwhile, Gargamel now lives in Paris with his cat Azrael, and is a beloved magician in the city, playing to sold-out crowds every night. Little does anyone know that he has a sinister plan to kidnap all the Smurfs to steal their essence, which will make him more powerful so that he can rule the world. To do this, Gargamel creates two other Smurf-like creatures called Naughties. One is Vexy (Christina Ricci), a mix between a goth girl and a hipster, and the other is Hackus (J.B. Smoove), a red-haired Irish Smurf who could double as a beach bum. The two Naughties travel to Smurf village, capture Smurfette, and bring her to the real world. Soon afterwards, Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters) follows after them with Grouchy (George Lopez), Clumsy (Anton Yelchin) and Vanity (John Oliver) to save Smurfette. As youd imagine, this team of Smurfs ends up enlisting the help of their Earth friends Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays) once again. But this time around, Patricks stepdad Victor (Brendan Gleeson) is there to help as well.

One of the only decent things to come out of this sequel is Gleeson, who seems to give it his all in a comedic role, whereas the other actors seem bored to be there and are underused, with the exception of Azarias kooky sorcerer. Its a shame, as Neil Patrick Harris is a multi-talented guy who can sing, dance, and has great comedic timing, but here, he seems to be a robot. Olivers voice for Vanity gets the most laughs, even if his jokes are told over and over again throughout the movie, which is a common problem amongst all the characters this time around. Ricci and Perry do solid jobs, but J.B. Smoove playing an Irish Smurf killed me. This was Jonathan Winters last film, and he adds a warm and nostalgic feeling with his charming voice for Papa Smurf.

The look of the film is very pleasing with bright colors and tons of things happening on every part of the screen. The camera flies through building structures, makes a slapstick candy store scene fun, and swoops around a giant runaway Ferris wheel in Paris. That being said, the visuals are almost undone by the horrible music selections, which might only excite an 11-year-old girl. The 3D is quite terrible too. The backgrounds in the movie that were supposed to add depth dont, and instead come across very blurry and flat, as well as produce a double image. Even if you enjoy the Smurfs, this sequel might leave a sour taste in your mouth.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Smurfs 2' comes with an UHD 4K Blu-ray Disc as well as standard 50GB Blu-ray Disc. There is an insert for a promo for Sony. The discs are housed in a hard black plastic case.
UNCW Forms Office of Military Affairs, Names Bill Kawczynski Director

Bill Kawczynski has been named the director of the newly created Office of Military Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington as of March 1, the university announced today.

By having a designated person leading our military affairs efforts, UNCW will be better positioned to design and implement programs that are accessible and in high demand by military-affiliated students, said Provost Marilyn Sheerer. Bill has a strong commitment to serving our military personnel and their families, and he knows well the issues and expectations of this group when it comes to the academic programs they are seeking.

Kawczynski, a Marine Corps veteran, had been serving as the universitys Community Partnerships program specialist. He also worked as the assistant director of UNCWs Science and Mathematics Education Center from 1996-2008.

UNCW has a longstanding tradition of working with our military community and I am extremely excited about this new role, Kawczynski said. We dont just want to be military friendly, but rather military supportive in every possible way.

The Office of Military Affairs, housed within the Office of the Provost, will provide university-wide leadership to support the military community. The office will also collaborate with academic and university departments to provide support services to individuals transitioning into UNCW.

As part of his responsibilities, Kawczynski will develop and coordinate a comprehensive program of support services for military-affiliated students and advocate for student veterans, active duty personnel and dependents. He will also serve as the universitys liaison with outside agencies and offices, whose work advocates for and impacts the lives of veterans, members of the military and their families.

#AA
World's Only Institution Dedicated Solely to the Diagnosis, Treatment, Research, and Cure of Bladder Cancer Announced Awardees BALTIMORE, MD.  March 7, 2016 

A total of $500,000 was awarded to ten bladder cancer projects by The Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute it was announced today. A study of obesity and related metabolic changes on bladder cancer incidence and deaths, and a plan to use stem cells to grow novel urinary tubes are the research projects awarded funding. Awardees include researchers from University of Leeds, U.K. to the University of Chicago to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The institute was established in 2014 with a $15 million gift from Baltimore-area commercial real estate developer Erwin L. Greenberg and his wife, Stephanie Cooper Greenberg, and a $30 million investment from the Johns Hopkins University. The faculty of JHGBCI is dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of bladder cancer and improving its treatment.

The institute is a collaborative initiative of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Brady Urological Institute, the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Medicine, aims to develop new clinical strategies for combating bladder cancer through intensive, collaborative and innovative research, awards individual grants of up to $50,000 each to encourage young investigators to take on research that advances the science and treatment of bladder cancer and to leverage existing resources and expertise. The grants, renewable for up to three years, are awarded in the following areas: genetic and epigenetic approaches; immunotherapy; targeted therapies; patient care, prevention and screening; and pioneering studies. This is the second year of grant awards for the institute.

I am really excited about the tremendous group of investigators that the institute will be funding, says William B. Isaacs, Ph.D., a genitourinary cancer expert at the Johns Hopkins Brady Urologic Institute and Kimmel Cancer Center. We have projects by outstanding and inspired new investigators, a very talented young epidemiologist, and perhaps the most seasoned bladder cancer investigator in the world, in addition to a prostate cancer molecular biologist who has been enticed to join the fight against bladder cancer. In addition, four of last years funded investigators will receive additional support for another year, as they were judged to be making excellent progress on their research projects. I am confident that this group of investigators will make major inroads in bladder cancer both in the short term and well into the future.

The awardees include six new projects and four renewed projects. The new recipients and their projects are:

Corinne Joshu, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, for Investigating the Influence of Obesity and Metabolic Perturbations on Bladder Cancer Risk

Joshus project will explore the potential influence of obesity and its associated metabolic changes on bladder cancer incidence and mortality. She will analyze data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), a long-term epidemiologic study of 16,000 men and women from four U.S. communities. ARIC participants have undergone repeated clinical visits, where measures of body size, and metabolic, lipid and inflammatory markers have been collected. They have been followed for health outcomes, including well-characterized bladder cancer, for over 25 years.

Margaret Knowles, Ph.D., professor of experimental cancer research at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, for Characterization of Gender-Related Mutation of KDM6A/UTY in Bladder Cancer

Knowles will look to identify gender-related molecular features of bladder cancers and develop relevant in vitro models. Her group already has identified mutations in the tumor suppressor gene KDM6A in more than one-half of low-grade stage Ta bladder tumors, and data suggest that bladder cancer in females has distinct epigenetic features. Now, she will conduct a more comprehensive analysis of mutations and alterations in KDM6A in tumors of all grades and stages from both men and women, and in a related gene, UTY, in males.

Anirudha Singh, Ph.D., assistant professor of urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for Regenerative Urology: From Micro Ureters to Mini Bladders

Singhs laboratory has developed a collagen molding technology that mimics the features of processing methods that shape synthetic plastics into desired structures. They plan to engineer hollow and tubular collagen systems ranging from microsized tubings similar to ureterlike structures to complex seaweed or grapelike structures as multiple minibladders for regenerative urology applications. Specifically, they plan to develop biologically functional artificial urinary tubes by seeding the scaffolds with stem cells derived from human fat tissue that can result in the formation of cell layers normally seen in urinary tissues.

Alexander Baras, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for Characterization of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response Predictors and the Immunological Microenvironment in Muscle Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder

Baras will develop and validate biomarkers of response to treatment with conventional cisplatin-based chemotherapy given prior to surgery in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, looking at expression of certain proteins and at DNA sequencing. He also aims to characterize how the interaction of muscle-invasive bladder cancer and the immune system impacts response to cisplatin-based chemotherapy. The results could enable therapy to be tailored so only patients likely to benefit from the treatment will receive it.

Shawn E. Lupold, Ph.D., associate professor of urology, oncology, and radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for Identification and Characterization of Genetic Factors That Contribute to Exceptional Therapeutic Responses in Locally Advanced Bladder Cancer

Lupolds project will use technology called high-throughput RNA interference screens to look for genes that, when deactivated, contribute to a better response to cancer treatment. During the study, Lupolds team will look at 40 genes commonly mutated and deleted in bladder cancers. In the lab, bladder cancer cells will be pretreated with genetic material called small interfering RNA to knock down individual gene function, and then will be treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Cells that respond very well or very poorly to treatment may predict genetic mutations associated with exceptional response or therapeutic resistance, potentially helping identify new genetic markers for personalized bladder cancer therapy.

Michael Johnson, M.D., instructor of urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for Rapid Lymphocyte Enrichment and Expansion Using Tumor-Specific Neoantigens in Urothelial Cell Carcinoma

Johnson and colleagues will use a novel technique to expand immune cells that are designed to recognize cancer. They will perform genome sequencing on bladder tumors to predict protein sequences that are specific to tumor cells and capable of initiating an immune response (neoantigens). Then, using artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPCs), they will isolate and expand populations of white blood cells that recognize neoantigens in blood, lymph nodes and tumors. Their hypothesis is that T cells can be activated with tumor-specific proteins, and the combination of neoantigens and aAPCs can be used to pursue personalized cancer immunotherapies, such as cancer vaccines.

The awardees of renewed grants, and their projects, are:

Trinity Bivalacqua, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of urology, surgery and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of urologic oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, for Nanoparticle Approaches to Improving the Immunologic Response to Intravesical Therapy for NMIBC (Nonmuscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer)

Bivalacqua and colleagues will continue work on the development of nonadhesive, biodegradable nanoparticles loaded with chemotherapy and other solutions in the treatment of bladder cancer. His team created rat models of bladder cancer and will continue characterizing the tumors by analyzing gene and protein expression. They also have started comparing the delivery of cisplatin (chemotherapy) versus Bacillus Calmette-Guerin  the main biological treatment for nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer  in these models and will measure the difference in the resulting numbers of immune cells activated in the bladder to prevent tumor recurrence and progression. Additionally, the group will continue work demonstrating that cisplatin-based nanoparticle therapy can be localized to the bladder, sparing other healthy tissue. They will use the therapy alone and in combination with gemcitabine to demonstrate the ability to prevent cancer progression in murine models of bladder cancer.

George Netto, M.D., professor of pathology, urology and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for TERT-Promoter Mutations Assay for Early Detection and Monitoring of Bladder Cancer

Netto will continue work on a noninvasive, urine-based test to identify mutations in the on/off switch of a gene called telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), which is present in a range of bladder cancer precursor lesions. His team sequences patients bladder tumors to identify TERT promoter mutations and compares the information to the presence or absence of the same mutations in patients urine. As of last summer, the group had sequenced 1,167 samples  758 urine samples and 409 bladder tumor samples  for TERT mutations. They will assess 1,000 additional urine samples in the next year. The team also developed an expanded genetic assay to include alterations in 11 additional genes that are commonly mutated in bladder cancer. In 169 bladder cancers sequenced using the new assay, at least one alteration has been found in over 90 percent of tumors. They will test the complete set of collected urine samples and corresponding tumor samples using the new assay.

Peter ODonnell, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, for Genetic Diversity of T Cell Receptors Impacting Anti-Tumor Effects in Bladder Cancer

In their first year of funding, ODonnell and colleagues genetically characterized the T cell receptors of tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs), white blood cells found in tumors that kill cancer cells. They also found that patients whose TILs had low genetic diversity in the receptors had significantly longer recurrence-free survival. Building on that work, the team now plans to study bladder cancer tissue samples to look for potential key proteins that may drive the expansion of T cells against tumors. They also will take blood samples from patients with and without bladder cancer recurrence to see if artificial proteins genetically engineered in the lab can stimulate the expansion of T cell populations.

Armine Smith, M.D., assistant professor of urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for Pilot Study of TRAIL and BCG Combination Therapy in Bladder Cancer



Smith and colleagues are looking to characterize chemical pathways that are dysregulated in cell lines resistant to BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin), the main biological treatment for nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer. They also are beginning use a combination of BCG and a protein called TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand), which kick-starts the process of cell death, to treat mice with tumors that either have never been treated with BCG or that are resistant to BCG. They will also look for levels of TRAIL receptors in stored tissue samples from bladder cancer patients.

Applications will be made available online this summer for the next round of funding, Isaacs says. The URL is http://pilotprojects.onc.jhmi.edu/.

The Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute is the first of its kind in the world dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of bladder cancer and improving its treatment. Its experts include multidisciplinary research teams from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and faculty members from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicines Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, the Brady Urological Institute of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Johns Hopkins departments of Pathology and Surgery.
Tourists hospitalized in Taiwan for suspected food poisoning Updated: 2016-03-06 10:56 (Xinhua)

TAIPEI - Taipei health authority said Saturday that 21 tourists from a mainland tour group fell sick and were hospitalized following a meal in a Taipei restaurant.

The 40-people group from Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, started the Taiwan tour on Feb. 26. They had lunch in the restaurant on Thursday and 21 of them suffered from vomiting, diarrhea and headache Thursday evening. On Friday morning they were sent to a local hospital.

"They were diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis," the hospital said, adding that only an 88-year-old had relatively serious symptoms and accepted transfusion. All members of the tour group returned to the mainland Friday afternoon.

Taipei health authority said in a statement that they had collected samples of food, utensils and restaurant environment for analysis. A hygienic check unveiled many problems, including scattering food materials, cockroaches, dirty fans and floors and a moldy ceiling.

The authority ordered a shutdown of the restaurant for three days and a thorough overhaul to rectify the problems. The owner may face a fine between 60,000 and 200 million new Taiwan dollars if failing to correct.

The mainland is the largest source of tourists for Taiwan. Last year, tourists from the mainland accounted for 40 percent in Taiwan's total.
China going green at rapid, near-record rate Updated: 2016-03-07 11:08 By Hua Shengdun in Washington(China Daily USA)

China is making great strides in its green-energy efforts, according to an environmental expert.

"China broke records last year in the installation of wind and solar power," said Manish Bapna, executive vice-president of the World Resources Institute. "Clean energy investment was over $110 billion, twice what the US invested."

The investments are part of China's commitment to phase out the use of coal for energy. Bapna spoke at a press teleconference about China's 13th Five-Year Plan and how it will affect climate and energy at the World Resources Institute in Washington on March 4.

"China has committed to a new kind of economic development. It sees a move from real dependence on heavy industry toward service and innovation, and particularly a more consumption-based economy," said Kate Gordon, vice-chairwoman of climate and sustainable urbanization at the Paulson Institute.

"China has already been taking a slew of actions to cut its use of coal, which is responsible for about 80 percent of its CO2 emissions and about 50 to 60 percent of its most damaging form (of air pollution), PM (particulate matter) 2.5," said Barbara Finamore, Asia director at the National Resources Defense Council.

Individual cities and provinces have decided to impose their own limits on carbon emissions.

"There are 20 provinces and 30 cities that have already set some sort of coal-cap targets," Finamore said. "And for some, that means an absolute cap on coal consumption; for some this means no more increase, and for many, they set coal-consumption-reduction targets."

Despite good news on the environmental front, China's economic focus on creating a "green manufacturing strategy" and shift from growth driven by investment and exports to one driven by consumption has come with a price: job loss.

According to preliminary forecasts, a total of 1.8 million workers will be laid off in the coal and steel sectors. The central government will allocate 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) over two years to help the laid-off workers find new jobs, according to media reports.

China's draft 13th Five-Year Plan will be reviewed at the annual session of the national legislature, which opened on March 5. Experts are optimistic that China will continue to improve its environmental protection efforts through the legislative process.

"Expectations are fairly high about what might be contained not only in the 13th Five-Year Plan, but perhaps as importantly, the following sectorial plans," Bapna said.

"And I think we're quite keen to see whether this shift that we have started to see over the past several years takes on a more accelerated step change in the coming five years."

Allan Fong in Washington contributed to this story.
Chinese firm wins condom battle Updated: 2016-02-25 14:27 By Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou(China Daily USA)

A condom maker in South China's Guangdong province has won a lawsuit against a Japanese company over its competing claim to be manufacturer of the world's thinnest prophylactic.

The Guangzhou Yuexiu District People's Court pronounced on Monday that Tokyo-based condom brand Okamoto used unfair practices to compete against Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products.

Guinness World Records verified the Chinese company's Aoni condom, which has an average thickness of 0.036 mm, as the world's thinnest in December 2013 - breaking the previous record of 0.038 mm set by Okamoto in 2012.

But Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products said it found Okamoto's condoms still on sale bearing phrases such as "world's thinnest" and "Guinness World Record" in May 2014.

A lawsuit was filed in September 2014 by the Chinese company against its Japanese counterpart, citing false advertising and seeking 1 yuan ($0.15) as compensation for economic loss.

The court held that Okamoto knew about the verified world record and ordered it to stop selling condoms bearing false advertising and pay the compensation.

The small amount of compensation claimed has led to speculation that the Guangzhou-based condom maker sued the famous Japanese brand as a publicity stunt.

Some netizens on Sina Weibo even claimed that they had only heard about the Chinese condom brand because of the lawsuit.

Yoshiyuki Okamoto, president of the Japanese condom company, also viewed the legal challenge as self-promotional and described the legal battle as "primitive", according to a report in the Financial Times.

Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products has denied the claims.

"We sued Okamoto intending to stop their act of infringement. We decided to demand compensation of only 1 yuan, a nominal amount, because we didn't want the proceedings to get stuck on the matter of economic losses," Victor Chan, general manager of the Chinese condom company, told China Daily on Tuesday.

Calling Okamoto "a shameless competitor", Chan said the Japanese company continued to claim it was the manufacturer of the world's thinnest condom to "take advantage of their popularity in China and of Chinese consumers' trust in their brand".

xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/25/2016 page13)
Mutual benefits seen in links with Philippines Updated: 2016-03-08 08:16 By Sophie He in Hong Kong(China Daily USA)

Belt and Road, AIIB provide opportunities for both countries, entrepreneurs say

The Philippines will benefit both politically and economically from China's Belt and Road Initiative, according to entrepreneurs from the country, who said they want more talks with Chinese businesspeople to discuss opportunities.

Thanks to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative, more infrastructure projects will be built in the Philippines, including highways and ports, and it will be good for the country's economy and increase access to the world, George Siy, chairman emeritus of the Anvil Business Club, told China Daily.

Siy said the fact that the Philippines has joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank shows its recognition of China's economic influence and its commitment to developing infrastructure. He also said the initiative will boost investment and trade in the Philippines.

The initiative is expected to enhance business, and Siy hopes that both government officials and nongovernmental organizations will increase communication and get together more often to look for opportunities.

"There should be more meetings between business groups, entrepreneurs, travel agents and other organizations from the two countries, not just government officials," he said.

Siy added that since more businesspeople are traveling between China and the Philippines, the two governments should also address possible problems such as drug smuggling and terrorism.

Wilson Lee Flores, business columnist at the Philippine Star and honorary chairman of the Anvil Business Club, said he thinks the Belt and Road Initiative is a very exciting, bold and historic project that will help boost economic and social development in vast regions across Asia, Europe and Africa through modern infrastructure, trade and investments.

It's a modern revival of the ancient Silk Road trade routes on land and sea connecting China to the rest of the world and will economically help liberate many developing nations and regions from the age-old problems of poverty, inaccessibility and unbalanced economic growth, he added.

"The Philippines is an ancient friend and good trading partner with China," Lee said. "Let us not forget that the two countries have never had any history of conflict or war. In fact, both countries were allies during World War II in jointly resisting the Japanese military invasion of Asia.

"The Philippines can benefit from the initiative by becoming an active partner once again in the revival of the ancient Maritime Silk Road. We should be an active partner in the AIIB to help our infrastructure projects. And we need to expand mutually beneficial bilateral trade and investment exchanges."

Lee said the two countries have complementary economies - the Philippines is resource-rich but lacking in capital, technology and infrastructure while China needs more natural resources. So they can be great partners once again.

The Philippines possesses mineral, agricultural and fisheries resources that can help supply China, while China can supply the Philippines with financing and technology, infrastructure and construction capabilities, such as high-speed trains, seaports and airports.

"The Philippines is situated strategically between two important bodies of water, the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean," Lee said. "It also lies at the heart of Southeast Asia. Our society can benefit from increased Chinese investment in our infrastructure and from expanded bilateral trade and more tourism.

"Our neighbor Thailand last year welcomed 8 million Chinese tourists, while we in the Philippines received fewer than half a million last year. We need to normalize diplomatic relations with our ancient friend to boost crucial, win-win economic exchanges."

sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

(China Daily USA 03/08/2016 page6)
Liang case stirring Chinese generosity Updated: 2016-03-07 11:08 By Hezi Jiang in New York(China Daily USA)

Eddie Chiu, director of Lin Sing Association, flipped through notepads filled with names and donation amounts from the New York Chinese community in support of Peter Liang's legal fees for his appeal of his manslaughter conviction. Hezi Jiang / China Daily

Eddie Chiu has never seen so much of anger in the Chinese community, and at the same time, so much hope.

"Their inhibited feelings finally came to the surface," said Chiu, 68, director of the 116-year-old Lin Sing Association, a fraternal club in Chinatown where local residents come in to read newspapers and chat or to seek Chiu's help on translation and legal questions.

The past three weeks at the club were lively and emotional. People came in with money - as little as $5 to a check of $10,000 - for Peter Liang, a former New York City police officer who was convicted of manslaughter on Feb 11. They are looking to hire a new lawyer for Liang in an effort to win an appeal.

By the evening of March 3, the association had received more than $350,000, Chiu said. More than $100,000 of that sum is in cash, mostly in denominations of $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills.

Chiu said many Chinese senior citizens walked up the stairs to the club with assistance from home attendants, and handed him a rolled up $5 or $10 bill. "It's not the amount that matters the most. It's their hearts.

"Many of them don't even know the English alphabet," he said. "But they want a better future for their children and grandchildren. They want Peter Liang to win an appeal."

Chiu flipped through five large Staples notepads, and every page was full of names and the donation amounts. There have been around 2,000 donations made by individuals and businesses, he said.

According to the notepad, a 10-year-old and a 6-year old each brought in a $5 red envelope that they received on Chinese New Year, symbolizing good luck.

Chinese residents at an East Village senior center produced a $3,000 donation. "Many of them are all living off Social Security benefits," Chiu explained.

A Chinatown association that unites people with the family name Liang also raised more than $3,000. Local restaurants, pharmacies, laundries and barbershops pitched in to help.

Workers at the Trump Soho hotel together donated $600.

"I've been here for 40 years, and I have seen too much unfairness," Chiu said. "Whenever there is a car accident between a Chinese driver and an American driver, it's always the Chinese's fault. They don't speak much English, and they couldn't fight for themselves.

"A Chinese deliveryman was recently beaten by a black customer at his job, but he didn't want to make it a case because he's afraid other misfortune would happen to him," Chiu said.

"We are too angry. We have borne too much," he said. "We stood up."

On Feb 20, tens of thousands of members of the Chinese community held rallies in more than 40 cities across the US to protest the manslaughter verdict against Liang, a rookie NYPD officer, in the shooting death of a black man in November 2014.

Liang, now 28, discharged his gun in a darkened stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, and the ricocheted bullet fatally struck Akai Gurley on a lower floor.

Liang was the first NYPD officer to be convicted of killing a civilian since 2005, and many in the Chinese community believe Liang is a scapegoat.

The Lin Sing Association is one of many organizations that have raised money for Liang.

John Chan, chairman of Brooklyn Asian Communities Empowerment, announced on March 4 that he also has raised more than $300,000 on behalf of Liang.

A legal defense fund was also established in New York for Liang.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com
Wang: Maritime cooperation possible Updated: 2016-03-09 00:09 By ZHANG YUNBI in Beijing(China Daily USA)

Foreign Minister Wang Yi gives a press conference on China's foreign policy and foreign relations on the sidelines of the fourth session of China's 12th National People's Congress in Beijing on Monday. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has stated the possibility of conducting maritime cooperation between Beijing and Washington if the latter "truly cools down", and he voiced confidence in tackling the two-way friction.

"Recently, there is growing friction concerning maritime issues. But I think when the United States truly cools down, it is entirely possible for us to consider conducting maritime cooperation," Wang said at a Tuesday press conference during the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

The senior diplomat attributed the source of such friction to the fact that "there are some people in the United States who have strategic suspicions about China and they are worried that China will one day supersede the US".

"China and the US are two major countries, and there is both cooperation and friction. This might be a normal state of affairs," Wang said.

He referred to the news in the morning that Washington announced trade restrictions on Chinese companies.

"We don't think it is the right approach to handle economic and trade disputes. This approach only hurts others without necessarily benefiting oneself," Wang said.

He mentioned previous bilateral efforts in converting divergences into cooperation, including successful cooperation on climate change and cyber issues.

Speaking of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Wang has said China is "open to any initiatives" when noting proposals about three-party, four-party or even five-party contacts on resolving the issue.

The Six-Party Talks on the issue  involving China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan  were launched in 2003 but stalled in 2008.

"The parties have also suggested some ideas, including flexible contacts in the three-party, four-party or even a five-party format.

"We are open to any or all the initiatives which could help bring the nuclear issue on the peninsula back to the negotiating table," Wang said.

To eventually resolve the issues on the peninsula, Wang said all the parties are hoped to adopt a "multipronged approach and apply the right medicine".

He reiterated China's proposals to pursue parallel tracks  the denuclearization of the peninsula and the replacement of the armistice agreement with a peace treaty.

Wang noted that while denuclearization is a firm goal of the international community, "replacing the armistice is a reasonable concern of the DPRK".

"The two can be negotiated in parallel, implemented in steps and resolved with reference to each other. This will be the equitable, reasonable and workable solution," Wang said.

He said to "have a blind faith on sanctions and pressure, in fact, is being irresponsible to the future of the peninsula".

On the current situation on the peninsula, the minister said "the situation is a bit explosive", and "if the tension worsens or even gets out of control, it will be a disaster for all parties".

"As the largest neighbor of the peninsula, China will not sit by to see a fundamental disruption of the stability on the peninsula, and we will not sit by and see unwarranted damage to China's security interests," Wang added.

Wang said, in China's view, the UN Security Resolution 2270 must be implemented in its entirety, sanctions are just a necessary means, maintaining stability is the pressing priority, and only negotiation could provide a fundamental solution.
Li's report pragmatic, balanced: expert Updated: 2016-03-09 00:09 By CHEN WEIHUA in Washington(China Daily USA)

Premier Li Keqiang's government work report is pragmatic and concrete, pointing out challenges as well as strengths and opportunities, according to a US-based China scholar.

The government work report, delivered by Li at the opening of the fourth session of the 12th NPC on March 5 in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, is now being deliberated over by some 3,000 deputies to the NPC.

Cheng Li, director of the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, said the report tells people that the Chinese economy is facing difficulties as a result of structural reforms, discussing the need for better environmental protection and the impact of a sluggish global economy.

"It tells the public that such economic challenges will last for a period of time, so the report does not give the public any unachievable expectations," Li said.

Meanwhile, the report has also elaborated on China's strengths, such as the potential to be unleashed in urbanization, the development of the service sector, the employment policy and the innovation policy, according to Li.

"So this is a report that neither gives the public too high an expectation nor disappointment," said Li, whose research has focused on the transformation of Chinese leaders and technological development in China.

Li believes that this is especially important during the next two years, or the beginning years of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), when there won't be an excessively high economic growth rate, something he said China does not need.

In the work report, China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2016 has been set between 6.5 percent and 7 percent. It is the first time since 1995 that the growth target has been given in a range rather than a single number.

China's economy grew by 6.9 percent in 2015, the lowest in a quarter century, but it was still among the highest in the world.

According to the report, an average annual growth of at least 6.5 percent should be maintained in the coming five years in order to achieve the goals of doubling GDP and household income from 2010 levels by 2020.

It also says that by 2020, the contribution from scientific and technological advances should account for 60 percent of the GDP growth.

Li said structural reforms will bring a lot of challenges, all of which would require the Chinese government's action.

He described the goals in the work report as very specific. "There isn't much empty content and sloganeering types of things," he said.

"It is what the Chinese public wants to see  and it's a relatively balanced and good report, one quite pertinent to China's situation today," Li said.

Li had hoped that the report would have emphasized more that many of the challenges are also opportunities. "It is just the beginning and the potential is huge," he said, citing how areas such as environmental protection could help job creation and business opportunities.

To Li, the potential opportunities will help small- and medium-sized companies, large companies, Chinese companies overseas and foreign-funded companies in China break new ground.

Li said the growth targets set in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) are quite reasonable.

"More than 90 percent of what's in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) has been achieved, and there is a better reason to achieve what's in the 13th Five-Year Plan," he said.
China urges US to stop curbs on ZTE Updated: 2016-03-08 14:03 By PAUL WELITZKIN in New York(chinadaily.com.cn)

China is urging the United States to reconsider placing curbs on ZTE Corp that reportedly would stop the country's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker from buying software and parts from US suppliers.

"We hope the US side can stop the wrong decision to prevent harming our trade cooperation and the bilateral relations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing on Monday.

His comments were made at a daily news briefing following a Reuters report on Sunday that the Commerce Department would place the restrictions on ZTE on Tuesday.

The restrictions also would apply to three other entities over an alleged violation of US exports controls on Iran,Reuters said.

There was no comment from the Commerce Department.

Trading in ZTE was halted in Hong Kong and Shenzhen on Monday.ZTE said in a statement that the company "has been working with associated US government departments on investigations since 2012 and maintains constant communication with associated departments and is committed to fully address and resolve any concerns."

While ZTE can appeal the Commerce Department action, suppliers to the company will have to apply for licenses that will generally be denied, Reuters reported. IBM, MicroSoft and Qualcomm are among US-based companies that are or have supplied technology to ZTE.

David Reid, a professor at the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, said that "ZTE is such a big player it is likely this action by the US has been cleared at the highest political level in Washington".

Reid said that this latest technology-related dispute comes amid tensions between the US and China over cyber security, trade and events in the South China Sea.

He said all of these matters "help bring policy decisions, like this ZTE matter, into sharp relief and may influence decision-making".

Reid said that the US has to show due diligence in ensuring that agreements are being kept  similar to the way the ministries of Commerce and Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) monitor actions of foreign companies in China.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the restrictions may affect ZTE's smart-phone business where it holds a 7 percent share of the US market according to research concern IDC. Some ZTE phones rely on products from American firms like Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, the Journal said.

"This may cause significant supply problems to both ZTE's equipment and handset businesses," wrote Jefferies analyst Cynthia Meng in a research note, according to the newspaper.
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An airplane of Viet Nam Airlines. The corporation joined with Techcombank to set up a new airlines based on the restructuring of its subsidiary VASCO.  Photo soha.vn

HA NOI (VNS)  Viet Nam Airlines Corp officially set up a new airline based on the restructuring of its subsidiary Vietnam Air Services Co (VASCO), the national carrier said in a press release on Monday.

The new airline will be named VASCO and has a minimum charter capital of VN300 billion (US$13.43 million) and about 10 airplanes.

Vietnam Airlines will hold 51 per cent of the venture, while the Viet Nam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Banks (Techcombank) will have a 49 per cent stake.

As soon as the airline is established, Techcombank will make an initial investment of VN147 billion, while Viet Nam Airlines will provide aircraft and other assets worth about VN157 billion.

Vietnam Airlines said the assets will be valued by the Viet Nam Valuation and Finance Consultancy Jsc (VVFC) under the Ministry of Finance.

A representative from Techcombank will be appointed as VASCOs chairman, while the Chief Executive Officer of VASCO will be from Vietnam Airlines.

In its first stages, VASCO will continue to operate ATR72 aircrafts on domestic routes not capable of handling jet airplanes, such as to Con ao, Ca Mau, Rach Gia and ien Bien.

The move comes as Vietnam Airlines continues to lose its domestic market share to the low-cost VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co Currently, Viet Nam Airlines also holds 70 per cent of stake in another low-cost carrier, Jetstar Pacific Airlines.

According to the International Air Transport Association, Vietnam is expected to become one of the worlds top 10 fastest growing aviation markets in the next two decades.  VNS
Finlands Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka .  Photo baocongthuong

HCM CITY (VNS)  Education, Cleantech and ICT have been on the top of the agenda during the visit of Finlands Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka between March 6 and 11 in Viet Nam.

Hosted by the Minister of Industry and Trade of Viet Nam Vu Huy Hoang, Minister Toivakka, accompanied by an extensive business delegation consisting mainly of Finnish experts, will discuss further cooperation.

The aim of the visit is also to support the Finnish business delegation in its fact-finding and networking missions.

After visiting Ha Noi, the delegation will travel to HCM City and Binh Duong Province.

In HCM City, the minister and her delegation will visit Ton uc Thang University, where she will give a lecture on education and innovation.

The minister and the delegation will meet her Vietnamese counterpart and participate in numerous events where Finnish and Vietnamese partners will sign cooperation agreements or launch new collaboration projects.

"Finland and Viet Nam share a mutual desire to develop their trade and economic relations. This visit provides an excellent opportunity to take further steps towards and strengthen relationship between our countries," Minister Toivakka said.

"I strongly believe that building partnerships between our institutions, companies and people will be at the core of our future relationship," she added.

Finland is known to be a dynamic society with particular expertise in technology and innovations. The countrys Cleantech and ICT solutions are global top-notch programmes.

Finland is also recognised as being one of the countries investing most heavily in research, development, innovation and education, an investment the country takes pride in and that has brought tangible results.

Viet Nam and Finland have strong, friendly relations that for decades have been based on traditional development cooperation. Now the aim is to strengthen and broaden the relationship and work towards increased trade and economic cooperation.

Bilateral trade has been growing steadily during the last few years, expanding by more than 30 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year.

There is potential for further growth under the future EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. VNS
Photo taken of workers at Thooing Ninh Footwear Company. Vieat Nam exported $15 billion worth of leather and footwear products in 2015.  VNA/VNS Photo Ngoic Ha

HA NOI (VNS)  Viet Nams leather and footwear industry expects to reach a total export value of $17 billion this year, partly due to advantageous business conditions.Nguyen uc Thuan, Viet Nam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) Chairman, said the chances of expanding export markets are good this year due to advantages from free trade agreements (FTAs) with the European Union (EU), South Korea and especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.The zero tax rate under the Viet Nam-EU FTA and TPP, effective in 2018, will promote Vieat Nams exports in leather, footwear, bags, umbrellas and suitcases in the future, he said.In addition, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently declared partially invalid an anti-dumping regulation on certain leather footwear imports to the EU from China and Viet Nam.It said that the Council of the EU and EU Commission did not comply with certain procedural rules when the regulation was adopted.On October 5, 2006, the Council of the EU adopted a regulation imposing an anti-dumping duty on certain leather footwear imported from China and Viet Nam to the EU with a rate of 16.5 per cent for footwear manufactured by companies established in China (with the exception of the company Golden Step, whose anti-dumping duty was set at 9.7 per cent), and at 10 per cent for footwear manufactured by companies established in Vieat Nam.The change to the anti-dumping tariff for Vietnamese footwear will support local footwear firms in reducing the current difficulties of production and business, he said.Last year, Viet Nam gained a high growth rate in export value from the leather and footwear industry at $15 billion, an increase of 16 per cent year-on-year, according to the association, including $12 billion from footwear.Ha Duy Hung, Chairman of the ong Hung Industry Joint Stock Company, said the local leather and footwear industry has in the past developed key export markets in Europe, the United States and Japan, and they are expecting higher exports to those markets in the future as the FTAs generate interest, the au tu online outlet reported.Now, Vieat Nam is one of four largest footwear producers in volume on the world market, after China, India and Brazil, and is also the third largest footwear exporter in value on the global market, after China and Italy. Domestic footwear products have been shipped to 50 countries and territories.  VNS
Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son speaks at Viet Nams international integration delivered at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London on Monday.  VNA/VNS Photo Do Sinh

LONDON (VNS)  International integration is a consistent focus of Viet Nams foreign policy at present and will continue to be in the coming years, Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said.In his speech on Viet Nams international integration delivered at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London on Monday on the occasion of his participation in the 5th Viet Nam-UK Strategic Partnership Dialogue, Son said international integration is the next step of the Renewal (oi Moi) process, which was a turning point for Viet Nams development orientation over the last 30 years.According to the Deputy FM, Viet Nam has set up strategic partnerships with 15 countries, and comprehensive partnerships with 10 others. The country is also an active and responsible member with practical contributions to the international community, especially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), the United Nations Human Rights Council and Security Council. The country signed 11 free trade agreements (FTAs) with its partners, including five that were completed last year.In its international integration and market-opening process, Viet Nam always attaches importance to the role played by the UK and hopes for all-around co-operation with the country, Son stressed.The UK is now one of Viet Nams leading trade partners within the European Union. Two-way trade increased to $5.4 billion in 2015, from $1.7 billion five years earlier. UK investors poured $4.6 billion into 216 projects in Viet Nam in the five-year period.In the coming period, both sides will work to realise priorities agreed upon by their leaders during UK Prime Minister David Camerons visit to Viet Nam in July last year. The goals will focus on links in political strategy, defence and security, trade and investment, development, education and training, culture, science and technology, and labour, he noted.The Vietnamese official called on UK investors to take more actions to take full advantage of opportunities in Viet Nams integration process, especially when the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement are approved and take effect.During his talks, Son also answered questions on Viet Nams contributions to the UNs peacekeeping activities and East Sea-related issues. He said he hoped the UK would continue to make more contributions to maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea, including promoting the settlement of disputes through peaceful measures in line with international law.On the same day, the Deputy Foreign Minister had a meeting with representatives from the Viet Nam-UK Network, at which time he expressed his gratitude to British officials for their efforts to deepen bilateral relations.  VNS
By the end of February, the province was home to 2,623 foreign-invested projects with a combined investment of more than $24.1 billion, making it one of the nation's only five localities with FDI exceeding $20 billion.  Photo baobinhduong

BINH DUONG (VNS)  The Peoples Committee of southern Binh Duong Province late last week licensed 33 domestic and foreign-invested projects, worth a total of US$695 million.

21 were new projects capitalized at $554 million while the remainder were existing projects adding $141 million to their investments.

In terms of investment, which mostly came in textiles and garments, plastics and coffee processing, Taiwan took the lead with $205 million pumped into four projects. It was followed by Singapore with $188.2 million, South Korea with $64 million and Japan with $54.5 million.

By the end of February, the province was home to 2,623 foreign-invested projects with a combined investment of more than $24.1 billion, making it one of the nations only five localities with FDI exceeding $20 billion. Some 1,560 of the projects are operating at local industrial zones, worth $15.75 billion or 65 per cent of the provinces total FDI.

Committee chairman Traan Thanh Lieam spoke highly of the contribution from investors to provincial socio-economic development, vowing that local authorities would create the most favorable conditions for them to do business.

The provinces leaders were willing to collect the investors suggestions on improving the local investment climate and improving infrastructure and speeding up administrative reforms, Lieam said.

On the same day, Binh Doong Foreign Service Centre signed deals to co-operate with business associations of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Established in June, 2015, the centre provides support to overseas investors.

It will also assist investors in obtaining visas and investment licences as well as provide them with all necessary information regarding the local business climate and investment incentive policies.  VNS
inh Ngoc uc, Director of Market Department under the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, spoke to Weekly Viet Nam and World Economic Affairs about his departments efforts to look for new markets.

What is the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourisms strategy to attract more foreign tourists to Viet Nam ?

In our tourism marketing and promotion strategy, we have focused our efforts on three main markets. They are Europe; the East Asian market, including Japan , South Korea and China ; and other ASEAN countries.

In addition, we also are trying to develop new markets, like Australia , India , Russia and other Russian-speaking countries.

A top priority in our marketing and promotion strategy is to utilise e-marketing. This marketing method is boundless in geographical position and it helps us save time and money.

In our marketing and promotion strategy, we have tried to mobilise capital resources from tour operators, airlines and partners inside and outside Viet Nam .

In addition, we have also developed a plan to create a Tourism Development Fund in order to have more capital resources to invest in tourism marketing and promotion.

In 2016, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) will focus its efforts on participating in major international tourism fairs, particularly those organised in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and Europe . We hope that, through those fairs, well be able to attract new partners, particularly foreign tour operators and travel agents.

Other activities we have planned for this year include initiating fam trips and press trips from other countries to Viet Nam while organising our own fam trips and press trips abroad to gain experiences from our foreign peers.

In our tourism promotion policy, Viet Nam has waived visa for tourists coming from many countries. Will you please further elaborate on that policy?

Viet Nam has given a visa waiver to tourists coming from Italy , Germany , Spain , France , Belarus , the United Kingdom , Japan , South Korea , Norway , Finland , Denmark , Sweden , Russia and nine countries from Southeast Asia .

With the Governments decision to give visa waivers to incoming tourists to Viet Nam , we have initiated a special policy for tourists who have spent a lot of money during their tours or have a long stay during their visits.

In addition, we have adopted a special programme for tourists from Thailand , Hong Kong and Singapore who come to spend a weekend in Viet Nam .

In the pipeline is a plan to ask the Government to waive visas for all foreign tourists, regardless of nationality, coming to Viet Nam on package tours. We hope that these lucrative policies will make Viet Nam an attractive destination for many foreign tourists.

Quite a few Free Trade Agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), were signed between Viet Nam and other countries. Does the VNAT have any plan to utilise these golden opportunities?

For our tourism sector, by signing the TPP, FTAs or becoming a member of the Asian Economic Community (AEC), well face both opportunities and challenges. But here I just want to focus on opportunities.

It is no doubt that the number of visitors coming from the AEC to look for business or investment opportunities in Viet Nam will increase, including in tourism development.

In addition, the number of foreigners within the TPP or AEC coming to Viet Nam on tour for business or conference trips will increase.

As a signatory to the TPP, businessmen coming from other TPP member countries will be given special treatment per regulations in the TPP official documents.

It is high time for Viet Nam s tourism industry to take proper steps to develop new products to cater to businessmen and tourists during their stay. Doing so will make Viet Nam an attractive destination for all tourists in the region and internationally.

Last but not least, VNAT will further expand its co-operation with other regional countries to diversify its tourism products while attracting more tourists and maximising customer referrals.  VNS
Party General Secretary Nguyean Phuu Troing joined NA members in Ha Noai at a meeting with voters from Ba Ninh, Hoan Kieam and Taay Hoa districts yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung

HA NOI (VNS)  Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong joined National Assembly members in Ha Noi in a meeting with voters from Ba inh, Hoan Kiem and Tay Ho districts yesterday.

Some voters lauded the outcomes of the 12th National Party Congress. Guidelines and policies set forth at the congress received positive feedback.

However, people also voiced concern on issues related to the signing of bilateral and multilateral agreements with foreign partners, suggesting that the country must manage the domestic market and improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods.

They stressed the need to promote equitisation of State-owned enterprises, and adopt preferential policies for the private sector - especially those concerning capital and land leasing - in order to facilitate private firms development.

More drastic measures are needed to repel corruption and wastefulness, voters said, noting that efforts should be strengthened to improve the quality of inspectors at all levels, aiming to create a breakthrough in the fight on corruption.

They also voiced their opinions on the draft revised Press Law, stressing the need to enhance management of individual web pages to prevent the publication of anti-State and anti-Party sentiments.

Some said the Government would need to clearly define the responsibilities of agencies and organisations in providing information for the media. There needed to be punishments for actions obstructing press activities, voters said.

They also shared concerns about food safety and the increasing prevalence of cancer.

Acknowledging voters opinions, the Party chief said their ideas and suggestions would help NA deputies improve.

In his reply related to the coming elections of the 13th NA and Peoples Councils, the Party Chief said he agreed with voters on the need to select meritorious candidates.

Voters must elect the most worthy candidates in this important political event, he stressed.  VNS
NA Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan meets with the special advisor of the Japan-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, Tsutomu Takebe, in Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Pham Kien

HA NOI(VNS)  National Assembly (NA) Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan met with the special advisor of the Japan-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, Tsutomu Takebe, in Ha Noi yesterday.

During the meeting Ngan praised the growing co-operation between the two law-making bodies as well as regular visit exchanges at all levels and efficient joint research activities.

Ngan praised the role as well as contributions of the special advisor to cultural and educational ties of the two countries, naming the Viet Nam-Japan University project, the cherry blossom festival, and the Japanese culture festival in Viet Nam.

She expressed the belief that the extensive strategic partnership between Viet Nam and Japan would be more active and practical, noting that the Viet Nam-Japan University project will become a symbol of that partnership.

The Japanese guest updated his host of the progress of the Viet Nam-Japan University project, which has been initiated by the law-making bodies of the two countries. After launching the first MA course at the university in this September, the Japanese side would work together with concerned Vietnamese agencies in an effort to turn the university into an international university, he said.

Also yesterday, Takebe was welcomed by President of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan.  VNS
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets with visiting Azerbaijani Justice Minister Fikrat Mammadov and his delegation in Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Hoa

HA NOI(VNS)  Deputy Prime Minister (PM) Nguyen Xuan Phuc has affirmed that the Vietnamese government always supports co-operative activities between its justice ministry and the Azerbaijani counterpart.

He made the affirmation at a reception held to host visiting Azerbaijani Justice Minister Fikrat Mammadov and his delegation in Ha Noi yesterday.

The Deputy PM spoke highly of the importance and significance of the relations between the legislative, executive and judicial agencies of the two countries as well as the signing of a co-operation agreement between the two justice ministries.

He recalled Azerbaijans assistance to Viet Nam in various fields during the Soviet era, including the training of personnel, noting that many of whom have contributed greatly to national development.

Minister Fikrat Mammadov told his host that the purpose of his visit was to set up a co-operative relationship in the legal and judicial fields as part of efforts to strengthen the growing co-operation between the two countries.

He expressed the hope that both sides would continue measures to further their traditional friendship.

Earlier that day, Justice Ministers Ha Hung Cuong and Fikrat Mammadov signed an agreement to officially establish co-operation in legal and judicial affairs between Viet Nam and Azerbaijan.

Accordingly, the two sides will join hands in judicial activities, personnel training and legal studies, among others.

The Azerbaijani minister is on a working visit to Viet Nam from March 6 to March 10. Earlier, he met with Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu and Chief Judge of the Supreme Peoples Court Truong Hoa Binh.  VNS
Speaking at the conference, President of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, asked members in the programme to continue to co-ordinate closely and efficiently in promoting public awareness on the relevant laws.  Photo VGP

HA NOI (VNS)  A conference was held yesterday in Ha Noi to review the implementation of a co-operation programme on monitoring and improving the efficiency of solving complaints and denunciations in localities in 2015.

The programme is a co-operation between five agencies and organisations, including the Standing Committee for the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the Government Inspectorate, the Ministry of Justice, the Viet Nam Lawyers Association and the Viet Nam Bar Federation.

The programme promotes the roles of the Vieat Nam Fatherland Front in representing and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, promoting the supervisory functions of the Front and its member organisations, and promoting responsible management at State agencies.

The supervision teams have detected shortcomings and limitations in dealing with complaints and denunciations, and presented these at the conference.

Citizens have received help from lawyers many times thanks to the programme. However, there were still cases of prolonged complaints that have not been dealt with even after many years.

At the conference, agencies and organisations in the programme agreed to raise public awareness about the law on complaints and denunciations, and to continue to provide legal consultations for citizens this year.

The members in the programme will continue to work together to consider and make recommendations to authorities on how to resolve cases that have extended over many years. They will also continue to exchange and provide information on handling complaints and denunciations.

Speaking at the conference, President of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, asked members in the programme to continue to co-ordinate closely and efficiently in promoting public awareness on the relevant laws.
HCM CITY(VNS) -- Anne Chamfort, an astrologer and psychic of international repute, is visiting Viet Nam for the first time to launch her Great Book of Secrets in the Vietnamese language.

Chamfort is considered one of Frances greatest clairvoyants with a rare gift for prediction. Her Great Book of Secrets has been translated into many languages and sold millions of copies.

Chamfort visited HCM City yesterday, and travels to Ha Noi tomorrow for her workshop Unlock Luck and Prosperity with Anne Chamfort.

Three lucky people in HCM City and Ha Noi will have a chance to meet with Chamfort, listen to her talk about their lives, and learn to release their hidden capacities. -- VNS
QUANG NAM  Vietnamese border guards, and other law enforcement forces of the country, always support fishermen when they go fishing legally in traditional Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) fisheries.

Colonel Van Ngoc Que of the central Quang Nam Provinces Border Guard Command made this statement yesterday when visiting local fishermen on whom there had been an unjustified attacked by Chinese coast guards and they were forced to leave their traditional fishing ground on Viet Nams Hoang Sa (Paracel) sea area earlier this week.

All the ten fishermen were on boat No QNa 91939TS from Nui Thanh Districts Tam Quang Commune.

On behalf of the provincial Border Guard Command, the Nui Thanh Districts Peoples Committee and the Quang Nam Fishery Society, Colonel Que said that relevant authorities were working on cases of fishermen whose boats had been attacked and destroyed by Chinese forces, to have diplomatic reactions.

Que said Vietnamese authorities would protect fishermen as well as their legitimate interests on traditional Truong Sa and Hoang Sa fishing grounds.

According to Captain Vo Quang Thai, his boat was approached on Sunday by a Chinese coast guard ship when he and nine others were fishing as usual.

The captain recalled that there were 13 people from the ship, including two who could speak Vietnamese, who claimed to be Chinese police, when they approached the boat.

They confiscated all the fish they had caught and destroyed all their fishing tools as well as communications tools, Thai said.

The captain said he was told to sign a minute saying that he had violated Chinese waters but he refused.

This is the traditional fishing ground of fishermen from Quang Nam Province as well as fishermen from other central provinces, Thai said.

The attacked boat came back on Monday.

Colonel Que said that each fisherman would receive a support of VN3 million (US$130). They promised to continue support with repairing and providing fishing tools for the fishermen.

Vietnamese fishing boat sunk in Hoang Sa archipelago

In another report, five Vietnamese fishermen are drifting at sea after their fishing boat sank in a collision with an unnamed ship in Viet Nams Hoang Sa sea area yesterday.

Tran Quang Minh, Director of the Nha Trang Radio, said that at 9:50am, his agency was informed by a fishing boat coded KH 98299-TS that another fishing boat KH 96640-TS of central Khanh Hoa Province was rammed and sunk by the unnamed ship while conducting fishing activities in the waters off the archipelago.

At that time, the fishermen shifted to woven bamboo basket boats and are drifting at sea.

The Viet Nam Maritime Communication and Electronics LLC notified the incident to the search and rescue agencies, and have asked boats operating around the site to support the distressed boat and its five fishermen.  VNS
HCM CITY  The health sector should encourage full autonomy at public hospitals, including financial independence as well as autonomy in personnel recruitment and bids for medicine and equipment, Party Committee Secretary of HCM City, inh La Thang, has said.

Hospitals with financial autonomy should be responsible for conducting bids for medicine and equipment, Thang said at a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Health on Sunday.

The city had seven public hospitals operating with financial autonomy, said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung, rector of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine.

Hospitals with financial autonomy should be allowed to conduct their own bids for medicine and equipment instead of waiting for centralised bidding, Dung said.

Many public hospitals ran out of supplies and equipment because of the long waiting time needed for centralised bidding, she said.

Thang also asked the health sector to take proactive steps to use the State budget as well as capital from society to develop medical infrastructure and facilities.

Social mobilisation in the health sector will help local residents enjoy better healthcare services, Thang said.

Tang Chi Thuong, deputy director of the citys Department of Health said that major hospitals such as the Oncology Hospital, the Paediatrics Hospital No.1, the Paediatrics Hospital No.2, Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics and Gia inh Hospital were frequently overloaded.

To reduce overloading and improve quality of health services, projects to build new hospitals and medical facilities are under or waiting for construction.

The citys Paediatrics Hospital project in Binh Chanh District which is expected to be put into operation in September will help reduce overloading at Paediatrics Hospital No.1 and Paediatrics Hospital No. 2.

The second Oncology Hospital in the citys District 9 project is expected to be completed in 2018.

However, many projects have been delayed because of complications related to site clearance, investment procedures and investors failure to begin their projects.

The Sai Gon General Hospital, the new HCM City Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics and general hospitals in Thu uc, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts are among the delayed projects.

The citys Party Committee Secretary has asked authorities to accelerate the construction process of new hospitals to reduce overloading at major hospitals.

Obstacles faced by private investors to develop projects in the medical sector should be addressed in a timely manner, he said.

He said new contractors should be chosen if projects run behind schedule.

The Government should offer favourable conditions to encourage public-private partnerships in the health sector, said Vo uc Chien, director of Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital.

The social mobilisation policy would help generate resources from society to replace medical facilities which were built 40 years ago, Chien said.

Private investors would build and operate hospitals for 20 to 30 years before transferring them to the Government, Chien said.

The Government should also devise policies to ensure benefits for private investors, he added.

Many of the Governments recently issued policies had encouraged private investment in the healthcare sector, said Phan Van Bau, director of the Peoples Hospital 115.

Many private hospitals with modern equipment were now operating at a moderate level due to a lack of patients, while public hospitals experience overcrowding with patients, Bau said.

The health sector should offer co-operation between public and private hospitals for links and referral of patients between State and private hospitals.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said the city should have breakthrough policies on resource mobilisation to attract private investment to the health sector.

It is necessary to mobilise capital from various resources to develop medical infrastructure and increase the number of hospital beds, including public-private partnerships, socialised capital and ODA capital, Tien said.  VNS
HCM CITY  Application of advanced mini techniques can reduce post-operative care and pain compared to traditional methods, doctors said at Binh Dan Hospitals biennial conference held in HCM City last Saturday.

Laparoscopic surgery is used in appendectomy, inguinal hernia repair, and for other medical problems in Viet Nam.

Dr Nguyen Phuc Cam Hoang of Binh Dan Hospital said that the Urology B Ward last year used the latest advanced endoscopic procedure, called mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), to remove kidney stones from six patients.

According to the European Association of Urologys treatment guidelines updated in 2014, PCNL is recommended as the therapy of choice for large renal calculi for certain conditions.

The PCNL therapy, however, causes significant complications such as blood loss, postoperative pain and potential renal damage because of the large instrument.

With the mini-PCNL, blood loss is reduced, and post-operative hospitals are shorter.

From April 2014 to June 2015, the hospital also provides a new approach for treatment of inguinal hernia with the totally extraperitoneal (TEP) laparoscopic procedure on 80 patients.

TEP inguinal hernia repair is an effective and safe procedure that helps reduce postoperative pain, according to research conducted by Dr Nguyen Phu Huu and colleagues of the Viet Nam National University-HCM Citys Faculty of Medicine in co-operation with doctors at the Binh Dan Hospital.

Inguinal hernia is common worldwide, and about five per cent of the global population has abdominal wall hernias. Of these, 75 per cent are inguinal hernias.

Laparoscopic surgery for inguinal hernia treatment, including TEP inguinal hernia repair, has been used in Viet Nam since 2000.

Research reports on other advanced treatment in fields such as digestion, post-surgery and anaesthesia-recuperation were also presented at the two-day conference.  VNS
e-commerce enabler has announced the completion of its $8 million fundraising round with the addition of a Japanese investor.

The company refused to disclose the name of the Japanese investor.

Their existing investors include Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), Nirvana Digital India Fund, Nirvana Digital Investment Holding Co. Ltd., US-based 500 Start-Ups and Singapore-based Beenext have also participated in the recent round of funding.

Money will be utilised towards enhancing the next gen mobile marketplace Kraftly, a mobile-first O2O marketplace targeting small seller communities and homepreneurs in India in long-tail categories including as apparel, accessories, home, crafts, and other unique and eclectic products, said the company in a press release.

Saahil Goel, CEO & co-founder, commented that the investment will help the company on product development, talent acquisition, seller eco-system development and performance marketing.

He added, the company has roped in Ankit Sood as Chief Financial Officer & Akshay Ghulati as Chief Business Officer for Kraftly.

Currently boasting of more than 15,000 shops, Kraftly adds over 17,000 listings per day, claims the company.
continue to trade firm supported by metal, energy and healthcare shares, however, the selling pressure in some of the banking shares and index heavy weights such as Infosys and TCS has capped the upside.

At 10:40 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was at 24,701, up by 55 points while Nifty50 was at 7,502, up 17 points.

The broader are trading in line with their larger peers with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices up by 0.3% and 0.8% each.

Shares of metal companies continued their upward march for the eighth straight after surge in base metal prices.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL), NMDC and GMDC have rallied more than 5% each on the BSE. Hindustan Copper, Vedanta, National Aluminium, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) and Hindustan Zinc were up 2%-5%.

Shares of Strides Shasun have surged nearly 4% to Rs 1,073 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company said it subsidiary plans to acquire three brands from Sweden-based Moberg Pharma.

The top gainers on the Sensex are Gail, Tata Motors, Lupin, ONGC, and Reliance Industries, up between 1% and 2.5% each.

The top losers on the Sensex are Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank, SBI, and HUL, down between 1% and 2% each.

------------------------------------------

(updated 9:30am)



After an extended weekend, have opened the session on a flat note following weak cues from the Asian markets.

At 9:30 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was at 24,722, up by 76 points while Nifty50 was at 7,511, up 26 points.

The morning note by Angel Broking says, At the current juncture, the Nifty is trading near its resistance of 7550. Considering multiple resistances, a minor pull back cannot be ruled out although the overall view remains positive. We advise traders not to get carried away in the anticipated corrective price action and suggest towards remaining light on positions until there is a decisive development on the charts.



Going forward, immediate resistance for index is placed at7550  7600 levels; whereas, support is visible at 7440 and7390 levels.



Overseas, Japan's economy contracted less than estimated in the final quarter of 2015 but private consumption remained weak, underscoring the challenges in restoring growth amid intensifying overseas headwinds. At 9:15 am Indian Standard Time (IST) Nikkei 225 was trading 1.6% lower.

Chinas foreign reserves have declined by about half a trillion dollars last year, marking its fourth consecutive month of decline. Shanghai Composite was trading 2.6% lower ahead of the February trade figures.

Foreign Institutional investors were net buyers in equities to the tune of Rs 672 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

In the commodity space, Brent crude hit a three-month high on Monday on an improving global outlook and stronger sentiment for a market recovery. Brent crude futures rose to as high as $41.04/barrel on Monday, extending their recovery from a 12-year trough of $27.10 hit in January. U.S. crude futures CLc1 also increased to $38.11/barrel, its highest since early January.

The Indian rupee opened weak against the greenback at 67.22, depreciating by 12 paise.

KEY STOCKS



Sectorally, BSE Metal index is rallying over 2% followed by Energy and Oil&Gas shares, up over 1%.

Individually, Maruti Suzuki will formally launch the Vitara Brezza on Tuesday, its first serious attempt to break into the already-competitive sport utility vehicle segment. The stock has gained 0.5%.

Metal pack has gained considering the rise in global commodity prices. Steel stocks are likely to be in focus after sharp rally in China steel prices. Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, JSWSteel, SAIL have all gained between 2%-6% each.

The sharp rally in oil prices has also aided the energy stocks. Cain India, ONGC, Reliance Industries have gained between 1% and 4% each.

Tata Motors has signed an agreement with Bharat Forge and General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) of the US, for the ministry of defence's (MoDs) Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) programme. The stock has edged up nearly 1%.

Coal India is likely to firm after the board approved payment of interim dividend of Rs 27.40 per equity share for the financial year 2015-16. The stock has advanced 0.3%.

Among other prominent gainers, Lupin, BHEL, ITC, HDFC, L&T have gained between 1% and 3% each.

On the flip side, SBI, TCS, HUL, and ICICI Bank have dropped between 1% and 2% each.

Among other shares, Ajanta Pharma has gained 3% after the company said it has received US FDA Approval for Almotriptan Malate Tablets.

Strides Shasun jumped 3% after the company plans to acquire 3 brands of Moberg Pharma for US $10 million.




CEDAR FALLS  A month after entering a bank and passing a note demanding 10,000 or death, a Cedar Falls man has pleaded guilty to robbery and is headed back to prison.

Jon Robert Ellingson, 26, pleaded to second-degree robbery in connection with the Jan. 12 holdup at First National Bank on Whitetail Drive. The plea and sentence came Feb. 12 in Black Hawk County District Court.

Ellingson was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and must serve seven years before he is eligible for parole. The sentence will run concurrently with time for a misdemeanor public intoxication charge stemming from a late night on College Hill in January 2015 when he was accused of scaring people with a devil mask.

That incident came 13 days after he was released from prison after serving time for taking a Jeep Liberty in November 2013, according the Iowa Department of Corrections.

In the January bank robbery, authorities said Ellingson walked into First National wearing a purple University of Northern Iowa jacket and his face covered. He handed the clerk the note, which continued no dye packs or GPS unless you want me visiting you at home scrawled in black marker.

Ellingson fled with cash and changed clothing in a bathroom at Thunder Ridge Mall. Police later found the coat with the robbery note inside a pocket, court records state. He bluffed his way through the security door of a Brentwood Drive apartment building where investigators later found the cash under a heater, and he began walking towards his home a half mile away on Barnett Drive.

Patrol officers spotted him and were able to match his shoes to prints at the scene. Officers searched his home and seized markers and paper.

Buchanan County fire injures man

INDEPENDENCE  An Independence man was hospitalized after he was burned in a grass fire near Independence on Monday.

Crews with the Jesup Ambulance Service took Norman McMurrin, 78, to Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo, and he was later transferred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with life-threatening injuries, according to the Buchanan County Sheriffs Office.

Firefighters with the Independence and Jesup fire departments extinguished the blaze.

McMurrin was attempting to burn a small grass area on his property in the 1500 block of Otterville Boulevard northwest of Independence when he was overcome by the rapidly spreading fire at about 12:25 p.m. Monday.

A family member helped him from the fire and called 911.

Rockford man arrested for assault

ROCKFORD  A Rockford man was arrested Sunday on domestic assault, threat of terrorism and other charges.

Jason G. Weitzel, 38, was pursued by officers after his vehicle was located, according to a press release from the Floyd County Sheriffs Office. He was arrested after a short chase.

The sheriffs office responded to a domestic assault report at 6:05 a.m. in the 1200 block of 190th Street. Weitzel, the alleged assailant, left the scene.

There was evidence a vehicle had gone through a ditch and crashed into a mailbox.

The Floyd County Sheriffs Office located a cell phone number for Weitzel and began tracking his phone.

Weitzel allegedly called others, making more threats and stating he would return to the residence where the assault took place.

The Floyd County Sheriffs Office, along with six Iowa State Patrol troopers and aircraft, began searching for Weitzel in the area between Nora Springs and Rockford.

A deputy sheriff and a state trooper located Weitzels vehicle. During the chase he allegedly threw narcotics from the car window.

Weitzel was booked into the Floyd County Jail.

He is charged with:

Domestic abuse assault by strangulation and threat of terrorism, both Class D felonies.

Carrying weapons and possession of methamphetamine, both aggravated misdemeanors.

Operating while under the influence, a serious misdemeanor.

A number of simple misdemeanor charges.

Further charges are pending.

Trump tomato tosser in court

IOWA CITY  The man accused of throwing two tomatoes at Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, according to a court document filed Monday.

In January, Andrew J. Alemao, 28, of Iowa City and formerly of Cedar Falls, was arrested by University of Iowa Police and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly throwing two tomatoes at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign stop, according to a news release the day after the event.

A plea deal document said Alemao will not be required to serve jail time, and the state will not file any additional charges.

Man allegedly drives into church

MANCHESTER  On Saturday at 2:10 a.m., an officer with the Manchester Police Department heard a loud crash and glass breaking on West Fayette Street. The officer found a van backing away from the west entrance of St. Marys Church.

An investigation determined the driver was intoxicated and drove off the street, traveled across the lawn and drove his van into the church.

Arrested was Robert E. Stallings, 42, of Manchester, for operating while intoxicated-second offense, and driving while his license was suspended.
Yard waste site opens early

WATERLOO  The city of Waterloo will reopen its yard waste drop-off site at 3505 Easton Ave. from noon to 4 p.m. March 12-13 and March 19-20.

This is intended to allow residents to take advantage of the forecasted unseasonably warm weather to dispose of yard waste.

The site will open for the season March 26. Normal hours of operation are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days per week. The site is provided for Waterloo residents only. Questions should be directed to the Sanitation Department at 291-4455.

Spring break set in Waterloo

WATERLOOSpring break for all Waterloo Schools will be Monday through March 18. Schools will be closed during this period.

Offices at the Education Service Center and some school offices will be open during spring break.

Students join teacher program

CEDAR FALLS  The University of Northern Iowa College of Education will host its bi-annual Teacher Education Induction Convocation at 4 p.m. March 30 at Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center.

About 230 students have satisfied the requirements for admission into the UNI teacher education program and are invited to participate in the formal ceremony.

It will be the 51st group of candidates inducted into the teacher education program since formal ceremonies began in 1991. Parents and friends of the candidates are invited along with UNI faculty and administrators. A reception will follow in the lobby.
Q: Will the cherry blossoms bloom this spring in Washington, D.C., since they were blooming in December?

A: D.C. tourism sites say the trees are budding and it looks like there will be blooms this spring, possibly earlier than normal.

Q: In the tribute to James Burrows recently on NBC they said his father was Abe. What did he do? Was he also in the entertainment business?

A: Yes. Abe Burrows was a well-known writer and director for radio and Broadway shows.

Q: How can the U.S. have a prison in Cuba when we havent had relations with Cuba for many years?

A: The prison is located on the U.S. naval base on Cuba. The base has been there since 1903, when the United States leased the land from the Cuban government of the time following the Spanish-American War. Since the Cuban revolution in 1959, there have been continual protests by Cuban officials and demands the U.S. leave, none successful so far, obviously.

Q: IS K.T. Oslin still recording music?

A: She does still perform occasionally and released an album called Simply last June.

Q: Arent all medical buildings now required under the ADA to have doors with some kind of electric assistance to open them?

A: Apparently not. According to the ADA National Network, Although automatic doors can provide greater accessibility, they are not required by the ADA standards.

Q: Did Bass Pro Shops buy out Cabelas?

A: The company is considering it, according to a January report in the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal-Star, but no deal has been made.

Q: If you have latex paint in a tightly sealed container, how long is it good to keep?

A: We found conflicting information. Some manufacturers say if it is kept above 32 degrees, it should be good for one to two years; home repair sites suggest the paint might be good for as long as 10 years.

Q: What service was Track Palin in?

A: He was with the U.S. Armys Alaska-based 25th Infantry Division.

Q: Where is Pleasant Valley School located?

A: Its in Bettendorf.

Q: On what date is Russia going to be allowed to fly surveillance planes over the United States?

A: Certification of the Russian plane with a digital electro-optical sensor could not occur until this summer under the Open Skies Treaty. It allows unarmed observation flights over the entire territory of all 34 signatory nations to foster transparency about military activity and help monitor arms control agreements. U.S. intelligence and military officials, however, worry Russia is taking advantage of technological advances to violate the spirit of the treaty, according to the Associated Press.

Q: Is Cedar Cove returning to the Hallmark Channel?

A: No, Hallmark announced in December the show was canceled.

Q: When is Charles Grassley up for election again?

A: Hes up for re-election this year.
its a blog about my life. I can tell whatever I want to
A microaggression to the jugular. Random rabid rambling by me, a.k.a. Werwolfe. Games, books, movies and general complaints about the world. Most of it bites. The world, that is. The Den is the blog. Other pages house my attempts at writing fiction.
Nature is beautiful, for sure. Rainbows, sunsets and kittens and all that.

However, there's also evidence to suggest that Mother Nature had some serious off days, producing a hellscape of hideous creations to counteract the lovely stuff.

For every beautiful sunrise, there's a parasite burrowing into somebody's eye, for every pristine beach, there's a deep sea fish with a bad attitude, and for every trill of children's laughter, there's a bug biting off the head of its mate and laying eggs down its neck.

A gross as this stuff is, it's also equally fascinating, so long as it remains safely on the internet where we can observe from a distance and close our browsers at any time.
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Special Program Marking the 70th Anniversary of Koreas Liberation from Japanese Colonial Rule: Im not a Comfort Woman.

Part 1: Spirits Homecoming



N: A man is singing a folk song, walking along the ridges between rice paddies. He is carrying his 14-year-old daughter, Jung-min, on an A-frame carrier on his back. The image of the happy father and daughter is beautiful.



The scene is from a movie titled Spirits Homecoming, which describes the plight of Korean sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II. This scene was filmed at the Seodeok field in Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province. According to the films director, Cho Jung-rae, it is an old, peaceful rural area where a full 360-degree rotation of the camera shows a vast, serene field. Here, Jung-min had a happy childhood.



N: As did the elderly victims of Japans wartime sexual slavery. Kang Il-chul was the youngest in a family of 12 children, and she was the darling of the family.



My hometown is Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province. My family ran a business of dried persimmons. As I was the youngest child in the family, my parents adored me and my sisters would give me a piggyback ride. I would cry if I wasnt allowed to embrace my moms bosom.



N: Lee Yong-soo cared for her younger twin brothers as if she was their mother. The cheerful girl could sing very well.



I liked to play cute tricks, and I could sing and dance well. People around me said they wouldnt have any fun without me. I raised the twins, often carrying them on my back. They would look for their older sister, not their mom.



N: Kim Bok-dong, a young girl full of dreams, enjoyed playing hide-and-seek and hopscotch with her friends.



I hung out with friends all the time and we used to gather round in the village to play hopscotch and other things. Peaceful days passed, and there was nothing to worry about. I wasnt lonely as I had younger siblings. I thought all I had to do was study hard.



N: However, from the moment when they were forced to serve as sex slaves, the lives of these young girls turned into a nightmare. 70 years have passed since Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule, and those girls have now become old women. But they are still living in miserable pain to this day.



Even though our nation was liberated decades ago, we havent been liberated yet. I wouldnt say were living a decent life.



N: The term comfort women is a euphemism for women who were forced to provide sex to soldiers at the so-called comfort stations operated by the Japanese army during World War II. Those girls who lived through unbelievably brutal times were called comfort women. But in reality, they were Koreas daughters who had their own names.



How am I a comfort woman? Why should I use the dirty name, comfort woman? Im not a comfort woman. Im Lee Yong-soo. This is the very name given by my mother and father.



Hello, everyone. Welcome to our special program on KBS World Radio. Marking the 70th anniversary of Koreas liberation from Japanese colonial rule, weve prepared a two-part special program, Im not a Comfort Woman. This is part one titled Spirits Homecoming. Today, well share with our listeners the painful and miserable lives of Korean victims of Japans wartime sexual slavery.



N: On a Sunday in July, film director Cho Chung-rae visited the House of Sharing after completing his filming work. It had been quite a while since he last visited the shelter for surviving former sex slaves in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. It is the place where the old ladies who provided a motive for the movie Spirits Homecoming are staying. Among them, 88-year-old Kang Il-chul was forcibly dragged to a comfort station in Changchun, Jilin Province of China, in 1943. She was only 16 years old. Through her, director Cho came to learn the horrible history of former sex slaves for the first time.



N: 13 years ago, Cho visited the House of Sharing with his friends, bringing a drum with him. They were the members of a traditional percussion music club. He had previously learned about sexual slavery during World War II in school, but he knew little about the harrowing moments the victims had actually undergone. At the shelter, Cho happened to see a shocking painting. It portrays young girls who are burned alive in a large pit. When he asked what the painting was about, the old lady Kang said that all the girls were burned to death and she was the only person who miraculously survived.



I had a high fever and lost hair due to typhoid. The Japanese troops were worried that the epidemic might infect the soldiers. It was a precarious situation and I was in great danger. I was crawling out of the incinerator, when a soldier of the Korean independence army took me with him, carrying me on his back. It was a miracle.



N: The director had thought that most victims of sexual slavery were living somewhere in Korea after returning home. He couldnt believe that a lot of girls had actually been killed.



He was so shocked that he suffered from severe body aches for days. He even had a dream that the souls of the elderly victims returned to their hometowns. After that, he was determined to make a movie from this heartrending story.



N: Do you know how old the girls were when they were forcibly taken to Japanese military brothels? Here is Kim Bok-dong, who is 90 years old now.



I was 14 years old. They said I would be sent to a factory producing military uniforms. I soothed myself thinking I wouldnt die in a factory. But as it turned out I was dragged to a frontline area, as a comfort woman. I was brought to a number of regions, such as Taiwan, Gwangdong in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sumatra and Java of Indonesia, and Singapore. They treated me like a bag, putting me on top of luggage in trucks.



N: 13 years ago, Cho visited the House of Sharing with his friends, bringing a drum with him. They were the members of a traditional percussion music club. He had previously learned about sexual slavery during World War II in school, but he knew little about the harrowing moments the victims had actually undergone. At the shelter, Cho happened to see a shocking painting. It portrays young girls who are burned alive in a large pit. When he asked what the painting was about, the old lady Kang said that all the girls were burned to death and she was the only person who miraculously survived.



I had a high fever and lost hair due to typhoid. The Japanese troops were worried that the epidemic might infect the soldiers. It was a precarious situation and I was in great danger. I was crawling out of the incinerator, when a soldier of the Korean independence army took me with him, carrying me on his back. It was a miracle.



N: The director had thought that most victims of sexual slavery were living somewhere in Korea after returning home. He couldnt believe that a lot of girls had actually been killed.



He was so shocked that he suffered from severe body aches for days. He even had a dream that the souls of the elderly victims returned to their hometowns. After that, he was determined to make a movie from this heartrending story.



N: Do you know how old the girls were when they were forcibly taken to Japanese military brothels? Here is Kim Bok-dong, who is 90 years old now.



I was 14 years old. They said I would be sent to a factory producing military uniforms. I soothed myself thinking I wouldnt die in a factory. But as it turned out I was dragged to a frontline area, as a comfort woman. I was brought to a number of regions, such as Taiwan, Gwangdong in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sumatra and Java of Indonesia, and Singapore. They treated me like a bag, putting me on top of luggage in trucks.



One night, a soldier and a girl came to my house. The girl signaled to me. I thought she was fooling around with me, so I ignored her and sat at a spinning wheel. The girl approached me. She put her arm around my shoulders and covered my mouth. The soldier then poked me in the back with something and walked me off by force. Still, I thought they were playing a trick on me. I had no idea of what was going on. I never knew.



N: Lee was forced on the train right away. She took the train for the first time in her life and started on a long journey.



Farewell to my parents? No. I was taken away in the middle of the night. How could I ever say goodbye to anyone in that situation?



N: Just like Lee, Kang Il-chul also had to leave home without even a moment to see her parents.



My Parents didnt know what was happening. They were not at home when I was taken away. After returning from school, I ate something and sat on the floor by myself. My parents didnt know.



N: Japans Shinzo Abe Administration claims there is no proof that the Japanese military or government forcibly conscripted women to work as sexual slaves. Yun Jung-ok, former professor at Ewha Womans University, has been studying the comfort women issue all her life. She is over 90 years old. She brings a book titled Comfort Women from her study filled with books and research material related to this issue and begins reading a particular phrase in a furious tone.



The Japanese Kwantung Army wanted to mobilize 20-thousand Korean women for sexual enslavement. This is shown in page 99 of this book. See? It is clearly stated that the Kwantung Army asked the governor-general of Korea to send 8,000 Joseon women as sexual slaves in order to conscript 20-thousand comfort women and that the 8,000 women were sent to the northeastern region of China.



N: Written by Yoshimi Yoshiaki, a Japanese modern history professor at Chuo University in Tokyo, this book was based on the document about comfort women written by Japans War Ministry in 1938. The professor unveiled the document in 1993. This contributed greatly to eliciting the Kono Statement, in which the Tokyo government acknowledged the Japanese militarys involvement in recruiting comfort women by force for its troops.



Professor Yun still vividly remembers the moment when she was almost taken away as a comfort woman. It was in spring of 1943, when she was a freshman at Ewha College.



A man wearing the Japanese military uniform brought a person who looked like an assistant. He handed out blue printed materials and told us to sign the papers with both thumbprints. We were so frightened that we felt we should follow his order. A similarly intimidating atmosphere prevailed in Korea at the time. Everything was done quickly. They distributed the papers and stamp pads. As soon as we signed the papers with our thumbprints, the papers were collected one by one from the back, just like test papers.



N: The girls were hauled into trucks, ships and trains. Yu Hee-nam recalls the moment.



They covered our heads with something black. When we boarded the ship, the windows of the cabins were all covered with something black so that light would not escape through the windows.



N: They finally arrived at unknown military units. There, something that the teenage girls could hardly endure began to happen.



N: The girls were placed on exam tables under the pretext of sanitary inspections. They were then sexually violated. The late Kim Hak-sun wailed when she recalled the humiliating and dreadful moment. She gave a public testimony in 1991 and became the first comfort woman to come forward.



I was only 17. I just turned 17 when a Japanese soldier brutally dragged me and raped me. It was no use crying. I tried to storm out of the room, but the dirtbag, the Japanese man, the soldier grabbed me and never let go of me. While being raped, I couldnt stop crying. The experience was too heartbreaking for words.



N: Lee Yong-soo was even tortured with electric shocks because she resisted. Even today, she cant look at her scars from the torture without shuddering.



It was just so horrible that I cant even think about it. I suffered electric torture because I refused to enter the soldiers room. I still hear a strange sound. Im not sure whether it comes from my head or my ears. I also have a scar on my belly. Why should I enter the soldiers room?



N: Aso Tetsuo was an army doctor who examined sexually transmitted diseases at comfort stations at the time. He wrote in his diary, Women brought from Joseon were the best imperial gift granted by the emperor to Japanese soldiers. The expression indicates that the Korean victims of sexual slavery were young women who had no sexual experience at all. Similar expressions are also found in the same diary. Lets hear from Yoon Mi-hyang, president of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.



It is also written that the women are a sanitary public toilet where Japanese soldiers can discharge their sexual desire. The sentence has conflicting concepts. The word sanitary suggests that the young, clean women were actually virgins. But the word toilet implies that these women were treated as a mere toilet to receive the soldiers sexual waste.



N: The Japanese military strictly managed comfort stations, even setting a guideline for the proportion of Japanese soldiers to sex slaves. Professor Su Zhiliang from the Comfort Women Research Center at Shanghai Normal University cites a comfort station in Nanjing as an example.



Weve found a record about a comfort station in Nanjing. In the document, it is written that the proportion of Japanese soldiers to sex slaves is 178 to 1.



N: Kim Bok-dongs testimony also backs this up.



On Saturdays, the soldiers would line up from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. On Sundays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. When it was over in the evening, I could hardly stand up. My limbs got badly swollen. Medics then gave me medicines and shots so I would recover during the coming week before the same routine was repeated.



N: President Yoon Mi-hyang says that sexual slavery during World War II was an unprecedented war crime in human history.



The Japanese government planned the scheme as a policy, and the Japanese military recruited women and positioned them at the battlefields. In doing so, Japanese troops were provided with safe rape camps, namely, comfort stations, where they were allowed to rape women. The military examined and managed the venereal diseases of the women, who were robbed of their freedom and ended up serving Japanese soldiers as sex slaves. This can be defined as a war crime that had never existed before and will never occur again in human history.



N: Many of the girls who were dragged by the Japanese military were underage, and they hadnt even had their first period. The same was true for Jung-min, the heroine of the movie Sprits Homecoming. Actress Oh Ji-hye talks about one of the most distressing scenes in the movie.



The drafted girls include those who havent even had their first menstrual period. In a more heartbreaking scene, the heroine has her first period, while being raped. She falls asleep on the bed and has a dream. She wakes up, but she still cant tell if she is awake or dreaming.



N: While playing the role of Jung-mins mother who made cloth sanitary pads for her daughter, actress Oh felt a deep pang of sorrow.



The mother is making cloth sanitary pads called gaejim. While sewing the pads, the mother says, Oh, my girl has grown up so fast. Congratulations, darling. Youre now an adult. The daughter keeps calling out for her mother. Mom, mom... Suddenly she wakes up. She soon realizes everything was a dream. How sad! She probably finds herself hoping to die. My heart ached with sympathy for the poor kid.



N: If the girls grew up normally, entering adulthood would have been something to celebrate. But in reality, these girls had to shed tears on the hard, cold beds at comfort stations, missing their mothers. N: At comfort stations, girls were humiliated and sexually assaulted before dying.



According to Director Cho Jeong-rae, it felt like the temperature was exceptionally low at the movie set of a comfort station. It was in late April and warm spring was felt outside. Inside the set, however, people felt cold even if they were pulling on their winter parkas. They felt as though the souls of the ill-fated girls were there. It is said that actresses had dreams of the girls when they filmed the scenes of the comfort station. It was indeed a difficult experience, as they were terrified and felt guilty at the same time. Two actresses, Hong Se-na and Park Jae-won, share their feelings.



Hong: The director and us actresses, describe the scene of the comfort station as a scene from hell. I was really scared. Tears were suddenly welling up in my eyes.



Park: I cried a lot. I felt immensely sorry for the poor girls, and I cried so much.



N: Director Cho says he always made a bow before and after filming the scenes of the comfort station. The ritual reflected his hope that the souls of the girls would allow him to lay bare the truth and spread it widely.



N: The Pacific War was drawing near to an end. As the war was not going in Japans favor, the Japanese military began to eliminate all evidence of its comfort stations overseas.



N: Comfort stations and relevant documents were burned. Many of the girls were killed as well. In the movie, Jung-min and her friend Young-hee have a narrow escape. Unfortunately, Jung-min is shot while running away. She dies in Young-hees arms.



N: How many girls were killed and thrown aside out there?

Young-hee had to leave Jung-min, who died in her arms.

Back then, how many girls had to leave their dead friends behind and move on?

N: Imperial Japan lost the war, and Kim Bok-dong barely escaped death. Thinking about her stolen youth, she feels resentful and angry.

Eight long years. Back then, I even lost track of the time. After the war was over, I was detained at the U.S. militarys internment camp in Singapore. They found out the women there, including me, were Koreans. So, we were told to wait for a ship to come. The ship for refugees finally came and some 3,000 people boarded it. Only then did I realize that I was already 22 years old.



N: With other victims, Yu Hee-nam also got on the ship bound for Korea. But she couldnt bring herself to return home.



Of course I had my family back home. But I couldnt return. I was deeply ashamed. We, women, have traditionally had many things to cherish. I just lived, wandering from place to place. Who could ever say such a shameful thing? I was too embarrassed to go back home.



N: Some girls chose to take their own lives, with their hometowns only a short distance away, as they found it utterly disgraceful to return home with their soiled body.



Needless to say, the women desperately wanted to go home. But having gone through the awful experience, they were too ashamed to face their family. Also, they thought they would put their family to disgrace. For these reasons, many of them chose not to return home.

I will tell you a story. On the refugee ship, a girl heard someone shouting, Were almost there! I see Korean mountains over there. The girl came out to the deck and saw her hometown, Busan, from a distance. But her joy didnt last long. She murmured how she could see her parents with her dirty body. With these words, she jumped into the sea from the deck.



N: They returned home, home to a place they had missed so much even in their dreams. However, the hometowns they had cherished in childhood were gone. Lee Yong-soo recalls that only her twin brothers, who she used to carry on her back, remained alive.



I learned that my younger siblings and my parents had all died. Only my twin brothers were alive.



N: Kim Bok-dongs mother was able to see her beloved daughter again for the first time in eight years. At first, she wouldnt believe what her daughter said. She just couldnt understand how on earth that kind of thing could happen.



My parents told me to get married, but that was simply impossible. When I told my mom about my story, she said I was telling a lie. She wouldnt believe me. She said there was no place like that in the entire world. She scolded me for saying silly things because I didnt want to get married. When she saw my miserable body, she was dumbfounded. My mother lamented bitterly, thinking she could not face her ancestors after death as she failed to manage her child properly. She couldnt tell anyone, and she began to suffer from anger and depression.



N: Kim felt guilty about returning alive alone. She was too often haunted by her appalling life at comfort stations. Every night, Kim was oppressed by a nightmare.



The girls who had been sent to the frontlines were all dead, except me. After I returned home, my mom gave me all sorts of medicines for one year to cure me. I was often startled while asleep. When I woke up, I wondered for a moment how and why I was there. Even if I stayed and slept in my own house, I felt as if it had been a strange place. For me, it was a near miracle just to stay alive.



They are totally unaware of the suffering victims. Japan claims that such women never existed. It is simply too ridiculous for words. I wish I could vent my anger, even with words, even just once, before I die.



N: The elderly victims had been afraid of going out into the world. But they were able to take courage after Kim Hak-sun testified in 1991 that she was in fact a former comfort woman. She was the first comfort woman ever to go public with her story.



Living all alone, I used to spend time watching TV in the evening. One day, I happened to see people on TV saying they have no idea what comfort women are. A Japanese person even said there were no such women at all and it was Korean people who traded women. I was so heartbroken. Actually, I had always been thinking of speaking out on this matter some day. Upon hearing the absurd claims, I was struck dumb and I cried hard. It was extremely frustrating that people were so unaware of what had actually happened to us. Moreover, Japan blatantly says that it never took any girls and things like that never happened, although there still are surviving witnesses like me. I burst into tears. I was shocked and stunned. Thats why I decided to start this.



N: Kim was 16 years old when she was taken by the Japanese troops. It was not until she was 67 that she spoke up, breaking a 51-year-long silence. Kims testimony gave courage to other victims, who began to come forward. A reporting center for victims of Japans wartime sexual enslavement was set up on February 25, 1992. However, only 238 elderly women officially admitted that they were former comfort women. That was partly because many victims had already passed away. But for many others, it would be more painful to reveal their miserable past than to die. At first, Kim Bok-dong decided to pluck up courage and tell people the truth. But in reality, she could barely open her mouth.



I was tongue-tied at first. I had never stood up in front of people before, and moreover, I was truly ashamed to talk about my past. I didnt think I could make it in my sober senses. So I grabbed a drink. As I was feeling a little tipsy, I was able to talk. But tears rushed to my eyes at the same time.

I wondered why I should say things like that.



N: Yu Hee-nam says that she should have died back then, if she had known she would be treated like this.



As a Korean woman, I should have killed myself then. From childhood, we had been taught that a woman would not be treated as a decent human being if she failed to serve only one husband all her life in this country of courteous people. Even if the husband might act like a fool, the wife was supposed to serve him faithfully until she dies in her husbands house. If the wife returns to her own parents house or remarries another man, she was not even regarded as a human. At that time oh, I dont want to say any more It was just indescribable



N: After Kim Hak-suns testimony, other victims started to give similar testimonies one after another. Also, the Japanese governments documents supporting their testimonies were disclosed.



In July 1992, then-Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato said in a statement that there was no coercion in the comfort womens mobilization, although the Japanese military was involved in it.



In August the following year, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono announced a statement, in which he acknowledged the forcible drafting of comfort women as sexual slaves to Japanese troops.



The Kono Statement said that the Japanese military was involved in the transfer of comfort women and the women were recruited against their will through coercion. But Japan still distorts the truth. The statement also said that the comfort women were mainly drafted by private recruiters in response to the request of the military. It sounds as if private recruiters had played the leading role in comfort womens mobilization. Citing this, Japanese government still does not recognize its legal responsibility.



N: Japan claims that it fulfilled its legal responsibility through the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty. Here is Ahn Shin-gwon, director of the House of Sharing.



The Tokyo government claims that all issues regarding its colonial rule were settled in 1965. However, the 1965 Korea-Japan Basic Treaty deals with property rights of Korea under colonial rule. It does not include the right to demand compensation for victims of war crimes against humanity committed by the Japanese military.



N: International organizations have released a series of reports indicating that the Korea-Japan Treaty failed to reflect legal compensation for Korean victims of sexual slavery.



Reports by Radhika Coomaraswamy, a former U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women, and another former U.N. special rapporteur Gay McDougall noted that the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty did not deal with the comfort women issue. In another report released by Amnesty International in 2005, it is stated that the 1965 treaty and other agreements of involved countries did not settle the comfort women issue. The report urged Japan to pay compensation to the victims.



N: However, Tokyo has erased the history of its sexual slavery of women during World War II in the textbooks, while extremists in Japan are calling the victims voluntary prostitutes. They are killing these girls twice.



N: Is the Japanese government simply waiting for all the elderly victims to die? A 72-year-old Japanese woman Kazuko Nagahama has been engaging in volunteer work at the House of Sharing for the last ten years. Her heart feels heavy when she sees the old ladies there, who are getting weaker and weaker.



Obviously, these women have become noticeably fragile. I can clearly see that. Ive seen five women here pass away in the last ten years. While pushing the elderly womens wheelchairs and looking at them from behind, I feel my heart is getting heavier.



N: Its uncertain how many more years the aging women can survive. Lee Yong-soo feels pressured, as she is also running out of time.

My mind is kind of urgent these days, as my elderly friends are dying one by one. I was so frustrated that I even said in the U.S. that I would live 200 years. I try hard not to get sick. I get up early in the morning, dying my hair or taking medicines. My life has been weary, filled with hardships and regrets.



N: On March 4, when a chilly wind was still blowing, the so-called Wednesday Rally was held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. The rally has been held every Wednesday since January 8, 1992. It was the 1,168th such gathering.



N: The demonstration has been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest rally on a single issue. It is also a sign that the comfort women issue has remained unsettled for such a long time. The victims had never missed the rally thus far. It is difficult for these old, weak halmonis() or grandmas to even walk. As soon as the rally begins, however, the light in their eyes changes and their voice rises higher.



N: The lines of the song say, Lets live like a hard rock, undaunted by despair. Kim and Lee are singing the song energetically. How can these 90-year-old women sing so powerfully?



I should win over Japan by all means before I die. Then, I can say something to other victims in heaven. If I fail to resolve this problem, and if they ask me what Ive done for all those years, I have nothing to say.



N: Lee says that she will live to be 200 years old so she can receive an official apology from Japan. Only then, she says she can die in peace and ease her guilty feeling about returning alive alone.

Sadly, numerous young girls met tragic, untimely deaths in foreign lands many years ago. Now, through his film, Director Cho hopes to take the spirits of the girls back home.



N: On a quiet summer afternoon in early June, the director shot the scene of a shamanistic ritual in front of a 400-year-old zelkova tree by a river in Yangsuri, east of Seoul. This scene is the highlight of the movie.



Veteran actress Son Sook performed the role of Young-hee, now an old woman who returned alive long ago. While filming the scene, Son said that she felt like she had finally paid her debt to the girls.



I think almost all women living in this age feel guilty for what the elderly victims had gone through. Were all indebted to them. But how can we pay the debt? For me, this was an opportunity to pay back, though only in a small way.



N: When the ritual for the spirits homecoming starts, a strong wind suddenly begins blowing as if the souls were responding to the exorcists chant. At this scene, actress Hwang Ha-seong, who played the role of the exorcist, was so startled that she almost cried.



The wind was blowing so violently. It made my hair stand on end. I felt like I was possessed by a mysterious spirit. My body was trembling, and this gave me goose bumps. I was close to tears.



N: A group of butterflies are flying around the zelkova tree. The butterfly is often compared to a spirit. Having this in mind, the director expressed the spirits of the girls in butterfliesbutterflies of peace symbolizing the elderly victims.



N: In a peaceful rural village, Jung-min returns home after playing at the fields. She jumps on the floor and enjoys a meal with her parents. This is the last scene of the film.



Even if it is only in the film, Director Cho hopes to bring the spirits of the girls back home and offer them a spoonful of warm, newly-cooked rice, at least in his movie.



N: The past that we have not lived through only remains in record. But when we face people who still have a memory about the past, history begins to come alive and becomes a reality. So does the history of the elderly victims of Japans wartime sexual slavery.



In the mid-1990s, Japanese journalist Doi Toshikuni captured the lives and deaths of six such victims on film for about two years. Now, he shares his opinion about the essence of the comfort women issue.



There are women who suffered damage. As a result, their entire lives were destroyed. This is the essence of the comfort women issue. Every single one of them was deprived of their dignity that would otherwise enable them to lead decent lives. And they have been troubled by the painful memories for all those years.



There lived an old Korean woman near Dongying, southern China. She grabbed our hands and wept. Unfortunately, she couldnt communicate with us because she forgot the Korean language. When we were with her, we sang Arirang. We gave it a try. Then, the woman, who couldnt speak Korean, also began to sing Arirang Three of us all cried.



N: Imperial Japans wartime sexual slavery during World War II completely destroyed the lives of countless young girls. The comfort women issue indisputably comprises the disturbing history of mankind. Well keep our fingers crossed that the spirits of the girls who died in foreign lands will return home and rest in eternal peace. N: That concludes Spirits Homecoming, the first part of our special program marking the 70th anniversary of Koreas liberation from Japanese colonial rule. Thank you for tuning in, and please join us again tomorrow for the second part of the program. Goodbye, everyone.
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Mar 8, 2016 | By Benedict

Researchers from the University of Toronto have used a 3D printer to develop a novel method of generating human tissue outside of the body. The AngioChip person-on-a-chip technique involves 3D printing tiny scaffolds which individual cells can grow on.

The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at U of T has been a busy place as of late. As part of an effort to develop a new drug-testing platform, a group of researchers from the department, led by Milica Radisic, a professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and the department of chemical engineering, developed AngioChip, a technology which could be used by pharmaceutical companies to test potential dangerous side effects of new drugs.

Although some bioprinting specialists such as Cyfuse Medical have denounced scaffold-based cell culture as inferior to other bioprinting methods, the technology behind AngioChip promises an new approach to the method. By 3D printing tiny intricate scaffolds on which individual cells can grow, the team of researchers at U of T has been able to produce cells and tissues that more closely resemble real human ones than do those grown in a petri dish. In the last few years, it has become possible to order cultures of human cells for testing, but theyre grown on a plate, a two-dimensional environment, Radisic said. They dont capture all the functional hallmarks of a real heart muscle, for example.

The AngioChip, on the other hand, functions in a more realistic way than petri dish-grown alternatives. Its a fully three-dimensional structure complete with internal blood vessels, Radisic said of the microchip-like scaffold. It behaves just like vasculature, and around it there is a lattice for others cells to attach and grow.

The 3D printed scaffold is made from POMaC, a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer. Each of the scaffolds thin layers is 3D printed, before being stamped with a pattern of channels 50-100 micrometers wide. The layers are then manually stacked on top of one another, with each layer bonded to the next with UV light. When the scaffold is fully assembled, it is bathed in a liquid of living cells, which attach to the inside and outside of the channels before growing as they would in a human body.

Previously, people could only do this using devices that squish the cells between sheets of silicone and glass, said Radisic. You needed several pumps and vacuum lines to run just one chip. Our system runs in a normal cell culture dish, and there are no pumps. We use pressure heads to perfuse media through the vasculature. The wells are open, so you can easily access the tissue.

The most remarkable aspect of AngioChip is its ability to not only create synthetic organ tissue, but to connect the blood vessels of two artificial organs. The platform can therefore be used to test the effect of drugs both on particular organs and on organ interaction. You could link a tumor and heart cells together to see which drugs destroy the tumor without harming the heart, Radisic explained.

Prof. Milica Radisic (above, UofT) and Boyang Zhang (Star)

The efficacy of the 3D printed AngioChip was demonstrated with a series of tests on rats. After the scaffold had been attached to a rat, the animals blood was able to pass freely through the AngioChip structure as though it were an organic part of the body. You could actually see the rats blood flowing through our implanted engineered network, said Boyang Zhang, a graduate student at U of T working with Radisic.

The researchers findings have been published in Nature Materials in the paper Biodegradable scaffold with built-in vasculature for organ-on-a-chip engineering and direct surgical anastomosis. Radisic and Zhang are now looking into ways of commercializing the 3D printed technology. Radisic plans to explore ways of automating the assembly of the AngioChip, whilst Zhang is currently focused on evaluating the chipsets lifespan within the body.

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Mar 8, 2016 | By Tess

Every year on March 8th, people from all over the world come together to celebrate International Womens Day. The day is an occasion to honor and recognize women from all walks of life who have made a positive impact on the world, no matter how big or small, and to keep showing that women, who are still struggling for equal rights around the world, are capable, innovative, and inspiring human beings.

In honor of International Womens Day, we have compiled a list of some women who have truly inspired us within the 3D printing industry, from scientists, to company founders, to makers and engineers, to designers. Despite the 3D printing industry being a male-dominated field, we are hoping to highlight some truly amazing 3D printing projects and companies made possible by women to not only recognize their achievements, but to inspire other women and young girls to start 3D printing.

Women in 3D Printing #1: Neri Oxman

It is not by chance that Israeli designer and architect Neri Oxman is at the top of our list of women in 3D printing as she has been responsible for some amazing advancements within the field of ecological architecture. Oxman, who is a professor at the MIT Media Lab, has been using 3D printing to usher in and introduce a new architectural philosophy that is inspired by nature and material ecology. Recently, at this years World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, Oxman even predicted that 3D printing would be responsible for a fourth industrial revolution not focused on exploitation and profit, but on humanity and ecological creation.

Women in 3D Printing #2: Jennifer A. Lewis

Dr. Jennifer A. Lewis, a professor at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, is also the co-founder of Voxel8, a startup that has begun to commercialize the 3D printing of functional materials, such as wires, embedded conductors, and batteries into the normal matrix materials of 3D printing. Lewis and her team of researchers have been responsible for making some big advancements in the field of multi-material 3D printing, having successfully 3D printed conductive inks, lightweight composites, lithium ion microbatteries, and embedded sensors in stretchable matrices. Lewis has also worked within the field of 4D printed structures, and has helped to develop quick changing multi-material printheads.

Women in 3D Printing #3: Grace Choi

Grace Choi, a graduate from Harvard Business School and the founder of the worlds first makeup 3D printer Mink, is another inspiring and successful female figure in the world of 3D printing. Her makeup 3D printer was first presented at Techcrunch Disrupt in 2014 and provoked much interest in both the maker community and mainstream news. Mink, which is capable of 3D printing custom colored makeup from colors selected by you on a desktop computer, even shocked the makeup industry through its capability to create any color on demand.

Women in 3D Printing #4: Caroline Walerud

25-year-old Caroline Walerud was recently added to Forbes renowned 30 under 30 for her innovative work developing 3D foot scanners and has also made it onto our list of inspiring women for her dedication to 3D scanning technologies and innovations. Walerud is the co-founder of Stockholm-based startup Volumental, which is using 3D scanning technologies to find the perfect fit for shoe-shoppers. Excitingly, the company recently made a deal with U.S. retailer Nordstrom to implement their 3D foot scanning system, and will soon branch out into their second phase of 3D facial scanning for opticians and eyewear brands.

Women in 3D Printing #5: Ann Marie Shillito

In 2007, contemporary designer/maker Ann Marie Shillito co-founded the Scotland-based 3D software development company Anarkik3D. Since then, Anarkik3D has been a useful platform for designers unaccustomed to using CAD technologies to work with 3D modeling. Created by and for designers, Shillitos company has incorporated touch and tactility into 3D modeling through their signature haptic 3D mouse, making for a unique and innovative 3D design experience.

Women in 3D Printing #6: Nora Toure

Not only has Nora Toure had a successful career in the 3D printing industry working as Sales Manager for online 3D printing service Sculpteo, but she is also the founder of Women in 3D Printing, a progressive blog that highlights influential women within the 3D printing world all year round. Along with a team of four other women, Toure conducts interviews and writes profiles on women within the industry, effectively showcasing how crucial women are to the continued development of 3D printing technologies.

Women in 3D Printing #7: Kerry Hogarth

In 2012, Kerry Hogarth founded 3D Printshow with the aim of showcasing innovation within the 3D printing world and introducing the technology to other industries, such as the healthcare, aerospace, and automotive industries. Since its founding, Hogarths 3D Printshow has been recognized as the worlds first fully interactive 3D printing show and has gone on to host some of the most renowned events in the 3D printing world by bringing together the most innovative names of the industry with individual creatives using 3D printing. Though Hogarth sold part of her company to Tarsus PLC in 2014, she continues to work on spreading the potentials of 3D printing with 3D Printshow.

Women in 3D Printing #8: Cherie Stamm

Cherie Stamm, another influential woman in 3D printing, is the co-founder of Norwegian 3D software development company Uformia. With a background in IT technologies and digital processes, with a special interest in 3D modeling and printing, Stamm and her team have successfully created a volumetric 3D modeling software that is built to prioritize parametric 3D fabrication instead of just visualization. Not only that, Stamm has built her company around a humanitarian and ecological ethos focused on community development and open source innovation.

Women in 3D Printing #9: Stefanie Mueller

Stefanie Mueller was sure to make it onto our list of influential women in the industry as we have followed her various and impressive engineering projects over the past two years. Mueller is a PhD student in the Human Computer Interaction Group at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute in Germany, and has helped to create a number of notable projects in her time there, such at the LaserStacker, a 3D laser cutter; the Protopiper, a sort of large-scale 3D printing pen; a 3D patching system; Scotty, a conceptual teleporting 3D printer; Platener, a 3D software that uses both 3D printing and laser cutting; WirePrint, a generative software that speeds up prototyping; and faBrickator, a software that legofies your design.

Women in 3D Printing #10: Jessica Rosenkrantz

Jessica Rosenkrantz is one half of generative design studio Nervous System, which you may know from its amazing Kinematic designs. Along with her partner Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, Rosenkrantz has been integrating new technologies such as 3D printing, generative systems, and webGL, into unconventional design projects since 2007. Nervous Systems 3D printed kinematic flowing dress design, as well as their more recent 3D printed petal dress have provided a unique model for 3D printing a whole garment on a relatively small 3D printer. Rosenkrantz, a graduate in architecture and biology from MIT never ceases to inspire us through her uncanny ability to combine generative design, innovative materials, and 3D printing to create stunning works of fashion art. In fact, Nervous Systems 3D printed dresses are even featured at renowned art museums such as the MoMA and the MFA Boston.

Women in 3D Printing #11: Iris van Herpen

Of course we had to include Iris van Herpen on our list of innovative women within the field of 3D printing as the Dutch designer was the first to ever send a 3D printed fashion piece down the runway in 2010. Since the debut of that first piece, Crystallization, van Herpen has forged on into the world of 3D printed fashions making some of the most conceptually intricate and physically beautiful 3D printed garments weve ever seen. A pioneer of 3D printed fashion, van Herpen has been an inspiration to innovative fashion designers everywhere.

Women in 3D Printing #12: Danit Peleg

Israeli fashion designer Danit Peleg has also been a big inspiration to us at 3Ders, and we are sure many other designers and makers out there can say the same. The fashion design student made a name for herself last year when she designed and created an entire ready-to-wear collection on a desktop 3D printer. Not only did the additively manufactured garments turn out stunningly, but the collection was Pelegs first 3D printed endeavour. Now, after the success of her stylish and accessible 3D printed garments, Peleg works as a technology advisor for designers and fashion houses.

Women in 3D Printing #13: Megumi Igarashi

Sometimes the most innovative and inspirational people are those who cause some controversy, which is exactly the case with Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi who 3D scanned and printed a sculpture of her own vagina. While the piece may have provoked interest almost anywhere, Igarashi was actually arrested for her 3D printed vagina as Japanese officials claimed she was illegally spreading obscenity. Now, two years after her initial arrest, Igarashi is still entangled in court processes and is being fined thousands of dollars, but has continued to create her progressive 3D printed artworks despite this. You go Rokude Nashiko! (Japanese for bad girl).

Women in 3D Printing #14: Anouk Wipprecht

Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht is one of the leading forces in the field of Fashion-Tech, which seeks to combine fashion with engineering, science, and interactive user experience. The designer has not only forged an impressive path into the future of smart wearables, but has consistently used 3D printing technologies to do so. From her 3D printed Smoke Dress which was unveiled in 2013, to her 3D printed robotic Spider Dress, Anouk Wipprecht has truly brought fashion into the future with wearables that not only look amazing, but respond and react to their wearer and their environment.

Women in 3D Printing #15: Ping Fu

Ping Fu is the definition of a powerful tech entrepreneur, and is definitely one of the most inspirational women in 3D printing today. Fu is the co-founder of 3D software development company Geomagic, where she served as CEO until the company was acquired by 3D Systems in 2013. At that point, Fu rose to the occasion, and became Vice President and Chief Entrepreneur Officer at 3D Systems, one of the leading 3D printer companies in the world. Fu has been honored with several awards, including being named Inc. magazine's 2005 "Entrepreneur of the Year."

What's even more incredible, is that Ping Fu's massive influence in the tech world goes beyond 3D printing: In the early 1990s, while working at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), she helped initiate Mosaican early web browser that helped popularize the World Wide Web as we know it today.

Women in 3D Printing #16: Cathy Lewis

3D Systems is one of the leading industrial 3D printer manufacturers in the world, thanks in large part to the business savvy of our next influential woman in 3D printing: Cathy Lewis. As Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Lewis is responsible for all marketing strategies and functions, including global branding, multi-channel marketing, and the positioning and marketing of the company's leadership and product services. Before joining 3D Systems, Lewis spent more than ten years at Xerox in a number of executive marketing and sales management positions. She then became CEO of Desktop Factory, a 3D printer startup that was acquired by 3D Systems in 2009. The rest, as they say, is history.

Women in 3D Printing #17: Alice Taylor

Alice Taylor is the inspirational woman behind the world's first customizable 3D printed doll, Makies. What makes Makies 3D printed dolls stand out is that, rather than promoting unhealthy body images or an unattainable sense of 'perfection,' Makies are user-customizable, and designed to look just their like one-of-a-kind owners. Going even further, Makies can be customized to represent a range of disabilities, from deafness to mobility issues to birthmarks, helping to erase the stigma that such differences should be hidden from view, and empowering girls of all ages to feel confident in their skin. MakieLab, of which Taylor is founder and CEO, secured a $1.4m seed investment in 2012, and is currently bringing its UK-based operation to America.

Women in 3D Printing #18: Marleen Vogelaar

Way back in 2007, Marleen Vogelaar, Peter Weijmarshausen and Robert Schouwenburg founded a small spin-off of Royal Philips Electronics, called Shapeways. Flash-forward almost a decade, and Shapeways is one of the leading 3D printing services and marketplaces worldwide. As COO/CFO of the company, Vogelaar was in charge of overseeing production both in New York City and the Netherlands, and although she resigned in 2014 to pursue new areas of work, her overarching vision as one of the lead founders had a lasting effect on Shapeways, and on the 3D printing industry as a whole.

Women in 3D Printing #19: Suz Somersall

Our last two influential women in 3D printing share a passion for promoting STEAM educationthat is, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics, incredibly important areas of study that, unfortunately, young girls are often discouraged from pursuing. Recently, we wrote about Suz Somersall and her project KiraKira, which is using 3D printing and jewelry design tutorials to get young girls interested in engineering and new technologies. Somersall, an industrial designer herself, saw the importance of shrinking the gender gap in such fields as engineering, and is working to inspire the next generation of women to become active makers and innovators.

Women in 3D printing #20: Barbara Hanna

Last but not least on our list of women making a difference in the world with 3D printing technology is Barbara Hanna, who has a PhD in Computer Vision, and is co-founder of both Neuromatters and 3D printing startup, Cyant. Hanna is passionate about fostering engagement, creativity, and real-world problem solving using both Arts and Technology. Lately, that passion has turned towards 3D printing technology. Cyant is a creative project that teaches children STEAM concepts by allowing them to turn their drawings into 3D printed objects. It's a fun and hands-on experience that combines creativity with the technological skills they'll need for the future.

Of course, this list of inspiring women in 3D printing is no where near exhaustive, as we come across talented female makers, designers, developers, and innovators on a nearly daily basis. For example, just last week, a team of women from the University of Illinois launched a crowdfunding campaign for their project MakerGirl, an initiative that is seeking to teach young girls the ins and outs of 3D modeling and 3D printing through a hands-on approach.

From the team here at 3Ders, we are wishing all women in 3D printing, and everyone reading a happy International Women's Day!

Editor's note: this article has been updated to include additional relevant information.

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3dPrintingEnthusiast wrote at 6/1/2016 11:40:38 PM:Many of these projects I have not heard of and am not likely to be affected by by (at least in the near future). What about Gina Hauge? She is the creator of OctoPrint. The software enables users to remotely control and monitor their 3d printers. It is open source and is a key component used in many hobbyist 3d printer setups. One of the key enablers of 3d printing is that is it now accessible to everyone (i.e. RepRap) and free software like OctoPrint make it even easier for people to use.Pamela Waterman wrote at 3/8/2016 11:35:10 PM:Thanks so much for compiling this list and sharing it with the world. I'm a woman engineer, and all these efforts blow me away. 3D printing ingenuity plus STEAM efforts translate into women reaching a critical mass in technology - fantastic.




Mar 8, 2016 | By Alec

Over the past few decades, surgical instruments have transformed dramatically into minimally invasive, flexible tools  each with their own purpose. But even those could soon become outdated, because a team of researchers from Brigham Young University in Utah are working on next generation tools that are so small that incisions heal on their own (rather than requiring sutures). Taking inspiration from origami and NASA space concepts for flat tools, these new surgical instruments are being pioneered with 3D printing prototyping.

Origami, of course, is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. You might wonder what that has to do with anything scientific at all, but NASA has actually used folding principles to design very efficient satellites and spacecraft that take up minimal space. BYU mechanical engineering professors Larry Howell and Spencer Magleby are specialists in applying those same folding principles to engineering, and are now combining that with medical tools and 3D printing in a collaboration with professor Brian Jensen and their students. Their first results are published in the journal Mechanical Sciences.

In a nutshell, they are seeking to develop surgical technology that will make recovery time after surgeries as quick as possible. The whole concept is to make smaller and smaller incisions, Howell explained on the BYU website. To that end, were creating devices that can be inserted into a tiny incision and then deployed inside the body to carry out a specific surgical function. A series of mechanisms related to that work have already been licensed to robotic surgery specialists Intuitive Surgical, makers of the da Vinci Surgical System.

But why origami? Why not just scale down existing tools? Well, because the industry has essentially reached a limit in terms of whats possible with downscaling. New concepts are needed, and BYUs team has been working on eliminating the need for pin joints and other parts, instead relying on the deflection inherent in origami folds to create motion. These small instruments will allow for a whole new range of surgeries to be performedhopefully one day manipulating things as small as nerves, Magleby said. The origami-inspired ideas really help us to see how to make things smaller and smaller and to make them simpler and simpler.

Whats more, they are also keenly aware of similarities to NASAs compact space equipment. Those who design spacecraft want their products to be small and compact because space is at a premium on a spacecraft, but once you get in space, they want those same products to be large, such as solar arrays or antennas, Magleby said. Theres a similar idea here: Wed like something to get quite small to go through the incision, but once its inside, wed like it to get much larger.

The first results are already quite impressive. One of the first instruments they produced is a robotic forceps that can pass through a hole just 3 mm in size  about the thickness of two pennies. Another project is the D-Core, a flat device that ca be inserted into incisions, where it expands into two rounded surfaces that roll on each other to mimic the behavior of spinal disks. These tools are first prototyped through 3D printing to test their viability, before being produced with other manufacturing options. 3D printing, they say, gives them a great deal of design flexibility and greatly speeds up the entire process. Could these be the surgical instruments of the future?

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M. Anthony Mills at The New Atlantis:

One of the controversies attending the publication of Laudato Si is about the claim that the encyclical is anti-modern, a description that has been alternatively a point of cautious praise and a barbed criticism. Matthew Schmitz and R.R. Reno of First Things magazine provide good examples of the two interpretations. Both argue in different ways that, for better or for worse  for Schmitz better, for Reno worse  the encyclical attacks the heart of modern social, political, and economic life, namely, the techno-economic nexus that draws science, technology, and capitalism together in a system of efficient economic production and material consumption. In so doing, the pontiff is said to break with his more conciliatory predecessors, allying himself with an older strain of Catholic orthodoxy that never came to terms with modernity.

This strain, exemplified by Pope Pius IXs 1864 Syllabus of Errors, holds that the economic self-interest and scientific rationalism characteristic of modernity are incompatible with the truths of the Gospel, which are rooted in spiritual poverty and caritas. Pope Francis allegedly casts his lot with the anti-moderns, while adding, in a nod to his namesake  and to the ecologists who look up to Saint Francis  that environmental degradation is among the important sins of the modern era. A return to Christian virtue, then, entails a return to pre-modern forms of economic production and social organization, whereby nature is tilled for the common good, not exploited for the few.

Descriptions of Laudato Si as anti-science or anti-progress are particularly striking, since so many self-described progressives, representatives of the scientific community, and environmentalists have warmly welcomed the recent encyclical in the hope that it would motivate action on climate change.

more here.


Development Update

Brisbane, Mar 8, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Central Petroleum Limited ( ASX:CTP ) ( CPTLF:OTCMKTS ) announce that the Northern Gas Pipeline ("NGP" - formerly called "NEGI") has been awarded to Jemena and the Final Investment Decision ("FID") has occurred. The NGP will be either a 12" or 14" line with an initial capacity of approximately 100 TJ/day (36.5 PJ p.a.) or 150 TJ/day (55 PJ p.a.). The NGP is expected to be able to flow gas in calendar year 2018.



The Northern Territory Power and Water Corporation has contracted to supply 30 TJ/day (11.4PJ p.a.) for transportation through the NGP, leaving a minimum spare capacity of around 70 TJ/day (25 PJ p.a.) to be contracted prior to commissioning in 2018.



This allows the Amadeus Basin gas producers nearly two years in which to prove up and contract reserves with certainty in advance of the NGP completion. This means our pathway to market will be built independent of any actions by the Amadeus Basin producers, including Central Petroleum Limited ( ASX:CTP ) ("Company" or "Central").



Originally Central budgeted for a reserve upgrade programme which would have provided sufficient results by mid this year to enable NEGI to go FID. This target required relatively expensive external resources with the possibility of appraisal drilling at Mereenie by that time. The continued softening of the crude oil price over summer has had two impacts on this company:



1. 30% of our revenues are attributable to crude oil sales from Mereenie; and



2. the market sentiment towards even domestic gas producers remain weak.



With the NGP FID now taken Central intends to reorganise its development programme to more efficiently fund any appraisal drilling on the Stairway and P4 Formation at Mereenie and to wait until the Company has secured an economic pathway to market.



As a result the reserve upgrade programme will now be in three stages. Stage 1, which has been completed and awaiting certification, is the review of all existing data from Mereenie including nearly 60 wells already drilled and selected wire-line pressure and flow testing at Mereenie and the building and history matching of a static and dynamic model of the gas reservoir at Mereenie.



This has been completed at a cost of $4 million and has allowed us to go to market for long term gas supply contracts into the NT or the east coast. As new sales are secured, new funding capacity is made available for future reserve programme activity.



Subject to Mereenie JV approval, Stage 2 consists of refining and optimising of Stage 1, including possibly production testing. This should increase further the reserves available for contracting. In addition, production results at Dingo will be incorporated.



Stage 3 (again subject to JV approval) will consist of appraisal drilling and production testing on the Stairway Formation generally with a target of doubling the Stage 2 reserves at Mereenie. Successful completion of the Stage 3 reserves plus reserve upgrades at Palm Valley and Dingo would result in future sales to Central (including deliveries under existing contracts) of around 250 PJ.



By advancing our reserve upgrade programme in stages, to take advantage of the optionality resulting from the now committed NGP, we can substantially reduce the overall costs of the programme by utilising internal resources (as opposed to external). We can better tailor the timing of the programme to our financial advantage without affecting the timing of the actual cash flow from sales from 2018.



As a result of the above (combined with the fact that we are in advance of our permit obligations) the Company has decided to reallocate the resources of the exploration department to the reserve growth and development of Mereenie, Palm Valley and Dingo.



This decision has the consequence that the General Manager Exploration, Mr Mike Bucknill, has left the company.



The company wishes to acknowledge Mr Bucknill's contributions over the last two years.





About Central Petroleum Limited





Central Petroleum Limited ( ASX:CTP) is a well-established, and emerging ASX-listed Australian oil and gas producer. In our short history, Central has grown to become the largest onshore gas producer in the Northern Territory (NT), supplying industrial customers and senior gas distributors in NT and the wider Australian east coast market.

Central is positioned to become a significant domestic energy supplier, with exploration and development plans across 180,000 km2 of tenements in Queensland and the Northern Territory, including some of Australia's largest known onshore conventional gas prospects. Central has also completed an MoU with Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) to progress the proposed Amadeus to Moomba Gas Pipeline to a Final Investment Decision.

We are also seeking to develop the Range gas project, a new gas field located among proven CSG fields in the Surat Basin, Queensland with 135 PJ (net to Central) of development-pending 2C contingent resource.
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ACAs library of educational tools help members improve their business practices. ACA also holds the most popular industry conferences and offers credentialing for collectors, attorneys, and more. ACAs Training Zone subscription gives agencies access to almost all of our education for one low cost.
IMGCAP(1)]The following is a short story I distribute to my beginning undergraduate accounting students and those graduate students who are finishing their masters degrees. It is intended to stimulate their reading comprehension and ignite their critical thinking as to how numbers play such an important role in business as in life. It was influenced by a sermon a priest delivered many years ago at a service I once attended:

Many, many, many years ago, there lived in Egypt a very wise and wealthy man who had three sons. One day the wise man called his sons together to tell them how proud he was of each of them.

He also knew it was time to allocate his great wealth. He informed his sons that all he asked for in return for the riches they would inherit was that they always care for their mother. After allocating all of his other assets he was left to distribute his prized camels, of which there were 17. He decided to give half of his camels to his oldest son, a third to his middle son and a ninth to his youngest son. He further directed his sons, that should there ever be a dispute or a problem that they could not resolve, they should seek the advice of the towns counter.

A short time after making his wishes known to his sons, the wise and wealthy man died. After giving their father a funeral fit for a king, the sons began to take possession of the assets pursuant to their fathers directions. However, a problem arose. The wise man left 17 camels to his sons, with specific instructions on how they were to be distributed. Unfortunately for the sons, 17 was not easily divisible by two (a half), three (a third) or nine (a ninth). After fretting for days over their problem, they remembered what their father had told them about the towns counter.

The three sons went into the town to seek out the help of the counter. When they met with her they explained their dilemma and told her what their father had said. She immediately said there was no problem at all for there was a simple solution. She had one camel, which their father had given her as a gift a year earlier. She would give the camel to the three sons so they would now have 18 camels to allocate. Since 18 was easily divisible by two, three and nine the problem would be solved. The three sons agreed they could not take the camel from the counter. However, the counter insisted that it would be their fathers wish that they follow her instructions.

Upon arriving home with the eighteenth camel in tow, the three sons set out to allocate the camels, just as their father wished. The oldest son would get a half, i.e. nine, the middle a third, i.e. six, and the youngest a ninth, i.e. two. Then the sons realized what had happened. Nine plus six plus two equaled 17.

Their father had taught them a final lesson. All things are possible with numbers, if you know how to count.

By the way, the sons joyfully returned the counters camel.

Charles J. Pendola, CPA, ESQ, FHFMA, FACHE, CMC, CFE, CFF, CGMA, is director of Graduate Management Studies Programs at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, N.Y.
A group of mostly conservative public policy organizations have sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives asking them to oppose legislation that would require licensing of paid tax preparers.

The bill, known as the Tax Return Preparer Competency Act, was introduced last December by Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., and Pat Meehan, R-Pa. (see Congress Introduces New Bill to Regulate Tax Preparers). It would require professional tax preparers to undergo examinations, take annual continuing education classes and submit to a background check. The American Institute of CPAs lobbied against the bill soon after it was introduced (see AICPA Opposes Legislation to Regulate Tax Preparers).

Now a coalition of nonprofit organizations is banding together to oppose the bill. They include the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm that successfully represented a trio of independent tax preparers who sued the IRS in 2013 in the case of Loving v. IRS. A district court and later an appeals court invalidated the IRSs attempt to impose mandatory testing and continuing education for paid tax preparers, effectively ending the IRSs Registered Tax Return Preparer program. The courts ruled the IRS lacked the statutory authority to regulate tax preparers, leaving the matter up to Congress. The IRS has since introduced a voluntary program known as the Annual Filing Season Program.

The Institute for Justice and the other groups who signed the letter to Congress argue that the new legislation would kill jobs and increase costs to consumers. They estimate that upwards of 20 percent of tax preparers could go out of business as they grapple with the time and cost of complying with burdensome licensing requirements. At the same time, by imposing artificial barriers to entry, licensing would reduce competition in the tax preparation market, thereby increasing costs to consumers.

Granting the IRS the increased power to impose an occupational licensing scheme will destroy jobs, they wrote. Industry experts and analysts estimate that licensing will cause tens of thousands of independent tax preparersas much as 20 percent of the industryto close shop due to compliance costs, including lost time and out-of-pocket expenses. IRS licensing will thus only serve to protect large incumbents and licensed professionals (such as CPAs) from competition by erecting costly barriers to entry that will fall hardest on independent entrepreneurs.

Besides the Institute for Justice the coalition includes a number of conservative and libertarian groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, the Campaign for Liberty, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, the Jeffersonian Project, Less Government, the National Taxpayers Union, the R Street Institute, the Rio Grande Foundation, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and Tea Party Nation.

They argue that tax preparer conduct is already regulated by dozens of federal laws, and failure to comply with any of these laws or regulations results in serious penalties, including injunctions, fines of up to $100,000, and prison.
The death of 61-year-old Delaware hiker Hua Davis has both puzzled and saddened her friends in the hiking community.

Davis died of hypothermia Friday in frigid temperatures near the summit of MacNaughton Mountain, which is located about seven miles from the Adirondack Loj trailhead, where her car was found. The mountains peak is accessed via herd paths. It is considered the 47th High Peak because it is about 4,000 feet.

The hikers body was found at 4 p.m. Saturday by forest rangers on the mountains western slopes. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has not provided specific details about Davis death, but Essex County Coroner Frank Whitelaw said she was ill-prepared on this trip. He said Davis was wearing fleece pants and sneakers, despite the temperatures being well below freezing and the presence of deep snow at higher elevations. He said she was wearing a thin outer-shell jacket, two insulated vests, a wool sweater and fleece against her body.

Those would have been fine had she not gotten soaked, but they were soaked right through, Whitelaw said about her upper body clothing. She ended up going through really deep snow. I dont know if she was bushwhacking or what.  When you combine the temperature, being soaked and her body size, shes going to going to go hypothermic quickly.

Davis was about 5-foot, 2-inches tall and roughly 105 pounds, he said, noting she was a lean athletic woman.

Whitelaw said she had a camera with her and that the last photograph was date stamped at 5:12 p.m. Friday from the summit with the MacNaughton sign in the background.

She looked in good spirits, he said. She was happy and smiling. It was a selfie that she took.

The photograph indicates she had problems on the way down and wound up going through deep snow without snowshoes. Eventually she sat down against the base of a tree, where she went to sleep and had her vitals shut down due to the cold, he said.

Whitelaw didnt see what was in her backpack but was told there was nothing of value for an emergency or saving your own life. He said he was sharing this information to help others avoid getting into this situation.

On social media, some people have also expressed concern for the forest rangers involved with the search because they felt Davis wasnt prepared for the trip. Returning from the rescue operation, one ranger fell chest deep into freezing water and had to be evacuated. The ranger did recover apparently without suffering any health issues.

Michael Martin organizes hikes for D.C. Ultralight Backpacking and is the author of two Appalachian Mountain Club guidebooks, including Best Backpacking in the Mid-Atlantic. He said Davis was a club member, a friend, and he has gone on many backpacking trips with her. Martin said he was sometimes the person she contacted after trips to report her safe return. He said Davis was normally prepared and even spent an unexpected night at -15 degrees in the Seward Range last year in a bivy sack and sleeping bag.

Its a little puzzling, he said about her being unprepared. It sounds out of character honestly.

Martin did say he has been concerned about Davis going solo in the winter because that made trips much riskier. The D.C. Ultralight Backpacking group only advocates going light in the warmer months, he said, adding that in winter, members carry and use all the appropriate winter gear, including snowshoes.

As a group, we definitely put safety first, he said. Going out in the winter, you have to have the appropriate gear to do that.

Brian Horst, an Appalachian Trail through hiker, is a co-organizer of the group D.C. Ultralight Backpacking and hiked about once a month with Davis.

Horst said that in 2014, when Davis turned 60, she logged more than 1,000 miles of hiking. She followed that accomplishment by finishing the Adirondack Winter 46 in a single season. She has also hiked the 35 Catskill mountains above 3,500 feet in winter and was an Ultra Saranac Lake 6er, having summited them all in one day.

Even the most experienced among us were in awe of some of her accomplishments, Horst said.

An internet post on the Hudson Valley Hikers website shows that Davis finished the Catskill feat on January 31 of this year with that club. Davis was supposed to meet up with the Hudson Valley Hikers on Saturday to hike the Saranac 6. When she didnt show, they reported her missing, launching the search effort.

Richard Williams, a member of the Hudson Valley Hikers, went on that January 31 hike up Vly and Bearpen Mountains and said that Davis wore sneakers on that hike, too. Williams said hes been on about a half dozen hikes with Davis, all this winter, and she packed extremely light. He didnt think she was properly prepared for winter hiking when he was with her.

I saw her coming to some hikes with very little in her pack, he said. So the minute I heard something had went wrong with her, the first thing I figured that happened was she wasnt prepared. And it seems to be exactly what happened. I dont think she was very good bushwhacker by herself. I dont think she should have been out there by herself.

Williams said that Davis had a similar incident in October 2015 when she was solo hiking North Dome and Sherrill mountains in the Catskills. That day she got rained on and had to be helped out of the woods by fellow hikers after getting cold and possibly hypothermic. He also said Davis didnt have the navigational skills suitable for bushwhacking, and she used an iPhone instead of a map and compass when he was with her.

She was a very smart, very intelligent woman, very happy woman, he said. I thought she was wonderful. I loved her, but I have to say she put other people at risk, and she would still be here today if she did the right thing, but she didnt. Im very saddened by losing her.

Martin and Horst said that Davis will be widely missed in the hiking community. She was a member of many hiking clubs and had a great appreciation for the natural world, they said.

For such a small person, she had such a large presence, Horst said. There were so many groups that she was a part of and peoples lives that she touched. That huge exuberance and that love of life is something were all going to miss.

Martin said Davis was especially fond of photography and would often point out things she considered beautiful in the woods.

I dont think Ive met anyone who has lived more in the moment than her, he said.

In 2014, Davis was awarded the spirit award by the Freewalkers, a fitness adventure club. Davis said she came to the U.S. as an immigrant from China at the age of 42. I had no friends. My only daughter was in China. I had no job, no money, and no English.

Davis attended community college and eventually earned degrees in nursing and got a job as a nurse practitioner. While she was going to school, she worked as a house cleaner, gardener, babysitter, waitress, massage therapist and had several nursing assistant jobs. Anytime, I look back from where I came, the most important thing is not only what Ive achieved in my healthcare career, but also the friendship Ive shared with so many wonderful people I have met along the way. Ive learned that love and compassion are the riches that I am most proud of in my life.

One of the reasons she won the Freewalkers spirit award was for her charm, according to the organizations website. In a question-and-answer session on the website, she was asked if her background had anything to do with her approach to people.

According to my mother, I was born a genetically happy person, she said. On the day of 10/30/1996, I came to the U.S. from China. I was a first generation immigrant  someone looking for a better life, and opportunities for personal achievement. I came from a culture that lacked a basic standard of living. I am still amazed how much time I can spend on things that I like to do, without worry about making a basic living. So, free time may be more precious for me than others.

This post has been updated twice. First with comments from Essex County Coroner Frank Whitelaw and additional background on Hua Davis. The second updated included info from Richard Williams.



Photos by Karan Girdhani: Hiker Hua Davis, who died in the High Peaks over the weekend.


Providing critical support to the AOR

A team of nearly 40 Airmen at Al Udeid Air Base loads and off-loads thousands of pounds of cargo into aircraft almost daily.



The Airmen assigned to the 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadrons Ramp Services section are responsible for loading and unloading a wide variety of cargo including equipment, medical supplies, munitions and blood onto aircraft needed at bases across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.



In February, the team loaded more than 3,500 tons of cargo onto U.S. aircraft, including more than 1,000 tons of munitions valued at approximately $81 million.



Senior Airman Christian Molenhoff, an 8th EAMS aerial port expediter from Indianapolis, explained the loading process.



When we get to the plane, we conduct exterior and interior inspections looking for anything that may prevent us from loading or unloading the aircraft, Molenhoff said. We make sure the rails are operating properly and we review the load plan to ensure we dont need to change anything.



Molenhoff said after the inspection, the aircraft is prepped for loading depending on the cargo weight. Distribution of the weight and not overloading the aircraft are important, because they dont want the aircraft to tip during takeoff or while in flight.



He said safety is a primary concern.



Everything we do on the ground makes sure the aircraft operates safely. We kind of have lives in our hands when we load aircraft, because if anything slips out of place or a chain breaks and the cargo shifts that could alter the safety of flight, he said. Safety is our number one priority.



Another important priority is timeliness, according to Staff Sgt. Justin Bradford, an 8th EAMS load team chief from Loundon, Tennessee.



We are always under a deadline and meeting those deadlines can be quite a challenge, especially when we have to upload or download multiple planes, Bradford said. We do our best to ensure each aircraft is ready to go within an hour of takeoff.



Bradford said there have been times when his unit has had to load and offload several aircraft all within a few hours and this included some aircraft that required a quick turn.



Quick turn implies an aircraft lands, the cargo is quickly off-loaded and the aircraft is loaded with new cargo, so it can depart within approximately 90 minutes.



We are here to get the mission done, to get cargo from one location to another and thats very rewarding, Bradford said. Knowing we did our job means a lot to me, to know were out here loading and unloading cargo, supporting (aeromedical evacuation) missions  we send everything from munitions to medical supplies to help our fellow service members.



Everything thats in our load plans is being loaded and unloaded for a purpose, Bradford continued. To know Im helping people in need is very rewarding.



Master Sgt. Raymond Graves, the 8th EAMS NCO in charge of ramp services from Clover, South Carolina, said hes proud of his Airmen.



Theres no such thing as a typical day in ramp services, Graves said. We may support 18 missions today and 30 tomorrow, every day is different and my Airmen come together to get the mission done without complaint.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III discussed the State of the Air Force during a press conference at the Pentagon March 7.James acknowledged a lot has happened since the last State of the Air Force address in August 2015.In October, Russia launched its first airstrikes in Syria. In November, (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) terrorists attacked Paris again, as well as Lebanon, Mali, and here at home in San Bernadino. In January, China landed an aircraft on a newly built runway in the South China Sea  and then a few weeks ago, North Korea tested a nuclear weapon, she said.James added in Afghanistan, the Taliban, al-Qaida, ISIL and other anti-government groups, continue to conduct attacks, undermine security, and create challenges to the people and government of Afghanistan.Your Air Force has been extremely busy and extremely effective, James said. In the past year, coalition forces upped the ante against (ISIL), flying more than 55,000 sorties in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.However, the services persistent effort takes a toll on aircraft, readiness and Airmen. James said the services Airmen are high demand, low density, using one career field to highlight the strain on the force.In the maintenance arena, because we have aging platforms ... the maintenance needs are going up, James said. We have thousands of maintainers in the force, but we actually need more maintainers going forward.Welsh agreed, adding maintenance professionals are working hard and retention could be a challenge.With six fleets of airplanes now over 50 years old, 21 or so fleets over 25 years old, it just gets tougher to keep them flying and we see that all over the Air Force, he said.James said after 20 years of downsizing, the Air Force has focused on infusing resources into both the recruiting force and the technical training bases.When youre recruiting more and youre retaining more  that is how you grow. Thats the approach that were taking, James said. We hope to reach the 317,000 number on the active duty side by the end of this fiscal year.Welsh also spoke about remotely piloted aircraft training and crews, saying he expects the Air Force will train about 334 RPA pilots in fiscal year 2016, up from about 180 in past years.Modernizing aircraft, James said, will provide warfighters with enhanced capabilities.One example of the services effort to modernize is the B-21. James said in the case of the 21st century bomber the Air Force is leaning forward and trying to be more transparent.Weve given the bomber a designation, shown you an artists rendering, given a detailed explanation of the acquisition approach, and told you how well hold down costs, James said.James also announced that Airmen and families can now go online and submit their idea for naming the B-21 by clicking here As part of her remarks the secretary also shared the list of seven sub-contractors who will be working with Northrop Grumman in building the first bomber of the 21st century. The list includes: BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, Janicki Industries, Orbital ATK, Pratt and Whitney, Rockwell Collins, and Spirit Aerosystems.
Biden, wife visit troops in Southwest Asia

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, met with more than 1,000 service members assigned to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing and their coalition partners from five nations March 7 at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.



Brig. Gen. Daniel Orcutt, the 380th AEW commander, and 1st Lt. Karen, the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron officer in charge of the Sentry Aircraft Maintenance Unit, greeted Biden and the second lady on stage.



Jill Biden expressed her appreciation for the sacrifices made by each service member in attendance and their families back home during her opening remarks.



We are here for one simple reason and thats to say thank you to every single service member and their family, she said. On a daily basis each of you show the world what words like service, strength and sacrifice really mean.



Karen, a Wilmington, Delaware native, met Biden before he accepted the position of vice president, and introduced him following Jill Bidens remarks. Biden nominated Karen to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy almost a decade ago when he was senator for Delaware.



I want to thank Brig. Gen. Orcutt for welcoming me and my family here today, he said. I know your ops tempo out here is pretty high and you got better things to do than come see Jill and me, but we never pass up an opportunity wherever we are around the world to try and see our warriors.



During his remarks, he reminded the audience, comprised of members from all branches of the U.S. armed services, and coalition partners, how valuable they were to in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.



We are taking the fight to (ISIL) now, and pursuing all those who would do harm to America, Biden said. You are the instrument in a strategy to reclaim territory that they have taken and destroy their financial assets. We have to squeeze the heart of (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria so they cant continue to pump their poison into the region and the rest of the world.



Before closing, Biden stressed again his opinion of the men and women serving their country before taking time to shake hands and personally greet members of the audience.



Youre the finest generation of warriors the world has ever, ever known, he said. Thank you very, very, very much.



(Editors note: Last names were not included for some individuals due to safety and security reasons.)
Osan defenders practice opposing forces attack techniques

Security forces defenders charged full speed into exercise Beverly Midnight 16-01 during multiple opposing forces attacks March 7.



Beverly Midnight is one of many recurring exercises held at Osan Air Base allowing the defenders and augmentees to train year-round in the high operations environment.



More than 60 augmentees, including Army infantry personnel, traveled to Osan AB to participate in the exercise, creating a joint-service training opportunity for the defenders.



Practicing these attacks allows us to perfect our combat tactics in the event of a real-world incident, said Airman Devin Howard, a member of the 51st Security Forces Squadron. Practice makes perfect and exercises like this allows us to be more prepared for contingency operations.



With both strategic and tactical training, they are able to protect more than 10,000 U.S. troops and their families stationed at Osan AB.



The Army personnel assisted with small unit tactics helping Airmen on a day-to-day basis.



Army Staff Sgt. Romaine Wisdom, an infantryman with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Calvary Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, was one of 19 personnel embedded with the 51st SFS.



We implemented various maneuvers to make it harder for the Air Force personnel to attack, he said. Our communication is the key to our success with these training scenarios.



The tactical simulated attacks give defenders the opportunity to showcase their ability to position, employ and sustain forces.



The stress from the environment allows for a better training opportunity, said Tech. Sgt. Thomas Valenzuela, a 51st SFS standards and evaluations and wing inspection team member. It creates a livelier, realistic scenario helping our Airmen here prepare for real-world contingencies in the event of foreign aggression.
Army Rangers exercise close air support with F-35s

Although the Air Force separated from the Army in 1947, the two forces have a long history of working together to dominate the sky and ground in combat.



This tradition continues today with the 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment's recent visit to Eglin Air Force Base to conduct close air support exercises with a pair of F-35A Lightning II fighter jets. Soldiers of the ranger battalion are fire support specialists responsible for intelligence activities of the Army's field artillery team.



Two F-35As teamed up with the battalion to provide air support against simulated hostile targets in close proximity to the rangers. One of the capabilities of the F-35 is to provide support to ground forces, to include joint terminal attack controllers and joint fire observers.



"(This) was the first time these guys have worked with the F-35A," said Air Force Maj. Christopher Collins, a pilot in the 33rd Operations Support Squadron. "It was a great opportunity to share tactics and showcase some of the unique capabilities we have with this jet."



In a CAS mission, rangers are responsible for setting up and operating communications systems to encode and decode messages, assist in the preparation of fire support plans with target coordinates, operate laser range finders and target devices, and determine target locations using computers or manual calculations.



For the rangers, this exercise allowed them to familiarize themselves with the F-35A and how it can support ground troops in a future deployed environment.



After the exercise, Collins reiterated the importance of training in a joint environment to maximize the capabilities of the joint force.



"It really shouldn't matter which aircraft (or) branch of service is acting as the controlling party," Collins said. "The common guidelines of the joint doctrine allow us to operate seamlessly across a broad spectrum of different scenarios in the safest, most efficient manner."



The Soldiers said the exercise was successful because it allowed them to test the capabilities and limitations of the jet as a part of their mission set.



"The F-35 was designed to fight in a different environment, specifically an environment we could face if hostilities broke out in another portion of the world. Assuming we would be among the first there, this would be critical information," one of the rangers said. "Along with that, we learned what other assets and capabilities we would need to augment the F-35 on our current missions to meet our commander's intent."



As the F-35 progresses to initial operational capabilities, the aircraft and its Airmen continue train to execute suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses, air interdiction missions and basic close air support.
(This feature is part of the " Through Airmen's Eyes " series. These stories focus on individual Airmen, highlighting their Air Force story.)When Laura Perry first entered her office dressed as a woman, it was a colossal step in her yearslong quest for self-identity. It was time to show the world her true self.I came to work a different person, said Perry, a 60-year-old transgender civilian Airman who works as a social worker at Patrick Air Force Bases mental health clinic. I wasnt anxious about it. It was more of a thrill.Before that April 2012 decision, Laura was Leonard, a retired Air Force major with a wife and two daughters. But something was always missing from her life.Emotionally, I needed to have it done, Perry said of the gender reassignment surgery she got two years later. There hasnt been a day when Ive doubted myself since then.But the transition to womanhood resulted in a divorce, the worst part along Perrys journey.That was a huge, huge loss and Ill always love her, Perry said recently during an interview from her office. Ill always feel horrible that she got caught up in that with no fault of her own. She didnt sign on for this.In 1983, Perry joined the Air Force and would go on to serve 20 years. While deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1996, Perry was part of a mental health team that helped survivors of the Khobar Towers, a building housing Airmen that terrorists bombed, killing 19 people and injuring almost 500 others.That was my most rewarding assignment, she said of helping others. It was very real. You could see the rubble from the building.While Perry remained confident in her work as an Air Force officer, she struggled with her male body.In active duty, I was wearing womens underwear with my uniform for several years before I retired, she said. Occasionally, I even wore stockings.Its a part of who you are, she added. It wasnt anything about the uniform; I was just trying to find a sense of peace.The military has recently evolved as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement continues to gain ground.In June, Defense Secretary Ash Carter added sexual orientation to the list of non-discrimination categories that also includes race, religion, sex, and age. With this change, gay service members can now file an equal opportunity complaint if they feel theyre being discriminated against; however, it does not specifically address discrimination against transgender persons.A month later, Carter raised the discharge authority of involuntary separation for transgender military members to the Defense Department level.Transgender men and women in uniform have been there with us, even as they often had to serve in silence alongside their fellow comrades in arms, Carter said in his announcement. The Defense Department's current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions.The defense secretary also commissioned a working group in July to conduct a six-month review of the implications of transgender persons openly serving in the military. Results have not yet been released.At my direction, Carter said, the working group will start with the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified.Transgender federal workers are already protected from discrimination by the Civil Service Reform Act.If transgender military members will be able to serve openly, Perry stressed that educational outreach will be needed.Our Air Force is going to have to adjust to very visible overnight changes in peoples appearances, she said. I can tell you from experience when you first start going down this road that being misgendered is like a knife in the heart. Were so fragile at the beginning (of transition).Perry considers herself lucky for caring co-workers and friends in the Air Force while she changed her sex.I have enough friends in the civilian world who Ive seen struggle going through professional and personal transition. I almost felt guilty because it was so easy for me, she said of the support she received from Airmen.Her openness also convinced those in the militarys family advocacy community to ask her to speak at conferences and share how she faced her challenges.People have been amazingly supportive and attentive, coming up to me with questions afterward. Nobody was throwing anything, so that was good, she joked.One of her supervisors, Capt. Fei Zhang, the clinics director of psychological health, has been impressed by how Perry has handled such a bold transformation.I couldnt imagine having to go through what she did, Zhang said. Being that confident and having that much conviction in what she knew felt right, to take that step, I think, speaks volumes for her strength as a person.Perry, who volunteers as a military outreach coordinator with the Palm Center, a nonprofit transgender advocacy group, now hopes she can help others in similar situations find that confidence.She understands that lives are on the line -- an estimated 41 percent of transgender people attempt suicide, compared to 1.6 percent in the general population, according to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey.If being yourself and being accepted in the world is the goal, then always keep your eye on the prize, she said.But dont be discouraged, she said, when things dont go perfectly.Would I prefer to be born with a female body? Absolutely. But Id rather be female this way than male, she said. This is as good as it gets for me.
45th Space Wing successfully launches Falcon 9 SES-9

The 45th Space Wing supported the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the SES-9 communications satellite March 4 from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.



SES-9 was built by Boeing Satellite Systems and is designed to operate for 15 years in geosynchronous orbit. The satellite increases SES's global video capabilities in Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and is also designed to deliver reliable data connectivity across Asia while providing support to growing mobility communications needs across the Indian Ocean, according to an SES release.



A combined team of military, government civilians and contractors from across the 45th SW provided support to the mission, including weather forecasts, launch and range operations, security, safety and public affairs. The wing also provided its vast network of radar, telemetry, and communications instrumentation to facilitate a safe launch on the Eastern Range.



Col. Shawn Fairhurst, the 45th SW vice commander, who served as the launch decision authority for this mission, lauded the efforts of all those involved in making this launch a success.



"Congratulations to SpaceX and the entire team who ensured the success of this launch. We truly have a tremendous space team here on the space coast, and it's my honor to be a part of this mission supporting the commercial space industry," he said. "Assured access to space is a team sport and here on the Eastern Range, we continue to prove we are the 'world's premier gateway to space.'"
B-52s join French forces for close air support exercise

U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses joined French aircraft and ground troops from a dozen nations to kick off a close air support exercise in the Mediterranean March 7.



Serpentex, an annual French-led exercise, involves joint terminal attack controllers from 12 partner countries. Operating on the French island of Corsica, the JTACs work together to practice properly identifying targets and using that data to call in air strikes from nearby French and American aircraft.



"Serpentex is a great opportunity to have all the JTACs from coalition nations in one place, training together to increase interoperability and work on communication skills," said Maj. Sarah Fortin, the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron assistant director of operations. "It gives them a chance to train and get smart on what they have to do and what their capabilities are, so later on down the road when it counts, they can perform effectively and efficiently."



Serpentex differs from other joint-military exercises in the region as it concentrates solely on close air support. This critical capability puts the power of precise, concentrated air strikes in the hands of troops on the ground, who can call these strikes in to defend themselves against enemy attacks or to eliminate vital targets with lethal accuracy.



This is the first year B-52s have been invited to participate in the exercise, as the role of close air support has traditionally been filled by various fighter platforms. The Stratofortress is well-suited for this application, however, as it can loiter for extended periods and carries a wider range of munitions than any other aircraft in the U.S. inventory.



During the exercise, the B-52s joined with French fighters to support JTACs from several NATO nations, as well as those from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who are also participating this year. Training with a wide range of mission partners ensures a more comprehensive learning experience, Fortin explained.



"Working alongside our coalition partners out there will be a great experience for everybody," Fortin said. "Most of them haven't worked with bombers for these types of missions before. We have a longer duration and a lot wider turn radius than some of the fighters, so they're going to have to find a new pacing for calling us in for close air support. But I promise that bomber CAS is worth the wait."



The B-52s involved in Serpentex also participated in the Norwegian-led Cold Response 16, a large-scale NATO military training exercise in the Trndelag region of Norway involving 16,000 troops and comprising air, ground and maritime operations. The bombers will be participating in both exercises simultaneously for a short time as Cold Response winds down. Temporarily stationing the aircraft in Europe allowed for more sorties, shorter flight times, less fuel burned and more training hours.



"The ability to train bomber aircrews in different geographic combatant commands is essential to maintaining a strong, credible bomber force that enhances the security and stability of our allies and partners," said Lt. Col. Dennis Cummings, the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron commander. "Our ability to smoothly and effectively conduct these multinational missions is heavily indebted to the hospitality of Spain and fantastic support we are receiving from U.S. Air Forces (in) Europe."
AF announces Operation Colony Glacier casualty recovery

The Air Force announced on March 7 the names of two service members who have been recovered from a C-124 Globemaster II that was lost on Nov. 22, 1952.



Airmen 2nd Class Thomas Condon and Conrad Sprague have been recovered and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.



On Nov. 22, 1952, a C-124 crashed while en route to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, from McChord AFB, Washington. There were 11 crewmen and 41 passengers on board. Adverse weather conditions precluded immediate recovery attempts. In late November and early December 1952, search parties were unable to locate and recover any of the service members.



On June 9, 2012, an Alaska National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk crew spotted aircraft wreckage and debris while conducting a training mission over Colony Glacier, immediately west of Mount Gannett. Three days later, another Alaska National Guard team landed at the site to photograph the area and they found artifacts at the site that related to the wreckage of the C-124. Later that month, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and a joint task force team conducted a recovery operation at the site and recommended it continue to be monitored for possible future recovery operations.



In 2013, additional artifacts were visible and every summer since then, during a small window of opportunity, Alaskan Command and Alaska National Guard personnel have been supporting the joint effort of Operation Colony Glacier.



Medical examiners from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used testing done by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, along with other forensic evidence, in the identification of the service members. DNA testing continues to identify the remaining personnel. The crash site continues to be monitored for future possible recovery.



For more information, contact the Air Force public affairs at 703-695-0640. For service record specific information, contact the National Archives at 314-801-0816.
Nigeria: mysterious loss of a Penis

Man and his pigeon blamed

Motor bike Taxi drivers from Gwagwalada, a small locality close to Abuja in the middle of Nigeria, have gathered to protest against a client they accuse of using pigeons to steal penises.








WASHINGTON, March 8, 2016 -Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke again about the ravages of opioid abuse this morning, telling the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that a combination of poverty and isolation makes the problem especially difficult to address in rural communities.

In far too few communities, particularly in rural areas, we simply do not have the services, Vilsack said in a speech to the group in Washington. We dont have mental health clinics, we dont have behavioral health centers, he said, adding that more than three quarters of all the shortages of these types of facilities are in rural areas.

Eighty-five percent of the persistently poor counties are not urban, theyre not inner city  theyre rural, Vilsack said. In addition, rural Americans commit suicide at a rate twice that of their urban counterparts.

The former two-term governor of Iowa said the rural way of life  characterized by independence and isolation  can also help create addiction.

When you finally have the courage to confront your demons, theres no one there to help you, he said.

In January, Vilsack was chosen by President Obama to lead an interagency effort to tackle heroin and opioid abuse. Prescriptions for painkillers have skyrocketed in recent years, and with it, heroin addiction, as prescription drug abusers turn to a cheaper substance for their high.

Vilsack said physicians need better training to determine when to prescribe pain-killers and other drugs. The Food and Drug Administration is working on guidelines for prescribing medication that it hopes to release this spring or summer.

Do you find the information on Agri-Pulse helpful? See even more ag and rural policy news when you sign up for a four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





The administration is working with pharmaceutical companies to reformulate opioids so they dont provide the euphoria that can get users addicted, and so the drugs cannot be crushed and then snorted.

On another subject, Vilsack said that USDAs Center for Nutrition Policy is currently developing nutrition guidelines for pregnant women and children up to 24 months of age.

He also said there will eventually be pressure to develop guidelines for people with different conditions or diseases, such as diabetes, because there is no normal person.

#30

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Who's Really Taking Christian Homes in Iraq?

An Iraqi policeman stands guard as people enter the St. Joseph Chaldean Church for an Easter Mass in Baghdad, March 31, 2013. ( REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen) BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units grouping is taking much of the heat for the seizure of Christians' properties in Baghdad and other provinces. But the organization is trying to counter the claims by tackling the problem itself. The Popular Mobilization Units grouping consists of Shiite armed factions formed after the Islamic State (IS) took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014. Among groups fighting with the Popular Mobilization Units are Sunni tribes operating as "Tribal Mobilization" as well as Christian organizations such as the Babylon Brigade. Hakem al-Zameli, head of the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee, has accused Christian members of the Popular Mobilization Units of appropriating the property. "A Christian individual claiming to be affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Units is seizing homes and blackmailing the owners," Zameli said in a Feb. 18 press conference. "The chief investigator was asked to follow up on this person to limit the seizure of the property of Christians or other minorities." Popular Mobilization Units spokesman Karim al-Nuri denied the charges. "These accusations are not true. We wish Zameli had accurate information before making [such] accusations," Nuri told Al-Monitor. "Weak souls have seized the homes and properties of Christians in Baghdad, and some of them have forged ownership documents with the help of some officials in state institutions." In response to the allegations, the Popular Mobilization Units helped launch a campaign in February to take back the property. "The Popular Mobilization Units, in collaboration with the Baghdad Operations Command, are participating in a campaign to recover all the Christians' usurped properties, in order to restore the state's authority, enforce the law and encourage Christians who have fled or emigrated to return to their homes," Nuri said. "After we complete the recovery of the seized Christian homes in Baghdad, we will launch a similar campaign in Basra, in a bid to end to the accusations." The problem reflects the security chaos prevailing in Iraq since 2003. This situation has pushed large numbers of Christians and other minorities, such as Sabians and Yazidis, who were threatened by extremist armed groups, to migrate. Nuri said he does not have statistics on the number of properties involved, but noted, "There are dozens of seized homes and the Popular Mobilization Units' leadership keeps receiving complaints from Christians ... for us to take the legal measures and recover their homes." Last year, the Iraqi Ministry of Justice sought to protect Christians' rights and property by restricting disposition procedures of buying and selling real estate. "Large numbers of Iraqi Christians are migrating as a result of the security situation in the country. In order to protect their property and titles from being manipulated or forged, Minister of Justice Haider al-Zameli instructed all real estate registration departments to take strict measures when it comes to real estate procedures for Christians," the ministry said in an Oct. 5 statement. "In case a document to sell a Christian property is presented, the seller himself should be present, or an immediate relative (husband, wife, children) or a secondary relative (brother, sister). In addition, an on-site inspection of the property is required to double-check the ownership." Applications to sell or acquire property by mail must include documents proving ownership. But the paper trail has failed, according to parliament member Yonadam Kanna, secretary-general of the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Kanna told London-based al-Hayat paper Feb. 6 that "mafias and militias" claiming to be affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Units and religious parties continue to forcibly seize Christian properties. Ryan al-Chaldeani, a member of the Christian adjudicating committee in the Popular Mobilization Units, told Al-Monitor that the Christian Movement in Iraq -- the political party that formed the armed Babylon Brigade -- has created a special office to receive complaints about seized property. "So far, the campaign to recover the Christians' property has been taking legal and peaceful steps," he said. "I can assure you that those who seized Christian homes and claimed to be members of the Popular Mobilization Units are liars and have nothing to do with us. There are people trying to distort the Popular Mobilization Units' image and accuse its members of seizing the property of citizens." Chaldeani, who leads the Babylon Brigade, pointed out, "The campaign to recover the properties will not be limited to evacuating the violators from the homes they have seized. We will arrest and prosecute them, regardless of their positions and their alleged affiliations with political parties." Seizing the property of minorities in Iraq, or even public property, is not unusual. Ordinary citizens seize state property and build shops or houses, while senior government officials confiscate mansions and real estate. Although there are no official statistics on the number of Christian properties that have been seized in Iraq, the Chaldean Patriarchate on Aug. 30 handed over to the Baghdad Operations Command 14 titles of Chaldean Christians whose homes had been seized within a few months. It is worth noting that the number of Christians who have migrated from Iraq since 2003 is estimated at more than 900,000.

Translated by Cynthia Milan.
New Assyrian Iraqi Militia Registers to Lobby in Washington

An Iraqi militia force and political party have registered to lobby political officials in Washington as part of a trend of using U.S. lobbying tools to bypass perceived obstacles in Baghdad. Both the Assyrian Democratic Movement -- a political party for ethnic Assyrians in Iraq -- and crowd-funded security forces called the Nineveh Plain Protection Units will be represented by the Nineveh Plain Defense Fund, a nascent nonprofit in Illinois. The defense fund "is supportive of policies that would provide financial, logistical, and training support directly to the Nineveh Plain Protection Units of Iraq," it says in a pair of federal filings released last week, "as well as policies that would provide financial, logistical, humanitarian, and economic development support directly to the indigenous ethnoreligious minorities of the Nineveh Plains of Iraq and their non-governmental organizations." The security forces are built around ranks of volunteers, who have rallied to defend the minority ethnic Christian group from the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The growth of the Nineveh Protection Units' ranks was spurred in part by a crowd-funding campaign in the U.S. and Europe, which sought to bolster Christians in the fight against ISIS. The group has also turned to Washington for support in the face of what critics have called bureaucratic intransigence in Baghdad. The strategy is similar to that of minority Sunni Muslims in Iraq, who have lobbied Washington for direct support after feeling shut out by the Shia-dominated central government. In a newsletter earlier this year, the Restore Nineveh Now Foundation, which has links to the Nineveh Protection Units, claimed to have won a major victory with the inclusion of a mention that Assyrians could be at risk from ISIS in annual defense policy legislation. "It is a huge step forward," the organization said. "Not only were Assyrians listed specifically, by name, but their security forces were singled out, identified as a must-have part of the defense of the Nineveh Plain."
Brussels Airport has revealed that it is hoping to lure back Ethiopian Cargos freighter services after the airline was was forced to move to Dutch hub Maastricht-Aachen in November because of traffic rights.

In its monthly traffic update, the Belgian airport revealed that thanks to the amendment of a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia, the federal government has created the possibility of Ethiopian Cargo moving services back to Brussels.

The airport is consulting with the company about a return, it said in a statement.

Last year, Ethiopian Cargos volumes helped the airport to record an increase in cargo demand.

Brussels was one of the fastest growing European Airports as it recorded a demand increase of 7.8% on 2014 levels to 489,000 tonnes.

However, towards the end of the year, the airline was forced to switch services to Maastricht-Aachen after it was not able to obtain the necessary traffic rights to enable it to continue its activities at Brussels Airport.

This resulted in full-freighter volumes dropping by 25% in the last two months of the year compared with 2014

The switch had an almost immediate effect on Brussels cargo volumes and in January the Belgian hub saw cargo demand decline by 2.4% year on year in January to 36,964 tons.

This was followed by a 1.8% decline in demand to 37,771 tons in February, although it was helped by the extra day during the month.

Thanks primarily to the leap day, belly cargo rose by 4.3% and the volume of integrator cargo rose by 2.9% in comparison with February last year, it said.

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March 8, 2016

The important post of heading the Assembly of Experts is now up for grabs, with the former assembly chair, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, having failed in his bid to be re-elected to the body Feb. 26. The new assembly leader will have an influential role in determining the next supreme leader, should the occasion arise, and in dictating national talking points.

Yazdi did not mince words in his last speech as a member and chairman of the assembly, delivered March 8. He warned that the nature of the Islamic Republic's governing system must be preserved and that one should be wary of the enemys smile, the latter a clear message to President Hassan Rouhani.

In the Islamic Republic system, members of the Assembly of Experts, in addition to determining the supreme leader, have to take care of the guardianship of the jurist ruling system so that it does not change, Yazdi said. He did not specify what change should be guarded against, but one constant concern has been defining the powers of the supreme leader.

In regard to Rouhanis attempts to reduce tensions with other countries, including the United States, Yazdi said, Do not become happy with the enemys smile. He referred to the United States as a known enemy that on a number of occasions has broken promises, cautioning Rouhani not to be fooled by their smiles.

Yazdi also said that he is happy he was not re-elected and is relieved to have responsibility lifted from his shoulders. He also denied media rumors that anyone has been pressured to resign in order to open up a space for him.

Members of the Assembly of Experts had elected Yazdi chairman in March 2015, selecting him over Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The position had been left vacant with the passing of Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi-Kani.

Rafsanjani and Rouhani, both of whom were re-elected to the assembly, were all smiles at Yazdi's final session. They had good reason to be happy. Their list swept 15 of the 16 assembly seats from Tehran. Who will emerge with the leadership, however, is far from certain.

Competition to chair the Assembly of Experts is a relatively new phenomenon. When the assembly was created in 1983, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini was selected to be chairman and held the position until 2007, when he died. According to the news website Asr-e Iran, Meshkini was respected among all the political factions and contested the chairmanship unopposed. After Meshkini, Rafsanjani beat out Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati to become chairman, serving in that position until 2011. Many believe that Rafsanjani lost the leadership position because of his soft stance against the 2009 protests.

The lists of candidates for the Assembly of Experts could not be divided into Reformists, moderates or conservatives. Many election lists included overlapping names, with some candidates appearing on multiple lists. Asr-e Iran, however, has broken down the new assembly, identifying two informal factions: one headed by the pragmatist Rafsanjani and the other led by the hard-line Jannati.

If Rafsanjani decides not to run for the chairmanship, it is possible that Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi or Ayatollah Mohammad Imami Kashani might run instead. On the other side, if Jannati, who is also head of the powerful Guardian Council, decides against running, it is possible that Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami or Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda will contest for the position. On March 8, Khatami said that there have thus far been no discussions on who might run for the chairmanship.

In parliamentary news, Nader Ghazipour, representing Urumia, continues to receive criticism for comments he made about women serving in parliament. On March 2, Ghazipour had said that the legislature was not a place for children, donkeys or women.  It is a place for men. He later apologized on his Telegram account, saying he did not mean to offend the women of his hometown. Fatemeh Rahbar, leader of the women's faction in parliament, said that a number of female legislators had filed a complaint against Ghazipour with the prosecutors office.
March 7, 2016

An Egyptian TV talk show host who slammed a sexual assault survivor, blaming her for provoking the attack by dressing immodestly, has been sentenced to one year in prison.

Reham Saeeds conviction is a milestone ruling in a country where sexual harassment and assault is so commonplace that it has been described by rights groups as endemic and where, for decades, survivors have been stigmatized and blamed for provoking the assaults. Rights activists believe the recent court decision is the result of social media pressure after thousands of activists launched a relentless online campaign using Arabic hashtags that translate to #dieReham and #prosecuteRehamSaeed.

The outcry also prompted an advertising boycott and the subsequent suspension of the show by the management of the privately owned al-Nahar network.

The outpouring of anger came after Somaya Tarek had appeared on Saeeds show to complain about an alleged sexual assault incident that had taken place in a Cairo mall in October and the polices failure to arrest the attacker. Rather than condemn the incident and call for the attacker to be held accountable, Saeed instead suggested that the woman herself was to blame, asking her, Do you think you were dressed appropriately?

Much to the shock and dismay of viewers, Saeed also showed photos of the woman (allegedly stolen from Tareks cellphone by Saeeds production team), including one of her in a bikini in an attempt to convince the public that the woman had brought trouble on herself because she had been wearing a sleeveless T-shirt.

Tareks decision to speak up about her ordeal marks a clear shift in womens attitudes since the 2011 uprising  a far cry from the pre-revolution days when, for decades, women had accepted harassment as part of their daily lives. Since the uprising five years ago, more women have broken their silence, coming forward to report harassment and sexual assault incidents and to demand justice from the perpetrators of such attacks. According to a 2013 UN survey, 99.3% of Egyptian women had reported being sexually harassed.

We are not sure whether there has actually been a surge in sexual assault incidents since the 2011 uprising or whether the rise is attributed to the fact that more women are reporting such incidents. It is probably a combination of both, said Mona Eltahawy, a feminist author and journalist who has written a book titled Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution. Eltahawy was assaulted by security forces during a protest in downtown Cairos Mohamed Mahmoud Street in November 2011 and was left with a broken arm and a dislocated wrist.

While sexual harassment has been rampant in Egypt for decades, there has been a surge in mob sexual assaults as well as a marked increase in the level of violence practiced against women since the 2011 uprising. Womens rights groups have said they documented more than 250 cases of mass rapes and mob sexual assaults in the country between November 2012 and January 2014, the majority of them during protest rallies in Cairos iconic Tahrir Square. The shocking revelation came in a joint statement released by 29 womens rights groups after a June 2014 rally to celebrate the inauguration of then newly elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. More than 27 complaints of mass rapes and mob sexual assaults were filed with the police in a single day of violence. In their statement, the rights groups also criticized the government for not doing enough to curb such attacks The assaults took place despite a heavy presence of volunteer rescue squads from nongovernmental organizations, such as Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment and Tahrir Bodyguard, that were patrolling the square.

Anti-harassment groups have mushroomed since the 2011 uprising because of the unparalleled scale of sexual assaults in the country. Those groups have stepped in to fill the vacuum left by the police, as the latter had often turned a blind eye to such crimes and have at times even been accused of harassing the sexual assault survivors who had gone to report the incidents.

Azza Kamel, the founder of I Saw Harassment, an Egyptian nonprofit organization fighting sexual harassment, believes the Tahrir assaults were deliberate, systematic and organized and were meant to keep women out of the public space.

We have seen such crimes repeated a number of times at protest rallies in the square during and after the 2011 uprising. Those were not isolated incidents, but were part of a continuing trend. Often, high-profile journalists and activists were targeted in those attacks, she noted.

It was not until a graphic video of a young woman being sexually assaulted in the square during the June 2014 rally had gone viral on social media that the government was compelled to finally take action.

Seven men were arrested in connection with the brutal assault. The uproar over the video also prompted Sisi to decree long-awaited legislation criminalizing sexual harassment. Those convicted under the law face up to five years in prison in addition to fines reaching up to 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($638).

The decree signaled there was political will to tackle the problem head on. However, a May 2015 report released by the International Federation for Human Rights shattered much of the optimism of rights advocates, dashing their hopes for quick progress. According to the report, security forces were themselves routinely using sexual harassment and abuse against political prisoners and detainees. While the report does not identify victims by name, it nonetheless paints a grim picture of widespread, systemic sexual violence against prisoners in the country.

We fought long and hard to have legislation criminalizing sexual harassment and assault, said Fatemah Khafagy, a gender expert and former ombudsman at the National Council for Women.

While the law has deterred many potential harassers, legislation is not enough. What Egypt really needs is a change in peoples attitudes, and that can only come through education and awareness campaigns.

But change is happening, albeit slowly. The women are no longer tolerating such crimes and are speaking out. Youths are also raising public awareness through their engagement in dozens of grass-roots initiatives fighting sexual harassment. What remains is for men to realize the extent of the damage and pain they inflict on women they harass and assault. But first and foremost, the state has to come to terms with the magnitude and gravity of the problem, admitting that these are not isolated cases but a cancer that has spread from police stations and prison camps to university campuses and public transport.
March 7, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Diaa Khalil of Gaza City started sending his son, who is a second-grader, to the Ibad al-Rahman private school in Gaza because he believes private schools are the best option in light of overcrowded classrooms in the government and in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools.

Khalil, a journalist from Gaza, told Al-Monitor he pays $1,200 annually for his sons education and he is comfortable with it, even though public schools charge parents only a token amount and UNRWA schools are free.

I believe I am making a good investment," he explained. "I am buying comfort for my son and making sure he will love school and refuse to move to a different one. I enrolled him in a private school because I dont believe education in UNRWA schools is useful at this time, especially with the high level of classroom occupancy.

"In fact, in private schools, there are 14 students in each classroom, while in public and UNRWA schools, this number can reach 50 students per class. I wanted him to be in a privileged school with few students in the classroom, where he will receive great attention from the teachers and the administration.

Khalil believes private schools are registering a high turnout in the Gaza Strip because of the quality of education and the administrators' attention to details such as extracurricular activities.

The Islamic al-Naser Model Private School was one of the first private schools in the Gaza Strip. It was established in 1962 under an Egyptian administration but closed in 1967.

The school was closed when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, Mohammed al-Alami, the school's director and chairman, told Al-Monitor. It was reopened in 1976 by my grandfather, Ragheb al-Alami, who managed the Islamic endowment in Gaza and concluded a number of charitable projects, including this school and a hospital. Alami said the school, which accommodates students from kindergarten to high school, is a charity school. This means that when the schools balance sheet registers a loss, the board of trustees decides whether to continue working or shut down the school. All profits shall be allocated to the endowment institution sponsoring the school, to allow it to promote and develop its projects.

In the 2015-16 academic year, the school registered 1,480 students, compared with around 1,420 in 2014-15, according to Alami.

Some parents who transfer their children from government and UNRWA schools to private schools believe their children will receive a better education," he said. "For example, we teach English and French, in addition to the Arabic mother tongue, not to mention extracurricular field training activities.

The school, which sits on more than 18 dunams (about 4.5 acres) of land, covers its expenses through yearly tuition fees of $330 to $590.

We are a charitable institution, and thus our policy is not to increase the fees, which must be reasonable and affordable," Alami said.

In 1976, there was only one other private school in the Gaza Strip, and it closed. But today there are many more and their number is rising. The fast increase in the number of private schools indicates a trend among citizens in the Gaza Strip to shift toward private education, Alami said.

Hussein al-Aili, director of the Special Education Department at the Ministry of Education in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, There are so far 53 private schools in the Gaza Strip, and a new school will be opened during the next academic year. He said a significant increase coincided with the 1994 advent of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip.

Aili said average annual fees for the 18,200 private-school students in the Gaza Strip range between 2,000 and 2,500 shekels (around $511 to $640). "International schools, such as the American International School in Gaza, apply annual fees of more than $2,000 [per academic year], and there is a segment of the population in the Gaza Strip that believes these schools are appropriate for their children, he added.
March 7, 2016

BAGHDAD  Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report Jan. 31 about the abduction and murder of dozens of Sunnis living in a town in the center of Iraq. Members of [Shiite] militias, who the Iraqi government has included among its state forces, abducted and killed scores of Sunni residents in a central Iraq town and demolished Sunni homes, stores, and mosques following January 11, 2016 bombings claimed by the extremist group Islamic State [IS], the report read.

Deputy Middle East Director at HRW Joe Stork was quoted in the report as saying, Again civilians are paying the price for Iraqs failure to rein in the out-of-control militias. Countries that support Iraqi security forces and the Popular Mobilization [Units] should insist that Baghdad bring an end to this deadly abuse.

Saad al-Hadithi, spokesman for the information bureau of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, told Al-Monitor, The report reflects a conflict or civil war, but the truth is not so. There are terrorist gangs that have targeted all Iraqis in Diyala province to spark strife that would end in civil war. We should stop them, unveil their crimes and show the unity of Iraqis.

In its annual report on the situation of human rights in the world in 2015, HRW wrote, Iraqi security forces and pro-government militias committed possible war crimes during 2015 in their fight against the extremist group Islamic State  by unlawfully demolishing buildings in recaptured areas and forcibly disappearing residents.

HRW added, Mostly [Shiite] militias fighting [IS] with the support of the Iraqi government, such as the Badr Brigades, League of the Righteous, and Hezbollah Brigades, carried out widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, in particular by demolishing homes and shops in recaptured Sunni areas.

National Coalition member of parliament Ahmed al-Asadi, who is Shiite and the spokesman for the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units that is considered part of the Iraqi state, criticized the HRW report, which claimed that the Iraqi security forces and the Popular Mobilization Units committed war crimes.

Asadi said, The information in the HRW report is erroneous and aims at tarnishing the victories of these factions and acts hypocritically by accusing the Popular Mobilization Units and avoiding speaking about IS violations.

The successive Iraqi governments after 2003 have not been satisfied with the reports issued by international human rights organizations, especially those shedding light on violations carried out by Iraqi governments or their affiliated militias. This has resulted in a state of ongoing dissatisfaction with those organizations.

Another report issued by the United Nations on Feb. 23, 2015, documented serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross abuses of human rights perpetrated over a three-month period by [IS]. These include killings of civilians, abductions, rapes, slavery and trafficking of women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction of places of religious significance, looting and the denial of fundamental freedoms.

In light of the atrocities committed by IS, namely burning civilians alive, HRW issued in September 2015 a report titled Ruinous Aftermath on violations by pro-government militias in the city of Tikrit in Iraqs Salahuddin province.

Hadithi said in this context, Most of the regions governments are not on good terms with international human rights organizations. We, in Iraq, have found that some of the international reports were based on information from unreliable sources.

He added, Iraq calls on those organizations to base their reports on information from reliable sources that are familiar with the current developments, and to diversify their sources to make sure the information is accurate. It is preferable to have supervisors visit the scene more often and get information directly in the field.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, told Al-Monitor, It is common that governments condemn or deny HRW reports on the situation of human rights in any country. Thus we are not surprised by the Iraqi government denying the facts and evidences in our reports.

She said, It is difficult for the governments to accept criticism, especially when the violations committed by the government against its citizens are documented, and specifically in times of conflicts or wars. This makes the government more prone to danger. However, we are on good terms with several officials in the Iraqi government and we find them more open to discussion than other officials in other governments in the region. I do not believe they neglect our reports on purpose. We are grateful for the many positive comments made by Abadi, as well as his commitment to curb the abuses committed by militias, investigate and punish those responsible for such abuses, and we hope he will abide by this commitment.

The same has happened with the semi-independent Kurdistan Regional Government. On Jan. 20, Amnesty International issued a report, stating, Peshmerga forces from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Kurdish militias in northern Iraq have bulldozed, blown up and burned down thousands of homes in an apparent effort to uproot Arab communities.

A few hours after the report was issued, Dindar Zebari, chairman of the High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports in the KRG, said, The claims of [Amnesty International] regarding the peshmerga in IS-liberated areas are false accusations, bias, and they neglect the peshmergas sacrifices as thousands of martyrs were killed and wounded to liberate the citizens of areas seized by IS.

In this regard, Shereen Mohamed Reda, a member of Iraqs parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, told Al-Monitor, Iraqi officials need to thank international and local human rights organizations, because they alert them of the violations they are making or that are made by parties that are not under their authority. They also need to build positive relations with them.

Reda suggested that the Iraqi government form teams and special committees to follow up on the information provided in the international and local human rights organizations reports, and carry out field visits to places where violations occurred. This way it will be taking advantage rather than be harmed by those reports, thus revealing violations without any efforts.

Ziyad al-Ajili, executive director of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory in Iraq, told Al-Monitor, Countries in the Middle East  especially those under totalitarian regimes  have always rejected human rights reports, using stylistic discourse rather than evidence. This is the situation, although these organizations refrain from saying anything without having any evidence. Thus the denial of these reports by the Middle East and Arab governments is irrefutable evidence on their involvement in human rights violations.

He added, Those running the Iraqi state think in a totalitarian way, and this is why they reject reports that reveal human rights violations  although the ruling political elite used to take advantage of international organizations, when they were against the Saddam Hussein regime. This is where human rights organizations condemned the dictatorship of Saddams regime. Unfortunately this elite has started to look like Saddam in everything they do.

The Iraqi government continues to deny and criticize international and human rights reports on the flagrant human rights violations in Iraq today  whether they are caused by the government itself or groups affiliated with influential figures in the Iraqi state, such as militias close to political leaders. This is true particularly since some do not want their crimes to be labeled as violations.

The human rights situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, especially after IS seized Mosul on June 10, 2014, and displaced and killed minorities and all those violating its orders, thereby exacerbating human rights violations in the country and causing widespread reprisals and chaos.
March 7, 2016

On March 6, at his first press conference since the Feb. 26 Assembly of Experts and parliamentary elections, President Hassan Rouhani thanked all the people who called on Iranians to vote. One of the most effective calls to vote was by former President Mohammad Khatami, who had made a video message asking Iranians to vote for the Reformist list. His I repeat moment in the video was by far the most viral and popular meme on social media and social messaging services ahead of the elections.

Given Rouhanis acknowledgement of those who asked Iranians to vote, an Iranian journalist with Reformist Shargh Daily asked about the media ban on Khatami, who has been accused by some officials as being one of the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests.

There is no resolution of media prohibition on Khatami, Rouhani responded. At no time and at no period was this issue present. I saw this with the consideration of when I was at the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). Rouhani was secretary of the SNSC from 1989 to 2007 and served as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneis representative to the SNSC from 1989 to 2013.

Rouhani continued, I asked the secretariat of the SNSC, and they said there is no such resolution. But even if there was a resolution, it would be illegal and the secretariat has no right. He said that linking a media ban to the SNSC is more of a joke than a serious issue.

Despite Rouhanis denial, Irans judiciary has a different position on the matter. In December 2015, the spokesman for Irans judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, said, While the SNSC does not directly have a resolution on the media ban on Khatami, the issue has been presented. Since Rouhani is the head of the SNSC, any resolution for implementation, such as a media ban, would have to pass through Rouhani.

Regardless of the confusion, Iranian media has had a de facto media ban on the former president. An article by Raja News on the topic covered Khatamis face with red lines. Some media have even attempted to mock the media ban. Tir Press once addressed Khatami as the president before [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and after [Ali Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani in a headline. Both pictures of Khatami in the story were conspicuously pixelated.

Rouhani has not been deterred and has continued to show his support for Khatami. While giving a speech March 7 in the city of Yazd, Khatamis hometown, Rouhani acknowledged the former president, referring to him as my dear brother as the audience erupted in cheers. Rouhani added that no one who has worked in service of the country can have his named silenced.

Most troubling about Khatamis media ban is that there also appears to be travel bans as of late. It was reported that security guards have prevented him from attending the wedding of Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavis daughter, and he was reportedly prevented from attending the commemoration for the anniversary of his sisters death.

Mehdi Mohammadi, former adviser to hard-line nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, wrote on his Telegram account that while Rouhani continues to use Khatamis name and will need him to issue a video in support of his presidency in 2017, the situation of the former president has become worse, despite the fact that Rouhani heads the SNSC. He added that Rouhani thinks he may return Khatami to the front pages of Iranian newspapers, but Khatami will never return to the real world of politics.
March 7, 2016

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah defiantly challenged the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) official declaration of his group as a terrorist organization, saying Saudi Arabia is the real loser because it lacks the backing of many Arab countries.

On March 6, in his first response to the GCC's pronouncement March 2, Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah doubled down on his criticism of Saudi Arabia, indicating he is undeterred.

His reaction, however, may not necessarily trigger tension in Lebanon.

Speaking via video from Ansar, Lebanon, Nasrallah implied that the reaction of the Arab people toward the GCC decision was a defeat for Riyadh.

The GCC consists of six monarchies: Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. However, many prominent figures from across the Arab world rejected the decision, citing Hezbollah's role in fighting Israeli occupation and liberating Lebanese territory. Those figures included the leader of the Ennahda Islamic movement in Tunisia, Rachid Ghannouchi, and the founder of the Popular Current in Egypt, Hamdeen Sabahi.

Nasrallah also noted that there was no consensus on the topic at the March 2 meeting in Tunisia of the Arab interior ministers. When that meeting ended with an official statement designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, both Lebanon and Iraq objected and Algeria dissociated itself. Tunisia's minister signed the statement, but the country's president later rejected the terrorism label.

Nasrallah seems to be focusing on Tunisia to help emphasize that Riyadh does not speak on behalf of the predominantly Sunni Arab states.

The Hezbollah leader said Saudi Arabia is failing in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain and appeared to mock Riyadh. I understand the Saudi anger, he said. When one fails, he becomes angry  the least he could do is get angry.

A source close to Hezbollah who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity said Nasrallahs statements reflect a form of psychological warfare, similar to the method employed against Israel, by highlighting Hezbollahs strengths and Saudi Arabias weaknesses.

Prior to the GCC designation, Saudi Arabia called off a $4 billion military aid deal with the Lebanese army on Feb. 19, followed by a warning to its citizens Feb. 25 not to travel to Lebanon.

According to Riad Kahwaji, CEO of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA), Saudi Arabia will work on getting the Arab League to adopt the same [terrorist] designation during the upcoming summit to be held in Mauritania on April 7. He further told Al-Monitor that Riyadh may work on a similar measure to be adopted at the United Nations.

Hezbollah is already considered a terrorist organization by the United States and many of its Western allies.

Riyadh views Hezbollah as a central player in the Iranian-led Shiite regional axis, which includes Iraq and Syria. Riyadh's sentiment against Hezbollah appears to reflect an escalation against this regional bloc as a whole, which became more evident as the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers went into effect Jan. 16.

Earlier in January, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran, which it said was in response to the attack by Iranian protesters on its embassy in Tehran. The real reason, however, may very well be related to Saudi Arabias frustration with the nuclear deal.

The latest measures toward Lebanon, the escalation toward Hezbollah and the significant Saudi setbacks in the proxy wars in Syria and Yemen all seem to reflect the latest round in the intensifying feud between Riyadh and the Iranian-led regional axis.

However, it is not clear what more Riyadh can do against Hezbollah, nor does Riyadh seem likely to succeed in isolating the movement in Lebanon.

A United Nations measure against Hezbollah may be difficult, as 40 UN countries contribute to UN Interim Forces in Lebanon peacekeeping troops, which number more than 12,000. These troops are deployed with the consent of Hezbollah, and a UN measure against the group could create serious complications, particularly in the pro-Hezbollah turf of south Lebanon.

Meanwhile, there appears to be a consensus that the no holds barred match between Hezbollah and Riyadh will not inflame tensions in Lebanon. The Hezbollah official said, The final decision on whether or not to escalate in Lebanon does not rest with the Saudis, but rather with the Americans, adding that the Americans do not want escalation in Lebanon.

According to INEGMA's Kahwaji, the pro-Saudi March 14 bloc in Lebanon not only has ties with Riyadh, but also with countries like the US and France who do not share with Saudi Arabia the exact same policy toward Lebanon.

The major US concern regarding Lebanon is to prevent the Islamic State (IS) from expanding there from Syria. On Jan. 22, the head of the US Central Command, Gen. Lloyd Austin, visited Lebanon and pledged support for the Lebanese army, which has been engaged in border clashes with militants.

What supports the notion that the West is against escalation in Lebanon is that Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, who objected to the terrorist designation of Hezbollah in Tunisia, is a member of the pro-Saudi Future Movement. In addition, the leader of the movement, Saad Hariri, announced March 2 that bilateral dialogue with Hezbollah will continue, despite the rising tensions between Riyadh and Hezbollah.

That, along with the US stance, increases the likelihood that Lebanon will be spared for now from the repercussions of the Hezbollah-Saudi spat.

While Saudi Arabia may view Lebanon as the latest arena in which to settle scores with the Iranian-led axis, the kingdom's Western allies appear keen to maintain Lebanon's stability. They want to preserve what remains of the functioning Lebanese institutions, particularly the Lebanese government headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam, who is calling for Hezbollah to improve its ties with Saudi Arabia.
March 7, 2016

"Abdallah," who did not want his real name used for fear of retribution, is a criminal prosecutor at Tripolis courthouse. When asked about the justice system in Libya, he said, Its working, but not properly. However, its not collapsing. He added, The very fact that I cannot use my real name is indicative of the difficulties we face.

Abdallah has worked as a prosecutor for the last 12 years. He has investigated all sorts of crimes under the regime of Moammar Gadhafi and in the aftermath of the revolution. In his Tripoli office, he told Al-Monitor, Under the former regime, neither me nor any other colleagues were forced by the former regime to do anything against the law.

Before 2011, Abdallah investigated many high-ranking officials including security personnel. He said none of them disrespected us or our work. They were very respectful of what we did and answered all our questions. Today, however, the lack of a strong central government and the near collapse of the state mean little respect for the law, and even less for law enforcement institutions.

When asked about the claims made by various media outlets after the regime was toppled in October 2011 and after Gadhafi himself was murdered that Libyas justice system is not independent and that former regime officials, including Gadhafi himself, used to call prosecutors and tell them what to do, Abdallah denied them all, saying, The former regime might have intervened on behalf of someone, but they did it within the system, not over it.

He explained, They would, for example, intervene on behalf of someone at the police station before the case reached the courthouse, but once it was there no one ever called us.

Abdallah, like many prosecutors in Libya today, worries about his personal safety since he could be targeted if he happens to handle a case in which militias are involved.

Human Rights Watch has documented many cases in which the Libyan judiciary has not been compromised. We walk a fine line when handling cases including murder, kidnapping and extortion, Abdallah told Al-Monitor as we waited for his next case to reach his office. The problem, he said, is that the official police forces are weak, underfunded and unprotected, outgunned by militias that are affiliated with the Interior Ministry, but have an almost entirely free hand.

Al-Monitor spoke to a Tripoli police commander, who asked that neither his name nor his rank be disclosed. "Ahmed," a pseudonym, explained, Policemen in uniforms, in many cases, do not go and arrest criminals because we never know if the suspect belongs to a militia or not. To avoid possible trouble with armed militias with no regard for the law, the police leave it to certain militias, such as the Tripoli Brigades, to arrest and lock up criminals. A high-risk suspect may remain in a militia-run jail.

With arms widely available in Libya, militias are the best force to do this kind of work because they are protected, as Ahmed puts it. The suspect could belong to another militia, meaning that if there are any repercussions for his group from his arrest, it is likely to try to free him by force.

The police station Al-Monitor visited keeps weekly and monthly records of crimes, and the numbers are staggering compared to crime rates in the capital before 2011. According to their records, on any given day there are at least two murder cases, three armed robberies, three to four car thefts and two kidnappings. Other crimes like assault, threats of violence and rape are also rife, but no statistics were disclosed. According to Ahmed, the crime types and rates in the capital are "unprecedented." He said, "I have been here for the last 15 years but I have never seen crime flourishing like it is now. Certain crimes are somewhat new to Libya, particularly kidnapping and murder. There was a time when such crimes were very rare.

In Libyas southern capital of Sabha, the main police station keeps a Facebook page updated every month with the number and types of crimes. In February, for example, 12 cars were stolen, nine people were kidnapped and 24 people died  22 of them were murdered while one was electrocuted trying to illegally tap into the electrical grid.

None of these crimes were fully investigated and most were attributed to unknown perpetrators. In such cases, people usually take revenge for what they speculate happened and go after the murder suspect on their own. Particularly in murder cases, this practice leads to a vicious cycle of vengeance, which in many cases can be stopped only by local social councils made up of elderly individuals and tribal leaders, as in the recent case in which the Warfalla tribal leaders succeeded in stopping bloodshed between the Oulad Suleiman and al-Gaddafa tribes.

Though most crimes in Tripoli are investigated, very few are solved. At some stage of the investigation, the police will just leave the file open but give up on the case. Ahmeds investigators usually know who did what, but they often cannot touch the suspect.

When a case reaches the prosecution stage, it means that a militia was involved in bringing the accused to justice, but that is no guarantee that he will be found guilty, as the prosecutors would be more concerned with his militia connections than the evidence against him.

We usually ask questions related to who that person is more than what he did, as Abdallah put it. If the suspect is well connected, the case is usually closed or shelved or the accused is kept in a jail center controlled by the militia that is protecting him with no access for us to do our work, and after a few days he is released! he complained.
March 8, 2016

Moshe Shriki, director of the social leadership college Mimizrach Shemesh, strives to instill Mizrahi culture  the heritage of Jewry from Islamic lands  in his students, but it is not always easy. The book Faith and Redemption is a perfect example, Shriki told Al-Monitor. Its a Jewish thought textbook for the public religious school system, published in 2014. The book covers 160 Jewish thinkers, only one of whom is Mizrahi.

In September 2015, Faith and Redemption caused an uproar in Israel as another example of the exclusion of Mizrahi culture and history from the Israeli curriculum. We put together an alternative list of 30-40 Mizrahi thinkers and presented it [to the Education Ministry]. Now they have added an optional list of Mizrahi philosophers to the existing book. That is, the teacher can choose whether to teach about them or not, said Shriki.

From Shriki's perspective, the place of Mizrahi authors and thinkers in the Israeli curriculum is critical. Shriki, also former principal of the alternative Kedma secondary school, said, There were contributions from Mizrahi writers like Almog Behar and Eli Eliyahu in the [reading comprehension] portions of the matriculation exams in literature in recent years. But I dont want them there. I want them in the mandatory curriculum.

Israeli society deals quite a bit with inter-ethnic tensions. Such tensions, it seems, led the Education Ministry to make the dramatic announcement on Feb. 4 of plans to establish a committee to strengthen the Mizrahi cultural presence in the educational system. The committee is to be headed by the poet Erez Biton, winner of the 2015 Israel Prize and of Mizrahi descent. The goal of the committee is to create balance in relation to the heritage of Eastern communities and to deepen the sense of unity among the people.

Gideon Saar, Naftali Bennett's predecessor as education minister, struggled with this same issue in 2012, when the Libi Bamizrach coalition sent him a letter protesting the exclusion of Mizrahi history, literature and cultural heritage from the curriculum. A decade before that, in 2002, Education Ministry Director Ronit Tirosh had called for changing the mandatory curriculum so that among the writers covered, one-third would be of Mizrahi origin. In 2003, Education Minister Limor Livnat ordered that a chapter about Jews in Islamic lands between the two world wars be mandatory reading for the history matriculation exam and a story by the author Sami Berdugo be made a mandatory selection for the matriculation exam in literature. According to Shriki, the Berdugo story, Hizo Batata, presents a stereotypical image of Mizrahim.

In 1997, the artist Meir Gal produced Nine Out of Four Hundred, a work in which he is shown holding the nine pages, out of a total of 400 pages, that deal with the history of Jews from Islamic lands in a textbook on the history of the Jewish people in recent generations. The book was used in Israeli schools for many years. Two years later, Yehuda Shenhav, a professor from Tel Aviv University, surveyed textbooks in Israel and found that not only was the scope of discussion of Jews from Islamic lands meager, its representation was erroneous and stereotypical.

For generations, a large and significant group of Israelis have been educated without getting to know their own history and culture, said Yossi Dahan, director of the Program for Human Rights at the College for Law and Business in Ramat Gan. He told Al-Monitor, I learned about the Holocaust of European Jews and the Zionist movement in Europe, since history and literature have been enlisted [in the service of] Zionism in the education system. The story of those who were not part of the Ashkenazi [Eastern European] Zionist story was not told.

Along with Shriki, Yehuda Maimaran, director of Alliance Israelite Universelle and a member of the committee established by Bennett, asserted that the important role of Jews from Islamic lands in Zionism has disappeared from the educational system. The Mizrahi child does not encounter himself in textbooks; he does not encounter figures from the world of Jewry of Islamic lands who took part in the Zionist enterprise, in community leadership, in the settlement of the land of Israel, Maimaran said. It is as if the center of Jewish life was in Europe. Rabbi Moshe Kalfon of Tunisia wrote a book [The Redemption of Moses] that paralleled [Theodor Herzl's] Altneuland, describing the [ideal future] Jewish state and its character in all respects, [but] it is not taught.

Shriki commented, Jewish history did not begin in 1882 [with the first wave of immigrants from Russia]. He added, When the pioneers of the First Aliyah arrived here, it was not desolate. Entire communities of people lived here, but they [Jews from Europe] tell a different story: We redeemed the land, we drained the swamps. Zionist action wasnt only one thing.

For Maimaran, it is not only the curricula, but the entire character of the system that reflects the secular, Western ethos and not that of Mizrahi culture. Most of the curricula were created for the secular student, including Bible and heritage studies. But many of those with backgrounds in Islamic lands are traditional and do not fit in with an educational worldview that sees Judaism only as culture. They dont find themselves there, not in secular education nor in religious education.

That is the reason, in the eyes of Arie Kizel, head of the Department for Learning, Instruction and Teacher Education at Haifa University, that the Education Ministrys announcement was mainly intended for public relations. The education system is Eurocentric, because Europe was the cradle of Zionism, and the educational system has a nationalist character, explained Kizel, also a philosopher of education and a textbook researcher. But to easternize the curriculum means to be part of this space, while Bennett is leading a Western line and does not understand the Eastern discourse. He wants a high-tech nation, five matriculation units [the highest level] in math, English. This is not the distributive justice that Mizrahi activists seek  to be in the Middle East from the standpoint of culture and language, to declare that Israel as a Zionist and Jewish entity is part of the East. It wont happen.

Some experts claim that even medieval Jewish literature, such as the work of the Toledo-born poet Judah Halevi, is being taught according to an Ashkenazi conception, but they do not propose alternatives. In contrast, on Feb. 7 Almog Behar published a list, aimed at the committee, in which he offers 12 pieces of advice for studying Mizrahi literature in schools. The list reflects the assertion by Kizel that such endeavors can indeed be complex. Behar proposes, among other things, teaching literature by Eastern women (such as works by the Moroccan Farha Ben Yossef from the 18th century), introducing works by Jews writing in Arabic (such as Samir Naqqash) and Palestinian authors writing in Hebrew (Sayed Kashua), integrating Arabic-language studies into all Israeli curricula and studying Arabic literature (such as One Thousand and One Nights) parallel with European literature.

This long checklist calls for a deep and significant change within the Israeli educational system. It also suggests that Bennett's initiative, much like earlier ones, hardly guarantees that such change will indeed take place.
March 8, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Given the repeated failures over the past nine years of negotiations, Palestinians are eager but not hopeful to see whether Fatah and Hamas will actually follow through on their latest reconciliation efforts in the face of numerous obstacles, including foreign pressure.

The groups held talks Feb. 7-8 in Doha, Qatar, to implement a nearly 2-year-old Palestinian pact known as the Beach Refugee Camp Agreement. Palestinians have voiced serious concerns about Qatars ability to successfully mediate the division that has persisted since 2007. They are asking: Why does reconciliation fail every time?

Since the signing of the Beach Refugee Camp Agreement in April 2014, major differences have arisen between the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization's political faction Fatah. These issues involve managing crossings with the Gaza Strip, holding presidential and legislative elections, and setting a date to convene the Provisional Leadership Framework of the PLO.

But a source in the Hamas leadership who was briefed on the Doha talks told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that two issues stand out: "the government of national consensus assuming full responsibility of the Gaza Strip and the disbursement of salaries to the benefit of Gaza [government] employees appointed by Hamas since 2007."

"Hamas believes that these two issues are of paramount importance to solving other problems, the source said.

About the established mechanisms to implement the reconciliation terms, the source said, No specific mechanism has been agreed upon as of now. Things are still being discussed between the two movements. However, we fear many obstacles in our way might take us back to square one, as happens every time  mainly the foreign pressures on the Palestinian Authority to not implement the reconciliation terms.

In a Feb. 25 statement to local newspaper Felesteen, Hamas foreign relations chief Osama Hamdan accused the United States and Israel of blocking Palestinian reconciliation.

The United States is putting pressure on the PA to not reconcile with Hamas until the latter recognizes the Middle East Quartets conditions, including the recognition of Israel, which Hamas rejects. After the Beach Refugee Camp Agreement, US President Barack Obama said in April 2014 that President Mahmoud Abbas decision to form a national unity government with Hamas was unhelpful and undermined the negotiations with Israel.

The same source said there will be a meeting soon, though it has not yet been scheduled, that will bring together the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, and Fatah's leader, Abbas, in Doha to complete the talks. After that, a date will be set to hold legislative and presidential elections and to convene the Provisional Leadership Framework of the PLO, the source said.

Fatah believes Hamas has been intentionally placing obstacles in the way of implementing the Beach Refugee Camp Agreement.

Amin Maqboul, secretary-general of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, told Al-Monitor, Hamas did not stick to the Beach Camp agreement, as it has yet to hand over the reins of power over Gaza to the national consensus government and continues to control the crossings. Should Hamas continue down this path, we have to go to the polls immediately and let the people choose who they want to rule.

Other failed attempts at reconciliation include the Cairo Agreement in 2011 and the Mecca Agreement in 2007. So how effective will Qatar be this time? Political analyst Iyad Atallah does not pin much hope on the Doha talks.

"Even if we watch Hamas and Fatah officials shaking hands on television, announcing the achievement of reconciliation, this does not mean the end of the Palestinian division. There exist profound reasons and strategic disagreements between the two movements, most notably the issue of [government workers'] salaries and the crossings. Also, one ought to mention the different political programs and the nature of the management of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between both sides, he told Al-Monitor.

Fatah, the largest party in the PLO, recognized the State of Israel in 1993 and chose the path of negotiations to end the occupation on the basis of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. It is also exercising security coordination with Israel as a guarantee for the continuation of the PA governance and rule. Hamas, on the other hand, did not recognize Israel. It chose resistance as an option to end occupation and to liberate the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948. Hamas rejects the ongoing security coordination between the PA and Israel. All these reasons would make any reconciliation between the two last a few weeks or a few months at best, Atallah added.

For his part, political analyst Hassan Abdo told Al-Monitor, The outstanding issues in terms of reconciliation, such as salaries and crossings, among other issues, are not of significant impact. There are more important obstacles in this regard. Besides the groups' political differences, the PA continues its political arrests against Islamic organizations members in the West Bank. Fatah is not able to stop this approach, which is its guarantee to its governance, while Hamas cannot achieve reconciliation in light of the ongoing arrests.

In January alone, the PA arrested 93 people from the resistance factions, mainly Hamas, according to a Feb. 9 press release from the Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank.

Abdo believes the Palestinian reconciliation agreement is also subject to the interest of various Arab alliances.

Reconciliation does not lie in the hands of Palestinians alone, as it is subject to the relationship between Qatar, Hamas ally, and Egypt, which plays the main role in reconciliation and is allied with Fatah. However, relations between Egypt and Qatar are currently strained, as the latter had rejected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis decision to isolate former President Mohammed Morsi.

"This adversely affects the Palestinian reconciliation, in addition to the fact that some states, such as the United States and Israel, did not want this reconciliation originally," Abdo said.

Naji Sharab, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The worsening relations between Qatar and Egypt are likely to thwart Qatars mediation of the reconciliation issue. This is the major problem facing Qatars role.

Sharab ruled out the possibility that Qatar is seeking to snatch the reconciliation issue out of Egypt's hands.

Qatar cannot replace Egypt in the Palestinian reconciliation issue for objective reasons, mainly since Egypt is a central state, geographically connected to Gaza and overseeing the Rafah land crossing, which is one of the obstacles hindering reconciliation. It is not possible to talk about reconciliation without Egypt.

Palestinians hope Fatah and Hamas will seriously end the division this time. However, according to Abdo, This can only be achieved if the two movements overcome external pressure and conflicting alliances and place the national interest at the heart of their personal interests, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
March 4, 2016

For most of their marriage, Ahmed Hendika and Noralsham Mansur have been on the move.

It was 2014 when they were first forced from Sudan, fleeing government threats to find safety in Jordan. They were displaced a second time in December 2015, when Jordanian authorities sent them back to Khartoum in a mass deportation following a protest by Ammans Sudanese community. Now they are in Cairo, escaping persecution in Sudan a second time. From this sprawling, often hostile city, they are contemplating their next move.

We feel our life is in danger here. We dont have any protection from Egypt, Hendika told Al-Monitor. Because they deported us from Jordan, we do not have a place to stay, we do not have any work and even [Egyptian] society is not accepting us.

Hendika and Mansur are two of around 600 Sudanese refugees forcibly returned to Khartoum by Jordanian authorities in December. Around 145 of that group are now thought to be in Cairo. For a month before the mass deportation, Sudanese refugees had demonstrated at the UNHCR offices in Amman against the hardship and hopelessness of life in Jordan. They were deported in violation of the non-refoulement law, which forbids returning people to where they are in danger of persecution; now, they are contemplating an even tougher situation.

When we reached Khartoum, they took our contacts from us and asked about our families, Hendika said. They took us to the intelligence and security places. They hit us and tied our hands and covered our eyes.

The displacement is just the latest of many frightening disruptions. Mansur was in her final semester at university and was forced to abandon her studies when she fled Sudan. When they were deported from Jordan, the couple was beginning to prepare for the birth of their first child, and Mansur is now four months pregnant with little in the way of access to health care.

I left everything when I got a chance to go to Jordan, Hendika said. Now we are moving all the time, from Sudan, to Jordan, now to Cairo  all the time as refugees  All the time we are thinking that we are not acceptable, that society does not like us, he said.

We walk to the grocery store and everyone calls out 'Samra' or 'Chocolate,' Mansur said, describing the racism faced by the Sudanese in Egypt. On the buses, they wont give us a seat.

In Cairo, the small community that has endured the same journey as Hendika and Mansur help each other with food, emotional support and housing. There is little else to be done. The couple is now staying in a house with around 18 other people, dependent on the hospitality of their acquaintances. Men, women and families are living together, and conditions are cramped and stressful.

Mada, who did not reveal her full name and who traveled to Cairo with her three daughters, said the girls are uncomfortable living with so many people; they havent been able to go to school since they were deported from Jordan in December. They are tired, I am tired, she said. Walking through the streets is frightening; the children are afraid to go outside.

Last month, the group presented the UNHCR in Cairo with papers issued in Amman that proved their status as protected persons. It is unclear whether these will be useful now, so Hendika and Mansur will wait for 2 months to register as asylum seekers  despite the fact that they had completed the process and are registered as refugees in Amman.

UNHCR representatives could not be reached for comment on the issue. Ahmed Badawy, a lawyer working with Sudanese refugees in Cairo, told Al-Monitor that the process of linking the files in Amman could take months  time in which the newly arrived Sudanese do not have the necessary papers to access services and support. We find that one of the most important issues is that refugees are trying to get information about their file, and this is difficult, Badawy said. The other problem is resettlement. We have a lot of people who have blue cards, who have been here for 10 or 12 years.

In Cairo, those granted official refugee status and who thus qualify for resettlement consideration are given blue cards, while asylum seekers have yellow cards.

For Ali, it is a frustrating situation. After deportation he reported suffering torture and harsh interrogation at the hands of the Sudanese government during a three-week imprisonment. After being released he hid, then paid smugglers to take him across the border to Egypt from Sudan  a risky and illegal journey. Now, his status in Cairo is illegal. He cannot work, continues to fear the eyes and power of the Sudanese authorities and finds he is trapped by his ambiguous status in the city.

Here in Cairo, if you dont have a blue card or a yellow card you cant go anywhere. If they catch you without the card they can send you [back] to Sudan. So everyone is just staying in their homes, he told Al-Monitor.

Like most of the Sudanese deported from Jordan, Ali, whose full name has been withheld for security reasons, is Darfuri. The group has suffered a mass killing by government forces in Sudans civil war, which many international observers have deemed a genocide. Despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on Sudans President Omar al-Bashir, however, Sudan and Egypt enjoy friendly ties.

After being displaced from what they thought was a safe haven, the Sudanese communitys faith in the authorities has been destroyed and many regard Arab governments as a threat. Egypt is close to Sudan. I dont trust these countries. All the Sudanese are feeling this, Ali said.

For many weeks after his arrival in Cairo, he was afraid to communicate with the UNHCR. As a single young man, he is now more likely to take matters into his own hands, and several of his close friends have already traveled to Libya to attempt to cross the sea to Europe. The crossing is expensive and dangerous, but Ali sees few other possibilities.

Hendika and Mansur also want to leave Egypt, where they see few options for the future of their child. But with a baby on the way, their options are limited.

I am waiting to solve my problem, to go to the countries receiving refugees  they will treat you as one of their citizens, you get the card to study, the card to work, Hendika said. This is what we want, to interact with the citizens in society. We want peace, security, stability, he concluded.
March 7, 2016

After two decades, parliament members from Turkeys Kurdish movement are again under the threat of losing their judicial immunities, and then probably their seats. In 1994, parliament voted to lift the immunities of six Kurdish lawmakers, among them the iconic Leyla Zana, after which they were rudely put into police cars waiting at parliaments gate and whisked away. The deputies stood trial for collaborating with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist group, and some ended up with lengthy jail terms. The image of the unprecedented arrests outside parliament has haunted Turkey ever since. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) used to be a vocal critic of this episode, but today the ruling party has launched its own drive to strip at least five deputies of the Kurdish-dominated Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) from their judicial immunities, among them party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, on similar charges of supporting terrorism.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Demirtas asserted the HDP would not walk out of the legislature even if the AKPs drive succeeded, vowing to stay in Parliament till the end and struggle on. He said the HDP would seek international support, but voiced pessimism over prospects of peace under the governments current policies.

The text of the March 6 interview follows:

Al-Monitor: You and your party are under harsh criticism [for supporting terrorism]. How would you assess the accusations?

Demirtas: Government attacks and slanders against the HDP are not something new. The AKP openly made us a target after we decided to contest the June 7 elections [in 2015] as a party and not with independent candidates. The onslaught intensified after we overcame the 10% parliamentary threshold [and took away dozens of seats from the AKP in the Kurdish-majority southeast]. The settlement process was over, and new pressures began. Turkey was dragged into conflict, and they wanted to pin the blame on us. Because of the heavy pressures, we failed to preserve our vote in the Nov. 1 polls. They are now trying to push our party into a very tough spot, though we had emerged as the hope for [peaceful] co-existence in Turkey. We had inspired hope for democratization, the solution of the Kurdish problem, equal representation for different communities and co-existence without partition. Attacking the HDP is equivalent to attacking this hope. Turkey is already very gloomy because of the AKPs policies, and now the intensified onslaught on the HDP is taking the desperation to a new high. The suffering in the southeast is transforming the sharp polarization into a deep rift. The other parties have no policies aimed at keeping Turks and Kurds together. This has been a concern only for us, and hence the pressure on the party is nourishing desperation in society.

Al-Monitor: Some say your [ethnic] Turkish voters feel deceived.

Demirtas: I havent come across anyone speaking of being deceived, but, yes, people say and write such things. Everyone must see, however, that the AKP is the party that deceived the whole country. It promised peace and stability if it returned to power alone [in the Nov. 1 polls]. It got what it wanted, but bombs are exploding and people are dying today. The HDP is not responsible for any of this. It did not and will not go back on any of its promises. We said we are the [answer for] peace, and well keep our word. Yet the reality of war is pushing Turks and Kurds to opposite poles. The situation is not very promising. The government has blocked all channels of dialogue and has no plan to return to the negotiating table. It pursues a policy that benefits from war and the climate of conflict, speaking of nothing but war and operations. With the government maintaining this attitude, any hope for peace seems unlikely in the short run.

Al-Monitor: There is also the prospect of HDP lawmakers being stripped from their judicial immunities.

Demirtas: Thats hypocrisy. They have long used this as a means to blackmail and intimidate us, dangling it as the sword of Damocles over us.

Al-Monitor: But things seem serious this time.

Demirtas: Yes, immunities could be lifted this time. They want to go through with it. But we have never bowed down. Moreover, we have put forward two proposals on the issue  to amend the constitution and keep only legislative immunity [for speeches] or take up all immunity files waiting in parliament [for all kinds of offenses]. Yet they shy away from this, turning the lifting of immunities into an instrument of punishment. Such punishments would not be a bother for me and my colleagues, but they open scars that remain sore for years. The decision against Leyla Zana and her colleagues is still alive in the memories. Political rivalry and arguments should remain confined to politics, without turning into revenge taking and score settling. Turkey is not in good shape. Things would get even worse [if immunities are lifted].

Al-Monitor: How strong do you think this possibility is?

Demirtas: The AKP is currently testing the waters with public sentiment and seems determined to go ahead. We are working to prevent this from happening. Well do our best for common sense to prevail. But even if our immunities are lifted, well carry on our struggle. I have no fears whatsoever for myself, and neither do my colleagues. What we fear about is Turkeys future.

Al-Monitor: What do you expect from the legal process if your immunities are lifted?

Demirtas: There will be no legal process in the first place, for the judiciary is completely politicized. The situation is worse than the eras of state security courts and military coups. So we dont expect fair trials.  What [the government] is trying to do is to stoke chauvinism and consolidate its base by lynching us.

Al-Monitor: Are you going to raise the issue internationally?

Demirtas: We have strong relations across the world. To make sure the international community does not stay silent, well bring up the issue in all our [international] meetings and set our contacts in motion.

Al-Monitor: Will the HDP consider pulling out from parliament if immunities are lifted?

Demirtas: Pulling out from parliament has never been on our agenda. Well stay in parliament till the end and struggle on.

Al-Monitor: Why do you think Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized you for attending Friday prayers recently? Was it your first Friday prayer?

Demirtas: No, it was not. Ive been to Friday prayers many times, and this is nobodys business.  They attack us because the AKP seeks to exploit religion [to lure support from the Kurds] and they think this weapon will be taken from them. [The Friday prayer] challenged the AKPs mindset, which sees Muslims and Islam as its own property and monopoly, so thats why they were annoyed.

Al-Monitor: Minutes of meetings with [jailed PKK leader Abdullah] Ocalan have been published. It turns out you carried messages between Ocalan and Saleh Muslim, the head of the Democratic Union Party of the Syrian Kurds.

Demirtas: True, there were a few mutual messages coming and going. But thats not the real issue here. The real issue is that the AKP builds both its domestic and foreign policy on enmity against the Kurds. The Kurdish people are their greatest paranoia. As a result, they are creating lots of new areas of problem and tension. They failed to overcome their enmity during the settlement process, too, and thats why they failed to obtain results. Then they openly declared their enmity and started a war. So this enmity is sustained in the person of Saleh Muslim as well.

Al-Monitor: Reports of fresh operations are coming from the southeast. Where is this going to lead?

Demirtas: Security forces, PKK members, youngsters  they are all dying, and, sadly, this course of events cannot be stopped. The end of the bloodshed depends entirely on the governments management approach. The government, however, has refused to draw up any peace plan. Establishing peace and tranquility is not the PKKs but the governments responsibility. They are obliged to do it, for this is what they promised the people. The government, however, is expecting the PKK to do it, while holding the HDP responsible. And the Turkish public is under the influence of this perception management.

Al-Monitor: There is talk of early election scenarios, and some suggest the HDP will fail to pass the parliamentary threshold this time.

Demirtas: Thats actually the AKPs open strategy. In case of early elections, the want to obtain a [parliamentary] strength that allows them to unilaterally change the constitution. For that purpose, they are playing all dirty games at their disposal to leave the HDP under the threshold.

Al-Monitor: Is there such a possibility?

Demirtas: We are still preserving the same vote.

Al-Monitor: Shall we expect any change in your attitude on [President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ambition to introduce] a system of executive presidency?

Demirtas: There is neither a reason nor a justification for a presidential system. The four parties [in parliament] tried to achieve a consensus, but it seems we stand no chance of sitting down and drafting a new civilian, libertarian constitution with the AKP under the current circumstances. If the AKP attempts to impose its own constitution [draft]  and thats what they intend to do  we are not going to back it.
March 8, 2016

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglus visit to Iran last week came as something of a surprise given the frosty climate between Ankara and Tehran due to serious differences over Syria. It was only a matter of days before the visit that Davutoglu, in an interview with Al Jazeera, had lambasted Iran for its support of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Iranian government has generally remained diplomatically restrained against such outbursts from Turkey. It has preferred to leave the job of responding to Turkey to the Iranian media  which has often aired virulent claims that Ankara is aiding al-Qaeda-related terrorists in Syria  and to lawmakers in the Iranian parliament.

For example, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of Irans parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted Feb. 19 by the state-owned Press TV, warning Turkey that it is playing with fire in the region by nurturing terrorists and providing them with weapons.

Boroujerdis comments followed the deadly car bomb explosion in Ankara that killed 29 people. The government blamed the Peoples Protection Units, the Syrian Kurdish group  linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party  that has allied itself with Russia against Sunni fighters in Syria who Tehran claims are supported by Ankara.

With such latent tension in the background, the time would appear not to be ripe for a high-level visit from Turkey to Iran, especially one that emphasizes the friendly and historic ties between the two countries.

Davutoglus visit, nevertheless, highlighted again an aspect of relations between Ankara and Tehran that goes back to the days of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Namely, that no matter how tense relations get, greater mutual interests ensure that ties are not disrupted and dialogue is not severed.

Speaking at a press conference in Tehran with Irans First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, Davutoglu skimmed over differences on Syria. We may have differences over some issues, but we cannot change our history and geography, Davutoglu said, adding that Turkey and Iran were complementary pieces of a puzzle.

Underlining the contribution the two countries were in a position to make to overcome sectarian divisions in the region, Davutoglu said it was important for the two countries to develop joint perspectives in this regard. We cannot leave the fate of our region to external actors who are not from the region, he said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who received Davutoglu in Tehran, struck an equally positive tone.

Iran and Turkey have common objectives and interests and must strengthen the foundations for peace and stability in the region through [improving] bilateral cooperation and focusing on the fight against terrorism as a common enemy, Rouhani said during his meeting with Davutoglu.

We believe that regional problems should be settled by regional countries and nations, he added, echoing Davutoglus words.

Apart from the political messages given during Davutoglus visit, most analysts say the underlying motive for the visit was economic. Professor Huseyin Bagci, who heads the department of international relations at Ankaras prestigious Middle East Technical University, believes this is also what gives Iran the upper hand.

The Iranians are managing Turkey from a position of strength. Turkey needs Iranian support, especially in the economic field after Ankaras high-cost crises with Russia, Bagci told Al-Monitor.

Davutoglus visit comes at a time when Iran is opening up to the world following its nuclear deal with the West, which has whetted the appetite of Turkish investors and businessmen.

While in Tehran, Davutoglu expressed Turkeys delight that sanctions against Iran had been lifted, saying, These were the greatest barrier to the volume of trade between the two countries reaching $30 billion. Tellingly, he recalled that Turkey has stood by Iran during the most difficult days of the sanctions.

There is no indication, however, that Turkey is automatically favored over Western investors by Iran due to a sense of Islamic solidarity. Many analysts argue that Turkey will have to work hard to gain a piece of the Iranian pie.

Retired Ambassador Suha Umar, who has served in the Middle East, is one such analyst.

Davutoglus visit points to a sense of alarm over being unable to grab a slice of the pie. If you look at the state of recent ties with Iran, its not as if Tehran is waiting with anticipation for Turkey to come so that it can be given its share of the pie, Umar told Al-Monitor.

This does not mean that the Iranians are displeased with seeing Davutoglu come to their turf, Umar added, but the Iranians are known to be traders and are aware that Davutoglus visit is an opportunistic one."

Umar also underlined that Iran had pursued a much more sensible foreign policy in recent years than Turkey, overcoming its differences with the United States and also getting Russian backing in the Middle East and consolidating its position in the world.

Asked how Saudi Arabia will view Davutoglus visit to Tehran, Umar said, It will feel cheated. He pointed out that this visit took place against the backdrop of talk about Ankaras attempt to establish strategic ties with Riyadh, as well as speculation that the two countries were preparing to jointly intervene in Syria.

Both countries have dispelled the idea of such an intervention. Davutoglu also told Al Jazeera recently that he had no confidence that Arab countries would support Turkey if it was to intervene unilaterally in Syria.

Bagci believes that Davutoglus visit to Tehran could also signal an effort by Ankara to steer away from the impression that its regional foreign policy is based on sectarian preferences.

This could be the start of a U-turn away from Sunni policies toward a correct understanding of the responsibilities of those governing a nation-state, Bagci said. He indicated, however, that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the unpredictable element, adding that a single harsh statement from Erdogan against Iran could undermine Davutoglus efforts.
March 7, 2016

In the middle of heavy clashes Feb. 19 between Turkish security forces and groups affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Diyarbakirs Sur district came news that a building had collapsed. Three special forces soldiers in the building were killed. Official statements did not make clear what happened.

Security sources, however, told newspapers that the building had collapsed when a booby trap exploded.

The incident reminded observers of another on June 25, when Mishtenur Hospital, which had been held by the Islamic State, was blown up by the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) with all the people in it.

The techniques used were similar. But where had the Feb. 19 attackers learned these tactics? The force involved was the PKKs youth wing, the Civil Defense Units (YPS)  previously known as the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement.

A YPS fighter who uses the alias Xebat offered some clues when he answered questions from a Le Monde reporter at Nusaybin. Xebat said he had come back to Turkey after fighting at Kobani. We are applying here what we learned at Kobani. [There], we learned urban warfare. Tunnels, barricades, roadside bombs and booby traps. We learned them all at Kobani, he said.

In press photographs of the clashes in the southeast, there are clear similarities with the Kobani battle such as booby-trapped streets, using screens and drapes against snipers and aerial reconnaissance and passages between houses and backyards for safe movement. These tactics, which the Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) YPG had used against IS, are now used by the YPS against Turkish security forces. Turkish officials are saying the fighters they are facing in the southeast are either YPG militants or YPG trained.

Journalist Ismail Eskin, who spent two years in Syria, including two months at Kobani during the clashes, told Al-Monitor there is a long list of similarities between the battles fought be the YPG and the YPS. Eskin said trenches were dug in and around Kobani before the clashes began and the course of the battles changed with the arrival of a group known as Al Akrad, which is experienced in urban warfare.

Al Akrad, which was active in Aleppo, is made up of Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs. The first thing they did at Kobani was to hang huge drapes across streets and set up booby traps. The drapes blocked the sight of the enemy snipers and the facilitated movement of people and Kobani fighters. That is what we are seeing at Sur now. They opened holes in house walls with sledgehammers for safe movement, he said.

Eskin said some of the fighters who fought with the YPG are now in Turkey, which is why the Kobani tactics are being seen there. Al Akrad showed the YPG where and how to place explosives. There was no training given, but a sharing of experiences. I see people who had fought in Kobani in the streets of Cizre, Sur and Silvan. They were not YPG or PKK, but simple residents of Silvan who had responded to the YPG call for fighters, he added. After the liberation of Kobani, they returned home and went on with their lives. Now they are with the YPS. They use not only YPG but also IS tactics. Their techniques of preparing explosives and booby traps, especially those concealed in the trenches, are all IS methods.

Another witness is journalist Kerem Celik, who spent two months in Kobani making a documentary film. He also thinks the course of the battles changed with the arrival of Al Akrad from Aleppo. He explained, Initially there was a lot of inexperience in Kobani. There were no professionals. First they dug ditches around the town. The course of the battles was changed by that group, which had fought against IS at Aleppo. They knew all about urban warfare from their experience at Aleppo. They transferred their experience to Rojava fighters.

Celik points to two key reasons why the battle changed course when Al Akrad arrived, saying, In the Middle East, houses are built close to each other. They dug channels to connect the houses and their yards to avoid sniper fire. The second was the hanging of drapes across streets. There is no building higher than four or five stories in Kobani. Those who had the roofs of such buildings or other dominating features had the edge with their snipers. The ditches and drapes prevented IS' heavy weapons from entering, so they had to send in their fighters, who were then killed easily. With the holes they bored through walls of buildings, Kobanis defenders enabled fighters to move safely and attack IS unexpectedly.

It would not be an exaggeration, Celik said, to claim that a single blanket probably saved the lives of 300 people. It was a great defense against snipers. Aleppo fighters also taught local fighters how to booby-trap a building.

Celik noted other similarities between the tactics of YPG and YPS, saying, Look, the YPS is present in towns as Nusaybin, Cizre and Kiziltepe, which are neighbors of Rojava. That is how they learned the combat techniques of both the YPG and IS. Most of their experience is derived from personal observations, although they may have received some training in preparing ambushes. Many of them had gone to Kobani and returned. Before Kobani, nobody knew of hanging drapes. In the old days they used to prepare Molotov cocktails; now they produce [improvised explosive devices]. You cannot underestimate the role of those who had gone to Kobani to fight.

Even if there are no direct links between the YPG and the YPS, it is obvious that they learned each other's techniques. And their results are the same: mass migration and destruction. Just look at Sur and other hot spots.
Lear Corp. - the parent company of the Selma Hyundai supplier being sued by the federal government - will fight the suit, the company said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration filed a lawsuit against Renosol Seating LLC and three of its managers Friday, alleging they retaliated against workers who had voiced concern over health risks of working with toluene diisocyanate, a chemical used to make the foam in many car seats.

"The complaint is nothing new, but just a rehash of old arguments. We believe the government's allegations are false and will continue to defend them vigorously," The statement said. "The truth of the matter is that OSHA's own tests confirm what Lear's independent tests show - the air quality at Lear's Selma plant is well within allowable limits. Any 'recommendation' by OSHA to the contrary is neither supported by the scientific test results nor within the agency's jurisdiction."

Renosol is a subsidiary of Lear Corp., a Michigan car seating manufacturer. Lear also has a manufacturing facility in Brookwood that makes seating frames for Mercedes-Benz.

Lear Corp. has consistently denied claims that exposure to the chemical is dangerous.
Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Forget the Oscars! Our favorite performances of the 2015 movie year

From Tom Hanks to Alicia Vikander, our favorite male and female performances of an outstanding movie year.



Of course, the Oscars did get some things right, so we won't forget about the worthy picks that earned nominations. But we do want to go to bat for those they left out or never would have even considered.



Like the Academy, we'll go category by category and maybe even sprinkle a few of our own in the mix.

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actor: Abraham Attah, "Beasts of No Nation"

Cary Joji Fukunaga's brutal tale about a young boy who survives as his country goes through a horrific war, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala, sometimes feels difficult for the sake of it but never loses sight of its primary objective thanks almost totally to the Attah's brilliance. You see every last piece of transformation from a young man full of promise to a tragic killing machine who lost his family and future.



(Netflix)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"

The 5-time nominee will finally won his Oscar, not just because he and his fellow cast and crew endured a reported "grueling shoot," but rather because he told a unique story through a physically charged performance that we hope reminds people that non-verbal storytelling still exists at this level of Hollywood filmmaking, and we're glad someone of his caliber poured so much into it. Many have called this his "sympathy Oscar" to cap a deserving career in a field weak enough to justify the win, but we feel like Leo deserved it for this particular performance.



(20th Century Fox)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actor: Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"

Danny Boyle's tragically underseen chamber play biopic sees a brilliant Fassbender blowing through a dense Aaron Sorkin script at a feverish pace, giving the audience a plethora of reasons to love and hate Apple's co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. Not even the first choice to play the role, Fassbender storms through three acts of compelling storytelling to find what fueled one of the world's most driven and difficult men.



(Universal)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actor: Tom Hanks, "Bridge of Spies"

Remember when the Academy nominated Tom Hanks for all those Oscars? They seem to have given up on that even when he turns in career-best work in films like "Captain Phillips" or 2015's "Bridge of Spies," which I consider a top five performance for him. That may sound hyperbolic, but as someone who actually saw Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller, I can confirm this is as Tom Hanks a Tom Hanks role as you'll ever see. One of Hollywood's greatest movie stars symbolizing all the best parts of our American values, bringing as much integrity and natural screen presence as ever, puts Hanks on this list.



(Disney)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, "Creed"

Sylvester Stallone earned an Oscar nomination for reprising his own Rocky Balboa creation, but Jordan carries nearly every last frame of Ryan Coogler's stellar and wholly unique entry into the "Rocky" franchise. Lending a powerfully emotional presence to a young man with a deep internal struggle and purpose, Jordan embodies a privileged yet dissatisfied underdog hell-bent on proving himself for very private reasons.



(Warner Bros.)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Matt Damon, "The Martian"

Few leading men could carry Ridley Scott's sci-fi adventure the way the eminently likable Damon did as stranded astronaut Mark Watney.



(20th Century Fox)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Jacob Tremblay, "Room"

If Brie Larson wins the Oscar in the lead category, we don't understand how Tremblay would have qualified for supporting, as Lenny Abrahamson's adaptation of Emma Donaghue's story is told from his point of view, giving the young actor most of the load to carry, and he does it beautifully.



(A24)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actress: Lola Kirke, "Mistress America"

We wish Noah Baumbach's film about a socially awkward college student in New York City spent more time alone with its lead character, whose first half-hour gives this film its best moments before morphing into a would-be screwball comedy. Kirke has a bright future, as she shows a knack for story and dialogue handling more assured and dense work from Baumbach.



(Fox Searchlight)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actress: Brie Larson, "Room"

Anyone who sees "Room" leaves it affected by its intensity and humanity, reflected in every last drop of Larsen's performance as Ma, the tortured but determined heroine who seeks escape and new life for her and her son.



(A24)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"

Lawrence gave a career-best performance in David O. Russell's already-underrated story of capitalism against all odds as a woman pushes herself and her family to achieve the American dream despite unethical competition and leeching family members. As winning and vibrant as any film experience of 2015, "Joy" deserves a look thanks mostly to Lawrence's star power.



(20th Century Fox)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"

In John Crowley's lovely adaptation of Colm Toibin's novel about a young Irish woman seeking a better life in the U.S., Ronan gives us one of the more crowd-pleasing characters of the year thanks to her unique elegance, grace and wit, as her Eilis finds new hope and love in this wistful immigration tale.



(Fox Searchlight)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Actress: Taylor Schilling, "The Overnight"

Best known for playing Piper Chapman on the Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black," Schilling snuck in a terrific comedic performance in Patrick Brice's sex comedy about one super-awkward night shared among a pair of Los Angeles couples.



(The Orchard)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actor: John Boyega, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

Our favorite performer and new character in J.J. Abrams rekindling of the "Star Wars" franchise, Boyega's beleaguered Stormtrooper Finn gives the film some of its most poignant and hilarious moments, ensuring we're in for a treat for at least two more movies thanks to the actor's wonderful on-screen presence.



(Disney)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actor: Emory Cohen, "Brooklyn"

Previously seen in "The Place Beyond the Pines," the New York-born actor certainly has a style of his own, but director John Crowley put it to perfect use in this sumptuously designed immigration tale. Cohen plays Tony, a sweet Italian-American man who falls for Saoirse Ronan's Irish immigrant in 1950s New York.



(Fox Searchlight)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actor: Idris Elba, "Beasts of No Nation"

Truly and inexplicably snubbed at the Oscars, the SAG and BAFTA-winner delivered a frightening portrayal as a rising rebel faction's Commandant who takes young children under his wing to further his personal cause along with his militia's greater goal of winning a civil war in West Africa.



(Netflix)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"

The Oscar-winner in this category had the tall task of starring opposite one of the world's biggest movie stars in Tom Hanks under the direction of one of the industry's greatest filmmakers in Steven Spielberg, and he managed to nearly steal the whole show. A true chameleon, the veteran stage actor gives a nobility to a mysterious man who seems to share the exact same values as Hanks' protagonist.



(Disney)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actor: Liev Schreiber, "Spotlight"

No way we'd go without recognize at least one actor from the wonderful ensemble cast at work in Thomas McCarthy's best picture winner "Spotlight." Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams earned nominations, but we'll pick Schreiber, whose steady hand and quiet confidence portraying Boston Globe editor Marty Baron showed us what it meant to not only do your job but do the right thing in the hidden face of unspeakable evil in your own community.



(Open Road Films)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, "Sicario"

In one of the most exciting and poignant films of the year, Brolin and Del Toro do wonderful work. Brolin plays a CIA officer and Del Toro his mysterious partner as they fight drug cartels in Mexico and the U.S.



(Lionsgate)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Walton Goggins, "The Hateful Eight"

The Alabama native steals nearly every seen he enters in Quentin Tarantino's bloody and often hilarious western, playing Chris Mannix, the would-be sheriff of Red Rock who hitches a ride with bounty hunters traveling through a blizzard in post-Civil War Wyoming. Read our interview with Goggins.



(Weinstein Company)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Oscar Isaac, "Ex Machina"

His star already on the rise thanks to compelling lead work in "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "A Most Violent Year," Isaac delivered some sinister supporting work as an eccentric billionaire who calls upon an employee to administers the Turing test to an android with artificial intelligence. I mean, just watch the man dance.



(A24)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Jason Mitchell, "Straight Outta Compton"

Easily the best performance in F. Gary Gray's depiction of the rise of the rap group N.W.A, Mitchell's Easy E shines in an otherwise by-the-numbers biopic.



(Universal)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actress: Rebecca Ferguson, "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation"

"The White Queen" star knocked us silly in the fifth and argubly best of the spy franchise, matching leading man Tom Cruise every step of the way as a beautiful secret agent whose motives remain a mystery. A friend properly described her work as a mix of Lauren Bacall and Ronda Rousey. Thankfully, Ferguson will return for the next "Mission," and we don't think we would if she didn't.



(Paramount)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actress: Phyllis Smith, "Inside Out"

Best known for playing Phyllis on "The Office," Smith gave us stunning voice work as the hopelessly funny Sadness in Pixar's emotionally charged story about a young girl and the emotions inside her head as she lives through a difficult move.



(Disney)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, "Ex Machina"

Vikander won an Oscar for the slightly more "awards-friendly" period drama "The Danish Girl," but the performance of hers people really talked about in 2015 came in Alex Garland's science fiction thriller, in which she plays an android that teaches us what it really means to be human.



(A24)

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Best Supporting Actress: Julie Walters, "Brooklyn"

Walters makes the most of her limited screen time in John Crowley's immigration tale, playing a traditionalist landlady in the New York boarding house that welcomes Saoirse Ronan as she makes her way in the U.S. Walters sits at the head of the table, hilariously instructing young women how to act proper as they grow up in America.



(Fox Searchlight)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"

Playing in the background th Michael Fassbender's star of the show in Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin's blistering biopic, the Oscar nominee proves every bit the equal of the leading man in one of her better performances in recent memory.



(Universal)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Just missed the cut: Tessa Thompson, "Creed"

The rock to Michael B. Jordan's tormented young boxer, Thompson plays a musician with a hearing impairment and heart of gold in Ryan Coogler's addition to the "Rocky" franchise, helping to give this installment the identity it seeks.



(Warner Bros.)

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Just missed the cut: Deanna Dunagan, "The Visit"

Dunagan lays it all out there as the twisted grandma in M. Night Shyamalan's wholly ridiculous but pretty fun return to horror.



(Universal)

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Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com

Funniest Performance: Michael Pena, "Ant-Man"

Pena gave us some genuine laugh-out-loud moments as Paul Rudd's well-meaning partner-in-crime Luis, whose ear-to-ear grin and sonic delivery of anecdotes telling Rudd how he lined up various jobs had us on the floor at this Marvel flick.



(Disney)

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Best Motion-Capture Performance: Sharlto Copley, "Chappie"

The art of physical and vocal mo-cap performance seems lost on the Academy, who should have at least recognized the likes of Andy Serkis' innovative work by now, so we'll do so by pointing out South African actor Copley's wonderful performance as a police robot-turned-gangster in Neill Blomkamp's science fiction action tale.



(Columbia Pictures)
Taste of Homewood collage.jpg

Among the Homewood businesses participating in Taste of Homewood 2016 are, clockwise from top left, Homewood Gourmet, Pastry Art Bake Shoppe and O'Henry's Coffees. (AL.com file photos by Tamika Moore and Linda Stelter)

Dishes, drinks and desserts from 30 restaurants, cafes, caterers, bakeries, coffee shops and beverage vendors will be on the menu at Taste of Homewood 2016.



The 15th annual event takes place this Thursday, March 10, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Rosewood Hall in SoHo Square.



Taste of Homewood guests will get to sample food, beer and wine from the participating businesses, including several that are new to the event this year.



Tickets are $30 in advance through March 9 at www.homewoodchamber.org. Tickets will be $40 at the door on Thursday.







The returning businesses participating this year are Brio Tuscan Grille, Buffalo Rock, Chick-fil-A, Chicken Salad Chick, Homewood Gourmet, Jackson's Bar & Bistro, Little Donkey, Nabeel's Cafe & Market, O'Henry's Coffees, Pastry Art Bake Shoppe, PT's of SoHo, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Savage's Bakery, The Club, The Happy Catering Company, Urban Cookhouse, Alabev, Birmingham Budweiser and Piggly Wiggly.



New to the Taste of Homewood this year are Alabama Goods, Brookdale University Park, Crestline Catering Co., GianMarco's, Holler & Dash, Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries, Magic City Sweet Ice, Shiki Homewood, Taco Mama, Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe and Your Pie.



The Taste of Homewood is presented by the Homewood Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the Homewood Star.

Rosewood Hall is at 2850 19th St. South in Homewood.



For more about Thursday's event, visit the Homewood Chamber of Commerce's Facebook page.




For the first time in a very long time, a local church has gone viral for a positive news story rather than a negative one.

If you have not already heard, the Worship Center Christian Church in Birmingham has gained notoriety for radically reshaping the financial lives of 48 local individuals. Led by Senior Pastor Van Moody, the Worship Center has pledged to pay off $41,000 worth of payday loans in exchange for individuals attending in-depth financial counseling.

While such a kind act of service is incredible, it is very difficult to do on a large scale.

For starters, Alabama was recently ranked the eighth most debt delinquent state in the country with 41.7 percent of all Alabama households in delinquency or debt collections. With four out of 10 Alabama households in severe financial pain, church-supported relief would be greatly welcomed.

Large churches like Alabama's own, Church of the Highlands, may seem equipped to take on such a large task, but even Church of the Highlands can be outmuscled. In fact, most churches are ill-prepared to instantaneously lift such a heavy financial burden. This unpreparedness is mostly due to church size and congregational giving.

From a size perspective, most churches are small. According to the Barna Group, 60% of protestant churches have less than 100 adults in attendance while only 2% of protestant churches have more than 1000 adults in attendance. Based on those figures, large churches like the Worship Center and Church of the Highlands are an extreme minority and not the norm.

From a congregational giving perspective, church cash flows are small too. That may be a shocker to hear, but look at these figures on congregational giving for yourself:

American Christians, on average, give 1.5 to 3.1 percent of their income to their church and other charitable organizations.

Four out of 10 church attendees give nothing to their local church.

Only 1 out of 10 regular church attendees gives a consistent percentage of their income to their local church.

Only 4 percent of church-attending Christians tithe (give 10% of their income) to local church.

Compiled all together, people in our state are likely attending a 100-person church that annually raises between $35,904 and $74,201 in donations. If that's what church skeptics consider rich, then it's probably cringe-worthy to find out what church skeptics consider poor.

Despite those humble financial figures, local churches still do an amazing job for their local communities. There are marriages that are saved, children that are fed, and sicknesses that are made better. While most of these churches are not rich financially, for the people that are helped, their richness is immeasurable.

That's the type of richness we should all strive to have. And if we don't currently have that richness, guess what. It's free and available for an unlimited time in a heart near you.

Ben Baxter is a Tuscaloosa dweller, a Dothan native, an experienced engineer, and a regular contributor for personal finance and career development topics. He is also an elder for a local Evangelical congregation.
Alabama landed in the Top 10 of the number of guns reported lost or stolen from federally licensed dealers in 2015, according to a report released Monday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

With 481 firearms reported missing in 77 incidents, Alabama came in at No. 7. Nationwide, there were 14,800 guns reported lost or stolen. The statistics were compiled by ATF's Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information, and the report was made by the Firearms Tracing System.

Arkansas led the way with 2,951 guns reported missing. The report, however, said audits in Arkansas led to a high number of losses reported from that state.

The rest of the Top 10 is: Texas, 1,024; Florida, 700; Georgia, 683; South Carolina, 572; North Carolina, 532; California, 470; Indiana, 399 and Mississippi, 386.

In Alabama, there were 152 guns stolen in 13 burglaries; 50 taken in 27 incidents of larceny and two taken in a robbery. There were 36 loss reports filed, accounting for 277 guns.

Nationwide, pistols made up the largest group of guns taken with 5,399. Pistols were followed by: rifles, 3,436; revolvers, 2,393; shotguns, 2,063; receivers/frames, 1,185; derringers, 123; silencers, 105; unknown types, 48; machine guns, 30; combinations, 13; destructive devices, 3, any other weapon, 1 and tear gas launcher, 1.

The report doesn't list specifics of the thefts, but AL.com has reported several over the past year.

In May 2015, thieves used a sledgehammer to smash their way into a Pleasant Grove gun shop, stealing an undisclosed amount of weapons from the store. It was the third break-in at Pleasant Grove Gun Supply in less than two years. The suspects broke the front windows to gain entry.

In August, nearly two dozen guns were stolen during a weekend break-in at a Birmingham pawn shop. In that incident, someone broke into Scott's Jewelry and Pawn on Springville Road. About 21 firearms were taken.

Also in August, thieves smashed their way in to a Tarrant gun shop getting away with nearly two dozen guns. The burglary happened just before 5 a.m. at the Birmingham Pistol Pistol Parlor at 1833 Pinson Valley Parkway. Tarrant police Lt. Larry Rice said they responded to an alarm, and arrived to find the windows broken and weapons missing. "It was pretty much a smash-and-grab,'' Rice said. ATF said about 20 guns were stolen in the break-in.

In September, a dozen guns were stolen from a Birmingham indoor shooting range and shop. That break-in happened about 3 a.m. at Sentinel Firearms, 904 40th Street in Birmingham.

Anyone with information on any of the break-ins is asked to call ATF at 1-800-ATF-GUNS or 1-800-283-4867.
The son of a longtime Jefferson County sheriff's deputy was killed in a bizarre murder case in Texas over the weekend.

Alfred "Al" Armour, 37, was shot and killed at his tropical fish shop, Dynamic Reef Systems, early Saturday. According to Fox 4 News in Carrollton, Tx., Armour arrived at his business Saturday after a series of suspicious incidents in the previous days.

On Thursday, he discovered he'd been burglarized. His front door was broken, and an iPad was stolen, along with a very small amount of cash from the register. On Friday nearby businesses had a power outage and one business owner discovered his cameras were disconnected.

On Saturday, Armour received another alarm call at 1:15 a.m., according to the television station. Police came out and saw that this time the burglar smashed in a window to get in. The power was out and several of Armour's fish tanks were smashed, but nothing was stolen. Police left about 2:30 a.m., but Armour stayed to wait for a maintenance man to board up the front window. When maintenance arrived two hours later, the victim's truck was outside running but Armour was not at the business. Police were called and Armour was found dead.

Carrollton police on Monday announced a capital murder charge against 23-year-old Andrew Steven Gibson in Armour's death. Gibson owned a vape store near Armour's fish shop.

Andrew Steven Gibson

"Evidence indicates Gibson unexpectedly encountered Armour when he attempted to burglarize Armour's business,'' according to a Carrollton Police Department press release. Police said Gibson was taken into custody at his home business Sunday afternoon, and is being held without bond.

Jefferson County sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian said Armour's father, Deputy Alfred Armour, is a longtime member of the force. "He has been with us as long as I can remember,'' Christian said. "He is a friendly, quiet, unassuming man that is very well thought of. We are heartbroken for him and with him."

Al Armour's friends have set up an online GoFundMe account to help his family. "He was taken from his friends and family way too soon,'' the site reads.
People with outstanding warrants for failing to show up for court or violating their probation are being offered a break thanks to an upcoming amnesty program.

The City of Leeds has close to 2,000 outstanding warrants, said Laura Roberts, court clerk and magistrate supervisor. They will hold Amnesty Court on March 18 and 19 for defendants with failure to appear warrants or probation violation warrants.

During the Amnesty Court, the defendants can pay a reduced fee to have their warrants recalled. Indigent defendants will be eligible to have their warrants recalled without paying a recall fee. In order to have the fee waived, the defendant will be required to fill out an Affidavit of Substantial Hardship and provide supporting documentation (tax returns and/or proof of disability).

City officials held a preliminary Amnesty Court on Feb. 27, but only three people showed up. "Our goal is to reduce the number of outstanding warrants and give defendants an opportunity to take care of their legal issues with Leeds Court without going to jail,'' Roberts said. "It would take a tremendous burden off of the court and off of them. They won't always be looking over their shoulders for the police."

The court will be held Friday, March 18, from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday, March 19, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Defendants can call the court at 205-699-0913 for more information.

Roberts emphasized that court officials will not speak to third parties regarding a defendant's outstanding cases. They will only release information to the defendants. If officials are unable to answer their call, they ask that defendants please leave a message that includes name, phone number and date of birth.
Birmingham's Rotary Trail is one step closer to completion, with the erection of the replica of a "Magic City" sign that was torn down more than 60 years ago.

The original sign, located in front of the Terminal Station, was torn down after a city inspector said it required renovation or removal.

The words "Rotary Trail in the Magic City" were added to the sign Tuesday afternoon. The next step is adding electrical wiring, then red vinyl letters.

The design was done by Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood.

The 46-foot sign will play a major part in the opening of the Rotary Trail, scheduled for April 6 and marked by a ribbon-cutting and sign-lighting.

The Rotary Trail is considered an extension of Railroad Park, from 20th Street to 24th Street along First Avenue South. The trail follows a "railroad cut" through downtown Birmingham and includes walking paths, benches, landscaping, lighting, boardwalks, an amphitheater and more amenities.

The trail had been discussed and dreamed about for more than two decades when, in 2014, the Rotary Club of Birmingham announced plans to make the dream a reality. The decision came as a result of a search for the best way to mark the group's centennial.

The trail is one segment of a greenway that will ultimately connect the CrossPlex venue in Five Points West to Sloss Furnaces near the city center.
A man was stabbed during an argument with a woman in eastern Jefferson County today.

The assault happened just before noon in a parking lot near the 100 block of Haversham Drive in the Center Point area. Jefferson County sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian said they responded to a report of a man and woman arguing.

The man was armed with a handgun, and the woman was armed with a knife. Christian said the woman stabbed the man and left in a car. Initial police scanner reports said the man was seen limping away from the argument.

Deputies stopped the woman a short distance away. Christian said the man was found at a hospital, where he was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.

The investigation so far has shown that the pair was arguing and the man began to pistol-whip the woman. She stabbed him and fled.

Both are now in custody undergoing questioning. More information will be released as it becomes available.
Johnathan Austin Mayor-Council press conference

Last week, Birmingham City Council members learned that Mayor William Bell had submitted to state legislators suggested changes to the Mayor-Council Act adopted in 1962. "At no time in history has any mayor tried to undo what the citizens of Birmingham voted on more than 60 years ago," Council President Johnathan Austin said Monday during a press conference at City Hall. (Kelsey Stein | kstein@al.com)

Proposals to transfer power from the Birmingham City Council to the mayor would upset checks and balances while giving the mayor dangerous and unlimited authority, Council President Johnathan Austin said Monday.

Last week, council members learned that Mayor William Bell had submitted to state legislators, including Rep. Oliver Robinson, suggested changes to the Mayor-Council Act adopted in 1962.

The suggestions include making the mayor, not the council, responsible for appointments to the Birmingham Water Works Board and requiring the council to elect new leadership annually.

The Mayor-Council Act of 1955 was adopted through a referendum to establish a different form of city governance during a time of upheaval.

"At no time in history has any mayor tried to undo what the citizens of Birmingham voted on more than 60 years ago," Austin said Monday during a press conference at City Hall.

April Odom, spokeswoman for the mayor's office, said questions and concerns should be directed at legislators who would be sponsoring or discussing potential legislation.

"The mayor does not have a bill in the state legislature. He is the mayor," she said. "The Council President and Councilor [Lashunda] Scales should address their concerns to the Alabama State Legislature."

Austin said council members are concerned that no public input was solicited about potential changes to an act that is in place because Birmingham residents sought change decades ago. They ousted the city commission form of government, paving the way for the current mayor-council governance.

"That has worked, maybe not perfectly, but it has worked for the citizens of Birmingham for more than 60 years," Austin said. "The current state of affairs in the city is always going to be met with disagreements, and we may have different methodologies, but the end game is always serving the citizens of Birmingham."

Council members plan to call for a public hearing during which residents can offer their perspective on changes to the act.

Tensions are heightened each year during budget negotiations. This year was no exception, as the mayor and council clashed over how to prioritize limited funds and issued dueling memos and press releases about ongoing budget discussions.

During 2013 budget talks, Bell accused council members of intending to create separate government. More than a decade earlier, Bell himself was subjected to similar criticism during his tenure as council president, after losing a mayoral bid to Bernard Kincaid.

That was the last time such a bid for increased power happened, when Bell as council president tried to move certain mayoral responsibilities under the council's purview, Austin said.

"Now he's mayor and he wants to get all power from the council," he said.

In late 2015 and spilling into 2016, the mayor and council have been at odds over several proposed contracts for lobbyists and consultants.

The council has repeatedly voted down the mayor's request to hire Handprint Government Affairs to work on the city's behalf in Washington, D.C. The mayor for months would not sign a contract for lobbyist Darryl Perkins, citing concerns about paperwork that had not been filed enabling him to work as a lobbyist in Montgomery and Washington.

Austin refuted any claim that the council has been an impediment to the mayor, saying they have approved all but three of more than 6,000 items the mayor has presented over the past two years.

"The only problem I believe a potential bill is seeking to solve is that the mayor does not have absolute power," he said. "It would remove all checks and balances established by the mayor-council act. We as legislators, both in the city of Birmingham and in Montgomery, have to look at the future of the city of Birmingham. What happens when Mayor Bell is no longer the mayor? How will that person manage the city with all this power?"

Austin outlined several concerns Monday, saying that the proposal would give the mayor complete control of the city's $403 million general fund budget and $140.8 million capital fund budget; the authority to approve city contracts without council approval; and appointing power for all city boards and agencies.

He also noted a resolution the council passed in February promising collaboration with all local, state, federal, federal and international governing bodies "for the greater good of the citizens of Birmingham." The mayor has not expressed a willingness to negotiate or compromise, he said.

"I know where my colleagues stand on working with the mayor on any issue, and I can say unequivocally that we as the city council are willing to work with the mayor on anything, any issue," Austin said. "To say that the council is not working with the mayor is a complete fallacy."
UAB

UAB campus (Birmingham News file photo)

A student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has filed a federal complaint alleging that the school mishandled its investigation in a sexual assault case.

The woman - who asked to remain anonymous - filed the Title IX complaint against UAB in the past week. She says that school officials would not use the forensic sexual assault examination, or rape kit, in their investigation because no one is "trained at the university to interpret forensic data correctly," according to End Rape on Campus, a national survivor advocacy organization.

The assault happened in September 2014, and she knew the perpetrator, she told AL.com on Tuesday. Though it did not happen on campus, UAB's Student Violence and Sexual Misconduct Policy applies to any alleged violation that occurs off-campus "if it affects the campus or the access to education and the safety of a student."

She did not know until a year later that she could pursue protection under Title IX after watching a documentary called "The Hunting Ground" about sexual assault on U.S. college campuses.

Several people featured in the documentary later founded End Rape on Campus. She reached out to the organization, where people like co-founder Sofie Karasek helped her through the Title IX process.

UAB officials issued a statement saying they cannot address details of a specific investigation but outlining how the school handles such cases.

"Federal student privacy laws prohibit us from publicly disclosing details of a sexual assault investigation," the statement reads. "We work with appropriate parties on and off campus to review and ensure an appropriate resolution to any incident, as well as continue initiatives to educate and empower our students, faculty and staff to promote a campus culture that prevents and responds appropriately to sexual assault."

After the woman filed a complaint with the school, she was told that the investigations followed a 60-day timeline. That initial investigation took closer to three months, and the alleged perpetrator was given additional time to respond to emails and through attorneys, she said.

"I didn't know before I reported that I would go in swimming against the tide to begin with," she told AL.com.

She received the findings of the initial investigation in January, informing her that he had not been found responsible. A no-contact order was issued to prohibit interaction between the two.

"The school put the responsibility on me... saying I had to come in through the back of buildings, use the stairs, park farther away, use the medical school library instead of the undergraduate library," she said. "If we find ourselves in the same place, I am to remove myself from the situation. It's kind of ridiculous that they would put all that on me."

She is currently appealing her case on several grounds. Despite a 30-day timeline for appeals, she has not yet been informed of the outcome, she said.

Throughout the process, she said she has been treated as if she is lying about the assault, has been asked to turn over medical records, and has been met with defensiveness from school officials.

"That's something that I really thought about before I sat down and filed [the complaint] - that the way UAB has treated me is atrocious, and the way that they've gone about this process you would think that they've never done it before," she said. "I'm a strong person. I'm somebody who can take it but I'm not going to... Not everybody is strong enough to say 'You can't do that to me,' or has the ability to say that."

She has since connected with people on campus and in the city who provide resources for survivors of sexual assault with the hopes of improving the process for others.

"I know I probably won't get justice for my own case, but that's what has kept me motivated," she said. "This is not just about me... I hope to get this conversation started. People don't come forward because they get treated like I've been treated, and they don't want to be blamed when they already are traumatized."

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.

The complaints were filed in the past week against American University in Washington, D.C.; Indiana University Bloomington; Monmouth University in New Jersey; and UAB.

End Rape on Campus says that the details of each case are markedly similar. For example, no-contact orders between victims and perpetrators were not enforced, and several of the women have been subjected to ongoing retaliation.

Each investigation took "significantly longer" than the 60-day timeframe recommended by the U.S. Department of Education, the organization says.

"Ultimately, all of the survivors' perpetrators were either found not responsible or were given minimal sanctions, creating a hostile environment for the survivors and severely compromising their educational experiences," the news release states.

The Department of Education has several manners of following up on a Title IX complaint. It can investigate the case through the larger lens of the school's policies and practices or it can initiate an overall compliance review of the institution, Karasek said.

"If they think that there's a larger issue, that this wasn't just an issue in one case and that it could be something that's happening repeatedly, they can initiate a larger review of other cases," Karasek said. "We're not sure what the department will decide to do."

End Rape on Campus outlined the allegations:
Thousands of teachers take to the streets to demand better wages, leaving West Bank schools closed for nearly a month.

It is being described as one of the largest protests the West Bank has seen in recent years.

No Palestinian flags were raised, no rocks were thrown and there was no smog from burning tires.

This demonstration was not aimed against the Israeli occupation; it was held to deliver a message to the Palestinian Authority.

Thousands of teachers took to the streets of Ramallah despite the checkpoints erected by the PA security across the West Bank in an apparent attempt to limit participation.

They chanted for dignity and justice, vowed to continue their strike until their demands of higher wages, better benefits and new representation are met.

For nearly a month, the majority of the West Banks 35,000 teachers have been on strike, leaving nearly one million students out of schools.

Amid the crowds, reporters gathered around one teacher. We live on charity, sir, Mohammad Mustafa, an English teacher for the past 20 years was screaming to the cameras, addressing President Mahmoud Abbas.

We get hand outs from neighbours, they say these are the teachers children Thats what it means to be oppressed, thats the definition of bitterness, Mustafa, a married father of six, told Al Jazeera.

Palestinian teachers march demanding salary increases

Like thousands of teachers, Mustafa is struggling to make ends meet with a basic salary that doesnt exceed $500 per month.

Ali Rimawi is a newlywed whos been teaching economics for eight years. Hes also a tile setter.

He says he wished he could spend more time at home, but he has to have a second job to pay his dues. Its not only that our salaries are less than others, our annual raise is limited too. Compared to other government sectors, we have a serious grading issue, he told Al Jazeera.

The ministry of education is the second largest employer following the ministry of interior, with a budget of around $720m, most of which goes towards salaries. Any slight increase, some analysts say, would cost the government a lot.

But teachers furiously ask why should they pay for the austerity, while senior staff members get more privileges?

Over the past few weeks, the government offered to pay 25 percent of the teachers dues as per a 2013 agreement that was partially implemented; teachers say that is not enough. They demand the agreement be implemented in full, retroactively and within a clear timeframe.

Meanwhile, the government used mosques to urge teachers to restart their classes. It also waged warnings by taking administrative measures against strikers and tightened security to make it harder for teachers to reach protests in order to pressure them into ending the strike, to no avail.

What it didnt try, observers say, is talking to striking teachers representatives.

The government says it did talk to the union. But teachers accuse the union of siding with the government and say it no longer represents them.

They are demanding new representation and say the strike coordination committees are their new address.

Yet the government maintains itll only speak to a legitimate, elected body Until that happens, nearly 2,000 schools remain shut; along with an opportunity to solve one of the most serious internal crises facing the PA in years.
Idomeni, Greece  In an open field that stops abruptly at a barbed wire fence, a contemporary tragedy is unfolding.

The majestic landscape on the Greece-Macedonia border presents a sharp contrast to the heartbreaking stories of the thousands of refugees left in limbo on these roads. As they await for the borders to reopen so that they can continue their long journey towards central and northern Europe, the refugees dream of making a fresh start, away from the war, the famine, the bombings and the fear that plague their homelands.

Thousands arrive at the camp daily, but few are allowed to cross to Macedonia, which has been creating a bottleneck effect on the refugee flow to the North. In the last week of February, the number of registered refugees in the camp increased from 7,000 on Wednesday to 12,000 by Friday, as Macedonia began allowing a trickle of people through the border.

The atmosphere of sick and exhausted travellers and crying children strikes visitors to the camp of Idomeni. Despite the relatively mild winter, the number of refugees who suffer from various illnesses increases each day as they camp out on damp, muddy fields along the way.

On February 29, some refugees tried to breach the fence but the Macedonian police forced them back using tear gas. This kind of response doesnt help to calm tensions among the camp refugees.

There are people here changing the numbers on their priority sheets in order to go first, says Ibrahim, 35, a computer engineer from Damascus, but I can understand that. Everyone wants to escape from this open prison by any means.

READ MORE: An Afghan refugee in Europe: All I can do is pray
Surely the group bears some of the responsibility for the current state of affairs, but we ignore it at our peril.

Saskia Marsh is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Collective and a former UN official in the Middle East.

More than 10 years have passed since Israeli settlers withdrew from Gaza. Life for the average Gazan has become markedly worse since  exacerbated, some would argue, by the election of Hamas in 2006 and its physical takeover of the territory in 2007.

The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is moribund and, with conflicts raging elsewhere in the Middle East, world attention appears to have moved on. Political leaders and public opinion are tired of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of the intransigence displayed by both sides and the seemingly never-ending cycle of violence, destruction and despair.

Yet there are, very occasionally, glimmers of hope. There remain Israeli and Palestinian pragmatists who are still prepared to take tentative steps towards engagement with the other.

Western states should be doing all they can to support such openings for dialogue  even if it means engaging with unsavoury characters. That means both talking to Hamas and frankly reassessing unwavering support to Fatah.

Doing that would not automatically equate with politically naivety or becoming an apologist for terror. It lies in recognising that the pathway towards peace is a long, tortuous process  and a process that is only effective if all key players, including those with blood on their hands, are included.

Palestinian national unity  a red herring

The international communitys insistence on a Palestinian national consensus government  but one that does not include Hamas  has been not just ineffective but counterproductive.

This policy, it seems, has been predicated on the assumption that by supporting Fatah and isolating Hamas, Hamas might be forced to give up political and territorial control, which in turn might help advance the peace process between Israel and Palestine.

Instead, Fatah is more unpopular among Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, and has arguably become even less effective, than ever before  with concerns voiced that Palestinian Authority institutions are close to collapse. Israel has refused to engage with the now defunct Palestinian national consensus government, thus invalidating one of the supposed key reasons for its creation.

It is time to change the broken record on Western non-engagement with Hamas, and begin the hard work of bringing a terrorist group in from the cold and into the political process. by

Meanwhile Hamas, while financially weakened due to tightened Egyptian controls over money and weapons entering Gaza, and prone to internal leadership struggles, remains very much in charge. All evidence thus points to the fact that Hamas, however unpalatable it may be, is here to stay, and any future peace deal will need to include the movement.

Continuing pragmatism from Hamas

Various attempts have been made to conflate Hamas with extremist Islamic fundamentalist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This is both unhelpful and inaccurate. Let us not forget that entirely legitimate Palestinian aspirations for statehood lie at the heart of Hamas popular appeal.

There is, of course, undeniable evidence of violent extremist thought and action from Hamas. The central rationale for Hamas continuing international isolation is the movements 1988 covenant, which explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel.

However, there is also evidence of pragmatism from Hamas Gaza-based political leaders  in relation to both Israel and the question of Palestinian reconciliation. Previous gestures indicating a willingness to explore possibilities that lie beyond Hamas official position have tended to be resolutely ignored by Israel and Western governments, rather than viewed as potential openings for dialogue.

Former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is on record as saying that Hamas would respect 1967 borders  in effect amounting to an implicit recognition of Israel.

OPINION: Gazas jihadists can no longer be dismissed

A previous Egyptian-brokered agreement for Hamas to control rocket fire by other militant groups operating in Gaza  in exchange for Israel allowing more humanitarian goods to enter Gaza  was upheld by Hamas political wing.

It did so even when, as measured by data collected by Israeli authorities, the volume of humanitarian goods Israel allowed to enter Gaza actually decreased during the same period.

When it comes to the issue of Palestinian unity, and a viable agreement between Fatah and Hamas, seasoned commentators have noted that it is Fatah that has been most unwilling to compromise, with Hamas more willing to offer concessions (PDF).

This appears to be driven by a  probably incorrect  assumption on Fatahs part that Hamas days are numbered, and at least in part fuelled by the international communitys continued no questions asked support to Fatah.

Moderation prevails  but for how long?

Anyone who visits Gaza cannot help but be struck by the humanity of ordinary people. I recall taking a group of United States Republican Party Congressmen around Gaza who were astounded at the even-handedness of a grieving parent, who had just lost two children in an Israeli shelling. I want peace, and I want justice, said the father. No mention of revenge or of the destruction of Israel. Just peace and justice.

That moderation is being eroded  by a decade-long blockade on trade and movement in and out of Gaza that is stifling all opportunity, and all hope and through three wars in the space of seven years.

And that is not to mention the current absence of solutions to the core issues bedevilling the Israelis and the Palestinians: the fate of Jerusalem; Israeli settlements in the West Bank; assurances of Israels security; the Palestinian right of return; and the viability of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Surely Hamas bears some of the responsibility for the current state of affairs, but we ignore it at our peril.

It is time to change the broken record on Western non-engagement with Hamas, and begin the hard work  with, it should be said, no guarantee of success  of bringing a terrorist group in from the cold and into the political process.
Are Spains politicians capable of taking advantage of the most serious political deadlock since the death of Franco?

After the general elections in December, in which no party managed to obtain a majority to form a government, several political analysts warned that Spain was entering the rocky life of Italian politics.

The problem is not simply going to be the instability of coalition governments, which is still evident even in Italy today, but rather whether Spanish politicians are up to the job. Italian politics might have a bad reputation  from corruption scandals to unstable coalitions  but their politicians, formed in the best Machiavellian tradition, have always been able to turn political deadlock into opportunities to consolidate their positions.





Giulio Andreotti, Silvio Berlusconi and now Matteo Renzi are good examples. But are the leaders of the the traditional parties (Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sanchez) and newcomers (Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera) capable of taking advantage of the most serious political deadlock this nation finds itself in since the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in 1975?

To respond to this question, lets see who are the winners and the losers of this deadlock.

Political deadlock

In January, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused King Felipe VIs offer to form a government. His reasons were simple: even though his party  the Peoples Party  won a majority of seats (123) in the general elections, he could not find an ally to reach the 176 required for absolute majority.

ALSO READ: Reign in Spain  can Felipe save the monarchy?

Although he called upon the Socialist Party and the centre right Ciudadanos to form a grand coalition similar to the one in office in Germany, both Sanchez and Rivera, the respective party leaders, refused his offer.

While the former, who obtained 90 seats, believes the Peoples Party corruption charges prevent them from governing any more, the latter, who reached 40 seats, thinks Rajoy must be replaced by someone else within his party to respond to the political change Spaniards demanded in the elections by putting an end to the two-party system.

In these circumstances, the king had no option other than to ask the socialist leader to form a government in the hope that he could unlock this political impasse.

Contrary to Rajoy, Sanchez accepted the kings offer and in February drafted a document to bring together all the parties that could potentially be part of a progressive and pro-reform coalition.

These did not only include Podemos and Ciudadanos, but also the United Left and regional parties such as the Basque Nationalist Party and the Canary Coalition. As it turned out, only Ciudadanos signed the agreement and endorsed Sanchezs bid to become prime minister.

The king now has two options: either ask someone else to form a government, which seems unlikely, or wait for another formation to seek a new agreement. by

The kings options

While Podemos considered the deal futile since it did not include necessary economic measures to face the ongoing social crisis (unemployment remains over 20 percent) or urgent constitutional reforms (the admission of a referendum on the Catalan independence), Rajoy thought the agreement was simply not enough for an investiture or to form a government.

Sanchez, instead of working out a new agreement with Podemos, which seems its most natural ally in the eyes of the public opinion, decided to stick with Ciudadanos.

The outcome of the vote was inevitable: Sanchez lost a first vote in Congress last Wednesday and a second on Friday. What happens now?

According to Article 99 of the Constitution, the king now has two options: either ask someone else to form a government, which seems unlikely, or wait for another formation to seek a new agreement.

If this new agreement is not found within the next two months, the king will be forced to dissolve the courts and call on new elections.

As Rajoy recently told British Prime Minister David Cameron in informal talks, this second scenario seems to be the most likely, but it is not necessarily in his favour or in that of any of the other leaders.

Italian comedy

Already on Friday night, after Sanchezs second investiture failed, accusations and pressures began to emerge not only between parties, but also within them.

ALSO READ: Far-left Podemos has already changed Spain

For example, while Sanchez accused Podemos of giving Rajoy a second chance by voting against him, the latter accused Rivera and Sanchez of wasting public money with their hopeless agreement.

According to a poll released on Friday, Iglesiass decision to obstruct Sanchez investiture was considered a mistake by the majority of his supporters, as shown by the resignation in protest of one of his European deputies, Carlos Jimenez Villarejo.

As we can predict, Spaniards are becoming tired of this Italian comedy and might soon lose their patience. The fact that Sanchez and Rivera, contrary to Rajoy, at least tried to form a government now plays in their favour.

Even though they seem to be the winners of this political deadlock, it is unclear whether they will manage to convince Podemos through a new agreement.

The king, who is already under pressure becasue of his sisters involvement in corruption allegations, has two very complicated months ahead. Lets see if he doesnt lose his patience.

Santiago Zabala is ICREA research professor of philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He is the author and editor of, among others, The Future of Religion (2005), The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy (2008), Arts Claim to Truth (2008), The Remains of Being (2009), Hermeneutic Communism (2011, coauthored with G Vattimo) all published by Columbia University Press and translated into several languages.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Mir Quasem Ali was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

Bangladeshs highest court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a top business tycoon for war crimes, clearing the way for his execution within months.

Chief Justice SK Sinha announced in the Supreme Court that he had dismissed the appeal of Mir Quasem Ali, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Ali, a shipping and property tycoon, headed a media corporation aligned with Bangladeshs largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, before his arrest in 2012.



Mourners bury Bangladesh opposition leaders

He was convicted of running a militia torture cell that carried out killings, including that of a young independence fighter in the 1970s.

The court upheld his death sentence for the abduction and murder of a young freedom fighter whose body was dumped in a river, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the AFP news agency.

Defence lawyers say the charges against Ali were baseless and false, and they argued he was not at the crime scenes during the war.

The 63-year-old faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court, or he is granted clemency by the Bangladeshi president.

Three senior Jamaat officials and a leader of the main opposition party have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes, despite global criticism of their trials by a controversial war crimes tribunal.

The executions and previous convictions against other Jamaat officials plunged the country into one of its worst crises in 2013.

Tens of thousands of Islamist activists have clashed with police in nationwide protests that left some 500 people dead.

Ali, a former leader of Jamaats powerful student wing, helped set up a number of charities, businesses, and trusts linked to the party after it was allowed to operate in the late 70s.

The tycoon, who was arrested in 2012 on 14 war crimes charges, headed the Diganta Media Corporation that owns a pro-Jamaat daily and a television station.

The government shut down the television station in 2013 for inflaming religious tensions.

Jamaat and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have accused the government of using the war crimes court to target their leaders through phoney charges.

Rights groups have also criticised the trials, saying they fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight.
Djibouti logistics facility fulfils international obligations to protect shipping off the Horn of Africa, China says.

China has hinted that it is planning more global military bases after setting up a logistics centre in Djibouti, a move some analysts view as Beijings attempt to wield more global influence.

Djibouti  strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal  is already home to United States and French bases, while other navies often use its port. On the Horn of Africa, Djibouti has fewer than a million people but is striving to become an international shipping hub.



Chinas Xi Jinping in South Africa before the regional summit

China is building the logistics facility there to support its anti-piracy operations in the waters off Somalia and Yemen.

Speaking on the sidelines of Chinas annual congress meeting on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing was fulfilling its international obligations to protect shipping.

We are willing to  in accordance with objective needs, responding to the wishes of host nations, and in regions where Chinas interests are concentrated  try out the construction of some infrastructure facilities and support abilities, he said.

I believe that this is not only fair and reasonable but also accords with international practice, Wang added, without elaborating.

He also said China is not looking to supplant the United States.

China and the US regularly clash on everything from trade and human rights to Beijings claims in the disputed South China Sea. Candidates for this years US presidential election have routinely criticised Beijing.

China, the worlds second-largest economy, is seeking to expand its capacity to respond to growing threats to its interests abroad.

Beijing has been keen not to call it a military base, but state media increasingly uses this language to refer to it.
Beijing has conducted massive development in the disputed sea over the past two years and is accused of militarisaton.

Chinas foreign minister took a hard line on Tuesday on the countrys claims to virtually all the South China Sea, saying Beijing will not permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area.

Wang Yi, speaking to reporters at an annual news conference in Beijing, said another nations claim to freedom of navigation in the region didnt give it the right to do whatever it wants  an apparent reference to the United States, which has sent naval ships past reefs where China has engaged in island-building.

The South China Sea has been subject to colonial invasion and illegal occupation and now some people are trying to stir up waves, while some others are showing off forces, Wang said.

However, like the tide that comes and goes, none of these attempts will have any impact. History will prove who is merely the guest and who is the real host.



One Minute South China Sea

Wang sought to deflect allegations that China is militarising the region by building military facilities on the artificial islands. He said Chinas development there was defensive and that other nations were being militaristic  not China.

China has conducted a massive programme of land reclamation in the South China Sea over the past two years, piling sand on top of reefs then adding airstrips and military facilities.

When asked whether China would allow foreign journalists to visit those islands, Wang stressed that they were also intended for civilian uses and that once they are completed, foreign journalists would be invited.

Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including small islands that are hundreds of kilometres from its southern coast.

Four countries in Southeast Asia have unresolved territorial disputes with China over the South China Sea, which has important shipping lanes and is a potential source of oil and other natural resources.

In January, a US warship sailed into the area of sea containing the Paracel Islands group.

Officials in the US and Taiwan last month accused China of deploying an advanced surface-to-air missile system on one of the disputed islands.

Wang responded by saying news reports were being exaggerated by Western media outlets.
Mir Quasem Ali was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

Dhaka, Bangladesh  The top court upheld a death sentence on Tuesday imposed by the countrys International Crimes Tribunal on a leader of an Islamist political party for killing a freedom fighter during the 1971 war of independence.

In a short order read out by Chief Justice Surenda Kumar Sinha, the appellate division of the Supreme Court acquitted Mir Quasem Ali  a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami  of three other charges, including another offence that also carried the death penalty.

The court, however, upheld the convictions and sentences in six other cases.

So far, the International Crimes Tribunal  established in 2010 to prosecute those alleged to have committed war crimes during the bloody conflict with Pakistan  has convicted 24 people. Most convicted are leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, which in 1971 supported the military activities of the Pakistan military to stop Bangladeshs secession.



Bangladesh leader sentenced to death

Four men have now been executed.

The appellate division has passed this judgment properly after scrutinising the facts, documents, materials and evidence in the court, one of the prosecutors, Ran Das Gupta, told Al Jazeera. The inspiration of the people has been fulfilled by this judgment.

Jamaat-e-Islami called for a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest at the verdict

Alis family questioned the ruling.

The evidence presented against Mir Quasem Ali was self-contradictory and insufficient for a conviction, said Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, Alis son. Where the conviction itself has no basis, upholding of the death sentence is a travesty of justice.

Lead defence lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said, The judgment of the highest court of the law cannot be questioned. We will leave it to history.

He added once the full written judgment containing the legal reasoning is published, the defence lawyers will consider whether to seek a review. Ali will be hanged within months unless a review reverses the ruling, or if hes granted clemency.

MN Nahid Hossain, who came to the court to observe the proceedings, said the whole country is satisfied with the judgment.

The International Crimes Tribunal had ruled in its judgment in November 2014 that during the war Mir Quasem Ali was a leader of a pro-Pakistan militia, known as the Al Badr, and was in charge of a torture centre located at Dalim hotel in Chittagong.

The defence argued during Alis appeal that the prosecutions own documents showed from the beginning of November 1971, when all the offences for which Ali was convicted are alleged to have taken place, the Jamaat leader was in the capital, Dhaka.

The tribunal and executions have divided Bangladesh and plunged the South Asian nation into its worst political crisis in years.
At least 10 people killed in rival militias clashes in eastern town of Bambari, as insecurity in CAR persists.

At least 10 people have been killed in clashes between rival armed groups in Central African Republic, police said.

The violence in the eastern town of Bambari appeared to be in reprisal for the murder of two young Muslims by unidentified assailants on March 2, a police spokeswoman said on Monday.

We currently have a tally of 10 dead, including the two young Muslims whose death prompted the violence, the spokeswoman said, adding that a majority of the victims were civilians.

Observers had hoped President Faustin-Archange Touaderas accession to power on February 20 would close a three-year spiral of violence between rival groups that has left thousands dead and displaced more than 400,000 people.

The Mining town Bambari is a stronghold of mainly Muslim former Seleka rebels.

The city was the site of numerous inter-ethnic confrontations which left hundreds dead across 2014 and 2015 and forced thousands to flee.

But the violence receded under a transitional government supported by international peacekeepers, notably deployed by former colonial power France, and the United Nations.

Touadera, a former prime minister during the 10-year reign of former President Francois Bozize, whose was deposed in 2013 triggering the unrest, takes over a country rich in natural resources but mired in biting poverty as it seeks to rise above ethnic strife.

Impact on children

On Monday, the UN released a report warning that the ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic continued to have a devastating impact on children.

I am deeply troubled by the scale and nature of violations endured by children in the Central African Republic, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his latest report on children and armed conflict in CAR.

The UN documented the killing of 333 children and maiming of 589 others in attacks targeting communities for reprisals between January 2011 and December 2015.

The majority of these attacks were documented between 2013 and 2014, after the government takeover by the Seleka and the rise of anti-Balaka militias.

The surge in violations included large-scale recruitment and use of children and the targeting of children based on their religious affiliations.
Dr Denis Mukwege has helped thousands of women raped in war, but army officials say a film about him dishonours them.

Kinshasa, DRC  A documentary featuring a renowned Congolese doctor who assists rape victims in war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo has drawn the ire of the military with several high-ranking officers accusing it of dishonouring the armed forces.

Dr Denis Mukwege, 61, has helped thousands of raped women through surgery and psychological therapy since he opened his Panzi hospital in 1999 in the eastern town of Bukavu. Many suffered brutal sexual assault, including gang rape by soldiers and militias.

The two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee was profiled in the award-winning documentary The Man Who Mends Women, which initially was banned in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year.



DR Congo hospital awarded for helping rape victims

An army general  who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorised to talk to the press  denounced the film for making the military look like a militia made up of rapists.

A lot of officers think that the government stamped on their honour [by allowing the film], he told Al Jazeera.

The general said he was in shock and upset because the documentary sullies innocent people.

An army commander who operated in the DRCs restive east said the film had caused concern among the militarys rank-and-file.

The movie is really not liked in the east, soldiers think that they are being unfairly accused of being bandits, he told Al Jazeera, also on condition of anonymity.

The documentarys director, Thierry Michel, said clean soldiers dont have to feel targeted. He noted many rapists have never been brought to justice in the DRC.

They have never been punished and victims got no compensation. Impunity fuels resentment, hatred, and a feeling of injustice not compatible with a peaceful society, Michel told Al Jazeera.

Eastern DRC has suffered decades of conflict involving many local and foreign armed groups. In 2010, Margot Wallstrom  now Swedens foreign affairs minister, but then UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict  described the DRC as the world capital of rape.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mukwege said sexual violence in the DRC must be addressed as it is used as a weapon of war to destroy entire communities.

We shouldnt avoid talking about it  because it brings a disgrace on us and leaves women in total dishonour all their lives  instead of creating a mechanism to stop barbarity, he said.

In September 2015, DRC banned The Man Who Mends Women saying it portrayed the army negatively, but the decision was reversed a month later.

We decided that the part testifying to the suffering of Congolese women was interesting enough to forget about the negative aspects, Communications Minister Lambert Mende told Al Jazeera.

The general gave another reason for removing the ban on the film. This decision was made to avoid troubles with the West, he said.

Mende said the government understands the armys frustration with the documentary, because it did not sufficiently show the difference between the soldiers professionnally trained and the rebels the international community forced us to integrate into the army.

Mukwege expressed concern over the soldiers anger at the film. In 2012, he escaped an assassination attempt by unidentified gunmen and was forced into exile. Months later he returned for the women, he said, who relentlessly pressed him to come back.

He has since been living under the protection of UN peacekeepers.
Plan would be tantamount to blanket return of foreigners to third country, which is not consistent with law, UNHCR says.

Proposals to send back refugees en masse from the European Union to Turkey would contravene their right to protection under European and international law, agencies and rights groups say.

The UNs refugee agency, UNHCR, has criticised the plans drawn up by Turkey and the EU, saying they would amount to a violation of human rights.

The collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention of Human Rights, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs Europe regional director, said in Geneva on Tuesday.

An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return of any foreigners to a third country, is not consistent with European law, is not consistent with international law.

IN PICTURES: Refugee crisis  Bottlenecked on the Balkan route

On Monday, Turkey offered to take back all refugees and migrants who cross into Europe from its soil in return for more money, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel for Turks.

EU leaders accepted the offer in principle, with Donald Tusk, European Council president, saying the deal was a breakthrough that sent a very clear message that the days of irregular migration are over.

The next step for the EU-Turkey plans involves presenting the proposals to EU leaders at a key European Council meeting on March 17 and 18.

Improved cooperation

Ahmed Davutoglu, Turkeys prime minister, reaffirmed the plan at a meeting on Tuesday with his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras, saying that improved cooperation would reduce the dramatic scenes in the Aegean Sea to a minimum.

For his part, Tsipras said intensifying cooperation was very important.

However, the UNHCRs Cochetel said Europes commitment so far to resettle, on a voluntary basis, 20,000 refugees over two years remains very low.

Europe has not even fulfilled its agreement last September to relocate 66,000 refugees from Greece, redistributing only 600 to date within the 28-nation bloc, he said.





What didnt happen from Greece, will it happen from Turkey? Well see. I have some doubts, Cochetel said on Swiss radio RTS.

Turkey hosts nearly three million Syrian refugees  the most worldwide  and has done more than all the EU countries put together, he said.

But its acceptance rate for refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran  at about three percent  is very low, Cochetel said.

Nine in 10 of those arriving in Europe each day were Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fleeing for their lives who deserved international protection, he said.

We hope that the EU member states and Turkey will come up with a balanced agreement and that this balanced agreement wont be to the detriment of people seeking international protection.

Before the European Council meeting later this month, supplementary guarantees must be put in place so that those sent back to Turkey will have their asylum requests reviewed, Cochetel said.

OPINION: The EU can learn from Turkeys refugee experience

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alexander Betts, director of the Refugees Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, said the plan was a set of appalling proposals on all human rights and international legal grounds.

He said Turkey needs an asylum system that can guarantee the protection of refugees rights and the socio-economic integration of Syrian refugees before European leaders should consider returning refugees.

Deep concerns

Several other groups have also voiced deep concerns about the plan intended to stem the flow.

Save the Children, the UK-based charity, said that in Europe, one in four asylum applicants is a child.

Any returns of individuals who have not had their asylum applications properly considered, or who are returned to a country where they do not have the right to international protection, would be illegal under international refugee law, it said in a statement.

READ MORE: Syrian refugees  Single mothers fight to survive

For its part, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said European leaders had lost track of reality.





Aurelie Ponthieu, MSF humanitarian affairs adviser on displacement, said: Europe is willing to do anything, including compromising essential human rights and refugee law principles, to stem the flow of refugees and migrants.

It is time European leaders stopped fuelling the policy-created European migration crisis and provide the only realistic and humane response: safe and legal passage and humanitarian assistance and protection to those in need.

Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch, said: The integrity of the EUs asylum system, indeed the integrity of European values, is at stake.

Meanwhile, Iverna McGowan, Amnesty Internationals Europe head, doubts Turkey is a safe country to be sent to.

READ MORE: The plight of rejected Afghan asylum seekers

By no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a safe third country that the EU can cosily outsource its obligations to, she said.

The plans have been praised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as having the potential to hurting smugglers, a major cause of refugee deaths at sea.

Nearly 4,000 people have died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea since the start of 2015.

Merkels liberal refugee policy saw about 1.1 million asylum seekers arrive in 2015 alone.
Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces after allegedly attacking Israelis in East Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Four Palestinians have been shot dead in separate incidents after allegedly trying to kill Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

On the Mediterranean coast, an American tourist was stabbed to death and at least nine other people wounded by a Palestinian armed with a knife in the popular Jaffa port area of Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai told Army Radio that the attacker indiscriminately stabbed people before a police officer caught up with him and shot him dead.

The US state department strongly condemned the attack and identified the slain American as Taylor Allen Force.

As we have said many times, there is absolutely no justification for terrorism. We continue to encourage all parties to take affirmative steps to reduce tensions and restore calm, it said in a statement.

US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel late on Tuesday for a two-day visit, and was meeting former Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jaffa around the time of the stabbings.

Q&A: Facts about Israel and rules of engagement

Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman aged around 50 was shot dead after she drew a knife from her bag and tried to stab Israeli border policemen patrolling in the Old City of Jerusalem, according to police.

The Palestinian Maan news agency quoted a witness saying that Israeli officers shot her several times in al-Wad street, where she was left bleeding as the officers prevented locals and paramedics from accessing her.





Another witness said they saw Israeli forces shoot her from point blank range.

The policemen were not injured, spokeswoman Luba Samri said. She said the officers opened fire because they were in immediate and real danger.

Also in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian shot and seriously wounded two Israeli police officers before being killed, Israeli authorities and medics said.

The man opened fire on a group of police officers on Salah El Deen Street, near Herods Gate in occupied East Jerusalem, and wounded one, police said. He then fled and wounded another police officer before being killed.

A fourth Palestinian was killed after allegedly trying to stab an Israeli in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, Israeli police said.

US committed to Israels security
15-year-old girl fights for her life with burns on 95 percent of her body as sexual assaults continue in India.

A 15-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a New Delhi hospital on Tuesday after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her familys home in a village outside the city, police said.

The attack is just one of several recently reported cases of rape against women or children in India  underlining the persistence of such violence despite a public outcry three years ago that led to stronger laws to prevent sexual assault.

In the latest case, police arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly raping and attempting to burn the girl to death on Monday in Tigri village, near the New Delhi suburb of Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, according to Yadram Singh, of the Bisrakh police station.



Police fire water cannon at India rape protesters

Singh said the man had severe burns on his hands and was charged with several offences, including rape, attempted murder, assault of a minor, and causing grievous injury.

The girl was in critical condition in a New Delhi hospital, Singh said. Indian newspapers reported that she suffered burns on 95 percent of her body.

Singhs police report on the case describes how the girls parents found her after hearing her screaming from the rooftop terrace a few hours before dawn Monday.

The girl later told police that she was raped, beaten, and then set on fire by a man who she said had been stalking her for months, Singh said.

Indias women and children are considered particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and harassment because of widespread social taboos against speaking about sexual assault. The stigma is enough to keep many from even reporting crimes, while many others face police resistance in filing complaints.

OPINION: Rape and the Indian male

Analysts say that has started to change since the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 triggered national anger and demands that more be done on womens safety.

The government rushed through legislation to double prison terms for rape, and to criminalise voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. But activists say more action is needed, including better education in social responsibility for youths and adding basic safety infrastructure such as street lights and public bathrooms.
A campaign to increase the womens quota in parliament poses deeper questions about political representation in Jordan.

Amman  A campaign to increase the womens quota in Jordanian parliament was dealt a blow last week when Jordans Lower House voted down a proposal to increase the number of female representatives to 23, putting an end to weeks of campaigning.

The campaign, entitled Because she can  the country deserves, was spearheaded by the Jordanian National Committee for Womens Affairs. Campaigners and female MPs expressed disappointment at the outcome.

The discussions were democratic, MP Wafa Bani Mustafa told Al Jazeera. But I was frustrated about the lack of success  especially on the proposal on Article 8, which provides for increasing the number of womens seats.

The decision against the increase came amid debate over Jordans new election law, a crucial piece of legislation that will set the terms for national elections expected to take place towards the end of 2016. Under the draft bill that replaces the controversial one-person-one-vote system introduced in 1993, the country is split into 23 electoral districts. Citizens will vote for a multi-member list in their constituency, and will also be able to select their preferred candidates within that list.

IN PICTURES: Women in Jordan fight for their rights

Bani Mustafa, one of the 18 current female members of parliament, has voiced support for the campaign calling for one reserved seat for women in each of Jordans 23 constituencies, rather than its 15 larger governorates.

Historically we have never seen women from a citizenship approach. Women are seen as a minority, as a marginalised group and an add-on to society. by Salma Nims, head of the Jordanian National Commission for Women.

But for campaigners, the results of the deliberations have left a bitter taste. Salma Nims, the head of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, says that among other challenges, some conservative social elements have restricted the pace of change in parliament.

Historically we have never seen women from a citizenship approach. Women are seen as a minority, as a marginalised group and an add-on to society, Nims said.

Womens groups also say they did not have a strong voice in the debate over the draft election law.

We had to wait for the draft law to come out in order to know how to decide our moves, Nims told Al Jazeera. I think the draft law is actually below our ambitions. We should reach 50/50. We should look at a law that, for example, has women on the lists, that 50, 30 percent of the lists should be women. But the law itself did not provide for that.

Amid discussions over the new election law, the older one-person-one-vote system was criticised for encouraging voting based on tribal alliances, bribery and favours, and for marginalising political parties and bloc-building in favour of a fragmented, individualistic system.

Theres no form of programmatic or political party representation in parliament  it became a service-oriented parliament, Nims said.

When people vote based on tribal or personal loyalties in small districts, she explained, there is often an absence of critical voices in parliament.

You call your MP to get a job, or to have a street paved in your town  If you look at voters who are in their 20s and 30s, they are disillusioned. As a whole, they dont believe in the parliament as having a real role in reform.

OPINION: Women in Jordan  Awareness is only half the battle

Last Sunday, crowds gathered outside parliament with banners and slogans in favour of female representation, and MPs protested vocally when all members of parliament were not given a chance to speak during the two-hour debate on the issue.





Hind al-Fayez, a Jordanian MP, resigned after she was prevented from speaking against police brutality, which she said she had witnessed during the demonstration. Shortly after submitting it, however, she withdrew her resignation, saying it would be a victory for her political opponents.

Fayez later voiced frustration at a parliament that she said regards itself as a stamp for the decisions made by the Upper House.

This law will go to the Upper House and go through parliament without serious changes being made, but making changes is our job, Fayez told Al Jazeera.

[Parliamentarians] should be a filter  to see whats good, whats bad, to see how things can work in real life. But they see themselves as a gate.

Some MPs said that activists created a bad atmosphere by shouting and screaming during the protests and using an excessively forceful approach during the debate. Fayez rejects such criticisms.

Our job is to monitor and evaluate the government; our job is to listen to what the people want. The main concept behind an MP is that you have people behind political parties: people with ideas, a programme, a vision, she said.

If you dont have strong political parties, you wont have strong women or strong men in parliament, she added. Well see the same result, whether its 10 percent, 20 percent, 50 percent women. We need to go back to the roots.

Meanwhile, campaigners say the struggle for increasing female representation in parliament is still alive. Though the new electoral law has been passed by the Lower House, it has not been approved at higher levels and could still be rejected by the king and sent back for further debate.

Its creating at least a viable discussion at the public level. Suddenly its a national dialogue, Nims said. For me, its a good step regardless if we succeed or not. At least we succeeded in having a strong collective action within civil society.
Officials say Shahbaz Taseer, who was seized from Lahore in 2011, found in feeble health in a compound in Balochistan.

Pakistani officials say the kidnapped son of a top provincial official killed by his bodyguard has been found alive, just over a week after his fathers killer was hanged.

Shahbaz Taseer had been kidnapped by armed men, reportedly the Taliban, from the city of Lahore in August 2011, a few months after his father Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was killed for opposing Pakistans controversial blasphemy laws.

Aitzaz Goraya, the head of the Counterterrorism Department of Balochistan province, told AFP news agency: Yes, we have recovered him.

Acting on a tip-off, intelligence forces and police went to a compound in the Kuchlak district some 25km north of Quetta.

We surrounded the compound and we raided it. We didnt find anyone. A single person was there and he told us my name is Shahbaz and my fathers name is Salmaan Taseer.

Latest pics of Mr Shahbaz Taseer taken at Quetta,9:30 PM today.In full protection,he is hale and hearty pic.twitter.com/MqmfYtEzcX  Gen(R) Asim Saleem Bajwa (@AsimBajwaISPR) March 8, 2016

Goraya described Taseer, who is in his early 30s, as being in feeble health.

Separately, Inspector-General Ahsan Mehboob of Balochistan Police told Reuters: Shahbaz was recovered safe and sound.

Intelligence agents and counterterrorism officers found Taseer after receiving information he was at a hotel in Kuchlak, Mehboob said, adding that no arrests were made in the raid.

Last week Pakistan hanged Mumtaz Qadri, the police bodyguard who shot Salman Taseer 28 times in Islamabad in January 2011.

Analysts described the execution as a crucial moment in Pakistans long fight against armed groups, saying it demonstrated the governments resolve to uphold the rule of law rather than allow religious intolerance to flourish.

But Qadris funeral brought up to 100,000 people on to the streets who lauded him as a hero, highlighting the countrys deep religious divide.
Photos and videos of the animal have been circulating widely on social media.

A tiger has been spotted running loose on a highway in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Okay  now this is abnormal situation  pic.twitter.com/Smv4rkzN6n     (@Swaiidz) March 8, 2016

Photos and videos of the animal walking on Doha Expressway have been circulated on Twitter and Instagram.

The videos show the tiger with a chain around its neck and it appears to be an escaped pet.

It has since been brought under control, according to regional website The Peninsula Qatar. It is not yet known where the tiger escaped from.

@dohanews

MoI hs taken necessary steps to avoid any unwanted incident and a team is following the matter. stay calm pic.twitter.com/OLx2Uyhaz7  Baladiya (@Baladiya1) March 8, 2016

It is illegal to keep wild animals as pets in Qatar as well as the United Arab Emirates, which is a member of the Convention on the Illegal Trade of Endangered Species.

However, it is not uncommon for locals to have tigers and cheetahs as pets, often as status symbol.

Despite repeated warnings from the authorities, the enforcement of these regulations is patchy, according to Doha News.

Under Qatari law, those found breaking the law could face a prison sentence of six months and a fine ranging from QR1,000 to QR10,000 ($275-$2,750).
Group takes novel approach in country where distrust of police makes it hard to get victims to report their experience.

Mexico City  A group of Mexican women have taken a novel approach to deal with sexual harassment here in the countrys capital.

For the last three years, the women have been fighting back with a song called Sexista Punk and a confetti gun, confronting their harassers through performance.

We live in a world, where everything revolves around men. Were not interested in educating men. Our idea is the opposite, to educate women, Ana Beatriz, of the Daughters of Violence group, said

A few of the men the group confronted have apologised to the women, and the women say they are seeing some results.

Now, I feel more empowered and more confident about reacting. And I stopped being afraid of walking in the street, Ana Karen, another member of the Daughters of Violence, said.

There is no law in Mexico that punishes street sexual harassment. Even if there was any, in a country with a great distrust of the police, getting women to report their experience would have been especially difficult.

Even so, there are calls to enact a law.

Any changes in the law is going to take time. So, its very important to take direct action, to educate, to talk to other women, so that they can identify the harassment and they can ask for help, Yucari Millan of Habitajes AC, a womens rights group, told Al Jazeera.

The women are spreading their message through social media as well, and they said they have received support from across Latin America.

They said that they are hoping to spur a movement that is heard beyond the streets of Mexico.
A former missionary from Oklahoma convicted of sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya was sentenced to 40 years in a federal prison.

Matthew Lane Durham, 21, had faced up to 30 years on each of four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places was sentenced on Monday.

He was also ordered to pay restitution of $15,863.

Durham had served as a volunteer at the Upendo Childrens Home in Nairobi since 2012.

Prosecutors alleged he targeted orphans at the orphanage  which specialises in caring for neglected children  between April and June 2014.

READ MORE: Closure of Rwanda genocide orphanages exacts heavy toll

These were heinous crimes committed on the most vulnerable victims. He was their worst nightmare come true, US District Judge David Russell said while handing out the sentence.

Durham read a statement before sentencing in which he asked the court for mercy but did not express remorse for the offenses he was convicted of.

All I wanted was to follow Gods plan for me, Durham told the judge before adding that he he will try to commit himself to serving others while he serves his prison sentence.

We're hoping that when he comes out he will be a changed man by Eunice Menja, Orphanage's founder

Durham claimed he is innocent of the charges but said he was sorry that the accusations against him had damaged the orphanage and those it cares for.

The Upendo kids do not deserve this, Durham said.

Prosecutors said Durhams actions have had a chilling effect on the lives of dozens of foreign volunteers in Kenya and elsewhere who must now live under the cloud of suspicion, distrust and apprehension when they volunteer their time, talent and resources for the betterment of children in East Africa and beyond.

There is a real perception among Upendos local Kenyan community that more pedophiles lurk among the volunteers, especially the young male volunteers, prosecutors said.

A jury convicted Durham in June on seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, but Russell acquitted Durham on three of the charges in January.

The orphanages founder, Eunice Menja, read a statement in court Monday in which she said the sexual abuse was not only a betrayal of the Upendo mission but of the trust Upendo placed in him.

Matthew Durham defiled the children, Menja said as she fought back tears.

Matthew has no remorse. After he got caught, he still denied. Were hoping that when he comes out he will be a changed man.
Israel PM was offered a March 18 meeting with US president but has cancelled the trip.

Israel has disputed a White House claim that Benjamin Netanyahu surprised the Obama administration by cancelling a planned visit to Washington, putting more strain on their troubled ties in advance of a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden.

Netanyahus office says he was invited to address the pro-Israel group AIPAC but decided not to travel to Washington at the height of US presidential primaries.

On Tuesday, the PMs office said that Israels ambassador to the US had informed the White House last week there was a good chance Netanyahu would not make the trip.

A statement later confirmed that the Israel PM will not be visiting the US but appreciated Obamas willingness to host him.

The statement added that one of Netanyahus reasons for not travelling to Washington was his reluctance to be drawn into the US presidential campaign, where candidates have been vying to assert their bona fides as friends of Israel.

READ MORE: Boycott Israel movement gains support

A White House spokesperson said on Monday that Israel had requested a meeting and two weeks ago, Netanyahu was offered the March 18 date.

It was added that the Israeli PM had turned down the meeting.

The US-Israel relations are yet to recover from deep differences over last years US-led international nuclear deal with Iran.

With violence surging for the past five months, US officials have said no peace breakthrough is expected during Bidens visit.

In total, 183 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean have died in a wave of attacks since October 1.

Israelis say most of the Palestinians were killed while carrying out alleged knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Others were shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes or demonstrations.

Netanyahu has hailed Bidens visit as a sign of Israels strong relations with the US.
South African president on a state-visit seen as an attempt to mend relations between the African powerhouses.

South Africas President Jacob Zuma has arrived on a two-day state visit to Nigeria, a move observers see as an attempt to improve soured relations between the two African giants.

During the visit that began on Tuesday, Zuma is expected to address the Joint Session of the National Assembly of Nigeria, and will together with President Muhammadu Buhari address the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum.

Clayson Monyela, South Africas head of Public Diplomacy, told Al Jazeera the South African government believes the historic visit will send a powerful political message to the continent.



South Africa opposition wants Zuma tried for corruption

This will inject new life and energy into this important strategic relationship between the two countries and resolve the perceived tensions, Monyela said.

Zuma said Nigeria-South Africas relations were underpinned by strong historical ties dating back from the years of the liberation struggle.

Relations have been strained over the past few years. South Africas telecom giant MTNs Nigeria operation was handed a $3.9bn penalty in October 2015 for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.

The company, which is trying to negotiate a settlement, has so far paid out $250m but its headline earnings for last year have taken a hit as a result.

Other South African firms in Nigeria have reportedly complained of being targeted. There have also been official criticism of Nigerias response to a deadly building collapse in Lagos in 2014. Eighty-one of the 116 victims were South African nationals. Pretoria said their bodies were not repatriated quickly enough.

On the Nigerian side, there have been complaints about South African visa restrictions, while in April last year the two nations became embroiled in a spat over the recall of Nigerias two top diplomats.

In Abuja for a historic state visit. HE J Zuma is the 1st Head of State hosted by HE M Buhari since his inauguration. #SANigeriaRelations  Clayson Monyela (@ClaysonMonyela) March 8, 2016

The return of the high commissioner to Pretoria and consul-general in Johannesburg came after xenophobic attacks, about which Nigeria said it was deeply concerned.

Zuma will be accompanied to Nigeria by his ministers of trade and industry, international relations, defence, home affairs, and mineral resources, as well as captains of industry.

South Africans have never really wanted Nigerians

Observers have taken the presence of a strong ministerial delegation as a sign of a desire to resolve mutual complaints and possible deals to help Nigeria diversify its economy away from oil.

Under President Buharis predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria became Africas leading economy after a re-basing exercise of the gross domestic product.

But the global fall in oil prices has slashed government revenues, severely weakening the naira currency and driving up the cost of living.
Israeli security forces kill 50-year-old East Jerusalem resident after she allegedly tried to stab Israeli officers.

A Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli police in Jerusalems Old City after she allegedly tried to stab an Israeli police officer, the latest in a five-month wave of such incidents.

The 50-year-old Palestinian woman, identified as East Jerusalem resident Fadwa Abu Teir, died on Tuesday while being transferred to hospital, sources told Al Jazeera.

Israeli police said the woman moved towards border police officers, pulled a knife from her bag and tried to stab them near Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the walled Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.

Her death increases the Palestinian toll in the violence that started in October to 188, including 17 women, of whom seven were under-age.

Twenty-eight Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean were also killed.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians were killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

The Palestinian Authority says many of the victims were shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes or demonstrations.

The surge in violence erupted in Jerusalem in October after an increase of Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islams holiest site outside Saudi Arabia.

Many Jews revere the site as a vestige of their biblical temples.

Riots swiftly spread to the flashpoint southern West Bank city of Hebron, where hundreds of Jewish settlers live under Israeli army guard among 200,000 Palestinians, and to other places across the Palestinian Territories and Israel.
UN expresses concern for refugees safety as EU leaders announce agreement after marathon negotiations in Brussels.

Turkey and the European Union reached an agreement on a proposal to tackle the massive influx of refugees into Europe, as the United Nations expressed concern about the deal on Tuesday.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said the leaders had made a breakthrough that sent a very clear message that the days of irregular migration to Europe are over.

The announcement came at the end of a long day of meetings in Brussels, during which Turkey is known to have asked for an additional $3.3bn in return for checking the flow of refugees across the Aegean Sea.

The next step involves the presentation of the proposal to EU leaders at a key European Council meeting due to be held on March 17 and 18.

READ MORE: Calais refugee camp  destruction resumes at The Jungle

The UN said it had reservations about any deal involving the blanket return of all individuals from one country to another, without their protection under international law being spelled out adequately.

Legal safeguards would need to govern any mechanism under which responsibility would be transferred for assessing an asylum claim, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

Europes commitments to resettle refugees remained very low compared to the needs, 20,000 places within two years on a voluntary places, it said.

Turkey is due to receive $3.3bn until the end of 2018 to cover the costs of dealing with refugees, but it reportedly asked for double the amount during Mondays talks.

Martin Schulz, head of the European Parliament, confirmed that the request for additional money came at the summit between Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkeys prime minister, and EU leaders.

After protracted negotiations, Martin Selmayr, spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said on Twitter: Deal. Breakthrough with Turkey.

Another statement, from the Twitter account of Xavier Bettel, Luxembourgs prime minister, said: President of #EUCO will take forward the proposals and work out the details with the Turkish side before the March #EUCO.

Grand bargain

The agreement could see Turkey and the EU cooperate to end the flow of irregular refugees to Greek islands and start resettling Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to the EU.

In exchange for readmitting refugees from Greece to Turkey, Brussels is expected to grant Turkish citizens the right to travel to the EUs Schengen zone without a visa by end of June 2016.

The Turkish government is also trying to secure the countrys EU membership.

Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well, Davutoglu said before the summit.

Turkey is a temporary home to an estimated 2.75 million refugees, many from the conflict in Syria.

It is also a transit country for waves of people heading to Europe from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.





We are not sending them. They are going [to Greece] by sea and many of them are dying, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkeys president, said, criticising the EU for its reluctance to take in more refugees as well as its demands on Turkey to halt the flow of people.

We have rescued close to 100,000 from the sea. Others are puncturing their boats and causing their deaths.

On Sunday, at least 25 people drowned off the Turkish coast while trying to reach Greece.

The Greek coastguard launched a search-and-rescue mission for people believed to be missing from the accident near the Turkish town of Didim.

At least 15 people were rescued and brought to land in the care of emergency aid workers.

About 13,000 people are living in precarious conditions in Greece as they wait for authorities to let them into Macedonia so they can move towards Western Europe.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says a humanitarian crisis is quickly unfolding at the border, with refugees living in makeshift camps and in the open, as authorities allow only 250 a day to pass through.

More than one million asylum seekers have arrived in Europe since the start of 2015  the majority fleeing the war in Syria  with nearly 4,000 dying while crossing the Mediterranean.
Mogadishu, Somalia  Somali rebel group al-Shabab has denied claims by the US defence department that more than 150 of its fighters were recently killed in air strikes.

Washington said on Monday that it had carried out several strikes in southern Somalia on the Raso training camp, in which it claimed more than 150 of the al-Qaeda-linked groups fighters died.

The Americans are dreaming. We never gather that many of our fighters in one place. We know the security situation, Abdulaziz Abu Musab, the groups military operations spokesman, told Al Jazeera in a phone call on Tuesday.

Yes, the attack happened and it happened at the location they mentioned, but the number they are telling the world is a lie, Musab added.

What does al-Shabab want?

The armed group, which is fighting Somalias internationally recognised government, has recently attacked and overrun military bases belonging to the African Union peacekeeping mission, AMISOM.

The US air strikes occurred at 14:00 GMT on Saturday at a camp about 130km from Belidogle airport in the Lower Shabelle region  a major base for AMISOM troops. American soldiers are also present at the Belidogle base.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said: The fighters were there training and were training for a large-scale attack  We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and [African Union] forces.

It was an air operation. Initial assessments are that more than 150 terrorist fighters were eliminated.

Al-Shabab on January 15 attacked and captured an AMISOM base home to Kenyan troops in El Adde, southwestern Somalia. The group killed dozens of Kenyan troops and captured several soldiers.

The group also carried out a similar dawn raid on an African Union base in September 2015, killing 20 African Union soldiers.

They also overran a Ugandan army-run base in Janaale, about 90km southwest of the Somali capital.

In June 2015, the group captured another African Union base in Lego, killing dozens of soldiers and seizing weapons and ammunition.

The group has lost control of most towns and cities in the country but continues to carry out attacks. Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu in August 2011.

Follow Al Jazeeras Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa
Training centre in Johannesburg helps high-school graduates to find work in country with jobless figure of 25 percent.

Johannesburg  Rising unemployment levels is a challenge confronting most African countries.

Over the next 30 years, almost 400 million young people could be jobless across the continent.

Yet most African economies are not growing fast enough to meet the demand for employment.

Take South Africa. The official unemployment rate in the country is at least 25 percent.

According to the South African Graduates Development Association, there are more than 600,000 unemployed graduates.

Against this grim backdrop, a training centre in Johannesburg is hoping to help high-school graduates find work.

The Southern Africa Youth Project, located in the township of Diepsloot, teaches graduates basic technical skills such as computer courses to help them find employment.

Neftaly Malatjie, who owns the training centre and employs a few workers, points to some of the difficulties facing job seekers.

When you say there is an opportunity, an opportunity that wants five people, you find yourself with over 2,000 people who apply for that opportunity, he told Al Jazeera.

Many young people are now distressed. They have lost hope.

Rose Ringane, a geology university student, says she is aware of the tough prospects before her.

Its going to be hard for us to get a job, she told Al Jazeera.

But what can we say? Its South Africa. A person must have a Plan B and C. I am aware I might not get a job.
Accusation comes as Seoul announces new unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang amid escalation of tensions.

South Koreas spy agency on Tuesday accused North Korea of hacking into the smartphones of dozens of key officials, stealing text and voice messages and their call logs.

The announcement came a day after North Korea warned of nuclear strikes in response to the start of Seoul-Washington military exercises it views as an invasion rehearsal. This years manoeuvres are the largest ever, meant to respond to the Norths recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.



Tensions high as South Korea accuses Pyongyang of provocations

The National Intelligence Service said in a statement that the cyberattacks were made between late February and early March.

It didnt say which officials phones were hacked or whether the stolen text and voice messages contained any sensitive information.

The statement said North Korea also unsuccessfully tried to hack into email accounts of South Korean railway officials earlier this year, in a preparation for cyberattack on the Souths railway transport control system.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea

Seoul has accused Pyongyang of launching a series of cyberattacks in recent years. Pyongyang has denied the claims.

Meanwhile, South Korea announced new unilateral sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday amid the escalation of tensions on the peninsula, including import-export restrictions

First, we are expanding the scope of financial sanctions related to North Korea. Second, we are strengthening maritime regulations, said Lee Suk-joon, minister for government policy coordination.

Many alleged North Korean cyberattacks failed to infiltrate computer systems of businesses and government agencies.

But in several successful cases, also denied by North Korea, hackers destroyed hard-drive disks, paralysed banking systems, or disrupted access to websites. One of these attacks was so crippling that a South Korean bank was unable to resume online banking services for more than two weeks.

In 2014, the United States accused North Korea of a cyberattack on Sony Pictures over a movie depicting the fictional assassination of the Norths leader, Kim Jong Un. North Korea has denied any involvement in the hacking.

Last year, South Korea said North Korea has a 6,000-member cyber army dedicated to disrupting the Souths military and government. The figure was a sharp increase from a 2013 South Korean estimate of 3,000 such specialists.
Troops deployed across jungle state of Bolivar to search for 28 men who relatives say were killed by gang of criminals.

Opposition politicians are demanding that the Venezuelan government increase its efforts to determine the fate of a group of missing miners.

More than 1,000 soldiers fanned out across the southeastern jungle state of Bolivar to search for the 28 miners who relatives say were disappeared and dismembered by a gang on Friday.

Francisco Rangel, Bolivar governor and a government ally, has apparently switched positions after initially accusing the opposition of politicising the event.

Willing to investigate

Al Jazeeras Virgina Lopez, reporting from Caracas on Tuesday, said that while Rangel did not have any evidence to confirm the miners deaths, he was willing to investigate the matter.

She said the opposition is claiming the miners were killed by criminals who have control over mining deposits.

These criminal gangs often operate in cahoots with the military. Its the only way that can explain why these gangs are so heavily armed and also seem to operate with complete impunity, she said.

Families and people who say they witnessed the deadly attack have accused law-enforcement agents of participating in the crime, the Associated Press news agency said.

Americo de Grazia, a politician, said that given the number of missing miners, the reported atrocity could have happened only with the complicity of local officials.

However, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuelas defence minister, has rejected the charges.

We know very well who is behind these accusations, and we wont fall for the provocations of the old political establishment, he said.

We wont rest until we know everything about the incident, which is abhorrent to all Venezuelans.

READ MORE: Venezuela opposition asks neighbours to mediate in crisis

Separately, the opposition has launched a campaign aimed at toppling President Nicolas Maduro before the end of his term.

It wants to implement a three-pronged plan supplemented by a constitutional amendment reducing the presidential terms.

The opposition claims that the government has kidnapped all of the states institutions and that any attempts to modify the constitution would be blocked by the Supreme Court, Al Jazeeras Lopez said.

They are saying that a change is needed and they are going all out.

Opposition to the Maduro government has grown as Venezuelas economy flounders under the weight of low oil prices and poor economic management.
Back in 1997 when Introducing Jim Rotondi announced that a major new trumpeter star was on the ascent, few could have predicted how important and prolific Rotondi would become to the mainstream landscape. A foremost stylist in the lineage of Freddie Hubbard and Wood Shaw, Rotondi quickly proved he had absorbed the legacy, only to jettison imitation in favor of innovation. Working regularly with his own groups and the hard bop ensemble One For All, Rotondi was a major force in New York before heading to Austria to teach in 2008.Since becoming an expatriate, additions to the trumpeter's discography have been few, making Dark Blue such a welcomed addition to his oeuvre. Having already formed a strong union with vibraphone masteron 2001's Destination Up and 2010's 1000 Rainbows, there's no doubt that this front line packs quite a punch. Furthermore, pianisthas been a regular associate of Rotondi's for many years. The ringers here are bassistand. In fact, the drummer's work is quite a surprise. Allen's approach is somewhat the polar opposite of the splashier, Rotondi's usual trap man of choice. Nonetheless, Allen eagerly steps into the trumpeter's sphere of influence for some of his best work to date.Dedicated to his new home base, "In Graz" is a bristling flag waver with an ascending/descending six-note riff that leads right to Jim's authoritative statement. Notice how he paces himself while giving full weight to each of his notes, regardless of tempo and extreme of register. The following "BC" is for Canadian club owner and musician Cory Weeds and it too speaks with clarity of purpose, something that seems to be rare these days. In other words, Rotondi wears his hard bop on his sleeve at a time when some consider such a thing passe. Regardless, nothing beats musicians of this caliber working on a strong program of original material and innovative arrngements.On several cuts Hazletine switches over to Fender Rhodes and the results are splendid, adding yet another splash of color. Working in a straight eight-note groove, both "Biru Kirusai" and "Our Day Will Come" simmer with funky overtones and add variety to an already disparate program of mainly originals inspired by Rotondi's experiences touring the world. Given consideration after hearing up and comermake it his own, Jim takes "Pure Imagination" into waltz time with a fiery solo the cooks from start to literal finish.Serving as the ballad of the set, the title track is a textbook example of pacing and attention to tone. Rotondi has the chops to do this kind of thing in autopilot mode, but that is just not his style. He is always to be found in the moment and Allen's choice of sticks to usher in the middle section is a truly sagacious choice. The loping groover "Going to the Sun" closes the proceedings and calls attention to the chemistry of Locke and Hazeltine. Having two chording instruments can be a challenging proposition in lesser hands, yet this pair knows when to get out of each other's way and each contributes his own share of memorable solo spots. Bravo, Jim. All that can be said is "keep them coming!"
Alfredo Dias Gomes pays an exquisite homage to the greats that inspired him throughout his career in his album Looking Back, a labor of love to, and more. His powerful drum beats match every saxophone note and guitar riff. Gomes also bravely adds his signature drum exhibitions to his heroes' works, making them more alive and pulsating."Red Baron" is like a melting pot of electrifying riffs, sizzling saxophone, and ferocious drum beats where everything is in sync, creating something splendid that would make Cobham proud. Guitarist Yuval Ben Lior, saxophonist Widor Santiago, and Gomes each have their own shining moments in the track. It's jazz fusion taken to a whole new level with each instrument showing off different intensities without overshadowing each other's unique sound."Nite Spite" begins with fast and feisty drumming that later merges effortlessly with energetic saxophone and emphatic riffs. Gomes masterfully demonstrates how he has sharpened his craft in this cover. His furious rhythms and inexplicable dynamics shows the depth and breadth of his talent. He makes this Corea original even more riveting and prodigious. Gomes remakes's "A Remark You Made" with fluttering beats and sublime saxophone accompaniment. Rippling keyboards and saccharine guitars make this song sweeter than it already is. The entire track offers a suspension of disbelief where every scenario is ideal, romantic, and altogether dreamy."500 Miles" is an enthralling version of the Corea classic. A slow piece, it showcases the mesmerizing work of pianist Lulu Martin, whose command of the keyboard is impressive and every bit enchanting. Coupled with Santiago's saxophone and Gomes' drums, the result is a blissful song that is transcendent in rhythm and tune.Gomes takes the creations of his muses and makes them his own. His collaboration with different artists shows that his talent can not only standalone but complement others as well. Gomes highlights the very elements that make these songs great before elevating their grandeur to new heights.
Researcher finds possible ancestor of modern chameleon

A Florida Museum of Natural History researcher has helped discover the fossilized remains of a dozen lizards encased in amber from 99 million years ago.

The findings were published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The fossils were sent to the American Museum of Natural History, said Edward Stanley, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History. He and other researchers used a micro-CT scanner to find the small fossils.

A 3-D printer at UFs Nanoscale Research Facility was used to enlarge the images from the scanner, he said. This helped researchers better understand their anatomy.

We could dissect them without harming the original specimens, he said.

The amber, which acted as a protective bubble around the fossilized specimens, preserved the lizards, he said. Researchers could see more detail than in previous fossils.

This helps us date the age of various different events in the lizard tree of life, Stanley said.

He said he believes they found the ancestor of the modern chameleon.

This chameleon is interesting because it isnt actually a chameleon, Stanley said. It is an animal on its way to becoming a chameleon.

Stanley said he expects these new fossils will help with research.

This discovery does a lot for us, he said. Its a missing link.

- Meryl Kornfield

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Research shows South Florida buildings at risk of termites

Two UF researchers found half of South Florida buildings could be at risk of infestation from below-ground termites by 2040.

Two invasive termite species, the Asian and Formosan subterranean termites, pose the largest threat, said Nan-Yao Su, a UF professor of entomology. The research team determined the growth of the subterranean termite population by comparing the current population size to the past, using studies conducted in the 1980s, Su said.

The colonies can be up to 300 feet long and contain millions of termites, Su said. The termites live in the ground and eat the wood in buildings.

Su said South Florida is more at risk than other areas of the country because of its high temperatures, which leads to a longer and more active period for termites.

Su said he has seen roofs collapse because of termites.

He said climate change, not rising sea levels, is one reason more South Florida structures will be at risk. Rising temperatures also allow termites to move north.

Subterranean termite populations can be controlled using bait, he said. A slow-acting pesticide is spread throughout the colony, killing the termites.

Pesticides can also be injected into the soil. This is not as effective, however, and they usually move to the next available structure close by, such as a neighbors house, Su said.

Anything that is wood is at risk, he said.

- John Avery Guyton

Study finds positive relationship between alligators and birds

A study has found there is a positive relationship between alligators and wading birds.

UF researchers knew alligators protected wading birds nests from predators, but they were curious to know if alligators benefitted, said Peter Frederick, a researcher and professor in the UF wildlife ecology and conservation department. They found female breeding alligators near nesting sites to be healthier.

To conduct their study, UF researchers caught 39 female breeding alligators in the Everglades, he said. During the two breeding seasons the research was conducted, researchers discovered alligators under a bird colony weighed significantly more.

This was because wading birds produce more chicks than are able to survive, Frederick said. The alligators use chicks who dont survive as food. This allows the alligators to be healthier for their breeding season.

I was not surprised by the fact that there are positive interactions, Frederick said. But I was very surprised by the strength of the interactions.

It is estimated that the food produced from the chicks could support the entire female alligator breeding population in the Everglades, said Lucas Nell, a former UF wildlife ecology graduate student who headed the research.

Frederick said the research will help scientists better understand the alligators and wading birds relationship.

I think this contributes to our general knowledge about the way ecosystems work, he said.

- Monica Humphries
UF students will help veterinary students in Ecuador start a program to help animals this summer.

Students in the College of Veterinary Medicine started volunteering in Ecuador in the 1990s through the veterinary division of UFs Project HEAL (Health, Education, and Learning), which provides free animal care to residents of impoverished areas.

This June, UF students will help veterinary students at Universidad Central in Quito, Ecuador, set up their own HEAL program to help members of local communities.

The annual trip to Ecuador costs more than $1,000, not including lodging and bus. This year, 17 students will spay and neuter animals for 10 days.

In past years, UF veterinary students have partnered with the Universidad Central to provide services for animals in Quito, said Owen Rae, Project HEALs advisor.

He said students on the trip work with limited resources, sometimes performing operations without electricity.

A school room without windows or electricity can become an exam room, a surgical preparation room, he said.

Daniela Isaza, treasurer of Project HEAL, said students rely on surgical supplies donated by companies.

We dont have access to the same things we have access to over here, the 25-year-old said.

Jennifer Katona, president of Project HEAL, said she went on the trip last year and has been planning this years trip since July 2015.

We go every year to do three days of spay-and-neuter and two days of large animal health, the 24-year-old UF veterinary graduate student said. We see all types of animals, all the way from guinea pigs to pigs, sheep, horses, cows, dogs and cats, the occasional alpaca or llama.

While the trip focuses on performing spay-and-neuter operations, Katona said students also perform wellness checks on animals.

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Last summer, Project HEAL provided care to more than 160 small animals and 300 large animals.

She said she is looking forward to helping more animals this summer as UF students help the students of Universidad Central start their own HEAL program.

The people of Ecuador are lovely and they have a lot of animals, Katona said. But we can definitely help, and it is definitely a rewarding experience.

UF students in the veterinary division of UFs Project HEAL (Health, Education and Learning) pose for a photo with Ecuadorian farmers. UF students are helping Ecuadorian veterinary students set up their own HEAL program to provide free animal healthcare to residents of impoverished areas.
UF students fought the wind to light candles Monday night to show that black Muslim lives matter.

About 20 students gathered on Turlington Plaza to honor three young men  Mohamedtaha Omar, 23, Adam Mekki, 20, and Muhannad Tairab, 17  who were killed execution-style in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Feb. 24. The vigil was to honor the young men and draw attention to their deaths, said Yasmin Ali, who organized the event.

Students said a traditional Muslim funeral prayer and held signs reading #BlackMuslimLivesMatter and Our Three Brothers.

Ali, the vice president of internal affairs for Islam on Campus, said she didnt know about the murders until days later. She said the Fort Wayne shootings didnt receive extensive coverage because the victims were black.

Were here today to honor their lives and amplify their stories, said Ali, a UF biology junior. They were not into drugs, gangs or any type of violence as kind of was insinuated by the media.

Emma Green Cupping a candle given to him at the vigil, Rashhan Siddique listens as Islam on Campus leaders speak about the injustice of recent crimes against black people. "It goes to show how the situation is for Muslims as well as blacks," he said.

Omar and Tairab were Muslim, while Mekki was Nubian Christian, the 20-year-old said. Police in Fort Wayne have said the murders were not a hate crime, according to CBS News.

After lighting candles, students donned hijabs and stood in two lines to recite a janaza prayer, a prayer for funerals that can be said when bodies arent present, Ali said.

It really brings the community together to acknowledge and have a closure on their death, she said.

She said the crime resembled the murders of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, last year. Last year, about 100 students attended a vigil for the Chapel Hill victims.

Ali said attendance might have been low because the murders happened more than a week ago. She said there could also have been fewer people because the victims were black.

Its not one or the other; its more that this vigil should have more weight and impact in the community because its two very discriminated groups, she said. There was clearly a difference, and I think we need to acknowledge that.

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Emma Green Rashhan Siddique, a 21-year-old UF electrical engineering junior, leads a prayer Monday night on Turlington Plaza for the people who were killed in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, murders last week. "When I first heard about it... what hurt me the most is that there wasn't much media coverage of it," Siddique said.

Hayat Kemal, a UF sociology junior, said she related to the victims because she is an African-American Muslim. She said the shooting made her fear for her 15-year-old brother.

It makes me scared for the world we may be living in later on, the 20-year-old said. You want to believe society is progressing, but were really taking ten steps back.

She said the Muslim community should support the Black Lives Matter movement.

I personally feel that someone whos Muslim is more hated than someone whos black, she said. When those two things are combined, its almost a death wish.

Omar Khan stands alongside other members and supporters of Islam on Campus on listening to the details of the late February slaying of three men in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The 21-year-old mechanical engineering junior said the fact that he didn't know about the murders until now spoke volumes, and he hoped the vigil would bring a little light to the subject.
When I first mentioned my trip to El Salvador to friends, family and acquaintances, the overwhelming majority of responses followed a certain pattern. First came the raised eyebrows, then the inevitable question: Is it a mission trip? After my subsequent response that, no, I wasnt about to build a church or spread the good word, came the warnings. Ill catch the Zika virus. Ill be kidnapped and held for ransom. Ill get food poisoning. They ranged in degree of severity and types of consequences, but they all stemmed from a pervasive fear of less-developed countries despite supposed good intentions.

Let me start off by claiming I am not an exceptionally adventurous person. I dont actively seek out opportunities to push myself out of my comfort zone, yet when Im presented with one, its unlikely Ill turn it down. So when my best friend offered her familys home country as a potential Spring Break destination, and I successfully placated my mothers fear, the flights were booked.

El Salvador is a country plagued with violence and poverty: I knew that. A cursory Google search for El Salvador reveals a variety of anxiety-inducing headlines, most citing rising murder rates, gang violence and travel warnings for U.S. citizens. Editorials like The Guardians One murder every hour: How El Salvador became the homicide capital of the world detail the effects criminal gangs have had on a country already haunted by a recent civil war and widespread poverty. So, I prepared myself for a slightly different trip than the Royal Caribbean cruise on which so many of my peers would be guzzling overpriced drink packages.

It was undeniably dissimilar. Driving out of the airport, we were surrounded by makeshift homes of discarded sheet metal, truck beds packed to the brim with passengers and unsmiling guards clutching AK-47s. The line to apply for an American visa stretched for blocks past the U.S. Embassy. Barbed wire and 20-foot walls surrounded every home and school. We had to strip ourselves of any and all jewelry before stepping outside the front door. Salvadoran friends discussed armed robberies in unaffected voices, characterizing them as inevitable realities.

Despite all this, I never felt unsafe.

This could stem from a couple of different sources. For one, I may just be oblivious. Additionally, I was constantly surrounded not only by friends, but also by El Salvadorans who were so overwhelmingly caring and generous that homicide rates and barbed wire were the last things on our minds. But more than anything else, it was the sheer beauty of the land, customs and people that erased  if only for a moment  the lurking presence of danger beyond the walls.

Coming face-to-face with a country that has so much to offer yet cannot seem to escape a cycle of violence and oppression is a jarring experience. Above all, it forces you to re-evaluate your privilege, perspective and sheer luck. In the words of my best friends father, Im lucky because I get to visit and enjoy all El Salvador has to offer, and then I get to leave.

Trips to underprivileged areas so often toe the line of voyeurism, an ethical dilemma I was constantly reflecting on in the last week. Yet, only by accepting the good with the bad, the beautiful with the ugly and the picturesque scenery with the barbed wire can you truly maintain a realistic impression of the world. I could really take this to the next step and philosophize the hell out of that realization, but Ill spare you.

I cant even begin to convey how grateful I am to my friend and her family for taking me in and pushing me outside my U.S.-shaped comfort zone. I never would have thought a Spring Break trip would come to mean so much.

Marisa Papenfuss is a UF English junior. Her column appears on Tuesdays.

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From Feb. 28 to Feb. 29, during UFs first weekend of Spring Break, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the massacre of 118 Iraqis through targeted suicide bombings in Baghdad. In fact, this past February alone, the Islamic State left 410 Iraqi civilians dead and 1,050 injured. While the attacks in Baghdad should remind us all of the tragedy in Paris last November, they are receiving substantially less attention.

We at the Alligator do not wish to lambast the media on an inquisition of political correctness or in any way diminish the unspeakable trauma of Nov. 13, nor are we suggesting that the world stop every time tragedy befalls it. But the fact of the matter is our disparity of attention toward terror attacks by the Islamic State not only affects the way Americans perceive the conflict, but also how we together influence the Muslim American experience.

All too often, the fight against the Islamic State is framed in terms of the West vs. Islam. Meanwhile, we forget that its Iraqi and Syrian civilians who face the overwhelming brunt of terrorism by the Islamic State. As Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission articulates: ISIS thrives on creating disorder, chaos and fear  that is their (tactic) when they attack in Iraq or when they do it in Syria, or indeed when they do it in France and Beirut Their policies are backed on creating fear.

Unfortunately, much of this fear has manifested itself as islamophobia in the U.S. The New York Times reported in December that, since Paris and San Bernardino, the rate of suspected hate crimes against Muslims has tripled, with 38 violent attacks regarded as anti-Islamic. This begs the question: How successfully are we achieving our goals of national security in this fight against the Islamic State when Muslim Americans face such discrimination as a result of biased attention and coverage?

Admittedly, its easier for a majority of Americans to focus on domestic threats and disregard terrorism in Iraqi and Syrian war zones as unfortunate, collateral damage. Its difficult for many to empathize with a culture they dont entirely understand. The easiest life is lived in ignorance.

But rather than defaulting to such prejudice, we can choose to live by arguments like that of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who told CNN, The truth is, at some level, when you hurt, when your children hurt, I hurt.

We at the Alligator feel bringing the plight of Iraqi and Syrian civilians into our mainstream national discussion will improve the overall accuracy of the American perspective toward the conflict. Its not the West against Muslims and refugees: Its all of us, together, against the Islamic State.

In future decades, were going to have to explain the 2000s and 2010s to our curious children and grandchildren, as they ask us what life was like during the Syrian Civil War, the rise of Western Islamophobia and the conflict against the Islamic State. Theyll ask us how involved we were in mitigating  or at least following  the shockingly frequent tragedies experienced by innocents in the Middle East. With the future at stake, we must ask ourselves now: What legacy do we want to leave behind?
           2005     ..        




AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank

Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War

The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool

She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold

In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners

By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him

But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63

The Deadly Assault and

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by S. Eben Kirkesby

and Andreas Harsono 5427 14th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34207 $6.99 Fish Fridays! Manatee Co.'s Only 24-Hr.

FREE Wi-Fi Paid Advertisement On Native Ground

AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World

COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground

ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words

BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance

A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum

OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008

HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground

BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum

WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground

FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World

POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day

FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance

YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum

THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground

OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama

PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words

TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day

THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies

AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance

CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida

SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World

PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground

VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day

REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies

FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum

SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008

AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World

STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special

SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum

TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt.  Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground

IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008

CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies

WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto

DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance

I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
The prophecy is more than seeing into the future. For the prophecy sees without the element of time. For the prophecy sees things as they were, as they are, and as they always shall be.
Destroying the Electoral College in Georgia - What About Your State? ARRA News Service Articles on

Electoral College & NPV movement



The Georgia legislature is currently considering whether Georgia should enter into a state compact known as the National Popular Vote plan. The NPV is being pushed by a California advocacy organization organized and financed by multimillionaires John Koza and Tom Golisano. Koza is a former Al Gore elector; Golisano was a John Kerry supporter who gave a cool $1 million to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.



Koza and his fellow liberal activists (such as Jonathan Soros, who also supports the NPV) want to get rid of the Electoral College  without getting the consent of the majority of Americans or the approval of Congress.



Their stealth campaign proposes an interstate compact in which participating states agree to allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of the popular vote results in their states or whether the candidate even qualified to be on that states ballot. So in 2008 and 2012 when the majority of Georgia voters chose John McCain and Mitt Romney, the state would have ignored its voters and awarded the states Electoral College votes to Barack Obama.



The NPV will go into effect as soon as states with a majority of the electoral votes needed to win an election (270) join the compact. Unfortunately, a number of states  all of which are blue states  including Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, California and Massachusetts, have agreed to participate in this dangerous cartel. Yet the NPV undermines federalism by undercutting the roles of the states in the presidential election process.



According to the U.S. Census, 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas. Forty percent live in the 10 largest media markets. The NPV would elevate the importance of big urban centers such as New York and Los Angeles and these major media markets, while diminishing the influence of smaller states and rural areas. That was a major reason for establishing the Electoral College in the first place: to prevent elections from becoming contests where presidential candidates would simply campaign in big cities for votes and ignore the rest of the country.



Those who complain that only battleground or swing states get all of the attention forget that states that are today considered to be solidly blue or red werent so long ago. California was competitive for decades, and Florida was considered a red state until the mid-1990s. Swing states change, but with only rare exceptions, urban areas will always have high populations. The NPV will only help those urban centers  not the rural areas and smaller states that are protected by the Electoral College.



Recounts under the NPV would be a nightmare. The Electoral College reduces the possibility of a recount since popular vote totals are often much closer than the margins produced by the Electoral Colleges winner-take-all system in 48 states. Even presidents who win with relatively small margins in the national vote usually win an overwhelming mandate in the Electoral College, providing finality and a mandate to the winner.



Recount rules are different in every state. Yet a recount in just one state would be an incentive for a national recount since every additional vote found anywhere could make the difference to the losing candidate. Take the contentious fight that happened in just one state in 2000  Florida  and imagine that happening in every county in every state in the country.



The NPV would encourage voter fraud. After all, every bogus vote could make the difference in changing the outcome of a national race, not just the results in one state. This would be particularly dangerous in one-party towns where there is no opposition party to work as election officials or poll watchers. There is little incentive to engage in such partisan fraud where it is most possible now, since the dominant party is likely to win in that county or district anyway, but under the NPV scheme, there is an increased incentive to engage in fraud in places that are the most corrupt and one-sided.



The NPV could also radicalize American politics, since the winner under the NPV is whichever candidate gets the most votes, even if it is only 25 percent or 35 percent in a race with multiple candidates. This could lead to presidents being elected with very small pluralities, making it even harder to govern the nation.



There is no reason for Georgia to help implement a plan that strikes directly at the Framers views of federalism and a representative republic that balances popular sovereignty with structural protections for state governments and minority interests. The Electoral College has provided orderly elections for the worlds greatest democracy for over 200 years. We change it at our peril.

-------------

Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issuesincluding civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reformas a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundations Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tanks Election Law Reform Initiative. More ARRA News Service articles by or about Hans con Spakovsky

Tags: Hans von Spakovsky, U.S. Constitution, Electoral College, destrying electoral college, Georgia, NPV, National Popularity Vote To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks! by Hans von Spakovsky : Georgians who care about the U.S. Constitution should be alarmed about two bills being pushed through the state legislature. They would, in essence, eliminate the Electoral College set up by the Framers  but without going through the required process of passing a constitutional amendment.The Georgia legislature is currently considering whether Georgia should enter into a state compact known as the National Popular Vote plan. The NPV is being pushed by a California advocacy organization organized and financed by multimillionaires John Koza and Tom Golisano. Koza is a former Al Gore elector; Golisano was a John Kerry supporter who gave a cool $1 million to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.Koza and his fellow liberal activists (such as Jonathan Soros, who also supports the NPV) want to get rid of the Electoral College  without getting the consent of the majority of Americans or the approval of Congress.Their stealth campaign proposes an interstate compact in which participating states agree to allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of the popular vote results in their states or whether the candidate even qualified to be on that states ballot. So in 2008 and 2012 when the majority of Georgia voters chose John McCain and Mitt Romney, the state would have ignored its voters and awarded the states Electoral College votes to Barack Obama.The NPV will go into effect as soon as states with a majority of the electoral votes needed to win an election (270) join the compact. Unfortunately, a number of states  all of which are blue states  including Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, California and Massachusetts, have agreed to participate in this dangerous cartel. Yet the NPV undermines federalism by undercutting the roles of the states in the presidential election process.According to the U.S. Census, 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas. Forty percent live in the 10 largest media markets. The NPV would elevate the importance of big urban centers such as New York and Los Angeles and these major media markets, while diminishing the influence of smaller states and rural areas. That was a major reason for establishing the Electoral College in the first place: to prevent elections from becoming contests where presidential candidates would simply campaign in big cities for votes and ignore the rest of the country.Those who complain that only battleground or swing states get all of the attention forget that states that are today considered to be solidly blue or red werent so long ago. California was competitive for decades, and Florida was considered a red state until the mid-1990s. Swing states change, but with only rare exceptions, urban areas will always have high populations. The NPV will only help those urban centers  not the rural areas and smaller states that are protected by the Electoral College.Recounts under the NPV would be a nightmare. The Electoral College reduces the possibility of a recount since popular vote totals are often much closer than the margins produced by the Electoral Colleges winner-take-all system in 48 states. Even presidents who win with relatively small margins in the national vote usually win an overwhelming mandate in the Electoral College, providing finality and a mandate to the winner.Recount rules are different in every state. Yet a recount in just one state would be an incentive for a national recount since every additional vote found anywhere could make the difference to the losing candidate. Take the contentious fight that happened in just one state in 2000  Florida  and imagine that happening in every county in every state in the country.The NPV would encourage voter fraud. After all, every bogus vote could make the difference in changing the outcome of a national race, not just the results in one state. This would be particularly dangerous in one-party towns where there is no opposition party to work as election officials or poll watchers. There is little incentive to engage in such partisan fraud where it is most possible now, since the dominant party is likely to win in that county or district anyway, but under the NPV scheme, there is an increased incentive to engage in fraud in places that are the most corrupt and one-sided.The NPV could also radicalize American politics, since the winner under the NPV is whichever candidate gets the most votes, even if it is only 25 percent or 35 percent in a race with multiple candidates. This could lead to presidents being elected with very small pluralities, making it even harder to govern the nation.There is no reason for Georgia to help implement a plan that strikes directly at the Framers views of federalism and a representative republic that balances popular sovereignty with structural protections for state governments and minority interests.------------- Posted by Bill Smith at 4:00 PM - Post Link
YEREVAN, March 8, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan sent a congratulatory message in connection with the 8 March International Day of Women. As 'Armenpress' was informed from the Press Service of the Artsakh President's office, the congratulatory message reads:

'Dear women,

On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and myself personally I convey my sincere congratulations to you on the International Day of Women.

8 March is traditionally celebrated as the day of women's rights protection. This day is another occasion for us to acknowledge and evaluate the work you carry out, express our profound gratitude, convey love and render respect. You have always been by our side since the very first day of the Artsakh Liberation Struggle, when we voiced our legitimate claim to the world, went on the warpath for survival and further on, when we needed to strengthen our economy, recover ruined villages and towns, uphold our independent statehood. Today you are bringing up a deserving generation and help make Artsakh prosperous and stronger. While making your inestimable input in all spheres of life, you always remain beautiful and appealing.

I once again congratulate you on this wonderful spring holiday and wish health, happiness and unmatched beauty. In our turn, we will do our best towards ensuring secure and peaceful life for you.

Happy returns of the day, dear women of Artsakh!'
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. Women's Day  March 8 - a special day for the cultural figures. They perceive the world from a completely different side. "Armenpress" had a talk with well-known female cultural figures on the mentioned feast and the role of women in society.

Honored Artist of Armenia, actress Evelyna Shagiryan receives congratulations on March 8 from relatives and congratulates them.

"On March 8, we are going somewhere with friends and celebrate it. I think that in our society women have sufficiently progressed in recent years, women have very advanced works in good places. Women are now very much appreciated. Finally our men understand that women are very clever, can work with them and can be the first in any place ", the actress assured.

"I wish women inner peace. If there is inner peace, then everything is fine everywhere, " Evelyna Shagiryan added.

Pianist and director of Aram Khachaturian house museum Armine Grigoryan celebrates March 8 with close persons.

"But very often there are concerts and events in this day. In all cases, this day is always remembered. Women - not only in Armenia, but also all over the world - are custodians of traditions. We can say with confidence that the role of women in society is very high. It should also be said that it is not necessary to separate the role of women and the role of men ", Armine Grigoryan said.

According to the director of Aram Khachaturian house museum, the women in all cases should retain their femininity.

"I wish all women to remember that they are women, and I wish them to be loved and in the center of attention both in family and in work place," she said.

Honored Artist of Armenia, actress Luiza Gambarian confesses she likes to be surrounded by attention as any woman.

"Of course, this holiday provides not only me but also all the women in the world an opportunity to be in the spotlight. For me, March 8 is very close to my heart as it is associated with my childhood . I gave cards to my mother and teacher; participated in the festivities. During the pre-holiday and holiday the city becomes "feminine" and more beautiful, " the actress says.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan sent a congratulatory message on the Women's Day. As "Armenpress" was informed from the Department of Public Relations and Information of the Government of Armenia, in his message Hovik Abrahamyan noted:

'Dear women,

I warmly congratulate you on the Women's Day, on March 8.

Your role is invaluable in the development and strengthening of our homeland, the Armenian family, the education of a new generation and in the formation and preservation of the nation. It is no coincidence that your holiday coincides with the arrival of spring, awakening of nature, which also symbolizes your beauty and kindness, your ability to decorate our lives and create new opportunities.

Dear women, mothers, sisters and daughters, I wish you always to be surrounded by love, care and warmth of your men.

Once again I congratulate you on this beautiful holiday; I wish you endless love, happiness, health and family warmth. Let your families and our country always prevail peace and prosperity.'
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. March 8 - International Women's Day. In this regard, the correspondents "Armenpress" had interview with well-known representatives of the political, social and cultural sectors.

The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) faction MP Levon Martirosyan:

'I warmly congratulate Armenian women, wives, mothers and grandmothers with this beautiful holiday. I wish them always to be beautiful, healthy and happy. It is difficult to imagine our life without women. The woman is the mainstay of the family, in one word, the most essential element. In recent years,it is observed that women are very active in various fields, especially in politics. I wish that in all other areas the number of women will increase as well, but so that it will not bother their families. One can responsibly say that the new generation will give more active and educated women.'

Composer, music producer, Honored Artist of Armenia Ara Gevorgyan

' We presented our women lovely month - from March 8 to April 7. I would like to see our people celebrating this holiday from March 8 till April 7. It's necessary. We need to indulge and keep our women under permanent attentionI, I wish them always to smile, as if a woman smiles, it means everything is stable in the country. It's wonderful that women are attracted to responsible jobs. I wish tenderness, warmth and sympathy to our women. Congratulations again.'

Director of Research Center of Maternity and Child Health Protection, Professor George Okoyev

'I congratulate Armenian women on this wonderful spring holiday. Be always cheerful, happy, and let the smile never leaves you. Speaking about the role of women, I can tell you one thing: Women give life, women are the continuers of life. This says it all. With regard to the participation of women in various areas, I would say that they are not enough. I'm sure that if women were more included in several sectors, then men would work more productively. Incidentally, this activity does not interfere with the family and will not prevent giving birth to children. Women are such a phenomenon who can manage everything.'
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. Peoples artist of USSR Armen Dzhigarkhanyan

remains in average hard condition, 'Interfax' was informed from the help Desk of the Institute Sklifosofskiy.

'Armenpress' reports that earlier the actor was taken from the intensive care unit to the unit chamber.

Recall that on March 5, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was taken to hospital with suspected heart attack, but the diagnosis was not confirmed.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) announced on March 7 that it successfully defeated Senate Resolution 168 in Kentucky, which grossly misrepresented the facts of Artsakh-Azerbaijani conflict. Dozens of Kentucky residents responded to the ANCA-ER action alert and successfully defeated the measure. Kentucky joins Idaho, New Hampshire, and other states which have already rejected similar misleading pro-Baku measures in the recent past, 'Armenpress' reports citing the official website of ANCA.

Our experience in Kentucky proved again that the democratic process works and our state legislators will not tolerate any attempt of interference and misrepresentation that serve the interests of a foreign dictator like Ilham Aliyev, who has ruthlessly repressed his own people and taken an increasingly anti-Western stance, while continuing aggression against Armenia and Artsakh effectively endangering fragile peace in the region, said ANCA-ER Communications and Community Outreach Director Artur Martirosyan. With our wide network of local ANCs and advocates, we will continue to work diligently to ensure the rights of the free people of Nagorno Karabakh Republic are protected and affirmed by the international community.

S.R. 168, sponsored by Senator Damon Thayer, was introduced in the Kentucky Senate on March 1, 2016. Upon learning about the resolution by local advocates, ANCA-ER immediately mobilized the grassroots and spoke strongly against the deceptive and dangerous resolution calling upon the Senate President and Majority Floor Leader to withdraw it. Earlier today, the Kentucky Senate officially withdrew the measure from the proceedings of the legislative body and effectively killed the resolution.

The numerous calls and emails generated by the ANCA-ER and local residents caused Senators to educate themselves on the realities of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Sumgait and Baku massacres of Armenians, Azerbaijans gross human rights track record, Bakus destabilizing role in the region as well as the rightful aspirations of the people of Artsakh Republic to live in an independent state free of Azerbaijani repression.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn will host an unprecedented, multi-disciplinary, international academic conference on the Armenians and the Cold War, which will be held on the universitys campus on April 1-3, 2016, 'Armenpress' reports.

Thirty scholars from North and South America, Europe, and Armenia will participate in the conference. On the international arena, the Cold War extended from the end of the Second Word War in 1945 to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. Armenians around the world, however, had become divided between pro- and anti-Soviet factions as soon as Communists had gotten hold of Eastern Armenia in late 1920.

The first panel of the conference (speakers: Garabet K. Moumdjian, Vahe Sahakyan, and Hazel Antaramian Hofman) will focus on the period from the 1920s to 1947, attempting to explain the political dynamics among Armenians, especially in the Diaspora, before the rest of the world formally entered the Cold War era. Discussions during this panel will constitute an important step toward finding out what exactly changed in the Armenian Diaspora and in the relations between the Soviet Armenian homeland and the Diaspora with the onset of the global Cold War in the mid-1940s. The Cold War inevitably affected the Armenians, not only in Soviet Armenia, but also in the many Armenian communities scattered across the world. This time period will be discussed at the conference through a series of regional panels. Levon Chorbajian, Gregory Aftandilian, and Benjamin F. Alexander will focus on North America. Jirair Jolakian and Astrig Atamian will present papers on conditions among the Armenians in France. Developments in South America will be covered through presentations by Vartan Matiossian, Heitor Loureiro, and Khatchik DerGhougassian.

Furthermore, there will be five separate papers on the Armenian communities in the Middle East by Hratch Tchilingirian, James Stocker, Khatchig Mouradian, Eldad Ben-Aharon, and Emre Can Dagloglu. These panels are structured in such a way so as to generate discussion on comparing the specifics of the Cold War fault-lines in various Armenian-inhabited localities and determining the differences in Cold-War-era, intra-Armenian conflict and rivalry from one continent to another. There will also be a separate panel on relations between Soviet Armenia and the Diaspora during this period (speakers: Nelida Boulgourdjian and Gevorg Petrosyan).

A roundtable discussion comparing the chronologies of global Cold War and the Armenian Cold War will cap the political history debate at the conference. The last two panels deal with case studies of the impact of the Cold War on Armenian historiography (speakers: Samvel Grigoryan and Anush Hovhannisyan), arts (Neery Melkonian), and popular culture (Tigran Matosyan). Thereafter, the conference will conclude with a second roundtable discussion, which will tackle the legacy of the Cold War on Armenians today and make recommendations for future research in this domain.

Panel chairs and discussants also include Cam Amin, Kevork Bardakjian, Tamar Boyadjian, Richard G. Hovannisian, Asbed Kotchikian, Simon Payaslian, Pam Pennock, Ara Sanjian, and Sally Howell. The goal of the conference organizers is to shed light and encourage further research on a pivotal period in modern Armenian history, the study of which is still in its infancy. By approaching the topic from various angles and disciplines, they hope that this gathering will encourage others to delve into the details of Armenian history in the Cold War era.

Moreover, themes like the impact of the Cold War on Armenian literature, migration to and from Soviet Armenia, or the involvement of individual Armenians in espionage on both sides of the international political divide of the Cold War era should also be tackled in depth in the near future. These topics were among those listed in the conferences call for papers, but the organizers did not receive any proposals. The conference, which is open to the public, is being supported by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, while the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is providing assistance to participants from Armenia. The Armenian Review will devote a special issue to academic articles based on papers to be delivered at this conference. The Armenian Research Center was established by Dr. Dennis R. Papazian in 1985, with financial support from the Knights of Vartan organization and particularly from the late Edward and Helen Mardigian. It remains devoted to documentation, research, and publications in the field of Armenian Studies.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. It is waging war on an ethnic minority, its riot police just stormed the offices of a major newspaper, its secret service faces allegations of arming Isis, its military shot down a Russian bomber  and yet Turkey wants to join the European Union. The countrys swift descent into despotism poses yet another existential problem for the west.

The sight of Europes leaders kowtowing to Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the hope he would switch off the flood of refugees to Greece, was sickening,' writer and broadcaster at The Guardian Paul Mason said.

'After the Turkish courts authorised police to seize the Zaman newspaper, tear-gassing its employees and sacking the editors, the new bosses immediately placed Erdogans smiling picture on the front page. He has a lot to smile about.

Erdogans mass support in Turkey is real. To the conservative heartlands, where Islam was suppressed for decades by one secular military regime after another, he initially seemed to have achieved an ideal stasis. The liberal, networked, progressive part of Turkey would leave the reactionary, religious, patriarchal part in peace, and vice versa. The Kurds would renounce guerilla warfare in favour of parliamentary opposition. Erdogan would lead the country towards EU accession, at a pace slow enough to allow the obvious failings in democracy to be ignored.

But it has all gone wrong, and for the same fundamental reason that Assads regime in Syria collapsed: the unwillingness of educated youth to be ruled by simpletons running a benign police state.

The revolts that swept Turkeys cities in June 2013 were triggered by the inability of Erdogan and his old-mans form of Islam to tolerate the basic microfreedoms that the younger generation want: the right to drink alcohol on campus, the right to uncensored social media, the right to protest peacefully about the same things European kids protest about  in the case of Gezi Park, the bulldozing of green space for a shopping mall.

Since then, Erdogan has overcome all obstacles. The protest was suppressed by the simple method of firing US-made tear gas canisters into the crowd and laying waste to the urban areas of the Kurdish minority, who had joined the struggle.

Then Erdogan got himself made president. And having narrowly lost his parliamentary majority in June 2015, he regained it late last year after a campaign that left the offices of the pro-Kurdish HDP party burned out in several cities.

Simultaneously, the Turkish military provoked an end to a three-year ceasefire with the Kurdish PKK, unleashing the army into the Kurdish towns of southern Turkey on a scale that has left some the mirror image of burned-out Syrian towns just across the border.

But all this is nothing compared to the strength of the hand Erdogan has yet to play. With failed or failing states now in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, the more Turkish democracy fails, the more the west has to support him. And the more the European Commission, in particular, hangs on to the conceit that Turkey will one day join the EU, the more it strengthens forces in Europe who want to leave the union altogether.

Transcripts leaked to a Greek website last month appeared to show Erdoganovertly threatening Europe with an uncontrolled flood of refugees unless he is given money and rapid accession to the EU. Although they were given credence by some news agencies, the transcripts have the ring of black propaganda of the kind Erdogans newest enemy, the Russian secret service, is adept at producing. Real or fabricated, the tragedy is that they cannot be far from the truth: Europe is already turning a blind eye to the erosion of democracy, to collusion with people traffickers, and to military action against civilians.

What happens next must be done calmly and proportionately.

The citizens of the EU have a right, first of all, to demand honesty from their own governments, and the commission itself. The ECs progress report in November was an exercise in hypocrisy: while noting the slide to despotism, censorship and brutality, the report praised Turkey for its economic progress. Imagine what the same rapporteurs might have made of an accession request by Mussolinis Italy.

The critical question is not, as the racists of eastern Europe ask, Can 75 million Muslims join Europe? It is: can a state so fundamentally in breach of theCopenhagen criteria for EU membership remain in any kind of accession process? The answer must clearly be no  and once Erdogan is told so, the EU has a duty to offer a programme of support to the secular democratic forces that need to come to power in order for accession talks to be resumed. The commission  which had no problem telling Greeks which way to vote in July 2015  would surely have no problem supporting democratic parties against repressive ones in Turkey.

That would leave Erdogan in strategic trouble. But it would not immediately solve the situation in the Aegean. It would require Europe to double-down on its strategic commitment to Greece, with border forces, debt relief, aid and solidarity.

To those in Europe wishing to demonstrate to a wavering Britain why we need the EU, there could not be a better opportunity. Its a chance for a clear condemnation of the breaches of human rights; for clear action in support of Greece, a member of the union, against implicit threats by a non-member; and for centralised action to deal with any flood of refugees Erdogan wishes to unleash.

The prospect will be viewed with dismay by the centrist political class that helped create this mess. It brings them face to face with a choice they do not want to make: democratic values over market logic; moral decisiveness over the illusion that everything will be all right,' Paul Mason concluded.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. The first flight of "Armenia" Airlines will be held on April 21. Flights to Israel are now on sale, "Armenpress" was informed the press service of the Airlines.

Joint press conference of the shareholders of "Armenia" Airlines Tamaz Gaiashvili, Robert Hovhannisyan and Ashot Torosyan will be held on March 9. They will present the company's upcoming plans.

Earlier, one of the shareholders Tamaz Gaiashvili said that the airline is going to perform flights for $ 49 from Yerevan to Europe, CIS countries, as well as some Asian countries.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of the birth of the The legendary hero of the Nagorno-Karabakh liberation war, Vardan Stepanyan (Dushman Vardan), relatives of the hero, representatives of youth organizations and a group of Karabakh war veterans visited the military pantheon "Yerablur" and paid tribute to his memory.

As "Armenpress" reports, war fighters, representatives of youth organizations and students of Defense Military Institute after Vazgen Sargsyan of Armenia held a rally to the grave of the hero. Participants of the rally laid flowers to the grave, and then held a memorial ceremony.

Vardan Stepanyan died on 3 July 1992 during the combat duty in Myurishen village of Martuni region of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. Press Secretary of the President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic David Babayan assures that an interesting development in terms of international recognition of NKR is expected in 2016. In an interview with "Armenpress", Babayan did not want to disclose the brackets yet, but noted that the relevant work carried out in this direction.

"The adoption of the draft in the US State of Georgia on recognition of NKR independence will not be the last such move this year", Babayan said.

He welcomed the call of the editor-in-chief of "Californian Courier" Harut Sassounian, according to who it is necessary to raise the issue of NKR recognition to all the US presidential candidates.

"Questions about the Armenian Genocide and NKR independence should be linked to each other. In recent years, we see a lot of sympathy for the NKR in the international arena, and striking evidence of this is the recent decision of the State of Georgia. Azerbaijan carries out its propaganda, based on bribes, and we do business based on values and friendship. Mercenary will never become an ideological ally, Babayan said.

According to him, it is necessary to expand the action on recognition of NKR's independence in the international arena as much as possible, and the results will be obvious.

On March 3 Armenian National Committee of US State of Georgia adopted H.R. 1580 "Honoring and Recognizing the Nagorno Karabakh Republic" in the Georgia State House.

Representatives Pat Gardner (D-57) and Demetrius Douglas (D-78) were the main sponsors of the resolution.

Georgia is the 6th state which recognizes the independence of Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Before that, similar resolutions were adopted by legislatures of Louisiana, Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts and Maine.
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. China will build about 50 new airports, most of which will be in central and western regions during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, said Minister of Transportation Yang Chuantang in the group deliberation of deputies from Qinghai province to annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 6, 2016, "Armenpress" reports.

The future development of China's roads, airports, express delivery industry will incline towards the relatively underdeveloped Midwest region. The ministry has chosen 14 conjoining poverty-stricken areas and 477 key counties for construction of transportation, where the western regions will account for a higher proportion, Yang disclosed.
The Business Side of Green Blog is where Peter Arpin gets to interact with the community on an ongoing basis. Here, Peter will share his thoughts and ideas when it comes to helping our community move towards a more sustainable future. Peter is also looking for your ideas and thoughts to promote and share through the Arpin Broadcast Network and its affiliates, Arpin Group, Arpin Van Lines and Arpin International Group.
WASHINGTON  The drive to break up the big banks has won a surprising number of adherents from both sides of the political spectrum  everyone from Neel Kashkari, the Republican head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, to Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Democratic socialist who has made it the heart of his campaign.

The issue is usually analyzed from a political standpoint, focusing on whether a breakup is possible and how it could be done.

But the topic raises a critical question that is seldom asked, much less answered: Is there a legitimate, coherent business case to be made for the largest and most complex banks to stay large and complex? Do megabanks serve a critical function that justifies their undeniable risk to the financial system?

The answer is, unsurprisingly, difficult to determine and varies greatly depending on whom you ask. American Banker interviewed bankers, industry representatives, analysts, reform advocates, academics and others to attempt to break down whether the presence of large U.S. banks is still necessary for the economy.

Following are the arguments over what big banks bring to the table  and a look at whether those arguments make a case for keeping the banks intact.

Megabanks bring benefits through economies of scale.

There are more than 6,000 federally insured banks in the U.S., most of which are relatively small community banks with assets in the millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. Just eight domestic institutions are considered global systemically important banks, or G-SIBs, which are subject to higher capital, liquidity and prudential requirements.

Those are: JPMorgan Chase ($2.4 trillion in consolidated assets); Bank of America ($2.1 trillion); Citigroup ($1.8 trillion); Wells Fargo ($1.7 trillion); Goldman Sachs ($880 billion); Morgan Stanley ($834 billion); Bank of New York Mellon ($377 billion); and State Street ($247 billion).

Their size enables these banks to take advantage of certain markets that are characterized by their low margin  activities like payment and clearing services, triparty repurchase agreements, prime brokerage services or custody banking. To make a profit in those markets, a bank has to be very large to take advantage of the efficiencies that come with economies of scale, enabling the banks to deal in sufficient volume.

"Instead of Boeing and Airbus, could you have a series of community airplane producers? I think the answer is no, or you could but at extremely high cost," said Greg Baer, president of the Clearing House Association and a former executive of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. "So as you reduce the size of the firms, you're effectively asking them to shed economies of scale and scope, and that comes with a cost."

Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics, said those activities are "fundamental to the U.S. financial markets' functioning and infrastructure," but pointed out that they could mostly be performed by smaller banks in a disaggregated system. Such an arrangement, however, would be less efficient, and therefore more expensive.

"All of the efficiencies of the G-SIBs come with added risk," Petrou said. "You would have less risk" if the banks were broken up, "but it would be at considerably less efficiency."

Petrou also noted out that many of these activities do not inherently have to be performed by banks  they could almost as easily be performed by very large private equity firms or other financial services firms. If those firms were to take up such activities, however, they would likely have to be very large in order to take advantage of the same efficiencies. A bank breakup would move the risk to another part of the economic system  but it wouldn't eliminate the risk.

Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, acknowledged that the big banks did have economies of scale, but said there's little data to demonstrate that the largest G-SIBs need to be as big as they are to take advantage of them. Perhaps a bank would need to have several hundred billion in assets to compete in certain markets, but academic research on the subject is heavily dependent on how the research is modeled.

"Say you're a derivatives and repo dealer operating on a global scale. That's something that you have to be big to do, but these are also businesses that would have collapsed without massive public support in 2008," Stanley said. "If I'm looking at the period when I'm making money, things might look good, but if I'm looking at the period when I'm taking the public bailout, not so good."

Dennis Kelleher, president of the public advocacy group Better Markets, argued that any legitimate market function that the big banks are performing would not simply disappear if those banks were made smaller and less complex. Perhaps they would be provided at greater cost, but that cost would likely be a better reflection of external costs posed to the public by the banks' risk to the taxpayer.

"I have no doubt that if there is a service that the market wants ... that that service will be provided by somebody," Kelleher said. "Will it be provided at the exact same price? Probably not. Am I worried about that? No."

Megabanks' global reach is critical to the U.S. economy.

Regardless of whether the G-SIBs' participation in repo markets or other activities requires or justifies their size, their size enables those firms to have presences and activities in markets across the globe  hence the "G" in "G-SIB."

Tony Fratto, a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies and former Treasury official in the Bush administration, said that distinction is the main difference between the largest banks and smaller ones  even super-regionals that may have hundreds of billions in assets. It is a key benefit to the giant multinational corporations and midsize companies that are growing and looking to export their products or break into international markets, he said.

"Because they're a little bit smaller and they're breaking into new economies  and their current relationship is with a larger regional bank  they don't want to go out and hire four different banks to do that. They want to find a bank ... and there are only a handful of banks [that] can do that," Fratto said. "Some are American, some are foreign, but it's not a long list."

The companies that hire the big banks share this view. David Hirschmann, president and chief executive of the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said his members' main priority when it comes to financial services is choice. Some prefer larger banks to smaller ones or vice versa, or prefer differently sized banks for different needs.

But having the option to choose a large bank is something that policymakers should want to preserve.

"There are unique capabilities that are well served by midsized banks, others that are well served by regional banks, but there are also things that you need globally capable banks" to accomplish, Hirschmann said. "The question of size is really the wrong question. It's a question of, How do we preserve the diversity of the system, and a system that will meet every need of every type of business in the United States?"

Bank critics, however, are not convinced. Kelleher said banks are active in generating research to demonstrate that they facilitate real commerce, but they don't provide enough hard evidence.

"There's no robust data set that can be independently analyzed that confirms a single claim made by a 'too big to fail' bank for some purported service or product that is desperately needed by somebody in the real economy that won't be provided if they were broken up," Kelleher said. "Zero. There's none."

Stanley acknowledged that the largest banks' global presence can facilitate commerce, but said that banks are overstating their case. The proportion of banks' exposures across international borders has exploded, he said, from roughly 13% of U.S. GDP in 2000 to 27% in 2008 (and 23% in 2015, reflecting a dip following the euro crisis in 2011). Over the same period, GDP growth has been more or less flat and the trade deficit has grown, he said, suggesting that the banks' expanding international reach may not be such a boon to growth.

"There's been this huge increase in international cross-border bank exposures just since the year 2000, and it's an increase that has happened much more rapidly than the increase in international trade," Stanley said. "Those cross-border bank exposures add to financial instability. I think it's somewhat questionable whether they're giving real economic benefits that correspond to that."

Megabanks serve as the "buyer of last resort."

It is a frequently reported statistic that three of the four largest U.S. banks  JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo  have gotten bigger since the crisis. But it is also true that those banks acquired several failing banks, brokerages and financial services firms at the height of the housing crash, in many cases at the urging of the government itself.

Bank of America famously bought the mortgage originator Countrywide for $4.1 billion in 2007 and later bought the brokerage Merrill Lynch for $50 billion in 2008 (and nearly bought Lehman Brothers). JPMorgan bought the investment bank Bear Stearns in 2008 at the urging of federal officials and later bought most of the assets of Washington Mutual from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receivership in 2008  acquisitions that chief executive Jaime Dimon told Bloomberg last week may have been a mistake. Wells Fargo, meanwhile, bought Wachovia after federal officials had already brokered a deal to arrange a sale of the bank to Citigroup.

H. Rodgin Cohen, senior chairman at Sullivan & Cromwell, said that, after taking those acquisitions into account, the largest banks have shrunk considerably since the crisis. And those acquisitions were brokered in large part because the federal government was afraid of what would happen if those institutions failed and went into bankruptcy the way Lehman Brothers did in 2008, he said.

That makes the G-SIBs a source of financial stability rather than a source of uncertainty, he said. And 2008 was not the first time regulators have turned to the banks to provide that service  similar deals have been arranged in the Texas oil patch recession of the 1980s and the Ohio thrift crisis a few years earlier.

"A very important role that the big banks play is, in effect, the buyer of last resort when we have real fissures in the banking system," Cohen said. "Time and time again, they have provided support when there have been weaknesses in the banking system."

Other bank advocates have argued that the G-SIBs' bigness is precisely their source of strength, because having an expansive business with interests in a wide variety of products, services, markets and geographies acts like a natural hedge against volatility.

Baer said that diversity allows banks to weather downturns in ways that smaller firms can't.

"We don't have large firms only doing one thing," Baer said. "They are diversified geographically, and they are diversified in their product lines, and that makes them more stable. Diversification is the only free lunch in finance, and the largest institutions have that."

But Stanley noted that just because regulators sometimes appeal to large banks to buy smaller, troubled banks in times of stress doesn't necessarily mean that they should.

Having a bank buy another bank is easier than having a bank go into receivership and bankruptcy, but it is just taking the downside risk of a failed institution and diluting it within a larger and more systemically risky institution.

"There's no question that one of the bank resolution methods that was used in the crisis, and has been used at other times, is to find a big fish to swallow up the little fish," Stanley said. "So it's convenient for regulators ... but we've been doing that since the '80s. Is that a good thing? That because we can't resolve banks on their own or put them through bankruptcy, we're continuing to concentrate our financial system by gluing these failed banks onto an even bigger bank?"

There are also problems with concluding that the largest banks emerged from the crisis as more stable because of their size and diversity, Stanley said, because it fails to account for the government's explicit position that the largest firms would not be allowed to fail. Whether the G-SIBs would have escaped the crisis is impossible to know for sure, because unlike Wachovia and Washington Mutual, failure was not an option.

"The bigger, more diversified banks were just flat-out not allowed to fail," Stanley said. "It's very hard to disentangle this thing of who was going to fail and who was permitted to fail."

It's not clear where to draw the line of what's a megabank.

Last month, Kashkari became the latest regulator to ask whether large banks need to be broken up or forced to hold higher capital, making them into public utilities. His argument rested on the conclusion that the post-crisis supervisory regime wasn't adequate to address another crisis.

Within minutes of his remarks, several former regulators took issue with that presumption. Don Kohn, former vice chairman of the Fed, said he didn't know why the living wills, capital rules and other reforms put forward in the Dodd-Frank Act would not work in a crisis. And former Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern similarly expressed skepticism that the reforms do not go far enough.

Many bankers share that skepticism. Baer said that Dodd-Frank's combined emphasis on higher capital, more guaranteed liquidity, and  most recently  a plan for bailout-free resolution plans as part of the living wills and Total Loss Absorbing Capacity rules have made the banking sector safer. The Fed's stress testing regime also demonstrates the banks' resiliency on an annual basis. If Kashkari or anyone else believes that is not enough, it is up to them to prove it.

"I think the onus is on those saying that the banks don't have enough capital to weather a financial crisis to show why they believe that to be the case, because all the evidence appears to be to the contrary," Baer said. "Even in the extraordinarily unlikely event that they did fail, they would fail in such a way that would not require taxpayer support and would not have systemic consequences."

John Dearie, acting chief executive of the Financial Services Forum, argued that there is little reason to assume that, despite five-plus years of regulatory and legislative progress in shoring up the financial system, more drastic measures are needed.

"There's been tremendous progress since 2009 to end 'too big to fail' and strengthen the banking system, and to simply drop out of the sky seven years down the road and say not enough has been done is unfair to the industry, to policymakers and to regulators, all of whom have been working terribly hard on this," he said.

If policymakers decided to break up the big banks, however, it's not clear how it should be done or where the line should be drawn. In the case of the largest G-SIBs, even if they were broken up into four or five separate banks, those new banks would still hold hundreds of billions in assets  far above the $50 billion threshold in Dodd-Frank for banks to be considered systemically important financial institutions.

While most policymakers believe that trigger is too low, there's no agreement on what the right level would be.

"That's our working statutory systemic designation," Petrou said.

Stanley said that proposals to break up the banks generally fall into two categories. One is something like a reintroduction of the Glass-Steagall restrictions on combining commercial and investment banking, which would set a clear limitation on activities. The other is a formal cap on size.

"Neither of these things are weird ideas from Mars  both have track records," Stanley said. "We had Glass-Steagall for decades, and the usual size cap people talk about is something in the multiple hundreds of billions of dollar range  $500 billion or something like that. That's still a very large bank."

But Fratto said the idea of a formal cap on size for the banking industry alone is unfair and problematic  especially since no one is entertaining calls for a similar cap on other businesses dominated by very large firms like aerospace, telecommunications or technology. Regulators would be better served by enforcing and revising the regulatory framework already in place.

"It just doesn't make sense to have these rigid ideas for what is required," Fratto said. "That is not to dismiss the other point of safety and soundness. ... I get that goal, it's just there are better ways to achieve it than the blunt instruments of 'Cap their size, turn them into utilities.' It would have been like after the Titanic hit the iceberg, we all just decided, 'All right, no more big boats.' "


PHOENIX  Hillary Clinton edged out Donald Trump in a mock election poll Tuesday at the Consumer Bankers Association conference, winning 52% to 48%.

"I was relieved that Clinton won," said Alan McCabe, a senior vice president at Frost Bank who attended the conference. "Between Clinton and Trump, I'd vote for Clinton."

The poll of roughly 1,000 bankers at the annual conference awarded Clinton a squeaker victory, but 85% of bankers said they were uncomfortable with both picks and preferred an alternative.

Law and regulation The Trouble with Trump for Bankers In almost any other election cycle, bankers would be celebrating the fact that a Republican candidate has emerged so far in front of the pack and would quickly fall in line behind him. But this has been anything but a normal election cycle, and there are a whole host of reasons that bankers will be at least as reluctant to embrace the outspoken businessman Donald Trump as the Republican establishment has been. March 1

Law and regulation How Would Banks Handle a Trump Nomination? Love him or hate him, Trump provokes strong reactions from much of the electorate, bankers included. His volatile temperament and penchant for showmanship have left many skeptical, but some see his business experience and dealmaking savvy as a positive. February 26

Many others outside the industry likely agree, analysts said.

"We could be looking at two of the most polarizing and negatively viewed candidates in history going up against each other in the fall," said Amy Walter, the national editor of the Cook Political Report. "The fight between these two candidates is putting us in uncharted territory."

Bankers were also asked how they would vote depending on vice presidential candidate choices. If Trump teamed with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie while Clinton chose Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as her running mate, bankers would elect a Trump-Christie ticket with 63% of the vote.


One of the reasons that electing a U.S. president is such a big deal is because once sworn in, theres little likelihood that he/she could ever be removed from office. Oh, if a president were, lets say, caught in the Lincoln Bedroom in bed with a dead woman or a live boy, then Congress might rise to the occasion and initiate impeachment, but probably not. If Congress had a pair, they would have impeached and removed Obama for trying to make a recess appointment when Congress wasnt in recess. Congress has impeached two presidents and both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton survived and served out their terms.

For years now, Ive held that the primary-caucus system is a godawful way to select a nominee to run for president. But this primary season is illuminating. The rise of Bernie Sanders has shown us that socialism has unfortunately lost its taint; the Lefts long march through the institutions (academia, the media, etc.) is now complete, and were left with a bunch of young college-educated dummies who think Sanders makes sense. Hillary Clinton shows that some Americans are ready to yet again elect the Leader of the Free World on the basis of genetics, (she has two X chromosomes, you see). Considering the history of the last seven years, one would think that using genetic criteria for selecting a president would be totally discredited. Finally, Donald Trump shows us that Americans are so angry and fed up with the establishment that theyll throw caution to the wind and vote for an outsider.

Donald Trumps success in the Republican primaries and caucuses has been likened to a hostile takeover in the business world. Its amazing that a longtime liberal might actually be able to take over the conservative movements home: the GOP. But Democrats gleefully looking at the disarray in the Republican primaries should consider that Mr. Trump could just as easily have run in their partys primaries. And what would have stopped him? After all, the Democrats have a quasi-communist running in their primaries. Its absurd, but it seems that anyone can run in any partys primaries.

Should Americas political parties have the right and the latitude to tell their prospective candidates that they dont fit their partys profile and that they wont be allowed on the ticket? If they dont have that right, then our political parties are of limited value; they wouldnt seem to have any self-determination.

Consider this: what if the head of the New Black Panther Party or the American Nazi Party wanted to run for president in the one of the major political parties? Shouldnt the parties be able to say no? Its an extreme example of what Sanders and Trump are doing. Sanders never identified as a Democrat; he prided himself on being a progressive Independent. And Trump? If hes glommed onto some conservative positions, its been only recently.

Americas political parties are not the people who vote in primaries and take part in caucuses. What the parties really are, or should be, are the people who make up the apparatus; that is, the organization, the state and national committees, the party elders. As far as Im concerned, the delegates to the nominating conventions should consist only of those people. Moreover, none of the members of a partys apparatus should be an elected official. And that is whats especially wrong with the Dems. You see, the DNC is headed by a member of Congress, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And the Dems have superdelegates that are often elected officials. That invites corruption and cronyism, and it further entrenches careerists, the professional politicians that the public is so impatient with.

Some Americans may not be able to wrap her heads around the idea that voters shouldnt have any say in how nominees are chosen. But they should remember that in our republic, most decisions are made by others, especially on the federal level. Prior to 1913 when we got the 17th Amendment (which gave the selection of U.S. senators to the people), the only federal officials that the people directly chose were members of the House of Representatives, the Peoples House.

We now turn to the Republican establishments Caliban. First off, Ive got to confess: I like Donald Trump. But then I like rogues. Hell, America likes rogues. We like potty mouth Howard Stern. Here in western Missouri, many folks think theyre related to Jesse James. I admire Trumps energy. I like his humor and nimbleness. Ive even quoted Trump in an article or two. Hes said some things that resonate, like: We either have a country, or we dont have a country.

On March 3, the Washington Post ran an opinion piece by Michael Gerson that presented four options for Republicans who hate the possibility of a Trump presidency. Gersons options include supporting a third-party candidate, as well as sitting out the election. His final sentence: My inclination? #DraftCondi. (Last year I myself floated that very idea, and listed other draft possibilities.)

But theres a fifth option for those whose delicacy is not so exorbitant, and thats to vote for Caliban. Who knows, Trump is so fixated on greatness and winning that he might surround himself with a brilliant team. Hes demonstrated flexibility; maybe hell listen to his crack team; maybe hes even capable of collegiality. This conservative voter doesnt dismiss the possibility that Trump might be a good president. So if Trump is the nominee, Ill vote for Trump. But Id prefer not to; Id prefer voting for a movement conservative. With the Supreme Court and Senate at stake, this election is too important to gamble on a casino magnate.

Regardless of who becomes the Republican nominee, the conventioneers should have final say on the choice of running mate. That way, if America has a collective Jonah Goldberg-ian what have I done moment, then Congress could start impeachment proceedings secure in the knowledge that a suitable replacement is on deck. Ive always felt that Crazy Uncle Joe was Obamas insurance policy against impeachment. (Heres a video of the scene Goldberg refers to; think of it as what we should do to the primary system.)

Just as there have been faithless electors to the Electoral College, there can be faithless delegates to a nominating convention. Although The Blaze ran it in Aug. 2012, Ever Wonder How You Become a Convention Delegate? Heres a Primer on the Selection Process by Mytheos Holt is instructive about convention rules and delegate selection. (Not only can anyone vote in any partys primary, but it seems anyone can be a delegate to any partys convention.)

With Hillary Clinton all but assured of her partys nomination, Democrat voters may now feel free to engage in a reverse Operation Chaos. That is, Democrats might vote in Republican primaries for the candidate they feel would be the weakest in the general election. Thats your primary system for you.

It appears that Republicans may be lurching towards a contested convention, and thats a good thing. Contested (a.k.a. open) conventions are how all nominees should be selected. If the primaries do not produce a clear winner, then the delegates choices shouldnt be limited to just those who ran in the primaries. They should feel free to draft an outsider, perhaps with two X chromosomes.

Even if the GOP prevails in November, this tumultuous primary season is telling us that the primary-caucus system needs to be razed and replaced.

Jon N. Hall is a programmer/analyst from Kansas City.
Observers of all things political will recall the backlash from voters when President Obama, campaigning for president in 2008, talked about small-town and rural Pennsylvanians in the following way (emphasis added):

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

In a few sentences, Harvard-educated Obama managed to delegitimize just about every concern shared by small-town and rural residents in America by stereotyping them as ignorant rednecks. Obama managed to imply that if Americans were worrying about runaway immigration, loss of jobs due to outsourcing, and deterioration of their communities, they were inherently racist, latently violent gun freaks, and ignorant Bible-thumpers.

They were just bitter clingers.

Then-candidate Obama probably didn't foresee how his policies of the last seven years have enraged the people whose votes he was courting. If small-town and rural Americans, along with other groups despised by the elite of both the Democrat and Republican parties, weren't bitter in 2008, they surely are bitter and angry now.

They are "grab the pitch forks, tear down the ramparts, storm the Bastille, and throw all the bums into the tumbrels" infuriated. They are so angry that they don't care if their own political party burns to the ground.

They want revenge.

It's the stuff of revolutions.

Revolts happen when the political paradigms that once were vital enough to attract millions of people become corrupted, exhausted, and/or so extremist that they no longer have popular support. Millions become essentially disenfranchised because they either feel or actually are no long represented. Meanwhile, those in power continue not only to hold onto power, but to continue to attempt to effectuate change from the top down  change that a huge number of people have neither wanted nor voted for.

Eventually the tension between those in still in power and those who are not being listened to or whose interests are not being represented in any meaningful way becomes so great that patience runs out. The angry response is to want to tear the entire system down to the foundations.

Adding to the frustration and bitterness of citizens, American society, once so flexible that anyone with grit and ambition could climb the social and economic ladder and achieve success, has become increasingly stratified. Onerous regulations have ossified the process of gaining wealth by one's own efforts, and tens of millions are now dependent on the government teat. The economy is still languishing, America is almost 20 trillion dollars in debt, 93 million Americans are basically out of the work force, the nation's borders are unprotected, and there is a rising contempt for law and order.

In the meantime, both parties are seen as colluding with power brokers and serpentine underground sub-governments run by puppeteers who pull strings that leave Joe Average Citizen completely out of the political equation.

Is it any wonder that millions of voters in the United States have come to the conclusion that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are hearing their voices in meaningful ways?

The result?

Both parties now have candidates who embrace extremism that is at least temporarily supported by enraged voters. Extremism is what happens when people perceive, rightly or wrongly, that there are no meaningful channels through which to effectuate reform.

The current situation may share a few similarities with the Bull Moose revolt of 1912, in which Theodore Roosevelt's unhappiness with William Howard Taft's policies led Roosevelt to challenge Taft for the Republican Party's nomination. Party leadership stuck with Taft, and Roosevelt walked out of the convention to form his own Progressive Party in protest. The result was the election of Woodrow Wilson, who won because the Bull Moose Party split the Republican vote.

There are also echoes of the election of 1968. George Wallace, infamous for his "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" speech, attracted a huge number of Americans who wanted a tough-talking strong man. As the PBS website relates the story:

Wallace's tirades against hippies, the Supreme Court, and big government, and his ennobling of the white working class  'this man in the textile mill, this man in the steel mill, this barber, this beautician, the policeman on the beat,' as the candidate said in one speech  traveled better than the pundits had predicted. About a month before the election, polls showed that as much as 23 percent of the electorate supported George Wallace for president.

Wallace hoped to throw the election into the House of Representatives. That didn't happen, but he surely gave Republicans a scare, carrying five states in the Deep South.

Are we seeing history repeat itself?

Perhaps. Certainly the anger is there.

The rage felt by "bitter clingers," many but not all of whom support Donald Trump, will certainly not be ameliorated if Republican leadership attempts to go for a brokered convention. Trump supporters would not tolerate it, and Trump would probably revolt, much as Roosevelt and Wallace did. A political revolution would ensue, one from which the Democrats would reap enormous benefits, such as capturing the presidency and the Senate.

The result? Revenge-motivated "bitter clinger" Republicans, much of whose anger is justified, might get exactly what they do not want. They may get the sort of revolution that happens when anger and "strong man" rhetoric alone dictate policy.

Do Republicans who are (legitimately) angry about the policies of the Obama and, yes, the Bush administrations really want what amounts to the destruction of their own party and conservatism just at the moment they were on the cusp of effectuating a peaceful revolution that could set the compass of this nation for generations to come? Conservatives have worked for over thirty years to gain both houses and the presidency. Now the vengeful, who because rage creates addiction to immediacy are always without foresight, are about to hand victory over to leftists.

How ironic is it that many of the "bitter clingers" are exhibiting characteristics the left has described as inherent to them? How satisfactory must it be for Democrats to feel ratified in their suspicions that a huge number of Republicans are just as they thought they were all along? How Obama and Hillary must be licking their chops to see at least a third of Republicans champion someone who fits the very worst stereotypes of conservatives. What a triumph for the opposition to think they were right all along. There are few things more satisfying.

If the acutely disaffected among the Republican Party don't get a grip on their rage, if they insist on picking an extremist candidate, things may reach the point where the Republican Party and reformist impulses of conservatism itself go down in flames just at the exact time progressive insanity was about to collapse the Democratic Party.

It would not be the first time conservative Republicans snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But if wiser, calmer, and more seasoned voices do not prevail, it may be the last.

True conservatives must step up to take the platform.

To quote  ironically  someone whose policies are inimical to conservatives and who would be overjoyed to see the demolition of conservatism:

"This is not who we are."

Fay Voshell is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. Her thoughts have appeared in many other online magazines, including National Review, RealClearReligion, CNS, and Fox News. Selected as one of the Delaware GOP's "Winning Women" of 2008, she has discussed her ideas on radio and television talk shows. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com.
Anyone who has passed through an airport recently has experienced the vicissitudes of the post-September 11 Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Destructive articles highlighting children being strip-searched, little old ladies being harassed, and the molestation of beauty queens under the pretext that they require "additional screening" have not served the image of the TSA very well for the traveling public.

It wasn't always like that. Air carriers used to be responsible for the security of their passengers. After several high-profile hijackings in the late 1960s (D.B. Cooper, et al), terrorist threats (hijackers threatened to fly Southern Airways Flight 49 into a nuclear reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory), and terrorist attacks (e.g., a bomb on PanAm Flight 103 killed 270 passengers), the Federal Aviation Administration required in 1973 that all airlines screen passengers and their carry-on baggage. Airport security and passenger screening were not core competencies of airlines. The airlines, in turn, contracted the government-mandated screening functions to private security companies. Private companies bid on those contracts.

In 1994, I was the general manager of one of those private security companies, at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. My company provided passenger screening, skycaps, wheelchair assistants, and a few other contracted services for the eight airlines that operated from the airport. My "pre-board screeners" performed the same "screening" functions  magnetometer, X-ray machine, hand-held metal detectors  as the TSA does today.

There are many reasons why pre-September 11 airport screening was less invasive and comprehensive than what we experience with today's TSA. My 200 employees were paid the minimum wage; supervisors received a little more. Employee turnover (during some months) approached 300%. The contract was a losing proposition financially, month over month. My company had to provide uniforms, conduct mandatory ten-year FAA background investigations, and schedule and pay for mandatory FAA drug tests. For every ten applicants, one would be able to pass the background investigation and drug test  then, a week later, I'd lose him when he took a job at the McDonalds on the concourse. Minimum wage plus a nickel.

It was a revolving door  for every five employees who came in, five employees headed out. Employees missed some of the easiest operational test pieces  pistols look only like pistols, not hair curlers  that passed through the X-ray machine. Fail an FAA test, and you were escorted to the door; I'd mail them their check.

One day, over twenty Muslim men in kufis and women in hijabs showed up at our airport office to fill out applications. My day and night shift managers thought they had died and gone to Heaven  potential new employees motivated to work for minimum wage, and there were over twenty of them. While we scheduled and paid for mandatory FAA drug tests (at $75 a pop), not a single one of the near two dozen Muslim men and women were able to pass the background check. Reason: no employment history; no real references other than the same person on twenty-plus applications who answered the telephone at an Islamic center. The FAA didn't approve a single applicant. Several of the Muslim men who had applied for a pre-board screener position returned to the airport and complained bitterly that they were not given employment. That was a first, and the episode set my curiosity afire for months.

Then September 11, 2001 occurred. From the 9/11 Commission Report: Four men passed through the security checkpoint, owned by United Airlines and operated under contract by Argenbright Security. Like the checkpoints in Boston, it lacked closed-circuit television surveillance, so there is no documentary evidence to indicate when the hijackers passed through the checkpoint, what alarms may have been triggered, or what security procedures were administered. The FAA interviewed the screeners later; none recalled anything unusual or suspicious.

The 9/11 Commission Report was virtually silent on how weapons were transferred from the "non-sterile side" of the airport through the security checkpoint to the "sterile side" of the concourse. From the 9/11 Commission Report (italics mine):

Checkpoint screening was considered the most important and obvious layer of security. Walk-through metal detectors and X-ray machines operated by trained screeners were employed to stop prohibited items. Numerous government reports indicated that checkpoints performed poorly, often failing to detect even obvious FAA test items. Many deadly and dangerous items did not set off metal detectors, or were hard to distinguish in an X-ray machine from innocent everyday items. 9/11 Commission investigators asked a screening expert to review the videotape of the hand-wanding, and he found the quality of the screener's work to have been "marginal at best." The screener should have "resolved" what set off the alarm; and in the case of both Moqed and Hazmi, it was clear that he did not.

How did the weapons get through the checkpoint? Did the persons who performed "hand-wanding" in two airports really fail to resolve what set off the first magnetometer alarm and the secondary "hand-wanding"? Or did the screeners sitting behind the X-ray machine ignore what was in a string of baggage? Even today's headlines report that screeners perform poorly and fail to detect even obvious FAA test items. I trained on the X-ray machine  it is hard to distinguish potential weapons from innocent everyday items.

The episode of Muslim men and women seeking airport security positions, and then complaining that they were not given a job, always made me a little uneasy. It was more than odd; it was a little suspicious. While I thought there just had to be "more to it," I didn't have time, nor was I motivated to investigate further. I had a marvelous relationship with the airport police, and I didn't say anything. What was there to discuss? Some obscure feeling? Was I an Islamophobe?

I was left with the reality that they didn't get the job, and the episode was soon forgotten. But the feeling that I had witnessed something ethereal and not well defined, like seeing Bigfoot hiding behind a tree, wouldn't go away.

In my novels, when discussing the events of September 11, I have hijab-wearing women behind the X-ray machines where they ignored the obvious weapons that showed up distinctively in the X-ray images.

The weakest link in the airport security chain was a contracted position that paid minimum wage, and the typical pre-board screener was entirely indifferent to doing a good job  to detect weapons or explosives out of a mess of other shapes and images. This was a year after the 1993 first World Trade Center bombing. Then September 11 occurred, and in my mind, a former general manager for a contracted airport security company, a former trained aircraft accident investigator, and a college professor for an aviation university teaching aviation history and aviation terrorism, I was convinced I knew exactly what had happened at two airports and what had happened aboard four hijacked jets.

I would ask my students, "Why did the U.S. government feel compelled to immediately federalize the checkpoint screening process, 'the most important and obvious layer of security'?" Just as Mohamed Atta and his murderous friends breached the cockpit doors and hijacked the aircraft of September 11, did someone also breach the most important and obvious layer of airport security, the pre-board screener? Were there sympathetic pre-board screeners in Boston and New York who ignored the X-ray images of weapons on September 11?

The 9/11 Commission reported that in 1998, the FBI assessed the potential use of flight training by terrorists, and in 2000, the Phoenix electronic communication of 2001 warned of radical Middle Easterners attending flight school. There was no discussion on how the September 11 terrorists were able to smuggle weapons aboard four aircraft with the exception of a vague excuse that the contract screeners were notoriously poor at their job and they missed countless training aids and decoys.

We all want to be safe when we fly. Those who advocate for replacing the TSA and returning to the pre-9/11 standard of privately contracted airport security argue that the TSA seems to be an agency that is out of control and that its agents do not answer to anyone. That they have a job to do, that they don't care how intrusive or offensive or ridiculous their procedures are.

In my world, any private airport security provider would be worse than the heavily regulated TSA. The problem with the TSA is one of political correctness. Profiling is a bad word. Everyone has to be punished equally. This isn't an issue of the government compelling a security company to establish minimum standards and criteria for airport security; the airlines and the FAA had a long track record of doing just that, from 1973.

The aviation world is a much nastier place than it was in 1973. If we cannot break the moratorium on profiling terrorists in favor of safer air travel instead of strip-searching, harassing, or molesting children, little old ladies, and beauty queens, then let me leave you with this image. Private airport security providers would return to the days of half-hearted FAA background investigations and minimum-wage employees. And with that, I can assure you, you'll trade a little convenience as your safety gets tossed out the window.

There is a phrase in the military lexicon, "inside the wire," where civilians and military are within the confines of a protective wall or fence at a camp or a forward operations base. In this day of international terrorism, where a terroristic or militant group seeks to find and exploit the weakest link in a security setting, the next time you go through an airport and think the TSA is horrible, instead, imagine that the Muslim Brotherhood or the Black Panthers have weaseled their way "inside the wire" and are manning the airport security checkpoint.

I'll drive or a take the train.

Mark A. Hewitt is an author of espionage thrillers.
On Thursday, Governor Mitt Romney gave an anti-Trump speech in which he called upon Republicans to vote for anybody but frontrunner Donald Trump so as to produce a brokered convention. Romney claimed that Trump's economic plans would cause a recession. He said:

If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished. Let me explain why[.] ... His proposed 35 percent tariff-like penalties would instigate a trade war and that would raise prices for consumers, kill our export jobs and lead entrepreneurs and businesses of all stripes to flee America.

On Friday, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the U.S. goods and services trade deficit was $45.7 billion in January, up one billion dollars from $44.7 billion in December. January exports were $176.5 billion, $3.8 billion less than December exports. The reduction in U.S. exports predicted by Romney just happened, but Trump is not yet president. On February 26, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that U.S. economic growth slowed to a measly 1.0% during the last quarter of 2015, but Trump is not yet president. Billionaire investor Jim Rogers predicts a 100% chance of a U.S. recession within a year. If he is correct, a recession will occur, whether or not Trump is elected president.

It is true, as Romney claims, that Trump has called for tariff-like penalties to prevent American factories from moving abroad and also to bring currency-manipulating countries (including China, Japan, and Mexico) into trade-balancing negotiations. But would Trump's tariff threats slow U.S. economic growth? No! Exactly the opposite!

Trade-surplus countries have a lot more to lose from a trade war, so Trump's negotiations would likely succeed. For example, in 1981, Congress threatened trade-balancing import restrictions against trade-surplus Japan, which resulted in President Reagan negotiating "voluntary restraints" on Japanese automobile exports. As a result, Japanese automobile companies built factories in the United States that continue to employ American workers and to buy American-made auto parts, greatly increasing American incomes.

Positive Effects of Tariffs

Even if Trump's negotiations did not succeed, the American economy would benefit if he imposed his tariff-like penalties. First, government revenues would increase, which would reduce the budget deficit. Second, American consumers would be encouraged to switch their purchases to American producers and to the products of those countries, such as Brazil and Canada, that buy more from us when we buy more from them. America would become more attractive to foreign manufacturers and to American manufacturers who had moved their factories abroad. American factory production would increase, and so would the employment and incomes of American workers.

Romney's current attacks are ironic, because during the 2012 campaign, Romney talked tough on Chinese currency manipulation and other trade violations. Romney said that the U.S. should tell China, "You can't keep on holding down the value of your currency, stealing our intellectual property, counterfeiting our products, selling them around the world, even to the United States." But Romney's attack on Trump reveals Romney's stance as the sham that many of us suspected it was at the time. Trump is right to propose imposing significant tariffs on China precisely because of the litany of trade violations 2012 Romney claimed to be exercised about. But now Romney claims that if Trump does anything about China's rampant mercantilism, it will lead to a depression. Clearly he planned to go no farther in his China trade policy than another ineffectual round of asking China to stop its mercantilism.

In short, Romney doesn't appear to understand the economics of trade. Economic research about the "tariff-growth paradox," including one of our own academic papers, has found that tariffs hurt economic growth only when trade is relatively balanced. But periods of history during which world trade has been relatively balanced (such as 1840-1865 and 1950-1973) have been followed by periods during which world trade became more and more unbalanced. The world is once again experiencing a period of high trade imbalances (like the 1890s and the 1930s) in which trade-deficit countries can grow more rapidly simply by increasing their tariff rates. Anything that Trump does to balance the enormous U.S. trade deficits will be economically beneficial.

How Trade Deficits Have Been Hurting the U.S.

When countries run trade surpluses with the United States, they give us trade deficits. Those trade deficits reduce aggregate demand for American products, American incomes, and investment in American factories. In his speeches, Trump has focused upon the three countries that have large trade surpluses with the United States: China, Japan, and Mexico.

China. Despite running huge and growing trade surpluses with the United States, the Chinese government won't let its people buy American-made Boeing passenger jets, Cadillac SUVs, or Caterpillar tractors. Instead, the Chinese government forces Boeing, GM, and Caterpillar to build new factories to China in order to sell to the Chinese market. If Trump's negotiations force China to import as much from the United States as we import from them, American companies could locate new factories in the United States for shipment of their goods to China. Also, American farmers would export more meat to China. The benefit to American exporting industries and to American workers would be enormous.

Japan. Under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, Japan can continue to manipulate the yen-dollar exchange rate so it can grow its enormous trade surpluses with the United States. With the yen priced low compared to the dollar, the costs of production in Japan will continue to be low compared to the costs of production in the United States. These low costs give Japanese vehicle and electronic producers high profits, which they have plowed into R&D and robotics so that they can continue to gain market share in their competition with U.S. vehicle and electronic producers. If anybody but Trump is elected, American companies that produce in the U.S. will continue to lose market share in their competition with Japanese producers.

Mexico. Despite being part of the NAFTA free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, Mexico manipulates the dollar-peso exchange rate so that its businesses have lower costs than businesses that produce in the United States. As a result, American industries move factories to Mexico. If Trump succeeds in his negotiations with Mexico, U.S.-Mexico trade will move toward balance.

Effect of Trump's Trade Balancing on the U.S.

So if Trump succeeds, how much would his trade balancing help the U.S. economy? Doing so would cause businesses to locate new factories within the United States. Since R&D gets located near factories, new innovations would be invented in the United States. Since workers learn by doing, American workers would gain on-the-job skills, increasing their pay over time. Since American workers buy services from American service providers, American entrepreneurs would prosper. In sum, Americans would get more pay, more factories, more R&D, more innovations, and a more prosperous country.

Trump is the only candidate who has consistently opposed TPP. Although he voted against fast-tracking it on final passage, Senator Cruz had helped TPP get momentum by co-authoring an op-ed with Paul Ryan in its favor. The other Republican candidates have always supported TPP, and Hillary Clinton was part of the administration that negotiated it. All are members of the Republican/Democrat establishment consensus, which supports overseas production in return for campaign contributions.

And TPP is not just about trade. It is also part of the open borders agenda, to which the establishments of both political parties subscribe. Under TPP, foreign service providers will be able to recruit cheap workers in Mexico and Malaysia and bring them legally to the United States to take American service-sector jobs. The destruction of the American middle class will accelerate. The popularity of socialist candidate Bernie Sanders tells us where this is going.

The economic case for Donald Trump is clear. If any other candidate is elected, U.S. economic growth will continue to stagnate in the 1% to 2% range. In contrast, Trump's trade policies would return the United States to its normal 3% per year growth. If any other candidate is elected, median U.S. family income will continue to decrease, but if Trump is elected, it will return to its normal increase. Under Trump, the U.S. middle class, a bulwark against socialism, will gradually be restored.

The Richmans co-authored the 2014 book Balanced Trade: Ending the Unbearable Costs of America's Trade Deficits, published by Lexington Books, and the 2008 book Trading Away Our Future, published by Ideal Taxes Association.
The people selling global warming have been at it for more than 20 years. For the last 18 years, on good authority, the Earth hasn't warmed. It doesn't seem to matter. The promoters of global warming are defending their turf, economic and ideological. They dismiss or deny the lack of warming, making up science as they go.

President Eisenhower, in his farewell address, put his finger on part of the problem. When science is funded by the government, it becomes less scientific and more political. Around 1970, scientists as incorruptible seekers of truth gave way to scientists as political bosses collecting grants from the government. Scientific organizations, such as the National Academies of Science, vigorously defend the financial interest of the science establishment while posing as high-minded seekers of truth. For an insider's view, read Professor Lindzen's essay on the corruption of climate science.

It is not practicable to power the country with windmills and solar energy. But the manufacturers of these things eagerly support global warming alarmism. A substantial part of the corn crop is wasted by mandating the production of ethanol, for global warming reasons. The ethanol industry draws political support from the corn belt.

In California, politically powerful eco-romantics are putting thousands of people out of work and bankrupting farmers in order to dump millions of acre-feet of water into the ocean for the benefit of a fish.

The romantic eco-left consists of upper-middle-class people who can't put two and two together when it comes to economics or science. They just assume that water will come out of their faucets and electricity out of their outlets. These people love global warming because it provides a story that allows them to pursue their bizarre, anti-modern goals under the guise of saving the world.

Since science is no longer scientific, but political, global warming belief breaks down along political lines. The Democrats believe, and the Republicans are skeptical. Neither party pays much attention to the scientific facts. The facts can be hard to ascertain amid the barrage of propaganda. The president's science adviser, John Holdren, is not a scientist, but a longtime operator in the business of promoting eco-scares. His job is to rally support from allies of the Democratic Party that work the eco-scare sector.

The promoters of global warming are not entirely without standards. The scientists don't blatantly make things up or claim that established scientific principles are to be ignored. They think up scientific excuses and reasons as to why global warming must be true. It's hard to know if this is lying, unconscious lying, selective amnesia, confirmation bias, or failing to think things through. Many scientists just keep quiet concerning global warming. They know that if they criticize global warming theories, they may lose their jobs or be otherwise marginalized.

The hysterical groups, like the Sierra Club, have low standards. They feel free to make things up, or perhaps they don't even realize that they are making things up. The Sierra club's "beyond coal campaign" claims that children's brains will be damaged if they live near plants burning coal.

The 2004 book Strategic Ignorance was written by the executive director and the house magazine editor of the Sierra Club. The book has a cover photo selected to make president Bush look dumb. From page 160 of Strategic Ignorance:

[T]he science is, in fact, settled. Greenhouse gases  carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and certain other atmospheric chemicals  absorb heat from the sun during the day and do not re-radiate it at night[.]

This is scientific gibberish. Greenhouse gases primarily absorb infrared radiation (heat radiation) emitted from the Earth, not the Sun. They absorb and re-radiate infrared radiation all the time, day and night. The highly influential Sierra Club, with a budget of $100 million, promotes global warming and the destruction of the coal industry, but its leaders have no conception of elementary science concerning the subject they promote with the intention of saving the Earth. Apparently, they don't even bother to have a scientist read their manuscript before publishing it. Why should they? They are engaged in a political quest, not science.

To support the claim that the Earth has not warmed in 18 years, it is necessary to use a global temperature data set. I consider the satellite lower troposphere temperatures to be the most reliable and least contaminated by politics, because the data is generated by two distinct groups. One group, at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, is manned by global warming skeptics. The other group, the Remote Sensing Corporation in California, is manned by scientists who go along with global warming. That both groups agree on global temperature, in spite of being on opposite sides of the issue politically, is a sign that actual science is taking place. There are also scientific reasons for favoring satellite temperature derived from measuring microwave radiation given off by oxygen in the atmosphere.

The graph shows global temperature change since 1997 as calculated by the two science groups. The trend line is flat for the last 18 or 19 years. That is 18 years with no global warming, while CO2 in the atmosphere increased. In order to understand this graph, it is important to realize that "hottest year," meaning hottest calendar year, is an unscientific concept. Nature does not use our calendar. It does make sense to average global temperature over a year, because a year is a natural climatic cycle. However, ending the year on December 31 is arbitrary. To do this right, you have to use a one-year running average and look at years ending at any time. Each point on the graph is a one-year average of temperature.

According to the graph, the hottest year since 1997 is the year centered on 1998.33. Fractional years are expressed as decimal fractions rather than months. The second hottest year is the year centered at 2010.16. The large excursions are the result of the well-known El Nino and La Nina cycles in the tropical pacific ocean.

NASA constantly makes press releases saying that this year or that year is the hottest on record. Their record goes back only to 1880, but it is quite certain, according to temperature proxies such as ice cores, that there are times in the last 10,000 years when the globe was hotter than today.

There has been a general global warming trend since before 1880. The warming trend predates increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. Given the long-term warming trend, it is not surprising that the hottest year in the last 20 years will also be the hottest year since 1880. NASA uses the less reliable and highly "adjusted" surface temperature data to support its hottest year propaganda. NASA also uses the unscientific calendar year rather than a running one-year average.

The lack of warming for nearly 20 years is powerful evidence that something is wrong with the CO2 theory of global warming. Rather than re-evaluate the theory and admit that the computer models don't represent reality, the global warming establishment weaves and dodges. The influence of the CO2 warming theory built into computer models is so strong that the climate science establishment does not believe the data until the data has been manipulated to agree with the computer models. No informed observer doubts that CO2 added to the atmosphere will cause warming. The question is how much. The evidence suggests that the effect of CO2 is small and that the doomsday scare scenarios are wildly speculative.

There are many excuses for the lack of warming. Heat must be hiding in the deep ocean. The lack of warming must be temporary. The real problem is that the science community fails to give objective advice because it is self-interested. Without objective science advice, it is very hard to distinguish sense from nonsense. Without global warming, segments of the science community would lose prestige and funding.

The promoters of global warming fear ignore the great agricultural benefits of increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Increased CO2 promotes plant growth and has generated billions of dollars of increased agricultural production in the last 50 years.

Norman Rogers is a senior policy adviser for the Heartland Institute. He is a member of the advisory board of the CO2 Coalition. He maintains a website.
Likewise for three generations nothing was done to develop Papua New Guinean leadership, in fact everything was done to block its development and ensure that leadership roles and responsibility were held by Australians and that there was no chance for the development of national consciousness or leadership.

Despite being a colony from the 1890s, Australia ensured that Papua did not get its first high school until international pressure led to its opening in 1955. Very few others were built for a long time in a country of similar size and population to New Zealand.

MANY of Australias colonial and post-colonial policies and practices are a major factor in the problems of Papua New Guinea today, and cause some Papua New Guinean leaders to have serious reservations about their Australian counterparts.

I remember, in about 1964, being on a Qantas flight from Port Moresby to Brisbane seated across the aisle from a Papua New Guinean. It was the first time I had seen a Papua New Guinean on a flight to Australia. No one was seated next to him.

The hostess gave everyone their meal except the Papua New Guinean. I assumed it was a simple oversight so asked her if she could please get his lunch, to which she replied with scorn, We dont feed natives.

I objected but she explained, Its company policy, we are not allowed to feed natives. I took it up with the company and they confirmed that it was indeed their policy  on the advice of the Australian officials who understood them. That was consistent with their practices on many fronts.

About 1966 John Guise (later Sir John Guise, the first Governor General of Papua New Guinea) was then an elected member of the Legislative Assembly with the largest majority of any member, and he was Member for Agriculture (a prototype Minister for Agriculture in the lead-up to independence).

He had been invited to study agriculture overseas with all costs paid and visited me to ask if I could help him in relation to the document he (and all Papua New Guineans) were required to fill in to seek approval to leave the country at any time for any purpose. It was an official form entitled Application for Permission to Remove a Native.

The content was as bad as the title. Guise was offended and humiliated by it but was used to constant humiliation, of all Papua New Guineans, not only by officials personally but by the system as a matter of policy.

I was then Director of the New Guinea Research Unit, a facility of the Australian National University (now the National Research Institute) and knew Guise personally. I saw the Administrator, Mr David Hay, about it and told him I would take it up internationally if nothing was done: not only for Mr Guise but to do away with the document for everyone.

Mr Hay was genuinely embarrassed by the system he was required by Canberra to administer and assured me he wished to have that document done away with and would act on it. He did get an improvement, but restrictions remained tight for years after.

Chris Kaputin was to be deported because she was white and dared to marry a Papua New Guinean, John Kaputin, now Sir John Kaputin, who later became for many years Minister for Foreign Affairs. Only an appeal to the United Nations stopped the deportation. But it did not stop the personal harassment they both suffered.

Any government official who even dared to invite a Papua New Guinea woman to the cinema was whisked off to the most isolated part of the nation or deported back to Australia.

The Konedobu Club was the big club for civil servants at the government headquarters. When Julius Chan (now Sir Julius Chan, twice Prime Minister and a successful businessman and recently Chairman of the Pacific Plan) came back with a degree in commerce from Australia and was appointed to the civil service, he was banned from the Konedobu Club as no non-Whites were allowed. He soon left the service.

When the East West Centre and the University of Hawaii began inviting Pacific Islanders from all over the Pacific to study there, with funds provided by the US government for the purpose, students from all islands attended  except from Papua New Guinea.

The President of the East West Centre told me personally that they wanted to include Papua New Guineans but had been requested by Australia not to do so. We then made unofficial arrangements to get the first two accepted despite the Australian blockage. For fear of international adverse publicity they were allowed to travel. It was a small breakthrough.

When the United Nations Trusteeship Mission issued a blistering critique of Australia for its constraints on education and training, among other things, (and that report was written by the Chairman of that Mission, Sir Hugh Foot, an Englishman and former British colonial governor), Australia could not get enough staff and had to advertise internationally, but it would only do so in White countries.

Every applicant had to send a photo so that, as was confirmed to be by an Australian official in the selection process, all non-White applicants could be weeded out without declaring their racist policy.

And all this time Papuans were Australian citizens and had been since 1906, since Britain required that. Australia had made them citizens without consultation, but would not allow them to enter the country of which they had been made citizens, nor any of the rights of citizens, nor any citizenship of their own.

When, in the 1960s, some Papuans who were part white Australian and part Papuan, asked to enter Australia, the country of which they were citizens, they were bluntly refused, as were all other Papua New Guineans.

My wife is a Cook Islander who had taught in New Zealand and Cook Islands schools and the Teachers College (and she taught at Port Moresby Teachers College). The first time she went to buy meat at the main Burns Philip shop in Port Moresby she was refused service.

She came home in tears after being told that natives can only be served through the outside hatch. She had been in many countries but never treated like that. She never went back, but it was a small part of the accepted code of the Australian system in Papua New Guinea.

One could recount similar examples by the hundred. These were not isolated or atypical events but were rigorously implemented systematic policies. There were many people of good will and good intentions in the government service there. But their best intentions had to be fitted within the policy and practice of full Apartheid.

Past misunderstandings can be overcome, and many on all sides are trying their best to do so. But any feeling in Australia that only Papua New Guineans caused the problems they suffer from can only be based on ignorance.

The genuine efforts that one sees from many people of all ethnicities and persuasions will pay off in the long run, but it will require deep rethinking of the total relationship (not only between governments) and long-term commitment to contributing to a positive and productive future.
The Obama administration said that the number of prisoners released from the Guantanamo prison camp who have returned to armed jihad has doubled over the past year.

Many observers have been critical of the Pentagon's methodology in determining which prisoners have rejoined the fighting, believing that the true figures are much higher.

Reuters:

The number of former Guantanamo Bay prison inmates who are suspected of having returned to fighting for militants doubled to 12 in the six months through January, the Obama administration said on Monday. The increase could fuel Republican attacks on Democratic President Barack Obama's plan to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba, which has come to symbolize aggressive detention practices following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and opened the United States to accusations of torture. Most detainees have been held without trial for more than a decade. The closure plan, drawn up by the Pentagon and which requires approval by Congress, proposes 13 potential sites on U.S. soil to hold 30-60 detainees in maximum-security prisons. According to figures released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), as of Jan. 15 the United States also had confirmed that seven out of 144 Guantanamo prisoners who were freed since Obama took office in January 2009 have returned to fighting. That was up from six since the ODNI's previous release last July. The ODNI report is released every six months and does not give details on where or for which groups the former detainees are confirmed or suspected to be fighting. The ODNI figures showed that 111 of 532 prisoners released by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush are confirmed to have returned to the battlefield, with 74 others suspected of doing so. Under Bush, suspected militants were rounded up overseas as the United States became embroiled in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and imprisoned at Guantanamo. The closure plan faces strong opposition from lawmakers who do not want detainees transferred to the United States. The United States took control of part of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 1903 under a treaty with the Havana government.

That opposition is bipartisan, so this is not a political issue. The polls show that a clear majority of Americans oppose closing the prison camp. So why does the president insist on shutting down Guantanamo?

The idea that the prison camp acts as a recruiting tool for terrorists is unproven and absurd on its face. There have been no "enhanced interrogations" at Gitmo for more than a decade. In fact, the prisoners have been coddled and cared for far better than inmates in U.S. federal prison facilities.

The fact that the recidivism rate for prisoners who are released continues to rise should tell us that the president's plan to transfer these terrorists to other countries isn't working. The Obama administration continues to make the startling claim that prisoners return home after the war is over, and since he has unilaterally ended conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, all prisoners except those directly responsible for the 9/11 attacks should be repatriated.

The wars are not over, and the idea of treating these terrorists as POW in the first place is idiotic. As long as Islamic extremists try to kill Americans, these prisoners should be locked up  even if it's for the rest of their lives.
At both the federal and state levels, judges are grabbing powers constitutionally reserved for legislative bodies. The most notorious example is Federal District Judge Russell Clark, who seized control of the Kansas City School District and mandated from the bench that nearly $2 billion be spent on new facilities and programs, all in an effort to desegregate the schools and bring test scores up to the national norm. The effort was a near total failure, but even if it had been successful, it was an obvious example of a judge appropriating funds, something reserved to the legislative representatives of the people.

In Kansas, next door to K.C., legislators are pushing back against state judges seeking to compel more school spending. John Hanna of the AP reports:

Republican lawmakers in Kansas, weary of conflicts with a judiciary that has been pushing for more school spending, are beginning to act on a measure to expand the legal grounds for impeaching judges. (snip) A committee in the GOP-controlled Senate plans to vote Tuesday on a bill that would make "attempting to usurp the power" of the Legislature or the executive branch grounds for impeachment.

The states Supreme Court has indeed attempted to usurp the legislatures prerogatives:

The state Supreme Court has issued rulings to force increased spending on public schools, citing a constitutional requirement that schools be adequately funded, and threatened last month to shut the schools this fall if lawmakers don't comply. The court also has overturned death sentences in capital murder cases and is reviewing a case that could toss out abortion restrictions.

Adequate is an entirely subjective criterion. And it ought to be in the hands of legislators, at least unless schools have to shut down completely for lack of funds.

The design of the U.S. Constitution (and the states modeled on it) allows checks and balances for out-of-control branches of government. Impeachment is indeed the check that legislatures have to exercise over the other two branches.

I hope the legislature moves ahead and pases the law and that Governor Sam Brownback signs the legislation, and supreme court justices face impeachment hearings. Chances are pretty good. The GOP enjoys supermajorities in both houses.

But expect hysterical wailing by liberals against this, denouncing it as extremism. APs Hanna asserts this hilarious notion:

The move is part of an intensified effort in red states to reshape courts still dominated by moderate judges from earlier administrations.

Moderate judges are those who grab the power reserved to the legislature? The warped worldview of liberals on display.

Throwing out a few supreme court justices would, in the words of Napoleon, encourage the others.

About time.
Voters are always right for the same reason the customer is always right  they are the ones who decide. Just as a business will fail without customers, a party without voters is doomed.

It looks as though we are headed for a contested convention. The convention delegates will need to keep their wits about them and remember that even if they are freed from their initial pledged candidates, they are not free from this basic political reality. Spit on your voters, and they will spit on you.

There is media speculation that Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, and big GOP establishment donors are scheming for an old-fashioned brokered convention, in which they will force their voters to choke down someone who didn't even run, such as Romney or Paul Ryan. Candidates Rubio and Kasich hope the party delegates will hand them the nomination even though voters have repeatedly shouted, "No! Go away!" at them.

These politicians want to win elections without voters. It won't happen. Delegates may be bought or threatened, but if they defy the voters, the voters in turn will defy them. It will blow up the Republican Party and guarantee a victory to the almost unelectable Hillary the Horrible.

There is only one way to stop Trump, and that is to unify behind another actual candidate. That is how nominations are always won. The laws of reality have not been suspended because voters prefer either Trump or Cruz, two candidates loathed by the party and media elite.

Republican voters have made one thing abundantly clear in this primary  they do not want an establishment candidate. They dumped Jeb Bush despite his 150-million-dollar war chest. They have rejected Kasich, not buying his sanctimonious moral superiority, his pro-amnesty "compassion," and his support of Obamacare. And despite the best efforts of Fox News boosters and unsubstantiated assertions that only Rubio can win, Rubio, the champion of amnesty, is falling fast.

This is not about inchoate anger. The voters are supporting policies they want. All three of the losing mainstream candidates supported amnesty for illegal aliens. The voters don't. None of these politicians wants to defend Americans from jihadis infiltrating with so-called Syrian refugees. The voters do. None of these candidates promises to change politics as usual; they just claim they can do a good job at it. Voters do not want the government we've been getting, improved or unimproved. They want a government that listens to them.

Voters to GOP establishment: we do not want you in power anymore. We are the voters you've got, and we don't want you. We are far smarter, more principled, and more patriotic than you, our elected officials. We understand more than you do about what is good for America and its people.

You ignored our will and our votes in 2012 by continuing to give the radical and traitorous Obama a green light on everything we asked you to stop  Obamacare, government spending, illegal immigration, a pro-jihadi foreign policy, a nuclear Iran. You let Obama flout the rule of law over and over. You broke the budget with him. You are letting Social Security, which we need, go bankrupt.

You have done nothing to protect our borders. You have done nothing to protect our liberties. You allowed the Democrats to gut and weaken our military to dangerous levels, to betray our soldiers on the battlefield with suicidal rules of engagement. You have grown a bureaucracy of petty tyrants who are locusts on our land. We can't even trust you to protect the Bill of Rights, including religious liberty and the rights to bear arms and to free speech. And the thing that matters most to our families  a robust economy that provides good-paying jobs  has been sacrificed to Big Government and submission to an economically predatory China. So get out of our way; we are heading down a different path. Now.

Only two candidates are putting forth policies that we Republicans have been demanding for years  Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. We are voting for one of those two, not for any of your guys. We are the voters. Ignore us at your peril.
The race is far from over, and Puerto Rico has some significance, though many in the super-conservative blogosphere chuckle at the victory.

Carl M. Cannon over at Real Clear Politics has a list of why the victory is important. A key paragraph:

Rubios small victory here sets the table for a possible pivotal victory in his home state. The March 15 primary is delegate-rich Florida is winner-take-all. Rubio is believed to have a strong base of support among Miamis Cuban-American community, and among GOP establishment voters in Florida. If he can run as well among the huge Puerto Rican populace that has relocated to the Sunshine State after fleeing the economic mess here, he could have a breakthrough moment.

If Rubio can win Florida, he should hold on all the way to the California primaries on June 7, with 172 delegates up for grabs, winner take all. Cruz and Trump have used harsh rhetoric against immigrants  not just Hispanics. Cruz says "Never!" to legalization (different from citizenship), while Trump is over the top. Rubio might not have a majority of the non-Trump delegates at the contested convention, but he could make his case on the various rounds of voting that we need to reach out to minorities, and he's the only one who can do it. If it has to be Cruz-Rubio (I prefer Rubio-Cruz), then so be it.

In the meantime, and most importantly, Rubio's dominant win in Puerto Rico reveals that he's the only candidate who can reach out to the non-white voters.

James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Gov. Reagan's Secret Missions, Five reasons not to vote for Ted Cruz, Ten reasons not to vote for Trump, Twelve reasons to vote for Sen. Rubio.
Move over, John Dean. You have some competition on the way to becoming the most famous witness against a powerful politician, aka a rat. Bryan Pagliano has been given immunity from prosecution in order to overcome his invocation of Fifth Amendment's protections against self-incrimination for his work on Hillary Clintons email server. But just what does he have to say?

Jed Babbin makes some very knowledgeable guesses in the American Spectator:

Pagliano must have had direction from Clinton  and her top staffers  to set the email system up the way he did. Because he was paid by Clinton  in addition to his State Department salary  he had to be suspicious of the whole matter. He may be able to testify that Clinton told him she wanted a system that would enable her to use it for all her government emails. He would have had to have known that a substantial portion of them had to, going forward, contain classified information. Pagliano may also be able to testify as to instructions he received from Clinton and her top staffers  Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and Jake Sullivan  on how to maintain the system. He should also be able to testify on the relationship Clinton and her staff had with Platte River Networks, a company Clinton hired to help maintain it (which had no security clearance to do so). (snip) The next step for the FBI and the Justice Department would be to interview Abedin, Mills, and Sullivan to see if theyre willing to testify against Clinton (remember Susan MacDougal?) or go to jail in order to protect her. All three are believed to have copied classified information from the Secured Protocols Network (SIPRNET) and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Collection Networks (JWICS)  the classified information networks the government maintains  to open emails on Clintons system at her direction. They are also believed to have illegally shared passwords to SIPRNET and JWICS in furtherance of her directions. Each of them could be looking at a long jail term.

My guess is that Huma, who has dedicated her life to ingratiating herself with Hillary and who comes from a family dedicated to the Long Jihad of the Muslim Brotherhood, will go to jail rather than testify. Cheryl Mills has very long history with Clinton and may also clam up. That leaves Sullivan, and I have no insight into his stance. But if Pagliano offers evidence that he violated the law, and if the FBI forensic team has recovered the deleted emails and tech steps taken with them, the evidence against him could be sufficient to dangle a long prison term before him as the alternative to spilling his guts.

I agree with Jonathan F. Keiler and Daniel John Sobieski that the odds are that we will see an FBI effort to prosecute Hillary, and that all political calculations about the election may have to be thrown out, even if the DoJ and Obama decline to prosecute. Babbin also sees:
Reuters is reporting that foreign diplomats from several countries have expressed "alarm" about the rise of Donald Trump in the U.S. and apparently don't get his appeal.

Officials from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have complained in recent private conversations, mostly about the xenophobic nature of Trump's statements, said three U.S. officials, who all declined to be identified.

"As the (Trump) rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by certain leaders around the world," said one of the officials.

The three officials declined to disclose a full list of countries whose diplomats have complained, but two said they included at least India, South Korea, Japan and Mexico.

U.S. officials said it was highly unusual for foreign diplomats to express concern, even privately, about candidates in the midst of a presidential campaign. U.S. allies in particular usually don't want to be seen as meddling in domestic politics, mindful that they will have to work with whoever wins.

Senior leaders in several countries -- including Britain, Mexico, France, and Canada -- have already made public comments criticizing Trump's positions. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel branded him a threat to peace and prosperity in an interview published on Sunday.

Trump's campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the private diplomatic complaints.



READ MORE: Hulk Hogan takes on Gawker in Florida sex tape trial

Japan's embassy declined to comment. The Indian and South Korean embassies did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Mexican government would not confirm any private complaints but noted that its top diplomat, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, said last week that Trump's policies and comments were "ignorant and racist" and that his plan to build a border wall to stop illegal immigration was "absurd."

The foreign officials have been particularly disturbed by the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim themes that the billionaire real estate mogul has pushed, according to the U.S. officials.

European and Middle Eastern government representatives have expressed dismay to U.S. officials about anti-Muslim declarations by Trump that they say are being used in recruiting pitches by the Islamic State and other violent jihadist groups.
Apart from Samsung, LG is one of the very few smartphone makers to continue and offer stylus-enabled handset on a yearly basis. The so-called LG G4 Stylus was launched internationally in May 2015, right around the time the device was heading towards the US market under the name of LG G Stylo. Although it was released with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, Sprints LG G Stylo has been updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow in late December 2015. Now, roughly three months after the aforementioned events took place, T-Mobiles LG G Stylo joins the Marshmallow family as well.

As is usually the case with over-the-air (OTA) software releases, owners of the LG G Stylo and T-Mobile US customers will be prompted to update their smartphones OS at any point throughout these next couple of weeks (March 7  March 21). The updates availability expands gradually, which means not every LG G Stylo will receive the OTA notification at the same time. Alternatively, owners of the device eager to upgrade the OS to the latest version can trigger the update manually by heading down to the Settings menu, and digging further into About phone > Update center > System Update. The Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the LG G Stylo bumps the software version to H63120b, and weighs roughly 767 MB so its recommended to use a Wi-Fi network throughout the whole process.

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As for the changes included within the update, Android 6.0 Marshmallow promises improved battery life through a new power management system called Doze, which can be summarized as a new set of rules designed to determine when the phone should enter sleep mode. Another exciting part of the Marshmallow update is Google Now on Tap  a major extension of Google Now which allows users to summon the digital assistant on any screen.

Its worth noting that T-Mobiles update arrives right around the time the LG Stylus 2 is beginning to make its way on shelves, at least in South Korea where the sequel is now available for $328. The Stylus 2 features a similar 5.7-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720, and unsurprisingly, it runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.
Todays does of Android deals sees a few oldies but goodies. Also making the list is the Ankers 18W wall charger. This wall charger is a Quick Charge 3.0, so itll work great with the HTC One A9, Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge and the LG G5, all of which support Quick Charge 3.0. Its on sale right now coming in at $16, with the coupon code WTZTB2IH thatll drop the price down from $21 to $16 at checkout. Making it a pretty spectacular deal. Quick Charge chargers are always going to be more expensive than traditional or conventional ones, mainly due to the extra power needed in these chargers.

Now onto the rest of todays slew of Android deals.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow continues to roll out to devices and go through testing for particular models from various manufacturers. When it comes to HTC, one of the phones that has been waiting on the software update is the HTC One M8 for multiple carrier branded models. Just last week it was reported that the Verizon model One M8 would be getting the update to Android 6.0 sometime this week, and earlier today the T-Mobile model started getting the update, although its not likely that every T-Mobile subscriber with the HTC One M8 has received it just yet. Following on from last weeks mention, the Verizon model has now started getting the software update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Over on the Verizon support page, the software update details are listed for the HTC One M8 which mention all of the changes that users can expect. These changes include some pretty obvious ones like Doze Mode, and users can also expect more granular permissions control to finally come about for the device. One of the biggest changes will be the inclusion of Googles Now On Tap feature thats been mentioned numerous times, which allows users to get more contextual information about whatever is on screen at the time no matter what application theyre in.

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Users will also be treated to new volume controls for notifications, audio, and alarms, which should make managing the correct volume a little simpler than before. Aside from the features mentioned above, the software update also includes a simplification for taking and sharing screenshots. Verizons support page doesnt mention any details about how large the software update will be, so its just a good practice to make sure you have a decent amount of space available. Its also not a bad idea to make sure that youre connected to WiFi whenever you decide to initiate the download so you arent eating up data from your internet package, and youll want to make sure you have at least 50% battery, and in a few cases phones wont let you do the software update unless its beyond that point anyway. If youre on Verizon and you still use the HTC One M8 and the update hasnt come through just yet, theres always the chance that it may not show up today, and alternatively you can always check manually to see if the update is available by heading to the settings menu and then the about phone section.
1:002:15 UT, 12-13:15 AEDST

March 9 Partial Eclipse as seen from Darwin near maximum eclipse, 10:17 am AEST. Simulated in Stellarium.Just a reminder that on the morning of March 9, there will be a Solar eclipse. From Australia though, we only get to see a partial eclipse, and then only from northern Australia.Detailed timings and viewing hints for Australia are at this page However, if the weather is rubbish, you may want to try and watch a live webcast of the Total Solar Eclipse. Live webcasts are at:Space.com http://www.space.com/32173-total-solar-eclipse-march-2016-webcasts.html The Exploratorium (NASA TV (from 01:00 UT; 12 pm AEDST) http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html Slooh (23:00 UT; 10 am AEDST) http://live.slooh.com/ Stars4All (22:32 UT; 10:32 AEDST) http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=1035&lang=en

Labels: eclipse, solar, webcam
Dropbox is a cloud based storage platform that launched eight years ago in 2008. Over the years, the service has evolved and seen much improvement. The application has been available on a number of platforms including various versions of Windows and Mac OS, the older legacy BlackBerry OS, the newer BlackBerry, plus Android, iOS and Web OS. Dropbox has been added as a third party cloud storage system by a number of big names, perhaps most notably by Microsoft for their Office suite. We have also seen a number of manufacturers bundling Dropbox storage space with devices for a limited number of years, such as HTC and Samsung. Dropbox have very recently blogged to tell the world about the success of their platform, as it has passed the five hundred million user point. Whilst this in itself is interesting, some of the underlying statistics provide insight into how Dropbox as a service has evolved along with how people use it.

Dropboxs blog points out that since launch, users have created over three billion connections by sharing data and files with one another. This number itself is impressive as it shows how people are not simply using Dropbox to store their data but instead are using the service more and more to cooperate and collaborate across the world. Dropboxs latest information shows that the number of connected files between different users is up over 50% since the same time last year. Dropbox also has some impressive clients and credentials  approximately two thirds of the filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival use Dropbox as integral to their work. News Corp, which has over twenty five thousand employees, is using Dropbox as part of their workflow process across the world. It took Dropbox four years to reach 100 million users, in November 2012, but a year later it had 200 million users on the books. Six months later it reached 300 million and now in March 2015, it has reached the 500 million point.

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Dropbox also explained that whilst the service is American, the last hundred million users have been from around the world: the top five countries by signups includes the United States, Brazil, India, Great Britain and Germany. Many businesses are using Dropbox to share and collaborate data around the world with The Absolut Company, headquartered in Sweden, and Dentsu (a Japanese advertising and public relations business) as two headline new Dropbox customers. Over forty percent of new users have been referred by an existing user, which will support the collaboration tools over the coming months and years. To celebrate the 500 million point, Dropbox have produced an infographic, showing below:
Motorola has generally been good with keeping up with software updates for most of their smartphones, this of course tends to be a little bit different when those devices are carrier branded models like the Droid Turbo 2 thats exclusive to the Verizon Wireless network. Over the past few weeks there has been talk of the Droid Turbo 2 Android 6.0 Marshmallow update beginning, but it seems that the software update has finally reached a status where it begins to hit devices as Motorolas David Schuster has just announced today that the official soak testing has begun for Android 6.0 on the Verizon-only phone.

While this is certainly good news for Droid Turbo 2 owners, a soak test only reaches a small portion of users. The silver lining though is that Schuster goes on to mention that pending a successful soak test, they expect to start a full rollout of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow software update within a few days. This puts the update at around Thursday or Friday for when Motorola and Verizon begin pushing Marshmallow to subscribers, although it could still take a few days before the update hits every single device as new software versions arent typically pushed out to all users at once, and instead are pushed out over-the-air in stages.

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This isnt the first time the Droid Turbo 2 has been listed as getting the software update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, as Verizon seemingly started rolling out the software to some users as of just last week on March 2nd. Back at the end of February, it was rumored that Motorola and Verizon Wireless would begin to push the Android Marshmallow update to Droid Turbo 2 owners on March 1st. The soak test has even been thought to have begun earlier than now, but it seems this is the real deal with a confirmation from Motorola themselves. As stated the full deployment could still take a few days and all depends on how the soak test goes. Theres a chance though that the soak test could go well throughout today and full rollout could begin tomorrow. With Android 6.0 on the Droid Turbo 2, users can expect all sorts of new tweaks including Doze Mode, Direct Share, more granular permissions control, and of course, Google Now On Tap.
In the history of the entire Samsung Galaxy S flagship series, all the models save for the original Galaxy S from 2010 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 released last year have been launched in two main configurations, each with a different SoC. The models are usually distributed based on region, so the variants equipped with Qualcomms Snapdragon CPUs have been launched in the US, whereas the Exynos-powered models have generally been reserved for the International or European markets. The story is similar this year, and while the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon 820 State-side, the same devices carry an in-house Exynos 8890 SoC in the UK. These are fairly different chipsets and recent benchmark results have shown that there is a discrepancy between the Qualcomm CPU and the one developed by Samsung in terms of performance. However, the real question is whether or not this difference actually matter.

UK-based Samsung fans who may have already pre-ordered the Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy S7 Edge might feel like they have gotten the short end of the stick, on account that their variants seem slightly less powerful in synthetic benchmarks compared to the ones powered by Qualcomm. According to AnTuTu and their V6.0 benchmark, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 yields 136,383 points, whereas the Exynos 8890 tops 129,865 points. The Apple A9 sits in-between with a score of 132,657, technically outperforming the Exynos 8890 but, in turn, being outperformed by the Snapdragon 820. The real question, however, is whether the lower score on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge powered by the Exynos 8890 makes a difference in real life usage scenarios. The answer is most likely no, simply because both CPUs perform extremely well despite their differences. To give you a better sense of perspective, the Snapdragon 810 released last year scores 81,049 points in the same benchmark, whereas the Snapdragon 808 yields 68,508 points. The Exynos 7420 powering the Samsung Galaxy S6 series yields a total of 86,652 points, so leaving their differences aside, both the Snapdragon 820 and the Exynos 8890 can outperform the last generation of mobile processors by a very large margin.

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In other words, todays top-tier smartphones seem to have so much processing power compared to last years models that the difference between 130K and 136K points in benchmarks such as AnTuTu might not count for much in the real world. Furthermore, software optimization goes a long way and today, even mid-range Android smartphones equipped with less powerful CPUs are able to deliver smooth, snappy performance in most areas.

On the other hand, graphically intensive applications such as 3D games or demanding tasks like video rendering might push the two chipsets to their limits, and the difference in performance could become slightly more palpable later down the line, but, only time will tell.
The Huawei P9 will be the Chinese companys next flagship, and is expected to replace the P8, which has been on the shelves since last year. While the upcoming device has been leaked online a number of times over the past few weeks, any confirmed information regarding the launch date of the smartphone has continued to elude the media until now. That uncertainty may finally be over, with the company officially sending out invites for a press event that is scheduled to be held in London, UK, on the 6th of next month. While Huaweis invitation (as seen above) is still ambiguous, speculation in the online tech media seem to indicate that the twin zeros at the top of the image refers to the twin cameras on the rear of the upcoming smartphone.

Earlier this month, Huawei had send out what looked like an invitation for an event to be held on the 9th of March in Berlin, Germany. Media outlets speculated that the P9 may make an appearance at the event, alongside the wide range of variants and models that the device is expected to bring with it. Reports have indicated that the Huawei P9 lineup this year will have a wide range of devices including the P9 itself, along with the P9 Lite mid-ranger, the P9 Max phablet and the P9 Enhanced edition. With March 9th just a day away, it will be clear fairly soon as to what Huawei has in store for the event at Berlin. Meanwhile, technically speaking, theres still no guarantee that the London event will definitely see the launch of the next-gen flagship from Huawei, so it will be interesting to see what comes of this latest invitation.

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Taking a quick look at some of the key differences between the various models in the Huawei P9 lineup, while the regular device is said to feature a 5.2-inch display and have the Kirin 950 as its processing chipset, the P9 Lite is expected to come with a 5-inch screen and have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 chip under the hood. As for the P9 Enhanced version, the device could be powered by the Kirin 955 SoC and have a large 6.2-inch display panel. If that isnt large enough for some people, Huawei will also launch the P9 Max, which will feature a gigantic 6.8-inch display, making it more a voice-calling tablet rather than a handset per se. As for the processor, it is expected to sport the Kirin 955 under the hood.
LG has plenty to say during this years Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The company has actually introduced three new devices before the trade show even started, LG has unveiled the LG Stylus 2, X screen and X Cam handsets, while the company introduced their all-new G5 flagship during the trade show. LG has showcased all of these devices during MWC, and we were waiting to see when will the company start selling these devices, and one of them just launched in LGs homeland, read on.

The company has launched the LG Stylus 2 phablet in South Korea earlier today. This handset will be available on all three major carriers in Korea (SKT; LG U+ and KT) starting this week. The LG Stylus 2 comes in Titan and White color options, and it costs 396,000 Won in South Korea, which is the equivalent to $328. LG did not say when exactly will the handsets going to be available, but they did mention this week, so they might basically become available on the aforementioned carriers any day now. Some of you are probably wondering when will this handset going to be available outside of Korea, well, LG did mention that the device will roll out to the US, Europe and Asia soon, but they did not give out an exact date or anything fo the sort, so well just have to wait and see.

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The LG Stylus 2 features a 5.7-inch 720p (1280 x 720) In-Cell Touch display, along with 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and 16GB of expandable internal storage. The device is fueled by a quad-core SoC running at 1.2GHz, and a 3,000mAh battery is available on the inside, and it is removable. The 13-megapixel snapper can be found on the back of this handset, while an 8-megapixel shooter is placed on its front side. This smartphone offers 4G LTE connectivity, of course, and as you can see in the provided images, you also get a stylus along with it. The LG Stylus 2 measures 155 x 79.6 x 7.4mm, while it weighs 145 grams. Now, the aforementioned stylus comes with a new nano-coated tip, which should offer more accuracy compared to other stylus offerings with similar rubber tips. LG has included a number of software features to complement this stylus, like the Pen Pop, Pop Memo and Pop Scanner. Speaking of software, this phablet ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and on top of it, youll find LGs very own custom UI.
One thing that Google has undeniably changed for the better is how we get from A to B with Google Maps. In the US, its become second nature to use Google Maps to get directions when at the wheel as well as discover new places and areas. Across the pond in the UK, the effect has been much the same and Google Maps Navigation is used by lots of users in need of finding out where theyre going behind the wheel. For those looking for a slower pace of life at the weekend, Google will be offering up National Trails throughout England and Wales for those to take a look at using Street View.

Google is enlisting the help of seasoned walkers, as well as offering a little of their own expertise, to map 15 of the UKs National Trails. Wearing the Google Trekker camera  which can only be used in good lighting and when its dry  walkers will be able to help Google map the great walks and travels that England and Wales has to offer. Starting later this month, March 7th, the North Downs will be available to explore using Street View, and Cleveland Way will be the next one to arrive after it. Google is lending two of their Trekker cameras for the project, and 2,500 miles or more of the National Trails will end up being recorded for those to plan out on their smartphones, tablets and laptops. At almost 25kg, the Trekker camera isnt a trivial piece of kit, and as mapping the walks can be a slow and arduous process, it might take some time for all of them to become available. With lots of volunteers willing to spend their time digitzing these great walks however, it shouldnt be too much of a problem.

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While the idea of mapping a great piece of the countryside so people can experience it at home from the comfort of their armchairs seems a little ridiculous, it could have a bigger effect on the surrounding areas. Its easier for someone miles and miles away from the area to find out places that are on the trail to stop for a drink or bite to eat or just get a feel for the terrain if theyre unsure of how difficult it could be. Its nice to see these great Trails finally go online, and while it might not seem like the perfect use of Google Maps, it could very well help open a lot of peoples eyes to these great wonders.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 series is set to hit the shelves globally on March 11, yet certain lucky customers who have pre-ordered either one of the two brand new Samsung flagships in some regions and through specific carriers may have enjoyed early access to the device. T-Mobile US started shipping the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge on the 29th of February, and starting today, customers in the UK who have pre-ordered the smartphone prior to March 5 can expect to receive their product in the mail at any time.

Earlier last month when the launch details for the Samsung Galaxy S7 series in the UK have been revealed by the Korean company, Samsung also revealed that UK customers who will pre-order the new flagship before the 5th of March will benefit from a special early delivery on the 8th day of the month. A quick look at the calendar and, sure enough, today is the day when these customers will start receiving their order in the mail. The Gear VR promotion pairing the new flagship phones with a free Samsung virtual reality headset is available in the UK as well, although the offer is limited to pre-orders placed either on the official Samsung Online Shop or through Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse. However, its unclear whether the Samsung Gear VR headset will ship at the same time as the smartphones themselves.

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The Samsung Galaxy S7 is available in the UK for the price of 569, whereas the larger Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is offered for 639. For the price, the new series includes an Exynos 8890 CPU with four Mongoose cores clocked at 2.6 GHz, and an additional quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU with frequencies of up to 1.6 GHz per core. The processor works along with 4 GB of RAM and a Mali-T880 MP12 graphics chip, as opposed to an Adreno 530 GPU used by the variant powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon 820 SoC. Storage-wise, users have 32 GB of on-board memory at their disposal, and up to an additional 200 GB of external storage via microSD. However, the Adaptive Storage feature introduced with Android 6.0 Marshmallow is not included on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, meaning that users will lack the option of unifying the external storage with the on-board memory.

For those looking for ways to keep their smartphones fresh and future-proof, Samsung also offers upgrade plans in the UK, allowing customers to pay a monthly fee in order to secure an upgrade to the next Samsung Galaxy S in the series, or the one after that.
As one would expect from a major smartphone manufacturer like Samsung, following the official unveiling of the new Samsung Galaxy S7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Korean tech giant started sending out review units to media outlets across the world. Usually, this would be nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that Samsung Poland seems to have done things a bit differently. Instead of sending out a regular review unit, the Polish branch has put together a premium briefcase containing the new flagship phone along with several accessories.

Pictures of the Samsung review box have surfaced through Polish tech blog GSMOnline. The briefcase is strengthened by a metal frame to hold the contents intact and its largely wrapped in leather, flaunting a large Samsung logo. These details aside, whats more important is what the review box contains. Obviously, it includes a Samsung Galaxy S7 review unit (not the Galaxy S7 Edge which seems to be more successful judging by pre-order figures), along with a Samsung Gear VR headset, a Gear S2 Classic smartwatch, and a pair of Samsung Level On wireless headphones (not to be confused with the companys Level U headphones). Judging by the briefcases contents, this can be viewed as Samsungs ultimate package for the best Galaxy S7 experience. After all, the Gear VR is offered in the US for free along with every Galaxy S7 pre-purchase, and when it comes to experiencing virtual reality, a pair of wireless headphones is more or less mandatory for immersion and convenience. As for the Gear S2 Classic smartwatch, it may not play a role in the whole VR concept, but it is considered part of the Galaxy family of products. In fact, Verizon Wireless offered an alternative deal for prospective Samsung Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 Edge customers in the US who may not be interested in the Gear VR, allowing them to pair a free Samsung Gear S2 with their smartphone pre-purchase instead.

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It should be noted that the Samsung Galaxy S7 review box sent by the companys branch in Poland is worth roughly $1,200 but it is not a commercially-available product. It was designed for the purpose of giving reviewers the tools and accessories they need for a thorough analysis, and its highly unlikely for Samsung to offer the package in stores in the future.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow still has yet to hit plenty of devices, and most of Sonys phones are included in that category save for Xperia Z5, Z4 Tablet, and Z3+ models in some regions which they started rolling out just this morning. That leaves any Xperia Z3 series devices and any other series models from Sony out of the loop, for now at least, with no explanation from the company on when the actual software update will arrive. Sony has pushed a beta test of Marshmallow to quite a few Xperia device users internationally and outside of the U.S., so there is at least some picture of what Marshmallow will look like on those older devices. As of today, Sony has also posted up a new video to their YouTube channel which showcases some of the elements of their finalized Android 6.0 Marshmallow build of software, so users of any Xperia device which are slated to receive the update know what to expect.

When Android 6.0 begins to reach more Sony phones, all of the standard Marshmallow features will appear, like Doze Mode, more granular permissions control, Direct Share, and of course, Google Now on Tap. There are quite a few Sony-specific touches coming to the software as well though, some of which are highlighted in the video below.

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Sony has always been big on cameras in their smartphones, so it shouldnt be much of a surprise to see them tweaking and adjusting the camera software experience. With Android 6.0 Marshmallow youll be able to adjust different aspects of your shots in real-time like brightness and color, which will allow you to drag up and down temporarily visible slider bars to change these elements. Youll also be able to adjust other aspects in real-time like resolution, self-timer, and more. Sony will also be making it easier to jump between the different available shooting modes with a quick swipe up or down from the bottom or top of the screen. In addition to these more functional features, Sony is also making things more fun by adding the capability to get access to even more sticker packs for messages, so if you enjoy sending stickers to display your moods and liven up conversations, this is something you may want to look out for once Marshmallow comes to your Xperia model. If you own an Xperia device which is supposed to get Android 6.0 at some point, check out the video below to see everything in actions which Sony is highlighting.
Android N may be just around the corner, but Marshmallow is yet to be available on the vast majority of Android devices around the world. Having said that though, most manufacturers have started rolling out Android 6.0 to their smartphones and tablets in recent times, and Sony is no exception. Recent reports indicated that the Japanese consumer electronics giant had started updating its Z5 range of smartphones to Android Marshmallow, and now, the companys mobile division has confirmed that news via a post on its official Twitter account. According to the post on the microblogging site, the Xperia Z3+ smartphone as well as the Z4 tablet will also get the latest version of Android alongside the Xperia Z5 devices in this round of Marshmallow rollout from the company.

Sony has also mentioned that the update is being rolled out in phases, so it might take a while before the company is able to push through the new software everywhere around the world. There is no country or region-specific ETA given by Sony just as yet. As usual, factory unlocked versions of the devices will likely get the updates earlier than carrier-locked models, but Japanese carrier NTT Docomo was reportedly one of the first off the blocks to roll out the update earlier this month, so it shouldnt be long before the new software is available to just about all different versions of the aforementioned devices globally. Marshmallow is expected to bring goodies like Google Now on Tap, an all-new App Permissions manager and a brand new battery saving feature called Doze, along with a bunch of other tweaks and changes.

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Along with all the native Marshmallow features, Sonys stock UI (user interface) for Marshmallow will incorporate a new launcher, which certainly looks a little different from the one most people have become used to. One thing to note is that the Marshmallow update from Sony will be based on Android 6.0 and not 6.0.1, which happens to be latest version of Android. Either way, reports indicate that the February security patches will also be included as part of the incoming update, which is certainly good news for all users of the aforementioned devices from Sony.
Verizon Wireless axed Unlimited Data quite some time ago, back in July of 2011. But those that were able to pick up unlimited data before the carrier officially stopped offering it, are able to keep their unlimited data although they have seen some price increases as of late, with the latest being a $20 increase a few months ago. Recently, AT&T brought back unlimited data  AT&T was the first carrier to get rid of it  but in order to get unlimited data, you have to sign up with DirecTV or be a current customer of DirecTV whom AT&T purchased last year. Many had wondered if Verizon might bring back unlimited data. Today, Verizons CFO, Fran Shammo confirmed that the largest carrier in the US will not bring it back.

What Verizon is looking towards is ad revenue. In 2015, the company acquired AOL. The biggest reason for them buying AOL was for their ad technology, as well as their original video which would go well with their then, planned Go90 mobile video service. Go90 launched in October of 2015, and so far its not making Verizon any money. But they dont expect it to for a few years. Verizon is expecting to increase ad revenues though, with Go90. Ad revenue is a big deal, just ask Google. Verizon is already offering Go90 for free, basically, to subscribers. Even subscribers that dont use Verizon. Those that do use Verizon will get pro-rated data for Go90, so the data used by Go90 doesnt count against your data plan. The way Verizon is looking to make money is from ads, which the revenue will get better over time.

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In some way, it is unlimited data. Really only if you like their Go90 service, considering you can watch as much of it as you want without paying a dime for it. Even on their 4G LTE network. However many customers would much rather them offer unlimited data, or do something similar to T-Mobile where users can stream video from places like Netflix, HBO Go, and many others for free without it hitting their data cap. Well have to wait and see how this all plays out for Verizon, who is already $110 billion in debt. So they are looking for more ways to drive in cash.
Item No "x x x. The elements of the crime of theft as provided for in Article 308 9 of the Revised Penal Code are as follows: (1) t...
US students get counselling after miniature sombreros horror

Like you, I too was injured and affected by students wearing small sombrero hats at a tequila-themed birthday party held at Bowdoin College, Maine. I too have been deeply affected by what the college rightly calls an act of ethnic stereotyping.

The colleges general assembly has understandably issued a statement of solidarity to stand by all students who were affected by the tequila party. Like you, Im off to Bowdoin on the first jet to claim my safe space inside a large plastic dome and counselling sessions to help me cope with the emotional fallout from this phobic-based mocking of Mexicans with tiny heads and the greater tiny-headed hat wearing community.

Student Bill de la Rosa (head size: swollen) is neither shill, fatuous or dictatorial when she says, These actions have consequences. These are leaders on our campus that were chosen and elected to represent the student body. Those actions did not reflect that last week.

Note: In other news, Mexicos Jewish community reminds one and all that patriotic, Speedy Gonzalez-themed yamulkas are sacrosanct  and at $3.99 each with discounts available for party orders a snip!

Anorak

Posted: 8th, March 2016 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Rome, March 8 - French President Francois Hollande said at a joint press conference with Premier Matteo Renzi Tuesday that Islamic terror is the prime enemy. "Only one enemy exists: terrorism," Hollande said at the close of the 33rd France-Italy summit in Venice. "Any other interventions in Syria must be conducted against (the so-called Islamic State terrorist group) ISIS. As well, he said "we will do everything in our power for Libya to have a government that can call on the international community for security support".


(supersedes previous)(ANSA) - Brussels, March 8 - The European Commission said Tuesday that Italy's macroeconomic imbalances are "excessive" - as are those of Bulgaria, Croatia, France and Portugal - but none of them will incur correction procedures. Italy has not reached its medium-term objective on structural budget balancing and is subject to the debt rule, the Commission said. Italy's imbalances include high public debt, scarce competitiveness, non-performing bank loans, and unemployment.

"High debt and protracted weak productivity imply future risk with transnational implications," the EC report.

Non-performing loans weigh on bank balances and high long-term unemployment is a burden on growth prospects, the Commission said.

"Debt reduction would require a primary surplus and sustained growth," the report said.

Gaps remain in spite of labor market, institutional, civil service, justice and education reforms as well as measures on deteriorated loans. These gaps concern privatizations, collective bargaining, spending review, market liberalization, taxation, and fighting corruption, the EC said. Also on Tuesday, European Commissioner for the Euro Valdis Dombrovskis said Italy must keep up its "ongoing reform effort" to fix excessive macroeconomic imbalances. Otherwise it might at any moment be placed in the corrective arm of the EU Stability and Growth Pact, which ensures members adopt appropriate policy responses to correct excessive deficits by implementing the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP). "Successive decisions depend on how ambitious the national reform plan is," the commissioner said.

Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said earlier in the day that the European Commission had not requested Italy make any extra efforts at fiscal consolidation.

"It doesn't seem to me that the point is whether they are asking something more from us," Padoan said. "The point is that we must set out the framework of public finances and policies for growth in 2016 with the European Commission and, as is widely known, the Commission has to say whether it has approved the additional (budget) flexibility (requested by Italy)".

Padoan said that "we are working very well with the (European) Commission at a technical and political level" but "until there is a positive assessment (of flexibility), as I am convinced there will be, you cannot say that we have concluded the conversation". He said the EU was making "an evaluation of points of flexibility vis-a-vis the efficacy of reforms and investment policies, is asking to go into the merit of the measures that Italy is taking and that is what is happening". Italy has been seeking greater budget flexibility, within EU rules, to help lift the economy.


(ANSA) - Rome, March 8 - Italy's antitrust authority is investigating Popolare di Vicenza bank for improper commercial practices, the agency said Tuesday. The bank is accused of pressuring clients to purchase Popolare di Vicenza shares and convertible bonds by making it a condition for issuing loans, mortgages, and other lines of credit. This would have "significantly limited consumer freedom of choice," the authority said. Finance police searched bank offices and affiliates as part of the investigation.

The investigation was sparked after application of the new consumer code, the antitrust authority said.

The bank appears to have exerted undue pressure on clients to buy its bonds regardless of how risky they were, the authority argued.


(ANSA) - Brussels, March 8 - Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said early on Tuesday that only modest progress was made at the European Union-Turkey summit on the refugee-migrant emergency.

"A small step forward has been made on migrants coming from Turkey but there's still lots of work to do, lots to discuss," Renzi said as he left the extraordinary summit. The EU and Turkey say they have agreed the broad principles of a plan to ease the crisis, but added that talks to reach a final agreement will continue, ahead of an EU meeting on 17-18 March. The EU has said that all undocumented economic migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey will be returned. Turkey wants the EU to accept a recognised Syrian refugee for each Syrian returned and has also called for an extra three billion euros in aid for 2018 to cope with the crisis on top of the three billion the union has already pledged.


(ANSA) - Geneva, March 8 - Swiss police on Tuesday arrested 15 Italians suspected of being part of the 'Ndrangheta Calabrian mafia.

Separately, Italian police arrested an international drugs fugitive with 'Ndrangheta links.

Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice said in a statement it had ordered the arrests following extradition requests filed by Italy in February 2015 and January 2016. The 15 suspects are being held in detention ahead of extradition to Italy. The extradition requests show that the majority were based in the rural canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. They are suspected of being members of an 'Ndrangheta cell in the canton's capital Frauenfeld.

Members of this group are known in particular for their rituals, strong hierarchy and unconditional obedience to their leaders, according to the Swiss authority's statement.

Two other suspects holding Swiss passports have been summoned for questioning as part of the investigation.

Separately on Tuesday, Italian police arrested a fugitive convicted of involvement in international drug trafficking with links to the 'Ndrangheta.

Antonio Vottari, 31, was stopped at Rome's Fiumicino airport after arriving on a plane from Australia.

He was convicted in September last year and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for being part of a group that trafficked large quantities of cocaine between South America, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy.


(ANSA) - New York, March 8 - The Pentagon has presented to the White House a detailed plan to strike the growing threat of ISIS in Libya, together with its allies Italy, France and Britain, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The Pentagon has put on the Oval Office table a series of options, it said, starting with a wave of airstrikes. The possible targets are training camps, command centres, munitions dumps and other sites in which the Islamic State militants are grouped: at least 30-40 targets in four areas of the North African country. The airstrikes, the NYT said, "would aim to deal a crippling blow to the Islamic State's most dangerous affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria, and open the way for Western-backed Libyan militias to battle Islamic State fighters on the ground." Allied bombers would carry out additional airstrikes to support the militias on the ground. The military option was described by five American officials who have been briefed on the plans and spoke about them on the condition of anonymity because of their confidential nature.


International producer and American choreographer Sean McLeod lives this premise whether it is on tour in Germany, on stage, or in the conference room; movement is a central concept and dance is it's voice. So today, let the words dance from your mouth, let the interactions with your colleagues dance together, and when you get a moment just dance for yourself. You'll be surprised what you might discover. #MTMonday
(ANSA) - New Delhi, March 8 - The ICE-Italian Trade Promotion Agency in New Delhi on Tuesday announced a two-year campaign to boost the profile of "Made in Italy" goods in India through events dedicated to fashion, food, design and other Italian expertise.

The initiative, called "Italy: The Extraordinary Commonplace" aims to highlight different Italian products, promote Italian businesses and link them to new market segments, ICE regional director Francesco Pensabene told a news conference.

About 400 Italian firms operate in India and Italy is the 13th largest investor in the country.

"We don't want to give lessons, but we want to share our knowledge to create an Italian-Indian style," said Pensabene.

The first event planned is called "La Dolce Vita: a celebration of Italian fashion, luxury and lifestyle," which is due to be held on March 11 and 12 at the Dlf Emporio luxury mall in New Delhi.


PERUGIA - The 10th edition of the festival dedicated to the media, scheduled on April 6-10 in the city of Perugia, will focus on ''journalism and how it should be done'', also in connection with current events, organizer Arianna Ciccone explained during the presentation.

The festival will discuss migrants, wars, terror, the rebirth of nationalisms, crisis-hit Europe and the new challenges of democracy, privacy issues and mass surveillance, the freedom of expression and the fight against censorship, as well as the role of NGOs in covering war zones. The festival will also present important examples of journalism on the ground in ''difficult'' countries.

The public and 500 speakers from all over the world (34 different nations) will be engaged in discussing these issues.

The event's organizers believe, in fact, that journalism is mainly ''participation and conversation'' and the festival's key aspect is the ''willingness to discuss, the need to tell stories, the fundamental importance of sharing experiences''.

Some 200 volunteers will also take part from 19 countries worldwide.

The most important media event in the international scenario, as it is considered, will return to Perugia with 200 free events that will also shared on livestreaming.

Four talks have been scheduled, on the shanging world of journalism and the battle for democracy and freedom of the press, entrusted to very different people: Mark Little, Twitter's vice-president of media for Europe and Africa, who will discuss in a meeting on Twitter, a platform that has completely changed the news system; Peter Greste, who was arrested in Egypt together with other colleagues from Al Jazeera, will talk about the ''war on terror and the war on freedom of information''; Hossein Derakhshan, a pioneer blogger in Iran, will discuss about journalism in the post-web era; Iyad El-Baghdadi will then talk about the Arab Spring.

Moreover, in a first, the center for digital journalism of the Columbia Journalism School (CJS) has directly organized some panels as part of the festival.

In addition, a meeting of the collective that has launched the information campaign ''Raqqa IS Being Slaughtered Silently'' (RBSS) is scheduled to hold a meeting on the Syria held by ISIS.

Over 80 debates will focus on issues including the trauma of journalists working with violent videos and images, the after Snowden, censorship in Turkey and the silent war in Yemen.

Workshops, presentations, performances, meetings and theater (with Marco Travaglio, Diego Bianchi, Beppe Severgnini, Fedez), films and documentaries, book presentations and live radio broadcasts from Perugia have also been scheduled.
Pentagon presents plan to cripple ISIS in Libya, NYT 'As many as 30-40 targets', decision up to Obama

(ANSAmed) - NEW YORK, MARCH 8 - The Pentagon has presented a detailed plan of military options against the growing threat of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Libya to the White House, reported the New York Times on Tuesday.



The plan would involve working alongside such allies as Italy, France and the UK, and includes "a range of potential airstrikes against training camps, command centers, munitions depots and other militant targets" as part of a "barrage" of airstrikes on as many as 30-40 targets in the North African country. (ANSAmed).




ISTANBUL - A court in Erzurum, in eastern Turkey, has issued a new arrest warrant for imam and magnate Fethullah Gulen, a former ally and now sworn enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his brother Salih, who are charged of ''being part of a terror organization''.

Gulen and his brother are also accused of ''violating the Constitution'' and ''aggravated fraud''. Erdogan accuses the imam, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, the US, since 1999, of creating a ''parallel state'' with the objective of toppling him, orchestrating a corruption case in Turkey in December 2013.

According to Turkish media reports, last night police carried out an operation in a typography owned by Gulen's brother in Erzurum, looking for suspect documents.

At least three additional arrest warrants over the past few months have been issued for the imam, who heads the powerful Hizmet brotherhood. Gulen is also listed by Turkey as one of the most sought after ''terrorists'', together with Kurdish PKK and jihadist chiefs.

Last Friday, the editorial group Feza, which controls opposition daily Zaman, was placed under controlled administration over ties with Gulen while last night a similar measure targeted the Cihan news agency, the only one to monitor national elections, along with State-run agency Anadolu.
(by Cristiana Missori)

ROME - "Photography from the Eastern front, 1914-1918" is the title of an exhibit by exceptional historical witnesses of the First World War, the brothers Janaki and Milton Manaki, photographers and directors, considered the Lumiere of the Balkans. From tomorrow until September 18, the Caen Memorial museum in France, dedicated to 20th century history and peace, proposes an important photographic collection.

More than 100 photos are being exhibited, taken between 1905 and 136 at Bitola, now the third city of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. The snapshots document especially the life at the front of French troops during the First World War, and scenes of daily life.

The two artists were born in the Vlach village of Avdala, near Grevena in Greek Macedonia. Between 1898 and 1912 they travelled throughout the Balkans, reaching 78 areas in all and immortalising customs and costumes as well as historic moments and institutional meetings.

As official royal photographers of Romania and Serbia, but also of the Sublime port of Turkey, they were exceptional witnesses portraying the visit of Sultan Mohamed V to Bitola, which was known in the Ottoman era as the 'City of Consuls' because of the numerous European diplomats based there, and of the funeral of the Metropolitan Emilianos.

Or again photos of the Macedonian revolt against the Ottomans at Ilinden in 1903 and subsequent reprisals, the Balkan wars against the Ottomans and between the Bulgarians and Serbs, before documenting the eastern front during the Great War.

From this enormous work 1839 photos remain. During the Yugoslav epoch, the Jugoslovenska kinoteka of Belgrade preserved the entire body of work by the brothers.

Before the collapse of the Milosevic regime, the Macedonian Cineteca was set up and obtained from the Yugoslav Cinteca all the Manakis material. In Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and even in Turkey studies of the brothers' work was published though their films were found only at Belgrade and Skopje. With the independence of Macedonia there was a surge in study of the work of the two directors.

Photographer Robert Jankulovski, who heads the Macedonian Photography Centre in Skopje, has proposed a series of photos for the public at Caen that are the fruit of 20 years of research.

In homage to the two brotehrs who inaugurated the study of photographic art at the start of the 20th century, Bitola each year plays host to the "Manaki film festival".
Migrants: 15,000 suffering rain and mud in Idomeni Shortages in tent cities as Macedonia border remains closed

(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 8 - Since the sealing of the border on Monday, the 13,000-15,000 migrants stuck near the village of Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border have been suffering from an onslaught of freezing rain amid fog and mud. Scenes of desperation show refugees huddles along a barrier built by Macedonia and along the section of a railway that stops there, while they try to cover themselves with whatever they can find - mostly rubbish bags. Very few have any raingear. The tents donated by NGOs and humanitarian agencies are overflowing and since the external ones have been knocked down by the rain, migrants end up waiting under the rain with nothing to protect them except the clothing they have on. Many have been waiting to cross the border for two weeks.



Numerous people spent the night under a large tent next to the border gate - which in previous days had let very small numbers through - in the hope of crossing into Macedonia at the earliest opportunity. A hospital in the nearby Kilkis lacks personnel and is filled with children who have become sick from the cold and unhygienic conditions. Meals are served for other children suffering from hunger and thirst, but much more is needed. An 11-year-old and a 13-year-old have suffered non-fatal injuries from a high-tension electrical wire along the railway. Local authorities say that they have also fined several businesses in the area that overcharged migrants, such as 50 euros each for those wanting to travel to Idomeni from Piraeus. The spokesman for UNICEF's Italian branch, Andrea Iacomini, said that "Idomeni is sinking in the mud, which Europe is at risk of doing as well. Thousands of children have reportedly been living for days in Idomeni amid mud, sludge, rain and cold, in makeshift shelters and at very high risk of becoming ill and dying. We must stop this. There are no longer any words for this situation". "On the difficult talks underway in Europe, I suggest that all European leaders call the next EU summit in the Idomeni camp. Only by seeing reality with one's own eyes, only by observing the point to which we have sunk, the conditions that innocent children from conflict zones are stuck in, will heads of state and government be able to understand that we must put an end to this European humanitarian tragedy." While about 1,500 are expected to arrive Tuesday in Piraeus, Greek authorities say that about 34,000 migrants are currently in the country, 6,800 of whom on the Dodecanese islands with most on Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Kos, Leros and Kalymnos. The organized part of the Idomeni camp - which a sort of tent city has sprung up around - contains over 8,000 people. One Syrian refugee interviewed by international media said that ''we will stay here. We cannot go back to Turkey because we do not have the means to. We will stay here and go forward, hoping that Germany and Sweden will accept us, if God wills it.'' (ANSAmed).




Perugia Festival to focus on migrants, wars and terror Among guests, Twitter vice-president and Iranian pioneer blogger

(ANSAmed) - PERUGIA, MARCH 8 - The 10th edition of the festival dedicated to the media, scheduled on April 6-10 in the city of Perugia, will focus on ''journalism and how it should be done'', also in connection with current events, organizer Arianna Ciccone explained during the presentation.



The festival will discuss migrants, wars, terror, the rebirth of nationalisms, crisis-hit Europe and the new challenges of democracy, privacy issues and mass surveillance, the freedom of expression and the fight against censorship, as well as the role of NGOs in covering war zones. The festival will also present important examples of journalism on the ground in ''difficult'' countries.



The public and 500 speakers from all over the world (34 different nations) will be engaged in discussing these issues.



The event's organizers believe, in fact, that journalism is mainly ''participation and conversation'' and the festival's key aspect is the ''willingness to discuss, the need to tell stories, the fundamental importance of sharing experiences''.



Some 200 volunteers will also take part from 19 countries worldwide.



The most important media event in the international scenario, as it is considered, will return to Perugia with 200 free events that will also shared on livestreaming.



Four talks have been scheduled, on the shanging world of journalism and the battle for democracy and freedom of the press, entrusted to very different people: Mark Little, Twitter's vice-president of media for Europe and Africa, who will discuss in a meeting on Twitter, a platform that has completely changed the news system; Peter Greste, who was arrested in Egypt together with other colleagues from Al Jazeera, will talk about the ''war on terror and the war on freedom of information''; Hossein Derakhshan, a pioneer blogger in Iran, will discuss about journalism in the post-web era; Iyad El-Baghdadi will then talk about the Arab Spring.



Moreover, in a first, the center for digital journalism of the Columbia Journalism School (CJS) has directly organized some panels as part of the festival.



In addition, a meeting of the collective that has launched the information campaign ''Raqqa IS Being Slaughtered Silently'' (RBSS) is scheduled to hold a meeting on the Syria held by ISIS.



Over 80 debates will focus on issues including the trauma of journalists working with violent videos and images, the after Snowden, censorship in Turkey and the silent war in Yemen.



Workshops, presentations, performances, meetings and theater (with Marco Travaglio, Diego Bianchi, Beppe Severgnini, Fedez), films and documentaries, book presentations and live radio broadcasts from Perugia have also been scheduled. (ANSAmed)
Turkey: new arrest warrant for Gulen and brother Charged with being members of terror group

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 8 - A court in Erzurum, in eastern Turkey, has issued a new arrest warrant for imam and magnate Fethullah Gulen, a former ally and now sworn enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his brother Salih, who are charged of ''being part of a terror organization''.



Gulen and his brother are also accused of ''violating the Constitution'' and ''aggravated fraud''. Erdogan accuses the imam, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, the US, since 1999, of creating a ''parallel state'' with the objective of toppling him, orchestrating a corruption case in Turkey in December 2013.



According to Turkish media reports, last night police carried out an operation in a typography owned by Gulen's brother in Erzurum, looking for suspect documents.



At least three additional arrest warrants over the past few months have been issued for the imam, who heads the powerful Hizmet brotherhood. Gulen is also listed by Turkey as one of the most sought after ''terrorists'', together with Kurdish PKK and jihadist chiefs.



Last Friday, the editorial group Feza, which controls opposition daily Zaman, was placed under controlled administration over ties with Gulen while last night a similar measure targeted the Cihan news agency, the only one to monitor national elections, along with State-run agency Anadolu.




TEL AVIV - Arab parties Balad and Hadash, part of the coalition United Arab List, the third-largest force in Israel's Parliament, have condemned the recent decision taken by Gulf States to list Lebanon's Hezbollah as a terror organization.



''Hezbollah fights against Israeli attacks in Lebanon and this decision - the spokesman of Balad was quoted as saying by local media - only serves the interests of Israel and the US''.



The position of the two organizations unleashed the reaction of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu who responded: ''Have you lost your mind? You condemn Arab countries and Hezbollah fires rockets on your villages'' in northern Israel. (ANSAmed)
(by Patrizia Antonini) (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, MARCH 8 - The summit of EU leaders with Turkey on the migrant crisis has wrapped up with an agreement in principle, which enables to bide time until the next summit scheduled on March 17-18. Leaving the summit, Premier Matteo Renzi spoke about a ''small step forward'' although ''much still needs to be done'', while German Chancellor Angela Merkel described it as an ''agreement on general principles that will need to be translated into initiatives''.



EU sources point to an endorsement to the mechanism of resettlements ''one by one'' suggested by Turkey, to the roadmap for Schengen and humanitarian aid to Greece, although the substance still needs to be written down in clear letters.



Negotiations were difficult among the 28 European leaders faced with a new proposal by Ankara agreed at the last minute by Premier Ahmet Davutoglu with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Premier Mark Rutte during the night before the EU summit.



Those who were most angry included European Council President Donald Turk, who felt they went over his head after he was directly involved last week in efforts to reach an agreement.



Merkel and Rutte, with the support of EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker pushed to reach an agreement, even if it implied negotiating through the night. The dinner scheduled with the Turkish premier at 7 pm was cancelled. At around 9 pm, given the irreconcilable positions, work was suspended for consultations and bilateral meetings, with the objective of finding consensus on a new text. The most difficult to convice included Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban, who vetoed the resettlement mechanism by Turkey. Strong doubts were also expressed by Cyprus over the opening of new negotiating chapters. Several countries, mainly Eastern and Baltic nations, requested to postpone the summit scheduled next week (March 17-18) because the proposal had not been negotiated. French President Francois Hollande was not pleased. Premier Matteo Renzi, who along with other colleagues including British counterpart David Cameron, raised the issue of media freedom at the lunch with Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu, asked for a mention in the conclusion of the summit, threating a veto.



EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini met with the leaders of Cyprus, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Turkey, which already hosts two million refugees, has proposed to the EU a resettlement system based on a 'one-to-one' exchange mechanism, noting it is willing to take back all migrants who have illegally reached the EU starting from a given date (and not retroactively) - both economic ones and asylum seekers - but for each readmitted Syrian refugee it is asking EU countries to admit one legally on their territory. In exchange, Ankara asked for an additional three billion (in addition to the three that have already been planned) for 2018, which Europe should allocate based on projects to improve the living conditions of refugees; the opening of five chapters of the EU adhesion process (the same on the table in November); the liberalization of visas in June, instead of October; and 'safe humanitarian zones' in Syria. ''It is the second summit in three months. This shows how much Turkey is indispensable for the EU'' and vice versa, Davutoglu said upon his arrival, stressing: ''Turkey is ready to be an EU member''. The Union however does not appear to be as ready and the emergency summit, which originally was supposed to last half a day, turned into a long steeplechase. Dring the meeting there was also a discussion on the juridical validity of planned readmissions. Alexis Tsipras says he already has an agreement in this respect, others however doubt that it is juridically viable. Among the many options that have circulated is one over the possibility of scheduling the 54,000 reallocations, refused by Budapest a few months ago, to resettlements by Turkey. ''Many are willing'' to accept this hypothesis also some countries in the Visegrad group, according to diplomatic sources. (ANSAmed)
How do you feel when you hear sirens going off? What do you do when you see fire trucks rushing through the streets? Who are the people on call ready to respond to 911 calls to help victims at the lowest point in their lives?

Doug North promptly arrives at the Central New York Chapter of the American Red Cross office as scheduled. North takes a few minutes to greet everyone in the office, including regional CEO Rosie Taravella. Later, he reveals that Taravella inspired him to become a volunteer in the first place. It is Norths first interview as a volunteer; he joined the American Red Cross a year and a half ago. Now he is the leader for the Disaster Action Team, in charge of logistics and a part of the mentoring program.

There is no such thing as a typical day for a volunteer at the American Red Cross. Ninety percent of the workforce is volunteers involved in various tasks to prevent and alleviate human suffering during emergencies. North recalls his latest disaster call, a fire with, fortunately, no fatalities: "It is hard to see people struggling and be limited to help them," North says. "When you are with disaster relief of the American Red Cross, you are recognized as a legitimate part of the team with the fire department. You are not behind the lines, you are fully involved." North is a full-time operations manager at a local auto parts retailer. He values his volunteer experience in disaster services and plans to dedicate even more time when he retires in 10 years.

Central New York native Mike Kinahan arrives for a meeting with other volunteers to discuss the upcoming St. Patricks Day parade, which the American Red Cross will march in. Kinahan is well-known in the Syracuse community  hes been volunteering since 1993, when he officially retired from General Electric.

Kinahan, too, is with the DAT, and he encourages everyone in his family to volunteer. His nephew just finished training. Kinahan shares one of the articles written about him published back in 2009. Kinahan recently went into his collection of clips to share with his granddaughter, who is writing an article about him at school. She is proud of her grandfather, who spent six weeks in a row deployed twice to Puerto Rico after hurricanes. "If you have some spare time, go and help people who need you, Kinahan tells people who are considering volunteering.

After talking to such responsive and responsible people, area residents can be assured each time they hear sirens or see a fire truck these people will do everything possible to help.

Want to join them in any way? The Red Cross has volunteer opportunities for all interests and skill levels.

Were conducting a volunteer orientation at 11 a.m. Thursday, March 10, at Seymour Library in Auburn. Prospective volunteers will be able to learn about opportunities in several lines of service: Disaster Services, Blood Services, Service to the Armed Forces and Health and Safety Services. Volunteer leadership positions are also available.

In addition, the volunteer department is hosting an open house at the Syracuse office, 344 W. Genesee St., from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 5. A representative from each line of service will be on-site, giving community members the opportunity to learn about all line-of-service opportunities and apply immediately.

To RSVP or to learn more about opportunities in Cayuga County, where volunteers are desperately needed, contact volunteer specialist Julie Mucilli at (315) 234-2217 or julie.mucilli@redcross.org.

Experienced volunteers like Doug North and Mike Kinahan would be thrilled to mentor you.
Migrants: Tsipras-Davutoglu to discuss readmission agreement Greek PM flies to Izmir after EU-Turkey summit

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 8 - Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras arrived Tuesday in Izmir on Turkey's Aegean coast to meet with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Dauvtoglu, a few hours after the end of a Brussels summit focusing on the migrant crisis.



"I believe that we will have a historic meeting with a decision to modify the readmission agreement that requires Turkey to take back all migrants lacking the right to international protection," noted Tsipras, who flew to Izmir directly from Brussels. His visit is being held as part of a Greek-Turkish Cooperation Council meeting. Discussion will also touch on operating details of the NATO mission in the Aegean aiming to reduce irregular migrant flows. Tsipras and Davutoglu met on Monday evening on the sidelines of the Brussels summit, as well. (ANSAmed).




UN blasts broad EU-Turkey deal on migrants EC dismisses criticism, Renzi sees only small step

(by Paul Virgo). (ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 8 - The United Nations on Tuesday blasted a possible deal for a refugee-migrant exchange programme between Turkey and the European Union, saying it risked tossing Syrians back into war zones. At an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Monday, the EU and Turkey reached broad agreement on a plan for economic migrants to be returned to Turkey, while Europe would accept recognised refugees from Turkey.



Talks will continue in order to reach a final deal in view of the EU summit on March 17-18.



"(The possible deal) is not in accordance with European and international law," the head of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Europe, Vincent Cochetel, said Tuesday. "We'll have to see what the guarantees will be. I cannot believe that the European Union could reach an accord of re-admission to a third country with fewer guarantees than those envisaged by the readmission into an EU country".



The European Commission rejected the concerns.



European Commission spokesperson Alexander Winterstein said the details of a possible deal "will certainly be in line with European and international law".



He added that at the EU-Turkey summit leaders "agreed that courageous action is needed to end Europe's migrant crisis". German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday described the outcome of Monday's summit as a "big step forward". "The basic structure of what can be described as the deepening of the partnership between the EU and Turkey became clearer and was approved by everyone," Merkel said. Italian Premier Matteo Renzi was less enthusiastic, saying that only modest progress was made. "A small step forward has been made on migrants coming from Turkey but there's still lots of work to do, lots to discuss," Renzi said as he left the extraordinary summit. Ankara has also called for an extra three billion euros in aid for 2018 to cope with the crisis EU on top of the three billion the union has already pledged and an acceleration in EU accession talks. Renzi stressed that press freedom will be a key factor in relations with Turkey amid concerns about the arrest of opposition journalists and the government's seizure of the daily newspaper Zaman.



"It is necessary to adhere to the founding values of Europe to continue the accession process," Renzi said.



"Press freedom is one of these". (ANSAmed).




S. P. Shukla,(pictured above), Mahindras Group President  Aerospace & Defence, says hell be in the UAE capital in around three months time to begin a first round of talks with potential partners.

The Group President said areas of particular interest were components, sub-assembly and assembly of aerospace and aviation equipment for fixed wing and and rotary platforms since we already do them in Bangalore and Australia we have the technology skills and management manpower to allow us to do it here.

Mr Shukla, who was on his first visit to the UAE capital to address the Global Aerospace Summit today, said partnerships were possible with local firms and global OEMs.

We have begun dialogue here and will I will follow up with a three day meeting after 90 days to take conceptual discussions further.

I am quite confident that within the next three months we will move from conceptual ideas towards implementation plans for at least one or two projects.

The Group already operates a production facility for armoured vehicles in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE which has an annual production capacity of between 150-300 vehicles dependent on capacity configurations. Production is sold regionally and to Africa.

Shukla said partnerships were needed to discharge offset obligations which have accumulated in the UAE describing the Gulf region as our neighbourhood and to bring projects into the global supply chain.

He added that following his Global Aerospace Summit address he was already pretty excited about approaches received. Theres the desire here, the willingness and the energy and is just a case of finding the right partners.

Shukla pointed out that the partnerships could be reciprocal. Theres the opportunity for two-way business. We would be happy to manufacture here and we would equally welcome partnerships with those looking to enter the Indian aviation market which will be the third largest by 2020/2021.

He told the Summit that opportunities existed in India, where the FDI process is being liberalised, across the entire supply chain with MRO in particular emerging as the new opportunity.

The bottlenecks in the MRO field are being sorted out little by little. Its only a matter of time before we see MRO hubs emerging in India. Talent will not be wanting, he said.


Combat camera Airmen hone battlefield capabilities through Scorpion Lens

More than 100 photo and broadcast journalists from the 1st Combat Camera Squadron at Joint Base Charleston and the 3rd Combat Camera Squadron from Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, are participating in Scorpion Lens 2016, an ability to survive and operate exercise at McCrady Training Center on Fort Jackson, South Carolina.



The exercise, which runs from Feb. 29 to March 10, is an annual training requirement incorporating combat camera job qualification standards and advanced weapons and tactical training with Army instructors. It ensures Airmen are able to capture imagery in combat and are fully trained to embed with different units while deployed.



"Throughout the year, combat camera Airmen train to ensure we can provide the operational imagery necessary on national, strategic and tactical levels," said Senior Master Sgt. Shane Cuomo, the flight operations superintendent for the 1st CTCS. "The exercise allows us to combine our annual training into one event and validate 85 percent of our required job qualification standards."



During the first days of the exercise, participants are trained in convoy operations, Humvee egress, M240 and M249 squad automatic weapons, close quarters combat, and land navigation, while capturing the action with their cameras. The exercise concludes with an evaluation of all the training objectives and is scenario based, simulating possible missions that could be encountered downrange.



"Though we are only a few days in, the Airmen are doing well," Cuomo said. "Right now, we have a lot of Airmen new to combat camera who have never done this type of training."



Airman 1st Class Nicholas Dutton, a photojournalist with the 1st CTCS assigned to the squadron since January, said, "I am grateful to be a part of this exercise and a part of a great organization. This is my first exercise and already I'm learning so much. My favorite part has been practicing my marksmanship with the M9 (pistol) and M4 (rifle) weapons."



This year's exercise is the first time Air Force combat camera has teamed up with the Army. Sgt. 1st Class Ken Shirley, a Humvee egress instructor at the McCrady Battle Simulation Center who experienced a vehicle rollover while on deployment, said working with combat camera was a shift from normal operations.



"I've never had so many cameras pointed at me at one time," Shirley said. "I was a little nervous at first but working with combat camera Airmen has been outstanding because they are highly motivated and willing to learn. It's training like this that saves lives and I'm glad to teach them."



Whether capturing imagery during training operations or documenting a weapons cache abroad, combat camera Airmen are integral to today's military, Cuomo said.



"We are the eyes and ears for commanders," he said. "Scorpion Lens ensures we remain a force multiplier, keeping up with our capability to support strategic, operational and planning requirements during wartime, crises, contingencies, joint exercises, and humanitarian operations worldwide."
Evidence trail leads to Turkey as Khazarian mafia world network continues to fall apart

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Turkish president Recep Erdogan that he will restore Constantinople (Istanbul) to Christendom and protect Russian maritime security by liberating the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits, Pentagon sources say. This has been the plan all along as borders will be redrawn, with Turkey expelled from Cyprus and balkanized, they added.This may be what prompted Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to fly to Iran and seek peace between the Sunni and Shia factions of Islam.If the two sides agree to a peace deal, this could mean the 1384 year-old split between the two factions of Islam might end. That is what the Turks are hoping for to counter the Russian, Western military alliance that was formalized when the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch met on February 12th, a first since 962 years ago.However, the situation may not be that easy to resolve because of deep Turkish involvement in the Nazi coup detat that took place in the US on September 11th, 2001. It now seems the choice of that date for the attack on the US was linked to the fact that September 11, 1683 was the date the last Turkish attempt to convert Christian Europe by force of arms failed. This was when the siege of Vienna was lifted by a Christian coalition just hours before a giant Turkish gunpowder mine was set to blow open the walls protecting Vienna.The Nazi/Turkish link has deep roots in history. It can be traced to Hitlers number 3, Rudolf Hess, who was brought up in Egypt. His resentment of the West traces to the fact that his familys fortune was confiscated by the victorious allies after World War I. Hess was also a member of a Turkish secret society with ancient historical links to the German Thule Society and the Italian fascist P2 Freemason lodge. These groups have long sought revenge against the West for the destruction of the German, Hapsburg and Ottoman Turkish empires after that war.In the run up to World War II, according to British intelligence and other sources, the Germans and the Turks trained hundreds of thousands of Muslim brotherhood activists to fight against British and French rule in the Middle East. They sent many of these trained fighters and pseudo-Muslim fundamentalists to Saudi Arabia after World War II. This group morphed into Al Qaeda and now ISIS.Their latest maneuver has been to flood Europe with Muslim refugees in what the Pope has denounced as an Arab invasion. The Turks and their Saudi plus Nazi allies retaliated to this criticism by killing four nuns and 12 others in Yemen.The perpetrators of this attack are not Muslims but rather worship an entity they call the Black Sun but which true believers have long known as Satan.This Satanic network is now being systematically dismantled in ways that are visible even in the controlled Western corporate media. The rise of US presidential candidate Donald Trump is a key example of this. Last week Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, on US nation-wide Fox TV, said the Republican establishment was terrified of Trump because Hes not one of themhe has not been through the initiation rites, he does not belong to the secret society.This has prompted multiple death threats against Trump, starting with Fuhrer George Bush Sr. but including others.However, the fact is this time it is the Bushes who are running scared. According to the Pentagon sources, the recent trip by Russian Orthodox head Kirill to Paraguay was a message to the Bushes they are not safe anywhere. The arrested Mexican drug lord and Bush agent El Chapo is being deprived of sleep until he agrees to be extradited to the US to testify against the Bush/Clinton mafia, the sources add.Also, the takedown of Hillary Clinton is moving along quite rapidly. Hillarys lesbian lover and aide Huma Abedin has been indicted, her IT guy has been given immunity in exchange for testimony and a grand jury is busy interviewing people to see who will be subpoenaed for her upcoming indictment. Charges will include leaking state secrets and using the Clinton Foundation like a secret government among other things, FBI sources say.Another obvious sign that it is not business and usual is the fact that David de Rothschild, head of the Swiss branch of the Rothschild banking family, is on the run from the police.David de Rothschilds name came up frequently in negotiations between the White Dragon Society and other Western secret societies before the March 11, 2011 tsunami and nuclear attack against Japan.Continue Reading at .... http://benjaminfulford.net/2016/03/08/evidence-trail-leads-to-turkey-as-khazarian-mafia-world-network-continues-to-fall-apart/
The Swiss unit of Edmond de Rothschild said its the subject of a French probe regarding a former business relationship managed by a former employee.

Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse) SA is actively participating in the criminal investigation under way, the Geneva-based bank said in an e-mailed statement on Friday. The bank denies all the allegations that have been made against it.

Edmond de Rothschild, a private banking and asset management firm established in Paris in 1953, oversees about 150 billion euros ($164 billion) and is led today by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild and his wife Ariane. The Swiss unit traces its roots to the acquisition of Banque Privee in Geneva in 1965.

The company has no further comment at this time, according to the statement. Officials in Geneva werent immediately available to respond to a telephone call from Bloomberg News on Friday.



Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist





Last year, Baron David de Rothschild was indicted by the French government after he was accused of fraud in a scheme that allegedly embezzled large sums of money from British pensioners.It has taken many years to bring this case against Rothschild and his company the Rothschild Financial Services Group, which trapped hundreds of pensioners in a bogus loan scheme between the years of 2005 and 2008.One by one the pensioners lost their money and pressed charges against the notorious banker, beginning a case that would take many years to get even an indictment.In June, Paris-based liaison judge Javier Gomez Bermudez ruled that Rothschild must face a trial for his crimes, and ordered local police to seek him out in his various mansions that are spread throughout the country.It is a good step in the right direction. The courts are now in agreement with us that there is enough evidence to interrogate Baron Rothschild. The first thing they will have to do is find him. Once they have done that they can begin to question him. It is a real breakthrough moment for everyone involved, lawyer Antonio Flores of Lawbird told the Olive Press after the ruling.In short, independently of what happened to the investment, Rothschild advertised a loan aimed at reducing inheritance tax, which is a breach of tax law, he added.While news of a single Rothschild being indicted is certainly noteworthy, a particularly important announcement was made this Friday.The French government announced that it has launched an investigation into the entire Swiss branch of the Rothschilds banking empire.According to Bloomberg, The Rothschild empire has been instrumental in helping move the global elites wealth from traditional tax havens like the Bahamas, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands to the U.S.Last month, the Free Thought Project reported on the above the law tax haven established inside the United States by the Rothschilds.After opening a trust company in Reno, Nev., Rothschild & Co. began ushering the massive fortunes of the worlds most wealthy individuals out of typical tax havens, and into the Rothschild run U.S. trusts, which are exempt from the international reporting requirements.The Rothschild banking dynasty is a family line that has been accused of pulling the political strings of many different governments through their control of various economic systems throughout the world.Historically, there is ample evidence to show that the family has used insider trading to bilk money from both private and public funds.During the Battle of Waterloo in the Napoleonic wars, Nathan Rothschild was responsible for one of the oldest cases of insider trading, which led to the Rothschild family robbing a whole nation blind. In 1815 when the battle of Waterloo took place, there were no quick methods of communication like we have today so messengers were used for communication in times of war. The Rothschilds took advantage of this by having spies on the frontlines of the battle who would return information to the family faster than the messengers used by the military.When the British won the war, Nathan Rothschild, was of course, the first to know, and he immediately went to the stock exchange and started selling stocks while putting out the rumor that the French had won the war. This created a panic on the floor of the stock exchange and investors all over England began frantically selling their stocks. With the price of all stocks plummeting Rothschild was able to buy out the whole English market for a fraction of its cost. When word returned that the English had actually been victorious, the value of the market soared, and overnight Nathan Rothschild expanded his familys wealth, and cemented their position as one of the richest families in the world.
Health spending now stands at US$ 350 billion, one third for people over 75. With a low birth rate , the countrys population shrank for the first time last year. The issue is front and centre on TV, in newspapers and parliament. For one pro-life group, it would lead to genetic selection.

Tokyo (AsiaNews)  Aging and childless, Japanese society is starting to reflect on legalising death with dignity, a practice meant to cut medical costs of patients in a vegetative state but one that could lead to euthanasia.

TV channels, newspapers, and parliament have waded into this controversial debate with various participants coming out against or in favour.

As a concept, death with dignity emerged in the 1970s, and should not be confused with euthanasia.

It is generally defined as "the act of letting a terminally ill or a patient in a persistent vegetative state die by withdrawing life-sustaining treatment on request in the form of a living will."

Advocates of this practice call it "natural death" or "humane death". Detractors argue that it opens the door to euthanasia.

Shoji Nakanishi, 72, heads the non-profit Human Care Association. He is wheel-chair-bound after a spinal cord injury at age 21. At the time, he was told he had just three months to live.

Fifty-one years later, he said, "They say people want to die in a dignified way . . . but because of the cost, they want people to have 'living wills' and reduce medical expenses. In his view, "If such a law is passed, it could lead to euthanasia.

For his and other groups such talk simply confirms what they fear - public financial woes are driving the push for legislation that could be a first step towards legalising euthanasia of those society deems a burden.

In 2014, Japans total health care spending topped 40 trillion yen (0 billion) for the first time. Spending on those aged 75 and over exceeded a third of the total, a percentage set to grow as the population ages.

This is happening at a time when the Japanese population is actually shrinking.

For the first time since the authorities began collecting census data in 1920, the latest in time (2015) confirmed a population contraction of 947 000 since 2010. Last year, Japans population was 127.1 million down from 128.1 million in 2010.

The net result has been that Japan ranks as the oldest nation in the world. Some 33,840,000 Japanese are over 65; that is 26.7 per cent of the total.

For the first time the number of Japanese over 80 exceeds 10 million. In fact, about 10.2 million people (or 7.9 per cent of the total population) is over 81. Among women, one in ten is over 80.

The collapsing birth rate is now a political issue the government has to tackle. We cannot say clearly that it is a problem of cost, but it is a problem, said Toshiharu Furukawa, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's health, welfare and labour panel.

For his part, Finance Minister Taro Aso in 2013 said the ailing elderly should be allowed to hurry up and die and linked the issue to the high cost of medical care. In doing so, he caused an outcry.

For various analysts, legislation on the right to die with dignity is unlikely to be submitted before July. Still, in an editorial, The Japan Times said this was the path to follow.
by Sumon Corraya

The judges will have to decide on legitimacy of constitutional eighth amendment, added in 1988, which defines Islam as the state religion. Islamic radicals "justifying" violence against minorities in the name of Islam. Catholic community welcomes the initiative, Muslims divided.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  Bangladeshs Supreme Court has begun hearings to decide whether to eliminate Islam as the State religion. The initiative stems from a petition submitted by writers, educators and activists, with the goal of reducing violence by Islamic radicals against religious minorities.

The Christian community has welcomed the overall proposal. The Muslim community is instead divided between those who believe it legitimate in a country where Muslims account for 90% of the population, and who believes that the state should "represent all citizens equally".

In 1988 with the eighth amendment, the military authorities in Bangladesh inscribed Islam as the official religion in the Constitution. In the first basic charter of 1971, drafted upon independence from Pakistan, the confessional element was absent.

According to the petitioners in recent months, the Islamic religion has been used to "justify" a series of violent acts and discrimination against Christians, Hindus and Shiites. Minorities are the target of ruthless fundamentalists attacking Christians private property, churches and Hindu priests, as well as bloggers, writers and activists guilty of being "atheists".

The minorities feel like "third class citizens, abandoned by the authorities." This is why they decided to challenge the legality of the eighth amendment. Speaking to AsiaNews, Rosaline Costa, Catholic activist and coordinator of Hotline Human Rights Bangladesh, says: "In a State one religion should not prevail. I believe there should be equal rights for all faiths. If the High Court is considering whether to eliminate Islam in the Constitution, this means that we can all ask the Government for the same rights".

"Our people - she adds - can no longer be attacked by Islamic radicals and justice will be done more easily, because in that case we will be regarded as victims of crimes".

The Muslim world is divided on the issue. Mahammad Hasan, a university student, says: "I would not welcome the elimination of Islam as the state religion. 90% of the population is Muslim, and so it is right that Islam is the religion of our state".

Yousuf Rahman is of a different opinion. He tells AsiaNews: "I believe that there should not be no state religion, because people with different faiths live in the country. It is a country for all its citizens. I would be pleased if the Supreme Court delivers a verdict against Islam as the official religion".

Rosaline Costa concludes: "No progressive nation has an official religion. If a state belongs to one confession, this creates barriers to harmony between its communities".
March is Womens History Month, a time to reflect on the amazing contributions women have made to New York and to celebrate their cultural, personal and professional accomplishments. It is also a time to talk about important issues facing women, and engage in productive dialogue to ensure all New Yorkers are treated fairly. I advocated for passage of the individual components of the Womens Equality Act that had wide consensus, and I am proud to say the measures helped strengthen workplace protections and anti-discrimination laws for women.

Womens rights have always been close to my heart and a constant presence in our community. I am proud to represent a district that carries such a rich history of trailblazing women who fought for equal rights and stood up to the unfair status quo. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and 300 other women and men held the first Womens Rights convention in Seneca Falls the birthplace of the womens suffrage movement. As a result of their tireless, inspirational and unrelenting work, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. was ratified in 1920, giving women the right to vote.

We honor their achievements and the accomplishments of others at the National Womens Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls  a great tribute to those who fought for womens rights. The Womens Hall of Fame is a great resource to help educate todays young people about the importance of courage and conviction. We must enlighten the next generation of New Yorkers and impart to them the importance of equality and justice, the backbone of what makes New York great.

BRITTANYS LAW MUST PASS NOW

I have continually pushed for another important measure that hits close to home, the passage of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, or Brittanys Law. This is a common-sense measure to protect women and families from violent criminals. Named after Brittany Passalacqua, who was murdered along with her mother, Helen Buchel in Geneva, the law would allow families to better protect themselves from those who mean to do them harm. Brittany and Helen were killed by John Edward Brown, a parolee who violently assaulted his infant daughter prior to meeting Brittany and Helen. Ms. Buchel was unaware of Browns history.

This is not simply a personal priority, it is a measure of protection that women need. Every nine seconds in the United States, a woman is assaulted or beaten. In 2014, there were nearly 29,000 intimate-partner assaults reported in the state outside of New York City. Of those cases, females were the victim 80 percent of the time. Brittanys Law is good for women and its good for New York. The bill has passed the Senate overwhelmingly in each of the last five years. It has Majority sponsorship and bipartisan support in the Assembly. As we reflect this month on the strength, determination and success of women, let us also be sure we are doing everything we can to protect them and all New Yorkers who may potentially fall prey to the violence of troubled criminals. It is one of the most important things a government must do for those it represents.

What do you think? I want to hear from you. Send me your feedback, suggestions and ideas regarding this or any other issue facing New York State. You can always contact my district office at (315) 781-2030, email me at kolbb@assembly.state.ny.us, find me by searching for Assemblyman Brian Kolb on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter.
by Melani Manel Perera

All the schools in the Rehan Dilsaras home district have refused to enrol the 6-year-old boy, following protests from other parents fearful of infection. Ignorance and discrimination are at the root of the rumours. The childs case has highlighted the countrys high level of infection, and the social problems people living with the disease face. Two schools are willing to take him, but they are too far from his home. Sri Lankas president says he will do something.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  The case of a Sri Lankan boy rejected by all the schools in the district of Kurunegala on the suspicion that he is HIV-positive might find a positive outcome.

Trinity College, a Christian school in Kandy, and Zahira College, a Muslim school in Kurunegala, are prepared to enrol the six-year-old child, as well as give him room and board.

For days, the story of Rehan Dilsara and his mother Chandani de Soysa has moved Sri Lankans. Their predicament underscores the difficulties people with HIV face as well as the many forms of social discrimination to which they are subject.

According to a report by the United Nations, Sri Lanka is one of the countries with the highest HIV infection rate in the world, mainly due to poverty and ignorance about the disease, which promote its spread. In 2014, 3,200 new AIDS cases were reported among adults and 100 among minors.

Rehans story became public last week, when the mother staged a protest in front of the Education Office in Kuliyapitiya, where she lives. For days, she sat in front of the entrance holding her son, eventually attracting media attention.

She explained that for more than two months, the parents of the other children in Kuliyapitiya kept her son from going to the local school.

"I do not know who is interested in circulating the false news that my son is ill," she said. She slammed the protest by the parents of 186 pupils who forced the school principal to refuse her sons enrolment.

Everything began when rumours began circulating after the boys father died last year from sepsis tuberculosis. Rehan underwent tests and was found to be in good health.

Two schools in Kandy and Kurunegala have said that they are willing to take the child; however, given the fact that they are far from the boys village, their offer does not solve all the problems.

Sri Lankas Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare Ranjan Ramanayake waded into the controversy. "The mother is too poor to afford transportation to either of the two locations, he said. Even if he gets room and board, it is not good to separate the mother from her child."

For his part, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena expressed his solidarity towards the woman and promised to do something.
The 2016 Pontifical Yearbook, and data from the 2014 Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae show that Catholics make up 17.8% of the world population. The baptized in Africa grew by 40%, Asia 20%, Americas 11%, but only 2% in Europe. Number of bishops and priests is up, but the latter after a steady growth until 2011 are beginning a slow decline, still in progress. Permanent deacons the strongest "evolving" group.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Worldwide the number of Catholics - in 2014, about 1,272 million  is growing at a faster rate (14.1%) than that of the world population during the same period (10.8 %). The Catholic presence, therefore, is up to 17.8% in 2014, from 17.3% in 2005.

There is also a greater number of bishops, priests and seminarians, while the number of religious is decreasing. Very positive data for the permanent deacons.

This is some of the data provided by the 2016 Pontifical the Yearbook and 2014 Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, we published these days, which show a very mixed picture of the impact of the various geographical areas on the overall data, with strong growth in Africa and Asia, decline in Europe and substantial stability in America.

Over a nine-year period, from 2005 to 2014, in fact, the baptized in Africa grew by 40%, Asia 20%, Americas 11%, but only 2% in Europe. Half the total of the world's Catholics continue to live in the Americas, while in 2014 the presence of the Church in Asia was around 11% and 16% in Oceania. Beyond the different demographic dynamics is the obvious confirmation of the increased importance of the African continent (whose baptized faithful rose from 13.8% to almost 17% of global data) and the net decline, however, in Europe, for which the percentage of the global total dropped from 25.2% in 2005 to 22.6 in 2014. Regarding in particular the Asian continent, the number of Catholics is "increasing moderately".



In the period examined, the number of bishops has increased globally by 8.2%, from 4,841 to 5,237 units. The increase was pronounced in Asia (+ 14.3%) and Africa (+ 12.9%), while in America (+ 6.9%), in Europe (+ 5.4%) and Oceania ( + 4.0%) values lie below the world average. The Asian continent shows the largest increase in total from 14.3 in 2005 to 15.1 percent in 2014.

As for the priests - both diocesan and religious - their number, over the years, has grown from 406,411 to 415,792. But after a steady growth until 2011, they have registered a slow decline in recent years, still in progress. In the period defections have been "shrinking", while deaths rising. This applies at the global level, as for the individual continents the dynamics are very different. In the face of significant increases for Africa (+ 32.6%) and Asia (+ 27.1%), Europe has experienced a decrease of more than 8% and Oceania -1.7%.

Data on candidates for the priesthood (diocesan and religious) are similar to those of the priests: rising until 2011 and then a "slow and steady decline." In absolute terms, the major seminarians are now 117,000, and their loss has affected all continents except Africa, where their number has increased by 4%. Even in relative terms to the number of Catholics, Africa and Asia are more dynamic, with 133 candidates for the priesthood for a million Catholics in Africa in 2014 and about 247 in Asia. European (66) and American (55), data is far less significant and a decrease compared to 2005, suggesting a potential for less coverage of pastoral needs and services. Of importance is the fact that out of 100 priests, Africa and Asia with 66 and 54 new candidates show a great capacity, while Europe recorded only 10 candidates out of 100 priests, America and Oceania 28 22 .



As to religious; professed nuns in 2014 were 683,000, professed religious who are not priests 54,000 and permanent deacons over 44,500. The latter category is the "strongest group in evolution": from 33,000 in 2005 to 45 thousand in 2014, with a relative change of + 33.5%. This increase is seen everywhere, but the pace of increase remains different among the various areas in continental Europe. However, their increase has been significant, passing in nine years from just under 11,000 to almost 15,000 units. Even in America the trend was sustained: in 2014 the number rose to almost 29,000, from about 22,000 in 2005. No significant major changes in spatial distribution of permanent deacons during the period examined: there is only a slight decrease in the relative number of deacons in America and an increase of that of Asia. "The dynamic trend highlighted by these operators - said the Yearbook - is certainly not due to temporary reasons and quotas but seems to express new and different choices in the execution of the spreading of the faith".

The figure on the pastoral load - that is, the number of Catholics per priest - finally, shows that globally, it has grown significantly and presents the highest in Africa and America, while in Europe it is much more limited. The situation, conceivably, will change in the coming years, since the European priestly clergy is the eldest and weakened by low renewal rates, while in Africa and Asia candidates for the priesthood are up sharply.
Rare astral phenomenon puts the archipelago nation on edge. Hotels booked for weeks. Some 10,000 foreign visitors, including a Thai princess, and 100,000 Indonesian tourists have travelled to see the event.

Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Indonesia is eagerly waiting for a total solar eclipse tonight and tomorrow.

From Sumatra in the west to the Maluku Islands in the east, people are flocking to watch the eclipse, which will be visible across much of Southeast Asia.

At least 10,000 foreign visitors and 100,000 Indonesian tourists have booked into hotels in the archipelago nation to be in the front-row for the rare and suggestive show. Foreign visitors will include Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, from Thailand.

Special events have been organised across the country in connection with the event, from a festival featuring live bands to dragon boat races. What is more the government has decreed a public holiday for tomorrow.

This is a very special year because we have this phenomenon  a tourism attraction created by God, said I Gde Pitana, the governments head of foreign tourism. We are very lucky.

The total eclipse will sweep across 12 of Indonesias 34 provinces, from west to east. Partial eclipses will be visible in northern Australia and parts of Southeast Asia.

For Indonesias Muslims (205 million), the experience will be deeply spiritual, with Islamic leaders urging the faithful to perform special eclipse prayers.

Our Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] said the prayer signifies the greatness of Allah, who created this wonderful phenomenon, said Maruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council, the countrys top Islamic clerical body.

Conversely, some of Indonesias tribal people  up to 70 million of the countrys 250 million inhabitants are indigenous peoples  are fearful of the phenomenon.

Members of the Dayak people in one part of Borneo Island will be performing a Balian Ba Ampar-Ampar to ensure it does not last too long. The ritual involves traditional music, chanting mantras and giving offerings of flowers and incense to ensure the sun, the source of life, does not disappear.

In Bali, the eclipse will coincide with the Hindu Day of Silence. Hindus are urged not to turn on lights and to move only on foot so as not to spoil the show.

In the Malukus, the island of Ternate has proven such a popular eclipse-viewing spot that local tourism officials have had to find extra accommodation in boats.

Many scientists are also coming to Indonesia. A four-member team from NASA is heading to Maba, a small town in the Maluku Islands where the total eclipse is expected to last around three minutes, one of the longest times it can be seen.

The last total solar eclipse occurred on 20 March 2015, and was visible only from the Faroe Islands and Norways Arctic Svalbard archipelago.

(Mathias Hariyadi contributed to this article)
36 militants, 11 soldiers and seven civilians, including a girl of 12, killed in crossfire. Government impose curfew in the area. President Essebsi condemns "unprecedented attack. Militiamen want to found " Daesh emirate" in the region. Reinforced border controls with Libya.

Tunis (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Tunisian security forces have repelled an assault launched by jihadist groups, probably linked to the Islamic State (IS). Yesterdays attack took place in an area located near the border with Libya. In the crossfire 36 attackers, 11 security personnel and seven civilians were killed. According to the Tunis authorities the aim of the militia is to establish an Islamic emirate in the area.

The government has imposed a curfew in the town of Ben Guerdane and areas near the border crossing with Libya at Ras Jedir. There is also a high alert for those travelling on the main road that links the southern city of Zarzis in Tunisia and the rest of the country.

President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi has condemned what he termed as an unprecedented jihadi attack and act of "barbarism that originated from neighboring Libya." He also ordered the closure of the border with the neighboring nation.

Prime Minister Habib Essid said that the operation was aimed at creating an "Daesh emirate" [Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, SI) in Ben Guerdane and control of the Libyan-Tunisian border. However, he added, the army and internal security forces were able to repel the assault.

A 12 year old girl was also killed in the crossfire which continued till late in the evening. Local sources said that the assailants are native to the region and not foreign fighters.

Last week, security forces killed five militants in the same area yesterdays attack. The jihadists had entered the country with the aim of committing "terrorist attacks." For over a year the local army has been engaged in a tough battle with Islamic extremist groups in the mountainous area of Chaambi and along the border with Algeria to the southeast.

The growing instability of neighboring Libya has helped to increase the threat level, this is why the Tunisian government has ordered the construction of a trench along the border to block the passage of fighters and jihadists.

The Arab Spring was born in Tunisia in 2010-2011, but spread with speed to a large number of North African countries and the Middle East. In many of these nations, the battle for democracy and fundamental rights suffered heavy setbacks and, in some cases, the situation has worsened. Despite this, Tunisia has instead implemented a democratic transition based on a vibrant civil society, which calls for respect for basic human rights.

In addition, it is the only country with a Muslim majority that defends freedom of conscience and, for this reason, in recent months has been the subject of terrorist attacks such as that on the Bardo Museum and the beach in Sousse.



The struggle for rights and democracy in Tunisia has also received prestigious international recognition. Last year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the 2015 Peace Prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, for their decisive contribution to the construction of a pluralist democracy in Tunisia after the Jasmine Rebellion of 2011.
Ankara wants 6 billion euros to address the humanitarian crisis and end illegal immigration". Illegal migrants will be returned to Turkey, but for each returnee, the EU will have to accept a Syrian refugee. By June, Turks should be able to travel visa-free within the EU. Turkeys application for EU membership should also be speeded up despite its threats to freedom of the press and human rights.

Brussels (AsiaNews)  The European Union (EU) and Turkey have agreed at a summit in Brussels to a broad plan to address the migration crisis along Turkeys coast with Greece, but a final decision was delayed.

The agreement provides:

1) that all irregular migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey be returned to that country;

2) that the EU accept a Syrian refugee for each migrant sent back to Turkey,

3) that the EU give three billion euros to Turkey to help refugees in Turkey, on top of the three billion already requested (but not yet paid out by the EU).

Turkey also wants:

1) the speeding up of plans to allow Turks visa-free travel in Europe, with a view to lifting visa requirements by June 2016, and

2) the opening of new chapters in talks on EU membership for Turkey.

Speaking at a news conference after the summit, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that it was important to see the agreement on refugees as a single package that includes greater integration of his country into the EU.

In the recent past, the leaders of the 28-member EU have been at each others throat over migrants wading their way onto Greek shores in order to reach northern Europe.

The arrival of more than a million people in 2015 alone has created difficulties in many transit countries (Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Austria), with some refusing to take a share (Poland, Hungary, Slovak, United Kingdom), with sections of the population refusing in others (Germany, Italy, France, Sweden).

This flow threatens the integrity of the open border policy within the EU established by the Schengen Treaty, which allows the free movement of people and goods among EU member nations.

Talks to finalise the EU-Turkey deal are expected at an EU meeting scheduled for 17-18 March.

European Council President Donald Tusk said leaders had made a "breakthrough" to end illegal immigration to Europe, but many analysts see some flaws in the plan.

For example, many of the migrants arriving in Greece come war zones (Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.). How can they be sent back in violation of international law?

Another issue is Turkey. Will it live up to the agreement? In recent months, it has become clear that Turkish government officials, police and organisations have been involved in human trafficking to Greece.

Finally, for some diplomats, linking a resolution of the migrant crisis to Turkeys EU aspirations and financial requests is tantamount to blackmail.

In a statement after the Brussel summit, Davutoglu stressed that the 6 billion euros would not go to the Turkish government. Every penny will be spent for Syrian refugees, he said. Not even a single euro will be spent for Turkish citizens. Currently, Turkey is host to 2.7 million Syrian refugees.

Turkeys EU membership is however another issue altogether. In the past, Ankaras application ran up against the EUs 72 criteria for membership, most notably in terms of improved minority rights, status of women, human rights, and freedom of the press.

The latter is especially important. Just a few days ago, Turkish daily Zaman was shut down on government orders, and its editor-in-chief forced to resign. The paper had become highly critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans regime.

In view of the situation, Will the EU let itself be humiliated over media freedom in Turkey? said Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, in a statement after the summit.
A man who set the Adelaide Legal Services Commission office alight back in 2011 has had his jail sentence extended by 10 months after he threatened to do it again.



Donald Roy Londsdale, 46, was at the front court of the commissions Wakefield Street office when he doused it with petrol and set it alight.



He pleaded guilty in September 2013 to damaging property by fire and was sentenced to three years and three months in prison, according to a report by the ABC.



The judge sentenced him to a non-parole period of two years before Lonsdale told the court that he would prefer to serve his whole sentence and do the full whack.



If I get out, Ill be going to the service station and the Legal Services Commission, Lonsdale said.



He was charged with threatening to damage property and pleaded guilty, a crime Chief Judge Geoffrey Muecke said could mean up to 15 years in prison. But Muecke added 10 months to Lonsdales sentence, saying Lonsdale did not intend to carry out the threat or that he intended to arouse fear that the threat would be or was likely to be carried out.



But rather, you were recklessly indifferent as to whether such a fear was aroused, Mueck said.



The additional 10 months on Lonsdales sentence was backdated to last May last year, meaning he will be eligible for parole later this month. Muecke said that he was concerned that Lonsdale had not received the support he needed and is concerned he may not get enough support when he is set free.



You have only this morning mentioned that you are going to apply for a retrial, Muecke said.



You have not had a trial. You pleaded guilty. You can appeal my sentence and you can appeal on the basis that you should not have pleaded guilty because you misunderstood the charge.



I do not accept that you misunderstood the charge, but I do acknowledge that if you are not maintained on medication, you may get the wrong end of the stick, if I can put it that way.



What do you expect? Lonsdale asked the judge.



There isn't any [support] in prison. I've been in prison on lies told to the court by the prosecution, he said.



You can't just go and throw people behind bars on lies and expect them to put up with it?



I shouldn't have gone to jail in the first place. We should have a legal system in the first place that follows the law. It's corrupt. Like I said to the earlier judge, I don't give a shit if I'm a sacrificial lamb. F**k the law.



Muecke said he might maintain a rage after being released and encouraged him to remain on the medication he is taking in prison.


But its significant that a California court is allowing her case to go to trial. It places the spotlight on an important question about how law schools in particular and universities generally recruit students. How accurate must they be in describing their merits and the accomplishments of their graduates? Is a schools promotional material like advertising for any other product? Or should institutions of higher learning be held to a higher standard?

Start with the employment numbers themselves. The American Bar Association requires accredited law schools to report on their graduates employment status. The ABA reports the data, and instantly generates school-specific reports.

This data uses an extremely generous definition of employment: a graduate is considered to be employed if the graduate has a position in which he or she receives remuneration for work performed. No doubt thats technically accurate; but its also potentially misleading, since almost anything can count.

But the ABAs definitions go on to be significantly more specific. They distinguish short-term employment from long-term. Then they break down employment into several categories, including bar passage required, which means working as the lawyer; JD advantage, which means the juris doctor degree helped get the job but isnt necessary (think work as a management consultant or in an investment bank); professional position, a slightly vague category for which the ABA gives as examples a math or science teacher, business manager, or performing arts specialist; and non-professional, which is everything else.

When you print out a report for a specific law school, you get a breakdown of the number of graduates who landed in each of these categories. As information goes, the ABAs reports are pretty good.
Just one note, you mention about the co not taking into account evidence attached to your pmv they wouldn't as that is a different application. Each application is based on its merits and the evidence provided for that application. You need to put everything in front of them not make it so they have to go looking. Wouldn't surprise me if people doing the TV don't have access to pmv or partner evidence, just the ability to see one is in the works.

Best of luck!

Also curious is the agent Mara registered k
Zika virus, primarily spread by the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes, has rapidly emerged in many parts of Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Mexico. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently announced that the disease may also be spread by sexual contact more often than previously believed.

The CDC has identified cases in the U.S. who were infected through sexual contact with a traveler returning from a Zika-affected area. Zika virus can also spread from a mother to a child during pregnancy or birth and through blood transfusions.

As spring break approaches, it is important to know where the virus is circulating and how to protect yourself from Zika virus and other sexually or mosquito-transmitted diseases, especially if your plans include travel to Zika affected areas. Up-to-date travel information can be found at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information.

Local mosquito-borne transmission of the virus has not been documented in the continental United States, but infections have been identified in travelers returning from affected areas. To date, Arizona has had no cases of travel-associated or locally-acquired Zika infection. While the Aedes mosquito has not been found in Coconino County, this mosquito is found in the warmer areas of Arizona.

No matter where your spring break takes you, it is important to follow these recommendations to protect against all mosquito-borne diseases (such as Zika virus, dengue fever) and sexually transmitted diseases (such as chlamydia and gonorrhea):

1. Pregnant women should consider postponing travel to any area where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. If travel to one of these areas is unavoidable, it is recommended to strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has additional resources for pregnant women at http://www.cdc.gov/zika/pregnancy/question-answers.html.

2. Pregnant women should abstain from sexual activity (vaginal, anal or oral) with a male partner who lives or has traveled to a Zika-affected country or should consistently and correctly use condoms for the duration of the pregnancy. This should be done to avoid possible adverse pregnancy outcomes such as microcephaly, a neurological condition that occurs because a childs developing brain doesnt grow properly.

3. Protect yourself from mosquitoes. In addition to Zika, West Nile, dengue and chikungunya viruses are also serious mosquito-borne infections circulating inside and outside of the U.S.

Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants.

Stay in places with air conditioning or with window and door screens to keep mosquitoes outside.

Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents. When used as directed, these insect repellents are proven safe and effective even for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Always follow the instructions on the label and reapply every few hours.

Eliminate mosquito breeding sites such as containers with standing water.

4. Men who have traveled to an area with ongoing Zika transmission should consider using condoms consistently and correctly to protect their sexual partners. Consistent and correct use of male latex condoms can reduce (though not eliminate) the risk of STD transmission. Female condoms, a polyurethane sheath, have also been proven effective in reducing the risk of STD transmission.

5. Contact your health care provider if you develop symptoms of an infection (fever, rash, conjunctivitis, or joint pain) after travel.

For more information about Zika virus, visit the Coconino County Public Health Services District website at www.coconino.az.gov/health or visit http://www.cdc.gov/zika.
As the 54-year-old driver told the Roselle Police after being pulled over, she had crashed into the 15-foot tree some three miles away from the point where she was stopped. Despite this and the place being in the proximity of her home, the driver said she didn't remember the exact location of the accident. Obviously.Her vehicle, a Lincoln Town Car, had been spotted driving in the less-than-aerodynamic form mentioned above in the middle of the night on January 23, with another driver reporting the episode to the police.It didn't take long for the officers to spot the three huger (perhaps because its shape was different from the usual Prius body). While the driver did cooperate, the officer noticed the airbags had been deployed and had a suspicion the woman was intoxicated.The driver was taken into custody after failing a field sobriety test and is due to appear in front of a judge this April. Given her feat, which determined the Roselle Police to post the pair of photos we have here on their Facebook page, the court might become familiar with the case even before opening the woman's file.While we didn't need any confirmation on the Lincoln Town Car being solid enough to sustain such an episode, we wonder if anybody over at Ford has noticed this - if the new Continental is this strong, we predict hefty sale numbers. Sure, we don't expect other drivers to attempt to steal this woman's unofficial car ornament record, but knowing your vehicle can sustain this is enough to win many people over.
EV

Before moving on to the Zuffenhausen matters we're here to discuss, we'll remind you that, while Mercedes-Benz may have wished BMW a happy anniversary, the Daimler-owned automaker also mentioned "The previous 30 years were actually a bit boring." Pointing out you were three decades ahead doesn't exactly pass as a sweet present, does it?As for Porsche, the automaker has proved it has learned a key lesson in sportsmanship throughout the process that has turned the company into the most motorsport-savvy brand in the world.As those of you for whom life wasn't too short to learn German can see in the ad above, which comes from one of the country's newspapers, Porsche said the following: "The future presents us with great challenges. We face them with sheer driving pleasure."So not only did Porsche give BMW a thumbs up but they also made a reference to the Bavarians' sheer driving pleasure slogan. But do we need to read between the lines here? First of all, allow us to remind you Porsche has a rich trolling tradition when it comes to print ads . But let's focus on the present times.While Porsche currently has three hybrids, they chose to use the Mission E all-electric concept as a companion for BMW's i8. Sure, the Panamera or the Cayenne S E-Hybrid would've been odd choices, while the 918 Spyder is both out of production and obviously superior to the i8.But can't we use the last argument for the Mission E? The concept, which will reach production by 2020, makes use of 590 all-wheel-drive electric horsepower, while offering a 310-mile (510 km) range.We're talking about anthat saw Porsche hinting at a sub-8-minute Nurburgring time and promises to use an 800-volt charger to provide 80 percent of the range over a 15-minute recharge interval. Basically, the Mission E is the kind of contraption that looks at the BMW i8 's otherwise brilliant achievements and says "that's cute."Does Porsche's effort show Zuffenhausen has just one-upped both BMW and Mercedes with their discreet approach or are we drifting too far into speculation land here? We'll let you be the judge of that.
However, that is not the only concept planned to celebrate the German companys first 100 years of existence. The next ones will come from MINI, BMW Motorrad, and Rolls-Royce.That is right, BMWs Centennial will be celebrated by all the other brands in the companys portfolio, not just the main automotive branch. The new concept will be the first that Rolls-Royce makes to celebrate an anniversary of the BMW Group, and the same applies to the MINI brand.BMWs motorcycle division, BMW Motorrad, has celebrated its anniversaries recently, but the new concept will be dedicated to the Centennial of the main brand, BMW.BMW confirmed that it would showcase its new concept in London between June 16-26. The date will mark both the presentation of the Rolls-Royce Gran Sanctuary Concept, as the exhibit is called, and of the MINI concept vehicle. The latter is designed under the tagline Every Mini is a Mini, and its purpose is to celebrate the next century of personalization.Meanwhile, the concept bike from BMW Motorrad will be unveiled in Los Angeles under the tagline The Great Escape. The presentation of the BMW Motorrad anniversary motorcycle concept will take place on October 11-16.The BMW Group will host a series of exhibitions worldwide to celebrate its Centennial, and the main cities involved will be London, Beijing, and Los Angeles. Naturally, Munich was the place where the company celebrated its first 100 years of existence yesterday, as BMW AG was founded in the same city a century ago.According to BMW, the four concept cars they will tour the world with will also be shown to selected groups and shareholders. This means that the German company is expecting feedback from influential people in its hierarchy, and the concepts could eventually spawn production models inspired by their design. Just dont expect to see the Vision Next 100 in BMW showrooms too soon.
The Aussie caffeinated octane meet, which saw enthusiasts celebrating Valentine's Day the right way (the gathering took place on February 14), was blessed with sunny weather. However, the rain had assaulted the area (Springvale, Victoria) on the two days preceding the event, and as a result, the grass arena that served as a playground saw many of the hp monsters having trouble leaving the event.With the performance tires and the microscopic ground clearance showed by many of the machines that took part in the event, things went less than smoothly. In fact, you'll be able to see a few examples of the struggle in the clip below.The drivers that got stuck could've always exited their cars to release some tire pressure, which might have allowed them to escape the muddy situation. But then again, people who sit behind the wheel of go-fast cars aren't used to such shenanigans.Factor in the need to bring the pressure back to the proper level once you're back on tarmac and it's easy to understand why the drivers chose to turn to human assistance instead.Truth be told, the problems could be labeled as an inconvenience rather than serious trouble - in the clip, you can even see a Raptor owner preparing his winch for any assistance that may have been required and, in the world of muddy driving, few things are more reassuring than such a sight.Oh well, at least everybody got out of the mud in the end, with hefty car wash bills being the only consequence of the moody weather.
The average fuel economy for new vehicles sold in February was 25.2 mpg  unchanged from the value that was revised for January, according to the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

Fuel economy is down 0.6 mpg from the peak reached in August of 2014, but remains 5.1 mpg higher than October of 2007, when UMTRI began tracking the data, according to UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.

The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index  an index that estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver  was 0.85 in December of 2015, which is 0.03 higher than the value for November of 2015.

This value indicates that the average new-vehicle driver produced 15% lower emissions in December of 2015 than in October of 2007, but 7% higher emissions than the record low reached in August of 2014.
Jet Blue has launched an ab initio training program that it hopes will help to diversify its hiring pool and also give the company control over a pilots training from start to finish. The four-year program, which has been in the works since last year, is now accepting online applicants, at a cost of $125,000. We are currently exploring multiple options for financial assistance, the company said, to help alleviate monetary barriers. The ideal applicant, the company says, would already have a college degree, but no previous flight experience is required. Applicants will undergo a range of tests and assessments, and 24 will be offered a slot in the program. They will be trained in a series of small groups, with the first group expected to begin training late this summer. Graduates are guaranteed a job with JetBlue.

JetBlue said it will partner with CAE to help deliver the curriculum. Students will begin with four weeks of training with JetBlue in Orlando, then continue at CAEs flight academy in Phoenix for 30 weeks, to complete their private pilot training. They will return to JetBlue to train in the Embraer 190 and earn their ATP. After another 12 weeks in Phoenix, trainees will earn their CFI, then work at CAE as salaried instructors until they log 1,500 hours. Once all requirements are met, the trainee will become a new hire at JetBlue, and join a six-week orientation class to become an E190 first officer. We believe this is going to be an important part of how airlines are going to create pilots in the future, CAE President Nick Leontidis told The Associated Press. The pilots union for JetBlue does not support the plan, saying JetBlue should instead hire pilots working at regional airlines, who currently get passed over. The program is the first of its kind for a U.S. airline. Similar programs overseas generally are free for the applicants.

The application portal is now online. Applicants can submit an application, then are given information about completing application essays. If they are then invited to complete the assessment, a $200 fee is required. Applicants must then obtain a first-class FAA medical certificate to qualify for an on-site interview.
Researchers are nurturing a growing suspicion that body mass index, the height-weight calculation that distinguishes those with normal healthy weight from the overweight and obese, is not the whole picture when it comes to telling who is healthy and who is not. Two new studies drive that point home and underscore that BMI offers an incomplete picture of an individuals health.

Fitness matters, as does fatness. And the BMI is an imperfect measure of both.

In one study published Monday, researchers found that in a group of more than 1.5 million Swedish military recruits, men who had poor physical fitness at age 18 were three times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in midlife than were those who had been highly fit on the cusp of adulthood. That effect was found independent of BMI, family history or socioeconomic status.

Muscle strength and, especially, aerobic capacity of males at age 18 were highly predictive of developing Type 2 diabetes in their 50s or 60s, the authors of the study found. Even men with BMIs that pegged them as normal healthy weight in their 50s or 60s were far more likely to develop diabetes if they had shown poor level aerobic conditioning and muscle strength at 18.

In a second study that tracked almost 55,000 Canadian adults, middle-aged and older people with low BMIs and those who carried a high percentage of body fat were most likely to die during a follow-up period of roughly seven years. All but 5,000 of the participants in the Canadian study were women.

The average woman with a BMI of 20  the low end of normal, healthy weight  was even more likely to die of any cause in the follow-up period than was the average woman with a BMI of 40  considered morbidly obese. And women with just 20 percent body fat (as measured by a precise gauge of bone density) were just as likely to die of any cause during the follow-up period as were women with 45 percent body fat.

On average, women having a BMI between roughly 26 (overweight) and 35 (well into the obese category) and body-fat composition between 32 percent and 38 percent were least likely to die of any cause during the study.

Both studies were published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Both articles are likely to help galvanize general care physicians, who are expected to play a growing role in treating obesity, to recognize that in assessing a risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, its not enough to know a patients BMI.

Patients who fall into the normal healthy weight category are far from healthy if theyre flabby and out of shape, the studies suggest. And patients who are overweight or obese but who have a past and/or present record of physical fitness may be at less dire risk than has been warned.

The new studies suggest that these caveats about BMI are especially true for people as they age beyond their 50s and enter seniority, said Mayo Clinic cardiologist Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, who researches obesitys health effects. In the Canadian study and others that have raised whats called the obesity paradox, Lopez-Jimenez said its possible that older people who carry a few extra pounds are protected by having a reserve of excess weight they can afford to lose during an illness.

As the Swedish study suggested, when much of that extra weight is lean muscle mass and not fat, its less likely to disrupt metabolism and increase inflammation  factors that over time can boost cardiovascular risk.

At older ages I think we may really need to rethink whats a desirable weight, said Lopez-Jimenez. If it turns out that BMI between 25 and 30 (the BMI range that defines overweight) might actually be normal and protective in people this age, then we should not be labeling these people unhealthy.

For physicians who counsel obese older adults, said Lopez-Jimenez, the new studies also suggest that a focus on fitness might be the best use of limited time and effort.

Its much easier to make a person fit than to make a person lose 40 pounds, said Lopez-Jimenez.

Although obesity prevention and better nutrition remain societal imperatives, he said, physicians might do the most good by counseling obese patients to focus on improving their strength and aerobic fitness, whittling their waists to reduce cardiovascular risks and even measuring body composition so they can track changes in body composition that convert some fat to lean mass.

Maybe talk about that factor more than fat and fat alone, said Lopez-Jimenez.
8 March 2016 10:01 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli



Festive passions keep rising as each passing day brings us closer to the loveliest holiday that takes special place in the calendar of many Azerbaijanis -- Novruz Bayram, symbolizing the coming of spring and awakening of the nature.

Celebrations of festive Novruz, which is marked on March 21 begin a month before the actual holiday with four natural elements such as Su Chershenbesi (Water Tuesday), Od Chershenbesi (Fire Tuesday) Hava Chershenbesi (Wind Tuesday) and Torpaq Chershenbesi (Earth or Last Tuesday).

Two of these celebrations have already left behind and the third magic Tuesday -- Wind, when the element of air awakens and winds begin to blow is celebrated on March 8.

To the point some region of Azerbaijan consider Torpaq Chershenbesi as the third Tuesday, while Hava Chershenbesi as the last Tuesday.



Atesh Ahmadli, the research fellow of the Folklore Institute of ANAS explains this by the fact that climatic conditions in the countrys region are different.

In ancient times the life of farmers and herdsmen used to be closely associated with the geographical conditions of the area. The climatic conditions in various regions of Azerbaijan were different thus making the observations different as well. Somewhere winds began to blow before the earth was warmed, and somewhere on the contrary.

As in previous Chershenbes, in Wind Tuesday people light bonfires and jump over it regardless of the age and gender.

As all four Tuesdays, Wind Tuesday has also its own traditions, including the traditional song, "Yel baba" ("Father of Wind"). "Yel baba" is related with the belief of ancient people in the God of Wind. Moreover, "Yel baba" ceremonies are linked with the traditions of farming.

Another tradition is that on this Tuesday everyone who wants to know whether or not his or her wish will come true stands under a willow tree and calls "Yel baba". If the wind blows and the branches touch the ground, it is believed that the dream will come true.

Third Tuesday before Novruz identifies the awakening of nature, the beginning of spring field work, and the arrival of a new growing season. Therefore, people grow an integral part of Novruz -- Semeni, a wheat germ, which symbolizes life, wealth, health as well as well-being.

It is also the first sign of the coming of spring and almost all families in Azerbaijan celebrate the holiday with Semeni on the festive table. It is some kind of ritual, which is usually accompanied with the song "Semeni, save me and I will grow you every year."

Novruz, included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, has been celebrated by more than 300 million people from diverse ethnic communities and religious backgrounds for thousands of years.

The menu in the festive varies a great deal from region to region, but for Novruz abundant meals are prepared and ritually seven objects are laid on the tables.



Children enjoy this holiday very much, since they place hats at the door of their neighbors in anticipation of nuts and Novruz sweets - such as shekerbura, pakhlava and gogal, as well as colored eggs

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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8 March 2016 12:40 (UTC+04:00)

An official welcoming ceremony has been held for Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, who is on an official visit in Azerbaijan.

A guard of honor was arranged for the Emir of the State of Qatar in the square decorated with the national flags of the two countries.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev welcomed Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to the Emir of the State of Qatar.

The national anthems of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Azerbaijan were played.

President Ilham Aliyev and Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani reviewed the guard of honor.

The Emir of the State of Qatar saluted Azerbaijani soldiers.

State and government officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan were introduced to Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, and members of the Qatari delegation were introduced to President Ilham Aliyev.

The guard of honor marched in front of the heads of state to the accompaniment of a military march.

The President of Azerbaijan and the Emir of the State of Qatar posed for official photos.

Following the official welcoming ceremony President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani have held an expanded meeting.

Following the expanded meeting President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani have met in private.

The development of the political relations between the two countries was hailed at the meeting. The sides said there was good potential for enhancing the economic ties. They noted that the visit would contribute to the strengthening of relations.

Issues of mutual interest were discussed at the meeting.

A ceremony of signing documents between Azerbaijan and Qatar has been held with participation of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Chairman of Azerbaijan State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev and Qatar`s Minister of Transport Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti signed Memorandum of Understanding between the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the General Authority of Customs of the State of Qatar on cooperation in the field of professional retraining and improvement of professional skills.

Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov and Qatar`s Minister of Transport Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti signed Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of transport between the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the State of Qatar.

Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov and Qatari Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi signed Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the area of budget and fiscal matters between the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Finance of the State of Qatar.

Azerbaijani Minister of Agriculture Heydar Asadov and Qatari Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi signed Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the field of agriculture between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the State of Qatar.

Azerbaijani Minister of Education Mikayil Jabbarov and Qatar`s Minister of Culture and Sports Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the field of education, higher education and scientific research between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the State of Qatar.

Azerbaijani Foreign Affairs Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Qatar`s Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani signed Agreement for cooperation in the legal field between the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Justice of the State of Qatar.

Azerbaijani Foreign Affairs Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Qatar`s Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani signed Protocol on amendments to the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the State of Qatar on the abolition of visa requirements for their respective nationals who hold diplomatic and special passports.

Azerbaijani Foreign Affairs Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Qatar`s Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani signed Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the State of Qatar on establishment of Joint Economic, Trade and Technical Commission.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has hosted a dinner reception in honor of Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

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8 March 2016 15:30 (UTC+04:00)

Baku has in recent years become a center for political discussions, said Nazim Ibrahimov, chairman of Azerbaijans State Committee on Work with Diaspora.

Many reputable international think-tanks and organizations choose Baku as a venue for their events, Ibrahimov told reporters March 8.

Ways to address current challenges in the world, conflict resolution, world management methods and other issues are discussed in Baku, he added.

This year, the Canadian InterAction Council, which is holding its 33rd annual plenary meeting in Baku on March 8 on the eve of the Global Baku Forum, is also involved in the Forums organization, said Ibrahimov.

The IV Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and supported by the State Committee on Work with Diaspora, will be held March 10-11 in Baku.

Nearly 300 people, including influential politicians, heads of states and governments of Albania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Georgia will take part in the event.

The conflicts on ethnic, religious and political grounds, global challenges in the democratic development, education, environment and energy security will be the topics of the upcoming Forum.

The previous Global Baku Forums were held between 2013 and 2015.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
8 March 2016 11:00 (UTC+04:00)

Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh on Monday supported Ukraines presence in Irans oil industry saying the east European country can cooperate in manufacturing of turbines and gas compressors, IRNAreported.

In a meeting with visiting Ukranian Vice Prime Minister Genadi Zobkov, Zangeneh said that the bilateral oil industry ties which date back to long time ago can continue in the post-sanctions era, according to Shana news agency.

He stressed identification of Tehran-Kiev cooperation opportunities and said that in order to be successful in Irans oil industry projects, Ukrainian companies need to totally finance the operation by the banks in their country.

Zangeneh said Iran has outlined numerous projects for investment by foreign firms, including those in the petrochemicals, as the sector needs 50 billion dollars in investment for the coming years which can partly be financed by foreign companies.

Oil and gas industrys upstream sector is also in need of investment to the tune of 130 billion dollars which has to be supplied by the resources overseas because we cannot provide from our current revenues, Zangeneh said.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Information technology will be a big focus for all the courts of Coconino County going forward.

An August 2015 survey of roughly 100 attorneys, government officials, law enforcement members, treatment providers, community leaders and court employees identified the ability to do business remotely and/or electronically as the new service they would most like to see at the local courts.

Within the next month, the local superior, justice and municipal courts are expected to release a joint operational plan for doing just that.

The upcoming operational plan is the latest update to Justice 2020, a long-term planning initiative developed by the administrators of Coconino Countys courts in 2000. Court representatives meet with stakeholders every five years to set strategic and operational goals for improving services to the people of Coconino County over the subsequent 20 years. The most recent report was released earlier this year and sets priorities for the courts through 2035.

We have to stay up with the demands, said Sharon Yates, deputy court administrator for Coconino County Superior Court. I always say individuals want it online instead of in line. They dont want to stand in line to get their services. They want to be able to just go online and get everything done.

She specifically pointed out the need for the court system to adapt to the younger generations that are used to going online first for information and services. But it is more than just a matter of preference.

More than 120 people attended the Justice 2035 Strategic Planning Forum at the High Country Conference Center in November 2015, where they were asked to identify the strengths, weaknesses and challenges facing the courts. The No. 1 challenge they identified was the great distances residents in rural parts of the county must travel to access court services, especially if their case is being adjudicated in Flagstaff. That assessment was backed up by the August survey, which rated the courts as a whole higher in 2015 than in 2010 on fairness, timeliness and collaboration, but lower on accessibility.

Yates said the local courts have made great strides in recent years by making forms available to customers through the courts websites and allowing online payments for court fees and fines, but there is still work to be done.

Especially with how large Coconino County is, we still are trying to be able to save our customers from having to travel to Flagstaff to get services, she said.

The biggest push, she said, is to expand all the courts video conferencing capabilities, which, for now, are mostly limited to Flagstaff courts. Recently, Fredonia Justice Court received its own video conferencing equipment, which uses a statewide network managed by Arizonas Administrative Office of the Courts.

If there is a customer in Fredonia who has a hearing in Flagstaff, as long as the judge is OK with them appearing by video in Fredonia, were able to do that, Yates said.

That means 6.5 hours the customer does not have to spend in a car to get from Fredonia to Flagstaff and back again.

Staff can also benefit from video conferencing. The states Administrative Office of the Courts provides some technology training for court employees, but Yates said court officials in Flagstaff are able to provide additional training via Skype to employees at satellite courts that may be hundreds of miles away.

The upcoming operational plan is also expected to include a strategy for enhancing Arizonas existing automation technology to share demographic, citation, court filing, probation violation and other data between the courts, law enforcement agencies and attorneys offices. Yates said that will improve communication while saving all those agencies from having to duplicate one anothers work and then do their own computer data entry. It would help her office, too.

It would be more efficient, less time-consuming on the employees part, she said.

She said limitations on the Coconino County courts bandwidth and technology infrastructure, which are allocated by the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts, could present challenges.

Were trying to do things more with video conferencing, but if we dont have the bandwidth, sometimes its very choppy, Yates said. It can freeze in the middle of a meeting or theres a delay so if someone asks a question, we may not hear it for 3 minutes.

The operational plan is expected to include some solutions and will be available on the Coconino County Courts website by early April.

It takes a while for changes in the court system, a traditional system, but I think that we just really need to stay up with our customers, Yates said. The more they can do online and not have to be here in person, the better it will be.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 75F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low around 50F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
By and large, most people working in medical fields in Kern County are properly certified, adept at what they do and manage to keep their name
Irwins has teamed up with Tourism Ireland to promote a visit Northern Ireland message to consumers via an on-pack marketing campaign.

In support of the Year of Food 2016, Irwins will launch an on-pack campaign across Great Britain, encouraging people to visit Northern Ireland for its food and famous hospitality. It will run on packs of the bakerys Rankin Selection range of traditional Irish breads.

Colette Wilson, marketing manager at Irwins, said: The Year of Food is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the quality of our food and, of course, the warmth of our hospitality.

Partnering with Tourism Ireland gives us a valuable opportunity to showcase the Rankin Selection product range and reinforce its authentic Irish heritage  as well as encouraging consumers to take the next step and visit Northern Ireland.

Open now

An on-pack competition is open now until 15 May. Five pairs of winners will win two nights B&B in a four-star hotel, one evening meal, return flights and a Belfast Food Tour.

Last month, Irwins announced that it will supply more than 100,000 packs of its new wheaten bread products to all Asda stores in Northern Ireland.
Car chase

Flagstaff police arrested a teenage driver last week after he led them on a car chase through the east side of town.

According to the police report, the chase began when an officer in an unmarked car saw a vehicle fail to stop before the sidewalk while exiting the Pinecrest Motel, located at 2818 E. Route 66, at about 8:30 a.m. last Wednesday. The suspect driver made no attempt to pull over when a second officer in a marked patrol car tried to stop the vehicle near North Steves Boulevard and East Lewis Drive.

The officer saw the vehicle run through two stop signs and reach speeds estimated at about 50 mph as he chased the suspect through Lower and Upper Greenlaw Estates. The officer lost sight of the vehicle after his supervisor instructed him to break off the pursuit for safety reasons.

Flagstaff Police Department set up a perimeter around the area. They located the suspect vehicle parked in a driveway in the 3600 block of North Walker Street. Three female passengers who were walking away from the vehicle told police they tried to get the driver to stop but he refused. They described being scared by his erratic driving.

The suspect and another male passenger fled as soon as they parked the car. Police arrested both of them in a wooded area near North Hemberg Drive and East Matterhorn Drive after a bystander reported seeing two males jumping over fences in the neighborhood. The driver had a methamphetamine pipe and a small bag of meth and showed signs of being under the influence of the drug. He repeatedly screamed that he was an eastside gang member. Police also learned he was listed as a missing juvenile after absconding from Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections supervision in the Valley.

The 17-year-old suspect was arrested and charged with four counts of endangerment, possession of dangerous drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, DUI drugs and a parole violation. He was booked into the Coconino County Juvenile Detention Facility.

Charged with DUI

 Brian D. Mack, 34, of Las Vegas was arrested by Flagstaff Police Department and charged with extreme DUI at 10:59 p.m. 3/2.

 Amanda Lynn Keith, 25, of Kayenta was arrested by Flagstaff Police Department and charged with extreme DUI at 11:43 a.m. 3/3.

 George Andrew Aguayo, 28, of East Ponderosa Parkway was arrested by Flagstaff Police Department and charged with DUI at 1:59 a.m. 3/4.

City and county residents who want to report a crime but wish to remain anonymous may call Silent Witness at 774-6111 or (877) 29-CRIME, submit a tip online at www.coconinosilentwitness.org, or text the word Flagtip along with your information to 274637 (CRIMES). Rewards of up to $2,000 are given for information that leads to an arrest.
Sex offender notification

The Coconino County Sheriffs Office would like to make the following Level 2 (intermediate risk to the community) sex offender notification:

 Harold Rocky White Jr., 40, is living at 438 W. Canyon Road in Ashfork. He was convicted in 2001 for sexual abuse in Coos County, Ore. The victim was a 15-year-old girl. He was also convicted in 2007 of failing to register as a sex offender in Arizona. He is not wanted by law enforcement at this time.

Notification that Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders are living in the community is required by Arizona law.

Resident abuse of this information to threaten, intimidate or harass sex offenders will not be tolerated by the Coconino County Sheriffs Office.

If residents have information about current criminal activity by any offender, contact the sheriffs office at (928) 774-4523 or visit www.coconino.az.gov/ sheriff.

For more information on sex offenders in the Flagstaff area, visit the Arizona Department of Public Safety sex offender website at www.azsexoffender.com.

City and county residents who want to report a crime but wish to remain anonymous may call Silent Witness at 774-6111 or (877) 29-CRIME, submit a tip online at www.coconinosilentwitness.org, or text the word Flagtip along with your information to 274637 (CRIMES). Rewards of up to $2,000 are given for information that leads to an arrest.
GAP: Passenger Traffic Increase in 12 Mexican Airports

Guadalajara, Mexico - Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V., ("the Company" or "GAP") announced preliminary terminal passenger traffic figures for the month of February 2016, compared to traffic figures for February 2015.

During February 2016, total terminal passengers increased 19.2% in the 13 airports, compared to the same period of the previous year. Domestic passenger traffic presented a 24.5% increase, while international passenger traffic increased 13.7%. For purposes of the comparison, note that 2016 is a leap-year; therefore, figures include an extra day of operations.

The following items are highlights from traffic results for the month of February:





GAP registered a 16.0% increase in the number of seats. Load factor grew 2.1 percentage points to 77.6%.

Guadalajara: In February, Interjet initiated a daily route to Los Angeles, which will contribute 9 thousand seats to the international market on a monthly basis. Meanwhile, the domestic market registered a 9.9% increase in the number of seats offered, primarily as a result of an increase in flights to Cancun, Mexico City and Tijuana.

Puerto Vallarta: Domestic traffic continues to be the main growth driver, increasing 18.9%; while international traffic increased 12.5%. The main growth contributors were VivaAerobus, which doubled its number of flights from Mexico City, and Volaris, which doubled its number of flights from Monterrey. Southwest Airlines had the highest growth in the international market, contributing 49% of international new seats.

Los Cabos: Passenger traffic reached a new record high driven by a fully restored hotel capacity. Even though the number of seats grew by 9.5%, traffic is growing by 23.3%, resulting in a significant 9.6% improvement in the load factor for airlines.

Tijuana: The percentage growth rate for February was the highest growth rate in the last 6 years. During the month, the number of seats grew 40.5%, mainly driven by the 127 thousand seats increase by Volaris, followed by VivaAerobus with 17 thousand seats, Aeromexico with 9 thousand seats, and finally, Interjet with 2 thousand additional seats. The airport continues to position itself as a leading option for entry to Southern California, due to its competitive rates and the recent opening of the Cross-Border Xpress. The cross-border bridge registered market penetration of approximately 15.0% of Tijuana airport total passengers in February, with more than 63,000 users crossing the border using the bridge.

Montego Bay: Passenger traffic increased 5.7% during February. United Airlines and Delta contributed the most to the 5.8% increase in offered seats, each with 10 thousand additional seats. Similarly, European charter flights had a significant volume growth; Thomson Airways had the highest traffic growth (over 3 thousand seats in this month). It is important to mention that in February, Thomas Cook Scandinavia opened its route from Gothenburg, Sweden.

About Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP)

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexicos Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In April 2015 GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake of MJ Airports Limited, a company operating the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Finding the account of your dreams comes down to knowing what you want and the features you value most.

5 min read Jul 19, 2022
Their new book starts out with a statement and a question: My one vote wont make a difference, so why should I bother to register and vote?

Their answer: Your vote does make a difference.

We want to open our readers eyes that to vote gives them a voice, said Tom Jacobs, a former Maricopa County Juvenile Court judge who lives in Flagstaff.

The book, Every Vote Matters: The Power of Your Voice, from Student Elections to the Supreme Court, is geared toward young people, Jacobs said. But the content is relevant to citizens of all ages.

Jacobs co-wrote the book with his daughter, Natalie, who worked as an attorney in Flagstaff for several years before joining her father to manage a website geared toward young people called, Ask the Judge. The website, created a decade ago, is meant to give young people information on their legal rights and what they can do to affect change in the world.

The book, divided into two parts, explains the election process and an individuals role in that process. The second part of the book examines U.S. Supreme Court cases that influence the lives of every U.S. citizen that were decided by a single vote.

For instance, in the Island Trees School District vs. Steven Pico case from 1982, the Supreme Court decided by one vote that it was unconstitutional for school districts to ban certain books because the books offended people for political, social or moral reasons. The book goes further to suggest what life would be like now had the Supreme Court decided by one vote the other way, and had allowed the banning of certain books from the nations schools because they were deemed by school districts to be offensive.

The one vote is the common thread throughout the book, Jacobs said.

Young people under the age of 18 cant vote in elections to determine who occupies city, county, state or national offices, but they can vote in a variety of other settings  high school government elections, for example  and they can take action on issues to improve their communities.

The two spent four years conducting research for the book. Jacobs became interested in the idea after reading a statistic that 40 million people in the United States did not vote in the 2008 election. During the subsequent mid-term election, only 32 percent of the countrys registered voters went to the polls to decide who would speak for them in government, Jacobs said.

People were trying to figure out why people dont participate, Jacobs added. And the overwhelming response from people who didnt vote was that their vote didnt count anyway, so they didnt bother. The younger generation, called Millennials, is a large generation that could wield heavy influence in elections, but as a group, their voting numbers are low.

At the same time, Jacobs was making updates for other books on law he has published, and he became aware that a number of Supreme Court cases were being decided by one vote.

One vote that would have deep impact on the lives of every U.S. citizen. He also found several examples of elections  locally and nationally  that were decided by a single vote.

Natalie said the point of the book is to tie the Supreme Court decisions into a larger conversation about the civic duty of every U.S. citizen to participate in the democratic process by voting. The two ideas intertwine  how one vote for president ties into Supreme Court selections and decisions.

His idea, it got me motivated and inspired me, Natalie said. We really have to take this civic responsibility seriously. Its made me feel much more strongly, not just for voting, but for empowering youth. They have rights and can be heard even when they cant vote.

She added that the book is meant to help young people become aware, and then become engaged, in injustice they may see going on all around them.

Toward the end of the book is a quote from the poet Maya Angelou: In an election, every voice is equally powerful  dont underestimate your vote. Voting is the great equalizer. Your vote is not only important. It is imperative.

Every Vote Matters debuted on Feb. 1, and is available locally at Barefoot Cowgirl Books downtown. The book is also available through Free Spirit Publishing and on Amazon. The authors are gearing up to promote the book, which can be used in classrooms, and even comes with a guide for teachers.
American economic freedom slips

The following editorial appeared in The Orange County Register on Monday, Feb. 29:

A solid C, they call it in school. Not flunking, certainly, but also not excelling. That grade characterizes the score of 75.4 that the United States earned on the Heritage Foundations 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, which grades countries on such factors as property rights, government spending, business freedom, monetary freedom and fiscal freedom (taxation).

The rankings closely correlate with economic growth. The higher the score  the more economic freedom  the faster people produce more wealth for everyone, from rich to poor.

Any score above 80 is considered free. At the head of the class, as usual, was Hong Kong (88.6). Scores from 70 to 79.9 are mostly free. So Americas 75.4 score ranked it 11th, just behind the United Kingdom (76.4) and Estonia (77.2). Were also below sixth-place Canada (78).

A score from 0 to 49.9 is considered repressed. At the bottom were the two remaining communist countries. In 177th place was Castroite Cuba (29.8), and rock bottom, 178th place, was erratic dictator Kim Jong Uns North Korea (2.3).

Our country has scored much higher; in 2007, the U.S. stood in fourth place, with a score of 82. Barack Obama became president in 2009, and his policies largely are to blame for this decline, according to Heritage. But we would add that President George W. Bush was in the White House when the Great Recession hit in 2007-08. And Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives for more than five years since the 2010 tea party rebellion against too much government. Thats significant because all tax bills originate in the House.

Americans continue to lose economic freedom, the Heritage Index explained. Following declines in seven of the past eight years, the United States this year has equaled its worst score ever in the Index of Economic Freedom. Ratings for labor freedom, business freedom and fiscal freedom have flagged notably, and the regulatory burden is increasingly costly. Also to blame are damaging monetary policies.

The Republican presidential candidates generally favor more economic freedom, and the Democratic candidates want more controls. But the dismal economic performance of both parties while in power propels this political season of discontent.

Quit kicking Guantanamo down the road

The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday, March 1:

In all likelihood, the challenge posed by the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay will be left to President Barack Obamas successor. Thats because members of Congress are adamant that none of the 91 prisoners held at Guantanamo should be transferred to prisons on U.S. territory.

The opponents have an overriding fear that any such plan would invite attacks by other terrorists seeking to free the transferred prisoners. If the argument were strictly based on emotions, congressional opponents would win the day.

But theres this pesky thing called the law, which keeps getting in the way when people want to do something that feels good but isnt necessarily legal. America has treaty obligations under international law that conflict directly with the ongoing detentions at Guantanamo.

The facility is ridiculously expensive, at roughly $4.9 million a year per prisoner, and could do more to endanger Americans than enhance national security. Note, for example, the orange uniforms worn by U.S. hostages held by the Islamic State  a clear attempt to mimic the orange uniforms worn by Guantanamo detainees.

The prison has operated since the early days of the post-9/11 war on terror. Detainees status has always been complicated since they didnt fall neatly into the standard prisoner-of-war categories outlined in the Geneva Conventions. A hazy legal status doesnt justify holding them in the Guantanamo limbo forever, which is why Obama is pressing the issue with his Feb. 23 plan to shut down the prison.

Why not just ignore the Geneva Conventions? Thats what some in Congress are suggesting. Heres why: These treaties not only hold the weight of law in the United States, they are all that prevent U.S. troops from being tortured and abused when they are captured abroad, such as during the Vietnam War or U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Should we ignore them because the North Vietnamese did?

Many Americans presume that the Guantanamo detainees are automatically guilty. Otherwise, why would they be there? Its not good enough to take the militarys or CIAs word for it, however. Eventually, military or civilian courts will have to justify these ongoing detentions by weighing evidence and testimony, not innuendo and assumption.

At its height, the U.S. program had 540 detainees at Guantanamo. Of the 91 prisoners who remain, 35 are slated for transfer to other countries. Some extremely dangerous people are among those who remain. Putting them on trial poses significant problems, since some were tortured into confessing. Intelligence sources could be compromised in a public trial.

There are no simple answers. But since Congress stands in the way of Obamas solution, members have an obligation to come up with a better idea. Keeping prisoners at Guantanamo only kicks the problem down the road.

UN pressure on No. Korea mostly symbolic

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday, March 4:

The United Nations Security Council last week answered North Koreas latest misdeeds on nuclear and other weapons testing by increasing the severity and sweep of sanctions against it.

These include an obligation by Pyongyangs trading partners to inspect its imports and exports to prevent it from moving goods that contribute to the advancement of its weapons programs. This puts a particular burden on China, the only nation other than South Korea and Russia that borders North Korea.

China voted for the sanctions, and its obligation to patrol the 880-mile border for trade infractions will consume much time and resources. Nevertheless, China is unwilling to see an economic collapse by its neighbor that would send untold numbers of North Koreas 25 million people flowing across the border as refugees or migrants.

Thus, although the sanctions might help bring North Korea to reason  the Iran nuclear/?sanctions deal is a model  its situation is not changed much by the U.N. resolution. It is still a miserably poor, underdeveloped state with only 3 percent of its roads paved and a high percentage of its population hungry. It also has a huge army, with about 1.2 million North Koreans under arms.

North Koreas leader is 33-year-old Kim Jong Un. While it is easy to make fun of his haircut and his sometimes murderous actions, the fact is he appears to be in charge. So the country remains a ramshackle state with nuclear weapons led by an insecure, now third-generation dynastic figure.

No one, including South Korea, wants to invade North Korea and clean it out. That should be the last thing the United States wants, with 28,500 American troops based in South Korea as a tripwire against an invasion from the north. Regularly scheduled U.S.-South Korean military exercises continue to make the point to Pyongyang but also run the risk of provocation.

The new sanctions are mostly a symbolic act, accompanied by probably ill-founded hope. Whether they lead to real change wont be known for a while.

Supreme Court shouldnt put itself above the law

The following editorial was written by Bloomberg View editors:

Antonin Scalia, who was known to be fond of Latin, was probably familiar with the phrase nemo judex in causa sua, or No one should be a judge in his own cause. The justices death at a resort in Texas, where he was staying free, has raised questions about how seriously the U.S. Supreme Court takes that notion.

Although justices are not above the law, they have exempted themselves from the code of conduct that applies to all other federal judges. When lower-court judges face a motion to step aside owing to a possible conflict of interest, other judges settle the question. Justices on the Supreme Court, however, get to decide questions about their own impartiality by themselves, sometimes arriving at dubious conclusions.

In 2004, Scalia declined to recuse himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney and the energy industry, shortly after Cheney and Scalia had gone on a duck hunting trip together to a private camp owned by an oil industry executive. (Scalia voted in favor of Cheney.) Right or wrong, the fact that Scalia made the decision himself did nothing to bolster public confidence in the courts impartiality.

Justices, like members of Congress, may also accept junkets  and they often do. A recent analysis of their travel showed that from 2004 to 2014, justices took more than 1,000 trips paid for by outside groups. But the rules regarding disclosure are unclear. Scalia may not have been required to disclose his free stay at the Texas resort in a suite that starts at $700 a night, for example, because exceptions are made for personal hospitality provided by a property owner. Even if properly disclosed, justices need provide few details about the nature of their paid trips.

The Supreme Court does comply with the financial disclosure requirements that apply to all federal judges, but Chief Justice John Roberts has suggested that they only do so out of the goodness of their hearts. The court, wrote Roberts in 2011, has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court  a thinly veiled warning to Congress that it shouldnt press its luck.

Congress neednt be cowed. If the court rejects its authority to establish clearer ethical standards for the judiciary, a constitutional amendment may be necessary.

The Supreme Court has a tendency toward opacity, shunning calls for more openness about its workings, including a refusal to allow cameras into its courthouse. The public deserves a court that is more transparent and accountable.

The US needs better oversight of crude oil cargo

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday, March 1:

An alarming report issued by the federal Transportation Departments inspector general concluded that regulators are failing to adequately safeguard the nations freight rail shipments of crude oil and other hazardous cargo.

The audit, released last week, concluded that while there had been a significant increase nationwide in rail shipments of crude oil  from 9,500 carloads in 2008 to 407,761 in 2013  the Federal Railroad Administration did not conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the risks associated with the shipments. The report said the agency does not take into account such significant factors as the condition of the infrastructure, shippers records of complying with regulations and how close the rails are to population centers.

Those findings are bad enough, but the audit also determined that, even when regulators go after violators, they dont do a good enough job.

The report said that, while regulators pursue civil fines for violations regarding hazardous materials, they do not adjust the sums based on the severity of the infractions or refer cases for criminal investigations. Based on a random sample of violations issued in a five-year period, the inspector general estimated that 20 percent of violations may have warranted but did not received those referrals.

That means even firms that were paying for violations might have been unjustly avoiding higher fines or, worse, criminal prosecution.

The audits conclusion said it all: Effective oversight of this risk prone area requires thorough, timely inspections as well as the application of deterrent penalties when violations occur. The agency agreed, but simply acknowledging the problems is not enough. Focused, forceful oversight is imperative.
An alliance of hundreds of Egyptian lawmakers is planning to push forward a bill to ban women from covering their faces for religious reasons, Gulf News reported Monday. The move comes months after Egypts leading public academic institution, Cairo University, banned female lecturers from donning the veil, citing security concerns and a need to improve communication between teachers and students.

We seek to spread moderate Islam, Amna Nuseir, a member of Parliament and a professor at Egypts theology-focused al-Azhar University, told the news website. Wearing the niqab in public has raised concerns in the Egyptian streets in view of the hard circumstances the country is undergoing.

The niqab, which covers most of the face, is worn by a minority of Egyptian women and is often associated with a more conservative understanding of Islam. Conservatives in the country have argued that wearing the face covering should be a matter of personal choice, but some religious scholars have criticized the covering as a pre-Islamic cultural or tribal practice  not a religious one. The majority of Egyptian women wear a hijab, a headscarf that does not cover the face.

Banning the niqab will be a flagrant violation of personal freedom, Abdul Moneim Fouad, also a professor at al-Azhar University, said. Parliament has to enact laws aimed at bringing morals back to the street and stop [people] showing up in revealing dresses in public rather than banning the niqab.

The ban, which would apply to state institutions and public places, is being endorsed by the Egypt Support Coalition, which claims to have 250 members in the legislature. There is no clear date for when a bill might come forward in Parliament.

Pushback against the niqab, largely by pro-government lawmakers, likely has a political dimension. The government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has repeatedly come under scrutiny for repressing opponents aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, who often endorse a more conservative interpretation of religion. Sisi has often sought to contrast himself against the Muslim Brotherhood by advocating for reformation and moderation in Islam. Under his leadership, religious institutions have grown considerably more political.

The niqab has been the subject of heated debate in Egypt for years. Al-Azhar University, one of the worlds most renowned Islamic institutions, banned students and teachers from wearing the face covering in 2008. Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi, the schools former leading religious scholar, said the niqab had nothing to do with Islam and was a sign of extremism.
Ahram Online, by Gamal Essam El-Din

Independent Nasserist MP Kamal Ahmed will be banned from attending parliaments remaining sessions this year for hitting a fellow MP with his shoe

Egypt's MP Kamal Ahmed (Photo: Al Ahram)

A special Egyptian parliamentary committee has recommended that independent Nasserist MP Kamal Ahmed be barred from attending parliaments remaining sessions this year for assaulting a fellow MP.

A report prepared by the committee said that Ahmed violated parliamentary ethics and rules when he hit his colleague Tawfik Okasha with his shoe during a plenary session on 28 February.

In a plenary session held on 28 February, Ahmed took all by surprise when he hit Okasha with his shoe in protest against the latter holding a dinner meeting with the Israeli ambassador in Egypt Haim Koren on 24 February.

The committee, formed by parliament on 28 February, was entrusted with questioning Ahmed and Okasha.

It recommended on 3 March that Okasha be banned from attending one legislative season  nine months  for meeting with the Israeli ambassador in Cairo without parliaments prior approval, though MPs later voted in favour of stripping Okasha of his parliamentary membership entirely.

Ahmed, who was questioned by the committee for two hours on Sunday, told reporters that he did not regret hitting Okasha with his shoe.

I told the committee that it was a great point of pride for me to take this action against a man who directed an insult to all Egyptians, and I am ready to do it again and again, Kamal said.

Ahmed told the committee that he was deeply angered by Okashas meeting with the Israeli ambassador and his tarnishing of the image of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

I decided to act unilaterally and on my own, said Ahmed. I saw that the best way to punish Okasha was to hit him with my shoe, and I believe that my reaction was highly regarded by the Egyptian public.

The committee said that although it fully understands Ahmeds angry reaction, it believes that he behaved improperly.

The punishment of Okasha should have been left to parliament, said the committee report, adding that for this reason, it recommends that Ahmed be banned from attending parliaments remaining plenary sessions  which will end in July or August.

A lot of MPs, however, told reporters that they will vote down the committees recommendation because they believe that Ahmed did nothing wrong when he hit Okasha with his shoe.

Kamal Ahmed is an old-time Nasserist MP representing El-Atarin district in Alexandria.

In 1977, Ahmed interrupted late president Anwar El-Sadat while he was delivering a speech in parliament, accusing Sadat of launching a media campaign against late president Nasser.
Fire damaged two properties on the same Clearwater block early Tuesday afternoon.

The fire was reported shortly before 12:30 p.m., and thick black smoke could be seen for miles from the scene near U.S. 19 and State Road 590.

First responders reported heavy smoke coming from two structures: a garage behind 1505 Virginia Lane W. and house at 1501 Virginia Lane W. A utility pole was also on fire.

Clearwater Police units that arrived on the scene helped evacuate nearby houses because of the fear of the fire spreading beyond the two properties. Gusty winds helped fan the flames and sent embers floating in various directions.

Quick work by Clearwater firefighters, along with those from Safety Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and St. Petersburg, limited the fire to those two properties.

Duke Energy workers were on-scene to assess and assist with the damaged power pole and power lines on the property.

A Clearwater Police officer rescued a dog named Beavis from one of the residences. No injuries were reported.

Investigators are working to try to determine where the blaze started.
41 percent of those polled said economy is biggest issue

Analyst: Republican voters believe Trump is best to tackle economy

National security, immigration are considered 2nd and 3rd biggest issues, respectively

The economy remains the top concern for voters in Florida, according to the Bay News 9/News 13 Exclusive Statewide poll.

Voters said while things have improved economically for some in the country, making ends meet is not always easy for others.

"You almost feel like you're working hard, but you're not getting anywhere," said mother Melanie Rogers.



"I think the biggest issue right now is poverty, and people who aren't very well off in the country," said voter Stephanie Alleyne.

In the poll, 41 percent agreed that the economy is the biggest issue facing the 2016 presidential candidates.

Nearly one in five voters - 19 percent - picked national security, while 14 percent of the voters said immigration and 10 percent of voters said health care. Education and climate change were each cited as the top issue by 4 percent of those surveyed.

PREVIOUS POLLS

Five percent said they were concerned about another issue, while 3 percent were not sure.

The numbers are very similar to the last survey conducted back in October.

Republican political analyst Chris Ingram said what's so interesting about the most recent poll is that Republican voters overwhelmingly believe Trump is the best candidate to tackle all the issues.

"They look at him as someone who will take on the establishment and do something differently than what we've done in the past," Ingram said.

On the Democratic side, candidate Hillary Clinton also did very well. Democrats polled said she will do the best job tackling the issues.

FLORIDA PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY COVERAGE



March 15 starting at 5 p.m.

All presidential results plus your local races

Tampa Bay local election results on Bay News 9

Central Florida local election results on News 13

Join us Tuesday night starting at 10 p.m. to find out what Floridians think about Amendment 2, which aims to legalize medical marijuana.



Detailed Poll Results

Q: What's the biggest issue facing the 2016 candidates for president?

All Gender Age Race Male Female 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ White Black Asian/

Other Economy 41% 44% 38% 42% 42% 43% 38% 40% 49% 39% Immigration 14% 16% 12% 14% 13% 13% 15% 13% 17% 22% Education 4% 4% 3% 8% 5% 2% 3% 3% 5% 8% National Security 19% 15% 23% 14% 19% 19% 23% 21% 17% 4% Health Care 10% 10% 11% 9% 12% 11% 8% 11% 6% 12% Climate Change 4% 4% 4% 8% 3% 4% 3% 4% 1% 5% Other 5% 5% 4% 3% 4% 5% 5% 5% 3% 5% Not Sure 3% 2% 4% 2% 1% 3% 5% 3% 1% 4% Composition of Likely

November Voters 100% 48% 52% 13% 25% 32% 29% 82% 12% 6%

Party Affiliation Strong

Rep. Republican Ind. lean

Rep. Independent Ind. lean

Dem. Democrat Strong

Dem. Economy 40% 46% 38% 39% 37% 43% 42% Immigration 18% 14% 20% 14% 11% 11% 7% Education 1% 2% 4% 5% 6% 7% 5% National Security 26% 24% 25% 12% 10% 13% 16% Health Care 6% 8% 4% 11% 18% 14% 15% Climate Change 1% 1% 3% 6% 10% 4% 8% Other 5% 2% 5% 9% 4% 6% 3% Not Sure 3% 3% 2% 5% 4% 2% 2% Composition of Likely

November Voters 21% 15% 14% 9% 9% 17% 15%

Surveyed: 1,961 likely November voters

Margin of sampling error:  2.3%

Support among Republican voters who say _________ is the most important issue.



Issues Economy Immigration National Security Health Care Donald Trump 47% 59% 33% 41% Ted Cruz 14% 23% 18% 8% Marco Rubio 19% 12% 30% 28% John Kasich 12% 3% 11% 11% Other 3% 1% 5% 5% Undecided 6% 3% 3% 7% Composition of Likely/Actual GOP Presidential Voters

41% 16% 26% 7%

Surveyed: 937 likely & actual GOP presidential primary voters

Margin of sampling error:  3.3%

Support among Democratic voters who say _________ is the most important issue.



Issues Economy Immigration National Security Health Care Hillary Clinton

68% 56% 70% 55% Bernie Sanders

23% 33% 25% 35% Undecided 8% 11% 5% 9% Composition of Likely/Actual Dem. Presidential Primary Voters

40% 10% 15% 14%

Surveyed: 823 likely & actual Democratic presidential primary voters

Margin of sampling error:  3.4%

This Florida Decides Exclusive Statewide Poll was conducted by SurveyUSA from March 4-6. Pollsters surveyed 2,450 likely voters via home phones and smart devices. Respondents reachable on a home phone were interviewed on their home telephone in the recorded voice of a professional announcer. Respondents who were not reachable by home phone were shown a questionnaire on their smartphone, tablet or other device.
Hulk Hogan spent the majority of Day 2 of his privacy trial against the celebrity website Gawker on the stand.

Attorneys for Gawker were trying to show the jury that the wrestler had little problem in the past speaking publicly about his sex life in the media.

Wearing his standard court uniform of a black shirt, bandana and a cross, Hogan took the stand Tuesday morning.

The former pro wrestling star, whose legal name is Terry Bollea, is suing Gawker for $100 million, accusing the New York-based blog of violating his right to privacy.

Hogan says the website violated his privacy when it published a portion of video of Hogan having sex with Heather Clem, the then-wife of local radio host Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.

Gawker, however, says publishing the video as a news story protects it under the First Amendment because the former wrestler denied sleeping with Heather Clem and talked publicly about his sex life.

On the stand Monday, Hogan for the first time talked candidly about the night the sex video was made back in 2007.

On Tuesday, Gawker's attorneys played clips from TMZ and the Howard Stern Show that showed Hogan discussing his sex life.

Lawyers for the website are trying to prove Hogan's sex life was newsworthy, and he talked about it during interviews. Hogan admits he denied having sex with Heather Clem, his then-best friend's wife, in the past.

"On this (Howard Stern) show, as we're talking on a character-driven show, I did not want to talk about Terry Bollea and his personal life what was going on with Terry Bollea," Hogan said on the stand. "He's asking me, 'Hulk Hogan, you said you never did this,' so I basically didn't want to stir up a hornet's nest by all of a sudden talking about the man and saying 'Oh yes, I did break man code.'

"There's no reason to do that."

Hogan said Bubba first blamed the leaked sex tape video on Heather.

Hogan also said when the sex video came out that people would think it was a stunt and that he was in on it. Hogan said he would never set up cameras to record his personal life.

"We don't want to make money on this," he said. "We don't want this happening and I was very concerned that people thought I did it on purpose to set cameras up. I would never do that to my personal life."

A wrestling publicist for Hogan told the jury over a video interview that she saw him crying about the video during an appearance on Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda.

"He went to the bathroom and was crying and him and Kathy Lee were having a moment talking about how their life has been an open book, said Jules Wortman, TNA media relations.

Hogan told the jury he couldn't sleep or eat for days after the sex video was published on gawker's website.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.
An Orlando animal group is working to save dozens of abused dogs -- animals that were shot, poisoned, even hit by cars. Although theyre already rescued dozens, they want to save even more.

Disposing of a dog like its a piece of trash is unacceptable, said Rebecca Lynch, the president of the non-profit Poodle and Pooch Rescue.

The group rescued more than 50 abandoned dogs from the Redlands area in South Florida.

I watched a woman drive to the end of the road and she opened up her door, pushed the dogs out, closed the door and drove off. And the dogs were running after her trying to get back into her vehicle, said Stephanie Biondi, a veterinary technician at Chuluota Vet Hospital.

Some of the dogs rescued were in pretty bad shape. A dog named Honey was even fed metal. X-rays showed metal shards mixed with food in her intestines.

Another dog was shot in the eye with a pellet gun, three puppies had their tails cut off and others were badly beaten.

Ive been rescuing dogs since I was nine years old and I am 51 now and Ive never seen a situation like this before, ever, said Michele Wacker, Poodle and Pooch Rescue special needs director.

The non-profit teamed up with a group of women in the Redlands who help feed the dogs but dont have the resources to do much more than that.

There are many people that come to Miami-Dade [Animal Services] to surrender their dogs there and Miami-Dade Animal Shelter turns them away because they are too full, said Lynch. "They are working to become a no-kill animal shelter and with that, youre not euthanizing dogs so the capacity to take more dogs on is impossible.

The work doesnt end here. They have committed to saving 100 dogs; at this point they have 27 more to go. All of this is in addition to their local efforts in Central Florida.

A spokesperson for Miami-Dade Animal Services said they regularly patrol and respond to calls in the Redlands. They said in the past three years 2,331 strays have been picked up and 574 cruelty cases have been handled in the southern part of the county.

Anyone who wishes to help foster is supplied food for the dog. Veterinary expenses are also covered.

For information on fostering or adopting, head to the Pooch and Poodle Rescue website.


Make your birthday special - by brewing a beer originally made on that date.

For a mere 25 euros, I'll create a bespoke recipe for any day of the year you like. As well as the recipe, there's a few hundred words of text describing the beer and its historical context and an image of the original brewing record.

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Central Oregon Coast's Nye Beach Murder Fest This Weekend

Published 03/07/2016 at 4:51 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  Sleuths of all ages will join together this weekend on the central Oregon coast to help solve a murder. Many do this every year. That's because each March brings the Nye Beach Murder Mystery to Newport, where over 100 gather to participate in this unique, interactive festival. This time around, the Nye Beach Murder Mystery happens on March 12.

A good deal of the fun includes its immersive aspects: local actors dress in costume and stage a murder in Nye Beach while visitors - the sleuths - investigate who dunnit.

Each year, the festival brings about 100 would-be sleuths to gather in the historic district of this coastal town to collecting clues from local businesses and ask questions of the suspicious actors/suspects.

This year's mystery is "Washed Up! The Story of a Hollywood Starlet," taking place in 1991. Former movie star Faye Tallity is found dead on Nye Beach after vanishing from the deck of Ann Chovies vessel The Pizza Ship. Washed Up Is the 9th Nye Beach Mystery by Toledo author/artist Ram Papish.

The mystery gets underway at 9 a.m. when participants purchase a packet containing information on how to solve the crime. Packets cost $10 and can be picked up from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Nye Cottage Beads, 208 NW Coast St, Nye Beach. Clues are then collected and the fun really begins when sleuths discover clues and interrogate suspects staged at participating businesses in Nye Beach. At 5 p.m. sleuths turn in their solutions of who, when, why, and how. Newport Hotels for this event - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

Suspects and sleuths reunite at 7 p.m. that same evening at the American Legion, 424 West Olive St., where Inspector Zeke N. Nancers will reveal the murderer  and award the prizes to the winning investigators. This event is sponsored by the Nye Beach Merchants Association, to pre-order your mystery packet or to get more information call 541-270-2234. More about this part of the central Oregon coast below and at the Newport, Oregon Virtual Tour, Map.























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The East Coast Surgery Center in Daytona, Fla., received a building permit, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Here are five things to know:

1. The surgery center's construction is estimated to cost around $3.56 million and be 115,000-square-feet.

2. The surgery center is registered to Volusia Orthopaedic Trauma Call Associates.

3. There are currently around 5,460 Medicare-certified ASCs in the United States and around 25 percent to 30 percent are owned or managed by multi-facility chains.

4. The most common procedures provided at ASCs are cataract surgery with IOL inserts, upper GI endoscopy, colonoscopy and biopsy, diagnostic colonoscopy and after cataract laser surgery.

5. Around 20 percent to 25 percent of the ASCs in the United States have some sort of hospital ownership.
Haines City (Fla.) police are investigating Manuel Cordova, who allegedly has been posing as a physician for at least two years, according to Fox 13.

Here are five things to know:

1. Department of Health investigators report Mr. Cordova lacks a medical license and has been operating as a physician illegally in Haines City.

2. The man practiced natural medicine and saw patients at appointment-only hours.

3. DOH investigators learned about Mr. Cordova after hearing him on the radio offering listeners free medical advice. However, a radio station employee denies Mr. Cordova was on the station.

4. Police sent an undercover officer to Mr. Cordova's office, where he diagnosed the officer with different conditions including arthritis, high cholesterol, kidney problems and potential future cases of erectile dysfunction.

5. Investigators have not reported how many patients Mr. Cordova may have seen over the last few years.

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The first prostate ablation treatment with the Ablatherm Robotic HIFU was performed at the Gramercy Surgery Center in New York.

Here are five things to know:

1. Ivan Grunberger, MD, chief of urology at New York Methodist Hospital and professor of clinical urology at Weill Cornell Medical College, performed the procedure. Judd Boczko, MD, assistant clinical professor of urology at New York Medical College practicing with Westmed Medical Group, assisted in the procedure.

2. The Ablatherm Robotic HIFU is FDA-cleared and designed to treat localized prostate cancer. The minimally invasive procedure is recommended for patients with localized prostate cancer stages T1-T2 who aren't candidates for surgery or failed radiotherapy patients who prefer an alterative treatment option.

3. The technology is approved for commercial distribution in Europe as well as other countries. The company plans to implement the technology in major metropolitan areas in the United States.

4. American HIFU owns the Ablatherm Robotic HIFU and is mobilized to provide HIFU access to select urologists throughout the United States.

5. Gramercy Surgery Center opened in 2006 and includes ASCs in Manhattan and Queens. David Albert, MD, is director at the center and Jeffrey Flynn is COO. The center includes orthopedics, breast cancer surgery, bariatric surgery, general surgery, lithotripsy and gynecology, among other specialties.
During Michael Tarwater's 35-year tenure with Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare, the system has grown from a single, financially strapped city hospital into a dominant, eight-facility strong delivery system.

As Mr. Tarwater prepares to hand over the reigns as Carolinas CEO to Gene Woods this May, he spoke with the Charlotte Observer about how hospital consolidation has improved Carolinas' ability to manage healthcare costs and increase patient access.

Below are four thoughts from Mr. Tarwater on consolidation and care prices.

1. Growth through attracting physician talent. Mr. Tarwater attributed much of Carolinas' early growth to the strong quality of its physicians. By building Levine Children's Hospital in 2007 and Levine Cancer Institute in 2012, "we gave [our physicians] a place to attract people from some of the name institutions across the country," Mr. Tarwater told Charlotte Observer. Mr. Tarwater believes consolidation helped Carolinas bring world-class healthcare services to Charlotte.

2. Consolidation as a means to manage healthcare costs. Consumer demand for the best quality care and leading-edge equipment in healthcare treatment has largely driven hospital expenses, Mr. Tarwater believes. Hospital consolidation became a suitable response to manage increased hospital expenses. "I know that I can buy supplies (and) equipment a lot cheaper in huge volume," said Mr. Tarwater. "Consolidation is just one way to bring your expenses down."

3. Cutting physician reimbursement won't reduce care costs. "A consumer's understanding of the word 'price' bears no resemblance to how hospitals get paid," Mr. Tarwater told Charlotte Observer. While healthcare costs must be controlled and reduced, cutting reimbursement rates to hospitals and physicians is not the answer. "What you need to do is change the incentives to encourage [hospitals] to accelerate faster to a different way to deliver care," said Mr. Tarwater.

4. Consolidation as a way to improve quality and access. Through consolidation and expansion efforts, Carolinas has been able to build new facilities and increase the access points for patients to receive care. "Through the strength of [Carolinas HealthCare] and the volumes that come through  15,000 new cancer diagnoses a year  we can make clinical trials available to people [across] this region," Mr. Tarwater told Charlotte Observer.

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Although value-based payment models, such as accountable care organizations, may involve a capitation payment to the overall organization, the vast majority of physician practices are still paid on a fee-for-service basis, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

For the study, researchers used supplemental surveys of physician offices conducted as part of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to determine the prevalence of capitation for the period of 1996 through 2013.

Here are six findings from the study.

1. The overall percentage of physician office visits covered under pure capitation arrangements  those in which a physician or other provider receives a fixed monthly payment per patient, regardless of the services provided  fell from 6.6 percent in 2007 to 5.3 percent in 2013.

2. As pure capitation agreements declined, the percentage of fee-for-service visits grew. By 2013, 94.7 percent of all physician office visits were covered under fee-for-service arrangements.

3. Although policy makers have sought to shift provider payments away from fee-for-service, financial losses with pure capitation in many physician groups led providers to reject 100 percent risk sharing as a payment method.

4. As a result, physician capitation declined in all regions of the country between 1996 and 2013.

5. Between 1996 and 2013, physician capitation was always highest in the West, with 14.5 percent of physician office visits covered by capitation arrangements in 2013. As of 2013, physician capitation fell to an average of 3.2 percent in the rest of country.

6. Based on the study's findings, the authors concluded, "To be successful, payment reform must confront the reality that individual physicians are practices are unwilling to accept all of the risk for providing care. Thus, payment reform will need to operate within a fee-for-service framework at the level of the individual physician or practice."

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A year after its merger with Tucson-based University of Arizona Health Network, Phoenix-based Banner Health is investing $500 million to build a new hospital and clinic in Tucson, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

The new hospital is being referred to as a replacement for Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, one of the two existing hospitals Banner acquired from UAHN upon the merger. The planned hospital tower will be 670,000 square feet and nine stories. Diamond Children's Medical Center in Tucson and a recent expansion project that included a new emergency department will be incorporated into the new hospital, according to the report.

The new hospital is expected to start seeing patients in the second quarter of 2019.

Banner Health also plans to build a new 200,000-square-foot outpatient clinic adjacent to the University of Arizona Cancer Center's North Campus in Tucson. Banner officials said they expect the new multispecialty clinic to open in 2018.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell has denied the request from a group of House Democrats for the department to issue guidance on the use of "march-in rights" to dissolve drug patents for drugs that are priced too high, according to The Hill.

In January, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) headed a group of more than 50 House Democrats in writing to HHS asking it to issue guidance on circumstances in which march-in rights would apply. Under a 1980 law, these rights allow HHS to break a drug patent if its research was federally funded and it is not "available to the public on reasonable terms," according to the report.

Secretary Burwell's rejection letter of their request suggests she is not willing to combat high prescription drug prices as aggressively as some House Democrats would like. The lawmakers argue that simply issuing guidance on the application of march-in rights  guidance that would have come from the National Institutes of Health  would send a warning to drug companies to keep their prices in check, according to the report.

"After consulting with the NIH, we believe the statutory criteria are sufficiently clear and additional guidance is not needed," Secretary Burwell wrote in the letter, The Hill reported. However, the Obama administration is not ruling out march-in rights in the future. Secretary Burwell also wrote in her letter that HHS is "prepared to use its authority when presented with a case where the statutory criteria are met."

Rep. Doggett said Monday that his request was "clearly justified" to "discourage widespread price gouging," but he is "pleased that the administration is prepared to use existing authority on a case-by-case basis to address the problem," according to the report.
St. Joseph's Hospital in Philadelphia will close this month, and most of its patient traffic will be absorbed by Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

In December, North Philadelphia Health System said it is consolidating operations and will close 146-bed St. Joseph's. Up to 675 workers will be laid off as a result.

Once St. Joseph's closes, the majority of its business will likely go to Temple University Hospitals, according to The Temple News.

"Temple [University] Hospital has been an essential hospital for poor people in the city and it's equipped to take on [the patients]," Jerry Silberman, senior staff representative at the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, told The Temple News.

Some patients may also flock to nearby Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia for care after St. Joseph's shuts down.

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The Mississippi Department of Medicaid is now able to exchange clinical data in real-time with the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson using the Epic EHR.

Data analytics company MedeAnalytics powers the connection between the state agency and the medical center. The University of Mississippi Medical Center is the state's largest provider of care for Medicaid patients.

"After years of working with our technology partners to build a foundation consisting of an Enterprise Master Patient Index and clinical data repository, we can now instantly share patient summaries with external stakeholders, such as UMMC. This real-time access to beneficiary data will improve insight into beneficiary health trends, empower better care decisions and much more," said Rita Rutland, Mississippi Department of Medicaid deputy administrator of information technology management.
Another executive will leave Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., amid a system-wide shakeup.

On Friday, Maria Longo, RN, director of emergency nursing at Coney Island Hospital, submitted her letter of intent to retire, effective April 1.

Three other executives have left Coney Island Hospital, part of NYC Health + Hospitals, in recent weeks.

Robert Hughes left his position as acting executive director of the hospital, John Maese, MD, the hospital's medical director, transitioned to a new leadership role on a system-wide initiative and Terry Mancher, RN, the hospital's CNO, retired.

NYC Health + Hospitals spokesman Ian Michaels told Becker's the leadership shakeup was necessary to improve the hospital's culture.

"As the evaluation of NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island continues under new leadership, other changes may be made and other staff may choose to resign or retire. We care committed to doing whatever necessary to improve the patient experience culture of the hospital," said Mr. Michaels.

A New York Post article claims the leadership changes at Coney Island Hospital are related to the controversial death of 47-year-old Grisel Soto, who died at the facility Feb. 1 after nursing staff misdiagnosed her as suffering from an overdose of synthetic marijuana. The patient's family believes she died of meningitis.

The health system has disputed claims that the executive changes are related to Ms. Soto's death.

NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public hospital system in the U.S., serves approximately 1.4 million patients per year.

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The following hospital and health system CFO moves were announced since Feb. 15.

1. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Cottage Health named Brett T. Tande senior vice president and CFO.

2. Ronald Wehtje was appointed CFO of Adventist Health's Southern California Region. The region includes Glendale (Calif.) Adventist Medical Center, San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., Simi Valley (Calif.) Hospital and White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles as well as dozens of ambulatory care sites and hundreds of primary care and specialty providers.

3. Meridian, Miss.-based Rush Health Systems named Chris Rush president of corporate services and CFO.

4. Blaine Peterson was named CFO of Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola University Health System.

5. Kennedy Health in Southern New Jersey named Glenn A. Zirbser senior vice president and CFO.

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Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis (Tenn.), operated by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, has laid off 33 employees, according to a report from The Commercial Appeal.

Here are four things to know about the layoffs.

1. Hospital officials attributed the layoffs to changes in the healthcare industry. "I think that you always have to take a look at where you are and how you can do things more efficiently," Marilynn Robinson, senior vice president of marketing and government relations for Saint Francis Healthcare, told The Commercial Appeal.

2. The layoffs represent approximately 2 percent of the hospital's workforce of nearly 1,500 employees.

3. Clerical and other support positions are affected by the layoffs.

4. Saint Francis is providing assistance with job placement and discussing employment opportunities at affiliated hospitals, Ms. Robinson said, according to the report.
It's not easy to define diversity. It's a fluid concept, one that evolves alongside society and changing ideologies. However, diversity itself is a solid pillar of good governance and leadership. And in healthcare, a diverse leadership  or lack thereof  has lasting effects on care delivery.

Traditionally, diversity referred to people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, a term linked to phenotypic characteristics. Gender, too, has historically been included in the diversity umbrella. But now, diversity encompasses a much larger spectrum including life experiences, lifestyle choices and ideas, such as socioeconomic status and sexual orientation. It even takes into consideration the social determinants of health.

This newer, all-inclusive definition of diversity is perpetuated by the millennial generation. According to a 2015 study by Deloitte and the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, millennials tend to define diversity in the context of experiences, opinions and thoughts, while older generations focus on religion, demographics and representation.

Considering this emerging definition and the fact that millennials are the most diverse generation in the U.S. population (By the traditional definition, at least. A 2014 White House fact sheet says 42 percent of millennials identify with a race or ethnicity other than non-Hispanic white), current healthcare leadership isn't on par with reflecting those they serve.

Diversity in leadership

In 2013, a survey from the American Hospital Association's Institute for Diversity found minorities represent 31 percent of patients nationally, but minorities constitute just 14 percent of hospital board members, 12 percent of executive leadership positions and 17 percent of first- and mid-level management positions.

Healthcare executives aren't blind to this gap. A 2015 survey from healthcare executive search firm Witt/Kieffer found 26 percent of Caucasian respondents and 10 percent of racially and ethnically diverse respondents believe minority executives are well-represented in healthcare management teams today.

Catholic Health Initiatives is trying to change that. At the Englewood, Colo.-based system, diversity is embodied throughout the organization, says Rosalyn Carpenter, CHI's chief diversity officer and vice president of diversity and inclusion. "CHI is very unique in the healthcare industry in that three of our senior-most leaders are diverse," she says. "So how do we embody it? We are actively living it."

Ms. Carpenter mentions Kevin Lofton, CEO of CHI; Michael Rowan, COO and president for health systems delivery; and Patricia Webb, executive vice president, chief administrative officer and chief human resources officer; all of whom are black, as evidence of the system's commitment to diversity.

At CHI, embodying diversity means incorporating it into the recruitment process, but it's not a matter of seeking out diversity for diversity's sake; rather, it's a business strategy. "In addition to ensuring the candidate has the skills for the position and is a good fit for the organization, we must consider diversity because a diverse workforce is about the diversity of perspective, thoughts and ideas necessary for an organization to be competitive," Ms. Carpenter says.

This sentiment is reflected in Witt/Kieffer's study, in which 66 percent of respondents said diversity recruiting enables an organization to reach its strategic goals. What's more, the Deloitte survey found, "millennials frame diversity as a means to a business outcome, which is in stark contrast to older generations that view diversity through the lens of morality (the right thing to do), compliance and equality."

With millennials now the largest generation in the workforce with the diversity mindset they have, hospital boards and executive leadership teams will likely look a lot different just a few years down the road.

The intersection of diversity and population health

While diversity is critical for strategy and business, it also has a positive effect on patient care, especially as healthcare turns its focus to population health.

This idea is manifested at Great Neck, N.Y.-based Northwell Health. Within Northwell Health's Office of Community & Public Health resides the Diversity, Inclusion and Health Literacy division, led by Jennifer Mieres, MD, senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer.

Dr. Mieres' definition of diversity reflects the newer millennial mindset, which includes cultures, lifestyles and different ideas. She says Northwell seeks to create a diverse environment that places patients' needs at the center of their care. One pillar of Northwell's inclusion strategy is a commitment to diverse culture, which includes having a leadership team, board of trustees and frontline workers that reflect the community served.

"Having a workforce that reflects the diverse cultures and ethnicities and the diverse lifestyles of the community has helped us formalize strategies to be a much more inclusive health system," Dr. Mieres says.

To achieve this, Northwell calls upon its frontline workers to advocate for patients through the system's business employee resource groups. Employees voluntarily join the groups to advise leaders on how to bridge gaps in care for different patient populations, including veterans, multicultural patients and the LGBT community.

For example, the VALOR group  Veterans and Allies: Liaisons of Reintegration  has been around for three years, and it prompted the hospital to change protocol for treating veterans who present in the ER. Clinicians ask veterans questions that are sensitive to PTSD symptoms and note if behavioral services may be required. In addition to better serving the veteran population, Dr. Mieres says such changes also make the hospital a more attractive workplace for veterans.

Diversity for diversity's sake?

People tend to feel more comfortable around similar individuals, or those who share certain traits, demographic or otherwise. But having a workforce that mirrors the patient population may, in some areas, result in a homogenous organization.

Look at Los Angeles and Burlington, Vt. These two cities were among the highest and lowest, respectively, for diversity in Brown University's 2010 American Communities Project, which makes available sociological data on metropolitan areas. Los Angeles scored 79.6 on the diversity scale, while Burlington, Vt., scored 23.5.

Given the demands of population health and the theory that people trust those that look, live and believe like them, is it beneficial for a hospital in a relatively homogenous area like Burlington, Vt., to prioritize diversified leadership?

Oliver Tomlin says yes. Mr. Tomlin is a senior partner at Witt/Kieffer and an author of the firm's study.

"In the old days, I would have said, 'Maybe not. Maybe [diversifying leadership teams in homogenous areas] wouldn't have value,'" he says. "The reality is that healthcare is no longer local or regional. It's becoming more national."

Mr. Tomlin points to organizations like Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, which has sites of care in smaller markets throughout the country and overseas.

Dr. Mieres has a different approach. She says a population that serves a homogenous population may not have as urgent of a need to formalize diversity and cultural competency strategies and policies. She emphasizes placing the patient at the center of the care matrix and being culturally competent to the patient's needs.

Building the diverse workforce of the future

The divide between diversity in healthcare leadership and the populations they serve persists.

Even at CHI, whose 15-member board includes seven women and three racially diverse members, Ms. Carpenter says attracting and retaining leadership that reflects the system's communities is an ongoing effort.

Northwell Health's Dr. Mieres, too, says her health system has progress to make. She estimates about 60 to 70 percent of staff and leaders accurately represent the patients they serve.

But one silver lining is that the healthcare workforce is already more diverse than many other professional industries. Analyzing data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 2015 report from The Atlantic found 72.3 percent of healthcare employees are white, less than the legal profession (80.9 percent are white), education (78.2 percent), and business and finance (74.3 percent).

What's more, healthcare appears to be making a concerted effort to embody diversity, as the chief diversity officer role is becoming more commonplace. Witt/Kieffer's Mr. Tomlin says many medical schools and academic medical centers are starting to search for CDOs, oftentimes as an inaugural position. Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., is seeking its first CDO, and Boston-based Partners HealthCare named Dani Monroe its first chief diversity and inclusion officer in January.

Dr. Mieres is Northwell Health's first CDIO, a position she assumed five years ago. She is also a professor of cardiology and population health at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and is still actively involved in clinical research about gender disparities in heart disease.

Speaking about her CDIO duties, Dr. Mieres says, "It's a harder job than being a cardiologist, but it's going from touching one life at a time to impacting policies and procedures that will really foster a patient-centered partnership with the diverse communities served by Northwell Health."

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Theranos, the blood testing startup based in Palo Alto, Calif., ran a hematology test on 81 patients in a six-month period despite erratic results from quality-control checks, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited a federal inspection report.

Although the federal report hasn't been publicly released, people familiar with the report told WSJ it is more detailed than the January letter from CMS that outlined deficiencies at Theranos' lab in Newark, Calif.

In January, CMS said "deficient practices" in hematology at the Theranos lab posed "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety."

People who have seen the federal inspection report told WSJ it indicates Theranos ignored quality-control checks while administering a blood test that measures how long it takes blood to clot. The result of this test repeatedly deviated from the lab's typical result by more than two standard deviations.

Despite the erratic quality-control results, which occurred between April 1 and Sept. 23 last year, Theranos sent blood test results to 81 patients.

"We have conducted assessments to identify any patients affected or having the potential to be affected by the issues identified by CMS, and we have no reason to believe that these issues have affected patients' health," Kingshuk Das, director of Theranos' lab in California, told WSJ.

However, Timothy Hamill, MD, professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco's department of laboratory medicine, disagrees. He said physicians who received the blood-clotting test, called "prothrombin time," from the Theranos lab during the six-month period shouldn't rely on the results. "Those results are not worth anything," he told WSJ.

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Marietta, Ga.-based WellStar Health System and LaGrange, Ga.-based West Georgia Health have officially signed a partnership agreement, effective April 1, according to a WRBL.com report.

West Georgia Health signed a letter of intent to join with WellStar in May 2015. "Through a rigorous evaluation of numerous potential partners, West Georgia Health determined that WellStar represented an ideal partner to ensure it will continue its mission of providing top quality healthcare for its community and patients," a news release from West Georgia Health stated.

Patients of West Georgia Health will not see any immediate changes under the partnership, but new technology and projects will be implemented in the near future, according to the report. Additionally, the consolidation will not cause any job losses, said Jerry Fulks, president and CEO of West Georgia Health.
Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic plans to disaffiliate with a hospital it has run for several years in Waycross, Ga., according to the Star Tribune.

Mayo struck an agreement in 2012 to operate the hospital. The facility was seen as a possible source of patient referrals to Mayo's hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. However, Mayo has changed its strategy and plans to return the hospital and related governance to community directors.

"A community-based hospital is really not a good fit with our strategy for the Florida location," said Pat McCarty, vice chair of financial planning and analysis at Mayo Clinic, according to the report.

Instead of focusing on developing networks of feeder hospitals for its major care sites across the country, the health system is expanding its Mayo Clinic Care Network, in which hospitals across the country consult with Mayo on challenging cases, according to the report.

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The current administration of Blountstown, Fla.-based Calhoun Liberty Hospital is accusing former CEO Phillip Hill of defrauding the hospital of more than $1 million over a six-year period, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Mr. Hill resigned as Calhoun Liberty's CEO and administrator six months ago due to "management differences." About a month after he resigned, the new administration of the hospital found bookkeeping irregularities.

Mr. Hill allegedly created between 50 and 100 fake invoices for payments to Southeastern Medical Supply. The hospital never received any supplies from the company, and there is no documentation the company exists, according to hospital officials. Mr. Hill allegedly sent checks for the supplies to a lock box he created to receive payments for Calhoun Liberty.

The fake invoices were discovered by Lisa Dees, Calhoun Liberty's compliance officer. The invoices caught her attention because of the suspicious amount of certain items that were ordered. Calhoun Liberty CFO Nathan Ebersole also discovered there were materials that had been invoiced and paid for but never received at the hospital, according to the report.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the case.

Mr. Hill's lawyer, Rusty Shepherd, told the Tallahassee Democrat that Calhoun Liberty officials are bringing up the investigation to divert attention away from other problems at the hospital.

Last December, a 57-year-old woman died after being forcibly removed by police from Calhoun Liberty. In February, the Agency for Health Care Administration uncovered 10 deficiencies at the hospital, including issues with its emergency services and risk management program.

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Isaac Kojo Anakwah Thompson, MD, of Delray Beach, Fla., has pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud for engaging in a scheme to defraud the Medicare Advantage program, according to the Department of Justice.

Medicare pays the sponsoring insurance company a capitated monthly fee for each beneficiary who chooses to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan. The fixed fee is adjusted based on the beneficiary's medical conditions. As a result, Medicare typically pays a larger capitated fee for a beneficiary with more serious medical conditions than it does for a healthier beneficiary.

Between 2007 and 2010, Dr. Thompson defrauded Medicare by falsely diagnosing 387 Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with ankylosing spondylitis, a rare chronic inflammatory disease of the spine. The false diagnoses were reported to Humana, which then reported them to Medicare. As a result, Medicare paid approximately $2.1 million in excess capitation fees, about 80 percent of which went to Dr. Thompson, according to the DOJ.

Sentencing for Mr. Hill is scheduled for May 18. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

More articles on healthcare fraud:



CMS to increase on-site visits to deter healthcare fraud

US rakes in $2.4B in healthcare fraud recoveries

Pennsylvania physician pleads guilty to healthcare fraud
Two health systems in North Dakota are getting creative in addressing the nurse shortage, according to a report from The Bismarck Tribune.

Fargo-based Sanford Health, which had 112 registered nurse positions open as of March 6, has used signing bonuses to attract more nurses. In December, the health system offered a $20,000 bonus for nurses with one year of experience, said Jan Kamphuis, PhD, RN, executive vice president and CNO of Sanford, according to the report.

The system also hired a nurse recruiter in December, who visits North Dakota colleges and promotes nursing at Sanford, according to the report. Additionally, Dr. Kamphuis told The Bismarck Tribune, Sanford partnered with North Dakota State University in Fargo to create a nursing program and had its first graduating class in December. Thirty-one of the 36 graduates went to work at Sanford.

Sanford's other recruitment efforts include hiring a company to attract more nurses from other countries. According to the report, Sanford Bismarck (N.D.) hired several nurses in August, including a nurse from Nicaragua and another from the Philippines, and Mercy Medical Hospital in Williston, N.D., hired 12 international nurses through the company.

"The goal is hopefully at the end of their two-year contract, they will commit to stay in the community," Dr. Kamphuis told The Bismarck Tribune.

CHI St. Alexius Health in Bismarck also has hired international nurses, who will begin their jobs next week, according to the system. And, according to the report, St. Alexius' nurse recruiter Tabitha Beede is working to recruit and retain more millennial-age nurses.

More articles on workforce and labor management:

Kaiser workers in California protest 'excessive' executive pay

Cleveland Clinic to host new grad recruitment event for RNs

Community organizers urge Yale-New Haven Hospital to hire more local workers
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Over 30% of sales at The Rug House in Newry - which has both a website and a physical store - are EU exports, its managing director Paul Vallely has said.

And he said he feared a Brexit could cost the company as much as 1m in sales.

He said: "As recently as 18 months ago I would have said that it was impossible for [the UK to leave the EU] but given the migration tint to the discussions, for the first time we are getting very worried that it might happen.

"If the UK leaves the EU, Newry would become a backwater town again, it'd be a dead end. We need to remain part of the north-south corridor."

Mr Vallely said it was important that business owners spoke to members of the public about how an EU exit would affect them.

He said: "Most people vote with their heart and not their head. It's important that they hear real stories and know about the impact it would have on the town. Businesses need to point out the problems with an exit.

"Everyone from hoteliers to mechanics - most if not all of them here - see the problems we would face in Newry if the UK were to leave the EU.

"It's hard to find many right thinking people who support Brexit. It's not something even worth thinking about here.

"People in England don't seem to realise the full implications of an 'out' vote for businesses so it's important our politicians make themselves heard and speak effectively at Westminster. We're the only part of the UK with an EU border so it's going to affect us worst here."

The Rug House, which is based in Carnbane Way, was founded by Paul and his sister Clare.

The pair made contacts with factories in mainland Europe and started ordering directly from manufacturers. The business continued to grow and currently employs just under 30 people.
What the 740-bedroom student development could look like

More than 1,300 student rooms are expected to get the green light by Belfast City Council's planning committee next week.

That includes two developments which were deferred pending a visit to the site.

A decision on the 156-bedroom project on Dublin Road was deferred last month, along with a 407-bedroom site at York Street.

The Dublin Road development, which is a joint project between Lacuna Developments and Welsh company Watkin Jones, received dozens of objections from nearby residents.

Now, one of the largest developments, a massive 740-bedroom student building by McAleer and Rushe at College Avenue is also earmarked to get the go-ahead.

But another 380-bedroom student development at Little Patrick Street, and run by English firm UniCiti, is recommended for refusal.

Planners said it should be refused as insufficient amenity space and outlook has been provided within the scheme to ensure a quality residential environment for future residents, and insufficient information has been submitted.

More than 1,600 new student rooms have now been granted permission.

Meanwhile, Belfast Harbour's new City Quays hotel project is also due to get approval, subject to conditions, on Tuesday.

Planners said the 188-bedroom hotel, which will sit alongside the City Quays 1 and 2 buildings, will positively contribute to the ongoing regeneration of the area.
One of Northern Ireland's largest wind farm developments has been sold to Italy's biggest renewable energy firm.

ERG Renew has bought Brockaghboy wind farm from TCI Renewables. It's located just outside Garvagh in Co Londonderry.

The development has permission for up to 19 turbines, which have the potential of generating 57MW of power.

The latest deal for Brockaghboy was completed alongside Belfast law firm Pinsent Masons.

Pinsent Masons' Martin McGonigle said: "As one of the world's leading energy legal teams, we believe this deal offers the market clear direction on how to mitigate legislative risk, but also maximise value from this excellent project in Northern Ireland.

"We believe the structure achieved successfully with ERG will be used increasingly on projects throughout Europe during periods of similar regulatory transition."

Peter Craig, director of TCI Renewables, said: 'We are pleased to be working with ERG Renew under a development services arrangement where they finance the construction of Brockaghboy wind farm and we jointly work to delivering the operating asset and sharing the realised value of this high quality project."

Meanwhile, renewable energy investment management group NTR has secured the first of a number of project debt facilities for wind projects.

That will include the financing of the Ora More wind farm, a 15 MW farm based in Co Fermanagh.

NTR was advised by law firm Carson McDowell Solicitors. Neasa Quigley, the firm's head of energy, described the deal as "substantial".

She added: "The renewables sector in Northern Ireland is facing a challenging period and the investment in the region made by the NTR fund, which is backed by long term institutional investors to the tune of 250m (193m), is very welcome.

"The renewables sector already makes a huge contribution to the economy in terms of job creation, securing energy supply and decarbonising the economy by increasing the percentage of green energy in the system."

Last week it was confirmed that the subsidy system for large on-shore wind energy projects in Northern Ireland will end in April.

But the system for smaller, single turbine projects will continue.

According to figures released by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment last week, renewable energy accounted for 25.4% of electricity consumption in Northern Ireland in the year ending December 2015 - the highest proportion on record.

And wind energy claimed the largest share of the renewables contribution at 90%.

Renewables' contribution of 25.4% was up 6% on the year before. Earlier this year, it was claimed that onshore wind energy could become cheaper than new gas generation by 2020 if the policy and regulatory conditions are right.

That was the message delivered by the renewables industry during the Northern Ireland Renewable Industry Group conference in January.

However, it also warned that investment and jobs will only come if the Northern Ireland Executive delivers a sustainable, secure energy system for all.
In his Budget next Wednesday, March 16, the Chancellor, George Osborne, has the unenviable challenge of delivering promised tax simplification whilst also trying to reduce the UK's budget deficit.

Like most, Grant Thornton would like to see further simplification of the tax system to one that works with business and not against it; and one that supports and stimulates a vibrant economy. But what changes are likely?

The Chancellor has made a commitment to return the public finances to the black from 2019-20. If Government's spending and borrowing targets are not achieved then tax rises or spending cuts may be implemented with little notice in order to bring the Chancellor's plans back on track.

Among much of the 'crystal ball' commentary, one well publicised theme for this Budget was the expected changes to the taxation of pensions, which would have had an impact on both employers and individuals.

On Saturday morning George Osborne dropped the plans to end or alter tax relief on pension contributions, amid concerns that it would 'damage saving'. With a degree of global economic uncertainty it has been suggested that now is not the right time for such radical reforms.

Pensions have been under scrutiny throughout the past decade, with most previous pension changes focused on restricting the tax relief for higher earners. The changes which were predicted would have been expected to impact all individuals with pensions, and whilst not being introduced now may still be introduced in a future reform.

One option would have seen the introduction of an 'ISA' style pension system, in which contributions would receive no tax relief but with such monies eventually being withdrawn tax free.

An alternative option suggested was to restrict relief to a flat rate which was widely speculated to be 33%, with lower earners benefiting while higher and additional tax ratepayers would see a drop in the amount of tax relief they would have been entitled to under the current system.

There was also speculation that the annual allowance on pension contributions may be further reduced from 40,000 to perhaps 25,000. Whilst not ruled out, this is now also expected to be unlikely.

As the government has been trying to ensure the current incentives for individuals to save are effective, there was a real risk that the changes to pension tax reliefs which were proposed would have resulted in employees considering in greater detail whether pension saving remains attractive.

On the other hand, employers would have needed to review their reward strategy for employees, as the proposed new rules would likely have led to an immediate cost impact for business, and hence they would not welcome a wholesale change in the way they administer schemes.

An announcement is still expected on the restriction of the tax efficient salary sacrifice arrangements (including pension salary sacrifice) following HMRC's review announced in the summer Budget 2015.

Whilst no giveaways are expected from the Chancellor in his Budget announcement, it is now less clear what the Chancellor will announce given that he has abolished plans for pensions reform at this late stage.

Many businesses and employers will be monitoring the developments closely next Wednesday afternoon. As ever, professional advice should be sought regarding the impact of any changes announced.
Businesses in Northern Ireland are hiring at their fastest rate since the economic downturn in 2007, a new report has claimed.

Hiring intentions are now above the national UK average, with 8% more firms saying they will hire staff, than reduce their workforce.

That's according to recruitment firm Manpower.

The survey is based on responses from 2,100 UK firms and asks whether employers intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter.

Amanda White, operations manager at Manpower, said there is now "a real buzz in Northern Ireland's jobs market going into the second quarter of 2016".

She said: "We've had a stalled recovery since the economic downturn, but the market is now turning a corner and we're seeing an increase in permanent opportunities which are always in high demand among candidates.

"Roles are available across several sectors, and in manufacturing in particular. There is also a need for customer service representatives in the region's call centres.

"In a dramatic shift from what we have been experiencing in recent quarters, it's actually candidate availability that is now the concern.

"There is a noticeable reduction in the availability of good quality candidates, which means those with the right skills are in a prime position to negotiate on pay."

Across the UK, hiring intentions among firms in the first half of 2016 are at their strongest level since 2007.

But according to James Hick, ManpowerGroup Solutions' managing director, there are concerns about the impact to the jobs market if the UK votes to leave the EU.

"Employers of all shapes and sizes rely on the free movement of people inside Europe to find the skills they need," he said.

"The latest employment statistics showed that of the 521,000 jobs created in the last 12 months, 215,000 of these were filled by people from elsewhere in the EU. Let's be realistic: we simply won't be able to replace overnight the skills these people bring to the UK if we leave the EU, and it's our economy that will suffer."
Northern Ireland will lose out on millions in key business and infrastructure funding if the UK votes to leave the EU, after it's been revealed the region received more than 170m in just two years. Stormont departments have received a wealth of cash injections from the EU, including money for roads, business development, job creation and a number of other funding streams.

That includes everything from railway upgrades to business loans.

And that's aside from 635m for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), mainly due to single farm payments.

The bulk of funds aimed at helping business, trade and infrastructure in 2013/14 and 2014/15 went through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI).

During the two financial years, it drew down almost 100m alone from the European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme. That includes projects such as CoFundNI, which is part-funded by the scheme, along with help for other Northern Ireland businesses.

That funding includes projects funded directly by DETI, along with others implemented by Invest NI, Tourism NI, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), the Department for Social Development (DSD) and the Department for Regional Development (DRD).

But economist John Simpson says he doesn't believe Westminster would plug the massive multi-million pound gap left behind by a Brexit.

Northern Ireland also received a total of 3.5bn (2.7bn) in total across all European co-funded projects between 2007 and 2013.

The latest detailed breakdown of figures, which have been revealed in Assembly questions from SDLP MLA and enterprise committee chairman Patsy McGlone, show the DRD received 50m in EU funding streams over the last two financial years.

That included 10.7m from the Interreg Iva scheme, mostly towards overhauling the Enterprise train service, and 19m towards upgrading the Londonderry to Coleraine line, and works on the Knockmore to Lurgan train lines.

Projects were cash has been received towards include the upgrading of the A2 between Belfast's Shore Road and Greenisland, more than 5m for new buses, and 11m just in 2014/15 towards the Coleraine to Londonderry rail line. The Department of Finance and Personnel has also received 12m in the same period.

Economist John Simpson said: "There are those who want to argue that there will be money released for these purposes. At best, it's a wish list, and at worst it could be a deceptive trap.

"First, if we vote to leave the EU, the Barnett formula will still determine what comes to Northern Ireland. Could we really expect to get a better allocation?

"Given we already have a generous Barnett formula, I think we would be at risk, losing these particular items. There is nothing in the particular arrangements we would get this EU funding from another source.

"I don't believe any British government will see this as a high priority, to top-up what has gone away.

"Whether we do get any concessions from the British government, you can rest assure there will be an administrative hiatus. The uncertainty will not be easy to live with."

Patsy McGlone said Northern Ireland is "quite clearly" a net beneficiary of EU funding, and would lose out on millions each year if the UK was to leave.

"Out and about, people in rural economies, farming and wider afield have all derived benefits.

"No one can convince me that if we left that they (the UK Government) would give us like-for-like."

Aside from infrastructure, 'peace' money and business assistance, Mr Simpson said the single biggest loss to Northern Ireland would be single farm payments.

Northern Ireland received 2.23bn (1.73bn) in direct payments alone during 2007 to 2013.And it's earmarked to receive roughly the same during 2014 to 2020.

"The biggest thing is the single farm payments, which is huge. If the UK was to come out, and fund that, it was previously much more stringent than when it joined the EU."
Bill Wyman is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and is expected to make a full recovery

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 79-year-old musician, who is expected to make a full recovery, joined the rock band in late 1962.

A spokesman said: "He is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages.

"The Wyman family has asked for their privacy during this time."

Born William Perks, Wyman joined the Rolling Stones shortly after the band's formation when they were beginning to play small gigs around London.

He left in 1993, and in 1997 founded his own band - Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, who last toured in 2014.

The Stones gained their first UK number one in 1964 with It's All Over Now, and went on to achieve success with hits including Gimme Shelter, Satisfaction, and Jumpin' Jack Flash.

The band has continued to record, tour and perform since Wyman's departure, and last week announced a free concert in Havana, Cuba - the first open-air concert in the country by a British rock band.

Wyman has published two autobiographical accounts of his time in the band, Stone Alone (1997) and Rolling With The Stones (2002).

The musician was pictured on Saturday at the wedding of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, alongside his third wife, Suzanne Accosta.

In 1989, the musician also courted controversy when he married his 18-year-old girlfriend, the model Mandy Smith - who he had been dating since she was 14.

The musician, who was 52 at the time, had divorced his first wife in 1969. But he and Smith split by 1991, and divorced two years later.

Wyman went on to marry Accosta, with whom he has three daughters. He also has one son by his first wife.

Wyman last played with the Stones at the 50th anniversary shows at the O2 Arena in 2012.

However, he said he would not be interested in rejoining the Stones on a more permanent basis.

He told the Daily Express: "Thirty years was great but I've got better things to be doing now. That time has gone."

In June last year, Wyman forced Dartford council into chancing the wording on a blue plaque honouring the band after he condemned it as "disgusting".

The plaque at Dartford railway station in Kent said Dartford-born Mick Jagger and Keith Richards "went on to form The Rolling Stones".

But Wyman objected, saying it was the late Brian Jones - who drowned in Sussex in 1969 - who created the band.

Wyman, 79, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It should be a plaque to Brian Jones and I think it's wrong. I don't like history re-written."

Dartford Borough Council leader Jeremy Kite promised the plaque would be reworded, saying: "I have never upset a Rolling Stone before. We are going to put it right."
Art Malik said some writing on American TV shows is 'dull'

British actor Art Malik has criticised the depiction of terrorists in American screen productions as "very lazy writing".

Pakistani-born Malik opened up about his reluctance to make a career move to Los Angeles in the wake of hit 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie True Lies, in which he played a terrorist.

Malik said he preferred not to uproot his family, b ut he added that he also chose to avoid America because of the "dull" writing in certain projects.

"Playing out-and-out terrorists who terrorise people and don't actually move the conversation on are not worth doing so that's probably another reason I don't go back to America, because a lot of it is like that," he told the Radio Times.

"It's boring, dull, very lazy writing."

Malik's television breakthrough came in 1984 with the award-winning epic The Jewel In The Crown, which centred on the last days of British sovereignty in India.

The 63-year-old's career has come full circle as he will soon be seen as the Maharajah of Amritpur, one of the most affluent princes in India, in the new series of Channel 4's Raj-set drama Indian Summers.

In the second series, which jumps forward three years to the summer of 1935, t he Maharajah heads to Simla, the summer capital of British India, to enter negotiations on the upcoming government of India bill.

Rising politician Ralph Whelan, played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes, attempts to ingratiate himself with Malik's Maharajah, but the artful man is unwilling to give up his immense power.

Australian actress Rachel Griffiths, known for the hit series Six Feet Under, joins the cast as Sirene, the Maharajah's mistress who is hiding a surprising past.

Series two also sees The Vicar Of Dibley's James Fleet join a cast which already boasts Julie Walters, The Borgias' Jemima West and Bedlam's Nikesh Patel.

Mr Selfridge's Alexander Cobb, Shameless star Aysha Kala and Game Of Thrones' Patrick Malahide also reprise their roles for the new series, which starts on Sunday.

London-raised Malik spoke of his "delight" at appearing in Indian Summers.

"It's wonderful and exciting to once again delve into this period in our history and of course to join such a fantastic cast is a delight," he said.

Like a number of other black and minority ethnic actors, Malik also offered his opinion on the issue of race and diversity in British television.

"Look at the people who make the decisions," he said. "Whether they're the head of Bafta or whatever they do, who are they?"

"When will we get a female director-general of the BBC? Where is the colour when you go further up the food chain? It disappears," he said.

:: Indian Summers is broadcast on Channel 4 at 9pm on March 13.
He became the first Northern Ireland chef to win a Michelin Star, but Paul Rankin has revealed how he got into cooking completely by accident.

Rankin is currently featuring in a new UTV series exploring the Ulster-Scots heritage in the US with his friend and fellow chef, Nick Nairn.

The eight part series launched on Friday with the chefs, who have been close friends for the past 20 years, embarking on a culinary journey to follow in the trail of the first Ulster-Scots who travelled and settled in the New World.

This is the fourth series featuring the chefs and the second time they have taken in the American trail on their travels. This time around they visit Virginia, North and South Carolina, East Tennessee and Washington D.C.

Learning about the history of the Ulster-Scots settlers sees the pair use the finest local produce to cook up a storm for Ulster-Scots descendants in each location.

Paul Rankin said: On our travels across the pond we met some fantastic local people with historical connections to Irish and Scottish immigrants who journeyed to the States back in the 17th Century, bringing with them a traditional Ulster-Scots knowledge of food. And as always it was fantastic to share the experience with Nick.

In a quick-fire question and answer video to promote the show, Rankin reveals how his ex-wife Jeanne got him into cooking.

The pair - who were married for 25 years - were travelling the world in their youth and on returning to Jeanne's native Canada and after a long summer spent on a beach she taught him how to "fake" being a waiter which landed the chef his first job in a restaurant.

"And the rest, as they say, is history," said Rankin.

Paul became the first chef to win a Michelin star in Northern Ireland, with Roscoff in 1999. He was also, for years, a regular on TV and author of five books.

At one stage, his empire included 15 different food businesses, until a combination of the economic downturn and over-extension saw that reduced to just one, Cayenne. Finally, in 2013, that too closed.

Paul and Nicks Big American Food Trip will broadcast on UTV every Friday night at 8pm.
I happened to be in the room on an extraordinary occasion when Pope Francis was given a small cross, a Christian crucifix. The crucifix belonged to a young Syrian man. He had been captured by jihadists and then given a choice: convert or die. He chose his ancient faith tradition. He chose Christ. And he was beheaded.

His mother was able to recover his body along with the crucifix and bury him. She then fled to Europe, encountered a priest who gave her support, and gave him the cross in gratitude. This series of events resulted in the profound moment when the cross came into the possession of the Holy Father.

ISIS murders, rapes and crucifies. Day after day after day, Christians, Yezidis, and other beleaguered religious minorities suffer in a particularly severe way for their faith. Although they have as much right as anyone else to remain in their ancestral homelands, ISIS systematically targets them for extermination. ISIS has taken away the conditions for life  as well as life itself  from these innocent communities.

This is genocide, the systematic attempt to exterminate an entire set of peoples because of their beliefs. If a group of people can succeed in killing off another group because they have the power to do so, because they do not believe in anothers religion, they violate that sacred space that is essential to all persons and, therefore, to the conditions of genuine freedom that are necessary for civilization itself.

Thankfully, vulnerable faith communities in the Middle East have a new cause for hope. A growing international coalition has recognized that ISIS is committing genocide. Over 200 members of the United States Congress have cosponsored a resolution which I introduced to name and decry ISIS genocide. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, the European Parliament, among many others, have also made the declaration in the hopes of aiding the ecumenical alliance standing against ISIS barbaric onslaught.

Last week, I urged Secretary of State John Kerry if he would join in recognizing this reality. The Secretary expressed his huge sense of revulsion over these acts and said he is carefully reviewing the legal standards and precedents to make a judgment. I invite you to visit my website at http://fortenberry.house.gov to view a video of my interaction with Secretary Kerry.

Earlier this week in a sign of trans-partisan unity, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the resolution and it now moves to the full House for consideration. A declaration of genocide will set the preconditions for what must miraculously happen in the Middle East  a proper settlement of security, political, economic, and cultural arrangements so that the religious minorities who once made up the rich tapestry of that region will have their rightful place restored.

In 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell came to the United States Congress and testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He declared that the violence in Darfur in Sudan was genocide. In making that simple declaration, he helped stop the grim reality. The implications for recognizing genocide go beyond defining the grotesque tragedy. It is a call to the entire community of responsible nations to act, to say that we will not allow ISIS warped theology to wipe the map clean of other peoples. This is wrong, it is unjust, and the hope of restoring civilized order is at stake.
Brendan O'Carroll believes the world has failed to learn the lessons of history from the Easter Rising in 1916.

A century after the uprising, which saw a battle on the streets of Dublin as Irishmen and women fought for independence, the star and creator of Mrs Brown's Boys has taken a personal journey to discover more about his own family's connection to the conflict.

In a new programme, the Irish actor and author explores the story of his uncles Liam and Peadar, who took part in the rebellion - and finds that Liam once ordered the killing of a British solder and went on to radicalise others in a high-security prison camp.

The Dublin-born comic actor said he had been struck by looking at old photos of schoolchildren in the Stoneybatter area of Dublin, where he was later a pupil.

In a 2014 edition of Who Do You Think You Are?, O'Carroll had already learned that his republican grandfather Peter had been assassinated by a British undercover agent during the Irish War of Independence.

Brendan O'Carroll: My Family At War airs on Wednesday, March 16 on BBC Two at 9pm.
Life saver: Tommy McManus with his heart pump that he has to carry with him at all times

When Co Down man Tommy McManus noticed a year ago that he was putting on weight, he thought it was just middle-aged spread, but instead it was the first sign of a condition which almost cost him his life in a matter of months.

A machinist, the 40-year-old was working in Aberdeen when he became increasingly concerned about his health. As well as the weight gain, he felt very tired and run-down.

He recalls: "If I bent down, my face would get blood red and I would feel dizzy. I was getting out of breath very easily. I went to a health clinic but the doctors did not seem to know what was wrong with me. It was only when I came across the same doctor twice in a fairly short period of time that she ordered an ECG."

Doctors then quickly discovered that his heartbeat was much faster than it should be and that the weight gain was due to fluid building up in his body.

"I was admitted to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and doctors there told me that the build up of fluid would have got worse and worse until all my organs failed," he says.

Kept in hospital for 11 days, Tommy came home to Downpatrick in June for the graduation of his sister Lisa Hagan, who, ironically, had graduated in cardiac care.

"I never made it to her graduation," Tommy says. "I didn't feel up to going to the ceremony and instead stayed at home. I was making myself some lunch but just didn't feel right. I tried to go upstairs to get my phone from the bedroom but collapsed halfway up. I had to crawl the rest of the way to reach the phone and call for an ambulance."

When he was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, he had a major heart attack and it was later decided to send him to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was accompanied by his sister.

Tommy says: "Doctors later told her that they were amazed she had accompanied me to Newcastle on her own.

"They were certain that she would be returning alone. They thought I was a goner and that there was nothing they could do for me when I arrived at the Freeman. My blood pressure was so low that they could not do dialysis on me. They had to use traditional diuretics to remove the fluid from my body. I was suffering from kidney and liver failure because of my heart condition and I was at death's door."

Tommy was in the Freeman hospital for 10 weeks, five and a half of those to stabilise him and get him sufficiently well for open heart surgery. He was fitted with a left ventricular assist device - essentially an artificial heart pump.

Inserted into his body, the device is connected by a cable which comes out of his abdomen to a battery pack and a controller. He has to carry that with him at all times.

While the operation saved his life, Tommy's continuing heart failure means that ultimately he needs a heart transplant. At the moment he is trying to build up his strength so that he can be put on the list for a donor organ.

I am not back to normal health yet. I still get tired going upstairs, he says.

I need to be back to the level of health that I was at before I was admitted to hospital in Aberdeen when heart failure really took hold.

Tommy was born with a congenital heart disease which required an operation in the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1977 when he was two years old.

I suppose my present condition is the ramifications of the heart defects coming back on me, he says. I suppose I always knew something like this would happen. That is one reason why I never married or had kids. I never knew how long I would be around.

When he wakens each morning, Tommy has to take 13 different tablets and then three more different types of medication later in the day.

He finds that somewhat ironic. I was always active at work, he says.

My job as a machinist which involved lifting lumps of metal kept me reasonably fit. I always did the night shift and worked in several different countries on different continents.

Now I just have to wait to get on the transplant list and then to get myself a new heart. That could take years.

How NI research team are working on a cure for this devastating condition

It is estimated that there are 15,100 people living with heart failure in Northern Ireland - out of a total of 225,000 people who have heart disease.

Currently there is no cure for heart failure but Dr David Grieve is a British Heart Foundation Northern Ireland researcher based at Queen's University whose work is focused on solving that problem through hormone and stem cell therapies.

"Heart failure is a serious, chronic condition that tends to gradually get worse over time and the only current cure is a heart transplant," he says.

"However, there have been major advances in treating heart failure. In the Sixties there were no known medicines to improve life expectancy if a person was diagnosed with heart failure. Over the past 50 years British Heart Foundation research, like ours in Belfast, has led to significant advances, such as showing that medicines called ACE inhibitors can improve outcomes in people with heart failure after a heart attack. These medicines are now routinely prescribed for heart failure patients.

"Other BHF-funded colleagues across the UK are currently investigating possible new treatments, such as drugs which improve the way the heart generates energy, and stem cells which can repair damaged tissue, to see if they may help failing hearts.

He adds: "Our research at Queen's University, funded by BHF NI, involves investigating how the heart responds to stresses which ultimately lead to heart failure. This information is helping us to identify potential new treatments and possibly a cure. We are specifically interested in studying the role of certain hormones in preventing gradual damage to the heart and blood vessels which drives the progression of heart failure, and in stem cells, as an exciting way to regenerate the damaged heart and blood vessels.

"Living with severe heart failure is a constant fight for life. Every year, thousands more families across Northern Ireland have to watch the people they love struggle with this devastating condition.

"Our research in Belfast is just one part of the 44m the BHF is investing in heart failure research across the UK. Anyone living with heart failure or who has a loved one with this devastating condition will understand just how crucial it is that we find a cure."

Here to help

Karen McCammon, is British Heart Foundation Northern Ireland's (BHF NI) clinical development co-ordinator and a heart failure specialist nurse. She says: "Our research has helped to revolutionise treatments which means that around 70% of people now survive a heart attack. Therefore far more people are living with damaged hearts - this can then develop into debilitating heart failure, which makes their daily life a struggle.

"We have found patients with heart failure do not have the same access to diagnosis, care and treatment as patients with other long-term conditions such as cancer, even though severe heart failure has a worse prognosis than many types of cancer. Heart failure patients aren't diagnosed quickly enough, and when they are, they do not all see a specialist within two weeks and services are not as co-ordinated as they should be so they are more likely to be admitted to hospital."

Karen adds: "The evidence shows that patients who are seeing specialist heart failure nurses and doctors have a much better prognosis than those who don't. We have fantastic health professionals here who are making a real difference every day to patients and want everyone living with the conditon to have the same access to diagnostic tests, care and treatment.

What causes heart failure and how you recognise the symptoms?

When a person has heart failure, their heart cannot pump blood around the body as well as it needs to. This means the oxygen in the blood cannot reach the parts of the body where it's needed. In severe cases this can leave the person disabled and gasping for breath.

The most common reason is that the heart muscle has been damaged, for example after a heart attack but it can also be caused by other illnesses such as high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy (diseases of the heart muscle), a congenital heart condition or a viral infection of the heart muscle.

Symptoms include:

swelling - of the feet, ankles, stomach and lower back areas

shortness of breath - when being active or at rest

fatigue - feeling unusually tired or weak

Symptoms occur because the heart does not have enough strength to pump blood all the way round the body efficiently. This can cause fluid to pool in the feet and legs. If this fluid is left unmanaged, it can spread to the stomach area and sit in the lungs causing a shortage of breath.

For information on heart failure and British Heart Foundation research in Belfast and across the UK go tobhf.org.uk.
Nursery hours cut was due to come into effect in September and affect all 39 of Northern Ireland's special schools

The Education Authority (EA) is to review the decision to reduce nursery hours for children at Northern Ireland's special schools.

The move was due to come into effect in September and affect all 39 special schools. The proposed cut would mean pre-school children with moderate to severe learning difficulties will attend school for 2.5 hours instead of at least 4.5 hours a day.

The decision to cut hours was revealed by the EA in a letter to a parent. Education Minister John O'Dowd has now asked the EA to urgently revisit the move and said it was a "flawed decision".

Mr O'Dowd said: "Given the current level of concerns and what I consider to be a lack of proper consultation on behalf of the authority with parents and schools on this matter, I have instructed the chair to formally revisit the decision reached in June of 2015."

DUP education spokesman Peter Weir welcomed the announcement of a review.

The North Down MLA, who is also Chair of the Assemblys Education Committee said: "The announcement of this review into the Education Authoritys decision to limit nursery provision for all special needs schools. It is a victory for parent power and common sense.

"While there are pressures within the sector, a one size fits all approach to children with a wide range of needs is inappropriate. Reducing the extent of early intervention for many special needs children will also be counterproductive.

"I have spoken to the Chief Executive of the Education Authority today and will be meeting with the Authority as soon as possible. I want to work with both the Education Authority and the Department of Education to ensure the most appropriate nursery provision is made for some of our most vulnerable children."
Protesters have been told to leave their camp at Woodburn Forest in Carrickfergus to allow for test drilling for gas and oil.

A permanent protest site has been in place at the site for a number of weeks.

On Tuesday a notice was placed around the site telling the campaigners to leave by 3pm or the company behind the project - InfraStrata - will seek "urgent relief from the court".

Police were on standby inside a council chamber on Monday night as dozens of angry protesters barracked politicians who backed a waste management plan which paved the way for the controversial borehole to search for oil and gas at the scenic County Antrim forest.

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Emotions boiled over and verbal abuse was shouted at councillors whose vote leaves the way open for a search well to be drilled looking for oil and gas underneath the forest.

Over 100 protesters from the 'Stop the Drill' campaign swamped the town hall in Ballymena to protest against the plans to look for natural resources at Woodburn Forest close to Woodburn reservoirs.

There was a sizeable police presence but no reports of any violent incidents.

The public gallery was jam-packed and dozens of protesters had to wait outside in the foyer.

As a majority of councillors from Mid and East Antrim Council agreed to give the waste management plan the go-ahead and also rejected calls for an independent survey to be carried out police were on standby in the council chamber as protesters shouted abuse.

Words like "scumbag", "shame" and "disgrace" echoed around the council chamber as vitriol rained down on councillors.

Council Chief Executive Anne Donaghy had earlier said the council was not taking a planning decision on the drilling proposal itself as it is classified as a "permitted development" and doesn't need planning approval for an exploratory well.

Instead the councillors were looking at a waste management plan aspect of the scheme.

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The Waste Management Plan said the borehole drilling is restricted to four months and "relatively little waste will be generated. The drilling is limited to a test borehole only with no extraction of oil or gas permitted. The site does not contain waste classified as hazardous or contain substances classified as dangerous."

The plan said a number of consultations were taken and and there were no objections from Northern Ireland Environment Agency; NI Water or health and safety chiefs.

The recommendation from council officials to councillors was to back the contents of the waste management plan.

However, a number of councillors spoke in support of the 'Stop the Drill' group drawing applause from the protesters who particularly agreed with UKIP councillor Noel Jordan's call for an independent survey of the Woodburn area to be carried out before the council took a decision.

Councillor John Stewart (UUP) said protesters had "real and genuine concerns" about the risk of contamination of water in a reservoir which serves large centres of population including Belfast, Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus.

After the meeting, protesters hit out at the Council.

Jennifer McCullough said: "We are all a peaceful lot and that is our strategy because we don't want to give anyone the excuse to say that we are less than able to discuss it intelligently but we were just railroaded. I have never seen the like of this council decision in all my life and I have travelled and met a lot of people.

"That is theft, that is rape, that is rape and pillage of the land and it is organised. It is like somebody just walking in and stealing everything. We are not standing for this. If they are going to steal everything we have got, they don't realise just how dangerous that makes us. That is not a threat but we will fight them all the way, I swear to God."

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Another protester, Tim Hedgley, said: "We need a judicial review of the policies and procedures that these people have railroaded right through the democratic process.

"I am outraged that this has taken place. We are the most respectful protesters I have ever seen but yet we had more police officers here tonight than we had in Carrickfergus and these are decent people.

"The ordinary decent people of east Antrim need somebody to stand up for them because the elected representatives are doing absolutely nothing for them."

Campaigners have set up a permanent protest site at Woodburn Forest. Their cause has been supported by Mark Ruffalo, who acted as 'The Hulk' and one of the protesters, Chris Campbell, attended the meeting wearing green face paint to make him look like the film character.

He said: "We got support from Mark Ruffalo who acted 'The Hulk' in Hollywood so I was chosen to be 'The Hulk'. But seriously we are all quite concerned, we all live in the local area, all grew up there.

"We are all concerned, there is no real measurement of the waste and as we all know the waste chemicals will be stored on site. They have no clear plan of action, how they will dispose of them. They are not telling us anything, there has not been as much as a letter has come into our houses about this."
A projection on Austins in Londonderry, which has now closed

One of Europe's oldest department stores has closed.

Fifty-three staff lost their jobs at Austins Department Store in Londonderry, which has been open for almost two centuries.

Austins predated Harrods of London by 15 years and Macy's of New York by 25 years. It sold fashion and gifts.

Sinead McLaughlin, chief executive of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, said: "At one stage it was the city centre and very much the heart of people's purchasing and that has changed."

The landmark business opened in 1830, the cusp of the Victorian era, when Thomas Austin established a drapery shop in the corner of the Diamond.

It blossomed in an age of prosperity to include household names and survived the Troubles which tore the heart out of the city.

A roof-top restaurant and vendors of homeware and cutlery operated from the building.

The company posted significant losses in recent years amid fierce competition from out-of-town and online retailers.

Ms McLaughlin added: "It has had a number of very difficult trading years. The city centre has rejigged itself but it has had challenging times with competition from the multinationals."

She said workers were just told the news this morning and it had come as a shock. The store had been in receivership but had been trying to remodel itself.

"I think it is now incumbent upon all the city stakeholders to look at the viability of our city centre. Traditional retailing is being challenged between out-of-town centres, the euro and online trading.

"Austins has been at the heart of this city, the historic centre, and is a landmark building. There is a vacuum that we need to consider how to fill."

DUP Assembly member Gary Middleton said workers were devastated after being called to a meeting first thing this morning.

"It is a big blow. Those 53 staff are unemployed. It is devastating right across the city.

"It is a real loss to the city."

He said Austins had struggled since the 2008 recession.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the staff should be supported.

"A struggling economy will always result in a struggling retail sector. Derry's economy is struggling and the sudden closure of Austins is testament to that.

"The failure of the Executive to properly invest in the West has left a legacy of economic stagnation and the impact of this has been felt by the staff of Austins today."
A British soldier who shot a teenager dead in Londonderry in 1972 will not be prosecuted, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said.

Daniel Hegarty, 15, was hit during Operation Motorman on July 31 1972, an army surge aimed at reclaiming "no go areas" in the city from the IRA.

The labourer was shot twice in the head by a soldier close to his home in Creggan. His cousin Christopher, 16, was shot in the head by the same soldier but survived.

An inquest into his death said they posed no risk but the PPS has decided to take no action.

Assistant director Michael Agnew said: "Our assessment remains that there is no reasonable prospect of proving to the criminal standard that Soldier B did not act in self-defence having formed a mistaken but honest belief that he was under imminent attack.

"In these circumstances there is no reasonable prospect of a conviction and test for prosecution is not met."

Soldier B had only been in the army around a year when the incident happened. He is now aged in his late 60s.

A review was launched following the 2011 inquest.

Mr Agnew said prosecutors had received further evidence from an expert witness who addressed the inquest but changed his evidence on hearing the account of the soldier. A second independent expert reached the same conclusion.

"The conclusions of both experts are such that they are not able to state that the ballistics evidence is inconsistent with the account provided by Soldier B of the circumstances in which he fired."

The ballistics evidence did not assist prosecutors in undermining the soldier's account, that his decision to fire was a split-second one and he felt under imminent attack. To launch a prosecution the PPS would have had to disprove his version of the facts beyond all reasonable doubt.

The prosecutor acknowledged that there was no objective justification for the shots fired by the soldier.

"Neither Daniel nor his cousins posed any threat to Soldier B or his colleagues.

"However, in a criminal trial the court will be required to assess the conduct of Soldier B in the context of the circumstances as he believed, or may have believed, them to be."
The family of a young GAA player who suffered a serious head injury in a car crash say he is "fighting his biggest-ever battle".

Odhran McKenna (17) is a talented athlete at St John's GAA club in west Belfast and was injured when his car left the road and hit a tree in Crumlin, Co Antrim, on February 26.

A picture was posted online on Sunday of the St Mary's Grammar pupil giving the thumbs up from his hospital bed with the head of his senior school Donna Tohill.

He is now said to be "making great progress" in his recovery, much to the delight of his family and friends.

St John's GAA have been posting updates from Odhran's family of his progress on their Facebook page.

Following the crash Odhran was taken to the intensive care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and heavily sedated to give him the best chance of recovery.

On the day after the accident a statement from his family read: "Anyone who knows Odhran will know he is a battler on the pitch. He is fighting his biggest battle ever at the minute. No better man. Keep praying".

A few days later, medical teams had begun to reduce his sedation. His family said there had been some setbacks and the process was slower than they had hoped for.

They praised the medical teams caring for him and said they hoped "Odhran will be able to thank you all in person at some stage". Two days after that he was said to be in a "delicate stage" but that he was showing signs of recovery in what was called "a slow, arduous process for him".

One week on from his crash Odhran was finally woken from sedation.

On Saturday his family said he had made "unbelievable progress".

"Odhran has just been moved from ICU to the neurological ward, has spoken to his family and has eaten for the first time," they said.

They said "the speed of his progress has been unbelievable".

Odhran's twin brother CJ said his family was grateful for all the support.

"Couldn't thank everyone enough but continue to keep Odhran in your prayers and thoughts," he said.

After Odhran's teacher, Ms Tohill, visited him in hospital, his school said in a statement: "We are all delighted to see Odhran making great progress."

The latest picture of the teenager, smiling from his hospital bed, has prompted hundreds of friends to post their messages of support online.

John McIlwaine said: "This has brightened all our days.

"Great to see your fightback continue."

Matthew Mallon said: "Great to see the main man with the thumbs up!"

"What a great pic," said Aidan Quinn.

"Seeing this has put a massive smile on my face and a tear in my eye. Here's to a speedy and full recovery Odhran."

Jim Mullan added his encouragement, saying: "Showing great strength and fight. Keep going the right road."
A Sinn Fein councillor has said republicans can't rule out using violence to achieve their aims in future.

The comments by Causeway Coast and Glens representative Tony McCaul have been strongly condemned by his fellow unionist councillors.

The Ulster Unionists said they were "particularly disconcerting" coming so soon after the attempted murder of a prison officer, and the party called on the Sinn Fein leadership to take action against the politician.

Councillor McCaul, who is also a member of the area's Policing and Community Safety Partnership, wrote on Facebook: "Republicans can never rule out any tactic, including violence. I now believe politics is expedient, that view could change if circumstances change."

He made the remarks during a heated exchange on social media on Saturday with Thomas 'Dixie' Elliot, an ex-IRA prisoner from Derry who is a staunch critic of the Sinn Fein leadership.

Councillor McCaul (64) was arrested in Dungiven in November 2014 by detectives investigating paramilitary activity in Co Derry. His council colleague, former Limavady Mayor Sean McGlinchey, was also arrested. Both men were later released unconditionally.

When asked last night by the Belfast Telegraph about his comments on republicans not ruling out the use of violence in future, Mr McCaul said he had been speaking in a historical context.

"It has always been the position that at times republicans have used politics, and at other times violence," he said.

"That's been the reality in history over the centuries. I believe in the peace process but, after my generation, I don't know what will happen."

The Sinn Fein councillor said he didn't support violence and that he had joined the party after the IRA ceasefire "because at that point they were, I believed, the best vehicle to forward my republican views".

He said dissident republicans still believed in using violence, "but I can't speak for those people, I don't know them".

Local Ulster Unionist councillor Darryl Wilson denounced Mr McCaul's "appalling comments" on Facebook and said they were particularly worrying coming so soon after dissident republicans had tried to murder a prison officer.

"It's over to Martin McGuinness and the Sinn Fein leadership to deal with this. Unionists will be watching closely," he said.

DUP councillor Alan McClean said Mr McCaul's remarks on Facebook showed that Sinn Fein was not a normal constitutional party. "Comments about the possibility of republicans returning to violence in future really show Sinn Fein's true colours. No matter how hard Sinn Fein tries, the mask always slips," he added.

TUV councillor Boyd Douglas said: "Sinn Fein are always telling us that the IRA is a thing of the past and they've moved on so people will be deeply disappointed, and alarmed, that some in the party appear to believe that there could be a return to terror in the future."

Speaking after his arrest in 2014, Councillor McCaul told the Derry Journal that police had questioned him about the activities of the 'North Derry Republican Group'.

He described himself as wholly innocent and said his detention by police was "totally unjustified" and distressful.

The PSNI defended their actions. Detective Chief Inspector Una Jennings said: "This is a wide-ranging investigation encompassing numerous incidents, most of which took place over a four-year period dating back to January 2011.

"It has been conducted to the highest professional standards and is subject to all the checks and balances provided by accountability arrangements and the criminal justice system. Police have a duty, to victims, and to the community, to follow all lines of enquiry without fear or favour."

Councillor McCaul told the Belfast Telegraph at the time that he had lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman about his arrest but that the Ombudsman had deemed his detention lawful.
The BBC has vowed to keep prosecuting TV licence fee dodgers 'on behalf of the fee-paying public'

People caught dodging the TV licence accounted for a quarter of all criminal prosecutions in Northern Ireland last year, it can be revealed.

The BBC was responsible for one in every four cases which reached magistrates courts.

The number of people taken to court for not paying their 145.50 licence topped 10,000 in 2014/15 - almost 30 a day on average.

Less than half were subsequently found guilty.

With magistrates handling a total of 43,000 cases, it meant licence fee dodgers made up around 25% of their workload.

It comes at a time when our courts are facing huge delays in getting cases to trial.

The rate of TV licence cases is also much higher compared to England and Wales, where the figure in the same year was around one in 10.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson said the figures were "extraordinary".

"We are clogging up the court system for what is basically a civil action," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"Valuable court time is being wasted on what, in normal circumstances, any other public utility would have to pursue in the civil courts."

Justice Minister David Ford wants to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, but has been repeatedly thwarted.

Mr Wilson accused the BBC of acting "selfishly" by opposing its decriminalisation.

Anyone watching television as it is being broadcast must have a TV licence.

However, it is possible to watch online catch-up services - such as the BBC iPlayer and UTV Player - without the need for a licence.

A licence currently costs 145.50 a year. The maximum penalty for non-payment is a 1,000 fine.

Details of prosecutions for licence fee evasion were released by the Northern Ireland Courts Service after a Freedom of Information request.

In the three years to April 2015, a total of 142,466 cases were received in magistrates courts.

Just over one in five - 26,058 defendants - were charged with having no TV licence.

In 2014/15 the figures were even more eye-catching, with 10,154 of the 43,310 defendants - one in four - in court because they didn't have a licence.

Over the three-year period, fewer than half of the defendants prosecuted for no licence - 11,705 of the 26,058 - were found guilty.

Mr Wilson said the high number of prosecutions illustrated the depth of opposition to the TV licence.

"It highlights three things, first of all the waste of court service time and the impact that has on justice for many people who really deserve justice on much more serious matters," he said.

"Secondly, it highlights the degree of opposition that there is to making these payments.

"And thirdly, it highlights the selfishness of the BBC in insisting that this remains a criminal offence when, for all other public utilities, non-payment becomes a civil offence." Last year it was reported that Justice Secretary Michael Gove had called for non-payment of the licence fee to be decriminalised.

Mr Gove was said to have had concerns about the pressure it is putting on the courts system.

Last year around 3,500 people a week faced prosecution in England and Wales for failing to pay their licence fee - one in 10 of all cases to come before magistrates.

Mr Ford has also called for TV licence evasion to be made a civil matter.

"My view is that the non-payment of a TV licence should be decriminalised," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"However, as penalties for non-payment is not a devolved matter it is not within my remit to change the law in Northern Ireland.

"I have pressed the UK Government to make non-payment of the license fee a civil matter, rather than a criminal offence, but as yet they have not accepted the argument."

A spokesperson for TV Licensing said prosecutions were taken where it was in the public interest.

"TV Licence evasion cases are dealt with in bulk in dedicated sessions which means they can be dealt with more quickly than other categories of cases," she said.

"The decision on whether to prosecute is made on a case-by-case basis working to Public Prosecution Service guidelines. A prosecution doesn't proceed unless evidential and public interest tests are satisfied.

"The majority of first-time offenders are not prosecuted if they buy a licence before their case is heard in court.

"On behalf of the vast majority who pay, we will prosecute people who deliberately evade the fee."
A convicted murderer who went on the run after escaping from prison guards at the Ulster Hospital has had an additional year added to his life sentence

A convicted murderer who went on the run after escaping from prison guards at the Ulster Hospital has had an additional year added to his life sentence.

Thomas Martin Valliday - who is serving a life sentence with a minimum of 17 years for the March 2008 murder of former IRA man Frank 'Bap' McGreevy - appeared at Downpatrick Crown Court yesterday on two charges arising from his escape from custody last May.

The 28-year-old, who is originally from west Belfast but whose address is now HMP Maghaberry, admitted a charge of escaping from lawful custody after conviction on May 1, 2015, and also possessing class C tablets, namely diazepam, on May 5, 2015.

During yesterday's hearing it emerged that after he handed himself in and was sent back to Maghaberry, Valliday was punished by spending seven days in solitary confinement.

He had privileges removed for 42 days.

It also emerged that Valliday - who was convicted by a jury in February 2010 of the murder of 51-year-old west Belfast father-of-two Mr McGreevy - was handed a life sentence, with the earliest possible release date set as 2025.

A Crown prosecutor told Judge Piers Grant that while a serving life prisoner, Valliday was brought to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald on May 1 last year for minor surgery on his hand.

During the hospital visit, Valliday was accompanied by prison staff.

At around 3pm, as he was waiting to be discharged, he went into a toilet cubicle attached to his room. He was able to slip off his handcuffs before running out of the cubicle and fleeing the two prison guards.

Despite the guards giving chase, Valliday was able to make his escape.

He was at large for several days before handing himself in at Musgrave Street PSNI station.

He was also found to be in possession of 219 class C diazepam tablets. Valliday later made the case that all the tablets were for his personal use.

Handing Valliday a 12-month sentence that will run consecutively to the life sentence he is already serving, Judge Grant said he needed to be punished for the "serious offences".
Mervyn Craig's body was found in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, close to Seven Stars Bridge, Wallgate

A man found dead in an English canal yesterday was the father of a thug jailed for a vicious attack on an autistic teenager that left the victim brain-damaged.

Mervyn Craig (46), from Lisburn, vanished without trace almost a month ago after travelling to Wigan to meet a woman he befriended online.

The father-of-four had told his family he was going to Manchester to work on a building site.

But details of his secret relationship emerged after the woman he raised as his daughter, Samantha (29), accessed his Facebook account.

Mr Craig was the father of Ryan Craig, who was part of a gang that viciously beat Lisburn teenager Scott Vineer. Ryan (20) is currently serving a five-year jail term for the 2012 attack, which left Mr Vineer brain-damaged.

Last night a bitter war of words erupted on Facebook after friends of the Craig family accused Mr Vineer's mother of celebrating the man's death.

In September 2012 Ryan was one of three people who left Scott unconscious in a pool of blood in the grounds of a disused factory and threw his phone away so he was unable to call for help.

Scott, who was 17 at the time, was discovered more than 24 hours later by a police dog handler. He was so badly injured doctors warned he was unlikely to live. Scott survived, but was left with brain damage and on crutches.

Helen-Louise Doney said Mervyn Craig had thrown abuse at her when Ryan had appeared in court for the assault on her son.

She also claimed Mr Craig had said his son had done nothing wrong, and that Scott must have done something to deserve his beating. Mrs Doney recently told the Belfast Telegraph how she was now living in fear after one of Scott's attackers was spotted outside their house.

Yesterday the dead man's heartbroken sister Pamela Harper (34) told how she had daily conversations with her brother in Wigan, including on the day he disappeared. Mrs Harper also said their parents Winnie (68) and William (72) were overcome with grief after Mr Craig's body was discovered in the water yesterday morning: "Mummy and daddy are in bits; they're utterly devastated.

"They can't believe that they're going to be burying their own son.

"When Mervyn went missing we tried to keep positive, but as time went on we started to fear the worst."

She added: "I think Mervyn did genuinely go there for work but when he was over there he realised that he'd made a mistake. But then he disappeared.

"Whatever happened that night, Mervyn has paid dearly for that mistake."

Mrs Harper, a mother-of-three, said Mr Craig, an insulin-dependent diabetic, was legally separated from his wife Donna, with whom he has three children: Dwayne (24), Chloe (21) and Ryan.

She added that he had cared for Samantha as his own since she was just a year old.

Mrs Harper admitted she hadn't been aware of his plans to go to England, although she talked to him every day when he was staying with his friend.

"I spoke to him two or three times a day, right up until he went missing on February 8," she said.

"He told me he loved me and he asked me if I was standing by him despite what he had done."

She said she had become concerned for his well-being when she realised he had started drinking again in Wigan after a five-year abstention due to alcohol problems.

"That day he went missing he didn't sound like himself at all," she said. "We had arranged for him to go to the house of a cousin who lives in Manchester, but he never went."

Mrs Harper said she and her other brother Lenny (44) are now awaiting the autopsy results after Mr Craig's body was found in Wigan. "We want to get him home as soon as possible but we've been told it'll take about a week to get everything organised," she said.
Near a scruffy piece of wasteland in an almost forgotten corner of Portadown where a man's body was found in a stream at the weekend, the scrawled message on a wall says 'No More Dumping'.

It's a warning to fly-tippers to keep out but it's clearly been routinely ignored, and it's the sort of overgrown area where anything could lie undetected for days or even weeks.

The PSNI wasn't saying yesterday how long it believed the body may have been there.

Indeed, it wasn't saying a lot about anything as the force insisted it had to wait for the results of a post-mortem examination today to confirm suspicions that the man was murdered.

Local people weren't quite so reticent. They have little doubt that the man was killed, possibly in another part of Portadown and his body left in the stream, close to where everything from toys to household rubbish have been discarded.

Ever since the gruesome discovery was made on Sunday morning the rumour mill around Mourneview Street has been in overdrive.

Yesterday evening police were given an additional 36 hours to question three men who were arrested as part of their investigation, and a woman and a 17-year-old girl were released - the teenager to be reported for withholding information. The PSNI indicated that it knew who the dead man was but it added that it wouldn't release any details until after the conclusion of today's post-mortem and a formal identification.

Despite the caution, speculation in Mourneview Street is that the dead man was a Lithuanian who had been living in the Co Armagh town for some time.

DUP Assemblyman Sydney Anderson, who has been liaising with the PSNI, said he understood that the man was originally from eastern Europe.

Last month police issued appeals for help in tracing missing 31-year-old Lithuanian Eimantas Gerdvilas, who had lived in the Killicomaine area of the town, amid concerns for his well-being.

A spokesman said at the time: "We want to get him back to his loved ones safely."

The PSNI yesterday refused to say if it believed the dead man could be Mr Gerdvilas, but one man who lives in the Mourneview Street area said police had shown him a photograph of the missing man over the weekend.

He said: "The police were keeping their cards very close to their chests. They wouldn't tell me what was going on."

After the body was found police carried out door-to-door enquiries and forensic teams concentrated their intensive investigations on one house in Mourneview Street.

A number of addresses in Killicomaine were also searched, and it's understood there was still a heavy police presence last night.

Politicians say they're shocked at the developments in Mourneview Street, which is in an area that has become popular with large numbers of immigrant workers, particularly from eastern Europe.

One man told me: "Mourneview Street has changed quite dramatically down the years. It was always famous as one of Portadown's most staunchly loyalist streets with a Twelfth of July arch going up there every year along with bunting from all the houses.

"But in recent times scores of workers from outside the town have found the housing in the area attractive because it is at the lower end of the rental market. And there's always been plenty of jobs for the foreign workers in Portadown thanks largely to the food industry."

Portadown man Darryn Causby, who's Lord Mayor of Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council, said his heart went out to the dead man's family.

"It's a very sad day for them, for Portadown and for Mourneview Street where a number of families have been living in the same homes for the past 50 years," he said.

"People there are distraught. It's a very closely-knit area and even though it has seen many different communities setting up home in the district, there's a genuine sense of horror that this gentleman is dead.

"It's the last thing they would ever have imagined could happen on their own doorsteps."

Ulster Unionist councillor Doug Beattie has visited Mourneview Street, where he said people were not only stunned but also confused over the discovery of the body.

"It's a quiet street. Residents there don't know the man who has died and while there is speculation that he mightn't be a local, many people are upset that his life has been cut short," he said. "A lot of people's prayers are with the man's relatives and his friends at what is a very difficult time."

It's not the first time that Mourneview Street has found itself in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Five years ago there were reports that a brothel was being operated there, and in April 2014 police moved in to shut down what was described as a "thriving brothel" in a house after long-term residents reported suspicious activity.

"There'd been claims that three women were living in the house and that cars were arriving at all hours of the day and night," said one man.

Several days after the police operation, there were reports that more women were seen in the house, but the PSNI again shut down the operation.
PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton told MPs that if the UK splits from the EU new bilateral agreements would have to replace existing treaties on data sharing, extradition and investigations

The UK will not become a safe haven for terrorists and international organised crime gangs in the event of Brexit, Northern Ireland's top police officer has said.

PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton told MPs that if the UK splits from the EU new bilateral agreements would have to replace existing treaties on data sharing, extradition and investigations.

He said new arrangements would be more expensive, clunky and not as slick as the current systems.

"Some of the public commentary from within the broader policing community around the UK becoming a safe haven for organised criminals and terrorism and all the rest of it personally is not my position," the Chief Constable said.

Mr Hamilton told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee the transition to new cross-border policing would take two years.

The MPs were told new international justice agreements would have to involve rules on joint investigations to allow domestic laws to be used in a host country and a replacement European Arrest Warrant system for extradition.

They also heard agreements on sharing DNA records, fingerprints, biometric data and vehicle registrations of suspects and co-operation against terrorism under the Prum convention would also need to be rewritten.

The Chief Constable cited the example of bilateral treaties signed by Switzerland and Norway with EU states and the PSNI's good working relationship with US police and justice chiefs.

"I think all of this is probably doable with an exit but it would be slower, complicated and more costly ... from a practical policing perspective," Mr Hamilton said.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr told the MPs that p hysical borders are becoming less of an issue for policing international organised crime and that the increasing threat to security and law and order is online.

"The borders tend to be less and less relevant now," he said.

"Organised crime gangs can operate largely with impunity I have to say in China or Eastern Europe or in the Ivory Coast and can very effectively, with almost call centre organisation, extort and bribe, particularly around sexual impropriety in many other parts of the world."

The Irish border is 224 miles long with 292 crossing points and the committee was told there is "more or less unfettered access" into Northern Ireland from the Republic.

The officers said there is some evidence of illegal immigrants moving from the Republic to Northern Ireland and human trafficking but not on the scale it has been portrayed in some quarters. The PSNI put the figure as less than hundreds.

"The old style of border security ... how effective they actually were in monitoring movement across the border and stopping terrorist attacks and so on, they actually became more of a target for attacks," the Chief Constable said.

"Whatever model in the event of an exit we come up with we would like to be giving a view, an operational policing perspective, that would be much more intelligent than simply building walls and sangars and crossing points."

The Chief Constable declined to criticise retired police chiefs who have spoken out on the Brexit debate, adding: "I'll not talk about other people, I'll talk about myself - seven years after I leave office the only place I will be commenting is TripAdvisor."

The committee, which is examining the potential impact of a split from the EU on Northern Ireland, including relations with the Republic, also took hours of opinions from business figures at Stormont.
Police are treating the death of a Lithuanian man, whose body was found in a stream in the Mourneview Street area of Portadown last Sunday, as suspicious.

Eimantas Gerdvilas, who was 31-years-old, had been living in the town and was reported missing in February. A formal identification has taken place and detectives are now studying the results of a post mortem examination.

Detective Chief Inspector Lee McNevison, from Serious Crime Branch, said: We are treating Mr Gerdvilas death as suspicious and I am appealing to the community in Portadown for their assistance.

I want to speak to anyone who saw Eimantas in the Mourneview Street/Annagh Industrial Estate area of Portadown in the early hours of Saturday 13 February or at any time after this. This appeal is to local people in the town and to members of the Lithuanian community living there.

It is important that we have as much information as possible so that we can determine what exactly happened to Mr Gerdvilas. I would ask anyone with information to contact detectives in Portadown on the non-emergency number 101. Anyone who does not want to provide their details can use the independent Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

Three men arrested earlier remain in custody. A woman also arrested as part of police enquiries has been released on bail pending further enquiries and a teenage girl has been released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service.

Politicians say they're shocked at the developments in Mourneview Street, which is in an area that has become popular with large numbers of immigrant workers, particularly from eastern Europe.

DUP MLA Sydney Anderson said: "This is obviously a very worrying development in Portadown and I would hope that the police can quickly get to the bottom of what has happened. People living in the area will take great reassurance if the culprits can be apprehended and brought to justice.

"I have been speaking regularly to police in the area and they have been pro-active in their efforts. It is a sophisticated investigation which has been launched, across three separate crime scenes which obviously adds to the difficulties they face.

"I will be keeping in regular touch with local officers, but there is hope that this initial part of the investigation might be completed within the next 24 hours.

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"There is an onus on everyone in the community who might have any information about this crime to help the police with their investigation."

One man told the Belfast Telegraph that Mourneview Street has "changed quite dramatically down the years".

He said: "It was always famous as one of Portadown's most staunchly loyalist streets with a Twelfth of July arch going up there every year along with bunting from all the houses.

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"But in recent times scores of workers from outside the town have found the housing in the area attractive because it is at the lower end of the rental market. And there's always been plenty of jobs for the foreign workers in Portadown thanks largely to the food industry."

Portadown man Darryn Causby, who's Lord Mayor of Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council, said his heart went out to the dead man's family.

"It's a very sad day for them, for Portadown and for Mourneview Street where a number of families have been living in the same homes for the past 50 years," he said.

"People there are distraught. It's a very closely-knit area and even though it has seen many different communities setting up home in the district, there's a genuine sense of horror that this gentleman is dead.

"It's the last thing they would ever have imagined could happen on their own doorsteps."

Ulster Unionist councillor Doug Beattie has visited Mourneview Street, where he said people were not only stunned but also confused over the discovery of the body.

"It's a quiet street. Residents there don't know the man who has died and while there is speculation that he mightn't be a local, many people are upset that his life has been cut short," he said. "A lot of people's prayers are with the man's relatives and his friends at what is a very difficult time."
Northern Ireland healthcare firm Randox Health is to sponsor the Grand National.

The Co Antrim-based company will sponsor the three-day festival and showpiece race at Aintree from next year in its 170th year.

Randox Health is a world leader in healthcare diagnostics with more than 370million people using its products.

It was founded Founded in Crumlin in 1982 by leading medical scientist and keen horseman, Dr Peter FitzGerald.

The company currently employs more than 1,400 people of 44 different nationalities.

With around 9m people tuning in each year in the UK, the 1m Grand National currently attracts one of the largest live TV audiences in sport and Channel 4s largest audience of the year.

From 2017, the first year with new partner Randox Health, the race will be broadcast on ITV.

Worldwide the event attracts an estimated television audience of around 600m.

Randox Health also becomes the Official Healthcare Partner of The Jockey Club which runs many of the sport's most prestigious events such as the Cheltenham Festival.

Randox replaces current sponsor, the drinks firm Crabbies.

Dr FitzGerald said: "The Randox Health team is extremely pleased to partner the worlds greatest race.

"The Grand National offers us a major public platform to raise awareness of preventative healthcare and to encourage people to take control of their health and wellbeing.

"We see this partnership as a natural fit, as both organisations invest heavily in the future and we aim to use our partnership to promote a positive lifestyle and to bring enjoyment to millions of people. We care about peoples health and this is the peoples race.

Crabbies sponsorship of the Grand National will be a hard act to follow, but we look forward to rising to the challenge and sharing our vision for Randox Health further once the 2016 Crabbies Grand National has drawn to a close and our rights for the worlds greatest race come into effect.

John Baker, north west regional director for Jockey Club Racecourses, who runs Aintree, said: I am delighted to welcome Randox Health as our new partner from after the 2016 Crabbies Grand National Festival.

"This is an incredibly exciting time to join forces with Randox because they are highly ambitious as a company and share our aspiration to promote the Grand National to the maximum number of people in the years ahead.

"We are already working closely with Randox Health and are excited both about their plans for the future and how they see the role of our partnership within that. Their vision, people and operation are very impressive, they love their racing and I am confident they will prove fantastic partners for our crown jewel.

I should also like to thank Crabbies brand owner, Halewood International, and in particular Judy Halewood and Peter Eaton, for their very generous and beneficial support of the Crabbies Grand National these past three years. I am very pleased they will remain involved and associated with Aintree through sponsorship of the high value Grade 1 Top Novices Hurdle and of course before that the important 169th running of the worlds greatest steeplechase in April under their banner.
Suicide rates in are much higher in Belfast than the rest of Northern Irelend

People in Belfast were 40% more likely to commit suicide than elsewhere in Northern Ireland, new research shows.

Many had a record of suicidal thoughts and relationship problems, a study for the Public Health Agency (PHA) found.

More than half were unemployed and around a third had mental health problems.

The report said: "There is a need to record better, and to link and standardise information.

"Deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland are far from random events, as is evident from the analysis in this report - and the search for a better understanding of the systematic element in these deaths should be maintained.

"Efforts should more closely target those areas, identified in this report, where suicide rates are much higher."

The research was carried out for the PHA based upon the coroner's database of deaths in the years 2005 to 2011.

Key results included:

:: Around 50% of the sample had either a recorded prior suicide attempt or a record of suicidal thoughts;

:: Over 80% had a recorded medical prescription;

:: The major adverse event recorded before death was relationship problems;

:: Over half of the individuals in this sample were recorded as having been unemployed at the time of death;

:: Approximately 36% of the sample had mental health problems.

Amongst the adult population, over the seven years of the data examined, approximately one in every 1,000 citizens has taken his or her own life.

Deaths from suicide were 40% higher in Belfast than the Northern Ireland average.

The report added: "A reason to live also implies that social and psychological capital requires both a societal and an individual response, and this in turn requires us to establish and maintain social norms that can enhance the lived experience."
Forest will champion bill establishing free-speech protections, including sanctions for those disrupting classrooms, lectures, and meetings

Stanley Kurtz, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, on Saturday explains the free-speech bill he helped Lt. Gov. Dan Forest draft at the Conservative Leadership Conference in Cary. (CJ Photo by Dan Way)

RALEIGH Students could face punishment, including the possibility of expulsion, for engaging in conscious acts stifling the First Amendment rights of others, and the UNC system would be required to implement free speech rules, under a plan Lt. Gov. Dan Forest hopes to turn into law.Stanley Kurtz announced Saturday in Cary during the Civitas Institute's annual Conservative Leadership Conference.Kurtz, senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, worked with Forest to draft the Campus Free Expression Act.and could be a national model, Kurtz said.The act instructs UNC's Board of Governors to craft a system-wide policyKurtz said.he said.said Jenna Robinson, president of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, which has chronicled First Amendment abuses on UNC campuses.Kurtz said.The act instructs UNC's Board of Governors to craft a range of disciplinary sanctions up to and including suspension and expulsion for those who interfere with the speech of others.It instructs the Board of Governors to issue a statement thatKurtz said, calling that "a critical component" of campus free speech.When universities declare an institutional stand on controversial issues such as military policy in the Middle East or the role of government in health care, that places "Kurtz said.That has played out in other ways nationally such as growing campus divestment movements in which administrators push university endowments to sell off stock in oil companies, or to divest from the state of Israel.Kurtz said. Political divestment policyKurtz believes freshman orientation should include information about new free speech policies and guidelines, and new policy guidance should be issued for common readings assigned to entering freshmen.A study by the National Association of Scholars concluded common freshman reading assignmentsKurtz said.Stampingshould be eliminated, or balanced with thoughtful, competing viewpoints, because a public university represents all citizens, not just those who embrace certain beliefs, Kurtz said.The act calls for a new committee on free expression within the Board of Governors, charging it to issue a public report annually on the status of free expression, administrative discipline for the disruption of speech, and institutional neutrality in the UNC System.Some students at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University were supportive of the act.said Jonathan Kluger of Cary, a sophomore business administration major at N.C. State. He said the new policy should contain specific guidelines of permissible speech.he said. Yet he supports free speech, even the frequent anti-Israel, pro-Palestine protests on campus. Kluger is Jewish.said N.C. State sophomore Chandler Cowell of Pinehurst, a sustainable materials major. But he is in favor of the concepts embodied in the Campus Free Expression Act.The freshman reading his class was assigned was a book called Tomorrow's Table about genetically modified vegetables, and a "global vegetable" economy.Cowell said. Freshmen feel "shaped a little bit" by the readings.Natasha Dease of Charlotte, a UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore, welcomes the act because some students "let their frustrations get the better of them, and to prevent that from happening I think it's important to have measures that will counteract that, or even just like make it so that kind of behavior isn't encouraged."Dease, who is black, said some African-American student protests have disrupted meetings, and in that scenario discipline is warranted. What the punishment is, and how severe, is where specific guidance is warranted, she said.said Robin Jessany, a UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore from Westchester County, N.Y.Jessany said.
A retired headmaster who was awarded an MBE for services to education has denied a raft of fraud allegations.

Standing in the dock of Craigavon Crown Court, 71-year-old Stanley Poots, headmaster of Dromara Primary School for 41 years, pleaded not guilty to a total of 25 offences.

They are 10 of forgery; five of fraud by false representation; three of fraud by abusing the position he held at the school; four of false accounting, two counts of using a false instrument, and possessing an article to commit fraud.

All of the charges are alleged to have been committed on various dates between October 20, 2006 and November 3, 2011.

Among the accusations it is alleged that Mr Poots, whose address was given as c/o Dromara Primary School and who was recognised in the New Year Honours list in 2011, forged an annual salary review, cashed cheques, created false invoices, falsified an expenditure sheet and a Big Lottery Fund application form.

Mr Poots is the former president of the Ulster Teachers' Union.

He retired from his post as headmaster at Dromara Primary School in 2011.

In court yesterday defence barrister Samuel Magee said he would be lodging a defence statement after he had consulted with Mr Poots. He added there were "many complex issues" associated with the case.

Mr Poots was released on continuing bail until the case is next before the court on March 21.

Mr Poots worked for 46 years as a teacher.

He began his career at Dromore Central Primary School before moving to Dromara Primary School, where he was headmaster for over four decades.

The retired principal, who is married with four grown-up sons, served as head of the UTU for a year between 2007 and 2008.

He was also chairman of a Department of Education working group.
Arlene Arkinson was last seen with Robert Howard (family handout/PA Wire)

The man accused of killing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson boasted about getting away with murder, a coroner's court has been told.

Robert Howard joked with workmates on a building site a year before the teenager vanished that he knew how to dispose of a body.

Contractor Mervyn Finlay, who employed the paedophile for about six weeks in 1993, said in a statement read to the court: "He said if he killed somebody he would not be caught because he knew how to get rid of a body."

Mr Finlay told police about the content of the conversation in 2002 after hearing Howard had been charged with murder and that Arlene's body had not been found.

At the time, it appeared Howard was "boasting", he added.

Fifteen-year-old Arlene from Castlederg, Co Tyrone disappeared in August 1994. She went missing after a night out at a disco across the border in Co Donegal.

She was last seen with Howard, who was acquitted of her murder in 2005 by a jury which was not told of his conviction for killing a schoolgirl in South London.

However the 71-year-old remained the prime suspect until his death in prison last year.

Despite extensive searches her body has still not been found.

Mr Finlay's statement was among a number that were read out and admitted in evidence to the inquest which is now in its third week.

Other witnesses claimed Howard had substances capable of burning skin and dissolving bones.

John Galbraith, who also worked on the building sites, said he had seen lots of old medicine bottles and jars filled with liquids lying about a shed at the rear of Howard's flat on Main Street in Castlederg.

Howard had told him he had "plenty of chemicals that would melt bones or steel," it was claimed.

On one occasion Mr Galbraith's girlfriend accidentally knocked over a medicine bottle filled with a hazardous liquid which fizzed and melted the metal it spilled onto, the court heard.

Among the other statements admitted in evidence came one from a former prisoner who shared the hospital wing of Belfast's Crumlin Road jail alongside Howard in 1993.

John Taggart said the child killer had described being able to manipulate the prison authorities by feigning claustrophobia to avoid being locked up in a small cell.

He also appeared "fixated" on a teenage girl whom he had befriended and after one visit, Howard came back in a "fit of rage" vowing to commit murder.

"He said I am going to commit murder and I will be back here (jail) in six months," according to Mr Taggart.

Meanwhile, a former top detective, who led the investigation into Arlene's disappearance, will be allowed to give his evidence via Skype.

Retired chief superintendent Eric Anderson has previously cited ill health for non appearance at other high profile inquests, but a change in the legislation last month means he could be compelled to appear.

Despite objections from a lawyer for the Arkinson family, the coroner said he was content that a "degree of special" measure should be afforded to the former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer, in light of medical evidence.

However, Henry Toner QC, representing the Arkinsons, protested.

He said powers of cross examination were substantially "reduced" if the witness was not actually in the box, adding that little weight should be given to some of the medical documents.

The barrister also said he wanted Mr Anderson to watch extracts from television documentary in which he appeared to offer documents related to the Arkinson case for sale, for 700.

Mr Toner added: "There are serious issues I want to cross examine Mr Anderson about. It is unfortunate, for him and us, that it appears he will not be able to physically attend."

There was also some legal discussion around disclosing the name of a person whose anonymous tip-off led to police searching the home of Arlene's sister Kathleen.

Kevin Rooney QC, barrister for the Police Service of Northern Ireland told the court that, although officers met with the informant, they did not know the identity or address.

The lawyer said: "Police must be able to protect their sources. If they do not get information from the public their means of investigation will simply dry up.

"It is vitally important that they retain that status," the lawyer said.

The dispute around the disclosure of sensitive information from police files was also briefly discussed.

The coroner has yet to rule on the PSNI's public interest immunity application but said in this case that redactions were "modest" with only individual names, phrases or single words blanked out.

No full files have been withheld, the court was told.

The case has been adjourned until Wednesday.
The body of Prince which was found by a council official

A man who starved a pet dog to death and left his decaying body in his kitchen for four months has avoided a prison sentence.

Robert Porter admitted to charges of animal cruelty after his underweight husky was found with mould in his mouth and surrounded by empty tins of dog food by an animal welfare officer at his former home in Co Londonderry.

Porter (30), whose address was given as Ballysillan Drive, Belfast, appeared at Magherafelt Magistrates Court yesterday where he was convicted of causing the dog to suffer unnecessarily and failing to take steps to ensure the needs of the animal were met.

He was handed a probation order of 12 months, ordered to serve 80 hours of community service, and banned from keeping pets for five years.

However, his sentence has been slammed by the USPCA. The animal welfare body described the penalty as "too lenient".

The court heard that on May 20, 2014, the then Magherafelt District Council received a complaint from the Housing Executive about a dead dog it had found while visiting Porter's home.

The council's animal welfare officer went to his former address at King William III Crescent in Maghera.

Inside the council worker was immediately struck by the smell of a decomposing dog.

He found the animal lying on the floor of the kitchen close to the back door. He could see that the husky was very thin with its ribs and pelvis prominent.

The court heard that the dog had not received any food while in the house, which was in a state of disarray. Empty and dry tins of dog food were found along with empty bags of nuts and empty dog dishes.

The court was told that Porter had been living at the house, but he had since moved to a different address and left the dead dog there.

A post-mortem examination found that the husky was severely underweight at 11kg - the normal weight of this breed would be 27kg.

The dog, who had no other evidence of disease, died from starvation.

He had been dead for some time, his skin was dry, there was thick mould inside his mouth, and there was no food in his stomach.

Porter admitted the offences during a police interview and said the dog had been dead for four months while he had been living at the house.

District Judge Alan White had previously described the incident as "shocking" and that pictures of the decomposing dog were "disgusting". Porter's solicitor Enda McKaigue told the court that Porter had owned the dog for four years from the age of eight weeks old.

"He has taken a long, hard look at himself over this case," he said.

"There are other pictures which show this was a happy and healthy dog.

"But this was a deplorable last couple of months for the dog.

"There was clearly a change in circumstances. He was going through a difficult period of time after the death of his grandmother. He took a number of months off work. He was on antidepressants and never spoke to anyone.

"He should have rung for help or contacted the USPCA. Clearly this was a man who was not capable of looking after himself, never mind a pet."

Mr McKaigue described it as "passive" mistreatment of a dog.

After the case, USPCA spokesman David Wilson argued the sentence was soft.

He said: "While we would welcome the fact he has been banned from keeping animals, the actual penalty seems to be too lenient.

"We distribute hundreds of food parcels for pets across Northern Ireland. We supply Trussell Trust with food boxes, so there is no reason for an animal to starve."

In a bid to crack down on animal cruelty the Assembly recently voted for a change in law that will increase the maximum penalty for the most serious offences from two years in jail to five.

When the new legislation comes into effect it will mean that Northern Ireland will have the toughest penalties for animal welfare offences in the UK.

Mid-Ulster District councillor Christine McFlynn, chair of the council's environment committee, said: "This was a harrowing case and one which we would all hope would never occur and we would never have to prosecute.

"However, the reality is that cases like this do happen, and when they do we will investigate and we will take appropriate action, whether that means serving a notice or, in extreme cases, seizing an animal.

"I hope lessons will be learned from the outcome of this prosecution and sentencing."
There were a total of 95,248 people behind bars in the UK, figures published by the Council of Europe show

The UK has the highest prison population in the European Union, according to a major new report.

There were a total of 95,248 people behind bars in this country, figures published by the Council of Europe show.

Of the 50 prison administrations examined in the study, only Russia and Turkey had more inmates, with 671,027 and 151,451 respectively.

The study, which covers a period up to 2014, also claimed that only Russia spent more on its prisons system than England and Wales.

In September 2014 there were 85,509 prisoners in England and Wales, 7,879 in Scotland and 1,860 in Northern Ireland.

It was the largest total out of all the 28 EU member states. The next highest population in the bloc was France, which had 77,739 inmates, while there were 65,710 inmates in Germany.

England and Wales had a higher-than-average prison population rate, according to the study, with nearly 150 inmates per 100,000 residents. Between 2005 and 2014, the rate rose by 4.9% in England and Wales, by 30.7% in Northern Ireland and 10.7% in Scotland.

The rates in France and Germany were 118 per 100,000 and 81 per 100,000 respectively.

Lead researcher Professor Marcelo Aebi said of the prison population in the UK: " It is high and it is not improving.

"It could be reduced. Look at the length of sentences."

The UK had some of the highest proportions of inmates serving life, researchers found, with lifers accounting for 10% of inmates in England and Wales in 2014, compared with an average of 3%.

The Council of Europe's annual report on penal statistics said t he total spending on prisons in England and Wales was 3.3 billion euro in 2013 - 2.6 billion at today's exchange rates. Only Russia had higher costs at 4.9 billion (6.4 billion euro).

Researchers also compiled figures for the average amount spent per inmate per day in 2013.

In England and Wales this was 85 at current exchange rates (110 euro).

This compared to an average across all nations of 77 per day (99 euro), and was also higher than in France, which spent 78 (100 euro), but lower than Germany (87/112 euro) and Italy (100/130 euro).

Costs ranged from 2.68 euros per day in Ukraine to more than 200 euro per day in countries including the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Shadow prisons minister Jo Stevens said: "These shocking figures reflect what we have repeatedly said to the Government; our prisons are overcrowded, understaffed and at breaking point.

"The social and economic cost of our prison crisis will continue to increase if we do not tackle head on the underlying failures presided over by this Government. "

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "Public protection is our priority and we will always ensure there are enough prison places for those who are sentenced to custody by the courts.

"We secured enough money in the Spending Review so there is no financial need to cut prison numbers.

"We are also investing 1.3 billion to replace ageing and ineffective prisons. Our prison reforms are designed to reduce reoffending, cut crime and improve public safety."
Brendan O'Carroll has examined the role some of his ancestors played in the struggle for Irish independence

Brendan O'Carroll believes the world has failed to learn the lessons of history from the Easter Rising in 1916.

A century after the uprising, which saw a bloody battle on the streets of Dublin as Irishmen and women fought for independence, the star and creator of Mrs Brown's Boys has taken a personal journey to discover more about his own family's connection to the conflict.

In a new programme, the Irish actor and author explores the story of his uncles Liam and Peadar, who took part in the rebellion - and finds that Liam once ordered the killing of a British solder and went on to radicalise others in a high-security prison camp.

He told the Press Association: "I was absolutely stunned at the idea that all those that were arrested over the rising, 2,000 plus of them, ended up in Frongoch prison camp, which was built really as a German prison camp for Germans - but they ended up there.

"So they radicalised. They put them all in one place, and they started running courses on how to build radios, they actually wrote chapters and courses and gave them to groups of men on how to use flying columns.

"We should have learned from that, b ut we didn't, because we have places like Guantanamo Bay, where we get them all together and put them all in one place, and go: 'Be good, okay? Don't be teaching each other things'."

He added: " I think in many ways, we have continually repeated ourselves in parts of history."

The Dublin-born comic actor said he had been struck by looking at old photos of schoolchildren in the Stoneybatter area of Dublin, where he was later a pupil.

He said: " I look at pupils who are around that time in these old black and white photographs of them, sitting at the edge of their desks. And their feet are wrapped in canvas and tied with twine. Those that had anything on their feet.

"So if you put people in the situation where they've f*** all to lose, don't be surprised if they come and give their lives in an effort to change things ... You put people in a position where they have nothing to lose, and then they are very easy to radicalise. I think that's what happened at that time.

"We talk about it like it's a poetic rising, but actually we were just f******. We were just poor. Abject poor."

In a 2014 edition of W ho Do You Think You Are?, O'Carroll had already learnt that his republican grandfather Peter had been assassinated by a British undercover agent, Major Jocelyn Lee Hardy, in 1920 during the Irish War of Independence.

Peter had refused to pass on information about two of his sons - O'Carroll's uncles - who were in the IRA.

Reflecting on whether he would have let his family join the struggle for independence, O'Carroll said: " My kids are the most precious things in the world to me, and my grandchildren. They are the most precious.

"I think I would have chained them to the bannisters and said, you're not f****** going anywhere. When all this is over you can hate me and never talk to me again, but I don't care, you're going to be alive. I think.

"But that's 21st century thinking. I don't know what it would have been like at the time.

"I know my grandfather wasn't a bad man. He let his sons walk out the door ... But I know I would either have chained them to the bannisters, or I would have been down at the barricade with them, going: 'No, you're not doing this on your own. If you're doing this I'll do it with you'."

:: Brendan O'Carroll: My Family At War airs on Wednesday March 16 on BBC Two at 9pm.
Scenes from the dramatic swoop by heavily-armed police on a house in Aspen Walk in Belfast in the early hours.

A shooting in west Belfast is linked to a feud between factions in the area, the High Court heard today.

A judge was also told that a man accused of having the sawn-off shotgun suspected of wounding the victim claimed he bought it because his life was in danger.

Details emerged as Michael Claxton was refused bail on charges connected to the incident near his home in the Glasvey Drive area of Dunmurry.

His mother's partner was shot in the leg late on February 23.

Claxton, 23, faces charges of possessing a firearm and quantity of ammunition in suspicious circumstances.

The court heard he phoned police to report the shooting, and to claim his own home was coming under fire.

Conor Maguire, prosecuting, said two men were then arrested at a nearby house on suspicion of attempted murder.

One of those suspects alleged Claxton had been involved in removing the weapon before brandishing it out a window of his home, the barrister disclosed.

Searches of the Glasvey Drive property led to the sawn-off shotgun, eight cartridges and further ammunition for an air rifle being discovered in the accused's bedroom, Mr Justice Treacy was told.

Gloves, a balaclava and four mobile phones were also seized from his house, which bore no signs of damage.

Although forensic tests are continuing, police believe the weapon was used in the shooting.

In a statement during interviews Claxton claimed: "I needed it to protect myself, they were going to kill me. I bought it last night from the Travellers."

Opposing bail, Mr Maguire said there was ongoing "bad blood" between the accused and one of those detained on suspicion of attempted murder.

"Police have significant concerns that there's a feud in the local area between sets of individuals," he told the court.

"Tensions in that particular area are high, and there's a potential for further violence."

Questioned about the "mixed picture" emerging from the alleged circumstances, Mr Maguire was unable to provide a definitive explanation at this stage.

"Police have their views in respect of what might have happened during the course of this incident, but it's not at a point where it can be evidenced," he replied.

Defence counsel Mark Farrell stressed that Claxton is not alleged to have been involved in the attempted murder.

Explaining why his client had a sawn-off shotgun, Mr Farrell told the judge: "He feared his life was in danger."

Refusing Claxton's bid to get out of custody, Mr Justice Treacy said: "In the context of an ongoing feud and the attack on his mother's partner this is not a suitable case to release the applicant on bail."
Former SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell has stormed out of a meeting at Stormont after accusing a Labour MP of causing offence.

The MP for South Belfast took exception to a short laugh from Kate Hoey during a meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which was examining how Northern Ireland could be impacted if the UK left the European Union.

While talking about the peace process, new SDLP leader Colum Eastwood paid tribute to John Hume.

He said Mr Hume - who led the SDLP through the peace process and served as an MEP from 1979 to 2004 - had taken his inspiration from Europe.

After Ms Hoey, who is originally from Northern Ireland, appeared to laugh, Mr Eastwood retorted: "You might laugh Kate, but it's true."

Ms Hoey said: "I am not laughing at John Hume, he did a good job. I think John Hume played an amazing part in all that. My point was in terms of the EU relationship."

Seconds later Mr O'Donnell was heard to tell the committee chairman: "I'm leaving now. You'll have to control that now, that's not acceptable, that's not acceptable."

The MP collected his papers together before knocking his chair over as he departed.

Moments later he returned to pick his chair up - before leaving again.

Meanwhile, tensions within unionism over the EU referendum have deepened as the two main parties face in opposite directions.

The DUP insisted staying in the EU would be a calamity after its main rival the UUP stressed voting to stay made sense.

The row between the parties intensified yesterday as the DUP argued the Republic would become "quite isolated" if the UK departed from the EU, while the UUP said the issue of the border remained central.

East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson told the NI Affairs Committee that the Irish Government had benefited through its relationship with the UK in Brussels and argued: "They are afraid of us leaving because they will lose their big friend in Europe.

"Their concern is more to do with losing their big mate in a big pool and that they will become quite isolated should we choose to leave." He also attacked critics of the Brexit who have warned it could jeopardise the peace process.

"I think that touches to a base level of politics, of concern and fear which I think is not suitable nor of a credit to anyone who should raise those," he argued.

But UUP leader Mike Nesbitt told the committee the issue of the border with the Republic was central to his party's vote to stay in stance, which was agreed at a special meeting of its executive last Saturday.

"It's the question of what happens to our land border in the event of Brexit and whether or not we face the return of the type of arrangements we had in the 1970s and 1980s in particular," he said.

And he added: "We cannot ignore the existential threat to the UK should there be an overall vote for Brexit, but with Scotland voting to remain in the EU.

"In such circumstances, a second independence referendum would be almost inevitable, with serious consequences for Northern Ireland."

Mr Nesbitt also argued Northern Ireland was a net beneficiary in economic terms within the EU and leaving would create severe difficulties and uncertainty for farmers, the voluntary and community sector, industry and the province's two universities.

However, Mr Nesbitt said there was "no doubt that the EU needs reform... and a return to the founding principle of free trade, not greater political union".
The Hood speaks to the citizens: Above. photo by Stan Deatherage

There is that old "HEE HAW" refrain.I have noticed the same principle applies to judgement. Most of us make some bad decisions, but we learn from them. Some people and organizations make one bad decision after another. People with good judgement learn from bad decisions, but some people just keep making bad decisions.Most habitual bad decision makers just do not seem to get the whole picture. Some do not even see any part of the picture.Beaufort County has made a lot of bad decisions on issues that involve the City of Washington. The County should be aware the six cities located within our county should be partners and friends in serving our respective populations. We should cooperate whenever possible and make special efforts not to do harm to each other. When interests are bruised and trampled on punishment will usually be handed out.Looks like Beaufort County has set its self up for some punishment.The sins of Beaufort County. Beaufort County hired the City Manager and a top finance employee away from the City of Washington. Beaufort County took over EMS dispatching from the City without consulting with the City. Beaufort County announced to the City that they intended to add an EMS tax to every citizen of the County, including those who live in the towns, and assume all billing for all EMS services. All of this was done with no negotiation with the cities and virtually no notice. How are we to get along if we do not talk to each other?Those of us who have some common sense know that whether we are pushing people, companies, or governments around there will be some push back. Sometimes, pushback can hurt.The City of Washington is offended. They are about to push back in a lot of ways. They are threatening to give all their EMS services to the County. They want out of the economic development partnership. There may be other things they may give to the County. What if the Sheriff suddenly had to provide law enforcement duties to the City of Washington. All of these things cost money.Now for my disclaimer. I have no beef with the Beaufort County Manger or the Finance Officer. They can work for whomever will hire them. I do have a beef with the six commissioners who would have "No judgement at all if it were not for bad Judgement".Almost all of the bad judgement I have discussed happened during the chairmanship of Gary Nonsense Brinn. Nonsense Brinn believed he had been "anointed" and not elected. His back room meetings and decisions with Interim Manager, Ken Windley, and a few other commissioners have put Beaufort County at the risk of higher taxes.In so far as personnel are concerned, we all have enough common sense to know not to go across the street and hire away their help. There is a cost to the County if the City abandons their part of economic development even though they scaled the amount they pay down over the years. But, we definitely need their cooperation on some funding, the acquisition of grants and providing utilities at reasonable costs. We need their friendship when potential industries come to town. We currently contract with the City to cover EMS for Washington Township. There will definitely be a tax increase if we have to take over all of these EMS services.I estimate the increased cost to Beaufort County taxpayers for offending the City of Washington to be at least one million dollars each year. That does not include the Sheriff policing the City.The seven County Commissioners serve the same duty as the board of directors of a corporation. When corporate boards make big mistakes they could go bankrupt. Bad governments just raise taxes.Please judge the people you vote for in the upcoming primary and general elections on their ability to make good decisions. They should have experience in successfully running business. Leave blindly voting on personality and political party to those who will never have good judgement.
New NHS drinking guidelines said men and women should stick to 14 units of alcohol per week

Nearly one in five of Britain's highest earners drink at least five days a week, according to new figures.

Binge drinking is also more common among people on top salaries than any other income group.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that 18% of people earning at least 40,000 a year drink frequently - more than twice as many (8%) as those earning below 10,000.

The proportion of high earners who binge drink is even higher: almost one in four.

This compares with one in eight of people on the lowest salaries.

According to the ONS, the differences can be explained partly by the ages of people in each income group.

Those in higher income bands have a smaller amount of people aged 16 to 24, who on the whole are less likely to drink.

Another factor is gender. Women are less likely to drink than men, but also make up a majority (67%) of regular drinkers in the lowest income group.

The data shows that show that almost one in 10 of all drinkers (9%) - or 2.5 million people - consume more than 14 units in a single session, with younger groups most likely to binge drink.

The data showed that 17% of 16 to 24-year-olds drink more than 14 units in a single day, while 11% of 25 to 44-year-olds do the same.

Wales had the highest number drinking 14 units or more in a single day (14%), followed by Scotland (13%).

New NHS drinking guidelines published in January said men and women should stick to 14 units of alcohol per week.

The UK's chief medical officers said no level of regular drinking is without risk to health and people should have several booze-free days a week but not "save up" their 14 units for a binge.

When drinking on a single occasion, they said people should drink more slowly, consume alcohol with food, and alternate alcoholic drinks with water.

The ONS data shows that 58% of people (28.9 million) drink at least some alcohol in a typical week.

Young people were less likely to have drunk alcohol in the previous week than those who were older, with fewer than half of 16 to 24-year-olds saying they did so, compared with 66% of 45 to 64-year-olds.

Of all those who had drunk alcohol in the previous week, 45% (12.9 million people) consumed more than 4.67 units - a third of the new weekly guideline - on their heaviest drinking day.

Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, said: "It is very concerning that millions are Brits are exceeding their weekly drinking limit in just one day.

"Drinking alcohol increases the risk of a number of different cancers. In fact, 24,000 cancer cases could be avoided every year in the UK if everyone stopped drinking alcohol.

"When it comes to cancer prevention, people should avoid alcohol as much as possible as any amount increases the risk of cancer.

"If they are going to drink, it's important not to binge-drink and have no more than seven drinks a week spread over at least three days."

A spokesman for the Portman Group, which represents alcohol producers, said: "The vast majority of adults drink sensibly and safely; part of a decade-long improvement in our relationship with alcohol in this country.

"Under-age drinking, alcohol-related crime and drink-driving are also in sustained decline.

"ONS figures are useful in highlighting the specific regions and communities that still need support and the best way to achieve this is through targeted local partnerships between local authorities, health services, businesses and voluntary groups."

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Niall Campbell, an expert in alcohol addiction at the Priory hospital in Roehampton, south-west London, said: "Unfortunately people are equating alcohol with reward, and having a good time is still synonymous for many with getting drunk.

"At the Priory we see people who consume alcohol in bars and pubs as if they were visiting Starbucks for a coffee. In younger people, we see them drinking alcohol like water, just to rehydrate.

"And the peer pressure for them to binge drink is often considerable. They talk about going out with the express desire of getting 'completely obliterated'.

"Or they define a good night out as one they can't remember. But binge drinking has considerable effects on physical health and relationships and leads to risky sexual behaviour, the consequences of which can be considerable."
Sir Robert Francis QC's report on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust led to the creation of a national guardian post

Government efforts to improve patient safety in the NHS have been slammed after a newly-appointed "whistleblower tsar" resigned before even taking up her post.

Dame Eileen Sills was appointed in January as the national guardian to support worried NHS staff to speak up and was due to start in April, but she announced on Friday that she would not take on the part-time job.

Relatives affected by the scandal at the Mid Staffordshire trust, which was criticised by a public inquiry for the "routine" neglect of patients between 2005 and 2009, told the Daily Mirror of their anger.

Julie Bailey, who helped expose neglect following the death of her mother, said: "This shows that such an enormous position of great responsibility should never have been allowed to be diluted to a part-time job.

"There is no way this is a part-time role and such a suggestion is an insult to whistleblowers."

Dr Minh Alexander, who left her job after she exposed abuse at a mental health trust in Cambridgeshire, said the design of the national guardian job was flawed.

She said: "Patients will suffer if the Government continues to insist upon flawed half-measures."

Dame Eileen - who was planning to maintain her job as chief nurse at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust - said she would continue to offer non-executive support to the office until a replacement was found.

Announcing her resignation, she said: "It has been a very difficult decision to take but after two months it is very clear that it is not possible to combine the role of the national guardian - and establishment of the office - with the increasing challenges NHS providers face, while doing justice to both roles."

The national guardian post was created after a report into whistleblowing in the NHS led by Sir Robert Francis QC found there was a "serious problem".

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ordered the review after Sir Robert led two inquiries into failures at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which the QC said had shown the "appalling consequences for patients when there is a 'closed ranks' culture".

David Behan, chief executive of Care Quality Commission said he was disappointed to receive Dame Eileen's resignation.

He said: "The work of setting up the office of the National Guardian will continue as planned, with a focus on supporting and working with freedom to speak up guardians in NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts."
Boris Johnson said he was "only made aware of this edict very late last night"

Boris Johnson has overturned an order gagging senior City Hall officials from speaking out in favour of Britain remaining in the EU.

The pro-Brexit London Mayor insisted that he had only learnt on Monday evening of the instruction sent out by his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister, and said he immediately withdrew it, describing it as a "cock-up".

The about-turn comes after Mr Johnson loudly blamed "the agents of Project Fear" for forcing the resignation of John Longworth as director general of the British Chambers of Commerce after he contradicted the organisation's neutral position by personally backing UK withdrawal from the EU.

Sir Edward's email, obtained by the BBC on Monday, stated that "GLA (Greater London Authority) officers, can, when not at work, express personal opinions (which may be contrary to the Mayor's views)."

But it added: "Whilst this is the formal position for you also, I would expect, given your roles, you either to advocate the Mayor's position or otherwise not openly to contradict it".

Mr Johnson's aides initially said the instruction was "in line with that issued by the GLA's statutory officers", but added that the Mayor was "relaxed" about any of his team campaigning for either side in the June 23 referendum in a personal capacity.

But when he was greeted by TV cameras outside his London home on Tuesday morning, Mr Johnson disowned the order absolutely.

"Nobody has been gagged," said the Mayor. "I was only made aware of this edict very late last night and it ceased to be operative as soon as I was made aware of it.

"All I can say is it obviously hasn't been operative because you've got members of my advisory team taking a very different view from me. So they can, so they shall, and with complete impunity too."

Asked whether he had seen Sir Edward's message before it was sent to staff, Mr Johnson said: "I had no knowledge about it. I t's a cock-up, I perfectly accept that. It's not something I agree with. My staff and my team have complete freedom to say what they want. They already are and have been for several days."

Quoting former Chinese leader Chairman Mao, he added: "Let a hundred flowers bloom, folks. OK?"

And he said: "As soon as I saw that thing last night it ceased to be operative. Indeed, it had not been operative for several days. It had not been operative at all because they've all been saying exactly what they think. They can do what they want."

Mr Johnson came out in support of the Leave campaign two weeks ago, in conflict with his own party leader David Cameron.

Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley said the incident made the Brexit campaign appear like "inconsistent opportunists".

The Worthing West MP, who is backing continued UK membership of the EU, said: " The apparent lifting of this gag has been inevitable.

"The surprise is that the Mayor of London and the Mayor's chief of staff issued the no-alternative order and then failed to withdraw it days ago when the Mayor and other Outers went over the top on the Chamber of Commerce situation.

"My good-natured advice to the Outers is to look in the mirror before heaving a brick into someone's window.

"Cabinet dissenters have their freedom on the EU. What is the weakness of the Out side that caused them to issue the City Hall ban on equivalent freedom? W hether a deliberate error or just a curious mistake, it makes the Outers look like inconsistent opportunists."

The leader of the London Assembly Labour Group, Len Duvall, said the email showed how " panicked" Mr Johnson was by "deep splits even within his own team".

Mr Duvall said: "This is total double standards from the Mayor who complains about David Cameron stifling debate and then tries to do exactly the same thing himself. Despite this climbdown the bullying message he has sent to his advisers is clear - back the Mayor or face the consequences."
Singer Brian McFadden has said he would "never say no" to a Westlife reunion as he joins forces with former Boyzone star Keith Duffy for a two-man nationwide tour.

The pair, who will perform hit songs from both bands, hit back at rumours that former mentor Louis Walsh had not been supportive of the project, saying he was "fully behind it".

But despite naming the show Boyzlife, the duo denied that it marked the formation of a new "super group".

The tour, which McFadden describes as "Piers Morgan's Life Stories with music", will see the duo talking about their careers and personal lives.

"I had dinner with Louis two days ago and he thinks it's a great idea - he's fully behind it," Duffy said.

"Obviously Louis is still managing the broken-up Westlife - but they are only on a break, not broken up - and he's very keen to get them back together. So he has to protect his brand as well."

Duffy added that the former X Factor judge may even have a cameo in the show - with talk of him filming a clip to be played to the audience.

Addressing a possible Westlife reunion in the future, McFadden said: "We will never say no to anything. You never know what's going to happen down the line ..."

"In a word, yes he would," Duffy interrupted.

"Maybe. If it was the right time. Right place," McFadden said.

While Duffy said that there was "potential" for other members of the two groups to join the tour, McFadden said for now it would be a two-man show.

"People are getting confused thinking that with Boyzlife we have started a new supergroup together.

"But this is me and Keith's show. It's called Boyzlife. There's nothing to stop the rest of the guys pairing up and doing it, but for us this was our way."

Duffy described his time in Nineties band Boyzone as a "roller coaster ride".

"To now have settled down, calmed down, got a little bit older and more responsible, we'd like to be able to think back, reminisce and tell the inside track story of how we felt at the time," he said.

"Because when you are on stage, you are polished and know what you are doing. But the reality is underneath that pop star image is a very naive, scared little boy with no idea."

The sell-out tour, in partnership with Hilton Hotels & Resorts, will kick off in London from October 16.
Serious concerns were raised about alleged sexual offences committed against children in Essex

An investigation has been launched into allegations of sexual abuse against children in care in Essex during the 1980s and 1990s.

Essex Police said the possible crimes had been raised during a meeting between chief constable Stephen Kavanagh, police and crime commissioner Nick Alston and people who worked with children in the county at the time.

Serious concerns were raised about alleged sexual offences committed against children, particularly boys in local authority and foster care, the force added.

Further concerns were raised about the protection and support offered to young people who may have been victims of abuse.

Mr Kavanagh said: "At present we have allegations but no victims, suspects or locations.

"But whether alleged abuse, especially organised and institutionalised, happened yesterday or 30 years ago, it's our duty to review it without fear or favour."

Former district psychologist Robin Jamieson, a former clinician manager of the Suffolk Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Service, Jenny Grinsted and youth worker and probation officer Rob West were present at the meeting last month, a statement said.

Concerns were raised that, although a number of allegations had previously been investigated and prosecuted and two convictions were secured, those investigations may not have been "sufficiently thorough".

Mr Alston said: "The abuse of a child, whether in the care of their parents or the state, is an abhorrent crime.

"Professionals who worked in Essex during the 1980s and 1990s have raised serious concerns with both chief constable Kavanagh and me, and it is right that Essex Police examines these allegations meticulously and seeks out any new evidence.

"For an adult to come forward and report abuse suffered as a child takes real courage. I would say to anyone in this situation: please come forward and trust us.

"You can speak to Essex Police directly, or to a specialist organisation which can provide support and help."

Survivors of sexual abuse in Essex in this period are being urged to contact the force child abuse investigation teams on 101.

Those involved can also contact the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse through the NSPCC information line on 0808 800 5000 or by visiting www.iicsa.org.uk.
David Haigh has been charged in Dubai with slander over a tweet made when he was in prison

The former managing director of Leeds United FC is facing criminal charges in the United Arab Emirates over a tweet about the former owner of the club.

David Haigh has been in custody since May 2014 and was due to be released on November 16 last year after a Dubai court convicted him of fraud.

But on November 14 he was charged with slander of his former employees in relation to a comments on his Twitter account made eight months earlier when he was in prison.

A trial has been set for March 16 but non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has called for him to be released after his lawyer Alun Jones said he was concerned for Mr Haigh's mental and physical well-being.

The organisation's deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said: "If UAE businessmen can have their partners locked up when they don't like the tone of their tweets, one has to question whether the UAE is a safe place to make any form of criticism.

"The UK government should make very public calls for David Haigh's immediate release and scrapping of the criminal slander law."

Mr Jones said the problems emerged when Mr Haigh told his Dubai-based employer, Leeds United's former owner GFH Capital, that he intended to bring legal proceedings against it for outstanding commissions.

He was arrested in May that year when he flew to Dubai for a meeting.

Mr Jones, who did not represent Mr Haigh at his first trial, said his client had not been able to understand the evidence against him as it was in Arabic.

Human Rights Watch said it had been told that the Twitter account was being handled by a third party because Mr Haigh was in prison without access.
GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan said there should be a 'pragmatic' way of responding to the issue of encryption

The head of GCHQ has called for politicians to set out the boundaries on the use of data as he called for greater co-operation between technology companies and spy agencies over the issues of encryption.

Robert Hannigan said there should be a "pragmatic" way of responding to the issue of encryption, adding that only a small number of people misused encoding of data, the BBC reported.

Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Mr Hannigan said: "It is not for me, as an intelligence official and civil servant, or for a law enforcement officer to make these broad judgments, whether about the use of data in general or encryption in particular; nor is it for tech company colleagues, nor even for independent academics.

"Since the trade-offs are for society as a whole, it must surely be for elected representatives to decide the parameters of what is acceptable."

His comments came as Apple's head of software criticised the FBI for trying to "turn back the clock to a less secure time" in the row over iPhone unlocking.

The British Government would not outlaw the type of end-to-end encryption at the centre of the row between the FBI and Apple, but will call for companies to take reasonable, practical steps to make data available when needed.

Mr Hannigan said: "Within the parameters set by legislation, it should be possible for technical experts to sit down together and work out solutions to particular manifestations of the abuse of encryption."

He said it was important for government agencies and companies to work together to find solutions to issues around encryption, and called for more innovation to help deal with today's challenges over data.

"The solution is not, of course, that encryption should be weakened, let alone banned," he said. "But neither is it true that nothing can be done without weakening encryption."
A man has been arrested after a five-hour stand-off with armed police at a house in Liverpool.

Residents of nearby properties were evacuated as emergency services attended the scene in Oxford Drive, Waterloo, on Monday evening.

Police cordoned off the area and closed the street as officers attempted to engage with a man reported to be "in an agitated state inside a property".

At one point a police officer outside appeared to be pointing a gun towards the front of the house, reports from the scene suggested.

Almost five hours into the incident, at around 10.20pm, the man was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.

Police said no-one had been injured but minor damage was caused to the inside of the house.
It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios?

Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything.

No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now.
The Met Office said there will be increasingly mild conditions nationwide.

Signs of spring will start to show at the end of this week with climbing temperatures across the UK.

The Met Office said there will be more sun and increasingly mild conditions nationwide, with levels rising from Thursday as a tropical maritime air travels up.

On Thursday, temperatures are predicted to reach 10C (50F) in southern England with figures for the rest of the UK still high, reaching up to 9C (48.2F).

These conditions are expected to reach Scotland with only north-west England and Wales excluded from the surge.

This area will stay wet and cloudy, flat-lining at around 7C (44.6F), but is still expected to be milder than usual improving by a couple of degrees at the weekend.

In the rest of the UK, the weekend marks the beginning of accelerating temperatures - up to 13C (55.4F) in the south and 11C (51.8F) in the north.

Wintry nights will also end as levels reach "well above freezing" across the UK by Friday.

Met Office spokeswoman Lindsay Mears said: "It should be getting warmer towards the end of the week, starting on Thursday. There will be a change in the weather with a tropical maritime air coming into the UK, causing milder conditions."

Tropical maritime air can raise temperatures several degrees above average, travelling from the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Bermuda.

Ms Mears said these stereotypically "spring-like" temperatures were here to stay, adding: "It should affect most of the UK apart from the North West which is likely to be... wetter and cloudier. It will still be milder than it has been anyway.

"Spring began on the first of March but what you might think of as spring weather (is starting). Those temperatures will climb... so it will seem a lot warmer than it has been and it looks like it will stay mild."
Prime minister David Cameron says returning migrants to Turkey would close the refugee trail through the Balkans

European Union leaders have hailed a potential breakthrough in talks with Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of migrants streaming into the continent.

Negotiations in Brussels broke up after more than 12 hours of discussions without a final agreement.

But leaders said a Turkish proposal to return all migrants who make it across the Aegean to Greece could provide the basis of a settlement that would finally close the refugee trail through the Balkans.

In return for taking back the refugees, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu wants the EU to resettle an equal number of Syrian refugees direct from his country - although Britain would not be affected as it is outside the Schengen area.

He also called for a doubling of EU aid - to more than 4 billion - to support the more than 2.5 million refugees in Turkey as well as faster progress on easing visa restrictions on Turkish nationals and talks on Turkey's application for EU membership.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "It has been a long and difficult evening but I think we do have the basis for a breakthrough which is the possibility that in future, all migrants who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey.

"That would, if implemented, break the business model of the people smugglers and end the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe.

"That is something that I have been arguing for for a year and I think this is significant, but only if it is fully implemented and that's what needs to happen next."

European Council president Donald Tusk described the talks as the "most promising moment" in the effort to find a way of deterring migrants - many fleeing the conflict in Syria - making the perilous sea crossing to Europe.

"All of us are aware that in fact we have a breakthrough now. The new proposal of our Turkish friend is a real chance to make progress in all aspects of our joint venture," he said.

EU leaders will resume discussions on the proposals when they meet again in the Belgian capital for further summit talks later this month.

Mr Davutoglu - who brought a more ambitious than expected set of proposals to the meeting - stressed that they had to be treated as a "package" if there was to be a deal.

"This is a humanitarian process helping refugees but at the same time it is a strategic issue for us that Turkey will be admitted to the EU," he said.

There was widespread agreement that more money would need to be found to help the Turks cope with the more than 2.5 million migrants currently in the country.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: "A further three billion euros (2.3 billion) will be needed at the request of Turkey. We said in principle that this was a welcome approach."

British sources also indicated support for additional funding - provided the new arrangements were shown to be working..

"If that system is working, we will look at that. We will not turn the tap off," one source said.
Thomas Cook has cancelled all bookings to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt until at least November

Travel firm Thomas Cook has cancelled all bookings to Sharm el-Sheikh until at least November.

The Government suspended flights to the Egyptian resort on November 4 last year after an Airbus 321 operated by Russian airline Metrojet crashed, killing 224 people.

Islamic State jihadis claimed responsibility for bombing the jet.

More than 16,000 Britons stranded in the area were brought home on a series of rescue flights amid heightened security.

But no flights have operated between the UK and Sharm since November 17 as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is advising against all but essential travel using the Red Sea resort's airport.

Thomas Cook said it was extending its period for cancelling bookings from May 25 to October 31 because there was "n o clear indication as to when the FCO travel advice may change".

The company added that any of its c ustomers who were due to travel to Sharm up to that date can cancel or amend their holiday to another destination free of charge.

British Airways has cancelled its services to Sharm until at least September 15.

Thomson Airways has suspended flights up to May 25, with Monarch taking the same action up to April 18.

E asyJet will not operate flights from Stansted to Sharm up to May 27, while its services from Gatwick, Luton and Manchester are cancelled until at least the end of the summer.

The Association of British Travel Agents has previously said the decision on when to use Sharm airport will be made by the UK Government rather than airlines.

The FCO travel advice states that the UK is working with the Egyptian authorities and liaising with travel companies to enable flights to resume ''as soon as appropriate security arrangements are in place''.
The boys were rushed to Salisbury District Hospital and are now recovering

Three schoolboys were taken to hospital in a critical condition after taking so-called legal highs, police said.

The teenagers, all aged 15, required treatment after taking the substances in Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

They were rushed to Salisbury District Hospital shortly before 5am on March 4 in a critical condition.

One of the boys was considered to be in a life-threatening condition. All three are now recovering.

Inspector Dave Minty, of Wiltshire Police, said: "T hese drugs may be so-called 'legal highs' but there is no way of knowing what chemicals are in these substances and what the consequences of taking them will be.

"We are working closely with the boys' parents and school, and I would strongly encourage parents/guardians to speak to their children about the risks of taking any drugs, legal or otherwise.

"My officers have commenced an investigation into this incident.

"I would also ask that anyone with information as to where these substances are being sold contacts us straight away."

Anyone with information should call the force on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
US air strikes bombarded an al Shabab training camp in Somalia on Saturday, killing more than 150 militant fighters who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, likely against African or US personnel, the Pentagon said Monday.

Multiple drones and manned aircraft launched missiles and bombs on the site, called Raso Camp, which the US had been watching for several weeks, said Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

News of the attack comes as the White House announced on Monday that it will disclose how many people have been killed by American drones and other counter-terrorism strikes since 2009, when President Barack Obama took office.

Lisa Monaco, Mr Obama's counter-terrorism and homeland security adviser, said the report will be released "in the coming weeks", casting it as part of a commitment to transparency for US actions overseas. Ms Monaco said the figures would be disclosed annually in the future, although it will ultimately be up to Mr Obama's successor to decide whether to continue the practice.

The report will include both combatants and civilians the US believes have died in strikes. It will not cover major war zones like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, but will focus on strikes against extremist targets in other regions such as Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and other locations in North Africa.

"We know that not only is greater transparency the right thing to do, it is the best way to maintain the legitimacy of our counter-terrorism actions and the broad support of our allies," Ms Monaco said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Pentagon on Monday provided some details about the Somalia strike, which happened during the early evening there. Davis said it appeared that the training was about to come to an end, and the operational phase of a suspected attack was about to start. Military forces from the US and the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) are routinely working in the country, and Capt Davis said they could have been the targets of al Shabab's planned attack.

The camp, located about 120 miles north of Mogadishu, was destroyed, Capt Davis said, adding that the US believes there were no civilian casualties. He said the US estimated that as many as 200 fighters had been at the camp, including a number of trainers.

The al Qaida-linked al Shabab has been linked to a number of attacks, including the detonation of a bomb aboard a commercial passenger jet last month that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu.

While sketchy details often emerge about individual drone strikes, the full scope of the US drone programme - conducted by both the Defence Department and the CIA - has long been shrouded from view. And the new report is not likely to answer all of the questions.

The US does not publicly disclose all the places its drones operate, so the report is not expected to detail specific countries where people died.

Instead, it will offer an aggregate assessment of casualties outside of areas of "active hostilities" - a designation that takes into account the scope and intensity of fighting and is used to determine when Mr Obama's specific counter-terrorism policies apply. Iraq and Syria, where US air strikes are pummelling the Islamic State group, currently are on that list and will not be in the report, said a senior administration official.

"There will obviously be some limitations on where we can be transparent, given a variety of sensitivities - including diplomatic," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Mr Obama's move to shed more light on the drone wars comes as the US struggles to contain extremist groups and violent ideologies that are growing and spreading. For example, the Islamic State group that the US-led coalition is fighting in Iraq and Syria is spreading to under-governed places in Libya and Afghanistan, and is spawning affiliates and recruits around the world.
The girl is fighting for her life in a hospital in New Delhi

A 15-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a New Delhi hospital after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her family's home in a village outside the city, Indian police have said.

The attack is just one of several recently reported cases of rape against women or children in India - underlining the persistence of such violence despite a public outcry three years ago that led to stronger laws to prevent sexual assault.

In the latest case, police arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly raping and attempting to burn the girl to death in Tigri village, near the New Delhi suburb of Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, on Monday, according to constable Yadram Singh of Bisrakh police station.

Mr Singh said the man "had severe burns on his hands" and has been charged with several offences, including rape, attempted murder, assault of a minor and causing grievous injury.

The teenager is in a critical condition in a New Delhi hospital, Mr Singh said. Indian newspapers reported that she was suffering from burns to 95% of her body.

Mr Singh's police report on the case describes how the girl's parents found her with severe burns, after hearing her screaming from the rooftop terrace a few hours before dawn on Monday.

The girl later told police that she was raped, beaten and then set on fire by a man who she said had been stalking her for months, Mr Singh said.

India's women and children are considered particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and harassment thanks to widespread social taboos against speaking about sexual assault. The stigma is enough to keep many from even reporting crimes, while many others face police resistance in filing complaints.

Experts say that has started to change since the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 triggered national anger and demands that more be done on women's safety.

The government rushed through legislation to double prison terms for rape, and to criminalise voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. But activists say more action is needed, including better educating youths and adding basic safety infrastructure such as street lights and public bathrooms.

The public debate has also increased Indian newspaper reports of rape and assault, including several in just the last few days.

On Monday, police in the financial capital of Mumbai said they were investigating whether a four-year-old girl whose body was dumped in the bushes on the city's outskirts had been raped before being killed, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. The girl reportedly went missing after being separated from her mother at a railway station on Sunday night.

In other cases in Uttar Pradesh, police arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of raping a six-year-old on Sunday night, while separately they were investigating nine people for allegedly gang-raping a woman when she went into the fields to urinate last month, PTI reported.

And last week, three boys reportedly kidnapped a teenage girl from her home and raped her repeatedly in an agricultural field in the northern state of Haryana and later in New Delhi before she escaped, the news agency cited police as saying.
Israel has disputed a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "surprised" the US government by cancelling a planned visit to Washington.

Mr Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of US presidential primaries.

The spat comes amid tense relations with US President Barack Obama in the last year of his presidency, and shortly before US vice president Joe Biden was set to visit Israel.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US had offered to meet on one of those days.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. "We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit."

But Mr Netanyahu's office said Israel's ambassador to the US had already informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" he would not make the trip.

It said the ambassador told the White House there would be a final decision on Monday. That day, Israeli news reports erroneously reported that Mr Netanyahu would not travel because he was unwilling to meet with Mr Obama. Mr Netanyahu's office said it then informed the White House directly that the prime minister would not be visiting.

Mr Netanyahu was invited to address a summit of the pro-Israel group AIPAC. An Israeli official said Mr Netanyahu wanted to avoid potential meetings with presidential candidates at the summit. Mr Netanyahu was accused of siding with Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign and he appears wary of sparking any additional claims of meddling in US politics.

"It's a tumultuous primary season in the United States ... we don't want to inject ourselves into that tumultuous process," the official said.

It was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the US and Israel. Relations never fully recovered after Mr Obama incensed Mr Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran.

Mr Biden's last visit to Israel in 2010 was also marked by a diplomatic spat with Washington, when Israel announced settlement construction plans during his visit.

Mr Netanyahu's office said the prime minister is "looking forward to the visit of Biden and discussing how we can meet the many challenges facing the region".

Mr Biden is not expected to offer any new initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he travels to Israel and the West Bank. The White House has said it does not believe either side has the political will for reviving the peace process as the last year of Mr Obama's administration winds down.

However, there have also been reports the Obama administration is considering setting parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to make it easier for Mr Obama's successor to pursue. Israel rejects an imposed formula and says any outline of a peace accord has to be reached through direct negotiations.
A Dutchman dubbed the "horror dentist" by French media has gone on trial facing charges of intentional violence and fraud.

Dentist Jacobus Van Nierop could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 375,000 euro (290,000) if convicted. More than 50 victims are also seeking damages.

Scores of people came forward with complaints ranging from multiple healthy teeth removed, pieces of tools left in teeth, abscesses, recurrent infections and misshapen mouths between 2009 and 2013.

His trial in the town of Nevers is expected to last until March 18, with a ruling expected later.

One patient, Sylviane Boulesteix, has said she was unexpectedly summoned to his dental office in central-eastern France in May 2012. Without warning, the dentist pulled eight of her teeth out and immediately fixed dentures on her raw gums.

In the following days, she says Van Nierop refused to relieve her pain. A judicial expert later described a "cruel and perverse" man whose incompetence made Ms Boulesteix lose several healthy teeth, go through a trauma and suffer irreversible damage to her mouth.

Van Nierop has said he remembers only one of the 75 patients who allegedly suffered "mutilations" or "permanent disabilities" at his hands between 2009 and 2013, according to court documents. He now has to face many of them in court.

"I dread the moment where I'll see him again because it won't be any longer the 100 kilograms rugby man who was smiling at us with disregard", Nicole Martin, president of a victim association, told The Associated Press on the eve of the trial.

Van Nierop, who used the assumed first name Mark with his patients, refused to answer questions during the investigation, saying only that the oral health of people in the region was "deplorable".

He claims he was suffering from a borderline personality disorder, complicated with a transgender issue and suicide attempts. Detained in a French prison since January 2015, he staged several hunger and thirst strikes, and once swallowed razor blades before he was to be questioned by the investigating judge.

Questioned about the alleged mutilations suffered by his patients, Van Neirop said: "It does not affect me."

"I'm totally blocked from the inside and I don't want to explain it all," he told the investigating judge, according to court documents. "You can lock me up for years ... it will not change."

The dentist was welcomed by local people when he opened his office in 2008 in Chateau-Chinon, a small town located in a remote part of the Burgundy region with a status of a "medical desertification area".

Investigators said Van Nierop provided false documents to be allowed to practise dentistry in France, gaining tax and economic benefits, and concealed that he was the subject of disciplinary proceedings in his own country.

He allegedly overcharged his patients, billed them for imaginary dental care or intentionally did bad work which required further appointments and payments, according to court documents.

Van Nierop, who lived in a luxurious home outside the town, had debts of nearly 1 million euro, officials said.

The Dutchman fled to Canada before being extradited to the Netherlands and then deported to France.
A Turkish woman gives a V sign during a march in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul to mark International Women's Day on March 6, 2016. / AFP / OZAN KOSEOZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

A Turkish woman shouts slogans before upcoming International Women's Day with members of labor unions and civil society groups in Ankara, March 5, 2016. / AFP / ADEM ALTANADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

Male students and soldiers wearing high-heeled shoes march around a park to pay tribute to women all over the world on the eve of the celebration of International Women's Day Monday, March 7, 2016 at suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. The all male marchers are calling for gender equality and an end to all forms of discrimination and harassment against women. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

A Pakistani woman searches for recycling items at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Islamabad on March 7, 2016 ahead of International Women's Day. Women in Pakistan have fought for their rights for decades, in a country where so-called honour killings and acid attacks remain commonplace. / AFP / FAROOQ NAEEMFAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan soldiers look on during an event to mark International Women's Day at the Amani High School in Kabul on March 8, 2016. AFP PHOTO / SHAH Marai International Women's Day is marked annually on March 8. / AFP / SHAH MARAISHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

Members of Gabriela women's group along with Migrant workers' union hold placards during a rally to celebrate International Women's Day near Malacanang Palace in Manila on March 8, 2016. Dozens of women joined the rally and assailed the goverment of its export labour policy citing the case of Filipina worker Mary Jane Veloso, a convicted drug mule but given reprieved by the Indonesian government last April 29, 2015. / AFP / TED ALJIBETED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images

Members of Gabriela women's group along with Migrant workers' union display placards and cut-out mannequins during a rally to celebrate International Women's Day near Malacanang palace in Manila on March 8, 2016. Dozens of women joined the rally and assailed the goverment of its export labour policy citing the case of Filipina worker Mary Jane Veloso, a convicted drug mule but given reprieved by the Indonesian government last April 29, 2015. / AFP / TED ALJIBETED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images

British model Naomi Campbell attends an International Women's Day conference, along with former Israeli President, at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2016. / AFP / JACK GUEZJACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Philippine presidential candidate Grace Poe speaks before supporters and members of Gabriela women's group, during a rally to celebrate International Women's Day in Manila on March 8, 2016, and hours after the supreme court voted to allow Poe to run in the national elections. The Philippines' Supreme Court gave the go-ahead March 8 for leading presidential candidate Grace Poe to run in May elections, removing a major obstacle in her bid to become the country's third female leader. / AFP / TED ALJIBETED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan women look on during an event to mark International Women's Day at the Amani High School in Kabul on March 8, 2016. AFP PHOTO / SHAH Marai International Women's Day is marked annually on March 8. / AFP / SHAH MARAISHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

People release sky-lanterns on the eve of International Women's Day in Manila on March 7, 2016. The event calls for the end of all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls. / AFP / NOEL CELISNOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images

TOPSHOT - Turkish anti riot police officers detain a woman on March 6, 2016, during a march in Kadikoy district in Istanbul to mark International Women's Day. / AFP / OZAN KOSEOZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

Supporters of Pakistan's Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) hold placards during a rally to mark International Women's Day in Lahore on Marchi 8, 2016. Women in conservative Pakistan have fought for their rights for decades, in a country where so-called honour killings and acid attacks remain commonplace. / AFP / ARIF ALIARIF ALI/AFP/Getty Images

International Women's Day has marked the plight and achievements of women for more than a century  but is now looking ahead another 15 years to the world's gender equality goals.

Themed this year around "Planet 50-50 by 2030", the United Nations-backed event will be celebrating women's rights in more than 40 countries.

It will look at how to ensure the 2030 Agenda - which positions women's empowerment as at the centre of global sustainability plans - can be concretely achieved over the coming years.

Yet the idea itself dates back more than 100 years, and has had various reasons for becoming the established celebration that it is today.

1. When was it first set up?

Socialists first put forward the idea of advancing women's suffrage through a day to mark women's enormous contribution to humankind.

An annual "international women's day" was first organised by the German socialist and theorist Clara Zetkin along with 100 delegates from 17 countries in March 1911.

The event was marked by more than one million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, with hundreds of demonstrations across the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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2. Why was it set up?

When it first began, women were demanding that they be given the right to vote - which they received in Britain in 1918 but just last year in Saudi Arabia - to hold public office and to be given equal employment rights as men.

Today, when only a fifth of parliamentary seats are held by women and only 19 heads of state out of a possible 196 are women - only seven more women than 20 years ago - there is much progress still to be made.

The number of female cabinet ministers has at least tripled between 1994 and 2014 - but remains low compared to men, at only 17 per cent.

Expand Close The proportion of women who hold political representation roles compared to men / Facebook

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Women are also predicted to face another 118-year wait for the gender pay gap to close, with only 55 of the 500 richest people in the world being women.

3. What is this year's International Women's Day focusing on?

The United Nations first began celebrating the day on 8 March in 1975, and each year has given focus to women's status around the globe.

The current goals fit in with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

They follow on from an event hosted by UN Women and the People's Republic of China for global leaders to commit to action on women's empowerment and access to capital.

The new agenda, which is meant to build on the unfulfilled Milennium Development Goals, has a stand-alone goal just for the empowerment of women and girls as a core means of tackling economic underperformance, global overpopulation and poverty worldwide.

It also celebrates the achievements of women throughout history.

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In some countries, the day is a national holiday and sisters, grandmothers, mothers, women and partners are given presents to mark it.

4. Is it still needed?

Aside from the older motivations surrounding political office and the pay gap, there is also increasing awareness of the disproportionate amount of abuse women suffer at the hands of others.

An estimated 120 million girls and women under the age of 20 have been subjected to forced sexual intercourse or other forced sexual acts - around 10 per cent.

A huge majority of cases, which often involved partners and relatives, also go unreported - and convictions for rape remain very low in Britain alone.

More than a third of women worldwide have also experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, with this being most common between a woman's teenage years and menopause.

Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of a billion more women are in the global workforce today than a decade ago, but they are only earning what men did in 2006, according to the World Economic Forum.

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And one in 10 married women are not consulted by their husbands on how their own cash earnings will be spent.

5. What does the United Nations say about International Women's Day?

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, said he had been on a personal campaign to promote women and ensure their democratic representation in parliaments across the world.

We have shattered so many glass ceilings we created a carpet of shards, he said.

On #InternationalWomensDay, statistics show there's still a long way to go before we see workplace equality #IWD2016https://t.co/ohh0JpBf70  Press Association (@PA) March 8, 2016

Now we are sweeping away the assumptions and bias of the past so women can advance across new frontiers.

Independent News Service
Iran claims to have surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 1,250 miles

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has launched several ballistic missiles during a military exercise, tne country's official news agency said.

The Tuesday report by IRNA did not elaborate but said the missiles were launched from silos in several locations across the country.

In October, Iran successfully test-fired a new guided long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile. It was the first such test since Iran and world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal last summer.

UN experts said the launch used ballistic missile technology banned under a Security Council resolution. In January, the US imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the ballistic missile programme.

Iran claims to have surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 1,250 miles (2,000km), capable of striking Israel and US military bases in the region.
Donald Trump is facing a test of his durability with white, working-class voters in Michigan, the first industrial state to vote in the 2016 primaries and the biggest prize among four states casting ballots in Tuesday's turbulent Republican presidential race.

Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii are also holding Republican contests, while Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in Michigan and Mississippi.

Squeezed between last week's high-profile Super Tuesday contests and high-stakes primaries next week in Florida and Ohio, Tuesday's contests are unlikely to dramatically reshape either party's primaries. But with 150 Republican and 179 Democratic delegates to the parties' national nominating conventions at stake, the races offer an opportunity for front-runners to pad leads and rivals to catch up.

While Mr Trump has stunned Republicans with his broad appeal, he has forged a particularly strong connection with white working-class voters by emphasising his opposition to international trade deals and support for building a wall along the US-Mexico border.

With an eye on the general election, he has argued he could put Midwestern Democratic-leaning industrial states such as Michigan and Wisconsin in play for Republicans.

Mr Trump is facing competition from Ohio governor John Kasich, who has failed to win a single primary so far but hopes Michigan can give him a boost heading into his home state's winner-take-all the delegates contest on March 15.

"It's not just the whole country that's watching Michigan - now the world's beginning to watch," Mr Kasich said during a campaign stop in the state. "You can help me send a message about positive, about vision, about hope, about putting us together."

Unless Mr Kasich and Florida senator Marco Rubio can win in their home states next week, the Republican primary campaign is set to become a two-person race between Mr Trump and Ted Cruz.

Texas senator Mr Cruz, an uncompromising conservative who has publicly criticised party leaders, is sticking close to Mr Trump in the delegate count. With six states in his win column, he is arguing he's the only candidate standing between the brash billionaire and the Republican nomination.

During a stop at a catfish restaurant in Mississippi, Mr Cruz said the current vacancy on the Supreme Court meant Republicans could not take a chance on Mr Trump.

"He's been supporting left-wing politicians for 40 years," Mr Cruz said.

More mainstream Republicans have cast both Mr Trump and Mr Cruz as unelectable in a November face-off with the Democratic nominee. But they are quickly running out of easy options to stop their momentum and are increasingly weighing long-shot ideas such as a contested convention or rallying around a yet-to-be-determined third-party candidate.

Mrs Clinton, meanwhile, appears to be on a steady path to the Democratic nomination. She has steadily grown her lead over Mr Sanders, who has struggled to broaden his appeal beyond a loyal following of younger voters and liberals.

Her surge led former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to announce on Monday that he would not run for president as an independent candidate - a move that would have rocked this year's already extraordinarily unpredictable presidential campaign.

Mr Bloomberg, who had spent months mulling a third-party run, made his decision official through an editorial posted by the Bloomberg View, writing that he believes his candidacy would probably lead to the election of Mr Trump or Mr Cruz.

"That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," the 74-year-old billionaire wrote.

Those close to the process said Mr Bloomberg had believed the dominance of Mr Trump among Republicans and the rise of Mr Sanders amid Democrats had opened a centrist lane for a non-ideological, pragmatic campaign. But Bloomberg aides say that path is now blocked with Mrs Clinton emerging as the likely Democratic nominee.

Tuesday's results will offer clues about whether MrSanders is making any inroads in the overwhelming support that Mrs Clinton has enjoyed from black voters

Trying to make a stand in Michigan, Mr Sanders has accused her of being disingenuous when she asserted that he opposed the industry bailout that rescued car makers General Motors and Chrysler during the Great Recession.

The 2008-2009 bailout by presidents George Bush and Barack Obama remains popular in Michigan, the home of the US car industry, and has been credited with preserving the Midwest's manufacturing base.

Heading into Tuesday's contests, Mrs Clinton had accumulated 1,130 delegates and Mr Sanders 499, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

Among Republicans, Mr Trump leads with 384 delegates, followed by Mr Cruz with 300, Mr Rubio with 151 delegates and Mr Kasich with 37. Winning the Republican nomination requires 1,237 delegates.
A US soldier sits on an armoured vehicle during an exercise in Yeoncheon, near the border with North Korea (AP)

North Korea has issued another belligerent threat, warning of an indiscriminate "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" on Washington and Seoul, following the start of huge US-South Korean military drills.

Such threats have been a staple of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since he took power after his dictator father's death in December 2011. But they increase especially when Washington and Seoul stage what they call annual defensive spring war games.

Pyongyang says the drills, which started on Monday and continue through the end of April, are invasion rehearsals.

The North's powerful National Defence Commission threatened strikes against targets in the South, US bases in the Pacific and America's mainland, saying its enemies "are working with bloodshot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights" of North Korea.

"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the North's statement said.

South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said North Korea must refrain from a "rash act that brings destruction upon itself".

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US took the North Korean threats seriously and called on Pyongyang to cease provocative rhetoric and behaviour.

"There would not be as compelling a reason to prepare for alliance capabilities if Pyongyang wasn't so intent on raising the stakes on the peninsula" and decreasing any sense of security and stability there, he said.

This year's war games will be the largest staged, involving 300,000 South Korean and 17,000 US troops.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing military sources, said the allies would work on drills for precision attacks on the North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war.

A pre-emptive large-scale military strike that would end the authoritarian rule of the Kim dynasty is highly unlikely. There is also considerable outside debate about whether North Korea is even capable of the kind of "strikes" it threatens.

The North makes progress with each new nuclear test - it staged its fourth in January - but many experts say its arsenal may consist only of still-crude nuclear bombs.

There is uncertainty about whether it has mastered the miniaturisation process needed to mount bombs on long-range missiles and widespread doubt about whether it has a reliable missile that could deliver such a bomb to the US mainland.

But North Korea's bellicose rhetoric raises unease in Seoul and its US ally, not least because of the huge number of troops and weaponry facing off along the world's most heavily armed border, an hour's drive from the South Korean capital and its 10 million residents.

The rival Koreas' usual animosity occasionally erupts in bloody skirmishes - 50 South Koreans were killed in attacks in 2010 that Seoul blames on the North - and there is always a worry about an escalation of violence.

Always ragged relations between North Korea and its rivals Seoul and Washington have worsened following North Korea's nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket test last month that outsiders say was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The United Nations recently slapped the North with harsh sanctions and South Korea has taken a harder than usual line, with a new North Korean human rights law and the president in Seoul warning of a collapsed government in Pyongyang.

Similar nuclear threats by the North were made in 2013, around the time of the spring-time military drills, after the UN sanctioned the North over a nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Analysts say one part of North Korea's traditional anger over the drills is that they force the impoverished country to respond with its own costly war games.

Meanwhile, South Korea said it would sanction 40 individuals and 30 organisations aboard, mostly in North Korea, as part of its unilateral punitive measures against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

The South Korean government also said it would ban the entrance of any ship which has also stopped at a North Korean port in the previous 180 days. Currently, only North Korean ships are banned.

The sanctions target 38 individuals and 24 organisations in North Korea, and two individuals and six organisations in other countries.
A Pakistani security official collects evidence at the site of a suicide bombing in Charsadda (AP)

The death toll in a suicide bombing at the entrance to a court building in north-western Pakistan has risen to 17, a police official has said.

Two policemen, a policewoman and a child were among those killed in the blast in the town of Shabqadar in Charsadda district on Monday, said police official Ali Jan Khan.

He said the death toll rose after six of the more than 20 people wounded died in hospitals overnight.

A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban and calling itself Jamat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility, describing it as an attack on the judiciary which "gives verdicts against God's divine laws".

Ahrar spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said the court bombing was in revenge for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, who was executed last week for the 2011 killing of a provincial governor.

The local Taliban branch and its allied militant groups have been waging a war against the state for more than a decade, killing tens of thousands of people.

Charsadda district, where four suicide bombers from a Pakistani Taliban-linked group killed 21 students and teachers on January 20, is at the edge of Pakistan's tribal region, near the Afghan border.

Pakistan's military said it has entered the final phase of an offensive against the militants in the tribal region.

Overnight air strikes targeted several hideouts in the town of Shawal, killing 21 militants, according to a statement by the Pakistani army.
Mexico's main archdiocese has said Pope Francis was badly advised when he directed harsh words to bishops during his visit to the country.

The Pope told a gathering of bishops in February not to be career-minded clerics, saying: "We do not need 'princes', but rather a community of the Lord's witnesses."

Francis also urged them to maintain unity and show more transparency, saying: "If you have to fight, fight. If you have to say things, say them, but do it like men: to the face."

An editorial published on a website of the archdiocese of Mexico City said some of the Pope's comments had been misinterpreted by "reporters more focused on histrionics than the deep meaning of the words".

"The Mexican bishops have been accompanying the suffering, downtrodden people, devoting their lives to others and not living like 'princes'," the editorial said.

It denied local bishops were out of touch with the people and said the Pope's comments "might be due to someone near him who gave him bad advice".

The editorial ends with the question: "Who gave the Pope bad advice?"

But rector of the Pontifical University of Mexico, Mario Angel Flores, said the editorial appeared ill-advised, given that the Pope's comments "were very frank words, inviting everyone to be more clear".

"They are trying to downplay and question his words, which is not the most correct thing to do," he said.

Apart from his speech to the bishops, even Francis' prayers to the Virgin of Guadalupe reflected his concern that the Mexican church needed to get its priorities straight.

During his half-hour of silent prayer, Francis later told reporters: "I prayed for the Mexican people, and one thing I prayed for a lot was that priests be true priests, and sisters be true sisters and bishops be true bishops as the Lord wants."
Somalia's intelligence service cooperated with the US in air strikes that killed more than 150 al Shabab members on Saturday, an intelligence official said.

The air strikes targeted a forested military training camp run by the Islamic extremists 124 miles north of the capital Mogadishu, the official said, adding that the camp was al Shabab's main planning base. He said Somali officials helped the US to pinpoint the location of the militants' training base but did not give details.

Another intelligence official said al Shabab members training there were planning to attack a drone base in the region.

The Pentagon said that the air strikes killed fighters who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, likely against African Union or US personnel.

Multiple drones and manned aircraft launched missiles and bombs on the site, called Raso Camp, which the US had been watching for several weeks, said Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

The camp was destroyed, he said, adding that the US believes there were no civilian casualties.

The al Qaida-linked al Shabab has been linked to a number of attacks, including the detonation of a bomb on board a commercial passenger jet last month that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu.
The death toll from clashes between Tunisian forces and extremist attackers near the Libyan border has risen to 55, according to the country's Prime Minister Habid Essid.

Mr Essid says 36 attackers, seven civilians and 12 members of Tunisia's security forces died, and 17 others were injured.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for Monday's attack in the city of Ben Guerdane.

Mr Essid told a press conference on Tuesday that about 50 gunmen - most of them Tunisians - took part in the attack.

He said the gunmen targeted a police station and military facilities in Ben Guerdane after launching their attack from a nearby mosque.

He added that seven attackers were arrested and gave information that led to the discovery of a weapons cache.

Mr Essid told the press conference: "The attack that happened yesterday showed that our military and security forces were ready.

"We won a battle, but we haven't yet won the war on terror, and that war continues."

He also confirmed that the chief of the anti-terrorism brigade in Ben Guerdane was among those killed. He was killed in his house when he was preparing to go to work, at the beginning of the attack.

Websites affiliated with Islamic State said IS militants were handed a tough blow by Tunisian security forces. One site published more than 30 pictures showing militants' bodies as well as weapons and munitions seized.

Tunisia is especially worried about the IS presence in Libya after dozens of tourists were killed in attacks in Tunisia last year. IS extremists claimed responsibility for those attacks, and Tunisian authorities said the attackers had been trained in Libya.

Last week, Tunisian security forces killed five heavily armed men in an hours-long gunfight after they crossed into the country from Libya with a larger group. Tunisian security forces had been placed on alert based on "precise information" of possible border infiltrations following a February 19 US raid on an IS camp near the Libyan town of Sabratha, not far from the Tunisian border.

A jihadist wrote on an IS-affiliated website that the gunmen in Ben Guerdane were part of a group that withdrew from Libya because "they were under big pressure, live in a difficult situation and being sought after by everyone especially after last month's US air strike".
4chan was first set up in 2003 but has since become an online cultural phenomenon - home to creative jokers but also malicious hackers

Google has hired the founder of the worlds most controversial chat site, apparently to help with the successors to Google+.

4chan founder Christopher Poole, better known as Moot, will be joining the search giant apparently to advise on its new social products. Mr Poole left 4chan last year, 12 years after founding the site at 15.

Mr Pooles creation, 4chan, was established as a way for Manga fans to chat and would go on to create many of the most popular parts of internet culture. But it was also regularly criticised for offensive and malicious jokes that were most famously seen in the response to the leak of naked pictures of celebrities in 2014.

Now Google has confirmed that Mr Poole will go on to work with Bradley Horowitz, a Google engineer who leads streams, photos and sharing. That is Googles names for the products that were spun out of Google+  the social network that had trouble taking off and has since been swapped for individual products.

Read more

Read More

That work appears to suggest that the two will be working together to build Googles next attempt at taking on social networking. After being beaten out by other companies like Facebook and Pinterest, social media is one of the very few parts of the internet that Google has had trouble breaking into.

When meeting with current and former Googlers, I continually find myself drawn to their intelligence, passion, and enthusiasm  as well as a universal desire to share it with others, wrote Mr Poole in a post announcing his new appointment. Im also impressed by Googles commitment to enabling these same talented people to tackle some of the worlds most interesting and important problems.

I cant wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company.

Independent
Disclaimer

I just wanted to state clearly here on my blog that the books I review are provided to me in exchange for my opinion and thoughts. I am a member of two blog alliances and I work directly with publicists and publishers at their request to review a variety of Christian fiction and non-fiction books. I receive no compensation other than free copies of the books to read, and when a give away is offered, that copy of the book is also provided by the publisher for that exact purpose.



I give my opinions both positively and negatively and will continue to do so as time permits and as I am able. I do this because I love to read and I love to share my thoughts with others who love good books and Christian stories.


If we get down to the truth of it, not all the paths we take will lead to the gates of heaven. As sobering as this may sound, a watered-down version of the Bible has been dished out for years, and it stresses no accountability or acknowledgment of sin.

Senior pastor and popular author Dr. Robert Jeffress shared the true Gospel may upset people, but biblical principles are being ignored. Not all Roads Lead to Heaven is a book that will challenge how diluted teachings are being reflected in culture.

There is no other way to the Father. Jesus is the key, and if that is not true the entire premise of Christianity is false and unravels like a cheap sweater, said Jeffress.

Standing for an exclusive Gospel? This makes some of us nervous, right?

Its the most politically incorrect truth that any Christian can articulate in todays world, said Jeffress who asks the stinging questions like: Is it possible that those who have never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus will somehow be saved? or How can a loving God send people to hell?

One Pew Research Survey showed that 57 percent of evangelicals believe that there is more than one way to God other than by faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, this is in stark contrast to what Jesus himself said in John 14:6:

I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father, but by me.

Christians are afraid take this debate on. Many have been intimidated into thinking that it is hateful to tell a Hindu, a Buddhist, or Muslim that their religion would not lead them to heaven.

Only Christianity will help them get there. If Jesus was telling the truth that Hes the only way to heaven, than it is the most loving truth one can share, he said. It is not intolerant or hateful as many believers walking the fine line of appearing judgmental.

He explained that if you were on a plane and it was about to crash and the stewardess said there was just one way outwould you accuse her of being intolerant she there is only one way out of this burning airplane?

What Im saying in my book, Not all Roads Lead to Heaven, that this is not a message of hate, but a message of hope. Jesus said Hes the only way to heaven, not to keep people out of heaven, but to invite them in. The problem also is once the body of Christ moves away from the authority of the Bible, people end up constructing what they think is the truth.

I think most of us are guilty of serving the god we wish existed rather than the God that does exist. We need to approach God on His terms not our terms.

Its what believers are hearing and not hearing from the pulpit.

Someone asked Jeffress: What do you say to a church leader that doesnt accept the exclusivity of the Bible. He said bluntly, Get out of the ministry. You have no right to stand in the pulpit and construct your own truth and lead people to hell rather than leading them to heaven. Read more from Dr. Robert Jeffress.

Corine Gatti is a Senior Editor at Beliefnet.com.
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Alice C. Linsley Over the centuries there has been much speculation as to the original cultural context of the tetragrammaton, the Divi...
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For Immediate Release, March 8, 2016 Contact: Nicholas Whipps, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7131, nwhipps@biologicaldiversity.org

Rene Umberger, For the Fishes, (808) 875-8759, rene@forthefishes.org

Chloe Detrick, The Humane Society of the United States, (301) 721-6463, cdetrick@humanesociety.org Legal Petition Seeks Crackdown on Aquarium Fish Caught With Cyanide Poison OAKLAND, Calif. Conservation groups filed a legal petition today to prevent the import of tropical aquarium fish that are caught overseas using cyanide, a practice that kills or injures tens of millions of tropical fish and causes widespread destruction of some of the worlds most important coral reefs. Each year as much as 90 percent of the 12.5 million tropical fish entering the United States as pets are caught illegally with cyanide. The sad reality is that cyanide poisoning is causing widespread destruction of some of the worlds most stunning coral reefs. By acting on our petition the Obama administration can put a huge dent in this destructive practice, said Nicholas Whipps, a legal fellow at the Center for Biological Diversity. We cant allow our love of these fish lead to the wholesale destruction of coral reefs. Wild reef fish are caught in the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries by squirting cyanide directly onto reefs to stun tropical fish, which kills as much as 75 percent of all nearby fish on contact, as well as nearby corals. The fish that survive are then shipped to the United States and sold as aquarium fish. Todays petition asks the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to use their authority under the Lacey Act to halt these illegal imports. Millions of animals suffer and die each year through the careless acts of aquarium fishers removing wild fish from the oceans, said Teresa M. Telecky, director of wildlife at Humane Society International. The U.S. government must act now to put a stop to this cruel and illegal practice by requiring certification that imported live fish were not caught with cyanide. Under the Lacey Act, it is illegal to import animals caught in violation of another countrys laws. The largest reef-fish-exporting countries  the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka  have banned cyanide fishing but do little to regulate the practice; the Lacey Act prohibits the import of these illegally caught fish into the United States, but enforcement is lacking. As many as 500 metric tons of cyanide are dumped annually on reefs in the Philippines alone. The petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, For the Fishes, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International requests that imports of tropical aquarium fish be tested for cyanide exposure in order to enter or be sold in the United States. Coral reefs now face unprecedented stress and die-offs from climate change. Those exposed to cyanide poisoning and other unsustainable practices may never recover, said Rene Umberger, executive director of For the Fishes. Saltwater aquarium hobbyists concerned about their impacts should choose from the dozens of captive-bred species now available and steer clear of all fish captured in the wild until federal enforcement is in place. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 990,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. www.biologicaldiversity.org. Get For the Fishes award-winning mobile app, Tank Watch, and learn which saltwater aquarium fish species may be captive-bred and which are captured in the wild. Humane Society International and its partner organizations together constitute one of the worlds largest animal protection organizations. For more than 20 years, HSI has been working for the protection of all animals through the use of science, advocacy, education and hands on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty worldwide  on the Web at hsi.org. The Humane Society of the United States is the nations largest animal protection organization, rated most effective by our peers. For 60 years, we have celebrated the protection of all animals and confronted all forms of cruelty. We are the nations largest provider of hands-on services for animals, caring for more than 100,000 animals each year, and we prevent cruelty to millions more through our advocacy campaigns. Read more about our 60 years of transformational change for animals, and visit us online at humanesociety.org.


For Immediate Release, March 8, 2016 Contacts: Valerie Love, (510) 274-9713, vlove@biologicaldiversity.org

Susan Hoog, (775) 772-3892, harmonyflowdesign@sbcglobal.net Protesters Tell Feds to 'Keep It in the Ground' at Nevada Oil, Gas Auction Dozens Oppose Lease Sale That Could Add 486,000 Tons of Greenhouse Gas Emissions RENO, Nev. Dozens of protesters with signs, art and a 60-foot Keep It in the Ground banner staged a climate rally today outside the Bureau of Land Managements fossil fuels lease sale in a Reno, Nev., casino, urging President Obama to halt new federal fossil fuel leases. The bureaus climate auction, as protesters dubbed it, will allow industry to bid on more than 50,000 acres  more than 75 square miles  of publicly owned oil and gas leases in Nevada. These public lands harbor an estimated 486,000 tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution and provide important habitat to sensitive and imperiled species such as the bi-state sage grouse, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, pygmy rabbit, Prebles shrew and at least 22 species of raptors and owls. Photo by Valerie Love, Center for Biological Diversity. Photos are available for media use. The rally is part of a rapidly growing national movement calling on President Obama to define his climate legacy by halting new federal fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans  a step that would keep up to 450 billion tons of potential carbon pollution from escaping into the atmosphere. Similar Keep It in the Ground protests are planned for upcoming lease sales in Milwaukee, New Orleans and Cheyenne, Wyo., and have already taken place in Alaska, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Since November protested lease sales have been postponed in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Washington, D.C. Groups participating in todays rally included Great Basin Climate Action Network, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Great Basin Resource Watch, Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, Rainforest Action Network, 350.org, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Biological Diversity. Statements From Individuals and Groups Valerie Love of the Center for Biological Diversity:

We cant say were committed to meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement while we continue to extract and burn public oil and gas. President Obama has the power to stop these auctions and must do so now to preserve his climate legacy and ensure a future of clean air, clean water and a livable planet for future generations. Bob Fulkerson With the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada:

Nevada's scarce groundwater is far too precious to sacrifice to fossil fuel corporations. We call on all elected officials to oppose fracking in Nevada." Amanda Starbuck of the Rainforest Action Network:

Fossil fuel companies are profiting off our public lands while wreaking environmental destruction, and passing off massive clean-up costs to taxpayers. President Obama should end these corporate giveaways for good. Marissa Knodel, Climate Campaigner With Friends of the Earth:

Our public lands and waters are not for sale. People are rising up to oppose this corporate giveaway to Fossil Fuel Empires that will only endanger communities and the planet. The Reno climate auction is counter to what should be President Obamas climate legacy: keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Jason Kowalski, U.S. Policy Director at 350.org:

Climate leaders don't sell extraction rights to the highest bidder, they keep fossil fuels in the ground. What President Obama does over the next few months will set the stage for the next administration, and the positions of presidential candidates show that the political consensus is already shifting. Obamas coal moratorium on public lands is huge, but these new fossil fuel lease auctions happening every two weeks point out that there's much more to do." Janette Dean, Environmental Advocate and Current Issue Chair for Global Warming at the Sierra Club's Toiyabe Chapter:

The fact that we American citizens have to keep protesting new oil and gas leases on our public lands along with the environmentally detrimental practice of hydraulic fracturing  also known as fracking  is not acceptable. The U.S. and the world agreed in Paris in December that people and the planet must be protected by reducing carbon emissions as quickly as possible. We therefore insist that President Obama stop the expansion of all fossil fuel leasing on public lands beyond just coal, and that he and his administration work to reduce as many existing fossil fuel leases as possible.



Images from todays protest are available for media use. On Monday, activists projected huge climate messages onto the exterior walls of the Reno casino where Tuesdays auction took place. Background:

Some 67 million acres of U.S. public lands are already leased to dirty fossil fuel industries, an area 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park containing up to 43 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. Nearly one quarter of all U.S. climate pollution already comes from burning fossil fuels from public lands. Remaining federal oil, gas, coal, oil shale and tar sands that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion additional tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution.



In September more than 400 organizations called on President Obama to end federal fossil fuel leasing. In November, Sens. Merkley (D-Ore.), Sanders (D-Vt.) and others introduced legislation to end new federal fossil fuel leases and cancel non-producing federal fossil fuel leases. Last month the Obama administration placed a moratorium on federal coal leasing while the Department of the Interior studies its impacts on taxpayers and the planet. Since November 2015, in response to protests, the BLM has postponed oil and gas leasing auctions in Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Washington, D.C.



Download the September Keep It in the Ground letter to President Obama.



Download Grounded: The Presidents Power to Fight Climate Change, Protect Public Lands by Keeping Publicly Owned Fossil Fuels in the Ground (this report details the legal authorities with which a president can halt new federal fossil fuel leases).



Download The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions of U.S. Federal Fossil Fuels (this report quantifies the volume and potential greenhouse gas emissions of remaining federal fossil fuels).



Download The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions fact sheet.



Download Public Lands, Private Profits (this report details the corporations profiting from climate-destroying fossil fuel extraction on public lands).



Download WildEarth Guardians formal petition calling on the Department of the Interior to study for the first time ever the climate impacts of the federal oil and gas leasing program and to place a moratorium on new leasing until completed that study is completed.


For Immediate Release, March 8, 2016 Contacts: Lori Ann Burd, Center for Biological Diversity, (971) 717-6405, laburd@biologicaldiversity.org

Larissa Walker, Center for Food Safety, (202) 547-9359, LWalker@CenterforFoodSafety.org

Tiffany Finck-Haynes, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0715, tfinckhaynes@foe.org

Paul Towers, Pesticide Action Network, (916) 216-1082, ptowers@panna.org USDA Urged to Reform Scientific Integrity Policy After Allegations of Scientific Censorship Federal Scientists Cite Agency Interference in Research on Bee-toxic Pesticides WASHINGTON As scrutiny of censorship of federal scientists has grown  including a feature in Sundays The Washington Post Magazine  a coalition of more than 50 sustainable agriculture, environmental, beekeeper and public-interest organizations is once again pressing the agency for overdue reforms. The coalition sent a follow-up letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture today expressing growing concerns over the alleged suppression, harassment and censorship of agency scientists, particularly with regard to research showing harms to pollinators from certain pesticides  a controversial topic in the agriculture community. As a result the groups are urging the Department of Agriculture to publicly investigate these allegations and make immediate binding reforms to the agencys scientific integrity policy. In October 2015 Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, a senior scientist at the Departments Agricultural Research Service, filed a whistleblower complaint charging the agency with suppression of research findings that challenged the safety and efficacy of a widely used class of pesticides: neonicotinoids. In the letter sent today, the groups and their millions of members are calling on the Department to 1) conduct a thorough investigation into the matter; 2) make the investigation publicly available once it is complete; 3) take any necessary steps to ensure that the Agriculture Department maintains scientific integrity moving forward; and 4) request that an independent, third party conduct an investigation into this issue. The story in The Washington Post Magazine also highlights issues of the lack of scientific integrity at the agency, pointing to retaliation against other scientists, most of whom have remained anonymous, fearing reprisal. One former Department of Agriculture scientist now speaking out, Jeffrey Pettis, says he was told by a member of Congress that he hadnt followed the script at a congressional hearing meant to focus on mites without bringing up issues of pesticides. In contrast, an internal scientific-integrity review panel at the Department recently rejected the complaint of scientific suppression by Lundgren, claiming that agency had not violated its scientific-integrity policies. In February 2016 Agriculture Department Inspector General Phyllis Fong said the Department will open a broad investigation into the issue of scientific censorship, but did not specify whether the investigation would be made publicly available. Earlier in 2015 Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a citizen petition requesting that the Agriculture Department adopt new policies that would further protect the ability of government scientists to evaluate and communicate freely about the safety of agricultural chemicals without political interference or fear of retaliation. PEER reported that more than 10 Agriculture Department scientists have faced consequences or investigations when their work called into question the health and safety of agricultural chemicals. The global neonicotinoid insecticide industry sells more than $2.6 billion annually. The USDA has a responsibility to protect the health and safety of the American public and to ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of the environment and our natural resources. It is imperative that we are able to trust that our government and its employees serve the public interest rather than private corporations, said the groups. Lundgren and Pettis are not alone in their experiences of research suppression. The challenges are significant for scientists just trying to do their jobs, said Evaeggelos Vallianatos, Ph.D., a former scientist for the EPA and author of the book Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA. He also documented the challenges federal agency scientists face standing up for their research and speaking out, in the face of political pressure. Senior managers have expectations and scientists know the consequences of not being a good team player, despite the undermining of scientific integrity. Groups submitting todays letter continue to urge federal agencies to strengthen scientific-integrity policies  and follow the science to protect bees and other pollinators. The White House Task Force on Pollinator Health was established as part of a Presidential Memorandum issued by President Obama in June 2014; it called for a federal strategy to protect pollinators and mandated that the EPA and USDA, as co-chairs of the Task Force, assess the effect of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, on bees and other pollinators and take action where necessary. Recent allegations of Agriculture Department censorship and suppression of scientific research on pesticides calls into question the agencys ability to co-chair this task force and develop a meaningful federal strategy that will truly protect bees, birds, monarchs and other critical pollinators.
Ive been gone a while from the blogging scene. Some of my more regular readers no doubt noticed but did not hassle me about it. Thank you for that. Sinc...

6 years ago
Following its successful launch in Kenya last year, medical technology company, Merck's campaign aimed at improving access to safe, quality fertility care across Africa is being rolled out in Uganda.

Opening the dialogue on infertility

The Merck More than a Mother campaign, a pan-African initiative aims to build fertility capacity, raises awareness about infertility prevention and male infertility. It also opens a dialogue to define interventions to reduce the stigma and social suffering of infertile women in Africa, which includes discrimination, and physical and psychological violence.

Countless women in Africa face fear, abuse and discrimination every day simply because they are infertile. We are proud to work with the Ministry of Health, the medical community and parliamentarians to change perceptions and reduce the harsh social suffering of infertile women in Africa, says Belen Garijo, Merck CEO: Healthcare.

Causes of infertility in developing countries

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lower levels of development are thought to be associated with higher levels of non-genetic and preventable causes of infertility such as poor nutrition, untreated sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unsafe abortion, consequence of infections caused by the practice of female genital mutilation, exposure to smoking and to leaded petrol and other environmental pollutants. Hence prevention awareness is very important.

Embryologist training programme

Part of the campaign comprises the African Embryologists Training Programme in partnership with Indonesian Reproductive Science Institute (IRSI).

Most sub-Saharan African countries dont have trained embryologists hence providing training will contribute significantly to improve the quality and accessibility to fertility care to couples in Uganda and Africa, so that they can start their families, says Minister of State for Health for Uganda, Sarah Opendi.

Merck will provide training for African embryologists in Indonesia starting with candidates from Uganda and Kenya, then scaling up to the rest of the continent.
A new development could be hatching at Sovereign Food Investments, with a rival poultry group swooping in on its shares.

Sovereigns latest shareholder register shows that Country Bird Holdings (CBH) picked up more than 1-million Sovereign shares last month.

This equates to a 1.4% stake in the Uitenhage-based poultry producer.

On paper, CBHs shareholding does not carry much influence. But the position is intriguing, since CBHs prime mover, Kevin James, has already built a substantial nest in Sovereign through two nominee companies.

Synapp International and the Buzby Trust  two entities associated with James  collectively hold 8.33% of Sovereign.

The bulk of this holding was acquired at the end of last year.

The exact intentions of James, who has kept a low profile since emerging as a key shareholder, are not clear at this point. On Monday, his legal counsel Clint Holing of Kern & Partners indicated that it was unlikely James would comment on developments.

James has a history with Sovereign, having acquired  via CBH  a sizeable stake in the business in 2008. CBH was initially involved in a two-way tussle for Sovereign with agri-business conglomerate Afgri, but both parties retreated when Sovereign opted to recapitalise its balance sheet through a rights issue in 2009.

Sovereign has a market capitalisation of about R500m and strong support from institutional shareholders like Prudential, Old Mutual, Sanlam and RECM & Calibre  which might preclude CBH launching a takeover of the business.

Opportune Investments CEO Chris Logan  one of the dissenting shareholders  said that if James was serious about investing in Sovereign, he should table an open bid for the company and engage with shareholders and the board. Logan said that CBH  which delisted from the JSE last year  now boasted the Black River Food Fund as a significant investor.

"Black River invests in leading companies in the food industry, and clearly gives CBH greater financial fire power, capability and credibility."

Jamess presence on the shareholder register has irked Sovereigns board of directors. Last month Sovereign chairman Tom Pritchard said the company still enjoyed strong shareholder support despite Mr Jamess attempts to frustrate an important empowerment deal and simultaneous capital return to shareholders (via a share buy-back).

Earlier this year James and other dissenting shareholders tried to block Sovereigns proposed empowerment transaction  despite the company having support of institutional shareholders representing about 70% of the company.

Minority shareholder dissatisfaction harks back to last years annual general meeting when criticism was levelled at Sovereigns board for taking substantial performance fees that pecked away at bottom-line profits. The criteria for awarding the performance bonuses was also revised  without shareholders consent  from achieving return on equity and return on assets targets to a measure based on margins.

Sovereign has lately seen its shares on the JSE trading at a wider discount to its intrinsic net asset value of over R10/share. This has ensured ongoing speculation that the firm is a takeover target.

Some shareholders, however, believe the proposed empowerment scheme  which includes Sovereigns executives  would effectively block any takeover bid. Shareholders are set to vote on the revised empowerment scheme this month.
E-commerce experts remain upbeat that the market is developing sufficiently and is about to boom, despite slow e-commerce uptake in South Africa over the past five years. Data presented by leading local operators at the recent eCommerce Africa 2016 conference indicates that appetite in the market is healthy, even though e-commerce accounts for only R6 billion, which is approximately 0.8% of total retail spend. With lingering trust issues and a resistance to paid shipping and delivery, local online buyers seem to be browsing and not clicking. Or are they?

According to Vincent Hoogduijn, CEO for Media 24s e-commerce division, the slow adoption is more of an offline e-commerce problem than online. The underlying reason that e-commerce is not growing as fast as it should be in SA is not due to the online experience. Retail is over-developed in SA, and its not helping e-commerce. The consumer doesnt have the urgency to go online.

South Africas retail density, calculated by metres of retail floor space per 1,000 inhabitants in a country, is listed as second after the United Arab Emirates, a nation that is obsessed with shopping malls. There are 32 shopping malls per million inhabitants, ranking South Africa third worldwide, after Australia and New Zealand.

Offline not so good

The e-commerce user experience is fantastic, but the offline experience is not good enough, said Hoogduijn. Eighty percent of the questions his company gets are related to offline customer experience. Very few people complain about the design of a website compared to people who complain about not receiving a product on time after purchasing online.

Ipsos recorded that South Africans bought R28.8 billion worth of online goods in 2015, with R9.5 billion spent outside the country.

Hoogduijn puts the rise of cross-border e-commerce by South Africans down to a lack of access to product as high-end buyers seek exclusive products overseas. Product curation and selection needs to improve, according to Hoogduijn.

Can mobile convenience turn the tide?

The groundswell of adoption is undeniable. Ipsos data released last year shows that 57% of South African internet users have shopped online in the past 12 months. Add to this the disruption of mobile phones and what social media activity has done in shaping the acceptance of engaging with brands online.

Of the expected R37 billion total online spend in 2016, also from Ipsos findings, 32% will occur on a mobile device. Experts have also noted that the current transition to mobile is happening much faster than any transition previously.

PayUs Mel Gischen, the consumer head of PayU South Africa, said: Social media usage in South Africa is driving mobile device obsession. This is having an impact on our levels of trust and convenience.

Millennials will kick-start

To illustrate this, of the 13 million Facebook users in South Africa, 10 million access the website from a mobile device. Gischen believes that millennials will kick-start this upsurge as they command a commoditisation of online services. For example, *53% of millennials interviewed say all banks are the same and many are driving start-up firms to overhaul how banks work.

The digitisation of payments will play its part. As South Africans have become used to using their phones to pay for coffee and parking, the next frontier, said Gischen, is people using online payment methods more easily via their digital wallet.

According to Statista, the average mobile wallet basket size is growing at a rapid rate. A 2016 average consumer online purchase is predicted to be R272 while wallet purchases are R95. By 2020 this will be inverted to R631 for wallet purchases versus R383 for consumer online purchases without a wallet.

Gischen said: We are now seeing innovative products being launched to capture this shift in behaviour. The focus will be on making transactions more personalised, flexible and easier for the end-user, while offering businesses the potential for more transactions and greater customer loyalty over time. The result is a seamless blend of online and offline payments for consumers. Keeping up may be a challenge, thats why it is critical that choose the right payment provider. Some fintech operators are even starting to encroach on banks core business. We are watching this space eagerly.

*Source: The future of money, Alex Rampell & Angela Strange (2015)
Diversified consumer brands company AVI is looking beyond the economic slump, and has almost tripled its war chest by raising its debt facilities to R1.5bn.

AVI CEO Simon Crutchley. Image source: BDlive

"The reality is we run our business for the long term," AVI CEO Simon Crutchley said on Monday, after delivering the groups interim earnings report. After spending about R451m in the first half, which was mainly directed to replacing vessels for its fishing business I&J, AVI will spend a further R500m on improving the capacity of its biscuit line, rolling out new stores in its retail division, and on expanding its global operations in the rest of the continent.

Money will also be directed to installing back-up power systems, and the group said it would also look at finding alternatives to water supply. "Each project would have been tested for a medium-term scenario for efficiency and capacity reasons," Crutchley said.

In the six months to December, AVI increased headline earnings per share, the main measure of profit growth in SA, 11.3% to R28.16. The increase was driven mainly by the groups hedging policy, which protected profits from currency movements and commodity prices, as well as higher selling prices across all product categories.

Operating profit at I&J soared 62.8% on the weak rand and low fuel price.

Ron Klipin, analyst at Cratos Wealth said the groups return on capital of almost 30% justified the high levels of debt, which resulted in finance costs jumping 85% to R60.4m.

Chris Gilmour, analyst at Absa Wealth and Investments said the bank might buy AVI shares because of the defensive nature it derived from operating in all consumer segments.
International syndicates trading in endangered wildlife have gone hi-tech by turning to social media to protect their multi-billion dollar businesses from increasing pressure by global law enforcement agencies.

Using secret "closed groups" on Facebook, criminals have expanded their networks tenfold. Wildlife protection groups estimate that nearly 70,000 people access these secret sites.

South Africa is not immune, with roaring sales of endangered plants and animals on the internet.

A report, "The Trading Faces", produced by Traffic, a UK wildlife protection monitoring group, has revealed how international animal traffickers are turning to social media, especially Facebook, to ply their trade.

The document, which monitored Facebook over five months, reveals that 14 closed groups are trading in Malaysian endangered wildlife.

Among the animals sold were sun bears, gibbons, otters, the rare Indonesian yellow-crested cockatoo, and Madagascan tortoises.

A separate investigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare found more than 30,000 live wild animals, as well as animal parts and products, for sale in 16 countries on 280 online marketplaces.

All the animals are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (better known as "CITES").

The Traffic report showed that most of the Facebook groups were "closed", requiring membership to view and trade online.

Traffic spokesman Richard Thomas said the closed groups had almost 70,000 active members, with 106 identified as animal-sellers.

He said Facebook was working to stop such illegal trading on its platform.

The previously undocumented trade has sparked alarm among international and South African wildlife protection groups.

The Traffic report's co-author, Kanitha Krishnasamy, said that the rise of social media had enabled the creation of a thriving marketplace for threatened wild animals, often as bought as pets.

Traffic's Sarah Stoner, a senior crime analyst, said the wildlife protection body believed the findings reflected a worldwide problem.

"Social media's ability to put traffickers in touch with so many potential buyers quickly, cheaply and anonymously is worrying," Stoner said.

Tania McCrea-Steele, IFAW's global wildlife cyber crime project leader, said: "Our intelligence indicates that the online trading in endangered wildlife is a significant issue in South Africa.

"Sites include those of Gumtree and eBay."

IFAW spokesman Christine Pretorius said: "In South Africa the emerging threat on online market-places is the trade in rare and endangered cycads and aloes."

Source: The Times
Statements by Nedbank and its parent Old Mutual yesterday fuelled speculation that Nedbank was once again up for sale or may be unbundled.

Both confirmed that "all options" are being considered in a strategic review, sending Old Mutual's shares soaring 6.51% in afternoon trade in London, where it has its primary listing, while Nedbank's fell marginally.

Nedbank urged its shareholders to exercise caution while dealing in its shares.

"The strong share price move today does indicate that some market participants expect some unlocking of value in the near term," PSG Wealth analyst Adrian Cloete said.

Asked last week if the bank could be up for sale, Nedbank CEO Mike Brown did not confirm or deny anything, saying that the bank continued to collaborate and work with Old Mutual's South African arm.

"The parent company is best placed to answer," he said.

The strategic review was started by Old Mutual CEO Bruce Hemphill when he took over last year. He did not respond to queries sent to him at the weekend.

Reports have speculated that the review could result in a break-up of the group. OM Asset Management, Old Mutual's USlisted affiliate, had not issued any warning to shareholders at the time of going to print.

Results of the review will be unveiled on Friday, and if it is confirmed that Old Mutual will dispose of Nedbank, it will be the second of SA's big four banks to lose a parent. Barclays Plc said last week it would sell down its 62.3% stake in Barclays Africa.

Public Investment Corporation (PIC) CEO Dan Matjila, who had expressed enthusiasm for picking up more shares in Barclays Africa before Barclays Plc announced its intention to sell, would not comment on potential purchases of Nedbank shares.

The PIC is the bank's third largest shareholder.

"Old Mutual Plc has not made an announcement, nor has it provided details about possible restructuring of the group," Matjila said. "For this reason, the PIC is unable to make further comments."

Hemphill has already sold off the insurer's interest in fixed income boutique Rogge Global Partners, and parts of its Bermudan unit.

Yesterday there were mixed reactions from analysts on the two companies' statements, with one saying it could be due to JSE requirements; while another said there was a fair chance Nedbank could be up for sale, with regulatory red tape and investor sentiment turning against European companies with controlling stakes in foreign banks and insurers.

"Old Mutual may keep Nedbank as they are planning to get R1bn of synergies, but with the new capital requirements the current structure is less capital efficient than in the past," Mr Cloete said.

Former Old Mutual CEO Julian Roberts last year said the group was targeting pre-tax adjusted operating profit, cost and capital synergies of R1bn between Old Mutual's Southern African operations, Nedbank and Mutual & Federal - another affiliate - by the end of next year. It had identified half of these synergies by the end of 2014.

Nico Smuts, an analyst at 36One Asset Management said Old Mutual could be weighing up the relative merits of unbundling its Nedbank shares to shareholders against putting it up for sale.

"Old Mutual has a large South African shareholder base that would be happy to hold their Nedbank shares directly instead of via Old Mutual," he said.

But this approach had negative consequences, as the broad shareholder base would mean the bank would not have a shareholder large enough to act as its shareholder of reference - one that is able to step in in times of hardship. "Old Mutual SA could retain a large stake, but this may not be the most efficient use of its capital," said Smuts.

It was also likely that the group could hive off Old Mutual Emerging Markets together with Nedbank and Mutual & Federal from the rest of the group, listing them separately.

"Old Mutual could list the UK wealth business, but that means selling a portion of the business at a level that doesn't reflect the UK wealth business's full potential," said Cloete.

Smuts said separate listings could alleviate regulatory pressures in Europe, "as long as the UK-listed business no longer has an influential stake in businesses in SA".
South Africa's agriculture sector lost a billion dollars over the past year due to the worst drought in a century, the government announced on Tuesday.

Siegella via pixabay

Poor rain saw the agriculture sector contract by 14 percent, according to the latest figures from StatsSA. The drought "resulted in losses worth 16 billion rand ($1 billion) across the sector," an official statement said.

The continent's most advanced economy grew by an annualised 0.6 percent in the last quarter of 2015.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund predict that South Africa's economic growth will be less than one percent in 2016.

Food imports

Shortages resulting from the drought will see South Africa, the regional food basket, importing at least four million tonnes of the local staple maize.

Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana said the country will need to import up to six million tons of food to avert hunger at home and meet its contractual export obligations to neighbouring countries.

The severe drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon has also affected most of the countries in the region, some of which traditionally rely on South Africa for food imports.

The government has set aside 502 million rand ($32 million) to deliver water and refurbish boreholes in some of the driest parts of the country.

Source: AFP
Temporary employment services are a valuable asset for many companies, providing skilled and suitable workers quickly to ensure businesses have the resource they need, when they need it.

Labour-relations are not as straight forward as they once were. In a volatile economy, businesses need to be flexible and proactive to ensure sustainability and growth, says Kay Vittee, CEO of Kelly. A contingent workforce can play a large role in this, allowing businesses to adapt quickly to both internal and market conditions.

In addition to assisting at periods when specific skills or resources are required, contingent workers also lessen the impact of internal absenteeism resulting in consistent levels of client satisfaction and loyalty. However, the idea of a contingent workforce raises many questions for business owners, such as; what are the legalities of this arrangement?

Who is the employer?

The contingent worker is employed by the temporary employment services organisation, which means it is ultimately responsible for any benefits and general labour relations matters. Dual responsibility, however, lies with both the employment organisation and the client organisation to abide by the Labour Relations Act (LRA). In so doing, the employees rights will always be protected. It is important for the employment organisation and the client to agree on who takes the responsibility for LRA-related matters for example, disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Treating contingent workers

For contingent workers, the first day nerves may occur more often than for most. Recognising this and delivering an appropriate induction will help to ease the pressure on the worker and bolster productivity as they will get to know your business quicker.

In addition to this, it is important for the contingent workforce to feel as if they are part of the team. To encourage this behaviour in the workplace, treat contingent workers in the same way as you would your permanent employees, for example include them in team activities. It is also best practice to keep your staff informed of contingent worker appointments to ensure a mutual trust and respect within your company.

Company culture is often the defining reason that employees stay at the organisation, creating both an enjoyable and productive workplace. When briefing your staffing provider, it is important to outline your workplace culture to ensure that your contingent workers are the right fit for your business. This is an essential consideration for all employees, no matter the length of their service.

Benefits of a contingent workforce

Contingent workers not only provide relief in potentially stressful employer situations  such as trying for find a replacement for an employee who is due to go on maternity leave  but also come with a number of productivity, cost-saving and administrative benefits.

Employment service providers offer a fast turn-around for employee replacement, both in the short- and long-term, whether it be filling in for a day or two or full maternity cover. Contingent workers are effectively proven talent  fully qualified and experienced, such personnel are used to jumping in at a moments notice and picking up where others left off.

The client organisation does not have to worry about pay roll and benefits, alleviating the administration process that normally goes into sourcing dependable staff. Employment organisations pre-identify and fully vet staff, which reduces the costs associated with recruiting and selection.

The macroeconomic impact of utilising a contingent workforce is positive with the industry contributing over R40 billion to the economy and employing more than 20,000 people within the sector. Moreover, approximately 1-million contingent workers are out in the market at any given time.

The contingent workforce is a crucial tool for any business and the South African economy as a whole. Not only does it provide jobs for South Africans who may be unable to find permanent employment, it also offers organisations a supple staffing solution when they need it most, concludes Vittee.
A recently released skills paper from GE identifies a three-pronged strategy to combat South Africa's skills shortage. These are a stronger education system with closer links to industry, more open and flexible labour markets and a broader talent localisation strategy pursued, in partnership with global companies and the pipeline of skills needed to leverage the technological advances of tomorrow.

Bianca Tulumello, HR director for GE Africa, says, South Africa has an opportunity to boost growth, create jobs and improve social stability, thanks to a burgeoning population. Helping to drive the education agenda in South Africa, and on the rest of the continent, is one of the key priorities for the group.

In 2014, South Africas list of the top 100 scarce skills in the country included electrical engineer, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, quantity surveyor, programme or project manager, finance manager, physical and engineering science technicians, industrial and production engineers, electrician, and chemical engineer.

GE is investing in bringing the best people together in South Africa to help create a better future for the country and the continent. As part of its commitment, the company has committed up to $5 million to a GE Scholarship programme, run in partnership with the African Leadership Academy to enable students to attend the academy.

All stakeholders need to work towards improving the quality of the education system at all levels. According to the skills paper, the youth account for 55% of South Africas working-age population, however this segment of the work force faces additional obstacles to find employment. Youth unemployment remains a pressing issue and, because of the 2009 recession the unemployment rate among youth rose from 32.7% in 2008 to 36.1% in 2011 and has subsequently remained between 35-37%.

With the governments National Development Plan seeking to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030, the country is relying on the public sector, the private sector and partnerships between both to support inclusive growth, which is best achieved with a skilled workforce.

The research conducted by GE shows that, beyond youth skills development and skills development in the transportation sector, the healthcare and energy sectors are key areas in need of a skills boost. For this, and other areas, it has invested R500 million in a customer innovation centre in South Africa that will be a centre of excellence for innovation and technology transfer as it localises solutions for the African continent.

Susan Peters, senior VP HR, said, GEs commitment to education permeates every part of the business. Globally, the group focusses on bridging the skills gap found in every market. Research, such as the Skills Paper, allows us to identify the most effective way to address the skills shortage across a range of countries, including South Africa. Working together with government, the group can help combat this critical issue.

One of the strategic objectives of the company is working to transform and empower leaders. The group has an extensive programme to develop employees in South Africa and abroad to ensure that their skills are kept relevant throughout their career. A variety of internship and on-the-job training programmes, such as the financial management programme, the communications leadership development programme, the Edison engineering development programme, and the early career development program (ECDP) among many others ensure that employees never stop learning.

Improving the state of South African education is a priority for the government, the private sector and the public at large. The group remains committed to working with government to deliver skills development programmes at all levels that will help build local suppliers and industry.
Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, No 66 of 1995 (LRA) provides that if a transfer of business takes place, all the rights and obligations between the old employer and an employee at the time of the transfer continue as if they had been the rights and obligations between the new employer and the employee. The general consequence of this provision is that all employment contracts are automatically transferred from an old employer to a new employer. In addition, an employee that is unfairly dismissed by the old employer is able to enforce an award against a new employer, if the new employer was joined to the proceedings in time.

The courts have recently been faced with instances where employees who seek to enforce awards against new employers have failed to join them - either during CCMA proceedings or at any time before the Labour Court issues an order. The following question then arises: Does s197 of the LRA automatically substitutes the new employer as the judgment debtor in an award obtained against the old employer?

The first time this question was before our courts was in Ngema and Others v Screenex Wire Waring Manufactures and Another (2013). The court took the view that while employees enjoy the same rights against a new employer as they did against an old employer, the employees are still required to take positive steps to join a new employer to enforce those rights.

The reason for this requirement is that such a joinder allows a new employer an opportunity to be heard in matters that directly and substantially affect their business. In the Ngema case, the employees were dismissed for operational requirements and they were aware that the business was transferred as a going concern. The Labour Court ordered that they be reinstated, as their dismissal was substantively and procedurally unfair. This decision was upheld on appeal and, only then did the employees seek to join the new employer and enforce the reinstatement order against it.

As was shown in Wallejee and Another v FCSA Organisation Services and Another 2015, joinder of a new employer may not take place after judgment has been handed down. Thus, an employees failure to join a known new employer before the Labour Court amounts to a waiver of their right to enforce that order against the new employer.

In National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa v Intervale and Others December 2014, the Constitutional Court held that conciliation is a precondition for the adjudication of any dispute by the Labour Court and failing to cite all employers in a referral to conciliation is not compliant with LRA provisions. This means that an employer who has not been part of conciliation with dismissed employees cannot be joined to an action in the Labour Court dealing with the alleged unfairness of their dismissal. A non-joinder in conciliation, however, does not preclude employees from joining an employer in the Labour Court, if such an employer is a new employer in circumstances where a business was transferred as a going concern. (See Kunyuza and Others v Ace Wholesalers [2015] (Unreported)).

The defence that employees have waived their right to enforce an order by not joining new employer timeously in Labour Court proceedings does not address the merits of the matter. Although business transferees may escape liability on the preliminary point of non-joinder, they should not rely on such a procedural oversight. Rather, they should take matters into their own hands by ensuring that their sale of business agreements provides sufficient cover in the event that employees look to them as judgment debtors.
Delta Africa will soon announce the acquisition of its first properties in Botswana and Ghana, in a deal worth $257m.

The company said on Friday, 4 March, its dividend growth for the year to June was expected to be between 3% and 6% from the previous year.

It will be the largest pan-African property fund on the JSE, with more than R6.5bn worth of assets, when its merger with Mara Diversified Property Holdings is completed.

It will then be known as Mara Delta.

Delta Africa's board said it was confident that the company would achieve distribution growth of between 3%, or 11.63 US cents per share, and 6%, or 11.95c per share, for the financial year ended June 30, when compared with the distribution for the financial year ended June 30 last year, or 11.28c per share.

CEO Bronwyn Corbett said the company would soon announce the details of acquisitions in Botswana and Ghana.

Corbett said Delta Africa was facing less competition from South African funds in Africa, while some economies in Africa, such as Nigeria were struggling.

Corbett said many South African-listed property funds also felt that Africa was too risky a market. Some fund managers have said many African property assets are too expensive compared with other markets.

"Our research indicates that prices per square metre have been significantly higher (in Africa) than similar investments in developed markets such as the US, Canada and Spain," Alternative Real Estate Capital Management's Garreth Elston said.

Corbett said the development component of Mara Delta was about $500m to be rolled out over five to 10 years.

Stanlib head of listed property funds Keillen Ndlovu has said the Delta Africa and Mara partnership was a strong move by both parties.

"It's a good deal. It has more critical mass as compared to funds doing something on their own and having small portfolios," he said.

Source: Business Day
Having an in-depth understanding of your consumer makes it far easier to find the sweet spot for your brands' investment and growth. Using a blanket approach will not provide growth.

Brand marketers need to be selective about their strategic targets and prime prospects. The biggest opportunity in the consumer goods industry today is to understand who the target is more clearly. Many brands make the mistake of not having a clearly defined target as well as not understanding as much as they can about that target.

lucian coman via 123RF

If you dont understand your consumer there is a good chance what you propose will not be meaningful or relevant. In addition, because you are not targeting correctly, you will spend a lot of money covering a broader base or investing in the wrong platforms. Because advertising platforms have changed, there is a misperception that if you engage the consumer on these platforms you will automatically touch them.

Defining which target consumers your brand is most relevant for and defining the prime prospects, focuses your marketing efforts. Your strategic targets are the majority of your brand users from your total consumer category. They are all the consumers to whom your equity is relevant and meaningful. Your prime prospects are a subset of the strategic target based on specific wants and needs which will be the source of near term growth. By defining the biggest opportunity for the next two years for your brand, you are able to define your activities in a more focused way!

Holistic profiling matters

The traditional way of defining your targets using demographics only is a mistake. While demographics do play a role, accurately profiling your consumers must include psychographics, demographics, attitudes, shopping and media behaviour, life stage and so on. If you dont take a holistic profile into account when you target your consumer, you risk not creating a connection with them. Today the softer issues are the biggest drivers for consumers.

A great example of a company that understands how to profile its consumers is Harley Davidson. They have insightfully tapped into the psychographics and the demographics of their audience. From a psychographics point of view Harley Davidson is about a lifestyle  its about being a rebel, a thrill seeker - at least on weekends. From a demographic point of view their target are males, approximately 46 years old (vs 38 of other motorbikes), professionals with upper income (in fact even a doctor, banker or lecturer can be a member of the Harley Davidson club!). If the brand had focused purely on the rebel seeker they would not have appealed to a highly lucrative demographic and focusing purely on the demographics would not have created the right strategy for the rebel seeker.

Companies need to go back to understanding their consumers. In the past funds moved from research towards the shopper and in-store, however they now need to go back and do in-depth consumer research.

Top tips for 2016:

 Spend budget on these research techniques: qualitative research; lifestyle immersion; and longitudinal research.  If you dont have budget for research, apply what you already know and come up with a definition of who your consumer is. Reviewing what you already know and then workshopping it will give you a significant advantage.  Find out if your target market has changed. If its been three years or longer since you reviewed your strategic targets you need to do a review. Are they still a strategic target? How have they changed?  Within your strategic targets, define those consumers (prime prospects) who will provide the biggest opportunity in the next two years and develop your campaigns and activities around them.  When defining your strategic targets, make sure they will deliver on your business targets, if they wont, your strategic target is wrong.  Review your internal capabilities  if your teams need further training on holistic profiling and defining their targets accurately support them to become better at it.

It is essential that marketers revisit the way they understand and define their strategic targets and prime prospects. You need to live and walk in your consumers eyes to identify your market holistically.
It's one thing to create a successful local brand and something else entirely to successfully rebrand 100 years later. Here's how Ackermans did so with the February edition of its Ackermans Club magazine, based on reader input.

Ackermans celebrated a century of successful trading with a new look and content structure in the February 2016 edition of its Ackermans Club magazine.

The new-look February and March 2016 magazine covers

As the first custom publication in the New Media stable 18 years ago, its fitting that the New Media team managed the change, led by magazine editor Elmari Rautenbach and Andrew Nunneley, GM at New Media. They started with a new masthead featuring a shorter, simpler, more direct and modern A, with a font thats easier to read in darker environments and content that holistically reflects all aspects of its 250,000 subscribers lives, complete with informal tone that even combines English with vernacular language when appropriate, as reader feedback played an important part in the research process.

Nunneley and Rautenbach let us in on a few secrets of this successful rebrand and how they managed the process

1. What sparked the need for a makeover?

Nunneley: Ackermans is very focused on understanding their consumers needs and everything they do is directed by their main purpose of bringing value to the lives of their customers. Over the past year, Ackermans has spent a lot of time listening to customers, interviewing shoppers and even spending time in their homes. The information they gained enabled us to do a review on the magazine armed with the knowledge of what readers desired or needed. The refresh is the result.

2. Explain the redesign process to us from a design perspective.

Rautenbach

Rautenbach: The design process took around a month. Our first step was to mine the information from Ackermans and define who our reader is  where she reads, how she reads, her background and living conditions. Then, when it came to content, we were guided by Ackermans overall value pledge to give the reader even more than what she expects. It was important that we viewed the reader holistically in order to provide real-time value to life. The content also had to be evaluated in terms of the time that the reader realistically has to engage with the magazine.

We identified a number of priorities and then unpacked them. This included:

A layered approach: Every page would from now on contain a number of short, visual entry points to layer information and keep the reader engaged.

A design device tying everything together: While playing around with the A of Ackermans, we turned it on its side. This led to the diagonal line that features throughout the magazine as a dynamic shape, ensuring a modern yet understated feel.

An easier, more comfortable read: We understand our readers dont always have proper light or good quality glasses. They also often commute long distances. So we changed the body font, headings and column sizes for better legibility. In addition the flags were simplified to navigate the magazine with more ease, and more infographics were introduced for simple, visual communication.

A fresh, modern masthead: We experimented with numerous options and finally decided on the shorter A. that Ackermans use in their newsletters. This is in keeping with the trend of mastheads in a square, which can easily live online too. The payoff line underneath was changed from "Your exclusive magazine" to the more personal, informal "Even more for you", clearly communicating our values.

A more playful, personalised look and feel: After adding more colour throughout the magazine, including in the headings, we introduced "handwritten" notes as if from a best friend. The notes point to unique features of the merchandise, express delight or point out something to remember. These notes tell the reader the magazine knows her and understands what makes her feel  and look  her very best.

The overall effect is fresh, modern, inviting and fun  offering loads of practical information in easily digestible ways, and sporting a look that is immediately recognisable as the new Ackermans Club magazine.

3. Talk us through the value of custom publishing and how it works to build brand loyalty.

Nunnely

Nunneley: When done properly, custom publishing has the power to significantly improve brand loyalty and profits. By providing an editorial package rooted in the customers needs, we are able to not only build loyalty amongst Ackermans customers but also drive sales for Ackermans. With Ackermans, we have been able to prove that ongoing, frequent and valuable communication makes a difference to the bottom line. Ackermans are able to monitor spend of customers who receive the magazine and, over a period of time, their spend gradually increases. After two years of receiving the magazine, these customers spend on average over a third more than customers who dont receive the magazine. Interestingly, this increased spend isnt always on specifically featured product lines which indicates that the communication is building a more general level of loyalty and awareness rather than a direct response to a special price or specific communication. Building a trusted and commercially valuable relationship with customers through content is not a short-term play, but over time it builds brand trust that no other marketing initiative can match.

4. Looking further afield, what are the biggest trends we can expect in custom publishing in 2016?

Nunneley: Utility - Theres just so much content out there and much of it doesnt add real value. We can only expect to get customers attention if we provide something that they perceive as valuable.

Video - As smartphone penetration and the availability of high speed internet access opens up in South Africa we will follow the rest of the world with an insatiable demand for video content. Clever brands will not only provide video content but facilitate their customers sharing their own content.

Distribution - The rate of content production by brands, publishers, consumers and just about everyone continues to grow, but half of it is never seen! Without a solid distribution strategy that puts your content in front of the right people, on the right channel, at the right time, its going to get lost in the crowded content universe. Expect traditional media spend to start to shift to the distribution of valued content through a new world of customer touch points.

Seems were set for a revolution in custom publishing as a whole.

Click here for more on Ackermans and New Media, and here for more on #BrandManagerMonth.
The annual Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity, which opened on 6 March 2016, sees its delegate numbers up from around 1800 in 2015, to over 2300. This year's entries, up by 3% to 2542, are being judged by the Festival's largest ever assembly of jurors, 50% of whom are women.

The 511 entries they have shortlisted have just been announced with the UAE behind 312 of them, followed by Lebanon with 64 and Egypt with 54.

Harnessing the well-documented record-breaking zeal of the region, a challenge has also been set for the MENA creative community to notch up their own Guinness World Records title at the Festival. Delegates are being encouraged to get involved and make their mark using specially designed rubber stamps.

Dubai Lynx Festival Director, Emma Farmer, said, A dynamic, advancing industry, coupled with diversified content and expanded awards, was behind the enthusiastic participation from across the region. There is energy for innovation, thirst for knowledge and passion for creativity here that continues to propel us forward. The Festival has gone from strength to strength in its 10th year, and theres never been a more exciting time to be part of it.

The strong emphasis on innovation, which will permeate the entire Dubai Lynx programme, is also already evident. Much of the data and technology-inspired content this year can be found in the Festival Village, which is new for 2016. For more information, go to www.dubailynx.com.
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The meeting was halted following the intervention of local government officials in Rangoon.

Sai Leik, a spokesperson for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), explained that officials wanted to sit in and monitor the proceedings.

He said: They asked us to let them in to the meeting room to listen to the proceedings, we told them that we would report to them after the meeting. They then told us if we did not have permission from local authorities, we would have to stop.

Sai Leik, who was one also of the meeting's organisers, said he went to the Yangon Western District Office late in the afternoon of 3 March to request permission for the meeting. However, the officer told them that they had to get a recommendation letter from the police and the village tract office.

As it was too late in the day to do this they were unable to proceed.

Sai Leik then asked the District Office Chief for a signed letter that either ordered the CSSU to halt their meeting or gave them permission to continue, but the District Office Chief refused to do either.

Sai Leik said: Because we did not have the permission paper, the hotel refused to host our meeting.

Puen Kham, the CSSU Secretary, said that the annual CSSU meeting was being held to discuss some key issues. These included collaboration and unity between the different ethnic groups living in Shan State and future cooperation with the new incoming government.

A number of high profile Shan leaders who are involved in the national peace process were attending the meeting. They included Lieutenant General Yawd Serk, the chairman of the Restoration Council for Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and Khuensai Jaiyen, the managing director of the Pyidaungsu Institute for Peace and Dialogue.

Khun Tun Oo, the chairman of the SNLD and Hso Ten, the leader of the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) were also attending the meeting

Sai Leik said: We will have to wait and see how far this country will have to go to reach democracy. We will be facing so many challenges."

The committee for Shan State Unity (CSSU) was formed in October 2013. It is made up of Shan armed groups, Shan political parties and Shan civil society organisations.

BY SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
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Most Popular Destinations
As you're probably aware, the core belief behind the Bundy standoff in Nevada and the Bundy occupation in Oregon is their belief that federal land actually belongs to them and they should not have to pay for using it.

While not every Republican in the western United States is willing to take up arms against the government to conquer the land, this view is widely shared among many elected officials including the likes of Idaho state Representative Ken Ivory (R).

Representative Ivory recently compared their desire to seize federal land to the struggle for civil rights.

Our system does not work if you have a back-of-the-bus class of states, Ivory told E&E News.

[Rep. Ivory] is the director of an organization funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch that aims to dispose of Americas national forests, monuments, and other public lands. Ivory is also the former head of the American Lands Council, an organization that, under his leadership, was the subject of ethics complaints as it lobbied politicians to transfer U.S. public lands to state and private control.

This grotesque comparison may make more than zero sense if white conservative lawmakers sought to return control of the land to Native American tribes, but that is not their goal. They want the land for themselves. They want control so they can auction it off to the highest bidder.

States do not have the money or resources to maintain the tens of millions of acres of land owned by the federal government, but maintaining it isn't their wish. They want to plunder it.

This isn't a quest for civil rights, it's a movement of aspiring freeloaders who want to get rich off land that doesn't belong to them and never did.
This is not entirely without precedent in recent Kansas history.

The Republican-controlled Kansas state Senate is considering legislation to make it easier for them to impeach any judge in the state judiciary including the state Supreme Court.

Why the hell would they do that? Because they feel their power to destroy children's futures has been jeopardized by the courts.

A committee in the GOP-controlled Senate plans to vote Tuesday on a bill that would make attempting to usurp the power of the Legislature or the executive branch grounds for impeachment. Impeachment has been a little-used tool to challenge judges who strike down new legislation, said Republican Sen. Dennis Pyle, a sponsor of the measure. Maybe it needs to be oiled up a little bit or sharpened a little bit. The proposal has considerable support in a Legislature in which Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 3 to 1. Nearly half the Senates members have signed on as sponsors. Its unclear whether its novelty could complicate passage.

In case you're just joining us, the state judiciary has ruled on more than one occasion that Kansas is not funding education at a level that is constitutional. A District court ruled in 2014 that the state legislature must increase funding for schools with disadvantaged students while the state Supreme Court just recently affirmed the lower court ruling.

I say this situation is not without precedent because Governor Sam Brownback threatened to defund the entire state judiciary after the initial ruling by the lower court in 2014. Additionally, the state legislature passed a law stripping the judiciary of its authority to appoint district judges, but that law was struck down by the judiciary, leading to even more threats against the court.

Republicans in Kansas have waged a multi-year long campaign to nullify and delegitimatize the state court system because respecting the court's decisions would mean reversing course on the reckless fiscal policies they've adopted.

Kansas cannot properly fund education and a number of other programs because Governor Sam Brownback and his henchmen in the legislature have emptied the state's coffers with generous tax cuts. And that's putting it mildly. Businesses pay no income taxes in Kansas under the Brownback regime which has led to a wave of people declaring themselves businesses to avoid paying any taxes.

Republicans won't rest until they've transformed every state into Jindal's crumbling Louisiana.
The United States Supreme Court has overruled the Alabama state Supreme Court which refused to recognize a lesbian couple's legal adoption rights.

The couple in question secured their right to adopt in the state of Georgia but the Alabama state Supreme Court refused to recognize that adoption because it was established in 2007 and, at the time, Alabama would not have recognized it.

The U.S. Supreme Court voided the Alabama court's ruling today by reminding them that they don't have jurisdiction over legal matters in other states.

Not so, the Supreme Court ruled. "A state may not disregard the judgment of a sister state because it disagrees with the reasoning underlying the judgment or deems it to be wrong on the merits," its reversal said. Rather, Alabama must give "full faith and credit" to the Georgia court's decision.

As Zack Ford at ThinkProgress points out, today's was ruling was remarkable in that it wasn't remarkable. No one on the Supreme Court issued a dissent.

What is perhaps most remarkable about Mondays decision is how unremarkable it is. It was a per curiam decision, which means it was unsigned, and no justice noted a dissent. Furthermore, it did not actually rely on Obergefell at all and did not address the merits of same-sex adoption. It closed the case by treating E.L. and V.L. like any other couple, regardless of their sexual orientation.

I have to wonder if Justice Scalia's absence is already having a major impact. Today's positive ruling follows another ruling last week which allowed the EPA's mercury pollution rules to take effect.

People who are far more knowledgeable about the court than I am have opined that his presence and his habit of asking absurd questions during oral arguments effectively strengthened the conservative side of the court's positions. He's not there to talk about broccoli or applesauce anymore.
The wild west is coming to West Virginia.

The West Virginia House of Representatives has voted to override Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's veto of a bill that will allow concealed carry without a permit or safety training.

The law, which does away with the permit and training program for people 21 and older who want to carry a concealed weapon, was supported by the National Rifle Association, but opposed by law enforcement across the state. West Virginias law enforcement officers have dedicated their lives to keeping us safe and helping us in times of need, and its disheartening that the members of the Legislature have chosen not to stand with these brave men and women  putting their safety and the safety of West Virginians at risk, Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said in a statement Saturday.

Republicans say Democrats and civil rights activists are "anti-cop," but they're the ones voting to put guns in the hands of as many people as possible against the wishes of law enforcement.


A Soryu-class submarine. An MHI photo

TOKYO (BNS): Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) has delivered the seventh Soryu-class diesel-electric submarine to the Japanese Defence Ministry on March 7.



The new vessel, named "Jinryu", was handed over during an official ceremony held at the shipyard's facility in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture.



The Jinryu is the seventh Soryu-class submarine supplied to the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF), and the fourth built by MHI.



MHI also built the first Soryu-class submarine.



The Japanese Navy has so far inducted six Soryu-class subs, the last of which was commissioned in March 2015.



According to MHI, the Soryu-class submarines are the world's largest conventionally powered submarines.



They have an excellent operational track record and are equipped with state-of-the art technologies, including air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems that enable them to remain fully submerged for long periods of time, and advanced stealth technologies that make them extremely difficult to detect.



Japan is one of the contenders to design and build the next-generation of submarines for the Australian Navy under a major defence contract worth nearly $50 billion.






NEW DELHI (PTI): Navy chief Admiral R K Dhowan on Monday began his four-day visit to the UK during which he will explore new avenues of cooperation in the defence sector.



Dhowan is scheduled to hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Defence, First Sea Lord, Chief of Defence Staff, and the other Senior Officers of the British Royal Navy.



Talking about Dhowan's visit, the Navy said India and the UK have several commonalities, which serve as the foundation for closer cooperation and multi-faceted interactions.



The Indian Navy has had traditional links with the Royal Navy which have come a long way since institutionalisation of various defence fora for enhancing bilateral relationship.



With constitution of the Indo-UK Defence Consultative Group (DCG) and the Military Sub Group (MSG) in 1995, a two-tier system of cooperation was established to take further the progress in various areas of defence cooperation.



In September 2004, the two countries inked a pact to embark upon a strategic partnership in which defence cooperation figures prominently.



Establishment of Navy-to-Navy Staff Talks' forum, officially referred to as the Executive Steering Group (ESG) is the chief mechanism of enhancing cooperation between the two navies.



Indian Navy and Royal Navy are partners in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a Maritime Cooperation construct conceptualised and pioneered by the Indian Navy in 2008.



The two navies also interact on a host of issues like training, doctrinal concepts, Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA).



"The ongoing visit of Admiral Dhowan will consolidate on existing maritime cooperation initiative as well as explore new avenues," the Navy said in a statement.


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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 31st annual Brandon Career Symposium kicked off on Monday night with 76 exhibitor booths filling three rooms at the Keystone Centre.

The upcoming provincial election means the three-day event is down roughly 30 booths.

Any booth that is associated with the provincial government  because of the blackout  isnt allowed to attend any career fairs, symposium co-ordinator Robert Young said during setup on Monday afternoon.

Bruce Bumstead/The Brandon Sun Dennis Simon, a second-year interactive arts student at Assiniboine Community College, sets up a virtual reality gaming program to showcase the cutting-edge technology the institution offers during the Brandon Career Symposium, which kicked off at the Keystone Centre on Monday evening.

More than 3,000 high school students have signed up to explore career and higher education opportunities today and Wednesday.

An additional 560 students have registered to take part in the Westman Construction Expo, which lets young people try out a variety of trades under the guidance of industry professionals.

Exhibitors from a variety of fields have converged on the Wheat City from all over Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the United States.

Brandon University, Assiniboine Community College and the University of Manitoba have all expanded their booth offerings this year.

Each one of those (schools) now has brought somewhere around 11 to 13 departments, Young said.

The symposium is open to the public tonight from 7 to 9 p.m., and the evening audience is usually made up of mature workers looking to change careers or bolster their skills.

All of the adult (education) centres in Brandon are represented at the symposium or are actually bringing students to the symposium, Young said.

The number of Manitobans aged 55 and older participating in the workforce increased to 40.8 per cent in 2015 from 27.2 per cent in 2000, according to data available from Statistics Canada.

Tim Silversides, president and owner of West-Can Human Resource Solutions, says there are several reasons baby boomers continue working beyond retirement.

I think its partly because were going through and working our regular career and working towards retirement and then you get (there) and realize you get such a benefit out of going to work, he said. Theres also a group there that needs the extra money.

Yet Silversides says mature workers arent the majority of those taking advantage of his firms recruitment services right now.

Weve seen more trades people or general labourers coming in because the demand for them seems to be down a little bit  It could be helping with some areas of construction or manufacturing  its very diverse, he said, adding that the downturn in the oil industry is partially responsible for the influx.

On the other end of the spectrum, Silversides says accounting-related positions are plentiful in Westman.

West-Can has a booth set up at this years Brandon Career Symposium. For exhibitor and schedule information, visit career-symposium.ca.

 ewasney@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @evawasney
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

(Special)  Even though more people were expected to contribute to their RRSPs this year before the contribution deadline which just ended, the financial preparedness of Canadians for retirement continues to be a concern.

A slate of recent studies indicates that the retirement scenario of Canadians is changing.

A recent study on RRSPs by BMO Bank of Montreal shows that 61 per cent of Canadians who have not yet retired were planning to make a contribution before the Feb. 29 deadline, down slightly from the previous year.

The amount Canadians planned to contribute this year changed only marginally from last year. The average contribution amount for those who had already contributed was $3,984, up slightly from $3,738 at the same time last year. For those planning to contribute the average amount was $3,327, up slightly from $2,892.

Last year Canadians contributed an average of $3,737 to their RRSPs. However, figures show that Canadians have a total of some $700 billion in unused contributions in their RRSPs, and that is expected to rise to $1 trillion in the next few years.

While the fact that Canadians still are contributing to their RRSPs might be good, the Canadian Payroll Association has found that Canadians are continuing to live pay cheque to pay cheque and are not saving enough, causing many to postpone their retirement, in some cases for several years.

The majority of employees are nowhere near reaching their retirement savings goals and 35 per cent expect to work longer than they had originally planned five years ago, with their average target retirement age rising to 63 from 58 over that period. Twenty-one per cent say they will now need to work an additional four years or more and 35 per cent say not saving enough money was the top reason for delaying retirement. Seventy-six per cent say they have put aside less than a quarter of what they will need in retirement.

Although RRSPs have been around for almost six decades, many Canadians still dont understand many of the specifics of the program such as how to contribute, when contributions have to be made, the amount you can contribute and the investments that can be held in them.

Its encouraging that the majority of Canadians continue to make RRSP contributions year over year, especially when many are juggling multiple financial priorities, says Robert Armstrong, vice president of BMO Global Asset Management. Contributing to an RRSP is one of the most effective ways to save for retirement but its clear theres a degree of uncertainty among Canadians about several important elements of the program.

Contributing to your RRSP is just the first step. Its also important to take into consideration how you manage that money once its in your RRSP and to structure your retirement savings to ensure your investments are growing.

This is particularly challenging in todays current low interest-rate environment and period of market volatility.

A recent report by CIBC World Markets found that Canadians are sitting on a stockpile of $75 billion in excess cash which they typically would have invested and whats worse, they are likely going to hang on to their cash positions and may miss out in billions of dollars in returns.

There are professionally managed portfolios such as the BMO SelectTrust and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on the market that let investors find a style and risk levels that suit their individual goals and help them save for retirement and build their wealth even in turbulent times such as these.

A financial professional can provide clarity into the aspects of RRSPs you want to understand better and ensure you feel confident you are making choices with your finances that will eventually benefit you in retirement, Armstrong says. They also can work with you to develop a comprehensive financial plan that includes a retirement savings component.

Talbot Boggs is a Toronto-based business communications professional who has worked with national news organizations, magazines and corporations in the finance, retail, manufacturing and other industrial sectors.

Copyright 2016 Talbot Boggs
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VICTORIA - Members of the Tsimshian First Nation on British Columbia's northwest coast will be getting $9 million in provincial funding to job skills.

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QUEBEC  Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard warned against irrational outbursts during the debate over the Energy East Pipeline on Tuesday, as environmental hearings into the controversial project entered their second day.

Protesters briefly delayed the start of the hearings on Monday night by chanting loudly and unfurling an anti-pipeline banner in front of members of Quebecs environmental review agency committee tasked with investigating the risks and benefits of the project.

Couillard said citizens need to have a rational debate on the pipeline project, which would bring 1.1 million barrels of oil per day from Western Canada, through Quebec, to New Brunswick.

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard responds to reporters questions before entering a party caucus meeting, Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

I dont think its helpful when there are protesters blocking the right of people to speak, he told reporters in Quebec City.

The Energy East pipeline is controversial in Quebec and many activists and local politicians along the proposed route have come out against the project.

They say the risks of Energy East are greater than its benefits and it would represent an increase in the countrys greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to global climate change.

Jean Laporte, chief operating officer of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, testified during the second day of hearings and told committee members there is no risk-proof way to move oil to market.

With regards to pipelines, Laporte said the number of major spills have been declining year-over-year while minor leaks are on the rise.

While there is no way to ensure 100 per cent safety with pipelines, he said oil can be transported safely across the country if the risks are properly identified and proactively managed.

Louis Bergeron, Energy Easts vice-president for New Brunswick and Quebec, answered questions for a second day and told committee members that his company, TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP), wants a pipeline to the East Coast in order to access the regions three large refineries in Montreal, Quebec City and Saint John, N.B.

Bergeron told the committee that more than 50 per cent of the oil refined in Quebec comes from foreign markets, such as the U.S., and to a lesser extent, Algeria, Norway and Angola.

The hearings will be broken down into two parts: the first will analyse the projects potential impacts on water and risks of spills. The second series of hearings are scheduled to begin in April, when the environmental agency is set to hear more from the public.

Couillard also asked pro-pipeline enthusiasts to remain calm.

We heard from people opposed to the pipeline protest loudly, he said. I think if pro-pipeline people protested as loudly it wouldnt have gone over too well with the other side. So we need to have a debate that is reasonable and respectful.
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A look at some DVDs scheduled to be released in the weeks ahead.

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EDMONTON  Stung by criticism in Quebec of the proposed Energy East pipeline, Alberta municipalities are hailing the projects promise of jobs and economic growth.

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association has written a letter to its sister organizations across Canada seeking their support for Energy East.

The letter cites estimates by the Conference Board of Canada that this project will support over 14,000 jobs annually during a nine-year development and construction stage, reads an association briefing note about the letter.

The pipeline will also provide $10 billion in tax revenues to the provinces.

The letter also touts how the pipeline would enable access to markets in Europe and Asia, reduce Canadas dependence on foreign oil and create 3,300 permanent jobs once it was complete.

Association president Lisa Holmes said Alberta communities dont want to allow naysayers to grab the spotlight on a project that would help the province as it struggles with an economic crisis brought on by slumping oil prices.

We see the impact of our current economic situation on everyone in our communities  our friends, our neighbours, business owners. We need to be a voice for them, Holmes said Tuesday.

Holmes said the associations main message is that Energy East is so important to Canadas economic future that municipal groups across the country should speak out.

We are stepping up and saying this is a national project and it needs help. We are hoping that the other provincial associations will see that and will support us in our rallying cry, which is Go East,' she said.

Make sure that this project happens and stand up to some of the criticism that is being put forward.

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.s (TSX:TRP) pipeline would carry 1.1 million barrels a day of crude from Alberta and Saskatchewan as far east as Saint John, N.B., to serve domestic refineries and international customers.

The proposal has run into flak in Quebec where the mayors of Montreal and surrounding municipalities are arguing that environmental risks outweigh the economic rewards.

On Monday night protesters denounced the pipeline at Quebec environmental hearings on the project.

Holmes said the association is to meet with federal cabinet ministers in Ottawa next month to follow up its lobbying efforts.

The president of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association said it supports Albertas call for communities to speak out in favour of Energy East.

Debra Button is also the mayor of Weyburn, a community in the heart of Saskatchewans struggling oilpatch.

I support Albertas letter. I have received it. We are certainly feeling the downturn in the economy right now in the southeast corner of the province, she said.

Maybe we have stepped outside the box for what is a municipal issue, but this is too important to not step outside that box  to work toward the greater well-being.

Last month, the Saskatchewan association passed a resolution that calls Energy East integral to the economic prosperity of Western Canada and the entire country and sent it to the federal government.
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This article was published 07/03/2016 (2420 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

COMOX, B.C.  A doctor affiliated with a Catholic hospital in a small British Columbia community says the facilitys likely ban on assisted-dying is a violation of terminally ill patients charter rights.

Dr. Jonathan Reggler said St. Josephs General Hospital is the only hospital in the Comox Valley and as a Catholic facility it generally forbids doctors from helping patients die, although a formal policy has not yet been adopted.

Reggler said terminally ill patients in hospital who want a doctors help to die will either be denied that right or have to be moved 50 kilometres to the nearest hospital in Campbell River.

Dr. Jonathan Reggler, shown in a handout photo, a family doctor with privileges at St. Joseph's Hospital in Comox, B.C., says that unless the hospital allows assisted-dying on site, terminally ill patients at the hospital who want a doctor's help to die will be denied that right or will have to be moved to another facility many kilometres away. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Courtesy-Dr. Jonathan Reggler

It is totally wrong to take this very, very vulnerable, very, very sick population and start moving them around because the owner of a hospital doesnt want this charter right available, he said in a phone interview Monday.

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down a ban on physician-assisted dying last year and the federal government has until June 6 to come up with replacement legislation.

Reggler is calling on the government to require all publicly funded hospitals and hospices, including faith-based organizations, to provide assisted-dying.

This is something that the Supreme Court has said is a charter right for all Canadians, and hopefully the new federal government legislation is going to reflect that, he said. It is not OK for a faith-based institution to say, It may be a charter right, but its not available to Canadians here.'

The hospital said in a statement that it will wait until the legislation is finalized before completing a formal policy, but its position is consistent with Catholic health care ethical guidelines and it does not provide or promote assisted death.

We are hopeful that legislation will respect the diverse perspectives on physician-assisted death, the statement said. We will continue to emphasize compassionate end-of-life care through palliative and hospice care approaches and we will work within the legislative framework that is developed.

Reggler is a family doctor who has had privileges at St. Josephs hospital since 2003. The 241-bed facility in Comox, B.C., serves the region of Comox Valley, with a population of about 65,000 people, on the east coast of Vancouver Island.

He said the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada has created a draft policy that he expects the hospital to adopt unless the legislation forces it to offer assisted-death.

The draft policy, available online, says while hospital staff do not condone assisted-dying, they are to treat requests without judgment or coercion and to inform patients of palliative-care options. If the patient still wants to pursue assisted-dying, they can be transferred to another facility or discharged home.

The alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reggler said many people will choose to die at home, but there will be some who dont have that option and who will need to die in a care facility.

Shanaaz Gokool, CEO of Dying With Dignity Canada, said there could be many communities across Canada where access to assisted-dying could be restricted because they are only served by faith-based hospitals.

Even in urban centres, faith-based hospitals tend to have the best palliative care wards, where people are likely to request assisted-dying, she said.

Does religious belief trump someones ability to access their charter right? she asked. Were talking about people who are desperately ill, who should be treated with as much compassion and dignity as possible.

Providence Health Care, a Catholic health-care provider in Vancouver that operates 10 facilities, reminded its leadership team in an internal memo last month that physician-assisted dying violates the Catholic faith and until the law changes the service will not be provided.

The Archbishop of Toronto read a statement on assisted-dying at a mass Sunday that was presented via video or written statement to more than 200 Catholic churches across the city.

In the statement, Cardinal Thomas Collins called assisted-dying destructive to our society and said forcing Catholic doctors to refer patients to physicians who will perform assisted suicide is tantamount to religious discrimination.

 By Laura Kane in Vancouver
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This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO  If emojis could express their meteoric rise into the lexicon of virtual language, it might start with a surprised face, followed by thumbs up, and a trophy.

After years of ridicule in popular culture, the famous international registry of smiley faces, animals and numerous other objects is finally getting some respect.

In many ways, communicating informally with each other on the Internet, with just words, is like trying to talk in a monotone with your hands behind your back, says Gretchen McCulloch, a Montreal-based linguist who has studied the rise of emojis and how people use them to enhance communication.

Emojis in the Snapchat app are shown in Toronto on Monday, March 7, 2016. If emojis could express their meteoric rise into the lexicon of virtual language, it might start with a surprised face, followed by thumbs up, and a trophy. After years of ridicule in popular culture, the famous international registry of smiley faces, animals and numerous other objects is finally getting some respect. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Staff

Words are important but they dont convey the whole message. Sometimes they can undermine your message.

Created in the late 1990s by Japanese mobile phone carriers as a marketing hook, emojis never really landed on the radar of North Americans until Apples iPhone and Android smartphones incorporated the cartoon characters in 2010.

While its difficult to pinpoint exactly when emoji usage caught fire, last year marked a clear zeitgeist moment.

The prestigious Oxford Dictionaries chose the face with tears of joy emoji as word of the year, leading to an uproar in some linguistic circles.

How, they asked, could an image of a cartoon face supplant a new word in the English language? Oxford justified the decision by saying it saw usage of the word emoji increase hugely in 2015, led by the crying face.

It was an undeniable sign that emojis had reached a higher level of status after years of being widely dismissed as a quirky smartphone feature used mostly by teenagers.

Today, theres no one way to use emojis. McCulloch says that while most people use them to punctuate sentences  like typing an angry face rather than an exclamation point  some younger users replace full sentences with a string of emojis to convey a thought, especially on social media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat that have character limits per post.

Tastemakers like record producer DJ Khaled have also developed their own emoji slang. Khaled paired the word major with the cartoon key emoji as an abbreviation to declare a major key to success. The combination was quickly picked up by plugged-in teenagers, who use it to leave a stamp of approval on eye-catching Instagram photos or inspiring quotes on Facebook.

Theres no school for emoji use  people learn as they (use them) and learn from observation, says Rhonda McEwen, assistant professor of new media at the University of Toronto.

Were figuring it out as we go.

Other celebrities and brands have hopped on the emoji bandwagon, including Kim Kardashian who launched her own Kimoji app with cartoon renderings of herself. Tim Hortons also released its own batch of Eh-mojis that included the companys coffee cup, a moose and maple leaf.

Using strings of cartoon images to communicate can leave messages open to interpretation, which has posed a major challenge under the law.

A New York grand jury was recently asked to decide whether the combination of an emoji police officer and an emoji gun was considered a threat to police.

And a 12-year-old in Fairfax, Va., faced charges last December for what police say was an Instagram post that featured the word killing followed by emojis of a gun, knife and bomb, and the message meet me in the library Tuesday.

Canadian courts havent been faced with decoding the contextual meaning of an emoji message yet, but its likely only a matter of time.

For now, there seems to be no stopping the growing influence of emojis, though McCulloch cautions against overemphasizing how popular theyve become in general text communication.

Some of her research will be presented on Saturday at a media panel held by the South By Southwest music, film and interactive festival in Austin, Texas. McCulloch compiled a study in conjunction with predictive typing app Swiftkey, which found that only 4.6 per cent of all overall text communication sessions analyzed included any emoji.

Of those, about 15 per cent were comprised of only emoji and no words.

McCulloch says that data suggests most people tend to use emojis with words rather than to replace words  which flies in the face of alarmists who have said emojis could lead to the deterioration of language.

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TORONTO - A member of the Ontario legislature is calling for a different ketchup to be served in the dining room and cafeteria at Queen's Park  and flavour isn't an issue.

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The cookbook Homegrown features recipes highlighting Canadas diverse agriculture from coast to coast.

Author Mairlyn Smith, who compiled 160 recipes submitted by professional home economists and students, also includes plenty of tips on how to maximize Canadian products in home cooking.

Home economists are also in the business of helping individuals and families boost nutrition and health while grocery shopping and cooking. Many of the recipes give suggestions on how to use leftovers to reduce waste.

Chili is pure comfort food and so easy to prepare. This version of Chipotle Black Bean Chili, created by professional home economist Teresa Makarewicz, appears in the book "Homegrown: Celebrating the Canadian Foods We Grow, Raise and Produce" by Mairlyn Smith. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Mike McColl

Here are some recipes from Homegrown to try at home.

BORSCHT

This multi-seasonal recipe was created by professional home economist Maria McLellan, a Canadian of Ukrainian heritage who grew up in the west end of Toronto.

Smith says she had nine submissions of borscht recipes for Homegrown.

This one blew my mind because it was so different and its really, really good, she says.

McLellan writes that she tried many recipes over the years but decided that I wanted to create a recipe that was nutrient rich and contained the particular flavours I enjoyed. This borscht recipe is meatless, but full of flavourful vegetables along with garlic, lima beans, parsley and caraway seeds.

She suggests making it the way its set out in the recipe and then adapting it to suit your own tastes.

To avoid beet-red fingertips, peel and cut cooked beets wearing rubber gloves. Cut into cubes on waxed or parchment paper to avoid staining the cutting board. If youre in a hurry, use four to five small canned beets.

250 g (1/2 lb) small beets (approx 4 to 5 fresh or canned)

30 ml (2 tbsp) canola oil

1 onion, chopped

2 large cloves garlic, minced

2 medium potatoes, scrubbed well, cubed and rinsed to remove excess starch

3 celery stalks with leaves, chopped

2 carrots, scrubbed well, finely chopped or julienned into matchstick pieces no longer than 2.5 cm (1 inch)

1/4 small cabbage, shredded into slivers no longer than 2.5 cm (1 inch)

2 l (8 cups) no-salt-added vegetable or beef stock

1 bay leaf

5 ml (1 tsp) caraway seeds

5 ml (1 tsp) dried basil leaves

5 ml (1 tsp) dried sage leaves

2 ml (1/2 tsp) freshly ground black pepper

One can (540 ml/19 oz) lima beans, well rinsed and drained or 500 ml (2 cups) frozen

75 ml (1/3 cup) chopped fresh parsley

15 ml (1 tbsp) balsamic or apple cider vinegar

2 ml (1/2 tsp) iodized salt

Rinse beets under cold running water; trim any green ends and place unpeeled beets in a medium saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer until tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain. When cool to the touch, peel and cube; set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, add oil, onion and garlic; saute for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened but not browned.

Add potatoes, celery, carrots and cabbage and saute for 1 minute. Add stock, bay leaf, caraway seeds, basil, sage and pepper and stir until combined. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer, cooking for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Remove bay leaf. Add lima beans, parsley, vinegar and reserved beets. Bring back to a boil, then reduce to simmer. When soup is heated through, serve. Soup can be made the day before, and flavour improves when refrigerated and reheated the next day.

Makes 3 l (12 cups). One serving is 375 ml (1 1/2 cups).

Nutrition information per serving: 175 calories, 4 g total fat (0.4 g saturated fat, 0.1 trans fat), 411 mg sodium, 31.8 g carbohydrate, 5.3 g fibre, 10.2 g sugars, 0 g added sugars, 5.2 g protein. Carbohydrate Choices: 2

CHIPOTLE BLACK BEAN CHILI

Chili is pure comfort food and so easy to prepare. This version, created by professional home economist Teresa Makarewicz, is delicious served over cooked barley or spooned over a baked or microwaved sweet potato.

Tempt your family by setting out small bowls of any of the toppings suggested below and let everyone create their own signature bowl of chili.

Upon standing, this chili will thicken. When reheating, add more water if you like and thin to desired consistency.

Freeze leftovers for up to three months so its ready for a lunch or busy weeknight dinner option.

Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce can be found in the Mexican section of most grocery stores. To freeze, puree the entire can of chipotles with adobo sauce until smooth. Spoon 15-ml (1-tbsp) portions on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm; transfer to an airtight container and freeze.

10 ml (2 tsp) canola oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

2 carrots, scrubbed well and diced

30 ml (2 tbsp) chili powder

15 ml (1 tbsp) paprika

5 ml (1 tsp) dried oregano

5 ml (1 tsp) ground cumin

2 cans (540 ml/19 oz) black beans, well rinsed and drained, divided

1 can (796 ml/28 oz) crushed tomatoes

375 ml (1 1/2 cups) fresh or frozen corn (no need to thaw)

125 ml (1/2 cup) water

30 ml (2 tbsp) pureed canned chipotle pepper with adobo sauce

Heat a large pot over medium heat; add oil, garlic, onion, red pepper and carrots and saute for 10 minutes or until onion is softened and slightly browned. Stir in chili powder, paprika, oregano and cumin; saute for 1 minute or until fragrant.

Puree 250 ml (1 cup) of the beans in a food processor or mash well with a potato masher. Add pureed and whole beans, tomatoes, corn, water and chipotle pepper to the pot, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes or until carrots are tender, stirring occasionally.

Serve with your choice of topping: Thinly sliced green onions, chopped fresh cilantro, plain yogurt, shredded Canadian old cheddar cheese.

Makes 2.25 l (9 cups). One serving is 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) without toppings.

Nutrition information per serving: 221 calories, 3.2 g fat (0.3 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat), 347 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrates, 10.6 g fibre, 10 g sugars, 0 g added sugars, 9 g protein. Carbohydrate Choices: 2.

APPLE AND THYME ROASTED CHICKEN WITH PLANNED LEFTOVERS

Saving time in the kitchen is all about planning ahead. Professional home economist Michele McAdoo suggests roasting the chicken and serve as is on the first day. Two days later transform the leftovers into one of the four variations suggested below.

Smith explains that theres no citrus fruit in Homegrown because its not grown in Canada, so an apple is used here to infuse flavour and provide moisture to prevent the chicken from drying out.

1 whole chicken (1.5 kg/3 lb)

1 bunch fresh thyme, divided

1 medium Royal Gala apple, scrubbed, peel left on, cut into 8 wedges

45 ml (3 tbsp) canola oil

2 ml (1/2 tsp) iodized salt

5 ml (1 tsp) freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 220 C (425 F). Prepare a shallow roasting pan with a rack.

Remove chicken giblets and neck. Remove any excess fat and pat dry with a paper towel. Stuff chicken cavity with 10 sprigs of thyme and apple wedges.

Remove leaves from remaining thyme stems and chop to make 15 ml (1 tbsp) thyme. In a small bowl, mix together chopped thyme, oil, salt and pepper.

Brush bottom of chicken with mixture. Tuck wings under chicken and place it breast side up on rack in roasting pan. Brush remaining mixture under breast skin and on the outside surface of the chicken.

Roast chicken for 1 1/2 hours or until cooked through (chicken should reach an internal temperature of 85 C/185 F when a food thermometer is inserted into the breast or the deep thigh). Remove from roasting pan, cover with foil and let stand for 10 minutes. Carve. Serve. Remove and refrigerate any leftovers from the carcass within 1 hour.

Makes 1 whole chicken. One serving is 1/8 chicken.

Nutrition information per serving: 320 calories, 15.6 g total fat (3.2 g saturated fat, 0 trans fat), 267 mg sodium, 3 g carbohydrate, 0.6 g fibre, 1.8 g sugars, 0 g added sugars, 40 g protein. Carbohydrate Choices: less than 1.

Four great ways to use leftover chicken:

 Chicken Quesadillas: Add cooked leftover chicken to your favourite cheese quesadilla recipe.

 Chicken Salad Sandwiches: Finely chop leftover chicken and stir in low-fat mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, diced celery and green onion.

 Chicken Fried Rice: Add cooked leftover chicken to your favourite fried rice recipe.

 Chicken Noodle Casserole: Instead of canned tuna, add cooked leftover chicken to your favourite noodle casserole recipe.

Source: Homegrown: Celebrating the Canadian Foods We Grow, Raise and Produce by Mairlyn Smith with recipes from the Ontario Home Economics Association (Whitecap, 2015).
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All things canola will be the focus of one-day workshops later this week in Brandon as Manitoba canoLAB 2016 takes place at Assiniboine Community College on Wednesday and Thursday.

The hands-on workshops look at multiple areas of canola production and how concepts apply directly to farming practices and the rotation.

CanoLAB is a hands-on, interactive learning experience, said Angela Brackenreed, agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada. The intent of canoLAB is to provide farmers and agronomists with the tools they need to help increase profitability on their farm. We have over 21 speakers presenting on a variety of topics, including soil testing, diseases and insects, integrated weed management and DNA and diagnostics.

The Manitoba Canola Growers, in partnership with CCC and ACC, will host canoLAB at the colleges Victoria Avenue East campus.

As a college, we see immense value in connecting our students directly with industry through events like canoLAB, said Derrick Turner, ACCs dean of business, agriculture and environment. As we strive to provide program leadership in agriculture, our partnerships with organizations like Manitoba Canola Growers continue to play an important role in preparing students for successful careers.

CanoLAB is made up of four groups rotating through concurrent stations each focusing on different topics. This years event will focus on canola agronomy, such as managing clubroot and

insect pests, as well as considerations for other crops in rotation, such as flax and corn.<t0.5>

Registration for this event was limited and seats sold out very quickly, MCGA member relations co-ordinator Roberta Galbraith said. This is the fourth year we have hosted this event and we are proud to offer an event that has a direct benefit to the farmers we work for.

For more information on canoLAB, visit regonline.com/mbcanolab16.

 The Brandon Sun
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A Westman stores most trusted employee stole thousands of dollars off customers credit cards and store accounts so she could take her family on vacation.

This is someone who said, I want to go on vacation, a $9,500 vacation to Jamaica with my family and Im going to steal to basically pay for that, Crown attorney Deidre Badcock said.

Debra Lynn Eshpeter, 48, was sentenced on Monday to 90 days in jail, to be served on weekends, for fraud over $5,000.

In total, she took $13,514.40 between May 2014 and April 2015 by logging false returns while working for the Pembina Consumers Co-op in Souris.

Eshpeter, who was a hardware manager, would return false transactions using the customers credit card number or charge it against their store account. She then used a point-of-sale terminal to refund the money to her own debit card number.

She also made a false return via a generic store account.

One customers credit card and store account was struck by four false transactions totalling $9,476. Another customer was hit for $390, and the store itself lost $3,647.

The transactions didnt appear on the businesss accounting system as they should have.

The fraud was discovered when one of the scammed customers found the suspicious charges against his card or store account.

The store manager discussed the matter with Eshpeter, who admitted what shed done.

The manager told police that Eshpeter had been his most trusted employee. She reportedly got along well with coworkers and had excellent customer relation skills.

In court, she said she decided to confess after learning another person was mistakenly believed to have committed the crime.

Earlier, she told authorities that she stole the money because she wanted to take her family on a $9,500 vacation to Jamaica.

Theres no other explanation, however, for where the remainder of the stolen money went.

Eshpeter was fired from the Co-op over the charges.

Badcock said theres evidence there may be additional victims who havent discovered money missing, as theres another $4,000 in suspicious transactions unaccounted for.

Judge Donovan Dvorak sentenced Eshpeter to 90 days in jail, but allowed her to serve it on weekends.

She was also put on probation for a year and ordered to pay back the store and its insurer who had covered the losses.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
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OTTAWA  Veteran Liberal MP Mauril Belanger will be accorded a rare distinction Wednesday, appointed to preside over proceedings in the House of Commons as honorary Speaker.

Its both an honour and a cruel irony.

Belanger is no longer able to speak at all, due to the ravages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrigs disease.

It is an incurable, progressive, neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle weakness, paralysis, and eventually, respiratory failure.

Hell carry out his Speaker duties with the aid of a tablet computer, which converts pre-programmed text to audio.

Belanger had been considered a front-runner for the post of Speaker last fall but he was forced to withdraw from the race after being diagnosed with ALS in late November.

MPs from all parties subsequently unanimously passed a motion to appoint Belanger honorary Speaker for a day, as a way to record their deep appreciation of his distinguished and faithful service to Parliament and to Canada.

The Ottawa MPs condition has deteriorated rapidly since that motion was passed in December so his day as Speaker on Wednesday will turn out to be only about an hour.

He is to participate in the daily briefing Speaker Geoff Regan receives from Commons clerks and will then take part, with the help of a walker, in the Speakers parade into the Commons.

He will take the Speakers chair and preside over the daily prayer, the singing of O Canada, members statements and the first 20 minutes or so of question period before handing the reins back to Regan.

Receiving such an honour is highly appreciated since this is a dream coming true amidst the health challenges which I am facing, Belanger said in a written response to questions.

Just last week, Belanger travelled to Namibia and South Africa as part of delegation from the Canada-Africa parliamentary association, which he co-founded.

His chief of staff, Alexandre Mattard-Michaud, said Belanger is determined to continue serving as an MP until he is no longer physically able to do so. How long that will be is impossible to say since some ALS sufferers deteriorate quickly and then plateau for several years.

For now though, Mattard-Michaud said Belanger believes he has a duty to continue representing his constituents, which he considers to be an MPs primary responsibility.

Through my daily efforts and the efforts of my personnel, we have provided assistance to more than 10,000 people living in Ottawa-Vanier with cases such as immigration, taxes, citizenship, work, housing, pensions, among other things, Belanger said.

This is what I am most proud of.
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OTTAWA - The Liberal government released its plan Tuesday for how many new permanent residents they will seek to welcome to Canada in 2016.

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OTTAWA  A look at five women who could be candidates to be on Canadian currency:

Nellie McClung (1873 to 1953)

Political activist Nellie McClung was one of the strongest voices of the womens suffrage movement across Canada. She helped stage a mock parliament in Manitoba in 1914, that satirized what people claimed were the dangers of allowing women to vote and helping win support for the campaign.

Polymer bank notes are shown during a news conference at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa on April 30, 2013.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Bank of Canada is looking for a woman to be featured on a new bank note starting in 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

___

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 to 1942)

Author Lucy Maud Montgomery has enchanted readers the world over with her Anne of Green Gables books, which chronicle the adventures of a red-headed orphan on Prince Edward Island. The prolific writers works have been translated into about 20 languages.

___

Anges MacPhail (1890 to 1954)

Anges MacPhail was elected Canadas first female member of Parliament in 1921  the first election where Canadian women were allowed to cast ballots. The staunch human rights champion fought for prison reform, old-age pension and womens rights throughout her time in politics.

___

Mary Pickford (1892 to 1979)

She may have been known as Americas Sweetheart, but legendary film actress Mary Pickford was actually Canadian. The talented actress was also a shrewd business woman and, at 24-years-old, became the first woman in Hollywood to earn $1 million a year.

___

Emily Carr (1871 to 1945)

Emily Carrs modernist landscape paintings have made her one of Canadas best-known artists. Her work portrays the vast beauty of British Columbia, with a heavy influence from the First Nations villages, and is showcased in galleries and museums around the globe.

Note to readers: This is a corrected list. A previous version wrongly said Emily Carr was a member of the Group of Seven
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WINNIPEG  Manitobas childrens advocate says an alarming number of indigenous girls are committing suicide  a disturbing trend which should be included in the upcoming inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Darlene MacDonald says she made the suggestion to federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett in a letter last week but hasnt received a reply.

Of 33 suicides MacDonald has investigated in the last three years, 17 were indigenous girls.

We just have to stop this, she said in an interview Monday. Whether youth go missing or die at the hands of others, or whether they feel so much despair that they die by their own choice, the loss of these youth is a tragedy. It needs to be included in the scope of national dialogue.

The Liberals have said they want an inquiry into Canadas approximately 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous sitting by the summer. Bennett and other ministers have been holding consultations across the country to determine the scope of the inquiry, but MacDonald said she wasnt invited to the Winnipeg meeting.

Her comments come after several suicides by members of Manitobas Cross Lake First Nation. The youngest was a 14-year-old girl.

Canada wants to prevent indigenous girls from dying as a result of violence, but MacDonald suggests the country will be doomed to fail if we do not remember those who continue to die by suicide.

Some of the reasons why some girls take their own lives are the same as factors that lead them to be exploited and vulnerable, she said. Many dont feel they have family or support, MacDonald said, or they have friends or family members who have committed suicide and it becomes an acceptable choice similar to drugs or alcohol.

That is so concerning. We need to come together as a society, as a community, to give these kids some alternatives and to look at the stories and learn from them.

Children need to be offered hope.

A spokesperson for Bennett said she wasnt available for an interview and issued a statement calling the loss of human life through suicide tragic.

The statement didnt address the call to include suicides in the inquiry. It only said the government is consulting with various groups to determine the best possible inquiry to address violence against indigenous women and girls.

Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson, who represents northern Manitoba First Nations including Cross Lake, said suicides need attention  whether thats in the form of the formal inquiry or not.

Many ambitious indigenous girls are frustrated living in overcrowded reserve housing without proper access to education or employment opportunities, she said. Some become depressed, suffer from low self-esteem and dont feel as if they belong.

That makes them vulnerable to suicidal thoughts and predators who take advantage of how sad and lost they feel, North Wilson said.

I hope  the inquiry will point out the lack of opportunity and the lack of resources available to indigenous girls and women and that will, in turn, start to address the feelings of suicide.
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OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears poised to reap the benefits of some climate groundwork laid by the previous Conservative government when he travels to Washington on a state visit this week.

Bilateral agreements on reducing methane and black carbon are among those in the works when Trudeau meets with President Barack Obama, the White House special envoy on climate suggested Tuesday.

The Americans have taken over the chair of the Arctic Council  a post held by Canada for the last two years  and say they will continue to press for reductions in short-lived pollutants including methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon that can pack far more climate warming punch than carbon dioxide.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, arrives on the Tsuu T'ina First Nation near Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 4, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Black carbon, created by burning dirty fossil fuels such as diesel, was identified as a climate priority in the Arctic under the previous Conservative watch due to the soots warming properties on snow cover.

There are a number of areas of potential co-operation, White House envoy Todd Stern told a briefing in Washington.

One would involve a commitment to reduce methane emissions 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025 in the oil and gas sector.

Stern said theres also a move afoot this year to amend the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which dealt with ozone-depleting substances, to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, by as much as 90 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2050.

Climate measures to be announced this week could include enhanced bilateral co-operation in the oil and gas sector on heavy duty vehicles and power infrastructure, said Stern. The two countries are also discussing plans by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization to bring in market-based measures designed to hold global civil aviation emissions neutral starting in 2020.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna offered no details following a cabinet meeting in Ottawa but flagged climate as a topic for Washington visit announcements. She is one of at least four cabinet members among Trudeaus delegation.

We need to be looking at how we can be working with our partners in the United States and Mexico and looking at where we can align from a regulatory perspective, said McKenna.

Im very, very excited, you know, to see what will come out of our discussions.

Stern lavished praise on Canadas new Liberal government, saying the climate relationship between the two North American neighbours ramped up dramatically quickly since last Octobers federal election and that Canada made a very positive splash at the Paris climate conference.

But the Liberals are also building on Conservative initiatives.

Tony Clement, the Conservative foreign affairs critic, said measures on methane and black carbon were in the pipeline already. He also said Trudeau is dealing with an Obama presidency thats in its last months.

I just would say to the prime minister, dont try to build this up to be something that it isnt because, ultimately, in terms of substance, this is going to be a relatively substance-free visit.

Scott Vaughan, president of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said in an interview there is a huge amount of pre-existing work between Canada and the United States on reducing methane and working towards clean energy.

The new level of Canada-U.S. co-operation could accelerate existing planning, said Vaughan, who is also Canadas former environment commissioner.

In addition to bilateral talks, he said, Canada and the U.S. also have been part of an international coalition working with the oil and gas sector to reduce methane emissions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the target of a 45-per-cent methane reduction in 2014, said Vaughan.

If Canada were to adopt the U.S.s EPA regulations, it could be game-changing, leading to a 25 per cent reduction in the oil and gas sectors emissions.

The measures would build on last weeks first ministers meeting in Vancouver, where Trudeau and the premiers agreed to pursue a pan-Canadian climate plan with dozens of elements, including reducing northern communities reliance on diesel generation and pushing for a more environmentally sustainable oil and gas sector to promote global market access.

 With files from Mike Blanchfield

 Follow @BCheadle and @MBlanchfield on Twitter
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HALIFAX  For a brief moment, Nova Scotia fisherman Scott Tanner thought he might have a case of cabin fever when he spotted a fish with glowing, green eyes in his trawlers net.

The 23-year-old Lunenburg man was about a month into a 40-day commercial fishing trip for cod and redfish off Newfoundland and Labradors Grand Banks when the mysterious creature turned up, shocking even veteran fishermen on board.

It stood out right away with the green eyes, said Tanner, who snapped photos of the dead fish and posted them on Facebook. Everybody was pretty amazed by it. The older guys, even, said theyd never seen one before.

A fish caught by Nova Scotia fisherman Scott Tanner is shown in a handout photo. For a brief moment, Tanner thought he might have a case of cabin fever when he spotted a fish with glowing, green eyes in his trawler's net. A curator of zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, offered a more scientific-based explanation: the bug-eyed creature appears to be a knifenose chimera - one of three chimera species in North Atlantic waters.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Scott Tanner

With its luminous peepers, long tail, sword-like nose and fins resembling wings, the fish netted last month has caught both the intrigue and disgust of the Internet.

What the hell is this? blared a headline on the Daily Star, a U.K. tabloid that described the catch as a winged fish with evil eyes and a nose like a wizards hat.

There were more than 700 comments Tuesday posted under an image of the alien-like fish on the popular social media site Reddit.

Put it back, the mothership is bound to come looking for it, read one post.

Someone else said the creature looked like something that was fished straight out of my nightmares.

Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, offered a more scientific-based explanation: the bug-eyed creature appears to be a knifenose chimera  one of three chimera species in North Atlantic waters.

Its a kind of neat-looking thing, he said. The eyes are quite striking.

In Greek monster mythology, the chimera is described as a grotesque mashup between a lion, a goat and a snake that spews fire.

But in reality, Hebdra said chimeras are a relatively primitive, cartilaginous fish related to sharks. Their retinas are designed to seek out food in extremely low light on the sea floor. Once exposed to light, their large eyes appear to glow.

In this case, the chimeras eyes were likely bulging out because of how fast the fish was pulled out of the ocean.

Tanner said the sudden change in pressure could also explain why the fish was dead when it was found in the net. After taking a few photos, he said the chimera, which he estimates weighed between five and 10 pounds, was tossed back into the ocean.

Its not unusual for unknown creatures to land in the net, but Tanner said the chimera ranks among the coolest hes ever seen  if not the most unsettling.

Im not sure if it even had teeth, he said. I didnt really look. I didnt stick my hands around there too much.

Hebda said its not surprising the fishermen were stumped by the fish, given that chimeras are rarely seen or caught. Also known as rat fish, they typically live between 2,000 and 3,000 metres down into the ocean, trolling along the sea floor looking for crustaceans and worms to eat.

Chimeras are edible, Hebda noted, though hed prefer to have one in the museums collection instead of on his dinner plate.

Tanner agreed.

I definitely wouldnt think about eating it.

Follow @melaniepatten on Twitter
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IQALUIT, Nunavut  Inuit groups and environmentalists have accused Nunavut of softening its protection of vital Arctic caribou herds by saying it will consider industrial development on sensitive calving grounds.

Theyre angry the change was made without consultation and only came to light during hearings on a land use plan for the territory.

The (Kivalliq Wildlife Board) believes that the (government of Nunavut) has made a very irresponsible decision, said a letter to the government from the regulatory agency, which represents hunters in the central tundra and was created by the Nunavut land claim.

A wild caribou roams the tundra near The Meadowbank Gold Mine located in the Nunavut Territory of Canada on March 25, 2009. Inuit groups and environmentalists are worried because the government of Nunavut has dropped its long-held opposition to industrial development on caribou calving grounds.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

This is an incredibly important issue and one surely worthy of proper consultation and public discussion. This discussion did not take place.

The board representing hunters in the Arctic islands also said calving grounds must be roped off to development.

We do not feel that relying on protection measures alone will do the work necessary to support caribou populations, wrote the Qikiqtaaluk Wildlife Board.

Inuit want the caribou grounds protected. Arguing otherwise would completely disrespect the multiple conversations Inuit have been involved in  over multiple decades.

Similar concerns have come from the World Wildlife Fund, which said it was disappointed in the territorys decision.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of caribou to people in the central Arctic, who still depend on the great herds for food.

Those herds, however, are declining. The Bluenose East herd, which ranges across a wide swath of territory along the boundary of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, has dropped from about 50,000 animals on the calving grounds in 2006 to fewer than 20,000 today.

Calving grounds are considered both crucial to herd health and particularly susceptible to disturbance.

Hunter groups from communities such as Baker Lake have a long history of opposing mining development in those regions, which have major deposits of minerals such as uranium. Until recently, so did the government of Nunavut.

Now, the territory says it will consider such projects after full hearings are held and mitigation measures put in place.

The government of Nunavut supports responsible development within calving grounds and key access corridors, and these will be on a case-by-case basis, Environment Minister Johnny Mike told the legislature Monday.

It was very disappointing to learn the (government) changed its mind and no longer wants to protect calving grounds, says the letter from the Kivalliq board.

The World Wildlife Fund said the mobile protection measures which the government suggests could be deployed are unproven.

There is no evidence to support its effectiveness, said the group in a release. At a time when all the barren-ground caribou herds in Nunavut are crashing, experimenting with unproven protection measures is foolhardy.

Nunavut  which has Canadas highest unemployment rate at 12.3 per cent as well as the associated social problems  is desperate for economic development. The territory also has Canadas highest birthrate and needs jobs for young people.

The draft land use plan recommends protecting calving grounds that dont have high mineral potential and a designation requiring special mitigation measures for those that do.

The Inuit organization that monitors the Nunavut land claim is already in partnership with a Vancouver-based mining company that has a uranium deposit near Baker Lake.

As well, the hunters group from Kugluktuk on the central Arctic coast  where several gold projects are contemplated  supports seasonal restrictions on development in calving grounds. A similar stance has been taken by the N.W.T.s Tlicho government, which also depends on central Arctic caribou herds.

 By Bob Weber in Edmonton. Follow him on Twitter at @row1960
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TORONTO  An Ontario judge overstepped the law in rejecting a mans decision to disinherit his daughter over allegations he did it because she had a child with a white man, the court of appeal ruled Tuesday.

The desire to prevent discrimination does not allow the court to challenge the validity of an absolute, unequivocal and unambiguous will based on third-party allegations of racism, the three-judge panel said.

The law does not require a testator to explain, let alone to defend, her reasons for her testamentary dispositions. Indeed, in my view, the privacy of those reasons is inherent in the principle of testamentary freedom, Justice Eleanore Cronk wrote in the decision.

The courts power to interfere with a testators testamentary freedom on public policy grounds does not justify intervention simply because the court may regard the testators testamentary choices as distasteful, offensive, vengeful or small-minded.

Allowing such challenges would only encourage disappointed beneficiaries to allege improper motives in order to increase their share of an estate, fostering unnecessary litigation and causing confusion, Cronk said.

The case is an important one dealing with the intersection of human rights law and the law of wills and estates, said David Freedman, who teaches estate law at Queens University.

The balance of the competing policy interests  freedom to enjoy property and our response to unjustified discrimination  is a really hard one, he said in an email.

The Court of Appeal is not saying it has struck the balance of rights correctly, but that this is a decision that needs the legislature to strike an appropriate balance.

The will was thrown out early last year by a judge who found Rector Emanuel Spence had disinherited his daughter based on a clearly stated racist principle, which offended not only human sensibilities but also public policy.

BMO Trust Company, which administers the estate, filed an appeal arguing the evidence about Spences intentions should have been inadmissible because it contradicted what was written in his will, and that the judge unjustifiably interfered with Spences testamentary freedom.

Spence, who was born in Jamaica and went by the name Eric, died in 2013 at age 71, leaving behind two adult daughters from a previous relationship.

The eldest, Verolin Spence, challenged his will as against public policy after finding that he had specifically excluded her and her son, leaving everything to her sister Donna and Donnas two sons.

I specifically bequeath nothing to my daughter, (Verolin) as she has had no communication with me for several years and has shown no interest in me as her father, the will stated.

In an affidavit, Verolin Spence, 52, said she and her father enjoyed a close relationship until she told him she was pregnant with a white mans child.

Spence had lived with her father on and off for more than a decade, immigrating with him to Canada when he left England in 1979 following the end of his previous marriage, court has heard.

Her sister Donna Spence, 51, stayed with their mother in England and had no contact with the pair after they moved.

My father made it very clear to me that he would not allow a white mans child in his house. The reason my father severed the relationship with me is because I gave birth to a child fathered by a white man, Verolin Spence said in her affidavit.

A family friend who acted as Eric Spences caregiver also filed an affidavit saying the man had a falling out with both daughters and cut ties with Verolin after finding out the father of her child was not black.

But the appeal court found the purpose of that evidence was not to establish the motive for the will, but rather to contradict the reasons explicitly laid out in the document and substitute a different and allegedly unlawful motive.

I see no basis at law for the admission of wholly contradictory, extrinsic evidence of motive for this purpose. In my view, the courts should be loath to sanction such an indirect attack, which the deceased cannot challenge, on a testators expressed motive and testamentary choices, the ruling reads.

A lawyer for BMO Trust said the company is content with the decision and would not comment further.
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WASHINGTON  The White House says a special relationship is developing with Canadas new prime minister  a bond that will be reinforced this week with a series of bilateral agreements, champagne toasts, and a rare black-tie dinner.

Justin Trudeau arrives Wednesday for a three-day visit to the U.S. capital  a place hes already unusually well-known for a Canadian politician  with the first prime ministerial state dinner in 19 years as its centrepiece.

An administration official described a unique alignment of priorities between President Barack Obama and the prime minister, who will be hosted by the White House, the State Department, American University and a gathering of think-tanks.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, takes part in a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the APEC Summit in Manila, Philippines on Thursday, November 19, 2015. he White House says a special relationship is developing with Canada's new prime minister, amid plans for a variety of new agreements when Trudeau visits Washington for the first prime ministerial state dinner in nearly two decades. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

I think there is a developing special relationship between this president and prime minister, Mark Feierstein said during Tuesdays briefing.

Theyre both young leaders with similar visions, both have a progressive vision of governing, both very much committed to appropriate use of multilateral tools, both committed to diversity.

I think theres a coincidence, very much, in terms of the agendas that both administrations have. I think were seeing that reflected for example on the issues of climate change and refugees.

Officials have hinted at the prospects of a wide-ranging agreement on climate change, new border-security measures and an effort to avoid an impasse in the softwood-lumber dispute.

Trudeaus political opponents back home question whether this might be more marketing plump than meat.

Conservative MP Tony Clement pointed out that several issues were already in the works under the previous government, and wondered how anything substantive could happen with a last-year president blocked by a hostile Congress.

My hopes are very low, said Clement.

But the prime minister arrives with an advantage rarely available to his recent predecessors: The ability to influence a conversation in the United States.

Hes riding a wave of glam-mag coverage and glowing profiles, the latest on 60 Minutes. His status as a progressive celebrity was illustrated at a White House briefing this week. An Obama spokesman was asked whether the president would also participate in a gay-pride parade  and follow the example of the leader next door.

White House officials said theyve noticed a tangible difference in another area: climate change. One described an instant spike in Canadian effort on the file after Trudeaus election, something that was apparent at the recent Paris summit.

The climate relationship with Canada really just ramped up dramatically, quickly, said White House climate envoy Todd Stern.

Canadians in Paris were extraordinarily effective They made a very positive splash.

He said the shift began with Environment Minister Catherine McKennas appearance at a pre-summit meeting. Then he said Canada joined a new agreement of high-ambition countries that had eluded parties for years, and he credited her with helping facilitate it.

The White House hints at an impending deal to cut methane emissions up to 45 per cent in the oil and gas sector. A co-operation agreement on clean technology is also said to be imminent. So is a deal to track travellers who leave Canada or the U.S. by land, as already exists for air travel.

McKenna described the possibility of agreement on multiple fronts.

Theres a lot of discussions going on, she said. I think theres joint actions that we can be taking together to tackle climate change.

Shell be one of several ministers joining Trudeau, who flies Wednesday into Andrews Air Force Base. During his visit, hell stop to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery.

Officials from both countries describe a fair bit of jostling for tickets to the main event, with people pleading for invites to Thursdays state dinner: I never realized how popular I am, one Canadian official said.

Maple Leaf flags are already dotting the public spaces around the White House, down Pennsylvania Avenue which leads past the Canadian embassy to the U.S. Capitol.

In an ironic twist of political cinematography, the backdrop includes a large billboard that says: Coming 2016: TRUMP.

The real-estate-developing-reality-TV-star happens to be opening a large hotel on the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue now lined with Canadian flags.

Trudeau has made it clear hed rather avoid discussing the Republican front-runner and his proposals  like suspending Muslim travel to the U.S.

The prime minister was pressed this week with a line of questioning hell likely hear in Washington and replied: Im not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/03/2016 (2419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the representative of 15,000 professional teachers across Manitoba, I take great exception to your editorial on The Elephant In The Classroom: Teacher Pay.

Currently, the Brandon School Division:

 Is clearly in the throes of a healthy growth spurt, with 158 more students reporting this year alone, and at least 142 new students next year;

 Is in 24th place out of 38 school divisions in teacher salary ranking this year;

 Wants to give Brandon students all the opportunities you should afford them, as one area property owner recently said; and

 Would have needed at least 14 more teachers just to reach the provincial average in regular instruction this year  according to Manitoba Education accounting (FRAME)  never mind anticipated enrolment growth for next year.

So, rather than targeting overworked teachers and questioning their worth on the front lines of education, why wouldnt The Brandon Sun encourage a different kind of community dialogue: One that looks for continued ways to meet the real challenges of Brandons schools, students and teachers.

The question Brandon citizens and taxpayers really need to ask themselves is why would the BSD even consider cutting nine more teachers after a more extensive cut of 11 teachers last year?

Lamenting the potential loss of 20 educators over two years in the face of strong enrolment growth is natural because it imposes serious challenges on the remaining staff members and program delivery.

Traditionally, teachers have been the shock absorbers of the public school system. But their ability to absorb has limits. How can programs not suffer when there simply arent enough qualified teaching staff to go around? How can educators be effective, if their bucket of duties, responsibilities and paperwork is overflowing?

Besides these obvious oversights, there are fallacies and factual errors in your editorial that simply must be addressed.

You mention that a full 85 per cent of the BSDs budget is eaten up by salaries alone. Eaten up really? Education is a highly people-intensive endeavour. Why wouldnt salaries compose the biggest share of the budget, similar to the health care, police and emergency services systems?

In fact, teachers account for only about 50 per cent of an average school divisions budget. Do you also begrudge the salaries of bus drivers, school crossing guards, maintenance and facilities workers, cafeteria personnel, guidance counsellors, clinicians and countless others in the public school system  not to mention the superintendent, and stipends for board chairs and trustees?

We assure you that in public lists of positions with excessively high salaries, as you put it, youll see CEOs, bank presidents, maybe even lawyers and surgeons, but youll never see public school teachers.

Keep in mind that salaries for teachers and other organized workers are, almost without exception, freely negotiated between their unions and the BSD  both of whom are active participants in the process. Its not compulsion, its negotiation.

As for arbitration, in roughly 196 collective agreements negotiated by teachers and divisions provincewide from the year 2000 to the present, only nine, or less than five per cent, went to arbitration.

In short, contract negotiations are settled mutually and salaries meet the market test.

As for low scores on international tests, our Manitoba students results differ because our conditions differ. The levels of disparity in poverty, demography and migration are acute in Manitoba. And Brandons conditions reflect those of other large urban school divisions.

Lets get back to budget matters.

We understand the BSD uses Regional Health Authority data to forecast births when budgeting. The weakness there is that those births dont anticipate growth from migration into Manitoba from people returning from Alberta oil projects or even the welcome influx of migrants to the province.

Also, according the 2015-16 FRAME budget, the Brandon School Division was spending about $1,400 per child below the provincial average, last year. Brandon residents should ask themselves if they are satisfied that every child in their school division would receive at least $17,000 less than other Manitoba children over the course of their K-12 education. This could explain large class sizes, fewer program options for students.

That there are important issues to discuss within the Brandon School Division, there is no doubt. That people on the BSD board, in the schools and in the communities want to do their best to meet the needs of our students is a given.

But its simply not productive for The Brandon Sun to continue scapegoating teachers and refuse to recognize that the students we value so much need more support, not less.

Norm Gould, president

The Manitoba Teachers Society
Irish political parties are being urged to mark International Women's Day by committing to more female representation on local Councils.

The Women for Election group said that Councils have dozens of vacancies, due to Councillors winning Dail seats.
A special mass has taken place in Killarney this evening in memory of baby Karol Rozycki.

The 11-month-old baby boy was found dead in an apartment complex in the town on Sunday evening.

A man in his 30s from Poland was taken from the scene on Sunday after sustaining serious injuries, and remains he in hospital.

The special Mass for baby Karol and his family got underway at St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney at 4.30pm. It celebrated by Fr Piotr Delimat, the Polish chaplain seconded from the Archdiocese of Krakow serving the Diocese of Kerry, as well as Parish Priest of Killarney, Fr Kieran O'Brien.

The mass was held in the absence of Baby Karol's body. His funeral is to take place in Poland at a later date.

Fr Kieran O'Brien spoke about how Baby Karol brightened up his family's lives in his short 11 months.

He offered sympathies to Baby Karol's mother Anna who was present and said he hoped people's sympathies would lighten her burden in whatever way possible.

Fr Piotr Delimat said Karol's death had brought together the Irish and Polish communities in Killarney.

Several gifts were brought to the altar, including a picture of Baby Karol, some of his toys, and several candles - which were lit by his mother Anna to form a shrine to the infant.
Lawyers for a man accused of using threatening and abusive language towards President Michael D. Higgins claim his summons is fatally flawed.

The trial of Derek Byrne of Streamville Road, Kilbarrack in Dublin was due to start today but he claims that he does not even know what the allegation is.

On January 23 last year, President Michael D. Higgins was leaving the grounds of a secondary school in Finglas, Dublin when a group of water charge protesters approached his car.

A number of them are alleged to have shouted abuse at him and three people were subsequently arrested and charged with public order offences.

Under Section 6 of the relevant Act, it is illegal for anyone in a public place to engage in any threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

This was the allegation contained in the summonses sent to Derek Byrne and his co-accused Anna Clarke of St. Donaghs Road, Donaghmede in Dublin.

Their trial was due to begin today, but their lawyers argued they could not meet the case because the summons was too vague.

They said they did not know what their clients were accused of doing and argued it would be an injustice to proceed on that basis.

Judge Bryan Smyth adjourned the matter until March 23.

Another man is due to have his trial heard in Irish on Thursday.
Donald Trump is facing a test of his durability with white, working-class voters in Michigan today.

It is the first industrial state to vote in the 2016 primaries and the biggest prize among four states casting ballots in the lastest chapter of the turbulent Republican presidential race.

Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii are also holding Republican contests, while Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in Michigan and Mississippi.

Squeezed between last week's high-profile Super Tuesday contests and high-stakes primaries next week in Florida and Ohio, today's contests are unlikely to dramatically reshape either party's primaries.

But with 150 Republican and 179 Democratic delegates to the parties' national nominating conventions at stake, the races offer an opportunity for front-runners to pad leads or for rivals to catch up.

While Mr Trump has stunned Republicans with his broad appeal, he has forged a particularly strong connection with white working-class voters by emphasising his opposition to international trade deals and support for building a wall along the US-Mexico border.

With an eye on the general election, he has argued he could put Midwestern Democratic-leaning industrial states such as Michigan and Wisconsin in play for Republicans.

Mr Trump is facing competition from Ohio governor John Kasich, who has failed to win a single primary so far but hopes Michigan can give him a boost heading into his home state's winner-take-all the delegates contest on March 15.

"It's not just the whole country that's watching Michigan - now the world's beginning to watch," Mr Kasich said during a campaign stop in the state.

"You can help me send a message about positive, about vision, about hope, about putting us together."

Unless Mr Kasich and Florida senator Marco Rubio can win in their home states next week, the Republican primary campaign is set to become a two-person race between Mr Trump and Ted Cruz.

Texas senator Mr Cruz, an uncompromising conservative who has publicly criticised party leaders, is sticking close to Mr Trump in the delegate count.

With six states in his win column, he is arguing he's the only candidate standing between the brash billionaire and the Republican nomination.

During a stop at a catfish restaurant in Mississippi, Mr Cruz said the current vacancy on the Supreme Court meant Republicans could not take a chance on Mr Trump.

"He's been supporting left-wing politicians for 40 years," Mr Cruz said.

More mainstream Republicans have cast both Mr Trump and Mr Cruz as unelectable in a November face-off with the Democratic nominee.

But they are quickly running out of easy options to stop their momentum and are increasingly weighing long-shot ideas such as a contested convention or rallying around a yet-to-be-determined third-party candidate.

Mrs Clinton, meanwhile, appears to be on a steady path to the Democratic nomination.

She has steadily grown her lead over Mr Sanders, who has struggled to broaden his appeal beyond a loyal following of younger voters and liberals.

Her surge led former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to announce yesterday that he would not run for president as an independent candidate - a move that would have rocked this year's already extraordinarily unpredictable presidential campaign.

Mr Bloomberg, who had spent months mulling a third-party run, made his decision official through an editorial posted by the Bloomberg View, writing that he believes his candidacy would probably lead to the election of Mr Trump or Mr Cruz.

"That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," the 74-year-old billionaire wrote.

Those close to the process said Mr Bloomberg had believed the dominance of Mr Trump among Republicans and the rise of Mr Sanders amid Democrats had opened a centrist lane for a non-ideological, pragmatic campaign.

But Bloomberg aides say that path is now blocked with Mrs Clinton emerging as the likely Democratic nominee.

Today's results will offer clues about whether MrSanders is making any inroads in the overwhelming support that Mrs Clinton has enjoyed from black voters.

Trying to make a stand in Michigan, Mr Sanders has accused her of being disingenuous when she asserted that he opposed the industry bailout that rescued car makers General Motors and Chrysler during the Great Recession.

The 2008-2009 bailout by presidents George Bush and Barack Obama remains popular in Michigan, the home of the US car industry, and has been credited with preserving the Midwest's manufacturing base.

Heading into Tuesday's contests, Mrs Clinton had accumulated 1,130 delegates and Mr Sanders 499, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

Among Republicans, Mr Trump leads with 384 delegates, followed by Mr Cruz with 300, Mr Rubio with 151 delegates and Mr Kasich with 37.

Winning the Republican nomination requires 1,237 delegates.
The UN refugee agency is expressing concern about a possible deal between the European Union and Turkey including the prospect of "blanket returns" of refugees from the bloc to Turkey.

UNHCR Europe bureau director Vincent Cochetel told reporters in Geneva that collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under international law.

Amid concerns in Europe about illegal migration into the continent, Mr Cochetel said he was "tired of hearing about irregular migrants" because 91% of those arriving in Greece are from war-torn countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

He noted that Turkey has done more to take in refugees than the EU and has become "the largest country of asylum in the world". Turkey is home to 2.75m refugees - chiefly from neighbouring Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu will continue talks with Greece on the migration crisis at a meeting planned in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir.

The two leaders will head talks on Tuesday at a joint meeting of cabinet ministers, hours after the European Union summit in Brussels outlined the deal that would see migrants being sent back from EU-member Greece to Turkey on a larger scale.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras flew directly to the Turkish city from Brussels to attend the talks.

Success of the European plan will hinge largely on implementation of a Greek-Turkish readmission agreement to accept the return of migrants not given refugee status.

Before leaving Brussels, Mr Tsipras said: "Our talks continue in Izmir, where I believe we will have a historic meeting, with a decision to amend the readmission agreement that sees Turkey take back all migrants who are not entitled to protection under international treaties."

Amnesty International warned that EU plans to designate Turkey as a safe country for migrants are "alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane" because Ankara does not properly care for them.

The head of the group's European office, Iverna McGowan, said: "Turkey has forcibly returned refugees to Syria and many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing."

She said that "by no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a 'safe third country' that the EU can cosily outsource its obligations to".

The head of the EU parliament's Civil Liberties Committee Claude Moraes said members will meet with Greek and EU officials "to ensure that basic conditions for asylum claims are met".

He said: "It is important that the EU does not ignore its values in the face of people fleeing war and persecution by simply creating push-backs."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that, under the proposed deal, migrants who come to Europe illegally will get sent back and have to join the end of the queue to enter Europe.

Mrs Merkel said the plan would make it unattractive for migrants to pay people smugglers to take them to Greece.

She said "whoever comes illegally won't then be among those who can come to Europe, at least not among the first but rather they'll have to join the end of the queue".

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he is worried by increasingly tough European asylum policies, growing anti-refugee rhetoric and attacks on migrants.

During a visit to Berlin he said: "Extreme right-wing and nationalistic political parties are inflaming the situation where we need to be seeking solutions, harmonious solutions based on shared responsibilities."

Speaking after his meeting with Mrs Merkel, Mr Ban also said he is "deeply worried by growing anti-migrant and anti-refugee rhetoric and by violent attacks against these communities".

He said the European Union "can do much more" in the migrant crisis.
Mexico's main archdiocese has said Pope Francis was badly advised before he talked to bishops during his visit to the country.

The Pope told a gathering of bishops in February not to be career-minded clerics, saying: "We do not need 'princes', but rather a community of the Lord's witnesses."

Francis also urged them to maintain unity and show more transparency, saying: "If you have to fight, fight. If you have to say things, say them, but do it like men: to the face."

An editorial published on a website of the archdiocese of Mexico City said some of the Pope's comments had been misinterpreted by "reporters more focused on histrionics than the deep meaning of the words".

"The Mexican bishops have been accompanying the suffering, downtrodden people, devoting their lives to others and not living like 'princes'," the editorial said.

It denied local bishops were out of touch with the people and said the Pope's comments "might be due to someone near him who gave him bad advice".

The editorial ends with the question: "Who gave the Pope bad advice?"

But rector of the Pontifical University of Mexico, Mario Angel Flores, said the editorial appeared ill-advised, given that the Pope's comments "were very frank words, inviting everyone to be more clear".

"They are trying to downplay and question his words, which is not the most correct thing to do," he said.

Apart from his speech to the bishops, even Francis' prayers to the Virgin of Guadalupe reflected his concern that the Mexican church needed to get its priorities straight.

During his half-hour of silent prayer, Francis later told reporters: "I prayed for the Mexican people, and one thing I prayed for a lot was that priests be true priests, and sisters be true sisters and bishops be true bishops as the Lord wants."
Update 11.02am: Proposals to emerge from talks between the European Council and Turkey regarding the movement of Syrian refugees is wrought with moral and legal flaws, according to Amnesty International.

EU and Turkish leaders have today sunk to a new low, effectively horse trading away the rights and dignity of some of the worlds most vulnerable people, said Colm OGorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland.

The idea of bartering refugees for refugees is not only dangerously dehumanising, but also offers no sustainable long term solution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The human rights group also expressed concerns regarding the proposal that Turkey be designated as a safe third country.

Turkey has forcibly returned refugees to Syria and many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing, said Colm OGorman.

Hundreds of thousands of refugee children cannot access formal education. By no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a safe third country that the EU can cosily outsource its obligations to.

Iraqi and Afghan nationals, along with Syrians, make up around 90% of arrivals to Greece

.

Sending them back to Turkey knowing their strong claim to international protection will most likely never be heard reveals EU claims to respect refugees human rights as hollow words.

Earlier: European Union leaders have hailed a potential breakthrough in talks with Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of migrants streaming into the continent.

Negotiations in Brussels broke up after more than 12 hours of discussions without a final agreement.

However, leaders said a Turkish proposal to return all migrants who make it across the Aegean to Greece could provide the basis of a settlement that would finally close the refugee trail through the Balkans.

In return for taking back the refugees, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu wants the EU to resettle an equal number of Syrian refugees direct from his country.

He also called for a doubling of EU aid to support the more than 2.5 million refugees in Turkey as well as faster progress on easing visa restrictions on Turkish nationals and talks on Turkey's application for EU membership.

European Council president Donald Tusk described the talks as the "most promising moment" in the effort to find a way of deterring migrants - many fleeing the conflict in Syria - making the perilous sea crossing to Europe.

"All of us are aware that in fact we have a breakthrough now. The new proposal of our Turkish friend is a real chance to make progress in all aspects of our joint venture," he said.

EU leaders will resume discussions on the proposals when they meet again in the Belgian capital for further summit talks later this month.

Mr Davutoglu - who brought a more ambitious than expected set of proposals to the meeting - stressed that they had to be treated as a "package" if there was to be a deal.

"This is a humanitarian process helping refugees but at the same time it is a strategic issue for us that Turkey will be admitted to the EU," he said.

There was widespread agreement that more money would need to be found to help the Turks cope with the more than 2.5 million migrants currently in the country.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: "A further 3bn will be needed at the request of Turkey. We said in principle that this was a welcome approach."

British sources also indicated support for additional funding - provided the new arrangements were shown to be working..

"If that system is working, we will look at that. We will not turn the tap off," one source said.
The head of Volkswagen's employee council has said he hopes US authorities will consider the potential fallout on jobs as they mull what fines to impose on the company over its emissions-rigging scandal.

The cost to Volkswagen of the scandal that erupted in September remains unclear. In January, the US Justice Department sued it over the emissions-cheating software found in hundreds of thousands of vehicles sold in the United States, potentially exposing VW to billions of dollars in penalties for clean air violations.

The company and its executives could also still face separate criminal charges, while a raft of private class-action lawsuits filed by angry VW owners are pending.

"If Volkswagen's sustainability is endangered by a penalty of a so-far unique size, this will also have dramatic social consequences - not just at our US locations, but also in Europe and elsewhere," the company's influential employee council chief, Bernd Osterloh, told a workers' assembly at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters.

"We very much hope that US authorities also ultimately have this social and employment dimension in view," he added.

News of the scandal broke on September 18 when the US Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had installed software on 482,000 cars that enabled them to cheat on emissions tests. Four days later, Volkswagen said about 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide were fitted with the software.

The governor of Volkswagen's home state of Lower Saxony, who sits on Volkswagen's supervisory board as a minority shareholder, cautioned that more bad news can be expected.

"We will repeatedly be confronted this year with unpleasant news in connection with 'Dieselgate'," Stephan Weil told workers.

Prosecutors in Germany have been investigating suspected fraud connected to the emissions-rigging scandal since September.

On Wednesday, Braunschweig prosecutors' spokesman Klaus Ziehe confirmed a report by the Funke newspaper group that the number of people under investigation has increased to 17 from six.

He did not identify them or give further details, though the newspaper report said without citing sources that the suspects did not include any current or former management board members.
 

         

                     ,  ,    ,       ,   .
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A breakdown in communication between the hospital and police meant it was 26 hours before a search began for a man who disappeared from a Canberra hospital, his daughter has revealed.

It's been nine weeks since Canberra man Tahadesse "Tad" Kahsai, 61, walked out of Calvary Hospital where he was being treated for alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

Rezina Kahsai with missing posters for her father, Tad Kahsai, who has been missing since December 30. Credit:Rohan Thomson

In that time he hasn't touched his bank accounts or reached out to his family, and now his daughter Rezina Kahsai is looking for answers.
The ACT opposition will push for contracts for the government's $698 million tram project be fully released and not declared confidential.

A private members' bill to be moved by Liberal transport spokesman Alistair Coe on Wednesday would make limited changes to the procurement legislation for the city to Gungahlin line, meaning the government could not declare the contract with the Canberra Metro consortium commercial in confidence.

Opposition transport spokesman Alistair Coe will introduce a private members' bill on Wednesday, but it is likely to fail. Credit:Jay Cronan

It would be required to make the documents available to members of the public.

Mr Coe's bill is likely to fail, given it would require government support in order to be passed. It wouldn't impose the same standard for any other government project and would not bind a future Liberal government to publish future infrastructure contracts.
Indeed, this year they have.

St Anthony Primary students Jessica Kandiah, Natalie Cao, Nicholas Snell, Owen Quantrilll and Neika Henson doing well at numeracy in the NAPLAN test. Credit:Jay Cronan

"Every child matters! Focus on each child as an individual and the NAPLAN results will take care of themselves," he says.

The growing Catholic School in Tuggeranong has been identified as providing its 440-strong student body with some of the most significant gains in NAPLAN results in the ACT.

St Anthony's has shown student improvement substantially above the national average in reading and numeracy.

Mr Walker understood some of the community backlash against NAPLAN and the stress that a formal testing regime every two years creates for some families.

But he said NAPLAN was just one of many diagnostic tools schools could use to ensure that their teaching was working.

"We should never be afraid of seeing where students need more help, in fact the sooner we know that the sooner we can address it."
Brisbane and Sydney have urged the AFL against making kneejerk changes to the northern academy bidding system to appease rival teams that were "asleep at the wheel" last year.

Lions chief executive Greg Swann said any push for the complicated points-based system to be altered this year would be "ridiculous," given clubs were already planning around it.

Northern recruits: Matthew Kennedy of the Giants, Callum Mills of the Swans and Jacob Hopper of the Giants were key draft picks. Credit:Daniel Kalisz

The bidding system was one of several points of discussion at a recent meeting of the player movement advisory group, with some clubs believing the northern clubs rorted the new system.

Brisbane, Sydney and Greater Western Sydney all traded down the draft order to turn well-placed selections into multiple later picks that equalled more points under the new system.
West Coast defender Mitch Brown's rotten luck with injury has continued with confirmation a finger injury will sideline him for eight weeks.

Brown has undergone surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his left middle finger and probably won't be available for selection until round seven at the earliest.

Injury setback: Mitch Brown. Credit:Sebastian Costanzo

The 27-year-old missed most of the 2015 season after injuring his knee in round one, requiring a reconstruction.

Brown suffered a similar knee injury in 2008 and has only managed 90 games in nine years at the Eagles.
Author and journalist Lisa Pryor has settled her defamation case against The Australian Financial Review and controversial former Labor leader Mark Latham over a column he penned entitled "Why left feminists don't like kids".

Dr Pryor, a former opinion editor and columnist at The Sydney Morning Herald who is now a doctor, took legal action against the newspaper and Mr Latham in March last year after the column was published in November 2014.

Lisa Pryor has settled her defamation case against the AFR and Mark Latham. Credit:Steven Siewert

Her legal team had argued the column conveyed a number of defamatory meanings, including that "the plaintiff, a mother, does not love her children".
The iron ore market is not behaving rationally and nor is the market in the shares of Australia's third force in the commodity, Andrew Forrest's Fortescue. It reeks of something very fishy and authorities will need to be taking a very close look at trading in both.

Shares should trade up after good news  not before it. And commodities, like iron ore need a reason to skyrocket 20 per cent.

Monday's Fortescue trading looked a little unusual for most of the day when its shares were up a massive 13 per cent. But in the last half an hour of trading Fortescue shares shot up out of nowhere to end the session up a massive 24 per cent which looks simply implausible.

The forces that drove Fortescue up 13 per cent can be reasonably explained by the previous overnight 5 per cent increase in the iron ore price. The share prices of both BHP and Rio also got a shot of adrenalin  up 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.
The Queensland treasurer says Clive Palmer's move back into his north Queensland nickel refinery raises serious questions, but insists the matter shouldn't be personal.

Administrators FTI Consulting announced on Monday that Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd had been replaced as the Yabulu Refinery's manager by Queensland Nickel Sales Pty Ltd, which is run by Mr Palmer and controlled by two of his entities.

He said he was able to keep the refinery and associated Townsville Port facilities open by securing $23 million of funding.

"This is not about Clive Palmer," Treasurer Curtis Pitt told ABC radio on Tuesday.
"I hate specialists," Harnoncourt said in 1996 in an interview at his home in the Austrian Alps near Salzburg, where he had amassed a valuable collection of musical instruments.

A cellist, he founded the period-instrument ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien  with his wife as concertmaster  in 1953, and it remained crucial to his performance activities even as orchestral conducting came to dominate. He announced his retirement from performance last December, citing inadequate "bodily strength".

Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the traditional New Year's concert at the Musikverein in 2003. Credit:AP

Call him a specialist or not, and not to deny his multifarious other activities, he researched, performed and recorded early music encyclopaedically. In the 1970s and '80s he and the Concentus took part in a complete recording of the nearly 200 surviving Bach sacred cantatas for the Teldec label, sharing the performances with the Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt and his Leonhardt Consort.

Both leaders used small choruses of men and boys and boy soloists. Leonhardt's performances showed a certain gentleness, whereas Harnoncourt's were more assertive, with phrasings and accentuations that sometimes bordered on mannerism.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt was born on December 6, 1929, in Berlin to an aristocratic family with roots in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. He was raised in Graz, Austria, and trained in Vienna.

In Graz he became a member of the Hitler Youth. "If you didn't go there every Wednesday and Saturday," he said, "the Hitler Youth police would come, fetch you, cut your hair and toss you into a group with other difficult ones, who were treated terribly."

He was a cellist in the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from 1952 to 1969, when the Concentus became central to his activities, as it remained. His recording of Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies with the Concentus was recently released. He typically directed the Concentus from the cello and conducted larger pieces.
The World Economic Forum estimated last year that at the current slow rate of progress, it will take until 2133 to close the global gender gap across health, education, economic opportunity and politics.

We clearly need to take greater measures to close the gap. And, fittingly, the theme of this years International Womens Day, celebrated today, is: Pledge for Parity.

Evidence shows science benefits from having researchers from both genders and a wide range of backgrounds. Credit:Peter Braig

Its a call to action that the scientific community should heed.

Championing change
Priorities! And every single one of those problems is fixable, of course: as with almost all of society's big issues, the most obvious and historically successful solution is "throw money and resources at the problem" but as we know, that's just not practical - especially when we have far, far better ways to spend public money. You know, like buying joint strike fighter jets that don't actually work ($17 billion so far, with nothing to show for it), maintaining offshore detention ($1 billion-plus per year), putting chaplains in schools ($243.8 million) and holding a non-binding plebiscite on keeping the Nationals quie sorry, deciding whether Australia will legalise same sex marriage soonish, or do so a little bit later ($158.4 million). Sure, it'd be nice to save women's lives and everything - but they'll just to wait until next International Women's Day. It's grim up north

In other news, Labor now have the same number of MPs as the Liberal-National Party in the Queensland Parliament, thanks to the departure of Rob Pyne from the party on Tuesday. He's pledged to vote with the government on vital supply bills, meaning that Annastacia Palaszczuk is holding onto power by the skin of her presumably-gritted teeth. And this is especially important right now, given what's happening in the state on Saturday week. Queensland is gearing up for a state referendum on government terms on March 19: specifically, on extending them to four years and setting a fixed election date in October. The argument goes that three years is too short a time for a government to do anything - a new government spends the first six months getting a handle on the job, and the last six-12 months preparing for the next election. That leaves to years at best to actually govern, which all but sets them up to fail: after all, few successful programs can be begun and executed in that time frame, the argument goes, meaning that it's easier for a first term government to be replaced.

Labor's Anna Bligh got five years in the gig until 2012, but LNP's Campbell Newman was turfed out last year after a single, storied term - and Palaszczuk will have to face the polls next year. The fixed term also means that governments can't call elections at times that are politically expedient to the party in power - an issue that might ring a bell for people noticing what's going on with the federal government at the moment. Parliamentary Terms of Endearment And there's a case to be made for longer terms - expect a similar conversation to be started at a Federal level before too long - but there are a good reasons why Queenslanders should be especially wary about such a change. Leaving aside the fairly obvious point that the only governments that get chucked after three years are the ones that voters don't like, Queensland is unique among the states in having a unicameral parliament. In other words, there's no upper house.
For the first time, security experts say, a dangerous form of software called "ransomware" has successfully targeted a Mac operating system, piercing an image of safety that Apple customers had long enjoyed.

The attack, while noteworthy, affected a relatively small number of people and doesn't mean that typical Mac users should panic, experts say.

Apple has traditionally been less of a target for hackers than Windows PCs. Credit:Reuters

The software, when installed on a victim's computer, denies a user access to files unless a ransom is paid: about $US400 ($537). It targets files that users would most likely find important: photos, videos, Excel spreadsheets and Word documents.

Two analysts from the California-based security firm Palo Alto Networks, Claud Xiao and Jin Chen, discovered on Friday that the ransomware was infecting downloads of Transmission, a legitimate BitTorrent file-sharing application, they said in a blog post.
Netflix's Making a Murderer left the nation rapt, but the true crime obsession was less of a conclusive look at the Steven Avery murder trial than it was a narrative meditation on the fallibility of the criminal justice system.

Fans of the 10-part docuseries can now take a deeper dive into that same system with Making a Murderer defence attorney Jerry Butting, who recently announced that he's publishing a book on American jurisprudence.

According to the Associated Press, Buting's book will broach Steven Avery's case but will largely take to task the deep institutional failures within the criminal justice system.

"Excited to do (the) book. Lots to say about who I am & why I'm crim def atty. Love my career, every day," Buting tweeted Monday. "Will discuss how same flaws seen in MaM have been encountered frequently in my career. It's time to change."
A clip from Alan Rickman's final on-screen role shows him as a military commander torn over whether or not to issue the command to carry out a drone strike on a terrorist planning a suicide attack.

The reason for the hesitation? An innocent child is certain to be killed.

In the soon-to-be-released Eye in The Sky, Rickman plays Lieutenant General Frank Benson, an officer with ultimate responsibility for issuing the kill order that Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) insists is essential if civilian lives are to be saved. The movie, from South African director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Ender's Game, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and screenwriter Guy Hibbert, is a moral dilemma wrapped in an action thriller.

"Through centuries of warfare, the general in the field has always been in command of the decision whether to shoot or not to shoot," Hibbert says.
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie (Jackie O) Henderson have left daylight between themselves and their FM breakfast rivals with a stellar showing in the first ratings period of the year.

The pair leapt an astonishing 2.4 ratings points to leave their KIIS 1065 show at 12.5 and the station overall on 10.3, topped only by 2GB on the AM dial (12.5).

Good morning ... It's Kyle and Jackie first and daylight second in the latest ratings.

The numbers will be music to the ears of the pair who are said currently to be in the middle of contract negotiations with their employer ARN. Their lawyers will surely be looking to up the asking the price after this showing.

Amanda Keller and Brendan "Jonesy" Jones fared less well at WSFM, well adrift from their stablemates on just 7.1.
The federal budget will be in May. You can bank on it. Budget for it even.

But for all that clarity, reinforced by an explicit promise from no less an authority than Malcolm Turnbull PM, the actual date is suddenly in doubt.

For a Prime Minister who came to power promising to restore business confidence through economic leadership, and its corollary, investor certainty, Turnbull doesn't mind keeping a few critical details back.

If anything, the list of uncertainties emanating from Canberra is growing with each passing day, not shrinking. Fevered speculation over the election timing has consumed column metres of late, followed closely by the content of the tax-package to be announced.
Lockout laws should be unwound, helmets should be voluntary, e-cigarettes containing nicotine should be legalised - and public health experts should back off.

Those are the views of Terry Barnes, the architect of the controversial GP co-payment, who has made a stinging submission to a senate inquiry on the "nanny state".

Tony Abbott's former health adviser Terry Barnes says politicians have caved in to the public health lobby. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Barnes, who advised Tony Abbott as health minister in the Howard government, accused both sides of politics of caving in to health "activists" and public servants. A culture of prohibition in the public health sector has resulted in "zealous over-regulation" of people's behaviour, he said.

"It's all about stopping and prohibiting to protect people from themselves. That's where practically I think policy in this space is arse over tit," Mr Barnes told Fairfax Media.
When I was at my children's school this week, a little girl in my son's kindergarten class started chatting to me.

She told me proudly that she had $2 in her pocket and was planning to buy a fruit jelly cup at the canteen.

Boys get more pocket money, even though 10 and 11-year-old girls do more housework than their brothers.

Our family hasn't started pocket money yet. The currency at our house is Woolworths animal cards, but I suspect we'll graduate to gold coins before long.

About age five or six seems to be typical for starting a regular allowance, though some parents even give pocket money to toddlers.
The "root of all evil" has been discovered by scientists who found that part of the brain fires up before nefarious acts are carried out.

Researchers wanted to find out if bad intentions could be seen forming in the brain before any violence or aggression took place. They found that a distinct part of the hypothalamus - the brain region that controls body temperature, hunger and sleep - is activated shortly before an attack.

Illustration: Michael Mucci

The study authors, from New York University, say it may be possible to spot early warning signs of premeditated violence, stalking, bullying and even sexual aggression, and prevent it occurring for good.

"Our study pinpoints the brain circuits essential to the aggressive motivations that build up as animals prepare to attack," said study senior investigator Dr Dayu Lin, of the Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone.
A steep rise in death by suicide among middle-aged Australians and young women has driven the national suicide rate to its highest level in 13 years.

Australia's suicide rate rose to 12 per 100,000 people in 2014, according to Bureau of Statistics figures released on Tuesday  the highest level since 2001, when it reached 12.6 per 100,000.

The suicide rate among those aged 55 to 64 years surged by 54 per cent in the 10 years to 2014, to 15.1 per 100,000. This rise was steeper among men in this age group  58 per cent, compared to 50 per cent for women.
The attempt to overhaul local government in NSW is becoming increasingly tumultuous, with councils making last-minute moves to railroad the merger process.

Kogarah, Botany and Rockdale councils are the latest to try to disrupt the states government's reform agenda, all supporting the submission of alternative mergers to the ones proposed for them.

The move comes as Woollahra Council has threatened to take legal action against Local Government Minister Paul Toole if plans to force it to merge are not dropped within seven days.
Three brothers who were shot, one fatally, at a signage business in Sydney's south-west on Monday had gone to the factory seeking a refund for work that had not been completed, the family's lawyer claims.

Michael Bassal and his two brothers, Terry and Mark, were fired upon as they arrived at Inline National Signage on Heald Road in Ingleburn about 10.45am on Monday.

Michael, 43, died at the scene, while Terry and Mark, aged 41 and 34, were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds to the shoulder and legs.
A baby girl is in a serious condition after a near drowning at a far north Queensland beach.

The one-year-old was pulled from waters at Wongaling Beach, between Cairns and Townsville, late Tuesday afternoon, a Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman told AAP.

A baby girl is in serious condition after a near drowning.

The girl has been taken by ambulance to Innisfail Hospital and was expected to be airlifted to Townsville.

AAP
A 12-year-old boy has been taken to hospital after he was hit by a bus at the Gold Coast on Tuesday.

It is understood the schoolboy was struck by a bus on Coleman Road at Coomera at 3.55pm.

A 12-year-old boy was hit by a bus at Coomera on Tuesday. Credit:Nine News Brisbane

Police said the young boy had gotten off a school bus that had been travelling west along Coleman Road and attempted to cross the road from behind.

While attempting to cross the road the boy was hit by another bus that investigators believe was unable to avoid the collision.
A woman has been stabbed in the neck and shoulder in an early morning domestic dispute inside a Gold Coast unit.

Police were called to the Surfers Paradise unit about 5.30am after reports a man and woman had been fighting inside.

The Surfers Paradise apartment complex where a woman was stabbed in an apparent domestic dispute. Credit:Emma O'Rourke / Nine News Gold Coast

Upon arrival, they found the woman with stab wounds to her neck and shoulder.

The man had fled the scene.
Below is the letter Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk sent to her Labor caucus on Tuesday morning, following the resignation of MP Rob Pyne from the party.

Dear Colleagues,

Our Government has a mandate to restore hope and opportunity after three years of threats and cuts under the LNP.

There's no more important source of hope and opportunity than a job.

I made a promise to Queenslanders that I'd lead a Government focused on jobs, and over the last 12 months, 71,700 new jobs have been created in Queensland.
One of those said to be upset with their treatment was former Police Minister Jo-Ann Miller, who is understood not to have heard from the executive since her resignation from the Cabinet last year. Ms Miller refused to comment, but another senior source said the Bundamba MP's treatment since she stepped down from the ministry after an Ethics Committee report found a "pattern of reckless conduct" while clearing her of contempt, was troubling for others in the party. With her supporters seeing Ms Miller as "a true Labor warrior", her exile from the inner caucus has been seen as "political assassination" and has many within the Party worried she could "wreak her revenge in spectacular fashion". With the numbers now equal and the government forced to negotiate with three independents or the two Katter MPs to get any legislation through parliament, many within Labor see an early election as the only way forward. "We could lose. Yes. But we could guarantee we lose the next one if this turns out how we think it will. A debacle. An absolute debacle. How would I describe the mood? Other than depressed? Dismayed. I think the whole caucus is dismayed with how this has played out. Because it was all so avoidable."

Ms Palaszczuk, after sending out the "business as usual" message to those within her caucus and the public on Monday night, following Mr Pyne's decision, changed tack on Tuesday, defiantly declaring she would not rule out calling an early election. "No, I will not rule that out, I am not ruling it out, because I am making it very clear to Queenslanders, I am here for them," she said. "I am here to govern for them in the best interest of them and I will not allow anyone to stand in my way. "...When I put legislation through the parliament that is about creating jobs, I say to all members in parliament here today I need your support. "And if you don't give me your support, I'll get the support of the Queensland public."

But both the LNP and Mr Pyne don't believe such a move is necessary. "The Premier can make a visit to the Governor at any time  but certainly not in my name," Mr Pyne said. "The action I have taken means it is 42 a-piece with the Katter's and crossbenchers expressing confidence in the Premier who also has the casting vote of the Speaker. "There have been 40 bills which reached second reading stage and 40 have been passed. If the Premier has any complaints it can't be from a lack of good will from the Legislative Assembly passing her legislative agenda." Mr Springborg also said there was no reason for Ms Palaszczuk to head to Government House.

"What Queensland needs is leadership from the premier," he said. "This isn't an issue of a government not having confidence or a majority in the Parliament, this is an issue of the government not having competence." Under Westminster conventions, at least half a term should be attempted by the premier, before heading to the Governor. Graeme Orr, Professor of the law of politics, said Ms Palaszczuk "if she wants to" could force an early election, but added "the Governor is not a rubber stamp". "It would be highly unusual for a Premier who has the clear confidence of the Parliament to be advising of an election barely a year since she formed administration," he said.

"Because in that year, on several occasions, she would have told the Governor 'I have the numbers', and nothing has changed those numbers, it is simply two Labor MPs are now sitting on the crossbench, - but they have said they will support the Government as a matter of retaining Government and will support the Government on basic Labor policies. "So we are in a funny situation, where the Opposition has said they don't want to move a vote of no confidence at any point - and it is ironic that we are being rushed to a referendum for fixed longer parliaments, if the Premier or the Opposition was to bring on an early election, where there is no evidence that Parliament is in any sense unworkable  it is just a hung parliament where the numbers are slightly different." Senior business leaders, however, have joined calls for an election to be held because of the potential for ongoing speculation to damage the economy. Having set off a chain reaction of panic with his news, Mr Pyne said he was looking forward to moving forward and was "feeling comfortable in terms of where I am personally as a member of parliament and the position I am in to represent my electorate". He said the premier had spoken to him on Tuesday afternoon and "expressed her disappointment in my decision", while other MPs, such Barron River MP Craig Crawford had been more brutal, labelling his former north Queensland Labor colleague a "megalomaniac".
A Brisbane company will donate its removal and storage services to victims of domestic violence to help them set up a new life, away from abuse.

A trial partnership between Supercheap Storage and DVConnect will see victims of domestic violence in Brisbane's north given access to free removal and storage services, an action close to the heart of Supercheap Storage North Brisbane franchisee Chris James.

Supercheap Storage are partnering with DVConnect to provide free removal and storage services for victims of domestic violence. Credit:Fletcher Photography

"I had a bit of experience with my family growing up where we used to take in victims of domestic violence to help them out, in a really informal way," he said.

"My mother was quite active in that space and would try and help out with drug and alcohol issues, unfortunately domestic violence and drug and alcohol issues are very intertwined.
At least once a day I get an unsolicited email promising to get my website to the top of the Google rankings. I've always wondered what these emails, which are clearly a scam, are all about.

These missives almost always come from a Gmail account. I've responded once or twice to see what would happen  I've never had anyone come back to me. So I asked some real marketing experts what they are all about.

There's no easy way to get to the top of Google search results. Credit:Cole Burston

David Bobis, digital marketing director creative digital agency Studio Culture in Brisbane, says companies that promise they can get their clients to "number one on Google" are often doing it to mislead potential customers who aren't necessarily aware of the technicalities behind inbound marketing.

"A majority of this comes in the form of spam from overseas, or can also be sold by local businesses," says Bobis. He says when these marketers "guarantee" a top ranking on Google, this could mean a number of things.
Square's palm-sized reader lets Australian businesses accept credit cards using smartphones and tablets, but they must wait for "tap-and-go" contactless payments like Apple Pay.

Launching in Australia on Tuesday, the $19 Square Reader fits into the headphone jack of an Apple or Android device. It allows businesses to accept card payments on the move  taking a small cut of the transaction amount but not charging any other fees.

The Square Reader. Credit:Square

The card reader supports the Australian "chip-and-PIN" standard, along with traditional mag-stripe transactions, but Square is holding off on launching its NFC-enabled contactless card reader in Australia. Square's NFC payment terminal, available to US customers for $US49 ($66), supports "tap-and-go" contactless payments such as Visa's payWave, Mastercard's PayPass, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

Apple Pay launched in Australia in November last year for American Express card holders, but it is not supported by the Square Reader.
Pluto just won't give up. The distant clump of rock smaller than our own moon seems to be making a renewed push to be recognised as a planet.

Ten years after the International Astronomical Union demoted it to one of the many dwarf planets orbiting the sun, some scientists think it just might have clouds.

New Scientist magazine has published conversations on an internal discussion list between planetary scientists wondering if images from September last year showed Plutonian haze or if they could be considered discrete cloud formations.

On that list, Will Grundy, a scientist at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, said: "There's a few fairly localised low-altitude features just above the limb that I've drawn lame arrows pointing to, but also a few bright cloud-like things that seem to be above and cutting across the topography in the circled area."
And because matter at this scale behaves like waves, when subatomic "particles" interact they "interfere" with each other, like ripples on the surface of a pond, or sound waves coming from separate speakers.

The result of this is that quantum objects can effectively be at two places at the same time, but this cannot be directly observed  see uncertainty below.

Application: Used as the basis for quantum computing systems.

2. Uncertainty

Intimately related to superposition is the effect described by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Specifically, the more precisely we know a quantum object's position, the less precisely we know its trajectory  and vice versa.
Malcolm Turnbull's offices in Melbourne have been targeted by protesting childcare workers with a group chaining themselves to the entrance doors and making demands for better pay.

The chained-up childcare workers have drawn a crowd outside the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet after converging on Treasury Place soon after 8.30am on Tuesday.

Protesters said the 150,000 childcare workers nationally were "woefully" underpaid compared to other educators.

In some cases, they are paid as little as $20 an hour, barely above the minimum wage.
The victim, Masa Vukotic. Glaring failures in the system were exposed when Sean Price, who was on bail and a serious sex offender supervision order, stabbed Ms Vukotic to death on March 17 last year. Next week marks the anniversary of the 17-year-old's death. Before they are released from prison, criminals jailed for sexual offences are assessed on their risk of reoffending and what the gravity of that offending could be.Those who are found to have an unacceptable risk are classified as serious sex offenders and are monitored by the unit. There are 126 serious sex offenders in Victoria, 74 of which are monitored electronically. Fifty-eight of these offenders are not deemed fit for community release and are housed in Corella Place, a secure residential unit outside Ararat.

"We keep offenders under fairly rigorous conditions because of the risk of what we think they might do," Sarah Miles, the general manager of Corrections Victoria's sex offender management branch, said. "It's not a punishment, and essentially without that classification they would be in the community without any ongoing monitoring or supervision." These offenders are being investigated more than ever, with authorities aided by a more potent arsenal, including intelligence analysts and new powers to raid the house of a serious sex offender without consent to ensure they are complying with the conditions of their order. Detective Senior Sergeant Stevenson said this power had not been used, but it was possible offenders had been more accommodating because they were aware police could force their way inside regardless. Karla Lopez, a Victoria Police senior forensic psychologist who is involved in the risk assessment and case management of offenders, acknowledged that the Price case created the impetus for police and Corrections Victoria to form the task force.

"We'd certainly had discussions about this sort of thing for a long period of time." She said the unit was now better placed to assess offenders such as Price, as they had more knowledge that could be accessed far more quickly. "The benefits [are] having that really up to date knowledge of what's happening with that offender, knowing that the risk-related behaviours we might see are not straightforward. "It's not about him standing over a child, it's about where his mental health is at and how that is being monitored and contained, and those sorts of things."What we're talking about is an enhanced effort...around actually meeting the purposes of the act in terms of community protection."Detective Superintendent David Watt said the detectives in the unit were experienced investigators who had access to more intelligence about serious sex offenders than ever."We've got the entire Victoria Police force out there feeding that system, so whenever they speak to or check one of these individuals, there's a feed that's coming in, and this team is immediately aware of that, whereas in the past, that wouldn't have happened. "You wouldn't have been aware that we would have spoken to this person at this railway station last night. And that's the nature of intelligence, one piece of information doesn't tell you anything, but when you put the pieces together it paints a picture."The unit has meant offenders are no longer being taken on their word, he said.
Planners risk a fierce "density hangover" unless they keep people on-side in the push to combat Perth's urban sprawl through infill, says a Perth sustainability expert.

The comments follow the story of Hellen Barnaby of 100 Mill Point Road South Perth, who last week said her home had become a "concrete coffin" after her balcony was walled in by new high-rise being built next door.

Several years ago, planning laws were changed to allow increased density on the Mill Point Peninsula. Public consultations were done, but now the high-rises are going up, residents are horrified by a result they say they did not expect.

The laws allow zero-setback of high-rises' podiums (the wider part at the base) so they are flush with street and side boundaries.
Police are looking for a gunman after a man took himself to Peel Health Campus with a gunshot wound to his leg in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police say the 27-year-old arrived at the hospital around 12.30am.

Police are searching for a gunman after a Mandurah shooting.

He is currently in a stable condition.

Police are investigating how the shooting took place and have identified a crime scene on Hickman Road, Silver Sands.
The husband of the Perth woman who received horrific burns to her body when a Thermomix unexpectedly burst open says her skin was falling off her body.

Danika Jones first told WAtoday last week she was cooking a pasta sauce in her Thermomix in January when the lid flew open and splattered burning hot liquid all over her upper body.

Danika Jones still receiving treatment for burns. Credit:Today Tonight

She suffered second-degree burns to her to her chest, arms and stomach.

Ms Jones husband Luke told Today Tonight on Monday he is haunted by his wife's screams.
"North Korea's provocations - its nuclear tests and long-range missiles - can no longer be accepted and North Korea's misjudgments should be corrected by making them pay the heavy price for their actions," Lee Suk-joon, minister of government policy co-ordination, told reporters on Tuesday.

The sanctions, which overlap with current measures imposed by the United States and the United Nations, nevertheless signal President Park Geun-hye's intent to inflict as much pain as possible on Pyongyang following its recent defiance.

Tokyo: South Korea on Tuesday unleashed a wave of direct sanctions against North Korea, blacklisting dozens of Northern companies and people for the first time and banning ships that have visited North Korean ports from its waters.

"Today's announcement expresses the international community's firm intention to change North Korea," he said.

Kim Jong-un ordered a nuclear test in January - which Pyongyang claimed was a hydrogen bomb - then last month he oversaw the launch of a long-range rocket thought to be part of a ballistic missile program. The United Nations responded by introducing tough new sanctions against the North's regime.

The South Korean sanctions designate 30 companies with links to the North's nuclear and missile programs, as well as 38 North Korean individuals and two foreigners. The foreigners are Leonard Lai, president of Singapore-based Senat Shipping, and Lyou Jen-yi, the Taiwanese president of Royal Team Corporation.

All will be banned from the South Korean financial system and any assets they have in the South will be frozen. This is the first time that South Korea has specifically targeted people and companies by name, a practice used by the UN, US and European Union.

Seoul also said it would ban ships that have been to North Korea within the previous 180 days from its waters, and will introduce stronger controls on imports to and exports from North Korea. The UN sanctions mandate cargo inspections for all goods going in and out of North Korea by land, sea or air, and one North Korean ship has already been impounded in the Philippines.
One of the most influential newspapers in the United States, The Washington Post, has devoted an editorial to Australian Cardinal George Pell's appearance at the royal commission last week, noting his "stumbles" and condemning some of his testimony for seeking to "airbrush the church's staggering lapses."

The newspaper's editorial board told its readers that on the same day the film Spotlight, which depicts an investigation into abusive priests in Boston's Catholic church, was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture, a "related drama" was taking place in the Vatican, as Australia's most senior Catholic gave testimony to a commission back in Australia.

The Post stated that while Cardinal George Pell stayed mostly "on message" during his appearances before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he "stumbled" at several moments, and in doing so, revealed "the shortcomings in the church's response to revelations of misconduct."

Examples cited by The Post were comments that have already been the source of controversy in Australia, including his response to a question about whether paedophile priest Gerard Ridsdale's offending was "common knowledge" in the 1970s. Cardinal Pell described it as "a sad story and it was not of much interest to me".
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Trump this: Get a rubdown, and feel the Bern!

A Prospect Heights masseuse is helping Brooklynites ease their anxiety about the increasing likelihood that Donald Trump will become the Republican nominee with a special rubdown package dubbed the Moneybags Massage, with a portion of all sales going to raise money for Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanderss grassroots presidential campaign.

A lot of people are really nervous about Trump being the Republican nominee, said Darcy Stockton, who is donating 20-percent of the proceeds from the rubdowns to the liberals campaign.

Stockton came up with the idea for the extra-luxe $200 massages after reading a Washington Post article about how more people are visiting psychologists and masseuses to confront their fears about the short-fingered vulgarian making it all the way to the oval office.

Her two-hour, money-scented rubdown, first reported by Brokelyn, includes a peppermint foot rub and hot orange scalp massage that is beautifully orange scented, but not as orange as the spray-tanned businessman, according to Stocktons website. The package also includes the option to cover your body in gold-shimmer lotion and emerge looking like one of Trumps towers.

And shes not just appealing to the upper-echelon  her 99-percent package is a 30-minute massage fit for the most socially liberal Vermonter.

Stockton  who has been easing stress for five years  says shes offering to work her magic fingers to the bone because The Donalds discriminatory policies have people pulling their hair out.

Some of the ideas he has are very scary and very reminiscent of 1930s Germany, she said.

A Downtown psychologists said that she hasnt seen an uptick in her patients venting about Trump, but claimed election-induced anxiety can be brought on by any person who could possibly gain a powerful position, including the real estate mogul.

I think hes triggering pre-existing anxieties, said Dr. Elise Feldman. Anybody who has the potential to come into power has the capacity to increase peoples anxiety when their views differ.

She added that Republicans could also be experiencing the same anxieties about the Democratic candidates, but no one is offering massages for them because Brooklyn  Americas largest Democratic county  bleeds blue.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill @cngl ocal.com or by calling (718) 2602511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill
latest news

October 3, 2022

Dee Gambit

Hundreds  if not thousands  of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month  your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ...
Hoping to find out more about his missing time, Castle headed to Los Angeles with Alexis and Hayley in Castle season 8 episode 14, The G.D.S. While there, he was recruited to compete for a spot in the legendary Greatest Detective Society (pitting him against Fireflys Summer Glau).

Heres what Castle uncovered about his missing time in The G.D.S.

Castle Recap: We Finally Learn What Castle Forgot>>>

Castle Left a Watch with the Owner of a Korean Restaurant

When he couldnt pay, he offered the watch up in place and said hed come back for it. Its a knock-off, Castle realized upon seeing it, and while he didnt recognize it, he bought it back because it was his only clue.

Thanks to Alexis Counter-Surveillance Precautions, They Discover the Watch Is Bugged

Theres a GPS transmitter hard-wired to the battery.

Alexis Refusal to Let a Possible Lead Go Ends with Hayley Admitting Her Involvement

The GPS tracker led to Malcolm McCabe, special forces, and when Alexis went to talk to his aunt, she saw a photo of him and Hayley.

Hayley Met Castle a Year and a Half Earlier Than He Thought

As she revealed to him, he had begged her not to tell him. She had been doing freelance work for MI-6, and Castles father, Jackson, turned to her to keep an eye out on Castle in Los Angeles. Castle had been sticking his nose where it didnt belong.

Castle Went Rogue After His Mission in Thailand

Instead of going home, he came to L.A. Hayley borrowed the GPS tracker to keep track of him, but when he gave the watch away, she lost him.

By the Time Hayley Found Castle Again, Hed Been Shot

He wouldnt say who shot him but did mention his CIA handler by name, Jenkins, and said he was going to ask him to erase everything that happened to him.

Castle Tasked Hayley with Showing Him a Video He Recorded for Himself If He Went Looking for the Truth

If you are seeing this, then you are an idiot because you are trying to figure out what happened to you in Los Angeles. What you discovered about Brackens partnership with LokSat is too dangerous to pursue, Castle warned himself in the video. I was shot trying to figure out where LokSats plane was landing tonight. I barely escaped without being identified. I am erasing our mind for a reason, to protect Kate. Because if she found out, then she will die. So do not tell her what you discovered in Los Angeles, for her sake.

Castle season 8 airs Mondays at 10pm on ABC.

(Images courtesy of ABC)
Trouble sleeping? The size of your tongue and tonsils could be why

Although dentists cannot diagnose the disorder, they can easily spot an enlarged tongue or tonsils and recommend a patient to a sleep medicine specialist.

UB research calls on dentists to increase role in treating people with obstructive sleep apnea, sleep-related disorders

Dentists see into their patients mouths more than physicians do and the signs are easy to identify. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  The best time to identify signs of obstructive sleep apnea may not be at night while snoozing in bed but, instead, while sitting in the dentists chair.

According to a new study led by University at Buffalo orthodontic researcher Thikriat Al-Jewair, dentists are in the unique position as health care professionals to pinpoint signs of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep due to blocked upper airways.

The research found that oversized tonsils and tongue indentations, which are teeth imprints along the tongue that indicate it is too large for the mouth, placed people at high risk for OSA. Obese patients were almost 10 times more likely to report OSA symptoms than non-obese patients.

Sleep apnea affects more than 18 million American adults, but many cases go undiagnosed, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Severe cases of the disorder are linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, memory loss and more.

Although dentists cannot diagnose the disorder, they can spot an enlarged tongue or tonsils and recommend a patient to a sleep medicine specialist.

Dentists see into their patients mouths more than physicians do and the signs are easy to identify, says Al-Jewair, clinical assistant professor in the UB School of Dental Medicine.

We need to teach students about this condition before they get out in the field and educate dentists about the major role they play in identifying and treating patients with sleep-related disorders.

The study, Prevalence and risks of habitual snoring and obstructive sleep apnea symptoms in adult dental patients, was published last month in the Saudi Medical Journal and funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research grant from the University of Dammam.

Analyzing 200 patients at the dental clinics at the University of Dammams College of Dentistry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the researchers tested participants for OSA using the Berlin Questionnaire, a validated assessment used to screen people for OSA.

Participants were then screened for potential risk factors of OSA, such as weight, neck circumference, blood pressure, and size of the tongue, tonsils and uvula the tissue that hangs in the back of the throat.

The results found that 23 percent of participants were at risk for OSA, of which nearly 80 percent were male.

The factors most common among people who were identified as high risk for OSA on the Berlin Questionnaire  along with obesity  were large tonsils, tongue indentations and a high Epworth Sleepiness Scale score, another questionnaire used to measure daytime sleepiness.

Future research will expand the sample size to include various age groups and monitor participant sleep overnight to confirm the prevalence and severity of OSA, says Al-Jewair.

Additional investigators include Mohammed Nazir, lecturer, and Naif Al-Masoud, assistant professor, both at the University of Dammam, and Nasser Alqahtani, assistant professor at King Saud University.
RIBA award-winning zero carbon design and development business Zed Factory has unveiled the Zero Bills Home, which it says is a response to the housing crisis that aims to make home energy bills obsolete.



The house is designed to minimise its energy requirements, with the remaining energy needs met by a roof-integrated photovoltaic and energy storage system, which, the company says, can also generate enough power to service a small electric vehicle.

The home is heated by a small air source heat pump that recycles heat recovered from stale air that's been processed by a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system.

Zero Bills comes as a kit of parts  a steel frame with timber wall panels, the bulk of which is manufactured in the UK. The system costs approximately 1,350 per square metre.

Architect Bill Dunster said: "SME builders are key to delivering the 250,000 homes per annum we need across the UK  the Zero Bills system is an off-the-shelf solution for SMEs that could really drive the market in the right direction. With its integrated energy generation facility it shows how we could actually reduce the investment needed for centralised national infrastructure by becoming net exporters of renewable energy."

Zero Bills is aiming to be one of the first homes assessed under the Building Research Establishment (BRE)'s new Home Quality Mark, which provides consumer-friendly, impartial information via a star ratings system on the quality and sustainability of new homes. Subject to planning permission, it has already been commissioned for use on a development in Newport, Essex, for the Sir Arthur Ellis Trust.

BRE's chief executive said "Zero Bills represents new thinking and a fresh approach to the significant challenges and opportunities we face in the housing market."

Zero Bills is located on the BRE Innovation Park in Watford, a mini-demonstration community of homes and buildings of the future.

Picture by Sam Turner, BRE
Higgins Building Supplies is celebrating a major business milestone this year. The family owned builders merchant, which operates from a depot in Wellingborough and a second site in Irthingborough, is commemorating 150 years of trading.

First based on Midland Road, Wellingborough, the company was established in 1866 by Thomas Henry Higgins. Originally a stonemason, Mr Henry Higgins soon diversified in order to meet the needs of local customers who wanted their stonework and other building materials supplied at the same time.

Over the next century and a half, the business has continued to grow and evolve under the careful direction and stewardship of five successive generations of the Higgins family.

Key highlights from the company's history include the opening of a second depot in Kettering in 1902. This location was chosen as it was a day and halfs horse and cart drive from Wellingborough - ensuring an efficient delivery service.

In 1925, then owner Mr Henry Higgins junior also worked with prolific British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to build the now Grade 1 listed County War Memorial in central Northampton.

Higgins bought its current 4.5 acre Turnells Mill Lane site in Wellingborough in 2003 before constructing a number of buildings and officially opening the depot for business in January 2004.

The companys current second site, on Station Road in Irthingborough, was acquired in 2012. After extensive renovations to the existing on-site buildings, this depot opened in 2013 enabling Higgins to serve customers across a broader geographical area.

To mark its 150th anniversary, Higgins Building Supplies has a number of events, promotions and initiatives planned for 2016. This will include opening a new counter at the Wellingborough site and running prize draws with the chance to win prizes including a brand new van. The business will also stage an exclusive 150th anniversary trade day for customers in September.

Speaking of Higgins 150th anniversary, Nigel Higgins, the companys current managing director, said: The entire team at Higgins Building Supplies is delighted to be celebrating the companys 150th anniversary.

We owe our longstanding success to a combination of factors. This includes a belief in offering a wide range of high-quality, competitively priced products backed by the highest levels of service and friendly, expert advice.

We also couldnt have achieved such an impressive milestone without the support of the local building trade. Wed like to thank our past, present and future customers for their loyal business.
From the Pine Barrens and beyond, check out these haunted hikes
PREMIERUL NICOLAE CIUCA:

"Nu accept sa intrerupem procesul de invatamant pentru ca nu exista termie in vreuna dintre scoli"
Nine months ago when Kishore Biyani, chief executive of Future Group, unveiled his plan to transform his Rs 18,000-crore retail-led enterprise into a consumer goods giant, it seemed implausible. Many felt the 54-year-old Marwari businessman was casting his net too wide.

However, Biyani, best known as India's Sam Walton (founder of Walmart), is beginning to demonstrate that he has a concrete plan of action for his food and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) play. He is eyeing a 10-fold growth for this business, driven largely by his listed Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd (FCEL), in the next five years.

From around Rs 2,000 crore, which is the current turnover of our food and FMCG business, the plan is to take it to Rs 20,000 crore by 2021, Biyani said in a presentation on Tuesday.

Besides manufacturing and marketing, which constitute the backbone of his food and FMCG play, Biyani is also silently getting his distribution model in place, notably, in general trade.

The entrepreneur said on Tuesday that his group, which has 360 hypermarkets and 4,000 small stores of its own, had just begun distributing his Tasty Treat range of products in general trade in Varanasi and the plan was to extend this into other markets and cities. Making our products available outside our stores would be critical, he said, adding: We have some ideas on that front.



This includes tapping not only wholesale channels (distributors and stockists), but also cash-and-carry stores, tying up with state governments (through public-private partnerships; the group runs fair price shops in Rajasthan, for instance), and rival retailers.

Only last week did the Future group tie up with Trent Hypermarket, a joint venture of Tata group's Trent and UK-based Tesco, to supply its own brands in food and FMCG. Biyani says more such tie-ups with rival retailers are in the offing to supply his groups products in their stores.

The group has also stitched up a few more deals and launched more brands. The board of FCEL in-principle approved entering into a joint venture with LT Foods for manufacturing, marketing and distribution of rice. We have also unveiled our oats brand Kosh and will get an international premium personal care range called Swiss Tempelle by June this year, said Biyani.

Currently, the group has a portfolio of 27 brands under 64 categories, which includes his own as well as those launched through joint ventures (such as Sunkist, beverages brand from California), and acquisitions (such as Bakers Street and Nilgiris).

Going forward, the plan is to boost this portfolio of brands as Biyani eyes entering virtually every food and FMCG category.

All these plans are expected to be funded with the help of the Rs 365 crore that the group raised recently, Biyani said. Of the amount raised, Rs 200 crore will be utlised to retire debt in FCEL and the balance will be ploughed into the business.



BIYANI'S FOOD & FMCG VISION
Bengaluru-based start-up Houzify has alleged that Facebook took down its page without a warning after US-based Houzz complained about trademark infringement, with the entire incident sparking a free Internet debate.

In December last year, Houzz, which has its headquarters at Palo Alto - where Facebook was incubated, had served a legal notice on Housify, claiming that the Indian company was infringing on its trademark.

Both the sell home decor. Houzify's page reportedly had 52,000 followers. It was taken down on March 4.

The Indian company said it had applied to the Indian Trademarks Registry for a trademark on the two names, Houzify and Housify. The application is still pending.

In September last year, Houzify had raised a seed round funding from T V Mohandas Pai, the founder of Aarin Capital, and Naveen Tewari, the founder and chief executive officer of InMobi.

Pai, who is also a former Infosys director, said Facebook should have considered both sides of the dispute.

"A platform like Facebook, which is driven by the core values of connecting people all over the world, is expected to demonstrate an empathetic approach to both sides of a dispute. To remove Houzify's page without any investigation into the trademark claims in the country of its founding shows a marked disrespect to protections that are already enforced by IP regulators and courts in India," he said in a statement. Pai added: "We call on Facebook to respect the processes that protect Houzify's branding domain, and to restore its page until the matter is resolved in the Indian courts."



Houzify claimed that Houzz had appealed to Facebook to remove its page, and it was done without any prior warning. It also said that its brand name, logo and market were in India - quite different from Houzz's US market.

In the cease and desist order sent to Houzify in December, Houzz had demanded the Indian company stop using the brand names Housify and Houzify and handover the domains to it.

According to the Indian company, however, its legal team has been able to refute the US firm's allegations.

"Houzz's impending launch in India validates the huge market opportunity in the home decor space. Healthy competition is good for everyone and having initiated a legal process, Houzz should have continued down that path instead of bringing down the Houzify Facebook page. Such tactics stifle the local startup ecosystem. Houzify is well poised for growth and that must be worrying Houzz," said Sharad Sharma, the cofounder of iSPIRT Foundation, in a statement.
Ford India, the seventh largest player in the domestic passenger vehicle market, has emerged as the largest exporter in February. Last month, the company shipped more cars than Hyundai and Maruti, the two top exporters. With a low single-digit growth and expanded capacity following the commencement of Gujarat plant last year, exports have become critical for Ford.

The US car maker shipped 11,823 vehicles to around 50 export destinations last month. Ford exports EcoSport, Figo and Figo Aspire to markets such as Latin America, West Asia and Africa. Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest car maker, shipped 9,336 units while its nearest competitor Hyundai exported 9,013 vehicles.

Read more from our special coverage on "FORD" Ford India sales up 38% at 17,306 units in Feb

Hyundai has remained the largest exporter for the past many years. In the April to February period of the current financial year, the South Korean car maker exported 151,970 units and is way ahead of Maruti's 113,447 units and Ford's 97,202 units. Unlike Hyundai and Maruti, Ford exports significantly higher units than its domestic sales.

The car maker is focusing on export market to have a reasonable capacity utilisation and bring greater economies of scale. Both Hyundai and Maruti have seen a high double-digit domestic sales growth this year and have accorded a greater priority to local demand.

Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (sales and marketing) at Hyundai, said: Export has always been part of our business strategy. But, to free up additional production capacity for domestic market we have currently stopped exports to the big European market while working to sustain the leadership position in domestic market.



Hyundai is operating its two plants in Chennai at 95 per cent capacity. Maruti is also operating at a near full capacity.

Ford inaugurated its second Indian plant at Sanand in Gujarat in March last year with an annual capacity of 240,000 vehicles. The first plant at Chennai had a capacity of 200,000 vehicles. The company sold a total of 156,841 units (75,138 in domestic and 81,703 overseas) in the last financial year.

In the first 11 months of the current financial year, the company sold a total of 169,486 units (72,384 in domestic and 97,202 exports) against a capacity of 440,000 vehicles, indicating a capacity utilisation of less than 50 per cent. Ford did not respond to queries on its export targets.

Ford is trying to execute a strategy to expand in Indian market. While that is going to take time for various reasons, export comes as a big opportunity for the company. The Sanand plant was set up with an export focus, said Abdul Majeed, partner at Price Waterhouse.
IDBI Bank's shares have risen 22 per cent since the Budget was announced, against S&P BSE Sensex's six per cent increase. The surge was on account of the government's plans to reduce its stake in the bank below 50 per cent from 80 per cent currently.
Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea on Tuesday signed an MoU with the Haryana government for an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. Confusion prevailed over the value of the investment promised.

While Ikea maintained that the MoU was for Rs 2,000 crore, Haryana pegged it at Rs 500 crore on its website. The MoU stands for mutual commitment from both parties and intends to provide clarity on working methods and ensure a legally and ethically compliant business environment.

In 2015, Ikea had signed MoUs with Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to set up stores.

Haryana is a prioritised state for IKEA due to its open investment climate. The state is investing heavily in technology, infrastructure and skill development. IKEA will set up retail stores to bring high quality, functional home furnishings with affordability and design for the many people. We will expand our supplier base and develop logistical infrastructure for our business, IKEA India CEO Juvencio Maeztu said.

IKEA said that it is evaluating different sites in the prioritized states of Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. It had earlier said that it would open its first store in Hyderabad in the second half of 2017.

The company, which received government approval in 2013 for its Rs 10,500 crore proposal to open retail stores under 100 per cent foreign direct investment, plans to open 25 stores by 2025 in nine Indian cities.

To be accessible to the many people, IKEA is looking for store sites with direct access to mass public transport systems, preferably the metro and located near the highway. The size of an IKEA store is about 350,000 sq. ft. IKEA plans to open 25 stores by 2025 and double sourcing from India by 2020, both for Indian and global IKEA stores.

Last year, IKEA India bought its first piece of land in Hyderabads HITEC city with the first store opening slated for summer 2017. Construction is slated to begin soon in the coming months.

IKEAs first store in Hyderabad will be a massive four lakh square feet in size and will include all features of a global IKEA store, including restaurant and play and development area, he added.

In July last year, the company had announced purchase of 13 acre land close to the IT hub in Hyderabads HITEC city for the first store.

IKEA has been present in India for 28 years, sourcing for its stores around the world. In India, it currently has around 50 suppliers with about 45,000 direct employees and about 400,000 people in the extended supply chain.
The fight for dominance in the smartphones market between the two global giants  Samsung and Apple  is not new. In the past two years, the battle has spread to new territories such as India. And, with Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, offered at aggressive prices, Samsung on Tuesday opened another front.

According to industry analysts, with sales of Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus reaching record high in the companys history in India, the South Korean electronics major was expected to come up with a counter strategy. While the rush for introducing the two models  S7 and S7 Edge, which Samsung believes can outpace iPhone sales  led the company to launch them within a fortnight of their international launch at Barcelona during Mobile World Congress, the pricing points of these two flagship devices have surprised many.

At Rs 48,900 and Rs 56,900 for S7 and S7 Edge, respectively, the pricing is lower than the launch price of Samsungs previous two flagship launches of the same series  S6 (Rs 49,900) and S6 Edge (Rs 58,900) a year ago.

The pricing this time is exciting. Usually in India, vendors bring down prices after a few months of their launches, leading to a surge in sales, said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner Inc. While smartphones priced above Rs 30,000 form seven-eight per cent of the total sales, for major brands, it is a key indicator of their superior brand value. Manu Sharma, director of product marketing at Samsung India, said the decision of bringing down price was based on how many more devices they wanted to sell.

GFK data show we hold 48.2 per cent market share in the premium segment. With this new offering, we expect to grow that further, said Sharma.

While Samsung is known for its brand and full range product portfolio, Apple enjoys the aspirational factor attached to its brand in India, said Faisal Kawoosa, partner, CyberMedia Research.

The brand benefits from peoples desire to get attached with it, said another industry analysts. To win over consumers this time, Samsung has incorporated three new India-specific innovations in its flagship devices. While in the S6 series it got rid of external storage and had single SIM card slots, in the latest devices Samsung incorporated SD card slots with capacity of up to 200 GB and Duel SIM features.

It has also improved network connectivity through signal booster, keeping an eye on the unreliable nature of network connectivity in India.
Tata Motors on Tuesday said the company has yet again reached out to the striking workers and advised them to resume duty on or before March 11, failing which, the company would take appropriate legal actions. The workers, however, said there was no plan to join back as of now.

Gujarat Khedut Samaj (GKS), a farmers outfit, has already extended support to the striking workers, and indicated that it would move the Gujarat High Court to protest against the state labour departments decision to prohibit the strike.

Sagar Rabari, secretary, GKS said, This is not any essential service or commodity, that the government acted in a hurry to declare the strike illegal. We would move Court against this. Also, we are seeking permission to sit in a dharna before the Ahmedabad collectors office.



Tata Motors said in a statement on Tuesday, Under Clause 10(3) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, to prohibit the ongoing illegal strike by Gujarat government, for all such workmen who are yet to resume duty, the company will consider it as unauthorised absence.



The company has yet again reached out to the striking workmen and advised them to resume duty on or before March 11, failing which the company would be compelled to take appropriate legal actions.



The company too has moved the Ahmedabad Session Court for an injunction to prevent any agitations on the plant premises to ensure protection and safety of its people and property. Zhala Harpal Sinh, a striking worker at the site, and one of the committee members of the seven member workers committee that is representing the striking workers said that there were no plans to join back work as of now.

Around 422 workers at the site had gone on strike from February 22 protesting against the suspension of 28 workers, and sources have indicated that about 50 of them have already resumed work at the site.
Venture Catalysts, a seed investment & innovation platform, has invested in Pvt. Ltd., an Artificial Intelligence platform that helps communicate insights in data, in words, at scale.

The amount was not disclosed.

The seed investment was led by Apoorv Ranjan Sharma and Daud Ali from Venture Catalysts, while other prominent Angels from the VCats networks included Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha, Anirudh Damani, Vishal Maheshwari, Nitin Aggarwal, Mayank Shah, Jayesh Shah and Anand Ladsariya.

In addition to VCats Angels, Anil Chokhani from the Canada-based Zone Startups also co-invested in the seed funding round, which saw Zone Startups Founder Matt Saunders joining the team at vPhrase as an Angel observer. Also, the platform is partially funded by Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A)

Speaking on the investment, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder, Venture Catalyst, commented, the decision to invest in vPhrase Analytics was taken due to its focus on technology to drive innovations.

The company was founded by Neerav Parekh.

vPhrase is already working with two of top five private Indian banks besides other in insurance, broking, media and engineering space.
The Green Tribunal on Tuesday asked the environment ministry to tell in a day why environmental clearance was not required for building temporary structures in floodplains.

The question from the court came on a day it probed the clearances to the Art of Living's three-day World Culture Festival on March 11-13 at the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi, which was earlier earmarked by the courts for ecological restoration. None of the authorities accepted responsibility for giving permission to the army to build a pontoon bridge on the river for the event. This only added to the controversy over how the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had given permission to the event after thrice rejecting it and eventually marking a copy of the permission to Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu's principle secretary.

Read more from our special coverage on "ART OF LIVING" Didnt conduct any environment impact study, Art of Living tells NGT

It is not known if the urban development minister's office had intervened in the matter but the chief engineer of DDA is not mandated to send copies of such permissions to the minister as a routine.

None of the agencies present in the court - Delhi Development Authority, Union ministry of environment and forests and the Delhi government - took onus for permitting the construction of the pontoon bridge for the event by the Indian Army. The green court was not engaged with the separate question of who ordered the army to build a pontoon bridge for a private civilian entity. The court will hear the matter of environmental damage caused by the event again on Wednesday and has not stayed the event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was slated to inaugurate the event though news reports on Tuesday suggested he might opt out of the event because of "security concerns". The President of India has already opted out.

DDA, in its clearance to the event, had laid down a few conditions. The three-day event was to be held at a safe and sufficient distance from the edge of the river. DDA did not clarify safe for whom and what the sufficient distance was. It said eco-friendly material should be used and must be removed immediately after the celebration was complete. Eco-friendly material was not defined.

One of the conditions was that no material would be dumped at the site. Concretisation of the space was banned and arrangement for toilets were to be made. A security of Rs 15 lakh was charged with the warning that any violation of the conditions or those imposed by other authorities could lead to cancellation of the permission.

After the issue was raised before the Green Tribunal, successive expert bodies found that the floodplain had been severely damaged in the process of setting up the infrastructure for the event.

One of the expert bodies appointed by the court recommended a reparatory fine of Rs 100-120 crore for fixing the damage.

Neither the expert committee of the court nor DDA have so far recommended pulling the plug on the event.

The had earlier claimed 3.5 million would attend. Before the court, it claimed the numbers expected were around 300,000.

Central environmental laws do not require any mandatory green clearance for such temporary structures. Also, multiple agencies are involved in monitoring the environmental damage from such events in Delhi.

The lack of clarity became evident when the ministry of environment on Tuesday suggested the water resources ministry - not party to the case before NGT so far -might have been responsible for granting permission to build the pontoon bridge. Legally, four agencies - the regional office of the environment ministry, the Delhi state pollution control board, the Delhi government and DDA - could intervene in case of environmental damage to the Yamuna floodplains. None did until the green court took up the issue.
President Pranab Mukherjee will not be attending the cultural festival being organised by the later this week, in the wake of controversy over holding the three-day function on the Yamuna flood plains. According to the Art of Living founded by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, President Mukherjee had agreed to give the valedictory speech at the World Culture Festival, which will begin on March 11.

While the organisers of the function expect lakhs of people to attend, concerns have been raised by experts about the damage to the environment that may be caused as the three-day event was being held on flood plains of the river in east Delhi. The Green Tribunal is hearing a petition which has claimed that the organisers will release 'enzymes' into 17 drains that flow into Yamuna for cleaning the river. A judgement is expected tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Indian Army, which has built a pontoon bridge on the Yamuna for the festival, is likely to build one more to ease movement of those expected to attend the controversy-ridden mega event. The development came even as there was criticism from some quarters, including the social media, about using Army to build the floating bridge for such an event. "Lakhs of people are expected to turn up. There is a question of law and order and also fears of stampede. Permission has been granted by concerned authorities to host the event.

If a permission has been given, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure everything is run smoothly," highly placed defence soures said. They said the organisers had approached the Defence Ministry seeking six such bridges but the Army was asked to erect only one. A second bridge has been erected by the PWD. "The Delhi Police has now given a report saying that there are fears of stampede and hence the Army might build another bridge," sources said, adding that a Minister from the Delhi government has also written to the Ministry highlighting the need for such bridges. Sources said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had asked the Defence Secretary to look into the issue. During his interaction with the Army, the force wondered whether their personnel should be used to help a "private event". "The Minister was of the view that since permission has been granted, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure everything was fine. The Army, which has the expertise, was asked to step in keeping the larger good of people in mind," sources said. They added that the Army has been used during Kumbh Mela and even the Commonwealth Games. Told that the event has come under the scanner of the Green Tribunal, which looks after the environmental issues, sources said the Army is only helping people and it is up to the concerned authorities to grant permission or withdraw it.
The Union government wants to transfer the ownership of two units of central public sector firm Instrumentation Limited (IL) to Kerala and Rajasthan governments, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete said here on Tuesday.

Geete said his ministry was in talks with the two state governments to take over operations at the Palakkad and Kota units of IL.

He added the Cabinet was likely to decide on a proposal to shut down the terminally-ill Hindustan Cables by offering a voluntary retirement scheme to its 1,500-odd employees in a couple of weeks.

While the Palakkad unit of IL has 350 employees, the original Kota branch has 600 employees. IL, established in 1974, provides support to core sector establishments such as steel, power, cement and oil refineries as well as small and large scale industries.

While the Kota unit has been in the red since many years, the Palakkad unit has been making profits. Employees of the Palakkad unit have been demanding that the government either de-link the profit-making unit from its loss-making mother unit at Kota or merge the Kerala unit with a profit-making .

While there has been a positive response from Kerala for the takeover offer, that from Rajasthan has been negative.

The Centre had last month approved hiving off profit-making Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) from its parent company IL and turning it into an independent central public sector enterprise.

As for Hindustan Cables, reports of the company's revival had surfaced after the defence ministry approved its takeover by the Ordnance Factories Board.

The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises was supposed to take a call on it after taking into account the views of all ministries concerned. "The company's employees will be offered voluntary retirement according to the 2007 pay scale, whereas they were being paid according to a pay scale from 1987," said Geete.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs had earlier approved closure of seven sick public sector units, including Hindustan Cables, which have incurred a total loss of Rs 3,139 crore over a period of time.
The backlash over the proposal to tax Employees Provident Fund (EPF), which forced the government to withdraw it on Tuesday, has put the spotlight on how this proposal made its way into the Budget  in the first place.

Like all major proposals in the Budget, this, too, was discussed among top policymakers in the finance ministry and the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). Now, officials say none of the people involved in the Budget-making process anticipated how unpopular the proposal would become.

While rolling back the proposal on Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also took back his earlier proposal to tax contribution made by an employer beyond Rs 1.5 lakh a year to . Both the proposals had drawn strong condemnation from trade unions, the Opposition and the salaried class.

However, Jaitley retained a proposal not to tax 40 per cent of money withdrawn from the National Pension System (NPS). This means, only 60 per cent of ones NPS corpus would be taxed at the time of withdrawal, against the current practice of taxing the whole among.

We failed to communicate the intent of the proposal. The feedback from the first day itself was largely adverse and the perception was gaining ground how it was anti-middle class. It had also given the Opposition a stick to beat us, said the source.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not want to upset the salaried middle class, which it considers its core support base. The feedback was also received from chief ministers of BJP-ruled states such as Anandiben Patel of Gujarat.

Another government official said the two paragraphs in the Budget speech on the tax are now being seen as ambiguous.

With so much work going on leading up to the Budget, it escaped everyone that maybe we needed to re-look those two sections. Now we have the benefit of hindsight.



The two paragraphs read: In case of superannuation funds and recognised provident funds, including EPF, the same norm of 40 per cent of corpus to be tax free will apply in respect of corpus created out of contributions made after 1.4.2016.



Further, the annuity fund which goes to the legal heir after the death of pensioner will not be taxable in all three cases. Also, we are proposing a monetary limit for contribution of employer in recognised Provident and Superannuation Fund of Rs 1.5 lakh per annum for taking tax benefit.



The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the trade union arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, welcomed the rollback. A senior BMS official said it was senior bureaucrats who misled the PM on the issue.

We in the BMS had discussed the issue of lack of accountability of bureaucrats during our recent national executive meeting in Hyderabad (on February 6 and 7). We had also called for a need to reform bureaucracy, BMS Organising Secretary Pawan Kumar told Business Standard.

Increasingly, several senior members of the Sangh Parivar have been attributing the failure of the government to implement its key schemes on the bureaucracy. Sources pointed to the PMs references to lack of accountability of the bureaucracy during his speech on the motion of thanks to the address by the President in the Lok Sabha on March 3. The speech had come within days of the EPF tax announcement.

The PM had, then, said how mutual recriminations between the Opposition and the government, whether now or earlier, have reduced the accountability of the bureaucracy. The PM said the bureaucracy enjoyed these accusations and counter-accusations. It is important that we together increase the accountability of our executive, Modi had said.

The PM had said hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were spent in paying the salaries of the bureaucracy and there was no dearth of programmes or policies, both during the tenure of his government or earlier, but implementation remained a problem. Governments will come and go and they will get the brickbats, but their (bureaucracys) fun at our expense will not stop.
Haryana will soon join the Union governments Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme for restructuring debt of power distribution companies (discoms) in the state. A senior state government official said the power discoms in the state had a total debt of Rs 34,500 crore, of which the state government would take over Rs 25,000 crore in two tranches.

Haryana has the highest aggregate technical and commercial losses in India at 30-33 per cent, followed by Rajasthan. Piyush Goyal, Union minister of state for power & coal, said Haryana would be signing a legally-binding agreement for UDAY this month.

In the first tranche, the state will take over Rs 17,000 crore debt in 2016-17. Another Rs 8,000 crore will be taken over before September 2018, said the state government official cited above.

The actual transfer by way of grant would happen over five years. The grant component would be 20 per cent, while the remaining would be debt. Non-statutory liquidity ratio bonds would be issued against the 80 per cent debt for which the distribution companies would have to pay an interest of 8.5-nine per cent against 12.5-13 per cent, which is normally paid. The state discoms stand to gain Rs 8,000 crore from the scheme, said the official.

Seven states have formally signed up for UDAY scheme. Punjab joined the scheme last week. The UDAY scheme announced last year envisages financial and operational turnaround of stressed power discoms. So far, 16 states have given their in-principle approval to join UDAY. Besides the conditions that the UDAY scheme mandatorily imposes on the discoms, the Haryana government would also ask the discoms to prepare an action plan to increase billing and increase collection efficiency. Simultaneously, the state government would clear the subsidy dues to the discom. Twenty-six per cent of power in Haryana is supplied for agriculture purpose to rural areas. The dues of Rs 400-500 crore arose due to re-calculation by the state power regulator. For 2015-16, the state has provisioned Rs 6,700-crore subsidy, said the official.

Under UDAY, loss has to be brought down to 15 per cent from current levels by 2019. The trajectory for loss reduction will be very steep for us, said the official.
Indian Railways is staring at an overall negative fund balance of Rs 6,095 crore next financial year despite the rail ministrys claim that it would manage to successfully handle the impact of the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations on its financial health.

The net balance in the six funds  Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF), Development Fund (DF), Pension Fund (PF), Capital Fund (CF), Debt Reserve Fund, and Safety Fund  is seen changing from Rs 2,467 crore at the end of 2015-16 to an overall shortfall of Rs 6,095 crore in 2016-17 after accounting for the budgeted appropriations and withdrawal from each of the funds, according to the Union Budget. The last time the fund balance had entered the negative territory was in 2010-11 with a shortfall of Rs 4,989 crore.

DRF is meant for upkeep and replacement of assets, DF is meant for expenditure on passenger amenities, Capital Fund is meant to finance capital expenditure works like doubling projects, Debt Reserve Fund was created to tackle staff cost liability and the Safety Fund is meant to create safety infrastructure.

Business Standard had last week reported how the ministry has in this years rail Budget cut down the funds meant for DRF to show a less unwholesome operating ratio of 90 for the current financial year. Railway Boards Financial Commissioner S Mookerjee had last week sought to clarify the doubt creeping into everybodys mind on railways preparedness to deal with the Rs 28,000-crore impact of the pay panels recommendation.

The ministry plans to debit Rs 3,160 crore from the DRF, leaving a balance of Rs 253 crore and debit Rs 2,515 crore from the DF, leaving a balance of Rs 30 crore in 2016-17. Similarly, the railways will add Rs 5,782 crore in the Capital Fund but withdraw Rs 7,000 crore, leaving a shortfall of Rs 1,217 crore. The ministry will withdraw Rs 10,739 crore from the Safety Fund, leaving a balance of Rs 43 crore.
Every year, around 200,000 Indian students are admitted to foreign universities and they collectively pay about Rs 15,000 crore in tuition fees. The reasons why such a sizeable number of young people leave the country for studies include fewer seats at the premier institutes in India, proliferation of substandard institutes, and a substantial increase in the size and income of the middle-class.

It is estimated that in the next 10 years, the size of Indian middle class will grow tenfold - from 50 million to 500 million; in the next five years, the number of students seeking higher education will grow from the current 26 million to 40 million. It means that India would need another 600-700 universities to accommodate the additional demand of 14 million students by 2020.

Currently, India has 714 universities and around 40,000 colleges.

"India will outpace China in the next 10 years as the country with the largest tertiary-age population," notes a British Council report released in 2014 on the future of higher education in India. But, despite this huge potential in the realm of education, not many corporate houses are finding it a lucrative business. This is mainly because of shortage of land to build institutes of learning and the fact that education is considered an 'over-regulated' sector in the country.

Many believe education is not a profitable business when it comes to setting up a world-class research institute. For many industrialists and corporate honchos, it is an act of philanthropy, brand building and corporate social responsibility. Rumour has it that industrialist Naveen Jindal decided to set aside a large sum of grants when he was told that he can be India's John Harvard. Jindal gave Rs 600 crore to set up the O P Jindal Global University (JGU) in 2009.

Premji has donated 39 per cent of his stake in the software company to philanthropy. The recently-opened Ashoka University is funded by the doyens of industry such as Genpact founder Pramod Bhasin and Naukri founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, among others.

At the crossroads



It is still a long road for these philanthropy-backed new varsities, which are vying to be India's answer to Harvard and Columbia. The biggest challenge before them is financial sustenance as they cannot survive purely on the basis of grants and aids in the long run.

The world over, top-ranking institutes are supported by their wealthy alumni, endowment and industry grants. For instance, 30,000 donors and volunteers contribute to the Harvard College Fund each year, according to its website.

JGU says it spends around 20 per cent of its revenue, or Rs 25 crore, on scholarships every year.

Similarly, 85 per cent of all students at SNU are currently receiving some sort of scholarship and financial aid from the university. All doctoral students receive a stipend of Rs 35,000 a month and are exempt from paying tuition fees. But, it is unlikely that the universities will continue to provide the same financial support to its students after a few years.

Six degrees of separation



In January this year, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said India should send around 10,000 students to the US for PhDs in science, technology, engineering and math every year over the next 50 years. He said it should be on condition that the students would not be given any employment in the US. They should come back and serve in India for the next 10 years.

Murthy's statement holds true as it is often said that India doesn't produce high-quality researchers and many students opt for ghost writers for their thesis. At the undergraduate level, the fees charged at these new centres are higher than those at other institutes and the salary package offered during the campus placements is average. For instance, a five-year law course at JGU costs Rs 36.25 lakh. When it comes to salary, the lowest remuneration for the 2015 law batch was Rs 12,000 a month and the highest was Rs 1.2 lakh a month. The average salary was Rs 58,000 a month.

At SNU, the highest, lowest and average packages offered were Rs 15 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.48 lakh, respectively. Ashoka students appear to have got better money. The median salary for the one-year postgraduate programme was Rs 9.2 lakh per annum.

Experts say Indian students earn most of their tuition fees while studying abroad. Their degrees are recognised the world over and many prefer to stay back for good salaries and easier access to research funds. The amount remitted back to India is also substantial. For instance, the US was the second-largest contributor to India in terms of remittance ($11.5 billion) after the UAE, which contributed $13.2 billion.
The state government has initiated the task of preparing the master plan for developing a port based manufacturing zone at Dhamra.

The cost of developing infrastructure for the proposed zone is pegged at Rs 3,100 crore. Of this, the Government of India is set to contribute Rs 1,844 crore while the balance Rs 1,256 crore will be borne by the state government The zone is planned on 7,500 acres of land.

"The master plan is being prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It is expected to be readied in three months", said a government official.

Pilot project has been approved by the Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India as port based manufacturing zone under PPP (public private partnership) for Regional Integrated Development of Enterprises.

It is envisioned as an economic hub for port based manufacturing enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dhamra is identified as one of the three key manufacturing hubs by the state industries department along with Kalinganagar and Paradeep.

Dhamra is home to a non-major port run by Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), part of the Adani Group, which had acquired Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) for Rs 5,500 crore.

Currently, the port is equipped with two fully mechanised berths with a combined cargo handling capacity of 25 mtpa. The two berths are capable of handling 12 million tonne of imported dry bulk cargo and 13 million tonne of cargo for exports. The port commenced commercial operations in May 2011.

Aiming to diversify its cargo base, DPCL had lined up Rs 10,000 crore expansion plan to ramp up its cargo handling capacity four fold to 100 million tonne per annum (mtpa) up from 25 mtpa presently. The port is awaiting allotment of 740 acres land from the state government to commence work on expansion.

After the second phase expansion, the port will be able to handle container cargo, liquid cargo, LNG (liquefied natural gas) and crude oil.
Chief Minister has demanded early sanction of Rs 657 crore for implementing 24 critical road projects in the Naxal infested districts of Malkangiri and Koraput.

The demand was raised by Patnaik during his meeting with Chaudhury Birender Singh, Union minister for rural development, panchayati raj and drinking water & sanitation in New Delhi.

These road projects, as recommended by the home ministry, are to be taken up under Road Requirement Plan Phase-II, covering a distance of 375 km.

Patnaik said that though the Union Cabinet had approved the inclusion of 4035 left out unconnected habitations in the core network under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in February, 2013, the proposal is still pending for approval in the Union ministry.

He urged the Union Minister to approve these 4,035 unconnected habitations early to enable the State Government to prepare and submit Detailed Project Reports (DPR) required for undertaking implementation of the projects.

The chief minister also broached the state government's pending proposal for upgradation of 3,000 km of roads badly damaged by the severe cyclonic storm Phailin in 2013.

The state government's proposal that is already approved by the pre-empowered committee, should be placed before the empowered committee of the Union ministry for sanction at the earliest.

Patnaik mentioned that the state is yet to receive the approved central assistance of Rs 503.74 crore under Indira Awaas Yojana which includes the entitlement under IAY (Normal) Rs.413.98 crore for 2015-16, IAY (Forest Rights Act) Rs 82.91 crore for 2013-14 and IAY (Primitive Tribal Groups) Rs 6.85 crore for 2013-14.
Telangana and Maharashtra governments have decided to set up an inter-state river water dispute resolution board to settle the issues pertaining to the irrigation projects, both old and new, being proposed in Godavari basin on both sides.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhara Rao on Tuesday signed an agreement in Mumbai for establishing a dispute resolution mechanism for the inter-state projects on Godavari.



The inter-state board, a rare step volunteered by two neighboring Indian states, will be headed by one of the two chief ministers by rotation.

The new board will strive to resolve the disputes through consultations in line with the river water allocations made by the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal (GWDT) in the past.

"I profusely thank Maharashtra chief minister Mr Fadnavis for having responded positively to our request for settling the water issues amicably. Both the states will gain out of this move as abundant water is available in Godavari. About 2000-4000 tmc ft of Godavari flood water flows into Bay of Bengal every year," Rao, who was invited by his counterpart to Mumbai for the signing of the agreement, said.

Rao started discussions with the Maharashtr after meeting him in Mumbai last year on a possible agreement for the construction of a set of barrages on Godavari and its tributariess near the state boarders, that can store flood water, over and above the existing allocations, for the benefit of the parched areas on either side of the state borders.

Maharashtra chief minister Fadnavis said the agreement would play a crucial role in the development of both the states. "When two countries can enter agreement on sharing of river waters how it is not possible for two Indian states to come together and settle the issues through discussions? We are doing this in the interest of both the states," Fadnavis said on this occasion.

According to Telangana government, the board will act as a common monitoring body that oversees the implementation of the inter-state projects on Godavari in both the states. It has listed out six projects, including the five newly proposed barrages that will help store an additional 5 tmc of water benefiting the farmers of this region, to be taken up by the board shortly.

To be headquartered in Hyderabad, the board will hold periodic meetings either in Mumbai or in Hyderabad to arrive at a mutual agreement on each of the contentious issues involving the inter-state projects. Officials said the modalities were being worked out on sharing the benefits and costs of these projects.
Farmers protests against Tata Motors factory in West Bengal in 2008 had forced the company to relocate its plant to industry-friendly Gujarat. Now, with thousands of farmers claiming that they are being displaced by rapid land acquisition for industry in Gujarat, the story seems to be taking a new turn.

Almost all recent labour strikes were declared illegal by the labour department of Gujarat. These include strikes at the General Motors plant in 2011, Reliance Industries textile unit in 2012, Arvinds Ahmedabad unit in 2012, the Apollo Tyres unit in November 2012 and Larsen & Toubros Hazira plant in 2013.

Gujarat does not have an agriculture policy, but it has an industrial policy, said Sagar Rabari, secretary, Gujarat Khedut Samaj.

Rabari plans to move the Gujarat High Court to question the governments decision to prohibit the ongoing strike at Tata Motors Sanand plant.

It is the governments duty to mediate between industry and labour, but the state government has been taking the side of industry, Modwadia added.

When industrialisation began in Gujarat in the early 1900s, textile mill owners could hardly find workers. They had to provide accommodation to woo workers and most of the chawls in Ahmedabad were built by mill owners, explained Vidyut Joshi, former director, Centre for Social Studies, South Gujarat University.

One of the first instances of industrial unrest in Gujarat was in the early 1980s when textile workers had gone on a strike demanding higher wages. Around that time Gujarat had seen the rise of several labour leaders who were also influential in state politics: Sanat Mehta, Navinchandra Barot, Natwarlal Shah and Ashok Bhatt. This legacy has waned and now there is no prominent labour leader in the Gujarat Assembly.

The level of unionisation among workers in Gujarat is also low. Officials in the state labour department admit this is a problem. With no official channel to negotiate their demands, workers resort to flash strikes, said an official.

In a way, workers lost their umbrella, and increasing pressure to make labour laws industry-friendly led to convenient changes in the laws and practices of the state, Joshi said.

Of this, the transition that holds the key to recent workers unrest in the state is the rise of contract labour. In the past decade, industry has moved overwhelmingly to hiring migrant labourers from Bihar and Orissa on contractual basis. There were seven million contract workers of the total twelve million industrial workers in the state, said Nihil Mehta, president of the Gujarat wing of Indian National Trade Union Congress. Contract workers are paid between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,500 a month, he said.

The states minimum wages are Rs 7,000 a month for skilled workers. Every three years, workers expect a good revision. When that does not happen, they resort to strikes, said the labour department official. However, he disagreed with Mehta on the number of contract workers. Contract workers should be about 30 per cent of the labour force, he said.

The Socio Economic Review for 2015-16 suggests the value of output at current prices of all registered factories in Gujarat has climbed 10.23 per cent to Rs 1,230,642 crore in 2013-14 from Rs 1,116,395 crore in 2012-13 but the employment growth in factories has been negligible from 1.36 million in 2012-13 to 1.37 million in 2013-14.

Gujarat is sitting on a ticking time bomb, said Mehta. Modhwadia added the state needed quality employment and worker protection policies.

On March 10, all the major trade unions that have some representation in the state will hold a demonstration at Ahmedabads Lal Darwaza area to protest against the labour reforms initiated by the state government
Malati Samanta has not been home for the last three years. Likewise, Madhab Das sneaks into his home only in wee hours. Jayanta Manna has taken up a menial job in a glass factory, while Prashant Paul has migrated to Mumbai and is working as a goldsmith in a small jewellery shop.



These are the stories for a few victims of Saradha scam, reverberations of which were once felt equally in state Assembly and Parliament. Almost four years after the Saradha scam, the anti-ponzi movement in West Bengal has not only fizzled out, but is also no longer even fodder for opposition in the state.

Chitfund Sufferers' Unity Forum, one of the umbrella organisations created after the scam in 2012, now hardly attracts 1000 members in its protest rallies, against about 30000 three years back. Notably, soon after the scam, the state government had announced creating a Rs 500 crore kitty through higher taxes on tobacco, to compensate the victims.



The government also constituted a commission under Justice Shyamal Sen to assess the extent of scam to facilitate refunds. However, the commission was abruptly wrapped up in 2014. Under the direction of the commission, cheques worth Rs 130 crore were issued as compensation for the victims.



However, of this cheques worth Rs 103 crore could not reach the beneficiaries because of wrong postal addresses, said Ashim Chatterjee, convenor, Chitfund Sufferers' Unity Forum.

Meanwhile, "People have lost hopes of getting back their money. Moreover, we been to a multiple political parties, but none of them seem to be ready to take up Saradha scam as a political issue. Given the cost of time the investors are required to invest in such rallies, clearly no one is interested in it anymore," said Ashim Chatterjee, convenor of the forum.

Subir Dey, convenor, All-India Small Depositors and Field Workers Protection Committee, said the association was planning direct action by organising a gherao of the Election Commission in West Bengal. The association claims that despite FIR against close to 60 companies in West Bengal, the state government has not done any arrest. The response from political parties has also been tepid.

"We anticipate that the funds from chit funds are being diverted to political parties," said Dey.

It may be recalled, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the opposition in West Bengal, especially BJP, had taken up the Saradha issue as a political mandate. However, that the issue had hardly had a bearing on the political spectrum in the state became explicit with the results as BJP won two out of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies.

While Saradha had defaulted on payments close to Rs 2,400 crore to 1.25 million depositors.

During the Saradha probe itself, the Sen Commission received 1.7 million applications. Although most of these had deposited money in Saradha, investors of other companies such as Amazon Capital, Suraha Microfinance, Sunmarg, ICore, Rose Valley and Alchemist have also registered complaints with the Commission.



While the Enforcement Directorate (ED) estimates that Rose Valley alone collected close to Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion), the All India Small Depositors Association pegs the amount at close to Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) -- 16 times the size of the Saradha scam.

"We have been seeking help of various political parties, but so far no one has shown much interest," said Jayanta Haldar of Chitfund Sufferers' Unity Forum.
M V Murali, convenor of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of various bank unions, sees consolidation talks between lenders as not needed and done with an aim of privatisation in mind. In a telephone interview with Anup Roy, he says the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s asset quality review is being done at a time when the economy is in downturn and this could be to show public sector banks in a poor light so that the government can fan its demand for privatisation. Edited excerpts:



What is your view about bank consolidation talks?



It is not required. The government is creating circumstances to justify their version of consolidation. For example, under this asset quality review by RBI, even those accounts which were not NPAs (non-performing assets) are now deemed as NPAs and banks have been asked to provide for them. This is eroding capital further and banks are showing huge losses. The government is using this to justify how poor public sector banks (PSBs) are and therefore enough capital should not be given.

But RBI's asset quality review is to clean up the balance sheet...



PSBs have been forced to give loans to sectors like power, infrastructure and steel that are in doldrums now because of various external factors, including government failings. There is no need for such an exercise at this time when the economy is down and bad assets are bound to happen. The Basel-III norms are also not required for Indian banks as they are government guaranteed, unlike western banks. Western countries try to impose what is good for them and we seem to be following them blindly without realising our own unique situation. But all these are being done with an agenda. First they are talking about consolidation, but their ultimate target is privatisation.

What's wrong in privatisation?



If the government loses control of the management of banks, it also loses control of the finances of the economy. In a developing country like India, the government needs to have control over the finances of the economy. PSBs and the Life Insurance Corporation of India should not be privatised. Rather, the government should infuse more capital so that their share in banks goes up proportionally. What will happen to financial inclusion if banks are privatised? Private banks do not take much part in inclusion as it is not a profitable area. State Bank of India plans to open branches in rural areas to serve the population there; no private bank will want to do that.

So what is your solution for bank NPA and capital needs?



The economy is in doldrums. Advances given to sectors that have failed are the result of circumstances and banks should not be blamed. Rather, the government should step up its support by proportionally increasing capital in the banks.

What will be your course of action now?



We have been protesting since 1990s against any consolidation move and we will continue to do so. The bank unions will meet under the umbrella of UFBU soon, probably this month itself and we will chalk out our future course of action. Right now, different unions are formalising their own agitation programmes. We want to bring everyone together and make the agitations more organised and stronger.
On February 23, state-owned put out a list of 905 wilful defaulters who collectively owed the bank over Rs 11,467 crore. The bank said it will pursue recovery of these loans in legal forums and refer about Rs 3,000 crore to asset recovery companies.

An analysis of PNB's list shows that in several instances, more than one defaulter company has the same address. Of these, 11 large defaulters owe over Rs 843 crore to the bank.

These companies can be put into three groups based on their common directors and similar addresses. Some of these also appear to be in the same line of business. Each of these groups also has some related entity in real estate.

Business Standard found that some of these companies no longer operate from the address given in the bank records, while others are in the process of being struck off from the registry of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), raising questions about not only the sanctity of the details furnished by the debtors but also the due diligence carried out by the bank.

An email sent to the PNB spokesperson on February 26 and a reminder sent on March 5 remained unanswered.

"It is puzzling how the same branch of the bank has lent to so many different entities with the same people behind it," says a regulator who has been a banker. "In the olden days, when there were no computers, it was possible for defaulters to go to a new city and dupe a new branch. Now, when everything is computerised and data is online, how can this happen?"





Pratap Bhawan is adjacent to the Passport Office on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. As you enter its dimly lit corridors, small offices of publications come into view.

Rana Global, which owes Rs 43.2 crore, and Haridwar Iron & Ispat Roll (Rs 55.68 crore) had declared 108-109, Pratap Bhawan, as their address, according to the PNB list. Business Standard couldn't find any trace of these companies at this address. Instead, an attendant said it was the office of Shah Times. Faded markings on the glass door said Shah Publications.

In the MCA records, Shah Publications could not be traced. However, there is a company registered in Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh) named Shah Press Pvt Ltd. Shah Nawaz Rana and Inktab Rana, who are directors of this firm, were on the board of both Rana Global and Haridwar Iron.

Rana Alloys, which had an authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh, owes PNB Rs 78.96 crore. This company's status is shown as 'strike off' in MCA records. Rana Udyog, also based in Muzaffarnagar, has dues of Rs 47.2 crore. Rana Global, Rana Alloys and Rana Udyog had a common director, Qumruzama Rana, according to the PNB list. But, this name could not be found in the MCA records of these companies.

All the four companies took their loans from PNB's Civil Lines branch in Roorkee. An email sent to the official email addresses of the Rana entities did not elicit any response.

Apple Group (Three companies, Rs 401.86 crore)

Anupam Plaza at the Kalu Serai village, near Hauz Khas in south Delhi, is a triple-storied building with has a number of photostat kiosks, stationery shops and cyber cafes. Its corridors are shabby and poorly maintained. Apple Industries and its associates (Apple Sponge & Power and Apple Commodities) are supposed to be located in a couple of offices in this building, according to PNB's wilful defaulters' list.

On the third floor, a board said Apple Sponge and Power, but the shutter was pulled down, covered by a thick coat of dust. A passerby referred us to the office on the second floor as "both are part of the same group".

That office had the board of Design N Design. The receptionist, who identified himself as Azad, said the office belonged to SP Garg. He gave his boss's mobile number, but said "Apple Industries has moved to Noida".

There was a narrow staircase that went upstairs. Thus, T-1&3 on the third floor of Anupam Plaza, where all the three Apple group companies are registered, and S4, which belongs to Design N Design, are connected.

Upstairs, the office was a largish hall with a conference room and a large oval table and chairs. Broken furniture was strewn around the place, while the false ceiling was stripped with metal portions dangling. Models of housing societies and other realty projects were stacked upon one another in one corner of the room.

Garg did not take calls on his mobile. The staff suggested that he is usually busy with projects.

In May 2015, Apple Industries in a filing said it had shifted its registered office to the Bhagwanpur Khera village in Shahdara in Northeast Delhi. A 15-minute rickshaw ride from the Shahdara Metro Station took us to Bhagwanpur Khera. It was not difficult to locate 1/3787, first floor: Apple Industries' address. On top of a photostat shop hung a large flex board with names of 17 companies. The narrow door was locked. A letter box on the door had a mobile number written on it.

A person who identified himself as Jaikishore answered the call on that number. When asked about Apple Industries, he said he was nearby and appeared in a few minutes along with another person who identified himself as Omkar Singh.

As Jaikishore led us up the staircase, the office of the 17 companies came into view. The narrow strip had just enough space for a chair and half a table. When asked if this was the registered office, Kishore replied: "We just receive and dispatch dak."



Apple Industries' filings showed that it paid a monthly rent of Rs 1,000 for this office to one Chaya Devi. Devi is the wife of Singh, records showed. Hyderabad-based Pawan Kumar Garg is named in the rent agreement as Apple Industries' director. Other Gargs with addresses in Delhi and Muzaffarnagar are named as shareholders in the company records.

Mails sent to the official addresses of the Apple group entities did not receive any response.

Mahuaa Media (Four companies, Rs 217.45 crore )

On the ninth floor of Kailash, a highrise on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, as one gets out of the lift, there is a small plastic board that says Century Communication Pvt Ltd. This, 909, Kailash, is also the address of Mahuaa Media, Pixon Media and Pearl Vision on the PNB list. All these companies were floated by the father-son duo of PK Tiwari and Anand Tiwari.

We found some people in the office. As we asked for Tiwari ji, we were told by a security guard that the office was taken over by government entity WAPCOS four years ago and that Mahuaa TV had moved to Noida, though he did not give us an address. A staffer named Mukesh used to visit the office to collect mails. "This continued for a few months and then stopped." The guard had no answer when asked why the Century Communication board was still hanging there.

MCA records show that at the time the loans were taken from PNB, the addresses of these companies were the directors' home at Friends Colony, not a separate office. Yet the bank proceeded to advance hundreds of crores to them. Subsequently, these companies moved to Kailash.

Mahuaa Media had become a subject of investigation for the Central Bureau of Investigation. The company had not filed its balance sheet for several years. The promoter was released in 2015 after spending time in jail. Emails seeking comments on the current status and plans sent to these companies did not receive any response.
Security Audit of Military Installations . .

The Government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of a former Vice Chief of Army Staff to inter alia suggest measures to strengthen security of various military establishments across the country. The Committee is expected to submit its report by 31st March, 2016. .

.

Security arrangements in military establishments are dynamic in nature and are periodically reviewed. The observations and recommendations of these reviews are progressively implemented to maintain a robust and strong response mechanism to emerging threats. .

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This information was given by Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar in a written reply to Shri S Thangavelu in Rajya Sabha today. .

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DM/NAMPI/RAJ
Apple Inc's fight with the US government over whether it can be forced to help unlock an iPhone has spilled across borders, threatening to delay a trans-Atlantic pact protecting European data from American eyes. National regulators from across the European Union promised to give their verdict next month on the so-called privacy shield deal, which toughens EU protections where the US is involved. The Apple case is raising concerns that the new plan doesn't go far enough, regional politicians, officials and lawyers said. That in turn could mean more deliberation and push back the ...
Former New York Mayor said on Monday he would not mount an independent bid for the US presidency because he feared it would increase the chances that Republicans Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could end up in the White House.

A billionaire media mogul who combined business-friendly fiscal policies with liberal views on gun control and other social issues, Bloomberg could have potentially appealed to centrist voters in a year when candidates from the far left and right of the political spectrum have gained traction.

But Bloomberg, 74, said he had concluded that any candidate would be unlikely to win a clear majority in a three-person race. That would throw the election into the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which would be able to hand the White House to Trump, a real-estate billionaire, or Cruz, a conservative US senator from Texas.

"That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," he wrote on Bloomberg View, an opinion website that is part of his media empire.

Bloomberg never received much interest from American voters. About 12 per cent of likely voters said they would support him in a three-way race for president with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national poll conducted from Wednesday to Monday. Among respondents, 41 per cent said they would support Clinton and 31 per cent would support Trump. The poll of 1,695 likely voters had a credibility interval of three percentage points.

Bloomberg said Trump, who is leading the battle to win the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, had backed policies that would undermine religious tolerance and threaten national security.

Trump has called for building a wall on the US border with Mexico, deporting the country's illegal immigrants and temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country.

"He has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears," Bloomberg wrote of Trump. He said Cruz, a favorite of evangelicals and the conservative Tea Party movement, was divisive as well.

Bloomberg also hit out at Clinton and her rival for the Democratic nomination, US Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, for criticizing free trade and the financial industry.

"Extremism is on the march, and unless we stop it, our problems at home and abroad will grow worse," he wrote.

Spokespeople for Trump and Cruz did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Bloomberg's criticism.

Bloomberg founded and is majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., a news and financial information provider that competes with Thomson Reuters Corp TRI.TO.

The fear of a general election contest between Trump and Sanders, a democratic socialist, had driven Bloomberg to begin seriously exploring an independent run, a senior adviser said on condition of anonymity.

But with Clinton pulling away from Sanders in the Democratic race, Bloomberg concluded the path to victory and the rationale for running were gone, the aide said.

Clinton reacted to the news with polite praise, saying she had the "greatest respect" for Bloomberg. "He has to make his own decisions, but I look forward to continuing to work with him," she said on Fox News.

Sanders, when asked about Bloomberg's decision not to run, said election laws should be changed to make it easier for people who are not rich, or not friendly with rich people, to run for office.

"I think it's a bad idea for American democracy that the only people who feel in many ways they can run for president are people who have so much money," he said on Fox News.
Oil prices rose 1% on Tuesday, with benchmark Brent prices hitting a three-month high on hopes for a coordinated approach by major producers to support prices.

futures were trading at $41.43 a barrel, their highest since Dec. 9, up 59 cents on the day. On Monday the contract had climbed by 5.5% in intra-day trading, and it has now gained more than 50% since its 2016 low on Jan. 20.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 38 cents at $38.28 a barrel.

"The bullish sentiment continues to push prices up, or the absence of negative news," said Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

News of a meeting of Latin American crude producers set in Quito for Friday had boosted oil prices on Monday, and bullish sentiment swept over into Tuesday's session.

OPEC members and other producers in Russia are also due to meet for talks on March 20, according to the Nigerian petroleum minister.

Kuwait's oil minister said on Tuesday that his country's participation in an output freeze would require all major oil producers, including Iran, to be on board.

"I'll go full power if there's no agreement. Every barrel I produce I'll sell," Anas al-Saleh told reporters in Kuwait City.

OPEC member Kuwait is currently producing 3 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), he added.

But analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a report on Tuesday that the price rally was premature and unsustainable.

"While these dynamics (rising prices) could run further, they simply are not sustainable in the current environment," the analysts wrote.

"Energy needs lower prices to maintain financial stress to finish the rebalancing process; otherwise, an oil price rally will prove self-defeating, as it did last spring," the analysts added.

SEB chief commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop agreed, saying that US shale oil rig numbers could soon rise again, halting the recent price rally.

A global supply glut that has brought prices down prices from highs reached in mid-2014 continues to weigh on the market.

North Sea crude supply is expected to rise to its highest in four years in April, holding above 2 million bpd for an eighth consecutive month, according to monthly loading programmes.

On the demand side, China's crude imports jumped 19.1% between January and February to 31.80 million tonnes, or about 8 million barrels per day, despite overall weak trading figures released on Tuesday.

"Higher 'teapot' (independent refinery) demand and stronger refining margins have contributed to increased imports. Falling domestic crude production is also supportive," said Virendra Chauhan of Energy Aspects.

Despite strong oil demand, questions about the sustainability of growing consumption weighed on after China's overall exports tumbled by a quarter in February.

China's February vehicle sales, a key driver for gasoline demand, were down 3.7% year-on-year, data from the country's Passenger Car Association showed.

"This is really a poor start for trade this year," said Zhang Yongjun, senior economist at the China Centre for Economic Exchanges.
For years, built walls between its products and the rest of the industry. Now it is tearing them down.

Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, is known for creating business software that runs only on the Windows operating system. That has made it hard - or impossible - to buy something like a database from without first buying Windows to run on a server.

But on Monday announced that SQL Server, its software for managing corporate data, would also run on Linux, a competing operating system. Other Microsoft products could follow suit, analysts said.

SQL, pronounced "sequel," is among Microsoft's most important products, and the chief way it competes with the Oracle Corporation for business customers.

Microsoft has always sold PC software for other companies' operating systems, like that used by Apple's Macintosh computers. But since becoming chief executive of Microsoft two years ago, Satya Nadella has gone further by creating software to run on other mobile operating systems like Apple iOS, and decoupling Microsoft's Azure cloud computing system from Windows.

Now, for the first time that strategy is extending into so-called back-office software, a lucrative but not as well-known part of Microsoft's business.

"Data is the core asset now," Nadella said.

The numbers bear that out. While Windows Server is still popular, Linux servers are gaining. According to the research firm Gartner, 3.6 million Linux servers were shipped in 2014, compared with 2.4 million in 2011. Windows servers fell to 6.2 million in that time, from 6.5 million.

In the old computing world, decoupling Windows and SQL would have been unthinkable to Microsoft executives. But with Linux servers trending up and Microsoft servers heading down, insisting that SQL has to run on Windows would mean turning away potential customers.

That is not to say that Microsoft is in a weak position in corporate software sales. Even running on only one of two operating systems, Gartner said, Microsoft has 21.4 per cent of the market in data management software. That is ahead of IBM and SAP, and behind only Oracle, which Gartner estimates still has a 43 per cent share.

Nadella wants to go after the computers running Linux. "It's a market expansion opportunity," he said. Still, it is not easy to do. Some customers will work with a Linux version of SQL this year, but a full commercial release is not expected until 2017. Even the announcement could change company buying plans, however, tempting people to put off purchases until they can get the new version of SQL.

"They definitely hesitated to do this, because of the negative implications for Windows," said Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC. Before, he noted, having SQL only on Windows increased operating system sales, adding "this makes Linux more attractive." That may be a necessary sacrifice, in Nadella's eyes.

He is stressing the company's business in cloud computing, called Microsoft Azure, which is a way of renting server, data storage and applications over the Internet. Both Windows and Linux servers are available in Azure. Nadella said SQL would also be available in Azure. Gillen said other Microsoft products, such as its SharePoint collaboration software and its Exchange email product, might also be adapted for both Linux servers and across Azure.

Nadella's long-term plan may be to seek a new kind of control over the so-called stack of operating systems and applications. In January, Microsoft announced a way to make servers that operate in a cloud system work closely with software that runs on traditional servers.

"He is thinking about building the new stack in a more coherent way," said Merv Adrian, an analyst with Gartner. "They want to be the go-to company for all developers, not just developers on Windows."



The old competition is making its own moves to adapt to the data explosion. Oracle has been on a recruiting frenzy for cloud engineers, and says that it has the greatest number of products for data analysis. IBM has spent billions on its own cloud, and lauds the data-sorting and artificial intelligence potential of Watson, its "Jeopardy!" champion computer.

Nadella is unfazed for now. "As a percentage of GDP, technology spending is only going up," he said. "All the decisions we've made are around this market expansion."

2016 The New York Times News Service
Crude prices edged lower on Tuesday after Kuwait said it would only agree to an output freeze if all major producers take part and Goldman Sachs analysts poured cold water over the prospects for a sustained rally.Brent crude futures were down 12 cents at $40.72 a barrel at 0922 GMT, hovering above the $40 mark it last traded at three months ago. On Monday the contract had climbed by 5.5 percent in intra-day trading and it has gained about 50 percent since January 20.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 10 cents at $37.80 a barrel.

"Prices are lower on the Goldman Sachs and Kuwaiti comments and the market remains oversupplied," said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM in London. Read more from our special coverage on "OIL" Oil rallies to three-month high; analysts warn of glut

Iran central banker visiting India over 6$ billion of oil dues

Oil likely to recover to in 12 months: Report

OPEC watching Iran, Russia, unlikely to cut output in June

Oil rises on positive US data

Kuwait's oil minister said on Tuesday that his country's participation in an output freeze would require all major oil producers, including Iran, to be on board.

"I'll go full power if there's no agreement.

Every barrel I produce I'll sell," Anas al-Saleh told reporters in Kuwait City.

OPEC member Kuwait is currently producing 3 million barrels of oil per day, he added.

On Monday the Ecuadorean government said that Latin American oil producers would meet on Friday to coordinate a strategy to halt the crude price rout.

Tuesday's report by Goldman Sachs said that a recent surge in commodity prices was premature and unsustainable.

"While these dynamics (rising prices) could run further, they simply are not sustainable in the current environment," the analysts wrote.

"Energy needs lower prices to maintain financial stress to finish the rebalancing process; otherwise, an oil price rally will prove self-defeating, as it did last spring."

On the demand side, China's crude imports jumped 19.1% between January and February to 31.80 million tonnes, or about 8 million barrels per day, despite overall weak trading figures released on Tuesday.

"Higher 'teapot' (independent refinery) demand and stronger refining margins have contributed to increased imports. Falling domestic crude production is also supportive," said Virendra Chauhan of Energy Aspects.

Despite strong oil demand, questions about the sustainability of growing consumption weighed on after China's overall exports tumbled by a quarter in February.

China's February vehicle sales, a key driver for gasoline demand, were down 3.7% year on year, data from the country's Passenger Car Association showed.

"This is really a poor start for trade this year," said Zhang Yongjun, senior economist at the China Centre for Economic Exchanges.
Cracks have developed between jewellers and bullion dealers over differences of opinion on the sale of bars.

The differences of opinion started when Ashok Minawala, director of All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), said traders were ready to stop selling bars in lieu of a rollback of one per cent excise duty as proposed in Budget 2016-17.

We have already stopped sale of bullions including coins and bars a couple of years ago when the government was facing huge crisis with widening the current account deficit (CAD). So, we can do the same thing once again. Since import declined when we stopped sale of bullions in the past, we are sure it would decline even now if we stop selling bullions. This offer, however, would be periodic, said Minawala.

This proposal irked India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA), which termed Minawalas offer baseless and confusing. IBJA, along with another body Mumbai Wholesalers Gold Jewellers Association, has convened a mass protest rally at Azad Maidan here on Wednesday against the governments proposal of excise duty.

Since the Union Budget was present in Parliament on February 29, jewellers and bullion dealers have been protesting against the governments move to levy one per cent of excise duty on the sale of ornaments made of gold. On various platforms, all these industry players have unanimously submitted representations to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, other Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats. But, the government has not given any concrete assurance on the rollback of excise duty.

Notably, IBJA asked the government to raise one per cent import duty in place of excise duty. While IBJA and other trade organisations are not against the government, they are against the inspector raj of the excise authorities, said Surandra Mehta, secretary, IBJA.

According to Minawala, the decision of halting bullion sales was decided in a recent meeting of representatives of around 250 associations across the country where IBJA was not present. IBJA, therefore, must have misunderstood our proposal which they say is confusing. Since the meeting was attended by 300,000 jewellers across the country, there is no confusion in our proposal, said Minawala.

How will gold import come down if jewellers stop selling bullions?  asked Mehta.

Meanwhile, they are united in opposing the proposed excise duty levy. Members of both the bodies have shut down their shutters indefinitely since March 2.

The industry is not against contributing one per cent revenue to the government. But, the excise on jewellery is a regressive step taking us back to the days of gold control and inspector raj. It will only increase paperwork and take away our time from creativity, said Ishu Datwani, founder, Anmol Jewellers.
Increasing demand for domestically mined iron ore, coupled with rising price trend in the overseas market, is helping build a strong case for an upward price revision in the commodity in the local market.

On Monday, global rates shot up 19 per cent after the Chinese government said it would keep growth rates high over the next five years. This indicated positive signals for commodities market that are heavily dependent on consumption by the dragon nation. According to Chinas foreign trade data released on Tuesday, the volume of imports improved, rising 8.3 per cent in February compared to a year ago. This follows a weak growth in January.

Read more from our special coverage on "IRON ORE" Duty waiver fails to cheer iron ore exporters

Alongside, the booking price for e-auctioned in Karnataka has moved up significantly compared to the floor price, indicating higher demand for the commodity from domestic primary steel producers.

At the latest iron ore e-auctioning bid round held on March 4 in Karnataka, the booking price of the commodity was consistently higher compared to the floor price for several lots of iron ore that were auctioned.

There is enough room for iron ore prices to go up. Maybe prices can be revised by Rs 700-1,000 per tonne in the domestic market, said an official with MSPL, one of the leading iron ore mining companies in Karnataka.

The demand for iron ore has picked up in the domestic market after the imposition of minimum import price (MIP) in early February on a range of steel products, with domestic primary steel producers raising capacity utilisation levels to meet the demand shortfall due to absence of imports.

Steel imports have stopped completely after MIP and this has resulted in the shortage of steel in the domestic market. Due to this, steel producers have room to sell their products here (in the domestic market), said Nikunj Turakhia, director at Bombay Iron Merchants' Association.

Iron ore is the key raw material used in the making of steel. While Indias total domestic steel capacity stands at 120 million tonnes (mt), the countrys iron ore production is about 160 mt.

Following the imposition of MIP by the government, Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel had re-commissioned two of its blast furnaces, which were shut since August and November 2015 at Vijaynagar and Salem, respectively. This is indicative of steel companies gradually pushing up their capacity utilisations to meet the domestic steel demand.

There is certainly room for domestic iron ore prices to go up as capacity utilisations of steel plants have gone up. But, to gauge the quantum of rise, we need to wait for a while to see if the uptrend in global iron ore prices is sustaining. We will have a clearer picture by early next week, said an official with Odisha-based Rungta Mines. Rungta Mines, unlike Odisha Mining Corporation, sells its mined ore in the open market and, hence, itself fixes the price for the ore.

Currently, the company's ore price is lower than that offered by state-owned NMDC, which is looked at as a benchmark by domestic iron ore miners.

Meanwhile, low-grade miners of Goa remained indifferent towards the stance that the domestic iron ore sector should take regarding price fixing of the mineral as most of its ore finds way out of the country in the form of exports mainly to China.

Domestic iron ore industry needs to give this global price spike some time to see if the uptrend is sustainable, said Glenn Kalvampara, secretary, Goa Mineral Ore Export Association.

In the global market, iron ore futures in China jumped another six per cent on Tuesday. Expectations of a short-term boost in China's steel production, as producers looked to brisk seasonal demand, underpinned price gains in iron ore, said reports. The raw material is now up 46 percent year-to-date, making it the top performing commodity.
Vietnam has pushed India to third position in the global pepper market and exporters now foresee competition from Sri Lanka and Brazil.

India's average production of pepper is 65,000 tonnes in the last three years and the country exports 20,000-22,000 tonnes a year. Unfavourable weather in Kerala and Karnataka may cause production to decline to 53,000 tonnes in 2015-16. Production in Vietnam may rise 10 per cent to 150,000 tonnes.

"Indian production has declined and competing nations have raised their output in recent years," said Jojan Malayil, chief executive officer at Bafna Enterprises, an export house in Kerala.

The Spices Board has estimated 53,000 tonnes of pepper production in 2015-16 against 65,000 tonnes a year ago and exports are likely to be 20,000 tonnes.

"Unfavourable weather in Kerala and Tamil Nadu caused the fall in production. Some parts of Karnataka, too, have faced a pest attack," said A Jayathilak, chairman of the Spices Board.

India consumes 80-85 per cent of its production but this year pepper prices have climbed, making exports unviable. "Lower production has raised Indian pepper to over $10,000 a tonne while Vietnam is offering the spice at $7,500 a tonne," Malayil said.

The Indian spice industry feels the country needs to import 20,000 tonnes of pepper to meet demand for value addition. "We need to import about 20,000 tonnes this year against 17,000 tonnes last year," said a Kochi-based spice trader.

Of the 10,000 tonnes black pepper imported between April and September, the major chunk is from Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

According to Jayathilak, the carry forward stock in world this year will be 17,000 tonnes lower because of rise in consumption. In India, the carry forward stock for next year will be 2,598 tonnes against 9,598 tonnes in the current year.
Mercedes-Benz just doesn't seem to stop and continues its product onslaught in the country. The company has launched the Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard for INR 11.55 crores (on-road). The S600 Guard combines the perfection of the S-Class with the exclusivity of a Maybach.The Mercedes-Maybach keeps its occupants comfortable and well protected. It is targeted at heads of state and people who look for additional security from attacks etc. The S600 Guard can protect one from bomb blasts, explosives, fires and even sniper firings. In addition, it offers supreme luxury as well. In fact the protective upgrades in the car do not interfere with the elegance and beauty of the Mercedes-Maybach S 600 Guard.The Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard comes with a VR10 protection rating. The windows of the S600 Guard, is capable of withstanding hardened steel bullets.This luxury car also has an ERV (Explosive Resistant Vehicles) 2010 safety rating that makes its explosion resistant.

The car can withstand blasts of under 15 kg of TNT at a distance of 4 metres or more. The superlative protection includes explosive resistance on the roof and floor. It is also resistant to blasts from the side with explosive fragmentation charges. Other features in the car include a cabin exhaust system to flush out any hazardous gases, a safe in the boot for storing valuables, a self-healing fuel tank etc. The Mercedes-Maybach car is powered by a 6.0-litre, V12 twin turbo engine, which is the same unit found in the S600 Limousine. The engine delivers 522bhp of power@4900-5300 rpm and 830Nm of peak torque. This tank can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 7.9 seconds. With a range of special-protection vehicles, Mercedes-Benz offers a more extensive range of special-protection vehicles than any other manufacturer. The Mercedes-Maybach is another benchmark car by Mercedes-Benz and is a proof of their engineering standards and superiority. This epitome of safety, security and luxury can be accessed by Indian customers now. The last launch by Mercedes-Benz was the E-Class Edition E, which marked 20 years of the E-Class in India.

Source : MotorOctane
At least 15 ISIS insurgents were killed in a foreign troops drone strike in eastern Nangarhar province last night.

The strike took place in Achin district of the province.

"The Daesh center has been destroyed in the drone strike. There are no civilian casualties in the attack," TOLO News quoted Attaullah Khoghyani, a spokesman for Provincial Governor, as saying.

Achin district has in recent times witnessed a marked increase in Daesh activity.

However, the Afghan security forces recently launched a military operation to clear the insurgents.
'Combined strikes by Pakistan army and ground forces continued the hunt for fleeing terrorists through a chase and cordon operation,' Dawn quoted Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) DG Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa as saying.

Pakistan Army launched a ground offensive in North Waziristan Agency's mountainous Shawal Valley at the end of last year.

The valley is regarded as the last haven of fleeing homegrown militants and their foreign cohorts.
Following the issuance of travel documents by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, 87 Indians, including fishermen are set to return to India today after they were freed yesterday by Pakistan.

The Indian nationals were freed from the Landhi Jail in Karachi yesterday.

According to reports, around 457 Indians, mostly fishermen, still remain in prison after being arrested for territorial violation.
The Congress Party on Tuesday slammed the cultural extravaganza being organized by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living foundation on the Yamuna floodplains and said it is a slap on the face of environmental laws.

Congress spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit told ANI that the NGO responsible for organizing the event did not take the cognizance of the environmental loss the festival might cause.

"This programme is organized by local NGO, from a very long time we had been protesting and saying that it is a slap on the face of environmental laws, Yamuna banks will be destroyed, Yamuna will get polluted, but nobody was listening," said Dikshit.

The Congress leader also crititicised the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP in the wake of the latest developments in this regard, saying the Delhi Government did not pay much heed to the nuances of the event so as to remain at the popular side of people's imagination.

"Unfortunately, the DDA, Delhi Police, Delhi Government who all supported this programme did not understand what was happening and because it's a popular programme with the religion involved, therefore, the Delhi Government does not want to be on the wrong side of peoples imagination. Always the environment is sacrificed at the altar of religion and populism," he added.

The Congress leader further said this event has embarrassed the President of India too because of which even he has pulled out of the cultural festival.

The President's office said on Monday that he would not be attending the event. This came a day ahead of a court hearing, which would decide the fate of the controversial event planned on city's eco sensitive Yamuna Floodplain.

Congress spokesperson P.L Punia echoing similar sentiments said the venue of the event should be changed to avoid more harm to environment and the people.

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living foundation is drawing flanks for flattening the floodplain, destroying birds' nesting sites and choking the already polluted river with construction debris.

The three-day event with aim of 'making life a celebration' will be held from March 11-13 on the west bank of Yamuna to celebrate 35 years of the foundation.

However, the Green tribunal will today hear the plea seeking cancellation of world cultural festival.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar will hear the matter in which the DDA, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi Governments will make their submissions with regard to grant permission to the festival.

Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority and the foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate event on Friday.

The Art of Living programme will have yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars and traditional cultural performances by artists from India and abroad. It was also aiming t create a world record by creating a stage that is spread across over 7 acres.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that he would not run for president, citing a concern that his candidacy could tilt the election to Republican Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.

The billionaire, who has spent months mulling a third-party run made his decision official through an editorial posted on the Bloomberg View website.

"When I look at the data, it's clear to me that if I entered the race, I could not win. I believe I could win a number of diverse states -- but not enough to win the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidency," Bloomberg wrote in a column in Bloomberg View.

Bloomberg wrote that a three-way race could lead to no one winning a majority of electoral votes, which would send the race to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Slamming Trump, currently the GOP front-runner, Bloomberg said, "The real estate mogul has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears."

Similarly being critical of Cruz, he said the Texas senator's pandering on immigration may lack Trump's rhetorical excess, but it is no less extreme.

"We cannot 'make America great again' by turning our backs on the values that made us the world's greatest nation in the first place.I love our country too much to play a role in electing a candidate who would weaken our unity and darken our future - and so I will not enter the race for president of the United States," Bloomberg wrote.

Bloomberg also made an oblique reference to Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders but did not endorse any.

Bloomberg is one of the richest people in the United States, estimated to be worth $38 billion as per reports.

He has previously toyed with presidential runs, but concluded ahead of the 2008 and 2012 campaigns he could not win.

Bloomberg is also the founder of the financial news and information provider Bloomberg LP.
Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, has said China's family planning policy will not change in the foreseeable future, adding there are no plans for a complete relaxation currently.

"Our resources pale in comparison with our vast population. Until these changes, we will continue with the current family planning policy. There is no timetable for the full relaxation of the policy [although] it will continue to be improved and adjusted," Xinhua quoted Li as saying on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

As per reports, China's population numbered 1.375 billion as compared to 320 million in the United States as of 2015.

Li asserted that China's per capita economic output was considerably low as was the average living standard.

China this year eased its 'one child policy' by allowing all married couple to have two children on the condition that either parent was an only child.

The change ended the 'one child policy' since it was implemented in the late 1970s.

Reports say that the two-child policy will see three million more children born in China every year.
Coco Austin, who keeps flooding her social media account with adorable pictures of her 3-month-old daughter Chanel, has recently shared another super cute pic of her little baby girl.

Taking to her Instagram page, the 36-year-actress shared a heart-warming pic of Chanel, wherein the baby girl, sporting a bright pink tutu, floral headband and cute matching tee with her namesake across it, is seen taking a nap in her adorable pink heels, E! Online reports.

The 'Ice Loves Coco' actress captioned the adorable pic as, "Long day for my sleeping beauty. ... Shoes- @peeweepumps Tutu set- @bowtiesandtutusboutique."

It is needless to say that this was not the first time when Chanel has rocked an amazing pair of shoes. Last month her proud mama showed off Chanel's "baby Loubotins."

Austin and Ice-T, who got hitched in January 2002, welcomed their baby girl on November 28, 2015.
With the motive to enhance the ability of Indian and Indonesian Army to undertake joint tactical level operations in a counter insurgency environment under United Nations Charter, the troops from both sides will be participating in joint training exercise 'Garuda Shakti'.

This will be the fourth edition of the joint exercise, which will be conducted for 13 days from March 10 to 23 March 16 at Magelang, Indonesia, in which an Indian Army platoon strength contingent will carry out cross training with a platoon from the Airborne battalion of the Indonesian Army.

The exercise is conducted on a reciprocal basis and its first edition was conducted in the year 2012 in India. The second edition was conducted in Indonesia in 2013 and third in India in 2014.

The selected Indian unit has had varied operational experience in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorist operations in the Northern, Western and Eastern theatres.

The Indian Contingent, which will be performing the training exercises, has been put through a rigorous training schedule to prepare it for the exercise which includes combat conditioning, firing, tactical operations, tactical skills and special heliborne operations training.

Moreover, to coordinate with modalities of training, an Exercise Planning Conference was held at Yogyakarta, Indonesia on September 22 and 23 last year.

During the conference, both Armies finalized the modalities of conduct of joint training and signed an Agreement. The operational part of the exercise commenced with individual Armies training in respective countries and this would translate in exchange of expertise during the Joint Training Exercise in Indonesia.

The opening ceremony for the exercise will be conducted on March 11.

The Indian contingent is scheduled to reach exercise location at Magelang, Indonesia, familiarize with the weapons, equipment, tactical drills and orient themselves to the terrain.

The exercise will be conducted as joint Counter Insurgency operations exercise in urban and rural scenario and encompass various facets of tactical Counter Insurgency operations.

The idea behind this is to enhance the ability of Indian and Indonesian Army to undertake joint tactical level operations in a Counter Insurgency environment under United Nations Charter.

The scope encompasses visualization of insurgency related crisis situation in rural / urban setting in Counter Insurgency environment, learn each other's Counter Insurgency doctrines, tactics and share experience of Counter Insurgency operations.

It also includes the ambit of identifying areas of expertise/ specialization of each other, evolution of combat tactical drills for conduct of tactical Counter Insurgency operations and to undertake combined training for neutralization of insurgency threat.

The exercise will culminate with the closing ceremony to be conducted on March 23 and is to be attended by senior officers from both the armies and civil dignitaries.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday urged Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process between them.

"I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process. Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process," The Express Tribune quoted Hammond as saying while addressing a joint press conference with Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

Hammond advised Islamabad to accelerate the investigation of deadly terror- attack on the Indian Air Force Base.

The British Foreign Secretary lauded Islamabad's role in the fight against terrorism and said Britain will continue its support to Pakistan in war on terror.

Meanwhile, Aziz assured Hammond that a joint investigation team was in process to complete its probe into the Pathankot attack.

"The team will visit India in the next few days and hopefully then a meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will take place. The Indian High Commissioner himself stated that Foreign Secretaries' meeting is not linked to the Phatankot investigation," The Express Tribune quoted Aziz as saying.

Soon after the Pathankot attack, Pakistan set up a six-member Special Investigation Team to follow up on the leads which India had provided.

Aziz on being asked about the Afghan reconciliation process expressed that Islamabad was hopeful that the Afghan peace process with the Taliban will start in coming days.

Pressing that Pakistan is commitment to fight terrorism, Aziz confirmed that the government shared intelligence with New Delhi about possible terror attacks in India.
Mark Rowley, the national head of counter-terrorism, has said the Islamic State wants to inflict an enormous and spectacular terrorist atrocity on Britain and may have trained people to carry out the attacks.

Speaking at a press conference, Rowley said the nature of the threat from ISIS, which he calls Daesh, was changing.

"In recent months, we've seen a broadening of that, much more plans to attack western lifestyle. Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader. And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we've seen foiled to date," the Guardian quoted him as saying.

Rowley, a Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, asserted that they still want to kill soldiers or the police and now posed a real danger of attacking western lifestyle targets.

The police in the region have stepped up vigilance since the Paris attacks in November last year in which many were killed.

He said that the ISIS targeted those people as recruits with mental illness, to such extend that that one counter-terrorism unit was now working with a trained psychologist.

He also pressed that the number of women and teenagers being drawn were increasing.

There were a record 339 arrests under counter-terrorism laws in 2015, 77 percent of which were British nationals, 14 percent were female and 13 percent were aged 20 and under, according to reports.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Qayyum, Chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Defence Production of Pakistan, said on Tuesday that it was in Islamabad's interest to expedite the probe over Pathankot terror attack.

"Pakistan has taken all possible initiatives from its side on the Pathankot matter and it is in our own interest to expedite the process," Qayyum told ANI.

He further said that it has yet not been proved that Pakistani citizens were involved in the Pathankot attack, adding that there have been arrests and the investigation is further on in this regard.

Qayyum was speaking on the sidelines of India-Pakistan legislators and public officials' dialogue on "Sharing of Experiences on Governance and Democracy".

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said that settling the Kashmir issue should not be a pre-condition for holding talks between India and Pakistan.

He also asked the two nations not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process adding that Pakistan to speed up the investigation into the January 2 Pathankot attack which India has blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant group.
Pottermore website recently announced that J.K. Rowling will soon release new material for her fans to read.

The website issued a statement in this regard which read, "Pottermore always loves to be the bearer of amazing news, so here goes: prepare to learn much more about the wizarding world this year, as we publish the first in a series of new writing by J.K. Rowling called Magic in North America."

"You've got four days of new writing by J.K. Rowling to look forward to - as always, remember to breathe," Us magazine quoted the statement as saying.

Rowling's latest tales will introduce new witches and wizards to Muggles across the world.

Magic in North America will also give more insight into the unexplored corner of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The divorce of actress Karisma Kapoor with businessman husband Sunjay Kapur is getting murkier day-by-day. The latest update to this case is that the celebrity couple has been asked to appear before the Supreme Court to resolve their matrimonial dispute amicably.

The apex court earlier this month, after the 41-year-old actress filed an FIR alleging harassment from her in-laws, asked both parties to settle their differences amicably and appear today for personal hearing.

Karisma was spotted outside the Supreme Court, but her estranged husband was missing.

Sunjay Kapur had filed a plea in Supreme Court, seeking transfer of his case from Mumbai to Delhi. He alleged that gangster Ravi Pujari had warned him against entering Mumbai.

Karisma's counsels Mahesh Jethmalani and Sandeep Kapoor said that Sunjay had violated some clauses of the couple's agreement before the mutual consent divorce petition was filed in Mumbai.

Sanjay's lawyer in reply said that his client was willing to pay both Rs. 10 lakh per month per child and even make over the Rs. 14 crore on the maturity of the bonds, but Karisma must ensure that Sunjay would have access to the children.
New Delhi, Mar 8 (ANI): While ladies are celebrating the spirit of womanhood on the occasion of International Women's Day around the world, a young entrepreneur is asking them to go organic for a better health.

Priyanka, the maker of Angiya Bra, had many women come up to her and just discuss the kind of bras that are available today and how uncomfortable they can be. This is when she came up with an alternative bra, which is organic and very healthy for the breasts.

Explaining what organic bras are, Priyanka, who has also directed a Bollywood flick, said, "The Angiya Bra are bras inspired by the angiya, but with a modern spin to it, which means we will use the technologies and innovations we have at our disposal to make comfortable and classic bras that look great and are easy to put on or take off."

When asked as to why she chose to go organic in bras, Priyanka said that she did it due to the sheer difference it provides to the fabric.

She added organic means purity and in today's world opting for impurity, especially in the choice of underwear, is not wise and the organic cotton weaves she creates not only gives softer touch, it also takes on the shape of a person's body instead of forcing it in a shape.

Priyanka also said that such bras are also beneficial for health as they are often recommended by health experts because they provide freedom for a person's breasts, hence allowing the lymph nodes to function effectively.

So, celebrate being a female by taking the organic path this International Women's Day.

Angiya Bra is LIVE on Wishberry, https://www.wishberry.in/campaign/angiya-bra-fufa/.
Legal troubles are pouring in for superstar Rajinikanth as Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has issued summons to him and the producers of the flick 'Lingaa.'

The 65-year-old actor has been asked to appear before the court.

The case relates to a writ petition filed with the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court by K.R. Ravi Rathinam, who has alleged theft of his script by the makers of 'Lingaa'.

In December 2014, the bench ordered producer T.N. Venkatesh to deposit a sum of Rs. five crore by demand draft and another Rs. five crore by way of a bank guarantee before releasing the movie.

Though the producer complied with the order as he had to release the movie immediately, he appealed against it in the Supreme Court, which passed an order on March 20, 2015, directing him to furnish only Rs. one crore as bank guarantee.
The first part of the new report by MH370 investigators revealed nothing substantial on the baffling mystery surrounding the Boeing 777's disappearance two years ago.

The International Air Accident Investigation Team provided a very brief overview of its work in its three-page statement.

The statement said a final report would be released following the location of the wreckage of the aircraft or when the search for the wreckage is terminated, whichever is earlier.

It said that eight areas being reviewed by the team included the diversion from the field flight plan route, Air Traffic Services operations, flight crew profile, airworthiness and maintenance and aircraft systems and satellite communications.

The investigation team is also reviewing wreckage and impact information among others from the Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines and aircraft cargo consignment.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nazak said Malaysia remained hopeful that MH370 would be found in the 120,000 square kilometre area under investigation.

"If it is not, then Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the way forward. We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonising mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost," news.com.au quoted him as saying.

Martin Dolan, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner said the fact MH370 was yet to be found in the priority search only increased the chances it would be located in the remaining 30,000 square kilometres.

Yesterday marked two-years since MH370 disappeared while flying en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
Pulling up the Delhi Development Authority for debris dumped in the Yamuna, the Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday asked the DDA as to what their quick reaction team was doing when the debris was allegedly brought and dumped by the Art of Living Foundation, the organiser of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival.

Resuming the hearing on pleas seeking cancellation of the World Culture Festival organised by the Art of Living Foundation on the Yamuna flood plains here from March 11 to 13, NGT Chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar said, "You (DDA) must tell us where the debris has come from? In the Yamuna, 5-6 feet dumped material has been seen. The DDA response team remained unaware of that. You can't wash your hands off."

Notwithstanding the response by DDA's counsel Alok Bansal's statement that there was no debris in October and November, Justice Swatanter Kumar shot back: "You are saying there was no debris in the months of October and November. Obviously, that has come subsequently, and the quick response teams should have taken note of that."

Crticising the DDA for being insensitive to letters and photos that brought the presence of debris to its notice, the NGT asked why the DDA didn't take their cognisance.

Tearing into the Uttar Pradesh Government's decision of granting the parking permission for the event, the NGT sought to know from the U.P's counsel, "Under what authority you have given the parking permission? Does the area you have allotted for the event come under flood plane?"

Besides, the NGT also sought to know whether the organiser the Art of Living Foundation have acquire more than the allotted land for the event and how much money the government has spent on clearing debris from the allotted land.

Expressing concern over the impact of the forthcoming event on environment, Justice Swatanter Kumar sought to know from all the official respondents - DDA, Delhi and U.P. governments, Environment Ministry and Art of Living Foundation - whether they have considered the impact of the event on environment, river and biodiversity, and the pollution it could generate.

"If somebody has to alter the flood plain, don't you think it requires your clearance," the NGT asked the Environment Ministry.

Inquiring about the expected number of people attending the function, the NGT asked as to what would be the maximum estimated number of participants at the event at any given point of time.

The Art of Living Foundation replied that 2-3 lakh people are expected at the festival at any point of time.

During the hearing, the Delhi Government, however, submitted before the NGT that the World Culture Festival organiser has not taken any permission either from the Delhi Police or the Fire Department.

On March 3, the DDA had submitted that it had granted conditional permission for organising the event. However, the DDA told the NGT that it had no idea about the magnitude of the programme.

Meanwhile, the Rashtrapati Bhavan has confirmed that President Pranab Mukherjee, who had earlier agreed to attend the valedictory ceremony of the festival, will not attend the event "due to unavoidable circumstances".
Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini Sriharan's parole plea will today be heard at 10

The Tamil Nadu Government has last week sought the opinion of Ministry of Home Affairs seeking its opinion on releasing all the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, after which one of the convicts, Nalini, had moved the court seeking three days parole to attend post funeral rituals of her father Sankaranayanan.

Nalini, on February 24, got a 12-hour emergency leave to attend her father's funeral rites in Chennai. Now she says she wants to take part in the 16th day ceremony for her father.

The seven convicts which the state government wants to release include the three who were awarded death sentence but later remitted to life imprisonment by the apex court.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has said his government aims to uplift the economy of the country's farming community and introduce a better agricultural policy to free them from debit burden.

Sirisena, who was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the 'Toxin Free Nation' National Program , said the responsibility of the rulers who love the country and the people as well as scholars and intellectuals is to provide most appropriate things to the people.

The President pointed out that the initiatives of the previous governments to enhance the agriculture and the farming community was all nonsense, reports Lanka Page.

Sirisena further said the government's aim is to strengthen the economy of the farmers by introducing a better agricultural policy.

The President said the three-year national program to control use of agrochemicals in farming has been initiated with the intention of preventing the use of highly toxic agrochemicals in the farming sector, adding the program is created to take information about the farming lands in the country by using satellite technology.

President Sirisena said the leadership of implementing the national program should be taken by the divisional leaders and the Agrarian Services Department.
Following the furore over the World Culture Festival being organised by the Art of Living foundation on the Yamuna floodplains, spiritual guru on Tuesday defended the event, saying not a single tree has been cut and the ecological stability has been maintained during the preparations.

"We are asserting that we will turn the place into a beautiful bio diversity park once we are finished with it. Since 2010, our volunteers have been working hard to clean the river and around 512 tonnes of dirt and garbage has been fished out. We want to save the Yamuna. We have not cut a single tree and have maintained ecological stability. We want to see Yamuna transformed into a beauty again," Ravi Shankar told the media here.

When asked about the measures being taken to ensure that the Yamuna river was not polluted during the mega event, he said that he has been working on the technology of enzymes, which will play a key role in the process.

"I asked the people of Delhi for a little land. I said I will sweep the land myself, but the people opposed it. We are using the technology of enzymes here and have been preparing for three months for this. The enzymes reduce the methane emission. This is a proven technology, but the people here are not even aware of enzymes," he added.



As per my knowledge, not even a single tree has been cut down, we've only trimmed four trees: pic.twitter.com/PkeSwPY8Jj  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

Meanwhile, the Green Tribunal's hearing is underway on the pleas seeking cancellation of the mega event.

Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA),

Delhi Government and the foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains.

Sri Sri's Art of Living foundation says the event will feature yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers and traditional cultural performances from around the world.

The foundation has denied there will be any permanent impact and says it has secured permission from all necessary authorities to hold the event.

"We have used only eco-friendly material like wood, mud, cloth, and scaffolding towards building a temporary stage," the foundation said in a statement.

The army has spent more than a week building two bridges which will float on the Yamuna river for the event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate event on Friday.
Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Limited (SMIPL), a subsidiary of one of the world's leading two-wheeler manufacturers, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan has begun assembly of its flagship motorcycle - the Suzuki Hayabusa - at a state of the art assembly line at its plant in Gurgaon, Haryana.

With the advent of the 'Make in India' programme, SMIPL are keen to support and strengthen this promising initiative to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub.

The Suzuki Hayabusa will be imported as CKD (Completely Knocked Down) Kits and assembled at the same factory in Gurgaon where the entire SMIPL line-up is manufactured and assembled.

Nonetheless, the specifications of the motorcycle shall remain unchanged as compared to its CBU (Completely Built Up) counterpart which has been imported from Japan all these years.

Kenji Hirozawa, vice-president Sales and Marketing, SMIPL, said, "India is one of the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. This is a clear indication of the high demands in this ever growing market. Along with growth, comes maturity. Coupled with growth in lifestyle and infrastructure, there is an increasing demand for Big Bikes by the Indian Enthusiast. SMIPL shall cater to this by starting assembly of our most widely selling big bike, the Suzuki Hayabusa. We firmly believe in the Make in India program and this is another step to show our support even in the big bike market."

The end customer will definitely benefit from this move, and the Hayabusa shall be available at the Suzuki Big Bike Dealerships for INR 1,357,135 (Ex-showroom Delhi) in March 2016.
A 12-day Integration Tour and a cycle rally to spread the message of cleanliness under the 'Swatch Bharat' drive were flagged off by Tripura Governor Tathagatha Roy.

Both events have been organized by the 4 battalion Assam Rifles (AR) under 21 Sector AR on the eve of 181 rising day of AR, the oldest paramilitary force of the world, to be celebrated on March 23.

Twenty five special children (deaf and dumb) from the Ferrando School for Speech and Hearing (FSSH) along with four teachers and a team of 4 AR, will be visiting Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Shillong as part of the Civic Action Project undertaken by Assam Rifles.

The members of the tour, who for the first time are visiting outside the state, were very excited getting an opportunity for the first time of travelling by flight and train.

"They all want to experience the places outside our state and this will be their first experience of flying by air and travelling by train. They are visiting places outside our state and meeting people and taken this as a great chance that Assam Riffles is proving them. This will bring them great learning in their mind and on return shall share it with others students who are at Ferrando," said Sister Seni, Principal of FSSH.

She added the tour will help in integration as youth from the north-eastern region shall be able to know their nation better by visiting places and interaction with people outside the region.

"Of course, it is going to bring a new change in the minds of our students and as well as parents of our students because they never got a chance so far and this tour they are going to make outside the state is going to unite them in one way or another by interacting with the people outside. That will bring them wider knowledge of themselves and outside the world," she added.

During their visit to Delhi, the students will get an opportunity to interact with President Pranab Mukherjee and meet high ranking Army officials.

Governor Roy, after interacting with the students, appreciated the efforts taken by Assam Rifles for promoting such a noble cause.

He expressed that before coming here he like most of the people was not aware that the security forces and army other than protecting people and guarding the border from foreign invasion is involved in such civic action and which needs to be propagated to counter misconception spread against forces by a section of people and with vested interest.

"In fact, I had no idea that the Assam Rifles carries out social interaction with the people of the Northeast. ... But right after coming here I saw that they are bringing school children, showing them around the Raj Bhavan, they are getting the Governor to address them and this is news to me and this is wonderful one," said Roy.

"What I find missing is that this thing is not finding adequate publicity to the rest of India.today this is the age of information; this is the age when you need publicity and simply doing will not do. You also need to tell people you are doing what," he added.

The tour is aimed at providing the students with an exposure to the rich cultural heritage of our country and an opportunity to visit various places as also interact with dignitaries.

Nishant Sharma, Commandant, 4 battalion of AR, said, "Focus of the tour which has been organized by the Assam Rifles is an attempt for integration. We take these children of Tripura and show them the development and cultural heritage of India and also educate and aware them. Apart from that for these children we are organizing computer certified course so that tomorrow as adults they are not deaf and mute as they are so called today, they are capable and equipped young people of the nation who can generate their own employment."

As a grand finale to the tour, the children on return to Shillong will be given an opportunity to attend the Assam Rifles Day Celebrations at HQ DG AR amidst numerous dignitaries of the Army, Assam Rifles, Civil Administration and the State of Meghalaya.
Activist Trupti Desai on Tuesday said if the Trimbakeshwar trust in 15 days does not take a decision to end the 400-year-old tradition of not allowing women into the sanctum sanctorum, Bhumata Brigade supporters will march again towards Trimbakeshwar that too without a prior notice.

"If the Trimbakeshwar trust doesn't take a decision within 15 days, we will go there again without any information. We will also meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis this week to urge him to take a decision on this," Desai said.

Desai also hoped that the Government and administration would accept their demand.

Activist Trupti Desai, who was detained in the morning while on her way to Trimbakeshwar temple, has been released by police.

Some of the women activists, who were detained on Monday while heading towards the temple, were also released.

"Why police stopped us from going to Trimbakeshwar temple; it is wrong," said Desai after she was detained.

Desai and her supporters had yesterday vowed to break the age-old rule of not allowing women inside the temple. They have demanded that women should be allowed to enter the inner sanctum of Trimbakeshwar temple on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri.

The temple trust has maintained that the ban on the entry of women is based on tradition, claiming that no objection has ever been raised on the same.
The United States of America (USA) has expressed disappointment after the Indian Government denied a visa last week to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

"We're aware that visas were not issued by the Indian embassy to members of the United States Commission of International Religions Freedom commissioners who were planning to travel to India on the 4th of March, and we're disappointed by this news," State Department Spokesman John Kirby said.

He added that the United States was supportive of the commission and the important role they play in reviewing facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom around the .

"As President Obama himself noted during his visit last year, we support the Government of India's commitments - commitment to promoting religious freedom and diversity. And his message during his trip to India was clear and it remains true: "Our nations are stronger when" - and I'm quoting now the President - "every person has the right to practice their faith how they choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free of persecution and fear of discrimination," he further said.

Kirby also said that the US remained engaged in a number of discussions with the Indian government about this and other issues with respect to religious freedom.

Justifying its decision not to give visa to members of US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), India had last week said the group has no locus standi to pass its judgement and comment on its citizens' constitutionally protected rights.

India has not been giving them visa since 2009.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hit back at his critics, who still question his ability to win titles with the club, and described the comments against him as 'boring'.

The Frenchman recently became Europe's longest serving manager after he completed his 19 years at the Emirates Stadium. But he continues to receive criticism after the Gunners have gone five games without a win in all competitions.

Arsenal are also on the verge of exiting the Champions League and slipping out of the Premier League title race.

Wenger has lashed out at those who feel he should leave if the club failed to grab a trophy this season.

The 66-year-old insisted that he had worked with the club for so many years and added that it was quite disappointing to still justify his capability for the job.

"I have no problem to cope with everything, but I find that a bit boring in the end. I always have to convince you that I am good enough. I worked for 35 years at the top level," Wenger was quoted as saying by goal.com.

Admitting that everyone has a right to express his opinions, Wenger, however, vowed to shift his focus entirely on doing his job with full commitment.

"I feel privileged to have the confidence of the club for such a long time. I work seven days a week with full commitment. That's all I can do," Wenger insisted.

Arsenal, who claimed their last victory against surprise Premier League leaders Leicester City, will play their next match against Hull City at KC Stadium on Wednesday.
Bollywood veteran Raza Murad has recently expressed his interest in Pakistani movies.

On his latest visit to Pakistan, Murad said that he would never miss an opportunity to work in Pakistani films, reports Express Tribune.

The actor, who was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Bajirao Mastani', said even Pakistani artists are working in India for a long time.

Flanked by his family members, Murad said joint ventures are essential to improve the quality of films being made on both sides of the border.

The actor, who himself is a frequent visitor to Pakistan, accredited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for establishing friendly relations between the two countries by recently visiting Pakistan as a goodwill gesture. He also expressed his gratitude to the Pakistanis for welcoming his family with an open heart.
The BJP-led NDA Government today hit back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and said the grand old party's hall mark all these years has been 'words for the poor, deeds for the rich'.

"The Congress vice-president says that the government may attack him personally but don't attack the poor. I want to tell him that you (Congress) are attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally, even about his dress and other things also. You attack and we cannot stop that, but don't attack the people, particularly the poor, by stalling the Parliament, by stalling important legislations connected with the welfare of the people. That is my appeal to the Congress Party," Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu said.

"You have ignored poor all these days. 'Words for the poor, deeds for the rich' has been the hallmark of your government for all these years," he added.

The minister's comment came a day after the Congress-vice president accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government of crushing the voices of poor and weak and dared the ruling dispensation, saying 'attack me but spare the poor people of the country'.

Gandhi, who met a delegation of tribals from Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, said that the government was oppressing anyone who spoke against them.

"Our tribal brothers and sisters from Bastar have come to meet me. They told me that they are being threatened and oppressed in Chhattisgarh. The nation is not going to gain from the oppression of people. In Hyderabad, you oppressed Rohith Vemula, here you are trying to oppress Kanhaiya and students. The NDA Government is trying to crush the voices of poor and the weak," he told the media here.

"Narendra Modi ji and his Cabinet will attack me. Modi ji even attacked me personally. People of his party attack me daily. Attack me as much as you want, but do not crush the poor, labourers, farmers, adivasis, Dalits. Attack me, but spare the poor people of the country," he added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday that the Indian mother superior of an aid home in Aden, where four nuns were killed and an Indian priest was kidnapped by gunmen, has been safely evacuated.

"Sister Sally has been evacuated from Yemen," Swaraj tweeted today.

Swaraj had asserted earlier that India will make all efforts to rescue Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who went missing in Yemen after the attack on the aid home.

"Yemen is a conflict zone. We do not have an Embassy there. But we will spare no efforts to rescue Father Tom Uzhunnalil," Sushma tweeted.

An Indian nun from Jharkhand was among the four nuns who were massacred by unidentified gunmen at a retirement home run by the Missionaries of Charity in Yemen.

Sister Sally survived after she hid herself from the gunmen after a guard sounded a warning cry about the attackers.

Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy said that the Indian Government will shift out Sister Sally as soon as possible.

Speaking to reporters Chandy said that after he spoke to Swaraj, Indian officials from Djibouti have established contacts with Sister Sally.

"I managed to speak to Sister Sally a while ago and she said that she has been contacted by Indian Embassy officials from Djibouti who are expected to come to take her with them on Monday. She said that things are not that smooth where she is and there is no information about Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who hails from Kottayam district and was taken away by the gunmen," he said.
The Renault Kwid has invoked enormous response in the domestic market. The success was so huge that Renault has decided to go international with its baby hatch. Contrary to previous reports which suggested that the Kwid will enter Sri Lanka first, it is now learnt that Mauritius will be the hatchbacks first international market.

Renault has plans to launch the Kwid in African and Latin American nations as well. Other aimed destinations are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which together constitute the SAARC nations. The French automaker has carefully planned the export destinations, keeping in mind its offering. The Kwid is an entry-level hatch and considering the economy of targeted nations, chances are high that the car will become immensely popular there too.

Mr. Sumit Sawhney, CEO and MD of Renault India is quite optimistic about the future of the company. On the occasion, he said, "In December (2015) we had 4.5 per cent market share, then in January it was 3.8 per cent. This month we have 4.5 per cent market. We are working very hard to achieve 5 per cent market share by the second half of 2016.

Presently, the KWID comes with a 0.8-litre engine, which can deliver a maximum power of 53bhp and a peak torque of 72Nm. This four-wheeler faces stiff competition from the likes of the Maruti Alto 800 and the Hyundai Eon in the domestic market. Renault will soon launch a 1.0-litre variant of the Kwid. Cashing in on the rising popularity of an automatic transmission, it even displayed the hatchback with an 'Easy-R' AMT at the Indian Expo 2016. With these upgrades, KWID will compete with the Alto K10 and Eon 1.0-litre.

Also Read: Kwid Gears up to Explore International Market

Read More on : Renault KWID 2016

Source : CarDekho
Maruti Suzuki has crossed the benchmark of 1lakh bookings with its premium hatchback, the Baleno and the manufacturer is rightfully content. The car further solidifies the sentiment that the sweat broken by Maruti over the research and development of their cars was not a futile exercise. It was launched in October 2015 and has gained the crown of segment leader within a short span of its existence. The carmaker is buoyed with the positive response and has plans to export the hatch to over 50 countries across the globe. The sales milestone also includes small portions of exports. The manufacturer has recently started shipping the Baleno to European markets and is using the Mundra Port in Gujarat for the same. The first lot, which consists of 1,800 units will be sent to Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Belgium and Spain. Maruti has also started exporting the car to the Japanese market, though, it only has been a few weeks.

Talking about the specs, in India the Baleno is offered in both 1.3 litre diesel and the 1.2 litre petrol variants with the engines mated to 5-speed manual transmissions, however, the European and Japanese markets only receive the 1.2 litre petrol engine, paired to SHVS hybrid technology. The transmission options here in India vary from a CVT to a 5-speed MT. International markets also have the added advantage of a 1.0 litre BoosterJet variant, the launch of which is still pending in India.

Maruti Baleno has been causing nightmares for both the Honda Jazz and the Hyundai Elite i20 in India, and with the launch of a more powerful 1.0 litre RS variant, it is expected to generate even bigger numbers.

Also Read: Maruti Vitara Brezza Launching Today

Read More on : Maruti Baleno review

Source : CarDekho
As per the information reported by the State/UT Governments, as on 01-04-2015 the total number of AYUSH hospitals providing AYUSH medical treatment in the country is 3598 out of which 2818 hospitals are of Ayurveda, 257 of Unani, 274 of Siddha, 7 of Yoga, 35 of Naturopathy and 207 of homoeopathy. Similarly, as on 01-04-2015, the total number of AYUSH dispensaries were 25723. Out of this 15291 are of Ayurveda, 1461 of Unani, 803 of Siddha, 185 of Yoga, 94 of Naturopathy, 7856 of Homoeopathy and 33 of Sowa Rigpa.

The data of vacant posts of employees in AYUSH hospitals/dispensaries under State/UT Governments are not maintained by Government of India.

However, vacant posts of AYUSH doctors under Central Government Health Service are filled by the Government in consultation with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), who advertises the posts and conduct the examination, etc. of the candidates and finally recommends them to Ministry of AYUSH for appointment as Medical Officer(MO)/Research Officer(RO). The proposal for filling the posts of MO/RO has already been sent to the UPSC recently. The vacancies can be filled up only after UPSC recommends the candidates and the pre- appointment formalities of the recommended candidates are completed in consultation with the respective State authorities.

Government of India has approved and notified the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission (NAM) on 29.09.2014, which inter-alia includes the component of AYUSH Services, where there is provision for co-location of AYUSH facilities at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) & District Hospitals (DHs) and setting up of 50 bedded integrated AYUSH Hospitals in the States/UTs. The State/UT Governments are eligible for submitting the proposals through State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) as per the guidelines of NAM.

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Mainland China stock market ended marginally higher after wiping out initial losses on Tuesday, 08 March 2016, as traders digested weaker-than-expected trade data from the mainland. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and PetroChina Co, considered to be targets of government buying because of their large index weighting, were the biggest contributors to gains.

Transportation and raw-material companies declined after data showed China's outbound shipments sank last month by the most since May 2009. The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 4.05 points, or 0.14%, at 2901.39. The CSI 300 Index, measuring exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, rose 5.14 points, or 0.09%, to 3107.67.

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Coal India said that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 5 March 2016, has approved payment of interim dividend of Rs 27.40 per share for the year ending 31 March 2016. The announcement was made on Saturday, 5 March 2016. The stock offers a dividend yield of 8.42% based on its closing price of Rs 325.20 on the BSE on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, 4 March 2016, reviewed the progress of key infrastructure sectors including power, coal, housing, ports, and Digital India, a statement released by the government on Saturday, 5 March 2016 said. Coal India has achieved a 9.2% increase in production this year, as compared to an average of just 3% growth over the last 5 years, the government said in a statement.

Asian Paints after trading hours on Friday, 4 March 2016, announced that it has filed First Information Report (FIR) with the Police department against its Registrar & Transfer Agent Sharepro Services (India) Pvt. Ltd. and its employees on certain irregularities by Sharepro with respect to share transfer operations and dividend encashment activities. Asian Paints has issued a termination notice to Sharepro for the termination of Registrar & Transfer Agent services with effect from 1 April 2016. The company is currently in the process of appointing a new Registrar & Transfer Agent.

L&T has completed the transaction for the sale of its casting manufacturing unit located at Coimbatore to Australia's Bradken Limited for total consideration of Rs 163 crore. The business transfer agreement was signed in November 2014. This unit clocked revenue of Rs 122 crore in the year ended 31 March 2015 (FY 2015), which was less than 1% of the total revenue of the company for the year. The sale of the Coimbatore foundry is in line with the company's strategic plan to exit non-core businesses and rationalize its portfolio. The company continues to operate two other foundries in Odisha and Gujarat. L&T made the announcement after trading hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Stocks of public sector banks (PSU banks) will be in focus after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday, 5 March 2016, said that an Experts' Group would be constituted immediately to consider a proposal for consolidation of PSU banks in order to have strong banks. Speaking to the media at the end of a two-day conference of top management of PSU banks, finance sector regulators and finance ministry officials organized by the finance ministry, Jaitley also said that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) is considering amending the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Act and SARFESI Act to help banks expedite the process of recovery of bad loans. Jaitley was quoted as saying at the press conference that the government is also considering a proposal to allow PSU banks to institute employee stock option plan for bank employees.

Shares of Siemens may edge higher after the company announced that its board of directors has decided to consider the distribution of 50% of the proceeds from the sale of its healthcare undertaking as a special dividend to the company's shareholders. The board will take the decision on special dividend at its first board meeting after the completion of the transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed by 1 July 2016. Siemens has approved the sale and transfer of the healthcare undertaking as a going concern on a slump sale basis to the subsidiary of its parent firm Siemens AG, Germany for total consideration of Rs 3050 crore. The unit clocked revenue of Rs 1424.80 crore in the year ended 30 September 2015 (FY 2015), accounting for 13.55% of the company's revenue for the year. The unit had negative networth of Rs 88.50 crore as on 30 September 2015. The transaction is subject to the approval of the company's shareholders through an ordinary resolution.

Regarding the rationale for the sale of the healthcare unit to the parent firm, Siemens said that it would allow the parent firm increased flexibility, greater entrepreneurial freedom and faster decision making to grow its India healthcare segment independently. The healthcare unit is highly dependent on the parent company and its subsidiaries for products and technical know-how and that significant long-term investments are required for localization of products and solutions of the unit, Siemens said. Siemens further said that currently there are limited synergies between the healthcare business and its other business segments. The sale of the unit will allow Siemens to increase its focus and capital allocation to power generation, transmission and distribution, mobility, industrial automation and Smart Cities segments. The transaction will be margin accretive for Siemens. The company made the announcement on the sale of the healthcare unit after trading hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Shares of jewellery makers will be in focus after the finance ministry said in its clarifications issued on the levy of excise duty on articles of jewellery in the Union Budget 2016-17 that the central excise officers have been directed not to visit the premises of jewellery manufacturers. The facility of Optional Centralized Registration has also been provided for jewellery manufacturers for payment of excise duty. Thus, there is no need for a jewellery manufacturer to take separate registrations for all his premises. Jeweler's private records or records for State VAT or records for Bureau of Indian Standards (in the case of hallmarked jewellery) will be accepted for all Central Excise purposes. Further, there is no requirement for the jewellery manufacturer to file a stock declaration to the jurisdictional central excise authorities. The finance ministry also said that a simplified export procedure is available for exempted units.

The government announced the imposition of excise duty at 1% without input tax credit (ITC) or 12.5% with input tax credit on articles of jewellery (excluding silver jewellery) in the Budget, with a higher exemption and eligibility limits of Rs 6 crore and Rs 12 crore respectively.

Ajanta Pharma said it has received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Almotriptan Malate Tablets (6.25 mg & 12.5 mg), a generic version of Axert, for treatment of acute migraine pain relief. The company's US subsidiary, Ajanta Pharma USA Inc. is scheduled to launch Almotriptan Tablets in US shortly, the company said. The announcement was made on Monday, 7 March 2016. The stock market was closed on that day due to Mahashivratri.

Alkem Laboratories said that its manufacturing plant at Mandva, Gujarat, has successfully obtained the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The plant manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and was inspected by USFDA in September 2015. The announcement was made on Monday, 7 March 2016. The stock market was closed on that day due to Mahashivratri.

Ashoka Buildcon said that the company's subsidiary Ashoka Concessions has informed the company that one of its associate companies viz. PNG Tollway (SPV) has given notice of termination of the concession agreement to NHAI in respect of the project viz. to undertake design, engineering, finance, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance of six laning of Pimpalgaon - Nashik - Gonde section of NH - 3 in Maharashtra on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Future Retail said that the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, on 4 March 2016 has sanctioned the composite scheme of arrangement between Future Retail and Bharti Retail and their respective shareholders and creditors with some minor modifications. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

ISGEC Heavy Engineering said that in order to execute a project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the company is considering opening a branch in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the branch is called as Operating Foreign Company in Jordan. The project involves erection and civil work of machinery and equipment for 30 megawatts coal based thermal power plant. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Eveready Industries India said that the company is in the process of launching in various parts of the country, a range of electrical/non-electrical appliances being ceiling fans, choppers, coffee maker espresso, dry irons, food processors, immersion water heaters, induction cookers, juicer mixer grinders, juicers, kettles, mixer grinders, multi grills, oven toasters grillers, pop-up toasters, rice cookers, roti makers, sandwich makers, steam irons and water heaters in the product category of consumer goods. These products will cater to the domestic market, Eveready Industries India said. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

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Market is seen opening lower in the early trade tracking negative leads from Asian markets. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 18 points at the opening bell. India's stock market were closed yesterday, 7 March 2016, on account of Mahashivratri.

In overseas markets, markets in Asia lost ground today, 8 March 2016, stepping back from their recent rally, with weak China trade data weighing on the sentiment. China's February exports fell 25.4% in US dollar terms, while imports fell 13.8%. The drop in exports was the largest on-year drop since 2009. US stocks eked out small gains yesterday, 7 March 2016, while the S&P 500 and Dow industrials extend their winning streak to five straight sessions, in part thanks to a jump in oil prices.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) purchased shares worth a net Rs 671.57 crore on Friday, 4 March 2016, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 533.10 crore on Friday, 4 March 2016, as per provisional data.

Meanwhile, as per the monthly data released by Association of Mutual Funds In India (AMFI), net inflow into equity mutual funds totaled Rs 2522 crore in February 2016, lower than the inflow of Rs 2914 crore in January 2016. The net inflow into balanced funds totaled Rs 941 crore in February 2016, which was higher than inflow of Rs 880 crore in January 2016. Balanced funds invest the money in a combination of equity and debt, with majority of the investment going into equity. The funds' investments range from 65% to 80% in equity and the rest in debt.

Among corporate news, Coal India said that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 5 March 2016, has approved payment of interim dividend of Rs 27.40 per share for the year ending 31 March 2016. The announcement was made on Saturday, 5 March 2016. The stock offers a dividend yield of 8.42% based on its closing price of Rs 325.20 on the BSE on Friday, 4 March 2016. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, 4 March 2016, reviewed the progress of key infrastructure sectors including power, coal, housing, ports, and Digital India, a statement released by the government on Saturday, 5 March 2016 said. Coal India has achieved a 9.2% increase in production this year, as compared to an average of just 3% growth over the last 5 years, the government said in a statement.

Stocks of public sector banks (PSU banks) will be in focus after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday, 5 March 2016, said that an Experts' Group would be constituted immediately to consider a proposal for consolidation of PSU banks in order to have strong banks. Speaking to the media at the end of a two-day conference of top management of PSU banks, finance sector regulators and finance ministry officials organized by the finance ministry, Jaitley also said that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) is considering amending the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Act and SARFESI Act to help banks expedite the process of recovery of bad loans. Jaitley was quoted as saying at the press conference that the government is also considering a proposal to allow PSU banks to institute employee stock option plan for bank employees.

Asian Paints after trading hours on Friday, 4 March 2016, announced that it has filed First Information Report (FIR) with the Police department against its Registrar & Transfer Agent Sharepro Services (India) Pvt. Ltd. and its employees on certain irregularities by Sharepro with respect to share transfer operations and dividend encashment activities. Asian Paints has issued a termination notice to Sharepro for the termination of Registrar & Transfer Agent services with effect from 1 April 2016. The company is currently in the process of appointing a new Registrar & Transfer Agent.

L&T has completed the transaction for the sale of its casting manufacturing unit located at Coimbatore to Australia's Bradken Limited for total consideration of Rs 163 crore. The business transfer agreement was signed in November 2014. This unit clocked revenue of Rs 122 crore in the year ended 31 March 2015 (FY 2015), which was less than 1% of the total revenue of the company for the year. The sale of the Coimbatore foundry is in line with the company's strategic plan to exit non-core businesses and rationalize its portfolio. The company continues to operate two other foundries in Odisha and Gujarat. L&T made the announcement after trading hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Shares of Siemens may edge higher after the company announced that its board of directors has decided to consider the distribution of 50% of the proceeds from the sale of its healthcare undertaking as a special dividend to the company's shareholders. The board will take the decision on special dividend at its first board meeting after the completion of the transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed by 1 July 2016. Siemens has approved the sale and transfer of the healthcare undertaking as a going concern on a slump sale basis to the subsidiary of its parent firm Siemens AG, Germany for total consideration of Rs 3050 crore. The unit clocked revenue of Rs 1424.80 crore in the year ended 30 September 2015 (FY 2015), accounting for 13.55% of the company's revenue for the year. The unit had negative networth of Rs 88.50 crore as on 30 September 2015. The transaction is subject to the approval of the company's shareholders through an ordinary resolution.

Regarding the rationale for the sale of the healthcare unit to the parent firm, Siemens said that it would allow the parent firm increased flexibility, greater entrepreneurial freedom and faster decision making to grow its India healthcare segment independently. The healthcare unit is highly dependent on the parent company and its subsidiaries for products and technical know-how and that significant long-term investments are required for localization of products and solutions of the unit, Siemens said. Siemens further said that currently there are limited synergies between the healthcare business and its other business segments. The sale of the unit will allow Siemens to increase its focus and capital allocation to power generation, transmission and distribution, mobility, industrial automation and Smart Cities segments. The transaction will be margin accretive for Siemens. The company made the announcement on the sale of the healthcare unit after trading hours on Friday, 4 March 2016.

Gains for banking sector stocks, public sector companies and metal stocks offset losses for IT and telecom stocks, with key benchmark indices registering minuscule gains on Friday, 4 March 2016. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 39.49 points or 0.16% to settle at 24,646.48. The 50-unit Nifty 50 index rose 9.75 points or 0.13% to settle at 7,485.35. The two key benchmark indices witnessed intraday volatility, swinging alternately between positive and negative zone. With fourth straight day of gains, the Sensex attained 4-1/2-week closing high and the Nifty reached 4-week closing high.

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Grant of Paternity Leave to bank employees has been accepted under the 10th Wage Negotiation Settlement signed between Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and the Unions/Associations of employees.

Male employees with less than two surviving children shall be eligible for 15 days paternity leave during his wife's confinement and may be availed upto 15 days before or upto 6 months from the date of delivery of the child.

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Strides Shasun rose 2.95% to Rs 1,064.05 at 13:00 IST on BSE after the company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma will acquire three brands from Moberg Pharma and its affiliates.

The announcement was made yesterday, 7 March 2016. The market was shut on that day due to holiday.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 43.47 points, or 0.18%, to 24,689.95.

Higher than normal volumes were witnessed on the counter. On BSE, so far 1.43 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 64,132 shares in the past two weeks. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,136.90 and a low of Rs 1,040 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 1,412.45 on 23 November 2014. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 848 on 29 February 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 4 March 2016, sliding 2.98% compared with Sensex's 1.27% gain. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, sliding 24.64% as against Sensex's 3.87% fall.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 89.27 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Strides Shasun announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Strides Pharma Inc. has entered into an agreement with Moberg Pharma, Sweden and its affiliates to acquire their Jointflex, Fergon and Vanquish brands for a total consideration of $10 million plus inventory value at closing. The acquisition strengthens Strides Shasun's strategy to build a global over the counter (OTC) franchise. The transaction adds $6.1 million of revenue and delivers above company earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margins. The transaction is immediately accretive and is expected to close within next four weeks.

Strides Shasun's consolidated net profit rose 172.4% to Rs 51.86 crore on 360.1% rise in net sales to Rs 1446.53 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014.

Strides Shasun is a pharmaceutical company with a key focus on development and manufacture of IP-led niche generics and bio-pharmaceuticals. It is also among the world's largest manufacturers of specialty soft gelatin capsules.

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Syndicate Bank fell 1.29% to Rs 61 at 15:30 IST on BSE after media reports that the Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating an alleged fraud at the state-run bank involving more than Rs 1000 crore.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 12.75 points, or 0.05%, to 24,659.23.

High volumes were witnessed on the counter. On BSE, 12.66 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 2.59 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 75 and a low of Rs 69.

The report said that alleged fraud includes the use of fake bills and providing overdraft limits against non-existent life insurance policies, reports suggested. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is reportedly searching 10 locations that include bank branches and homes of bank employees.

Government of India holds 69.24% stake in Syndicate Bank (as on 31 December 2015).

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From Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board

Va Tech Wabag announced that the Company in consortium with IDE Technologies has won a Rs 594 crore contract from Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Chennai, India for construction and operations and maintenance of a 45 MLD Tertiary Treatment Plant at Koyambedu, Chennai. The consortium will be responsible for execution of the complete plant and transmission pipeline where Wabag would act as a leader.

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Twenty-one militants were killed in air strikes and ground operation in Pakistan's North Waziristan on Tuesday, the military's media wing Inter Services Public Relations said.

"Combined strikes by PAF, the army and ground forces continued the hunt for fleeing terrorists through a chase and cordon operation," Inter Services Public Relations director general Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa said.

Bajwa confirmed that "21 terrorists were killed last night as operations continue". He said, "Important heights and passes along the Pakistan-Afghan border have been secured. The Shawal Valley sanitisation is in progress."

The Pakistan Army launched a ground offensive in North Waziristan Agency's mountainous Shawal Valley at the end of last year. The valley was regarded as the last haven of fleeing homegrown militants and their foreign cohorts.

The operation was aimed at clearing Taliban and Al Qaeda strongholds in North Waziristan and claims to have killed more than 3,750 militants since it commenced in 2014.

Since last year, the military stepped up operations in the deeply forested ravines of the valley - which straddles North and South Waziristan agencies along the border with Afghanistan - and softened militant targets in the valley through continued airstrikes.
Taking tissue engineering to a whole new level researchers have developed a new technology to build model versions of both heart and liver tissues that function like the real thing.

Growing realistic human tissues outside the body, the "person-on-a-chip" technology, called AngioChip, could offer a powerful platform for discovering and testing new drugs, and researchers believe that the engineered tissues could eventually be used to repair or replace damaged organs.

"It is a fully three-dimensional structure complete with internal blood vessels," said one of the researchers Milica Radisic, professor at the University of Toronto in Canada.

"It behaves just like vasculature, and around it there is a lattice for other cells to attach and grow," Radisic noted.

The work was published in the journal Nature Materials.

Out of POMaC, a polymer that is both biodegradable and biocompatible, the researchers built a scaffold for individual cells to grow.

The scaffold is built out of a series of thin layers, stamped with a pattern of channels that are each about 50 to 100 micrometres wide.

The layers, which resemble the computer microchips, are then stacked into a 3D structure of synthetic blood vessels. As each layer is added, UV (ultraviolet) light is used to cross-link the polymer and bond it to the layer below.

When the structure is finished, it is bathed in a liquid containing living cells. The cells quickly attach to the inside and outside of the channels and begin growing just as they would in the human body.

"Our liver actually produced urea and metabolized drugs," Radisic pointed out.

The researchers believe that AngioChip could enable drug companies to detect dangerous side effects and interactions between organ compartments long before their products reach the market, saving countless lives.

In future, Radisic envisions her lab-grown tissues being implanted into the body to repair organs damaged by disease.

"It really is multifunctional, and solves many problems in the tissue engineering space," Radisic said.

"It's truly next generation," she noted.
The abducted son of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was on Tuesday freed by security forces from Balochistan's Kuchlak area, five years after he was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from Lahore.

The security forces located Shahbaz Taseer in an area near Kuchlak, a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on August 26, 2011, near his company's head office in Gulberg area a few months after the assassination of his father Salman Taseer -- who was then Punjab governor -- at the hands of his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri.

No details on the whereabouts of Taseer were earlier made public.

However, there were speculations that Taseer was held captive by a group that was negotiating the release of Salman Taseer's killer Mumtaz Qadri and other prisoners.

There were also unverified reports of Shahbaz being killed in a drone strike in Waziristan.

The development comes just a week after Salman Taseer's assassin was executed at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail.
Actress Annabelle Wallis is in talks to feature with Tom Cruise in "The Mummy".

"Wallis will play an archaeologist in the Universal Pictures' film. Sofia Boutella, meanwhile, is on board to play the iconic monster," variety.com quoted a source as saying.

The film is planned as the first feature in a series of interconnected monster movies. And it will open in the US theatres on June 9, 2017.

The studio has also brought in Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to help develop a monster universe for Universal with rebooted versions of classic monster movies. Kurtzman is on board to direct, and will produce alongside Morgan and Sean Daniel.

Plot details are vague other than the fact that the film will be set in the present day, unlike the previous three instalments starring Brendan Fraser.

Wallis is best known for her work in Steven Knight's "Peaky Blinders". She also starred in the 2014 horror film "Annabelle" and the comedy "Brothers Grimsby".
The Indian Army's decision to make pontoon bridges for the Art of Living Foundation's upcoming World Culture Festival was taken after Delhi Police expressed a fear of stampede at the venue, where around 30 lakh people are expected, a source close to Defence Minister Manohar Parriakr told IANS.

The source also said the Art of Living Foundation may not be charged for the bridges as there is no policy in place for it.

The defence minister has, however, directed the defence secretary to formulate a policy for the army's involvement in such events in future.

The army, according to the source, was approached by the Art of Living Foundation for construction of six bridges across the Yamuna to the flood plain where the mega event is being organised.

The army had initially refused, but it was only after Delhi Police expressed fear of a stampede that the defence ministry agreed to engage the army in the process.

"Public safety is a government concern, and Delhi police said there could be a stampede with the huge crowd gathering there," sources close to the defence minister told IANS.

"It was in that view that the ministry asked the army to assist with the construction of the bridges," the source said.

While initially the army had agreed to construct only one bridge, with the huge crowd expected, it was decided that one more bridge needed to be constructed.

"This bridge was to be set up in the Kumbh Mela in Madhya Pradesh, it was diverted here and will be taken to Ujjain later," the source said.

This year, the army will be assisting in making floating bridges in Ujjain, where the Kumbh is taking place this year.

"The minister has told the defence secretary to formulate a policy for providing army's assistance to such events, whether they should charge or not. One reason why the army does not charge for such events is that once it starts taking money, a lot of groups can approach it," the source added.

The move of involving the army for construction of the bridges, however, has drawn sharp criticism from various quarters.

The festival, organised by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation, is scheduled to be held from March 11 to 13 on a site that is thought to be a part of the environmentally sensitive flood plains of the Yamuna river.

The Art of Living along with the Delhi Development Authority is facing a case at the National Green Tribunal for alleged violation of environmental laws and polluting the Yamuna river. The NGT is expected to deliver the verdict in the case Tuesday.
The Bangladesh Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld death sentence for Mir Quasem Ali, former Al-Badr and Jammat-e-Islami Party leader, for being involved in atrocities against Bangalis during the Liberation War in 1971.

Al-Badr was a paramilitary wing of the West Pakistan Army, which operated in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) against the Bengali nationalist movement during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

The verdict cited the crimes against humanity that were committed by Quasem as the Chittagong area commander of the Al-Badr.

The International Crimes Tribunal has upheld the punishment on eight counts, acquitted him on one, and changed the penalty in another. Quasem has challenged the verdict, bdnews24.com reported.

People across the country rejoiced over the court's decision. Celebratory marches were held at some places.

Quasem was the Al-Badr's third most important functionary after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.

His funding helped the Jamaat secure a strong foothold in independent Bangladesh.

Quasem has been a member of the JeI's central executive council and the party's fifth most important leader.
Beijing is planning to build thousands of charging stations in 2016 for electric vehicles.

Around 15 large charging facilities will be opened in service stations on the expressway and 5,880 smaller ones in service stations in urban areas, said the Beijing Power Company on Tuesday.

They will all feature sockets to charge multiple vehicles simultaneously, Xinhua news agency reported.

The new facilities are desperately needed if authorities are to persuade drivers to rely on environment-friendly, electric vehicles.

Currently, there are only seven Beijing expressway service stations with charging stations, and three of them have not been put to use yet.

The 172 charging facilities in Beijing by the end of 2015 had performed over two million charges, according to the Beijing Power Company.
Britain will deploy military naval ships to join a NATO mission in the Aegean Sea to reduce the flow of migrants from Turkey to Europe, the media reported on tuesday.

The Royal Navy will send amphibious landing ship royal fleet auxiliary (RFA) Mounts Bay alongside two border force cutters to join the NATO mission, Xinhua quoted British Prime Minister David Cameron as saying on Monday.

RFA Mounts Bay, supported by a Wildcat helicopter, is expected to start operations in the coming days to identify smugglers taking migrants to Greece and passing the information to the Turkish coastguard so they can intercept these boats.

They will be supported by three border force boats, including standby safety vessel VOS Grace which is already in the Aegean and two cutters.

"We've got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey," Cameron said.

"That's why this NATO mission is so important. It's an opportunity to stop the smugglers and send out a clear message to migrants contemplating journeys to the Europe that they will be turned back," he added.

At an EU summit in Brussels on Monday, Cameron urged its European partners to break the link between migrants' getting on a boat and getting resettlement in Europe by "smashing the trafficking gangs and increasing the return of illegal migrants."

He also called on the international community to act together and stem the flow of migrants making the "perilous journey" from Turkey to Greece, according to the british government.
A court here on Tuesday allowed the CBI three days of custodial interrogation of CPI-M politician P. Jayarajan who is an accused in the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker Kathiroor Manoj.

The Thalassery principal sessions court asked the Kannur jail superintendent to make all arrangements for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to interrogate Jayarajan for three days starting on Wednesday.

Jayarajan, who suffers from a heart ailment, has been convalescing at a hospital in Kozhikode.

The Thalassery court had on February 12 sent Jayarajan to a month's judicial custody after he surrendered before the district sessions court.

Soon after his surrender he was taken to the Kannur jail. From there, owing to his ill-health, Jayarajan was first moved to a hospital near here and from there to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.

The CBI had been seeking since February 17 the court's direction to allow Jayarajan's custodial interrogation.

Jayarajan is former Kannur district secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

He was booked by the CBI for conspiracy under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), in the murder of RSS worker Manoj.

The CBI had earlier claimed that Jayarajan, the 25th accused in the murder of Manoj, is the brain behind the killing.

Manoj, 42, a district functionary of RSS, was hacked to death at Kathiroor in Kannur district of Kerala on September 1, 2014, allegedly by a group of CPI-M workers.
Vikrant Rao, producer of "Bechare Biwi Ke Maare", says that his film received discriminatory treatment from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) because of being a small budget one. He added that he was asked to remove the word "Saala" from his film at a time when R. Madhavan starrer "Saala Khadoos" was released without any intervention.

Rao says that he has filed a petition in the High Court asking for justice.

"The objections were raised for 17 scenes in November 2015 before issuing the censor certificate which we duly complied to in the same month, We were also given a U/A certificate in November itself (though our film is suitable for a child to watch alone).

"It was by chance that we happened to see the movie 'Saala Khadoos' and realised the discrepancy and filed a petition in high court in February 2016," Rao told IANS.

Rao heads the production house MG10 production house, the company that is making its debut in films with "Bechare Biwi Ke Maare".

He says that "MG 10 production is perhaps the only production house with soul and heart in Delhi" and he feels that it's a "clear case of bias."

"Why else would a big banner movie with a name 'Saala Khadoos' be given a U certificate and since we are new to the Industry, were asked to make cuts for the same word which is very much in the title of that movie and then inspite of complying to 17 cuts by the board, were still given a U/A certificate," he said.

The film was set to release in around 600 theatres across Northern India (with target audience in Haryana, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab) earlier in March but it has now been postponed to April due to the case.
Actors Charlie Sheen and Whoopi Goldberg have been roped in for independent action-drama "Nine Eleven", which will narrate the struggle of five people trapped in an elevator in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

They will start shooting on Monday, reports variety.com.

"Nine Eleven" will be directed by Martin Guigui from a script he co-wrote with Steven Golebiowski. Luis Guzman, Wood Harris and Olga Fonda have also been cast in the movie, which will be shot entirely at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California.

"We are immensely grateful to bring this inspirational story to life. 'Nine Eleven' is a highly emotional journey and it took a dynamic bunch to collectively come together to make this unique film happen," said Guigui.

"We are fortunate to have such a gifted cast on board. Both Charlie and Whoopi are native New Yorkers who strongly identify with this story," he added.

Sheen said: "I feel deeply connected to the material and I'm so excited to be working with my dear friend Whoopi Goldberg."
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday accused the Japanese government of "double dealing", saying that there is a little ground for optimism in bilateral relations despite signs of improvement.

On one hand, Japan says all the nice things about wanting to improve the relations and on the other hand, it is making troubles for China at every turn, Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Yi as saying.

"This is what I would call a typical case of double dealing," Wang said.

"Thanks to the efforts of wise people on both sides, there are signs of improvement in the China-Japan relations, but there is little ground for optimism," he said.

"Of course, we want to see the China-Japan relations truly improving, but as a saying goes, to cure diseases, you have to address underlying problems," the foreign minister said.

For the China-Japan relations, the underlying problem is that the Japanese politicians in power have wrong perceptions about China, Wang said.

The Japanese side should give a serious thought on whether to view the growing China as a friend or a foe, as a partner or an adversary, he added.
China on Tuesday described the joint military drill between the US and South Korea as an act of "sabre-rattling", saying the situation was a bit explosive and could spell disaster.

A day after North Korea warned of a nuclear attack against the US which began its largest-ever military exercise with South Korea in the divided peninsula, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it will not allow the stability in the region to be disrupted.

"At the moment there is some sabre-rattling on the Korean Peninsula and the situation is bit explosive. If the tensions worsen or even get out of control, there would be a disaster for all parties," Wang said in an oblique reference to the joint drill which began on Monday.

"As the largest neighbour of the peninsula, China will not sit back and see a fundamental disruption to stability on the peninsula," he added.

In the past too, North Korea has condemned the exercise between the two allies as a tactics of invasion, while the US and South Korea have insisted that they are purely for defence.

On implementing the UN resolution which calls for toughest sanction on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear programme, Wang said that China had the "obligation and ability to implement all the resolution passed by the Security Council".

Wang, however, said actions which could aggravate the tensions should be avoided.

"China has the ability and obligation to implement all the resolution passed by the Security Council including the resolution 2270 concerning the DPRK. People should have consensus," Wang said.

"It (resolution) also reiterates support to the Six-Party Talks and asks the parties to refrain from taking any actions that might aggravate tensions. So in China's view, resolution 2270 must be implemented in its entirety," he added.

Launched in 2003, the Six-Parties Talks, including China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US, aimed at convincing North Korea to terminate its nuclear programme. It collapsed in 2009 after North Korea's satellite launch followed by the Security Councils' sanctions against it.

The Six-Party Talks, launched in 2003, include China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States in negotiations with North Korea around the termination of its nuclear programme.

"Sanctions are just necessary means. Maintaining stability is pressing priority. Only negotiation can provide fundamental solution," he added.

(Gaurav Sharma is the Beijing-based correspondent of IANS. He can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)
A day after the Left Front came out with its first list of candidates, the Congress on Tuesday announced that it had identified 75 seats initially to field their nominees for the West Bengal assembly polls, and said it had a target to contest altogether around 100 seats.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed there was no dispute with the LF - with whom his party is working on an electoral understanding - in the 75 seats, candidates for which would be announced by the party high command. However, one of the seats - Joypur in Purulia district - figured in the list of both parties.

He also said there could be friendly fight between the Congress and the LF in Domkol and Hariharpara constituencies of Murshidabad district. The LF has announced candidates for both the seats, though these two do not figure among the 75 constituencies in the Congress list.

"The candidates that the LF has announced for these two seats would be to the benefit of the Trinamool. So, there will be friendly fight in these two seats."

Chowdhury said discussions were on with the Left parties, and the remaining seats would be announced once the deliberations got over.

Asked to comment on LF chairman Biman Bose's commentsA on Monday that there was neither an alliance with the Congress, nor would the Lf share the campaign platform with it, he said: "I think we shouldn't play a hide and seek game.

"It is the view of the LF. It is known to all what we are doing. But tell me, months back would you have believed that there would be an electoral understanding between the two forces? It is the tremendous demand from the lower level workers which has led to this understanding.

"So whatever we may say, it is the workers who would decide. If they put pressure, both Biman Bose and Adhir Chowdhury will have to bend," said Chowdhury.

The Bengal Congress chief said the Congress had no objection about leading a joint campaign with the LF. "If they want to join us in the campaign, we will welcome them. It would have been good if we had gone for a joint campaign. We don't believe in any political untouchability. Everybody is welcome."

Chowdhury said party spokeperson Om Prakash Mishra has desired to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Bhowanipore assembly constituency of South Kolkata.

"It shows his political resolve. When the high command takes up the candidates' list for approval, we will ask it to clear this seat first."

He said all senior leaders of the state have been requested to file nominations. Among them are former state Congress chiefs Pradip Bhattacharya, Somen Mitra, Manas Bhunia, and other party veterans Abdul Mannan, Deepa Dasmunshi, Mohammad Sohrab, Sankar Singh and Arunava Ghosh.

Among the seats the Congress has earmarked to contest are 15 from Murshidabad, six from Malda and five from Kolkata.

The LF on Monday announced its candidates for 116 seats in the 294-member assembly.
The opposition Congress held a protest at the Punjab assembly complex just ahead of the start of the budget session of the state assembly here on Tuesday.

Congress legislators, carrying black flags, wearing black headbands and carrying placards, entered the assembly complex and raised slogans against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance government in the state.

The Congress legislators boycotted the address of Punjab Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki.

Some legislators jumped the assembly complex gates to enter the assembly complex as security personnel tried to prevent their entry.

The Congress has accused the state government, led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, of selling the interests of Punjab on the issue of sharing of river water with neighbouring states.

The Congress said that it will not allow Punjab's water to be shared through the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal with neighbouring Haryana.

Chief Minister Badal told media on Tuesday that the state government will give a statement on the SYL issue on the floor of the house.

Badal had said last week that Punjab "did not have a single drop of water to spare from its rivers and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) would ensure that there is no compromise on the inalienable rights of the state under the Riparian principle".

The Supreme Court had accepted the petition filed by the Haryana government for early hearing on the issue of the SYL canal, on which Presidential Reference was pending. The matter will come up for hearing before the apex court on Tuesday.

Both Punjab and Haryana have been locked in a bitter war of words over sharing of river waters. The apex court is taking up the matter when Punjab is just about one year from assembly polls which are to be held in February next year and political parties have taken a stand on the issue.

The Congress government in Punjab had, in 2004, scrapped the water sharing agreements with neighbouring states and had refused to give any water to other states, especially Haryana.

The Presidential Reference was sought after the Punjab Assembly unilaterally passed the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004, categorically stating that it was nullifying all agreements on water sharing and that no more water would be given to Haryana.

The SYL Canal, that was planned and major portions of it were even completed in the 1990s at a cost of over Rs.750 crore at that time, is entangled in a political and legal quagmire with Punjab and Haryana states unwilling to give up their respective stand on the controversial canal issue and sharing of river waters.

The canal that was to link two major rivers in Punjab and Haryana is awaiting a Presidential Reference for the past nearly 12 years to decide its fate.

The foundation stone of the SYL canal was laid in April 1982 by then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

At that time, terrorism was on the rise in Punjab and the issue became a sensitive one with leaders in Punjab raking up the water sharing issue.

Terrorists gunned down labourers and officials involved in SYL construction to get the project stalled.

Several kilometres of the canal were made in Punjab and Haryana but the project never got completed.
A Delhi court here began the trial against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and arms dealer Abhishek Verma for allegedly writing a forged letter addressed to then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2009 seeking easing of business visa norms.

Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna recorded statement of the complainant, the then minister of state for home Ajay Maken as the prosecution witness in the case. Maken was also cross examined by the counsel for accused in the case.

During the hearing, Tytler and Verma were also present in the court room.

The court on December 9 had framed charges dealing with cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy of Indian Penal Code and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Tytler and Verma had pleaded not guilty and claimed innocence in the case.

The case was filed on a complaint of Maken that a forged letter on his letterhead was written to the prime minister by Verma.

The CBI has alleged that Tytler had "actively connived" with Verma to cheat a Chinese telecom firm and the Congress leader had first shown a "fake and forged" letter to the company's officials, claiming it was written by Maken to the then prime minister.
It is for the first time perhaps that militants crossing over from Pakistan into India have not generated negative publicity, said a Pakistani daily which noted that the relationship between the two countries is fraught with mistrust.

An editorial "Benefits of co-operation" in The Nation said, "India has often alleged Pakistani intelligence agencies facilitate militants to cross the border so that they can carry out attacks in Indian cities - a claim the agencies have always denied."

"Regardless of definitive proof, incidents of militants crossing borders, real or fictitious, always strain the relationship between the two neighbours. It is for the first time perhaps that militants crossing over from Pakistan into India hasn't generated negative publicity," it added.

On Monday, top officials in India claimed that Pakistan's National Security Advisor (NSA) Naseer Khan Janjua informed his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval that a group of militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed cadres has crossed over into Gujarat on a mission to a major terror strike.

The warning prompted Gujarat to put its security and officials on high alert and to take necessary precautions.

The daily said that Pakistani officials have yet to confirm if the NSA did convey this warning and despite it, the danger still remains eminent until it is definitively tackled. But both National Security Advisors and their teams can take solace from the fact that a working relationship between the two can lead to sizable benefits.

"The present relationship between the two is fraught with mistrust and held back by the political opinion at home, but this incident should amply highlight the potential of extensive intelligence sharing," The Nation said.

"Not only can the militant threat be tackled from both angles -- removing a major bone of contention between the two nations -- regular interaction, sharing of information and mutual capacity-building will increase the trust between both governments -- a key commodity severely lacking between the two neighbours," it said.

The daily noted that if the militant threat is effectively countered, an argument can be made for increasing the interaction from just NSA to NSA, to a more departmental connection.
The Delhi government on Tuesday issued notice to Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University's (GGSIPU) private colleges over reports of threatening students to pay hiked fees.

In its notice, the government said that it had been told that some private affiliated colleges of GGSIPU threatened the students, who had approached the government over the fee hike, with rustication and asked them to pay the hiked fees.

"It is ordered that the director, higher may clearly instruct the GGSIPU authorities that no private college can take action against any student in this matter and any such action will be viewed by the government and appropriate action will be taken against the said institute," said the notice .

Earlier in the day Minister Manish Sisodia said that the hiked fee at the IP university colleges would be rolled back.

"I have sent file of roll back in fee hike by IPU colleges to LG. Hope to get approval today so that I can order colleges to stop fee hike," he tweeted.

The announcement came after scores of students staged a protest march from Civil Lines to his residence over the hike of around 24 percent in the fee structure retrospectively.
With Donald Trump going strong in Republican primaries, New York City's former mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped the idea of an independent run fearing it may help the Republican presidential frontrunner win.

"When I look at the data, it's clear to me that if I entered the race, I could not win," wrote Bloomberg who had floated the idea of an independent 2016 campaign -- particularly if Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders were the two major-party nominees.

"I believe I could win a number of diverse states -- but not enough to win the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidency," he wrote in a blog post Monday.

"There is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," Bloomberg wrote.

Trump is hoping to expand his lead while Hillary Clinton will try to block Bernie Sanders from winning his first big state Tuesday when Michigan and Mississippi go to the polls. Republicans will also square off in Idaho and Hawaii.

Tuesday's biggest prize is Michigan with 59 Republican delegates and 148 Democratic ones up for grabs.

The delegates will be awarded proportionately, meaning a candidate can still pick up delegates if they finish in second or even third place, as long as they meet certain thresholds.

The latest polls from Michigan show Trump and Clinton have double-digit leads over their competitors.

Trump is getting 41 percent from likely primary voters, followed by Cruz at 22 percent, Florida senator Marco Rubio at 17 percent and Ohio governor John Kasich at 13 percent.

Trump was leading the Republican pack among every demographic group - men, women, Republicans, independents, moderates and conservatives.

Upset over Trump's rise Republican leaders and donors have arrived at a consensus at private conclaves that a steady blitz of attacks could puncture Trump's support and force a contested convention, the Washington Post reported.

But the slow-bleed strategy is risky and hinges on the primaries in Florida, Illinois and Ohio, it said.

Meanwhile, CNN citing sources said a battle was being waged within Rubio's campaign about whether he should even remain in the Republican presidential race ahead of his home state primary on March 15.

Rubio himself is "bullish" on his odds of winning the critical primary, despite some advisers who are less hopeful and believe a loss there would damage him politically in both the short- and long-term, it said.

Among Democrats in Michigan, Clinton leads Sanders 57 percent to 40 percent. She is leading among African Americans, those 45 and older, women, men and whites. Sanders leads among independents and those younger than 45 years old.

Clinton and Sanders, meanwhile, laid out some of their key differences Monday in a Fox News Channel town hall event in Michigan with Sanders hammering his message of economic equality and prosperity.

Clinton claimed neither she nor her lawyers have been informed that any members of her staff or former staff are targets of an FBI investigation, which focuses on her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Clinton also stood by the decision, as part of the Obama administration, to remove Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Clinton also offered her answer to Sanders' popular free-tuition college proposal, unveiling the outlines of a plan in which students will no longer have to borrow money to attend a public college or university.
She's a global face as a Hollywood actor, action heroine and a humanitarian.

For Malaysia-born Michelle Yeoh, famous for her role in Ang Lee's Oscar winning martial arts love story "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" every day is a gift and she looks forward to another good tomorrow.

She also acted in James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" in 1997.

Yeoh was in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, accompanying fiance Jean Todt for the Federation Internationale De L'Automobile (FIA) Asia-Pacific Sport Regional Congress when the earthquake hit on April 25 last year.

The temblor killed over 8,000 people, injuring thousands and causing widespread destruction.

The actor has made helping rebuild lives in Nepal a priority.

"Raising awareness for Nepal was and still is an important role for me. What's happening is very real and there is so much work to be done to help rebuild the lives of the Nepalese," the 53-year-old Malaysian actor, who believes her best performance is yet to come, told IANS in an email interview.

Yeoh and Todt have raised money for post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal.

"Yes of course, I would always encourage Hollywood celebrities to join and support such a wonderful cause (Nepal disaster). It's very important for us all to understand that we are interconnected and we need to hold hands together, especially when the going gets tough."

A month after the natural disaster, the actor was in the Himalayan nation again, not as a tourist but as the brand ambassador of the 'Live to Love' foundation of globe trotting Buddhist leader Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual head of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa Order based in India.

Quoting the spiritual leader, she said: "Without appreciation, our life is like plastic. Not only we have to remove the non-biodegradable rubbish from our external environment, we have to clear that from our mind too."

"Every little positive step we make individually, collectively we can make a huge difference. For me, this is what 'Live to Love' is about," Yeoh, who made her name as an action star in Hong Kong in 1990, added.

The actor, who stars as Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in "The Lady" directed by Luc Besson, also wants to focus on climate change.

"Global warming is a big issue now, it's threatening humanity. All this can be changed if we begin to have a little appreciation and a little more understanding about interconnectivity between nature and us."

About her reel or real role that is more challenging, she said: "Both are as real as ever, but in terms of challenges, the real life is of course more challenging and continuously full of surprises."

"In the movies, the emotions are as real as the circumstances. The difference is that in a film, we have the script all plotted out, so you know what to expect and you are also given time to rehearse."

In real life, though, she says, the plot unfolds day by day. "No chance to rehearse. You feel that you need to proact or react, and are kept on the toes," she added.

Her latest film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny", the sequel to the early successful film, has just hit the theatres.

Asked about her role in Aung San Suu Kyi's biopic, she said: "Out of deep respect to Daw Suu (Suu Kyi) and the people of Burma, we did our utmost to stay true to her story," although for better story-telling, "some liberties had be to taken."

The former Miss Malaysia, has also been involved in the fight against AIDS for many years.

(Vishal Gulati had earlier met Michelle Yeoh when she visited quake-hit villages on the outskirts of Kathmandu in Nepal. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Railway Minister Suresh Parabhu, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin are among leaders expected to attend Global Leadership Forum, an event being held under of aegis of World Culture Festival organised by Art of Living here.

An Art of Living release said that other leaders "joing the forum" include Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen. V. K. Singh (retd.).

The Global Leadership Forum event is being held here March 12 and 13 while the World Culture Festival is scheduled to be held from March 11 to 13.

The release said that former Slovenian prime minister Alojz Peterle, Pakistani senator Sherry Rehman and Latvian Culture Minister Dace Melbarde would also attend.

Others expected to attend are Comptroller and Auditor General Shashikant Sharma, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Virgin group founder Richard Branson and GMR Group executive chairman and managing director G.M.Rao.

"The forum among other issues will also examine the dilemmas of leadership and reflect on how they can balance these challenging dichotomies in today's world - ethical and profitable, current and farsighted, global and local, humane and digital, steadyand adaptive, dynamic and peaceful," the release said.
The Congress on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of showing gross disregard for the Women's Reservation Bill.

"This government has shown gross disregard towards the Women's Reservation Bill, providing for 33 percent reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

"Despite the fact that the previous government had passed the bill in the Rajya Sabha, in spite of grave numerical limitation, the government has shown inexplicable apathy towards the bill," said Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev.

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said: "For all his talk of empowerment and 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' endeavour, his colleagues in the party exhort women to produce more children and restrict what they wear."

"We would like to ask the prime minister why is he silent? Why is there no concrete assurance about passing the Women's Reservation Bill," Dev asked.

Dev said: "We would like to know what Sushma Swaraj, an old supporter of the bill, Uma Bharati, Najma Heptullah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Maneka Gandhi, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Smriti Irani are going to do about it?"
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said his government will plan a campaign involving people to fight against the menace of foeticide and dowry.

"We are very much concerned about safety of women in the national capital. We need to mitigate foeticide, dowry and spending in weddings. So, on the lines of the odd-even scheme, we will launch a campaign involving Delhiites to raise voice for women's safety and fight against foeticide and dowry," he said while speaking at a programme organised by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said women should be able to move around freely at any time of the day or night in the national capital.

"The government is willing to spend as much money as needed on women's safety. To ensure women safety, the Delhi government in it's upcoming budget is allocating money for the installation of closed-circuit television across the city," he said.

"But the measures are insufficient as rapists feel immune because of low conviction rate. Increased conviction rate will send a clear message that he will be in jail if he is a rapist," the chief minister said.

Kejriwal also lauded the DCW efforts towards dealing with cases of crime against women.

He appealed to the DCW to aggregate every single idea for the safety of women and said that the Aam Aadmi Party government will implement them all.
A green court in Delhi on Tuesday deferred its decision on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's cultural mega-extravaganza on the ecologically fragile Yamuna flood plains, amid fresh controversy over Indian Army men being used to construct pontoon bridges for the event.

As the furore grew louder with just two days to go for the March 11-13 "World Culture Festival", the National Green Tribunal said it will resume its hearing on Wednesday on the pleas seeking cancellation of the event which is expected to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The mega-event marking 35 years of the foundation ran into fresh trouble after army men were seen helping the non-governmental organisation in the construction process ahead of the programme.

However, the defence ministry defended its decision that was apparently taken after Delhi Police expressed fears about the likelihood of a stampede at the venue.

"Public safety is a government concern, and Delhi Police said there could be a stampede with the huge crowd gathering there," a source close to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told IANS.

The Art of Living Foundation, which is organising the event, may not be charged for the construction of at least six floating bridges by the army as there is yet no policy in place for it, the source added.

In an interview with private TV channel Aaj Tak, Parrikar said the army has been participating in activities like the Kumbh Mela which attract a large number of people. "It was done with the sole purpose of avoiding accidents," the minister said.

Earlier, the Delhi government, the central government and the event organisers sought more time to reply to the green court's queries on the environmental impact of the fiesta taking place over some 1,000 acres of land upstream of the DND elevated bridge and on the right bank of the river.

Green activists have raised an alarm that the event violates environmental laws and the mega construction work -- including tents, hutments, barricades, and pontoon bridges -- will pollute the river and alter the flood plain. The construction also included a massive 40-feet-high, multi-floor stage mounted on steel rods over seven acres of land.

The green court asked the union environment ministry if it had given clearance for altering the river's flood plain. It also asked Delhi Development Authority (DDA) how it had given the nod to the event without conducting any environmental impact study.

The organisers dismissed the concerns in defending the event for which permission had already been given by the Delhi government. "We have got permissions from more than 30 departments and ministries," defence lawyer Akashama Nath told the green tribunal.

"How could we carry out a study when the environment ministry didn't ask for it," the lawyer replied when the tribunal sought the report.

The organisers informed the court that they were expecting not more than three lakh people -- as against 35 lakh reported earlier -- for the event.

Ravi Shankar, the godman behind the event, said not a single tree had been cut and ecological stability had been maintained during the preparations for the event.

"We are asserting that we will turn the place into a beautiful bio-diversity park once we are finished with it. Since 2010, our volunteers have been working hard to clean the river and around 512 tonnes of dirt and garbage has been fished out," Ravi Shankar told reporters here.

"We want to save the Yamuna. We have not cut a single tree and have maintained ecological stability. We want to see the Yamuna transformed into a beauty again," he said.
Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Tuesday said that Haryana was leading in terms of business, education and financial services, which should be further strengthened to increase the GDP of the state and the country.

Speaking at session 'Next wave of growth in services sector' on the final day of the two-day 'Happening Haryana Global Investors' Summit-2016 here, he urged entrepreneurs to come to Haryana and invest in Information Technology, health, education, finance, banking and business sectors.

Sinha said that the domestic market of Haryana was very robust and required services in any sector could be provided easily.

He said that various cities of the state were developed, including Gurgaon, and there were numerous possibilities of expansion of health services. Also, there were abundant possibilities of investment in the field of medical tourism, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Haryana Health and Medical Education Minister Anil Vij said: "We envision that the state government facilitating establishing at least one medical college in every district."

There is immense scope for medical tourism in the state as around 27,000 patients from different countries visited various multi-specialty hospitals in Gurgaon during 2015.
Ariccia, March 8 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Catholics to "give a concrete sign" that God is close by in the way they live their lives.

"My life, my attitude, the way of going through life, must really be a concrete sign of the fact that God is close to us," Francis tweeted.

He and officials from the Vatican government are this week taking part in Lent spiritual exercises at a retreat centre in Ariccia, about 25 miles southeast of Rome.

The exercises usually take place during the first week of Lent, but were postponed this year due to the pontiff's visit to Mexico from February 12 to 18.

The pope's @Pontifex account on Twitter is published in nine languages and has more than 22 million followers.

--IANS/AKI

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London, March 8 (IANS/RAY) Indian origin people in Britain are "important" because though only being 1.8 percent of its population, they contribute 6 percent to GDP, India's new High Commissioner Navtej Sarna said on Tuesday.

Addressing members of the House of Commons and House of Lords at a welcome extended to him, he also went on to highlight it was more expensive to study at Britain's Oxford and Cambridge universities than institutions in other countries, but Indians were willing to pay extra for the quality of education offered by Oxbridge.

What was preventing more students from India to come to such centres of excellence, said Sarna, was "visa difficulties are making the other destinations more attractive". Among these other destinations, he specifically mentioned Australia and New Zealand.

The event at the Westminster Palace, which houses the British parliament, was jointly hosted by the Indo-British and Commonwealth All Party Parliamentary Groups.

--IANS/RAY

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The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) will take out out its annual Jagannath Rath Yatra starting from Shivaji Park this weekend, an official spokesperson said here on Tuesday.

The two-day event, to be held on March 12 and 13, would attract over half a million devotees from all over India, making it the world's second largest Jagannath Rath Yatra in terms of the number of participants, said spokesperson Lucky Kulkarni.

The Yatra will start on Saturday afternoon at 3.30 p.m., wend its way through Shiv Sena Bhavan, Plaza Cinema, Portuguese Church, Gokhale Road and return that evening by 7 p.m.

"The lord of mercy himself will come out on the streets of Mumbai to shower his benevolence on all, blessing the participants and their families with happiness and peace forever," said the organiser and ISKCON chief Radhanath Swami Maharaj.

The Mumbai chariot festival will see an array of competitions for different groups of people, cultural performances, lectures, drama and medical camps since it coincides with the golden jubilee of ISKCON, he added.

A massive 70x40 sq.feet stage resembling Jaladuta, a replica of the ship which Srila Prabhupada boarded in 1965 to travel to the US, a 50-feet tall statue of the ISKCON founder, another 60x40 sq.feet stage as the abode of Lord Jagannath, his brother Baldevji and sister Subhadra Maiya with a 40-feet high 'chakra' shall be the highlights.

Radhanath Swami said the chariot festival is being celebrated annually at Puri in Odisha since ages, but ISKCON founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada took the Jagannath Rath Yatra all over the world in 1967 for the benefit of all who could not travel to Odisha.

The Jagannath Rath Yatra is presently celebrated in countries like the US, Britain, South Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand; one was organised in Pakistan in 2015, besides several locations in India.
Jammu and Kashmir's criminal investigation department (CID) late Tuesday evening registered an FIR against a journalist for posting inflammatory content on his Facebook social networking account.

Sources in the state police department told IANS that the counter intelligence wing of the CID here registered the FIR against Ramesh Khazanche, a migrant Kashmiri Pandit scribe living in New Delhi, for posting inflammatory, defamatory and malicious content on his Facebook account.

"Yes, an FIR has been lodged against the accused for posting inflammatory, defamatory and malicious content on his Facebook account that could stoke passions in the state," a senior police officer told IANS here.

Reports also said Khazanche was being picked up for interrogation by the sleuths of the state CID on Wednesday.
The opposition parties on Tuesday alleged that the Jharkhand government has lowered the rate of the land in Santhal Pargana area where the Adani group has proposed to set up a power plant.

Pradeep Yadav, a legislator of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P), brought an adjournment motion in the state assembly on Tuesday.

"The issue is important and all the business should be stopped and the adjournment motion should be accepted," said Pradeep Yadav when the house assembled at 11 a.m.

Assembly speaker Dinesh Oraon rejected the motion.

While raising the issue Yadav said: "The government rate of the land prices have been reduced drastically to help the Adani group which has proposed to set up power plant in Santhal Pargana.

"The land wners will get one tenth of the exiting price of the land."

JMM legislator Stephen Marandi supported the JVM-P demand.

"The issue is serious. The non-saleable land rate should be fixed after comparing with rate of saleable land," said Marandi.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Rai said: "This issue was raised in the last session. First of all it should be decided whether the adjournment motion is acceptable or not. The members can raise the issue by bringing questions during question hour."

The speaker later rejected the motion. Last month, the Adani group had signed a MoU with the state government to set up a 1600 MW power plant in Santhal Pargana at a cost of Rs.15,000 crore.
Legislators in Jharkhand on Tuesday expressed concern over the rising menace of the wild elephants in the state and suggested a elephant-zone be developed in the state.

The issue was raised during question hour by Yogendra Prasad of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

Prasad also demanded hike in the compensation for crops damaged by the elephants.

Joining the issue, another JMM legislator, Stephen Marandi, said: "There is a herd of 20-25 elephants roaming in different parts of the state and damaging crops and killing people. A high-power committee should be formed which will try to find out permanent solution of the issue and to rehabilitate the herd."

Congress legislator Manoj Yadav also demanded permanent solution of the issue.

Geeta Koda, an Independent legislator, said: "This is a state issue and in some parts this is an inter-state issue. In some areas, elephants come from Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The state government should look into this seriously."

Amit Mahto of the JMM said: "There are 970 elephants in the state and the government should form elephant zone so that the elephants could be restricted to that area only."

Some legislators demanded that the villagers should be trained to drive away the rampaging elephants.

Responding to legislators' concern, Jharkhand Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Rai said: "This is man and elephant conflict. There is Wildlife Board and the board will look into the issue to find out solutions."

In Jharkhand, more than 550 people have been trampled to death by the elephants after creation of the state in November 2000.
The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that both Bollywood actress Karishma Kapoor and her estranged husband Sanjay Kapur have agreed on all terms of settlement for parting ways and only they have to work out a few modalities before this could be signed.

"Parties have, by and large, agreed on all the terms on which settlement can be recorded. However, before the settlement can be signed, few modalities have to be worked out" before formal parting of ways, a bench of Justice A.K.Sikri and Justice R.K.Agrawal said in their order after the hearing.

Speaking to IANS, senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani who has appeared for the actress said that the terms of settlement leading to divorce would include maintenance of their two children.

Holding the hearing in their chamber with both parties present with their lawyers, the court noted in its order that "It is stated by the petitioner (Sanjay Kapur) that those (terms of settlement) would be completed by the end of March 31, 2016."

The court then directed posting of the matter at 12.45 p.m. on April 8.

It permitted Sanjay Kapur to meet his two children, whose birthday falls on March 11 and 12, at the residence of Karishma or at the venue where birthday celebrations would take place.

"We are also informed that the birthdays of the children of the parties are falling on 11th and 12th March, 2016 respectively. The petitioner (Sanjay Kapoor) has expressed his desire to meet the children on their respective birthdays. He can visit and meet the children at the residence of the respondent (Karishma) or at the venue of the birthday celebrations," the court said in its order.

Jethmalani told the court that after the last hearing, "they have informed the police about the talks between the parties under the aegis of this court and instructions are given not to take any precipitating step or arrest of the petitioner or his mother on their visit to Mumbai or otherwise".

Recording the submission, the bench said: "We expect the police to act accordingly."

It further said that on the first hearing of the matter on February 12, it had issued notice to Delhi Police.

However, the court said that in view of the developments which have taken place, hereafter, the presence of Delhi Police is not required.

The judges also hear a plea by Sanjay Kapoor seeking transfer of their divorce proceedings from Mumbai to Delhi, alleging that he was getting threat calls from the underworld.

Though the hearing of the matter was listed to take place in the judges' chamber only but due to some communication gap, the apex court reception issued them a pass for the court instead.

As presence of Bollywood actress was creating difficulty in coming in and going out of the courtroom due to the large crowd gathering, senior counsel Dushyant Dave urged the bench to hold the hearing in their chamber.

"Supreme Court is inflicted by the star power," Dave said, pointing to the difficulty lawyers were facing in accessing the court room.

At this, the court said that it would hear the matter in the chamber.

Thereafter, Karishma was escorted out of the courtroom and through the crowded corridor towards the chamber while many people tried to photograph her on their smartphones.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday said that his country remains hopeful of finding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 two years after the plane went missing.

Malaysian lawmakers observed a moment of silence as the country marked the second anniversary of the missing of the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, Xinhua reported.

A joint search effort in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane presumably ended its journey, has yet to reveal its whereabouts after covering 75 percent of the 120,000 square km search area.

The search is expected to be completed later this year. Najib said his country was hopeful that the plane could be found in the search area.

"The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history," Najib said in a statement.

"Amidst some of the world's most inhospitable terrain -- at depths of up to six kms, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the world's fastest currents -- the search team has been working tirelessly to find MH370's resting place," he said.

Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the next step if the current search fails, said the prime minister. Most of the pasengers aboard the flight were Chinese.

Australia's Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester on Tuesday said that authorities were committed to searching the Boeing 777 and desperately trying to solve the mystery that has baffled the world.

Although two years have passed since the flight went missing, Australia has not "forgotten" its responsibility to the victims' loved ones, Chester said.

"Finding the aircraft would give answers to the world, in particular the families of missing people, about what happened," he said.

The only confirmed debris from MH370 so far was a wing part called flaperon discovered in the French overseas Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean last year.

Malaysian and Australian authorities were verifying two more suspected pieces of debris, found in the Reunion Island and nearby African country of Mozambique respectively in the past week.
Denying any strategic tilt towards China, former president of Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, on Tuesday said his country is welcoming Chinese proposals because it finds them "more attractive".

Delivering a lecture on "Islam: A religion of peace" at the Observer Research Foundation here, Gayoom, who is now president of the country's ruling party, Progressive Maldives Party, said his country welcomed business proposals from all countries.

"We have said so many times, businessmen from India are welcome, as business from other countries like Russia, China. We are open to all. But the proposals have to be reasonable and attractive. We find proposals from China more attractive," said Gayoom, who was the Maldives President for 30 years before losing the 2008 presidential election to Mohammad Anni Nasheed.

"We are a small country which needs development. We welcome all countries, and decide on proposals based on their merits," Gayoom said pointing out that his country has been and would remain a strong partner with India.

"India was and will remain the most important strategic partner to Maldives," Gayoom said when asked about Maldives' "overtures" to China. He denied that his country was making any overtures to China.

He said it was not wise to reject "attractive" Chinese proposals as it would be seen as rejecting economically better proposals besides the country losing economically.

Gayoom said he was worried about the future of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) which, according to him, "has lost track of what we are doing to fulfil the promises we had made in the beginning".

Regarding the domestic situation in his country, Gayoom denied that there was any fear among the people to talk about anything. People were free to discuss anything and "you can see in newspapers people making allegations against the ministers and even the president", he said.

Gayoom blamed "ignorance" of the tenets of Islam for the violence going on in the name of religion.

He said in Islam, killing even one person was like killing humanity. Islam was against any kind of violence against children, women, other weaker sections.

"It is also against conversion and killing of people from other religions," Gayoom said.

He said the Islamic State, which was acting against the tenets of Islam and also damaging the religion of peace and magnanimity, was actually acquiring territories and wealth.

He pointed out that for this purpose, they are also using hundreds of European mercenaries, belonging to other religions. He described it as a complex situation.

The former Maldivian president expressed regret over the misuse of "jihad" which in Islam was only allowed as an act of self-defence in the event of a threat of aggression.
Opening the door for quicker and more effective surveys of fish distribution, Japanese researchers have found that measuring quantities of fish DNA released into seawater can reveal how many fish inhabit that environment.

The findings were published online in the journal PLOS ONE.

Until now, the distribution of marine species was calculated using two main methods: fish capture and fish finder equipment.

However, these survey methods involve heavy costs in time and manpower, and specialist knowledge is required to use the measuring apparatus.

On the other hand, a method was already available for determining whether the target fish inhabit a certain area of water: analysis of the fish DNA released into the water.

To take this step further, the researchers tested whether it was possible to discover the location of fish and size of their schools by measuring the amounts of DNA released into the environment (known as environmental DNA, or eDNA).

For the rsearch, a group led by Yamamoto Satoshi from Kobe University, and colleagues collected one-liter samples of surface water and bottom water from 47 locations in Maizuru bay, and estimated the concentration of eDNA of Japanese jack mackerel using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

As a result of comparison between the eDNA concentration in the 47 locations and the biomass of Japanese jack mackerel that was simultaneously measured during water collection using fish finder equipment, they discovered that the eDNA concentration of a location reflected the biomass within 10-150 meters of the location.

This proves that environmental DNA reflects the biomass of the target fish species, and environmental DNA analysis methods can be used to quantitatively measure the distribution and school size of saltwater fish.

This method is simple, requires no specialist knowledge, and can be used for large-scale surveys over a short period of time, the researchers said.
Actress Meg Ryan will be honoured with the Sonoma Salute Award at the 19th Sonoma Film Festival (SIFF), a five-day programme dedicated to the best in film, food, wine and spirits.

During a tribute event in Sonoma, California on March 31, the actress-director will be celebrated with a special screening of "Ithaca", her 2015 directorial feature film debut, reports variety.com.

SIFF will start from March 30.

Starring in over 40 films, Ryan's most memorable acting performances include "When Harry Met Sally" (1989), "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) and "You've Got Mail" (1998).

More recently, she starred in "In the Land of Women" (2007), "Serious Moonlight" (2009) and episodes of Lisa Kudrow's Hulu comedy "Web Therapy" in 2013.

Screenwriter and SIFF supporter Robert Mark Kamen, whose writing credits include the "Transporter", "Taken" and "Karate Kid" franchises, will also be honoured at the festival.

This year's festival, which will present over 100 films, will open with "Louder Than Bombs" and conclude with the French romantic comedy "The Sense of Wonder."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will jointly launch 100 MW power supply to Bangladesh and third international internet gateway (IIG) on March 23, a Tripura minister said here on Tuesday.

The government earlier announced supply of additional 100 MW of electricity to Bangladesh from Tripura power plants and accordingly 47-km transmission lines were erected linking Tripura power grid to Comilla power grid in eastern Bangladesh.

To improve the internet capacity in northeastern states and other parts of India, New Delhi has set up India's third IIG in Agartala availing the 10 gigabit bandwidth from Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited.

"External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar that Modi and Hasina would jointly launch the power supply and inaugurate the third IIG on March 23," Tripura Power and Transport Minister Manik Dey told reporters.

"Swaraj requested Sarkar to join the video conferencing programme to be held simultaneously in New Delhi and Dhaka," he said.

The minister, who was recently in Dhaka and attended a series of meetings there to finalise the power tariff, said: "In Dhaka, several meetings were held to finalise the power tariff. It was decided that the electricity would be supplied to Bangladesh at a price of Rs.5.5 per unit."

The Tripura government was ready to provide more power to Bangladesh if the central government has no objection, Dey added.

The Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. and the Power Generation Company of Bangladesh, both government-run companies, set up the 47-km transmission lines on their sides for electricity supply from the Tripura power plants.

During his visit to Dhaka on June 6-7 last year, Modi discussed with Hasina power supply from Tripura.
Moroccan police announced on Monday that they have arrested five Islamic State (IS)-linked suspects who were planning to join IS branch in Libya, the Moroccan interior ministry said.

The suspects, who were active in southern Morocco, were planning to go to Libya through Moroccan-Mauritanian borders with the help of traffickers in the region, it said in a statement.

The cell intended to declare "Jihad" in the kingdom and one of its members was preparing a pressure cocker bomb to carry out a terrorist operation targeting public places, the statement said.

The suspects will be brought before justice after the completion of investigations, Xinhua news agency reported.

Morocco has seen a growing threat from the IS group. The ministry said it has busted 31 terrorist cells since 2013 and foiled "numerous terrorist plans" targeting vital national, Arab and Western interests.
Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicts serving life term for her role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was granted one-day parole on Tuesday by the Madras High Court.

She applied for three days' parole to attend to her father's memorial prayer.

The court granted her parole for 24 hours to attend her father's memorial prayer on March 9.

Last month, Nalini was granted 12 hours' parole to attend her father's funeral held here. She is lodged in Vellore prison, around 150 km from here.

Nalini was sentenced to death by a special court for her involvement in Gandhi's assassination at Sriperumbudur near Chennai on May 21, 1991.

The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Sonia Gandhi, the former prime minister's widow, petitioned for clemency -- for the sake of Nalini's daughter.

Nalini, an Indian, had accompanied the Sri Lankan woman suicide bomber who blew up Rajiv Gandhi with concealed explosives.

Nalini, who was a close friend of an LTTE operative known as Murugan, who too is an accused in the case, later gave birth to a girl in prison.
The National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to Mumbai police and two lawyers following a complaint from a Canadian businessman alleging harassment by police personnel, including two senior officers of the department who allegedly acted on the directions of a local businessman.

Confirming the news, the commission said on Tuesday that Alnoor Jamal, a Canadian senior citizen of Indian origin, had a dispute with a local businessman named Shobhit Rajan in respect of the Parke Davis property -- now called Rajaskaran Tech Park in the city.

The complainant, in his petition to the NHRC, has stated that on the instructions of Rajan, Mumbai police officer of Khar and Marine Drive police stations, along with Rajan's two lawyers, raided Jamal's hotel room in South Mumbai. The incident happened on August 29, 2013.

Jamal had earlier petitioned the PMO which had referred the matter to the Maharashtra government for inquiry.

The complainant, in his petition, has also stated that the police personnel and the lawyers threatened him and his wife, coaxed them to settle the dispute with Rajan on the latter's terms or face immediate arrest.

According to NHRC, notice was issued last week to Mumbai police and the two lawyers with a demand that they respond within four weeks.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday urged the Centre to sanction critical road projects in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts and unconnected habitations in the state.

The state government proposal to construct 24 projects under the Road Requirement Plan Phase-II, covering a length of 375 km at a cost of Rs.657 crore, may be sanctioned at the earliest, the chief minister said during a meeting with union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Birender Singh in New Delhi.

The chief minister said these road projects were critical for the LWE-affected districts of Malkangiri and Koraput.

He said inadequate allocation and release of central assistance were adversely affecting implementation of vital programmes relating to rural drinking water, rural livelihoods, rural employment guarantee scheme and Indira Awaas Yojana.

Patnaik impressed upon the minister to restore the allocation under these programmes and to release the balance funds to the state urgently.

The chief minister said that though the union cabinet had approved the inclusion of 4,035 left-out unconnected habitations in the Core Network under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in February 2013, the proposal was still pending approval in the union ministry.

He said the Odisha government proposal for the upgradation of 3,000 km roads badly damaged by Phailin cyclone should be placed before the ministry's empowered committee for sanction at the earliest.

Patnaik said that the reduced allocation of Rs.78 crore under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) during the 2015-16 fiscal had adversely impacted its implementation.

He urged Birender Singh to restore the allocation under NRDWP to at least Rs.250 crore, as provided for in the previous years.

He also urged for allocation of the balance funds under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

Patnaik said the state was yet to receive the approved central assistance of Rs.503.74 crore under the Indira Awaas Yojana and sought the release of the funds at the earliest.

The chief minister said that the central share of Rs.2,116.80 crore towards the labour budget under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has not been fully released till date.

He said that the ministry had released only Rs.1,479.41 crore and that the state has been managing this important programme from out of its own resources since January 2016.

Patnaik also asked for the release of the balance amount of Rs.637.39 crore under MGNREGS.

The union minister assured that his ministry would endeavour to resolve all the issues.

He said that the 4,035 left-out unconnected habitations in the Core Network will be sanctioned at the earliest under the PMGSY after receiving the population figures of each habitation based on the 2001 Census from the state.

He said that approval for repair of 3,000 km of roads badly affected by Phailin will come within a week.
Notwithstanding union HRD Minister Smriti Irani's denial about the involvement of any vehicle from her cavalcade in an accident in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, opposition leaders on Tuesday demanded registration of a case against her and compensation to the bereaved family.

On Saturday night, a motor-cycle rider was killed and two children riding along with him injured when a vehicle hit them on the Yamuna Expressway.

Talking to IANS, after a visit to the residence of deceased Ramesh Nagar in Etmadpur, senior Congress leader Shabana Khandelwal said: "We met the two children -- Sandli and Pankaj -- who were badly injured. Sandli said that after the accident Smriti stopped for a while at the spot and that they pleaded to her to help transport the injured to the hospital but she didn't pay any heed and left."

"Had she arranged for some help, my father could have been saved. My condition also deteriorated. When I regained my senses, I found many vehicles had run over my father's body and he lay dead."

Aam Admi Party leader Amit Singh also visited the injured and criticised what he called the human resource development minister's "callous attitude".

Khandelwal said that after Hema Malini's car accident on the Jaipur highway, this was the second such case.

"Why can't they help the family of the deceased? No Bharatiya Janata Party leader has visited the bereaved family. Courtesy demands that they come out and help the family."

Some BJP youth wing leaders are said to have met the family on Tuesday.
Pakistan's top civil-military leadership on Tuesday vowed to eliminate terrorism and reviewed the internal security situation, a day after a suicide bombing claimed 17 lives in a court attack.

In a meeting of the country's top civil-military leaders, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House here, the participants condemned the cowardly act of terrorism in Shabqadar in which civilians and law enforcement agency personnel lost their precious lives, a statement said.

"The meeting agreed that elimination of terrorism from our soil is a national resolve and paid tributes to the personnel of law enforcement and security agencies who embraced martyrdom while fighting this menace of terrorism," it added.

Issues pertaining to national and internal security were discussed during the meeting which was attended by army chief General Raheel Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, the prime minister's advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, National Security Advisor Lt-Gen (retd) Nasir Janjua, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chauhdhary and other senior officials of the government.

The meeting comes a day after 16 people, including three police personnel, were killed in a suicide attack in Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Hours after the attack, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter group Jammatul Ahrar claimed responsibility, saying it was a revenge for the execution of then Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer's killer.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday urged Pakistan and India to not allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process.

"I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process. Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process," Hammond was quoted by Express News as saying during a joint press conference with Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad.

The British foreign secretary advised Pakistan to speed up the investigation into January 2 terror assault on India's Pathankot airbase in northern Punjab state which India has blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.

"I welcome Pakistan commitment to vigorously pursue Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation," he said.

Hammond also lauded Islamabad's role in the fight against terrorism and said Britain will continue its support to Pakistan in war on terror.

"I salute Pakistan's efforts in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is the victim of terrorism and we want to work with Pakistan to take on the threats it faces. British and Pakistan will remain partner against terrorism," Hammond added.
At least 86 fishermen and one person from Jammu and Kashmir, who were released by Pakistani authorities, arrived in India on Tuesday through the Attari land border between both states.

The fishermen, most of them from Gujarat state, had been languishing in Pakistani prisons for terms ranging from a few months to a few years, officials said at Attari joint check post.

There was confusion over the repatriation of the group of 87 Indians as they could not cross over to Attari from Wagah on Monday as authorities from New Delhi did not arrive to complete the immigration formalities.

The group were at the Wagah border till 11 p.m. (local time) after being released by Pakistan as a goodwill gesture, Dawn online reported.

The fishermen who were released said that they were arrested by Pakistani maritime authorities on charges of entering Pakistani territorial waters. They boats were also seized by Pakistani authorities and they were sent to different prisons.

The Edhi Foundation in Pakistan had arranged travelling of the fishermen from Landhi Jail of Karachi to the Wagah land checkpost.

The group, which remained jailed for over two years, was at the crossing point for the whole day but no one from the Gujarat fisheries department arrived across the border to receive them.

Usually fishermen released from jails are received instantly at Attari border by officials from the Indian side, but this time nobody came, a Pakistan Rangers spokesman said.
A delegation of Patidar community leaders, including BJP MP from Porbandar Vitthal Radadiya, who is mediating between the state government and the agitating Patels, on Tuesday called on Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and state BJP president Vijay Rupani and handed over a 27-point charter of demands to them.

Besides Radadiya, Jairam Patel, a prominent leader of a religious trust of the community in Sidsar, and Hardik Patel's father Bharat Patel were also part of the delegation. Anandiben was accompanied by senior cabinet minister Nitin Patel.

Later, talking to the media, Radadiya said they have handed over an envelope containing a list of issues.

"The government will study the issues and hopefully express its view in three to four days. I will meet (Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader) Hardik Patel again after that," he said.

Radadiya refused to divulge the letter's contents but it is said to contain the chief demand of quota for the Patels in jobs and educational institutions as well as setting up a Patidar commission to look into the issues facing the community.

It is also said to include the demand withdrawal of all cases related to quota stir and release of all jailed agitation leaders.

On March 2, around 10 leaders of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti from South Gujarat and Saurashtra met Hardik Patel in the Lajpore central jail in Surat and later issued a 10- day ultimatum to the state government to act on the 27 demands.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad sessions court rejected the bail plea of Hardik Patel in a sedition case slapped on him by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.

Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Dave, rejecting the bail application, said, "Considering the seriousness of the offence and the role played by the applicant, this court is not inclined to exercise discretion in favour of the applicant. Hence, the application filed by the applicant is hereby rejected."
Pyongyang hacked smartphones of dozens of Seoul's key government officials to wiretap text messages and voice calls, the media reported on Tuesday citing the South Korean spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) held an emergency meeting to examine preparations of the government agencies against North Korean cyber terror threats along with 14 ministries, including the defence and science ministries, Xinhua reported.

Choi Jong-il, third deputy chief of the NIS, in charge of industrial intelligence and cyber security affairs, who convened the meeting, reported on these hacking attacks.

North Korea had conducted hacking attacks against smartphones of tens of key South Korean government officials between late February and early March, taking voice calls and text messages, according to the NIS.
Saudi Arabia finds it difficult to maintain good relations with Iran because of Tehran's policies, the Gulf kingdom's Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said on Tuesday.

"Relations with Iran are difficult because of its policies," Jubeir told IANS during the course of an interview.

Diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran were cut off after Saudi Arabia executed a Shia cleric in January this year.

The execution of Nimr Al-Nimr, a Saudi national, created a volatile situation in the Middle East with the Saudi missions in Iran coming under attack and Riyadh cutting off diplomatic ties with Shia-majority Tehran.

Nimr was among 47 people executed on terrorism charges.

As protests broke out in Iran, Saudi Arabia maintained that the executions reflected the Gulf nation's determination to combat terror.

According to a statement issued by the Saudi embassy in New Delhi, Nimr Al-Nimr "was involved in inciting people, recruiting people and providing weapons to people".

"He was involved in attacks against security personnel and police stations that led to the killing of innocents," it stated.

According to Jubeir, though Riyadh has been trying to develop good ties with Tehran since the time of the Iranian revolution, it has been difficult because of the policies of that country's government.

"We have tremendous respect for Iran's culture," he said.

"But Iran's government is following a policy of sectarianism. It has a policy of interfering in the matters of other countries."

The Saudi foreign minister said that unless Tehran changed its policies, it would be difficult to deal with Iran.

Jubeir was on a day-long visit to New Delhi as part of the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia early next month.

He held meetings with Modi as well as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj before departing for Riyadh Tuesday afternoon.

(Aroonim Bhuyan can be contacted at aroonim.b@ians.in)
Shahbaz Taseer, son of erstwhile Pakistani Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was freed from his captors on Tuesday, five years after he was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from Lahore.

Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on August 26, 2011, near his company's head office a few months after the assassination of his father Salman Taseer -- who was then Punjab governor -- at the hands of his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri.

A senior police official confirmed that Taseer was freed during a raid jointly conducted by the Counter-Terrorism Department and intelligence agencies from near Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.
National Award winning filmmaker Omung Kumar's upcoming biopic "Sarbjit", starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, has been fixed for a May 20 release worldwide.

"Sarbjit" is a biopic on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan and was sentenced to death. The filmmakers have made a conscious decision to shift the date from May 19 to May 20, read a statement.

The film features actors like Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadha and Darshan Kumar, who has been lauded for being a powerhouse of talent.

Randeep essays the character of Sarabjit and sneak peeks into his look for the role were hugely appreciated. Richa will be essaying his wife in the film and she has donned a 'desi' look for the role, while Aishwarya will be seen playing Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur.

Aishwarya features in the poster of the film, and her intense look has got a thumbs up from critics and the audience alike.

The film's team recently finished an important schedule in Punjab and Delhi, and have begun its third and last schedule in Mumbai.
Saudi Arabia seeks to elevate its ties with India from the current "strategic partnership" during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Riyadh early next month, the Gulf kingdom's Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said on Tuesday.

"We look forward to Prime Minister Modi's visit which will be another milestone in the relations between our two great nations," Jubeir told IANS after holding meetings with Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the run-up to the prime ministerial visit.

"We hope to elevate our relationship from that of the current 'strategic partnership'," he said.

Modi's two-day visit from April 2 on his way back from the US will be the first by an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia after then prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2010.

Modi's visit assumes significance in the context of the current regional situation and strained relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, another strategically important country for India.

Apart from being India's largest crude oil supplier accounting for one-fifth of the imports, Saudi Arabia is also India's fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $40 billion.

Indo-Saudi Arabian ties got a fresh boost during then King Abdullah's visit to New Delhi in 2006 which resulted in the signing of the "Delhi Declaration".

The reciprocal visit by Singh in 2010 raised the level of bilateral engagement to "strategic partnership" and the "Riyadh Declaration" signed during the visit captured the spirit of enhanced cooperation in political, economic, security and defence realms.

Jubeir, who arrived in New Delhi Monday night on a day's trip as part of the preparations for Modi's visit, said overall his visit was "extremely successful".

He said during his meeting with Modi on Tuesday, he expressed "our desire to broaden our relations in all areas.

"Our relations have a strong foundation. India is a very important partner for us," the minister said.

"We expressed our commitment to further deepen our relations in all areas including energy cooperation."

He also referred to the role played by the nearly three million-strong expatriate Indian population in the development of Saudi Arabia.

"We have a large Indian population, including doctors, teachers, engineers and managers who have made tremendous contributions to our great nation," Jubeir said.

He said during his meeting with Sushma Swaraj, he discussed Modi's upcoming visit and the issues that were likely to come up for deliberations.

"We discussed a wide range of issues including the fight against terror and the political dialogue between our two countries."

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office, Modi conveyed to Jubeir that India attached high importance to its close and friendly relations with Saudi Arabia.

"The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia conveyed that relations with India were accorded a high priority in their foreign policy," the statement said.

"He deeply appreciated the constructive role being played by the Indian community in the development of Saudi Arabia."

According to the statement, both leaders also exchanged views on further strengthening bilateral relations, including in the fields of trade, investment, energy, and security cooperation.

"They also discussed regional situation. They agreed that the two countries have shared interest in peace and stability in the region," it stated.

"The prime minister expressed confidence that his forthcoming visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would provide an opportunity to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a new level," it added.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir arrived here late on Monday on a one-day visit to India as part of the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Gulf kingdom early next month.

Jubeir is scheduled to hold meetings with Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday to prepare for the important visit to the country which is India's principal oil supplier and a growing partner in anti-terror cooperation.

During his first visit to India , Jubeir will discuss with Sushma Swaraj the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

"India and Saudi Arabia share friendly relations based on close people-to-people contacts," the ministry stated.

"The 'Strategic Partnership' that our two countries established in 2010 envisioned a deeper engagement in political, economic, security and defence areas through the Riyadh Declaration."

Modi's two-day visit from April 2 on his way back from the US will be the first by an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia after then prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit in 2010.

Modi's visit assumes significance in the face of the current regional situation and strained relations between the Gulf kingdom and Iran, another strategically important country for India.

Apart from being India's largest crude oil supplier accounting for one-fifth of the imports, Saudi Arabia is also India's fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $40 billion.

Indo-Saudi Arabian ties got a fresh boost during then King Abdullah's visit to New Delhi in 2006 which resulted in the signing of the "Delhi Declaration".

The reciprocal visit by Singh in 2010 raised the level of bilateral engagement to "Strategic Partnership" and the "Riyadh Declaration" signed during the visit captured the spirit of enhanced cooperation in political, economic, security and defence realms.

In February 2014, during the visit to India of then crown prince and now King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, a joint statement was issued.

In November 2015, on the sidelines of G20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey, Modi met with King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and discussed areas of bilateral interest.

During his visit next month, Modi is expected to discuss with the leadership of one of the most powerful Arab countries key bilateral and regional issues, including trade and energy.

Saudi Arabia is also home to nearly three million Indian expatriates, most of whom are blue collar workers.
The shortage of officers in the Indian Army has been brought down from 26 percent in 2010 to 18 percent in 2015, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. .

However, as on July 1, 2015, the Indian Army was still short of 9,106 officers as it had 40,525 officers against the authorised strength of 49,631 officers, the minister said in a written reply to Vijay Goel.

The minister attributed the shortage of officers to accumulation of posts from time to time, tough selection procedures, difficult service conditions, perceived high degree of risk involved in the service career, apart from the "limited number that could be trained without compromising on the quality of training".

"A number of measures have been taken from time to time to reduce the shortage of officers in the army, including by making Short Service Commission more attractive, enhancing promotional avenues by way of upgradation of posts in select ranks and additional family accommodation through Married Accommodation Project," Parrikar stated in the reply.

"The measures have resulted in progressive improvement with shortage of officers reducing from around 26 percent in 2010 to approximately 18 percent in 2015, in spite of accumulation of about 1800 posts during this period," he added.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday sought an early passage to the bill that seeks to reserve a third of legislative seats in India for women.

Sonia Gandhi said that the concept of "maximum governance" -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's catchphrase -- would mean giving "women their rights".

Therefore, she said, parliament should pass the Women Reservation bill at the "earliest".

The Congress president was speaking in the Lok Sabha as the world celebrated the International Women's Day. The government has pledged to celebrate the day by letting only women parliamentarians speak in parliament.

The controversial women's reservation bill was first introduced by the Deve Gowda government on September 12, 1996. However, since then its journey has been blocked in parliament even as the historic piece of legislation cleared the first hurdle in 2010 when it was approved by the Rajya Sabha during the Congress-led NDA's regime.

However, the bill never made it to the Lok Sabha and never could be made into a law and implemented.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked the government to pay attention to the passing of Women's Reservation Bill in parliament that seeks to reserve one-third legislative seats in the country for women.

She accused the Narendra Modi government of "double standards" and said that maximum governance -- the catchphrase of the prime minister -- should ensure "freedom" for civil society and not just accelerated economic growth.

"The long-awaited Women's Reservation Bill requires the government's attention," she said in the Lok Sabha during a debate to mark International Women's Day on Tuesday.

Taking a dig at the government on the prime minister's much talked about 'maximum governance', she said: "Maximum governance is more than just accelerating the economic growth. Surely, maximum governance involves expanding space for debate, for disagreement and for the expression of different points of view without inviting retaliation and retribution."

The Congress leader said that maximum governance should involve "giving freedom to civil society, non-governmental organisations and activist groups", and that it should be anchored in "deepening of country's democratic and liberal values".

Sonia Gandhi's remarks come in the backdrop of controversies over government action in the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Hyderabad University cases.

"Surely, maximum governance does not mean having double standards in relation to women and their rights. Maximum governance means protecting, preserving and strengthening our social and communal fabric," she said.

Making a strong pitch for the passage of the women's quota bill, she said, "Maximum governance also means giving us women our legitimate due - namely the much-awaited Women's' Reservation Bill."

In this context, the Congress chief also sought the intervention of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and said, "I believe we can expect in you, madam speaker, a strong ally for this cause."

She said the Congress was proud of giving the country its first woman prime minister in Indira Gandhi, first woman president in Pratibha Devisingh Patil and the first woman Lok Sabha speaker in Meira Kumar.

Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the laying down of eligibility criteria vis-a-vis education by some states for fighting local bodies' polls.

"Such things results in denying rights to women belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes. The matter needs urgent attention," she said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday sought early passage of a bill that seeks to reserve one third of legislative seats in India for women.

"The long-awaited Women's Reservation Bill requires the government's attention," Sonia said while speaking in the Lok Sabha as the world celebrated the International Women's Day on Tuesday.

Sonia Gandhi said the concept of 'maximum governance' - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's catchphrase - would mean giving "women their rights".

Therefore, she said, parliament should pass the bill at the earliest.

"The maximum governance does not mean only accelerating the economic growth but it also involves debates and discussion without any retaliation. Despite their remarkable performance in different fields, women continue to be victims of oppression and discrimination," she said.

The Congress president said women account for around 40 percent of the elected representatives in panchayats and other local bodies after a law was enacted that provided for 33 percent reservation to them.

She expressed concern over laying down of eligibility criteria vis-a-vis education by some states for fighting local bodies' polls.

"Such things results in denying rights to women belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes. The matter needs urgent attention," she said.

Sonia Gandhi said the Congress was proud of giving the country its first woman prime minister in Indira Gandhi, first woman president in Pratibha Devisingh Patil and the first woman Lok Sabha speaker in Meira Kumar.

She advocated equal rights to women, saying the country must have the courage to deal with social evils that women were facing.

The government has pledged to celebrate the day by letting only women parliamentarians speak in parliament.

The controversial Women's Reservation Bill was first introduced by the Deve Gowda government on September 12, 1996. However, since then, its journey has been blocked in parliament even as the historic piece of legislation cleared the first hurdle in 2010 when it was approved by the Rajya Sabha during the Congress-led government's rule.

However, the bill never made it to the Lok Sabha and therefore the law could not be passed.
Sri Lankan leaders on Tuesday assured gender equality and protection, recognition and economic empowerment for all women in the island nation.

In a statement to mark International Women's Day, Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena said that even though Sri Lanka was blessed with the first female prime minister and the executive president in the world, the women and female children in the country were still facing issues of their safety.

He said that in Sri Lanka women had become the main source of earning foreign exchange as expatriate workers, apparel industry employees and workers in the plantation sector, but some of them were exploited and faced insecurity in their careers, reports Xinhua.

"There should be a broad social discourse to ensure that the rights adopted through laws are established in the society. The International Women's Day will be an ideal platform to continue this discourse on women," the president said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that his government sought to create the kind of setting that acknowledges gender equality and ensures protection, recognition and economic empowerment for all women. He said the nation had a collective responsibility to ensure that women are assured of protection, appreciation and honour in every aspect.

Issues such as rape and domestic violence against women are reported in many parts of Sri Lanka with over 1,800 rape cases reported in 2015.

The police said that out of the 1,854 cases, 1,501 victims were below the age of 18.
Women must be part of the political process in Syria, said UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura in his message on the International Women's Day.

Staffan de Mistura said this after meeting many Syrian women and seeing how they have been affected by Syria's five-year war, which broke out in March 2011, Xinhua news agency quoted Farhan Haq, the UN deputy spokesman, as saying.

The International Women's Day is observed worldwide on March 8 every year.

With the UN, this year's theme for the day is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality."

The UN observation is going to reflect how to accelerate the Sustainable Development Agenda and will equally focus on existing commitments on gender equality.

Mothers and grandmothers have continued with courage and determination to keep the households going on, in spite of all the violence, and they have refused to give up hope, said de Mistura.

"De Mistura said that Syrian women have, and must have, the right to be a part of the political process and the negotiations that the UN is organising," Haq said.

The delegations coming both from the opposition and from the Syrian government needs to include women and allow them to speak, said de Mistura, stressing that women of Syria deserve to have their voices heard.

The UN-led talks seeking to broker a political solution between Syrian warring factions, namely the government led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces, came to a standstill on February 3 after the parties failed to see eye to eye on a number of issues.

The UN-led talks are planned to resume on March 9.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the crisis five years ago.

According to UN data, 110,000 people in besieged areas in Syria have been provided with vital humanitarian aid since talks were put on hold last month.

The humanitarian agencies have monitored that there has been relative calm for almost two weeks under the Cessation of Hostilities agreement, which has offered hope to the 6.5 million people displaced in Syria and more than 4.5 million people who fled the country.
Three serving army personnel were arrested on charges of involvement in spying in the last three years, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

He also said that seven ex-servicemen too were held on spying charge.

"During the last three years, three serving army personnel were arrested for alleged involvement in spying activities at the behest of Pakistan intelligence operatives," Parrikar said.

"Such incidents have happened in the past also. Service personnel are regularly educated on the modus operandi adopted by Pakistan's intelligence operatives. Further, such spying activities are related to providing defence-related information like army deployment, movement and training exercises, appointment of senior officers, tactical number etc.," the defence minister said.

JD(U) member Harivansh, who put a question on the issue, however, said that in a reply in the upper house in the last parliament session, MoS for Home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary said 11 serving and retired defence personnel were arrested in the last three years for spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

"This is regarding serving officers, and refers to the last three years. Seven ex-army personnel have been arrested, besides these three," Parrikar said in reply.

Asked what the government was doing to check the situation, Parrikar said the defence personnel are being sensitised against the ISI traps.

"If you see, these personnel are not very high-ranking officers; there are jawans and junior commissioned officers. Many of them have been trapped into these activities, so we are sensitising army personnel to not fall in the trap," Parrikar said.
The anti-corruption branch of the Goa Police has arrested two freelance journalists for allegedly trying to extort money from a businessman in Margao town in South Goa, posing as vigilance department sleuths.

The two accused, according to police records, are Sanjay Shinde, a freelance journalist working for a local cable news channel 'In Goa' and Melvyn Soares, who also used to freelance with local media outfits as well as with the Goa government's department for information and publicity.

"Shinde and Soares had approached a businessman in South Goa who was constructing a private multi-purpose hall and demanded a bribe of Rs.5 lakh to overlook alleged illegalities in the construction," a senior police official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Both of them were arrested late on Tuesday in Margao town, located 35 km south of Panaji, accepting Rs.80,000, as an instalment of the bribe which had been demanded.

While police claim that they have recovered a press card allegedly issued by the In Goa cable news channel, when contacted the editor in chief of the channel, Anil Lad, said: "He is not our employee. The ID card appears to be fake."
The toughest UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea were intended to pressure Pyongyang to come back to the denuclearisation talks, US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner said.

"The goal of this UN Security Council resolution that was passed last week is to apply increasing pressure on the elite within North Korea, to encourage them to come back to denuclearisation talks, via the Six-Party Talks," Toner said on Monday.

The US will continue the pressurize North Korea "with the aspiration trying to get them back to talk about denuclearisation," Xinhua quoted Toner as saying.

He noted that not only the US, but the entire international community is concerned about North Korea's recent activity, which shows "no willingness to come back to table to talk the denuclearisation."

The UN Security Council last week unanimously adopted a resolution to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea to curb the country's nuclear and missile programmes. Council members also called for an early resumption of the Six-Party Talks.

The Six-Party Talks, a multilateral mechanism, is believed as a practical way to realise denuclearisation in the Korean peninsula.

It was launched in 2003 but were stalled in December 2008. Pyongyang quit the talks in April 2009.

The six countries in the talk are North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, the US and Russia.

China has also recently proposed a "parallel-track approach" to address the issue to denuclearise the Korean peninsula and replace the armistice with a peace agreement at the same time.
Citing President Barack Obama's message on religious freedom during his trip to India last year, the US again expressed disappointment over India's denial of visas to a bipartisan US commission.

"We're disappointed by this news," State Department Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday when asked about denial of visas to US Commission on International Religious Freedom that was planning to visit India on March 4.

The State Department, he said, was "supportive of the commission and the important role they play in reviewing facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom around the world."

"As President Obama himself noted during his visit last year, we support the Government of India's commitment to promoting religious freedom and diversity," Kirby said. "And his message during his trip to India was clear and it remains true."

"Our nations are stronger when every person has the right to practice their faith how they choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free of persecution and fear of discrimination," Obama was quoted as saying in New Delhi during his visit last year.

Asked if the State Department had reached out to Delhi on this, Kirby said:

"It's not a topic of conversation we don't have, and it's not a topic of conversation that we're afraid to have with our Indian counterparts."

However, the spokesperson declined to give any details of discussions with India or making a "broad-brush statement" about an assessment on religious freedom there.

Citing Obama's statement about "every society being made stronger when people are free to worship or not worship at all," Kirby said "that would apply in India as it does anywhere else around the world."

"I don't have a formal policy statement with respect to the state of religious freedom in India right now," he said. "As I said, we're disappointed by this decision."

Asked to comment on India's position that the USCIRF doesn't have any locus standi on commenting on India's religious freedom because India's constitution itself guarantees it, Kirby said the US wanted such issues to be "upheld, to be observed."

"And again, we support the work of the commission and what they stand for," he said. "We remain disappointed by the news."

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
International Women's Day on Tuesday saw a true all-women affair in the Gujarat assembly as the house was allowed to be conducted for the day by a woman member from the speaker's panel.

The proceedings were dominated by women legislators cutting across party lines as male members sat quietly.

The administrative and clerical work of the assembly too was entrusted to women employees. Even the job of ringing the bell to announce the start of the sitting was given to a woman peon.

In the house, Speaker Ganpat Vasava took a back seat and called in senior Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Neemaben Acharya to occupy his chair for the most part of the day.

The women members, numbering 15 in the 182-seat house, were given priority in raising questions or taking part in the debate as the male MLAs watched.

In an unusual scene, women members profusely praised each other irrespective of their party affiliations.

Putting aside all political differences, Congress legislator Tejashri Patel, who otherwise never misses an opportunity to flay the BJP and its government, applauded the steps taken by the state's first woman Chief Minister Anandiben Patel for the empowerment of women.

She appreciated the initiative taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in organising a national two-day convention of women legislators and parliamentarians in Delhi.

The Congress leader said the way Anandiben had impressed everyone at the convention by enumerating the steps taken by her government for women empowerment was highly praiseworthy.

Soon after taking over as the chief minister from Narendra Modi after he became the prime minister, Anandiben had piloted a legislation enhancing reservation for women in local self-government bodies in the state to 50 percent.

The local body elections in December last year were conducted under the new law that gave half the seats to women members.

Tejashri said the government should take the initiative to get elected Neema Acharya as the assembly speaker instead of for the day only.

She said that the deputy speaker too should be a woman, that too from the opposition benches as per the tradition.

Anandiben later attended a gathering of women policemen at the police academy at Karai on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Addressing the gathering, she said that before becoming a teacher, she actually wanted to join police.

The chief minister said she had applied for a police job but was not selected after which she took to teaching as her profession. She later came into .
Private lender Yes Bank on Tuesday launched an all-women operated bank branch 'Yes Grace' on Cunningham Road here aimed at offering customised banking solutions to women.

"We are happy to launch a bank entirely operated by women on Womens Day to celebrate womanhood. There is no restriction in the customer base as we serve male customers as well," said R. Ravichander, regional director during the inauguration.

The new branch served by eight employees currently and with plans to raise the count to 12 will also drive financial literacy, family banking, safety and wellness amongst women.

Simultaneously on Tuesday, two more all-women bank branches were opened in at Kalkaji, New Delhi and Vile Parle (E), Mumbai with plans to open more branches in major cities.

"The Yes Grace branch is part of a two pronged approach by Yes Bank; to promote women leadership in financial services sector and enable the evolving financial objectives of women," said the bank's CEO and MD Rana Kapoor in a statement.

Ravichander said the number of Yes Bank branches will go up to 60 by 2018 in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and 1,500 all over the country by 2020.

Founded in 2004 after receiving a greenfield bank license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapoor, the lender's branch network currently stands at 850 across India.
Apropos the editorial, "Lessons from Gyan Sangam" (March 7), the expert committee on public sector bank consolidation should ponder over the innovative structure of banks. Having 20, or in its place, five nationalised banks will not serve the purpose if they do the same type of business, selling similar products and competing among themselves.

Let there be specialised banks: large banks for projects and infrastructure financing and having overseas presence; small and medium enterprise (SME) banks to meet the needs of the SME sector, thus aiding Make in India; retail banks that concentrate on the retail and priority sectors, tax collection and miscellaneous functions such as financial inclusion and subsidy distribution. Let the consolidation be based on the core strength of banks, existing and proposed, and their jurisdiction clearly demarcated.

The capital requirement of these banks should be stipulated. As the large banks would be competing with those around the world, their capital requirement should be according to Basel norms. SME banks would mainly work within India, so their capital requirement could be less than that of the large banks. Retail banks' capital requirement would be the least, as their operations would be local, and they would have government guarantee.

The government has promised to infuse fresh capital of Rs 25,000 crore into public sector banks this year (Rs 70,000 crore by 2019). Instead of giving this capital proportionately, let it be bifurcated into developmental capital and survival capital. The bigger chunk should be allotted as developmental capital and given to large banks and SME banks. Retail banks should be given only survival capital. This way the government would not have to shell out a large amount of funds and yet the social responsibility of public sector banks would be met.

Tilak Gulati, Kolkata



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unicorns are beginning to starve without the financial tourists. Funds of the mutual, hedge and sovereign wealth variety have been feeding tech start-ups and their $1-billion mythology. As valuation clouds darken the rainbows, these outside investors will retreat. That should help venture capitalists get back to reality.

Nearly $60 billion was plowed into private firms last year, according to Thomson Reuters data, about twice as much as in 2012. These figures understate the recent growth, however, as they only count investment rounds when the lead investor is a venture capitalist. Over 80 per cent of unicorn funding rounds in the last three quarters of 2015 were led by different kinds of investors, California law firm Fenwick & West reckons.

The new money is coming out of deep pockets. Mutual funds Fidelity and



T Rowe Price, which have nearly $3 trillion of assets under management between them, bought stakes in Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest and Dropbox, for example. Sovereign wealth funds like Singapore's Temasek, Qatar Investment Authority and the Kuwait Investment Authority have ridden the unicorns, too.

Locals are benefiting handsomely from all the magical thinking. On average, venture capital funds have generated a return of 11 percent a year over the past decade, according to Cambridge Associates. That compares to 6.8 per cent for the S&P 500 Index.

As public tech stocks have tumbled, however, so too have valuations of the private ones. Mutual funds have been marking down the value of their investments in Zenefits, Snapchat, Dropbox and many others. This hot money is going cold.

It will take more time for entrepreneurs and their backers to come to grips with the lower valuations. Some will burn through cash. At least half the approximately 240 global unicorns won't exist in a couple of years, either going bust or getting bought, predicted Jim Breyer, an early Facebook investor, at a event in San Francisco last month. That should scare away plenty of other tech funders discomforted by the madness and leave the venture capitalists to tend to the thinned herd and breed a new one.
In the years since Sunil Khilnani's Idea of India was first published, the book and its argument have become central to the very contestations it sought to describe - over the nature of the Indian republic, of the history that it acknowledges and owns, and what binds Indians together. So influential has it been that, on the internet, "IoI" is used often at invective at those who are seen as excessively sympathetic to the old Nehruvian notion of an inclusive, pluralistic, multi-layered India.
The shape of India's first effort at legally protecting citizens' privacy will be known once the Bill to give a statutory foundation to the Aadhaar identification process is enacted. Meanwhile, it is important to track what is happening in the rest of the world to be able to develop in the country the best possible protection for citizens' fundamental right to privacy - becoming for a country which prides itself on being the largest functioning democracy in the world.
The withdrawal of the Budget proposal to tax EPF led to a rush of claimants. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to the Sangh Parivars BMS have claimed credit for having pushed the govt to concede on the issue.

BMS Organising Secretary Pawan Kumar said the outfit thanked not just the government for withdrawing the proposal but also those who supported the trade union in its demand for rolling it back. We now ask the government to immediately implement the entire agreed agenda at the meeting of the senior ministers with trade union representatives on August 22, Kumar said. These demands include increasing minimum wage ceiling, better emoluments for anganwadi workers and for contract workers.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources stressed how the rollback came about after the Prime Ministers personal intervention.

Meanwhile, Gandhi said in a series of tweets the government was forced to listen to people. But the attempt to tax the safety net of millions of hard-working, middle-class people was morally wrong and shows this governments anti-people mindset, he tweeted.

The Congress Vice-President also claimed credit for the rollback. I felt middle-class people were being hurt by the government, so I decided to put some pressure on the government  my pressure did work, he said.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury tweeted: Good that EPF tax is rolled back. But one big Budget announcement and four different clarifications! Maximum government, minimum governance! Modi Sarkar.



Online petition platform change.org also claimed victory. Vaibhav Agarwal, a finance professional from Gurgaon, had posted a petition demanding a rollback. It had received support from 250,000 people.
The Opposition says the Maharashtra govt is totally directionless and lacks the conviction to help drought-hit villagers

Opposition parties in Maharashtra boycotted the customary tea meeting organised by the chief minister on the eve of the budget session of the state legislature.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said a Bill would be introduced during the budget session of the state Legislature, which started on Wednesday, to stop dance bars from reopening. The announcement comes in the wake of Supreme Court's order last week asking the BJP-led Maharashtra government to grant licences to dance bar owners within 10 days of complying with modified guidelines.

The Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Peasants & Workers Party and RPI (Kawade) said they did not think it fit to have tea with a government that was insensitive towards farmers woes and inactive in controlling the deteriorating law and order situation.

Leader of opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and leader of opposition in the state council Dhananjay Munde also held the BJP government responsible for poor finances and said the government was so far able to spend only 42 per cent of the total budget of 2015-16. Former finance minister Jayant Patil alleged that the government would be able to spend another 10 per cent by the end of the current financial year and this was to show low revenue deficit.

Vikhe-Patil and Munde, who held a meeting with the opposition parties, told reporters that the government had no direction and lacked conviction in helping drought-hit villagers. The duo claimed that the government was involved in making a slew of announcements but very little was visible on the ground.
As many as 1,398 people were awarded capital punishment and three were executed in the country during 2004-14, Lok Sabha was informed today.

"As reported by National Crime Records Bureau, 1,398 people were awarded capital punishment in the country during 2004-14 and 3 persons were executed during the same period," Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said in reply to a written question.

The Minister said the Law Commission of India in its 262nd report has recommended that death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war.

"The said report has since been circulated to all the state governments and union territories for their comments as Criminal Law and Criminal Procedures are in the Concurrent List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution," he said.
Two youths were today arrested for allegedly stabbing to death a 17-year-old boy in central Delhi's Patel Nagar area.

The arrested were identified as Kunal (20) and Parvesh (21).

While one of their accomplices, identified as Rahil, was found lodged at a jail in Uttar Pradesh in connection with a separate case by the time police tracked him down, another accused is still at large, DCP (Central) Paramaditya said.

The incident took place on February 24 when the accused had an argument with the victim and they later attacked him with a knife at a park in the area.

Based on a tip-off, Kunal and Parvez were arrested from central Delhi's Prem Nagar area today. While Kunal was found to be involved in cases of robbery and illegal possession of arms, Parvez was involved in a murder case three years ago, police said.

They are residents of Trilokpuri in east Delhi but lived in a rented room in Patel Nagar, which they vacated a day after they allegedly murdered the 17-year-old boy. The police also recovered 13 mobile phones from their possession, police added.
At least 21 terrorists were killed in fresh air strikes when Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in Shawal Valley, a mountainous area in North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

"Operations continue. Important heights & passes along Pak-Afghan Border secured. Valley's sanitisation in progress," Asim Bajwa, DG Inter-Services Public Relations Twitted.

"21 terrorists were killed last night when military jets pounded militant hideouts in Shawal valley of North Waziristan as operations continue," Bajwa said.

"Combined with strikes by Pakistan Air Force & Combat Army Aviation, ground force continue hunt for fleeing terrorists through chase,cordon and search op-1," he said.

Pakistan began its operation to clear Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds in North Waziristan in 2014, and claims to have killed more than 3,750 militants since then with no civilian casualties.

Zarb-e-Azb military campaign was launched in June last year after militants had attacked the international airport in Karachi, killing 26 people including airport security staff.

In late February the army said it was entering the final phase of the operation.
Twelve cases of poaching of tigers around reserves were reported last year while 28 people lost their lives due to attack by the wild cats, Lok Sabha was told today.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said while 12 cases of tiger poaching was reported in 2015, 14 and 20 were reported in 2014 and 2013 respectively.

Similarly, in 2014-15, 28 people died after they were attacked by tigers while in 2013-14, 33 people had lost their lives. In 2012-13, 21 had lost their lives.

Javadekar said the supplementary guidelines circulated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in the context of managing buffer and peripheral areas clearly state that habitat conditions in such areas should be kept sub-optimal to the core but be judicious enough to facilitate dispersal so as to reduce human animal conflict.

"Monitoring human animal conflict is one of the objectives of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drone project. Initiatives have been taken to use drones for mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts," he said.

Replying to another question, he said as per the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) data, out of 19,156 species of vascular plants from various surveys carried out in the country, 1236 species belong to different threatened categories like critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable.

He said studies conducted by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have recorded over 96,000 species of animals from India.

Among these, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed 18 species of amphibians, 14 fish, 13 bird species and ten mammals as critically endangered and 310 species as endangered including 69 fishes, 38 mammals and 323 amphibians.

"The threats on plants and animals in India is mainly because of habitat fragmentation and degradation of ecosystems. Huge biotech pressure on flora and fauna compounds the situation," he said.
Three wanted persons landed in



police net after a carjacking incident in southwest Delhi's Najafgarh area.

One of the wanted trio was injured by a bullet fired by his associate during the incident yesterday, police said.

The arrested persons have been identified as Devender (22), Neeraj Dagar (23) and Amit Dagar (19). Their associates Sudhir and Rinku are at large. The gang operated under Sudhir and was under the protection of one Anna, DCP (Southwest) RA Sanjeev said today.

The three accused allegedly opened fire on a 52-year-old man and robbed his car. Devender, too, received a bullet injury even as the gang escaped with the car.

Acting in the matter, police zeroed in on Devender, who was in a hospital for treatment of his injury. He disclosed the details about the robbed car following which Neeraj and Amit were tracked down even as the remaining two gang members managed to flee, police said.

According to a police source, Devender and Anna were involved in the 2014 murder of one Sajjan Suri, whose brother, Shakti, heads a gang in southwest Delhi.

The same persons were also wanted in Jaipur in connection with the murder of one Gagan Pandit in April last year.

The gang which was busted was primarily involved in the money-lending business, apart from organised gambling, land grabbing and carjacking. Their rivalry with other gangs in the area is for gaining supremacy in the money-lending business, the source added.

Though Anna himself was not involved in the carjacking, it was found that the gang had taken shelter under him. Anna is presently out on bail and the police are likely to arrest him too.

Meanwhile, a team has been formed to arrest the other members of the gangs and raids are being carried out in Delhi and Haryana, police said.
515 Security Guards (NSG) commandos protect the country's 16 Very Important Persons who are all politicians, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, L K Advani and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Choudhury said the Security Guard is primarily a counter- terrorism force.

"However, has also been tasked with providing security to 16 protectees. The number of security personnel deployed on VIP security is 515 as on February 1, 2016," he said replying to a written question in Lok Sabha.

Other politicians who are being protected by commandos include Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and BSP supremo Mayawati.
Eight Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested from a village under Sadar police station area in Bihar's Darbhanga district for staying in India without valid papers, a police officer said today.

Acting on a tip off, the police arrested eight Bangladeshi nationals from Mohammadpur village where they were staying for a week in a house on rent from its owner Banwari Yadav, the Superintendent of Police (SP), City, Harikishore Rai said.

When asked to produce valid papers for their stay in India, they could not furnish any documents, he said.

Shoes and clothes made in Bangladesh were recovered from the spot, Rai said, adding two others managed to escape ahead of the raid.

The Bangladeshis had taken Yadav's house on rent by orally convincing the owner that they were labourers and introduced some of them as students, the SP (City) said.

The Bangladeshis were under interrogation at Sadar police station since last night, Rai said, adding that their names will be disclosed only after conclusion of probe.
In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan today repatriated nearly 86 fishermen and a person from Jammu and Kashmir.

All the prisoners crossed over to India through the land transit route of Attari Wagah border on the basis of 'Emergency Travel Certificate' issued by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, officials said here.

The moment the group of the fishermen, mostly from Gujarat and neighbouring states, crossed over to India, they kissed Indian soil.

After the repatriation, the medical examination of all prisoners was conducted by the team of Indian doctors, they said.

All the Indian nationals were freed from the Landhi Jail in Karachi earlier.

The fishermen had strayed into Pakistan while fishing in the Arabian Sea and were held captive by the Pakistani coast guards for "illegal" fishing.

The fishermen said it was difficult to differentiate the territorial waters and they slipped into Pakistani territory.

(Reopens FGN 21)



The Pakistan Foreign Office in a statement issued this evening said that the humanitarian gesture would help promote better ties between the two countries.

"Pakistan believes that such humanitarian gestures would promote better understanding between the two countries," it said.

"It is our hope that the Indian side will also reciprocate in a similar manner," the statement added.
The 87 Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen freed by Pakistan, who were stranded for more than 30 hours at the Wagah border, were today allowed to cross into their homeland after all legal formalities were completed.

"Today we have handed over 87 Indian nationals mostly fishermen to BSF India," Pakistan Rangers spokesman Muhammad Asif told PTI adding the Indians were handed over after meeting the legal requirements.

Owing to lack of coordination between the Pakistan Rangers and Foreign Ministry, the Indian nationals who were released from the Landhi Jail, Karachi on March 6 could not be handed over to the Indian authorities.

They remained stranded at the Wagah border yesterday as the Rangers said "the Indian officials concerned did not turn up (at Wagah)".

Earlier, Pakistan Rangers official Major Waheed said that all arrangements to hand over the released prisoners to the Indian authorities were made but none of India's foreign ministry officials reached Wagah to sign the documents to hand over the prisoners.

After the release of the 87 prisoners, another 457 Indians remain in jail in Karachi and most of them are fishermen arrested for territorial violation.

Landhi Jail deputy superintendent Shakir Shah said the 87Indians had been in jail for more than two years.

They had completed their sentences and were freed after verification of their travel documents sent by the Indian authorities.

Both Indian and Pakistani fishermen are often arrested for illegal fishing since the Arabian Sea border is not clearly defined and many boats lack the technology to fix their precise location.

(Reopens DES77)



N Patel, a senior official of the Fisheries Department of Gujarat Government, took the custody of the fishermen from the State freed by Pakistan.

Babubhai Bokharia, Gujarat Fisheries Minister, said that Patel was flown to Amritsar from Ahmedabad to take the custody of the fishermen.

Talking to
Government today admitted that 89 lakh children in India are either partially immunised or have received no immunisation, though it claimed an increase of five per cent in immunisation during the year as against one per cent over the last four years.

"As per Rapid Survey on Children, 2013, which is the latest survey available annually, about 89 lakh children in the country remain either partially vaccinated or unvaccinated. Of these 89 lakh childrem, 17 lakh are unvaccinated while 72 lakh are partially vaccinated," Health Minister J P Nadda told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

The major reasons for all children not being vaccinated are lack of awareness amongst parents about benefits of vaccination and fear of side effects.

"There has been a five per cent increase in immunisation of children during the year after first phase of Mission Indradhanush launched from April to July 2015. We were earlier having only one per cent increase every year in the past four years. Now the increase till now by the end of second phase of Mission Indradhanush is about 6 to 7 per cent," Nadda said.

He said the second phase of Mission Indradhanush for immunising children was launched from October 2015 to January 2016 and as on February 15, "we have reached out to 1.42 crore children, of which 37 lakh children were fully vaccinated and about 37 lakh pregnant women were vaccinated for tetanus toxoid."



The Minister said "we are also enhancing more vaccinations through Mission Indradhanush and vaccines for four diseases of JE adults, Rotavirus, Robella and for Pneumonia have been added. It is a continuous process."



To a question on Zika virus, he said, "there is no vaccination for Zika virus as of now."



On whether the tribals are being reached through Mission Indradhanush, Nadda said, "it aims to reach out to those we are unable to reach. We have mapped out the left-outs. Tribal area is very much in focus and we are getting very good results."



Talking about the 201 high focus districts, he said, 20 lakh children have been fully vaccinated and 21 lakh mothers have also been vaccinated.
In a first, 150 CISF commandos will be on guard to secure a five-star luxury hotel in Mumbai that gives a sweeping view of the airport runway.

Official sources said today that the Union Home Ministry recently cleared the deployment of the armed contingent to secure the air side flanks of the hotel--Taj Santacruz-- located right next to the domestic terminal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).

CISF Director General Surender Singh confirmed to PTI that the sanction for the deployment has been given by the government.

The sources said as the hotel has a USP of having "airport facing runway" rooms and floors, it was esssential to cover that flank from the point of view of any terrorist or sabotage like activity.

"The deployment of the force is on the internal security pattern and this could be a precursor for the force to take up the assignment full time considering the vulnerability of the air operations which are visible from the floors of the hotel," the sources said.

The hotel is only 2 minutes walking distance from the domestic terminal and ten minutes from the international terminal of the CSIA.

The hotel, with 279 rooms and suites, boasts of being the first airport hotel in the country to give the occupants a clear view of the runway.

This is the first time that the Central Industrial Security Force has been deployed to secure a five-star hotel in the private sector after it was mandated to take on such duties in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

The move assumes significance as CISF cover is very sparingly granted to the private sector and till now there have been only such eight such deployments, the latest being to secure Yoga exponent Baba Ramdev's food park in Uttrakhand's Haridwar.

The force has maintained that its priorities for deployment in the private sector are for those in the power and energy security and Information Technology sectors.

The sources said the runway facing floors have been lying unused for the want of proper and foolproof security and the CISF had earlier cited shortage of manpower and heavy duty at Mumbai airport to take on the new task of securing the hotel.

They said an assessment was later carried out by central security agencies, CISF and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) after which the armed personnel of the force are now being deployed.

Armed CISF personnel, officials said, will be deployed at vantage locations and terrace floors of the hotel and will also keep an eye on any suspicious activity on its runway side.

Similar proposals have been made for Delhi's Aerocity area that is close to Delhi airport.
To meet growing manpower needs for air traffic management, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will create additional posts of air traffic control officers.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma today said there is no acute shortage of air traffic control officers (ATCOs).

"In order to meet the current and future requirements i.E. To cope with the growing requirement of air space and air traffic management, the AAI board has approved creation of additional posts of ATCOs in various grades," he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Through US-based Washington Consultancy Group, AAI had conducted a study on long-term manpower requirement for air traffic management.

"As per this report, the requirement of ATCOs would be 3,599 up to the year 2020. The report of WCG was reviewed by AAI and replaced it with ATM Staffing Policy & Guidelines in November 2015 which is implemented in a phased manner and inducted 169 ATCOs in 2015," Sharma said.

To a separate query, the minister said that in the last three years, the government has given 'in-principle' approval for setting up of a greenfield international airport at Dholera in Gujarat.

Besides, the government has granted 'site clearance' for "greenfield airports at Bhiwadi (Alwar) in Rajasthan and at three locations in Andhra Pradesh, namely Bhogapuram (Vijayanagaram), Dagadarthi (Nellore) and Oravakallu (Kurnool)", he noted.

The minister also said construction work at the Kannur airport is at an advanced stage of completion and that the trial landing was completed on February 29.

According to Sharma, the government extends its full support to AAI in terms of grant-in-aid for execution of airport projects on need basis, apart from pursuing state governments for providing adequate land and facilitating mandatory approvals for construction of projects.
The kidnapped son of slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was today recovered from Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province in a multi-agency security operation, nearly five years after he went missing.

Senior police officer Aizaz Ghoraya confirmed that security and intelligence officials recovered Shahbaz from the Kuchlak area on the outskirts of Quetta city.

"He is presently in safe and secure condition and will be taken to Lahore soon," he added.

Another security official said that Shahbaz was recovered in a multi-agency operation with the help of police and the Frontier Corps (FC) in Balochistan.

Shahbaz was kidnapped from the Gulberg area of Lahore from near his office on August 26, 2011 and since than it was feared he was held captive by different militant groups.

He was kidnapped soon after his liberal politician father was assassinated by radical Mumtaz Qadri in January, 2011, due to his stance on the controversial blasphemy law.

Interestingly, the recovery of Shahbaz comes just a week after Qadri was executed in Rawalpindi.

"He has been recovered and he is in good shape. It is the result of a joint intelligence operation with the help of FC. It is an appreciative operation and effort by all intelligence outfits," said Anwarul Haq Kakar, a Balochistan government spokesman.

Since Shahbaz was kidnapped there has been speculation and reports that initially he was picked up by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and was then also held captive by al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban Pakistan and taken to North Waziristan.

It was also speculated that at one time he was taken to Afghanistan and kept captive there.

The media had reported that Shahbaz was held hostage for such a long time as the militant outfits holding him were negotiating with the government for Qadri's release from jail.

There were also reports that the kidnappers had demanded Rs 50 crore in ransom from the Taseer family.
The city sessions court here today rejected the bail plea of Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel in a case of alleged sedition, observing that he might repeat the offence.

Additional Sessions judge N G Dave rejected Hardik's application filed in January after the Ahmedabad police's filed a charge sheet against him.

Upholding the prosecution's argument that Hardik might indulge in similar acts if released, the judge noted that the violent agitation led by him caused a loss of property worth Rs 40 crore last year.

Hardik's lawyer Dinesh Chaudhury said he will file an appeal in the High Court.

Advocate Chaudhury had argued that sedition is a colonial law enacted by the British to suppress the voice of freedom fighters and it had been invoked wrongfully against the Patel leader who was only fighting for his community.

He also said that the police, who had recorded Hardik's telephonic conversations, failed to link it with the violence during the agitation.

Hardik and three others have been charged with IPC sections 124(A) (sedition), 121 (A) (conspiracy to wage war against government) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy).

They are accused of inciting the violence to mount pressure on the government for accepting the demand of reservations for the Patel community.
In a unique celebration of International Women's Day, Air India today sent itsall-women crew Air India Express (AIE) flight from here to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.

The Air India Express flight no IX885 took off from Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at 5.05 PM.

The crew comprised Commander captain Taniya Anand, co-pilot Yuvika Sandhoo and cabin Crew in-Charge Deepa Natarajan, CC Neha Bijoria, CC Shalini Kinkar and CC Chinju Chandran.

The crew also celebrated International Women's day by cutting a cake at the airport before departure.

Commander captain Taniya Anand told reporters that she had been flying for the last eight years and flying an all-women crew for the third time.

"Last time it was fromThiruvananthapuram to Dubai. It will take four hours from hereto Dammam," she said.

Co-pilot Yuvika Sandhoo said she had been flying forsix years and it was a proud moment for all the staff.

Air India Station Manager Nagesh Shetty said the special flight was arranged to celebrate womanhood.

AIE at present has 856 staff, of which 360 are women employees, constituting 42 per cent of the workforce.

The deputy chief of AIE commercial department and two of its four board members are also women, he said.

Airport director J T Radhakrishna and other officials were present on the occasion.
Amid the controversy over its minority status, Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor Lt Gen (Retd) Zameer Uddin Shah will meet HRD Minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi on March 10.

"Thursday's meeting between the two could well mark a watershed moment in AMU's present uneasy relationship with the HRD Ministry," an AMU spokesman said.

Shah had yesterday said the preservation of minority character of the university is a very emotive and sensitive issue for the Muslims of the country.

He was speaking at a seminar here on 'Religious Tolerance and India's Pluralistic Ethos' organized by the Sir Syed Educational Society.

Shah said in his meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, he informed him that any attempt to tamper with the minority status of AMU would cause "disquiet" in the Muslim community.

Noting that Modi gave him a patient hearing, the Vice- Chancellor said, "I feel that the Prime Minister is going to give very serious consideration to all the issues raised by us in the memorandum."



Shah said he also stressed that if the university's three off-campus centres located in Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar continue to be starved of funds, their very existence would be jeopardised.

The Vice Chancellor did not comment on media reports about his alleged humiliation by Irani on January 8 when he accompanied a delegation led by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, which had gone to meet her and refused to disclose whether the issue had come up during his meeting with the Prime Minister.

A number of prominent alumni, including former Rajya Sabha member Mohammad Adeeb, had voiced their concern over the incident.

In a letter addressed to different alumni associations, Adeeb said, "We share the humiliation which has been heaped on a man who is not only the Vice-Chancellor of this great institution but also the former Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces of India.
In a bid to protect domestic manufacturers, India today imposed anti-dumping duty on polypropylene imports from Singapore.

A notification of the Revenue Department said that anti-dumping duty of USD 145.2 per tonne has been imposed on polypropylene originating in or exported from Singapore.

The safeguard duty covers producers like Exxon Mobil Chemical Asia Pacific, Singapore and The Polyolefin Company (Singapore) Pte Ltd whose products are exported to India by traders like Itochu Plastics Pte Ltd.

"The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) from the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette and shall be paid in Indian currency," the notification said.

Polypropylene is used for manufacture of woven sacks for cement, foodgrains, sugar, fertilizer, bags for fruits and vegetables as also film packaging. Besides various consumer items, it also finds application in auto parts, appliances, furniture and houseware.

Originally, the government had in 2009 imposed anti-dumping duty on polypropylene imports from Oman, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. The safeguard duty on imports from Singapore was extended by one year to July 29, 2015. There was no duty thereafter.

"In the matter of review of anti-dumping duty on import of the subject goods, originating in or exported from the subject country, the designated authority in its final findings... Has come to the conclusion that injury to the domestic industry is likely to continue in the event of cessation of anti-dumping duty on imports of subject goods from the non-cooperative producers or exporters from subject country...," the notification said.

The subject country in the order was Singapore and subject goods being polypropylene.

Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties had recommended imposition of the safeguard duties on an application filed by Reliance Industries alleging injury to domestic industry by imports from Singapore.

Besides RIL, three other companies produce polypropylene -- Haldia Petrochemicals, Indian Oil Corporation and HPCL-Mittal Energy.

Manufacturers had claimed polypropylene being dumped into India, are identical to the goods produced by the domestic industry. There were no differences either in the technical specifications, functions or end-uses of the dumped imports and the domestically produced subject goods.

In 2009, the government had imposed a provisional anti-dumping duty of USD 81.20 per ton on polypropylene produced by Polyolefin Company (Singapore) Pte Ltd and exported by Sumitomo Corporation Asia Pte Ltd.

That year, the provisional anti-dumping duty was put at USD 119.32 per tonne for polypropylene produced by Polyolefin Company (Singapore) Pte Ltd and exported by Toyota Tsusho (Singapore) Pte.
A 32-year-old leader of Apna Dal party was shot dead near Asarwanpur village last night following which his supporters today staged a protest and bocked the roads, police said.

Ashok Kumar Saroj was shot dead night while he was returning home from Ramganj market, they said.

Scores of his supporters staged protest and blocked the Ramganj-Gyanipur road here, they said.

Additional police forces and PAC have been deployed on spot to avoid any untoward incident and efforts are on with district administration to bring the situation under control, police said.

Saroj had unsuccessfully contested the last Zila panchayat polls from Gyanipur.
Army chief General Dalbir Singh today said there is a need to collectively address the issues of "mine menace" and role of "peacekeepers" in maintaining harmony and stability in the affected nations.

He was addressing over 300 foreign participants and observers from ASEAN Plus countries at the closing ceremony of "Exercise Force 18", the largest ground forces operation ever conducted on Indian soil here at Aundh Military Station from March 2 to 8.

He termed the seven-day along exercise, based on themes "Humanitarian Mine Action' and 'Peacekeeping Operations', as a "watershed event in the history of ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Plus forum."



"It has showcased perfect harmony among the ASEAN Plus Nations in the field of humanitarian mine action and peacekeeping operations.

"The menace of landmines haunts many of our South East countries. This in turn has adversely affected the security and economic development of the region," said Singh.

He appreciated ASEAN members states such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam for making substantial progress towards the disposal of explosives remnants of war (ERW) and said these initiatives have been strongly supported by the international community.

The Army chief informed that 6th Expert Working Group on Humanitarian Mine Action has contributed towards bringing "synergy" among the ASEAN Plus Nations.

"The other important expert working group is on peacekeeping operations. The group has been able to successfully establish a robust platform for United Nations Peacekeepers to provide necessary contribution towards peace and security in the region."



The closing ceremony began with marching in of ASEAN Plus contingents followed by national anthem. Singh later handed over plaques to all contingent commanders of foreign armies and also gave away 'Award of Excellence' to best performers in the exercise.

The 40-member Indian Army contingent at the ceremony was led by a woman officer, Lt Col Sophia Qureshi. Indian Army personnel later displayed combat deployment of Special Forces using 'Dhruv' helicopters.

Besides ASEAN members - Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand - hosts India and major military powers like China, Australia, Russia and US participated in the exercise.
Disappointed and hurt over constant denial of "winnable seats", women Congress leaders in Kerala have come out in the open demanding safe seats in the May 16 assembly polls.

The demands come as the party is in the process of finalising the list of candidates.

The party's women leaders point out that during the past few elections - both Assembly and Lok Sabha - they have been offered seats generally considered opposition bastions and difficult for the party to win.

While there is only one woman Congress MLA in the present 13th Assembly, there was none the previous one.

Though there are a number of capable women leaders in the party, they've failed to make their presence felt in the House as they are offered seats where the party's prospects are "bleak", state Mahila Congress president Bindu Krishna said.

She also demanded the leadership reserve 25 per cent "winnable" seats for women leaders in the coming polls.

"Congress was a party which once gave great prominence and consideration to women leaders. But in the recent days, women leaders are not getting their due share during candidate selection," Bindu Krishna told PTI.

"Though the party is giving us good moral support, we want it reflected in allocation of seats. So we request 25 per cent seats to be reserved for women in the present assembly polls," Krishna, who unsuccessfully contested in the last Lok Sabha polls, said.

She also said like in many other fields, politics has also become highly male-centric, where people think winning chances of women candidates are less.

Former AICC secretary Shanimol Usman, who had refused to contest from Kasaragod, a CPI(M) pocket borough in the 2014 LS poll, said she was optimistic women leaders would get their due representation this time.

"There is a general opinion among party leaders that women should be given more seats this time. So I am confident they will get their due share. I fully support Mahila Congress's demand to reserve 25 per cent seats," she told PTI.

Former MLA Shobhana George has already made it known she will contest as a rebel from Chengannur if she is not given a party ticket.

Minister for Youth and Tribal Welfare P K Jayalakshmi is the lone woman Congress MLA in this Assembly, while LDF has six women MLAs.

They are K K Lathika, P Ayisha Potty and K S Saleekha, all from the CPI-M and E S Bijimol, Geetha Gopi from the CPI and Jameela Prakasam of the JD(S).

The first Kerala Assembly, formed in 1957, had six women members when politics was a male-dominated one in the most parts of India.
Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan today accused Governor Ram Naik of stalling several bills by not giving his assent and alleged it was giving an impression that he was working under the "influence of a party".

"A Bill (UP Nagar Nigam Amendment Bill 2015) is pending with the Governor for over one year through which Mayors could be removed for financial irregularities.

"The Governor has stalled the Bill giving an impression that he is working under influence of a party," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Khan said during a discussion in the Zero Hour in the State Assembly.

The Bill was not given assent so that mayors could not be punished for their "dishonesty", Khan alleged.

"If there is any problem in the Bill, it could be returned or if there is any suggestion, I could be called for a clarification on it. There should be a way out. It was not a disputed Bill. There is no intention of victimisation of any mayor through it," Khan said.

Objecting to Khan's remarks, BJP legislative party leader Suresh Kumar Khanna requested the Speaker to expunge them as it was a "direct allegation against the Governor".

However, Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey said that as per the Constitution, the Governor has the right not to give assent to any bill but he would apprise Governor Ram Naik about the minister's feelings.

On the demand of removal of Khan's comments from the proceedings, the Speaker said that he would look into it.

The controversial UP Nagar Nigam (Amendment) Bill 2015 which gives power to the state government to remove mayors besides curtailing the powers of local bodies was passed in the House last year.

The Bill provides for enhancing the financial powers of chairman of Nagarpalika and Nagar Panchayat to Rs five lakh and Rs one lakh respectively, while that of mayor has been kept at Rs 15 lakh.

It also provides for merger of UP Nagar Nigam Act 1959 and UP Nagar Palika Act 1916. It has provisions of removal of mayor of municipal corporations, and Nagarpalika and Nagar Panchayat chairman by the government.

Later, the Uttar Pradesh Mayor Council had urged the Governor not to give his approval to it.

Pending bills in Raj Bhawan included Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University (Amendment) Bill 2015 and UP Medical Science University, Saifai, Bill 2015.

According to sources, the Governor had expressed his reservation over appointment of chief secretary as the president of Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University and CM as the chancellor of Saifai Medical University.
Bangladesh's Supreme court today summoned two senior ministers for making "contemptuous comments" against the chief justice during a debate over the appeal hearing of a top Islamist leader sentenced to death for the 1971 war crimes.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister A K M Mozammel Haque were ordered by a nine-member bench of the Appellate Division to appear before the court on March 15 and explain as to why legal actions would not be taken against them for their comments, which tantamount to contempt of court.

"Their comments undermined the dignity and prestige of the Supreme Court and the chief justice's office...Their unholy and contemptuous comments stunned the judges of the top court," Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said in the order.

The court also asked the two ministers to submit in writing their explanations over their own comments a day ahead of their personal appearance on the dock.

The two ministers during a discussion had criticised the chief justice after Sinha, during the appeal hearing of death sentence convict Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, on February 23 expressed dissatisfaction over the poor performance of prosecutors and investigators in dealing with war crimes cases.

Minister Qamrul alleged the chief justice was openly speaking in the language of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and their lobbyists by questioning the investigation quality.

The other minister went even further to say that the chief justice should not be delivering the verdict in the appeal of war criminal Quasem.

The Appellate Division today came up with the suo motu order before it sat for delivering the judgment on the appeal hearing of Quasem against his death sentence for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War with Pakistan.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the death sentence of Quasem, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's liberation war.

The two ministers comments had sparked an uproar in the political and judicial arenas.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a cabinet meeting yesterday snubbed the two ministers for "embarrassing" the government through their comments, saying the government did not own their "private comments".

Quasem headed a media corporation aligned with Jamaat before his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of running a militia torture cell, Al Badr, that carried out killings of several people.

Officially, three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the 1971 liberation war.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a top Islamist leader for war crimes during the country's independence struggle against Pakistan in 1971, paving the way for his execution.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha announced the apex court's verdict to dismiss the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's liberation war.

"The sentence (death penalty) is maintained," Sinha announced in a crowded courtroom.

The decision of the five-member bench of the top court came 16 months after the country's Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced 63-year-old Ali to death for atrocities committed during the liberation war in 1971. He had challenged the verdict.

He was convicted of running a militia torture cell, Al Badr, that carried out killings of several people.

The court found as valid most of the charges against him, including carrying out murders and tortures siding with the Pakistani troops in line with the policy of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.

Ali headed a media corporation aligned with Jamaat before his arrest in 2012.

He was the Al Badr's third most important functionary after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.

Political analysts said his funding helped the Jamaat secure a strong foothold in independent .

Officially, three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the 1971 liberation war.

Ali faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court or he is granted clemency by the president.

Three senior Jamaat officials and a leader of the main opposition party have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of a top Islamist leader for war crimes during the country's independence struggle against Pakistan in 1971, paving the way for his execution and dealing a major blow to the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha announced the apex court's verdict to dismiss the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart and media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's liberation war.

"The sentence (death penalty) is maintained," Sinha announced in a crowded courtroom.

The decision of the five-member bench of the top court came 16 months after the country's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced 63-year-old Ali to death for atrocities committed during the liberation war in 1971. He had challenged the verdict.

In November 2014, Ali was sentenced to death on a number of charges including mass killing and tortures at southeastern port city of Chittagong.

He was convicted of running a militia torture cell, Al Badr, that carried out killings of several people.

The court found as valid most of the charges against him, including carrying out murders and tortures siding with the Pakistani troops in line with the policy of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.

Ali headed a media corporation aligned with Jamaat before his arrest in 2012.

He was the Al Badr's third most important functionary after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.

Political analysts said his funding helped the Jamaat secure a strong foothold in independent Bangladesh.

Officially, three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the 1971 liberation war.

Ali faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court or he is granted clemency by the president.

Three senior Jamaat officials and a leader of the main opposition party have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes.

A war crimes tribunal set up in 2010 has sparked violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians who said it is victimising Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's political opponents.

Four opposition politicians, including three leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, have been convicted by the tribunal and executed since late 2013.
Bangladesh's government said today it was planning to sue the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after hackers allegedly stole nearly USD 100 million from a reserve account.

Suspected Chinese hackers stole the money from Bangladesh's foreign exchange account on February 5, according to a Dhaka central bank official and media reports.

But the US reserve bank, which manages the Bangladesh Bank reserve account, denies its systems were breached.

"We've heard that Federal Reserve Bank of New York has completely denied their responsibility. They don't have any right," Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters in Dhaka.

"Of course, we'll file a case against them. We have kept the money with them. They are responsible," he said, when asked what action his government would take against the bank.

An official told AFP the stolen money was illegally transferred online to the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh Bank, the central bank yesterday said it had recovered part of the money and was in contact with the Philippines' anti-money laundering authorities to track down the rest.

On its official Twitter account, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wrote: "Regarding hacking reports, there is no evidence of attempts to penetrate Federal Reserve systems & no evidence Fed systems were compromised.
Banks have so far disbursed over Rs 1.15 lakh crore under Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY), Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal said today.

Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) focuses on 5.75 crore self-employed who use funds totalling Rs 11 lakh crore and provide jobs to 12 crore people.

Under PMMY, loans between Rs 50,000 and Rs 10 lakh are provided to small entrepreneurs.

"We have been working with MUDRA. It has been a runaway success...We are looking at Rs 1.15 lakh crore plus right now," she said at an event organised by MFIN here.

The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April last year.

Three products available under the PMMY are Shishu, Kishor and Tarun, to signify the stage of growth and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit or entrepreneur.

Shishu covers loans of up to Rs 50,000 while Kishor covers those above Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 5 lakh. Tarun category provides loans of above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh.

With regard to Banks Board Bureau, Duggal said, she would be meeting newly appointed chairman Vinod Rai this week to discuss operationalisation of this specialised body.

Last month Rai, a former CAG, was appointed head of Banks Board Bureau by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The bureau will give recommendations on appointment of directors in public sector banks and advise on ways to raise funds and mergers and acquisitions to the lenders.

There are 22 state-owned banks in India including SBI, IDBI Bank and Bhartiya Mahila Bank.

Besides, she said that there would be meeting of heads of the bank on March 22 to discuss about the recently launched crop insurance scheme by Prime Minister.

The crop insurance scheme scheme has already been approved by the Cabinet that would replace the existing ones to ensure that farmers pay less premium and get early claims for the full sum insured.

"On the one hand government talks about opening more



branches, while at the same time new licences are also being given which is contradictory in nature. Besides, the government has said it wants to create 4-5 large bank by merging around 20-22 other banks into them. We want to oppose that," Singh said.

Bank of India, Union Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank are expected to be the banks that may be asked to merge other entities into them, he said.

Unions are protesting against FDI in banking sector and other demands such as no privatisation of public sector banks, said Ashwani Rana, Vice-President of the National Organisation of Bank Workers, an affiliate of UFBU.

"Even during the sub-prime crisis which shook the western economies and decimated several and huge banks there, Indian PSBs survived without any harm due to their intrinsic value. They have contributed hundreds of thousands crores of profits and taxes to the government's resources," AIBOC asserted.

Singh said western interests are hell-bent on penetrating the vast resources of PSBs through the advice of consultation firms hailing from west.

Labour laws are also being penetrated into by the government in the name of easing the business environment, just to sub-serve the capitalist interests, foreign players and to the detriment of the working class, Singh added.

"AIBOC will continue to struggle against the wrongful policies of the government with many more to follow, if the government does not mend its actions," he said further.
As the group of PSU banks moved Supreme Court to restrain Vijay Mallya from traveling abroad, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today threw his weight behind the lenders, saying each penny lent must be recovered.

"Well, I think it's not only a legal but a moral obligation that every banking institution in India has to recover the last pie," Jaitley said.

The government cannot accept a "situation where 15 or 20 people are sitting on so much money of the banks, that the ability of the banks to lend to thousands of others" get severely impacted, he said.

"...Whatever steps the banks will take in this matter, the government of India will stand behind them but also actively encourage them to protect their own interest which is also the larger public interest because the public money is involved in the banks.

"After all, I am taxing the people of India to put money into the capital of the banks," he told ET Now. He was asked about banks' efforts to recover dues from Mallya.

The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear a plea of 13 banks, which had advanced loans of over Rs 9,000 crore to Mallya's firm, seeking a direction to restrain him from leaving India.

The Debt Recovery Tribunal yesterday barred Mallya from accessing USD 75 million (Rs 515 crore) exit payment from Diageo till the loan default case with SBI is settled while the ED registered a money laundering case against him in another default case.

Talking about bad loans in the banking system, Jaitley



said there are two kinds of NPAs, one is because of economic slowdown while the other emanates from questionable practices.

There are NPAs on account of the industrial downturn in sectors like steel, infrastructure and power.

"In some cases, some companies are taking bonafide steps to sell assets so that companies come back into green. These are cases where we will have to give slightly a longer rope, because (we) don't want crisis situation," the Finance Minister said.

"But there are cases, which border more on questionable practices and there I think the provision of whatever laws exists will come into play," Jaitley said.

Gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) ratio of the public sector banks increased from 5.43 per cent as on March 2015 to 7.30 per cent as on December 2015.

Gross NPAs of PSBs increased from Rs 2,67,065 lakh crore in March 2015 to Rs 3,61,731 lakh crore in December 2015.
United States Vice-President Joe Biden arrived in Israel today for a two-day visit that includes meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as Palestinians unleashed a wave of attacks that killed an American tourist near, where Biden was visiting and wounded a dozen Israelis.

The American man, who was not identified by name, was killed in a stabbing spree in the port city of Jaffa in which a Palestinian attacker also wounded six Israelis before he was shot and killed by Israeli forces.

The attack took place as Biden was meeting with former Israeli President Shimon Peres nearby, at the Peres Centre for Peace in Jaffa.

It was the latest bloodshed in more than five months of near-daily Palestinian assaults on civilians and security forces that show no sign of abating. Along with the Jaffa assailant, three other Palestinian attackers in today's assaults were shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

"I notified the vice-president on the terrible incident that took place just a few hundred meters away from here in Jaffa," Peres said. "Terror leads to nowhere neither to Arabs nor to us," Peres said standing next to Biden.

"The majority of the people know there is no alternative to the two state solution ... And we shall follow with all our strength and dedication to make from it a new reality," Peres added.

Just ahead of the visit, Israel disputed a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "surprised" the Obama administration by canceling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of US Presidential primaries. The spat comes amid tense relations with President Barack Obama in the last year of his presidency.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US. Had offered to meet on one of those days. "We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.

"We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit." But Netanyahu's office said Israel's ambassador to the US had already informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" Netanyahu would not make the trip.
Betting big on food and consumer business, Future Group aims to clock a revenue of Rs 20,000 crore in this segment by the year 2021.

For the fiscal beginning next month, the home-grown retail giant is targetting a revenue of Rs 4,000 crore, followed by five-fold jump to Rs 20,000-crore in five years.

"We have a vision that we will grow (FCEL) to a Rs 20,000-crore business by 2021," Kishore Biyani, Founder and Chief Executive of Future Group, said here today.

"It comes with the ambition of the Group also, which has decided to open multiple stores.... 360 hyper-markets, 4,000 small stores. If we are able to do that, our food business alone on the retail side will be close to Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000 crore," he added.

The Group currently has 27 brands under 64 categories. These include food brands like Karmiq, Golden Harvest, Desi Atta, Fresh & Pure, Premium Harvest, Ektaa and Tasty Treat, among others.

The company has over 350 SKUs (stock keeping units) across its food and non-food brands, and Biyani said it will introduce about 1,000 such facilities by the end of the current fiscal.

FCEL recently raised Rs 360 crore from US food and agriculture giant Cargill's PE arm Black River.

"We are sufficiently funded, and will not need to raise more capital for another three to four years. We will consider raising debt if we need more funds," Biyani said.

The billionaire said the company will expand its manufacturing, as it has acquired 165 acres of land in Nagpur, and 65 acres in Kolkata where it is setting up food parks.

Future Group has also tied up with LT Foods, owner of the Daawat rice brand, for developing rice and rice products.

FCEL has already started a distribution pilot in Varanasi for its brand Tasty Treat, and targets a revenue of up to Rs 1,500 crore for the brand by 2021, he said.

"The company is currently in the process of evaluating different distribution models, and has appointed distributors in the general trade as a pilot project in Varanasi," he said.

The Group plans to sell its products in about 5,000 stores in Mumbai and targets their all-India launch in 18-20 months, he had said earlier.
Maharashtra BJP has directed all the party's MLAs, MLCs and MPs in the state to shoulder the responsibility for tackling drought in affected regions, particularly Marathwada.

As per the directive of BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil to party's all elected representatives, they are supposed to ensure implementation of government's drought relief measures till the monsoon arrives in the state.

On March 6, Danve toured drought-hit areas of Aurangabad and Jalna districts in Marathwada region.

He directed party cadres, legislators and other elected representatives to convey the problems faced by the farmers and villagers to the government, so as to ensure effective implementation of drought relief measures.

"All the MLAs, MLCs and Members of Parliament should undertake a tour of the drought affected regions in the state between March 9 to March 18. The elected representatives will have to interact with local administration, take stock of the drought relief measures, interact with villagers and ask local party workers to ensure effective implementation of drought relief works," he said.

For the last three consecutive years, Marathwada has been facing drought, Danve said, adding that the government has been standing firmly behind the farmers.

"In order to ensure people's participation in the government's drought relief works, the party has taken the lead in ensuring communication between the affected people and the government," he said.

Danve said that the party, through public contribution, has made available 35 poclain machines which are being used to remove silt from water ponds, lakes, river beds and small farm ponds. These machines are also being used for the 'Jalyukt Shivar' programme (launched to make Maharashtra a drought-free state by 2019).
A Delhi court today asked BJP leader Praveen Jain to approach the appropriate court for action on his complaint against AAP MLA Som Dutt for allegedly concealing facts in his affidavit filed before the Election Commission ahead of Delhi Assembly polls.

Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria directed Jain to approach the court concerned, saying the case was out of her jurisdiction.

Earlier on August 14, the court had taken cognisance of Jain's complaint and recorded the pre-summoning evidence in the case.

Jain had contested the Assembly election 2015 from Sadar Bazar constituency here against Dutt.

The complaint alleged that Dutt had filed false affidavit before Election Commission during the 2013 and 2015 Assembly elections in which he declared that his parents were not dependent on him.

It claimed that as per the RTI reply obtained by advocate Vivek Garg, who is the counsel for the complainant, Dutt has obtained a medical facility card under the Delhi Government Employees Health Scheme from government of NCT of Delhi and in the card, he has disclosed that his parents are dependent on him.

The complaint said only the dependent parents can avail the medical facility on the card of an MLA.

"That from the above, it is clear that at one side, accused Som Dutt declared his parents as independent in both of his affidavits, filed/sworn before the Returning Officer AC-19 of Election Commission of India during the 2015 and 2013 elections by not declaring their (parents) assets/liabilities and on another side, he disclosed his parents as dependent on him in his medical facility card," it alleged.

The complaint has been filed for alleged offences under various sections of the IPC, including 200 (using as true such declaration knowing it to be false), 199 (false statement made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence) and 193 (giving or fabricating false evidence) and under provisions of the Representation of People (RP) Act.

The complaint further alleged that Dutt had prepared false affidavits to mislead the voters.

It alleged that Dutt has claimed a medical allowance of Rs 4,631 and managed to reimburse allowance of Rs 3,421.
Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoor and her estranged businessman husband Sunjay Kapur today told the Supreme Court that they have arrived at an amicable solution regarding the financial aspects of the case.

In the proceedings, which were held in the chamber of the judge, the financial aspect of the separation terms have been decided between the parties and the issues like "visitation" right of Sunjay Kapur to see their kids, who are with the actress, is to be reconciled.

The bench headed by Justice A K Sikri has now fixed the matter for further hearing in chamber on April 8 as the differences between the couple have not been resolved completely.

After the in-chamber proceedings, Karisma's lawyer Sandeep Kapoor said both of them have worked out "consent terms" for settling the issues.

"The process is in the way of finalisation before the next date of hearing. There are all possibilities of workable solution," he said.

Earlier, the apex court had asked Karisma Kapoor and her estranged husband to resolve their matrimonial dispute amicably and also advised their counsels to work out the terms of settlement before the next date.

The apex court is hearing a plea from Sunjay, seeking the transfer of the divorce petition from Mumbai to Delhi because the businessman was allegedly warned by underworld don Ravi Pujari against entering the city.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani and Sandeep Kapoor, counsel of the actor, had alleged that Sunjay had violated certain clauses of their agreement before filing a mutual consent divorce petition in Mumbai.

A matrimonial dispute filed by the couple is still pending before a court in Bandra, Mumbai.

Karisma and her husband had initially moved a mutual consent divorce petition before the court in 2014 and the consent was later withdrawn after differences cropped up between the two over the financial settlement as well as the children's custody. PTI SJK RKS



The bench was while dealing with an application filed by Sunjay Kapur seeking transfer of the couple's matrimonial dispute from Mumbai to Delhi on the ground that he was facing a life threat from underworld gangster Ravi Pujari.
Government bonds (G-Secs) prices displayed a mixed trend today due to alternate bouts of buying and selling on the back of highly volatile currency market.

The interbank call money rate firmed up further due to sustained demand from borrowing banks as well as tight liquidity conditions in the banking system.

The 7.59 per cent government security maturing in 2026 and the 8.27 per cent government security maturing in 2020 decline to Rs 99.63 from Rs 99.69 and Rs.101.9450 from Rs 102.18, while its yield rose to 7.64 per cent and 7.72 per cent respectively.

The 7.59 per cent government security maturing in 2029 and the 7.88 per cent government security maturing in 2030 rose to Rs 97.4650 from Rs.97.3250 and Rs 98.8750 from Rs 98.86, while its yield decline to 7.90 per cent and 8.01 per cent, respectively.

However, the 7.72 per cent government security maturing in 2025, the 7.68 per cent government security maturing in 2023 and the 6.35 per cent government security maturing in 2020 were quoted substantially lower at Rs 99.43, Rs 98.8750 and Rs 95.47, respectively.

The overnight call money rates finished firmly higher at 7.50 per cent from Friday's closing level of 6.00 per cent after fluctuating between 6.95, 7.55 per cent and 6.30 per cent during the trade.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF),purchased securities worth Rs 236.17 billion in 46-bids at Fixed Rate repo operations at a fixed rate of 6.75 per cent this evening, while it sold securities worth Rs 4.12 billion from 9-bids at the reverse repo auction at a fixed rate of 5.75 per cent held on March 5.
Brazilian construction tycoon Marcelo Odebrecht was sentenced today to 19 years in prison for corruption and money laundering in the giant Petrobras embezzlement scandal shaking Latin America's biggest country.

Odebrecht, already been behind bars nearly nine months, was CEO until December of the global construction company Odebrecht, which has been unmasked as one of the main players in a bribes-and-embezzlement scheme that cost state oil company Petrobras at least USD 2 billion.
The main opposition Congress today staged a walk-out from the Chhattisgarh Assembly over the issue of rehabilitation of the people affected by the East Rail Corridor (Bhupdeopur-Dharamjaigarh) project.

Raising the issue through a calling attention motion notice, Congress MLAs Umesh Patel, Motilal Dewangan and the party's state unit chief Bhupesh Baghel said the government acquired land for the project on a very large scale but issues pertaining to rehabilitation, payment of compensation and employment to the displaced people were not solved.

The project-affected farmers had staged a protest following which the administration sought two months to distribute compensation, but to date no compensation had been paid, they alleged.

The land, with going rate of around Rs 25 lakh per acre, was acquired at a very low rate, and the farmers should be paid the market rate, the Congress MLAs demanded.

They also alleged illegal felling of trees for the project.

In his reply, Revenue Minister Premprakash Pandey said it was the Railway Ministry's project for which 255.008 hectares of private land was acquired under the Indian Railway Act,1989.

The government had fixed Rs 78.81 crore as compensation, of which Rs 66.21 crore had been distributed among 1,004 farmers so far, he said.

The Railways was collecting information of the affected people for distribution of compensation under a proposed rehabilitation scheme and sought time till June 2016 for depositing the money, the minister added.

As to employment, he said the Railways had no provision of giving jobs to the affected people, as none of the affected persons had lost the entire land owned by him or her. He also denied that the compensation was very low.

Not satisfied, Congress MLAs walked out.
The opposition Congress in the Chhattisgarh Assembly today vociferously demanded a CBI probe against the 'bogus' chit fund companies.

Its MLAs shouted slogans anddemanded the resignation of Chief Minister Raman Singh over the issue,forcing the Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal toadjourn proceedings for five minutes.

Raising the issue after the question hour, senior Congress legislator and its state unit chief Bhupesh Baghel said, "On March 4, I had claimed that the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues attend inaugurations of bogus chit fund companies. The PWD minister Rajesh Moonat challenged me to produce documents in support of my claims and today I wanted to table some evidencein this regard."



Parliamentary affairs minister Ajay Chandrakar objected, seeking to know under which rule Baghel was raising the issue. Chandrakar also said the government was open to debate.

The Speaker then said the Congress leader had taken his permission to speak on the issue.

Moonat said he stood by his claim that the CM and the ministers never took part in the programmes of chit fund companies operating without the RBI permission.

Baghel said he wanted to table some photographs and documents to prove his claim. He also sought a probe by a committee of the House.

The Speaker rejected his demand and said the issue had already been discussed, but it can be discussed further in the House with the consent of the ruling party and the opposition.

Baghel sought the consent from the treasury benches to



constitute a House committee, but the latter did not respond.

Congress members then started shouting slogans, demanding a CBI probe against the bogus chit fund companies and resignation of the Chief Minister, not heeding Speaker's directions to sit down, so Agrawal adjourned thehouse for five minutes.

When the proceedings resumed, Leader of Opposition T S Singhdeo again demanded probe by a House committee. But Deputy Speaker Badridhar Diwan rejected the demand, saying there had been enough discussion on the issue and the proceedings should move on.
The Cabinet is likely to decide on a proposal to shut down terminally ill Hindustan Cables by offering a voluntary retirement scheme to its 1,500 employees in a couple of weeks, Union Minister Anant Geete said today.

"The proposal regarding closure formalities of Hindustan Cables should be cleared by the Cabinet in 1-2 weeks," Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises Minister Geete told reporters.

As per the proposal, employees of Hindustan Cables will be offered VRS as per 2007 pay scale.

The Cabinet had earlier approved closure of seven terminally sick public sector units, including Hindustan Cables, which have incurred a total loss of around Rs 3,139 crore over a period of time.

The Heavy Industry Ministry was given the task of firming up individual proposals entailing voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) related to the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) falling under it, including Hindustan Cables.

Reports of revival of the company had surfaced after the Defence Ministry approved its takeover by Ordnance Factory Board. The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises was supposed to take a call on it after taking into account views of all the ministries concerned.

The government has already decided to shut four CPSEs including three units of HMT and Tungabhadra Steel after the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave the nod to their individual closure proposals entailing VRS, etc.

Asked about how many employees of these affected CPSEs will be on the streets, Geete said: "We are not sending anyone onto the streets. In fact we want them to be happy at home... The employees have not been paid salaries since 2-3 years so they are already on the streets.

"Therefore, we have decided to offer the employees VRS as per 2007 pay scales. They were earlier being paid salaries as per 1987 pay scales so the employees are happy. They have requested that the VRS be offered in three months instead of six months so we are making efforts towards that."



Hindustan Cables, set up in 1952 at Rupnarayanpur (West Bengal), has units in different states.

However, the company's units in West Bengal and Hyderabad producing Polythene Insulated Jelly Filled (PIJF) cables had not been in production since January 2003, as there is no requirement of these cables in BSNL/MTNL.

Similarly, the unit at Naini, Allahabad producing optical fibre cable had also become obsolete due to change in the product specification.
Ukraine today prepared to send a team of doctors to check the health of a hunger-striking helicopter pilot who is on trial in Russia as global calls grew for her release.

US Vice President Joe Biden added his voice to concern expressed by the European Union yesterday about the fate of 34-year-old Nadiya Savchenko.

"Nadiya has been unjustly imprisoned in Russia since 2014 -- detained and facing trial on trumped up charges," Biden said in a statement.

"Her unlawful continuing detention is a clear violation of Russia's commitment under the Minsk agreements, and she should be freed at once," he added in reference to a deal signed in the Belarussian capital aimed at ending Ukraine's separatist war.

Savchenko is on trial for alleged involvement in the June 2014 death of two Russian state television journalists, just two months after the separatist uprising began in eastern Ukraine.

She faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted in a trial that has drawn global attention and been attended by Western monitors concerned about Russia's record on human rights.

Savchenko denies the charges and has refused all food and drink since her hearing was adjourned on Thursday before she was given a chance to make a final statement.

The European Union described her hunger strike as "extremely worrisome".

"Russia bears responsibility for the health, well-being and observance of the human rights of all persons it detains," an EU spokeswoman said.

Prosecutors argue that Savchenko helped Ukrainian forces locate and direct mortar fire at the two Russian journalists in the separatist region of Lugansk.

She counters that she was in the area of the attack on the reporters incidentally and was kidnapped and smuggled into Russia.

Savechenko's supporters fear that her refusal to drink may irreparably damage her health or even kill her before her next hearing tomotrrow.
The carbine seized from the residence of gangster Dhalasamanta brothers in Cuttack was manufactured at Indian Ordnance Factory in Kolkata, the police confirmed today.

Carbine is a type of gun used only by the defence and para-military force in the country.

"Forensic examination revealed that the carbine seized from Dhalasamanta brothers was manufactured at Indian Ordnance Factory, Kolkata. We will send a team to Kolkata to further investigate the matter," Commissioner of Police Y B Khurania told reporters here.

"We will soon get to know all the details about the carbine," Khurania said.

The police was worried over recovery of weapon like carbine from the residence of Sushil Kumar and Sushant Dhalasamanta on January 30.

Police officials said they had no clue of how the Cuttack-based gangsters availed a carbine.

The police have seized one carbine, one double-barrel gun and four mousers and 150 rounds of ammunition during searches conducted in their houses at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

It was earlier believed that the weapons seized from the brothers, who have nearly two dozen criminal cases pending against them at various police stations of Odisha, were procured from a don of Uttar Pradesh since they had admitted their links with him during interrogation.
The BJP lost its hold over the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) as it failed to get majority in the civic body's elections, the results of which were declared today.

However, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said it was not a setback for his party.

The BJP candidates were outsmarted by nominees fielded by expelled Congress legislator Atanasio Monserratte who got a clear majority in the 30-ward civic body.

The CCP, which covers Goa's capital city of Panaji, was ruled by the BJP-led council before the election was held on March 6.

Monserratte's panel won in 17 wards, while BJP managed victory in 13 wards.

The Congress, which had fielded candidates in nine wards, failed to garner win in any ward.

"The CCP poll results are not a setback for the party. We have maintained our numbers. We had 13 corporators in the earlier council and we have retained it," Parsekar said.

Earlier, the BJP had formed the council by joining hands with various smaller groups (independents).

The CM said that the result will not have any impact on Panaji Assembly constituency, which was earlier represented by Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and is now held by BJP legislator Siddharth Kuncolienkar.

"Siddharth did a good job, especially when Parrikar is busy in Delhi. I congratulate him," Parsekar said.

Reacting to the victory, Monserratte said the "people of Panaji have elected a smart council".

"The voters have also rejected Congress, which was roped-in by BJP only to hamper prospects of my candidates," he said.

The Congress party, without commenting on their own poor performance, said the results indicate that the voters want a "BJP-mukt" (free from BJP) Goa.

"It's time for united opposition to work towards making Goa free from BJP," state Congress spokesman Durgadas Kamat said.
Against the backdrop of several fatalities taking place during celebratory firing, district authorities have warned of strict action against those involved, including cancellation of arms license.

Notice would be sent to the family members of the bride and groom, who would also have to submit an affidavit to owners of guest houses, hotels or marriage halls saying they would not allow celebratory firing during the functions, Kanpur DM Kaushal Raj Sharma said today.

The registration of errant marriage halls would be cancelled, he said.

Their arms license would be cancelled and their weapons seized. Action would be taken against the in-charge of the police station under whose jurisdiction the incident has taken place, he said.

Despite High Court order, such incidents are still taking place frequently, following which the administration has decided to take strict action against offenders, he said.

Recently, a police constable was killed in celebratory firing during his daughter's wedding ceremony in Mainpuri.

Last month, a 11-year-old boy had been killed in celebratory firing by alleged Samajwadi Party workers in Shamli district.
The changing notion of masculinity changes the way we perceive nationalism and our national heroes, JNU Professor Sanjay Srivastava said here today.

Srivastava's lecture on "Gender and Nation" was part of the "nationalism teaching" series in JNU which is caught in a row over the February 9 event. The classes are being held at the varsity's administration block which has been venue of the protest ever since students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case.

"Consumer is the national hero (at present) but it also causes certain kinds of muscular anxiety. How do you call for being global but also promise to not allow the globalism to affect our deep-rooted ideals. Masculinity offers the prospect of best of both the worlds. Modi offered that," said Srivastava.

Throughout his talk, Srivastava pondered over the idea of a possible relationship between the changing perception of masculinity throughout history and consequently, the fluctuating notion of nationalism.

He attributed the "colonial" Section 377 that criminalises same-sex relationships to the possible notion of Britishers that "the same sex relationship reduces one of the partners to a more dormant and thus 'effeminate' role, an idea in stark contrast to their notion of masculinity".

Srivastava said the landslide victory of PM Narendra Modi during 2014 Loksabha polls might be the result of people perceiving him as a "national hero".

Brinda Bose, English Literature Professor at the varsity asserted that the scope of international working women's day should be expanded to include the marginalised section of the society.

Bose cited the recent India Exclusion Report to drive home her point of a large scale of women who are excluded from the workforce and its benefits.

According to the report "up to 43 pc of women in the working age (about 153 million) in India only do domestic work. This sector has no productive pay or perks".

Other exploited workers like construction workers, farm and factory workers, sex workers, ad-hoc teachers also fall under this category.

"So we should see women's day in connection with all these marginalised workers who may or may not have days assigned to themselves," said Bose.

"This women's day is not for flowers and gifts for women we love and adore but for women who are unknown, marginalised and exploited," she added.
The massive flood in Chennai and adjoining areas in Tamil Nadu turned out to be costly for the insurance companies, saddled with claims touching close to Rs 5,000 crore.

"For the entire insurance industry, the losses are about Rs 5,000 crore. For National Insurance at gross it will be Rs 300 crore," company's chairman and managing director K Sanath Kumar said here today.

"At the company level, the net hit to us will be anywhere between Rs 80 and Rs 90 crore. The industry thought loss would not be more than Rs 500 crore after the November flood, but the second round of flood in December was severe causing the major damage," NIC director & General manager M Vasantha Krishna said.

Besides loss of lives, according to estimates, some 80,000 vehicles, four and two-wheelers combined, are estimated to have been damaged in the deluge.

According to reports, 2015 was one of the worst in aviation losses for insurance companies in India. Eight private jets owned by corporate houses were damaged in the Chennai floods last December that could cost up to Rs 500 crore for the general insurance players.
China's worker population mayrise to 30 millionby 2050 due to scrapping of the country's controversial one child policy and allowing couples to have a second child, a senior Chinese official said today.

About 90 million couples might each have two children, which could contribute to population growth, especially of newborns, Li Bin, heads of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told reporters on the sidelines of national legislature annual session.

Li said China will continue the family-planning policy to achieve a delicate balance between population, environment and sustained development.

China officially junked its controversial one child policy late last year, allowing couples to have a second child amid deepening demographic crisis of shrinking workforce and ageing population in the world's second largest economy.

Earlier, reports said the relaxation of the policy has not enthused many people to have second child due to heavy costs in bringing up a second child.

Li said the Chinese population reached 1.375 billion in 2015, with a peak at about 1.45 billion expected sometime before 2050, when the total population is estimated to fall from the peak to 1.38 billion.

Li said the ratio of old-age people to the whole population would somehow decrease by 2050, without elaborating on how much the decrease might be, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Since the late 1970s the Chinese government had advocated for one couple to have one child.

The United Nations has predicted that people over age 65 will account for 18 per cent of China's population by 2030, double the number in 2011 which will have a negative bearing on China's labour availability.

By 2050, China is expected to have nearly 500 million people over 60, exceeding the population of the US.

The ageing population has brought greater demand for elderly care services.

According to a report published by Price waterhouse Coopers in December last year, Chinese people will spend over USD 1.54 trillion from 2016 to 2020 on elderly care, an increase of 17 per cent per year.
Pathankot Civil hospital has demanded shifting the bodies of four terrorists killed during the attack on the Air Force base here in January, citing lack of space in its mortuary.

The bodies have been lying in the mortuary of the Pathankot Civil hospital for over two months now.

"We've demanded the bodies of four militants be shifted to some other place because there is severe shortage of space in the mortuary here," Civil Surgeon Ajay Bagga said.

The mortuary can keep only five bodies and with four occupied with the terrorists', only one is left, he said.

He said the bodies could be shifted to one of the medical colleges in Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot.

The hospital authorities have written to Punjab Principal Secretary (Health) Vinni Mahajan, Director Health H S Bali, and Pathankot Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

Bagga further said the Principal Secretary had taken up the matter with the state DGP, Suresh Arora.

Police guards have been deputed outside the mortuary where the bodies are kept.

Official sources said only NIA, which is investigating the matter would take a call on when to dispose of the bodies.

Heavily armed terrorists had attacked the Air Force base here on January 2 and were eliminated by the security forces.
Human Resource Development Ministry has formed a committee on yoga education in universities which will identify courses in yogic arts and science and determine eligibility criteria for students to join such programmes, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

"As informed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, a committee on yoga education in universities has been constituted with the following terms of reference - to identify the courses and programmes in yogic arts and science and the levels at which they can be offered.

"To spell out the scope of programmes offered at certificate, diploma, degree, post-graduate degree/post- graduate diploma and research levels and to develop broad details of the curriculum in the core and elective courses," Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik said.

The committee will also determine the eligibility criteria for students for joining yoga education programmes at different levels and will prescribe the qualifications of the yoga faculty in colleges and universities.

It will also examine whether the existing qualifications for recruitment of the faculty in the colleges and varsities approved by the University Grants Commission needed to be amended.

Naik said the committee will also identify universities where departments of yoga exist and consider whether they can be upgraded to be developed as Departments of Yogic Arts and Science.

The committee will also suggest the names of national- level yoga centres whose expertise can be networked with universities where Departments of Yogic Arts and Science will be established.

The committee will also determine the modalities of further training of persons who may be recruited with their present background in the field of yoga, Naik said.
Amid controversy over the Kerala government's decision to allow commercial construction on an ecologically-sensitive paddy land near here, Cochi Medi City and Tourism today claimed it would set up a green healthcare project on it with an initial investment of Rs 1,300 crore.

The project ran into controversy after the Congress-led UDF government's clearance to fill 47 acres of paddyfield to set up the project came just hours before the model code for conduct came into effect in the state last week, ahead of the May 16 Assembly polls.

The timing of the clearance has been questioned by the CPI(M)-led opposition and environmentalists.

The main promoters of the company today said that the project, expected to be fully operational in three years, would generate direct employment to 7,500 persons and indirect employment to 25,000 persons.

Mohan Thomas Pakalomattom, Chairman, Cochi Medi City and Tourism, said the project will be set up in 52 acres of land out of 140 acres of unused land. "That means only 30 per cent of the land will have construction," he said.

He claimed that the project had received sanction after going through proper channels. It went through a proper scrutiny by the departments concerned.

He said the project was designed after giving a lot of care to the environment by RSP Singapore, one of the pioneers in setting up eco-friendly projects in Singapore and rest of the world by maintaining the ecology and preserving water flow.

Noting that India's healthcare system has made great progress in the last five years, Pakalomattom said India still lags behind WHO guideline of 3.5 beds per 1000 individuals.

"India currently is at a ratio of 0.9. In addition to this, the potential of health tourism is also there. Cochi Medi City & Tourism was established to cater to this huge gap with a vision of establishing a modern super-specialty hospital and healthcare system offering international standards of care at an affordable cost," he said.

Asked whether they would shift the project to any other states if it was not allowed in Kerala, Thomas said the company has got offers from states like Goa.
Seeking to embarrass the government in Rajya Sabha by moving amendments to the Motion of Thanks to the President's address, Congress tonight issued a whip asking all members in the Upper House to be present during Prime Minister's reply on the motion.

According to sources, the Congress' three-line whip comes in the wake of its attempt to embarrass the government by moving amendments to the motion of thanks to the President's address.

"A whip has been issued by the party asking all its members to be present in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow during the Prime Minister's reply to the motion of thanks to President's address," a senior Congress member told PTI.

Sources said the amendments are likely to be moved by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and its senior member Ashwani Kumar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply to the debate on motion of thanks in the Upper House at 2 PM.
WBPCC general secretary Om Prakash Mishra will contest against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the prestigious Bhabanipur seat in the city in the coming Assembly election, state Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said here today.

Announcing the list of 75 constituencies Congress would contest in the Assembly election, Chowdhury said the names of the candidates would be announced by the high command.

"But Mishra will contest against Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur. We are sending the list of candidates to the party high command and request them to clear Mishra's name first," he said.

Mishra, a Jadavpur University professor, had unsuccessfully contested from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat on Congress ticket in 2014.

Bhabanipur is one of the five seats in the metropolis where the Congress will field its candidates as part of its seat adjustment with the Left Front.

As per the list declared by the party, it would contest Chowringhee, Ballygunge, Rashbehari and Jorasanko besdies Bhabanipur seats also.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is seeking a re-election from Bhabanipur.

Chwodhury said the party wants to put candidates in 100 seats and talks were on with the left front in this regard.
The Madras High Court today directed the government to constitutestate and district-level committees to look into the welfare of elephants and cows donated to temples, as envisaged under Tamil Nadu Captive Elephant (Management and Maintenance) Rules 2011, within six weeks.

The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, gave the direction on a PIL filed by Radha Rajan, an animal welfare activist, seeking a direction to the authorities to maintain elephants and cows, donated to temple by devotees, in a healthy condition.

The bench also directed the government to install a closed circuit TV camera in goshalas, where the animals are kept, for monitoring.

Thecounsel for the petitioner submitted that despite numerous enactments and clear guidelines laid down by the High Court, authorities had "grossly neglected their duties of both administration of temples and prevention of cruelty to animals."



"The inaction on the part of the authorities to obey the orders of the High Court ought to attract strict action against the errants. The old cows were sold to third parties who in turn send them to slaughter houses in neighbouring states," the counsel contended.

The bench, while passing further interim orders on another PIL, also directed that a female elephant of Koodalalagar temple in Madurai, which required treatment, behanded over to the Forest Department within seven days.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing to April15.
Women activists, led by Trupti Desai of Bhumata Brigade, fighting for breaking gender bias at places of worship, today made a fresh bid to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar temple near here but were detained by police and later allowed to return to Pune.

Desai, who heads Bhumata Brigade, and about 150-175 activists had yesterday left Pune for the famous Lord Shiva shrine in a bid to break the ban on entry of female devotees into sanctum sanctorum.

They were, however, stopped and detained by the police at Nandurshingote village, about 80 km from the temple town.

At 2 am today, they were allowed to return to Pune but they returned to the spot three hours later and made a fresh attempt to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar.

However, the police personnel present there prevented them, an official attached to Wavi police station said.

Desai was accompanied by a few activists today and police detained them till 2 pm and then allowed them to leave for Pune, he said.

Desai has been leading the protest seeking to end gender bias at some religious places in Maharashtra.

On January 26, she had taken out a march to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district seeking access for women to its sacred platform.

However, the police had foiled their bid and detained them at a village 70 km away from the shrine.

As per age-old tradition, women are not allowed in Trimbakeshwar temple's garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) while men are allowed for an hour (between 6 am to 7 am) but wearing sovala (a silk dhoti) for offering pooja to Lord Shiva.
The Opposition Tuesday dismissed as "cosmetic" the changes proposed in the Railway Budget to transform the rail network, insisting that it was much ado about nothing.

Attacking the budget, NCP's Tariq Anwar said despite the announcements by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to bring about changes in the organisation, problems still persist..

Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016



"It is cosmetic and the problems still persists," he said, adding that the government had increased the tariff in November before the Railway Budget. He also pointed out that when the then UPA government had hiked the fares in the middle of the year, Narendra Modi, then the Gujarat Chief Minister, had written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Criticising the 'Make in India' programme, RJD's Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav said problems like security and food quality in the railways still remained unresolved and the organisation was witnessing 'Back in India'.

Congress member K H Muniyappa said the plans announced by Prabhu sounded good, but he has not said how the projects would be executed and where will the money come from to implement them.

He said that MPs have been demanding that the Railway Minister should announce plans in terms of new trains and infrastructure development like ROBs, but Prabhu has done nothing of that sort for the past two years.

Speaking in favour of the Railway Budget, BJP MP Darshana Jardosh said a lot of developmental work has taken place over the past two years, while her party colleague Ranjanben Bhatt said several steps have been announced to improve the services. She demanded to start a new train to connect Vadodara and Varanasi.

Marutharajaa R P (AIADMK) wanted starting of a new train with the name "Amma Express" in Tamil Nadu.

However, Tapas Mandal (TMC) said the Budget has focused only on a few states and has neglected West Bengal. "West bengal is deprived of the 2016-17. Nothing has been given to this state," he said adding the minister should focus on cleanliness of railway stations. He however welcomed the decision of not hiking the passenger fares.

Emphasising the need to complete all pending projects particularly in Karnataka on time, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said states too are responsible for the delay.

"When I was in office, I had approved 14 new lines. Still they are not completed. I am not saying that only you are responsible," he said adding railways need to generate more resources.
Oil prices dipped in Asia today but Brent crude stayed above USD 40 a barrel, as traders took profits after solid gains over the past three weeks.

Prices have strengthened following talks of a production freeze, with a producers meeting mooted on March 20 in a bid to ease a global supply glut that has depressed the market.

Sentiment has also been boosted by strong US jobs growth data and a weaker greenback which makes dollar-priced oil cheaper, perking up demand.

At around 0255 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in April slid 48 cents to USD 37.42 and Brent crude for May fell 57 cents to USD 40.27 a barrel.

Brent closed at USD 40.84 a barrel in London yesterday, its highest since early December.

"With prices going up so much, there's of course quite a bit of profit-taking," said Daniel Ang, an analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"Selling pressures may be coming from hedges as well. Now that prices are up to $40, most of them could be selling off to hedge future production," he told AFP.

Ang predicted that the bullish momentum would continue should prices break the $41 mark, but said a sustained increase would only be driven if producers took concrete steps to ease the oversupply.

"Fundamentals have not really changed. Prices have to be driven from fundamental change. A cut in production or a concrete freeze by these players could cause prices to move up further," he added.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela last month agreed to freeze output at January levels if other producers followed suit.

United Arab Emirates' energy minister Suhail Mazrouei also said Monday current prices "are forcing everyone to freeze. So I think it is happening as we speak".

But British bank Barclays cautioned against putting too much optimism about the proposed production freeze.

"OPEC's production freeze policy is far from certain to succeed," it said in a market commentary, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Department of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP), which is the nodal agency of the government for releasing advertisements on behalf of ministries and departments, spent Rs 842.89 crore on publicity in the current financial year, the government said today.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said "till February 29, Rs 402.79 crore has been spent on print media while Rs 353.31 has been spent on electronic media."



Rs 66.83 crore was spent by DAVP on outdoor publicity, Rs 12.13 crore on printed publicity and Rs 7.83 crore on holding exhibitions, according to the details shared by the minister.

In a written reply to another question on Community Radio stations, Rathore said it was decided in June 2015 that these channels may send their broadcast recordings through email for a review.

However, as most community radio stations did not find it convenient, a review of the mechanism is underway, Rathore said.

The community radio stations continue to preserve the recordings of their broadcasts for a period of three months, he said.

Replying to yet another question, Rathore said Prasar Bharati and Doordarshan are pursuing cases of outstanding dues from certain producers. About 83 cases are pending in courts, arbitration and out-of-court settlement, he added.
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) will soon launch a new programme 'Acid Watch' to monitor and prevent instances of acid attacks and sale of acid.

"A new programme 'Acid Watch' will be initiated by DCW, with budgetary support from Delhi government. Under the programme, we will monitor the incidence of acid attacks and sale of acid and prevent the same as well as recommend solutions to make Delhi acid-attack free," DCW chief Swati Maliwal said.

She was speaking at an event organised by the Commission on the occasion of International Women's Day in which it honored 25 persons (both men and women) with the DCW Achievement Award.

She said a programme will be launched to help combat human trafficking, collect data and work towards rehabilitation of victims in a scientific manner.

In a bid to improve the efficiency of 181 women helpline, the Commission has integrated it with Mahila Panchayat and mobile helpline programmes.

"At present, when someone calls 181, the helpline can only forward their call to the agency concerned and wait for its resolution - it cannot take any action on its own.

"This is now going to change. From now on, for every call on 181, DCW will have a team at the grassroots to attend these calls," she said.

Maliwal said by the end of April, DCW will have a Mahila Panchayat in every assembly constituency in Delhi and each will have a minimum of four grassroots workers.

"It will be the duty of these Mahila Panchayats to help women in distress by acting as the local response team for 181 calls.

"The Commission envisions that women in the Panchayat localities will start volunteering in these Mahila Panchayats and local women's safety groups will be developed under the aegis of DCW which will work significantly on the prevention, detection and will support the women in their struggle for redressal," she said.

The number of mobile helpline cars with the Commission have also been increased from 5 to 22 and the mobile helpline programme of the Commission is going to be linked to 181, she added.

"Delhi government has not only provided the DCW with 17 additional cars to make their fleet 22-car strong, and have also allocated the required budget for ensuring that these cars run in three shifts. As of now, 17 cars will run in one shift and 5 in all the three shifts and by the end of March, all 22 cars will be running 24x7," Maliwal said.

The new cars were flagged off by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at an event organsied by DCW.
Delhi reported maximum cases of dengue and most deaths caused by it across the country in 2015, Health Minister J P Nadda told the Rajya Sabha today.

The year saw almost 150 per cent rise in the number of dengue cases compared to 2014.

The number of deaths caused by the viral disease shot up dramatically in the national capital with 60 people dying of it last year compared to only three and six people in 2014 and 2013, respectively.

After Delhi, Kerala and Maharashtra reported most dengue deaths at 25 and 23, respectively, according to the figures.

Delhi also reported 15,867 cases of dengue last year against 995 and 5,574 cases in the previous two years, the figures tabled in the House showed.

There were 99,913 cases across the country last year against 40,571 in 2014 and 75,808 in 2013.
A Dutchman dubbed the "dentist of horror" by French media went on trial today after allegedly causing horrific injuries to the mouths of more than 100 patients in France.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, ripped out healthy teeth and left dozens of patients in the rural central village of Chateau-Chinon with broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia.

He is charged with aggravated assault, as well as fraud over claims that he tried to rip off patients and insurance companies, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000-euro fine if found guilty.

Although he is not required to offer a plea under French law, Van Nierop has previously sought to deflect responsibility, saying he suffers from "psychological problems" including gender identity issues and suicidal tendencies.

The court in Nevers, in central France, heard conflicting evidence about Van Nierop's psychological state.

One psychiatrist found he had "narcissistic tendencies" and had therefore been unable to make a moral judgement of his own actions.

But another found that the Dutchman was "perfectly aware of what he was doing", according to statements read to the court.

Van Nierop himself told the court: "I was not in the right state to put myself in my patients' position."



Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter and was initially welcomed by locals in the area which was sorely lacking in medical services.

A neighbour recalled the arrival of a smiley, larger-than-life character, with a "big 4x4, a big dog, a big cigar".

But by 2011, the authorities were starting to question some of his accounting practices, and patients were starting to compare notes on his dentistry.

Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, visited Van Nierop in March 2012 to have braces fitted.

"He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days," she said.
A fresh bid by women activists to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar temple near here was foiled by police who detained them today even as a defiant Trupti Desai, spearheading the campaign for breaking gender bias at places of worship, threatened to intensify the stir.

Desai, chief of the Bhumata Brigade, has been leading the protests seeking entry of women to the sanctum sanctorum of the famous Lord Shiva shrine against the ban on female devotees.

She and around 150 activists had yesterday left Pune for Trimbakeshwar but were stopped and detained by the police at Nandurshingote village, 80 kms away from the temple town. At 2 am today, they were allowed to return to Pune but they reassembled at the spot three hours later and made a fresh attempt to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar.

However, the police personnel present there prevented them, an official attached to Wavi police station said.

Desai claimed that she was approached by some officials from Nashik district who promised her to arrange a meeting of all stake-holders on the issue including the Trimbakeshwar Temple Trust, in next eight days.

"We have accepted the request of local administration and have given them an ultimatum of 15 days to resolve the matter. We warned them that if no solution is made, we will intensify our agitation," she told reporters here.

Narrating the sequence of events, Desai said she and other activists were let off by the police around 9 PM yesterday after detaining them at Nandurshingote village.

"We had categorically told them that the brigade is determined to go to the temple. While returning towards Pune, we did not see any police van around us and took a decision to go back towards Trimbakeshwar again (today morning).

"On the way, we were once again detained by police at the same spot near the village and now after being detained for several hours (throughout the day), we have been released. Police themselves are escorting us till our doorsteps in Pune," she said.

Desai had taken out a march January 26 to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district seeking access for women to its sacred platform.

However, the police had foiled their bid and detained them at a village 70 km away from the shrine.

While the entry of women is banned in Trimbakeshwar temple's garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), men devotees are allowed to enter for an hour (between 6 am to 7 am) on condition of wearing sovala (a silk dhoti) for offering pooja to Lord Shiva.

Apart from women's rights activists, Fadnavis's wife



Amruta was among those who hailed the temple trust's decision.

"This change (allowing women into the core area) was extremely important and is a really satisfying development. This sends a strong signal that women, like men, deserve all rightful benefits," she said.

The Chief Minister said discrimination was never part of Indian culture or Sanatan Dharma but was introduced later. "Though law will do away with such discrimination, mentality of society needs to be changed if we really have to progress.

"If we have to progress in this 21st century then it is important that we remove this concept of discrimination of caste and gender from the minds of the people completely."



Sharing her husband's view, Amruta said, "this is a symbol of change but the actual change will take place only when people will start changing their mindset towards women."



After the agitation for women's entry gained momentum, the temple authorities had barred men also from entering the sanctum sanctorum. Today local men had brought sacred water of Godavari and Mulay rivers from Pravara Sangam, about 40km from Shani Shingnapur, and offered prayers.

Puspak Kewadkar, one of the two women activists who stepped on the sacred platform for the first time, later said "I am very happy. We poured oil and offered a garland to the deity in a traditional worship of Lord Shani."



She said there was no attempt to prevent them from entering the inner area either from police or villagers.

Kewadkar and another activist Priyanka Jagtap belonged to a breakaway faction of the Bhumata Brigade and had left the parent body alleging Desai was orchestrating her campaign to hog limelight for herself.

However, there was some drama before they gained entry into the shrine. Some women gathered at the gate of the temple to prevent the entry of the activists, but police prevented any untoward incident by deploying around 400 police personnel, said Sanjay Jadhav, Additional SP.

He said the women retreated from the spot after the police apprised them about the High Court directive.

In a related development, eunuchs and transgenders have also demanded right to offer prayers at the temple.

"We will also go to Shani Shinganapur as it is our right to have darshan (of the deity there)," said Kajol Guru, President of the 'Maharashtra Tritiypanthi Sanghatna', an outfit which fights for the rights of transgenders.

Meanwhile, the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti condemned the decision of the temple trustees to allow women at the "chauthara" (sacred platform), saying it was "a hasty and unfortunate one".

Parag Gokhale, a functionary of the Samiti, in a statement here, blamed the State Government and administration for "failure' to protect age-old traditions of Hindu religion.

"The trustees succumbed to the pressure brought on by the Bhumata Brigade whose agitation was publicity driven," he alleged.
In the wake of recent terror attacks in the Valley, Director General of CRPF Durga Prasad today briefed Governor N N Vohra about the forces' deployment and operational plans.

Prasad called on Vohra at the Raj Bhawan here, a Raj Bhawan spokesperson said.

The Governor has decided to hold a meeting next week in which the heads of all Intelligence and Security forces would be present, the spokesperson said.
The Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) has incurred losses of Rs 842.57 crore since its inception in 1959 up till last fiscal, mainly due to under utilisation of its plant capacity, Parliament was informed today.

Last year, the Cabinet had given the go-ahead for corporatisation of state-owned DMS.

The government has decided to hand over operations and management of DMS to a suitable agency on lease basis for 30 years, Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundariya said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

"DMS has accumulated losses of Rs 842.57 crore since its inception up to March 31, 2015. The reason for losses may be primarily attributed to its under utilisation of plant capacity," Kundariya said in the reply.

He also informed that in last fiscal, the company has earned a net profit of Rs 6.65 crore.

DMS has milk production and packaging capacity of 5 lakh litres per day, besides a network of 1,298 outlets in the NCR.

It was set up in 1959 with the primary objective of supplying wholesome milk to Delhi citizens at reasonable prices as well as for providing remunerative prices to milk producers.

DMS has been procuring raw/fresh milk from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.

Besides processing and supplying milk, DMS is also manufacturing and marketing yogurt, ghee, butter, paneer, butter milk and flavoured milk.
Initiating a large-scale exercise to identify and leverage pan-India advertising opportunities at stations and trains, Railways has appointed Ernst & Young (EY) as consultant to undertake the task.

The multinational professional service firm headquartered in London has been awarded the contract for exploring the advertising potential and suggesting roadmap for realising the target, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Initial estimates have indicated an advertising potential on railways in excess of Rs 5,000 crore over the next few years.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has always been emphasising on increasing revenues through non-fare box route especially through advertising.

EY has been assigned the job for tapping the advertising potential of Indian Railways assets including fleet of trains spread in a wide network of about 7000 railway stations across the country.

The firm with its specialized offering Marketing and Advertising Risk Services (MARS), will help the Railways to identify assets across its stations for the purpose of advertising and will also develop a pricing strategy to evaluate them for advertisers. The firm has commenced its exercise.

In preliminary discussions held between railway officials and EY, it was emphasised that the exercise is to be completed in a time bound frame.

Chairman, Railway Board, AK Mital pointed out, "This current move by the Railways will allow for revenue enhancement for the enterprise without putting any burden on its passengers. EY and Indian Railways will engage with leading advertisers through the course of this project for effective optimization of railway assets."



In the past, railways has used its assets to earn revenues through advertising but limited to train wraps and display spaces in stations. This is the first time in the country that a large-scale project to identify and leverage pan-India advertising opportunities has been initiated, he said.

EY India Director Bharat Rajamani said, "Through this mandate, we will be creating a new medium for advertisers to leverage in order to reach their target audience. With a large expanse of assets and high measurability of its reach, the Indian Railways' assets will be beneficial to local and national clients alike."



EY India Partner Farokh Balsara said, "There has never been a nation-wide assessment of advertising potential of assets at such a large scale. We are excited and proud to be associated with Railways on a project that will generate advertising revenues and in turn help to expand and improve services for commuters. This aligns with EY's purpose of building a better working world.
Egyptian security forces fired tear gas today to disperse taxi drivers who are blocking a major road in the capital, Cairo, to protest Uber and other car-hailing applications, which the head of the Cairo traffic police insists are illegal.

The drivers stood in a roundabout on Gameat el-Dowal street after the canister was fired at them when they left their cars, witness Lamia el-Etriby and taxi drivers at the protest said. They had blocked all but one lane, causing a major traffic jam as police vehicles arrived on the scene.

"We are not leaving until an official comes and gives us his word that all these apps will be shut down in Egypt," said Sherif Ali, a taxi driver and one of the protest organisers.

Taxi drivers have been protesting Uber's presence in the country in recent weeks. The application has very rapidly become popular in Cairo, a city of 20 million people with almost-constant traffic jams.

Egyptian clients say they prefer the dependability of the app, complaining that normal taxi drivers often tamper with their meters or pretend the meter is broken in order to overcharge them. They also appreciate the safety provided by the app, especially for female passengers at night who fear being sexually harassed by drivers.

Taxi drivers have complained that Uber drivers have an unfair advantage because they do not have to pay the same kind of taxes or licensing fees. Domestic newspapers have published unconfirmed reports of officials saying Uber and Careem another car-hailing app were violating Egyptian law.

Uber Egypt General Manager Anthony el-Khoury told The Associated Press that company executives plan to meet with government officials this week to find solutions to this standoff and ways to coexist. David Plouffe, Uber's chief adviser and a member of the board of directors, is in Egypt this week and will be taking part in the talks.

El-Khoury told AP that Uber drivers do pay Egyptian taxes through an indirect route. The company only hires drivers who are licensed through private limousine or car rental companies, which do pay their own corporate taxes, he said.

"This is a circumvention of the law," said Major General Alaa el-Degwy, the head of Cairo's traffic police. "It is illegal for private cars to work as rentals, which has its own regulations," said el-Degwy.

In addition to paying rental taxes, drivers must carry a special license and be registered as a rental, he said. "You cannot have a citizen riding in a car with someone he knows nothing about," el-Degwy said.

He said police in Cairo have been clamping down on Uber drivers, and those who are caught must pay a fine. The police take the Uber driver and car's licenses and refer the driver to public prosecutors, el-Degwy said.
Embassy Industrial Parks today announced an investment of Rs 1,910 crore in Haryana for the development of three industrial parks.

Embassy Industrial Parks, a joint venture between realty firm Embassy and Warburg Pincus, signed an MoU with Haryana government for the development of three industrial parks around Gurgaon "with a projected investment of Rs 1,910 crore and an employment potential of 4,000 people".

The MoU was signed at the Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit 2016.

The Haryana government will help Embassy Industrial Parks acquire this land and get approvals for the projects, apart from providing incentives to ensure their sustainability, the company said in a statement.

The projects are intended to support the booming e-commerce as well as retail and FMCG companies to consolidate in a post GST scenario.

"We are happy to see the proactive and professional approach of the Haryana government to help private companies like Embassy Industrial Parks, grow operations in the state of Haryana," said Anshul Singhal, Chief Executive Officer, Embassy Industrial Parks.

The proposed warehousing project will span the development of integrated industrial and logistics parks with support facilities and also target industrial light manufacturing clients to set up build to suit manufacturing facility/ready built factories in these parks.

The project will be developed in the outskirts of Gurgaon, on NH-8 or within 10-15 kilometers from NH-8.

Though the warehousing sector has been largely unorganised and fragmented, the demand for modern warehouse infrastructure has seen a surge in recent times, the company said.

Rapid growth of retail, manufacturing and related industry segments coupled with an influx of investment will only push this sector to new heights, it added.
The European Union has agreed to work for a deal with Turkey to defuse the migrant crisis by an EU summit at the end of next week, Luxembourg Prime Minister said today after a Turkey-EU meeting in Brussels.

"President of #EUCO (Donald Tusk) will take forward the proposals and work out the details with the Turkish Side before the March #EUCO," Bettel said in a tweet, referring to the European Council summit.

Ankara is seeking an extra three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in aid, plus a refugee swap under which the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in exchange for every Syrian refugee that Turkey takes back from the overstretched Greek islands.

Under the last-minute proposals tabled by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the bloc would also bring forward visa-free travel for Turks to June, and speed up the country's long-stalled EU membership bid.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker's top aide Martyn Selmayr tweeted, "Breakthrough with Turkey. And clear commitment to go back to Schengen by the end of the year."



Juncker has expressed fears that a series of border closures to stop migrants entering Europe has endangered the passport-free Schengen zone, which is a pillar of unity and freedom.

Mina Andreeva, a spokeswoman for Juncker, tweeted that Juncker and Tusk agreed with Davutoglu "on main principles for jointly managing the refugee crisis.
Everstone Group today appointed veteran investor Avnish Mehra as the managing director in its private equity business, wherein he will lead its special situations vertical.

Before joining Everstone, he has spent over 18 years with marquee global investment firms in Asia and Europe.

Recently, he founded the India business for Advent International, leading some big deals including investments in Care Hospitals, Crompton Greaves, Cibil and Cams.

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Thyssenkrupp India ropes in Ravi Kirpalani as CEO * Thyssenkrupp India has announced the appointment of Ravi Kirpalani, who till recently headed Castrol India as MD, as the new chief executive, from July 1.

A 16-year veteran of BP, Kirpalani will provide ongoing support for the strategic development of all Thyssenkrupp's business in the country and succeeds Michael Thiemann, who headed it since May 2013.

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Godrej Industries appoints Clement Pinto as CFO * Godrej Industries has announced the appointment of Clement Pinto as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from April 30.

Pinto will succeed P Ganesh who has resigned to pursue a role outside Godrej group.

"Clement Pinto will take over as the Chief Financial Officer of Godrej Industries with effect from the close of working hours of April 30," Godrej Industries said in a BSE filing.

Pinto has been associated with the Godrej group for close to two decades.
Foreign investors have committed USD 45.68 billion worth of equity capital inflows under the government's ambitious Make In India programme till December 2015, Parliament was informed today.

Giving details of "FDI equity inflow received after Make In India initiatives for the period October, 2014 to December, 2015", Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in Lok Sabha that USD 29.44 billion came in during April-December period of 2015-16.

Besides, commitments worth USD 16.24 billion came during October-March of 2014-15, he added.

Sinha said these investments include only the "equity capital component".

He was responding to a question about number of investors who have come forward to invest in the country under the 'Make in India' programme.

Government had launched the programme on September 25, 2014.

The programme was built on the promise of providing a conducive environment for domestic and overseas investors to turn 125 crore population strong-India a manufacturing hub and something that will also create job opportunities.

On another question on money withdrawn by foreign investors, Sinha said the outflows were to the tune of Rs 20,177 crore as on February 26 in the current calendar year.

In 2015, the capital inflows by foreign investors stood at Rs 63,663 crore, he added.

On amount remitted to India by NRIs working abroad in the last financial year, Sinha said the gross and net amounts remitted to India in 2014-15 stood at USD 69.83 billion and USD 66.28 billion, respectively.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said that Pakistan was fighting terrorism as part of a "moral obligation" to eliminate the scourge from the country, a day after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 17 people in the restive northwestern region.

Sharif stated this in a meeting with visiting British Secretary of State Philip Hammond who called on him.

According to a statement, Sharif said that "fighting the war against terrorism is the moral obligation of Pakistan" and that his government is leading the war on terror to "ensure a peaceful tomorrow for the country and our future generations".

"We strongly condemn terrorist activities anywhere in the world whether perpetrated by individuals, groups or states," he said.

He said the ongoing military offensive against all terrorist groups - Operation 'Zarb-e-Azb' has broken the back of terrorists.

The prime minister said his government faced major challenges of terrorism, economic degradation and energy deficiency after he assumed office.

"We are overwhelmingly contented that our government has delivered on all these fronts. We evolved broad based consensus on National Action Plan, which has yielded very positive results in eliminating the scourge of terrorism from our land," he said.

Hammond praised the Pakistan government for its domestic reform agenda and legislation and national policies to protect women and minorities.

"You are doing the right thing by reaching out to your neighbours. Your message of peace is in fact reaching the entire world, which is reassuring," he said.

Sharif said that Pakistan has a vital stake in peace, stability and development in Afghanistan and supports efforts for promoting peace and reconciliation through Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.
Fire broke out at a bank branch at



Jaugram in Burdwan district damaging documents, furniture and computers.

Neighbours noticed flames engulfing the Bank of India branch in the early hours and informed the Fire Brigade.

Two fire tenders took about 90 minutes to douse the flames.

Firemen suspected short circuit to be the cause of the fire.

A bank official said the loss was yet to be estimated.
The first batch of women fighter pilots, comprising three cadets, will be inducted in the on June 18.

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said three women trainee officers have volunteered to be inducted in the combat role.

"We inducted women as pilots in 1991, but on only helicopter and transport (planes). I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved the IAF's proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. Very soon...On June 18, the Air Force will get women fighter pilots."



"As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training...They are on par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18," Raha said.

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Women in Armed Medical Corps' organised to mark International Women's Day here, which was also attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The Defence Ministry had cleared the proposal of inducting women as fighter pilots in October last year.

Parrikar also lauded Raha's insistence to push forward the proposal to induct women as fighter pilots in the .

"Though I approved and support the proposal, it was he who was consistently pushing the file to the MoD (Ministry of Defence) level."



"I congratulate you for initiating the seminar which will go a long way in deciding the role of women in uniform and not only in the Armed Medical Corps," Parrikar said.
The first woman officer of BSF today joined the famed portals of its training academy here on the International Women's Day.

24-year-old Tanushri Pareek joined the Border Security Force Officers Training Academy at Tekanpur where she is the lone woman in the 64-member batch.

These trainee officers will train for 52 weeks before being commissioned into the force in the entry rank of Assistant Commandant.

Pareek, a resident of Rajasthan's Bikaner, is the first woman to have joined the BSF in the officer rank after she was selected in the all-India exam conducted by the UPSC in 2014.

The force had begun induction of woman officers in 2013.

"She has joined the academy last week and has the credit of being the first directly recruited woman officer in the BSF. Her batch has begun training. It's a proud moment for all of us this Womans Day.

"She is not only the lone lady officer in her batch but also the only direct entry woman officer in the 2.5 lakh personnel strong force," a senior official said.

There are about 2,000 women combatants in the force in the ranks of constables.

Last year, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Satwant Atwal Trivedi became the first woman officer to join the BSF on deputation as a Deputy Inspector General.

The BSF is primarily tasked to guard two of the most sensitive Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh while it is extensively deployed for conducting anti-Naxal operations and rendering other duties in the internal security domain.
To wean away people from tobacco cultivation, the government is giving high priority for remunerative horticulture crops, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told Lok Sabha today.

The government has been implementing the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) with effect from 2014-15 that covers fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, coconut and cashew, among others.

"Horticulture is emerging as a prospective sector for replacing tobacco cultivation. High priority is given for promoting remunerative horticulture crops for weaning away tobacco cultivation," Singh said.

As many as 384 districts spread across 23 states and union territories have been covered by National Horticulture Mission (NHM) under MIDH.

These include 45 districts in Uttar Pradesh and 39 in Madhya Pradesh.

Under MIDH, various steps have been taken to promote horticulture, including creation of infrastructure for post harvest management and rejuvenation of old and unproductive orchards.

States are also given funds under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for development of horticulture.

MIDH has subsumed NHM, National Bamboo Mission and Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States, among others.
HLL Lifecare today distributed free packs of its sanitary napkins to women prisoners of Attakulangara Sub Jail to mark International Women's Day.

The napkins were distributed free of cost to the inmates, an HLL release said.

As part of the programme, Dr Shobha Mathew, Branch Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation Office in the capital city's Family Planning Association of India office, took an awareness class on menstrual hygiene for the women.

The programme is part of HLL's ongoing awareness camps held across India, particularly aimed at the 88 per cent of India's 35.5 crore menstruating women who have little access to basic women's hygiene products.

HLL has an exclusive Women's Healthcare Division with a Sanitary Napkin manufacturing facility in Kanagala, Belgaum (Karnataka) that produces commercial brand Happy Days and Free Days, which is supplied through the Centre's national programme.

HLL's automated Vendigo sanitary napkin vending machines, which offers 24x7 access and privacy, has been installed at nearly 50 locations across the state, particularly in schools, colleges, hostels and corporate offices, through the Social Welfare Department, the Thiruvananthapuran Municipal Corporation, Kasargod Zilla Panchayat and many others.

IG Prisons H Gopakumar, HLL Senior Vice President G Satheeshkumar and Vice President (Marketing) T Rajasekharan were also present at the function.
A French court approved today extraditing to South Korea the daughter of a tycoon blamed for the deadly 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, although the prime minister must now sign off on the decision.

Even if Prime Minister Manuel Valls signs the decree for the extradition of Yoo Som-Na over the catastrophe that killed more than 300 people, the decision can still be contested in France's highest administrative court.

A lawyer for Yoo said extradition would be "unjust" and that her legal team would continue to fight.

"We're not going to stop there, certainly not," Herve Temime told AFP.

Yoo, who was detained in Paris in May 2014, is wanted in South Korea on suspicion that she embezzled millions of dollars from subsidiaries of her family's company, Chonghaejin Marine Co.

South Korean authorities believe the alleged embezzlement contributed to safety defects that led to the April 2014 disaster that claimed the lives of 304 people, most of them high school children.

Yoo strongly denies the accusations.

Her father Yoo Byung-Eun had been the target of a massive manhunt in South Korea after he refused to respond to an official summons following the ferry disaster.

The tycoon, who in addition to his substantial business interests also ran a religious group, was found dead in a plum orchard two months after the disaster.

An autopsy on his badly decomposed body failed to determine the cause of death.

The overloaded 6,825-tonne Sewol was carrying 476 people when it capsized off the southern coast of South Korea.
Emma Watson, one of the foremost advocates of women's rights in Hollywood, says gender-based pay disparity is not just limited to showbusiness but affects women in all spheres.

The pay disparity between male and female stars in Hollywood has been criticised by stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Patricia Arquette.

Lawrence even penned an article to talk about how she did not always push for a better raise fearing she will be perceived as a 'diva' or a 'difficult woman'.

Watson, who has taken a year's sabbatical from films to focus on women's issues around the globe, admits that women have to not only fight for equal pay but also the negative perception that comes with it.

"We are not supposed to talk about money, because people will think you're 'difficult' or a 'diva.'



"But there's a willingness now to be like, 'Fine. Call me a 'diva', call me a 'feminazi', call me 'difficult,' call me a 'First World feminist', call me whatever you want, it's not going to stop me from trying to do the right thing and make sure that the right thing happens'. Because it doesn't just affect me," Watson said in an interview to Esquire.

"Whether you are a woman on a tea plantation in Kenya, or a stockbroker on Wall Street, or a Hollywood actress, no one is being paid equally," the actress said.

The "Harry Potter" star, however, acknowledges that there is a shift in this perception and that may help her fight gender-based prejudices.

"It's so awesome to be at the forefront of that wave and that energy and just being able to channel that which I found mildly horrifying - all of the crazy attention on me - and doing something good with it, it just feels like I'm really doing what I'm meant to be doing."



Watson, 25, founded the gender equality organization HeForShe in 2014, the year she was appointed a UN Global Goodwill Ambassador.
Ruling out chances of advancing Assembly polls in Goa, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today said it is for the BJP leadership to decide who should lead the party next time and rejected suggestions that defeat in the Panaji City Corporation elections was a setback for the party.

"The elections will not be held this year. They will be either in second-half of February or first-half of March next year," Parsekar told PTI in an interview on the eve of completion of four years of the BJP-led government in Goa.

After winning the polls on March 9, 2012, Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister of the state and Parsekar succeeded him after his elevation as the Defence Minister at the Centre in November, 2014.

Responding to a query on the leadership issue, Parsekar said it is for the party to decide who should be the next chief ministerial face in Goa.

"I have nothing to do with it. It will be party's strategy," he said.

"I am running the government which was formed on the mandate given to Manohar Parrikar. Though the party got the majority, we had projected Parrikar as legislative party leader during 2012 polls," he said.

"Now I feel that during 2017 polls, it is my responsibility to secure the same mandate for the party," Parsekar said.

On the BJP's defeat in Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) polls, the results of which were declared today, he said he did not consider it as a setback to the party.

The BJP candidates were outsmarted by nominees fielded by expelled Congress legislator Atanasio Monserratte, who secured a clear majority in the 30-member civic body.

The CCP, which covers Goa's capital city of Panaji, was ruled by the BJP-led council prior to the elections on March 6.

Monserratte's panel won 17 wards, while BJP managed victory only in 13 seats and the Congress, which had fielded candidates in nine wards, drew a blank.

"The CCP poll results are not a setback for the party. We have maintained our numbers. We had 13 corporators in the earlier council and we have retained it," Parsekar said.

The BJP had controlled the council by joining hands with various smaller groups (independents).

He also said the result will not have any impact on Panaji Assembly segment, which was earlier held by Parrikar and is now represented by Siddharth Kuncolienkar of the BJP.

"Siddharth did a good job, especially when Parrikar is busy in Delhi. I congratulate him," Parsekar said.

Monserratte, however, said the civic body results indicated that the voters want a "BJP-mukt" (free from BJP) Goa.
Goa government today clarified that they would not ask off shore casino vessels to move out of river Mandovi till an alternate site is provided to them.

"While on one side we are appealing investors to come to Goa, if we shut down the casinos before giving them an alternate site, it would send a wrong signal," Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar told PTI today.

Goa government had set a deadline of March 31, 2016 for itself to shift the off shore casino vessels from Mandovi River. However, government has not yet finalised the sites for these vessels to anchor.

Parsekar said closing of casinos will also result in unemployment to 2,500 Goans working on these ships besides affecting the revenue of the state.

The Chief Minister said off shore casinos are the gift of the Congress party which was inherited by the BJP.

"Government is a continuous process and we can't shirk our responsibility," said Parsekar avoiding to mention which would be next deadline that would be set up to shift the casino vessels.

Various groups have been demanding that casino mounted vessels should be shifted to another location from Mandovi as it is blocking the waterway.

BJP, in its 2012 election manifesto, had promised to shift these casinos from the river which is running parallel to Panaji city.
An auction of government debt securities today attracted bids worth Rs 6,463 crore from foreign investors, higher than securities put on offer, indicating a robust demand for such securities.

The auction, which was held on NSE-ebid platform for allocation of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) investment limits in government debt securities worth Rs 4,681 crore (USD 696 million), saw bids for Rs 6,463 crore (USD 961 million),as per the information available with the exchange.

At the end of two-hour auction this evening, 35 bids were declared successful.

The debt auction quota gives overseas investors the right to invest in bonds, up to the limit purchased.

A mock bidding session was conducted on Friday to check the system's performance.

Depository data showed that total investments, including limits acquired by foreign investors through auction route, stood at Rs 1,30,719 crore till March 3, which was 96.54 per cent of the total permitted investment limit of Rs 1,35,400 crore in government debt securities.

Accordingly, NSE had decided to conduct an auction for the allocation of unutilised debt limits.

During the earlier auctions, government bonds have been subscribed multiple times, given the huge interest among foreign investors.

The limit for overseas investors in securities was hiked to Rs 1,29,900 crore from October 12 and it was further increased to Rs 1,35,400 crore from January 1, 2016.

Prior to October limit, they were allowed to invest up to Rs 1,24,432 crore in government debt securities through auction.
The government will shortly launch the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP) 2016-26, which aims to put the automobile industry in the league of top three nations in engineering, manufacturing and export of vehicles, and auto components.

The AMP 2016-26, which has been finalised in consultation with various stakeholders, envisages creation of additional 50 million jobs.

"In the AMP, which will be launched shortly, it is aimed that the Indian automotive industry will be among the top three in the world in engineering, manufacturing and export of vehicles, and auto components.

"While growing in value to over 12 per cent of India's GDP, automobile industry will encompass safe, efficient and environment-friendly conditions for affordable mobility of people and transportation of goods in India, which will be comparable with global standards generating over additional 50 million jobs," the Department of Heavy Industry said.

The government and automobile industry have set an ambitious target of increasing the value of output of the sector to up to Rs 18.89 lakh crore under the AMP 2016-26.

The plan, a collective vision of the government and industry, also aims to propel the Indian auto sector "to be the engine of 'Make in India' programme, potentially contributing in excess of 12 per cent of the country's GDP.

The first AMP was launched for the period of 2006-2016.

In the first AMP 2006-16, the auto industry had achieved a target of incremental job creation of 25 million while the country attracted investments topping the target of Rs 1.55 lakh crore from global and local OEMs as well as component makers.
Government will send a proposal to the Union Cabinet regarding closure of the loss-making Instrumentation Limited unit at Kota in Rajasthan, which has 600 employees, Union Minister Anant Geete said today.

While the Kota unit of Instrumentation Limited has been in the red since many years, the Palakkad unit has been making profits. Geete had earlier written to Rajasthan and Kerala governments requesting them to take over the units.

"Rajasthan has rejected the proposal so we have decided to shut the unit. We will send a proposal to Cabinet in this regard. The Kerala Government has shown interest (in taking over the Palakkad unit) but no final decision has been taken yet on that. The Kota unit has 600 employees while the Palakkad unit has 350 employees," Geete told reporters here.

Employees of the Palakkad unit have been demanding that the government either delink it from its loss-making mother unit at Kota or merge with a profit-making PSU.

The government had last month approved hiving off profit-making Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) from its parent company Instrumentation Ltd and turning it into an independent central public sector enterprise (CPSE) under the Department of Heavy Industry.

REIL was a joint venture between Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation (RIICO) and Instrumentation Ltd, Kota, with 49 per cent and 51 per cent ownership, respectively.
Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain today said the AAP government will not allow hike in electricity tariff in the national capital this year as well.

Jain said several states had increased electricity tariff by up to 20-30 per cent last year but in Delhi, no power hike was allowed in 2015.

The government's stand came amid the demand for tariff hike by all three power distribution companies, citing rise in their expenses.

"Like last year, we will also not allow hike in electricity tariff this year," the power minister said while addressing representatives of Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) at a one-day training workshop on energy conservation at Delhi Secretariat.

In 2015, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) was not allowed to hike power rates in the city following a huge victory for the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which had been fighting against increased tariffs in the national capital.

The Delhi government gives a subsidy of around Rs 1,500 crore every year on power consumption due to which the electricity bills are slashed by half.
A powerful hand grenade exploded near a kerosene godown at Toupokpi area in Bishnupur district last night, according to police.

The blast took place at around 7.30 PM yesterday near the godown of a kerosene dealer after unidentified miscreants lobbed the grenade, the police said.

Though there was no casualties, considerable property worth lakhs have been damaged by the explosion, the police said.

Reason for the explosion was yet to be known, the police said.
The regional finals of Global Student Entrepreneur Awards for undergraduate and graduate students entrepreneurship would be held in city on March 12.

Nominees under the programme from various parts of the globe would compete for title that include sponsorships and awards.

The semi-finals and finals are scheduled to take place in Chennai, on March 12 and the winner from competition would be participating in the finals in Bangkok, Thailand, a press release said.

"The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards promoted as Entrepreneurs'Organisation programme is a global competition for student entrepreneurs encouraging entrepreurial instinct, identifying next generation job creators and influencers", GSEA Director, South Asia, K Chandrasekhar said.
Seeking to win back the rural voters ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat, state BJP today announced to hold eight farmers' rallies in parts of state this month.

The newly-elected state BJP president and Transport Minister Vijay Rupani made this announcement at a party function in Gandhinagar, a party release said.

These events, named as 'Virat Khedut Rally', will be organised between March 16 and 18.

"Rupani urged the party workers and leaders to reach out to people living in each and every village, so that large number of people gather in these rallies, which are organised keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly polls in 2017," the release said.

These rallies will be organised in Kutch (16 March), Lunavada in central Gujarat (17 March), Gandhinagar(18 March), Bhavnagar(25 March), Rajkot(25 March), Vadodara (26 March), South Gujarat(27 March) and in Patan and Banaskantha on March 28, the release.

In the recently-held district and taluka panchayat polls, BJP faced defeat at the hands of Congress.

According to the release, the party meet in Gandhinagar was chaired by BJP national vice president, Om Mathur, who urged the workers to reach out to villagers and farmers and tell them about schemes floated by Centre and state government in their respective budgets.
Gujarat has topped the list of 21 states with most investment potential that has been drawn up by economic think-tank NCAER.

Gujarat is followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The ranking of 20 states and one union territory of Delhi was based on five pillars -- labour, infrastructure, economic climate, governance and political stability, perceptions -- and 51 sub-indicators.

While Gujarat topped in governance and political stability, and perceptions, Delhi ranked one in infrastructure and economic climate. Kerala topped the chart in labour issues.

The report said that out of the 21 states, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand will have to do a significant amount of catching up.

NCAER's Senior Fellow Indira Iyer said this report is different from the World Bank's report, which was released last year, though it complements that ranking.

While the World Bank-DIPP report was more about procedures and transactions, the NCAER report focuses on policy and structural backdrop that determines the business environment in a state.

Talking about this NCAER's index, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said the results are quite different from World Bank's report.

"In the beginning it was of some concern to us before we got down to the details of what this study is all about because we thought it may send some diverse messages to various potential investors but the two studies and the contents are so different that they supplement each other nicely," he said.

Talking about specifics, he said the report has cited corruption, delay in getting approvals before starting a business and hurdles in getting environmental clearance as top three constraints.

"These are the areas DIPP wishes to address as part of our ease of doing business initiatives," he added.

The secretary suggested the states come out with ideas and measures to improve on these three issues.

The survey has covered only 21 states -- Assam was the only one among the seven north-eastern states. Goa, Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim were not taken into account.

Further, Iyer said states need to focus on e-governance, ease of doing business and improving skilled manpower to attract investors.

The objective of the survey was to get the industries' perception on issues related to land, labour and infrastructure and governance; business climate in their respective states and various other challenges faced by the industrialist.
Police today "rejected" the charges made by incarcerated Patel quota stir spearhead Hardik Patel that he was being "ill-treated" by authorities in Lajpore jail in Surat and that the food being served to him in the prison was "adulterated".

Surat Police, after conducting an inquiry into the charges made by Hardik last month, today said in a statement that they did not find any "proof" in the claims made by him.

"Hardik was placed alone in barrack no. 1 of Lajpore Jail, but on his submission that he did not like to stay alone, the jail authorities placed two watchmen to guard, keeping his safety in mind. Police did not find any evidence of his being tortured, as claimed by him," police said in the statement.

"When the prisoner gets food from home, the jail authorities issue ID-card to the person, who brings food. The tiffin is further examined before being sent to the prisoner in order to ensure that no banned object finds its way inside the barrack. The process is monitored on CCTV camera.

"In Hardik's case, his cousin Ravibhai Maheshbhai himself brought tiffin for him, which went through regular process. So there is no question of the food being adulterated before reaching him, and the claim finds no ground," it added.

Hardik, who is presently lodged in Lajpore prison on sedition charges, had written to the jail authorities on February 17 complaining about the food that he was receiving in his barrack was being "adulterated."



Following this, the state Director General of Police (DGP) P C Thakur had directed the Surat police to investigate the matter.
Haryana is a leading state in terms of education and offers abundant opportunities in areas like healthcare and services, Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said today.

Speaking on the last day of the two-day 'Happening Haryana Global Investors' Summit-2016' here, Sinha said the domestic market of Haryana is very robust and services in any sector can be provided easily.

Haryana is leading in terms of business, education and financial services, which should be further strengthened to increase the GDP of the country and the state, the minister said at the sectoral session titled 'Next wave of growth in services sector'.

He urged entrepreneurs to come to Haryana and invest in sectors like information technology, health, education, finance and banking.

Sinha said various cities of the state are developed, including Gurgaon, and there are numerous possibilities of expansion of health services.

There are abundant possibilities of investment in the field of medical tourism, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar assured entrepreneurs that the state government was committed towards providing all facilities to them.

Haryana Health and Medical Education Minister Anil Vij said, "We envision...Establishing at least one medical college in every district. A hospital will soon be established in Panchkula over an area of 18 acres."



Medical services in the state are being expanded through the public-private partnership mode and MRI and dialysis services are being provided in all districts, he said.

Herbal parks are being set up across the state and Morni, in district Panchkula, is being developed as a world-class herbal forest, he added.

Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Commerce, Arvind Mehta said, "The health portal by the Haryana government is promising. As a country, we should move beyond electronic visa and introduce visa on arrival. This will boost medical tourism."



Chairman and Managing Director of Educomp Solutions Ltd Shantanu Prakash said Haryana has the opportunity to become the education capital of India.
Haryana government today transferred and posted of two IPS officers with immediate effect.

Subhash Yadav, Commissioner of Police, Faridabad and Hanif Qureshi, Inspector General of Police, Karnal Range will swap their respective places of posting, an official release said.

Also, S P Gupta, Director General, Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA), Gurgaon has been given additional charge of Director, Haryana Academy of History and Culture located at HIPA, Gurgaon, in addition to his present duties against a vacant post, a release said here today.
Suzuki Motorcycle India has started assembling of its flagship motorcycle 'Hayabusa' in India, resulting in over Rs 2 lakh reduction in the ex-showroom price of the iconic model.

The company has begun assembly of the Suzuki Hayabusa at at its plant in Gurgaon, Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) said in a statement.

With the start of local assembly, the price of the superbike has come down from Rs 15.95 lakh to Rs 13.57 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

"Coupled with growth in lifestyle and infrastructure, there is an increasing demand for big bikes by the Indian enthusiast. SMIPL shall cater to this by starting assembly of our most widely selling big bike, the Suzuki Hayabusa," SMIPL Vice President Sales & Marketing, Kenji Hirozawa said.

The end customer will definitely benefit from this move, and the Hayabusa shall be available for Rs 13.57 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), he added.

Suzuki Hayabusa is one of the most renowned and cult motorcycles across the globe.

SMIPL is now importing the superbike as CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kits and assemble at the same factory in Gurgaon where the entire SMIPL lineup is manufactured and assembled.

"Nonetheless, the specifications of the motorcycle shall remain unchanged as compared to its CBU (Completely Built Up) counterpart which has been imported from Japan all these years," the company said.
The Madras High Court today granted one-day conditional parole to Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, for attending the 16th day obsequies (post-death) of her father here.

Justice R Mala directed Nalini not to give any interview to anybody and said she should be confined to the house where the obsequies is performed tomorrow.

It may be recalled Nalini had interacted with a section of the media while she was on a 12-hour parole on February 24 last to attend the cremation of her father.

Passing orders on Nalini's petition seeking three days leave, the Judge granted her 24-hour parole starting from 4 PM today to 4 PM tomorrow.

Nalini had moved the court seeking leave from today for attending the obsequies of her father who passed away last month.

In her petition, Nalini had submitted she had made a representation on March 2 to the Superintendent of Special Prison for Women in Vellore, where she is lodged, seeking three days leave but the official had not responded.

When the matter came up today, the state government advocate opposed parole.

The Judge, however, granted the one-day parole.

"It is true that there is no provision for granting emergency leave to attend the 16thday obsequies. However, in Hindu custom, the presence of the daughters are necessary for performing 16thday obsequies.

"Since the petitioner is the daughter of the deceased Sankaranarayanan, the presence of the petitioner is necessary to do the last respects to her father," the Judge said.

She made it clear that the Prison Superintendent should make all effective arrangements for escorting Nalini free of cost as per rules.

Nalini shall stay at her residence during night hours and there should be sufficient escort round the clock till she was brought back to the prison, Justice Mala said.

It was the responsibility of the Superintendent of Prison to bring Nalini back to the jail, the Judge said and posted the matter to March 10 for reporting compliance.

Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.
: Kerala High Court today ordered maintenance of status quo by all parties concerned in the matter of a paddy field in an area at ecologically sensitive Kumarakom in Kottayam district.

The order was issued by Justice A Mohammed Mustaq considering a plea filed by paddy cultivater N K Alexander against the sanction given by the Kerala government to a private developer to use 378 acres of paddy land at Methran Kayal Padasekharam in Kumarakom for a tourism project.

The petitioner submitted that he owns 7.8 hectares of paddy land in the village and that such a project coming up would have an adverse impact on his agriculture activities.

This area falls in Ramsar site as protected wetland. The project, presently protrayed as an eco-tourism project, is an ultra-luxury five star hotel and resorts. Any activity other than paddy cultivation would affect his rights, he said.

The state government has given in principle clearance for the project.

The petitioner had alleged that government land was



allotted to Pune-headquartered Maharashtra Rashtrabhasha Sabha for the promotion of Hindi Language by NIT only for Rs 30 lakh, bypassing mandatory provisions of Land Disposal Rules 1986 to auction the land.

It was also alleged that the said piece of land was illegally alienated and the interest was transferred to several parties through various agreements, to which NIT was not at all a party.

The petitioner further alleged that all the actions were violative of Lease Deed signed by the NIT and the rules 5, 6, 7, 24 of Land Disposal Rules-1983.

The PIL also demanded action against alleged unauthorised construction and commercial activities without the valid "occupancy certificate" and "building completion certificate" and wondered as to why NMC was not acting after issuing demolition notice for the reasons best known to it.

The petitioner demanded action against state government officers and prayed for a CBI inquiry while alleging that highly influential political persons are involved in the case.

It also prayed for demolition of the building, cancellation of allotment of land at concessional rate and also prayed for fresh auction of the government-owned land.
A 21-year-old youth, who was declared brain dead, gave a fresh lease of life to two patients by donating his heart and liver.

The donor, who was admitted to Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIIMS) hospital in Indore after suffering serious injuries in a road accident was declared brain dead on March 6 following which the doctors consulted his family who agreed to donate his organs.

"A call was made to the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation(ORBO) at AIIMS following which a team of surgeons from the cardio-thoracic and vascular sciences centre (CTVS) led by Milind Hote flew to the Indore hospital and retrieved the heart of the patient. Liver of the deceased was also retrieved as it was in good condition.

"Traffic police of both local cities provide green corridor from retrieval hospital to airport and from airport to harvest hospital," said AIIMS Director M C Mishra.

The organs were flown to Delhi and implanted to a 28-year old Rohtak resident suffering from Ischemic Cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the left ventricle, which is the main heart muscle, is usually enlarged and dilated.

The liver was transplanted to a adult at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences(ILBS), who is doing well after the surgery.

Over 500 medicos and para-medicos were involved in the whole process, Mishra added.
India and Egypt need to combat the growth of non-state actors seeking to replace established governments, the Indian envoy here has said while calling for the global community to come together to fight terrorism in a united manner.

"The global community should come together to fight terrorism. There is very strong need to combine our efforts to fight terrorism in a very strong concerted and effective way and in a very united manner," Ambassador of India to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya told PTI in an interview yesterday.

"What we are seeing is the growth of non-state actors who are seeking to replace established governments as we understand and we need to fight this in a very deliberate manner and use all our efforts and there is close cooperation between the Indian and Egyptian authorities," he said.

Bhattacharyya said high-level exchange of visits of the national security advisers of the two countries took place recently.

"India has proposed a comprehensive convention against International terrorism at the UN. We look forward to Egypt's support, so that the global community can come together to fight terrorism," he said.

Egypt has always been at the heart of regional discourse and plays an extremely important role in regional issues apart from being a very ancient civilisation.

"The question is only how far Egypt will play a role in not only guiding its people to their destiny but also in guiding people around to a more stable, prosperous and peaceful world.

"Egypt is a remarkable example of how different influences across the centuries have come together and been assimilated and have actually enriched each other in a mutually beneficial manners over centuries and so Egypt can be a tremendous example for the Arab world and Africa in guiding political economic and social direction for the future," he said.

Bhattacharyya said during his nine month here, he has visited many places along the Nile basin and wish to visit others along the sea coast and north coast and the Red Sea.

"I would like to see what is the potential for our cooperation particularly in the field of agriculture, renewable energy and education, and for that I would travel to some different parts of the country and see how we can find the model that will be of mutual beneficial," he said.

Bhattacharyya said Egypt and India share a lot of



similarities.

"The greatest similarities between India and Egypt are that we have a great sense of history and our heritage and at the same time we are looking forward to creating a bright future. The other factor is the manner in which our societies and families are associated," he said.

"There is great importance of family in India and I find that it is very much the case in Egypt as well. So when I go to some places outside in Egypt and I see the father, the mother and the little children travelling together, going out for a meal or going to watch a movie, it brings back memories of the way families are in India.

"We are also very close families. We love to celebrate and we find many occasions to celebrate with our families and friends and I see a lot of that in Egypt," Bhattacharyya said.

"I sometime see similarities even in some of the architecture patterns especially on Cairo with some of the architecture pattern in India.

The Hindi and Urdu language have derived greatly from Arabic and Persian so there are common words and common ideas and the more you spent time, the more you discover that we are very similar people," the Ambassador said, adding that diplomats often end up writing books about their experiences and "I can say for sure that Egypt will be on top of my list".
The Indian and the Indonesian army will take part in the fourth Garuda Shakti joint training exercise, which will focus on counter-insurgency, between March 10 to 23.

According to Col Rohan Anand, spokesperson for the Indian Army, the joint exercise will be conducted for 13 days at Magelang, Indonesiain which an Indian Army platoon strength contingent will carry out cross training with a platoon from the Airborne battalion of the Indonesian Army. The selected Indian unit has had varied operational experience in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorist operations in the Northern, Western and Eastern theatres. The Indian Contingent has been put through a rigorous training schedule to prepare it for the exercise which includes combat conditioning, firing, tactical operations, tactical skills and special heliborne operations training.

The exercise will be conducted as joint Counter Insurgency operations exercise in urban and rural scenario and encompass various facets of tactical Counter Insurgency operations.

Anand said the aim of the exercise is to build and promote positive relations between the armies of India and Indonesia and to enhance the ability of Indian and Indonesian Army to undertake joint tactical level operations in a Counter Insurgency environment under United Nations Charter.

It also includes the ambit of identifying areas of expertise/ specialisation of each other, evolution of combat tactical drills for conduct of tactical Counter Insurgency operations and to undertake combined training for neutralisation of insurgency threat.

The exercise is conducted on a reciprocal basis and its first edition was conducted in the year 2012 in India. The second edition was conducted in Indonesia in 2013 and third in India in 2014.

To coordinate modalities of the training exercise, anExercise Planning Conferencewas held atYogyakarta, Indonesia on 22 and 23 September 2015.
India is among the countries where there are less number of women in business leadership roles, says a report.

According to the study by Grant Thornton, released on International Women's Day, a third of those surveyed in the country does not have women in senior positions at all.

"India ranks third lowest in the proportion of business leadership roles held by women for the second year consecutively," the study said adding that 34 per cent of the Indian businesses surveyed have no women in leadership.

While businesses increasingly understand the benefits of diversity in leadership and are committed to meritocracy, there can be a mismatch between what they say and how they unconsciously behave, the study said.

It noted, at the global stage, Eastern European countries dominate the international league table for senior female business leaders, including seven of the top ten, with Russia at number one.

"However, the proportion of women reaching the top tier of the business world has shown little progress over the past decade," the report said.

The survey was conducted among 5,520 businesses in 36 economies.

"If change has to be leapfrogged, apart from the creative flexi working policies and strong development support provided by organisations to the women workforce, then government and industry bodies need to join hands and make amends to the existing labour laws wherein provision of childcare facilities be mandated across all industry sectors," Grant Thornton People and Culture Leader Kavita Mathur said.

She added, "Such facilities should be made affordable and brought closer to workplace. Industry bodies on their part should ensure enforcement of these policies both in letter and spirit."



The survey also revealed increasing support among business leaders for the introduction of quotas.

Globally, almost half (47 per cent) of both male and female senior managers now support quotas to get women on the boards of large listed companies, up from 37 per cent in 2013, the study noted.
Amid the current thaw in bilateral ties, former Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom today said India remains the "most strategically important" partner of Maldives.

"India was and remains the most strategically important partner of Maldives, whether it is our ties in education and army and navy training and the recent goodwill visit of ships to our country only prove that. And, we wish to continue our ties," he said.

Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya along with its support ships INS Mysore and INS Deepak recently were on a four-day visit to Maldives.

The former Maldivian president said this in response to a question after delivering an address on 'Islam: A Religion of Peace' at the Observer Research Foundation here.

Gayoom also condemned acts of terrorism perpetrated globally in the name of Islam and said militant outfits like IS are "not fighting a holy war" or upholding the rights of Muslims with their mindless violence born out of religious ignorance.

"The nature of acts committed by IS only stem out of ignorance about Islam. Anyone who understands the basic tenets of this religion knows that it forbids violence and killing of any kind unless prescribed by law for crimes like murder...

"IS by its terror activities is neither fighting a holy war or upholding the rights of the Muslim community. Thousands of people are being killed in terror attacks and I condemn all such violence and wars waged in the name of religion," Gayoom said.

"But, let me add here that those committing acts of violence in the name of Islam are barely one per cent of the global Muslim population, which is largely peaceful and therefore fear and suspicion about Muslims generated among people in many parts of the world after events like September 11 attack also show lack of understanding of Islam on their part. So, the image of Islam gets tarnished both ways," he said.

The Maldivian leader further said, a Muslim is not someone who says so but he becomes a Muslim by his act, or for that matter a Hindu or a Christian.

"And that act as the Holy Quran says is of kindness and compassion and tolerance...The tenets in our holy books say that killing one man equals killing whole of mankind," he said.

"But acts of terrorism have been committed by non-Muslims groups too like the Ku Klux Klan, the IRA, Red Army and the LTTE. So, people must understand that Islam or for that matter any religion teaches peace and harmony and a few people use it for waging a war," he said.

Speaking on SAARC he said, "I am one of the original



founding fathers of this regional cooperation body but I think in the last few years, we have not been able to live up to the principles with which we had founded it. And I hope, we will again acquire the synergy to do so."



The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a regional block consisting of eight countries was established at a summit held in Bangladesh in 1985.

On former president Mohamed Nasheed's case he said, "Nasheed is out of the country on humanitarian grounds."



"But he is indulging in political activities by meeting the UK Prime Minister which is not good for the image of the country," he said.

Nasheed, who is serving a 13-year jail term on terror charges, was granted 30 days of leave, which expired late last month, for a back surgery. However, he had requested an additional 60-day leave.

"A meeting with the Opposition party, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is scheduled today where issue of political prisoners would also be taken up," said Farish Gayoom, son of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, on the sidelines of the event.

The former president also reject apprehensions that there was a "climate of fear" in Maldives.

"People are free to criticise anyone, including the President. Also, for us tourism is a major sector for sustaining our economy and therefore we are committed to contributing towards building a comfortable climate for everyone," Abdul Gayoom said.

He also admitted that some Maldivian youths, including the well-educated ones, were "getting radicalised" but the youths were going out of the country and they have no control over where they are going.

"But, in Maldives we are taking every step to make sure no such activities take place. We also have our own anti-terrorism laws in place to ensure peaceful environment," he said.
Praising the Indian diaspora as an "asset" for India-UK relations, India's new High Commissioner Navtej Sarna today said that though being only 1.8 per cent of Britain's population they contribute 6 per cent to the GDP.

"The India diaspora in the UK is one of the largest ethnic minority communities in the country equating to around 1.8 per cent of the population and contributing 6 per cent of the country's GDP," he said.

At an event at the British Parliament complex, he also described them as an "asset for building India-UK relations".

The event, jointly hosted by Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and the APPG for the Commonwealth, was held to welcome Sarna to his UK posting earlier this year.

"India and the UK are a part of one big family which is the Commonwealth and it is the Commonwealth values of democracy, rule of law and freedom of speech that binds us all together," the High Commissioner said.

He briefed the Lords and MPs on major developments in India-UK ties, including the outcomes of the successful visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UK in November 2015.

The High Commissioner urged the British parliamentarians to visit India to see first-hand and understand India in the larger context of the potential of the growing India-UK relations.

He also encouraged the audience to get more associated with the Nehru Centre, the cultural wing of the Indian High Commission in London, with a view to raising the level of intellectual activities of the centre.

Virendra Sharma, Chair of Indo-British APPG, and Sir Henry Bellingham, chair of the APPG on Commonwealth, presided over the address.

Sarna's address was followed by an interactive session on varied topics that included visa issues for Indian students coming to the UK to study, Migration Advisory Committee's recommendations on Tier-2 Intra Company Transfer visas which are expected to hit Indian IT professionals and India's engagement with the Commonwealth.
A 69-year-old Indian-origin doctor in the US has been convicted of illegally receiving benefits for referring elderly patients to a financially struggling hospital in Chicago.

Venkateswara Kuchipudi of Illinois became the fifth physician and 10th defendant overall to be convicted for taking part in the massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme at the now-shuttered Sacred Heart Hospital.

He was convicted after a five-week trial on one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and nine counts of illegally soliciting or receiving benefits in return for referrals of patients covered under a federal health care programme.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine.

US District Judge Matthew Kennelly scheduled a sentencing hearing for June.

From 2001 through April 2013, hospital executives conspired to pay kickbacks and bribes to physicians to induce them to refer patients for services that would be reimbursed by federal insurance programme Medicare and Medicaid.

The scheme earned the financially struggling hospital millions of dollars in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.

Evidence at Kuchipudi's trial revealed that he was one of the hospital's most prolific sources of patient referrals.

In exchange for his referrals, the hospital provided Kuchipudi with free labour in the form of physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

The hospital allowed Kuchipudi to bill Medicare and Medicaid for the services of the physician assistants and nurse practitioners as if he employed them himself.
More and more Indian women are becoming assertive while making travel plans as a whopping 75 per cent of the respondents said they were equally involved while charting a trip, according to a recent survey.

"About 50 per cent Asian women travellers say they make all travel decisions themselves while 46 per cent include their significant other (spouse or partner) in the travel planning process," according to a survey by TripAdvisor that highlights how women across Asia plan their holidays.

"Only 32 per cent Indian women travellers make all the travel decisions themselves, but they are increasingly voicing their opinion with 75 per cent taking equal ownership of planning the trip," it said.

The findings, launched in conjunction with International Women's Day, are based on responses from over 2,800 female travellers across seven Asian countries, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Japan.

The survey found that overall 68 per cent Asian and 63 per cent Indian women travellers feel their travels have helped them learn more about the world while 33 per cent Asian and 36 per cent Indian female travellers say travel has changed the way they think and live their lives.

Indian women travellers further feel that their travels have made them more confident (46 per cent) and more open to learning and trying new things (57 per cent), it said.

Further, the survey found that Indian women travellers feel travel has had a positive impact on their lives, with 69 per cent saying travel makes them feel relaxed and 58 per cent saying it inspired them.

The survey also found that 83 per cent Asian women travellers contributed financially, either fully or partially, to their last personal trip, of which 27 per cent said they funded the entire holiday (including for their travel companions), while 32 per cent shared the cost with their spouse or partner.

On same parameters, 60 per cent Indian women travellers contributed financially, either fully or partially, to their last personal trip, of which 18 per cent funded the entire holiday themselves, including for their travel companions, it said.

About 35 per cent said they shared the cost with their partner, whereas 16 per cent paid for their portion of the trip with their family or friends, it said.

Despite this apparent financial independence, Asian women



travellers are deal-hunters at heart and are most swayed by deals or low prices (78 per cent Asian and 72 per cent Indian), the TripAdvisor survey said.

The survey found that 72 per cent Indian women have voted for 'nature', followed by learning about a new place and its people (71 per cent), and only 24 per cent chose shopping as a key influencer while planning a trip.

Commenting on the findings, TripAdvisor India Country Manager Nikhil Ganju said, "It's great to see Indian women taking charge of their travel process across all spheres - from planning and booking to purchasing their holiday. In terms of what influences their holiday, while majority (72 per cent) have voted for 'nature', what's surprising is that only 24 per cent are influenced by good old 'shopping'."



The top destinations Asian women travellers plan to travel to in 2016 are all near home, like Japan, Thailand and Australia, while the US is top choice for long-haul travel.

For Indian women, top destinations in 2016 are India (23 per cent), the US (20 per cent) and the UK (14 per cent).
Several domestic airlines today operated all-women crew flights to mark the International Women's Day with national carrier Air India flying three international flights with such crew.

Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Vistara also operated all women crew flights, though on their domestic network.

National carrier Air India expressed its respect towards women by operating over 20 all-women operating flights including seven on domestic routes as part of the International Women's Day celebrations, AI said in a release.

These flights were operated on Delhi-Sydney, the Delhi-London and the Delhi-San Francisco sectors, it said.

Earlier, Air India had claimed of flying the world's longest all-women operated and supported flight from Delhi to San Francisco on March 6.

Today out of the total number of all-women flights, operated in the domestic sector - three flights were from Delhi, eight flights in Mumbai, seven flights in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad: and one flight from Kolkata, it said.

In addition, the carrier's international budget arm, Air India Express also operated Air India Express operated four international flights manned by all-women crew.

These services were flown Kochi- Dubai - Kochi, Singapore - Tiruchirappalli - Chennai , Chennai- Tiruchirappalli - Singapore and Mangalore - Dammam - Mangalore, routes, Air India Express said in a separate statement.

To celebrate International Women's Day in its true spirit, SpiceJet in association with some NGOs took 20 selectively chosen women on a day-trip aboard SpiceJet's All Women Crew flight to Art of Living's Bangalore centre, SpiceJet said.

Besides, SpiceJet also flew 10 flights across its network with an all women crew, it said.

"Today in SpiceJet's flight with our all women cockpit and inflight crew and engineers on one side, while Women of Substance from rural and slums on the other; we commemorate women's day in its true universal spirit," SpiceJet Chief Administrative Officer G P Gupta said.

Another private carrier Jet Airways said it operated two flights on Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector to commemorate the International Women's Day.

In addition, every aspect of these flights was managed by an all-women crew from a cross section of the business, including engineering, ground handling, cargo, ramp and airport services, it said adding.

Tata-SIA joint venture airline Vistara also announced all women crew operated four of its flights on the Delhi-Lucknow-Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi route.
On International Women's day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he salutes women for their accomplishments and expressed his government's unwavering commitment to their welfare through schemes like 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao'



"Saluting the accomplishments of all women on International Women's Day & gratitude for their indispensable role in our society," he said on twitter.

"From 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' to better health & education facilities, our Govt's efforts towards women-led development are unwavering," Modi said.

The Prime Minister said his government's skill development initiatives will empower women to contribute to India's growth.

"Our financial inclusion efforts, skill development initiatives & MUDRA Bank will empower our Nari Shakti to contribute to India's growth," he said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said the retrospective fee hike in IP University colleges is expected to be rolled back by tomorrow.

The file in this regard has been sent to the Lt Governor for his approval, he said.

The Directorate of Higher Education had asked the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University to implement the revised fee structure on basis of the recommendation of an eight- member panel re-constituted by the government.

"IP univ students met me this morn also. Pl don't worry. File sent to LG. Hopefully, fee hike will be cancelled by tomo (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio, said he has sent the file on the roll- back to LG Najeeb Jung for his approval.

Under the revised fee structure been implemented, an MCA student who pays Rs 96,600 per academic session at Banarasidass Chandiwala Institute of Information Technology, would have to shell out Rs 1,20,000 per academic session from 2013 onwards.

Meanwhile, amidst allegations that the agitating students were threatened by colleges not to approach the government, Sisodia has ordered that the Director (Higher Education) may instruct university authorities that no private college can take action against any student in this matter and any such move would be viewed seriously.

In his order, the Deputy Chief Minister further said it is the considered opinion of the government that the right to protest



and right of dissent are fundamental rights of the students.

A notification issued last month by Shiv Kumar, Director (Higher Education), said "the government has decided that the fee proposed for 2013-16 by the State Fee Regulatory Committee (SFRC) be notified for the period 2014-17. For courses having duration of four years and five years, the fee notified by the government will be applicable for their entire duration."



The new fee structure is based on the recommendations of the SFRC, set up by Delhi government on February 1, 2013, to determine the fee for courses in privately-managed institutions in the national capital and to perform the functions assigned in the Delhi Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence) Act, 2007.

The notification is based on a report by the government appointed eight-member panel re-constituted on February 13, 2013, headed by former Delhi Chief Secretary Ramesh Narayan Swamy to determine the fee for courses in privately-managed institutions under the IP University in Delhi and NCR.
Iran conducted multiple ballistic missile tests today in an exercise to demonstrate "deterrent power," a move that comes in defiance of US sanctions imposed over its missile programme in January.

The announcement by the official IRNA agency said the tests showed the country's "all-out readiness to confront threats" against its territorial integrity.

State television a short time after showed still images of the armaments used in what it described as a military drill in which "ballistic missiles were fired from silos" in different parts of the country.

The United States imposed new sanctions over Iran's missile programme in January almost immediately after separate sanctions related to Iran's nuclear activities had been lifted under a landmark deal with world powers.

The latest tests, called "The Power of Velayat", a reference to the religious doctrine of the Islamic republic's leadership, were undertaken by the Revolutionary Guards and Aerospace Forces, IRNA reported.

Sepah News, the Guards' official media service, carried a statement confirming the missile tests, which come less than two weeks after elections in Iran delivered gains to politicians aligned with Hassan Rouhani, the country's moderate president.

The Revolutionary Guards report to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not Rouhani, and their influence dwarfs that of the army and other armed forces.

Ballistic missile tests have been seen as a means for Iran's military to demonstrate that the nuclear deal will have no impact on its plans, which is says are for domestic defence only.

Major General Ali Jafari, the Guards' top commander, and Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, were present when the exercise took place, IRNA reported.

Iran's ballistic missile programme has been contentious since the nuclear deal with the United States and five other powers was struck in Vienna on July 14 last year.

On October 11, Tehran conducted the first of two ballistic missile tests which angered Washington. State television weeks later aired unprecedented footage of underground missile storage bunkers.

A UN panel said in December that the tests breached previous resolutions aimed at stopping Tehran from developing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Tehran has always denied seeking an atomic weapon and argues that its missiles would never be designed to, nor ever carry, the bomb.

The nuclear deal was heralded by moderates such as Rouhani, who staked his reputation on the negotiations, but hardliners in Tehran said it damaged national interests.

Announcing the new missile sanctions on January 17, one day after the nuclear deal was finally implemented, US President Barack Obama said "profound differences" with Tehran remained over its "destabilising activities".

Five Iranians and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury Department announced.

The White House had first threatened to impose the measures in December but withdrew them after Rouhani hit out at both their timing and intent. Missiles were not part of the nuclear agreement which was to be finalised weeks later.
"HRD Minister is acting like the patron saint of ABVP", eight Opposition parties including Congress, Left and AAP said today while accusing the Modi government of harassing Allahabad University Student's Union President Richa Singh.

Drawing parallel with dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad University and the JNU row involving Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest, leaders from the parties in a joint statement trained their guns on HRD Minister Smriti Irani reminding her that she is a minister of the entire country and not just the RSS and BJP.

Jairam Ramesh and Rajeev Shukla (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Javed Ali Khan (Samajwdi Party), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Bhagwant Man (AAP) and Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD), who signed the joint statement said they are "aghast" that University administration across the region are "hunting" students, who have a different view than that of the ABVP.

"We are agonized over the fact that the first ever lady President of Allahabad University Student's Union Richa Singh is being harassed by the administration...," they said.

"A government, which refuses to learn that autonomy of education institution is foundation of democracy, is sowing widespread discontent in campuses by its blatant support to ABVP's goondaism," they said.

Noting that Richa Singh, a PhD scholar, had won as an independent candidate in Allahabad University while all the other seats were won by ABVP, the leaders claimed that she came into the eye of the storm for protesting against the proposed visit of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.

"ABVP members allegedly attacked the protestors but instead of investigating the attack, an enquiry was set up on Richa Singh herself. Further, there is a move now by the Vice Chancelor to declare her admission null and void, using some technical grounds, in order to get rid of what appears to be the only thorn in ABVP's side.

"We are aghast that University administration across the region are hunting students, who have a different view thatn the ABVP," the said.

Alleging that the HRD Minister is acting like the "patron saint of ABVP", they said, "we wish to remind her that she is a minister of this vast, diverse country and not just the RSS/BJP.

"It is her responsibility to encourage and protect all Constitutitional freedoms in University campuses. If Richa Singh is made a victim of ABVP's diktats, on the heels of Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar, then the students of this nation will be forced to rise in revolt," the statement said.
The rocky relationship between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a fresh hit today over a declined White House invitation as Vice President Joe Biden arrived for talks.

Netanyahu's decision not to accept an invitation for talks with Obama in Washington later this month "surprised" the White House, which first learned of it through reports.

The Israeli premier's office defended the decision by saying Netanyahu did not want to interfere in US presidential primary elections currently taking place.

Obama and Netanyahu have had a testy personal relationship, worsened by the Israeli premier's forceful opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, including in a speech to the US Congress.

But they have sought to set aside their disagreements in recent months and work out a new 10-year defence aid package for Israel as well as demonstrate that the ties between the two traditional allies remain strong.

Biden arrived in Tel Aviv late today afternoon and will hold talks with Netanyahu tomorrow. He is also scheduled to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

A previous visit by Biden in 2010 was marred by the announcement of a major Israeli settlement project in annexed east Jerusalem.

The announcement drew a public scolding from Biden and it soured relations with Washington for months.

His visit this time comes with Obama having acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

The White House has said that Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit, even though a wave of violence since October has killed more than 200 people.

Talks are expected to include discussions on the 10-year defence aid package for Israel, currently worth some USD 3.1 billion annually in addition to spending on projects such as missile defence, illustrating the importance of Israel's relationship with the United States.

Biden and Netanyahu also plan to talk about the fight against the Islamic State group.

But while Obama has resigned himself to not achieving any major breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there have been suggestions he may seek to somehow kickstart peace efforts at a complete standstill for two years.

That has included speculation that the United States could break with traditional practice and support a UN resolution related to resolving the conflict, which Israel strongly opposes.

The United States has traditionally vetoed resolutions at the UN Security Council opposed by Israel.

"They are worried in Jerusalem that between the time of the election in November and the time that the actual president begins his term of office in January... President Obama might do certain things that the PM won't like," Jonathan Rynhold of Israel's Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies told AFP.

At the same time, some analysts say they do not expect the United States to demand concessions from Israel toward Palestinians in connection with the new defence aid pact being negotiated.

A former Israeli ambassador to the US and ex-adviser to Netanyahu said completing the deal was in the interest of both countries due to the evolving threats to them in the Middle East.

It was important for both to have "a projection to the common enemies of Israel and the United States of a very strong -- militarily strong - Israel," said Zalman Shoval.

"And therefore, I think these two things will not be linked.
Coinciding with International Women's Day celebration, J Vasugi has become the first woman to take over as the Senior Postmaster of Thiyagaraya Nagar Head Post Office today.

Vasugi, who had joined the Postal department in Dharmapuri Division as Assistant in 1982, gradually rose to the level in Superintendent cadre, a PIB release said.

She had earlier served Chennai City North Division as Assistant Superintendent Cadre.

During her brief stint in North Chennai City division, she played a key role in computerisation of the post office including provision of core banking solution facility.
Jain Irrigation Systems plans to raise nearly Rs 290 crore through issue of debentures to Mauritius-based Mandala Rose Co-Investment Ltd.

In a filing to the BSE, Jain Irrigation Systems said that a meeting of the securities issuance committee of board of directors will be held on March 11 to "consider the allotment of up to 36.2 million compulsorily convertible debentures at Rs 80 each for cash, aggregating to Rs 2,896 million to Mandala Rose Co-Investment Limited, Mauritius, a non-promoter entity".

In December last, the shareholders had approved the proposal to raise Rs 289.6 crore from agri-business funding firm Mandala Co-Investment Ltd by issuance of debentures.

Jain Irrigation is engaged in manufacturing of micro irrigation systems, PVC pipes, HDPE pipes, plastic sheets, agro processed products, renewable energy solutions, tissue culture plants, financial services and other agricultural inputs since the last 34 years.
The strike by bullion traders and jewellers continued for the 7th day today to protest the Budget proposal to impose one per cent excise duty on jewellery, despite the Centre's assurance that it would look into the issue.

All India Sarafa Association Vice-President Surinder Kumar Jain said the strike will go on for an indefinite period until the government rolls back the proposal.

Most jewellery houses are closed since the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget proposal on February 29 levied 1 per cent excise duty on jewellery.

Striking associations in different part of the country have collectively decided to go for a complete closure of bullion markets in major as well as small towns and staged 'dharnas'.

Jewellers across the country have also been protesting against mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transaction of Rs 2 lakh and above.

Traders have warned imposition of excise duty may lead to heavy paper work for small jewellers.

The industry is estimated to have incurred a business loss to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore during the strike.

Jaitley had proposed 1 per cent excise duty on jewellery without input credit or 12.5 per cent with input tax credit on jewellery excluding silver other than studded with diamonds and some other precious stones.

The Finance Ministry has clarified that jewellers only with turnover of more than Rs 12 crore will be liable to pay 1 per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery items.
Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon today pulled up the Opposition for bringing in adjournment motion on the same issue twice, saying it lowered the dignity of the House.

"Already a Committee has been announced by the chief minister, and you can keep it there," Oraon told the JMM after its MLA Kunal Sarangi brought an adjournment motion on the 6th Jharkhand Public Service Commission, citing discrepancy and other opposition MLAs stood in his support.

The committee was set up after the Opposition had stalled the House for three and a half days during the ongoing budget session demanding cancellation of the results of the 5th JPSC examination and a CBI probe into it.

"It's an affront to the dignity of the House," Oraon said while reminding the opposition about the setting up of a Committee headed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy.

Supporting his party MLA, however, the leader of Opposition and former chief minister, Hemant Soren, said the Committee was set up for the 5th JPSC examination while there was discrepancy in the 6th JPSC as well with the examination scheduled on July 17.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister clarified that the Committee would cover issues relating to the 5th, the 6th and all future examinations.

The minister also informed the House that a meeting could not take place as Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) Legislature Party leader Pradip Yadav and Congress Legislature Party leader Alamgir Alam cited pre-occupation and that a date would be fixed soon.

Yadav and Alam are members of the committee, which was announced by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on March 2 to look into issues relating to JPSC and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission.

The other members of the committee are senior JMM MLA and former deputy chief minister Stephen Marandi and AJSU party MLA Raj Kishore Mahto.

The House proceedings were disrupted for half-an-hour in the morning session on the adjournment motion and anothr on the sale of land in Santhal Parganas. Both the motions were disapproved by the Chair.
Jharkhand government today said measures would be taken to check elephants from marauding agriculture fields after members in the state assembly expressed concern over the plight of farmers.

Replying to a short notice question by JMM MLA Yogendra Prasad on the matter, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy (officiating for the forest department) said the Wildlife Board would look into the concerns and take appropriate measures into the concerns.

In a written reply, the government said the compensation against destruction of agri-produce by elephants was Rs 10,000 per hectare with a maximum of Rs 25,000 as outlined in the file dated August 25, 2014 of the department, which did not mention any plan to increase the amount.

Prasad had asked whether the government had any proposal to increase the compensation amount.

Stating that a herd of 20 to 25 elephants is moving across the state, senior JMM MLA and former deputy chief minister Stephen Marandi suggested setting up a 'high power committee' to find ways in limiting the pachyderms to a single corridor.

Jai Bharat Samanta Party MLA Gita Koda described the elephant menace as an inter-state problem.
The Goa Vigilance Department's anti-corruption bureau (ACB) today arrested a journalist and a government employee for alleged extortion attempt.

"Sanjay Shinde, who works with the local cable channel 'In Goa', and Melwyn Soares, who works as a photographer with the state information and publicity department, were arrested by ACB in Margao town," Deputy Superintendent of Police Bousette Silva said.

"They had approached a businessman posing as officials of vigilance department, and took Rs 30,000 from him claiming that a party hall owned by him was illegal and can be demolished," Silva said.

After realising that they were impostors, the businessman approached the Vigilance department.

"Today the duo were called near a market in Margao where they were caught accepting Rs 80,000," he said.

They were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections 419 and 420 of the IPC for impersonation and cheating, respectively.
Settling the issue should not be a pre-condition for holding talks between India and Pakistan, said Tuesday as he asked the two nations not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process.

He also asked Pakistan to speed up the investigation into the January 2 Pathankot attack which India has blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant group.

"Settling the issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process," Hammond, who is in Isla,anad on a day-long visit, said during a joint press conference with Pakistan Premier's advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz.

"I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process," he said.

"I welcome Pakistan's commitment to vigorously pursue Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation," he said.

Aziz said that a joint investigation team is in process to complete its probe into the Pathankot attack.

"The probe team will visit India in the next few days," he said.

Aziz also said that there is no pre-condition for the meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two nations.

However, he said that their meeting could take place after the visit of Pakistani probe team to India.

Aziz said that Pakistan also shared intelligence with India about possible terror attacks.

"Sharing of intelligence among various nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world. However, this time it was somehow leaked to media. But this showed Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism," he said.

The British Foreign Secretary also appreciated the role of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.
Kotak Mahindra Group's private equity arm has raised Rs 1,600 crore to invest in residential projects across six cities over the next 3-4 years.

"We have closed a fresh commitment of Rs 1,600 crore from institutional investors for equity investments in residential projects in the six major metros," Kotak Realty Fund Chief Executive S Sriniwasan told PTI here today.

He said the company will invest in projects coming up in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Sriniwasan further said the recent clarifications by the government enabled the company to structure this as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF).

"Currently, there is enough liquidity for addressing debt requirements of the sector, so we felt probably there was need for equity as well. We feel this investment will help address the growing equity needs of the real estate industry in India," he said.

The company's Chief Investment Officer Vikas Chimakurthy said, "We anticipate that the correction in the residential market will reflect in land values over the next few quarters, which will make the equity investment argument attractive.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe Tuesday blamed the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa regime for leaving behind a massive Rs 9.5 trillion burden on the country.

Wickremesinghe informed the Parliament that the government's burden was Rs 9.5 trillion and could further rise.

Read more from our special coverage on "DEBT" Debt sales jump to record Rs 3.43 lakh cr in Apr-Dec

He said the government has been compelled to revise the 2016 budget and raise taxes to increase revenue and keep the budget deficit and under control.

He said a capital gains tax would be imposed and a uniform value added tax (VAT) would be charged at 15 per%, eliminating the current two-band structure and ending exemptions including to telecoms, private education and health services.

"We will not tax the essential commodities," he added.

Wickremesinghe said the capital gains tax was needed to tax the rich.

"We cant always tax only the poor we need to tax the rich as well," he said.

Meanwhile the analysts said the Colombo stock market suffered a near 2% dip in trading Tuesday due to the news on imposing the capital gains tax.

The market has seen a 12% decline so far in the year.

Wickremesinghe blamed the previous administration for economic blundering resulting in the accrual of high interest debts.

"I predicted that the Rajapaksa regime would not be able to manage the by 2015 and would go for an election. We were given the responsibility to turn the around we will do it," he said.

He said as part of revival measures the government would sign the proposed economic pact with India.
Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha today attacked the government over the JNU and Hyderabad University rows, alleging that attempts were being made to metamorphose the country's secular democratic polity into a "fascistic set-up" as per the RSS vision.

Leaders of various parties including the also criticised the government over its handling of the economy, saying that "jumla-nomics", a coinage indicating empty words, was being practiced and huge benefits being given to corporates and the rich at the cost of the social sector.

Intervening in the debate, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi alleged that the Opposition was raising issues like intolerance, return of awards and JNU "to scuttle government's development agenda". He also maintained that seditious slogans would never be tolerated.

Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the "burning issues" affecting the people and those "dividing the people" had not been addressed.

He claimed that the recent developments including those in JNU and Hyderabad university fit into "a jigsaw where the aim is to metamorphose the country into a Hindu Rashtra and creating a fascistic set-up as per the vision of the RSS".

Yechury said the sort of "intolerance" being displayed in higher education institutes was "chillingly reminiscent of the way Hitler used nationalism to establish fascism", adding that there was no mention of the "serious situation" prevailing in higher educational institutions in the address, including the happenings at Hyderabad University, JNU, IIT Chennai, FTII, as also now in the Allahabad University.

Maintaining that his was not an "alarmist claim" but one based on reality, he said the approach of the government has emboldened those giving hate speeches.

Yechury also termed the economic policies as just "jumla-nomics", saying "tall election promises have not been fulfilled" as he slammed the government of giving tax concessions of over Rs 5 lakh crores to big business and corporates.

If this tax was collected, the government would have had funds to expand three times the rural employment generation programme, he said, adding that the present policies were only benefitting the rich and the number of dollar billionaires was rising in India.

Yechury also raised questions regarding a US-India Business Council report which, he said, had mentioned that the government had "privately assured" that it would "not use compulsory licenses for commercial purposes.

The CPI(M) leader asked the government to come out with a clarification on the Council's report.

Referring to the government's proposal to link various benefits with the Aadhar cards, Yechury said the government was bringing the Aadhar Bill as a money bill so that the Upper House is not able to scrutinise it thoroughly.

He also pointed out that some years back when BJP was in opposition, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, then Leader of Opposition, had in an article in the BJP website written about the dangers of data security concerning Aadhar cards. Jaitley "just has to abide by what he had written then," he quipped.

Yechury said the government was using the "tyranny of majority" in Lok Sabha and said it should use these numbers to pass the Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha, which has been passed by the Rajya Sabha almost six years ago.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar opposed these comments, saying the majority had been given by the people.

In reaction, Yechury referred to the words 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' in the President's speech and said "the three 'S's in this phrase, being widely used by the government, were more than the two S's used in Hitler's secret police (SS or Schutzstaffel)."



D Raja (CPI) claimed that attempt was being made to "subvert" the constitutional rule and accused the government of wanting to suppress ideas of young minds as its actions in JNU and Hyderabad University showed.

He flayed the Centre over the arrest of JNU students union President Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges, alleging that anyone questioning the government is dubbed anti- .

"By that logic, even Dr Ambedkar, Gandhi or Netaji could have been declared anti- . ... Had they been alive now, they would also have been slapped with sedition charges by these powers", Raja said.

Referring to a speech by the President in Kerala, he said it seemed to him that when the President spoke of changes in IPC, he had removal of the sedition law in mind.

While RSS and Hindu Mahasabha have never participated in the freedom struggle, he said many of those who participated in the freedom struggle and made sacrifices were communist and added that he was "proud of being a communist".

On the foreign policy front, Raja said the government was making the country "subservient to American capitalist interests".

He also asked the government demonstrate its "political will" by passing the Women's reservation bill in the Lok Sabha.

Unfazed by the opposition attack, Naqvi said the government believed in all-round development of all communities whether downtrodden, backward or dalit as explicitly expressed in President's speech.

He accused the opposition of being in a spree to scuttle the development agenda of Narendra Modi government in the name of "award wapasi", "intolerance" or "incidents like JNU", and said when India was hosting Indo-African summit here attended by the heads of 54 African nations, "so called intellectuals", backed by the opposition, were returning their awards "dating back to Mohenjodaro and Harappa era".

These awards were not bestowed on them by the Narendra Modi government, the Minister said and asked "why did these people not return their awards when year after year so many people were killed in communal riots."



Certain forces with "feudal mentality" have not been able to digest the change of guard at the Centre and have initiated a drive against it, he said.

"When the nation was busy in 'Make in India' drive at Mumbai for country's all round development, certain forces where busy to break India by fuelling slogans like 'Afzal ham sharminda hain, tera qatil zinda hai'," he said.

"There are certain forces in the corridors of power, which were behind loot, corruption and lobbying. When the government weeded out such forces and 'dalals' from the corridors of power, baffled and gripped in disappointment, they are going all out against the government," Naqvi said.

He said late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was right when he said that barely 10% of the allocation percolated down to the beneficiary.

Attacking those raising the issue of intolerance, Naqvi said where were they when 124 people lost their lives in communal riots in 2005 followed by killing of 138 persons in 2006, 99 in 2007, 163 in 2008 and so on.

He accused the CPI of supporting the emergency when so many people were put behind bars. "That same CPI is now advocating the democratic rights in JNU", he said and added that he did not mind the statement of Kanhaiya when he attacked the government or the system but would not tolerate any force which will talk of ruining the country.

Naqvi said he did not know whether the video was doctored or not but the government would not tolerate forces out to ruin the nation by anti-India slogans.

The Minister said there has been a tradition of sloganeering in a democracy and they too had raised slogans like "Sinhasan khali karo, janta aati hai" but slogans for "inqalab" and "terrorism" are different and the slogans raised in JNU had smell of "fuelling terrorism" which cannot be tolerated under any circumstance.

"Desh ko kosa nahi ja sakta", he asserted and added such forces cannot be forgiven. "There are indeed forces out hatching criminal conspiracy with a prejudiced mindset," he said.

Participating in the debate, M S Gill (Cong) said the President's address should be brief and a concentrated piece unlike the present one which broke all records with mention of every petty thing.

He also stressed the need for early passage of the legislation to provide 33% reservation to women and said he was constrained to point out that even African countries had much larger representation of women.

"Why 33%, why not 50%. We have to increase it," he said and added that the prevailing representation of women was barely 12% which is one of the lowest in the world.

At the same time, he said, "Reservation is not the best way of doing it. Strength of a country is ultimately in a just India when everybody whether high or low gets prompt justice."



He also raised questions over the judicial system and demanded freeing of persons languishing in jails for 30-40 years. "Plenty of women have been locked up. Free those above 75 years or more. Let them go," he said.

Demanding launch of international flights from Amritsar airport besides expansion of aviation by allowing 30-50 seaters aircraft, he also sought widespread reforms in the agriculture sector asking the government to set up debt conciliation boards.

Unfortunately banks cannot touch "big names" despite the huge NPAs, but when it comes to catching a farmer with Rs 5,000 loan, it is very easy for them, Gill said.
All the liquor samples taken from wine shops across Mizoram were found to be safe for human consumption, state's Food and Drugs Administration said here today.

The samples of less expensive liquor were sent to the Assam Public Health Laboratory in Guwahati and the results of the tests were received here recently, said Lalsawma, the Joint Director of the State Food and Drugs Administration.

He said that the samples were of Bagpiper Whisky, Contessa Rum, Jolly Rogers Rum, Gold Club Rum, ZoRum, McDowell's Rum, and two brands of beer made in Myanmar - Dagon and Diablo.

The laboratory did not find any substance in the liquor that was harmful and found all the liquor brands safe for human consumption, he said, adding that Myanmar-made beer samples were sent to the laboratory as they were found available in the state.

He said that the results of the laboratory tests did not mean that other tests would not be conducted in the future as all the food items have to be tested for safety from time to time.

The state health department's Food and Drugs Administration wing sent the liquor samples for tests as there were doubts about the quality and safety of the cheaper liquor being sold in the wine shops.

The samples were sent after instructions were given by state health minister Lal Thanzara.
Realty firm M3M group today pledged to invest Rs 45,365 crore in Haryana over the next 5-10 years in different projects such as smart city, low-cost homes, IT Park, SEZ and others.

M3M India signed three MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with the Haryana government at the 'Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit'.

The Gurgaon-based developer signed three MOUs accumulating to Rs 45,365 crore, a company statement said.

"Investments are proposed over a period of 5-10 years in and across Haryana/Gurgaon," it added.

The MOUs were signed by company's CMD Basant Bansal in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Out of the proposed investment of over Rs 45,000 crore, M3M said that Rs 26,000 crore would be for the development of a smart city project in Gurgaon.

Another Rs 9000 crore is proposed to be invested on the development of low-income housing projects. The projects will have smaller size apartments and would be in the range of 30 to 60 square metres.

M3M is also foraying into development of IT park and IT SEZ planned to be developed at the cost of Rs 2000 crore.

The company would invest another Rs 8,000 crore on the development of other real-estate projects.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said a Bill will be introduced during the budget session of the state Legislature beginning here tomorrow, to stop the dance bars from reopening.

The announcement comes in the wake of Supreme Court's order last week asking the BJP-led Maharashtra government to grant licences to dance bar owners within ten days after they comply with modified guidelines.

"We will bring in a firm law in this Budget session, that would stop the dance bars from being reopened in the state. In the past, when we were in Opposition, we had twice supported Congress and NCP to pass the Bill (in this regard). Today, when we are trying to earnestly do something, the Opposition is playing politics on the issue," Fadnavis told reporters on the eve of the Budget session.

Rejecting Maharashtra Government's certain conditions, the apex court had on March 2 asked the state to grant licences to dance bar owners.

"We are inclined to modify the conditions of installation of CCTV cameras and providing the live footage to the police. We direct that the CCTV cameras shall be installed at the entrance only and not at the restaurant or performance areas," the Supreme Court had said.

Stating that government cannot permit obscenity, Fadnavis had last week said that they would approach the apex court with an alternative. He had added that his government was also mulling a suitable legislation in the state Legislature on the issue.

Addressing the press conference today, Chief Minister also said that 15 Bills will be tabled in the Budget session, including the Prevention of Social Boycott Bill.

Apart from this, seven pending Bills will also be tabled and five ordinances will be converted into Bills, he added.

Hitting back at the Opposition for demanding a white paper on the MoUs signed by the state government during last month's 'Make in India' week held in Mumbai, Fadnavis said all details pertaining to these deals would be put up online.

"We have faced a lot of criticism from the Opposition on this issue. I want to clearly tell them that we have formed a task force to keep a tab on each and every MoU signed during the week. We will also put the details of all the MoUs and their progress online which will then be easily accessible to all without filing RTI queries."



Maharashtra government had attracted around Rs 8 lakh crore worth investment commitments during the 'Make In India' week.
Maldives is open to "attractive" investments from China, former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said today but denied there was any strategic tilt towards the Communist giant in the backdrop of India's concerns over increasing Chinese presence in the island nation.

"We are a very small country and a small economy and if we get a proposal that is beneficial for both sides then there is no reason why we should reject it because it will affect our economy...So, we are open to India, China, Japan and also to Russia.

"We have received certain project proposals from China which are attractive...But these are not overtures, China has no design on Maldives. And, we are also open to investments from India," Gayoom said.

The former Maldivian president was responding to questions about his country's growing proximity with China.

Maldivian Foreign Minister Duniya Maumoon had said in November last year that China's economic presence was felt in almost every corner of the world but it should not "worry" India, with whom its ties will not be "shaken" by Chinese investments.

On her visit here during which she held talks with her Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, Maumoon said India-Maldives ties have "sufficient depth" and that her country discusses with India almost all issues, including the political situation.

Gayoom, responding to questions after delivering an address on 'Islam: A Religion of Peace' at the Observer Research Foundation here, said India remains the "most strategically important" partner of Maldives.

"India was and remains the most strategically important partner of Maldives, whether it is our ties in education and army and navy training and the recent goodwill visit of ships to our country only prove that. And, we wish to continue our ties," he said.

Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya along with its support ships INS Mysore and INS Deepak recently were on a four-day visit to Maldives.

Gayoom also condemned acts of terrorism perpetrated globally in the name of Islam and said militant outfits like IS are "not fighting a holy war" or upholding the rights of Muslims with their mindless violence born out of religious ignorance.

"The nature of acts committed by IS only stem out of ignorance about Islam. Anyone who understands the basic tenets of this religion knows that it forbids violence and killing of any kind unless prescribed by law for crimes like murder," he said.
Questioning his stoic silence over non-payment of salaries to hundreds of employees of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, a section of former women staffers accused its chairman of misleading government and the employees on the revival plan.

In an open letter, which had come on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8, the women employees have also accused the beleaguered industrialist of "killing" two airlines and rendering hundreds of people jobless.

"You say that you are not a defaulter. But you confidently told us during the meeting that banks won't be able to recover more than 5-10% of debt amount. That speaks volumes of your malicious intentions.

"In the same meeting, you promised revival, payment of our salary... This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/DGCA," the women staffers alleged in the letter.

According to sources, nearly 700 of the 1,500 employees, who still claimed to be on the payroll of the defunct airline, are women.

The open letter comes when a consortium of PSU banks have moved Supreme Court seeking a direction that Mallya not be allowed to leave India. The apex court has agreed to hear their plea tomorrow.

A Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) had yesterday barred Mallya from accessing USD 75 million severance package from Diageo till the loan default case with State Bank of India is settled.

Diageo and United Spirits Ltd, owned by the UK-based firm, have also been asked by the DRT in Bengaluru to disclose details of the agreement they have come to with Mallya.

SBI, which leads the consortium of 17 banks that lent money to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines, had moved DRT against Mallya in its bid to recover over Rs 7,000 crore of dues from him.

The former women employees posed a number of questions on Mallya's recent statement that he was making efforts to reach a 'one-time settlement' with banks, and that a "disinformation campaign" had been launched to make him a "poster boy" of all bad loans.

"We the women employees of Kingfisher are forced to write this letter to call your bluff as a response to your media release recently which as usual had nothing about us.

"...You are talking about one time settlement with only banks and not the employees. Why? Because we are weak and vulnerable due to our system?" they asked.

"Coincidentally today being 'Women's Day', we feel pained that our colleague's wife who committed suicide didn't get justice," they added.

The wife of a former Kingfisher Airlines employee in Delhi had allegedly committed suicide, apparently depressed over financial stress due to non-payment of salary to her husband on October 4, 2012, when Mallya had decided to ground the airline due to paucity of funds. However, no FIR was registered by the police in the case.

"You said you are fully cooperating with the agencies, then why did you place legal hurdles in the path of recovery by the banks, which were following due legal process to recover the debt amount? You evaded the recovery process. What are you other than an absconder?" the letter said.

Reminding Mallya that before "hiding" behind the limited liability clause, he should know that laws are not made to be misused, the open letter said, "If you are such a law abiding citizen then follow them in totality, not according to your convenience."

Postulating that had Air Deccan not been acquired by Mallya, it would have been bought over (and would have continued operations), the letter said, "You also killed our mother Kingfisher Airlines which was feeding us."

The ex-women staffers also questioned as to how Mallya, an NRI who is "out of India most of the time" had been elected as a Rajya Sabha MP. They also asked what are "your contributions as a member of RS, other than asking for immunity?"

They also claimed that Mallya had "paid and compensated foreign employees for fear of their strict laws", and this exposed his "double standards" towards our nation and laws.

"Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take note of our toothless laws so that no one suffers in future like we did," they said.
Government has prepared the detailed project report of Metrino Personal Rapid Transit System in Gurgaon at a cost of Rs 980 crore and the project would start in near future, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

"We have prepared Detailed Project Report (DPR) of this project having cost of Rs 980 crore and construction of the project will kicked off in near future. The project has been designed as pilot project and it will be replicated in other cities as well," Gadkari said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister said that the Metrino Personal Rapid Transit System would be constructed from Delhi-Haryana border to Rajiv Chowk and Sohna road (Badshahpur Chowk).

The government has planned the Rs 4,000-crore 'Metrino' public transport project from Dhaula Kuan to Manesar to enable people travel in driverless pods suspended to a ropeway and also reduce traffic on congested roads.

Gadkari also announced a road from Dwarka in Delhi to Kherkidaulain Gurgaon as National Highway.

Addressing theHappening Haryana Global Investors' Summit here, he said nine National Highways costing Rs 8000 crore have already been announced for Haryana.He also announced that the state would have its first water way from Palla in district Sonepat to Wazirabad in Delhi.

He also said that the work on Delhi-Jaipur Expressway would be started by the end of thisyear. It would cost Rs 18,000 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, Yoga Guru Ramdev said that his Patanjali Group will invest a minimum Rs 5,000 crore in setting up an international health centre in the state.

"In Haryana, we will set up a global university and an international health centre. Our minimum investment here will be Rs 5,000 crore. We want to announce that we will invest Rs 5,000 crore in setting up an international health centre.

"An MoU worth Rs 5,000 crore has been exchanged between Patanjali Ayurvedic Limited and the Haryana Government for investment in health and education industries."



In the next 5-10 years, Patanjali will be the biggest brand globally in the FMCG sector and health products, he said.
The Indian Navy's sailing vessel "Mhadei", skippered and crewed by all women crew of naval officers today reached her home port, Goa.

The ship is being skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, a Naval Architect. She was appointed as the first woman Skipper of Mhadei on February 8 just prior to the return voyage after her participation from the International Fleet Review. Joshi, was part of the crew on board Mhadei for the return leg of the Cape to Rio race in 2013-14.

Mhadei is crewed by Lieutenant P Swathi, Lieutenant Pratibha Jamwal (Air Traffic Control specialists), Lieutenant Vijaya Devi and Sub Lieutenant Payal Gupta (both Education officers). The sixth member of the crew, Lieutenant B Aishwarya is a naval architect and is expected to join the boat shortly.

These women officers are training to form an all-women crew that would attempt to circumnavigate the Globe in 2017.

To prepare themselves for the arduous voyage, they have undergone theoretical training in Navigation, Communication, Seamanship and Meteorology at the Navy's various Training Establishments based at Kochi in August last year.

Since then, the officers have been training under the guidance and watchful eyes of Commander Dilip Donde.

Commander Donde was the first Indian to solo-circumnavigate the globe in 2009-10 on board the same boat, Mhadei. The rigorous training included sorties of various durations with Donde as well as working on the boat and training on the equipment fitted on board.

The officers sailed for the Fleet Review along with Donde and post the IFR, the Navy decided to appoint Lt Commander Vartika Joshi as the Skipper for the return journey.

Mhadei visited the Ports of Chennai (12-19 February) and Kochi (February 27-March 2) on her return journey. She returned to her home port Goa today which coincidentally happens to be International Women's Day.

Future training plans include an independent voyage to Mauritius in May 2016. The officers would shift to a new boat of the same class as Mhadei that has been ordered by the Navy on M/s Aquarius Shipyard, Goa slated for delivery in February 2017.

Mhadei and her yet to named sister are both completely made in India.
The issue of migration of a large number of tribals from Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bastar region to neighbouring states in search of jobs as labourers caused uproar in the Legislative Assembly today with the opposition Congress accusing the BJP government of "apathy".

Raising the issue through a call attention motion notice, ruling BJP MLA Santosh Bafna said the State has been witnessing a large scale migration of people of Bastar region to other states in search of jobs.

"Everyday, a large number of labourers migrate through buses en route to Hyderabad from Bastar. They migrate through agents," Bafna said.

He said around a dozen girls of Salepal area under Kodenar police station limits of Bastar were taken by agents to Andhra Pradesh's Prakasham district for working at a road construction site six months back. "Two of them died in January this year," Bafna said.

He alleged that government is negligent on the issue despite "several incidents of death" of workers migrated from Bastar were reported in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

"People from Bastar are still migrating due to reckless attitude and negligent behaviour of the government towards them," the MLA said.

In his reply, Labour Minister Bhaiyalal Rajwade admitted about the migration.

"It is true that labourers from Bastar migrate by themselves in search of jobs to the neighbouring states, but it is incorrect that a huge number of labourers are taken daily by agents in buses headed towards Hyderabad," he said.

Rajwade said teams of labour inspectors carry out frequent inspections at local bus stands to prevent forced mass exodus of people.

"During the inspection no (case of) migration through agents or contractors was found," the minister added.

He said jobs are being provided under MNREGA in Bastar.

"In year 2015-16, construction works worth Rs 9136.17 lakh were sanctioned which ensured jobs to 63,217 labourers in Bastar district. Similarly, development works to the tune of Rs 1017.65 lakhs were allocated in Tokapal janpad panchayat which provided jobs to 6443 labourers.

"Besides, construction works worth Rs 2062.35 lakh were sanctioned in Bakawand block which created jobs for 13256 workers," he said.

Unsatisfied with his reply, Congress MLAs, including Kawasi Lakhma (Konta) and Deepak Baij (Chitrkot) of Bastar region, alleged that people are forced to migrate due to lack of jobs and "apathetic attitude of state administration".

Later shouting slogans against the state government, the Congress legislators staged a walkout.
BJP has not moved as fast as expected to implement long-awaited like the GST, Bankruptcy Law and Land Acquisition Bill, a senior US trade official said.

He asked American businesses to be patient since cannot be implemented overnight.

"US businesses still find it difficult to do business in India due to an inconsistent regulatory environment, systemic infrastructure bottlenecks, lack of transparency and uncertainty in corporate governance rules," Assistant Secretary for Global Markets in the US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration Arun Kumar said in New York.

"We consistently dialogue with the Indian government on these subjects," he said, adding that US' trade and investment with India will also greatly depend on the Government of India's efforts to strengthen the local business climate.

Kumar, in his keynote address to a session on India-US relations and impact of the Indian Budget 2016 jointly organised by the Asia Society, KPMG andUS-India Business Council, said Intellectual Property Rights protection is another key concern for US businesses that will need to be addressed to prompt greater foreign investment.

He said that US companies are looking to India to "approve and implement long-awaited reforms" including the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Land Acquisition Bill and the Bankruptcy Law that would considerably lower the burden of doing business.

"The Modi government is well aware of the hurdles and while it may not be moving as fast as some would like, it has taken a number of initial positive steps," he said, citing the "real progress" made by India on complex tax issues, reducing the backlog of transfer pricing cases and easing foreign investment restrictions in the defence and railways sector.

He said India has also shown an "initial willingness" to address long standing agricultural concerns.

He pointed out that US businesses have to be patient since cannot be implemented overnight and given the vast growth opportunities in India, it is important that US businesses do not lose faith but hold on to the Indian economic growth story.

"For our part, we will need to show continuing patience, perseverance and understanding and also be creative in our problem solving as we know from our own national experience that implementing reforms in a vibrant democracy is complicated and does not happen overnight but make no mistake India's vast untapped opportunity makes staying the course a commercial imperative," Kumar added.

He, however, noted that high tariffs on inputs and procurement and other policies that favour domestic sourcing have historically complicated India's integration in the global supply chains and its ability to increase exports.

In this context, Kumar said a "welcome feature" of the new budget is the reduction of duties on imports of parts and components.
Most Israelis are unconvinced by right-wing claims that expansion of West Bank settlements bolsters the Jewish state's security, according to a survey by a US institute published today.

The Washington-based Pew Research Center said its research showed 30 percent of Jewish Israeli respondents to its latest study believe "the settlements hurt Israel's security".

At the same time, "a quarter of Israeli Jews (25 per cent) say the settlements do not make a difference one way or another with respect to Israel's security."



But it said a large minority of 42 per cent fully back the claim.

The powerful settlement lobby, from which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition draws much of its support, argues that the ring of settlements south and east of Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank are a vital security asset.

Palestinians and the international community say that the settlements, built on territory occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, are major stumbling blocks to peace efforts, standing on land which Palestinians see as part of their future state.

The Pew centre said its survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 5,601 Israeli adults from October 2014 through May 2015.

The survey said that Arab Israelis, who make up 20 per cent of the country's population of 8.4 million population, overwhelmingly said that Muslims were discriminated against by the Jewish majority.

"Roughly eight in 10 Israeli Arabs (79 per cent) say there is a lot of discrimination in Israeli society against Muslims, who are by far the biggest of the religious minorities," it said.

"On this issue, Jews take the opposite view; the vast majority (74 per cent) say they do not see much discrimination against Muslims in Israel.
A visitors' book of Netaji Birthplace Museum in which a visitor used objectionable language against Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was seized by police today.

"The book has been sealed and handed over to the museum authorities to keep it in safe custody," police said.

The police have obtained CCTV footages from the museum to identify the visitor who allegedly wrote derogatory remarks on the visitors' book against Nehru on Sunday.

The remarks were signed by one Pramod Ranjan Dey of Bhubaneswar. Local Congress leaders then lodged an FIR against him in Darghabazar police station.

Police are also tracking the telephone number that was written along with the signature of Dey.

"His telephone appears to be switched off now. But we are hopeful of tracking him soon," a police officer said.
Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi over his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M today accused Congress of offering only "lip-service to the poor" and asked it to help pass bills pending in Parliament.

"You (Congress) have been attacking the Prime Minister all these days and at times even personally. You have been enjoying it all these days. Do whatever you want.

"But do not attack poor by stalling Parliament and the bills that will affect them. You ruled the country for about 50 years and the poor remained poor. Our government is determined to change this," Naidu said.

The Congress vice president had on Friday accused Modi of launching personal attacks at him in his speech in the Lok Sabha.

Gandhi had said "do as much personal attacks as you want, but do not crush the poor, the weak for whom I speak".

Recalling the Prime Minister's pitch for the "village, poor, farmers, workers, women and youth", Naidu listed a number of schemes launched by the NDA government for them, saying they are "testimonials to the inclusive governance agenda of Modi".

He also talked about various other measures and reforms saying they aimed at helping different sections of the society and eliminating corruption and help the government to a adopt targeted approach.

"Everyone agrees that with the implementation of a well- designed GST, there will be an increase of 1.5% to 2% in GDP growth. This increase will make the government help the poor more through more welfare and development activities. So please support all these bills and help the government to help the poor," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.

Alleging that all these days, Congress party had been offering lip-service to the poor, Naidu claimed that while "words for the poor and deeds for the rich" has been the mantra of Congress, "deeds to match the words" is the government's path.

"Please do not create obstacles in our path. I urge upon all the political parties to please cooperate to legislate on important bills and help us to help the poor," he said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak today expressed confidence that the wreckage of the missing Flight MH370 would be found as the grieving families of the 239 people, including five Indians, on board hoped for some kind of closure on the second anniversary of the world's biggest aviation mystery.

However, Najib said Malaysia, Australia and China would hold a tripartite meeting to decide the next move if the Malaysia Airlines plane is not found in the 120,000 sq km area in the southern Indian Ocean that is currently being searched by a team led by Australia.

"If it is not, then Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the way forward," Najib said in a statement.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. There were five Indians on the flight.

The plane is believed to have ended its journey in the southern Indian Ocean.

The international investigation team probing the missing flight MH370 issued a statement today on the Boeing 777's disappearance, indicating that what happened remains a mystery.

"To date, the MH370 wreckage has still not been found despite the continuing search in the South Indian Ocean," said the statement, which also offered no new insights into what happened to the plane.

"The discovery of debris on the island of Reunion last July provided further evidence that, as I announced on 24th March 2014, Flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean. But we know that neither the passage of time, nor this evidence, will comfort those whose grief cannot be assuaged," Najib said in his statement.

"The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history. Amidst some of the world's most inhospitable terrain - at depths of up to six kilometres, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the world's fastest currents - the search team has been working tirelessly to find MH370's resting place," Najib added.

He said that despite all these challenges, the Government remained committed to solving the "agonising mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost in the tragedy".

"On this most difficult of days, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who will never be forgotten," he added.

Indian national KS Narendran, 52, whose wife Chandrika Sharma was on the plane said it was important to find out what happened so that air travel would be safer than what it is today.

"Not knowing is not an easy position to be in," he was quoted as saying by Star newspaper.
State-run NBCC today said the company has secured total business of about Rs 131 crore in February this year under the project management consultancy segment.

The company's board of directors will meet on March 11 to consider a proposal for stock split. The stock has given stellar returns since its listing on April 12, 2012.

Last month, the company had bagged Rs 2,149 crore order from the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) for redevelopment of exhibition venue Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

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Nitesh Estates eyes Rs 130 cr revenue from new housing project * Realty firm Nitesh Estates today said it is expecting a sales revenue of Rs 130 crore over the next four years from a new housing project in Bengaluru.

In a filing to BSE, Nitesh Estates informed that its wholly owned subsidiary has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a high rise residential project.

"The new project will have approximately 300 residential units and is expected to generate revenue of Rs 130 crore over the next four years for the company," it added.

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Ramco Systems bags order from Dubai-based RSA Logistics * Enterprise software provider Ramco Systems today said it has bagged an order from Dubai-based RSA Logistics for implementing freight management system.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, Ramco Systems will implement its integrated freight management system (IFMS), an end-to-end solution suite that addresses the complete process flow of the shipping and transportation industry, the company said in a BSE filing.

RSA Logistics is a third-party logistics provider based in Dubai. The company offers storage and 360-degree supply chain solutions, including distribution, transportation, and international freight.

Kerala Travel Mart to be held in Sept



* Seeking to explore new international markets, the ninth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will focus on themes 'Responsible Tourism' and 'Muziris and Spice Route'.

Billed as the largest gathering of tourism stakeholders in partnership with Department of Tourism, KTM will be held at Samudrika and Sagara Convention Centre, Willingdon Island from September 28 to 30, according to a release here.

The latest edition, with its focus on 'Responsible Tourism' and 'Muziris and Spice Route', is expected to attract around 1,500 buyers from around the country and abroad.

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Shuttl to offer safety check calls for users * Shuttl, a bus-aggregation platform, today launched a new feature on its app that will allow users to opt for 'Home Check', aimed at addressing safety concerns.

When users opt for 'Home check' through their booking confirmation SMS, they will be able to confirm their details through a URL sent to them.

They will have to input their emergency contact details and tentative time period (15, 30, 45 minutes from boarding) by which they can expect a call from Shuttl.

"Shuttl will then follow up with the user, at the exact time entered, through an IVR call. In case the commuter does not take her call, another will directly go to her emergency contact number registered with Shuttl," the company said in a statement.

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LoveCycles raises Rs 5 cr funding from Prime Venture Partners * LoveCycles, a women's health tracker, today said it has raised Rs 5 crore from seed-stage investors, Prime Venture Partners.

The company, which has launched Hindi language support as well, logs over 1.2 million active users every month.

It has seen more than 6 million downloads across 190 countries worldwide, especially in the US, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Russia.

Zee Enterprise launches ATL Media APAC



* Media conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) today said its Asia Pacific territory has launched 'ATL Media APAC', a new unit that will represent varied Indian and South Asian Media businesses in the region for advertising sales.

ATL Media APAC will work with both mainstream and retail clients targeting the South Asian population in the key markets across the region, the company said in a statement.

A similar model is currently operational in the MENAP region where ZEE has tied up with several channels including Geo TV, Imagine Movies, Cartoon Network apart from its own portfolio of ZEE channels.

ATL Media APAC will represent media businesses including TV, Radio, Print and Digital in the region.

ZEE currently distributes 11 South Asian channels in the APAC region targeting the diaspora population, apart from five localised channels for the local mainstream viewers.

The channel has an existing sales network across key APAC markets including Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Jakarta.

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FCB Ulka appoints Sumar Srivastava as its vice chariman * FCB Ulka Group today said it has appointed Suman Srivastava as Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer.

Srivastava who started a strategic consulting firm, Marketing Unplugged, will now be a part of the FCB Ulka Group.

Going forward, he will oversee strategy and all related functions for the Group, including Strategic Planning, Cogito Consulting, Asterii Analytics and Marketing Unplugged.

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KIMS Hospital to be expanded to global standards



Thiruvananthapuram: The second phase of expansion of KIMS Hospital in Kollam district RPT Kollam district, one of the largest hospital chains in Kerala, to global standards, has begun, according to a top official of the hospital.

The new building, planned with 100 beds, a state-of-the art operation theater and the latest CT and MRI machines, would be built to global standards following the latest safety measures, a release from the hospital said.

The hospital would also provide the latesttreatment for cardiology, orthopedics, endocrinology, gastroenterology, pulmnology, neurosurgery and so on, it said.

The chain has more than 1800 beds, with hospitals in Kottayam, Kochi, Perinthalmanna, Thiruvananthapuram, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Dubai.

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ReNew Power Ventures signs power pacts for 4 projects * Wind Energy player ReNew Power Ventures Private Ltd, today said it signed Purchase Power Agreements (PPAs) for four solar ground mounted projects with combined capacity of 286 MW in Telangana.

ReNew Power secured the highest capacity among all the bidders for 2000 MW solar projects in the state, the company said in a press release adding that with this ReNew has become the largest solar energy company in Telangana with a total of 410 MW of commissioned and under construction capacity.
Hitting out at PDP for indecisiveness in formation of the government in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) today accused PDP of facilitating RSS rule in the state.

"PDP has been facilitating direct RSS rule in Jammu and Kashmir by showing indecisiveness in forming the government", NC provincial president Devender Singh Rana said here.

"There is every apprehension of the BJP-led government (Centre) appointing any RSS pracharak as Governor of the state to trample the special identity of the state," Rana said addressing senior party leaders at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here.

Describing Jammu and Kashmir as a politically sensitive state, he said the PDP will be entirely responsible for any ugly development as its indecisiveness has potential of prolonging the political stalemate and gubernatorial rule.

Rana accused the PDP of deceiving electors and said they should either form the government or intimate the Governor accordingly, so that process for snap polls can be initiated.

"National Conference is ready for elections," he declared.

Rana described these polls as crucial to gauge public opinion vis a vis political development post 2014 elections and hoped that the people will give a befitting reply to those who betrayed their trust.

Hailing the Governor's administration for effective governance, Rana asked why the PDP-BJP failed in taking any decision.

The NC spokesperson claimed that after Mehbooba took over



as the Chief Minister with the charge of Home department on April 4 this year, the Home Secretary, in an official letter dated April 11, sought the status of the allocation of land for the proposed colony from the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and the District Development Commissioners concerned.

"This too, is a matter of official record," he said.

Mattu alleged that both these official communications prove that Sayeed and Mehbooba were "actively and directly involved" not only as the heads of government but also as successive Home Ministers of the state, in the formal process of land allocation for the Sainik Colony.

"In spite of these proofs and facts, the state government spokesperson and cabinet minister Naeem Akhtar has come out to term substantiated media reports as 'highly-motivated and parochial' and has denied the fact that two successive state governments headed by PDP have been regularly seeking the status of land allocation for the Sainik Colony," Mattu claimed.

He alleged Akhtar has formally and officially "lied" as the spokesperson of the state government and he should explain that "on whose instructions the administration had bypassed the Chief Minister with the officers concerned working on their own accord, failing which he should resign from the state cabinet without any delay".

"Is the state government trying to cover up PDP's tacit understanding with its alliance partner (BJP) on this sensitive issue or is this a compromise PDP had agreed to pave the way for Mufti Sahab and then Mehbooba to occupy the Chief Minister's chair?" he said.

Akhtar yesterday refuted the reports on Sainik colony, terming them "highly motivated and parochial and are aimed at disturbing peace" in the state at a time when tourism and business activities have just started picking up.

Mattu said NC would wait for the state government to either debunk the proofs and facts of this case or for the resignation of the government spokesperson for "lying" in his official capacity.

"These are the only two choices the state government has and the ball lies in their court. We hope they respond with substance and proof rather than resorting to vague rhetoric and diversions," the NC spokesperson said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today called for a movement against female foeticide, dowry and unnecessary expenses during marriages, saying his government will back such a campaign.

Speaking on the occasion of International Women's Day at an event organised by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Kejriwal also stressed on the need for more convictions in cases of crimes against women, and hoped everyone would work with the new Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.

"There is a need to launch a movement against female foeticide, dowry and unnecessary expenses during marriages as these three issues force poor parents to take loans, even commit suicide, and are a barrier to ensuring gender equality in society.

"This campaign has to be taken to every house, school and college. A dialogue has to be started with people on these issues and it has to be made successful like Odd-Even policy.

"You have to formulate a programme and Delhi government will back such a movement," he said.

Kejriwal said the upcoming Delhi Budget will have allocations for installation of CCTV cameras and setting up of Mahila Suraksha Dals (MSDs) in the capital to make it safer for women and girls.

"But I would say that just doing these won't solve the problem. Every section of the society has to come together to ensure that women are safe and secure in the capital city. Women should be able to move freely at any time in the day or night," he said.

Referring to Delhi Police data of 2014 according to which 11,209 FIRs for crimes against women were lodged, and only 9 accused were convicted, Kejriwal said, "There is no fear among rapists. Rapists feel immune because of low convictions. Increase in conviction rate will send a clear message. We can all work with the new Police Commissioner," he said.

He also felicitated some persons with the DCW Achievement Awards.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal reiterated the demand for



setting up a high-level committee on women safety comprising Lieutenant Governor, Union Home Minister, Delhi Chief Minister and others to fix accountability of police.

Maliwal expressed her disappointment over 'thana (police station)-level' committees having not been set up for the last one year despite the issue being raised regularly with the LG.

"The proposed thana-level committees have a huge mandate to promote interaction between the police and public and provide a forum for the public to raise concerns regarding law and order and find constructive solutions to the problems faced by the community," she said.

She also stressed on the need to ensure that resources of Delhi Police are adequately strengthened, saying the ultimate sufferer of shortage of police are women and girls.
Union Health Minister J P Nadda today batted for restructuring of the Tuberculosis programme by involving more private players, even as he blamed state governments for "ineffective" spending of funds allocated to them by the Centre to tackle the disease.

"We have seen several ups and down in this project. If we look at the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCPP) the support and focus was there. We evolved, but did not involve private players.

"We need a more exhaustive, a more detailed programme. We need some restructuring to make it more meaningful. We keep on doing things, but we also see the problem moving with us at the same time," Nadda said.

He also sought to dispel the notion that the Centre has slashed the budget for his ministry and said the Ministry for Health and Family Welfare has got Rs 1,500 crore more than what was allotted last year.

The minister was speaking at the MP round table organised under the aegis of Global Coalition Against TB. Several parliamentarians including Oscar Fernandes, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Jitin Prasada and Anupriya Patel, were also present.

"The problem is not about funds, but utilisation is. Funds keep lying in the state treasury for 100 to 140 days. If the money does not reach the right people on time, the whole programme gets disturbed," Nadda said.

Kalikesh Singh Deo said he has requested Union Finance Minster Arun Jaitley to remove the import duty on Tuberculosis testing equipment.

"The revenue earned by imposing import duty on the testing kit would hardly be Rs 5-6 crore, but if we remove it, the benefit will be in several hundreds of crores," he said.

Nadda also emphasised on increasing public awareness about the programme.

In 2014, 2.2 million TB cases were reported in the country and the disease claimed 2.2 lakh lives that year.
Israel today refuted a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "surprised" the Obama administration by cancelling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of US presidential primaries.

The spat comes amid tense relations with US President Obama in the last year of his presidency, and shortly before US Vice President Joe Biden was set to touch down in Israel.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US had offered to meet on one of those days.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. "We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit."



But Netanyahu's office said Israel's ambassador to the US had already informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" Netanyahu would not make the trip.

It said the ambassador told the White House there would be a final decision yesterday. That day, Israeli reports erroneously reported that Netanyahu would not travel because he was unwilling to meet with Obama.

Netanyahu's office said it then informed the White House directly that Netanyahu would not be visiting.

Netanyahu was invited to address a summit of the pro-Israel group AIPAC. An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, said Netanyahu wanted to avoid potential meetings with presidential candidates at the summit.

Netanyahu was accused of siding with Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign and he appears wary of sparking any additional claims of meddling in American politics.

"It's a tumultuous primary season in the United States ... we don't want to inject ourselves into that tumultuous process," the official said.

It was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the US and its closest Mideast ally. Relations between Israel and the US never fully recovered after Obama incensed Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden's last visit to Israel in 2010 was also marked by a diplomatic spat with Washington, when Israel announced settlement construction plans during his visit.

Netanyahu's office said today the prime minister is "looking forward to the visit of Biden and discussing how we can meet the many challenges facing the region."



Vice President Biden is not expected to offer any new initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he travels to Israel and the West Bank.
National Human Rights Commission today sought a factual report from Tamil Nadu government in two weeks on the recent rescue of 550 bonded labourers from a brick klin in neighbouring Tiruvallur District.

Citing a report in an English daily on March 3 that the bonded labourers were freed by State authorities in Tiruvallur District, NHRC said, "if true, (bonded labourers working under inhuman conditions) it raises a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim labourers."



Quoting the report, the Commission in a press release said that on March 2, about 550 bonded labourers including women from Odisha and Chhattisgarh, were rescued from a brick klin in Tiruvallur district. Belonging to 180 families, they were slogging under inhuman working conditions.

They were allegedly forced to work from 3 am with a meagre weekly wages Rs 400 for a family. They had allegedly been paid an advance before moving to Tamil Nadu.

Ordering notice to Secretary, Labour Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, NHRC called for a factual report within two weeks.

"The report should also specify the steps taken for rehabilitation of the bonded labourers as well as details of the payment of the release amount (financial assistance) to the bonded labourers," the Commission said.
The benchmark Nifty ended little changed in a choppy session as profit booking after a four-session rally led the key index to end at 7,485.30, down by merely 0.05 points.

Investors opted to book profits in a volatile session after caution returned following weak economic data from China, which again raised global slowdown fears.

The index, which reclaimed the crucial 7,500-mark on widespread buying amid tinge of short-covering, mostly gave up the day's gains on profit-booking to end flat.

Good buying was witnessed in energy, metal, pharma, FMCG and infra segments followed by the broader mid-cap and small-cap shares, while profit-booking was witnessed in bank, IT, PSU Banks and financials.

Elsewhere, most Asian stocks ended lower, while European market was trading lower in afternoon trade after disappointing Chinese February trade dampened sentiments.

The market was closed yesterday for 'Mahashivratri'.

The 50-share broader index opened higher at 7,486.40 and hovered in a range of 7,527.15 and 7,442.15, before ending at 7,485.30, a marginal loss of 0.05 points.

Major losers were Bank of Baroda (4.70 per cent), SBI (2.68 per cent), HUL (2.65 per cent), Maruti (2.60 per cent), HCL Tech (2.41 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.66 per cent) and Axis Bank (1.03 per cent).

Notable gainers were Cairn (6.67 per cent), Hindalco (4.72 per cent), Vedanta (3.38 per cent), GAIL (2.52 per cent) and Lupin (2.50 per cent).

Of the total 1,629 stocks traded, 766 ended higher, 787 finished lower, while 76 ruled steady.

Turnover in cash segment declined to Rs 17,889.56 crore from Rs 18,177.98 crore on Friday. A total of 10,834.48 lakh shares changed hands in 82,00,924 trades.

The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 90,06,029 crore.
In a rare public display of annoyance towards North Korea, China today said it will not support its reclusive ally's pursuit to acquire nuclear weapons and missiles but will provide security assistance if war breaks out in the Korean peninsula.

"If the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) seeks development and security, we are prepared to help and provide support," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in his annual briefing.

"At the same time we have an unwavering commitment for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsulaand we will not accommodate DPRK's pursuit of nuclear and missile programmes," Wang said, distancing China from North Korean leader Kim Jung-un's recent directive to officials to keep the nuclear weapons ready to use in the aftermath of the UN sanctions.

This is the first time China openly came out against North Korea, whose dictatorial regime has enjoyed its backing for long. Wang also said China, which looks exasperated with Kim Jong-un's antics, will implement UN sanctions against North Korea.

"China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. We have the responsibility and capability to implement various resolutions passed by the Security Council, including Resolution 2270 concerning the DPRK," Wang said.

"In China's view, Resolution 2270 must be implemented in its entirety. Sanctions are just necessary means, maintaining stability is the pressing priority, and only negotiation can provide a fundamental solution," he said.

As the largest neighbour of the peninsula, China will not sit by and see a fundamental destruction to the stability of the Korean Peninsula, and will not sit by and see unwarranted damages to China's security interests, he said.

(REOPENS FGN 15)



Wang also accused the Japanese government and leaders of "double dealing," saying that there is little ground for optimism in bilateral relations despite signs of improvement.

On one hand, the Japanese government and leaders say all the nice things about wanting to improve the relations with China, but on the other hand they are making troubles for China at every turn, Wang said.

"This is what I would call a typical case of double dealing," he said.

"Thanks to the efforts of wise people on both sides, there are signs of improvement in the China-Japan relations, but there is little ground for optimism," he said.

"We want to see the China-Japan relations truly improve, but as a saying goes, to cure diseases, you have to address underlying problems," Wang said.

North Korea threatened to carry out pre-emptive nuclear strike on South Korea and the US if the two allies push ahead with joint military drills.
Allegations that she illegally grabbed land for a dance academy at a nominal price notwithstanding, veteran actress-MP Hema Malini asserts no can stop her from from establishing her institute.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court last month sought a direction to the city police commissioner to file a case of cheating and forgery against the yesteryear actress and Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse on charges of illegally allotting land.

Malini said she has waited for 20 years to have her own dance academy, where classical dance forms would be taught, and she won't let "politics" ruin her plan.

"I have been waiting for this for 20 years and when I was about to get it so much hullabaloo was created that I got scared. People said, 'You leave it, why are you after this land? I said why should I leave something I have been wanting for so many years," Hema told PTI in an interview.

"I want to impart my dance my music, I want to make an institute and teach children. How can they stop it? Why are they talking about some bloody politics and spoiling my thought and creation," she asked.

A trained Bharatnatyam dancer herself, Malini said traditional Indian art forms are being distanced by people today and she wants to retain them by imparting co-curricular education to youth.

"Classical dance forms and music are slowly going away. It is very important to impart these to children..."



The 67-year-old actress also feels youngsters should be trained in the art forms of legendary artistes in the country to keep traditions alive.

Referring to the Padma Shri row involving veteran actress Asha Parekh in which Union Home Minister Nitin Gadkari claimed she lobbied for the award, Malini said artists should be given their due respect, which is beyond these honours.

"There are so many legends in our country, what has government done for them till today? They should be recognised, artistes should be given respect, giving a Padma Shri or a Padma Vibhushan (is not enough) and that too when they run after and ask for it. Artistes want some recognition.

"Institutes should be named after these legendary artistes. Some institute should be named after Lata Mangeshkar. We should train kids in the music and dance of our legends, that's how we can keep the traditions alive.
Online retailer of beauty brands Nykaa.Com, founded by former investment banker Falguni Nayar, aims to increase its revenue to Rs 450 crore this fiscal as it introduces more international brands on its platform and expands offline presence in the country.

"We have been witnessing a run rate of Rs 150 crore. Last year, we saw about 4x growth and this year too, it should be about 3x-4x growth," Nayar told PTI.

She added that the average basket size is about Rs 1,400 and premium and luxury products are doing well on its platform.

"We are in discussions with many brands from Korea, Europe. We should get them in the next few months," she said.

Nayar added that the company processes about one lakh orders a month, with 75 per cent of these coming from the mobile platform.

Nykaa.Com is also expanding its range of in-house beauty products under 'Nykaa' brand name. This will include bath and body products, nail paints and will be extended to skin care later on.

"This is an exciting time for us. These first offerings are in line withour commitment to bring quality productsand services at affordable prices... In the next one year or so, we expect the in-house brand to account for 10 per cent of our revenues," Nayar said.

The company had raised USD 9.5 million in funding led by private equity firm in TVS Capital last year. It plans to use the funding to also expand its offline presence.

"We want to be an omni-channel player. We already have a Nykaa store in Delhi and will open six more by the end of this fiscal in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and smaller cities like Jaipur. We want to have 30 stores by 2020," she said.
One person was killed and at least two wounded today when eight rockets fired from a jihadist-controlled area of Syrian territory slammed into the Turkish border town of Kilis, reports said.

Some of the Katyusha-type rockets hit empty areas but one caused casualties, Turkish media quoted Kilis mayor Hasan Kara as saying.

One person was killed and two people wounded, one of them seriously, he said.

The Dogan agency said that the rockets had been fired from an area in Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

The Turkish army then struck back by firing on IS positions in Syria according to the rules of engagement, it quoted security sources as saying.

It is the first such incident since January 18, when a rocket fired from an IS-controlled position in Syria killed a janitor and wounded a pupil at a school in Kilis.

The latest attack comes after Turkish armed forces launched artillery strikes on repeated occasions in the last two weeks on IS positions in Syria.

A fragile ceasefire backed by Turkey has taken effect in Syria, but the deal does not apply to territory held by the IS group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

From mid-February, Turkish artillery had also on successive days shelled targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Syria, with the military saying it was responding to incoming fire.

But Turkey has not shelled any positions held by Syrian Kurdish fighters inside Syria since the ceasefire was implemented on February 27.

Washington had urged Ankara to halt its fire on the PYD and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.
On International Women's Day, nearly 100 people today took a pledge not to subject their daughters to the practice of female (FGM) prevalent in their community.

The pledge, launched on Change.org by a group of FGM survivors, seeks girls and women not to be subjected to .

It also seeks "not to impose physical and psychological harm on a daughter so that she can be a strong, contributing member of the community, and of the world".

"Our pledge signifies the strength to break free from the fetters of convention and tradition, to take an independent stand for one's safety, security, freedom from violence and psychological trauma," a member of the 'Speak Out on FGM' initiative said.

The 'Speak Out on FGM' group had earlier started a petition seeking a ban on the practice and has claimed to have received about 50,000 signatures. The group wants it to be submitted to Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi.

In December 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution on banning the practice of FGM.

The World Health Organisation classifies FGM as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
Online payment solutions provider PayPal has tied up with budget hotel room aggregator to help it source payments from global consumers and allow Indian users to make international bookings.

The companies, however, did not provide any financial details.

Read more from our special coverage on "OYO ROOMS" OYO is both Amazon and Uber of the hospitality world: Ritesh Agarwal

"Growth of new age businesses like can be further accelerated if they are protected against online payment risks and frauds," PayPal APAC Regional Merchant Services Vice-President Hamish Moline said.

PayPal's technology protects merchants such as against unauthorised transactions and mitigates associated risks, he added.

The partnership with PayPal will enable OYO Rooms' customers to pay for their bookings in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, the two said in a joint statement.

"This tie-up with PayPal will assist us in delivering a seamless payment experience through reduced friction during payment process. PayPal is a global leader in payments and we look forward to their network supporting our growth," said OYO Rooms COO, Abhinav Sinha.
today confirmed that it had shared intelligence with India on possible terror strikes in Gujarat ahead of Maha Shivratri festival.

"Sharing of intelligence among various nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world. However, this time it was somehow leaked to media. But this showed Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism," Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said in response to a question on whether had provided intelligence to India on impending terror strikes.

According to Indian media reports, Pakistan's Security Advisor Lieutenant-General Naseer Khan Janjua passed on the intelligence warning to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Saturday following which NSG special forces were deployed to Gujarat to back up state police.

Intelligence inputs from Pakistan of a possible 26/11-style fidayeen attack on religious sites and processions in Gujarat during Maha Shivratri celebrations yesterday and today prompted authorities to order a massive mobilisation of state police personnel and Security Guard (NSG).
A Pakistani court has directed federal and Punjab provincial governments to submit written replies to it on a petition seeking return of the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond from Britain that India has been trying to get from the UK for years.

Afederal law officer yesterday presented arguments at the Lahore High Court on apetitionseeking direction for the Nawaz Sharif government to bring the 105.6 carat stone back from Queen Elizabeth-II of Britain.

The officer saidas per the petitioner's story, the diamond was shifted to UK from Lahore, therefore, the Punjab government could apprise the court about the facts.

Theadditional advocate general of Punjab government, however, argued that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner had no locus standi (aggrieved person) to agitate the matter.

Lahore High CourtJustice Khalid Mahmood Khan, however, brushed aside both arguments, asking the law officers as if the petitioner was not a resident of Pakistan.

The judge directed both federal and provincial governments to submit written replies to the petition on the next hearing.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffreysaid in his petition that the British had snatched the diamond from Daleep Singh, grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and took to the UK.

"The diamond became part of the crown of incumbent Queen Elizabeth-II at the time of her crowing in 1953. Queen Elizabeth has no right on the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which weighs 105 carats and worth billions of rupees," the petition said.

Koh-I-Noor diamond was cultural heritage of Punjab province and its citizens owned it in fact, it said and prayed to the court to direct the federal government to bring the diamond back to Pakistan from the British government.

Reportedly, in 1849, after the conquest of the Punjab by the British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated.

The Koh-i-noor was transferred to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore. The properties of the Sikh Empire were taken as war compensations. India has made regular requests for the jewel's return, saying the diamond is an integral part of the country's history and culture.

India says that Koh-i-Noor was illegally acquired and demands that it should be returned along with other treasures looted during colonial rule.
A Pakistani court today asked former military dictator to appear before it on March 31 for the hearing of high treason case against him after the ex-President did not turn up citing bad health.

The three-member special court ordered Musharraf to attend the hearing on March 31 in person and respond to the charges against him in the treason case launched in 2013 for imposing emergency in 2007 when he was president.

High treason is punishable with death if proved. Musharraf has pleaded non-guilty.

Musharraf did not appear before the court today and his counsel Faisal Chaudhry told the court that the ex-ruler was unwell and admitted in the hospital.

He said that Musharraf was on bail and that he is exempted from appearing in hearing.

However, the court said that Chaudhry should have informed it before the date of hearing that Musharraf would not attend.

State prosecutor Akram Sheikh pleaded that hearing should be held on daily basis but it was not immediately accepted by the court.

Musharraf only once appeared in person before the court last year when he was charge-sheeted since the case was launched in 2013.

The high treason case deals with suspension of the Constitution by Musharraf in 2007 which has been declared under the Article 6 of the Constitution as "high treason" punishable with death.

He was indicted in April 2014 but since then no progress has been made in the case for various reasons.

Musharraf grabbed power in 1999 by deposing then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and ruled till 2008 when he was forced to resign.

He lives in Karachi with his daughter. He is not allowed to leave the country under an order by the court.
Pakistan and the UK today discussed cooperation in security, economic and social sectors under the bilateral 'Enhanced Strategic Dialogue' framework.

UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond met with advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz here during his day-long visit to Pakistan.

Aziz said that the two sides reviewed their relations during Hammond's visit.

"We hope this review would help to further strengthen our ties with the UK," he said.

Aziz said that the two sides have five strands of cooperation: trade and business relations, financial and development cooperation, education and health, consultations on defence and security and cultural cooperation under the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue.

He said both countries in 2014 prepared roadmaps and targets for each strand of cooperation to provide guidance to the concerned ministries and organisations for implementation.

"Today we reviewed the progress on various aspects of our cooperation including political, trade and investment, education, health, defence. We are grateful for Britain's assistance and support in many of these areas but specially in the education and health sectors," Aziz said.

The two countries also discussed regional issues including the Afghan peace process and Pakistan's relations with India, he said.

Hammond was in Kabul yesterday and briefed Aziz about his discussions with the Afghan leadership.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has assured visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that Islamabad is still supporting a fragile peace process in neighboring Afghanistan.

His comments today came days after the Taliban announced that they would not participate in proposed peace talks with the Afghan government until foreign forces stop attacking their positions and leave the country. The Taliban announcement was seen as a setback to efforts made by Pakistan, Washington and Beijing to arrange face-to-face talks this month between Kabul and the Taliban in Islamabad.

A government statement says Khan made his comments during a meeting with Hammond, who arrived here after holding talks with the Afghan leadership.
A Pakistani civil servant who never let go of hope Leonardo DiCaprio might win an Oscar became a social media star after his memo ordering a tea break for staff celebrating the actor's long-awaited victory went viral.

Rizwan Ahmed, Assistant Commissioner of the Inland Revenue department in Pakistani-held Kashmir, told AFP today he was "inspired" by the Titanic star "because he'd been nominated four times and he never lost faith despite losing".

Though one of the world's biggest and most bankable stars, the 41-year-old DiCaprio had never taken home the golden statuette, sparking a years-long meme-fuelled Internet campaign.

He received a standing ovation at the Academy Awards on February 28 when he was finally recognised for his intense portrayal of 19th century fur trapper Hugh Glass in the survival epic "The Revenant".

"I wanted to convey this message of hard work and commitment in the face of adversity to my staff," Ahmed said.

"In honor of Lenoardo DiCaprio getting his long-awaited Oscar, the office of the undersigned wants to arrange a Tea Break for all the staff members," the memo, sent to staff on March 3 and seen by AFP, said.

It pointedly noted that DiCaprio should have won an Oscar "for his role as Howard Hughes in The Aviator, or Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, or for his roles in The Departed, Gangs of New York, Django Unchained".

Ahmed also exhorted his staff to listen to DiCaprio's Oscar speech, in which he spoke passionately about climate change, citing the actor's final words: "Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted".

The memo sent a titanic wave of delight among Pakistani social media users.

"Hahaha! A cinema-buff bureaucrat! Don't knock it, there are very few!" tweeted Hasan Zaidi.

"How do I send a cake to go with that tea? I would love to do that," wrote Shabab Ahmad Khan.

Ahmed told AFP that chai, sweets and biscuits had been served during the break.
A Palestinian woman attempted to stab Israeli police in Jerusalem's Old City today and was shot dead, Israeli authorities said, the latest in a five-month wave of such attacks.

The incident occurred hours before US Vice President Joe Biden was due to arrive for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Israeli police said the woman moved toward border police officers, pulled a knife from her bag and sought to stab them near Damascus Gate, the main entrance used by Palestinians to enter the walled Old City where several attacks have occurred.

The woman was said to be around 50 years old and from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where Damascus Gate is also located.

Violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October has killed 182 Palestinians as well as 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean.

Most of the Palestinians who died in the violence were killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes or demonstrations.

The number of attacks has diminished recently, but increased Israeli security has failed to stop them entirely.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.
A parliamentary panel has called for restructuring the Medical Council of India (MCI), stating that its current composition is "biased" against larger public health goals and is an "exclusive club" of medical doctors from corporate hospitals and private practice.

The Committee, which presented its report in Rajya Sabha today, said the elected MCI neither represents "professional excellence nor its ethos", and that more than half of the members are either from corporate hospitals or in private practice.

"The Committee is surprised to note that even doctors nominated under Section 3(1)(a) and 3(1)(e) to represent state governments and Central government have been nominated from corporate private hospitals which are not only highly commercialised and provide care at exorbitant cost but have also been found to be violating value frameworks," the report said.

It said the current composition of MCI is biased against the larger public health goals and public interest and that the Council is an exclusive club of medical doctors as the IMC Act does not call for diversity of background of the members.

"The Committee is of the considered view that the composition of the MCI is opaque and skewed and diversity needs to be brought into this because having only medical doctors in the Council is not an enabling factor for ensuring reforms in medical education and practice," said the Committee as it recommended opening Council membership to diverse stakeholders such as public health experts, health economists, health NGOs, patient advocacy groups, etc.

The Committee also recommended that government should move swiftly towards removing all possible roadblocks to the Common Medical Entrace Test (CMET) for admission to MBBS and PG courses, including legal issues and immediately introduce the same to ensure that merit, and not the ability to pay, becomes the criterion for admission to medical colleges.

"It is public knowlegde that the majority of seats in private medical colleges are allotted for a capitation fee going upto Rs 50 Lakh and even more in some colleges despite the fact that the capitation is not legal.

"This has serious implications for our whole system of medical education and healthcare. One clear implication of this skewed process of admissions by way of sale of seats is that there may be large number of students entering the system who may not be up to the required standards," it said.

The Committee also said the existing minimum standard



requirements, as mandated by the MCI, are irrational and rigid, proving to be big impediment in the establishment and expansion of medical colleges.

"The Committee, therefore, recommends that physical infrastructure requirement be pruned down in such a way that it should have just about 30-40 per cent standing value in the total assessment of a medical college," the report said.

The Committee also recommended complete restructuring of the undergraduate education and suggested that the PG entrance exam should be held immediately after the final MBBS examination so that graduate doctors could concentrate on practical skills during internship.

"The Committee also observes that the medical education in India is increasingly depersonalised and has failed to instill human values of care, concern, courtesy and compassion.

"The Committee feels that young doctors should not only have parctical skills but also lot of soft skills. It therefore recommends that soft skills (including ethics) should be made one of the cornerstones of the syllabus of medical education," the report said.

The Committee also recommended that the current system of PG medical education be restructured taking the best of both systems that is all Indian common entrance exam for all seats and common exit evaluation for all candidates as practised by DNB (Diplomate of National Board) and the training and evaluation processes of the university based system into one national qualification.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha today remembered the women who left an impact on their lives as they lauded the role of those in the defence forces on the occasion of Women's Day.

Parrikar said his mother gave him several lessons when he was child, and though it was difficult to comprehend them at that age, he realised later in life how very useful they were.

"I still remember what my mother told me when I was young. It reminded me all throughout my education, my career as an entrepreneur and in political life.

"She told me that if we both agree with each other, we can virtually occupy a place as small as a tamarind leaf. I would never understand that because tamarind leaf is hardly 2 to 4 mm long. But the moral was if two people agree on views and feelings, you need a small place," Parrikar said.

The Defence Minister was speaking at a seminar on 'Women in Armed Medical Corps' organised to mark International Women's Day here, which was also attended Raha.

Parrikar recollected an incident where he went to Goa for awarding scholarship to students and of the 25, 21 were women.

"The woman today not only has to deliver in her professional career, but she also has to deliver at home," he said.

Recalling an incident, the Air Chief said while he was a cadet under-going training with his instructor, his plane crashed as the engine stopped functioning.

"We both ejected. I somehow managed to land with minimal injuries, but my instructor did not get enough time to do so. While I was in the hospital for 15-20 days, my instructor was there for a longer time.

"During this period, one lady doctor took great care of us, which helped both of us to recuperate faster. Even the nurses took great care of us," Raha said, lauding the role of women in armed forces, especially the medical corps.

He added that his family has another reason for celebration on Women's Day as his daughter's birthday also falls on March 8. "Daughters bring so much of happiness to life," Raha said.
The Supreme Court today sought reply of the Centre on a PIL seeking immediate implementation of plain packaging rules for cigarette and other tobacco products on the ground that attractive packaging entices the youth to consume them.

A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit issued notice to the Ministry of Health on the PIL contending that delaying the implementation of plain packaging was in violation of the rights of the citizens under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The petition said plain packaging was needed in addition to the pictoral health warning as per provisions of Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.

At the beginning of the proceedings, the bench was of the view that the issue was legislative but later agreed with advocate Aishwarya Bhatti, appearing for a senior advocate, himself a victim of tobacco consumption who was diagnosed with tongue cancer, that judicial intervention was required.

The plea filed by senior advocate Umesh Narain Sharma, who has been practicing in the Allahabad High Court, conceded that he has not made any representation to the Government as it has become a major public and health issue.

When the bench wanted that the issue be looked into by the Parliament, the counsel spoke about the strong tobacco lobby.

The PIL said Allahabad High Court had recommended immediate implementation of plain packaging of cigarette and other tobacco products.

"Despite high prevalence of tobacco use and over one million tobacco related deaths yearly in India and despite clear recommendation of the Allahabad High Court to implement plain packaging of cigarette and other tobacco products,Centre has taken no steps to discourage attractive packaging of tobacco products and implement plain packaging," the PIL said.

The PIL contended that presently in India tobacco products



are packed "in very attractive packaging to entice youths to take up tobacco consumption. Such packaging also draws attention away from health warning and make them redundant."



"Therefore, to counter this tactics of the Industry, plain packaging is the best strategy which would prohibit brand colours, logos and graphics on tobacco packages, thus eliminating package as mini-billboards that promote tobacco.

"Required health warnings would appear on packages, but the branded part of the package would have a standard colour for all brands," it said.

It also referred to the acceptance of plain packaging by several other countries including Australia, United Kingdom and France and said "there is an urgent need to discourage tobacco consumption and one such way is to communicate to consumer the possible health hazards arising out of use and consumption of tobacco."



"This is achieved by including large pictorial health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products. Pictorial Health Warnings (PHWs) are one of the most effective public health measures to inform the public about the harms of tobacco products," it said.
Mumbai Police is making its contribution in popularising and giving an impetus to the 'Swachh Bharat' and 'Make in India' initiatives of the Centre.

Under an initiative started by the police, a group of youths and professionals today cleaned and painted the walls of RAK Marg Police Station premises and then wrote patriotic and social messages on them, said police.

Youths from Bhoiwada area in Central Mumbai took part in the event, police said.

"Such initiatives help to maintain cordial police- public relations and spread awareness about cleanliness and Make in India concepts," said Siddharth Kasbe, Senior Inspector of RAK Marg Police Station.

"After painting the walls of police station, we planted shrubs in discarded mineral water plastic bottles and placed them on the walls," said 29-year-old Abhishek Panchal, who was part of the 80-member strong group.

"We have come out with the concept of 'selfie walls', in which people can take selfies in colourful backgrounds having painted or well decorated wall with plants and social or patriotic messages on them, he said.

Professionals like lawyers, HR executives and CA firms also took part in the initiative.
The entire Public-Private-Partnership framework needs to be reoriented to make it more investor friendly, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

"PPP model has tremendous potential and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in fact spoken about adding 'people' perspective to it. So now it has become Public-Private-People-Partnership," Goyal said while addressing Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit at Gurgaon.

He further said: "I would like to compliment Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for having come out with progressive policies like the Transit Oriented Development Policy, New & Integrated Licensing Policy and the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojna and TDR- which will give great impetus to Haryana."



The initiatives will, in the long run, encourage respected industrialists and new breed of entrepreneurs to bring investments in the real estate sector and PPP mode, he said.

If India has to develop at the kind of pace that is expected, and provide bare necessities to its people by 2022, then clearly the 'PPP' model is unavoidable, he said.

It will be the engine of growth in the infrastructure sector and together "we will have to evolve the right regulatory framework which should be simple and predictable", he added.

Goyal also suggested that penalty should be a two sided affair in PPP model and not just restricted to the private body as partnership means sharing the fruits of development as well as the losses.

He said: "I suggest that any framework we create should provide penalty for private sector and the other side. One must not forget to address the delays in providing the utilities which are necessary for the success of any project."



Goyal added that the Prime Minister believes in the Japanese way of working of planning well and creating the institutional framework around the plans, even though it may take a little more time.

The minister said that about last two years of the current government have been well spent in creating the basic infrastructure and "will hold India a good stead, will help us to take our country to completely new paradigm of growth".
Noting that Punjab's right to waters of its rivers should be "safeguarded", Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki today appealed the Centre to remove "discrimination" in sharing it with neighbouring states.

Noting that "injustice and discrimination" was meted out to Punjab over its river waters, he said the people of the state have also been heavily discriminated against by refusal of the Centre to transfer Chandigarh to Punjab.

Addressing the budget session of the state Assembly on its opening day, Solanki, who is also Haryana's governor, said Punjab government had been seeking a solution to the river water issue in consonance with Riparian Principle.

"This (Riparian Principle) has been implemented to resolve river water disputes throughout the country," he said in his 36-minute address, initially marred by protest by Opposition Congress members over the issue.

"Several Punjabi speaking areas left out of the state at the time of reorganisation in 1966 have still not been included in Punjab," he said.

Recently, days after the Supreme Court began hearing the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal dispute on Presidential Reference, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had expressed hope the verdict would be in favour of his state.

While Khattar leads Haryana's BJP government, the party is SAD ally in Punjab, and Solanki is Governor of both states.

Earlier, Congress MLAs stopped Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at the entrance of Assembly over the SYL issue before the commencement of the Governor's address which delayed the speech by three minutes.

As the Governor started his address, Congress MLAs sporting black bands staged a demonstration in the Well of the House for about five minute before trooping out of the Assembly raising anti-government slogans.

On the issue of sacrilege incidents last year, Solanki said, the state government has decided to enhance the quantum of punishment for such acts from three years to life imprisonment under Section 295 A of the IPC.

"Out of the total 13 cases of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, in seven the accused have already been traced arrested," he said, adding, "of the remaining six cases, two have been referred to the CBI.

He said the government is committed to ensuring strictest



possible punishment to the perpetrators and guilty would not be allowed to go scot-free.

He hailed the role of Punjab police in tackling the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase, saying it provided credible, reliable, and concrete advance intelligence, enabling the NSG to deploy itself at the destination even before the aggressors reached there.

Referring to recently held Khadoor Sahib bypoll, which he Akalis won, he said, "Some elements and outfits chose to abdicate their responsibility towards the electorate" by boycotting the bypoll.

Congress party had boycotted the bypoll.

He noted that tax concessions given to some neighbouring states have caused a major blow to Punjab's economy. "Because of these concessions, the Punjab entrepreneurs no longer have a fair, competitive and level-playing field," he said.

He also highlighted the government's achievements in agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries, education and governance reforms areas.

Lauding Badal's role as CM, he said, "As a matter of fact not only this House but every Punjabi can walk taller as the state's destiny is in the hands of someone whose stature is matched only by his humility and compassion."



He described Badal as "saint statesman" with a visionary leadership.
Punjabis are the most obese people in the country, Health Minister J P Nadda told the Rajya Sabha today, while men from Tripura and women from Meghalaya are the leanest.

Replying to a question on the prevalence of obesity, a condition when Body Mass Index (BMI) is more than 25, Nadda said diabetes, which is linked to obesity, is seeing a consistent rise with 65, 66.8 and 69.1 million people between 20-79 years of age suffering from it in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Men and women from Punjab followed by Kerala and Delhi are the most obese people with 22.2, 17.8 and 16.8 per cent of men and 29.9, 28.1 and 26.4 per cent of women from respective states reporting a BMI of more than 25.

According to figures tabled in the House, women everywhere, except Bihar and Meghalaya, are more overweight than men.

In Tripura, only 4.8 per cent of men and 7.1 per cent of women are obese while in Meghalaya, only 5.9 per cent men and 5.3 per cent women are overweight.

The figures have been sourced to a 2005-06 National Family Health Survey.
Al-Qaeda's affiliate and allied jihadists seized a set of strategic hilltops held by pro-regime forces in the country's north, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants battled government loyalists and overran three hilltops yesterday in the Al-Eis area south of Aleppo city.

"Fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Jund Al-Aqsa, and other groups seized the central Al-Eis hilltop and surrounding hills as well," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The jihadists detonated five car bombs during their offensive.

"The hilltops are important because they reinforce the regime's presence in the outskirts of Aleppo and gave them a presence near the main highway south towards Damascus," Abdel Rahman said.

Aleppo province is broken up into a complex patchwork of territories under the control of various groups.

The Islamic State group is dominant in the east, while rebel groups -- some allied with Al-Nusra -- control much of the west.

Government forces based south of Aleppo city have tried to expand their control north and east.

Further west in Idlib province, at least 19 civilians were killed in an air strike believed to have been conducted by either Russian or regime planes, the Observatory reported.

The raid struck a diesel market in the town of Abu Duhur, controlled by a coalition of groups including Al-Nusra.

Three of those killed were women.

Yesterday was the tenth day of a landmark ceasefire across parts of the country brokered by the United States and Russia.

The truce does not include areas held by IS and Al-Nusra.

More than 270,000 people have been killed in since the conflict began in March 2011, evolving from widespread anti-government protests to a brutal war.
Yoga guru Ramdev's Haridwar-based food park has got a full-time security cover of armed CISF commandos, a facility extended by the Centre to only a handful of private entities such as Infosys till now.

CISF Director General Surender Singh, during his annual media interaction here, said the force has recently received the government's order in this regard and 35 armed men will be deployed at the facility and the "client"-- Patanjali Food and Herbal Park Private Limited-- will bear the entire cost of the deployment.

A squad of 35 CISF men had been deployed at the said facility in the middle of last year for temporary security duties after some protests erupted there and after the fresh orders they will be deployed there round the clock, a senior official said.

The move assumes significance as CISF cover is very sparingly granted to the private sector. The food park will be the eighth such unit which will be guarded by the paramilitary force after it was first mandated for such tasks in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Officials said the expenditure for security deployment at the multi-acre food park is estimated to be about Rs 40 lakh per annum and logistical facilities for these men like barracks, armoury and vehicles will also be provided by the "client".

Ramdev, a yoga exponent who has set up a business empire worth thousands of crores of rupees in personal care and food products sector, is himself a 'Z' category protectee of central paramilitary forces.

Officials said sophisticated weapons toting CISF commando squad will be headed by an Assistant Commandant-rank officer and will be deployed on a 'quick reaction team' pattern which entails stationing them in vantage positions. The teams react like they would in the wake of any terrorist attack or sabotage like activity.

However, the routine entry and exit will be regulated by the staff and private security hired by the client, they said.

They said a security and intelligence audit report before finalization of the deployment found that the food park has been facing a threat as it is visited by tourists, both foreign and domestic, and also is vulnerable from the point of view of local law and order disturbances as witnessed last year in June.

CISF was tasked to secure private sector entities after



the government brought an amendment to the Act post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The other seven concerns in the private sector, guarded by the Central Industrial Security Force are Electronics City Bengaluru, Infosys campuses in Bengaluru, Mysore and Pune, Reliance Refinery and Petrochemicals in Jamnagar, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd project executed by the Tata group in Mundra and the Tata Steel project based in Odisha's Kalinganagar.
The Reserve Bank has signed a pact with Bank of Israel for exchange of information pertaining to banking supervision.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Hedva Ber, Supervisor of banks on behalf of Bank of Israel and Parvathy V Sundaram, Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Banking Supervision on behalf of Reserve Bank of India, the RBI said in a statement today.

"The Reserve Bank has entered into an MoU, Letter for Supervisory Co-operation and Statement of Co-operation with supervisors of a few countries to promote greater co-operation and share supervisory information. With this, the RBI has signed 32 such MoUs, one Letter for Supervisory Co-operation and one Statement of Co-operation," it said.

Experts also believe that Cash Reserve Ratio will not be



tinkered with as liquidity is sufficient.

"Nothing is going to change in this policy as CPI has not reduced to the level where the RBI wanted it to be. The market has already discounted that rate is not going to be cut this time," said a treasury head of a state-run bank.

"Even the liquidity condition in the system is sufficient, so CRR will not be altered," he added.

Another senior banker said there are expectations that nothing is going to change as this is the last policy of the Governor and a rate cut is unlikely.

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, however, RBI is expected to cut key interest rates by 25 basis points in its third bi-monthly policy review for 2016-17 on August 9, if good rains damp pulse price inflation.

"With good rains, pulses' sowing for the kharif season has jumped 39 per cent above last year's sowing. This should pull down pulses prices by 20 per cent and cool CPI inflation to 5.1 per cent by March," it said.

DBS, on the other hand, said RBI may keep the key interest rates on hold in the upcoming policy meet as inflation for the second quarter has hastened to 5.7 per cent and July-August prints may also stay high.

The room for further easing by the Reserve Bank is dependent on the inflation path and make-up of the monetary policy committee, it said.
Recent rains have benefited late sown crop although there are reports of some damage due to hailstorm in north India, government said on Wednesday.

output is estimated to rise to 93.82 million tonnes in the 2015-16 crop year (July-June), as against 86.53 million tonnes in the previous year, despite drought. crop is already matured and would be harvested from next fortnight.

Read more from our special coverage on "WHEAT" High price, poor quality make wheat exports unviable

"Recent rains have benefited late sown wheat crops. There are reports of some damage due to hailstorm and wind, but in small pockets. The situation is not alarming," Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan told reporters.

The government is collecting the details about the crop situation from the state governments, he added.

Last year, unseasonal rains and hailstorm during March-April period had damaged the wheat crop significantly, resulting in sharp fall in production by 9.32 million tonnes.

Moreover, the quality of wheat had also damaged forcing the government to relax norms for procurement of the grain from farmers to the central pool.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that the government is organising a three-day national level exhibition-cum-fair called 'Krishi Unnati Mela' from March 19 to 21.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the mela and also give away 'Krishi Karman Awards' to eight states -- Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Meghalaya, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Two progressive farmers would also given the award in recognition of excellent performance in production.

More than one lakh farmers are expected to participate in the mela. Both public and private companies will display their products and new technologies in over 500 stalls.
Activists of Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD) today staged a protest here to draw the attention of the centre towards the "bad" condition of roads in Uttar Pradesh.

The protesters, led by the party leader for western UP Rajkumar Sangwan, started their march from NH-58 here to Khola Jhaal and submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate, demanding that the condition of roads be improved.

"Big potholes have developed between the NH-58 to Khola Jhaal road here in absence of any construction following which commuters have to face a lot of inconvenience," Sangwan said.

Sangwan claimed that a fund of Rs 19 crore had been alloted for widening the NH-58 to Khola Jhaal road but no money has been received from last eight months for the construction.

"We are now protesting by taking out a march to draw the attention of the centre towards the bad condition of the roads," Sangwan said.
Activists of NSUI, Congress' student wing, today set ablaze an effigy of Union HRD minister here, alleging that she did not help a dying man and two others injured in an accident on the Yamuna Expressway involving her cavalcade.

The children of a doctor killed in the accident on Saturday night had yesterday contradicted Irani's claim that she had tried to help the injured and ensure they reached hospital.

NSUI activists led by their state General Secretary Mukesh Dhangar burnt an effigy of Irani at Bhuteshwar crossing.

"It was her (Irani's) moral responsibility to carry the injured to hospital on humanitarian ground. The accident took place due to rash driving by her cavalcade. A case should be registered against the driver," Dhangar said.
US-based philanthropic organisation Rockefeller Foundation and OMC Power have inked a USD 4.5-million deal to finance OMC Power's construction and retrofitting of 100 solar power plants with mini-grids in rural Uttar Pradesh.

"The financial arrangement is part of the foundation's Smart Power for Rural Development (SPRD) initiative aimed to provide reliable electricity to 1,000 villages and promote rural economic development," a joint press release by Rockefeller Foundation and OMC Power said.

A mini-grid is a decentralised power distribution infrastructure. Renewable energy producing companies deploy mini-grids to provide electricity to rural villages where power access is either unavailable or inadequately available.

"There's a need for significant investment in expanding off-grid energy access that can power both domestic and business activities, and the kind of financing we provide, can enable committed companies such as OMC Power to build the mini-grid sector," Ashvin Dayal, Associate Vice President and MD Asia, Rockefeller Foundation said.

"We strongly believe that, over time, we will encourage the growing pool of renewable energy financing to move towards mini-grids," he added.

Managing Director of OMC Power Rohit Chandra said, "We are proud to partner with The Rockefeller Foundation in our quest to bring affordable and reliable power to millions of power-deprived people and become a world leader in the rural power market."



Established in 2011, OMC Power is a rural power company that finances, builds and operates village-level solar power plants with mini-grid distribution.

OMC Power's mini-grids supply electricity to telecom networks, which serve as anchor customers for the company. Due to the presence of anchor loads, schools, health clinics, enterprises and homes throughout the surrounding village also benefit from the availability of reliable and clean energy.

Rockefeller Foundation launched the USD 75 million Smart Power for Rural Development initiative in April 2015.
After Hyderabad varsity and JNU, Allahabad University was at the centre of a row that escalated today with eight Opposition parties targeting HRD Minister Smriti Irani over alleged harassment of its Student's Union President, accusing her of acting like ABVP's "patron saint".

"We are agonized over the fact that the first ever lady President of Allahabad University Student's Union Richa Singh, a PhD scholar, is being harassed by the administration...," the parties that included Congress, Left and AAP said in a joint statement.

CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy separately asked the BJP-RSS combine to "keep off" Allahabad University, alleging that RSS students wing ABVP was trying to "saffronise" it after "targeting" JNU and HCU, and sought action against those trying to "create tension" at its campus.

K C Tyagi of JD(U) raised the issue of the "authoritarian attitude" of Allahabad University Vice-Chancellor during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, saying Richa Singh had written to all MPs on the matter and about gender insensitivity.

"First we saw the sacrifice of Rohith, then the Kanhaiya episode and now Richa Singh episode is in the process."



Drawing parallel with dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad University and the JNU row involving Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest, leaders from the eight parties in the joint statement trained their guns on Irani, reminding her that she is a minister of the entire country and not just the RSS and BJP.

Jairam Ramesh and Rajeev Shukla (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Bhagwant Mann (AAP) and Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD) were signatories to the statement.

"A government, which refuses to learn that autonomy of education institution is foundation of democracy, is sowing widespread discontent in campuses by its blatant support to ABVP's goondaism," they said.

Noting that Richa Singh had won as an independent candidate in Allahabad University while all the other seats were won by ABVP, the leaders claimed she was in the eye of the storm for protesting against a visit of firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath to the campus.

"ABVP members allegedly attacked the protestors but instead of investigating the attack, an enquiry was set up on Richa Singh herself. Further, there is a move now by the Vice Chancellor to declare her admission null and void, using some technical grounds, in order to get rid of what appears to be the only thorn in ABVP's side.

"We are aghast that University administration across the region are hunting students, who have a different view than the ABVP," they said.

Alleging that the HRD Minister is acting like the "patron saint of ABVP", they said, "we wish to remind her that she is a minister of this vast, diverse country and not just the RSS/BJP.

"It is her responsibility to encourage and protect all Constitutional freedoms in University campuses. If Richa Singh is made a victim of ABVP's diktats, on the heels of Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar, then the students of this nation will be forced to rise in revolt," the statement added.
Celebrated author JK Rowling is set to release a four-part series titled "Magic in North America", which will provide a backstory to the upcoming "Harry Potter" spin-off, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".

Rowling will release the first of the series on the Pottermore website tomorrow. The following pieces will be released at the same time daily until Friday.

The series will cover magic-related topics such as the Salem witch trials and native American legends.

The series is a prelude to the release of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".

The film will be in cinemas in November and star Eddie Redmayne as "magizoologist" Newt Scamander, who writes a Hogwarts School textbook about the weird and wonderful fictional creatures he encounters.

Rowling has written the screenplay for the film, which is based on a "Harry Potter" spin-off book she published in 2001.

A post on Pottermore read, "Magic in North America will bring to light the history of this previously unexplored corner of the wizarding world in the run-up to Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them."And you'll want to get up to speed before the film comes around in November."



Other topics to be covered in Rowling's series will include Ilvermorny, Rowling's name for the North American wizarding school, and The Magical Congress Of The United States of America, her US equivalent of the Ministry of Magic.
Five police personnel were injured and three police vehicles damaged in an attack by workers, who surrounded the police station here, demanding release of an arrested activist, police said today.

The workers, who encircled the Kottarakara police station late last night,were chased away by police.

They threw stones damaging three police jeeps, police said.

The police personnel, including a Circle Inspector, Sub Inspector and three policemen, who were on patrol duty, were allegedly attacked by the workers and have been hospitalised.

Earlier, worker Binesh, who was arrested in connection with a case, was brought to the station around 11.30 pm.

Angered over this, some workers encircled the police station and forcibly entered it demanding his release.

Two cases have been registered in this connection against 35 persons, police said.
South Korea's spy agency said on Tuesday that North Korea had hacked into smartphones belonging to a number of key government officials, part of a series of cyber attacks launched after its fourth nuclear test.

The revelations by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) came as the government is seeking to push through parliament an anti-cyber terrorism law that critics say would grant the agency unmatched surveillance powers over cyberspace, including messenger servicing networks.

In a statement, the NIS said the North stole phone numbers and texts from the smartphones of dozens of key South Korean officials between late February and early March.

It also attacked the server of a major software firm specialising in providing security software for Internet banking.

In January and February this year, North Korean hackers sent pishing emails to employees of two provincial railway operators in order to steal their account details and passwords.

The move was in preparation for mounting cyber terror attacks on the railway traffic control systems, the agency said.

"North Korea has been mounting a series of attacks against our cyberspace" following its nuclear test on January 6, the statement said, adding that they appeared to have been preparation for a major cyber assault on South Korea's banking network.

"If left unchecked, it would have resulted in major financial chaos, such as paralysis of Internet banking systems and unwanted transfers of deposits", it said.

According to the agency, North Korean hackers also sent text messages to the South Korean officials, trying to lure them to links infected with malware that could capture the phone numbers of other officials.

Last year alone, North Korea contaminated some 60,000 personal computers in the South and abroad, turning them into "zombie" PCs that can be used as weapons for cyber attacks, the agency said.

Presiding over a meeting Tuesday with 14 government agencies, as well as the defence ministry, Financial Services Commission and science ministry, an NIS deputy director urged them to maintain a high level of vigilance.

Seoul has blamed North Korean hackers for a series of past cyber-attacks on military institutions, banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites as well as a nuclear power plant.

The United States also said the North was behind a damaging cyber-attack on Sony's Hollywood film unit over its controversial North Korea-themed satirical film "The Interview" in 2014.
Saudi Arabia today executed one of its nationals convicted of drug trafficking, bringing to 71 the number of locals and foreigners put to death this year.

Abdullah Rouwaili had been found guilty of trafficking amphetamines and was put to death in the northern Tabuk region, the interior ministry said.

Most people executed in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.

The 71 executions so far this year include 47 death sentences for "terrorism" carried out in a single day on January 2.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, most of them for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP count.

Rights group Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for two decades.

However, the tally was far behind those of China and Iran.

The kingdom has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia next month, its Foreign Minister Adel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir today called on him during which they expressed keenness to elevate ties between the two countries to strategic level by boosting cooperation in key areas of trade, security and counter terrorism.

"Both leaders exchanged views on further strengthening bilateral relations, including in the fields of trade, investment, energy, and security cooperation. They also discussed regional situation. They agreed that the two countries have shared interest in peace and stability in the region," a PMO statement said.

Emphasising that India attached high importance to its close and friendly relations with Saudi Arabia, Modi also expressed confidence that his forthcoming visit there would provide an opportunity to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a new level.

Modi will travel to Saudi Arabia on a two-day State visit from April 2 as part of his three-nation trip starting from Belgium on March 30. After Belgium, he will also visit Washington to attend Nuclear Security Summit from March 31.

On his part, the Saudi Minister conveyed that relations with India were accorded a high priority in their foreign policy and "deeply appreciated" the constructive role being played by the Indian community in the development of his country, the statement said.

During his less then 24-hour-long visit, the minister, who arrived late last night, also held "substantive discussion" with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj covering issues of bilateral, regional and multilateral interest.

He conveyed to Swaraj that India was one of the most important relationships for Saudi Arabia, which was keen to upgrade the ties to a strategic level covering security, counter terrorism, maritime links, trade, investment and people-to-people ties, MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

The visiting minister also emphasised that "Saudi Arabia was India's largest supplier of crude but wanted to go beyond and make it a true energy partnership", Swarup said.

Swaraj also asserted that India too was keen to take the



relationship with Saudi Arabia to the next level and wanted a strong security and counter terrorism partnership with that country.

"In this context, she sought Saudi's support for India's draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT)," the Spokesperson said, adding that the two ministers also discussed the regional situation and the threat from ISIS.

On trade front, she noted that though the trade volume was good but the investment from Saudi Arabia was very low -- less than USD 60 million -- and in this context, she invited Saudi investment in India's infrastructure sector, the Spokesperson said.

The External Affairs Minister also took up some of the issues facing Indian workers in Saudi Arabia and said the existing labour agreement with Saudi Arabia should be expanded to include sectors other than domestic workers.
The Supreme Court today referred to the Chief Justice pleas raising the question as to when lawmakers facing criminal trial would stand disqualified for setting up a constitution bench, saying such issues needed to be decided by larger benches.

A three-bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the petitions be sent to Chief Justice T S Thakur for constituting a five-judge bench to deal with the matter.

The court said the larger bench would deal with the question as to when can a legislator be disqualified.

"Can a legislator facing criminal trial be disqualified at conviction or at the framing of charges in the case?" the bench asked.

The court was hearing a petition filed by NGO Public Interest Foundation on the issue.

BJP leader and advocate Ashwani Kumar Updhaya has also filed a plea seeking a direction to the the Centre and others "to bring in electoral reform and to make rules... And Code of Conduct for de-criminalization and de-communalization of politics and for eradication of corruption, casteism and nepotism from electoral system."



Earlier, the apex court had set a deadline of one year for lower courts to complete trial in criminal cases involving sitting MPs and MLAs.

It had also said that all such proceedings involving lawmakers must be conducted on a day-to-day basis.

In order to expedite proceedings against lawmakers who continue to enjoy membership of a legislative body during the pendency of case, the court had also said that lower courts will have to give explanation to the Chief Justice of the respective high court if the trial is not completed within a year.

The Law Commisison had recommended that such trials be concluded in one year.

"We direct in cases of sitting MPs and MLAs who have been charged for offences under Sections 8(1), 8(2), 8(3)of Representation of People Act, the trial is to be conducted as expeditiously as possible but not later than one year from the date of framing of charges," it had said.
The headmistress of a government elementary school has been suspended over the death of a class IV student who was allegedly assaulted by two of his classmates recently, at Kollinathan here.

District collector K Dakshinamurthy today said headmistress Kanakavalli was yesterday suspended, two days after 9-year-old student Suriya succumbed to injuries.

Meanwhile, the District Primary Educational Officer held an inquiry into the incident, officials said.

Police had initially registered a case for voluntarily hurt and later altered it to section 302 (murder) of the IPC after the boy died at a hospital.

A fourth standard student Suriya died on March 5 after being allegedly attacked by two classmates over a quarrel about using his geometry box.
After moving up and down, the market benchmark Sensex closed in the green for the fifth consecutive day by edging up 13 points as investors got on with their buying activity amid foreign fund inflows.

The gains followed its best weekly performance in over four years on Friday.

Investors took a cautious line as they looked forward to the outcome of meetings of central banks.

Asian shares tumbled after Chinese trade data showed that its exports continue to languish and fell by a hefty margin.

Last week, the Sensex rallied 1,492.18 points, or 6.44 per cent, and Nifty zoomed 455.60 points, or 6.48 per cent -- their biggest weekly gain in more than four years.

In a volatile trade, the BSE Sensex after opening a tad higher moved up on the back of widespread gains in blue-chip stocks.

But profit-booking pulled it down as the 30-share barometer settled at 24,659.23, a paltry gain of 12.75 points, or 0.05 per cent.

The gauge had gained 1,644.48 points in the previous four sessions on expectations of a rate cut by RBI and positive global cues after the government kept its deficit target for the next fiscal at 3.5 per cent in the Budget 2016.

In contrast, the NSE Nifty-50, which retook the crucial 7,500-mark at the outset, gave up the day's gains as profit-booking weighed. Finally, it closed little changed at 7,485.30 as against its previous closing of 7,485.35.

"The slump in Chinese trade due to the sharp reduction in export data has created the volatility in the market. Global markets are anticipating further stimulus from ECB on March 10 and Fed to keep the positive momentum," said Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) purchased shares worth a net Rs 671.57 crore last Friday, according to provisional data.

The market was closed yesterday for 'Mahashivratri'.

Major gainers were GAIL 2.49 per cent, RIL 2,05 per cent, Lupin 2.05 per cent, ITC 1.66 per cent, HDFC 1.56 per cent, Tata Steel 1.21 per cent, Adani Ports 1 per cent and NTPC 0.99 per cent.

In the 30-share Sensex universe, 16 added to gains while 14 led by Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Cipla, BHEL, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy's, L&T and HDFC Bank finished lower, falling by up to 2.90 per cent.

The BSE metal index rose the most by climbing 1.70 per cent, followed by oil and gas 1.50 per cent, realty 0.90 per cent, consumer durables 0.58 per cent, FMCG 0.39 per cent and healthcare 0.20 per cent.

In sync with the overall trend, the broader markets too displayed a mixed trend, with the small-cap index rising 0. 24 per cent while mid-cap index fell 0.25 per cent.

In the rest of Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended 0.76 per cent down and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.73 per cent after China's exports saw another hefty slump and Brent oil retreated from its near 2016 highs.

European markets too were trading in the negative zone, tracking losses across most of Asia.

Back home, of the 30-share Sensex pack, 15 scrips ended



higher.

Major gainers were BHEL (1.80 pc), L&T (1.52 pc), ICICI Bank (1.48 pc), Hero MotoCorp (1.32 pc), ONGC (1.27 pc), Axis Bank (0.89 pc), Cipla (0.85 pc), Wipro (0.76 pc), Tata Motors (0.70 pc), M&M (0.50 pc), HDFC (0.44 pc), Maruti Suzuki (0.42 pc) and SBI (0.29 pc).

However, Infosys, Asian Paint, HDFC Bank, Adani Ports, TCS, Dr Reddy's, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, Lupin, NTPC and GAIL fell by up to 1.50 per cent.

Among the major indices, BSE Power rose by 1.77 per cent followed by capital goods 1.76 per cent, PSU 0.61 per cent, auto 0.44 per cent, realty 0.31 per cent, consumer durables 0.29 per cent, oil&gas 0.24 per cent, metal 0.14 per cent and banking 0.12 per cent.

The market breadth remained positive as 1,584 stocks ended higher, 1,048 finished in red while 162 ruled steady.

The total turnover fell to Rs 2,535.88 crore from Rs 2,726.04 crore yesterday.
Dozens of Shiite clerics called today for equality in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, also insisting that there had never been a call for sectarianism by their majority community in the Gulf kingdom.

A month-long Shiite-led uprising rocked the small state in February 2011, taking its cue from Arab Spring protests and calling for political reforms.

But authorities quelled the protests, backed by Saudi-led troops from Gulf countries that accuse Shiite-dominated Iran of meddling in Bahraini affairs.

"There was never, and there is not today, a demand by the people or the ulema (clerics) for a sectarian state... Let alone a one-sect state," the 39 Shiite clerics said in a statement.

"The people have always called for citizenship equality... without any discrimination based on ethnicity, colour, religion or sect," they said.

The statement said the people have the right to demand a ruling system "based on a constitution that does not sideline the will of the people".

It also called for the right to have "free elections" in which voters would elect a "parliament with full powers, not controlled by other authorities, and have a say in choosing the government".

Led by Sheikh Isa Qassim, the spiritual leader of the main opposition Al-Wefaq movement, the clerics also urged protection for the freedom to practise religious rites.

"This is a right no believers of any faith can abandon," they said.

Sheikh Ali Salman, the Al-Wefaq secretary general, was given a four-year jail sentence last June for inciting disobedience.

Tiny but strategic Bahrain, which connected to regional Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

Despite the crackdown on the 2011 uprising, protesters continue to clash frequently with police in Shiite villages outside the capital Manama.
Refuting criticism that the mega Silk Road initiative is aimed at expanding China's interests abroad, Beijing today said its multi-billion dollar project is an "open initiative" and not a form of "Monroe Doctrine" to expand its dominance.

The Silk Road initiative which is officially termed as Belt and Road projects is "an open initiative, not some form of Monroe Doctrine or expansionism,"Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here.

The Monroe Doctrine was a US foreign policy regarding domination of the American continent in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonise land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring US intervention.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is China's idea, but the opportunities it has created belong to the world," Wang said pointing to the the formation of USD 40 billion Silk Road Fund and setting up the Chinese initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt that links China with Europe through central and western Asia, and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) connecting China with southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

India has adopted a mixed approach to the Chinese initiative. While it backed the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) corridor, it so far stayed away from backing the MSR owing to the reservations over strategic implicationsit would provide for China in the Indian Ocean.

India has also opposed the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it is being built through the disputed parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Wang said notable progress has been made over the past years in the Silk Road Initiative.

A connectivity network has taken shape, most notably the CPEC and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, Wang said.

A freight train now links China with Europe. All-round progress has been made in industrial capacity cooperation.

China has institutionalised such cooperation with nearly 20 countries, he said.

He also defended building military logistic base at Djibouti in Indian Ocean.

China has begun construction of the base at Djibouti in the horn of Africa which it describes as a "logistic base" to serve its anti-piracy naval escort missions off the Somali coast.

The US has however termed it as a military base.

Asked about the Djibouti base, Wang said China is trying to build necessary infrastructure and logistical capacities in regions with a concentration of China's interests, which is reasonable, logical and consistent with international practices.

(REOPENS FGN14)



He said with 30,000 businesses overseas and million of Chinese workforce abroad, China's interests are expanding overseas ware operating in the world, and millions of Chinese are working everywhere around the globe.

Last year, China's non-financial outbound investment reached USD 118 billion and China's overseas assets had massed to billions of dollars.

"It is a pressing task for China's diplomacy to better protect its growing overseas interests," Wang said, adding China will not take the old path of expansionism and will not be engaged in any form of power politics.

"Rather we want to pioneer the Chinese way of protecting overseas interests, one that is in tune with the trend of the times and welcomed by other parties," Wang said.

Since 2008, Chinese navy has sent escort missions -- 22 fleets so far -- off the Somali coast, to escort over 6,000 Chinese and foreign ships passing through these waters, he said.
Since 2002, 16 Dhruv helicopters, built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), have been involved in accidents, of which 12 occurred due to human error and environmental factors, government today said.

In a written response to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said 78 of the 85 Advanced Light Helicopter-Utility Dhruv helicopters, for which contract had been signed, have been delivered to the Indian Army.

The Dhruv helicopters were also being sold to the Ecuadorian government but the project has been now grounded.

"Since 2002, 14 military and 2 civil Dhruv helicopters have been involved in accidents, out of which 11 occurred in India and 5 abroad. Out of 16 accidents, 12 occurred due to human error and environment factors and the remaining 4 due to technical reasons," Singh said.

Regarding the reasons behind cancellation of contract between Ecuador and Defence PSU HAL, Singh said, "As per notice issued by the Ecuador government, non-compliance of the seller of some of the obligations contracted by virtue of the present contract and value of the fines exceeding the amount of guarantee of faithful compliance of the contract have been cited as the reasons.
A six-member delegation of agricultural scientists from Swaziland arrived at Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) here today to learn about cultivation practices of maize crop.

This is the second time delegates from the African nation have visited HAU. A delegation had visited the campus in September last year, a release said.

The delegation, comprising of agricultural scientists from the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Swaziland, called on Vice-Chancellor K S Khokhar, who had a detailed discussion with them regarding agricultural scenario in both the countries.

He said all developing countries are facing the challenge of food security, malnutrition, poverty and unemployment.

Developing nations need to cooperate with each other to get rid of these challenges, he said, adding HAU has taken an initiative to share agricultural technologies with other nations.

Hlophe Hanson, a member of the delegation, said maize is a major staple crop of Swaziland but its production is far less than that of Haryana.

He hoped that training at HAU would be very useful in increasing maize production in Swaziland.
'Smart Class' in government schools is being introduced in a phased manner, Jharkhand Education Minister Neera Yadav told the Assembly today.

In the first phase, 'Smart Class (teaching through modern communication)' was introduced in 203 Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls Schools and there are plans to introduce the same in other schools in a phased-manner, she said in a written reply.

Yadav was replying to ruling BJP MLA Biranchi Narayan's short notice question whether the government has any plan to bring the standard of education between government and private schools on par.

Replying to his supplementary query, the minister appealed all MLAs to adopt one government school each and added the standard of education in government schools was improving under the leadership of Chief Minster Raghubar Das.
South Korea said today it is imposing unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, including a ban on financial dealings with 40 individuals and 30 entities.

The announcement came a day after North Korea warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes in response to the start of US-South Korean military drills it views as a rehearsal for invasion. This year's annual drills, set to run until late April, are the largest ever.

The South Korean sanctions target 38 individuals and 24 organisations in North Korea who Seoul says are responsible for the North's development of weapons of mass destruction.

A Singaporean, a Taiwanese and six entities in Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan and other countries will also be sanctioned for indirectly assisting North Korea, the South Korean government said in a statement.

It said South Koreans will be barred from engaging in financial and foreign exchange dealings with the blacklisted people and organisations, whose asserts in South Korea will be frozen.

South Korea also said it will ban the entrance of any ship that has stopped at a North Korean port in the previous 180 days. Currently only North Korean ships are banned.

It said it will continue to advise South Korean citizens not to eat at North Korea-run restaurants around the world. North Korea operates about 130 restaurants in China and other countries.

It's unclear how much the new South Korean steps will sting North Korea, which has already been slapped with international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.

The UN Security Council last week adopted its toughest sanctions against North Korea in two decades. North Korea described them as "nothing new" but warned it would take unspecified "merciless" steps in response.

South Korea's announcement underscores its pursuit of a hard-line policy toward the North. South Korea earlier halted operations at a jointly run factory park in North Korea, the last major cooperation project between the rivals.

The North Korean entities targeted by the new sanctions include banks, trading and shipping companies, and an atomic research center.

The individuals include Kim Yong Chul, a former head of North Korea's intelligence agency who was believed to be behind two attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.

Many of the North Korean individuals and entities are already under US, Japanese, UN or other international sanctions.

Earlier today, Seoul's spy agency accused North Korea of having hacked into the smartphones of dozens of key South Korean officials, stealing text and voice messages and their phone call logs.
BSP supremo Mayawati today alleged that the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh has failed to check "harassment" of Allahabad University's Student's Union President Richa Singh and demanded that she be provided adequate security.

Mayawati in a statement said the varsity administration and the state government failed to play its part in preventing the incident.

"The Allahabad University administration and the SP government have learnt nothing from the Rohith Vemula case. Else the incident of Singh's harassment would not have taken place," she said.

Her (Singh's) only crime is that she opposed the invitation to BJP MP Yogi Adityanath to visit the campus. The administration, however, is alleging some "shortcomings" in her admission process, Mayawati said.

"If anyone needed to be punished, it should be those who got her admitted wrongfully," she said.

A PhD student, Singh, who faces a varsity probe into validity of her admission as a research scholar, had launched a massive agitation to protest the BJP MP's entry into the campus last year.

The AUSU leader has claimed she is being harassed by the varsity administration since.
Realty firm Supertech today announced an investment of Rs 5,706 crore over 7 years to develop affordable housing and township projects in Haryana and generate 5,000 employment opportunities.

Supertech has signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Haryana government in this regard at investors meet 'Happening Haryana Global Summit 2016'. It will generate 5,000 employment opportunities in the state.

"Under the government's initiative of 'Housing For All' by 2022, Supertech is developing affordable housing and township projects in Gurgaon and will be investing Rs 5,706 crore in the state," the company said in a statement.

Under the agreement, Supertech will develop affordable housing and township projects.

"The state has a lot of potential in terms of infrastructure and industrial development and has become a hub for affordable housing and infrastructural facility after the launch of Affordable Housing Scheme by the Haryana government," said RK Arora Chairman Supertech.

Supertech is developing 36 projects in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Bengaluru, among others.

In April 2014, the Allahabad High Court had ordered to demolish the company's two 40-storey towers in a Noida housing project.

The judgement was passed while allowing a writ petition of the Emerald Court Owners Resident Welfare Association, which alleged that the approval and construction of the two towers was "in complete violation of the UP Apartment Acts".

Supertech has challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court. The two towers -- Apex and Ceyane -- have 857 apartments, of which about 600 flats are sold.
Suspense mounted today over the fate of the controversial three-day cultural extravaganza on the Yamuna flood plains with the National Green Tribunal posing tough questions on the event over which environmentalists have raised a banner of revolt.

While President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of attending the valedictory function on Sunday, speculation raged today over whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event on Friday.

Facing criticism, Art of Living Foundation chief Sri Sri Ravi Shankar rubbished allegations of any damage to ecology saying no tree has been felled and that they would build a biodiversity park in the area.

Amid concerns over security in the wake of fresh terror threats, the Home Ministry has directed Delhi Police to take all possible steps to ensure peace during the event and to ensure that no stampede-like situation arises.

All eyes were on the proceedings before the National Green Tribunal which questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures on the Yamuna plains for the event.

"You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures on flood plains," a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.

The direction came after the counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said that they have found no debris at the site when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

The green panel also questioned the building of pontoon bridge by the army on the river bed for the festival and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as to who gave the permission for setting it up.

DDA, Delhi government, MoEF said that they have no role in the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge.

The NGT said it will pronounce its order tomorrow.

Counsel for the Delhi Government said that the Disaster



Management Authority has granted permission to the event only conditionally while no permission has been granted by police and the fire department.

During the hearing, DDA said that the plea seeking stay of construction activity was filed with a delay after activity had started at the site and it needs to be dismissed.

It said that constant watch is being maintained that no debris or municipal waste is being dumped in Yamuna flood plains and a running contractor is there to remove the debris, if any dumped.

The bench then said that DDA just can't wash its hand off by saying no debris is there as the photographs on record does show the presence of waste at the site.

The authorities also passed the buck to each other over the pontoon bridge with the DDA submitting that it was only required to give no objection certificate for the bridge and Delhi government saying its role comes only at the time of flood. MoEF passed the buck on Ministry of Water Resources.

Advocate Rajiv Bansal appearing for DDA backed the authority's decision to grant permission for the event saying that it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.

Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.

The bench, asked the counsel whether thousands of cars making emission will not cause pollution to the environment.

It asked all the parties to consider the impact of the such a event on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity.

Meanwhile, environmentalists raised the red flag ruing that over 1000-acres of the sensitive area between Delhi and Noida, predominantly marshland, stand shorn of even a "single blade" of grass.

Activist Anand Arya, who filed the petition to stop the event claimed not only the areas natural "undulating" terrain has been "levelled", pesticides have been sprayed in the floodplain to kill mosquitoes which has adversely affected the lives of a variety of birds, insects and reptiles.

"It's a big loss to the birds especially considering that it's the time for reverse migration. During the day they come from the Okhla bid sanctuary to the floodplain to roost and feed. On top of that, you have light pollution during the night," Arya said.

Another petitioner Manoj Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan questioned the "legality" of the event, and said the area, being destroyed "every moment", will take a long time to recover and slammed the organisers for the "lack of understanding" on their part.

"The natural habitat has been totally devastated. It's the biggest form of violence one can imagine. The red beeds, marshlands have been levelled which house insects and reptiles. The argument that they will plant trees is laughable. You don't plant trees in marshlands," Mishra said.

Ravi Shankar cancelled a scheduled press conference he was to address without giving any reasons.

Earlier in the day, he told the media that his organisation will leave the place after building a biodiversity park.

"In the past, our volunteers have brought out 512 tonne of garbage from Yamuna. We have not cut any trees, have just trimmed four. We want a clean Yamuna and we care about the environment," he said.
Swine flu has so far claimed 61 lives in Punjab, with 30 succumbing to H1N1 virus in the state in past one month alone.

"Sixty-one persons have died due to swine flu in Punjab so far. The number of positive cases reported until yesterday stands at 163," state's nodal officer for Swine Flu Dr Gagandeep Singh Grover said.

Most of the deaths reported were from Bathinda, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Ludhiana followed by Moga and Muktsar districts, he said.

"We are going to notify this disease after which it will be mandatory to report the disease to authorities/health department. This will allow the authorities to monitor the disease and provide early warning of possible outbreaks..," Grover told PTI.

The Punjab government had a month back constituted a state-level advisory committee to review the situation of H1N1 in the state and give recommendations on prevention and control of the deadly disease.

"The committee has found that most of the people who have died were suffering from other chronic diseases and most patients reported to government hospitals only when their condition had worsened," he said.

"Sometimes, patients who reported to government hospitals died within a day or just few hours as they reported late," he said.

The Nodal officer said an advisory has already been issued to hospitals to provide immediate treatment to suspected swine flu patients without conducting tests.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Haryana swine flu has claimed five lives --two from Hisar, one each from Jind, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts, Dr Aprajita Sondh, Haryana State Surveillance Officer (IDSP), said, adding until yesterday, 59 positive cases were reported.
A 24-year-old Syrian national was today arrested for allegedly assaulting a TV journalist and her husband at the RTC Cross Roads here.

Police said that S Abdul M, a Syrian student, allegedly assaulted the couple after an altercation broke out.

The couple, who were on a two-wheeler, reportedly did not give way to his bike because the red light was on, leading to an argument, they added.
A tanker laden with dangerous and life-taking chemicals toppled some 40 km away from here on Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway.

A team of NDRF were already begun relief operations, according to a top NDRF personal.

"A tanker laden with phenoyl chloride, a dangerous and life-taking chemical, toppled on Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway, some 40 km from Bengaluru," NDRF Commandant of 10th Battalion (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka) Prashant Dhar told PTI here.

"Relief operations have already begun and all necessary steps are being taken up by our team," Dhar said.

The mishap took place around 4.30 pm and a team of National Disaster Relief Force of 35 personnel stationed at Bengaluru left to the site around 5 pm and reached there at 7. 30 pm, Dhar said.

Asked the reason for the delay in carrying out relief operations when the site was 40-km away from Bengaluru, Dhar said, "firstly we have to brave the heavy traffic in Bengaluru and also face difficulties in reaching the site due to a one-km traffic snarl".

Dhar said the movement of traffic has been stopped after the officials noticed a possible chance of fatal toxic leakages.

"As per the information I have, the traffic has been hit because of the fear of toxic leakages from the toppled tanker," Dhar who is based in Vijayawada, said.

Asked when the relief operations will be over, Dhar said "I cannot say much on it, but could go up to morning hours.
As many as 175 cases of tax disputes, involving amount of Rs 5,278.91 crore, with multi-national companies have been resolved under the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) in 2015-16 so far.

"For the financial year 2015-16, 175 cases have been resolved till date under MAP and the amount involved in those cases is Rs 5,278.91 crore," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Sinha further said that minimum disputes and certainty in the tax regime are important for creating a good investment climate. The government has taking a number of steps to resovle and minimise tax disputes.

"Resolution of disputes through MAP has helped in creating a conductive environment for the foreign investors to invest in India," he said.

MAP, under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), is an alternative dispute settlement mechanism available to authorities and foreign investors.

The Minister said as many as 2,64,485 tax disputes are pending before CIT(Appeals), 36,852 disputes pending before ITAT and 5482 tax cases pending before Supreme Court as on September, 2015.

In a separate reply, Sinha said revenue foregone in form of corporate tax incentive for 2014-15 stood at Rs 65,067 crore.
Telangana government today gave permission to 18 companies to make investments worth Rs 2,167.47 crore in the state.

The investments will create employment opportunities for 13,817 people, an official release said.

The permission was given to investors by Industries Minister Jupally Krishna Rao under the 'Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self Certification System' (TS-iPASS).

As per policy, the permissions were accorded within 15 days of putting up an application.

So far, investments of Rs 33,101 crore have been made through TS-iPASS that would provide job opportunities to 1,20,169 people, the release added.
In the wake ofintelligence inputs that terrorists have sneaked into the country through Gujarat coast, security has been stepped up at Cochin International Airport near here.

Airport officials said security has been beefed up after a security alert was sounded by Bureau of Civil Aviation Securities today.

Airport Director A C K Nair said tight security is put in place at the airport and the situation will continue till March 12.

Entry of visitors is banned inside the terminal and viewers gallery till March 12, officials said.

Passengers will be subjected to thorough security check at various points at the airport.

Considering this aspect, passengers are advised to reach airport bit early, they said.
The Thai government has dropped a case against a Hong Kong photojournalist who was arrested last year for possessing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, which are considered weapons in Thailand, two court officials said today.

The government filed for withdrawing the charges against Hok Chun Anthony Kwan on December 30, 2015, in the Samut Prakan provincial court where he was on trial, the court's officials told The Associated Press.

Kwan accepted the government stance and the court ended the case on January 29, they said.

The officials cannot be identified under court protocol. It was not clear what prompted the change of heart in the government, which had faced criticism for punishing Kwan for possessing items that journalists routinely carry in dangerous situations.

Kwan, a dual national of Canada and Hong Kong, was detained when he was about to board a plane on August 23 after covering the aftermath of a deadly bomb explosion at a shrine in Bangkok.

Kwan works for the Hong Kong-based Initium media group. He earlier worked on the Minnesota Daily newspaper while attending the University of Minnesota.

His lawyer, Pawinee Chumsri, said he pleaded not guilty to the charge of weapons possession after being indicted by the court. Pawinee confirmed today that the case has been dropped. Kwan, who was freed on bail, was not immediately available for comment.

Under the Arms Control Act, a license is needed to possess body armor. Violations are punishable by up to five years in jail. The law has rarely if ever been enforced for journalists covering the country's sometimes-violent political turmoil over the past nine years.

Many large organisations require their staff to wear protective gear in dangerous situations.

In a statement today, the Foreign Correspondent of Thailand welcomed Thailand's decision. It also urged the government to find a way for journalists, "who need to work in dangerous areas, to be able to use appropriate protective equipment legally in Thailand.
Hours after the Madras High Court quashed a case of abetment to suicide and corruption filed against former Tamil Nadu minister "Agri" S S Krishnamoorthy, state Congress Committee today said it would go to court seeking a CBI probe on the matter.

"The guilty will be punished only if the case is probed by the CBI. Hence, TNCC has decided to file a case in the High Court seeking CBI probe," TNCC president E V K S Elanogvan said here today.

"TNCC will fight till the end until those responsible for the suicide of upright government official Muthukumarasamy,who refused to aid corruption are punished," he said in a statement.

Not producing "strong evidence" by the prosecution was the reason for the court to quash the case against Krishnamoorthy, he said.

Judge V S Ravi of Madurai High Court bench threw out the case against the former minister, holding that there was no direct evidence linking Krishnamoorthy to charges of demand for bribe and alleged abetment to suicide.
A Delhi court today started trial against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma for allegedly writing a forged letter addressed to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009.

Special CBI judge Anju Bajaj Chandna recorded statement of the complainant and then Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken as the prosecution witness in the case.

Maken was also cross examined by the counsel for accused persons in the case.

Besides Maken, Tytler and Verma were also present in the court room during the proceedings, which will resume tomorrow.

The court had on December 9 last year put Tytler and Verma on trial after framing charges for alleged offences punishable under various sections of IPC, including 420 (cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine any forged document or electronic record) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

The court had also framed charges under a provision of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The accused persons had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

During the arguments on the charges, Tytler, who was earlier granted bail, and Verma, who is in judicial custody in connection with various cases lodges against him, had denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI.

The charge sheet was filed by CBI on a complaint of Maken, alleging a forged letter on his letterhead was addressed to Singh seeking easing of business visa norms in 2009.

Verma and Tytler were named in the charge sheet for the offence of attempting to cheat under IPC and a provision of Prevention of Corruption Act. Tytler was granted bail by the court after he had appeared before it in pursuance to summons.

Verma is currently in Tihar Jail under judicial custody after being arrested in various cases lodged against him by CBI and Enforcement Directorate.

In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged Tytler had "actively connived" with Verma to cheat a Chinese telecom firm and the Congress leader had first shown a "fake and forged" letter to the company's officials, claiming it was written by Maken to the then Prime Minister.
Activist Soni Sori today said tribal women in India feel "insecure" despite living in a democracy as she lambasted both police and government for "failing" to protect them and their rights.

"We live in a democracy despite which we are insecure. We are attacked and dissent is squashed. Even today, many tribal women are locked in jail. They face various kinds of tortures, atrocities and injustice.

"Is raising voice against injustice wrong? Is asking for a legal proceedings wrong?," she said at a gathering at Jantar Mantar to mark the International Women's Day, where the audience responded with a resounding "Shame!Shame".

Sori, who herself was attacked with an acid-like chemical in Chhattisgarh last month, alleged that the state police indulges in all kinds of atrocities and still manages to get away with it.

"Police are raping us instead of protecting. They call us naxals and throw us behind bars. FIRs have been filed against the guilty policemen but no action has been initiated against them," she alleged.

The 44-year-old Adivasi school teacher was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists.

During her imprisonment, she alleged that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police.

"Men are killed and women tortured in Bastar by those who want our land and, when we question them, they attack us," she said referencing to the recent attack on her.

By April 2013, the courts had acquitted Sori in six of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence.

Buoyed by the huge turnout in her support, Sori vowed to continue fighting for the rights of tribals and women in Bastar despite the ordeals she was facing.

"I will return to Chhattisgarh. We are not quitters. We will continue our fight. We will fight for the freedom of women who are in jail for years. We will fight together and we will win," said Sori.
Prime Minister Habib Essid praised Tunisia's military and security forces today for their response to the deadly assault by extremist attackers near the Libyan border.

The death toll from yesterday's clashes in the city of Ben Guerdane rose to 55, including 36 attackers, Essid said today.

Seven civilians and 12 members of Tunisia's security forces also died, and 17 others were injured.

"The attack that happened yesterday showed that our military and security forces were ready," he told a press conference. "We won a battle, but we haven't yet won the war on terror, and that war continues."



No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but websites affiliated with the Islamic State group said IS militants were handed a tough blow by Tunisian security forces.

One website published more than 30 pictures showing militants' bodies as well as weapons and munitions seized. Essid said that about 50 gunmen, most of them Tunisians, took part to the attack.

Only four out of the 36 attackers killed have been formerly identified. Essid did not give more details about the attackers' background but said some came from Libya.

According to local journalist Raoudha Bouttar, there was sporadic gunfire on Tuesday in the outskirts of Ben Guerdane as Tunisian forces searched for attackers still at large.

Tunisian forces have repeatedly clashed with extremists on the borders of Libya and Algeria in recent years, but yesterday's fighting was unusually bloody.

Tunisia has been as a model of relative stability for the region since an uprising five years ago ushered in democracy and inspired Arab Spring protests against dictatorships across the region.

An uprising in neighboring Libya led to the ouster and killing of longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, but since then the country has fallen into chaos, allowing the Islamic State group to take control of several cities.

The divided country is ruled by two parliaments: an internationally recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival government, backed by Islamist-allied militias, that controls the capital, Tripoli.

Essid said the gunmen targeted a police station and military facilities in Ben Guerdane after launching their attack from a nearby mosque. He said attackers were arrested and gave information that led to the discovery of a weapons cache.
Tunisian security forces pressed a search for jihadists near the Libyan border today after a deadly raid the authorities described as an unprecedented assault by the Islamic State group.

Analysts said Monday's attacks show that jihadists are keen to spread their influence from Libya to Tunisia and to set up a new stronghold in the country.

Prime Minister Habib Essid said about 50 extremists were believed to have taken part in the coordinated dawn attacks on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts in the border town of Ben Guerdane.

He said that 36 attackers had been killed and seven captured in a fierce firefight that also saw the deaths of seven civilians and 12 security force personnel.

Essid told a conference that the militants "murdered one internal security force member in his own home".

He said three civilians and 14 security personnel were also wounded.

"The (security forces') reaction was rapid and strong. We won a battle and are prepared for any others," Essid said.

"Now they know Tunisia is no easy pushover and that it is not so simple to set up an emirate in Ben Guerdane."



Yesterday, Essid said that the operation's aim had been to create a "Daesh (IS) emirate" in the town.

Michael Ayari, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, agreed, saying the attacks were an "extension of the armed conflict so far confined to Libya".

Some IS jihadists "consider that Ben Guerdane could become a strategic 'liberated' zone that would include southeastern Tunisia and the Tripoli region," he said.
Two people were killed and five others were missing after an accident today at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province, mining giant Glencore said.

In an earlier statement, which identified seven people as missing, the Switzerland-based company said "a geotechnical failure on the north wall" of the copper and cobalt mine in the southern province caused the accident.

"It is with deepest regret that two bodies have been recovered," a second statement said. "The search for the remaining five individuals continues with all available resources allocated to the search and rescue operations.

"A separate support and counselling centre for the families of the affected individuals has been placed in Kolwezi town, which is located close to the operations," the statement added.

The company -- which has scaled back its global operations in an effort to ease a mountainous debt burden -- said some of the mine's infrastructure is likely to have been damaged.
The Odisha govenrment today placed two health department officials under suspension after they were found guilty of infusing wrong blood on a thalasemia patient in Kandhamal district.

The two officials identified as Saila Patra a nurse and Prasanna Sahu a laboratory technician are suspended based on a departmental inquiry, said Dr Swapeneswar Gadanayak, the Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Kandhamal.

Stating that the duo was charged with "dereliction of duty" by the enquiry committee, the CDMO said both had assisted in a blood transfusion to a nine-years-old thalasemia patient Pravat Nayak hailing from Tikabali area in Kandhamal district on January 28, 2016.

The boy was given a bottle of blood belonging to B positive group instead of O positive due to utmost negligence as the Laboratory technician failed to cross match the blood sample. As a result, the boy had become serious and unconscious and was also noticed with multiple complaints including aspasia and phenomena. He was immediately shifted to SCB Medical College, Cuttack, the CDMO said.
The UK today appointed veteran career diplomat Sir Dominic Asquith as its new High Commissioner to India.

The 59-year-old Asquith will take over from Sir James Bevan, who joined the UK's Environment Agency (EA) as chief executive last November, soon after Narendra Modi's first visit to the UK as Prime Minister.

"The Honourable Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG (Knight Commander) has been appointed British High Commissioner to the Republic of India in succession to Sir James Bevan KCMG, who has transferred to a non-governmental public body. The Honourable Sir Dominic will take up his appointment during March 2016," a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office statement said.

Sir Dominic has been at the forefront of UK-Libya affairs, having served as ambassador in Tripoli in the past and currently chairman of the Libyan British Business Council.

He holds a number of advisory posts at firms like Dentons LLP, Macro Advisory Partners and Group DF International.

He takes charge in India at a time when India-UK ties are at a high and is expected to be joined in New Delhi by wife and four children.
Around 40 migrants a day were detained after crossing the Channel from France to Britain last summer, according to an official report, which criticised the authorities' response as "inadequate".

The report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), which contained figures on arrivals that are not normally made public, showed 3,603 migrants were detained in July, August and September at the height of a surge in numbers attempting to cross the Channel.

The migrants arrived in Britain hidden in vehicles on cross-Channel ferries or on freight trains using the Eurotunnel, the report said.

Most were held at a facility at Dover Seaport, with the rest detained at an overflow facility in nearby Folkestone.

"There is no doubt that the increases in migration initially overwhelmed the existing facilities and an emergency response was required," said chief inspector Peter Clarke.

"It was unacceptable that arrangements were still not in place to process detainees quickly, efficiently and decently, while ensuring that the most vulnerable, such as children, were safe and that the basic physical needs of all detainees for food, rest and clothing were met."



The report did not say how many of the migrants made asylum claims or were returned.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire accepted that the use of an overflow facility "was not acceptable" and insisted it would not be used in the same way in the future.

"Since this inspection we have improved the facilities at Dover Seaport and continue to work on plans to open a new centre to deal with clandestine arrivals at Kent ports," he said.

Immigration has once again become a hot topic in Britain as it prepares to vote on whether to stay in the European Union.

Prime Minister David Cameron's office warned yesterday that a so-called Brexit could mean migrant camps being set up on British shores if UK border checks were removed from Calais.

"Should Britain leave the EU there's no guarantee those controls would remain in place," Cameron's spokesman said at a daily briefing last month.

"If those controls weren't in place there would be nothing to stop thousands of people crossing the Channel overnight and arriving in Kent (southeast England) and claiming asylum," he said.
Hundreds of angry Ukrainians picketed Moscow's embassy in Kiev today as global calls grew for a hunger-striking helicopter pilot's release and return from Russia.

Nadia Savchenko, 34, is on trial for alleged involvement in the death of two Russian state television journalists in a mortar attack that came two months after Ukraine's pro-Moscow eastern revolt broke out in April 2014.

She faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted in a case that has drawn global attention and been attended by Western monitors concerned about Russia's record on human rights.

Savchenko denies the charges and has refused all food and drink since her hearing was adjourned last Thursday before she was given a chance to make a final statement.

Around 300 protesters gathered outside the Moscow mission holding up banners reading "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin will not break us" and "#FreeSavchenko" -- the Twitter hashtag used by her supporters worldwide.

"The Kremlin thought that this woman will submit to it and that it would thus be able to dictate its conditions to Ukraine," pensioner Volodymyr Marushchak told AFP.

"But Ukraine will remain free as long as it has people like Savchenko."



The pilot's case is seen by many Ukrainians as a symbol of resistance against what Kiev's pro-Western leaders view as Russia's aggression in the eastern industrial heartland of the former Soviet state.

The Ukrainian conflict has claimed the lives of more than 9,100 people and plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

Russia rejects Ukrainian and Western charges of instigating and backing the unrest.

US Vice President Joe Biden added his voice to concern expressed by the European Union yesterday about Savchenko's fate.

"Nadiya has been unjustly imprisoned in Russia since 2014 -- detained and facing trial on trumped-up charges," Biden said in a statement issued today.

"Her unlawful continuing detention is a clear violation of Russia's commitment under the Minsk agreements, and she should be freed at once," he added in reference to a deal signed in the Belarussian capital aimed at ending Ukraine's separatist war.
Terming the UN's arbitration on a raging territorial dispute in the (SCS) as "tainted", China on Tuesday asserted that will not honour the outcome of the tribunal in the strategically vital area.

"The Philippines stubbornness is clearly the result of the behind scenes instigation and political manoeuvring," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at his annual press conference, in a veiled attack on the US for its backing to the Philippines and the maritime neighbours of China in the (SCS) dispute.

China refuses to recognise the case lodged by the Philippines with the tribunal and says all disputes should be resolved through bilateral talks.

"This so called arbitration has become tainted and gone astray and China is not going to honour it," Wang said.

Asked whether China is worried about the likelihood of the Philippines winning its petition on its claims on the SCS islands at the UN Conference of the Law of Sea (UNCLOS), Wang said it is too early to judge the outcome of the case.

"I respect your right to ask the question. Perhaps you are judging the outcome of the UNCLOS arbitration case and it is too early to tell," he said.

China has already made a declaration at the UNCLOS back in 2006 excluding itself from the arbitration under the article 290 of the tribunal, Wang said adding that over 30 other countries made similar declarations excluding themselves.

"So in legal terms these declaration are part of UNCLOS and must be respected by other parties," he said.

"So by not accepting arbitration case China is acting entirely legal. Where as the Philippines stand is unlawful and unfaithful and unreasonable," he said.

Wang again reaffirmed China's claims on the whole of the SCS stating that "China is the fist one to discover, name develop the SCS islands".

"Our ancestors lived and worked here for ages. We know the place and love it more than anyone else," he said.

China's stand on the SCS is strongly contested by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan which had counter claims on the islands and reefs, which believed to have rich oil and mineral deposits.

The US in a bid to assert the freedom of the navigation in the region has sent its naval ships and aircraft to counter Chinese claims.

Wang defended China building defence facilities in the SCS, saying that they belonged to it.

"China exercises the right of self defence entitled by the law," he said, rejecting allegations that China militarised the region.

Wang said China will uphold the freedom of navigation of the SCS over which a host of countries, including India and US have expressed concerns.

"We want to uphold the peace and freedom of navigation in the SCS," Wang said, adding, "freedom of navigation does not imply doing whatever you want".

The SCS has seen "colonial invasion and illegal occupation. Now somepeople are making waves and some others showing force. However like the tide that comes and goes none of these things will make impact and history will determine who is the real guest and who is the host," he said.

China he said will not make further claims.

"China has never claimed and will not claim new territories," he said.

"Not China, but others should be accused of militarising the sea," he said.

"Besides meeting basic defence needs, China is building more facilities for civilian use, with purposes of offering public services to the community," he said and promised to take the media there after the facilities are completed.

He also said China and the US can consider more maritime cooperation.

China and the United States are two major countries, and there are both cooperation and friction between them.

"In the face of problems, our task is to resolve them. We want to expand and deepen cooperation and work hard to turn friction into cooperation," he said.

"China is not the US, and China will not and cannot become another US. We have no intention of displacing or dominating anybody," he said.
Citing the murder of Indian journalist Karun Misra, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said every time a journalist is killed anywhere in the world and the press is silenced, the rule of law and democracy get weaker.

"Across the global agenda, the media are critical. Yet journalists face growing efforts to silence their voices - through harassment, censorship and attacks.Journalists are not criminals. But they are often mistreated or even killed because they have the courage to expose criminal acts," Ban said in his remarks upon receiving the German Media Prize in Baden Baden in southwestern Germany yesterday.

He said last year alone, 105 journalists lost their lives and while the murders of Western journalists by ISIS and other violent extremists claimed global attention, 95 per cent of the journalists killed in armed conflict are locally based.

"Last month, Mexican journalist Moises Dagdug Lutzow was killed in his home in the city of Villahermosa. Elvis Ordaniza, a crime reporter in the Philippines, was shot. So was Karun Misra, a district bureau chief at the Jan Sandesh Times in India."



"Each time a journalist is killed, each time the press is silenced, the rule of law and democracy get weaker. I encourage you to participate in the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists," Ban said.

Misra, thedistrict bureau chief of Hindi language daily Jan Sandesh Times in Ambedkar Nagar, was shot in February by unknownassailants in the city of Sultanpur in the Uttar Pradesh.

Misra's February 13 murder was condemned by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova as well as by nonprofit organisation The Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ban stressed that during the past nine years as Secretary-General, he has been working hard to defend the press, both publicly and behind the scenes through discreet diplomatic efforts to free journalists who have been unjustly detained.

"We must all do our part to preserve the freedom of the press, civil society and human rights defenders to do their work," he said.
The US Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations' militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top US general said today.

Gen Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged other nations to exercise their freedom to fly and sail in international airspace and waters claimed by China in the South China Sea "or risk losing it throughout the region."



"We've watched the increased military capability on those islands, whether it's the fighters, whether it's the missiles or the 10,000-foot runways. We will continue to do as we've always done, and that is fly and sail in international airspace in accordance to international rules and norms," Robinson told reporters in Australia's capital, Canberra, where she will address the Royal Australian Air Force's biennial Air Power Conference next week.

Robinson declined to say how the United States would retaliate if a US plane was shot down by the Chinese.

Several governments have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, a major conduit for world trade. The US lays no claims to the waters, but says it has an interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and non-use of force and coercion to assert claims.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a hard line today on the country's claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, saying Beijing won't permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area.
Washington has restricted the access of one of China's biggest telecoms equipment makers, ZTE Corp, to American components after concluding the state-owned company improperly exported US technology to Iran.

The sanctions took effect today after ZTE was found to be "acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests" of the United States, the US Commerce Department said.

The department released documents it said showed ZTE set up front companies to evade US controls on high-tech exports to Iran.

The Chinese government said it opposes the US sanctions. ZTE's technology purchases support thousands of US jobs that might be in jeopardy, the Commerce Ministry said.

"This approach will only hurt others without necessarily benefiting oneself," said China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, at a conference today during the meeting of the national legislature.

ZTE said it was "fully committed" to obeying the law wherever it operates.

"ZTE has been cooperating, will continue to cooperate and communicate with all US agencies as required," said a company statement. "The company is working expeditiously toward resolution of this issue."



The conflict reflects the complex ties between US and Chinese technology companies despite Washington's concerns about sharing advanced know-how with China.

Most of the world's smartphones and personal computers are assembled in China. ZTE and other Chinese companies are developing their own technology but rely on Western chipsets and other components.

The sanctions could prompt Chinese leaders to push for faster development of their own fledgling technology suppliers, said Nikhil Batra, research manager for Asia-Pacific telecoms for IDC.

"It might be a boon" to officials who want to reduce reliance on foreign sources, said Batra.

"It's not likely to be their chief concern that one of their companies has been sanctioned when it can lead to better development of China as a technology marketplace," he said.

American companies also might be vulnerable to retaliation, Batra said.

He noted Beijing fined American chip supplier Qualcomm Technologies Inc and investigated software giant Microsoft Corp on anti-monopoly charges after Huawei Technologies Ltd was forced out of the US server market following complaints it might be a security risk.

Founded in 1985 as Zhongxing Semiconductor Co Ltd, ZTE is a major supplier of network switching gear and other telecoms products. It assembles smartphones for other companies and has launched its own brand.

ZTE and three other entities, including one in Iran, "were identified in the scheme developed by ZTE Corp to re-export controlled items to Iran contrary to United States law," said a Commerce Department announcement.
A 35-year-old Uzbek woman, arrested last year for entering the country without a visa, has given birth to a baby girl at a hospital here, an official said.

The woman, Jurayaba Barno, was arrested on December 9, 2015 when she was staying in Jatkhedi locality of the city. She is at present in judicial custody.

After she complained of pain on March 5, she was taken to Sultania hospital where she gave birth to a baby girl next day, Bhopal Central Jail's superintendent Akhilesh Tomar said.

Barno was six months pregnant when she was brought to the jail, Tomar added.

She arrived in India from Nepal by road and came to Bhopal on December 6 after coming in contact with a man who promised her help in obtaining a visa, according to the police.
A national convention of tribal women sarpanchs will be organised in the city on March 19 wherein assessment will be made on the progress made by various welfare and development programmes being implemented by Central government.

"Under the 5th Schedule of Constitution, the Union government is implementing various development and welfare programmes. The convention will assess the progress of those schemes and problems related to their implementation. Women sarpanches may also put place other subjects for the welfare of the tribal people," an official press release stated.

The release said that A K Goel, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India, conducted a meeting with Krishna district collector in this regard.
Terrorist attacks in China's restive Xinjiang province has dropped significantly and the situation is becoming more stable, a top official of the ruling Communist Party of China said today.

"The situation in Xinjiang is becoming ever more stable. Local authorities have strengthened their ability to prevent and fight terrorist activity," said Zhang Chunxian, the provincial head of the ruling Communist Party of China, (CPC) said on the sidelines of the annual session of the national legislature.

Local officials and members of the public across Xinjiang's many ethnic groups have actively engaged in the fight against terrorists, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

However, Zhang warned that Xinjiang still faces a tough task to maintain stability. The local government will maintain pressure on terrorists, he added.

Xinjiang where Uyghur Muslims, who are of Turkik origin has become restive for several years over Uyghurs protests against the settlements of Hans from other provinces. China blamed East Turkistan Islamic Movement, (ETIM), a separatist outfit for the violent attacks in Xinjiang and several places including Beijing in which scores killed.

China subsequently stepped security in the province and other parts of the country to deal with the violence.
Vistara airline will induct four more aircraft in its fleet this year as it plans to operate nearly 25 per cent more flights with the addition of three new destinations - Srinagar, Jammu and Kochi - in its network besides enhancing frequencies on the existing routes in coming summer schedule.

The joint venture carrier, in which Tata Sons holds 51 per cent stake while the rest is held by Singapore Airlines, currently operates 317 services per week with a fleet of nine Airbus A320 planes.

"We plan to double our domestic capacity this year by offering more flights, destinations and increased frequencies.

"The addition of Jammu, Srinagar and Kochi to our route network coupled with the introduction of convenient same-day return flights on Delhi-Bengaluru in both directions and several new via and connecting flight options, represent the first phase of our growth plan this summer as we ramp up utilization and add new aircraft to our fleet," Vistara Chief Executive Officer Phee Teik Yeoh said in a release.

According to the release, 17 city pairs connected through direct (non-stop) flights; 16 additional city pairs connected through same aircraft 'via' flights, and over 40 additional city pairs connected through convenient single-stop connecting flights have been introduced in the summer schedule which commences from the last week of this month.

Vistara aims to increase the total number of flights to 580 a week from the current 317 with the proposed induction of four new Airbus A320 aircraft.

With the induction of four new aircraft in the course of the year, the airline will introduce additional new destinations and further increase frequency on its existing routes, it said, adding that by the end of October 2016, the total number of flights would increase 85 per cent relative to the current schedule.

About plans to fly overseas, the Vistara chief said the



airline management is keeping its board in the loop.

"We engage them on the strategy of our international operations. There have been few rounds. We are now looking on further refining the plan and hopefully very soon we will be able to secure approval before bringing the proposal to the promoters," he noted.

In the run up to start international operations, the airline continues to strengthen its customer value proposition with a slew of product and services.

"Last year we have introduced a quite number of ancillary services like fly early scheme, excess baggage purchase, corporate upgrade, affordable luxuries, lounge vouchers, upgrades at the airport essentially to ensure that we do not lose our footing on the ground in domestic when we go overseas," Yeoh said.

Besides, the airline is in the process of securing the mandatory IOSA certification for international operations from global airlines grouping, International Air Transport Association.
Welspun Enterprises shares surged 9 per cent today as National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) signed an agreement with the company for development of the first phase of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

The stock zoomed 9.01 per cent to settle at Rs 50.20. During the day, it soared 13.24 per cent to Rs 52.15.

On NSE, shares of the firm jumped 8.53 per cent to close at Rs 50.25.

"Under the concession agreement, Welspun Delhi Meerut Expressway Private will develop package I of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway at a bid project cost of Rs 841.50 crore, and operate it for a period of 15 years," Welspun Enterprises said on Saturday.

Welspun Delhi Meerut Expressway, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Welspun Enterprises, said 40 per cent of the project's cost will be funded by NHAI while the concessionaire will arrange the balance 60 per cent.

"During the operation period, NHAI will pay concessionaire this 60 per cent in semi-annuity, along with interest thereon," it said.

NHAI will also pay the concessionaire annualised operations and maintenance cost of Rs 3.95 crore for the maintenance of the project road during this period.
A "surprised" White House bristled after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly canceled a trip to Washington.

The US insisted that President Barack Obama had offered a meeting but was turned down.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit. The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US had offered to meet on one of those days.

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. "We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit."



The unusually pointed pushback from the White House was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the US and its closest Mideast ally, which have never fully recovered since Obama incensed Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran.

The flare-up comes just days before Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with Netanyahu during a visit to Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment. The White House disputed reports in the Israeli media that said Netanyahu canceled the trip after the White House had been unable to find a date for a meeting that worked with Obama's schedule. Price said those suggestions were false.

This isn't the first time Obama had been caught off guard by Netanyahu's travel plans. Last year, the White House accused Netanyahu of a breach of longstanding diplomatic protocol when he announced plans to speak to a joint session of Congress without consulting or notifying the president.

Netanyahu used that speech to implore US lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel sees as emboldening its archenemy.
In a bid to encourage a diverse, inclusive workplace companies are undertaking various initiatives, like ramping up women headcount, offering extended maternity leave and flexible hours among others.

Various research reports, white papers have been advocating the positive impact of promoting gender diversity in workforce and various women centric policies being offered by companies to retain their women staff.

To ensure an inclusive workforce, companies are opting for extended maternity leave, flexible working hours, adoption leave, creche allowance, committee on prevention of sexual harassment, identification of high potential women employees as a part of leadership talent planning process among others.

Ericsson said that it aims to have one-third of its employees as women by 2020. The company is hiring more female candidates in fields that used to be dominated by men.

Meanwhile, some companies are getting innovative and gifting their women employees gift cards to celebrate the international women's day.

"We have witnessed increased interest by consumers & corporates to felicitate their lady colleagues and women. For Women's Day, we have seen 125 per cent growth of Woohoo base of customers being gifted the Freedom of choice Via Woohoo Gift Cards vis a vis last season," Smartcard technology company Qwikcilver CO-Founder and CMO Pratap TP said.

He further said across its base of over 400 corporates that Qwikcilver is closely integrated in India, this year has seen the preference for Woohoo-Travel related Gift Cards as the number one Choice among Women colleagues.

"Over the last one week, Woohoo App has also registered 44 per cent gifting taking place for Women's Day related Gifting designs and greetings from across all the occasion based designs available," he said.

Saurabh Nigam, VP-HR, Snapdeal said, "We are introducing a number of initiatives to further support employees going on maternity leave. We have further strengthened our mentoring, counselling programmes to assist women employees with career development, enabling them to take leadership roles."



Meanwhile, Telenor India is taking conscious steps to promote diversity in its workforce and aims to have a right balance of women when hiring new employees for next few years. The company has also taken some of the following initiatives at the workplace to make it an all-inclusive workplace.

Piyush Mehta, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Genpact said some of the women centric initiatives being offered by the company include, Genpact Center for Women's Leadership" (GCWL), initiatives to welcome new moms and Career 2.0 Program.

Under the Career 2.0 Program, Genpact would offer flexible, customised workdays to encourage such women to revive their career. Genpact plans to hire 30-50 mid-to-senior -level women in various roles this calendar year.
Striking a discordant note, CPI today said it would be a part of the Left Front in West Bengal, but would have no understanding with Congress in the state assembly elections.

"As far as we are concerned, we are part of the Left Front (in West Bengal) and we are not having any adjustment with Congress. We have no discussions. As per our knowledge, discussions have not taken place between Left Front and Congress," CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters here.

He was replying to a query on Left Front chairman Biman Bose announcing yesterday that they have reached an "understanding" with Congress to fight jointly against ruling Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal elections beginning next month.

Announcing the names of 116 candidates out of a total 294 seats, Bose had said, we have welcomed an understanding with Congress to remove Trinamool from the state. Front, alliance and understanding are not the same thing.

"Such reports (understanding between Left and Congress) came earlier and today," Reddy said.

Asked if CPI would accept if the CPI(M) went ahead with the understanding with the Congress, he said, "We (CPI) are contesting as part of Left Front. Naturally, we have no alliance with Congress in any seat. We don't support Congress in any seat. We don't expect Congress to support us".

CPI has decided contest 16 seats in West Bengal, he said.

In Kerala, CPI decided to contest in 29 or 30 assembly segments, Reddy said. The final understanding among the LDF partners would be announced in a couple of days in Kerala.

Claiming that the ruling UDF got "defamed", he felt that the LDF's chances to win are bright.

The alliance in Tamil Nadu comprising CPI, CPI(M), MDMK and VCK has got encouraging response, Reddy said, adding that more parties would join the coalition.

CPI has identified 65 constituencies to contest in Tamil Nadu but is ready to adjust for the sake of friendly parties.

Except SUCI, all other Left parties have decided to fight together in Assam assembly polls, in which CPI would contest in 18 constituencies.
In an apparent dig at Kingfisher crisis, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian today said this was a crisis where owners of some 'Woodpecker Airlines' also made intoxicants at 'Eagle Breweries', but did not pay for the mistakes they committed.

He, however, hinted that the lack of exit mechanisms may be responsible for issues like the debt of Kingfisher Airlines snowballing into big trouble for the banks.

"We have many private sector firms...That should not be in business...Efficient firms coming and staying in, and inefficient ones leaving, and that's how an economy becomes very dynamic," he said while speaking to the Mumbai University students this evening.

Posing a question to himself, Subramanian wondered what makes the exit so difficult in the country.

"Interests (of promoters and others in the system), institutions, and ideas -- these are factors that prevent exits from happening," he said, without elaborating.

Without naming long-grounded Kingfisher Airlines, Subramanian illustrated with fictional names what exactly went wrong with the bankrupt airliner.

"Let's say there is a 'Woodpecker Airlines'. And say Woodpecker Airlines also makes intoxicants...Say Eagle Breweries. What we find is that Woodpecker Airlines is being very inefficient, but for some reason we haven't been able to make sure that those who ran Woodpecker at that time, they made a lot of mistakes, they haven't actually paid the cost for those mistakes.

"So, that's an example of weak institutions which prevent exit," he said in response to a question on the grounded Kingfisher Airlines and the rising bad loans of the banks.

Kingfisher Airlines, promoted by Vijay Mallya whose other group entities included United Breweries, owes close to Rs 7,000 crore in principal to 17 banks, mostly state-run lenders. The Supreme Court will decide tomorrow whether he could move out of the country following a petition from the banks.
Five foreign women research students were allegedly molested by a MBA graduate in their room at a private lodging in the campus of IT hub Technopark here, police said today.

24-year old Rahul has been arrested on a complaint from the students -- four from the U.S. And one from Nigeria -- that he trespassed into their room molested them in the wee hours of yesterday, they said.

Rahul is an MBA graduate and employee of the 'Club House', a private accommodation facility. The students are in the city as part of a three month-long exchange programme in the Kerala University campus near here.

According to police, Rahul, allegedly in an inebriated condition, trespassed into the room of the foreigners, all aged below 30 years, and threatened and molested them.

Though he fled after the women sought police help, the accused was taken into custody within a few hours, police said.

A case has been registered under IPC sections including 448 (trespass), 354 (A) (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures), 506 (1) (criminal intimidation), police added.
The Zika virus, suspected of causing brain damage in babies and a neurological ailment in adults, has now also been linked to the paralysing disorder myelitis, French researchers said today.

A 15-year-old girl diagnosed with acute myelitis in January had high levels of Zika in her cerebrospinal fluid, blood and urine, said Annie Lannuzel of the University Hospital Center Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe.

"This is the first published case to offer proof of a link" between myelitis and the virus sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean, she told AFP.

The case had been described in a report published in The Lancet medical journal.

"The presence of Zika virus in the cerebrospinal fluid of our patient with acute myelitis suggests that this virus might be neurotropic" -- something that attacks the nervous system, Lannuzel and a team wrote in the case report.

Zika usually causes mild symptoms in adults, with a low fever, headaches and joint pain, but the virus' quick spread has raised alarm due to an observed association with more serious health conditions.

Last week, scientists said they had found the first evidence of a biological link between Zika and microcephaly, a severe deformation of the brains of unborn babies.

Laboratory tests found that Zika targeted key cells involved in brain development and then destroyed or disabled them, they said.

Also last week, researchers taking part in a different study offered evidence that Zika can cause Guillain-Barre, a rare condition in which the body's immune system attacks a part of the nervous system that controls muscle strength.

Myelitis is an inflammation of the spinal cord which can affect limb movement and cause paralysis.

In the reported case, a teenaged girl was admitted to the Pointe-a-Pitre hospital with partial paralysis, limb weakness, and intense pain.

Nine days after the symptoms began, doctors found high levels of Zika virus in her blood, spinal fluid and urine, said a statement from France's Inserm medical research institute.

Other potential causes of myelitis were ruled out, including shingles, chicken pox and herpes virus.

The girl's condition has since improved and she is now out of danger, said the statement.

"My message is that Zika does not only affect pregnant women, and is not necessarily benign," said Lannuzel.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A group of banks asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to restrain the founder of Kingfisher Airlines, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, from leaving the country because of the hefty debt the now defunct company owes, two lawyers said.

The creditors, led by the State Bank of India, have stepped up efforts to recover the debt - $1 billion as of end-January 2014 - after Mallya last month resigned as chairman of spirits maker United Spirits, a unit of Diageo Plc.

Mallya also said he would spend more time in England to be closer to his children.

On Monday, a court blocked a $75 million settlement Mallya agreed with Diageo Plc at the request of the banks.

Kingfisher, once India's second-biggest airline, stopped flying more than three years ago.

The airline owed 69.63 billion rupees ($1.03 billion) to more than a dozen banks, mostly Indian state-run, as on Jan. 31, 2014, according to SBICAP Trustee Co. Ltd, the security trustee for the lenders. The amount does not include interest from February 2014 and other expenses and costs due to Kingfisher.

Mallya said on Sunday he had no plans to run away from his creditors and was in talks over a one-time settlement to resolve Kingfisher's debt.

($1 = 67.2900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
oil dipped early on Tuesday, but remained over $40 a barrel after jumping to the highest this year in the previous session as more producers announced talks to support the market and as investors opened new bets on further price rises.

International benchmark futures managed to defend $40 per barrel on Tuesday, standing at $40.26 at 0302 GMT, down 58 cents from their last settlement. On Monday, the contract had surged over 5.5% in intra-day trading and has gained 49% from its 2016 lows on Jan. 20.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $37.37 a barrel, down 53 cents from their last close but 43% up from their 2016 low on Feb. 11.

On the demand side, China's crude imports jumped 19.1% between January and February to 31.80 million tonnes(about 8 million barrels per day) despite overall weak commodity and trading figures released on Tuesday.

"Higher 'teapot' (independent refinery) demand and stronger refining margins which encouraged higher refinery throughputs have contributed to increased imports. Falling domestic crude production is also supportive," said Virendra Chauhan of Aspects in Singapore.

Oil first gained traction last Friday after Russia's minister said that a meeting between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other leading oil producers about freezing output could take place between March 20 and April 1.

Late on Monday, South American producers also said they would meet to talk about action to support prices.

Gary Ross, founder and executive chairman at New York-based consultancy PIRA, told Reuters that oil would recover to $50 a barrel by the end of the year, potentially aided by eventual supply cuts from leading producers in OPEC.

"They want $50 oil, this is going to become the new anchor for global oil prices," said Ross, one of the industry's most respected analysts but his forecasts are rarely made public.

ANZ bank said that oil traders had started to cut back short positions that would profit from lower prices.

"Speculators reduced short positions in WTI crude by 15 percent in the week ended 1 March," the bank said.

Until late February, traders held near record amounts of short positions that were betting on further price falls, but sentiment has since flipped, indicating that the market increasingly thinks that prices have bottomed out.

The combined net-long position in West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent futures and options climbed by more than 61 million barrels last week to the highest level in nine months.

Investors have not only turned bullish on oil. Iron ore prices, a key ingredient for making steel, shot up almost 20 percent on Monday in what some called its biggest ever single-day price rally on hopes that demand from China would pick up, at least in the short-term.
By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on weak Chinese trading data, but Brent remained over $40 a barrel after jumping to 2016 highs the previous day when producers announced talks to support the market and investors opened new bullish bets.

Brent crude futures managed to defend $40 per barrel, standing at $40.43 at 0742 GMT, down 41 cents from their last settlement. On Monday, the contract had surged over 5.5 percent in intra-day trading and has gained almost 50 percent from its 2016 lows on Jan. 20.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $37.51 a barrel, down 39 cents from their last close but over 40 percent up from their 2016 low on Feb. 11.

On the demand side, China's crude imports jumped 19.1 percent between January and February to 31.80 million tonnes, or about 8 million barrels per day, despite overall weak trading figures released on Tuesday.

"Higher 'teapot' (independent refinery) demand and stronger refining margins which encouraged higher refinery throughputs have contributed to increased imports. Falling domestic crude production is also supportive," said Virendra Chauhan of Energy Aspects.

Despite strong oil demand, questions about the sustainability of growing consumption weighed on markets as China's economic downturn saw its overall exports plummet by a quarter in February in the worst slump since 2009.

China's vehicle sales, a key driver for gasoline demand, in February fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.37 million, data from China Passenger Car Association showed.

"This is really a poor start for trade this year," said Zhang Yongjun, senior economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges.

BULLS VS BEARS

Following steady rises from late February on the back of a falling U.S. rig count, oil markets soared from last Friday after Russia's energy minister said that a meeting between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers about freezing output could take place in March.

On Monday, South American producers also said they would meet to talk about action to support prices.

However, OPEC-member Kuwait dampened hopes of successful talks, saying on Tuesday that it would only agree to a freeze if all major producers, including Iran which previously called the proposal "laughable", acted jointly.

Meanwhile, Gary Ross, executive chairman at New York-based consultancy PIRA, said that oil would recover to $50 a barrel by year-end.

"They (OPEC) want $50 oil, this is going to become the new anchor for global oil prices," said Ross.

In anticipation of higher oil prices, traders have started to cut back short positions while opening up new long positions that bet on higher prices.

But Goldman Sachs cautioned of an overblown price rally.

"While these dynamics (rising prices) could run further, they simply are not sustainable in the current environment ... Energy needs lower prices to maintain financial stress to finish the rebalancing process; otherwise, an oil price rally will prove self-defeating as it did last spring," the bank said in a note to clients.

(Editing by Joseph Radford and Christian Schmollinger)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Tuesday it was investigating alleged fraud at the state-run Syndicate Bank amounting to about 10 billion rupees ($150 million).

Acting on a complaint from the bank, the CBI has registered cases against five bank officials and four others, it said in a statement.

It said it was conducting searches at 10 locations across three cities including New Delhi.

The suspects were believed to have discounted fake cheques and bills against fake letters of credit, and arranged overdraft limits against nonexistent life insurance policies.

Syndicate Bank did not respond to a request seeking comment. Its shares ended down nearly 2 percent, having dipped as much as 4.9 percent during the session.

The CBI is currently investigating allegations of money laundering at India's second-biggest lender, Bank of Baroda. The CBI said over the weekend that it had conducted searches at 10 locations.

Indian banks are on a drive to clean up their bad loans and have sharply increased provisions to cover loan losses.

($1=67.3800 rupees)

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Kevin Liffey)
China's February trade performance was far worse than economists had expected, with exports tumbling the most in over six years, days after top leaders sought to reassure investors that the outlook for the world's second-largest remains solid.

Exports fell 25.4% from a year earlier, twice as much as markets had feared as demand skidded in all of China's major markets, while imports slumped 13.8%, the 16th straight month of decline.

The export drop was the biggest since May 2009, but economists said it may not necessarily point to a significant worsening in economic conditions due to sharply reduced business activity during the long Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in early February this year.

Still, January-February exports on a combined basis, which should iron out some of the holiday effect, fell 17.8% and imports 16.7%, pointing to persistently weak demand at home and abroad that is weighing on the of the world's largest trading nation.

"Exports were very strong last year in February because the Lunar New Year started so late and much of the usual disruption from the holiday was pushed into March. So the implication is that we'll probably see a significant reversal and a stronger number next month," said Julian Evans-Prichard, China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.

"We suspect that overall exports remain weak but we don't see much evidence of marked deterioration, for instance there was no sudden drop-off in export orders in the Markit PMI (activity survey), and they generally do a pretty good job of adjusting for seasonality," he added.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected February exports to fall by 12.5%, with imports seen down 10.0%.

China posted a trade surplus of $32.59 billion for the month, down from $63.29 billion in January, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday.

New 2016 growth target already at risk?

After missing trade goals repeatedly in recent years, China's leaders did not give an estimate for trade growth in 2016 when they set out key economic targets in parliament on Saturday, reflecting deep uncertainty about global demand.

Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said last month that he was confident that China's trade conditions would stabilise and improve in 2016, though most analysts see no improvement in sight.

"The sharp drop in imports also shatters the hope that China is rolling out a stimulus package that would boost the demand for commodities," said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore.

"The recent rally in bulk commodities, led by iron ore, might be only short-lived," Hao added.

Spot iron ore prices rocketed nearly 20% to the highest in more than eight months on Monday, buoyed by expectations that Chinese steel mills are planning an output boost ahead of an expected crackdown on air pollution.

China's iron ore imports rose 6.4% in January-February, though anti-dumping measures are squeezing steelmakers who are trying to keep mills running by increasing sales overseas.

Goldman Sachs, however, said the iron ore rally would not last in the absence of a significant improvement in Chinese domestic steel demand, sticking to its bearish take on one of this year's biggest commodity comebacks.

China's leaders set an economic growth target of 6.5% to 7% for 2016 as they opened the annual session of parliament last week, compared with 6.9% last year, the country's slowest expansion in a quarter of a century.

As part of efforts to stimulate activity, policymakers have proposed raising the 2016 fiscal deficit to 3% of gross domestic product, from 2015's budgeted 2.3%.

Economists also expect further reductions this year in interest rates and the amount of money that banks must hold in reserve, extending a year-long stimulus blitz. In late February, the central bank cut bank reserve ratio requirements, releasing an estimated $100 billion in cash for lending.

"Overall, today's trade data, together with high-frequency data and leading indicators, suggest that growth momentum weakened further in January-February," economists from Japanese bank Nomura said in a research note.

"We maintain our forecast of real GDP growth slowing to 5.8% in 2016 from 6.9% in 2015."

Premier Li Keqiang acknowledged in parliament on Saturday that leaders face "a tough battle" to keep the growing by at least 6.5% over the next five years, while pushing hard to create more jobs and restructuring state-owned enterprises.
By Karolin Schaps

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday in volatile trading after Kuwait said it would agree to an output freeze only if all major producers took part and Goldman Sachs analysts poured cold water on prospects for a sustained rally.

Brent crude futures were trading at $40.24 a barrel at 1442 GMT, down 60 cents on the day. Earlier in the session, the contract had climbed to a three-month high of $41.48, gaining more than 50 percent since its 2016 low on Jan. 20.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 75 cents at $37.15 a barrel.

"The market has run a little bit too far too fast," said Frank Klumpp, oil analyst at Stuttgart-based Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg.

"Expectations regarding production cuts are high, and so is the positioning of most traders and hedge funds. The potential for a surprise seems to be on the downside now."

OPEC members and other producers in Russia are due to meet for talks on propping up prices on March 20, according to the Nigerian petroleum minister.

Kuwait's oil minister said on Tuesday that his country's participation in an output freeze would require all major oil producers, including Iran, to be on board.

"I'll go full power if there's no agreement. Every barrel I produce I'll sell," Anas al-Saleh told reporters in Kuwait City.

OPEC member Kuwait is currently producing 3 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), he added.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a report on Tuesday that the recent price rally was premature and unsustainable.

"While these dynamics (rising prices) could run further, they simply are not sustainable in the current environment," the analysts wrote.

"Energy needs lower prices to maintain financial stress to finish the rebalancing process; otherwise, an oil price rally will prove self-defeating, as it did last spring."

SEB chief commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop agreed, saying that U.S. shale oil rig numbers could soon rise again, halting the recent price rise.

A global supply glut that has brought prices down prices from highs reached in mid-2014 continues to weigh on the market.

North Sea crude supply is expected to rise to its highest in four years in April, holding above 2 million bpd for an eighth consecutive month, according to monthly loading programmes.

On the demand side, China's crude imports jumped 19.1 percent between January and February to 31.80 million tonnes, or about 8 million barrels per day, despite overall weak trading figures released on Tuesday.

"Higher 'teapot' (independent refinery) demand and stronger refining margins ... have contributed to increased imports. Falling domestic crude production is also supportive," said Virendra Chauhan of Energy Aspects.

Despite that, questions about the sustainability of growing consumption weighed on markets after China's overall exports tumbled by a quarter in February.

China's February vehicle sales, a key driver for gasoline demand, were down 3.7 percent year on year, data from the country's Passenger Car Association showed.

"This is really a poor start for trade this year," said Zhang Yongjun, senior economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges.

(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and David Evans)
By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 3 percent on Tuesday, retreating after six days of gains for benchmark Brent crude, as Goldman Sachs suggested the rally was unsustainable and analysts expected data likely to show another record high in U.S. stockpiles.

Differing views on a plan to limit oil output also put the market on the defensive. Kuwait, producing 3 million barrels per day (bpd), said it will freeze output only if all major producers participate, including Iran, which has balked at the plan.

"The comments out of Kuwait have encouraged the sell-off and it appears likely that a focus on weekly oil inventories will encourage prices lower," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at New York-based Clipper Data.

Brent was down $1, or 2.5 percent, at $39.84 a barrel by 12:42 p.m. EST (1742 GMT). During the session it hit a 2016 high of $41.48, which was up more than 50 percent from a 12-year lows of $27.10 struck less than two months ago.

U.S. crude slipped $1.23, or 3.3 percent, to $36.67 a barrel, rallying earlier to a three-month high of $38.39.

Goldman Sachs said rising oil prices "simply are not sustainable in the current environment".

The energy market "needs lower prices" to keep U.S. shale producers from ramping up output, Goldman said in a report. Otherwise, "an oil price rally will prove self-defeating, as it did last spring."

A poll of oil analysts forecast that U.S. crude stocks likely rose 3.6 million barrels last week, pushing total inventories to a record high for a fourth week.

The American Petroleum Institute will release more preliminary stockpiles data at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT), before official numbers on Wednesday from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration (EIA).

A global supply glut in oil has brought prices down from highs above $100 in mid-2014.

North Sea crude supply should hit a four-year peak in April, holding above 2 million bpd for an eighth consecutive month, monthly loading programmes show.

In a development that could support a further rally, the EIA said it expected U.S. production for this year to drop 760,000 bpd versus 740,000 bpd previously. It also cut its 2016 demand growth forecast by 80,000 bpd versus 110,000 barrels previously.

While China's crude imports jumped 19 percent between January and February to 31.80 million tonnes, Brent's rally to $40 could slow oil purchases in the second quarter, trade sources said. China's economic health also remained in question, with total exports falling 25 percent in February.

(Additional reporting by Karolin Schaps in LONDON and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and David Evans)
LONDON (Thomson Foundation) - With 45 percent of senior management positions held by women, Russia has once again topped a ranking of countries with the highest percentage of women in senior business roles, followed by the Philippines and Lithuania, a report published on Tuesday said.

Japan, where only 7 percent of senior leadership roles are held by women, remained at the bottom of the list. Germany and India ranked slightly higher, with 15 percent and 16 percent of women in senior management, respectively.

Globally, only a quarter of senior management positions are held by women, up from 22 percent a year before, according to "Women in Business" published by the U.S.-based audit and tax firm Grant Thornton.

The number of businesses with no women in senior management has increased to 33 percent from 32 percent in 2015, the report, which surveyed 5,520 businesses in 36 countries, said.

"Companies across developed nations have talked the talk on diversity in leadership for long enough," Francesca Lagerberg, global leader for tax services at Grant Thornton International said in a statement.

"It's time to put their promises into practice and deliver results."

With more than a third of senior roles in the region held by women, eastern European countries, among them Estonia, Latvia and Poland, topped the diversity rankings.

Meanwhile, 39 percent of businesses in G7 countries (Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Britain and the United States) had no women in senior management positions.

"Despite considerable efforts by governments and campaigners across the world's best-developed economies to ensure best practice they continue to lag behind emerging markets in (the diversity) area," Lagerberg said.

"This poor performance seems to be at least partly a result of entrenched societal norms. In the UK and US in particular, there are still plentiful examples of a 'command and control' approach to leadership which is not necessarily attractive to women."

Eastern European countries owed some of their diversity to the legacy of the communism and its principles on equality, the report said.

(Reporting by Magdalena Mis; Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit Thomson Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption and climate change. Visit .trust.org)
By Zeba Siddiqui

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India has given private assurances that it will not grant licences allowing local firms to override patents and make cheap copies of drugs by big Western drugmakers, a U.S. business advocacy group said.

The comments were revealed in a submission last month by the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), which is reviewing global intellectual property laws for an annual report identifying trade barriers to U.S. companies.

The USTR has placed India on its "priority watch" list for two years in a row saying the country's patent laws unfairly favour local drug makers. A bone of contention has been a legal provision that allows the overriding of patents on original drugs and granting of 'compulsory licences' to local firms to make cheaper copycat medicines.

India can grant such licences under certain conditions, such as public health emergencies, to ensure access to affordable medicines. It granted the first such licence in 2012, allowing local firm Natco Ltd to sell a copy of German drugmaker Bayer's cancer medicine Nexavar at a tenth of the price.

Since that ruling, big Western pharmaceutical companies have criticised India's patent law and lobbied for it to be changed.

In its submission to the USTR, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the USIBC said the Indian government "privately reassured" the group that it would not grant such licences to firms for commercial purposes.

The Indian government has made no such statements publicly. Officials have said they are committed to protecting the interests of patients.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, her joint secretary in charge of pharmaceuticals, and the USIBC did not respond to requests for comment.

Washington-based non-profit Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) expressed concern over the USIBC submission.

"If such an agreement in fact exists, this is extremely troubling ... this sort of pressure is basically a declaration of war on poor cancer patients," KEI said in its own submission to the USTR last week. It called for details of the agreement to be made public.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has been undertaking a review of its intellectual property (IP) policy. A revised policy is due to be released imminently.

Health activists have criticised the review, saying India is buckling under U.S. pressure and compromising patients.

The Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) charity, which largely depends on India to supply antibiotics and drugs to combat HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis for the developing world, called India's position "a deep concern".

"India should take note that today globally patent monopolies are considered as the core reason for the ever-upward spiral of drug prices," said Leena Menghaney, the South Asia head of MSF's access campaign.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the biggest U.S. industry lobby group, have both recommended keeping India on the U.S. "priority watch" list in separate submissions to the USTR.

The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, which represents 20 big drug makers, argued in its own submission that India's patent laws were fully WTO-compliant. Its head chided the USIBC for breaching confidence in its submission.

"If the government of India had said something privately, USIBC should not have embarrassed it by making it public," said Secretary General D.G. Shah.

(Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kenneth Maxwell)
The US Justice Department sent German automaker AG a subpoena under a bank fraud law in its diesel emissions probe, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.

The government is using the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act to issue the civil subpoena, a tool used in investigating large financial institutions, said the source who requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the ongoing probe. The law allows the government's civil division to investigate fraud over the last 10 years.

VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan declined to comment on talks with regulators, but said the automaker "will continue to cooperate with all relevant government agencies."
German prosecutors have widened their probe of Volkswagen's diesel emissions cheating scandal and are now investigating 17 employees, up from six employees previously, prosecutor Klaus Ziehe said on Tuesday.

"This is part of the diesel investigation, the number of suspects has risen, although none are from the management board," Ziehe said in Braunschweig, near VW's Wolfsburg headquarters.

Volkswagen's Chief Executive Matthias Mueller on Tuesday told employees gathered at the Wolfsburg that the emissions scandal will inflict "substantial and painful" financial damage on the carmaker.

The scandal will keep VW busy "for a long time," the CEO said, adding the carmaker has made no attempts to conceal its wrongdoings.

last year set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.39 billion) to cover costs of recalling of about 11 million diesel vehicles globally.

Volkswagen's second-largest shareholder expects more "unpleasant news" to emerge from an emissions-test rigging scandal after the carmaker in September admitted to manipulating pollution tests in the United States.

"We will this year probably every now and then be confronted with unpleasant related to dieselgate," Stephan Weil, prime minister of Lower Saxony, on Tuesday told a gathering of workers at Volkswagen's (VW) main factory in Wolfsburg.

Europe's largest automaker should be able to cope with the fallout of its manipulation said Weil.

"The damage will, on balance, not be minor, as much as that can already be said today but luckily has a strong economic substance," Weil told the gathering, attended by thousands of workers.

Lower Saxony, which holds 20% of VW's common shares, has "no reason" to alter its commitment to the carmaker, Weil said.

The rise in the number of suspects was first reported by Braunschweiger Zeitung.
WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - German prosecutors have widened their probe of Volkswagen's diesel emissions cheating scandal and are now investigating 17 employees, up from six employees previously, prosecutor Klaus Ziehe said on Tuesday.

"This is part of the diesel investigation, the number of suspects has risen, although none are from the management board," Ziehe said in Braunschweig, near VW's Wolfsburg headquarters.

Volkswagen's Chief Executive Matthias Mueller on Tuesday told employees gathered at the Wolfsburg that the emissions scandal will inflict "substantial and painful" financial damage on the carmaker.

The scandal will keep VW busy "for a long time," the CEO said, adding the carmaker has made no attempts to conceal its wrongdoings.

Volkswagen last year set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.39 billion) to cover costs of recalling of about 11 million diesel vehicles globally.

Volkswagen's second-largest shareholder expects more "unpleasant news" to emerge from an emissions-test rigging scandal after the carmaker in September admitted to manipulating pollution tests in the United States.

"We will this year probably every now and then be confronted with unpleasant related to dieselgate," Stephan Weil, prime minister of Lower Saxony, on Tuesday told a gathering of workers at Volkswagen's (VW) main factory in Wolfsburg.

Europe's largest automaker should be able to cope with the fallout of its manipulation said Weil.

"The damage will, on balance, not be minor, as much as that can already be said today but Volkswagen luckily has a strong economic substance," Weil told the gathering, attended by thousands of workers.

Lower Saxony, which holds 20 percent of VW's common shares, has "no reason" to alter its commitment to the carmaker, Weil said.

The rise in the number of suspects was first reported by Braunschweiger Zeitung.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Edward Taylor; Editing by Keith Weir, Greg Mahlich)
Ray Tomlinson, considered to be the godfather of email, has died, according to his employer, Raytheon Company. He was 74.

"A true technology pioneer, Ray was the man who brought us email in the early days of networked computers," Raytheon spokesman Mike Doble said in a statement.

Doble said Tomlinson died on Saturday morning but he did not know if he was at home and did not have a confirmed cause of death. Tomlinson worked in the company's Cambridge, Massachusetts, office.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Tomlinson had died of a suspected heart attack.

The tech world reacted with sadness over the passing of Tomlinson, somewhat of a cult hero for his 1971 invention of a program for ARPANET, the Internet's predecessor, that allowed people to send person-to-person messages to other computer users on other servers.

"Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map," read a Tweet from Gmail's official Twitter account.

Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf called his death "very sad news."

Tomlinson was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012.

"His work changed the way the world communicates and yet, for all his accomplishments, he remained humble, kind and generous with his time and talents," Doble said.

Originally from Amsterdam, New York, Tomlinson went to school at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MIT in the 1960s, and was working at research and development company Bolt Beranek and Newman - now Raytheon BBN Technologies - when he made his email breakthrough.

The program changed the way people communicate both in business and in personal life, revolutionizing how "millions of people shop, bank, and keep in touch with friends and family, whether they are across town or across oceans," reads his biography on the Internet Hall of Fame website.

According to a 1998 profile in Forbes magazine, Tomlinson showed a colleague his invention and then, famously, said, "Don't tell anyone! This isn't what we're supposed to be working on."

Around the time email started to become a household word, Tomlinson began receiving worldwide recognition for his achievement.

In 2000, he received the George R. Stibitz Computer Pioneer Award from the American Computer Museum. From there followed honors that included a Webby Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Science, and an Innovation award from Discover magazine, and the Eduard-Rhein Cultural Award, according to his biography.

(Reuters)


There is a significant correlation between women in corporate leadership and profitability according to a global survey undertaken by EY and The Peterson Institute for International Economics.



The report was released to coincide with International Women's day and was carried out across almost 22,000 publicly traded companies (52 in Ireland) from 91 countries worldwide.

For having the most women-on-boards, the top five countries are Norway (40%), Latvia (25%), Italy (24%), Finland (23%) and Bulgaria (22%).

Ireland ranks 28th out of the top 56 countries for having women on boards (12%). Of the Irish companies surveyed, the results also indicate that 2% had a female chair and 8% had a female CEO.



Furthermore, the report found that nearly one third of companies globally have no women in either board or C-suite positions, 60% have no female board members, 50% have no female top executives and less than 5% have a female CEO.

Most countries are still far below the 30% threshold for women CEOs with only Norway exceeding this standard for women on company boards.

The research also showed that while increasing the number of women directors and CEOs is important, growing the percentage of female leaders in the C-suite would likely benefit the bottom line even more.



The report claims that implementing policies relating to viable long term experience for women (specifically substantial maternity and paternity leave policies), access to education and elimination of discrimination were found to be the most important factors in addressing gender balance and advancing women in the workplace.



Director of Alternatives and former EY Entrepreneur Of The YearTM (EOY) finalist, Sandra Lawler says, "Ensuring gender balance and diversity at all levels in organisations, is not just the right thing to do, but companies who do so innovate more and are more successful.

"However, at no level is this more urgent than at the most senior executive levels, where business and talent strategies are driven. People talk about the war for talent, yet often neglect the potential of this 50% of the workforce. Businesses need to provide the support, the culture and focus on diversity for all our sakes."



Managing Partner of EY Ireland, Mike McKerr added, "Companies that advance women into leadership roles will benefit from more engaged workforces, stronger cultures and improved economic performance. We know that gender-balanced companies achieve better results.

"As business leaders we need to ask ourselves: Have we made enough progress? Are we helping enough women find their way into leadership roles in order to make our businesses better?"

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
ManpowerGroup Ireland have today released their latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey which is conducted by interviewing a representative sample of 620 Irish employers.



The survey shows that staffing levels across 10 of the 11 sectors surveyed are reporting growth for the second quarter of 2016. Employers are reporting a seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook of +5% for April to June 2016, maintaining the cautiously optimistic forecast previously reported for the first quarter of the year.



Employers in Dublin report an Employment Outlook of +4%, representing no difference on the same period last year. Regionally, employers in Connaught report the strongest hiring intentions of all provinces polled, with an outlook of +9%, up nine percentage points on the same period last year.



The Restaurant and Hotels sector employers are forecasting the strongest year on year growth out all of the 11 sectors evaluated, up 28 percentage points on the same period last year to register an Employment Outlook of +12%.

Electricity, Gas and Water employers are reporting the strongest hiring intentions for the second quarter with an Employment Outlook of +19% for the next quarter, up 4 percentage points on the same period last year. This represents the strongest hiring intentions for the sector since 2008.



Sales Director at ManpowerGroup Ireland, Cara OLeary says, "The results of our survey clearly show continued employer confidence in 2016. Staffing levels are forecast to grow in 10 of the 11 industry sectors surveyed; this demonstrates a sustained level of employer confidence for the second quarter of the year.

"The Restaurant and Hotels sector is expected to enjoy the highest levels of year on year growth in employment levels, as demonstrated by recent news that a number of new hotels are to be built in Dublin city centre. The expected growth in the Pharmaceutical sector is also reinforced by a number of recent job announcements for the sector, including the creation of 200 jobs in Carlow by the US Pharma company MSD."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Grifols will invest an additional 85m in their biologics plant at Grangecastle, Co Dublin, it was announced today.

The company claims it is bringing forward plans for the construction of a purification plant for the protein albumin to cater for rising demand. Construction will begin towards the end of this year, with the plant expected to be operation-ready in early 2020.

The Irish Governments foreign investment agency, IDA Ireland, say the latest Grifols invesment will add to the growing biologics manufacturing cluster in Ireland, which is the fastest growing subsector in pharmaceutical industry.



CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan today commented, "Grifols only opened its plant at Grange Castle last year and already we can see how it is contributing to the companys global operations."

He added, "Ireland is rapidly developing an internationally recognised hub for biologics and Grifols latest investment will strengthen this further."



Source: www.businessworld.ie
The Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition 2016 officially opened for entries yesterday.



The competition invites students and recent graduates from Ireland and Northern Ireland to submit their business ideas for a chance to win 10,000.

It is open to under-graduates, post-graduates and recent graduates (within two years of graduation) in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Existing startups are eligible to enter, as long as the applicants themselves meet the above criteria.



Up to 10 individuals or teams will be selected and given the chance to bring their business ideas from concept to pitch, receiving mentoring and feedback throughout the process. At the final on June 22nd, a panel of leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Ireland and the US will review the finalists business plans and select the winners. The winner will receive 10,000, whilst two runners up will receive 5,000 and 1,000 respectively.



Vice President and Director Ireland at the Ireland Funds, Caitriona Fottrell says, "As always, were looking for innovative business ideas from Irelands early stage entrepreneurs for our competition.

"Convince us that your business idea is the next big thing and well provide you with training and support to help you both develop and pitch your idea. This competition has attracted extremely impressive and creative ideas in the past and we look forward to receiving a wide variety of applications again this year."

The Worldwide Ireland Funds are a philanthropic network that supports causes in Ireland and around the world.

Their mission is to be the largest network of friends of Ireland dedicated to supporting programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland.

Founded in 1976, The Worldwide Ireland Funds currently operate in 12 countries and have raised over $480 million for over 3,000 organisations.

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
It was announced today that Bespoke Sauce Company Ltd has been named as Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 in the Limerick Final of the National Enterprise Awards 2016.



The competition is organised by Ireland's network of Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) to give recognition to the contribution of micro enterprises to the national economy.

The Raheen-based sauce supplier were presented with their award at a ceremony in the Dunraven Arms Hotel in Adare. Bespoke Sauce Company will go forward as Limerick's representatives in the National Final of the National Enterprise Awards which will be held on 9th June in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin. Past winners of the National competition include Irish Yogurts from West Cork, Hot Irishman Irish Coffee from Carlow, Grouse Recording Studios from Westmeath and DesignPro Ltd from Limerick.

Four category winners were also announced at the awards ceremony as follows, McNultys Fuels (Best Service Business), McAdare (Best New Start up), EJS Plastics (Business with Best Development Potential) and Wellnice Pops (Innovation).



The total amount of grant aid approved by LEO Limerick in 2015 was 808,362, in respect of 40 projects, of which 270,108 (33.4%) was refundable aid. The amount paid out by LEO Limerick in respect of grant aid during the period was 717,758 of which 237,617 (33.1%) was paid by way of refundable aid.

The financial assistance paid by LEO Limerick during 2015 provided assistance for the creation of 70 additional jobs in the sector. Employment projections by the promoters of projects approved during 2015 has indicated an additional 120 jobs will be created this year as a direct result of the financial assistance received.



Speaking at the Awards event in Limerick today, Head of Enterprise with Limerick City and County Council, Eamon Ryan said, "The Local Enterprise Office, through its programme of support puts micro and small business at the heart of job creation locally.

"Part of this process is to provide local entrepreneurs with a platform to showcase their business ideas to a wider audience. In doing so, LEO Limerick is contributing to the success of our smaller indigenous businesses, both new and existing, which are central to the future economic development of this region."



Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Nearly two-thirds of first time buyers are unclear about how the mortgage process works according to new research from KBC Bank Ireland.

To deal with this issue, KBC is inviting First Time Buyers from around the country to the banks first ever national Mortgage Lounge event on Thursday, 10th March 2016.

Taking place from 6pm-8pm at the Mansion House on Dawson Street, Dublin 2, the Mortgage Lounge is aimed specifically at helping first time buyers to understand the mortgage process from beginning to end in an easy and accessible format.



The event brings together a team of mortgage advisors from KBC Bank, estate agents from Sherry Fitzgerald and solicitors from McDowell Purcell all under one roof, giving first time buyers the opportunity to hear from industry experts and take part in panel discussions.

Furthermore, attendees can also browse the Mortgage Lounge Expo and speak one-to-one with a team of mortgage and insurance advisors, brokers, estate agents and solicitors.



Director of Customer, Brand and Marketing at KBC Bank, Aidan Power said, "Its clear from our research that First Time Buyers are looking for help when it comes to understanding how the mortgage process works. At KBC Bank we understand that buying your first home can be an exciting time, but also a little daunting and confusing.

"Our Mortgage Lounge event is designed with that in mind, giving First Time Buyers straightforward information, expert advice, and the reassurance they need to take the next step to becoming a home owner. Theres still time to register and I would encourage any First Time Buyer looking for guidance to come along for a relaxed and informative evening next Thursday."



Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Irish waste company, The City Bin Co. yesterday pledged to donate over 35,000 to Irish charities in 2016 through their new BinPact initiative.



BinPact, is a pioneering people-empowered platform, which allows each employee of The City Bin Co. to nominate a charity of their choice to receive a weekly monetary donation from the company.

Temple Street Childrens Hospital, one of a number of charities chosen by The City Bin Co. employees, was on hand to launch the initiative.



CEO of The City Bin Co, Gene Browne says, "Incentivising people to engage by giving back to charity that is of personal significance to them, gives people moments of happiness.

"We are delighted to officially announce our BinPact initiative today with Temple Street Childrens Hospital, one of the many amazing charities that we will be supporting in 2016. We are thrilled that our employees have the opportunity to choose causes that are meaningful to them and, with the help of The City Bin Co., they can support them."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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It was announced today that DARE Technology has been selected by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Cork City to represent Cork City at the 2016 National Enterprise Awards in the Aviva Stadium on June 9th.



The National Enterprise Awards honour the best and brightest small businesses and entrepreneurs around Ireland and celebrate the achievements of Irelands micro-enterprise sector.

DARE Technology was announced as the Cork City nominee for the National Enterprise Awards at a special presentation hosted at the Local Enterprise Office Cork City at City Hall during Local Enterprise Week, running from March 7th  11th.



DARE Technologys core focus is to remove the reliance on fossil fuels in applications that can be replaced by a renewable energy resource. Founder of DARE Technology, Darren Hayes, will be in with a chance of winning one of 12 awards on offer and his share of the 20,000 national prize fund for his company that specialises in Marine Renewable Energy.



DARE Technology is one of the front runners in a new and exciting industry that will develop in Ireland, and Europe over the coming years. The company is currently developing a 5kW portable marine wind turbine for use on board commercial vessels during periods of downtime, harnessing the available wind resource, and therefore saving operating costs, and reducing emissions.



Head of Enterprise at the Local Enterprise Office Cork City, Adrienne Rodgers said, "The Local Enterprise Office is the first stop shop for small businesses and start-ups here in Cork City and we are delighted when we have the opportunity to celebrate their impressive achievements, giving them national recognition for their successes, and we wish Darren all the very best at the National Enterprise Awards this June."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Officials with the nonprofit Simon Wiesenthal Center praised Twitter Inc on Monday for increasing efforts to thwart Islamic State's use of its platform for recruitment and propaganda.

The center's Digital Terrorism and Hate Project gave Twitter a grade of "B" in a report card of social networking companies' efforts to fight online activity by militant groups such as IS.

"We think they are definitely heading in the right direction," the project's director, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of Monday's release of the report card at a press conference in New York.

He said the review was based on steps that Twitter has already taken and information that center staff learned in face-to-face meetings with company representatives.

Islamic State has long relied on Twitter to recruit and radicalize new adherents. The Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, has been one of toughest critics of Twitter's strategy for combating those efforts.

Some vocal Twitter critics have tempered their views since December, when the site revised its community policing policies, clearly stating that it banned "hateful conduct" that promotes violence against specific groups and would delete offending accounts.

Researchers with George Washington University's Program on Extremism last month reported that Islamic State's English-language reach on Twitter stalled last year amid a stepped-up crackdown by the company against the extremist group's army of digital proselytizers.

Last year, the center gave Twitter a grade of "C" in a report card that covered efforts to fight terrorism along with hate speech. This year it gave two grades, awarding Twitter a "D" on hate speech, saying the company needed to do more to censor the accounts of groups that promote hate.

A Twitter spokesman declined comment, but pointed to a statement on the company's blog posted Feb. 5 on combating violent extremism. (bit.ly/1nSxlO7)

"We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service," Twitter said in the blog.

Among other major Internet firms included in this year's survey, Facebook Inc got an "A-" for terrorism and a "B-" for hate.

Cooper said Facebook "understood" the gravity of the issue before most companies, set up a team of monitors worldwide to catch the posts in question and created technological fixes to prevent extremists from creating new accounts.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc's YouTube got a "B-" for terrorism and a "D" for hate due to what Cooper said is a "reactive" response to videos posted rather than a proactive approach to keeping them off the site.

He pointed to a video published last year on YouTube by the Al Shabbab fundamentalist group that listed Mall of America in Minnesota as a potential attack site. He said that video was pulled from YouTube after several hours.

YouTube declined to comment. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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German prosecutors have widened their probe of Volkswagen's diesel emissions cheating scandal and are now investigating 17 employees, up from six employees previously, prosecutor Klaus Ziehe said on Tuesday.

"This is part of the diesel investigation, the number of suspects has risen, although none are from the management board," Ziehe said in Braunschweig, near VW's Wolfsburg headquarters.

Volkswagen's Chief Executive Matthias Mueller on Tuesday told employees gathered at the Wolfsburg that the emissions scandal will inflict "substantial and painful" financial damage on the carmaker.

The scandal will keep VW busy "for a long time," the CEO said, adding the carmaker has made no attempts to conceal its wrongdoings.

Volkswagen last year set aside 6.7 billion euros to cover costs of recalling of about 11 million diesel vehicles globally.

Volkswagen's second-largest shareholder expects more "unpleasant news" to emerge from an emissions-test rigging scandal after the carmaker in September admitted to manipulating pollution tests in the United States.

"We will this year probably every now and then be confronted with unpleasant news related to dieselgate," Stephan Weil, prime minister of Lower Saxony, on Tuesday told a gathering of workers at Volkswagen's (VW) main factory in Wolfsburg.

Europe's largest automaker should be able to cope with the fallout of its manipulation said Weil.

"The damage will, on balance, not be minor, as much as that can already be said today but Volkswagen luckily has a strong economic substance," Weil told the gathering, attended by thousands of workers.

Lower Saxony, which holds 20% of VW's common shares, has "no reason" to alter its commitment to the carmaker, Weil said.

The rise in the number of suspects was first reported by Braunschweiger Zeitung. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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LOGAN  Utah State University student and Providence native Paige Rood was awarded $10,000 when national financial education initiative Save 10 announced its video contest winner today. The nationwide contest invited the contestants to create short videos that encourage people to start putting aside 10 percent of their money to retirement.

Before she was picked as the grand prize winner, Rood was one of the 10 finalists. Four of the finalists were from Utah, including three from Cache Valley. Rood was flown to Washington D.C. to accept the award Tuesday afternoon.

When they called me it was kind of unreal, she said. This whole thing started as me entering a video into this contest for my economics class.

Roods professor offered anyone in the class extra credit for entering. Rood said she thought, Why not?

I didnt expect to even make it to the finals, she said. Let alone win the whole thing.

But it wasnt just the extra credit that got Rood interested. She said Save 10s mission is a cause she believes in.

Its a big problem, she said. A lot of people are going into retirement with not enough money.

To create her <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-mZjxJslFQ target=_blank>video</a>, Rood wrote a song about saving for the future, recorded it, then made a music video called Sallys Lemonade. She got help from her neighbors, the Chadwick family and the Jones family, to make it.

I tried to think about my favorite commercials, the ones that stick in my head, she said. I started to notice the ones I remembered the most were the ones that had musical jingles.

Rood said she plans to use the prize money to fund her upcoming LDS mission she hopes to start this summer. She doesnt know where she will be serving yet, but said she is happy to go anywhere.

I would really love to speak Spanish, she said. That is something Ive always kind of wanted to do, but wherever Im sent will be a good thing.

During her trip to Washington D.C., Rood said she will get to tour the White House, Capitol Building and meet Senator Orrin Hatch.
Ban-Ki-Moon's successor: A political compromise?

Published on March 8, 2016

Story by Saba Sekulovic

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With Ban-Ki Moon's mandate as Secretary General of the UN ending in December 2016, it is time to choose the next Secretary General. In the last three months, six governments have officially nominated their candidates. Will the next appointment be the person who is most qualified? Or will we be looking at a political compromise?

According to the traditional rotation system, the next Secretary-General should come from Eastern Europe (the only UN group not to have already been awarded the role). There have been several indications that the next Secretary-General is going be a woman.

Moreover, this appointment is supposed to be one of the most transparent in history, with the new system being implemented by the UN, in which all candidates are publicly announced online and in which the General Assembly informally acquires more weight during the election process. The idea is to make sure that any interested Member state can contribute, giving them the opportunity to ask candidates questions about their position on UN priorities, such as the Sustainable Development Agenda, peace and security, and other issues.

These elections come in the wake of the refugee crisis, tightened relations between Russia and the West, and a climate of international terrorism. However, any institutional reforms (especially to the Security Council) still seem highly unlikely.

Since the joint letter of the 15th of December 2015 called for the presentation of candidates for the position of Secretary-General, six candidates have officially been endorsed by their respective Governments.

General Assembly Resolution No. 11677 from September 2015 established a few qualities the next Secretary General should possess. These are not solely concerned with the candidates personal achievements, but also the overall significance of their appointment for the UN system.

Besides relevant UN and diplomatic experience, candidates perceived acceptableness within the UN system as well as to the global public have been underlined as the most important criteria.

Article 97 of the UN charter establishes a twofold procedure for the appointment of the Secretary-General: a recommendation by the Security Council followed by a decision by the General Assembly. Although it is practice for the Security Council to recommend only one candidate, nothing in the Charter prevents it from suggesting more.

The voting is conducted in a private council meeting, either by ballot or by acclamation. A veto by the Big Five members (China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States), can block the adoption of a recommendation. The Security Council will start its selection process in July 2016.

One of the key terms of the upcoming election will be "gender parity". Besides the overall efforts of the UN system to close the gender gap, the UN has failed when it came to appointing women into leadership positions. Today, three out of six candidates are women.

Besides the gender issue, how acceptable a candidate is within the UN system can also represent an obstacle for certain candidates. Although their professional profile may perfectly fit the position, the perceived acceptableness of candidates to the Big Five still remains the most important criteria.

Due to the crises in Syria and Ukraine, the UN is in need of an Eastern European Secretary General who can balance the interest of the international community, while still appeasing both Russia and the West.

However, since Eastern Europe is still a highly politicised area and subject to the political tug of war, it is uncertain whether the most qualified candidate will be appointed, or if the next Secretary-General will be the result of a political compromise.

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This article is part of our East Side Stories project. Through fighting the most common cliches levelled at Southern and Eastern Europe, it aims to keep the European idea alive by raising awareness, creating dialogue, exchanging ideas and reporting beyond the mainstream media.

Story by Saba Sekulovic
Former Montenegrin PM vying for UN Secretary-General

Published on March 8, 2016

Story by Saba Sekulovic

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On the 15th of January 2016, the Government of Montenegro nominated H.E. Dr. Igor Luksic for the position of Secretary-General of the UN, for which he will be running against 5 other candidates officially endorsed by their Governments.

Previous to his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and Deputy Prime Minister in 2012, Luksic served as a member of parliament, as Minister of Finance from 2004-2010, Prime Minister from 2010-2012.

After graduating from the University of Montenegro Faculty of Economics in 1998, he obtained his Master and PhD on the topic of transitional economy.

His practical experience includes working as an associate during the implementation of the EU Commission's assistance program (1998-2000) at the MFA, which was followed by the position of international relations advisor for the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). In 2001 he acted as Secretary at the MFA.

In Montenegro he is mostly known as the youngest Minister of Finance. During his mandate, Luksic supervised multiple reforms in the banking and insurance sectors, tax and budget systems, and reforms to state aid and internal audits.

Additionally, Luksic served as the Montenegrin Governor at the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and lead the membership negotiations to the World Trade Organisation.

As Prime minister, Luksic sought to include the civil sector in the work of the Government through the Open Government initiative, promoted the adoption of vocational training to college graduates, initiated the launch of an e-petitions portal, and brokered a number of agreements regulating the relationship between the State and religious communities.

During his mandate as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Montenegro started talks in 20 chapters of its accession negotiation with the EU. Luksic was also an important player in the Montenegro-NATO membership negotiations.

He is dedicated to regional economic cooperation and he has launched the Western Balkans 6 mechanism, supported by the EU Commission. He is also an Associate Professor in Economics and is fluent in English, also speaking Italian, French and German.

Luksic will resign from the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration in March 2016 in order to prepare fully for his candidacy. His team will be lead by Milorad Scepanovic, Permanent Representative of Montenegro to the United Nations.

According to current Montengrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the main reasons for nominating Dr. Luksic for this position were his experience in the public sector and with diplomacy, and his managerial competences. Djukanovic added that Montenegro decided to endorse its candidate after consultation with "affluent UN members".

Whether Dr. Luksic's candidature will be successful depends on the Security Council, which nominates candidates to be approved by the General Assembly. Montenegro has also recently received a NATO membership invitation.

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This article is part of our East Side Stories project. Through fighting the most common cliches levelled at Southern and Eastern Europe, it aims to keep the European idea alive by raising awareness, creating dialogue, exchanging ideas and reporting beyond the mainstream media.

Story by Saba Sekulovic
FARES SABAWI/CALLER-TIMES Chloe Tilley (left), Marisa Rivera and Eric Heatherley found out which countries they will travel to this summer as part of Corpus Christi's Sister City program.

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By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

This summer, three Corpus Christi high school students will be representing Corpus Christi in different countries around the world.

On Monday, the students found out where they will be spending their summer at a news conference in Heritage Park's Galvan House. The student exchange program is part of Corpus Christi's Sister City Committee.

Eric Heatherley of King High School will travel to Keelung, Taiwan. Marisa Rivera, a Carroll High School student, will head to Yokosuka, Japan. Chloe Tilley, another King High School student, will spend her summer in Agen, France.

Each student had to stand out in academics and leadership, according to a news release from the city.

The Sister City program was launched by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Twitter: @Caller_Fares
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By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

The Department of Justice opened an investigation Monday into a Bee County cemetery accused of not burying a man because he was Hispanic, his widow's attorney said.

An attorney for the Department of Justice met with Dorothy Barrera and her attorney, Sid Arismendez, Monday afternoon after she said the cemetery's board initially prevented the burial of her late husband, Pedro Barrera, because of his ethnicity.

The cemetery board reversed the decision Thursday, according to the cemetery board spokeswoman. She told the Caller-Times on Friday that the board's initial decision against the burial was because the cemetery was a family cemetery that was meant for the descendants of the original founders of Normanna, which is 10 miles north of Beeville. There was no policy that barred Mexicans, she said.

No one from the cemetery could be reached Monday.

Though Barrera has been offered a plot in the cemetery, Arismendez said they still plan to file a lawsuit within days.

"We can go back and prove there was segregation dating back to 1910," he said.

Arismendez said Barrera, 75, hopes what happened to her doesn't happen to anyone else.

"Any settlement would include ... acknowledgment of what (the cemetery) has done and assurances that it will never occur again," he said.

Twitter: @Caller_Fares
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The city's plan to regulate transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft has generated a lot of angst from enthusiastic customers who fear a loss of this type of service. They've let us know of their concerns, mostly via email but also through other digital platforms that, like these so-called ride-sharing networks, reflect changing times.

The City Council is scheduled for a final vote Tuesday after having approved the ordinance previously by a 7-2 vote.

Uber, which has operated here since 2014, is expected to quit Corpus Christi if the ordinance passes. The ordinance is modeled after Houston's, which did not chase Uber out of Houston.

The arguments against the ordinance include that these services are fundamentally different from cab companies that are regulated by the city; that they rely on different, newer technology that puts drivers and riders in touch with each other safely, conveniently and efficiently via smartphone; that the drivers aren't employees but are independent freelancers who drive when they feel like it but who nevertheless have met the rigorous qualifications to be allowed into the network - and that being regulated like a cab company would ruin all of that.

Regardless of how different Uber says it is, we fail to see a fundamental difference between the Uber-driver-to-rider relationship and that of cabbie and fare. "Ride-sharing" implies that the driver was headed that way anyway, but that's not the case. Riders contact Uber for the same reason they would call a cab. It's just a different method of dispatch. To the rider, the Uber driver is for all practical purposes a cabbie. The difference between Uber and a cab company is the relationship between the company and the driver, not the driver and customer.

One of the sticking points in the proposed ordinance cited by Uber is a requirement that its drivers be fingerprinted, a requirement that also goes for traditional cabbies. Uber says it already background-checks drivers. From what we've heard, Uber proponents think they have discovered a smoking gun because Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority bus drivers aren't fingerprinted. We fail to see a big whoop-tee-do.

The bus driver-to-rider relationship isn't a private deal in which the driver takes the rider where the rider directs. Bus drivers drive a fixed route and pick up and drop off passengers at fixed stops. A bus driver is an apples-to-oranges comparison to a cabbie or Uber driver. Somebody would be bound to notice a bus driver veering from the route to commit crimes against passengers. Also, a bus driver's commercial license, in addition to being a key form of identification, certifies driving skills that Uber drivers and cabbies don't need.

The question for the council should be whether Uber and cab companies are operating on a level regulatory playing field that puts public safety first. Any purely technological advantage Uber has over cab companies in delivering the actual service to the customer isn't the city's business to offset. In the spirit of true free enterprise, let cab companies adapt and innovate or perish.

But we see no justification for letting Uber drivers drive for hire without a permit. The city has a right to require permits and charge fees. The streets on which Uber drivers drive didn't just magically appear. And last we checked, they needed upkeep.

This isn't about killing technology or free enterprise. Remember which city Corpus Christi used as a model - Houston, the city the astronauts inform when they have a problem.
Enter the dragon: a portrait of Chinese travellers to Japan is based on analysis of around 70,000 online data points between October and December 2015, covering social-networking sites, travel-review sites, travel forums and travel Q&A sites.

Some key take-home points from the paper are:

Political tension does not get in the way of a good holiday

The study notes that Chinese travellers have replaced Koreans as the largest group of foreign visitors to Japan, suggesting that diplomatic issues have little bearing on the attitudes and behaviour of individual consumers. Around 4.3 million Chinese tourists visited the country between January and October 2015close to a quarter of total tourists.

Shopping is still the top draw

Globally, Chinese tourists spent US$165 billion, the bulk of it on shopping and in particular luxury goods. The figure is expected to rise to $265 billion by 2019. Japan is a major beneficiary, thanks to a combination of world-leading shopping facilities, the weak yen, and Hong Kongs decline in popularity as a shopping destination. During Chinese New Year in 2015, Chinese tourists spent $1 billion in Japan.

Analysis in the report shows that shopping-related words outweighed those relating to culture and heritage. Tokyo is understandably still the prime destination and is seen as affordable, with good deals relative to China, as well as a top global city in which to buy luxury items.

Travellers fall into two distinct groups, and spend accordingly

The image of raucous Chinese tour groups persists around the world, but things are changing fast. Group travel does still dominate Chinese visits to Japan, but its growth is slowing while independent tourism is rising meteorically, the paper notes. Four in 10 Chinese travellers are now believed to be independent.

Independent travellers set aside a good portion of their budget for purchases they believe will enhance their social status, such as luxury goods, cosmetics and kimonos. They also seek out once-in-a-lifetime gourmet experiences. They do not limit themselves to Tokyo: given that they are often repeat travellers, they are much more likely to forego tourist haunts for more local experiences.

Group travellers, by contrast, continue to seek out practical purchases like household appliances, and are most likely to shop in department stores. The factors that unite the two groups are a love of Ginza, Tokyos best-known high-end shopping destination, and Akihabara, also known as Electric Town for its abundance of electronic-goods retailers.

In short, independent travellers can be seen as adventurous, indulgent and somewhat narcissistic, according to the paper. They do not wish to be seen in the same light as package tourists. Group travellers are predominantly looking for bargains and no more than a brief sampling of Japans main attractions.

Interest in culture is growing

Shopping and eating are of course not the only reasons Chinese people visit Japan, and the paper even suggests escaping smog-choked cities for a few days in a cleaner environment might be one motivation. Certainly, many visitors are shown to be sensitive to a change in atmosphere. Words used to describe Tokyo include unique, romantic, happy, quiet, charming and convenient.

In order, the paper lists top cultural draws as Mount Fuji, Osaka Castle, Kinkakuji temple in Kyoto, and the Sensoji temple in Tokyos Asakusa district. Aside from Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido and Okinawa are the most popular travel destinations.

Though shopping still dominatesmaterialistic tendencies are being tempered by a real, deep interest in the natural and cultural sights of Japan, the paper notes, attributing this data to the growth of independent travellers who want more than brash commercialised playgrounds.


| BY Ricki Green |

David Jones has today released an exclusive content series, Women in Conversation in celebration of International Womens Day via Whybin\TBWA Sydney and McAvoy Media.

The inaugural series features round table discussions with a group of influential and inspiring Australian women speaking about the important issues relating to women in todays society.

Topics of discussion include: relationships, motherhood, gender equality, mental health and self- belief.

The sessions, moderated by Gretel Killeen, feature a line-up of 18 women from differing backgrounds and stages of life including: Lucy Turnbull AO, chief commissioner of The Greater Sydney Commission; Jesinta Campbell, David Jones ambassador and TV personality; Lisa Wilkinson journalist and TV presenter; Jessica Rowe AM, Studio 10 co-host, author and journalist; Edwina McCann, editor-in-chief, Vogue Australia; Kellie Hush, editor-in-chief, Harpers Bazaar Australia; Fiona OLoughlin, celebrated Australian comedian; Christine Manfield, chef, author and food writer; Donna Player, director of merchandise, David Jones; Mary Coustas, actress, comedian and TV personality; Marita Cheng, founder and CEO of 2Mar Robotics, 2012 Young Australian of the Year; Carla McGrath, Indigenous consultant; Jacqui Lewis, co-founder of The Broad Place; Sheree Commerford, blogger; Indira Naidoo, author, journalist and TV presenter; Vanessa Fennell, philanthropist and mother; Lisa Messenger, founder and editor in chief, Collective Hub; and Dr. Libby Weaver, nutritional biochemist and best-selling author.

David Jones intends to use this content to start a conversation that taps into the psyche of diverse Australian women, exploring the issues that matter to them most and simultaneously discovering that which inspire them. The 4 x 15 minute episodes will be accessed via the retailers website, YouTube and social media channels.

Says Victoria Doidge, general manager, marketing communications, David Jones: The Women in Conversation series was conceptualised in considering what International Womens Day means to us, and what we can do to celebrate and inspire Australian women.

We wanted to facilitate a forum for interesting and dynamic women to share their views, and for this content to be shared to act as a catalyst for greater conversation on important topics relating to women.
| BY Lynchy |

DDB is officially re-launching Lifelounge as part of the DDB Group via a strategic partnership with Fairfax events and the Australian Financial Review.

Next week in Melbourne the AFR Business Summit will take place on Tuesday March 15th and Wednesday March 16th at the Grand Hyatt and boasts some of the worlds leading business minds including Frank Lowy AC, David Gonski AC, Alan Joyce and Mike Cannon-Brookes. The Summit is a forum for tier-one business leaders to come together and exchange views on Australias repositioning to a global culture.

As an event partner, DDB will leverage the jewel in Lifelounges crown  its trends and insights data into the millennial market  to shape a panel discussion.

DDB Lifelounge has designed a session by creating a panel of business leaders from exciting growth businesses; Uber, Etsy, YGAP and Vinomofo to discuss and explore on the topic of Risk Takers and Growth Makers through a Millennial lens. DDB Melbournes managing director, Dion Appel (above), will host the panel alongside moderator Michael Bailey, AFRs entrepreneur editor.

Says Appel: Ive carefully designed and brought together some of the most progressive and innovative businesses in Australia. These four companies have literally exploded onto the Australian market in the last five years by thinking differently and creating companies that stand for something, have the right attitude and leave people thinking, If only I thought of that.

Business leaders will have a lot to learn from their respective business cultures, from how and why they established their companies in the first place to the insights that are driving their growth agenda.
Monday, March 7, 2016 at 3:18PM

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Samsung's latest flagships, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are slated for release in Canada and offer a significant upgrade to the S6 series of devices from a year ago. With new aluminum and glass enclosures, the Samsung Galaxy S7 (with a 5.1-inch display) and the larger S7 Edge (with a 5.5-inch dual edge display for $100 more), both offer a more integrated build, water resistance and an improved camera with f/1.7 aperture that lets in more light plus. Here are some impressions.

Samsung seems to have improved and further refined the design elements it introduced with the S6 series and returned requested features like water resistance plus the ability to add up to 200 GB microSD storage. Both devices will ship with a standard storage of 32GB which puts the onus on users to add the amount of extra storage they want.

Here's the water resistant Samsung Galaxy S7 getting dunked in a fishbowl A video posted by Canadian Reviewer (@canadianreviewer) on Mar 7, 2016 at 8:32am PST

The new Galaxy S7 devices have a waterproof rating of IP68 can be immersed in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. While under water, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge can still operate and can receive calls or take video if these features were enabled before the phone was dunked in water.

Gaming is also improved thanks to a Game Launcher app and the Vulkan gaming API. Other improvements worth noting are a sleeker form factor that reduces the bulge of the rear camera, faster charging with a full charge time of 90 minutes for the S7 and 100 minutes for the S7 Edge with the included charger, plus the addition of an always on display.

During a demo earlier today, Samsung representatives explained that while a lot of the improvements are visible on the surface of the devices, the increase in performance is quite substantial with up to 30 per cent increase in CPU performance, 64 per cent improvement in GPU performance and 4GB of RAM to help with multitasking and system management.

I'm coming from a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and did a few brief side bys side performance comparisons. The Galaxy S7 loaded complex webpages on the Chrome browser one to two seconds faster than the Note 4 and seemed to be quicker in multitasking. Battery life on the Galaxy S7 seems to be very good at first glance and might be just be good enough to switch over users of large smartphones who choose phablets for longer lasting battery performance.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 has a 3000 mAh battery while the larger (yet thinner) S7 Edge has a 3600 mAh battery which can also be charged via a wireless charging dock. Both come with the quick charging adapter plus a microUSB to USB dongle that can be used to input and connect external devices. USB Type-C, which many other manufacturers and even Google are jumping on, is missing from this generation of Galaxy S phones.

Samsung also showed of its Gear VR accessory as well as Gear 360 camera for capturing video in immersive VR. Samsung fans now have a flagship that feels true and new and a bunch of desireable features plus very impressive battery life and a notable camera but for a very high price.
Monday, March 7, 2016 at 9:32PM

Photo courtesy of Reuters/Toru Hanai

Toyota recalls an additional 33,264 vehicles in Canada over issues with the frontal airbags. According to the Canadian government, the latest recall by Toyota of its vehicles pushes up the total in the country to 400,214 cars since 2013. Toyota has announced its expanding the recall of the defective Takata Corp airbag parts around the world. Its said that the inflators in these airbags can activate with too much force, which could send potentially deadly metal shards into the passenger compartment. The total recall worldwide so far is at 15,314,000 Toyota cars.

Source: Reuters
Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 1:54PM

LG G5 Modular smartphone - Photo from Tropicalpost.com

One of the more exciting handsets coming to market is the LG G5 which brings a new paradigm in modular smartphone technology. The device, which stole the show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, will come to Canada through various carriers on April 8.

The device, whihc has been widely praised and awarded for its Slide out Battery and Modular Type design, gives the user a greater, and more flexible, smartphone experience.

The LG G5 is a game-changer for the mobile space in Canada, said Valerie Malone, Director of Marketing, LG Electronics Canada. The fact that Canadians will also be able to purchase LG Friends, or companion devices, means they will be able to expand the capabilities of their G5 to capture more content, including 360-degree photos and videos.

The LG G5 will be available at all major carriers including Bell, Eastlink, Fido, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, TELUS, Videotron and WIND Mobile. The following retailers will also carry the LG G5 at launch; Best Buy, Tbooth wireless, The Source, Costco, and WIRELESSWAVE.

We are absolutely thrilled at the response from our carrier partners, said Ross Snow, VP, Mobile Communications Sales, LG Electronics Canada. Were working on some really interesting promotions. For example, customers who purchase the LG G5 on pre-order will receive a bonus offer at participating carriers.

Specswise, the LG G5 has an all metal aluminum body and Slide-out Battery to easily swap out a depleted battery or attach select LG Friends. It features Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 capable (2.0 adapter included). Dual lens rear camera lets you choose between a standard or a 135 degree wide angle lens to capture more, An always-on Display makes notifications just a glance away without waking the G5

LG G5 promises Excellent battery life, thanks to the Low Power Location Estimation technology, enhancing battery efficiency by as much as 41.9 per cent. aptX HD: 24-bit Hi-Fi Wireless Audio and expandable memory through microSD card slot (can support up to 2TB).

Key Specifications:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Processor

5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560 x 1440 / 554ppi)

Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM / 32GB UFS ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)

Camera: Rear: Standard 16MP, Wide 8MP / Front: 8MP

Battery: 2,800mAh (removable)

OS: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 9:32AM

While every day should be International Women's Day, it is great that a single day in March has been singled out to devote to celebrate women's social, economic, cultural, political and global achievements. While the gender gap is still a huge issue of debate and one that the World Economic Forum predicts won't be solved until 2133, many fields including STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) continue to struggle with enabling equal pay and benefits to women.

Microsoft is celebrating International Women's Day by raising awareness and calling girls around the workd to #MakeWhatsNext. A longtime supporter of enabling girls to code early as well as get the inspiration and training to become the best they can be. The company believes that we need more girls and women to contribute their ideas to the world."We aim to empower this generation of young women with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to become the next Ada Lovelace, in a world where technology is embedded into every aspect of life," Microsoft says.

"We are encouraging girls to participate in our YouthSpark programs around the world, particularly in the DigiGirlz Days (Mississauga, Vancouver, and Winnipeg) and explore our online hub for inspiration and all the tools needed today to create tomorrows innovations to change the world. We are even proposing to help some outstanding girls patent their ideas."

On March 8th Microsoft Canada will also be partnering with Startup Canada to engage in their International Womens day events. Janet Kennedy, President of Microsoft Canada will be attending the Womens leaders breakfast with Minister Bardish Chagger, and participating in a national panel discussion.
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Three college students who first met while attending a Catholic high school in Florida have launched a scholarship fund to help others experience faithful Catholic education at a Newman Guide college. As we went off to different colleges, we kept in touch and found time to catch up whenever we returned []
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Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

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There has been rise in the number of students applying to Canadian business schools' MBA programmes in recent years

An MBA, or a Master of Business Administration, is a very hot topic nowadays. Is this just a trend, a trifle, or is there real value in pursuing this degree. It is expensive, demanding, difficult to get into, and takes up years of your life. Why Canada?

There has been a sharp rise in the number of students from around the world applying to Canadian business schools' MBA programmes in recent years. Students from the Middle East, -especially in this past year of political volatility in the region, -are also considering Canadian business schools in increasing numbers.

In practice, Canada is becoming a thriving place to study. Graduate opportunities are ever expanding in Canadian universities. paramount to what studying in Canada is all about. Banking held up over the crisis and the oil system is booming.

While MBA courses in Canada are lesser known than their US and UK counterparts, quantities, it is clear students are reaping the benefits of studying in this such an international environment. Canada's increasing diversity and large immigrant populations make it a welcoming place for foreigners.

Canada has a very stable economy, very stable banks and industries that are performing well. An MBA in Canada opens many doors for your future: not only will you gain essential knowledge and skills which will prove useful in your career ahead, but you will also attain a network of international friends and business contacts, inearn gain relevant work experience in an English-speaking country abroad, and you will take a treasure trove of experience back home with you.

MBA in Canada with a two-month foundation programme and acquire basic economic knowledge in order to proceed with their MBA/MScIB.

The immigration rules in Canada are much more relaxed than in the U.S or UK Schools are also placing increased importance on the diversity of their classes. The global prominence of Canadian schools can be seen by the even distribution of MBA candidates who highlighted the country as a preference. You can start your MBA/MSc IM programme every January and September, and complete your degree within only 14 months.

Also Read: Study Abroad: Guide for Overseas Education

Also Read: Why study in Australia

Students have the option to specialize in the fields of Finance or Marketing profoundly, or rather to take the general study path. The MBA programme includes a business internship as well as an applied business project, combining knowledge and practical experience through a balanced integration of theory, research and practice. The internship takes place during the last quarter of the program and can be completed worldwide.

Article attributed to,

Mr Adarsh Khandelwal, Co- Founder, Collegify
During a gathering of workers at VWs headquarters, group CEO Matthias Mueller said that the implications of Dieselgate will keep his company busy for a long time.



Board member Stephan Weil even warned that more unpleasant news is on its way as German prosecutors have begun widening their investigation.

We will this year probably every now and then be confronted with unpleasant news related to dieselgate, said Weil, before adding that the damage will, on balance, not be minor, as much as that can already by said today but Volkswagen luckily has a strong economic substance.

After expanding their investigation, German prosecutors in Brunswick are now investigating 17 employees  up from the 6 being previously investigated.

According to Autonews, prosecutor Klaus Ziehe told media that This is part of the diesel investigation, the number of suspects has risen, although none are from the management board.

Last year, VW set aside no fewer than 6.7 billion euros ($7.39) in order to cover the costs of recalling roughly 11 million diesel vehicles on a global scale. However, that figure did not include other billions of euros worth of fines and compensation payouts.

According to Klaus Breitenbach, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Baader Bank, VW may need to set aside an additional 15.5 billion euros by the time it reports 2015s financial results on April 28th.

PHOTO GALLERY
With just 500 units of Bugattis newest monster hitting the assembly line, capturing one on camera out in the open, is nearly impossible, yet alone four examples.



However, these are not production cars, but prototypes that were on their way to Arjeplog, for winter testing. They were caught on video on the side of the road in a small Swedish village, called As, in Jamtland, in a small convoy with two VW vans appended on both ends.

Promising to reset the boundaries for hypercars, with no less than 1,500 horses coming from an updated W16 engine taken from the Veyron, the Chiron stole the limelight at this years Geneva Motor Show.

Bugatti claims the Chiron takes just 2.5 seconds to go from naught to 100 km/h (62 mph) and to double that speed in 6.5 seconds, while it reaches 300 km/h (186 mph) in just 13.5 seconds. Keep the right pedal down and the odometer will eventually indicate 420 km/h (260 mph).

The VW-owned brand has managed to sell all 500 examples of the hypercar even before visitors at the Swiss even got a chance to see it live for the first time, despite a hefty price tag of $2.6 million.

VIDEO
You dont turn 100 every day, and although March 7th marked BMWs centenary, the German car manufacturer plans to celebrate its birthday all year long. And what better way to do it than with a few concept cars?



BMWs birthday will be so massive that it dragged Rolls Royce along for the party as well. According to Autocar, the Goodwood-based car company will reveal a concept car as part of the parents company centenary celebrations, joining concepts from BMW, Mini and BMW Motorrad.

The German group said that it will take its newly unveiled Vision Next 100 concept car on a world tour, stopping in London between 16-25 June  a location where the Bavarian company will unveil two further concepts from Mini and Rolls-Royce.

The latter will be known as the Rolls-Royce Grand Sanctuary and, as its name points out, it will concentrate on the ultimate automotive interior of the future  who better to come up with a bespoke, unique cabin than Rolls, right?

Not much else is known about Minis concept, but it will guide itself after the Every Mini is a Mini tagline and it will showcase the next 100 years of car personalization.

As BMWs Vision Next 100 automobile will hint the next century of motoring, the German car makers Motorrad concept, tagged The Great Escape, will probably celebrate the next 100 years of freedom.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Facebook

RCMP are not expected to release any further details on two bodies discovered in West Kelowna last week until autopsies are complete.

The bodies of Kimberly Ansell and Marcello Verna were discovered in a grisly scene near Shannon Lake last Wednesday.

The victim's bodies were found at about 7 a.m. in the woods just off Shannon Way.

Ansell is reported to have lived in the area, and Verna was said to be at her home Tuesday evening.

Police are currently staying quiet about the deaths, but have confirmed a weapon was recovered at the scene where the two bodies were discovered.

The autopsies should be completed this week."The circumstances surrounding the suspected cause and motive of both deaths is being withheld pending further investigation and interviews of the family and associates of both of the deceased, said Const. Jesse O'Donaghey.

Last week, ODonaghey explained that police believe it was an isolated incident.

We are not yet classifying these deaths. Autopsies are pending ... to aid investigators in determining the exact cause of deaths for both individuals," he said.

The West Kelowna RCMP and the BC Coroners Service continue to work closely on this investigation.

ODonaghey said RCMP do not have any suspects to look for at this point, but that may change as the investigation continues.
With two letters already complaining about the high cost of natural gas fees etc., I was shocked to see the City of Kelowna had to also add another fee or tax, if you would like to call it a tax. A 3.09% Municipal Operating Fee on top of the Carbon tax, Clean Energy levy and GST, I am very disappointed in our mayor and council

Ron Johansen
Photo: The Canadian Press

Newfoundland and Labrador's premier made clear Tuesday his province's precipitous drop from national economic leader to fiscal basket case, as his Liberal government set a grim course with its first throne speech.

"It's terrible," Premier Dwight Ball said.

"There's no one even close to us when you look at other provinces," he told reporters outside the legislature. "We've never seen this ever before in our history."

Fixing the mess, and an "unprecedented" $2-billion deficit, will start with a budget in April or May, Ball said. He signalled that everything from tax hikes to job losses and spending cuts are on the table.

Ball also raised the E word  as in equalization. It was a proud day as Newfoundland and Labrador, powered by oil and mining earnings, became a "have" province for the first time in 2008. It stopped receiving equalization payments that Ball now says would come in handy. The complexities of related requirements, however, mean little help is available so far, he told reporters.

"We're at Ottawa's door for all the programs that are in place."

The throne speech talks of "decisive actions" in the short, medium and long term to correct course. About one-third of provincial revenues come from offshore oil earnings. The treasury has been drained since Brent crude prices dove from US$115 a barrel in mid-2014 to hover between US$30 and US$40 in recent months.

The speech read Tuesday by Lt.-Gov. Frank Fagan says a new approach is needed to avoid successive deficits of around $2 billion.

"The choices ahead of us will not be easy," he read. "Everyone will have to accept some level of sacrifice in the months and years ahead if we are to provide critical services, while restoring accountability and stability to government finances."

The alternative is to borrow ever increasing amounts with higher interest, says the speech.

It says net debt would top $23 billion in just five years if the province does nothing. It would have to borrow $15.4 billion by 2020-21  a move that would be like ringing up more than $7 million every day or almost $300,000 an hour, it says.

Provincial Auditor General Terry Paddon said earlier this year that the rate of projected deficit growth is unsustainable in a relatively small province of about 527,000 people. The forecast deficit for 2015-16 of almost $2 billion is more than three times greater than the next highest province when relative economies are compared, he warned.

"This level must be reduced."

The throne speech acknowledged that urgency.

"Bond rating agencies and major banks are watching the province closely," Fagan read. "My government is focused on protecting our credit ratings, as we do not want to be paying more for borrowing purposes."

NDP member Lorraine Michael said citizens who are already struggling should not have to pay for a lack of planning when the province ran surpluses over much of the last decade.

"We can't use economic difficulties as an excuse for leaving people behind," she told the legislature.

The throne speech also promises to openly assess the $8.6-billion Muskrat Falls hydro project in Labrador started under the previous Tory government. It was to produce first power next year but has already run over original cost projections and timelines.

"This review will analyze the cost, schedule and associated risks of the project and is the kind of due diligence that is long overdue," Fagan read.

As bad as the financial picture looks, the province has seen bleak times before. In 1934, the former British dominion of Newfoundland gave up its self-governing status after 79 years in part because of crippling public debt racked up during the First World War.
Photo: Contributed - Flickr

Members of the Tsimshian First Nation on British Columbia's northwest coast will be getting $9 million in provincial funding to job skills.

Premier Christy Clark announced the agreement, which must still be drafted.

The Tsimshian will get the money over three years through a deal with the Tsimshian Roundtable, which includes six First Nations, the B.C. and federal governments, and proponents of the liquefied natural gas industry.

Chief Clifford White of the Gitxaala Nation says the agreement focuses the socio-economic well-being of members through access to employment.

He says part of the roundtable's goal is to provide kindergarten to Grade 12 education.

Malaysian-owned oil and gas giant Petronas plans to develop a liquefied natural gas plant near Prince Rupert, and White says First Nations need long-term benefits from any such project on their territory.
I couldn't agree more with the writer of this letter in expressing my disappointment.

It's embarrassing and borders on disrespect. To come out and tell us (two years in a row) that our tax increase is higher due to the new police station, then attempt to sell us on the fact that due to tough decisions and hard work, that our taxes have been kept down to a 3.2 percent increase, is exploitive.

By adding the "Franchise Fee" to my gas bill (I would love an explanation on what you did to earn this money) you effectively gave us a tax increase of 4.5 percent. And please don't explain it away with the well used "other cities our size have done it.

It's not even the money. It's the shady way it was handled. Just be honest and up front with people. I don't think it's to much to ask, a fair trade for us trusting you with our city.

Brad Airey
Cemex obtains required consents to amend its credit agreement

08 March 2016

Cemex announced yesterday that, in line with the company's current initiatives of enhancing financial flexibility and reducing risk, it has obtained the required consents to amend its facilities agreement dated 29 September 2014, as amended and restated to delay the scheduled tightening in its consolidated financial leverage and coverage ratio limits by one year.



The formalisation of the amendment is subject to customary conditions and is expected to be finalised in the following days.

Pursuant to the amendment, the leverage ratio covenant in the Credit Agreement will remain at six until and including 31 March 2017 and will gradually decline to four by 30 June 2020. The margin grid in the Credit Agreement will be modified such that if the consolidated leverage ratio is greater than 5.5 in the reference periods ending on 31 December 2016, 31 March 2017, 30 June 2017 and 30 September 2017, the applicable margin will be 425bps instead of 400bps. All other levels in the margin grid remain unchanged.



In addition, the Credit Agreement will be amended to allow Cemex the right, subject to meeting local requirements in the Philippines, to sell a minority stake in a subsidiary that directly and indirectly mainly owns Cemexs cement manufacturing assets in the Philippines.



"The amendment underscores the recognition given to Cemex's business and financial strategy by its core banks," said Jose Antonio Gonzalez, Cemexs CFO. We are pleased by their continued support and we remain committed to our stated targets of enhancing free cash flow, asset disposals and debt reduction, which should contribute to our objective of receiving an investment grade credit rating.

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Kenya: ARM Cement reportedly nears deal with foreign investor on stake

08 March 2016

Kenyan producer ARM Cement is in the final lap of concluding investment details with a potential investor, CEO, Pradeep Paunrana, told Bloomberg in a recent interview.



In December ARM announced it was in talks with a foreign institution that planned to invest as much as US$125m. The company has faced liquidity challenges that cast doubt on whether it is able to meet obligations on its commercial-paper programmes, the Capital Markets Authority said on Monday. In January, ARM said the foreign investment would be by way of seven-year convertible preference shares which, on conversion to equity in the company, wouldnt be expected to reach the threshold requiring a mandatory takeover bid.



ARM has reduced its debts by about KES1.2bn (US$11.8m) in the past three months and is continuing to make payments of KES150m per month, Paunrana said. About half of the companys loans are dollar-denominated and include advances of US$21m from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank and US$53m from the Africa Finance Corp, he said.





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Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) is offering a new Chemical Technology Laboratory Technician certificate program on the Whitfield Murray Campus in Dalton to help meet the workforce development requirements of the floorcovering industry and provide real-world training in the field of chemistry.

Workers in any of the floorcovering plants come into contact with dyes, pigments, acids, bases, polymers, and other related materials, said Brent Lance, director of the Chemical Technology Laboratory Technician program at GNTC. So a general knowledge of chemicals and chemical safety is just a good thing all around.

The program was developed in response to requests from business and industry partners in the Whitfield County area to address a need for highly skilled individuals with a chemistry background.

The Chemical Laboratory Technician program will provide graduates with an industry recognized certificate that will give them with the skills needed to go to work in a variety of jobs including dye technician, quality technician, compounder, lab technician, and product development, said Brian Cooksey, director of operations training and development at Shaw Industries Group, Inc.

The program is part of an educational partnership between the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE), the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), and the University System of Georgia (USG).

The Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce coordinated the partnership, according to Ginger Mathis, associate vice president of academic affairs and campus manager of the Whitfield Murray Campus at GNTC.

To meet the need, GNTC worked with our educational partners the Northwest Georgia College and Career Academy and Dalton State College to develop the curriculum through strong industry guidance, said Mathis. This foundation was critical in the development of this program.

Students can begin their career path by taking chemistry courses at the Northwest Georgia College and Career Academy (NWGCCA) in Dalton and earning dual enrollment credits towards the Chemical Technology Laboratory Technician certificate at GNTC.

Chemicals make up a significant part of the carpet and floorcovering industry, said Cooksey. In northwest Georgia we also have a large chemical sector that not only supports the flooring industry but also many other industries around the world.

Once students complete the certificate program they have the option of entering the workforce or continuing their education. If they chose to continue their education, the credits from GNTC will transfer towards a bachelors degree in scientific technology with a concentration in chemistry at Dalton State College.

Students also have the option to transfer the credits earned towards a diploma or an associate degree at GNTC.

This gives students the option of entering the workforce immediately upon completing the certificate program or continuing their education in post-secondary education. Either way, they begin their selected career path with an advantage.

Basic skills in chemistry and measurements is very important whether its someone inside the factory that measures the consistency of dye color using an instrument, all the way up to an employee that works in the actual lab where they test materials all day long for quality control, said Lance.

The certificate program is one of many dual enrollment programs offered by GNTC that provides high school students with the opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school. While dual enrollment has been possible in the State of Georgia since 2009, major changes were made in July of 2015 with the introduction of the Move On When Ready (MOWR) dual enrollment program that expanded opportunities for students.

For the past three years, GNTC has had the largest number of dual enrollment students out of all of the technical colleges in the state of Georgia according to the High School Collaborative Enrollment: Academic Year 2016 report issued by the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG).
Parade steps off Audio Article For the first time since 2019, marching bands, classic cars, dance troupes, scouts and politicians made their way along Midlothian Turnpike for the annual Midlothian Day Parade on Saturday, Oct....
More companies born at Illinois universities are remaining in the state, according to the Illinois Innovation Index.

The report, based on self-reported data from the universities, found that during the past five years, Illinois universities have created 611 startups, 80 percent of which remain active.

Seventy-three percent of those active startups are still based in Illinois, up from 68 percent in last years study.

Illinois has 10 university-affiliated research and technology parks and on-campus incubators that provide work space and other resources to bourgeoning businesses.

One major thing they need: money. The report, released Tuesday, says that from fall 2010 to spring 2015, companies started at universities have raised more than $345 million from public and private sources. Illinois retained about 62 percent of companies that received funding.

Companies coming out of our universities are getting venture funding, said Mark Harris , president and CEO of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, which produced the report. There is this perception that you need to leave to get funding. Its not playing out in the numbers.

Universities are increasing the number of investments they make in early-stage startups through funds such as Illinois Ventures at the University of Illinois and the $20 million Innovation Fund at University of Chicago, the report found. Those funds help fill a void, said John Flavin , executive director of the Chicago Innovation Exchange.

This is often called the Valley of Death  at the university doorstep and before a VC would want to get involved, said Flavin. We are investing in these companies that can get through proof of concept, because that attracts market participants.

The Illinois Innovation Index analyzes technology-based economic activity in the state. The ISTC is based at 1871 and is partially supported by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

amarotti@tribpub.com

Twitter @allymarotti

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A former foreign-exchange executive at Tullett Prebon has put $1 million into Amercanex Corp., an electronic cannabis-trading platform that handles sales of about 100 to 150 pounds of weed a week. (Matthew Staver / Bloomberg)

Legal marijuana is a $5 billion business in the United States, and Steve Janjic figured he'd get a piece of it. With a commodity exchange. For a product that can't be transported across state lines.

Not to worry. "It's never easy to pioneer an industry," says Janjic, a former foreign-exchange executive at Tullett Prebon who has put $1 million into Amercanex Corp., an electronic cannabis-trading platform that handles sales of about 100 to 150 pounds of weed a week.

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That's not exactly blockbuster in a country with an estimated 20 million marijuana consumers. It may not be too bad, though, in the case of a young exchange for a psychoactive substance transitioning to legitimate, or sort of legitimate, considering it's illegal under federal law. Janjic and other Wall Street veterans backing Amercanex take the very long view.

While only four states and the District of Columbia have sanctioned pot for recreational use, Nevada may join them after a November vote. In 23 states, the drug is allowed for medicinal purposes. Polls show a majority of Americans believe it should be as licit as beer, giving Amercanex high hopes.

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"I look at this as an early Nymex," says Richard Schaeffer, a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange. "I look for this to become a very substantial matching engine bringing buyers and sellers together."

Schaeffer, 63, is Amercanex's chairman, and Janjic, 49, is chief executive officer and co-founder. Others from the financial world involved include futures trader Timothy Petrone, a member of Nymex and the Chicago Board of Trade, former Nymex board member David Greenberg and James McNally, who's been a member of Nymex, the Commodities Exchange and the Hong Kong Futures Exchange.

For the record, none is a cannabis user, which is probably neither here nor there. Even the gluten-intolerant can get rich in wheat futures.

But is there serious money to be made trading the flowers and leaves of the cannabis plant? Amercanex isn't alone in betting there will be, someday. Sohum Shah, a 26-year-old with a degree from the University of Arizona, started the Cannabis Commodities Exchange three months before Amercanex got off the ground.

CCE operates only in Colorado, which in 2012 became the first state to vote to make recreational-pot legal. Amercanex is in Colorado and California, the first to OK weed for medicinal use, and Janjic says there are expansion plans.

The hurdles are sizable. For an exchange to fully function, a commodity has to have standardized specifications and some regulatory oversight, as products from corn to metals do, so everyone can be assured of exactly what they're buying and selling, says Dale Rosenthal, who teaches finance at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "There's not a clear reference price" for raw marijuana either, he says, another sticking point.

Weed comes in a very wide range of quality and potency and price; the legal stuff hasn't been around long enough for any national benchmarks. Traditional spot and futures markets for commodities like wheat or crude oil are linked to a single, widely accepted variety with a minimum quality standard.

Amercanex buyers aren't operating blind, Janjic says, because the exchange sends what's sold on its platform to a laboratory for evaluation and shares the results.

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But here's the rub: Buyers and sellers have to be in the same state. The U.S. government regulates interstate commerce, and selling or possessing marijuana are federal crimes. So, then, is sending it across borders -- and Amercanex is an exchange for spot trades of physical purchases, not paper-only futures or options contracts. Right now, federal law is "the risk in this game," Janjic says.

In Colorado, purveyors were required until January 2015 to cultivate what they sold, and most still do. "The only way that I think you can really be successful is by growing your own," says Bruce Nassau, the CEO of Tru Cannabis, which has five stores. "If you're buying from a wholesaler, you're screwed."

In Oregon and Alaska, merchants are allowed to use their own raw materials, but Washington legalized in 2014 with a law forbidding retailers from doing so. "In a system like that, exchanges become more useful," says Adam Orens, the founding partner of the Marijuana Policy Group.

Amercanex started in July 2014 with 20,000 seats, though it has retired about 8,000. The seats began selling for $2,500 each and are now going for $10,000, Janjic says; 7,000 are are still up for grabs.

Dixie Brands Inc., a Denver-based maker of tetrahydrocannabinol-infused products, bought a seat last year, and has an equity stake. Amercanex will help distribute its goods more efficiently, says CEO Tripp Keber. "You're starting to see some other players come into the market, which I think is a strong endorsement."

For McNally, who's on the three-member advisory board and owns a seat, being part of a brand-new sector is exciting. "It reminds me of when I first started," he says, recalling his days as a Hang Seng Index options trader in Hong Kong in the '90s. "It's really fun."

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Last year, legal weed sales rose 17 percent to $5.4 billion, according to a report from ArcView Market Research and New Frontier, and if every state had legitimatized marijuana the sum could have been $36.8 billion. California, the most populous state, might start boosting the numbers soon.

Campaigns are collecting signatures for November ballot measures. "California is very important," Janjic says. "It's shaping up to be the largest marketplace in the world."
Houses are seen in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood. Only New Jersey has higher property taxes than Illinois, according to a survey by WalletHub. (Warren Skalski / Chicago Tribune)

Illinois still has the second-highest property taxes in the nation, according to a survey by personal finance website WalletHub.

Only New Jersey has a higher effective property tax rate, the survey found.

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Though property taxes vary from county to county across the state, the average effective rate in Illinois  the proportion of the value of a home that a homeowner must pay each year in taxes  was 2.25 percent, just a hair below the New Jersey rate of 2.29 percent.

Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the nation at 0.28 percent, WalletHub found. But before you rush to move to Honolulu, bear in mind that the median Hawaiian home costs $504,500, nearly three times as much as the median Illinois home.

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Missouri had a median effective property tax rate of 1 percent, WalletHub calculated. Most of the lowest property tax states are in the South and West.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has complained that Illinois' high property tax rates mean that, over their lifetimes, some Illinois residents end up paying more in property taxes than the value of their home.

Previous surveys by the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation and the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center have also found that Illinois has some of the nation's highest property taxes.

kjanssen@tribpub.com

Twitter @kimjnews
Rick, who dresses mostly in black and drives a vintage convertible tailor-made for lithesome young women to unwind in, is said to be a screenwriter, though the closest we get to see him actually working is conversations he has with a series of agents who say things like "we'll double your quote" and "let me tell you about you."
On Tuesday, Harmony France and Danni Smith, who will serve as co-artistic directors, announced the launch of Firebrand Theatre, a new Chicago-based musical theater company dedicated to gender parity.

"Danni and I have been doing this 10 to 15 years in Chicago and we've both had a decent amount of success but there's room to grow in this community," said France on Tuesday. "We want to do inclusive casting, not only representing equality with women and men but with different races. We want to be a part of the solution and not just a cog in the machine."

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Firebrand will focus on employing women in all areas of artistic production, on stage and behind the scenes. France and Smith, currently in talks with Actors' Equity Association, plan to grow the number of Equity guest contracts offered each year. The itinerant company's first production is slated for March 2017, to be performed at an rented space, with a full season announcement coming this summer.

France and Smith plan to produce a wide-range of musicals in their first season of programming. "We're looking forward to re-interpreting existing works ... where women aren't just the afterthought but actually the hero," said France. The company also plans to commission new works, adding women-focused productions to the musical theater canon.

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France added, "We know it's going to take a lot of diligence on our end to stick to our mission."

The company plans to focus on fundraising efforts over the coming year, combining crowd-sourcing with experiential events. Programming will include a gender-bender concert series, with female performers taking on traditional musical theater shows and the work of popular musicians.

A launch party is planned for March 27 at Underground Lounge, 952 W. Newport Ave., featuring performances by Rashada Dawan, Bethany Thomas, Steven Perkins, Danni Smith, Missy Aguilar, Sydney Charles, Jasondra Johnson, Lili-Anne Brown, Amanda Horvath, Angela Alise, Christina Hall, Khaki Pixley, Annie Passanisi Ruggles and Melissa Young.
Reporting from DETROIT  Bernie Sanders muscled his way to an upset victory Tuesday in Michigan, establishing the Rust Belt as a beachhead for the resurgence of his campaign and dragging Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton back into a race in which she must focus her energy on what now threatens to be a prolonged primary battle.

His victory, even though it was narrow, overshadowed a decisive win for Clinton in Mississippi. Clinton's victory there meant that she extended her already formidable lead in the race to win a majority of the delegates to the Democratic convention this summer.

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Nonetheless, it was the Michigan result that played an outsized role in determining whether the front-runner could shift her campaign into general-election mode.

The state posed a crucial test for both candidates. Clinton, who had led in the preelection polls, had hoped to show that her winning coalition of voters extended beyond the South and into the Rust Belt. Instead, she fell short.

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Sanders was able to establish the manufacturing states of the Midwest as a staging ground for a lengthy fight in which he hopes to regain momentum and erode the delegate lead Clinton has amassed.

"We repudiated the pundits who said Bernie Sanders is not going anywhere," Sanders told reporters in Miami as election returns began disproving what the public opinion polls had shown. "This has been a fantastic night."

Sanders declared the Michigan vote had proven "the political revolution we are talking about is strong in every part of the country, and frankly we believe that our strongest areas are yet to happen.... What we have done is create the kind of momentum we need to win."

The Mississippi result had been widely anticipated. More than two-thirds of the Democratic primary voters in the state were black, according to the exit poll conducted for the major television networks and the Associated Press. Clinton won about 90% of their votes. Sanders had not campaigned there at all.

Michigan was more complicated.

Clinton's campaign had been consistently nervous about the state. Sanders invested heavily here, relentlessly pounding away at the trade agreements Clinton has lent her support to over the years and the Wall Street banks that have paid her handsomely for delivering speeches and invested millions in her run.

It was a message that connected with many voters in a part of the country devastated by the turn the economy has taken over the last few decades. The exit polls indicated that by roughly 2 to 1, Democratic voters here believed international trade had cost American jobs.

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Although Clinton won the black vote in Michigan, her margin was considerably smaller than it had been in the South. Sanders ran even with her among the youngest black voters, opening a generational gap similar to those that had been seen in other states among Latino and white voters.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 12 Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders acknowledges his supporters on arrival at a campaign rally. (Alan Diaz / Los Angeles Times)

Clinton, speaking in Ohio, which holds its primary in a week, focused on criticizing the Republicans and offered praise for the tone of the campaign Sanders has run.

Although she and Sanders disagree on some issues, "those differences pale in comparison to what's happening on the Republican side," she said. "Every time you think it can't get any uglier, they find a way."

"The divisiveness and the mean-spiritedness, that's not going to move us forward. We need to stand united," she added.

At times Clinton sounded much like Sanders, taking aim at unscrupulous corporations and the wealthy.

"We're going to stand up to corporations that seem to have absolutely no loyalty to this country that gave them so much in the first place," she said.

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In the close-in Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Woods, a mixed-income and racially diverse city that was once heavily Republican but lately has been shifting to the middle politically, it was clear from talking to voters as they walked into the polls that Clinton had not sewn up the race.

"I feel like I trust him," Karlyta Williams, a development coordinator for a nonprofit group, said of Sanders. "He is very levelheaded, and I like that. I don't need a lot of emotion out of my

candidates." Williams, 34, said she worries about how she is going to afford to send her 11-year-old to college. Sanders' plan to have government cover the cost is a big draw.

Another Sanders voter, Diane Skibinski, put it more succinctly. "We need change," said the 50-year-old property manager. Another voter, who only gave her first name, Liz, was even more succinct: "Revolution, man."

Clinton continued to benefit from support among black voters.

"I like Hillary, Bill, Chelsea and Charlotte. I love them all," Barbara Mason, 71, a letter carrier in Southfield, said of the Clintons, including Chelsea's young daughter. Mason was among several black voters interviewed who expressed puzzlement at the recent effort by Sanders to damage Clinton's standing in Michigan by taking aim at some of the landmark achievements of her husband's administration.

"As a first-generation immigrant, all the things I acquired in this country were because of the good administration of Bill Clinton," said Cyril Tony Nwagurul, who moved to Farmington Hills from Nigeria. "I have some sympathy for Bernie, but when he starts talking about [President] Obama and Bill Clinton, it is like a house divided against itself, and I don't like it."

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Outside a Hillary Clinton rally at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit on Monday night, hip-hop producer Jerry Flynn Dale was on the verge of exasperation as he tried to talk a trio of college students out of voting for Sanders.

"Look up in the sky," he demanded in response to their argument that college should be fully paid for by government. "Is that the pie you are going to eat?"

The argument then shifted to the auto industry bailout, which has been a point of bitter contention in the last few days. Clinton has repeatedly called out Sanders for voting against the bill widely credited with saving the industry from collapse. Radio ads produced by her campaign highlight the vote and the impact it could have had on a state built on car manufacturing.

Sanders responded with an ad of his own, pointing out that he pushed for a bill that would have bailed out the auto industry but left out the provisions that also bailed out Wall Street investment banks.

Across the state in Grand Rapids, which Clinton visited early Monday to talk with a group of software developers, most of them younger than 30, she was already laying the groundwork to move past the primary. She talked extensively about how she would reach out to Sanders supporters were he to drop out of the race, recalling how difficult it was for her supporters to back Obama after she dropped out in 2008.

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"I had a lot of passionate supporters who did not feel like they wanted to support then-Sen. Obama," she said. "I worked as hard as I could. I nominated him at the convention. I made the case, because he and I shared a lot of the same views."

Sanders made clear Tuesday night that he does not anticipate making a similar pitch to his supporters anytime soon. Instead, he had other plans: winning other big states where it not long ago looked like he did not stand a chance.

Times staff writer Chris Megerian in Sacramento contributed to this report.



For more on Campaign 2016, follow me: @evanhalper

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EL REMATE, Guatemala  We were hungry, we were tired, it was pushing 8 p.m., and now we were crawling along a dirt road through a Guatemalan forest in an SUV, slamming into potholes the size of steamer trunks.

Finally, we swerved off the road. "Welcome to your new home," our driver announced.

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Before us rose a giant, peaked, open-air pavilion with a thatched roof. Dozens of tiny candles twinkled in the warm night, illuminating tables set for dinner and stone stairs snaking down the mountain to bungalows. As we sank into a couch near the bar, gratefully accepting cool washcloths and glasses of mixed pineapple, orange and hibiscus juice, we could dimly make out the huge lake below the pavilion, a view framed by lazy palms and an orange tree.

It looked as perfect as a movie set. That was no accident.

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La Lancha is one of three small hotels in Central America owned by film director Francis Ford Coppola. (The other two are in Belize.) Situated on the banks of Guatemala's second-largest lake, Peten Itza, La Lancha is the smallest and simplest, with just 10 bungalows - though it's one of Guatemala's most exquisite boutique hotels. It's said to be Coppola's favorite.

My 14-year-old niece Megan and I traveled to this part of northern Guatemala last August for the same reason most tourists do: to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal, a major pre-Columbian political and military center. Although many foreigners day-trip from Guatemala City, an hour's plane ride away, we decided to linger awhile. I loved the idea of a nature retreat - a place of no TV, of birdsong in the morning, of monkeys swinging through the trees. A jungle getaway, but with a decent wine list, thanks to Coppola's California winery.

Coppola started building his hotels after falling in love with the jungle in the Philippines, where he had filmed "Apocalypse Now" in the late 1970s. At his Guatemalan hotel, we felt as if we were immersed in the tropical forest - complete with a daily wake-up call from howler monkeys. But it was nature with a movie director's touch: Hillside paths were lined with carved tree-branch banisters, a lovely swimming pool was tucked into a scenic overlook, rolled-up umbrellas appeared at our casita before each evening's downpour.

After checking in on our first night, we settled into a dinner table overlooking the darkened lake. A cool glass of Coppola Pinot Grigio took the edge off the humid night. But if the wine list was pure Napa, the cuisine paid homage to Guatemala. My fish was from the lake, expertly grilled with garlic butter and served with a cilantro sauce and beans and rice. Megan ordered a traditional Mayan dish known as kakik, a turkey stew flavored with achiote and coriander. "Delicious," she pronounced. (For the less adventurous, the restaurant also offers a good steak.)

Our room, too, combined Guatemalan heritage with a California sense of chic. Colorful woven blankets covered the crisp sheets on the queen-size bed and the pullout couch in our bungalow, and embroidered peasant blouses ("huipiles") hung like tapestries on the pristine white walls. But the room also featured air-conditioning, bathrobes and an espresso machine. The hotel does its best to be green, with organic bath products provided in large containers in the marble-floored shower and with stoppered glass bottles in the room regularly filled with drinking water. (Fresh cookies made with locally grown nuts also appeared daily.) Everything was spotlessly clean. For Megan, the best feature of the cabin was its covered deck, where she spent late afternoons lounging in the hammock and looking out at the tranquil blue waters of Peten Itza.

The lake isn't nearly as famous as Atitlan, a volcano-ringed body of water in southern Guatemala. But we found it mesmerizing, its water turning from green to turquoise to pale blue as the day wore on, with lightning zapping its far shore during evening rainstorms. The water was strikingly clear, perfect for swimming, and we spent one morning quietly paddling along several miles of shoreline in one of the hotel's two canoes, provided free to guests. There is no real beach, though - just a dock - and most days we recovered from our morning hikes by lazing on chaise longues near the pool.

The hotel is not for the faint of feet. It was 98 steps up the hill from our bungalow to the restaurant in the pavilion, and another 200 steps from our casita down to the lake. This all suited Megan just fine - she was in training for the high school track team. As for me, I was happy to have an excuse to work off the hotel's thick, homemade tortillas. The hotel staff skipped up and down the steps like ancient Spartan foot-runners, in one case hauling a massage table to our bungalow. (There's no spa, but a masseuse is on call.)

About the only complaint I noticed in La Lancha's guest registry was about the cost of its excursions. And they are indeed pricey for Central America. On our first full day, we traveled with a guide and a few other guests across the lake in a small wooden motorboat, or "lancha," to the town of Flores, with its pretty, Spanish-colonial-era pastel houses. The trip ran us $80 per person, including a tour of Flores and a hike in the nearby Ixpanpajul nature reserve, where we swayed on remarkable wood-and-metal footbridges that stretched hundreds of feet between the treetops, as birds flitted by at eye level.

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The highlight of our stay, of course, was visiting the Tikal ruins. The park was as impressive for its towering gray Mayan pyramids as for the wildlife in the surrounding jungle - spider monkeys, toucans, parakeets and raccoonlike animals known as coati. It was $135 each for the trip, which included transportation in an SUV, a four-hour private tour, and breakfast and lunch.

Most costs at La Lancha, though, weren't that high for such a well-tended boutique hotel. Our lake-view room, during the low season, was just $199 per night (plus the 22 percent tourism tax). In addition, we got a $100 credit for staying four nights. This year, rates start at $149 for the rain forest casitas and $259 for the ones with lake views, though they are higher during the winter holidays and in the peak season of Jan. 1 to April 30, when there is less rain. A glass of wine was about $10, which seemed reasonable for a remote area of Guatemala, where the wine selection is not exactly plentiful. (The hotel wine list consisted of a dozen Coppola offerings, including red, white and sparkling.)

The hotel charged about $50 for the hour-long ride to the airport, a princely sum in Guatemala. But I paid it because I didn't want to trust my fate to a taxi and I couldn't imagine renting a car and wending my way along dirt roads in the dark, even though I speak Spanish. (The State Department rates the threat of violent crime in Guatemala as "critical," though it notes that U.S. tourists generally aren't targeted.)

The hotel occupancy was quite low in August - maybe because it's not well known or because the season of heavy rains was approaching. On our last night, we were the only guests at La Lancha. Megan and I joked about it being "our" hotel - with a helpful employee occasionally popping up to take a drink order or to offer a towel as we emerged from the pool. "Maybe we're characters in a secret movie," Megan ventured. If so, it was a movie with a happy ending.

- - -

If you go

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La Lancha

El Remate, Guatemala

800-746-3743

011-502-7928-8331

thefamilycoppolaresorts.com

The boutique hotel is near Guatemala's second-largest lake, Peten Itza, and a 90-minute drive from the Mayan ruins at Tikal. Rates vary from $149-$445. Cost includes free WiFi and a continental breakfast.

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- M.S.
Dr. Quentin Young, a champion of civil rights and public health reform who was chairman of medicine at Cook County Hospital during a tumultuous period in the 1970s, died Monday, according to his family.

Young, 92, died of natural causes in the Berkeley, Calif., home of his daughter Polly, where he had been living since July 2014, his son Michael said. He had lived in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood for most of his life.

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Young maintained his Hyde Park medical practice into his mid-80s while also keeping busy with any number of causes. He pushed to end discriminatory practices at Chicago-area hospitals in the 1950s, co-founded the Medical Committee for Human Rights in the 1960s, marched for civil rights and against war and spent decades advocating for national health care.

"It's true that over the years I've aligned myself with unpopular causes," Young told the Tribune in 2001. "But over time they've become the majority opinions."

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The son of immigrants, Young grew up on the South Side and graduated from Hyde Park High School. He was active in drama and, in a 1992 Tribune interview, recalled taking the "L" to the North side for classes at the Jack and Jill Players with a Hyde Park classmate, Mel Torme. It was also as a young thespian that he met the writer and actor Studs Terkel, who later became a friend and patient.

Young's studies at the University of Chicago were interrupted by a hitch in the Army during World War II. After getting his bachelor's degree from the U. of C. in 1944, he received his medical degree from Northwestern University in 1947.

He began his medical training at Cook County Hospital and remained there until 1952. He then spent many years as a physician at Michael Reese Hospital on Chicago's South Side before returning to Cook County Hospital, where he became chairman of medicine in 1972. He remained there until 1981, working to improve the county public health system's economic vitality and its ability to help the poor and downtrodden.

Young was fired from his post at Cook County twice and rehired both times after standoffs with the hospital's governing body. One major issue was his support of young staff doctors who went on strike for improved conditions.

In addition to his position with the county, Young was president of the Chicago Board of Health and the American Public Health Association, and he co-founded the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group.

Alongside his busy medical career, Young was equally active in agitating for social change. He was among the volunteers in the campaign to register black voters during Mississippi's Freedom Summer in 1964. He participated in one of the historic 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. As founder and national chairman for the Medical Committee for Human Rights, he led efforts to provide medical care to campaign volunteers, civil rights workers and anti-war protesters.

He remained passionate about medical rights and public health equality throughout his life and was a longtime advocate for a single-payer health care system.

In August 2001, at age 77, he took part in an 167-mile, 15-day walk across Illinois to promote universal health care. Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a patient and close friend, recalled Young's buoyancy throughout the march and the frequent aphorisms he'd share with those marching alongside him. A favorite: "Everybody in, nobody left out."

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"His wife, Ruth, came with us. We'd all be walking down a two-lane highway with Quentin, and he'd be walking along the center line. And she'd keep saying, 'Quentin! Get out of the middle of the road!'" Quinn said. "I think that was the only time he was a middle-of-the-roader. He was a progressive  a liberal lion. Never flinched from a battle for his causes."

In the early 1960s, Young regularly took his five children with him to demonstrations, which often were on behalf of the fight to desegregate public schools.

"Everyone thinks their experiences are normative, but it wasn't until later that I realized those weren't," said Michael Young, who remembered visits to his home by civil rights leaders including Stokely Carmichael.

"My father had a real magnetism," Michael Young said. "He was able to inspire people to activism in a way that was extraordinary. He was a very positive person and very funny. People sought out his company, and he just had this passionate belief in the causes he embraced."

Young served as the physician for Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights leader's many stops in Chicago. In his more than 50 years in private practice, other notable patients included Mayor Harold Washington and columnist Mike Royko.

Young is also survived by another son, Ethan; three daughters, Nancy, Polly and Barbara; two stepchildren, William Weaver and Karen Weaver; and nine grandchildren.

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A first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife, Ruth, died in 2007.

Services in Chicago are being planned.

meltagouri@tribpub.com

Twitter @marwaeltagouri
Reginald Potts Jr., center, exits the courtroom after he was sentenced to life in prison on March 8, 2016 at the Leighton Criminal Court building in Chicago. Potts was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2007 killing of 28-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative Nailah Franklin. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

After using legal maneuvers to drag out the criminal charges he faced for more than eight years, Reginald Potts Jr. finally met his day of reckoning Tuesday when a Cook County judge ripped him as "a cold, calculating, conniving coward of a con man" and sentenced him to life in prison for the slaying of a former lover.

The family of the victim, Nailah Franklin, greeted the maximum possible sentence  which carries no possibility of parole  with a smattering of applause.

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During remarks that took about an hour, Judge Thomas Gainer Jr. tore into Potts, 38, who last week had maintained his innocence, blaming his first-degree murder conviction on the news media and seeming to fixate on showing Franklin hadn't broken up with him. The judge had held an unusually lengthy five-day sentencing hearing last week.

"You didn't erase her, Mr. Potts," Gainer said in a reference to a threat Potts had made to Franklin before her disappearance. "She lives on in the hearts and minds of all those people who cherished her while she was alive."

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Days before she vanished, Franklin had played a voicemail message for friends in which Potts said, "I could erase you and I should have somebody come get you now," her best friend, Dana McClellan, testified at trial. The voice message was never recovered.

"Take him away," Gainer ordered sheriff's deputies, who quickly whisked a silent Potts out of the courtroom as some of Franklin's family clapped.

"This monster is a wart that has been removed finally from the face of humanity and will never have the opportunity to kill again," Maria Maner, Franklin's mother, said in a statement later read by Franklin's older sister, Lehia Franklin Acox.

The naked and badly decomposed body of Franklin, a bubbly 28-year-old Eli Lilly pharmaceutical sales representative who family described as the glue that bound them together, was found in a wooded Calumet City lot in 2007 after an intense nine-day search.

Her smiling face  broadcast on TV and used in fliers passed out by her family  captured the public's heart in the days after her disappearance.

Prosecutors charged that Potts, a career criminal with a history of domestic violence who was the last person seen with Franklin, had asphyxiated her.

A maddeningly slow journey through Cook County criminal court ended about eight years later when Potts finally went to trial last fall and was convicted by a jury.

Potts had drawn out the case for years, asking to represent himself, then switching to assistant public defenders and switching back  a tactic he had used in previous criminal cases.

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"He knew how to corrupt the system," State's Attorney Anita Alvarez told reporters after the sentencing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. "Unfortunately, the Franklin family has been through way too much, first losing their loved one and then having to endure this extremely long process."

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Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment for Potts, describing him as a violent, sociopathic bully who stole high-end cars, abused women and lied to everyone he met. Potts also racked up several assault charges for allegedly striking jail guards while awaiting trial.

Gainer read at length from an email Franklin had written Potts breaking off their relationship, telling him how disappointed she was in him, that she had taken their relationship seriously and that "somehow through all your (expletive) I really did see the potential for a beautiful person."

Her email contradicted Potts' description of Franklin and their relationship, Gainer said.

For a season, Potts had lived the high life, driving a $225,000 Bentley he'd persuaded a friend to underwrite, living in a South Loop residential tower and frequenting Rush Street nightclubs even though prosecutors said he'd never worked an honest job.

Franklin met him by chance in a parking lot, and for a time they had a casual sexual relationship, according to trial testimony. But Franklin had begun to fear Potts, learning of his criminal past and his cheating, and said in emails shortly before her disappearance that she had filed a police report and would seek an order of protection against him.

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sschmadeke@tribpub.com

Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
Colin Collette speaks to the media in 2014 at the Rolling Meadows Courthouse in Rolling Meadows. Collette was fired from his job after announcing his engagement to his partner on Facebook. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

A man who was fired from a suburban Catholic church after announcing his engagement to his male partner filed a federal discrimination suit Monday against the parish and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Colin Collette, who worked at Holy Family Catholic Community in Inverness for 17 years, said in the suit that the church violated the federal Civil Rights Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act and the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance when he was dismissed as music director in 2014.

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The church's "discriminatory conduct was intentional, willful and wanton," the suit states.

Collette's pastor asked him to resign shortly after learning of his engagement, but Collette would not and then was terminated, according to the lawsuit.

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Reached by phone late Monday, Collette said he hopes one day to return to work in the Catholic church and he sees encouraging signs of reform coming from Rome and Pope Francis.

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He cited the film "Spotlight," which depicts journalists who uncovered child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston, and noted that a Vatican publication praised the film.

"When 'Spotlight' won the Academy Award (for best film), Rome was so quick to say, 'This is not an anti-Catholic film. It's calling us to an issue the Catholic church needs to deal with.' That's how I felt about this. I'm not trying to be anti-Catholic.  This is an issue the church needs to deal with. There are a lot of good people that are hurting."

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religious institutions have broader latitude than other employers when it comes to hiring and firing employees whose jobs have religious components.

Collette's suit, though, claims he was treated differently than other people  both homosexual and heterosexual  who are employed by churches within the archdiocese but have also entered into marriages that are not sanctioned by the church. The suit also asserts that, though Collette's job titles were director of worship and director of music, he did not select or approve music for masses or plan liturgies  apparently suggesting his role was nonreligious in nature.

Many Holy Family parishioners spoke out in support of Collette to church leaders and fellow members, and his firing prompted another church employee to quit in protest. Other parishioners expressed support for the decision and said church leaders had no choice but to let Collette go.

An archdiocese spokesperson said the archdiocese does not comment on ongoing litigation.

Collette, who married his partner in Rome last year, is seeking to be reinstated in his job, along with an unspecified amount of back pay and benefits, damages and attorneys fees.
Brad Schneider talks with Highland Park residents after the 10th Congressional District debate Feb. 28, 2016, at the Highland Park Country Club. (Mark Kodiak Ukena / Pioneer Press)

WASHINGTON  The Democratic primary for the 10th Congressional District pits Highland Park's mayor against a former lawmaker, a contest next Tuesday that will decide who faces Republican incumbent Bob Dold in November.

Democrat Brad Schneider served one term in the House after beating Dold in 2012, then lost his 2014 re-election bid to the Kenilworth Republican. He wants a rematch with Dold, but first he has to get past Nancy Rotering.

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Dold represents the country's most Democratic-leaning district held by the GOP, according to the Cook Political Report's Partisan Voting Index. President Barack Obama won big in the 10th in both his White House elections, on average 8 percentage points more than the U.S. as a whole.

Rotering and Schneider, both 54, have a lot in common. Both earned MBAs at Northwestern and are wealthy, each stating in interviews that their net worth exceeds $10 million.

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They back Hillary Clinton for the White House, and they position themselves as progressive. They agree on many issues but diverge on the deal inked last year to dismantle Iran's nuclear weapons program. He opposed it. She favored it.

Rotering, who is also a lawyer, is showcasing her leadership in getting Highland Park to pass an ordinance in 2013 that bans assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

She says an opponent even called her and council members "Nazis" during a City Council meeting during the battle to get the ordinance passed, but the law was upheld by a Chicago-based federal Appellate Court. When the U.S. Supreme Court last December denied to hear an appeal, the law stood.

She said she stood up to the National Rifle Association, and as a result of the ordinance, heard from people around the world, even taking part in a radio show from New Zealand.

Rotering also pointed to Highland Park's success in getting Commonwealth Edison to invest millions in infrastructure and other improvements, such as tree trimming, after a series of power outages during the summer of 2011.

Rotering says she was drawn to politics years ago because her eldest son, now 21, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 2 years old. She and others pushed for a state law requiring schools to designate a trained staff worker to help diabetic students with their care, since not all schools have full-time nurses.

Rotering has gotten the endorsement of the Democratic Senate minority whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois, who said Rotering has the "courage, leadership and determination" to return the district "to the Democratic fold."

Schneider, a Deerfield resident, has garnered endorsements from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and several Illinois House Democrats.

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"They know I'm the only one who can win this seat back for Democrats," he said.

From 2004 to 2010, Schneider served as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's key contact with then-U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, advising her on issues related to Israel. Bean served the 8th Congressional District but lost her 2010 re-election contest. She is the one who first urged him to run for Congress, he said. AIPAC is the hawkish pro-Israel lobby.

Touting his record in Congress, Schneider cites the constituent services his office delivered, singling out a particular week in 2014 when his office helped a woman obtain $44,000 in Social Security disability benefits owed to her, as well as two other individuals who were late in receiving thousands of dollars in payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He also touts a measure he introduced that led to sanctions against the terror group Hezbollah, and another that requires the U.S. to ensure Israel maintains a military edge over regional adversaries.

Israel is "absolutely a top priority," said Schneider, who left the U.S. on the day he got his bachelor's degree in 1983 in industrial engineering and spent a year at a kibbutz wire factory in Ein Dor in northern Israel.

Rotering has picked up an endorsement from the more liberal J Street, which calls itself a "pro-Israel, pro-peace" group. She said it's "absolutely incumbent" for the U.S. to keep up a strong partnership with Israel.

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The two candidates have squared off at several forums and debates in the district, which runs from Glencoe north to the Wisconsin border and from Waukegan west to Fox Lake. It's a mix of affluent, average and lower-income suburbs.

Rotering takes issue with Schneider's support for a 2014 House-passed measure that would have required employers under the Affordable Care Act to give health insurance only to employees working 40 hours a week, not the present 30 hours.

Obama threatened to veto the bill, which did not advance in the Senate. The administration said it would have denied employer-based coverage to about a million people and shifted billions of dollars in costs to taxpayers.

Schneider, in an interview, said the Affordable Care Act was a challenge for small businesses, and the employees who would have been left without coverage could have purchased coverage through the insurance marketplaces created by the health care law. insurance through the ACA's health-care exchanges.

Schneider has raised and spent more than Rotering, but had fewer dollars in his treasury, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission reports.

For the period ending Feb. 24, Schneider had receipts of almost $1.78 million, including a $5,000 loan he gave his campaign, and had spent nearly $1.58 million. That left him with about $296,000.

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For that same period, Rotering had receipts of $1.44 million, including $345,000 in loans she made to her treasury, and spent about $982,000. She had about $452,000 on hand.

Michael Hartney, an assistant professor of politics at Lake Forest College, said the 10th is a rare swing district, since gerrymandering has left relatively few competitive districts in the U.S. Even though the 10th skews Democratic, it often has sent a Republican to Congress in the past.

"The district is unique," he said, "because it is competitive enough that it's always going to be attractive to the party that is not in power."

kskiba@tribpub.com

Twitter @KatherineSkiba

The candidates

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Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, with city corporate counsel Steven M. Elrod, leave a news conference Dec. 7, 2015. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Nancy Rotering

Current job: Mayor of Highland Park

Age: 54

Born in: Cincinnati

Lives in: Highland Park

Personal: Married to Rob Rotering; has four sons

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Education: University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 1990; Northwestern University, MBA, 1985; Stanford University, bachelor of arts degree in economics, 1983.

Previous positions: Mayor since 2011; council member, Highland Park City Council, 2009-11; legislative aide to state Rep. Karen May, 2008-10; McDermott Will & Emery, 1990-98 and summer 1989; Katten Muchin Zavis, summer 1998; General Motors Corp., 1985-87; Mayo Clinic, summer 1984.

Brad Schneider talks with Highland Park residents after the 10th Congressional District debate Feb. 28, 2016, at the Highland Park Country Club. (Mark Kodiak Ukena / Pioneer Press)

Campaign website: www.nancyroteringforcongress.com

Brad Schneider

Current job: Former management consultant

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

Age: 54

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Born in: Denver

Lives in: Deerfield

Personal: Married to Julie Dann; has two sons

Education: Northwestern University, bachelor of science in industrial engineering, 1983; Northwestern University, MBA, 1988.

Previous positions: Congressman, 2013-15; unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 2014; Cadence Consulting Group, 2008-11; Transportation Solutions Group, 2007-08; Blackman Kallick, 2003-08; Davis Dann Adler Schneider, 1997-2003; Schneider Consulting Group, 1994-97; Commerce Clearing House, 1993-94; Sears Roebuck & Co., 1991-93; Coleman Cable Systems, 1990-91; Cresap, McCormick & Paget, 1988-90; Price Waterhouse, 1984-86, Teldor Industries, Kibbutz Ein Dor, Israel, 1983-84.

Campaign website: www.schneiderforcongress.com
Republican Donald Trump leads his three rivals in Illinois' presidential primary, according to a new Chicago Tribune poll that shows many of the fissures affecting the GOP nationally have come to the Midwest.

The survey, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, also found Trump holds his advantage despite having the highest unfavorable rating of any of the Republican contenders ahead of next Tuesday's election.

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Overall, Trump had the support of 32 percent, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 22 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 21 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 18 percent. An additional 7 percent were undecided. The poll of 600 registered voters likely to cast a ballot in the Republican primary has an error margin of 4.1 percentage points.

The wealthy real estate mogul and former reality TV star led in all areas of the state and among male and female voters, including white suburban women, who tend to be more socially moderate and are a key swing demographic. Trump's backers said not being a government insider was the most important quality in a presidential candidate.

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Additionally, the fragmented results illustrate GOP establishment concerns in trying to deny Trump the nomination. Each of Trump's three opponents have claimed they are the strongest to take on the front-runner. But with no one willing to drop out, no candidate can emerge to directly challenge Trump.

The winner of Illinois' Republican primary gets 15 national convention nominating delegates. Voters directly elect an additional 54 delegates, three from each of the state's 18 congressional districts. The candidates in delegate contests are pledged to individual presidential contenders.

It is the delegate math that leading Republicans are watching as the party's establishment tries to find a path to prevent Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination this summer in Cleveland. Heading into Tuesday's voting in Michigan, Trump has 384 delegates to 300 for Cruz.

Florida and Ohio hold winner-take-all Republican contests March 15, the same day as Illinois' primary. Rubio has vowed to defeat Trump in his home state to revitalize his campaign, while Kasich is looking to his home state to help launch a Midwest turnaround.

The Tribune poll was conducted as several outside groups, including super political action committees affiliated with rival candidates, are unloading millions of dollars in TV ads to go after Trump in Illinois, including the expensive Chicago market.

So far, however, Trump led his opponents across Illinois, the survey found. That could benefit him by boosting the prospects of his delegate candidates in each congressional district.

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In the Republican vote-rich collar counties outside Cook County, Trump had 37 percent to 23 percent for Rubio, 21 percent for Kasich and 13 percent for Cruz. In Cook County, Trump had 30 percent support compared with 25 percent for Cruz, 21 percent for Kasich and 20 percent for Rubio. Throughout the suburbs, 5 percent were undecided.

The contest is closest in Illinois' Downstate 96 counties, which include some of the state's most rural and evangelical areas. There, Trump had 29 percent to Cruz's 27 percent, ahead of Rubio's 19 percent and Kasich's 15 percent. An additional 9 percent were undecided.

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Though he's faced questions about the extent of his faith, Trump still led among the 46 percent of voters statewide who consider themselves evangelical or born-again Christian. Among that group, Trump had 30 percent to 25 percent for Cruz, the conservative senator who has sought to appeal to faith-based voters.

Cruz, on the other hand, had an advantage among the one-third of GOP voters who consider themselves very conservative: 36 percent to 28 percent for Trump, 19 percent for Rubio and 9 percent for Kasich.

Among the one-third of voters who say they are fairly conservative, Trump had 36 percent to 21 percent for Rubio, followed by 18 percent for Cruz and 17 percent for Kasich.

Trump's lead in Illinois comes despite 42 percent of Republican voters holding an unfavorable opinion of him  far more than the 31 percent of voters who view Cruz unfavorably. Trump is viewed unfavorably by 50 percent of Cook County voters, 49 percent of white suburban women and 47 percent of women voters statewide.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 9 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd before he speaks during a campaign rally March 5, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Even though large percentages of those voters held a dim view of Trump, he still leads the field among those groups because of how their support splits among the four candidates. Trump scored 30 percent to 22 percent for Rubio among women statewide, and 38 percent to 22 percent over Rubio among white suburban women.

Of all voters statewide, 46 percent of voters view Trump favorably, while 48 percent have a similar opinion of Cruz.

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Kasich is viewed most favorably among the candidates  54 percent to 14 percent unfavorably  though 23 percent have no opinion of him. Rubio is considered favorably by 51 percent, while 29 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the Florida senator and 19 percent have no opinion.

The divisions within Illinois Republicans are most evident when it comes to the most important quality they want to see in a president.

Overall, 26 percent said moral character was most important, followed by 18 percent each who said not having an insider candidate or winning in the fall. An additional 17 percent said having a true conservative candidate was most important, while 15 percent cited experience.

But among Trump supporters, 43 percent said not being an insider was the most important candidate trait. Among Cruz backers, 41 percent said being a true conservative was most important. For Rubio voters, 33 percent said moral character was the top quality, while 35 percent of Kasich backers said experience was most significant.

Given a list of issues to rank as the most important concern to them, 32 percent of voters cited the large size of government. That was followed by 26 percent who said the state of the economy, 20 percent who chose national security, 13 percent who picked the nation's budget deficit and 6 percent who chose abortion.

For Trump, Cruz and Rubio supporters, big government was their leading concern, while Kasich backers said the economy topped their list. For supporters of all the candidates, abortion was cited the least often as the top concern, from 2 percent of Trump voters to 12 percent of Rubio's backers.

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With a field of remaining candidates that includes a famous businessman, two first-term senators and a governor who previously served in Congress, about two-thirds of GOP voters in the state said they were either very or somewhat satisfied with the presidential choices being presented to them, while 35 percent were not very or not at all satisfied.

Only 38 percent of those voters who identified themselves as very conservative were very satisfied with the field, while 46 percent of self-identified moderates were not very or not at all satisfied.

Tribune polling also found that Democrats were more satisfied than Republicans with their choices for president.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 10 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz greets a woman at a campaign rally on March 5, 2016, in Wichita, Kan. (J Pat Carter / Getty Images)

A total of 83 percent of Democrats surveyed were very or somewhat satisfied with the options of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders compared with 64 percent satisfaction on the Republican side.

Only 15 percent of Democrats were not very or not at all satisfied with the two-person presidential field, compared with the 35 percent of Republican primary voters who were unsatisfied looking at their choices.

With the election a week away, candidates and high-profile surrogates from both parties will hit Illinois to try to drum up last-minute support.

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On the Democratic side, former President Bill Clinton will appear at a Tuesday get-out-the-vote event at an Evanston synagogue for his wife.

Among Republicans, Kasich is in Lisle and Palatine on Wednesday, while Trump headlines a Friday rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago that's already attracted promises of protests. Cruz is scheduled to speak at a GOP fundraiser honoring Gov. Bruce Rauner at a downtown hotel.

rap30@aol.com
The three Democrats running for the chance to succeed U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth in Congress differ slightly on immigration, health care and a minimum-wage increase, and have clashed on who can best represent middle-class interests.

Primary voters in the 8th Congressional District will get to pick from Schaumburg businessman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Elgin state Sen. Michael Noland and Villa Park Village President Deborah Bullwinkel. The suburban district, drawn to favor a Democrat, includes parts of northwest Cook, northeastern DuPage and northeast Kane counties.

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Ahead of the March 15 election, Krishnamoorthi and Noland have split numerous labor union endorsements. Krishnamoorthi has a wide money advantage, raising more than $1.6 million, while Noland has collected nearly $263,000 and Bullwinkel $77,500.

Immigration reform is a hot issue in the diverse district, and all three candidates support a path to citizenship. Noland said he also favors "reforming our visa system in a more permanent manner" and allowing people to travel back and forth to their country of origin.

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As Krishnamoorthi knocked on doors in a Schaumburg neighborhood on a recent afternoon, he played up the fact that his parents immigrated to the U.S. from India when he was 3 months old.

A man in a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans who came to the door responded with a smile, "I'm an immigrant. I was born in Poland."

Raising the federal minimum wage also has taken center stage, with each candidate espousing a slightly different plan.

"We can aspire to reach that $15 goal for a working, living wage, but it has to be done gradually," Bullwinkel said.

Noland, who said he favors increasing the federal rate to $15, co-sponsored a bill to raise the Illinois minimum wage but records show he did not vote when it passed the Senate in February 2015. Noland said he was in Chile at the time.

Krishnamoorthi favors raising it to $10.10 an hour, with special consideration for urban areas such as Chicago that already are on track to raise the rate to $13 an hour by mid-2019.

On health care, the candidates agree that the Affordable Care Act needs adjustments.

The biggest proposed change comes from Noland, who called the ACA an "important first step," but said he would like to shift to a single-payer universal approach.

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Bullwinkel praised the so-called Obamacare by saying the "bones of it are good" but pointed to the high cost of prescription medication as an area she would like to see restructured. In calling for greater transparency from insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Krishnamoorthi also cited the costs of prescription medication, as well as rising premiums.

Each candidate is fighting for the title of middle-class advocate.

Krishnamoorthi outlined a number of proposals specifically aimed at working families, including a child tax credit, reducing student debt and guaranteed paid sick and maternity leave. Krishnamoorthi, a Harvard Law School graduate, said his success story, the son of immigrants who relied on government assistance at one point, is one he would like to see duplicated throughout the 8th District.

He made more than $200,000 in salary and fees in 2014 from two tech and solar energy companies he is president of, Sivananthan Laboratories and Episensors, according to his financial disclosure statement.

Krishnamoorthi lost to Duckworth in the 2012 congressional primary and lost a primary bid for state comptroller in 2010. In that contest, Krishnamoorthi, a former deputy state treasurer, faced criticism over his management of Bright Start, the state's college savings program that lost $150 million that parents had invested.

"There were several dozen funds within that college savings fund and one of them lost money. We were the first state to notice an aberration in the losses, and we were the first to report it to the Attorney General here in Illinois," Krishnamoorthi said in an interview. "We settled it and much of the money was restored to the families who were invested in those funds."

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Krishnamoorthi's opponents have said they are better positioned to relate to the middle class.

"Who's really living the middle-class life?" Noland said.

Noland, also an attorney who has an MBA, pulled in about $76,000 from the state and $10,000 from his law practice in 2014, according to his financial disclosure statement. Noland cited "financial hardship" in 2014 when he modified his mortgage through a federal assistance program that helps homeowners reduce monthly payments and avoid foreclosure.

In an interview, Noland said his family faced a number of financial obligations, including student loans and private school tuition for his daughter. The senator called back the next day to add that his family struggled after then-Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn zeroed out lawmakers' salaries during a 2013 budget fight. Lawmakers went two months without paychecks before a judge ruled the move unconstitutional and the money was paid out.

Also in 2014, Noland got $8,700 from the city of Elgin as part of its energy-efficiency revolving loan program. Noland said the money was used in large part to buy an energy-efficient furnace. City officials said he was one of 19 homeowners who took part in the program, which was open to all qualified applicants.

Bullwinkel, who earns a small salary from Villa Park and has her own marketing business, reported less than $30,000 in earned income, records show.

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"Really, truly, I'm a small-town mayor running for Congress," said Bullwinkel, who cited gun control and mental health awareness among her top priorities.

Bullwinkel and her husband bought a condo in Chicago in 2014 and claimed a homestead exemption on the property in addition to the exemption already on their Villa Park home. By law, homeowners are entitled to one exemption on their primary residence.

Bullwinkel said she was unaware of the additional exemption until the Chicago Tribune informed her of it. Bullwinkel said she's "very glad this oversight was brought to my attention" and had contacted the assessor's office and is waiting to see how much she owes.

The primary winner will go on to the November election against DuPage County Board member Peter "Pete" DiCianni, of Elmhurst.

deldeib@tribpub.com

Twitter @deldeib
The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled Officer William Porter will have to testify in the five trials of the five Baltimore police officers allegedly involved in the death of Freddie Gray after being in police custody. (CBS Baltimore)

Maryland's highest court ruled in favor of prosecutors in the Freddie Gray cases Tuesday, ordering that Baltimore police Officer William G. Porter can be compelled to testify against his five fellow officers.

The Court of Appeals rejected Porter's request that he not be forced to testify at the trials of Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr. and Sgt. Alicia D. White. It also reversed an order by Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams that denied prosecutors' request to call Porter to testify against three other officers, Edward M. Nero, Garrett E. Miller and Lt. Brian W. Rice.

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The rulings allow for the resumption of the officers' trials, which have been halted since January. On Tuesday, Rice's trial  originally set to begin Wednesday  was rescheduled for April 13, judiciary spokeswoman Terri Charles said. She noted that the date could change, and it will be up to the court to set a schedule for the remaining trials.

The high court's decision was a victory for prosecutors, who argued that Porter's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination would not be violated by requiring him to testify under a grant of limited immunity. Under the immunity, his testimony at the officers' trials cannot be used at his own retrial. Porter's first trial ended in a mistrial in December when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the four charges against him.

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Prosecutors also contended that Williams wrongly blocked their authority when he ruled that they could not call Porter to testify at the Nero, Miller and Rice trials. They had not said previously that Porter was considered a witness in those cases, and Williams said their deciding to call him later was a stall tactic.

"I think [prosecutors] have weathered the storm," said Douglas Colbert, a law professor at the University of Maryland. "They've been doing that since the beginning. There have been so many efforts to either delay or derail the prosecution. ... Both sides as well as the public are served when we are able to hear the truth about what happened to Freddie Gray on April 12th."

It was not clear whether Porter's attorneys, Gary Proctor and Joseph Murtha, would try to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the wake of the Court of Appeals rulings, Porter must testify or face jail time for contempt.

Attorneys in the cases, who are barred by gag order from speaking publicly about them, declined to comment.

William "Billy" Murphy Jr., the civil attorney for Gray's family, said prosecutors' request to call Porter as a witness was "straightforward" and the appeals court ruling was correct.

"This is the definitive ruling for all intents and purposes," Murphy said.

The high court judges did not expound on their decision, which came in the form of a two-page order less than a week after the judges heard arguments in Annapolis. A more detailed ruling is expected to be issued in the coming weeks.

Attorneys on both sides, as well as Williams, agreed that while prosecutors have discretion to grant immunity, it was unprecedented in Maryland for a defendant awaiting trial to be compelled to testify against co-defendants.

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Defense attorneys say that could open the door for prosecutors to force co-defendants, even those who had invoked their right to remain silent, to testify at the trials of others.

David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, said attorneys will be anxiously awaiting the more detailed ruling to determine how the court viewed the issues.

"What remains to be seen is whether or not this is a narrow victory that simply speaks to what can be done in the Freddie Gray cases, or if this is a new arrow in the quiver of prosecutors when they deal with co-defendant cases," Jaros said. "I hope the answer is that the kind of unique circumstances here makes this OK in this instance, but shouldn't and will not change how co-defendant cases are typically tried."

Williams ordered last year that the six officers would have separate trials and set a schedule that put Porter's trial first. After the Porter case ended in a mistrial, the court moved on to Goodson's case, with White's to follow. But those trials were postponed after Porter appealed Williams' order that he testify to the Court of Special Appeals, the state's second-highest court.

That moved up the trials of Nero, Miller and Rice. But when Williams denied the state's motion to compel Porter to testify in those trials, prosecutors appealed, and all five cases were halted and taken up by the Court of Appeals.

Gray, 25, died after being arrested in April. The state medical examiner's office said Gray suffered a severed spine while being transported without restraints in the back of a police van. His death occurred amid heightened focus nationwide on deaths of black men in police custody, and touched off weeks of unrest in Baltimore that escalated into rioting. The city has agreed to pay a $6.4 million settlement to Gray's family.

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The six officers involved in Gray's arrest and death face charges that including manslaughter, assault, second-degree murder and misconduct in office. All have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail.

Those involved in the case say prosecutors face a complicated task in their quest to retry Porter later. They will have to prove that nothing Porter says during his testimony under immunity will be used against him or be considered, a process that could require a so-called taint team to screen the testimony.

Yet Assistant Maryland Attorney General Carrie Williams, who argued the prosecutors' case last week before Maryland's high court, contended that Porter's first trial offers a road map for what prosecutors knew before any later testimony, benefiting both Porter and the state.

"I think everyone's better off," she told the judges.

Porter's argument against being forced to testify against his co-defendants revolved around his attorneys' fears that prosecutors had called him a liar during his trial and could seek to trip him up through his testimony at other trials and charge him with perjury. They also contended that the limited immunity he had received would not protect him from possible federal charges.

"Didn't he make himself a witness?" Court of Appeals Judge Clayton Greene Jr. asked at last week's hearing, referring to the fact Porter gave statements to police and testified on his own behalf. "Isn't the cat out of the bag?"

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Meanwhile, defense attorneys and many legal observers believed prosecutors were making a long-shot appeal of Williams' order denying their request to call Porter as a witness at the other trials.

Much of that contention was based on procedural grounds. A variety of rulings are issued by judges during pretrial motions, but can only be appealed once the trial has concluded. The Court of Appeals seemed unsure whether the issue was appealable, asking the parties to address it in their briefs to the court.

Rice's attorney, Michael Belsky, told the judges that there was not a single instance "in American jurisprudence" when such an appeal was taken up mid-trial. And defense lawyers said the state was asking the judge to be a "rubber stamp" for the prosecution by taking away his discretion.

The Baltimore state's attorney's office's chief deputy, Michael Schatzow, said state law required Williams to approve prosecutors' requests, and contended that Williams' ruling on the motion was actually a self-contained civil hearing that had concluded and could be appealed.

Schatzow said Williams' ruling had "undermined the state's case in a pending proceeding, violated Maryland's separation of powers principles, and, if allowed to stand, threatens to impede criminal prosecutions and investigations throughout the state."

What's next

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The court is expected to set a new trial schedule for the Baltimore police officers charged in the Freddie Gray case, said judiciary spokeswoman Terri Charles. On Tuesday, the court rescheduled the trial of Lt. Brian W. Rice  originally set to begin today  to April 13, though that could change, Charles said.
Activists gather at the Ohio statehouse to remember organizer MarShawn McCarrel, who took his own life on Feb. 8. (Kevin Stankiewicz / The Washington Post)

Like many activists, MarShawn M. McCarrel II was vocal on social media, but not just about his causes. While political commentary certainly had a place in his Facebook status updates, the platform was more often dominated by emotional and philosophical musings.

"Pride will make you miss out on so much," the 23-year-old Columbus, Ohio, native wrote in January.

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"Lost is the man who has more answers than questions," he reflected a few days later.

And on Feb. 8, a heart-rending Facebook post foretold his fate: "My demons won today. I'm sorry."

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That night, McCarrel stood on the steps of the Ohio statehouse and shot himself dead.

No one -- not friends, family or police -- could say why he did it. McCarrel was a prominent local activist, having coordinated Black Lives Matter protests following the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. He founded a nonprofit called Pursuing Our Dreams, which provided monthly homemade lunches to the homeless.

Days before his apparent suicide, McCarrel had smiled for pictures taken on the red carpet of the NAACP Image Awards.

Just as he shared much of his life on social media, on social media too was he mourned, with condolences and tributes flooding into the Black Lives Matter Cincinnati Facebook page.

Not all the responses, however, were kind.

While off duty, Fairborn, Ohio, police officer Lee Cyr reacted to the news of McCarrel's death with the comment "Love a happy ending."

According to Dayton Daily News, it appeared alongside unsympathetic responses from others -- comments reading "What a hypocrite" and "One less to worry about."

Cyr was placed on administrative leave after an internal complaint alerted the Fairborn Police Department to the comment last month. He has now been fired, WDTN-TV reported on Monday.

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The department said in a statement that Cyr's action violated its social media policy.

For local activists, the comment highlighted some of the very issues that the Black Lives Matter movement is trying to combat.

"We have received a lot of negative responses," Tristina Allen, a fellow organizer who knew McCarrel told Dayton Daily News in February. "I think it is completely unacceptable for someone who is supposed to protect and serve to have that comment towards someone who is dead."
Hildale, Utah, sits at the base of Red Rock Cliff mountains, with its sister city, Colorado City, Ariz., in the foreground. (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)

Reporting from PHOENIX  Two polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona border violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a jury said Monday.

The civil rights trial marks one of boldest efforts by the government to confront what critics have long said was a corrupt regime in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The seven-week trial provided a rare glimpse into the communities that for years have been shrouded in secrecy and are distrustful of government and outsiders.

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The jury, which reached a verdict on its fourth day of deliberations, awarded $2.2 million to six residents eligible for damages. But the towns will have to pay only $1.6 million because lawyers negotiated a settlement in that part of the case.

The judge will now decide what other punishments to impose. Federal authorities have not specified the changes they will seek, but they could ask for the Colorado City Marshal's Office to be disbanded and for its duties to be handed over to local sheriffs.

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Richard Holm, who was awarded damages, hailed the verdict as a step in denting the sect's control over the towns but said the verdict will be hollow if the judge doesn't disband the marshal's office.

"For there ever to be a decent community, there's got to be new faces, new control," said Holm who left the sect in 2003 but still lives in the area.

Town leaders will abide by whatever changes are ordered by the judge, Colorado City attorney Jeff Matura said, but the government's actions won't change people's religious beliefs.

"There is nothing that the government can do or really should be able to do to change someone's faith," Matura said.

The towns were accused of doing the bidding of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism, which disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. The trial came as the federal government waged fights on multiple fronts to rein in church activities.

A grand jury in Utah has indicted several church leaders on charges of food stamp fraud. A judge on Monday ordered the man who runs the day-to-day operations of the sect to stay behind bars until trial in that case.

People walk along a street in 2014 in Hildale, Utah, a cityonce run by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. (Rick Bowmer / AP)

The U.S. Labor Department has a separate action against a ranch with ties to the church over a pecan harvest in which prosecutors allege children were forced to work long hours with few breaks.

During the civil rights case, the Justice Department said town employees assisted the group's leader when he was a fugitive and took orders from church leaders about whom to appoint to government jobs.

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They say local police ignored the food stamp fraud scheme and marriages between men and underage brides.

The jury found the marshal's office violated the rights of nonbelievers by breaking the First Amendment's promise that the government won't show preference to a particular faith and force religion upon people.

Jurors concluded officers treated nonbelievers inequitably when providing police protection, arrested them without having probable cause and made unreasonable searches of their property.

One woman who was denied a water connection testified that she had to haul water to her home and take away sewage for six years. A former sect member said police ignored hundreds of complaints of vandalism on his horse property because he was no longer part of the church.

"Today's verdict reaffirms that America guarantees all people equal protection and fair treatment, regardless of their religious beliefs," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "When communities deny their residents critical services simply because of where they worship, they violate our laws and threaten the defining values of religious freedom and tolerance that are the foundation of our country."

The towns deny the allegations and say the government is persecuting town officials because it disapproves of their religion.

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"If this was any other community in America, this would not be happening at this level," Hildale attorney Blake Hamilton said after the verdict. "The scrutiny these communities have been under is just unprecedented."

Associated Press
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders made last bids for support in Michigan's Democratic primary Tuesday, with both arguing they would be able to navigate the gridlock in Washington that's spawned anger among voters of both political parties.



In back-to-back appearances at a town hall hosted by Fox News in Detroit, the two candidates picked up where they left off after Sunday's debate in Flint, Mich., answering questions on the economy, national security, abortion rights, education and working with Republicans.



For the most part, Clinton and Sanders passed over questions designed to pit them against each other. Asked whether he's more trustworthy than Clinton, Sanders said, "I will let the people of the United States make that decision." Clinton, asked whether she views Sanders as an opponent or an ally, called the Vermont senator an ally.



"If I am so fortunate, I hope to work with him because the issues he has raised, the passion he has demonstrated, the people he has attracted are going to be very important in the general election, but equally following the election to try to get things done," she said.



Asked if he would be willing to become Clinton's running mate, Sanders said he is "talking about running this campaign to win." Clinton said she was focused on the Michigan primary, not who her running mate might be.



Sanders is running out of opportunities to challenge Clinton's lead in the Democratic presidential race. She is already half-way to winning enough delegates to secure the nomination. That means Sanders needs a major score in the next round of delegate-rich primaries: Tuesday in Michigan and Mississippi and contests one week later in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.



Sanders is emphasizing his opposition to free-trade accords that he says have led to the decline of manufacturing jobs, a potentially potent issue in the state that is home to the U.S. auto industry.



"One of the strong differences of opinion that Secretary Clinton and I have, I have helped lead the opposition against every one of these terrible trade programs," Sanders said. "I don't believe American workers should be forced to compete against desperate people around the world who are making pennies an hour."



Anticipating that line of attack, Clinton took Sanders by surprise during CNN's Sunday night debate when she criticized him for voting against the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bailout of the financial industry that also provided $85 billion in relief to the automobile industry.



"I voted to save the auto industry," Clinton said Sunday. "He voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry. I think that is a pretty big difference."



On Monday, Sanders was on the offensive, telling an audience in Kalamazoo, Mich., that Clinton "went out of her way to mischaracterize" his vote. Sanders said he voted for the auto bailout when it came before the Senate as a separate bill that ultimately failed, and later voted against TARP. The senator has said Clinton's comments on the auto bailout are an attempt to distract from her past support for various trade deals and Wall Street.



Michigan is a crucial state for Sanders, who is fighting a growing perception that his campaign is more about pushing his agenda than actually winning the nomination. Despite winning caucuses in Kansas, Nebraska and Maine over the weekend, Sanders has yet to win a large, delegate-rich state. There are 130 delegates up for grabs in Michigan.



After a series of victories, including eight Super Tuesday contests, Clinton leads Sanders by almost 200 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. When super delegates party members who are free to chose who they will support are taken into account, Clinton has 1,130 of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination, compared with 499 for Sanders, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press.



Sanders has hoped that his opposition to trade deals will resonate with the Michigan's blue collar workers. According to a Monmouth University poll of likely Democratic primary voters in the state released Monday, Clinton leads Sanders by 13 points, 55 percent to 42 percent.



The two Democrats also are scheduled to take part in a debate Wednesday in Florida.

Bloomberg
Ted Cruz says the media don't really want to bring down Donald Trump - not yet, at least. The Texas senator suggested in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the press is part of an elaborate conspiracy to hand the Republican presidential nomination to Trump as a kind of alley-oop assist to Hillary Clinton - whose election would be a slam dunk against the polarizing billionaire.

And Cruz didn't stop there. He specifically alleged that news outlets are holding off on publishing or airing explosive Trump stories that they have already completed, in a plot to shield Trump during the primary stage, and then torpedo his campaign in the general election. Here's how he described the effort to John Dickerson:

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CRUZ: I can't tell you how many media outlets I hear, you know, have this great expose on Donald, on different aspects of his business dealings or his past, but they said, "You know what? We're going to hold it to June or July." We're not going to run it now.

JOHN DICKERSON: You're saying reporters have - told you that? They've told . . . .

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TED CRUZ: Absolutely. We've got multiple . . .

JOHN DICKERSON: And from which organizations have they told you?

TED CRUZ: You know, look, I'm not going to out media outlets. But I can tell you there is so much there.

---

This is a pretty serious charge, with basically no evidence. With Cruz refusing to name names, it's impossible to know whom he's talking about. I asked Washington Post managing editor Cameron Barr if The Post would ever hold a story in the manner suggested by Cruz and got an unequivocal no.

"We're not holding anything," Barr said. "We publish stories as soon as they're ready."

Deputy managing editor Tracy Grant added: "This is a fascinating theory, because the current criticism of journalism is that we publish too soon. But given competitive pressure, we publish when it's ready."

New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said pretty much the same thing: "We don't time stories to influence elections."

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There are plenty of reasons to doubt Cruz's claim, according to experts on journalism ethics. John Watson, a professor at American University, said voters should be skeptical of what he described as a "clearly self-serving and adamantly unsourced assertion." He added that it is "hard to imagine that any news reporter would share that type of information with Cruz or any other politician."

Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz argue a point during a Republican presidential primary debate on March 3, 2016, in Detroit. (Paul Sancya / AP)

"But I assume it is possible," Watson conceded. "I also know from a couple of decades of newsroom experience that news reports - particularly investigative news reports - often are not published as soon as they are complete. There are a variety of reasons to set a schedule for publication - some of them ethical, others not."

Jane Kirtley, who teaches media ethics at the University of Minnesota Law School, agreed that "it is possible that some media outlets have material on Trump that they have not yet published. However, I also think that given the competitive nature of the news media, an outlet that did hold such a story would be taking a big chance. It might be scooped by another outlet."

Under certain circumstances, a decision to hold a story in the midst of an election can be justified, Kirtley said. She cited the Times' long delay in publishing a report about NSA surveillance practices that was originally prepared during the 2004 campaign but did not run until December 2005. Editors became convinced by George W. Bush administration officials that the story could present a national security risk. It also could have unduly hurt Bush's reelection bid, of course, without a thorough public airing.

"Their arguments were compelling enough that we felt the responsible course was to hold the story and do further reporting," Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor at the time, explained in April 2006.

"To me, there would be a difference between news organizations being persuaded to hold or spike a story based on national security concerns at a time when no election is looming, and holding one to have a greater or lesser impact on the outcome of an election," Kirtley said. "The first may be justified as responsible journalism. The second, in my opinion, is not."

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Aly Colon, a professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, suggested that Cruz might have been referring to conversations with reporters working for media outlets that don't follow traditional standards of news-gathering and reporting. Today's media industry is highly fragmented, he noted, and there are some ideologically driven news organizations that might try to time a major Trump story to inflict maximum damage.

It is also possible, Colon added, that reporters are simply anticipating a Trump-Clinton contest, given the state of the race, and are launching reporting projects that won't be ready for a while.

"News organizations do plan some long-term investigations that take time to verify and put in context," he said. "And that timeline could be June or July."

But that's different from holding a story that is already complete, he emphasized, and it would also be unusual for journalists to share their plans with a candidate.

If Cruz has knowledge of the kind of major malfeasance he claimed Sunday, he ought to provide specifics, said Robert Drechsel, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Absent details, Drechsel considers Cruz's charge "nothing more than campaign rhetoric."

"Is there a media conspiracy to hold back major exposes on Donald Trump in order to facilitate his getting the GOP nomination because 'the media' know he can't beat Hillary Clinton? And are reputable journalists telling the Cruz campaign this?" Drechsel asked. "I haven't see a shred of evidence that this is so. And any such media conspiracy would be so important to all of us that Cruz should feel morally obligated to provide the air-tight evidence. If he has such evidence, I'm all ears."
"I will make certain that the Clerk's office keeps pace with upgrades in technical equipment and I will make certain that the employees of the Clerk's office receive continuing education in operating and maintaining the office's information management system."

 Dorothy Brown, responding to a Chicago Tribune candidate questionnaire for the March 21, 2000, Illinois primary

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Hand that earnest promise from 2000 to any lawyer who practices in Cook County. Then show your lawyer pal Brown's 2004 campaign pledge, also in response to a Tribune questionnaire, to "make sure the courtroom operates efficiently and that all case files are available for court." Then recount the similar assurances from 2008, 2012 and 2016 campaigns that, any century now, the clerk of Cook County Circuit Court really will modernize her office.

By now your lawyer friend is sputtering expletives and you're dodging thrown file folders. Because the grim truth is that Dorothy Brown, now in her 16th year running this patronage-stuffed office, specializes in promising progress, then blaming everyone in sight when it never, ever, materializes.

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This isn't just a disaster for Cook County property taxpayers and a slew of flummoxed lawyers. A court system influences the lives of many people, some of whose pasts and futures get waylaid, if not lost, in Brown's antiquated operation.

Not that Brown's inability to do the job kept the Cook County Democratic Party from endorsing her last August for re-election to a fifth term. But drumbeats about a federal corruption probe were intensifying. So in October the party dumped Brown and endorsed Michelle Harris, a Chicago alderman with few qualifications but lots of political cronies.

Louder alarms went off in November when the U.S. attorney's office accused a Brown employee of lying to a grand jury. Imagine the conniptions among the ruling Dems when they learned from the federal indictment that the grand jury was investigating "possible criminal violations in connection with the purchasing of jobs and promotions" in Brown's office. Whoops! The Dems have to be wondering where that probe will lead.

And Harris? She comes from the 8th Ward operation that the late Cook County Board President John Stroger ruled. Just what this way-too-political office doesn't need in 2016: a clerk of court who's somebody somebody sent. We gave Harris every chance to tell us why she can do the job, or even find the office. But she wouldn't respond to our questionnaire and ducked our candidates debate.

Which brings us to the third and most capable contender by far. The Tribune strongly endorses Jacob Meister, a former U.S. Senate candidate whose 25 years practicing in Cook County courts have shown him how desperately out of whack Brown's operation is.

Answering our questionnaire, Meister synthesized in one sentence much of what's wrong. Brown's office, he wrote, "is broken operationally and ethically, steeped in cronyism and riddled with inefficiencies and antiquated technology." He says he's "seen firsthand how lost paperwork and hastily scrawled handwritten notes, which is a common occurrence in the Clerk's office, can leave cases and lives in limbo."

Meister founded a statewide civil rights organization focused on LGBT issues. He has served as managing attorney of a law firm and  bonus!  has litigated cases in modern court systems across the U.S.

Spend an hour with the energetic Meister and you come away convinced: He knows how to fix this moribund office and has the passion to do it. We hope voters give him the chance.

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The winner here faces Diane Shapiro, running unopposed as a Republican.

You'll find the candidates' answers to our survey, and all of our endorsements to date for the March 15 state primary election, here: elections.chicagotribune.com/candidates/

Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is in the business of treating wastewater. It also works to reduce flooding and the runoff of stormwater into Lake Michigan. But electing commissioners to the MWRD board doesn't get the attention it merits. Too many among us take clean water for granted, and thus take MWRD elections for granted.

In November, voters will elect three commissioners to six-year terms on the nine-member board. One commissioner also will be elected to fill a two-year vacancy created when Patrick Daley Thompson departed to join the Chicago City Council.

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Only the Democratic Party has contests for MWRD seats in the March 15 primary. So the task for Democratic primary voters is to select three general election candidates (from a field of six) for the three six-year terms, plus one general election candidate (from a field of three) for the two-year term. Still with us?

Six-year terms: Our top choice is Josina Morita, who has the professional skills of an urban planner and a background of community outreach work. She impressed us when she ran unsuccessfully for a board seat two years ago; we said she could parlay her background in regional development, land use and infrastructure planning to protect clean water. She also could help the MWRD educate local governments on the need for water-permeable paving and other techniques to reduce storm runoff. She supports a notion first proposed in our pages by board member Debra Shore to find industries that could use the district's huge output of treated but non-potable water. Morita, who is of Chinese and Japanese heritage, would be the first Asian-American elected to a countywide office. A bonus for her future speeches to local audiences: She also speaks Spanish.

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Incumbent Mariyana Spyropoulos ran unsuccessfully for an MWRD seat in 2008, was appointed to the board in 2009, and won election to a full term in 2010. She's a lawyer with an MBA and had received plaudits from conservationists. She also won our hearts during her last campaign with her suggestion to cut administrative costs at the MWRD by reducing the board from nine members to five  "even if this means mine is one of the positions eliminated." She's an advocate for resource recovery, converting the solids and liquids that flow to treatment plants into fertilizers so "we can create a revenue stream and thus reduce our tax burden." She boasts of championing a Space to Grow project that is converting paved Chicago Public Schools playgrounds to green spaces that absorb rainwater.

R. Cary Capparelli says he is "the only independent running for the six-year term," perhaps a wry nod to the fact that in the past he's run for an MWRD seat as a Democrat (2010) and a Republican (2014). This year he's again a Democrat. Capparelli is self-employed in a Park Ridge consulting, marketing and public relations business, and he served on the board of the Illinois International Port, aka the Port of Chicago, from 2000 to 2009. He tells us he's also a candidate for a doctorate in geography  an asset on a board that oversees extensive land holdings. He's also sensitive to the danger that an MWRD board dominated by Chicagoans can set policies that don't work well for suburban communities.

Two-year term: Our choice here, Tom Greenhaw, would bring technology savvy, youth, energy, commitment and keen knowledge of water issues to an MWRD board that needs all of the above. Having founded Cashier Live, the tech startup he runs, Greenhaw has a skill set unlike that of any current commissioner. He's a Chicago-area native whose undergraduate years at Arizona State University educated him in water conservation issues: "I realized very quickly that I had taken Lake Michigan, our greatest resource, for granted." He's since completed the University of Chicago's program in Leadership in Sustainability Management and immersed himself in a host of environmental policy issues; at the U. of C. he researched how to increase the proper disposal of medications that, too often, get dumped into toilets and wind up in our water. Greenhaw is enthusiastically endorsed.

Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
In a TV advertisement, President Barack Obama endorses Juliana Stratton over incumbent Ken Dunkin in the Democratic primary for 5th District state representative. (Friends of Juliana Stratton) (Chicago Tribune)

News alert: Obama backs challenger in Democratic primary for state rep.

That's news, all right, but not because America has been waiting eagerly for the president to pick a horse in the Illinois 5th House District.

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When was the last time the president of the United States endorsed a candidate in a state legislative race?

"I'm Barack Obama. I'm asking you to vote for Democrat Juliana Stratton for state representative." In the TV and radio ads, which began airing Monday, Obama praises Stratton for her work to improve the juvenile justice system and says she will "fight to get guns off our streets."

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That's a grownup take on the race, which has mostly played out as a proxy war between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, whose allies are bankrolling incumbent Rep. Ken Dunkin, and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who's trying to oust Dunkin for breaking ranks on key votes.

Dunkin has tried to spin himself as a bipartisan statesman  and even to suggest that the president singled him out as such in a Feb. 10 speech to the General Assembly. Dunkin's own radio ads incorporate snippets of that address and end with what is meant to sound like a presidential nod of approval: "We'll talk later, Dunkin." (The rest of that curt rebuke, of course, was "Sit down.")

During a speech to the Illinos General Assembly on Feb. 10, 2016, President Barack Obama says agreeing with members of the other party doesn't make lawmakers "sellouts" before pausing and adding, "Well, we'll talk later, Dunkin." (White House) (Chicago Tribune)

So yes, Obama wants you to know that Juliana Stratton will "fight for tougher penalties for violent offenders." He also wants you to know that he did not endorse Ken Dunkin.

As it happens, the Tribune endorsed neither. We found Dunkin's antics brash and self-serving and Stratton disappointingly timid. She chickened out of a face-to-face endorsement session with her opponent and wouldn't even complete our candidate survey to tell voters where she stands on the issues.

So thank you, Mr. President, for helping voters sort out this troublesome race. Now, who are your picks for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District?

Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
The daily drumbeat of public employee layoff notices, students losing state aid, autistic kids denied desperately needed assistance, and state vendors going belly up due to unpaid invoices is truly disheartening. This sickening crisis is due to unconscionable actions of a governor trying to run Illinois like one of the many acquired companies he broke up en route to fabulous personal wealth. Gov. Bruce Rauner took a solvable financial dilemma in Illinois and turned it into a cruel assault on Illinois' middle class and most vulnerable, to further enrich his rich base. He used his wealth to essentially buy the governorship to implement a pretend "turnaround agenda," which has done nothing but turn around for the worse the lives of folks with whom Rauner can never identify.

Having followed Illinois politics for over 60 years now, I've seen five governors indicted, four of whom were jailed. Yet, none did so much damage to so many as the heartless business mogul who's literally playing with people's lives and livelihood to ram his pro-business agenda down Illinoisans' collective throats. Rauner still functions on the diseased vulture capitalist mindset that if an acquired company doesn't bend to his will it must be broken. Rauner may never sit in a real jail cell, but for millions of us, he's already earned a lifetime sentence in the moral jail cell of governing cruelty.

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One pink slip can begin to heal Illinois. It bears the name Bruce Vincent Rauner.

 Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders got personal when talking about racism in America at the debate in Flint, Mich. debate on March 6, 2016. (AP) (Associated Press)

Did Sen. Bernie Sanders really say that white people "don't know what it's like to be poor?" Well, yes, he said it, but he didn't mean it, which only shows how quickly a serious presidential debate can turn goofy.

The Vermont Democrat's "ghetto gaffe," as some headline writers quickly branded it, came during Sunday's Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Mich.

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Responding to a question from CNN's Don Lemon about what "racial blind spots" the candidates had, Sanders said, "When you're white, you don't know what it's like to be living in a ghetto. You don't know what it's like to be poor. You don't know what it's like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car."

With that, Sanders accidentally landed in the ever-shifting sands of political correctness. That's an etiquette that Republican front-runner Donald Trump loves to flout, but it still means something to liberals, among whom the comment touched off a blizzard of ridicule in social media.

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Sanders tried to clarify his remarks the next day with an obligatory "Beg your pardon ..."

"What I meant to say is when you talk about ghettos traditionally, what you're talking about is African-American communities," Sanders told a gaggle of reporters.

"I think many white people are not aware of the kinds of pressures and the kind of police oppression that sometimes takes place within the African-American community."

That's ironic since "ghetto" originally referred, I am told, to the part of Venice to which Jews were restricted and segregated  centuries before the word was applied in the 1960s to socially and economically segregated African-American communities.

But our language around race is filled with ironies. "Ghetto" has fallen out of fashion, except as a put-down of somebody's taste or behavior ("That's so ghetto"). Sanders' revival of its earlier meaning brought to mind Elvis Presley's 1969 hit, "In the Ghetto." (" On a cold and gray Chicago mornin' a poor little baby child is born in the ghetto "), along with the thought that perhaps Bernie needs to update his record collection.

But more seriously, Sanders' comments touched a nerve with a number of African-Americans with its implication that most black people are poor and that white people aren't.

In fact, only 26.2 percent of African-Americans fall below the poverty line, according to the latest census data. That's a higher rate than the 12.7 percent of non-Hispanic whites who live below the poverty line or the 23.6 percent of Hispanics.

But since we have almost five times more non-Hispanic whites than blacks in this nation, poor whites outnumber poor blacks by almost 3 to 1. If we were being truly honest about race, we would be talking about poverty as a white problem, more than as a black burden.

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But stereotypes die hard, even among liberals who like to think of themselves as more candid about race than conservatives like Trump, who too often view racism as a non-issue unless it discriminates against whites.

Sanders' gaffe, in the heat of debate, revealed a not very deeply hidden truth: He primarily views our national political and economic divides through a lens of class, not race.

Former NAACP President and Chief Executive Ben Jealous, a Sanders surrogate and an African-American, rushed to the senator's defense. He sympathetically described Sanders' own racial blind spot that has hindered his efforts to reach black voters. "Sen. Sanders is from Burlington (Vt.). He grew up in old Brooklyn, he knows white folks live in ghettos," said Jealous.

Yet Jealous and Sanders both emphasized that the crux of the issue was poverty, not race. As an African-American fortunate enough to earn a bit of the American Dream, thanks to hard-working parents and a decent public school system, I, too, see poverty as a more urgent issue than race, although both are important.

Politically, as Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson has written ever since his breakthrough 1978 book "The Declining Significance of Race," the best way to build a multiracial anti-poverty consensus is to focus on class, not race.

Yet in today's presidential cycle, we seem to be more interested in arguing about race and poverty than finding some common-ground solutions.

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Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@tribpub.com

Twitter @cptime
Swinging with excitement and powered by cheers from the crowd, more than 600 middle school and high school choir students competed in the 23rd annual Chicagoland Showcase at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights last weekend.

Show choirs from 10 middle schools across the state competed Friday and another 21 high school show choirs from throughout the Midwest performed Saturday before judges evaluated them. Local winners included Fremd High School Soundscape of Palatine, in the festival division; Carmel High School Accents of Mundelein in the unisex division; Ben Marshall from Prospect High School in Mount Prospectwas the male solo contest winner; and Laura Allison from Rolling Meadows High School in Rolling Meadows was the female solo contest winner.

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"It's a pretty exciting thing to witness," said Sara Michael , director of choirs at Hersey High School and event organizer.

Michael is a graduate of the Rolling Meadows High School show choir and her mother and assistant, Joann Langley, was a member of the parent group that started the show choir competition 23 years ago.

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"They're given 25 minutes to set up their costumes, backdrops, lighting displays and 25 minutes to put their best foot forward and share their talent," Michael said. "It's amazing what these students have accomplished. Some of these students have been working on their performance since August."

The audience was also inspired by the young adults, often erupting in enthusiastic cheers and whistles throughout the performances.

"The talent is amazing," said Robin Johnson, 51, of Mount Prospect, a mother of a Prospect High School competitor. "You forget they're high school kids because it's so professional. These kids work so hard, it shows. The creativity, their expressions, you can tell they're into this and having fun."

Vocal judge John Musich said he was impressed with this year's performances, which included themes of jazz, musical theater and popular music.

"The shows this year are very creative and not one show is like the other show, which makes my job harder," Musich said. "The commitment to this craft is very high and gets higher every year."

Brian Cusick, 18, is a senior at Hersey High School and president of the OnStage show choir which will use some of the funds collected from Chicagoland Showcase for the choir's trip to Carnegie Hall in New York City this year.

"Every time we perform, we have to give it our all," Cusick said. "The biggest thrill in performing show choir is when you know you are doing your very best and being all you can be on that stage."

Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Nicole Hoch peels an onion to get started on a batch of seafood paella, a dish she tried while visiting Spain. (Judy Buchenot / The Beacon-News)

To most of us, the thought of taking 40 teens on a trip overseas might sound overwhelming. But as an inspired educator, Aurora resident Nicole Hoch is thrilled by the opportunity.

The Plainfield North history teacher is looking forward to taking a group of student to Spain and Italy through EF Tours. "It is so exciting to take them to other countries to learn about a culture and history other than their own," says Hoch. "Traveling without their parents makes it a very different experience for them. It is a real life lesson to be somewhere you have never been before without that support."

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Hoch chaperoned students on previous trips but is finishing training to be a leader for her next trip. "Students are very interested in travel," notes Hoch. "We have 43 students signed up for the next trip and a waiting list if anyone drops out."

One of the many cultural lessons learned during a trip is trying the cuisine of another country. "When we let the students have lunch on their own, we turn it into homework. They have to take a photo of what they eat and then show and tell others about what they ate," she says. The students rise to the challenge and there was only one group who cheated by visiting a McDonald's in Spain.

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One item that students tried that was well received was churros and chocolate. "Everyone loved churros and chocolate," she said. "The churros differ from Mexican churros because there is less cinnamon and sugar on them. An order included six churros and a cup of rich chocolate liquid. They dipped the churros in the chocolate to eat them. It is such a lot of food that you have to share it but we made lots of trips to get churros and chocolate."

To help her students experience cultural food differences, Hoch took them to a large market called the Mercado San Miguel in Madrid. The indoor market is surrounded by glass walls making it feel like an outdoor market. "The most unusual thing are all of the ham legs," she notes. "They are all lined up in the market and the hoof is still on the leg. The ham is shaved off in very thin slices and there are many different varieties."

Hoch says one challenge for students is trying seafood. "Especially seafood with the shells left on," she says. "They would rather have a burger but they know they need to try new things and they are really good about it." The market had several stalls selling seafood paella, the traditional rice dish that is slow cooked.

To encourage her students to try many things, Hoch makes sure they go somewhere for tapas which features small plates of different dishes. "It is great because you can try something and then get more of the ones that you like," she explains. Another favorite meal for the students were croquettes, which are small oval shaped mounds of ham in a sauce that are breaded and deep fried.

Whenever she travels, Hoch tries to bring home a few interesting ingredients for new dishes. She brought home olive oil and smoked paprika from her recent trip to Spain. "I try to make some of my favorite dishes when I get home." Two favorites from her trip last summer were the churros and chocolate and the seafood paella. In Spain, paella is made with bomba rice, a short-grained rice. Since it is hard to find here, she substitutes a medium grain rice. She shares the recipes for these dishes for others who want to try an international treat.

Judy Buchenot is a freelance writer.

Churros and Chocolate

1 cup water

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1/2 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup flour

3 eggs

8 cups vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

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1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

4 ounces dark chocolate

2 cups milk, divided

1 tablespoon cornstarch

4 tablespoons sugar

Place water, butter and salt in a 3-quart saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Add the flour and reduce heat to low. Continue stirring until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

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Beat eggs and then add to mixture, stirring until smooth.

Fit a star tip onto a decorating bag and place dough in bag. Heat oil in a deep pan to about 360 degrees. Squeeze out 4 inch strips of dough into the hot oil. Fry about 2 minutes per side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Mix together sugar and cinnamon. Roll churros in the sugar mixture.

To make the chocolate for dipping, put chocolate and 1 cup of milk in a saucepan and heat and stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining one cup of milk. Add to chocolate mixture and heat over low heat, whisking mixture until it thickens, about five minutes. Pour chocolate into cups and serve with churros for dipping.

Seafood Paella

1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads

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8 ounces clam juice

1 small yellow onion

2 small tomatoes

8 cloves garlic

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon paprika

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1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

12 large shrimp

1 3/4 cup medium grain rice

1 pound clams

Nicole's Culinary Cue

It is fun to take photos of interesting meals while traveling but remember to also take a photo of the menu so you have a record of what the dish was called as well as a description of the ingredients.

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1 lemon

Toss saffron in a saucepan over low heat for about 30 seconds or until it is fragrant. Remove from heat and crush to fine pieces. Add clam juice and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and set aside.

Grate onion to get 1/3 cup of onion puree. Grate tomatoes over bowl to get about 1 1/4 cups juicy tomato pulp. Chop four garlic cloves until fine. Peel four cloves and leave whole.

Place a 5 quart Dutch oven over medium low heat and add 1/4 cup olive oil. When hot, add onion and cook and stir about 4 minutes or until soft. Stir in tomato pulp, chopped and whole garlic, paprika, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook and stir until mixture is thick and dark red, about 30 minutes. If needed, add water.

While mixture is cooking, peel and devein shrimp leaving on tail portion. Place the shells in a 4-quart saucepan and heat over medium high heat until they are dry and pink, about two minutes. Add five cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes.

Strain into a large 2-quart measuring cup. Discard shells. Add the saffron-clam mixture and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt to the strained broth and stir to combine. Measure out 5 1/4 cups of the broth and set the remainder aside. When tomato mixture is done, add rice and cook and stir over medium heat for about two minutes.

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Spread rice evenly on the bottom of the Dutch oven and slowly pour in the broth so the rice is not disturbed. Bring to a boil but do not stir. Adjust heat so that mixture continues at a steady simmer and cook about 8 minutes. Distribute clams evenly in the mixture and lower heat to a slow simmer. Cook five minutes. Add shrimp and push them into the rice. Cook about five minutes or until shrimp are done. If mixture becomes too dry during cooking time, add reserved broth. Simmer longer if rice is not tender. Remove pan from heat, cover and allow to rest for five to 10 minutes. Cut lemon into wedges and serve with dish.
This parking lot on Aurora's side of the Route 59 train station will get reworked this spring and summer. (Steve Lord / The Beacon-News)

Construction is due to start soon on changes to the parking lot on Aurora's side of the commuter train station on Route 59.

City officials have said the project will connect nearby residential developments and outlying commercial areas to the station more smoothly and reduce traffic congestion entering and exiting the parking lot.

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The changes include new driveways into the lot, a new Pace bus staging area and an increase in the number of parking spaces available.

Three new driveways will be added into the lot from Meridian Lake Drive, and a traffic signal will be added at Meridian Lake Drive and Station Boulevard.

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The parking lot will be reconfigured to a north-south orientation, increasing the parking lot's capacity by about 400 new parking spaces. City officials expect the new orientation to also improve pedestrian, vehicle and bus access into and out of the station.

The Pace bus staging area will be relocated to a safer, dedicated location, city officials said. Addition of a box culvert at the Waubonsie Creek crossing will make travel easier for pedestrians, according to the city.

Ultimately, the project also includes new safety features, including new parking lot lighting and security cameras.

The project will be done in phases, beginning on the east side of the parking lot and progressing to the west.

Construction is weather dependent, but major work is expected to be complete by the end of 2016. The addition of new security cameras and landscaping may happen in 2017.

The train platform will be open for the entire duration of construction.

Commuters, especially those who park in the Aurora lot, are urged to plan for slightly longer commutes once construction begins, city officials said. They are encouraged to seek alternate parking and to use Pace Park-n-Ride facilities, if possible, officials said.

Temporary on-street parking will be available on Meridian Lake Drive and Station Boulevard in specific areas where indicated.Commuters parking outside of designated areas will be ticketed, city officials said. Daily and monthly parking fees within the parking lot are still required.

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The Metra train station on Route 59 has the highest ridership of any of the 27 stations on Metra's Burlington Northern-Santa Fe rail line, with all of its 2,200 parking spaces used each weekday.

More than 5,800 riders use the station each weekday, according to city officials.

The project is supported by federal funds through the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant program.

slord@tribpub.com
Stay on top of the news all day with the Tribunes web notifications. Well let you know  right in your web browser  when theres big breaking news happening, and also share our editors top picks so you see the best of what the Tribune has to offer.
By Allan Xu, Manager, Business Advisory Services

Editor: Alexander Chipman Koty

New labor regulations came fully into effect in China last week, with the intention of preventing companies from abusing labor dispatch. Due to its flexibility and lower cost, labor dispatch is one of the most popular ways to hire employees in China. Dispatch agencies offer companies temporary workers for particular projects or a certain period of time. This is especially beneficial for businesses in seasonal industries or with project-based work, where the amount of labor needed is not consistent year-round.

Labor dispatch is also attractive for employers because they face fewer risks in the event of a labor dispute. Dispatched laborers are technically employed by their agencies rather than the companies they do work for, so any workplace grievances must be dealt with by the dispatch agency. This is advantageous for companies using labor dispatch, as the risk of a labor dispute is transferred to the agency that provides them with workers. However, it also leaves dispatched workers more vulnerable to exploitation. With the regulatory framework surrounding labor dispatch now fundamentally changed, companies must be aware of alternative methods of hiring temporary workers to avoid labor disputes and government penalties.

Overview of Chinas Labor Dispatch Laws

In an effort to limit companies from taking advantage of labor dispatch, the Chinese government amended the Labor Contract Law in 2012 and promulgated the Interim Provisions on Labor Dispatch (hereinafter referred to as Interim Provisions) in 2014. The two regulations restrict what types of positions dispatched staff can hold, the proportion of workers in a company that can be comprised of dispatched staff, and how they are returned to their agencies. These measures emphasize that labor dispatch can only be used as a supplementary employment approach. The Interim Provisions further regulates that the amount of dispatched staff the employer hires shall not exceed 10 percent of the total number of its employees. In the event that such amount exceeds 10 percent before the effective date of the Interim Provisions, namely March 1, 2014, the employer must reduce the proportion of dispatched staff to 10 percent within two years of the effective date of the provisions.

RELATED: Payroll and Human Resource Services

The Interim Provisions expounds three requirements that such employers must adhere to during the two year interim period of March 1, 2014 to February 29, 2016:

The employer shall develop a scheme for employment adjustments and file it with the local competent administrative department in charge of human resources and social security;

The employer shall not add any new dispatched staff before reducing the number of dispatched staff to the specified level; and

The labor contracts and labor dispatch agreements concluded pursuant to the law prior to the release of the Decision on Amending the Labor Contract Law of the Peoples Republic of China, whose expiry date is two years after the effective date of the Interim Provisions, are still in force until expiry by law.

Options Available to Affected Employers

Since the interim period expired at the beginning of March 2016, many employers are now facing the problem of reducing their dispatched staff to the specified level while maintaining their business scale. Generally, employers have three options:

Hire dispatched staff as formal employees who have a direct relationship with the employer;

Continue using labor dispatch to hire workers for certain positions while returning others; and

Use other employment approaches, such as outsourcing, in place of labor dispatch.

Consideration of alternative employment approaches  outsourcing in particular  is essential for companies to maintain their business scale without drastically increasing costs. However, employers are often not fully aware of the distinctions between labor dispatch and outsourcing, which can lead to costly labor disputes. The table below illustrates the basic distinctions between labor dispatch and outsourcing.

Employers must be conscious of Chinas complex labor laws in order to avoid costly disputes. Failure to comply with new regulations regarding labor dispatch can also result in significant penalties from the government. Awareness of different methods to hire employees allows employers to comply with government regulations while running their businesses efficiently.



About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email china@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. 

Human Resources and Payroll in China 2015

This edition of Human Resources and Payroll in China, updated for 2015, provides a firm understanding of Chinas laws and regulations related to human resources and payroll management  essential information for foreign investors looking to establish or already running a foreign-invested entity in China, local managers, and HR professionals needing to explain complex points of Chinas labor policies.



Labor Dispute Management in China

In this issue of China Briefing, we discuss how best to manage HR disputes in China. We begin by highlighting how Chinas labor arbitration process  and its legal system in general  widely differs from the West, and then detail the labor disputes that foreign entities are likely to encounter when restructuring their China business. We conclude with a special feature from Business Advisory Manager Allan Xu, who explains the risks and procedures for terminating senior management in China.

How to Restructure an Underperforming Business in China

In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we explore the options that are available to foreign firms looking to restructure or close their operations in China. We begin with an overview of what restructuring an unprofitable business in China might entail, and then take an in-depth look at the way in which a foreign company can go about the restructuring process. Finally, we highlight some of the key HR concerns associated with restructuring a China business.
Shanghai's new housing market posted sales of over 78 percent last week although the average price fell.

The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, soared 78.1 percent week on week to 505,700 square meters, the highest seven-day volume registered in about eight months, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a report released yesterday.

The mean cost of these new homes fell 5.6 percent to 33,853 yuan (US$5,195) per square meter, Homelink data showed.

"The local housing market could be called overheated with weekly transactions exceeding 500,000 square meters," said Ke Xiaojuan, a Homelink researcher.

"Notably, interest in the medium to low-end segment was particularly strong as seven of the 10 most popular projects cost no more than 30,000 yuan per square meter."

A high-end Shui On Land project with average price exceeding 75,000 yuan per square meter in downtown Hongkou District continued to lead with weekly sales of 171 apartment units, according to Homelink data.

The luxury segment where units cost an average of more than 80,000 yuan per square meter saw 117 units sold last week, up 39 units from the previous seven-day period. More than 40 percent of these luxury units were located in Minhang District and the Pudong New Area, Homelink said.

As of yesterday, Shanghai's supply of new homes available for sale barely surpassed 9 million square meters, or around 58,400 units, according to the city's official real estate website fangdi.com.cn.
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China's exports slumped 20.6 percent year on year to 821.8 billion yuan (US$126.3 billion) in February while imports dropped 8 percent to 612.3 billion yuan, customs announced on Tuesday.

The decline in exports widened from a 6.6 percent decrease in January, but that of imports narrowed from 14.4 percent a month earlier, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The monthly foreign trade surplus shrank by 43.3 percent year on year to 209.5 billion yuan in February, down from 406.2 billion yuan a month earlier.

Total foreign trade value in February fell 15.7 percent year on year to 1.43 trillion yuan, a steeper decline than the 9.8-percent contraction seen in January.

Trade with China's biggest trade partner, the European Union, dropped 9.7 percent year on year in the first two months of 2016, GAC data showed.

In the same period, trade with the United States, its second biggest trade partner, went down 12.2 percent and that with the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the third largest trade partner, dipped 14.9 percent.

Trade by private firms, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of the country's total, slipped 7.3 percent year on year in the Jan.-Feb. period. State-owned companies fared worse, posting a 21.4-percent plunge in trade.

Foreign trade in the first two months was 12.6 percent lower than a year earlier at 3.31 trillion yuan, with exports down 13.1 percent to 1.96 trillion yuan and imports down 11.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan.

In the first two months of this year, the trade surplus narrowed by 15.9 percent to 615.9 billion yuan.

In dollar-denominated terms, China's exports fell 25.4 percent from a year earlier in February, worsening from the 11.2-percent decline in January. Imports dropped 13.8 percent, a milder decrease than 18.8 percent in January.
The All-China Women's Federation held a gathering attended by female domestic workers and foreign diplomats in Beijing on Monday ahead of International Women's Day.

Most Chinese women have actively taken part in the country's reform and the environment for women's development has become more favorable, Shen Yueyue, president of the federation, said in a speech.

Shen, who is also vice chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, said she hoped women will put development concepts into practice and rally behind the cause of realizing the "Chinese dream" of national rejuvenation.

Shen also urged women worldwide to work together in building and enjoying a better world.

More than 1,000 people were present at the event, held in the Great Hall of the People. International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8.
The widely held belief that the Great Hall of the People, iconic edifice of China's political democracy, had little room for spontaneous dissent crumbled today when Finance Minister Lou Jiwei delivered a lengthy attack on a standing law, live on national TV.

Monday was the third day of the national parliamentary session, and the news briefing where Lou made his unprecedented statement was hosted by the National People's Congress (NPC), the body which approved his nomination as Finance Minister and whose Standing Committee in 2007 passed the Labor Contract Law which has so irked the minister.

Hundreds of reporters were present to hear the man who holds China's purse strings, when one of them, citing complaints from entrepreneurs, lit Lou's fuse by asking about previous criticism he had made of the law.

Those comments had been to a rather different audience, one composed mainly of academics in Tsinghua University and on another occasion at a scholars' forum. Well-known as a no-nonsense straight-talker, Lou held nothing back.

The minister's argument is that the law is overprotective of employees, making employers unwilling to create jobs and invest in training. This, Lou claims, ultimately hurts workers by denying them jobs openings or the opportunity to improve their skills.

"For enterprises and employees, the extent of protection afforded by the Labor Contract Law is unbalanced," Lou said. "For prospective employees, especially the low-skilled, the law discriminates against them.

"As employees are allowed to terminate employment easily with only one month's notice, employers lack the motivation to invest in training. Why would any business spend money on training them? Our acute shortage of medium to highly skilled technicians partly stems from this law.

"An employee may not work hard and the law makes it difficult for the employer to deal with by, for example, firing him or her. That prevents another prospective employee from taking the position."

Lou is not the first to voice concern over the Labor Contract Law. The draft spent nearly a year in front of the cabinet before being submitted to the Standing Committee of the NPC and took another 19 months to be approved.

In China drafts are usually read three times, but the labor contract draft was read for a fourth time, after its full text was released for public consultation.

It was a time of breathtaking manufacturing growth in China, built mainly on the efforts of a labor force who, according to the law's proponents, were deprived of their fair share of prosperity. Opponents of the law argued to no avail, that the bias toward employees would increase business costs and hurt job seekers.

Heated arguments lead to exhaustive reviews with input from all walks of life, continuing even after enactment in 2007. When the 2008 financial crisis swept the globe, Chinese manufacturers were hit hard and millions of workers were driven from production lines.

This, combined with China's low-end manufacturing industry being gradually transferred to Southeast Asia, brought renewed criticism and the law was blamed for not only driving up business costs, but for scaring away manufacturers, a view with which Lou apparently concurs.

"Incompatible with labor flexibility" is Lou's description of the act, with its emphasis on full-time long-term employment that has pushed away those export-oriented manufacturers who rely on seasonal orders and therefore on seasonal workers.

Before Lou 's TV tirade, on February 29 the Minister of Human Resources and Social Security had conceded that the law had decreased labor flexibility and increased business costs. Zheng Xiaohe, an NPC deputy who runs Anhui Tianfang Tea Industry Group agrees.

"The Labor Contract Law weakens employers' positions with respect to employees, and does not cover their diverse needs, for example temporary or hourly workers are not adequately dealt with," said Zheng.

"An employer who wishes to discharge an employee is under a number of obligations, but employees are not subject to similar strictures if they wish to quit, "said Gao Yafei, an entrepreneur and NPC deputy.

"The law leads to fewer and fewer openings for unskilled laborers. From an industry perspective, certain sectors could move wholesale to other countries because of rising costs," Lou said. "Who eventually bears the costs? The working class who the law was intended to protect."

Zhang Yansen, businessman and member of the CPPCC National Committee, said the spirit of the law was to protect employees, but it had crossed a line and needed to be amended. "There is no shame in it," he said. "It is only natural to have ups and downs in law making and amending, just like any other activity."

China's legislative power rests with the NPC and its Standing Committee. "Amending laws is outside the remit of the Finance Ministry. I talked previously in academic circles, but today I have been answering questions as a minister." Lou said. "Since you asked, I'm giving you an answer."
China is looking to improve its government websites to meet the demands of the disabled people, a circular issued jointly by China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) and the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs said on Monday.

According to the circular, improvements of official websites will be completed by the end of 2020 allowing all disabled people in China to access the websites and online services.

The circular also featured a guideline for modification of the websites, which calls for better support technologies for public services and gradual improvement.

The goal is to make it more convenient for the disabled to receive government information and enjoy public services, according to an official at the CDPF.

The improvements will also help protect disabled people's right to employment and access to government feedback, contributing to better lives, the official added.

China has been furthering the status of disabled people over the past few years, with 40,486 disabled people in China admitted to universities during 2011 and 2015, thanks to government subsidies.
China will continue to roll out preferential financial policies to boost economic and social development in Tibet over the next five years, according to financial authorities on Monday.

Monetary and credit policy support will be fine tuned during the 2016-2020 period, according to a circular issued by the central bank and regulators of China's banking, securities and insurance sectors.

Financial institutions will be encouraged to open branches in Tibet and more direct financing and financial bonds are expected to help enterprises in Tibet, especially small and micro businesses, according to the circular.

More financial support for infrastructure, agriculture and environment protection is promised, as well as policies to improve farmers' incomes, according to the circular.
Relatives of a dozen Chinese passengers aboard missing flight MH370 filed suits against Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, Rolls Royce and others yesterday, a day before the second anniversary of its disappearance and a legal deadline to do so.

Packed into a small office at the Beijing Rail Transportation Court, which has been designated to handle MH370 cases, they held manila folders with litigation papers in their hands.

Several wiped away tears, turning to borrow tissues from neighbors, before depositing their documents with court officials.

Gao Xianying, 65, who lost her daughter, son-in-law and 3-year-old granddaughter on the flight, said: "Successfully filing the case is the next step in finding my family. We're a step closer to demanding the truth from Malaysia Airlines; there's more hope than before."

The Boeing 777, with 239 people - including 154 Chinese - on board, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Authorities have said it went down in the southern Indian Ocean.

Even while suing for the wrongful deaths of their loved ones, many Chinese next of kin consistently express beliefs that the passengers are still alive, perhaps being held at an unknown location - even though a piece of the plane washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and other potential debris was found in Mozambique.

Under international agreements, families have two years to sue over air accidents. Lawyer Zhang Qihuai, whose Lanpeng firm represents the group filing suit yesterday, said many were "deeply conflicted" over the decision to go to court.

"They think that after you've accepted compensation, the company can deny any further responsibility and wash its hands of the incident, and that the public will naturally forget about the whole thing," Zhang said.

The total compensation requested from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, engine manufacturer Rolls Royce and insurance companies ranged between 10 and 70 million yuan (US$1.5 million to US$10.8 million) per family, he said. Verdicts might not come for two years, he added.

"Originally, many didn't intend to sue and instead wanted to continue waiting. But there's a time limit, so they have no other choice - losing the right to sue would be terribly painful."

His clients have declined settlement offers of 2.52 million yuan per victim, he said.

Several US, Malaysian, Australian and Chinese law firms have told reporters they have begun filing suit on behalf of relatives, seeking undisclosed damages.

Malaysia Airlines and Boeing representatives in China declined to comment on the lawsuits. Rolls Royce did not immediately comment.

A vast Australian-led search of 120,000 square kilometers of the southern Indian Ocean seabed has so far failed to locate the wreckage, and authorities plan to end the operation - projected to cost up to US$130 million - if no new leads emerge by the time it is completed, expected in July.

The relatives hope court scrutiny will help reveal answers about what befell the plane, even while some express misgivings over negotiating compensation.

"The date March 8 is like a knife that has stabbed us once again," said Gao.

"I chose to prosecute in order to have my child safely returned to me. I'm convinced that the plane didn't crash into the Indian Ocean, that it landed somewhere and that my child is safe, living on this Earth." She would never believe her family had died until their bodies were found.
Police in north China's Hebei Province busted two groups responsible for discharging toxic waste, with one responsible for the death of a restaurant owner.

Twenty-seven suspects who dumped more than 3,400 tonnes of toxic waste were arrested and 20 companies were implicated as local procurators prepare a lawsuit, a spokesperson with the provincial public security department said.

On May 18, 2015, the owner of the restaurant near a parking lot in Lixian County, Baoding City died after inhaling poisonous gas from his kitchen sewer. Investigations found that the parking lot operator allowed illegal dumping of waste liquids, such as acid, in the lot.

The police first broke up a gang responsible for dumping waste at the lot on May 17 and 18. But investigations found they were not involved in the restaurant owner's death.

Later, the police captured another group of people who dumped waste acid at different venues in the county, including the parking lot, between August, 2014, and May, 2015, and identified their waste was the cause of death.

The spokesperson said Hebei has increased efforts to crack down on polluters. In 2015, 2,025 people were arrested for environmental pollution.
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Britain would not join the European Union (EU) common asylum process, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday before an EU-Turkey summit which aimed to stem the missive migrant influx.

"We have an absolutely rock solid opt-out from these things, so there is no prospect of Britain joining a common asylum process in Europe," Cameron told reporters on his arrival for the summit.

"We will have our own approach, our own way of doing things, keeping our own borders. It underlines the best of both worlds, the special status we have," he told reporters.

"It is important that we help the continent of Europe to secure its external border ... that is why we are sending British ship just to do just that," he added.

Meanwhile, in a statement published ahead of the summit, Cameron called "the migrant crisis the greatest challenge facing Europe today" and elaborated Britain's position on this issue.

"Britain has not faced anywhere near the scale of migrants coming to Europe as other countries because we are out of Schengen and retain control of our borders," the statement said.

"But where we can help, we should. And we've got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey," it said.

Britain was not included in the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, although it signed up to Europe's Dublin regulation which demands member states to take responsibility for refugees who arrive in their country first.

Europe's Schengen policy was at risk as several European countries have imposed border controls to stem the massive migrant flows.

European leaders were gathering here to seek solutions to better safeguard its passport-free policy and the EU's executive body the European commission was set to outline plans in the coming days to overhaul EU asylum policy, which Britain could choose whether to join or not.

Before the summit, London announced that its naval ship Mounts Bay would support the international response to the migrant crisis in the Aegean Sea.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, discussed the resumption of Russian flights to Egypt over the phone, the Kremlin said Monday.

"The two sides stressed the importance of creating all necessary conditions for the resumption of Russian flights to Egypt and tourist exchanges," the Kremlin said in a statement.

On Oct. 31, 2015, a Russia-bound Airbus A321 crashed shortly after taking off from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people onboard, mostly Russians.

The Russian Federal Security Service announced later that the plane was brought down by a bomb, and Putin then ordered the suspension of all of the country's flights to Egypt following the tragedy.

In late February, Sisi said terrorists had been behind the crash with the aim to ruin Egyptian ties with other states.

The crash also led some other states, including Britain, to suspend their flights to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh and to evacuate their nationals over security concerns.

Egypt is one of Russians' main tourist destinations, and the incident dealt a heavy blow to the country's already battered tourism sector. The Egyptian authorities have been taking a series of measures to boost the tourism industry.
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The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday expressed concern over a joint military drill staged by the United States and South Korea, criticizing the two countries for using it to pressure the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

South Korean amphibious assault landing vehicles move to a landing ship at the sea near Pohang, South Korea, on March 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

All sides should "exercise restraint, and not allow the situation to run amok and spin into uncontrollable conflict spreading on the (Korean) peninsula," the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the ministry warned the DPRK not to "completely place itself against the international community," which would provide the "international legal basis for the use of military force against Pyongyang."

Earlier in the day, South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest-ever annual exercises amid growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, in an apparent warning to Pyongyang over its nuclear test and rocket launch.

In face of the U.S.-South Korea war games, Pyongyang threatened to launch preventive nuclear attacks, which the Russian Foreign Ministry said is "unacceptable."
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Russian fighters deployed at the Hmeimim air base in Syria only strike targets of the Islamic State (IS) and Nusra Front militants, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday.

"Warplanes of the Russian air force are striking only the IS and Nusra Front terrorist groups in provinces of Rappa, Deir ez-Zor and Homs in Syria," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

They are not targeting the Syrian opposition groups that support the cease-fire agreement, he added.

The cessation of hostilities, backed by Russia and the United States and agreed by a number of armed groups and the Syrian government, came into effect in late February.

The deal excludes the IS and the Nusra Front, both of which are listed by the United Nations as terrorist groups.
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Turkish security forces detained 17 suspected foreign members of the Islamic State (IS) on Sunday in two districts in Gaziantep province, authorities said Monday.

Seven children were also detained in the Karkamis and Qguzeli districts of Gaziantep, the General Staff said in a statement.

The group nabbed in Karkamis, including 11 adults and one child, were trying to enter Syria illegally from Turkey, while the other group, including six adults and six children, were attempted to sneak into Turkey from neighboring Syria.

Turkey has stepped up border security after a string of deadly attacks inside the country over the past several months.
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday vowed solidarity with his European counterparts to address the exacerbated migrant crisis.

"We have many challenges in front of us, the only way to response to these challenges is solidarity," said Davutoglu on his arrival for the European Union (EU) -Turkey summit.

"I am back in Brussels for the second EU-Turkey summit in three months, this summit itself shows how indispensable Turkey is for the EU and the EU for Turkey," he told reporters.

Ankara has been hosting millions of migrants who were keen to cross its border to enter the EU and sought asylums.

The EU and Turkey earlier hammered out an action plan to stem migration flows and tackle networks of traffickers and smugglers and now "the full and speedy implementation of the EU-Turkey action plan remains a priority" to the summit, said a statement from the European Council.

"At the end of the day our continent is our continent all together. we have to see the whole picture, not just irregular migration, but the whole future of our continent is on the table where we need solidarity between us," Davutoglu said.

"I am sure these challenges will be solved through our cooperation and Turkey is ready to work with the EU," he added.

To the Turkish prime minister, the summit was also viewed as a good chance for the country's accession process to the EU.

"Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," Davutoglu said. "Today I hope this summit will not just focus on irregular migration but also the Turkish accession process to the EU. It will be a success story and a turning point in our relations in a positive way."

The EU is hold a summit in Brussels with Turkey to seek solutions to the worsening migrant crisis and reinforce its passport-free policy.

European Council President Donald Tusk wrote in a letter on Friday that the European leaders were set to confirm that the EU would close its western Balkans route, which was the main entry point for migrants with 880,000 in 2015 alone and 128,000 in the first two months of this year.

The European leaders will also discuss the reinforcement of the humanitarian assistance to refugees, particularly in Greece, said the letter.
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A Kenyan court on Monday ruled four terror suspects, who were arrested while trying to escape to Libya to join the Islamic State (IS) group, would be detained in police custody for 30 days pending probe results.

The four, Kassim Ahmed Ali, Ali Omar Bwanaadi, Muhammed Kassim Abdalla and Mustaha Kheri Shali, were arrested along the border with Uganda on Saturday, according to police.

"The four suspects were arrested at the Busia border while planning to travel to Libya to join IS. These are fugitives on the run," police spokesman, George Kinoti, said on Sunday.

The four were initially charged with planning to carry out a terror attack in the coastal city of Mombasa in January, but were released on bail later, according to Kinoti.

The arrest comes some three weeks after a University of Nairobi student was arrested for trying to travel to Libya, through Sudan, to join the IS.

Police have urged colleges and parents to keep in touch with their children to prevent possible recruitment by terror groups.
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South Sudan, a new member of the East African Community (EAC) is set to open its embassy in Dar es Salaam, a senior Tanzanian official said on Monday.

Tanzania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Augustine Mahiga said that leaders of the youngest African nation expressed the need to strengthen bilateral relations with Tanzania.

"When we met with the South Sudan's Second Vice President, James Wanni Igga, at the just-concluded EAC Heads of State Summit in Arusha, he promised to strengthen business relations with Tanzania on various sectors, including agriculture," the minister said.

Mahiga said the Tanzanian government planned to organize an official trip to South Sudan by a delegation of members of the business community from Tanzania to carry out an assessment of various investment opportunities.

He said apart from business relations, South Sudan also plans to establish closer relations with Tanzania in the education sector. He said South Sudan would in future send its students to the country's public colleges and universities.

According to Mahiga, despite Tanzania signing a lot of business and investment contracts, their implementation always proved to be a problem compared to Kenya and Uganda.

Last week, EAC Heads of State decided to welcome South Sudan into the bloc. Chairman of the EAC and Tanzanian President John Magufuli said the decision was based on intensive deliberations by the EAC Council of Ministers which had a week-long closed-door meeting on the subject.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 agreement that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

Made up of the 10 southern-most states of Sudan, South Sudan is one of the most diverse countries in Africa. It is home to over 60 different major ethnic groups, and the majority of its people follow traditional religions.

Independence has not brought peace to South Sudan, however. The 2013-2015 civil war displaced 2.2 million people and threatened the success of one of the world's newest countries.
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang congratulated on Monday over the christening of the twin panda cubs born in the Toronto Zoo to Er Shun, one of the two giant pandas on loan from China since March 2013.

In a congratulatory letter, Premier Li said that Er Shun and Da Mao, the two giant pandas, arrived in Canada as a token of friendship from the Chinese people.

Er Shun gave birth to two baby pandas on the 45th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between China and Canada, the Chinese premier noted, describing it as a delightful coincidence, which presages well for the prospect of Sino-Canadian cooperation.

Observing that China and Canada have new opportunities presently for developing their relations, Premier Li said that China is willing to have closer exchange of high-level visits and deepen the all-round cooperation between the two countries so as to make China-Canada ties bear new fruits, which would benefit the two peoples.

Canadaian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who attended the christening ceremony, expressed his gratitude to his Chinese counterpart for the latter's letter of congratulation.

The birth of the twin panda cubs, which coincided with the 45th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Canada and China, is a symbol of the friendship and cooperation between the Canadian and Chinese peoples, said Trudeau.

The Canadian government attaches great importance to the development of its relations with China and is willing to work together with China to enhance trade and economic cooperation and exchange more high-level visits between the two nations, said the Canadian leader.

The two cubs were conceived through artificial insemination using sperm from Da Mao as well as the frozen sperm from two giant pandas living in China.

Er Shun and Da Mao, sent to Canada as part of a 10-year breeding program, will remain at the Toronto Zoo until 2018 before being relocated to the Calgary Zoo for five years.
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The Chinese company Huawei Technologies on Monday granted 100,000 U.S. dollars to the Mozambican Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher and Professional Education, which is the budget required to complete the construction of a professional school in the central province of Sofala.

The Chinese ambassador to Mozambique, Su Jian, and the Minister of Science and Technology, Jorge Nhambiu, signed the agreement on delivering the money, in support of the Muanza professional school.

Ambassador Su said that the support granted by Huawei Technologies shows the robustness of the relations of friendship and cooperation between China and Mozambique. He noted that Huawei has supported a variety of projects in Mozambique, particularly in the areas of education and technology.

Nhambiu said that the school's building was part of implementation of the Professional Education Reform Programme, which is intended to establish an integrated and coherent programme of professional education in the country.

He believed that the programme will help tackle youth unemployment, by providing those who graduate from courses in the professional schools with skills that are in demand by potential employers.

The Muanza school currently has four blocks for agriculture and livestock, carpentry and mechanical and electrical workshops, a library, an audio-visual room, and six classrooms.
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British Royal Navy is to deploy military naval ships to join a NATO mission in the Aegean Sea to reduce the flow of migrants from Turkey to Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Monday.

The Royal Navy is sending amphibious landing ship royal fleet auxiliary (RFA) Mounts Bay alongside two border force cutters to join the NATO mission, Downing Street said Monday.

RFA Mounts Bay, supported by a Wildcat helicopter, is expected to start operations in the coming days to identify smugglers taking migrants to Greece and pass the information to the Turkish coastguard so they can intercept these boats.

They will be supported by three border force boats, including standby safety vessel VOS Grace which is already in the Aegean and two cutters.

"We've got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey," Cameron said on Monday.

"That's why this NATO mission is so important. It's an opportunity to stop the smugglers and send out a clear message to migrants contemplating journeys to Europe that they will be turned back," he added.

At an EU summit in Brussels on Monday, Cameron urged its European partners to break the link between migrants' getting on a boat and getting resettlement in Europe by "smashing the trafficking gangs and increasing the return of illegal migrants."

He also called on the international community to act together and stem the flow of migrants making the "perilous journey" from Turkey to Greece, according to Downing Street.
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At least five people were killed and many more wounded on Monday by a fresh rocket attack from the rebels in the northern city of Aleppo, state news agency SANA reported.

The attack targeted the Sheikh Maqsud district, a day after 14 people were killed by a similar attack against the same neighborhood, according to SANA.

Meanwhile, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has confirmed the report, saying the so-called Thuwar al-Sham group, or the Levant Revolutionaries, was responsible for shelling Sheikh Maqsud with 38 improvised rockets since Sunday.

It added that some people are still stuck under the rubble as a result of the intensified shelling against that neighborhood, which is largely inhabited by 40,000 people, largely Syrian Kurds, and around 30,000 displaced people.

The UK-based watchdog group said the district is a daily target to rebels from the Thuwar al-Sham, as well as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and likeminded groups.

The attack is the latest in a series of rebels' shelling on government-controlled parts of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once the economic capital of the country.

Large swathes of Aleppo are excluded from the ceasefire agreement, which went into effect last week, due to the heavy presence of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State (IS) group, both designated as terrorists by the United Nations.
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Sudanese army on Monday said it repulsed an attack by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector against Al-Farshaya area in South Kordofan State, official SUNA news agency reported.

"The armed forces are ready to repulse any attack by the traitors," Al-Saddiq Ahmed Al-Zubair, Commander of 54th army Brigade in Dalenj town in South Kordofan, was quoted as saying.

He said the rebels of the SPLM/northern sector infiltrated to loot the properties of the citizens at Al-Farshaya area, north of Dalenj town.

He said the army inflicted heavy loss on the attackers, pointing out that the attackers fled the area, leaving behind many of them dead and others injured, and the situation at the area was "under control."

The SPLM/northern sector has been fighting the Sudanese army in South Kordofan and Blue Nile areas since 2011.

In November last year, the last official round of talks between the Sudanese government and the rebels of the SPLM/northern sector was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but the two sides failed to reach agreement.
 Flash

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Tuesday that his country remains hopeful of finding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 two years after the plane went missing.

Malaysian lawmakers observed a moment of silence as the country marks the two-year anniversary of the missing of the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them being Chinese nationals.

A joint search effort in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane presumably ended its journey, has yet to reveal its whereabouts after covering some 75 percent of the 120,000 square kilometer search area. The search is expected to be completed later this year.

Najib said his country remains hopeful that the plane could be found in the search area.

"The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history," Najib said in a statement.

"Amidst some of the world's most inhospitable terrain - at depths of up to six kilometers, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the world's fastest currents - the search team has been working tirelessly to find MH370's resting place," he said.

Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the next step if the current search fails to find the plane, said the prime minister.

"We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonising mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost," he added.

The only confirmed debris from MH370 so far was a wing part called flaperon discovered in the French overseas Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean last year. Malaysian and Australian authorities are verifying two more suspected debris, found in the Reunion Island and nearby African country of Mozambique respectively in the past week.
Breitbart

By Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

8 Mar 2016

 Human rights and rule of law conditions in China have been on a downward trend since Xi Jinping took power as Chinese Communist Party General Secretary in 2012, resulting in 2015 being the worst year on record for human rights violations in China, according to a recent Congressional report.

For the commemoration of International Womens Day on March 8, rights groups denounced Chinas dismal record of rights abuses targeting women, especially regarding Chinas draconian family control policy.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Womens Rights Without Frontiers, told Breitbart Newsthat forced abortion and involuntary sterilization continue under Chinas new Two-Child Policy.

Unmarried women and third children continue to be forcibly aborted, Littlejohn said. Women are still routinely sterilized after their second child. On International Womens Day, we call upon the Chinese government to call off the womb police and immediately to abandon all coercive population control.

In its 2015 report, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) documented measures by the Chinese government to silence dissent, suppress human rights advocacy, and control civil society, resulting in a situation of oppression that is broader in scope than any other period documented since the Commission started issuing Annual Reports in 2002.

On March 1, 2016 the Commission released a Chinese-language Translation of an Executive Summary of its report, stating that 2015 saw the tightening of controls over the media, universities, civil society, and rights advocacy, and on members of ethnic minorities.

In its report, the Commission said that Chinas coercive population control policy, now known as the Two-Child Policy, continued to employ torture methods such as forced abortion and sterilization despite a widespread public outcry.

Many provincial laws in China explicitly instruct officials to carry out abortions for illegal pregnancies, with no requirement for consent.

Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty

The CECC report highlighted the anti-woman practices of Communist authorities, who just before International Womens Day had detained five women and held them in abusive conditions for more than five weeks for planning to distribute brochures against sexual harassment.

To make up for the enormous gender gap caused by decades of sex-selective abortions, trafficking of women and girls for forced marriage and sexual exploitation is on the rise in China, the report said. There are currently approximately 37 million more men living in China than women.

CECC leaders said that Chinas recent switch to a Two-Child Policy was a mere distraction from the reality of the deadliest and most hated policy of forced population control, and called on President Obama and world leaders to insist that China abolish the practice completely.

Families that want a third child will still face the pressure to abort their child or pay exorbitant fines, said CECC Chair Rep. Chris Smith regarding the Two-Child Policy, which began officially on January 1.

The Congressional report states that China is not moving toward a rule of law system, but is instead further entrenching a system where the Party utilizes statutes to strengthen and maintain its leading role and power over the country.

Many of Chinas religious and political prisoners are subject to harsh and lengthy prison sentences as well as various forms of extralegal and administrative detention, including arbitrary detention in black jails and legal education centers, the report stated.

The report said that Chinas Communist Party leaders are seeking a new type of U.S.-China relations and aim to play an expanded role in global institutions, while continuing to ignore international human rights norms. Chinas entrenchment in absolutist control over the lives of citizens in defiance of the rule of law have significant implication for U.S. foreign policy, the report said.

The security of U.S. investments and personal information in cyberspace, the health of the economy and environment, the safety of food and drug supplies, the protection of intellectual property, and the stability of the Pacific region are all linked to China, the report stated.

China Aid Contacts

Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director

Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.chinaaid.org
China Aid

Translated by Carolyn Song. Written in English by Brynne Lawrence.

(Wenzhou, ZhejiangMarch 3, 2016) Following the detention of human rights lawyer Zhang Kai on Friday, his parents wrote a letter on Sunday morning calling for authorities to lawfully manage their sons case.

We believe Zhang Kai is innocent, and we hope the government can respect his rights, which the law has guaranteed, they said in the letter. We hope Wenzhous law enforcement authorities can handle this in accordance with the law.

Zhang, who was originally taken into police custody on Aug. 25, 2015, and placed in a black jail, became the latest in a series of televised confessions on Feb. 25. Afterwards, Chinese authorities criminally detained Zhang.

Zhang Kai

He looks like he was under duress while making those ISIS/North Korea-style, scripted remarks about his confessed crimes of endangering national security and gathering a mob to disturb social order, China Aid president Bob Fu said in a statement regarding Zhangs confession.   I do believe he is innocent.

Zhang wrote a letter to his parents on Nov. 12, shortly after the dismissal of his lawyer, saying, I believe everything we have encountered, whether a blessing or a curse, is all controlled by the Lords hands. Therefore, we need not worry.

The letter from Zhangs parents, as well as the statement from Fu and Zhangs letter to his parents, can be read in full below.

China Aid will continue to follow Zhang Kais case in order to expose religious freedom abuses and promote freedom of religion and rule of law in China.

Statement by the parents of jailed human rights lawyer Zhang Kai

Zhang Kais [legal status] was changed to criminal detention at 9 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2016. It is not clear whats going to happen to him next. We commit all this to the control of the Lord. As parents, we are very anxious to hear about the handling of [Zhang Kais case], but we believe Zhang Kai is innocent, and we hope the government can respect his rights, which the law has guaranteed. We hope Wenzhous law enforcement authorities can handle this in accordance with the law. We hope Zhang Kai can come back home to reunite with family members as soon as possible. We thank all [the] friends who have [expressed their] care for Zhang Kai.

Zhang Kais parents on the morning of Feb. 28, 2016

Statement by China Aid President Bob Fu

Zhang Kai was seen on official TV in Wenzhou on Thursday for the first time since he was detained and put into a black jail six months ago. He looked like he was under duress while making those ISIS/North Korea-style, scripted remarks about his confessed crimes of endangering national security and gathering a mob to disturb social order, of which he has been accused simply for his organized, legal defense work against the forced cross demolition campaign, which still continues.

I am proud of being Zhang Kais close friend and fellow Christian brother. I do believe he is innocent. Although I was sad as I painfully watched him condemn me and China Aid on the CCPs official TV broadcast, I know he must have been going through enormous suffering and torture in the past six months (little did the evil authorities know that he and I actually made a pre-arranged agreement before his imprisonment that he will never compromise nor betray us in any way, unless he faces insurmountable hardship). We are always proud of you, and we love you, dear brother Zhang Kai. Keep up a good spirit, and may the comfort of the Holy Spirit be with you and heal you after you are free from physical bondage.

Although my name and China Aid are mentioned as an overseas force supporting Zhang Kais legal defense work, which is the shameful propaganda of CCP, we will never be intimidated, nor will we cease to continue to promote religious freedom for all in China.

Bob Fu

Feb. 26, 2016

Letter from detained lawyer Zhang Kai

On Nov. 23, 2015, Zhang Kais lawyer received a letter lawyer Zhang Kai wrote to his parents. The letters contents are:

Mom and Dad,

We cannot avoid all the misfortunes in life. The correct way to face them is by looking ahead. I believe everything we have encountered, whether a blessing or a curse, is all controlled by the Lords hands. Therefore, we need not worry. Here, I am communicating positively with the police, and I am hoping good will arise out of it. Thanks for commissioning lawyers for me. Zhang Lei is a lawyer of good character and will spare no effort for my matters. Thank him for reaching out his hands to save me during my hour of misfortune. Because of communication with the police, I am temporarily dismissing him. I hope you take care of your health, be optimistic, and face todays matters correctly. Things can always get better.

Signed: Your son, Zhang Kai Nov. 12, 2015

China Aid Contacts

Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director

Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.chinaaid.org
South Korean cosmetics brand Sulwhasoo's counter at a shopping mall in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Patronage of Chinese consumers switches to South Korean and Japanese cosmetic brands from European and American labels

An increasing number of Chinese consumers of foreign cosmetic products are switching allegiance to South Korean and Japanese brands from French and US labels.

Of the global beauty and personal care products bought by Chinese consumers in the Past six months, South Korean brands accounted for 47 percent, followed by Japanese labels at 29 percent and French ones at 24 percent, according to Overseas Online Shopping, a research report by Mintel Group Ltd, an independent United Kingdom firm that tracks the global fast-moving consumer goods industry.

Reasons are not far to seek. South Korean brands offer a wide range of products at competitive prices. For instance, Innisfree alone offers more than 2,000 products for in-store experience.

In addition, South Korean cosmetic makers adopt smart strategies like targeting tourists, particularly high-spending Chinese consumers, at airports and malls through duty-free outlets.

From Feb 4, stores of Aritaum, Laneige, Innisfree and Etude in major commercial districts in South Korea even started providing instant cash refund of sales tax to foreign tourists.

What's more, two Aritaum stores in Gangnam and Myeong-dong areas of Seoul opened plush tax refund lounges exclusively for international customers.

Similarly, Japanese brands pamper visiting millions of Chinese tourists every year with high-quality products.

That is not all. The humongous China market is becoming increasingly important for global cosmetics players. South Korean and Japanese cosmetic brands, particularly the former, are aggressive in their efforts to penetrate the China market.

According to South Korea customs, exports of makeup and beauty products to China alone almost doubled to $1.19 billion in 2015, while overall exports rose nearly 53 percent year-on-year to $2.9 billion.

Put differently, China now receives 41 percent of South Korea's cosmetics exports. South Korea's color cosmetics, whose average price is under 300 yuan ($45), sell better in China.

No wonder, AmorePacific Co, South Korea's leading cosmetics and beauty products maker, has a sales network covering more than 350 cities in China. On Feb 26,, it signed an agreement with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to sell its high-end brands Sulwhasoo and IOPE on Tmall.com this year.

Tmall, Alibaba's e-commerce website, will thus sell AmorePacific's full range of seven brands in China.
Chinese skincare brand Pechoin's counter at a shopping mall in Nanning, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Despite economic slowdown and intense competition from Japanese and South Korean cosmetic and skincare brands, Chinese players are fighting back to regain consumers.

According to the China Shopper Report 2015, released by consulting firm Bain & Co in July last year, Chinese retailers contributed 87 percent to the overall market growth in 2014, accounting for about 70 percent of the market value in 26 monitored categories.

They outsold foreign brands in 18 categories, making the biggest gains in skincare and color cosmetics.

Bruno Lannes, partner at Bain's Shanghai office, said Chinese cosmetic brands made gains by executing smart strategies designed to appeal to local shoppers.

"For example, Chinese skincare brand Pechoin advanced by starting from smaller cities and expanding into larger markets with upgraded products and a premium brand image.

"Media-heavy investment helped cosmetics brand Kans boost its penetration in offline channels to gain market share from foreign competitors."

Expectation of a rise in demand in the future has also driven domestic retailers to increase the pace of opening stores, according to Deloitte China.

On the other hand, overseas retailers have a more conservative approach to allocating their resources. They face intense competition from local companies on top of uncertainty over domestic and global economic growth.

Xie Wenjian, general manager of Shanghai Jahwa United Co Ltd, said that from a cultural perspective, the rise of local brands is the result of "the rising oriental natural power".

Chinese consumers' preference for herbal and traditional Chinese medicine has prompted the growth of local brands, he said.

Shanghai-based Jala Group, known for its leading brands including Chando and Maysu, has been one of the successful players. In 2015, the group saw its total sales revenue rise by 15 percent year-on-year.

Sales of its products at department stores and supermarkets grew by a more significant 19 percent. Three skincare products under the group's key brand Chando managed to clock annual sales of more than 100 million yuan ($15.3 million) each last year.

According to Zheng Chunying, chairman of Jala, 2014 was a turning point for Chinese domestic brands. In that year, their collective sales overtook that of foreign brands for the first time.

Much of that success can be attributed to research and development in which Chinese companies invested heavily. Jala, for instance, invested 5 percent of its annual turnover in R&D in 2015.

This meant the quality of Chinese products improved to be comparable with foreign brands. In some cases, Chinese products were even considered superior.

"Of course, the rise of Chinese domestic brands is also due to government support. The central government has been educating consumers about domestic brands. Chinese consumers now have a rational understanding of local brands, and are not unduly swayed by the notion that all foreign brands must be superior by default," he said.

Chinese e-commerce websites have also provided more opportunities for cosmetics brands to grow. During the Nov 11 online shopping festival last year, Chando's sales reached 103 million yuan, double the previous year's figure.

Among the 500,000-plus consumers who bought Chando products that day, 85 percent were first-time buyers. From Nov 1 to 10, Chando's offline sales also surged by more than 60 percent year-on-year. Sales of its makeup products alone increased by 52 percent year-on-year.

Many other domestic cosmetic and skincare brands seized the Nov 11 opportunity and competed with celebrated global brands. Flash sale giant Vipshop Holdings Ltd hosted many Chinese brands on its online platform, such as Shanghai-based Kans and Pechoin, and Beijing-based Dabao, which squared up against many European and US brands, including Estee Lauder, Olay and Elizabeth Arden.

"Domestic players now understand the importance of brand-building. This has greatly helped their sales in China. We have seen rapid increase in sales of Chinese makeup and skincare brands on our platform," said Zhang Dan, public relations manager of Vipshop.
A couple running a catering startup in Huai'an, Jiangsu province, show the app through which they sell their products. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's current emphasis on entrepreneurship, innovation, automation, technology upgrading, think tanks and foreign talent suggests the share of services in China's GDP will likely grow progressively in coming years.

If China's GDP grows by 7 percent this year, which is the upper end of the government's target range, GDP would reach 72.4 trillion yuan ($11.1 trillion). Services could well contribute around 52 percent of it or about 37.5 trillion yuan.

That figure is presumed but probablesomething China's enterprises, entrepreneurs, investors and aspiring business startup founders can ill-afford to ignore.

For, China's inexorable tilt toward services represents a massive opportunity to make full use of the country's 900 million workforce.

The signs are bright that the nation is intent on riding out the current challenging times by harnessing the full potential of services.

"The service sector as a proportion of GDP rose to 50.5 percent, accounting for more than half for the first time," Premier Li Keqiang informed the National People's Congress on Saturday.

Li told the NPC that "an average of 12,000 new businesses per day" were incorporated last year. About 75 percent of them were in services. And 90 percent of them were individuals' startups.

This year, commercial banks will be allowed on a trial basis to invest in startups and small businesses.

Li's report contained phrases like "crowd innovation, crowd support, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding". It is commendable the government is not averse to using the lingo of the ecosystem of startups and sharing economy in order to better relate to those who inhabit it.

Yet, the national effort would come unstuck if enough attention is not paid to potential risks.

The biggest risk would be lack of awareness of opportunities. Many prospective startup founders' experience in India, where even basic information could often prove elusive, is not irrelevant to China.

How to register and run a company? How many investors are out there? How to sell an idea? How to find the right investor (and steer clear of racketeers)? What are the various sources of funding? How to ensure a business proposal is kept confidential? How to enforce a non-disclosure agreement? How to clinch a fair term-sheet? When to expand?

Up-to-the-minute and exhaustive answers to such FAQs could well become part of the public domain in China, if Li's forward-looking report is any sign. I see scope for effective awareness campaigns that could proactively educate not just prospective entrepreneurs but even investors, such that everyone aligns with the government's larger goals.

However, efforts may be necessary to ensure the startup space does not become a playground for just a few wealthy, valuation- and lucrative exit-minded investors, and startups don't get concentrated in a few glamorous industries, or become synonymous with mobile apps and websites. Rural startups that could strengthen and empower farmers should also receive a legupread easy bank loans.

The Indian government set up a startup fund recently. A startup called Tracxn that creates big data on the startup ecosystem, including China's, has received the backing of prominent investors.

China may want to go one step further and consider setting up a sovereign startup fund to encourage entrepreneurial-minded Chinese to strike out with similar people in other countries to found startups with a global scope.
Chinese textile company Loftex Logistics has acquired a new 53,000-square-foot warehouse in New Jersey to use as its first fulfillment and distribution center in the US.

The company, which manufactures and exports home textile goods, paid approximately $12.5 million for the warehouse in Carlstadt, about 15 miles west of New York, according to real estate research company CoStar.

The sale was announced at the end of February and the newly constructed warehouse was owned by Sitex Group, a New York private equity firm that specializes in real estate investment.

"The space and its location were so desirable that Loftex Logistics, LLC went under contract on the property before construction even started," said Tom Vetter, senior vice-president of NAI Hanson, which represented Sitex in the sale.

"We will continue to see quick absorption of new, quality industrial assets within the Meadowlands sub-market due to very little land available for development, its close proximity to New York City and the emergence of e-commerce," he said in a statement.

Vetter told China Daily that even though he hasn't yet seen an apparent increase in the number of Chinese companies looking for warehouse space in New Jersey, it was the second deal he has closed for a Chinese company.

The other company, which he declined to disclose, is also a textile company looking for convenient warehouse space.

"They were also looking to set up a distribution facility  just because of the proximity to New York and the highways that are in this part of New Jersey. That was what was desirable for them, and I think it's the same thing for Loftex," he said.

Loftex supplies companies with high-end home towels. The Shandong-based company is one of the largest towel manufacturers and exporters in the world.

With the growth of e-commerce, many companies are looking to New Jersey for warehouse space, according to NorthJersey.com. Vacancy rates in New Jersey are at their lowest in nearly two decades, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The purchase also comes at a time when many Chinese companies are expanding into the United States with manufacturing and logistics chains, or simply investing in American property.

Last November, China Life Insurance Co. invested more than $1 billion into US warehouses, taking a 30 percent stake in warehouse operations acquired by Global Logistic Properties, a warehouse-owner based in Singapore.

"I think there is activity on the part of Chinese companies to acquire real estate for their own occupancy and usage, which shouldn't be terribly surprising given there seems to be a pretty strong push on the part of the Chinese in general, looking to invest in the US because of what's going on in Asia and because of the safe-haven status of the US," said Scott Latham, vice-chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com
Chinese Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei gives a press conference on the sidelines of the fourth session of China's 12th National People's Congress at the press center in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - The widely held belief that the Great Hall of the People, iconic edifice of China's political democracy, had little room for spontaneous dissent crumbled today when Finance Minister Lou Jiwei delivered a lengthy attack on a standing law, live on national TV.

Monday was the third day of the national parliamentary session, and the news briefing where Lou made his unprecedented statement was hosted by the National People's Congress (NPC), the body which approved his nomination as Finance Minister and whose Standing Committee in 2007 passed the Labor Contract Law which has so irked the minister.

Hundreds of reporters were present to hear the man who holds China's purse strings, when one of them, citing complaints from entrepreneurs, lit Lou's fuse by asking about previous criticism he had made of the law.

Those comments had been to a rather different audience, one composed mainly of academics in Tsinghua University and on another occasion at a scholars' forum. Well-known as a no-nonsense straight-talker, Lou held nothing back.

The minister's argument is that the law is overprotective of employees, making employers unwilling to create jobs and invest in training. This, Lou claims, ultimately hurts workers by denying them jobs openings or the opportunity to improve their skills.

"For enterprises and employees, the extent of protection afforded by the Labor Contract Law is unbalanced," Lou said. "For prospective employees, especially the low-skilled, the law discriminates against them.

"As employees are allowed to terminate employment easily with only one month's notice, employers lack the motivation to invest in training. Why would any business spend money on training them? Our acute shortage of medium to highly skilled technicians partly stems from this law."

"An employee may not work hard and the law makes it difficult for the employer to deal with by, for example, firing him or her. That prevents another prospective employee from taking the position."

Lou is not the first to voice concern over the Labor Contract Law. The draft spent nearly a year in front of the cabinet before being submitted to the Standing Committee of the NPC and took another 19 months to be approved.

In China drafts are usually read three times, but the labor contract draft was read for a fourth time, after its full text was released for public consultation.

It was a time of breathtaking manufacturing growth in China, built mainly on the efforts of a labor force who, according to the law's proponents, were deprived of their fair share of prosperity. Opponents of the law argued to no avail, that the bias toward employees would increase business costs and hurt job seekers.
Female college students participate in a job fair held particularly for them in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, March 5, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Shanghai residents are calling for more sophisticated maternity insurance for female workers to improve their competitiveness in the job market, according to the findings of a new survey.

Nearly 57 percent of respondents to the survey, published by the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau ahead of International Women's Day, which falls on Tuesday, said they feel women encounter more barriers when looking for work and in career development, mainly because of issues around maternity leave and the fact that women face more distractions in the workplace due to family commitments and child care.

Nearly 30 percent of respondents believed the best solution lay in a thorough maternity insurance system capable of easing the burden on employers.

And some 22 percent said they would like to see quotas that stipulate the proportion of female workers in some industries through legislation.

The survey polled more than 1,000 Shanghai residents above the age of 18.

Feng Lijuan, a human resources expert at Chinese job finding website 51job.com, said women's outstanding performance in the workplace had ensured employers were less inclined to discriminate against them when looking for new workers. Some companies were targeting women because many request less pay than similarly qualified men.

"However, the universal second-child policy has made some employers less willing to hire women, especially those who have got married but haven't started their families," Feng said.

"Women frequently ask for leave around the time of giving birth and force employers, who are often cost-sensitive, to hire replacements."

Another survey done by 51job.com on Monday showed 55 percent of those polled reported an increase in female colleagues who were having a second child.

More than 2,600 people participated in the poll and women made up 86 percent of respondents.

Yang Xiong, director of the Institute of Sociology under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that the government levy less tax on businesses that employ an appropriate proportion of women, to offset the higher costs they may face.

"Another way would be for the human resources authority to calculate the proportion of women of childbearing age at an enterprise and design a formula to compensate the enterprise," Yang said.

A longer period of paid paternal leave, which is also a cost borne by the employer, has been applauded by social experts and the public as an important step in ensuring equal treatment at work.

New fathers in Shanghai have, since the beginning of March, been entitled to 10 days child care leave, an increase on the previous three days.

"It is an encouragement to fathers to be more engaged in bringing up children from the very beginning. More participation from fathers in bringing up their children and in carrying out family chores will give mothers more time and energy for their careers," said Yu Yalin, a mother of two girls from Shanghai.
XIAMEN - Foreign stone traders' confidence in demand from China is as solid as their products, judging by the mood at the 16th China Xiamen International Stone Fair (CXISF).

Despite concerns over China's slowing economy limiting building work and hitting imports of building materials, Chinese will continue to fork out on stone from marble to granite for use in construction and homes, said delegates at the fair, which opened on Sunday and closes on Wednesday.

There are 47 Brazilian stone companies attending this event, 12 more than in 2015.

Roberta Britto, chair of the Brazilian delegation, said there is still huge demand for stone due to Chinese infrastructure construction and the country's real estate sector.

"This is especially true in home use," Britto said. "Chinese families are more well-off these days and spend more on house decoration, of which stones are an inevitable part."

China is the world's largest stone market and importer. In 2014, China had a total trade volume of 6.8 billion euro ($7.4 billion) in marble and granite, a yearly increase of 4.6 percent, and imported 2.2 billion euro's worth of stone material, up 2.5 percent from 2013, according to Internazionale Marmi e Macchine, a specialist market researcher in Italy.

"I am confident about China's stone market. China has huge demand for stones thanks to many infrastructure projects," said Halil Alimoglu, a stone trader from Turkey, the largest stone supplier to China.

Aimoglu's company had a trade volume of $750 million last year in China. He expects the sales to continue to rise this year.

Lai Guoxiang, general manager of the company that organized CXISF, said fast urbanization in China has continued to drive up demand for stone and that the country remains a very attractive market for foreign traders.

CXISF has covered 180,000 square meters and attracted more than 2,000 enterprises from 56 countries and regions this year, both new records, according to Lai.
HANOI - A Vietnamese official described China as a top partner of Vietnam with two-way trade of over $66 billion in 2015 during an event held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Monday.

Speaking at a business forumon Vietnamese and China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's businesses, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said Vietnam exported more than $17 billion worth of goods to China, mainly electronic spare parts, agricultural and seafood products, as well as coal among others in 2015, according to Vietnamese statistics.

Meanwhile, the country imported machinery and equipment from China, Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA cited Khuong as saying.

Currently, China is running over 1,300 projects in Vietnam with total capital of over $10 billion, Khuong said, adding that the investment is forecast to surge in the near future.

Vice Chairwoman of Guangxi's Trade Promotion Association Zhou Ling said the close geographical distance facilitates bilateral transport activities and cooperation in the spirit of making the best use of their strengths and potential.

Vietnam is expected to serve as an entrepot for China and Guangxi in particular to boost trade with the ASEAN business community, she said.

During the forum, Chinese businesses expressed their wish to seek investment opportunities and partners in the fields of hotel, food processing, health equipment, and agriculture.

What's more, Chinese authorities counted $95.82 billion Sino-Vietnam trade in 2015, instead of Vietnam's figure of over $66 billion. Both sides conclude that China has been Vietnam's top trade partner for the past 12 years.
BEIJING - China's exports slumped more than expected in February, as weak global demand and seasonal factors added to pressure on the slowing economy, customs data showed on Tuesday.

Exports in dollar-denominated terms were more than 25 percent lower than in February 2015, worsening from the 11.2-percent decline in January and the sharpest drop since May 2009, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

In yuan-denominated terms, exports slumped 20.6 percent year on year to 821.8 billion yuan ($126.3 billion) in February, a steeper fall than 6.6 percent in January.

The data is "ringing alarm bells on the state of the factory sector," said Tom Orlik, chief Asia economist at Bloomberg.

Business inactivity around the Spring Festival holiday, which fell in early February this year, overstated the year-on-year export slump.

"Even so, looking at a year-to-date figure for the first two months of the year, the picture is only slightly less gloomy," Orlik wrote in a research note.

In the Jan-Feb period, exports in yuan-denominated terms went down 13.1 percent year on year to 1.96 trillion yuan, the GAC data showed. Imports dropped 11.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan, while total foreign trade was 12.6 percent lower than a year earlier at 3.31 trillion yuan.

HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin said the February export decline was steeper than market expectations, citing sagging external demand as the main reason.

Meanwhile, he attributed the milder import decrease to stabilizing commodity prices, noting that domestic demand remains subdued.

Imports in February dropped 8 percent to 612.3 billion yuan, improving from the 14.4-percent fall a month earlier. In dollar terms, the contraction in imports also narrowed from 18.8 percent in January to 13.8 percent.

Exports were once a major driver for China's economy but became a drag on growth after the global financial crisis sapped demand.

Dented by flagging trade, cooling property investment and an industrial glut, China's economy expanded in 2015 by just 6.9 percent, its slowest pace in 25 years.

Orlik said he expected exports to remain weak, as the latest manufacturing indicators have shown orders contracting.

The purchasing managers' index showing China's manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level in four years in February, with the sub-index for new orders down, according to an official survey.

Slumping exports led to a 43.3-percent year-on-year contraction in the monthly foreign trade surplus in February, which was down from 406.2 billion yuan in January to 209.5 billion yuan, according to the GAC.

Total foreign trade value in February fell 15.7 percent year on year to 1.43 trillion yuan, widening from the 9.8-percent decline seen in January.

China's foreign trade will probably continue to lose steam in the second quarter of the year as global economic fundamentals are unlikely to improve, according to analysis by investment firm China International Capital Corp.

In regional breakdown, China's trade in yuan-denominated terms with its biggest trade partner, the European Union, dropped 9.7 percent year on year in the first two months of 2016.

In the same period, trade with the United States, China's second-biggest trade partner, declined by 12.2 percent and that with the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, the third-largest trade partner, dipped 14.9 percent.

The February trade data pointed to an increasingly worrying lack of demand for Chinese exports, which is likely to put further pressure on domestic production, according to a research note from HSBC.

"With risks to growth on the downside, and little support from external demand, a more decisive stimulus package targeted at lifting domestic demand and countering deflation is warranted," according to the note.
Premier Li Keqiang joins Chongqing deputies to the National People's Congress for a photograph after a panel discussion in Beijing on March 8, which marked International Women's Day. Li extended greetings to the female deputies. [Photo/China Daily]

The central government is to continue with its self-reform program and delegation of power to lower levels to boost market vibrancy in central and western areas of Chinakey areas for future economic growth.

Premier Li Keqiang stressed this point during a meeting with deputies from Chongqing on Tuesday during the annual session of the National People's Congress, where he heard their suggestions.

Chongqing headed GDP growth in China last year, with an 11 percent expansion year-on-year, while the national figure fell to 6.9 percent. The municipality has set a goal of 10 percent GDP growth for this year.

Li highlighted the economic achievements made by Chongqing last year. He encouraged it to play a leading role in economic reform and opening-up in central and western China as well as the overall development of the Yangtze River Economic Zone, driving the development of surrounding regions.

He urged the municipality to introduce diverse measures to generate new economic driving forces, such as the service industry, and to upgrade traditional industries.

Chongqing lies at the intersection of the route for China's Belt and Road Initiative and the country's Yangtze River Economic Belt. In November, the premier proposed expanding free trade zone policies for central and western China.

Chongqing also hosts the third government-to-government project between China and Singapore. Launched in January, this focuses on cooperation in financial services, aviation, logistics and information communication technology.

Zhang Xiaode, a regional economist at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said Chongqing has high geographic importance in central and western China, as it has performed better than neighboring provinces. It is also important for the city to have better high-speed rail transportation to further grow its economy, Zhang said.

Delegating power to lower levels was stressed repeatedly by Li during Tuesday's meeting as he focused on cultivating local expertise.

Liu Xiya, a deputy and principal of Xiejiawan Primary School in Chongqing, said she hopes that local primary schools can be given more power over teaching subjects, eliciting a warm response.

Li also asked at the meeting about primary school students' education.

He agreed to Liu's request for a group photo with all the female deputies from Chongqing after the meeting, as Tuesday marked International Women's Day.
The production line of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co in Hefei, Anhui province. [Photo/China Daily]

Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co, one of the few remaining major Chinese automakers without a foreign joint-venture partner, said it is in talks to cooperate with Volkswagen AG as it seeks to gain more advanced technology.

The company, which counts the Anhui provincial government as a shareholder, is actively pursuing joint-venture tie-ups with foreign carmakers, Chairman An Jin said on Sunday in Beijing, where he was attending the annual session of the National People's Congress.

"We are communicating with VW in a friendly manner and with mutual respect," An said. "All leading multinational peers are role models we can learn from. If there is an opportunity, we are very open and active in cooperating with them on the capital front."

Jianghuai slumped the most in more than four years in March 2013 after China Central Television reported that the company had sold vehicles with rusted frames. The automaker subsequently recalled more than 100,000 cars, saying the cars didn't meet some technical standards.

An declined to be more specific about the nature of the talks with Volkswagen, which said last month that it will invest more than 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) in China this year.

Foreign companies that want to produce vehicles in China must set up a joint venture with a local partner that has a manufacturing permit.

Jianghuai has set a target to sell 580,000 to 650,000 vehicles this year, compared with last year's deliveries of 588,052 units.
Harald Krueger, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, poses for a photo in the BMW Vision Next 100 ahead of the centenary event in Munich on Mar 7, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A BMW concept car was unveiled at a world premiere at the centenary event in Munich on Monday, one hundred years after the company registered, as it continues to define itself with a focus on the future and pioneering action.

The BMW AG celebrated its centenary under the slogan "the Next 100 Years", and the celebrations focused primarily on what lies ahead and explores how individual mobility might develop over the coming decades.

"In the BMW Group, we are always on a quest for the best solution. It's part of our DNA," said Harald Krueger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, at the event. "It's also the spirit of our collaborations, a recurring theme that permeates our corporate and leadership culture."

"We have demonstrated on many occasions throughout our history that we are capable of learning fast and taking bold steps."

The Munich based group believes three qualities set it apart: the capacity to learn and adapt, technological innovation, and a sense of responsibility toward society.

"Future mobility will connect every area of people's lives. And that's where we see new opportunities for premium mobility," Krueger added.

The premium carmaker's Vision Next 100 generated a futuristic scenario with a clear vision: premium mobility will be comprehensively available and tailored to every customer's individual preferences, according to the company

The concept car on display combines coupe-type sportiness with the dynamic elegance of a sedan, rather than being an anonymous transport machine, it is a highly customized vehicle that is perfectly tailored to suit the driver's changing needs.

Driver-vehicle interactions are managed by Alive Geometry; Boost and Ease modes offer a choice of driver-controlled or vehicle-controlled operations, and the interior of the vehicle changes to suit the mode of travel.

Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design said: "If, as a designer, you are able to imagine something, there's a good chance it could one day become reality. So our objective with the BMW Vision Next 100 was to develop a future scenario that people would engage with."

The BMW Vision Next 100 will go on a world tour entitled "Iconic Impulses" stopping in China, the United Kingdom and the United States. After its Asian premiere in Beijing, it will travel to London, where the Vision Vehicles of the BMW Group's British brands  MINI and Rolls-Royce  will be unveiled. Its last port of call will be Los Angeles, US, where BMW Motorrad will add its Vision Vehicle to the collection to complete the quartet of brands.

The BMW Group is also enhancing its commitment to social responsibility. BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, will be increased by 50 million euros ($45 million) to a total of 100 million euros. In addition, annual donations will be made to support project work. In 2016 this financing will amount to another 5 million euros. Further financing will be provided by major shareholders Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, who will support project work with an additional 30 million euros.
Photo taken on Jan 13, 2016 shows the Xiaomi smartphone on display at its launching ceremony in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. [Photo/Xinhua]

Mobile Internet will deliver China 'golden opportunities' over the next decade

Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi Corp, says China's rural areas are busting with opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship in the IT industry.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing on Monday, he added that the company also has a great desire to develop the country's virtual reality technology sector.

"Internet businesses run from rural areas will be the next big thing after the mobile Internet and will bring China golden opportunities over the next 10 years," Lei said.

Highlighting what he called the country's growing number of "unicorn companies"the tech startups valued at more than $1 billion each, he said the expanding 4G network has already connected many previously remote areas via smartphone, the use of which is becoming commonplace across the country, even in the remotest areas.

"This means the countryside can skip the popularization of PCs altogether, and move directly into the mobile Internet era," said Lei, whose company has developed much of China's best homegrown smartphone technology.

According to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center, there are 195 million Internet users in rural China, or 28.4 percent of the national total. That equates to one Internet user in every three villagers.

"China has a large rural population. As the Internet becomes an increasingly important part of these people's lives, it also provides opportunities for investment, entrepreneurship and employment," said Lei.

As a leading angel investor, Lei said he has personally invested in several rural start-ups which base their business on the Internet. And these startups are developing fast.

He gave one example of a firm, set up just a year and a half ago, which has a monthly revenue of more than 500 million yuan ($76.8 million).

The inspiration behind many innovations, he said, has been finding ways of narrowing what he called the urban-rural gap, the most common being the development of mobile applications specially designed for young people living in the countryside, who often have different needs for their smartphones than those in cities.
Products of the Inspur Group Ltd are on display at an exhibition in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

Inspur Group Co Ltd, the Chinese information technology firm headquartered in Shandong province, plans to spend at least 1 billion yuan ($154 million) on overseas cloud computing acquisitions this year, as it looks to the booming sector for growth.

Sun Pishu, chairman and chief executive of the country's biggest server manufacturer and a deputy to the National People's Congress, said the focus will be "valuable assets and technologies".

"Overseas mergers and acquisitions will help us effectively grow our presence in these areas," he said.

"We are still looking for targets, ... this (a dozen billion yuan) will work as the budget (for potential M&As)," said Sun.

Although the 54-year-old chairman refused to reveal any potential targets, he did say the firm is seeking advanced technologies from North America.

He also said Inspur's $100 million joint venture with the US information technology giant Cisco Systems Inc will be ready for business in the first half of this year, once the tie-up is approved by the authorities.

Inspur announced the deal with Cisco in late 2015 and said the JV will be responsible for reselling Cisco networking equipment in China as well as jointly developing a wide spectrum of software and hardware products. Inspur will hold a 51 percent stake in the new firm.

"Copying from others was never a correct direction to go for Chinese tech companies," Sun said.

"Instead, we join hands with overseas giants, buy up their patents and set up joint development facilities."

Gene Cao, principle analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said Inspur is likely to spend most of the budget acquiring cloud computing infrastructure, to beef up its own core services.

"Inspur will spend the rest on cloud-based operating systems and software providers, because these are the areas where it is lagging behind," said Cao, adding that besides M&As, the company is also seeking partnerships with overseas tech giants.

Thanks to strong growth in consumer electronics and cloud computing, China's IT spending has grown by 11 percent in the past year while global average growth has been between 5 and 6 percent, according to research firm International Data Corp.

Kitty Fok, director of IDC China, said the country's robust demand for servers is becoming a major driver of hardware sales, with Internet companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd among the market's biggest buyers.

"Alibaba purchased a similar amount of x86-based servers as Brazil in 2015. More servers were shipped to Tencent than to South Korea," said Fok.

With Lenovo Group Ltd and the newly restructured H3C Technologies Co Ltd also pledging a bigger presence in China, however, Inspur is likely to face strong competition, particularly as the Chinese government puts more attention on information security, forcing many overseas giants to find ways of cooperating with local players.

Last summer, Hewlett-Packard Co sold 51 percent of its stake in the Hangzhou-based H3C to State-owned enterprise Unisplendour Corp Ltd for at least $2.5 billion.

"Such deals will benefit both Chinese and overseas vendors in the long run," said Fok.
Many well-educated women complain about gender discrimination in their job search.

"Women with higher degrees may lose out, as marriage and pregnancy may not be far off. My pregnant friend's job application got rejected."

Zhang Xiaoyao, civil engineering assistant in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province

"Most companies do not show any obvious discrimination, but some will ask about personal information, such as marriage and family plans."

Wang Songyuan, English graduate in Shenyang, Liaoning province

"A 'males first' attitude is clear in the job descriptions of some companies. Most women will also be excluded from the final interviews."

Wu Yao, English undergraduate in Wuhan, Hubei province

"It's ridiculous to require female applicants to be married or be moms. Favoring pretty faces is also a problem."

Chen Haiyun, accounting undergraduate in Suzhou, Anhui province
Sustained efforts in legal system credited for decline in abductions

The trafficking of women and children has been curtailed in the past few years, thanks to multipronged efforts that include harsher judicial rules, China's top court said on Monday.

While 3,631 people were found guilty of trafficking in 2010, that number fell to 1,362 last year, according to the latest numbers from the Supreme People's Court.

Meanwhile, the number of related cases in Chinese courts during 2015 also fell, from 1,919 six years ago to 853.

The two benchmarks were both well down from 2010, the first by 55.6 percent and the second by 62.5 percent, said the court, which added that it believed such abductions in the country had been brought under control.

"Such an impact on trafficking-related crime should be attributed to stricter rules, harsher penalties and the increasing awareness of the need to protect women and children in the Chinese courts," the top court said.

In 2010, the top court issued guidelines on dealing with the abduction of women and children. They call for police to immediately launch a criminal investigation as soon as a minor is reported missing. Adults who buy trafficked children are also now liable to be prosecuted as child abductors.

The judicial document that tightened and toughened the laws effectively solved problems from the past associated with delays in investigating disappearances and relatively lenient sentences, it said.

In addition, the top court also strengthened cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund and a team that works against abductions in regions along the Mekong River, both aimed at reducing abductions with an international connection.

But the court confirmed that some new crimes against women and children have surged recently. For example, the number of parents who have sold their own children has risen, as has the prevalence of sexual assaults.

Chen Wei, a Beijing lawyer who specializes in family disputes and representing women, applauded the progress against child abductions, saying improvements can also be attributed to efforts on social media and the participation of the public.

"This is not just the job of judicial bodies, such as the police and the courts, it is everyone's responsibility," Chen said.

She expressed concern that sexual assaults seemed to be on the rise against children left behind in rural areas "while their parents work elsewhere in the country and elderly guardians, often grandparents, are not capable of protecting them".

The number of offenders sentenced for sexual offenses against children between 2013 and 2015 was 6,620, according to official data.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn
Lucheng town in Tongzhou where Beijing will relocate municipal administrative bodies. [Photo/IC]

The municipal government of Beijing will move to the suburban district of Tongzhou at the end of 2017, a high-ranking official said on Monday.

About 400,000 people will move to Tongzhou in the relocation, which President Xi Jinping ordered during an inspection of the capital two years ago, said Li Shixiang, a National People's Congress deputy and executive vice-mayor of Beijing.

This was the first time Beijing officials have released a timetable for the relocation that aims to make room for the central government in downtown areas.

Along with the municipal government, the Beijing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the People's Congress of Beijing, and the Beijing Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will also move to the new location, Li said. These are the four components of China's political structure.

The municipal government, meanwhile, plans to focus on construction of three new towns in the districts of Daxing, Changping and Shunyi to accommodate those moved from downtown districts.

Li said some low-impact industries already have been moved or demolished. "By the end of last year, the city shut down industrial enterprises and relocated 220 wholesale markets," he said.
Buildings in the Shanghai Hongqiao Central Business District tower above city traffic on June 13, 2011. [Photo/IC]

Twenty-eight companies signed agreements Friday to open offices in the core zone of the Shanghai Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD), aiming to seize opportunities in the rapidly developing Yangtze River Delta region.

The 28 companies, including Chinese fashion e-retailer Vipshop Holdings and German company KSPG, will occupy 155,000-square-meter office areas and bring 11.7 billion yuan ($1.79 billion) in capital to the zone.

"Hongqiao CBD development is a key strategic decision made by the Shanghai government to promote the city's business upgrade and transformation," said Min Shilin, executive deputy director of the Shanghai Hongqiao CBD Administrative Committee. "Today's signing ceremony marks the zone's development enters a new era."

Among the 28 companies, 13 plan to move their headquarters into the core zone, according to Min.

"We will set up a sub-headquarters mainly for the online financial service sector in the Hongqiao CBD to support Internet industry," said Yang Donghao, chief executive officer of Vipshop.

Over 600 companies have decided to move into the core zone, including Roche and Grundfos, Min said.

The Hongqiao CBD, situated in the western part of Shanghai, covers 86.6 square kilometers. It has a 27-square-kilometer main function area and a 59-square-kilometer expansion area. Its core zone covers 4.7-square-kilometers and will focus on developing a headquarters economy and high-end business.

Travel time on foot from Hongqiao CBD to Hongqiao High-speed Railway Station and Hongqiao Airport ranges between 7 and 15 minutes, which facilitates business people's inter-city travel.

The zone will accelerate core zone construction and develop more facilities that support business in 2016.

Min revealed that the city's first tour route and demonstration area, with a fusion of business, tourism and culture, will be launched in May, which will let visitors see Hongqiao CBD's characteristic development.
A student learns from an online open course in a middle school in Changsha, Hunan province on Nov 28, 2014. [Photo/CFP]

Watching a video of TED talk or an open class on the Internet, or registering for an online course to learn a new language or hobby, are trending. You'll be seen as behind the times if your experience of the above is zero.

Online education is growing. More than 1,000 online education start-ups have been established since 2014 in Chinaaccording to news.pedaily.cn.

It is one of the most popular fields where entrepreneurs and venture capitalists flock together on account of the absence of geographic restrictions, a high degree of standardization, and economies of scale from reuse of content.

MOOC, or Massive Online Open Courses, is one of the platforms where people can register for free and have access to all online courses provided by universities worldwide.

According to its official website, MOOC courses have assessment and examination just like a regular offline courses do. People signing up can participate in video illustration, discussion, submitting assignments, asking questions and a final exam.

Once a course completed, users can receive an electronic certificate or pay for a paper copy, which are now acknowledged by many employers.

The Ministry of Education said MOOC "has enlarged the time and space of teaching, fired learners' interest, helped more people benefit from high-quality educational resources and accelerated reform in many aspects of teaching".

MOOC has gained popularity in China since 2013 and some universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University have established their own MOOC platforms.

In April last year, the Ministry of Education released guidelines to encourage higher education institutes, especially those with strengths in specific majors and information technology, to establish MOOCs that focus on liberal education, public courses and the core curricula of some majors.

The ministry will select from current MOOC platforms and encourage them to share data and teaching resources as a way of creating an online teaching and learning space which benefits life-long learners.

MOOC, originating in the United States, has become popular around the world with 2012 being referred to as "the first year of the MOOC era".

The estimated market size of global online education in 2015 has reached about $47.9 billion and will be increased by $2.5 billion until the year 2020, according to a report released by research firm Ambient Insight.
China clamps down on illegal, harmful publications (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-03-08 20:47

BEIJING -- The government has launched an eight-month crackdown on the creation, sale and dissemination of illegal and harmful children's publications.



The nationwide campaign, which lasts from February to September, aims to uncover books, cartoons and games which are deemed harmful to children being sold around primary and middle schools, according to a circular posted on the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications' website on Tuesday.



Sales of publications that promote heresy, superstition, obscenity, violence, instigate crimes, or are found to contain content which is "horrific or cruel," are prohibited, according to the circular.



The campaign will also clean up online social networks that disseminate harmful online games, novels, music, cartoons, to children and the youth, the circular said.



Such websites and applications will be shut down, banned, and operators will be held accountable, it added.



The clampdown is one of several campaigns the office and other government agencies have embarked on since early this year to weed out illegal and pornographic publications and information both online and offline.



To create a cleaner Internet environment, the campaigns focus on striking web portals, video websites and search engines that make and disseminate pornography, addressing the emerging practice of sharing and hosting pornography via cloud storage services and clearing away harmful items that mainly target minors, according to the office.



They have also cracked down on illegal Internet-based media, academic journals, news websites, copyright infringement and piracy, the office said.



The campaigns will go after organizations and individuals that upload obscene text, pictures and videos, owners and operators of websites and webpages that knowingly allow or condone production, replication, publication, sale and dissemination of pornography and other harmful information, as well as providers of other related services.



By holding these organizations and individuals accountable, especially by prosecuting them for criminal offences, the campaigns will thoroughly wipe out the profit equation of disseminating harmful information via the Internet, deal a heavy blow to online criminal activities and issue a stern warning to those in the Internet information service industry, the office said.



This year has already seen a number of related cases busted and a large amount of harmful information eliminated in the campaigns.



In 2015, campaigns of similar nature confiscated more than 15 million illegal publications and shut down 28,000 websites deemed pornographic or featuring other illegal content, figures from the office showed.
China began a voluntary organ donation trial in 2010 and promoted the practice across the country in 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Organ donations in China reached a record high last year, after sourcing organs from executed prisoners was banned, said Huang Jiefu, former vice-minister of health.

"Organ transplantation in China has made a successful transformation in the past year," Huang said. "It has won recognition by the world."

The number of organ donors in China reached 2,766 last year, and more than 10,000 surgeries were performed, outnumbering the total for 2013 and 2014, Huang said.

China stopped the use of organs from executed prisoners for transplant surgery on Jan 1 last year, and voluntary donations from citizens have become the only source.

Statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission show organ donations have been increasing rapidly.

The rate for organ donation per million of population reached 1.2 in 2014, a 60-fold increase from the level of 2010, the commission said.

The rate was increased to 2.1 per million last year, Huang said.

"Last year the success rate of transplant surgery in China was also the highest, as organs were donated from citizens rather than retrieved from executed prisoners," Huang, also chairman of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee, said.

The progress of organ donation and transplant in China has also won recognition from the world, Huang said.

In last August, Huang became one of 19 receptions of the Gusi International Peace Prize, Asia's leading body to honor contributions to global peace and progress.

Huang was rewarded for his remarkable contributions in medicine, including "orchestrating the entire organ transplantation reform, ending the use of executed prisoners' organs, and developing the necessary social, legal and clinical framework to enable large-scale organ donation in China."

In August, an international conference on organ transplantation will be held in Hong Kong, where a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Transplant Society will be held, Huang said.

In addition, another international conference on organ donation will be held in Beijing in October, he said.

Huang expects major progress in organ transplants and donations in China this year.

Huang, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, said he has made a proposal that kidney transplant surgery should be covered by China's basic medical insurance system, so all those in need can access the service.

Kidney transplant is an effective means to treat end-stage kidney diseases, which usually have high costs, and such patients' life quality can be greatly increased after surgery.

"China's organ transplantation has become a cause of social interdependence," Huang said. "As all organs are donated free, all people should have equal rights to enjoy the transplant services. Nobody should be rejected just because they are poor."


Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking about the Korean Peninsula during a wide-ranging news conference on Tuesday. PHOTOS BY FENGYONGBIN/ CHINA DAILY

Shipping lanes in the South China Sea are among the safest and freest in the world, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday, emphasizing that freedom of navigation "does not give some countries the right to do whatever they want".

"If someone wants to muddy the waters in the South China Sea and to destabilize Asia, China will not agree to it, and I think the majority of countries in the region will not allow that to happen," Wang said at a news conference on the sidelines of the two sessions of the top legislature and political advisory body.

Wang stressed that China's buildup of defense facilities on its own islands and reefs is fully within its international rights and that the country is not militarizing the seas.

China is neither the first country to deploy weapons on the Nansha Islands nor the one with the most weapons operating in the South China Sea or conducting the most military activities there, Wang said, adding that "the label of militarization is more suited to some other countries".

Zuo Xiying, an international studies specialist at the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said the United States is using fears over freedom of navigation as a ruse to level accusations against China. Zuo also said a certain country, by resorting to an arbitration process, is falsely claiming that China is violating international law.

"China should clarify the situation and tackle the issue,'' Zuo said, adding that Wang has drawn a firm line on the issue by stating Beijing's position.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to rule in May on a case filed by the Philippines concerning the South China Sea. Beijing will not accept the arbitration, Wang said.

The dispute should be settled by the countries directly involved through consultation and negotiation, he added.

By not accepting the arbitration case, the Chinese government is acting entirely in accordance with the law, whereas the Philippines taking it to arbitration is "unlawful, unfaithful and unreasonable", the minister said.

He said the Philippines' move was a result of behind-the-scenes instigation and political manipulation.

"Some people are trying to make waves (in the South China Sea) and some others are flexing their muscles there. But history will prove who are just passers-by and who is the real host," he added.
Fujian to blaze trail for reforms By ZHANG YUE (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-08 07:00:51

Premier Li Keqiang joins a panel discussion with deputies from Fujian province at the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on Monday. WU ZHIYI/CHINA DAILY

The central government will continue to promote peace and development on both sides of the Taiwan Straits by launching more pilot reform programs in Fujian province, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday.

Li praised the province, located on the western side of the Straits, for becoming one of the fastest-growing by taking advantage of its Free Trade Zone targeted mainly at enterprises from Taiwan.

He made the comments at a meeting with deputies from Fujian to the annual session of the National People's Congress.

The China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone was set up by the central government in December 2014, and is located in Pingtan, Xiamen and Fuzhou.

Li encouraged the zone to serve as a testing ground for more open reform policies and practices, and to attract more overseas entities through business cooperation and cultural exchanges.

He said he was pleased to learn that the zone had not only attracted businesses but also services and residents from across the Straits.

Li said Fujian should use the zone as a strategic anchor to develop its coastal businesses and environmental protection, and to contribute more to the country's economic transition.

Fujian was one of the provinces that made the fastest economic progress last year. Its GDP growth rate reached 9 percent, while the national average fell to just 6.9 percent due to deepening economic restructuring aimed at shrugging off overcapacity and industrial upgrading.

A province with hardly any industry 40 years ago, Fujian's economy was worth 2.6 trillion yuan ($400 billion) last year, larger than that of Shanghai and nearly the size of Thailand's GDP in 2014.

This year, the provincial government is aiming for a GDP growth rate of 8.5 percent.

Fujian's foreign trade dropped by 0.8 percent year-on-year in January, when the national total declined by 10 percent.

Hu Gang, head of the Guangdong South China Economic Research Institute, said Fujian should seize its opportunity, as he feels the government is providing it with good policy support, such as setting up free trade zones.

Chen Bo, secretary of the Free Trade Zone Research Institute at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said Fujian had performed well in foreign trade because it had a good opening-up policy.
Cases of illegal GM crops 'under control' By ZHAO HUANXIN Updated: 2016-03-08 07:15:17

Han Changfu, minister of agriculture. CHINA DAILY

Genetically modified crops have been planted illegally in China, but such cases are sporadic and under control, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said in Beijing on Monday.

Only a few strains of GM crops have been planted in some areas, and the authorities have examined the situation, Han said.

"Based on our assessment, such illegal plantings are rare and are controllable," he said at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual national legislative session.

However, one of the cases had raised concerns over the planting of GM corn in some areas, Han said. The ministry found that Chinese and foreign certificates had been obtained for the crop, which had also been planted extensively outside China. Han gave no further details.

The ministry considers such planting illegal in China, as it breaches the country's Seed Law, which prohibits the planting of unapproved seeds, and contravenes the Patent Law, Han said.

He said that since 2008, when the government approved China's transgenic technology project, the country had been consistently guiding the development of GM technology.

On Sunday, Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, the country's top agricultural authority, said that only GM cotton and papaya had been allowed to be planted in China for commercial purposes.

China has imported large quantities of GM food in recent years. Last year, the majority of its 81 million metric tons of soybean imports were GM products from Brazil and the United States, according to Han.

The imports had received both foreign and domestic biosafety certificates, Han said.

He also said China would not seek continuous expansion of grain production during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Instead, the country will focus more on improving grain production capacity by improving arable land quality and applying high technology and new technology.
Repentant convicts in Xinjiang get sentence reductions By CUI JIA (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-08 08:34:23

Xinjiang's High People's Court plans to continue to reduce the sentences of those convicted of terror-related crimes and of jeopardizing national security where such reductions are in line with the law and those convicted demonstrate repentance and a determination to change, the president of the court said.

Mutalif Wubili, who is also a National People's Congress deputy, commented from the sidelines of the annual session of the NPC.

His remarks followed the decision in February by the court in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to reduce the sentences of 11 offenders who had been convicted of jeopardizing national security and terrorist-related crimes.

Those receiving reduced sentences included a prisoner who had been in close contact with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Taliban terrorist group.

Seven of the 11 serious offenders had sentences reduced from life terms to between 19 1/2 and 20 years. The other four prisoners, serving sentences of eight, 13 and 15 years, had their sentences shortened by six months.

Mutalif said the reductions came in response to genuine change in the prisoners.

"Many people have wondered whether the 11 convicts just pretended to be changed people just to get a reduction in their sentences but the court found that they had truly acknowledged their crimes and had shown good attitudes in wanting to mend their ways while in prison, so the court decided to reduce their sentences after careful evaluation," he said.

Mutalif said it was not a one-off situation and that the court would continue to reduce sentences when appropriate.

"We want the convicts and their families to see there is hope," he said.

Prisons around Xinjiang have been inviting respected religious leaders to give lectures about Islam to those who were convicted of terror-related crimes and who were influenced by religious extremism.

"This has proved to be very effective and many people have realized that what they used to believe in is not the real Islam," Mutalif said.

Courts in Xinjiang have handled an increasing number of terrorism-related cases since the region cracked down on terrorist activities in May, 2014. China's first anti-terrorism law, which took effect on Jan 1 this year, will also help the courts deal with terrorist-related cases consistently, he added.
Mutual benefits seen in links with Philippines By Sophie He in Hong Kong (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-08 08:16:21

Belt and Road, AIIB provide opportunities for both countries, entrepreneurs say

The Philippines will benefit both politically and economically from China's Belt and Road Initiative, according to entrepreneurs from the country, who said they want more talks with Chinese businesspeople to discuss opportunities.

Thanks to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative, more infrastructure projects will be built in the Philippines, including highways and ports, and it will be good for the country's economy and increase access to the world, George Siy, chairman emeritus of the Anvil Business Club, told China Daily.

Siy said the fact that the Philippines has joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank shows its recognition of China's economic influence and its commitment to developing infrastructure. He also said the initiative will boost investment and trade in the Philippines.

The initiative is expected to enhance business, and Siy hopes that both government officials and nongovernmental organizations will increase communication and get together more often to look for opportunities.

"There should be more meetings between business groups, entrepreneurs, travel agents and other organizations from the two countries, not just government officials," he said.

Siy added that since more businesspeople are traveling between China and the Philippines, the two governments should also address possible problems such as drug smuggling and terrorism.

Wilson Lee Flores, business columnist at the Philippine Star and honorary chairman of the Anvil Business Club, said he thinks the Belt and Road Initiative is a very exciting, bold and historic project that will help boost economic and social development in vast regions across Asia, Europe and Africa through modern infrastructure, trade and investments.

It's a modern revival of the ancient Silk Road trade routes on land and sea connecting China to the rest of the world and will economically help liberate many developing nations and regions from the age-old problems of poverty, inaccessibility and unbalanced economic growth, he added.

"The Philippines is an ancient friend and good trading partner with China," Lee said. "Let us not forget that the two countries have never had any history of conflict or war. In fact, both countries were allies during World War II in jointly resisting the Japanese military invasion of Asia.

"The Philippines can benefit from the initiative by becoming an active partner once again in the revival of the ancient Maritime Silk Road. We should be an active partner in the AIIB to help our infrastructure projects. And we need to expand mutually beneficial bilateral trade and investment exchanges."

Lee said the two countries have complementary economies - the Philippines is resource-rich but lacking in capital, technology and infrastructure while China needs more natural resources. So they can be great partners once again.

The Philippines possesses mineral, agricultural and fisheries resources that can help supply China, while China can supply the Philippines with financing and technology, infrastructure and construction capabilities, such as high-speed trains, seaports and airports.

"The Philippines is situated strategically between two important bodies of water, the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean," Lee said. "It also lies at the heart of Southeast Asia. Our society can benefit from increased Chinese investment in our infrastructure and from expanded bilateral trade and more tourism.

"Our neighbor Thailand last year welcomed 8 million Chinese tourists, while we in the Philippines received fewer than half a million last year. We need to normalize diplomatic relations with our ancient friend to boost crucial, win-win economic exchanges."

sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com
National blueprint prescribes shot in the arm for drugs companies By Wang Wen (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-08 08:16:21

The constant use of phrases such as "biological medicine", "healthcare reform" and "a healthy China" in the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) has encouraged pharmaceutical companies, both Chinese and foreign, to expand their development programs.

According to the plan, the move is intended "to strengthen the prevention and cure of infectious, chronic and endemic diseases", and a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical supplies companies will adapt their research and development programs to fit the requirements.

"We have already adjusted the direction of our research to focus on market demand, in accordance with the plan," said Hu Jiqiang, chairman of Conba Group, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who is a deputy to the National People's Congress.

Chronic illnesses, such as cardiovascular and respiratory obstructions, will remain the company's core field over the next five years, Hu said.

He added that Conba - which focuses on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases - is also working on eight new treatments for respiratory illness. "We expect to gain advantages in this field in the coming years," he said.

Feng Danlong, director of corporate affairs for China at Pfizer and a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed a stronger focus on the management of dyslipidemia - excessive levels of fat in the blood - to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Biological medicine is also referred to several times in the plan, and the government has already taken a number of steps to support the sector, according to An Kang, chairman of Hualan Biological Engineering, China's largest manufacturer of human blood products, which is based in Henan province.

"The government has given us great support with the policies related to technological research," he said.

The wording of the plan has encouraged the company to establish a research and development center that will also include an "academic workstation" that will offer opportunities for academic research, he said.

In the next five years, Hualan Bio will continue to add to its product range and narrow the gap with foreign competitors, he added.

Foreign companies also have great expectations for China's healthcare reform, which will be deepened during the period of the plan.

"We expect substantial progress in the implementation of healthcare-reform policies in the coming five years," said Yin Xudong, chairman of Novartis Greater China.

The approval process for new drugs could also be accelerated to reduce the current five-year waiting period in the introduction of innovative new drugs in China, Yin said.

The quality standards, which ensure that patients have access to safe, high-quality generic drugs, could also be raised, he said.
Guizhou maps the way forward to relieve poverty By Zhao Huanxin and Yang Jun (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-08 08:16:21

Guizhou province, which has more people living below the poverty line than any other, is fighting an uphill battle to help its remaining 5 million impoverished residents rise, national legislators from the southwestern province said on Monday.

"Poverty relief is the most pressing issue for Guizhou, and it weighs heavily on my mind," said Chen Min'er, a National People's Congress deputy and the province's top leader.

This is partly because of the abject level of poverty that haunts the remaining poor, Chen said.

"In this final phase of poverty reduction, the work has become harder and harder," Chen told reporters after a panel discussion during the ongoing annual session of the country's top legislature in Beijing.

During the past five years, the mountainous province has lifted 6.56 million people out of poverty.

By the end of last year, the number living in dire straits plummeted to just under 5 million, according to Chen.

The central government has pledged to get 70 million people living below the poverty line out of their difficult circumstances by 2020. The poverty line is 2,300 yuan ($365) in annual income, measured in 2010 value.

Chen said he remained confident about facing the tasks ahead.

He said his positive outlook comes from the province's poverty alleviation experience so far, combined with the "targeted poverty-relief policies" of the central government.

One in three residents used to live below the poverty line in Guizhou, but today the rate has shrunk to 14.3 percent, which is a great feat, he said.

As some people have yet to be weaned from dependence on government financial assistance, Long Changchun, another legislator, said that in addition to providing funds, it is equally important to kindle a strong desire among the poor to pursue better lives.

"We found that in Qiandongnan, the southeastern part of Guizhou, 93.8 percent of the people mired in poverty have a high-school education," Long said.

"They can be guided to pursue a better life for themselves."

Governor Sun Zhigang said Guizhou must resettle 1.3 million rural poor now living in inhospitable areas, to places with better infrastructure and ecology.

Li Min, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the provincial people's congress, said that to crack the hard nuts, Guizhou needs to undertake compound measures, such as transferring the poor to more profitable industries and providing medical aid for the needy.

With this approach, the number of people who really have to be lifted out of poverty through providing pensions will shrink to 1.6 million, he said.
Foreign minister on China's diplomatic plan (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 10:29:28

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi greets reporters at a press conference in Beijing March 8, 2016. [Kuang Linhua/China Daily]

Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference on the sidelines of the "Two Sessions" on Tuesday. China's foreign policy on international and regional issues is in the limelight as the country's lawmakers examine the 13th five-year plan.

Here are some of the highlights from Wang's remarks.

On China-Africa cooperation

China will deliver investment and aid promises made to help Africa at last December's Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) despite global economic slowdown.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the FOCAC that China would carry out ten cooperation plans between China and Africa.

"The most salient feature of the plans is a transition from a trade pattern dominated by resource products to one featuring more investment and industrial cooperation," said Wang.

By encouraging more Chinese companies to invest in Africa, China wants to help the continent accelerate its industrialization and boost its capacity for growth.

On China's Myanmar policy

The relations between the two countries will not be weakened by the changes in Myanmar's domestic situation.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar has kept friendly contact with China.

"Our mutual understanding and trust has been growing," Wang said.

On China-ASEAN relations

China wants to build an even closer China-ASEAN community of common destiny for mutual benefits.

China sees ASEAN as a preferred partner in terms of the "Belt and Road" cooperation, FTA cooperation, regional cooperation and maritime cooperation.

China will work to promote the construction of trans-Asian railway network so that people in China and the ASEAN countries will find it easier to visit each other.

At the same time, China wants to ensure an upgraded version of the China-ASEAN FTA, actively advance the RCEP negotiation and try to wrap it up before the end of this year.

On China-Europe relations

China has always regarded Europe as an important pole in a multi-polar world, and Europe has come to view China's development and rise in a more objective and sensible way.

China wants to make concrete efforts with Europe to advance their partnership for peace, growth, reform and civilization, which is their "shared commitment in the 21st century."

On China-Japan relations

Wang summarized Japan's official attitude toward China as "double dealing", and he urged Tokyo to give serious thought and make the right choice upon the question of taking China as a friend or foe. Read More

On one hand, the Japanese government and leaders say all the nice things about wanting to improve the relations. On the other hand, they are making troubles for China at every turn, Wang said.

For the China-Japan relations, the underlying problem is that the Japanese politicians in power have wrong perceptions about China.

On consular protection

The Foreign Ministry will take measures, including enhancing security awareness among those traveling, setting up police-civilian cooperation centers in more countries, and shortening the response time, to protect Chinese people overseas. Read More

On China-Middle East policy

China's policy on the Middle East is to facilitate peace talks with an objective and impartial attitude, instead of seeking a sphere of influence or proxies.

On China-Russia relationship

Sino-Russia relations are mature and stable and will not be weakened by particular incidents or temporary factors. Read More
Wang: China-US maritime cooperation possible By ZHANG YUNBI (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 11:44:11

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has stated the possibility of conducting maritime cooperation between Beijing and Washington if the latter "truly cools down", and he voiced confidence in tackling the two-way friction.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi takes questions from the press during a news conference on the sidelines of the two sessions on Tuesday. [Photo by Kuang Linhua/chinadaily.com.cn]

"Recently, there is growing friction concerning maritime issues. But I think when the United States truly cools down, it is entirely possible for us to consider conducting maritime cooperation," Wang said at a Tuesday press conference during the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

The senior diplomat attributed the source of such friction to the fact that "there are some people in the United States who have strategic suspicions about China and they are worried that China will one day supersede the US".

"China and the US are two major countries, and there is both cooperation and friction. This might be a normal state of affairs," Wang said.

He referred to the news in the morning that Washington announced trade restrictions on Chinese companies.

"We don't think it is the right approach to handle economic and trade disputes. This approach only hurts others without necessarily benefiting oneself," Wang said.

He mentioned previous bilateral efforts in converting divergences into cooperation, including successful cooperation on climate change and cyber issues.
China will not accept 'tainted' arbitration on South China Sea By AN BAIJIE (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 11:48:51

China will not accept "tainted" arbitration on the South China Sea issue as a ruling by The Hague on a complaint lodged by the Philippines is going to be announced later this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

"This so-called arbitration has become tainted and China is not going to humor it," Wang told a news conference during the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress.

The Philippines filed the arbitration case in early 2013, which is still ongoing. China has refused to be involved in the proceedings, maintaining that the rows should be settled by the countries directly involved through consultation and negotiation.

In 2006, the Chinese government exercised its right under Article 298 and made a declaration that excludes compulsory arbitration, and over 30 other countries have made similar declarations, Wang said.

"In legal terms, these declarations must be respected by other parties," he said.

By not accepting the arbitration case, the Chinese government is acting entirely in accordance with the law, whereas the Philippines' practice is unlawful, unfaithful and unreasonable, the minister said.

"Some people are trying to make waves (in the South China Sea) and some others are showing their forces." Wang said. "History will prove who is merely a guest and who is the real host."

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn
China-Russia relationship built on trust and support, Wang says By Wang Xu (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 12:07:42

Sino-Russia relations are mature and stable and will not be weakened by particular incidents or temporary factors, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said while answering questions from Itar-Tass on the sidelines of the "Two Sessions" on Tuesday.

"The China-Russia relationship is mature and stable. Our comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is built on a solid foundation of mutual support and mutual trust," Wang said. "The two sides have a strong desire to strengthen win-win cooperation. The relationship can pass the test of any international development and will not be weakened by any particular incidents."

Regarding the five meetings between President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015 as setting the tone for bilateral cooperation, Wang said the countries are making progress in various projects, including the eastern route of the natural gas pipeline.

"China and Russia have strong economic complementarities and a significant desire to work with each other," Wang said and he wishes to turn the countries' "strong political relations into more fruits of practical cooperation".
Wang: Tokyo should take China as a friend, not a foe By ZHANG YUNBI (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 12:18:46

Foreign Minister Wang Yi summarized Japan's official attitude toward China as "double dealing", and he urged Tokyo to give serious thought and make the right choice upon the question of taking China as a friend or foe.

Japan's wrong approach to history and other issues "has in recent years dealt a body blow to China-Japan relations", the senior diplomat said at a Tuesday press conference of the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

"Thanks to the efforts by wise people on both sides, there are signs of improvement in the China-Japan relationship. But there is little ground for optimism," Wang said.

"On one hand, the Japanese government and leaders say all the nice things about wanting to improve relations, but on the other hand, they are making trouble for China at every turn. This is what I would call a typical case of 'double dealing'," Wang added.

Wang, who once served as Chinese ambassador to Japan, mentioned the traditional friendship between the people of two countries and said China hopes that the ties could be truly improved.

He referred to a popular Chinese saying: "To cure disease, you have to address the underlying problems."

"As far as China-Japan relations are concerned, the underlying problem is that some politicians in Japan have the wrong perception about China.

"Do they view China as a friend or foe? As a partner or an adversary? The Japanese side should give serious thought to this question and make the right choice," Wang said.
Voices from two sessions: National reading day should be set up (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 14:12:07

Zhu Yongxin, deputy secretary general of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the China Association for Promoting Democracy [File photo]

China should establish its own national reading day to encourage the reading of more books. That's one of the proposals raised by Zhu Yongxin, deputy secretary general of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

"I have been stressing this proposal at the annual two sessions for 14 years but it hasn't been adopted yet," Zhu said. The reason for its rejection is the existence of World Reading Day, which falls on April 23 annually. It is considered unnecessary to set up a similar celebration.

Zhu said many countries, such as France, Japan and the US, celebrate both their own reading festivals and the world day, and that China should follow the trend, especially when its population reads far less than other countries.

"Reading plays a critical role in shaping of national literacy and improving people's cultivation. I shall never give up this proposal," said Zhu.

According to statistics from the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, each Chinese read 4.56 paperback books on average in 2014 while the number was 7 in the US and 8 in Japan. The plan to encourage reading was included in the 2015 Chinese government work report.
FM takes question from social media By Zhao Siyuan (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 14:23:36

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi greets reporters at a press conference in Beijing March 8, 2016. [Kuang Linhua/China Daily]

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ditched the tradition of taking the last question from a reporter at a news conference on Tuesday by reserving the honor for a Weibo post, toning down the two-hour session in which he faced thorny questions.

Surprising those present at an otherwise buttoned-down Question and Answer session, the Foreign Ministry solicited questions via its official account on Weibo, China's Twitter-like variant, and saved the best for the last.

The selected Weibo post - how country-level diplomacy connects with ordinary people  came at the end of the session that featured hard global politics topics such as the Korean Peninsula denuclearization, South China Sea and Middle East reconstruction.

To set an example how top leaders' overseas trips change ordinary people's life, Wang said the first cargo train between Yiwu to Tehran was launched in January, four days after President Xi Jinping's visit to Iran.

The train, also referred to as the Silk Road train, has passed through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Iran, traveling a distance of 10,399 kilometers.

It started from Yiwu, a manufacturing hub in East China's Zhejiang province. Tens of thousands of businesses in the city, according to Wang, can now transport their products in a faster and more reliable way.

"For more details please check our Weibo account," said the Foreign Minister, who didn't miss the chance to reach out to citizens on social media.

The promotion had an immediate effect. After the press conference a user posted: "I didn't know that the Foreign Ministry has an official Weibo account before. Now I follow it."

The news conference was held during China's annual session of the country's top legislature, the National People's Congress.
China not to fully relax family planning policy: Minister (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-03-08 16:37:28

Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, takes questions during a news conference on the sidelines of the two sessions in Beijing on Tuesday. Li answered questions about the universal second-child policy.[Photo by Jiang Dong/chinadaily.com.cn]

China's family planning policy will not change in the foreseeable future, and there are no plans for a complete relaxation currently, a top health official said Tuesday.

Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, made the remarks when addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

As of 2015, the Chinese population numbered 1.375 billion, compared to 320 million in the United States, the world's largest economy.

Li said China's per capita economic output was "considerably low" as was the average living standard.

"Our resources pale in comparison with our vast population. Until this changes, we will continue with the current family planning policy," she said.

"There is no timetable for the full relaxation of the policy [although] it will continue to be improved and adjusted," she added.

China this year allowed all married couples to have two children. This follows an earlier easing of the policy in 2013 that allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child.

The latest change ended the "one child" policy since it was implemented in the late 1970s.

The two-child policy will see 3 million more children born in China every year.
Supply-side reforms need efforts of entrepreneurs, innovators, officials By Chen Yingqun (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 17:40:06

The supply-side reform would rely a lot on entrepreneurs, innovators and government officials' joint efforts, said a leading economist.

Gu Shengzu, a member of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, said that the implementation of the supply-side structural reform would rely on three main players: entrepreneurs who would actively participate in the reform; innovators who could actively make new products and technology, and government officials who would actively make moves to help implementation of the policies. Without their active participation, the implementation of reform will be difficult.

During the 18th China Entrepreneur Salon, which is regularly held during China's "two sessions", referring to meetings of National People's Congress, the top legislature, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body, entrepreneurs and economists were invited to share their understandings about topics related to the government report.

Nan Cunhui, Nan Cunhui, president of the Chint Group and member of CPPCC national committee, said Chint has actively participated in reducing overcapacity, and has set the target at minus 10 percent. Last year, it was about minus 8 percent.

"Demand-side theory is market demand oriented and meeting the market's needs. The supply-side is that you need to create demand, like the iPhone does, and you need technology and ability. At this changing times, all entrepreneurs should integrate resources in different fields and make continuous creation, he said.

He said the company has hired about 400 experts to go through more than 200 products in past six months to find any problems, and now they will put forward new products and get rid of the old ones.

"This is painful, but we have to do that. And I feel confident about it," he said.
President Xi calls for structural reform, agricultural modernization (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-03-08 19:23:50

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for supply-side structural reform, agricultural modernization and grain security.

Xi joined a group of deputies to the National People's Congress from Hunan Province, listening to their opinions on innovation-driven development, international productivity cooperation, poverty alleviation, supply-side structural reform and environmental protection.

The president also extended his greetings to Chinese women on the occasion of the International Working Women's Day.

He called for innovative ways of working, pushing forward supply-side structural reform, improving the livelihood of the people, and advancing agricultural modernization, in a bid to give the people more sense of benefits.

"Advancing the supply-side structural reform is a tough battle," the president said, calling for practical efforts to win the battle, including improving basic public services, and fixing shortcomings in the people's livelihood.

Xi asked to strengthen agricultural benefits and competitiveness, improve agricultural production structure on the basis of market demand, and develop modern agriculture with the support of science and technology.

Ensuring grain security is a priority for the state, said the president, adding that grain security policies should be examined and improved, and production capacity should be viewed as the fundamental issue.
Student safety is first priority for education minister By Zhao Xinying (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 20:10:12

The biggest challenge facing the Ministry of Education is the safety of students, Education Minister Yuan Guiren said when he attended a group discussion among political advisers in Beijing on Tuesday.

"We have more than 200 million students at different levels of schools across the country and care about every one of them. Any single accident happening to a student would break our hearts," Yuan said. He added that it requires the participation from the whole society - families, schools and the government - to work together in order to better protect students.

"All of us should shoulder the responsibility of ensuring students' safety so that they could grow up to be the talent of the country," he said.

Yuan also said the ministry will continue its efforts to help more students from remote mountainous regions and poverty-stricken areas to be accepted by prestigious universities in China.

"The number of such students top universities plan to recruit has increased from 10,000 in 2012 to 75,000 last year," Yuan said, adding that students from all ethnic areas of China will also be included in this recruiting plan in 2016.
Upgrading Yangtze River protection proposed as a national strategy By Liu Kun and Yu Yawei (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-08 21:08:02

At the fourth session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, Hubei and Shanghai CPPCC National Committee members are to make a joint proposal suggesting upgrading Yangtze River Water Environmental Protection as a national strategy. The most stringent measures are raised to protect the Yangtze River and some relevant laws and regulations should be made as soon as possible. Also, environmental protection of water should be incorporated into the 13th five-year plan.

Reasonable adjustments should be arranged on construction and industrial layout of all functional areas. Delimiting the red line of ecological protection and strengthening supervision on the water environment and water quality should be implemented with the purpose of halting and reversing the deteriorating trend of water environment in the Yangtze River.

Treatment of water pollution in the Yangtze River need to be tackled in a comprehensive way.

The Yangtze River is about 6,300 kilometers long, flows through 11 provinces and cities. The total economic output and population in the basin has the largest proportion in China. The Yangtze is like a worthy mother for Chinese nations.

According to data from the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, water pollution in some local urban section is more serious. Eutrophication problems have not been fundamentally curbed and the prospect of water source security is not cheerful. The water environment in the Yangtze River basin is becoming worse and many rare species are becoming fewer or are already extinct.
Chinese leaders press reform, development (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-03-08 22:40:29

Premier Li Keqiang joins a group deliberation of deputies from Chongqing to the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, March 8, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese leaders joined national lawmakers Tuesday to deliberate the government work report, stressing reform and development.

Speaking to lawmakers from Chongqing, Li urged them to continue administrative streamlining and improving services to stimulate people's creativity and vitality.

Chongqing should take a leading role in reform and opening up in central and western China by improving technology and governance and developing brands, the premier said.

He said Chongqing should nurture new growth drivers and enhance the productivity of traditional industries by capitalizing on the country's urbanization wave.

The southwestern metropolis should serve as a pacemaker in the development of the Yangtze River economic belt and give impetus to China's "Go West" development strategy.

Joining lawmakers from Jilin province, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, called for revitalizing the northeastern industrial base.

Zhang asked the province to upgrade industries, foster new growth drivers, deepen reform of state-owned enterprises and support private companies.

The province should also modernize agriculture, Zhang added.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told NPC deputies from central China's Henan province to make more efforts to cut overcapacity, destock, deleverage, lower business costs and fix weak areas.

Henan should work harder toward the completion of a major logistic hub to boost the development of the local and national economy.

Yu called on local authorities to implement the basic religious policies of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to enable religious figures and followers to contribute to economic and social development.

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, joined NPC deputies from Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Liu underscored the importance of Party officials' motivation in the implementation of new development concepts and in the building of a moderately prosperous society. He urged Party officials to follow the CPC Central Committee and become more self-motivated and competent.

Standards for evaluation of Party officials should also be improved, Liu said.

Speaking to lawmakers from Northeast China's Liaoning province, CPC disciplinary chief Wang Qishan said the implementation of China's 13th Five-Year Plan required concrete action rather than empty words.

He urged Liaoning authorities to combine the Party's policies with the local reality, comprehensively deepen reform, cultivate a favorable environment for development and create new competitive edges.

"As long as we are heading in the right direction, every single step forward is a victory," he said.

Joining lawmakers from the Northwestern Gansu province, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli demanded adherence to innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, the development philosophy for the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

Zhang called on Gansu authorities to integrate local development with the Belt and Road Initiative, and step up structural reforms, poverty alleviation and environmental protection.
Overseas views on NPC & CPPCC: China can be a stabilizer of Asia-Pacific region (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-03-08 23:19:54

The following is an email interview by Panview with Mathew Maavak, a doctoral researcher in security foresight at University Technology Malaysia (UTM), on his opinion on China's "Belt & Road" initiative.

Panview: Geo-politics in the Asia-Pacific region continues to face turbulent times. What are your thoughts about the current state of this region?

Maavak: Actually, they are not as "turbulent" as the Western media makes them out to be. Verbal spats  common to the Asia Pacific  are not the same as the pandemonium currently afflicting the West, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Is there a single ongoing war in the Asia Pacific?

Siblings routinely engage in fierce verbal spats and physical jostling; why should other nations be any different? Asia-Pacific countries have restrained their mutual antagonisms within civilized bounds. Let's keep it that way.

The only turbulence ahead for the Asia Pacific is the yet incalculable fallout of the ongoing economic slowdown. Here is where the Belt & Road initiative can play a crucial stabilizing role. China can be a regional stabilizer through a soft power projection of its Belt and Road initiative.

Panview: Can Beijing and Tokyo ease diplomatic tensions in the near future?

Maavak: Diplomatic tensions can naturally be eased if both parties are allowed to sort out their differences on their own volition. After all, Japanese companies had played a significant role in China's whirlwind economic transformation. Bilateral industrial and economy ties are increasing by the year, benefiting citizens and businesses of both nations.

Tokyo, however cannot establish closer rapport with Beijing as long as Japan's Foreign and China policies are dictated by Washington. Furthermore, Japan can never fully repent of its wartime atrocities as long as Washington remote controls its foreign policy.

The media in both countries should play a more positive role. To claim that both nations are willing to risk a war over tiny islands rich in fisheries is ridiculous. But that's exactly how the Western media amplifies such tensions.

Panview: What is the right solution to resolve territorial claims in the South China Sea?

Maavak: Negotiations should only involve claimant nations. Non-claimant outside parties have no business in getting involved in regional boundary disputes. All claimant parties -- China and relevant Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations -- can agree to a broad legal framework, which can be refined as negotiations proceed towards a lasting solution.

Until these disputes are territorially resolved through peaceful means at some future date, all claimant nations should be goaded to jointly develop resources in the region  whether it is over fossil fuel, fisheries or even tourism. These joint economic activities should be restricted to claimant nations only.

Furthermore, disputed islands can be jointly used for oceanographic studies and observation. They can serve as an early warning tsunami observatory or as a centre for marine fisheries. The opportunities are boundless. There is a win-win scope here till border issues are permanently resolved.

Territorial disputes within ASEAN have rarely, if ever, escalated beyond legal wrangling and diplomatic rhetoric. It took decades for Malaysia to resolve a territorial dispute with both Indonesia (Ligatan and Sipadan Islands) and Singapore (Pedra Branca).

It's not just China that is laying claim to contested waters or islands in the South China Sea. Many ASEAN nations have similar disputes among themselves. But again, the Western media mendaciously depicts these disputes as a China vs ASEAN affair. Panview: Can we expect ASEAN to play a larger diplomatic role in the Asia-Pacific region? What is the future of the Asia-Pacific region?

Maavak: Southeast Asia is a colorful tapestry weaved by aeons of indigenous cultures as well as civilizational strands from China and India. By virtue of being bridges between both ancient civilizations, ASEAN is a natural buffer of stability as well as a beltway for prosperity.

These unique factors alone equip ASEAN to play a larger arbitration and diplomatic roles in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. President Xi Jinping's exhortation of "Asia for Asians" is timely. Let's resolve our own issues our own way.

The future of the Asia-Pacific region may likely be clinched by greater cooperation in the science, technology and innovation (STI) field. It's my personal dream to see ASEAN forge the Southeast Asian node of a much larger, Eurasian Silk Road for STI.

The industries of tomorrow can only be built on the foundations of STI. We need more science and development and less politics for Asia Pacific.

Panview: Can the Belt & Road initiative and more regional free trade deals improve relations among countries in the Asia-Pacific region?

Maavak: Why not? Apart from new infrastructure, greater connectivity and new trade opportunities, the Belt & Road initiative can help build a pan-Asian pool of human resource that will be unmatched anywhere in the world.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that up to 75 percent of global Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) graduates will be come from the Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and China (BRIICS) nations by 2030. India and China alone will account for as much as 60 percent of global STEM graduates by 2030. Europe and the US, on the other hand, will be lagging well behind at 8 percent and 4 percent respectively.

A bewildering array of infrastructure will be needed to accommodate Asia's future workforce. Here is where China can play a transformational role through the New Silk Road thrust.

Mathew Maavak is a doctoral researcher in security foresight at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). His areas of study include strategic foresight; open source intelligence (OSINT); science, technology and innovation (STI); national policy-making; Eurasian integration; and global risks and uncertainties.
Xi: Zero tolerance on election fraud By Wu Jiao and Zhang Yunbi (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-09 03:10:20

President Xi Jinping talks with female delegates while attending a panel discussion with lawmakers fromHunan province on Tuesday, which was International Women's Day. Xi sent his greetings to all women across China. LANHONGGUANG/ XINHUANEWS AGENCY

President Xi Jinping vowed on Tuesday to show "zero tolerance" toward election fraud.

He made the remark when he joined a panel discussion of lawmakers from Hunan province, where a high profile vote-rigging case was reported in 2013.

That year in Hengyang, the second-largest city in the province, 56 provincial legislators were found to have offered 110 million yuan ($16.9 million) in bribes to hundreds of city lawmakers and election staff members to get elected.

According to the Electoral Law, lawmakers at the county and township levels are directly elected by the public, while lawmakers at the provincial or city levels are elected by the legislative body at the level below them.

Since legislative bodies will hold elections this year and next, "We need to draw profound lessons" from the Hengyang electoral fraud case, Xi said.

It has become the norm for top leaders to join panel discussions held by some delegations during the annual sessions of the top legislature and advisory body, to listen to opinions from the grassroots.

During the panel discussion, Xi elaborated on the electoral system, in addition to economic growth and social affairs.

The president called for strict legal procedures, an effective electoral mechanism and good discipline in a quest to eradicate election fraud.

Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the annual session of the top legislature, once called the Hengyang case the worst in the history of the people's congress system.

After the scandal was exposed, the Hunan provincial legislature disqualified the 56 provincial lawmakers in late 2013, and 512 city lawmakers who had taken bribes were asked to resign.

Those involved were either sentenced to prison or given administrative and Party punishments.

Hunan has taken the case as a lesson and will crack down on any such misbehavior during the coming elections, said the province's Party chief, Xu Shousheng.

Zhan Zhongle, a professor of administrative law at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said officials need to reflect on the anti-corruption mechanism during the upcoming elections and try to perfect the electoral system gradually.

Xi's remarks mean that more detailed arrangements are expected in an effort to improve supervision over the elections, Zhan said.

Contact the writers at wujiao@chinadaily.com.cn
'Flexibility vital' to solve nuclear issue By ZHANG YUNBI (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-09 03:10:20

Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking about the Korean Peninsula during a wide-ranging news conference on Tuesday. PHOTOS BY FENGYONGBIN/ CHINA DAILY

Maintaining stability on the Korean Peninsula is a priority as a renewal of negotiations is sought, says foreign minister

China is displaying flexibility on resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, according to experts, while Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing is "open to any initiatives" that could help bring the issue "back to the negotiating table".

At a news conference on Tuesday in Beijing during the annual two sessions, Wang said that those involved "have also suggested some ideas, including flexible contacts allowing three-party, four-party or even a five-party format".

After the Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted a nuclear test and a rocket launch earlier this year, China called for an easing of tension and a restarting of the Six-Party Talks.

Wang said UN Security Council Resolution 2270, which recently expanded sanctions against the DPRK, must be implemented in its entirety. He also said sanctions are necessary and "maintaining stability is the pressing priority, and only negotiations could provide a fundamental solution".

The Six-Party Talks on the peninsula nuclear issue  involving China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan  were launched in 2003 but stalled in 2008.

Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said Wang's latest response "shows both a sense of duty and flexibility", because "no matter what the format of contacts will be, the goal is to achieve negotiation and avoid war".

Ruan said that one of the implied messages is that "Pyongyang should be part of the expected contacts because such contacts without the DPRK will be of no use".
Environmental protection is important to public health and economic development, premier says

China will intensify its efforts to reduce pollution, Premier Li Keqiang said in his annual Government Work Report on Saturday, citing as an example ambitious targets in fighting smog that will increase the number of days with good air quality.

"Pollution control and environmental protection are important to people's health and the sustainable development of the nation. Sowemust work hard to move forward," he said.

Lower emissions of major water and air pollutants have been targeted, cutting them by 2 to 3 percent this year. This will help reduce the concentration in the air of PM2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that is hazardous to health.

The PM2.5 concentration declined in China from 72 micrograms per cubicmeter in 2013 to 55 in 2015, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The central government has further tightened restrictions on vehicle emissions, and another 3.8 million outdated or high-emission vehicles will be taken off the road this year.

The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), the national road map for social and economic development, is setting targets to raise the percentage of days with good air quality to 80 by 2020, from 76.7 percent lastyear.

The central government is emphasizing that all companies in major polluting industries - such as steel, cement making, papermaking and printing - meet the national emission standards.

Lu Lunyan, Climate and Energy Program director, the WWF China, said, "I am pleased to see the government's endeavors in environmental protection," adding that such measures, paired with the government campaign to phase out outdated and excessive capacity in the industrial production, could efficiently reduce polluting emissions.

Ren Wenwei, director of the Yangtze program (footprint) of WWF China, applauded the annual report and the national road map because they stipulate binding targets and various efforts to reduce pollution, "Such restrictions have previously and will even more so now force many companies to stop polluting and upgrade their technology,"Ren said.

Additionally, he said, the top leadership's attention to improving the environment is benefiting the quality of China's economic structure, which is transforming to a focus on services industries.

Zhao Kezhi, top leader of Hebei, a province with heavy air pollution, voiced full support for the tighter emissions restrictions and the government's efforts to fuel economic growth through environmental protection.

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn
Premier Li Keqiang delivered the Government Work Report on Saturday at the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Li said China's GDP growth target in 2016 is from 6.5 to 7 percent.

In 2015, China's economy maintained a medium high-speed GDP growth rate of 6.9 percent despite the sluggish global economic situation. China's GDP only accounted for 14 percent of the global GDP, but it contributed 25 percent of global economic growth last year.

However, China also faces great challenges in terms of pushing through structural reforms and reducing overcapacity this year.

Experts say the range of GDP growth is more reasonable and flexible than a specific GDP growth figure, because the range is conducive to allowing the market to play a dominant role in the economy.

The GDP growth rage balances the goal of comprehensive construction of a well-off society in the long term with the need to promote structural reform in the short term.
Xu Shaoshi, minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, gives a press conference for the fourth session of China's 12th National People's Congress (NPC) on the country's economic and social development and the draft outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan, in Beijing, capital of China, March 6, 2016. [Xinhua/Li Xin]

Premier Li Keqiang's daily work schedule during the annual session of the National People's Congress reflects China's changing economic geography.

By noting which provincial delegations he visits, one can tell which provinces the central government expects to lead the transition of the world's second-largest economy.

It is obvious that the central government wants some provinces and places to serve as good examples and new growth leaders. While some others, mostly those suffering more from the old big-smokestack industries and environmental inadequacies, are to be allowed more time for restructuring even as they follow the direction of the growth leaders.

Li's first attendance on Sunday was to the deliberations of the delegation of lawmakers from Shandong, one of the most powerful provincial economies in the Chinese mainland, along with Guangdong and Jiangsu.

Shandong registered an 8 percent growth in GDP in 2015, more than 1 percentage point higher than the national average (6.9 percent), and it plans to target 7.5 to 8 percent growth in 2016, again 1 percentage point higher than the national target range.

On Monday, the premier attended the discussions of deputies from Fujian, an eastern province across from the Taiwan Straits. A province with little industry 40 years ago, Fujian has not only built itself into an industrial powerhouse, reflected in its 9 percent GDP growth in 2015, but also done so with an eye on the local environment. For instance, it enjoys the highest rate of forest coverage among all Chinese provinces.

The premier's choice of delegations reflects the government's strategic sense that distills from China's historic experience in running a large and diverse country.

There are different kinds of regional gaps. Some, if they exist for too long and result in an imbalance in income distribution, will have to be closed. While other gaps, if they reflect different regional approaches to self-improvement, are healthy and can be used to prompt nationwide progress.

At the moment, the very size of its society and its diversity are two important factors that can help China fight its current slowdown.

Such understanding of China's economic geography may also help the country answer many of the questions it faces at the momentsuch as how will it manage to stay out of trouble in a time of looming uncertainties in many parts around globe? And how will it continue to grow and remain strong?

Well, as Li would likely reply, by relying on its people and its diversity.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang joins a group deliberation of deputies from Shandong province to the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, March 6, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

THE GOVERNMENT Work Report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday highlights the need to acknowledge and address the inefficient implementation of certain policies. That the report faces up to difficulties and shortcomings in governance is worth applauding, said Beijing Youth Daily on Monday:

Achievements aside, this year's Government Work Report demonstrated deeper reflection on a wide range of problems in social development and governance, as well as great political courage and governmental willingness to shoulder due responsibility.

As the report points out, China failed to achieve the expected target for economic growth last year due to shrinking global trade. The country recorded a GDP growth of 6.9 percent in 2015, the slowest in a quarter of a century, and both its imports and exports declined. Investment also struggled to increase, and some industries have been plagued with serious overcapacity, leading to a series of financial risks.

Yet the continuing economic downturn not only deals a blow to China's efforts to stimulate its imports and exports, investment and consumption, but also reforms for modern governance.

Informing the public of these difficulties and latent risks, instead of fabricating good news, might be sensible, because it would allow more common citizens to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy the dividends of the deepening comprehensive reform.

Governments at all levels still have a long way to go to improve residents' well-being, with a wide spectrum of reforms needed, from school education and medical services, to food and drug safety and urban management. The calls for better education, safer food and breathable air have grown louder in recent years, and the authorities need to double their efforts to respond to such requests without repeating the mistakes that have been made in the past.

The Government Work Report included major accidents that happened last year, such as the explosions in Tianjin in August that killed 165 people, and offered both profound reflections on what led to the disasters and the vow to address the failings of management and governance to better protect people's lives and property.

The report also promised greater efforts to fight against official corruption and incompetence by deepening administrative reform to optimize governments' functions and power, and holding all corrupt officials accountable for violations of the law. This is exactly what the public wants from the central government.
An elderly man tries a rehabilitation device for the arms at a healthcare and healthy lifestyle expo in Nantong, Jiangsu province, earlier this month. XU CONGJUN FOR CHINA DAILY

China has proposed to increase people's life expectancy by one year by 2020from 76.34 in 2015, though women, on average, live longer than men. The goal was one among many announced by Premier Li Keqiang over the weekend for legislators to discuss and vote on at the ongoing annual session of National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

This goal is highly achievable, and a reference to past dataincluded in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20)could explain why.

In 1981, the life expectancy of Chinese was 67.77 years. It took another almost 20 years to increase to 71.40, in 2000. But in 2015, that is, in 15 years, it reached 76.34. And there is no reason why the average life expectancy in China cannot increase by one year in the next five years, especially because people are expected to become richer, healthier and more educated.

Of course, detractors would say a rise in life expectancy will increase China's aging population further. But an increase in life expectancy in the world's most populous country can also be translated into opportunities for China and the rest of the world.

The rising life expectancy would add more dimensions to policy dialogues at the governmental level. The high per capita income in the European Union, particularly in Western European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan and Singapore have helped people live longer than their Chinese counterparts. This is to say developed economies have experienced this demographic change before China. And China can learn from their experiences to cope with the expected change and take measures to ensure better livelihood for its people.

On the other hand, China can become an example for other developing countries, especially those in Africa, when it comes to raising the average life expectancy of their people. This is important because the World Health Organization says African people would still be "young" in 2030 while the rest of the world's population would be rapidly aging.

China has also vowed to end absolute poverty by 2020, which will help further decrease the mortality rate at birth in rural regions and improve people's living standards. This could be another example for the other developing countries to follow. And China is willing to share its experiences with them.
Our rapidly growing world is facing the greatest resource pressures in history. With the global population expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, the increasing demands for energynecessary for poverty alleviation and growthare being met with calls for sustainable consumption and environmental consideration of finite resources (UN, 2015).

The landmark achievements of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the new Sustainable Development Goals underscore 2015 as a momentous year for global progress toward international, collaborative efforts that support human development and sustainability.

Across high-level processes and at the local level, the pivotal experiences of womenas those most vulnerable to energy poverty and as the ones predominantly responsible for household energy provision make gender a key, yet often overlooked, consideration in the development of sustainable solutions in these areas.

Across most social contexts, women hold traditional care roles within the domain of the home that make them responsible for household energy management. In areas where poverty and resource scarcity prevail, women face daily obstacles in obtaining the fuel necessary for subsistence activities, such as cooking and heating. The burden of these obstacles from personal security risks to negative health externalitiesis largely borne by women and represents a significant source of gender inequality.

Yet it is also because of women's strong roles within the home and community domains that they tend to have a stronger influence over energy habits than men. A recent study from Europe examining consumption patterns between men and women found that single women consume about 22 percent less energy than single men and are more likely to adopt energy conservation efforts (equalclimate.org).

With women playing a positive and influential role as energy managers at the household and community level, their involvement across all stages of the energy value chain can expand the scale and quality of sustainable energy initiatives. Simultaneously, it is critical for all aspects of energy planning and policymaking to consider gender dimensions because so many of these decisions have a direct impact on the lives of women. One of the best ways to achieve the integration of these critical voices and perspectives is through the empowerment of women as leaders in this sector.
In 2015, 120 million Chinese went overseas and spent $104.5 billion.[Photo/Xinhua]

One of the new notions Premier Li Keqiang put forward in this year's Government Work Report on March 5 is a "New era of mass tourism".

In it, the phrase "Paid vacations" appears again as a fundamental aspect of the trend. "We will ensure people are able to take their paid vacations, strengthen the development of tourist and transport facilities, scenic spots and tourist sites, and recreational vehicle parks, and see that the tourist market operates in line with regulations. With these efforts, we will usher in a new era of mass tourism," he said.

Premier Li's mention of "Paid vacations" has ignited widespread public reactions. Liang Jianzhang, co-founder of Ctrip (a leading online travel agency), who views tourism as the most promising industry in the future, believes that the implementation of "Paid vacations" is an incentive to Chinese economy. He maintains that "the average number of travels made by Chinese tourists is still far below that of the developed countries, so in the decades to come, China's tourism industry will have to make great strides and will eventually become a significant driver for economic growth. During this process, opportunities for innovation and employment will increase".

In Liang's opinion, facilitating paid vacations can bring a new cycle of tourism consumption and investment-as long as competent travel products can be developed, stable profit can be expected in the long run.

As far as public holiday arrangement is concerned, several proposals emerged into the spotlight during the ongoing two sessions, all of which focus on a modification of the current holiday arrangement.
Women are supposed to be loved. The more you love them, the more beautiful they become. This is not a proverb but a truth that all women in the universe would agree with. Some Chinese men are well aware of that and are trying their best to make the Internationial Women's Day on March 8 a special one for their female counterparts.

A girl won the bid for a Russian guy, on March 6. [Photo/IC]

Boys' 'auctions' help them woo partners

Through a game, a university in South China's Guangzhou city really tried to help boys understand the importance of listening to and respecting girls, two days before the International Women's Day, china.com.cn reported.

Eight male students in South China Normal University attended a special "auction", in which they were auctioned off. They introduced themselves, performed, and did everything they could to show themselves off. While the girls, according to the rule, had some "virtual money" that they could spend. The one who paid the most for a guy to 'get' him would win the auction. They could ask the boy to do one thing for her in front of the public on the site. After that, the boy had to spend a whole day with her.

To make sure the girls can find a partner of their type, the eight participants had different profiles. They included one natural science major, one Russian student, one muscular guy, and a guitarist.
JOHANNESBURG - The process of formalising the policy for the teaching of Mandarin is at an advanced stage, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga said on Monday.

The Gauteng Department of Education is piloting the teaching of the Chinese language in South African Schools, mainly in the Tshwane South District, Motshekga said at the launch of a planetarium at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg.

There are 14 schools which are currently teaching the Chinese language and a list of 13 new schools has been proposed for 2016, according to the minister.

"I am happy to announce that 2,000 textbooks will be donated by the Chinese government to assist in teaching mandarin in schools until a South African textbook is developed. We are also looking at establishing e-learning classrooms for the pilot schools teaching Mandarin," the minister said.

To further promote Mandarin teaching, a team from South Africa will undertake a study tour to China in order to study, visit schools and engage with Chinese counterparts regarding the technical and vocational education streams, Motshekga said.

A dialogue on educational policy and research between China and South Africa is being planned in partnership with the Chinese National Institute of Education Sciences (CNIES), according to the minister.

The main focus of this dialogue will be the maths, science and technology (MST) education and will entail comparing curricula of the two countries, amongst other issues, she said.

A group of Chinese experts in MST education will visit South Africa for this dialogue, Motshekga said.

This is where a number of possible research areas will be identified on the work lying ahead, she said.

Beyond the sharing of curriculum and research issues, the main objective of this dialogue is breaking the mould in the cooperation within the MST education, she said.

The roll-out of Chinese subjects was incrementally implemented in schools with Grades 4-9 and 10 in January 2016, to be followed by Grade 11 in 2017 and Grade 12 in 2018, according to the Department of Basic Education.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during a news conference at City Hall in New York in this Sept 18, 2013 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday he would not mount an independent bid for the US presidency because he feared it would increase the chances that Republicans Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could end up in the White House.

A billionaire media mogul who combined business-friendly fiscal policies with liberal views on gun control and other social issues, Bloomberg could have potentially appealed to centrist voters in a year when candidates from the far left and right of the political spectrum have gained traction.

But Bloomberg, 74, said he had concluded that any candidate would be unlikely to win a clear majority in a three-person race. That would throw the election into the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which would be able to hand the White House to Trump, a real-estate billionaire, or Cruz, a conservative US senator from Texas.

"That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," he wrote on Bloomberg View, an opinion website that is part of his media empire.

Bloomberg never received much interest from American voters.

About 12 percent of likely voters said they would support him in a three-way race for president with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national poll conducted from Wednesday to Monday.

Among respondents, 41 percent said they would support Clinton and 31 percent would support Trump. The poll of 1,695 likely voters had a credibility interval of 3 percentage points.

Bloomberg said Trump, who is leading the battle to win the Republican nomination for the Nov 8 election, had backed policies that would undermine religious tolerance and threaten national security.

Trump has called for building a wall on the US border with Mexico, deporting the country's illegal immigrants and temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country.

"He has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears," Bloomberg wrote of Trump. He said Cruz, a favorite of evangelicals and the conservative Tea Party movement, was divisive as well.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Just months after finding out he had metastatic cancer, former President Jimmy Carter announced this weekend that his doctors have said he no longer needs cancer treatment thanks in part to a groundbreaking new kind of medication that trains the immune system to fight cancer tumors.

Carter announced in August that he had melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. He underwent surgery, radiation therapy and a new kind of cancer treatment called immunotherapy to fight the disease.

Speaking at his church this weekend, Carter announced that his doctors are stopping his immunotherapy treatment called pembrolizumab after they saw no signs of tumors over a period of three months. While he has no evidence of the disease, doctors will monitor Carter closely to see if the cancer reoccurs, a representative for the former president said.

"President Carter said today he did not need any more treatments, which he had August 2015 through February 2016, but will continue scans and resume treatment if necessary," a spokeswoman for the Carter Center told ABC News in an email Sunday.

Carter's remarkable outlook is likely due in large part to the drug pembrolizumab, a drug that targets cancer by ramping up the body's immune system, experts said. The treatment was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011.

The drug works as a "checkpoint inhibitor," altering certain pathways in the immune system so that the antibodies can identify and fight any tumors in the body the way they might fight a virus or cold, experts said. The medication is much less toxic than chemotherapy, but it can react in colon, liver or lung inflammation, according to published studies. Researchers are still trying to determine how long the medication can prompt the immune system to keep fighting. This drug is mainly given to melanoma patients.

Dr. Andrew Sloan, director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said scientist have only recently understood how tumors recruit the immune system.

Tumors have figured out how to turn off the immune system, Sloan said in an interview with ABC News when Carter first announced his diagnosis. They recruit cells that surround them. ... These are not cells that kill the tumor. They protect cells from part of the immune system.

Drugs like pembrolizumab work by keeping the immune system from turning off. Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said such therapies, first presented in 2010, were the first new drugs for melanoma since the 1970s.

Five years ago, Lictenfeld said, we would not have much to offer the president.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
(Photo : Reuters) China and Russia have agreed that the deployment of THAAD in South Korea would threaten the stability and security of the region.

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China and Russia on Friday voiced strong opposition to the deployment of US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile batteries in South Korea, reiterating concerns that the defense system's capabilities could pose a threat to the stability of the region.



In a press briefing on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China's assistant foreign minister Kong Xuanyou and Russia's deputy foreign minister Igor Morgulov came to an agreement on the issue in Moscow last week.



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Hong said the two diplomats agreed the deployment of the US defense system in the Korean Peninsula would threaten the security of both China and Russia. "The Chinese and Russian sides are firmly opposed to that," said Hong.



"Grave Threats"



The US and South Korea have commenced formal discussions on the possible deployment of THAAD systems on the Korean Peninsula. Initial talks between the two countries were held in Seoul on Friday ahead of the largest ever US-South Korea joint military exercise to date.



The two-part exercise -- called Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, respectively -- has prompted threats of all-out preemptive strikes from North Korea.



"The army and people of the [North] will take military counteraction for preemptive attack so that they may deal merciless, deadly blows at the enemies," Pyongyang's National Defense Commission said in a statement on Monday.



While some observers have dismissed Pyongyang's threat as mere bluster, political analysts claim this kind of rhetoric -- along with the North's recent nuclear test and rocket launch -- has helped push South Korea into considering the deployment of THAAD batteries within its borders.



"South Korea and the US assess that the North's latest nuclear test and long-range ballistic missile launch demonstrate its grave threats of atomic bombs, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles to the peace and stability of the peninsula and the entire Asia Pacific region," Seoul's deputy defense minister Yoo Jeh-seung said last month.



"Strong Reactions"



Competing defense and security interests have emerged as countries in the region adjust to North Korea's growing military capabilities. The issue has driven a wedge between Seoul and Beijing, and sparked an unusually blunt diplomatic dispute.



Last month, Jung Youn-Kook, a spokesman for South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, told China not to intervene in the talks between the US and South Korea over the possible deployment of the THAAD system.



"This is a matter we will decide according to our own security and national interests," said Jung. "The Chinese had better recognize this point."



The THAAD missile system is designed to destroy short and medium-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their flight, according to experts. The system utilizes "hit-to-kill" technology, where kinetic energy destroys incoming enemy warheads.



China and Russia are worried the system's powerful X-band radar and surveillance platforms could provide the US ballistic missile network with tracking data on Russian and Chinese military positions.



These concerns underline the tense diplomatic spat over THAAD and the on-going US-South Korea joint military exercise.



Key Resolve and Foal Eagle will reportedly involve some 17,000 US forces and 300,000 South Korean troops.



"We have noted strong reactions from the DPRK side against the military drills," said Hong. "The Chinese side is deeply concerned about the situation."



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TagsChina-Russia relations, China-South Korea relations, Terminal High Altitude Area Defence
(Photo : Getty Images) President Xi Jinping has announced that Beijing is willing to improve relations across the Taiwan Straits following an earlier pronouncement that China will contain secessionist activities by pro-independence activists in the island.

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Beijing's top legislature sent out a clear and positive message during its annual session last Saturday saying the Chinese mainland is determined to develop its relations with Taiwan.



Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reiterated that China will continue to adhere to the 1992 Consensus as the basis of its political and economic relations with Taiwan as it seeks to enhance cooperation with the island in many aspects.



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President Xi Jinping echoed Li's statement as he joined lawmakers at the 12th National People's Congress. Xi voiced Beijing's firm stance on improving cross-Straits relations and adhering to the 1992 consensus.



1992 Consensus



"Only by accepting the 1992 Consensus and recognizing its core implications can the two sides have a common political foundation and maintain good interaction," Xi said.



Under the 1992 Consensus, which upholds the "One China principle," both sides recognize there is only one 'China' - and both mainland China and Taiwan belong to the same China. However, both sides agree to interpret the meaning of 'one China' differently.



Secessionist moves



Amid Xi's pronouncements that he will contain secessionist moves in Taiwan, President-elect Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) remains silent about her stance on the 1992 consensus. However, she has repeatedly said that she will maintain the 'status quo" in Cross-Strait ties.



Chang Wu-yueh, who works at Taiwan's Tamkang University, said that Xi's pronouncements underscores the significance of the 1992 Consensus in keeping peace and increasing development of cross-Straits relations.



"Without this foundation, it will be extremely hard to maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, the mainland has steadfast determination to address the issue of 'Taiwan independence'," Chang said.



"Our policy toward Taiwan is clear and consistent, and it will not change along with the change in Taiwan's political situation," Xi told legislators at the opening of the 12th National People's Congress.



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TagsPresident Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, 1992 consensus, cross-straits, china
(Photo : Courtesy of Harvest America) Over 82,000 people gathered at the AT&T Stadium on Sunday for Harvest America 2016.

More than 82,000 individuals gathered at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Sunday for Harvest America, an annual evangelistic event in which Pastor Greg Laurie of the Harvest Crusades speaks on the gospel. Hundreds of thousands more tuned into the event via livestream or radio / TV broadcasts, according to the organizers, and the event was remotely hosted in over 7,200 locations.

Of those who gathered at the stadium, over 6,000 individuals made a faith commitment in response to Laurie's message titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," in which Laurie addressed feelings of of loneliness and emptiness, and said that only Jesus is the solution.

The most Google-searched terms during nighttimes are "porn, lonely, and suicide," Laurie noted.

"Not a woman, not a man, not a drug, not an experience, not a possession will fill the emptiness inside you," he said. "God has an answer for your loneliness and it is Jesus Christ, his son."

"Your religious beliefs are not enough, either. You're not good enough on your own," Laurie added. "Jesus alone is uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between a holy God and sinful humanity."

Major Christian worship artists were present at the event, with Chris Tomlin and MercyMe leading a choir of some 2,500 individuals, along with Switchfoot and Lecrae.

Various notable local church leaders endorsed and promoted the event, including Dr. Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church, Matt Chandler of The Village Church, and Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas. Over 4,000 local church members volunteered during the event to be counselors, ushers, and prayer room volunteers.

Donna Lee, 46, was one of 30 volunteers from her church, New Beginnings Community Fellowship in Cedar Hill. She told The Dallas Morning News that she hopes "that God moves the hearts of a lot of people to come to know him. If one more person comes to know Christ, it will be a success."

The event marks the first Christian event ever hosted at the AT&T Stadium.

Laurie is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, located in Riverside, and Harvest Orange County in Irvine, and heads the Harvest Crusades, a series of evangelistic events that have taken place since 1990. More than 5 million people have attended Harvest Crusades and over 450,000 people have responded to the events with faith commitments.

    press@cdaily.co.kr



- Copyright ,    

#ThousandsGatherforHarvestAmerica2016
100,000 fill AT&T stadium for Harvest America 2016; Thousands accept Christ after Greg Laurie's message 07 March, 2016 by Anugrah Kumar , |

ARLINGTON, Texas (Christian Post)  At least 100,000 people gathered at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for Harvest America 2016 on Sunday evening, according to Pastor Greg Laurie, and thousands of them responded to the California pastor's invitation to pray to accept Jesus into their lives.

"I know a few things about you," Laurie, senior pastor of the Harvest Christian Fellowship megachurch in California, told the cheering crowd in his message titled, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," which was also livestreamed to thousands of host locations across the country .

You're empty, you're lonely, you feel guilty and you fear death, the pastor told the gathering, which according to The Dallas Morning News was "the largest evangelical outreach in North Texas since Billy Graham drew 255,000 people to Texas Stadium."

The Rev. Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, tweeted before the event, "Near Arlington, TX tomorrow? Take your friends & anyone who needs a relationship with Jesus Christ to #HarvestAmerica with @GregLaurie."

We're all born empty, Laurie continued, pointing out that the Bible says no matter what you get, you're going to be empty from the inside. It's no wonder that the most Google-searched terms during the nights are "porn, lonely and suicide," he added.

Everybody feels guilt because "you have a conscience, and because you're guilty," he said, explaining that the Bible says we've all sinned.

Our fear of death is actually the fear of the unknown, Laurie added. But we will all die, and pass over to the other side.

He shared the story of a Samaritan woman, found in John 4:3-10: "So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?' (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?' (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.'"

Laurie then told attendees, "My mother was like this woman at the well." He added that he was able to lead his mother to Jesus about a month before she died.

The pastor also talked about Nicodemus, who is mentioned in John 3:1-7: "Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.' Jesus replied, 'Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.' 'How can someone be born when they are old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!' Jesus answered, 'Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'"

Just because you've got a cowboy hat doesn't mean you're a Texan, Laurie said. Going to a church doesn't make you a Christian either, he said. Nor does reading the Bible, he added, stressing that there has to be a moment when you put your faith in Jesus.

Religious beliefs are not enough, as religion is an attempt of humans to reach God, but Christianity is God's initiative to reach humans, Laurie said, adding he's not a religious person and nor does he want to become one.

Laurie briefly explained what the Gospel is. We're all sinners and separated from God, and can never reach God on our own, he said. But God loved us so much that He sent His Son to this Earth on a rescue operation. Jesus walked on our shoes, and He lived our life, and then He died our death. On the third day, He rose again from the dead. If we turn from our sin and ask Christ to come into our life, we can know we'll go to Heaven.

"I hope you're born again tonight. I hope this is the night your life changes," he told the crowd, and said, "Heaven is not for good people, it's for forgiven people."

Pastor Laurie led people to pray to invite Jesus into their hearts, and then encouraged those who prayed to leave their seats and come to the ground in front of the stage. Thousands came forward to proclaim their decision.

After the message, Dr. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, tweeted: "Praise God for the thousands of lives forever changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ tonight at #HarvestAmerica!"

Pastor Laurie spoke to The Christian Post a few days before the event.

"When I speak, I'm not so much addressing a crowd, I think of an individual," Laurie told CP. "It's hard to wrap your mind around a crowd of 30-, 40-, 50-, 60 thousand people  in fact you can't. So what I do is I think about that person that is cynical that didn't even want to come in the first place ... Though I'm speaking to a crowd in reality, I direct my remarks as though we were having a conversation  me and that person that's in attendance."

This article first published in Christian Post and is used with permission.
UPDATED: Beloved Christian relationship guru Gary Smalley dies at 75 Editorial Staff | 08 March, 2016 by Joni B. Hannigan

BRANSON, Mo. (Christian Examiner)  Gary Smalley, 75, an internationally recognized expert on relationships and a Christian counselor, has died. Numerous resources he created addressed issues such as marriage and family, sexuality and pornography.

Smalley's family made the announcement via social media on his Facebook page, where it was said the Idaho native "graduated to heaven" March 6 surrounded by family and his wife Norma who kissed him and sang to him.

"This beautiful transition came to an end as these words were spoke over him. 'The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you' (Numbers 6:24-25)," the Facebook entry wrote.

Smalley and his wife, Norma, lived in Branson, Missouri, and were married 52 years. The couple had one daughter, Kari, and two sons, Michael and Greg Smalley, and seven grandchildren.

Seven years ago Smalley spoke in Daytona Beach at a conference, "Fireproofing Your Marriage," with Albany, Georgia, Pastor Michael Catt, and Alex Kendrick, co-author of "The Love Dare."

Smalley, the co-author of "The Language of Love," and over 60 other relationship books, spoke about life-changing experiences over a four-year period in which he had a serious heart attack and a kidney transplant.

Catt told Christian Examiner today Smalley was a man whose life impacted many.

"Countless lives, marriages and families have been impacted by the life and ministry of Gary," Catt told CE. "His ability to communicate truth in a way that touched so many was a gift from God to all of us."

Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, notes Smalley's contribution as a best-selling author and speaker with more than 40 years of experience with regular appearances on programs such as Fox and Friends, Oprah Winfrey and NBC's Today Show. "Over his extraordinary career in ministry, he helped hundreds of thousands of couples through his books, films and conferences."

Daly said Smalley was "gracious and witty" both personally and professionally.

"I especially loved Gary's sense of humor," Daly recalled his blog. "He took the subject of marriage and family seriously, but he didn't take himself too seriously. As my role within Focus expanded to include hosting the daily radio broadcast, Gary's encouragement and comedic relief helped me slip more comfortably into the assignment."

Greg Smalley, who co-founded Focus on the Family's National Institute of Marriage in 2003, remembered his father as "humble" and "passionately committed" to God and his family.

"I loved my dad's authenticity and transparency," Greg Smalley told Daly following his father's death. "He was humble enough to admit he made mistakes and driven to learn how to grow as a follower of Christ, husband and father."

Smalley and his son Greg co-founded Focus on the Family's National Institute of Marriage in 2003. They conducted multiple-day marriage intensive conferences at their Branson Retreat Center. Surveys showed that 84 percent of the more than 3,000 couples who participated in National Institute of Marriage (intensive) conferences reported they were still married two years later.

"He was passionately committed to living out the greatest commandment: to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as himself," Greg wrote. "He built his ministry on the concept of honortreating others as priceless treasures. ... What I loved best is that who my dad was up on stage was exactly who he was at home. He spent his life honoring his wife and family and helping others have an intimate relationship with the Lord and a thriving marriage and family."

Following the Facebook announcement on Gary Smalley's page, the following comments were made:

Rob Parker, an evangelist from Indiana: "He inspired so many, myself included to live and love in a way that honored God. His encouragement and wisdom on building Christ honoring lives and relationships will be passed down for years to come. He was truly a blessing...."

Deb Ramseyer Graf, a middle school principal in Indiana: "So many of his writings have dictated how I live my life. May your family feel comforted to know your father, husband, and grandfather's legacy lives on in millions of others. My gratitude for sharing him with the world."

Barry White, former Army chaplain: "I used Dr Smalley's videos in marriage seminars and even as part of pre marital counseling during my 23 years as an Army Chaplain. You left your mark Gary Smalley."

Gary D. Chapman, another family conference leader and author of "The Five Love Languages," told Baptist Press people often confused the two men and would seek autographs from the wrong author for various books.

"'Early on, I told them that I was not Gary Smalley, but Gary Chapman, and they would be embarrassed. So, now I don't say a word, I just sign your name,'" Chapman recalled telling Smalley. "He (Smalley) laughed and said, 'You have not signed nearly as many of my books as I have signed copies of The Five Love Languages.'"

Chapman, senior associate pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., told BP: "We had a good laugh. If people are going to confuse me with someone, I don't know of a better choice than Gary Smalley."

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, March 19 at College of the Ozarks Chapel in Point Lookout, Missour, near Branson, and is open to the public.

Condolences can also be sent to Norma Smalley: Smalley Institute, 26205 Oak Ridge Drive, Suite 119, The Woodlands, Texas 77380.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to Camp Barnabas, a Christian camp for kids and teens with life-threatening illnesses and disabilities. Donations can be made at: http://bit.ly/1TJIjTe or by mailing a check to P.O. Box 3200, Springfield, MO 65808.
Jewish leader calls Trump Nazi-like loyalty pledge 'outrageous' 08 March, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

ORLANDO (Christian Examiner)  Republican frontrunner and New York billionaire Donald Trump has a new method for whipping up support at his campaign rallies  asking his supporters to raise their right hands and pledge their loyalty to him.

During a March 5 rally in Orlando, Florida, Trump asked his supporters to "solemnly swear" they would go to the polls in support of him instead of Florida's native son, Sen. Marco Rubio.

"Raise your right hand," Trump told the crowd. "'I do solemnly swear that I, no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions  if there's a hurricane or whatever  will vote, on or before the 12th for Donald J. Trump for president.'"

He is smart enough  he always tells us how smart he is  to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, he's asking them to swear allegiance to him.

After the crowd repeated his words, Trump told his devotees, "Don't forget you all raised your hand. You swore. Bad things will happen if you don't live up to what you just did."

The act itself, the raising of right hands in an arena filled with thousands of people pledging loyalty to a political candidate, raised the specter of past salutes at Nazi political rallies in the 1930s, several critics of the candidate said.

Most notable among them was Abe Foxman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League. Foxman was born in 1940 in Poland and was hidden by a Catholic woman from the Nazis. Most of his family did not survive the concentration camps. For him, he said, the images coming out of Trump's rallies are chilling.

"As a Jew who survived the Holocaust, to see an audience of thousands of people raising their hands in what looks like the 'Heil Hitler' salute is about as offensive, obnoxious and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America," Foxman told The Times of Israel.

"We've seen this sort of thing at rallies of neo-Nazis. We've seen it at rallies of white supremacists. But to see it at a rally for a legitimate candidate for the presidency of the United States is outrageous."

The "salute," as it has been dubbed by multiple media outlets including Huffington Post and even Al-Jazeera, has garnered attention because of the recent controversies over the support lent to Trump's campaign by David Duke, William Johnson, Kevin McDonald and Rachel Pendergraft  all noted white nationalists who believe Trump is the last best hope for a purely white president.

"It is a fascist gesture," Foxman said. "He is smart enough  he always tells us how smart he is  to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, he's asking them to swear allegiance to him."

Foxman also told the paper, "He even threatens that if they don't, they will suffer and be punished. This is so over the top for a man who really doesn't come out of the underground. He is a man of the world. Even though he proclaims he doesn't know who David Duke was, or the other white supremacists, we know very well that he knows. So he's playing to an image."

After days of criticism, knowing that the pledge was widely regarded as a political gaffe, Trump again called for his supporters to recite the pledge at a rally in Concord, N.C. His loyalty pledge was widely reported in Israel.

"Should we do the pledge? Should we do the pledge?" Trump asked the crowd. "Raise your hand: 'I swear I'm going to vote for Donald Trump next week, I swear.'"

"Oh, wow. Just with the people here, I think, we win,'" Trump said, smiling.

In December 2015, Trump was aware some of his supporters were offering the Nazi-style salute at his gatherings and threatening protestors with the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump did not address the raised hands then.

Shock comedian Louis C.K. has also criticized Trump. He wrote in an email to his followers that Americans were falling for the same ploys Hitler used in Germany. He asked why people are following blindly.

"When I was growing up and when I was a younger man, liberals and conservatives were friends with differences. They weren't enemies. And it always made sense that everyone gets a president they like for a while and then hates the president for a while. But it only works if the conservatives put up a good candidate. A good smart conservative to face the liberal candidate so they can have a good argument and the country can decide which way to go this time. Trump is not that. He is an insane bigot. He is dangerous."

"Do you think they saw the [expletive] coming?" C.K. asked. "Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all. He was voted into power by a fatigued nation and when he got inside, he did all his Hitler things and no one could stop him."

According to Reuters, multiple officials with countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East have privately complained to U.S. officials about Trump's rhetoric, describing it as "xenophobic."

Most of the officials declined to be identified, the news agency said. Notably, among those who were willing to speak on the record was German Economic Minister Sigmar Gabriel. He said Trump was a "threat to peace and prosperity," Reuters reported.

Trump responded to the controversy on NBC's Today Show March 8. He said worries about the pledge were "ridiculous."

"I think its ridiculous. I think we're having such a great time. Yesterday, we had 20,000 people in Mississippi. We had tremendous crowds in Michigan, and sometimes we'll do it for fun. And they'll say, they'll start screaming, 'Do the swear in. Do the swear in,'" Trump told hosts Matt Lauer and Savanah Guthrie.

"Honestly, until this phone call, I didn't know it was a problem. Almost everybody in the room raises their hand. I never knew it was a problem," Trump said. "I think that's a big, big stretch [to compare it to a Nazi salute]. If its offensive, if there's anything wrong with it, I wouldn't do it."
LIBERTY COUNSEL: News media missed Alabama's Supreme Court historic action on same-sex marriage Editorial Staff | 07 March, 2016 by Joni B. Hannigan

ORLANDO (Christian Examiner)  Friday's Alabama Supreme Court's apparent rejection of the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 marriage opinion  one that leaves in place a Judgment affirming Alabama marriage laws  is a "clear victory" according to Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver.

Staver refutes what he says is the media's misrepresentation of the court's action in what he says is an historic 135-page order in favor or Liberty Counsel's emergency petition which orders some judges to cease issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"Some media reported the opposite of what the Alabama Supreme Court did," Staver said. "When the Alabama Supreme Court entered the Judgment on its March 2015 order and dismissed the ACLU's motion to reverse that order, the result was a clear victory for our case."

Headlines regarding the issue include: "Alabama Supreme Court Refuses Challenge to Gay Marriage" (NBCNews.com); "Alabama Supreme Court quashes conservative revolt against gay marriage" (Los Angeles Times); and "Alabama high court tosses petitions challenging gay marriage" (Reuters).

Despite news that reported the opposite, Staver said Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore's 105-page opinion concurred with the order that all pending motions and petitions be dismissed.

Moore noted in a statement, "[T]he Court did not disturb the existing orders in this case or the holding in API that Alabama's Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and the Alabama Marriage Protection Act were constitutional."

The American Civil Liberties Union executive director, Susan Watson, told the Washington Post she believed the justices had ruled in favor of the U.S. Supreme Court on the legalization of gay marriage, and were applying the rule of law in Alabama.

Not so, Staver said in a Liberty Counsel news release.

"The Alabama Supreme Court order upholding the marriage laws and ordering the probate judges to comply with those laws still remains in effect," Staver said. "The ACLU's request to reverse that order was dismissed."
The Florida Senate passed a bill to protect churches from lawsuits in case they decline any wedding. The bill was passed on to Governor Rich Scott for signature, which is expected to be made into a law from July 1, according to media reports.

The Pastor Protection Act will protect churches from being sued or losing tax-exempt status for choosing to refuse to preside over any marriage ceremony.

"A definition of marriage that many held sacred and part of their religious belief was turned upside down," said Senator Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach). "The entire marriage world turned upside down. Some celebrated and some are still scratching their heads, but that's now the law of the land. So, that's why we're here."

According to the bill, the churches could decline same-sex weddings and receptions from being held at their premises.

The bill was passed in the Senate with 23-15 votes, and the day before, it secured a majority in the House with 82-37 votes.

Bean said that the bill was like taking a "flu shot," to prevent any unforeseen legal standoffs in future.

"Have you ever heard of a Senator or a Representative that hopes their bill is never used or tested? I'm the first. Hopefully no one will ever challenge somebody in the practice of their religion. That will be a sad day in our nation, in our state ... Some say that's where our nation is headed," he said.

Some opponents of the bill argue that the bill is unnecessary and such protections are already granted to churches. Other opponents say that the broad language of the bill text could be used as an instrument for racial discrimination, if the churches decline inter-racial marriages.

"It might turn the clock back. Some institution in its interpretation of this law can say, 'It's against our religious belief to marry a black woman and a white man,'" Senator Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) was quoted as saying by the Miami Herald.

Executive director of the Christian Family Coalition Anthony Verdugo said that the bill protects churches.

"People of faith, houses of worship and clergy need to be protected against discrimination," he told the Miami Herald.
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Image: VnGrijl / Flickr

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Israeli Christians Think and Do Almost the Opposite of ...

In 1949, the state of Israel was formed to be a haven for the worlds decimated and traumatized Jewish population after World War II. Ever since, American Christians have largely supported the modern-day Zion; in 2013, 82 percent of white evangelicals believed that God gave the land of Israel to the Jews.

In contrast, only 19 percent of Christians actually born, raised, and living in Israel believe that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people. Significantly more than half (66%) believe this is not literally true, while another 9 percent dont know what to think.

The numbers come from a new comprehensive study of Israel by the Pew Research Center, which included enough self-identified Christians (468) to statistically break out their views. The numbers were weighted and adjusted, because Pew found that only 2 percent of Israels population in 2015 was Christian, down from 3 percent in 1949. (Pews survey includes Arab residents of East Jerusalem, but not those of Gaza or of the West Bank outside of East Jerusalem.)

Those Christians are largely split 50/50 between Catholic and Orthodox believers. Protestants and Messianic Jews both made up fewer than 0.5 percent of Israels population, and thus were too negligible to be broken out separately in the survey results (though they are included in the totals pertaining to all Christians).

Though all of the Christians surveyed were born in Israel (or East Jerusalem), their small numbers and heritage (96% are Arab) distance them from the countrys Jewish identity.

For example, the majority of Israeli Christians (72%) believe Israel cannot be both a democracy and a Jewish state, though most Israeli Jews (76%) believe it can be fully both.

And ...
UNC excavation crew in Galilee region of Israel uncover first known depictions of biblical heroines An excavation team in Israel has discovered the first known depiction of two biblical heroines from the Old Testament.

World to reach 8 billion people in November, India to unseat China as most populous in 2023: UN By Nov. 15, the worlds population is projected to reach 8 billion, and by 2023, India is projected to surpass China as the worlds most populous country, according to a new report from the United Nations.

Single, non-religious young adults are most unhappy Americans post-COVID-19: report Young adults under 35 who are single and non-religious report the highest levels of unhappiness since the COVID-19 pandemic began and since 1972, when the General Social Survey began measuring levels of happiness among Americans, a new analysis from the Institute of Family Studies suggests.
Alabama Supreme Court dismisses suit vs. same-sex marriage but slams U.S. Supreme Court ruling as 'immoral'

The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition to stop same-sex marriage in the state but issued a lengthy opinion that severely criticised the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges as "immoral" and "lawless."

The state High Court did not rule on the state's Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and Marriage Protection Act, which prescribes marriage as only between a man and a woman.

"As stated at the beginning of this special concurrence, the certificate of judgment in this case does not disturb the March 2015 orders of this court that uphold the constitutionality of the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and the Alabama Marriage Protection Act. For that reason, as explained above, I concur," wrote Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in the order.

Moore blasted the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2015 ruling as "completely without constitutional authority, a usurpation of state sovereignty, and an effort to impose the will of 'five lawyers,'" according to WND.

"Indeed, the Obergefell majority even presumes to override the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which limit the applicability of injunctions to parties, their agents, and those acting in concert with them," Moore added.

Moore said the ruling is "like Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade that preceded it ... [and] is an immoral, unconstitutional, and tyrannical opinion."

"Its consequences for our society will be devastating, and its elevation of immorality to a special 'right' enforced through civil penalties will be completely destructive of our religious liberty," he said.

Moore believes the five justices in the majority had no authority to make such a ruling.

"That a majority of the court may identify an 'injustice' that merits constitutional correction does not dispense with the means the Constitution has provided in Article V for its own amendment," he said.

Moore added, "Chief Justice Roberts portrays the majority as thieves who are 'stealing' the marriage issue from the people. Justice Scalia uses a similar metaphor, stating that the majority 'robs the people of ... the freedom to govern themselves.' These metaphors identify the essence of the majority's actions: an illegal displacement and usurpation of the democratic process."

In another case, an Alabama judged ruled that the state's death penalty process is unconstitutional as it violates the defendants' right to due process.

Judge Tracie Todd of the 10th Judicial Circuit Court wrote that judges are improperly allowed to override jury recommendations to impose life in prison without parole and instead impose the death penalty, NBC News and the Associated Press reported.

"At present Alabama is solitary in its unbridled system of allowing judges to deviate from jury advisory verdicts in order to effect life-to-death sentence overrides," Todd said.

The ruling will affect four cases brought to the court in Jefferson County.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said the state would appeal Todd's ruling.

"We fully expect today's ruling by Judge Todd to be reversed," Strange said.
Beyond Boko Haram: Child abductions in Nigeria

This month, two girls who had been kidnapped and subject to forced conversion and marriage in northern Nigeria were returned to their families after unprecedented public pressure. Their plight has put the spotlight on an issue that goes largely unremarked outside of the region.

Fourteen-year-old Ese Rita Oruru, from Bayelsa State in the south of the country, was allegedly abducted on 12 August 2015 by a man called Yunusa Dahiru, also known as "Yellow". A regular customer at her mother's food store, he took Ese, then aged 13, over 800km away to Kano State in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria, where she was obliged to change her religion and name, and was "married".

Multiple attempts by Ese's family to secure her release were unsuccessful and it was only after a social media campaign went viral that she was eventually released on 29 February 2016. In the days following her daughter's disappearance, her mother, Rose, made a perilous journey to Dahiru's home area in Kano State to get her back but was insulted by the village chief. He said that her daughter had converted to Islam, changed her name to Aisha, and was now "married" and in the custody of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II.

Despite warnings not to go to the Emir's palace, Mrs Oruru went to petition for her daughter's release. On at least two occasions she was insulted and assaulted by irate youth. Even when accompanied by police officers, she was refused direct access to her daughter and eventually had to return home.

The turning point came 24 hours after local newspaper Punch launched a #FreeEse campaign that resonated with Nigerians across social media both at home and abroad. Ese was finally reunited with her mother in the capital Abuja on 2 March. Her father later revealed that she was five months pregnant.

The publicity around her case also galvanised calls for the release of another 14 year-old girl, Patience Paul, who was also abducted on 12 August 2015 in Sokoto State, northern Nigeria. She was allegedly taken by two neighbours who were accompanied by the Hisba (Shari'a enforcement) group and taken to the palace of the Sultan of Sokoto, the foremost Muslim traditional ruler in Nigeria and the spiritual leader of the faith community. Patience's brother raised the alarm about her abduction on Facebook, but her case only gained traction in the public consciousness after Ese's campaign went viral. As publicity grew, the Sokoto State Human Rights Commission initiated an investigation into Patience's disappearance and discovered that she had been "married" to a man who had taken her to Bauchi State. She was traced to the home of a man named Malam Ibrahim, also known as the "king of strangers", on the evening of 4 March and returned to her family.

These cases highlight longstanding concerns about the abduction, forced conversion and forcible marriage of non-Muslim minors, which is particularly prevalent in rural areas of Shari'a states in northern Nigeria. Christian Solidarity Worldwide continues to document several cases of child abductions and in 2010 made a submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that highlighted this phenomenon.

What makes Ese's case startling is that she was taken from a southern State, and many question whether the case would have made headlines had the entire event occurred only in the north.

Parents seeking the release of abducted daughters are generally informed they have converted, married, are in the custody of local traditional rulers and do not wish to return home. Appeals to law enforcement agencies for assistance generally prove ineffective amidst assertions by abductors that the girls are not minors. However, under Nigerian law anyone below the age of 18 is a minor. Nigeria's Penal Code punishes child abduction and carnal knowledge of minors with jail terms and there are also penalties for anyone involved in child betrothal and child marriage.

In addition to press and public attention, local NGOs such as Muslim Rights Concern have condemned these abductions. In a tweet issued on 29 February referring to Ese's case, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, stated that, "no culture, religion or personal conviction supersedes the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

The public pressure for the release of the two girls appears to have taken traditional authorities, who implicitly or explicitly sanction these acts, by surprise and may embolden more families to seek redress, forcing the authorities to tackle the issue effectively. Five parents have now come forward each demanding help to ensure the release of their daughters, one of whom was 12 at the time of her abduction.

Similar to the Orurus, who struggled to get their daughter back even when accompanied by police and who were informed repeatedly to give up on their campaign by law enforcement officials, these cases suggest an inequality before the law that is unacceptable in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation. While Boko Haram's abductions have rightly drawn headlines, these sorts of abductions, which predate those of Boko Haram, receive less coverage. The only difference between them is that instead of trafficking girls to ungoverned spaces, these abductors attempt to hide behind traditional authorities who may or may not have condoned their actions.

Our fervent hope is that Ese and Patience's case will spur the Nigerian authorities to be proactive in ensuring the swift return of all abducted minors and to prosecute the individuals, local authorities or organisations that are complicit in such activity. No parent should have to struggle the way the Orurus did to get their daughter back. The culture of impunity surrounding child abductions must end.

Kiri Kankhwende is press officer for Christian Solidarity Worldwide.


How the mental health system is failing young people and why Christians should care

The end of last week brought more press reports of the worrying rise in mental health problems among children and young people in the UK.

Specifically, reports identified a rise in anxiety and stress, and associated with that, increases in rates of self harm and suicidal thoughts.

It seems at the moment that barely a week goes by without another report announcing such dramatic figures. It raises concerns about a generation of young people who are desperately struggling with the pressures life is throwing at them and finding it increasingly hard to cope.

None of this is news to anyone who works with young people. Every youth worker, teacher and children worker I know has been watching this gradual decline in the mental health of the children they work with for years. Friends and colleagues working in mental health have watched the increase in referrals. They've also seen the changes in the cases they are seeing: the increase in the number of younger children struggling and the drop in the average age that young people present with issues such as self harm, for example.

Frustration, not surprise

So my reaction on hearing the latest news is simple: frustration. We know young people are struggling, we know rates are rising. And while I know how vital it is that we report it, now I want to hear reports of how we might be able to respond: signs that we are taking it seriously and trying to help change things for the better. The significance of the situation in which we find ourselves is not new to us, but now we need to turn our attention to how we can reverse the trend and start to make it better.

Every one of the statistics that you read in the papers represents a real child or young person desperately unhappy and struggling with intense emotions that they do not have the maturity to know how to handle. Childhood in general and adolescence in particular is a time of rapid brain change. The brains of young people change dramatically during (typically) their teenage years. As the average age of the onset of puberty also gradually edges downwards we see these brain changes starting in children who are still at primary school.

Life and emotions are often challenging enough for these children. Adolescent emotions can be dramatic and unpredictable, triggered without much warning and rising or falling in an instant. Extreme highs and extreme lows are not unusual and part of the journey of adolescence is about learning to manage these and how to care for yourself: how to regulate your own emotion and manage the difficult moments in a positive way. It is imperative that we listen to our children and young people, who talk about worries, anxieties and pressures that they do not know how to deal with.

The other incredible cruelty of our current situation is this: at the same time as we see this soaring in rates of mental and emotional distress in children and young people, our mental health services are in crisis. Sixty-five per cent of schools reported it was becoming increasingly difficult to access support and treatment for the children they were concerned about.

Speak to anyone working in this field and they will have a story. The parent promised help for a desperately anxious child who then faced weeks of silence with no letter, no referral, no contact. The teenager told they are 'not ill enough' to be prioritised for treatment and sent home, effectively to get worse until they do reach the threshold. The suicidal young person who had confided in several people how desperate s/he was, but just couldn't run the gauntlet of getting an appointment with a GP, or face sharing their deepest fears with someone they were meeting for the first time.

We simply cannot carry on with this situation and it becomes all the more crucial when so many are suffering.

God-given potential

This is so important because of the amazing, God-given potential inside every one of these young people, many of whom think they are worthless and have little or nothing to offer the world.

With good treatment they can recover, learn how to manage their emotions, win back ground from their anxiety, feel back in control and replace desperate attempts to cope with more helpful strategies to manage difficult emotions. I have worked with many people who have clawed their way back out of anxiety, depression, self harm, eating disorders, suicidal feelings  amazing, inspiring, strong and brave people. But far too often this simply isn't happening. Frequently the mental health statistic of today becomes the long-term sufferer of the future: not because recovery isn't possible but because they struggle to access the help and support they need. Not just years but lives lost: limited, held back and struck down by their own emotions and the same brilliant minds that could do so much.

These young people are our future: they are the ones who could change the world. But we fail them because we do not give them the support they need to manage emotions that are beyond their years and so we risk losing them.

Recent weeks have also seen perhaps a glimmer of hope: announcements in response to a comprehensive report on the current state of mental health services in the UK of an investment in mental health of more than a billion pounds a year over the next five years. More than 1 billion is promised for child and adolescent mental health services.

We can only hope that this goes some way to starting to expand services to meet these very significant needs. I look forward to the day when the reports I read and hear about the mental health of this nation's young people are more positive: news of successes, triumphs and of groundbreaking new services looking to bring them hope and the brilliant future they so deserve.

Dr Kate Middleton is a psychologist and church leader. Follow her on Twitter @communik8ion

More information about mental health services can be found here.
International Women's Day: Why #pledgeforparity is so Christian

Gender parity is the theme set for today's International Women's Day, with the focus on moving beyond talk to purposeful action.

It's an important move. The 2016 campaign challenges women and men across the world to 'pledge for parity'  to take concrete steps, wherever they can, to create inclusive, flexible cultures that eliminate gender bias.

It's an urgent move too, especially in the light of discouraging statistics. The World Economic Forum reported in 2015 that the global gender gap across health, education, economic opportunity and politics had closed by only four per cent in the past 10 years. Despite another quarter of a billion women entering the global workforce since 2006, their wages lag 10 years behind those of men. And in education, the gap had actually widened in 22 per cent of the countries they surveyed. They suggested it could take another 118 years to close the whole gender gap completely.

International Women's Day has been celebrated for more than a century, actively campaigning for women's suffrage, international peace, women's rights to work, training and education, and better working conditions. Today it marks an official holiday in many countries, including Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia. It creates time for reflection on what still needs to be done, with the consistent strapline 'think globally, act locally'. It is a strategic opportunity with no strings attached. According to Gloria Steinem, veteran social and political activist, International Women's Day belongs to no single organisation, initiative or political entity but is the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.

That surely includes the Christian church  both internationally, across denominational and cultural boundaries, and locally, in diverse gatherings of believers. We have both theological and pastoral reasons to put our weight behind justice-seeking initiatives. Teachings throughout the Scriptures, not least in the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures, disclose the need to eliminate oppression, pay people a fair wage, respect the vulnerable and value the equal significance of people before God. It is a stance which chimes with much of the vision of International Women's Day.

Gender parity

This year I believe we have an open invitation to be even more involved because of its focus on 'gender parity'. Parity is a concept which speaks into much of our own Christian understanding of the nature and moral requirements of our lives as men and women. It is less blunt than the word 'equality' because it recognises that people start out from very different places and these have to be acknowledged and worked with. So, for example, parity in education recognises that people from different cultures or different family backgrounds have varying access to resources, but they should be equally supported to flourish in the educational system. 'Difference' cannot be eliminated, but it should never be a justification for unfairness or discrimination.

Our biblical understanding of gender already encompasses this. A careful analysis of the biblical narratives of women and men will recognise that they draw on a number of concepts, which include both equality and difference. We are different as female and male, young and old, from different contexts and cultures, but we are also equal as the image of God, stewards of creation, called to neighbour-love, gifted for service, and with an equal propensity for wrongdoing. St Paul's picture of the 'body of Christ' celebrates our diversity but also our equal inclusion, and the indispensability of each for the wellbeing of the whole.

Acknowledging difference does not justify stereotypic gender roles. Even in the patriarchal times of the Scripture writers, women were endorsed as prophets, judges and leaders of Israel; they were Christian evangelists, house church leaders, teachers, with prophetic gifts. Paul's famous injunction in Galatians 3:28 (in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male and female) eliminates all grounds for bias or discrimination.

'Gender parity' is therefore both a realistic and hopeful goal to aim for in the church. It recognizes that differences in global situation are evident; we do not start on an equal footing; 'one size does not fit all'. It also takes away the paradox outlined by Luce Irigaray in talking about the need for women to be 'equal'. She asks, "But equal to whom?" When the answer is always 'men' it leaves men as the reference point, the defining sex. Women are left trying to reach some 'male' standard.

The Christian acceptance of both gender difference and equality can encourage women to use their own voices, develop their own gifts, make their own vital contribution. Women must be empowered as women, through legislation, resourcing, gender-balanced leadership and elimination of gender bias.

And Christians across the globe can celebrate International Women's Day with enthusiasm knowing that its vision for gender justice  parity for half the human race  is one we must embrace to the full.

Dr Elaine Storkey is a sociologist and theologian. She is the author of Scars Across Humanity: Understanding and overcoming violence against women (SPCK.)


International Women's Day: Words of Wisdom from 4 Remarkable Christian Women

Mums all across the UK have just been celebrated for all their hard work and generosity as part of Mothering Sunday, and now people across the world are gearing up to celebrate inspirational women throughout the ages as part of International Women's Day. The global day of action has been observed since the early 1900s and celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women throughout the ages.

This International Women's Day, we take a look at four remarkable Christian women from various fields, of various time periods, and their words of wisdom.

Rosa Parks - Civil Rights Activist

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 sparked the famous Montgomery bus boycott and helped her become one of the most-renowned figures of the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour the United States Congress can bestow on a civilian. Her strength and courage in standing up for what was right is still a source of inspiration today.

"I remember finding such comfort and peace while reading the Bible...Its teaching became a way of life and helped me in dealing with my day-to-day problems."

Bethany Hamilton - Surfer

Bethany Hamilton was attacked by a shark while surfing in 2003, aged just 13 years old. As a result of the attack she lost her left arm but she hasn't let the accident hold her back. Now a 26-year-old wife and mum of one, Hamilton says the attack made her even more determined.

"When people ask me what my faith in God means to me, I usually answer in just one word: 'Everything!' This was true before the shark attack as well as after."

JK Rowling - Author

She's best known for writing the incredibly popular Harry Potter series which have sold over 400 million copies worldwide and captured the imaginations of millions of children and adults around the world. Before her extremely successful career as a novelist took off, Rowling was a single mother and 'as poor as it's possible to be in this country'. In addition to giving to various causes, she's also founded a charity that works to end the institutionalisation of children.

"Those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy."

Leymah Gbowee - Liberian Peace Campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Leymah Gbowee led women from across Liberia's ethnic and religious divides as part of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace to campaign for an end to the country's 14-year civil war. In 2011, Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her part in leading the women's peace movement. She was the second African woman to win the prize.

"There is something in this world that every individual can do. God has created all of us with something unique to contribute."
North Korea will be 'vaporised' if it launches nuke attacks on other nations, says ex-Pentagon official

The tension between North Korea and other nations is escalating, with the rogue nation's dictator, Kim Jong-un, recently ordering his military to prepare its nuclear weapons for launch.

For a former Pentagon official, this may just be an empty threat made by a country which will potentially be wiped off the face of the Earth if it decides to launch a nuclear attack against any other nation.

Former Deputy Undersecretary for Defense Jed Babbin, who served under the administration of President George H.W. Bush, said other countries will not hesitate to pulverise North Korea if it decides to use its supposed nuclear weapons.

"Their country would be vaporised immediately... One decent nuke over there, and the country is just gone," Babbin said in an interview with WND and Radio America.

He added that it is easy to launch an offensive that will destroy North Korea completely since its resources are concentrated in its capital, Pyongyang.

"Quite frankly, there ain't much to vaporise. That place is in the Stone Age. The only place that's even lit at night is the capital city of Pyongyang," he said.

Babbin also doubts North Korea's claim that it is ready to launch nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

"It's a big deal to develop a nuclear weapon," he said. "It's a big deal to develop an ICBM. However, to get an ICBM mated with a small enough nuclear weapon that will survive the G-forces in the takeoff of a missile and actually be able to re-enter the atmosphere and successfully detonate a nuclear weapon, that's probably several years beyond what these guys can do."

The former Pentagon official further said that Kim Jong-un's empty threat is just clearly his way of responding to the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on North Korea for its supposed rocket launch.

"They've got some bigger restrictions now," he said. "Ships going into and out of North Korea are going to be stopped and inspected. At least that's the theory. They've lost the opposition of the Chinese to those sorts of sanctions. The Chinese went along with it, and the U.N. Security Council was unanimous in putting these sanctions in."
Sex abuse victim 'deeply distressed' by Lord Carey support for Bishop Bell

The sex abuse victim of former Bishop of Chichester George Bell has described the letter praising him from a former Archbishop of Canterbury as "deeply distressing".

The victim, who received compensation after she filed a civil claim against the Church of England, told BBC South East: "Great men can do evil things."

The Church formally apologised to the victim after she filed a civil complaint that Bell abused her as a child in Chichester Cathedral while she sat listening to stories on his lap. She had come forward two decades earlier but no action was taken at that time.

The Church accepted her account as true.

There have been complaints from commentators in some media that Bishop Bell, a once-revered figure on the Church of England's anglo-catholic wing, and who is long dead and unable to defend himself, has been unfairly traduced.

Lord Carey of Clifton, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, wrote to Bell's 92-year-old niece Barbara Whitley describing the late bishop as "without question one of the greatest church leaders of the 20th Century". Carey said he was "appalled" at the way Bell's memory had been treated.

He wrote: "Your uncle was a man whose contribution to this country and the Church was outstanding. He was without question one of the greatest Church leaders of the 20th Century.

"The Church has effectively delivered a 'guilty' verdict without anything resembling a fair and open trial.

"His reputation is in tatters and, as you sadly point out, all references to him in the diocese he loved and served have been removed and renamed."

George Bell was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 to 1958, when he died.

While he was in office, in 1993, Lord Carey wrote to police in support of Bishop Peter Ball, now serving a prison sentence for sex abuse.
The true cost of Syrian war could be 1tn by 2020

The war in Syria is costing the country 3.2 billion a month in lost growth; a figure that could spiral to 915 billion in total if the crisis continues for another five years, a new report has found.

The cost of conflict for children: Five yeas of the Syria crisis was co-written by Christian charity World Vision and Frontier Economics, Europe's largest independent economic consultancy. It found that since war broke out in Syria in 2011, it has cost the country more than 190 billion in lost growth  economic value that could otherwise have been created through goods and services. This has had a direct impact on food prices, which have soared, the cost of water, health care, and every other part of normal life. A quarter of Syrian schools have been destroyed or damaged since the war began. According to the UNHCR, at least 8.2 million children both in the country and the surrounding region are experiencing disrupted schooling, food insecurity and limited protection from serious harm and abuse.

 What you see in Syria is bombed towns, bombed cities, bombed roads, bombed bridges. That's what Syria is right now. 

"What you see in Syria is bombed towns, bombed cities, bombed roads, bombed bridges. That's what Syria is right now," World Vision's Brenda Yu told Christian Today. She recently visited a number of countries neighbouring Syria including Lebanon and Jordan, where millions of Syrian refugees have fled.

Yu met a refugee father who was forced to flee Aleppo with his family. He told her, "Aleppo is war. Bombing. Shelling. Shooting. There is no electricity, nothing to eat or drink."

"Those were his exact words," Yu said. "That's why these figures matter. It's about helping people to understand why it's so important to start thinking ahead while we have the time."

World Vision is urging the international community to prepare for Syria's eventual recovery. The charity says it is vital to learn from experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not to wait until the war is over to begin planning Syria's reconstruction.

"As [the cost of war] continues to go up, Syria continues to lose what it could have been," Yu said. "It will take more time and more detailed planning to make this work; to rebuild the country and to give Syrians the help they are hoping for."

According to the report, "direct and indirect impacts on education services resulted in the equivalent of 24.5 million years of lost schooling by the end of 2015." Economic pressures have also spread to neighbouring countries; Jordan has taken in more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, while Lebanon is hosting at least one million. This has caused an immense strain on education, health and other services.

One six-year-old Syrian refugee met by researchers, Heba, draws pictures using only black and red crayons. She draws bodies, barrel bombs, and helicopter gunships. "When I think of Syria, I only see black," she said.

Tim Pilkington, chief executive of World Vision UK, said the conflict in Syria has "shattered the lives of over eight million children."

"With their homes, schools and hospitals bombed and their friends and families killed, many have been forced into appalling living conditions and abject poverty," he said. "When we meet severely distressed children who've fled sniper fire and bombing, our first concern is to keep them fed, clothed and alive. Faced with their suffering it's hard to think in terms of cold economic costs.

"But financial loss translates into human loss  lost education, lost health, lost jobs and lost opportunities. The costs of the conflict are staggering. Unless we act now, this war won't just affect a generation of children, but their children's children.

"We cannot wait until the war is over to plan for their future... We must prepare the ground for peace now."

Yu met a number of parents in Lebanon and Jordan who have been forced to send their children to work to help provide for their family. One man, Ahmed (name changed), has a 12-year-old son who works nine hours a day for about five Jordanian dinars, the equivalent of 4.60. Ahmed's wife was forced to sell her gold ring after the family fled Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold. "We just want to provide a decent future for our children," he said.

Another woman went into labour when she was eight months' pregnant and still living in Syria. She was rushed to the hospital, but there was an explosion and she was knocked over. Her daughter was born prematurely, and is brain-damaged. She believes it was because of the fall.

Families such as these who have experienced such trauma are the reason the international community must act immediately to secure a better future for Syria, World Vision says.

"The UK has gravitas and a great track record. It is the second largest bilateral donor for the Syrian crisis, and is in good standing to gather world leaders and other relevant actors to collaborate," Yu said. "We need to make sure Syria is ready for families like Ahmed's in the future."
US Christian missionary sentenced to 40 years for child sex abuse

A Christian missionary to Kenya has been sent to prison for 40 years for sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to the original criminal complaint, Matthew Lane Durham raped more than 10 children, some as young as four years old, including at least one who was HIV positive.

Durham, 21, was guilty of heinous crimes on the most vulnerable victims, said the Oklahoma Federal court.

Durham visited Upendo children's home in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, to work as a volunteer four times between 2012 and 2014, with the latest visit taking place between April and June 2014.

Upendo means "love" in Kiswahili.

During a preliminary hearing, Durham told Upendo staff he must have been possessed by "evil spirits" because he could not rememer the events.

According to the BBC's Abdinoor Aden, the children's home welcomed the sentence. "It is a new beginning for them," said the orphanage founder Eunice Menja.

Earlier she told the court that Durham's abuse was not only "a betrayal of the Upendo mission' but also of the trust Upendo placed in him.

"Matthew Durham defiled the children. Matthew has no remorse," she said. After he was caught, he continued to deny the charges.

Judge David Russell said Durham was the children's "worst nightmare come true".

Durham was also ordered to pay restitution of $15,863.
What should evangelicals do about the Virgin Mary?

Depending on your church background, the question of who Mary is will provoke very different answers. We can all agree that she was the human mother of the Son of God, and for that reason alone she is significant. From this point forward, church teaching diverges rather a lot.

Popular belief is that Mary splits the church down the middle between Catholics and Protestants; that Catholics love, and even worship Mary, while Protestants largely dismiss her. While there are elements of truth in both these conclusions, as so often is the case, the true value of Mary is not found by hiding out in either camp.

Catholic theology on Mary  Mariology  is extensive. She has inspired paintings, hymns and prayers. Popes have encouraged the veneration of Mary and practices related to it have become integral to Catholic culture.

Surrounded by tradition are four dogmatic teachings about Mary which can help evangelicals understand how Catholics think about her identity and her relation to Christ:

1. Mother of God

"Mary is truly 'mother of God' since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, who is God himself," says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

This isn't too scary  the fact that Mary was the mother of Jesus is not news to evangelical ears. The important thing here is that she was the mother of God not just a baby called Jesus, who later became God. It actually has more to do with the status of Jesus than the status of Mary  in the early church this was formalised in 431 to defend against the belief that Jesus' divinity was not innate.

2. The Assumption of Mary

We are now on less familiar territory. This dogma states that Mary was assumed into heaven with body and soul. Rather than dying and her soul going to heaven, Catholic dogma states that: "when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory."

The thought behind it is linked with the next dogma  the immaculate conception  that, as one without sin, she was not subject to its punishment of death. Some Catholics believed she died first and then was miraculously resurrected before being assumed, while others believe she did not die at all.

3. The Immaculate Conception

Here is where most Protestants become a little uncomfortable.

Not to be confused with the virgin birth, the dogma of the immaculate conception refers to the Catholic belief that Mary was conceived without original sin. Official Catholic teaching is that, from her conception, Mary was innocent: unlike the rest of the human race, she was not touched by original sin. From the moment she was created, she was filled with divine grace.

Pope Pius XII said: "Who will dare to doubt that she, who was purer than the angels and at all times pure, was at any moment, even for the briefest instant, not free from every stain of sin?"

Due to her role in the in the economy of salvation, Catholics believe that Mary was protected from sinning as a gift from God to enable her to become the stainless Mother of God. Protestants believe that only Jesus was free from sin.

4. The Perpetual virginity of Mary

This dogma teaches that Mary was a virgin not only before giving birth to Jesus, but that she remained a virgin until her assumption. This belief  which is not unique to Catholicism  holds that Mary was ever-virgin, making Jesus her only biological son. Where Jesus' brothers are mentioned in the Gospels, they suggest it refers to a broader family relationship, as they were never called "sons of Mary".

While none of these four dogmas denote the divinity of Mary, there is a tendency in Catholicism to focus on Mary at the expense of Jesus.

Some Catholic traditions emphasise Mary as mediatrix  interceding for our salvation. Catholics maintain that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, reconciling us to God through his death and resurrection, however they find a secondary mediating role for Mary. Just as Protestants ask for others alive to intercede for them, so the Catholic tradition teaches that Mary  alongside the communion of saints  is an intercessor. While Catholics maintain that there is no infringement on the doctrine that salvation is through Christ alone, Protestant thinkers have seen this as a point where Catholic thought on Mary moves into idolatry.

We need to un-muddy the waters between the high admiration of the grace of God seen on a human being, and worship of another creature.

The answer, however, is not found by abandoning Mary altogether: evangelicals need to develop a positive view of Mary, based on the Bible alone. As New Testament Scholar Scot McKnight pointed out, we know more about Mary than almost any other character in the New Testament, apart from Jesus, Peter, Paul and John:

"Think about it: we know her husband, Joseph; we know Mary's relatives, Zechariah and Elizabeth; we know a song she sang called Magnificat; we know she traveled from Galilee to the hill country and from Galilee to Bethlehem; we know she and Joseph dedicated their baby boy Jesus in the temple; we know they visited the temple with Jesus when he was twelve; we know she at least considered Jesus capable of rectifying a lack of wine at a wedding in Cana; we know she walked from Nazareth down to Capernaum with her children in tow to visit with Jesus; we know she was at the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem; we know she was with the first Christians in Jerusalem in Acts 1; we know at least one of her sons  James  became a major church leader; it is likely that she became central to the cosmic story of redemption (Revelation 12)."

Through Mary, Jesus belongs to the human race, and there is much to be learned from her. As reformed Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, said, Mary is "full of grace", but this grace is not earned but totally given to her. Her sinlessness is not found in the Bible and is a matter of Catholic Church tradition.

She is an example of a woman of courage, who said yes to God's call on her life at a young age. Honour can be bestowed on her, not through elevating her ontologically, but by recognising that as a human predisposed to sin, she chose to say yes to God's call, despite knowing her choice would lead to suffering. Consequently, she is the mother of God. She is an example of how God uses those who are willing.

Mary's life in the New Testament does not point to her special status, but to her Son's. From Mary's song through to her at the cross and with the earliest believers in Jerusalem, she pointed to Jesus. Her mission was ever to witness to the glory of her son, not to rob him of it.
Why the Church needs a zero tolerance approach to domestic violence

There's a poignant scene in Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram in which drunken slum-dweller Joseph is found to have beaten his wife, nearly killing her. The response of the community is a strong, collective one that punishes Joseph not just for the horrific pain he has inflicted on his wife, but the shame it has brought on the community. They do this in a way that shows such violence against the vulnerable will not be tolerated, while recognising Joseph's own brokenness and humanity.

The Church needs to be more like this. We need to take a zero tolerance approach to domestic violence in our midst.

Domestic abuse and violence is happening; it is a daily, unspeakable nightmare for thousands of women (and men) up and down the country  and these victims are in our churches too.

Every year, 1.4 million women (8.5 per cent of the population) suffer some form of domestic abuse.

Today, 30 women will try to kill themselves because their situation has become so desperate that they cannot see a way forward.

There will be women you know  some of them will be in your church  who, when away from the eyes of the rest of the congregation, will be suffering.

And there are clues. Maybe she's never seen without her husband or partner. Maybe he talks over her and she is reluctant to speak. Maybe she is making excuses for unexplained injuries. Maybe she is told on a daily basis that she is too fat or too thin. Maybe she's told she is weak, useless, stupid, disgusting; a bad mother or wife. Maybe she's treated as a slave. Maybe she is pushed or slapped or kicked or punched. Maybe she is raped. Maybe her abuser justifies this through scripture  distorting verses about the man being the head and she having no choice but to submit.

It makes me sick to think that such behaviour is anywhere near the Church  the place where we are supposed to find hope, refuge and life in all its fullness. It is even more horrific when we realise that church leaders themselves are no less likely to be abusers.

But it is true.

That's why today  on International Women's Day  Christian organisation Restored has released a church pack to help us recognise this reality. Despite one in four women in the UK experiencing domestic abuse, few church leaders are aware of the extent of the issue or what they can do about it. The pack helps us identify hidden signs that might suggest women are being abused; and gives us tools to help put a stop to it.

I will never forget an interview I once did with a survivor of domestic abuse whose husband had nearly killed her on three separate occasions.

On the first  a year after they were married  her husband strangled her and left her for dead on the kitchen floor. The catalyst for the vicious abuse had been her becoming a Christian at the age of 18. "It wasn't just about a smack on the nose," she told me. "He tore up Bibles. He tore down anything Christian that I had displayed. He lifted a crucifix off my wall and threatened to stab me with it."

The third attempt on her life started when she told him she wanted a divorce because she couldn't take the abuse any more.

"He went berserk and dragged me from room to room, smashed my head against a radiator, strangled me and left me for dead," she told me. After this, the woman suffered a complete psychotic breakdown for a year. On one particular day in that year, she found herself wandering the streets; and walked into a church, where she had hoped she would find refuge and love. "The woman at the church told me: 'We don't believe in divorce. Go back to your husband.' I asked them if they really wanted me to go back to the man that had tried to kill me'. She said yes. That was the Church  no help at all. It was the harshest thing she could have told me at that moment."

We have got to do better than this. This cannot be our story. The Church has got to have a zero tolerance approach to domestic violence. So let's all read up on it, let's commit to never turning a blind eye and rescuing those who are finding themselves in these hopeless situations.

Chine McDonald is director of communications & membership at the Evangelical Alliance

You can download a Church Pack free of charge here or get a printed copy by emailing info@restoredrelationships.org.
Deputies with Constable 4 Mark Herman's office have charged a Houston-area man with child abandonment in the case of a three-year-old found Feb. 27 wandering in an apartment complex.

According to authorities, a witness reported that while walking through the complex, located at the 1400 block of Champions Drive, he found the child alone in the parking lot without shoes or coat. The witness stated he was unable to locate a parent or the child's residence.

Deputies responded to a welfare check placed by the witness, contacting the apartment manager, who assisted in locating the apartment to which the child belonged. When authorities arrived at the apartment, the door was left unlocked and the apartment was unoccupied.

The defendant, Javon Marquis Kent, 23, entered the apartment and told deputies he had only been gone 15 minutes, although they had been at the location 45 minutes when he showed upl. The child was released into the custody of the mother, who returned home shortly after.

Kent was charged with Child Abandonment with Intent to Return and booked at the Harris County Jail, with his bond set at $15,000 by the 228th District Court.
The number of millionaires in the U.S. keeps growing. That's not a sign that you'll soon be joining them however. The news come at a time when the wealth gap in the U.S. is also wider than ever before.

A new report shows that America counted 10.4 millionaires last year. Thats a record for the country, which added 300,000 new millionaires in 2015, according to market research and consulting firm Spectrem Group.
With origins in aircraft engines dating back to 1913, Bayerische Motorenwerke officially formed in 1916. You know the brand now as BMW.

BMW is celebrating its first 100 years today, with the unveiling of an autonomous concept car in Munich.
The most difficult ticket to score on Broadway these days is Lin-Manuel Miranda's breakout musical "Hamilton," the rapped/sung story of the "ten-dollar Founding Father without a father" based on Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.

Sold out in New York through 2016, "Hamilton" will make its way to Houston in the 2017-2018 season of Broadway Across America, which seems like a long way off. But "Hamilton" won a Grammy and is poised to score a bunch of Tony Awards, so tickets may not be available in New York for a long, long time.
Philippe Schmit, the Houston chef who's earned the nickname "the French Cowboy," has found a new saddle. And it's a big, fancy one.

Schmit is the new executive chef of Toulouse Cafe and Bar, the first major restaurant opening at River Oaks District retail/restaurant/residential complex at 4444 Westheimer. Toulouse, a brand from Dallas-based Lombardi Family Concepts, is expected to open March 23. Lombardi also will open Taverna, an Italian restaurant, at River Oaks District.
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As the Houston area prepares to endure a rough patch of weather over the next few days, the show goes on at RodeoHouston, which kicked off last week.

On Monday afternoon the Houston area and surrounding counties were put under a flash flood warning that isn't due to expire until Wednesday evening.

RELATED: Houston and surrounding areas under flash flood watch

Heavy rains, storms and lightning are expected to hit the area sometime Tuesday afternoon but the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo staff has already made preparations for what could be a wild and windy night.

On Tuesday night Mr. Worldwide, the energetic and well-dressed Pitbull, will perform on the revolving RodeoHouston stage. His fans are mightily devoted and are not likely to let a little rain and wind stop them from seeing him live at NRG Stadium.

RELATED: There is no shortage of things to buy at RodeoHouston

On Monday rodeo staff placed sandbags on barricade feet and inside trash bags. A representative from HLS&R says that all of their structures are built with wind ratings and inclement weather in mind.

There is tons to do indoors at the rodeo, they remind. There is always the petting zoo and shopping. The carnival rides are the first thing to be cleared in the event of high winds.

If there is, indeed, a weather situation and the outside grounds need to be cleared, the HLS&R has an announcement system and LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) system in place to help.

Dan Cheney, the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo vice president and chief operating officer, told KPRC-TV that crazy weather is the norm for Houston and they are prepared for whatever happens.

"We're in Houston, Texas, so we expect rain and a little wind occasionally, he told the outlet.
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Two police officers fired gunshots at a man with a shotgun Tuesday morning outside a package delivery facility in southeast Houston.

No injuries were reported.

The shooting happened about 9:30 a.m. at a UPS facility at 7110 Mykawa near Kirbyville, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police said initial information indicates officers were sent to the scene about a shooting in progress. When they arrived, they saw a man who was carrying a shotgun come out of the facility. After they spotted him, the officers opened fire.

No one was wounded in the gunfire. The officers were not hurt.

The man was taken into custody.

It was unclear what prompted the officers to shoot at the gun-toting man. It was also unclear if gunfire had erupted before officers arrived.

More details will be reported as the story develops.
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Firefighters rescued a woman early Tuesday morning as flames ripped through portions of an apartment complex in west Houston.

The 1-alarm fire broke out about 1:30 a.m. at the complex at 2205 Hayes near Olympia Drive, said District Chief Curtis Williams of the Houston Fire Department.

Williams said when firefighters were dispatched to the scene they were told a woman had called 911 to say she was trapped in a closet in her apartment by the flames. Firefighters battling the blaze found her and rushed her out of the apartment to safety.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital. Details of her possible injuries and condition were not released but Williams said she was talking to firefighters after she was rescued.

No other injuries were reported.

Williams said fire and water damaged at least four units. The flames burned lower and upper floor apartments and damaged the roof.

One resident, Esther Ehirim, said she was asleep when the flames erupted. Her mother, who had just returned to their apartment from work, woke her up when she spotted the flames. Ehirim said she picked up her baby and they all dashed outside. They were not able to collect many of their belongings.

"We just didn't have any time," Ehirim said.

Red Cross workers were helping displaced residents find shelter and supplies.

Investigators are trying to determine what sparked the blaze.
Pediatrician Dr. Peter Jung understands that sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand words.

Many times, while explaining a diagnosis to a patient's parents, he has found himself drawing a diagram on the exam room table to help them understand.

"I thought if I could collect all of these ideas and drawings, it would help parents understand what their pediatricians are saying," Jung said.

That was the beginning of a journey that led to his first book, an illustrated guide to common childhood illnesses.

More Information At a glance To buy a book: "What to Know Before Seeing Your Pediatrician," visit Amazon.com. Available in paperback for $12.50 and Kindle for $8.69. Blue Fish Pediatrics: Memorial, 915 Gessner, 713-467-1741; Cypress, 9530 Huffmeister, 281-855-3700 and Katy, 23960 Katy Freeway, 281-347-0080 Details: www.bluefishmd.com See More Collapse

"What to Know Before Seeing Your Pediatrician" became available at all major online book retailers on Feb. 9.

Jung said the work took five years.

He started by drawing rudimentary diagrams and then handed them over to his friend Becky Seo Kim, an illustrator who transformed the sketches into refined graphics.

Jung then wrote the text.

He went through three drafts.

"The first draft was more text heavy with only one picture," he said. "I realized the pictures were really the meat of the story and I needed to add more."

The next draft proved too complex for most readers.

"So, I simplified the ideas and made it more lay-friendly," Jung said.

The finished product is basically a picture book for adults, an eight-chapter, 123-page quick read covering a variety of topics, from germs, fevers and vaccines to the common cold, ear infections, vomiting and returning to school after sickness.

Writing a picture book suited the doctor, who named his practice, "Blue Fish Pediatrics" after Dr. Seuss' book, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."

Jung grew up in the Memorial area and graduated from Memorial High School in 1991. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology at Rice University, then studied at Baylor College of Medicine.

Jung completed his residency at Texas Children's Hospital and then joined the Memorial private practice of his father, Dr. Woo Nahm Jung, in 2002.

When his father retired, Jung joined Dr. William Pielop, and the two took over the business and renamed it.

Now the practice has expanded to include 14 doctors. Beside the original location at 915 Gessner in Memorial, it has two other locations: Blue Fish Cypress, 9530 Huffmeister, and Blue Fish Katy, 23960 Katy Freeway.

Jung and his wife Christine live in Cypress, where their three children, Elizabeth, 11, Matthew, 9, and Michael, 8, attend school in the Cy-Fair ISD.

Jung hopes his book will help reduce parental anxiety and prevent unnecessary doctor visits.

"It's geared to the mom and dad who want a greater understanding of simple illnesses," Jung said.

He started looking for a publisher about 1 years ago and found Hatherleigh Press.

"It took 18 months to fully edit it and get all the t's crossed and i's dotted," Jung said.

He's trying to get the word out about the book and hopes other pediatricians will recommend it to their patients.

By the end of the book, readers will better understand the difference between a bacteria and a virus, when the time is right to get antibiotics and the importance of vaccines and how they work.

Jung also covers why colds are difficult to treat and how they can lead to a host of complications, including ear infections. He discusses how to prevent dehydration in a child with gastroenteritis and advises when a child should return to school following an illness.

"I've always loved educating others," Jung said. "I have a knack for taking complex ideas and simplifying them and that's been my goal with this book."

Dr. Joseph Yuhan, a radiologist who attended medical school with Jung, said the book is a success.

"From a physician's perspective, it actually gave me a good review of what I had learned in medical school but haven't practiced in a while," he said. "It has detailed science, but it's also simple and concise."

Yuhan already has purchased a number of copies of the book to give to friends.

"The illustrations are clear, fun and very accurate," he said. "It's just full of good information. It's a great resource."

Yuhan said Jung did a top-notch job on the project.

"He took all the recommendations that he gives on a daily basis and put them into a book," Yuhan said. "He's very analytical, but he's also a great teacher. This books gives you insight into the mind of a pediatrician."
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The Spring Independent School District's police department recently honored its longest-serving police dog with a special retirement ceremony on the campus of Meyer Elementary School.

For 10 years, detective Emmy, a yellow Labrador retriever has served the district with narcotics intervention and hundreds of classroom visits.

Since 2008 - Emmy's third year as a patrol dog - she has been partnered with Spring ISD police officer David Fuente.

"She has played an instrumental role in our district mission of keeping the schools a safe and secure learning environment," Fuente said. "Since 2006, she has been highly visible with students and staff, and contributed to the prevention and deterrence of crime in our schools. She has been credited with removing a substantial amount of narcotics from our schools, but she also visits a lot of the elementary and middle schools and provides presentations on drug awareness, bullying, stranger danger, career days and National Night Out."

The police department has maintained a K-9 officer program since it started in 1993.

The program began with the arrival of Barclay I, who served in the district until 2001 when he was adopted.

Barclay II began his duties in 2002, and continued his service until 2006, when he was replaced by Emmy, who is the longest serving K-9 in the district's history.

"Typically a K-9 will work from seven to nine years, so she's at the point now where she should be retiring," Fuente said.

Although a 10-year police veteran, Emmy was nearly two years old when she started, making her nearly 84 years old in people years.

Spring ISD obtains its K-9 cops from Little Rock K-9 Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the district also recently obtained Emmy's replacement.

Although Emmy's official retirement didn't take place until the end of February she has essentially been off the job since mid-January, while her replacement, Paco, who is also a yellow Labrador, learns the ropes of being a K-9 cop.

While the days for police dogs are filled with campus visits and crime prevention demonstrations, there also are training sessions with other law enforcement agencies and school districts.

"She has undergone continuous weekly trainings to keep her proficiency in finding narcotics, and she is also annually certified through the National Narcotic Detector Dog Association, all in order to keep our students safe and secure in our district," said Spring ISD Police Chief Victor Mitchell. "These dogs also engage with our students so that we can bridge the gap and build relationships with our K-9 early on at the elementary level, so that they are familiar with our officers who work in school settings when they get to the middle school and high school levels."

On Feb. 26, detective Emmy made her last appearance at Meyer Elementary, with more than 400 students cheering her as Fuente escorted her to the stage for one last demonstration.

Emmy sat quietly as her former handler, Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy David Birch, recalled Emmy as being an even-tempered and very trainable K-9 service dog.

"She was a very good partner; a really sweet dog and energetic," he said. "You couldn't ask for a better partner."
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An Austin attorney was sentenced in Houston on Monday to 17 years in federal prison for harboring and concealing his client who was a fugitive in Mexico and for conspiring to commit wire fraud in the client's stock sale scam.

Patrick Lanier, 67, represented Harris Dempsey "Butch" Ballow, of Tiki Island, Galveston County, during proceedings before the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 and during the criminal case that led to Ballow to flee the country.

Ballow was indicted in 2003 on fraud and money laundering charges stemming from misrepresentations he made in connection with the sale of stock, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A jury convicted Lanier on 16 counts in February 2014 for helping sell shares of stock purchased by Ballow's corporation while Ballow was on the run. The jury found Lanier guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on the a stock sale scheme, 13 counts of wire fraud, one count of harboring and concealing Ballow from arrest and one count of assisting a federal offender.

Ballow is serving a prison sentence on a 2003 money laundering conviction.

U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal ordered Lanier to pay $37 million to the victims of the stock scheme upon his release.

Rosenthal said before sentencing him she had received dozens on letters of support for Lanier, lauding his long law-abiding career prior to the Ballow ordeal and the years he aided his wife while she was ill and requesting he get a reduced sentence.

The judge also mentioned that the fraudulent stock sales drew in more than 500 buyers including one victim who reported her husband committed suicide due to the impact Ballow's scam on his livelihood.

"This is one of the cases that will keep a judge awake at night," she said, acknowledging both the deep support Lanier had from his community and the fact that his involvement in the scheme was "not casual," saying, "He could have stepped out at any time."

"When his client became a fugitive, that would have been a good time to stop, if not sooner," the judge said.

Ballow was indicted in federal court in Houston in 2003 for fraud and money laundering, based on his misrepresentations about stock sales. He pleaded guilty to money laundering before U.S. District Judge David Hittner that same year and agreed to cooperate with the SEC in its investigation on the condition that he be released on a $100,000 bail pending his sentencing.

According to an FBI statement, on Dec. 16, 2004, the day of his sentencing, Ballow failed to appear in court. It wasn't until July 13, 2010 that Mexican officials arrested him in the resort city of Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. He was extradited in April 2011. He was sentenced in federal court to 10 years in prison for money laundering and owes his victims $10 million in restitution.

Ballow, who is 73, faces trial before U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein, Jr. on a separate 87-count indictment on 2010 wire fraud and money laundering charges. That trial is on hold while several co-defendants that are detained abroad or fugitives.

Evidence at Lanier's trial revealed that Ballow had used the pseudonyms John Gel, Tom Brown, and Marty Twinley and gota British passport under the fake name Melvyn John Gelsthorpe. Testimony in the trial convinced jurors that Lanier knew Ballow used these names to run publicly traded corporations, including E-SOL International Corp., Medra Corp., Deep Earth Resources Inc. and Aztec Technology Partners Inc. Lanier knew Ballow sold stock for these companies to investors without revealing his true identity and fugitive status or informing them of his previous convictions for fraud and money laundering.

The jurors also heard testimony that after Ballow became a fugitive, he continued to sell stock from Cancun and other Mexican resort towns. According to witnesses, Lanier traveled to Mexico to provide legal counsel for Ballow under several of his various false names.

In addition to Lanier, a half-dozen co-conspirators faced federal criminal proceedings related to Ballow's stock sales.

In November , Christopher Harless, 62, of Georgetown, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced in November to 20 years in prison. Sikiru Olubunmi Bonojo, 45, a citizen of Nigeria who lived in Houston, was given a 5-year term for money laundering. James David Wright, 60, of Corinth, and Clarence Hudgens, 59, of Lebanon, Ore., both pleaded guilty to the wire fraud conspiracy and are set for sentencing before Judge Rosenthal on May 5.

Ruben Garza Perez, 55, formerly of Houston, pleaded guilty to the same charge and is set for sentencing before Judge Werlein Jr. on Aug. 12. Jeffrey Janssen Anuth, 57, is in custody in Mexico, while the other alleged co-conspirators are considered fugitives.
As the Memorial Hermann Health System continues its transition from a system that treats people when they are sick to one that aims to keep them healthy, it has hired a new leader with a long resume of managing patient health.

Memorial Hermann announced on Tuesday that Dr. Benjamin Chu will take over in June as president and CEO of the Houston-based hospital system, replacing Dan Wolterman who last year announced plans to retire.

Chu, 64, has spent the past 11 years as an executive with Kaiser Permanente, a California nonprofit insurance plan that carefully manages the health of its patients with its own network of hospitals and clinics. He oversaw the health plan and hospital operations in Southern California and Georgia, managing 14 hospitals and 237 medical offices serving more than 4.5 million members.

Wolterman and Chu have been acquaintances for more than two decades, and soon after Wolterman decided to retire, he suggested the board consider Chu as his replacement.

"Ben in my mind is the most progressive, innovative executive in the population health space," he said. "I can't think of a better choice."

Memorial Hermann has been shifting toward a model that rewards doctors for managing patient health and away from the prevailing model that rewards them based on the volume of services they provide.

"All the infrastructure is in place, and we're building on that foundation," Wolterman said. "We really need to take the next quantum leap forward, and Dr. Chu has that background in population health that will greatly enable this system to take that next giant step."

Chu intends to keep Memorial Hermann on that track.

"We have to migrate to a system that really is focused on better patient outcomes, not just for individual patients, but for the entire population," he said. "That's essentially what I've been doing for the past 11 years and really what's been propelling my career."

Chu trained as an internist with a medical degree from New York University and master's degree in public health from Columbia University. He worked as a legislative assistant for New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley and in 1994 served as acting commissioner of the New York City health department.

Wolterman said Chu's experience in academic medicine, serving as a dean at Columbia and NYU, will help in their partnership with UT-Health Science Center in Houston, which provides physician staff at Memorial Hermann hospitals.

His stint running New York City's Health and Hospital Corp., the largest public hospital system in the country, may help the close working relationship between Memorial Hermann and Harris Health System, which runs Houston's public hospitals.

"It really felt like Dr. Chu was the right candidate at this time," said Will Williams, Memorial Herman board chairman.

Elevated the team

Williams said he was impressed that Chu had left New York to join Kaiser Permanente in California in 2005, and despite knowing nobody at the system, was able to elevate the high-quality team that was already in place there.

"That was important to us, because we have some really terrific leaders at Memorial Hermann," he said. "We feel like it's important to have somebody that can provide that same sort of leadership and mentoring that Dan has in the past."

Memorial Hermann is the largest health care system in the Houston region, operating 13 nonprofit hospitals, with annual revenues of more than $3.5 billion. The system also operates two Level 1 trauma centers, one for children and one for adults in its Texas Medical Center hospital, as well as the Life Flight medical helicopter service.

Proactive approach

Chu served as the chair of the American Hospital Association in 2013, telling hospital executives in his inaugural address that health care could no longer be passive, waiting for patients to come to them when sick.

"Our system must become more proactive," he said.

"Ben is the right person to build upon the strong foundation put in place by Dan Wolterman. Ben has been a successful leader in a variety of settings and a true champion of patient-centric care," said Rick Pollack, the AHA president and CEO.

"He has provided thoughtful, insightful leadership for the hospital field and understands the value of collaboration and partnership. And he has an incredible understanding of where health care needs to go in the future."

Wolterman will officially retire Aug. 1 and said he plans to remain active as an advocate for health system reform.

He expressed excitement about Chu coming onboard, but after 17 years with Memorial Hermman, found the impending transition bittersweet.

"It's like giving up your kids to somebody else," Wolterman said.
President Barack Obama's spokesman slammed Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday for suggesting that the president's choice for the Supreme Court vacancy "will bear some resemblance to a pinata."

"Given Sen. Cornyn's language, it sounds like he might spend a little too much time watching Donald Trump rallies," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

The exchange between the Obama administration's top spokesman and the No. 2 Republican in the Senate came as the fight heats up to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

WHO'S NEXT: Who Obama might nominate to replace Scalia on Supreme Court

Earnest, briefing White House reporters, said Cornyn's remark is a sign that the Republicans are "digging in" and escalating the political contentiousness over the Supreme Court vacancy.

"Senator Cornyn has now moved beyond the established Republican position of suggesting that they won't even consider somebody who the president puts forward," Earnest said. "That in and of itself was a rather unprecedented and unreasonable position. But Senator Cornyn has now taken the next step and suggested that without knowing who this nominee is, without considering what their record is, what they're experience is, how qualified they are for the job, he's suggesting that they'll be subjected to bashing by Republicans."

Senate GOP leaders have said they will not hold hearings or votes for any Supreme Court nominee in an election year, arguing it should be up to the next president, not a lame duck president, to put forward a candidate.

IT'S COMPLICATED: Is Cruz right when he says we should wait to name a new a justice?

In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Cornyn explained that the "pinata" remark referred to the rough judicial confirmation battles that have become typical in Congress.

"So I likened the nomination process and confirmation process to a pinata, which is only to say that the confirmation process around here has gotten pretty tough," Cornyn said. "But I'm not going to be preached to by the Democratic Leader or by Democrats who have been responsible for filibustering judges... This is a playbook that has been written by the Democratic Leader and our colleagues across the aisle."

Cornyn also said that "Senate Republicans stand firmly behind the idea that the people should have a say in this critical issue ... when they vote in November because there is a lot at stake here. A lot. Depending on who ultimately fills this vacancy next year, the next Supreme Court justice could tip the ideological direction of the Court for a generation."

Democrats argue that the president has a Constitutional duty to nominate a Supreme Court justice and that it's unfair to reject a nominee sight unseen. "I don't believe that's how most people believe this process should work," Earnest said.
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It's deja vu for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as his campaign once again faces allegations of "dirty tricks" for disseminating a misleading CNN story with the aim of driving rivals' supporters away from the polls.

CNN also took heavy fire for the report, which suggested the campaign of Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio was toying with abandoning its bid. Rubio's communication director called the report "100 percent false." CNN stood by the report.

This time the message was sent to a Cruz supporter mailing list in Hawaii, which votes Tuesday, and the Cruz campaign blamed the episode on volunteers acting without official approval. The incident, however, is strongly reminiscent of the time in Iowa when the Cruz campaign spread rumors that Ben Carson was leaving the race, and it builds on the narrative that the Houston-based campaign employs sleazy tactics.

RELATED: Rivals aim to dog Cruz over tactics

"Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies," Rubio campaign spokesman Joe Pounder wrote on the campaign website.

It started Monday with a message, posted later to Twitter, headlined "WASTED VOTE," which quoted a fresh CNN report that said, "Most of [Rubio's] advisers agree he does not have a path to the nomination and some are advising him to get out ahead of the March 15 primary."

The email attributed that info to "multiple news sources."

The report only originated on CNN. After a Rubio spokesman called it false and complained that CNN had not contacted the campaign before publishing the report, CNN revealed that the information came from a single source.

"The at-issue email and social media posting was not sanctioned by the Cruz for President Campaign," Cruz spokeswoman Alice Stewart told The New York Times. "The campaign became aware of the email this morning by press accounts, and upon investigation learned that some volunteers in Hawaii were involved in the posting."

National media reported the incident under the label of "dirty tricks"  one regularly used by rivals to characterize the Cruz campaign for a string of campaign tactics widely condemned as dishonest.
New data suggests Donald Trump's lead is slipping among Republican voters, though the billionaire mogul still claims higher popularity than any of his opponents.

A new poll of 400 right-leaning registered voters by ABC News and the Washington Post, released late Monday, put Trump nine points ahead of runner-up Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Past polls vary greatly, but most have given Trump double digit leads  up to 33 points  over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. The new poll gave Trump 34 percent support among GOP voters, with a 5.5 point margin of error.

It also showed the other GOP contenders -- Cruz, Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- with substantial gains in support since mid-January, while Trump saw a modest decline.

The figures may indicate that a recent deluge of anti-Trump ad spending is bearing fruit. Various brokers of Republican power, fearful of nominating Trump to bear the party's flag in the general election, have poured $10 million into new political attacks, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Those efforts come amid talks of inducing an historic contested convention  and a re-vote on the party's nominee  to rout Trump's ascent to political leadership. Cruz has predicted a "revolt" if that happens. The new poll found 42 percent support for a contested convention among all voters surveyed, but 63 percent support among all those not favoring Trump.

RELATED: Ted Cruz predicts 'revolt' if GOP convention is brokered

"Support for a contested convention is an eye-opening result, clearly indicating the depths of divisions within the party," the poll report said.

The poll also showed that while Trump enjoys the largest support among voters surveyed, he consistently fared poorly when voters were asked to assess the favorable attributes of the candidates.

Trump ranked below Cruz and Rubio when voters were asked who was most "honest and trustworthy," who "understands problems," who has the "right experience" and who has the "right personality."

Cruz won or tied Rubio across all those categories.
-- THE LEAD: What were watching tonight, per the APs Nancy Benac: The night's first polls close in Mississippi at 8 p.m. EST, with primary results for both parties. Michigan's primary results for both parties follow at 9. Both of those states will have exit poll data to poke through, helping to explain who voted for whom and why. Idaho's Republican-only primary closes at 11 p.m., and Hawaii's GOP caucuses close at 1 a.m. Results from Democrats living abroad also will filter in at some point. In all, there are 150 GOP delegates at stake, and 179 Democratic delegates to be doled out.

-- After Michigan, it could be a Trump-Cruz title fight, by the Chronicles Kevin Diaz. To make his case, Cruz is working - barring a win - to at least be the top non-Trump vote-getter in all three big states. Cruz's latest push comes amid signs that Trump may have peaked. The businessman beat Cruz by only 4 points in Kentucky on Saturday; he won Louisiana by the same margin, but mainly on the strength of early voting. In Louisiana, Cruz overtook the billionaire in election-day balloting.

With victories in Maine and Kansas, Cruz racked up 69 delegates over the weekend to Trump's 53. Going into today's Michigan primary, Trump now has 384 delegates, while Cruz has 300 - more than the combined totals of Rubio and Kasich, the two establishment hopefuls.

From the Chronicles Kelsey Bradshaw: The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is asking that its name be removed from a controversial study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that found womens health suffered after Planned Parenthood was cut from the states family-planning program.

Texas Health Commissioner Chris Traylor wrote in a Feb. 26 letter that he agreed with Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, who complained about the study, which she called, and asked why two HHSC employees were on the list of researchers.

-- SIREN: More Latinos seek citizenship to vote against Trump, by the NYTs Julia Preston. Over all, naturalization applications increased by 11 percent in the 2015 fiscal year over the year before, and jumped 14 percent during the six months ending in January, according to federal figures. The pace is picking up by the week, advocates say, and they estimate applications could approach one million in 2016, about 200,000 more than the average in recent years.

While naturalizations generally rise during presidential election years, Mr. Trump provided an extra boost this year. He began his campaign in June describing Mexicans as drug-traffickers and rapists. His pledge to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it has been a regular applause line. He has vowed to create a deportation force to expel the estimated 11 million immigrants here illegally, evoking mass roundups of the 1950s.

-- Texas near bottom among states in primary turnout this year, by The Texas Tribunes Jolie McCollough. More than 4.2 million Texans voted in the presidential primary race, the most in state history, according to the Secretary of State. However, among the 12 states that already have held primaries, Texas ranked second to last in voter turnout of residents 18 and older, at 21.5 percent.

THE CALENDAR

House:

9:00 a.m.:

Energy Resources [ E1.030 ]

Higher Education [ E2.014 ]

Human Services [ E2.030 ]

International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs [ E1.030 ]

SPEED READ

Texas Take: The Cruz-Trump one-on-one, Houston Chronicle

Politifact: Paxton misapplies abortion data to Texas, Austin American-Statesman

Morath shakes up TEA organization structure to shift agency culture, Quorum Report

Cobb endorses King, slams Buckingham as longtime Dem supporter, Quorum Report

Texas oil slum curbs regulation of petroleum industry, officials say, Austin American-Statesman

The Latest: Trump vows to boost Christian political power, Austin American-Statesman

Trump looks to reassert momentum in Michigan, The Dallas Morning News

Tuition hikes have state leaders looking to regulate college costs, Houston Chronicle

HHSC asks that its name be removed from Planned Parenthood study, Houston Chronicle

Grieder: America, we need to talk about Trump supporters, Texas Monthly

The Nancy Reagan model for first spouses Heidi Cruz, Bill Clinton, Melania Trump and others, The Dallas Morning News

Get ready, Austin: Texas lawmakers survive challenges, look to 2017, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Clinton doubles down against fracking in debate, raising alarms, Bloomberg

Texas biodiesel company owner's fraud sentence: $138M restitution, 10 years in prison, The Dallas Morning News

Mexico pays off water debt to Texas, Houston Chronicle

Softcore porn actress who appeared in pulled Cruz ad switches to Trump, Houston Chronicle

ICMYI: Bloomberg wont mount a prez bid, Politico

QUOTE TO NOTE

As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz . That is not a risk I can take in good conscience.

-- Michael Bloomberg in an op-ed on why he wont run

RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

-- Cruz forces Rubio to defend turf, by Politicos Marc Caputo, Shane Goldmacher and Katie Glueck. Cruz has little chance of winning the March 15 Florida primary, but hes showing signs he might compete by opening field offices and sending surrogates to stump in the state while his super PAC prepares to strafe Marco Rubio with a seven-figure ad buy. The aim: pull enough voters away from Rubio to ensure Donald Trump wins the states 99 delegates and deny the Florida senator any pick-up opportunity elsewhere by forcing him to defend his turf. Doing that gives Trump a bigger lead in delegates, but it means Cruz has calculated he can catch up.

-- Seeing Trump as vulnerable, GOP elites not eye a contested convention, by WaPos Philip Rucker and Robert Costa. The presentation is an 11th-hour rebuttal to the fatalism permeating the Republican establishment: Slide by slide, state by state, it calculates how Donald Trump could be denied the presidential nomination.

Marco Rubio wins Florida. John Kasich wins Ohio. Ted Cruz notches victories in the Midwest and Mountain West. And the results in California and other states are jumbled enough to leave Trump three dozen delegates short of the 1,237 required  forcing a contested convention in Cleveland in July.

The slide show, shared with The Washington Post by two operatives advising one of a handful of anti-Trump super PACs, encapsulates the newly emboldened view of many GOP leaders and donors. They see a clearer path to stopping Trump since his two losses and two narrower-than-expected wins in Saturdays contests.

-- Mitt Romney records message for Rubios campaign, by NYTs Jonathan Martin. Mr. Romney indicates, at the beginning and end of the message, that he is calling on behalf of Mr. Rubio but only urges voters to cast ballots for a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud, according to a copy of the message obtained by The New York Times.
If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Unfortunately for many, the answer to this children's rhyme is no laughing matter: severe allergies. May is National Asthma & Allergy Awareness month, as it's a peak season for allergy and asthma sufferers. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, asthma affects approximately 25.9 million Americans, and more than 50 million Americans suffer from different types of allergies.

Dirty pillow, statistics about pillowsYou likely spend about one-third of your day sleeping (if you're lucky), and while you may feel safe and sound in your room, your sleep environment can have a significant impact on your overall health, especially when it comes to allergies. WebMD lists seven tips to allergy-proof your bedroom. Tips range from vacuuming regularly and banning pets from your room, to using certain window treatments and purchasing dust mite-proof covers. Although it may seem unlikely that allergy-causing agents are lurking in your bed, it would behoove any allergy- or asthma-prone individual to take action against one allergen in particular: dust mites.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
Barbara Banda: "People are open to the conversation now  that will foster change"

While there is a long way to go on race at work  with many still feeling the need to self silence  an evolution is firmly in motion, says the leadership consultant and author of new book The Model Black
In 2011, John McHugh, an Irish photojournalist, was trying to get to Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring. Several of his photojournalist friends were trying to get in, too, but most were detained at the airport, arrested, and deported. Figuring their equipment was tipping off authorities, McHugh devised a simple plan: Hed go without his cameras. It worked; McHugh slipped into the country. When he set out to buy a new camera, he was struck by what he saw.

I counted a whole lot of people who were photographing and filming the protests for themselves, and disseminating their content through Twitter and WhatsApp, he recalls. That was the first time that I really saw people with the ability and the determination to tell their own stories.

That was the first strike. The second was the culmination of his 10 years reporting in Afghanistan, where, among other things, he spent months trying to back up a story about Abdul Raziq, a provincial police chief accused of extrajudicial killings, but was unable to verify the video of an eyewitness testimony. Together, these events motivated McHugh to address a hole in the market. He wanted to tighten the loop between the growing supply of eyewitness videos that were breaking major newsfrom Bahrain to Ferguson to Staten Islandand the news organizations that were clamoring to verify and use them. He wanted to help freelancers shooting on the frontlines of wherever something was happening to make money, keep the rights to their content, and remain anonymous. He wanted the newswire hed always wanted, but so far didnt exist.

His solution is the Verifeye Media Pro Camera, an iPhone app he created with Feargal Finnegan, whose background is in tech startups. The London-based app enables eyewitnesses to upload their content directly to a newswire, where its verified, curated, and sold to news organizations. The model, which just this launched this morning, has important implications for newsgathering.

I think its wrong to say were not gonna pay sources but make money by stealing their content.

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Not only does it promise to professionalize user-generated content and an army of citizen journaliststwo terms McHugh deliberately avoids because they connote the content is somehow less valuableit also raises significant ethical questions about how to place value on a segment of newsgathering thats increasingly essential but is still considered the Wild West.

There are other companies that license breaking news. Storyful, for example, which specializes in discovering viral content, has been on the leading edge of this for a while, paying uploaders a portion of the ad revenue their content generates and trying to sell their clips directly. But Verifeye quickens and flattens the process in three important ways:

By eliminating the need to track someone down for permission to use a video they posted to Facebook By partially automating the verification process, using a combination of metadata, birds-eye view maps, compass bearing, altitude reads, cross-referenced content, and EXIF data By selling the content for a flat rate of 200 pounds, which it splits 50-50 with uploaders, who get to keep the copyright

The fact that the app is co-founded by a journalist, as opposed to someone with no journalistic background, attests to its intuitive design and business model.

The model is shoot, send, and sell, McHugh says. Well pay straight into your PayPal. You dont have to do a thing. Just keep shooting. Because clients have to pay with a credit card, uploaders are guaranteed payment within seven days.

If the immediacy of this transaction appeals to professional freelancers, it might appeal to publishers, too. For instance, in December, while still in the beta phase, McHugh tested the app while covering a news event in London, where soldiers had marched on Downing Street and thrown away their medals to protest the British governments decision to bomb Syria. iPhone in hand, McHugh says he jostled with reporters to get to the front of the scene, where he filmed 15 seconds of this, 15 seconds of that, got some quotes, and was able to upload it all from the center of the pack.

When you create a marketplace for breaking news content, as soon as you put a monetary value on eyewitness media, there is real evidence that people have crossed police lines, they put themselves in danger, they show graphic imagery when they have no training to do that.

By the time the soldiers walked away, I had already uploaded 10 or 20 clips to the Verifeye newswire, McHugh says. All I had to do was log in as the editor and approve my own stuff.

The payoff was immediate. Within a few minutes, The Guardian website bought it and had it cut and online. So while reporters from AP and Reuters and Bloomberg had to walk back to the office to download their footage, we had already sold the story and it was online. Just last Tuesday, after Verifeye received some horrific footage showing a pregnant woman and her husband being beaten with batons by riot police at a refugee camp in Calais, France, they were able to verify and push it on their newswire within seconds, where it was licensed by The Guardian and Sky News.

This footage didnt come from a journalist, despite their huge numbers covering the story, McHugh says, but from a volunteer who works in the camp. That volunteer has already been paid, according to McHugh. Mashable and BuzzFeed also licensed content when the app was still in beta.

While the app is an exciting step forward for verifying and monetizing eyewitness content, it also raises ethical issues that are relatively new to the industry. The app has tried to address some of these issues. One is anonymity. Verifeye anonymizes all of its uploaders and will not share their information with clients. But if an uploader wants to remain completely anonymous, even to Verifeye, then Verifeye wont pay them. The concern is less about the principle of paying anonymous sourcesor any source, for that matterthan it is about knowing who youre funding. In this case, McHugh and his lawyers created this guideline as a precaution against accusations of funding terrorist groups or criminal organizations.

Also, while the apps closed ecosystem ensures an unprecedented level of privacy and protection for eyewitnesses, as well as what McHugh calls an evidential chain of custody, theres no legal precedent that can protect them should British security agencies issue a warrant to search Verifeyes database, similar to what the FBI has done with Apple. McHugh says if MI5 or MI6 should ever arrive on his doorstep, Ill fight them every which way I can. What we say to people is if you absolutely, truly want to be anonymous, you can sign up with our system under a pseudonym, but then we cant pay you.

Another big question revolves around profiting off disturbing content, or content that was acquired by taking excessive or illegal risks. Again, Verifeye has created a built-in protection. Its called a traffic light system, and it means that when McHugh or Finnegan have a concern about a piece of footage, they add an amber light warning to the contributors record. The warning initiates an email with the contributor outlining Verifeyes concerns. After three amber warnings, the contributors account is suspended, pending a full conversation with the contributor.

This basically means we move from sending advice to actually engaging in a discussion, McHugh explains. There may be times when what we are seeing appears far more extreme that it really is, and a contributor will always have the right to explain themselves, as I am a great believer in trusting the judgment of the guy on the ground. But their explanation must be convincing. At this stage, we can either terminate the relationship, or, more likely, offer more mentoring.

If Verifeye Media existed back then, we may have broken it first, possibly saved some lives, and most definitely have made the US military and other groups that backed [Raziq] a little less keen to throw money and kudos his way.

By not commissioning eyewitnesses or professional freelancers to go out and document an event, as some licensing agencies do, Verifeye also avoids any legal and moral responsibility should something happen to them. Its merely a platform for distribution and sales. Still, that doesnt erase the larger issue.

Ive really struggled with this idea of should we be paying eyewitnesses?, because I think it creates a dangerous precedent, says Claire Wardle, who used to work at Storyful and is also involved with Eyewitness Media Hub, an organization that disseminates guidelines and research around this growing segment of news. (Wardle is also the Tow Centers research director, at Columbia University.) When you create a marketplace for breaking news content, as soon as you put a monetary value on eyewitness media, there is real evidence that people have crossed police lines, they put themselves in danger, they show graphic imagery when they have no training to do that.

Other eyewitness apps, including Mobile Justice from the ACLU, Informacam, and Eyewitness to Atrocities, have cropped up in the human rights space, when activists needs to prove they were at a particular protest. None of these platforms are monetized.

On the other hand, Wardle, who is a friend of McHugh and informally advised him on the app, recognizes the importance of paying for content that has newsworthy value, adding, I think its wrong to say were not gonna pay sources but make money by stealing their content.

What gives Verifeye moral standing, Wardle thinks, is that people arent just going to download it on the off chance that one day theyll witness something newsworthy. The app was designed by a freelance journalist to give other professional freelancers an edge, a network, and a chance to profit off the little bits of news they collect while chasing other stories. It likely wont be enough to pay off a mortgage, but it could be a speedy way for freelancerspeople with hostile environment training, people who understand the ethics of showing peoples faces, Wardle saysto supplement their wallets without the hassle of invoicing or chasing down a payment.

It also could have been useful to McHugh back when he was reporting on the police chief in Afghanistan.

In the end, Matthieu Aikins broke the story for The Atlantic, and did a brilliant job, McHugh says. But if Verifeye Media existed back then, we may have broken it first, possibly saved some lives, and most definitely have made the US military and other groups that backed [Raziq] a little less keen to throw money and kudos his way.

It would also be especially useful right now in a place like the Greek-Macedonian border, where reporters and refugees are gathering, the hunger of information is real, and an Instagram post may be difficult, if not impossible, to verify (given how easy it is, for instance, to fake ones geolocation).

I think creating a market for freelancers who are gathering news with a smartphone is not as problematic in the same way as paying activists or people who just happen to be there. But I think its really difficult, Wardle says. Verifeye touches on so many issues around business models, ethics, supply and demand, and technology that so many media managers just dont understand. We should be having more of these conversations.

Through Verifeye, McHugh and Finnegan may help get those conversations started.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Damaris Colhoun is CJRs digital correspondent covering the media business. A reporter at large in New York, Colhoun has also written for The Believer, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Atlas Obscura. Find her on Twitter @damarisdeere.
Maine continues to be among the top states in the nation for most affordable homeowners and personal auto insurance rates, according to a recent announcement by Insurance Superintendent Eric Cioppa.

Recently released reports by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), ranks Maine third (for the third year in a row) for lowest average auto insurance premiums nationally, and 10th for lowest average homeowners premiums nationally.

The NAICs Auto Insurance Database Report, which placed Maine third in its national ranking of lowest average personal auto insurance premiums, provides the average costs associated with personal automobile insurance and includes state-by-state auto insurance data and analysis for insurance regulators, consumers and lawmakers. The types of auto insurance coverage included in the report are bodily injury and property damage liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist, medical payment, collision, and comprehensive.

The auto insurance market in Maine is healthy and competitive, which contributes to Maines consistently low average auto premiums, Superintendent Cioppa said. Maines ranking is especially noteworthy given Maines coverage requirements, which exceed those in most other states.

Additionally, the report indicates that Maine is tied with Massachusetts for the lowest percentage of uninsured motorists, at 4.5 percent.

In the newly released NAIC Homeowners Insurance Report, Maine ranked 10th nationally for the lowest average premiums, as it did in the previous years report. Maine continues to have the lowest average homeowners premiums in New England. The report provides data on market distribution and average cost by policy form and amount of insurance. Data is collected from insurance statistical agents or reported directly to the NAIC and includes national and state-specific premium and exposure information for homeowners policies, as well as non-commercial dwelling fire insurance policies.

Source: State of Maine Bureau of Insurance
Jurors in the first-degree murder trial of a former Boone, Iowa, man accused in the death of his wife heard from a forensic expert who says the womans death was an accident.

Lawyers for Alexander Fazzino, who is charged with first-degree murder in the January 2012 death of Emily Fazzino, called on experts who reviewed her death Thursday in a Winneshiek County court, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Alexander Fazzino has pleaded not guilty, saying his wife accidentally drowned, possibly induced by withdrawal from prescription painkillers. Prosecutors allege that she was strangled and possibly drowned.

According to court documents, Alexander Fazzino says that he found his wife face down in the bathroom tub. He called 911 and when first responders arrived, they found her on the bathroom floor.

Dr. Neil Kaye, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that Emily Fazzinos manner of death was likely asphyxia, though he said it was accidental based on the known information.

He said that she had complained about fainting twice, she was in a slippery bathroom and had significant drugs in her system. Kaye added that the facts easily explained a situation that he described as slip and fall, hit head, drown.

He further noted the bathroom showed no signs of struggle.

This is just not a homicide case, he said.

During cross examination, prosecutor Scott Brown asked Kaye about a deep tissue injury found in Emily Fazzinos neck.

Kaye said he didnt know where the injury came from unless it was from CPR or other lifesaving attempts.

Strangulation  how about that? Brown asked.

But Kaye said he did not think strangulation occurred in this case.

Dr. Michele Catellier, who performed Fazzinos autopsy, previously testified that her manner of death was undetermined, but she favored homicide.

Thomas Brady, a private forensic consultant hired by the defense, also testified that the bathroom where she was found did not seem to be in disarray in photos. He said a bruise on her forehead could have been from a bath caddy or nearby air vent.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A tool for helping battle Ohios deadly addictions epidemic is adding new dimensions to the jobs of pharmacists.

A state computerized reporting system gives pharmacists quick access to patients prescribing histories as they weigh whether to fill suspicious prescriptions. Its similar to systems in place or being developed across the country.

In January, California doctors, pharmacists and other health care providers began using a faster and more secure version of a database designed to prevent overdoses and illegal prescription drug sales.

The state Board of Pharmacy says Ohios system helped lower by 71 percent the number of patients going from doctor to doctor in search of drugs last year.

Kroger pharmacist Sarah Burke said the system is so easy to use she runs all prescriptions for controlled substances through it.

Burke said her interactions with customers now include awkward situations where she must occasionally turn demanding patients down.

At the forefront I still want to keep my customer service even when faced with these tough interactions, Burke said, taking a break from her job last month at a Kroger south of downtown.

I still want to show empathy and understanding, but ultimately communicating that patient safety is my primary concern, and thats why Im taking the steps that I am to ensure that the medication is getting in the right hands, she said.

The pharmacy board provides guidelines for handling such situations.

Accessing the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System used to be a cumbersome process requiring pharmacists and other users to log out of one system and into another.

Last year, Gov. John Kasich, a Republican running for president, said Ohio would make up to $1.5 million available annually for prescribers to integrate their computer systems with the database.

To date more than 160 requests for access have come from hospitals, doctors offices, pharmacies and major health systems.

Ohios system allows pharmacists to check prescribing histories in Ohio and border states that have similar systems, including Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and West Virginia.

Burke, 37, a pharmacist since 2003, spends most of her days making sure prescriptions are filled correctly and ensuring customers understand their therapy.

But sometimes problems arise, as when a patient showed up recently with a prescription for an unusually large amount of oxycodone  180 tablets  with no history of similar prescriptions, according to the reporting database. He also wanted to pay cash, another flag.

Burke declined to fill the order, while saying shed be happy to talk with his prescriber  an opportunity he turned down.

I was able to say to the patient Im uncomfortable with this therapy because I see that youve never been on it. It didnt make sense in the course of routine prescribing, she said.

The reporting system also caught the reverse situation with a different patient, a woman from West Virginia looking for Suboxone, a drug used to treat painkiller addiction but which has also been subject to abuse. The database showed the woman had received the drug from multiple pharmacies in recent months and Burke again refused to fill the prescription.

Pharmacists can refuse prescriptions for many reasons, including concerns the medication might harm the patient, suspicions of fraud, if the prescription is old or if it hasnt been filled for the first time within six months of being written.

Confronting suspicious prescriptions is among the reasons the state is trying to make the database easier to use.

It can be a difficult situation a pharmacist is in when a drug-seeking individual with a prescription is presenting at a pharmacy, said Steven Schierholt, the pharmacy boards executive director.

Beginning April 1, any South Carolina doctor who wants to bill either Medicaid or the state health plan must consult a statewide database of patients medical history.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill into law last year requiring that doctors check a prescription drug database before prescribing certain addictive drugs to stop doctor-shopping addicts. Also last year, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill requiring pharmacists and doctors prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances to register for access to the states Prescription Monitoring Program.

(Associated Press writers Don Thompson in Sacramento, California; Seanna Adcox in Columbia, S.C.; Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Airline safety standards are changing in the wake of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 nearly two years ago, but the head of one of the worlds top air crash investigation agencies says its not happening fast enough.

On Wednesday, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets global aviation standards, moved to address some of the more glaring safety gaps. Planes in distress will have to automatically report their position and other critical information at least every minute to help searchers find the wreckage. But the requirement will only apply to planes built six years from now or later.

It could take even longer to implement another ICAO change requiring new planes have a reliable means to recover information stored in black box data and cockpit voice recorders, rather than scouring the ocean floor for the boxes. Several existing technologies could do that, but ICAOs timeline means it could be a decade or more before planes equipped with those technologies begin entering service.

Chris Hart, chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press that more should be done to put available technologies to use quickly.

We are concerned about the slow pace of progress at both the national and international levels, Hart said. We believe this is long overdue.

Heres a look at what has changed, what has not and what is in the works.

FLIGHT TRACKING

As a result of MH370, ICAO has approved a requirement that all airliners report their position about every 15 minutes over open ocean by November 2018. Pilots of planes flying over open ocean have typically reported their position about every 30 minutes.

Inmarsat, a provider of satellite flight tracking services, has offered free tracking to all long-haul carriers. But there are gaps in Inmarsats coverage of the globe.

Another aircraft-tracking provider, Aireon LLC, has partnered with Iridium Communications, which has a network of 66 low-orbit satellites, and says it plans to offer flight tracking of virtually all of the worlds airspace beginning in 2018. In order to use the system, planes must be equipped with special satellite communications technology known as ADS-B.

Besides flight tracking, ADS-B can be used to prevent collisions and allow planes to fly closer together. Aircraft manufacturers are already including the technology in new planes, but airlines are still in the process of equipping older planes, which is expensive.

The United States has set a deadline of 2020 for airlines operating in its airspace to equip their planes. There is no international deadline.

FINDING WRECKAGE

Flight tracking is helpful, but may not narrow a search area enough to reliably find a plane. Instead, aviation officials want planes to automatically send out position reports at least once per minute when they are trouble.

At normal flight speeds, minute-by-minute reports would provide authorities with a search area of a little over 100 square miles. If reports are less frequent, the search area grows much larger.

ICAOs newly adopted requirement for automatic, minute-by-minute reports by planes in distress applies only to planes made after Jan. 1, 2021.

Many planes are already equipped to send periodic short automatic messages to ground stations via VFR radio or satellite using a digital datalink system. In 2009, a burst of such brief messages from Air France flight 447 provided searchers enough information to find wreckage from the plane just days after it disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. However, it still took two years before the planes black boxes were recovered.

In the case of MH370, the Boeing 777 was also equipped with the technology to send such messages, but the service wasnt in use. Airlines typically use the systems to relay information on how the plane and its engines are functioning so that maintenance personnel and equipment can be positioned at its next destination if needed.

FLIGHT RECORDERS

MH370s flight data recorder was equipped with an underwater locator beacon designed to last 30 days. ICAO standards adopted before the planes disappearance require the beacons to last 90 days beginning in 2018.

This week, ICAO approved a requirement that new aircraft designs approved after Jan. 1, 2021, have some means for retrieving a planes recorders, or the information contained in them, before the recorder sinks to the ocean floor. One possibility is a deployable recorder that automatically ejects from a plane upon impact and floats to the oceans surface. Theyre widely used in military aircraft, but Boeing says cases where theyll be needed are likely to be fewer than instances in which they accidently deploy, potentially causing injuries and property damage.

An alternative is to have planes in distress automatically relay the data via satellite to ground stations, eliminating the need to search for the box. But there are many unanswered questions about security and custody of the information.

Even then, it might be 2028 or later before planes with either deployable recorders or a means to transmit the recorders data before a crash enter service because of the time lag between the approval of new plane designs and when they are ready to fly.

The new requirements dont include cockpit voice recordings. MH370 contained a two-hour voice recorder that recorded in a continuous loop. Even if the recorder is ever found, it is likely that critical information from early in the flight was erased.

ICAO also adopted a standard this week requiring planes manufactured after Jan. 1, 2021, to include 25-hour voice recorders to capture an entire flight, as well as crew preparations beforehand. The requirement doesnt apply to planes already in service, which can have lifespans of 20 years or more.

Crash investigations have shown that even when voice recorders cover the length of the flight, they dont always reveal the whole story of what happened in the cockpit. Theyve been pushing for image or video recordings as well, but pilot unions have resisted that as too intrusive.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Two high-profile Texas attorneys were sued by a fishing boat captain who said they were involved in a scam to cheat BP Plc out of millions of dollars with false compensation claims for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Shes one of thousands of Vietnamese American fishermen and women who had their identities faked or stolen in the fraud which was bankrolled by Bob Hilliard and John Cracken, Houston lawyer Tammy Tran said in a complaint Thursday. They blame the lawyers in part for obstructing their efforts to pursue their own claims for payments under BPs restitution program.

Tran is seeking more than $100 million in punitive damages from Hilliard and Cracken to compensate the immigrants. Many of them claim to have suffered mental anguish from nightmarish memories of Vietnams communist regime, revived by federal agents knocking on doors to investigate the identity thefts. Compensation is also sought for homes and businesses lost while waiting for BP to pay under its seafood accord.

Houston attorney Richard Mithoff said he was hired to represent Hilliard and Cracken.

Ive not yet seen a copy of whats being filed, Mithoff said Thursday. We will respond immediately and in due course in an appropriate filing. He declined to comment further on the allegations. Hilliard referred queries to Mithoff.

Lawyer Indicted

Tran, who represents about 1,000 Vietnamese American fishermen and women against BP, said in an interview she learned of Hilliards and Crackens connection to the scam from a criminal-defense attorney with knowledge of the indictment of a third lawyer. Mikal Watts, who allegedly orchestrated the fraud, was indicted for identity theft and making false claims in connection with the BP spill. Watts, a San Antonio attorney, denied any wrongdoing.

Wattss indictment, unsealed in a Mississippi court in October, refers to the involvement of two other lawyers without naming them. Theyre referred to as Attorneys 1 and 2.

Hilliards national prominence surged with the implosion of the first trial over General Motors Co.s faulty ignition systems. The case was dropped in the middle of the trial over claims that Hilliards clients lied on the stand. Cracken is a Dallas-based lawyer and restaurant entrepreneur.

Claim Runners

The two attorneys allegedly paid more than $10 million to Watts to cover the cost of claim runners who were used to sign up Southeast Asian immigrant shrimpers, boat captains and deck hands  an insular coastal community where English is sparse and the destruction of boats and livelihoods was widespread, according to the complaint. Hilliard and Cracken in return would share in the millions of legal fees that would be generated, the plaintiff claimed.

These two were deeply involved in this deal with Mikal Watts, Tran said in an interview. They knew everything, and they knew it was wrong from the beginning.

Hilliard and Cracken did nothing to stop the fraud, Tran said.

Watts helped negotiate a $2.3 billion spill-damages settlement for Gulf seafood interests in 2012, after the U.S. says he leveraged his more than 40,000 fishing-industry clients into a lucrative seat on the litigation steering committee. Federal prosecutors claim many of Wattss so-called clients never signed with him, and he used their identities and social security numbers without their consent. BP has claimed bogus victims likely inflated the cost of its accord.

Watts Sued

Trans fishing clients sued Watts in San Antonio state court two years ago. The lawsuit has stalled because of Watts criminal trial, Tran said.

E-mails between the attorneys, cited in the indictment, describe internal investigations into a client list that uncovered people who were duped by the case runners into signing up with Watts, or those whose files contained inaccurate or misappropriated addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. One client turned out to be a dog; another died long before the spill happened.

Another fine example of the st we paid for; dead 5 years ago, Watts wrote in a March 8, 2011, e-mail. Mikal, fraud, Attorney 2 replied. The complaint identifies Hilliard as the respondent.

The e-mails are being taken out of context and paint a misleading picture of what the lawyers were discussing, Robert McDuff, Watts criminal defense attorney, said when the charges were unsealed last year. Any fraud involving the workers claims was committed by others and will be proven at Wattss trial in July, he said.

The case is Thim T. Nguyen v. Cracken, 2016-13749, 55th Judicial District of Harris County, Texas (Houston).

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
A California intermediate appellate court has reaffirmed that a clients professional negligence claim against his or her property/casualty insurance broker is freely assignable. It held, also, that the assigned rights are enforceable in court by the assignee without proof that its equities  the justice of its position  are superior to the brokers, unless the assignee, as insurer, paid the assignors loss under its insurance policy, thereby invoking the doctrine of equitable subrogation. The decision, filed by the court on February 8, 2016 is entitled AMCO Insurance Company v. All Solutions Insurance Agency, LLC. It is reported at 2016 Cal.App. LEXIS 96.

The case arose from events occurring in Sonora, a California town located in the western Sierra Nevada foothills. Insurer AMCO, one of the plaintiffs in the case, insured commercial property of one David Saari. The other plaintiffs were individuals (called the Restauranteurs by the court) who owned and operated a restaurant on the same street as Saaris property. Amarjit Singh owned a third building on the street. Due to Singhs negligence, a fire started in his electrical panel and spread to the other two properties.

Defendant All Solutions Insurance Agency (All Solutions) was Singhs insurance broker. Singh presented to his former insurer his own building loss claim and the third party liability claims for fire damage asserted against him by Saari and the Restauranteurs. The claims were denied because Singh had no policy in force at the time of the fire. Singh contended this was because All Solutions failed to carry out his request that the broker replace his insurance, which had been non-renewed by the insurer before the fire. The broker disputed that Singh requested it to obtain property or liability insurance for his property.

The Restauranteurs sued Singh for the property and business losses they sustained from the fire. Singh stipulated to a judgment in their favor and assigned to them his rights against All Solutions for failing to obtain replacement insurance.

Under its policy, AMCO compensated Saari for his fire loss and filed a subrogation action against Singh to recover what it had paid. Singh stipulated to a judgment for AMCO for the amount it had paid Saari, and Singh assigned to AMCO, too, his rights against broker All Solutions for its failure to obtain insurance for Singh. Based on their status as assignees of Singh, the Restauranteurs and AMCO filed two separate lawsuits against All Solutions. The cases were consolidated.

The broker, as defendant, moved for summary judgment against all plaintiffs in both cases, contending that Singhs professional negligence claim against All Solutions was not assignable. Alternatively, the broker argued, enforcement of the broker negligence claim in plaintiffs hands as assignees was precluded based on the principles of equitable subrogation because the assignees equities were not superior to the brokers.

The trial judge granted summary judgment for the broker against all plaintiffs, based on a 2011 California Court of Appeal decision, because their losses were caused by the fire, not by the brokers failure to insure Singh. Consequently, the trial court ruled, the plaintiffs equities were not superior to those of the broker. The trial court did not address the non-assignability argument.

The Court of Appeal reversed all summary judgments. Based on a 1984 California Court of Appeal decision, and two California statutes originating in 1872, it held that California law does not prohibit the assignment of a clients right to sue his or her insurance broker or agent for professional negligence. In this regard, it distinguished cases holding that legal malpractice claims are not assignable because of the fiduciary nature of the attorney-client relationship, and no such relationship exists in the insurance broker context.

Furthermore, the Court of Appeal rejected the brokers argument that in order to prevail in their lawsuits against the broker, the Restauranteurs and AMCO must proceed by way of equitable subrogation, proving their equities were superior to those of All Solutions. In this regard, the Court found that the doctrine of equitable subrogation did not apply to any of the plaintiffs in the case, because the relationships among the parties did not trigger, by operation of law, a transfer to plaintiffs of the rights against the broker. The only basis on which the plaintiffs could assert the claims of Singh against his broker was by way of voluntary, contractual assignment of those rights to the plaintiffs. At no time were the Restauranteurs an insurer or surety of Singhs losses, so they never became equitable subrogees of such losses.

AMCO, as Saaris insurer, was an equitable subrogee, but only of Saaris claims against Singh, whose negligence caused the fire. AMCO was not an equitable subrogee of Singhs professional negligence claim against the broker. Therefore, the appellate court concluded, the principles of equitable subrogation that would govern AMCOs relationship with Saari did not extend to Singhs contractual assignment of his cause of action against broker All Solutions. Accordingly, AMCO, too, need not establish a superior equitable position to the broker in order to prevail against it on Singhs assigned claim against the broker for professional negligence.

Going further, the Court of Appeal held that as an alternate and separate ground for reversing the summary judgment against AMCO, even if superior equities were required for AMCO to succeed in its case against All Solutions, as the moving party on summary judgment, the broker failed to establish that its equitable position was equal or superior to AMCOs.
Deerhoof and Dal Niente Announce Collaborative LP 'Balter / Saunier' Due April 29

Greg Saunier of Deerhoof performs at 'The Roots Picnic' music festival at Penn's Landing on June 7, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo : Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

Since their initial meeting in 2012, Deerhoof and Dal Niente have remained fast friends. It's been announced this week, then, that the pair will release a collaborative LP entitled Balter / Saunier on April 29 via Amsterdam Records.

As of late, the duo have released the single "Cherubim," which is available on their SoundCloud. Also on the disc are works by composer Marcos Balter with arrangements from Deerhoof's own Greg Saunier.

Also, the album will feature two extended works by Balter and Saunier individually. More than 30 musicians were a part of the recording process and all production, mixing and editing notes are credited in-house.

Dal Niente, per Pitchfork, will celebrate the album at their 10th Anniversary Party in Chicago on April 30. The event will take place at Dal Niente's Studio & 3rd Floor Commons at 4045 N. Rockwell.

Take a listen to the first release by Deerhoof and Dal Niente below with a tracklisting following beneath. As it's been stated, the new tune delves into a different dimension that the pair have otherwise left unexplored.

Following a sense of depth, too, is also a sort of chaos that is built into the ensemble. It's certainly a departure for both artists.

Balter / Saunier:

01 meltDown Upshot - 1. Credo (Marcos Balter)

02 meltDown Upshot - 2. Parallel Spaces (Marcos Balter)

03 meltDown Upshot - 3. Ready (Marcos Balter)

04 meltDown Upshot - 4. True/False (Marcos Balter)

05 meltDown Upshot - 5. Home (Marcos Balter)

06 meltDown Upshot - 6. Cherubim (Marcos Balter) Stream

07 meltDown Upshot - 7. Rapture (Marcos Balter)

08 Pois que nada que dure, ou que durando (Marcos Balter)

09 Deerhoof Chamber Variations (Greg Saunier)

 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

TagsDeerhoof, Dal Niente, Balter / Saunier
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland City Planning Commission adopted a 25-year plan aimed at halting the rapid and drastic shrinkage of the city's tree canopy and helping it to once again live up to its nickname - The Forest City.

The loss of trees is so extensive today that the city's limits are defined by a bald patch of concrete and asphalt easily visible from satellites in outer space, Jenita McGowan, chief of the city's Office of Sustainability, told the Planning Commission at a meeting Friday.

Trees across Cleveland are dying rapidly from lack of maintenance, poor pruning and invasive parasites such as the emerald ash borer, she said.

A table from the city's Tree Plan shows how poorly Cleveland stacks up nationally in measures of tree canopy coverage.

With tree cover of 19 percent, the city ranks third from the bottom in a survey of tree canopies in 10 American cities completed for the plan.

Cleveland's tree canopy falls behind those of Detroit (23 percent), New York (24 percent), Cincinnati (38 percent), and Pittsburgh (42 percent).

"If we continue to lose our urban forest at the current rate, we will have 14 percent tree coverage by 2040," McGowan said.

"We're losing 90 acres of urban forest every year in Cleveland," Colby Sattler, a project manager in urban forestry at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, told the commission. "To stem that tide, we need to plant 35,000 trees a year."

Quantifying the tree canopy

The plan shows that if the city wants to increase its tree coverage to 40 percent by 2040, it would have to plant more than 691,000 trees.

The commission unanimously adopted the plan, first released last October by the administration of Mayor Frank Jackson.

A bar graph on the Cuyahoga County Planning Department website shows how Cleveland ranks near the bottom of 59 communities in the county in the percentage of its tree canopy.

McGowan said that approval would help a diverse coalition of community organizations to start implementing the Cleveland Tree Plan. Details can be found on the website of the Office of Sustainability.

Steps identified in the plan include outreach and education for government agencies, property owners and businesses; completing a detailed tree inventory; and coming up with funding.

The $75,000 document, funded with a mix of public and private dollars, establishes a vision and framework for future detailed work that lies ahead.

It grew out of collaboration among partners including the Office of Sustainability, LAND Studio, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, the Holden Arboretum and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

"The plan is a plan not just for city-owned trees but is also a community-wide tree plan," McGowan said. "Most of the opportunity is on private property. It will involve trying to engage the city and the community at large in valuing and restoring our urban forest."

Planting with Purpose

The plan urges the city and other property owners to "Plant with a Purpose" by restoring tree canopies in neighborhoods that score high on measures such as the child poverty rate, the percentage of unemployed residents, and the potential to soak up storm-water runoff and improve air quality.

A map from the city's Tree Plan documents areas of heat stress, where lack of trees has a measurable effect on air temperature during summers. The plan recommends planting trees strategically to reduce these "heat islands."

The plan estimated that each year, the city's existing tree canopy provides more than $20 million in environmental services.

These include:

- Soaking up 1.8 billion gallons of rainwater. Value: $11 million.

- Absorbing 415 tons of air pollution. Value: $1.8 million.

- Saving energy by providing shade. Value: $3.5 million.

- Increasing property values. Value: $4.5 million.

Members of the Planning Commission enthusiastically approved the plan Friday with "commendation," a form of praise rarely awarded.

Newly appointed commission member Fred Geis, a leading developer in Cleveland, called himself a "tree-hugger," and said, "I wouldn't have a 12-inch scar on the back of my legs if not for climbing a tree when I was a kid. That scar is part of my character."

David Bowen, the commission's vice chair, summed up his reaction simply.

"This was joyful," he said.
A 4-year-old girl died and six people were injured in a Monday night fire that destroyed a building at Hickory Hills apartment building in Brunswick, residents said.

BRUNSWICK, Ohio --The fire at a north side apartment complex started right outside the unit where a 4-year-old girl died, fire officials said.

Something sparked the blaze on the exterior of the apartment, Assistant Fire Chief Rick Barber said. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has not released the girl's name.

Fire officials do not expect arson. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

The fire destroyed the three-story apartment building in the Hickory Hills complex near Pearl Road and Beverly Hills Drive. Twenty-four families were displaced.

The building, which was built in the 1970s, had working smoke detectors but no sprinklers. Inspectors found no violations during the building's last annual inspection in June, Barber said.

Residents said the fire engulfed the building within seconds.

"It was unbelievable," said Tim Parsons, who escaped from a third-floor unit. "Within the 30 seconds that it took us to get out, the flames had spread. Within two minutes I saw the flames go from a small glow, to a raging fire up the side of the building, engulfing the entire building."

The building's vinyl siding acted as an accelerant for the fire, Barber said.

The 4-year-old girl's mother was one of six people injured in the fire. The woman was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland where she is being treated for smoke inhalation.

The other residents' injuries are considered minor. One man injured his back while jumping from a third-floor balcony to escape, Barber said.

Paul Lewandowski, who lives in the building directly behind the fire, said he saw the man jump.

"I saw black smoke come over the unit," Lewandowski said. "Within seconds, there was a ball of fire."

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BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Local and state investigators continue to search for clues to what caused a fire that tore through a Brunswick apartment building killing a 4-year-old girl, injuring six others and leaving scores of residents homeless.

Brunswick city and fire officials are expected to hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. at city hall to address the fire.

Officials have not released any information about the person who died in the fire that broke out late Monday, but neighbors identified her as a 4-year-old girl.

Six residents suffered smoke inhalation and bruises in the fire at the Hickory Hill apartment complex near Pearl Road and Beverly Hills Drive. They were taken to area hospitals to be treated, fire officials said in a news release.

One firefighter was treated for minor injuries and released, the release says.

The Southwest Emergency Response Team and State Fire Marshal's Office are assisting in the investigation, Brunswick Fire Chief Jim Baird said Tuesday.

The fire started just before 10:30 p.m. at the apartment complex near Pearl Road and Beverly Hills Drive. Firefighters from 10 area departments contained it by midnight, the release says.

The fire destroyed one 12-unit building and displaced families in an adjacent 12-unit building. The total damages have not been determined, the release says.

Residents and neighbors came to the building Tuesday morning to survey the damage.

Hickory Hills resident Vinnie Carrino does not have a smoke alarm in his apartment and did not hear one in the hallway go off when the building caught fire, he said. It was a neighbor's phone call that helped Carrino and his daughter escape safely, he said.

"I woke up and checked on my daughter before I got a phone call from [the apartment building] next door," he said. "My neighbor told me to get out because the building was on fire."

Other residents said they did hear smoke alarms. The building does not have sprinklers, they said.

Judita Drive residents Emil and Margaret Stecki said a neighbor called them to inform them about the fire. Emil Stecki took photographs while he watched the blaze.

"We watched for an hour," he said. "There wasn't much else you could do."

Brunswick residents Wes and Andrea Annach learned of the fire when a police officer banged on their door. The two daughters escaped unharmed, they said.

"They're upset, but they're alright," Wes Annach said.

The parents were at the building Tuesday to retrieve their daughters' three cats and one dog. The animals were not harmed.

Cleveland.com will cover the press conference at city hall live on Periscope. Check back here for more details as they're made available.
Mark Smucker_2487.jpg

Mark T. Smucker will become the J.M. Smucker Co.'s fifth-generation president and chief executive starting May 1, the Orrville-based food company announced late Monday. He will succeed his uncle, Richard K. Smucker, who has been CEO since 2011 and Co-CEO with Mark's father, Timothy P. Smucker, since 2001. Timothy Smucker will become chairman emeritus on Smucker's board.

(J.M. Smucker Co.)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The J.M. Smucker Co.'s board of directors has just announced that Mark T. Smucker will become the nearly 120-year-old food company's fifth-generation president and chief executive starting May 1, 2016.

Mark Smucker, 46, who is currently president of the company's Consumer and Natural Foods division, which includes his family's namesake Smucker's Preserves, Jif Peanut Butter, and Crisco Oils, will succeed his uncle, Richard K. Smucker, who has been CEO since 2011 and Co-CEO since 2001.

Mark Smucker is a great-great-grandson of company founder Jerome Monroe Smucker, whose signature graces every glass jar of Smucker's fruit spreads.

Richard K. Smucker, CEO of J.M. Smucker Co., will be succeeded by his nephew, Mark T. Smucker, on May 1.

Fourth-generation CEO Richard Smucker, 67, will become J.M. Smucker's executive chairman of the board, succeeding his elder brother and Mark's father, Timothy P. Smucker, 71, who will become chairman emeritus and remain on the company's board as a non-employee director.

Mark Smucker will take the reins of the family business after what is widely expected to be its most successful year ever, with a estimated $7.8 billion in sales for fiscal 2016, largely because of its Big Heart Pet Brands business acquired in March 2015.

That acquisition vaulted Smucker into America's eighth largest shelf-stable food and beverage company, with eight of the No. 1 brands in the United States and seven No. 1 brands in Canada.

Smucker is now the No. 1 maker of dog snacks and No. 2 maker of cat food, owning such well-known brands as Meow Mix, Milk-Bone, Kibbles 'n Bits, 9Lives, Natural Balance Pet Foods, Pup-Peroni, Gravy Train, Nature's Recipe, Canine Carry Outs, Snausages, Meaty Bone, Pounce, Jerky Treats, Alley Cat, and Milo's Kitchen.

Related Plain Dealer stories:

Feb. 2016: Big Heart Pet Brands pet foods boost J.M. Smucker's sales 37% in 3rd quarter

March 9, 2011: J.M. Smucker Co. promotes two fifth-generation family members to high-profile roles

Gary A. Oatey, chairman of the Board of Director's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, said in a written statement that "Mark has consistently demonstrated that he is a visionary leader, an innovator, and a steward of the Company's unique culture.

"Mark has held senior positions in nearly all major businesses within the organization and has played an important role with acquisitions and business integrations over the past 18 years," Oatey said. "The Board believes he is the right executive to lead Smucker in the years ahead."

"Additionally, we will continue to benefit from Richard's strategic oversight and institutional knowledge as he assumes the role of Executive Chairman. The changes announced today reinforce our commitment to maintaining Smucker's heritage and culture, which creates an environment where employees deliver exceptional results, benefiting all of our constituents."

Timothy P. Smucker, executive chairman of J.M. Smucker's board, will become chairman emeritus on May 1, when his son, Mark T. Smucker, assumes the roles of president and CEO.

Richard Smucker said in the same statement that "Today's announcement exemplifies the Company's long-term succession planning and underscores the tradition of management continuity that has shaped Smucker into the company it is today. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire Company, we are proud of Mark's numerous contributions and his accomplishments as a leader within our organization and our industry.

"We are confident that under his leadership, and with the support of our dedicated employees, the Company will continue to innovate, evolve, and grow in the years to come," Richard Smucker said. "Leading this organization has been an immense pleasure. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside the best team in the industry and look forward to many more accomplishments in the future."

Mark Smucker is one of four fifth-generation family members currently working at the company.

The others are:

-- Kimi Wagstaff Tober, daughter of Tim and Richard Smucker's sister, Susi Smucker Wagstaff, is senior manager of the Smucker Innovation Center.

-- Kent Wadsworth, son-in-law of Susi Wagstaff, is manager of corporate internal communications.

-- Reid Smucker, Tim Smucker's son and Mark Smucker's younger brother, is corporate historian.

A fifth member of the family, Paul Smucker Wagstaff, son of Susi Wagstaff, who had spent nearly 19 years at the company, resigned for personal reasons on Dec. 5, 2014, from the board of directors and from his role as president of U.S. retail consumer foods.

Mark Smucker's previous roles at the company include: president, U.S. retail coffee, since May 2011; president, special markets, since August 2008; vice president, international, since July 2007; vice president, international, and managing director, Canada, since 2008; and vice president and managing director, Canada, since 2004.

Mark R. Belgya will become vice chair and chief financial officer on May 1.

Mark Smucker said in a written statement: "Our Company was built by thousands of families, just like ours, who have cared about its success for over 119 years. I am humbled to serve as a steward of this great company, leading and working with our talented team to build on our prominent market position, and drive continued growth and shareholder value at Smucker.

"I am honored to succeed Richard as the next Chief Executive Officer of the Company. He has not only been a valuable mentor to me throughout my career, he has also led our Company through a period of significant expansion and strategic transformation."

"As a result, today, Smucker and our family of iconic brands are stronger than ever," Mark Smucker said. "I look forward to working closely with Richard, the Board of Directors, our outstanding leadership team, and our talented employees across the Company, collectively serving all of our constituents - consumers, customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders."

Timothy Smucker said: "At Smucker, we have a remarkable team that is committed to developing leaders from within. Our unique culture is critical to our long-term performance and preserving its strength remains a priority for our Company. Mark's appointment to President and Chief Executive Officer and Richard's transition to Executive Chairman further demonstrate our adherence to our core values."

"Particularly, I want to thank Richard for his years of relentless execution and visionary leadership that have ultimately resulted in our transformational growth, strong market position, and portfolio of iconic brands. I look forward to my ongoing involvement as Chairman Emeritus and wish Mark continued success in his new role as President and Chief Executive Officer. I have every confidence that the business will thrive under his direction."

Steven Oakland will become vice chair and president, U.S. Food and Beverage, on May 1.

Smucker's board on Monday announced two other promotions, also effective Mary 1:

-- Mark R. Belgya, 55, to Vice Chair and Chief Financial Officer, from his current role as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He will oversee strategy, mergers and acquisitions, government and industry affairs, and information services. He has been an employee since 1985.

-- Steven Oakland, 54, to Vice Chair and President, U.S. Food and Beverage, from his current role as president, Coffee and Foodservice. Oakland will be responsible for the company's U.S. retail coffee, U.S. retail consumer foods, foodservice, natural foods, U.S. retail sales, and marketing services. He has been an employee since 1982.

Richard Smucker said both men have made innumerable contributions to the company's long-term success. "We are confident that their additional support and insights will be instrumental in achieving balanced growth for the Company. We believe this leadership team has a deep breadth of experience and is the strongest in the industry," he said.

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denzinger.JPG

In this 2014 photo, Jakob Denzinger looks out his window of his apartment in Osijek, in eastern Croatia. Denzinger lived and worked in Akron before he fled federal allegations that he worked as a guard at Auschwitz and other camps.

(The Associated Press)

Eli Rosenbaum, the leader of the U.S. Justice Department's unit that sought Nazi-collaborators: "(Jakob Denzinger) He was an essential component of the machinery of persecution and murder at those camps.''

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Akron businessman lived quietly among his neighbors and hid his secret for years.

But when federal prosecutors accused him in 1989 of working as a Nazi guard at Auschwitz and five other concentration camps, Jakob Denzinger gave up his life and fled.

Denzinger, 91, died last month in Croatia. Federal prosecutors say he was one of a handful of men who served as Nazi guards and later settled in Ohio. Today, nearly all of those men are dead. The U.S. Justice Department pursued some of them for decades, though few had the resources to fight in court.

John Demjanjuk of Seven Hills became the most prominent case in the country. He faced nearly 35 years of legal fights with prosecutors from three countries before he died in Germany in 2012 at age 91. He was convicted there a year earlier for serving as an accessory in the deaths of more than 28,000 people at a death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. His case was on appeal when he died.

Denzinger's case was much shorter.

Denzinger, unlike Demjanjuk and many others, refused to go to court. His case also stands out because of his service to the Nazis, according to federal court records. The Justice Department accused him of serving as a guard in six concentration camps from December 1942 through April 1945.

"He was an essential component of the machinery of persecution and murder at those camps,'' said Eli Rosenbaum, who led the Justice Department's chase for Nazi collaborators in the United States.

Denzinger was born June 29, 1924, in Cepin, Croatia, Yugoslavia. From October 1942 through April 1945, he served in the Nazi Waffen-SS, according to court records.

Federal prosecutors said in court records that Denzinger's first work as a guard came at the Mauthausen concentration camp and a nearby camp in Nazi-controlled Austria from December 1942 through the summer of 1944.

As a guard, Denzinger watched over prisoners at slave labor sites and protected the perimeter of the camp, according to court records.

He served at the Plaszow concentration camp near Krakow in Nazi-occupied Poland for a few months. He worked in Auschwitz from the fall of 1944 to February 1945. He finished his tour as a guard at two camps in Nazi Germany.

Eleven years later, Denzinger emigrated from Germany and landed in New York City. In 1972, he obtained his U.S. citizenship by signing documents in Summit County Common Pleas Court that concealed his work as a Nazi guard.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported that Denzinger owned Pioneer Plastics in Akron. In 1988, he divorced his wife, Maria, and bolted from the country. A family member declined to comment when reached by The Plain Dealer. Published reports indicate Denzinger never acknowledged his service as a Nazi guard.

His neighbors told the newspaper in 1989 that he was quiet, and they knew little about him. Few wanted to be identified or quoted in stories about him.

He fled first to Germany and later to Croatia, the Associated Press reported. The wire service found that he was among dozens of Nazi guards who collected Social Security benefits even after they left the country.

Joseph McGinness, a Cleveland attorney who has represented several accused Nazi guards, has stressed that they did little in the camps and never made decisions.

"I still maintain that,'' McGinness said. "These guys did nothing. They hated being there. Think about it, how can a guy who is 18 years old do anything? They were just bodies.''

The Associated Press took one of the last public photographs of Denzinger. He was peering out of his apartment in eastern Croatia and looking down at a street. The Associated Press reported that Croatian officials investigated his wartime past, but he was never charged.

He lived a quiet life in his apartment, just as he did with his family in Akron. In Croatia, he was simply too old to run from his past.

Plain Dealer reporter Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story.
Lakewood council 030816.jpg

Lakewood City Council President Sam O'Leary, center, introduced a measure Monday that puts the Lakewood Hospital closure plan on the November ballot.

(Bruce Geiselman, cleveland.com)

Tom Monahan, of Save Lakewood Hospital accused city officials of negotiating a terrible deal that resulted in the planned closure of Lakewood Hospital.

LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Voters will cast ballots during the Nov. 8 general election on whether to support City Council's decision last December to close Lakewood Hospital and open a Cleveland Clinic family health center and emergency department in its place.

Council voted unanimously Monday night to put the issue on the fall ballot. The action was in response to a voter petition drive by supporters of Save Lakewood Hospital for council to either repeal its plan to close the hospital or put the issue before voters. Save Lakewood Hospital believes the hospital, which operated in the city for 108 years, should be saved as an inpatient facility.

The city and Save Lakewood Hospital disagree about whether it is still possible to save the hospital, which ended inpatient services last month. City Law Director Kevin Butler last month in a legal opinion said he believes courts would hold it is too late to reverse the in-process closure plans despite the outcome of a public vote. Save Lakewood Hospital maintains a public vote could reverse the process.

In voting to put the issue on the November ballot, rather than holding a special August election, City Council President Sam O'Leary said a special election would cost the city more than $87,000. By waiting until November, the city avoids those costs.

"We believe that would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars, and it would be irresponsible of us on council to recommend such a thing," O'Leary said.

O'Leary said the city believes closing the hospital and allowing the Cleveland Clinic to open a family health center is the best course of action.

"The facts in this matter -- as considered by this Council, by the courts, and by voters last year -- support the reinvention of health care in this city," he said. "The facts support the closure of inpatient hospital services and the development of a more robust outpatient facility."

However, during a meeting that lasted more than three hours, about a dozen Save Lakewood Hospital supporters criticized council's decision to close the hospital. Many said there was an inadequate attempt to find another operator for the hospital and a lack of willingness by the city to hold the Cleveland Clinic to an agreement to operate the inpatient hospital through 2026.

City officials have said the hospital was facing declining revenues and patient volumes. Save Lakewood Hospital supporters blame the Cleveland Clinic's management of the hospital. Clinic officials previously denied those allegations.

Avon Lake attorney Gerald Phillips listed a dozen examples of what he called "malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance" by city officials. He blamed them for not negotiating a waiver of facility fees at the new family health center for needy Lakewood residents and for not guaranteeing the Clinic would provide charity care. He also criticized a provision in the agreement that would prevent another hospital operator from taking over the former Lakewood Hospital property.

Save Lakewood Hospital vice-chairman Tom Monahan told city officials they didn't protect the public's interests.

"You folks did a terrible job, all of you," Monahan said. "You blew it. You absolutely blew it."

Councilman Tom Bullock said the city negotiated the best deal it could with the Cleveland Clinic, and the agreement provides for continued outpatient services and a 24-hour emergency department.

Save Lakewood Hospital officials said that despite the law director's opinion, they believe a public vote could force the city to reopen the hospital, either with the Cleveland Clinic or another operator in charge. The issue likely would end up in court if voters support repealing the agreement.

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State report card 2014-15 sample.png

The Ohio Department of Education is standing behind the "value-added" grades on the 2014-15 state report cards despite rising complaints that school districts that gave the PARCC Common Core tests online had much worse grades than those that gave them on paper.

(Ohio Department of Education)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - State school board members questioned Monday the "huge disparity" in state report card grades for tests taken online compared to those taken on paper, but Ohio Department of Education officials say the grades are valid.

A few board members had strong reactions to a survey showing that districts that gave state tests online last year receive F grades on a key state report card measure nine times as often as those that used paper and pencil.

The grades covered the "value-added" measure of academic growth and used scores from the new PARCC Common Core exams Ohio used last year. The state fired PARCC last summer.

As we reported Monday, districts using online tests also had five times fewer A grades for value-added, according to the survey.

Of districts that tested on paper, 85% received an A. But online? Just 17%.

The survey of 428 districts, about two thirds of the districts in the state, was compiled by Michael Molnar, the director of educational services for the Amherst school district in Lorain County.

See the survey below.

"That is a huge, huge discrepancy," said board member A.J. Wagner, of Dayton. It's major."

Board member Mary Rose Oakar of Cleveland called the difference "really alarming."

"The disparity is so huge," Oakar said.

And board member Roslyn Painter-Goffi of Strongsville said she has heard from many superintendents who had committed to giving this year's tests online but now want to change back to giving paper ones.

"They say, 'We're going to be doing only online testing but it doesn't seem like apples to apples'," Painter-Goffi said.

"What has happened with this test cycle has made them a little more nervous because they did not expect that," she added.

But Jim Wright, the department's testing director, said the grades are reliable. He said that PARCC, a multi-state testing partnership, had a "Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)" - a panel of experts - review scores and grades across all states using its exams.

Though it found that some test questions favored students taking paper tests, others favored those taking exams online. With no clear bias for one test method, Wright said, PARCC's committee recommended making no adjustments to grades.

Other states that used PARCC have also made no adjustments, Wright said.

That's despite other PARCC states reporting lower results for online tests than those taken with paper and pencil.

"We're not saying that there's no difference," Wright said. "In some cases it was easier online and some on paper, but there was no clear direction."

PARCC's final report is not yet complete, Wright said, but it should be finished soon.

Ohio also had its own "Technical Advisory Committee" look at results from the state's science and social studies tests, which were given by another test provider, the American Institutes for Research (AIR).

Those are only a small part of state report cards and were not part of the survey. But they are key because AIR will replace PARCC for Ohio's English and math tests this year.

Wright said the committee will look at the scores this year and make sure the tests do not favor any method of taking them.

State Sen. Peggy Lehner, chair of the Senate Education Committee, warned the department that many schools are unsure of the reliability of the grades. And she stressed, "The last thing we want to do is judge a school based on the test they took."

"We need to stay on top of it," Lehner said. "It's going to continue to be a problem unless we look at it very carefully."
MENTOR, Ohio -- You know you're reaching the countryside when you see the barns.



Thousands of drivers on Interstate 90 are greeted daily by these Tudor-style barns on the iconic Osborne Farms in Mentor and Kirtland Hills. Self-made tycoon Jerome "Ace" Osborne Sr. often wore Carhartt work gear and rode horses on this roughly 100-acre farm on the southeast corner of Interstate 90 and Center Street (Ohio 615).



The farm and some other big homes near the interchange survive for now, including a 240-acre farm once owned by the Bolton family, which sent a husband, wife and son to Congress.



But development has spread for years west of Center, especially on the former estate of the Norton family of Oglebay-Norton shipping note. Now the heirs of the late Osborne are asking Mentor to rezone its approximately four acres of his farm for a possible hotel.

Sooner or later, according to a family representative and a local official, the whole farm may eventually fade into Lake County's rural past.



"It may not be a horse farm forever," says James Hackenberg, Kirtland Hills' law director.



George Smerigan, an urban planner representing the Osbornes, says subdivision may someday come to Kirtland Hills' share of the farm, which includes the picturesque barns alongside the highway. That share is zoned for home lots of at least five acres apiece.

This map shows the Osborne Farms and other properties near the interchange of Interstate 90 and Center Street (Ohio 615).

Ronald Traub, Mentor's development director, says his city's share of the Osborne spread is small but pivotal. "That land serves as a gateway to the city."



Estate lawyer Sheldon Berns agrees. "That is a very valuable part of Mentor."



The interchange lies in Mentor, but Kirtland Hills closely rings all but the northwestern corner. Mentor zoned the area for conservation years ago.



In 2003, the ramps opened, accelerating development, especially on the former Norton estate in the northwest quadrant, which stretches to Garfield Road and Johnnycake Road (Ohio 84). Voters rejected rezoning some of the quadrant, but a developer prevailed in court.



Now the area hosts Avery Dennison's headquarters, the Parker Place and Brookdale senior citizen facilities and the Newell Creek homes, currently in their 12th phase. The fast-growing Cleveland Clinic bought 47 acres at 8020 Center St., cleared some of its trees last year and is planning a family health center there. Spokeswoman Heather Phillips says a hospital might follow someday.



The northeast quadrant still hosts the old Bolton estate. The southwest quadrant has some spacious old homes and a vacant 28 acres owned by the Keck family. But it has made room for Heartland of Mentor and Kemper House Mentor, both healthcare homes.



The Osborne farm spreads from the highway to Center and to Chillicothe Road. The interchange shaved Mentor's share from about five acres to four, grassy and open, with few trees.



Estate representatives want to rezone that share to interchange service, allowing a hotel. They hope to sell it and say the change would boost its value. Mentor already has nine hotels and motels, but none at this interchange.



This month, the Mentor Planning Commission reviewed the estate's preliminary request for rezoning and asked for more information. Planner Smerigan hopes to provide the answers and submit a formal request in April. If the commission and City Council approve, the voters would make the call, probably in November.




FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia -- Two Virginia volunteer firefighters were reinstated Monday after being suspended for transporting an unresponsive toddler to the hospital on a fire truck.

Capt. James Kelley and Sgt. Virgil Bloom did violate the policy of Falmouth Volunteer Fire Department by transporting the young girl on the truck instead of waiting for an ambulance, fire chief Mark Lockhart tells WUSA9.com.

But the chief added that the decision by Kelley and Bloom likely saved the child's life.

"I want to make clear that the reason this situation came under review by our department is because of the way the patient was transported to the hospital, which involved a fire engine instead of an ambulance," Lockhart tells CNN. "This is a highly unusual occurrence for our department, and as we do in situations that appear to veer from our established practice, we initiated a review."

The incident occurred on Feb. 27. Kelley and Bloom were the first to arrive at the scene after receiving a call about an 18-month-old girl having a seizure. They found the girl blue and unresponsive.

According to CNN, Lockhart said the nearest medic unit was still four miles away and a basic ambulance was two miles away when the firefighters decided to transport the girl themselves.

The father of the girl, Brian Nunamaker, who had called 911, credits the firefighters' decision with saving the life of his daughter, Lena.

"We are extremely thankful they made the decisions they did and that our daughter is back home with us doing well," the father said in a statement, CNN reports. "The actions of these men represent a dedication to their mission, and a deep concern of doing what is best for the people they are serving. In our eyes they are heroes."

News of the firefighters' suspension had brought an outpouring of support, including a Facebook page calling for their reinstatement.
Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, left, and, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., argue a point during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint, Sunday, March 6, 2016, in Flint, Mich.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Hillary and Bernie debate in Florida: The eighth Democratic presidential debate of the campaign is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. Eastern time in Miami. The event will be aired on CNN and Univision.

Ohio lawmaker to unveil election reform bill: State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a Kent Democrat, has scheduled a 10 a.m. Statehouse news conference to announce new legislation that, if passed, would change how votes are counted in Ohio.

Statehouse news conference to focus on climate change, extreme weather: Democratic state Rep. Dan Ramos of Lorain, Sam Gerard of Environment Ohio, and a victim of recent extreme weather are set to hold an 11 a.m. Statehouse news conference to highlight the impact of global warming on extreme weather in Ohio.

Kasich takes his campaign to Chicagoland: John Kasich has two "town hall" meetings set in the Chicago suburbs of Lisle and Palatine.

Others to watch: Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to make campaign stops on his wife's behalf in Columbus and Dayton. Donald Trump is set to hold a rally in North Carolina. Marco Rubio plans to campaign in Florida. Ted Cruz has a morning rally planned at Miami-Dade College in Florida - the location of the Democratic presidential debate later in the day.
CMU Hosts Inaugural Energy Week, March 14-18

Themes are Research, Policy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Workforce and Education

By Leigh Kish / 412-268-2902 / lkish@andrew.cmu.edu

March 07, 2016

Researchers, energy industry and business leaders, policymakers, students and the general public will gather March 1418 at Carnegie Mellon University's Cohon University Center for its inaugural Energy Week, hosted by CMUs Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. Each day has a theme: Research, Policy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Workforce and Education, and Field Trips.

Participants can hear from top CMU researchers on the latest news and research, and also participate in discussions on critical topics, such as from what energy sources should Southwestern Pennsylvania get its electricity now and in the future? In addition, there will be roundtables on small- and medium-business energy entrepreneurship and innovation, industry energy efficiency, CMU education and research, and the regions energy workforce.

Keynote speakers include the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy; the director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory; the premier of South Australia; Pittsburghs mayor; leadership from Barefoot College, which works with women in disadvantaged communities in India and Africa to build and maintain solar collectors; a top energy storage expert from the Electric Power Research Institute; and Congressman Tim Murphy.

Monday, March 14: Research Day

The work of CMU researchers and students will be featured in short Andy talks on topics such as Renewables: Are They the Answer? and Remaking Cities, and three-minute student thesis presentations and poster sessions.

Featured event: Remarks by Grace Bochenek, director, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), 1:30  2 p.m., McConomy Auditorium.

Tuesday, March 15: Policy Day

International, national, state and local energy polices will be discussed and reflected on by industry, foundation and non-governmental leaders. A deliberative democracy event will allow participants to provide their perspectives on the question, What should be Pennsylvania's electricity mix now and in the future?

Featured events: Talk by the Honorable Jay Weatherill, premier of South Australia, 9:15  9:45 a.m., McConomy Auditorium; Remarks by William Peduto, mayor, City of Pittsburgh, 12  1:30 p.m., Rangos Ballroom.

Wednesday, March 16: Innovation Day

Innovation Day highlights breakthroughs in energy science and technology happening regionally, and a roundtable discussion on energy innovation and entrepreneurship. In the afternoon, participants may visit CMUs energy research labs and centers, and the Allegheny Region CleanTech University Prize Collegiate Competition. During this competition, sponsored by the Department of Energys Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, student teams from universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will compete for a $50,000 prize.

Featured event: Keynote by Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, 12 - 1 p.m.; the Cleantech competition final rounds are 3:30 - 5:45 p.m., Rangos Ballroom.

Thursday, March 17: Education Day

An energy technology expo and an industry energy efficiency roundtable are the highlights of education day. An expert from the Electric Power Research Institute will present on renewable energy storage.

Featured event: Keynote by Bunker Roy, founder and director, Barefoot College, a service learning center in India and Africa, 4:45 - 5:45 p.m., Rangos Ballroom.

Friday, March 18: Field Trip Day

Energy Week participants can attend one of 12 field trips to see shale, solar, wind and geothermal energy production facilities, as well as energy efficiency, energy education, electric and power company operations, and natural gas and electric utility operations.

Featured event: Congressman Tim Murphy will give opening remarks at Tri-State Energy Workforce Roundtable, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., Scott Hall.

Registration is required to attend Energy Week and can be completed online.

Find out more.

See the full schedule.

Cost: $200 for an all-event pass; daily passes range from $25 - $50 per day. Students from all institutions may attend for free (lunch not included) but still must register.
Earnings sent shares of Shake Shack and Urban Outfitters in opposite directions Monday, and "Fast Money" traders debated whether the stocks were worth buying after the moves.

Shake Shack's fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 8 cents and revenue of $51.1 million beat analysts' estimates, but its shares fell 8 percent in after-hours trading on weaker-than-expected same-store sales guidance. Despite the disappointment, Shake Shack has "a massive runway," and its stock looks appealing at a cheaper price, argued trader Dan Nathan.

"If you can get it at the right price, it makes total, total sense," Nathan said.
Containers stacked at a port in Lianyungang in the northeastern Jiangsu province of China.

China's exports fell 25.4 percent on-year in February, while imports declined 13.8 percent, clocking far bigger slides than expected by analysts.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 12.5 percent drop in February exports, and a 10.0 percent drop in imports, after China's exports fell 11.2 percent in January from a year earlier and imports slid 18.8 percent.

According to Reuters, the on-year decline in exports in February was the steepest since May 2009.

China's trade surplus came in at $32.59 billion in February, against analysts' expectations of a $50.15 billion surplus.



Separately, yuan-denominated data showed exports fell 20.6 percent in February and imports dropped 8.0 percent from a year ago. That left the country with a trade surplus of 209.5 billion yuan ($32.2 billion) for the month.

According to Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist at Capital Economics in Singapore, the severe fall in exports largely reflected changes in the timing of the Lunar Year in China this year.

"In 2015, the holiday fell unusually late which meant that more of the pre-holiday rush to meet orders and less of the post holiday disruptions took place in February, causing exports to jump 48.9 percent year-on-year," he said.
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Predictions of an oil rally to $50 a barrel has markets excited, but IHS 's top oil analyst cautions that the commodity hasn't done rebalancing yet. Oil prices jumped on Monday, with global benchmark crude breaking above the vital $40-a-barrel level, a 50 percent price rise from January when prices hit a near 13-year low. Prices were buoyed by reports that Latin American crude producers would this Friday in Ecuador, sparking hopes of price-supportive measures. Meanwhile, influential New York-based oil industry consultancy PIRA told Reuters that major OPEC producers were discussing a new price equilibrium of around $50 a barrel - a report that also helped push oil higher. Oil prices slipped in Asian trade on Tuesday, with U.S. benchmark WTI light, sweet crude down over 1 percent above $37 a barrel while Brent also down over 1 percent but still above $40 a barrel.

OPEC producers aren't the only ones talking $50 oil.

RBC Capital Markets' head of global commodities strategies Helima Croft told CNBC's "Power Lunch" overnight that the oil market's "psychology has changed."

"Everyone is thinking about now the recovery to $50," she said, citing a realization by OPEC producers that they needed $50 oil to avoid credit ratings downgrades and further austerity measures. In a report last Thursday, Morgan Stanley analysts also forecast $50 a barrel oil by May, due to less bearish data and the fact that current low prices were unsustainable for most producers. In support of its argument, Morgan Stanley pointed out that markets "did not collapse" even though Iran started shipping 500,000 more barrels a day in February, taking its exports up to 1.5 million barrels a day, according to tanker-tracking reports. But IHS' senior oil and gas analyst Victor Shum told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday that a move to $50 a barrel by May was too fast, too soon.

Calling even $40-a-barrel Brent "premature," Shum said U.S. production needed to fall meaningfully for a longer period of time to spur sustainable gains in oil prices, he said. The analyst expects oil to approach $50 only by the end of the year.

Although U.S. onshore production dropped by 160,000 barrels a day from November to December, the global supply surplus was still more one million barrels a day, on top of a significant inventory overhang, Shum said. "Nothing really much has changed fundamentally in the oil market  the current price rally is premature and it may reverse in the coming days," he added. A price rally now would only help support oil production, the last thing the market needed in an oversupplied market, he warned. "With Brent at $40  that's going stop the decline in U.S. onshore production; that's going to prolong the rebalancing of the oil market that is going on today," Shum said.

Chinese laborers repair an oil pumping unit at Huabei oil field. Getty Images
Two hours and $32,000 later, the check came. As I got my coat from the coat check I saw the sommelier look at me. No words, no smile, no expression  just looking. What was he thinking? I wondered if he was going home to say to his wife: You'll never believe what this Wall Street clown did at work tonight.

I no longer work on Wall Street and, for the record, I haven't had a drink in six years. But I remember from back in the day that sommeliers see and hear EVERYTHING.

So, I decided to check in with some of the city's sommeliers to find out what kind of dirt they might share. (On the condition of anonymity, of course  Wall Street traders are some of their best clients. They know which side their bread is buttered on!)

A sommelier from a downtown restaurant that is a staple in the Wall Street world said most of his finance clients pick a bottle of wine in the 75th percentile range  they don't want the most expensive bottle but they don't want to look cheap either.

Another sommelier, who works at a midtown restaurant popular with Wall Street traders, said sometimes a guy will come in the day before a dinner to talk.

"It's smart. Nobody wants to look indecisive when ordering in front of their clients," the sommelier said. "There's a big difference between the guy who knows what he's doing and the guy who reads the wine list like a research report."
Hoses connect laboratory emission testing equipment to a red 2016 Volkswagen AG Golf TDI inside the California Air Resources Board Haagen-Smit Laboratory in El Monte, California.

France has opened a formal investigation into suspected "aggravated fraud" by Volkswagen following revelations the German carmaker rigged vehicle diesel emissions tests, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.



The prosecutor had already opened a preliminary inquiry in October, and French police had carried out searches at the German carmaker's offices in France, seizing computer material.

Volkswagen has said 946,092 vehicles in France were equipped with the EA 189 engines potentially affected by the emissions data manipulation carried out by the company worldwide.

The probe concerns vehicles sold in France, according to the prosecutor's office.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, German insurer Allianz plans to sue Volkswagen in the coming weeks to seek compensation for a severe drop in the car maker's share price stemming from the "Dieselgate" emissions scandal, a source familiar with the situation said.



The planned lawsuit by Allianz Global Investors (AGI) represents the first such action by a major German institution against the national carmaking icon, which is still reeling from the biggest corporate scandal in its history.

"It will happen within this month," the person said.
The Bank of England is to offer extra liquidity to U.K. banks in the weeks running up to the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union in an effort to pre-empt any shocks to financial markets around the time of the vote.

The U.K.'s central bank said it would offer three "additional Indexed Long-Term Repo operations" (ILTR) or a market wide auction of central bank reserves in the weeks around the EU referendum.

Mark Carney Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

This means the BoE will offer to exchange less liquid bank assets for cash, without limitation, allowing banks a cash buffer for six months at cheaper rates. The Bank already offers ILTR operations to banks and building societies every month, but the extra auctions means lenders will have access to billions of pounds of extra liquidity, with four auctions now taking place around the vote in June. "The Bank will continue to monitor market conditions carefully and keep its operations under review," the central bank said in a statement issues late Monday. The BoE offered billions of pounds in extra, emergency financial support for banks around the time of the financial crisis as funding dried up and the central bank was forced to step in as a lender of last resort. BoE Governor, Mark Carney addressed U.K. Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday morning, after writing a letter to the government on the impact of the U.K.'s EU membership. Carney confirmed that the central bank would not make any attempt to sway voters on their decision to remain inside or outside of the European monetary union.
Equity markets are going through a period of "short-covering," BlackRock senior director Ewen Cameron Watt told CNBC on Tuesday.

"There was always going to be a bit of a rebound in these sectors [oil and iron ore] because they have been so heavily sold down," said Watt.

"The supply side of oil is going to get tighter this year. The supply side of iron ore will get tighter in the next year and I think we're just seeing that kind of rebound."

Short-covering refers to traders trying to avoid losses after betting that a particular security would lose value.



However, Watt said, " I don't think we're about to start a super new cycle. Indeed China is cutting capacity, or trying to cut capacity this year which is again part of the story of stabilization in prices."



China's exports fell 25.4 percent on-year in February, while imports declined 13.8 percent, clocking far bigger slides than expected by analysts.


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Germany is seeking a longer-term solution to the migrant crisis, a key ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel told CNBC, as European Union (EU) leaders came to a tentative deal with Turkey to stem the flow of people into Europe. Michael Fuchs, vice chairman of Merkel's center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that a solution to the crisis needed to be found at the source of the human influx. "We need to have a solution which is including Syria and also Libya because both countries are still filled with refugees which are trying to enter either via Turkey into Europe or directly from Libya into Italy," Fuchs said. But he admitted that working with migrants' home countries could be difficult.

"One of the problems is, for instance in Libya, to whom to talk. There are three different groups fighting each other: who to talk to? They don't have a foreign minister to talk to," Fuchs said. The comments came after the European Union and Turkey agreed on Monday night local time the outlines of a deal designed to stem the tide of migrants that has flowed into Europe over the past six months. Turkey agreed to take back migrants who crossed into Europe from its soil. In return, the EU may increase the 3 billion euros ($3.31 billion) of aid already set for Turkey to deal with the migrant crisis; it could also ease visa requirements for Turks traveling to Europe, as well as potentially expedite Turkey's talks to join the EU. Speaking in Hong Kong, where he was set to deliver a speech at the Asia Society, Fuchs underlined the need for a speedy resolution to the issue. "We have over a million refugees already in Germany, which is quite a lot," he said. Those figures are likely related to the number of asylum seekers in the country. "We have to find solutions because it cannot be double or three times more, because then it's coming to a difficult situation."
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European equities ended lower on Tuesday, after trade data out of China hit European miners hard and oil prices fell sharply during the session.

China trade data weighs

European markets



Oil in focus

The decline in market confidence comes just as oil prices appeared to be showing signs of recovery this week.

In early trade, international benchmark Brent crude was trading over $41 a barrel after jumping to 2016 highs the previous day as producers announced talks to support the market and investors opened new bullish bets, Reuters reported. However, in afternoon trade, prices reversed as OPEC member, Kuwait said it would only agree to an output freeze if all major producers take part. At the close, prices slipped 2 percent or more in both Brent and U.S. WTI, last standing at $40.07 and $36.98 respectively, while the oil and gas sector closed down 2.5 percent, with stocks tumbling, like Tullow Oil and Seadrill , both off more than 7 percent. Saipem however sat at the bottom of the sector, closing 14.8 percent down after two banks that guaranteed a recent stock issue at the Italian oil services group sold a 6 percent stake at a discount on Monday, according to Reuters.

Burberry soars; mixed earnings
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Lumber Liquidators shares fell more than 15 percent Tuesday afternoon after hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson said he has renewed his short on the company.

In a Tuesday presentation at the Harbor Investment Conference entitled "Why I'm Again Short Lumber Liquidators In a Word: Cancer," Tilson claimed he had "new information" leading him to believe that the chances of the stock going down have "risen materially." "I now believe that the business has gone from worse to truly horrific," Tilson told CNBC's "Closing Bell" just after announcing his new short position.

A file photo showing traders waiting for shares of Lumber Liquidators to begin trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Tilson, the founder and managing partner of Kase Capital Management, had said he'd covered his Lumber Liquidators short in December 2015. He had originally announced the position in November 2013.

Citing factors including his lack of confidence in company leadership and his assessment of the likelihood of larger legal and regulatory liabilities, Tilson said he believed there is "at least a 50-50 chance" that the company could eventually go bankrupt. Tilson had originally told CBS's "60 Minutes" about Lumber Liquidator's Chinese-made flooring with higher levels of formaldehyde than permitted under California's health and safety standards. That report, and subsequent news, tanked the stock: It had traded at more than $67 in February 2015 before warning investors of the forthcoming investigative segment, and shares traded Tuesday around $11.80. In a statement, Lumber Liquidators said it has taken "meaningful steps" to boost compliance and establish trust with customers and shareholders. The company said it has not sold Chinese-sourced laminate since May of last year. "It is unfortunate that Mr. Tilson has elected to create confusion in the marketplace for the purpose of making money by lowering our stock price. We are confident that we have the right team and plan in place to move forward and enter the next phase of the companys growth and success," Lumber Liquidators said.
The prolonged conflict in Syria has already had a devastating economic impact but could yet spiral to cost the country more than $1 trillion, according to a new report. The report published Tuesday by children's charity World Vision and consultancy firm Frontier Economics said that the Syrian war to date had cost an estimated $275 billion for the country. It added that real GDP (gross domestic product) per capita was around 45 percent lower than it would have been in the absence of war. "The $275 billion is just to Syria itself. It's the gap between what the GDP should be and what it is," Fran Charles, World Vision's Syria Response Advocacy Director and one of the writers behind the report, told CNBC by phone from Jordan.

It is money that will never be spent on education, health care, safe environments, livelihoods or a future for children, World Vision added in its report.



An airstrike by a U.S. led coaltion warplane explodes on an ISIL position on November 10, 2015 near the town of Hole, Rojava, Syria. Getty Images

The conflict that erupted in March 2011 has resulted in at least 250,000 deaths, with some independent Syrian organizations citing upwards of 450,000 at the start of 2016  between 11,000 and 19,000 were children, according to World Vision. Inside Syria alone, the conflict has left an estimated 13.5 million people, including over 6 million children, in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

"In the best case scenario, even if the war stops this year and it only takes 10 years for the GDP to recover, that will cost Syria between $448 (billion) and $689 billion in terms of lost growth. In the worst case scenario, if the war carries on for another four years to 2020, the GDP takes 15 years to recover and will cost $1.3 trillion," said Charles to CNBC.





No lost generation?

Syrian children have paid a high price for this conflict, with between 11,000 and 19,000 children killed, mostly by explosive weapons, reports World Vision. Among the child survivors in Syria, World Vision estimates that more than 2 million children do not attend school, and 5.7 million are in need of education assistance.

Charles told CNBC that children need not only education but also psychological help to recover from the years of bloodshed they have witnessed. Parents need support too, and those who have fled the country need to be given legal rights to work so children can go back to school, she added.

"When parents slide further into poverty, that's when the risks increase for children and they are put to work, daughters are sold off into marriage. Parents need to not to rely on child labor," said Charles.



Global cost

Syria's neighboring countries - Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey - have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis caused by the conflict, with Lebanon the most affected by the Syrian conflict. The direct cost of Syrian refugees on the Lebanese government budget is estimated at up to $1.1 billion between 2012 and 2014, World Vision said.

"The needs [of Syria] continue to outstrip the resources," said Charles.

The U.S. is the biggest bilateral donor to the region, with the U.K. in second. The U.K. recently pledged to double funding to the crisis to more than $3.2 billion by 2020 to fund education, jobs and humanitarian protection in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, according to The Guardian newspaper.

To reverse the economic cost of the conflict on Syria and the region, a large-scale reconstruction and long-term investment plan is required, Charles believes. Donor countries must not only help bring a political resolution to the conflict, said Charles, but also help Syrians in returning to their country and rebuild.

"Syria can't afford any more years of conflict," she added.




Texas was walloped Tuesday by a band of thunderstorms packing high winds and torrential rains that damaged homes and flooded streets as they marched through the midsection of the Lone Star state.

In Denton, Texas, six children had to be rescued by boat from a school bus that stalled out in high water, Denton Assistant Fire Chief Kenneth Hedges said. The driver was eventually able to drive the bus to higher  and drier  ground.

On the south side of Denton, a student stranded by flash-flooding was able to drive off once the water receded, Hedges said.

More from NBC News:

The GOP has a week to stop Donald Trump

Clinton extends lead after strong Super Tuesday

RNC loses top black staffer, a fighter for outreach

A severe thunderstorm watch remained in effect for a 350-mile long stretch of Texas as well as Oklahoma and parts of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. The big threats: Monstrous hail, "wind gusts of 70 mph, and "a tornado or two," the National Weather Service said.



Flash flood alerts were in effect in Texas' biggest cities  Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin  as well as in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Louisiana cities of New Orleans and Shreveport, and parts of Oklahoma, according to The Weather Channel.

In all, more than 15 million Americans were in danger of being drenched by a storm that was spawned in Mexico and crossed the border in Big Bend, Texas, increasing in strength and size as it headed northward.
U.S. investigators probing a troubled Malaysian state investment fund have subpoenaed Goldman Sachs' former chairman for Southeast Asia, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The banker, Tim Leissner, who resigned from Goldman last month after the bank placed him on leave, worked on several large bond deals for deeply indebted 1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, netting hundreds of millions in fees for the bank, the WSJ said.

Goldman placed Leissner on leave after reviewing his emails and finding that he allegedly sent an unauthorized and potentially inaccurate reference letter for an individual at another financial firm, the WSJ reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The person told the WSJ that the letter wasn't related to Leissner's work with 1MDB and Goldman found nothing wrong with his dealings with the fund.

Both the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department are investigating allegations of money laundering and corruption at 1MDB, including examining Goldman's role, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Those people said the probe is gathering information and there isn't a suggestion of wrong-doing by Leissner or the bank, the WSJ said.

According to the report, Goldman declined to comment. 1MDB has repeatedly denied wrong-doing, often saying that the WSJ is repeating "disproven allegations."
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Voters go to the polls in four states on Tuesday, with Michigan the biggest prize for both parties. Donald J. Trump seeks to strengthen his position as the Republican front-runner, while his rivals look to slow his drive toward the nomination. For the Democrats, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont faces a crucial test in his upstart campaign to derail Hillary Clinton. Here are some of the things we will be watching in the contests in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi.

Is Trump Fading? Mr. Trump had a rough week. He faced attacks from the party establishment and criticism for his debate performance on Thursday before barely outpacing Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday in Kentucky and Louisiana, and losing to him in Kansas and Maine, where Mr. Trump was considered a favorite.

More from The New York Times:

Trump-ChristieTies Go Back Years Before Endosement

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Seeing slim chance of accord, Republicans table budget talks But it is not clear whether he struggled to win because he had lost ground or because anti-Trump voters had consolidated around Mr. Cruz. Mr. Trump's share of the vote on Saturday was roughly in line with what he had won on Super Tuesday; Mr. Cruz finished with a far higher share of the vote than his Super Tuesday total.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Getty Images

The outcome on Tuesday could be telling. If Mr. Trump were to replicate his Super Tuesday performance, he would take about 35 percent of the vote in Michigan and 42 percent in Mississippi. If he were to lose significant ground from last week's vote, it could present an opening for one of his rivals.

Will Rubio Continue His Slide?

It seems clear that Mr. Cruz benefited on Saturday from the somewhat sudden slide of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Mr. Rubio managed only 17 percent in the Kansas caucuses on Saturday  and that was his high-water mark across four states for the day. He bounced back with a decisive victory in Puerto Rico on Sunday, but that might not stop him from dropping in the states with the two largest delegate hauls on Tuesday: Michigan and Mississippi.

Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio has devoted substantial time to Michigan, and, according to local Republican officials backing Mr. Rubio, he has cut into the core of Mr. Rubio's support: upscale, suburban Republicans. Mr. Rubio also faces the prospect of losing similar voters in Mississippi to Mr. Kasich, while anti-Trump conservatives drift to Mr. Cruz there.

The good news for Mr. Rubio is that he could fare much better in the two other states that vote on Tuesday: Idaho and Hawaii. But as any West Coast Heisman Trophy contender knows, late-night success can often be missed by a press corps faced with Eastern time zone deadlines.

Who Will Win the Race Within the Race?

Though Mr. Cruz benefited from Mr. Rubio's weak performance in Kentucky and Louisiana, it is not clear whether he can make the same gains in Michigan. It is a blue state with relatively few evangelical voters, and Mr. Cruz has struggled so far in such states.

Instead, Mr. Kasich could be the candidate who benefits from Mr. Rubio's struggles. He is a relatively moderate governor from a neighboring state, and polls show he has moved into a tight race with Mr. Cruz for second place.

The race for second is a test for both Mr. Cruz and Mr. Kasich as each looks to present himself as the strongest Trump alternative. The second half of the primary season includes many Democratic-leaning states, like California, New Jersey and New York. A strong second-place showing in Michigan would ameliorate concerns about Mr. Cruz's ability to compete in blue states; if Mr. Kasich were to fare better, it would set him up for a strong showing in his home state next week. Is Michigan Sanders's Best Bet? On paper, Michigan should be a good state for Mr. Sanders. It is a white, working-class state that has been ravaged by outsourcing and ought to be receptive to Mr. Sanders's message on economic issues. It is also a fairly liberal state, with big college towns like Ann Arbor and Lansing. The state is whiter than the nation as a whole, and black voters  who have turned out in droves for Mrs. Clinton in the South  make up roughly the same share of the electorate there as they do nationally.

The burden for Mr. Sanders in Michigan is even higher because he needs to make up for losses in the first part of the primary season with even stronger showings going forward. The polls suggest that Mrs. Clinton is on track for a decisive victory, so Mr. Sanders needs a surprise win to show he still has a path of his own. Is Mississippi a Southern Bellwether? Mr. Trump rolled through the Deep South on Super Tuesday, winning every state in the region, some of them in landslides. In Alabama, he routed his nearest competitor, Mr. Cruz, by more than 22 percentage points. But when the race came to Louisiana on Saturday, the outcome looked markedly different. Mr. Trump beat Mr. Cruz by about four percentage points, and he fared far worse among voters who cast ballots on Saturday than those who voted early.

The Mississippi primary will offer some insight into whether Mr. Trump is slipping with some of the party's most conservative voters. Demographically, the state resembles its two neighbors, which had such different results. It is also filled with Christian conservative voters: 83 percent of those who cast ballots in the 2012 Republican presidential primary called themselves evangelicals. The good news for Mr. Trump is that, unlike Louisiana's primary, Mississippi's contest is not limited to Republicans, so he could benefit from the Democrats and independents who have been drawn to his candidacy. But if Mr. Trump is starting to slip with Christian conservatives  whether because of his innuendo about his manhood, Mr. Cruz's growing strength, or both  it could be evident here. Who Can Win the Bare Minimum?

Candidates must meet a minimum percentage of the vote in certain states to receive any delegates, which are allocated proportionally in the Republican race until March 15 (starting then, states can decide whether to hold winner-take-all or proportional contests). The more candidates who meet the threshold, the more delegates are scattered  and the less likely it is that any candidate can reach the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the convention.
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The first test of the renewed "Stop Trump" movement in the Republican Party begins Tuesday with primaries in Michigan and Mississippi. The prospects don't look very good for those who would deny the reality TV star the nomination. Donald Trump holds an average 12 point lead in Michigan, according to the latest polls and holds even larger leads in Mississippi. One poll conducted by ARG showed Ohio Gov. John Kasich with a narrow 2-point lead in Michigan. But that survey had a small sample size and looks like an outlier. If Trump pulls off both wins, it would restore him to clear front-runner status and take some of the edge off the "surge" for Ted Cruz following the Texas U.S. senator's victories over the weekend in Kansas and Maine.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the crowd at a campaign rally March 7, 2016 in Concord, N.C. Getty Images

A surprise in Michigan is not impossible. Kasich is clearly trending higher following his strong debate performance last week. But the anti-Trump vote remains splintered between Kasich, Cruz and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. And much of the advertising by outside groups against Trump is focused on March 15 states, mainly Florida. Cruz's "Southern strategy" does not appear to have caught on in Mississippi where Trump dominates in nearly every poll. So the narrative coming out of Tuesday night is likely to be Trump regaining traction. But that doesn't mean the effort to stop Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates he needs to lock down the nomination before the convention in July is dead yet. Because Trump does appear to be hitting something of a national wall as the impact of negative ads and stories about his cracking down on protesters, urging supporters to take a pledge reminiscent of the Nazi salute and engaging in unsavory business practices appear to be denting his national lead. Trump's lead is now just 9 points over Cruz in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. Instead of consolidating support as other candidates drop out, Trump is falling while Cruz, Rubio and Kasich are all gaining ground. Perhaps even more significant, Trump trails both Cruz and Rubio in hypothetical one-on-one matchups. While this Tuesday's results are important, the big game takes place next Tuesday with contests in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois. The outside groups targeting Trump are putting much of their money into ads in Florida. Polls currently show Trump leading in the state but the hope is that those who have not already voted early will change their minds by the time they hit the voting booths. Trump fared badly among late deciders in both Louisiana and Kansas over the weekend. But again there is the problem of a splintered non-Trump field. Cruz is making a late play in Florida not to win the state but to deny a victory to Rubio in hopes that a home-state loss will drive the Florida senator out of the race. It's a very risky strategy because torching Rubio could help Trump maintain his lead and win the state and all of its 99 delegates.


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The upcoming solar eclipse is a pretty big deal for science. The moon's shadow will soon completely block the sun over parts of Southeast Asia for a few brief minutes, giving sky watchers a rare and beautiful sight, and astronomers an uncommon chance to study some important features of the sun. Solar eclipses occur in one form or another at least twice a year (they can occur as many as five times, though that is incredibly rare). But some eclipses are more useful to scientists than others, and many of them are difficult to observe. The one scheduled to be visible over parts of Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific on Tuesday night, Eastern time, (Wednesday morning, by clocks in Indonesia) will be a special kind of eclipse over a populated area  a somewhat rare combination, according to a NASA scientist who spoke with CNBC.

People watch the solar eclipse on march 20, 2015 in Hofn, South Iceland. Pall Jokull | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

First, the coming eclipse is a total solar eclipse  one of two types of solar eclipses. The other kind, annular eclipses, are slightly different. The moon's orbit around the earth is oval shaped, not perfectly round, and its distance from Earth varies. During annular eclipses, the moon is too far from Earth (and too close to the sun) to completely block the vastly larger sun from view. The edges of the sun shine along the moon's perimeter in a thin gold ring. A total eclipse, as the name suggests, more completely blocks our view of the sun, leaving only a tiny reddish band of light visible around the edges, called the limb, and whitish wisps radiating outward, called the corona. Both are incredible sights to behold, but only total eclipses are dark enough to allow scientists to view the corona  the wispy, ghost-like outer atmosphere around the sun, according to Alex Young, associate director for science in the heliophysics science division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"We do have some instruments called coronagraphs on the ground and in space that create an artificial eclipse, but they are not as good as nature," Young told CNBC. "We don't get as close down to the surface of the sun as nature does." Total solar eclipses show us the areas around the sun where all the action happens, Young said. This area is where the sun produces "solar weather" phenomena, like solar flares or coronal mass ejections, and the region is also where solar winds  material constantly blowing off the surface of the sun  are accelerated. Apart from being fascinating for their own sake, these phenomena are important to understand because they have an impact on the rest of the solar system, including Earth. Solar weather and eruptions can also affect satellites, and can create hazardous radiation for astronauts in space. "That is why it is so important to understand why these things happen," Young said, "and perhaps someday to predict them, just as we predict weather here on Earth." This eclipse will also let scientists test equipment and instruments on the ground that they may someday want to fly into space, Young said. Some NASA and U.S.-based researchers will test some telescopes and equipment that they hope to deploy for the next total solar eclipse in 2017, which will be visible in the United States.
Having measured U.K. drinking habits from 2005 to 2014, the ONS found that young people in 2014 were less likely to have drunk alcohol in the previous week than older groups, with less than half of 16 to 24-year-olds reporting doing so in the survey, compared with 66 percent of 45 to 64-year-olds.

"Binge-drinking" is still prevalent among young British drinkers despite longer-term trends indicating that young adults in the country are drinking less and less, according to the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Moreover, for the younger group, the proportion who had drunk alcohol had fallen from 60 percent in 2005, whereas there had been only a small decline for the older group, down from 69 percent over the same period.

However, those who did drink among the 16 to 24-year-old group were more likely than any other group to "binge drink" and have more than 14 units in one day. 17 percent of the 16 to 24-year-olds, compared with 11 percent for the next highest group, the 25 to 44-year-olds, admitted to such practices.

The new U.K. government guidance is that both men and women should not drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread over at least three days. These 14 units equate to six pints of beer with a 4 percent alcohol content, six 175ml glasses of wine with a 13 percent alcohol content, or 14 25ml glasses of sprits with a 40 percent alcohol content.

The survey showed that, in all, around 2.5 million people in the U.K. drank more than the recommended weekly limit for alcohol in a single day. In addition, the ONS statistician James Jenkins said that "it's clear from these figures that although there are now more people, especially younger ones, who don't drink alcohol at all, there is still a significant group of other people who are drinking well in excess of the latest health advice."

Last year, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raised concerns over alcohol consumption across its 34 member states, with drinking among women and children on the rise.

The organization ranked Estonia as the country that drinks the most. The eastern European country  along with Russia, India and China -- saw domestic drinking spike over 50 percent during the two decades to 2012.

In countries like Italy, however, consumption fell over 40 percent, while France and Portugal's alcohol use was down over 20 percent.

- Kalyeena Makortoff contributed reporting to this story.

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On The Docket Whether it's a verdict or a hearing, it's On The Docket SHARE Deredious Otis

By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Lammey sentenced 25-year-old Deredious Otis to an additional 50 years in prison Tuesday for a 2013 shooting at a car wash that killed one man and injured two other people.

Lammey ordered the 50 years to be served consecutive to life.

Robbie Webb was fatally shot Aug. 28, 2013, at a car wash in the 2500 block of Lamar.

Otis was hanging out of a car brazenly shooting a gun at the car wash in daylight and in a residential area, said Assistant District Attorney Ray Lepone. According to testimony, Otis was hired to retaliate against people who stole drugs and cash.

Webb, 51, was not the target, but a bystander who happened to be at the car wash.

In a federal case stemming from the incident, Otis was also sentenced to 16 years.


SHARE National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA}

By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal

Eleven Methodist Primary Care Practices have achieved a national stamp of approval for being ready to deliver in ways that health care reform demands.

The primary care physician practices have won Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, joining more than 10,000 practices and nearly 49,000 physicians and other clinicians nationwide, according to the Washington-based NCQA.

The NCQA standards for patient-centered medical homes are considered one way of preparing for health care payment reforms demanded by Medicare and others paying the bills. Payments are moving towards rewarding value and outcomes, rather than encouraging higher quantities as the traditional system does.

"NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition raises the bar in defining high-quality care by emphasizing access, health information technology and coordinated care focused on patients," Bill Breen, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare senior vice president of physician alignment, said in a statement.

"Recognition shows that our practices have the tools, systems and resources to provide its patients with the right care at the right time," Breen said.

The Methodist Primary Care Practices follow several other primary care providers that have achieved some level of the medical-home recognition, which can range from level one up to level three.

Those include Regional One Health primary care "Health Loop" centers, the Memphis Health Center, the Church Health Center, Harbor of Health and Complete Health Center.

Renee Frazier, chief executive officer emeritus of Common Table Health Alliance, said that patient-centered medical home practices should be able to answer questions that health care consumers should be asking.

"For example, how well do you manage your diabetic patients?" Frazier said.

What the practice's patient satisfaction scores are and same-day availability of office visits without an appointment -- increased access is one of the standards -- are other examples of what consumers should be excited about, Frazier said.

The Common Table Health Alliance helped Complete Health Care Center in Midtown achieve level-three recognition last year. The alliance, fueled by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant and working with Dr. Susan Nelson of the Church Health Center, for several years has been a local advocate of patient-centered medical homes.

A dozen more Methodist Primary Care Practices will be seeking the recognition and others that that are purchased, or join, the Methodist system will follow suit, according to officials.

The 11 that have achieved it are: Eastmoreland Internal Medicine, Foundation Medical Group, The Internal Medicine Clinic, Lakeland Family Medicine, McClatchy Medical Center, MidSouth Family Medicine (Bartlett, Country Village and Stonecreek), Peabody Family Care, PennMarc Internal Medicine, and Southwind Medical Specialists-Sanderlin.
Realtor Verna Littleton places a sold sign in front of a house she listed in Cordova on Feb. 18, 2013.

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

The number of homes sold in the Memphis area in February rose 7.8 percent over February 2015, according to the Memphis Area Association of Realtors.

The average sales price fell about 8.5 percent, from $152,361 in February 2015 to $139,335 last month.

Over the first two months of this year, 2,007 homes were sold compared to 2,012 for January and February 2015.

Forty-seven new homes were sold in February compared to 60 a year ago. And 993 existing homes were sold last month compared to 905 a year ago.

The inventory of homes for sale fell from 5,948 in February 2015 to 5,474 last month.
SHARE Valerie Smith

By David Royer of The Commercial Appeal

NASHVILLE  Gov. Bill Haslam appointed a Memphis lawyer Tuesday as the new judge for Shelby County's 30th Judicial District.

Valerie L. Smith, 40, will fill the seat formerly held by Judge D'Army Bailey, who died last year.

Smith has been an attorney at Nahon, Saharovich & Trotz in Memphis since 2006. She has managed hundreds of cases and practiced extensively in court in Shelby County as well as circuit courts throughout the state, the Tennessee Claims Commission, bankruptcy court and federal court, according to a release sent by the governor's office.

She served as assistant district attorney general in Shelby County from 2000 to 2006, where she worked on numerous jury and bench trials, managed various aspects of criminal prosecution and worked on special assignments including narcotics prosecution and the anti-gang unit. Smith was a clerk for Shelby County Circuit Court Judge James F. Russell from 1999 to 2000.

"We're fortunate to have someone with Valerie Smith's experience to bring to the bench in the 30th District," Haslam said in the release. "Her service in the Shelby County District Attorney General's office and her years of work in private practice have prepared her to serve the people of the 30th Judicial District well."

Smith said she was "honored and grateful for this opportunity to serve the citizens of Shelby County as a circuit court judge."

Smith received her law degree from the University of Memphis in 2000 after receiving a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Memphis in 1997.

She has been involved in numerous community activities, including membership in the Junior League of Memphis since 2002 and the Mid-Town Memphis Rotary Club since 2011. Smith served as a board member for Mid-South Spay Neuter Services from 2012-2015 and for the Rotary Club from 2012-2014.

Shelby County's courthouse was named in honor of Bailey, a longtime local judge and civil rights leader, following his death.
By Yolanda Jones of The Commercial Appeal

Three people were killed and at least 12 others were shot - including six on Sunday - during a violent 72-hour period over the weekend in Memphis.

A 43-year-old man, who was shot and killed Sunday night in Orange Mound, was the last victim.

Police were called to the 700 block of Baltimore at 9:38 p.m. Sunday where they found a man lying in the front yard of a home.

He died on the scene. Investigators said the person who called police heard an argument outside followed by multiple shots.

Earlier Sunday, a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in Whitehaven. Police responded to the call just before 6:30 p.m. in the 5100 block of Cresser Street.

Police found the victim lying on the ground under a carport with a stab wound. Officers spoke with a witness who told them that the suspect, Vincent Roberts, 19, was told to leave the home but kept returning.

Police said when Roberts returned, he got into an altercation with the victim, stabbed him, then fled. Roberts was arrested later and charged with voluntary manslaughter.

The third death occurred Saturday afternoon when police found a man shot in the 1100 block of Hicky Cove in southwest Memphis.

The victim was found lying face down on the ground when police responded to the call at 2:17 p.m.

Interim police director Michael Rallings issued to statement Monday afternoon pledging "to deploy resources" to fight the violence.

"I want Memphians to know that actions like these will not be tolerated," Rallings said. "People that break the peace and seek to destroy lives in our city will be found and brought to justice. The citizens and visitors of Memphis deserve the right to travel the streets and live in peace without the fear of becoming a victim."

So far this year, Memphis has had 43 homicides (not including the voluntary manslaughter charge from Sunday) compared to 28 for the same period last year.

In addition to the three slayings over the weekend, police responded to 12 other shootings :

Around 3:30 p.m. Friday, a 43-year-old woman was shot while riding in a vehicle on Interstate 240 near Airways Boulevard.

Later Friday at about 9:45 p.m., police responded to a robbery call in the 2300 block of Brooklyn Avenue in Orange Mound.

Tony Washington, 35, had been shot. Washington told police he was walking near Airways and Saratoga when three men pulled up next to him in a car and shot him in the leg. Washington was taken to the Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition. He was arrested because he had multiple warrants, police said.

About 11:30 p.m. Friday, police responded to a shooting in the 3300 block of Castleman Street in Parkway Village.

Police found a man with a gunshot wound. The victim told officers that someone walked up and shot him. He was taken to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition.

On Saturday, police responded to an aggravated assault call at 2:18 a.m. in the 700 block of East Waldorf Avenue in South Memphis. Officers said a 24-year-old man was asleep on the couch when a man entered the house and shot him multiple times. The victim was taken to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition.

However, police did arrest three men accused of shooting into a car with six women inside Saturday night. The incident occurred a little after 11:30 p.m. near Corning Avenue and Steele Street in the Frayser area.

Two of the women were taken to the Regional Medical Center; their condition was unknown Monday.

On Sunday, at 3:21 p.m., police responded to an aggravated assault call at Holmes and Leonard in Whitehaven.

A man told police that he was headed west on Holmes Road when he hit a Nissan Maxima that was being driven recklessly. He said the driver then fired two shots, hitting him once in the arm.

The victim was taken to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis in noncritical condition. Police arrested Onterrio Hiler, 23, and charged him with aggravated assault, reckless driving and multiple traffic violations.

At 6:58 p.m., police responded to a shooting call at the fire station at 65 South Front Street.

A man told police that he and another person were walking in the area of Carolina and Riverside in downtown Memphis when someone fired shots at them. The victims fled to the fire station. The man was hit several times. The other victim, whose gender was unknown, was grazed by bullets.

Both were taken to the Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition.

Police were called to the fire station at 148 South Parkway about 30 minutes later for another shooting.

When officers arrived shortly after 7:30 p.m., a man told them that another man approached him outside the fire station and told him his friend had been shot.

Police found a 2000 Chervrolet Monte Carlo parked in front of the 100 block of Goodloe, but the car was empty. The front driver's side window of the car was shattered and a denim jacket was draped over the window. A bullet hole was in the driver's door.

A man then showed up on the scene and told police that he was shot while driving through Foote Homes. Police said he was not shot, but an 18-year-old woman who showed up later at the Regional Medical Center was grazed by a bullet that went through the car she was riding in through Foote Homes.

At about 8 p.m., police responded to a fight call at Tillman at McAdoo in the parking lot of the Lester Community Center in Binghamton. A 37-year-old man was found bleeding in the street from a gunshot wound. He told officers he was standing in the parking lot of the community center where several women were fighting when he was shot. He was taken to the Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition.

At 8:21 p.m., two more people were shot at the Mapco station at 272 Danny Thomas.

Police found a 23-year-old man lying near the front entrance of the store with a gunshot wound. He was in noncritical condition.

A second victim, a 19-year-old man was also shot outside the store. He was taken by private car to the Regional Medical Center where he was in critical condition.
March 5, 2016 - Eric Gottlieb (right) talks to MPD officers at the scene as a group of protesters gather on the Greensward Saturday in opposition of a City Council decision this week to turn the Greensward over to the Memphis Zoo for parking. Overflow parking took over a quarter of the Greensward, a typical turn out for a warm Saturday.(Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)





By Ryan Poe of The Commercial Appeal

Heading into a mediation meeting Tuesday, the Overton Park Conservancy was still unsure whether a City Council vote last week took away its management control of the parks greensward.

The council voted 11-1 on March 1 to let the Memphis Zoo use the grassy area near Rainbow Lake for overflow parking, but conservancy chairman Ray Pohlman said in a statement Monday that there are inconsistencies in the resolutions exhibits that raise a number of practical and legal questions.

Among the practical questions: Who mows the grass? Who schedules events on the greensward? Who pays to have the litter picked up?

But the legal question of who ultimately controls the greensward could mean that lawsuits filed by the zoo and conservancy will remain on ice for now  even though Worth Morgan and other council members said they voted for the resolution to resolve the lawsuits. The zoo filed a lawsuit in January seeking court affirmation that it controls the greensward, prompting the conservancy to countersue.

Those questions will be addressed in the first joint mediation meeting between the zoo and conservancy at 9 a.m. Tuesday, said Pohlman, who is also vice president at AutoZone.

Right now, we have no intention of dropping our countersuit, and wont until we see how the mediation goes, he said.

The mediation is closed to the public and the discussion is meant to be confidential.

Zoo CEO Chuck Brady said the councils resolution, as far as the zoo is concerned, settled the controversy over the greensward.

Meanwhile, zoo and conservancy board members are still working for a solution through back channels, including an unofficial meeting Saturday at the Starbucks on McLean.

The attendees were Gary Shorb, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare CEO and conservancy board member; retired Mid-America Apartment Communities CEO and founder George Cates who, with Shorb, helped found the conservancy and sits on the board; and zoo board member and Monogram Foods CEO Karl Schledwitz.

Schledwitz also discussed the parking Sunday with former city Chief Administrative Officer Jack Sammons, who married into the family of Diane Smith, co-chairwoman of the zoo board. Sammons said he is not involved in any official capacity.

In an email Monday, Shorb said the group had a conversation about options for zoo parking, subject to a transparent process that will engage all parties. Shorb didnt immediately respond to a request for information on what options were discussed.

Tina Sullivan, Overton Park Conservancy executive director, said unofficial side meetings have gone on for quite some time, and that she encourages board members to keep their lines of communication open with the zoo board.

Its not the first meeting, and it probably wont be the last, she said.

Over the weekend, protesters lined McLean to direct people to other free parking options in surrounding neighborhoods. Brady said 10,000 people visited the zoo Saturday and another 7,200 visited Sunday, filling up the northern part of the greensward with vehicles.

A few protestors had a sit-in on the greensward, preventing some vehicles from parking there, Brady said. Some visitors reported being harassed by protestors, but he said no serious clashes were reported.

Meanwhile, Trinity United Methodist Church on Galloway announced it will open its parking lot for free to visitors on Saturdays. Also, the church will host a neighborhood meeting about the issue on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Pastor Jonathan Bratt Carle said hes worried that the issue is becoming too heated, and is working to promote a more civil debate.

This weekend was pivotal, he said. It took a shift. People started to really get angry."
County Commissioner Justin Ford talks to fellow Commissioner Walter Bailey after a heated exchange between the two in the ongoing redistricting debate.

SHARE March 7, 2016 - Commissioner Willie E. Brooks, Jr. (right) adjusts his glasses as commissioner David Reaves speaks during an ordinance to hold a referendum to abolish term limits for some county elected officials during a County Commission meeting. The motion failed to pass Monday afternoon. The ordinance must be voted on three times and must receive nine votes to pass. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)

By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal

Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey was unable to convince his colleagues Monday to let voters weigh in once again on term limits for some of the county's elected officials.

The commission rejected in the first of three readings a proposed ordinance to revisit the charter amendment that imposed term limits for the commission, mayor, sheriff, assessor of property, county clerk, trustee and register.

Those offices are limited to two four-year terms.

Bailey argued that the ordinance was not about whether the commissioners approved of term limits, but was being proposed to give voters a vehicle to express themselves on the issue.

He also pointed out that there were no term limits for the Tennessee legislature or for the U.S. Congress.

"My only point is that public policy is not perpetual," Bailey said "It should always be subject to the attitudinal changes of the electorate from time to time."

While several commissioners had said in last week's committee they would poll their districts before offering an opinion, others didn't need to.

"I think it's fair to say within the district that I represent, that if you were to go out and query 1,000 people, 999 of them would all be for term limits," said Commissioner David Reaves. "So, I don't really need to send this to the people because, I know exactly what the districts wants. They want term limits."

Commissioner Justin Ford, an opponent of term limits, said he's talked to residents in his district who were split 50/50 and were more concerned with education and crime.

Still, "I'm against term limits today, I'll be against them tomorrow and I'll be against them on the third reading," Ford said.

Commissioner Van Turner said he'd vowed to run for only two terms and said he might propose amending the ordinance so that if approved in referendum, the elimination of term limits would not apply to current office holders.

Bailey was first elected to the former Quarterly Court in 1971 and remained when the County Commission was created in the mid-1970s.

In a 1994 referendum, 81 percent of voters passed a charter amendment that limited some elected officials to two terms. Bailey, former commissioners Julian Bolton and the late Cleo Kirk challenged the amendment in court, but a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling in 2006 upheld the law.

Bailey was forced to sit out a term and was re-elected in 2010. He is now in his second term.

Voting for the ordinance were commissioners Bailey, Ford and Turner.

Voting no were commissioners Mark Billings, Steve Basar, George Chism, Terry Roland, Heidi Shafer and Reaves.

Commissioners Willie Brooks, Reginald Milton and Eddie Jones abstained.
Barney Sellers/The Commercial Appeal Leading the Southern handicap bowling tournament team division in March 1953 are the Blue Devils of the Christian Laymen's League. The Memphis quintet took command with a 3,074 total, helped by a 567 handicap. The team, shown here on March 9, is composed of (from left) Pete Epperson, Larry Holmes, Mel Goforth, Charles Fitzgerald and Bob King.

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March 8

25 years ago: 1991

The Farmer's Market at Agricenter International will undergo an $830,000 expansion and give area farmers a financial boost, state officials said Thursday. The 10,000-square-foot barn at Shelby Farms near the intersection of Germantown Parkway and Walnut Grove will double in size, providing more area farmers a place to sell their wares directly to the public, state officials said.

50 years ago: 1966

The Shelby County Board of Education yesterday scotched a proposal for an evaluation of county schools and decided instead to hire four administrative personnel - including a public relations director. The request by County School Supt. George H. Barnes was a substitute for a proposal for an evaluation of the school's administrative practices by outside authorities as suggested last month by board chairman W. Percy McDonald.

75 years ago: 1941

BARCELONA, Spain - A farmer hitch-hiked a ride on a truck carrying a coffin. Rain forced the farmer to get into the coffin. He later surprised two subsequent hitch-hikers when he raised the lid and remarked: "It's stopped raining." One man was killed and the other injured in their leap from the moving truck.

100 years ago: 1916

The spirit of Mardi Gras pervaded the Chickasaw Guards last evening, when the members entertained with their annual fancy dress ball.

125 years ago: 1891

Mrs. J.S. Day very happily entertained the Rayburn Social Club Friday afternoon at her home, 126 Madison Street. The entire club was present, and filled six tables.
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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

Paradigm Business Images, a supplier of promotional products for companies, was recently named small business of the year by the Collierville Chamber of Commerce.

The business is owned by Michael Meindl, 48, who said he relocated to the area from central Illinois several years ago when his wife's company transferred her south. The company employs three people beside Meindl and works with many outside suppliers to provide customers personalized items ranging from USB drives to polo shirts.

Meindl said he appreciates the recognition. "I'm thrilled to be doing business here in Collierville and looking forward to many more years of providing service to the local community and our clients in 35 states."

Meindl has participated in Collierville Chamber events, including a business expo, said Wendy Nations, the chamber's member engagement specialist. "He's done a lot to help promote the community with his own small business," she said.

The award for Paradigm Business Images was announced at Friday's annual Chamber of Commerce Awards Gala.

Other award winners were:

The Business Champion award, reserved for large companies, went to IPS Corp., which makes items such as valves for the plumbing industry. Based in Compton, California, the business has operations in Collierville.

The Nonprofit of the Year award went to Leadership Collierville, a group that trains youth and adults in government and civic activities.

The C.H. Harrell Award, given by the Collierville Education Foundation, went to Collierville Police Department Assistant Chief Dave Tillner.

And the town's mayor, Stan Joyner, was named Collierville's 2015 Person of the Year. The chamber cited his work to start the new Collierville school district and to grow the local economy.
March 8, 2016  Amanda McDonough receives her ballot for Tuesday's primary at a precinct in Hernando, Mississippi. Candidates look to collect delegates in Mississippi, Michigan, Hawaii and Idaho. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE March 8, 2016  Voters in the Lewisburg area of DeSoto County arrive early to cast their ballot in Tuesday's election. Voting at Lewisburg High School. Candidates look to collect delegates in Mississippi, Michigan, Hawaii and Idaho. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

On a street corner in front of Southaven's DeSoto Central High School, a microcosm of the Republican dilemma played out during primary voting Tuesday afternoon.

"I think he's gonna pull this country back together," Donald Trump supporter John Fuller, waving a Trump sign and sporting a red "Make America Great Again" hat, said as he greeted motorists pulling in to cast their ballots. "If you hear him talk, he never talks to one minority; it's everybody as one. That's the way I like it."

DeSoto County voters, bucking the statewide trend, didn't give Fuller what he wanted to hear Tuesday. Ted Cruz defeated Trump in DeSoto 12,300 votes, or 47 percent, to 10,507, or 40 percent in the four-way GOP race, according to complete but unofficial returns. Statewide, however, Trump carried the day and secured the largest number of the state's 40 delegates.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, with 5,420 votes, or 73 percent, in DeSoto County, easily topped Bernie Sanders, with 1,940 local votes, or 26 percent, and two other challengers in local and state voting. Forty-one Democratic delegates were at stake.

In the only other contested race on the DeSoto ballot, U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly of Tupelo easily defeated Paul Clever of Olive Branch both districtwide and in DeSoto County for the Republican nomination for the First District House seat. Kelly had 18,152 votes in DeSoto County, or 80 percent, while Clever got 4,497 votes, or 20 percent, in his home county.

Back on the GOP side of the presidential race in the heavily Republican state, will Fuller support a different candidate if Trump doesn't get the nomination?

"Oh, absolutely," Fuller offered without reservation. "I'll support whoever it is. My first choice was Trump or Cruz, and they're both in there (but) I prefer Trump, and I'm gonna stick with him until the end."

A few yards away, closer to the traffic buzzing past on busy Getwell, Cruz backers James Ripley and Marsha Babb waved at passing motorists from behind their Cruz signs.

"We're a solid, conservative campaign. That's not," Ripley said as he nodded toward Fuller and his Trump sign.

But would he be as willing as Fuller to swallow his differences and back Trump if he retains his front-runner status all the way to the Republican convention?

"Hashtag 'Never Trump,'" Ripley responded after a long pause.

And so it goes for Republicans as they debate what to do about The Donald as he continues to lead the pack and gather delegates after wins Tuesday in the big prize of Michigan as well as in Mississippi. Republicans also voted Tuesday in Idaho, and Hawaii held Republican caucuses.

Whether all Trump supporters will be as quick as Fuller to move to another candidate if Trump fades, which seems increasingly unlikely  and whether conservative purists such as Ripley would be as quick to back Trump if he doesn't  is the sticky wicket for Republicans as the primary season marches forward.

In Olive Branch, voter Dinah Glover wasn't sure who to vote for in this unconventional election year, even as she entered her polling location at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church on Germantown Road.

A registered Republican, Glover said she wasn't even sure which party she'd go with.

"I just don't know yet," Glover said. "I'll make up my mind once I'm inside."

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said turnout statewide was "light" but gave no percentage. In DeSoto, it was about 35 percent.

Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant Monday endorsed Cruz, calling for party unity.

"It's time for Republicans to join together and unite the party for the good of our state and our nation," Bryant said in a news release.

In DeSoto County, Babb  the Cruz worker at DeSoto Central with Ripley  hopes that unity holds if things get rocky for Republicans.

"I don't think Trump's going to get (the nomination)," she said. "I think the GOP has vowed to do whatever they have to do to stop Trump.

"We're hopeful it will be Ted Cruz. That's all I can say."
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By Jane Roberts of The Commercial Appeal

The Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen will discuss city staff's recommendation for a new garbage carrier at a Tuesday morning work session.

If a change is approved, the new company would take over July 1, when the $3.2 million contract Inland Waste Solutions has had for nearly 18 months expires. The Tuesday session is only for discussion, since the board does not vote in work sessions. Consideration of the contract is set for the board's regularly-scheduled meeting next Monday.

Almost from the beginning, Inland has been a headache in Germantown, either missing routes or performing so poorly, dozens of residents called City Hall daily in November and December to get their trash and yard refuse collected.

Eight vendors attended a mandatory meeting on Jan. 28; Inland was not among them. It is not clear if all eight companies submitted proposals. Due to procedures regarding the proposals, city staff may not talk about how many vendors submitted details or answer questions about the finalists until aldermen see the recommendation Tuesday.

The companies attending the pre-proposal meeting were: Republic Services, MTL Environmental/Michael's Tree & Loader, Waste Connections of TN, Waste Pro USA, Rehring Pacific, Toter, Stringfellow Inc. and Curruthers Environmental Consulting.

A new vendor would mean residents will receive new carts. Under the city specifications, the trucks and other equipment must be within three years of the latest models manufactured, said Lisa Piefer, head of procurement for the city.

"We don't want them using equipment that is going to mean they can't do the job," she said.

Germantown has withheld more than $459,000 in fines and fees it says it was forced to pay other vendors to fulfill Inland's duties, including $90,000 in December alone. The suburb also hired a temporary worker last May to help answer the flood of complaints that rolled into City Hall.

Germantown officials also researched the cost of the city operating its own garbage service.

In December, the city notified Inland's insurer that it would be tap Inland's $3.1 million bond if the firm could not pay the fines and fees the city said it owed or if the company went out of business. In January, Inland sued Germantown for the amount, saying city officials refused to negotiate the contract metrics when Inland took over the city routes from Republic Services.

The city filed a motion Monday to dismiss the lawsuit, according to attorney Jeff Feibelman.
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A basic tenet of Republicans is that less government is better government, but it is a credo some Tennessee GOP legislators conveniently ignore, especially when it comes to gun carry rights.

Here is the latest example of that incongruousness:

The GOP-dominated Senate approved a bill Monday that bans state colleges and universities in Tennessee from taking disciplinary or adverse action against a student or employee of the school for keeping guns in their vehicles on campus if the student or employee has a handgun-carry permit.

Senate Bill 1991, by Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, won a 29-0 vote without discussion or debate. It is an expansion of the controversial 2013 "guns-in-parking-lots" law that allows employees with handgun-carry permits to keep their guns in their locked vehicles on their employers' parking lots.

Last week, the Senate approved 25-7 a bill to eliminate the felony checkbox on applications for jobs at most state agencies, except education jobs. However, managers could still ask about felony convictions later in the hiring process.

A day later, the House gave final legislative approval to a bill prohibiting local governments from requiring employers to remove such questions. House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, said the measure is written to prevent city and county governments from telling employers what they can ask.

So, it is OK for the legislature to tell officials of businesses and education entities, who do not want guns on their properties, that they cannot ban them. And, it also is OK for some legislators to meddle in the business of local governments regarding "banning the box," just like the General Assembly did last year when it passed legislation preventing local governments from banning people with handgun-carry permits from bringing their weapons into parks.

Advocates of "ban the box" legislation say that information on the application often prevents people with any criminal histories from getting past the application stage, even if they have lived exemplary lives after fulfilling their sentences, committed only minor crimes or were charged but never convicted.

There is nothing in the legislation that would have prevented later questions about applicants' criminal records. Too often, though, the "box" prevents former inmates, who are trying to straighten out their lives, from getting a job. It certainly could help lower the state's 48 percent ex-felon recidivism rate.

Less government is the best government, the GOP tells us, but they often do not practice what they preach.
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Sara Jane Goodman



Memphis



Today, the Criminal Justice Subcommittee will hear House Bill 1660, which would extend the harmful Tennessee fetal assault law.

The stated goal of the law is to direct narcotic-dependent pregnant women into treatment facilities, with the threat of jail if they do not comply. The problem is, there are only 100 or so beds available for pregnant women. The further along in her pregnancy a woman is when she tries to comply, the more difficult it is to find a treatment facility that will accept her.

This law does nothing to help expand access to services, and as a result, it is forcing women into the criminal justice system. Policies that imprison moms struggling with addiction instead of ensuring they are able to access treatment does not help them or their families. This law goes against the recommended standard of care for drug use.

Instead of judging mothers, we should commit to improving the treatment options and ensure that health providers are trained to address the specific needs of pregnant women. We should work toward solutions that are designed to address public health issues rather than just punishing people or pushing narrow-minded political agendas.

However you feel about the criminal justice system, it is not a substitute for health care. That is why jail is not the right place to send people who may have substance abuse disorder. We need to oppose House Bill 1660, let the fetal assault law sunset and instead work toward evidence-based policies that support the health of women and their children.
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By Carla Hall

When Nancy Reagan became first lady in January 1981, she seemed a relic of a past age  at least to me, a young Washington Post Style section reporter covering her every step and every adoring gaze at her husband, Ronald Reagan, during the inaugural festivities that month. Yes, she had had her own acting career  and kept working to support them as her husband's career waned, as my colleague, Elaine Woo, pointed out in her excellent obituary on Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday.

Her devotion to her husband was unquestioned. But as first lady, she seemed to telegraph that she had finally found her role of a lifetime  adoring wife of the president  and she planned to luxuriate in it. She loved classic designer clothes, counted as her best gal pals the ladies-who-lunch wives of industry titans, and spent $200,000 on new china for the White House. For all of it, she was utterly lambasted by press and pundits. In fact, she took such a public beating, I sometimes felt a tad sorry for her.

When the glamorous Princess Grace tragically died in a car crash, we heard that Nancy would be sent to glittery Monaco to represent the White House at the funeral.

"You know she's dying to go," one reporter said tartly to a group of us. There was a pause.

"Poor Nance," another said with a sympathetic chuckle.

So when she made an appearance in a skit at the venerable Gridiron Club's annual dinner, dressed in goofy old clothes and spoofing herself while singing a parody of "Second Hand Rose," I was impressed. I couldn't imagine having made fun of myself no matter how much other people were making fun of me. Of course, it was a clever White House political calculation  and it showed her to be a savvy political operator. Not for the last time.

She would go on to be excoriated for various other moves. The whole "Just Say No" campaign to get kids off drugs that she launched was well-intentioned but eventually mocked. As Reagan's time in office stretched to a second term, she was demonized for wielding too much power over her husband's staff and him  famously feeding him a line during a press opportunity at the Reagan ranch. And she came in for more criticism when it was discovered she had her own personal astrologer.

Even as Nancy Reagan became more politic, she never quite escaped the image of a first lady as a bit of a class-conscious snob. Jackie Kennedy before her and Michelle Obama after her had closets of designer clothes  and got worshipped as style icons. Both Bush first ladies were traditional wives and mothers who doted on their husbands but were respected for it. It didn't help that Nancy Reagan was thought of as a distant and diffident mother to her kids  who were grown by the time the Reagans entered the White House. (Wow, she really couldn't catch a break.)

I think, in the end, she was a complicated first lady at a complicated time. No doubt, most, if not all the first ladies after her studied the cautionary tales of her time in the White House.

There's no question that she won respect for her support for her husband as he fell victim to the scourge of Alzheimer's. As far as I'm concerned, her single greatest contribution to the public good was her strong, vocal support for federal funding for stem cell research  which is important to the study of Alzheimer's among other diseases  at a time when President George W. Bush and other conservatives were foolishly opposed to it.

For her to lend the voice of an unassailable conservative to the support of stem cell research was remarkable  and perhaps the most important wielding of her influence ever.

Carla Hall is a member of the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times.
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What keeps software developers up at night, other than coding? The fear that artificial intelligence systems can replace them, according to a new survey.

Evans Data Corp., in a survey of 550 software developers, asked them about the most worrisome thing in their careers. A plurality, 29%, chose this answer: "I and my development efforts are replaced by artificial intelligence."

Surprisingly, this concern about A.I. topped the second-most identified worry, which was that the platform the developer is working on will become obsolete (23%), or doesn't catch on (14%).

Concerns about A.I. replacing software developers has academic support. A study by Oxford University, The Future of Employment, warned that the work of software engineers may soon become computerized. Machine learning advances allow design choices that can be optimized by algorithms.

These systems can also detect bugs "with a reliability that humans are unlikely to match," the study said.

"Big databases of code also offer the eventual prospect of algorithms that learn how to write programs to satisfy specifications provided by a human," wrote the Oxford researchers, Michael Osborne, of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science, and Carl Benedikt Frey, an economics researcher at the university.

According Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data, the thought of obsolescence due to A.I., "was also more threatening than becoming old without a pension, being stifled at work by bad management, or by seeing their skills and tools become irrelevant."

This is the first year Evans has asked developers about A.I., said Michael Rasalan, the firms director of research. He sees the developers' concern as related to the issue of skills relevancy.

Developers worrying that A.I. would be advanced enough to replace them is very similar to developers worrying that the technology trends have outpaced their own skills and abilities, said Rasalan.

Concerns about A.I. shouldnt discourage people from becoming developers, but it does provide a good case for developers to keep on top of the latest development practices, he said.

The survey also found mixed views about the impact of A.I. on humankind. Nearly 80% agreed that robotics and A.I. will enhance life. But close to 60% at least somewhat agree that robotics and A.I. will be disasters in the making, said Rasalan.

What we read here is a kind of ambivalence among developers, and shines a light more on their worries than on immediate realities, said Rasalan. More people do view that A.I. can bring positive change. But there is a possibility that things could spiral out of control, and this uncertainty might spur the same developers to say that change could be, if not disastrous, then disruptive.
Its International Womens Day so it seems appropriate to write a few words about some of the many women who have helped Apple put a ding in the universe across the years (in no particular order).

Joanna Hoffman

Hoffman joined Apples story as the fifth member of the Macintosh team in 1980 and (among other things) wrote the first draft of the User Interface Guidelines for the Mac and figured out how to pitch the computer at the education markets. Hoffman said of her time working with Jobs, Ive never been anyones work wife. And if I could impart that on to she would be an ally in that, explaining how she advised on how that role was played. She gained a reputation as someone who stood up to Steve.

Deborah Coleman

The second woman to join the Macintosh team, Coleman was Apples finance and operations chief for eleven years. Thats just one of a series of achievements on her part  she has a PhD, is a managing partner at VC firms and has been on the board of numerous technology companies. She has much respect for Hoffman, saying, Joanna was the one who represented all of us in learning how to stand up to Steve, she said.

The women who were a part of the early days of the Mac #womenofinfluence pic.twitter.com/EZ0TJXkRpq  James Martin (@Jamesco) November 3, 2015

Susan Barnes

Barnes was controller of the Macintosh Division at Apple and a cofounder of NeXT. At one time she was sent to cut a deal with an Apple partner, but the Japanese chairman of the company told her to go out and buy pearls while the men did the business. A terse fax from Steve Jobs appeared, telling the unreconstructed parochial dinosaur Ms. Barnes makes the decision on this negotiation.

Susan Kare

Kare designed Apples first icons. These approachable, friendly icons included things like the system-failure bomb, paintbrush, mini-stopwatch, and the acclaimed dogcow. The success of these icons arguably helped Apple establish the Mac product, and thats all the more amazing when you consider Kare didn't really know anything about digital typography, when she began. Shes still designing  check out Kare Design Studio, I really try to develop symbols that are meaningful and memorable, she said.

Angela Ahrendts

Ahrendts has reportedly generated high levels of loyalty across Apples retail teams and the former fashion CEO has reportedly been deeply involved in managing the Apple Watch release. Expect much more, as I dont think weve seen the full Ahrendts impact on Apple just yet, though at present shes the only female face in a sea of ten middle-aged white men on the senior management team.

Katie Cotton

Apples former VP Communications, Cotton was an essential aide to Steve Jobs and successfully led Apples communication strategy as it exercised one of the biggest turnarounds in US corporate history. Take a look at John Grubers account of working with her. She resigned post in 2014, Katie has given her all to this company for over 18 years, Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said in a statement at the time. We are really going to miss her. Cotton called leaving the company hard because it was part of her heart.
Apple's feud with the U.S. Department of Justice over unlocking a passcode-protected iPhone has not altered the public perception of the company, YouGov BrandIndex, a brand quality measurement firm, said today.

"There has been no meaningful movement among adults 18+," BrandIndex said of its brand metrics for Apple. "The same is true for consumers along party affiliation -- neither Republicans nor Democrats have altered their perception of the brand. And Apple customers also show no significant movement since the story broke."

BrandIndex asked its panel of U.S. consumers the question: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" The firm subtracts negative feedback from the positive to arrive at a score.

Apple and the FBI first publicly crossed legal swords over the iPhone in mid-February. Since then, Apple's BrandIndex score has remained stable, with scores hovering mid-way between 15 and 20.

The courtroom wrangling has been over an iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tafsheen Malik, killed 14 in San Bernardino, Calif. on Dec. 2, 2015 before they died in a shootout with police. The government has labeled the attack an act of terrorism.

On Feb. 16, a federal magistrate signed an order compelling Apple to assist the FBI in accessing Farook's employer-supplied iPhone. The order required Apple to create a customized version of iOS that would disable several security safeguards, then put the software on the device so authorities can bombard it with passcode guesses.

The FBI has said it believes there is unique information on Farook's iPhone that will help its investigation.

Apple is contesting the order, and has deployed several lines of argument, ranging from a government overreach to dire predictions of the consequences for customers and to American digital security.

Although BrandIndex's score is not strictly a survey, several polls have questioned Americans about the case and Apple's stance. Two weeks ago, the Pew Research Center said that its survey -- conducted Feb. 18-21 with more than 1,000 people -- showed that 51% backed the government and 38% supported Apple. Eleven percent were undecided.

Other polls have said different.

Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, argued that some surveys had asked the wrong questions, or asked them without nuance (subscription required). His polling of his firm's own consumer panel, who were first asked a how well they understood the issue, portrayed a pro-Apple landslide of nearly 60%.

Apple has been supported by a wide range of technology companies -- including some of its fiercest rivals, like Google and Microsoft -- privacy organizations, security experts and academics.

The California federal court will hold a hearing March 22 on Apple's objections to the order.
Chris Grayling is Leader of the House of Commons, and MP for Epsom and Ewell.

The starting gun has been fired. The campaign is afoot. The teams have taken to the streets for the start of the run up to the vote. No, I dont mean the EU referendum, though that will take up plenty of time in the coming weeks  our first priority will, and should, be the various elections on May 5th.

It is a crucial time for our country with Mayoral, Scottish, Welsh, Police and Crime Commissioner and many local government elections. These important offices have serious responsibilities and affect local peoples lives every day. Which is why now is the time to show what Conservatives have been able to achieve, so far, in communities across these isles and to make the case for how we can continue to make life better up and down the country.

This weekend I visited John Lamont and his team in the Borders, and the determination to get him re-elected was tremendous. As the Prime Minister said this weekend now its clear were the only party of the Union, and it is with that vigour that we will present our case to hold the SNP to account. There is a very real chance of Conservatives doing better than Labour in Scotland, winning constituencies when Labour is expected to lose all of its ones. The same is true in Wales where the Labours abysmal record on the NHS is having dire consequences with them missing their A&E target for seven years now and with over 27,000 patients having waited more than 36 weeks for treatment, when the target is supposed to be zero.

For me some of these battles have a personal edge. In London, Labours Sadiq Khan cannot be allowed to become Mayor. He shadowed me for two years in the last Parliament, so I saw his weaknesses at first hand. This is a man who put Corbyn onto the ballot paper for Labour members. As if that wasnt proof enough of his poor judgement one of his campaign aides has been suspended after revelations of racism, homophobia and making light of violence.

Sadiq doesnt do consensus politics; he would be incapable of working collaboratively with ministers on behalf of London. This is in stark contrast to Zac Goldsmith, who gets London and knows how to work closely with Government to deliver the right outcomes that Londoners need. His campaign to start fixing Londons housing crisis by doubling home building to 50,000 a year by 2020 and improving the capacity and reliability of Londons transport system by ensuring the Night Tube goes ahead, starting Crossrail 2, and growing the rail network are just a couple of areas where his ideas will make a difference to peoples lives.

Likewise, I really want to see a new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Surrey. The current incumbent has not been able to take a grip of this vital role. In fact, policing in Surrey has suffered for his presence, which is why I will continue to work to ensure that David Munro gets the job instead this May. Some of us have had the privilege of seeing first-hand the difference these new elected representatives can make. Communities like Katy Bournes in Sussex and Matthew Ellis in Staffordshire deserve the chance to continue to benefit from the work of these two outstanding PCCs. Katys engagement with young people is inspirational. Another PCC candidate, Les Jones, who I joined on the campaign trail two weeks ago in Stourbridge, would be a much better voice for the West Midlands. He is fighting to spend money better and protect local services  at a time when Labour is more interested in the central areas they represent. They all have one thing in common: they realise how policing can be connected back to the communities they seek to represent and, they are all capable of looking after the sizeable local policing budgets.

Every battle, every Conservative, every campaign, needs your activism and energy to support candidates to the winning line this May. Not only can we make our case to the electorate and set out the exciting practical steps we will deliver, but we can also make it a good time of year for Britains shoe retailers, as soles are worn out around the country. Indeed we need to keep Labour and Corbyn on the back foot. Their few wise heads are demoralised at the moment, unsure about how to deal with the chaos that the Corbyn leadership is generating. We have seen in the past how crazy left wing views have destroyed local authorities and undermined local communities. There is a new generation of Labour activists and candidates out there who cannot be allowed to gain a foothold in local government.

The increasingly extreme policies of the Labour Party pose a real threat to the economic security of communities around the country. In May we must stop them in their tracks.
Nick Timothy is Director of the New Schools Network and a former Chief of Staff to Theresa May.

Despite disagreeing with Conservatives who want Britain to remain inside the EU, I have signed up to Ronald Reagans (Anglicised) Eleventh Commandment: thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Conservative. But my restraint applies only to British Conservatives. It does not extend to conservatives from other jurisdictions, and in particular it does not apply to Jean-Claude Juncker, the supposedly conservative President of the European Commission.

President Juncker is the archetypical product of European politics. His disdain for member states, in particular the British, is matched only by his disrespect for democracy. His boasting about his dishonesty and secrecy in government is as open as his commitment to a federal Europe. The questions about his personal conduct are serious, but not quite as serious as the allegations about his professional conduct during his long tenure in public office. Jean-Claude Juncker is such a comic-strip Euro-villain that if he didnt exist, the Daily Mail would have to invent him.

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013, he was forced to resign following a spying scandal, in which the countrys intelligence service conducted illegal operations and bugged politicians. A parliamentary inquiry found that Juncker, as head of the intelligence service, not only had no control over his service but also too often omitted to inform the parliamentary committee or the judiciary of its irregularities, aberrations and illegalities. His defence was that he was too busy and the intelligence service was not my top priority. So the man who could not cope with his responsibilities while governing a country the size of Glasgow now finds himself at the head of a political union of more than 508 million people.

As Luxembourgs Finance Minister as well as Prime Minister, he was responsible for turning the grand duchy into a tax haven for firms including Amazon, Ikea, GlaxoSmithKline, Disney and Burberry. Yet since his promotion to the continental stage, he has had the chutzpah to argue that the EU needs to put some morality, some ethics, into the European tax landscape.

Last Thursday, a Dutch think tank was treated to a prime example of the petulance, egomania, delusion, contempt for accountability and loathing for democracy that appear to be vital attributes on the CVs of top Eurocrats like Juncker. Perhaps forgetting the hundreds of thousands of British soldiers buried beneath European soil who gave their lives for continental democracy, he tactlessly declared: whoever does not believe in Europe, whoever doubts Europe, whoever despairs of Europe, should visit the war cemeteries in Europe. He explained that one of his reasons for opposing any renegotiations with the British in the event of a vote to leave the EU was because the British Prime Minister voted against me when I wanted to be President of the Commission. And as if he had not made plain his contempt for the democratic process, he finished off by saying: it would be very nice if we could put this topic into the attic of world history as soon as possible.

This kind of disdain for the EUs member states is typical of the man. In a recent interview with Bild, he said that the European refugee policy that [Angela Merkel] and I stand for  as though the two of them can dictate what should be the immigration policy for an entire continent  will be successful. Referring to the fateful announcement by the German government that led to Europe being overwhelmed with migrants  which caused Wolfgang Schauble to compare Merkel to the careless skier who triggers an avalanche  Juncker said it is a sign of political strength to say we will accomplish this. Dismissing the concerns of millions of voters about its impact on immigration and border control, he said: everything else means giving up in the face of populists. Populist is, of course, the word Eurocrats such as Juncker like to use to describe democrats.

In particular, Juncker seems to reserve most of his contempt for Britain. In 2014, before his appointment as President of the Commission was confirmed, and in response to British concerns about his candidacy, Juncker told a private meeting of MEPs: it is wrong if we give in to the British here. I will not be forced to get on my knees before the British. In 2007, on the eve of the Lisbon Treaty, he told the Belgian press: Britain is different. Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?

And that is the remarkable thing about Juncker: he is completely honest about his belief in the need to be dishonest. He once said: when it becomes serious, you have to lie. In 2011, he said Europes economic policy should be decided behind closed doors: monetary policy, he told a press conference, is a serious issue. We should discuss this in secret, in the Eurogroup. Im ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious. He confessed he often had to lie to protect the euro, and proudly pronounced: I am for secret, dark debates. Going back to his role in first establishing the euro, he explained: we decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people dont understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back. No wonder even the continental press dubbed him the master of lies.

The purpose that drives Junckers deceit is, to coin a phrase, ever closer union. Incredibly, he believes not only that Schengen and the euro have provided us with a high degree of wealth, freedom and security but also that many people in the world are jealous of that. And he is not prepared to let democracy get in the way of his dream of a federal Europe. When the French put the European Constitution to a referendum in 2005, he said: if its a Yes, we will say on we go, and if its a No we will say we continue. And so it proved: when the French voted No, the Constitution was merely rebranded as the Lisbon Treaty, and the process of political integration continued. When the Irish voted against Lisbon in their referendum, Juncker said: theres no Plan B, the Lisbon Treaty was Plan B  and the Irish were made to vote again.

Now, Juncker proposes a redistributive EU welfare system, a common European army to convey a clear message to Russia, further EU expansion to new countries in the east, and a range of other policies including an efficient joint border and coastal protection, more joint financial means in order to care for refugees and a European minister of finance who will efficiently administer the European funds and allocate them to where they are most needed. We cannot say we havent been warned.

A heavy drinker and chain smoker, one of Junckers lesser ambitions for the future is reportedly to change the European Commissions rules so he can smoke his way through meetings in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. Somehow, this petty act of hypocrisy seems to sum up Junckers political career to date. If the purpose of the President of the European Commission is to act as a figurehead who symbolises all one needs to know about the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker was certainly an inspired appointment.
The EU has never stood still  as its core maxim maintains, it is about ever closer union, after all. This is why it is untrue to present the forthcoming referendum as a choice between a change and the status quo  there is no status quo on offer, and a Remain vote will mean opting to join the EU on a journey which carries with it many costs and risks.

We highlighted some of these risks  higher costs, more uncontrolled immigration and further loss of democratic control  in our recent series on the Risks of Remain. Communicating these and other serious risks of staying in the EU will be crucial to a successful Leave campaign.

Last night, the EU itself helpfully presented yet another example of the risks involved in continued membership, through its proposed deal with Turkey.

The arguments over Turkeys place in Europe more generally and in the EU specifically have raged for years  its position was strategically crucial in the Cold War, and is so again today; it holds the distinction of being one of a very limited number of predominantly Muslim-majority democracies; but its government has in recent times become disturbingly autocratic, as can be seen in the seizure of the countrys leading opposition newspaper last week.

The solution to this debate has historically been an uneasy standoff, and the EU has tended to put accession negotiations on ice due, bluntly, to popular opposition to letting a Muslim-majority country into the EU, particularly in countries such as Austria and France.

Now, though, Ankara has the EU over a barrel. The chaos caused by the migration crisis has spread from the streets into the corridors of the EU institutions, which suddenly find that all their high-flown rhetoric about Schengen, free movement and abolishing internal borders counts for very little in practice. Turkey has realised the obvious: that it can demand a high price for its co-operation in stopping refugees and other migrants crossing the Aegean, or failing that it can extort a high price by threatening to effectively wave even more migrants through.

Erdogan is not known for passing up opportunities to get what he wants, and he has grabbed the chance eagerly. The draft deal, hammered out with the full backing of Angela Merkel, proposes that:

Turkey receives an additional 3 billion in aid from the EU;

Turkey will accept all migrants who are intercepted trying to cross the Aegean to Greece;

For every one migrant turned back in this way, the EU will accept and resettle another direct from Turkey;

In return, the EU will grant all Turkish citizens visa-free access to the Schengen zone by June, and reopen the stalled talks on Turkish accession to the EU.

How the one-for-one deal on migrants will turn out is the first interesting point. Donald Tusk declared the days of irregular migration to Europe are over, a remarkable statement that could one day ring as hollow as George W. Bushs claim in 2003 that the US had prevailed in the Iraq War.

It is undoubtedly preferable to take migrants from camps in a controlled way  Britains policy since last year  rather than simply acquiescing to hugely dangerous illegal migration, which was Merkels original approach. But it remains to be seen whether this actually reduces the flow of boats to Greece. Under this scheme, Turkey wouldnt have any incentive to stop the boats at their point of origin, given that any which depart would either directly take migrants off Ankaras hands or, if intercepted, the EU will merrily take an equal number off Turkeys hands anyway. If the boats continue to come, then the EU would have to accept a potentially vast number of migrants.

This is a reminder of the disastrous failure of the EUs migration policies. We may not be a Schengen member, but we still gave up control of our immigration policy to Brussels, and Brussels is proving singularly incapable of managing the main issue in 21st century migration.

The price to be paid in return for the agreement is the real sting in the tail, though, highlighting the further costs of remaining in the EU.

First, there is an instant cash cost to Britain  our direct aid payments will double from 250 million to 500 million, and we may also be liable to fund part of the cost of Turkey taking back returned migrants. As David Davis argues in The Times, this is effectively a bailout of the failing Schengen Zone, even though we wisely chose not to be part of it. Yet again, British taxpayers bear the cost of failing EU policies.

Second, the reopening of Turkish accession talks raises the prospect of yet more longer term costs for Britain. We are already the second largest net contributor to the EU budget. The arrival of a very large, very poor new member would mean billions upon billions in subsidies and grants flowing from our pockets to Turkey.

Third, the extension of visa-free access to Schengen to every single Turkish citizen undermines the pro-EU campaigns claim that remaining is good for security. This proposal is effectively for free movement of people between Calais and the extremely porous border between Turkey and Syria. Terrorists travel from Turkey into Syria with relative ease  others travel back again. How confident can we feel that there are no dangerous individuals among the 75 million people who would gain visa-free access to Schengen in June, allowing them to come right to our doorstep? Preventing terrorists from getting into our country is hard enough  this would make it even more difficult, and present those who wish us ill even more opportunities.

The deal itself is set to be agreed in just over a week. Some member states may have doubts, but Angela Merkel backs it and she remains the most powerful EU politician. Even if it is delayed (until conveniently after our referendum, for example) it is now officially on the table. Its presence their reminds us that there is no status quo on offer  staying in the EU means more costs and more risks.
The Global Pie, Who Get To Eat It And The Ones Left Behind

By Sarosh Ali

08 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

This period will be known for something called as the 'refugee crisis'. The top down international discourse through the developed nations taking center-stage, and with necessary skepticism towards them, the other side of the coin may also just be 'globalization of cheap labor'. One thing that strongly hints toward this is the strong leaning of the mainstream media to focus upon the immigration to the rich countries, that is actually miniscule as compared to the mass displacement and redistribution of people within the third world. Another hint is when, in the developed world, most immigration takes place to Russia, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Canada; countries with scarce population and based on domestic production that actually need some additional cheap labor.

The migration takes place from places in war/unrest-torn West Asia, Africa, South Asia consisting people fleeing from war, persecution or economic instability in their home countries. The procedure is much more inaccessible and time taking than just to knock at a door and sleep in the barn. Once they get asylum, they will still be second class citizens with a lot of restrictions. There will be travel restrictions so that they cannot seek better economic opportunities. There will be upper limits to the money they can possess at a given point of time, so they cannot open shop or help their friends and family. They will not be able to avail help from previously settled friends and family as they will be living in refugee camps until they are integrated with society at some distant future time or even repatriated back. So this surely is not just good old philanthropy. And the refugees who get asylum in this richer world are less than 10% of the total number of normal migrants within the same period of time. Only that the sum total of all misery in the world is much bigger. The asylum seekers, in risking everything they have to the oasis of a distant land, want, however small, a share of the global pie. A tiny fraction of them probably will. But the global pie is made out of the same process by which they were brought into this miserable state in the first place. And there are many many more back home, who won't ever be able to see it. At this juncture it is incumbent to study this phenomenon of mass migration vis-a-vis the impoverishment of those left behind as a cause or sometimes even as an effect of it and whether it is the benevolence of the global masters or just another form of exploitation.

Firstly, to get a glimpse into this phenomena, let us make a qualitative inquiry into the history of human species. At a time prior to about 10,000 years ago (for a period of the order of 100,000 years), the general mode of cohabitation was in small herds, the population remaining more or less constant, and the expanse of land utilized was more in the form of territory rather than occupation or ownership. Exercise of political and economic control over others was to a great extent absent. As humans came into the age of surplus, the concept of property and impositions by institutional hierarchy became more prevalent. As the first population explosion took place, the original autonomous clusters grew larger both in land and people. They lost independence due to bonds of trade and its cultural arm. As clusters overlapped and institutions solidified, wealth started to get concentrated at centers for managing them at the cost of places where it was actually getting produced. This enabled the growth of farther reaching law enforcing bodies with a much bigger domain of control. A self similar process starting from the tiny village groups and reaching to as big a scale as of the world itself created a hierarchy of clusters bonded by socio-economic ties, controlled by laws as imposed by the dominant elite to create a resulting hierarchy of exploitation and deprivation. The present day symptoms of inequality and diaspora originate from the same hierarchy. And people being a resource and a consumer in themselves, in their lure towards the global pie, may even be adding more layers to it. In this complex web, it is difficult to allocate accountability or to draw lines to separate the haves from the have nots, the accomodated from the ones who fell out, the heard from those unheard. But it may be possible to speculate on the nature of this beast by traveling through its layers through examples.

India is one of the poorer country with around 60% of the people living in less than $3.10 a day. There is also a lot of income disparity within India. Due to varying state govt. policies, socio-economic and geographical pre-conditions some states do substantially better than others. Thus, more prosperous states and cities become work haven for people from deprived regions. But this is purely an economic transaction based on demand and supply of labor. Further, the social discourse that ensues only adds to the cultural hegemony that tilts the balance to further increase the disparity.

Take for example the case of Kerala, one of the states with the least poverty percentage and high per capita GDP in India. The better economic means available for the people in Kerala is mainly due to the fact that a considerable fraction of them work in prosperous countries of West Asia and elsewhere, with better remunerations. A large portion of this section are construction workers who make decent money abroad to provide for a better condition for the livelihood of the family back home. The major investment is in the sector of cash crop agriculture, with better profits, so that the owners can employ cheap labor to do the work, as there is a dearth of skilled and unskilled labor within Kerala. A lot of people from deprived states of India like Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal come at the lure of better work conditions here. The number is commensurate to the number of NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) from Kerala.

The returns of agricultural work in Kerala are definitely better for the workers coming from underpriviledged backgrounds outside. But this shifts the economic baseline for the underpriviledged sections from within Kerala as does the relative affluency of those benefitting from foreign remittances. As an example the conditions of indigenous tribal groups in Kerala is getting deteriorated by the day and they appear even less and less in the popular discourse. Considering even the case of the state of Bihar from where the major migration takes place, as the remittances and household incomes of agricultural labor force working outside has been steadily on a rise, the parallel conditions of the domestic population such as the percentage of landless agricultural workers and farm based income of the rural has worsened over the years. And to top this, migrant workers even within India face cultural discrimination in the form of xenophobia and deteriorating social conditions, that shift the baseline of the dignity and value of their work. This has been on a rise even in states like Kerala, known for their values of assimilation and social justice. So it would be interesting to see now the conditions that Indian workers, from places like Kerala, face abroad in Gulf countries, their own work haven, when they seem to be profiting from it so much back at home.

A large number of Indians and other South Asians go to Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait etc for better pay. They mainly work as construction workers, industrial workers, domestic help and other service sectors. They make do with the cultural restrictions, religious policing and high risk prone work conditions in order to earn an extra buck that they can send back home. A recent report suggests that the percentage of workers dying in these countries due to deteriorating workplace conditions is on a rise. The human rights violation of people working as domestic help, especially women, from India is also on the rise. They have to work long hours, have a very restricted life with little organization and help from other compatriots just in order to send back home a little more money than they can make in India (about 2-3 times). The annual remittances of Indians from Saudi Arabia is about $10 billion. That from a country whose annual GDP is $1.5 trillion. And Indians constitute more than a tenth, and South Asians about a fifth, of the population (expatriates) of Saudi Arabia. This population is 0.2% of the population of India. Well this seems to be one level up in the hierarchy.

Right in this neighborhood lie countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan plagued by destabilization due to wars actually controlled by the global powers. The issue has been their strategic location in the land of oil, one of the major drivers of world economy. Then there are also people like Palestinians and Kurds, second class citizens in their own land. From all of these and others joining them from Africa are an elite, who by stretching their dreams as much as they can, wish to live in developed countries like those in Europe. Many of these European countries do let a fraction of those seeking asylum to enter their countries, even though after very careful deliberation. But this acceptance will only be at the level of servility to the already existing elite. These new members will only join, if not subordinate, in smaller numbers, the quiet diaspora of others from lesser economies like Turkey, Lebanon etc. The scale can be ascertained by the fact that out of more than 11 million Syrians displaced by the war, which is about half the pre-war population of Syria, only about 5 % have found home in Europe. What is suspect is that these powers don't blame the others among them who don't share an equal responsibility. Many of these don't even have an obvious role in the actual creation of instability in the concerned areas. And they even don't take into account the apathy of the most important stakeholders in the original destabilization.

The US has committed in taking about 10,000 Syrian refugees. Such a small percentage doesn't even make any sense. That doesn't mean that the US doesn't need cheap work force. But it gets the required number from neighboring countries in the Americas. And it has its own list of asylum seekers from the Mexico, Caribbean, Central America. Some of these are countries it had, in one way or the other, destabilized in the past and are in quite an economic fix ever since. They are presently plagued by tremendous criminalization of their societies and an all pervading gang violence due to unstable governments. These are spreading in countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and even certain parts of Mexico. Spending the income accumulated over a lifetime, donated by friends and family, they undertake epic journeys, about a 100,000 seeking asylum in the US every year, a huge number of women and children among them. The US apprehends most and even outsources the apprehending to Mexico, through which they must pass. Well, the international law that refugees  people fleeing from war and persecution, must be granted asylum, can be circumvented in many new ways. The US also other means of acquiring cheap labor like outsourcing work. Latin America was destabilized by coups, puppet regimes and wars since the 50s by US interests, which eventually led to a lot of failed and unstable states. The same is now being exercised all over the world by NATO and allies through military operations, financial warfare and economic control through banks. The counter balance of Russia, China, Iran etc are yet another microcosm of the same process. And through the loudspeakers, the powers always come out as the civilized and benevolent, where as the deprived to be always looked at with suspicion. The hierarchy is made rigid downwards from here.

Even though all the details of this complex process have not been exhausted, the few examples mentioned above cut a cross-section through the world, to hint at a universal phenomena that scales with the economy under consideration. So let us identify and state this pattern. The world, in its economy and in the resultant cultural discourse, is a hierarchy of various levels where control can only be exercised from above through class structure, politics or global economic constraints and justified by the mainstream discourse. With the growing of deprivation in some part of the world, an opportunity of a better life coming from a level up can only reach a smaller number with the rest left behind or made even worse. This opportunity may make the structure stable by the introduction of a new layer or class within it. This new layer may even undermine the power of discontent. Resources like human beings or land may act as a curse for their people in a global economy. Rather than looking at diaspora as deprived people seeking refuge elsewhere, it may even be fitting to see the powerful seeking cheap labor according to their needs. The policy makers in the developed world are already considering the possibility of the refugee crisis worsening in future due to climate change and trying to device new stratagems to deter refugees to knock at their doors. In this free market the misery and labor of the deprived are reified, effectively making them less important beings. The most brunt is suffered by those who choose to stay back at every level. When the climate is becoming a threat to all life, it is troubling to see that, even at this turning point, those who actually live harmoniously with the environment are getting deprived of their livelihoods. This mammoth of a system is so self replicating that the only way to change even a bit for the better would be a paradigm shift.

Author Bio: My name is Sarosh Ali. I live in Navi Mumbai, India. My educational background is in the field of Theoretical Physics, in which I have pursued research for more than 4 years. I am also a Mathematics enthusiast. Recently, I am trying to explore some issues within the realm of Social Sciences like Environment and Diaspora, and have a dream to, someday, identify the cause effect relationship pertaining to these issues. I also like to write. My writing is mostly speculation that emerges from a simpler picture of society and try to put the problem in front of the reader. To get a glimpse into this you can visit my blog http://sarosh30.blogspot.in/




When Nationalism And Free Speech Bow Before A Double Shri Godman

By Countercurrents.org

09 February, 2016

Countercurrents.org

In the past few months the country saw raging debate on nationalism, free speech and tax payers money being misused on educational institutions like JNU. Debate is very encouraging in a democratic society. But the sad thing is that it fell into a stage that storm troopers of the ruling party manhandling students, teachers and journalists. Sedition cases being filed on students. Acid like substance poured on Adivasi activist Soni Sori. On top of all that a dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula, forced to commit suicide after being hounded by these same forces.

The justification for all these was given as that the free speech we enjoy in India was provided by the brave soldiers guarding the national borders. We salute the brave soldiers guarding the borders. But we have serious reservations on who created these borders and who put these soldiers there, including in Siachen, one of the most inhospitable places for human beings on earth. However, we hope Srinagar is not on the border, but it is one of the most militarized cities in the world. Kashmir is one of the most militarized places on earth. In Kashmir and North East our brave soldiers enjoy Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which allows immunity to soldiers against which the Iron Lady of Manipur Irom Sharmila is on a 15 year old indefinite fast. After all, ours is a country which saw the Bofors Scam, Westland Helicopter scam and even Kargil coffin scam!

Article 19 of Constitution of India guarantees the Freedom of speech and expression. Of course, the soldiers guarding our borders guarantee that the constitution is implemented in the truest spirit in the country. We should salute their bravery, by risking their life they guarantee along with other pillars of our democracy the implementation of our constitution.

The constitutional mandate for our soldiers is to help the implementation of the constitution. What if they are forced to build bridges to help the celebration of World Cultural Festival organized by a Godman Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, an event authorization of which was even questioned by National Green Tribunal! The Delhi government told the National Green Tribunal that the event has no police or fire safety clearances. On 16th February Countercurrents.org had published an Open Letter By Concerned Citizens titled "Encroachment And Destruction Of Yamuna Floodplains".

Now our brave soldiers are forced into the mundane task of building bridges for the Shri Shri event, the question naturally comes to our mind is that are we degrading our soldiers by depriving them from their primary duty of guarding the borders so that we all can have free speech? Are we paying our tax money, which of course is being used to pay the salary of our brave soldiers, to build bridges for a private ceremony organized by a self styled god man? The Nation demands an Answer.






How Most Aid To The Palestinians Ends Up In Israels Coffers



By Jonathan Cook

08 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Nazareth: Diplomats may have a reputation for greyness, obfuscation, even hypocrisy, but few have found themselves compared to a serial killer, let alone one who devours human flesh.

That honour befell Laars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Unions ambassador to Israel, last week when Jewish settlers launched a social media campaign casting him as Hannibal Lecter, the terrifying character from the film Silence of the Lambs.

An image of the Danish diplomat wearing Lecters prison face-mask was supposed to suggest that Europe needs similar muzzling.

The settlers grievance relates to European aid, which has provided temporary shelter to Palestinian Bedouin families after the Israeli army demolished their homes in the occupied territories near Jerusalem. The emergency housing has helped them remain on land coveted by Israel and the settlers.

European officials, outraged by the Lecter comparison, have reminded Tel Aviv that, were it to abide by international law, Israel  not the EU  would be taking responsibility for these families welfare.

While Europe may think of itself as part of an enlightened West, using aid to defend Palestinians rights, the reality is less reassuring. The aid may actually be making things significantly worse.



Shir Hever, an Israeli economist who has spent years piecing together the murky economics of the occupation, recently published a report that makes shocking reading.



Like others, he believes international aid has allowed Israel to avoid footing the bill for its decades-old occuption. But he goes further.



His astonishing conclusion  one that may surprise Israels settlers  is that at least 78 per cent of humanitarian aid intended for Palestinians ends up in Israels coffers.



The sums involved are huge. The Palestinians under occupation are among the most aid-dependent in the world, receiving more than $2bn from the international community a year. According to Hever, donors could be directly subsidising up to a third of the occupations costs.

Other forms of Israeli profiteering have been identified in previous studies.



In 2013 the World Bank very conservatively estimated that the Palestinians lose at least $3.4bn a year in resources plundered by Israel.



Further, Israels refusal to make peace with the Palestinians, and as a consequence the rest of the region, is used to justify Washingtons annual $3bn in military aid.



Israel also uses the occupied territories as laboratories for testing weapons and surveillance systems on Palestinians  and then exports its expertise. Israels military and cyber industries are hugely profitable, generating many billions of dollars of income each year.

A survey published last week found tiny Israel to be the eighth most powerful country in the world.



But whereas these income streams are a recognisable, if troubling, windfall from Israels occupation, western humanitarian aid to the Palestinians is clearly intended for the victims, not the victors.

So how is Israel creaming off so much?



The problem, says Hever, is Israels self-imposed role as mediator. To reach the Palestinians, donors have no choice but to go through Israel. This provides ripe opportunities for what he terms aid subversion and aid diversion.



The first results from the Palestinians being a captive market. They have access to few goods and services that are not Israeli.



Who Profits?, an Israeli organisation monitoring the economic benefits for Israel in the occupation, assesses that dairy firm Tnuva enjoys a monopoly in the West Bank worth $60 million annually.



Aid diversion, meanwhile, occurs because Israel controls all movement of people and goods. Israeli restrictions mean it gets to charge for transportation and storage, and levy security fees.



Other studies have identified additional profits from aid destruction. When Israel wrecks foreign-funded aid projects, Palestinians lose  but Israel often benefits.



Cement-maker Nesher, for example, is reported to control 85 per cent of all construction by Israelis and Palestinians, including the supplies for rebuilding efforts in Gaza after Israels repeated rampages.



Significant segments of Israeli society, aside from those in the security industries, are lining their pockets from the occupation. Paradoxically, the label the most aid-dependent people in the world  usually affixed to the Palestinians  might be better used to describe Israelis.



What can be done? International law expert Richard Falk notes that Israel is exploiting an aid oversight vacuum: there are no requirements on donors to ensure their money reaches the intended recipients.



What the international community has done over the past 20 years of the Oslo process  inadvertently or otherwise  is offer Israel financial incentives to stabilise and entrench its rule over the Palestinians. It can do so relatively cost-free.



While Europe and Washington have tried to beat Israel with a small diplomatic stick to release its hold on the occupied territories, at the same time they dangle juicy financial carrots to encourage Israel to tighten its grip.

There is a small ray of hope. Western aid policy does not have to be self-sabotaging. Hevers study indicates that Israel has grown as reliant on Palestinian aid as the Palestinians themselves.



The EU noted last week that Israel not Brussels should be caring for the Bedouin it has left homeless. Europe could take its own advice to heart and start shifting the true costs of the occupation back on to Israel.

That may happen soon enough whatever the west decides, if  as even Israel is predicting will occur soon  the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas collapses.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israels Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net




Hate As Harmony: Law And Order Under Saffrons

By Subhash Gatade

08 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Muslims were equated to demons and descendants of Ravana, and warned of a final battle, as the Sangh Parivar held a condolence meeting here for VHP worker Arun Mahaur, who was killed last week allegedly by some Muslim youths. Among those present on the dais were Union Minister of State, HRD, and BJP Agra MP Ram Shankar Katheria as well as the BJPs Fatehpur Sikri MP Babu Lal, apart from other party local leaders, who joined in the threats to Muslims. Speaker after speaker urged Hindus to corner Muslims and destroy the demons (rakshas), while declaring that all preparations had been made to effect badla (revenge) before the 13th-day death rituals for Mahaur.

(http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/muslims-warned-of-final-battle-at-sangh-meet-mos-katheria-says-weve-to-show-our-strength/#sthash.ZBMcpoFo.dpuf)

What does someone do in the winter of ones own life when you discover that the values you cherished, the principles for which you fought for have suddenly lost their meaning and the world before you is turning upside down ?

Perhaps you express your anguish to your near and dear ones or write a letter about the deteriorating situation around you in your favourite newspaper or as a last resort appeal to the custodians of the constitution that how you are forced to hang your head in shame.

Admiral Ramdas, who has served Indian Military for more than four decades and has remained socially active since then, followed his voice of conscience. Deeply pained by the developments around the eighty plus year retired admiral wrote a letter to the President and Prime Minister of India few months back and had reminded them of their [b]ounden duty that the elected Government of this nation must honour the rights of every citizen of this land as amply spelled out in the Preamble of the Constitution and further elaborated in the Directive Principles of state policy. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Forced-to-hang-my-head-in-shame-Former-Navy-chief-writes-open-letter-to-President-Mukherjee-PM-Modi/articleshow/49525656.cms)

One does not know whether the President and the Prime Minister found time to reply to his concerns or not.

And now comes the Citizens Appeal signed by former judges and IPS officers, scientists and businessmen  a list which includes Justice PB Sawant, Justice Hosbet Suresh, Justice Sachar and Julio Ribeiro and othersreiterating similar concerns albeit addressed to the to the Chief Justice and all other Judges of the Supreme Court of India urging them to take suo moto constitutional action on the issue of alarming and threatening statements being made by persons currently in powerful constitutional positions within the Union government. The said appeal which provides shocking details of the speech made by Ram Shankar Katheriya in Agra, where he had gone to address a condolence meeting over the murder of a VHP activist, also includes details of many such examples of hate speeches made earlier by other footsoldiers or leaders of Hindutva Brigade. (https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/citizens-appeal-sc-suo-motu-action-against-hate-speech)

Underlining the fact that fundamental rights of the people under Article 14, 19, 21 and 25 of the Indian Constitution need to be protected it also urges that [t]he minister, the MP, the MLA and all other culprits need to be punished for violating their constitutional duty under Article 51A(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious diversities. 

As things stand while cases have been filed against other leaders of the Hindutva Brigade after much pressure who participated in the meeting and gave vent to their ideas, no such case has been filed against the minister. Thanks to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who dismissed Opposition demands to sack Katheria for his hate speech in Agra last week, as he did not find anything objectionable in the Agra MPs remarks. One learns that he is being projected as a counter to Mayawati.

While it is for the highest judiciary to decide how it wants to react to Citizens Appeal -specifically regarding suo motto action against hate speech is concerned, if one goes by Justice Ahmadis observations  who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1994-97)  made in a thought provoking presentation few years back it has been found to be wanting on that score.

It is not that provisions in law have been left unambiguous so that no action can be taken against such rabble-rousers.

Under Indian Law promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion is a recognized criminal offence. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) prescribes criminal prosecution for wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot (section 153); promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion (section 153A); imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration (section 153B); uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person (section 298); statements conducing to public mischief (section 505 (1), b and c); and statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes (section505(2). Section 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in addition, allows an Executive Magistrate to initiate action against a person violating section 153A or 153B of the IPC.

2.

It is not difficult to understand why Mr Rajnath Singh did not object to Mr Katherias speech.

In fact, one is yet to hear from him about the alleged hate speech made by of one of his colleagues  who is a member of parliament  wherein he had called for end of Islam which is followed by more than 170 million Indian citizens. Anant Kumar Hedge had told reporters in his constituency of Uttara Kannada :

As long as we have Islam in the world, there will be no end to terrorism. If we are unable to end Islam, we wont be able to end terrorism. If you media people have the freedom to report this, please report this,

(http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/03/03/ananth-kumar-hegde_n_9380910.html)

Talking to Huffington Post in Delhi he had further targeted Islam

Is it a peaceful religion? Peace and then Islam are opposite words. Wherever Islam is, peace is not there. Wherever the peace is there, there is no Islam. These two words are totally opposite words (-do-)

Commenting on his remarks Huff Post mentions it rightly that Hedges offensive remark hasnt received half as much as attention as Ram Shankar Katheria, BJPs lawmaker from Agra, who compared Muslims to demons and warned of a final battle. (-do-)

Perhaps silence around Hedges speech or finding nothing objectionable in Mr Katherias speech has either to do with ones political compulsions or ones own ability to see things as they are and speak about it. One needs to explore it a bit  which is beyond the scope of this brief note  what is the interrelationship between ones worldview and ones understanding or comprehension of things. Theweltanshauung/worldview of RSS, which the honourable minister believes in, is known for its search of imaginary enemies.

And it was only last week that Mr Rajnath Singh similarly refused to look at the breakdown of law and order in neighbouring state Haryana during the Jat agitation for reservation which witnessed killing of thirty people, destruction of property worth billions of rupees, and alleged incidents of gang rapes on Delhi-Ambala highway by those involved in this agitation. As opposed to him, Sukhbir Badal, deputy chief minister of Punjab, whose party Akali Dal happens to be one of his parties closest allies had no qualms in comparing this spate of violence in Haryana during agitation for Jat reservation to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Talking to reporters Rajnath Singh said that the BJP government there in Haryana handled the situation well during the Jat quota agitation. When he was specifically asked whether the Khattar government failed to control the violence he underlined,

[w]hatever the state government had to do, they did. They did well

(http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/040316/haryana-govt-handled-situation-well-during-jat-stir-rajnath-singh.html)

One was suddenly reminded of the then home ministers reaction to the carnage in Gujarat in the year 2002 when the then state government led by Narendra Modi was found to be wanting on many scores, a fact which had even compelled the then PM Vajpayee to remind him of Rajdharma. Union Home Minister L K Advani had praised the Gujarat government for exemplary handling of the situation on the floor of the house.

3.

It is to be expected that this inability or refusal to look at things as they are by someone in authority or her/his political compulsions to do that is leading to unforeseen consequences.

Anyone who has watched the actions of the Delhi Police since last one month  where it has received tremendous flak not only from civil society organisations but also from judiciary also for its handling of the JNU issue can be seen in this context. The way in which it handled the attack by a section of self proclaimed Deshbhakt lawyers on teachers, journalists and students in the precincts of the Patiala court, the manner in which it abdicated its responsibility when there was a repeat attack two days later, the way in which it treated the accused involved in the case, have further impacted its image.

And it is evident that even after exit of its most controversial boss in recent times who happened to be (to quote Shekhar Gupta) our most articulate and imaginative sleuth since Vividh Bharatis Inspector Eagle (http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/shekhar-gupta-student-of-the-year-116030401563_1.html) the police is not yet ready to make a mid-course correction.

It is yet to file criminal cases against those channels which aired doctored videos about the JNU incident and helped create a frenzied atmosphere all over the country

Its reaction to inflammatory posters put up in Central Delhi which offered a reward of Rs 11 lakh to anyone who shoots Kanhaiya Kumar dead gives further indication of its growing intransigence. The posters in Hindi read, Whoever shoots JNUSU president and traitor Kanhaiya Kumar will be rewarded Rs 11 lakh from the Purvanchal Sena. The poster was signed by one Adarsh Sharma, Son of Purvanchal, President, Purvanchal Sena, and also included his mobile number.

Media tells us that police promptly registered case against Sharma for defacing public property, remember not related to conspiracy and attempt to murder. And perhaps as an afterthought, when it received ridicule on social media, said that it is investigating the case further and other charges can be added later.

Subhash Gatade is the author of Pahad Se Uncha Aadmi (2010) Godse's Children: Hindutva Terror in India,(2011) and The Saffron Condition: The Politics of Repression and Exclusion in Neoliberal India(2011). He is also the Convener of New Socialist Initiative (NSI) Email : subhash.gatade@gmail.com




US Airstrike Massacres 150 In Somalia

By Joseph Kishore

08 March, 2016

WSWS.org

US military airstrikes launched in Somalia over the weekend killed more than 150 people. The attack took place at what the US Pentagon yesterday said was an al-Shabaab training camp about 120 miles north of the countrys capital, Mogadishu.

The strikes mark a significant escalation of US operations in the Horn of Africa, a region that borders the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical oil passageway that links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The airstrikes, carried out on Saturday against the Al Qaeda-affiliated group that controls parts of northern Somalia, are the deadliest in Africa in years. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook asserted without providing evidence that the targets were graduating from the Raso training camp and posed an imminent threat to the US and US-backed African military forces in Somalia.

The Pentagon also claimed that there were no civilian casualties, though it would categorize anyone at the location as by definition a terrorist or military target. Those killed, according to an official cited by the New York Times, were standing outside in formation when a combination of drones and manned airplanes destroyed the camp and killed almost everyone present.

The Pentagon said that it had been monitoring the camp for weeks prior to the strike.

The attack on the training camp follows a years-long campaign of drone strikes in the impoverished North African country targeting individual leaders of al-Shabaab. In December of last year, a drone strike assassinated what the US said was one of the organizations leaders, Abdirahman Sandhere, and two other individuals.

The strikes against the training camp indicate that the Obama administration is expanding its undeclared war in the Horn of Africa, aimed at bolstering the position of the corrupt regime of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, based in Mogadishu. In recent months, al-Shabaab has carried out a series of attacks on Somali forces and those of a coalition of African countries that is backing the government with the support of the US.

Al-Shabaab has also carried out a number of terrorist attacks, including a January 22 suicide bombing and shootout at a restaurant in Mogadishu that killed 25 people.

While implemented under the framework of the war on terror, the main interests of the US in the region lie in Somalias geostrategic location. The countrys northern coast lies along the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. On the other side of the Gulf of Aden lies Yemen, where the US has backed a brutal Saudi-led bombing campaign that began in the spring of last year.

Just to the northwest of Somalia lies Djibouti, where the US has its only permanent military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, the center of its drone operations throughout the continent. The water pathway between Djibouti and Yemen, known as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is listed by the US Energy Information Association as one of the major global oil transit choke points. Some 3.8 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products were transported through the strait in 2013, including much of the oil exported from the Persian Gulf to Europe and the US.

More broadly, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a key access point to the Indian Ocean, which now includes the most significant global trade routes, connecting Europe and the Middle East to Asia, including China.

In addition to the US, Britain has also taken a recent interest in the region, announcing last October that it was sending hundreds of troops to Somalia and South Sudan.

In their determination to retain control of the Horn of Africa, the major imperialist powers have stoked a series of civil wars and internal conflicts between different tribal and national factions. The population has been left to destitute poverty. Somalia, which has a population of more than 10 million people, has a gross domestic product per capita of just $112 and a life expectancy of 52 years. Some 1.1 million people are internally displaced.

Al-Shabaab itself arose out of factions of the Islamic Courts Union, which gained control of Mogadishu in 2006 after 15 years of civil warfare, before being toppled at the end of the year by an Ethiopian invasion orchestrated by the US. In 2007, the US backed the formation of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), comprised of about 22,000 troops from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

After al-Shabaab launched an offensive against Mogadishu in 2010, AMISOM forces, again backed by the US, responded with a campaign that eventually drove the organization out of the capital and from the southern portions of the country. This was followed by regular drone strikes targeting the organizations leaders.

The operations in Somalia are part of a broader escalation throughout northern Africa, overseen by the US militarys Africa Command and aimed largely at countering the growing influence of China on the continent. In recent months, the Obama administration has announced the deployment of troops and Special Operations forces to both Cameroon and Mali, and the US and European powers are also preparing for a major military escalation in Libya.




Celebrating International Women's Day

By Mousumi Roy

08 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

The history of the world is littered with heroic liberation movements. A given "people" win the right to be free of oppression by another "people". How often have we equated "people" with men. How often have liberation movements served only to liberate men. There are lots of "liberated countries" but too often the liberation stops short of liberating the women. Sad. Women DO cry on occasion. Women do fall in love on occasion. Men fall in love with women on occasion. Well, what are we to do? Become robots? Lets get real.

I wonder if women ruled the world, would they become as greedy as the power seeking men, who rule the world today? I feel they would loose their inner softness and femininity, become more masculine, domineering and create a world where men would suffer greatly. If women ruled the world it would not be an ideal world, just as a world ruled by men today is not an ideal world. My ideal world would see both working hand in hand for a better world for all.

Being a woman is a gift from God; it should be appreciated that a woman can perform so many responsibilities. All married women (or in a relationship) might say there is a woman behind the success of every man.

And to all unmarried women: Being single is tough, yes we can do so many responsibilities at home and in the workplace; and yet we enjoy all the good things in life: music, travel and the joy of having many friends, because friends make us smile through good and bad times I really feel so special My role, that a woman can do great things by imparting knowledge among students and through some ways, had contributed ideas regarding one sector of a societys further improvement In todays world woman supports the family economically as well as bears the burden of children, so more important and deserving more respect

And it is not just about making daughters bold but also about making sons equally sensitive.

Traditions and cultures 

Our civil society is torn between traditional beliefs, such as male dominance, and modern ideas, which, among other things, empower women.

The issue in India is closely related to the cultural and traditional mindset of majorities where equality of gender is a big question. Unlike in US or other western society we dont see women rapists more in India because of heavy gender bias. Some Hindu texts consider women as no-valued commodity or a cheap commodity and so can be misused. Another Hindu text gives so much hype on woman as a God and that is also dangerous as it creates a false image of a normal woman and the Hindu mindset doesnt allow women the freedom of expressing themselves in a modern dimension visavis Sari vs Jeans. Movies show girls with skimpy dress as bad and girls with Saree as good

Although, I am dead against the manmade traditions and cultures of this world. I practically live of what I say. I am not afraid to say what is wrong in this country for ages. Every revolution has been against traditions on one way or other. Raja ram Mohan Roy broke the tradition of sati. Periyar alias EVR broke the tradition of blind faith and superstition. Until and unless women break these useless traditions they will fall prey for theses unscrupulous elements in society

I imagine someday women will script their own religious Scriptures 

When a great mind like Hypatia emerges, it is viewed as heresy to everything the religionists believe and must be an abomination. Hypatia, the genius of Alexandria was hacked to death by the barbaric Christians and fed to dogs to complete their display of contempt for a woman with the temerity to be so much smarter than they were Fanatical religionists have always been intolerant and dangerous. Most fundamentalists hate women, strip them of basic human rights, treat them as chattel  as in property to be owned and controlled by men for pleasure, reproduction and household labor Anyway, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, uneducated fanatical religionists are pretty much the same

Women have been considered property in most parts of the world since humans discovered that men were required in the production of babies (women no longer had a monopoly on fertility). The notion of honour goes back a very long time. It is associated with status. Since women were (essentially) owned they were for the use of their owner. If you wanted to transfer ownership of a woman (daughter) you had to ensure that she was unused.

Bringing England into it  because even Lady Diana went through virginity tests when she married Charles. Many people in the west condemn Islam for a lot of practices that are found in our own.

Misogynistic and patriarchal 

Tendencies present in almost all societies and creeds need to be curbed. Progressive liberal societies should frame a uniform civil code ensuring total equality of both sexes in matters of inheritance, matrimony etc. social mobilization against practices of honor killings, khap behavior, bride burning etc. will also be helpful. At individual family level we must not only pamper daughters but daughter in laws too. Why do women continue to believe a ghar jamaii is a bad thing but a girl must go to a guys home when she marries? So long as she believes this, she participates in patriarchy women have to perform a greater role in resisting patriarchal tendencies. A feminist woman carried a campaign against a fraternity member who complimented her to profile pic, calling it misogyny. Ati Sarvatra varjayate 

Social Inequity 

I think any policy that addresses social inequity fairly, or reasonably fairly, has my support. Discrimination on the basis of wealth, or caste, or gender, or status, seems repugnant to me. The Indian Constitution held men and women at par, and if in getting our social and economic fabric in sync with its principles, our governments need to act by making laws favouring some sections of society, I am for it. The caveats would be  They should be short-term, not permanent measures, and they should be fair in the long run. If governments short change society by using these balancing tools as vote-catchers for their own survival, I think that is a distortion of the right intent. Reservations, subsidies, scholarships are fine in a society that has suffered years of discrimination at the hands of an elite section of it. The discrimination in the US  where women could not vote till about a 100 years ago, and non-white citizens were discriminated against till 40 years back, also took time to correct and for that country to arrive as an egalitarian society. We have to be patient with social re-engineering too.

Women are still subjugated 

we only claim to be a so called modern society but within a flash of second all the modernity factor vanishes! women are still subjugated and no one can actually tell for how long this subjugation will exist

How many people would have noticed that its a male dominated society? India has a long history of system of violence on weaker sections Father will always ask his son to drop him to station or airport for late night travel not his daughter Its alright for a son to have a girl friend but its not okay for a daughter to have a boy friend Its alright for a son to have a night out but for daughter its prohibited. Bike for son public transport for daughter Its okay to beat a woman Woman does not have right to say no to his father / husband The tradition pass on to next generation. So are we raising our children in a healthy environment? All these things to protect their daughters? From whom are they protecting daughters ? Sons of other parents. Why are they doing so? Because somewhere while parenting they planted a thought in their sons mind that they are superior, they have right to hit on girls and many other things. Here, I am talking about those parents who claim that boy and girl are equal. There are exceptions as well. You cant judge India by living in metropolitan cities, working in a MNC travelling in cabs with 24 hours Net and electricity access. Now, lets move to rural India. 70%, huge number. Cities, towns or villages its quite okay to abuse your wife. Again 70% of women in India are its victim. You will be surprised to know that it increases in rural areas.

Modern Society 

We are looking at the past and only part of the future. Things are changing at a rapid pace: parents are becoming more fair to their daughters. Unfair treatment to daughters by parents in rural areas are being resisted by daughters going to highest classes in school. Girls are getting more aware of their rights. While cheating of siblings and wives may continue even in future, the picture will change dramatically in favour of womens right to inheritance in another decade. The seeds have been sown, thanks to progress in literacy, education, TV, mobile, work by womens organisations, spread of women self-help groups.

Writer is a columnist and based in Muscat




Happy or Hapless: Dalit Students With Dalit Professors

By B. Prabakaran

08 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Rohit vemulas social death has had disastrous upshot on students, scholars, professors and the Dalits in general across the state by opening doors, for having debates, to understand the plight of Dalit students, who study Masters and Ph.D, at the higher educational institutions of India. My friend and the research scholar who is pursuing his doctorate in Chennai wrote an article, which briefly speaks of the general circumstances of Dalit students, recently in leading English daily. According to him, even Dalit professors humiliate Dalit students more than non-dalit professors. What extent the statement is honest? Is it true or merely a jargon? The readers, especially non-dalits, who had read the column, would have been perplexed.

We might have heard about many incidents of cruelest behaviors of the caste Hindu professors against oppressed sections. A short time ago in Tamilnadu, a Dalit youth, coming from a scavenging caste, who wanted to do Ph.D, got the seat under the guidance of a caste Hindu professor. As the student belongs to scavenging caste, the professor used to compel him to come to his residence not for the lessons or discussions but for cleaning his home. And whenever the student used to go to his home, even for proof correction, he insisted him to do so. The student, furthermore, was asked to help out his wife in drying her cloths and to carry out other domestic works.

Another student who is studying the subject of Beef eating and social exclusion did not/could not get any government fellowship till today as the title, probably, makes government of the day upset. The topics or the subjects, in most cases, Dalit student wishes to explore is not taken into consideration. If the topic consist words like Ambedkar or Dalit, the respective supervisors would be harassed so as an alternative they suggest the students to change the topic or change terminologies something like poor, disadvantaged, deprived, and economically backward.

Quota students, SC students, fellowship students, these are the comments that Dalit students mostly encounter from other groups at the Indian educational campuses. These abusive languages are comparable to what characteristically happens every minute in the Indian villages, where predominately caste Hindus have power over economic and political spheres, calling Dalits by the caste names with added filthy adjective. This necessarily need not be done by fellow students but also the teachers as well as staffs. When I joined M.Phil course at the Madurai University, a service staff in the office introduced me to the HOD as sir, SC student, new admission. Since then my caste has become so discernible to them that this kept me wondering and exasperating, what is the need for revealing my position, with self-evident specification, imposed on me, without my consent.

Students like the humiliated youths narrated in the above episodes or Senthilkumar or Vemula who have died because of continuous torture and discrimination, or chain of events as enunciated by many scholars, by the caste Hindu professors. Many Dalit students, indeed, have been encountering many insidious forms of sufferings at all universities and research institutions. But this is also a myth that those students from oppressed sections who work with Dalit professors are not discriminated as much as the one working under caste Hindu Professors. In fact, it is assumed to be beneficial for both - student and the professor. We must introspect at this juncture that are Dalits students, who are pursuing his or her doctoral degree, at ease in the hands of Dalit professors or do professors really guide them without any exploitation?

Generally, we invoke discriminations if it is only done by non-Dalits or caste Hindus or occurs in the context of Dalit VS non- Dalit, not within Dalits. We therefore hardly ever discuss the issues of Dalit students working with Dalit professors. The incidents narrated in this paper attempt to draw your attention in order to understand and explicate the authors personal experiences and others like himself. The paper stems from the experiences that are found by the author in the course of his study and interaction with students. As the author, aware of these issues, is not intend to present a negative image(s) of Dalit professors, who failed to offer pedagogical accountability but to provide an overview as well to highlight the obstacles of Dalit students in the current research programmes. The author, on the other hand, strongly felt that the paper would intercede as a means to initiate a conversation between students and professors.

Slow learners, not proficient in English or who do not pronounce English well could not become prominent in Mathematics and Science subjects as compared to the students from other communities. These are the prejudices about Dalit students that are still ingrained in professors caste minds. One of the Dalit students who achieved top rank in the higher secondary school examination got admission at one of the premier institutions in India. One day in the class room he was humiliated by his professor asking him, how did you get admission here? By your caste quota?. The student, who got the seat under the general category based on his marks, felt that the professor not only put him down in front of the whole class but the whole community. Supervisors are very much being in love to tempt the students to cry out in front of them. In the very first year students are made to feel they do not have adequate knowledge to pursue Ph.D. As a result they lose hope on themselves and the subject. If you are married before joining they would ask why you got married. If you are not married they would say, go and get married to someone and do other work. Do not come here. Comments like this are not only made by others but also expressed by Dalit professors.

Students of Dalit community are selected by even Dalit professors usually after having a long conversation with the respective students. Even these decisions are made in order to show their sympathy to the entire community, as if they are socially concerned. A Dalit student, who has worked earlier as guest lecturer, is pursuing her Ph D under Dalit professor for more than four years without any agreement on her research title or design or without receiving any academic guidance.

Another girl student coming from rural and poor background doing her Ph.D, everyday comes across sexual threats and sexual comment, though she courageously refused the advances right away and reprimanded the concerned person right away. She was selected by the same professor with promising words like since you and I are from the same caste, we should work mutually so as to be trouble-free. As she regards education, especially Ph.D, as an important dream of her life; she has tolerated all this from day one to present. The professor also intervenes into her personal matters and controls her mobility such as whom to speak and where to go. As his attempts, for sexual exploitation, have failed, eventually, he attempted to seize money as much as possible from her monthly fellowship, which mounted up to lakhs now. (Listen caste Hindu students, who murmur about Dalit fellowships, there are countless bitter stories)

A handful of Dalit professors generally show off themselves as gatekeepers, exceptions are there, of the Dalits students in front of other faculties and the institutions, especially where academic discussions takes place. But to the respective students group they are as matter of fact, hardly ever, guiding, encouraging and helping academically (or in other ways) related to the subjects that student wants to work on. They in fact I have personally experienced, try to construct emotional bonding with students by simply keeping the photograph of Ambedkar or pictorially representing his legendary quotations in their rooms. But unexpectedly the actions remain inconsistent to this and create false consciousness among the students soon after. However, the young scholars still believe the teachers who speak of Ambedkar or the caste issues, whoever they are, would guide them contentedly.

Ideally students expect, in any case, positive attitudes from the professors. In contrast some of the Dalit professors have also been wounding dalit students psychologically by continuous daunting as other does. The crucial part is that they also very consciously opt for and prioritize their attention to the students such as first from their own sub caste then other caste groups. In some way, thus, Dalit professors also exploit students, so the hope in the minds of young students, who are coming with passion, to do research gets dashed. Dalit professors and intelligentsia need to think of special preparation for Dalits  who are can be an average or bright student; who may have studied in rural, government schools and colleges with inadequate infrastructure - in order to foster them. Students cannot be successful on their own without some encouragement or support from Dalit academia; therefore they need help from every corner, particularly among the educationists if Dalits really have to liberate themselves from the oppression. If we paraphrase Freire, pedagogy of the Dalits should be practiced by not only non-dalit professors but the oppressive Dalit professors too.

B.Prabakaran is an independent researcher and author of three books on Ambedkar. He can be contacted at prabakar.bas@gmail.com




Indian Women Debate On The Right To Pray This Womens Day

By Shubhda Chaudhary

08 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

As the world celebrates International Womens Day, Indian women are still fighting for the Right to Pray. On 7th March, Activist Trupti Desai along with other members of her Bhumata Brigade almost 30 km away from the Trimbakeshwar temple. The brigade was marching towards the temple in Nashik to enter into its inner sanctum, to oppose the decades-long ban on the entry of women.

The pertinent question is, why women have been banned from the entry? Is it based on traditions? Does it follow any pertinent treatise of Hinduism or the ban is a reflection of the patriarchal Indian society? The Trimbakeshwar temple is one of the important Shiva Temples, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in the country.

The opposition on this ban is not nascent. Last January, Desai and her brigade members had demanded entry into Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district. According to them, the ban is not constitutional and it is against the Freedom to Pray and worship. Though, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra had openly supported the right to pray for women, he has been silent regarding the current Trimbakeshwar Temple incident when the activists have been detained and assaulted.

There is no case in any court either, so they cannot use that excuse. So I request the chief minister that they should deploy more police and allow us the entry. I would like to say to Hindutva groups that I am Hindu too. This is not a fight of religion or of god, this is a fight for women's rights, Trupti said.

Maharashtra State Commission for Womens chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar stated In our culture, equal status has been given to both men and women this is the same for worshipping gods also. The women can worship god as men do. We feel that society must work in accordance with this and provide equal opportunity to all.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to hear another narrative from the women trustee of the religious establishment. They believe that this entire march to enter into the inner sanctum is just a publicity stunt. The ban has been an age-old tradition and it has never been questioned. This shows how scattered the enter fraternity of women itself is, a reason why the marches are not able to win their way. Several right-wing organizations such as Sharada Mahila mandal, Mahila Dakshata Samiti and Purohit Sangh are also against this march.

It is also quite ironic that women are allowed to enter the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, which is also dedicated to Lord Shiva. So, it becomes a little difficult to understand why such stringent rules are being followed at Trimbakeshwar Temple.

Muslim women recently staged a protest demanding entry into a restricted area of the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai, a stir that came amid a campaign by a group seeking right for female devotees to offer prayers at inner sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra.

The Indina Express reported:

Several activists belonging to Muslim women groups held placards demanding entry for females into the sanctum sanctorum of the historic dargah, which receives hundreds of devotees everyday. A participant said it was male patriarchy, and not religion, which was imposing restrictions on women. This is against tenets of Islam. The Constitution has given you equal rights, Islam supports the Constitution, she added. A Muslim womens rights group is locked in a legal battle with trustees of the Haji Ali dargah, which has barred womens entry into mosques mausoleum.

In February 2016, the Supreme Court questioned the banning of entry of women into the Keralas Sabarimala temple, and debated whether these man-made regulations should be followed because God as such, does not discriminate between men and women. Nevertheless, concrete result is still much awaited.

Though, its quite unfortunate and a blowback to feminist ideologies that demand equality that such kinds of customs still continue to be prevalent in India. It not only further deepens the discrimination ingrained within Hinduism, but also tries to high-handedly impose its own superstitions and beliefs. So, this womens day, do Indian women have enough equality to rejoice? Well, perhaps not!

Shubhda Chaudhary is a PhD Student in JNU. She can be reached at shubhda.chaudhary@gmail.com




JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Roger Wynns of Milford, Texas loads "Lilac Girl," an English cream golden retriever, into a pet carrier outside of Evansville Regional Airport before sending her on a flight bound for Florida Tuesday. Evansville Regional Airport announced that it's adding direct flights to Orlando, Florida, through Allegiant Air during a news conference Tuesday.

SHARE Doug Joest

By Susan Orr of the Courier and Press

Evansville Regional Airport will soon add a low-fare airline to its lineup, and officials said this development should benefit the airport in several ways.

On Tuesday, Allegiant Air announced it will begin offering twice-a-week nonstop flights between Evansville and the Orlando Sanford International Airport. Flights will run on Thursdays and Sundays beginning June 2.

The Sanford airport is about 30 miles north of the area's primary airport, Orlando International Airport. Sanford is about 45 miles from both Daytona Beach and the Walt Disney World Resort.

Based in Las Vegas, Allegiant is a low-cost carrier that focuses on the leisure travel market.

"We have worked to acquire this route over a long period of time," airport Executive Director Doug Joest said during a news conference inside the airport terminal.

As a smaller airport, Evansville has long struggled to retain potential customers who drive to other airports in search of lower fares. In 2010, the airport commissioned a "leakage study" to analyze the actions of local air travelers. Among air travelers who lived within an hour of Evansville Regional Airport, only 55 percent actually used it. Most of the others used Louisville International Airport, which is served by low-cost carrier Southwest.

With a low-fare carrier coming to Evansville, Joest said, "there's no reason for people to consider driving two to three hours to an airport in another state."

Allegiant is initially charging $59 for one-way flights between Evansville and Sanford. Fares that cheap may boost local air traffic by converting drivers to fliers, Joest said.

"For $59 each way, you can't drive it for that," Joest said. "A family of four might consider flying to Florida."

And if Allegiant's arrival boosts passenger numbers, that helps Evansville's airport in a couple of other ways.

Some of the money that Evansville Regional Airport gets from the Federal Aviation Administration is based on passenger counts  so the more people use the airport, the more money it's eligible for. More travelers also means more people paying to park at the airport, Joest said.

In 2015, Evansville Regional Airport had 208,296 passengers.

Allegiant also offers twice-weekly flights to Sanford from Owensboro. Those flights, which run on Mondays and Fridays, will continue, said Allegiant spokesman Brandon Myers.

"We serve a number of airports that are in close proximity to each other," Myers said.

Allegiant has found that arrangement boosts business rather than cannibalizing it, he said.

"It actually motivates more people to go (travel) because they have more flight options."

Allegiant's model is to use secondary airports in larger cities. Orlando Sanford handled 2.5 million passengers last year. In comparison, Orlando International handled 38.8 million passengers.
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One of the most destructive weather events to impact Southern Indiana was a tornado that leveled the Posey County community of Griffin in 1925. Howard Roosa Jr. was one of the Evansville soldiers (pictured here) sent to Griffin after martial law was declared following the tornado, which killed an estimated 69 residents of the small town. During the afternoon of March 18, a powerful funnel cloud, which had originated in Missouri, ripped through Southern Illinois before crossing the Wabash River into Indiana. Half of Princeton was also destroyed before the twister fizzled out just south of Petersburg. The tragedy claimed at least 695 lives in three states - 71 of them in Indiana - injured more than 2,000 people, and left scores homeless. (Photographer: Karl Kae Knecht)

History Lesson is a pictorial history of Evansville compiled by Patricia Sides, an archivist with Willard Library.
SHARE Michael A. Miles Michael A. Miles

By Richard Gootee of the Courier and Press

A 22-year-old man is in jail after being accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl at an Evansville hotel.

Michael A. Miles was arrested Sunday night. According to the probable cause affidavit against Miles, the alleged victim reported the incident to police Sunday morning.

She reportedly told investigators that Miles gave her alcohol and then had sex with her in a room at Value Place, 8221 Stahl Road, on Saturday. According to the affidavit, she told Miles her age before the incident.

A man who was inside the Value Place room when police went to investigate the alleged incident on Sunday confirmed Miles and the girl had sex, investigators wrote in the affidavit.

During an interview with police, Miles reportedly acknowledged knowing the girl was 14 and buying alcohol for her. He also, according to the affidavit, admitted to having sex with the girl after police told him that both the 14-year-old and the other man who was inside the room with him on Sunday had accused him of doing so.

Miles, who is listed in jail records as an Evansville resident, is preliminarily charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, a level 4 felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. He is being held at Vanderburgh County jail without bond, awaiting an initial court appearance.
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By Bobby Shipman

Michael Austin has dedicated his life to shaping the student experience.

The important of which involve international study, he said, where students understand for the first time what it means to live in a different culture. A heavy focus on studying aroad is one aspect that attracted Austin to the University of Evansville.

Austin was named UE's executive vice president of Academic Affairs on Monday.

The new vice president hails from Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, where he was provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, as well as a professor of English.

While at Newman, Austin took a group of students to Guatemala for eight weeks. The students lived with local families, provided service in health clinics and learned the language.

"It made their world larger. It took them from a comfort zone ... and they left with a new understanding and new set of human connections," Austin said.

In his new role, Austin will oversee faculty, curriculum and the learning experiences of the students.

The English afficianado was chosen after the university conducted a national search. Four finalists were chosen from a "large pool" of candidates, according to a news release, and then each visited campus.

Austin earned his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara and his masters and bachelor's of arts degrees in English from Brigham Young University.

Austin taught English for 12 years before moving to administration. He has 15 years of experience in higher education administration at both public and private liberal arts institutions. During his career, Austin also served as dean of graduate studies at Shepherd University, and chair of school's English and modern languages department.

"There is so much more to shaping a student's experience than just teaching them world literature or an English novel," he said. "They key is that everything needs to be intentional- the classroom experience, but also the out-of-class experience."

"We are very excited that (Austin) has agreed to become our new executive vice president of academic affairs," said UE President Thomas Kazee in a news release. "He brings with him a strong background in liberal arts education and collaborative team building. He has a passion for education, and a proven ability to bridge the gap between liberal arts and professional programs."

Austin said students benefit from the critical thinking and problem-solving skills at the core of a liberal arts education, but at the same time it's important for them to learn valuable career skills.

"I think a really excellent first-year experience includes learning community courses, where the same students are taking different courses together that are integrated in some way," he said. "Often it includes a common reading. A book that everybody on campus reads and is programmed around."

Austin said the university would bring in similar authors or lecturers or even put on plays or host art displays that coordinate with the experience.

"What I have found is that, what students in their first year need to understand most is that all of the separate things they are doing in college are related to each other on some level," he said.

Austin, who wa written several books on literature as well as history, will start at UE on July 1.
By Jon Webb of the Courier and Press

Vacationers heading to Disney World will soon be able fly there directly from Evansville.

The Evansville Regional Airport will announce that it's adding a sixth direct destination: Orlando, Florida, through Allegiant Airlines. The airport will officially announce the addition Tuesday morning, Steve Schaefer, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's chief of staff, confirmed Monday night. The mayor plans to be in attendance.

Orlando will join Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit and Dallas as direct destinations offered at the airport.

Allegiant Air's website already has the EVV Airport listed and advertises "a new nonstop route: Evansville to Orlando/Sanford," which is about 30 miles north of Orlando International Airport. One-way tickets start as low as $59, according to the website.

"Expanding to new cities and offering new routes is a great way for us to grow our brand of convenient, low-cost travel for millions of travelers. This year we wanted to go above and beyond for our passengers," said Jude Bricker, Allegiant chief operating officer. "By offering $1 million worth of free flights, we're hoping to make a lasting and impactful connection with thousands of travelers by creating opportunities that will fulfill a personal need or desire and result in an unforgettable Allegiant experience."

Flights can be booked as early as June 2 and will be offered twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays.
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By Richard Gootee of the Courier and Press

Mesker Park Zoo announced Tuesday that it has a new baby animal.

The one-month old Sichuan takin named Kailash will, though, get much bigger. She was born at the zoo on Feb. 10 and has been on public display since last week.

Amy Mangold, a spokeswoman for the zoo, described the baby girl as "curious but timid." Mangold said the best time to see the zoo's new addition is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

"A lot of times you can see her romping around, but she doesn't venture too far from her mom right now," Mangold said. "It usually takes them about two months for them to be fully weened, but you can see her exploring, at least her food options with Mom and Dad out there  whether it be hay, alfalfa or bamboo."

The new calf is named after a sacred Tibetan mountain, zoo officials said. She is the second offspring for proud parents Taile and Dawa.

Kailash's older sibling is no longer in Evansville, but trio can be seen in Mesker's Asian Valley section. Mangold said the takin couple seems to be passing the parenting test so far.

"It's always very exciting to see new life out there (in the zoo), and it's also exciting to see how the male and female interact with their offspring," she said. "This mom and dad of the new calf have been very attentive and been very good parents so far."

Takin are native to the mountainous regions of China and are listed as a "vulnerable" species due to over-hunting and loss of habitat in the wild, according to zoo officials. They are related to goats and sheep and weigh about 600 pounds as adults.
DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Stan Schmitt offers his unique knowledge of Evansville history to a visitor at the Willard Library Thursday afternoon. Schmitt just began his second term three-year term as Vanderburgh County Historian.

SHARE DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Stan Schmitt begins the task of reshelving reference books on the second floor of the Willard Library Thursday afternoon. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Stan Schmitt reshelves a reference book at Willard Library Thursday afternoon. Since reference books can't be "checked-out," the library asks visitors to not reshelve the books on their own so the staff can manually scan them before placing them where they belong. This allows the library to know which and how many of the books are being used by the public. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Stan Schmitt (left) offers his thoughts on identifying a group of photographs brought in by Tom Bernhardt of Evansville at Willard Library Thursday afternoon. Schmitt's work as a part-time library assistant is just one of many of the hats he wears.

By Sarah Loesch of the Courier and Press

Stan Schmitt knew in grade school that his life would revolve around history.

He grew up visiting monuments and having his dad take his photo in front of national park signs.

"There was just everything historic up (on the East Coast)," Schmitt said, an Evansville native whose family moved around the East Coast for part of his childhood. "When you went on vacation you hit all those kinds of things."

The interest in history never wavered as Schmitt grew up.

Now Schmitt has entered into his fourth year as Vanderburgh County Historian after being reappointed to the post earlier this year.

One of many historians spread across the state affiliated with the Indiana Historical Society, Schmitt works out of Willard Library and helps people with everything from genealogy to finding out the name of a bar they frequented while attending Indiana State University - Evansville back in the 1960s or '70s.

"It can be from serious to esoteric what people are looking for," Schmitt said.

But he took a winding road, and a few pit stops, to get to his current position.

Teaching or law school

Schmitt and his family moved back to Evansville before he graduated high school, making him a member of the last class to graduate from the old Central High School in 1971.

Schmitt chose to attend Indiana University and pursue a bachelor's degree in history. He said the classes at IU offered more opportunities as opposed to a school closer to home, such as the University of Evansville.

"There was just so much more there that you could take then," Schmitt said.

Schmitt said his history degree readied him for two paths.

"(The history degree) puts you in the position (in which) you either teach or you go to law school," he said. "I tried law school, went halfway through and didn't like that."

The next step was to try teaching. He found that wasn't for him during his time student-teaching at Bloomington South High School.

"The teaching part is fine, the discipline and all that stuff, not so," he said. "...I think that's personality. I wasn't as outgoing as you needed to be and I think that was part of the reason law school (didn't work) too."

After he discovered neither law nor education was the right fit for him, Schmitt ended up working for a coal company.

"That was how I got into courthouse research," he said.

The company would send Schmitt to research back deeds to find out who owned the land it was interested in.

After that Schmitt "fell into" title work in part due to his background with the courthouse.

Schmitt now is an independent property title searcher and works at Willard Library as a part-time library assistant and historian.

He is also vice president of the Vanderburgh County Historical Society. Schmitt said the historical society gives him a place to be around like-minded people.

"You'll have a meeting or something and after you'll go to Turoni's and 'talk history,'" he said.

He said he finds the same connection at Willard.

"I fit in there," he said.

Lyn Martin, special collections librarian at Willard, said Schmitt was at the library a lot even before he became a staff member.

His interest in history led him there for research long before a spot opened and he applied. Martin said with Schmitt's knowledge of local families and the courthouse she thought he would make a valuable addition to the staff.

"That has been proven correct," she said.

Martin said Schmitt is always friendly and he's willing to to conduct courthouse research with anyone who comes in.

Schmitt said history can be a hard area to connect with people due to the solitary nature of the work. But there is always someone to share information with.

"It's not like we want to do it ourselves," Schmitt said. "It's like, well we are working on this because it's important to us and as far as we know nobody else is doing anything about it."

History in the community

With this reappointment Schmitt entered is second three-year term as Vanderburgh County Historian.

In Vanderburgh County, the Historical Society board recommends a candidate. Schmitt said in most instances the choice by the local nominating committee is accepted.

"The Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana History Bureau started this program 35 years ago," Schmitt said. "It was really designed to go down to a local level."

Rachel Hill Ponko, director of public relations for the Indiana Historical Society, said the idea of naming a historian in each county is to provide a link between research and resources in their area.

"They are promoting history across the state and are able to help each other," she said. "They provide a link to the organizations in their own county and to the state."

The involvement with the community helps interest in history grow, which is a goal of the historical society, Ponko said.

(We want to) make sure everyone has the information of where we came from so they know where we are headed," she said.

'If it's not in Wikipedia'



When Schmitt isn't helping others, he's helping himself.

The history of transportation and the military are Schmitt's two main areas of interest.

"The bad thing about it in my case is that until I'm sure I've got almost everything I don't put it down into writing," he said. "I've had a book title and chapter titles on the canal era in Evansville for 20-something years."

He said in the Evansville area there are research opportunities on the railroads, aviation, World War II, the Civil War and more.

"I find we're getting into the 'If it's not in Wikipedia we don't want to go any farther to research things,'" Schmitt said.

Martin said at Willard patrons are encouraged to not take one piece of information and run with it. She said Schmitt has the ability to connect people to other records they need, whether it be deeds, marriage licenses or other documents in order to capture the full scope of their research.

Schmitt said he continues to find new information in all of his work - because he never stops looking.

"People who know me through history know to ask me about these things," he said. "It's a recognition in a sense. You're the one that they picked."
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Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday at 94, devoted her life to fiercely protecting her husband, whether that be as his most steadfast helpmate in the Oval Office or his most tireless caregiver when Alzheimer's left him unable to even recognize her.

After Ronald Reagan's death in 2004, the former first lady retained guardianship of the legacy of the beloved and important 40th president. She endeavored at every opportunity to remind Americans of his brand of hopeful and constructive conservatism.

A woman who knew the heights of power in the 1980s - and whose stylish sensibility brought back to the White House an air of glamour and confidence not seen since Jacqueline Kennedy's day - saw her world crumble with the former president's Alzheimer's diagnosis.

The depth of her devotion during Reagan's long illness seemed to shift the public's perception of a woman who was more admired than loved during her years as first lady. Advocating even after his death on behalf of stem cell research, she became a voice for the millions of Americans grappling with Alzheimer's grim reality.

Fewer remember that in 1987, Nancy Reagan spoke out on yet another health challenge. After undergoing a mastectomy, she openly discussed her operation to encourage women to have mammograms every year. She also worked hard on behalf of her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign.

As first lady, she also was harshly criticized for what some considered her undue influence on the president. But she stood her ground as her husband's protector, telling a 1987 audience, "I make no apologies for looking out for his personal and political welfare."

By the end of the Reagan years, most Americans thought she'd done just fine.

The Reagan love story was described by the late Charlton Heston as "the greatest love affair in the history of the American presidency." Even their detractors conceded the power of their mutual fidelity and regard.

They met in 1949, both Hollywood actors, and married in 1952.

Nancy Reagan told Vanity Fair in 1998: "When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. I can't imagine life without him." By then, however, Reagan had already begun to slip away. In that decade, the former first lady guarded him more fiercely than ever and lived what she termed "the long goodbye."

At his state funeral, the frail widow of unshakable dignity bore up stoically through the ceremonies. She captured the nation's heart when, in her final farewell before burial, she kissed her husband's casket, clutched the American flag draped over it and, tears coming at last, said, "I love you."

"I live in a permanent Christmas because God gave me you," Ronald Reagan once wrote to his wife, whose importance in the drama of his life and his consequential presidency cannot be denied. Nancy Reagan poured her life out for her husband, and in so doing, for the nation.

This editorial appeared in The Dallas Morning News.
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Marsha Abell

Evansville

Dan Coats has opted not to run again for the U.S. Senate, opening the way for a new face. The candidates trailing in the race, a Democrat and another Republican, have tried political tactics to have the front-runner, Todd Young, dismissed from the race.

However, the Indiana Board of Elections dismissed the complaint. Now we must focus on Young and all that he offers. He is a veteran who returned to Indiana University after active duty and pursued a law degree, and subsequently practiced law with his father's firm. He then ran for and was elected to the U.S. Congress.

He understands the power of the system and feels he can make an even greater impact on the country and our state by serving in the U.S. Senate. I am encouraging all Republicans to vote in the May primary for Todd Young and then elect him to be our senator in November.
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Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse Five, the amazing book that confused you in ninth grade. But he didn't always make a living through writing. One day, while he was driving in Cape Cod, Vonnegut happened upon a truck carrying a fancy new car called a "Saab." At the time, the company was mostly known for fighter jets, so the curious Vonnegut followed the truck all the way to the dealer to test drive one of the cars. He did not have a busy schedule that day.

It was apparently the most successful test drive ever, as Vonnegut not only wanted a Saab -- he wanted all the Saabs. He was convinced that everyone on Cape Cod would want one, and told his wife that they should open a dealership as soon as they got home. Before long, Vonnegut was running the only Saab dealership on Cape Cod, and one of the first in the United States. But as with most financial decisions made in the blink of an eye, it ended poorly.

Edie Vonnegut

So it goes.

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As it turns out, that one test drive didn't reveal all the problems with the car -- mainly that when started in cold weather, it would, and we quote, "lay down a smokescreen like a destroyer in a naval engagement." More than once, Vonnegut's expensive smoke machines blanketed the town in a cloud of carcinogens.

His salesmanship might have been as bad as his carbon footprint. On the rare occasions on which he could convince a customer to sit in the passenger seat for a test drive, Vonnegut would make them sick "demonstrating" the front-wheel drive by taking corners like a European rally car driver. And if that didn't turn them off of buying the car, Vonnegut's bashing of Swedish engineering probably did the trick. But maybe he was bitter after being kicked out of Saab's mechanic school.
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But now it's getting harder for Netflix to keep content, because they're not the only game in town anymore. There's Amazon Video, that YouTube service named after a porn site, Crackle, Hulu, and the three other streaming services with goofy names that launched since we began this sentence. There are other bidders for the complete run of Flavor Of Love now, which is why Netflix's licensing costs keep going up while revenue tops off. They're simply going to run out of potential subscribers -- everyone who wants Netflix will have it, and it will take a couple of decades for Netflix and chill sessions to produce the next generation of fans.

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But hey, that's the way the market works, right? Unfortunately, this "be cheap, get screwed" logic manifests in more sinister ways in other online services. The advantage of Airbnb, for instance, is also its disadvantage. It's a hotel without the cost of a hotel, but also without any safety regulations. From owners pushing out less profitable lease-signing tenants to houses flat-out killing people with unsafe amenities, there's very much a "take the money and run" vibe. Airbnb does their best to filter out scams, but it's not like they can go to everyone's house and check their smoke detectors.

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Uber, on the other hand, apparently runs weaker background checks than your childhood fort. Murderers, rapists, burglars ... they've all gotten through Uber's screening process. The recent spree shooting in Michigan? It started as a sadly typical "Uber driver from hell" story.

CNN



Then there's Reddit, which has been involved in more scandals than a soap opera. Whether it's mods taking bribes from spammers or banning websites they don't like from being linked, it turns out that, shockingly, completely unfiltered democracy has downsides. Take the charming saga of r/rape, which started as a subreddit for rape fetish porn before being turned into a support group for sexual assault survivors ... but it still gets lewd visits from people interested in the original function. Appropriateness aside, that kind of drama scares advertisers off faster than telling them you're trying to form a communist utopia. Who wants to advertise somewhere that can be flooded with slurs overnight?
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Of course, you can't simply pop a tab of acid whenever the need arises and trip balls through the pain circus, because that would make it difficult to function (and psychedelics take a while to kick in anyway). It's more of a prevention strategy. "I just use them when they start, and I'm good for nine months to a year. Unfortunately, you can't get a prescription for mushrooms or LSD."

So there's only one trip, and you choose the time and place, then you've got a whole season free of the devil ineptly trying to take your contacts out. On the slightly more functional end of the scale, John believes that marijuana not only helps to alleviate the pain of a cluster attack, but also eases the anxiety of the impending head-stab as well. Nickolus agrees: "There's too large a list of medicines that have been shown to work to ignore just because the government wouldn't like it if I decided to use them instead of the insane painkiller regimen they stick me with."

Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images

"This one is for the pain, and this one is for the side effects to the one for the pain,

and this one's for the side effects caused by the side effects to the one for the pain. That'll be $6,000."

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Nearly everyone we spoke to sang the praises of one medication, though: oxygen tanks. Well hell, that seems easy enough, right? Why is this even a problem anymore if we've got such an accessible and simple form of treatment? Because, unfortunately, "it's really hard to get a prescription for that," Tyler says. "It's one of the most successful methods out there, but it isn't understood as useful for this treatment, so not a lot of people get to use it."


D.H. Lawrence in Studies in Classic American Literature.

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
A global Microsoft partner and a local reseller have merged their businesses and hired well-known channel executive Andy Neumann to grow their Australian operations.

US company Sensei Project Solutions has joined forces with Australian-based project and portfolio management (PPM) partner IPMO.

The newly merged company, which is called Sensei Project Solutions APAC, has appointed Neumann as its Asia-Pacific chief executive.

Neumann last month finished his role as chief innovation and marketing officer at Empired, which won the CRN Fast50 Leader Award in 2015. He formerly served as managing director of Microsoft partner OBS, which was acquired by publicly listed Empired in 2013.

Neumann told CRN that he is looking to grow the merged companys existing Australian business and might expand into Singapore or Hong Kong soon.

Sensei said the merger would significantly increase its intellectual property and boost its Asia-Pacific sales.

The deal also supports Senseis long-term strategy of becoming a leading global provider of Microsoft products and services.

IPMO brings complementary capabilities and software to Sensei, including a range of cloud-focused and Microsoft Azure-based productivity applications. In 2015, Microsoft Corp acquired six productivity apps from Sensei to integrate into its PPM platform, according to Sensei.

Sensei has made Neumann responsible for delivering new products, service lines and cloud productivity offerings.

IPMO executive director Marc Soester said Neumann brings a wealth of knowledge in the PPM space and is a respected leader with Microsoft.

Brett Brewer, general manager of Microsofts Project & Portfolio Management business, said Sensei and IPMO are both trusted Microsoft partners.

Having them now become one team with a shared commitment to Microsoft PPM will be of tremendous value to our joint clients, he said.
Australian telecommunications provider Amaysim has been criticised for changing its billing cycle from 30 days to 28 days.

Plans still cost the same per month, meaning Amaysim customers will be paying approximately 8 percent more for mobile data plans  though the company has beefed up the packs.

Amaysim customers took to communications industry forum Whirlpool to complain about the new prices.

"Optus too has moved to 28 days from 30 days. Over 12 months, this equates to a price rise of nearly one month in extra charges to customers on both carriers (2 day reduction x 12 months = 24 days additional cost to customers). Sneaky indeed and a clear price rise by any other name," commented one user.

Another user wrote: $26.90 for 30 Days becomes same amount for 28 Days, that definitely equates to a price rise and I agree with an earlier poster it's a sneaky price rise and for my usage makes it less attractive (I just don't like such market tactics)."

Not all customers weren't so outraged, as one user commented: "There is always somebody who wants something for nothing. The extra data seems to more than compensate for the extra cost of 28 day expiry.

The changes were accompanied by the announcement that Amaysim is increasing the cap on its unlimited data plans.

The 5GB plan will come with an extra 2GB of data, the 8GB and 2GB plan will each get an extra 1GB and the 1GB plan will be bumped up by 500MB.

Amaysim chief executive Julian Ogrin defended the change, saying it allowed customers to make like-for-like comparisons to find the best deals.

"We understand the change to a 28-day billing cycle has been unpopular with some customers, Ogrin told CRN.

To present the whole picture, some customers have responded positively to the increase in data and international inclusions.

Ogrin also pointed out that changing to a 28-day billing cycle has become commonplace in Australia. Australias three largest telcos  Telstra, Optus and Virgin  all bill on 28-day cycles.

We are confident that the recent additions to our suite of plans mean they are still among the best value in the market. The appetite for BYO prepaid plans is growing in Australia and as a result shorter billing cycles are increasingly becoming the norm, said Ogrin.

He added that customers can change Amaysim contracts when they want  though all plans have been swapped to 28 days.

As we have no lock-in contracts, customers are always welcome to move to a plan which better suits their needs, said Ogrin.

Amaysim currently has 764,000 mobile subscribers in Australia.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman announced that Amaysim was the least complained-about telco in Australia, reporting 0.7 new complaints for per 10,000 services.
Dicker Data has been given access to the entire range of products from Lenovo Enterprise.

The new deal includes products from Lenovos partnerships with Nutanix and Datacore, and Lenovos Blade Server range.

Lenovo partnered with Nutanix in November for co-branded, hyper-converged infrastructure appliances that combines compute, storage and networking on x86 server hardware.

Dicker has already offered Lenovos desktops and workstations since 2013, then added the SMB server range in April last year.

In February, Dicker  along with Avnet  signed up to distribute the new software-defined storage solution packaged with server hardware created from Lenovo and Datacore. The solution bundles Lenovo x3650 platform with DataCore SANsymphony-V software, with Dicker offering support and optional implementation.

Dicker Data chief executive David Dicker said: Lenovo has gone from strength to strength with us since our partnership began several years ago. As they continue to expand and grow in post-acquisition mode, were very pleased to be able to now offer their entire range of enterprise products to the market.

The Nutanix and Datacore products partnered with Lenovo represent a good differentiated offering for our partners to take to market.

Dicker Data reported revenues of $1.1 billion for the 2015 financial year, up 15 percent. In the past 12 months, Dicker added 11 new vendors to its portfolio including Intel, Nimble Storage, Paessler, Nuance Communications and BitTitan.
Microsoft continues to embrace open source with yesterday's announcement that it is porting flagship relational database management system, SQL Server 2016, to operating system distributions running the open source Linux kernel.

Historically a Windows-only platform, SQL Server has a very long history as part of being part of the software giant's offerings. Originally released in the late 1980s, it has now become an integral part of Microsoft's suite of software  often a mandatory requirement to many enterprise software solutions.

Microsoft has changed face since Satya Nadella took over the reigns as chief executive in early 2014, with many decisions being made to support the competition, especially Red Hat Linux on Azure, and Office on iOS and Android.

SQL Server on Linux has a planned release date of mid-2017. Right now, there is a private preview available  offering proof that this announcement is more than just a distant future intention.

Support for SQL Server on Linux will include on-premise and cloud, which fits into Microsoft's "mobile-first, cloud-first" strategy without abandoning those who have yet to embrace the cloud.

The move to deliver SQL Server on Linux is still surprising. Microsoft wouldn't make this move without expecting a bigger market share, creating another revenue stream from Linux users, or both. PostGreSQL and Oracle owned MySQL users will need a compelling reason to migrate, and convincing many Linux admins to look after a Microsoft product on 'their' servers will be another road block.

Many Linux enterprise users are sold on their free open-source solutions, and it is currently unknown what licensing will be required for SQL Server on Linux. It may save on requiring another Windows Server licence, but the target market for this won't care about that comparatively small cost.

Unless that licensing is different and cheaper than SQL on Windows, there will be little incentive for people to move to a SQL Server on a Linux solution.

It is unknown if the Linux solution will actually be open source, which is another deciding factor for many people who like to keep their options open.

This decision may open up more third-party products to Linux houses that previously couldn't pick SQL only supported solutions, but smaller enterprises may be lacking the skills of both Linux and SQL if they aren't used concurrently.

The target market for SQL Server on Linux appears to be those already willing to spend big. Red Hat and Canocial (Ubuntu) are supporting Microsoft with this venture, which helps all involved with being flexible in being a part of most solutions required that need a database.

Another possible angle is the emergence of containers, which are gaining momentum in both Linux and Windows worlds. The ability to have a SQL instance in a container and on a Linux box is going to be a necessity once this technology becomes mainstream, as being limited to a certain OS or platform will be too restrictive for many customers.

The importance of this announcement for the community is clear: the continuing approach from Microsoft to lessen vendor lock-in, keeping choices open and ultimately prepare them for the hybrid future. Microsoft will continue to fight hard to stay both relevant and valuable in the modern technological world.
Data center News

Report: Dell Close To Deal To Sell IT Services Business To NTT Data

Rick Whiting

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Dell is reportedly close to wrapping up a deal to sell its IT services business unit to NTT Data for about $3.5 billion.

Tuesday the website Re/code reported that NTT executives would meet with Dell CEO Michael Dell in New York on Wednesday to formalize the offer.

Sources told CRN on Feb. 16 that NTT Data had entered into an exclusive 30-day negotiating period with Dell, although at that point it was unclear how close the two companies were to a deal and at what price.

[Related: Dell Doubles Down On Premier Partners, Adds 60 Percent More To 'Elite' Tier]

Dell is in the process of acquiring storage system giant EMC and has been looking to sell the IT services business as a way to help pay down the $49.5 billion in debt Dell will take on as part of that acquisition. Dell is also trying to sell its Quest software business, which it bought in 2012, and its SonicWall security business.

Dell's IT services business unit consists largely of Perot Systems, the IT services company Dell bought in 2009 for $3.9 billion. Dell is said to have been initially seeking $5 billion for the business, but has had trouble finding a buyer at that price. Along with NTT Data, potential buyers originally included Tata Consultancy Services, Atos and Cognizant Technology Solutions, with some of those since dropping out of negotiations.

Dell Services was ranked at No. 9 on the CRN 2015 Solution Provider 500 list.

Dell has said that once the sale is complete, it expects to rely more on partners to provide systems implementation and other services to customers. That's resonating with channel partners.

"I think that the selling of the Dell IT Services division represents a terrific opportunity for partners, in that it should cause Dell to rely more on its partner community to deliver the services around the solutions," said Dan Serpico, CEO of FusionStorm, a San Francisco-based solution provider that partners with both Dell and EMC. "That creates more value-add and more profit opportunity for partners, without any potential conflict with Dell."

Serpico, in an email, said he had just chatted with Michael Dell at the VMware Leadership Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz., and noted how much the CEO is getting around and meeting with solution providers. He said the company overall is doing a good job of keeping partners informed about decisions relating to the EMC acquisition, such as last week's move to name several executives to key positions.

While Dell's channel program has "matured and evolved," Serpico said there have been challenges in migrating previously direct Dell customers over to Dell Partners. "The selling of [the IT services business] and the subsequent reliance on the partner community for services should help accelerate that transition by further clarifying the value that partners bring," he said.
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Paul Barbetta has been named group publisher and president of Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

The announcement was made by Hearst President and CEO Steven R. Swartz and Hearst Newspapers President Mark Aldam. Barbetta began his new position Tuesday and will report to Aldam.

In his new role, Barbetta will oversee Hearsts network of media companies in Connecticut, including four daily newspapers Connecticut Post in Bridgeport, The News-Times in Danbury, The Advocate in Stamford and Greenwich Timefive weekly newspapers and nine websites in southwestern Connecticut.

Theres a lot of talented people here, Barbetta said. "I want to get to know what they know, what they need, whats going to make them excel at their jobs."

Since 2012, Barbetta has served as senior vice president of circulation for Hearst Newspapers, a role he will continue to hold.

As our network of media across Connecticut continues to expand and grow, we are building one of the most diverse sets of digital solutions available in any local market to serve business customers, Aldam said. Pauls experience developing audiences and building top performing teams will help us accelerate growth in Connecticut as we maintain our commitment to deep community-level journalism.

Barbetta said while digital is where its going, obviously  the print publications are still very viable and a big part of our mix."

We want you to be excited about the content, Barbetta said. And you choose how to read it.

Prior to joining Hearst, Barbetta served as senior vice president of operations and logistics for CBA Industries, where he was responsible for the packaging, production and distribution of advertising inserts to 12 million homes weekly. From 2004 to 2009, he held the role of vice president of circulation, operations and transportation for Newsday Inc. Earlier in his career, he worked for The Baltimore Sun and USA Today.

Barbetta succeeds Henry B. Haitz who left the company earlier this week. Haitz was named publisher in December 2013.
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Despite the naysayers who said it couldnt be done, the Verrazano Bridge was constructed. So was the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River and the Long Island Expressway.

Why not a bridge from Long Island Sound to Connecticut  or a tunnel deep beneath the waterway?

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday suggested its not an unrealistic idea and said hes asking for $5 million to study the feasibility of the idea.

Maybe we consider a tunnel or a bridge to Connecticut, Cuomo told a meeting of the Long Island Association, an economic development group. Right now the only way to get off the Island is to drive all the way to the end, or you have to be a great swimmer.

A bridge over or a tunnel under Long Island Sound is not a new idea and was first proposed in 1938. Various landing points have been considered over the years, including New Haven, Bridgeport and Stamford but also Rye, N.Y., and other Westchester communities.

Recent estimates have pegged the cost of a tunnel across the Sound  which is as much as 18 miles wide at points  at $10 billion or more.

More Information Cuomo wants $5 million feasibility study Estimated cost of tunnel: $10 billion plus Sound's widest point: 18 miles See More Collapse

Connecticut officials reacted cautiously to the idea on Tuesday and a few privately said the idea is far-fetched, unlikely to happen and would not cut comunting time.

We have laid out our 30-year vision for transportation to grow jobs, boost our economy, and deliver a best-in-class infrastructure, said Devon Puglia, a spokesman for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has proposed spending $100 billion over the next 30 years to improve the states rail, bridge and highway systems.

We believe it's important that our vision aligns with those of other states," Puglia said, noting the governors plan does not include a Sound bridge or tunnel.

Long history

Other state officials privately said the project represents a monumental challenge in terms of funding and environmental issues and pointed out a truck traveling from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson would take the better part of an hour, offering little advantage to take the route.

James Cameron, founder of the Commuter Action Group, said the idea harkens back to a failed effort in the 1960s to build a tunnel.

With Amtrak also considering a tunnel to Connecticut, it would seem that the two plans should be combined, Cameron said.

A cross-sound highway alone would seem foolish if it could be combined with Amtrak's idea of a high speed rail link, Cameron added. The current cross-sound ferry between Bridgeport and Port Jefferson certainly shows there is a market, both for goods and passenger-cars, looking to cut the corner and avoid the Throgs Neck and Whitestone bridges.

Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, declined specific comment but noted several years ago a proposal to ferry truck traffic from New London to Long Island was killed by local opposition on the New York side.

Still, Cuomo was optimistic his idea can become reality.

It can be done, the New York governor said of the Long Island crossing, as well as the new Tappan Zee Bridge and LaGuardia Airport. At one time we were better at planning and envisioning. We were proud, ambitious, we were New Yorkers and we believed in ourselves. We can, and have gotten big projects done.

Previous proposals, including one by master builder Robert Moses to link Oyster Bay to Stamford, were defeated by financial or engineering concerns, or by opposition by residents at either end of the proposed link.

Congested roads

The Long Island Association asked in a letter to Cuomo that an upcoming, $5 million feasibility study of a tunnel across Long Island Sound also look at the option of a bridge.

Wayne Ugolik, a New York transportation planner in 2000 told the website NYCroads that: Every car that would go from Long Island to Connecticut would be offset by a car that came from Connecticut to Long Island. We don't see any reason to go any further because we don't see the congestion relief,

One 1966 proposal would have continued I-91 in New Haven across the Sound to Shoreham on Long Island.

A 1968 study by the consulting firm Howard, Needles, Tammen and Bergendoff recommended that Route 8/25 be extended from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson, according to nycroads.com. That route is now served by a ferry.

Newsday, the daily newspaper serving Long Island, reported in-depth on what those crossings would mean, determining that 15,000 permanent jobs would be created on the Connecticut side, and tourism would increase on both sides by avoiding New York City.
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WASHINGTON  When a Bridgeport police task force busted the parents of a month-old child over the weekend, they found the usual marijuana and crack cocaine.

But police said they also found substances not always associated with inner-city drug dealing: prescription drugs.

The arrests came as a reminder that the growing popularity of prescription drugs  and their post-graduate analog, heroin  is not confined to suburban or rural communities in Connecticut or across America.

Boundaries and borders dont mean much when it comes to addiction or distribution of opioids, or drugs in general, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim said.

Ganim was in Washington with Mayor Neil OLeary of Waterbury and other Connecticut municipal officials on Tuesday to hear a Senate floor speech by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who urged passage of legislation aimed at treating and preventing prescription painkiller and heroin addiction, and beefing up law enforcement.

Heroin addiction and prescription-drug abuse represent a danger to every community across the country, big cities and towns in Connecticut  suburban and urban, every race and religion and ethnic group and demographic, Blumenthal said.

Ganim said he welcomed federal recognition of the growing dimensions of the opioid addiction crisis.

In Connecticut, 723 people died of overdoses of various kinds of drugs in 2015  double the number of 2012.

And although Bridgeport has been plagued by illegal drugs for decades, there is some evidence to suggest the opioid wave is different.

The awareness is higher now  The awareness of prescription drugs in particular, the impact they have, Ganim said in a brief interview after Blumenthals speech. People kind of looked the other way for years, thinking, well, theyre legal, a doctor can prescribe them. 

The legislation advocated by Blumenthal  the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act  would enhance prevention and treatment efforts aimed at opioid addiction, as well as increase availability of drugs like Naloxone to counteract overdoses.

And it would also develop best practices for pain management and help states do a better job of keeping painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet off the black market. The Senate may vote on the bill as early as Wednesday.

Separately, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also spoke on the Senate floor on behalf of his bill that would lower barriers to prescription of another drug used to treat opioid addiction, buprenorphine. Naloxone is for counteracting immediate drug overdoses while buprenorphine is more of a heroin substitute, used during therapy to treat opioid addiction.

Murphys measure would remove caps on buprenorphine prescriptions and permit specially trained nurses and physicians assistants to dispense them as well.

Greater use of buprenorphine would bring real, tangible relief for communities in Connecticut, Murphy said. It would mean more addicts coming out of detox who would have access to true elements of recovery, in particular this very effective drug.

dan@hearstdc.com
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Bernie Sanders stock is tanking among families of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims after the Democratic presidential hopeful stood by a law that shields firearms manufacturers from wrongful death lawsuits.

During a CNN debate Sunday night in Flint, Mich., against Hillary Clinton, Sanders was asked whether Remington, the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle used to kill 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, should be held liable for one of the worst school shootings in the nations history.
Somerset jury finds two of three defendants guilty of murder

Now in its fifth day of testimony and seventh day overall, the double murder trial taking place in Somerset County is now over. The jury decided.
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Now Season 4 of House of Cards is being shown (on Netflix)  and Season 5 has been commissioned  how will this dramatic story about a ruthless US president (played by Kevin Spacey) end?

The British author of the original story, Michael Dobbs  an executive producer on the US version  says one possibility is that President Frank Underwood will have himself assassinated so that he dies a national hero

Might President Trump devise such a finale?

Now Season 4 of House of Cards is being shown (on Netflix)  and Season 5 has been commissioned  how will this dramatic story about ruthless US president Kevin Spacey, pictured, end?

Ronald Reagan, devoted to second wife Nancy, who has died aged 94, was in thrall earlier to British actress Patricia Roc, pictured.

Frisky Ms Roc  also known as Bed Roc  had a passionate relationship with Reagan after meeting him in 1945.

She is said to have lifted him from a deep depression following the collapse of his first marriage to Jane Wyman.

Ms Roc declined his marriage proposal in 1948 but they remained in touch until her death in 2003.

A framed picture of them gazing into each others eyes was displayed prominently in the drawing-room of her Swiss home overlooking Lake Maggiore.

Private Eye founder Richard Ingrams adds detail to my item about The Oldies Agony Aunt, writer Mary Kenny, and a one-legged African with whom she discussed Uganda  the magazines euphemism for love-making.

He recalls: He was the head of the Ugandan Electricity Board. When he died 108 women turned up for his funeral.

The on-screen flirting between Sky News presenters Jayne Secker and Colin Brazier, pictured, must pique the interest of regular viewers.

Is that the intention? Yesterday, on air, Ms Secker, 43, inquired of Brazier, 47: Did the earth move for you last night? Ms Secker was referring to a slight earth tremor in the Home Counties.

The on-screen flirting between Sky News presenters Jayne Secker and Colin Brazier, pictured, must pique the interest of regular viewers

On another occasion, smiling at him, she remarked: Well, we all like to have fun at work. Grinning, Brazier responded: Often inappropriately.

The pair, both happily-married  shes a mother of two, hes a father of six  were paired up by Sky in 2014.

At the time, Ms Secker seemed aloof alongside larky Brazier. When he informed her once on air (apropos an item about M&S) Now we know where you get your knickers from, she shook her head disapprovingly.

Ex-Telegraph proprietor (and staunch Roman Catholic) Conrad Black, 71, criticises Pope Francis for saying Donald Trump isnt a Christian because he wants to build a wall to keep Mexican migrants out of America.

The Popes comments were completely gratuitous, he says in the Catholic Herald, of which hes a shareholder.

Perhaps if Trump becomes president hell pardon ex-convict Conrad, which would allow the Canadian felon to visit America again.
Once upon a time, David Cameron was quite keen on the idea of referendums. Back in the heady early days of his first administration, there was talk of putting more big decisions to the public vote.

No 10 believed it had nothing to fear from so-called direct democracy, and considered giving voters new powers to trigger ballots.

These days his attitude to referendums has changed. After coming perilously close to catastrophe not once, but twice, during the Coalition years when he was at the mercy of the public mood, he is taking no chances. The question now is whether his heavy-handed tactics will backfire.

As the EU referendum campaign convulses Westminster, the Prime Minister is deploying every tool at his disposal to get the result that he desperately wants: a resounding Yes for Britain to remain tied to Brussels.

Once upon a time, David Cameron, shown, was quite keen on the idea of referendums. Back in the heady early days of his first administration, there was talk of putting more big decisions to the public vote

In recent weeks, he and his allies have been using a toxic combination of threats and powers of patronage to corral influential individuals and interest groups into toeing the Government line and crush opposition to the Remain cause.

Muzzling ministers, manacling the civil service, and manipulating everyone from Army generals to business leaders, Cameron is revealing a ruthless new face to the world.

The latest example has come with the resignation of John Longworth, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce.

A speech he made last week advocating the merits of Brexit was followed by an angry call from a Downing Street special adviser making clear that the Prime Minister was not at all pleased.

These, you might conclude, are not the sort of pressures which should be brought to bear in a modern democracy when such a crucial issue is being debated.

I spent two years researching David Camerons life for the unauthorised biography I co-wrote with the pollster Lord Ashcroft last year. What I learned was that he is a supremely self-assured politician who prides himself on his relaxed approach to the job.

He is clever enough to keep on top of his workload without running himself into the ground. He has dealt with scandals, wars, the imprisonment of his former head of communications and a recession that dragged on far longer than he ever thought  but as far as I know, hes almost never lost sleep over any of it.

Theres just one exception: the chaotic final days in the run-up to the Scottish referendum. And it is his memories of that bitter experience which is governing his uncompromising approach now to the EU referendum campaign.

Cameron is still haunted by what happened in the summer of 2014, when he feared he might be about to preside over the break-up of the United Kingdom. Though his general election campaign strategist Lynton Crosby had seen the danger coming, Cameron did not take the threat of Scottish independence seriously until the last gasp of the campaign, when Scottish Nationalists were in full cry and a dramatic YouGov poll put them ahead.

At the eleventh hour, he went into panic mode, wailing to friends that if Scotland voted to break away from the union, he would be remembered for this until the day I die.

Ironically, it was not his first experience of a referendum campaign almost going disastrously wrong. The other drama took place in the early days of the Coalition when a referendum was called on the introduction of a new voting system called the Alternative Vote.

Cameron, whod signed up to the ballot as part of the coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats, showed no interest in the subject until it was almost too late.

Having initially suggested that 2 million would be made available from Tory coffers to ensure the first-past-the-post system remained in place, he failed to deliver the funds and gave no active support to the team tasked with campaigning for the status quo.

Cameron had hoped his so-called deal with Brussels would lead to a 15-point bounce in support for remaining in the EU. Instead, polls are narrowing  and the Out campaign has barely got going

It was only after a mutinous meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs  during which the PM was warned in no uncertain terms the party would crucify him if the referendum was lost  that he began to wake up to a potential problem.

Even then, he remained curiously unruffled, sauntering into George Osbornes office and remarking that it was funny how Tory MPs could be so melodramatic.

More attuned to the risk, the Chancellor soberly responded to the effect that Camerons career might indeed be on the line.

When the message finally hit home, the Prime Minister was resolute, ordering his political secretary Stephen Gilbert to do whatever it takes to win.

The result was a resounding victory for his side  which convinced Cameron that if he throws his weight behind a cause, he will achieve the result that he wants.

Today, he leads a majority government and is a far more powerful Prime Minister than he was between 2010 and 2015. He had hoped his so-called deal with Brussels would lead to a 15-point bounce in support for remaining in the EU. Instead, polls are narrowing  and the Out campaign has barely got going.

So, having learned bitter lessons about the perils of referendums, he is giving it everything he has got. For once, he is under no illusion about what is at stake: namely, his future as Prime Minister.

Though publicly he has repeatedly said he will carry on no matter the outcome on June 23, I am certain that privately he knows an Out vote will mark the end of his political career.

He may have made clear that he will not seek a third term as Prime Minister, but neither does he want the humiliation of being ousted by his party after losing a campaign hes brought on himself.

As one of his aides put it yesterday: He knows whats riding on this. He got himself into it. He volunteered to have it, he framed it around getting a better deal from Brussels, and he is the person whose place in history depends on it.

He genuinely believes Britain is better off in, and hes going to make a vigorous case for it.

So it is that the full might of the Downing Street machine, and his secrecy-obsessed Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood  a man to whom Cameron has been in thrall since the Nineties  has been marshalled to the Remain cause.

A speech made by John Longworth last week advocating the merits of Brexit was followed by an angry call from a Downing Street special adviser making clear that the Prime Minister was not at all pleased

For those who fall into line and do his bidding, there are whispers of future reward, whether it be ministerial advancement or the possibility of gongs. Those considered to be unhelpful can expect a quiet telephone call from a Downing Street outrider encouraging them to adopt a more supportive position.

The approach to pro-EU business leaders which resulted in scores of them signing a letter supporting the PM last month illustrates the extent to which Downing Street is prepared to manipulate even those on its own side. (Those City bigwigs, of course, are quite the opposite of the small business strivers, too often drowning in EU red tape, whom John Longworth fought to represent.)

The resignation of Longworth has thrown into sharp relief just how far the Whitehall machine is willing to go to impose its will on supporters and enemies alike over the EU.

Friends of Mr Cameron say he is in full, intense, general election campaign mode and feels fully justified in preventing civil servants from being involved in activities that do not support the official Government line.

He feels that when he (literally) rolled up his shirt sleeves and threw himself more energetically into the general election campaign last year when the Tories were flagging, it produced positive results.

At least no one can accuse him of failing to show passion. Whether that passion is matched by Prime Ministerial integrity in the coming months remains to be seen.
So now we know. Despite its denials, Downing Street was involved in removing John Longworth as director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce  for the crime of supporting Brexit.

Mr Longworth stepped down on Sunday, having earlier been suspended. Nothing to do with us, said Number 10. No ministers had asked the BCC to oust him. No pressure was brought to bear, said a spokesman. No politician had any influence, chimed in the BCC dutifully.

So, what is the truth? As we report today, Downing Street did ring Mr Longworth to berate him for his brave pro-Brexit intervention last week.

So now we know. Despite its denials, Downing Street was involved in removing John Longworth, shown, as director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce  for the crime of supporting Brexit

True, the call to the BCC did not come from a minister. It was made by Daniel Korski, a senior aide to David Cameron.

Mr Korski is Europhile to the core. His previous bosses include Baroness Ashton, the former EU foreign minister, and the Eurofanatic Lord Ashdown.

He is paid 93,000 a year of our money to twist arms. After Mr Camerons worthless deal with Brussels, he reportedly told EU leaders not to speak out against it.

Be in no doubt, when he rang Mr Longworth, he was protesting on behalf of the Prime Minister. Number 10s line that no ministers pressured him is therefore deliberately misleading  the weasel words of a slippery PR machine.

Significantly, it was echoed by the BCC  whose president, Nora Senior, is a gushing Europhile and, like Mr Cameron, a former public relations executive.

The hounding of John Longworth is the most egregious example yet of the work of Project Fear, which seeks to crush dissent and terrify voters.

The perpetrators of this latest vindictive episode should hang their heads in shame and recognise that they cannot go on treating the public as fools. No pressure from politicians? Pull the other one.

A case of blackmail

EU leaders are desperate for Turkish help to stem the flow of migrants into Europe.

At a summit in Brussels, Turkey seized its chance. It demanded that Brussels double its 2.3billion aid and bring forward the scrapping of visas for Turkish citizens.

EU negotiators panicked, then caved in. President Erdogan will get his money, plus the visa deal. And Turkeys EU membership is firmly back on the table.

EU negotiators panicked, then caved in. President Erdogan, pictured, will get his money, plus the visa deal. And Turkeys EU membership is firmly back on the table

One way or another, Europe could soon open its gates to 77million Turks  in return for an agreement intended to limit migration into the EU.

Only the increasingly bizarre and dangerous fantasy of ever-closer union could have created such an outcome.

Energy in chaos

Will the worlds largest nuclear power station be built at Hinkley Point in Somerset? We simply do not know.

The finance chief of EDF, commissioned to build the plant, has quit because he thinks it could ruin the company. But the French government, which owns most of EDF, is keen to save the project  which would be subsidised by UK consumers.

Britains energy policy is in chaos. But that is what happens when you hand control to another country. And, dare we say it, especially France.

A denial of justice

The 1982 nail bomb in Hyde Park was one of the IRAs most despicable atrocities. Four soldiers were killed and 31 injured.

Now the victims want to launch a private prosecution against the chief suspect, John Downey, who escaped trial on a technicality.

In the past, the Legal Aid Authority has granted 400,000 to the killers of a 16-year-old schoolgirl. But, inexplicably, the Hyde Park victims and their families have been turned down.
A lesbian couple from Taranaki, New Zealand, who were auctioning off a date to raise money for a volunteer trip have had their threesome become a foursome.

Grace Whitaker and Chelsea Cameron, who have been dating for two years, placed an ad on the Kiwi online trading site Trade Me last week, offering a date with the two of them to the highest bidder.

When the auction ended last Friday after a week online, the winner was 33-year-old Chris Scott with a bid of $400.

But Mr Scott, who lives in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, has made it a double date by deciding to bring along his childhood friend David.

Novel idea: Lesbian couple Chelsea and Grace are selling a three-way date to raise money for charity

Winner winner: Chris Scott, a 33-year-old from Upper Hutt, won the auction with a bid of $400

'I was speaking to Chelsea throughout the auction process, and I decided to bring along a friend to make it an even group,' Mr Scott told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Scott, who is an entrepreneur, has extravagant plans for the date with Ms Cameron and Ms Whitaker, which is happening tomorrow night.

He's taking the couple to the beach and planning on constructing a dining booth out of sand for them to eat in. Mr Scott said he's created sand sculptures before, and expects the booth to take around five hours to build.

'Here's hoping I pull it off!' he said. 'It depends on the weather.'

Awesome foursome: Mr Scott is now bringing along his childhood friend David to the date

Adventure time: The young women are raising money to fund their volunteering trip to Nepal, where

Mr Scott is working with a local restaurant so they can serve the foursome meals on the beach.

As after dinner they're seeing the film Gods of Egypt, he's also decorating the dining booth to an Egyptian theme.

'I've been looking on YouTube at Egypt styles,' he explained. 'I'm even creating two sand sculptures of pyramids on either side of the dining booth.'

Epic: The date is going to be on a beach, where Mr Scott is going to create a sand sculpture of a dining booth for the four of them to eat in

'I'd never seen anything like it before': Mr Scott said he decided to bid on the auction because he admired what the girls were trying to do

The 33-year-old said he decided to bid on the couple's auction because he admired what they were doing.

'I'd never seen anything like it before. I thought what they were doing was really great,' Mr Scott said.

The couple had said that date could be anywhere in the country, with the money they raised funding a volunteer trip to Nepal next month for the two of them.

Volunteer trip: The couple, who are both 23, need to raise another $1600 for the volunteer trip

'I can't wait': Ms Cameron will teach English during the trip whilst Ms Whitaker will work as a medical elective

The couple need to raise some $2,000 in order to pay for the trips programme fee, their stay and meals with their host family. The $400 donated by Mr Scott has meant they have met almost a quarter of their goal.

While they are in Nepal, Ms Cameron will teach English and Ms Whitaker will work as a medical elective.
From his posture and funny little sayings to the way he sneezed and lost his temper, there had always been one or two things about her husband that reminded Alex Doyle of her father-in-law, John.

But it wasnt until John opened the door to Alex one evening dressed in the exact same at home outfit her husband Russell favoured that she realised how startling the similarities were.

Standing on the doorstep was John, 69, wearing tartan pyjamas with a grey hoodie over the top. A slightly eccentric choice of leisure wear, but made all the more bizarre by the fact that Russell, 45, had just taken to wearing that very combination.

I was quite taken aback and asked if theyd gone shopping together and bought matching pyjamas, says Alex, a primary school teaching assistant from Sandy, Bedfordshire.

Dad's the word... Alex Doyle with her husband Russell and his father John

Until recently, Russell had always changed out of his work clothes and into jeans and T-shirt when he got home. But then, out of nowhere, he started favouring the pyjamas and hoodie, claiming they were more comfortable.

John answered my question about them shopping together by muttering under his breath . . . another habit Russell had started to develop.

For Alex, 47, it was a lightbulb moment. Men have always been told that if they want to see how their partner will age then they need only look at her mother for the answer  yet the same is rarely said of the opposite sex.

The pyjama incident was the first time it really clicked that Russell was rapidly morphing into his father, says Alex.

And she isnt the only wife realising that, as their husbands creep towards middle-age, they start to take on the traits of their dads.

A parenting website recently ran a thread from a woman who complained that, over Christmas, shed suddenly noticed how much her husband was becoming like her father-in-law.

She revealed to other users on the site that she was alarmed that father and son wore matching furry slippers and both noisily slurped tea from their mugs.

A flurry of responses followed from other women sharing their own stories, with one saying that the resemblance was so great, she had started recoiling when her husband tried to hug her.

Hardly surprising. Just as no man wants to find himself married to his wifes mother, what woman wants to end up with a younger version of her father-in-law?

For her part, Alex says that Russell is very different from the man she met nearly 20 years ago and by whom she has three children: Madeline, 16, Thomas, 13, and Henry, six.

Back then he sported a longer, shaggier hairstyle, dressed fashionably and liked nothing better than to hit the dancefloor at a nightclub.

The relationship flourished and Alex was introduced to Russells parents. She immediately noticed that father and son had the same shaped eyes and both gesticulated with their hands when they talked. Other than that, they seemed to have little in common.

If anything, I was struck by how different their personalities were, recalls Alex.

John was much more confident and enjoyed being the centre of attention whereas Russell was quietly amusing and happy to hang back. Russell was fit and loved to play all kinds of sport, which didnt seem to interest his father.

Alex and Russell got engaged the following year and just before they got married in 1999 John, who runs his own painting and decorating company, injured his arm.

Russell took a break from his job as a production manager at a printing firm to help his dad out  and the pair enjoyed working together so much that they made it permanent.

The children jokingly call their dad Grandpa

Alex is now convinced that her husband working in such proximity with his father led to their becoming more alike.

At first it was a subtle shift, a face he would pull or a gesture he would make. Then Russell started talking like his dad and making the same corny jokes.

If ever you asked John to put the kettle on, he would always respond with Dont be silly, it wont fit me.

Russell started saying it for a laugh to imitate his dad and I would giggle and say OK, John  but then it stopped being a joke and became his stock response.

Another favourite John-phrase is if someone coughs hell say: It wasnt the cough that finished him off, it was the coffin they carried him off in. And Russell now says that all the time to our three kids  and they just groan, roll their eyes and call him Grandpa.

The similarities became even more apparent when Russell and John were in a room at the same time. At a recent family get-together, Alex saw how the two men sat in exactly the same way on the sofa.

Russell always sits with his legs crossed which I used to think was quite an unusual and feminine way for a man to sit  and John adopts the exact same pose.

Theyre both mad Arsenal supporters and seeing them watch a match together is an eye-opener. Russell and John both have bad knees and whenever their team scores a goal they do this slow stand where they heave themselves up from the seat, groaning under their breath. Gone are the days when Russell used to leap up like a Jack-in-the-box.

Alexs children are also amused to see that their dad and grandpa have developed the same grumpy resting face, a frowning expression their faces fall into when watching TV or eating their dinner.

And while Russell used to dress his 6ft frame in well-cut jeans and fashionable shirts, now he opts for casual clothes perhaps more appropriate for a man in his 60s  indeed, if he sees a jumper or shirt he likes, he will often purchase a second one, a couple of sizes bigger, for John.

Both wear the same white T-shirt under their decorating overalls, with identical fleece jackets over the top. There is no sandwich box envy come midday when they both stop for lunch. Why? Because Russell and John always eat the exact same thing: a salad, three pieces of fruit and two small chocolate bars.

They even eat identical lunches every day

Its perhaps no surprise, given how similar they are becoming, that Alex has sought advice from her mother-in-law, Janet, when it comes to handling her husbands moods.

One John-ism is the Holiday Mode, which I knew nothing about until a few years ago when Russell developed it, says Alex. This, she explains, is when Russell (and John) get incredibly anxious and tetchy the day before a holiday.

The airport is a nightmare, says Alex. We all have to stand quietly in a row while we check the bags in.

Everyone has to do what he says, when he says it. He definitely wasnt like that when we first got together. Over time its got worse. When I mentioned it to Janet, she sighed and said John was exactly the same and theres no point fighting it. She said you just have to let them do it  its their way of coping.

Janet has also given Alex tips on how to handle Russell over another flashpoint he shares with his dad  DIY.

Youd think with the job they do that our houses would be perfect, but no. Theyll start things and never finish them.

This increasingly exasperated me, until I mentioned it to Janet and she said John was the same. Which I suppose I should have known  but it also means my hopes that Russell will change are probably out the window.

The protective side of his father is something else that Russell is increasingly adopting.

If you take something out of the oven and they deem it too heavy for you  say, a roast or similar  theyll push you aside and do it. It used to annoy me because I am perfectly capable of lifting a roasting tray out of the oven.

But it was Janet, after witnessing her sons behaviour, who pulled Alex aside and advised that she let it go. Janet pointed out that John and Russell share a need to look after their family, so why not just enjoy it. And shes right.

Its the same when it comes to crossing the road. When I first met Russell, John used to take my hand to cross the road. I remember thinking, What are you doing? Im 28 years old!

But thats just him  he likes to take care of everybody. And  surprise surprise  Russell does that now, too. All the children have to hold his hand  even our 16-year-old daughter, and you can imagine how well that goes down.

Alex is slightly less keen on her husbands Basil Fawlty-style meltdowns over faulty household appliances.

If something breaks, like the washing machine, both Russell and John will be swearing away and hitting it, she says.

Russell has done this since I met him, but it was only a few years ago he realised he was probably only doing it because thats what his dad has always done. It was the moment I think that he finally recognised that he was becoming like his father.

Initially, he tried to stop himself  I think we all have that moment when we realise we are behaving like our parents  but as time has gone on hes just given in to it.

Indeed, Alex knows that she can do little to prevent her husband becoming ever more like her adored father-in-law.

She knows to make their tea the same way (strong and black) and that whenever either of them sneezes it will be loud, dramatic and enough to make everyone in the room jump out of their skins.

She enjoys teasing her husband over the many ways hes turned into his dad.

I used to call him John and hed glare at me, but now he just smiles, she says. As hes getting older he minds even less that they are two peas in a pod.
A hilarious video that captures the moment a bride's grand entrance is ruined by a little boy leaping on her dress is sweeping the web.

The eight second clip sees bride Tanya Malone about to walk down the aisle to wed Mark Monaghan, in Lucan, County Dublin, when her nephew hurls himself on to her train.

Luckily a quick-thinking guest seated close by was quick to pull the boisterous child off the bride's gown so she could continue her walk to the altar.

A bride was left shocked after her four-year-old nephew leapt onto the train of her dress as she walked down the aisle

The clip that was uploaded to YouTube by an unknown user just four days ago has now amassed almost 100,000 views in just a few short days.

It captures the moment as every heard in the church turns as the enthusiastic page boy makes his surprise move.

Wearing his smart wedding suit - and hopefully clean shoes - he leaps on to the irresistible expanse of white lace cascading behind the bra.

And lands in a heap amid the fabric.

Guests gasped in horror as Rhys made his move by dive-bombing her pristine white train before someone managed to pick up up and remove him.

Tanya Malone was marrying Mark Monaghan in Lucan last weekend when her nephew Rhys decided to steal the show which was captured on camera by one of the guests

The little boy roared as he made his almighty dive onto the bride's pristine wedding train

Tanya's sister Antonia Malone told The Irish Independent that once the four-year-old was retrieved the day was everything the couple hoped.

She told the Irish Independent: 'Tanya's friend picked him up and she continued on to marry the love of her life. We had the most fantastic day ever.'

Sister to both Antonia and Tanya was Andrea who shared the video on her Facebook page where it received 164 shares with most agreeing that the video was hilarious.

Amanda Cunningham wrote: 'That's the funniest thing ever! Wedding to remember!! Congratulations Tanya!!'

While Diane O Carroll commented: 'You wouldn't have it any other way some one forgot to tell him it was Tanya's show not his'.
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A photographer has released a series of diverse portraits showing women from across India to mark International Women's Day.

Mihaela Noroc, from Bucharest, travelled far and wide in the country to catch on camera life in India's very different destinations, capturing images of Bollywood stars at the height of their fame, teenagers living in the slums of Mumbai and at a Christian wedding in Goa.

Entitled The Atlas of Beauty, the photographs were shot over two months at the end of 2015 as Mihaela journeyed across India. Of her time photographing multiple women, Mihaela said: 'Many women living in India face great challenges and discrimination, but they are also an extraordinary example of strength and beauty.'

Brightest stars: Sonam Kapoor is one of the most successful - and highest paid - Indian actresses. She agreed to pose for Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc for her The Atlas of Beauty project, which saw her photograph women across India

Faded elegance: Trains carry some seven billion passengers across India every year and this image, taken in Jodhpur, captures a young woman on her daily commute

A uniformed policewoman in Pushkar offers a different portrayal of Indian women: 'Seeing a policewoman on the street or hearing stories about strong female activists is also something very common,' says Mihaela

In Mumbai, Mihaela met and photographed one of the world's biggest Bollywood stars, Sonam Kapoor.

The 30-year-old actress is one of the country's highest paid stars and is shot simply for the shoot. Says the photographer of her inclusion: 'Sonam is not just a huge star in India, but also a great person, and a symbol of beauty and success for many. My wish was to let Indian women know that all of them are stars for me.'

Other striking images show the diverse religions of the country with images of a young Hindu pilgrim making an offering on the Ganges River in Varanasi and a Sikh woman at the Golden Temple in Amritsar making the collection.

Mihaela said: 'During my journey through India I met dozens of women, and I had the opportunity to hear many of their problems and dreams. I found these women to be incredibly graceful and kind-hearted, but at the same time, powerful when dealing with their everyday struggles.'

The country's vast train system also gets a tribute, appearing in a picture taken in Jodpur, which pays homage to the elegant rattlers that carry around seven billion passengers around India every year.

In Varanasi, a fully clothed young Hindu pilgrim makes an offering on the Ganges River while, right, a young woman in Delhi is dressed in western clothes, something that is common in the country's big cities

A Sikh woman at the Golden Temple, in Amritsar is seen wearing a colourful turban and the kirpan, the short dagger that symbolises a Sikh's duty to come to the defence of those in peril. Right, a muslim woman in pink robes and headscarf in Pushkar

Elsewhere, there's a uniformed policewoman in Pushkar, a town in Rajasthan, and an elaborately dressed college student who attends classes in a full cerise sari.

The photographer describes the contradictions in Indian society, where many women are viewed as subservient to their male peers but still rise to become prominent figures.

She says: 'Unfortunately it is incredibly common for Indian women to suffer from domestic violence. Acid throwing, child marriage, rape, and sex selective abortion are not uncommon. Some women, and men, face discrimination just because of their skin colour or social background.'

Mihaela continues: 'Despite all of these challenges, India has one of the highest numbers of female politicians in the world.

'Women have held many important offices, including that of the President or Prime Minister.

'Seeing a policewoman on the street or hearing stories about strong female activists is also something very common. There are also countless ordinary women, usually unnoticed, who are symbols of strength and dedication for their families and within their small communities.

'Through these portraits, I want to show how special Indian women are, regardless of their environment or ethnicity.'

The two faces of India: This lady, left, celebrates her 100th birthday in 2016. Right, a young woman who grew up in a tent in Mumbai shares her story of life in one of the world's biggest slums and how she's managed to

Smart cookies: On special occasions, Mumbai students will attend their college lessons dressed in traditional outfits

Western influence: A fashion designer from Chennai is photographed while visiting the beaches of Goa on holiday

A street seller, left, who travels each morning from her small village to the city of Varanasi. Wearing Henna tattoos, a resident of Dharavi, the world's largest slum, which lies on the outskirts of Mumbai

A member of the Parsis community, who are descended from Persian Zoroastrians and emigrated to India more than 1,000 years ago. Right, a pregnant woman from Delhi - it's tradition that women move in with their in-laws after marriage

Many of the women featured are young but, in Mumbai, an elderly lady, who will turn 100 this year, is celebrated too.

Clothes, colourful, simple, western feature heavily and illustrate the differences in region. The pretty dress and pink scarf featured one a young woman belies her circumstances; growing up in a tent and now living on the streets of Mumbai.

Says Mihaela: 'While most Indian men wear modern clothes like anywhere in the world, Indian woman are amazing keepers of tradition with their everyday outfits. Their talent in mixing the colours, traditional accessories, and henna decorations is remarkable - even in poor and undeveloped areas.'

The Romanian's work took her from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan to the colonial streets of Mumbai and from the holy Ganges River to the modern streets of Delhi.

A fashion designer from Chennai, visiting Goa, shows the independence that many woman strive for and enjoy while Persian Zoroastrians, who emigrated to India 1,000 years ago maintain their ancient traditions while also integrating into modern society.

Of her collection, Mihaela says: 'I hope that these portraits will give them more confidence to face their daily challenges.

'Together, they are more than 600 million beauties, part of an incredible and ancient culture, and every one of them deserves the respect of the world.'

A Rajasthani women in Jodphur; Rajasthanis are famous all over India for their brightly coloured outfits

A deaf-mute girl expressing the word 'friendship' through sign language in Mumbai

A Marathi young woman in Nashik - India has more than two thousand ethnic groups

A young Kalbelia woman at the Pushkar Camel Fair. Right, a guest at a Christian wedding in Goa




Victims of rape and sexual violence have taken to Twitter to post selfies of their hands showing the postcode of where in London the incident took place.

The images, posted under the hashtag #WEcount, are part of a campaign by the Women's Equality Party to help fight abuse and harassment against women in the capital.

To get their message across, victims have also posted the location on a map of London to create a tangible picture of the scale of the issue.

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Rape victim Pavan Amara, a 27-year-old student nurse who was attacked as a teenager, posted an image of her palm emblazoned with 'N9', the location of her assault, to help kick off the campaign #WEcount

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party, launched the campaign by posting an image of her own hand with 'N16' and the hashtag '#WEcount' scribbled on her palm. 'I experienced sexual harassment that made me feel London was not safe. Today I reclaim that place. Join me. #WEcount' she tweeted

As part of the campaign victims have also posted the location of their assaults on a map of London, to create a tangible picture of the scale of the issue. Each incident is highlighted with a red exclamation mark

Each incident - whether involving rape, physical abuse or verbal harassment - is highlighted with a red exclamation mark on the map.

Catherine Riley, one of the party's founders, explained: 'We launched our #WEcount campaign to highlight the prevalence of sexual assault, harassment and other threatening behaviour.

'Women all over London have already participated in the campaign by pinpointing their experiences on an interactive map.

'We're mapping the full spectrum, from sexual intimidation to assault, from catcalling to rape. We want to reclaim every single part of the capital and make it safe for women.'

A supporter of the campaign posted this image on Twitter. Last year 4,000 rapes were reported in London but on average only one in every ten women come forward, so the real figures are likely to be much higher

'I hate the fear of sexual assault or harassment. It's time to act because #WEcount,' posted one Twitter user with the postcodes SE5, E8 and WC2N and the hashtag '#WEcount' written in black on her palm

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party, launched the campaign by posting an image of her hand with 'N16' and the hashtag '#WEcount' scribbled on her palm.

'I experienced sexual harassment that made me feel London was not safe. Today I reclaim that place. Join me. #WEcount',' she posted.

Rape victim Pavan Amara, a 27-year-old student nurse who was attacked as a teenager also posted an image of her her palm emblazoned with 'N9', the location of her own assault.

Speaking about her ordeal in a clip posted online, she said: 'I would say it changed everything. I dont like to admit that. But it did.

'Before your city is just your city and then after it is your city, apart from that bit.'

Kicking off the campaign, which has seen women take to Twitter to post their hand selfies, above, Pavan said: 'Before your city is just your city and then after it becomes your city, apart from that bit'

'Joining @WEP_UK to bring safety to London,' tweeted another with the postcode NW5 on her palm

Last year 4,000 rapes were reported in London but on average only one in every ten women comes forward, which means real figures are likely to be much higher.

Other victims added their own messages of solidarity on Twitter. 'A show of hands to reclaim London for women,' posted one victim, accompanied with a snap of 'NW5' scribbled in red on her hand.

'I hate the fear of sexual assault or harassment. It's time to act because #WEcount,' posted another with the SE5, E8 and WC2N written in black on her palm.

Another Tweeter, wrote simply 'deep breath' before posting her image of her hand showing the postcode WC2.

'Women should be able to live and work in London without fear of harassment,' wrote another victim, along with an image of her hand and 'W1J'.

Pavan, who is also the founder of My Body Back project, which supports victims of assault, says rape is still a taboo word.

Others simply wrote the postcode and posted the image on Twitter to support the campaign

'Raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault in London by tweeting postcodes where you've experienced it,' tweeted another with the postcode CRO written on her palm

'I dont like the word. I think people are often scared to say that word and people dont like to associate it with their own streets,' she said.

'I hope for London that you can walk down the street and theres no chance of being assaulted. And I know thats such a basic thing but were not living in that London at the moment.'

But the campaigner, who also holds monthly meetings in a sex shop in Shoreditch to help women reconnect with their bodies, has some word of comfort too.

'I think the really important thing to know is that it really does get better. No one can take you away essentially. People can try and things can happen and really people can do what they want but theyll never take the essence of you away.

In support of the stop sexual assault and abuse in the capital, supporters have taken to Twitter (above). Speaking about her own ordeal, rape victim Pavan Amara, said: 'I would say it changed everything'

'I've had enough of sexual harassment in London,' tweeted another with an image of 'SW9' on their palm

One supporter wrote simply 'deep breath' before going public with the location of her own experience




Held in the Berners Tavern private dining room at The London EDITION, specialists from California's premiere wineries; Louis M Martini, Orin Swift , J Vineyards and MacMurray Estate, will guide guests and visitors through a selection of one-of-a-kind wines. The sessions will alternate between two themes: A Taste of California and a Louis M Martini Masterclass. Each session will provide you with insight into the wine making process and the geography in that region of the US. Experts will then be on hand to guide you on a tasting of around five to six wines. Along with some new wine knowledge, you'll also get some keepsakes to take home from the wine producers. The sessions, which run from 6pm to 8pm, are perfect for both novices and the more advanced wine drinkers. Head to the hotel's award-winning restaurant after for yet more elegant tipples and expertly prepared dishes. The next dates are October 25 and November 15.
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More than 20 images by acclaimed British photographer John Stoddart who is renowned for capturing celebrities just on the cusp of becoming huge stars, are going up for auction.

The images include photographs of a young Catherine Zeta-Jones playfully cavorting on an unmade bed at the Dorchester Hotel just before her move to Hollywood in 1991, and a close-up portrait of Daniel Craig, pre-James Bond, in 2003.

Showcasing striking images of stars including a scantily clad Liz Hurley and Tilda Swinton the photos span Stoddart's 30-year career as the go-to photographer for Hollywood's elite.

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More than 20 images by acclaimed British photographer John Stoddart, 57, renowned for capturing celebrities just on the cusp of becoming huge stars, are going up for auction. One of the more risque shots up for sale shows Liz Hurley reclining on a bed at the Dorchester in lacy lingerie and stockings, taken in 1992

In 1990's 'Elizabeth Hurley, nude' the star poses in the altogether on a designer chair, while leaning against a Greek bust

Named as one of the 100 most influential photographers of the century by Professional Photographer magazine, director Martin Scorsese and Elizabeth Hurley are both proud owners of the 57-year-old's works.

One particularly sultry shot called 'Elizabeth Hurley, nude, London 1990' shows the actress posing completely naked, sitting on a chair and leaning against the head of a large bust.

The auctioneer's estimate for the steamy image is 430 - 620 in the sale by online auction house Catawiki.

Another of the more risque shots up for sale shows the star reclining on a bed at The Dorchester hotel in lacy lingerie and stockings.

These photos form part of a contact sheet of 16 images, showing Catherine Zeta Jones posing on a bed at The Dorchester in a black bra, a maxi skirt with a thigh high split and heels in 1991. It's been acknowledged as her defining photo session before moving to Hollywood a few months later to star in Entrapment alongside Sean Connery. The sheet is expected to fetch up to 1510.

It was taken in 1992 when the actress would have been aged around 27, two years before she made headlines by turning up to the premiered of Four Weddings And A Funeral with her then partner Hugh Grant, wearing the infamous Versace safety pin dress.

Auctioneer Jamie Beeden expects the portrait to fetch between 560 and 810 when the auction ends on Friday afternoon.

Now married to Michael Douglas with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar under her belt, Catherine Zeta Jones is Hollywood royalty, but Stoddart captured her on camera before the found worldwide fame.

A contact sheet of 16 photos shows her posing on a bed in a black bra, a maxi skirt with a thigh high split and heels.

A black and white photograph of the actress Tilda Swinton was taken in 1986 in London, the year of her first film Caravaggio in which she played the artist's girlfriend Lena. The Oscar-winning actress is seen posing barefoot on a pile of leaves against a dramatic sky backdrop, wearing an embellished military style coat

It has been acknowledged as her defining photo session before moving to Hollywood a few months later to star in Entrapment alongside Sean Connery. The compilation is expected to fetch up to 1510.

'I was good friends with Catherine when these photographs were taken in 1991,' John said. 'She was a well-known TV star but at the time really wanted to make it in Hollywood.

'So we got a room at the Dorchester hotel and took these fantastic snaps of her looking like a true movie star. Not long after, she was making movies in Hollywood.'

A black and white photograph of the actress Tilda Swinton was taken in 1986 in London, the year of her first film Caravaggio in which she played the artist's girlfriend Lena.

A portrait of Daniel Craig, expected to fetch 740, shows him in 2003 just after he'd made the leap from television into film and was poised to make his name as a heartthrob as the handyman who embarks on a relationship with an older woman in The Mother

The Oscar-winning actress is seen posing barefoot on a pile of leaves against a dramatic sky backdrop, wearing an embellished military style coat.

John Stoddart commented: 'It's a film that to this day still has a massive influence on my photography style. She had bought this outfit for just $100 in New York.'

A portrait of Daniel Craig, expected to fetch 740, shows him in 2003 just after he'd made the leap from television into film and was poised to make his name as a heartthrob as the handyman who embarks on a relationship with an older woman in The Mother.

'This pictures was taken at the Royal Court in Chelsea while he was shooting the film Layer Cake,' John recalled. 'I captured quite an intense shot of Daniel here. Hes the second Bond Ive shot, although this was Daniel Craig pre James Bond fame.'

Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, pictured at the Hotel Meurice in Paris in 1988. The signed portrait is expected to sell for between 430 and 620

A photo of rock n' roll legends The Rolling Stones in 1989, which is predicted to be sold for up to 1510. From left to right: Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman and Ronnie Wood

John also photographed Pierce Brosnan as Bond with his Goldeneye co-star Famke Janssen.

Also included in this auction are portraits of Craig's fellow action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, pictured at the Hotel Meurice in Paris in 1988 for the cover of Arena magazine.

'When I first came to the hotel to see him he was dressed in a tracksuit, we asked him to change into a smart suit and he looked amazing,' John recalled. 'Everyone was floored, he looked very "old Hollywood". We went out for dinner afterwards and he was very charming, funny and ordered seconds of everything.'

John's portrait of rock n' roll legends The Rolling Stones is tipped as one of the more valuable items in the lot, and is expected to be sold for up to 1510.

'Working with The Rolling stones was an absolute dream of mine, theyre rock n roll royalty and they didnt disappoint.

Also from the world of music there's a portrait of Iggy Pop taken in London in 1999, sitting shirtless on a bed. It's been valued at up to 810

They arrived to the shoot with about 20 people, a few dogs and bottles of vodka. We were nearly done shooting when Keith, clutching the vodka, fell over and the other guys told me: "Thats our way of saying the shoot is over John".'

Also from the world of music there's a portrait of Iggy Pop taken in London in 1999, sitting shirtless on a bed. It's been valued at up to 810.

Jamie Beeden, Catawiki's specialist art photography auctioneer, comments, 'John Stoddart is a renowned photographer who has been shooting some of the world's most iconic faces from music, fashion and the silver screen for an unprecedented 30 years.
It's a candid snapshot into Leonard DiCaprio's happy, carefree childhood.

But the 1976 photograph of the Oscar-winning actor and his parents has sparked furious debate online after critics slammed his mother's armpit hair.

The picture, which features Leo is sat on top of his smiling mother Irmelin and father Georges shoulders, has received more than 100,000 comments since it was was posted on History in Pictures Facebook page last week.

But while many criticized Irmelin for her unshaven underarms, branding it 'gross' or 'disgusting', others have jumped to the defense of Leo's mother.

History in Pictures posted this carefree picture of the DiCaprios with the caption 'Baby Leonardo DiCaprio with his mom and dad, 1976'

Lukas Ikceinezrok posted: 'WTF is that under her arms?'

Alex Bratcher said: 'It was the 1970s, not the 1400s.. Women shaved their armpits then. It's obvious his parents were hippies...'

Eric Arsenault posted: 'Women with hair under their arms is f***ing disgusting', while Jude Lopez agreed added: 'Women with hairy pits are gross.

'Women should know better. I shave parts of my body to please women. They should do the same. Well, they don't have to if their butch feminist girlfriend doesn't mind.'

Thousands hit back at the negative comments, defending Irmelin's hairy armpits as 'natural.'

Trisha Dowd said: 'It's so funny I am part of a generation that wants to "free the nipple", but freaks out when women have hair in their armpits. #feminism.

Irmelin, who has not responded publicly to the debate, accompanied her son to the Oscars where he won Best Actor

Facebook users commented quickly on Irmelin's underarm hair, calling it 'disgusting' but many women and men pointed out that shouldn't be what people focus on because it's 'natural'

Kalea Kiesser added: 'Why does his mom have to shave? All women grow hair under their arms. This was a different time. This was normal. And women STILL DONT have to shave to appease you! She's not gross.'

Wesley Weyandt said : 'I guess some of these guys didn't know women grew hair on their armpits. Get over it.'

Others were disappointed that one woman's hairy armpits were such a big topic of debate.

Sara Maccini said: 'When i saw this, I thought "Wow, that little toddler just got an Oscar. His parents must be extremely proud!" Not "Omg, his mom didn't shave her pits during a time where women didn't shave their pits."'

Amanda Ziegler wrote: 'If you actually care if a woman shaves her pits or not and that's what you choose to comment on instead of her actual beauty or this lovely family picture or that Leo won an Oscar, you're an awful human being.

'Hair grows there, it's natural, get over it.'

Key Lynn posted it was a sign of the times as it was common for women to choose not to shave in the 1970s.

Jeanette Casto addde: 'His mother was the one that worked multiple jobs to support her and Leo... and all the ignorant comments about her armpits.'

Leo is close to his mother and has taken her as his date to awards shows numerous times (pictured together at the What's Eating Gilbert Grape Premiere in 1993, left, and the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, right)

The actor won his first Oscar last week for The Revenant and mother Irmelin and father George, who have been separated for years, both attended the awards

The picture was posted with the caption 'Baby Leonardo DiCaprio with his mom and dad, 1976.'

Irmelin has not reacted publicly to the debate.

The proud 73-year-old recently appeared alongside her son at the Oscars to see Leo finally take home a statue for his performance in The Revenant.

They pair, who are extremely close, were joined by his rarely-seen father George DiCaprio - and their respective partners - for a unique family reunion.

The parents, who met at a college in New York City in 1965, have been separated since Leo was born in 1974 after financial woes put a strain on their relationship.

But despite living in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Hollywood, surrounded by prostitution rings and sex shops, they were both determined to give their son a wholesome upbringing - so they lived in adjacent houses with a shared garden.

Irmelin is not the first high profile woman to challenge the stereotype that women must shave their underarms.

Julia Roberts, 48, famously showed off her armpit hair in a sleeveless dress at the premiere of Notting Hill in 1999.

Many women were outraged by the focus on Irmelin's body hair and commenters posted it was common in the Seventies not to shave

Both Miley Cyrus and Julia Roberts have previously shown off their unshaven underarms

More recently, Miley Cyrus, 22, was seen rocking a bushy underarm region on Instagram and at red carpet events.

Scout Willis, the 24-year-old daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, has also showed off her dark armpit hair on a number of occasions.

It comes as a growing number of women eschew their razors in favour of going au naturel.

A crop of Instagram pages have sprung up in recent years to celebrate women who refuse to shave their underarm hair.

The popular accounts post photos of women showing off their armpits in all their unshaven glory.

The latest addition, Armpit Museum posts images of women with their arms held high, proudly showing off wisps of hair - some even dyed in bright colours.

Commenting on the trend last summer, Refinery29's beauty editor Maria Del Russo said: 'I think the reason more and more women are using social media to show off their body hair choices is connectedness.

'Since the idea of women having body hair is not considered the "norm," women who feel that it is their norm are likely attempting to make connections with other women who feel the same way.

'What one woman decides to do with her body hair is her business, and hers alone. For plenty of women, it's just hair.'
The Queen, looking resplendent in a bright blue outfit, enjoyed a rare day out with Prince Charles today as she showed her support for the Prince's Trust, which is marking its 40th anniversary in 2016.

Arriving in the royal car together at the trust's London headquarters, the Queen, who turns 90 this year, and Charles, 67, looked in high spirits as they attended the function together.

Charles took his mother on a tour of the trust's Kennington offices, stopping to meet those who've been supported by the charity, and its star ambassadors including actor Damian Lewis, who thanked the Queen for a previous racing tip.

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Actor Damian Lewis looks thrilled to be chatting with the Queen again. Lewis, who is an ambassador for the charity, told reporters afterwards that he'd taken her advice on an Ascot racing tip - and won enough 'for a weekly shop'

The Homeland star, 45, was joined by his wife Helen McCrory, who said: 'The last time we were lucky enough to meet Her Majesty was actually the evening she received her BAFTA... something that both of us are still waiting for'

The Queen attends the Prince's Trust Centre in Kennington with The Prince of Wales. The visit is to mark the 40th anniversary of the charity that Charles founded in 1976

Let them eat cake! Charles cuts a slice of cake from the celebratory anniversary made by Latifah Atkinson, owner of Bake That Cake, one of the companies the Prince's Trust has supported

Homeland star Lewis, 45, who was at the offices with wife Helen McCrory revealed that he had thanked the Queen for a previous Ascot race tip, which he said had won him enough money 'for a weekly shop'.

Lewis, who is as passionate about horseracing as the Queen, revealed: '[This time] I asked for the Grand National because that's the only time we're there and she said 'no, no, no, that's miles away - you need tips for Royal Ascot first'.

'She gave me a tip for Royal Ascot and it came with a royal seal.'

McCrory added: 'The last time we were lucky enough to meet Her Majesty was actually the evening she received her Bafta...something that both of us are still waiting for.'

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the youth charity, which The Prince of Wales started in 1976 when he was just 27.

Wearing a bright blue coat and dress with a distinctive matching hat adorned with feathers, the Queen looked happy and relaxed to have Charles by her side.

Her Majesty looks carefully at the swarm of bees housed in a bee box kept by Peter Higgs of PGH Pest Control, which got a starter loan from the Prince's Trust

All smiles: Queen Elizabeth arrived in Kennington this morning; she holds out a hand to greet a man in full uniform as Charles looks on

Stepping out: A dapper-looking Charles escorts his mother into the building from the royal car. The Prince chose a pinstripe suit with cravat and black and blue patterned tie for the event

Humour: Charles appears unable to contain his laughter as the Queen and The Prince of Wales share a joke

He's got the giggles! Charles carried on chortling as he met students using computers in the charity's offices

A three-string pearl necklace and glinting sapphire brooch completed the look, along with black gloves and a smart black handbag.

Charles kept in with the blue theme, wearing a pin-stripe blue suit and a blue and black patterned tie.

As the pair made their way into the Kennington offices, they met a host of businesses who have been funded by the charity.

Conceived by Charles when he was just 27, the charity aims to help young people aged between 13 and 30 to get into jobs, education and training.

A cake made by La'tifah Atkinson, 25, was well received by the Queen and Prince Charles

One of the first stalls was a bee hive, including a swarm of 30,000 bees, which is kept by Peter Higgs of PGH Pest Control, which won a a Prince's Trust Award.

A cake baked by a lady called La'tifah Atkinson, owner of Bake That Cake, which was funded by the Prince's Trust in 2014, proved a hit with the royals.

Before the event, Ms Atkinson, 25, tweeted: 'Her Majesty and Prince Charles are on their way to cut my cake. So excited!'

She told Femail later that she was delighted to see Prince Charles cut the cake and that the Queen had asked her about the cake's filling...although they didn't actually get to try it.

Ms Atkinson said: 'She asked me "What's in it?" and I told her: "Vanilla sponge and lemon buttercream".

The Queen looked in jolly spirits as she arrived in west London, offering a smile to the gathered crowds

The Queen looked happy to be supporting Charles as he celebrates 40 years of the charity he conceived at the age of just 27

The Queen added that the cake 'cut very nicely' and 'looked very soft'.

The baking company, based in White City, received 7,500 from the Trust in 2014 and has gone from strength to strength.

'I knew I needed help when I couldn't get one of my cakes out of my mum's front door,' said Atkinson. 'The charity has given me help with everything from accountancy to promoting the company on social media.'

Charles appeared to be in jovial mood, laughing and sharing a joke with the Queen and the charity's staff as he made his way around the building.

He even appeared red in the face as he joked with students using computer facilities in the office and seemed delighted to be celebrating the charity entering its fifth decade.

Elegant: A large black and blue feather sat on the Queen's unique-looking blue hat

Even the walls are blue! The Queen looked perfectly co-ordinated at today's event
Some proceeds will be donated to Guide Dogs for the Blind and God's Love We Deliver

Pieces included art by Faberge, furniture, a Tiffany & Co. dog dish, and jewels by Cartier, Harry Winston, and Van Cleef & Arpels

Her daughter Melissa Rivers, 48, is selling some things from her Manhattan apartment through Christie's New York

Joan, who died in 2014 at the age of 81, supported several charities during her lifetime and left some of her fortune to them in her will

Joan Rivers fans who miss the comedian's biting humor and extravagant taste can always turn to YouTube to relive the former  while an upcoming auction of her personal things may help to satisfy the need for the latter.

In June, is auctioning off some of the belongings of the late star, who died unexpectedly in 2014 at the age of 81.Christie's New York

Offered up by her daughter, Melissa Rivers, 48, the artwork, jewelry, and collectibles taken from Joan's $28 million penthouse are expected to go for hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of which will be donated to charities that were close to the late stars heart.

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Cleaning out: Melissa Rivers (right) is auctioning off some items that had belonged to her late mother, Joan Rivers (left, in 2007)

Luxe digs: The pieces were cleaned out of the comedian's $28 million penthouse on New York City's Upper East Side

Packing with glamour: The opulent apartment was full of impressive art and knick-knacks

For a good cause: Some proceeds will benefit two of Joan's favorite charities, Guide Dogs for the Blind and God's Love We Deliver

Christie's promises to release more details about the items available to buy closer to the live auction date of June 22, when more than 200 lots will be offered. There will also be an online auction, from June 16 to 23, of about 80 lots.

'The sale at Christie's this June offers a "through the keyhole" experience for fans across the globe to see and buy items from my mother's amazing Manhattan penthouse,' Melissa said in a statement. 'The auction celebrates her elegance and collecting style.'

Some of the pieces of for grabs include works of art like Dans L'Atelier, a painting by Edouard Vuillard created circa 1915, which is estimated to go for $120,000 to $180,000.

There is also a jeweled nephrite study of a Lily of the Valley leaf by Faberge, estimated to sell for between $200,000 and $300,000.

Some of the pieces are quite personal, too. One lot includes a silver Tiffany & Co. water bowl engraved with the words 'for Spike' (estimated to sell for $500 to $800), which was once used by Joan's beloved dog by the name. Spike appeared with his owner on the cover of People magazine before he died in 2001 at the age of 17.

Glitz lover: Some of Joan's valuable jewelry from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Harry Winston are also up for grabs

Also included will be a Tiffany & Co. dog bowl once belonging to her beloved dog Spike (pictured in 1986), who passed in 2001 at the age of 17

Of course, it wouldn't be about the Fashion Police host if there wasn't actually plenty of fashion to go around.

Up for grabs will also be some 'spectacular' Bob Mackie gowns that Joan wore while headlining her stand-up show in Las Vegas, as well as several pieces of pricey jewelry.

Joan was a known glitz collector, and even published a book about it, Jewelry by Joan Rivers, in 1995. She also had her own jewelry collection for QVC  though the pieces that will be up for auction are a bit more expensive, from jewelers including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Harry Winston.

'I've always loved jewelry,' she said in a QVC promo in 2009. 'My biggest wish is to be buried with more of it on than King Tut Who I dated.

The items are sure to fetch a pretty penny from collectors, art and fashion admirers, and Joan Rivers fans alike, but they'll also serve to help people in need.

Artsy tendencies: Dans L'Atelier, a painting by Edouard Vuillard is estimated to go for $120,000 to $180,000

Collectables: The Christie's auction will include several pieces of art, including a jeweled Lily of the Valley leaf by Faberge, similar to the one pictured

Profits for the nonprofits: Melissa promised to honor her mother's generosity toward charitable causes

A portion of proceeds will benefit Guide Dogs for the Blind and God's Love We Deliver, a nonprofit that brings meals to home-bound people suffering from AIDS. Joan had volunteered often with God's Love We Deliver during her life, volunteering her time to deliver meals herself once a month.

'My mother's legacy as a much loved comedienne and philanthropist will be commemorated in this collaboration with Christie's and her generosity to charitable causes is something I will continue in her honor,' Melissa added.
A young model raised eyebrows when she walked down the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week today with her bare chest on show.

The girl, who had a very youthful appearance, took to the Valentino catwalk in a sheer sequin-embellished dress with a cloud motif and one of her breasts exposed.

The Italian fashion house chose to exhibit plenty of flesh with a plethora of barely-there fabrics and revealing necklines.

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A model who appeared to be under 18 walked in Valentino's show today in Paris in a sheer dress which exposed her breasts

The beaded dress has a cloud motif but also left very little to the imagination with its daring sheer design

Carole White, co-founder of London's Premier Model Management, previously said designers only 'want young, flat-chested' models to wear their clothes.

In France, the Chambre Syndicale, organisers of Paris Fashion Week, have imposed a lower limit of 16 for catwalk work.

Speaking to the Evening Standard ahead of London Fashion Week, Carole White said: 'The designers want straight up and down - no boobs.

The public were given a glimpse into the workings of the company in 2010 when it was the subject of a fly-on-the-wall Channel 4 documentary called The Model Agency.

She previously said the company chose to scout in schools because the 'very skinny' girls the labels wanted were normally the 'really young' ones.

In France, the Chambre Syndicale, organisers of Paris Fashion Week, have imposed a lower limit of 16 for catwalk work

The issue of girls modelling at such a young age is contentious and different countries have differing rulings

Carole White, co-founder of London's Premier Model Management, previously said designers only 'want young, flat-chested' models to wear their clothes

Controversial: Victoria Beckham, right, posted a gif of an unknown model wearing a striped black and brown dress from her latest VBAW16 collection on her Instagram account this month. Comments were quickly made about the model's slender appearance

Nude creations were in abundance on the Valentino runway with frothy fabrics and spaghetti straps seeming to take their inspiration from the ballet.

Netted, tiered and pleated midi-skirts sparkled with pretty jewel embellishments while one model sported a bat-wing jersey dress with a very plunging neckline.

Style consultant Nick Ede has previously said that nudity is something models should expect.

He said: 'A model showing off their nipples is something that has never been frowned at in the fashion world.

'It's just something that happens and is not seen in any other way than a piece of flesh being exposed.

'A model is always asked if they are comfortable in their clothes and nowadays with selfies, it's just not something that people have issues with. I don't think there should be any ruling on the exposure of a nipple.'

The issue of girls modelling at such a young age is contentious and not every country stipulates the same rules.

The state of New York passed a law that classified models under the age of 18 as child performers in an attempt to curb the use of 14-year-olds on the runway.

The new legislation means more restrictions and paperwork for designers who hire school-aged girls to model for them.

Casting agent Jessica Weinstein previously told the New York Times that this was the first year models' ages were brought up during casting with many designers.

Victoria Beckham came under fire when she posted a gif of a model which commenters agreed was 'too skinny'.

The 41-year-old posted the moving image on her account - which showed a young, blonde-haired model turning left and right against a backdrop of the New York skyline - and quickly saw it amass 32,000 likes.

Netted and pleated midi-skirts sparkled with pretty jewel embellishments while one model sported a bat-wing jersey dress with a very plunging neckline

A model walks the catwalk in an intricate jewel-embellished dress for Valentino. In France, models must be 16 or over for catwalk work

Nude creations were in abundance on the Valentino runway with frothy fabrics and spaghetti straps seeming to take their inspiration from the ballet

A model wore a plunging neckline finished with gold beading detail in a cape style, while make-up and hair was understated

However, many of the hundreds of comments rounded on the designer for using a model they felt was 'way too thin'.

LEGAL AGES TO MODEL In France, models must be 16 or over for catwalk work. In the UK, MPs are currently debating imposing a law which would mean models could not be under 18. In London, there are no specific rules for model ages at Fashion Week, but all members of the Association Of Model Agents have agreed not to use models under 16 years for these catwalk shows. In Milan, there is no law in place to prevent designers from casting models under the age of 16 at Milan Fashion Week. But in 2011, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) put a ban on any models under the age of 16 appearing on the catwalk at Fashion Week shows Advertisement

Diane Von Furstenburg has also previously spoken out about the use of young models.

In an open letter to the fashion industry in 2011, CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg summed up the argument for only using models over the age of 16 in catwalk shows.

She said: 'The industry's hiring of prepubescent-appearing teenage girls as models of adult clothing sets an unrealistic standard; hips and breasts, the curves that define the female figure, are absent.'

France has been forward thinking in its treatment of models, only last year the country banned excessively thin models from working.

A new bill adopted in December forced all models to get a medical professional to sign off that they are healthy.

The original draft of the law had stipulated that models needed a minimum body mass index of 18.

However it faced a backlash from critics who argued that a 'healthy' BMI does not always equal a healthy body.

Body Mass Index is not necessarily an indication of health or an eating disorder, as it does not take into account a person's age, bone structure, muscle mass or fat percentage.

When the law was first passed in the lower house of Parliament in April this year, it proposed a minimum BMI of 18 for all models, which was met with protest from the fashion industry.
As Donald Trump gets closer and closer to becoming the Republican presidential candidate, Ivanka Trump reveals that she wouldn't rule out following in father's footsteps and running for office one day.

The 34-year-old, who is expecting her third child with her husband Jared Kushner, 35, any day now, said she refuses to limit herself when it comes to her career, but she admitted that right now a political run seems unlikely for her.

'I do not think so, but I have learned in life to never say never! It is too limiting,' she told Cosmopolitan of her thoughts on one day running for office.

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Father's footsteps: Ivanka Trump, who is pictured speaking at her dad Donald's rally in New Hampshire in February, revealed that she may consider running for office one day

Grandpa-to-be: Donald has praised Ivanka for the hard work that she has put into his campaign, despite her pregnancy, describing her as 'so very, very special'

'That said, I am wholly focused on the growth of my own company  my lifestyle brand and IvankaTrump.com, a digital destination for women who work  as well as working alongside my brothers to expand the global footprint of The Trump Organization.'

Ivanka has played a key role in her father Donald's presidential campaign, appearing in ads supporting him, traveling across the country to make appearances at his rallies and standing by his side during his primary election victories.

The mother-of-two, who has a four-year-old daughter, Arabella, and a two-year-old son, Joseph, may be a natural at the podium, but Ivanka appears to be focused solely on her current career and her growing family.

Ivanka is a strong advocate for women in business, and when asked if she ever has to walk into a room filled with men who assume she only got her job because of her last name, she said has learned to shove those thoughts aside.

'I used to think about that, but you get to a point when you realize there are always naysayers,' she said. 'Those external things can't be a driver in your life. You have to find motivation from within rather than from outside yourself.'

Personal asset: Ivanka has played a key role in her father's presidential campaign, appearing in numerous ads, including this spot, which aired before the Nevada's caucus in February

Hard at work! The 34-year-old spent Monday in the office with her children, four-year-old Arabella and two-year-old Joseph, sharing images and videos from their outing on her Instagram and Snapchat accounts

And no one should ever doubt the expectant, who has proved time and time again that being pregnant doesn't have to slow you down in the slightest.

Ivanka spent the day in the office on Monday with Arabella and Joseph, entertaining the tots with plenty of activities, from coloring to ice cream eating.

In a series of Snapchat videos shared by Ivanka and her team, the kids can be seen coloring, posing for pictures, munching on ice cream and playing around on their mother's computer.

Sharing an image of the pair on Instagram, in which they can be seen perched at Ivanka's desk, the soon-to-be mother-of-three wrote: 'Arabella and Joseph are all laughs helping me finish some emails.'

But it wasn't all work for the trio, who also found some time to kick back and have fun, with Joseph and Arabella indulging in a spot of arts and crafts, including coloring at a special kid-friendly work station in Ivanka Trump HQ.

Say cheese! The proud mother made sure to take plenty of pictures of her children while they played

Showing it off: Although she kept her bump hidden from view in her recent Snapchat posts, a few weeks ago, Ivanka shared this Instagram image of herself flaunting her belly in a printed dress from her own range

Ivanka's office outing with her children comes just a few days after she stepped out in Manhattan to enjoy a breakfast date with her husband Jared.

The former model was pictured with her husband of six and a half years in New York on Thursday morning, looking impeccably dressed in a black-and-white knee-length dress which concealed her blooming baby bump, as well as a pair of strappy black heels.

Wearing her blonde hair in a half-up style, the pregnant businesswoman looked in good spirits as she held her husband's hand and gamely smiled at the waiting photographers.

Last week, Ivanka's father Donald revealed during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach that he believes his daughter could give birth 'within the week'.

Proud parents: Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, 35, are currently expecting their third child together, but that hasn't stopped the pair from assisting her dad Donald with his presidential campaign

Support system: Ivanka is posed with her family at her father Donald's presidential announcement in June

Unsurprisingly, given how popular his daughter has proven with voters, the proud grandad beamed from ear to ear as he discussed the birth of his future grandchild, who will no doubt follow in his or her mother's footsteps and become something of a regular fixture during the last few months of Donald's campaign, helping him to woo voters across the country by boosting his profile as a family man.

Indeed, unlike many women in the final stages of their pregnancy, Ivanka has done little to try and rest or relax during the past few weeks and has, if anything, actually increased her working schedule in order to be by her father's side during much of his campaign.

Although the entrepreneur and designer did not appear at her father's Palm Beach event, she has been a constant presence throughout his campaign, standing alongside him during his victories in South Carolina less than two weeks ago, and New Hampshire.

And even though she was not present in Nevada to see her father claim victory, Ivanka still took a central role in the lead-up to the caucus, appearing in a campaign video for The Donald in which she urged voters to take part and have their say.
Princess Beatrice played it safe in all-black ensemble at a dinner event at the Bulgari hotel, in London.

The 27-year-old royal wore an uninspiring inky dress paired with a blazer and court shoes to attend the WE Day UK dinner held by Richard Branson.

The eldest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson hobnobbed with the billionaire's daughter Holly at the Knightsbridge hotel and showed her support for the event, which will take place tomorrow at Wembley Stadium.

Princess Beatrice played it safe in all-black ensemble at a dinner event at the Bulgari hotel, in London

Beatrice softened her black outfit with a puff-sleeve blazer and added some sparkle to her flared dress with a metallic clutch and patent heels, right, pictured with Holly Branson

Beatrice wore her hair in bouncy curls and played down her make-up with a natural look.

The royal softened her dark ensemble with a puff-sleeve blazer and added some sparkle with a metallic clutch and patent heels.

Beatrice, who is rumoured to have landed a job with a New York-based fashion investment company, was snapped with Holly, 34, who wore a forest-green asymmetric dress with zip detailing.

She paired her statement top with matching leather skinny trousers and - in contrast to Beatrice - chose comfort with a pair of flat shoes.

American actress Marlee Matlin attended the celebration and smiled for the camera with Beatrice and Holly

Beatrice and Marlee both chose black for the occasion while Holly chose a forest green ensemble for her father's event

Beatrice was supporting the celebration for WE Day, which kicks off tomorrow night at Wembley Stadium, pictured with Hanan Ahmed

Beatrice wore her red hair in bouncy curls and played down her make-up with a natural look, braving the cold with bare legs

American actress Marlee Matlin attended the celebration and smiled for the camera with Beatrice and Holly.

The Oscar-winning deaf actress also chose black in a knitted dress with cut-out detailing, but contrasted her outfit with her curled blonde hair.

Beatrice's new opportunity came after she completed a finance course at university in San Francisco but was back in London to attend the launch.

Her long-term boyfriend Dave Clark works for Sir Richard's spaceflight company Virgin Galactic.

Beatrice and Holly are close friends and even scaled Mont Blanc together in 2012.

The event celebrated tomorrow's WE Day performance, which brings together world-renowned speakers, A-list performers and thousands of young people.

The community-based project will see Rita Ora and X Factor's Fleur East perform on stage at Wembley.
A man nearly went blind after using poppers while out clubbing, doctors have warned.

The 52-year-old came to hospital after his vision became blurry and shapes became distorted.

He told doctors at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, that for 10 days, he had only been able to see out of the corners of his eyes - known as peripheral vision - but not out of the centre.

Explaining further, he revealed his eyesight had changed following a night out clubbing where he had inhaled poppers for the first time.

Poppers are legal highs which are often sold as 'room fresheners'. They trigger feelings of euphoria and sexual arousal when inhaled.

A man who sniffed poppers for the time nearly went blind. The chemicals are legal highs often sold as 'room odorisors' and trigger feelings of euphoria and sexual arousal when inhaled (file image has been used)

In hospital, doctors examined the man and found he had damaged the inner and outer layer of his fovea, a small area in the retina of the eye important for clear vision.

He had loss of central vision, and metamorphopsia, a type of vision problem where the shape of objects seen are distorted.

However, his peripheral vision was normal.

They advised the man to stop taking the drugs, and after three months he saw 'marginal' improvement in his vision.

Writing in the journal BMJ Case Reports, doctors said poppers are known to cause problems with vision.

Made from alkyl nitrite chemicals, they are thought to release free radicals - harmful molecules that speed up cell damage - in this case affecting the eyes.

However despite the high use of poppers, there have been only around 30 published cases of the drugs causing vision loss and damage.

The 52-year-old man came to hospital after his vision became blurry and shapes became distorted. Doctors found the drugs had damaged a small area in the eye important for vision (file photo)

However, 'the actual incidence is likely to be much higher,' the doctors wrote in this new report.

While the loss of vision can be prevented by stopping using the drugs, recovery is variable.

Some patients' vision returns to normal, but others experience no improvement - and there is no current therapy that can help, the paper warns.

As a result, doctors should always ask patients with vision problems about their use of legal highs and recreational drugs, the authors wrote.

Currently, poppers are not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act and are available from a range of sources.
People with dementia are being encouraged to join clinical trials under a scheme to understand why it occurs and find new treatments.

The Join Dementia Research scheme was launched last year by the Department of Health, the National Institute for Health Research and Alzheimer's charities and helps people find dementia studies in their area.

Patients benefit from enrolling on a trial as they can learn more about dementia, are monitored more regularly by specialists, and have innovative approaches to treatment.

The Join Dementia Research scheme was launched last year by the Department of Health, the National Institute for Health Research and Alzheimer's charities

Almost 16,000 people have already signed up. Anyone interested can sign up at joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk or contact Dementia Research on 0300 111 5111.

Emu gel to boost a man's love life

A new gel has been developed to help men with Peyronie's disease, estimated to affect 9 per cent of them at some point.

For reasons that remain unclear, fibrous scar tissue forms in the penis, causing curvature, painful erections and impotence.

In a three-month trial of 22 patients in the U.S., men who used the gel, known as H-100, saw significant reductions in the curvature of the penis, and in pain, compared with those using a placebo gel, according to results published in the International Journal of Impotence Research.

It contains emu oil (an anti-inflammatory), nicardipine (a chemical found in many heart drugs which reduces collagen production and therefore scar tissue), and superoxide dismutase (a compound thought to prevent tissue damage).

A new gel has been developed to help men with Peyronie's disease, estimated to affect 9 per cent [file photo]

Thalidomide eases stomach bleeding

The controversial drug thalidomide is being used to tackle bleeding in the gut.

This can occur as a result of inflammatory bowel conditions such as Crohn's disease but sometimes there is no obvious trigger.

In a four-month trial at Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine patients will be given either four thalidomide pills or a placebo daily; their symptoms will be monitored for up to a year.

An earlier, pilot study found that it stopped gut bleeding completely in 46 per cent of patients treated with it.

Thalidomide has anti-inflammatory effects and inhibits the formation of new blood vessels, which stops bleeding.
Told by her GP that she had asthma, Pauline Saunders could hardly hide her surprise.

The 52-year-old human resources manager from Oxted had been coughing non-stop for weeks.

It was so severe that she could barely hold a conversation because every few minutes she would start hacking away.

'It was really getting me down,' says Pauline. 'I wasn't at all wheezy, as I thought most asthmatics are. It was a throaty cough and had come out of nowhere.

'But the GP thought it was asthma and gave me a preventer steroid inhaler to use every day for a fortnight to dampen down any inflammation in my airways.'

Pauline Saunders, from Oxted Surrey, was misdiagnosed as having asthma when in fact she had acid reflux

Although it helped 'a tiny bit', when she stopped using it, the cough returned.

A few weeks later, at Christmas 2013, Pauline returned to her GP who told her to keep using the preventer inhaler but also a reliever inhaler, given to patients to use during an asthma attack. It reduces inflammation more quickly than the preventer.

Three months later she was still no better. By then desperate, she decided to pay for treatment privately at a London hospital.

Initially she saw a GP who confirmed it was asthma and gave her yet another inhaler, with a stronger formulation of steroids, and referred her to see a lung specialist the same day, who confirmed the diagnosis.

'The breakthrough came when I went for a follow-up appointment three weeks later and was given a lung function test,' says Pauline, who is married to Philip, 52, a quantity surveyor. 'I just had to blow into a machine.

'The specialist immediately said the results were normal and I didn't have asthma. I'd been having all those steroids for nothing.'

Asthma is essentially inflammation of the small tubes, the bronchi, in the lungs. Attacks - when the airways narrow causing breathlessness - can be triggered by everything from an allergy to medication or even the weather.

Pauline was, in fact, suffering from acid reflux, when acid from the stomach leaks up into the gullet or oesophagus, irritating it. In some people, this can cause an irritating cough.

Steroid inhalers can cause oral thrush, lead to osteoporosis, or long-term cause calcium to leach out of bones

According to the charity Asthma UK, there are 5.4 million people in the UK (1.1 million children and 4.3 million adults) receiving treatment for asthma. But questions are now being raised about this figure, with suggestions that some of those diagnosed with asthma actually have something else.

'I quite often see people who don't have asthma but have reflux,' says Ian Pavord, a professor of respiratory medicine at Oxford University, who also runs a severe asthma clinic at Oxford University Hospital NHS Trust.

'The chronic cough gets put down to asthma, but actually only 10-15 per cent of people with a chronic cough have asthma.'

Panic attacks or hyperventilation, viral infections, vocal cord dysfunction and smoking-related lung conditions may also get confused for asthma.

Yet many of these people will be indiscriminately given steroid inhalers for something that is, for instance, a viral infection, says Professor Pavord - and 'so begins a lifetime of medication for them'.

This has its own potential health risks, as steroid inhalers can delay growth in youngsters or cause oral thrush (steroids alter the balance of bacteria in the mouth and so allow the thrush yeast to flourish). It can lead to osteoporosis, as long-term use of steroids can cause calcium to leach out of bones.

It also means patients miss out on treatment for their real condition - which in the case of reflux or vocal cord dysfunction is utterly different from the steroid inhalers given for asthma.

It is not clear how many are misdiagnosed with asthma, but last month a study published in the British Journal of General Practice suggested that as many as one in two children treated for asthma may not have it all.

Dutch scientists examined 650 children diagnosed with asthma, looking at each one's symptoms, then dividing them into groups ranging from definitely asthmatic to almost certainly not.

Panic attacks or hyperventilation, viral infections, vocal cord dysfunction and smoking-related lung conditions may also get confused for asthma

They found that 53 per cent of the six to 18-year-olds in the study probably did not have it at all.

The charity Asthma UK played down the findings.

'This is a small study that took place in a country that has a very different healthcare system from ours,' said Dan Murphy, Asthma UK's director of external affairs.

Yet it is not the first time that questions have been raised about how many people really have asthma. Last year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said: 'Studies of adults diagnosed with asthma suggest up to 30 per cent do not have clear evidence of asthma . . . It is likely that many have been given an incorrect diagnosis.'

The comments came in draft guidance to improve diagnosis and monitoring of this potential killer. For there is no doubt that for those who do actually have asthma, the effects can be devastating.

'Having to fight for breath is truly unpleasant,' says Professor Pavord. Three people die every day while having a severe asthma attack. So why is misdiagnosis occurring?

One issue undoubtedly is that the symptoms of asthma can be confused with other conditions, but compounding this is the fact that diagnosis has for too long centred on symptoms and not the available tests.

'A lot of people with a wheezy illness get labelled as asthmatic and there is a growing feeling that there needs to be a more analytical approach,' says Professor Pavord.

This means using diagnostic tests. In its draft guidance last year, NICE recommended that a diagnosis should be made only after the patient has had a lung function test called spirometry.

This involves breathing hard into a mouthpiece that's attached to a spirometer machine to measure the volume of air (an asthmatic usually has a lower result). Depending on that result, children over five and adults should then be offered a FeNO test, which measures the amount of nitric oxide in the breath. It works very much like a breathalyser and is a test that a GP can do.

The results of pilot studies will be checked before the NICE guidance is formalised.

'Nitric oxide is produced by the lining of the airways when inflamed,' says Professor Pavord. 'People who are wheezing as a result of a viral illness, for example, will have normal nitric oxide readings, while asthmatics will not.'

The FeNO test is, he says, 'very easy'. 'It can be done in a minute and is like blowing into a breathalyser machine. It is also more accurate than spirometry.'

Furthermore, the FeNO test gives an idea of who will benefit from steroid medication.

'There are some people who do have asthma, but so mildly that they do not need steroid inhalers - and this would be reflected in their reading.'

Looking back, I think it's obvious I didn't have asthma. I just wish others had come to that conclusion sooner

Yet according to the recent Dutch study - albeit not in the UK - only 16 per cent of the children diagnosed with asthma had been given a spirometry test.

And Professor Pavord says only a handful of GP practices have the FeNO test. He puts this down to 'a reluctance to accept new tests'.

'But if there was greater use of the FeNO test, we could quickly work out if is this a mild viral problem that will just go away or whether it is asthma,' he adds.

It could also help with the other extreme of the problem: when those with potentially life-threatening asthma don't get picked up.

'Around 60 per cent of those who die from an asthma attack have not been identified by their GP as being high-risk,' he says.

'For example, young people viewed as low-risk go to a concert, get a lungful of allergens [such as grass pollen], maybe have a cigarette as they don't think they have serious asthma - and they then die of asthma.'

Dr Imran Rafi, the chairman of clinical innovation and research at the Royal College of GPs, says there are undoubtedly challenges in diagnosing asthma, yet the college is not yet certain that the new tests suggested by NICE will work for all.

'The FeNO test does not work so well in the underfives, the elderly and those who smoke,' he says. 'We need assurance about the value of the benefits of these new tests. That's why pilot studies are ongoing.'

All Pauline knows is that for nine months she used inhalers unnecessarily as no one had thought to test her lungs.

Doctors tried to treat her reflux with medication, but when that failed, she opted for surgery with the LINX system - here a bracelet comprising tiny magnets encased in titanium is implanted around the oesophagus.

When the patient swallows, the magnetic bond temporarily breaks to allow food and drink to pass normally, but then the magnets close, restoring a barrier to the reflux.

After the operation in October 2014, her cough cleared virtually overnight, a year after it first appeared.
More than 1,300 newly reported cases of female genital mutilation were reported in England in just three months.

Figures released today, for the quarter October to December last year, reveal there were 1,316 newly-reported cases of FGM in England - a slight decrease from 1,385 between July and September.

However, the total number of attendances for FGM rose to 2,238 - up from 1,641 in the previous quarter.

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Female Genital Mutilation is a harmful traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and is illegal in the UK. Since April 2014, the NHS has been required to collect data on FGM

FGM is a harmful traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia.

The practise is illegal in the UK and it is also illegal to take a female abroad for the purposes of FGM with a maximum jail term for carrying out or enabling FGM of 14 years.

Since April 2014, the NHS has been required to collect data on female genital mutilation (FGM) from women attending hospitals, GP surgeries and mental health centres.

Other key findings from the Health and Social Care Information Centre report includes:

Of the 1,316 new cases, 35 females were aged under 18 when they were first seen

11 women or girls affected were reported to have been born in the UK

London accounts for 45 per cent of newly recorded cases and 56 per cent of total attendances

Somalia, in Eastern Africa, accounts for more than a third of all newly recorded women and girls with a known country of birth

Women and girls were most likely to self-report that they had suffered FGM with almost three-quarters presenting themselves to health professionals.

Tanya Barron, CEO of global children's charity Plan UK, which works to combat FGM worldwide, said the statistics revealed the extent of the problem in England.

WHAT IS FGM? Female genital mutilation is the practice in which some or all of the female genitals are removed, typically with a blade or a razor and sometimes without anaesthesia. This includes removing the clitoral and the fold of skin above it, and removing labia  the inner 'lips' of the vagina. In the most severe form, the inner and outer labia are removed and the opening of the vagina is closed with a small hole so the woman can pass urine and menstrual blood. Sometimes the vagina is then cut open for sex or childbirth. Women sometimes bleed to death or can be left with horrifying health effects, such as infections, chronic pain, cysts, infertility and problems giving birth. Advertisement

'These latest statistics show that there is no room for complacency in the struggle to end FGM. Much work has been done, not least by grassroots organisations, in changing attitudes globally and helping tackle the problem at cause.

'But more needs to be done both here in the UK and abroad to stop this fundamental human rights abuse.

'Only by empowering millions of girls and young women around the world with quality education and other support will we end FGM once and for all.'

Last year, Home Secretary Theresa May said that in the UK, 137,000 women are living with the consequences of FGM and a 60,000 are at risk.

The figures she cited, from a report from City University London in collaboration with Equality Now, estimated that 10,000 girls aged under 15 who migrated to England and Wales are likely to have undergone FGM.

Last July, the Government launched a 1.4 million programme to tackle FGM, with the aim of ending the practice within a generation.

This included bringing in laws to prosecute parents if they fail to prevent their daughters being cut.

It also requires collecting data about FGM in hospitals in England and training both health professionals and police officers to respond appropriately to cases of FGM.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), FGM is carried out for social and religious reasons and is an 'extreme form of discrimination against women'.

FGM is estimated to lead to an extra one or two baby deaths per 100 deliveries worldwide.

Women with FGM also have increased risk of stillbirth, infants that need resuscitation and low birth weight babies.

Supermodel Waris Dirie, who was circumcised and had her vagina sewn up, wants to save a million out of the 30 million girls in Africa who face the horror of FGM

The World Health Organisation recognises FGM as a 'violation of the human rights of girls and women'.

'It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women,' the agency said.

Only by empowering millions of girls and young women around the world with quality education and other support will we end FGM once and for all Tanya Barron, Plan UK

'The practice violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.'

It is estimated that between 100 and 140 million girls and women around the world have undergone genital mutilation.

Each year around three million women are thought to be at risk.

FGM ranges from the partial or total removal of the clitoris, to the removal of the entire clitoris and the cutting of the labia minora.

In its most extreme form, all external genitalia is removed and the two sides of a woman or girl's vulva are stitched together.

FGM is generally done without anaesthetic, and can have lifelong health consequences including chronic infection, severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth and psychological trauma.
A cancer patient told he had only a year left to live has shared incredible scan photos of his tumour shrinking.

Kye Eastwood, 24, from Hull, was diagnosed in 2012 with Hodgkin's lymphoma - a cancer which begins in the network of vessels and glands known as the lymphatic system.

But when a huge mass in his chest failed to respond to treatment, doctors discovered he also had a second type of cancer - a rare and aggressive tumour.

Despite more rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he was given the devastating news that he had just a year to live.

But Mr Eastwood and his fiancee, Chanelle Urquhart, 21, were determined to do anything they could to prolong his life and began researching other treatments.

They discovered a clinic in America offering clinical trials and managed to raise 30,000 to take part.

Now, nine months after starting treatment in America - which included a new combination of drugs and a stem cell transplant from from his sister - his cancer has dramatically U-turned.

In fact, doctors have said the tumour is now so small he is almost in remission.

Terminal: Kye Edwards was told he had just 12 months to live after doctors discovered he had a rare and aggressive primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma in his chest. He is pictured with fiancee, Chanelle Urquhart, 21

Home for Christmas: After raising 30, 000 and flying to America for treatment, Mr Eastwood's tumour shrank by 70 per cent. Within six months of beginning treatment, he was allowed home for Christmas

Shrinking: In America, Mr Eastwood received a new combination of drugs and a stem cell transplant, which helped beat the disease. Left, the mass is pictured in black on 4th December 2015 when Mr Eastwood first began treatment, centre is the tumour on 11th Feb 2016 and right, the tumour on the 3rd of March 2016

Mr Eastwood, a former mechanics student, said: 'After seeing my scans I couldn't believe how big my tumour in my chest was, it was showing up black on the scan so it was clear to see.

'When my doctors in the UK told me there was nothing else they could do, I just couldn't accept it, I was in shock that I had cancer in the first place.

'I don't blame them, I know they exhausted all options that were available to me on the NHS, but it felt like they just weren't as determined to help me as I was.'

After seeing my scans I couldn't believe how big my tumour in my chest was, it was showing up black on the scan so it was clear to see

He said deciding to go to America was a risk, given that if treatment didn't work he would be spending the last months of his life in a foreign hospital.

There he underwent the transplant after receiving stem cells from his sister, Rebecca Featherstone, 28.

He said: 'When I found out about the treatment in the US I was so nervous. I was terrified if it didn't work it would have wasted a lot of precious time away from home.

'Thankfully the treatment, which involved transferring Rebecca's stem cells into my bod,y has been a huge success - I'm over the moon with my results and the scans are incredible.

'I am so grateful for everyone who helped raise the money to get me over here, I can now start to live my life again.'

Mr Eastwood's ordeal began in December 2012, when he found multiple lumps in his neck and scans revealed a mass in his chest.

Writing on his GoFundMe page, his family said he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and had multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

But while this shrank the lumps in his neck, the treatment 'barely touched' the mass in his chest.

After a biopsy, it was discovered the tumour in his chest was not Hodgkin's lymphoma but actually a primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma (PMBL), a rare and aggressive tumour.

These are large masses which develop in the mediastinum, which is the area in the middle of the chest, behind the breastbone.

Diffuse non-Hodgkins's lymphoma is the most common form of the disease, and is named in this way because when it is examined under a microscope the cancerous calls are abnormally large and spread diffusely.

A RARE AND AGGRESSIVE TYPE OF NON-HODGKIN LYMPHOMA Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) develops in the mediastinum, which is the area in the middle of the chest, behind the sternum (the breastbone). PMBL usually affects young adults  the average age of people who develop this lymphoma is 35 and it is more common in women. PMBL can cause problems by pressing on the lungs, oesophagus, or on the large vein that takes blood back from the body to the heart (the superior vena cava). It can also lead to collections of fluid around the heart (a pericardial effusion) or the lung (a pleural effusion). Possible early symptoms are breathlessness, cough, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the neck and face, headaches and dizziness. PMBL is treated with drugs, sometimes followed by a course of radiotherapy. High-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation can be used to treat PMBL if it relapses. Source: Lymphoma Association Advertisement

Only around 1 in 20 people with a diffuse non-Hodgkin's lymphoma will develop a PMBL, which can cause problems by pressing on the lungs, on the oesophagus, or on the large vein that takes blood back from the body to the heart.

It can also lead to dangerous collections of fluid around the heart or the lungs.

Mr Eastwood endured more chemotherapy, as well as an autologous stem cell transplant in a bid to save his life.

This is where his own stem cells, collected before he began chemotherapy, were injected back into his body to reboot his immune system and give him a chance at survival.

But in December 2014, doctors at Castle Hill Hospital, in Hull, broke the devastating news that Mr Eastwood was terminally ill at the age of 23.

To the family's horror, they said there was nothing more they could do to treat him - and he had just a year to live.

Desperate for anything that would prolong his life, Mr Eastwood began researching alternative treatments.

He was accepted on to a clinical trial in Oxford, but after two rounds of treatment was told the cancer may have spread and he could not continue.

Devastated, but determined not to give up, he became re-energised when a family member told him about the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas and said it was providing clinical trials that may help him.

Mr Eastwood said: 'I was told not to bother looking for anything in America because UK doctors thought there was nothing that could save me.

'But when I was told about the US treatment I was given a lifeline, a chance of surviving.

'I knew I had to give it a go so my family helped me raise 30,000 for the consultation.'

Giant tumour: After chemotherapy and radiotherapy failed to shrink Mr Eastwood's cancer, he found a clinical trial at the MD Anderson Centre, Texas. Pictured, his tumour when he arrived (left) and during treatment (right)

Hope: Doctors gave Mr Eastwood drugs to shrink the tumour, and he underwent a stem cell transplant using cells donated from his sister. Left scan show the tumour before treatment, and right, after it began

After flying to the US, the centre referred him for free treatment at a research hospital in Maryland, where he trialled a new combination of drugs.

In November, he underwent an allogeneic stem cell transplant, in which his sister Rebecca's stem cells were transferred into his body, giving him a 'new' immune system fit to beat the disease.

For this procedure to be carried out in the UK, the patient must be in remission. However, this requirement does not apply in the US.

Within six months, his tumour had shrunk by 70 per cent and he was allowed home to spend Christmas with his family.

But when he returned, doctors were worried that the combination of drugs could be causing the cancer to spread.

It meant he had to stop taking the medication and was left hoping the allogeneic stem cell transplant would work to shrink his tumour.

Miraculously, the new stem cells began to shrink Mr Eastwood's cancer, which is now so small that doctors struggle to measure it.

Almost in remission: Now allowed home, doctors say Mr Eastwood's tumour can barely be measured. From left to right, first picture shows his tumour when he began treatment. Next picture shows the tumour on 21st December 2015 shortly before he was let home for Christmas

Miraculous: The tumour scan (left) was taken on 21st January 2015 when Mr Eastwood returned to the US. The fourth scan on the right was taken on 11th Feb 2016 and shows the tumour shrinking without the help of any drugs, proving the stem cell transplant was working

Mr Eastwood has finally been allowed to go home after spending eight months in and out of hospital.

He will have to fly back to the US over the next five years for regular check-ups, but has been told he is almost in remission.

'Having to move away from home and leave my family has been the hardest part of it all,' he said.

'I've had to change my lifestyle quite drastically, instead of going to work I was going for treatment - it's been a lot to deal with.

He continued: 'It's been extremely difficult at times but I always told my dad I wouldn't let cancer kill me.

'I can finally take my life off hold and move forward with things like getting myself a career.

'In the future I hope to live a normal life, free from cancer, which I think will be hard after all of this but I'm going to try my hardest.'

A spokesman for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: 'While we cannot comment specifically on Mr Eastwood's case for reasons of patient confidentiality, we do believe our staff explored all possible treatment options available on the NHS, to assist with his condition.

'We appreciate this may still be a stressful time for Kye and his family, but we're pleased to see the alternative treatment he is receiving appears to be proving effective.'

For more information, visit: www.gofundme.com/helpkyefly
Quitting smoking can be a stressful time - for the smoker and their loved ones alike.

Yet while watching from the sidelines, constantly snapping at your partner to stub out their cigarettes may feel like a constructive way to help, experts warn it could have the opposite effect.

Nagging does not help people stop smoking, a new study has revealed.

Trying to take control after your partner has decided to quit, usually backfires making them more likely to spark up.

Instead, scientists say emotional encouragement and practical support is a far more effective step to helping a loved one steer clear of their vice.

Study author Dr Gertraud Stadler, of the University of Aberdeen, said: 'These results are really helpful when making a plan to stop smoking.'

Scientists revealed that nagging a partner to quit smoking, or trying to take control of them after they already quit, makes them far more likely to spark up again

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death from lifestyle factors.

Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly six million deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

And on average, smokers die 10 years earlier than non-smokers, the CDC reported.

The study, conducted by scientists from the University of Aberdeen and University of Zurich, tracked the behavior of 100 couples.

In each of the couples in the study one partner smoked and the other was a non-smoker.

The scientists set out to understand what happens on a day-to-day basis when one partner quits smoking - and how their loved one can best help.

The smokers and their significant others were asked to use mobile phones to keep a diary of support their partner offered before and after their predetermined quit date.

The diaries were kept 10 days before and 21 days after the quit date, which is when the scientists deemed help was really needed.

After the quit date, the scientists then monitored the participants' progress in stopping smoking.

Dr Stadler said: 'This meant we could look at whether quitting success differs if the non-smoking partner provides support beforehand or after the quit date.

'We found that support was most beneficial when given after the quit date, this makes sense given that this was when the help was really needed.'

Instead, scientists recommend people give their partners emotional encouragement to help them quit, or ask them to help out with simple tasks, such as shopping or taking care of the children

The study also found that many things were detrimental in helping the smoking partner quit - such as nagging or trying to control the situation.

Dr Stadler said: 'According to this study, the smokers chance of stopping smoking would increase if we can train the partners to give more tailored support according to the smokers habits.'

Instead of nagging, the study found that simple things, such as asking them to help out with practical tasks, helped smokers quit smoking.

Examples of those tasks include shopping or looking after the children.

Dr Stadler said: 'These results show that we could encourage the partner to offer emotional support as well as practical help.

'There are lots of things that partners can do to help their significant others quit.'
New mothers are sent home from hospital more quickly in Britain than in nearly any other country.

On average they spend only a day and a half on maternity units after giving birth.

This is the briefest stay for any developed country  and the eighth shortest in 71 nations studied by researchers in London.

A typical Frenchwoman has more than four days in hospital and Italians and Germans can expect at least three days of care.

New mothers in Britain are discharged after an average 1.5 days compared to 4.2 days in France while Italian new mothers are typically kept in for 3.4 days and Germans for 3 days

Experts claim mothers and babies are being sent home early because of a shortage of resources. They warn that short stays could mean potentially fatal illnesses are missed.

New mothers may also lose out on the support they need to stave off post-natal depression or to ensure they start breastfeeding.

The research, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is just the latest in a catalogue of concerns about maternity care. Health trusts are buckling under the pressure of staff and cash shortages and, last year, half of maternity units were forced to turn away women in labour.

The obesity crisis and delayed motherhood are adding to the strain, with older and overweight women prone to more complex labours.

Previous British research has shown that a quarter of women have been left alone and worried before giving birth.

Last month the NHS announced a radical shake-up of care. This includes offering all mothers-to-be birth budgets of 3,000 to encourage them to have their babies at home.

The review, commissioned in the wake of the scandal at the Morecambe Bay hospital trust, where up to 30 mothers and babies died needlessly over a decade, also calls for health trusts to improve maternity safety. The latest study uses length of hospital stay as a sign of quality of care. Women in Guyana, South Korea and Liberia were found to spend more time in hospital after giving birth than their British counterparts.

Discharging new mothers and their babies too early can mean that potentially fatal complications in mothers and their babies may be missed, the report's authors say

Only Uganda, Jordan, Turkey, Mexico, Zambia, Pakistan and Egypt send new mothers home more quickly.

The data also shows that 30 per cent of new mothers in Britain are discharged after less than a day, breaching World Health Organisation advice that women should be kept in for at least 24 hours.

The new research did not break down length of stays into hours. But while a new mother in the 1970s might have spent a week convalescing in hospital, many today are sent home just six hours after giving birth.

A spokesman for the researchers said: 'Short stays can mean there is insufficient time to conduct checks and detect, diagnose or treat problems in mothers or newborns, which can increase the risk of death or illness.

'It can also mean there is not enough time to educate and support new mothers, which can lead to problems such as difficulties with breastfeeding and lack of maternal confidence.'

Debra Bick, a maternity services expert from King's College London, said traditionally Britain was able to discharge new mothers more quickly than its continental counterparts because it ensured they had frequent visits from midwives.

However, the number of visits has been cut, leaving women without information about pain relief and breast feeding.

Others are being readmitted to hospital with infections that should have been prevented. She said: 'Length of stays have been declining for the past ten to 15 years and it is clear evidence it is resource driven  they want people out as quickly as possible.'

Annie O'Leary, of parenting website Netmums, said some women may be being 'pushed out' of hospitals that are struggling for resources. She added: 'We need to look at whether the women genuinely want to go home, or are they choosing to go home because they don't like being in hospital, or are they not choosing to go home at all but being pushed out.'

The figures are an average for all new mothers, not just first-time mothers, and apply to natural births rather than C-sections. Women who had twins or triplets were excluded.

Prof Oona Campbell, of the London School of Hygiene, wrote in the journal PLOS Medicine that very short stays undermine global efforts to encourage women to give birth in hospital.

Louise Silverton, director for midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, warned that it was very difficult to make direct comparisons between nations  most of those in the study were low or middle income.

She added: 'The decision about when a woman goes home after birth is one that should be made through discussion with the woman, midwives and medical staff. The length of time and the care of the woman should be based on her needs, not on resources or availability of beds.'

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'We want all women to receive the very best maternity care seven days a week. Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff, there have been real improvements across England.

'But discharging patients without appropriate support is unacceptable and hospitals should discuss length of stay with women, as well as ensuring they have the right follow-up care in place.
It is a smart and enviable lead taken by the youngest of the four services under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).

To begin with, at the peak of tension over 10 terrorists sneaking into Gujarat, the ICG undertook aerial surveillance of the sensitive Indo-Pak maritime boundary line on Monday evening using an all-women crew consisting of a pilot, co-pilot and an observer.

Securing special access, this journalist travelled with the crew, which scanned the seas for signs of intrusion and maintained a strict vigil over the north Arabian Sea.

The Indian Coast Guard sent an all-women maritime patrol plane crew for the aerial surveillance of the sensitive Indo-Pak maritime boundary line

Taking a cue from the Centres initiative to empower women by expanding their scope and representation in the armed forces, the ICG has attempted the unthinkable in the last few days, even as the older services - the Army, Navy and Air Force - mull over reforms.

On terror trail

It was close to 1830 hours at the Coast Guard Air Enclave and a Dornier aircraft, the ICGs maritime patrol plane, taxied out and took to the skies.

Lead pilot Deputy Commandant Poonam Saini, and co-pilot Assistant Commandant Avantika Suryawanshi ensured the port city was behind and the Arabian Sea ahead. Meanwhile, observer Assistant Commandant Nidhi Shukla, a native of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, began hunting.

The giant console before her seat, which shows every vessel in a radius of almost 80 nautical miles, came to life.

On a routine sortie, we ought to check up each and every of the seemingly innumerable dots, said Shukla as her planes camera locked on to a merchant vessel and she established contact using the frequencies at her disposal.

Despite maintaining a height of over 5,000 ft in the depressurised cockpit, there was an ease with which Shukla maintained contact, spoke with whoever she wanted to, and logged the details before moving on to the next target.

The team say they are prepared for all eventualities - including being shot at or taken prisoner

In an operation like this, the observer is the mission in-charge, whereas the pilot ensures the aircraft safely reaches the location and co-pilot keeps the communication alive.

Is there a difference when you operate a flight like this, where all those on board are women? Not really, they say.

Our training is basically an effort at blurring the lines. We operate not with women but men too and to reduce this identity is the effort. We would like to be known as officers, not women officers, said Shukla.

From pursuing terrorists to fighting crime and pollution to aiding the stricken at sea, the Dornier team does it all. Yet they realise there is no place in the country as sensitive as the present one.

Terrorism is a real threat. We are not just dealing with poachers and illegal fishermen here, said Saini.

What if they are shot at or taken prisoner?

Well our training does cover such scenarios. We have to prepare for the worst, she added.

The ICG has been allowing women pilots and observers on their Dorniers even as the senior sea-going service, the Navy, has not allowed them beyond observers in the same planes.

Unlike the ICG, the Indian Navy does not yet allow women the same roles as men

The hovercraft is the fastest and most versatile of platforms in the arsenal of the ICG as it can operate on land as well as at sea. It can, at will, sit down to track its adversaries. It is also a compact platform with operations not lasting more than a few hours and being carried out by a crew of two officers and twelve sailors.

It is into this exciting environment that four volunteers, Assistant Commandant rank women officers, have plunged.

While neither the Navy nor the ICG permit the deployment of women on board their vessels, an opening was made last December.

We actually learnt it from a signal where our superiors sought women officers to volunteer for operations at sea. It was a golden opportunity which I instantly knew I didnt want to miss, said Assistant Commandant Sneha Kathayat, who consulted her husband and parents before appearing and clearing an aptitude test last month.

At sea, in mid-air

Presently on specialised training, Sneha and her colleagues are acutely conscious about their pioneering role.

Assistant Commandant Shirin said: This is something we have never seen or done. It is tough. But I know what I want and I know it will come. Now when I walk with my male counterparts, I feel equal. They do the toughest of jobs. In some time I am sure we will be on bigger ships also.

The four have come to the 5th island in the Bay of Bengal, where India ends and Sri Lanka begins, riding their hovercraft under due supervision. Excited, they take turns to feel the machine.

Assistant Commandant Anuradha Shukla, a native of Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, admits her mother was worried when she heard her decision.

I dont visit her too often and now she thought the visits will be fewer, but I convinced her. I want to do something different in my life. I will look for the chance to command a very big ship. This is my dream.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was 20 minutes late thanks to the National Highway

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley got a first-hand experience of traffic congestion on Delhi and NCR roads on Monday when he had to reach Gurgaon for the Happening Haryana event.

The traffic left the minister 20 minutes late for his event.

Stressing the need for further improvement of transport infrastructure in the Capital and the NCR, Jaitley said he reached the function late due to heavy traffic on the National Highway.

Citizens take up hate speech issue

Amid widespread concern over recurring hate speech from politicians and religious leaders, several prominent citizens have taken up the issue by writing to Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and other judges.

Some former judges, senior lawyers, scientists, police officers and businessmen demanded that some action be taken against the alarming and threatening statements being made by persons currently in power constitutional positions within the union government.

'Zero-tolerance for phone calls'

Irritated after a senior officers phone rang in a meeting being chaired by Alok Kumar Verma, the Delhi Police Commissioner, the top cop has made it clear to that he has zero-tolerance for ring tones interrupting discussions.

Vermas predecessor BS Bassi had given leverage to top officers allowing them to attend important calls. In fact some of them often walked out of meetings while speaking on the phone.

Eyewitness: Irani helped victims

Smriti Irani found herself in trouble after daughter of a doctor killed in the accident on Saturday accused her of apathy. The HRD ministry set the record straight by saying: Union Minister had directed SSP Mathura to arrange ambulance immediately so that injured could be given medical treatment at the earliest.

This was corroborated by an eyewitness who said Irani had actually helped the victims.

'Statistics are deceiving'

Statistics can be deceiving, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said as he cleared his stand on the allegation that his attendance record in office was abysmal.

He pointed out last week that a report on the attendance of ministers in the meeting of union cabinet had showed him having a terrible record.
President Pranab Mukherjee has pulled out of the cultural extravaganza being organised by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

President Pranab Mukherjee, who was to deliver the valedictory address at Art of Livings World Culture Festival, will not be attending the event.

The grand three-day programme has come under scrutiny from activists and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for being held on the Yamuna floodplain, allegedly levelling the marshland and disturbing its ecology.

An NGT-appointed scientific committee has already advised a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL.

Some residents had also petitioned the President not to attend the programme.

The President decided on Tuesday to pull out of the cultural extravaganza being organised by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances, an official of the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate event on Friday. The President was to attend the valedictory function on Sunday.

Other political invitees include Congress leader Dr Karan Singh and ministers of the Delhi government.

Sri Sri, however, has defended holding of the event, saying that he would have received a red carpet welcome in any other country for holding such a festival.

Comparing the importance of the event to the Olympics, Shankar also said that the NGT report is "biased". The committee members have not even gone there, Shankar said.

He claimed that organisers of the event had not cut a single tree, and denied claims that the Yamuna flood plains were being destroyed because of the event, saying it was an eco-friendly function.

While the organisers expect 3.5 lakh people to attend the function, concerns have been raised by experts about the likely damage to the environment that may be caused by conducting it on the flood plains of the already-polluted river in east Delhi.

An NGT-appointed panel has advised a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL. Some residents have petitioned the President not to attend the event.

The marshland with reed beds, wild vegetation and a variety of birds and reptiles has been compacted and levelled. Environmentalists say the site, covering over 150 acres at least, may never get back to its natural condition.

The AOL foundation, which is organising the function, will host yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars, and traditional cultural performances from around the world.

The three-day event will be held from March 11 to March 13, on the west bank of Yamuna to celebrate 35 years of the foundation.

Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority, and the foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains. Hearing of the case will proceed on Tuesday.

Army to build makeshift bridge on Yamuna

By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi

The Indian Army is set to construct another pontoon bridge on the River Yamuna for the Art of Living Foundations World Culture Festival.

Army officials said: After permission is granted by authorities, it will be obligatory for the defence forces to see that there is no accident.

As many as 3.5 lakh people are expected to visit the site near Yamuna.

Senior defense soures said the organisers had approached Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. They sought six such bridges, but the Army was asked to erect one. A second bridge has been erected by the PWD.
The Bihar Police have failed to arrest Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been on the run for nearly a month after he was accused of sexually assaulting a minor.

However, his alleged victim is doing her best to focus on her studies. She is all set to appear in the matriculation examination beginning this week.

The 15-year-old from Nalanda, who was allegedly raped by RJD legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav on February 6, will now be appearing for her Class X examinations to be conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board from March 10.

RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav allegedly raped a teenage girl on February 6. He has been on the run since the claims first surfaced.

Though the girl is yet to recover from her ordeal, she has decided to take the examination in an apparent bid to pick up the threads of her life. She was initially supposed to appear for the examination about 15 kilometres from her village, but her centre was changed after her father expressed concerns over the distance from their house.

Her father said that it would not be possible for his daughter to cover such a distance every day under the security of police personnel.

She will attract a lot of unnecessary attention. How will she take it? My daughter will certainly not be able to take the examinations under such circumstances, he said.

Taking note of the familys plight, Nalanda District Magistrate Thiyagarajan S M has now changed her centre to an undisclosed location near her place.

The girls family, who was allegedly taken to the RJD legislators house on the pretext of a birthday party by a woman named Sulekha on the day of her rape, has been living in fear even though the district administration has provided security to them.

The delay in the arrest of the legislator has made them apprehensive.

Yadav has filed a bail petition in the Patna High Court, which is expected to be up for hearing soon. A court in Biharsharif had rejected his anticipatory bail earlier.

The Nalanda Police have already attached his properties in different districts, but he is still absconding. The Bihar Police have set up six different teams to nab the legislator.

On the basis of a tip-off, a police team raided the house of his brother on Saturday night where he was said to have taken refuge - but he was not found there.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has reiterated that the fugitive legislator will not remain out of the police net for long.
Despite the fact that feminist movements across the globe have been fighting against the socio-spatial-temporal segregation of women, their gendered exclusion from public spaces at night has attained the realm of normalcy.

It is a given that women do not have as much right to visit places of their choice at any given time, without unsolicited invasion on their integrity, as men have.

More often than not, cultural practices, traditions, religious scriptures and mythological narratives are invoked to take power, potential and capacity from women.

We do not have to accept the social norms that make it harder for women to go out at night than men

Regressive

A few months back, when Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma opined that girls wanting a night out may be all right elsewhere but it is not a part of Indian culture, he pretty much endorsed this exclusion. He sounded like the regressive, holier-than-thou custodian of Indian Culture that he was expected to be as a member of the Sangh Parivar and a minister in the Modi government.

Interestingly, renowned sociologists and anthropologists have been unsuccessful in building a consensus on the specific meaning and content of culture - but the Right-wing keepers of the flame of Indian culture claim to have grasped its intricate nuances.

In his book Culture and Society, Raymond Williams opines that culture is the reaction to changes in the conditions of our common life.

Different reactions and resulting situations have created different kinds of cultures. He makes a pertinent point by arguing that the idea of culture describes our common inquiry, but our conclusions are as diverse as our starting points. Hence, the word culture cannot automatically be pressed as any kind of social and personal directive.

But, the RSS understands our culture as a singular, homogenised, fixed and unalterable value system handed down to posterity un-mutated. It fails to see Indian culture as a composite entity that manifests itself within the multiple contexts of caste, class, religion, region and ways of life.

Stuck with its medieval values, the RSS turns a blind eye to the fact that cultures are not impervious to change and cultural diffusion through outside influences like exploration, colonisation, inventions, globalisation, etc, has already resulted in different phases of cultural change in India.

A potent example in this context would be the Sati Pratha, which was once construed as a practice central to Indian culture but today it is deemed as one of the most savage and inhuman rituals both by the law and society.

Women are taught to fear darkness from a young age - and to avoid activities which might leave them vulnerable

The interpretation of Indian culture as an unchanging entity, perpetually obligating, even forcing females to follow restrictive norms, coercing gender-based segregation, seclusion and exclusion is unpalatable.

The prerequisites of the RSSs version of Indian culture have made women its flag-bearers, bearing the brunt of imposed virtuosity and expected docility mandated by the inherent patriarchal diktats.

The cultural practices in India include child marriage, dowry, wife-beating, imposed dress code, forbidden inter-caste marriage, inter-religious marriage, love marriage, etc.

The paradox between this Indian culture and the rights of women in Indian democracy is pre-evident. But, the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Ram Sene and the likes ensure that the slightest of deviations would be handled with an iron fist.

Not to forget, Guru Golwalkar considered Manu as the first and greatest lawgiver of the world and wanted the Manusmriti to be the constitution of independent India!

Culture

The Sangh Parivar continues to invoke citations like Pita rakshati kaumaare bharta rakshati yauvane, rakshanti sthavire putra na stri swaatantryamarhati (A woman is protected by her father in her childhood, by her husband in her youth and by her son in her old age. A woman does not deserve to be independent) as propounded in the Manusmriti to restrict womens social space, limit their autonomy and control their choices.

Spatial and temporal segregation limits womens access to knowledge that men have used to produce and retain power.

In reality, for women, the temporal boundaries are even more rigid than spatial ones. The night belongs to men. Females, from a very tender age, are nurtured with a strong dose of the fear of night, of venturing out alone in darkness, of the sense of danger once the sun has gone down.

Unite

This socially-constructed fear draws a clear-cut line of demarcation between the spaces and times suitable for mobility of women. Outside that prescribed time and space zone, women feel vulnerable because of the enhanced possibility of violence or victimisation.

In the 1970s, European and American women who felt the need to unite to resist fear and violence, took to streets at night under the banner Take Back the Night.

These marches were premised on fighting womens fear of walking alone at night and symbolised womens walk through darkness.

Mahatma Gandhi, talking against cultural isolation, said: I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.

If the Sangh Parivar in the garb of being guardian of our culture, was not an organised political group validating misogyny, it would have felt the need of cross-cultural exchanges to reclaim the night for Indian women.

Sharma, then, instead of making sexist attempts to maintain the patriarchal gender system that insists upon autonomy deficits for women, would have been trying to enrich our culture by endorsing such marches.

Being an optimist, on this Womens Day, I hope that Indian women will take a cue from their European and Western sisters and unite to take back the night.
With the 54km stretch of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway set to become operational, the National Capital may get partial relief from traffic congestion and subsequent air pollution.

Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said the stretch will open for vehicular traffic from march-end.

Construction on the 135km KMP expressway, also known as the western peripheral expressway, has been on the hold for over a decade.

Once operational, the KMP Expressway will ease traffic and reduce vehicular pollution

Once completed, heavy vehicles not destined to Delhi will not enter the Capital. The minister said a deadline of 400 days has been set to make the entire stretch operational.

The six-lane KMP project will be completed within the next 400 days. It will bypass the National Capital from western side and thus reduce congestion in Delhi, he said while addressing the Haryana Happening Industrial Investment Summit in Gurgaon.

The remaining 84 KM stretch from Maneser to Kundli situated on NH 1 will take more than one year. Captain Abhimanyu has also assured to connect the last mile of the state through rail, road and air.

Besides, the Haryana government has also proposed an international airport in Hisar to bring the northwestern part of Haryana close to the national Capital.

The proposal for the airport has been moved to Union civil aviation ministry with the earnest request to start at least air cargo facility from Hisar as soon as possible.

Union surface transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari has also proposed a Delhi-Amritsar expressway via Gurgaon, running through a large part of Haryana that may lead to a huge industrial boost.

The airport will bring Hisar to the national Capital in just 20 minutes.
Vijay Mallya, chairman of defunct Kingfisher Airlines, has been barred from withdrawing his exit payment

The Rs 515-crore sweetheart deal with the British liquor giant Diageo turned bitter for embattled Vijay Mallya on Monday, as a Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) barred him from withdrawing the exit payment unless the loan default case filed by State Bank of India (SBI) against defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) is disposed.

The DRT ordered that the amount to be paid by Diageo, as part of the deal under which Mallya agreed to quit as chairman of United Spirits Limited (USL), be attached till disposal of the original application filed by the SBI in 2013.

In his order on the plea by SBI seeking the first right on the $75-million payment, the Judge also directed disclosure of details of the agreement between Diageo and Mallya.

As part of the deal, Diageo had said that it would pay $40 million immediately to Mallya with the balance being payable in equal installments over the next five years.

The UK liquor giant had also said that it would absolve Mallya of all personal liabilities over alleged financial lapses at the company, founded by his family.

The SBI, which leads the consortium of 17 banks that lent money to defunct KFA, had moved DRT against the airlines chairman Mallya in its bid to recover the Rs 7,000-crore-plus dues from him.

The leading public sector bank had filed three other applications, including one seeking Mallyas arrest and the impounding of his passport.

These applications will come up for hearing on March 28.

Mallya had recently agreed to quit as chairman of USL after majority stake owner Diageo offered him the settlement package to end a protracted Boardroom battle for control of the company.

The settlement was sealed even as at least three banks, including SBI, declared KFA, Mallya and his Groups holding firm United Breweries Holding Limited as willful defaulters to recover unpaid loans.

On Sunday a defiant Mallya denied the charge that he is an absconder, saying he is making efforts to reach a one-time settlement with banks through additional payments to the lenders.

Denying that he is personally a borrower or judgment defaulter, he had lashed out his critics for the disinformation campaign to paint him a poster boy of all bad loans.

Mallya and KFA owe Rs 7,800 crore to the consortium of public sector banks in which SBI is the leader with an exposure of more than Rs 1,600 crore to the airline.

Other lenders include Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Federal Bank, UCO Bank and Dena Bank. Meanwhile, United Bank of India (UBI) said that it is continuing its efforts to declare Mallya as a willful defaulter.

UBI was the first lender to make an attempt to declare Mallya as a willful defaulter in 2014, but it was dismissed by the Calcutta High Court.

Early last year, we went to Calcutta Division Bench. Most of the arguments have been heard. We were expecting the final outcome before March, UBI managing director and chief executive officer P. Srinivas told PTI.

We have not left the case. We are pursuing it, he added.

Enforcement Directorate registers money laundering case

By Press Trust of India

In fresh trouble for liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against him and others in connection with the alleged default of more than Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI bank.

Official sources said that the agency recently filed charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a first information report (FIR) registered last year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case.

The sources added that while the EDs zonal office in Mumbai has registered the case, sleuths are also looking at the overall financial structure of defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) and a separate probe under foreign exchange violation charges could also be initiated.

Mallya and others will soon be questioned.

The agency has collected relevant documents from authorities and the bank in question, the sources further added.

The ED has pressed charges under various sections of the PMLA against Mallya and others named in the CBI complaint.

The CBI had booked Mallya, the company, chief financial officer A. Raghunathan, and unknown officials of IDBI Bank in its FIR alleging that the loan was sanctioned in violation of credit limits norms.

The CBI action came as part of its wide probe into criminal aspects of loans declared to be non-performing assets by public sector banks.
Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital has withdrawn its order facilitating priority treatment to patients referred by ministers, bureaucrats or the office of the medical superintendent (MS).

Office order dated March 2, is hereby cancelled and withdrawn with immediate effect till further orders, said the new order issued by the MS on Monday.

On March 6, Mail Today reported that the central government hospital was promoting VIP culture in treatment of patients.

Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital has withdrawn its order facilitating priority treatment to patients referred by ministers, bureaucrats or the office of the medical superintendent

However, when contacted, Ministry for Health and Family Welfare officials promised swift action.

Senior doctors are happy with the new order: The administration has taken the right decision now. The order could have hampered functioning of the hospital, a senior doctor told Mail Today.

The ministry has asked the hospital administration to withdraw the order, a senior Health Ministry official told Mail Today.

Doctors are requested to attend to VVIP patients, referred from the medical superintendents office on a priority basis and report back to the undersigned immediately, stated the order dated March 2.

Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi has a footfall of 8,000-10,000 patients on any given day. Senior doctors are happy with the U-turn on offering VIP treatment. (File picture.)

According to the doctors, the hospital treats around 15-20 VVIP and VIP patients.

Bureaucrats and top officials in the Health and Family Welfare Department have been known to approach the hospital for preferential treatment.

The hospital has a footfall of around 8,000-10,000 patients on any given day.
Bradley Cooper's attention was fixated on girlfriend model Irina Shayk, at the Paris Fashion Week

Love is in the air - and in the front row at Paris Fashion Week.

Bradley Cooper couldnt keep his eyes off of his supermodel girlfriend, Irina Shayk, as she strutted the catwalk at Givenchys Paris Fashion Week season debut.

Seated next to Vogues leading lady, Editor in Chief Anna Wintour, the blue eyed hunk kept his attention fixated on the runway as he awaited his stunning girlfriend.

Meanwhile, all the eyes were on Cooper and his highly anticipated reaction.

When Irina walked down the runway, everyone in the room looked at Bradleys expression first while he was seen following her with his eyes every second of the way down the runway, a source shared with E! News.

Clad in an all-black ensemble, including a leather skirt and matching boots, Shayk looked nearly unrecognisable with dramatically lightened eyebrows and dark eye makeup.

Her beau thought she was a runway hit.

After the show, Bradley gave Irina a kiss and hug and told her what a great job she did, the source added.

They have been inseparable since he landed on Friday. They really missed each other. -eonline.com

'Hellboy 3 may never happen'

Ron Perlman has fired the latest shot in the ongoing saga of the Hellboy 3 movie, and no, it still isnt looking any more likely.

At the same time, the Sons of Anarchy actor still isnt willing to rule it out.

He admitted that the third adaptation of Mike Mignolas classic comic will probably never happen, though you never say never never while speaking at the Guadalajara International Film Festival.

Perlman has been vocal about bringing the redskinned hero back to the big screen, and is still frequently heard discussing the possibility while Mignola has ruled it out with the same frequency. -digitalspy.co.uk

Gaiman talks Joseph's exit

Author Neil Gaiman has spoken out after actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt announced hed departed the long-in-development adaptation of his book Sandman.

After retweeting Levitts original message, Gaiman wrote: For the record, my respect for @hitRECordJoe, is undiminished. Getting to know him was the best bit of the last round. Hes special.

I would love to work with @hitRECordJoe some more. Hes smart, honest & really nice, the author added.
When a successful investment manager launches a similar strategy to their former fund house, it's no guarantee that it will end well. For every Neil Woodford, there are other managers who have been unable to replicate their past returns.

So what are the early signs for Jason Pidcock's new offering, the Jupiter Asian Income fund?

The veteran investor enjoyed an impressive track record on the Newton Asian Income fund, which he managed since launch in 2005 until his departure in April last year. In that time it returned 191.4 per cent, compared to the 154.1 per cent sector average.

Asia advocate: Jason Pidcock has spent more than two decades investing in the region

He previously managed Asia Pacific funds for Henderson and BP Investment Management, and has built up more than 20 years' experience of investing in the region.

Pidcock joined fund management firm Jupiter at the end of last year. The fund house has several existing income offerings but none in Asia, so this launch fills that gap.

The Jupiter Asian Income fund, which is now open to investment, will use a fundamentals-based investment strategy, looking for businesses the manager believes have the potential to grow.

He is also looking for companies that are keen to put dividend-holders first.

Kevin Scott, head of EMEA at Jupiter, said: 'Jason has a deep knowledge of Asia's strongest listed businesses and well established communications channels with their management teams.

'We hope that the Jupiter Asian Income Fund will prove an attractive proposition for investors looking for geographical diversification potential within Asia through exposure to both developing and more developed countries.'

The new offering will feature a high conviction portfolio of around 40 to 50 stocks, with a bias towards some of the developed markets in the region including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Pidcock will also look to invest in large-cap companies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines, among others. However, the fund has no country or sector constraints, and is expected to hold only low levels of cash.

Rocky road: Asian countries such as China are transitioning to a consumption-led economy

The Asian income story

So what is the current environment for Asian income?

The past three years have not been kind to funds in this area, with the Investment Association's Asia excluding Japan sector losing 2.1 per cent in the three years to the end of January.

Asian markets have had a tough time in recent years, with many countries seeing a decline in GDP growth as they have attempted to rebalance to consumer-led economies.

The strong US currency has also proved to be a headwind for some emerging markets in Asia, as it has made their debt harder to pay off. This, in turn, has caused investor sentiment to turn increasingly sour.

However, at the same time the region has enjoyed a growing dividend culture, with more and more Asian companies returning cash to their shareholders.

How do other Asian Income funds shape up? Fund name





Size





Return in three years

(IA Asia Ex Japan sector average is -2.1%) Historic yield

Management/

years on fund



Schroder Asian Income 726.8m 1.1% 4.46% Richard Sennitt/

15 years Newton Asian Income 2.1bn -3.5%

(3 years to 2/3/16) 4.97% Team approach (Jason Pidcock left 04/05) Aberdeen Asian Income

(Investment Trust) 355m -25%

(share price ) 5.8% Team approach/

launched 12/05 Liontrust Asia Income 56.5m -2.2% 5.84% Carolyn Chan & Mark Williams/4 years Henderson Asian Dividend Income 120.75m -3.9% 6.4% Michael Kerley & Sat Durla/ 7 years Invesco Perpetual Asian Equity Income 25.93m -8.59% 4.61% Tim Dickson/ 5 years *Unless otherwise stated, figures are to the end of January 2016.

Adrian Lowcock, head of investing at Axa Wealth, backs the Asian income story - but is waiting to see if Pidcock can deliver.

'I am glad to see the return of a good manager and believe investing in Asia for income is a good long-term strategy for investors,' he said,

'But I am keen to see evidence that Jason Pidcock is able to replicate the success he has had previously and is able to deliver performance. It would be wise to wait and see how he settles down in his new role.

'The fund will have some differences to his previous fund; it will be more focused on larger cap companies, be more concentrated holding between 40 and 50 stocks compared to 70 previously and will have a more flexible income target  the fund will aim to yield 20 per cent more than the index, not 35 per cent as previously. No companies have a specific yield target so that offers more scope for income growth stocks.'

However, Lowcock notes that Pidock had a somewhat rocky time at Newton in the past two years before his departure.

'Performance of his previous fund, Newton Asian Income, had been great for the first five years since launch and the income generated from it contributed significantly to investors. However, the fund has lagged somewhat over the last couple years, taking the shine off a strong track record.'

Lowcock likes the 'strong value discipline' of Schroders' Richard Sennitt.

'At the moment I like Schroder Asian Income. Manager Richard Sennitt is very experienced with over 21 years' investing in Asia.
Amid the historic surrounds of the officers' mess at RAF Cranwell, a clutch of people in civilian dress mix easily with their counterparts in light blue uniforms.

Here, luminaries from the legendary legless Battle of Britain fighter pilot Douglas Bader to the incoming Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Stuart Peach, would once have sat down to eat.

Cranwell is at the very heart of the Royal Air Force's heritage; home of the service's officer training college as well as a raft of other units turning raw volunteers into the airmen and women needed on the front lines of today's conflict zones.

Contract: : Serco provides seven King Air aircraft to the RAF's 45 Squadron and is contracted to provide 4,500 hours a year of training time

The civilians are private sector workers, many employed by FTSE 250 outsourcing giant Serco, the largest contractor on site. They provide everything from engineering support to graphic design and photography skills and even aptitude testing for potential RAF recruits.

Serco has endured a series of high-profile problems from overcharging for monitoring criminals to mismanaging an out-of-hours medical call centre.

The group has recently offloaded an Indian business processing centre and now wants to refocus on what chief executive Rupert Soames has called its 'sweet spots'  largely this means work for the Ministry of Defence.

One such example is the company's work with the RAF's 45 Squadron, which trains all the pilots and aircrew who will go on to fly multi-engine aircraft from the venerable C-130 Hercules and more modern A400m military transporters to the RC-135W Rivet Joint gathering intelligence in the Middle East.

Soon Boeing's new P-8 Poseidon will be added to this list, having been chosen by the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) to plug the maritime patrol gap left by the scrapping of the Nimrod in 2010.

Plan: Serco wants to refocus on what ceo Rupert Soames has called its 'sweet spots'

The RAF received a big boost from SDSR with a raft of new aircraft ordered. But now it must find, recruit and train the necessary crews to man these aeroplanes in combat.

And it is not just pilots but systems operators, the people who load vehicles and equipment on to transport planes and those who will search for enemy submarines on the P-8.

W ING Commander David Catlow, commanding officer of 45 Squadron, explains that his unit has one of the most complex jobs in the RAF's training group because it runs so many different courses: 'We offer world class training here and what the front line wants from us. Although we are a training unit, we have a strong operational ethos.'

The course includes some 80 hours of flying training and 45 to 55 hours of simulator time. Serco provides the seven King Air aircraft the squadron operates and is contracted to provide 4,500 hours a year of training time.

That is split into more than 3,000 separate flights or four waves of five aircraft each day.

Providing the aircraft is achieved through Serco's engineering and maintenance support work. Each flying hour requires an average of 2.3 to 2.5 hours of preparatory work on the ground.

To do this, Serco must provide sufficient engineers and the right mix of people with the right licences to cover all the potential maintenance requirements on any given day.

Although primarily covered by military regulations, the group is also fully compliant with civilian rules too.

Catlow explains that with outsourcing to companies such as Serco  known as the Whole Force concept at the MoD  he views the relationship as one of 'older brother versus sibling  they are going to be around whatever happens so you'd better get used to it'.

Sky monster: Serco works with the RAF's 45 Squadron, which trains all the pilots and aircrew who will go on to fly multi-engine aircraft such as the huge A400m military transporter

He says the RAF personnel have made it work thanks to communication and understanding. The contracts are, after all, not written by the people who work at the coalface, he notes.

'We are at the point where we understand what the limitations are, and having a regular flow of information means we have delivered what we are doing. It is about planning but also accepting that there will be some friction.

'I am very comfortable with our relationship with Serco and they do not hide behind a contract. They are not limiting at all and can go beyond it if possible, such as the number of available aircraft.'

Serco's contract manager at Cranwell, Becky Talbot Young, says it works thanks to the maturity of the relationship.

'Serco is a key part of the situation and we attend key meetings,' she says. Talbot Young admits there are occasional complaints but these are dealt with sensibly. 'There is no blame culture. We are providing a key service. If one of those things breaks the station cannot function.'

Defence engineering is facing a raft of changes as all flying training shifts to a new Military Flying Training System (MFTS) contract  estimated to be worth about 9billion in total  which is being overseen by Ascent, a consortium between Babcock and Lockheed Martin.

As MFTS takes over, Serco's work with 45 Squadron will eventually cease, probably in 2018.
Talks: If a merger of O2 and Three goes ahead it would create Britains biggest mobile operator

Britain's biggest mobile firms held private talks with European competition watchdogs yesterday over the potential 10.3billion merger of Three and O2.

The deal, which would see Threes owner CK Hutchison take over Telefonicas O2, is currently being scrutinised by competition regulators at the European Commission in Brussels.

While O2 and Three were called to justify their case, representatives from rival firms were also able to attempt to thwart the deal.

It is thought that senior staff from Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, BT and Virgin Media all attended the meeting, along with Xavier Niel, the billionaire owner of French telecoms firm Iliad, who is said to be considering entering the UK market.

If a merger of O2 and Three goes ahead it would create Britains biggest mobile operator and see the number of networks cut from four down to three.
Iron ore saw a boost, with prices surging by a fifth to $63.74 per dry metric ton

Commodities staged a rally yesterday as oil rose above $40-a-barrel and iron ore saw the biggest gains on record.

Brent crude, which has been hit by months of global over-production, rose as high as $40.22 per barrel as output showed increasing signs of slowing down.

US production has fallen for the sixth week running, as shale producers cut back on drilling, while Russias oil minister Alexander Novak said his country would this month progress talks with Opec rivals on a production cut.

It follows an agreement that Russia made in February with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela to freeze production levels so long as other countries join them.

United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei welcomed the moves towards stability yesterday and said: Its logical for everyone to freeze their production. It doesnt make sense for anyone to increase production at the current prices.

Iron ore also saw a boost, with prices surging by a fifth to $63.74 per dry metric ton after China said it would be stocking up for the summer construction season.

And so far this year other commodities have seen increases, with the price of copper rising by 6.9 per cent and aluminium up 5.3 per cent.

Yesterdays rally brought to an end a 20-month rout in oil prices, which fell to a 13-year low of near $27 per barrel. Iron ore was at its lowest price ever in December, falling to $39.40 per ton.

Molybdenum, which is used in some alloy steels, was the sharpest falling commodity for 2015, with prices dropping by 49 per cent.
BHS has held two crunch talks with hundreds of suppliers to reassure them of the future of the business.

The department store has warned that dozens of its shops could be shut unless landlords slash the rents, and last week it said it was cutting 150 staff from its head office and 220 from shops.

Major suppliers attended the meetings with senior management in Daventry, West Midlands, yesterday. It is thought they feared that bills would go unpaid.

The High Street stalwart  which employs 10,000 staff at 164 shops  was sold by billionaire Sir Philip Green for 1 last year to a group of little-known entrepreneurs called Retail Acquisitions.

Jobs threat: BHS was controversially sold by billionaire Sir Philip Green for 1 last year to a group of little known entrepreneurs

It has embarked on a high-risk stand-off with landlords, warning that 40 stores may close unless rents are cut substantially.

The move to drive down the rental bill is part of proposals outlined in a controversial form of insolvency known as a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) aimed at restructuring the business.

The crisis talks with suppliers will go some way to appeasing the fears of those that hold major contracts with the department store.

A spokesman for Retail Acquisitions said the talks were not a crisis meeting but more about updating and reassuring suppliers about the CVA and outlining the future strategy.

He said it is about resetting the business, refocusing and then rebuilding BHS.

Last year suppliers had vital credit insurance withheld or slashed amid worries about BHSs new plans.

Credit insurance is vital for a retailer as it provides suppliers with protection in case it runs into financial difficulties and cannot pay its bills.

Separately, Beales, Britains oldest department store chain, is also proposing a CVA.

The chain, which comprises 29 department stores, was taken private last year by property group Panther Securities controlled by Ukip backer Andrew Perloff.

It is the landlord of 12 Beales stores and has agreed to support the CVA proposals along with buying group Associated Independent Stores, Beales largest supplier.

Beales chairman Stuart Lyons said: Most of Beales stores are profitable. A minority of stores lose money because leases agreed some years ago are no longer sustainable due to changes in the economy and local conditions. These legacy rents have been dragging the group down.
Npower will axe a fifth of its British workforce after suffering an exodus of 350,000 customers in 2015, the firm said today.

That means 2,500 positions will go at the energy giant after customer numbers fell to 4.77 million from 5.13 million, which led to losses for the year of more than 100million.

Npower, which is owned by Germany's RWE and has around 11,500 employees in the UK, said it will make 'extensive cost savings' to help turn around the 'significant' losses made in 2015 and return the company to profitability.

Big cuts: German-owned energy giant Npower has confirmed plans to axe 2,500 jobs after reporting losses of more than 100million

A two-year recovery plan was announced to deliver a 'robust business' built on lower costs, simplicity, and high-quality customer service which is ready for the challenges of the future.

In a statement, the firm said: 'Npower takes its responsibilities to its employees seriously and will consult fully with affected employees and with unions over its proposals for the future of the business.'

It blamed the fall in customer accounts on long-running problems with its IT billing system and poor complaints handling which saw it fined 26 million from the regulator Ofgem in December.

RWE revealed last month it will slump into the red after taking a 2.1billion euro (1.6billion) hit on its UK and German power stations.

Despite these results, RWE said today that its generation and retail arms increased investment in Britain's energy infrastructure to 220million, an increase of 28million under 'very challenging' market conditions.

In Germany, RWE has been hit by the country's decision to close nuclear power stations as well as a plunge in wholesale power prices and a rise in renewable capacity.

It said a series of writedowns on its power stations and lower energy prices would lead the group to post an annual loss of around 200million euro (155million) when it reports its results.

Analysts had expected a 2015 net profit of 1.2billion euro (0.93billion).

Npower, which has 4.9million accounts, has major plants in the UK including Pembroke and Aberthaw in Wales and Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire.

Paul Coffey, chief executive of RWE Npower, said: 'Npower results continue the trend seen earlier in 2015, but they are nonetheless extremely disappointing and we are starting a two-year process to fix them.

'They show a business that tried to do too much, too soon while not focusing enough on the fundamentals in a constantly changing market. This led to over complicated processes and procedures resulting in unhappy customers, too many complaints and extra costs to put things right.

'These issues are not insurmountable. Over the past few months, we have looked at every part of npower, and over the next two years we're fundamentally changing how the company operates.'

It has a poor customer service record and was voted bottom for customer satisfaction among all energy firms for the sixth-year running, according to recent research from consumer group Which?

The research also found that 87 per cent, were with one of the 'big six' energy providers and just 10 per cent had switched in the past year.

However, last November Npower said it had lost 200,000 British customers unexpectedly.

It said billing glitches in the UK had caused an exodus of customers from its Npower business, which helped cause an operating loss of 46.6million in the first nine months of 2015.

Along with the other major energy suppliers, the firm announced a 5.2 per cent price cut to its standard domestic gas tariff that would affect 1.2million customers earlier in the year.

It was the fourth of the big six suppliers to announce a price cut, of around 32 off the average gas bill, but customers won't see the benefit to their bills until March 28.

Energy bills have been a contentious issue recently as they have started to rise considerably above inflation

The price cut was made after the major energy providers came under mounting pressure to cut bills from consumer groups and ministers due to a fall in wholesale prices.

Oil and gas prices have tumbled over the last 18 months as global growth slows. Brent crude is some 70 per cent lower than its peak in the summer of 2014.

The recent price falls in the energy market, from both the big six suppliers and from smaller providers, mean that some households can now save hundreds of pounds by switching suppliers.

But if you're thinking of switching to a fixed-rate deal, make sure you check any exit fees attached to the tariff.

The regulator, Ofgem, said at the end of last year that the best protection consumers have against rising energy prices is switching providers, which could save households up to 300.

The news comes days before the Competition and Markets Authority is to report on the latest stage of its investigation into the energy market.

Ofgem referred the energy sector to the CMA after scores of customers and consumer groups accused the big providers of overcharging customers.
He was once a real estate guru who owned 13 properties including a million-dollar waterfront home in Sydney. But he lost it all because of a shocking $2,000 a day heroin habit.

David Twivey, 60, from Townsville is a senior official with the Salvation Army and among Australia's most respected charity workers.

But like many of his clients he has a dark past - revealing to Daily Mail Australia how his destructive drug addiction 30 years ago came to a head when his parents had him arrested for stealing jewellery worth $20,000 from their home.

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Then: Party time for a young David Twivey when he worked as a real estate agent and owned 13 properties around Australia only to lose it all

Now: One of the most respected charity workers in Australia, David Twivey, has revealed his dark past which included a $2000 a day heroin habit. He now counsels ice addicts and alcoholics in northern Queensland

It was during a trip to Sri Lanka in the mid-1980s when David Twivey said he developed a taste for cheap heroin

David Twivey pictured in his late 20s when his life began to spiral out of control with a $2000 a day heroin habit - he would sell all of his investment properties and when he robbed his parents' jewellery he was thrown in jail

Beth 'the saint' (left) with 'the sinner' David (right) on their wedding day. David Twivey became a Salvation Army officer at 33 meeting his future wife during their studies and they've been together for more than 25 years

David now works as a recovery support officer in northern Queensland drawing on his past misadventures to help his clients overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol

He has turned his life around and now counsels ice addicts in Queensland, taking them through the same Bridge Program that saved him.

'I guess God works in mysterious ways,' Twivey said.

'After about 10 years they (the charity) asked if I would manage drug and alcohol services for them in Brisbane, I was little bit shocked.'

Shocked, he explained, to have been given such a senior role because of his own dark past.

His descent into drugs began at age 18, when he says he started using marijuana. Ten years later he had his first taste of heroin during a trip to Sri Lanka in the mid-80s.

'It brought me to my knees, I had been using drugs and gambling and drinking but when I went to live in Sri Lanka I ended up with a group of people leading an expat lifestyle, which seemed wonderful at the time,' he said.

'I was using the hard stuff and getting it very cheaply.'

David and Beth are pictured here with Michael Peattie, one of their clients who went through the Miracle Haven recovery program at Morriset near Lake Macquarie. It was the same program which 'saved' David and which he went on to manage - Michael's stint there cured him of his own ice addiction

Happy days: David pictured with his wife and children in 2015

He returned home and within 12 months was spending an almost unfathomable $2000 a day on his addiction - that was in 1986.

'The figures are horrific, $2000 a day, which was huge back then, it was insatiable and I am lucky to be alive,' he said.

'I was using up to five grams of heroin a day, which is a lot of heroin, a huge habit and all my money had gone.'

So too his property holdings.

He was once 'a brash young real estate agent' in Sydney, educated at the prestigious Kings School in Parramatta, beneficiary of a large inheritance from his grandmother and heir to a successful hotels business.

With heroin taking over his life it all disappeared, the properties were sold to 'keep the dealer happy' and when they were all gone he resorted to stealing.

'I had this huge addiction, I ended up selling properties that I had, I had a waterfront home at Mosman and acreage out in the Hills District,' he added.

'The final straw was my parents saw what was happening, I took the jewellery out of my mother's safe and hocked it and then planned on killing myself, that was the end.'

David's daughter Claire also works in recovery services for the Salvation Army

In desperation his parents called police to arrest him.

He would spend three days in custody and went through withdrawals while inside.

In court, he was told by the magistrate that he was going to be sent to Long Bay Jail unless he agreed to undertake rehabilitation with the Salvation Army - he chose jail.

When his parents broke down in tears, he relented and so began his long road to redemption.

His life-change began with the William Booth Bridge program, a detox process in Sydney was next and then he was sent to the Miracle Haven farm in northern New South Wales for the next phase of his recovery.

After the rehab, he would become a Salvation Army officer. It was there in the training college he met his future wife Beth.

'She was a fifth generation Salvo, it was like the sinner meeting the saint there.'

He was made the manager of Miracle Haven, the same centre which helped him kick the heroin habit, before moving to North Queensland to take on the role of a recovery support officer.

'I still keep in touch with a lot of people who are doing really well, some are married to politicians and others are directors of public companies,' he added.

'I look after a cluster of recovery services up here and there's a fair bit to do working with indigenous Australians and seeing their health issues, how they get involved with drugs and cut their life expectancy even more.'

He says having conquered his own demons helps him working with those gripped by the worst addictions, particularly crystal meth.

'There is always hope, disease of addiction relapses can be part of the recovery and you need persistence with people who keep failing.'
Children make up a third of migrants making the trip from Turkey to Greece

Two have died each day since the death of Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi

340 children died trying to cross the eastern Med since start of September

Lying in the sand still wearing the tiny shoes and jackets picked out by the parents who dreamed of brighter futures for them - these are the forgotten children of Europe's migrant crisis.

Each day the bodies of boys and girls fleeing war and poverty are continuing to wash up on the beaches of Greece and Turkey.

Since the death of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi last September, around 340 children have drowned making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. Two innocent lives lost a day.

Rescuer Christina Psarra told MailOnline: 'I will never understand how or why I have carried in my arms the dead body of a three-year-old boy who died attempting the crossing from Turkey to Lesvos.

'He died inside the rescue boat, it was like he was sleeping. I was questioning whether it was real.'

Heartbreaking: The lifeless body of a young boy is pictured on a beach in Turkey on January 30. His hat, which still has a dummy attached to it, has been placed over his face

Drowned: Two children die every day trying to cross the eastern Mediterranean Sea since September. Pictured: A Turkish gendarme carries the body of a child found on a beach on January 30

Lives cut short: The bodies of migrants lay on the shoreline close to Ayvacik, Turkey, on January 30

Perished: A child's body pictured on the rocks on the Greek island of Lesbos after boats crossing the Aegean Sea sank on October 30

Too young: The body of a young boy, who drowned while making the perilous crossing from Turkey, lies on a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos in October

Innocent: Emergency services personnel stand beside the body of a child on the island of Lesbos in October

Six months after that picture of Aylan lying face down on the beach sent shock waves around the world, the children are still coming.

Sisters Dikhoas, eight, Bassma, 12, and Shreen, 15; four-year-old Sena; Galip, five; Khalid, two, and siblings Zainab, 12 and Haidar, eight, are among the hundreds who have drowned.

Of the heartbreaking death toll, rescuer Christina Psarra, who works on the Greek island of Lesvos, asked: 'Why is the world accepting this?'

On Sunday, at least 10 children died when two boats bound for Greece sank in the Aegean Sea.

It is not known how many people perished when the second vessel sank, but photographs have emerged showing the motorboat completely submerged.

Children now make up more than a third of the migrants making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.

For the first time since the start of the crisis, there are more women and children crossing the border from Greece and Macedonia after a treacherous journey across the sea than men, according to UNICEF.

The figures mark a significant shift since June, when 73 per cent of migrants were men and only one in 10 were under the age of 18.

Rescuer: Christina Psarra, who saves lives in Lesvos, said: 'I will never understand how or why I have carried in my arms the dead body of a three-year-old boy who died attempting the crossing from Turkey to Lesvos'

Lost to the sea: Three Yazidi sisters Dikhoas (left), Shreen (centre) and Bassma (right) lost their lives trying to reach Europe with their mother Fareeda

Devastated: Ali Al Sahau lost his entire family including seven children when their boat sunk in the Aegean Sea

Grief: Ali Al Sahau was told his family wouldn't need life jackets because the boat was safe and the crossing to Greece would take just 15 minutes

Submerged: It is not known how many people perished when this vessel sank in the Aegean Sea on Sunday

Miss Psarra, Medecins Sans Frontieres' rescue activities coordinator in Lesvos, told MailOnline: 'We are now witnessing more and more children on the boats crossing the Aegean Sea. This includes many babies.

'Just last week, I held in my arms a one-week-old baby. These babies have almost no chance of survival if they fall in the water.

'When we approach the refugees dinghies, the first thing they always do is show us the babies and children and shout to us take the children, take the children to ensure they make it to land safely.

I will never understand how or why I have carried in my arms the dead body of a three-year-old boy who died attempting the crossing from Turkey to Lesvos. Lesvos rescuer Christina Psarra

'Most of the time they don't have life jackets, they are the wrong size or they are fake.'

The 32-year-old added: 'I know first-hand, some children dont make it.

'I will never understand how or why I have carried in my arms the dead body of a three-year-old boy who died attempting the crossing from Turkey to Lesvos.

'He died inside the rescue boat, it was like he was sleeping. I was questioning whether it was real.

'I am not working in a war zone, I am in Lesvos and we shouldnt be seeing children losing their lives here like this in Europe.

'I cant believe that we are debating or discussing their right to a better future, their right to a safe passage, their right to escape war and safely seek a better life in Europe.

'You may get used to something, but dead children I will never get used to.'

Goodbyes: Hayat Sabir Burhan, from Syria, looks at the body of his three-year-old son who drowned off the coast of Turkey

Inconsolable: Hayat Sabir Burhan wept as Turkish authorities led him from the ambulance where the toddlers lifeless body had been placed before it was transported to the morgue in September

The true number of children who have died since September many be substantially higher, but their bodies have been lost at sea.

Others, who have perished alongside their parents and siblings, are never identified and are laid to rest in unmarked graves.

Among those who have been identified are three Yazidi sisters - Dikhoas, eight, Bassma, 12, and Shreen, 15 - who drowned while fleeing from ISIS.

The girls attempted the perilous journey with their mother Fareeda and three other siblings after their father left for Germany in August.

The family managed to raise 5,000 to pay a people smuggler and initially travelled from Iraqi Kurdistan to Istanbul.

Shortly after their overcrowded plastic boat embarked from the coast of Turkey, it capsized.

Fareeda and her three sons managed to swim ashore, but her three daughters drowned.

I cant believe that we are debating or discussing their right to a better future, their right to a safe passage, their right to escape war and safely seek a better life in Europe Lesvos rescuer Christina Psarra

Their grieving grandfather, Atto, from northern Sinjar in Iraq, said Dikhoas loved to play with animals and Shreen was so intelligent she could have become a doctor.

But his granddaughters never had a chance to live their lives because the fear of ISIS was greater than the sea.

Ali Al Sahau, who said he was fleeing Syria, lost his wife and seven children when their vessel sank in the Aegean Sea. He has paid people smugglers 4,600.

The youngest child was 20 days old and the eldest was nine - none was wearing life jackets.

The traffickers said the crossing from Cesme, Turkey, to to the Greek island of Chios would take 15 minutes.

But the engine failed and the boat capsized, and although he could hear his children scream, he could not find them in the dark. Mr Al Sahau was saved by fishermen.

Aylan Kurdi, meanwhile, died alongside his brother Galip, five, and his mother Rehan, from Kobane in Syria on September 2.

They were trying to cross the Aegean Sea from Bodrum in Turkey to the Greek island of Kos.

Aylans last words before drowning were daddy, please dont die as his father tried desperately to save his loved ones.

In the same boat was Zainab, 12, and her sister, eight-year-old Haidar, from Iraq.

They had left their homeland with their mother Zeinab Abbas, her husband and their other child, and travelled to Istanbul before heading further on to Bodrum.

They spend almost two weeks trying to get an opportunity to make the dangerous crossing to Greece. But when made the journey, the boat hit rough water and it capsized.

Zeinab's husband and their third child survived the wreck, but Zainab and Haidar died when they became trapped under the boat.

Loved ones: Zeinab with her husband and daughter after the tragic boat journey which claimed the lives of her two other children. They were in the same vessel as the Kurdi family

Brothers: Aylan Kurdi (left) died alongside his brother Galip (right), five, and his mother, Rehan, on September 2

Indescribable: Aylans tragic last words before drowning were daddy, please dont die as the boat went down

Depressing figures: Since the death of Aylan Kurdi, more than 340 children have drowned trying to cross the eastern Mediterranean. This graphic produced by the International Organization for Migration shows the number of child fatalities between September and February 3

Its my fault, Zeinab said. I hoped for a dignified and happy life for you.

Just days before Aylan's death, Syrian refugee Malak, an eight-year-old with Down's Syndrome, and her two brothers were among up to 300 people who died after a boat sank off the coast of Libya.

Malak, Islam, seven, and Bilal, one, died, and two of their siblings, Haldun, 12, and Karam, 13, only survived because they clung onto floating bodies, according to Migrant Watch.

In the weeks after the vessel set off from near the Tunisian border on August 27, 183 bodies washed up on the coast of Zuwara in Libya.

And later in September, Syrian refugee Hayat Sabir Burhan said goodbye to his three-year-old son, who drowned as they tried to reach Europe.

He wept as Turkish authorities led him from the ambulance where the toddlers lifeless body had been placed before it was transported to the morgue.

The boy was just one of 17 refugees - including five children  to die during a trip from Turkey to Greece that day.

Named locally as Yusuf, his father had to identify not just him, but also his wife Ahlan after the pair died in the attempted sea crossing.

Brother and sister: Malak (right), eight, and her two brothers, Islam, seven, and Bilal, one, died after their boat capsized off the coast of Libya. The family has just one picture of Islam taken when he was a baby (left) to remember him by

First of the year: Khalid, two, died as he tried to reach Greece with his mother, Hanan Nahar (pictured right)

Gone too soon: The body of a child lies on a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos on October 30 after a number of boats sank. At least 17 children drowned when the vessels en route to Greece from Turkey capsized

The bodies were discovered by the Turkish coastguard inside the cabin of their wooden boat, which had set off from the holiday resort town of Bodrum for the Greek island of Leros via Kos.

In October, the bodies of seven Lebanese migrants from the same family who drowned when their boat overturned were brought back to their homeland from Turkey.

The disaster all but wiped out the Safwan family, who were trying to reach Europe.

The father and mother, their two young daughters and five other relatives drowned when their boat was punctured and sank on October 12. Relatives screamed and wept as the bodies arrived in Beirut.

Four-year-old Sena was pulled from the water near the holiday resort of Bodrum after the boat she was travelling in overturned in November.

Turkish fishermen found her body wedged between the rocks on the Turkish island of Catalada four days after the dinghy capsized.

And Khalid, two, was the first refugee known to die in the Mediterranean Sea this year.

The Syrian boy was attempting to reach Greece with his mother, 20-year-old Hanan Nahar, but their rubber raft slammed against the rocks on the Aegean island of Nera on January 2.

Drowned: Sena, four, was found wedged between the rocks on the Turkish island of Catalada in November

Distraught: Friends and relatives of the Safwan family, who were all but wiped out when their boat capsized, mourn near the ambulances carrying the coffins in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 21

Repatriation: Relatives of Moustafa Safwan, 12, hold pictures of him near the ambulances carrying the coffins of the Safwan family

His tiny body was pulled out of the water by fishermen, while the remaining 39 people on board survived.

The International Organization for Migration, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF last week called for better protection for refugees attempting the dangerous journey.

The stretch of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece is among the deadliest routes in the world for migrants.

'We cannot turn our faces away from the tragedy of so many innocent young lives and futures lost  or fail to address the dangers so many more children are facing,' said UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake.

'We may not have the ability now to end the desperation that causes so many people to try to cross the sea, but countries can and must cooperate to make such dangerous journeys safer. No one puts a child in a boat if a safer option is available.'

During the first six weeks of 2016, 410 people drowned out of the 80,000 crossing the eastern Mediterranean - a 35-fold increase year-on-year from 2015.

One in every five who drowned in January while trying to sail from Turkey to Greece was a child, with minors accounting for 60 of the 272 deaths.

The drownings continue a grim trend that accelerated last year when nearly 4,000 people died trying to reach Europe by sea.

Appalling: A life jacket is is placed over the body of a boy on in a coastal town in Turkey, on January 30
The worlds youngest billionaire inherited her fortune from a tobacco firm that allowed child labourers as young as 10 to harvest the deadly crop in Africa, MailOnline can reveal.

Glamorous Norwegian dressage rider Alexandra Andresen, 19, received $1.2billion from her father, who had taken over the cigarette company that his great-great-grandfather bought in 1849.

But the tobacco giant has been forced to admit that it had benefited from the use of child labour on plantations in Malawi and Zimbabwe. When challenged, a spokesman admitted he knew it had been going on, but said: 'What can we do?'

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Carefree: Alexandra Andresen, 19, the tobacco heiress and the world's youngest billionaire, relaxes on a jetski on holiday in Greece

Glamour: Her sister, Katharina Andresen, 20, also a billionaire, poses on a yacht during an exotic holiday

Tranquil: Katherina Andresen enjoys a dip in a private swimming pool in one of her many Instagram pictures

Persuasive: Tiedemanns was at the forefront of cigarette advertising and became a trusted brand. This slogan reads, 'it is the tasty one'

Alexandra Andresen was named the world's youngest billionaire by Forbes last week. Her sister, Katharina, 20, was also revealed as a billionaire.

Their father, Johan H Andresen, 54, who gave them their wealth, was the fifth generation of the family to run the Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrik corporation, the biggest tobacco company in Norway.

The firm was at the centre of controversy in 2001, when it was revealed that 20-30 per cent of its tobacco came from plantations in Malawi and Zimbabwe that used workers under the age of 10.

Norways leading anti-smoking organisation called for the firm to be boycotted, and politicians demanded a new 'code of ethics' to prevent child exploitation by Norwegian companies.

The Andresens are rich partly because their company was responsible for suffering Dr Karl Erik Lund, Research Director, Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Research, Public Health Institute of Norway

When a newspaper asked Mr Andresen at the time whether he could use his influence to put a stop to child labour on tobacco plantations, he was unavailable for comment.

A company spokesman instead confirmed that it was was aware that children worked on these plantations, but said that there was little that could be done to stop it.

We oppose child labour. We distance ourselves from child labour and try to operate a form of quality control with our suppliers, he said.

In principle we oppose child labour. But what can we do?

Dr Karl Erik Lund, Research Director at the Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Research at the Public Health Institute of Norway, said:

'The Andresens are rich partly because their company was responsible for suffering.'

He told MailOnline that when the Norwegian government was trying to introduce lifesaving, anti-smoking legislation, the Andresens' firm tried to block it by launching repeated legal challenges.

A spokesperson for Mr Andresen said: 'Tobacco was and is a legal product. The company argued for its business as other companies selling legal products regularly do.'

Exhausted: A child labours on a tobacco plantation in Malawisimilar to the one used by Tiedemanns, the Andresen family company, to produce the raw materials used in its cigarettes and other products

Exploited: Children work in the hot sun breaking the ground on a tobacco plantation in Malawi. About 78,000 children work on plantations in the country, often for very little pay and without proper protective clothing

Poverty: A young child, who like many tobacco labourers is under 10, hard at work on a plantation in Africa, where many children work extremely long hours

Worlds apart: Families like these work on tobacco plantations while corporations reap the rewards

The latest beneficiaries of the family fortune, Alexandra and Katharina Andresen, live extravagant lifestyles.

On her Instagram page, Katharina posts photographs of herself lounging by hotel pools, eating foie gras and modelling fur coats.

The jetsetter revels in back-to-back holidays in exotic locations  including on the Sunny Hill superyacht, a chartered boat with six crew that sleeps '12 guests in five staterooms', and costs $53,752 per week to hire in the summer.

The extravagant vessel boasts fine dining facilities, a cinema-quality television, wood-panelled interiors and a jacuzzi on deck.

Beneath an Instagram selfie taken on a sun-drenched yacht, glamorous Andresen wrote, 'planning Spring Break, any suggestions?'

Recommendations from her friends ranged from Thailand and Laos to Sydney, Australia.

Its easy to say youre selling for ethical reasons, but if youre taking $500million, there might be other reasons too Dr Karl Erik Lund, Research Director, Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Research, Public Health Institute of Norway

Other holiday locations enjoyed by the billionaire heiress include Ecuador, New York, Italy, London, Oxford and the Galapagos Islands.

Andresen also has an enthusiasm for expensive shoes  particularly those made by Jimmy Choo and Valentino  and is an avid collector of pop art.

In 2005, Johan Andresen, who quit smoking himself in 2012, sold his remaining stake in the tobacco company, citing ethical reasons. The sale netted him $500million.

'Mr Andresen sold out of what he saw as a problem-ridden industry and transformed the company into a firm that no longer deals in tobacco,' Knut Sogner, the Andresen family's biographer, told MailOnline.

'Tiedemanns was a national producer, and the multinational operators were getting bigger. It was clear there was no future in the business.'

Dr Lund, an expert in the Norwegian tobacco industry, said: Its easy to say youre selling for ethical reasons, but if youre taking $500million, there might be other reasons too.

He didn't give the $500million to charity. I think the ethical explanation was just cosmetic.

A spokesperson for Mr Andresen said:

'The tobacco stake was sold because the minority stake did not give us the control we wanted, and because we had fully controlled companies that we would rather allocate the capital into.'

She also pointed out that Tiedemanns had been sold to the Scandinavian Tobacco Group in 1998. In 2001, she said, Mr Andresen had a stake of 17.2 per cent, and did not have a 'senior position' in the company.

The spokesperson highlighted that Mr Andresen and his company are 'strongly against child labour'.

Wealthy: Johan H Andresen inherited the family tobacco firm, which was owned by his family since 1849

Smoking: Johan H Andresen and his father, also called Johan H Andresen, enjoy their Tiedemanns cigarettes

Dynasty: Katharina Andresen, left, and Alexandra Andresen, right, pose with their parents, foreground, and half-brother, centre

Tobacco: The Tiedemanns factory in Norway where cigarettes and other tobacco products were manufactured

In 2009, Bill Gates suggested that Mr Andresen  who is head of the Ethics Council that guides Norways government oil fund  should join him in donating his fortune to charity.

The Norwegian mogul responded furiously.

Mr Gates, with all due respect, you do not know a sh** about the crucial role played by the few private owners in a state-dominated country like Norway, he wrote in a newspaper article.

If you do not mind, I will keep my money If you do not like it, bite me.

Three years later, when the Dagbladet newspaper asked Mr Andresen how he felt about 'making a fortune in goods that have caused death and serious injury', his reaction was terse.

'I have not thought about it any more than those in the Ministry of Finance who collect taxes for the same goods,' he said.

Mr Andresen has steered his company in an ethical direction of his own.

After selling its tobacco interests, he packaged the firm's remaining operations under a new name, Ferd, which means 'journey' in Norwegian.

Since then the firm has expanded, with a particular emphasis on social entrepreneurship.

Glamorous: Katharina Andresen, 20, who has attracted comparisons to the House of Cards character Claire Underwood, takes a selfie, left, and poses in a fur coat with a cigarette, right

Jetsetter: Katharina Andresen enjoys an exotic holiday with her friends in a red convertible VW car

Today, Ferd is a holding company with more than 10 'ethical' companies in its portfolio. These employ ex-offenders or former drug addicts, or make efforts to promote greater ethnic and gender diversity in the Norwegian labour market.

Earlier this month, the company was rewarded with the 'family business' prize at Ernst & Young's World Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monaco.

Alexandra's sister Katharina, 20, who with her short, blond hair has attracted physical comparisons to Claire Underwood, the Machiavellian First Lady in the House of Cards television series, takes no prisoners when it comes to critics of her tobacco fortune.

Katharina, who was also named a Forbes billionaire, posted a picture online in which she posed in a fur coat with a cigarette clasped between her fingers. It was accompanied by the caption the boss.

When one Instagram user wrote, 'you guys help kill a lot of people by supplying their addictions', the sharp-tongued Ms Andresen retorted: 'that is one of the biggest reasons we sold the company. You should do your research before commenting.

In its tobacco-selling heyday, the Andresen family firm was known for targetting female non-smokers with sophisticated advertising at a time when women were emerging from the home and taking jobs.

Targetted: The company strategy was to aim at enticing female non-smokers to buy the product

Romantic: Tiedemanns advertisers successfully sold a lifestyle package, not just a packet of cigarettes

It was the most effective company at the old, glamorous tobacco advertising,' said Dr Lund.

'While other companies gave information about the product and the price, Tiedemanns really sold a lifestyle, with lots of young and glamorous models. It even claimed that the filters on cigarettes protected against harm.

Obviously they didnt know about the harmful effects of tobacco then as we do now, but the evidence was growing.

'They had a clear strategy to target female non-smokers, and it worked.'

In the early 1970s, 51 per cent of Norwegian men and 32 per cent of Norwegian women smoked daily. Today, about 5,100 people die each year from tobacco-related disease in the country.

Cigarette advertising was banned in Norway in 1975.

Elegant: Women were targetted because they were starting to emerge from home and into the workplace

Marketing: The emancipation of women meant a new demographic was open for the tobacco firm to exploit

Suave: Tiedermanns advertisers created a glamorous aura around the product that was highly seductive
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It's the latest and most bizarre beauty craze sweeping Latin America - women gluing dead scorpions to their finger nails.

The new manicure style sees women attach scorpions to their nails with a venom so deadly it kills victims in 15 minutes, all in the name of fashion.

It started out as a sick joke, beauty parlour owner Rocio Vidales, who is pioneering the bizarre beauty treatment told MailOnline. 'Weve had women come here from across North America specifically to have baby scorpions fitted to their nails.'

Bizarre: In what started as 'a sick joke' women across Latin America are getting deadly scorpions glued to their nails. Lupita Garcia (pictured) started the trend when she suggested to staff at Rocios nail parlour in Durango, Mexico, use insects

Killer fashion: A dead baby Centruroides Suffusus scorpion is attached to Lupita Garcia's thumbnail. The insects' venom is so deadly that a single sting can kill an adult human in just 15 minutes

Manicure: The beauty parlours owner Rocio Vidales (pictured) said women from across North America travel to the Mexican state just to have their nails done at the salon after a video of the treatment went viral

Beauty essentials: Scorpions are piled up next to a pot of nail varnish at Miss Unas beauty parlour, where the treatment was pioneered

The trend started in September when Lupita Garcia, a scorpion artisan and enthusiast, suggested to the staff at Rocios nail parlour in Durango, Mexico, to have a Scorpion-themed manicure.

The tiny scorpions are stuck onto womens nails, despite being less than a week old, are still highly venomous.

The insects are killed with bug spray before they go near the manicurists table, and while the stingers are left on, Rocio says she never touches the animals with her hands.

Dr Julio Cesar Ramirez, who has worked in hospitals for 30 years, said: 'The scorpions remain venomous after they have died.'

Lupita said: Most people think scorpions are to be feared, but I think they are animals of real beauty. Im always innovating new ways to make art out of scorpions, and this manicure has been my biggest hit.'

It looks good, but I certainly wouldnt have it done to my own nails,' said Sylvia Ruedas, having her manicure alongside Lupita.

A video of the new manicure went viral after it was uploaded to Facebook - bringing comments in praise and disgust in equal measure.

A lot of people wrote saying how disgusting it was. But a lot Mexican-American women with roots in Durango have come specifically for the new manicure' said Rocio.

Lupitas passion for the deadly insects, the second most venomous scorpion in Mexico, has survived three separate trips to the emergency room.

Ive been stung enough to know that the pain of the venom is very intense, she said, recounting her experiences. It gives you a terrible headache, your nose begins to bleed, your tongue goes numb and your throat feels like its lined with fur.

The scorpions like the shade and so often slip into peoples houses. My house is situated next to an abandoned lot where a lot of them live, so I get more than my fair share.'

Although they grow to just 4cm in length, the venom from Centruroides Suffusus can kill an adult human in 15 to 20 minutes. More than a thousand people were killed in Durango state in northern Mexico by the deadly insects last year.

Grub: Scorpion tacos are served up at Raices restaurant in the city centre and have become a huge success since launching last year

Revenge: Silvia Torres (pictured) was nearly killed by a scorpion sting four years ago. Although nervous about getting close to one of the deadly insects again, she says eating a scorpion taco feels like 'revenge'

Brave: Scorpion manicure fan Lupita Garcia's daughter Ana Carol is much like her mum in that she is not scared of the insects, even though they can kill an adult with just a single sting

Variety: The scorpions can be served in many different ways. Here is an unusual take on a tequila slammer - one of the insects has been coated in chilli to give it a bit of heat

For sale: Dead scorpions, preserved in alcohol, are available for 2 each in the local market. Eduardo Miguel, who sells around 20 dead insects a day, said men buy them to play pranks on their girlfriends and sisters

Dangerous: The venom of the Centruroides Suffusus can kill a person in 15 minutes and the insects are extremely common in Durango. They are the second most venomous inset in Mexico

Fatalities have been reduced significantly by the anti-venom units installed in every hospital, but its the people in rural areas who cant get to a hospital quickly enough that tend to die,' Lupita said.

The scorpion manicure involves sticking the dead insect to the nail before encasing it in liquid acrylic, which is subsequently polished.

Designing the manicure was tricky,' Rocio told MailOnline. It was a challenge not to allow the insect to move, change colour or rot if exposed to the air.

I think its a pretty strange thing to want on the end of your finger, but I cant argue with the demand.'

The popularity of the lethal scorpions, which are commonly found hiding under bus benches in Durango, has not been limited to the citys beauty parlours.

Dead scorpions, preserved in alcohol, are available for 2 each in the local market, fished out of jars containing more than 1,000 insects.

Guys buy them to play pranks on their sisters and girlfriends,' said vendor Eduardo Miguel, 19, who sells around 20 dead insects a day. Watching them find a massive scorpion in their underwear drawer can be hilarious.'

Scorpions are even sold in tacos to eat at the city centres Raices restaurant.

The scorpions served in Sergios tacos are soaked in surgical alcohol for 24 hours before they go near the kitchen, a process which the owner claims neutralises the asphyxiating venom.

We make sure they completely safe to eat before we cook them, he said, thats why we leave the stinger on, it gives the insect that extra bite on your tongue when you bite into it.

Dr Ramirez added: The alcohol destroys the functionality of the venom-producing organ. Theyre perfectly safe to eat, although still not particularly delicious.

Diner Silvia Torres, who was nearly killed by a scorpion sting four years ago, said: For me it feels a lot like revenge. Ive finally worked up the courage to set eyes on the beasts again and I was very nervous before biting into the taco.'

Its popular because its such a novelty, not because its delicious.' said Erica Mendez from Sinaloa. 'Its more like chewing stringy cartilage.

I certainly wouldnt choose scorpions tacos over enchiladas in the future.

Sergio Avila, the scorpion tacos inventor, added: I used to play with the scorpions on the mountainsides as a kid.

Here we soak them in a liquid which neutralises their venom before frying them and serving them up, stinger and all.'

Unusual taste: Erica Mendez, who tried the delicacy, said: I certainly wouldnt choose scorpions tacos over enchiladas in the future

Fried: Raices restaurant in the city centre serves variations of the fried bug by coating them either in chocolate, chilli powder or tequila

Daring: Raices restaurant also offers the scorpions alive to those who have consumed enough tequila, otherwise you can eat them fried

Expanding business: Raices restaurant hopes to franchise the idea in Canada and then Europe and staff are working on a tasting dish of edible insects from across Mexico

People always ask me what they tastes like,' said the self-styled Scorpion King as he picked a wriggling insect out of a bucket containing more than a thousand and eats it. 'The answer is that it only tastes of scorpion, theres nothing to compare it to.'

The reality is that Sergios insects taste of very little, and given their hard exoskeleton are difficult to chew.

The restaurant serves variations of the fried bug by coating them either in chocolate, chilli powder or tequila, and offering them still alive to those who have consumed enough alcohol to dare.

Were hoping to franchise the idea in Canada and then Europe,' he told MailOnline. 'And were also working on a tasting dish of edible insects from across Mexico.'

The scorpions have claimed a lot of lives throughout the region, so its understandable that they have come to represent Durango,' said Socorro Orijin, 76, who sells clocks, key rings, fridge magnets and mugs containing dead scorpions. A lot of people have been murdered using these scorpions.

It used to be that badly-behaved prisoners in the state penitentiary would find a scorpion waiting under their bed sheets.'

Lupita, who says her alternative manicures have helped to attract more business to her stall, added: We sell live scorpions to people as pets, but we always cut off the stinger.

The idea is to improve the image of these insects, not to sell people deadly weapons.'

Cuisine: Diner Miriam tucks into scorpion tacos at Raices restaurant in Durango state in northern Mexico. The insects are difficult to chew
Harper Lee's will has been sealed from the public

Famously private in life, To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee is keeping her secrets even in death.

Monroe County Probate Judge Greg Norris signed an order last week to seal Lee's will from public view, according to court records available Monday.

Lawyers for Lee's personal representative and attorney, Tonja Carter, had asked for the will to remain private.

Lee's heirs and relatives agreed to the request, according to the court filing.

Lee, who was estimated to have a $45million fortune, never married or had children.

'As the Court is no doubt aware, Ms. Lee highly valued her privacy,' the lawyers wrote. 'She did not wish for her private financial affairs to be matters of public discussion.

'Ms. Lee left a considerable legacy for the public in her published works; it is not the public's business what private legacy she left for the beneficiaries of her will.'

Lee had been making about $3.2million a year, according to Bloomberg, and had an estimated net worth of $35million before the release of Go Set a Watchman.

When the controversial novel was released last July, Forbes estimated that Lee stood to earn $10 million from the book in 2015.

The website also cited legal papers filed against her former book agent, Sam Pinkus, that showed, in the first six months of 2009, Lee received $1,688,064.68 in royalties from To Kill A Mockingbird.

Estimating that as an average figure, the book royalties would equate to $3,376,129.36 per year, or $9,249 each day.

Shortly after her sister's death in 2014, her representative and attorney Tonja Carter found the manuscript to Go Set a Watchman, which Lee agreed to publish in 2015. She had previously held off on releasing another book for more than 50 years due to the pressure and publicity following her first hit

According to Bloomberg, Lee had a net worth of $35m, and Forbes estimated she stood to make $10m from her second novel. Pictured, Lee on June 30, 2015, her last public appearance at a book launch for Watchman

Raley L. Wiggins, an estate planning attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, 100 miles away from Monroeville, told The International Business Times that Lee's death had left more questions than answers.

'It might be the people you suspect, or she might've left it all to the cat or all to charity,' Wiggins said. 'We just don't know.'

Carter, who represented Lee for several years and once practiced law with the writer's sister Alice Lee, was subject to intense media scrutiny this summer.

Lee's representative and attorney Tonja Carter was scrutinzed upon the release of Go Set a Watchman

Many believed she overstepped her boundaries in the publishing of Harper's second novel after the author famously vowed never to write another book after To Kill a Mockingbird.

Alice Lee, who acted as a gatekeeper and shared her sister's stance on not publishing, died in November 2014.

Two months later, Carter said she found the manuscript of Watchman and brought it to the 89-year-old author who reportedly agreed its release.

There were several questions surrounding Lee's ability to make the decision as a stroke victim who was nearly deaf and bind.

But an investigation by the Alabama Department of Human Resources concluded that the claims of coercion were 'unfounded'.

Following the controversy, Judge Norris agreed there was a threat of public intrusion and harassment for Lee's heirs. He said: 'I would hate for her family to go through any of that'.

In a two-page order issued a week ago Monday, he wrote: 'They and Lee's next of kin have a right to inspect the contents of the will and accompanying file, but no one else does.' The order indicated that Norris held a hearing on the motion.

The judge ordered that a label be put on the file stating, 'UNDER SEAL: DO NOT ALLOW PUBLIC INSPECTION.'

The will will go through the normal probate process, Norris said. A notice will be put in the newspaper with a six-month window for people to make claims.

Following the controversy, Judge Norris agreed there was a threat of public intrusion and harassment for Lee's heirs. Pictured, Lee's family plot

Lee spent the last years of her life in this assisted living residence in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama

Lee grew up in Monroeville, which she partly used as inspiration for the setting of her classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird and a second book published last year, Go Set a Watchman.

After spending decades mostly in New York, Lee lived the final years of her life at an assisted-living facility not far from the old courthouse that served as a model for the set in the movie version of Mockingbird.

Lee died in her sleep on February 19 at the age of 89. She was buried the next day in a modest, private funeral service attended only by her closest relatives and friends.

While they may not have been able to get near the famous author while she lived, fans left small tributes at her grave in the Lee family burial plot beside Monroeville First United Methodist Church.

More than two dozen small pebbles had been placed on the Lee family headstone. A fresh carnation was tucked beside the wilting spray of red and white funeral flowers and someone had drawn hearts and messages in the sandy dirt atop her grave.
The wife of MH370's captain has gone into hiding and is refusing to answer questions over her husband's state of mind two years after the jet disappeared with 239 on board.

Faizah Hanun has been questioned several times by Malaysian police and FBI investigators who have asked her about rumours she and pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had separated.

The 53-year-old pilot and his wife had continued to live under the same roof in Kuala Lumpur, despite the split, it is claimed.

What she has told investigators is understood to have been an important factor in the interim conclusions to be released about the airline's fate.

Questioning: MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah with his wife Faizah Khan and children. Faizah is in hiding having fled the family home in Kuala Lumpur

Missing: Captain Zaharie (left) was at the controls of MH370 with by co-pilot Fariq Hamid (right), when is lost contact and disappeared en-route to Beijing two years ago today

Split: The 53-year-old pilot and his wife had reportedly separated, but continued to live at the same house in Kuala Lumpur. His wife refused to give detectives details of her husband's state of mind before the flight

But she has refused to reveal intimate details about her husband's thoughts and behaviour leading up to him taking control of doomed Boeing 777.

Shah and his wife are reported by friends to have continued living under the same roof in an upmarket part of Kuala Lumpur, despite being separated.

But whether the marriage break-down would have led to him killing himself and all on board his jet is still unknown.

The Malaysia Airline MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur disappeared en-route to Beijing on March 8, 2014, two years ago today.

A new report into the disappearance released today failed to shed any new light on what may have happened to the missing jet.

In Australia Irene Burrows  whose son Rodney and his wife Mary were on board the plane as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing  said: 'I'm convinced the pilot did this terrible thing.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mrs Burrows said: 'I believe he took the plane up high until the oxygen ran out, causing everyone to lose consciousness before the oxygen bags dropped down and then the auto-pilot took over and nobody knew anything when it came down.'

Mrs Burrows, 86, and her 88-year-old husband George, suffered a second tragedy that year when their step-granddaughter died on MH17 after it was shot down over Europe.

'But at least we know what happened to that plane and we have been able to grieve,' she said at her home in Biloela, Queensland.

'But we are only left to wonder what happened to MH370 and while our grieving for all those on that plane continues, life must go on. We had all the family here at the house at the weekend and all the photographs came out and it was a very emotional time.

'Two years ago, before we heard the news about the plane missing, we were just two ordinary people having a quiet day just like any other - and then our world was turned upside down.

Troubles: The wife of the Captain Zaharie refuses to reveal to the world intimate details about her husband's thoughts and behaviour leading up to him taking control of the flight

Grieving: Sakinab Shah, sister of Captain Zaharie holds up her mobile phone with the latest picture of her brother during an interview at her house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Vigil: A collection of photos belonging to Captain Zaharie is displayed at the house of his eldest sister

Security: Airport security CCTV of Zaharie Shah being frisked, going through airport security with co-pilot Fariq Hamid (approaching rear) before boarding, in a still from CCTV footage posted on YouTube

Mystery: Co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, right, is with two women he had invited into the cockpit on previous flight

'I know that everybody is doing everything they can to find out what's happened but I just hope that George and I live long enough when, or if, the answer comes in. I know it must be the same for everyone who had someone on that plane - the 'not knowing' is the worst.

'I've often wondered if she and Rodney should have followed Mary's intuition and not got on that plane.

She told other family members that she had a bad feeling about the flight before they took off, but I don't know any more than that.'

MH370 took off at 12.41am for a six-hour flight to Beijing with Captain Zaharie at the controls, assisted by co-pilot Fariq Hamid.

But as it flew over the South China Sea, heading towards the southern tip of Vietnam, it suddenly lost all contact with ground control. At Beijing airport families waiting to greet loved ones stared anxiously at the arrivals board, waiting to see the word 'landed'.

MH370 LAST KNOWN MOVEMENTS Advertisement

Killed: Irene Burrows, whose son Rodney (right) and his wife Mary (left) were on board the plane as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing  said: 'I'm convinced the pilot did this terrible thing'

Unsolved: Grace Subathirai Nathan, 28, daughter of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passenger Anne Daisy, holds up a picture of her mother on the two-year anniversary

Fight: Relatives of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 hold placards during a gathering outside the Yonghegong Lama Temple in Beijing

Wait: Despite a two-year wait the families are still no closer to finding out what happened to the 239 passengers on board

But it never appeared. The South China Sea was searched for signs of wreckage, before aviation and satellite experts agreed that radar and automatic electronic 'handshakes' with the aircraft pointed to it turning back from its north-east course and heading across the Malaysian peninsula and in a south-easterly direction towards the southern Indian Ocean.

A detailed search using sophisticated underwater drones scouring 85,000 square kilometres of the sea floor has to this day failed to find any clues as to where the aircraft came down, assuming it had continued flying until it ran out of fuel.

French investigators have yet to release a final report on the discovery of a flaperon - a wing part - found on the island of La Reunion, near the east coast of Africa, confirming that it is from MH370.

And the result of a detailed examination of another possible part found off the coast of Mozambique last week is also expected within days.

The metal parts have brought mixed feelings to families of the passengers, for the pieces suggest that the plane was smashed to pieces when it hit the sea - but it also takes them a step nearer to what many agree would be 'closure'.

'Maybe he will come back, maybe he won't,' Maira Elizabeth Nari, 20, eldest daughter of MH370 chief steward Andrew Nari, said in Kuala Lumpur today. 'Wherever they may be, I have never stopped praying to God to give them protection.

Dead or alive, may God bless them all. 'You see us smile and laugh, but only God knows what is in our hearts and minds,' she told the Bernama agency. 'Your heart cries every night or at any time when you suddenly feel sad.'

Debris: A search using sophisticated underwater drones scouring 85,000 square kilometres of the sea floor has failed to find clues as to where the aircraft came down

Missing piece? Another chunk of debris is suspected of being wreckage suspected of belonging to MH370 was found washed up on the east coast of Africa. Experts are examining it
This is the moment a Missouri man was detained at Cancun airport after his disabled girlfriend was found strangled to death while the couple were on vacation in Mexico.

John Loveless, 59, an attorney from Franklin County, was stopped in the airport terminal before boarding a flight to Atlanta and arrested by Mexican authorities, Jorge Castro reports.

He faces a criminal homicide investigation in the death of his girlfriend Tamra Turpin, 36, of Union, Missouri.

She died about 9am on Wednesday in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, near Cancun, authorities said. A forensic examination found she died of asphyxia by strangulation.

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This is the moment John Loveless (pictured) was detained at Cancun airport after his disabled girlfriend was strangled to death during their vacation in Mexico

It is unclear whether Loveless has a lawyer. A woman who answered the telephone on Monday at his law office in St. Clair near St. Louis said there was no comment.

Appearing before a judge on Friday in Mexico, Loveless, who is in custody in Playa del Carmen, declined to discuss the matter.

But on Monday, Turpin's oldest sister, Jodi Mills, said Loveless had told her that she had committed suicide by overdosing on prescription medications after an argument.

Mills said Loveless insisted via text messages the day Turpin was found dead in a condo the couple had rented that she had taken 'a bunch of pills' after they fought the previous night.

'He said she was crazy out of her mind and had seizures' after taking the unspecified medication, Mills, who lives in Mexico, Missouri, told The Associated Press.

John Loveless (left), 59, was arrested at Cancun airport as he was about to board a flight to Atlanta and is now in custody. His girlfriend Tamra Turpin (right), 36, was found dead in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Turpin died about 9am on Wednesday in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, near Cancun, authorities said. A forensic examination found she died of asphyxia by strangulation.

Mills said Loveless later told her he had canceled an initial call for an ambulance because Turpin was 'resting comfortably.'

By the afternoon, she said that Loveless told her that her sister had died, adding that 'he said he was sorry and had no words.'

'I immediately called him, thinking that surely it's not true,' Mills said.

'I remember talking to him briefly, and she said she was gone. After that, I don't know what the rest of our conversation was.'

Turpin's oldest sister, Jodi Mills (pictured), said Loveless told her that she overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide bid after an argument

'It's crazy, and I'm still in shock,' she added. 'It just seems like a bad dream.'

Mills said she's awaiting word from the U.S. consulate about sharing the text exchange with Mexican investigators.

But she's 'still keeping an open mind' about Loveless, she said,

'I can't be judgmental when I don't have all the facts,' Mills said.

'I see where it's pointing, but I respect that he has family and that they need to be sure when happened. Anger gets you nowhere.'

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City confirmed the death in Playa del Carmen of an American citizen identified as Tamra Turpin.

It offered condolences and said it was providing consular assistance in the case.

The embassy said it was aware of reports that a U.S. citizen had been detained, but referred further questions to Mexican authorities.

On Monday, the embassy said it had no new information on the case.

Meanwhile, Loveless has had no disciplinary action against him as an attorney, the state's Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates ethics complaints against lawyers, said Monday.

Mills added Turpin and Loveless had been friends for several years, had dated for roughly the past year and traveled frequently in recent months, including a trip to Florida weeks ago.

According to Turpin's Facebook page, the pair traveled to Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean in November last year.

'He wined and dined her and treated her very well,' Mills said, describing Loveless as 'very nice' and her sister as an animal-loving summer enthusiast who was 'very spunky, feisty and fun.'

Loveless, pictured with Turpin, is facing a criminal homicide investigation in her death, prosecutors said

Loveless was arrested just before attempting to board a flight back to Atlanta from Cancun, Mexico. Turpin shared this picture on her Facebook page in February

Turpin and Loveless (pictured together) had been friends for several years, had dated for roughly the past year and traveled frequently in recent months, said her sister

Turpin, nagged by lingering migraines and back pain dating back to a car wreck when she was a teenager 'always had some depression' after her dad died in 2001, Mills added.

Her remains are to be laid to rest next to her father's burial plot after her body is returned to Missouri, perhaps as early as this week, Mills said.

'That would make her happy,' Mills said.

Turpin's mother Evalena Duncan told KSDK she wanted to know the truth, whatever it may be.

'We're just praying that the truth be known and trying to deal with comprehending that she's gone,' Duncan said.

A friend of Turpins set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to cover funeral expenses and the cost of bringing her body home.

In a post on the page, Amanda Wilson paid tribute to the amazing person who touched many lives.

If we can all just give back a part of what Tamra gave us we will finally be able to bring here home and say our goodbyes.
One of Steven Averys lawyers - who found fame after being featured in the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer - claims he has more to say about the case and will do so in a book.

Jerome Buting has secured a deal with HarperCollins Publishers for a book being released through a Harper imprint next year.

In the book, Buting will draw on his 35-year career and assail the dysfunction of the criminal justice system.

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Steven Avery's lawyer Jerome Buting (pictured with Avery in 2007) has a deal with HarperCollins Publishers for a book being released next year

Making A Murderer captivated viewers around the world after it began streaming on Netflix in December last year.

It also made unlikely sex symbols of the middle-aged lawyers who represented Avery - Buting and his fellow defense attorney Dean Strang.

The series followed Avery - whose family ran an auto salvage yard in Wisconsin's rural Manitowoc County - after he was exonerated in 2003 after serving 18 years in prison for a 1985 rape he did not commit after DNA evidence proved his innocence.

But then Avery was arrested for murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer whose last known whereabouts were the Avery familys salvage yard, where she had gone to photograph a minivan for Auto Trader magazine.

Shortly before his arrest, he had filed a $36million federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County, its former sheriff and district attorney for wrongful conviction.

Steven Avery (right) was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for the murder of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach (left)

That case was settled for a mere $400,000 after Avery was charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

He was convicted  along with his nephew Brendan Dassey  for the murder in 2007.

Avery, 53, and Dassey, now 26, both remain in prison. Avery was sentenced to life in prison without parole but Dassey, who is also serving a life sentence, has a chance for early release in 2048.

However, the series tells of Avery's widely disputed conviction in Halbachs murder, suggesting the possibility that deputies planted evidence.

Averys defense attorneys argued that Manitowoc County officers, who were in the middle of being deposed in the lawsuit, were also involved in the gathering of evidence in the Halbach case and may have planted crucial evidence to frame him.

The Netflix hit turned the two middle-aged lawyers from Wisconsin into unlikely heartthrobs who inspired memes, Tumblr accounts and professions of love online

Making A Murder made Jerry Buting and Dean Strang into sex symbols, attracting a declaration of love from Kristen Bell (above) on Twitter

Dassey, who was 16 at the time, confessed to sexually assaulting Halbach and cutting her throat on his uncles orders - but later said the confession had been coerced by investigators.

The documentary on Avery questioned the handling of his case and the motivation of Manitowoc County law enforcement officials.

However, authorities involved in the case insist the series is biased and omits crucial facts that led to Avery and Dassey being found guilty of Halbachs murder.

And Buting is not the only person featured in the 10-part series who is planning a book.

Ken Kratz, the former Calumet County District Attorney who prosecuted Avery for the murder, says he is planning to write a tell-all about the crime.

Kratz, a vocal critic of the Netflix series, says it excludes certain bits of evidence  including that Avery had called Halbachs workplace the day she disappeared to specifically request her services.
For the first time in Australia the silhouette of a woman will light up at a pedestrian crossing in Melbourne, as a tribute to the first woman elected to local government in Victoria.

The City of Yarra and Vic Roads are installing the pedestrian signal at the intersection of Church and Bridge roads in Richmond, southeast Melbourne, reported The Age.

Announced on Wednesday to coincide with International Women's Day, the signals will be installed in May and be at the site for a 12 month commemorative period.

The silhouette of a woman is set to replace the 'green and red man' at a pedestrian crossing in Melbourne

Construction of the pedestrian signals is set to start later this month.

The woman's silhouette is commemorating Councillor Mary Rogers, who was elected to the City of Richmond Council in 1920.

She was Victoria's first female councillor and the second woman in Australia to be elected to local government.

She was active in the Australian Labor Party, and was appointed to secretary and later president of the Women Office Cleaner's Union.

The female pedestrian crossing was announced on Wednesday and will commemorate Councillor Mary Rogers 9pictured), Victoria's first female councillor and the second woman to be elected to local government in Australia

Among her many achievements, she was also elected to Richmond City Council at a by-election in 1920 and was appointed to a board of enquiry into neglected children.

In 1923 she moved a resolution calling for equal pay for women at a Trades Hall Council.

Cr Rogers then went on to be one of the first women to be appointed as a justice of the peace in Victoria in 1928.

She was also a special magistrate at the Children's Court in Richmond.

City of Yarra mayor Roberto Colanzi said Cr Rogers had a strong connection to the area.

'Mary Rogers was a Richmond councillor for almost five years in the 1920s, and she led ground-breaking progress in the areas of welfare, education and family issues, initiating the very first community maternal and child health services in Victoria,' Mr Colanzi said.

The unique pedestrian crossing will also be located a short walk from Mary Rogers Square on the corner of Church Street and Bridge Road.

Daily Mail Australia contacted the City of Yarra for comment.
Do you have a story to tell about Uber? Please contact daniel.sanderson@mailonline.co.uk or call 0023 615 3230

Among the 170 incidents, it said five were 'legitimate' accusations of rape

It said only 170 customers have alleged they were sexually assaulted

Uber has denied claims that 5,800 passengers have filed rape complaints but admitted 170 people have alleged they were sexually assaulted since 2012.

In a blog post late Sunday, the global ride-sharing giant said its analysis showed a 'legitimate claim of sexual assault' in 170 cases - including five of rape - between December 2012 and August 2015.

Uber, which has expanded to hundreds of cities worldwide, has been stepping up its safety efforts since reports of a rape by a driver in India.

Uber has denied reports there have been 5,800 sexual assault complaints from passengers but have admitted there was 170 instances since 2012

Reports published on Sunday based on an analysis of screenshots were provided by a former Uber customer service representative.

The report said internal reports showed 'sexual assault' in 6,160 cases and 'rape' cited in 5,827 incidents.

However, Uber responded by releasing its own figures calling the report 'highly misleading'.

The company said this was because riders 'routinely misspell "rate" as "rape" or use the word in another context such as "you raped my wallet".'

The database cited in the report also extrapolated 'rape' from any names or email addresses with those letters in that order - such as 'Don Draper,' and also used discussions about non-Uber rides and unsubstantiated media reports, according to the Uber blog.

It said its safety team 'exists to reduce safety incidents... because even one incident is too many,' and that its efforts include investments in technology which allows tracking of rides and a 'robust system of background checks.'

'Sadly, no means of transportation is 100 percent safe today,' the Uber blog said.

'Accidents and incidents do happen. It's why we are working to build an exceptional customer support team that can handle problems when they occur, including working with law enforcement.'

The blog post said Uber would not allow the news website to review safety data because it would be 'a serious breach of our riders' and drivers' privacy.'

Do you have a story to tell about Uber? Please contact daniel.sanderson@mailonline.co.uk or call 0023 615 3230
For a few short years, back when Michael Gove was in charge, Education became electric. Commons debates about education policy fizzed with fundamental ideas expressed in a language the layman could understand.

No wonder educationalists hated him! The public realised just how barmy the teaching industry (profession seems too dignified a term) had become.

Under Nicky Morgan things have reverted to the pre-Gove status quo. The waters have closed over clarity. The bejargoned Blob has regained control.

Under Nicky Morgan, things have reverted to the pre-Gove status quo

Last week Jeremy Corbyn demanded prosperity for all. Yesterday, at Education Questions in the Commons, Mrs Morgan honked away about her determination to see excellence for all. Wake me when she achieves it, someone.

We will reach that state of bliss, apparently, via programmes and governmental bodies such as the following: a Syria educational taskforce, an early years national funding formula, reformed capacity constraints, diversity of provision, flexibility for parents, access to childcare, a programme for disadvantaged two-year-olds, a universal offer on childcare, reviewed eligibility criteria, maths hubs, lending partnerships, maths excellence partnerships, rolling out of enterprise advisers, the priority schools building programme, a narrowing attainment gap, the pupil premium, our transparency agenda, the gender pay gap, the workload challenge, key stage two Sats, SEND provision, premium plus, high needs funding and, big drum roll please laydees and gentlemen, transparency for all.

'For a few short years, back when Michael Gove was in charge, Education became electric', says Letts

I hope you are keeping note of all this because there will be a test at the end of the lesson and anyone who fails will be sent to see Mrs Morgan in her study.

What a warbling, waffling wet she is, huff-puffing for breath, her face a constant flux of shock and delight and scoffing.

Yet she is capable, for all that wetness, of taking a gratuitous kick at her opponents, to the extent that you wonder just how tolerant this Equalities Minister (another of her titles) really is.

Her manner at the despatch box manages to be both oh-so-reasonable and absurdly partisan. She opens wide her seagull eyes and tells us with one breath what a reasonable woman she is. Seconds later she will stuff it to the Labour party and claim that the Conservatives are the only party that is interested in trying to improve schools.

Letts: 'Lucy Powell may be deluded. But to slag off her motives and say she is uninterested in making improvements was surely quite another thing'

Take the way she yesterday attacked Shadow minister, Lucy Powell. Comedy Mancunian Powell  who could almost be related to Lib Dem peer Lord McNally, they are so similar  had asked a detailed question about something or other (like much of yesterdays discussion, it was not easy to follow). Mrs Morgan, drawing herself into a quivering tower of indignation: She doesnt want to raise standards in our educational system!

What rot. Lucy Powell may be deluded. Her ideas may be old and mouldy. But to slag off her motives and say she is uninterested in making improvements was surely quite another thing.

Mrs Morgan also swung her pickaxe  quite suddenly and with no immediate justification  at people who want to leave the European Union. It came in Topical Questions and she suddenly had a little rant against the Leave campaign for being negative.

Hang on, lady. It aint the Leave lot who are being negative. That charge can almost entirely be aimed at the Remain camp, led by the likes of Mrs Morgan, with its Project Fear strategy.

For years I have listened to Education Ministers of various parties claim that standards are improving. Do they ever? Decent, understated Kelvin Hopkins (Lab, Luton N), who has done some teaching in his time, asked about maths standards.

Nick Gibb, a minister, boasted that primary school children are now being expected to learn their times tables up to 12. This is a wonderful achievement that will transform education, trumpeted Mr Gibb.

Did schoolchildren in the 1960s not learn their times tables? Why, how, and as a result of which politicians and educational experts did it ever stop?
Organisers say NSW Police had notified them of harassment

Bill Shorten said he had no say in the reshuffle of floats

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras organisers have defended their heated approach to refugee advocates who were told they would not be in the parade after protesting at a Labor press conference.

A video posted by organisers of the No Pride in Detention float shows a heated confrontation with Mardi Gras producer Anthony Russell who told them they would not be in the march if they continued to shout slogans at federal opposition leader Bill Shorten.

'If I bring Bill Shorten out here and one of you people say something to him, you are not in the f***ing parade...so have a chat to your people,' Mr Russell can be heard saying.

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A video posted by organisers of the No Pride in Detention float shows a heated confrontation with Mardi Gras producer Anthony Russell (pictured right) who told them they would not be in the march if they continued to shout slogans at federal opposition leader Bill Shorten

'If I bring Bill Shorten out here and one of you people say something to him, you are not in the f***ing parade' - Mardi Gras producer Anthony Russell (pictured right) warns protesters to stop harassing members of the federal Labor party

'If you don't act like a normal human being all in the parade together, you're out.'

When questioned by refugee advocate Ed McMahon in the video, the producer says 'I don't care, don't harass people,' before stating his role and name as producer Anthony Russell.

A statement released by Mardi Gras CEO Michele Bauer said NSW Police had reported to march producers there had been an 'unacceptable level of harassment and offensive comments from the No Pride in Detention float members being directed towards members of the Rainbow Labor float.

'Police requested parade officials ensure the safety of the Rainbow Labor float participants during the parade.'

Ms Bauer said the No Pride in Detention float had an important message to send and to prevent police from intervening and removing the float from the parade, a last minute decision to reshuffle the run order was made.

She said tensions were 'understandably high' after producer Anthony Russell used strong language toward the No Pride in Detention float participants.

NSW Police had reported to march producers there had been an 'unacceptable level of harassment and offensive comments from the No Pride in Detention float members

'The level of harassment reported to parade officials, just prior to 12,500 people commencing to march along Oxford Street, meant that tensions were understandably high,' she said.

'Many people had worked for many months on the co-ordination of the 178 floats in the parade, not to mention the work of thousands of parade participants.'

However, No Pride in Detention said in a statement that Bill Shorten's office and Mardi Gras 'pushed to expel the group' for their support for refugees.

No Pride in Detention said in a statement that Bill Shorten's office and Mardi Gras 'pushed to expel the group' for their support for refugees

Refugee advocates justified their right to use Mardi Gras to push a political message but said tensions arose not long after Mr Shorten gave a press conference promoting Labor's stance on queer rights

Ed McMahon, the refugee advocate who features in the video, said he was abused by a Mardi Gras representative because the float made politicians uncomfortable.

'As a compromise, we were moved back while accompanied by an extra contingent of heavily armed riot police,' he said.

The refugee advocates justified their right to use Mardi Gras to push a political message but said tensions arose not long after Mr Shorten gave a press conference promoting Labor's stance on queer rights.

No Pride in Detention member Evan van Zijl, 29, told the Daily Mail the fallout from the incident highlighted a racist undertone.

I think its an interesting contradiction that Labor and Mardi Gras are saying it was the decision of the police. There is the video recording of blatant aggression from Mardi Gras, Mr van Zijl said.

This is not about abuse and harassment of our protesters its about a clear reference of whether you are racist or not racist as members of a party.

There are many Labor members who sided with us and oppose mandatory detention, unfortunately Shortens office isnt taking that perspective.'

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Bill Shorten's office denied he asked for the No Pride in Detention to be rescheduled to appear several floats behind.

'That's not correct. Given the significance of the occasion, we were keen to ensure everyone was able to march,' the statement read.

Mardi Gras organisers said the No Pride in Detention float had an important message to send and to prevent police from intervening and removing the float from the parade, a last minute decision to reshuffle the run order was made

The video has since been viewed on YouTube more than 5000 times in a post on the No Pride in Detention Facebook page posted on Monday.

AAP journalist Jesse Matheson vouched support for Mardi Gras organisers, in that they acted appropriately, in a post on Facebook.

'Mardi Gras did the right thing. The Police threatened to pull the group out and that rep was giving them a very stern warning - continue acting like this and you'll be pulled out,' he wrote.

To which a 'No Pride in Detention' spokesperson responded: 'Like in the birth of Mardi Gras, we politically protested for Queer rights. We did so peacefully. The decision to move us was clearly to save face for the political parties' floats: Labor and Liberal.'
A senior aide to David Cameron gave a telephone dressing-down to the business chief who dared to speak out in favour of Brexit.

Daniel Korski, who is paid 93,000 a year, rang John Longworth just hours before the British Chambers of Commerce sensationally suspended him from his post as director general.

Friends of the businessman claim Mr Korski intervened to question why he was calling for Britain to leave the EU when the body had taken a neutral stance on the referendum.

Suspended British Chambers of Commerce director general John Longworth, pictured, was given a dressing down over the phone by a senior aide to the Prime Minister

Daniel Korski, pictured centre outside 10 Downing Street, made the call to Mr Longworth hours before he was suspended from his BCC job

Cabinet minister Chris Grayling, pictured, described the treatment of Mr Longworth as 'disgraceful'

Number 10 had repeatedly insisted no pressure was brought to bear, and the BCC claimed no politician had influenced its decision.

But yesterdays revelation exposes their denials as weasel words. Cabinet minister Chris Grayling described the treatment of Mr Longworth, who resigned on Sunday, as disgraceful and spineless.

He added: The fact a prominent business figure has stood up and said I believe Britain should leave the EU is a view we should be listening to.

The way the BCC has approached this in terms of just forcing him out has been wholly unacceptable.

Employment Minister Priti Patel today branded the affair 'deeply, deeply regrettable'.

She said: 'We live in a democracy and John Longworth is an honourable man, he made it abundantly clear last week that his views were his own views, his personal views, he was not speaking on behalf of the British Chambers of Commerce.

'So I think its completely regrettable.'

The Prime Ministers official spokesman yesterday declined to comment on the private conversations of government officials.

And he claimed no one at Number 10 had put pressure on the BCC to remove Mr Longworth, or even discussed his position.

In another dramatic day in the referendum debate:

David Cameron was forced to hand 500million of UK taxpayers cash to Turkey;

The Bank of England was accused of scaremongering for offering emergency cash to lenders ahead of the EU vote;

A woman Cabinet minister said the suffragettes did not fight and die only for power to be surrendered to Brussels;

A grim terror threat warning was seized on by senior MPs who warned the migrant crisis could make the UK even more vulnerable to terrorism.

Mr Longworth yesterday said he did not know what pressure was applied by the Government.

But he said it was commonplace for No 10 to contact business organisations when they were unhappy and express their views, sometimes very strong views and strident views.

It comes as David Cameron, pictured, was forced to hand 500million in taxpayers' cash to Turkey over its demands to the EU over stemming the flow of migrants entering Europe

Tory grandee David Davis yesterday submitted questions under the Freedom of Information Act about the Governments involvement in Mr Longworths removal.

He said: The last thing we want to see is a witch-hunt against business leaders brave and astute enough to make the argument that Britain would be better off economically if it regained the power to strike its own trade deals and was freed of the crippling burden of red tape, costing many billions a year, imposed by Brussels.

London mayor Boris Johnson said Mr Longworths removal was very sad and urged him to join the Leave campaign.

The BCC was facing further questions about its own stance last night after it emerged that two senior figures have publicly backed the pro-EU Remain campaign, despite the organisations supposed neutrality.

Mr Longworth, pictured, said he did not know if any pressure was brought on the BCC by Number 10

Kent branch chairman Tim Allen and Cornwall branch chief executive Kim Conchie have both signed letters calling for Britain to stay in the Brussels club, without attracting any disciplinary action.

Speaking at the BCCs annual conference last week, Mr Longworth said Britain could have a brighter economic future for itself outside the EU.

He made it clear he was speaking in a personal capacity. But his comments angered some pro-EU members of the BCC as well as Downing Street.

Yesterday he said that he had resigned in order to speak out against the hyperbole being peddled by the Government about the economic dangers of Brexit.

BCC president Nora Senior, a former adviser to Ed Balls, yesterday insisted no politician or interest group had any influence on the organisations decision to suspend Mr Longworth.
Brink's security official Stephen Lancaster Dennis has admitted stealing almost $200,000 in quarters from a Federal Reserve bank

A Brink's security official has admitted stealing almost $200,000 in quarters from a Federal Reserve bank.

Stephen Lancaster Dennis, 49, has agreed to plead guilty to making off with the huge haul of coins, prosecutors said.

Dennis worked for security company Brink's in Birmingham, Alabama, where millions of coins are stored for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The 784,000 coins Dennis stole would have weighed around five tons and it is unclear how he planned to spend the coins without arousing suspicion.

District attorneys said the guard has agreed to repay the $196,000 he stole to Brink's, which has already refunded the Federal Reserve.

Prosecutors said Dennis, from Harpersville, Alabama, was a manager at the Brink's warehouse and had access to the Federal Reserve's coin inventory.

He described himself on the Brink's website as being a 'valuable asset to the company', but in reality he almost cost them $200,000.

Ballistic bags which each contained $50,000 in quarters were stored on skids inside Brink's' 'coin room', attorneys said.

An audit in April 2014 found that four of the bags contained just $1,000 in quarters and were otherwise filled with beads.

The bags had been tampered with so the quarters were visible through a plastic window on each bag, Northern Alabama District Attorney's Office said.

Dennis worked for security company Brink's in Birmingham, Alabama, where millions of coins are stored for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (file picture)

An investigation was launched and revealed that Dennis came into work on Sunday, February 16, 2014 - which should have been his day off.

He collected four empty skids and four empty bags, which he filled with beans before placing them inside the coin room.

Proescutors say Dennis stole the $196,000-worth of quarters between New Year's Day 2014 and February 20, 2014, which was his final day of employment with Brink's.

Dennis was arrested and now faces a maximum of 10 years in jail, as well as a $250,000 fine on top of the $196,000 he is said to have agreed to repay.

U.S. attorney Joyce White Vance said: 'This defendant may have thought he had quite a haul when he took nearly $200,000 in quarters from the Federal Reserve's coin storage at Brink's, but now he carries a heavier load.

'He must repay the money and face a federal sentence.'

The 784,000 coins Dennis stole would have weighed around five tons and it is unclear how he planned to spend the coins without arousing suspicion (file picture)

FBI special agent in charge Roger C. Stanton added: 'What Mr. Dennis may have thought was a nickel and dime theft was, in the end, the equivalent of a major bank heist.

'Now, he will be a convicted felon who must repay all the stolen money.'

In an online employment section on the Brink's website found by Daily Mail Online, Dennis writes of how he rose from being a junior member of staff to having access to Federal Reserve funds.

'Throughout my employment at Brink's, I have been challenged in many different ways,' he wrote, calling himself a 'valuable asset to the company'.

'If you work hard and absorb as much knowledge as possible the opportunities for advancement will present themselves,' Dennis continued.
Critics say the banks are joining with the government in 'Project Fear'

Bosses say the move is intended to prevent another banking crisis

Cash has been offered to Britain's biggest lenders ahead of referendum

The Bank of England was last night accused of scaremongering after offering emergency cash to Britains biggest lenders ahead of the EU referendum.

In an unprecedented move, the central bank announced it is taking extra precautions to ensure the June 23 vote does not spark another banking crisis.

In a statement issued after markets closed yesterday evening, it said it will offer extra loans to banks and building societies so they can protect themselves against turmoil on financial markets.

Bank of England Govenor Mark Carney, pictured, has offered emergency loans to banks ahead of the EU referendum to take place in June

Insiders stressed this was merely a precautionary measure, and that it is not predicting a meltdown if the British public votes to sever ties with Brussels.

But furious eurosceptics questioned the timing of the intervention and accused the central bank of colluding with Downing Streets campaign to remain wedded to the EU.

The announcement from Threadneedle Street came just hours before Bank governor Mark Carney is today quizzed by MPs over the economic and financial costs and benefits of Britains EU membership.

It certainly plays into the hands of Downing Street which will be hoping the governor comes out in favour of staying in the Brussels club  or at least outlines the risks of leaving  as he gives evidence to the Treasury committee.

Eurosceptics last night questioned Mr Carneys impartiality over the debate.

Douglas Carswell, MP for Ukip and a prominent member of campaign group Vote Leave said: We can now see vividly that the big corporate banks and the Bank of England are aligned with Project Fear.

'We know the banks got massive bailouts and we know the Bank of England gives cheap credit subsidies to the banks.

Now we know that in the run-up to the referendum banks will be given even more access to easy money.

'This is cronyism and collusion between vested interests in government and vested interests in big corporate banks.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg also questioned the need for the Bank to announce its intentions so far in advance.

He said: The timing is suspicious. The influence of the governor of the Bank of England depends crucially on his political impartiality.

'Whenever he wanders from his brief into the political field he risks devaluing his own currency.

The Bank of England holds an auction each month in which it offers banks and building societies cheap money.

In return banks have to offer collateral such as government bonds or hard-to-shift assets and investments.

They then have to pay back the Bank of England  typically after six months.

Douglas Carswell, pictured right with UKIP leader Nigel Farage, said the Bank of England was scaremongering

For the first time, the central bank said it will run an extra three auctions in the weeks around the EU referendum.

Nervous banks and building societies will be able to apply for more cheap money to bolster their reserves and ensure they do not run out of cash if the EU vote triggers chaos on financial markets.

The Bank wants to rule out any repeat of the credit crunch during the recent financial crisis, when banks including Northern Rock ran out of funds.

It considered launching emergency auctions ahead of the Scottish Referendum last September.

The Bank is meant to be politically impartial. But Mr Carney has already been accused of taking sides in the EU debate.

He told the Treasury committee in January that Britains economic stability will be put at risk if it votes to leave the EU. He said Brexit could add a risk premium to the UK because of the size of its deficit.

Last night pro-Brussels campaigners hailed the Bank of Englands intervention as a victory.
The woman who won a gender discrimination case against an Islamic group has revealed some of the vile abuse she received.

Alison Bevege, a Sydney journalist, attended a lecture hosted by Hizb ut-Tahrir on October 10, 2014, but was forced to sit in women-specific seating at the back of the venue in Lakemba, in Sydney's south-west - so she sued the group and five of its members for sexual discrimination.

However, since she launched her case against the group, Ms Bevege has been the target of insults and personal attacks from people attempting to paint her as a 'whore', a 's***' and a racist.

Alison Bevege (pictured), who won a gender discrimination case against Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, has revealed some of the vile abuse she received

'Straight away from the start there was this swarm of people,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Most were things like "get back in the kitchen, whitey", or they called me a whore and s***-shamed me.

'They would question why I wanted to sit with men, saying I just wanted all the attention from them.

'But then it quickly turned racist, they'd always call me "racist whitey", which is strange because abusing me for being white is the very definition of racism.'

Most of the abuse Ms Bevege was subjected to came on social media, allowing the journalist to screenshot comments she received.

A photograph from the lecture which Ms Bevege was forced to sit in segregated seating for

Ms Bevege was the target of abuse from many people, with some calling her 'whitey' and telling her to 'get back in the kitchen'

'Whitey expert on Islam. Takbir-takfir, kebab-shabab same thing ay (sic)?' one message read.

'Get back in the kitchen whitey,' another said.

'Don't know about the name but she looks like a lebo (sic) Christian... stay in the kitchen it's better for everyone,' one read.

'Oh did the white western lady have to adhere to someone elses (sic) rules? Oh sook sook... there is no racism in your kitchen at home so stay in there,' another added.

Others told Ms Bevege to 'stay in the kitchen' and to stop 'whining', while some people claimed she didn't know enough about Islam to talk about it

Ms Bevege also said she was abused for an opinion piece when she compared the situation to that African Americans were forced to endure in Mississippi when buses were segregated.

'They told me I was wrong to compare myself to black people in Mississippi, that I couldn't use the same words MLK did,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

It comes after the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal said making women sit at the back in segregated seating was unlawful sexual discrimination.

Ms Bevege welcomed the decision, saying it was a 'win for everyone - progressive Muslims and non-Muslims'.

Hundreds of Australian Muslims attend the Khilafah 'Uprising in the Muslim World' conference in Lidcombe, Sydney, hosted by Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2011

WHAT IS HIZB UT-TAHRIR? Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic for Party of Liberation) is an international Muslim organisation founded in 1953 with about 300 adherents in Australia. It advocates a single Islamic state, or caliphate, in the Middle East under Islamic law. The group is banned in many Middle East countries and also in Russia, Turkey, Pakistan and Germany but not in Australia, the US or UK. In February 2015 the group said it doesn't preach hate or spread discord and has accused the Abbott government of playing to right-wing racist opinion. In a long statement, the organisation - singled out for possible action in former prime minister Tony Abbott's national security statement - said Mr Abbott has painted the Australian establishment as good-natured, tolerant, decent and accepting. The children of asylum seekers drowned out at sea or incarcerated in prisons like criminals would beg to differ, spokesman Uthman Badar said in the statement. He said the national security statement continues the disingenuous approach of western states of seeking to alter 'the victim-aggressor paradigm'. Mr Badar said the emphasis on revoking citizenship, restricting immigration and denying welfare is window-dressing right-wing racism. 'Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects the charge of preaching hate or spreading discord and division. 'It is those in the political establishment and media who constantly demonise Islam and Muslims and partake in a cheap politics of fear that spread discord and division.' Advertisement

In its finding, the tribunal ordered a member of the group to ensure attendees of further meetings were aware that segregated seating arrangements were not compulsory.

Ushers at such events also must be made aware and not instructed to enforce segregated seating.

Ms Bevege, who was 'really happy' with the outcome, said at the lecture she was made to sit with women, and she did not want to leave and give up the opportunity to ask questions at the end by arguing or leaving.

'I had to sit down the back like a second class citizen'.

She had attended the 'politics and plots of the American led intervention in Iraq and Syria' public lecture with the hopes of asking questions and writing an opinion piece, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Participants listen to British Muslim leader Taji Mustafa from the political party Hizb ut-Tahrir address a Muslim convention in Sydney in 2012

At the tribunal's hearing - which no representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir attended - it received documents which said Ms Bevege had not contested the seating and that she would have been allowed to sit with men if she asked.

The group's spokesperson, Ismail al-Wahwah, said the segregation - a 'fundamental consideration in Islam' - was so noisy children were at the back of the venue and did not distract from the lecture, and also so women and children were closer to exits in the case of an emergency.

Although the tribunal ruled against the Islamic group, it rejected a claim made by Ms Bevege for $100,000 compensation.

She had said the money would go to four charities, as she had not suffered financial loss or damage, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Victims of the IRA Hyde Park bomb attack have been refused legal aid to fund a private prosecution against the chief suspect.

John Downey, 64, is accused of murdering four soldiers and injuring 31 in the July 1982 nail bomb blast  one of the terror groups most notorious mainland atrocities.

The case against him collapsed following a catalogue of appalling blunders by police and prosecutors.

Carnage: The Hyde Park bomb in July 1982 killed seven horses and four soldiers, leaving a further 31 injured

Now in a ruling that has sparked outrage, the Legal Aid Agency threw out the families bid for 150,000 of taxpayers money to fund their own fight for justice.

It claimed this was not in the public interest  and suggested the families should go cap in hand to the Army or military charities for financial backing.

The decision is in stark contrast to the 400,000-plus in legal aid granted to the killers of 16-year-old schoolgirl Becky Watts. Nathan Matthews was jailed for life and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare was given 17 years for manslaughter.

It is a fresh blow for the Hyde Park families, who have been denied justice for 34 years.

The attack killed four members of the Royal Household Cavalry on their way to a Changing of the Guard ceremony. Seven horses also died but another, Sefton, survived and became a national hero.

A nail bomb containing 25lbs of explosives was hidden in a blue Morris Marina car and detonated by remote control as the troopers rode past.

Lance Corporal Jeffery Young, 19, was killed alongside Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, 23, and Trooper Simon Tipper, 19.

Only one person, Gilbert McNamee, was jailed over the bombing but that conviction was later quashed.

John Downey, 64, from Donegal, (pictured) is the chief suspect for the bombing and was due to stand trial in 2014. However, the case against him collapsed after a series of blunders by police and prosecutors

Downey, from Donegal, was due to stand trial at the Old Bailey in February 2014. But the convicted IRA terrorist was told he would not face prosecution because he mistakenly received a comfort letter  dubbed a get-out-of-jail-free card  sent to 187 on-the-run paramilitary suspects saying they were not wanted by police.

The letters were issued after a secret deal between members of Tony Blairs government and IRA leaders under the Good Friday Agreement of 1999. The existence of the letters only emerged when Downeys trial collapsed.

Lady Justice Hallett, who carried out an inquiry after a blunder became public, described the sending of the letters as a catastrophic error.

Sarah Young, the daughter of L/Cpl Young, is spearheading the push for the private prosecution. She applied for legal aid to help fund the case last August with the full backing of all the victims families.

Miss Young, 38, recalled: The last vision I ever had of my dad was he turned to me and smiled as he went through the door. I can see the men, the soldiers, running back into the barracks, shouting.

She added: Once again the victims families are left devastated by our own Government.

Sarah Young, daughter of L/Cpl Young, has said the victims families' have been left 'devastated' by their Government 'once again'. Pictured, two cars wrecked by the IRA bombing at Hyde Park in 1982

To suggest an Army charity could help fund a civil action is insulting and disgusting. To also say it is not in the public interest is ludicrous, just crazy.

Lawyers acting for Miss Young, 38, from South Wales, were today set to launch a request for judicial review of the decision to refuse legal aid.

Matthew Jury, of law firm McCue and Partners, said: Week after week, we read of terrorists being granted amnesties, released on bail and being paid compensation by the State.

Yet, when an innocent victim who, as a small child, witnessed her fathers death at the hands of a terrorist organization asks for help to prosecute his killer, the State turns its back.

The Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has recommended that the authorities should help victims of terrorist attacks bring civil actions where there has been no prosecution.

Mark Tipper, older brother of victim Trooper Tipper, said: Whenever a terrorist atrocity happens we are told time and again the government will not rest until justice has been dealt.

Yet in this case, when we the families were told there was sufficient evidence, the accused walked free because of a government error. This is not about money ...This is only about justice.

A Legal Aid Agency spokesman said: Legal aid can only be granted where the case meets the statutory requirements for funding which have been set in law.
A mother who dumped her newborn son in a drain just hours after his birth has pleaded guilty to abandoning her baby with the knowledge it could have killed him.

The woman, who cannot be identified, was originally charged with attempted murder after the infant survived five days in a stormwater drain off a motorway in Sydney's west in November 2014.

This week the mother, 32, pleaded guilty to 'abandoning a child under seven causing it to be in danger of death and recklessly cause grievous bodily harm', the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

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The mother of a baby who was rescued from a stormwater drain (pictured) after five days has pleaded guilty to abandoning him

The baby boy was dumped in the drain near the M7 Motorway in Quakers Hill in Sydney's west when he was just a few hours old, and was still wrapped in a hospital blanket

She will return to Penrith Local Court on Friday for sentencing, and will remain in custody until then.

According to police the boy was born in the early hours of November 18, 2014, and just hours later was dumped in the drain alongside the M7 Motorway in Quaker's Hill, still wrapped in a hospital blanket.

Five days later the baby was discovered by David Otte and his 18-year-old daughter Hayley, who were out cycling with two others.

They initially thought that the sounds were a kitten  but then Mr Otte realised that the cries were human.

'I've got two kids of my own so I know what a baby screaming sounds like,' he told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time.

This week the mother, 32, pleaded guilty to 'abandoning a child under seven causing it to be in danger of death and recklessly cause grievous bodily harm'

A group of cyclists passing the drain heard the babies cries coming from beneath the concrete slab

The baby was discovered by David Otte and his 18-year-old daughter Hayley, and two other cyclists

'It was so intense; you couldn't not tell it was a baby. We couldn't see it but we could hear it. It was distressed.'

The drain was covered by a concrete slab which weighed over 200kg and took six people to lift, including two police officers who had arrived at the scene.

They were then able to remove the baby boy, who was wrapped in a striped hospital blanket covered in dirt with the peg still attached to his cut umbilical cord.

It is believed the baby was dumped through a small gap at the top of the drain, underneath the concrete slab.

The drain was covered by a concrete slab which weighed over 200kg

It is believed the baby was dumped through a small gap at the top of the drain

The woman had been living with family in Australia, and is believed to have another son in New Zealand.

According to police, the woman had been staying with her aunt and uncle in Quakers Hill when she became pregnant and kept her condition secret for nine months.
Mick Fanning has come under fire for dropping in on surfers

Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning has taken 2016 off to focus on his personal life after a turbulent year, but it seems not everyone is happy with the news.

Local surfers from world-renowned Snapper Rocks, on Queensland's Gold Coast, have taken to social media to call out Fanning for his tendency to steal waves and drop in on them.

Many took particular issue with an instance in January when the 34-year-old clearly pulled in on a younger surfer before tucking into an impressive 24-second barrel.

'Did u (sic) get any waves where you didn't burn someone? Greedy pig,' one of his critics wrote.

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Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning has come under fire for dropping in front of locals at his home break

The three-time world champ was filmed dropping in on another surfer at his home break, Snapper Rocks

Local surfers from the world-renowned beach were less than impressed with Fanning

One man said Fanning was 'out there burning and disrespecting locals on a regular basis'

'Hilarious, everyone's got so much respect and admiration for Mick, yet he's out there burning and disrespecting locals on a regular basis,' another added.

'I get that he's a local and they should get there (sic) fill, but for someone that surfs the best waves on the planet all year round, it's a bit greedy.'

Tweed Heads, where Fanning grew up with fellow pro surfer Joel Parkinson, is a relaxed coastal city sitting on NSW's north-eastern tip and a short drive from the Gold Coast.

The town plays host to some of the fiercest waves in the country, including a near-perfect sand bank known as Superbank that produces a break that can stretch for two kilometres across to Kirra.

In late January of this year, Fanning was filmed by videographer Matt Coleman slipping into a flawless 24-second barrel brought on by Tropical Cyclone Victor.

But what many viewers missed was Tom Hatcher, a local surfer who was deep in the tube when Fanning dropped in in front of him, causing the wave to crumble and wipe him out of the wave.

Fanning recently announced he would be taking 2016 off to focus on his personal life after a turbulent year

Many surfers took issue with the fact Fanning still dropped in on locals despite experiencing world-class waves while on tour all-year round

One surfer said he had lost all respect for Fanning after he dropped in on his son who had been waiting half an hour for a wave

Fanning has had a turbulent year - in July of last year he was attacked by a great white shark while competing in the final of the J-Bay Open at South Africa's Jeffreys Bay

Not surprisingly, many of Fanning's critics were less than impressed.

'Fanning has had the opportunity to catch so many amazing waves in the past year yet has no problem dropping in on what could be the ride of this guys life,' one man wrote.

'I think surfer mags and sites should boycott any clips where pros snake the average Joe to get the shot.'

'I guess when you're professional surfer Mick Fanning you can drop in on someone, snake their wave, and get the World Surf League to post a video and talk about how 'well' you're doing in the off season. Unreal,' said another.

Others were less eloquent with voicing their disapproval.

'I don't like Mick Fanning because he's a dirty rotten drop in snake,' one man penned.

'Fanning is a dog drops in on so many people,' wrote another.

'What a deadset kn**, no respect for surf law, can't wait to see the end of him,' one man concluded.

'Apologise to anyone we burnt, but you know, when the waves are that good ...' Fanning issued a brief apology for dropping in on locals in a recent interview

Not just the locals! Kelly Slater uploaded this photo to his Instagram account in 2013, showing Fanning in front of him in a wave

The three-time world champion made a brief and light-hearted apology for his aggressive surfing style during a recent interview with mySURF.tv.

'It's always great being home, it was great to see everyone getting barrelled, everyone just sort of is laughing,' he said.

'Obviously the crowd can be a bit crazy, but apologise to anyone we burnt, but you know, when the waves are that good ...'

In the past 12 months, Fanning has split from his wife, was attacked by a shark and learned of the death of his brother, Peter, just before vying for a world title in Hawaii - which he narrowly lost.
The future of Britains nuclear energy was in the balance last night after a shock resignation at the firm building the countrys first new nuclear power station for decades.

Thomas Piquemal, chief financial officer of French power giant EDF, stepped down over concerns that his companys plan to build the plant in Somerset was too risky.

He is believed to have warned that a final decision on investment for the 18billion Hinkley Point project was being made too soon, potentially threatening EDFs financial position.

Thomas Piquemal, pictured, has stepped down as chief financial officer of French energy firm EDF over fears his company's plan to build a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point was too risky

An artist's impression of Hinkley Point C, which will be built in Somerset and cost around 18billion

Two power stations currently occupy the site, with the beach earmarked for the new plant pictured

One expert said last night that there was now a serious question mark over the future of the controversial scheme, which is central to David Camerons plans to safeguard the countrys future energy needs.

The resignation comes a month after Chris Bakken, the director of the project which is intended to produce 7 per cent of Britains energy needs by 2025, said he was stepping down.

Tom Burke, chairman of environmental think-tank E3G, said: Youve now had two senior people leave within a month, both clearly having trouble convincing their colleagues to go ahead in the direction that they want to go.

The deal to build the new power station at Hinkley Point, championed by the Prime Minister, has long been controversial.

Last October, EDF agreed a deal under which China would pay a third of the cost of the project.

But the French firm is understood to be struggling to find the cash for its 66.5 per cent stake. It is seeking help from the French government, which owns 85 per cent of EDF.

It had been hoped an agreement would follow the October deal but EDF still finds itself 11billion short of the money it needs for Hinkley to go ahead.

EDFs board is expected to finalise in April how it will fund the scheme after postponing its decision a number of times.

The delays  and the latest resignation  led to calls for the Government to review its energy plans.

Labour energy spokesman Lisa Nandy said: This power station is absolutely central to the Governments strategy for keeping the lights on and meeting Britains international commitments on climate change.

With growing scepticism over whether it will now be built, ministers must tell us: what is their plan B

John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, said: Alarm bells should be ringing deafeningly loudly in the offices of the French and UK governments this morning.

'If the finance chief thinks the project will be a disaster, the optimism from both governments that the deal will be imminent is irrational.

After a summit in France last month, Mr Cameron and French president Francois Hollande issued a communique that said there had been major progress in recent months with a view to confirming the project.

EDF also said it will extend the life of four of its UK nuclear power stations by between five and seven years.

Asked about Mr Piquemals reported departure, Mr Camerons official spokesman said: Im not going to speculate on the resignation of one individual. That is a matter for EDF.

We continue to fully support the project and President Hollande said himself on Thursday afternoon that it has the full support of the French government.

The French government are in discussions with EDF on this. Now we wait for the next stage, which is the financial investment decision. The discussions are regarding support from the French government.

Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive of EDF, said he regretted the haste of Mr Piquemals departure.

With the support of its shareholder, the state, EDF can confirm it is looking to invest in two reactors at Hinkley Point under the best possible financial conditions for the group, with the objective of making a final decision in the near future, he added.

Don't ever rely on the French to sort Britain's energy supply, writes city editor ALEX BRUMMER

The uncertainty engulfing the Governments flagship project to build a super nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point demonstrates the folly of Britain outsourcing its energy supplies to foreign powers.

In spite of a hugely subsidised electricity price offered by the Government to EDF and its Chinese partner, there is still no timetable for the final approval of the 18billion project.

It was meant to have received the final go-ahead from EDFs board in January.

The hold-up is largely the result of a calamitous fall in the value of French-government controlled EDF caused by big delays on other nuclear plants it is building in Brittany and Finland, as well as its recent multi-billion pound rescue of an all but bankrupt rival nuclear engineering company, Areva.

The resignation of the chief financial officer, Thomas Piquemal, only underlines the problems the company faces.

Prime Minister David Cameron, centre, is said to have made big concessions to get EDF to invest in Hinkley

Another artist's impression of how the site will look from a bird's eye view in Somerset

Failure to get Hinkley Point under way is also a serious blow to the Chancellor, George Osborne, who was personally involved in negotiating the deal with the French government and won the support of Chinese investors for an agreement that gives them a one-third stake in the nuclear plant.

The Chinese presence both as an investor and as a contractor, with access to Europes most advanced civilian nuclear technology, has already raised concerns in the UKs security establishment.

Britain has staked its energy future on new low-carbon nuclear projects, despite Germanys decision to reduce its investment in atomic power in the aftermath of the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan five years ago.

Following Fukushima, the two German power giants RWE (owner of Npower in Britain) and E.On backed out of an agreement for a new nuclear facility at Wylfa on Anglesey, a licence which has since been taken up by the Japanese giant Hitachi.

EDF maintains that the Hinkley project is still on course. Nevertheless, before Hinkley can advance further, a cash-strapped French government will need to give its support to a major financial restructuring of the company.

This could include the sale of some of its offshoots such as the French electrical grid, which will involve yet more delays.

On top of all this, the finances of EDF and other overseas owners, which control four of Britains big six energy companies, have been thrown into disarray by the fall in wholesale energy prices.

Investment plans are being redrawn and the value of existing generating facilities has plummeted.

Power is cutting 2,500 jobs in the UK after making a loss of 1.6billion on its British and German power plants.

Serious questions must now be raised about its long-term commitment to energy investment in Britain.

Mr Cameron pictured giving a speech to workers at Hinkley Point B in October 2013 shortly after the deal with EDF was agreed for Britain's first new nuclear power plant in a generation

David Camerons government made big concessions to persuade EDF to invest in Hinkley. It effectively wooed the French owners and Chinese investors by offering them the right to sell electricity at more than twice the current price.

But now that wholesale prices of crude oil and natural gas have fallen by more than three-quarters in the last 18 months, partly as a result of the American fracking revolution, there are worries as to whether Hinkley Point can ever be economically viable.

Not only is it the most expensive nuclear plant ever built, it is also plagued by problematic technology concerning its European pressurised reactor.

The Government pressed France last week to reaffirm its commitment to Hinkley, and Mr Cameron reportedly received assurances from President Hollande.

But with Frances own nuclear power stations requiring extensive modernisation and the new nuclear plant at Flamanville in Brittany many years behind schedule and rife with technical problems, there are serious questions as to whether the French government will regard Hinkley as a priority.

This, despite the fact that it managed to squeeze what amounts to a licence to print money out of Downing Street in the form of subsidised electricity prices.

The UK is now in the deeply uncomfortable position of having to rely on state-controlled companies in France, Germany and China to keep the lights on.
The mother of an ice addict who began using and dealing at the age of 13 said he was introduced to the drug world at school and has shared her struggle to get him rehabilitated.

Kelli Pfeiffer first learned her son Blake was using drugs on the day he was expelled from his private school in Rockhampton, Queensland, eight hours north of Brisbane.

At first I thought: Hes just experimenting like all young people do, Ms Pfeiffer told Daily Mail Australia.

It was just two weeks before he was due to graduate year 10, and her now 15-year-old son had been caught up in the drug world for two years already - his expulsion just the beginning of a tumultuous few years.

Kelli Pfeiffer (pictured) first learned her son Blake was using drugs on the day he was expelled from his private school in Rockhampton, Queensland, eight hours north of Brisbane

The mother-of-two, a farmer, said Blake was first introduced to marijuana by fellow students when his drug usage escalated to methamphetamine, known as ice.

Ms Pfeiffer said many young students at the school and elsewhere had been groomed into dealing drugs after developing addictions they couldn't pay for.

When Blake was expelled he quickly left the family home and only came home periodically 'because he would get seriously injured or have a major health crisis because of the drug world he was in'.

We would rescue him, she said. And each time he came home in those circumstances he wanted to get off the drugs.

But Ms Pfeiffer said his addiction quickly drew him back and he would again leave.

The mother-of-two, a farmer, said Blake was first introduced to marijuana by fellow students when his drug usage escalated to methamphetamine, known as ice

My experience with drug addicts is that theres a very small window. All addicts have times when they want to give up  thats when you have to act.

Ms Pfeiffer's son began using methamphetamine when he was introduced to marijuana when he was 13-years-old

But she said there are not enough rehabilitation or detox centres to help in that small time frame.

The waiting periods to get into them are weeks, to months, to years. So when the drug addict wants to make that decision to get help, theres not really any way in that small window of opportunity.'

She said it was close to impossible to find a rehabilitation centre for addicts between the age of 15 and 18.

Eventually, a colleague put her in touch with a NSW-based social worker who quickly organised for Blake to have interviews at rehabilitation centres interstate, when suddenly the family began receiving threats.

Dealers from my sons drug world made threats against my life and my family and I went to the police and they said: Get your son out of Rockhampton now, because they are serious about the threats.

They put surveillance on the house and tapped the phones, and I simply came home and put my son in the car and said weve got to go. We drove for 21 days.

Ms Pfeiffer and Blake drove all the way to Melbourne to waste time until their interview at rehabilitation clinics in central-western NSW.

He was rehabilitated in just 12 weeks at the Mission Australia Triple Care Farm (pictured) for 16 to 24-year-olds

The mother said his behaviour was erratic and aggressive while he came down off ice.

It was two days before Blakes 18th birthday when he was finally admitted into rehab, five-years after he was first introduced to drugs.

He was rehabilitated in just 12 weeks at the Mission Australia Triple Care Farm for 16 to 24-year-olds in Knights Hill, two hours south of Sydney near Wollongong.

Five years of hell and it was all fixed in 12 weeks. I couldnt believe it myself,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

He was employed full-time a week after his release, and 'is a completely changed person'.

However, Ms Pfeiffer often worries the now 19-year-old will one day return to drugs.

But he told me: You have to stop worrying. I dont ever want to live like that again.'

It was two days before Blakes 18th birthday when he was finally admitted into rehab (pictured), five-years after he was first introduced to drugs

Last month, Mission Australia called for more 'dedicated youth detox and rehab services to help tackle the national catastrophe of ice addiction' (Triple Care Farm pictured)

The mother said she hoped the stigma attached to addiction would be dropped so those suffering 'feel brave enough to come forward'.

The Triple Care Farm in Knights Hill near Wollongong, south of Sydney

This can happen to anyone. And it shouldnt matter how much money you have or where you come from, you should be able to recover and have access to resources that can help you recover.

My son went from needing welfare, needing help in hospital, police and ambulance to in 12 weeks giving up that addiction. Now he has a job and pays taxes and is a contributing member in his community.

Most are probably good people who want to give back.

Last month, Mission Australia called for more 'dedicated youth detox and rehab services to help tackle the national catastrophe of ice addiction'.

Many services were at 'breaking point', CEO Catherine Yeomans told the Eradicating Australia's Ice Epidemic conference in Brisbane.

'When a young person decides that they are ready and willing to accept treatment we have to be ready to support them with youth-appropriate supports, and sadly at the moment we cannot always do that in time,' she said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Queensland Department of Health for comment.
British firms including Next said they will have to raise prices to pay for the Living Wage changes

British firms will be forced to slash jobs to help pay for the Government's living wage, a leading recruitment agency has warned.

From April 1, workers over 25 who earn the minimum rate of 6.70 an hour will receive a 50p increase under the Living Wage.

The move has been hailed as a victory for millions of low-paid workers across the country.

But British firms are warning that the Government's intervention is likely to backfire as they will be forced to lay off staff.

In a report published today, recruitment firm ManpowerGroup said companies are already sidestepping the new rules by taking on under-25s, who do not qualify for the Living Wage.

It said that other firms are changing their overall pay structures to keep their wage bill under control.

Tactics include reducing pay for overtime and bank holidays, and reducing the number of better-paid supervisory roles.

James Hick, managing director of ManpowerGroup Solutions, said: 'The next six months will show the effect any 'levelling down' of wages has on the workforce, and long term we believe there will be job cuts.'

The report, which is based on the views of 2,100 UK employees, is the latest stark warning from businesses about the unintended consequences of the Living Wage.

Well-known firms, including Costa Coffee and retail giant Next, have said they will need to raise prices to pay for the changes.

Business leaders - including the boss of pub chain Wetherspoons - have also predicted that the pay hike could threaten British jobs.

The CBI claimed last month that firms face a 9billion annual bill from the National Living Wage, the Apprenticeship Levy and the Government's failure to slash unpopular business rates on shops and offices.

It warned that the mounting burden  estimated at 29billion over this Parliament  could derail the recovery, threatening jobs and investment.

Bosses group the Institute of Directors has also warned firms could soon be forced to lay off low skilled workers due to higher wage bills.

James Sproule, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said the mounting demands on employers  including the need for all firms to provide work pensions to staff  could be too much to bear.

He said: 'This is bitter medicine for businesses to swallow, and the money will have to be found from somewhere, whether that's less hiring, slower pay rises, or higher prices.'

Firms warn that they will need to slash jobs in order to pay for the changes brought in by the Living Wage

Despite the warning, Manpower's report found that Britain's employers are at their most positive about their intentions to hire new staff since the financial crisis.

But it predicted firms will be unable to fill vacancies if the UK quits the EU because they have become so reliant on migrant workers.

Latest official figures showed that 215,000 of the 521,000 jobs created over the last 12 months were filled by people from elsewhere in the EU.

A Brexit would lead to a major labour shortage and damage the UK economy, according to Manpower.

It predicted it could also lead to an exodus of 'high quality' jobs from London, with HSBC's recent threat to move 1,000 jobs to Paris just 'the tip of the iceberg'.

Mr Hick said: 'Let's be realistic: we simply won't be able to replace overnight the skills these people bring to the UK if we leave the EU, and it's our economy that will suffer.
Once asked to name her favourite historical figure, Nora Senior named Elizabeth I, describing her as a most able politician, passionate about her people. Like her heroine, the British Chambers of Commerce president possesses striking copper hair and a deft political touch.

However, following recent events, her ousted director general John Longworth will doubtless feel that is where the flattering comparison ends.

While Mr Longworths distinguished business career has seen him serve on the board of retail giants such as Tesco and Asda, Miss Seniors time has been spent almost exclusively in the world of public relations.

Once asked to name her favourite historical figure, the British Chambers of Commerce president Nora Senior (pictured) named Elizabeth I, describing her as a most able politician, passionate about her people'

Following a stint working for Saatchi & Saatchi she is currently UK chairman of Weber Shandwick, one of the worlds largest corporate communications firms which has advised global conglomerates such as Coca Cola and Microsoft.

Even her lengthy entry on social networking site LinkedIn  peppered with self-aggrandising phrases as highly motived significant expertise and Award-winning  reads as though it has been copy and pasted from a PR handbook.

Born in St Andrews to teacher parents, Miss Senior, 58, lives in a 380,000 home in Nottingham with her husband Stuart, with whom she has a son and a daughter.

She is fan of poetry  with a particular fondness for German classicist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and her compatriot Liz Lochhead  and is a keen follower of Formula One racing.

Upon her appointment to the BCC in 2013, she became it first woman president in more than a decade and only the second in its 150-year history.

MINISTER: HANDING POWER TO BRUSSELS HOLDS BACK WOMEN Employment Minister Priti Patel (pictured) will make a forceful appeal for undecided women voters to support the Leave campaign The suffragettes did not fight and die for women to get the vote only for control of their destiny to be surrendered to Brussels, a female Cabinet minister will say today. Employment Minister Priti Patel will make a forceful appeal for undecided women voters to support the Leave campaign. She will say that being a part of the EU sees women handing power over to unelected EU officials  which is holding women back. The suffragettes fought for our democratic freedom, Mrs Patel will argue. Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes did not fight to have the right to vote on who governs them, only to then see those decisions surrendered to the EUs undemocratic institutions and political elite. Our campaign to take back control from the EU will enhance our democracy and empower women in this country. She will add: While we remain in the EU, the potential and ambition of women is being held back. Mrs Patel, the MP for Witham, will speak at the launch of a group of 40 female business leaders and politicians in London. Recent polls found that women were almost twice as likely as men to answer Dont Know about which way they would vote in the EU referendum. Up to a quarter are undecided  which could be enough to swing the outcome of the vote. The Women for Britain group say they are determined to put forward a positive case for leaving the EU so that women, often perceived as more risk-averse than men, consider a vote to leave as the safer choice. Mrs Patel will describe the UKs proud history of listening to women  listing laws that have been passed including equal pay acts and the Abortion Act, as well as pointing out the availability of the contraceptive pill for free on the NHS  as achievements made before we were in the EU or without EU assistance. She will add: We dont need the European Union to protect the rights of women in the UK and it is wrong and misleading to suggest that leaving the EU would put womens rights at risk. Britain has been a world leader at promoting womens rights at home and abroad and our support for women would only be enhanced by leaving the EU. Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers, who will also attend the event, said: I will be voting to leave the EU because I think we should take back control over making our own laws in our own Parliament again. I also believe that taking back the power to make our own trade agreements will open up big opportunities for UK businesses across many parts of the world. Advertisement

So it was unsurprising that in her first interview in the job, she urged the Government to introduce tax breaks for firms willing to invest in home and remote working to encourage more women to stay in work after having children.

It was a commitment to support women in the workplace forged during her first job after leaving Glasgow University, working the marketing department of a British construction company

She recalls: The first day I arrived I was told I was going to be fired because they didnt employ women. That was in the days when you could say that.

'And I said thats a bit of a quandary, what are you going to do about it? And the general manager said, Im going to give you six months and at the end of that six months you will probably have found another job.
A British woman is the oldest patient in the world to have a full hip replacement - after having the operation to celebrate her 104th birthday.

Sprightly Edith Varley went under the knife after she struggled to get around her home where she lives on her own.

Her family are now applying to have her recognised by the Guinness World Records as the oldest person ever to receive a full hip replacement.

Edit Varley from Oadby, Leicester, is the oldest patient in the world to have a full hip replacement

Widow Edith, who lost her husband Arthur in 1997 aged 90, was conscious throughout the operation

The previous record holder was a woman aged 102.

Widow Edith, who lost her husband Arthur in 1997 aged 90, was conscious throughout the one-hour operation which took place on December 22 at Leicester General Hospital.

Edith, who has two grown-up children but no grandchildren, had the surgery just two weeks after celebrating her 104th birthday.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Richard Power carried out the procedure to replace Mrs Varley's right hip joint which had deteriorated after it was first replaced in 1987.

She spent 24 hours in the high-dependency unit following the operation, but ten days later was fit enough to be discharged.

Mrs Varley said: 'I am delighted with the success of the surgery and so grateful to Mr Power and his team for freeing me from the dreadful pain I have suffered for so long.

'I am now practising my walking and exercise to achieve the best mobility possible to enable me to continue living independently.'

Edith, who has two grown-up children but no grandchildren, had the surgery just two weeks after celebrating her 104th birthday

Mrs Varley, who used to work for the Gas Board as a clerical worker, is now able to remain living independently in her home in Oadby, Leicester.

On Monday, her two children, Graeme Varley, 69, and daughter Jenifer (corr) Quelch, 67, expressed their thanks to the surgical team who carried out the operation,

Mrs Quelch, a pub licensee from Market Harborough, Leics., said: 'My mother had been in terrible pain for about 12 months before the operation.

'We never thought of surgery. We just thought there might be some sort of magic injection to ease the pain.

'But when we saw Mr Power, he said the only way to ease the pain was to replace the hip.

'He said he had operated on people in their 60s who were not as fit as my mother.

'She's not running around like a two-year-old and does have carers who come in twice a day.

'But she is able to walk with a frame and do the exercises she has been given.

'We are so grateful to the team at Leicester's hospitals.'

Mrs Varley's son Graeme, a retired director of a haulage firm from Manchester, added:

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Richard Power carried out the procedure to replace Mrs Varley's right hip joint which had deteriorated after it was first replaced in 1987

'The operation has made a remarkable difference to my mum's life.

'Obviously she is 104 so her mobility is slow but she is very independent and the operation means she can continue living in her own home.

'I often asked her what she would like for her birthday and she often said 'a new hip would be wonderful'. Now it's come true it's amazing to see her walking around.

'We believe it is possible she may now be a record breaker which would be remarkable.'

Another woman aged 112 had a partial hip replacement but my mother would seem to be the oldest patient in the world to undergo a full hip replacement op.'

Mr Power said modern anaesthetic techniques had made Mrs Varley's operation possible.

He said: 'The operation was performed in just over an hour with the patient awake

under spinal anaesthetic.
Philanthropic work: Sarah Ferguson with Spanish actor Antonio Banderas last night in Mexico City

The Duchess of York was last night pictured for the first time since splitting from a handsome internet entrepreneur nine years her junior.

Sarah Ferguson was seen with Spanish actor Antonio Banderas at a press event ahead of the Starlite charity gala in Mexico City, where she will be recognised for her philanthropic work.

It comes hours after the 56-year-old Duchess was said to have been inconsolable following the split from Manuel Fernandez, with whom she had developed an intense friendship.

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Last year the Mail told how Prince Andrews ex-wife was said by friends to be head over heels with Mr Fernandez, 47, a frequent visitor to the 13million Swiss ski chalet she now owns with her former husband.

The couple were introduced two years ago by a mutual friend. But on Sunday friends said Mr Fernandez, who is half-Irish, half-Spanish, had dumped the Duchess, leaving her bereft.

A friend said: Manuels not been seen around for several weeks and apparently he finished it with her. Shes been very tearful and weepy.

It is thought that the collapse of the relationship has hastened her recent decision to apply to become a permanent Swiss resident.

Greetings: The 56-year-old Duchess of York shakes hands with Banderas ahead of the Starlite charity gala

Explanation: Banderas listens as Fergie talks about her charity work during a press event ahead of the gala

Speech: The Duchess will be recognised at the Starlite charity gala in Mexico City for her philanthropic work

Friends said that Sarah, who has had two serious relationships since her divorce from the Queens son in 1996, had been hopeful that her relationship with Mr Fernandez would stay the course.

The pair had seemed inseparable for much of last year, enjoying holidays to Cannes and Asturias and attending Bob Geldofs wedding together in September.

The dashing former soldier was said to be a steadying influence on Fergie, although one source close to him insisted that the duchess was always far keener on him than he was on her.

Fergie, as she is known to her friends, is also said to have greatly admired his determined public campaign following a devastating personal tragedy that first brought him to public attention.

Line up: Actress Mar Saura (left) joins Fergie, Banderas and Starlite founder Sandra Garcia-Sanjuan (right)

Venue: The Starlite festival has taken place in Marbella for the past five years but has now moved to Mexico

Admission: Fergie recently said in an interview that any man taking her out 'would have to take on an awful lot'

In December 2008 his sister, Maria Stubbings, 50, was strangled by her ex-boyfriend who had been released from prison in Germany just months earlier after serving 15 years of a life sentence for the murder of another girlfriend.

Any man who took me out would have to take on an awful lot Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

Essex Police, who were aware of his conviction, were accused of a catalogue of failings over the case and after a public battle by Mr Fernandez and his family.

A spokesman for the Duchess said at the weekend: Theyve always just been friends and continue to be so.

In a recent interview Fergie said: I think any man who took me out would have to take on an awful lot. Theres the public scrutiny, a mad family  the Fergusons, I mean, not the other family  and two granddaughters of Her Majesty.

Group photo: Fergie and Banderas are pictured with Starlite founder Sandra Garcia-Sanjuan in Mexico City

Sad: Fergie (left, pictured yesterday) was said to have been inconsolable following her split from Manuel Fernandez (right), with whom she had developed an intense friendship

Itd be nice to have someone who loved me so much it didnt matter. There must be someone out there whos nuts.

Theyve always just been friends and continue to be so Spokesman for Duchess of York

Starlite is a music festival that has taken place in Marbella for the past five years but has now moved across the Atlantic to Mexico, where it is taking place at the Hipodromo de las Americas.

Among the performers this year are singer Enrique Iglesias, and last night's gala - which was hosted by 55-year-old Banderas - supports the Starlite Foundation childrens charity.

The Duchess saw her Sarah Ferguson Foundation charity close four years ago, but she also founded the Children In Crisis charity in 1993, and remains the life president.
The uncertainty engulfing the Governments flagship project to build a super nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point demonstrates the folly of Britain outsourcing its energy supplies to foreign powers.

In spite of a hugely subsidised electricity price offered by the Government to EDF and its Chinese partner, there is still no timetable for the final approval of the 18billion project.

It was meant to have received the final go-ahead from EDFs board in January.

An artist's impression of the new nuclear power plant to be built at Hinkley Point in Somerset, pictured

The hold-up is largely the result of a calamitous fall in the value of French-government controlled EDF caused by big delays on other nuclear plants it is building in Brittany and Finland, as well as its recent multi-billion pound rescue of an all but bankrupt rival nuclear engineering company, Areva.

The resignation of the chief financial officer, Thomas Piquemal, only underlines the problems the company faces.

Failure to get Hinkley Point under way is also a serious blow to the Chancellor, George Osborne, who was personally involved in negotiating the deal with the French government and won the support of Chinese investors for an agreement that gives them a one-third stake in the nuclear plant.

The Chinese presence both as an investor and as a contractor, with access to Europes most advanced civilian nuclear technology, has already raised concerns in the UKs security establishment.

Britain has staked its energy future on new low-carbon nuclear projects, despite Germanys decision to reduce its investment in atomic power in the aftermath of the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan five years ago.

Following Fukushima, the two German power giants RWE (owner of Npower in Britain) and E.On backed out of an agreement for a new nuclear facility at Wylfa on Anglesey, a licence which has since been taken up by the Japanese giant Hitachi.

Thomas Piquemal, pictured, has resigned as chief finance officer at EDF over concerns the company's investment in Hinkley Point is too risky

EDF maintains that the Hinkley project is still on course. Nevertheless, before Hinkley can advance further, a cash-strapped French government will need to give its support to a major financial restructuring of the company.

This could include the sale of some of its offshoots such as the French electrical grid, which will involve yet more delays.

On top of all this, the finances of EDF and other overseas owners, which control four of Britains big six energy companies, have been thrown into disarray by the fall in wholesale energy prices.

Investment plans are being redrawn and the value of existing generating facilities has plummeted.

Power is cutting 2,500 jobs in the UK after making a loss of 1.6billion on its British and German power plants.

Serious questions must now be raised about its long-term commitment to energy investment in Britain.

David Camerons government made big concessions to persuade EDF to invest in Hinkley. It effectively wooed the French owners and Chinese investors by offering them the right to sell electricity at more than twice the current price.

The existing Hinkley Point B advanced gas-cooled reactor in Somerset, pictured

But now that wholesale prices of crude oil and natural gas have fallen by more than three-quarters in the last 18 months, partly as a result of the American fracking revolution, there are worries as to whether Hinkley Point can ever be economically viable.

Not only is it the most expensive nuclear plant ever built, it is also plagued by problematic technology concerning its European pressurised reactor.

The Government pressed France last week to reaffirm its commitment to Hinkley, and Mr Cameron reportedly received assurances from President Hollande.

But with Frances own nuclear power stations requiring extensive modernisation and the new nuclear plant at Flamanville in Brittany many years behind schedule and rife with technical problems, there are serious questions as to whether the French government will regard Hinkley as a priority.

This, despite the fact that it managed to squeeze what amounts to a licence to print money out of Downing Street in the form of subsidised electricity prices.

The UK is now in the deeply uncomfortable position of having to rely on state-controlled companies in France, Germany and China to keep the lights on.
If the new ministerial edict works, our children's text messages may no longer suffer from a German-measles rash of exclamation marks.

Something probably did need to be done. The other day I received a text message from my 13-year-old daughter which contained six exclamation marks, five of them in a single burst of prose machine-gun fire.

'Hi Daddy! Have to do horrid cross-country today!!!!! Love, Honor xxxxxxxxxx' And then there was one of those emoticon sad-face symbols.

Oh well, at least the spelling was correct.

The Government, not content with trying to bully us into supporting the European Union, has mobilised its forces against the exclamation mark.

Whitehall has taken the view that the vertical little jolt which is also known as the startler, the gasper and the screamer has run out of hand and needs a squirt of weed killer.

Is this fair? Is it a long-overdue corrective to stylistic madness or a sign that the Education Ministry has itself lost sight of the important things in life? What next? A fatwa against the comma? A cull of semi-colons?

Surprise! Anger! Exasperation! A joke! The exclamation mark has several uses. Ironic praise, even, as in 'global statesman Jeremy Corbyn!' Or downright sarcasm: 'Straight-talking man of the people David Cameron!'

The exclamation mark can be used for the imperative, to issue a note of command, for example: 'Heel, Rover!' It can be used for denial: 'I never done nuffink wrong, guvnor!'

It can even be used for expressions of tumultuous love. William Shakespeare understood this. In Romeo And Juliet, Act 1 scene 1, Romeo enters all lovelorn, his lines littered with groans of romantic longing.

'O brawling love!' he wails. 'O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create!' His friend Benvolio tries to cheer up this maudlin drip, but yet more exclamation marks follow ('bid a sick man in sickness make his will  a word ill urg'd to one that is so ill!'). Romeo is plainly beyond redemption.

Our greatest playwright used these exclamation marks as stage directions, showing the actor playing that a little chest-clutching and gulpy melodrama would not go amiss. Give it everything you've got, Basil, dearie. Yes, they had exclamation marks in Elizabethan theatre.

But all that may soon be at an end, thank you. Or 'thank you!', if we wish to impart a sense of relief. If the new ministerial edict works, our children's text messages may no longer suffer from a German-measles rash of exclamation marks.

Grammatical gusto may become a thing of the past. Our children will be under official orders to rediscover the old British virtues of self-restraint and understatement.

Children at school are in future to be told to cut back on these little emblems of ejaculation. Exceptions will be made for sentences beginning with 'what' and 'how'.

'What big teeth you have, Grandma!' will be fine, as will 'how juicy you look, Little Red Riding Hood!' But a sentence such as 'I can't wait for the end of term!!!!!' will gain no credit from examiners.

The Education Department is denying that this is part of an attempt  in guidelines issued to teachers ahead of grammar tests this summer  to curb youthful exuberance in social media messages. Apparently it has more to do with grammatical clarity and precision.

There is much to be said for such things, though one may be reminded here of the fable of King Canute and the tide. Canute's advisers insisted that he was so powerful he could command the tide to recede. They were wrong.

Might the Whitehall grammar police find the same thing? Will it really be possible to stop the Facebook generation from pressing that exclamation mark button every few syllables? Can ministerial command ever stop youngsters from texting 'OMG!!!'?

Once rare, the exclamation mark has in recent years become as rampant as ragwort. Why? I suspect that advertising copywriters are partly to blame. Journalists, particularly those of our trade who compose headlines in popular newspapers, are also leading culprits.

Shops love to use exclamation marks as a signal of an exciting bargain. A sign saying 'Sale!' will look more insistent than simply 'Sale'. Although you could argue the exclamation mark long ago lost its power through overuse.

Children at school are in future to be told to cut back on these little emblems of ejaculation. Exceptions will be made for sentences beginning with 'what' and 'how'.

An exclamation mark is no guarantee of commercial success. Hello! magazine may do reasonably well for itself, but the late tycoon Sir James Goldsmith  whose startling excesses made him a living exclamation mark in himself  once published a glossy news magazine called NOW!. It was a spectacular failure, closing after a couple of years.

We do not know when or why the exclamation mark came about. Egyptians with their hieroglyphics managed without them. Julius Caesar, when he crossed the Rubicon river  headed for war  in 49 BC, may have felt a pulsating in his heart as he said 'alea iacta est' (the die is cast), but he did not reach for an exclamation mark  mainly because it did not exist in Latin.

Some say it was not until about 1,400 AD that exclamation marks arrived, possibly at first as an abbreviation for 'io', which was Latin for 'joy'.

The exclamation mark was well established by the time the Devon village of Westward Ho! named itself in the mid-19th century. There is a place in Quebec, Canada, called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! (did its inventor have hiccups or a sense of humour?).

In 1986, the possibly not-so exciting town of Hamilton, Ohio, briefly changed its name to Hamilton!, which sounds like something Nelson might have said if surprised mid-clinch with his mistress when her husband walked through the door. P.G. Wodehouse, novelist and comic genius, was quite keen on the exclamation mark. It suited the deliciously cartoonish world he created.

The exclamation mark was well established by the time the Devon village of Westward Ho! named itself in the mid-19th century (pictured)

The favoured greeting of Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster is 'what ho!', the exclamation mark being essential to the saying's breezy amiability  merry triumph teetering on the verge of calamity.

If Bertie said 'what ho' without the exclamation mark, we might conclude that he was a dog distinctly off its biscuits.

Another of my favourite writers, the 19th-century novelist Anthony Trollope, used exclamation marks to convey stress in a slightly rum, mocking sense.

Victorian writers would seldom descend to sarcasm, but they would use the exclamation mark in this way, employing it to hint at authorial amusement at the foibles of their characters. Until the Seventies, the exclamation mark was still sufficiently rare for there to be no single key for it on most typewriters.

To achieve an exclamation mark, you had to do a full-stop then press the back-space key and type an inverted comma. The social-media generation will find that incredible, I suspect. Or rather 'wow! incredible!'.

Why do youngsters such as my daughters (not so much my son, who regards excessive communication as something dangerous) use exclamation marks so much?

Possibly it is a desire to be upbeat, to sound enthusiastic  a result, perhaps, of American-style positive-vibe creeds that have infiltrated our culture.

The exclamation mark can soon become irritating. When overused it suggests a 'happiness is compulsory' grimness, vapidity and untruthfulness, for real life tends to be more drab than the exclamation mark allows.

Perhaps there is also a youthful excitement about life. And why not? This world is indeed full of wondrous sights and sounds and smells. We world-weary adults need to be reminded of that occasionally.

Yet the exclamation mark can soon become irritating. When overused it suggests a 'happiness is compulsory' grimness, vapidity and untruthfulness, for real life tends to be more drab than the exclamation mark allows.

Fowler's Modern English Usage, which is often seen as the rule-book for prose, states that 'except in poetry the exclamation mark should be used sparingly'.

It adds: 'Excessive use is a sure sign of an unpractised writer, or of one who wants to add a spurious dash of sensation to something unsensational.'

That is all very well until you have to report the utterances of, say, a John Prescott. Every sentence he speaks seems to end with an exclamation mark.

In my scribblings as sketchwriter for the Mail, I do employ exclamation marks a fair amount, although given the stinky and lurid sights and sounds of parliamentary life you can hardly blame me.

American novelist Elmore Leonard might not have approved. He ordained that usage of exclamation marks should be limited to 'nor more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose'.
Mr T paid tribute to Nancy Reagan in a series of heartfelt tweets on Monday, calling his work with the former First Lady's Just Say No campaign against drugs 'the highlight of my career'.

Nancy, who passed away at the weekend at 94, invited the A-team actor to sit in as Santa Claus during a White House Christmas celebration in 1983.

Mr T later participated in her campaign and filmed a humorous public service announcement in which the former bouncer employs intimidation tactics to dissuade kids from trying drugs.

On Monday evening, he penned a series of eight tweets in memory of Nancy and vowed to continue her legacy.

Mr T commemorated Nancy Reagan, who died on Sunday after suffering congestive heart failure at the age of 94, in a series of tweets (above). The two worked together on her famous Just Say No campaign against drugs

During Mr T's stint as Mr Claus at the White House Christmas decorations unveiling in 1983, Nancy sat on Mr T's lap and gave him a kiss on the forehead

During Mr T's stint as Mr Claus at the White House Christmas decorations unveiling, Nancy sat on Mr T's lap and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

The moment was immortalized in an iconic photograph showing the odd couple in a moment of surprising intimacy.

The professional wrestler, rapper and actor, born as Lawrence Tureaud, told The Independent in a 2008 interview that Nancy and Ronald Reagan had heard about his work telling kids to stay away from drugs.

On Monday night, Mr T tweeted: 'I mourn the death of First Lady Nancy Reagan, who was very special to me.

'Not only did she invite me to the White House in '83, after meeting with her and President Ronald Reagan, she then asked me to help her with her Just Say No program, which I gladly accepted with humility and honor.

'That was the highlight of my career to be asked to work with the First Family on such a great cause.

'It wasn't political because I am not a Republican nor am I a Democrat.

'But I am just a Christian Brother from the hood trying to do some good! I will truly miss First Lady Nancy Reagan.

'I will never forget her.

'I will continue her work in trying to keep kids from the dangers of drugs. God bless you First Lady.'

While many mocked Mrs Reagan's campaign's simplistic catchphrase, she is credited with driving cocaine use down to a 10-year low by 1988

Nancy Reagan was one of the most influential first ladies in American history during her husbands presidency in the 1980s.

She launched the Just Say No campaign in 1982 and became the countrys most visible anti-drug crusader at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic.

'Drugs take away the dream from every childs heart and replace it with a nightmare, and its time we in America stand up and replace those dreams, she said.

While many mocked her simplistic catchphrase, she is credited with driving cocaine use down to a 10-year low by 1988.

Along with celebrities like Clint Eastwood and Michael Jackson, Mr. T lent his tough-guy persona to the cause.

In his PSA, the born-again Christian is sitting at a diner counter when he crushes a glass of milk and says the thought of kids doing drugs 'turns [his] stomach'.

He goes on to say: 'It stops you from living up to your potential! It holds you back!

He breaks the fourth wall and grabs the cameraman's shoulders while saying: 'I just want to shake some sense into you kids that are using drugs and are thinking about using!

'So remember, DON'T! Or else!,' he says, before flashing a friendly smile and asking, 'Ok?'

In his filmed message for the campaign, Mr T (left and right) is sitting at a diner counter when he crushes a glass of milk and says the thought of kids doing drugs 'turns [his] stomach'

He grabs the cameraman's shoulders while saying: 'I just want to shake some sense into you kids that are using drugs and are thinking about using!'
Dame Eileen Sills - the woman appointed to protect NHS whistleblowers - has resigned just weeks before she was due to start

The woman appointed to protect NHS whistleblowers has resigned just weeks before she was due to start.

Dame Eileen Sills was hired to expose poor treatment of medical staff who speak out after the probe into 1,400 patient deaths at Stafford Hospital.

The creation of a National Guardian post was a key demand of Sir Robert Francis who led the inquiry into the scandal-hit trust.

Dame Eileen has 30 years of nursing experience and was given the new job to help NHS staff lift the lid on poor treatment of patients without fear of recrimination.

Speaking just weeks before she was due to start, she said she wanted to know that what she did 'makes a difference'.

'With the support of the staff who work in the NHS, I have no doubt that we can make the changes together that are needed to deliver a new culture of transparency and openness,' she added.

But she has now quit the post after admitting she could not combine the new two-day a week role with her 174,000-a-year job as Chief Nurse at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

She announced she was resigning via the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) website on Friday.

In a statement, Dame Eileen said: 'It has been a very difficult decision to take but after two months it is very clear that it is not possible to combine the role of the National Guardian  and establishment of the office  with the increasing challenges NHS providers face, while doing justice to both roles.

'My commitment to our patients and staff at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust means that I have to step down from the National Guardian role.'

David Behan, Chief Executive of CQC, said: 'I was disappointed to receive Dame Eileen's resignation but I respect her honesty in making this difficult decision.

'A new appointment process will begin immediately. The work of setting up the office of the National Guardian will continue as planned, with a focus on supporting and working with freedom to speak up guardians in NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts.'

Critics have hit out at Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt who said he should have insisted that the important role of National Guardian be a full-time position.

Critics have hit out at Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) who said he should have insisted that the important role of National Guardian be a full-time position

Julie Bailey, who helped expose the horrific neglect at Mid Staffs following the death of her mother, told the Daily Mirror: 'This shows that such an enormous position of great responsibility should never have been allowed to be diluted to a part-time job. There is no way this is a part-time role and such a suggestion is an insult to whistleblowers.'

Dr Minh Alexander, who was forced to quit after she exposed suicides and abuse at a mental health trust in Cambridgeshire, said: 'The Health Secretary bears responsibility. The design and establishment of the office has been flawed. Patients will suffer if the Government continues to insist upon flawed half-measures.'

A spokesperson from the Care Quality Commission said last night: 'The role will be advertised again as either full time or part time on a case by case basis to allow for flexibility.
An Australian Navy ship seized a huge cache of weapons near Oman's coast from the fishing vessel bound for Somalia, exposing a possible violation of a U.N. Security Council arms embargo.



Last Wednesday HMAS Darwin's boarding team uncovered and seized a large weapons cache, following a boarding of a fishing vessel during their deployment to the Middle East region as part of Operation MANITOU.

Darwin intercepted the fishing vessel approximately 170 nautical miles (313 kilometres) off the coast of Oman to conduct a flag verification boarding.

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The Australian Defence Force seized these weapons, including 1989 AK-47 assault rifles from a fishing vessel which was boarded off the coast of Oman last Wednesday

They were operating under Combined Task Force 150 which is responsible for counter-terrorism operations within the Middle East region.

After assessing the vessel to be stateless, 1989 AK-47 assault rifles, 100 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 49 PKM general purpose machine guns, 39 PKM spare barrels and 20 60mm mortar tubes were seized from the vessel that was headed towards the Somalia coast.

The weapons were seized under United Nations sanctions which authorise interdiction on the high seas of illicit weapons destined for Somalia.

It exposed a possible violation of a U.N. Security Council arms embargo

Chief of Joint Operations Vice Admiral David Johnston said the seizure on Darwin's first patrol of such a large haul of illicit weapons is highly significant.

'Australia worked as part of the multinational Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) to discover and seize these illegal weapons,' VADM Johnston said.

'One of the key reasons HMAS Darwin is deployed to the region is to contribute to global security and counter international terrorism.

After assessing the vessel to be stateless, 1989 AK-47 assault rifles, 100 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 49 PKM general purpose machine guns, 39 PKM spare barrels and 20 60mm mortar tubes were seized from the vessel that was headed towards the Somalia coast

'Darwin's successful boarding and subsequent seizure of the weapons concealed under fishing nets highlights the need to remain vigilant in the region.'

Operation MANITOU is the current name for the Australian Government's contribution to the multinational CMF efforts to promote maritime security, stability and prosperity in the region.

Darwin is deployed as part of the CMF and is assigned to the Australian led Combined Task Force 150.

Darwin intercepted the fishing vessel approximately 170 nautical miles (313 kilometres) off the coast of Oman to conduct a flag verification boarding

CMF is a multinational effort to prevent terrorism, piracy and drug smuggling, encourage regional cooperation and promote a secure maritime environment in the Middle East and off the north east coast of Africa.

This is Darwin's 7th deployment to the MER and the 62nd rotation of a RAN vessel in the region since 1990.

This comes after a gunman shot three brothers with what appeared to be an AK-47 assault rifle, during a six-hour siege in Ingleburn in Sydney's south-west before turning his weapon on himself on Monday.

The weapons were seized under United Nations sanctions which authorise interdiction on the high seas of illicit weapons destined for Somalia
Tragedy: Bailey Gwynne died from a single stab wound to the heart following a fight at Cults Academy in Aberdeen on October 28 last year

Three fatal mistakes allowed a teenager who carried a knife in his blazer pocket to stab a 16-year-old schoolboy to death.

As the youth was yesterday found guilty of killing Bailey Gwynne, new details emerged of the missed opportunities to stop the terrible chain of events.

Bailey died from a single stab wound to the heart following a fight at Cults Academy in Aberdeen on October 28 last year.

His 16-year-old attacker, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had denied murder but was convicted of culpable homicide at the High Court in Aberdeen.

Last night, it emerged that:

Parents warned education chiefs about Bailey's killer after he attacked a pupil with a rock while at primary school.

The killer managed easily to circumvent internet giant Amazon's over-18s rule on buying knives by having an illegal blade delivered to his mother's garden shed.

When he was twice caught with a knife at school, the boy was only given a warning by the headteacher and no further disciplinary action was taken.

Last night, as Aberdeen City Council announced an independent review of the circumstances surrounding Bailey's death, police said anyone discovering someone carrying a knife should always report the matter to them.

Detective Superintendent David McLaren, who led the investigation, said: 'I think, taking this case aside, anyone who is finding anyone in possession of a knife should contact the police, I suggest.

'It is a senseless decision to take a knife into a school setting. That has undoubtedly led to Bailey's death.'

Aberdeen City Council refused to answer any questions on the boy's previous knife incidents or on whether its existing policy towards knives in schools was robust enough.

Last night, details emerged of an incident in 2007 when the boy carried out an attack on a primary school pupil by hitting him with a rock.

The injured boy's parents contacted police and the school, but although the incident was investigated, they became increasingly concerned about the lack of action and warned he could go on to commit a far more serious crime.

Yesterday, the jury of seven men and eight women reached their majority verdict on Bailey's killer in under two hours after hearing evidence of how easily the accused had managed to obtain lethal weapons, including knives and knuckledusters, over the internet.

The court also heard from a friend of the accused who said that he had shown him a knife just a day or two before the fatal attack and 'thought it was something cool to have'.

Jurors were told that the youth regularly carried a knife in his blazer pocket and was warned on two occasions not to bring bladed weapons onto school property, yet no further disciplinary action was taken.

When police came to arrest him, he told them it was 'just a moment of anger'. He later told officers: 'I didn't mean to, but I stabbed him.'

The trial also heard that a laptop used by the teenager had revealed an internet search for 'how to get rid of someone annoying'.

The search term 'difference between a homicide and a murder' was also noted, as was a web address relating to a YouTube video with the title: '14-year-old Bronx student stabs bully to death outside school'.

The accused betrayed no emotion as the guilty verdict was delivered, while the court was told that two families had been 'destroyed' by the killing.

Judge Lady Stacey deferred sentence to April 1 at the High Court in Edinburgh for background reports but warned Bailey's killer to expect a custodial sentence.

Guilty: The prison van, containing the teenager found guilty of killing Bailey Gwynne, leaving the High Court in Aberdeen

Probe: Aberdeen City Council announced an independent review of the circumstances surrounding Bailey's death - police said anyone discovering someone carrying a knife should always report the matter to them

Remanding him in custody, the judge said: 'You have been convicted of a very serious charge and two others. There are no winners in a case like this.'

There was audible sobbing from the public benches as defence counsel Ian Duguid, QC, told the court: 'It really is no consolation for either side at the final outcome. There are two families that have been destroyed by this case.'

Emotions had been running high throughout the five-day trial and witnesses dressed in school uniform broke down in tears as they revealed harrowing details of the tragic fight.

One, also aged 16, told the jury the accused had previously shown him a knuckleduster, but he was unable to say exactly when.

On the day of the killing, the witness said a group of boys had gathered close to the school toilets when an argument broke out after Bailey refused to give one of them a biscuit because he thought he was fat.

Message: Headteacher Anna Muirhead told the jury she had previously emphasised to the accused boy that he must not carry weapons at school

An argument then developed between Bailey and the accused, with the two calling each other names. In a police statement, the witness said the accused had said something like: 'Your mum's fat,' to Bailey. The statement continued: 'Then Bailey lashed out at him, grabbed hold of [the accused] and pushed him about.

'[The accused] started to defend himself and they have started grappling.'

Mr Duguid put it to him: 'This started over a biscuit.' The boy agreed.

He said the accused then 'reached into his pocket and he pulled out a knife or some sort of sharp object'.

Asked what happened next, the witness said: 'He thrust it towards Bailey. It went into Bailey.'

Mr Duguid told him the accused was around 5ft 8in or 5ft 9in and Bailey was 6ft 1in and 12 and a half stone and asked which of the two he would expect to win in a fight. The boy said: 'Bailey.'

Even then, the court heard, Bailey and the accused continued to fight.

Computer science teacher Alasdair Sharp, 28, said he found the two teenagers involved in a tussle near the toilets and ordered them to stop.

The teacher told both to follow him to the school office. The three of them walked through a recreation area known as The Street but when they got to the end of it, Mr Sharp turned and saw Bailey staggering. He said: 'Bailey was staggering towards the wall with his arm up, stumbling forward.'

The accused appeared to dab away tears as Mr Sharp said he thought he saw the other boy try to help him: 'At this point I noticed the blood going along The Street behind him. He became very pale and there was a lot of blood coming out of him.'

Weapon: Police searched the killer and a sheath for a knife was found inside his right jacket pocket before the admitted that the knife he used had been dumped inside a bin in one of the school corridors (pictured)

The trial heard from the school's headteacher, Anna Muirhead, 57, who said she arrived on the scene moments after the stabbing. She said she found the accused 'curled up' on a seat and 'obviously distraught or upset'.

She recalled she said the boy's name and then 'he indicated with his head and his hand, 'That was me, that was my fault'.' She said he was indicating towards Bailey, who was lying on the ground, 'very, very pale' with his shirt open and blood on his chest.

Miss Muirhead also told the jury she had previously emphasised to the accused boy that he must not take weapons into the school.

There were obvious reasons for the policy of banning knives, she said, adding: 'Teenagers and young people can get het up, caught up in silly arguments. It's all part and parcel of teenage life. And, of course, if you had a knife to hand, it could be a temptation.'

When Constable Christopher Masson arrived at the scene, he said the distraught boy asked him: 'Is he dead? It was just a moment of anger.'

The court also heard that, minutes after he had stabbed Bailey, the boy wiped blood off his hands with a tissue in the deputy headteacher's office.

The police officer said a colleague had handcuffed the boy and his pockets were searched. A sheath for a knife was found inside his right jacket pocket, he said.

PC Masson added that the boy told him, unprompted, where the knife now lay  inside a bin in one of the school corridors.

He later told police he bought the knuckledusters and a three-and-a-half inch folding knife online from Amazon and regularly took them into the school as he thought they were 'cool'.

In his closing speech to the jury, advocate depute Alex Prentice, QC, prosecuting, asked the jury to consider a question: 'Why do you think a young man would carry a knife and knuckledusters? Why on earth would you carry these things? They have no purpose other than to cause injury.'

He said that if the accused had not been carrying a knife on October 28, then the fight could have ended in 'a few bruises and a fat lip'.

Bereft: Bailey Gwynne's mother Kate leaves Aberdeen High Court yesterday after she saw her son's killer convicted

Instead, Bailey suffered a wound that the court heard was 'unsurvivable'. Mr Prentice said: 'Bailey stood no chance.'

At the end of the trial, it emerged that the accused had entered a plea of guilty to culpable homicide when he appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court two days after the fatal school stabbing.

However, the Crown rejected the plea in favour of pursuing a murder conviction.

The jury also found the accused guilty of having a knife and knuckledusters in the school between August 2014 and October 2015.

Mr Prentice said teachers had described Bailey as a 'soft, caring boy' and a 'hardworking boy with a good attitude'. He lived with his mother Kate Gwynne, her partner John Henderson and his four younger brothers in Maryculter, Aberdeenshire.

The court heard he was doing well at school when his life was suddenly taken away from him in the violent incident that sent shock waves across Scotland.

Following the verdict, both families appeared visibly upset and left court without comment.

Gayle Gorman, director of education and children's services at Aberdeen City Council, said: 'There are no words which can sum up the emotional impact of what happened last year  and it is still hard to make any sense of Bailey's death.

'We should remember that at the heart of this were two children and there can be no greater tragedy than the untimely death of a young person.

'Bailey Gwynne should never have died in this way. He was a 16-year-old boy with his whole life in front of him. We will not forget him.

'The trial may have ended but for those involved, the process of moving forward now begins.

'We will try and do that, while all the time remembering that Bailey was one of us.'

We're too soft on knife crime, says mother of stabbing victim

Diane Watson (pictured) was killed by bully Barbara Glover at Whitehill Secondary School in Dennistoun, Glasgow, in April 1991

It was a crime that shocked Scotland  a 16-year-old girl killed in the playground by one of her classmates.

Now, 25 years later, the mother of the last teenager stabbed to death in a Scottish school has said not enough is being done to tackle knife crime.

Diane Watson was killed by bully Barbara Glover at Whitehill Secondary School in Dennistoun, Glasgow, in April 1991.

Her killer, who was also aged 16, mistakenly believed that Diane had stolen her boyfriend, so she attacked her with a kitchen knife  stabbing her through the heart and liver.

The teenage victim was carried home by her friends and died in a pool of blood in her parents' hallway.

Her last minutes were spent with her father desperately trying to resuscitate her, while her distraught 14-year-old brother Alan looked on.

Blaming himself for being unable to protect his sister, Alan killed himself in his bedroom 18 months later.

Since Diane's death, her mother, Margaret, has spent years campaigning for victims' rights and now she has called for tougher punishment for teenagers caught carrying weapons.

Mrs Watson believes that schoolchildren should be encouraged to speak up if they know a friend or classmate is carrying a knife, and feels strongly that officials must be tougher on those caught with weapons.

She thinks that in cases where teachers or school staff are aware of knives or weapons on school premises, the police should be called in immediately to handle the situation.

But she concedes that the changes she wishes to see are unlikely to be brought in by the Scottish Government for fear of breaching human rights.

Mrs Watson said: 'It makes me angry that knives are still being carried in school.

'I'm absolutely outraged, especially if teachers know that pupils are carrying a weapon. Why would you want to carry a knife to school?

'There is something not right there. There has to be some way that teenagers can speak to someone, maybe a telephone line or a box where they can drop a note anonymously.

'But even if there was a way, schools can't search pupils if they suspect anything.

Glover (pictured), who was aged 16, mistakenly believed that Diane had stolen her boyfriend, so she attacked her with a kitchen knife  stabbing her through the heart and liver. The teenage victim was carried home by her friends and died in a pool of blood in her parents' hallway

'Teenagers should be encouraged to speak up if they know that someone is carrying a knife.

'And if teachers know that there are knives and there is a problem, the police should be called in immediately.

'It is no use to call them into the office and speak to them about it softly, softly.'

She added: 'Two of Glover's friends knew she had a knife that day. If only they had told someone. There are a lot of 'if onlys'.'

After hearing a false rumour that Diane had stolen her boyfriend, Glover had taken a large kitchen knife from her home and hidden it in her school bag before attacking her teenage classmate during their morning break.

After the attack, Diane's friends had carried her to her parent's flat nearby, but there was nothing that could be done to save her  despite her father's desperate efforts.

Teachers know that there are knives and there is a problem, the police should be called in immediately. 'It is no use to call them into the office and speak to them about it softly, softly Margaret Watson, mother of stabbed schoolgirl Diane

Mrs Watson and her husband, James, still live in the same home near Whitehill Secondary School in Glasgow's East End.

And the former primary school worker said they often talk about the two children they lost  and remember the little things that make them smile.

She said that Diane was always studying and could often be found with her head in a book. She loved her family, as did her brother Alan, who she remembers was always raiding the family fridge.

But Mrs Watson said that the pain of losing her children was 'always there'.

She added: 'I say their names every morning and think of them, but then I see the last image I have of them and it spoils it.'

Although she was detained without limit of time, Glover was released from Cornton Vale Prison, Stirling, in 2000 after serving nine years.

Mrs Watson admits that the release of her daughter's killer is something she has found difficult to come to terms with.

She said: 'She's probably out there living a great life.

'People say to me 'can you not forgive her?' but it's not my place to forgive her, that's Diane's, and she's not here.'

Mrs Watson and her husband have spent years working with victims and their families. She believes that they are a group who are often overlooked by the authorities.

She added: 'I think it has got worse over the years, in the sense that victims are put to the side.
A 21-year-old man is accused of firing at an officer in point blank range during a traffic stop before leading the police on a car chase to his mother's house.

Dariyone Zamone Clark-Brown was arraigned on Monday at the Calhoun County District Court with several charges including assault with intent to murder and fleeing the police.

In an incredible video captured by Officer Brad Gentry's dash cam, the policeman stops a car on Saturday afternoon and barely has time to greet the driver before he pulls out a gun and fires.

Watch the moment Gentry miraculously dodges the bullet and returns about 10 rounds while the car speeds off through Battle Creek, Michigan at 70mph.

Dariyone Clark-Brown (pictured left and right) is accused of firing at Officer Brad Gentry during a traffic stop in Battle Creek, Michigan on Saturday. He could face a life sentence if he is convicted of all the charges, which includes assault with intent to murder

Clark-Brown is also charged with two counts of resisting police, carrying a concealed weapon, using of a firearm in the commission of a felony and driving without a license.

If convicted of all the charges, the 21-year-old may be sentenced to life.

In the dash cam footage, the suspect fires upwards near Gentry's head without saying a word.

Gentry can be seen jumping backwards before returning about 10 rounds while he calmly reports 'shots fired, shots fired' in his radio.

Authorities later said Gentry hit the car six times, and the rear-view mirror on the driver's side can be seen falling off.

Seconds later, Gentry is back in his car, chasing the vehicle at speeds up to 70mph as he tells the dispatchers: 'He shot me. I'm not hit.'

After circling through a residential neighborhood, the suspect's white Ford Taurus narrowly dodges another vehicle and spins 180 degrees before regaining control and turning it back around.

Gentry, who temporarily lost his hearing from the gunshot, can be heard calmly stating his location throughout the chase before a voice over the police radio says: 'If anybody can take that car out, do it.'

After about four minutes, additional police cars arrive on the scene. Officers chased Clark-Brown, who ran through several yards to his mother's house just 1.5 miles away from the traffic stop.

Family members vacated the residence, and an Emergency Response Team entered with a police K-9.

The dog found an unarmed Clark-Brown behind a bookcase in the basement and bit him.

The 21-year-old was arrested at 7pm and taken to the hospital to get treated for the bites.

The 21-year-old is also charged with fleeing and resisting police, carrying a concealed weapon, using of a firearm in the commission of a felony and driving without a license (pictured: Clark-Brown, L and R)

The incident was captured on Gentry's dash cam. Pictured left, Gentry had just said 'What's up, man?' when the driver pointed the gun upwards out the window and fired a single shot. Right, Gentry is seen back up out of the view of the camera

Gentry remained calm as he called for back up and said 'He shot me. I'm not hit'. He chased the Ford Taurus at speeds up to 70mph. Pictured above, the white vehicle squeezing between two lanes of traffic

The chase only lasted about four minutes when three other patrol cars arrived and chased Clark-Brown, who ran into his mother's residence and hid in the basement. He was eventually arrested at 7pm after a police dog bit him

Major Jim Grafton complimented Officer Gentry on his response, and said: 'It was a safe resolution after a very deadly situation.'

Police later recovered Clark-Brown's gun, which police believe he threw out the window about three blocks from where he was pulled over.

Prosecutor Buscher told the court today that Clark-Brown 'admitted to each and almost every crime'.

Buscher added that Gentry nearly died, and innocent motorists were at risk as Clark-Brown was evading the police.

The suspect is held on $250,000 bond, and will face a district judge on March 21.

Gentry, who has suffered hearing loss as a result of the incident, is on administrative leave, police chief Jim Blocker said.

Police say it is still unclear why Clark-Brown fired at Gentry.

According to WOODTV, Clark-Brown has never had a valid driver's licence in Michigan.
Ms Credlin says it is filled with 'vicious and malicious claims'

Peta Credlin repeatedly broke down in tears at a gathering of female Liberal staffers after Clive Palmer sensationally attacked her in a parliamentary debate, a new book has claimed.

The colourful billionaire MP claimed the reason behind Tony Abbott's paid parental leave scheme was so Credlin 'can get a massive benefit when she's pregnant' in June 2014.

The attack on the prime minister's chief of staff was widely condemned and in her explosive new book, The Road to Ruin, Liberal insider Niki Savva claimed Ms Credlin was left very upset.

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Peta Credlin, former prime minister Tony Abbott's chief of staff, cried at a gathering of female Liberal staffers

Ms Credlin is pictured here with her husband, the Liberal Party powerbroker Brian Loughnane

But when Ms Credlin 'wept' at the staff meeting on July 17, many in the crowd were apparently 'seething' at her for different reasons, Ms Savva wrote.

'She [Ms Credlin] wept, saying how much she had been hurt by Palmers comments, how hard it was to get to the top, and said she was there to help and mentor them - amongst other things,' Savva recounted.

'She cried twice when talking about the sacrifices that had to be made. Women who were there, whose promotions or pay increases had been vetoed, were seething.'

The author, who previously worked as former Treasurer Peter Costello's press secretary, claimed staff rose and applauded at the conclusion of her speech, but feared they were not clapping hard enough.

So those assembled slowly stood and cheered in what Ms Savva described as 'true old-Soviet or modern North Korean style'.

Ms Credlin has savaged Ms Savva's book, alleging is filled with 'vicious and malicious claims' and 'unsourced gossip'.

The author did not contact Ms Credlin or Mr Abbott for comment prior to publication, breaking what Ms Credlin said was a 'golden rule' of journalistic ethics.

The attack on the prime minister's chief of staff was widely condemned and in her explosive new book, The Road to Ruin, Liberal insider Niki Savva claimed Ms Credlin was left extremely upset

In an opinion article for The Australian on Tuesday, Ms Credlin said: 'Her book is billed as "explaining" why the man elected by the Australian people as their prime minister was removed from office.

'Yet we all know thats a farce. The book is an attempt to justify the coup [where Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott].

'Thats clearly evidenced by her refusal to speak with me or Tony Abbott. This is only one side of the story and in time, the other side should be told.'

Mr Palmer, the mining magnate and self-proclaimed billionaire, was widely slammed for the personal attack on Ms Credlin.

He later doubled down on his remarks saying she showed 'undue influence' over the Abbott government's policies, before finally apologising two days later.

Mr Abbott had argued Australia's paid parental leave scheme was 'inadequate' as early as 2009 - long before Ms Credlin joined his team.
Donald Trump's lead over Marco Rubio in the young senator's home state of Florida is shrinking, but the billionaire is still poised to deliver what could be a knockout blow there on March 15.

A Monmouth University poll released Monday shows the Republican presidential primary race in the Sunshine State as an 8-point contest, with Trump capturing 38 per cent of the vote compared with Rubio's 30.

The last two Florida polls showed trump with 16- and 20-point leads in the winner-take-all contest that will award all 99 of Florida's Republican National Convention delegates to a single candidate.

So unlike in states that award their delegates proportionately, a one-vote victory is just as good as a landslide.

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IN IT TO WIN IT? Donald Trump's lead in Florida is slipping but he only needs to win the state by a single vote to claim all 99 of its Republican National Convention delegates

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH: Florida's March 15 primary contest could spell doom for Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign if he can't hold on in his home state

Those surveys were taken in February, before an avalanche of anti-Trump ads hit Florida's TV screen and radio dials, run not just by Rubio but by independent groups dedicated to taking the real estate tycoon down a peg.

But The Donald is holding his own among voters who plan to show up on the Ides of March, a date Rubio may soon come to dread.

it will be difficult for him to find a path forward to the GOP nomination without Florida's delegates, and many in the Republican Party will likely join Trump in calling for him to quit if he can't hold on at home.

Rubio is trouncing The Donald by a 48-23 margin among 'early' voters  the roughly one in five who have taken advantage of relaxed laws and cast their ballots already.

Trump, though, has a 42-26 lead among the much larger group of Republicans in the state who haven't yet gone to the polls.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz opened a dozen field offices in Florida just last week, in a last-minute push to deny Rubio the votes he would need to win the primary.

Cruz has no chance of prevailing himself; his efforts will likely contribute to a Trump victory.

But the Texan's strategy depends on clearing Rubio out of the way and reducing the race to a two-man competition soon enough to give him a chance in later contests.

'NO-SHOW MARCO': Trump's new Florida ad hits the state's junior senator for his high absence rate in the United States Senate

GETTING TIGHTER: Monday's Monmouth poll puts the Florida GOP primary margin at just 8 per cent, cutting it in half in the last two weeks

HE KNOWS REAL ESTATE: The Trump ad hits Rubio for changing his vote to agree with a lobbyist whose mother bought his home and gave him a $200,000 profit

Even if Cruz were not in the picture, however, the Monmouth poll found Trump would have a two-point edge over Rubio in Florida, 47-45.

'Rubio is within shooting distance in his home state with a week to go in this volatile nomination contest,' said Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray.

'It is telling, though, that Rubio is not even the clear victor in a direct face off with Trump. There goes the argument that Rubio would triumph if only it were a two person race.'

That position is one Cruz desperately wants to be in by the time April rolls around.

But in Florida, at least, Trump has a groundswell behind him. Three-quarters of Republicans there say they would rally to his side in a general election against Hillary Clinton. Just 10 per cent would side with the Democratic front-runner.

Trump began attacking Rubio Monday on his home turf with a new TV advertisement that calls him 'another corrupt, all-talk, no-action politician.'

The commercial hits Rubio for missing Senate votes and for misusing a Republican Party of Florida credit card while he was speaker of the state's House of Representatives.

One of the expenses, which he later paid back, was for a new driveway for his home.

Trump's ad also hammers Rubio for taking a $200,000 profit on the sale of a home to the mother of a lobbyist, and then flipping his position on a bill the lobbyist favored.

DIVERSION TACTIC? Ted Cruz has stepped up his ground game in Florida by opening up a dozen field offices  not in hope of winning the state, but in order to deny Rubio a victory and force him out of the presidential race

Rubio campaign spokesman Joe Pounder, a former research director at the Republican National Committee, told the Associated Press that the attacks in the ad are 'false' and questioned why Trump was bringing them up now.

'These attacks didn't even stop Trump himself from saying Mitt Romney should pick Marco as his vice president just two years later,' Pounder said.

But Trump said in a statement that 'lightweight Senator Marco Rubio is a dishonest person. He has cheated with credit cards, and does favors for lobbyists.'

'In my opinion, he is a total crook and I am doing the people of Florida a great favor by further exposing him.'
A generous tattooist who took to social media to offer covering up people's self-inflicted scars free of charge has been bombarded with requests.

Whitney Develle, a tattoo apprentice Brisbane's Garage Ink, vowed to help people with a history of self-harm by offering free day-long sittings to conceal their scars.

The 22-year-old was inspired by a friend who was ashamed of the scars she was had inflicted on herself, resolving to help give her a clean slate by inking over the wounds.

Whitney Develle took to social media to offer covering up people's self-inflicted scars free of charge

The 22-year-old was inspired after helping a friend who was ashamed of the scars she was left with from self-harm (pictured)

Before and after images of her friend show the scars completely concealed by Ms Develle's intricate ink design.

She believes those who have reached out to her felt too uncomfortable to speak about their condition to ordinary tattoo artists, reports 9News.

'The majority of them were too scared to speak with a tattooist out of fear of being judged.'

'Society looks down at people with self-harm scars and immediately thinks they are unstable or unfit to be amongst the rest of usI want to change that stigma,' she said.

Ms Develle said her friend had a new lease on life after getting the tattoos, spurring the promising artist to help others with a similar plight.

'The look on her face - money can't buy that.'

She believes those who have reached out to her felt too uncomfortable to speaking about their condition to ordinary tattoo artists

The overwhelming demand led Ms Develle to amend the original post, offering a total of 50 free sittings and reduced tattoos for everyone else

The original post spread like wildfire, with thousands of social media users reaching out to take her up on her offer.

The overwhelming demand led Ms Develle to amend the original post, offering a total of 50 free sittings in addition to reduced tattoos rates for everybody else.

'Please note that given the overwhelming amount of beautiful people out there, I have decided to dedicate more of my time to offering highly discounted rates to anyone who is seeking to move forward from their past and embark on a new beginning,' she wrote in the follow-up post.

She also wrote the offer only extends to those who are no-longer self-harming, urging those who are to seek professional help.

Ms Develle is set to begin tattooing her new subjects from March 17 after receiving thousands of offers

'I want you to be able to look down at the scars that bring you pain, embarrassment, shame, and be able to put those feelings behind you and instead feel proud of the body part that now contains art and offers a new beginning.'

Several of her soon-to-be clients have already taken to social media to say they couldn't wait to have their scars covered up with something positive.
John Ganobick (pictured) was shot in the neck after he attempted to rob a woman in Louisville

A Kentucky woman heroically turned the tables on the man who was trying to rob her at knifepoint by shooting him in the neck and buttocks with her own gun..

The unidentified woman was being stalked by John Ganobick on the night of January 26 when he followed her into a shopping mall elevator to the parking lot.

Exiting the elevator with her, he gave chase when she ran to her car and tried to beat her - leaving his victim fearing she would be raped.

But he quickly found himself on the receiving end of some rough justice when she pulled her Beretta gun from her handbag and opened fire.

Surveillance cameras played in court this week from the Fourth Street Live food court show the chilling moment when Ganobick began to follow the woman.

She told Louisville Metro Police she sensed instantly that she was being stalked.

'The victim asked the suspect what floor he needed, and the victim described the suspect as being out of it, possibly high or drunk, but when he said the sixth floor, the victim stated she became nervous,' states the police report read out in court.

Appearing in court sporting a breathing tube that is a reminder of his injuries after the attempted attack, Ganobick has been charged with attempted murder, robbery and kidnapping.

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Louisville Metro Police said the woman (left) noticed Ganobick (right) following her in the food court around 6.15pm and he followed her into an elevator and to the parking garage

Frightening: Ganobick told the woman he was going to the sixth floor - the same floor he had seen her push for in the elevator

Terror: The woman told Louisville Metro Police that she knew Ganobick was following her and that she thought he was high

Chase: Ganobick turns to follow the woman once she exited the elevator on the sixth floor and began walking to her car

During the video, the footage shows the woman walking into the elevator where she is joined by Ganobick.

During the 13-second tride from the 1st to 6th floor, neither looks at each other.

'When the elevator opened on the sixth floor, the victim state she began to run to her vehicle, which was parked about 10 spots away from the elevator. The victim stated the suspect gave chase,' the police report states.

Louisville Metro Police said the woman noticed Ganobick following her in the food court around 6.15pm and he followed her to the parking garage.

She told police when the elevator reached her floor, she started running to her car, but he chased her.

The woman got in her car and he pushed in behind her and put his hand over her mouth, according to ABC 7.

Ganobick slammed her head into an unknown object, told her to 'give me all your money', and showed her a knife, the arrest report said.

'The victim stated she was afraid that she would be raped or murdered and as she fell across the passenger seat of her vehicle, she was able to reach into her purse and grab her gun and attempt to fire a shot at the suspect,' the report states.

During the violent struggle the woman, who was being held at knife-point, reached into her purse and pulled out a gun.

Everyday business: Police have said this surveillance camera footage shows the woman making her way through the shopping mall on the way to her car

Stalking: According to police this surveillance footage shows Ganobick following the woman to the elevator

Panic: The woman told police that she was aware someone was following her as she approached the elevator

The woman told police Ganobick was thrusting his knee toward her torso and trying to push her into the passenger seat of the car, according to WLKY.

According to the woman she pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. So she kept on pulling the trigger till it did.

'Fearing for her life, the victim kept pulling the trigger of her gun, which finally fired, and struck the suspect in the neck.'

He recoiled, but according to the woman, collected himself despite his injury and started to come towards her again.

'The victim described being afraid that the suspect was turning to come back at her and she kept pulling and struck the suspect in the buttocks,' states the police report.

Surveillance footage captured the man coming down the parking garage's stairs bleeding from the neck.

A witness alerted authorities and called 911, according to ABC 7.

Police charged Ganobick with attempted murder, kidnapping and criminal mischief.

The woman he attacked suffered multiple injuries but was expected to be fine.

Evidence photos show police recovered a rusty steak knife from the stairwell. Police also recovered the woman's gun. She had an Indiana concealed carry permit for the gun.

Ganobick is being held on a $20,000 cash bond.

Weapons: On the left is the knife that Ganobick allegedly used to hold up the woman with, while on the right is the gun she used to shoot him

Crime scene: This is where the woman was parked and where Ganobick allegedly attacked her at knife point
Towering over his classmates, young Bailey Gwynne (pictured) was a fitness fanatic who dreamed of one day joining the Royal Marines

Towering over his classmates, young Bailey Gwynne was a fitness fanatic who dreamed of one day joining the Royal Marines.

But there was not a hint of aggression about him, according to his friends.

Not until lunchtime of October 28 last year, when a fellow pupil made an insulting remark about his mother, had he been seen even to lay a finger on another pupil.

As one 16-year-old put it, Bailey was known not to be a fighter. Given that he was 6ft 1in and weighed 12 and a half stone, that was surely a matter of relief to his classmates.

Yet, on the one occasion where he lost his temper, he paid for it with his life.

For he found himself in a fight with a smaller, weaker boy who routinely took a knife to school and  shockingly  was prepared to use it.

Described in court by prosecutor Alex Prentice as a 'soft, caring boy', Bailey lived with his mother Kate Gwynne, her partner John Henderson and his four younger brothers in Maryculter, Aberdeenshire.

His headteacher Anna Muirhead said he arrived at Cults Academy towards the end of first year and, to begin with, had been a bit of a loner. 'It's often hard to make friends when everyone else is already in friendship groups,' she said.

Gradually, however, Bailey found his set and began to 'thrive'.

One friend from his year said Bailey was perhaps best known for being a fitness fan. He said: 'He was a big guy that just loved going to the gym and kept to himself.'

Another youngster, Rachael Summers, 18, said she had been in the same business management class as Bailey.

She added: 'I spoke to him a few times during class projects. I thought he was quite a shy guy. He hung about by himself a little bit, and when you hear the news you think, why would this happen to such an innocent guy?'

If there was a criticism of the teenager, it was perhaps that he appeared unsympathetic to those with weight problems. Friends said they had occasionally heard him comment on other pupils' weight during break times.

It was a silly row over exactly this issue which caused the fight that led to his death.

Yet there was a sense of disbelief in the school that, of all people, it was Bailey who had been involved in the fight.

One friend said: 'When I came back into school at lunchtime I saw a trail of blood in the corridor. It was just a shock when we heard it was him. He was just so quiet. We were as shocked as everyone else.'

Another said: 'He was quite warm and he wouldn't ever say anything against you. He was always there, and it was kind of reassuring knowing he was there.'

To his family, meanwhile, Bailey was the 'beloved boy' who 'never failed to make us smile'.

In a statement issued shortly after his death, his family said: 'We don't know what we will do without our junior 'man about the house'.'

On the evening of his death, a candlelit vigil was attended by hundreds from a community shocked to its core by what had happened in the corridor of one of Scotland's top state schools. One message dedicated to the teenager who had often talked of becoming a Marine said, simply: 'Soldier on, soldier.'

To his family Bailey was the 'beloved boy' who 'never failed to make us smile'. In a statement issued shortly after his death, they said: 'We don't know what we will do without our junior 'man about the house'' (mother Kate and her partner David Henderson pictured outside court)

Yesterday, as his killer was convicted of culpable homicide, Detective Superintendent David McLaren paid tribute to the family who attended the trial every day and sat through the most searing of evidence.

He said: 'Today won't bring their son back, the pain of not having Bailey around will last for a very long time. Throughout their ordeal they have conducted themselves with the utmost dignity and are a credit to themselves as a family.

'The death of Bailey Gwynne has had a massive impact on his family, friends, fellow pupils and the staff at Cults Academy.
A university student from China has found himself behind bars after depositing over $4 million believed to be the proceeds of crime into a range of Australian bank accounts.

Yi Feng, 19, a student at the University of NSW but originally from Beijing, was taken into custody on Friday after his appearance at the Downing Centre District Court.

On October 23 last year, Feng pleaded guilty to possessing proceeds of crime in excess of $100,000 after making 68 deposits totalling $4,056,930, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

University student Yi Feng, 19, was jailed on Friday after being found guilty of depositing $4 million

According to the statement of facts, Feng arrived in Australia a tourist visa in July 2014, and within two weeks was taking cash to banks.

He spread the money over at least a dozen Commonwealth Bank and Westpac accounts around the country.

By December 2014, the 68 such deposits between $20,000 and $80,000 each time, had totalled $4,056,930.

Feng was acting under orders from someone known as 'brother', and communicating with him via social networking app WeChat,

'Feng was willing to travel to deposit money and he structured his lifestyle and attendance at university around this travel by skipping classes that he considered unimportant,' the agreed facts state,' the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

He made the deposits in 68 different transactions and the money is believed to have been proceeds of crime

After weeks of investigations Feng was arrested on December 8, 2014, in Rhodes in Sydney's inner-west.

In court on Friday Feng said through a translator that he thought his lawyers was 'just going to turn up', when asked where his representation was.

'No you didn't  you haven't spoken to him for months,' the presiding judge, Anthony Blackmore, replied after viewing the file.
Mel Gibson has been linked to a proposal to build a $1 million 20-metre tall crucifix with LED-lights on top of a remote mountain in Central Australia to usher in the second coming of Jesus.

The 60-year-old Hollywood actor and devout Christian recently climbed a hill known as Memory Mountain with internationally renowned landscape photographer and fellow Christian, Ken Duncan.

Mr Duncan hosted Gibson and his girlfriend during a three-day tour of the area west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, The Australian reported.

On Friday, Mel Gibson was spotted in a Coles supermarket in Alice Springs by a young boy named Gabriel.

While Mr Duncan has denied the Mad Max star has any involvement in the project, he admitted that some of the gifts rewarded for donating to the project are autographed by Gibson.

An artist's impression of the planned $1 million 20-metre tall crucifix with LED-lights for Memory Mountain in Central Australia, about 230km west of Alice Springs

Landscape photographer Ken Duncan has so far raised almost $340,000 of the $920,000 he needs to build the structure

Those who commit more than $100,000 are referred to as Platinum Comanders, and receive a helmet or sword (only one of each available) from The Passion of the Christ movie beautifully presented in perspex display case, signed by Mel Gibson.

Golden Generals donate more than $50,000, and are awarded one framed archival print from The Passion of the Christ movie, signed by Mel Gibson.

Mr Duncan reportedly said the items were his, after he worked with Gibson on the 2004 religious epic.

Daily Mail Australia has been informed Ken Duncan could not be reached during his stay in Central Australia where he has no mobile reception.

On Friday, Mel Gibson was spotted in a Coles supermarket in Alice Springs by a young dan named Gabriel (pictured)

Mr Duncan writes on the website that it is not his personal project, but a vision of the elders from different communities in Central Australia' (Mr Duncan pictured at a protest against laws which requires photographers to obtain expensive permits to photograph iconic Australian landmarks in 2010)

The photographer has so far raised almost $340,000 of the $920,000 he needs to build the structure.

According to the website, an anonymous Australian donor has already contributed more than $100,000.

The plan has been expanded to include a digital media centre, campsite or caravan park and cafe and locals have reportedly been told to expect 300,000 tourists to visit the site annually.

The website describes that the plans were hatched when three Indigenous Christians, who he claims simultaneously saw a vision of the Christian cross on Memory Mountain.

Mr Duncan writes on the website that it is not his personal project: But a vision of the elders from different communities in Central Australia'.

It claims God told him he needed to raise the money to raise the cross which see a Holy Spirit fire that starts at the centre and spreads out across our nation.

It claims God told him he needed to raise the money to raise the cross which see a Holy Spirit fire that starts at the centre and spreads out across our nation'

A majority of traditional owners voted against the structure in December at a Central Land Council meeting (plans pictured)

This will be the final revival before the coming of the Lord.

Mel Gibson at The Expendables 3 premier in 2011

However, God allegedly foresaw that Mr Duncan would face opposition.

A majority of traditional owners voted against the structure in December at a Central Land Council meeting.

The Australian reported he won over local support by establishing a corporation with a member of each family group on its board, and that some Aboriginal leaders have since stated they now support the plans - with a meeting planned for the coming weeks.

However, a Central Land Council spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they remained against Mr Duncan's plans.

Memory Mountain is about 190 metres high, overlooking a T-junction towards Papunya and Haasts Bluff, 230 kilometres west of Alice Springs.

The cross is to be made from a weather resistant steel.

Christian not-for-profit Mission Australia has donated between $20,000 and $49,999, according to the Walk a While website.

His website also claims to have presented the plan to then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott at a breakfast gathering.

Mr Duncan has denied Gibson (pictured) has any involvement with the project, however, some rewards for donations include the Mad Max stars signature

According to the website, Mr Duncan launched Walk a While to walk alongside the Indigenous people of Central Australia, using the creative arts as common ground, providing youth with equipment and skills to tell their stories and to improve their future employment opportunities.

Gibson has been back Down Under since last year to work on a new movie hes directing called Hacksaw Ridge.

The upcoming war drama features a star-studded cast that ranges from Hollywood A-listers like Andrew Garfield and Vince Vaughn, to Australian superstars Ryan Corr, Sam Worthington, Hugo Weaving, Teresa Palmer, and Rachel Griffiths.

One of Mr Duncan's landscape photographs from his book with Steve Fraser, The Wild Frontier

Mr Duncan launched Walk a While to walk alongside the Indigenous people of Central Australia, using the creative arts as common ground, providing youth with equipment and skills to tell their stories and to improve their future employment opportunities (pictured is one of Mr Duncan's photographs)
A salvage effort was under way this morning after a train derailed and plunged into a swollen creek in California, injuring 14 people.

A car of a commuter train came of the rails in Alameda County after colliding with a tree that had been swept onto the tracks in a mudslide.

Fire crews fought against the river's fast-moving currents as they hauled wounded passengers from the partially-submerged carriage.

Four people were seriously hurt in the crash last night, with 10 others sustaining minor injuries, officials said.

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A salvage effort was under way this morning after a train derailed and plunged into a swollen creek in California, injuring 14 people

Workers assessed the wreckage today as they worked towards moving the train and reopening the line

A car of a commuter train came off the rails in Alameda County, with fire crews fighting the river's fast-moving currents as they hauled wounded passengers from the partially-submerged carriage

Four people were seriously hurt in the crash last night, with 10 others sustaining minor injuries, officials said

Workers hoist the derailed Altamont Corridor Express train up a hillside near Alameda Creek

Jay Vijayen, who was in the derailed carriage, told ABC 7: 'The train flipped over, and then I saw people, you know, falling over from the other side.

'The next thing we knew, we started seeing water coming into the bottom of the train. It was rising fast.'

Fellow passenger Rad Akhter told NBC Bay Area he helped dig a woman out of the mud in the chaos after the crash.

'It just shifted the gravity all of a sudden and we were all just panicking,' he said.

'There were two people hurt, pretty badly. One was just under the mudslide so we were trying to dig her out while the train was hanging so it was a pretty crazy experience.'

Alameda County Sheriff's Sergeant Ray Kelly said a large tree that fell onto the tracks during heavy rain caused the train to derail.

Sgt Kelly said it was 'a miracle' no one was killed in the accident on Monday night.

The carriage came off the rails in Alameda County after colliding with a tree that had been swept onto the tracks in a mudslide

Alameda County Sheriff's Sergeant Ray Kelly said a large tree that fell onto the tracks during heavy rain caused the train to derail

Clean-up: Investigators look over the wreckage of a derailed Altamont Corridor Express commuter train

One end of the train was entirely submerged, with heroic police officers rushing in to help injured passengers

Sergeant J.D. Nelson, also from Alameda County Sheriff's Office, said the scene was 'absolutely chaotic'.

'I've never seen anything like this,' he added.

His colleague deputy Anthony King told the San Jose Mercury News that the scene he found on arrival was 'like the movies'.

'It reminded me of a ride at Universal Studios,' he said.

King and a fellow deputy used bolt cutters to open up a path to rails, driving their squad car down to tracks until they were a few hundred yards away from the wreckage.

'We weren't exactly sure if people were trapped in the water, so we tried to find the best way to get to the car,' King said.

'We wanted to get people off as soon as we could because we didn't know if the car was stable or if it would get swept into the creek.'

He said it was hard to breathe because a 50ft stretch of eucalyptus had been washed into the creek by the mudslide that left the tree in the train's path.

One end of the train was entirely submerged, but despite more water leaking in, the heroic officers treated people inside the carriage.

One woman had a neck injury and was unable to move, but others were walking wounded and were able to free themselves.

A firefighter wades through the creek to help rescue injured people from the derailed train carriage

Officials said it was 'a miracle' no one was killed in the accident on Monday night, which injured 14

Rescued: Commuters huddle after a car of a train plunged into a swollen creek in Alameda County on Monday night

A car of a commuter train plunged into a swollen creek after the train derailed Monday night in Central California, injuring 14 people, authorities said

Altamont Corridor Express train official Steve Walker said the first car was carrying six passengers and one crew member when it fell into Alameda Creek.

Walker said the second car behind it also derailed but remained upright. Three more cars behind, including the locomotive, stayed on the tracks.

It continued to rain heavily in the area after the accident, complicating rescue efforts.

The No. 10 commuter train was traveling from San Jose to Stockton when the first two cars went off the tracks near Niles Canyon Road in Sunol, a rural area of Alameda County about 45 miles east of San Francisco.

Train officials said the train was carrying 214 passengers from Silicon Valley to Stockton.

Aerial photographs showed the front car on its side, about half-submerged in the creek water.

Passengers were evacuated and checked by paramedics. The uninjured riders were taken to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton.

Altamont Corridor Express said it sent buses to take passengers to their destinations. The company also said it was cancelling all train services on the line on Tuesday.

The ACE No. 10 train travels from San Jose to Stockton, stopping in eight cities along the way.

Lucky escape: Four people were seriously hurt, while 10 others had minor injuries, the Alameda County Fire Department said
A new report into the disappearance of flight MH370 published by the Malaysian government reveals the shock air traffic controllers in Vietnam and Kuala Lumpur experienced as it dawned on them what had happened.

The aircraft disappeared two years ago today between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

But the 'Interim Statement and Factual Information + MH370' report shows that although originally when the plane went off the radar it appeared no-one treated its silence with any urgency, there was panic between air traffic control supervisors in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

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The search continues for MH370 two years to the day after it disappeared on March 8, 2014

A transcript in the report details a phone conversation between the two air traffic control supervisors.

Speaking to his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur, the Vietnamese air controller begins to realise the enormity of what has happened.

In the phone transcript the Vietnamese air traffic controller asks his colleague in Kuala Lumpur if there was any information from Malaysian Airlines about the plane and he's told there is none.

The air traffic controller in Vietnam then asks for confirmation of the last position they had contact with the aircraft.

'The last position we (had) contact was about IGARI (over South China Sea),' the air traffic controller in Kuala Lumpur replies.

The aircraft disappeared two years ago today between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing with 239 people on board

Australian-led search teams are still combing a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean

Families have pleaded with MH370 investigators not to stop the search on the second anniversary of the airliner's disappearance

The air traffic controllers then get increasingly more agitated as they realise that the plane has actually disappeared.

Ho Chi Minh City air traffic controller: 'We dont have the contact I (have) just seen on the radar (for) three five zero.'

Kuala Lumpur air traffic controller: 'The aircraft disappear (sic) from the screen so you you you try to contact through relay by another aircraft?'

Ho Chi Minh City air traffic controller: 'Yeah, yeah, sure, all frequencies we have and and all aircraft but (there's) no response.'

Relatives of the 239 people still missing after the disappearance of flight MH370 are pleading with investigators to continue the search for the wreckage.

A breakdown of the countries that those who were on board the doomed flight

A phone conversation between air traffic control supervisors relives the shock and horror experienced when it became clear the Malaysian airliner had disappeared

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight, which vanished seemingly into thin air en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Dozens of families who had gathered in Kuala Lumpur for a memorial ceremony this weekend say the search should not stop until 'something' is found.

Australian-led search teams are still combing a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean.

Only one confirmed piece of debris, a part of wing called a flaperon, has been found, on Reunion Island.
A cat was yesterday found mutilated in a London car park sparking fears the Croydon Cat Ripper is still at large in the city (stock photograph)

A cat was yesterday found mutilated in a London car park sparking fears the Croydon Cat Ripper is still at large in the city.

Its body was discovered in Richmond in the south west and follows the killing of two more moggies over the weekend.

Pet charities are working closely with the police in the hope of finding anything that will lead them to identifying the person or persons responsible for what is now believed to be the brutal deaths of more than 50 felines in three years.

The RSPCA is looking into roughly 10 of those in all of which the cats had their heads and tails chopped off.

The most recent cases prior to yesterday's were recorded in Tottenham Hale and Streatham - two areas more than 14 miles apart.

In one, the cat was tortured, hacked in half and left outside his horrified owner's home.

Police are now probing whether the killer is someone who travels a lot, based on the geographical spread of the maimed animals.

Such a person could be a taxi or delivery driver. Owners are being encouraged to keep their pets indoors.

Detective Sergeant Andy Collin, leading the investigation, last month said: 'They appear to be happening overnight.

'It's difficult as [the cats] are found at midday and then we have to work out when they were last seen - the ones with owners that is.

'There are no particular days it's happening on; nothing we can hang our hat on. It's far too random.'

Decapitated: Amber the cat was found without her head and tail, a day after she disappeared in the same area

TV star Martin Clunes - who grew up in Croydon - has sent an email to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, urging him to step up the hunt to find out who is behind the mystery massacres.

Cats have been found with bullet holes, decapitated and with their stomachs sliced open.

Some cats in the area have returned home after being attacked, but have been left with knife wounds, severed tendons and dislocated hips. Others have gone missing and never been found.

Clunes (pictured), best-known for his role in ITV series Doc Martin, said: 'the local community is understandably distraught and frightened. No one feels safe while this sick individual is on the loose'

Clunes, best-known for his role in ITV series Doc Martin, said: 'The local community is understandably distraught and frightened. No one feels safe while this sick individual is on the loose.

'Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals don't stop there  many of them move on to their fellow humans. That is a scary thought indeed.'

He ended his plea by telling Sir Bernard: 'I implore you to take every measure necessary, including re-examining all available CCTV footage, to apprehend this dangerous criminal.'

The cat killings have taken place over two years but recently became more frequent with four animals killed in one week in January before the three recorded in the last few days.

Local residents have fundraised in order to have the DNA samples of the claws of the murdered cats analysed, in the hope that a trace of the killer's skin or blood can be found.

Animal campaign group Peta is now offering a 5,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of the killer and has been working with a number of high-profile celebrities to raise awareness.

X Factor presenters Dermot O'Leary and Caroline Flack have pledged their support and Clunes, who is a self-confessed animal lover, is the latest star to come forward to try and help.
Professional women are not able to claim handbags as a work expense, despite the fact that briefcases and satchels are tax-deductible.

Women who carry laptops, mobile phones and notepads are not able to claim the handbag they carry them in as a tax deduction, however men who carry the same items in a satchel or briefcase are, the Australian Financial Review reported.

A taxpayer can claim a deduction for satchels, briefcases and business luggage if they are used predominantly for work, however as a general rule, handbags will not be regarded as a tax-deductible work expense, the Australian Tax Office said.

Professional women are not able to claim handbags (pictured) as a work expense, despite the fact that briefcases and satchels are tax-deductible

Women who carry laptops, mobile phones and notepads are not able to claim the handbag (pictured) they carry them in as a tax deduction, however men who carry the same items in a satchel or briefcase are

Information obtained from the ATO website states that briefcases are commonly used to carry a variety of items that are both work-related and non-work-related.

An employee's laptop, work documents and materials are common contents but briefcases may also contain reading materials such as newspaper or a book to read whilst travelling to work, an employee's lunch for the day, an umbrella and so on.

These items just can't be carried in a handbag if you wish to claim a tax-deduction.

A police officer named Ashley told the AFR that she purchased a $500 handbag  one of her major work-related purchases  to take to work every day, including when she has to attend court hearings.

An employee's work documents and materials are common contents but briefcases may also contain reading materials such as newspaper or a book to read whilst travelling to work (pictured), according to the ATO

'When I'm going to court, I take a handbag and that's what's appropriate. It has the brief of evidence and something to write on. It still performs the same function and purpose as a man's briefcase,' she said.

Handbags should not be excluded purely for the fact that they can also be used during social outings, especially when she can claim sunglasses as an expense through her profession and use them on the weekends as well, Ashley said.

The tax law as it stands reflects the 'outdated assumption that business people will be men,' Workplace Gender Equality Agency Director Libby Lyons told the AFR.
A mother who was jailed for sending explicit photos of her daughters to a paedophile dance teacher has told an inquiry she felt like she was cast under a spell when she committed the crime.

The woman, BZH, was recently released on parole having served 18 months for sending Grant Davies naked and semi-naked images of her pre-teen daughters, including a video of her nine-year-old in a G-string 'mucking around with a feather boa'.

Davies, from Sydney, who ran RG Dance Studios from 2001 to 2013, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to 47 counts of child sex offences last September.

On Tuesday, the tearful mother told the child sex abuse royal commission that there has not been a day where she doesn't feel shame and guilt over what happened with Davies.

The woman was recently released on parole having served 18 months for sending Grant Davies (pictured) naked and semi-naked images of her pre-teen daughters

'Looking back, it was like I was in some kind of spell or fog that I couldn't get out of,' BZH said as she told how Davies controlled her with escalating threats to damage her daughters' dance careers.

BZH spoke out as she cried about how she struck up a friendship with Davies over Facebook after a dance performance in 2009.

Her daughters - BZF and BZG - were with a different studio at the time and Davies kept telling her how talented they were and how well they would do if they joined his studio.

The Facebook chat slowly turned to Davies asking personal questions about the young girls and then asking for videos showing him their poses and body lines.

BZH said in October 2009 she sent him the first video she should not have, one of BZF aged nine in a G-string 'mucking around with a feather boa'.

The woman has cried at an inquiry as she claimed she was bullied into sending the pictures of her daughters

Davies had asked the mother online what her daughters were doing and she had told him they were dancing around in their underwear

Davies had asked the mother online what her daughters were doing and she had told him they were dancing around in their underwear at the time.

She claimed when she ignored his request he hounded her online for the video.

'I felt it was wrong and I shut down and blocked out my doubts and concerns,' she said.

His response was 'this is great'.

BZH said she gave in to his escalating requests for degrading images of her daughters 'despite knowing deep down it was not right'.

'Looking back now I thought sending the pictures and videos would benefit my girls dance opportunities,' the mother revealed.

'Grant had this way of being able to "mind mould" me around to his way of seeing things.

'He would threaten to destroy me and my daughters.'

The tearful mother said she started a Facebook friendship with Davies after a dance performance in 2009

She understood it meant he would release the photos on the internet.

BZH told the commission from the time her daughters joined RG Dance in 2010, Davies was very demanding. He even bullied her into pulling BZF out of an Australian Ballet production.

Sending images of the girls reached its worst point in 2012.

'I find this period of time very difficult to look back on as it was the worst thing I have ever done and I deeply regret it,' she said.

BZH was arrested and charged in early 2014, some months after Davies had been arrested.
An elderly woman who beat and stabbed her husband to death with an axe has avoided jail time after a judge ruled she suffered from severe mental health issues.

Lucia Colella, 76, was found not guilty of murdering her husband, Antonio, 76, in their bedroom of their Adelaide home on July 6, 2014, because a court heard she was having hallucinations and was mentally incompetent.

South Australia Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson ruled Colella would be released on licence, but ordered she would be under supervision for the rest of her life, the Adelaide Advertiser reports.

Lucia Colella (pictured), who beat and stabbed her husband to death with an axe, has avoided jail time after a judge ruled she suffered from severe mental health issues

During her trial last year, the Supreme Court was told Colella was seeing dead people who tried to speak to her, and was hearing other voices at the time of the incident.

'She reported visual hallucinations of seeing dead people, some of whom were talking to her but she could not understand what they were saying,' a report given to the court read.

'She felt scared and paranoid by this ... when she goes to sleep she sees things around her, seemingly dead people.'

The court also heard the 76-year-old, who has no memory of the incident, was muttering 'killing husband' to herself when emergency service workers arrived at her Adelaide home and found Mr Colella.

Lucia Colella, 76, was found not guilty of murdering her husband, Antonio, 76, in their bedroom of their Adelaide home (pictured) on July 6, 2014

Colella (left) was found not guilty after a court heard she was having hallucinations and was mentally incompetent

The Adelaide Advertiser reported last year Colella was 'sleep-deprived', was responsible for looking after her husband and had a history of paranoia.

Colella and her husband were married more than 50 years.

They had three children together.

During her trial last year, the Supreme Court was told Colella (pictured) was seeing dead people who tried to speak to her, and was hearing other voices at the time of the incident

A psychiatry report offered to the court revealed Colella's (pictured) mental deterioration in the weeks leading up to the murder, when she was haunted by visions of corpses
As International Women's Day is being celebrated in a variety of ways all over the world, these firefighters have made their message loud and clear.

'A woman's place is in the boardroom, parliament and the fire station,' their celebratory noticeboard reads.

Newtown Fire Station, in Sydney's inner west, is renown for its cheeky, informative and sometimes heartfelt signs, commenting on everything from Mardi Gras, Kanye West, Valentine's Day and the death of David Bowie.

Station officer Matt Murphy told BuzzFeed the signs are all about engaging with the community and having some fun.

The sign posted outside the Newtown Fire Station celebrating International Women's Day on Wednesday

'I consider myself a feminist  so we put our heads together. It was a joint effort from my crew,' he said.

Mr Murphy said the signs have become something of a cult hit with residents in the area, giving them the chance to spread important messages, and they 'get great feedback'.

'Its not only to support causes like [International Womens Day], but also to bring attention to fire safety,' he said.

'Next week well have a message up about fire safety and it might be a bit boring, but people will log onto the site to check out the signs and they get an important message.

Station officer Matt Murphy said the signs are about engaging with the community and having some fun

He said the signs outside the fire station have become something of a cult hit with residents in the Newtown area

'Its about reaching an audience, we want to bring people into our core business and demystifying the station.

'People come up to check out the signs and they come into the station to see how things work, they bring their kids and we give them a balloon - its great - were very open to talking to people.'

This year's International Women's Day theme is Pledge for Parity, urging people to be aware and take urgent action towards achieving global gender parity.

The station officer also said it gives them the chance to spread important messages and they get great feedback

The fire station regularly comments on pop culture, posting lyrics from David Bowie's Starman, commemorating the icon's death

The station is also known for its cheeky and suggestive messages, seen here referring to dating app Tinder, while reminding people to be safe with fire around their homes

Mr Murphy said the signs are all about reaching out to an audience and demystifying the station

He also said they do the signs not only to support causes like [International Womens Day], but also to bring attention to fire safety

Another of their signs, taking the first verse of the Australian National Anthem to celebrate Australia Day
The families of five British service personnel killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan have blamed the failure of a warning alarm to sound as they neared the ground for causing their deaths.

Warrant Officer class 2 Spencer Faulkner died alongside Captain Thomas Clarke, Corporal James Walters, Lance Corporal Oliver Thomas, and Flight Lieutenant Rakesh Chauhan when their Lynx mk 9A crashed in a valley in the Kandahar province on April 26, 2014.

The Taliban initially claimed responsibility for the attack but the Ministry of Defence later said the helicopter was not shot down.

Tragedy: The families of five British service personnel killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan have blamed the failure of a warning alarm to sound as they neared the ground for causing their deaths. The crash scene (pictured)

A service inquiry published last year said the pilots may have been attempting to simulate the feeling of weightlessness in the moments before impact.

The fatal crash caused the third biggest single loss of life of British troops on deployment in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001.

At the time of the tragedy, Captain Clarke had been piloting the helicopter as it conducted a training flight from the airbase in Kandahar and into the vicinity of Chaghray Ghar Valley.

However, it crashed on a target range known as 'the bowling alley' near the Afghan border with Pakistan.

An initial inquiry into the tragedy by the Military Aviation Authority found that the cause of the crash could have been due to 'human' factors after initial beliefs that 'catastrophic mechanical failings' of the Lynx helicopter were to blame.

It also suggested that the radar system warning the crew they were too low to the ground 'was not used to the full.'

Deaths: Pilot on the day Captain Thomas Clarke, 30 (left), and Warrant Officer Spencer Faulkner, 38 (right), died in the crash

Tragedy: Corporal James Walters, 36, and Lance Corporal Oliver Thomas, 26, also lost their lives in the training incident

However, the families of the men who died argue that evidence from the cockpit recording suggests the alarm did not sound at all.

Coroner Darren Salter heard that the Lynx helicopter had been fitted with a Radar Altimeter (RADALT) which could be set, or 'bugged', by the pilots themselves to sound when the aircraft flew below a certain point.

At the time of the crash, the RADALT had been set to 25ft, meaning the alarm would ring in the crewmen's headsets if they flew below this height.

RAF Flight Lieutenant Rakesh Chauhan, 29, died in the tragedy on April 26, 2015

Addressing the coroner, Mr Rawlinson, representing the family of WO2 Faulkner, said: 'You have referred already to the mysterious absence of the RADALT being heard on the tape.

'The service investigation proceeded on the basis that the RADALT was set up on a particular level, it was sounded and it was heard.

'We have all heard the tape and all say we cannot hear the alarm. If it cannot be heard then the inference arises about the mechanical integrity of the Lynx.'

The coroner agreed that he too could not hear the alarm on the recording, adding: 'I have listened to it and I cannot hear it. It could be there and it could be a case of the quality of the recording, but the court will proceed on the basis that it cannot be heard - it is not there.'

Legal representatives of the Ministry of Defence argued that the sound could in fact be heard but may not have been picked up by 'civilians who are not used to hearing it.'

Taking to the witness box, Group Captain Jason Appleton, who was President of the Service Inquiry which carried out an investigation of the crash, said that he could hear the sound in the moments immediately before impact and had heard the sound 'thousands' of times during his career.

'I heard it when I listened this morning, it can be heard just after Faulkner shouts 'pull up, pull up, pull up',' Mr Appleton said.

'It is not as loud on the recording as it is in a crewman's ear piece. The RADALT is the warbling sound immediately prior to the squelching sound which indicates the end of the tape.

'It can be heard for about four tenths of a second.'

Mr Rawlinson also said he had information to suggest the RADALT may have initially been placed in the wrong location and moved, but Mr Appleton said he had no knowledge of this.

The inquest was shown images of the crash site, including parts of the wreckage and scorch marks left in the desert following the crash, components of the helicopter, the RADALT and the heads-up display helmets (HUD) worn by crewmen in the helicopter.

Chain of events: Recordings from the cockpit of the Lynx (pictured) reveal the pilot may have dipped into a descent to create a feeling of weightlessness

Fatal: Post-mortem examinations conducted by forensic pathologists Dr Nicholas Hunt and Dr Russell Delaney concluded that all five servicemen had died very rapidly as a result of multiple injuries and the effects of fire

Mr Appleton added: 'The HUD gives information to the crewmen including height indications and the RADALT, but we cannot be sure that the crew were wearing these at the time or not.'

Post-mortem examinations conducted by forensic pathologists Dr Nicholas Hunt and Dr Russell Delaney concluded that all five servicemen had died very rapidly as a result of multiple injuries and the effects of fire.

Eye-witness accounts from American servicemen on the ground and given to investigators suggested that the helicopter had crashed tail-first, but Mr Appleton said it was clear from investigations that the underside struck the ground first with the nose pointing upwards at a five degree angle.

The inquest heard that WO2 Faulkner had completed four or five tours in Afghanistan and was on his final tour at the time of his death.

He had hoped to retire in time for his 40th birthday.

The coroner read out a statement written by WO2 Faulkner's widow, Cally, which detailed how they pair met and his plans to retire.

The inquest, which has been scheduled for seven to 10 days, was adjourned for solicitors and family members to listen again to the cock pit recording.
Tragedy: Margaret Forrest, pictured with her son Steven, fell into a coma and died after being given drugs belonging to a woman with a similar name

A healthy 86-year-old widow died after taking prescription drugs intended for a woman with a similar surname handed to her by a Boots pharmacy, an inquiry heard.

Margaret Forrest died from a brain injury after taking Gliclazide pills meant for diabetic patient Florence Frost.

Mrs Forrrest was found unconscious in her flat in Kingussie in the Highlands by her son Billy, 65, in November 2013 and died two days later after falling into a coma.

Although an octogenarian, Margaret Forrest had still been fit enough to go back-packing on the Afghanistan border and in Australia.

The widow had been planning to attend her grandsons wedding in England when she was mistakenly given Florence Frost's tablets by her local Boots pharmacy.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) at Inverness Sheriff Court was told yesterday that Mrs Forrest had wrongly been given gliclazide, which is used to treat diabetics. It induced a hypo-glycaemic brain injury and other complications, causing her death.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson heard that when Mrs Forrest was admitted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, medical staff thought she was Mrs Frost as paramedics had handed over a box of medication with Mrs Frosts name on it.

It was only when Billy Forrests partner Ellie, a mental health nurse at the hospital, made inquiries that the truth was revealed.

Fiscal depute Alasdair Macdonald, leading the evidence in the inquiry, told Sheriff Neilson the Crown did not intend to prosecute pharmacy manager Nicola Ferguson or her staff.

Mrs Forrests other son, Steven, who is representing the family, also gave the court assurances that the family would not seek a private prosecution against Miss Ferguson or staff members.

Miss Ferguson elected not to give evidence at the FAI, although her police statement was read out. She said to Detective Sergeant Alan Ross: I was told Mrs Frosts medication was in Mrs Forrests possession at Raigmore Hospital. She would have had to collect it from the pharmacy. I have no knowledge how this happened.

I can confirm Mrs Forrests medication was kept next to Mrs Frosts. We keep it on shelves in alphabetical order.

Error: Mrs Forrest's actual medication was next to Florence Frost's in the Kingussie Boots store (pictured) - but she was given the wrong one

But police photographs showed not all the medication on that particular shelf was in alphabetical order.

Billy Forrest told the FAI his mother kept pretty good health and was still sharp.

He said: Despite her age, she had been backpacking to the Afghanistan border and in Australia for three months. She was very independent, so I wouldnt see her every day. She took medication for high blood pressure but there was nothing that concerned me.

I hadnt seen her the weekend before and went upstairs to check on her. I found her lying on the floor unconscious.

I phoned an ambulance and the paramedics came and wanted her medication. I found a box in her bedroom with some compartments open. It wasnt until later I discovered it had Mrs Frosts name on it.

We just hope this inquiry will make sure this does not happen again.
A female wildlife handler who was mauled by a two and a half metre crocodile has undergone surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

Renee Roberton, 25, was six months into her training at the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville, North Queensland when she was cornered and attacked by a female crocodile named 'Tipper'.

A shocking video recorded by tourists at the park on Monday shows Ms Robertson calling out in agony after the croc lunged at her and pulled her to the ground, causing a 'significant arm injury'.

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Renee Robertson (pictured), 25, has suffered serious injuries after being attacked by a crocodile at a wildlife park.

Video footage taken by a witness shows one of the rangers beating the crocodile with a stick until it releases Ms Robertson's arm

Bob Flemming, owner of Billabong Sanctuary, said Ms Robertson underwent surgery to repair the injuries sustained in the unexpected attack and that doctors had cleared her of nerve damage.

'There was no nerve damage so that was the best news we could have had,' Mr Flemming told the ABC.

'Last report I heard she was sitting up in bed having an ice block. We're very fortunate that she's going to fully recover.'

The incident, which is the first attack in 20 years, is being investigated by Workplace Health and Safety.

Mr Flemming said the crocodile involved would not be euthanised and that the sanctuary would be reviewing its training policy to minimise the risk of another staff member being attacked.

Another member of staff managed to beat the crocodile off with a stick, before dragging Ms Robertson from the enclosure and treated her injuries until paramedics arrived

The tourists who filmed the terrifying attack first thought Tipper's aggression was a part of the feeding show, only realising something had gone terribly wrong once hearing Ms Robertson's screams.

Witness Frank He said Ms Robertson let out a blood-curdling scream as she crawled towards the fence and tried to escape.

'The screams you could hear were shocking, we felt so helpless for the poor woman in the enclosure,' Mr He told the Courier Mail.

Eight witnesses were also treated for shock, Queensland Ambulance confirmed.

During the attack another member of staff managed to beat the crocodile off Ms Robertson with a stick, before dragging her from the enclosure and treated her injuries until paramedics arrived, The Brisbane Times reported.

Renee Robertson was attacked by female crocodile Tipper while inside the animal's pen during a routine feeding show (stock image)

The 25-year-old was still undergoing training in feeding salt water crocodiles and had been at the sanctuary for 12 months.

Senior operations supervisor Ross MacDonald said Ms Roberston was 'backed into a corner' by the crocodile as 'some form of interaction.'

'We are making sure that Renee's interests are looked after at this point in time, that she is receiving all treatment that is required. We are wishing her a full recovery,' Billabong Sanctuary curator Brad Cooper told The Brisbane Times.

'Staff are shaken up, in shock, we have an impeccable record so to have something like this happen is a shock to the system.'

According to their website, the Billabong Sanctuary hold a crocodile feeding presentation at 1 pm and 3.15 pm each day.
An EU deal with Turkey to stem the migrant crisis was last night in chaos as the UN warned it could be illegal.

European leaders hope to finalise the plan next week for Turkey to take back those crossing the Aegean Sea, in return for giving Ankara more than 4billion in aid  including 500million from Britain.

Turkey is also demanding that its citizens  nearly 80million  are allowed to travel to continental Europe without visas.

But at the heart of the deal is a controversial refugee exchange programme that would see the EU admit one refugee directly from Turkey for each Syrian it took back from the Greek islands.

All migrants intercepted as they head to Greece on boats will be returned to Turkey. They will not be part of any exchange deal.

However, even senior EU officials have admitted there are doubts about the legality of the proposals and there are fears that the forcible return of people who have paid thousands to smugglers to come to Europe could lead to violence.

Turkey is home to some 2.7million Syrian refugees and Filippo Grandi, the UNs high commissioner for refugees, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday he is deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards.

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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (left) shakes hands with European council President Donald Tusk after the EU summit in Brussels where Ankara tabled a 'one-for-one' plan to take back one illegal migrant for every genuine refugee that is resettled in Europe from Turkey

European council president, Donald Tusk, centre, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, left, and President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, right, speak at a press conference in Brussels revealing no deal had yet been reached

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed assurances from Turkey that it would make greater effort to 'contain irregular migration'

Amnesty International called the proposed mass return of migrants a death blow to the right to seek asylum, while Tory MEP and former home office minister Timothy Kirkhope said it would almost certainly be challenged in the European courts.

European Council president Donald Tusk, who is in charge of brokering the deal, admitted the end of Mondays summit where the framework was agreed: We have to be cautious with some details  for example the legal aspects.

Ankara last night tabled the 'one-for-one' plan to take back all illegal Syrian migrants in exchange for the EU resettling an equal number of genuine refugees directly from Turkey.

After 12 hours of talks in Brussels, EU leaders hailed the offer as a 'game-changing' breakthrough in the bloc's attempts to stem the flow of asylum seekers into the Continent.

But critics condemned it as a 'dirty' and 'catastrophic' deal amid fears it could make the problem worse by creating a 'migrant merry-go-round'.

Turkey has also been accused of holding Europe to ransom by demanding it doubles its current offer of funding to 6billion to deal with the 2.7million refugees in the country.

The deal could create an incentive for Turkey to allow many more illegal Syrian refugees through to Greece because for every one sent back, Europe would then take a Syrian from Turkish camps, which would not have happened before.

From left, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir, and Merkel pictured at the summit

This could potentially bring hundreds of thousands more migrants into Europe by the time the deal expires in December 2018.

It also raises security concerns because it would be reliant on Turkey correctly determining who is a genuine asylum seeker.

The proposed deal came as Turkey and Greece vowed to work closelyon a plan to send back migrants rejected by Europe, laying aside historic differences in an agreement they hope will end illegal flows of people across the Aegean Sea.

HOW 'MIGRANT MERRY-GO-ROUND' COULD BRING MORE INTO THE EU The 'one-for-one' scheme aims to reduce the the incentives for individuals to pay smugglers to go from Turkey to the Greek islands because they face just being sent back. It hopes to foster the idea that people have more of a chance of getting asylum in Europe if they wait in Turkish camps. However, this also creates an incentive for Turkey to allow many more Syrians to the Greek islands because for every Syrian returned from there to Turkey, Europe will take a Syrian from the Turkish camps, which would not have happened before the deal. So, for example, if 25,000 Syrians were returned from Lesbos, Turkey would get 25,000 Syrians taken from their camps and resettled in Europe. The 'one-for-one' scheme only applies to Syrians, however, so economic migrants from countries like Morocco and Tunisia would not be included. Advertisement

As part of the deal, backed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Turkey has also demanded visa-free travel in Europe for its citizens by June and faster talks on it joining the EU, all moves critics say will only intensify the crisis.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: 'EU actions are going from bad to catastrophic. Visa-free access to the EU for Turks will only encourage more economic migrants.

'Turkey is a state with a terrible human rights record which has facilitated ISIS fighters and finance.

'It's completely wrong-headed of Cameron to support this move and indeed full Turkish accession.

'How will an economically failing, migrant-flooded EU look in ten years' time?'

David Davis, Tory spokesman for the Grassroots Out campaign, said: 'We are being held to ransom by the Turkish government. This whole charade proves what pitiful influence we have within the EU.

'The fact we are set to give Turkey 500million to help them deal with their own crisis  and then allow 77million Turks visa-free access to Schengen by the summer as a bonus  demonstrates that the EU is a very weak negotiator in these matters, and is a club we are better off not being a part of.'

Human rights groups have also been scathing about a Europe preaching democracy but cutting a deal with a Turkish government accused of persecuting opponents.

Many are concerned about a quickfire process of deporting everyone back to Turkey with little regard for individuals.

As such, the UN's refugee agency (UNHR) and human rights group Amnesty International claim the whole deal could be illegal.

Speaking in Geneva today, UNHCR Europe bureau director Vincent Cochetel warned that collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under international law.

Amnesty International also claimed the scheme was legally flawed, adding that plans to designate Turkey as a safe country for migrants are 'alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane'.

The head of the group's European office, Iverna McGowan, said: 'Turkey has forcibly returned refugees to Syria and many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing.'

She said that 'by no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a safe third country that the EU can cozily outsource its obligations to.'

European Union lawmakers say they will keep a close eye to ensure that people fleeing conflict are not denied asylum.

The head of the EU parliament's Civil Liberties Committee members will meet with Greek and EU officials 'to ensure that basic conditions for asylum claims are met.'

European leaders said they had reached 'outlines' for a possible deal but another summit has been arranged for March 17 to continue talks

The leaders, including David Cameron, pictured far right, gathered for a traditional photo at the EU meeting in Brussels, Belgium

Tense: Prime Minister David Cameron leaves the EU Summit in Brussels after 12 hours of talks aimed at tackling the migrant crisis

Chairman Claude Moraes says 'it is important that the EU does not ignore its values in the face of people fleeing war and persecution by simply creating push-backs.'

The summit also came just three days after Turkish police raided the offices of Zaman, a top-selling newspaper critical of Turkey's government.

Leaders including Prime Minister David Cameron raised concerns with his Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu about freedom of the Press during their lunch yesterday.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'The PM underlined the importance of protections for a free Press and human rights in Turkey.'

Meanwhile, in separate comments, Amnesty International warned today that Turkish guards routinely shoot at Syrian refugees stranded at the border.

Researcher Andrew Gardner told RT: 'There have been many reports of incidents on the border.

'We collected information on this as early as 2014, when we received many reports of people being shot when they were trying to cross the border irregularly.'

The proposed deal came as Turkey and Greece vowed to work closelyon a plan to send back migrants rejected by Europe, laying aside historic differences in an agreement they hope will end illegal flows of people across the Aegean Sea

After discussions between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, it was agreed that a readmission agreement would help to reduce the 'unbearable flow' of migrants heading into Europe

He said Turkish guards often fire shots at refugees as a precaution.

He added: 'What the Turkish parties have told us is that they dont know who these people are, that people could be members of armed groups, they could be smugglers.'

After discussions between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, it was agreed that a readmission agreement would help to reduce the 'unbearable flow' of migrants heading into Europe.

'(It) sends a clear message to migrants coming from third countries, rather than countries at war, ... that there is neither the political will (to allow their passage) nor the ability to cross to Europe,' Mr Tsipras said after meetings in Turkey's Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

'This is the reality we ought to sincerely convey to them in order to stop, to reduce, this unbearable flow for our countries.'

The European Commission raised concerns about Turkey in a scathing report in November that found there had been a 'serious backsliding' on human rights.

Officials in Brussels accused the Turkish government of undermining the judiciary and highlighted how journalists had been prosecuted in criminal cases.

John O'Brennan, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at Maynooth University in Ireland, tweeted: 'EU norms of pluralism are being completely eviscerated. By the European Union itself. Shame on this dirty deal with Turkey.'

The Swedish coast guard rescues refugees between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos and brings them in the port of Mytilene

A young migrant waits to cross the Greek-Macedonian border at a makeshift camp near the village of Idomeni, Greece, on Tuesday

TURKS HOLD EUROPE TO RANSOM AS THEY DEMAND CASH TO HALT MIGRANT TIDE... AND THE UK WILL PAY 500MILLION David Cameron last night offered to hand 500million of British taxpayers' money to Turkey as it held Europe to ransom over the migrant crisis. The Prime Minister and fellow EU leaders said they would give in to a Turkish demand for 6billion (4.6billion) in aid  and drew up plans to let the country's 77million citizens come to continental Europe without visas from June. Downing Street even suggested they would be willing to give yet more cash if Turkey stems the number of migrants arriving in Europe, with a British official saying: 'We're not going to turn the tap off.' In Ankara, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan boasted that his prime minister had gone to force the EU to stump up a promised three billion euro fund for refugees agreed in November. 'It's been four months. They are yet to deliver,' he said. 'Mr prime minister is in Brussels. I hope he will return with the money.' David Davis, Tory spokesman for the Grassroots Out campaign, said: 'We are being held to ransom by the Turkish government. This whole charade proves what pitiful influence we have within the EU. 'The fact we are set to give Turkey 500million to help them deal with their own crisis  and then allow 77million Turks visa-free access to Schengen by the summer as a bonus  demonstrates that the EU is a very weak negotiator in these matters, and is a club we are better off not being a part of.' Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: 'EU actions are going from bad to catastrophic. Visa-free access to the EU for Turks will only encourage more economic migrants. 'Turkey is a state with a terrible human rights record which has facilitated Isis fighters and finance. It's completely wrong-headed of Cameron to support this move and indeed full Turkish accession. 'How will an economically failing, migrant-flooded EU look in ten years' time?' Advertisement

Sodden migrants wearing plastic ponchos, pictured, queue under the rain to receive food at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni

The camp at Idomeni, pictured, came under a deluge of water as the weather turned, leaving migrants to get soaked as they walked around

One child is protected by just a yellow poncho at the camp on the Greek-Macedonian border with little light to illuminate their path

After a day of fraught negotiations, these are the main points of the deal:

Turkey has offered to take back all migrants who cross to Greece illegally;

In return, Ankara wants one genuine asylum seeker currently living in Turkey to be resettled in Europe for every one readmitted from the EU;

Turkey has also demanded that the EU doubles its 3billion offer of funding to help Turkey deal with the crisis;

It also wants visa-free travel for its citizens to the bloc by June and accelerated talks on Turkey's application for EU membership;

David Cameron has offered to hand 500million of British taxpayers' money to Turkey as part of the aid deal and may give more, with one British official saying: 'We're not going to turn the tap off';

The British Prime Minister inisted the UK was exempt from a new asylum deal aimed at distributing migrants equally across Europe;

Key details remained to be worked out, however, and the 28 leaders ordered more work by their officials with a view to reaching an ambitious package deal with Turkey at their next scheduled summit on March 17-18.

Mr Davutoglu warned leaders that they needed to recognise his nation was 'indispensable' in tackling the crisis and said it was 'ready to be a member of the EU'.

Speaking after the summit, Mr Davutoglu said: 'With this game-changing position in fact our objective is to discourage illegal migration, to prevent human smugglers, to help people who want to come to Europe through encouraging legal migration in a disciplined and regular manner.

'Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well.'

The offer was described as a 'welcome approach' by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr Davutoglu did not disclose how much money Turkey was seeking in aid but he said that the funds would only go to Syrian refugees.

He added: 'Not one euro will go to Turkish citizens. Every penny will be spent for Syrian refugees.'

Hailing the draft deal late last night, Mr Cameron said that 'we do have the basis for a breakthrough which is the possibility that in future all migrants who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey.'

For its part, the EU sought to gain stronger commitments from Turkey to take back refugees who have reached European shores and ease a crisis that has left an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 souls encamped in the wintry cold on the Greece-Macedonia border.

'To stop refugees arriving in Greece, we have to cooperate with Turkey,' French President Francois Hollande said. Even though many saw the outlines of a deal, it was still too early to clinch it.

In Ankara, the Turkish capital, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of failing to provide enough of the already pledged funds.

A group of men have no choice but to brave the elements in waterproof jackets as they wait at the makeshift camp at Idomeni, pictured

Some people resorted to creating makeshift tents at the camp, pictured, using blankets and anything else they can find as cover

Migrants trying to cross over to the Greek island of Lesbos abandoned belongings including English language books, pictured

BRITAIN IS EXEMPT FROM NEW ASYLUM DEAL TO DISTRIBUTE MIGRANTS ACROSS EU, CLAIMS DAVID CAMERON The Prime Minister says he will not let Brussels take control of deciding who should be given asylum in Britain. The European Commission has drawn up plans to shift the responsibility from individual states to the centralised European Asylum Support Office (EASO). But David Cameron yesterday said the country had 'an absolutely rock-solid opt-out from these things, so there's no prospect of Britain joining a common asylum process in Europe'. Brussels will this month unveil plans to revise the Dublin Regulation that requires would-be refugees to apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter. Under current rules, the UK is allowed to return migrants to their first point of entry in the continent. Since 2003, more than 12,000 people have been removed from Britain to other European countries under the rules, which the Home Office has claimed is 'many more than we have received in return'. However, one option to be presented by the commission will see the first-country principle removed and those designated as refugees by EASO shared out between countries using a quota system. Britain has an opt-out meaning it would not have to join the new scheme, but if it lost the ability to deport people who have entered other countries first, it would be embarrassing for Mr Cameron. Officials are keen to avoid a row on immigration months before the referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, and an EU source yesterday said this country could be given a special exemption allowing it to continue to apply the current rules and deport people, even if other countries agreed to revise the system. The European Commission will publish the list of options for reform on March 16 before a meeting of all 28 EU leaders in Brussels the following day. It is likely the eastern European countries would oppose plans to establish a permanent quota system to share out refugees. Mr Cameron yesterday also argued the UK would be affected by the migration crisis in the EU even if it was not a member. He said: 'Even outside the EU we'd be affected by a migration crisis like this, but at the end of the day we maintain our borders and our own way of doing things because we have the best of both worlds.' Advertisement

The belongings were strewn across the beach at Ayvacik on the Aegean sea cost, with Lesbos visible in the background, pictured

He also criticized Europe for refusing to accept asylum seekers more readily, linking that policy to needless deaths as thousands opt to cross illegally by sea from the Turkish coast to offshore Greek islands.

'We are not sending them. They are going by sea and many of them are dying. We have rescued close to 100,000 from the sea,' Erdogan said in a speech.

Turkey is seeking a new EU commitment to take Syrians and other high-percentage refugee applicants via safe travel routes, such as at the land border between Turkey and Greece, to reduce drowning deaths in the Aegean Sea.

Overshadowing the summit diplomacy is Turkey's questionable human rights record. On Friday, Turkish police stormed the headquarters of an anti-government newspaper to enforce a court order placing the paper and its sister outlets under new management.

Police spent the weekend using tear gas and water cannons to quell street protests.

Hollande said that EU cooperation with Turkey should not be interpreted as European acceptance of Turkish rights restrictions. 'The press must be free everywhere, including in Turkey,' he said.

A desperate plea for help is scrawled on one of the tents at the Idomeni camp, pictured, as refugees wait to learn their fate

One woman is pictured at the border camp carrying her belongings balanced on her head while she walks with her child

Of immediate concern was the plight of people stuck at Greece's northern border with non-EU member Macedonia, which for the past year has been one of the most popular routes for asylum seekers to reach central Europe via the Balkans.

Hundreds of thousands of people have used the route in recent months to try to reach Germany, Sweden and other preferred destinations.

Macedonia now has effectively sealed off that route, a position backed by Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary. Cash-strapped Greece has struggled to cope with the rapid buildup of humanity.

Those camped on the border vowed Monday to press on into Europe, regardless of what diplomats decide in Brussels.

'Whatever it takes, we will go. We have nothing to go back to. Our homes are destroyed,' said Lasgeen Hassan, a Syrian Kurd who hopes to reunite with relatives already in Germany.

Under a stalled deal clinched in November, the EU has already pledged three billion euros (2.3bn) to aid refugees on Turkish territory in return for Ankara's cooperation in tackling Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.

REPORT REVEALS MORE THAN 1,000 MIGRANTS 'KEPT IN SQUALOR' IN BRITAIN DURING HEIGHT OF CRISIS More than 1,000 migrants a month were detained in Britain in squalid conditions at the height of the crisis last summer, a damning report has revealed. Foreigners caught after sneaking across the Channel were held in 'unacceptable' surroundings, says the new prisons watchdog. They slept on concrete floors, in crowded, smelly rooms and with insufficient food or showers. Many had lived in makeshift camps in Calais before climbing aboard lorries, ferries and freight trains to the UK. Once discovered, they were put in temporary holding centres that 'fundamentally lacked decency'. From July to September, 3,603 migrants  including 381 children  were detained at Dover Seaport or Frontier House in Folkestone to await processing. Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke says the Home Office and private firm Tascor were 'overwhelmed'. The Home Office did not respond to a request for comment last night while Tascor said it worked to 'ensure detainee welfare was not compromised'. Advertisement

Children, pictured, cover up to protect themselves against the element at a protest at Idomeni where refugees want the borders opened

Another man tries to protect himself from the heavy rain and wrap up warm using a large blanket, pictured, at the camp at Idomeni

Although Turkey has complained it is yet to see any of these initial funds, a European source said that if agreed, the extra money 'would not be a blank check' and would come with specific demands of the Turks.

'The Turks have asked for more money: three billion euros before 2018,' Mr Schulz said after attending an EU-Turkey summit dedicated to the migrant crisis. 'It will require additional budgetary procedures. The European Parliament is prepared to speed up the procedures.'

It comes as Hungary plans to cut subsidies for refugees and drastically reduce the space available in migrant detention centres, in a move that a human rights body complains is aimed at forcing refugees to leave the country.

According to draft legislation published by the Hungarian government yesterday, from April 1 those who were granted some kind of protection or asylum will be allowed to stay in a camp for only one month, instead of the current two months.

The decree also said the maximum space available in holding centres should be identical to that prescribed in prisons.

The government, which has imposed hardline policies throughout Europe's migrant crisis, will also eliminate some subsidies, such as funds aimed at supporting education, for those who receive protection.

Last year, just 508 asylum seekers received some kind of protection in Hungary, including asylum, according to data from the immigration office.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing government has been one of the harshest opponents to the refugee crisis, having erected a steel fence on the country's southern borders to keep the migrants out and introduced tough legislation to punish those who tried to cross into Hungary illegally.

Meanwhile, David Cameron yesterday declared there is 'no prospect' of Britain joining a common European Union asylum system and stressed that the UK keeps its own borders to prevent migrants getting into the country.

Arriving in Brussels for talks on the migration crisis, the British Prime Minister insisted that the UK's opt-out from the Schengen agreement meant there could be no question of Britain joining any new asylum quota process.

UK'S PLAN TO REDUCE FLOW OF MIGRANTS ACROSS AEGEAN SEA BRANDED A 'SHAMBLES' BY EX-NAVY CHIEF Britain's plan to reduce the flow of migrants from Turkey to Greece was branded a 'shambles' last night, as it emerged no deal had been made on where to take those rescued from the Aegean Sea. The uncertainty raised the prospect that a British ship already deployed on a Nato mission could have to rescue migrants in distress  but have nowhere to take them. Mounts Bay, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, is being sent to help hunt for people-smugglers in the area. Last month, the Defence Secretary said Turkey had agreed that migrants saved in the Aegean  even if they were in Greek waters  would be sent back. But after discussions in London, Michael Fallon told MPs migrants rescued in Greek waters would 'likely' be taken to Europe. An MoD source said no agreement had been made, adding: 'We can't just send them back, it hasn't been negotiated properly.' Admiral Lord West, former head of the Navy, said: 'There is no clarity with what we are doing ... it is still a bit of a shambles.' Advertisement

Sprawling shanty town: Tents are spread across acres of land at a temporary refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border near the northern Greek village of Idomeni where thousands of migrants are stranded after Skopje limited border crossings to a trickle

Tented slum: At a summit in Brussels, EU leaders are seeking to shore up support for Greece where thousands of migrants are stranded

A girl plays with a hula hoop in a makeshift migrant camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni on Monday

Refugee children play on the railway tracks as they wait to enter Macedonia in the refugee camp near Idomeni, northern Greece

A man holds his child close to the gate at the where some 13,000 migrants are camping while they wait to cross into Macedonia

A refugee boy looks out from his tent in a camp on Greek-Macedonian border, near Idomeni, northern Greece

'We have an absolutely rock-solid opt-out from these things so there is no prospect of Britain joining a common asylum process in Europe,' he told reporters.

'We will have our own asylum approach, our own way of doing things, keeping our borders. It underlines the best of both worlds, the special status that we have.'

Mr Cameron's comments followed reports that the European Commission is preparing to bring forward proposals to centralise control of asylum claims.

He also said Britain would be affected by the migrant crisis even if it votes to leave the European Union in the referendum in June.

'Even outside the EU, we would be affected by the migration crisis like this, he added. 'But at the end of the day we maintain our borders and our own way of doing things because we have the best of both worlds.'

Under the EU's current asylum system, known as the Dublin rules and which apply to Britain, individual countries must register and process asylum claims on a national basis and that responsibility falls to the first EU state a refugee enters.

ANTI-IMMIGRANT PARTY SCORES BIG GAINS IN GERMAN ELECTIONS AS PUBLIC TURN ON MERKEL'S POLICIES The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AFD) scored massive gains in municipal weekend elections which reflect growing public anger at the open-door refugee policy of Angela Merkel. Polls for councils in the state of Hesse saw the AFD make significant inroads on the two main parties  the Chancellor's conservative CDU and the centre-left SPD  to come in third with 13.2 percent of the vote, knocking the Greens into fourth place. Frankfurt CDU politician Markus Frank said: 'The preliminary result of the AFD is frightening. I had expected a maximum 5 per cent.' Local AFD party boss Peter Munch said his party would not seek to enter into coalition deals with the two mainstream parties. Voter turnout was exceptionally low at 48 percent  a sign of voter fatigue during the ongoing refugee crisis. Just weeks ago AFD chairman Frauke Petry provoked outrage among politicians when she advocated border guards opening fire with live ammunition on illegal asylum seekers. But days later, a poll found 29 percent of Germans agreed with her. Polls next Sunday in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt could reinforce how Mrs Merkel is getting out of step with voters and prompt accusations she has undermined her party with her moral stand. Observers are saying state parliaments will be won and lost on the issue of refugees alone. Advertisement

Hundreds of refugees wait to enter Macedonia in front of the closed border gate at the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni, Greece

Migrant children hold on to the fence as they wait to enter Macedonia in front of the closed border gate at the Greek-Macedonian border

A Macedonian police officer closes the border gate in front of refugees waiting to enter Macedonia at the Greek-Macedonian border

Kept out: EU leaders are expected to declare the main Balkan migrant route closed, after Macedonia  backed by Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary  limited border crossings to a trickle. They will also push for Turkey to take back tens of thousands of migrants

A future system could see the EU centrally overseeing asylum applications  one of several ways proposed to prevent a repeat of countries like Greece and Italy handling hugely disproportionate numbers.

There are concerns that a revision to the Dublin rules could deprive Britain of the right to deport asylum-seekers to the state where they entered the EU.

The EU executive is due to present proposals for reforms of the system next week.

His comments came as EU leaders arrived for the summit to press Turkey to do more to stop migrants from entering Europe and to shore up support for Greece, where thousands of people are stranded.

They are expected to declare the main Balkan migrant route closed after Macedonia  backed by Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary  limited border crossings to a trickle.

Ahead of the summit, some 14,000 people were camped by Greece's border with Macedonia hoping desperately to be allowed to cross.

Refugees wait to enter Macedonia in front of the closed border gate at the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni, northern Greece

Humanitarian organisations estimate that the number of migrants stuck at the Greek-Macedonian border crossing had swelled to 14,000

Glum: A man holds a child as they sit with others near the gate at the Greek-Macedonian border. EU leaders are holding a summit with Turkey to back closing the Balkans route and urge Ankara to deport large numbers of economic migrants from overstretched Greece

Refugees play with a balloon as they wait to enter Macedonia in front of the closed border gate at the Greek-Macedonian border

A child plays on a rail track at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni where thousands of migrants are stranded

The leaders are holding talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who said he hopes the summit will mark a turning point in EU-Turkey ties, adding that the meeting is as focused on Turkey's future EU membership as on the refugee emergency.

'Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well,' Mr Davutoglu told reporters, expressing hope that the talks 'will be a success story and a turning point in our relations'.

However, Davutoglu wants faster moves to negotiate Turkish membership of the EU and an immediate easing of EU visa rules for Turks.

'The Turks are negotiating very hard,' a senior EU diplomat said. Another spoke of alarm that hard bargaining could disrupt talks to reunite Greek- and Turkish-speaking parts of Cyprus.

EU leaders are likely to tell him of concerns about human rights after the Turkish government seized control of a critical newspaper.

But EU officials said they will also be anxious not to alienate Ankara just as hopes are rising of a solution to the crisis.

No compromises: Prime Minister David Cameron arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, where he said there is 'no prospect' of Britain joining a European Union asylum system and stressed that the UK keeps its own borders so migrants can't get into the country

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a summit with Turkey on the migrant crisis on at the European Council in Brussels. EU leaders will press Turkey to do more to stop migrants from entering Europe and to shore up support for Greece, where thousands are stranded

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrives for the summit. He has urged his EU partners to put long-agreed migrant plans into action

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives for an EU leaders summit with Turkey in Brussels to discuss the migrant crisis

European Council President Donald Tusk, the former Polish premier who chaired yesterday's talks, had barely left a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday and declared cautious optimism on the migrant crisis when police seized the newspaper.

'It's a slap in the face,' one senior EU official told Reuters after EU envoys met in Brussels on Sunday evening.

A draft statement prepared for their talks says they will ensure 'comprehensive, large scale and fast-track returns to Turkey of all irregular migrants not in need of international protection.'

NATO said on Sunday a new naval force secured approval for operating in Turkish and Greek waters.

That will lend force to a deal with Turkey to take back migrants halted in its waters and those who reach Greek islands but fail to qualify for asylum.

Arriving for a meeting with Davutoglu on the sidelines of the summit, Greece's prime minister urged his EU partners to put long-agreed and long-delayed migrant plans into action.

Children living in the Calais Jungle take part in a demonstration against the destruction of their camp by offering white roses to police

Also taking part in the demonstration were a group of Iranian hunger strikers some of whom had sewn their lips together in protest

Police are in the process of bulldozing half of the Jungle camp in Calais and evicting thousands of migrants

Protesters living in the Calais Jungle migrant camp take part in a demonstration against the destruction of their camp by French police

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told reporters that 'rules are for all, and everybody has to implement our common decisions.'

'If there are agreements that are not implemented there are not agreements at all,' he said.

EU leaders agreed in September to share 160,000 refugees arriving in Greece and Italy over two years.

As of March 3, fewer than 700 people had been relocated to other European countries.

Human rights group Amnesty International hit out at the leaders for using Turkey as a buffer to stop migrants, calling the move 'a dangerous and deliberate ploy to shirk their responsibilities to people fleeing war and persecution.'
In just a few hours the jury found the 69-year-old not guilty

The defense questioned whether the sexual intercourse was consensual

DNA samples prove the son was in fact Mr O'Connell's, prosecution said

The son persuaded the woman to go to police, sparking an investigation

A man has been found not guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl 49 years ago, after investigations began in 2013 when the son conceived during the encounter was reunited with his mother.

John Thomas O'Connell, now 69, from Moama on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, was charged after the adult son of the pair who was put up for adoption tracked down his mother.

When the birth mother told her son the story of his conception, he persuaded her to go to the police, the Bendigo Advertiser reported.

However a jury found Mr O'Connell not guilty on Tuesday afternoon, taking only a few hours to reach their verdict at Bendigo Country Court.

Mr O'Connell was accused of having non-consensual sex with the plaintiff in January 1967 when she was 16 and he was 20, leading to the conception of their son.

The prosecution alleged Mr O'Connell dragged the teen into bush land and raped her.

However, the jury could not rule that the sex had been non-consensual.

John Thomas O'Connell leaves the Bendigo County Court after a hearing in October. He has pleaded not guilty to the rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1967

Outside court Mr O'Connell told the Bendigo Advertiser 'I am very pleased with the verdict, I'm pleased it's over, it's been a long 19 months. I can move on with my life.'

The accused was finally found not guilty on the fourth attempt after the first jury was thrown out due to a clerical error in October, the court was delayed due to concerns of prejudice in December and a jury was discharged again in February after failing to reach a unanimous decision.

Two weeks ago Mr Hoare, in his opening to the jury, said the son was 33 when he found his birth mother in 2000 and she told him how he was conceived, WA Today reported.

While their offspring's parentage was not in dispute due to prior DNA testing, defence barrister Michael Pena-Rees told the jury that what needed to be proven was whether consensual sexual intercourse happened, as well as details of how and where it took place.

Defence barrister Michael Pena-Rees told the jury that the real issue was whether the sexual intercourse was consensual, and the details surrounding that.

The woman was living in Rochester with her mother and siblings at the time.

Mr Hoare told the court that at 8pm in late January in 1967, the victim was walking with friend Valda Grogan across Campaspe Bridge when Mr O'Connell and another man approached them in a big black car.

Despite a nearby dairy worker cautioning the pair to not get into the car, Miss Grogan jumped into the back seat against the victim's wishes.

She was eventually convinced to climb in when the driver allegedly said, 'Look, just get in, jump in the front seat. We're going to see a mate around the corner and we'll drop you home.'

Bendigo County Court where Mr O'Connell is currently standing trial for an alleged rape 49 years ago

Mr Hoare said she did not know the make or model of the car, but remembers a white doll on a lace cushion sitting in the back window.

They drove out of Rochester and stopped after the victim started yelling that they were going in the wrong direction as they began to travel out of town.

The prosecution alleges Mr O'Connell dragged the victim from the car as she struggled to escape, then pushed her underwear to the side and had sex with her.

'She'll say she was fighting him, trying to get away from him, but he was too strong for her,' Mr Hoare said.

'She'll certainly say she was not consenting,' Mr Hoare said.

After the alleged rape 100 metres away from where he dragged her, the victim and Miss Grogan were dropped home.

The victim confided in only one friend, Jacqueline Sinclair, who then urged her to tell police.

Ms Sinclair, who at the time was married with two children, told the victim's mother, but no report was made until the victim moved to Melbourne soon afterwards to find work.

The victim was unaware she was pregnant until five months later when her mother arranged for her to stay at 'The Good Shepherd' convent in St Kilda, where a compulsory medical assessment revealed she was expecting.

She initially denied she had ever had sexual intercourse. Nuns, however, took the matter to the police but it was not investigated and they allegedly called her a 'liar'.

The woman later saw Mr O'Connell at a dance in Moama and spoke about him with a friend who was with her. The friend made a statement - which cannot be found - to police years later and gave a statement at the trial.
Boris Johnson, pictured today, intervened to overrule a diktat banning his senior staff from publicly speaking against him on the EU

Boris Johnson today insisted orders issued to his senior staff not to disagree with him on the EU were a 'c*** up' and have now been cancelled.

The London Mayor, who has strongly criticised Downing Street amid claims it pressured the British Chambers of Commerce to remove John Longworth over comments backing Brexit, claimed to know nothing of the memo.

It was sent by his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister to members of Mr Johnson's senior team on Friday, telling them to 'either advocate the mayor's position or otherwise not openly contradict it'.

Hours later, Mr Johnson was launching a fierce attack on Mr Longworth's behalf against the 'agents of project fear' on the In campaign led by David Cameron.

All City Hall staffers are obliged not to campaign on their own views while at work. This still applies, including to Mr Johnson's deputy mayors and senior advisers.

But after Sir Edward's memo became public today, Mr Johnson said: 'Nobody has been gagged, I was only made aware of this edict very late last night and it ceased to be operative.'

He continued: 'It obviously hasnt been operative because youve got members of my advisory teams taking a very different view from me.

'So they can, so they shall, with complete impunity too, by the way. So there you go.'

Mr Johnson quoted Chairman Mao as he added: 'Yes, its a c*** up. I perfectly accept that. It is not something that I agree with. My staff, my team have complete freedom to say what they want.

'Indeed, they already are and have been for some days. Let 100 flowers bloom, folks.'

Doorstepped a second time, this time arriving at Downing Street, Mr Johnson added: 'So far as that edict was ever operative, it is now officially countermanded.

'It is over. It is dead, it is rescinded. As they say in Brussels, it is caduc.'

A spokesman for Mr Johnson earlier told the BBC, which revealed the email, the ruling only applied to staff on official business.

The spokesman said: 'The mayor is relaxed about any of his team of advisers in a personal capacity campaigning for or supporting either side in the EU referendum.

'He wants to see an open and inclusive debate, and recognises that some of his advisors have differing views to those he holds.

'In his role as chief of staff Ed Lister advised the team that as official mayoral policy is now to support the case for leaving the EU they are requested to support that position when undertaking official City Hall business.'

As London Mayor, Mr Johnson has broad powers to appoint deputy mayors and senior advisers to assist in his role running City Hall.

An image of the memo, pictured, was leaked to the BBC. Mr Johnson reversed the position shortly after reports of the rules emerged

Mr Johnson yesterday said he hoped Mr Longworth would now formally join the Out campaign.

He told Sky News: 'I think it is very sad that somebody like John Longworth whos given a lot of time, a lot of thought to the needs of British business and industry should be basically pushed out for saying what he thinks.'

On Sunday, Mr Johnson said Mr Longworth had been badly treated and blasted the suspension had been 'absolutely scandalous'.

Mr Johnson has launched enthusiastic defence of John Longworth, who was suspended and then resigned from the BCC over backing Brexit

He said: 'This is a man who reached the conclusion - after long reflection and a lifetime's experience of business - that it would be better to vote Leave.

'His verdict reflects the reality - that the EU has changed out of all recognition from the Common Market that this country joined.

'He speaks for the many small and medium sized businesses - the lifeblood of the economy - who cannot understand why they should comply with more and more regulation, over which this country has no democratic control.'

Mr Johnson continued: 'Only 5 per cent cent of UK firms do business with the rest of Europe, and yet they must obey 100 per cent of EU legislation.

'The British public deserve to have the facts put before them. They deserve a proper debate.

'It cannot be right that when someone has the guts to dissent from the establishment line, he or she is immediately crushed by the agents of Project Fear.'

The suspension of Mr Longworth from the BCC has provoked claims Downing Street applied pressure on the organisation to have him removed from his post after he endorsed the Brexit campaign.

No 10 has denied 'pressure' was applied but has not denied a call was made about the speech.

It emerged today special advisor Daniel Korski, who works directly for Mr Cameron, called Mr Longworth about his speech

The Prime Minister decided in January to allow his ministers to back Brexit against his recommendation if they chose.

Six senior ministers, including his close friend and confidant Michael Gove, took immediate advantage of the rules once the referendum began.

The decision has led to angry infighting at the very top of the Conservative Party as senior ministers publicly disagree with the Prime Minister.

The situation is almost unprecedented as the normal rules would see ministers forced to resign over disagreements with the PM.
Team told US Coast Guard who then gave them clearance to continue race

This is the moment a horrified sailor made the grim discovery of a mummified adventurer on board a yacht drifting off the coast of the Philippines.

A crew member on board a round-the-world yacht jumped in to the ocean and swam out to the vessel after his team spotted it drifting without a mast in the Pacific west of Guam.

At first, after boarding the yacht, he reported that nobody was on board. But seconds later, as he started to examine the interior, he shouted out after discovering the body of German mariner Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59.

Pictures show the moment a round-the-world yacht crew discovered Manfred Fritz Bajorat's yacht drifting in the

A crew member of the LMAX Exchange jumped into the water and swam to the seemingly abandoned yacht

Footage shows the unnamed sailor boarding Manfred Fritz Bajorat's yacht before radioing his team mates

The LMAX Exchange team, competing in the Clipper 2015-16 Round The World Yacht Race, found his boat, Sayo, on January 31 during a crossing from Airlie Beach, Australia, to Da Nang - Vietnam.

Eeries footage shows the vessel drifting without a mast before a crew member leaps into the sea and makes his way over to investigate.

After liaising with the US Coast Guard in Guam, the team was instructed to carry on racing as it could provide no further assistance and USCG Guam took over the investigation.

Clipper Race Director Justin Taylor also notified the German Embassy in London, who informed the German Police and Coast Guard. They were then able to trace the sailors next of kin via the boat registration details provided by the team.

The vessel was not rediscovered until February 25 when two fishermen found it in the Pacific Ocean 40 miles off the coast of Barobo town in Surigao del Sur. By this time it had drifted more than 1,000 nautical miles.

The mummified body of Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59, was rediscovered by two fishermen aboard his yacht in the Pacific Ocean 40 miles off the coast of Barobo town in Surigao del Sur

The video comes to a dramatic end when the sailor starts to examine the interior of the yacht, Sayo, and discover's the adventurer's body

The LMAX Exchange team, competing in the Clipper 2015-16 Round The World Yacht Race, found his boat, Sayo, on January 31 during its crossing from Airlie Beach, Australia, to Da Nang - Vietnam

The vessel was found drifting without a mast and crew members immediately informed US Coast Guards

A statement made by the team reports: 'As reported, the crew of LMAX Exchange spotted a boat adrift off the coast of Guam. In the spirit of the Clipper Race and the crew of team LMAX Exchange, we put the racing aside in the hope of assisting the stricken vessel and any fellow sailors marooned.

'After boarding the drifting vessel, we unfortunately discovered the body of a lone sailor. We remained on site, under instruction, until released by the USCG who continued with the recovery.

'As a team we found comfort that he was found and that peace will be given to his friends and family who have been looking for him. Our words and thoughts were shared for the sailor as he now rests in peace.'

Although they made reference to the boat's January 31 discovery in a Daily Race Report, Clipper Race organisers initially chose not to publicise the full details of the finding.

Tragic: Authorities are trying to establish the last days of German national Mr Bajorat, who left a tribute to his late wife, Claudia, on a shipping forum

A yacht crew reported seeing Manfred Bajorat's vessel on January 31, but U.S. coastguard officials did not follow up on the report, and it took nearly a month before his body was found in the Philippines

Mystery: Mr Bajorat's body was found near to the radio telephone as if he was trying one last desperate Mayday call to save himself when he died

A statement said: 'We hoped to avoid causing unnecessary alarm within the international sailing community by announcing the death of a then unknown sailor.'

The statement added that the sailor who made the discovery had found the experience 'quite distressing'.

At the time that we heard about it, we hadnt seen the pictures of the body, which only came out later from the Philippines,' a spokesman told MailOnline.

'All (the crew member) said was that it was very clear the man was dead, and that you didnt need to be a doctor to see that.

It was really tough for him. He was the only person who went on board. He was in the middle of a race at the time and it obviously gave him a different perspective on the race. It really brought home for him the reality of the dangers of ocean racing.

Hes been supported by the team and all of the race officials. I know him, and hes taken it in his stride, but it was definitely a tough discovery.

After fishermen re-discovered the vessel pictures emerged that went around the world showing the mummified body of the adventurer, a former insurance salesman who gave up his landlubber life for adventure on the high seas.

His hand seemed hand seemed to be reaching for a radio telephone as if her were making one last desperate bid to send a Mayday message.

At first it was feared he may have fallen prey to pirates but an autopsy showed he had died of a heart attack. How long he had been dead remains unclear.

He had been sailing along since the death of his wife Claudia, 53, in 2010.
Employment Minister Priti Patel claimed women campaigning for Brexit were like the suffragettes today but she was condemned for the remarks by the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Helen Pankhurst said her great-grandmother's campaign would have backed the EU and its support for women's issues.

Ms Patel used a major speech on her Brexit campaign today to claim women campaigning to get Britain out of the EU were fighting for the 'same cause' as the suffragettes.

Priti Patel, the Employment Minister seen at Rupert Murdoch's wedding on Sunday, will today call the suffragettes to her Brexit argument

Quoting Emmeline, Ms Patel said: 'As a suffragette, she and so many others fought for the rights of women to have a vote, a voice and a say in how their society is governed and who governs it.

'In many ways, Women for Britain are fighting for the same cause.

'The suffragettes fought for our democratic freedom.'

Helen Pankhurst said today: 'My great-grandmother fought tirelessly for womens' rights and dedicated her life to making sure women could live their lives free from discrimination.

'It is unacceptable to use her achievements to argue for something that is so out of line with the spirit of international solidarity that defined the suffragette movement.

'To the contrary  I believe that my great grandmother would have been the first to champion what the EU has meant for women  including equal pay and anti discrimination laws.'

In her speech, Ms Patel added: 'While we remain in the EU, the potential and ambition of women is being held back.'

The employment minister spoke at the launch of a group of 40 leading female business leaders and politicians in central London.

Recent polling found that, when asked about voting intentions in the EU referendum, women are almost twice as likely as men to answer 'Don't Know' about which way they would vote.

Up to a quarter are undecided - potentially swinging the outcome of the contest.

The Women for Britain group say they are determined to put the positive case forward for 'leave' so that women, often perceived as more 'risk-averse' than men, identify a vote to leave as the safer choice.

Mrs Patel said: 'During the debates on the referendum, I have been struck by the number of claims made about the EU and how it protects women's rights.

Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, took part in a Mothering Sunday rally organised by Care International marking the start of the Walk In Her Shoes campaign

'But we don't need the European Union to protect the rights of women in the UK and it is wrong and misleading to suggest that leaving the EU would put women's rights at risk.

'Since we won our right to vote, the UK has a proud history of listening to women. The First Equal Pay Act, the Abortion Act and the Divorce Reform Act were passed and the contraceptive pill was made free on the NHS before we joined the EU.

'We also passed the Sex Discrimination Act, the Domestic Violence Act and the Employment Protection Act  all without any EU assistance at all.

Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in a Polling Booth circa 1910. She was one of the leaders of the movement to secure votes for women

'Britain has been a world leader at promoting women's rights at home and abroad and our support for women would only be enhanced by leaving the EU.

'Female politicians from across the political spectrum have introduced legislation and championed causes that have benefited our country.

'Margaret Thatcher warned of the dangers of a European superstate, the political union that would follow a single currency and won us our rebate.

'Barbara Castle championed road safety and the introduction new requirements for seat belts. Shirley Williams was a leading member of the 'gang of four' that changed our political landscape.

'Nancy Astor, the firm female to take her seat in the House of Commons, succeeded in securing an increase in the legal drinking age for alcohol from 14 to 18, which still stands today.'

Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers, who was also due to attend the event, said: 'I will be voting to leave the EU because I think we should take back control over making our own laws in our own Parliament again.

'That we can hold the people who make our laws to account at a General Election.
Steven Gerrard's 'Uncle Bobby' who went on the run over a 50m cocaine smuggling deal has been named as one of Britain's nine most wanted fugitives who are on the run in Holland.

Robert Stephen Gerrard has been at large since 2013 following a raid on a Rotterdam cafe, which was used as an operations centre for an international drug trafficking ring.

The 52-year-old, the second cousin of the Anfield icon who is known to him as 'Uncle Bobby', is now among nine fugitives being hunted by authorities amid fears they have fled to the Netherlands.

Steven Gerrard's 'Uncle Bobby' (left) who went on the run over a 50m cocaine smuggling deal is among the nine most wanted fugitives being hunted by British police. Pictured right: The footballer and his wife Alex

Gerrard is wanted by the National Crime Agency for conspiracy to import cocaine, and has also been convicted of possession of a false identity document and obtaining property by deception.

He is being hunted alongside Michael Paul Moogan, also 52 and from Liverpool, who is also accused of being part of the international drug ring.

They are joined in the 'most wanted list' by two murder suspects, several alleged drug smugglers and a convicted rapist.

The so-called rogues gallery has been compiled by Crimestoppers and the National Crime Agency (NCA) in a bid to gleam information from the public about the fugitives.

Dave Allen from the NCA said: 'Those who believe they can use the Netherlands to evade capture or continue illegal activities soon find out that it is not a safe haven.'

Another fugitive who is being sought by police is Shane O'Brien, 28, who stabbed a 21-year-old to death in an unprovoked attack last year.

O'Brien has remained at large since allegedly walking up to Josh Hanson in a bar in Hillingdon, west London and knifing him to death in front of his girlfriend in October 2015.

Today, Mr Hanson's family, who have been campaigning for justice for the past six months, made another heartfelt appeal for information leading to O'Brien's arrest.

Suspect Shane O'Brien (left), who is accused of stabbing 21-year-old Josh Hanson (right) to death, is also being hunted by police and is suspected of being in Holland

His mother Tracey said: 'We need justice for Josh. It's the least that can be done for him. It would give us the chance to grieve without having to share our grieving process with this campaign.'

Addressing O'Brien directly, she added: 'Come forward. Hand yourself in. You can't run forever. Stop our pain.'

O'Brien, who is from London and also uses the first name Troy, is white, slim, 6ft with grey eyes and short, dark brown hair.

He has a birthmark on his face and a tattoo that says Shannon 15-04-06 on his back. There is a 10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

The other murder suspect being hunted by UK authorities is David Ungi, from Liverpool, who is accused of killing Vinny Waddington, 18, in the Garston area of the city in July 2015.

It is claimed that the 24-year-old, with two other men, used a car to ram a motorbike before fatally shooting pillion passenger Mr Waddington and injuring the driver Francis Humphries.

The nine most wanted also includes suspected drug dealer Shazad Ghafoor, 29, who allegedly stole a courtesy car from a Land Rover dealership in Manchester in August 2013 using a false name, sparking a high speed police chase with his wife and children in the car.

The dramatic pursuit ended with him rolling the car in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and police found up to 100,000 in cash stashed in the vehicle.

He is now among nine fugitives - including another murder suspect, alleged drug smugglers and a convicted rapist - who are being hunted by British authorities. Pictured (left to right): Shazad Ghafoor, David Ungi, David John Walley, Shane O'Brien, Ahmed Dervish Omer, Michael Paul Moogan, Robert Stephen Gerrard, Rezgar Zengana and Mark Liscott

He is accused of a string of offences for the chase, along with two counts of dealing cannabis for massive hauls that were allegedly found in a car in Withington and a house in Burnage, both in Manchester.

The most wanted also includes suspected drug smuggler David John Walley, 40, who is alleged to have smuggled MDMA and cocaine into the UK in parcels delivered to Manchester; and Ahmed Dervish Omer, 45, from Nottingham, who fled in the middle of his trial in November last year but was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to 10 years for drug dealing.

The remaining suspects include Mark Liscott, 55, from Great Barr, Birmingham, who is wanted for allegedly dealing Class A and B drugs while out on licence for a jail term for dealing cannabis.

Convicted rapist Rezgar Zengana, 33, is also on the list for posing as a minicab driver in Glasgow in December 2006, and picking up a 25-year-old woman who he attacked. He was convicted for rape but has yet to be sentenced.

Chairman of Crimestoppers Lord Ashcroft said: 'With the support of the Dutch authorities and the public, we are confident that we can successfully hunt these people down.'

THE NINE FUGITIVES INCLUDING TWO MURDER SUSPECTS AND ONE CONVICTED RAPISTS BELIEVED TO BE HIDING IN THE NETHERLANDS Here are details of the nine fugitives - including two murder suspects - believed to be hiding in the Netherlands. David Ungi Liverpudlian Ungi, also known as David Riccio, is wanted by Merseyside Police for allegedly murdering a teenager. Police believe that Ungi and two other men were in a car that rammed a motorbike in the Garston area of the city, before fatally shooting pillion passenger Vinny Waddington and injuring driver Francis Humphries. Ungi, who is white and has blue eyes, is also wanted for attempted assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to supply heroin. David Ungi (left), also known as David Riccio, is wanted for allegedly murdering a teenager. Suspected drug smuggler David John Walley, 40 (right) is accused of bringing drugs into the UK in parcels David John Walley Suspected drug smuggler Walley, 40, is accused of bringing drugs into the UK in parcels that were delivered to an address in Manchester. It is claimed that a series of deliveries were made between November 2012 and January 2013, when one of the parcels was intercepted and found to contain MDMA and cocaine. It is also claimed that Manchester City fan Walley - who has a tattoo of the name of his favourite club, as well as Natalie inked on his right arm - used a fake passport when he was stopped by Dutch police in Amsterdam in September 2014. The Mancunian is white, 5ft 8in and has blue eyes. One of his upper teeth is chipped and others are rotten or missing. He is wanted by the National Crime Agency for importation of class A drugs and possession of a false identity document. He has used the aliases Stuart Leggart, Kevin Taylor, Lee Walley, David Whalley and Gregory Edward Pinches. Shazad Ghafoor Accused 'drug dealer' Shazad Ghafoor, 29, allegedly stole a courtesy car from a Land Rover dealership in Manchester in August 2013 using a false name Accused 'drug dealer' Ghafoor, 29, allegedly stole a courtesy car from a Land Rover dealership in Manchester in August 2013 using a false name, sparking a high speed police chase with his wife and children in the car. The dramatic pursuit ended with him rolling the car in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and police found up to 100,000 in cash stashed in the vehicle. The notes were found to have traces of heroin, cocaine and cannabis on them. On two other occasions Ghafoor is accused of possessing cannabis with intent to supply. Police allegedly found a haul of the drug worth 245,000 when they searched a car in Withington in November 2013; and a stash worth 24,000 when they searched a house in Burnage, in September 2014. British-Pakistani Ghafoor twice failed to answer bail and did not attend court. He admitted dangerous driving but was facing additional charges of fraud, possession of criminal property, disqualified driving, and possession of cannabis with intent to supply, as well as failure to surrender to bail. He is 5ft 11in, has brown eyes, a pock mark on his right cheek and scars on the right of his nose and the top of his right hand. He is wanted by West Yorkshire Police and Greater Manchester Police, and has used the aliases Mohammad Shazad, Abdul Ghafor, Nadeem Ahmed, Shazad Gafoor, and Nadeen Javaid. Ahmed Dervish Omer Convicted drug dealer Omer, 45, from Nottingham, fled in the middle of his trial in November last year but was found guilty in his absence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to supply amphetamine, cannabis and cannabis resin. He was a ringleader in a drug smuggling gang that was found to have 29,000 in cash, 49 kilos of cannabis, 24 kilos of cannabis resin and four kilos of amphetamine when raided by the police. Omer, who also uses variations of his name, has a 'middle Eastern appearance', is 5ft 9in, with brown eyes and short, greying, black hair. He is wanted by Leicestershire Police. Convicted drug dealer Ahmed Dervish Omer, 45 (left), from Nottingham, fled in the middle of his trial in November last year. Michael Paul Moogan (right) is suspected of cocaine smuggling Michael Paul Moogan The 52-year-old is suspected of cocaine smuggling. He is accused of being linked to a Rotterdam cafe that was used as an operation centre for an international drug trafficking ring, and was raided as part of a joint UK-Dutch police operation in 2013. Moogan, from Liverpool, is white, 5ft 11in, and has blue eyes. He has a large crucifix tattoo on his left arm. He is wanted by the National Crime Agency for conspiracy to import cocaine in 2013. Robert Stephen Gerrard Robert Stephen Gerrard, 52, is wanted for conspiracy to import cocaine Gerrard, 52, from Liverpool, is also believed to be linked to the Rotterdam cafe that was used as an operation centre for an international drug trafficking ring, and was raided as part of a joint UK-Dutch police operation in 2013. He is wanted by the National Crime Agency for conspiracy to import cocaine, and has also been convicted of possession of a false identity document and obtaining property by deception. Gerrard is white, 5ft 8in, and has blue eyes and brown hair. He has a two-inch curved scar on the right hand side of his face, and sometimes wears glasses. Rezgar Zengana Convicted rapist Zengana, 33, posed as a minicab driver in Glasgow in December 2006, and picked up a 25-year-old woman who he attacked. He was convicted for rape but has yet to be sentenced. The Iraqi is 6ft, and has black hair and brown eyes. He is wanted by Police Scotland. Mark Liscott Drug dealer Liscott, from Great Barr, Birmingham, was jailed for nine years for supplying cannabis in January 2005, and released on licence after serving part of his sentence. It is alleged he breached the terms of his licence by getting involved with drug dealing gangs in London and Nottingham. Convicted rapist Rezgar Zengana, 33 (left) and drug dealer Mark Liscott (right) are both wanted He is wanted by East Midlands special operations unit for conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs. The 55-year-old is 5ft 10in, has brown eyes and cropped, black hair and a surgical scar on his back. Shane O'Brien Murder suspect Shane O'Brien, 28, from London Murder suspect O'Brien, 28, is accused of walking up to 21-year-old Josh Hanson in a bar in west London and stabbing him in the neck in front of his girlfriend. The unprovoked attack in October 2015 took place in the RE Bar in Hillingdon where dozens of customers were drinking at the time. Josh's family made a heartfelt appeal for help catching his killer in the days after his murder. Urging witnesses to come forward, his mother Tracey said: 'Be brave, like us. We're having to be brave every single day to help catch the person who did this.' A 10,000 reward is available for information leading to O'Brien's arrest and prosecution. O'Brien, who is from London and also uses the first name Troy, is white, slim, 6ft with grey eyes and short, dark brown hair. He has a birthmark on his face and a tattoo that says Shannon 15-04-06 on his back. He is wanted by the Metropolitan Police. Advertisement
Fans around the world have been sending their best wishes to former Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

A spokesman for the 79-year-old musician revealed today that he is undergoing treatment for the condition and is hopeful of making a full recovery.

He was last seen in public on the weekend at Rupert Murdoch's wedding to former supermodel Jerry Hall in London.

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Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman (pictured) has been diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 79

The musician was last seen in public on the weekend at Rupert Murdoch's wedding to former supermodel Jerry Hall in London. He is pictured there with his wife Suzanne Wyman

A spokesman for the father-of-four made the announcement today but said it was 'caught in the early stages'

A spokesman for the father-of-four said: 'Bill Wyman, former member of The Rolling Stones, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

'He is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages.' In the statement, his family asked for privacy.

After the news was announced, fans responded by tweeting their best wishes for the musician, as well as hopes for a speedy recovery.

One wrote: 'Wishing Bill a speedy and complete recovery. Stay positive, stay strong!' while another said: 'Hang in there, Bill.'

Another said: 'We hope you make a 100% recovery and beat that wretched disease.'

Born as William Perks in Lewisham, south east London, in October 1936, Wyman joined the Rolling Stones as the band's bass player in 1962, replacing Dick Taylor, who went on to play with Pretty Things.

After the news was announced, fans responded by tweeting their best wishes for the musician, as well as hopes for a speedy recovery

At 25, he was the oldest member of the group by several years. He left 31 years later to pursue other projects, including forming his own band Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings in 1996.

He also designed his own metal detectors and opened a bistro in London called Sticky Fingers.

Wyman has kept a relatively low profile since leaving the group. Last year, he released his first solo album for 33 years, entitled Back To Basics, which he put together after finding 60 unreleased tracks as he archived old demo tapes.

Three of the songs found their way onto this 12-track album, while the other nine came from sessions with a band that included Mark Knopfler's keyboardist Guy Fletcher and singer Beverley Skeete.

Born in south east London in October 1936, Wyman joined the Rolling Stones as the band's bass player in 1962. He is pictured with the band left (back right) and right (back right)

Wyman married his current wife, Californian model Suzanne Accosta, in 1992 after they met in Paris 13 years earlier. They have three daughters together - Katherine, Jessica and Matilda.

The musician has been married twice before, including to 18-year-old model Mandy Smith, whom he famously began dating when she was just 13.

Wyman married Ms Smith in 1989, when she was 18, but her mother joined them on honeymoon and they spent less than a week of married life together.

In recent years, as the Jimmy Savile scandal unfolded, the ageing guitarist said he approached police to ask whether they wanted to question him about their relationship.

Wyman (pictured right in 1969 after divorcing his first wife) married his current wife, Californian model Suzanne Accosta (pictured together left), in 1992 after they met in Paris 13 years earlier

The musician also married Mandy Smith, 18, (pictured together in 1986), whom he famously began dating when she was just 13. Wyman married Ms Smith in 1989, but they spent less than a week of married life together

He said: 'I went to the police and I went to the public prosecutor and said, "Do you want to talk to me? Do you want to meet up with me, or anything like that?" and I got a message back, '"No,''.

''I was totally open about it.'

He was also married to Diane Cory for ten years, but split from her in 1969 after joining the band. They had a son together, Stephen - who later became engaged to Ms Smith's mother Patsy.

Last year, Wyman forced a London council to change a blue plaque which marked the spot where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met, because it wrongly claimed that they founded the legendary band.

The blue plaque was unveiled at Dartford railway station in Kent where the duo went on to form their close friendship. But it wrongly states the pair then 'went on to form The Rolling Stones'.

Wyman complained that, while former bandmates Jagger and Richards did indeed meet on the platform of Dartford train station, it was Brian Jones, who died in 1969, who was responsible creating the Rolling Stones, even choosing their name.

He last played with the Stones at the band's 50th anniversary shows at the O2 Arena in 2012.

But he said he would not be interested in rejoining the group on a permanent basis because he has 'better things to do'.

'I left the Stones because their music really annoyed me, so why should I go listen to their music?' he told the German newspaper Bild in 1998.
The first British officer to liberate the notorious Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp has died of cardiac failure aged 95.

Former Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney, who was just 25 when he helped free thousands of starving prisoners, passed away 'unexpectedly' on the Caribbean island of St Vincent on Monday.

He had spent the past six years circumnavigating the globe on board The World residential ship where he was 'very happy and dearly loved by all crew and residents', his family said.

The former British army major was one of the first inside Bergen-Belsen near Hanover in Germany on 15 April 1945 and later ran the liberated camp as a commanding officer.

Former Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney, who was one of the first British soldiers to liberate the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp has died of cardiac failure aged 95, pictured in uniform (left) and recently (right)

The camp, which became the final resting place of 50,000 Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Nazi opponents and those with disabilities, is burned to the ground after liberation in 1945

He pulled his memories together into a book, Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp, to help make sure the world never forgets the horrors of Hitler's regime.

'When we got there, there were said to be about 60,000 people in the camp of which 10,000 were dead and 500 a day were dying,' he wrote.

'The huts were intended to house 100 and most had over 500 in. Nearly all the inmates were desperately ill with typhus, dysentry, diarrhoea and tuberculosis. Many had lost all self-respect and hope.

'Corpses at various stages of decomposition were everywhere and the excreta-laden dust blowing around the camp was a serious medical threat.

'I was nauseated and horrified. It was a Dante's Inferno.'

His son, John Wood, confirmed his father's death, saying: 'As difficult as it is for me to believe, I unfortunately have to tell you that on 7th March 2016, my father, Leonard Berney, aged 95, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on the Caribbean island of St Vincent as a result of cardiac failure.

More emaciated bodies are piled in one of the many shallow graves that surrounded the camp, located in northern Germany

THE LIBERATION OF BERGEN-BELSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was located in northern Germany, south-west of the town of Bergen itself. From 1941 to 1945 almost 50,000 people were killed there along with 20,000 Soviet inmates. It was run by the cruel and tyrannical SS commandant Joseph Kramer - known as the Beast of Belsen. The Camp was liberated on 15 April 1945 by the British 11th Armoured Division and soldiers discovered roughly 60,000 starved, and ill prisoners inside. Some 13,000 unburied corpses littered the ground around the camp when they arrived. When the Allies arrived at Bergen-Belsen, it was in the grip of a terrible typhus outbreak, with prisoners dying at a rate of 500 a day. A sombre sign erected by the British Army, and photographed by Mr Parsons, documents at least part of that grisly death tool, revealing that 13,000 people perished even after troops came to their aid. Shortly after the camp was liberated by British and Canadian troops in 1945, it was torched, and at least part of that suffering was destroyed forever as the buildings, along with the Reichskriegs flag and Hitler portrait which adorned them, were consumed by flames. Advertisement

'He was a very kind, generous and highly intelligent man, and he lived a full and remarkable life. His last six years were spent on board MV The World where he was very happy and dearly loved by all crew and residents alike.

'I realise much more now than I did two days ago, that he was such rock to me; I can't believe he's gone! I'm really going to miss him!'

The Holocaust Memorial Foundation has also paid tribute to the former major, saying they are: 'deeply saddened' by his passing.

'We learned of his key role in liberating Bergen Belsen when he gave his testimony,' a spokesman said.

Lt-Colonel Berney gave evidence at the Belsen War Crimes Trial in September 1945 against camp commandant Joseph Kramer  the Beast of Belsen.

A total of 11 Nazis, including Kramer, 39, were found guilty and hanged.

It is thought as many as 70,000 people died in the camp, many from typhus, after it was liberated

A woman is marched before gathered crowds during the war crimes trial held after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen death camp

ANNE FRANK: JUST ONE OF BERGEN-BELSEN'S 50,000 VICTIMS Anne Frank was one of Bergen-Belsen's victims Anne Frank, whose diaries of persecution at the hands of the Nazis became the defining account of the Holocaust, was just one of Bergen-Belsen's many victims. Frank was living in the Netherlands when the Nazis seized it in 1940, leaving them trapped. In 1942 they were forced into hiding in secret rooms hidden inside Otto Frank's office building. They spent two years there, but were anonymously betrayed and sent to the concentration camps. Anne, and her sister Margot, were taken to Bergen-Belsen, where they died of typhus in February 1945, just months before the Allies liberated it. Advertisement

It is thought as many as 70,000 people died in the camp, many from typhus, after it was liberated.

Unlike Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen was not formally considered an 'extermination camp' as it did not house gas chambers, but it was a death camp nonetheless.

The British Army restored electricity and set up emergency medical centres to treat the sick, but for thousands it was too late.

Lt-Colonel Berney, who rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, spoke about the hellish scenes at the camp to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation in April last year.

'As we drove along the camp's main road we saw bodies lying beside the road and many hundreds of emaciated men and women prisoners still mostly behind barbed wire,' he told the Sunday People.

'There were corpses littering the ground and piles of corpses everywhere. At the end of the road a large open mass grave contained hundreds.'

He was involved with the liberation of Belsen camp for more than three months before he handed it over to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency.

The former major was then posted to the State of Schleswig as British Army Military Governor.

'People asked me, 'What was it like?' No words of mine could adequately describe the sights, the sounds, the stench, and the sheer horror of that camp,' he said.
This is the amazing moment filmed on a dashcam when a garbage truck ploughs through the safety barrier of an interstate ramp and falls more than 100 feet.

The camera shows driver Kaseem Smith lose control of the vehicle on the ramp of Interstate 95 and fall into a neighborhood park near Southwest 7 Street in Miami, Florida.

The shocking footage has camera angles inside the cab and pointing ahead at the very moment the crash happened.

Florida Highway Patrol said Kaseem Smith, left, looked distracted moments before he lost control of his truck

This is the moment Kaseem Smith smashes through the safety barrier on I95 in Miami Florida in his truck

The force of the impact has thrown Smith from his seat, who was cited for not wearing a seatbelt

Kaseem Smith was driving along the I95 off ramp in Miami when he lost control of his garbage truck

Smith miraculously survived the crash after the truck fell from the off ramp, left and into the parking lot below

Florida Highway Patrol released the footage of the incident which took place on February 15.

Officers claimed Smith appeared to look to his right moments before the vehicle veered off course when it glanced twice off an inside wall.

Smith then turned the opposite direction too violently and lost control of the vehicle sending it through the barrier before dropping 100 feet to Jose Marti park below.

Moments earlier, the truck had passed over the Miami river.

Fortunately, nobody on the ground was injured, and only two cars were destroyed as well as the truck when it landed in the parking lot.

As the truck fell through the air, Smith was thrown clear and suffered serious injuries. He was rushed from the scene to Jackson Memorial Hospital and later released to continue his recovery at home.

The garbage truck was driving on I95 through Miami when it crashed through a safety barrier and fell 100 feet

The truck went through the concrete safety barrier on the side of the ramp and fell through the air

Amazingly, nobody was killed on the ground after the incident which happened on February 15 in Miami

He was later cited for careless driving and not wearing his seatbelt.

Police spokesman Joe Sanchez told NBC New York: 'He basically focused on something else, so he is driving carelessly. He collides twice with the wall and that's when he overreacts.

'I've never seen an accident like this where someone has survived it. So on that day, God gave him an opportunity for a second life. From the video in and of itself one has to look at is, how did he survive this, because this is short of a miracle.'

In a statement released by Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso, he stressed the importance of having in-cab technology in trucks.

He said: 'We are very happy that Mr. Kaseem Smith has been released from the hospital and that he survived this crash which the video shows is nothing short of a miracle. The recording is proof that this technology works and can provide answers about driving events that would otherwise be difficult to assess.
A love rat accused of marrying another woman while his girlfriend gave birth to their baby has insisted that the whole story is untrue.

Adonis Rodriguez, from the Dominican Republic, said he is afraid of confronting the mother of his child about the lies for fear that she would shut off his contact with baby Diego.

Mother Heather McGillion, 24, from Scotland, told last week of her devastation after a friend sent her photographs of Adonis with his new bride, as she lay in a hospital 4,000 miles away.

But Adonis claimed today that the birth in fact took place a full month before his marriage to German tourist Julia Schuberth.

Wedding: Adonis, pictured with his new wife Julia, told MailOnline he is worried about confronting Heather for fear that she would end his relationship with the baby

Doting: New father Adonis Rodriguez, pictured with baby Diego, insists that the claim he got married as his girlfriend gave birth to their son is a lie

Care: The mother of Adonis' child, Heather McGillion, spoke of her devastation of finding out that the wedding took place while she was giving birth. Pictured, Adonis with baby Diego

She said that I got married the day that she was in hospital, Adonis, 21, told MailOnline, but I had my wedding a month after she had the baby.

Its all a lie.

I havent done anything against her because she is the mother of my son and none of it is his fault, hes only a baby.

He said: We were already broken up. I have spoken to her since, but shes known all along that shes been telling lies.

'She asked me not to make any demands of her, and asked me to talk to my wife so that she also wont make any demands.

She told me if I did that I could carry on seeing my son.

Official: A photograph of Adonis and Julia's marriage certificate proves that the wedding didn't take place until January 8, more than a month after the birth of baby Diego

Flaunt: Adonis has covered his Facebook page with pictures of his new son baby Diego - who he described as 'the best gift'

Newborn: Adonis was in a relationship with Diego's mother Heather McGillion for a year before she fell pregnant with baby Diego

Despite Heathers claims that she and Adonis had planned a life together in the Caribbean, Adonis insisted that they werent together when the baby was born on December 5.

A photograph of the marriage certificate proves that the wedding didn't take place until January 8.

Heather has returned to the Dominican Republic with Diego, who is now three months old, and is allowing Adonis to visit him.

Adonis has described baby Diego as 'the best gift', and has posted a series of adorable photographs on Facebook showing off his new baby - his second child.

Your father will never leave you alone, I love you, he wrote in the caption of one photo.

Ceromony: Heather said that as she welcomed Diego into the world, she was horrified to receive a message on Facebook from a friend showing Adonis marrying German Julia Schuberth (pictured)

Before split: Heather, pictured in happier times with Adonis, said he treated her like a princess and was so excited about their baby

Proud: Heather McGillion, 24, from Renfrewshire met Adonis when they were both working as hotel entertainers in the popular tourist resort

Cute: Adonis posts adorable pictures of his infant son with the captions saying 'Your father will never leave you alone, I love you' and 'Thanks to God for giving me another day of life with my son'

In another he added: Thanks to God for giving me another day of life with my son, Diego Ramon Rodriguez.

Adonis and Heather, a trained dancer, started dating while they both worked as hotel entertainers in the Dominican Republic.

Heather fell pregnant a year into the relationship with Adonis. But after suffering complications during the pregnancy she decided to return home to Scotland to give birth.

She said: 'I still can't believe what happened. Adonis had given me the impression he wanted to be together forever but while I was giving birth to his baby, he was marrying another woman.'

Row: Adonis and Julia (pictured) are now together - but Heather is living in the Dominican Republic with her mother so Adonis can see his son

Love: On his Facebook page, Adonis posted: 'Love does not need to be perfect it just needs to be true'. He also wrote alongside this picture: 'I'm so so happy thanks god me baby love you so much'

Together: Adonis and Heather had been together a year when Heather fell pregnant. She moved back to Scotland to have her baby due to complications with the pregnancy

Romeo: Baby Diego is believed to be 21-year-old Adonis's second child, who also posts pictures on Facebook of his older son, a toddler

Adonis admitted that he and Julia, 31, married quickly, but the pair have spoken of their true love.

They met about a year before the wedding, when Julia came to stay at the hotel. After becoming friends on Facebook they messaged each other and became close.

Later, after Adonis moved to another hotel, Julia travelled to visit him four times and began planning their wedding.
said he cared more about the woman's nose than her life

A plastic surgeon who went ahead with a nose job despite his patient going into cardiac arrest on the operating table has been slammed for placing more importance on her nose than her life.

Dr Tobias James Pincock and his anaesthetist Dr Kirsten Elissa Morgan faced the New South Wales Medical Council's Professional Standards Committee after they gave a patient nose surgery within 45 minutes of her suffering heart complications in January 2011.

The pair have been 'strongly reprimanded' for failing to stop the non-urgent procedure once the patient, known as Patient A, went into cardiac arrest - requiring the administration of adrenaline, atropine and three defibrillations to stabilise her, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Dr Tobias James Pincock and his anaesthetist Dr Kirsten Elissa Morgan faced the New South Wales Medical Council's Professional Standards Committee

The call was made to continue after local anaesthetic had been administered but not before the first incision was made, causing the committee to find that Dr Pincock had failed to appreciate that Patient A's 'life was more important than her nose'.

The woman, who was operated on at Hunters Hill Private Hospital and transferred to Royal North Shore Hospital, had booked the procedure to improve her breathing on top of cosmetic reasons.

She developed takotsubo syndrome, also known as broken-heart syndrome, which stops the heart from pumping correctly, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Dr Morgan reportedly told the committee that Dr Pincock pressured her into continuing, citing that Patient A suffered with ongoing sunisutis and would likely be reluctant to try again if the surgery was cancelled.

The call was made to continue after local anaesthetic had been administered but not before the first incision was made, causing the committee to find that Dr Pincock had failed to appreciate that Patient A's 'life was more important than her nose'

The woman booked her surgery and was operated on at The woman at Hunters Hill Private Hospital

She was transferred to the Royal North Shore Hospital once her condition worsened

Dr Pincock denied this claim, stating that he thought the patient was stable when they decided to proceed - an assessment proven to be incorrect by clinical records.

The committee found that the surgery should have been abandoned and that both clinicians were guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct as either could have vetoed the operation.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Morgan, an adult and paediatric anaesthetist, acknowledged her error in judgement and expressed remorse - stating she had been under a lot of stress and 'wasn't thinking straight'.

The committee found that Dr Pincock had attempted to minimise his obligations to the patient following the surgery, displaying a 'single-minded focus surgical issues, to the exclusion of the overall health and safety of Patient A'.

Neither doctor's licence has been suspended.
Do you know where Bobby Bear is? Call 020 3615 0522 or email victoria.finan@mailonline.co.uk

A mother has launched a desperate appeal after losing a teddy bear which has helped comfort her poorly daughter since the day she was born.

Two-year-old Sienna Martin, from St Helens, Merseyside, was born with a cleft palate and lip and has endured dozens of hospital visits and operations in her short life.

Sienna has Pierre Robin syndrome - a condition where the lower jaw is too small, causing breathing problems - and was taken into special care immediately after birth.

Sienna Martin has had Bobby Bear since she was born, and the teddy bear comforted her while she was in special care and her parents weren't able to visit her

The teddy has gone missing on a Jet2 flight from Gran Canaria to Manchester, sparking an appeal by Sienna's (right) mum Riane, also pictured here with second daughter Georgia (left)

Because her mother Riane Martin, 32, and father Gareth, 36, weren't allowed to see her, they sent in Bobby Bear, a black and white cuddly toy the couple bought on Route 66 in America during their honeymoon in 2012.

But the family lost the toy on a Jet2 flight from Gran Canaria to Manchester Airport last Saturday and Riane said Sienna has been devastated ever since.

Beautician Riane said: 'We bought Bobby before I was even pregnant and we said then that he was going to be for our first child.

The teddy has remained with Sienna as she faced a lengthy battle with Pierre Robin syndrome, a condition that means her lower jaw is too small and she has breathing problems

'When Sienna was born she was taken straight into special care and we weren't allowed to be with her so my husband took Bobby through to be with her instead.

'He's been with her every moment since an hour after she was born and a huge comfort through every surgery and hospital trip.'

Sienna was taken in for her first surgery to repair her cleft palate at just six months old and then had to have another just six months later.

But after her second surgery, Sienna's health deteriorated and her palate collapsed after a serious infection, which saw her admitted back into hospital this January.

And while her health is gradually improving, Sienna faces years of regular doctors appointments, speech therapy and possibly more surgeries until she is 16.

Bobby Bear has been there to comfort Sienna every step of the way - and Riane said without him her daughter is unable to sleep and asks constantly when her teddy is coming home.

The adorable toddler is struggling to sleep properly without Bobby Bear, leaving her parents increasingly frantic to find him

Riane said of Bobby Bear: ''He's been with her every moment since an hour after she was born and a huge comfort through every surgery and hospital trip.'

She said: 'She is really so upset. She's not sleeping properly without him and all she wants in the world is to have him home.

'She keeps asking where Bobby is and we have just had to tell her that he is still on his holiday then she keeps asking when he is coming home and we just don't know what to say.

'Yesterday we had a bit of a moment where we thought she had misplaced something else and the first thing she said was 'he has left me like Bobby Bear''.

'She will be okay for a bit and then it comes to things like bedtime or she sees her little sister, Georgia, with her special toy and she realises Bobby is gone again.

'It is really hard seeing her go through all of this. You don't want any of your children to have to go through anything that will cause them pain and upset.'

Sienna's health is gradually improving, but she faces years of regular doctors appointments, speech therapy and possibly more surgeries until she is 16.

Riane said: 'He is a small bear so there is a chance he is lost forever but thanks to the amount of people who have shown their support and shared the post then if anyone has picked him up they have got to see this and give him back surely'

After getting in touch with Jet2 and Manchester Airport - who so far have been unable to find Bobby - Riane took to Facebook in a desperate last attempt to reunite her daughter and the toy.

Her appeal has since gone viral - racking up almost 25,000 shares - and the family have had hundreds of messages from all over the world offering to buy Sienna a new bear.

A woman who lives along Route 66 even messaged to say she would travel to the shop Bobby was originally bought from and buy Sienna a new one.

Riane's Facebook post has gone viral, with more than 25,000 shares - but no-one has come forward saying they know where Bobby Bear is

Riane said: 'Everyone has been amazing. The airline have been absolutely fantastic. The general manager has been in touch and the manager at Manchester Airport has been too - they are doing everything they can to reunite Bobby and Sienna.

WHAT IS PIERRE ROBIN SYNDROME? Pierre Robin syndrome is a rare condition where a baby is born with a small lower jaw and a tongue positioned further back in the mouth than usual. This can result in breathing difficulties which requires careful positioning of the baby and, sometimes, a breathing tube placed through the nose. Most infants with Pierre Robin syndrome will also have a cleft palate. The cleft can usually be repaired with surgery, although treatment may be delayed if there are continuing issues with airway obstruction. The lower jaw usually has some 'catch-up' growth later and orthodontic treatment can further help the bite. Source: NHS Advertisement

'It has been so overwhelming. When I wrote the post I thought a couple of my friends might share it but it has gone completely viral - it is just madness.

'He is a small bear so there is a chance he is lost forever but thanks to the amount of people who have shown their support and shared the post then if anyone has picked him up they have got to see this and give him back surely?

'If anyone has taken him home by mistake, I need them to just stop and think about the little girl who is missing him.

'It would mean absolutely everything to us to find him and not just for Sienna - he is so sentimental to me and her dad too.'

A spokesman for Jet2 said: 'Since finding out about Bobby, Jet2.com's friendly team have been on a mission to reunite Sienna with her beloved bear, spending the past 48 hours scouring the airport, aircraft and lost property storecupboards.

'Unfortunately Bobby is still missing but the airline is still supporting Riane in her social media search to #findbobbybear and has also sent Sienna one of its Jettoo cuddly lion toys to comfort her.'
A soft porn actress who appeared in an online advert promoting Ted Cruz which was pulled after her erotic past was revealed has endorsed Donald Trump instead.

Amy Lindsay, who appeared in films such as Confessions of a Lap Dancer and Beverly Hills Bordello, was used in a campaign advert supporting Senator Cruz.

The campaign advert for Cruz featured a group of people in an AA-style meeting where conservative voters who felt betrayed after their preferred candidate became moderate once securing office.

Soft porn actress Amy Lindsay, right, has endorsed Republican front runner Donald Trump, left

Lindsay, right, appeared in an online campaign ad for Senator Ted Cruz attacking Senator Marco Rubio

However, Ted Cruz's organisation pulled the ad when they discovered the nature of Lindsay's acting past

However, Cruz, who is the poster boy of the Republican's Christian right, pulled the video from the Internet when his campaign team realized Lindsay had appeared in films such as Insatiable Desires, staring opposite Dale DaBone.

Following the controversy, Lindsay, 49, announced that she was endorsing Donald Trump for president.

In an interview with CNN, Lindsay claimed she was very similar to the Republican front runner.

She said: 'I like what he stands for. I think people are really attacking him and lying about him, and I kind of know how that feels.

'Hes the front-runner but hes also kind of  especially in this last week or so become kind of an underdog.'

Lindsay, pictured, posted a selfie photograph with adult movie star Ron Jeremy, left

Lindsay, pictured, described herself as a conservative Republican and would never do a Hillary Clinton ad

Commenting on the controversy, she added: 'I liked working on the Cruz ad. I was educated on what Ted Cruz stood for and yeah, I havent really been happy with the way hes been going this recently.'

In the ad, which is seen as a direct attack on Marco Rubio, who is the most telegenic of the remaining Republican candidates, Lindsay advises: 'Maybe you should vote for more than just a pretty face next time.'

Cruz campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told the Daily Caller: 'The actress responded to an open casting call.

'She passed her audition and got the job. Unfortunately, she was not vetted by the casting company. Had the campaign known of her full filmography, we obviously would not have let her appear in the ad.

'The campaign is taking the ad down and will replace it with a different commercial.'
Police added that attacks are unusual as 'no perpetrators were drunk'

Follows spike in assaults in city centre by 'men of foreign appearance'

Women in Ostersund, Sweden, warned not to go out alone after dark

Women in a town in northern Sweden have been warned not to walk alone at night in the wake of a spike in violent assaults and attempted rapes.

Police in Ostersund made the unusual move to ask women not to go out unaccompanied after dark, after reports of eight brutal attacks, some by 'men of foreign appearance', in just over two weeks.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, police said they 'have never seen anything like it in Ostersund', a small town in the north of Sweden with a population of just 45,000.

No-go area: Police in Ostersund (pictured) have asked women and children not to go out alone after dark, after reports of six brutal attacks by 'men of foreign appearance' in just over two weeks

It is extremely unusual for Swedish authorities to make such warnings, and it has not been well received in Sweden, a country proud of its progress in gender equality and women's rights.

All incidents have taken place in Ostersund since the 20th of February, and involved outdoor attacks where the perpetrators have been unknown to their female victims.

A police spokesperson added that in addition to the increased frequency, the attacks are also conspicuous as - despite being carried out late at night - none of the perpetrators were drunk.

'The cases of the sexual harassment and attempted rapes have involved groups of up to three people,' regional police chief Stephen Jerand told Sveriges Television.

'What stands out is also that none of these perpetrators have been under the influence,' he adds.

Shocked: Local police said they 'have never seen anything like it in Ostersund' in the wake of the attacks

Unusual: Despite the attacks and sexual assaults being carried out at night in Ostersund, police noted that none of the perpetrators were drunk

The most recent assault took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, when a woman was became the victim of an attempted rape by three young men in central Ostersund.

She was brought to the ground by three unknown men shortly after 1am, after which the men tried to rip her trousers off, but the woman fought back and managed to escape.

The perpetrators have been described as 'tall, slim, aged 18-25 and speaking Swedish with a foreign accent'.

Just a few hours later, police received another report of a lone woman being attacked by a young man in the same neighbourhood in central Ostersund.

A police report states that an unknown man in his late 20s 'whose appearance was described as foreign' attacked the woman without provocation.

The man had reportedly walked up to her and punched her in the face with his fist, then thrown her to the ground, pushing her head into the asphalt, before running off.

Sweden, which has a population of nearly 10 million, welcomed more than 163,000 migrants and refugees in 2015, more than any other European nation per capita

Police also highlighted an additional four cases in the past two weeks, including a lone woman assaulted by three men, and a report of a group of ten-year-old girls being harassed by men in central Ostersund.

The warning has been widely criticised, including by representatives of the local government, with many arguing that women should not have to 'adapt' to abusers.

'I am adverse to the solution being to tell women and children to sat at home, that can never be the solution for us,' local government commissioner AnnSofie Andersson told Sveriges Radio.

Sweden welcomed nearly 163,000 migrants and refugees in 2015, more than any other European nation per capita.

The Scandinavian country, which has a population of nearly 10 million, imposed compulsory border-control ID checks in January to try to curb the influx.

Europe is facing it's biggest wave of immigration since the Second World War, with millions risking their lives to leave war and terror behind, or simply to seek a better life on another continent.
Another said pieces of flesh were 'hanging everywhere' after tooth removal

One patient claimed he ripped out eight of her teeth in a single procedure

Accused of causing injuries to more than 100 patients, his trial began today

Labelled the 'dentist of horror', he ripped out healthy teeth and broke jaws

A Dutch man nicknamed the 'dentist of horror' went on trial today accused of causing horrific injuries to the mouths of more than 100 patients in France.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, ripped out healthy teeth and left dozens of patients in a remote French village with broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia.

He is charged with aggravated assault, as well as fraud over claims that he tried to rip off patients and insurance companies, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a 120,000 fine if found guilty.

A court sketch dated October 24, 2014, shows Jacobus van Nierop in a court in Amsterdam. The Dutch-born dentist is accused of mutilating more than 100 patients during his time at a clinic in rural France

His case is being heard at a court in Nevers in central France, near the rural area of Chateau-Chinon where he came to work in 2008.

Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter and was initially welcomed by locals who were sorely lacking in medical services.

A neighbour recalled the arrival of a smiley, larger-than-life character, with a 'big 4x4, a big dog, a big cigar'.

But by 2011, the authorities were starting to question some of his accounting, and patients were starting to compare notes on his dentistry.

Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, visited the dentist in March 2012 to have braces fitted.

'He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days,' she said.

An 80-year-old, Bernard Hugon, said the dentist left 'pieces of flesh hanging everywhere' after tearing out a tooth.

'Every time, he would give us what he called "a little prick" and we were asleep, knocked out,' said Nicole Martin, a retired teacher who lost several teeth to abscesses caused by the horrific operations.

Following his arrest in 2013, Van Nierop fled France but was later arrested and extradited from Canada

'When it was over, we would find a Post-it note saying to come back for an appointment the next day or the day after,' she added.

With the help of one of Van Nierop's assistants, Mrs Martin set up a victims' group in early 2013 to press charges, and it soon swelled to 120 members.

In June of that year, police arrested Van Nierop but left him free pending trial, and he fled the country the following December.

He was eventually tracked down to a small Canadian town in New Brunswick and arrested under an international warrant in September 2014.

Local media reported that he tried to cut his throat when police came for him.

Van Nierop tried to block his extradition, first to the Netherlands and then France, claiming to suffer from 'psychological problems' including gender identity issues and suicidal tendencies.

However, he was eventually placed in a prison psychiatric unit in the Loiret department, south of Paris.

'He claimed to have killed his first wife, he played crazy, he said he was trans-sexual. He tried everything' to avoid extradition, Mrs Martin said.

According to Dutch media, Van Nierop had already come under investigation at home over his working practices before coming to France.
Tiki, or Polynesian-style cocktail culture, was a big part of the 1950s era and includes

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A woman obsessed with the 1950s has transformed her home into a mid-century Pacific-themed paradise good enough for Elvis himself.

Emma Edwards has spent 20,000 transforming her 1930s home and campervan in Greater Manchester into an homage to the colourful post-war era fashion.

She has overtaken the home she shares with partner Nigel Preston and re-designed the interior, painstakingly recreating an authentic vintage-looking 1950s Tiki-inspired home, before turning her attention to transforming a neglected 1963 Globetrotter Airstream into a mobile Polynesian paradise.

Tiki, or Polynesian-style cocktail culture, was a big part of the 1950s era and is defined by loud, garish Hawaiian style print. The style was loved by Elvis Presley and popularised by his cult 1950s films.

A woman obsessed with the 1950s has transformed her home into a mid-century Polynesian-themed paradise. Emma Edwards has spent 20,000 transforming her 1930s home and campervan (pictured) in Greater Manchester into a living homage to the post-war era

She has overtaken the home she shares with partner Nigel Preston and re-designed the interior, painstakingly recreating an authentic vintage-looking 1950s Tiki-inspired home

Ms Edwards in her 1950s kitchen. Before moving in with her partner four years ago, Ms Edwards' own home was a shrine to 50s decor and featured a number of bamboo cocktail bars

The home features a number of original features - including original 1950s packaging and Formica workstops

She said although her partner's tastes were more modern she soon convinced him to let her decorate some of the living space and introduce some tropical influences - including the Tiki cocktail bar

She has sourced authentic tropical printed barkcloth from Hawaii for the upholstery and hunted down original fittings such as the 1950s fibreglass wall lights.

Ms Edwards, 47, said: 'I love the flamboyance of the era and the way it's both glamorous but with kitsch and quirky touches.'

Another of the special features is the pink bathtub remolded from the original tub with a matching cream and pink vanity sink.

She said: 'It was an incredible transformation from a complete wreck to a mid-century tropical delight - we couldn't have been more thrilled with the results.'

She spent 400 on vintage Hawaiian tropical deadstock wallpaper, spent between 100 and 200 on each of the five bamboo bars they own and over the years has spent 20,000 on different items and shipping from America.

Before moving in with her partner four years ago, Ms Edwards' own home was a shrine to 50s decor and featured a number of bamboo cocktail bars.

She said although her partner's tastes were more modern she soon convinced him to let her decorate some of the living space and introduce some tropical influences.

She then turned her attention to transforming a neglected 1963 Globetrotter Airstream into a mobile Polynesian paradise

The Globetrotter Airstream sits outside the couple's home in Greater Manchester - and stepping inside is like stepping into a different era

The couple's bedroom is a riot of pink and animal print. She said she has loved throwing herself into transforming the house into a home that Elvis himself would have been proud of

The home features lots of period flourishes - including vintage wall decorations, and garish printed carpet runners

She said: 'I moved in but never felt 100% happy - surroundings are really important to me.

'My bamboo cocktail bar was in the conservatory and it was a bit cold out there and wanted to move it into the lounge.

'Nigel doesn't have a natural eye for style in the same way I do, he was worried about how it would turn out.

'I decided to do a little Tiki cocktail corner and he absolutely loved it. After that he was like 'let's go for it'!'

She then threw herself into transforming the house into a home that Elvis himself would have been proud of.

She said: 'Sometimes I see amazing lamps and have to remind myself I already have so many! I'm addicted to buying sets of glassware and knickknacks to decorate the bar area.

'We use them a lot and are really into the whole 50s Tiki cocktail scene and love entertaining with friends.'

The kitchen is home to a sleek cream and chrome reproduction microwave and fridge and other vintage touches. The only room in the house that Ms Edwards has yet to work her magic on is this bathroom.

'I love 1950s-style pink bathrooms you find in time capsule houses in America - but we need to save up before we can have one.'

There's just one piece in the living room that has yet to enjoy a mid-century makeover - the TV.
Lord Lawson (pictured) accused Bank of England Governor Mark Carney of only making the Brexit warning because he wanted to please the man who appointed him - George Osborne

Former Chancellor Lord Lawson last night launched a scathing attack on the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney after he warned a Brexit vote is the 'biggest domestic risk' facing the UK economy.

Lord Lawson accused Mr Carney of only making the warning because he wanted to please the man who appointed him - George Osborne.

And the former Tory Chancellor accused the Bank of England Governor of making the remarks to guarantee him a lucrative job with an investment bank like 'Goldman Sachs,' which is backing the campaign to keep Britain in the Brussels club.

Mr Carney faced a fierce grilling by Eurosceptic MPs during his appearance before the Treasury select committee this morning.

He insisted he was choosing all of his words carefully and said the Bank was neutral on the referendum question but Eurosceptic Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg blasted the Governor for making pro-EU statements that were 'beneath the dignity' of his office.

Mr Carney also faced accusations he was making 'speculative' pro-EU claims.

Mr Carney hit back later in the session, claiming the North East Somerset MP had a 'selective memory'.

The crucial moment came in the final minutes of the treasury select committee hearing when chairman Andrew Tyrie pressed Mr Carney on whether Brexit would amount to a 'profound economic shock' to Britain, as claimed by Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Carney said: 'The issue is the biggest domestic risk to financial stability.'

The Governor said Brexit was a 'known risk' to the markets and was not of the same magnitude as global risks such as a Chinese slowdown.

He warned: 'It has some potential to amplify pre-existing risks to financial stability.'

Jacob Rees-Mogg, left at today's hearing, accused the Governor of using language straight out of the In campaign's playbook. Mark Carney, right today, denied the charge and insisted he was 'careful' with words

Today's hearing took centre stage in the increasingly angry EU referendum campaign as Mr Carney was pressed for the Bank's view

Speaking very slowly as he considered his words, Mr Carney added: 'The issue is the biggest domestic risk to financial stability because, in part, of the issues around uncertainty.

'But also because it has the potential - depending on how it is prosecuted and these issues can be addressed - to amplify risks around the current account, potential risks around housing, potential risks around market functioning we are trying to mitigate.

GOVERNOR: BREXIT CALL BY BORIS HELPED SINK THE POUND Boris Johnson's Brexit declaration 'concentrated minds' in the currency markets Boris Johnson's declaration for the Out campaign may have driven a slump in the pound, Bank Governor Mark Carney has suggested. The London Mayor finally declared for Brexit in a doorstep press conference a day after David Cameron formally fired the starting gun on the referendum. The value of sterling fell in the early stages of the campaign and financial analysts have warned the pound could fall to 'parity' with the euro after a Brexit vote. Asked whether the London Mayor's announcement had an impact, he replied: 'The combination of having the agreement, and therefore a date for the referendum, and the tangible evidence of a campaign in favour of Leave with credible politicians as part of that - not least represented on this committee - concentrated the minds. 'I know that seems a bit odd that sometimes financial markets ignore an issue until there are focal points that make it more tangible, but this is what happens time and time again. 'It was a combination of events that focused minds.' Mr Carney said the moves in sterling were 'relatively large' but 'not unprecedented'. Advertisement

'Also associated risks with respect to the euro area.'

Speaking tonight, Lord Lawson said Mr Carney was 'wrong' to make remarks about Brexit and hit out at him for entering the 'political fray in this way'.

'I have known all six of his immediate predecessors: two before I became chancellor, two when I was Chancellor and two since then,' he told the BBC.

'Not one of them would've considered it proper to make an intervention of that kind.'

Explaining why he thought the Governor had made the remarks, Lord Lawson added: 'I think it would please the Chancellor of the Exchequer who appointed him. After all in two years time he's going back to Canada, and going back no doubt to Goldman Sachs and so he felt free to do it. But he shouldn't have done it.'

Ahead of the evidence session, Mr Carney said in a letter to the committee the deal secured by David Cameron on Britain's EU membership 'addresses' the concerns of the Bank around the eurozone.

The Governor insisted the Bank was neutral on the referendum question and warned there were risks on both sides.

But the eueosceptic Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg blasted the approach in an exchange about the benefits of the single market on Britain.

Mr Carney insisted: 'There is a reason why a substantial proportion more global banks, more internationally active banks are head quartered in London than any other European country or all other European countries combined.

'That's partly because of the cluster of expertise that it here but also in many cases... that is because of the passporting ability of this economy in terms of the activity.'

Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'This is what I think is doing your reputation and the reputation of the Bank of England harm - you are coming out with the standard statements of the pro-EU group.

'The statements you make about the dynamism of the economy could just as well refer to reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher.

'It is speculative and beneath the dignity of the Bank of England to be making speculative pro-EU comments.'

Mr Carney insisted: 'I'm not going to let that stand.'

The Governor said he was confident in his assessment of the implications of the EU single market.

He continued: 'What you see... is the growth of UK trade with the rest of Europe is arguably - not conclusively but arguably - because of the single market is greater.'

The two men renewed their clash at the end of the session when Mr Rees-Mogg insisted Mr Carney had only focused on the 'positive' aspects.

The Governor insisted this was 'entirely unfounded'.

The Bank of England's conclusions on Mr Cameron's EU deal, pictured, accept it 'addresses' the concerns of the Bank surrounding the 'further integration of the euro area'

HOW HE MADE A STRING OF FORECASTING ERRORS Mark Carney has been accused of making a number of forecasting errors as well as straying beyond his brief since he took over as Bank governor in July 2013: That August the Bank said interest rates would not rise until unemployment had fallen to 7 per cent  something not expected until late 2016. Yet the figure fell below 7 per cent in early 2014 and is now 5.1 per cent  all without interest rates rising.

The same month Mr Carney said Britain was trapped in the slowest recovery in output on record. The UK became the fastest growing big economy that year and in 2014.

Last July he suggested the decision over when to raise interest rates might be taken around the turn of the year. But in January he ruled out any change.

Mr Carney said last month that the next move in rates was likely to be up. Three weeks later he said: We could cut rates towards zero.

He also agreed to take the job of governor on condition he would serve only five years. He now says he may want eight. Advertisement

Mr Carney insisted the language used in his reports was 'careful'.

Committe chairman Andrew Tyrie joked that the long pauses as Mr Carney chose his words could have paved the way for an alternative career as a 'bomb disposal expert'.

Elsewhere in his evidence, Mr Carney said EU membership 'reinforces the dynamism of the UK economy'.

But he also warned the unfinished monetary union - the rules around the euro currency - represented a risk of staying in.

Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said: 'Mark Carney made clear that there are financial risks to Britain voting to stay in the EU. He stressed the need for the UK to retain flexibility but the Government failed to secure any meaningful reforms to protect UK taxpayers.

As the previous Governor Lord King has warned, the euro is likely to explode. If we vote to remain our money will be used to bailout the euro when it next hits crisis point.

Voting remain means giving away more power, and more of our money every year to Brussels. The safer option in this referendum is to Vote Leave and take back control.

Treasury select committee member John Man claimed Mr Carney had been 'reliant on fear factor' during his evidence to the MPs today

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake picked up on Mr Carney's evidence that banks based their businesses in London because of the advantages of the EU

RED FACE FOR BORIS OVER EU EMAIL Boris Johnsons staff were told not to contradict him on Europe, it emerged yesterday. An email sent from the London Mayors office ordered senior staff to stay silent about EU membership if they did not back Brexit. Mr Johnson yesterday described the order as a cock-up and said it would be revoked. It comes just days after he accused Downing Street of trying to silence critics. An email from his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister to Greater London Authority officials said staff could express personal opinions outside work but added: I would expect, given your roles, you either to advocate the Mayors position or otherwise not openly to contradict it. But yesterday Mr Johnson said nobody has been gagged, and the order ceased to be operative as soon as I was made aware of it  Its a cock-up  My staff and my team have complete freedom to say what they want. Advertisement

GRASSROOTS BACKING FOR OUTERS Senior Tory MPs who backed staying in the EU have seen their standing plummet among the partys grassroots  while Outers have enjoyed a surge in popularity. In the latest poll for future Tory leader, support for George Osborne slid from 15 per cent to 11 per cent. Last September, he was backed by 30 per cent of Tory activists to replace David Cameron. Home Secretary Theresa Mays backing has fallen from 21 per cent to 10 per cent in a month, while Business Secretary Sajid Javids support tumbled from 14 per cent to 5 per cent. Boris Johnson has become the grassroots favourite since declaring for the Leave camp, with support up from 19 per cent to 32 per cent. Michael Goves backing to be leader rose from 8 per cent to 20 per cent. Advertisement

Mr Carney said the City of London would 'without question' lose business if it failed to negotiate the continuation of existing mutual recognition agreements within the financial sector following a vote for Brexit.

He warned that negotiations of this kind 'in general take a very long time to achieve' and may involve ceding some measure of the UK's sovereignty.

Mr Carney's letter to the committee said: 'The Settlement addresses the issues the Bank identified as being important, given the likely need for further integration of the euro area, to maintaining its ability to achieve its objectives.'

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell was last night critical of the Bank's announcement it would provide finance around the referendum to ensure stability

It added: 'It makes clear that the UK retains responsibility for supervising its financial stability, financial institutions and markets as well as maintaining responsibility for the resolution of failed financial institutions within its jurisdiction.

'At the same time, it acknowledges the existing powers of the Union to take action that is necessary to respond to threats to financial stability.'

Pressed on whether Downing Street had any involvement in the positive tone of the letter, Mr Carney dismissed the notion out of hand.

He said: 'We are expressing views that are the views of the institution. We are not leaned on by anybody.

'It would have no effect if they did.

'To be absolutely clear, we are choosing our words carefully.'

The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said: 'It's for the BoE to consider what measures they should take with regard to the financial stability of the UK economy. The Prime Minister is very clear on the reasons why we should remain in the EU...

'We've heard the Prime Minster and the Chancellor talk about the risks that there would be of leaving. An EU exit would be a profound economic shock. We are going to focus on making the case for remaining in the EU.'

The Bank of England was last night accused of scaremongering after offering emergency cash to Britain's biggest lenders ahead of the EU referendum.

In an unprecedented move, the central bank announced it is taking extra precautions to ensure the June 23 vote does not spark another banking crisis.

In a statement issued after markets closed yesterday evening, it said it will offer extra loans to banks and building societies so they can protect themselves against turmoil on financial markets.

Douglas Carswell, MP for Ukip and a prominent member of campaign group Vote Leave said: 'We can now see vividly that the big corporate banks and the Bank of England are aligned with Project Fear.

'We know the banks got massive bailouts and we know the Bank of England gives cheap credit subsidies to the banks.

'Now we know that in the run-up to the referendum banks will be given even more access to easy money.

'This is cronyism and collusion between vested interests in government and vested interests in big corporate banks.'
The son of Malaysia's hardline Islamic prime minister was caught up in a nightclub row after a popular DJ said he was told to end his set early - so he could take over the decks.

DJ Fadi, from Egypt, was performing at the Zouk nightclub in Singapore, when he abruptly stopped to reveal he had been told to make way for another act.

He then told disappointed clubbers that he was stopping so someone else could take over the booth - later revealed to be Norashman Najib, the son of the Malaysian leader Najib Razak.

Norashman Najib (left), the son of Malaysia's hardline Islamic prime minister Najib Razak (right) was caught up in a nightclub row after a popular DJ was told to end his set early at a Singapore nightspot so he could take over the decks

DJ Fadi (pictured), from Egypt, was performing at the Zouk nightclub in Singapore, when he abruptly stopped to reveal he had been told to make way for another act

The DJ told revellers: 'Ill see you somewhere in the future. Not in Zouk anymore.' The inside of the nightclub is pictured

Against a backdrop of boos and whistles, DJ Fadi - part of the trance duo Aly & Fila - told revellers the club wanted 'someone else to play', Time reports.

He went on: 'Ill see you somewhere in the future. Not in Zouk anymore, because I wont play in Zouk any f*****g more. Theyve insulted me, but I love you guys.'

After news of the incident spread in Southeast Asia, the nightclub took to Facebook to claim that it was all a 'misunderstanding' and denied they had asked DJ Fadi to end his set earlier than planned.

They wrote: 'Zouk would like to clarify that DJ Fadi (Fila) was not at any point of time asked to end his set prematurely before the contracted set end time of 3.30am.

'Zouk has constantly held our invited artists in esteem and respect their works.

The DJ told disappointed clubbers that he was stopping so someone else could take over the booth - later revealed to be Norashman Najib (pictured), the son of the Malaysian leader Najib Razak

The incident came a day after former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad joined with political foes in issuing a declaration signed by 58 public figures urging Najib Razak (pictured) to resign over corruption allegations

Against a backdrop of boos and whistles, DJ Fadi - part of the trance duo Aly & Fila (pictured) - told revellers the club wanted 'someone else to play'

'We understand that this incident has resulted in some discontent and disappointment but would like to give the assurance that Zouk will continue to value the importance and presence of all artists and our customers, and their interests.'

But the clarification did not stop people taking to social media to comment on the incident.

Elaine Ho wrote on Twitter: 'Can't believe Zouk sg (Singapore) allowed najib's son to have aly&fila finish their set early so he could play.'

Wenvi Hidayat wrote on Facebook: 'You messed with the wrong DJ, Zouk. Fadi is very well respected in the industry and has a huge fan base around the world.'

According to Malaysiakini, an aide working for Norashman Najib's mother said the premier's 26-year-old son had not asked to perform but was at the club by invitation of the nightclub.

After news of the incident spread in Southeast Asia, the nightclub took to Facebook to claim that it was all a 'misunderstanding' and denied they had asked DJ Fadi to end his set earlier than planned

The nightclub's clarification did not stop people taking to social media to comment on the incident

Rizal Mansor reportedly said: 'So how could Norashman force anyone (so that he could perform)?'

He claimed Norashman was asked to perform as the closing act as 'an acknowledgement of his talent and hobby'

'Reports that claim Ashman had forced the club management or the deejays to stop the performance are simply not true.'

The incident came a day after former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad joined with political foes in issuing a declaration signed by 58 public figures urging Najib Razak to resign over corruption allegations.

Najib is resisting growing pressure to step down after documents leaked last July showed more than $700 million was deposited in his private bank accounts.

The attorney general decided in January not to prosecute Najib, saying most of the money was a personal donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
A brothel madam who used voodoo curses to force young girls to become sex slaves and made them eat live snakes has been ordered to pay back more than 20,000 out of her profits.

Lizzy Idahosa, 26, made more than 186,000 out of the Nigerian women, who were terrified with black magic and made to see a witch doctor for a sinister 'juju' ceremony, a court heard.

The two victims, aged 23 and 29, had their pubic hair shaved and were forced to eat live snakes and snails as part of the ritual before being flown to Britain where they slept with men across the country.

Idahosa was found guilty of trafficking the women at Cardiff Crown Court and was jailed for eight years in November 2014 - while her husband Jackson Omoruyi, 41, was sentenced to two years.

Lizzy Idahosa, 24, (left) was found guilty of people trafficking after she forced two Nigerian women into prostitution while her husband Jackson Omoruyi, 41, (right) was convicted of money laundering

A Proceeds of Crime hearing revealed that Idahosa had profited by 186,400 from her sex ring.

But prosecutor Eugene Egan told Cardiff Crown Court that investigators could find only 21,900 in Idahosas bank accounts.

Judge Tom Crowther ordered Idahosa to pay the cash traced to her accounts - or face a further nine months in prison.

During their trial the court heard that the two women were terrified into doing what they were told because they believed the juju powers would work.

The pair were eventually found by immigration staff at a brothel in Cardiff and the court heard they had been exploited and abused in the most brutal manner.

Speaking about her horrific ordeal, one 29-year-old victim said: 'It was not a big snake, but it was alive.I just closed my eyes and put it in my mouth.

'They told me if I messed if up, I would get sent back to Nigeria and Lizzy would kill me. I wanted to stop. I was ashamed of myself and I had no life.'

When the women arrived in the UK they were put to work as prostitutes, working in brothels at massage parlours across England and Wales.

Idahosa (left) was found guilty of trafficking the women at Cardiff Crown Court and was jailed for eight years in November 2014 - while her husband Omoruyi, 41, was sentenced to two years

They were told they had to give all the money they earned to Idahosa, and believed the black magic curses would make them go insane or die if they refused.

'The couple were involved in the exploitation of two women brought into the UK from Nigeria to work as prostitutes,' said Caroline Rees, prosecuting, during the trial.

'They were bound to this by something called a juju ritual. It was a ceremonial ritual used to full effect to terrify both women into doing what was demanded of them.

'It was used to ensure compliance, secrecy, and they believed if they broke the bond dire consequences would follow: illness, madness, infertility or death.

'They genuinely believed the powers would work.'

The offences came to light after police arrested a 23-year-old Nigerian woman at the Ambassador Suite brothel in Cardiff, in June 2013.

The offences came to light after police arrested a 23-year-old Nigerian woman at the Ambassador Suite brothel in Cardiff, in June 2013

She told officers she had been living rough in Nigeria after her mother died and had wanted to travel to the UK to find her father.

She had then met a woman, claiming to be Idahosa's sister, who promised to make arrangements for her to travel to London, and as part of the agreement had to take part in the ceremony.

'She did not know what was expected of her,' said Ms Rees, who said the woman had been able to pass through immigration at Heathrow.

'She was taken to a premises full of women dressed in their underwear. There was no explanation as to what was going on but it soon became clear.'

The woman started to work as a prostitute and was forced to have sexual intercourse with seven or eight men every day, working in brothels across the UK, including in Cardiff and Swansea.

When interviewed, she claimed she had given Idahosa 45,000.

The second victim told the court she had paid the defendants 31,400 over two years after working in brothels in Cardiff, Swansea, Barking and East Croydon, and said she had worked in South Wales for a year and eight months.

The woman, who like her fellow victim cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had stopped working and changed her sim card so Idahosa could not contact her.

However, within a month she received a phone call from her mother in Nigeria.

'I had a call from my mum who told me Lizzy's people had been to her house and threatened her,' the victim told the jury.

'Lizzy said if I did not pay her she would kill my mum and make me go mad.'

Idahosa and Omoruyi, who were arrested at their home in London, denied any wrong doing.

But police checked their bank accounts and found a series of transfers with Omoruyi acting as a 'financial middle man'.

Idahosa had denied forcing the women to take part in a black magic ceremony, but claimed that she herself had been trafficked into the UK and forced to work as a prostitute.

She told the jury she did not know the two women had been trafficked.

'It was only when I told them I was trafficked into the country that I found out they were trafficked,' she said.

Idahosa, who is heavily pregnant, said she made an oath with her trafficker before leaving Nigeria and was forced to eat the roast heart of a cockerel.

A Proceeds of Crime hearing at Cardiff Crown Court revealed that Idahosa had profited by 186,400 from her vice ring

She said: 'I wouldn't do the things they say I did because I've been through it.'

The jury was told that cash payments of several hundred pounds a time had been deposited into Omoruyi's account from locations all over the country, including Glasgow, Sheffield and Southampton.

He had claimed that money came from his friend.

'I am the kind of person who likes clothes and shoes and I'm known for that - I like to find bargains,' he said.

'It is not that it is any fraud money or anything. My account has not been used for anything like that.'

During an interview with police, he said: 'I am here to say I do not even know the people you are talking about - I have never seen them.

'I have never involved myself in that kind of activity in this country, even before this country. I have not and I would not,' he had claimed.

Christopher Drew, representing Omoruyi, of London, said: 'Since coming to this country, he has demonstrated a willingness to work honestly.'

But Judge Crowther said he was 'certain' that Omoruyi knew the money was illegal and where it was coming from.

Idahosa was convicted of a total of eight counts including trafficking two women into and around the UK, inciting them to become prostitutes and transferring criminal property.

Omoruyi was convicted of two offences of money laundering.

A jury at Cardiff Crown Court took just five hours to find them guilty. Both were remanded in custody today to be sentenced next month, but judge Tom Crowther QC warned them they will face lengthy custodial sentences.
Cassandra Grant, 37, (pictured) posed as a former friend called Clare Arrowsmith to receive cancer care at home and in hospital before staff realised she was a fraudster

A fantasist stole the identity of terminally-ill cancer patients to get treatment she did not need purely because she craved attention.

Bristol Crown Court heard Cassandra Grant, 37, posed as a former friend called Clare Arrowsmith to receive cancer care at home and in hospital before staff realised she was a fraudster.

She then posed as a doctor and arranged for a 'do not resuscitate' mark to be put on the file of Ms Arrowsmith, who she had previously admitted posing as in 2013 to get a job as a pharmacist.

She also posed as a second terminally-ill woman, Huleya Aleve, to try and get treatment at a doctors surgery but staff got suspicious and care wasn't given, the court heard.

The double fraud was the second time Grant has been in court for pretending to have cancer in order to receive hospital treatment for attention.

She was given a a suspended sentence in 2014 after she befriended real cancer sufferers online, stole their identities, and changed their appointments to get 11,500 of treatment she did not need.

Grant - who suffers from psychiatric condition Munchausen's syndrome - admitted three counts of fraud on Monday.

She was given a 12 month jail term, suspended for two years.

Judge Euan Ambrose told her: 'Medical professionals do a difficult job, and they do it with skill and care, and that care that they gave to you was given freely but ultimately as a result of a deception.

'It is not difficult to see how upsetting that would have been for those who you deceived.'

Bristol Crown Court heard how Grant posed as Clare Arrowsmith and staff at St George Health Centre in Bristol cared for her at home.

She then received cancer care in Frenchay Hospital in March 2014, but staff there realised she was a fraudster.

She then posed as a doctor and arranged for a 'do not resuscitate' mark to be put on the file of Ms Arrowsmith, who she had previously admitted posing as in 2013 to get a job as a pharmacist. She also pretended to be a second terminally-ill woman, Huleya Aleve, to try and get treatment at a doctors surgery

The judge said the fraud was particularly concerning as Grant arranged for a 'Do Not Resuscitate' marker on Ms Arrowsmith's file.

Mark Worsley, prosecuting, said around the same time Grant posed as terminally ill Huleya Aleve to try and get treatment at Lodge Side Surgery in Bristol.

Suspicions were aroused and care arranged was not given, he said.

Five months later Grant joined Facebook and told users she had terminal cancer and was raising money for charity St Peter's Hospice.

She was sent home-made greetings cards by a well-wisher to sell.

Defending, Fiona Elder said her client had 'factitious disorder' and needed to continue with treatment for her complex mental health.

The condition known as Munchausen's syndrome sees people pretend to be ill or induce symptoms in order for other people to care for them and make them the centre of attention.

Grant, from Bristol, was ordered to pay North Bristol Trust 372 compensation and 30 to the sender of greetings cards

One of the Facebook posts collected by Frankie Leeland after she realised she had become a victim of fake cancer sufferer Cassandra Grant

She sent Grant home made greeting cards after the fraudster posted on a Facebook group claiming to have terminal bowel cancer in September 2014. The grandmother-of-two handmade the cards, which she was told by Grant were for a coffee morning to raise money from St Peter's Hospice in Bristol

She was also fined 50 for breaching a previously suspended sentence.

In June 2014, Grant was in court after she claimed to be suffering from incurable cancers to check into hospitals across the UK to receive life-saving treatment.

A year previously she used Facebook to contact a woman called Carly Groombridge who had terminal bowel cancer.

Grant told her she was receiving the same treatment and the pair became good friends and often confided their fears in each other.

But Grant rang up Bristol Royal Infirmary pretending to be her new friend to change an appointment for a scan she was due to have.

She then used the information she had gained to admit herself to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset where she was given 4,853 worth of treatment.

Staff became suspicious when the real Ms Groombridge came for care, and after ringing her GP staff realised Grant had used the same identity to admit herself to another hospital.

Grant was arrested but while on bail used Ms Arrowsmith's identity to obtain a job as a locum pharmacist in Filton, Bristol, and dispensed prescriptions for a day.

Grant also admitted she used the identity of another Facebook friend, cystic fibrosis sufferer Louise Lett, to claim 5,500 worth of treatment.

After the first case, also at Bristol Crown Court, she was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years

Grant posed as Clare Arrowsmith and staff at St George Health Centre in Bristol cared for her at home. She then received cancer care in Frenchay Hospital (pictured) in March 2014, but staff there realised she was a fraudster

Grandmother Frankie Leeland, from Yateley, Hampshire, was the victim of the third fraud which was dealt with on Monday.

She sent Grant home made greeting cards after the fraudster posted on a Facebook group claiming to have terminal bowel cancer in September 2014.

The grandmother-of-two handmade the cards, which she was told by Grant were for a coffee morning to raise money from St Peter's Hospice in Bristol.

But she became suspicious after a friend spotted a drawing Grant apparently said she had done, actually belonged to another artist.

The determined mother-of-two claimed to have spent hours tracking down Grant and taking screenshots.

Mrs Leeland said she is disappointed with the judge for not jailing Grant - and is certain she'll lie again.

Mrs Leeland said: 'I reckon we spent about 5,000 to 6,000 hours tracking Cass - and I am not exaggerating.

'The sentence she has been given is a joke. We had hard evidence.

'We could see through her, the police could see through her - so how come the judge couldn't? It's like being let down by the judge after all we did. We managed to get enough evidence fro the CPS to prosecute Cass.

'We got the evidence. I emailed it all to the investigating officer who was astonished at all we had.

'We knew that Cass knew exactly what she was doing and so did the police. It appears the judge didn't

'We all think it won't be long before she starts conning people.

'Last time it was only weeks after she was given a suspended sentence before she started conning people - and it could have even been sooner.

'She uses her Munchhausen as an excuse for all her crimes - even if it has nothing to do with her fraud.

'Her Facebook fraud was nothing to do with her Munchhausens, but she uses that so that she won't be given a custodial sentence, as she has just done.
George Osborne (pictured) has admitted privately that he wants to cut the top rate of tax to 40p but he is resigned to postponing the move to avoid a backlash in the run up to the EU vote

George Osborne has admitted privately that he wants to cut the top rate of tax to 40p, it emerged today, but he is resigned to postponing the move to avoid a backlash in the run up to the EU vote.

The Chancellor last week revealed to MPs that his decision to cut the top rate from 50p to 45p in 2012 raised 8billion for the taxpayer in the following year.

It has led to calls for the top rate of tax, which is charged on earnings of more than 150,000 a year, to be dropped in next Wednesday's Budget to 40p - the rate that is currently paid by those earning more than 42,385.

Mr Osborne is understood to agree with Tory MPs lobbying for a further cut but allies told The Times that the move would carry too many political risks in a volatile period ahead of the EU referendum as ministers are wary of doing anything that could persuade voters to back Brexit.

'This isn't the time for that sort of measure,' an ally of the Chancellor told the newspaper last night.

Mr Osborne said the 8billion windfall from the cut in the top rate of tax defied Labour predictions that the move would cost the Treasury at least 2billion a year.

Announcing the figures last week, Mr Osborne said: 'There was an 8bn increase in revenues from additional rate taxpayers [in 2013/14], which completely defies the predictions made by the Labour party at the time, and shows that what we have are lower, competitive taxes that are paid by all.'

However he has all-but abandoned plans to cut the 150,000 tax rate further as the EU referendum puts greater and greater restraint on government activity.

He is already believed to have abandoned plans to introduce wide-ranging reforms to pension tax relief that he had planned in next week's Budget in order to avoid upsetting undecided voters in the EU referendum.

George Osborne has been told that motorists are not 'cash cows' as he was warned against hiking fuel duty in next Wednesday's Budget

Mr Osborne is facing demands from up to 150 Tory MPs who are lobbying against a rise in fuel duty after a survey by the RAC estimated that nearly three quarters of the price of a litre of petrol or diesel is now tax.

But with the Chancellor determined to make progress in the Budget towards his pledge to increase the 40p tax threshold to 50,000 by 2020, he is running out of ways of funding the middle class tax cut.

The Conservative chair of the cross-party Fair Fuel group of MPs Jason McCartney (pictured left) told George Osborne (right) that motorists are not 'a cash cow' as he was warned against hiking fuel duty in next Wednesday's Budget

The analysis by the RAC found that the proportion of the price of a litre of petrol and diesel that goes to the taxman is now at its highest level in seven years because of the plummeting cost of a barrel of oil.

Following reports that a minister said petrol prices were 'so low that people will hardly notice the difference,' Jason McCartney, the Conservative chair of the cross-party Fair Fuel group of MPs, said motorists should not be used as a 'cash cow'.

He is meeting with Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Damian Hinds today to raise the concerns and said he and his colleagues will be lobbying ministers and government officials right up until Budget day.

'We are going to get cracking. There will be lots of opportunities to lobby the chancellor and other ministers,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

OSBORNE FACES TORY REBELLION OVER SUNDAY TRADING LAWS George Osborne, pictured leaving No 11 last week, faces a tense vote on Sunday trading this week The Government faces defeat on its plans to relax Sunday trading laws tomorrow amid reports ministers are prepared to resign to vote against. George Osborne has already had to pull the plans, which would devolve Sunday trading to English councils, once to avoid an embarrassing Commons defeat. But having reintroduced the proposal, which was first introduced at last year's summer Budget, the Chancellor is again facing a major Tory revolt just days before his next major statement. If ministers press ahead with the vote, expected on Wednesday, Tory rebellion could leave the Government, with its working majority of 17, dependent upon SNP votes. The measures do not apply in Scotland, which already has re-deregulated Sunday trading, but the SNP is under pressure to vote no amid fears it could undermine protections in place north of the border. Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale penned a joint letter calling on First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to rule out her 54 MPs supporting the move. Under the Government's plans, contained in Business Secretary Sajid Javid's Enterprise Bill, local authorities would be given the power to extend Sunday opening hours. But Tory David Burrowes is spearheading an attempt to remove the measure from the Bill, which will be debated by MPs on Wednesday. The Enfield Southgate MP claimed that ministers and parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) were prepared to join the revolt or abstain unless the Government watered down the plans. Advertisement

He also revealed he had written to Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell 'four or five times' to ask them to get on board with the campaign.

He said he is mobilising fellow Tory MPs to lobby ministers and officials this week to make sure Mr Osborne is deterred from hiking fuel duty in next week's Budget.

A budget so early on in a parliament is often used by Chancellors to bring in unpopular tax rises or other reforms as an election is still four years off but with the EU referendum just months away Mr Osborne is wary of doing anything that will turn voters against the Government's pro-EU stance.

And with nearly a half of Tory MPs set to vote for Britain to leave the EU, the Chancellor will want to do all he can to avoid any measures that will antagonise the backbenches.

Falls in oil prices have decreased the price at the pump for motorists and an unnamed minister yesterday said the Government was considering hiking tax on fuel.

'The simplest way to raise cash is to put 2p on petrol,' a minister told the Sunday Times. 'Prices are so low at the moment that people will hardly notice the difference.'

But Mr McCartney said fuel duty in the UK was already the highest in the EU.

'In my part of Yorkshire, using your car is not a choice, it is a necessity. It is important motorists are not used as a cash cow,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

'We already have the highest motoring tax in the EU and there really is no need for any hike to make our position worse.'

Mr Osborne is searching for a way to pay for his tax cut for middle-income earners, with reports suggesting he will use next Wednesday's Budget to make progress towards the Conservative party's election pledge to increase the 40p rate of income tax from 42,385 to 50,000 by 2020.

He will 'take a step' towards the 50,000 target in next week's Budget, according to newspaper reports at the weekend.

Last week Paul Johnson, the influential head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, suggested it was time to reward middle-income earners in this month's Budget because they had been 'treated harshly' by the Chancellor.

Last summer Mr Osborne announced that 130,000 people would be lifted out of the 40p tax rate by lifting the threshold to 43,000, which comes into effect next month.

Middle-income earners will also benefit from the increase in the personal tax allowance, which rises to 10,800 in April.

But Tory MPs are demanding he goes further in the Budget on March 16 and will point to his announcement last week that cutting the rate of tax for those earning more than 150,000 from 50p to 45p in 2012 raised an extra 8billion for the nation's coffers.

'Those earning over 50,000 have been treated pretty harshly,' Mr Johnson said.

'He has not actually tended to give much away to that group. It may be that he feels it is time to give to that group.'

Another measure he suggested the Chancellor could use to help middle class families would be to increase the threshold at which child benefit is withdrawn. Child benefit begins to be withdrawn for those earning more than 50,000 and is cancelled out by extra tax for earners over 60,000.

'One of the things he could do is child benefit which is withdrawn between 50,000 and 60,000 and is not set to change,' Mr Johnson suggested.

'More and more people could be affected by that. It wouldn't be terribly expensive to raise the threshold to between 50,000 and 70,000.

'He could take some of the pension tax relief away and spend that money on increasing the 40p threshold overnight to 50,000.'

Mr Osborne gave the middle class a boost in the last Coalition government budget - announcing a 315 rise in the 40 per cent tax rate and then followed it up with an extra boost in the Summer Budget following the Tory election win by unveiling a further 300 increase.

It means the 40p rate will only kick in for those earning more than 43,000 from next month. It will rise to 43,300 in April next year, while the personal allowance will increase to 11,000 in the same month.

Earlier this week figures released by HM Revenue and Customs revealed a huge rise in the amount paid by the well-off following the Chancellor's controversial decision to reduce the top rate from 50p.

Total income tax paid by those earning more than 150,000 rose by 8billion in 2013/14, the year after the 45p rate was introduced.
Dr Luke has hit back at claims by singer Kelly Clarkson that she was blackmailed into working with him by quoting a music executive who said she 'didn't like taking direction.'

The record producer has recently been accused of sexually assaulting fellow popstar Kesha, a claim he vehemently denies.

Kesha has now been begging a court to release her from her contract with Sony, so she doesn't have to work with him.

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Dr Luke, left, has hit back at claims by singer Kelly Clarkson, right, that she was blackmailed into working with him

And yesterday Clarkson, who collaborated with Dr Luke on her records Since U Been Gone and Behind These Hazel Eyes, was asked about her experiences of working with him during an interview on Australian radio.

She responded by saying she was 'blackmailed' into working with him and said he was 'not a good person'.

Now a spokesman for Dr Luke, who runs Kemosabe Records for Sony Music has hit back at Clarkson's accusations by quoting an extract from the 2013 memoir of Sony Music chief Clive Davis.

And in the extract from the book, called 'The Soundtrack to My Life', Mr Davis claims Clarkson 'wasn't keen' on taking direction in the studio.

Dr Luke quoted an extract from the memoir of record producer Clive Davis where he said Clarkson didn't like taking direction

In the extract released by Dr Luke, it read: 'The fact is that I wanted Kelly to have those songs for the very reason he had written them. Both songs had a sharp rock edge, but were still capable of being pop hits.

'They would push Kelly in a promising direction for her, while maintaining and even growing her audience. Max and Luke are very strong, hands-on producers in the studio. They are intent on getting perfect vocal performances, and are relentless in that pursuit.

'It was hard for Kelly, who had come from the high of winning 'American Idol' and then having a double platinum album. But then suddenly you are in an entirely different world of making records in a studio, and you have to take direction. Kelly didn't like that.'

The statement containing the extract from the book came Clarkson told Australia's KIIS fM, she was blackmailed into working with Dr Luke by her label.

She said: ''It was a really hard time for me.

'They were like, "We will not put you're label out if you don't do this".'

With her entire touring crew financially dependent on her, the 33-year-old musician said she felt pressured to cave into her label's demand.

'We have a whole crew to support...people that depend on us for their livelihood so sometimes you have to make decisions that you just have to swallow that pill.'

And although Clarkson wouldn't be drawn to comment on Kesha's situation - as she said has no first hand knowledge of it - she offered that: 'I can remark on his character'.

Singer Kesha has accused the record producer of drugging and sexually assaulting her, although he vehemently denies this

'We've clashed before... He's difficult to work with, he's kind of demeaning,' she said.

'Unfortunately when you have that poor a character that so many artists don't like you, that's not normal.'

Drawing on her own personal experience working with the producer she added: 'Obviously he's a talented dude but he's lied a lot.

'Musically it's been really hard for me because he will just lie to people and it makes the artist look bad.'

Lady Gaga performed the nominee for Best Original Song, Til It Happens to You, a song she dedicated to fellow popstar Kesha and to the millions of rape victims around the world

Other stars including Adele and Taylor Swift have also come out in support of Kesha and her bid to be released from her Sony contract

In the wake of a court's decision to not free Kesha from her contract with Sony, a host of stars have flocked to get behind the fast growing #FreeKesha campaign joining Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga who have long expressed their support for the singer.

Adele became the latest big name to publicly support Kesha while picking up one of her four Brit Awards in London.

Tearing up as she accepted the gong, she said: 'And I would like to take this moment to publicly support Kesha.'




Two men who assisted unlawful entry each got over five years in jail

Has been sentenced to four years in prison after trial in Canterbury

Richard Peel, 48, was sentenced to four years behind bars for attempting to smuggle ten migrants into the UK

Three British men who tried to smuggled ten illegal immigrants into the country have been jailed for more than 14 years.

Richard Peel, 48, from Runcorn, Cheshire, was caught by British border force officers in July 2014 at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles, France.

He was driving a Mercedes van with the immigrants, who were all from Sri Lanka, in a purpose built hide.

There were seven men aged between 27 and 44-years-old, as well as two women, both aged 36 and a child,

Peel was quickly arrested and the investigation was passed to Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigation officers.

Peel was bailed pending further enquiries, before being charged with assisting unlawful entry on January 7 last year.

The investigations then led officers to two more men, Selliah Sivachelvan, 42, from Mitcham, Surrey, and Edwed Nesakumar Thiruhselvam, 41, from East Ham, London, who were also charged with assisting unlawful entry on January 9.

Peel and Sivachelvan were both found guilty by a jury after a five-day trial at Canterbury Crown Court in Kent on Friday.

Thiruhselvam had entered a guilty plea on the first day of his trial.

Peel was sentenced to four years behind bars.

Thiruhselvam was jailed for five years and eight months in prison and Sivachelvan received five years and three months.

Border force officers caught Peel trying to smuggle the migrants in the back of his van at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles, France (file picture)

The men were able to be prosecuted in the UK as Peel was apprehended by British border officials in France, who caught him before he reached the French border control.

Speaking after the trial, Assistant Director David Fairclough, from the Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations team, said: 'This gang thought they could exploit the desperation of others for their own financial gain.

'They were wrong, and are now behind bars.

'Working closely with Border Force colleagues and the NCA our specialist, dedicated and well resourced teams will rigorously investigate allegations of immigration related criminality.'
A toddler has died after his buggy was hit by a cab during rush hour last night.

Scotland Yard has confirmed the one-year-old boy suffered serious head injuries after the crash on Hyde Park Gate, outside the exclusive Baglioni hotel.

Detectives are investigating how the child, who was being believed to be pushed by his mother, was struck by a Toyota Prius.

Pictures of the scene last night show the child's empty buggy left in road, which is directly across from Kensington Palace, next to the silver car at around 6.10pm yesterday.

Taped off: The tragic scene where the one-year-old boy was fatally injured when a cab hit his buggy (pictured)

Tragedy: A one-year-old boy has died after being hit in his buggy by a cab outside the Baglioni hotel on Hyde Park Gate (pictured)

The driver of the cab has not been arrested and is said to be helping with inquiries.

One witness told the Evening Standard: 'You could see the pram in the street. There was lots of police cars and panic going on.

'They were going through the Prius with a torch light and the road was all sealed off. I don't know if the baby rolled forwards or backwards but the car hit them. Someone said they heard screaming'.

Alon Mahpud ran out of his central London flat after the little boy was knocked down, and described seeing an elderly female relative at the scene.

The driver of the Toyota Prius helped the screaming woman carry him into the back of the car before Mr Mahpud rushed to help after dialling 999.

He said: 'I was inside on the phone when it happened and didn't see the car hit, just the aftermath.

'The old lady picked up the baby and started to scream for help. I was on the phone to the emergency services and they asked me to run out and check on the child.'

The incident happened outside the five-star Baglioni hotel, a favourite of Jay-Z, Beyonce, George Clooney and his wife Amal.

The hotel said: 'The matter is being dealt with by the police and has nothing to do with the hotel itself. We are not able to give any information'.

Investigation: The street was cordoned off for three hours last night as the child was treated in hospital, but sadly he died

Alon Mahpud places flowers at Hyde Park Gate, Kensington in London, where he tried to save a one-year-old boy who died after being hit by a cab

Tribute: He wrote how he and fellow nearby residents offered their sincere condolences to the boy's parents

The mother was said to be pushing the child in the buggy with another sibling past the hotel when the crash happened.

The street was cordoned off for three hours last night.

Scotland Yard said today the boy was rushed to hospital but died at 9.50pm and a post mortem examination will be carried out this week.

The spokesman said: 'The car - a silver Toyota Prius - stopped at the scene. The driver was not arrested but is helping police with their enquiries.

'The incident is being investigated by detectives from the Met's Serious Collisions Investigations Unit'.
A leaked confidential police report in Germany warns of spiking refugee crime  including drug and sex offences  and a rise in radicalisation against the state.

The report says 'immigration will lead to more crime and increased police usage' to combat it.

The number of crimes  of violence, sexual, property theft and narcotic offences  will rise, says the paper of the North Rhine-Westphalian department of the interior whose 'Immigration' project involves both individual states and central government.

The document, entitled 'Challenges To And Impact On The Police', was leaked to news magazine Spiegel.

A leaked confidential police report in Germany warns of spiking refugee crime  including drug and sex offences. It come two months after the New Year's Eve sexual frenzy in Cologne (pictured) when mobs of migrant men attacked hundreds of women, robbing and molesting them as police lost control of the situation

North Rhine-Westphalia is the state in which Cologne lies, scene of the New Year's Eve sexual frenzy when mobs of immigrant men attacked hundreds of women, robbing and molesting them as police lost control of the situation.

The report spoke of an 'enormous additional burden' for police forces arising out of the refugee crisis.

In North Rhine-Westphalia last year, police had to respond 93,000 times to violence in refugee centres as 'cultural, ethnic and religious conflicts in the accommodation, the spatial narrowness, lack of privacy and the considerable consumption of alcohol triggered conflicts. Resulting consequences must be drawn.'

At the same time as predicting higher crime, the confidential paper warns of fears that attacks on migrants and their accommodation and 'right-wing agitation' may increase.

The risk-analysis paper comes as Germany continues to struggle to find a way to stem the unceasing tide of refugees across its borders.

One leading criminal specialist wrote in the paper that police must be alert to possible negative developments of objective security as well as critical aspects of the police performance of duties.'

A report from late last year by the Federal Criminal Office (BKA) painted an incomplete picture of criminality among refugees because three out of 16 federal states did not provide crime figures for the study.

Pegida organiser Lutz Bachmann (left) holds a poster during a march of the right-wing group in Leipzig in January. Germany. Pegida and other right-wing activists have been quick to latch on to the New Year's Eve sex attacks in Cologne to demand that Germany no longer accepts migrants into the country

It said that the 1.1 million migrants registered in 2015 committed over 200,000 crimes, two thirds of which involved property theft, counterfeiting and financial crimes.

About 18 per cent are so-called raw offences  injuries, threats and coercion.

Sexual attacks did not make even one per cent of the crimes and the BKA concluded: 'The vast majority of asylum seekers commit no crimes.'

The report warns that as well as rising crime in the future, Islamists are 'agitating' in asylum homes, increasing the risk of radicalisation among disaffected refugees.

It said there have been 'hundreds' of incidents in the past few months where Salafists 'have sought contact with refugees'.

Hans-Georg Maassen, chief of Germany's domestic intelligence service The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, warned last autumn that young refugees who came to Germany alone 'could be easy prey for Islamists'.
Model Nadia Menaz, 24, was found hanged after fearing her parents would force her into an arranged marriage, an inquest heard last year

More than 1,200 suspected forced marriages were reported to British authorities last year - but officials fear many more could be going ahead behind closed doors.

The Forced Marriage Unit, which was launched in 2005 to deal with the issue, said it gave advice or support in 1,220 cases in 2015, the equivalent to three a day.

More than 300 of the cases - which equates to one in four - involved victims aged under 18, while 80 per cent involved females.

The figures, released today, are down three per cent from the previous year.

But the joint Home Office and Foreign Office report warned that the findings may not reflect the full scale of abuse.

Due to the clandestine nature of forced marriages, those behind the report say that most of the figures are not reliable.

It said: 'Forced marriage is a hidden practice and as a result, the figures may not reflect the full scale of the abuse.'

The paper found that 44 per cent of cases dealt with last year by the FMU related to Pakistan.

The other countries which featured most prominently were Bangladesh, with seven per cent of cases, India with six per cent of cases, Somalia with three per cent and Afghanistan with two per cent.

But 14 per cent of the cases handled by the FMU had no overseas element, with the forced marriage activity taking place entirely within the UK.

In the past year, the issue of forced marriage has been brought to the British public's attention in a number of prominent cases.

In June last year, a Muslim businessman became the first person to be successfully prosecuted under new forced marriage laws, which were introduced in 2014.

The 34-year-old man from Cardiff, described as 'arrogant, manipulative and devious', was jailed for 16 years for making a 25-year-old woman marry him under duress.

The court was told how he carried out a six-month campaign of 'repeated and systematic rape' before threatening to kill her father if she refused to be his wife.

He also secretly filmed her in the shower and threatened to release the footage unless she succumbed to his advances.

The businessman pleaded guilty to four counts of rape, as well admitting forced marriage, bigamy and voyeurism.

A few months before her death, Ms Menaz had taken out a forced marriage protection order against members of her family. Last year, more than 1,200 suspected forced marriages were reported to British authorities

In September, an inquest heard how 24-year-old model Nadia Menaz was found hanged after fearing she was about to be forced into an arranged marriage by her Muslim parents.

The mother-of-one, who had depression, had already married husband Umar Rasool in an Islamic ceremony, but her family did not approve of him.

A few months before her death, Ms Menaz had taken out a forced marriage protection order against her father Sabir Hussain, 60, her mother Ruksana Kousar, 55, and three of her eight siblings.

Mr Hussain and Mrs Kousar denied attempting to force Ms Menaz into marriage.

In another disturbing case in January, police and social workers were forced to intervene after discovering that a nine-year-old girl could be in danger of being taken to Afghanistan to marry an 18-year-old cousin.

In June last year, a Muslim businessman (pitured) became the first person to be successfully prosecuted under new forced marriage laws

Mr Justice MacDonald, sitting at the High Court, heard that the girl's mother had told social services that her father was planning the trip.

The parents were then made the subject of forced marriage protection orders, barring the couple from 'permitting' the girl to 'undergo marriage'.

The girl was temporarily taken into local authority care under Camden Council in the wake of her mother's allegation.

Since it was established, the FMU has handled cases relating to more than 90 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.

This year, the total number of cases in which the FMU gave advice or support reflected a reduction of 47 cases, compared to the previous year.

The report said the fall is in line with the general downward trend seen since 2009.

But it added: 'It is important to note that information on forced marriage has become more widely available, and advice on forced marriage is also provided by charities and non-governmental organisations as well as the FMU.

'Since it was established in 2005, the FMU has worked with a range of organisations and professionals to increase their ability to support victims and potential victims.

'The fall in calls to the FMU in recent years may reflect this.'

A forced marriage is one which takes place without the consent of both parties, and usually involves some for of duress, which may include sexual, emotional, financial or physical pressure.

Traditionally it has been young women who were subject to forced marriage, but there have also been instances of men being forced to marry someone against their will.

Forced marriage was criminalised under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and came into force last June.

Previously, courts had only been able to issue civil orders to prevent victims being forced into marriage. In that instance, a potential victim, or someone they know, can apply for a forced marriage protection order (FMPO) if they are being threatened with forced marriage, or already in one.

This court order is designed to protect the subject of the order according to their individual needs, with measures put in place to prevent the marriage from taking place. These can include blocking their family or the organisers of the marriage from taking them out of the UK.

Other measures can include confiscation of a passport, or restrictions on contacting the victim, and the orders can last either for a specified time period, or indefinitely.
Machine gun-wielding police officers were today called in to patrol the funeral of a Real IRA thug shot in the head on a Dublin street.

Terror suspect Vinnie Ryan, 25, was shot dead outside a house on McKee Road in Finglas, north west Dublin by a four-man hit squad.

Ryan had just dropped off his partner Kelly and newborn daughter Phoenix last Monday when the gunman walked up to the driver's side of his white Volkswagen Golf GTi and blasted him through the side window.

Machine gun-wielding police officers were today called in to patrol the funeral of a Real IRA thug shot in the head on a Dublin street

Terror suspect Vinnie Ryan, 25, was shot dead outside a house on McKee Road in Finglas, north west Dublin by a four-man hit squad

There was a significant presence of armed Garda as the coffin of the dissident republican was carried into The Church of the Holy Trinity in Donaghmede, Dublin

Ryan (pictured) had just dropped off his partner Kelly and newborn daughter Phoenix last Monday when the gunman walked up to the driver's side of his white Volkswagen Golf GTi and blasted him through the side window

Today, there was a significant presence of armed Garda as the coffin of the dissident republican was carried into The Church of the Holy Trinity in Donaghmede, Dublin.

His coffin was draped in a Tricolour as it was carried shoulder high by pallbearers, including by some of his three surviving brothers, from the family home in Donaghmede.

The cortege was led by a lone piper and a large group of men wearing white shirts, black ties and black trousers as it was brought to the Church of the Holy Trinity.

Several hundred people attended the Mass while dozens of armed gardai closely monitored events outside and along the route from the Ryan family home and to Fingal Cemetery.

A group of motorcyclists revved their high-powered bikes outside the church as the cortege arrived.

Several hundred people attended the Mass while dozens of armed gardai closely monitored events outside and along the route from the Ryan family home and to Fingal Cemetery

A Garda security operation at the funeral of dissident republican Vincent Ryan takes place at Fingal Cemetery in Dublin

At the graveside dozens of heavily armed and uniformed gardai were positioned close to mourners while sniffer dogs and Garda vans fitted with CCTV cameras were also on duty

The cortege was led by a lone piper and a large group of men wearing white shirts, black ties and black trousers as it was brought to the Church of the Holy Trinity

There were no paramilitary trappings.

At the graveside dozens of heavily armed and uniformed gardai were positioned close to mourners while sniffer dogs and Garda vans fitted with CCTV cameras were also on duty.

Fr Gerry Corcoran told mourners that to his family he was a loving son, partner, father, brother, uncle, cousin and friend.

'It's so easy to take life for granted. We know we all must die, but most of us assume or at least hope that it will be when we are old. So when a young person dies suddenly and violently as Vincent has, it is a stark reminder that we should never take life for granted,' he said.

Fr Corcoran said he was a non-smoker, non-drinker and never used drugs and described him as intelligent, witty and a prankster who valued friendship.

Ryan's elder brother Alan Ryan, 32, who was head of the Real IRA in Dublin, was killed in similar circumstances in September 2012.

During last Monday's deadly attack, one of the rounds fired at the victim grazed the window of the house on the opposite side of the road.

Armed Garda look on as the coffin of dissident republican Vincent Ryan is carried into The Church of the Holy Trinity in Donaghmede, Dublin

Over the weekend it was revealed that there would be a massive security operation in place for the funeral Mass

Police set up check points as part of the security operation set up to patrol the funeral cortege of Vincent Ryan

Over the weekend it was revealed that there would be a massive security operation in place for the funeral Mass.

It was revealed he would be buried in the same grave has his slain terror boss brother Alan in Fingal Cemetery following the service.

During his brother's funeral in September 2012, a Real IRA colour party fired shots over the dead gangster's grave.

Vinnie Ryan's family have insisted that he was no longer involved in the Real IRA after he was released from prison, claiming he was concentrating on his barber business and young family.

Vinnie Ryan's family have insisted that he was no longer involved in the Real IRA after he was released from prison

Police stand on guard as the coffin is carried from Ryan's home to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Dublin

There were reports Vinnie Ryan would be buried in the same grave has his slain terror boss brother Alan in Fingal Cemetery following the service

The Dublin faction of the Real IRA had been involved in a deadly feud with a major drugs gang in the Irish capital.

Alan Ryan is believed to have been involved in the murder of drugs lord Micka 'The Panda' Kelly in September 2011.
This is the chilling moment the man who murdered three people during a racist hate attack on a Swedish school last October, marches through its corridors hunting for victims of foreign descent.

Anton Lundin-Petterson, 21, is seen moving through the school in Trollhattan, north of Gothenburg, wearing a Darth Vader mask and a Nazi-helmet while brandishing a sword.

The footage has been released as police made public their investigation into the incident, which saw Lundin-Petterson murder two teachers and a student, before he was shot dead by officers.

Killing spree: CCTV footage from Kronan school in Trollhattan, Sweden, shows killer Anton Lundin-Pettersson, 21, marching through the corridors as he looks for his next victims

Menacing: Lundin-Petterson attacked students and staff of foreign descent, killing a teacher, a teaching assistant and a teenage student, all of immigrant background

Security footage shows Lundin-Petterson walking casually around the corridors with the sword slung over his shoulder.

He is dressed in all black, including military boots and billowing full-length coat, hiding his identity underneath a plastic Darth Vader mask.

Lundin-Petterson had bought a German military helmet from the Second World War as well as the 275 replica broadsword online on order to use in the attack, Swedish media reports.

Speaking at a press conference in Trollhattan on Tuesday, police said Lundin-Petterson had made an effort to make himself look his best for the day.

He had recently had a haircut and underneath the mask, he was wearing makeup 'to look like a punk rocker', Aftonbladet reports.

Terrorist: Police say Lundin-Petterson blamed immigrants for his own personal failures and that his murder spree in the school was a racist hate attack

Horrifying: CCTV footage shows the murdered march through the school dressed in all black, with the sword slung over his shoulder, or swinging it by his side

Lundin-Petterson had bought a German military helmet from the Second World War as well as the 275 replica broadsword online on order to use in the attack, had a haircut and wore make up to 'look his best'

The investigation also established without doubt that the attack was a racist hate attack, with Lundin-Petterson 'blaming immigrants for his own failures'.

'It is clear that Anton had chosen Kronan school based on his knowledge that there was a high representation of people with a immigrant background, the report states.

'When he carries out his crime, it becomes clear that he picks his victims based on whether or not he perceives them as being of immigrant background.'

Investigator conclude that the trigger factory could be that he had been told he would not be hired at the place where he had been doing an internship.

He started planning his murderous rampage just days later, doing thorough research into Kronan school before the attacks on October 22 last year.

Kronan is located in an area of Trollhattan with a diverse population and many of the pupils are first or second generation immigrants.

In the weeks before the attack, Lundin-Pettersson had expressed sympathies with extreme right-wing organisations online.

Killer: Lundin-Petterson posed for this picture with two young female students moments before he stabbed 42-year-old teacher Nazir Amso, who later died in hospital

School killer: Lundin-Pettersson, pictured in high school, left a suicide note where he made it clear he did not intend to survive the attack, even researching 'suicide by police' before his killing spree

An investigation by magazine Expo into Lundin-Petterson's social media activities found that he had 'liked' several YouTube videos glorifying Nazi Germany.

He had also showed support for anti-immigration party Sweden Democrats, and other right-wing politicians on Facebook.

Lundin-Pettersson murdered three people during his rampage through the school, including two teachers who he attacked while they were defending their students.

The first victim, 20-year-old teaching assistant Lavin Eskandar, was cut down after throwing himself in front of a group of young pupils.

Witnesses say he screamed at the children to run before trying to overpower Lundin-Petterson who, armed with a sword and knife, went on to stab two 15-year-old students and a teacher.

Several students who witnessed the attack at the school in Trollhattan described Mr Eskandar as a hero who gave his life for them.

Brave: Teaching assistant Lavin Eskandar was cut down when he stepped in to protect pupils from killer Anton Lundin-Petterson during the attack

In memoriam: A candlelight vigil in honour of the two youngest victims, Lavin Eskandar, 20, and Ahmed Hassan, 15, held outside the school in October last year

Chaos: Families of the pupils are seen outside Kronan on the morning of the attack on 22 October

Lundin-Petterson's second victim, Ahmed Hassan, 15, had arrived in Sweden with his parents and eight siblings from Somalia in 2012.

His third victim, 42-year-old maths teacher Nazir Amso was seriously injured in the attack, and died in hospital in December last year.

A fourth victim, a 15-year-old who had fled Syria with his family and arrived in Sweden nine months before the attack was rushed to hospital in critical condition, but later recovered.

Police arrived at the scene shortly after 10am and were forced to shoot the 21-year-old attacker after he turned on police.

A handwritten letter left behind by Lundin-Petterson makes it clear that he had not intended to survive his killing spree, even researching 'suicide by cop' before the attack.
An 8million porcelain collection built by Sir Michael Butler (pictured) has sparked a bitter legal feud which has torn apart his once close-knit children

It is a collection that Sir Michael Butler, a trusted adviser to Margaret Thatcher, probably expected would unite his four children in pride.

During his five decades as a globe-trotting diplomat, he amassed a hoard of Chinese ceramics described as late Ming worth an estimated 8million.

But two years after his death, the 800-piece collection, said to be one of the finest of its kind and unique, has triggered a bitter family row.

That in turn has led to a High Court legal wrangle that lays bare damaging accusations of Sir Michaels alleged marital infidelity and supposed financial favouritism towards his younger children.

The court in London has even heard how he believed that claims of infidelity had wrecked his chances of a peerage.

As a diplomat, Sir Michael was credited with securing the EU budget rebate for Mrs Thatcher in 1984, while serving as Britains permanent representative to the European Commission.

But the aide was also enough of an authority on the 17th-century porcelain that he penned several books on the subject, some with Chinese co-authors.

Sir Michael, who was 86 when he died on Christmas Eve 2013, gave 500 of his most prized pots to his four children  who are now at war over this inheritance.

Relations between the siblings collapsed just four days after Sir Michaels death, when elder siblings James and Caroline discovered they had not been named as his executors, the court heard.

Caroline (left) and James Butler (right), believe they are entitled to 125 pieces from the collection each and are asking Judge Brian Barker QC to order them to be handed over

Katharine Butler (pictured) and her brother Charles say their father would have wanted the 'Butler Family Collection' to remain intact at a private museum in Mapperton, Dorset, where he lived

Younger siblings Charles and Katharine claim their father would have wanted the Butler Family Collection to remain intact at a private museum near the family seat in Mapperton, Dorset.

But Caroline, 62, and James, 50, argue they are entitled to 125 pots each and are asking Judge Brian Barker to order them to be handed over.

John Brisby QC, for Charles, 49, and Katharine, 48, said Sir Michael must have imagined that his gift would enrich his childrens lives.

He accused Caroline and James of being hell-bent on breaking up the collection  in defiance of their parents wishes.

The four siblings were all born to Sir Michael and the wife he married in 1951, Ann, the daughter of Lord Clyde.

But Mr Brisby suggested Caroline was driven by a desire to get her own back for her late fathers alleged affairs and for leaving the lions share of his wealth to his younger children  a claim she refuted.

The 800-piece hoard of 'late Ming' Chinese ceramics, including these pieces, had been Sir Michael Butler's pride and joy, and his daughter Caroline, 62, had even once written that he preferred the pots to her

Charles and Katharine say the collection should be kept together to honour their father's achievements and preserve a 'historic collection of irreplaceable value'

Katherine (right) with her father (centre) and friend Dr David Peacock in 2013, a few weeks before his death

Carolines interest, particularly, was money from an early stage, Mr Brisby told the judge.

She regarded her share of the collection as an asset which she would be seeking to convert into cash in due course.

He said Charles and Katharine both believe the collection should be kept together to honour their fathers achievements and preserve a historic collection of irreplaceable value.

But their brother and sister are adamant that they simply have a legal right to enjoy their inheritance from their father.

Their QC, Elspeth Talbot Rice, said they want to possess what is rightly theirs. Caroline spent many years helping her father with his collection, the court heard.

She said she wanted unfettered ownership of 125 beautiful pieces which I was brought up with.

But Mr Brisby suggested that she had taken against Sir Michael when he separated from her mother in 1997 after an affair. The court heard that such was her rage over her fathers alleged adultery, she even wrote letters to his then colleagues about the betrayal.

Europhile Sir Michael believed her letters were so damaging to his reputation that they cost him his peerage, the QC told the court. Caroline dismissed that claim as spin by her brother Charles.

A fortnight before her divisive fathers death, Caroline also wrote an email to her sister which said: Im not sure you ever came to terms with the fact that your own father does not love you and prefers 800 pots.

Sir Michaels widow, now Ann Ross Skinner, also wished the collection to remain intact, Mr Brisby told the court. She sat alongside Katharine in court.

The hearing continues.
A woman who stood between an armed police officer and her dog has been acquitted of obstructing justice.

Tiffanie Hupp, 23, was arrested on May 9 last year after she stopped West Virginia state trooper Seth Cook from shooting her dog Buddy, who was chained to a wall at their home in Parkersburg.

During a jury trial which was concluded on February 29, Cook said he had been trained to shoot dogs, whether or not they are chained.

Cook had been called to the property to solve a dispute between Hupp's husband's stepfather and a neighbor.

This is the moment West Virginia state trooper Seth Cook aimed his gun at Buddy the dog last May

Hupp, a mother-of-two from Parkersburg, pictured left. Her dog Buddy pictured right

When Cook stepped on to the family's front yard, Buddy started yapping and ran towards him.

Turning his attention to the canine, Cook pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Buddy.

Horrified, Hupp's husband Ryan started filming the incident as Hupp ran to stand in the way.

The video shows mother-of-two Hupp tentatively step in front of the gun with her head bowed.

Cook then drops his weapon, grabs Hupps arms and hurls her to the ground.

As her relatives scream, he picks her up and slams her onto his cop car, handcuffing her wrists.

He then went inside their home to confiscate electronic devices, including Mr Hupp's cell phone.

Cook told a jury he was trained to shoot a dog if it approached him, even if it was chained like Buddy

Buddy's owner Tiffanie Hupp, 23, ran to stand between Cook and her dog

As her husband Ryan filmed the incident, she tentatively stepped in front of Cook's weapon

Cook grabbed Hupp's arm and hurled her out the way

He is then seen throwing her to the ground as Hupp's relatives looked on in horror

She was charged with obstructing justice and released on bail.

On February 29, a jury acquitted Hupp after watching her husband's footage of the arrest.

After the trial, Hupp told local blog Photography Is Not A Crime: 'If it wasnt for him recording, thered be nothing.

'He knew about police brutaty before I did. But thats why the camera is shaking, because of the adrenaline.

'When they read those words "not guilty", we were relieved. Its hard to describe the feeling unless its actually happening to you. Justice is good, though.'

Cook - who had been called to the area to deal with her neighbor - then lifted her up to arrest her
She is currently being held in the infamous San Vittore jail ahead of trial

It is alleged she spent 42,000 on designer bags, jewellery and watches

Police say she was part of a criminal gang using a cloned credit card

Kristie-Anne Juggins, 30, from London, has been arrested in Milan, Italy

A British mother has been arrested in Italy after allegedly going on a 42,000 shopping spree for designer goods using fake credit cards.

Kristie-Anne Juggins, who describes herself as a 'full-time mummy', was arrested soon after leaving a boutique Louis Vuitton store in Milan.

She is accused of being part of a criminal gang which flew into Milan for the day and planned to flee later that evening.

Kristie-Anne Juggins is alleged to have gone on a 42,000 designer goods shopping spree using fake credit cards

Kristie-Anne Juggins (pictured left and right in a Milan store) is being held in a prison in Italy. The 30-year-old, from Dulwich, south London, describes herself as a 'full time mummy'

The 30-year-old wore bright red high heels as she was went shopping in the city's Vittorio Emmanuele shopping arcade.

CCTV footage shows shop staff helping Juggins, from Dulwich, south London, to pick out expensive leather handbags before she casually pays for them using credit cards.

Security guards then open the doors for her as she leaves weighed down with large shopping bags.

It is alleged staff later alerted police, claiming the payments were dud and officers tracked Juggins down as she was about to leave the shopping centre with designer bags, watches and jewellery.

They are thought to have found boarding passes on her phone for a flight to London later that day.

She is currently being held in custody in Milan's infamous San Vittore jail ahead of a trial.

Police are said to also be hunting for two other Brits suspected of helping Juggins carry out the alleged crimes.

Juggins was filmed shopping in stores in Milan, according to CCTV footage (pictured) released by the police

She is then seen walking around the store wearing distinctive bright red heels and a long black overcoat

Footage from the CCTV cameras appeared to show her paying for the goods at the counter

She is alleged to have paid for 42,000 worth of designer bags, jewellery and watches with fake credit cards

Milan police said the credit cards used for the purchases were clones of cards registered in Belgium

A Milan police spokeswoman said: 'This was a very blatant attempt to use a variety of cloned credit cards and she was successful in making purchases of more than $59,000 (41,500).

'She entered into the designer boutiques of Milan very elegantly dressed and gave off the air of a rich customer with potentially a large amount of money to spend - only the money wasn't hers to spend.

'The cards were from various individuals in Belgium and we believe the British woman is part of a well organised gang who flew into Milan that day and had planned to leave that same night.

'She is now in custody having been charged with fraud.'
Police in Cologne arrested six men - five of them refugees - for a suspected sex attack on a 12-year-old girl at a city swimming pool.

Officers said the girl approached a lifeguard at the pool in the Zundorf district of the city at 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon claiming she was indecently touched by a man near the water slide.

The girl claimed the man and his friends caused a 'traffic jam' on the slide where he then took the opportunity to grope at her bikini top and bottom.

Police say the girl complained she was groped by a man while using a waterslide at a pool in Cologne (pictured)

The pool staff immediately called police and comforted the girl who was said to be extremely distraught. The men aged between 17 and 45 were arrested but later freed. They are reported to be from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

Five are asylum seekers housed outside of Cologne while they wait for their residency claims to be processed. The nationality and status of the sixth man was not immediately clear.

The public prosecutor's office in the city has appealed for witnesses, especially to confirm whether other children were abused.

Local conservative CDU party district chairman Walter Reinarz condemned the alleged attack stating: 'We promise our full support for the young girl and her parents. It is good that the perpetrators were immediately arrested by police.

'This shows that our security systems work. We expect the Cologne justice system to work quickly so that the perpetrators can be lastingly held accountable and deported quickly. '

He said measures were being drawn up to prevent such attacks in the future.

Public baths have been the setting for several sexual assaults in recent months, ranging from the savage rape of a 10-year-old boy at a pool in Austria to groping and molestation at several places in Germany.

Recently, a Waterpark in Norderstedt near Hamburg tightened its security measures after a 14-year old was allegedly raped there by two immigrants. This included banning men from using the water slide when women and children were present.
Travel firm Thomas Cook has cancelled all bookings to Sharm el-Sheikh until at least November.

The Government suspended flights to the Egyptian resort on November 4 last year after an Airbus 321 operated by Russian airline Metrojet crashed, killing 224 people.

ISIS jihadis claimed responsibility for bombing the jet.

Thomas Cook has extending its period for cancelling bookings to the Egyptian resort to October 31

More than 16,000 Britons stranded in the area were brought home on a series of rescue flights amid heightened security.

But no flights have operated between the UK and Sharm since November 17 as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is advising against all but essential travel using the Red Sea resort's airport.

Thomas Cook said it was extending its period for cancelling bookings from May 25 to October 31 because there was 'no clear indication as to when the FCO travel advice may change'.

The company added that any of its customers who were due to travel to Sharm up to that date can cancel or amend their holiday to another destination free of charge.

The bombed A321 airliner, operated by Russia's Metrojet and bound for Saint Petersburg, broke up mid-air over the Sinai, minutes after take-off in November.

The wreckage fell several miles across North Sinai -- the bastion of the Egyptian branch of ISIS. The group said it bombed the plane in revenge for Russian air strikes in Syria.
The Prime Minister grinned briefly as she entered Downing Street after a run in the central London fog this morning as MailOnline can reveal that all her 'In Liz we Truss' merchandise was expunged. The party's cups, travel mugs, bags and T-shirts celebrating her election 45 days ago, each costing between 14.95 and 24,95, have been deleted from the website and pulled from sale. Wearing her gym kit and muddy trainers, the outgoing Tory leader, now considered the most disastrous in party history, gave a wry smile at police as she skipped into the back door of No 10 at around 8am. She will spend her last weekend as PM at Chequers, No 10 has said. The UK's shortest serving PM will still receive severance pay to the tune of 18,860 - equal to 419.11 for each of the 44 days she served. She also earned 10,000 in that time because he ministerial salary went up. Ms Truss is beginning her final week as Prime Minister as her rivals circle to take her job - but there is also increasing anger about the cash and benefits she is leaving with and demands for her to forgo them. She will now also be entitled to claim up to 115,000-a-year in an allowance for former Prime Ministers. Her predecessors Sir John Major, Sir Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson are all believed to have claimed it. Ms Truss will also benefit from a taxpayer-funded pension as a former minister and Prime Minister. Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer today joined calls for Ms Truss to reject her allowance and hand back any payout, declaring that she had 'not earned the right' to keep it. He said: 'She should turn it down. I think that's the right thing to do. She's done 44 days in office, she's not really entitled to it, she should turn it down and not take it'.
A teenager who was shot in the head after he stabbed two police officers had been receiving unwanted attention from ASIO before his violent rampage and 'snapped' due to pressure from his parents, an inquest has heard.

Numan Haider, 18, was killed with a single bullet to the head after he stabbed two police officers outside the Endeavour Hills police station, south east of Melbourne, on September 23, 2104.

Victorian Coroner John Olle has heard evidence from self-proclaimed 'freelance Muslim' Ljindim Sulejmani who said Haider had 'snapped' in part because he was being 'bashed' by his family and his 'wife' had cheated on him.

An inquest has heard that Numan Haider had been receiving unwanted attention from ASIO before his violent rampage in Melbourne and 'snapped' due to pressure from his parents

The 18-year-old was killed with a single bullet to the head after he stabbed two police officers outside the Endeavour Hills police station, south east of Melbourne, on September 23, 2104

The 26-year-old, who made strong statements against Islamic State, said he saw Haider's parents physically beat him for praying at the mosque twice a day, which they claimed 'only extremists' do.

According to the ABC, Haider told Mr Sulejmani that his parents 'hate me because I pray and attend the mosque too much'.

Mr Sulejmani, who frequented the controversial Al-Furqan mosque, told the inquest into Haider's death that the radicalised teen was also on edge as he was being hounded by law enforcement agencies who cancelled his passport.

He had reportedly been trying to travel to Afghanistan to find a wife.

Jinaali Vishni Surendran, 18, who broke up with Haider in July after 'drifting apart', burst into tears after Mr Sulejmani mentioned her alleged infidelity, denying the unsubstantiated claims.

She said he had never suggested to her that his family was violent toward him and 'seemed alright' but not his normal self on the day of his death.

Ms Surendran told the court they had participated in a formal ceremony indicating they intended to marry but the arrangement ended when Haider said to her 'I divorce you'.

A friend told the inquest that the radicalised teen was on edge as he was being hounded by law enforcement agencies who cancelled his passport

Haider waved an Islamic flag at police in a Melbourne shopping centre five days before the attack, and warned that they would 'pay' for counter terror raids in Sydney and Brisbane

The inquest heard that the Haider family didn't want their son spending time with Mr Sulejmani, who was several years older than the radicalised teenager.

Mr Sulejmani, who was one of the last people to see Haider alive, said his mother had told him to 'stay away from my son' and spat on him during an encounter in 2014.

The 26-year-old said Haider was a peaceful person and described an incident in which Haider accidentally stabbed a friend in the hand with a knife as 'funny'.

'They were just mucking around,' Mr Sulejmani told the inquest.

Haider waved an Islamic flag at police in a Melbourne shopping centre five days before the attack, and warned that they would 'pay' for counter terror raids in Sydney and Brisbane.

Ms Surendran was with him a the plaza later that day where he asked that she burn a book he gave to her for safe keeping.

'He asked me to burn a book he had given me from a trip to Sydney,' Ms Surendran told the inquest.

'It was orange and had an Islamic man on the cover.

'I believe he gave it to me for safe keeping, not to read.'

Haider had travelled to Sydney around September 12, 2014, with his friend Mr Sulejmani, the inquest heard.

The inquest continues.




Prince Harry joined other theatre goers at You Me Bum Bum Train in London's Soho on Saturday night

It's heralded as the the trendiest and most secretive theatrical spectacular ever.

And now the rather bizarrely named 'You Me Bum Bum Train' can also be billed as having royal fans.

On Saturday night Prince Harry was seen 'crowd surfing' at the 'interactive' show in London's Soho.

YMBBT, as it is known by devotees, was devised by art students Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd and won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust prize when it was performed at the Barbican in 2012.

Unless you are VIP you can not just buy tickets but have to apply through a ballot.

One social media user posted yesterday: 'Can't believe my family were raving/crowd surfing with prince Harry last night'.

According to one well-placed source, palace aides made arrangements for the prince to attend You, Me, Bum Bum Train in advance amid great secrecy.

One insider said: 'We are used to having celebrities come along - but we've never had a prince as a passenger before.

'I can't say much more because everybody has been sworn to secrecy.'

One theatre-goer said the royal enjoyed a drink at the bar afterwards and appeared to have been accompanied by his bodyguards.

I saw him having a drink in the bar afterwards and he seemed to be having a good time. One of the guys who was with him must have been his bodyguard,' they told The Evening Standard.

The prince followed scores of other VIP fans, including Benedict Cumberbatch, David Tennant, Dominic West, Stephen Fry and Jude Law.

You Me Bum Bum Train was launched by Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd (seen above) in 2010 and has since amassed a large following

One reviewer said: 'It's 'sort' of theatre but it' s also 'sort' of a game and it's 'sort' of like nothing else on earth.'

Harry, 31, left the army last June after a decade long career but has yet to announce any future plans.

He is currently working privately with injured service personnel and organising May's Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style event for the military to be held in Orlando.

SECRETIVE INTERACTIVE THEATRE 'EXPERIENCE' THAT CELEBS LOVE With cast and audience members asked to sign confidentiality agreements after shows, few details are known of what goes in to a You Me Bum Bum Train performance. Artistic directors Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd launched the show after leaving art school and are sheepish when asked what each show entails. The pair came under fire in 2012 when it was claimed that actors who took part in the shows went unpaid. The union Equity alleged that despite charging audiences 20 a ticket, none of those who put on the shows took home a wage, The Guardian reported. Since launching in 2010 it has amassed a near cult following, with 80,000 fans applying for tickets at one release. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jude Law are among other celebrity fans of the quirky theatre show Advertisement




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The walls and roof are made of plywood, there are just two small plastic windows, and no heating or electricity.

But for the Daisam family, Unit 212 in the new Grande-Synthe refugee camp is at least a place they can finally call home.

The Iraqi-Kurds were among some 200 UK-bound refugees who moved into the cabins set up by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today.

New home: The Daisam family (clockwise from top left) Parez , 27, Amani, 24, Bahez , three, and Mohammed, four, pictured at Unit 212

Temporary: Mr Daisam says there's no central heating in the plywood cabins but they plan to head to England soon, so it is just temporary

Charity: The family from Iraq was among some 200 UK-bound refugees who moved into the cabins set up by Medecins Sans Frontieres

Pricey: Around two thirds of the 2.5million needed to build the camp was paid for by MSF, with the remainder coming from the town hall

Close to Dunkirk port, it is the first camp of its kind in France which meets international humanitarian standards  meaning residents will no longer have to spend time in makeshift camps nearby.

After inviting MailOnline into their flimsy shack, Amani and Parez  a married couple in their 20s  said their aim was to turn it into the very best possible base for their sons, Mohammed, four and Bahez, three.

We are putting some carpets on the floor, but apart from that there isnt much else at the moment, said Mr Daisam. Weve been promised an oil heater and some more clothes. It will be cold, but our aim is to get to England as soon as possible, so it will all be temporary.

As he arranged the familys meager possessions, Mr Daisams boys played nearby, and children from other families began to arrive in nearby units.

New surroundings: Bahez Daisam, three, from Iraq walks barefoot in his new home - a wooden hut in the new Grande-Synthe camp, France

Amenities: Volunteers from numerous agencies are working in the camp night and day, and there are outdoor kitchens and advice centres

Happy: Tina, a three-year-old Kurdish child from Iraq, clutches her dolly in one of the new cabins at the refugee camp in Grande-Synthe

Home sweet home: Twina Carorer, 18, from Iraq, wraps himself in a purple blanket at the new 2million camp in Grande-Synthe, France

Organised: Twina Carorer moved in with four friends on Monday, and they have already set up basic lighting and rails to hang their clothes

Cabin: Mr Carorer, whose only real complaint is the cold, said: We are pretty much allowed to do what we want inside the units'

We have travelled thousands of miles after escaping war and persecution, and all we want for the moment is a place to be together, said Mr Daisam.

We are now with other families who are in exactly the same position as us. This means we can all concentrate on getting to England.

The Daisams fled the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk last year, which has been the scene of fierce fighting since the American and British-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

There was no peace there  we were threatened all the time, so we are very happy to at least found a peaceful spot, Mr Daisam added.

We travelled on lorries and once we got to France had to try and find shelter wherever we could. There has been nothing secure up until now.

Volunteers from numerous agencies are working in the camp night and day, and there are outdoor kitchens and advice centres.

Hopeful: A little girl wheels a cart around the new refugee camp as a little boy plays with an orange football in the background

Arrival: A group of smiling refugee boys arrive in the new refugee camp in Grande-Synthe, France, in a trailer attached to the back of a car

Hut: Work is carried out on a circular building in the refugee camp in Grande-Synthe, which will be used as a tea hut once it is ready

High standards: Close to Dunkirk port, is the first camp of its kind in France which meets international humanitarian standards

Safe haven: A mother holds her baby at the new camp, where residents say they feel safe despite the lack of proper locks on the doors

Building work: The Grande-Synthe camp, which is next to a motorway and railway line, will eventually accommodate up to 2,500 migrants

French police were patrolling the gates today, and all those entering had to offer some proof of identity.

With young children you have to be on your guard all the time, said Mrs Daisam, 27. At least here we can relax and keep an eye on them in peace.

The Grande-Synthe camp, which is next to a motorway and railway line, will eventually accommodate up to 2,500 migrants.

Many have come from boggy illegal camps nearby, including the notorious Jungle in Calais about 15 miles away.

The Jungle was not a place for children, said Mrs Daisam. We heard about knife fights and attacks, but there is nothing like that going on here. Everybody is well behaved.

We dont have a proper lock on the door  just a latch which allows us to lock it loosely from the inside  but it feels safe.

Twina Carorer, an 18-year-old also from Kirkuk, lives in Unit 157 and is now a neighbour of the Daisams.

The former student moved in with four friends on Monday, and they have already set up basic lighting and rails to hang their clothes.

Refugees: A boy stand at the door of his new home at the first international-standard migrant camp build by Medecins Sans Frontieres

Convenient: Beyond the wooden new cabins, there are toilets, a shared kitchen, public lighting along a walkway and a field clinic

Residents: Most of the migrants currently arriving are, like the Daisams, Kurds from Iraq, and so far include some 60 women and 70 children

We are pretty much allowed to do what we want inside the units, said Mr Carorer, who added that his only real complaint was the cold.

There is no heating, so we have to wrap up as warm as we can, he said. With luck the sun will come out soon.

Building another unit were Sama Abdulla, his twin brother Karim Abulla, and Slemah Hasan. All aged 22 and from Kirkuk, they have already taken delivery of an oil powered heater.

Well be turning it on for the first time tonight, said Mr Hasan. The nighttime temperatures here are still extremely low.

Most of the migrants currently arriving are, like the Daisams, Kurds from Iraq, and so far include some 60 women and 70 children.

About 150 people abandoned the older camp in Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk, to move to the wooden sheds yesterday, Medecins Sans Frontieres spokesman Samuel Hanryon said.

Families pushed luggage and piled bags on buses taking them across town to the new site.

Cooking: The Grande-Synthe camp will eventually accommodate up to 2,500 migrants and has a shared kitchen and public lighting

Upgrade: Many of the refugees have come from boggy illegal camps nearby, including the notorious Jungle in Calais, about 15 miles away

Security: The Grande-Synthe camp, which is next to a motorway and railway line, will eventually accommodate up to 2,500 migrants

Damien Careme, the mayor of Grande-Synthe, fought for the right to build the camp against the wishes of the French government, which has refused to pay a penny towards it.

'It's a great day for human solidarity,' he said, adding that he could no longer stand the sight of around 75 children living in the original camp.

There have been refugee camps in Grande-Synthe since 2006, and the numbers using them have grown every year. A population count in December found that more than 2,500 people were living in the area.

An unofficial camp had just two drinking water points and 26 toilets, which was roughly one per 100 people - five times fewer than the bare minimum in other refugee camps.

There were no healthcare facilities beyond MSF doctors visiting the camp a few times a week to treat the sick.

The move has frustrated the government, which has been trying to move refugees away from the northern coast and into centres where their movement is more controlled.

The government's representative in northern France, Jean-Francois Cordet, said last month: 'The government's policy is not to reconstitute a camp at Grande-Synthe, but to make it go away.'

Wooden huts: Migrants arrive at their new temporary homes with their worldly possessions stacked in heaps outside the huts in Dunkirk

Moving: Rows upon rows of patterned plastic bags line the area as far as the eye can see as the migrants go through the moving process

Difficult: It was quite the ordeal for migrant families, many of whom looked stressed as they left their muddy temporary homes

Camp: A child is pictured trampling across muddy ground as parents and families bring their possessions with them in large plastic bags

Around two thirds of the 2.5million needed to build the camp was paid for by MSF, with the remainder coming from the local town hall.

Beyond the wooden cabins, there are lavatories, a shared kitchen, public lighting along a walkway, and a field clinic.

The move is part of efforts to improve conditions for thousands of migrants who have converged on northern France amid Europe's migrant crisis.

In Calais, the French government has paid for former shipping containers to be turned into housing units, but they require migrants' hand prints to gain entry.

Most have turned down offers of the containers or accommodation centres elsewhere in France, fearing doing so would end their dreams of reaching Britain.

Unlike these alternatives, the new camp at Grande-Synthe will not restrict the movement of migrants and refugees, MSF said.

Muddy: Two men struggle to push a large trolley full of their possessions through the thick mud at the old Grande-Synthe refugee camp

Struggled: Shoddy wooden floors is the only thing separating the migrants from a wet and muddy path to their new homes

Dilapidated and dangerous: Tents lie scattered in the mud in the old refugee camp in Grande-Synthe, which residents are moving out of

Dirty: Wood, blankets and black bin liners are discarded on the muddy floor of the original campsite, revealing the difficult conditions migrants were living in

Security at the Grande-Synthe camp is more basic and those running it hope this will persuade more migrants to move in.

However, it is feared the new Grande-Synthe camp will become a new Sangatte  a reference to the notorious Red Cross welcome centre near Calais which became a magnet for migrants from all over the world before being shut in 2002.

In Calais, authorities are gradually evicting residents of part of the Jungle camp and trying to get them to seek asylum in France or move to the cleaner container facilities.

Some five acres of the Jungle were destroyed last week, and authorities said it could take a month or more to demolish the southern half of the camp.
Police in Cologne have released images of young migrant men suspected of groping and assaulting women during the city's New Year's Eve celebrations.

The five men are all believed to be North African and among the scores of offenders who molested and robbed hundreds of women in and around Cologne's main railway station on December 31.

The photos come from seized mobile phones, witnesses and alleged victims and were released by police with the permission of a court order granted to officers in the city.

Pictures have emerged of some of the young migrant men police in Cologne suspect of sexually abusing women during the New Year's Eve celebrations

Chief Prosecutor Ulrich Bremer said: 'We had to figure out images that we believe we can assign to certain perpetrators for certain actions.'

In the case of these suspects it is for crimes of theft, sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexual coercion.

Despite the daunting circumstances the victims found themselves in, they managed to take these pictures of their attackers.

As the hunt for the men goes on, evidence has surfaced that police warned of potential chaos breaking out during the New Year's Eve celebrations a full two days beforehand.

The five men are all believed to be North African and among the scores of offenders who molested and robbed hundreds of women in and around the city's main railway station on December 31

Despite the daunting circumstances the victims found themselses in, they managed to take these pictures of their attackers

A secret police report dated December 29 was mentioned at an enquiry being held in the city into the events of the night which forever changed German perceptions of unbridled immigration into the country.

In it police warned of the looming possibility of 'tumultuos offences and massive thefts' resulting from NAFRI suspects - NAFRI being the German police term for North African Multiple Offenders.

Peter Romers, chief of the police department charged with security in the city centre, said in a report submitted to his chiefs two days before December 31 that 'larger crowds and a larger consumption of alcohol is to be expected with the typical dangers associated with them...there have been significant increases in recent years in particular in the areas of crime, particularly pickpocketing and street robbery.

More than 1,000 reports were filed with the police over the station attacks on New Year's Eve with 471 of them considered sexual in nature

'The offender clientele will substantially be NAFRI who will take advantage of the situation which presents itself.'

The enquiry into the chaos that ensued has heard that police did not have a safety plan put in place for the celebrations - a stark contrast to state officials' statements in the immediate aftermath of the mayhem.

The North-Rhine Westphalia parliamentary committee aims to discover why police were unable to respond to the crowds of men of North African descent sexually assaulting and robbing women at the station.
Donald Trump may have finally hit a ceiling of support within the Republican party a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows.

Yes, the longtime frontrunner is still in first place, but 63 percent of Republican-leaning voters who don't support Trump say they're in favor of a contested convention  as a way to potentially prevent the billionaire from becoming the GOP nominee.

Now, in head-to-head matches, Trump loses easily to Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio gets the best of him too, as both candidates are seeing a jump in support as the Republican field has thinned.

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A new poll indicates that Donald Trump's support has plateaued in the Republican party as he continues to get about one-third of GOP-leaning voters, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll

When non-Trump supporters were asked their views on a contested convention six-in-10 said they favored that over the 30 percent who wanted Trump to get the nomination outright

When looking at the full field, Trump receives 34 percent support, Cruz gets 25 percent, Rubio earns 18 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 13 percent support.

While Trump's numbers have been similar for months  he hit a high of 38 percent in December, ABC News notes  every other candidate has seen gains as the field went from 17 to four.

Cruz gained four points since January, while Rubio went up 7 percent and Kasich got the biggest surge with 11 points more.

When the field dwindles down to just two people, Cruz easily bests Trump getting 54 percent to Trump's 41 percent.

The Texas senator has been arguing since last week's Super Tuesday contests that a weakened Rubio and Kasich, who still doesn't quite have national name recognition, should bow out so that Cruz can ultimately slay Trump in the Republican primaries.

Rubio leads Trump by six points, when the two are put head-to-head.

In head-to-head match-ups, Ted Cruz performed better against Donald Trump than Marco Rubio, propelled by the very conservative and evangelical voters

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio both best Donald Trump now when they're pitted against the frontrunner head-to-head, but Rubio's margin of victory is very close to the margin of error

Marco Rubio gets aided by evangelicals and very conservative voters, but his margins aren't as high as Ted Cruz's, which is why the Texas senator outperforms the Florida senator against Donald Trump

Rubio receives 51 percent support to Trump's 45 percent, which is just outside the poll's 5.5 percent margin of error.

Cruz scores better against Trump than Rubio thanks to two demographic groups  strong conservatives and evangelical white Protestants.

When looking at very conservative Republicans, Cruz beats Trump 60 percent to 34 percent.

Evangelicals prefer Cruz over Trump 64-to-31 percent.

Rubio does better than Trump with these two groups too, but his margins aren't as significant as Cruz's with conservatives preferring the Florida senator over the billionaire 56-to-41 percent and evangelicals preferring Rubio over Trump 55-to-42 percent.

Pollsters did not ask about a theoretical Kasich-Trump match-up, even though the Ohio governor is seeing a late surge in Michigan and could win his winner-take-all home state next week.

John Kasich has been talking about a 'brokered' convention and he's not that out of step with his party with 63 percent of non-Trump supporters also saying they'd favor a contested convention this summer

Of those voters who are not 'very satisfied' with Donald Trump, 43 percent said they supported GOP leaders - like Mitt Romney (pictured) trying to prevent the billionaire's nomination

Kasich, however, has been the most vocal about supporting a 'brokered' convention and the numbers show that he's not out of step with the rest of his party when it comes to non-Trump supporters.

Just 30 percent out of that group say that Trump, if he has the most delegates going into the convention, should be the outright nominee.

Among Trump supporters 42 percent still support a contested convention while 53 percent say Trump should be given the nomination if he has the most delegates by July, when the Cleveland Republican National Convention will be held.

Additionally, among those who are not 'very satisfied' with Trump as the nominee, nearly half  43 percent  support efforts by leaders within the GOP, like former nominee Mitt Romney, who gave a speech against Trump last week, to prevent the frontrunner's nomination.
When a Texas widow approached her hometown cemetery last week asking to bury the ashes of her beloved husband, she claims she was turned away because her spouse was Hispanic and the burial plot was for 'whites only.'

Dorothy Patton Barreras predicament sparked a widespread uproar in South Texas, and just a day later the board of San Domingo Cemetery in Normanna reversed its controversial decision.

But now Mrs Barrerra says she is not sure she wants the cremains of her husband of 44 years, Pedro, to be interred in San Domingo.

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Discriminated in death: Dorothy Patton Barrera (left) says when she first approached the cemetery in her hometown of Normanna, Texas, about burying her husband Pedro's (right) ashes there, she was turned away because her spouse was Hispanic

Change of heart: The board of San Domingo Cemetery in Normanna (pictured) reversed its decision regarding Pedro Barrera's burial a day later

Pedro Barrera, a carpenter by trade, passed away at age 70 on February 10, leaving behind his wife of more than 40 years, eight children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Mr and Mrs Barrera resided in Normanna; according to the US Census, the town boasts a population of 113, of them 55 Hispanics or Latinos and three African-Americans.

Cemetery owner Jimmy Bradford (pictured) said Mr Barrera was not supposed to be buried at San Domingo because he's a Mexican, or of Spanish descent

Dorothy Barrera wanted her husband's final resting place to be their local cemetery, but when she approached the owner of the San Domingo Cemetery Association, Jimmy Bradford, asking how she could secure a plot for him, she was told the board would not allow it because of Mr Barrera's ethnic background.

He wasn't supposed to be buried there, because he's a Mexican, or of Spanish descent, or whatever you want to say. That's what I told her and that's what we've been doing, Bradford told KIII-TV in an interview last week.

Mrs Barrera said she was taken aback and deeply hurt by that response.

The decision to bar the interment of Pedro Barreras ashes inspired outrage among state officials and civil rights activists in the state.

State Senator Judith Zaffirini said in a statement: 'Denying someone a burial on the basis of race is not only shockingit's illegal.

The 1948 US Supreme Court case Shelley v Kraemer has outlawed racial covenants on real estate, including cemetery plots.

In light of the growing scandal, the San Domingo Cemetery board on Friday reconsidered Pedro Barreras burial.

Speaking to the Corpus Christi Caller Times, Jimmy Bradford's daughter, who is the spokesperson for the cemetery, claimed that her father's initial decision to reject the man's remains had nothing to do with his ethnicity, but that the San Domingo Cemetery had started out as a family burial plot reserved for the descendants of Normanna's founders.

Too little, too late: Mrs Barrera, 75, says says she is not sure she wants the 'whites only' burial ground her husband's final resting place

A US Supreme Court case from 1948 has made racial covenants on real estate illegal

Pedro Barrerra had been a resident of the town for only 15 years before his passing last month.

Bee County Constable Cliff Bagwell told MySA.com he checked the cemeterys records and found no mention that Hispanics or Latinos could not be laid to rest there.

Dorothy Barrera has since hired an attorney and threatened legal action against the cemetery and Jimmy Bradford.
A 16-year-old girl arrested for possessing explosives in the tiny Danish town of Kundby was planning to blow up two schools, prosecutors have claimed.

The girl, aged 15 when she was arrested, was a recent convert to Islam and a 24-year-old man who had fought with jihadi groups in Syria was also arrested in connection with the case.

Behind closed doors in court, the youngster was charged with possessing explosives after being arrested at her mother's home last month.

The girl was arrested in the tiny Danish town of Kundby (pictured) yesterday. File image used

Prosecutors today released details of the accusations, The Local reported.

They said the pair planned to blow up the Jewish school Carolineskolen in Copenhagen and the Sydskolen public school in western Zealand.

The pair were going to use acetone peroxide, a highly volatile chemical which was used in the Paris terror attacks, it was claimed.

The prosecutor's statement said: 'Due to security concerns, PET cannot say what security measures the case has given rise to, but PET can say that it has not given the schools recommendations to make any changes in or around the schools in question.'

At the time of her arrest, a neighbour told tabloid BT that he was friends with the girl on Facebook and her page showed evidence of support of Islam.

'I am very upset,' he told the paper. 'It is uncomfortable to live so close to such a thing.'

He went on to describe her as having looked 'sad' lately and was often wearing a cap.
Volunteers say there is an outbreak of diarrhoea which has left children seriously ill with limited medical facilities

heating grass to feed their children, with aid workers saying they are struggling to cope

despite a build-up of rubbish, filthy water and having to scavenge for food

Refugees vowed to keep trying to cross

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Migrants stranded in Greece turned on each other yesterday as hopes faded that they will ever be allowed to continue their journeys into Europe.

As frustrations boiled over at a tented city on the Macedonian border, Slovenia announced new measures that will effectively close the main migration route westward from the Balkans. From today, it will not let anyone in unless they have a valid EU visa.

Neighbouring Serbia said that as a result it would close its borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria for migrants who do not have visas.

Tempers fray: Migrants waiting to cross the Greek-Macedonian border fight between themselves at a camp near the village of Idomeni

One man lies curled up in a ball on the ground while other migrants scuffle around him as anger boils over at the camp in Idomeni

It means that the 15,000 marooned in squalor near the village of Idomeni will not be allowed to proceed north toward Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.

Many there have been waiting for two weeks or more to be among the small number let through each day. But no one had been allowed to cross since 6am on Monday.

The mood was grim among those at the front of the queue Tuesday, with scuffles breaking out among groups of men. Dozens spent the night crammed into a large tent beside the gate as a thunderstorm broke around them.

'We are going to remain here, it is impossible for us to return to Turkey because we have nothing left to sustain us to go back to Turkey,' said Ali Aboud, from Syria.

It comes as Slovenia said access to the country will now only be granted to 'foreigners meeting the requirements to enter the country', those wishing to claim asylum, and migrants selected 'on a case by case basis on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with the rules of the Schengen zone', a statement from the interior ministry said.

In a bid to shut off the Balkan migrant route once and for all, Serbia said it would 'align all measures' with the fellow Balkan country saying it 'cannot accept becoming a reception centre for refugees'.

Meanwhile, Disease control experts were sent to the Idomeni camp to help a large number of children and pregnant women in desperate need of medical attention

Two mobile units from Greece's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention began operating on Tuesday in Idomeni, where the migrants are stranded in slum-like conditions.

But they have vowed to keep trying to cross despite a build-up of rubbish and pools of filthy, stagnant water around them and being forced to scavenge for food. MailOnline found one family heating up grass to feed to their children.

Aid workers overrun by desperate families say an outbreak of diarrhoea has left children seriously ill with limited medical facilities on site.

Refugees stand near puddles of filthy, stagnant water as they wait to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni, northern Greece

Slum: The refugees have been trapped there after a series of border shutdowns caused bottlenecks along the so-called 'Balkans corridor'

Refugees stand near tents at the holding camp in Idomeni. They have vowed to keep trying to cross, hours after EU leaders declared an end to a mass scramble to reach wealthy countries and despite a build-up of rubbish and pools of filthy, stagnant water around them

'We will stay here even if we all die,' said Kadriya Jasem, a 25-year-old from Aleppo in Syria as she held a four-month-old baby in her arms who she said needed a doctor. 'Please open the border, if only for the children,' she wailed.

Announcing the deployment of the disease experts, Yiannis Baskozos, general secretary of Greece's Health Ministry, warned there was 'a large number of children, young women and pregnant women that require attention' at the camp.

He said: 'At this time we do not have any cases of concern (of disease outbreak). There is always that danger and we are monitoring this possibility. But there is no reason to panic.'

Tempers boiled over earlier today, however, when a fight broke out between a group of migrant men, some of them brandishing sticks. Pictures showed one man curled up in a ball on the ground as others scuffled around him.

Aid workers struggling to feed and care say the situation is becoming explosive as hundreds more arrive each day.

Migrants tents are illuminated in the night at the refugee camp in Idomeni. Thousands remain stranded there hours after the European Union and Turkey failed to reach an agreement on resolving the migration crisis

Around 1,000 migrants are expected to leave Athens and continue north toward Idomeni, adding further strain on resources at the camp

Refugees stand around open fires waiting to cross the Greek-Macedonian border as thousands remain stranded at the camp

Many of the tents are now largely packed with women and children anxious to be reunited with husbands and fathers who have already made it to Germany.

But their desperation has intensified after it emerged that Germany was looking to limit the rights of refugees to have their families join them.

It means that in February, for the first time since the asylum seekers started arriving en masse, the numbers of women and children exceeded the men.

In the queues outside, some of the refugees waved German flags and pleaded with Chancellor Angela Merkel to save them.

When they saw reporters, all they wanted to know is when the borders would be re-opened so they can move on to Germany.

They complain they don't have any warm food, with many scavenging in forests for supplies.

MailOnline found one family heating up grass to feed their children.

Bulgarian aid worker, Lora Khaha, 24, from NGO Fenix Aid, said: 'When we got here, we thought we might be able to help out a bit and were going to just stay for three days.

A migrant woman tries to keep her child warm near fire at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni. Greek officials say Macedonia has imposed further restrictions on refugees trying to cross the border, saying only those from cities they consider to be at war can enter

Agony: The Greek health minister says a large number of children and pregnant women need medical attention after the border was shut

Many tents are largely packed with women and children anxious to be reunited with husbands and fathers who have made it to Germany

Aid workers struggling to feed and care say the situation is becoming explosive as hundreds more arrive each day

'We ended up cooking 8,000 vegetable soups a day and it's not enough, because there are 13,000 people wanting food. They are going out into the fields gathering plants and cooking them up.

'It is unsurprising that many of the children in particular are suffering health problems and there is currently an outbreak of diarrhoea which has left some of the children seriously ill, with limited medical facilities at the camp meaning that they need to be transferred by ambulance to Athens.'

Red Cross worker Despina Filipidaki added: 'We are doing our best but there are so many people here, it would be much better to send the sick children to the nearby hospital in Macedonia, but because the borders are closed we can't get them there and are having to send them to Athens.

'The problem is that this was meant to be a transit camp and it's not long-term accommodation.

'This only ever been 3,000 people a day here and now there are simply too many to cope with.'

Tempers are frayed and attacks among each other and on refugee workers no longer uncommon.

At one point, MailOnline reporters had to flee a special tent playing cartoons for children when violence broke out between women who screamed and attacked each other.

Outside aid workers said they had also been attacked by people standing in queues to receive water, sandwiches and nappies.

Volunteer Soufiane Fakhoury, from the NGO Praksis Thessaloniki, said she and others were working round the clock but they don't have enough staff to help all the refugees.

She said: 'We give them sandwiches, dippers and baby milk formula but often we are attacked because the people here are losing their temper waiting in lines to get food.

'We have mothers all the time asking if we have warm clothing for the children.'

But even the tents there are flooded with water, the migrants refuse to move to another dry and empty camp some 20km away because they want to be as close to the border in case it opens.

A young migrant who is waiting to cross the Greek-Macedonian border, stands at a makeshift camp near the village of Idomeni, Greece

there was no sign the pressure was easing as would-be migrants on Turkey's Aegean coast vowed to continue attempting perilous sea crossings to Greece, where at least 34,000 people are trapped in various parts of the country

MailOnline spoke to one woman who claimed that people registered at the shelter further inland are put on a two-month waiting list before they were allocated a place in an EU country.

She said: 'Nobody wants to wait that long.'

All claimed to be from Syria, but it is understood many were being sent back at the border, with some claiming their paperwork had been ripped up after it was declared to be fake.

Macedonian officials denied destroying documents.

And there was no sign the pressure was easing as would-be migrants on Turkey's Aegean coast vowed to continue attempting perilous sea crossings to Greece, where at least 34,000 people are trapped in various parts.

It came after EU leaders agreed an in-principle deal with Turkey aimed at finally tackling the crisis.

Ankara has tabled a 'one-for-one' plan to take back all illegal Syrian migrants in exchange for the EU resettling an equal number of genuine refugees directly from Turkey.

A migrant child stands beside tents near the village of Idomeni, Greece, with messages begging the United Nations for help with the crisis

Desperately trying to keep warm: A migrant woman lights a fire at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015

After 12 hours of talks in Brussels, EU leaders hailed the offer as a 'game-changing' breakthrough in attempts to stem the flow of asylum seekers into the Continent.

But critics condemned it as a 'dirty' and 'catastrophic' deal amid fears it could make the problem worse by creating a 'migrant merry-go-round' that could bring hundreds of thousands more refugees to the bloc.

Turkey has also been accused of holding Europe to ransom by demanding it doubles its current offer of funding to 6billion to deal with the 2.9million refugees in the country.

The draft deal will see Ankara take back all migrants that land on the Greek islands. But for each Syrian returned, the EU would accept a Syrian from a camp in Turkey and resettle them in Europe.

This could create an incentive for Turkey to allow many more illegal Syrian refugees through to Greece because for every one sent back, Europe would then take a Syrian from Turkish camps, which would not have happened before the deal.

This could potentially bring hundreds of thousands more migrants into Europe by the time the deal expires in December 2018.
A local vigilante group in Washington named the Punisher Squad forced a man to call 911 on himself after accusing him of being a child predator.

The suspect, Adam Olson, 36, was taken into custody, facing charges of electronic communication with a minor for immoral purposes and attempted child rape in the second degree.

The group who organized the sting in Kelso, Washington, - headed up by Curtis Hart - used the app Whisper to pose as a young girl looking to hook up with older men.

Hart said that Olson thought he was meeting a 13-year-old girl he met on the anonymous messaging app, but instead was met by five men of the Punisher Squad at Tam OShanter Park on Thursday night.

A group of vigilantes in Kelso, Washington, caught Adam Olson (pictured) speaking to who he thought was a teenage girl about meeting and having sex

Olson, 36, faces charges of electronic communication with a minor for immoral purposes and second-degree attempted child rape

Adam Olsen from up in Castle Rock messaged and it was really obvious he wanted to meet within a couple of minutes, and then it just got really vulgar from there. Quite disgusting, Hart, a self-proclaimed libertarian activist told KTRK.

In a video Hart filmed of the incident, Olson is heard saying I tried talking to a 13-year-old about sex into a cellphone after he was forced to call 911.

Hart said the idea came to him and his friend when they decided to post a fake Whisper message to see how many people we could get.

It said, 14-year-old female looking for fun with older men, Hart told KATU. Within three minutes there was about 30 or 40 messages and about half of them were from town.

One of the messages the men received was from Olson, Hart said.

Chris Hart, who headed up the sting by the Punisher Squad vigilante group, said they decided to use the app Whisper to pose as a young girl to see how many predators they could catch

After being approached by the men at the park, Olson calls 911 to turn himself in for preying on a 13-year-old girl

He sends a picture of himself, and it was a guy that I went to junior high with and high school with, Hart, who runs a podcast titled, Because Liberty, told KATU.

Hart said many of the messengers were eventually spooked, but Olson continued the conversation, despite learning he was speaking to what he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

Eventually in the conversation I say that I'm Curtis Hart's daughter, and he's like, Oh, I didn't like him anyway, so I ain't gonna tell your dad, Hart told KATU.

And this whole time it was like extremely graphic, he added. At one point he decided that he wanted the girl to be in a relationship with him and wanted her to go spend the night with him in his house.

Hart said Olson was anxious to meet that night, so he and four others got together to surprise Olson in the park.

When Olson sent the group - who he thought was a teenage girl - a photo of himself, Hart realized they went to junior high school together

In the messages the girl implies meeting will 'work out' because her dad would fall asleep soon. Olson responds by telling her she's 'in a relationship now' and calls her princess

Exactly what was your plan was when you messaged a 13-year-old girl on the Internet and told her you wanted to f*** her? Hart is heard asking in the video.

But Olson says that he was just gonna talk to her.

Ryan Jurvakainen, the prosecuting attorney for Cowlitz County, said hes reviewing police reports and theres no indication that the video is false.

He said Olson is due to be arraigned on March 15 and hell make a charging decision on Tuesday.

Police have encouraged others not to engage in similar vigilante activities because its dangerous and hard to prosecute.

Officials said that Hart put himself in danger, but he told KTRK that he felt he had to step up.

[Police] don't have the funds to do this and it needs to be done, he said.

Olson is being held on a $50,000 bail.
A Missouri lawyer whose disabled girlfriend was found strangled to death while the couple were on vacation in Mexico claims she committed suicide by over dosing on pills.

John Loveless, 59, is claiming Tamra Turpin, 36, of Union, Missouri took her own life last Wednesday after the pair had a fight.

Turpin's oldest sister, Jodi Mills, said Loveless had told her that she had committed suicide by overdosing on prescription medications after an argument.

Mills said Loveless insisted via text messages the day Turpin was found dead in a condo the couple had rented that she had taken 'a bunch of pills' after they fought the previous night.

'He said she was crazy out of her mind and had seizures' after taking the unspecified medication, said Mills.

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This is the moment John Loveless (pictured) was detained at Cancun airport after his disabled girlfriend was strangled to death during their vacation in Mexico

Loveless as stopped by police in the airport terminal before boarding a flight to return home to Atlanta alone last week when he was arrested by Mexican authorities.

He now faces a criminal homicide investigation in the death of his girlfriend.

She died about 9am on Wednesday in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, near Cancun, authorities said. A forensic examination found she died of asphyxia by strangulation.

It is unclear whether Loveless has a lawyer. A woman who answered the telephone on Monday at his law office in St. Clair near St. Louis said there was no comment.

Appearing before a judge on Friday in Mexico, Loveless, who is in custody in Playa del Carmen, declined to discuss the matter.

Mills said Loveless told her in text messages he had canceled an initial call for an ambulance because Turpin was 'resting comfortably.'

By the afternoon, she said that Loveless told her that her sister had died, adding that 'he said he was sorry and had no words.'

'I immediately called him, thinking that surely it's not true,' Mills said.

'I remember talking to him briefly, and she said she was gone. After that, I don't know what the rest of our conversation was.'

'It's crazy, and I'm still in shock,' she added. 'It just seems like a bad dream.'

John Loveless (left), 59, was arrested at Cancun airport as he was about to board a flight to Atlanta and is now in custody. His girlfriend Tamra Turpin (right), 36, was found dead in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Turpin died about 9am on Wednesday in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, near Cancun, authorities said. A forensic examination found she died of asphyxia by strangulation.

Mills said she's awaiting word from the U.S. consulate about sharing the text exchange with Mexican investigators.

But she's 'still keeping an open mind' about Loveless, she said,

'I can't be judgmental when I don't have all the facts,' Mills said.

'I see where it's pointing, but I respect that he has family and that they need to be sure when happened. Anger gets you nowhere.'

Turpin's oldest sister, Jodi Mills (pictured), said Loveless told her that she overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide bid after an argument

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City confirmed the death in Playa del Carmen of an American citizen identified as Tamra Turpin.

It offered condolences and said it was providing consular assistance in the case.

The embassy said it was aware of reports that a U.S. citizen had been detained, but referred further questions to Mexican authorities.

On Monday, the embassy said it had no new information on the case.

Meanwhile, Loveless has had no disciplinary action against him as an attorney, the state's Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates ethics complaints against lawyers, said Monday.

Mills added Turpin and Loveless had been friends for several years, had dated for roughly the past year and traveled frequently in recent months, including a trip to Florida weeks ago.

According to Turpin's Facebook page, the pair traveled to Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean in November last year.

'He wined and dined her and treated her very well,' Mills said, describing Loveless as 'very nice' and her sister as an animal-loving summer enthusiast who was 'very spunky, feisty and fun.'

Loveless, pictured with Turpin, is facing a criminal homicide investigation in her death, prosecutors said

Loveless was arrested just before attempting to board a flight back to Atlanta from Cancun, Mexico. Turpin shared this picture on her Facebook page in February

Turpin and Loveless (pictured together) had been friends for several years, had dated for roughly the past year and traveled frequently in recent months, said her sister

Turpin, nagged by lingering migraines and back pain dating back to a car wreck when she was a teenager 'always had some depression' after her dad died in 2001, Mills added.

Her remains are to be laid to rest next to her father's burial plot after her body is returned to Missouri, perhaps as early as this week, Mills said.

'That would make her happy,' Mills said.

Turpin's mother Evalena Duncan told KSDK she wanted to know the truth, whatever it may be.

'We're just praying that the truth be known and trying to deal with comprehending that she's gone,' Duncan said.

A friend of Turpins set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to cover funeral expenses and the cost of bringing her body home.

In a post on the page, Amanda Wilson paid tribute to the amazing person who touched many lives.

If we can all just give back a part of what Tamra gave us we will finally be able to bring here home and say our goodbyes.
The polygamous towns led by imprisoned Warren Jeffs on the Utah-Arizona border have been found guilty of violating the constitutional rights of nonbelievers.

A jury ruled Monday that residents of who were not part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were denied police protection, building permits and water hookups.

The civil rights trial marks one of boldest efforts by the government to confront the FLDS regime in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, collectively known as Short Creek.

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The polygamous towns led by imprisoned Warren Jeffs on the Utah-Arizona border have been found guilty of violating the constitutional rights of nonbelievers

A jury ruled Monday that residents of who were not part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were denied police protection, building permits and water hookups

And the seven-week trial provided a rare glimpse into the communities that for years have been shrouded in secrecy and are distrustful of government and outsiders.

It is rumored that Jeffs, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for sexually assaulting two girls - aged 12 and 15 - he called his 'spiritual wives', continues to run the compound behind bars.

The FLDS first settled in Short Creek in the 1930s after splitting from the Mormon Church after it disavowed polygamy.

It now has a combined population of nearly 10,000 people - and the majority of residents are either current or former members of the FLDS.

The jury, which reached a verdict on its fourth day of deliberations, awarded $2.2million to six residents eligible for damages.

But the towns will have to pay only $1.6million for violating the federal Fair Housing Act because lawyers negotiated a settlement in that part of the case, according to CNN.

The judge will now decide what other punishments to impose.

Federal authorities have not specified the changes they will seek, but they could ask for the Colorado City Marshal's Office to be disbanded and for its duties to be handed over to local sheriffs.

The civil rights trial marks one of boldest efforts by the government to confront the FLDS regime in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, collectively known as Short Creek

It is rumored that Jeffs, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for sexually assaulting two girls - aged 12 and 15 - he called his 'spiritual wives', continues to run the compound behind bars

In another blow to the FLDS, Jeff's brothers Lyle (left) and Seth (right) have been ordered to remain behind bars after they were charged, along with nine other members, of money laundering and food stamp fraud

Richard Holm, who was awarded damages, hailed the verdict as a step in denting the sect's control over the towns but said the verdict will be hollow if the judge doesn't disband the marshal's office.

'For there ever to be a decent community, there's got to be new faces, new control,' said Holm who left the sect in 2003 but still lives in the area.

Town leaders will abide by whatever changes are ordered by the judge, Colorado City attorney Jeff Matura said, but the government's actions won't change people's religious beliefs.

'There is nothing that the government can do or really should be able to do to change someone's faith,' Matura said.

The government's testimony largely came from former FLDS members, who said local police and security harassed and spied on them after they left the church.

Jurors concluded that the compound's officers arrested them without probable cause and made unreasonable searches of their property.

One woman who was denied a water connection testified that she had to haul water to her home and take away sewage for six years.

And a former sect member said police ignored hundreds of complaints of vandalism on his horse property because he was no longer part of the church.

The jury ruled that the marshal's office broke the First Amendment's promise that the government won't show preference to a particular faith and force religion upon people.

The jury awarded $2.2million to six residents eligible for damages. The towns will have to pay $1.6million for violating the federal Fair Housing Act

The government's testimony largely came from former FLDS members, who said local police and security harassed and spied on them after they left the church

'Today's verdict reaffirms that America guarantees all people equal protection and fair treatment, regardless of their religious beliefs,' said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

'When communities deny their residents critical services simply because of where they worship, they violate our laws and threaten the defining values of religious freedom and tolerance that are the foundation of our country.'

The towns deny the allegations and say the government is persecuting town officials because it disapproves of their religion.

The verdict was the second blow dealt to the FLDS in recent weeks.

A grand jury in Utah indicted 11 church leaders, including Jeffs' brothers Lyle and Seth, on charges of money laundering and food stamp fraud.

Authorities said they illegally obtained $12m in food stamp benefits. The Jeffs' brothers were arrested on February 23.

Lyle Jeffs, who has been acting as the bishop of Short Creek after Warren was put behind bars, was ordered on Monday to remain in jail. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to KUTV.

Seth Jeffs, the bishop of an FLDS compound near Pringle, South Dakota, will also remain jailed until his trial.

And government troubles for the FLDS are hardly over.

The US Labor Department has a separate action against a ranch with ties to the church over a pecan harvest in which prosecutors allege children were forced to work long hours with few breaks.
A video released by ISIS claims to show an elderly man carrying out a suicide bombing against coalition forces in Iraq.

The elderly bomber, named as Abu Taybah al-Ansari, is seen talking to the camera before climbing into the truck, rigged with explosives.

The footage then shows the geriatric jihadi driving away, before detonating the vehicle in an attack reportedly targeting an anti-ISIS coalition base in Anbar, western Iraq.

Old Age Jihadist: The elderly man, named as Abu Taybah al-Ansari, gives his final interview to the camera

Time to go: He is then seen being helped into the vehicle, reportedly rigged with explosives, by a fellow jihadist

The elderly man gives a final interview in the video, before being helped into the truck by a fellow ISIS fighter.

He is then seen driving off into the horizon, before an explosion is heard and a large black cloud rises to the sky.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition has targeted ISIS with two dozen strikes near 15 cities, the U.S. military said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Seventeen strikes in Iraq hit eight tactical units as well as two headquarters and numerous fighting positions used by Islamic State, the Combined Joint Task Force said.

Geriatric terror: The old man takes the wheel while appearing to hold an intercom or a detonator in his hand

Off we go: He is then seen driving off into the horizon, before an explosion is heard

Terrorism: The suicide attack reportedly targeted an anti-ISIS coalition base in Anbar, western Iraq

The strikes near a dozen cities also hit several weapons and supply caches, the statement said.

In Syria, seven strikes near three cities hit four ISIS tactical units as well as an improvised explosive device in a house and a gas and oil separation plant modular refinery, among other targets, according to the coalition.

In addition, Syrian government forces, reportedly backed by allied units, recaptured a village from Islamist insurgents hours after it was taken.
Martin Howlett, 31, (pictured) has been jailed for five years for ransacking his neighbour's home in Carlisle, Cumbria, during Storm Desmond

A looter who ransacked his neighbour's flood-stricken home at the height of Storm Desmond after checking whether his valuables were still inside the property has been jailed for five years.

Martin Howlett, 31, contacted a fellow Carlisle residents, pretending to be concerned about whether he had rescued his most treasured possessions from his flooded home.

But when the man said his valuables were still inside the abandoned property - and that he had gone to stay with relatives in London - Howlett smashed his way inside, stealing 41 items, including his television.

At that time, Storm Desmond had unleashed havoc across Britain, with Cumbria among the worst-hit areas.

The Environment Agency had also urged residents and businesses to flee from their homes as a deluge of torrential rain swamped the city.

Jailing him for five years, Judge Peter Davis told 'devious' Howlett that he had been the 'exception' to the rallying community spirit which was evident throughout Carlisle at the height of the floods.

At one point, he began shaking with anger as he condemned the looter for 'preying' on victims - while volunteers, soldiers and emergency crew worked 'non-stop' to help the vulnerable.

He told him: 'Your offences were devious, they were mean, and they were low.

'These were serious burglaries, committed at a time when the city was exposed, and the city was most vulnerable; when the entire city worked hard to help each other and stop people like you.'

Howlett, who blamed alcohol for the offences, had previously admitted three burglaries, one attempted burglary, and theft.

The court was told how Howlett decided to target homes that had been evacuated by families because of the floods.

Prosecutor Francis McEntee said he contacted one of his neighbours on January 5, supposedly claiming to check whether he had managed to protect his valuables from the flood water.

But the court heard that, once his neighbour admitted his belongings were all still inside, Howlett ransacked the flat. He took dozens of items, including a laptop, a Sky box, and clothes.

The court heard how the defendant was arrested four days later after he was seen by security guards fleeing from a nearby residential street, while wearing a rucksack.

A homeowner later noticed that the handle had been sheared off his backdoor, while a nearby shed had been forced open, with tools and a clock stolen.

Police then searched the defendant's home, where officers found 41 items stolen from his neighbour's flat.

At that time, Storm Desmond had unleashed havoc across Britain, with Cumbria among the worst-hit areas

In court, Howlett's lawyer said the crimes had been committed because he was drunk.

Jamie Baxter, for Howlett, said: 'These offences were committed while under the influence of alcohol.

'He wants me to express to the court that he apologises and wholeheartedly regrets what he did. He's sorry for all the people affected and ashamed.'

But the judge told Howlett how his actions contrasted starkly with the generous community spirit which shone the region last Christmas.

The judge added: 'On December 5, 2015, Storm Desmond devastated the city of Carlisle.

Describing him as 'devious', Judge Peter Davis today told Howlett he had been the 'exception' to the rallying community spirit which was evident throughout Carlisle at the height of the floods (pictured)

'The infrastructure of the city was paralysed, homes and businesses were destroyed, and the media captured the trauma of the ordeal.

'Houses had to be evacuated by young and old alike. Rescue and emergency services worked non-stop to aid the vulnerable.

'Volunteers arrived from nationwide to assist the critical rescue work. Charities worked tirelessly to provide food and shelter to those who had abandoned their properties.

'It was a remarkable demonstration of generosity, which provoked universal admiration.'

As well as handing down a jail term, the judge ordered Howlett to pay a 120 victim surcharge.
A British angler has hooked a world record 66lb cod in Norway big enough for 150 chip shop portions - and donated the catch to locals.

Tom Ascott, from Sturminster Newton, Dorset, said it felt like he had hooked a London bus after he cast off from the shore in Bodo, Norway, and the huge fish took his herring bait.

The 32-year-old spent 30 minutes struggling to reel in his catch which at one point swam off with 600ft of his fishing line.

The cod-father: Tom Ascott, from Sturminster Newton, Dorset, said it felt like he had hooked a London bus after he cast off from the snow-covered shore and the huge fish bit on his herring bait

Monster catch: The 32-year-old spent 30 minutes struggling to reel in his catch which at one point swam off with 600ft of his fishing line

His friend Stuart Andrew then helped heave the enormous fish out of the icy water.

The catch weighed 66lb 8oz - 22lb heavier than the existing record for a shore-caught cod which had stood for nearly 50 years.

The record fish, that was 4ft 9ins long and had a girth of nearly 3ft, is big enough to make about 150 chip shop portions and was donated by Mr Ascott to the local community.

But the trip might end up leaving the father-of-two out of pocket as he promised to buy his wife Katie a new Mini car if he caught a big fish.

Record: The catch weighed 66lb 8oz - 22lb heavier than the existing record for a shore-caught cod which had stood for nearly 50 years

Two-man job: The record fish, that was 4ft 9ins long and had a girth of nearly 3ft, is big enough to make about 150 chip shop portions and was donated by Mr Ascott to the local community

The builder said: 'The fish was so big it felt like I was trying to reel in a London bus. I could have squeezed my head inside its mouth.

'I didn't know how big it was at first, just that it was going to be a big fish.

'After half-an-hour I was almost spent and Stuart leapt down on to the ledge I was on and helped pull the fish out of the water. When it rolled on its side we saw what a giant it was.

'Sadly the fish was too weak to put back and so we donated it to the locals, who are probably going to dry it out and split it between them.'

The previous record shore-caught cod of 44lb 8oz was caught off south Wales in 1966.

Tom added: 'I'm still on a bit of an adrenaline buzz and it is still sinking in that I caught a record fish. Some people have told me they don't think it will ever be beaten because this cod was just so big.

Cod-zilla: The previous record shore-caught cod of 44lb 8oz was caught off south Wales in 1966

'Catching something like this has always been something that has been in the back of the mind, but it is not something you can do by design it is just pot luck.'

Tom was on a trip with Guided Fishing Norway organised by John Strange, who was amazed by the mighty catch.

He said: 'I'm gob-smacked, the previous record has stood for for so long and no-one has ever caught a fish anything like this.

'Tom doesn't really realise what he has done, he says he is going to beat it - but you don't just win the lottery twice.'
Robert Krug, 18, from Bonney Lake, Washington, has been arrested after he allegedly stalked the mother of a missing girl and demanded nude images

An 18-year-old high school student has been arrested and charged with stalking the mother of a missing 14-year-old online before threatening to kill her daughter if she didn't send him nude pictures.

Robert Krug, who attends Bonney Lake High School, in Washington state, was charged by the prosecutor's office on Friday after sending the messages on January 29, Q13 Fox reports.

Krug had contacted the mother of missing schoolgirl Hailey Anne Gregory, 14, after seeing her pleas for information about her daughter's whereabouts on Facebook.

The mother, who Dailymail.com is not naming, was tricked into responding to Krug after he pretended to be concerned for her daughter's welfare.

However, in a sickening series of messages Krug is accused of asking how she is doing before claiming to be holding her daughter and threatening to kill her if he does not receive nude pictures.

Facebook images of the alleged exchange, uploaded by the mother, show that Krug initially messaged her at 8.59am on January 25 asking her if she was ok.

The woman responded: 'Thank you for asking. I'm not doing too well. It's Tuesday and my daughter has been missing now seven weeks.

'I was hoping to sleep through so I wasn't having to live through hell of Tuesday. But I'm awake. Good time to pray.'

Krug is accused of befriending the mother of missing Hailey Ann Gregory, 14, via Facebook before claiming he would kill her daughter unless she sent him pictures of her naked breasts

The following day another message is sent from Krug's profile, this time asking the mother if she is single, and she replies a day later, saying: 'No, sorry I'm not single.'

Finally, on January 29, another two messages are sent from Krug's profile at 3.35pm.

The messages read: 'It is ok, if I can see you t*** I'll give you your daughter back. If you don't I'll kill her.'

The mother subsequently reported the messages to the police, and Krug was charged by the prosecutor's office on Friday last week. It is not clear when he was arrested.

Gregory (left and right) was last seen on December 8 last year and her mother has since flooded social media with messages attempting to trace the girl

When officers questioned Krug, he reportedly apologized profusely and suggested he sent the messages because he thought the mother was attractive.

He is now charged with cyberstalking - threats to kill with sexual motivation which is a class C felony and carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Hailey Ann Gregory is still missing and was last seen on December 8 in Bonney Lake and is described as being 5ft 4ins tall, weighing 150lbs with blue eyes and black hair.
A Cleveland daycare worker has pleaded guilty to beating a two-year-old child that she was supposed to be watching after footage emerged of the horrific assault.

Melissa Tate, 49, was charged with hitting the two-year-old boy with a plastic back-scratcher 22 times at the Cedar Early Living Center.

In a disturbing video that surfaced of the incident, Tate is seen repeatedly whipping the boy on his bare legs, before dragging him across the classroom and throwing him onto a change room table.

She pleaded guilty to a felony endangering children charge and will now be sentenced on April 29, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

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Guilty: Melissa Tate, 49, was charged with hitting the two-year-old boy with a plastic back-scratcher at the Cedar Early Living Center in Cleveland after a disturbing video surfaced

Afterwards, the former daycare worker was handcuffed and taken back into custody, where she will remain until sentencing

Disturbing: In the video that surfaced of the incident, Tate is seen repeatedly whipping the boy on his bare legs, before dragging him across the classroom and throwing him onto a change room table

Tate was handcuffed and taken back into custody, where she will remain until sentencing.

She may receive over one year in prison.

The victim's mother, Ryane Lamb, said afterwards that she is pleased Tate is now behind bars.

'I am glad she can no longer do this to any other child,' Lamb told Fox 8.

'I could have never fathomed that this was even going on there, let alone to my child.

'It's something that you should worry about and it's sad to say that we should be worrying about this issue.'

Victim: Two-year-old Amari Lamb is the little boy that was hit by Melissa Tate. His mother said he has become quite clingy since the assault

Evidence: The marks left by the back-scratcher were visible on Amari's legs following the beating

Police also arrested another daycare employee as part of the case.

The video, taken from CCTV inside the daycare, shows another worker who witnessed the beating but did not step in to stop in.

Tonya James, 34, has pleaded not guilty.

That case is still pending.
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This is the hilarious moment a clumsy lion cub seeking some shade climbed a tree only to lose its grip and fall from the branch when it became stuck.

The lion cub had climbed the tree to lie in the shadows, but unable to find a safe route down, he found himself stuck. And when his call for help went unheard, he continued to try and find an escape route.

However, it wasn't long before the poor cub lost his balance and found himself hanging from the tree - seconds later he lost his grip and came tumbling down into the bushes below.

The lion cub was first pictured resting in the shade offered by the tree during a particularly hot afternoon in Tanzania

After sometime long after the rest of the pride had moved on from the area, he decided he wanted to get down from the branch

However, he soon realised he was stuck having climbed too high up the tree in search of shade

The panicked lion cub then began growling in a desperate attempt to get help from either the rest of his pride, or his mother

The increasingly agitated lion starts pacing along the tree branches hoping to find a safe way down the ground below

Giving up on attracting the attention of his family, he tries to climb down a branch which does not reach the grass below

But his descent ends in spectacular failure when he loses his grip and goes plummeting to the grass below

Wim van den Heever, 43, was leading a photographic tour in Ndutu in Tanzania when he began to photograph the young cub in a tree.

He said: 'We found the lion lying in the tree alone in the shade, I had a feeling that if we waited a bit longer the sun would sink and we might get a good shot.

'While we were waiting, he moved to the point where he is going to climb out the tree then I realised he was stuck. He was growling at the ground and hissing and pacing and then I realised that he couldn't get out the tree.

'He was contact calling the pride, obviously distressed to be separated from his pride. I have a feeling that he was with the pride in the trees earlier that day but when they moved on he had to stay behind because he was stuck.

'Lions are social animals and they stay together for safety and he is a young male and he was clearly distressed by the end. He was pacing on one of the bigger branches and trying to find an escape route. Then he tried to turn trying to find an escape route.

'The branch of the tree was very high and he caught the branch and must have been hanging there for 30 seconds or more, trying to climb back up.

'I parked a perfect distance for the lens I was using, we had a good vantage point from where we were. This is something I have never witnessed before, a lion falling out a tree, it was very funny.

'To get a lion falling out of a tree is super super rare, especially in good light and turning in mid air and looking at the camera. It was perfect. He didn't hurt himself and he fell into some really tall foliage and then he walked off.

'I don't think the pride was too far away so he must have joined them.'
Trump's paranoia bubbled over during GOP debate when he made crass reference to his penis, told the TV audience he has 'no problem' with size

Editor Graydon Carter, now Vanity Fair editor, says Trump regularly sends him photos of his hands circled with a Sharpie to highlight their length

Donald Trump left viewers shocked when he defended the size of his hands - and another part of his body - during the GOP debate.

Holding up his hands to the audience he said 'are they small?'.

He explained that Marco Rubio had said days before 'if they are small, something else must be small'.

Then, in a crass reference that sent shock waves across Twitter, Trump added: 'I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee.'

But it seems Trump's desperation to defend his anatomy is nothing new. He was first dubbed 'the short-fingered vulgarian' and 'little Donald' by the satirical magazine Spy 30 years ago.

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Paranoid? It seems Trump's desperation to defend his anatomy is nothing new. He was first dubbed 'the short-fingered vulgarian' and 'little Donald' by the satirical magazine Spy (pictured above) 30 years ago

According to the editors, Trump (pictured at a rally on Monday) has never forgotten it - and he allegedly sends them pictures of his fingers, circled with a Sharpie, on a regular basis to prove they are adequate in length

The jokes bore a striking resemblance to the way Trump calls Marco Rubio 'little Marco' and mocks the 5'10' senator for his height.

According to the editors, Trump has never forgotten it - and he allegedly sends them pictures of his fingers, circled with a Sharpie, on a regular basis to prove they are adequate in length.

Graydon Carter, now editor of Vanity Fair, and Kurt Anderson published pictures of Donald Trump's head on the body of a baby and made a point of ridiculing his tiny hands.

Spy, which documented wealth and excesses in New York, regularly featured Trump, accusing him of dodgy business transactions.

The first mention of Trump as a 'short-fingered vulgarian' came in 1988.

They recycled it on a number of occasions - and last year Carter brought it into a piece in Vanity Fair.

Trump insisted during the debate that he had never been ridiculed for his hand size.

However, Carter wrote in Vanity Fair's November 2015 edition that Trump repeatedly sends him pictures of his hands to prove they are adequate in length.

'To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump,' Carter wrote.

'There is always a photo of him  generally a tear sheet from a magazine.

Trump shocked viewers when he defended the size of his hands, and another body part, during the debate

YELP IS ALSO MOCKING TRUMP'S HAND SIZE IN NEW APP UPDATE Yelp made reference to the GOP front runner this week when it release an update to the mobile app. Users of the review site received a tongue-in-cheek message: 'Our latest release easily trumps our old version, its usable no matter how small your hands are!' Advertisement

'On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers.

'I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby.'

Carter and Anderson appeared on NPR on Tuesday to address this bizarre habit of Trump's.

'[Trump] blames me for this more than Kurt,' Carter said. 'He'll send me pictures, tear sheets from magazines, and he did it as recently as [last] April.

'With a gold Sharpie, he'll circle his fingers and in his handwriting say, "See, not so short."

'And this April when he sent me one, I just  I should have held on to the thing, but I sent it right back by messenger with a note, a card stapled to the top, saying, "Actually, quite short."

'And I know it just gives him absolute fits. And now that it's become sort of part of the whole campaign rhetoric, I'm sure he wants to just kill me  with those little hands.'

Meanwhile, Trump's jibes of 'little Marco' have given rise to memes making Marco Rubio look like a baby.

The 5'10" Florida senator has been tirelessly ridiculed by 6'2" rival Donald Trump - who took his cue from 6'3" Jeb Bush - who describes him as a baby.

And now, as Rubio slides in the polls, Twitter users have given Trump's 'little Rubio' taunts a whole new dimension.

They were all seemingly inspired by a photograph of the senator sitting in an oversized chair during a visit to Grevior Furniture in Franklin, New Hampshire, in August, which left his feet dangling from the ground.

Using that image, one puts the GOP candidate in a baby seat, while another has shrunk him to the size of a doll and perched him on Donald Trump's lap.
He demands Cameron makes a speech demanding more EU reforms even if voters want to stay in Brussels club

John Whittingdale (pictured attending Cabinet today) hit out at the 'Project Fear' approach of the In campaign in the EU referendum

A leading Cabinet minister warned today that David Cameron and George Osborne's 'Project Fear' approach to the EU referendum was 'dangerous'.

John Whittingdale, the Culture Secretary, said making 'Armageddon' forecasts about life outside the EU would create a self-fulfilling prophecy because people would react to an 'Out' vote on the basis of the disastrous warnings they had been told by the likes of the Prime Minister before the vote.

And just minutes after the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney described the prospect of a Brexit as the 'biggest domestic risk' facing the UK economy, Mr Whittingdale slapped him down by saying such warnings were 'wrong'.

He said there were many other uncertainties that would have an equal and potentially greater impact on the UK economy than leaving the EU.

Mr Whittingdale, who is one of the six Cabinet ministers who is backing an Out vote, added that the UK Government must draw up contingency plans for life outside the EU even though it is officially in favour of staying in.

Warning of the dangers of using scare tactics in the referendum campaign, he said: 'It is sensible in my view that the Government should prepare for both outcomes and telling people that Armageddon would follow from our withdrawal in my view is both wrong but also dangerous in that if Britain did decide to leave people may react on the basis that they have been told that this is going to cause all these economic shocks.

'Whilst it is true that the question of the UK's membership of the European Union is the biggest issue in domestic politics, there are so many uncertainties out there in the world today relating to China, to Greece, to the oil price - these are all others that the Chancellor has made clear [make for] quite difficult challenging times and that is what financial institutions are there to take account of and to hedge against.

GOVERNOR: BREXIT CALL BY BORIS HELPED SINK THE POUND Boris Johnson's Brexit declaration 'concentrated minds' in the currency markets Boris Johnson's declaration for the Out campaign may have driven a slump in the pound, Bank Governor Mark Carney has suggested. The London Mayor finally declared for Brexit in a doorstep press conference a day after David Cameron formally fired the starting gun on the referendum. The value of sterling fell in the early stages of the campaign and financial analysts have warned the pound could fall to 'parity' with the euro after a Brexit vote. Asked whether the London Mayor's announcement had an impact, he replied: 'The combination of having the agreement, and therefore a date for the referendum, and the tangible evidence of a campaign in favour of Leave with credible politicians as part of that - not least represented on this committee - concentrated the minds. 'I know that seems a bit odd that sometimes financial markets ignore an issue until there are focal points that make it more tangible, but this is what happens time and time again. 'It was a combination of events that focused minds.' Mr Carney said the moves in sterling were 'relatively large' but 'not unprecedented'. Advertisement

'This in someways is a lesson about all the global challenges we face,' he said.

He was speaking after Mr Carney told MPs on the Treasury committee that leaving hte EU would have a 'profound economic shock' to Britain - echoing warnings from the Chancellor.

But the Bank of England Governor, who must remain neutral in the campaign, was immediately accused of making 'speculative' pro-EU claims and Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said his statements were 'beneath the dignity of his office'.

Mr Whittingdale, speaking to journalists in Westminster today, insisted there would be no such shocks to the economy if Britain left the EU.

Instead Britain would be 'liberated' from signing lucrative free trade deals that it is unable to do as a member of the EU, he added, and said Britain's prospects would be 'immense' outside the 28-state bloc because it could forge new deals with fast-developing nations such as South Korea.

In the event that Britain votes In, however, he said the Prime Minister should immediately make a speech promising to demand more reforms in the EU.

He could do so because he could prove that a large proportion of the British population had voted to leave the EU.

Asked whether he accepts the view that there would be an economic downturn if Britain left the EU, Mr Whittingdale said: 'No. It is perfectly true that there are certain unanswered questions if we would choose to leave and we would have to negotiate new arrangements.

'But this country is the sixth biggest economy in the world, we sit on the G7, we have a seat on the UN Secruity Council - we are able to prosper outside the EU and in many ways we would be liberated to do things that we are prevented from at the present time.

'Our prospects are in my view better. I think we can enjoy the continuing benefits of having access to Europe, free trade through a new arrangement but we'll be able to look outwards.

'Yesterday I attended the Korea-UK creative industries forum. There is a country that is growing fast, where we have a great deal in common and where the export opportunities are immense.

'We should not just be focussed on Europe. The real opportunities lie outside Europe and that is why I believe this country should be seeking to take advantage of.'

'There is a very strong view that Europe is heading in the wrong direction and that Britain doesn't share the ambitions of the rest of the European continent and that we would be better outside.'

JEREMY CORBYN'S CHIEF SPIN DOCTOR SEUMAS MILNE ONCE RAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN PROMISING A MAOIST REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN John Whittingdale (pictured) attended the same boarding school as Mr Milne and revealed a copy of the remarkable election poster at a lunch with Westminster journalists today Jeremy Corbyn's chief spin doctor once ran an election campaign calling for a 'Maoist' revolution in Britain, it emerged today. Seumas Milne, the Labour party's director of communications, laid out a chilling vision of a communist state in the UK where 'kibbutz-style communes' would be the 'first step toward the withering away of the state'. His vision of a communist Britain came in a mock election when he was a schoolboy at the elite private school of Winchester college and was revealed today by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale. In the manifesto - co-written by a fellow pupil - a young Mr Milne claimed the British public were only scared of communism because of 'ignorance'. Jeremy Corbyn's top spin doctor Seumas Milne (left) once ran an election campaign calling of a Maoist takeover of Britain. The election poster (pictured right) was uncovered by John Whittingdale today The manifesto read: 'Under a Maoist Government, factories and farms will be run by committees of workers, elected by workers (as in China where this has proved to work very well)'. It added that 'population control would be effected in a number of ways'. Mr Milne, now 56, made the claims despite Chairman Mao overseeing tens of millions of deaths during the economic and social reforms under his 'Great Leap Forward' in China. Mr Milne claimed: 'Communism has frightening connotations to most people in Britain mainly due to ignorance.' The chilling manifesto - titled 'Vote Maoist, Foster & Milne' - went on to set out a foreign policy under a revolutionary takeover of the UK Government. 'If a Maoist government was elected foreign debts would be renounced, as after the Russian revolution and we would withdraw from Nato and the EEC. Military spending would be cut and all troops would be recalled.' Mr Whittingdale attended the same boarding school as Mr Milne and revealed a copy of the remarkable election poster at a lunch with Westminster journalists today. Mr Milne was a controversial appointment by Mr Corbyn and was greeted with outrage from Labour MPs. The chilling manifesto - titled 'Vote Maoist, Foster & Milne' - went on to set out a foreign policy under a revolutionary takeover of the UK Government The former left-wing Guardian journalist has a long history of defending communist regimes, in particular the Soviet Union, writing in one column that 'Stalin's terror has been progressively inflated over recent years'. In 2014 he claimed there was 'not the slightest evidence the Soviet Union ever intended to attack' the West with nuclear weapons. He also compared Winston Churchill to Lenin and Stalin, writing: If Lenin and Stalin are regarded as having killed those who died of hunger in the famines of the 1920s and 1930s, Churchill is responsible for four million deaths in the avoidable Bengal famine of 1943. He has also defended more recent Russian aggression and appeared alongside Vladimir Putin at a recent propaganda summit designed to boost the Russian President's ego. Every year, a hand-picked group of high-profile Westerners sympathetic to Russia are invited to the pseudo-economic summit, with expenses paid by the Kremlin. In 2014 Mr Milne was invited and chaired a 'discussion club' with Mr Putin in Sochi. Photos emerged in October of the pair shaking hands and Mr Putin listening attentively to Mr Milne. Advertisement

Bank of England Governor claims Brexit is the 'biggest domestic risk' to the economy but he's accused by Eurosceptics of making 'speculative' pro-EU claims

A Brexit vote is the 'biggest domestic risk' facing the UK economy, the Bank of England Governor warned today but he faced accusations he was making 'speculative' pro-EU claims.

In an almost three hearing with MPs today, Mr Carney insisted he was choosing all of his words carefully and said the Bank was neutral on the referendum question.

But Eurosceptic Tory Jacob Ree-Mogg blasted the Governor for making pro-EU statements that were 'beneath the dignity' of his office.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, left at today's hearing, accused the Governor of using language straight out of the In campaign's playbook. Mark Carney, right today, denied the charge and insisted he was 'careful' with words

Mr Carney hit back later in the session, claiming the North East Somerset MP had a 'selective memory'.

The crucial moment came in the final minutes of the treasury select committee hearing when chairman Andrew Tyrie pressed Mr Carney on whether Brexit would amount to a 'profound economic shock' to Britain, as claimed by Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Carney said: 'The issue is the biggest domestic risk to financial stability.'

The Governor said Brexit was a 'known risk' to the markets and was not of the same magnitude as global risks such as a Chinese slowdown.

He warned: 'It has some potential to amplify pre-existing risks to financial stability.'

Speaking very slowly as he considered his words, Mr Carney added: 'The issue is the biggest domestic risk to financial stability because, in part, of the issues around uncertainty.

'But also because it has the potential - depending on how it is prosecuted and these issues can be addressed - to amplify risks around the current account, potential risks around housing, potential risks around market functioning we are trying to mitigate.

'Also associated risks with respect to the euro area.'

Ahead of the evidence session, Mr Carney said in a letter to the committee the deal secured by David Cameron on Britain's EU membership 'addresses' the concerns of the Bank around the eurozone.

The Governor insisted the Bank was neutral on the referendum question and warned there were risks on both sides.

But the eueosceptic Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg blasted the approach in an exchange about the benefits of the single market on Britain.

Mr Carney insisted: 'There is a reason why a substantial proportion more global banks, more internationally active banks are head quartered in London than any other European country or all other European countries combined.

'That's partly because of the cluster of expertise that it here but also in many cases... that is because of the passporting ability of this economy in terms of the activity.'

Today's hearing took centre stage in the increasingly angry EU referendum campaign as Mr Carney was pressed for the Bank's view

Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'This is what I think is doing your reputation and the reputation of the Bank of England harm - you are coming out with the standard statements of the pro-EU group.

'The statements you make about the dynamism of the economy could just as well refer to reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher.

'It is speculative and beneath the dignity of the Bank of England to be making speculative pro-EU comments.'

Mr Carney insisted: 'I'm not going to let that stand.'

The Governor said he was confident in his assessment of the implications of the EU single market.

He continued: 'What you see... is the growth of UK trade with the rest of Europe is arguably - not conclusively but arguably - because of the single market is greater.'

The two men renewed their clash at the end of the session when Mr Rees-Mogg insisted Mr Carney had only focused on the 'positive' aspects.

The Governor insisted this was 'entirely unfounded'.

Mr Carney insisted the language used in his reports was 'careful'.

Committe chairman Andrew Tyrie joked that the long pauses as Mr Carney chose his words could have paved the way for an alternative career as a 'bomb disposal expert'.

Elsewhere in his evidence, Mr Carney said EU membership 'reinforces the dynamism of the UK economy'.

Treasury select committee member John Man claimed Mr Carney had been 'reliant on fear factor' during his evidence to the MPs today

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake picked up on Mr Carney's evidence that banks based their businesses in London because of the advantages of the EU

But he also warned the unfinished monetary union - the rules around the euro currency - represented a risk of staying in.

Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said: 'Mark Carney made clear that there are financial risks to Britain voting to stay in the EU. He stressed the need for the UK to retain flexibility but the Government failed to secure any meaningful reforms to protect UK taxpayers.

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell was last night critical of the Bank's announcement it would provide finance around the referendum to ensure stability

As the previous Governor Lord King has warned, the euro is likely to explode. If we vote to remain our money will be used to bailout the euro when it next hits crisis point.

Voting remain means giving away more power, and more of our money every year to Brussels. The safer option in this referendum is to Vote Leave and take back control.

Mr Carney said the City of London would 'without question' lose business if it failed to negotiate the continuation of existing mutual recognition agreements within the financial sector following a vote for Brexit.

He warned that negotiations of this kind 'in general take a very long time to achieve' and may involve ceding some measure of the UK's sovereignty.

Mr Carney's letter to the committee said: 'The Settlement addresses the issues the Bank identified as being important, given the likely need for further integration of the euro area, to maintaining its ability to achieve its objectives.'

It added: 'It makes clear that the UK retains responsibility for supervising its financial stability, financial institutions and markets as well as maintaining responsibility for the resolution of failed financial institutions within its jurisdiction.

'At the same time, it acknowledges the existing powers of the Union to take action that is necessary to respond to threats to financial stability.'

Pressed on whether Downing Street had any involvement in the positive tone of the letter, Mr Carney dismissed the notion out of hand.

He said: 'We are expressing views that are the views of the institution. We are not leaned on by anybody.

'It would have no effect if they did.

'To be absolutely clear, we are choosing our words carefully.'

The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said: 'It's for the BoE to consider what measures they should take with regard to the financial stability of the UK economy. The Prime Minister is very clear on the reasons why we should remain in the EU...

'We've heard the Prime Minster and the Chancellor talk about the risks that there would be of leaving. An EU exit would be a profound economic shock. We are going to focus on making the case for remaining in the EU.'

The Bank of England was last night accused of scaremongering after offering emergency cash to Britain's biggest lenders ahead of the EU referendum.

In an unprecedented move, the central bank announced it is taking extra precautions to ensure the June 23 vote does not spark another banking crisis.

In a statement issued after markets closed yesterday evening, it said it will offer extra loans to banks and building societies so they can protect themselves against turmoil on financial markets.

Douglas Carswell, MP for Ukip and a prominent member of campaign group Vote Leave said: 'We can now see vividly that the big corporate banks and the Bank of England are aligned with Project Fear.

'We know the banks got massive bailouts and we know the Bank of England gives cheap credit subsidies to the banks.

'Now we know that in the run-up to the referendum banks will be given even more access to easy money.
Lightning strikes set trees and buildings alight as the powerful El Nino storm continued to cause havoc across California.

Video footage shows a palm tree bursting into flames after it was hit in Los Angeles as snow, flash floods and high winds battered southern parts of the state on Monday.

A fire sparked by one of the bolts caused tens of thousands of dollars at a local business.

Twitter user Ken Chung, who recorded the footage while heading to work, said he immediately dialed 911 to report the blaze.

Scroll down for video

Cellphone footage shows a lightning strike setting fire to a palm tree in Los Angeles

Lightning strikes set trees and buildings alight as the powerful El Nino storm continued to cause havoc across California. A roof of a Los Angeles home was damaged when one of the bolts hit

Around $30,000 in damage was done to a nearby business as the extreme weather continued from over the weekend - bringing snow, high winds and flash flooding

A fallen tree blocks the street in Ventura, California, during powerful storms that battered parts of the state

Snow covers the entrance to a yard in Cuddy Valley near Frazier Park, California around 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles

In Mission Viejo, firefighters responded after an attic fire erupted when the structure was hit by lightning, according to KTLA5.

The flames were extinguished, but not before a total of five businesses were impacted. The blaze reportedly caused about $30,000 in damages, fire officials said.

In other parts of the state, the extreme weather continues to cause chaos. Trees fell on roads and almost cut RV in half.

The torrential rain caused a tree to fall onto train tracks in Alameda County and forced a commuter service to derail, injuring nine people.

Some San Francisco Bay Area roads were under more than a foot of water during the morning commute. Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties saw about 11 inches of rain over 72 hours.

Commuter traffic also slowed to a crawl on Los Angeles-area freeways as cars were pelted by hail and motorists struggled to see roadways and navigate flooded lanes.

Douglas Barkley said he was driving on State Route 91 when he saw a bolt of lightning that ignited a pair of palm trees along the freeway.

'Embers were flying in the wind along with the rain,' he wrote in an email.

Sudden, violent wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour, thunder, lightning, rain and hail struck parts of Los Angeles quickly and intensely in the early morning hours.

According to the National Weather Service, .69 inches of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles and .59 inches in San Dimas in the San Gabriel Valley within a 12-hour period beginning at 4 am.

Dolly Van Houten, of Santa Clarita, looks out from her RV that was damaged by a falling tree

An RV was almost cut in half by a falling tree overnight as a powerful storm toppled several trees inside the Pismo Coast Village RV Resort in Pismo Beach

During a break between rain storms Samuel Batista of Vallejo, California, drops a crab pot off the Fort Baker Fishing Pier with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

Dozens of arrivals and departures were delayed but only a few flights were canceled after a storm briefly knocked out power at all terminals at Los Angeles International Airport. Backup systems kicked in and full power was restored within an hour, airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said.

The rain could strike a blow against the ongoing California drought. As much as 20 inches was expected this week in some parts of Northern California amid a deepening snowpack that provides water to the state when it melts in the spring.

The storms arrived as the ocean-warming phenomenon called El Nino persists in the Pacific.

In Northern California, rescue crews pulled three people from a car that stalled in a flooded road in Galt Monday evening and took them by boat to waiting ambulances.

Authorities in Sacramento advised homeless people living along the American River to seek higher ground as Folsom Dam releases today and Tuesday are expected to raise the water level. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dam, said it was the first time since 2012 it had opened the floodgates, Sacramento television stations KCRA reported.

Farther north, a blizzard forced authorities to close Interstate 80 at Donner Summit for several hours overnight. Forecasters warned of whiteout conditions as up to 2 inches of snow fell each hour in the Sierra Nevada.

Strong winds knocked down trees and power lines across Southern California. Several vehicles were crushed by falling trees at a Central Coast RV park. No injuries were reported.

A few brave beach goers walk along the waters edge at Carlsbad State Beach where a winter storm brought high winds and cold temperatures along with rain

A snowboarder enjoys a run through the trees in the 36 inches of fresh snow the resort received over the weekend at Northstar California Resort in Truckee, California

Snow fell in the mountains, bringing a welcome sight at ski resorts around the state. Sugar Bowl ski resort near Lake Tahoe saw 33 inches of snow at the summit overnight, National Weather Service meteorologist Brian O'Hara said.

Snow was expected at the 5,000-foot level in the mountains of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Drivers on mountain passes, including the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, were cautioned about possibly icy conditions.

Over the weekend, Chia Xiong, 51, of Marysville died in Yuba County after being trapped in a car that became submerged in floodwater on a highway.
This is the dramatic moment a pervert was snared by a gang of 'paedophile hunters' as he waited to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex in a park.

Daniel Mullarkey had arranged to meet who he thought was an underaged girl after sending her a series of explicit messages. He had even allegedly asked the girl to wear a school uniform.

But, when he turned up at the park in Croydon, the 31-year-old was confronted by members of Internet Interceptors, who had created the decoy schoolgirl in a bid to snare paedophiles.

Daniel Mullarkey (right and left in the video) had arranged to meet who he thought was an underaged girl after sending her explicit messages. The father-of-two had even allegedly asked the girl to wear a school uniform

After filming the confrontation and posting it online, the vigilante group also posted a series of online conversations between Mullarkey and the girl.

In one of the messages, he asks: 'How old you if you don't mind me asking'. When she replied, he said: 'you don't look 14 lol'.

The father-of-two has now pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 after grooming her online.

Judge Daniel Flahive adjourned the case until next month when Mullarkey will be sentenced.

But, when he turned up at the park in Croydon, the 31-year-old (right) was confronted by members of Internet Interceptors (left), who had created the decoy schoolgirl in a bid to snare paedophiles

Mullarkey continues to deny the allegations and tries to leave (right). But he is grabbed by the coat and told: 'Stay still or we will take you down' (left)

In the footage, which was posted online earlier this month, Mullarkey is confronted by a two men - one of whom is holding a video camera - near a tram stop.

The cameraman repeatedly asks Mullarkey what he is doing there, to which he replies that he is going for a walk.

The cameraman then continues to follow Mullarkey, repeatedly telling him that he is there to meet a girl.

After filming the confrontation and posting it online, the vigilante group also posted a series of explicit online conversations between Mullarkey and the girl (pictured)

In one of the messages, he asks: 'How old you if you don't mind me asking' (pictured). When she replied, he said: 'you don't look 14 lol'

HOW IS EVIDENCE ADMISSIBLE? Evidence gathered by paedophile hunting organisations is generally admissible in court  but vigilantes face a grey area around entrapment. There is no legal defence of entrapment in UK courts, but it is considered an abuse of court process for agents of the state to entice citizens to commit a crime and then prosecute them for it. As citizens are not agents of the state, vigilantes usually escape this minefield but depending on the circumstances of how their evidence was gathered, police may not use it in court. Advertisement

Mullarkey continues to deny the allegations and tries to leave.

But he is grabbed by the coat and told: 'Stay still or we will take you down'.

One of the men also attempts to pull down his hood, before asking: 'What are you going to do to her, rape her?' Mullarkey responds: 'I wasn't.'

There then appears to be a struggle before the video cuts off.

Internet Interceptors describe themselves as a 'dedicated team of parents hunting paedophiles and sexual predators across the UK'.

A relative of Mullarkey broke down in tears as he pleaded guilty to the charge.

He will be sentenced on April 4.
Six children had to be rescued from a school bus in Texas on Tuesday morning after it got stuck in two feet deep floodwater.

Images from the scene show rescue workers carrying the youngsters from their school bus in Denton District, in the state's north, to a waiting boat attached to an off-road vehicle.

The six children were carried to safety along with another person, believed to be the driver, before being dropped off at Hodge Elementary School.

Six schoolchildren and a bus driver had to be rescued in northern Texas this morning after their vehicle back stuck in two feet of flood water at around 7am

Rescue workers were pictured carrying the children on their shoulders to a nearby boat, before being taken to Hodge Elementary School where they were dropped off

The school bus became stranded at around 7am near Aubrey, about 40 miles northwest of Dallas, on a road close to a creek which appears to have burst its banks.

There is no word on how the bus got into the water in the first place, and Denton School District officials have not responded to requests for comment.

Texas has been battered by storms including torrential rain since Monday, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where the bus became trapped.

In the extreme south of the state, 22-year-old kayaker Francisco Ruben Garza, of Hidalgo, was found in Dickinson Bayou, near Galveston Bay.

It is not known how the bus became stuck in the water. The road appears to have become flooded after a nearby creek burst its banks following heavy rain

Severe storms and high winds have battered northern Texas since Monday, with six mobile homes destroyed in the town of Tolar (pictured) causing two people to be taken to hospital

Police spokesman Tim Cromie said that Garza and another man had been kayaking and fishing when a strong storm rolled into the area, catching them by surprise.

While the other man, who has not been named, made it to safety, Garza went missing and was ultimately found dead. He was not wearing a life jacket.

Forecasts predict up to 10 inches of rain in the Houston area today, and the National Weather Service says up to 12 inches could fall in east Texas, parts of Louisiana and parts of Arkansas.

Winds have also been causing problems across Texas, with flights temporarily suspended out of Dallas-Fort Worth airport after gusts of 70mph were reported.

In Hood County a suspected tornado destroyed six mobile homes and damaged several others, leading to two people being taken to hospital, the Weather Channel reports.

In the town of Cool, about 45 miles west of Fort Worth, another suspected tornado destroyed homes and left one man trapped, though he was later freed by emergency workers.

Elsewhere a Texas college campus was pictured having been heavily damaged by falling masonry during high winds which are due to continue throughout today
Jeremy Corbyn's chief spin doctor once ran an election campaign calling for a 'Maoist' revolution in Britain, it emerged today.

Seumas Milne, the Labour party's director of communications, laid out a chilling vision of a communist state in the UK where 'kibbutz-style communes' would be the 'first step toward the withering away of the state'.

His vision of a communist Britain came in a mock election when he was a schoolboy at the elite private school of Winchester college and was revealed today by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale.

John Whittingdale (pictured) attended the same boarding school as Mr Milne and revealed a copy of the remarkable election poster at a lunch with Westminster journalists today

In the manifesto - co-written by a fellow pupil - a young Mr Milne claimed the British public were only scared of communism because of 'ignorance'.

The manifesto read: 'Under a Maoist Government, factories and farms will be run by committees of workers, elected by workers (as in China where this has proved to work very well)'.

It added that 'population control would be effected in a number of ways'. Mr Milne, now 56, made the claims despite Chairman Mao overseeing tens of millions of deaths during the economic and social reforms under his 'Great Leap Forward' in China.

Mr Milne claimed: 'Communism has frightening connotations to most people in Britain mainly due to ignorance.'

Jeremy Corbyn's top spin doctor Seumas Milne (left) once ran an election campaign calling of a Maoist takeover of Britain. The election poster (pictured right) was uncovered by John Whittingdale today

The chilling manifesto - titled 'Vote Maoist, Foster & Milne' - went on to set out a foreign policy under a revolutionary takeover of the UK Government

The chilling manifesto - titled 'Vote Maoist, Foster & Milne' - went on to set out a foreign policy under a revolutionary takeover of the UK Government.

'If a Maoist government was elected foreign debts would be renounced, as after the Russian revolution and we would withdraw from Nato and the EEC. Military spending would be cut and all troops would be recalled.'

Mr Whittingdale attended the same boarding school as Mr Milne and revealed a copy of the remarkable election poster at a lunch with Westminster journalists today.

Iron grip: Jeremy Corbyn's pro-Kremlin aide Seumas Milne pictured shaking hands with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a propaganda summit in Sochi in 2014

Mr Milne was a controversial appointment by Mr Corbyn and was greeted with outrage from Labour MPs.

The former left-wing Guardian journalist has a long history of defending communist regimes, in particular the Soviet Union, writing in one column that 'Stalin's terror has been progressively inflated over recent years'.

In 2014 he claimed there was 'not the slightest evidence the Soviet Union ever intended to attack' the West with nuclear weapons.

He also compared Winston Churchill to Lenin and Stalin, writing: If Lenin and Stalin are regarded as having killed those who died of hunger in the famines of the 1920s and 1930s, Churchill is responsible for four million deaths in the avoidable Bengal famine of 1943.

He has also defended more recent Russian aggression and appeared alongside Vladimir Putin at a recent propaganda summit designed to boost the Russian President's ego.

Every year, a hand-picked group of high-profile Westerners sympathetic to Russia are invited to the pseudo-economic summit, with expenses paid by the Kremlin. In 2014 Mr Milne was invited and chaired a 'discussion club' with Mr Putin in Sochi.

Photos emerged in October of the pair shaking hands and Mr Putin listening attentively to Mr Milne.
A Canadian man was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to killing his estranged girlfriend out of jealousy on a university campus in British Columbia.

Gurjinder 'Gary' Dhaliwal, 24, will spend at least 21 years behind bars before he becomes eligible for parole in the 2011 shooting death of 19-year-old medical student and model Maple Batalia.

On September 28, 2011, Batalia was heading home after a late-night study session with friends in the library on Simon Fraser Universitys Surrey campus when she was shot and slashed multiple times in a nearby parking garage.

Justice for Maple: More than four years after her brutal murder, 19-year-old Maple Batalia's (left) boyfriend, Gurjinder 'Gary' Dhaliwal (right), 24, was sentenced to life in prison

Ambushed: Batalia was shot three times in the back and repeatedly slashed in the head with a knife while leaving Simon Fraser Universitys Surrey campus on September 28, 2011

The striking brunette grew up in Canada after moving there with her family from India when she was a baby. She was a health sciences student and a part-time actress and model who had dreams of becoming a doctor.

I wish someone had shot me instead, it would have been so much better than this. Sarbjit Batalia, Maple's mother

Batalia's boyfriend, Gary Dhaliwal, was arrested in December 2012 and was initially charged with first-degree murder. Last week, the 24-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge of second-degree murder.

Court documents state that Dhaliwal became blinded by jealous rage and shot Batalia three times in the back after seeing her studying with another man in the library.

He then slashed the mortally wounded co-ed in the head 11 times before fleeing the scene in a rental car with a friend, who is also facing charges in the case.

Justice Terence Schultes blamed Ms Batalia's violent death on a combination of Dhaliwal's poor judgment, immaturity, jealousy and ready access to weapons, reported The Canadian Press.

An investigation into the killing has revealed that about a month before her death, Maple Batalia broke up with Dhaliwal after four years of dating when she learned that he had repeatedly cheated on her, reported Vancouver Sun.

Obsessed: Dhaliwal became blinded by a jealous rage after seeing her studying with a male classmate and giving him a hug

Stunning beauty: Batalia was a health sciences student and a part-time actress and model

Mother's grief: Maple's mother, Sarbjit Batalia (right), said in court it would have been better had Dhaliwal killed her instead of her daughter

Prosecutors said Dhaliwal became obsessed with Batalia, peppering her with thousands of phone calls and text messages, and following her around. On occasion, he would also get into scraps with her male friends.

After one such incident, Dhaliwal bought a handgun and a knife, which Crown prosecutor Wendy Stephens said he planned to use against Maples friends of the opposite sex.

When given a chance to speak during his sentencing on Monday, Dhaliwal apologized to the victim's family and friends present in the crowded courtroom.

'I'm sorry. I know I did a terrible thing,' he said, his voice barely rising above a whisper.

In the course of the hearing, Batalias relatives delivered emotional victim-impact statements, describing the agony of their loss.

Ugly breakup: Batalia (left) called it quits with Dhaliwal (right) after learning he had repeatedly cheated on her

Maple would have turned 24 years old on March 4. Her father said life without her is 'useless'

Maple's mother, Sarbjit Batalia, at one point directly addressed her daughters killer, tearfully asking him: 'Give me an answer, please. Why did you kill my daughter?'

She added: I wish someone had shot me instead, it would have been so much better than this.

Maple's father, Harikat Batalia, described his life as useless without his 'angel' in it.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Maple's sister, Roseleen Batalia, said her sibling 'can finally rest in peace knowing that she got some justice.'
Thomas Millward, 19, died after falling down 'three flights of stairs' at Girton College

A 'promising' Cambridge University engineering student has died after falling 'down three flights of stairs' at Girton College.

Thomas Millward, 19, was taken to hospital on Saturday evening with serious head injuries and died the following morning.

A woman, also 19, was released from on bail after being arrested on suspicion of supplying drugs following his death.

Mr Millward from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has been described by his parents as 'one of the most promising young men of his generation'.

Brian and Maisa Millward confirmed their son's death on Tuesday, saying in a statement: 'Thomas was an exceptional young man, warm and affectionate with everyone he met, (he was) always respectful and police.

'Gifted both academically and in his sporting abilities, he excelled in everything that he did.

'He was an extremely intelligent, talented, handsome and loving boy. He was loved so dearly by his family and friends.'

Mr Willward's family added that his organs had been donated following his death.

'Thomas was compassionate, empathetic and had clear views about love and humanity and certainly would have wished that his organs be donated.

'After his tragic accidental fall, his devastated family had prayed for a miracle that didn't come but now hope that his precious heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and bone marrow can become a miracle for others.'

A student at the college said the teenager died after falling down three flights of stairs.

A Cambridge University spokesman paid tribute to the student, describing him as a 'close friend' and 'keen sportsman'.

Thomas is understood to have died after falling down stairs at Girton College (above) on Saturday evening

'Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very sad time. His death is a great loss to the college community and the college will provide whatever support it can in the days ahead.'

Cambridgeshire Police have described his death as 'non suspicious' but confirmed that a 19-year-old woman had been released on bail on suspicion of supplying drugs.

Cambridge Coroner's Court could not be reached on Tuesday afternoon.

Girton College is one of Cambridge's 31 colleges and counts broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, Phil Hammond and Arianna Huffington among its alumni.
The husband of a woman on trial for kidnapping a baby sobbed today as he described feeling broken after discovering that the daughter he had raised for 18 years was not his.

The 51-year-old choked back tears as he described being left devastated and in shock when police told him the child he adored was in fact South Africa's most famous missing person.

The girl, who is known as South Africas Madeleine McCann, was found last year after becoming friends with a younger girl at school who turned out to be her long-lost biological sister.

On trial: a seamstress, 50, is on trial for kidnapping South Africas Madeleine McCann when the little girl was just three days old as her mother slept in a nearby hospital bed

'Broken': The 51-year-old husband (left) choked back tears as he described being left devastated and in shock when police told him his daughter was South Africa's most famous missing person. His wife (right) is on trial for kidnapping the baby 18 years ago

Newborn: Zephany, pictured as a baby, had a close relationship with the man she thought of as her father

A 50-year-old seamstress is on trial for kidnapping the girl when she was three-days old from the maternity ward where her real mother, Celeste Nurse, dozed in a nearby hospital bed.

The accused woman's husband nodded sadly and wiped his eyes, as he agreed with prosecutor Evadne Kortjie that his wife had deceived him for nearly 18 years.

That is right, he said in a quiet voice, his eyes brimming.

He had never suspected the girl was not his. She has my complexion, my colour. I believed she was my child, he told the Western Cape High Court.

The dark-haired man told the court he had believed his wife had been pregnant until he came home from work one day and found her with a newborn girl in April 1997. He admitted the plan had been for him to be present at the birth.

Wasnt it strange that she would go to hospital and have this baby and come home like that, the prosecutor asked him. You werent notified?

No, he admitted, looking at his wife in the dock.

Biological father: The defendant apologised to Morne (pictured) and Celeste Nurse for suffering during their daughters entire childhood

Found: Zephany's biological father Morne (pictured with his new partner), described the extraordinary coincidence which had led the couple to realise that a 17-year-old girl was in fact their missing child

Snatched: Celeste Nurse was dozing in a hospital bed when her three-day-old daughter was snatched

When asked him to cast his mind back to the moment when he had held the newborn for the first time, his faced creased in a smile at the memory.

I felt joy, to see the child, he said.

During her own evidence to the court, the defendant claimed she had a miscarriage in early 1997, which she had kept secret.

She has my complexion, my colour. I believed she was my child The defendant's husband

She described how she had been offered fertility treatment and/ or adoption by a woman called Sylvia she had met in hospital in Cape Town following the miscarriage.

After paying Sylvia installments towards the 450, the accused woman was unexpectedly handed a new born baby at a busy train station by another woman sent by 'Sylvia', who then disappeared.

She claimed she had signed some adoption papers for the baby girl, but no longer had any records.

Asked by Judge John Hlope if she still had Sylvias' phone number, the defendant told him: I lost it somehow.'

Today, as she concluded her evidence, the dark-haired woman apologised to Morne and Celeste Nurse for suffering during their daughters entire childhood.

'Celeste, I never took your child. I didnt take her out of your arms,' she said, glancing up at the public gallery where Mr Nurse and family members sat. Mrs Nurse has not attended court since she gave evidence on the opening day of the trial.

Accused: A 50-year-old seamstress (pictured right) is on trial for kidnapping the girl when she was three-days old from the maternity ward

Defendant: During her own evidence to the court, the accused claimed she had a miscarriage in early 1997, which she had kept secret

I am sorry for what the Nurses went through. I didnt know she was kidnapped, the defendant added.

The stocky defendant brought up the girl in Lavender Hill, a poor suburb of Cape Town, only a few streets from where the childs natural family was living.

She described how the girl  who was named Zephany by her natural parents - had a close relationship with the man she thought of as her father.

Her first word was daddy the accused testified. She said she had not told the girl or her husband the truth as they had such a close bond.

During his own evidence to the court, Mr Nurse described the extraordinary coincidence last year which had led the couple to realise that a 17-year-old girl, who had befriended their younger daughter, Cassidy, at school was in fact their missing child.

Baby: Zephany Nurse was snatched from her hospital cot in the maternity ward in Cape Town in 1997 and spent the next 18 years being brought up by another family

Appeals: The family has worked hard to make sure people don't forget about their missing daughter over the years, including a big appeal in 2010 in the local newspaper the Cape Argus, but no one ever come forward

Reunited: The couple, who have since separated, were reunited with their daughter after almost two decades. The girl who was snatched was given a new name and neither she nor the defendant can be identified

He told the court how he noted how the girl resembled him and his other children and was approximately the same age as his missing daughter - and launched his own investigation into her true identity.

He arranged to take her and Cassidy out after school and, after quizzing the girl and his own detective work, became convinced she was his own long lost child, and reported the matter to police.
John Bercow said he was moved by the International Women's Day tribute

Other MPs sat in stunned silence as the roll call continued today

Birmingham Yardley MP spent seven minutes reading out the 120 names

Labour MP said she wanted to 'honour every victim' of domestic violence

A Labour MP today read out the names of 120 women killed by men in the past year to mark International Women's Day.

Jess Phillips spoke for around seven minutes as she read out the names and ages to MPs.

The Birmingham Yardley MP, who worked for a domestic violence charity before entering Parliament, said she wanted to 'honour every victim' of domestic violence with her speech.

Jess Phillips today read out 120 names of all the women killed by men in the past 12 months, stunning the House of Commons into silence

Ms Phillips was subjected to rape and death threats last year after getting into a row over International Men's Day with Tory MP Philip Davies.

All 121 women on her list - one of whom was unnamed - are women or girls aged over 13 killed in the last 12 months in cases where a man has been tried and found guilty, charged, or believed by police to be responsible.

Ms Phillips said: 'In 2015, a woman was murdered in the UK every three days. Women were murdered by men they should have been able to trust.

'Commonly, women are murdered by their partners, husbands and boyfriends but also in some cases by their fathers, their sons, their bothers.

'We wish to give voice to honour the women who died. Today I stand to honour every victim and the fight to end violence against women.'

On the list was Karen Buckley, 24, who was murdered by a killer branded 'truly evil' in April last year.

The nurse was abducted from a nightclub in Glasgow Alexander Pacteau and was killed within 20 minutes.

In May last year, Shiggi Rethishkumar, 35, Neya Rethishkumar, 13, and Niya Rethishkumar, 13, were all killed in East London.

Husband and father Pullarkattil Rethishkumar was later found hanged. Police did not search for any other suspects.

Also on Ms Phillips list was Marta Ligman, 23, was beaten to death, stuffed in a suitcase and thrown in the Grand Union Canal by Tomasz Kocik in a jealous rage last April. He was convicted of murder in November.

Karen Buckley, 24, left, was one of the women on Ms Phillips list. She was killed in April last year. Marta Ligman, 23, pictured right, was also killed last year

After Ms Phillips speech ended, Speaker John Bercow said he was 'moved by the significance' of what the House had heard.

And Maria Miller, the former Tory cabinet minister, also paid tribute and said it was 'difficult to follow' the speech.

She said: 'We have a shared passion to make sure the voices of women are heard loud and clear in this House.

'What you have done has made sure those women's stories are remembered, that their voices are heard, even if they are now departed.'

The speech prompted tributes from a string of MPs, including Tulip Siddiq who remembered a consituent and said it was a 'roll call of tragedy'

The SNP's Angela Crawley reflected the list of 121 names was a 'powerful contribution' to the Commons debate on International Women's Day

Labour's Stephen Doughty said it had been a 'powerful and moving tribute' to the murdered women

Other MPs paid tribute to the speech on Twitter.

Barry Gardiner said: 'Sad to relate that one of the murdered women mentioned by @jessphillips was a Brent North constituent - Jess McGraa aged 37.'

Naz Shah said: '@Jessphillips most poignantly reading names of women killed including my constituent Nadia Khan, who was pregnant when stabbed.'

Stephen Doughty said: 'Hugely powerful and moving tribute by @jessphillips to women murdered since last #IWD.'

SNP MP Angela Crawley said: 'Powerful contribution by @jessphillips. Silence in HoC as she named all women who have lost their life since #IWD2016.'
Donald Trump has avoided answering questions about his position on same-sex marriage since publicly promising a DailyMail.com reporter on Saturday night that he would participate in 'a long discussion' about it the following day.

And Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP's oldest and largest gay and lesbian organization, is putting new pressure on the billionaire to reconcile stark contradictions in his past statements about what has become the political left's latest civil rights crusade.

Trump 'has taken documented stands on both sides of the marriage equality debate,' the group's president Gregory T. Angelo told DailyMail.com on Monday in conjunction with the release of a YouTube video challenging his uncertain drift to the right.

'In fact, in the past, it seemed as if Mr. Trump would be the most-pro gay presidential candidate in the 2016 GOP field,' he added.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

DODGE-BALL DONALD: Republican front-runner Donald Trump has ducked for two days a pledge that he would grant an interview to DailyMail.com on the topic of gay marriage rights

THE TEN-BILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION: Trump is hearing demands from the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group, for him to pick a position on a contentious social issue and stick to it

Angelo said his group is 'open to the possibility of supporting Mr. Trump as the GOP nominee,' but 'time is running short on the primary calendar and I'd like to know that a President Trump would accept the differences in modern families rather than try to tear them apart.'

He provided DailyMail.com with a November letter he sent to Trump through his longtime personal assistant Rhona Graff, asking for a meeting.

TRUMP PROMISES INTERVIEW ON GAY MARRIAGE ISSUE (AND WE'RE STILL WAITING!) Following Donald Trump's March 5 press event, DailyMail.com engaged him on why he wouldn't answer a question about same-sex marriage rights. DAILY MAIL: 'Mr. Trump, do you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage? The one that legalized it everywhere?' DONALD TRUMP: 'I've answered this question a bunch of different times.' DAILY MAIL: 'You haven't. You haven't. DONALD TRUMP: 'I'll talk to you. Do me a favor  call me tomorrow. I'll have a long conversation with you.' DAILY MAIL: 'I promise I will. I promise I will. Thank you.' DONALD TRUMP: 'We'll talk about it. Call me tomorrow. I've answered that question so many times.' DAILY MAIL: 'How come I can't find it anywhere?' DONALD TRUMP: 'Call me tomorrow.' Advertisement

The Donald never responded.

Log Cabin Republicans released a YouTube challenge to Trump on Monday.

'So where do you really stand on marriage equality, Mr. Trump?' the group's video asks, following a montage of contradictory answers to that question.

In one clip from the days before this year's New Hampshire primary, an openly gay reporter with New England Cable News asked him if Americans can 'look for more forward motion on equality for gays and lesbians' in a Trump administration.

'Well, you can,' Trump replied. 'And look, again, we're going to bring people together, and that's your thing and other people have their thing. We have to bring all people together and if we dont were not going to have a country anymore.'

In another, Trump tells MSNBC 'Morning Joe' host Joe Scarborough that Americans should accept the Supreme Court's 'Obergefell v. Hodges' ruling that state and local governments can't deny marriage licenses on the basis of sexual orientation.

'The decision's been made and that is the law of the land,' Trump said in that interview.

Then the Log Cabin Republicans' video mashup shifts to an interview in which Trump tells Christian Broadcasting Network host David Brody that evangelicals 'can trust me on traditional marriage'  an apparent pledge that he would defend the opposite point of view.

Angelo aid Tuesday that 'it's important that we get clarification on these issues  at the very least, I'd like some assuran ces that Mr. Trump would do no harm on gay issues if he were elected president.'

Another gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, has already decided that Trump can't be trusted.

'Unfortunately Donald Trump has made himself quite clear,' spokesman Brandon Lorenz said Tuesday.

'He has repeatedly and unequivocally stated his opposition to marriage equality, his intent to appoint justices who would overturn last year's Supreme Court ruling, and even his desire to pass legislation legalizing Kim Davis-style discrimination.'

Davis is the Kentucky county clerk who was briefly jailed last year for defying the Supreme Court and refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.d

Gay Republicans find themselves in an unusual position, advocating for a policy that's at odds with the biggest and loudest segments of their own party faithful.

And since the 'Obergefell' ruling, the GOP's homosexual minority has hoped for a presidential nominee who would leave the landmark decision alone.

SHE SHOULD HAVE OBEYED THE SUPREMES: Trump said in September that Kim Davis, a Kentucky court clerk jailed for refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, should have acknowledged 'the law of the land'

BUT HE LOVES THE EVANGELICALS: Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network that devout Christians 'can trust me on traditional marriage'

THE POSITION THAT WASN'T: Trump the Republican presidential front-runner, insisted during Saturday night's press conference that he has an official 'policy' on gay marriage, but none seems to exist

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has, now the GOP's second-place presidential contender, has called it a 'lawless' ruling issued by 'five unelected judges.'

Trump, by contrast, has seemed far less determined to undo what has been done.

But during a press conference Saturday night in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump dismissed a question from DailyMail.com about whether he supports gay marriage rights  insisting that his position is well known and ordering a reporter to 'sit down.'

'We have policy on it. And I've said it very, very strongly. And I think you know it,' Trump said at his country club in West Palm Beach before an audience made up mostly of wealthy socialites.

Trump's campaign website spells out detailed policy positions on health care reform, trade issues, taxes, veterans affairs, immigration and gun rights  but nothing on gay marriage, civil unions or other LGBT issues.

Yet The Donald insisted as cameras rolled that 'everybody knows how I feel on it.'

His website's only pronouncement on the issue is a reprinted roundup of his positions published by The New York Times, which he frequently excoriates in his speeches as 'a failing newspaper.'

'Mr. Trump says that his views on marriage are "evolving," the Times wrote last June, 'but that he still favors "traditional marriage," between "a man and a woman." (He has been married three times.)'

'Same-sex marriage, he says, isn't his "thing",' according to the Times.

FEET TO THE FIRE: Log Cabin Republicans president Gregory T. Angelo says his group is 'open to the possibility of supporting Mr. Trump as the GOP nominee,' but The Donald is playing both sides of the fence

An examination of Trump's statements on gay marriage since he launched his White House bid suggests a man in search of a philosophy.

in August he told The Hollywood Reporter that changing the Supreme Court's landmark ruling was a right-wing pipe dream.

'Some people have hopes of passing amendments, but it's not going to happen,' he said then.

DAILYMAIL.COM PRESSES DONALD TRUMP ON GAY MARRIAGE RIGHTS This exchange occurred between Donald Trump and a DailyMail.com reporter during his March 5 press conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. DAILY MAIL: 'Mr. Trump, you have a record on gay marriage that I think you could expect Ted Cruz to exploit, in that you've been kind of all over the map on it, especially regarding your position on whether Supreme Court justices you might appoint should work to overturn the recent decision. Can you state unequivocally what is your position on gay marriages, and same-sex unions in general?' DONALD TRUMP: 'Well, I've made it very, very strong. We have policy on it. And I've said it very, very strongly. And I think you know it. And it's all done and, you know, in a campaign how many times do I have to say it?' DAILY MAIL: 'Just here. What is it?' DONALD TRUMP: 'It's like, David, it's like as an example, what is my position on 900 different things. I've said it 150 times. We're not here for discussing that. But everybody knows how I feel on it.' DAILY MAIL: 'I don't. What is it? What is your position, Mr. Trump? I don't know your position.' DONALD TRUMP: 'David, sit down please, David. David. Sit down. You know my position.' Advertisement

'Congress can't pass simple things, let alone that. So anybody that's making that an issue is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it.'

That was still his stance a month later, when he lamented the plight of Davis, the Kentucky county clerk, but said she should have found a way to obey the law.

'You have to go with it. The decision's been made, and that is the law of the land,' the real estate titan said in September on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'

Those more progressive statements came months after the impact of the Supreme Court's ruling had percolated throughout American society.

But just days after the high court ruled, Trump said on CNN that he was tilting rightward on the issue.

'I'm [for] traditional marriage. It is changing rapidly,' he told the network's Jake Tapper.

Trump spokeswoman and media gatekeeper Hope Hicks did not respond to a question on Tuesday asking her to identify the 'policy' the candidate was referring to.

On a rope line after Saturday's event, a somewhat conciliatory Trump offered the reporter a handshake and promised an interview the following day to clarify his beliefs about same-sex unions and the Supreme Court case that legalized them nationwide.

'Do me a favor  call me tomorrow,' Trump said in front of dozens of people including print and broadcast journalists.

'I'll have a long conversation with you. We'll talk about it. Call me tomorrow,' he pledged.

DailyMail.com asked Hicks for that interview six separate times on Sunday and Monday.

It never materialized.

Hicks did not respond to emailed questions about Trump's position on the 'Obergefell' case.

She also ignored questions about how Trump would navigate the conflict between religious liberty and gay rights in commerce.

'Does Mr. Trump believe a small business (a baker) should be legally allowed to refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex couple getting married?' DailyMail.com asked.
Inquest jury concluded that the restraint contributed to death of Mr Mills

Lung cancer patient Philmore Mills (pictured) died after being handcuffed face down on a hospital floor when he became aggressive, an inquest jury found

A lung cancer patient died after being handcuffed face down on a hospital floor when he became aggressive - prompting a senior coroner to call for a national review of police use of restraints.

Philmore Mills' case was described as 'the deeply disturbing death of a 57-year-old black man' by his family, who heard an inquest jury find that the restraint contributed to his death.

Mr Mills was suffering from hypoxia - a severe oxygen deficiency - causing him to be aggressive.

Nurses 'panicked' and did not communicate with police over the condition of Mr Mills, who later died in the early hours of December 27 2011 at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough.

His family were present throughout the four-week inquest into his death, during which they heard how he approached nurses not wearing his oxygen mask and began 'suddenly screaming'.

Security guards were first called, but given 'minimal direction' by clinical staff, before a decision was made to alert police.

Two policemen were already in the hospital dealing with another matter, an inquest heard.

Mr Mills was subsequently placed into the prone position, face to the floor, in a process lasting less than one minute, the inquest heard. Moving him back to his bed took less than 30 seconds.

The jury found there was 'inadequate' communication between the officers and Mr Mills and no discussion between police and nursing staff on a course of action following his restraint.

The inquest marks an end to a four-year campaign by Mr Mills's family to find out what happened to the father-of-four.

A narrative verdict was read out by jurors, who confirmed the medical cause of death to be cardiorespiratory collapse, hypoxia and severe lung and heart disease in association with restraint.

During the inquest in Reading, Berkshire, Coroner Peter Bedford said: 'While in intensive care, tests revealed he had lung cancer. A tumour was found to be the size of an apple. He was clearly very unwell.

'Treatment included wearing an oxygen mask,' said the coroner.

'On December 27, at around 2.15am, Mr Mills became suddenly physically and verbally adversarial.

'Nurses called security and a doctor to attend Ward Nine. Two security guards entered where he was but felt unable to deal with Mr Mills. They withdrew and asked nurses to call the police.

Campaign: Mr Mills' case was described as 'the deeply disturbing death of a 57-year-old black man' by his family (pictured with him in hospital), who heard an inquest jury find that the restraint contributed to his death

'Coincidentally two policemen were already in the hospital dealing with another matter. The officers entered and withdrew too.

'Nurses, security staff and police all described him as aggressive, trying to throw his oxygen mask at them and waving a catheter at them, spraying urine.

'The two police and the security men re-entered his area with a police blanket. They wrapped him in the blanket and lowered him onto the floor.

Thames Valley Police will fully review the detail of the narrative verdict, to ensure that officers receive the best training, to enable them to deploy restraint tactics appropriately

'He was handcuffed then picked up and transferred to the bed where the crash team tried to revive him and give him oxygen. At 3am his life is declared extinct.'

Family of the father-of-four, from Langley, Berkshire, held candlelit vigils following his death, and called for answers over why their loved one was restrained on the hospital ward floor of Wexham Park Hospital, now known as Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, in Slough, Berkshire.

Followng the narrative verdict, which concluded that the use of restraint did contribute to Mr Mills' death, his family said: 'It's been four stressful years to get to this point. We have now listened to four weeks of evidence about how events unfolded like a car crash in slow motion.

'Yet we are none the wiser as to how a seriously ill man with pneumonia, heart and lung disease, lung cancer and blood clots in his lungs could have been allowed to die under police restraint on the floor of a respiratory ward.

'It is shocking that neither the nurses, security staff or police officers spoke to each other before restraining him. None of the witnesses accepted responsibility for the death of our father/grandfather.

'No family should have to go through what we have gone through.'

It marks the end of a four-year campaign by Mr Mills's family to find out what happened to the father-of-four

Thames Valley Police confirmed the force would now review the way officers are taught to restrain people in relation to the findings of the month-long inquest.

Responding to the verdict, a spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: 'Thames Valley Police acknowledges the detail within the narrative verdict returned by a jury at the inquest into the death of Mr Philmore Mills today.

'Police officers are required to apply restraint tactics in a number of diverse situations, and communication is essential to the safety of all involved.

'Thames Valley Police will fully review the detail of the narrative verdict, to ensure that officers receive the best training, to enable them to deploy restraint tactics appropriately and to achieve the best outcome, which must be to protect all involved and minimise the risk of harm.
The division is the only one to be at continual operational readiness in the UK and was sent to Iraq and Afghanistan

34 Army chefs worked 24 hours to provide meals to personnel involved in exercise, cooking over 24,000 eggs

The exercise is designed to test the ability of the

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Monster trucks, battle tanks and weird vehicles were among the 1,200 to be deployed on Salisbury Plain as part of one of the biggest army exercises in years.

The training, which mobilised more than 1,800 personnel, is designed to test readiness of the British army's 'main intervention capability' division, the glorious 3rd Division.

'The exercise is designed to test the ability the Division's Lead Armoured Task Force (LATF) to deploy from barracks via a centralised Staging Area or Mounting Centre, to air and sea points of embarkation,' said an army spokesman.

The Staging Area which not only serves as a large car park and vehicle service and recovery area also provides military life-support with teams providing catering and accommodation for the personnel involved in the exercise.

'Since the middle of February, a Battalion of 34 Army chefs from across the Division have worked 24 hours a day in three shifts, providing thousands of meals to personnel involved in the exercise,' an army spokesman said. 'By the end of the period it is estimated that they will have cooked over 24,000 eggs, used nearly two tonnes of potatoes and provided countless loaves of bread.'

The 3rd Division is the only division to be at continual operational readiness in the UK.

It was founded in 1809 in Spain when the future Duke of Wellington decided to adopt a permanent divisional structure to help him fight the French.

After the Napoleonic wars, the Division was sent to stem the German advance but had to be evacuated from Dunkirk.

It went on to lead the assault on SWORD Beach and fought on across Europe and into Germany in 1945. The last 30 years have seen deployment to Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Monster trucks, battle tanks and weird vehicles were among the 1,200 to be deployed on Salisbury Plain

Soldiers from The Royal Tank Regiment walk through rows of Challenger II main Battle Tanks as the 3rd Division takes part in military exercises

The training, which mobilised more than 1,800 personnel, is designed to test readiness of the British army's 'main intervention capability' division, the glorious 3rd Division

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion First Fusiliers kick a football around as they relax after time spent inside their Scimitar tanks during the training

The exercise 'is designed to test the ability the Division's Lead Armoured Task Force (LATF) to deploy from barracks via a centralised Staging Area or Mounting Centre, to air and sea points of embarkation,' said an army spokesman

A soldier is reflected in a muddy wing mirror on a Jackal vehicle during the training in Salisbury Plain

The Staging Area also provides military life-support with teams providing catering and accommodation for the personnel involved in the exercise

A soldier from the 1st Battalion First Fusiliers checks a Scimitar tank during the military exercises

March 2016 sees the movement of more than 1,800 personnel and 1,200 vehicles, including Challenger 2 main battle tanks, on Salisbury Plain Training Area in Wiltshire

Since the middle of February, a Battalion of 34 Army chefs from across the Division have worked 24 hours a day in three shifts, providing thousands of meals to personnel involved in the exercise

Soldiers complete routine maintenance on tanks and tracked vehicles during the 3rd Division exercises

The 3rd Division, involved in the training, is the only division to be at continual operational readiness in the UK

Battle tanks and monster trucks are deployed in Salisbury Plain for the training, one of the biggest army exercises in years

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion First Fusiliers chat as they relax between their Scimitar tanks

It was founded in 1809 in Spain when the future Duke of Wellington decided to adopt a permanent divisional structure to help him fight the French

After the Napoleonic wars, the Division was sent to stem the German advance but had to be evacuated from Dunkirk

It went on to lead the assault on SWORD Beach and fought on across Europe and into Germany in 1945
Sebastiano Magnanini, 46, was found tied to a submerged shopping trolley in Regent's Canal after he died of a drugs overdose in north London last year

Three men involved in dumping the body of an Italian art thief who stole a 1million painting in a canal and emptying his bank account have been jailed.

The tattooed body of Sebastiano Magnanini, 46, originally from Venice, was found tied to a submerged shopping trolley by his shoelaces in Regent's Canal in north London last year.

Mr Magnanini had previously been investigated for links with the Italian mafia.

Michael Walsh, 41, and Paul Williams, 64, appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to preventing the lawful burial of a body.

Walsh, of Islington, north London and Daniel Hastie, 22, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud - after clearing Mr Magnanini's account of more than 1,900.

Hastie also faced charges of possessing offensive weapons after he used a wooden pole and metal chain to threaten another person.

The court heard that Walsh had met Mr Magnanini, who was known to struggle with addiction to class A drugs, on September 22 when the Italian was trying to buy heroin in the King's Cross area of London.

Walsh took Mr Magnanini back to his flat, where they took heroin and crack cocaine, and claimed he later gave him his bank card to get cash out to buy more drugs.

On discovering there was 1,900 in his account, over the next 18 hours he proceeded to empty it.

He recruited Hastie on the promise of a new tracksuit and trainers to help make withdrawals and he was seen withdrawing cash from several branches of Barclays, signing SM.

A total of 61 transactions were carried out on the card, although some were declined due to withdrawal limits.

The court heard Walsh returned to the flat, saying that Mr Magnanini, who had travelled to London from Italy in August, was sleeping and headed back out.

Paul Williams, 64, (pictured) pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of a body and was jailed to two years. Williams, along with Michael Walsh, 41, and Daniel Hastie, 22, dumped Mr Magnanini's body in the canal

The court heard that Michael Walsh (pictured) had met Mr Magnanini, who was known to struggle with addiction to class A drugs, on September 22 when the Italian was trying to buy heroin in the King's Cross area of London

By lunchtime of September 23 the account had been emptied and Walsh returned to his flat where he discovered Mr Magnanini had died of an apparent overdose.

He said he 'panicked' and left the flat again, where he bumped into Williams who later helped him dispose of the body.

Prosecuting, Emlyn Jones told the court that Mr Magnanini's hands and feet had been tied together in the foetal position to the trolley which was then weighted down with dumbbells.

Mr Jones said a sheet was also used to try to conceal the body in the water when it was dumped at around 5.15am on September 24.

Mr Magnanini, was found by a horrified passer-by and his seven year-old child near the entrance to the Islington tunnel close to Kings Cross shortly after 9am that same day.

A statement from the victim's brother, which was read out by Mr Copeland, said it was a 'cruel' and 'callous' way to get rid of his body, adding that the last few months have been a 'nightmare'.

It read: 'It is horrible to know that someone went to great lengths to conceal his body in the hope it would not be discovered.'

Defending Walsh, Leon Kazakos said at the time the decision was taken to move the body Walsh was heavily intoxicated by heroin, alcohol and cocaine.

Originally from Venice, Mr Magnanini was jailed for 18 months in 1998 for his part in stealing the Education of the Virgin by Battista Tiepolo. Along with two accomplices, they took the painting from the citys Santa Maria della Fava church in 1993

He added: 'It is a regret he will carry with him for the rest of his life.'

Defending Williams, Tom Copeland said: 'He has said he is ashamed of his actions that morning, that he did not ask more questions or do anything else.'

The court heard that Williams has also struggled with drug use and was intoxicated when he agreed to help Walsh. He is currently suffering from bone marrow cancer and a heart condition.

James Elvidge, defending Hastie, told the court the autistic 22-year-old knew the dead man because he was 'friendly' and 'generous'.

He said he helped the homeless around Euston and King's Cross - but was motivated by greed and the promise of new trainers and a tracksuit.

'If he had known it was his card and what happened he would never included himself in the fraud,' said Mr Elvidge.

Sentencing the trio, Judge John Hillen called the act of preventing the lawful burial of a body a 'serious' and 'distasteful' offence that has caused 'great distress' to Mr Magnanini's family.

He sentenced Walsh to four years in jail, Williams to two years and Hastie to 12 months.

Originally from Venice, Mr Magnanini was jailed for 18 months in 1998 for his part in stealing the Education of the Virgin by Battista Tiepolo.

Along with two accomplices, they took the painting from the citys Santa Maria della Fava church in 1993.

The church had been left unlocked and the case prompted much debate about the security of religious buildings in Italy at the time.

The artwork was found months later found in a farmhouse in Tessera, near the Marco Polo airport.

The case was handed by anti-mafia investigator who suspected the involvement of the mafia clan of the Venetian Rivieria.

Three months later in 1994 they were arrested and charged with aggravated theft.

Magnanini and his two accomplices confessed and revealed the hiding place of the painting, in a warehouse near the airport, wrapped in a sheet, damaged only by a fold.
News programmes will be saved from wide-ranging reforms to the BBC, the Culture Secretary suggested today.

John Whittingdale said the news should be an 'absolute core central activity of the BBC' and should be a 'priority' and should be saved from cuts to the BBC's budget.

He signalled that popular entertainment shows such as the Voice should instead come under the axe when it comes to deciding where to make 80million of savings.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said news programmes, such as the News at Ten hosted by the BBC's flagship news presenter Huw Edwards (pictured) should be the top priority for the broadcaster

But he faces a fight from the broadcaster after Charlotte Moore, the BBC's new controller of TV channels and iPlayer, vowed to keep BBC One's 'unashamedly popular' shows.

And he faced a battle with the BBC on another front as its director general Lord Hall rejected plans to give the Government a greater say over the running of the broadcaster.

Lord Hall insisted the BBC must remain 'independent' and must not accept recommendations from a government-commissioned report that last week called for ministers to elect directors to its board.

He said the corporation must remain 'at arm's length' from ministers to avoid 'any accusation of political influence, interference or pressure'.

It comes after Sir David Clementi called for the BBC Trust to be abolished and its regulation placed under media watchdog Ofcom.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale warned the BBC against pro-Brussels bias and demanded that any complaints about impartiality be dealt with 'very rapidly'

Mr Whittingdale today stressed that he was a big fan of the BBC, telling journalists at a Westminster lunch: 'I love the BBC. I've not set out to destroy the BBC. Reports to the contrary are entirely incorrect.'

Asked where he wanted the BBC to target its spending cuts, he said news should be protected.

'There are savings within the BBC that don't require them to slash news budgets or close a channel', he said, adding: 'news is not the first place they should look, in many ways it should be the last place'.

The comments from John Whittingdale (pictured in Downing Street today) suggest that popular entertainment shows such as the Voice will be targeted as the BBC prepares to make 80million worth of cuts this year

But he added: 'Is there scope for savings elsewhere? Absolutely.'

He also warned the BBC against pro-Brussels bias and demanded that any complaints about impartiality be dealt with 'very rapidly'.

He said he had spoken to the corporation's director general Lord Hall to say that any complaints be sorted out long before the referendum is held.

He said he it would not be acceptable if the BBC only admitted it had 'got it wrong' on its coverage after the vote on EU membership had taken place.

Mr Whittingdale wrote to the chairman of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, last year to warn against 'distorted' coverage, saying the Corporation's coverage of Europe has not been 'faultless' in the past.

He said: 'The BBC has a duty to provide information and to encourage debate. As long as it is balanced, as long as it is fair, it is part of the BBC's job to provide that.

'What I have wanted to be sure of is that there are very clear rules about the impartiality and that there is a mechanism for complaints whereby those who make a complaint should have it adjudicated very rapidly.'

The Culture Secretary revealed he had spoken to Lord Hall about the need for impartiality, and was in regular contact with other officials about the issue.

'I've talked to the director general about this, and I've written to the chairman of the trust.,' he said.

'I don't underestimate how difficult it is. It isn't like a simple campaign where there is a yes camp and a no camp. There are different voices on both sides.

A government-commissioned report published last week recommended that the regulation of the BBC should be passed to the media watchdog Ofcom

'It is up to the broadcasters to try and make sure that there is a fair representation of the arguments on both sides.

'I don't think there is an innate bias. But it is very important that there is a mechanism whereby if something goes wrong, a complaint is dealt with very quickly and I'm continuing to talk to the BBC about that.'

But in a speech today Lord Hall said the BBC must remain independent from the Government.

He said that while the proposals bring about 'the most significant change in governance and regulation of the BBC in its lifetime', those deciding the future of the corporation must 'think very hard' about whether to allow Government-appointed directors.

In a speech today Lord Hall (pictured) said the BBC must remain independent from the Government

'We have to be independent to do the job our audiences expect us to do,' he said in a speech to television industry figures.

'[The board] will make key decisions on programmes and services, and it will work with me - as editor-in-chief - on how we manage our impartial journalism.

'It doesn't feel to me that these tasks should be undertaken by Government-appointed board members. The BBC is one of the world's great public service broadcasters - not a state broadcaster.'

The BBC's royal charter expires next year and Lord Hall has called for the next one to exist for 11 years and 'beyond the next electoral cycle'.

He added: 'When it comes to appointing the members to the new unitary board - the BBC's editorial board - we will be arguing for a transparent and independent process, at arm's length from the Government.'

Mr Whittingdale also chose to use his lunch with journalists today to criticised David Cameron's renegotiation with Brussels, saying it did not meet the prime minister's objectives and were only of 'marginal' benefit.

He demanded that if the Remain side wins the vote, Mr Cameron must make a speech in days demanding further reform of our membership of the EU.

And he called on all departments to draw up contingency plans for both referendum options  in and out.

Mr Whittingdale said that Mr Cameron should instruct ministers to draw up contingency plans for Brexit, saying: 'It seems sensible that the government should prepare for both outcomes.'

He said the prime minister had 'got as good a deal as he was likely to get', and that if voters decide to stay in, it would be a better deal  but only 'marginally'.

And he said Mr Cameron should make a speech demanding further reform if Remain wins the day.

'If the country votes to stay in, the prime minister should make it clear that many people are not satisfied,' he said.
Cambridge University has agreed to remove a bronze cockerel from view after students complained about its links to Britains colonial past.

Jesus College said it will take down the Benin Bronze from its dining hall and start discussions about whether to repatriate it to Africa.

Last month, students demanded the statue be returned to a royal palace in Nigeria from where it was plundered during a 19th century British naval expedition.

Cambridge University has agreed to remove the Benin Bronze cockerel (pictured) from view in Jesus College's dining room and start discussions about whether to repatriate it to Africa

The cockerel was one of hundreds of bronze sculptures taken from Benin City in 1897.

It follows a similar row at Oxford in which Oriel College consulted on removing a statue of the 19th Century colonialist Cecil Rhodes after students claimed it was racist.

Yesterday, Cambridge said the move followed an important and complex question raised by students  but critics branded it a mistake.

Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said: 'Students always look for things to protest about, and at present universities seem to make the mistake of taking these protests too seriously.

'We can't be in the business of trying to re-write history. How a cockerel can make some students feel bad amazes me.

It's something that they are projecting on to it, not something that it signifies in itself.'

Joanna Williams, education editor at Spiked and lecturer in higher education at the University of Kent, added: I think it is cowardly on behalf of Cambridge University to do this and I think students have declared war on the past and this is another example of how students are using history as a morality play to express their own moral superiority in the present.

They want to demonstrate that they are more enlightened than previous generations of students. Its easier to fight battles against the past.

Last month, students demanded the statue be taken down from view at Jesus College (pictured) and returned to a royal palace in Nigeria from where it was plundered during a 19th century British naval expedition

Instead they come across as if they want to eradicate the past or use the past to express their moral superiority in the present.

Last month, the Jesus College student union (JCSU) passed a motion saying that the sculpture should be handed over to Nigeria in a repatriation ceremony.

Now, after a meeting of the council at Jesus College, the university has announced that the cockerel  known as the Okukor  would be removed permanently.

A university spokesperson said: Jesus College acknowledges the contribution made by students in raising the important but complex question of the rightful location of its Benin Bronze, in response to which it has permanently removed the Okukor from its Hall.

The College commits to work actively with the wider University and to commit resources to new initiatives with Nigerian heritage and museum authorities to discuss and determine the best future for the Okukor, including the question of repatriation.

The College strongly endorses the inclusion of students from all relevant communities in such discussion.

The cockerel has been at the college since 1930 and was adopted as a symbol because of the surname of its founder, John Alcock, a former Bishop of Ely.

Three cockerels' heads appear on the college's crest.

Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has repeatedly requested the return of hundreds of 'Benin bronzes'.

The proposal that Jesus College students voted on said: The contemporary political culture surrounding colonialism and social justice, combined with the universitys global agenda, offers a perfect opportunity for the college to benefit from this gesture.

It comes after students at Christs College, Cambridge, allegedly called for links to benefactor Jan Smuts, a South African general and statesman, to be severed.
The husband of a prominent pediatrician has pleaded not guilty to stabbing her 22 times in the shower inside their multimillion-dollar home in an exclusive New York City suburb.

Julius Reich, 62, was arraigned Tuesday in White Plains on a second-degree murder indictment in what acting Westchester County District Attorney James McCarty described as an ambush attack on his wife, Dr. Robin Goldman.

The prosecutor said Goldman, 58, was stabbed 22 times with an 8-inch kitchen knife, suffering a punctured lung, heart, diaphragm, liver and kidney.

During a hearing in January, it emerged that Reich, a partner in a financial services company, paused to smoke a cigarette during the frenzied attack on his wife before calling 911

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Denial of guilt: Julius Reich (center), pictured in court on Tuesday, pleaded not guilty to stabbing his wife, Dr Robin Goldman (right), 22 times in January inside their $2.5million home in Scarsdale, New York

Frenzied attack: Reich, left, allegedly ambushed his wife in the shower and attacked her with an 8-inch kitchen knife

The couple were in the middle of a contentious divorce but still lived together in their $2.5million home in Scarsdale.

Reich's newly hired attorney, John Pappalardo, told reporters gathered outside Westchester County Court today that the case 'is a tragedy for everybody that's involved.'

He added that his client's main concern now is 'for his family, primarily for his children and their well-being.'

Reich's next court appearance will be April 5. If convicted, the husband could face up to 25 years to life in prison.

Dr Robin Goldman was home alone on the morning of January 20 and was getting ready for work when her husband made his way into the residence.

Though Goldman had recently changed the locks of the 6,400 sq ft house, Reich managed to get inside and allegedly 'ambushed' the victim in the shower in a knife attack reminiscent of the 1960 Hitchcock slasher film Psycho, prosecutors said, according to the New York Daily News.

'He grabbed her from behind in the shower and stabbed her,' said Assistant District Attorney John O'Rourke.

Two young women react as they approach the hearse carrying the casket of Dr Goldman, a 58 year-old pediatrician, during her funeral

Reich then allegedly walked into the kitchen, 'leaving a trail of blood,' and smoked a cigarette before dialing 911 to alert emergency services that his wife lay dying, prosecutors said.

When first responders arrived at the sprawling residence, they found Reich with bruises on his face and injuries to both hands. He was arrested on a second-degree murder charge and ordered held without bail at Westchester County Jail.

Dr Goldman worked as a pediatrician at the Comprehensive Family Care Center in The Bronx, was also affiliated with Montefiore Medical Center and was an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

'Robin was a dedicated physician cherished by her colleagues as a positive and compassionate presence,' Montefiore hospital said. 'Her passion for medicine was an inspiration to those who worked with her. Her passing is a great loss for all of us, and we extend our heartfelt sympathy to her family, friends, patients, colleagues and students.'

Court records show that after their daughter's wedding last summer, Reich filed for a divorce from Goldman, according to CBS New York.

The couple's five-bedroom, four-bath home, on Lincoln Road, was built in 1947 and includes a bath house, swimming pool and greenhouse on 1.3 acres of land.

Records show that Reich, a financial consultant at the firm WeiserMazars, and Goldman lived on the property.

Reich, a financial adviser and attorney, is pictured above in a booking photo following his arraignment on a second-degree murder charge. Reich is pictured right in a second booking photo

Investigators were searching the house hours after Goldman's body was found stabbed in the Scarsdale home

According to Reich's biography on WeiserMazars' website, the 62-year-old is a partner at the firm, 'advising corporations, startups, venture capital and private-equity firms in a broad range of industries on critical topics including mergers and acquisitions'.

Reich received his law degree from Benjamin N. Cordozo School and Law and his Master of Law degree from New York University Law School.

Over the course of his 20-year career in the financial industry, he has been involved in transactions totaling more than $45million, according to his bio.

The couple are believed to have four children who are all in their 20s.

The last recorded homicide in Scarsdale was in 1977, when 23-year-old Yale graduate Richard Herrin killed 20-year-old ex-girlfriend Bonnie Garland by smashing her head with a hammer as she slept in her parents' home, according to officials.

Herrin served 17 years in prison after he was convicted of manslaughter, according to court documents. He was released in 1995.

Police investigators were spotted circling the home after the horrifying incident in the upscale New York neighborhood
Joe Biden touched down in Israel as Palestinian attackers stabbed police officers and bystanders in separate assaults - one of which was just a few miles away.

The Vice President landed in Tel Aviv for talks with political leaders as one person was killed and another nine were wounded by a knife-wielding suspect on the city's waterfront.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem two Israeli police officers and a civilian were injured when gunmen opened fire.

They were the latest acts of bloodshed in more than five months of near-daily Palestinian violence that shows no sign of abating.

Earlier, Israel disputed a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'surprised' the Obama administration by canceling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming.

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Vice President Joe Biden is accompanied by his wife Jill Biden as they disembark from their plane shortly after arriving at the Ben Gurion Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel

He waves to the crowd as he disembarks from Air Force Two on Tuesday morning

Just a few miles away a knife-wielding man randomly attacked 10 people - killing one of them - in the neighborhood of Jaffa on the waterfront

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of U.S. presidential primaries.

The spat comes amid tense relations with President Barack Obama in the last year of his presidency.

Biden landed in Israel about an hour after a Palestinian opened fire at police near Jerusalem's Old City wounding an officer before fleeing the scene.

In the chase that followed, he wounded another officer before he was shot and killed.

A short while before that, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli in the neck at a store in the central city of Petah Tikvah before he was shot and killed.

Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman who tried to stab Israeli security forces was shot and killed by officers, also in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police said.

It was the latest in a wave of Palestinian attacks that have killed 28 Israelis, mostly in shootings, stabbings and assaults with cars. At least 174 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during that time. Most of them were attackers and the rest were killed in clashes, Israel says.

Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli rule over the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel says the violence is fueled by a campaign of Palestinian lies and incitement that is compounded on social media sites that glorify attacks.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the U.S. had offered to meet on one of those days. 'We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting,' said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. 'We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit.'

Biden looks to the ground as his wife his handed a bouquet of flowers at the beginning of the historic trip

He shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (center) after touching down

But Netanyahu's office said Israel's ambassador to the U.S. had already informed the White House last week there was a 'good chance' Netanyahu would not make the trip.

It said the ambassador told the White House there would be a final decision on Monday. That day, Israeli news reports erroneously reported that Netanyahu would not travel because he was unwilling to meet with Obama. Netanyahu's office said it then informed the White House directly that Netanyahu would not be visiting.

Netanyahu was invited to address a summit of the staunchly pro-Israel group AIPAC. An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said Netanyahu wanted to avoid potential meetings with presidential candidates at the summit. Netanyahu was accused of siding with Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign and he appears wary of sparking any additional claims of meddling in American politics.

'It's a tumultuous primary season in the United States ... we don't want to inject ourselves into that tumultuous process,' the official said.

Biden winks and points at the waiting cameras as he begins a set of historic talks with Palestinian leaders

It was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the U.S. and its closest Mideast ally. Relations between Israel and the U.S. never fully recovered after Obama incensed Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then agreeing to a nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden's last visit to Israel in 2010 was also marked by a diplomatic spat with Washington, when Israel announced settlement construction plans during his visit.

Netanyahu's office said Tuesday the prime minister is, 'looking forward to the visit of Biden and discussing how we can meet the many challenges facing the region.'

Vice President Biden is not expected to offer any new initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he travels to Israel and the West Bank. The White House has said it does not believe either side has the political will for reviving the peace process as the last year of Obama's administration winds down.

However, there have also been reports the Obama administration is considering setting parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to make it easier for Obama's successor to pursue. Israel rejects an imposed formula and says any outline of a peace accord has to be reached through direct negotiations.
The American student who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist on a knife rampage in Israel was a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Taylor Allen Force, 28, of Lubbock, Texas, was attacked along a boardwalk near a beach in the Jaffa area of Tel Aviv that is popular with tourists.

Force, an MBA student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, died during a school-sponsored trip to learn about startup companies overseas.

Force graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in the Army from 2009 to 2014, according to his LinkedIn page.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Taylor Force (pictured), a student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist on a knife rampage in Tel Aviv before he was shot dead by police

Taylor Force (left, with his parents and sister Kristen) was on a school trip when he was fatally stabbed

He had been based at Fort Hood, Texas, as a platoon leader and fire support officer, among other duties.

At West Point, Force was a member of the ski team and received a bachelor's degree in engineering and industrial management.

Force went to high school at New Mexico Military Institute and was an Eagle Scout, according to the LinkedIn page.

His father Stuart Force spoke briefly with The Associated Press by phone.

'He was a great kid,' he said, before he received a call from family and ended the conversation.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos, in a letter notifying students, faculty and staff, called the incident a 'horrific act of violence' but provided no details.

The 29-year-old, pictured with his sister Kristen, was a student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management

In a statement, Vanderbilt's Chancellor said Forcce (pictured with his sister) 'exemplified the spirit of discovery, learning and service that is the hallmark of our wonderful Owen community'

Zeppos said in his letter that the other 28 students and four Vanderbilt staffers on the trip were safe. The university is arranging for their return to the United States.

'Taylor embarked on this trip to expand his understanding of global entrepreneurship and also to share his insights and knowledge with start-ups in Israel,' Zeppos said.

'He exemplified the spirit of discovery, learning and service that is the hallmark of our wonderful Owen community.

'This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world.

'Taylor's family and his friends and colleagues have our deepest sympathy and utmost support.'

He said university resources are being made available for students, faculty and staff who may seek counseling.

Video of the attack shows the man, 22, running along a road close to the marina before approaching cars as they slow down and then apparently stabbing the occupants

The U.S. State Department strongly condemned the attack and identified the slain American as Force.

In a statement, department spokesman John Kirby said: 'The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today's outrageous terrorist attacks in Jaffa, Petah Tikvah, and Jerusalem, which tragically claimed the life of U.S. citizen Taylor Allen Force and left many others severely injured.

'We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Taylor and all those affected by these senseless attacks, and we wish a speedy recovery for the injured.

'As we have said many times, there is absolutely no justification for terrorism. We continue to encourage all parties to take affirmative steps to reduce tensions and restore calm.'

The attacker, identified as Bashar Masalha, 22, from the West Bank settlement of Qalqilyah, was shot dead by police.

A dozen Isrealis, civilians and police officers were wounded in a series of knife and gun attacks that authorities in Tel Aviv said were carried out by Palestinians.

Among those severely injured are believed to be a pregnant woman, a Russian tourist, and the wife of the dead tourist, local media reports (pictured, the knife used during the stabbings)

'GUITAR HERO': MAN SMASHED HIS ACOUSTIC GUITAR OVER ATTACKER'S HEAD WHEN HE SAW HIM COME RUNNING WITH A KNIFE Yishai Montgomery (pictured) smashed his acoustic guitar over the attacker's head in an attempt to slow him down A quick-thinking man smashed his acoustic guitar over the head of the Palestinian terrorist in a bid to slow him down as he came running towards him brandishing a knife. Yishai Montgomery, 26, was playing his guitar on the beach in Jaffa when he heard screams and saw Bashar Masalha, 22, approaching, Jerusalem Online reports. In a heroic effort to stop the assailant, Montgomery smashed his acoustic guitar over the attacker's head. He managed to stun Masalha, who killed an American student and injured up to a dozen people before he was gunned down by police. With a large hole left in Montgomery's guitar, people have lauded the 26-year-old for his bravery and contributed money towards a new instrument. 'I had just sat down to play my guitar near the ocean when I heard screams from down the road,' Montgomery told Channel 2 News. He then realized a man was running towards him with a knife. 'He jumped on the bench yelling at me and trying to stab me so I grabbed my guitar and hit him over the head with it,' Montgomery told the Times of Israel. 'He was so stunned and didn't know what to do with himself and then started running away.' Montgomery then pursued the 22-year-old, from the West Bank settlement of Qalqilyah, yelling: 'Terrorist!' Other bystanders joined the chase, and police eventually shot Masalha dead. On a GoFundMe page created Ed-Malki Dvir, Montgomery is hailed as a 'guitar hero' and many have already pitched in to raise more than $1,000 towards the total goal of $1,500. It is unclear what Dvir's relationship is to Montgomery, but he wrote: 'Yishai may very well have saved many lives as he neutralized the attack. He deserves a new guitar or two or 3. Only the best for this lifesaving guitar hero!' One contributor who donated five dollars offered to deliver a brand new guitar to Montgomery and left his phone number in a message on the site. Others have made similarly generous offers to help replace the damaged instrument. According to Jerusalem Online, one woman has offered up her guitar 'as a sign of gratitude for his bravery'. Advertisement

Along with Masalha, three other Palestinian assailants were shot and killed in the day's rash of violence - the latest in a wave of near-daily Palestinian assaults on Israeli civilians and security forces that erupted in September last year.

Police say Masalha stabbed several people close to the marina in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, before running towards the Manta Ray restaurant on the seaside promenade, stabbing more victims.

Masalha then fled towards the center of Tel Aviv, stabbing motorists as he ran, police said.

'A terrorist, an illegal resident who came from somewhere in the Palestinian territories, came here to Jaffa and embarked on a run ... along the boardwalk. On his way he indiscriminately stabbed people,' Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai told Army Radio.

One of the people who was seriously injured during the attacks is a pregnant woman while another is a Russian tourist, the Jerusalem Post, citing Israel's Channel 2.

Shocking video of part of the attack, uploaded to YouTube, shows a man believed to be Masalha running along a darkened street into oncoming traffic.

As cars slow down, he can be seen running up to several of the vehicles and apparently stabbing the occupants before carrying on up the road.

Yosef, a witness who spoke to Ynet, said: 'The terrorist, young with a sweatshirt, came from the direction of the Jaffa port.

'At the promenade's plaza he jumped on a couple of tourists. A woman was stabbed several times, tried to get away and collapsed. He continued stabbing a man and another younger guy in the leg.

'I was in my car. I ran out, grabbed a metal bar and hit him on the back. He tried to stab me and then fled.'

Another witness, who gave her name as Emily, said: 'I heard two guys screaming that there was an attack. I ran in the opposite direction and ran into a man who was on the ground in his blood.'

A 29-year-old American tourist was killed in Israel after a mass stabbing attack by a Palestinian man in the Jaffa neighborhood of Tel Aviv as Joe Biden began his visit to Israel

The attacker, 22, began stabbing people along a boardwalk close to the marina in Jaffa (pictured), an area popular with tourists, before making his way towards a restaurant where more people were stabbed

Ambulance crews reported at least four people were seriously injured in the attack, while local media reported another four had moderate injuries and two people escaped with only minor wounds

'I covered him with my jacket. He was badly injured and we waited together for the ambulances to come.'

A third man told Israeli television he hit the attacker with his guitar, showing cameras the instrument with a hole visible in the wood.

According to social media, Masalha is a graduate from Damascus University in Syria who is in a relationship with an unknown partner.

Posts on his Facebook page reveal that he has recently returned from the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Tel Aviv District Police Commander Chico Edry arrived on the scene and said the police would bolster its presence in the Tel Aviv area.

Police inspect the body of the Palestinian attacker after he was shot dead in the Jaffa neighborhood of Tel Aviv

Israeli police officers look for evidence near the scene of a stabbing attack on March 8, 2016 in the neighbourhood of Jaffa in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv

The knife attack was just one of a series of gun and knife attacks that took place throughout Israel on Tuesday

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh told Ynet: 'There was a wave of three attacks [in Jaffa, Petah Tikva and Jerusalem on Tuesday] that had no connection between them. All the incidents are over.

'Our goal is to return the situation to routine as quickly as possible. We will seek to understand if there is anything new we need to take into account... and we will update the public.'

According to the Israeli National News, the attacker came from the city of Qalqilya in the West Bank, but did not give a source for this information.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who began a two-day visit to Israel on Tuesday, was just a mile away from the site of the attacks at the Peres Center for Peace when they took place.

A source from Biden's team told J Post that the US vice president's delegation was aware of the incident and had not altered its schedule.

The source said that vice president met with former Israeli President Shimon Peres as planned, adding that Biden was in a secure location and therefore did not need to change course.

When meeting Peres on Tuesday, he spoke of an 'unvarnished, complete commitment to the security of Israel. And I hope we will make some progress.'

Biden is due to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday.

The White House has said Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit despite the wave of violence.

A wounded man is taken away from the scene of the stabbing in the Jaffa district of Tel Aviv

A man passes blood and medical bandages along the sea front in Jaffa, a neighborhood of Tel Aviv, where up to 12 people were wounded during a knife attack

Blood is spattered across the pavement next to bouquets of flowers with the marina in Jaffa, the scene of the knife attack, pictured in the background

Members of an ultra-orthodox Jewish burial society clean blood off the sidewalk after Tuesday's attacks

Meanwhile in Jerusalem two Israeli police officers and a civilian were injured when gunmen opened fire.

They were the latest acts of bloodshed in more than five months of near-daily Palestinian violence that shows no sign of abating.

Earlier, Israel disputed a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'surprised' the Obama administration by canceling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming.

Local media reported that the man began his attack along a boardwalk close to a popular beach before running into a nearby restaurant and continuing to stab people

The attack only ended after armed Israel police arrived and shot the attacker dead, according to officers

Israeli police search buildings close to the scene of Tuesday's knife attack in Tel Aviv after reports of more than one attacker, but later confirmed it was carried out by one man

Joe BIden is pictured at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa, which is only around a mile from where Tuesday's fatal knife attack took place

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of U.S. presidential primaries.

The spat comes amid tense relations with President Barack Obama in the last year of his presidency.

Biden landed in Israel about an hour after a Palestinian opened fire at police near Jerusalem's Old City wounding an officer before fleeing the scene.

In the chase that followed, he wounded another officer before he was shot and killed.

Biden is taking part in a two-day visit to Israel where he is expected to meet with senior political figures in an attempt to mend relations following the Iran nuclear deal

As well as the stabbing in Jaffa, a shooting attack also took place in Salah al-Din Street in East Jerusalem, where two police officers were shot (pictured)

Another knife attack also took place in the Israeli city of Petah Tikvah where a man was stabbed in the chest and neck before the attacker was killed (scene pictured)

A short while before that, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli in the neck at a store in the central city of Petah Tikvah.

The Times of Israel reports that a 35-year-old man was attacked inside a wine shop and was stabbed several times in the upper body.

At one point, he is said to have pulled the attacker's knife out of his own neck before turning it on the man, killing him.

Images from the scene show a blood-covered knife about four to six inches in length. Miraculously the victim was only moderately wounded.

Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman who tried to stab Israeli security forces was shot and killed by officers, also in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police said.

It was the latest in a wave of Palestinian attacks that have killed 28 Israelis, mostly in shootings, stabbings and assaults with cars. At least 174 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during that time. Most of them were attackers and the rest were killed in clashes, Israel says.
Hillary Clinton won the Mississippi Democratic primary early tonight, but in a surprise ending to the evening Bernie Sanders won Michigan - a state where the ex-secretary was up by double digits prior to today.

Clinton and her family campaigned in aggressively in the motor-based state this week, and the former U.S. senator accused Sanders of voting against an auto bailout that helped the state and she voted in favor of.

It wasn't enough to keep the Vermont senator at bay, however. He hit her again, and again, and again for backing trade deals he said contributed to Michigan's shattered economy.

With 99 per cent per cent of the vote counted, Sanders just squeaked home ahead of Clinton, winning 49.88 per cent to 48.22 per cent.

Sanders later he sent out a fundraising letter to his supporters calling it 'a major, game-changing victory' for his campaign.

Before the race could be called for her opponent, Clinton took the stage in Ohio. She ignored tonight's election results altogether and instead gave a Cleveland-oriented speech.

'If you work for me, if you vote for me, I will work my heart out for you,' she told her supporters gathered there. 'I will work every single day to make a difference in your lives.'

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Hillary Clinton won the Mississippi Democratic primary early tonight, but in a surprise ending to the evening Bernie Sanders won Michigan - a state where the ex-secretary was up by double digits prior to today

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii joined Sanders at his Miami rally, where he spoke before he found out about Michigan

The Mississippi race, by comparison, was called for Clinton just minutes after polls closed at 8 pm.

Having already assumed a loss in the southern state, Senator Bernie Sanders was already on to the next and was rallying his supporters in Miami, Florida, as Clinton and her backers gathered in Cleveland.

He spoke of Michigan in the context of Flint, and the water crisis there and gave a fiery version of his stump speech, hitting Republican Donald Trump on his 'insults' of women and minorities and Clinton for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street to speak at private functions.

Possibly expecting a loss in Michigan given Clinton's large lead in the polls there, he kept his focus on Florida - another state with a big, pledged delegate count.

Then, two hours later, with the vote still too close to call, he offered another statement, hailing an upset - and pointing out that the delegates will be split evenly between him and Clinton.

'It is not clear yet who will win this election here in Michigan,' he said - although he was speaking in Miami.

He said his message was one of thanks to the people of Michigan because 'you have repudiated the pundits who said that Bernie Sanders was not going anywhere'.

'In the last week we have won three caucuses and two of them were record-breaking turnouts,' he said.

'Whether we win or lose tonight in Michigan, basically the delegates are going to be split up because of proportional representation.'

He said the result showed that he could win anywhere.

'The political revolution that we are talking about is strong in every area of the country and frankly, we believe that the best is yet to come.'

Before the race could be called for her opponent, Clinton took the stage in Ohio - and ignored the election results all together

Despite the disappointing result in Michigan, Clinton seemed happy with the resounding victory in Mississippi

Clinton's supporters are seen celebrating the state Clinton did win outright - Mississippi - tonight in Ohio

The Mississippi race was called for Clinton just minutes after polls closed at 8 pm. She waited to speak, though, until the Michigan results came rolling in

Crushing: Early counting gave Clinton a huge victory over Sanders, although the night got worse for her later on with defeat in Michigan

Earlier he said spoke the Knight Center in downtown Miami.

'You are beautiful crowd. You are a loud crowd,' he said. 'I have the feeling you want to see this country move toward a political revolution!

As he closed, Sanders declared: 'A week from today, let's stand up for a political revolution. Let us be prepared to tell the billionaire class they cannot have it all. Come out and vote next Tuesday!'

Clinton won Mississippi with zero percent of precincts reporting as Sanders spoke. Early results put her on track to finish with an impressive 80 percent or more of the vote

The bulk of Mississippi's 36 Democratic delegates are expected to go to Clinton as a result of tonights outcome.

She was the expected winner, having outperformed Sanders in other southern states, mainly because of her popularity with African-Americans, and exit polling of the Magnolia State, where six in 10 Democratic voters were African American, suggested shed have a repeat performance tonight.

ABC News reported this evening that black voter turnout was on track to break a record, and Clinton won nearly nine in 10.

Nearly half of Mississippi Democrats said they trusted only Clinton to handle race relations in America. Just 11 percent said they only wanted Sanders dealing with the issue. Another 35 percent said theyd be happy with both of them, while four percent said neither.

Another indicator of Clintons strength in the state: three quarters of Democratic voters said her proposals were realistic. Less than half had that view of Sanders to-do list.

The ex-cabinet secretary also did well on the honesty and trust question  three quarters gave her a good rating.

Lauren Esquivel said tonight at a rally in Miami that Bernie had her support, 100 percent

The bulk of Mississippi's 36 delegates are expected to go to Clinton tonight. She has outperformed Sanders in other southern states, mainly because of her popularity with African-Americans, and was the anticipated winner of tonight's primary in the Magnolia State

Strong start: Supporters react to positive primary results for Clinton before a rally at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland

Nearly half of Mississippi Democrats said they trusted only Clinton to handle race relations in America. Just 11 percent said they only wanted Sanders dealing with the issue. Another 35 percent said theyd be happy with both of them, while four percent said neither

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were likely to win their respective parties' contests today - but like Super Tuesday a week ago, it was a night that brought surprises, as Sanders surged ahead in Michigan. Voters are seen in Madison, Mississippi, earlier today

Starting them young: 21-month-old Karson Welch looks over the shoulder of her grandmother Kathy Gray as she votes in the primary at Pilgrim Rest M.B. Church precinct in Brandon, Miss

Michigan, where polls closed in parts of the state at 8 pm Eastern, and other parts at 9, was called for Sanders at the end of the night.

It became a battleground state for Clinton and Sanders, and both candidates campaigned there heavily over the past week.

With 130 delegates are at stake, Clinton was hoping to drive a dagger into Sanders' campaign by decimating him there.

Michigan was a critical test for for the senator, and one he could not afford to fail, forcing him to hit back hard at Clinton there on trade and her ties to Wall Street.

Exit polling suggests that he benefited from a strong turnout among white voters and independents. Seven in 10 voters there were white, compared to Mississippi, where they were the minority. A quarter of voters were independent.

Furthermore, Clinton performed worse in Michigan with black voters than she has in other states, winning two-thirds of them, compared to 80 percent and above in stand out contests.

The former secretary of state's integrity was called into question by a significant number of voters from her own party in Michigan - fewer than six in 10 said she was honesty and trustworthy.

Democratic voters meanwhile said 8-2 that Sanders could be trusted.

Their perceptions of the candidates' veracity and empathy played a fundamental role in their vote. A third said they wanted someone who 'cares about people like me.' Three in 10 said honesty was the deciding fact.

Sanders' performance in Michigan will propel him forward, on to next Tuesday, March 15, when four more states - Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri - go to the polls.

Luckily for Clinton, the delegates from tonight's contests will be distributed proportionally, and she'll get nearly as many as Sanders.

She was an average of 21 points ahead in Michigan going into the election, but the Vermont senator kept his spirits high.
Footage released by Deschutes County Sheriff's Office Tuesday shows the moment that Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum, one of the armed protesters who took over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon in January, was killed in a shooting that was deemed 'justified and necessary' by a county prosecutor.

The footage, which combines film from a police helicopter and a camera held one of Finicum's passengers, was recorded on January 26 during his attempt to travel between the occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and a meeting in the town of John Day.

The footage begins with Finicum, 54, at the wheel of a beige SUV, telling police that he plans to meet 'the sheriff' and that police need to 'back down [or] kill me now.' Around four minutes into the footage, he tells his passengers to 'get down' and starts driving.

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Defiant: LaVoy Finicum, shown here in footage filmed by passenger Shauna Cox just before he started a police car chase on January 26, told police they would need to 'back down [or] kill me now' before driving off

Speeding: Footage released Tuesday shows both the police helicopter view (main image) and Cox's recording (inset). In the lower left is Ryan Payne, one of the leaders of the militia that took over an Oregon wildlife reserve

Off-road: Finicum, trying to outrun police, instead hits a roadblock. He tries to swerve, but the car becomes embedded in the snow. His group were trying to get to a meeting 50 miles away in the town of John Day

As the group, which includes camerawoman Shauna Cox, leader Ryan Payne and Victoria Sharp, is chased along winding roads by police, they try to call a local militia for help but realize they have no phone signal.

They soon run into a roadblock, and Finicum tells his passengers to 'hang on' before he swerves off the road and into a deep snowbank that stops the vehicle.

The vehicle has barely stopped when Finicum jumps out of the door and announces 'Go ahead and shoot me' - just as what appears to be a bullet punctures the window next to him.

Finicum wades into the snow, ignoring demands by police that he drop to the floor, still shouting 'Go ahead and shoot me.'

Footage from the helicopter shows two officers on either side of Finicum - one emerging from trees off the side of the road - and three behind a pickup truck in the roadblock.

Around ten seconds after leaving the vehicle, Finicum turns while apparently reaching into his jacket. Shots ring out and he falls to the ground, motionless.

Shot: This is the moment Finicum jumps out of his car with his hands up (left) then reaches for his pockets (right) as an armed FBI agent approaches him. He is shot dead moments later

Panic: Seconds after Finicum falls to the ground, the passengers begin to panic. Police then bombard the car with tear gas and stun grenades. But the terrified passengers are afraid to leave the vehicle

'Are they shooting him?' asks Cox. 'Did they shoot him? You a**holes!' She tells the group to stay down while Sharp appears to scream hysterically for Payne to get out and help him. Payne opens a door just as what appears to be smoke grenades and stun grenades explode near the car.

The three hunker down in the car and begin to pray as the police fire with what appear to be pepper-spray shots at the car's windows, attempting to break them open and fill it with noxious fumes.

'Please protect us,' prays Cox, 'we need help, we need help, we need help.'

As five more police cars arrive further up the road and lasers shine through the windows, the group seem unsure about what to do, afraid to leave the vehicle.

Finally, a window breaks and tear gas begins to fill the vehicle, but it's not until Sharp shouts surrender that police give them the go-ahead to get out, and the three exit one-by-one.

Relatives of Finicum, who was a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the Oregon refuge, insist he was not armed when he was killed.

But, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said a loaded 9mm handgun was found in the pocket of Finicum's jacket following the shooting, which was ruled justified by a prosecutor Tuesday.

However, the FBI agents involved in the shooting are also under investigation for failing to report that shots were fired.

Surrender: Finally, passenger Victoria Sharp (seen bottom-left) shouts 'surrender' and police tell them to leave the car. Ryan Payne can be seen in the helicopter's view, leaving the vehicle with his arms up

Spokesperson: Rancher Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum, pictured, was a spokesperson for the men who occupied the Malheur county wildlife reserve in January

Speaking at a press conference on Monday in Bend, Oregon, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said eight shots were fired at Finicum during the confrontation.

Six of the shots came from Oregon State Police officers and two from FBI agents. Three of the bullets fired by Oregon State Police officers led to his death, he said.

'The six shots fired by the Oregon State Police were justified and in fact necessary,' Norris said.

County Sheriff Nelson said Finicum was struck in the back by three of the bullets, which were fired by state troopers who were behind him as he appeared to reach for a weapon.

Though the shooting was deemed justified, Nelson added that the FBI agents involved are under investigation because they 'did not disclose their shots to investigators, nor did they disclose specific actions they took after the shooting'.

The takeover of the wildlife refuge, which began on January 2, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

Leader: The takeover at Malheur started on January 2 when Ammon Bundy (pictured) and his followers seized buildings at the refuge in a protest against federal control of millions of acres of public land

The leaders of the standoff, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were arrested at the same traffic stop at which Finicum was slain.

The takeover of the wildlife refuge initially began as a protest against the jailing of two local ranchers, Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, who were convicted of arson and sentenced to prison.

But the activists' demands soon grew to include calls for the government to turn over area federal land to local ranchers. In Oregon, nearly 53 percent of the land is federally owned.

The Hammonds distanced themselves from the movement and voluntarily began their scheduled prison sentences after the occupation began.

The Bundy family grabbed headlines in 2014 after another armed showdown with federal authorities over cattle grazing fees.

That standoff ended with federal officials backing down and releasing cattle they had seized from the Bundys.
The spies were spotted acted strangely near a canal in Neumenster

Two Israeli spies had their cover blown by a suspicious German pensioner, who spotted their car stuck in the mud.

The spies, who were armed, eventually had to be pulled from the mire by a farmer enlisted by the emergency services in Newumenster, in northern Germany.

To add insult to injury, the Israeli embassy in Berlin has now received a bill for close to 1,000 for the police and firemen who were called to the canal by the mayor of nearby Quarnbek.

The spies, who were armed, had to be pulled from the mud where their Ford Focus had got stuck by a farmer enlisted by the emergency services in Newumenster, in northern Germany (pictured)

Police were alerted on December 17 last year a 'suspicious people near the canal' by the mayor, who earlier had taken a call from the elderly woman who spotted the Mossad men.

The lady explained that she had seen a vehicle entering a clearly marked forbidden area.

When she asked for an explanation, the two people in the car told her they had come to check out the area prior to a 'sailing competition'.

The odd answer led her to call the mayor, who called the police - who in turn rumbled the agents.

Police spokesman Rainer Wetzel said when officers arrived, the men 'immediately identified themselves as being from a security service. I don't know if Mossad was explicitly mentioned.'

They were armed and their Ford Focus was held fast by the soggy ground.

Another police spokesman told a German TV station: 'The Mossad agents thanked the Germans and shook their hands, before continuing on their way.'

The agents were there to monitor the delivery of a new German-built submarine recently bought by Tel Aviv, according to media reports in both Germany and Israel.

Wetzel added: 'Everything was checked and everything was in order.'

Their cover was blown by an elderly woman, who became suspicious after spotting them in a restricted area

Police and firefighters called in the assistance of a farmer and his tractor to get the agent

A bill for 1,263.01 euros - more than 900 pounds - was sent to the Israeli embassy in Berlin for settlement. It is everyday practice for people in Germany who rely on emergency service help to pay for the privilege, usually, but not always, through medical or private insurance.

But mayor, Klaus Langer, is angry.
Iran has conducted multiple ballistic missile tests which defy US sanctions imposed earlier this year aimed at disrupting its missile programme.

Footage emerged on Tuesday of several precision guided missiles being launched from fortified underground silos across the country with ranges of between 200 and 1,300 miles.

White House officials stated the missiles were technically not in violation of last July's international nuclear agreement - but said the U.S. would not 'turn a blind eye' to the tests.

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Iran conducted multiple ballistic missile tests on Tuesday (pictured) defying US sanctions imposed earlier this year aimed at disrupting its missile programme

Several precision guided missiles were launched from fortified underground silos across the country with ranges of between 200 and 1,300 miles

White House officials stated the missiles were technically not in violation of last July's international nuclear agreement - but said the U.S. would not 'turn a blind eye' to the tests

State Department spokesman John Kirby said he could not confirm Iranian state media's claim that Iran had conducted multiple tests as part of a military exercise - but warned Washington might take international action in response.

Mr Kirby said however that the tests would not constitute a breach of the Iran nuclear deal, despite this agreement having been enshrined in international law under the same resolution, UNSC 2231, that banned missile tests.

'I do want to make it clear that such tests, if they are true, are not a violation of the JCPOA,' he said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - the nuclear deal implementation mechanism.

'We have and we will use unilateral and multilateral tools to address this. If these latest reports are true, we'll take them up appropriately.'

'We're not going to turn a blind eye to this. I'm just trying to get to a technical point here, which is that it's not a violation of the Iran deal itself.'

Pictures of the launches were broadcast and reports said the armaments used had ranges of 200, 300, 500 and 1,300 miles.

In January, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran's missile program just 24 hours after separate embargoes targeting its nuclear program had been lifted.

The latest tests, during an exercise named The Power of Velayat, were undertaken by the Revolutionary Guards and its Aerospace wing

Iranian state media claimed that Iran had conducted the tests as part of a military exercise

The latest tests, during an exercise named The Power of Velayat, were undertaken by the Revolutionary Guards and its Aerospace wing.

Sepah News, the Guards' official media service, carried a statement confirming the tests, which come less than two weeks after elections in Iran delivered gains to politicians aligned with Hassan Rouhani, the country's moderate president.

The Revolutionary Guards report to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not Rouhani, and their influence dwarfs that of the army and other armed forces.

In January, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran's missile program just 24 hours after separate embargoes targeting its nuclear program had been lifted

Ballistic missile tests have been seen as a means for Iran's military to demonstrate that the nuclear deal will have no impact on its plans, which is says are for domestic defence only.

Major General Ali Jafari, the Guards' top commander, and Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, spoke about the tests on television.

'Our main enemies, the Americans, who mutter about plans, have activated new missile sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and are seeking to weaken the country's missile capability,' Hajizadeh said.

'The Guards and other armed forces are defenders of the revolution and the country will not pay a toll to anyone... and will stand against their excessive demands.

Iran's ballistic missile programme has been contentious since the nuclear deal - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - with the United States and five other powers was struck in Vienna on July 14 last year.
A mother who cyberbullied her son's ex-girlfriend by posting online a nude picture the girl sent to him aged just 12, is wanted by police.

Troopers from the Belle Vernon barracks are looking to arrest 39-year-old Danita Michaux on charges including felony dissemination of child sex acts, according to Pennsylvania State Police

Police say the girl snapped the picture in 2013 and sent it to Michaux's son. It shows the girl frontal from the waist up.

Danita Michaux, left and right, is wanted by police for a series of sex charges after she posted a nude photo of her son's ex-girlfriend that she took when she was just 12. Michaux is also believed to have harassed the girl's aunt

Police say Michaux, of Brownsville, posted the picture on Facebook after they split up.

The victim, who lives in Redstone Township, sent the photo of herself to Michaux's son in back in 2013 when she was just 12 years old and the boy was 11 or 12, police said in a complaint obtained by WTAE.

But after the relationship ended, police said the girl reported being bullied by Michaux's family, including the posting of her nude picture to a Facebook account in 2014.

Police say the girl's aunt, who lives in Uniontown, also received harassing messages from the Facebook profile name Danity Michaux in late December.

'The results of a search warrant for the Facebook account of Danita Nicole Michaux were received, reviewed, and contained the harassing communication including the photograph of (the 12-year-old girl) in full frontal nudity from the waist up, and disparaging remarks about the victim sexuality,' read the complaint obtained by WTAE.

State police have issued an arrest warrant for Michaux, who was hit with multiple charges, including felony dissemination of child sex acts, child pornography and cyber harassment of a child, reported the New York Daily News.
An Australian woman who admitted fabricating anti-foreigner articles on a Singapore website to boost advertising revenues was convicted on Tuesday of sedition.

Ai Takagi, 23, pleaded guilty to four of seven sedition charges lodged against her and her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng, 27.

The three other charges, as well as an additional charge of withholding information from the police, will be taken into consideration during her sentencing on March 23.

Yang, however, is claiming trial.

Australian Japanese Ai Takagi (right), 23, and her Singaporean husband Yang Kaiheng, 27, arrives at the state court in Singapore on Tuesday

Both were based in Australia but arrested in February last year during a visit to Singapore. They are currently out on bail.

Takagi, described by prosecutors as the owner and chief editor of the now defunct site 'The Real Singapore', was teary-eyed as a statement of facts in the case was being read in court.

The site was forced to close by the media regulator last year for playing up articles seen as fomenting racial hatred.

Immigration has been a hot-button issue in Singapore in recent years.

Takagi pleaded guilty to four of seven sedition charges lodged against her and her husband (second from left)

They were also charged with withholding from police information on the website's advertising revenues

Yang and Takagi were also charged with withholding from police information on the website's advertising revenues, which were estimated at Sg$473,000 ($342,000) over a 17-month period.

Court documents showed its Facebook page had more than 400,000 likes, while the site itself had almost 13 million views a month.

At a district court on Tuesday, Takagi pleaded guilty to fabricating two articles attacking Filipinos and another targeting mainland Chinese.

They included an article which said that a Filipino family instigated a fracas at a Hindu festival, and another alleging that a Chinese woman made her grandson urinate into a bottle inside a metro train.

These articles tended to 'promote feelings of ill-will and hostility' between different races and between Singaporeans and foreigners working in the city-state, court documents said.

Takagi pleaded guilty to fabricating two articles attacking Filipinos and another targeting mainland Chinese

The site was forced to close by the media regulator for playing up articles seen as fomenting racial hatred

Singapore's sedition laws make it an offence to promote hostility between different races or classes in the multiracial city-state, which is mainly ethnic Chinese.

About 40 percent of the labour-starved island's 5.5 million people are foreigners.

Each sedition charge carries a penalty of up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of Sg$5,000 ($3,620), or both.

They also face one month in jail and up to Sg$1,500 in fines, or both, for withholding information from police.

Last September, Filipino nurse Ello Ed Mundsel Bello was jailed for four months for sedition after insulting Singaporeans online and calling on his countrymen to take over the city-state.
Center also admitted to sending an employee to secretly infiltrate animals rights group PETA last month

Visitor numbers have been sliding since 2013, when Blackfish was released

SeaWorld has faced mounting criticism for treatment of wild animals under its care

deteriorating and is being treated for a bacterial infection

The health of the Blackfish killer whale known as Tilikum is deteriorating, says SeaWorld amusement park.

Tilikum, who was the focus of groundbreaking documentary Blackfish, made headlines after being connected with the deaths of three people.

But the aging whale, who weighs 12,000-pound and is 22-foot long, has become 'increasingly lethargic' and is now being treated for what is believed to be a bacterial infection in his lungs.

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Health of the Blackfish killer whale known as Tilikum (above) is deteriorating, says SeaWorld amusement park

The aging whale (pictured) who weighs 12,000-pound and is 22-foot long, has become 'increasingly lethargic' and is now being treated for what is believed to be a bacterial infection in his lungs

'The suspected bacteria is very resistant to treatment and a cure for his illness has not been found', Seaworld said in a statement Tuesday.

While the whale is receiving the 'best care available', like all aging animals, he 'battles chronic health issues that are taking a greater toll as he ages', the center said.

The statement added that veterinarians were focused on managing his illness in a way that 'makes him comfortable and creates an enriching life'.

The center believes his condition may continue to fluctuate.

Seaworld went on to describe the 'excellent care' he has received while at the center: 'Since Tilikum became a part of SeaWorld's family 23 years ago, he has received the best in marine mammal health care and life enrichment available for killer whales, including a focus on his physical health, mental engagement and social activity with other whales.'

But Blackfish, released in 2013, sparked a widespread debate over whether killer whales should be held in captivity at all after it claimed SeaWorld's treatment of captive orcas provoked violent behaviour in the whales, and led to the deaths of three people.

One of the deaths Tilikum was connected to happened in 2010 when the animal pulled SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water and killed her.

The documentary fueled criticism of the company by animal rights' activists and was thought to be the subsequent cause of sliding visitor numbers.

The entertainment giants stock has fallen 50 per cent over the last two years, it was reported in August.

Veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, with Tilikum in December 2005. Ms Brancheau was killed five years later when Tilikum dragged her into his pool following a show

The Blackfish documentary, released in 2013, in which Tilikum (pictured above) was the focus, sparked a widespread over whether killer whales should be held in captivity at all

The news of Tilkum's health comes as three killer whales have died at a SeaWorld center in Texas in the space of just one year.

Unna, an 18-year-old orca at SeaWorld San Antonio, died after a months-long battle with an infection last December.

While in November a two-year-old beluga named Stella died because of gastrointestinal problems and in July a baby beluga died after being born prematurely.

Meanwhile, last month, SeaWorld admitted sending an employee to secretly infiltrate an animal rights group and spy on their activities.

Paul T. McComb, 29, posed as an animal rights activist named Thomas Jones to join the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

The spy then tried to glean inside information about the activist group which has been protesting against SeaWorld over its treatment of animals.
After 3 years and 500 hours of 'sweat equity' they finally have a real home

Tiny building had no running water, bathroom and was freezing in

Unable to afford rent she and her children were forced into a tiny garage

A family of four who spent the last three years in a 200 sq ft garage after their father was killed, have finally been granted a new home.

Rina Dixon and her three children were forced out of their former house in Sacramento, California after her husband was murdered in 2007 and she fell behind with rent.

Despite working several jobs, the family were forced to move into public housing where Dixon said violence and shootings were a common occurrence.

Worried about her children's safety, the mother-of-three made the difficult decision to move her family into a tiny garage attached to her mom's house.

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Rina Dixon and her three children were forced out of their former house in Sacramento, California after her husband was murdered in 2007 and she fell behind with rent

The family have spent the last three years in a 200 sq ft garage after their father was killed

This week, Dixon and her three children were handed the keys to their brand new family home

Freezing cold in the winter and blisteringly hot in the summer, the 200sq ft garage was never built as a family home.

It lacked even the basic essentials such as running water or a bathroom, and offered little to no privacy for Dixon and her growing children.

Instead her boys, Roshund and Migueal, were forced to share a bed, in the same room as their mother, while her 16-year-old daughter Jaela slept on a sofa in what they used as a living room.

The family of four had initially moved into the garage at Dixon's mother's house after she became concerned over their safety in public housing

Freezing cold in the winter and blisteringly hot in the summer, the 200sq ft garage was never built as a family home. It offered little privacy too, with Dixon's boys forced to share a bed, in the same room as their mother, while her 16-year-old daughter Jaela slept on a sofa in what they used as a living room

With her situation desperate, Dixon was accepted onto Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento's program in 2013 (pictured entering her new home)

The program demands participants put in 500 hours of 'sweat equity' to help build homes for others - in between their own jobs and taking care of children - before they can get the keys to their own property

Dixon and her daughter Jaela broke down in tears as they were finally granted a new home under the program

Members of Habitat for Humanity gathered outside as Dixon and her family were finally able to move in to their dream home in North Sacramento.

With her situation desperate, Dixon was accepted onto Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento's program in 2013.

The program demands participants put in 500 hours of 'sweat equity' to help build homes for others - in between their own jobs and taking care of children - before they can get the keys to their own property.

Dixon described how the first day on the program had almost pushed her to breaking point.

'Almost in tears, driving home, sun burnt, wore out, dirty and feeling so hot and sweaty,' she told THV11. 'I get home, look at my kids and our living situation - in a converted garage - and I say to myself, 'I'm not a quitter. I refuse to let my kids see me give up.''

This week, after three long, hard years, Dixon and her family were finally able to move in to their dream home in North Sacramento.

Dixon said it had been 'a long nine years since her husband was murdered back in 2007

The family not only had to cope with the grief of losing their father but also losing their home

Dixon, who never gave up hope, was delighted to finally have a safe, family home to call her own

'It has been a long nine years,' the widow said of her struggle since her husband died.

But she was delighted to finally have a safe, family home to call her own.

'Having their own rooms, decorating their own rooms having their own space, going from a converted garage to a home is amazing,' said Dixon.

'She said I never gave up hope, but this finally feels real,' Laine Himmleman with Habitat for Humanity told Fox 40.
Evil ISIS fanatics raped girls as young as eight in a packed hall - leaving their other captives with no choice but to listen to their screams.

The little girl was raped by the deranged extremists after she was kidnapped along with dozens of other women and taken to the Iraqi city of Mosul almost two years ago.

Other girls were taken into side rooms, where they were raped repeatedly while the women outside were forced to listen to their screams.

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A new report has revealed the horrifying abuse girls as young as eight have been forced to endure at the hands of ISIS. Pictured: A Chechen girl who recently featured in an ISIS recruitment video in Russian

These horrifying accounts are just two in a report put together by London-based anti-extremist think tank the Quilliam Foundation, entitled The Children of Islamic State.

In it, they reveal how two women escaped their vile captives, who had moved them from Mosul to a school in Tal Afar, 50 miles to the west.

The school, they revealed, had about 100 children inside.

Another survivor - an elderly woman - said the younger captives would be taken away from the school and return after hours of days in a 'miserable condition'.

Another woman, sold as a sex slave to a fighter, reveals how she used to watch as her evil captor would take a 13-year-old girl he bought at the same time off into a different part of the house.

The traumatised woman revealed: I used to hear a lot of cries and screaming from the other girl in the house, as God knows what the man was doing to her. She was too young to understand and probably was very scared.

Rescued captives have also recently revealed how the terrorists set up an international sex ring by smuggling kidnapped Yazidi women to foreign countries.

Dozens of women who were snatched from Yazidi villages across northern Iraq in August 2014 are said to have been taken to nations including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Chechnya, where they are being held as sex slaves.

Of around 6,000 people abducted by ISIS in Sinjar province, almost 4,000 are still thought to be imprisoned by the terror group (file photo of Yazidis fleeing ISIS attack in 2014)

'At this moment we do not know how these girls were moved outside of Iraq or Syria but we believe they could have smuggled them out of the countries overland,' said Mihemma Xelil the mayor of Shingal, one of the Yazidi villages attacked by ISIS.

Many of the women were moved to the nearby cities of Mosul and Tal Afar but they were soon taken to the groups strongholds, the Rudaw news agency quoted him as saying.

Survivors have told of how the 'most beautiful' women are sent to horrendous auction houses in ISIS's de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, where they are stripped naked and sold to the highest bidder.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew pulled a blood-stained knife out of his own neck and used it to kill a Palestinian man who had stabbed him as the five-month Israel-Palestine conflict showed no signs of abating.

The victim, aged around 40, was stabbed multiple times in a 'frenzied attack' in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv.

The Palestinian attacker had followed the Jewish man, who was collecting money for charity, into a wine shop.

At one point, the victim managed to break away and fled the store, while the shop owner hit the attacker and tried to subdue him.

The ultra-Orthodox Jew then returned to the wine shop, pulled the knife out of his own neck, and stabbed his attacker. He died a few minutes later.

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An ultra-Orthodox Jew pulled a knife out of his neck and used it to kill a Palestinian man who had stabbed him after following him into this wine store in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv

This is the knife the ultra-Orthodox Jew pulled out of his neck and stabbed a Palestinian man who had stabbed him with it earlier in the day

The victim, aged around 40, was stabbed multiple times in a 'frenzied attack' in Petah Tikva

Paramedics said they treated the victim at the scene before taking him to the city's Beilinson Hospital, the Times of Israel reported.

Police said they suspected it was a terrorist attack but had not ruled out other possible motives.

Elsewhere, an American tourist was killed and several people seriously wounded by an attacker in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv.

The attack took place along a boardwalk near a beach popular with tourists.

Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv mayor, told Army Radio: 'A terrorist, an illegal resident who came from somewhere in the Palestinian territories, came here to Jaffa and embarked on a run...along the boardwalk. On his way he indiscriminately stabbed people.'

Israeli police said the attacker was a 21-year-old from the West Bank town of Qalqilya who was shot dead at the scene.

US Vice-President Joe Biden was at an event close by at the time.

Mr Biden, who had been attending an event with former Israeli president Shimon Peres in the nearby Peres Centre for Peace at the time, 'condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack' and 'expressed his sorrow at the tragic loss of American life'.

A wounded man is put on a stretcher from the scene of the stabbing attack in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv

A pool of blood is left on the boardwalk near a beach popular with tourists in the popular Jaffa port area

Police and journalists gather at the boardwalk - a US tourist was killed and several injured after a terrorist went on a knife attack

The American was one of 10 people who were stabbed by an attacker in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv (pictured)

Israeli security forces scour the area where at least 10 people were stabbed by a lone attacker earlier today

Israeli police said the attacker in Jaffa stabbed a number of people in the port area, before moving through the city attacking others

In another attack in the day of carnage, a Palestinian shot and seriously wounded two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem before being shot dead.

The gunman opened fire on a group of police officers near the Old City and wounded one.

He then fled and wounded another officer before being killed. A police spokesman said the attacker used an automatic weapon.

Israeli security police secure the area after a Palestinian shot and seriously wounded officers in Jerusalem

At least 28 Israelis have been killed in a wave of stabbing, shooting or car-ramming attacks by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs since October 1.

In total, 183 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel claim - have also been killed in that period.
Turkey and Greece have agreed to work together on a 'breakthrough' plan to ease Europe's migrant crisis despite warnings from the United Nations and human rights group that it could be illegal.

Under the arrangement, Turkey will take back all illegal migrants landing on the Greek islands in return for a deal in principle on its demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and earlier visa-free travel.

The plan has been called a 'breakthrough' by EU officials, but the UN refugee agency said it could be illegal under international law.

'As a first reaction I'm deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law,' UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) slammed EU-Turkish plans to return migrants from Greece to Turkey, pointing out that such a move would violate European and international laws

Refugees stand around waiting to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni, northern Greece

Under the arrangement, Turkey will take back all illegal migrants landing on the Greek islands in return for a deal in principle on its demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and earlier visa-free travel

Amnesty International said the plan 'dealt a death blow to the right to seek asylum'.

It comes as Slovenia announced that it will refuse to allow the transit of migrants across its territory from midnight apart from 'humanitarian exceptions. The move represents a bid to close the Balkan migrant route once and for all.

Access to Slovenia will now only be granted to 'foreigners meeting the requirements to enter the country', those wishing to claim asylum, and migrants selected 'on a case by case basis on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with the rules of the Schengen zone', a statement from the interior ministry said.

Neighbouring Serbia said that as a result it would close its borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria for migrants who do not have visas.

Refugees have been trapped in a tented city on the Greek - Macedonian border after a cascade of border shutdowns caused a series of bottlenecks along the so-called 'Balkans corridor' leading further north.

To ease the standoff, Turkey proposed an arrangement under which the EU would resettle on Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu that the readmission agreement would help to reduce the 'unbearable flow' into Europe.

'(It) sends a clear message to migrants coming from third countries, rather than countries at war, ... that there is neither the political will (to allow their passage) nor the ability to cross to Europe,' he said after meetings in Turkey's Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

'This is the reality we ought to sincerely convey to them in order to stop, to reduce, this unbearable flow for our countries.'

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu that the readmission agreement would help to reduce the 'unbearable flow' into Europe

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015

A baby sleeps near the railway tracks at the makeshift camp of the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015, most making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, then heading north through the Balkans to Germany.

A Greek official said that while Turkey and Greece had had a readmission agreement for some time, the deal signed on Tuesday changed the mechanism so that illegal migrants could be sent back immediately.

'The aim here is to discourage irregular migration and ... to recognise those Syrians in our camps who the EU will accept - though we will not force any one to go against their will - on legal routes,' Davutoglu said, adding that there would be no extra financial burden on Turkey.

'Europe will cover all costs of readmitting migrants from the Aegean, the readmission costs (including) returning to Turkey and to a third country, or their own country,' he said.

Davutoglu heralded what he described as an 'important victory for our citizens' in the agreement from EU leaders to bring forward visa liberalisation for Turks to June from the end of 2016. He vowed Turkey would pass the necessary legislation in the coming months to see it implemented.

The EU agreed to the earlier target date provided Ankara meets all the conditions including changing its visa policy towards Islamic states and introducing harder-to-fake biometric passports.

A Greek official said that while Turkey and Greece had had a readmission agreement for some time, the deal signed on Tuesday changed the mechanism so that illegal migrants could be sent back immediately

Police officers secure the area as a train passes by tents installed on the railway tracks, at the makeshift camp of the Greek-Macedonian border

The EU leaders pledged on Monday to help Greece cope with a backlog of migrants stranded on its soil and welcomed NATO naval back-up in the Aegean

'We will pass the legislation needed for visa-free (travel) in the coming months,' he said, and called on Turkey's opposition parties to support the effort in parliament.

Tsipras said the two countries would step up efforts to tackle people smugglers in the Aegean Sea and would not simply implement 'some plan imposed on us by some of our partners'.

The EU leaders pledged on Monday to help Greece cope with a backlog of migrants stranded on its soil and welcomed NATO naval back-up in the Aegean.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday the alliance had begun patrols to support efforts to locate migrant boats, overcoming territorial sensitivities in Greece and Turkey to patrol in the waters of both NATO states.

'Putting aside our differences on the Aegean (territorial dispute), both Turkey and Greece have displayed a mature attitude in relation to the operations NATO will undertake,' Davutoglu said. 'We may have differences in perspective but this is not an obstacle to cooperation.'
Glamourous Indian-born American author, actress and television host of Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi, now 45, was sexually abused when she was seven years old and living with her mother and stepfather du jour in a small apartment in Queens, New York.

When her mother noticed a change in her daughter and the abuse was revealed, Padma was packed off to Madras, India, but not without what was the beginning of a life-time of self-doubt.

As a young girl, she hated the color of her skin and wished she could look like her blonde, blue-eyed doll named Helen.

In high school she changed her name to Angelique to try to hide her ethnic identity.

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Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi has recounted the details of her life in her memoir Love, Loss and What We Ate

To many Americans, my skin color signaled third-world slums as seen in Indiana Jones movies, malaria, hot curry and stinky food, and strange bright clothing a caricature of India and Indians

In her memoir, the 45-year-old recalls how Salman Rushdieneeded constant care, feeding and frequent sex and was even insensitive to a medical condition that made intercourse painful for her

The raven-haired beauty went through eating binges gaining as much as 17 lbs. in one season of filming her television show, Top Chef.

When she married British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, in 2004, all of her insecurities surfaced and she was diagnosed with a massive case of crippling endometriosis that effectively terminated their sex life and their marriage.

Id had to be rushed to the hospital late at night the tissue had wrapped itself like a tourniquet around my small intestines, though I hadnt known then what was really happening. I had been in pain all day but didnt want to disappoint Salman, who had reserved a table at Bouley weeks before.

How convenient for you. Its not your period and its not ovulation. What is it this time? he coldly responded, she writes in her new memoir, Love Loss and What We Ate, published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Padma and Rushdie, famed author of the Satanic Verses, began their relationship in 1999 at a book party in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

After Padma returned to Los Angeles, Rushie seduced her intellectually during frequent cross-country phone calls. She was lonely in what she describes as the soul-sucking intellectual desert that L.A. was for me at the time.

Rushdies phone calls were like a nine-course meal airlifted in with iced champagne to boot.

His attention, almost more than his charm, seduced me.

Twenty-three years her senior, he was old enough to be her father. He was on his third wife, had two sons and lived in London.

Lakshmi, center, is pictured during an episode of Top Chef. She got a call from Bravo to appear on Top Chef, with master chef Tom Coliccihio, when it was in its second season

But he continued to call and he was everything I wasnt.

She joined him back in New York for what she thought would be a platonic visit but she went back to his hotel and slept with him that first night. They married in 2004 in what was initially a blissful relationship.

His fragile ego needed frequent tending and the author lacked any self-awareness.

Padma tried to stay sexually interested and active for the demanding man, but her advancing crippling endometriosis left her in profound pain.

She tried to endure the painful sex by tossing down a drink, but her condition was severe. Without frequent sex, Rushie absented himself emotionally as well as physically.

The dark liquid, thick and oozing from me, heralded almost immediately a lifelong companion cramping, pain, a numbing ache.

After a difficult five-hour surgery and back at home, Rushie didnt comprehend the impact the disease had on Padma and was unable to care for her.

He left on a business trip saying, The show must go on, after all.

As soon as Padma was well enough, in January 2007 she told him she wanted a temporary separation.

He replied, You can have it but it wont be temporary.

He was gone from the woman he once loved but then called a bad investment.

The early years in their relationship were filled with passion and frequent sex but as her condition worsened, those tender years dissolved into heated exchanges and door slamming.

During the relationship, Padma had been experiencing panic attacks on the red carpet.

In these moments I was captured being what I most feared I would become: an ornament or medal. I was not a model, host, actress, or advocate. I was wearing a sparkly dress and standing beside a great writer. I was worried, whether I knew it then or not, that without him I would simply disappear.

Padmas endometriosis had not been diagnosed prior to her marriage and she had been in pain for more than two decades that started on her thirteenth birthday with her first menses.

The dark liquid, thick and oozing from me, heralded almost immediately a lifelong companion cramping, pain, a numbing ache. It wasnt very strong at first. I was distracted from the onslaught of my burgeoning womanhood.

Her memoir also recounts her serious relationship with CEO of IMG Ted Forstmann (pictured above with her in 2010) who passed away in November 2011 after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer

While she was seeing Forstmann, she had an affair with venture capitalist Adam Dell (pictured with her in 2009) and eventually learned she was pregnant with his child

'The hair that grew between my legs and in my armpits, the newly puffy nipples, and a general awkwardness were as difficult to accept. Pain had not been totally unexpected anyway. My own mother had primed me for what lay ahead. Some girls get it, and some girls dont. Its just our lot in life, part of being a woman, she said.

Endometriosis can advance to where the lining forms layer upon layer in the uterus and can pool outside the uterus and attach itself to all the internal organs of a woman.

It is often misdiagnosed as it was with Padma until the night she was rushed to the hospital after the tissue had wrapped itself around her small intestines.

One week of every month she had chronic pain with her hormonal fluctuations.

It was this curse of her womanhood that affected her self-esteem.

But that self-esteem was initially impacted when she was seven, living in a crowded apartment in Queens, and sharing a second bedroom with a twenty-something relative of her mothers husband, V.

One night I woke up to his hand in my underpants.

He took my hand and placed it inside his briefs. I dont know how many times it had happened before, since I suspect I slept through some incidents. Even the incident I remember rather well remains blurred at the edges, a sort of half dream.

I had shown signs of distress. There was a space between my headboard, the bed, and the wall where Id occasionally toss pink pistachio shells. Once I peed in this space, defiling the place where Id been defiled.

The sexual abuse was discovered when her mother found the pistachio shells and the urine that now smelled.

Lakshmi pictured left and right with her daughter Krishna. The Top Chef host lives in New York City with her daughter

Padma confessed to her mother and when V. came home from work, he had the young girl lie on the living room sofa and show exactly what had happened.

The next thing I knew, I was on a plane to Madras. This was shortly after I finished second grade.

Back in India, she learned cooking from her aunts and writes that she was transfixed by the demure women, dressed in their saris, rarely revealing any skin. But as her great-aunts housekeeper leaned over the cooking area, the saris dropped down in front and I caught a glimpse of her breasts jiggling as the sharp smell of green chilies tickled my nose.

I remember feeling a quiver in my stomach, an almost sexual thrill.

When she had her first child, the housekeeper let Padma watch her breast-feed the infant.

Food and femininity were intertwined for me from very early on.

Youve got to have junk food. Youve got to feel satisfied while still somehow keeping your waistline in check. This is the constant struggle that pervades my life.

And she learned that to truly have a womanly figure, you had to eat to be voluptuously full of food.

Hosting food shows, Padma found herself always ravenous and has always struggled with her weight.

Im always trying to re-create some vaguely healthy version of junk food.

Youve got to have junk food. Youve got to feel satisfied while still somehow keeping your waistline in check. This is the constant struggle that pervades my life.

She comes hungry to every show taping so she can taste the dishes.

Afterwards though her stomach feels like a restaurant dumpster and she has invented a drink she calls Cranberry Drano to cleanse her system after the gluttonous eating on camera.

During the second season of the show, she gained seventeen pounds.

Top Chef felt like a pact with the devil. She had a stomach paunch and an unsightly pudge on the back of her arms that the cameraman had to shoot around.

That wasnt the only thing she disliked.

Love, Loss and What We Ate is Lakshmi's memoir about food, family, survival and triumph

There were her mosquito bite scarred legs, stretch marks behind her knees and on her bottom from multiple weight fluctuations plus cuts and burns from years of being in the kitchen.

For years, Padma also felt insecure and self-conscious about her skin color.

To many Americans, my skin color signaled third-world slums as seen in Indiana Jones movies, malaria, hot curry and stinky food, and strange bright clothing a caricature of India and Indians.

I began to change into a person who contained two people within herself: a girl proud of and connected to her culture and native country, and one who wished she just looked like her old doll, Helen.

Her family advised her to avoid the sun out of fear that her skin would darken to the shade of an Untouchable, a person from the lowest caste in Indian society, someone who toils in the fields.

She was called Blackie in high school and Black Giraffe.

In high school when she was living in La Puente, twenty miles east of downtown Los Angeles, she changed her name to Angelique. That was better than Padma Parvati Vaidyanathan.

It took the Beatles trip to India in 1968 to create a pop culture moment for Indian culture.

I was not very experienced sexually, and when I wasnt sober, I felt free to do things I wouldnt normally do.

For approximately four wince-worthy years, I was trying to hide from my identity.

Her schoolmates thought she looked Mexican but she didnt speak Spanish.

She was used to insults beginning in elementary school where they called her Dictionary behind her back, yanked her long black hair in class or stepped on the heels of her shoes as she walked to class.

She was called the N-word in sixth grade, egged in seventh grade and punched in the face by a girl and had an egg smashed on top of her head. There was no end to the humiliation.

Padma raced to adulthood to escape her childhood.

I was not very experienced sexually, and when I wasnt sober, I felt free to do things I wouldnt normally do. It was the first time I had acted out my curiosities and fantasies. Some I regret, but not all, like knowing what its like to touch and be touched by a woman. Not since I kissed two boys in one afternoon during a seventh-grade field trip to an amusement park had I been that promiscuous.

She doesnt reveal any details of her promiscuity.

Padmas next great love was IMG billionaire chief executive Teddy Forstmann.

The financier and philanthropist wanted to marry Padma but she wouldnt commit.

She became pregnant but not by Forstmann. She stepped out of her relationship with the late billionaire investor and into an affair with venture capitalist Adam Dell, brother of Dell computers founder Michael.

She was hoping the baby was Teddys but it wasnt. Dell stayed in Austin, Texas, while she had the baby with Teddy nearby.

Dell sued for custody of the child but did not win.

Teddy raised the little girl, Krishna for the first two years of her life until he succumbed to cancer in 2009.

Dell then stepped in and assumed responsibility of being the girls father although there was no longer a romantic link with Padma.
A Canadian couple accused of letting their meningitis-infected toddler die tried to cure the 19-mont-old with treatments including maple syrup and apple cider vinegar instead of taking him to the doctor, a jury heard on Monday.

David Stephan, 32, and his wife Collet Stephan, 35, of southern Alberta, pleaded not guilty on Monday to failing to provide the necessaries of life for their son Ezekiel, who died in March 2012.

Prosecutors in the Lethbridge court said that the boy had been ill for a couple weeks, but his parents only called for medical help when he stopped breathing.

Ezekiel died in a hospital after five days on life support.

Ezekiel Stephan, a 19-month-old boy from Alberta, Canada, died in 2012 of meningitis after he was taken to the hospital when he stopped breathing

David Stephan, 32, and his wife Collet Stephan, 35, are accused of letting Ezekiel die after treating him with natural remedies rather than taking him to the hospital

The Stephans allegedly fed the boy, who was lethargic and becoming stiff, supplements with an eye dropper and consulted a friend, who is a nurse and told them the boy likely had meningitis, according to CBC.

In hopes of boosting Ezekiel's immune system, the couple gave the boy home remedies water with maple syrup, juice with frozen berries and finally a mixture of apple cider vinegar, horse radish root, hot peppers, mashed onion, garlic and ginger root as his condition deteriorated.

The Stephans also tried treating Ezekiel with Empowerplus, a product that the couple's company, Truehope Nutritional Support Inc, which they claim can manage mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, the court heard.

Health Canada launched an unsuccessful court case to stop the distribution of the company's supplement in 2004 and issued warnings about it.

When the boy stopped breathing, he was airlifted to a Calgary hospital where he later died of meningitis.

In an audio tape played in court by Crown counsel, the couple are heard explaining to a police officer that they prefer naturopathic remedies.

The couple allegedly gave the boy home remedies including water with maple syrup, juice with frozen berries and finally a mixture of apple cider vinegar, horse radish root, hot peppers, mashed onion, garlic and ginger root in hopes of boosting his immune system

Prosecutors claim that the boy had been ill for a couple weeks, but his parents only called for medical help when he stopped breathing. He died in the hospital five days later

They are heard saying that the family has had negative experiences with the medical system.

'I'm not saying they killed him, abused him or ignored him - they loved him,' Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles said in court Monday, according to the Global News. 'They didn't take him to a doctor until it was too late - far too late.'

When the couple were first charged in February 2013, David Stephan released a statement about Ezekiel, saying he appeared to be improving before his health quickly deteriorated.

'Like any other good parents, we attended to the matter and treated him accordingly to standard practices and recommendations like millions of parents do each year,' he told the Calgary Herald.

Medical responders took 40 minutes to reach Ezekiel after the 911 call and lacked necessary equipment to help the small child breath.

The family posted on social media that they believe they are being unfairly persecuted and that their approach to health and medicine should be respected.

'We're not anti-establishment or anti-medicine,' Brad Stephan, Ezekiel's uncle, told the Canadian Press. 'Some people like to paint us with that brush.'
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has boasted his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads so they can be mounted on ballistic missiles.

Jong Un said it would 'provide a firmer guarantee for the eternal future of Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea'.

He described the miniaturized weapons as a 'true nuclear deterrent' during a tour of a research facility in the secretive state.

Kim Jong Un was apparently delighted with the advance, which he described as a 'true nuclear deterrent' during a tour of a research facility in the secretive state

The announcement, made by North Korean news agency KCNA, came after weeks of escalating threats.

KCNA reported: 'The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturising them, he noted, adding this can be called true nuclear deterrent.'

Apparently, Jong Un also noted 'with great satisfaction that Koreans can do anything if they have a will'.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and claimed it was a successful hydrogen bomb test, which was disputed by many experts and the governments of South Korea and the United States.

Jong Un's tour of the research facility came as South Korean and U.S. troops carried out a large-scale military exercises in an annual test of their defences against North Korea.

Seoul said the exercises would be the largest ever following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test and a rocket launch last month that triggered a U.N. Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions.

The North's powerful National Defence Commission made the threat to strike U.S. and South just days after leader Kim Jong-Un ordered the country's nuclear arsenal to be placed on standby for use 'at any moment'

Kim Jong Un had earlier issued its latest belligerent threat, warning of a 'pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice' if the drills went ahead.

The joint U.S. and South Korean military command said it notified North Korea of 'the non-provocative nature of this training' involving 17,000 American troops and 300,000 South Koreans.

Speaking on Wednesday, Jong Un reportedly said that 'the right to make a preemptive nuclear strike is by no means a monopoly of the U.S.' repeating the threat to not 'hesitate to make a preemptive nuclear strike'.

However, experts have been divided on just how far North Korea may have gone in its ability to miniaturise nuclear warheads, although several top US and South Korean military officials have briefed on its likely success.

The issue is key as, while North Korea is known to have a small stockpile of nuclear weapons, its ability to deliver them accurately to a chosen target has been in doubt.

Many experts believing it is years from developing a working inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could strike the continental United States.
over which driver was to blame for the accident

A video of a Volkswagen flipping onto its roof after trying to overtake on a busy road in China has left internet users divided over which driver is in the wrong.

The accident was captured on the dash cam of the BYD car involved in the crash on March 5 in Dongguan city, Guangdong Province, reports the Peoples Daily Online.

After the footage was posted online, many people suggested it was the fault of the BYD driver for speeding up when the Volkswagen tried to take over, causing it to flip. But others also claimed the 'victim' was too aggressive while changing lanes.

Sneaky move: A car flipped upside down when it tried to overtake another vehicle in Dongguan city, China

Smash: The BYD car accelerated causing the Volkswagen to crash on a busy road in March 5 in China

The video shows the BYD driving down the busy motorway on the Dongguan Zhongtang Bridge.

From the left of the screen, a blue Volkswagen can be seen overtaking a couple of cars and coming up beside the BYD.

Driving behind a red truck, it tries to overtake from the left but the BYD accelerates and stops it.

Instead of driving past, the BYD slows down and the Volkswagen tries to overtake again but fails when the BYD speeds up for the second time.

After a third attempt, the blue car almost takes over but the BYD accelerates a final time and pushes the car onto the truck in front causing it to spin and eventually flip upside down.

The BYD comes to a halt but the driver does not get out to check if the person in the Volkswagen is unharmed  this is something that initially angered many web users.

Divided: After dash cam footage of the crash was posted online people disagreed over who was to blame

Caught on camera: The accident was captured on the dash cam of the BYD involved in the crash on March 5

After the video was posted online, many people weighed in, including the Shenzhen Traffic Police.

They posted the video on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, and said: Legally, vehicles that change lanes like this should take full responsibility.

But morally, the BYD accelerated twice to prevent the Volkswagen from changing lane and caused it to flip over, then the driver did not get out of the vehicle and try to help.

This comment has since been removed.

Over 120,000 people participated on a poll that was set up by Shenzhen Traffic Police on Weibo.

Flipped: When the blue Volkswagen failed to overtake the BYD in China, it span then overturned onto its roof

Out of the people questioned, 73 per cent thought it was the fault of the Volkswagen, and only 2.6 per cent thought it was the fault of the BYD driver.

There were also 11.8 per cent of people who thought they were both at fault, and 12.6 per cent thought that everyone should be peaceful and follow the rules of the roads.

One user said it looked like the BYD driver accelerated.

He posted: If they hadnt accelerated then they wouldnt be at fault  it seems like he only sped up when the other guy tried to overtake him.

Another argued that the Volkswagen crossed three different lanes and caused the accident.

He wrote: They should not only be responsible for the accident they should be sued for dangerous driving.
Called Project Blaid, it has been designed to complement, and not replace,

The white stick is getting a 21st century makeover - by becoming a wearable.

Japanese car firm Toyota has designed a mobility device worn over a person's shoulders that can help blind and visually impaired people get around more easily.

Called Project Blaid, the device is currently a prototype, but when it's ready, it 'will fill the gaps left by canes, guide dogs and basic GPS devices by giving users more information about their surroundings, the company explained.

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Toyota has designed a mobility device to help blind and visually impaired people get around more easily. Named Project Blaid, the gadget is worn over a person's shoulders (pictured) and can help navigate indoor spaces, like offices and shopping centres by pointing out features like toilets, doors, stairs and escalators

The gadget is not expected to replace guide dogs or other ways blind people get assistance, but instead is designed to enhance the current methods.

Users will wear the device around their shoulders and it will help navigate around indoor spaces, like offices and shopping centres by pointing out features like toilets, doors, stairs and escalators.

HOW THE DEVICE WORKS Users will wear the device around their shoulders. It can help navigate around indoor spaces, like offices and shopping centres by pointing out features such as toilets, doors, stairs and escalators. The wearable works with a camera that detects the surroundings and talks to the user through speakers. The users will also be able to interact with the device using voice recognition and control buttons. Toyota has plans to develop the device with integrated mapping, object identification and facial recognition functions. Advertisement

It works with a camera that detects the surroundings and 'talks' to the user through speakers.

The users will also be able to interact with the device using voice recognition and control buttons.

Toyota has plans to develop the device with integrated mapping, object identification and facial recognition functions.

The company announced Project Blaid in a promotional video.

The start of the video shows a visually impaired man with an assistance dog getting up and preparing for his day.

The man narrates the video, discusses how he lost it sight and what it did to his independence and ability to get around.

He then describes how, when indoors, it is difficult to figure out where doors, stairs and elevators are.

The video goes on to show researchers in the Toyota offices sitting at their desks, designing the device.

'This has the ability to transform and change peoples' lives,' one designer says.

It is just a prototpe at the moment, but when it is ready the device will help fill the gaps left by canes, guide dogs and basic GPS devices by giving users more information about their surroundings, the company said. The company announced the idea of this device with a promotional video (screengrab pictured)

The man and his dog head into the Toyota offices, where he discusses the device with the designer and uses it to guide him to the toilet door.

Toyota is about more than just the great cars and trucks we build, said Doug Moore, partner robotics manager at Toyota.

We believe we have a role to play in addressing mobility challenges, including helping people with limited mobility to do more.

'We believe this project has the potential to enrich the lives of people who are blind and visually impaired, he added.

'This is an ongoing project and the device is still in development. We arent releasing specific dates yet,' a Toyota spokesman told MailOnline.

'The product is still under development so a discussion of price would be premature, but we are committed to making it affordable for users.'

In the UK, there are almost 2 million people living with sight loss, according to the NHS. Of these, around 360,000 are registered as blind or partially sighted.

The users of the device (pictured) will also be able to interact with the device using voice recognition and control buttons. Toyota has plans to develop the device with integrated mapping, object identification and facial recognition functions

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in adults. Other significant causes of sight loss are glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy.

It is predicted that by 2020 the number of people with sight loss will rise to over 2,250,000, according to the sight loss charity Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

This is because people are living to older ages, and also related to increasing numbers of cases of diabetes and obesity.

By 2050, the number of people with sight loss in the UK will double to nearly four million, the charity says.

'This is a very exciting development within the rapidly growing field of wearable assistive technology,' Robin Spinks, senior strategy manager at RNIB told MailOnline.
Rats already have a reputation for being alarmingly sneaky and resourceful, but now scientists have given them an intelligence boost by turning them into cyborgs.

Researchers found they were able to improve the rodent's ability to solve problems and pick their way through mazes by implanting an array of electrodes into their brains.

They used a computer algorithm to stimulate the rats' brains to prompt them to move left and right when it felt the rats needed help.

Scroll down to see a video of cyborg rats solving mazes

Rats were fitted with 'backpacks' and brain implants that allowed a computer to stimulate the left and right somatosensory cortex of their brains when the algorithm felt they needed help while navigating a maze. The researchers found it helped speed up the ability of the rats to solve the mazes (pictured)

When they compared their performance in mazes to unaltered rats, they were able to navigate their way through the maze far faster and chose more efficient routes.

In some cases the cyborg rats were even able to outperform the computer algorithm when it was asked to solve the mazes by itself.

However, the boost in intelligence is not likely to see cyborg rats take over the world quite yet as it seems to really only be useful for helping them solve mazes.

The rats were placed in unfamiliar mazes and had to find their way to some food or a drink of water at the end. When left unaided the rats often took wrong turns but when given help by a computer, they were far faster and more efficient at reaching the reward at the end of the maze (pictured)

RATS ARE GIVEN SUPERBRAINS It is often said two brains are better than one. Now scientists have, for the first time, networked the brains of monkeys and rats to make a living computer that can solve problems to complete tasks. The creation of 'brainets' in the animals raises the possibility that a super human brain could one day be created with incredible problem-solving skills. In a dystopican sci-fi vision of the future, there's the possibility that the research could also lead to the creation of an evil 'collective being' such as Borg in Star Trek. Neuroscientists at Duke University linked the brains of four rats together to solve a weather forecasting problem that the rodents couldn't complete on their own. In a separate study, scientists enabled three monkeys to collectively control an avatar arm to reach a target. Advertisement

Professor Gang Pan, a computer scientist at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, who led the research said it could allow rats to be used in search and rescue operations.

Writing in the journal Public Library of Sciences One, he and his colleagues described their experiments as a 'proof-of-principle demonstration for cyborg intelligence'.

The researchers said: '(The) computer aids rats in dead road detection, unique road detection, loop detection, and shortest path detection.

'From the systematic perspective, the rat's capability of maze solving has been augmented by the computer.

'In addition, our novel cyborg intelligent system - rat cyborg - has great potential in various applications, such as search and rescue in complex terrains.'

The researchers initially trained six rats to navigate mazes by either enticing them with a smear of peanut butter at the end, a drink of water or a buzz of dopamine in the reward centre of their brains.

The rats were then fitted with electrodes in the left and right somatosensory cortex of their brains, which linked to a computer.

As they navigated the mazes, the computer was either turned off, leaving the rats to find their way by themselves, or it was turned on to turn them into rat cyborgs.

The rat cyborgs outperformed both the unaided rats and the computer algorithm when it came to the coverage rate - the amount of ground they covered in a given time - within each maze (illustrated)

The researchers said their study provides proof that computer brain implants can help boost intelligence. It could mean the technology may, in the future, be adapted for use in humans (stock image pictured)

Each rat was fitted with a wireless 'backpack' that carried the apparatus for stimulating their brain.

The computer algorithm was designed to solve unknown mazes in the most efficient way possible but still using the approach used by rats where they try different paths out.

When it felt the rat needed to turn left or right, the computer would step in to stimulate the appropriate bit of the rodent's brain.

The researchers found the rat cyborgs were better than when they were left unaided in terms of taking fewer steps and the time spent solving the maze.

They were also better than both the computer algorithm alone and the rats alone when it came to the amount of ground they covered in a given time within the maze.

The computers helped the rats by using an algorithm that used images from video camera image of the maze to work out strategies for solving each maze step by step (pictured). It would then transmit a left or right signal to the rat's brain to stimulate it to turn in the appropriate direction

The cyborg rats were found to take fewer steps than unaided rats when they were solving a maze, meaning they managed to solve the problem in a far more efficient manner with the help of a computer (illustrated)

While the idea of using brain implants to control the movement of rodents is not new, most have previously focused on simply sending commands to the rats rather than boosting their problem solving.

However, humans have already been using computers to help navigate for years with the help of GPS in smartphones  although it is not wired directly into our brains.

The study may alarm those who fear generations of machine augmented rodents running amok in our houses and sewers.

The rats were placed in a series of mazes of differing complexity and were either left to solve them by themselves or were given assistance from a computer algorithm that was designed to solve mazes. It would send signals to their brain via a Bluetooth link to a backpack the rats were carrying (illustrated)

The researchers also found the rats with the computer implants were much faster at solving the mazes they encountered compared to when they were left to solve the maze by themselves (illustrated)

But the researchers insist their findings have demonstrated the power that computer augmentation can have in boosting intelligence.

It could allow humans to increase their ability to solve problems in ways that have only previously been possible in science fiction films.

But Professor Pan and his colleagues said they hope to explore new ways of using rat cyborgs too.

By fitting their backpacks with sensors rather than using a web camera, it would allow the computer to take decisions as the rat explores a new environment, such as in search and rescue situations.

They said: 'More practical rat cyborgs will be investigated - the web camera will be replaced by sensors mounted on rats, such as tiny camera, ultrasonic sensors, infrared sensors, electric compass, and so on, to perceive the real unknown environment in real time.
Spanish galleons that sank in the Caribbean during the buccaneer era are shedding light on how hurricanes affected the region.

For the first time, scientists have combined historic records of shipwrecks and tree-ring data to build up a picture of extreme climate events from 1500 shortly after Christopher Columbus first reached the Caribbean.

It was a time of rapid trading routes from the New World to Spain and violent storms were the major cause for a ship's demise in the Caribbean.

For the first time, scientists have combined historic records of shipwrecks and tree-ring data to build up a picture of extreme climate events from 1500 shortly after Christopher Columbus (fleet illustrated) first reached the Caribbean

As the Spanish kept detailed records of ships and their cargoes, the University of Arizona-led research was able to compare these with timbers salvaged from wrecks.

It found the period between 1645 to 1715 had the fewest Caribbean hurricanes since 1500.

There was a 75 per cent reduction which coincided to a time with little sunspot activity and cool temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere.

The team studied ship logs from Robert Marx's 'Shipwrecks in the Americas: a complete guide to every major shipwreck in the Western Hemisphere'

Associate professor Valerie Trouet said: 'We're the first to use shipwrecks to study hurricanes in the past.

'By combining shipwreck data and tree-ring data, we are extending the Caribbean hurricane record back in time and that improves our understanding of hurricane variability.'

Global climate models predict hurricanes will become more intense with global warming but these are not yet good at making regional predictions and records only began to be kept from 1850.

Researchers used lake sediments to develop a record of hurricanes over the past centuries, but these data provide only century-level resolution.

The new research provides an annual record of Caribbean hurricanes going back to the year 1500 and help develop accurate predicting models.

This is important both for emergency planning and the economic costs with other scientists saying between 1970 to 2002 US hurricanes have cost it 40 billion in today's money.

The idea had its germination when researcher Grant Harley of the University of Southern Mississippi said he had tree-ring records from the Florida Keys dating back to 1707 and that the tree rings revealed when hurricanes had occurred.

The growth of trees is regarded in years with hurricanes which is reflected in the tree's annual rings.

Dendroarchaelogist Marta Dominguez-Delmas of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Lugo, Spain, figured out when Spanish ships were built by retrieving wood from shipwrecks and dating the wood.

It was a time of rapid trading (routes illustrated top) from the New World to Spain and storms were the major cause for a ship's demise. The tree-rings (bottom) showed that between 1645 to 1715, the Caribbean had the fewest hurricanes since 1500 and there was a 75% drop that coincided with low sunspot activity

Results showed hurricane patterns from the shipwrecks closely matched Florida Keys tree-ring chronology of hurricanes from 1707-1825. Hurricane Katrina is shown. When shipwreck data was compared with tree-ring data, the researchers discovered the drop in activity was during a period known as the Maunder Minimum

THE MAUNDER MINIMUM The Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time. It caused London's River Thames to freeze over, a nd 'frost fairs' became popular. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the 'Little Ice Age' when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past, Nasa says. The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research. Some scientists hypothesize that the dense wood used in Stradivarius instruments was caused by slow tree growth during the cooler period. Instrument maker Antonio Stradivari was born a year before the start of the Maunder Minimum. Advertisement

Combining the two would create a long-term history of Caribbean hurricanes.

Along with ship logs and the treasure hunters book Robert Marx's 'Shipwrecks in the Americas: a complete guide to every major shipwreck in the Western Hemisphere,' they could identify those wrecked by storms during the hurricane seasons of 1495-1825.

Results showed the hurricane patterns from the shipwreck database closely matched Florida Keys tree-ring chronology of hurricanes from 1707-1825.

When they overlapped the shipwreck data with the tree-ring data, the researchers discovered a 75 per cent reduction in hurricane activity from 1645-1715, a time period known as the Maunder Minimum.

Professor Trouet said: 'We didn't go looking for the Maunder Minimum. It just popped out of the data.'

The Maunder Minimum is when there was a low in sunspot activity during that time.

Because Earth receives less solar radiation during lulls in sunspot activity, the Northern Hemisphere was cooler than in the time periods before or after.

Learning that a lull in Caribbean hurricanes corresponded to a time when Earth received less solar energy will help researchers better understand the influence of large changes in radiation, including that from greenhouse gas emissions, on hurricane activity.
Nine years ago a fireworks accident left Dennis Aabo Srensen so severely wounded, doctors were forced to amputate his left hand.

But now, for the first time since the accident, the 36-year-old has been able to experience what the world around him feels like through his missing limb.

Scientists have developed a bionic finger that can be connected to the nerves left in his arm, allowing him to experience textures as they really feel.

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Dennis Aabo Srensen (pictured) has become the first amputee to trial a new bionic fingertip that has allowed him to feel and distinguish different textures. Sensors in the silicon fingertip detect changes in the texture and these are sent to electrodes implanted into the nerves in what remains of his arm

The technology could lead to new prosthetic arms that can restore the sense of touch to amputees.

Mr Srensen, a property developer in Aalborg, Denmark, had the bionic finger attached to the nerves in the end of his arm where it was amputated.

HOW THE BIONIC FINGER WORKS The fingertip itself is made from silicon, which deforms as it runs over different textures. Sensors inside the silicon prosthesis turn these movements into electronic signals. These are then converted into nerve signals using a computer algorithm that replicates the electrical spikes seen in neurons. This artificial neural model is important for turning the electrical signal from the sensors into something the human brain can understand. Electrodes implanted into the medial nerves of the subject's arm then carry this signal to their brain. Advertisement

Sensors in the finger produce electrical signals as they deform over the surface which are then converted into signals similar to that produced by nerves and pusled into his arm.

Mr Srensen said: 'When the scientists stimulated my nerves, I could feel the sense of touch and vibrations in my phantom index finger.

'I could tell the difference between the surfaces where it was very rough and smooth.

'That was amazing.

'The touch sensation is quite close to when you feel it with your normal finger.

'You can feel the courseness of the plates and the different gaps and ribs.'

The bionic fingertip is a development of an earlier prosthetic hand developed by researchers at the Lausanne Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Switzerland and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) in Pisa, Italy.

Two years ago researchers were able to restore Mr Srensen's ability to distinguish between hard, soft, round and square objects.

The bionic finger allows both amputees and non-amputees to distinguish between rough and smooth textures on a plastic plate. Signals from the finger are turned into neural signals with a computer algorithm (illustrated)

The bionic fingertip aims to replicate the sophisticated sense of touch in the human finger by using sensors (pictured) that detect minute changes in a silicon 'skin', transmitting these as tiny electrical signals

Mr Srensen lost his left hand nine years ago and now wears a prosthetic arm (pictured). For the first time, since the accident he has been able to feel textures through his left arm with the help of the bionic fingertip

However, the new technology now gives him the ability to feel complicated textures like rough surfaces, or ridges on a flat surface.

The electrodes were surgically implanted above his stump so they could be connected to the nerves in his arm.

Sensors in an artificial fingertip, made from silicon, were then able to detect patterns engraved in different pieces of plastic.

Tests showed Mr Srensen was able to distinguish between the rough and smooth surfaces 96 per cent of the time. The results are published in the journal eLife.

Professor Silvestro Micera, who led the work at the EPFL Switzerland, said: 'We showed it is possible to deliver to amputees a very sophisticated part of the sense of touch - texture discrimination.'

Professor Silvestro Micera (pictured) said he hopes the bionic finger can be used to create prosthetics that will restore the ability of amputees to detect different textures in the world around them

In the experiments, a robot ran the bionic finger over a series of plastic plates engraved with patterns to produce a range of textures (pictured). Mr Srensen was able to distinguish 96 per cent of the rough and smooth patterns while non-amputees were able to detect 77 per cent of the course and smooth patterns

Mr Srensen was linked to the bionic finger through electrodes surgically implanted above his stump (pictured)

Similar experiments were conducted in non-amputees who had temporary electrodes implanted into their arms without the need for surgery.

Fine needles were able to deliver the electrical signals to the median nerve through the skin of their arm. From this, they could distinguish roughness in 77 per cent of the tests.

The researchers also examined the brain waves of the non-amputee volunteers as they conducted the tests to see whether the sensation felt like a real finger.

The bionic finger has been designed to be about the same size as a human finger tip (pictured), meaning it could, in future, be incorporated into realistic prosthetic hands

The fingertip has been shown to allow enable amputees to distinguish between a range of different textures and even detect ridges on plastic plates (pictured)

They found the brain activity matched those that appeared when they used their real fingers to touch the different surfaces.

Professor Calogero Oddo added: 'The fingertip has miniature sensors inside that electromechanical sensors that are made in silicon that deform.

'The output of those sensors that produce electrical signals that are then converted using an artificial neural model that are spikes.
They died out tens of millions of years before the great extinction that marked the end of the Cretaceous era, and until now, scientists were left baffled as to what killed off the ichthyosaurs.

Now researchers think they have found the answer - the large dolphin-like reptiles were too slow to evolve when the climate around them changed.

Ichthyosaurs' rate of evolution slowed down as the world's climate began to change rapidly and this so-called 'two-phase' extinction explains the lack of a definitive cause, such as a meteorite impact.

Researchers have found that the ichthyosaurs' (artist's illustration) rate of evolution slowed down as the world's climate began to change rapidly 30 million years ago. This so-called 'two-phase' extinction explains the lack of a definitive cause, such as a meteorite impact or volcanic eruption

The research was conducted by an international team of researchers, led by Dr Valentin Fischer from the University of Oxford and the University of Liege, Belgium.

Dr Fischer said that ichthyosaurs were well diversified during the last chapter of their reign, with several species, body shapes and ecological niches present.

'However, their evolution was much slower than earlier in their history, and they were affected by profound global changes going on during the Cretaceous,' he explained.

ICHTHYOSAURS: FISH LIZARDS Ichthyosaurs, or 'fish lizards', were large sea reptiles living between 250 and 90 million years ago, and are thought to have evolved from land-living animals. In this and in their shape, they are examples of convergent evolution  mimicked by modern dolphins and whales in both their return to the sea from a period on land and in their streamlined adaptations to aquatic life. The discovery of complete ichthyosaur fossils at Lyme Regis, Dorset, by Joseph and Mary Anning in the early 19th century, is credited with kickstarting the modern palaeontology. Advertisement

Fischer, along with Belgian, British, French and Russian scientists, used a host of cutting-edge techniques to solve the puzzle.

At the beginning of the Late Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago, the Earth's poles were essentially ice-free and sea levels were much higher than today.

Rising temperatures and sea levels and are thought not to have affected the ichthyosaurs directly.

However, they would have had an impact on the availability of food, migration routes, competitors, and breeding grounds.

Whether this turnover period should qualify as a new evolutionary event is something the researchers are now investigating.

'Despite their profound adaptations to the aquatic realm and their apparent success throughout the Triassic and the Jurassic, ichthyosaurs became extinct roughly 30 million years before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction,' explained the researchers.

At the beginning of the Late Cretaceous, 100 million years ago, the Earth's poles were essentially ice-free and sea levels were higher than today. Rising temperatures and sea levels and are thought not to have affected the ichthyosaurs (fossil pictured) directly. However, they would have had an impact on the availability of food

This chart plots the proportion of marine creatures that had features in line with the ichthyosaurs. The three-letter initials represent periods from the Berriasian to the Cenomanian and Turonian. As the chart shows, ichthyosaurs suffered an Early Cenomanian extinction that reduced their diversity

'Here, we show that ichthyosaurs maintained high but diminishing richness and disparity throughout the Early Cretaceous.

'In addition, we find that ichthyosaurs suffered from a profound Early Cenomanian extinction that reduced their diversity, likely contributing to their final extinction at the end of the Cenomanian.'

The researchers said their work supports a new theory that the period towards the end of the Cretaceous was marked by a global 'turnover' of ocean life, which led to the 'highly peculiar and geologically brief' Late Cretaceous marine world.

At this time, many types of bony fish and sharks evolved while long established reptiles including the ichthyosaurs disappeared.
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With a growing global population and threats of rising sea levels, architects are starting to look to the sea and sky to solve the impending housing crisis.

As part of the sixth edition of the annual International Future Architecture competition, entrants have been asked to imagine life where the oceans and space would be populated with extraordinary buildings and towns.

And to promote the competition, and encourage designers to enter, the team has compiled the best designs from recent years.

Neck of the Moon designed by El Hadi Jazairy, assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Michigan, won the Innovation and Architecture for Space category of the competition in 2015. Neck of the Moon cleans up the orbital environment by compacting space debris into planet Laika, the Earth's proposed new second moon

The competition is run by the Jacques Rougerie Foundation, France.

It has three categories - innovation and architecture for the sea, innovation and architecture for space award and architecture and sea level rise.

Last year, each of the three competitions had an award of 10,000 (7,773/$11,040).

Highlights of previous entries include Neck of the Moon, by El Hadi Jazairy, assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Michigan, and a team of Rania Ghosn, Hsin-Han Lee, Jia Weng, Sihao Xiong, Shuya Xu and Mingchuan Yang.

Neck of the Moon sees space debris in the orbital environment compacting into a new 'second moon' called Laika, and it won the space category of the competition in 2015.

Last year there were entries from 96 different countries.

THE FUTURE ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION The sixth edition of the annual International Future Architecture competition is asking entrants to imagine and design life where the oceans and space would be populated with extraordinary examples of architecture. The competition, run by the Jacques Rougerie Foundation, France, has three categories - innovation and architecture for the sea, innovation and architecture for space award and architecture and sea level rise. 'The aim is to help young people to believe in the future and build it,' Jacques Rougerie said. Registration for this year's competition will open on 31 March and close on 31 October. People will be able to submit projects from 4 October until the end of October, with an award ceremony on 7 December. Advertisement

Another lunar-themed idea from previous years was Moon: Origin Point by Miloje Krunic, Aleksandar Copic, Nikola Radojicic, Mina Stevic and Nikola Protic.

This design was an autonomous habitat for up to 20 million people designed to use the Moon's 'abundant mineral resources' and was submitted in the 2013 competition.

The idea behind 'Moon: Origin Point' takes place in four phases.

First is the establishment of a grid of artificial satellites around the moon that provides the necessary energy for the mining operation.

Secondly, semi-transparent domed structures that have been designed to enable an ecosystem will be placed on the surface, thirdly the moon would become a place that humans could live, by creating materials like oxygen.

'Oxygen can be created from the ground with in addition a bit of metal and other materials found on the Moon using solar energy,' the designer said at the time.

Finally, humans would populate the moon as step two is replicated to enable growth and expansion of housing.

Re-Source by HOLISME, a team that comprises French masters of architecture students Robin Vaire, Yorick Isnard, Paul Morin, was the winner of the Innovation and Architecture for the Sea award in the competition last year.

It is a bio-fuel generating station that can be replicated from port to port. Micro-algae, a sustainable natural resource, is what makes up most of the bio-fuel.

Meanwhile, the first zoo located in the ocean was another entry into last year's competition.

Called BiodiverCity, it is a floating man-made island that doubles as a marine life-fostering artificial reef.

The massive faux-reef invites visitors to observe marine ecosystems from the surface to the ocean floor.

It was designed by the French and Serbian architectural team of Quentin Perchet, Thomas Yvon and Zarko Uzlac.

Moon: Origin Point designed by Miloje Krunic (shown) was another entry into the annual competition for architects to imagine ways we could live in space or in the sea. Moon Origin Project is an autonomous habitat for up to 20 million people to use the moon's 'abundant mineral resources' and was submitted in the 2013 competition

The idea behind 'Moon: Origin Point' takes place in four phases.First is the establishment of a grid of artificial satellites around the moon that provides the necessary energy for the mining operation. Secondly, semi-transparent domed structures, pictured, that have been designed to enable an ecosystem will be placed on the surface

Another previous entry was the the Arctic Harvester.

The project houses a floating agricultural community, navigating the Arctic currents between Greenland and Canada, giving access to its primary resource, the fresh-water produced by melting icebergs.

It was designed by Meriem Chabain, Etienne Choubauxand Maeva Leneveu from the Ecole Nationale Superieure dArchitecture Paris Malaquais and British anthropologist John Edom.

The team's design won first prize in the 'Innovation and Architecture for the Sea' category of the Jacques Rougerie Foundation International Architecture Competition in 2013.

Re-Source by HOLISME, a team that comprises of French masters of architecture students Robin Vaire, Yorick Isnard, Paul Morini, was the winner of the Innovation and Architecture for the Sea award in the competition last year. It is a bio-fuel generating station replicable from port to port. Micro-algae, a sustainable natural resource, is what makes up most of the bio-fue

The first zoo located in the ocean was another entry into last year's competition. Called BiodiverCity, it is a floating man-made island that doubles as a marine life-fostering artificial reef. The massive faux reef invites visitors to observe ecosystems from the surface to the floor

The idea behind BiodiverCity (shown from above) is a floating man-made island that doubles as a marine life-fostering artificial reef. It was designed by the French and Romanian architectural team of Quentin Perchet, Thomas Yvon and Zarko Uzlac

US architect Gabriel Munoz-Moreno designed Re-Generator, an elevated construction above the ground to absorb sea level rise increase.

The Re-Generator project was featured in the 2015 competition and it stemmed from an analysis of the population growth of Hangzhou, China.

Munoz-Moreno proposed a design to overcome problems caused by destruction of the wetlands the city is built on.

It would be made of 'cells' organised and distributed throughout the city, elevated above the ground.

Visitors can access the floating platform island by boat, where rotating exhibitions and concessions will be housed on three floors above water. Plunging into the ocean, the idea is that BiodiverCity will include a submarine tunnel shaped like a vortex that will reveal layers of marine life as visitors descend through the structure

At the upper level, visitors will experience animals like whales and dolphins. Lower submerged platforms will put visitors face to face with fish, coral and other reef-dwelling mircro organisms. The architects designed BiodiverCity to delve even deeper and to hopefully give visitors a rare up-close look at creatures dwelling at the bottom of the sea

The Arctic Harvester was the first prize winning entry in the 'Innovation and Architecture for the Sea' category of the Jacques Rougerie Foundation International Architecture Competition in 2013. It proposes a soil-less agricultural infrastructure designed to drift the circulating ocean currents between Greenland and Canada, exploiting the nutrient-rich fresh water released by melting icebergs

'The cells should be translucent and permeable, without disrupting the natural cycles of the sun, air and water, which allow the natural regeneration of any ecosystem,' Munoz-Moreno said on his project website.

CALTROPe, designed by Hungarian architect Anna Barothy, Melinda Bozso and Janka Csernak for the competition in 2013, is an urban system for estuarine areas inspired by the pattern of cell division in coral.

The CALTROPe system is an easy to install filter barrier, 'which has a minimal effect on the environment with temporary presence' Barothy said.

The objective was to develop a filterable lace structure, which can be used for different things, to hold the rock that had been reshaped by water as well as the plants and organise mangroves along rivers and seas.

Arctic Harvester was designed by Meriem Chabain, Etienne Choubaux, John Edom and Maeva Leneveu from the Ecole Nationale Superieure dArchitecture Paris Malaquais. It won first prize in the 'Innovation and Architecture for the Sea' category of the Jacques Rougerie Foundation International Architecture Competition in 2013

US architect Gabriel Munoz-Moreno designed Re-Generator, pictured, an elevated construction above the ground to absorb sea level rise increase. The Re-Generator project stemmed from an analysis of the population growth of Hangzhou, China. Munoz-Moreno proposed a design to overcome problems caused by destruction of the wetlands the city is built on

The Re-Generator project (shown) would be made of 'cells' organised and distributed throughout the city, elevated above the ground. As a solution for Hangzhou, an elevated construction above the ground to absorb sea level rise increase is proposed

'Villages grow into three levels: - water as a waterway, - pontoons as access to agricultural platforms and traps for fish - and finally the level of housing,' Barothy said on the Jacques Rougerie Foundation database.

Registration for this year's competition will open on 31 March and close on 31 October, a spokesman from the foundation told MailOnline.

People will be able to submit projects from 4 October until the end of October, with an award ceremony due to take place on 7 December.

'The aim is to help young people to believe in the future and build it,' Jacques Rougerie, architect and founder of the foundation, told ParisMatch.

'They must propose solutions to imagine the world of tomorrow. We are in a global transition that includes different paradigms such as sustainable development. There is a fantastic work of reflection that young foresee and they want to lead.'

CALTROPe designed by Anna Barothy was an entry in 2013. It is an urban system for estuarine areas inspired by the pattern of cell division in coral. 'Villages grow into three levels: - water as a waterway, - pontoons as access to agricultural platforms and traps for fish - and finally the level of housing,' Barothy said on the Jacques Rougerie Foundation website

The CALTROPe 'lace' system entry from the 2013 competition is an easy to install filter barrier, which has a minimal effect on the environment with temporary presence according to the architect Anna Barothy
A spacecraft that promises to usher in a new era of astronomy by looking for faint ripples in the fabric of space and time has started conducting its first scientific measurements.

The European Space Agency's Lisa Pathfinder was launched in December to test a new way of searching for gravitational waves while in orbit one million miles from the Earth.

It comes less than a month after scientists announced the first detection of gravitational waves, first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago, using two massive detectors based on Earth.

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Lisa Pathfinder (illustrated in the artists impression pictured) has begun conducting experiments that promise to usher in a new era of astronomy by making it possible to detect gravitational waves in space. Scientists hope it will allow them to build a new gravitational wave observatory far beyond the Earth's atmosphere

These picked up the faint disturbances in space time caused by two enormous black holes colliding with each other more than 1.3 billion light years away.

Heralded as the discovery of the century, scientists are now hoping they will be able to use gravitational waves to reveal previously invisible objects in deep space.

WHAT ARE GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Scientists view the the universe as being made up of a 'fabric of space-time'. This corresponds to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, published in 1916. Objects in the universe bend this fabric, and more massive objects bend it more. Gravitational waves are considered ripples in this fabric. They can be produced, for instance, when black holes orbit each other or by the merging of galaxies. Gravitational waves are also thought to have been produced during the Big Bang. Last month researchers detected a signal created when two black holes  one around 35 times more massive than our Sun and the other 30 times more massive  spun towards each other 1.3 billion light years from Earth. This collision caused the black holes to radiate energy in the form of gravitational waves that ripple out across the universe. The faint ripples were picked up by the Ligo detectors in Livingston, California and Hanford, Washington. Advertisement

This includes insight into what lies at the heart of black holes and perhaps even unravel the mysteries of dark matter, which makes up most of the universe.

But to do this scientists need to find sensitive ways of detecting the extremely weak signals produced by gravitational waves.

Lisa Pathfinder will now spend six months testing an approach that scientists hope will finally allow them to do this.

The spacecraft is carrying two gold platinum cubes at its heart which have been released into a vacuum to float freely inside its experimental chamber.

Here they are isolated from all external and internal forces except one - gravity.

By bouncing a complex system of laser beams between the two cubes, scientists hope to be able to detect tiny fluctuations in their movement as gravitational waves pass over them.

If successful, the 311 million ($441 million) mission will act as a forerunner of a much more ambitious mission called the Laser Interferometre Space Antenna, or Lisa.

Three spacecraft flying three million miles apart will be launched to fire laser beams at each other across the emptiness of space.

Due to the huge distances between the spacecraft, it will allow scientists to detect very low frequency gravitational waves.

'The mission is working exceptionally well,' said Oliver Jennrich, Lisa Pathfinder deputy mission scientist.

'With every measurement performed on the two free-falling cubes, we are gaining the confidence needed to eventually build the first gravitational wave observatory in space.'

The Lisa Pathfinder spacecraft (illustrated) will demonstrate the technology for one of the most ambitious scientific experiments ever undertaken to build a gravitational wave observatory in space

The Lisa Pathfinder spacecraft (pictured above before being placed inside its assemblage faring) will be kept stationary in orbit more than 900,000 miles from Earth. Tiny thrusters delicate enough to keep a snowflake from landing on the ground will help keep it in position during its six month mission

To build such an observatory, scientists need to perfect the purest-known 'free-fall' where the two metal cubes are maintained perfectly still within the spacecraft.

THE CHALLENGE OF DETECTING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES While gravitational waves are created by some of the most cataclysmic events in the universe, their signal is extremely hard to detect. Indeed, the variation in distance caused by a passing gravitational wave is so small that a full-scale space observatory will need test masses separated by roughly a million kilometres yet would need to be able to detect changes in that separation of about one millionth of a millionth of a metre. This is the equivalent of seeing a ruler 621,000 miles long stretching by less than the size of an atom. Advertisement

This would allow scientists to verify they are only moving under the effect of gravity alone.

To achieve this they must counteract the constant blast of radiation and solar wind from the sun.

Tiny 'microthrusters' manoeuvre the spacecraft around the cubes to avoid ever touching them.

Similar manoeuvres could then be applied on the much larger scales needed to build the final Lisa observatory.

Researchers are doubtful Lisa Pathfinder will be capable of detecting gravitational waves itself  the two cubes are too close together to pick up the tiny wobbles in space and time they create.

'The precision we need to attain for future observations of gravitational waves from space is so high that it demands an unprecedented understanding of the physical forces at play on the test masses,' explained Paul McNamara, Esa's project scientist on the mission.

Over the coming months the cubes will be subjected to stronger magnetic and electrical forces to assess what will divert them from free-fall.

At the heart of the Lisa Pathfinder spacecraft are a pair of goldplatinum cubes in a vacuum (illustrated). They will be isolated from all forces acting on them except gravity. The mission will put these cubes in the purest free-fall ever produced and monitor their relative positions using a complex system of lasers

Lisa Pathfinder was a launched in December (pictured) and is now sitting more than one million miles from the Earth at a stable orbit known as a Lagrange point. It will act as a forerunner for a much more ambitious mission that could be the first gravitational wave observatory in space

An artist's impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars released by the team. By studying gravitational waves, scientists hope to gain insight into the nature of the very early universe, which has remained mysterious

Other experiments will raise the temperature inside the vacuum to see if this will have any impact on any gas molecules that may remain in there.

Dr Karsten Danzmann, director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Phsyics in Germany and co-principal investigator of the Lisa Technology Package, said: 'Our aim is not only to reduce the impact of forces that we already know are disturbing the cubes, but also to learn more about the remaining effects that are hidden in the noise.'
It has so far cost over $3.5bn, and is eight years late.

Hailed as the most expensive weapon in history, the controversial F-35 stealth fighter jet is undergoing rigorous testing at California's Edwards Air Force Base.

Now, it has emerged the jets complex radar system has a problem - it keeps crashing.

Hailed as the most expensive weapon in history, the controversial F-35 stealth fighter jet complex radar system has a problem - it keeps crashing.

The software glitch that interferes with the ability of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter's AN/APG-81 AESA radar working in flight.

This poses the greatest threat to delaying US Air Force (USAF) plans to declare its jets operationally deployable, a top service official told Janes.

Major General Jeffrey Harrigian, director of the air force's F-35 integration office at the Pentagon, described the problem as 'radar stability - the radar's ability to stay up and running'.

'What would happen is they'd get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail -something that would force us to restart the radar,' Maj Gen Harrigian said

New software that corrects the error is expected to be delivered to the USAF at the end of March.

A recent Pentagon report has revealed a massive list of potentially lethal bugs still facing the jet.

A December memo by Michael Gilmore, the Department of Defense's director for Operational Test and Evaluation warned of 'significant ongoing challenges' - and these have now been revealed.

The Air Force is currently scheduled to announce their version of the plane is ready to begin flying, known as 'initial operating capability,' in August or December at the latest, according to Defence One.

A recent Pentagon report has revealed a massive list of potentially lethal bugs still facing the jet.

The Marines have already claimed their version of the plane, known as block 2B, is ready.

However, the report reveals serious problems with the computer software, including 'in fusion, electronic warfare, and weapons employment result[ing] in ambiguous threat displays, limited ability to respond to threats, and a requirement for off-board sources to provide accurate coordinates for precision attack.'

Earlier this year researchers revealed the hugely delayed and over budget project has finally fired its first shots in the air.

The F-35A Lightning II completed the first three airborne gunfire bursts from its internal Gun Airborne Unit (GAU)-22/A 25mm Gatling gun system during a California test flight on October 30th.

The F-35 also has a smart parts system to ensure everything is working within its limits, and can warn when parts need to be replaced.

However, the computerized maintenance management System, or CMMS, 'incorrectly authorizes older/inappropriate replacement parts.' the report said.

THE EJECTOR SEAT THAT COULD KILL Pilots under 136 pounds aren't allowed to fly any F-35 variant. Pilots under 165 pounds have a 1-in-4 chance of death and 100 percent chance of serious neck injury upon ejecting, according to the testing office. 'The testing showed that the ejection seat rotates backwards after ejection. This results in the pilot's neck becoming extended, as the head moves behind the shoulders in a 'chin up' position. When the parachute inflates and begins to extract the pilot from the seat (with great force), a 'whiplash' action occurs. The rotation of the seat and resulting extension of the neck are greater for lighter weight pilots,' the report states. Sophisticated: Footage from ground testing of the F-35A stealth jet at Edwards Air Force Base in California, shows the awesome firepower of the four-barrel Gatling gun embedded in the left wing Advertisement

It also fails to detect if it's been flying too fast and 'randomly prevented user logins' into its computerised control system.

In the first live firing test, three bursts of one 30 rounds and two 60 rounds each were fired from the aircraft's four-barrel, 25-millimeter Gatling gun.

In integrating the weapon into the stealthy F 35A airframe, the gun must be kept hidden behind closed doors to reduce its radar cross section until the trigger is pulled.

'The successful aerial gun test sortie was a culmination of several years' planning, which intensified in the first half of 2015 at the Edwards F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) Flight Test Squadron with a team of Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman personnel,' said Mike Glass, Edwards ITF flight test director.

'The results of this testing will be used in future blocks of testing, where the accuracy and mission effectiveness capabilities will be evaluated.'

The 25mm gun is embedded in the F-35A's left wing and is designed to be integrated in a way to maintain the F-35's very low observable criteria.

It will provide pilots with the ability to engage air-to-ground and air-to-air targets.

'At the end of the program's system development and demonstration phase in 2017, the F-35 will have an operational gun.

The first phase of F-35 gun testing started in June, when initial shots were fired from the ground at the Edwards Air Force Flight Test Center's gun harmonizing range.

The gun system will be further tested with a production F-35A next year for integration with the jet's full mission systems capabilities.

The test team will demonstrate the gun's effectiveness in both air-to-air and air-to-ground employment when integrated with the next generation fighter's sensor fusion software, which will provide targeting information to the pilot through the helmet mounted display.

At the end of the program's system development and demonstration phase in 2017, the F-35 will have an operational gun.

The F-35 is designed with the entire battlespace in mind, bringing new flexibility and capability to the United States and its allies. F35.com

The first phase of the gun testing began on June 9, and the amount of munitions fired has been gradually increased, until the 181 rounds were fired on August 17.

The ground tests were designed using software to replicate being in flight, using a production version of the GAU-22/A gun.

The tests, using the target practice PGU-23/U which does not explode on impact, showed the gun's ability to spin up and down correctly.

Further testing will be carried out next year, to integrate the GAU-22/A system with the jet's full avionics and mission systems capabilities.

The following stage will be to observe the qualitative effects, including muzzle flash  the visible light emitted by the blast of a firearm  the human factors, and the flying qualities.

'Flying computer': U.S. military leaders have extolled the virtues of the F-35 jets, which are intended to 'combine advanced stealth capabilities with fighter aircraft speed and agility'

But the production of the latest breed of stealth jet  one of the most highly anticipated advancements in military history  has had more than its fair share of problems.

Despite costing the US military more than $350billion, the jet has so far failed to live up to expectations.

The cutting-edge F-35, which is meant to be the most sophisticated jet ever, was embarrassingly outperformed by a 40-year-old F-16 jet in a dogfight in July.

The test pilot condemned the jet's performance at the time, claiming it performed so appallingly that he deemed it completely inappropriate for fighting other aircraft within visual range.

The Pentagon leapt to the defense of its new toy, insisting that the aircraft used in the test was not equipped to the same standard of its front-line aircraft, and did not have its 'stealth coating'.

But even so, the dismal result of the dogfight against an aircraft designed in the 1970s did little to restore confidence in the F-35.

He even criticised the half-million-dollar custom-made helmet, supposedly designed to give the pilot a 360-degree view outside the plane, but which he claimed made it difficult to move his head inside the cramped cockpit.

Plagued by setbacks: The F-35 production has already cost the U.S. military $350billion and been delayed by more than eight years

'The helmet was too large for the space inside the canopy to adequately see behind the aircraft,' he wrote in his five-page report.

A series of setbacks has delayed production by up to eight years and put it $263billion over budget, so far.

The spiralling costs are due to a number of factors, including engine problems that caused one jet to burst into flames during take-off last May.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who is in charge of the F-35 programme, said the planes had been plagued by simple mistakes. These included everything from wingtip lights that did not meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards to tires that could not cope with the landings.

But military bosses have been quick to extol the virtues of the stealth multirole fighter, which is predicted to be vastly superior to its fourth-generation predecessors.

Marine Lt Gen. Robert Schmidle said the planes were like flying computers and that they could detect an enemy five to 10 times faster than the enemy could detect it.

And Lt Col David Burke told 60 Minutes last year: 'I'm telling you, having flown those other airplanes, it's not even close at how good this airplane is and what this airplane will do for us.'

Its creators at Lockheed Martin boast that the stealth jet 'combines advanced stealth capabilities with fighter aircraft speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced logistics and sustainment'.

BUT HOW DOES IT COMPARE WITH ITS 1970S PREDECESSOR, THE F-16 JET? F-35 Role: Stealth multirole fighter First flight: December 15, 2006 Unit cost (not including engine): F-35A - $98million F-35B - $104million F-35C - $116million Number built: 115 (as of November 2014) Length: 15.67m Wingspan: 10.7m Height: 4.33m Max speed (F-35A): 1,930kph Armament: One of the most highly-anticipated features of the F-35 armament is the Small Diameter Bomb II (SBD II).The bomb is able to guide towards its target using laser, imaging infrared or radar homing. It can hit moving or stationary targets in any weather, or at night, with unprecedented reliability and accuracy. The 'super weapon' is predicted to be the most versatile air-to-ground munition in the Pentagon's air combat inventory. The cost per SDB II is said to be around $250,000 and the US military plans on buying as many as 17,000 of them. F-16 Role: Multirole fighter First flight: January 20, 1974 Unit cost: F-16A/B - $14.6million F-16C/D - $18.8million Number built: 4,540+ Length: 15.06m Wingspan: 9.96m Height: 4.88m Max speed (F-16C): 2,120kph Combat history: The F-16 has served in the Air Forces of 26 nations, including the U.S., Israel, Egypt, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. During Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 assault on Iraq, F-16s flew over 13,000 operations, more than any other Coalition aircraft. The U.S. has employed the F-16 in operations over the Balkans, Afghanistan and Libya. At its production peak in 1987, the F-16 team in Fort Worth was also making history, by producing 30 F-16s in just 30 days. Thanks to frequent upgrades improving and incorporating new technologies into the cockpit, avionics, sensors and weapons, the aircraft has become more reliable over its 40 years. Advertisement

The f35.com website continues: 'The F-35 is designed with the entire battlespace in mind, bringing new flexibility and capability to the United States and its allies.

'Reliance on any single capability  electronic attack, stealth, etc  is not sufficient for success and survivability in the future.'

There are three main variants to the F-35: F-35A conventional takeoff and landing; the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing; and F-35C carrier-based catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery aircraft.

I'm telling you, having flown those other airplanes, it's not even close at how good this airplane is and what this airplane will do for us. Lt Col David Burke on 60 Minutes

The fifth-generation aircraft is designed to excel in electronic warfare, air-to-surface combat and air-to-air combat.

Its stealth technology allows it to avoid radar detection that previous fourth generation fighters cannot. It also carries its weapons and fuel internally so it cannot be 'detected and tracked'.

The Royal Air Force has so far ordered eight F-35s to be delivered by next year.

The jets were meant to enter service in 2012, but Sir Nick Harvey, who served as the Minister of State for Armed Forces between 2010 and 2012, said that there was 'not a cat in hell's chance' that the jet would be in British service by 2018.

'I don't recallhaving heard anyone suggesting that these things could be used in combat before 2020.'

In total, Britain is expected to purchase 138 of the jets from the US, but at present costs that would add up to a total of $19billion.

The delays and escalating costs mean that once the British Tornado jets  which have been in service since 1979 - are retired in three years' time, the UK will be left with an 'offensive capacity' of just 60 planes.

But the UK is not the only country waiting for the costly fighter jet to be fixed.
A 100ft-wide asteroid passed 2.5 million miles from Earth yesterday.

Asteroid 2013 TX68's closest approach occurred on at 13:42 GMT on 7 March 2016, according to the Minor Planet Center.

The asteroid passed the Earth at a distance of 2,542,960 miles - far beyond the 15,000 miles Nasa said was the closest it could come.

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Scientists are sure it will miss the Earth by at least 15,000 miles, and say there is no need to panic. At the other limit of its predicted range it could remain as far out as 40 times the distance to the moon.

HOW CLOSE WILL IT COME? Calculations show that 2013 TX68 could shoot past the Earth well within the ring of geostationary communications and GPS satellites stationed 22,300 miles above the equator. At the other limit of its predicted range it could remain as far out as 40 times the distance to the moon. Advertisement

The space rock, named 2013 TX68, was spotted three years ago by astronomers in the US scouring the skies for potentially threatening near-Earth objects (NEOs).

'We already knew this asteroid, 2013 TX68, would safely fly past Earth in early March, but this additional data allow us to get a better handle on its orbital path,' said Paul Chodas, manager of CNEOS.

'There is no concern whatsoever regarding this asteroid  unless you were interested in seeing it with a telescope,' said Chodas.

'Prospects for observing this asteroid, which were not very good to begin with, are now even worse because the asteroid is likely to be farther away, and therefore dimmer than previously believed.'

The data indicate that this small asteroid will probably pass much farther away from Earth than previously thought.'

Because it was tracked for only 10 days, its orbital path was uncertain.

Calculations show that 2013 TX68 could shoot past the Earth well within the ring of geostationary communications and GPS satellites stationed 22,300 miles above the equator.

At the other limit of its predicted range it could remain as far out as 40 times the distance to the moon.

US astronomer Sean Marshall, from Cornell University in New York, who studies NEOs such as comets and asteroids, said: 'Should this asteroid come closer than the geostationary satellites, it would be a rare occurrence - that only happens about once per decade for large asteroids.

'What we know for sure is that it will not collide with Earth this month, so do not panic.'

He added: 'It is extremely unlikely that any satellite will get hit. TX68's trajectory will take it on an arc through a huge region of space, and satellites are very small objects.

Scientists at Nasa's Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) in California, say 'there is no possibility that this object could impact Earth during the flyby next month.' But they have identified an extremely remote chance that this small asteroid (stock image pictured) could impact on Septmeber 28, 2017, with odds of 1-in-250-million

'An asteroid hitting a satellite would be like a blindfolded person throwing a pebble and hitting a single small needle in an enormous haystack.'

He said the asteroid had 'absolutely no chance' of colliding with the International Space Station, which circles the Earth at an altitude of only about 250 miles.

'The closest that TX68 can possibly get to Earth is 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles),' said Mr Marshall.

Nasa's initial estimate showed the whale-sized space rock may skim past Earth at just 11,000 miles (17,000 km), which is around 21 times closer to Earth than the moon - but Nasa admitted this estimate may be widely inaccurate, and the asteroid may also pass Earth as far out as 9 million miles (14 million km).

Now a new prediction for 2013 TX68 is that it will fly by roughly 3 million miles (5 million kilometers) from our planet.

'Additional observations of asteroid 2013 TX68 have been obtained, refining its orbital path and moving the date of the asteroid's Earth flyby from March 5 to March 8,' Nasa said.

The observations, from archived images provided by the Nasa-funded Pan-STARRS asteroid survey, enabled scientists at Nasa's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to refine their earlier flyby and distance predictions, reconfirming that the asteroid poses no threat to Earth.

Scientists are sure the asteroid will miss the Earth by at least 15,000 miles

Marco Micheli of the European Space Agency's NEO Coordination Centre (NEOCC/SpaceDys) in Frascati, Italy, is the astronomer who identified the object in the archived images, measured its position, and provided these observations to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

CNEOS's new prediction for 2013 TX68 is that it will fly by roughly 3 million miles (5 million kilometers) from our planet.

Nasa's initial estimate showed the whale-sized space rock may skim past Earth at just 11,000 miles (17,000 km), which is around 21 times closer to Earth than the moon - but Nasa admitted this estimate may be widely inaccurate, and the asteroid may also pass Earth as far out as 9 million miles (14 million km).

There is still a chance that it could pass closer, but certainly no closer than 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface.

The new observations also better constrain the path of 2013 TX68 in future years; CNEOS has determined that 2013 TX68 cannot impact Earth over the next century.

Orbit calculations of asteroids are constantly updated based on observations reported to the Minor Planet Center.

This results in projections of minimum, maximum and nominal distances from Earth, which can sometimes have a wide disparity due to limited data.

Over time, with additional observations added to the equation, scientists are able to refine and narrow the orbit uncertainties.

Scientists have also identified an extremely remote chance that this small asteroid could impact on September 28, 2017, with odds of no more than 1-in-250-million.

Flybys in 2046 and 2097 have an even lower probability of impact.

'The possibilities of collision on any of the three future flyby dates are far too small to be of any real concern,' said Paul Chodas, manager of CNEOS.

'I fully expect any future observations to reduce the probability even more.'

Asteroid 2013 TX68 is estimated to be about 100ft (30 meters) in diameter.

By comparison, the asteroid that broke up in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, three years ago was approximately 65 feet (20 meters) wide.

THERE'S AN ASTEROID WITH OUR NAME ON IT, SAYS BRIAN COX Science presenter, Brian Cox, told DailyMail.com we are at risk of being wiped out by asteroids  and we're not taking the threat seriously While the March 5th asteroid poses no threat, scientists have long said that these space rocks could threaten life on Earth. Last year, Brian Cox said we are at risk of being wiped out by asteroids  and we're not taking the threat seriously. 'There is an asteroid with our name on it and it will hit us,' Professor Cox told DailyMail.com. In fact, the Earth had a 'near-miss' only a few months ago. 'We didn't see it,' says the 46-year-old. 'We saw it on the way out, but if it had just been a bit further over it would have probably wiped us out. These things happen.' The bus-sized asteroid, named 2014 EC, came within 38,300 (61,637km) miles of Earth in March - around a sixth of the distance between the moon and our planet. And it wasn't the only one threatening Earth. Nasa is currently tracking 1,400 'potentially hazardous asteroids' and predicting their future approaches and impact probabilities. The threat is so serious that former astronaut Ed Lu has described it as 'cosmic roulette' and said that only 'blind luck' has so far saved humanity from a serious impact. Advertisement

If an asteroid the size of 2013 TX68 were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would likely produce an air burst with about twice the energy of the Chelyabinsk event.

The asteroid was discovered by the Nasa-funded Catalina Sky Survey on October 6, 2013, as it approached Earth on the night-time side.

After three days of tracking, the asteroid passed into the daytime sky and could no longer be seen.

Because it was not tracked for very long, scientists cannot predict its precise orbit around the sun, but they do know that it cannot impact Earth during its flyby next month.

'This asteroid's orbit is quite uncertain, and it will be hard to predict where to look for it,' said Chodas.

'There is a chance that the asteroid will be picked up by our asteroid search telescopes when it safely flies past us next month, providing us with data to more precisely define its orbit around the sun.'

In September, Paul Chodas, manager of Nasa's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said: 'There is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth.

'In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century.

Nasa tracks around 12,992 near-Earth objects which have been discovered orbiting within our solar system close to our own orbit.
Mull is known as a stronghold of the

That is awesome, gasped my six-year-old, Sam, his eyes focused intently on the white-tailed eagle  the UKs biggest bird of prey  as it swooped towards our boat.

Just a few feet away, it put itself into a stall, stretched out strong yellow legs and used its ferocious talons to neatly grab the mackerel that had been slung overboard.

Beating massive wings, the eagle rose slowly but within a few seconds was flying fast, heading south towards the stony mountainside sloping into Loch na Keal to find a boulder on which to eat its dinner.

Louise Tickle travelled with her partner and their sons Sam, 6, and three-year-old Mungo to the Isle of Mull

Mull is known as a stronghold of the white-tailed eagle, and the place was teeming with them.

Only the day before, RSPB warden Dave Sexton had taken us to see a disused nest on which, to his immense surprise, perched one of this years almost fully grown chicks.

Sam peered carefully into the telescope and squealed as the chocolate-brown-feathered juvenile squirted a stream of white liquid over the nest edge. It did a poo! he shrieked.

Our family blog, In Search Of The Gruffalo  where we take our sons on adventures into the great outdoors to see native British wildlife illustrated in the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler books  had brought us to the Scottish islands to look for eagles, whales, dolphins, seals and otters.

The concentration of wildlife on Mull  and Harris, where we were off to the week after  made it far more likely the boys would see these iconic British animals with the naked eye and, with any luck, more than just once.

Sitting with his dad, Sam, Louise's son, spotted his first otter while looking out across the water

FALL UNDER THE SPELL OF THE MAGICAL SHETLANDS If youve been inspired by the BBC1 thriller Shetland to head to the northernmost part of the British isles, take advantage of special ferry-inclusive packages. These remote, magical isles have a quite different feel to mainland Scotland, and you can enjoy close-up views of gannets, guillemots, puffins, razorbills and kittiwakes  Shetland is a world-class bird-watching destination. Tour operators McKinlay Kidd (seescotlanddifferently.co.uk; 0141 308 8009) offers a three-centre holiday by ferry, enabling visitors to get under the skin of Shetland. Passengers spend time on Mainland as well as Unst and enjoy a local guided tour and wildlife boat trip. The trip costs from 925pp for seven nights. NorthLink Ferries (northlinkferries.co.uk) offers regular services to Orkney and Shetland: up to three sailings a day from Scrabster (near Thurso) to Stromness in Orkney and nightly sailings from Aberdeen to Lerwick in Shetland  with four of these sailings going via Orkneys capital, Kirkwall. For information about holidays in Orkney or Shetland, see visitscotland.com. This provides a comprehensive list of sights as well as guides to accommodation on each island, including hotels, inns and self-catering options. Advertisement

In the spirit of protecting the future of all this wildlife, we tried to make it a properly green family adventure. Laden with two weeks of holiday clobber, we took the overnight sleeper to Fort William, then a hire car to Oban (heads hung in shame  there is a bus, but we couldnt guarantee wed make our ferry) and finally a crossing to Craignure: our first chance to spot dolphins.

There were none to be seen that afternoon, but a couple of days later, gazing out from our living room overlooking the Sound of Mull, two dark fins breached the sea surface, then another, then a couple more. A group of bottlenose dolphins including a mother and her calf were playing right in front of us. Sam was agog.

Then late afternoon the next day as his dad was reading him a story on the sofa, Sam happened to glance up. Daddy, I think theres a sort of lump in the sea over there, he said uncertainly. Sam had spotted his first otter.

Mull is known as a stronghold of the white-tailed eagle and the family stated that the Isle was teeming with them

Grabbing our binoculars  our three-year-old Mungo always determined to look through the wrong end  we raced out of the house and followed this shyest of creatures as it glided round the headland where, slick in the water, it turned on its back and gazed up, so close you could see its whiskers.

Sam had been a bit take it or leave it about wildlife, but being able to see big, dramatic animals close-up was clearly a revelation for him.

If Im honest, Mungo didnt see much wildlife on either island  he mostly wanted to play with his trains. Eagles are breeding successfully on Mull and Harris, so in a few years, well be back... and hopefully Mungo will have worked out which end of the binoculars to look through by then.
Stunning and bizarre photos from China have revealed the latest training and promotional techniques of aviation schools as a group of flight attendants performed martial arts on a mountain top.

Dressed in formal blue uniforms and only missing their high heels, the young women followed the instructions of a Taoist kung fu master as they sought to toughen their resolve.

The 'bravery training' was organised more than 6,560 feet above sea level, on the peaks of China's famous Laojun Mountain, located in the city of Luoyang, in central Henan Province.

Three young women followed the instructions of a Taoist kung fu master as they sought to toughen up

'Bravery training' was organised more than 6,560ft above sea level, on the peaks of China's Laojun Mountain

The cabin crew members were guided by a Taoist priest, dressed in black, who demonstrated poses and techniques of martial arts.

The three models and flight attendants tiptoed their way across the mountaintop for the stunning photoshoot.

And the barefooted hostesses seemed to enjoy the feat on the mountaintop, which was part of a promotion for the aviation school and for the local landscape.

The pictures are actually being used to promote the local scenery, surrounded by soaring clouds and greenery

The barefooted hostesses seemed to enjoy the feat on the mountaintop, which was part of a promotion for their company and for the local landscape

The pictures are actually being used to promote the local scenery, surrounded by soaring clouds and greenery, and will also encourage would-be stewardesses during the pursuit of their dream job in the air.

The famous Laojun Mountain range forms part of a region that known as the Three Parallel Rivers  a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003.

It is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the few remaining places where the endangered Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) can still be found.
Trump, Hollywood and fast food are probably among the first associations that spring to mind for any non-American when they think of the United States.

But breaking down the stereotypes, travellers from around the world have revealed their surprising discoveries of what life in the States is actually like.

From drive-thru strip clubs to the unnerving friendliness of locals who seem to have a particular a fondness for Australians, international visitors have shared their holiday experiences.

Brazen squirrels have been known to steal food from tourists. Pictured a grey squirrel eats a nut on a bench in Union Square Park New York

Travellers who were flabbergasted at the size of the country and that they had been pulled over for driving too slowly took to Reddit to share their stories.

Reddit users were asked 'Non-Americans who have been to the US: What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realise is weird?'

While common answers discussed mouth-wateringly large food portion sizes including Canadian Phalty's discovery of 'raptor sized turkey legs' and Palawan sharing that 'everything tastes sweeter', visitors found that local wildlife also shared an appreciation for American cuisine.

Forget bears and snakes, holidaymakers revealed the species to be wary of on a trip to the States is the squirrel and some are terrifyingly bold, warned user crazy_pants_wolf.

Indeed, Reddit poster LessLikeYou said: In NYC they are pretty fearless. I've seen one eating a burger in a park. I couldn't tell if it was actually eating the meat because it caught me staring and gave me the finger.

Other users including Iced 1776 agreed that the Madison Square Park squirrels are absolutely fearless with the number of tourists that feed them, I've had one dive into my lunch bag sitting literally a foot away from me.

While the local critters can be terrifying, conversely many international contributors to the forum found the friendliness of Americans highly suspicious and in some cases unnerving.

British tourist Calthis said: Someone smiled at me on the light rail the other day and I had a mini panic attack.

The great open road: Travellers have mistakenly thought they can drive across the whole country in no time

TheMediumPanda added: Americans are extremely friendly, almost to an uncomfortable degree for some. When my parents got slightly lost and had to ask for directions, after 5 minutes, 20 people with huge smiles were surrounding them, trying their utmost to help. Several offering rides back to their hotel.

Dubayet, an American living abroad, agreed that many people he encountered overseas expressed concern that American friendliness might be fake but he defended it as a cultural misunderstanding.

Dubayet explained: They are just being nice, and this is something Americans are used to and accept as normal. No one thinks the guy behind them in line who strikes up a conversation wants to be your BFF, but I think this confuses people not used to that kind of culture.

Highlighting this further, user oOOOOOO was surprised to note: If you walk into a busy bar and shout USA WHOOOOOOOO!!!!! 99% of the time someone somewhere in the bar will repeat it back.

Tourists added that the kindness of strangers was an unexpected yet heatwarming experience in the States.

Cheddarfever said: I was having a bad day a couple weeks ago and was crying at the bus stop. A random person stopped and asked if I was okay and if I needed to use his phone to call anyone.

Canadian, Phalty shared their discovery of 'raptor sized turkey legs' at amusement parks across the States

Novelties shared by non-Americans included a driver who was pulled over for travelling at a leisurely pace.

Granpa_Strange said: Everytime I go to Louisiana, I get pulled over for NOT speeding. I don't understand why, but if I'm doing the speed limit I'm not going fast enough.

And all the more disappointing for any holidaymaker hoping to embark on an epic roadtrip across the States is the sheer scale of the country. Toykolunchboxes revealed a common visitor mistake: It took me a while before I realized that a person cannot drive from New York City to the Grand Canyon in one day.

However, a driving holiday is still appreciated by tourists who were in awe of drive-thru everything. One reddit poster KatCole7 surmised: Drive-thru car wash strip club, thanks North Carolina.

If you thought Americans were the most fond of their British cousins think again, several Australian travellers shared their bizarre realisation that many in the States are infatuated with Antipodean visitors.

Bullti explained how he was pulled over for speeding by a disgruntled police officer in Pensacola.
Spanning 7,234ft and some 1,200ft above the ground, this zipline has just been named the longest in the world by Guinness World Records.

Puerto Rico's newest attraction, 'El Monstruo,' which translates as 'The Monster' or 'The Beast', opened on March 2 and takes visitors on an eye-opening 65mph tour high above trees, mountains and rivers.

And incredible footage of someone braving the ride has emerged.

Puerto Rico's newest attraction, 'El Monstruo', is the longest zipline in the world

The architect of El Monstruo, Jose Manuel Pizarro, says that the zipline 'defies dreams'

The incredible zipline is in central Puerto Rico, an island known for its waterfalls and lush forests

The clip shows how riders quickly find themselves hundreds of feet above the treetops.

Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) executive director Ingrid I Rivera Rocafort said: 'The development of El Monstruo had an investment of approximately $1m and created 12 direct and 20 indirect jobs, resulting in a positive economic impact to the country, specifically in the mountainous region.

'In addition, El Monstruo, gives Puerto Rico a new and powerful appeal to adventure and nature tourists.'

The zipline is located at the 316-acre Toro Verde Nature Adventure Park in the lush mountains of Orocovis, Puerto Rico.

The zipline takes visitors on an eye-opening tour high above trees, mountains and rivers

The Puerto Rican tourist board hope the ride will mean even more visitors to the adventure park

The architect of El Monstruo, Jose Manuel Pizarro, says that the zipline 'defies dreams', and that the project gave him the opportunity to 'challenge his dreams.'

As part of the inauguration of El Monstruo, entertainer and comedian Raymond Arrieta was chosen as the first rider.

Additionally, Toro Verde has donated a grant to the Cancer Hospital of Puerto Rico and as part of its social commitment, it has partnered with the Ricky Martin Foundation in its fight against human trafficking with a monetary contribution for every person who rides El Monstruo.

The zipline is located at the 316-acre Toro Verde Nature Adventure Park
He may have been holed up in the jungle for the past five weeks.

But Shane Warne, 46, was brought straight back to reality on Monday night's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! when Ten News anchor Sandra Sully revealed the latest on a highly-publicised sporting scandal.

A wide-eyed Shane was shocked when Sandra told the recent news of Melbourne Demons legend Garry Lyon's alleged affair with the former wife of his close friend and colleague, Billy Brownless.

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In shock: Shane Warne, 46, was brought straight back to reality on Monday night's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here when intruder, Ten News anchor Sandra Sully, revealed the latest on a highly-publicised sporting scandal

The Ten News anchor also delivered the news that Garry has stepped down since the incident, citing a battle with depression.

Shane, lost for words, looked over at his fellow former sportsman Brendan Fevola with a look of shock, before barely managing to utter the words: 'Oh that's massive!'

Later, in the diary room, Shane opened up about how deeply he had been affected by the news, telling the camera: 'The real down side to me was to hear about two very dear friends of mine, Garry Lyon and Billy Brownelss'.

Scandal: Sandra told of the recent news of Melbourne Demons legend Garry Lyon's alleged affair with the former wife of his close friend and colleague, Billy Brownless

Unhappy news: Former AFL star Brendan Fevola looked shocked and confused upon hearing the news

'Sad that Garry has depression and I feel, really feel for Billy': Shane seemed distressed by the news and made sure to extend his condolences to both parties

'Sad that Garry has depression and I feel, really feel for Billy,' he added.

Over dinner that night, the shocking news was brought up in conversation, prompting Shane to offload his feelings to Brendan.

'I've been brought up with that, you never touch a mate's (sic), even if you're both separated out of relationship, you don't,' rambled Shane, still baffled.

'You don't touch any of your mate's friends. A terrible situation, I wish it never happened.'

'You don't touch any of your mate's friends': Over dinner that night, the shocking news was brought up in conversation, prompting Shane to offload his feelings to Brendan

He also took the opportunity to speculate as to whether Garry and Garry's former wife were still in a relationship.

'Garry's been caught having an affair, which means he got back with his wife but has been having the affair.

'So Garry is now back with his wife and Garry must have been having that affair now with Billy's ex,' he surmised.
Former rugby league star turned model Kris Smith was noticeably absent from the Myer Autumn/Winter fashion parade as he filmed a new reality series in Africa last month.

And on Tuesday, the department store ambassador revealed to The Daily Telegraph that he will walk for the retail giant one last time on Friday after admitting he's 'not naturally skinny.'

The hunky 37-year-old told the publication: 'My walking days are over, it's just not part of my requirements for Myer going forward.'

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Onwards and upwards: Model and Myer ambassador Kris Smith has revealed he is retiring from the catwalk and will walk for the retail giant one last time on Friday (seen here in Sydney last week)

The British personality, the former flame of Australian star Dannii Minogue, told the publication he's somewhat upset about leaving the catwalk.

'I put a lot of pressure on myself and I'm not naturally skinny and don't fit the usual model criteria,' he said.

'But I do it with a smile and I enjoy it.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Kris' management for comment in relation to this article.

Strutting his stuff: The hunky personality is seen here walking for Myer in Sydney in 2013 and Kris admitted this week he doesn't 'fit the usual model criteria'

According to the The Daily Telegraph, Kris will strut his stuff for the final time on Friday alongside fellow Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins.

Last month he missed the store's parade in Sydney because he was in Botswana, Africa, shooting for the extreme survival show Spartan X for an international broadcaster.

Kris is the host of the show and it seems his filming schedule and the timing of the collection launch clashed.

Commitments: According to the The Daily Telegraph, Kris will strut his stuff for the final time on Friday alongside fellow Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins (seen here in 2013)

Hosting duties: Seen here filming in Africa, when he missed the Myer parade in Sydney last month

A spokesperson for Myer at the time told Daily Mail Australia Kris was re-signed and still very much apart of the family.

Kris, who is currently dating model Maddy King, is a gym fanatic who has long been open about his battle with the bulge.

Last year, he told Daily Mail Australia about how he was bullied in school because of his weight, saying: 'I understand what its like to be teased and I understand what its like to be picked on.

'I get every single aspect of that and I understand what it is like when you feel you cant lose weight'.

'People deserve to live a happy and healthy life.'

Kris said he was picked on from the age of eight and comfort ate through it all as he piled on 125kg at his heaviest.

Abs alert: Kris is a gym buff who regularly works out to maintain his shape

Battle with the bulge: Kris said he was picked on from just eight-years-old and comfort ate through it all, leading him to be 125kg at his heaviest
He's urbane, a former lawyer and a musician to boot.

But while instantly recognisable as one of the faces behind The Project, Waleed Aly laughs off any suggestion he is a household name telling Men's Style Australia: 'I dont regard myself a celebrity.'

Posing in sharp Ralph Lauren suits for the publication, the 37-year-old, branded by the publication as the most important man on TV, went on to underline: 'I find the whole notion [of fame] laughable.'

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Dapper: Project host Waleed Aly laughs off any suggestion he is a household name telling Men's Style Australia : 'I dont regard myself a celebrity'

The dapper presenter also shrugs off his role as a representative of modern or 'moderate' Islam, tackling issues including climate change, ISIS and the perils of fraternising with 'pick up artist' Daryush Valizadeh.

'I don't walk out on air feeling the burden of representation... I don't feel comfortable with the idea of being representative of anything! I have no authority to claim I'm representative,' he says.

The Melbourne-born father of two became a permanent fixture of The Project in January 2015, following a trial run on the show as one of its floating fourth hosts.

Modest: While instantly recognisable as one of the faces behind The Project, Waleed insists he's no celebrity

Down-to-earth: The presenter, pictured with wife Susan Carland at last year's GQ Men Of The Year Awards, jokes that she isn't impressed by his celebrity status either

Before that he was a regular ABC radio drive slot, appearing on Q&A, and fronted ABC TVs Big Ideas and producing and appearing on SBSs Salam Cafe.

Several years ago in 2014, after delivering a Project editorial on Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, who at the time had kidnapped 200 schoolgirls, he was attacked by conservative columnist Andrew Bolt.

Andrew branded him 'the model moderate Muslim, used by the media to persuade us we have little to fear from Islam but our own bigotry.'

Waleed, however, says the burden of responsibility leaves him feeling 'uncomfortable'.
They are both well-known 'momagers', managing their children's careers as well as their own, all in the spotlight.

And Roxy Jacenko was most certainly thrilled to meet her 'idol', matriarch of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, Kris Jenner, at the Hermes show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

The Australian PR maven, 34, made sure to snag a selfie with the Hollywood star at the show.

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When 'momagers' meet: Australian PR maven Roxy Jacenko and Kris Jenner's worlds collided when they met at the Hermes show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday

Obviously a little starstruck about meeting Kris - who has no doubt provided somewhat of an inspiration to her own career - Roxy was quick to jump onto Instagram to boast about the run-in with her American counterpart.

Posting her selfie, the blonde beauty wrote: 'When in Paris.... @hermes show #PFW @krisjenner.'

For the star-studded event Kris wore an all black ensemble and shielded her eyes with a pair of large designer shades.

Meanwhile, Roxy also opted for all-black, however added a pop of colour to her ensemble with a leopard print scarf.

It's unsurprising that the Aussie businesswoman was given a ticket to the coveted show after revealing last year that she collects several of the brands iconic Birkin and Kelly bags, much like Kris does.

Runway regular: For the star-studded event Kris wore an all black ensemble and shielded her face with a pair of large designer shades. She also posed for a group snap with Melissa George, second from the left

Designer darling: Meanwhile, Roxy also opted for all-black for the event, however added a pop of colour to her ensemble with a leopard print scarf

Biggest fan: It's unsurprising that the Aussie businesswoman was given a ticket to the coveted show after revealing last year that she collects several of the brands iconic Birkin and Kelly bags

Roxy and Kris have both carved out business opportunities for their children, often through social media.

Over the years, Kris has helped her famous daughter Kim build a million-dollar juggernaut empire.

She also manages six of her children's careers, including Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Rob, Kendall, and Kylie, as well as her own.

Meanwhile, Roxy has created a lucrative commercial business for her four-year-old daughter Pixie.

The toddler is believed to be already worth millions, thanks to her hair accessories line, Pixie's Bows.

Star power: Both Kris and Roxy are powerful 'momagers', managing their children's careers as well as their own, all in the spotlight

Hands full: Kris manages all six of her children's careers, as well as her own

Business: Meanwhile, Roxy has created a lucrative commercial business for her four-year-old daughter Pixie

Racking up over 110,000 followers on Instagram, Pixie has a huge social media following.

Meanwhile Kim is indisputably one of the world's biggest celebrities, with an Instagram following of 62.6 million - the fourth highest in the world behind Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.

However, the likeness of Kris and Roxy extends way beyond the realm of being successful 'momagers.'

Force to be reckoned with: Kris helped her daughter Kim Kardashian build her million-dollar juggernaut empire. She is now one of the world's biggest celebrities with an Instagram following of 62.6 million

Kris is the undisputed the queen of reality television, starring and producing in Keeping Up With The Kardashians - the longest-running reality television series in America, of which is currently in it's 11th series.

Meanwhile, Roxy commissioned her own semi-scripted reality show in 2010 called The Sweat Box.

However, despite signing a deal with the Seven Network in 2010, the show never came to fruition, after it was later announced that the production of the show had been cancelled.

Roxy did eventually make her foray into reality television after appearing on the Australian version of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2013.

Criticised: In the past, both Roxy and Kris have been criticised for promoting their children after carving out careers for them and tapping into business opportunities, often through social media

Roxy founded her incredibly successful PR firm Sweaty Betty when she was just 24-years-old.

She has managed mega brands and hatched huge deals, at one time reportedly juggling 70 big-name clients as well as penning three best selling books.

Meanwhile, Kris, also an author, is reportedly worth an estimated US$20million, thanks to her multiple successful business ventures.

Reality queen: Kris stars and produces Keeping Up With The Kardashians - the longest-running reality television series in America, of which is currently in it's 11th series

Following in her footsteps: Roxy also made her foray into reality television after appearing on the Australian version of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011

Difficult times: Roxy's husband Oliver is facing his own media storm, and will stand trial in the Supreme court in May on charges of insider trading, facing the potential of four years in jail

Recently Roxy and her daughter Pixie were at the centre of a scandal after doctored photos were circulated with Pixie's head superimposed on lewd pictures.

Describing the behaviour as 'pedophilia,' Roxy vowed to continue to promote the four-year-old's business online despite the scandal.

The blonde beauty's husband Oliver is also facing his own media storm, and will stand trial in the Supreme court in May on charges of insider trading, facing the potential of four years in jail.

He denies any wrongdoing.

Top of her game: Kris is reportedly worth an estimated $20million US, following her multiple successful business ventures
Hugh Sheridan is set to make a return to the small screen after spending the last year focusing on his music career.

On Tuesday it was confirmed by the Nine Network the the Logie award winning actor will join the cast of House Husbands in 2016 for the shows fifth season.

The 30-year-old is excited about the forthcoming role and in a statement released from the Nine Network said: 'I feel very lucky to join the extraordinary team who have created this show'.

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New role: Hugh Sheridan will join the cast of House Husbands in 2016 for the shows fifth season confirmed by the Nine Network on Tuesday

'I'm pumped to get on set and rock with the cast  I hear theyre a lot of fun,' he added.

Hugh has landed a role in the much loved Australian series as Nick Gazecki, the new specialist music teacher at Napean South.

He will be starring alongside the four male lead husbands, Firass Dirani, Gyton Grantley, Rhys Muldoon and Gary Sweet.

His character is reportedly well received by the students at the school, however he is set to clash with one parent in particular, Lewis Crabb played by Gary Sweet.

One of the guys: He will be starring alongside the four male lead husbands, Firass Dirani, Rhys Muldoon Gyton Grantley and Gary Sweet (pictured L-R)

A slight glitch: His character is reportedly well received by the students, however he is set to clash with one parent in particular, Lewis Crabb played by Gary Sweet (pictured with his house husbands family)

In the statement released by the Nine Network, the co-Heads of Drama, Jo Rooney and Andy Ryan, said: 'Australias favourite House Husbands wont know whats hit them when Hugh Sheridan blasts into their world.'

Hugh's first television role was in the drama series Packed To The Rafters on rival network Seven where he was a recurring character for five years.

He captivated the hearts of fans of the series through his character Ben Rafter which lead to several Logie wins for his acting.

In 2009 he received the award for Most Popular New Male Talent, and in 2010, 2011 and 2012 he won for Most Popular Actor.

He's a star: Hugh's first television role was in the drama series Packed To The Rafters on rival network Seven where he was a recurring character for five years and won numerous Logie Awards for the role

Talented: Hugh formed the band California Crooners Club with Emile Welman and Gabe Roland and last month released their single Just A Little More, performing it at the Adelaide Fringe Festival

Despite rising to fame on shows including Packed To The Rafters, Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS and The Divorce, the actor has been focusing on his music career of late.

Hugh formed the band California Crooners Club with Emile Welman and Gabe Roland and last month released their single Just A Little More, performing it at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

The multi-talented star will soon juggle the commitments of his band and acting as he steps into his role on House Husbands filmed in Melbourne.

House Husbands series five will go to air on the Nine Network later this year.
KIISFM's Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson continue to dominate radio ratings, gaining an extra 2.4% audience share in the latest GfK Media Research survey released on Tuesday.

Widening their lead in the first survey of 2016, the controversial duo jumped to a 12.5% from 10.1% and took out the top Sydney FM breakfast spot yet again.

Despite a heavy marketing push upon their debut in November, 2DayFM's Rove McManus and Sam Frost have remained stagnant with a 3% audience share, the same as last year.

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On air success: KIISFM 's Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson continue to dominate radio ratings

Taking to Facebook on Tuesday morning, Kyle and Jackie thanked their fans with a selfie from inside the studio.

'Number One FM Breakfast and Station! Thank you so much to all of you guys who listen, we couldnt have done it without you,' they wrote.

The former Bachelorette star has been under constant scrutiny since taking up her role as co-host alongside the media veteran.

'We couldn't have done it without you!' Kyle and Jackie O took to Facebook to thank their fans for the support

Rival Kyle wasn't shy about expressing his thoughts on the duo, saying in January: 'Rove will stay for at least a year... They will blame that poor girl for the ratings so they will replace her.'

He added: '(Sam) doesnt have the radio skills.'

'She is a sweetheart and a lovely thing but they will keep blaming people until they realise it [low ratings] keeps happening.'

Plateauing popularity: 2DAYFM's Rove McManus and Sam Frost however have remained stagnant with a 3% audience share, same as last year

Taking out top spot: NOVA's Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold are the number one drive show in the country

In Melbourne, radio pranksters Hamish Blake and Andy Lee held onto top spot with 10.5% audience share, while drive rivals Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold on NOVAFM took out number one in the time slot nationally with 10.6%.

In late February, it was announced Fox would be heavily investing in the comedic duo, awarding them $4 million pay cheques each.

'We have been heavily investing in our strong radio business, particularly on talent and marketing,' chief executive Grant Blackley told The Daily Telegraph.

He continued: 'Weve sunk considerable cost to re-establish our Sydney breakfast: weve brought on Hamish and Andy, which was a full six months of costs that werent there the prior year.'
Rockers AC/DC have postponed 10 remaining shows on their 2016 US tour, amid fears frontman Brian Johnson is losing his hearing.

Although his exact condition is currently unknown, the Australian rock band released a statement explaining the seriousness of the 68-year-old's situation.

'AC/DC's lead singer, Brian Johnson, has been advised by doctors to stop touring immediately or risk total hearing loss,' a statement on the band's official website said.

Uncertain times: Rockers AC/DC have postponed their US tour on doctors' orders amid fears frontman Brian Johnson, 68, is close to losing his hearing

Showman: He was joined on stage by fellow bandmates Angus Young and Cliff Williams in February in Houston, Texas

The British star's future with the band is now up in the air as they plan to go ahead with the ten rescheduled shows on the US leg of their Rock or Bust World Tour along with a guest vocalist.

'Tomorrow's show in Atlanta through Madison Square Garden in New York in early April will be made up later in the year, likely with a guest vocalist,' the statement said.

It's a blow for the veteran rockers who toured last year without founding member, guitarist Malcolm Young, 63, after he was diagnosed with dementia.

'He could risk total hearing loss': Although his exact condition is currently unknown, the Australian rock band released a statement explaining the seriousness of the 68-year-old's situation

Blow: The postponement is yet another blow for the legendary rock band, after guitarist Malcolm Young (R) was diagnosed with dementia

Malcolm announced his retirement from the band in late 2014 following his diagnoses amid concerns about his health.

AC/DC co-founder and Malcolm's younger brother, Angus, 60, opened up about his brother's illness explaining he had been showing early signs as far back as the band's Black Ice World Tour in 2008.

The lead guitarist said he had hoped Malcolm would show signs of recovery but unfortunately did not.

Doing his thing: The British star is seen belting out his classic at Tacoma Dome in Washington last month

Oh dear: The British star's future with the band is up in the air as AC/DC plan to go ahead with the ten rescheduled shows on the US leg of their Rock or Bust World Tour along with a guest vocalist

Legendary: Brian was one of the founding members of the rock band

In ABC's 7:30 report Angus said he had realised their was something wrong with his brother when he became confused and disorganised during the song-writing process, which historically the pair has always shared.

'Mal kept up right up until he couldn't do it no more,' Angus, 60, told the 7:30 report.

It was Malcolm who convinced the band to continue touring and making music, hiring Steve Young, 59, the pair's nephew, as his replacement.

Former rocker: It's a blow for the veteran rockers who toured last year without founding member, guitarist Malcolm Young (pictured), after he was diagnosed with dementia

Retired: Malcolm, 63, was seen around Sydney late last year following his retirement from the band

'Mal kept up right up until he couldn't': His younger brother, Angus, opened up about his brother's battle explaining he'd been showing early signs as far back as the band's Black Ice World Tour in 2008

Family ties: The 60-year-old was recently seen looking tired as he signed autographs for fans outside his hotel in Perth, Western Australia

'It was a strange feeling because your work mate, you worked with for the last, for me 35 years wasn't there anymore,' added Brian.

It was then AC/DC stayed together and put out their next album - their first without Malcolm - entitled Rock Or Bust.

Following Young's diagnosis, the band also had to contend with drummer Phil Rudd's arrest in New Zealand.

Phil was sentenced to eight months' home detention after he pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill, and possession of methamphetamine and cannabis.

Legal case: Following Young's diagnosis, the band also had to contend with drummer Phil Rudd's arrest in New Zealand

Charged: The rocker was sentenced to eight months' home detention after he pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill, and possession of methamphetamine and cannabis

Part of his sentence: The Australian-born drummer was placed on alcohol restrictions, however ended up back in a New Zealand court soon afterwards charged with breaching the ban

Not a fan: Phil has been openly dismissive of his replacement Chris Slade (pictured centre) - who now tours worldwide AC/DC - saying, 'Chris Slade is a good drummer, but I've got no idea what he's doing up there'

As part of his sentence, the Australian-born drummer was placed on alcohol restrictions, however ended up back in a New Zealand court soon afterwards charged with breaching the ban.

At the time of his sentencing, Judge Thomas Ingram warned Phil he would be jailed if he was found with any traces of drugs or alcohol in his system.

Phil has been openly dismissive of his replacement Chris Slade, who now tours worldwide AC/DC, saying, 'Chris Slade is a good drummer, but I've got no idea what he's doing up there.'

'I've got nothing against Chris. He hasn't got a permanent job  I hope. I'm the man.'

Despite his ongoing legal drama, Phil told TV3's 3D program that he intended to 'get my job back, go back on the road, make a lot of money'.

Young guy: Malcolm, a founding member of AC/DC, was the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist

Hot talent: Angus was best known as a co-founder, lead guitarist and songwriter

They've got soul: Here Brian and Angus seen doing their thing on stage at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on February 16, 1982

'I've never been fitter, I've never felt better, I've never been psychologically or physically in better shape my whole life,' the drummer said last year.

Johnson took over frontman duties in 1980 after Bon Scott's sudden death.

Scott died in London after a heavy night of drinking.

At this point, lead guitarist and founding member Angus Young is the last AC/DC original and now with Johnson's future in doubt, maybe the days of Australia's biggest rock band could be numbered.

History: Over the decades, AC/DC has seen a change in members

Rockers: Drummer Simon Wright, Malcolm, Angus, bassist Cliff Williams and singer Brian seen backstage before a show at the Forum on October 18, 1985
She turned heads in a sparkly silver gown last week at the Vanity Fair Oscars party.

And once again Selena Gomez stood out from the crowd but this time in bright red sweats at LAX airport on Monday.

The 23-year-old singer took to the friendly skies in comfy crimson gear but added a stylish touch with strappy stilettos while wisely opting to wear little to no make-up.

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Seeing red! Selena Gomez, 23, stood out from the crowd in bright crimson sweats at LAX airport on Monday

Her brightly-coloured ensemble made the Good For You hitmaker hard to miss as she made her way through the busy terminal.

While she clearly opted for comfort in the cosy Vetements loungewear, the People's Choice Award-winner was unwilling to completely unravel her fashion game.

She upgraded the two-piece hooded number with white heels and a large black leather Louis Vuitton handbag.

See more of the latest Selena Gomez updates as she dons sweats and high heels at LAX

Mix and match! The Good For You singer paired the comfy loungewear with white strappy heels

Upgrade: While Selena clearly opted for comfort, she was unwilling to completely unravel her fashion game

The ex-girlfriend of Justin Bieber kept concealed behind dark shades and went with minimal make-up which highlighted her natural beauty.

Selena's silky brunette tresses were swept back into a low ponytail but she left her bangs loose to frame her face.

She wore the loose-fitting wardrobe but last Sunday showed off her svelte physique in a striking sequin Louis Vuitton dress at the Los Angeles star-studded bash.

Shaded: The ex-girlfriend of Justin Bieber kept concealed behind dark sunglasses

Details: The brunette beauty carried a large black leather Louis Vuitton handbag

Gomez donned the metallic cocktail piece as it included an eyelet detail down the front of the design, which toughened the whole look up.

With such a sparkly embellished dress, Selena skipped the jewels and just added a smoky eye make-up, sleek hair and a box clutch.

Last month, the beauty announced Joe Jonas and his band DNCE will join in on her upcoming Revival tour.

Selena's Revival tour kicks off May 6 in Las Vegas before coming to a close on July 9 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
They are never short of a dramatic plot-line or bit of gossip.

But Real Housewives Of Melbourne stars Pettifleur Berenger and Susie McLean appeared to be focusing all of their efforts on ensuring their sartorial sass was top notch as they attended the Melbourne premiere of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 on Tuesday.

Putting their best fashion feet forward, Pettifleur showed off her more demure side, while new housewife Susie opted for a more sultry display as she squeezed her curves into a fitted bright pink dress.

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Fit and flare! Real Housewives Of Melbourne star's Pettifleur Berenger and Susie McLean put their best fashion feet forward as they attended the Melbourne premiere of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 on Tuesday

Opting for a more refined display, Pettifleur, 51, donned a black A-line skirt for the star-studded event.

The high waist number pinched at the waist before billowing out and finishing at the knee.

The television personality teamed her modest look with a cream button-up shirt which featured a dramatic ruffle collar and lace detailing.

The brunette beauty added height to her frame with a pair of nude, peep-toe platform heels, and accessorised with a dazzling silver YSL clutch.

Keeping her look classic, the reality star wore her hair in a wavy, voluminous ponytail and added a pop of colour to her ensemble with a bright pink pout.

Modest: Opting for a more elegant display, Pettifleur donned a black A-line skirt for the star-studded event

Meanwhile, newcomer Susie, 47, put on a sultry display in a fitted fuchsia dress which boasted an off-the-shoulder neckline.

Flaunting her svelte figure, the brunette beauty posed confidently on the red carpet with her hands placed on her waist.

The reality starlet teamed the look with a pair of towering black heels and a black and gold clutch slung over one shoulder.

Continuing to put on a glamorous display, the television personality wore her hair down and straight and kept her make-up look natural, apart from rimming her almond eyes with thick dark liner.

If you've got it, flaunt it! Newcomer Susie put on a sultry display in a fitted fuchsia dress which boasted an off-the-shoulder neckline
The Real Housewives of Melbourne is a hit show known for its high drama and cat fights between leading ladies.

But it seems Australian model and David Jones ambassador Jesinta Campbell isn't a fan, with the brunette slamming the show on Rove & Sam for breakfast on Hit 104.1 2DayFM, ironically on International Women's Day.

The 24-year-old told the radio programme on Tuesday: 'That show is horrendous. I just look at them and say "why would you ever sign up for that?"' before adding the cast are embarrassing themselves.

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Not holding back: Jesinta Campbell on Tuesday slammed The Real Housewives of Melbourne when she appeared on the radio programme, Rove and Sam on International Women's Day

'You're embarrassing everyone and yourself,' she said with a chuckle.

The comments came after Jesinta spoke about how she thinks women are no longer 'supporting' one another and prefer to compete.

She was asked on the show by a male presenter: 'Come on, Jesinta you don't watch Real Housewives of Melbourne and look at the kinship and sisterhood on that show and feel like you're coming together with your fellow ladies?'

It gets catty! Cast mates from left to right include Susie McLean, Chyka Keebaugh, Gamble Breaux, Gina Liano, Jackie Gillies, Janet Roach, Lydia Schiavello and Pettifleur Berenger

The Real Housewives of Melbourne is known for its bitter feuds between castmates.

Indeed on Sunday night's show, Pettifleur Berenger rejected her frenemy Gamble Breaux's wedding invitation leaving the latter fuming.

I dont want to be too rude but you need to think about it before you give it to me, Pettifleur said to Gamble.

I cant accept this until you have another think about why you are inviting me and why you want me to be there.'

Gamble then threw the invite over the balcony and stormed off crying.

The castmates on the show include Gamble, Pettifleur, Chyka Keebaugh, Gina Liano, Jackie Gilles, Lydia Schiavello, Janet Roach and newcomer Susie McLean.

Didn't go down well: On Sunday night's show, Pettifleur (third left) rejected her frenemy Gamble Breaux's (left) wedding invitation leaving Gamble fuming

Jesinta on the radio show spoke about the Women In Conversation short film that was released by David Jones ahead of International Women's Day on Tuesday.

In the video, Jesinta is joined the likes of the Prime Minister's wife Lucy Turnbull and Lisa Wilkinson to talk about all things related to women and women's issues, including being a housewife, working and dress sense.

Why cant I show my t**s and have an opinion?, Jesinta exclaimed during the talk about what it means to be a woman in today's society.

She explained she asked the question after receiving a call from her manager telling her 'you can't wear those sort of tops on TV when you're talking about such prominent issues, they show a little bit too much'.

The leggy star told Rove and Sam this week about what International Women's Day means to her, saying it means a variety of things.

Talking about what she believes in: The leggy star told Rove and Sam about what International Women's Day means to her, saying it means a variety of things

'It's a day I really appreciate because I look back at history and I think that women have come such a long way,' she said.

'Standing here as a young female in Australia I feel like I have so many rights and so many privileges and I'm really grateful for that.'

'Then my heart goes out to all the women in third world countries that don't have access to education or good health care,' she said, adding: 'Or are getting married off at 12 years old and have no say in who they get married to.'

She later added: 'We still have a long way to go as women.'

She further commended host Sam Frost about how well she was doing on the show.

It came after Sam thanked her for doing the clip for David Jones and being outspoken about women.

Jesinta said about Sam: 'On a finishing note, I just want to say to you two, you're doing a really great job. And to Sam as well, I know you've been thrust into an industry that you maybe weren't brought up into or didn't have aspirations to be apart of, and you've just fallen into it due to destiny.'

'And good on you, you're doing an amazing job and I love seeing women doing amazing things so good on you and good on you Rove too. You're amazing.'
They've been making many an appearance at Paris Fashion Week, but Kris Jenner and her daughter Kendall turned up to a magazine launch to support Kim Kardashian on Monday night.

Even though Kim herself isn't in the French capital, her two family members attended the Editorialist Spring/Summer 2016 Issue Launch Party at the Hotel Peninsula, as she stars on the cover.

Kris, 60, looked much younger than her years wearing a long form-fitting dress which clung to her every curve.

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Kris Jenner (second from left) and her daughter Kendall (second from right) turned up to a magazine launch to support Kim Kardashian at the Hotel Peninsula in Paris on Monday night

Even though Kim herself isn't in the French capital, her two family members attended the Editorialist Spring/Summer 2016 Issue Launch Party at the Hotel Peninsula, as she stars on the cover

She posed for a group shot with her runway model daughter Kendall, 20, who wore an embellished black top over leather slim-fit trousers.

They were in good company on the night as they caught up with a host of other models including Doutzen Kroes and Joan Smalls.

Also present was Formula 1 champ Lewis Hamilton who continued to show off his unique style in a bright red coat with a fur collar.

Looking good: Kris, 60, looked much younger than her years wearing a long form-fitting dress which clung to her every curve, as she cosied up to the likes of Formula 1 champ Lewis Hamilton (second from left)

Earlier in the day, he was pictured taking his beloved pet pooches, Roscoe and Coco out for a walk as he took in the sights of the local area.

Meanwhile, Kris also had a great day as she was earlier pictured in a completely different outfit, flashing the cash in the Parisian boutiques.

She switched up her look for the occasion though, wearing a black fur-lined poncho with a very sexy pair of over-the-knee boots.

Fashionable support: Lewis - who appeared in GQ's coveted Best Dressed Men In Britain list - went in another style direction, wearing an all-black outfit underneath a scarlet, fur-lined coat

Firm friends: Kris wrapped her arms around designer Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing at the bash - after her daughter Kendall walked on the runway for his show on Thursday

Pucker up! Olivier planted a friendly kiss on Kris' cheek as the pair chatted away and posed for photos

Earlier in the day, she publicly supported her son Rob as she retweeted a post about his sock line, Arthur George.

Kendall herself has been making waves throughout fashion week, with her most momentous moment so far taking place at the Balmain show on Thursday.

She walked the runway along with BFF Gigi Hadid and alongside the likes of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Karlie Kloss.

All white: Kris looked stunning in her long white dress which had a semi-sheer pattern running throughout

Gorgeous: Supermodel Joan Smalls flashed a hint of her toned abs as she joined the rest of the crowd

Fashionable friends: Kris was also seen chatting away to Michael Coste and Alina Cho
Model and Myer ambassador Kris Smith has revealed he will walk his last fashion parade for the retail giant this week.

The 37-year-old former rugby star admitted the department store decided he would no longer appear on the runway for the brand, telling Daily Mail Australia: 'It's not my choice to leave the runway.'

The ex of Dannii Minogue said: 'As part of my ongoing and long standing role with Myer, it is likely that I will be stepping away from the catwalk after Friday, adding, 'I will continue to be involved in other events and promotions with them.'

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Opening up: Myer ambassador Kris Smith has revealed it wasn't his decision to walk away from the Myer catwalk and that Friday will be his last runway show. Seen at the Myer Myer A/W 2015 Season launch last year

He went on: 'Whilst it's not my choice to leave the runway, I completely embrace any changes and look forward to a great year with the Myer team.'

A Myer spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that this Friday will not be Kris' last catwalk appearance for the store.

'Myer is delighted to have recently extended the contract for Kris Smith in his role as a Myer Ambassador, marking seven years in the role,' the spokesperson said.

'Kris' next appearance for Myer will be at our Designer Runway Shows this Friday 11th March in Myer Melbourne as we celebrate our return to the Melbourne Fashion Festival.'

'Kris has played a major role and been a much-loved highlight at many of our fashion events and our customers will continue to see him at many more Myer events throughout the year,' they concluded.

Meanwhile, his management told Daily Mail Australia the towering star hadn't been axed by Myer from the catwalk and that there could be opportunities later on in the year for him to walk again.

Back to it soon? His management told DMA that the buff star hasn't been axed by Myer from the catwalk and that there could be opportunities later on in the year for him to walk in a show (seen in 2013)

On Tuesday, Kris revealed to The Daily Telegraph that he will walk for the retail giant one last time on Friday after conceding he's 'not naturally skinny.'

He told the publication: 'My walking days are over, it's just not part of my requirements for Myer going forward.

'I put a lot of pressure on myself and I'm not naturally skinny and don't fit the usual model criteria,' he said.

'But I do it with a smile and I enjoy it.'

According to the The Daily Telegraph, Kris will join fellow Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins on the catwalk for the final time on Friday.

Hitting the runway: Kris will reportedly strut his stuff for the final time on Friday with fellow Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins. Seen here with ambassadors Rachael Finch (second left) and Kate Peck (left) last year

Last month he missed the store's new season parade in Sydney because he was in Botswana, Africa, shooting for the extreme survival show Spartan X for an international broadcaster.

Kris is the host of the show and it seems his filming schedule and the timing of the collection launch clashed.

A spokesperson for Myer at the time told Daily Mail Australia Kris was re-signed and still very much part of the family.

Kris is a gym fanatic who has long been open about his battle with the bulge and has previously told Daily Mail Australia about being bullied in school about his weight.

Kris said he was picked on from the age of eight and comfort ate through his younger years weighing 125kg at his heaviest.

He works hard for his physique: Kris is a gym fanatic who has long been open about his battle with the bulge and has previously told Daily Mail Australia about being bullied in school about his weight
She was spotted getting flirty with Zac Efron on Saturday.

But Alexandra Daddario gave her full attention to The Rock during a photo shoot on the Miami set of Baywatch on Monday.

The 29-year-old actress and model showed off her pert derriere and ample cleavage in a blue and red bikini.

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Miami heat! Alexandra Daddario, 29, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, 43, looked hot during a photo shoot on the Miami set of Baywatch on Monday

She flashed several smouldering poses for the lens in a sexy two-piece swimsuit while getting playful with her hunky costar.

Alexandra - who plays Summer Quinn, cast in the original TV series by Nicole Eggert - left little to the imagination in the tiny bikini bottoms.

Her long, bronzed legs were on full display as she ran her fingers through her silky brunette tresses which fell in loose waves.

Flawless physique: The actress - who plays Summer Quinn, cast in the original TV series by Nicole Eggert - left little to the imagination in a blue and red bikini

Perfect posterior: Alexandra showed off her pert derriere in tiny blue bikini bottoms

Smouldering! She flashed several sultry poses for the lens alongside her hunky costar

Cheeky! Her long, bronzed legs were on full display as she clutched her posterior

Clearly not shy about flaunting her incredible figure, the Layover star wore the revealing top with plunging neckline.

The showy swimwear featured a gold zipper detail in the center and the word 'lifeguard' emblazoned in white on the back.

Baywatch is being produced by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who also plays the lead lifeguard Mitch Buchannon.

Mane attraction! Daddario ran her fingers through her silky brunette tresses

Off duty: Alexandra's showy swimwear was emblazoned with the word 'lifeguard' on the back

Lively: The former San Andreas costars got playful during the photo shoot

Flexed: The Rock wore a coordinating two-tone costume and hammed it up for the camera

He wore a coordinating two-tone costume and hammed it up for the camera with his former San Andreas costar.

Once their photo-taking was complete, Alexandra and The Rock - along with Efron - were spotted doing interviews with MTV.

But it was a few days earlier when things really steamed up on set as Alexandra and Zac shared some playful flirtations between takes.

Covered: Alexandra kept warm with a fuzzy navy blue robe between takes

Hunky costars! The Rock and Zac Efron, 28, were spotted doing interviews with MTV

Telltale technology: While it may have been unclear if the pair were shooting a scene for the film, The Rock's iPhone was a giveaway

Open mic: Once her photo shoot was complete, Alexandra interviewed with the network

Hair raising! Her brunette locks were blown about by the wind gusts during her time on camera

The model and former High School Musical star, 28, exchanged frisky glances as they went through their lines and joked around.

Daddario is just one of several beauties who have been cast in Baywatch - Kelly Rohrback, Ilfenesh Hadera and Priyanka Chopra are also on board.

The Rock recently announced that original Baywatch star David Hasselhof will make a cameo in the new film, but it's not yet clear if Pamela Anderson is likely to join him.

The Baywatch remake began filming end of February, with a release date set for May 19, 2017.

Cosy costars: The brunette beauty was spotted getting flirty with Efron between takes on Saturday

Teasing: The model and former High School Musical star exchanged frisky glances
She has been soaking up the glorious Hawaiian sun over the last few days.

So it's no wonder Louise Pillidge looked great as she kicked back with her mother Patricia during a recent day out at Waikiki Beach.

Opting for a sleek black, halter neck one-piece, the 28-year-old kept her blonde hair in a tight bun and hid behind dark oversize sunglasses.

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Making a splash! Louise Pillidge looked great as she kicked back in the sea during a recent day out on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii

Her mother sizzled in a white and black spotted string bikini and bright pink cap.

Meanwhile, boyfriend Blake Garvey, 33, was out court side at the NBL cheering on local team the Perth Wildcats, sharing a photo of himself wearing their red and black jersey.

Louise's solo holiday has raised questions about her relationship with Blake and sent the rumour mill into overdrive with suggestions of a possible split.

The couple, who have been together almost two years, are rarely been seen without one another since meeting on Network 10's The Bachelor.

Lookalike: The pretty star was joined by her mother Patricia during their day out

Relaxing holiday: Patricia and her lifestyle blogger daughter regularly go on holidays together

Striking a pose: The 28-year-old got her mother to take photos while they relaxed in the water

Turning heads: The pretty blonde looked sensational in her sexy swimwear

The blonde lifestyle blogger's Hawaiian getaway also marks the the second international trip she has taken in four months without Blake.

Patricia also joined her daughter on her last holiday travelling to the UK together in November, while the TV hunk stayed back in Australia.

During the holiday, Louise admitted that despite the 11 hour time difference, she made sure to keep in touch with her One And Only by FaceTiming him every day.

The couple's romance hasn't all been smooth sailing, getting off to a rocky start after Blake evicted Louise from the reality show and chose Sam Frost as the series winner.

Close bond: Since relocating to Perth from Brisbane, Louise has missed the company of her mother. The pair travelled to the UK on another holiday together four months ago

Making a splash: Louise has been seen at numerous social events around Perth with Blake on her arm and has been busy working on her lifestyle blog

Sun safe: The former reality TV star is taking care of her skin under the warm Hawaiian sun

In a move that shocked an entire nation, Blake publicly dumped Sam after choosing to propose during the elaborate finale and admitted he had made a 'mistake' and was in love with Louise.

His decision lead to him being labelled 'the most hated man in Australia'.

'The love I felt for Lou [didn't end] and as much as I tried to file it away, it kept growing,' he told Woman's Day magazine at the time in a paid tell-all interview.

Louise then relocated from Brisbane to Perth to be with her boyfriend, where they have been seen at numerous social events.

Temporary bachelor: While Louise holidays, her boyfriend Blake Garvey stayed behind in Western Australia and has stepped out with friends at the NBL cheering on the Perth Wildcats
Gamble Breaux has never been one to keep her affectionate side secret, especially when it comes to her fiance Dr Rick Wolfe.

And the 43-year-old Melbourne Housewife star couldn't resist planting a smooch on her husband in front of his son Luke while they were at lunch in Sydney on Saturday.

The three shared a cheers, before the loved up pair awkwardly packed on the PDA making out in front of the mortified 19-year-old.

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Cheers: Gamble Breaux the Real Housewives of Melbourne star couldn't resist planting a smooch on her husband Dr Rick Wolfe in front of his son Luke while they were at lunch in Sydney on Saturday

Gamble looked chic in a figure hugging white dress that featured a racy thigh high split in the front.

She teetered along in a pair of strappy sky high stilettos and finished her look with a chunky necklace and reflective sunglasses.

Her blonde locks were curled through the lengths and she wore a natural makeup look with a strong plum hued lip.

Cosied up beside her 'Wolfie' as he has affectionately been nicknamed by Gamble, looked dapper in a crisp white button up shirt.

Not shy: The 43-year-old and her now husband couldn't keep their hands off each other at the lunch and engaged in a very affectionate display

Awkward: Rick's son from a previous marriage watched on as his loved-up parents made out during lunch

He matched the shirt with a pair of smart trousers and dark brown leather loafers.

Just like his wife he wore a pair of aviator style sunglasses which he rested on top of his head while they enjoyed lunch.

The pair are set to marry in an upcoming episode of the Real Housewives of Melbourne and it appears that they honeymoon is far from over.

Rick leaned down and planted a big kiss on his blonde beauty as the pair appeared unable to keep their hands off each other.

Racy: Gamble showed off her slender frame in a figure hugging white dress that featured a thigh high split in the front revealing her toned legs

Stylish pair: Rick looked dapper in a crisp white shirt and navy trousers and walked hand in hand with his new wife as they continued their loved-up display

Loved-up: Gamble and Rick met in what has become a modern day fairytale through the popular dating website EHarmony

Luke showed off his own style opting for a more relaxed look and wore a tight fitting black T-shirt paired with pink shorts.

The 19-year-old wore a pair of bright white sneakers to finish his outfit and walked ahead of his father and step mother obviously not wanting to associate with the loved-up pair.

He appeared to get over watching his parents romantic encounter as he and Gamble excitedly laughed together at something that she was showing him on her phone.

Laughing it off: Luke appeared to get over watching his parents romantic encounter as he and Gamble excitedly laughed together at something that she was showing him on her phone

Beachside nuptials: They are set to be married in Byron Bay on the sand in an upcoming episode of the show, with fellow cast member and glamazon Gina Liano officiating the ceremony

Gamble and Rick met in what has become a modern day fairytale through the popular dating website EHarmony.

Much of their relationship has been broadcast, including his proposal during season two of the reality television show.

They are set to be married in Byron Bay on the sand in an upcoming episode of the show, with fellow cast member and glamazon Gina Liano officiating the ceremony.

Gamble, Rick and Luke were in Sydney over the weekend to attend the Mardi Gras celebrations where she and her step-son walked in the parade.
She is renowned for showing off her bare figure across social media, and on Tuesday model Natalie Roser stripped down for her latest photo-shoot campaign with tanning line Bondi Sands.

While striking a pose at the popular Bondi Icebergs in Sydney's east the 25-year-old sizzled as she showed off her super toned while dressed in a one-piece swimsuit.

The pink and white Seafolly garment hugged tightly around her slender frame while tying tightly behind her neck.

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Ice Ice Baby! Natalie Roser stunned on Monday as she showed off her super toned in a one-piece swimsuit while shooting upcoming Bondi Sands campaign in Bondi, east of Sydney

For the shoot she showcased her flawless sun-kissed tanned skin along with a large white toothy smile.

Natalie allowed her dyed blonde locks to flow in the wind behind her as she wore them out and styled with a natural loose wave.

She displayed her blemish free complexion while opting for a nude-base make-up which included a deep tanned coloured eye shadow and black mascara and eye-liner.

Stunner: The 25-year-old showed off her super toned while dressed in the pink and white halter-neck swimsuit

Say cheese: While striking some poses for the shoot, the beauty showcased her flawless sun-kissed tanned skin along with a large white toothy smile

Natural beauty: Natalie allowed her dyed blonde locks to flow in the wind behind her as she wore them out and styled with a natural loose wave

The beauty finished off her headturning do with a baby pink lipstick which was topped with a clear gloss.

But while she focused all the attention towards her killer-body, the Aussie bikini-clad model accessorised with multiple silver chained necklaces which she wore at different lengths.

Natalie also added multiple matching bangles, which were pushed towards her upper biceps, as well as numerous rings to her barely-there attire.

Catwalk ready: She displayed her blemish free complexion while opting for a nude-base makeup which included a deep tanned coloured eye shadow and black mascara and eyeliner as well as a light pink lipstick

Move it: During the shot Natalie flicked her long hair as she smile for the camera

Adding some height: She later stood tall while places her right leg in front of the other while standing on her toes

On the move: Following the shoot she threw her black backpack over her shoulders while she clutched onto a white container

Kicking back: Natalie was later pictured enjoying a freshly squeezed juice as she talked to fellow companions

Earlier in the day she covered her toned behind as she slipped on a pair of denim mini-shirts which buckled up around her waist.

Her bikini photoshoot for the Australian beauty brand comes six months after she explained to the Daily Telegraph that she used to be stick thin before increasing her food intake and working out in the gym.

'Getting toned and getting healthy has completely changed my career,' she said.

'I'm modelling pretty much every day, which never happened before I started training and healthy eating and taking care of myself.'

Natalie has been modelling since 13, and once acted as a body double for Jennifer Hawkins in a Mount Franklin commercial.

The blonde beauty, who was a contender in Miss Universe Australia last year, is currently one of the models of self-tanning brand ModelCo.

She's currently dating Sydney-based personal trailer Dan Adair.

Covering up: Earlier in the day she covered her toned behind as she slipped on a pair of denim mini-shirts which buckled up around her waist

Bling bling: The Aussie bikini-clad model accessorised with multiple silver chained necklaces which she wore at different lengths as well as multiple bangles and rings
She's having to incorporate a leg brace into her style after suffering the misfortune of falling down a manhole and breaking her foot.

But Michelle Mone proved she wasn't going to let her injury impede on her glamorous lifestyle as she stepped out for dinner at Scott's restaurant in London on Monday night.

Despite her recent mishap, the Ultimo tycoon still managed to muster up a beaming smile, as she flashed her pearly whites on her way into the upscale eatery.

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Brace yourself! Michelle Mone proved she wasn't going to let her recent injury impede on her glamorous lifestyle as she stepped out for dinner at Scott's restaurant in London on Monday night

The 44-year-old entrepreneur cut a demure figure in an all-black ensemble that was perfect for her venture out into the chilly British weather.

The parliamentarian wrapped up in a stylish black trench coat which was emblazoned with button detailing, though, opting to tease a glimpse of the ensemble she sported beneath the design, Michelle chose to leave her outerwear undone.

The monochromatic look was also comprised of chic black flared trousers, which the Glasgow native paired with black stilettos, though one was noticeably absent given that the glamorous blonde was still sporting a leg brace on her right foot following an unfortunate injury.

Sprightly: Despite her recent misfortune, the Ultimo tycoon still managed to muster up a beaming smile, as she flashed her pearly whites on her way into the upscale eatery

Whoops! Michelle revealed on Twitter that she fractured her foot after falling down a manhole near her home in Glasgow, Scotland

Michelle revealed the injury to her thousands of Twitter followers on Sunday by posting a picture of her resting at home with her foot in a protective boot up on a chair.

She said: 'Home from hospital, thanks to the great team. Fell down a man hole yesterday & broken my foot. Biz as norm.'

Twitter followers wished her a speedy recovery but Lady Mone seemed resolutely positive and added: 'It's only a foot, people go through a lot worse. Business schedule won't change.'

The mishap is believed to have happened near her Glasgow home following a night out with friends after she returned from a Caribbean holiday.

She tweeted the day before: 'Landed... no time for jetlag... weekend with the girls... all 10 of us.'

Mone added emojis of a champagne bottle, a cocktail glass and a monkey covering its eyes.

Meanwhile, Michelle recently made headlines after calling on the Government to do more to support women from deprived backgrounds overcome barriers to start-up their own businesses, with the mother-of-three citing Whitney Houston lyrics to support her argument.

Still chic: The 44-year-old entrepreneur cut a demure figure in an all-black ensemble that was perfect for her venture out into the chilly British weather

Reciting words from the late songstress' 1985 track, The Greatest Love of All, she told the House of Lords earlier on Monday: 'I love music, and I would like to share with you the words of a song by the late, great Whitney Houston, which inspired me when I was growing up.

'I normally sing this at karaoke, but upon advice from our wonderful doorkeepers I thought I would spare your lordships' ears.'

She then enthused: '"I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way"'.
Expectant mum Bar Refaeli was celebrating her own maternal figure on Monday night when she accompanied mother Tzipi Levine to the PEOPLE Style Awards.

The Israeli model bore a striking resemblance to her youthful mother as they posed on Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten's red carpet in Munich, Germany.

Bar, who's pregnant with her new husband Adi Ezra's first child, displayed an early glimpse of her baby bump on arrival before heading inside to collect an award.

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Showing her bump: Bar Refaeli shared a glimpse of her pregnancy bump as she stepped out for Monday night's PEOPLE Style Awards at Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich

The supermodel was positively glowing in a crimson dress, accessorising with a camel-coloured coat and matching shoes.

Her lace dress featured clever slimming panels at the side, though as it skimmed over her pregnancy shape, she offered an early glimpse at her bump in profile view.

Bar announced her pregnancy at the start of January, almost four months after marrying the Israeli businessman.

Mum and daughter: Bringing along mother, Tzipi Levine (left), Bar looked like she was accompanying a sister

Winner, winner: The model walked away with a style gong on the night and looked delighted

Strong bond: The mother-daughter duo certainly seemed to share a strong bond

Celebrating: They pulled giddy poses as they clutched the award at the dinner table

The model recently hinted that she was expecting a little girl when she shared a picture of a baby's outfit, captioning it: 'My baby girls first ever outfit is given to her by @stellamccartney! #respect Thank you Stella for the cutest outfit! #momtobe'

On Monday, Bar's mother happened to be celebrating her birthday, but looked more like a sister to 30-year-old Bar than a mother.

They showed their strong bond when they were pictured sharing an affectionate kiss on the cheek and playfully posing with the PEOPLE award in hand at the their dinner table.

Exquisite: Bar was gorgeous with camel-coloured accessories to top off her outfit

Ladies in red: Bar posed with fellow PEOPLE Style Awards winner Liz Hurley (right)

Matching: They'd plumped for the same hue of rouge for their evening attire

Please as punch: The women looked delighted with their bouquets and gongs

Bar was later pictured with fellow attendee Liz Hurley, who similarly picked up a style award at the annual event.

Liz was bestowed with the Style International award but received the same beautiful bouquet of flowers and tall golden statue.

The stylish duo matched in gorgeous red hues at an event also attended by Patrick Schwarzenegger and Jessica Schwarz.

Cheeky grin: Liz looked delighted to be accepting the Style International award

Speech in hand: She carried a speech with her, ready to collect a gong

Smiling: The beauties posed for pictures in front of a gorgeous floral backdrop

Fellow winners: Jessica Schwarz (left) and Florian David Fitz (right) were both big winners

Cute duo: Ann-Kathrin Broemmel accompanied winner Patrick Schwarzenegger to the event

Cheesey: Patrick made sure his bow tie was on straight as he prepped for pictures

Winning! She was back for more pictures once she'd been up on the stage in Munich

Cheesey grin: From the side, Bar showed off a hint of her pregnancy shape

Leggy display: In caged heels, the blonde was elongating her model pins on the red carpet
He is notorious for nabbing a seemingly endless list of glamorous girlfriends.

And according to Laurina Fleure, Havana Brown found herself firmly on Shane Warne's radar, despite the fact that she is engaged.

During Tuesday night's instalment of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, fans were shocked when Laurina accused the cricketing legend of being 'completely enamoured' with the stunning blonde.

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Forbidden love! During Tuesday night's instalment of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, fans were shocked when Laurina Fleure accused Shane Warne of being 'completely enamoured' with Havana Brown, who is currently engaged

Speaking intimately with Havana, she revealed she felt so excluded by Havana and Shane's close friendship that she was forced to move beds on camp.

'That's why I moved beds babe, the amount of times Shane cut me out of the conversation', she admitted.

'No matter how many times I try I am literally being cut out of the conversation because he is just completely fascinated and enamoured by you.'

Not having a bar of it! Havana Brown seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the entire topic of conversation

Not impressed: Speaking intimately with Havana, Laurina revealed she felt so excluded by Havana and Shane's close friendship that she was forced to move beds on camp

'Trust me, he was in love with you those first couple of weeks. You didn't hear it as well, a lot of the time when you weren't there, he was like going on about how sexy you are and your giggle and your laugh and so he was, he was completely enamoured.'

Havana seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the entire topic of conversation, making sure to nip the issue in the bud by bluntly responding: 'Well then it is best that you had moved then.'

Looking for a leading lady! Shane Warne entered the jungle as a single man and has since asked Havana to play match-maker between him and Carmen Electra

The slender pop star announced her engagement to her manager and partner, Vince Deltito, last year.

She made the exciting announcement during an interview with Today's Richard Wilkinson.

The happy couple have been together for several years but have made sure to keep their relationship extremely private.

The international starlet has toured with the likes of Britney Spears, Rihanna and Chris Brown and received an ARIA nomination for Song Of The Year for Warrior at last year's awards in November.
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They've a hugely triumphant Paris Fashion Week, walking for the likes of Balmain and Dior.

But as the Fall/Winter showcases draw to a close, best pals Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid saved their biggest show to last, leading the models down Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel catwalk, held in the opulent surroundings of the Grand Palais des Champs-Elyseeson Tuesday.

After swapping hair colours for Balmain, and rocking gothic glam for Dior, Kendall and Gigi's Chanel styling was noticeably more low-key as they strutted down the celeb-lined runway in padded winter coats.

Reigning queens of the runway: Best friends Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid led the models down Chanel's Paris Fashion Week runway on Tuesday morning

Lagerfeld's model muse Kendall showed off her natural beauty in a black lined, pale pink padded jacket, with the hood covering her dark locks.

A matching midi-length skirt with a flared hem and thick black opaque tights continued the coordinated look, while heels were ditched in favour of flat suede boots with lace-up detail.

Kendall and her fellow models were made up with soft pink lips and dashes of blusher in a matching shade, while her long locks were tucked under the hood of her jacket.

See more of the latest Kendall Jenner updates as she and best pal Gigi Hadid continue their reign of the runways at Paris Fashion Week

There she goes: Lagerfeld's model muse Kendall showed off her natural beauty in a black lined, pale pink padded jacket, with the hood covering her dark locks

Winter wear: While Kendall was styled in pink and black, Gigi was wrapped up in a beige padded coat and flats

Gigi, 20, meanwhile was wrapped up in a padded coat for her saunter down the runway.

The beige number featured over-sized lined cuffs and scarf detail at the neck, while like Kendall, she was styled with black tights, teamed with slip-on flats to continue the casual vibe.

Gigi's coat featured delicate gold and white floral detailing on the cuffs, while both she and Kendall wowed with unusual eye makeup, dotted on their lids for a veil-like effect.

Check out the eyes: Gigi's coat featured delicate gold and white floral detailing on the cuffs, while both she and Kendall wowed with unusual eye makeup, dotted on their lids for a veil-like effect

Model muse: Kendall stood out on the vast runway at the Grand Palais in her pink and black ensemble while pearl-adorned models walked around her

Pink lady: A matching midi-length skirt with a flared hem and thick black opaque tights continued the coordinated look, while heels were ditched in favour of flat suede boots with lace-up detail

All eyes on her: The 20-year-old commanded attention from the style elite and celeb-packed FROW

Under cover: After mixing up her look all week for her high profile shows, Kendall's Chanel styling was relatively understated

Familiar faces: The fashionable friends have once again been chosen by Paris' top names for the FW runways

While Kendall and Gigi were dressed in pale pastels, their fellow models on the Chanel runway were styled in some brighter ensembles.

Beauties headed down the catwalk in the fashion house's trademark tweed, in a rainbow splash of colour, from fuchsia pinks to peaches and aubergines.

Ladylike hats and gloves in clashing hues added to the elegant and eclectic vibe, while the splash of colour was offset by a nod to Chanel's origins with black dresses and separates draped in pearls.

Family affair: Gigi's younger sister Bella looked supremely elegant in a double-buttoned coat and skirt accessorised with the over-sized jewellery and a chic hat

Riot of colour: While Kendall and Gigi were dressed in pale pastels, their fellow models on the Chanel runway were styled in some brighter ensembles

Bold and bright: The Chanel models wore a twist on the fashion house's favourite fabric of tweed

Perfectly coordinated: The models walked in different directions and crossing through the audience on the complicated runway

Pretty in pink: One of the key hues for the collection was pink, with varying shades brightening up the runway

What a venue! The fashion house left the decoration in the Grand Palais sparse to highlight the colourful collection

What a show: The models manveoured their way through the crowded venue down multiple runways

Winter chic: Bold floral prints dotted with the signature Chanel logo were mixed with chunky knits and hats

Bold: Beauties headed down the catwalk in the fashion house's trademark tweed, in a rainbow splash of colour, from fuchsia pinks to peaches denim lined pastels

Work it: The girls wore matching boots with lace-up detail for the anticipated Fall/Winter showcase

Pretty in pink: Despite it being a winter collection, Lagerfeld wasn't afraid to inject plenty of colour

Huge crowd: Hundreds packed into the sumptuous Fashion Week venue to see Lagerfeld's latest collection

Finishing touches: Matching hats and unusual eye makeup in a veil-like design continued the ladylike vibe

Gigi's younger sister Bella was one of the models chosen to walk in black, looking supremely elegant in a double-buttoned coat and skirt accessorised with the over-sized jewelery and a chic hat.

Bella has been steadily racking up the runways in Paris this season, leading Givenchy's showcase just 24 hours before.

Meanwhile, Kendall's mother Kris Jenner, 60, was once again sat front row for her daughter's big moment, with Pharrell Williams and Jaden and Willow Smith also enjoying the fashion festivities.

Evening wear: Black dresses and separates were mixed in with the riot of colour, with glitzy pearls adding interest

Model walk: Chanel mixed colour and black and white, and prints and block colours for the eclectic collection

Stunning: Delicate sheer white chiffon dresses were toughened up with chunky boots and racy lace detailing

Quintessentially Chanel: Heavy tweeds were contrasted with flowing chiffon for both day and night looks

Nearest and dearest: After sending his favourite models down the runway, Karl Lagerfeld appeared for the finale with his seven-year-old godson Hudson Kroenig

Dapper: Hudson, whose dad is model Brad Kroenig, walked onto the runway in a smart tweet coat and sneakers

Fashion week regular: Hudson has worked for the designer since he was two and has previously appeared with Lagerfeld on his P Paris Fashion Week runways

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star donned fashion's favourite colour for the spectacle, teaming a black trench coat, with a fitted black top and leggings for her daughter's show.

She toughened up the look with leather combat boots, while honouring the iconic brand with a fur handbag that was emblazoned with its name in sizeable letters.

Draping the bag around her neck, it also looked to double up as a hand cosy, with Kris keeping her mitts toasty by slipping them into either side of the design.

Proud mama! Kris Jenner looked beaming with pride when she arrived at the Chanel's Paris Fashion Week showcase to see her daughter Kendall walk

What a way to bond! Jada Pinkett Smith arrived at the event alongside her daughter Willow, who was sure to stand out in a futuristic ensemble

All in the details! The Gotham actress gave the look a superstar finish with a salt-and-pepper print coat, which hung coolly from her shoulders, and mirrored sunglasses

The front row also boasted the likes of Pharrell Williams, Anna Wintour and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Jada was joined by her singer daughter Willow, who was sure to stand out from the crowd in a futuristic ensemble that was rendered in a mesh-effect fabric, while the look was broken up with black panels brandished along the inner leg and across the knees and waist.

The 15-year-old certainly wasn't camera shy as she posed up a storm for the camera both outside of the breathtaking venue, though her playfulness didn't ease up once she took her spot in the front row as she giggled incessantly with her Gotham star mother, who rocked a smart casual look in a white pussybow blouse and ripped boyfriend jeans.

2000 people packed into the Grand Palais for the show, with the runway set up so that everyone had a front row seat, with the models criss-crossing around the venue.

Playful: Willow certainly wasn't camera shy as she posed up a storm for the camera both outside of the breathtaking venue

Fashionable duo: Pharrell Williams was joined at the event by his wife Helen Lasichanh, with both opting for slightly outlandish styles

Fashion maverick: American Vogue editor Anna Wintour also rocked one of Chanel's signature tweed designs in a cream boucle jacket, which featured a contrasting blue peter-pan style collar, and a fitted pencil dress

Say cheese? The fashion elite failed to raise much of a smile as they posed with Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld

His next muse? Willow showed off her statement look as she mingled with the main man after the show

Prime position: Pharrell and Helen had front row seats for the most anticipated show of PFW

Like mother like daughter: Willow beamed at her mother while modelling her signature quirky style on the FROW

It's been less than two months since Kendall and Gigi last walked for Chanel, leading the celeb runway back in January as Karl Lagerfeld pulled out all the stops for his haute couture Paris show.

Kris Jenner meanwhile proved just how strong the family's bond is with Lagerfeld as she spent Friday night gaining exclusive access to a new secret project between him and her model daughter.

The Kardashian matriarch had Instagram in a frenzy as she shared a series of snapshots of the Chanel maverick, branded '#secretproject'.

Off duty: Kendall and Gigi both had a quick change before dashing out of the venue after the show to their next appointment

Model body: Kendall highlighted her svelte frame in striped trousers teamed with an off-the-shoulder crop top

Heading out: Gigi paired satin trousers with a ribbed poloneck sweater and furry coat for her grand exit
She's making her mark on the fashion industry, following in the footsteps of her sister Gigi Hadid.

And Bella Hadid certainly proved her worth as a supermodel stunner as she joined her sibling and close pal Kendall Jenner on the runway at the Chanel autumn/winter 2016 show during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

Clad in Karl Lagerfeld's latest designs, the 19-year-old looked the picture of perfection as she strode her way down the catwalk at the iconic Grand Palais in head-to-toe black, before later being seen leaving the show in a striking leather look.

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Owning it: Bella Hadid wowed in a black ladylike ensemble as she stalked the runway at Chanel's A/W 2016 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

Her slim, statuesque frame was the perfect accompaniment to the chic clothing, which included a mid-length skirt and matching long jacket in a dark charcoal-coloured tweed, a signature of the fashion house.

Adding some edgier vibes to the ready-to-wear look, Bella rocked a pair of fierce, slightly baggy leather gloves over the sleeves of the blazer.

A flash of her slim pins was just visible between the bottom of the swishy skirt and her statement footwear as she sashayed down the star-studded parade.

Stunning: The 19-year-old's slim, statuesque frame was the perfect accompaniment to the chic clothing, which included a mid-length skirt and matching long jacket in a dark charcoal-coloured tweed

Focused: Completing the look was a large collection of while pearl necklaces - another Chanel staple - and a chic black hat, worn over her brunette locks that were kept loose and flowing

Completing the look was a large collection of while pearl necklaces - another Chanel staple - and a chic black hat, worn over her brunette locks that were kept loose and flowing.

She has recently come under scrutiny over her stunning good looks, following a report in Star magazine that she has indulged in some kind of cosmetic work over the years, but if Bella was feeling bothered by it she didn't show it with her stoic, focused expression.

Hers was one of the most eye-catching looks on Tuesday morning at the landmark PFW show, while Gigi and Kendall were more wrapped up in heavy, pastel-coloured designs.

Meanwhile, Bella looked even more stunning as she was later pictured leaving the iconic venue following her stint in the show.

From catwalk to sidewalk! As she was later seen leaving the show, held at the Grand Palais in the French capital, leggy Bella drew attention to her figure in striking leather trousers

Supermodel off-duty: The lace-up bottoms were teamed with a pair of chunky, blocky heeled boots, a white crop top with a choker - allowing slender Bella to flash her toned lower tum - and a matte black leather jacket

Job done: Bella also toted a quilted beige rucksack on her shoulder as she emerged to continue her day in the French capital

Taking strides with her enviably long legs, she showed them off as she wore a pair of eye-catching black leather flared trousers, sitting snugly to her toned thighs and tiny hips.

The lace-up bottoms were teamed with a pair of chunky, blocky heeled boots, a white crop top with a choker - allowing slender Bella to flash her toned lower tum - and a matte black leather jacket.

She had opted to keep wearing her heavy make-up from the show, a sultry coverage of black shadow on her lips and contoured cheeks, and she also toted a quilted beige rucksack on her shoulder as she emerged to continue her day in the French capital.

The eyes have it: Bella had opted to keep wearing her heavy make-up from the show, a sultry coverage of black shadow on her eyes and contoured cheeks

Look who else is there! Bella's sister Gigi (left) and Kendall Jenner (right) were more wrapped up in heavy, pastel-coloured designs on the runway

Style parade: The show featured a monochrome section with a series of black and white ensembles

Classic: Ladylike hats and gloves in clashing hues added to the elegant and eclectic vibe, while the splash of colour was offset by a nod to Chanel's origins with black dresses draped in pearls

All-white: Other designs by Chanel boss Karl Lagerfeld included floaty lace and delicate, silver fabrics

Bold and bright: The Chanel models wore a twist on the fashion house's favourite fabric of tweed

Meanwhile, the Chanel show saw a myriad of striking designs from Creative Director Lagerfeld at one of the biggest fashion week shows of them all.

Beauties headed down the catwalk in the fashion house's trademark tweed, in a rainbow splash of colour, from fuchsia pinks to peaches and aubergines.

Ladylike hats and gloves in clashing hues added to the elegant and eclectic vibe, while the splash of colour was offset by a nod to Chanel's origins with black dresses draped in pearls.

Bella has been in Paris to appear at several shows over the past week, and didn't seem to let the busy schedule get to her as she cut a gorgeous figure while stepping out in the city on Monday.

Out and about: On Monday, Bella stepped out looking flawless in her off-duty gear, taking a break from shows
Patsy and Eddie were always going to celebrate their big screen debut in a suitably fabulous fashion.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reunite as their alter-egos for the first Absolutely Fabulous poster, released exclusively to MailOnline on Tuesday, as they toast 'a huge great bloody movie.'

Having shopped 'til they've dropped, the glamorous double act raise a glass at a luxury cinema as they settle down to the latest adventures in the hotly-anticipated film adaptation of their lives.

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Toasting success: Joanna Lumley (left) and Jennifer Saunders (right) as Patsy and Eddie return for the first movie poster of the Absolutely Fabulous film

Lumley, open-mouthed and posing through scarlet lips, channels former fashion director Patsy Stone in an animal print blouse and a leather skirt.

While the ever-eccentric Edina Monsoon, played by Saunders, teams a velvet hat with oversized earrings and a silk bomber jacket to sit front row for the cinematic event of the season.

Back after five years away, the pair haven't changed a bi,t it seems, as they find themselves buried in a mountain of designer clobber, flutes in hand.

They've cleared a plush cinema which itself mimics their egotistical nature and is flanked by their neon 'Sweetie' sign.

Still living the high life: Surrounded by designer clobber, the duo sip from champagne flutes in an empty cinema

Keen AbFab fans will spot the 20th Century updates, since Pats and Eddy are a long way from the first 1992 episodes that first drew in a loyal audience and clutch the latest iPhones ready to document the moment like any other modern-age women.

The first film, which has been promised since 2011, sets out to prove that the duo are still living the high life; shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around Londons trendiest hotspots.

Though in an uncharacteristic fall from grace, Patsy and Eddy find themselves embroiled in a media storm when they're blamed for a 'major incident' at a fashion launch party.

New movie: The film sees the duo escape to the French Riviera when their landed in hot water with the fashion crowd

With papparrazzi constantly on their tail, they flee to the French Riviera and without any money, hatch a plan to make their escape permanent.

Cameos include supermodel Kate Moss, but the cast also sees Julia Sawalha return as Saffy, Jane Horrocks as Bubble and June Whitfield as Mother.

As well as starring in the film, Jennifer Saunders wrote the script, which was directed by Mandie Fletcher, produced by Jon Plowman and Damian Jones.

Jennifer, along with former French & Saunders companion Dawn French also serve as executive producers on the flick.

The film hits cinemas in the UK on July 1, 2016 with US and Australia release dates of July 22 and August 11, respectively.
The TRIC Awards 2016 kicked off in style as the stars arrived at London's Grosvenor House on Tuesday.

Putting on a united front and leading the way were Strictly Come Dancing couple Georgia May Foote and Giovanni Pernice.

The former Coronation Street actress, 25, set the bar high for the other guests as she cut a beautiful figure in a pretty black and white lace dress.

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Strictly stunning! Georgia May Foote looked gorgeous as she joined her Strictly Come Dancing beau Giovanni Pernice at London's Grosvenor House on Tuesday for the TRIC Awards

Flaunting her enviable petite curves, she clad her frame in the open-weave garment, which had a sweet white top half and a black skirt, short enough to skim her toned thighs.

She elongated her slender, shapely pins with a pair of black pointed court shoes, showing that less is more with such an eye-catching dress.

The beauty smiled for cameras as her handsome man, also 25, put his arm around her before giving her a chance to pose by herself.

Prim yet sexy: Flaunting her enviable petite curves, the 25-year-old clad her frame in the open-weave garment, which had a sweet white top half and a black skirt, short enough to skim her toned thighs

Leggy lovely: The actress elongated her slender, shapely pins with a pair of black pointed court shoes, showing that less is more with such an eye-catching dress

Super-cute: While Georgia looked gorgeous, Giovanni, 25, didn't fare too badly as he donned a slick grey three-piece suit

Lovely locks: She wore her brunette ombre locks in the chiest of styles, falling in a poker-straight and glossy 'do, her heavy fringe drawing attention to her blue eyes

She wore her brunette ombre locks in the chiest of styles, falling in a poker-straight and glossy 'do, her heavy fringe drawing attention to her blue eyes.

And Strictly pro Giovanni - who started dating Georgia when they appeared on the BBC One dancing show together in winter 2015 - scrubbed up well in his slick grey three-piece suit.

The pair led the arrivals at the awards ceremony: TRIC stands for Television and Radio Industries Club, and honours a range of people in the communications industry for their hard work and dedication across the media.

Wow and wow! Lisa Snowdon looked truly sensational as she flaunted her long, enviable pins in a super-short LBD with a flirty asymmetric hemline

Beautiful: The 44-year-old's tuxedo-style garment was the ideal style for her statuesque frame, and the brunette model and presenter elongated her perfect pins with a pair of chic pointed court shoes

Feeling blue! Emilia Fox joined the litany of stars at the annual Television and Radio Industries Club awards ceremony, looking gorgeous in a chic shift

Spring colours: The 41-year-old actress flashed her legs in the gorgeous dress, which she teamed with canary yellow heels and a nude clutch

Joining them at the event were the likes of Lisa Snowdon, Emilia Fox, Brooke Vincent, Charlotte Hawkins, Tony Hadley, Sian Welby and Tina Hobley, among others.

Lisa, 44, looked truly sensational as she flaunted her long, enviable pins in a super-short LBD with a flirty asymmetric hemline.

The tuxedo-style garment was the ideal style for her statuesque frame, and the brunette model and presenter elongated her perfect pins with a pair of chic pointed court shoes.

Her long chestnut locks were coiffed into elegant curls, tumbling down over her shoulders and she oozed sex appeal while gazing into the cameras outside Grosvenor House.

Geordie Shore no more! Vicky Pattison rugged off her party girl past in a full-skirted black midi dress with a very conservative lace neckline and capped sleeves

Daytime glam: The 28-year-old showed off her tanned pins in the dress while posing for snaps, with which she rocked a pair of elegant lace-up heels

Actress Emilia, 41, wowed in a pretty sky blue shift dress teamed with canary yellow heels and a nude bag.

I'm A Celebrity jungle babes Vicky Pattison and Jorgie Porter arrived at a similar time, each of them rocking pretty dresses for the daytime event.

Vicky, 28, shrugged off her Georgie Shore party girl past in a full-skirted black midi dress with a very conservative lace neckline and capped sleeves.

Floral fancy: Vicky's I'm A Celebrity co-star Jorgie Porter oozed a touch of sex appeal in her sheer-fronted floral body-con number, which left little to the imagination

Stylish as ever: The blonde Hollyoaks bombshell, 28, was a true sight for sore eyes in the black and red frock, allowing her lithe legs and braless chest to be on show

She showed off her tanned pins in the dress while posing for snaps, with which she rocked a pair of elegant lace-up heels.

Jorgie, also 28, oozed a touch of sex appeal in her sheer-fronted floral body-con number, which left little to the imagination.

The blonde Hollyoaks bombshell was a true sight for sore eyes in the black and red frock, allowing her lithe legs and braless chest to be on show.

Slick: Former Coronation Street beauty Brooke Vincent cut a conservative figure in wide-legged trousers teamed with a matching, slightly oversized blazer

All-white! Strictly dancer Janette Manrara wowed in a crisp white jumpsuit

Day-time date: Janette was joined by her beau Aljaz Skorjanec, who cut a dapper figure in blue

Casual look: Holby City star Tina Hobley rocked a more casual look, comprised of black skinny jeans and a top with a pale silvery-white padded jacket over the top

All black everything: Corrie star Katie McGlynn looked lovely in a chic black jumpsuit, her blonde locks coiffed into a high ponytail

Elsewhere, former Coronation Street beauty Brooke cut a conservative figure in wide-legged trousers teamed with a matching, slightly oversized blazer.

Cinched in with a tied-up belt around her waist, the 23-year-old emphasised her petite figure for her turn at the star-studded awards ceremony.

Monochrome was a popular look for the stars on the day, with Holby City star Tina rocking a more casual look, comprised of black skinny jeans and a top with a pale silvery-white padded jacket over the top.

Colour! GMB hosts Charlotte Hawkins (left) and Kate Garraway (right) injected some prettiness to proceedings

Lady in lace: Charlotte showed off her trim physique in a pretty blue and cream lace dress, after appearing on GMB

Oh so lovely! Kate was as pretty as a picture in her full-skirted off-shoulder flowery dress in white and pastel shades

Such fun! Kate acted the funny clown as she photobombed one of the arrival snaps, which saw Corrie stars Dean Fagan, Brooke Vincent, Tisha Merry, Katie McGlynn and Colson Smith trying to pose nicely

Morning crew: Charlotte joined her GMB co-stars Laura Tobin and Sean Fletcher for a nice snap

Cheeky! Charlotte seemed unaware as joker Leigh Francis - aka Keith Lemon - encroached on her moment in the spotlight

Tina also was wearing an arm brace and a leg brace, following her injury after appearing on The Jump recently.

Professional Strictly dancer Janette Manrara oozed confidence in a crisp white jumpsuit, and Corrie's Katie McGlynn opted for head-to-toe black.

MTV presenter Laura Whitmore - who was recently romantically linked to Leonardo DiCaprio - showed off her style star status in a super-cool grey suit with cropped trousers and a chunky black belt around her waistline.

Injecting some more colour to proceedings were the likes of GMB stars Charlotte Hawkins and Kate Garraway in pretty dresses, TV presenter Sian Welby in a pretty yellow mini frock and presenter Sian Williams in a funky striped number.

Androgynous chic: Laura Whitmore showed off her style star status in a super-cool grey suit with cropped trousers and a chunky black belt around her waistline

Cutting the mustard: TV presenter Sian Welby caught the eye in a pretty yellow mini frock

She's earned her stripes! Presenter Sian Williams showed off her petite curves in a bright and bold striped dress and red heels

Support: I'm A Celeb star Lady Colin Campbell sported a bizarre leopard print ensemble as she arrived with her son Dima

Altogether now! The BBC news and weather team were out in force - pictured, L-R, Louise Minchin, Carol Kirkwood, Dan Walker, Sally Nugent and Stephanie McGovern

Soap babes! Hollyoaks stars (L-R) Amanda Clapham, Sarah George and Jessica Ellis opted for glamorous dresses for the TRICs

Meanwhile, Georgia and Giovanni's cosy display of affection came after the stunning actress shared a series of sweet selfies of the two of them together on Instagram.

Posting number of loved-up snaps with her Strictly dance partner turned boyfriend, the brunette and her hunky beau proved they only have eyes for each.

One image saw the pair staring into each other's eyes while the 25-year-old beauty flashed her gorgeous smile at her man.

Lads in blue: Lee Mead (left) and Leigh Francis (right) had clearly not checked with each other ahead of the awards as they both rocked up in blue suits

Straight from the Square: EastEnders actor Roger Sloman was in great spirits as he arrived

Inside...: Once inside the venue, BBC Radio 1 host Nick Grimshaw joined pal Aimee Phillips

The most stylish of them all: Inside Grosvenor House, Laura and Lisa showed off their perfect ensembles once again

Making the most of that dress! Jorgie beamed for another photo in her super-sexy dress

The former Coronation street actress simply captioned the snap saying: 'This day'.

In another post, she revealed that the pair were enjoying living together and hosting for pals as she told fans: 'Making a lasagne for an italian and a former italian. Is this a good idea?! @pernicegiovanniofficial @pernicegiovann1 @realjoanneclifton #familytea #newhome'

The sweet posts came after it was reported her ex-boyfriend, fellow Corrie star Sean Ward, allegedly flew into a violent rage following the Strictly Come Dancing final in December, leaving her 'bruised' and with the police almost involved.

But Georgia couldn't have looked happier following those claims as she and her current partner led the flurry of showbiz faces at the central London hotspot on a relatively overcast Tuesday afternoon.

So in love: Georgia and Giovanni's TRIC appearance followed her spate of sweet selfies of the two of them, showing that they are very much in love

Our loving home: In another post, Georgia revealed that the pair were enjoying living together and hosting for pals as she told fans, 'Making a lasagne for an italian and a former italian. Is this a good idea?!
She found herself at the centre of a Twitter spat with the self-appointed queen of social media, Kim Kardashian, after she criticised her decision to post a nude snap online.

But Chloe Moretz looked as though she didn't have a care in the world as she grabbed a bite to eat with friends at Katsuya in Brentwood, California, on Monday night after returning from a promotional trip to Seoul, South Korea.

Although the teen actress, 19, didn't seem at all bothered by the 35-year-old reality star's rather cutting comments, she made the somewhat unusual choice of showing her support for Kim's husband Kanye West by wearing a pair of his Yeezy Boost 350 trainers on her feet.

Kim who? Chloe Moretz looked as though she didn't have a care in the world as she grabbed a bite to eat with friends at Katsuya in Brentwood, California, on Monday night amid a Twitter spat with Kim Kardashian

Unusual choice: The teen actress, 19, showed her support for Kim's husband Kanye West by wearing a pair of his Yeezy Boost 350 trainers on her feet

Raising a wry smile for the cameras as she headed to her car, the screen star went make-up free and wore her blonde locks loose and untousled around her shoulders.

Chloe teamed her Yeezy Boosts with a low-key pastel pink sweater and form-fitting grey leggings as she headed home for the evening, no doubt keen to put the drama behind her

Kim hit back at criticism over sharing her nude picture on Monday by posting another one early on Tuesday morning.

The bodacious reality TV star posted a black and white shot of herself standing against a darkened background along with the comment '#liberated'.

Kim showed off almost every inch of her curves, covering her chest with a well-placed arm, as she hit back at the likes of Bette Midler, Chloe Moretz and Piers Morgan following their comments over her original image posted on Monday.

Although the previous image showed her with blonde hair - hinting it was a throwback from last year, before she fell pregnant with her second child Saint - this showed her with her trademark raven tresses.

Hitting back: Kim, 35, shared another nude photo on Twitter, in response to criticism over her previous naked selfie voiced by the likes of Chloe, Bette Midler and Piers Morgan

No drama: Chloe didn't seem at all bothered by the 35-year-old reality star's rather cutting comments as she headed home for the evening after a low-key night out

Holding her arm across her generous chest to protect her modesty, and her other hand over her groin, her slim waistline and curved hips appeared more hourglass-shaped than ever.

This new photo came after she went on an epic Twitter rant in the style of her husband Kanye West.

She took to slamming her critics in typical Yeezy fashion, after receiving backlash over posting a nude selfie to Twitter.

The reality star lashed out at Bette and Chloe, who had shared their disdain at her exhibitionism earlier that day.

Backlash: Kim hit back at her very famous critics after getting slammed for posting a nude photo of herself to Twitter on Monday

Kim also brazenly appeared to imply she's paid off her husband Kanye's supposed $53 million debts.

Kim wrote on Twitter on Monday, the day after she posted her now-infamous selfie, some sharp words for 70-year-old Midler.

'hey @BetteMidler I know it's past your bedtime but if you're still up and reading this send nudes #justkidding,' Kim wrote.

Defending herself: The 35-year-old lashed out at Better Midler and Chloe Moretz after the many celebs responded to her brazen tweet

Kim wrote on Twitter on Monday, the day after she posted her now infamous selfie, some sharp words for 70-year-old Midler

A good cause: Amid the row, Chloe posed for a selfie to celebrate her new partnership with Monthly Gift to launch 'A box for your box' to celebrate International Women's Day with Days for Girls

Then added: 'hey @BetteMidler I really didn't want to bring up how you sent me a gift awhile back trying to be a fake friend then come at me #dejavu'.

She then hit out at 19-year-old Moretz, writing: 'let's all welcome to twitter, since no one knows who she is. your nylon cover is cute boo'.

Kim also bragged about how much money she's bagged: 'sorry I'm late to the party guys I was busy cashing my 80 million video game check & transferring 53 million into our joint account'.

Earlier that day Midler tweeted: 'Kim Kardashian tweeted a nude selfie today. If Kim wants us to see a part of her we've never seen, she's gonna have to swallow the camera.'

The comedienne's followers were quick to applaud her remark.

Not loving it: Midler, 70, had some sharp words for Kim earlier that day; here she is seen in February

The pen is mightier than the sword: 'Kim Kardashian tweeted a nude selfie today. If Kim wants us to see a part of her we've never seen, she's gonna have to swallow the camera,' wrote the movie legend

Serious shade: The young actress said Kim needs to be a better role model so that women learn to value more than just their bodies

Stephen Cramer wrote: 'Exactly! Last thing this world needs is ANOTHER damn Kim Kardashian naked selfie.'

Kyle O'Connor added, 'Holy S***, you are my hero now.' Audi Bunny added: 'True words from a classy lady who doesn't need to post naked photos!'

Meanwhile, Piers Morgan made a joke following her original image's release, claiming that her husband ought to buy her some clothes.

The 50-year-old TV presenter and journalist shared Kim's snap and wrote: 'I know the old man's $50 million in debt, Kim - but this is absurd. Want me to buy you some clothes?'

Offer: British journalist and TV star Piers Morgan joked that he was going to buy Kim clothes following her nude selfie

Response: After Kim hit back at Piers, he aired his views that Kanye had 'seized control of Kim's phone' before writing to Midler on the social networking site

Involved: Piers, 50, became involved in the huge Twitter drama on Monday, and it continued on Tuesday morning as he presented Good Morning Britain

Kim responded sharply: 'hey @piersmorgan never offer to buy a married woman clothes. thats on some ashley madison type s**t #forresearch.'

Piers later hit back in typical humorous fashion, writing: 'Fairly sure @kanyewest just seized control of @KimKardashian's phone.'

The tirade continued as he presented Good Morning Britain on Tuesday morning, as he joked to his co-host Susanna Reid that it was 'raging on' while he was on-air.

Following the show, he later added to Twitter a message to cohort Midler: 'I've got this @BetteMidler - relax. cc @KimKardashian.'

Still, Kim's fans seem to love the shot. Within hours she received 1.1 million likes. Comments ranged from 'Perfect' to 'I'm gonna do this next time I have nothing to wear. Lol.'

Did you take over her account: Kanye is known for his epic Twitter rants (see below a recent tirade against DeadMau5), pictured in Paris last week

More to love: And yet just after Midler took her claws out, Kim posted yet another sexy snap, this time in a low-cut top showing off her decolletage. The caption read: 'Paris flashback BTS on my app!'

Another view: The mother to Saint and North added this snap minutes later with the hashtag 'This time last year'

And yet just after Midler took her claws out, Kim posted yet another sexy snap, this time in a low-cut top showing off her decolletage. The caption read: 'Paris flashback BTS on my app!'

But it was the nude one - her breasts and hips covered with black bars - that caused the major storm.

With her hair peroxide blonde, it seems it's a throwback snap to when she was blonde during a stint at Paris Fashion Week, as she has been sharing other flashback shots from that time on her page.

The cheeky star wrote along with the sexy image: 'When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL.'

She looked sensational in the picture, her waist whittled and toned, her hips curved and shapely as ever, showing that she is yearning for her pre-pregnancy figure.

Underneath the top bar of obscurity, her ample chest was let loose and needing no help from a bra to give her an impressive cleavage.

See more of the latest Kim Kardashian updates as she posts a completely naked photo

Throwback? Kim sported a peroxide blonde wig for her appearance at New York Fashion Week with her family, but it's thought the naked picture is from a year ago, before she fell pregnant

As ever, the selfie queen pouted seductively in the picture, her tousled locks giving her a real bed-head, dishevelled appearance.

Kim and husband Kanye West welcomed their son Saint in December, a little brother for their two-year-old daughter North.

And this isn't the first time Kim has raised eyebrows with a selfie: famous for her revealing self-taken snaps, this is just another standard day for the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star.

That's a change! On Saturday, the 35-year-old was covered up in all-black as she stepped out for a spot of shopping

Kim is open about battling with her body weight, especially during and after pregnancy, but her confidence and famous figure have returned and fans are certainly delight that the queen of curves is back on top form.

The stunning star, who usually boasts dark locks, was seen out at the weekend having covered up her frame in her trademark leggings and a black roll-neck underneath a shoulder-robed black coat.

She gave no hint at her regained confidence as she tried to cut a low-key figure in her all-black attire while taking daughter North for a shopping trip at Toys 'R Us.

Remember this? Kim previously shared a famous 'belfie', a shot of her rounded derriere in October 2013, four months after the birth of daughter North

Meanwhile, this will no doubt be added to Kim's catalogue of eye-popping selfies, including the now-iconic 'belfie' shot.

She originally shared the sexy picture in October 2013, a comeback photo of sorts as it came four months after the birth of daughter North, who was born in June 2013.

At the time, Kanye - to whom she wasn't yet married - retweeted the sultry image and wrote: ''HEADING HOME NOW.

And in 2014, Kim cemented her place as a person who really isn't afraid of a bit of nudity, as she appeared on the front cover of Paper magazine.

She's done it before, she'll do it again: In 2014, Kim showed off her oiled backside in Paper magazine as she tried to 'break the internet'

Inside the issue, she revealed her completely naked posterior, her skin oiled almost beyond recognition, and she almost did break the internet as the headline on the issue so claimed she would

Kim, meanwhile, is hard at work trying to shed the baby weight. In January, she revealed proudly that she had already lost 30lb - just six weeks after giving birth - but also added that she had another 40lb she wanted to lose.

She wrote on Twitter: 'I'm so excited! I'm 30lbs down today but 40 to go!'

The multi-faceted star added her reasons for such a dramatic goal: 'I gained 60lbs during my pregnancy but have been an extra 10lbs up for the last few years.

'So it's time to really get to my goal.'

Bumping along: During her pregnancy, Kim proudly showed off her growing bump with plenty of selfies, but now she is set on losing around another 40lb

It also seems that Kim was perhaps trying to upstage her big sister Kourtney who shared her own racy selfie on Instagram on Sunday.

The mother-of-three was seen laying down and showing off her wilder side as she flashed a glimpse of her breast in a sheer bra.

While most of the sheer garment is hidden, the left breast cup can clearly be seen, along with some of the 36-year-old reality television personality's nipple.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians favourite was not shy about posting the image however, which she simply captioned, 'Goodnight.'
John Goodman is a fan of SNL vet Kristen Wiig.

And when the Roseanne star spotted the 42-year-old comedienne at a Hollywood party, he was so excited to introduce himself to her that he didn't seem to think it was a big deal to interrupt the conversation she was in.

Too bad she was not as enthusiastic about meeting the 63-year-old movie icon. As Goodman told The Howard Stern Show on Monday, the Bridesmaids beauty took one look at him and said, 'Yeah, I'll talk to you in a minute.'

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Snubbed: John Goodman was given the cold shoulder by Kristen Wiig when he introduced himself to her at a party, he told Howard Stern on Monday

John - who was on Stern to promote his new movie 10 Cloverfield Lane - told the shock jock: 'She was talking to somebody else, and I was just - I think she's so great, and the social barriers broke down and I interrupted the conversation.

'And I would just hate for somebody to do that to me. And she goes, "Yeah, I'll talk to you in a minute."'

John made the sound of a bomb dropping then continued: 'It was like the Atom. I shrunk down to Atom size. ... I really like her, and it was embarrassing, so I'll never speak to her again.'

He was dissed: Goodman, seen here in October, revealed the Bridesmaids beauty took one look at him and said, 'Yeah, I'll talk to you in a minute'

He has experience: The New Orleans native worked on the show Roseanne with Roseanne Barr in the Eighties and Nineties

Kristen last starred in Zoolander 2 and is best known for working on Saturday Night Live in 2008 and 2009. Next the New York native will work co-star with Melissa McCarthy in Ghostbusters.

Goodman also talked to Stern about working with George Clooney and Matt Damon on 2014 WWII movie The Monuments Men.

The TV icon said he never felt he fit in with the 'super A-level guys' on set.

'I tried to hang with them, but [Monuments Men co-stars] Matt [Damon] and George [Clooney] would always have these conversations, and they'd go out for cocktails afterwards and I don't really drink, and I don't bring a lot to that party because they're super A-level guys,' Goodman said.

Her first big hit: The blonde beauty, seen here with Rose Byrne as Helen, Melissa McCarthy as Megan, Maya Rudolph as Lillian, Wendi McLendon-Covey as Rita and Ellie Kemper as Becca, has been a movie star only since 2011 when she starred in Bridesmaids

He did enjoy getting to know Bill Murray on set, however, and added they took bike rides together.

Goodman did praise Brie Larson who he is filming Kong: Skull Island with in Hawaii and Australia.

'I love her. ... she is so charismatic. She would organize - she was like the only girl there, on set ... every weekend she would organize stuff to do for people. We'd go look at kangaroos and she'd organize a trip to an amusement park after they closed,' he gushed.

'Just stuff for people to do. Because she's over-sensitive about people getting nervous and angry and on each other's nerves. She's incredible.'

John addressed his recent weight loss and admitted he was just eating a lot of junk and it had to stop.

We're guessing Goodman won't buy a ticket to this film: Next up for Wiig is Ghostbustes with McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones

'I just stopped stuffing food in [my] mouth every five minutes,' he said. 'It turns out I was just eating all the time. It was all crap. Everything. M&Ms. Just crap.'

The star said he started eating smaller portions and started using an elliptical machine at home.

And he started to lose weight because 'you have to look in the mirror every day and you say, eh, I gotta deal with this schmuck. I'm just a schmo.'

Goodman told Howard he quit drinking eight years ago.

"I got sober in L.A. and I was really worried about going home [to New Orleans] I found a good community and good support,' he said.

Before he stop drinking he admitted he would drink on set.

'I was drunk a couple of times during [The Big] Lebowski, but that was way too many for me. That was something I swore to myself I would never do - drink at work,' he said.
14 candidates running for Chad presidency

Fourteen candidates will compete for Chad's presidency in elections on April 10, including long-time incumbent President Idriss Deby Itno and opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo, the constitutional council said Monday.

Deby, in power for 26 years, is running for a fifth term.

The list of his presidential rivals, announced on television, includes all the major opposition figures in a Sahel country that remains poor despite starting to make money from oil exports.

The President of Chad Idriss Deby Itno speaking during a meeting with the French prime minister, the French defense minister and the French ambassador to Chad at the presidential palace in N'Djamena on November 22, 2014 Miguel Medina (AFP/File)

Kebzabo, president of the National Union for Development and Renewal (UNDR), is running for a third time, having stood against Deby in 1996 and 2001 and served under him as a minister several times.

Other candidates include Nouredine Delwa Kassire Koumakoye, a former prime minister under Deby, and Laoukein Kourayo Medard, the popular mayor of economic capital Moundou.

The elections come after a wave of unrest that has rocked Chad in recent weeks, with students taking to the streets in fury over the gang rape of a girl in mid-February, allegedly by the sons of a government minister and three army generals.
Australian miner Fortescue to team up with Brazil's Vale

Australia's Fortescue Metals on Tuesday opened the door to joint ventures and other investment deals with the world's biggest iron ore producer Vale under an agreement aimed at serving Chinese customers.

As iron ore prices jumped a record 19 percent overnight on the prospect of more Chinese stimulus, Fortescue Metals Group said it had entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian giant.

"(It) will allow us to work together to deliver long-term value to our customers, through the efficient supply of an attractive and competitive new iron ore blend in China," Fortescue chief executive Nev Power said.

Fortescue's Herb Elliot Port in western Australia

Fortescue, of which billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest is a major shareholder, said the memorandum of understanding proposed the formation of one or more joint ventures for the blending of selected volumes of iron ore from both companies.

It also provided a framework for potential investment by Vale in Fortescue "through a minority acquisition of shares on market and/or investment in current or future mining assets", a statement said.

After the announcement, Fortescue issued a clarifying statement, saying the memorandum of understanding "contemplates an acquisition of its listed shares of between 5 percent and 15 percent, as agreed between the parties".

Iron ore producers had been battling a supply glut and softening Chinese demand, which has seen the price of the key steel-making ingredient plunge.

But commodity markets surged on Monday with iron ore spiking 19 percent to US$63.73 on China's weekend announcement to expand spending, with the prospect of increased steel consumption boosting iron ore.

Shares in Fortescue, which exports 165 million tonnes of iron ore annually from its deposits in Western Australia's Pilbara region, soared 23.7 percent on Monday, but closed down 9.42 percent after Tuesday's announcement at Aus$2.79 in an overall falling market.
Among the believers: hope endures for MH370 relatives

Distrust, disbelief, despair: two years after their loved ones vanished, many Chinese relatives of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 still refuse to believe they are somewhere at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

The unique circumstances of the disaster -- including conflicting initial accounts, an inconclusive search and a backdrop of scepticism all contribute to their insistence, specialists say.

For many Chinese families, the impact of the disaster was magnified by the one-child policy, which over the past 30 years forced hundreds of millions of parents to pin all their hopes for the future on a single offspring.

Many of the parents of MH370's 153 Chinese passengers are elderly and retired, a time when their children would traditionally have looked after them in a multi-generational household Wang Zhao (AFP/File)

Without that hope, one mother said, she "might as well be dead".

But with a two-year deadline to take legal action looming, scores have filed suit for the wrongful deaths of their relatives, even while some insist they are still alive.

In the US, 43 passengers' relatives have sued in New York, and, among other legal actions, on Monday the families of 12 Chinese passengers filed cases against the airline, aircraft manufacturer Boeing, aero-engine maker Rolls Royce and insurers at a Beijing court.

Many of the parents of MH370's 153 Chinese passengers -- among 239 people on board -- are elderly and retired, a time when their children would traditionally have looked after them in a multi-generational household.

"Because of China's special circumstances, I was only allowed to have one son," said Lin Xiaolan, 51.

"When something like this happens, how can you talk about compensation, settling differences? How can you possibly settle this?"

A gynaecologist from Xining, in the northwestern province of Qinghai, she says she has a "mother's sixth sense" that her son Lin Annan, 27 at the time, is still alive.

"As mothers, none of us can live normal lives anymore, because there has been no answer to the mystery -- it's always hanging there, this knot of worry in your heart," she said.

Malaysia Airlines was involved in a cover up that was probably a "political game between nations", she said.

"If we don't file suit, it's equivalent to giving up the right to look for our children. The goal of the lawsuit isn't to get money, but to seek justice for our children and the truth."

- Conspiracy theories -

An initial search for the aircraft focused on the South China Sea, before radar traces showed it turning back to cross peninsular Malaysia and over the Indian Ocean. Citing imprecise satellite data, authorities believe it flew south for hours before going down in one of the remotest locations on earth.

A vast Australian-led search of 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 square miles) of seabed has so far failed to locate the wreckage, with only a piece of the plane washing up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion as solid evidence of its fate.

Conspiracy theories offered relatives a way to try to address the fact that "you do feel powerless, you don't know what's happened, and you're looking for ways to explain it," said Karen Douglas, professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in Britain, who has used MH370 in her research in the field.

Authoritarian governments whose pronouncements are not believed by their citizens could create more fertile ground for such beliefs, she told AFP.

"It makes perfect sense that in a place where you're forced into a corner and you don't really trust, then it's likely that conspiracy theories might be more plausible."

- 'Sold out' -

Gao Xianying, 65, who lost her daughter, son-in-law, and three-year-old granddaughter on the flight, moved from Anhui to Beijing so that she can protest daily at the offices of Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian and US embassies, and China's foreign ministry.

"For days on end I'll dream the same dream -- that my daughter has come home and is calling me 'mother'," she said, crying.

"I used to be so happy, my old age was the happiest time of my life -- I raised my daughter well and got her married. But now my whole life has been upended; I'm living, but I might as well be dead."

Many of the passengers on board MH370 were their family's primary breadwinners, leaving their families in straitened circumstances.

Wen Wancheng, 65, a retired sewage collector whose 35-year-old son was on board, has borrowed to support his daughter-in-law and two grand-children, aged three and nine.

"My son hasn't come home and his children are so young. One of the hardest things has been the financial pressure."

According to lawyers, Malaysia Airlines offered Chinese families compensation of 2.52 million yuan ($386,000) per victim.

Malaysia Airlines said in February that 42 next-of-kin of those on board had collected "full compensation", without giving further details.

Wen looked on those who had taken the money with scorn. "You've basically sold out your child. You're no better than a thief."

The passengers and crew aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Many of the passengers on board MH370 were their family's primary breadwinners, leaving their families in straitened circumstances Fred Dufour (AFP/File)
White House 'surprised' Netanyahu declined Obama invite

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down US President Barack Obama's invitation for talks later this month in Washington, a "surprised" White House said.

The episode was just the latest sign of frosty relations between the two leaders on the eve of US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel.

An Obama aide said on Monday the Israeli government had requested a meeting to take place on March 17 or 18, and the White House had responded selecting the latter date two weeks ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, on March 6, 2016 Abir Sultan (Pool/AFP/File)

"We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.

"Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister's schedule are false."

Israel and the United States have been seeking to move past deep disagreement over the Iran nuclear accord, which Netanyahu strongly opposed, and work out a new 10-year defense aid package.

The current deal grants Israel some $3.1 billion annually, in addition to spending on other projects such as missile defense.

Netanyahu's visit in Washington would have coincided with the annual conference of pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC in which he has previously participated.

Biden's trip, due to begin Tuesday, comes amid a five-month wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that has killed 181 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

The White House said on Friday that Biden would not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit.

Obama has acknowledged that there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

His administration's tough criticism of Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank has added to tensions between the two longstanding allies.

In recent months, however, the US and Israel had sought to reaffirm the strength of their ties.
Cast of Suu Kyi aides tipped for Myanmar president role

A doctor, a one-time driver and a personal assistant head a motley ensemble of possible picks for Myanmar's next president, as democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi seeks a close confidante to rule in her place.

Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from Myanmar's presidency by a constitution that thwarts her ambition to lead the country away from decades of military rule.

Instead she has vowed to rule "above" the next leader, potentially adopting a system like India's Sonia Gandhi, who wielded huge influence over her Congress party's administrations despite having no official government role.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from Myanmar's presidency by a constitution that thwarts her ambition to lead the country away from decades of military rule Ye Aung Thu (AFP/File)

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a resounding victory at November elections -- a direct endorsement for the Nobel laureate who is the shining star of the country's democracy movement.

The NLD is due to nominate a candidate to replace outgoing President Thein Sein at a meeting in parliament on Thursday.

In total three names will be put forward -- one selected from MPs in the lower and upper houses -- and one from the unelected soldiers who are gifted a quarter of all seats under a charter they wrote.

But with just days to go before a selection, the public remains entirely in the dark about the candidates.

The uncertainty has stirred up a storm of speculation, with a list of possible figures including Suu Kyi's former driver, her family doctor and her erstwhile personal assistant.

How the veteran activist, who is excluded from top office because she married and had children with a foreigner, will manage the relationship with a proxy president is also unclear.

"It is going to create huge problems," said political analyst Khin Zaw Win, adding that the new president would always have to "look over his shoulder" for instructions from Suu Kyi.

"It is a very murky picture. (But) one of the bright things is at least a transition is taking place," he told AFP.

- 'Murky picture' -

Myanmar politics are haunted by memories of the NLD's 1990 election victory, which was swatted away by the former junta who went on to rule for two more decades.

As the NLD closes ranks, presidential speculation has recently zoomed in on Htin Kyaw, a genial 69-year-old who acted as Suu Kyi's driver during her brief spells of freedom from house arrest.

The son-in-law of the NLD's late spokesman and a school friend of Suu Kyi, Htin Kyaw has long been a staunch ally and currently helps run her charitable foundation.

Others names doing the rounds include Tin Myo Win, her personal doctor during the long years of house arrest, Tin Oo, an octogenarian former general turned NLD veteran, and her personal assistant Tin Mar Aung, one of the few women who have been touted.

All are in their late sixties or above in a country where more than half the population is under 30.

But for Suu Kyi's supporters, few are able to match her star power.

"We want Daw Suu to be our president, there is no other position that is suitable for her," said Yangon tour company director Tun Tun Naing, using a term of respect.

- Formidable challenges -

In public Suu Kyi has repeatedly struck a conciliatory tone towards a military that kept her under house arrest for 15 years.

This focus on national reconciliation is expected to be reflected in a cabinet, announced by the NLD in the coming days, that will include figures from across the political spectrum.

It is not clear if Suu Kyi will join the executive, which under Myanmar's web of political rules means she would have to relinquish her position as head of the NLD.

Expectations are running high from a public eager to grasp the change promised by Suu Kyi and her party in their election campaign.

Thein Sein, who took office in 2011, ushered in reforms that saw most junta-era sanctions lifted. Political and economic freedoms have begun to blossom.

Newly-imported cars now jostle on Yangon's streets while farmers check once-banned social media on mobile phones that were previously the preserve of a tiny elite.

But formidable challenges lie ahead, including resuscitating long-neglected public services, infrastructure and improving the cloudy legal environment.

Suu Kyi will also need to work with the army in efforts to end decades of civil war in ethnic minority borderlands.

Tin Oo (R), patron of the National League for Democracy party, and Tin Mar Aung, Aung San Suu Kyi's personal assistant, visits a parliamentary session in Naypyidaw on February 1, 2016 Ye Aung Thu (AFP/File)

Myanmar's parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann at parliament in Naypyidaw during his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, on November 19, 2015 Ye Aung Thu (AFP/File)
South Korea says North hacked official phones, unveils sanctions

South Korea on Tuesday accused North Korea of hacking the smartphones of government officials, and unveiled new sanctions on Pyongyang over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) -- the South's spy agency -- said the North had stolen phone numbers and texts from the phones of dozens of key officials between late February and early March.

North Korean hackers also sent phishing emails to employees of two provincial railway operators in an attempt to steal passwords that could have allowed a cyber-attack on rail traffic control systems, the agency said in a statement.

The National Intelligence Service -- the South's spy agency -- said the North had stolen phone numbers and texts from the phones of dozens of key officials between late February and early March

"North Korea has been mounting a series of attacks against our cyberspace" following its nuclear test on January 6, the statement said, adding that they appeared to have been preparation for a major cyber assault on South Korea's banking network.

"If left unchecked, it would have resulted in major financial chaos, such as paralysis of Internet banking systems and unwanted transfers of deposits," it said.

Seoul has blamed North Korean hackers for a series of past cyber-attacks on military institutions, banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites as well as a nuclear power plant.

The United States also said the North was behind a damaging cyber-attack on Sony's Hollywood film unit over its controversial North Korea-themed satirical film "The Interview" in 2014.

The NIS revelations came as Seoul unveiled a series of fresh unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang and asked citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants abroad.

The new measures blacklisted scores of North Korean individuals and entities and banned any vessels previously docked in North Korean ports from South Korean waters.

They follow tough sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council last week and -- though largely symbolic given the lack of North-South economic ties -- are likely to prompt an angry response from Pyongyang.

"Since North Korean facilities such as overseas restaurants are one of North Korea's channels for foreign currency, we ask the public to refrain from using these facilities," said Lee Suk-Joon, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The South Korean government estimates that Pyongyang rakes in around $10 million every year from some 130 restaurants in 12 countries.

Lee said the government suspected most of the foreign currency was "ultimately being used for weapons of mass destruction."

The move to ban foreign vessels that have previously docked in the North would appear to spell the end of an ambitious trilateral infrastructure project aimed at transporting Russian coal to South Korean ports through the North's port city of Rajin and Russia's border town of Khasan.

The so-called Rajin-Khasan project was viewed as an integral part of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye's vision of uniting the railways of South and North Korea to connect them to Europe.

Undated photo released on March 4, 2016 shows a test-fire of a new large-caliber rocket at an undisclosed location in North Korea
US case filed against Boeing over MH370 disappearance

The family of an MH370 passenger has brought a lawsuit against Boeing in what is believed to be the first case filed in the United States against the manufacturer of the missing plane.

The suit was filed last week in Chicago, where Boeing is headquartered, on behalf of MH370 passenger and US citizen Philip Wood.

It alleges that the Boeing 777 aircraft flown by Malaysia Airlines was a defective product and seeks court-determined compensation, according to a copy of the complaint.

Tuesday marks exactly two years since MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew Mohd Rasfan (AFP)

Tuesday marks exactly two years since the flight vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew.

Authorities believe it veered out over the remote southern Indian Ocean, where it went down, but no crash site has been found and the cause of the tragedy remains unknown.

The second anniversary is the deadline for legal action against the airline, and lawsuits have been filed in recent days on behalf of well over 100 next-of-kin in courts in the United States, Malaysia, China, Australia, and elsewhere.

The Boeing suit said the flight's disappearance was due in part to the aircraft's lack of "readily available and reasonable alternative technologies that would have permitted the Boeing airplane's precise location to be tracked in real-time anywhere on the planet."

It also said the failure so far to find a crash site indicated Boeing had equipped the jet's black boxes with "ineffectual" underwater locator beacons, and that the lack of evidence pointing to any non-mechanical cause indicates an aircraft problem.
Supreme Court approves Poe's run for Philippine presidency

The Philippines' Supreme Court gave the go-ahead Tuesday for leading presidential candidate Grace Poe to run in May elections, removing a major obstacle in her bid to become the country's third female leader.

The court rejected a December ruling by the election commission that Poe, the adopted daughter of movie star parents, should be disqualified on the grounds she was not a "natural born" Filipino and she had not lived in the Philippines long enough.

"The petition (of Poe) is granted 9-6," court spokesman Theodore Te told reporters, but did not discuss the judges' reasoning.

Philippine presidential candidate Grace Poe and her running mate Senator Francis 'Chiz" Escudero greet supporters as they launch their campaigns for the May national elections in Manila on February 9, 2016 Jay Directo (AFP/File)

Poe, a senator who is narrowly leading most opinion polls to succeed President Benigno Aquino in the May vote, immediately hailed the decision.

"This is a victory not only for myself, but also for the poor and the downtrodden... as well as for all women," 47-year-old Poe told cheering supporters at an International Women's Day rally in Manila.

The constitution defines natural-born Filipinos as "those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their citizenship".

Critics contended Poe failed this test since it was not known if her biological parents were Filipino citizens.

They also alleged Poe, who at one time acquired and then later renounced US citizenship, had not been a resident of the Philippines continuously over the past 10 years, a requirement for the post.

Poe says she was abandoned soon after birth at a Catholic church nave and adopted by the country's most famous film star couple when she was five.

With no political experience at the time, Poe was a surprise top vote-winner in the 2013 senatorial election, helped by a fresh, outsider image with an electorate that had grown weary of rampant corruption.

She mostly benefited from sympathy votes for her late adopted father, Fernando Poe, who was allegedly cheated into second place in the 2004 presidential election by Gloria Arroyo.

Campaigning in a celebrity-obsessed culture that has voted movie stars in the senate and even the presidency, Poe has taken full advantage of her film royalty status, frequently invoking her father's name on the stump.

She has vowed to pursue her father's pledge "to help the poor, fight oppression and forge a prosperous and just society".

Poe's main rivals are Aquino's close ally and preferred successor, Mar Roxas, Vice President Jejomar Binay and provincial politician Rodrigo Duterte, who styles himself as a "Dirty Harry" anti-crime crusader.

The four are in a near statistical dead heat, with Poe just ahead, according to one reputable poll released last week.
Hardline Iran cleric denies wanting to stay on key body

The outgoing ultraconservative chairman of Iran's powerful Assembly of Experts denied Tuesday that efforts were being made to keep him on the key body despite him losing out in elections.

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, 84, failed to retain his seat on the assembly, Iran's top clerical committee, when the public voted on February 26, the same day as parliamentary elections.

The Assembly of Experts has authority to monitor supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's work.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left) greets Mohammad Yazdi during a 2015 meeting in Tehran - (Khamenei.IR/AFP)

Should the 76-year-old ultimate authority in the Islamic republic die during the new assembly's eight-year term it would then pick his successor.

Yazdi's ejection was seen as a defeat for hardliners and as a symbolic win for moderates such as President Hassan Rouhani and former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who placed third and first in the Tehran election to the assembly.

A reformist alliance formed in support of Rouhani for the elections had campaigned against Yazdi's re-election.

Speaking on day one of the current assembly's final two-day gathering before its successor group formally takes office, Yazdi confirmed he would not be among its 88 members.

"I shall not be in your service in the future and I am happy about this," the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Yazdi as saying. He denounced as "a sheer lie" reports published online that he was trying to keep his seat.

"I deny that measures have been taken by me or by the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom for someone to step aside and for me to come up and enter the Assembly of Experts.

"An absolutely decent and calm election was successfully held in a vast country and not a drop of blood was shed from anyone's nose. I congratulate all those who were elected."

Yazdi remains a member of the Guardian Council, an unelected constitutional watchdog that has yet to endorse the election results.

A second hardline cleric, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, an outspoken critic of reformists, also lost his assembly seat.
Tiger on the loose in Doha traffic jam

A tiger was spotted wandering through a traffic jam on one of Doha's busiest roads on Tuesday, and government officials said they would investigate the incident after footage appeared online.

Pictures and video showing the tiger roaming among cars on the Doha Expressway flooded social media in the tiny Gulf country.

Footage including a 20-second video on YouTube and Twitter showed the big cat running through lanes of heavy traffic, apparently trying to find a way off the congested road.

Keeping wild animals, including tigers, as pets is not uncommon in wealthy Gulf countries such as Qatar Karen Bleier (AFP/File)

Footage also emerged showing the tiger initially falling onto the road from a moving truck.

The interior ministry took to Twitter to say it was investigating the incident.

"We assure all that the concerned authorities (are) following up with what has been trending over spotting a tiger in some areas of the country," it tweeted.

Twitter users said the incident happened on Tuesday morning, although this could not be immediately verified.

One picture released on social media claimed to show that the big cat had been captured safe and sound.

It was not clear who owns the tiger, but keeping wild animals, including tigers, as pets is not uncommon in wealthy Gulf countries.

Last year, the government had to make an appeal for the owners of an escaped cheetah cub to come forward after it was found north of Doha.

After one sighting of a tiger several years ago, a spoof Doha Tiger twitter site was created.
IS fire from Syria kills 2 in Turkey, including child

Eight rockets fired from a jihadist-controlled area of Syria slammed into a Turkish border town on Tuesday, killing two people including a four-year-old child, officials said.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed two Turkish citizens in the town of Kilis had been killed by fire coming from an area in Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists and that the Turkish army had returned fire.

"Any attack against Turkey will be responded to in the most severe manner and we have already given instructions to our armed forces in this regard," Davutoglu said at a news conference alongside Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

A Syrian child carrying his belongings passes through the Oncupinar border gate to the border town of Kilis, south-east Turkey, on January 24, 2015 Ozan Kose (Observateur/AFP/File)

"We had already made our preparations."

Some of the Katyusha-type rockets hit empty areas in Kilis, but at least one caused casualties, Turkish media quoted the mayor Hasan Kara as saying.

A woman aged 54 was killed in the strike while shrapnel hit a passing car in which two children aged six and four were travelling, the state run Anatolia news agency said.

The four-year-old boy died of his wounds on the way to hospital, it added. The six-year-old was also wounded.

It is the first such incident since January 18, when a rocket fired from an IS-controlled position in Syria killed a janitor and wounded a pupil at a school in Kilis.

Television footage showed anxious residents inspecting a crater made by one of the rockets as another missile slammed into the ground nearby.

Mayor Kara urged residents not to panic, CNN-Turk said.

Turkey has on occasion been accused by its western allies of not doing enough to combat the threat of IS, which has captured swathes of Iraq and Syria right up to its border.

But Ankara is now playing a key role in the US-led anti-IS coalition and hosting foreign warplanes at its Incirlik airbase for strikes on the group.

The latest attack comes after Turkish armed forces launched repeated artillery strikes in the last two weeks on IS positions in Syria.

A fragile ceasefire backed by Turkey has taken effect in Syria, but the deal does not apply to territory held by the IS group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

"The (firing) underlines once again how fragile the ceasefire is," said Davutoglu, emphasising that IS was not a party to the truce.

From mid-February, Turkish artillery had also shelled targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Syria, with the military saying it was responding to incoming fire.

But Turkey has not shelled any positions held by Syrian Kurdish fighters inside Syria since the ceasefire was implemented on February 27.
Ikea says will invest $300 mn in northern India

Ikea on Tuesday said it would invest nearly $300 million in a north Indian state as it forges ahead with plans to start selling its low-cost furniture in the giant market next year.

The Swedish flat-pack behemoth said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the state of Haryana, which neighbours the capital New Delhi, with a view to opening stores there.

Ikea said it would invest 20 billion rupees ($297 million) in the state, hire 1,000 workers directly and employ a further 3,000 indirectly in services such as furniture assembly and delivery.

Ikea has announced plans to open its first stores in India in 2017 Saul Loeb (AFP/File)

Although it sources some of its materials in India, Ikea does not currently have any shops in the country.

It has announced plans to open its first stores in 2017, hoping to win over consumers in the vast market of 1.2 billion, targeting urban dwellers with rising disposable income.

"Haryana is a prioritised state for Ikea due to its open investment climate," the group's India chief executive Juvencio Maeztu said in a statement.

Ikea has already signed memoranda of understanding with several other Indian states, with the first store slated for the southern IT hub of Hyderabad in the summer of 2017.
French court okays extraditing S. Korean linked to ferry disaster

A French court approved Tuesday extraditing to South Korea the daughter of a tycoon blamed for the deadly 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, although the prime minister must now sign off on the decision.

Even if Prime Minister Manuel Valls signs the decree for the extradition of Yoo Som-Na over the catastrophe that killed more than 300 people, the decision can still be contested in France's highest administrative court.

A lawyer for Yoo said extradition would be "unjust" and that her legal team would continue to fight.

More than 300 people were killed when the Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014 Korea Coast Guard (Korea Coast Guard/AFP/File)

"We're not going to stop there, certainly not," Herve Temime told AFP.

Yoo, who was detained in Paris in May 2014, is wanted in South Korea on suspicion that she embezzled millions of dollars from subsidiaries of her family's company, Chonghaejin Marine Co.

South Korean authorities believe the alleged embezzlement contributed to safety defects that led to the April 2014 disaster that claimed the lives of 304 people, most of them high school children.

Yoo strongly denies the accusations.

Her father Yoo Byung-Eun had been the target of a massive manhunt in South Korea after he refused to respond to an official summons following the ferry disaster.

The tycoon, who in addition to his substantial business interests also ran a religious group, was found dead in a plum orchard two months after the disaster.

An autopsy on his badly decomposed body failed to determine the cause of death.

The overloaded 6,825-tonne Sewol was carrying 476 people when it capsized off the southern coast of South Korea.
In Gaza zoo, empty cages and lonely animals as closure looms

In the Gaza Strip, where residents face a daily struggle to survive, animals at the Khan Yunis zoo are dying every week and the tiger hasn't eaten for days.

Of hundreds of animals bought for the zoo's 2007 opening, the only survivors are the last deer of its herd, a pelican, an ostrich, two porcupines and the tiger -- hungry yet still majestic.

All the other cages are empty and overgrown, while a thick stench lingers in the air. Dusty cats weave in and out of the chipped, green bars of the cages as a puppy howls in its pen.

A tiger looks out from inside its cage at a zoo in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 5, 2016 Said Khatib (AFP/File)

Now, after years of effort, zoo owner Mohammed Aweda is admitting defeat. He plans to sell the tiger and the rest of the animals and close the zoo after seeing his dreams fail.

The tiger "has not eaten meat for four days," Aweda tells AFP during a visit to the deserted zoo.

"The food costs 250 Israeli shekels ($63/58 euros) per day," Aweda says. "I have not managed to earn that amount from zoo visits in one year."

When it first opened, families thronged to the 2,000-square-metre Khan Yunis zoo in the south of the Palestinian enclave to see eagles, lions, the tiger, deer, pelicans and even crocodiles for just three shekels.

But between 2008 and 2014, the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, has experienced three wars with Israel.

The last conflict, in the summer of 2014, killed 2,251 Gazans, the majority of them civilians, and 73 Israelis, including 67 soldiers, according to the United Nations.

The animals, too, were caught up in Israeli bombing, with 80 killed according to Aweda.

After the conflict "I waited for days before entering and the smell of death was strong. I found carcasses everywhere."

- An open-air cemetery -

Israel maintains a crippling blockade of the Palestinian enclave and with little in the way of a local economy Gaza's residents simply don't have any money left to spend on going to the zoo.

Inside, a stench emerges from a cage where a barely legible sign tells visitors to respect the cleanliness of the premises.

Dessicated bodies of crocodiles and a lion lie in the sun, surrounded by the bones of other animals.

The weather is fine, but the zoo seems more like an open-air cemetery than a place for joy. Two other zoos in Gaza are in similar states.

School bus driver Tamer al-Nirab says dozens of children used to visit the zoo every day but now "nobody can afford it".

Eighty percent of Gaza's population are reliant on international aid, according to the UN.

At its peak, the zoo had 60 stocked cages, with Aweda and his 13 family members living off the profits.

But now they have taken up other jobs just to try to obtain enough food for the animals.

"Some of my brothers became drivers, others have found employment in small businesses," says Aweda, standing in front of the cage where the 180-kilogramme (400-pound), eight-year-old tiger paces.

To obtain the tiger was a mammoth effort, he says, explaining that it was transported "from Senegal to Egypt, then from Sinai to Gaza through a tunnel."

He is now hoping to sell the beast for $30,000. After that, Aweda says, he will sell the land, and the small zoo of Khan Yunis will be no more.

Zoo owner Mohammed Aweda (R) speaks with Jamal Saad at a zoo in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 5, 2016 Said Khatib (AFP/File)
American killed in Tel Aviv stabbing spree as Biden visits

A Palestinian went on a stabbing spree along the Tel Aviv waterfront Tuesday leaving an American tourist dead and 12 people wounded, police said, as US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in the city.

The attacker, around 21 years old, was from the town of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank and was shot dead by police, Israeli authorities said.

Video showed a man running down a road and lunging at someone through a car window while being chased.

Israeli security forces stand at the scene of a stabbing attack in the neighbourhood of Jaffa in Tel Aviv, as US vice president arrived in the city for a visit, on March 8, 2016 Thomas Coex (AFP)

The attack caused panic, and one witness told Israeli television he hit the assailant with his guitar, with a hole visible in the wood of his instrument.

Police said the attacker wounded a number of people in the Jaffa port area, a tourist zone of Israel's commercial capital, before going on toward a restaurant and stabbing others.

Around a 15-minute walk from where the stabbings occurred, Biden met former Israeli president Shimon Peres.

Biden "condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack which occurred in Jaffa during his meeting with president Peres, and commented that there is no justification for such acts of terror," his office said.

"He expressed his sorrow at the tragic loss of American life and offered his condolences to the family of the American citizen murdered in the attack, as well as his wishes for a full and quick recovery for the wounded."

One woman at the scene said "I heard two guys screaming that there was an attack."

"I ran in the opposite direction and ran into a man who was on the ground in his blood," said the woman, who gave her name as Emily.

She said she "covered him with my jacket. He was badly injured and we waited together for the ambulances to come."

The US State Department identified the dead American as Taylor Allen Force, a 29-year-old native of Texas and a US army veteran, and denounced the attack.

- Wave of violence -

Violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October has killed 184 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Most of the Palestinians were killed while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes or demonstrations.

Biden is due to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday.

When meeting Peres on Tuesday, he spoke of an "unvarnished, complete commitment to the security of Israel. And I hope we will make some progress."

The White House has said Biden will not be pursuing any major new peace initiatives during his visit despite the wave of violence.

The number of attacks had diminished recently, but there were four separate assaults Tuesday.

Two occurred in Jerusalem, including one that saw a Palestinian shoot and seriously wound two Israeli police officers before being shot dead.

Earlier, a Palestinian woman attempted to stab Israeli police forces in Jerusalem's Old City before being shot dead.

Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jew in a liquor store in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.

The victim and owner of the shop pounced on the attacker, seized his weapon and killed him, police said.

Police said they suspected it was a "terrorist" attack but had not excluded other possible motives.

Before Tuesday's violence, Biden's visit had been overshadowed by a new blow to the rocky relationship between US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's decision not to accept an invitation for talks with Obama in Washington later this month "surprised" the White House, which first learned of it through news reports.

Biden's visit comes with Obama having acknowledged there will be no comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

- Expecting 'nothing' -

Talks are expected to include discussions on a defence aid package, currently worth some $3.1 billion annually in addition to spending on projects such as missile defence.

Biden and Netanyahu also plan to talk about the fight against the Islamic State group.

But while Obama has resigned himself to not achieving any major breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there have been suggestions he may seek to somehow kick-start peace efforts at a complete standstill for two years.

That has included speculation the United States could break with traditional practice and support a UN resolution related to resolving the conflict, which Israel strongly opposes.

The United States has traditionally vetoed resolutions at the UN Security Council opposed by Israel.

After his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Biden will travel to Jordan.

US Vice President Joe Biden (L) shakes hands with former Israeli president Shimon Peres during their meeting at the Peres Centre for Peace in Tel Aviv, on March 8, 2016 Thomas Coex (AFP)

Israeli police look for evidence near the scene of a stabbing attack in the neighbourhood of Jaffa in Tel Aviv, as US vice president arrived in the city for a visit, on March 8, 2016 Thomas Coex (AFP)

US Vice President Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill Biden, arrive at Ben Gurion International airport in Tel Aviv, on March 8, 2016 Heidi Levine (Pool/AFP)
Three kidnapped aid workers freed in DRCongo: charity

Three kidnapped employees of Save the Children were released Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive east after nearly a week in captivity, the international charity said.

"I confirm that our three employees were freed and are in good health," Save the Children's DRC director Heather Kerr said.

The three Congolese men were in a convoy of two vehicles driving through the Lubero region when one of the cars was stopped and attacked on Thursday. They were then taken to the bush.

Police forces patrol the streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on February 16, 2016 Junior Kannah (AFP/File)

Kerr did not reveal where the hostages were released, the circumstances leading to their liberation or who their abductors were.

The UN office for humanitarian affairs OCHA had demanded their immediate release and deplored the increasing trend of kidnapping humanitarian workers.

In March 2015 two local employees of the charity were held hostage for 48 hours by unidentified kidnappers in the south of the country's Nord-Kivu province until they were freed by Congolese authorities.
Yemen rebels, Saudis 'in talks about border truce'

Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen have sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss a truce along the border between the two countries, sources close to the negotiators said Tuesday.

The frontier between war-ravaged Yemen and its northern neighbour, which is leading an Arab coalition attacking the rebels from the air and on the ground, has itself seen many deadly incidents in the past year.

"A Huthi delegation is in southern Saudi Arabia for talks about a ceasefire on the border," said one of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Yemeni armed forces loyal to the Huthi Shiite militia and a Huthi fighter (L) stand next to the rubble of a destroyed building following air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on September 16, 2015 in the capital Sanaa Mohammed Huwais (AFP/File)

More than 90 people -- both military and civilian -- have been killed on the Saudi side of the border by fire from Yemen during the conflict.

Northern Yemen is controlled by the rebels, who have been the target of the Saudi-led campaign since March 26 last year.

"The talks are only about a border truce, and are unrelated to the bombardment of areas held by the Huthi militants," another source said.

"Official Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam and military figures are in the rebel delegation," the same source said, without revealing any more details about the secret talks.

It is not known when the reported talks began, any mediator involved or the level of Saudi participation.

A Huthi official refused to confirm or deny to AFP that talks with Saudi Arabia were taking place.

"No comment," the official said from the rebel bastion of Saada in north Yemen.
Babies and boldness for Myanmar's new wave of women MPs

Myanmar MP Wint Wah Tun cradles the baby she named "Parliament" and explains why she shrugged off conservative attitudes to enter parliament as part of a flood of new women lawmakers for Aung San Suu Kyis pro-democracy party.

While she thought hard about whether to stand for election while pregnant with her son, who was born just days before she took her seat, she "cannot accept" the traditional notion that women should give up their career dreams after they become mothers.

"We are perfectly capable," the 30-year-old told AFP, adding she was determined to try to help bring peace to her conflict-torn eastern Kayah state constituency.

Wint Wah Tun, 30, lowerhouse MP from Myanmar's National League for Democracy, holds her son Sai Huttaw at a room in the city development committee building in Naypyidaw on March 8, 2016 Ye Aung Thu (AFP)

"Wherever in the world, armed conflicts break out between men. Women and mothers are caught in the crossfire of men's fighting," she said.

Wint Wah Tun is one of dozens of women MPs for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy who followed the country's most revered female politician into parliament in the heart of Myanmar's junta-built capital after the country's freest elections in generations.

Women now make up 14.5 percent of the combined national parliament, a dramatic increase from the previous legislature  the country's first after the end of outright military rule  which had the lowest percentage in Asia with just 5.9 percent, according to the Asia Foundation's Myanmar representative Kim N B Ninh.

- Increased opportunity -

Despite following in the footsteps of "the Lady" as Suu Kyi is known in Myanmar, many female MPs suffer from a lack of confidence.

A 2015 survey of women in the former parliament suggested they "perceive themselves as being less qualified than they actually are, a perception reinforced by the lack of respect and trust afforded to women in positions of leadership by the society around them," Ninh said in a recent article.

Thandar, a writer and former political prisoner, has needed more confidence than most to sit in a legislature that retains a 25 percent bloc of unelected soldiers.

The 47-year-old has waged a spirited campaign for the army to hold someone accountable for the death of her husband Pargyi, a freelance reporter who was shot dead while in military custody in a restive eastern region in 2014.

She is the only woman on parliaments new committee for citizenship rights.

"I have asked them not to leave me behind because of I'm a woman. I told them not to think I cannot work. I'm capable. I told them that I will work double if there is someone who is sick in the group. I told them like this with my worry if they leave me being as a woman," she told AFP.

Myanmar is in the grips of sweeping changes as it opens to the world following the end of decades of junta rule in 2011.

Those changes have meant increased opportunities for women, with greater freedoms and employment.

But there have also been significant setbacks, with the army-backed government of President Thein Sein bowing to Buddhist nationalist pressure to push through a raft of controversial laws governing birth spacing and inter-faith marriage that were slammed by rights groups as discriminatory to women and religious minorities.

A recent editorial in the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar exhorted women to marry early and have more children.

The article was released just as the United Nation's Population Fund released an open letter in local newspaper the Myanmar Times urging the country to prioritise adolescent girls, "whose ability to achieve their full potential can alter the future course of the country".

Khin San Hlaing, 58, lowerhouse MP from Myanmar's National League for Democracy, seen at her room in the city development committee building in Naypyidaw on March 8, 2016 Ye Aung Thu (AFP)
US regulator unveils low-income broadband subsidy plan

US regulators Tuesday unveiled a proposal to offer broadband subsidies to low-income Americans, saying that Internet access is "a prerequisite for full participation" in modern society.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the proposal, which would involve reorganizing the "Lifeline" plan that is now available for telephone service.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the Lifeline program established in 1985 has helped tens of millions obtain basic telephone service but that today "it doesn't make sense for Lifeline to remain focused only on 20th century voice service."

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler pictured on March 25, 2015, believes it doesn't make sense for Lifeline to remain focused only on 20th century voice service Chip Somodevilla (Getty/AFP/File)

The new plan helps "close the broadband affordability gap," Wheeler said in a blog post with fellow commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

"The biggest reason these Americans dont sign up for broadband is cost. Only half of the nation's households in the lowest income tier subscribe to broadband," Wheeler and Clyburn wrote.

"Internet access has become a prerequisite for full participation in our economy and our society, but nearly one in five Americans is still not benefitting from the opportunities made possible by the most powerful and pervasive platform in history."

To win approval, the FCC will have to win over commission members who have been skeptical about such subsidies, claiming the program has been plagued with fraud and abuse.

Wheeler said the plan calls for a new "eligibility verifier" to be "a powerful check against waste, fraud, and abuse" by using a third party system which relies on data from other government programs such as Medicaid and food assistance.

Phillip Berenbroick at the consumer group Public Knowledge welcomed the proposal, saying that "access to broadband Internet service has become a necessity in modern America."

Daniel Lyons, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said the program's funding base, a tax on telecom carriers known as the Universal Service Fund, is "unsustainable."

Lyons said in a blog that the FCC should seek a federal budget item which "would subject the program to greater congressional oversight and impose on the commission a sense of fiscal accountability that the agency currently seems to lack."
US: Iran missile test would breach UN resolution

The United States warned Tuesday that Iran's latest reported missile test would be in breach of UN resolutions and that Washington could take the matter to the Security Council.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said he could not confirm Iranian state media's claim that Iran had conducted multiple tests, but warned Washington might take unilateral or international action in response.

Kirby said however that the tests would not constitute a breach of the Iran nuclear deal, despite this agreement having been enshrined in international law under the same resolution, UNSC 2231, that banned missile tests.

This undated picture released on October 11, 2015 by the Iranian Defence Ministry reportedly shows the launch of an Imad missile during tests at an undisclosed location in Iran - (Iranian Defense Ministry/AFP/File)

"I do want to make it clear that such tests, if they are true, are not a violation of the JCPOA," he said, referring to the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" -- the nuclear deal implementation mechanism.

"We have and we will use unilateral and multilateral tools to address this. If these latest reports are true, we'll take them up appropriately," he said.

"We're not going to turn a blind eye to this... I'm just trying to get to a technical point here, which is that it's not a violation of the Iran deal itself."

Earlier, Iranian state media announced that precision guided missiles had been fired from several sites over ranges between 300 and 2,000 kilometers.

In January, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran's missile program just 24 hours after separate embargoes targeting its nuclear program had been lifted.

Also on Tuesday, some of the United States' top military commanders raised concerns about what they called Iran's continued "destabilizing behavior" in the Middle East.

CentCom commander General Lloyd Austin, head of US forces in the Middle East, told lawmakers: "A number of things lead me to believe, personally, that their behavior has not changed course yet."

Austin cited the continued missile program, Iran's attempts to develop a cyberwarfare capability, its support for armed militants around the region and Tehran's threat to block the oil export route through the Strait of Hormuz.
Two shot dead in DRCongo clashes over gold mine access

Two people were shot dead in DR Congo's far north in clashes fuelled by tensions over wildcat miners wanting access to one of the largest gold mines in Africa, an official said Tuesday.

Security forces clashed with the protesters over two days at Durba near the Kibali goldmine, Celestin Bondomiso, a senior official of the Haut-Uele province, told AFP.

"One person was killed yesterday and we recorded one more death today, " he said.

Police forces patrol the streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on February 16, 2016 Junior Kannah (AFP/File)

Kibali Goldmines, a joint venture between mining giants Randgold, AngloGold Ashanti and the Congolese parastatal SOKIMO, started mining activities in the area in 2013 and expelled locals living on its concessions.

That led to tensions and local artisanal miners have since been demanding access to the pit.

"We are keeping a close watch and we have just deployed extra police to quell this movement which seems to be a nascent rebellion," Bondomiso said.

"We have asked the army to remain alert."

In a report in October, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo and Dutch non-governmental organisation PAX asked Kibali to let local residents mine in a part of the pit.

The report said while wildcat mining was against the law, "security forces often use force to ensure that KibaliGold's operations go on smoothly."
Total solar eclipse to sweep across Indonesia

Tens of thousands of sky gazers will watch a total solar eclipse sweep across Indonesia on Wednesday, with parties, prayers and tribual rituals to mark the spectacle in the world's biggest archipelago nation.

The eclipse will travel in a broad arc across Indonesia, from the western island of Sumatra, to the spice-fringed Maluku Islands thousands of miles to the east.

From a festival featuring live bands, to fun runs and traditional dances, events are being organised across the country for an estimated 10,000 foreign visitors and 100,000 domestic tourists who will be witnessing the phenomenon.

Officials display a map of the planned trajectory across the Indonesian archipelago of the upcoming total solar eclipse Bay Ismoyo (AFP/File)

Hotels in the best viewing spots filled up weeks ago -- in the city of Ternate, in the Maluku Islands, officials have had to find extra space for tourists on boats.

"It's an extraordinary spectacle that only takes place about once a year in one part of the world," said Arnaud Fischer, a 33-year-old French tourist, who has witnessed several eclipses and was set to watch Wednesday's in Ternate.

However there are concerns that clouds could obscure the view in some places, as it is currently the wet season in Indonesia.

It will be a deeply spiritual experience for many in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, with the faithful being urged by Islamic authorities to perform special eclipse prayers.

Some of Indonesia's tribespeople are fearful of the phenomenon, however. Members of the Dayak tribe in one part of Borneo island will perform a ritual to ensure that the sun, which they view as the source of life, does not disappear entirely.

The total eclipse will sweep across 12 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia, which stretches about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometres) from east to west, before heading across the Pacific Ocean.

It will be visible for between just one and a half to three minutes in most places.

Partial eclipses will be visible in northern Australia and parts of Southeast Asia.

The moon will begin moving across the sun on Sumatra at around 6:20 am (2320 GMT Tuesday), before the eclipse sweeps across Sulawesi and Borneo, then moves over the Malukus and heads out into the ocean.

One of the most popular events for foreign tourists will be a festival close to Palu, in Sulawesi.

Among those coming to Indonesia is Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who recently hit the headlines after a $40,000 toilet custom-built for her visit to Cambodia went unused.

She will be watching the spectacle in Ternate, although officials insist that no luxury commode has been built for her on this occasion.

The last total solar eclipse occurred on March 20, 2015, only visible from the Faroe Islands and Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago.

Total eclipses occur when the moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, and the three bodies align precisely.

As seen from Earth, the moon is just broad enough to cover the solar face, creating a breath-taking silver halo in an indigo sky.

Total solar eclipse John Saeki, Gal Roma, Adrian Leung (AFP)
US criticizes Saudi halt to Lebanon arms

The United States chided its ally Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for cutting off its supply of weapons to Lebanon's official armed forces.

The oil-rich Gulf kingdom, until recently Beirut's main source of funding for arms, has cut off supplies in protest at Hezbollah's influence there.

Saudi Arabia sees the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia movement as a threat and has blocked $4 billion in military aid and urged its citizens to leave Lebanon.

Members of Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah hold their flags on March 1, 2016, in the southern town of Kfour, in the Nabatiyeh district Mahmoud Zayyat (AFP/File)

Like Riyadh, Washington regards Hezbollah as a terror group. On Tuesday US officials said supporting the Lebanese army would dilute the militia's influence.

"We believe that the Lebanese armed forces deserve the support of the international community," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

"Assistance to the Lebanese armed forces and to other legitimate state institutions is essential to help diminish the role of Hezbollah and its foreign patrons," he said, in an implicit swipe at Iran.

"We've raised our concerns about the reports of aid cut off with the Saudi authorities. I'm not going to talk about the details of that."
Son of Nancy and Ronald Reagan inspired by their devotion

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The son of Nancy and Ronald Reagan says he was inspired by his parents' unfailing devotion to each other during their half-century marriage.

"I don't think they ever spent a day apart where they didn't call, speak on the phone," Ron Prescott Reagan told NBC's "Today" show Monday. "He wrote her letters all her life, all his life. They were in love, and they stayed in love for 52 some-odd years."

The former first lady died Sunday in California at 94.

FILE - In this June 10, 2004 file photo, former first lady Nancy Reagan, right, daughter Patti Davis, second from right, and son Ron arrive for funeral services for former President Ronald Reagan at the National Cathedral in Washington Friday, June 10, 2004. The son of Nancy and Ronald Reagan says he was inspired by his parents' unfailing devotion to each other during their 52-year marriage. Reagan spoke on NBC's "Today" show Monday, March 7, 2016, a day after the former first lady died at age 94 in California. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

She never quite got over the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, Ron Reagan said.

"I don't think that she ever had another day during his presidency where there wasn't some sort of fear involved and particularly, of course, when he went out in public," he said.

Ron Reagan's older sister, Patti Davis, said her mother died peacefully in her sleep  just "how she wanted to go."

In a statement on her website, Davis thanked mourners for the support she has received on social media.

"Just as when my father died, there is comfort in feeling surrounded by gentle thoughts and kind wishes, often sent out by strangers," Davis wrote. "And just as when my father died, we will honor my mother publicly  stand on the public stage and share as much as we can."

Davis took her mother's maiden name in order to pursue an independent career as an author and actress. She wrote a tell-all autobiography that spilled family secrets and was estranged from her mother for years, until her father's death in 2004.

Ron Prescott Reagan famously championed liberal causes, despite his father's conservatism. He is a political commentator on MSNBC.

Nancy Reagan's funeral is scheduled for Friday. She will be buried alongside the former president on the grounds of the Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

Michael Reagan, the adopted son of Ronald Reagan and first wife Jane Wyman, tweeted Sunday that his stepmother "is once again with the man she loved."

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2004 file photo, Patti Davis, daughter of late U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, poses near artwork given to the resident at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Davis said her mother died peacefully in her sleep, just "how she wanted to go." In a statement on her web site seen Monday, March 7, 2016, In a statement on her website, Davis thanked mourners for the outpouring of support she has received on social media, a day after the former first lady died at age 94 in California. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Prosecutors look into vote-buying allegations in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP)  In a city where voter fraud is part of local lore, prosecutors are examining allegations by a Chicago alderman and others that campaign workers are paying people to vote for a Democrat involved in one of Illinois' most contentious legislative elections.

Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, said Monday that the office's election unit is "looking into" a complaint against state Rep. Ken Dunkin of Chicago. The complaint was first lodged by Alderman Pat Dowell, a supporter of Dunkin's opponent in the Democratic primary who on Sunday released videos that she says were made by "volunteers" who entered a Dunkin campaign office to secretly record the payments.

A spokesman for Dunkin has called the accusations "baseless."

One video, reportedly made inside a Dunkin campaign office, shows workers apparently making payments with $50 bills. A second one, on the sidewalk outside a building sporting Dunkin campaign signs, records a conversation with a woman who appears to be giving directions to a man about how he can make money if he votes a certain way. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the videos.

Dunkin, who represents a predominantly Democratic district, has drawn criticism from fellow Democrats for supporting Republican legislation. He has been the spoiler for Democrats on several key votes affecting union allies, either by being absent or voting against party-led attempts to weaken Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's position in negotiations with the state workers' union.

His opponent in Illinois' March 15 primary, Juliana Stratton, received a rare endorsement Monday from President Barack Obama, who recorded radio and TV ads supporting her in the race.

Secretary of State Jesse White, another Democrat who supports Stratton, told the AP Monday after watching the videos that "it is clear that bribery was taking place."

"I'm disappointed in him (Dunkin)," said White, who was re-elected for his fifth term in 2014. "Shame on him."

In Illinois, vote buying is a Class 4 felony.

Dunkin did not immediately returned calls from the AP for comment. In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday, a spokesman said the allegations were part of "desperate tactics" and "dirty tricks" by Stratton's supporters.

The allegations mark the latest chapter in a race that is seen as an extension of a prolonged state budget battle between Rauner and Democrats who control the Legislature, including powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan. Rauner is backing Dunkin, while Madigan's labor union allies support Stratton.

The race is poised to become one of the most expensive Illinois legislative primaries in history, with more than $2 million in contributions, according to figures compiled by Aldertrack.com.

In one video that Dowell released, a man wearing an orange Dunkin hat can be seen handing out cash to people signing papers, while asking at one point if a man had voted. In the other video, a woman outside Dunkin's office on the city's South Side tells a person wearing a camera that people at a local library will be paid if they "punch 121."

Sample ballots for Dunkin's district show he is listed under 121 in the March 15 primary.

A man can be heard asking, "How much money?" The woman responds, "$50 apiece."

___
Boston students walk out of class to protest budget cuts

BOSTON (AP)  More than a thousand Boston public school students walked out of their classes to protest proposed budget cuts.

The Boston Globe reports (http://bit.ly/1purQW7) the students marched through downtown on Monday afternoon and crowded the Boston Common, the nation's oldest park.

Some students then headed to the Statehouse, while others walked to the historic meeting spot, Faneuil Hall.

Boston school officials last week sent a letter to parents asking them to encourage their children to remain in class.
UN chief to hold Western Sahara donor's conference by June

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is planning to hold a donor's conference before June to help tens of thousands of Sahraoui refugees from the 40-year-old dispute over the Western Sahara who are facing one of the world's forgotten humanitarian crises.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday that Ban understood the anger of the refugees living in "some of the harshest conditions" in camps in Algeria for decades who feel their plight and cause has been ignored by the world.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975 and fought a local independence movement called the Polisario Front. The U.N. brokered a ceasefire in 1991, pending a referendum over the territory's fate that has never taken place primarily because of disputes over voter lists.

Secretary-General Ban told reporters in Algiers on Sunday that he felt "guilty" that his first visit to the refugee camps in Tindouf was this weekend, during his final year as U.N. chief. Although it was "too late," Ban said he is determined to address the neglected "humanitarian tragedy" to ensure there is funding for life-saving assistance in the camps, and to try to find a political solution.

The secretary-general said Sunday there has been "no real progress" in negotiations and he has asked his personal representative, Christopher Ross, to try to restart talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front.

Morocco has proposed wide-ranging autonomy for the mineral-rich Western Sahara, but the Polisario Front insists on self-determination for the local Sahraoui people through a referendum.

Dujarric said Ross informed him Monday morning that he had accepted an invitation to visit Morocco's capital, Rabat, in late March to meet government officials. He said Ross expects to meet other parties afterward.

Ban said Sunday that he had wanted to meet Morocco's king on this trip but he was not available. Dujarric said talks are under way to find a date for the secretary-general to visit.
Jury: US polygamous towns discriminated against nonbelievers

PHOENIX (AP)  Two polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona border violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a jury said Monday.

The civil rights trial marks one of the boldest efforts by the government to confront what critics have long said was a corrupt regime in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The seven-week trial provided a rare glimpse into the communities that for years have been shrouded in secrecy and are distrustful of government and outsiders.

The jury, which reached a verdict on its fourth day of deliberations, awarded $2.2 million to six residents eligible for damages. But the towns will have to pay only $1.6 million because lawyers negotiated a settlement in that part of the case.

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, Charlene Jeffs, left, the former sister-in-law of Warren Jeffs, church leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sect, talks with with U.S. Justice Department attorney Sean Keveney, as they leave the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. District Court together after her day of testimony during a federal civil rights trial against two polygamous towns on the Arizona-Utah line in Phoenix. Two polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona border violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a jury said Monday, March 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

The judge will now decide what other punishments to impose. Federal authorities have not specified the changes they will seek, but they could ask for the Colorado City Marshal's Office to be disbanded and for its duties to be handed over to local sheriffs.

Richard Holm, who was awarded damages, hailed the verdict as a step in denting the sect's control over the towns but said the verdict will be hollow if the judge doesn't disband the marshal's office.

"For there ever to be a decent community, there's got to be new faces, new control," said Holm who left the sect in 2003 but still lives in the area.

Town leaders will abide by whatever changes are ordered by the judge, Colorado City attorney Jeff Matura said, but the government's actions won't change people's religious beliefs.

"There is nothing that the government can do or really should be able to do to change someone's faith," Matura said.

The towns were accused of doing the bidding of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism, which disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. The trial came as the federal government waged fights on multiple fronts to rein in church activities.

A grand jury in Utah has indicted several church leaders on charges of food stamp fraud. A judge on Monday ordered the man who runs the day-to-day operations of the sect to stay behind bars until trial in that case.

The U.S. Labor Department has a separate action against a ranch with ties to the church over a pecan harvest in which children were forced to work long hours with few breaks.

During the civil rights case, the Justice Department said town employees assisted the group's leader when he was a fugitive and took orders from church leaders about whom to appoint to government jobs.

They say local police ignored the food stamp fraud scheme and marriages between men and underage brides.

The jury found the marshal's office violated the rights of nonbelievers by breaking the First Amendment's promise that the government won't show preference to a particular faith and force religion upon people.

Jurors concluded officers treated nonbelievers inequitably when providing police protection, arrested them without having probable cause and made unreasonable searches of their property.

One woman who was denied a water connection testified that she had to haul water to her home and take away sewage for six years. A former sect member said police ignored hundreds of complaints of vandalism on his horse property because he was no longer part of the church.

"Today's verdict reaffirms that America guarantees all people equal protection and fair treatment, regardless of their religious beliefs," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "When communities deny their residents critical services simply because of where they worship, they violate our laws and threaten the defining values of religious freedom and tolerance that are the foundation of our country."

The towns deny the allegations and say the government is persecuting town officials because it disapproves of their religion.

"If this was any other community in America, this would not be happening at this level," Hildale attorney Blake Hamilton said after the verdict. "The scrutiny these communities have been under is just unprecedented."

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Associated Press writer Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

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Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jacques-billeaud .
Afghan women's radio returns after Taliban attack

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Six months after fleeing a Taliban assault on her city, the owner of an Afghan radio station devoted to women's rights is back home and returning to the airwaves.

Zarghona Hassan is a lifelong activist and the founder of a radio station in Kunduz that until last year reached hundreds of thousands of listeners across northern Afghanistan, where the vast majority of women are illiterate and largely confined to their homes.

Radio Shaesta  Pashto for "beauty"  had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence.

In this Friday, March 4, 2016 photo, broadcasters of Radio Shaesta prepare themselves to go on-air, in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Radio Shaesta -- Pashto for beauty -- had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence. (AP Photo/Najim Rahim)

A program called "Unwanted Traditions" took a critical look at centuries-old Afghan customs, like the forced marriage of young girls in order to resolve disputes. "Introducing Elites" featured interviews with women who have succeeded in politics and activism, and those who have helped other women in their communities.

"We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights, of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats," Hassan said.

Programming also encouraged women to take an active role in ending the country's 15-year war by exhorting their brothers and sons to lay down arms, she said.

Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan, where the literacy rate is less than 40 percent and much of the population lives in remote communities. Wind-up radios requiring no batteries are popular and widely accessible in communities where electricity is erratic or non-existent.

In northern Afghanistan, where just 15 percent of women can read and write, radio is a rare portal to the outside world. The U.N. Development Program says Shaesta reached up to 800,000 people.

"I've met illiterate women weaving carpets with the radio on because they can listen and it doesn't interrupt their work," Hassan said. "I once met a farmer out in his field who had a radio hooked over the horn of one of his cows."

Hassan often invited Islamic scholars onto her programs to give their seal of approval. But the Taliban, who espouse a harsh version of Shariah law, view her and other women's rights activists as purveyors of Western influence who threaten the country's moral fabric.

She has received more death threats than she can count, one of which even specified an exact date. So when the insurgents stormed into Kunduz on Sept. 28, she knew she had to run.

"The Taliban had a list of all the women who were working in the government, civil society, media, women's organizations," she said. "I knew they were going to come for me." She hid in a relative's basement for two days before donning an all-covering burqa and fleeing the city.

The Taliban held Kunduz for three days, during which they looted businesses and hunted down activists and journalists. Afghan forces backed by U.S. airstrikes pushed them out more than two weeks later, but by then the militants had looted Shaesta and burned it to the ground, along with another radio outlet run by Hassan that was oriented toward youth.

Now, six months later, she has returned to Kunduz, and Shaesta has come back on air in time for International Women's Day on March 8. She was able to rebuild the station with a $9,000 grant from the UNDP, which said it hopes to encourage a "courageous voice for change."

"Women's rights are a key lever toward improving the lives of the entire community," said UNDP country director Douglas Keh. "When women and girls have the same opportunities (as men and boys) in education, and the same economic opportunities, society as a whole benefits."

In this Friday, March 4, 2016 photo, Zarghona Hassan, an activist and the founder of Radio Shaesta station prepares to go on-air, in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Radio Shaesta -- Pashto for beauty -- had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence. We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights, of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats, Hassan said. (AP Photo/Najim Rahim)

In this Friday, March 4, 2016 photo, Zarghona Hassan, an activist and the founder of Radio Shaesta station receives new equipment at her station, in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Radio Shaesta -- Pashto for beauty -- had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence. We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights, of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats, Hassan said. (AP Photo/Najim Rahim)

In this Tuesday, March 1, 2016 photo, Zarghona Hassan, an activist and the founder of Radio Shaesta, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Kabul, Afghanistan. We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights, of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats, Hassan said. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Friday, March 4, 2016 photo, Zarghona Hassan, an activist and the founder of Radio Shaesta station prepares to go on-air, in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan, where the literacy rate is less than 40 percent and much of the population lives in remote communities. Wind-up radios requiring no batteries are popular and widely accessible in communities where electricity is erratic or non-existent. (AP Photo/Najim Rahim)

In this Tuesday, March 1, 2016 photo, UNDP country director Douglas Keh speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Womens rights are a key lever toward improving the lives of the entire community, said Keh. When women and girls have the same opportunities (as men and boys) in education, and the same economic opportunities, society as a whole benefits. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)
Fallen tree derails train in California; at least 9 injured

SUNOL, Calif. (AP)  The front car of a commuter train plunged into a swollen creek after a fallen tree reportedly derailed the train Monday night in Northern California, injuring nine people, authorities said.

Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

"It was dark, wet, it was raining. It was very chaotic," Kelly said. "This is an absolute miracle that no one was killed, no passengers or first responders."

In this image provided the Alameda County Fire Department, first responders work the scene after a car of a commuter train plunged into Alameda Creek after the train derailed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Alameda County, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Francisco. Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. (Aisha Knowles/Alameda County Fire Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Four people were seriously hurt, while five others had minor injuries, the Alameda County Fire Department said. The department had been saying in the first hours after the crash that 14 people were injured.

The Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) No. 10 commuter train was traveling from San Jose to Stockton when the first two cars went off the tracks near Niles Canyon Road in Sunol, a rural area of Alameda County about 45 miles east of San Francisco.

Altamont Corridor Express train official Steve Walker said the first car was carrying six passengers and one crew member when it fell into Alameda Creek.

Walker told San Jose television station KNTV the second car behind it also derailed but remained upright.

He said three more cars behind, including the locomotive, stayed on the tracks.

Passengers described a harrowing scene of panic and confusion.

Rak Akhter said he was in the front car that fell into Alameda Creek and saw a woman lying in mud just under a train car hanging off the tracks.

"We were all just panicking," Akhter, who waited wrapped in a blanket for a ride home, told San Jose television station KNTV.

Passenger Russell Blackman told KGO-TV he was in the second car, which stopped near the creek.

"Our car went off the track and stopped right at the edge, which was a blessing," Blackman said. "I was thrown out of my seat. I hurt my shoulder, but I'm not going to complain."

Images posted on Twitter by Alameda County Fire Department showed that car on its side about half-submerged in the creek water.

Passengers were evacuated and checked by paramedics. The uninjured riders were transported to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, the department said.

Altamont Corridor Express said it sent buses to take passengers to their destinations. The company also said it was cancelling all train service on the line Tuesday.

The ACE No. 10 train, which travels from Silicon Valley to Central California, stopping in eight cities along the way, was carrying 214 passengers, officials said.

In this image provided the Alameda County Fire Department, first responders work the scene after a car of a commuter train plunged into Alameda Creek after the train derailed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Alameda County, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Francisco. Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. (Aisha Knowles/Alameda County Fire Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Man suspected of shooting pastor arrested in Washington DC

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP)  The man suspected of shooting and seriously wounding an Idaho pastor last weekend was arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents Tuesday after he allegedly threw items over the fence at the White House, police said.

Meanwhile, Pastor Tim Remington, shot six times Sunday outside his church in Coeur d'Alene, has regained consciousness and is talking with his family, an associate said Tuesday.

Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said Kyle Odom was arrested at about 5:30 p.m. in Washington D.C., safely and without incident.

In a Saturday, March 5, 2016 photo, Coeur d'Alene pastor Tim Remington leads the prayer, during the rally for Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He was shot six times March 6 as he was leaving the Altar Church after Sunday services. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review, via AP)

"I think everyone can breathe a good sigh of relief that at least this part of the case has come to a conclusion," White said.

White said he was told Odom threw computer flash drives and other unidentified items over the fence. Hazardous materials and bomb teams were working to identify the other items, he said.

Odom had been the subject of a search. White wasn't certain how the 30-year-old suspect got to Washington but said police were able to determine that he had boarded a flight at the Boise Airport sometime on Monday.

A former Marine from Coeur d'Alene, Odom is suspected of shooting Remington a day after Remington led the prayer at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Authorities say there's no indication Remington's appearance with Cruz had anything to do with the shooting, as they work to figure out what motivated the attack outside his church in broad daylight.

"However, it does appear that this was a pre-planned attack," White said Monday. "And I will tell you that some details surrounding Mr. Odom's planning are disturbing."

He did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, several news outlets in Spokane received letters on Tuesday that purported to be from Odom, Coeur d'Alene police Detective Jared Reneau said.

The letters, postmarked Monday, contained references to President Obama, members of Congress, members of the Israeli government, and John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor.

"It was extensive and it was disturbing to us," White said of the manifesto.

Earlier Tuesday, Padula said Remington, 55, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur d'Alene hospital.

"He's whispering and talking to his family a little bit," Padula said. "He's doing absolutely amazing. He gave me a thumb's up last night when I went in."

Remington, who is married and has four children, has no feeling in his right arm, Padula said.

Remington and his wife have been with The Altar Church for nearly two decades, and they have specialized in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, Padula said. The church has extensive programs, including in-patient rehabilitation, for addicts, Padula said.

Padula was a meth addict for 17 years before going through the church's program seven years ago, he said.

Odom had no connection with the church before showing up before services early Sunday morning, Padula said.

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department had issued a warrant of attempted first-degree murder for Odom, who has no criminal record but does have a history of mental illness.

Police said Odom drove to the Spokane, Washington, area on Interstate 90 after the Sunday afternoon shooting, according to information from traffic cameras. He then turned south before they lost his trail.

White said Odom's car was found in Boise. He said he doesn't know how Odom was able to board a plane when police had issued the warrant for Odom's arrest.

White said Odom was armed when he attended services in the church earlier Sunday, and that the violence could have been much worse.

Odom served in the Marines from 2006-2010, winning an Iraq Campaign Medal and other awards. He rose to the rank of corporal.

Odom later graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry.

In this Sunday, March 6, 2016, photo, Amanda Padula, left, and Deborah Young sit outside Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where pastor Tim Remington was shot multiple times as he was leaving services earlier in the day. The two women said they benefited from Remington's Good Samaritan Rehabilitation program. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review via AP)
For rancher near Fukushima, tending herd is act of defiance

NAMIE, Japan (AP)  Since the 2011 meltdowns ended their future as prized black "wagyu" beef, a rancher near the Fukushima nuclear power plant has given his cattle a new mission: They've become protesters.

Defying both government evacuation and slaughter orders, 62-year-old Masami Yoshizawa returned to his ranch 14 kilometers (9 miles) from the plant to keep his cattle alive as living proof of the disaster.

He and his cattle are no doubt a nuisance for the government as Japan gears up to showcase Fukushima's recovery ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, rancher Masami Yoshizawa shows the Ranch of Hope in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

"An effort to eliminate a negative reputation is nothing but a cover-up," he said. "This is a farm that chronicles and tells the story of Fukushima's radiation contamination disaster. We'll stay here at the Ranch of Hope, and keep sending our message."

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami swamped the Fukushima plant, knocking out power to vital cooling systems. When Yoshizawa heard explosions at the plant, he feared the ranch he inherited from his father was finished.

Within weeks, thousands of cattle in the evacuation zone around the plant died of starvation, including 200 of the 330 Yoshizawa had left at his ranch. Memories of the rows of dead cows at abandoned farms, collapsed after being reduced to skin and bones while waiting for food, still haunt him.

Surviving cows that escaped their ranches were roaming for food, damaging houses and disrupting traffic. Two months after the accident, the agriculture ministry ordered their slaughter, to keep their meat from secretly entering the market. Neighborhood ranchers were divided.

"I said I was not going to let any more cows die on my ranch," said Yoshizawa.

His mostly lone resistance hasn't been easy. Authorities tried to block his feed transport, and kept trying to persuade him to kill his cows.

The location of his ranch, on the border between two towns  Namie and neighboring Minamisoma  may have worked in his favor. Both towns have looked the other way and virtually given up.

A prefabricated hut on a driveway to the Ranch of Hope  which Yoshizawa renamed after the accident with the hope of establishing a nuclear-free society  serves as a tiny office for what he calls his "nuclear rebellion." Skulls of cattle that died early in the crisis decorate the exterior. His cows keep him company, mooing and grazing.

Radiation levels at the ranch measure about 10 times the safe benchmark. Yoshizawa has taken DNA tests twice and had his exposure level checked 20 times. So far, no major health problems have been detected. Yoshizawa is not married and his relatives now live near Tokyo.

The cattle population at Yoshizawa's ranch has grown back to 330, as he took in homeless cows from the neighborhood and other farms. They live on contaminated feed donated from towns in the area, which he said is the most ecological way to get rid of radioactive waste.

Over the past year, some of the cattle have developed tiny white spots on their bodies, which Yoshizawa believes is linked to radiation from eating contaminated grass and feed. Scientists he works with, however, say the livestock have a good appetite and that the spots could be stress-related. The cattle undergo health checks once a month.

Tohoku University pathologist Manabu Fukumoto, who has been monitoring the cattle, said the animals' internal organs and reproductive functions showed no significant abnormality linked to their radiation exposures, and that other studies, including the impact of radiated feed, are underway. He urged further monitoring and dose evaluation, citing a spike in thyroid cancer cases in Chernobyl few years after the 1986 accident.

Within one year, the government plans to open part of his town of Namie for residents to return.

The town predicts only one-quarter of its current population of 19,000 would come back, most of them senior citizens, as has been the case in other reopened towns. Families with children face a higher radiation risk, and surveys show about half of the remaining 100,000 Fukushima evacuees have decided to resettle elsewhere.

Yoshizawa plans to stay at least another five years  or as long as his herd lives.

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi and see more of her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/mari-yamaguchi

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, cattle stand together at the Ranch of Hope, run by rancher Masami Yoshizawa in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, electric pylons stand near cattle resting at the Ranch of Hope, run by rancher Masami Yoshizawa, in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, cattle rest at the Ranch of Hope, run by rancher Masami Yoshizawa, in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, cattle are fed at the Ranch of Hope, run by rancher Masami Yoshizawa, in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, rancher Masami Yoshizawa speaks during an interview at the Ranch of Hope in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. An effort to eliminate a negative reputation is nothing but a cover-up, he said. This is a farm that chronicles and tells the story of Fukushimas radiation contamination disaster. Well stay here at the Ranch of Hope, and keep sending our message. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, rancher Masami Yoshizawa speaks during an interview in his office at the Ranch of Hope in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. The Japanese written on the wall reads: "Kibo no Bokujo, or the Ranch of Hope, Fukushima." (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 photo, rancher Masami Yoshizawa walks by a car attached with a protest sign and banner that read: "Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government should compensate my great loss." and "Solidarity for my desperate battle to save (cows) at 14 kilometers (9 miles) from nuclear meltdown!" shown at the Ranch of Hope in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Yoshizawa, 62, has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cattle as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
UN: 'Substantive' Syria peace talks to begin within days

GENEVA (AP)  The U.N. envoy for Syria will begin holding "substantive" peace talks with both Syrian government officials and opposition representatives no later than next Monday even as preparations toward the discussions get underway this week in Geneva, a spokeswoman for the envoy said Tuesday.

The resumption of Syria peace talks has been expected ever since a U.S.-Russia-engineered cease-fire, which has sharply reduced bloodshed in the five-year war, took effect on Feb. 27. The truce  though limited and tentative  has mostly held, even as sporadic violence has continued.

Staffan de Mistura was still planning for the talks to officially start Wednesday, but logistics and other issues have meant that delegations are likely to arrive in Geneva over several days, spokeswoman Jessy Chahine said. Meanwhile, the U.N. envoy is to convene Wednesday two separate panels aimed at monitoring the truce and pushing for humanitarian aid shipments.

In this photo taken on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, Syrian solders guard near a tent where local leaders and elders signed a declaration pledging to abide by a truce Maarzaf, about 15 kilometers west of Hama, Syria. Associated Press spent five days traveling through the port of Latakia and the surrounding areas in Syria during the cease-fire. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

The three-track diplomatic push has become the most promising, if distant, hope in years to end a war that has cost over 250,000 lives, driven 11 million people from their homes, and given an opening to radical groups like the Islamic State and Syria's al-Qaida branch, the Nusra Front, to seize land. Those groups have been excluded from the diplomatic efforts.

Opposition leaders have set conditions before they agree to rejoin the peace talks, and it is not yet certain whether they would indeed attend. However, some members of the High Negotiations Committee, a Saudi-backed group of opposition movements, were set to attend the "cessation of hostilities" task force meeting on Wednesday.

De Mistura "will start substantive meetings with those who are in Geneva," by March 14 at the latest, Chahine told reporters. She said the peace talks would resume "in a staggered and proximity system," meaning that they are to take place in various phases and not face-to-face, at least initially.

While the cease-fire has significantly reduced the violence, reports of sporadic fighting continued.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said fighting killed more civilians in the past two days than in the previous eight days combined. It said 80 civilians died in fighting in cease-fire areas since the truce took effect 10 days ago  more than half of them in the past two days.

Separately, the official Syrian news agency SANA said government forces repelled an assault on a strategic position south of the contested city of Aleppo. The Observatory said Nusra Front fighters led the assault on Al-Eis hill on Monday night, but did not capture it.

A mayor of a Turkish city near the Syrian border said at least three rockets fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side of the border Tuesday, killing one person and wounding another. Kilis' Mayor Hasan Kara said one rocket hit a populated neighborhood, causing casualties and panic, and two other rockets exploded on an empty patch of land.

It was not immediately clear who fired the rockets or whether Turkey's military  which has been retaliating to any rockets or shells fired from Syria into Turkey  had fired back in response.

The first and previous round of talks convened by de Mistura collapsed within days in early February over a Russian-backed government offensive near the Aleppo, Syria's largest city. Russia has supported Assad with a military campaign involving blistering air power.

The cease-fire has been shepherded by Russia and the United States through the International Syria Support Group, a group of world and regional powers and organizations that includes several Western powers as well as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

A French diplomat said Tuesday that the Syrian opposition was still debating involvement in new talks, and will give its answer in the coming days. He said the conditions are only partially met to resume negotiations, saying there is a lot of progress yet to be made.

The diplomat, who was not authorized to be publicly named, warned against holding talks too hastily, or holding them if the opposition is not ready to join, saying that could be counter-productive. He said talks should only resume if they are credible, and said participants should understand the opposition's concerns about holding talks while they're being bombed.

The official said Russian bombing had decreased since the cease-fire began, and went down sharply over the last two days, but that Assad's forces were still bombing this week.

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On day celebrating women, reminder of lingering gender gap

International Women's Day on Tuesday celebrated women and their accomplishments, but it also offered a stark reminder of the gender divides in rights, representation and pay.

The day carried the theme "Pledge for Parity"  a phrase and hashtag born out of the World Economic Forum's recent projection that the progress on achieving global gender parity is slowing.

Google's home page on Tuesday featured a video of women and girls dreaming and doing big things. Twitter and Facebook feeds filled with quotes from inspirational women and calls to action.

Polish women hold tulips on International Womens Day in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. The day celebrates women, their achievements and their continued struggle for equality. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

But the U.N. cultural agency also offered sobering statistics: More than 63 million girls are excluded from school in more than 200 countries across the world. Almost 16 million girls between the ages of 6 and 11  compared with about 8 million boys  will never get the chance to learn to read or write in primary school "if current trends continue," according to a report from UNESCO's Institute for Statistics.

Women also account for 70 percent of the world's hungry, the U.N. reported, in part because longstanding discrimination has limited their access to food.

President Barack Obama, a father of two daughters, said in a statement that allowing women and girls around the world to rise and achieve their full potential will mean "a brighter, more peaceful and more prosperous future for us all."

Hillary Clinton, vying to become the country's first woman president, tweeted Tuesday that advancing the status of women and girls will make economies grow and nations more secure.

"It's the right  and smart  thing to do," she wrote.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed empowering women as he spoke of preventable deaths during child birth and those who are subjected to "genital mutilation."

Actress Emma Watson, kicking off a weeklong U.N. arts event aimed at initiating a dialogue about gender, said it's not enough for people to rationally understand the necessity of gender equality.

"It's also about making them feel it in their bones," she said.

Some countries treat the day as a holiday, and women could be seen on a sunny Tuesday in the Romanian capital carrying flowers, the traditional gift. Elsewhere in Bucharest, women brandished a banner saying "March 8 is for fighting."

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for only female lawmakers to address parliament on Tuesday included silence because there weren't enough women to speak. Of the 543 elected members in India's lower house, 12 percent are women.

In China, International Women's Day is treated as a one-off where state media are fond of publishing photo galleries of "Beautiful Women Reporters" covering a ceremonial legislature.

The Communist Party-run People's Daily made no mention of leadership roles in a front-page editorial Tuesday that said women "can not only help to make homes more pleasant and lively, but also contribute their valuable female perspective and efforts to the progress of the entire society."

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Associated Press writers Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Dave Bryan in New York contributed to this report.

Palestinian girls attend an event for International Women's Day in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Pakistani classical dancer Sheema Kermani , right, performs with her students to celebrate International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Women balance their staples on their heads as they make their way through the Croix-des-Bossales market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Tuesday marks International Women's Day, observed annually worldwide on March 8, celebrating women's achievements in all walks of life. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A women holds a poster with a message that reads in Spanish, "We are the other half, We want equality, all men , nd all women for the Law of Equality," in front of the National Congress building, during a protest demanding a law for equality in political representation, marking International Women's Day in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

A 14 year-old Myanmar girl carries three bags of powdered-limestone to load in to a boat on the bank of Ayeyarwaddy River, on International Womens Day in Mandalay, Myanmar, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Migrant workers living along Ayeyarwaddy riverbank earn bout 5000 Kyats (US Dollar 4) a day for loading and unloading goods. (AP Photo/Hkun Lat)

Myanmar women unload logs from a boat on the bank of Ayeyarwaddy River, on International Womens Day in Mandalay, Myanmar, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Migrant workers living along Ayeyarwaddy riverbank earn bout 5000 Kyats (US Dollar 4) a day for loading and unloading goods. (AP Photo/Hkun Lat)

FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2015 file photo, English actress Emma Watson poses for photographers during the photocall for the film, "Regression," in Madrid, Spain. Watson, the UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, and Forest Whitaker, a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace, joined UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on International Women's Day at The Public Theater in Manhattan. They were there to announce a week of arts events aimed at initiating a dialogue about gender equality. (AP Photo/Abraham Caro Marin, File)
Talk of 'beheading' strike option heightens Koreas tension

TOKYO (AP)  Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a "beheading mission" against Kim Jong Un himself.

It's the kind of option military planners tend to consider but almost never use. Neither the U.S. military nor South Korea's defense ministry has actually said it is part of the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises that began this week and will go on for about two months.

But Pyongyang, already feeling the squeeze of new sanctions over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, is taking a plethora of "beheading mission" reports from the South Korean media very seriously. That goes a long way toward explaining why its own rhetoric has ratcheted up a decibel  even by its own standards of bellicosity. It could also explain some subtle rejiggering afoot in the North's military strategy.

FILE - In this Monday, March 7, 2016, file photo, South Korean army K-9 self-propelled howitzers take on a position during an annual exercise in Paju, near the border with North Korea. Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

Here's a look at what's going on, what the North and South have been saying about it, and why it matters:

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FIRST, WHAT IS A BEHEADING OPERATION?

That's what the North and South Korean media have been calling it. The military prefers to call them decapitation strikes. But, by whatever name, it's hardly a new concept.

They are targeted attacks to eliminate an adversary's leader, or leaders, in an attempt to disrupt or destroy its command chain as soon as a crisis breaks out or appears imminent. They are seen as particularly effective against enemies with a highly centralized command focused on a small group, or one leader. With the leader out of the way, the thinking goes, it's a lot easier to take the rest of the enemy's forces down  or at least keep them from maintaining a coordinated and sustained offensive.

North Korea is a prime example of such an adversary.

The U.S. has used such strikes, often employing drones, to take out key figures in terrorist groups. Pyongyang tried one on South Korean President Park Chung-hee, current President Park Geun-hye's father, at his residence in 1968. So it's no surprise to anyone  especially Pyongyang  that Washington and Seoul would consider such an option if a war were to break out in Korea. That they wouldn't publicly trumpet training for it is also par for the course. And, officially, they haven't.

All we really know is Washington and Seoul agreed last summer on a new plan for how to train for and deal with a major North-South crisis. It's called OPLAN 5015. The "O'' stands for operation. Officials have not announced details of how the new OPLAN  which, like all OPLANs, is classified  differs from the previous one.

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SO WHAT HAVE REPORTS BEEN SAYING?

Since about June, when the new plan was signed, South Korean media have been reporting the new operation plan includes pre-emptive and decapitation strikes. More has come out since the North's nuclear test in January and rocket launch last month, as Seoul's government has tried to underscore its tough stance vis-a-vis Pyongyang.

According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises will include training and simulations of surgical, pre-emptive strikes on nuclear and missile sites, along with training for a "beheading operation" aimed at removing Kim Jong Un and toppling his government in the event of a war. It has also reported that another set of exercises, now being held by U.S. and South Korean marines, features training for amphibious landings on North Korean shores and, again, attacks on North Korea's leadership.

The reports have generally been thinly sourced or anonymously reported. They have not given any details about how the troops would train for such attacks, though the presence of U.S. special operations units has been noted as ominous.

North Korea, meanwhile, has been almost theatrically apoplectic over the ink being spilt that its leader has a target on his back.

The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army issued a statement late last month calling a decapitation plan the "height of hostile acts." Warning the doom of the U.S. has been sealed, it said the North's weaponry is "ready to open fire." The day the exercises began, the North's Minju Joson daily said "a historical moment has just come" and its enemies "will sustain the bitterest defeat" from the North's "ground, naval, underwater, air and cyber warfare means, including nuclear strike means."

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BUT WHAT'S BEHIND THE BLUSTER?

Potentially, quite a lot.

North Korea has increasingly shifted its military toward "asymmetrical" warfare tactics that involve surprise, stealth or other means to gain an outsized advantage against a bigger, better-equipped enemy. Its focus on cyber, special forces and nuclear weapons are classic examples.

A decapitation strike could potentially neutralize all of that. Somebody needs to call the shots.

Its long-held ace in the hole, the threat of a massive artillery attack that would devastate Seoul, has also lost some of its credibility. Some experts believe its weaponry has grown older and less reliable. Seoul, meanwhile, has been testing new missiles with precision-strike and bunker-buster capabilities  exactly the kind of weapons that could figure into a decapitation strike.

Never one to roll over under pressure, the North last week made quite of a show of its latest answer to that problem: a large-caliber, multiple-launch rocket system with a range some experts believe could allow it to be positioned out of reach of U.S. or South Korean counterattacks and fire projectiles hard to intercept with missile defense systems.

It is conceivable the North could design nuclear-armed shells for such a weapon.

Even before the current media barrages, experts have been seeing an "action-reaction" cycle fanned by the North's fears of a decapitation strike and signs Seoul and Washington are at least considering the option, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California.

"The appearance of a new long-range artillery system that is specifically linked to North Korean fears about decapitation strikes deserves our attention, even if the possibility of nuclear armament is only hinted at," he wrote in a recent analysis for the influential 38 North website. "Far more attention needs to be paid to North Korea's evolving nuclear doctrine, on the one hand, and South Korea's development of conventional doctrines that involve pre-emption and decapitation on the other."

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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

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Eric Talmadge is the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief. Follow him on Instagram at @erictalmadge
Officials from China's Xinjiang region say extremism waning

BEIJING (AP)  Communist Party officials in China's far western Xinjiang region say religious extremism is waning, but the government plans to step up border controls with Central Asian countries to prevent militants from entering the troubled area.

Xinjiang Party Secretary Zhang Chunxian told reporters at China's annual legislative session that cases of violence have declined in the past year but "the struggle will last long term" given complicated international and domestic factors.

Xinjiang is home to the Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic Turkic minority that has chafed at Beijing's heavy-handed rule and restrictions on language and religious practices. Hundreds of people have died in violent attacks that the government blames on militant Islamic separatists.

Delegates take smartphone photos before the Xinjiang delegation group's meeting on the sidelines of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Communist Party officials in China's far western Xinjiang region say religious extremism is waning, but the government will step up border controls with Central Asian countries to prevent militants from entering and exiting the troubled western region. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The central government under President Xi Jinping has introduced a series of measures aimed at bringing stability to Xinjiang, ranging from bolstering police presence and expanding security operations in a campaign called "Strike Hard," to promoting cultural assimilation through educational and poverty-alleviation programs.

While banning Islamic headdresses or fasting during Ramadan, the government has also launched financial incentives for intermarriage with Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China.

Officials said the government will continue both types of tactics this year, as well as continue embedding hundreds of thousands of party cadres in Xinjiang villages in an effort to sway public opinion about the central government.

"We will stick to Strike Hard and high pressure whenever there are terrorist thoughts and in the meantime provide education and persuasion," Zhang said.

The integration program has been the subject of intense debate within ethnic policy circles in China, with some experts arguing that polices such as enforcing the use of Mandarin  the national language  might exacerbate Uighur resentment while others say an assimilation process, however difficult, must take place before the region will achieve ethnic harmony.

Che Jun, Xinjiang's deputy party secretary, said the government intends to strengthen cooperation with bordering countries to prevent the flow of militants and people leaving the country illegally.

China has argued it has a domestic terror problem, with militants leaving the vast western border to train in bases in countries like Afghanistan and returning to carry out attacks. International human rights groups say many of those who leave the country are refugees fleeing Chinese rule rather than militants.

The border issue came to the fore last year when Thailand deported dozens of Uighurs who had fled China, drawing international criticism from groups including the United Nations refugee agency.

Zhang Chunxian, Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang, center, listens to a reporter's questions after the Xinjiang delegation group's meeting on the sidelines of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Communist Party officials in China's far western Xinjiang region say religious extremism is waning, but the government will step up border controls with Central Asian countries to prevent militants from entering and exiting the troubled western region. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the leading nominees at next month's MTV Movie Awards.

The sci-fi hit will compete with Creed, Deadpool, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Straight Outta Compton for movie of the year.

MTV announced the nominations Tuesday for the 25th anniversary of its Movie Awards, airing April 10, via Snapchat - a first for a national awards show.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Sweeping the board: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the leading nominee at next month's MTV Movie Awards with 11 nods

Stong contender: Deadpool has eight nominations in all categories combined

Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are set to host the show, which will tape April 9 at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

The 11 bids for The Force Awakens include multiple nominations for stars Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

Ridley is nominated for four awards; best female performance, breakthrough performance, best hero and best fight scene - all for Star Wars.

Shining star: Daisy Ridley has been nominated in four categories; best performance, breakthrough performance, best hero and best fight

Funny girl: Amy Schumer is nominated for breakthrough performance as well as comedic performance in the movie Trainwreck

Up for an award: Anna Kendrick is nominated for best female performance in Pitch Perfect 2 while Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander gets a nod for Ex-Machina

Coming in a close second for number of combined nominations is Deadpool with eight nods including best performance for stars Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin as well as best kiss between the duo.

The MTV Movie Awards added two new categories this year: True Story and Documentary. Fans can vote for their favorites in all categories online.

Oscar winner Spotlight was snubbed in the true story category and instead Will Smith's Concussion goes up against Joy, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, The Big Short and The Revenant.

Two nods: Creed is nominated for movie of the year and its star Michael B. Jordan is up for best male performance

Blockbuster hits: Chris Pratt gets a best performance nod for his role in Jurassic World while Oscar-winner Leonardo Di Caprio is nominated for The Revenant

Recognition: Will Smith is nominated for his role in Concussion - which is also up for an award in this year's new category True Story

Contender: The Big Short is also nominated in the new true story category

Avengers: Age of Ultron has six nominations in categories including movie of the year, best hero and best villain.

For best female performance, Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander gets a nod for Ex-Machina while Anna Kendrick is nominated for Pitch Perfect 2.

The duo are up against other contenders Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Morena Baccarin (Deadpool).

Three gongs: Charlize Theron is up for best female performance, best hero and best fight for Mad Max: Fury Road

Playing the bad guy: Samuel L. Jackson has been nominated for best villain for his role in Kingsman: The Secret Service

Academy Award winner Leonardo Di Caprio will battle it out for best male performance against Chris Pratt (Jurassic World), Matt Damon (The Martian), Will Smith (Concussion), Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool).

'What has always been so cool about the MTV Movie Awards is that it's about blockbuster movies that audiences line up to see; comedies, superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, action,' said Casey Patterson, Executive Producer.

'This show is about fandom and the stars come out to celebrate that. The nominees and the content are naturally diverse and eclectic because we're a true reflection of real movie-going audience.'

Superhero star: Paul Rudd is nominated for best hero in Ant-Man

Romance: Morena Baccarin and Ryan Reynolds are nominated for their on-screen smooch in Deadpool
France pushing for new Mideast peace conference

PARIS (AP)  France's foreign minister is seeking to renew efforts for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, heading to Egypt to push an initiative for an international conference after a failed French diplomatic push last year.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is meeting with Arab League representatives during the trip to Egypt Wednesday and Thursday, the ministry said in a statement. A new French Mideast peace envoy, Pierre Vimont, will join him.

A French diplomat said France wants to arrange a meeting with U.S., Russian, European and Arab partners in the coming months, with the aim of bringing Israeli and Palestinian representatives together for an international conference later. The diplomat was not authorized to be publicly named.
Stellar plot twists abound in 'Steel Kiss'

"The Steel Kiss" (Grand Central Publishing), by Jeffery Deaver

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs battle a ruthless killer who utilizes common machinery to strike fear in Jeffery Deaver's latest novel, "The Steel Kiss."

Sachs, a New York police detective, follows a suspect into a crowded mall. She has him cornered when a loud scream is heard. An escalator has malfunctioned, and a man who was riding it has fallen into the gears. Sachs tries to help the victim, but the man dies.

This book cover image released by Grand Central Publishing shows "The Steel Kiss," by Jeffery Deaver. (Grand Central Publishing via AP)

Rhyme, who has retired from the New York police department, no longer works with Sachs on cases, which has strained their relationship.

The widow of the man who died in the escalator accident hires an attorney to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer. The family wants to hire Rhyme to help them come up with an ironclad case.

Rhyme and Sachs find themselves dealing with a diabolical killer who knows how to make technology malfunction so that death and mayhem follow.
Iran exports heavy water, a nuclear reactor component, to US

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran has exported heavy water, a key component for one kind of nuclear reactor, to the United States as part of a landmark nuclear agreement, the country's semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

The report by ISNA quoted Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying that 32 tons of heavy water have been "sold" to the U.S. since the agreement was implemented in January.

Araghchi, who is in charge of observing implementation of the nuclear deal from the Iranian side, did not disclose the financial aspects of the sale or say why Iran exported heavy water only to the U.S. and not to other countries  such as Britain, France, Germany Russia and China  that had reached the deal with Iran in July.

This is the first high-tech product that Iran has sold to the United States. Before international sanctions were imposed on Iran over its controversial nuclear program, Iran had exported caviar, carpets and pistachios to the U.S.

However, Araghchi did say that since January, Iran exported 10 tons of 3.5 percent enriched uranium to Russia and at the same time imported 140 tons of yellow cake, or uranium ore concentrate that is convertible to enriched uranium, from Moscow.

Iran also imported some 60 tons of yellow cake from Kazakhstan.

Those sales are all permissible under the nuclear deal that lifted sanctions imposed on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Heavy water, formed with a hydrogen isotope, has research and medical applications, but can also be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. In January, Iran expressed hopes to export excess heavy water produced in the country's only heavy water reactor in Arak to the U.S. through a third country, for uses in research.

It said then that Savannah River National Laboratory near Jackson, South Carolina, has certified high purity of heavy water produced by Iran.

Iran is still expected to produce some 20 metric tons (22 tons) of heavy water at Arak a year. It has said it would domestically consume about 6 tons for medical isotopes and is looking to export the rest.
Threat closes Pennsylvania Wal-Mart also targeted last year

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP)  Police say an anonymous shooting threat closed a central Pennsylvania Wal-Mart store that was targeted by bomb threats last year.

The Centre Daily Times (http://bit.ly/1U0HRQj ) reports the store in Patton Township was evacuated and then closed Monday night because of the threat.

Township police Sgt. Tyler Jolley says police responded about 10 p.m. after someone called saying they would "shoot it up." The store closed until 6 a.m. Tuesday as a precaution.

A Canadian man is awaiting trial on charges he phoned in four bomb threats that forced the evacuation of the same store between Sept. 24 and Oct. 23.

Ontario Provincial police have charged that man with conveying a false message and say he faces up to two years in prison if convicted.

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The Latest: Train that derailed to resume service Wednesday

SUNOL, Calif. (AP)  The Latest on the derailment of a commuter train in Northern California (all times local):

7:00 p.m.

The commuter train that derailed in Northern California will resume service Wednesday.

In this image provided the Alameda County Fire Department, first responders work the scene after a car of a commuter train plunged into Alameda Creek after the train derailed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Alameda County, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Francisco. Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. (Aisha Knowles/Alameda County Fire Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Altamont Corridor Express spokesman Brian Schmidt tells the San Jose Mercury News a westbound train will leave Stockton at 4:20 a.m. and will pass the area of the accident at 6 a.m.

Crews using two large cranes were working Tuesday to pull the submerged car out of Alameda Creek.

The other four cars had been moved down the tracks by Tuesday evening.

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10:20 a.m.

An official says a commuter train that derailed in Northern California, injuring nine people, was not speeding.

Altamont Corridor Express spokesman Steve Walker says the train was traveling at 35 mph in the 40 mph zone.

Union Pacific Francisco J. Castillo says a mudslide most likely caused the derailment 45 miles east of San Francisco that sent the train's leading car plunging into a swollen creek. The San Francisco Bay Area has been inundated with thunderstorms in recent days that have swamped roadways and creeks.

Four people suffered major injuries and five minor injuries in Monday's derailment. Their conditions were not available Tuesday.

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7 a.m.

A Union Pacific spokesman says a mudslide most likely caused a commuter train derailment in Northern California that sent its leading car plunging into a swollen creek, injuring nine people.

Spokesman Francisco J. Castillo said investigators believe the mudslide swept a tree onto the tracks, derailing a car on the Altamont Corridor Express train Monday evening.

The San Francisco Bay Area has been inundated with thunderstorms in recent days that have swamped roadways and creeks.

KNTV reports (http://bit.ly/21jd6Fx) all Altamont Corridor Express trains traveling from Silicon Valley to the Central Valley were canceled on Tuesday. Four people suffered major injuries and five minor injuries in Monday's derailment. Their conditions were not available Tuesday.

It's unclear how fast the train was traveling.

In this image provided the Alameda County Fire Department, first responders work the scene after a car of a commuter train plunged into Alameda Creek after the train derailed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Alameda County, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Francisco. Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. (Aisha Knowles/Alameda County Fire Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Witness: Home fire killed 6 was heated by space heaters

ATLANTA (AP)  At a northwest Atlanta home where six people died in an early morning fire, neighbors said the heat was provided by space heaters and the homeowner regularly allowed people to stay when they were down on their luck.

Four men and two women were killed in the blaze, which was reported before dawn Monday.

The fire's cause does not appear suspicious, though investigators are considering all possibilities, authorities said Tuesday.

An investigator walks in front of the scene of a fatal house fire Monday, March 7, 2016, in Atlanta. Fire crews were called to the house on the citys northwest side about 5 a.m. Monday. When they arrived, the blaze had already spread through the roof and throughout the building, making it impossible for firefighters to reach some areas of the home. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Autopsies were being conducted by the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office, which had not yet released the victims' identities early Tuesday.

Investigators have spoken with a key witness  a woman who was in the home about 30 minutes before the blaze began, Atlanta Fire Rescue Sgt. Cortez Stafford said Tuesday.

Jannett Ragland said she arrived at the home around 4 a.m. Monday and left around 5 a.m.  very close to the time the fire was reported.

Ragland said she believes the home was unsafe for people staying there.

"It needed to be shut down. It needed to be closed down, condemned or whatever," Ragland told an Associated Press photographer at the scene of the fire on Monday.

She added, "I feel blessed  very blessed  because it could have been me."

There were two space heaters in the home, which always ran because it was cold in the house, Ragland told the AP. She said a lamp in the living was "leaning to the side like it would catch something on fire."

The man who lived in the home allowed people into the house when they were down on their luck and needed a place to stay, said a neighbor, Kimberly Wise.

"It does not appear to be a suspicious fire or arson at this time, but of course they're looking into everything they can to find out what started this fire," Stafford said.

When fire crews arrived, the blaze had already spread through the roof and throughout the building, making it impossible for firefighters to reach some areas of the home, Stafford said.

"We got on scene and did the best job we could to try to get inside  there was just too much fire," Stafford told reporters at the scene. He said the single-level structure with a basement had "collapsed in on itself."

Five of the victims were found in the rear of the home and one was found in a front bedroom, he said.

Investigators work the scene of a house fire where an Atlanta fire spokesman says six people were killed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Atlanta. The six people killed in the blaze were four men and two women, Atlanta Fire Rescue spokesman Cortez Stafford told The Associated Press. He said the cause of the fire had not yet been determined. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Investigators work the scene of a house fire where an Atlanta fire spokesman says six people were killed Monday, March 7, 2016, in Atlanta. The six people killed in the blaze were four men and two women, Atlanta Fire Rescue spokesman Cortez Stafford told The Associated Press. He said the cause of the fire had not yet been determined. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Stacy Etheridge, step-daughter of Earnest Eberhardt, who she identified as one of six people killed in a house fire, stands at the scene, Monday, March 7, 2016, in Atlanta. "I'm still in disbelief right now," said Etheridge about her step-father. "He had a good heart. He helped everybody. That was the type of person he was." Atlanta Fire Rescue spokesman Cortez Stafford said that four men and two women perished in the Monday morning blaze on the city's northwest side. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A year later no leads in Zimbabwean activist's disappearance

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  The family of a missing Zimbabwean human rights activist Tuesday won a High Court ruling overturning a police ban on a commemorative march.

Judge Clement Phiri said the demonstration, planned for the capital Harare on Wednesday to mark one year since activist Itai Dzamara was abducted, should proceed because the constitution grants rights to demonstrate peacefully.

Dzamara was seized by men who took him from a barbershop and bundled the former newspaper reporter into a waiting car with concealed number plates on March 9 last year, said his lawyer Kennedy Masiye.

Sheffra Dzamara, wife of activist Itai Dzamara, holds a photo of her husband as her 2 year old daughter looks up, and speaks to the Associated Press in Harare, Tuesday March 8, 2016, on the commemoration of International Women's Day. Dzamara is pleading for the return of her activist husband Itai Dzamara who was abducted by suspected state security agents one year ago. (AP Photo)

"I suspect he was taken by state agents," his wife Sheffra Dzamara told The Associated Press Tuesday. The Zimbabwean government has denied responsibility. Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said investigators are still searching for leads.

Over the past year Dzamara's family has gone to court, held frequent public prayer meetings and pushed the police and parliament to raise the profile of the case.

"I remain hopeful but so far there are no answers," said Dzamara, adding her two young children are constantly asking about their father. "Every day they ask me 'When will the people who stole our daddy return him to us?' I pray they return him alive. It has been a very difficult year."

Dzamara led a sit-in protest he called Occupy Africa Unity Square with a handful of followers in October 2014. He sat in the square in front of the parliament building, often blowing a whistle and holding up a placard stating "Mugabe must go." Two days before he was abducted, Dzamara called on Zimbabweans to rise up against Mugabe at a political rally in Harare.

The enforced disappearance of government critics "is becoming an established pattern in Zimbabwe," said Amnesty International, calling on Zimbabwe to set up a commission of inquiry into Dzamara's disappearance.

Sheffra Dzamara holds a photo of her husband, activist Itai Dzamara, and speaks to the Associated Press in Harare, Tuesday March 8, 2016, on the commemoration of International Women's Day. Dzamara is pleading for the return of her activist husband Itai Dzamara who was abducted by suspected state security agents one year ago. (AP Photo)
Lawmaker accused of trying to lure teen is released on bail

CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  A state representative charged with trying to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual encounter has been released on $50,000 cash bail.

A Rockingham County Department of Corrections official tells the Concord Monitor (http://bit.ly/1pcH6Y6 ) that Rep. Kyle Tasker was released from jail Monday.

Tasker, a 30-year-old Republican from Nottingham, was arraigned last week on three drug charges and one count of using a computer to lure the girl. Police say he tried to meet her but instead was greeted by law enforcement.

House Speaker Shawn Jasper removed Tasker from the House Children and Family Law Committee. He and other Republicans have suggested that Tasker resign. A House spokesman said representatives will talk about the issue Wednesday.

Messages seeking comment were left with Tasker and his lawyer.

Police say Tasker sent the girl  an acquaintance  inappropriate messages online before police took control of her social media account and agreed to the meeting. He was arrested at a secluded beach last week.

After his arrest, police searched his home and said they found marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and other drugs.
WW2 Museum's PT boat nearly restored; rides on lake planned

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  The National World War II Museum has nearly finished restoration of a patrol torpedo boat that sank two armored German supply barges and carried U.S. commandos to French shores. Officials hope to have PT-305 back on the water in about a year, carrying tourists and history buffs on the lake where it was first tested in 1944.

"There's quite a bit of difference in understanding an artifact when it's sitting and when it's operating," said Tom Czekanski, the museum's senior curator and restoration manager.

After World War II, PT-305 was cut down to 60 feet and spent decades as a tour boat and a Chesapeake Bay oyster boat. Much of the remaining hull and deck were warped or rotted when the museum bought it to restore for eventual tours on Lake Pontchartrain, near New Orleans.

FILE - In this April 6, 2011 file photo, restoration volunteers carry lumber away from their partially restored PT boat, which is situated in its new home inside the John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. The museum has nearly finished restoring a PT boat that sank two German armored supply barges and carried U.S. commandos to the south of France. Officials hope to have it back on the water in about a year, carrying tourists and history buffs on the lake where it was first tested in 1944. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Now it's back to its original 78-foot length. Two engines have been put in and a third is to be installed along with plumbing, electrical and detail work that will keep volunteers busy into summer, Czekanski said. Most of the ship's railings are finished, though a "do not lean on railing" sign is posted on some temporary bow railings.

Czekanski said only about 10 PT boats still exist. PT-305 is one of four that saw combat and the only one of those to be fully restored and launchable, he added.

The museum may charge $250 or $300 for 45-minute boat rides, and $5 to $15 for tours of the boat when docked, said Stephen Watson, the museum's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

However, officials said, PT-305 can't be moved to Lake Pontchartrain until a boathouse with exhibit space is ready. The museum also must raise an estimated $500,000 for the move, conduct months of "sea trials," crew training and make the final move to the boathouse, Watson said in an interview Monday.

The boathouse will include displays about PT-305 and its crew, researched by a historian who has worked on PT-305 since its arrival in 2007. Historian Josh Schick said the boat has a unique detail: portholes. Those weren't a feature of PT boats, but one of two surviving crew members said he had found them on a wrecked yacht and installed them, Schick said.

In 2003 Schick began volunteering at the museum as a teenager, fascinated by restoration work on the Higgins landing craft now displayed in the museum's original building. Andrew Higgins' boat yard in New Orleans built that craft and the PT-305.

Now 29, Schick wrote his master's thesis about the role of PT boats in World War II and is one of two PT-305 project historians. He said the vessel spent World War II in the Mediterranean.

"Her primary role in the Med was to attack German convoys running the coast," he said. "She has three kills"  the armored barges and an Italian torpedo boat. The crew conducted 77 offensive patrols and saw action in invasions of southern France.

About 15 men usually served on a PT boat, and over the course of the war, 44 served on PT-305, Schick said. He said he's tracked down relatives of about a dozen crewmen and two members who are still alive.

Joseph Brannan, a gunner's mate on PT-305, told of a near miss by a British bomber who thought he'd hit a German torpedo boat.

Brannan said his friend, motor machinist mate Alexis Charles Kupetz, had just stuck his head out of a hatch when shrapnel tore his cheek open. Kupetz was laid on the captain's bunk and Brannan held the wound closed while the PT crew sought a doctor, finally finding one on a French destroyer, Schick said.

Schick said the crewmen he's had the least success finding information about were Lt. j.g. Richard A. Hamilton of Rugby, North Dakota, possibly born in 1915; torpedo man Wilfred E. "Red" Horwarth, who died in February 1974 in Cincinnati, Ohio; and motor machinist mate 1st Class William Herman Minnick, who was born in Logansport, Indiana, and died in May 2004.

"Each one that I haven't found relatives for, I want to get in touch with," he said.

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Online:

www.nationalww2museum.org/?

More about the boat: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/see-hear/collections/artifacts/pt-305.html

PT boat virtual tour: http://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/your-visit/pt-boat-virtual-tour/

Bruce Harris, volunteer project coordinator, points out features of the hull of PT-305, a World War II patrol torpedo boat, which is being restored at the World War II Museum in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. The National World War II Museum has nearly finished restoring the patrol torpedo boat that sank two armored German supply barges and carried U.S. commandos to the south of France. Officials hope to have PT-305 back on the water in about a year. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

FILE - In this April 6, 2011 file photo, workers guide a partially restored a PT boat as it is moved by a crane into its new home inside the John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. The museum has nearly finished restoring the PT boat that sank two German armored supply barges and carried U.S. commandos to the south of France. Officials hope to have it back on the water in about a year, carrying tourists and history buffs on the lake where it was first tested in 1944. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Josh Schick, project historian for the National World War II Museum, stands inside the engine room of PT-305, a World War II patrol torpedo boat being restored at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. The National World War II Museum has nearly finished restoring the patrol torpedo boat that sank two armored German supply barges and carried U.S. commandos to the south of France. Officials hope to have PT-305 back on the water in about a year. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

A torpedo sits on the deck of PT-305, a World War II patrol torpedo boat being restored at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. The National World War II Museum has nearly finished restoring the patrol torpedo boat that sank two armored German supply barges and carried U.S. commandos to the south of France. Officials hope to have PT-305 back on the water in about a year. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)
2nd Freddie Gray trial set, fellow officer must testify

BALTIMORE (AP)  The second trial for a police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray is set for next month  a year after the black man's neck was broken in a police van  and one of the officer's colleagues will be forced to testify.

The latest reshuffling of trial dates happened Tuesday when Maryland's highest court ruled that Officer William Porter must testify against his fellow officers while he awaits retrial. Porter's trial ended in a hung jury in December and proceedings for the other officers have essentially been on hold while the courts determined whether he should be forced to take the stand.

The trial for Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking officer charged in the Gray case, will start April 13  one year and one day after Gray was arrested outside the Gilmor Homes in Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood when he ran from police.

FILE - In this March 3, 2016 file photo, Officer William Porter, right, one of six Baltimore city police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, arrives to Maryland Court of Appeals in Annapolis, Md. Maryland's highest court has ruled on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, that Porter must testify against his colleagues while he awaits retrial. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Gray was booked after Rice and officers Edward Nero and Garrett Miller found a knife they deemed illegal in Gray's pocket. The state's attorney has said the knife was legal and Gray should have never been taken into custody. He died a week after his injury in the van.

Rice is charged with manslaughter, misconduct in office, reckless endangerment and assault. All of the officers have pleaded not guilty.

Porter, who checked on Gray after he was put in the van, testified at his trial that he didn't do anything wrong during Gray's arrest. He told a jury that it was the van driver's responsibility to make sure Gray was secured in a seat belt.

Porter's attorneys argued he shouldn't be forced to take the stand at the other trials because he could potentially open himself up to perjury. The Maryland Court of Appeals judges seemed skeptical during oral arguments last week, saying Porter shouldn't have anything to worry about as long as he tells the truth.

The judges did not explain their decision Tuesday, saying they would issue an opinion later.

Amy Dillard, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, said their ruling makes sense.

"What the prosecution is asking for is that Porter be called and asked the same questions and testify as he did before under oath," Dillard said. "If the prosecutor goes into areas he has not commented on or testified about, there are motions to be made during those trials."

The appeals court issued two rulings. The first ruling agreed with Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams' decision to force Porter to testify against Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Caesar Goodson, all of whom face manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges. Goodson, the van driver, faces the most serious charge, second-degree murder.

A second order reversed Williams' decision that Porter did not have to testify against officers Miller, Nero and Rice.
Anti-gay, abortion college writings haunt Wisconsin justice

MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker last year and who is running for a full term has come under fire for things she wrote as a college student, including that abortion was a "holocaust of our children" and that AIDS victims deserved no sympathy.

Justice Rebecca Bradley's 1992 opinion pieces, which were published in The Marquette Tribune when she was a student at Marquette University, a private Jesuit school, were brought to light this week by a liberal attack group trying to prevent her from winning a 10-year term on Wisconsin's highest court. Bradley, who was appointed by the Republican Walker in October, is part of a five-justice conservative majority on the seven-person court.

The new light shed on Bradley's student columns has led to a strong backlash from Wisconsin Democrats. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat and first openly gay member of the Senate, has called it "hate speech," and other liberals have called on Bradley to resign.

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2015, file photo, Judge Rebecca Bradley speaks at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., after being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Governor Scott Walker, right. Bradley on Monday, March 7, 2016, apologized for anti-gay opinion pieces she wrote as a college student, saying she is embarrassed by the content and tone and that they do not reflect her worldview or current work as a judge. (John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

Bradley, 44, said on a conservative Milwaukee talk radio show Tuesday that she was "deeply sorry" for what she wrote. Her campaign has said calls for her to resign are absurd.

"I have become a much better person than I was back then," Bradley said on WTMJ radio. "It's ridiculous to suggest that people cannot change in the course of a quarter-century."

Also on Tuesday, Walker defended his appointment of her, but stopped short of condemning what she wrote as a 20- and 21-year-old student.

"It was appropriate that she clearly stated that those are not her opinions now and that they haven't been in her professional practice as an attorney nor in any of the judicial positions that she's had," Walker said. "I think a good chunk of society has got very different views than they did in college, particularly for someone who (attended) almost a quarter of a century ago."

Bradley referred to homosexuals as "queers" and "degenerates" in the columns, which generated numerous letters in opposition that the student newspaper published at the time. Bradley said Tuesday that she began to change her mind about the topic based on that response, as well as people she has met and experiences she has had in the subsequent years.

Her campaign manager, Luke Martz, said that Bradley has attended fundraisers for gay advocacy groups in recent years and donated money to a camp for children suffering from HIV and AIDS.

"My views on these issues have changed and I am a fair and compassionate person to every person who has come before me as a judge, Bradley said.

Her campaign spokeswoman, Madison Wiberg, said that she wouldn't comment on the anti-abortion column from 1992 because the issue could come before the state Supreme Court.

In that column, Bradley argued that life begins at conception and it was "incomprehensible" that people could argue that they have "a right to murder their own flesh and blood."

"Our society is turning a blind eye to this holocaust of our children, largely for the sake of the convenience, or perhaps the financial concerns of the women who choose abortion," she wrote.

Bradley faces state Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg in the April 5 election. The race is officially nonpartisan, but liberals are supporting Kloppenburg and conservatives are backing Bradley.

Kloppenburg has condemned Bradley for the writings, saying "There is no statute of limitations on hate."

Walker previously appointed Bradley to two lower court vacancies before placing her on the Supreme Court four months ago.

Asked if he talked to Bradley about her views on sexual orientation before appointing her, Walker would only say that her experiences as an attorney and her bench rulings are relevant, not her college writings.

"It's really irrelevant in that it's right now up to the voters," Walker said. "The voters will decide come the primary in April. And I think the contrast is pretty clear."

___

Associated Press writer Gretchen Ehlke in Brown Deer contributed to this report.

___
The Latest: Utah Planned Parenthood challenges funding cut

DENVER (AP)  The Latest on a request from Planned Parenthood of Utah to keep the governor from cutting off federal funding (all times local):

10:25 a.m.

Attorneys for Planned Parenthood of Utah say the organization is being wrongly punished over videos showing employees from another state discussing fetal tissue from abortions.

FILE - This Aug. 25, 2015, file photo, Karrie Galloway, CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Council, laughs as the roar of the crowd drowns out her speech at the state Capitol, in Salt Lake City. The Utah branch of Planned Parenthood is set to ask a federal appeals court Tuesday, March 8, 2016, to reverse a judge's decision that allowed governor to cut off funding to the organization after the release of secretly recorded videos showing out-of-state employees discussing fetal tissue from abortions. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File) DESERET NEWS OUT; LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

The lawyers asked a Denver-based federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn a lower court ruling that allowed Gov. Gary Herbert to block federal funding for Planned Parenthood in Utah.

He ordered state agencies to stop distributing federal money for sexually transmitted disease programs and sex education last fall, saying he was offended by the callousness of the discussion shown on the videos.

State attorneys say Herbert had the right to cut the funding because the group had an at-will contract with the state.

Judges on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked pointed questions during a 30-minute hearing. They didn't indicate when they would rule.

___

2 a.m.

The Utah branch of Planned Parenthood is set to ask a federal appeals court Tuesday to reverse a judge's decision that allowed the governor to cut off its funding after the release of secretly recorded videos showing out-of-state employees discussing fetal tissue from abortions.

Planned Parenthood says it did nothing wrong, and U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups abused his discretion when he allowed the governor's decision to stand.

Gov. Gary Herbert ordered state agencies to stop distributing federal money for STD and sex education programs last fall, saying he was offended by the callousness of the discussion shown on the videos.

The appeals court has issued an emergency order keeping the federal money flowing, and Planned Parenthood wants to extend it.
UN, rights groups criticize Europe's draft plan on migrants

BRUSSELS (AP)  The United Nations and human rights groups voiced deep concerns Tuesday about the legality of the European Union's plans to send thousands of migrants back to Turkey amid fears the country cannot properly provide for them.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed to the broad outlines of a deal that would essentially outsource Europe's refugee emergency. People arriving in Greece having fled war or poverty would be sent back to Turkey unless they apply for asylum.

For every migrant sent back, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee, thus trying to prevent the need for people to set out on dangerous sea journeys, often arranged by unscrupulous smugglers.

An Afghan woman with her one-year old child sits at the old international airport, which is used as a shelter for refugees and migrants, in southern Athens, on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Amnesty International is warning that a European Union scheme to send thousands of migrants back to Turkey is legally flawed.(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Turkey stands to gain billions of dollars in refugee aid, faster EU membership talks and visa-free travel for its citizens within four months under the plan, whose details are to be worked out at a March 17 EU summit.

In another development, Serbia's Interior Ministry said that as of midnight Tuesday, Slovenia will demand valid EU visas at its borders, effectively closing the main Balkans migration route to western Europe for thousands who have continued to cross from Turkey to Greece.

Under the outlines of the proposed deal reached in Brussels, migrants who enter Europe illegally will be sent back and have to join the end of the queue to enter Europe, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But the U.N. and rights groups are not convinced that Turkey is a safe destination. More than 2.7 million refugees, many from Syria, are in Turkey. Most are housed by Turkish families or live out in the open, and few have government-funded shelters.

"I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told EU lawmakers.

In Geneva, UNHCR Europe bureau director Vincent Cochetel told reporters that collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under international law.

Amnesty International also warned that the plan, whose details are to be worked out at a March 17 summit in Brussels, is legally flawed. Europe's attempt to have Turkey designated as a safe country is "alarmingly shortsighted and inhumane," the group said.

"Turkey has forcibly returned refugees to Syria, and many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing," said Iverna McGowan, head of Amnesty's European office.

"By no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a 'safe third country' that the EU can cozily outsource its obligations to," she said.

The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said the deal is cynical and a sign that "European leaders have completely lost track of reality."

"Clearly, Europe is willing to do anything, including compromising essential human rights and refugee law principles, to stem the flow of refugees and migrants," said the group's humanitarian adviser Aurelie Ponthieu.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed the migrant issue in Berlin with Merkel, and is "in line" with the comments from the UNHCR, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

"The secretary-general wants to see a (human) rights-based approach to the issue," Dujarric said. "That's what he said publicly and those are the discussions he had with Merkel."

Ban also said he's worried by Europe's increasingly tough asylum policies, growing anti-refugee rhetoric and attacks on migrants.

"Extreme right-wing and nationalistic political parties are inflaming the situation where we need to be seeking solutions, harmonious solutions based on shared responsibilities," Ban said.

He added that the EU "can do much more" to manage the influx, which pales next to what Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have done to take in more than 5 million people.

Europe has been overwhelmed by the arrival of more than 1 million people in 2015 and more than 140,000 so far this year, mostly into Greece via Turkey. In response, nations along the migrant route have built barriers and tightened border controls.

Often these unilateral moves have complicated already chaotic migrant movements, putting more pressure on European neighbors and weighing on countries along the route through the Balkans north out of Greece.

Turkey moved swiftly to start implementing key commitments outlined in Brussels, reaffirming an agreement with Greece for readmitting migrants.

Prime Minister Davutoglu hosted Greece's Alexis Tsipras in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir and said heightened cooperation with Greece could "reduce the dramatic scenes seen in the Aegean Sea to a minimum."

Thousands of migrants are stuck at Greece's northern border with Macedonia at a makeshift and overcrowded camp near Idomeni. Many had risked their lives crossing the Aegean in rickety boats.

Heavy, overnight rain had turned much of the camp into a muddy swamp, with people trying to dry their clothes and blankets at small fires.

In Serbia, the Interior Ministry said it was informed of Slovenia's new restrictions calling for valid EU visas at the border. That means Serbia will act accordingly and close its borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria for those who do not have valid documents. That effectively shuts the main route through the Balkans toward western Europe.

"Serbia cannot allow itself to become a collective center for refugees," the ministry said.

Earlier Tuesday, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the Brussels summit dealing with the surge of people over the western Balkans sent "a very clear message to all traffickers and all irregular migrants that this route no longer exists, it is closed."

Cerar had said "today or tomorrow" Slovenia will start allowing passage only to those migrants with documents required by members of the Schengen passport-free travel zone.

___

Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Elena Becatoros in Idomeni, Greece, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed.

Syrian children play in muddy water in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia, near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Around 1,500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia, from whom more than 400 Syrians are on the border line with Serbia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, right, and Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offer flowers to journalists, prior to their meeting in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Turkey and Greece were holding talks on bilateral issues but also to discuss the migrants crisis a day after EU leaders agreed in principle on the outlines of a possible deal with Turkey for the return of thousands of migrants to Turkey. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

A boy walks through mud in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Around 1,500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia, from whom more than 400 Syrians are on the border line with Serbia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
Storms cause flooding, possible twisters in southern Plains

DALLAS (AP)  Powerful storms dumped heavy rain on parts of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma on Tuesday, causing flooding that led to a school bus rescue, property damage from tornadoes and the death of a boater whose canoe capsized in strong winds.

By the time the slow-moving storm system leaves Texas and Oklahoma  likely Wednesday  it could dump up to a foot of rain on some areas, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer McNatt. It could linger in Arkansas and Louisiana through Friday.

EF-1 tornadoes  the weakest type  touched down Monday and Tuesday morning in a rural area southwest of Fort Worth, Texas, according to weather service meteorologist Juan Hernandez. Damage to homes and businesses was reported in several communities. Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds told Dallas-Fort Worth station KXAS-TV that several mobile homes were damaged and four people were injured overnight.

Tolar Fire Chief Matt Hutsell searches inside a damaged home Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Tolar, Texas. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Authorities near Houston said they've recovered the body of a 22-year-old man whose canoe capsized as he and another man were fishing in a bayou near Galveston Bay.

Dallas-based utility Oncor at one point reported more than 40,000 customers without power Tuesday as strong winds brought down trees and traffic lights. Winds of up to 70 mph were reported and tornado warnings were issued for parts of central and eastern Texas.

Emergency personnel waded through thigh-deep water to rescue six children from a school bus caught on a flooded road north of Fort Worth.

McNatt said that in addition to flash flooding, there's widespread river flooding, but the damage isn't expected to be extensive.

"We've had a relatively dry January and February, so the lakes aren't full and the rivers aren't as full, either," she said.

Bands of torrential rain were moving through northeastern Oklahoma and forecasters said parts of the state's southeast could get up to 7 inches.

The weather service issued a flood advisory for the Illinois River near Tahlequah, in eastern Oklahoma, cautioning that it could rise to 10.9 feet by Friday, which would nearly reach its flood stage of 11 feet.

The Poteau River near the town of Panama, which runs through Arkansas and Oklahoma, could also flood, the weather service said. Flood stage for the river is 29 feet and the rains were expected to cause the river to reach 32.7 feet by Thursday.

Pete Snyder, a weather service meteorologist in Tulsa, said the storm system "is somewhat meandering," and could dump a lot of rain through the rest of the week.

In northwestern Arkansas, heavy rain was expected to begin Tuesday evening and last through early Friday, with up to 8 inches possible west of Little Rock. The service said minor to moderate flooding could occur on the Ouachita, Little Missouri, Fourche LaFave, Petit Jean and Saline rivers.

The system is not related to one that brought powerful thunderstorms to much of California on Monday, walloping the Sierra Nevada with blizzard conditions and briefly knocking out power at the Los Angeles airport.

___

Associated Press writers Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Sansom Park firefighters clear a downed tree that damaged two cars as severe weather crosses the area, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Dusty Young and Diane Barnes look storm damage in Sansom Park, Texas as severe weather passed the area, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A line of storms move through west Fort Worth as severe weather crosses north Texas, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT (

Jack Fisk, left, owner of Jack's Trailer Park, walks past the remains of trailer homes at his park after a severe storm caused damage, Tuesday, March 8, 2016 in Tolar, Texas. A severe thunderstorm damaged several homes in North Texas. (Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Sansom Park firefighters clear a downed tree that damaged two cars , but not the home, as severe weather passed the area, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Dusty Young and Diane Barnes look at storm damage in Sansom Park, Texas as severe weather passed the area, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Patrick Pearson waits as Sansom Park firefighters remove a tree that fell on two cars at his home,as severe weather passed the area, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Patrick Pearson waits as Sansom Park firefighters remove a tree that fell on two cars at his home,as severe weather passed the area, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday. (Rodger Mallison/Star-Telegram via AP) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
Authorities searching for man suspected in 5 fatal shootings

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP)  Dozens of officers searched farmland in central Missouri on Tuesday for a man suspected of killing a person at a nearby house just hours after fatally shooting four others at his neighbor's home about 170 miles away in Kansas.

Two helicopters, police dogs and at least one SWAT team were helping look for Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino near New Florence, said Capt. John Hotz, a Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman. The patrol said he was considered dangerous and may be armed with an AK-47.

Several schools were placed on lockdown, with officers stationed at the buildings.

This undated photo provided by the Kansas City, Kan. Police Department on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 shows Pablo Serrano. Serrano is suspected of fatally shooting four people at his neighbor's home in Kansas before killing another man about 170 miles away in a rural Missouri house not far from where his truck was found abandoned. (Kansas City, Kan. Police Department via AP)

Serrano-Vitorino, a Mexican national who had lived in Kansas City, Kansas, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder late Tuesday afternoon in the Kansas killings, authorities said. Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman's office listed Serrano-Vitorino's age as 40, while police said he was 36.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement Tuesday night that Serrano-Vitorino, of Mexico, had been deported from the U.S. in April 2004 and illegally re-entered "on an unknown date." ICE said it would place a detainer on Serrano-Vitorino if he is taken into custody.

The search for him began late Monday when four men were shot at the home in Kansas City, Kansas. One of the men managed to call police before he died, but it's unclear how the men knew each other or what may have prompted the shooting, Kansas City police officer Thomas Tomasic said.

The manhunt shifted Tuesday, when a truck Serrano-Vitorino was believed to be driving was found about 7 a.m. abandoned along Interstate 70 in central Missouri, about 80 miles west of St. Louis.

About 25 minutes later, sheriff's deputies responded to a shooting about 5 miles away at a Montgomery County home along an I-70 outer road and found the body of 49-year-old occupant Randy J. Nordman, according to the patrol. Highway Patrol Lt. Paul Reinsch said a witness who called 911 reported seeing a man running from Nordman's property, launching a manhunt of that area.

Reinsch said investigators weren't aware of any connection between Serrano-Vitorino and Nordman, whose home is near his family's campground and a racetrack for remote-controlled cars.

A neighbor of Nordman's, Genevieve Kelly, said she didn't know anything had happened until she saw helicopters circling overhead. She said she didn't know Nordman well, but that she would occasionally help him with sewing.

The owner of the Kansas City home where the four men were shot said he received a call from a tenant at a neighboring house Monday night about a person lying on the porch as if he were dead. Steve Manthe said that when he was allowed into the rental home after 6 a.m. Tuesday, he saw blood on the living room couch and throughout that room, and the television still on.

"It looked like he just stepped in the door and blew them away," said Manthe, 61, who is retired from the Army.

Manthe's family spent part of Tuesday morning scrubbing blood off the front porch with bleach. Manthe, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, said he wasn't aware of any tension between the victims and neighbors.

Authorities haven't released the names of the four Kansas victims. Neighbors who live near the small, yellow one-story home where those men were shot described the area as quiet. They said they hadn't heard gunshots the night before.

Al VanBebber, a 54-year-old mechanic who lives a few blocks away, said he knew at least one of the home's residents and described him as a "nice guy" whom he helped with car repairs and upgrades.

"It's sick," VanBebber said. "I don't know how anybody could do that, with people as nice as could be."

Audrey Ragan said one of the men who died lived across the street from her mother and always went out of his way to help neighbors. She said the man was married with a 2-year-old daughter.

"I thought, 'My God, who could do something like this?' I'm just in shock," Ragan said of the shootings. "He's going to be truly, truly missed."

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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth, Margaret Stafford and Bill Draper contributed to this report from Kansas City, Mo. AP researcher Rhonda Shafner also contributed.

Police search for a murder suspect near New Florence, Mo., on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in the area around the intersection of Stave Mill Road and Highway 19, just south of Interstate 70. Dozens of officers searched farmland in central Missouri on Tuesday for a man suspected of killing a man at a nearby house just hours after fatally shooting several people at his neighbor's home about 170 miles away in Kansas. (Cristina Fletes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Police walk near a house where a man was found murdered on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. (Cristina Fletes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
Lagerfeld goes all out for Clinton as Pharrell hits Chanel

PARIS (AP)  Chanel-goers were granted their Warholian 15 minutes of fame Tuesday as egalitarian Karl Lagerfeld gave every guest front row tickets. That meant cozying up with the likes of Pharrell Williams and Willow Smith, Chanel's new brand ambassador.

The designer-cum-political philosopher also didn't miss the opportunity to weigh in on his support for Hillary Clinton on International Women's Day, proving that he doesn't just design.

Here are the highlights of fall-winter 2016 shows.

Models wear creations as part of Chanel's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

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CHANEL'S BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING

A relaxed approach infused the fall-winter ready-to-wear collection with myriad loose styles and soft huggable sweaters.

"The vibe was much more street than couture salon," said the designer, who paused to sip mineral water from a silver platter backstage at the Grand Palais show.

The exhaustive 93 show looks were highly diverse, and at times hard to pin down.

The running leitmotifs included a hard, boater hat hybrid that used an equestrian-style strap, as well as matching knee-high low-heeled boots.

"There were no high heels. It was really made for walking, like the Nancy Sinatra song," quipped the couturier.

Soft gray sweaters were slung insouciantly across the shoulders, and models in loose-fitting skirt suits snaked around the never-ending front row, with masses of decorative jewelry and beading.

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KARL LAGERFELD TALKS US POLITICS

Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld spoke to The Associated Press, voicing his support on International Women's Day for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her chances of becoming the first female U.S. president.

"I like the idea," said the 82-year-old feminist, who said that "it's Women's Day every day" in his life.

"I think with the first black president, what they need now is the first woman president. That has to change too," he said.

Lagerfeld ended by quipping about Clinton's Republican and Democratic rivals that "there's nobody else to support anyway."

Who says that fashion isn't political?

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VALENTINO'S ROMAN DELICACY

The Rome-based atelier of Valentino never strays far from its Italian heritage, always peppering in its Parisian couture roots.

And Tuesday's collection was no exception, taking the classical delicacy  as well as the bold defensiveness  of Roman (or Etruscan) styles and giving them an ethereal, contemporary twist.

The result? One of the most devastatingly beautiful and accomplished fashion displays seen all fall-winter season.

Black plating adorned a jutting A-line mini and sheath-like body armor.

While decorative Roman shapes added color to long, diaphanous silk boho skirts fastened myriad times with ribbons at the waist.

Then there were the classical silk dresses in faded, dusty shades of pink and blue that fluttered by.

They were so delicate and light that when the models walked by, the fabric clung sensually to the body, evoking draping.

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IRIS VAN HERPEN'S INNER SPACE

Dutch wunderkind Iris Van Herpen went microscopic on Tuesday, going beyond her signature organic-looking looks to an exploration of inner space.

Using cutting-edge techniques, the award-winning 31-year-old designer produced tactile, three-dimensional contours on micro dresses that mirrored the tectonic, interlocking patterns of organic molecules.

An A-line skirt burst out in a flurry of polygynous shapes like the infinitesimal components of a diamond.

Several dresses in shimmering fabric possessed the marbled iridescence of a sea creature with sensual veiny lines.

And a couple of stand-out tight looks in bright yellow and gray seemed to break out of the organic mold, and echoed almost Burmese styles in their color, pleating and high necks.

It was a focused and quite literally strong, 17-piece collection.

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L'OREAL RED OBSESSION PARTY

Model Karlie Kloss told Eva Longoria her arms were so long she was a "walking selfie stick" at L'Oreal's celebrity-filled fashion week party.

VIP guests at the "Red Obsession Party" included Chris Brown and Lara Stone who partied the night away with a musical performance.

Other guests enjoyed a fabulous photo booth, which took cinematic photos against a red backdrop.

It was not made clear what the party was in aid of.

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

A model wears a creation for Iris Van Herpen's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for Iris Van Herpen's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation as part of Chanel's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, right, kisses Hudson Kroenig, son of US model Brad Kroening, at the end of Chanel's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, right, with Hudson Kroenig, son of US model Brad Kroening, acknowledge applause as part of Chanel's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

EDS NOTE NUDITY : A model wears a creation as part of Valentino's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation as part of Valentino's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation as part of Valentino's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Models wear creations as part of Valentino's Fall-winter 2016-2017 ready to wear collection presented in Paris, France, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation for Iris Van Herpen's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for Iris Van Herpen's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model, seen through distorting glass, wears a creation for Iris Van Herpen's Fall-Winter 2016-2017 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Coroner: California inmate had signs of starvation

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  At 6-foot-1 and 172 pounds, Michael Stanley Galliher appeared healthy  until he dropped dead days after being transferred to a California prison from a state mental hospital.

A coroner found the 49-year-old Galliher essentially starved to death, setting off a flurry of accusations and finger-pointing. Galliher's family and inmate advocates want an investigation. Prison officials say they did nothing wrong and state doctors dispute the coroner's findings.

Galliher's mother said her son's schizophrenia made him paranoid to eat around others, and prison officials should have known that and not had him take meals with other inmates.

This Aug. 2, 2015, photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Michael Stanley Galliher. Galliher, 49, died less than a week after being transferred from a state mental hospital to the California Medical Facility in August. The Solano County coroner determined that Galliher, who was serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of his cousin, died from a lack of nourishment associated with his paranoid schizophrenia. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)

She has filed a wrongful death claim, saying prison officials didn't adequately monitor her son to ensure he was eating properly.

"He's in your custody, he's mentally ill, it's your duty and responsibility to take care of him," said Ann Marie Patrick of Alhambra.

Galliher died at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville in August, six days after being transferred from the state mental hospital in Atascadero. He was in state custody for 25 years after being sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder in the 1989 shooting of his cousin.

The autopsy report, provided to The Associated Press after a public records request, found Galliher died from "complications of inanition," defined as an exhausted condition resulting from lack of nourishment. He had no food in his stomach, severely low blood sugar and other effects of fasting, including a blood condition "commonly observed in starvation," the report said.

Galliher "had not been eating, and likely was not taking his medications," wrote Deputy Coroner Corey McLean, summarizing a phone call with Lt. Felix Hopper, who runs the prison's investigative services unit.

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Dana Simas saying officials didn't have any indication that Galliher was on a hunger strike or not eating.

Prison doctors did their own comprehensive death review that contradicted the coroner's ruling, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver who oversees the prison medical system. She would not say what they think killed Galliher, citing patient privacy laws.

Hayhoe said in a statement that prison guards gave the coroner's office inaccurate information. The coroner did not talk to medical workers and relied on a 2-year-old medical history that did not reflect Galliher's current condition, it added.

The pathologist who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Venus Azar, stands by her finding, said Solano County sheriff's Capt. Brad DeWall. A second pathologist brought in to review the case preliminarily came to the same conclusion, he said.

Galliher cycled in and out of the state mental hospital, going there whenever his mental health deteriorated in prison, his mother said. Once stabilized, he'd be transferred back to prison. Before his death, Galliher had been in the psychiatric hospital for nearly two years.

Patrick said her son's aversion to eating around others was a decades-long hallmark of his paranoia. In the months before he killed his cousin, he would refuse to eat unless his grandmother, with whom he was living, put towels over the windows, Patrick said.

During visits at the state mental hospital, she would buy her son food from vending machines. He would take a bite, but cover his mouth so no one could see.

Department of State Hospitals spokesman Ken August said in an email that he couldn't discuss specific cases or even confirm that Galliher had been their patient. However, he said a patient's treatment team typically provides the receiving agency with recommended continuing care plans, including an alert section pointing out any critical issues.

Michael Bien, one of the attorneys representing sick and mentally ill inmates in two class-action lawsuits against the state, is calling for an investigation.

"You don't expect a patient to die when they're discharged from a hospital," Bien said. "You want to find out, was something missed in the handoff?"

Galliher's mother is still stinging after learning of his death in a phone call she made to wish him a happy birthday and was told he died two months earlier. Prison officials had notified her ex-husband, but the message never reached her.

"I think he died of neglect," Patrick said.

This June 13, 1984, photo provided by Ann Marie Patrick shows Michael Stanley Galliher at his high school graduation. Galliher, 49, died less than a week after being transferred from a state mental hospital to the California Medical Facility in August. The Solano County coroner determined that Galliher, who was serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of his cousin, died from a lack of nourishment associated with his paranoid schizophrenia. (Ann Marie Patrick via AP)
Former executives of Haslam-owned chain get 2017 trial date

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  The former president of the company owned by Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam will face trial next year along with seven others on charges they conspired to cheat customers out of promised discounts and rebates.

The trial was originally set for April. On Tuesday, attorneys for the former Pilot Flying J employees told a federal magistrate in Knoxville they need more time to prepare for the complex case. A motion to postpone the trial says information the government collected through search warrants includes about five terabytes of data, which could translate to hundreds of millions of pages.

Those indicted include former Pilot President Mark Hazelwood, former vice presidents John "Stick" Freeman and Scott "Scooter" Wombold, and five other members of the sales team. All eight have pleaded not guilty.

Jimmy Haslam has denied any previous knowledge of the alleged fraud or any personal wrongdoing. The governor has said he is not involved with operating Pilot Flying J.

According to the indictment, Freeman advised sales staff to "say one thing, do another," when it came to dealing with customers. The indictment also included several examples of employees and their bosses discussing the need to coordinate the lies they were telling customers so as not to get caught.

In one email, an employee quotes Freeman as saying, "we just need to sing from the same hymn book."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton set a new trial date of Oct. 24, 2017.
Texas inmate set to die for 1997 rampage that killed 5

LIVINGSTON, Texas (AP)  Texas prisoner Coy Wesbrook is realistic about the likelihood he'll be executed Wednesday for a Houston-area shooting rampage more than 18 years ago that left five people dead.

"I'm very optimistic they're going to kill me," Wesbrook said from a visiting cage outside death row. "Yeah, there ain't no doubt."

That's set to happen Wednesday evening in Huntsville, when Wesbrook, 58, is scheduled for lethal injection for the 1997 shooting rampage during a party at his ex-wife's apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston.

Death row prisoner Coy Wayne Wesbrook is photographed Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit outside Livingston, Texas. Wesbrook, 58, is set for lethal injection March 9, 2016, for the November 1997 fatal shootings of his ex-wife and another man at her apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. They were among five people killed during the shooting rampage. (AP Photo/Michael Graczyk)

"The main thing in my case is five victims, five shots, five bodies and everybody died," he said. "There was nobody left alive and that pretty much cinched it, you could say."

Among the five victims was Wesbrook's ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32. Others killed were Coons' roommate, Diana Ruth Money, 43, and three men: Antonio Cruz, 35; Anthony Ray Rogers, 41; and Kelly Hazlip, 28.

Wesbrook would be the eighth convicted killer put to death this year nationally and fourth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Two Georgia inmates have been executed so far in 2016, along with one each in Alabama and Florida.

Wesbrook's attorney, Don Vernay, said appeals to the courts have been exhausted and no last-ditch efforts to save him are expected.

Previous appeals rejected in the courts focused on claims Wesbrook had deficient legal help at his trial and that an undercover informant improperly was used to obtain incriminating information for his trial. More recently, courts refused arguments Wesbrook was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

The former security guard and delivery driver married Coons in 1995. They divorced the following year but continued seeing each other and began living together until he moved out in August 1997. They had lunch Nov. 12, 1997, and talked about reconciling. When he showed up that night at her apartment, he found a party in progress.

He testified at his 1998 capital murder trial that Coons humiliated him by having sex with two of the men while he was there.

"You hear all your life if you catch your old lady in bed with somebody, don't just shoot her but shoot her lover too," Wesbrook said from prison. "In her case, there was a bunch of lovers. I just took care of my business.

"I made her a promise," he said. "If you keep on pushing me I might push back."

Wesbrook testified when he tried to leave the party, Cruz grabbed the keys to his truck and joined others in taunting him. He said he "lost it," walked out, grabbed a 30.06 rifle he kept in the truck and returned, shooting each person once. Coons was the final victim.

Court records show the five shots were fired within 40 seconds. Wesbrook testified he shot Money after she threw a can of beer at him, shot Rogers and Cruz as they rushed toward him, then shot Coons and Hazlip as they were engaged in sex.

Neighbors who heard the gunfire and called police saw Wesbrook emerge from the apartment, place the rifle inside his truck and then stand calmly by the tailgate of the pickup to wait for sheriff's deputies to arrive.

"I'm sorry it happened," he said from prison. "But I'm not going to sit here and boo-hoo about it."

Two more Texas inmates are set to die later this month, followed by another in April.

Death row prisoner Coy Wayne Wesbrook is photographed Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit outside Livingston, Texas. Wesbrook, 58, is set for lethal injection March 9, 2016, for the November 1997 fatal shootings of his ex-wife and another man at her apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. They were among five people killed during the shooting rampage. (AP Photo/Michael Graczyk)
App helps in Brazil's fight against Zika-spreading mosquito

NITEROI, Brazil (AP)  For Luciana Santos, doing her part in Brazil's fight to control the mosquito that spreads the Zika virus, dengue and other diseases is as easy as a couple of clicks on her smartphone.

Santos lives in Niteroi, a beachfront city near Rio de Janeiro where authorities recently launched an app called "Sem Dengue," or "Without Dengue." It allows residents to report stagnant water that can serve as a breeding ground for the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Brazil has stepped up its fight against Aedes since researchers here linked an outbreak of Zika virus with a surge in cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect that leaves babies with unusually small heads and brain damage that can cause mental retardation and a host of long-term problems.

A health agent scoops water from a boat docked at the Jurujuba beach during an operation to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in Niteroi, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Niteroi city hall is using an app developed by the startup Colab.re to identify possible breeding grounds for Aedes Aegypti responsible for transmitting dengue and Zika. Residents use the app to send pictures of possible mosquito focal spots to city workers who visit the site and take necessary actions to combat the spread of the mosquitoes. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

So when Santos recently came across several puddles swimming with mosquito larvae while strolling on Jurujuba Beach with her parents and son, she snapped a photo and sent the shot through the app. The app's geo-locator function automatically tagged the picture with the exact spot it was made and sent a detailed alert to City Hall. Within 72 hours, officials had deployed a team to deal with the puddles.

"It's a way for us to help our city, (which) is our role as citizens," said Santos, a manager of an oncology clinic who says she has seen many friends and relatives catch both Zika and dengue. "They (City Hall) have no way of seeing everything, but the population's help contributes a lot" to rooting out mosquitoes.

Dotted with washed-up trash and debris and lined with small wooden fishing boats, Jurujuba Beach is rife with potential mosquito breeding spots. When it rains, everything from the hulls of boats to plastic ice cream tubs and bottle caps fill with water, creating places where the insect can lay its eggs.

The beach has become a regular stop for Niteroi's around half-dozen mosquito inspectors, who thanks to the app are now responding to ever-increasing numbers of complaints.

Since its launch earlier this year, the app has generated hundreds of complaints, Mayor Rodrigo Neves said. He said many of the reports pinpoint sites inside residential complexes or other private buildings that would be hard for the inspectors to find on their own.

It's had the added benefit of increasing people's awareness of their surroundings and their own habits in this city of 490,000 people, Neves said.

"I think the 'Without Dengue' app is without a doubt quite a successful strategy to mobilize the local community for the fight against Aedes," he said, adding that the app was among several tech-based solutions that Niteroi has rolled out recently to better understand citizens' needs and demands.

For Helio Costa, one of the agents deployed to sites reported through the app, a behavioral sea change is needed to win the fight against Zika. He said he rounds up as much trash, dumps out as much water and uses as much larvacide as he can, but until people stop filling the streets with litter where water can collect, they will be in a tough fight to control mosquitoes.

More than two dozen other mostly small-to-midsize cities throughout Brazil are using the app, which was developed by the Sao Paulo-based startup Colab.re.

City workers check photos of possible breeding places of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, that are sent via an app called Sem Dengue, or Without Dengue, in Niteroi, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Niteroi City Hall is using the app developed by the startup Colab.re to identify possible breeding grounds for Aedes Aegypti responsible for transmitting dengue and Zika. Residents use the app to send pictures of possible mosquito focal spots to city workers who visit the site and take necessary actions to combat the spread of the mosquitoes. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Luciana Santos shows how she uses the app called Sem Dengue, or Without Dengue, in Niteroi, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Santos recently came across several puddles swimming with mosquito larvae while strolling on Jurujuba Beach with her parents and son, she snapped a photo and sent the shot through the app. The apps geo-locator function automatically tagged the picture with the exact spot it was made and sent a detailed alert to City Hall. Its a way for us to help our city, (which) is our role as citizens, said Santos, a manager of an oncology clinic who says she has seen many friends and relatives catch both Zika and dengue. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Luciana Santos shows the photo she sent via the app called Sem Dengue, or Without Dengue, in Niteroi, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Santos recently came across several puddles swimming with mosquito larvae while strolling on Jurujuba Beach with her parents and son, she snapped a photo and sent the shot through the app. The apps geo-locator function automatically tagged the picture with the exact spot it was made and sent a detailed alert to City Hall. Its a way for us to help our city, (which) is our role as citizens, said Santos, a manager of an oncology clinic who says she has seen many friends and relatives catch both Zika and dengue. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Health agents remove plastic bottles during an operation to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in Niteroi, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Niteroi city hall is using an app developed by the startup Colab.re to identify possible breeding grounds for Aedes Aegypti responsible for transmitting dengue and Zika. Residents use the app to send pictures of possible mosquito focal spots to city workers who visit the site and take necessary actions to combat the spread of the mosquitoes. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Bank governor Mark Carney rebuked by Eurosceptics over Brexit 'risk' claim

The governor of the Bank of England has clashed with Eurosceptics after he delivered a warning that leaving the EU is the "biggest domestic risk" Britain faces.

Giving evidence to MPs, Mark Carney said so-called Brexit could trigger a prolonged period of financial instability and have serious consequences for the housing market and City of London.

But he was rebuked by Treasury Select Committee member Jacob Rees-Mogg, who branded his intervention "speculative" and "beneath the dignity" of his office. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has also cautioned that predictions of "Armageddon" if the UK were to leave could become self-fulfilling.

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney gives evidence to the Treasury Select Committee in the House of Commons

Under tough questioning during a three-hour session, Mr Carney stressed that the Bank was not making any formal recommendation on how people should vote in the June 23 referendum.

He also flatly denied that he had been pushed by Downing Street into making a grim assessment of the potential fallout.

Mr Carney said the UK leaving was not currently the "median" expectation of financial players, and highlighted effects such as a drop in the value of the pound.

"The issue is the biggest domestic risk to financial stability, because in part of the issues around uncertainty," Mr Carney told the committee.

"But also because it has the potential - depending on how it is prosecuted and how these issues can be addressed - to amplify the risks around the current account as has been discussed, potential risks around housing, potential risks around market function which we are trying to mitigate. And also associated risks with respect to the euro area.

"It is the biggest domestic risk to financial stability. I would say that in my judgment the global risks, including from China, are bigger than the domestic risks."

He declined to repeat the language of a G20 statement last month, which said leaving the EU would result in a "profound economic shock".

After the Bank announced it would give financial organisations access to more liquidity during the referendum period, Mr Carney pledged to "do everything in our power" to keep the markets calm.

But he warned that it was not possible to provide a "blanket assurance" that there would not be short term turbulence, which normally meant "poor economic outcome".

It was unclear whether the UK would secure full mutual recognition of regulations and standards - which would allow UK-based financial services companies to operate in the remaining EU under terms similar to the current "passporting" arrangements.

There would also be questions over whether Britain would lose its "substantial influence" over the development of EU financial regulations.

Asked whether uncertainties of this kind might lead companies to relocate business activities away from the City in the event of Brexit, Mr Carney said: "One would expect some activity to move. Certainly, there is a logic to that.

"There are views that have been expressed publicly and privately by a number of institutions that they would look at it. I would say a number of institutions are contingency planning for that possibility - major institutions, foreign headquartered, which have their European headquarters here.

"There would be an impact. I can't give you a precise number in terms of institutions or jobs or activity, because we don't know where we would be on that continuum between full mutual recognition or pure third-country access."

A heated debate with Mr Rees-Mogg saw Mr Carney accused of damaging the Bank's reputation by making "speculative" pro-EU comments without the facts to support the view.

The Tory MP said: "It is beneath the dignity of the Bank of England to be making speculative pro-EU comments."

Asked also why the financial transaction tax - the so-called proposed Robin Hood tax on banks - was not listed in the Bank's letter to MPs on the recent EU deal, Mr Carney said it was relatively low down on his list of concerns.

He added: "We have to make a judgment on the probability of it actually coming into force."

MP John Mann questioned the central bank boss over the impact of a Brexit on jobs, wages and prices in the UK.

Mr Carney stressed the Bank was not assessing the direct economic impact of a Brexit, but said the uncertainty surrounding the referendum could have an impact on household and business spending, while sharp falls in the value of the pound could push up inflation.

Questioned by leading Tory Eurosceptic Steve Baker, Mr Carney flatly denied that he had been pushed by Downing Street into highlighting the risks of Brexit.

"We are expressing views that are the views of the institution," he said. "We are not leaned on by anybody.

"It would have no effect if they tried."

Mr Carney also suggested that Boris Johnson declaring for the Out campaign could have contributed to the slump in the value of sterling.

Asked whether the London mayor's announcement had an impact, he replied: "The combination of having the agreement, and therefore a date for the referendum, and the tangible evidence of a campaign in favour of Leave with credible politicians as part of that - not least represented on this committee - concentrated the minds."

Mr Carney said the moves in sterling were "relatively large" but "not unprecedented".

Speaking at a lunch for journalists after the hearing, Mr Whittingdale denied that there would be an initial hit to the economy in the event of a vote to leave the EU.

"It is perfectly true that there are certain unanswered questions if we choose to leave and we will have to negotiate new arrangements," he said. "But this country is the fifth biggest economy in the world. We sit on the G7, on the UN Security Council, we are able to prosper outside the EU and in many ways we would be liberated to do things we cannot do at the current time."

He also insisted the G overnment should be preparing for both outcomes from the referendum, and urged senior figures to be "careful" about the language they used to describe risks.

"Telling people that Armageddon will follow from our withdrawal in my view is both wrong but also dangerous, in that if then Britain did decide to leave people may react on the basis that they have been told this is going to cause all these economic shocks," the Tory minister said.

"The financial institutions every day hedge against risk. They take account of uncertainty. Nobody can predict anything.

"While it is true perhaps that the question of the UK's membership of the EU is the biggest issue in domestic politics there are so many uncertainties out there in the world today relating to China, the Middle East, the oil price...
Spring weather on the way - and forecasters predict it is here to stay

Signs of spring will start to show at the end of this week with climbing temperatures across the UK.

The Met Office said there will be more sun and increasingly mild conditions nationwide, with levels rising from Thursday as a tropical maritime air travels up.

On Thursday, temperatures are predicted to reach 10C (50F) in southern England with figures for the rest of the UK still high, reaching up to 9C (48.2F).

The Met Office said there will be increasingly mild conditions nationwide.

These conditions are expected to reach Scotland with only north-west England and Wales excluded from the surge.

This area will stay wet and cloudy, flat-lining at around 7C (44.6F), but is still expected to be milder than usual improving by a couple of degrees at the weekend.

In the rest of the UK, the weekend marks the beginning of accelerating temperatures - up to 13C (55.4F) in the south and 11C (51.8F) in the north.

Wintry nights will also end as levels reach "well above freezing" across the UK by Friday.

Met Office spokeswoman Lindsay Mears said: "It should be getting warmer towards the end of the week, starting on Thursday. There will be a change in the weather with a tropical maritime air coming into the UK, causing milder conditions."

Tropical maritime air can raise temperatures several degrees above average, travelling from the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Bermuda.

Ms Mears said these stereotypically "spring-like" temperatures were here to stay, adding: "It should affect most of the UK apart from the North West which is likely to be... wetter and cloudier. It will still be milder than it has been anyway.
Unions call for talks after energy giant npower confirms thousands of job losses

Unions are seeking urgent talks with npower after the energy giant confirmed plans to axe 2,400 jobs amid heavy financial losses.

The company, owned by German group RWE, ended days of speculation by confirming that its 11,500 strong workforce will be reduced by a fifth, spread across its UK business.

No jobs will be lost at power stations, but retail centres will be hit, and the firm confirmed the closure of a site in Burton, with the loss of around 200 jobs.

Thousands of jobs are to go at npower after the energy giant reported significant losses

The two main RWE businesses in the UK made an aggregate loss of 154 million in 2015 - 99 million at npower and 55 million at RWE Generation.

A two-year recovery plan was announced to deliver a "robust business" built on lower costs, simplicity, high-quality customer service, and ready for the challenges of the future.

A statement said: "Npower takes its responsibilities to its employees seriously and will consult fully with affected employees and with unions over its proposals for the future of the business."

Paul Coffey, chief executive of RWE npower, said: "Npower results continue the trend seen earlier in 2015, but they are nonetheless extremely disappointing and we are starting a two-year process to fix them.

"They show a business that tried to do too much, too soon, while not focusing enough on the fundamentals in a constantly changing market. This led to over-complicated processes and procedures resulting in unhappy customers, too many complaints and extra costs to put things right.

"These issues are not insurmountable. Over the past few months, we have looked at every part of npower, and over the next two years we're fundamentally changing how the company operates."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis added: " Npower bosses are compounding the anxiety for staff by refusing to meet the unions nationally to discuss this so-called recovery plan and to talk about how to protect jobs and avoid compulsory redundancies.

"We're calling for an emergency meeting so we can work jointly on finding a way out of the mess the company currently finds itself in."

Unite, which represents meter readers, revenue protection officers, gas fitters and electricians, warned npower against "self-defeating" cuts.

National officer Kevin Coyne said: "Confirmation of these job losses on this scale is a bitter blow for workers, their communities and the wider energy sector.

"Npower's ability to repair its tarnished image and keep the lights on for its customers will hinge on a workforce which has worked hard over the past year to turn the company around."

Eamon O'Hearn, GMB national officer, said: "It is disappointing that hard-working members, many of whom have experienced significant disruption and uncertainty over the past 12 months, are set for yet more uncertainty over the next 12.

"The company has failed to clarify where any job losses are likely to occur, meaning that members will go home tonight none the wiser.

"RWE's German workforce would not be treated in this manner."

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd said: "All job losses are regrettable and I have every sympathy for the people who are affected by them. Support will be available from Jobcentre Plus to help those facing redundancy move into new jobs as quickly as possible.
Skilled workers shortage warning if UK votes to leave EU

The UK's shortage of skilled workers could get worse if Britain leaves the European Union, a leading recruitment firm is warning.

Manpower said employers relied on the free movement of people inside Europe, highlighting figures showing that over 200,000 jobs created in the last year were filled by people across the EU.

The group's managing director, James Hick, said: "Let's be realistic, we simply won't be able to replace overnight the skills these people bring to the UK if we were to leave the EU - and it's our economy that will suffer.

Manpower said employers relied on the free movement of people inside Europe

"Unemployment is at its lowest level since 2006. It's unrealistic to suggest there's enough slack in the labour market out there to fill these jobs."

Manpower said some major UK employers have already warned of switching high quality jobs from the UK to other countries in the event of Brexit.

A survey by Manpower of 2,100 employers found that hiring intentions for the coming months were at their strongest level since 2007.

Firms in every region of the UK said they were optimistic about recruitment, especially in London, the South West and Eastern England.

Manpower added that some retail and leisure firms were hiring staff before the new National Living Wage of 7.20 an hour comes into force from next month.
Talks pave way for EU migrant deal with Turkey

European Union leaders have hailed a potential breakthrough in talks with Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of migrants streaming into the continent.

Negotiations in Brussels broke up after more than 12 hours of discussions without a final agreement.

But leaders said a Turkish proposal to return all migrants who make it across the Aegean to Greece could provide the basis of a settlement that would finally close the refugee trail through the Balkans.

Prime minister David Cameron says returning migrants to Turkey would close the refugee trail through the Balkans

In return for taking back the refugees, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu wants the EU to resettle an equal number of Syrian refugees direct from his country - although Britain would not be affected as it is outside the Schengen area.

He also called for a doubling of EU aid - to more than 4 billion - to support the more than 2.5 million refugees in Turkey as well as faster progress on easing visa restrictions on Turkish nationals and talks on Turkey's application for EU membership.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "It has been a long and difficult evening but I think we do have the basis for a breakthrough which is the possibility that in future, all migrants who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey.

"That would, if implemented, break the business model of the people smugglers and end the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe.

"That is something that I have been arguing for for a year and I think this is significant, but only if it is fully implemented and that's what needs to happen next."

European Council president Donald Tusk described the talks as the "most promising moment" in the effort to find a way of deterring migrants - many fleeing the conflict in Syria - making the perilous sea crossing to Europe.

"All of us are aware that in fact we have a breakthrough now. The new proposal of our Turkish friend is a real chance to make progress in all aspects of our joint venture," he said.

EU leaders will resume discussions on the proposals when they meet again in the Belgian capital for further summit talks later this month.

Mr Davutoglu - who brought a more ambitious than expected set of proposals to the meeting - stressed that they had to be treated as a "package" if there was to be a deal.

"This is a humanitarian process helping refugees but at the same time it is a strategic issue for us that Turkey will be admitted to the EU," he said.

There was widespread agreement that more money would need to be found to help the Turks cope with the more than 2.5 million migrants currently in the country.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: "A further three billion euros (2.3 billion) will be needed at the request of Turkey. We said in principle that this was a welcome approach."

British sources also indicated support for additional funding - provided the new arrangements were shown to be working..
Ex-Leeds United boss faces slander charges in Dubai over tweet

The former managing director of Leeds United FC is facing criminal charges in the United Arab Emirates over a tweet about the former owner of the club.

David Haigh has been in custody since May 2014 and was due to be released on November 16 last year after a Dubai court convicted him of fraud.

But on November 14 he was charged with slander of his former employees in relation to a comments on his Twitter account made eight months earlier when he was in prison.

David Haigh has been charged in Dubai with slander over a tweet made when he was in prison

A trial has been set for March 16 but non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has called for him to be released after his lawyer Alun Jones said he was concerned for Mr Haigh's mental and physical well-being.

The organisation's deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said: "If UAE businessmen can have their partners locked up when they don't like the tone of their tweets, one has to question whether the UAE is a safe place to make any form of criticism.

"The UK government should make very public calls for David Haigh's immediate release and scrapping of the criminal slander law."

Mr Jones said the problems emerged when Mr Haigh told his Dubai-based employer, Leeds United's former owner GFH Capital, that he intended to bring legal proceedings against it for outstanding commissions.

He was arrested in May that year when he flew to Dubai for a meeting.

Mr Jones, who did not represent Mr Haigh at his first trial, said his client had not been able to understand the evidence against him as it was in Arabic.
Two murder suspects among nine 'most wanted' believed to be in Netherlands

A man accused of stabbing a 21-year-old in the neck in an unprovoked and fatal attack is among nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands.

Shane O'Brien, 28, is accused of walking up to Josh Hanson in the RE Bar in Hillingdon, west London, and killing him in front of his girlfriend in October 2015.

He is among nine fugitives, including another murder suspect, alleged drug smugglers and a convicted rapist, being hunted by British authorities.

Shane O'Brien, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

Josh's mother Tracey said: "Every single waking moment we keep on trying our best to assist the police. We need justice for Josh. An incredible young man, a very hardworking young man, it's the least that can be done for him. It would give us the chance to grieve.

"It's soul-destroying at times. Mother's Day has just passed and Josh not being here was extremely painful for us. He was a wonderful young man, he was caring.

"Somebody out there has got to do the right thing. We need to grieve in peace and we have not been able to do that. Five months on, it feels like a lifetime already."

Addressing O'Brien directly, she said: "Come forward. Hand yourself in. You can't run forever. Stop our pain. Give answers."

O'Brien, who is from London and also uses the first name Troy, is white, slim, 6ft with grey eyes and short, dark brown hair. He has a birthmark on his face and a tattoo that says Shannon 15-04-06 on his back.

The other murder suspect being hunted by UK authorities is David Ungi, from Liverpool, who is accused of killing Vinny Waddington, 18, in the Garston area of the city in July 2015.

It is claimed that the 24-year-old, with two other men, used a car to ram a motorbike before fatally shooting pillion passenger Mr Waddington and injuring the driver Francis Humphries.

The rogues' gallery - put together by Crimestoppers and the National Crime Agency (NCA) - also includes accused "drug dealer" Shazad Ghafoor, 29, who allegedly stole a courtesy car from a Land Rover dealership in Manchester in August 2013 using a false name, sparking a high-speed police chase with his wife and children in the car.

The dramatic pursuit ended with him rolling the car in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and police found up to 100,000 in cash stashed in the vehicle.

He is accused of a string of offences for the chase, along with two counts of dealing cannabis for massive hauls that were allegedly found in a car in Withington and a house in Burnage, both in Manchester.

Crimestoppers chairman Lord Ashcroft said: "With the support of the Dutch authorities and the public, we are confident that we can successfully hunt these people down."

The most wanted list also includes suspected drug smuggler David John Walley, 40, who is alleged to have smuggled MDMA and cocaine into the UK in parcels delivered to Manchester; and Ahmed Dervish Omer, 45, from Nottingham, who fled in the middle of his trial in November last year but was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to 10 years for drug dealing.

Dave Allen, from the NCA, said: "Those who believe they can use the Netherlands to evade capture or continue illegal activities soon find out that it is not a safe haven."

The remaining suspects include Michael Paul Moogan and Robert Stephen Gerrard, both 52 and from Liverpool, who are accused of being part of an international drug trafficking ring; and Mark Liscott, 55, from Great Barr, Birmingham, who is wanted for allegedly dealing class A and B drugs while out on licence for a jail term for dealing cannabis.

Convicted rapist R ezgar Zengana, 33, is also on the list for posing as a minicab driver in Glasgow in December 2006, and picking up a 25-year-old woman who he attacked. He was convicted for rape but has yet to be sentenced.

Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

David John Walley, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

David Ungi, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

Shazad Ghafoor, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

Ahmed Dervish Omer, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

Mark Liscott, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

Rezgar Zengana, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands

Michael Paul Moogan, one of the nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands
Rolling Stone Bill Wyman diagnosed with prostate cancer

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 79-year-old musician, who is expected to make a full recovery, joined the rock band in late 1962.

A spokesman said: "He is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages.

Bill Wyman is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and is expected to make a full recovery

"The Wyman family has asked for their privacy during this time."

Born William Perks, Wyman joined the Rolling Stones shortly after the band's formation when they were beginning to play small gigs around London.

He left in 1993, and in 1997 founded his own band - Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, who last toured in 2014.

The Stones gained their first UK number one in 1964 with It's All Over Now, and went on to achieve success with hits including Gimme Shelter, Satisfaction, and Jumpin' Jack Flash.

The band has continued to record, tour and perform since Wyman's departure, and last week announced a free concert in Havana, Cuba - the first open-air concert in the country by a British rock band.

Wyman has published two autobiographical accounts of his time in the band, Stone Alone (1997) and Rolling With The Stones (2002).

The musician was pictured on Saturday at the wedding of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, alongside his third wife, Suzanne Accosta.

In 1989, the musician also courted controversy when he married his 18-year-old girlfriend, the model Mandy Smith - who he had been dating since she was 14.

The musician, who was 52 at the time, had divorced his first wife in 1969. But he and Smith split by 1991, and divorced two years later.

Wyman went on to marry Accosta, with whom he has three daughters. He also has one son by his first wife.

Wyman last played with the Stones at the 50th anniversary shows at the O2 Arena in 2012.

However, he said he would not be interested in rejoining the Stones on a more permanent basis.

He told the Daily Express: "Thirty years was great but I've got better things to be doing now. That time has gone."

In June last year, Wyman forced Dartford council into chancing the wording on a blue plaque honouring the band after he condemned it as "disgusting".

The plaque at Dartford railway station in Kent said Dartford-born Mick Jagger and Keith Richards "went on to form The Rolling Stones".

But Wyman objected, saying it was the late Brian Jones - who drowned in Sussex in 1969 - who created the band.

Wyman, 78, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It should be a plaque to Brian Jones and I think it's wrong. I don't like history re-written."
Public sector pay rise of 1% denounced as 'miserly'

The Government has come under attack after announcing a "miserly" 1% pay rise for public sector workers, including doctors and nurses.

The awards, following recommendations from pay review bodies (PRB), cover more than one million employees, including staff in the armed forces.

NHS staff, doctors and dentists, and members of the armed forces will receive an average of 1%, while Prison Service staff will get 1.36% as an "exceptional award" for "highly ambitious" prison reforms.

NHS workers will get a 1% pay rise

Health union leaders said 1% was "way below" what workers needed after falling behind for years because of the Government's public sector pay policy.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands said: "Our armed forces, NHS workers and prison officers do a brilliant job serving our country but with an increasingly turbulent global economy, pay restraint continues to be a key part of our plan to finish fixing the public finances.

"The independent OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) estimates that 200,000 public sector jobs have been protected thanks to our average 1% pay policy so we can continue to deliver crucial public services."

Unison's head of health Christina McAnea said: " Government pay policies since 2010 have seen most health staff lose thousands in real terms - nurses are down more than 4,700 since then.

"This 1% pay rise falls way below what health workers need and deserve after years of pay cuts, especially as changes to national insurance and pension contributions will absorb much of this miserly increase.

"It's no surprise that many desperately hard-up health workers are leaving the NHS to come back as agency staff where they can earn more money."

Jon Skewes of the Royal College of Midwives, said: " A 1% award does not make up for the shortfall in the pay awards over previous years, when the Government have ignored the PRB recommendations, and which leaves the average NHS worker over 4,000 worse off every year than they were a few years ago."

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: " Employers in the NHS will welcome the acceptance by the Government of the clear recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Bodies.

"At the same time they recognise that the continued restraint of pay increases across the public sector is of concern to their staff and also restricts the ability to agree reform of non-medical contracts with staff representatives."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "It is thanks to the care, quality and dedication of NHS staff we are beginning to deliver a safer seven-day NHS for patients."

Junior doctors, who will stage a 48-hour strike from Wednesday over their contracts row with the Government, will receive the 1% increase from April.

The Department of Health said as they move to the new contract in August, the award has already been added to new pay progression points.

Janet Davies, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "Nurses have been telling the Government that they are struggling to make ends meet, and are asking themselves if they can afford to continue nursing. Their warnings have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears.

" More and more nurses and health care assistants are being forced to consider their future in the profession that they love."

Pete Finch, of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said: " Ongoing restraint leading effectively to a real-terms cut in take-home pay is unacceptable and unsustainable."
Manchester United defender Daley Blind confident of strong end to season

Daley Blind is confident Manchester United can finish their season of "ups and downs" strongly.

United remain in two cups, facing Liverpool away this Thursday then at home a week later in the first and second legs of their Europa League last-16 tie, either side of Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final against West Ham at Old Trafford.

In the Barclays Premier League they are still in the hunt for a top-four spot, although their hopes suffered a blow with Sunday's 1-0 loss at West Brom.

Daley Blind believes Manchester United are improving and capable of ending 2015-16 on a high

It left them sixth, three points off fourth-placed Manchester City, who have 10 league games left while United have nine.

The defeat at The Hawthorns followed a run of four straight wins in all competitions which had suggested the Red Devils were finally starting to find some proper rhythm again in what has been a troubled campaign.

Blind, who has been playing in the centre of United's defence, admits it has been mixed season, but is feeling positive looking at how it might pan out from here, particularly given the club's lengthy injury list is starting to reduce.

"I think it's a season with ups and downs. We have played many good games but we lost a few as well," Blind told United Review.

"I think we are improving as a team and can move on from here.

"The most important thing is this team sticks together. We have done all season, even when we've had bad results. That shows the strength of the dressing room.

"It (a top-four finish) is not out of reach. Still, anything is possible.

"We have some players coming back now from injuries, which enables us to have a bigger squad again.

"We are still in the race for a trophy and the top four. We can finish strongly and I have a lot of faith in us doing that."

The Holland international is pleased with his individual form in what is his second season with United, and is more than happy for his fixture schedule to remain busy for the rest of the campaign.

"If I look to me personally, I feel I've played a good season, a consistent season," said Blind, who turns 26 on Wednesday.

"I feel good in that position at the moment. I've improved a lot this season in the centre.

"I have showed it's not only about strength but also about quick thinking and being in the right position."

Regarding the matches coming up, starting with Thursday's Anfield clash, Blind added: "It is always better to play lots of games as I always like it more to play a game rather than train.

"So I am happy with how many games we are playing. I am fit and am going to be ready for them.

"Liverpool will be a great game to play in, especially as it's now in the Europa League.

"It's very important for us. They will say it's important for them too so we have to show that we want it more.

"I've definitely got some good memories against Liverpool - I hope we can create some more."

Meanwhile, Guillermo Varela has expressed his desire to be part of the United side long-term.

The 22-year-old right-back - who recently received a maiden call-up to the Uruguay national squad - broke into the United first team earlier this season and has made eight senior appearances so far.

And Varela told MUTV: "I feel enormous pride in being able to play for a club like Manchester United.
Thomas Cook cancels Sharm el-Sheikh bookings until November

Travel firm Thomas Cook has cancelled all bookings to Sharm el-Sheikh until at least November.

The Government suspended flights to the Egyptian resort on November 4 last year after an Airbus 321 operated by Russian airline Metrojet crashed, killing 224 people.

Islamic State jihadis claimed responsibility for bombing the jet.

Thomas Cook has cancelled all bookings to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt until at least November

More than 16,000 Britons stranded in the area were brought home on a series of rescue flights amid heightened security.

But no flights have operated between the UK and Sharm since November 17 as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is advising against all but essential travel using the Red Sea resort's airport.

Thomas Cook said it was extending its period for cancelling bookings from May 25 to October 31 because there was "n o clear indication as to when the FCO travel advice may change".

The company added that any of its c ustomers who were due to travel to Sharm up to that date can cancel or amend their holiday to another destination free of charge.

British Airways has cancelled its services to Sharm until at least September 15.

Thomson Airways has suspended flights up to May 25, with Monarch taking the same action up to April 18.

E asyJet will not operate flights from Stansted to Sharm up to May 27, while its services from Gatwick, Luton and Manchester are cancelled until at least the end of the summer.

The Association of British Travel Agents has previously said the decision on when to use Sharm airport will be made by the UK Government rather than airlines.
Bangladesh central bank says U.S. account hacked; Fed denies breach

DHAKA/NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's central bank said on Monday its account at the U.S. Federal Reserve had been hacked and money was stolen, but that some of the funds were traced to the Philippines and recovered.

The New York Fed, which manages the account, denied that its systems were breached but did not say whether funds had been drained from the account, citing confidentiality.

Bangladesh Bank said it was working with anti-money laundering authorities in the Philippines. It did not say how much money had been stolen and a spokesman declined to comment.

Bangladesh's central bank has around $28 billion in foreign currency reserves.

"To date, there is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and there is no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised," a New York Fed spokeswoman said.

She declined to comment on whether the U.S. central bank's New York branch was investigating the claim by its overseas counterpart.

Some 250 central banks, governments, and other institutions have foreign accounts at the New York Fed, which is near the centre of the global financial system. The accounts hold mostly U.S. Treasuries and agency debt, and requests for funds arrive and are authenticated by a so-called SWIFT network that connects banks.

Fed computers have been hacked in the past including charges in 2014 against a British citizen for breaching central bank servers and publicly posting information from internal users.
Russia, Philippines have most female business leaders, Japan ranks lowest

LONDON, March 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - With 45 percent of senior management positions held by women, Russia has once again topped a ranking of countries with the highest percentage of women in senior business roles, followed by the Philippines and Lithuania, a report published on Tuesday said.

Japan, where only 7 percent of senior leadership roles are held by women, remained at the bottom of the list. Germany and India ranked slightly higher, with 15 percent and 16 percent of women in senior management, respectively.

Globally, only a quarter of senior management positions are held by women, up from 22 percent a year before, according to "Women in Business" published by the U.S.-based audit and tax firm Grant Thornton.

The number of businesses with no women in senior management has increased to 33 percent from 32 percent in 2015, the report, which surveyed 5,520 businesses in 36 countries, said.

"Companies across developed nations have talked the talk on diversity in leadership for long enough," Francesca Lagerberg, global leader for tax services at Grant Thornton International said in a statement.

"It's time to put their promises into practice and deliver results."

With more than a third of senior roles in the region held by women, eastern European countries, among them Estonia, Latvia and Poland, topped the diversity rankings.

Meanwhile, 39 percent of businesses in G7 countries (Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Britain and the United States) had no women in senior management positions.

"Despite considerable efforts by governments and campaigners across the world's best-developed economies to ensure best practice they continue to lag behind emerging markets in (the diversity) area," Lagerberg said.

"This poor performance seems to be at least partly a result of entrenched societal norms. In the UK and US in particular, there are still plentiful examples of a 'command and control' approach to leadership which is not necessarily attractive to women."
EU says needs more time to reach migration deal with Turkey

By Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald

BRUSSELS, March 8 (Reuters) - Ambitious Turkish proposals to help the European Union to confront its migration crisis came too late for EU leaders to agree them on Monday, leaving diplomats to wade through the details and seek more talks with Ankara later this month.

Europe's hopes that Brussels and Ankara were nearing a deal for Turkey to take back migrants reaching Greece faded late on Monday night after Turkey made a last-minute call for more money and quicker access to European visas in return for its help, measures some leaders said they needed more time to consider.

European Commission officials said there had been a breakthrough with Turkey, but Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel summed up the state of play more diplomatically, saying that European Council President Donald Tusk "will take forward the proposals and work out the details with the Turkish side," before the next summit on March 17-18 in Brussels.

Putting aside concerns about Turkey's increasingly authoritarian government, the European Union is looking to Turkey to help stem the asylum seekers fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East that have flooded into Europe since the start of 2015, causing huge political and humanitarian strains.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu underscored how indispensable Turkey had become for Europe, driving a hard bargain for taking back Syrians who reach Greek islands.

Cyprus was immediately uneasy about allowing Turkey to open more negotiating chapters in Ankara's bid to join the European Union, while a final statement by all EU leaders and Davutoglu was unable to get into details of how to grant Turkey more EU funds to help absorb more refugees.

French President Francois Hollande said the European Union could offer more than the current 3 billion euros pledged to Turkey.
Bangladesh upholds death penalty for Jamaat leader for 1971 war crimes

DHAKA, March 8 (Reuters) - Bangladesh Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death penalty for one of the top leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Mir Quasem Ali, for war crimes during the 1971 independence war with Pakistan, which included killing and torturing freedom fighters.

A war crimes tribunal set up in 2010 has sparked violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians, including leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, that it is victimising Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's political opponents.

Four opposition politicians, including three leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, have been convicted by the tribunal and executed since late 2013.

Mir Quasem, 63, is a member of central executive committee of the Jamaat, the largest Islamist party in Bangladesh, and is one of its most powerful leaders as he is believed to be the chief financier of the party.

He is also a leading businessman in Bangladesh, running firms ranging from print and electronic media to hospitals.

About 3 million people were killed, according to official figures, and thousands of women raped, during the independence war in which some factions, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the breakaway from what was then called West Pakistan.

The party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities.

Mir Quasem went into hiding after Pakistan occupation forces and their local collaborators surrendered on December 16, 1971, and re-appeared years later as a Jamaat-e-Islami leader.

He was arrested on June 17, 2012 and convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death on November 2, 2014. His appeal against the death sentence was rejected on Tuesday, chief state lawyer Mahbubey Alam told reporters, immediately after the verdict.
Amid repression, art scene in Thailand's capital blooms

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

BANGKOK, March 8 (Reuters) - On a wall in a northern suburb of Bangkok "Asin Acid" puts the finishing touches to a spray-painted picture of a colourful giant chicken holding a broken loudspeaker.

"The loudspeaker represents the media. The media is trying to say something but is being interrupted," said Asin, who uses a pseudonym for his street art to protect his identity and said he is inspired by Cranio, a graffiti artist from Brazil.

"The rainbow colours represent freedom," he said.

Thailand's military seized power nearly two years ago and has censored media, hauled in hundreds of critics for sessions of "attitude adjustment" and snuffed out protests.

Junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has threatened to shut down news outlets critical of his government and regularly scolds journalists who he considers straying from the official line.

But state repression has unleashed a wave of artistic expression, say artists and art lovers, and the Thai capital's art scene is blooming in response to life under junta rule.

"It's because they can't talk about it that they're creating," said Gili Back, a cafe and gallery owner, referring to Bangkok's artists.

"You'll see a lot more graffiti and street art where people are having their say on walls."

Bangkok's art scene has traditionally been overlooked in favour of places like Hong Kong but in recent years venues have mushroomed with Thai and expatriate artists turning shop houses and disused spaces into galleries.

On a recent Friday night a crowd packed into a room at the WTF Bar and Gallery to see 'This is Not a Political Act' by Jirawut Ueasungkomsate, an exhibition on cases of enforced disappearance that have taken place under successive governments.

In the pitch-black room audience members shine flashlights on black and white photographs of people, including prominent rights activists, whose whereabouts are not known.

Though not a direct commentary on the junta, it speaks about the impunity enjoyed by state officials, said Jirawut, adding that he was initially scared about holding the exhibition.

The junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order, has shut down some political lectures and talks.

"It is because I am afraid that I have to do it," said Jirawut.

At 'The Respectables', an exhibition by British artist Richard Mead, paintings - of fashion models, the media and political protests - depict different forms of power.

"The theme of power and 'The Respectables' really goes with the context of Thailand right now. Especially with the type of government we are under," said Teerapa Pirohakul, an art lover and history lecturer at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Across town, as his exhibition fills with the after-work crowd, Jirawut reflects on the city's art scene.

"No matter whether we are under a military or a civilian government we need this space," he said.
China hints more bases on way after Djibouti

BEIJING, March 8 (Reuters) - China hinted on Tuesday that it was planning more global bases following the setting up of its logistics centre in Djibouti, what the Horn of African country's government calls a military facility that will be China's first overseas.

China plans to use it to support is anti-piracy operations in the waters off the strife-torn nations of Somalia and Yemen. Beijing has been keen not to call it a military base, but state media increasingly uses this language to refer to it.

China's Defence Ministry said last month building had begun on the base, something China describes as naval "support facilities" in Djibouti, which has fewer than a million people but is striving to become an international shipping hub.

Djibouti, strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal, is already home to U.S. and French bases, while other navies often use its port.

Asked about Djibouti at his yearly news conference on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China was fulfilling its international obligations to protect shipping.

"We are willing to, in accordance with objective needs, responding to the wishes of host nations and in regions where China's interests are concentrated, try out the construction of some infrastructure facilities and support abilities," he said.

"I believe that this is not only fair and reasonable but also accords with international practice," Wang said, without elaborating.

China, the world's second-largest economy, is seeking to expand its capacity to respond to growing threats to its interests abroad.

President Xi Jinping is reforming the military and investing in submarines and aircraft carriers, as China's navy becomes more assertive in its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas.

China is also expanding its peacekeeping role, with Xi pledging in September to contribute 8,000 troops for a United Nations stand-by force that could provide logistical and operational experience the military would need to operate further abroad.
Romania - Factors to watch on March 8

BUCHAREST, March 8 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Tuesday.

GDP DATA

The National Statistics Board will release industrial producer price data for January at 0700 GMT.

DEBT TENDER

Romania sold a slightly more than planned 316 million lei ($77.55 million) worth of July 2027 treasury bonds on Monday, with the average accepted yield at 3.82 percent, central bank data showed.

CEE MARKETS

Central European stocks and government bonds mostly firmed slightly on Monday, lifted by hopes that the European Central Bank will further loosen policy at its meeting on Thursday.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
Brutal rapes of girl and mother haunt Central African Republic psychologist

By Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, March 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Psychologist Agnes George has worked with more than a thousand victims of sexual violence in war-torn Central African Republic, but the brutal gang rape of a ten-year-old girl and her mother stands out as the health professional's most harrowing case.

A group of armed men stormed into the family's home and threatened to kill the girl's grandmother unless the child undressed for them, said the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) psychologist.

"The child cried and refused. The three men killed her grandmother, raped the girl, and even raped her mother before leaving," said George, who works at the MSF clinic for victims of sexual violence in the capital Bangui's General Hospital.

Central African Republic has been plagued by violence between mainly Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian anti-balaka militias since the rebels ousted former ruler Francois Bozize in early 2013.

The conflict, which has forced one in five people to flee their homes, has left the displaced, single mothers and young girls particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, George said.

MSF has a dozen services for victims across the country, which treat physical injuries, test for sexually transmitted diseases, and offer psychological support.

They also provide the victims of sexual violence with medical certificates that can be used as vital evidence in court if they want to take legal action against their attackers.

"It is one part of securing convictions, and is important in cases where children have lost their virginity," George said.

More than 1,000 victims have been treated since the services started in July 2014 - one in five of whom were aged under 18.

Yet less than one in six sought help within 72 hours of being raped, diminishing the quality of care they could receive.

Many victims do not seek help immediately due to stigma surrounding sexual violence, information and services being disrupted by conflict and a lack of understanding, MSF said.

"It's a long process as sometimes the victim feels guilty and ignored - so why would they look for help?" George said.

The United Nations has been hit by a string of allegations of sexual abuse against women and children by its peacekeepers in Central African Republic over the last year.

This may reflect a growing realisation that sexual violence is pervasive throughout the country, according to George.

While the French psychologist said it was important to address mental health in the country, she warned of the strain of the job on her and her colleagues.
PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - March 8

SOFIA, March 8 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- The chief prosecutor asked the parliament to lift the immunity of a deputy from the ethnic Turkish MRF party to launch an investigation for misappropriation. (24 Chasa, Capital Daily, Monitor, Sega, Trud)

-- Prime Minister Boiko Borisov appealed to his GERB party to find ways not to participate in the choice of new members of the anti-monopoly regulator after accusations that the choice may be subject to improper lobbying. (24 Chasa, Capital Daily, Monitor, Sega, Trud)
Czech Republic - Factors To Watch on March 8

PRAGUE, March 8 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Czech Republic: GMT + 1 hour) ===========================ECONOMIC DATA======================== January foreign trade data at 0800 GMT. February unemployment data at 0800 GMT. February foreign reserves data at 0900 GMT. Real-time economic data releases................... Previous stories on Czech data............ Overview of economic data and forecasts......... Updates on CEE currencies........................... ==========================EVENTS================================ PRAGUE - The lower house of parliament to continue a session. Related news: ===========================NEWS================================= CENTRAL BANK: Czech Central Bank Vice Governor Vladimir Tomsik said in a blog post that further easing by the European Central Bank (ECB) would have significant implications for central banks outside the euro zone. Story: Related news: CEE MARKETS: Central European stocks and government bonds mostly firmed slightly on Monday, lifted by hopes that the European Central Bank will further loosen policy at its meeting on Thursday. Story: Related news: CEE POWER: Increasing solar and thermal power supply drove most central and southeastern European day-ahead power prices lower on Monday, offsetting rising demand and moderate wind power generation, traders said. Story: Related news: ---------------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT ------------------------ Index/Crown Currency Latest Prev Pct change Pct change close on day in 2016 vs Euro 27.055 27.053 -0.01 -0.21 vs Dollar 24.527 24.537 0.04 1.34 Czech Equities 888.01 888.01 -0.19 -7.14 U.S. Equities 17,073.95 17,006.77 0.4 -2.01 Pvs close or current levels vs prior domestic close at 1600 GMT For Instant Views of key economic data click on For summary of economic data and forecasts For diary of forthcoming Czech events For calendar of east European economic indicators TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets TOP NEWS -- Convergence watch For an economic indicator diary for the euro zone, the United States and other Group of Seven countries see For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX Prague Newsroom: +420 224 190 477 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (Reporting by Prague Newsroom)
Philippine court shakes up election race by allowing Poe to run

By Karen Lema and Manuel Mogato

MANILA, March 8 (Reuters) - The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a senator who spent much of her life in the United States is eligible to run for president, reversing a decision by the election commission and putting her in line to reclaim her position as frontrunner.

Voting 9-6, the judges allowed first-term Senator Grace Poe to run in the May election, said court spokesman Theodore Te, a decision that will shake up what is now a tight race to succeed President Benigno Aquino.

Poe, 47, was abandoned as a child in a church and adopted. She moved to the United States when she was a student and settled there.

She had been leading opinion polls, but questions about her citizenship allowed three of her four rivals to catch up.

"This is a victory for the Filipino people, for those oppressed ... a victory for women," Poe told a cheering crowd at an international women's day celebration at a park in Manila.

"Women's role goes beyond looking after homes, we can do a lot of things. Let's make 2016 the year when women triumph in government."

Aquino, in power since 2010, is barred under the constitution from seeking a second term.

The election is being closely watched by investors who fear the political succession could derail average economic growth of more than 6 percent a year and derail efforts to crack down on corruption made under Aquino.

Aquino's chosen successor, former interior minister Manuel Roxas, is lagging behind in opinion polls, coming third behind Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay, who was in a statistical tie with Poe in the latest independent poll.

Poe has campaigned on a pro-poor campaign, promising to build on Aquino's programmes of creating jobs and building infrastructure, which have helped propel one of Asia's fastest growing economies.

Edmund Tayao, a political science professor at Catholic-run University of Santo Tomas, said the court ruling could boost Poe's numbers by at least 10 points, boosting her chances of winning the May vote.

"This might not be not on the same level of a black swan as it was in 2010 when democracy icon Cory Aquino died, but it could be a game changer," Tayao said, referring to the landslide victory of Aquino after the death of his mother, who had also been president.

A spokesman for Binay said the court ruling "has no bearing on our campaign".

Poe, a former teacher, spent much of her adult life in Fairfax, Virginia, marrying an American of Philippine origin.

She returned to the Philippines in late 2004 after her adoptive father, action movie hero Fernando Poe, died and topped the Philippine senatorial race in 2013, running on his legacy.

Election officials had disqualified her on the grounds that she had failed to meet a 10-year residency requirement.
Weaker miners drag down European shares to one-week low

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - European shares slipped to a one-week low on Tuesday, with a drop in industrial metals prices following poor trade data from China, the world's top metals consumer, putting pressure on the mining sector.

China's February trade performance was far worse than economists had expected, with exports tumbling the most in over six years, days after top leaders sought to reassure investors that the outlook for the world's second-largest economy remains solid.

The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources index fell 3.6 percent, the top sectoral decliner, dragged down by a 4.2 to 5.7 percent fall in shares of BHP Billiton, Anglo American , Rio Tinto and Glencore.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which reached one-month highs on Friday after three straight weeks of gains, fell 1.1 percent to its lowest level in a week.

Shares in French supermarket retailer Casino also fell by around 1 percent after U.S. research firm Muddy Waters launched a new attack on the company. Casino had no immediate comment in response to Muddy Waters' report.
Netanyahu's no to Obama no big deal but poorly signaled -White House

By Timothy Gardner and Rami Amichay

WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV, March 8 (Reuters) - Israel would have shown good manners had it informed the United States directly rather than through the news media that it was turning down a proposed summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, the White House said on Tuesday.

But spokesman Josh Earnest said there was "no offense taken" by the decision which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ascribed to a desire to steer clear of the U.S. presidential election campaign.

It was the latest episode in a fraught relationship between the right-wing Israeli leader and the Democratic U.S. president that has yet to recover from deep differences over last year's U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Israel's foe Iran.

In a stark reminder of the paralysis in peace talks which Obama tried to revive earlier in his tenure, an American tourist was stabbed to death on a boardwalk in Tel Aviv in the most serious of several Palestinian attacks on Tuesday.

The stabbing occurred about the time U.S. Vice President Joe Biden began a two-day visit to Israel. Biden met former Israeli president Shimon Peres and was due to hold talks on Wednesday with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank.

With a wave of Palestinian street attacks now five months old, U.S. officials did not expect a peace breakthrough during Biden's visit. A 2010 Biden visit was marred by acrimony over a Jewish settlement plan Israel announced during his trip.

WHITE HOUSE 'SURPRISED'

The White House said on Monday it had been "surprised" to learn first from Israeli media that Netanyahu had decided against coming to a conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington on March 20, and to see a suggestion in some reports that Obama's unavailability had been one of the reasons.

It said Netanyahu had been offered a March 18 meeting with Obama, ahead of the president's landmark visit to Cuba on March 21 and 22.

Asked whether the Netanyahu government should have told the Obama administration before the media, Earnest said on Tuesday, "I think it's just good manners."

Zeev Elkin, an Israeli cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, countered that Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer had given the White House advance warning the trip might not happen.

Netanyahu's office cited the U.S. election campaign in saying he would not travel to Washington for the AIPAC event, and voiced appreciation for Obama's willingness to host him.

In 2012, Netanyahu hosted Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in Israel in what many Democrats saw as a bid to undermine Obama's attempt to secure a second term. Israel denied meddling.

While candidates for the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination have been vying to assert their credentials as friends of Israel, Obama is not up for re-election in November, having served a maximum two terms.
Worried over refugees, Baltics begin to erect border fences

By Andrius Sytas and David Mardiste

VILNIUS/TALLINN, March 8 (Reuters) - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are tightening ID controls and erecting fences on their eastern borders, worried the Baltic region will become a new entry point for refugees as migrant routes through the Balkans becomes harder.

Governments fear they could see thousands of refugees cross from former ruler Russia - the focus of long historical mistrust - and Belarus. Concerns have grown since around 6,000 asylum seekers crossed into Finland and Norway from Russia last year.

Latvia and Estonia have begun to fence off their border with Russia. Security concerns also played a part after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean region and accusations an Estonian security officer was kidnapped on the border region in 2014.

Hundreds of Lithuanian border guards, police and soldiers started an exercise this week over handling a border crisis. The reintroduction of ID checks on part of the border with its northern neighbour Latvia will also be tested at the exercise.

"Until last year, neither Norway nor Finland had any migration problems on the Russian border," commander of the Lithuanian state border guard Renatas Pozela told Reuters. "Then migrant flows on that border jumped up in a single week, as if by the wave of a magic wand."

As controls tighten over the direct route from Greece into continental Europe, the route through Moldova, Ukraine and into the Baltic may become more popular, officials say.

Estonia is installing surveillance devices, such as those already on the Lithuanian border with Belarus, to thwart both smuggling and illegal migration.

"It's unfortunate that we would need that (a border fence)," said Ojars Eriks Kalnins, a member of the Latvian parliament European Affairs Committee. "But given the circumstances in Europe right now, the whole refugee crisis, it may be necessary."

So far the number of refugees has been a trickle.

Finland criticised Russia in January for allowing asylum seekers across their Arctic border, after their numbers at the major Salla border crossing reached 20 per day.

About 5,000 asylum seekers arrived in Norway in 2015 via Russia, out of the total 31,000 asylum seekers that came last year.
Syrian Kurdish PYD sees obstacles to talks, blames opposition

By Tom Perry

BEIRUT, March 8 (Reuters) - The Syrian Kurdish PYD party on Tuesday accused opposition groups backed by Saudi Arabia of throwing obstacles in the way of peace talks and said the U.N.-led effort to convene negotiations faced "many hurdles".

PYD co-leader Saleh Muslim, whose party exercises wide influence over Kurdish areas of Syria, also said the United States and Russia must do more to enforce a cessation of hostilities agreement after shelling by insurgent groups killed 16 people in a predominantly Kurdish district of Aleppo.

Diplomats hope the cessation of hostilities agreement, which has brought about a lull in the five-year-long Syria conflict, will allow for peace talks.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it planned to start "substantive peace talks" by March 14, five days later than a previously announced planned start date.

Despite emerging as a major player in Syria, the PYD was excluded from an aborted attempt to hold talks earlier this year, in line with the wishes of Turkey which deems the group part of the PKK - a designated terrorist group in the West.

Muslim, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said his party had yet to receive an invitation this time.

He said the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) was obstructing efforts by setting preconditions - a reference to its demand for an agenda focused on creating a "transitional governing authority" which would lead to President Bashar al-Assad's removal from office and is opposed by Damascus.

Muslim said the first priority should be to secure a full ceasefire and to agree which armed groups should be deemed terrorists and then discussing the future of Syria.

He said that beyond al Qaeda's Nusra Front and Islamic State - both excluded from the cessation agreement - there were other armed groups in Syria that needed to classified as terrorists.

"The obstacles are emerging from the Riyadh opposition," he said.

ASSAD'S FATE

Assad, buoyed by five months of Russian air strikes, has ruled out demands of opposition groups that he step down, or any other proposal that contravenes the existing constitution.

Muslim said regional states that back the opposition - Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar - "are trying via all tools to thwart the track of the political solution". All three states say they support a political solution to the war.

Syrian rebels fighting Assad view the PYD and the affiliated YPG militia as allies of the Syrian government - a charge denied by the Kurdish groups. The YPG is an important ally of the United States in the war against Islamic State.

Tensions between the YPG and rebels fighting Assad have recently spilled into open war in and around the northern city of Aleppo. Over the weekend, the YPG accused rebel groups of breaching the cessation of hostilities agreement by attacking the Aleppo district of Sheikh Maksoud.

Muslim said "the situation in Sheikh Maksoud is very tragic and needs someone to put an end to it".
Two dead, five missing in Congo after wall collapse at Glencore mine

By Kenny Katombe

KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 8 (Reuters) - T wo workers at Glencore's huge Katanga Mining copper and cobalt operation in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo died on Tuesday and five remain missing, the mine's chairman said after a 250-metre pit wall collapsed.

"Of the seven who disappeared, two bodies were found," Gustave Nzeng, chairman of Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), the joint venture that runs the mine, told reporters in the town of Kolwezi.

Rescue efforts to find the remaining workers were being hindered by heavy rain, Nzeng said.

Mining companies in Congo extracted just under 1 million tonnes of copper in 2015, making the country Africa's top producer.

Major companies such as Freeport-McMoRan, Ivanhoe and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation have invested heavily in the sector since a 2003 peace deal drew a line under years of regional war in Congo's east that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease.

Deadly accidents are common in Congo's mostly unregulated artisanal mining sector, where diggers use rudimentary tools, but far rarer at its large industrial mines.

The Katanga Mining joint venture is controlled by Glencore, the Swiss-based mining and trading company, while Congo's state mining company Gecamines and Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler's Fleurette Group both hold minority stakes.

The project is one of the country's largest and consists of both underground and open-air mines formerly owned by Gecamines. It started commercial production in 2008.

Katanga Mining announced an 18-month suspension of production last September, but work on maintenance and an $880 million modernisation project to cut costs has continued.

Delphin Monga, provincial secretary of the UCDT union, which represents KCC workers, said that many more workers would likely have been killed had it not been for the suspension.

"This was the least bad scenario because there weren't nearly as many workers there as before," Monga said.

Richard Muyej, the top government official in Lualaba province, told Reuters that the wall that collapsed in the KOV open pit mine was more than 250 metres high.
Yemen's Houthis in Saudi for talks on ending war - sources

By Mohammed Ghobari

CAIRO, March 8 (Reuters) - A delegation from the Houthi movement is in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending Yemen's war, two senior officials said, in what appeared to be the most serious attempt to date to end the conflict.

The visit is the first of its kind since the war began in March last year between Iran-allied Houthi forces, and an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Iran's main regional rival.

The visit began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi authorities, following a week of secret preparatory talks, said the two senior officials from the administrative body that runs parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis.

About 6,000 people, half of them civilians, have died in the fighting in Yemen, raising fears of a wider regional confrontation between Shi'ite power Iran and Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia.

Underlining the regional rifts, a senior Iranian military official signalled on Tuesday that Iran could send military advisers to Yemen to help the Houthis.

The Houthi delegation in Saudi Arabia is headed by Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis' main spokesman and a senior adviser to Houthi leader, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the officials said.

Abdel-Salam previously led Houthi delegates in talks in Oman that paved the way for U.N.-sponsored talks in Switzerland last year.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been fighting to restore Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power since last year could not immediately be reached for comment on the reported talks.

A spokesman for the Saudi foreign ministry could also not immediately be reached. Two members of the Houthi-run Revolutionary Committee, which administers parts of the country controlled by the group, said the talks were taking place.

A regional diplomat who follows Yemen confirmed that "there were direct contacts and talks between Saudis and Houthis".

The Houthi visit coincides with an apparent lull in the fighting on the Saudi-Yemeni border, one of the bloodiest fronts in the conflict, and in Arab coalition air strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Although the Houthis' al-Masirah news channel has continued to report attacks on what it calls "the Saudi-American forces of aggression" inside Yemen, including a rocket attack on Monday, it has not reported any operations on the border since March 1.

"I also know that there were no new clashes or hostile movements on the Saudi-Yemeni border during the last few days," said a senior regional diplomat who follows Yemen.

Between Feb. 4 and Feb. 26, al-Masirah reported daily military operations against Saudi frontier positions and towns by the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, including sniper attacks, mortar bombardments, ambushes and infiltrations.
Odebrecht, OAS ex-CEOs mull collaborating in Brazil probe -paper

BRASILIA, March 8 (Reuters) - The former chief executives of major Brazilian builders Odebrecht SA and OAS Empreendimentos SA could strike plea bargain deals with prosecutors in the Petrobras probe, newspaper O Globo reported on Tuesday.

Marcelo Odebrecht and Leo Pinheiro are discussing the possibility of collaborating simultaneously with Brazilian authorities investigating a bribery scheme that involved state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the newspaper reported, citing a source close to one of the executives.

A spokeswoman for Odebrecht, citing his lawyers, said Marcelo Odebrecht has not opted for a plea bargain deal. "He is, as he has always been, available to give the authorities all due clarification." Spokeswomen for OAS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Marcelo Odebrecht has been in jail since June on suspicion of corruption and Pinheiro is under house arrest. Both could seek lighter sentences if they agree to a plea bargain deal.

Odebrecht and Pinheiro are some of highest-profile executives ensnared in the probe, with links to politicians, mostly from the governing coalition, according to prosecutors.

Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo last week reported former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could be named by Pinheiro in a possible plea bargain testimony. Lula was briefly detained for questioning on Friday.

Plea bargain deals are confidential until the testimonies are collected by prosecutors and accepted by a judge.

The strategy has been widely used in the sweeping corruption investigation that threatens to topple President Dilma Rousseff. Economists said uncertainty generated by the probe has helped to deepen Brazil's worst recession in decades.
Iran could send military advisers to Yemen-official suggests

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

DUBAI, March 8 (Reuters) - A senior Iranian military official signalled on Tuesday that Iran could send military advisers to Yemen to help the Shi'ite Houthi group fight a Gulf Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, suggested Iran could support the Houthis in a similar way it has backed President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria, in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.

Asked if Iran would send military advisors to Yemen, as it had in Syria, Jazayeri said: "The Islamic Republic felt its duty to help the Syrian government and nation. It also feels its duty to help the people of Yemen in any way it can, and to any level necessary."

Iran has sent thousands of troops and advisors to Syria. Alongside Russian air power, Iranian troops have helped Assad's forces turn the tide against rebel forces supported by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers.

Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of also backing Yemen's armed Houthi movement, which drove the internationally-recognized government into exile, triggering a Gulf intervention in March.

Tehran views the Houthis as the legitimate authority in Yemen but denies providing any material support to them. The Houthis say they are a fighting a revolution against a corrupt government and its Gulf Arab backers.

The coalition has committed ground troops to the war effort.

The top foreign policy advisor to Iran's supreme leader said last month that cooperation between Iran and Russia could expand to Yemen, after a visit to Moscow.
Two killed as rockets from Syria hit southern Turkish town -mayor

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 8 (Reuters) - A young child and another person were killed on Tuesday when rocket fire hit the Turkish town of Kilis from across the Syrian border, the mayor and security sources said, in an attack that Ankara blamed on Islamic State militants.

Kilis, near Turkey's southern border with Syria, was hit by a series of eight rockets, with one landing near a hospital, mayor Hasan Kara said.

Turkish security sources said two more people were injured.

"The first rocket landed in an empty field. Then, when people started gathering, they started firing around those areas," Kara said. "They are being fired intentionally."

A residential area near a high school was also hit and the Turkish military returned fire into Syria, the security sources said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Islamic State militants were responsible for the attack.

The attack showed how "fragile" the Syrian ceasefire is, he said. Davugtoglu was speaking at a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

The ceasefire agreement, accepted by the Syrian government and most of those fighting against it, has reduced violence in Syria since it took effect on Feb. 27, the first truce of its kind in a 5-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people and caused the world's biggest refugee crisis.

Islamic State is one of the Islamist insurgent groups not taking part in the ceasefire.

The area of Syria from where the rockets probably came is believed to be under the control of Islamic State, Kara said.

On Monday, the U.S. military said coalition forces had targeted the militant group in Iraq and Syria with two dozen strikes near 15 cities.

Live footage from broadcaster TRT World captured the sound of a large explosion, followed by a plume of black smoke rising from nearby buildings.
U.S. may raise Iran missile tests at Security Council -official

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - The United States is closely following reports that Iran has conducted ballistic missile tests and if they are confirmed will seek an "appropriate response" at the U.N. Security Council, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reported ballistic missile tests would not be considered a violation of the international nuclear deal with Iran but there were "strong indications" the test would be inconsistent with a U.N. Security Council resolution.

"If confirmed, we intend to raise the matter in the U.N. Security Council," the official said. "We will also encourage a serious review of the incident and press for an appropriate response."
'You won't get rid of me!' Venezuela's Maduro tells foes

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS, March 10 (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro insisted on Thursday his opponents would fail in a new push to oust him this year and end 17 years of socialist rule in the OPEC nation.

Having won control of the National Assembly in a vote at the end of 2015, the energized opposition alliance has launched a multi-pronged campaign to remove Maduro via street rallies, a recall referendum and a constitutional amendment.

The first protest march is planned for Saturday in Caracas.

Speaking on state TV, the 53-year-old president mocked his foes as divided and corrupt, and insisted he was the man to steer Venezuela out of its current economic crisis.

"We are here to work undisturbed in the great objectives of the economic recovery," he said at a meeting with businessmen and senior government officials. "And from there, they will not get rid of me, nor should they get rid of anyone."

Critics blame Maduro for Venezuela's deep recession, triple-digit inflation and depressing shortages of basics, saying he has stuck stubbornly to the statist economic policies of his predecessor Hugo Chavez when reforms were needed.

But Maduro points to the global oil price collapse as the main source of Venezuela's woes. The nation depends on crude for more than 90 percent of its export revenues.

The price of Venezuela's oil has, at least, crept up in recent days to about $31 per barrel, Maduro said, but revenues were minimal compared to the days of $100-plus crude.

With investors fretting over Venezuela's ability to pay foreign debt obligations later this year, Maduro said the government was seeking assistance from major lender and ally China.

"We've reached a big agreement with China," he said, without giving any more details. Beijing has lent some $50 billion since 2007 to Venezuela, which repays with oil shipments.

Earlier, Miguel Perez, the vice president for economy, told Reuters a delegation had taken a proposal to China last week seeking better financing terms.
Slovak opposition leader says ready to start coalition talks

By Tatiana Jancarikova

BRATISLAVA, March 8 (Reuters) - Slovakia's largest opposition party said on Tuesday it is ready to start talks with five other parties on forming a centre-right government if current Prime Minister Robert Fico cannot put together his own coalition.

Richard Sulik, head of the anti-immigration Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, told reporters he believed he could find 87 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

"We are ready to seek what we have in common and we're ready for compromise," said Sulik, an economist who authored a liberal tax reform in 2004 that was widely credited with attracting foreign investors to Slovakia and spurring growth.

Sulik wants to reinstate the flat tax, after Fico's governments partially dismantled the system, and to legalise civil unions for same-sex couples. He also proposes to legalise euthanasia and the use of marijuana.

Fico has the first chance to form a new cabinet after his leftist Smer party won Saturday's national election but lost its majority in parliament. He will receive the mandate from President Andrej Kiska on Wednesday.

With six out of seven other parliamentary groups taking an initial position they would not join a Smer-led cabinet, Sulik may be able to form only a very wide and possibly unstable centre-right coalition.

Sulik's party, a member of the same right-wing European Parliament faction as Germany's right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), brought down the previous centre-right cabinet in 2011 by refusing to approve a bailout for Greece.

Like most Slovak political parties, SaS has said it will refuse to accept migrants under a system of quotas approved by the European Union last year.

Forming a centre-right cabinet would not be easy either.

Sulik would have to reconcile Most-Hid (Bridge), which seeks a more prominent role for Slovakia's Hungarian minority, and the Slovak National Party (SNS), which has campaigned against giving them more rights. Its founder threatened at a 1999 rally to wipe out Budapest with tanks.

The SNS has significantly toned down its image under its current leader Andrej Danko and Most-Hid said on Monday it could take part in talks involving the party.

However, Danko said on Monday he would not participate in informal talks with Sulik or other centre-right leaders for the time being and would talk to Fico first if he accepts a formal mandate that the president is expected to offer on Wednesday.
Kidnapped son of slain Pakistani governor rescued after four years

By Gul Yusufzai

QUETTA, Pakistan, March 8 (Reuters) - The kidnapped son of a Pakistani governor who was murdered after he criticised the country's blasphemy laws was freed on Tuesday, a week after his father's killer was executed, authorities said.

Shahbaz Taseer, in his 30s, had been missing for more than four years, ever since he was abducted in Lahore months after his father, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, was killed in 2011.

The Pakistani army said Shahbaz Taseer had been rescued by intelligence agents in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Provincial officials confirmed the news.

"Shahbaz was recovered safe and sound," Baluchistan police inspector general Ahsan Mehboob told Reuters. Intelligence agents and counter-terrorism officers found Taseer after receiving information he was being held in a hotel in Kuchlak, 25 km north of Quetta, the provincial capital, Mehboob said.

No arrests were made in the raid, and there was no confrontation with the captors, he added.

Last week, Salman Taseer's former bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged for the murder. The killer's funeral attracted tens of thousands of supporters who proclaimed him a hero for defending Islam.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed at least 10 people near a court, an attack the Pakistani Taliban's Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction said it had committed to avenge Qadri's execution.

Salman Taseer had spoken in support of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy and had called for the laws that mandate the death penalty for insulting Islam to be revised. After his death, Taseer's family received multiple threats from religious hard-liners.

On the day of Qadri's execution, another of Taseer's sons, Shehryar, tweeted: "MumtazQadri being hanged is a victory to #Pakistan. NOT the #Taseer family. The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants."

Shahbaz Taseer was believed to have been kidnapped originally by the radical Islamist group Lashkar e Janghvi and later handed to al Qaeda and then to the Pakistani Taliban, intelligence sources told Reuters.
3-Trump wins Michigan in repudiation of Republican establishment

By John Whitesides

DETROIT, March 8 (Reuters) - Republican front-runner Donald Trump rolled to primary wins in the big prize of Michigan and in Mississippi on Tuesday, brushing off a week of blistering attacks from the party's establishment and expanding his lead in the White House nominating race.

Trump's convincing win in Michigan restored his outsider campaign's momentum and increased the pressure on the party's anti-Trump forces to find a way to stop his march to the nomination ahead of several key contests next week.

In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders stunned front-runner Hillary Clinton in a narrow Michigan primary upset, giving his upstart campaign new energy. Clinton won in Mississippi, but the Sanders win is likely to ensure a prolonged nominating fight.

Trump built his victories in Michigan, in the heart of the industrial Midwest, and Mississippi in the Deep South with broad appeal across many demographics. He won evangelical Christians, Republicans, independents, those who wanted an outsider and those who said they were angry about how the federal government is working, according to exit polls.

At a news conference afterward, Trump said he was drawing new voters to the Republican Party and the establishment figures who are resisting his campaign should save their money and focus on beating the Democrats in November.

"I hope Republicans will embrace it," Trump said of his campaign. "We have something going that is so good, we should grab each other and unify the party."

The results were a setback for rival John Kasich, governor of Ohio, who hoped to pull off a surprise win in neighboring Michigan, and Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida who has become the establishment favorite but lagged badly in both Michigan and Mississippi and appeared unlikely to win delegates in either.

Trump said Rubio's recent attacks on him had backfired.

"Hostility works for some people; it doesn't work for everyone," Trump said at a news conference in Jupiter, Florida.

Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas whose recent victories have positioned him as the prime alternative to the brash billionaire, won the party's primary in Idaho.

But Trump suggested his rivals had little hope going forward and took particular aim at Cruz, 45.

'A HARD TIME'

"Ted is going to have a hard time," Trump said of Cruz. "He rarely beats me."

The Michigan victory sets Trump up for a potentially decisive day of voting a week from Tuesday. On March 15, Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina - like Michigan, states rich in the delegates who will select their party's nominee at July's Republican National Convention - cast ballots.

The Republican contests in Florida and Ohio award all the state's delegates to the winner. If Trump, 69, could sweep those two states and pile up delegates elsewhere next week, it could knock home-state favorites Rubio and Kasich out of the race and make it tough for Cruz to catch him.

"The biggest takeaway is that the Republican establishment is in its death throes. The only remaining candidates are 100 percent anti-establishment," said Mark Meckler, an early Tea Party movement founder.

Republicans were also voting on Tuesday in caucuses in Hawaii.

Many mainstream Republicans have been offended by Trump's statements on Muslims, immigrants and women and alarmed by his threats to international trade deals. Trump said on Tuesday he has not assembled a foreign policy team, despite having said he would have one in place by February, and dismissed criticism his statements would be harmful to U.S. interests.

Anti-Trump Super PACS have spent millions of dollars on advertisements designed to attack Trump's character in Florida, a state Rubio calls home and Trump calls a second home.

But Trump's relentless anti-free trade rhetoric and promise to slap taxes on cars and parts shipped in from Mexico resonated in Michigan, which has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing and auto industry jobs.

Michigan was the state that spawned the term "Reagan Democrats" to refer to largely white, working-class voters who abandoned their party to vote Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980s.

Sal Isabella, a Dearborn insurance agent, said he was for Trump because he would make things happen.

"He'll be like Reagan," Isabella said. "He'll make some big changes and we need big changes.

On the Democratic side, Sanders told reporters in Florida that the results in Michigan had been a repudiation of the opinion polls and the pundits who had written off his chances in the state. Polls had shown Clinton with a double-digit lead going into the primary.

The U.S. senator from Vermont said it showed his political revolution was "strong in every part of the country. Frankly, we believe our strongest areas are yet to come."

Clinton's campaign signaled ahead of Michigan that the race could be tight. Clinton, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea Clinton all campaigned in the state over the past few days trying to garner last-minute votes.
U.S. to announce further easing of Cuba restrictions March 17 - sources

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration will announce further measures to ease travel and trade restrictions on March 17, ahead of his historic visit to Cuba later this month, U.S. congressional sources said on Tuesday.
Slovenia, Serbia place new restrictions on migrants' entry

LJUBLJANA, March 8 (Reuters) - Slovenia's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday it would limit the entry of migrants to the country from midnight, allowing only those who planned to seek asylum in Slovenia or were coming for humanitarian reasons.

Each humanitarian case would be assessed individually, the ministry said in a statement.

Reacting to Slovenia's action, Serbia said it would harmonise its policies with those of the EU member states, adding that Slovenia's decision meant "the Balkan route for migrants is being closed."
Zimbabwe, Afghanistan begin World T20 with 14-run wins

NEW DELHI, March 8 (Reuters) - Afghanistan and Zimbabwe reaped the benefit of some tight death bowling to both register 14-run victories on Tuesday and boost their prospects of making the World Twenty20 main draw.

Vusi Sibanda's maiden fifty and Elton Chigumbura's late assault powered Zimbabwe to 158-8 against Hong Kong in the first match of the sixth World Twenty20 event at Nagpur's VCA Stadium.

The Africans then returned to restrict their opponents to 144-6 to kick off their campaign with a triumph.

Afghanistan later posted 170-5 at the same venue and dished out some impressive death bowling to restrict Scotland to 156-5 as they won their Group B clash.

The first wicket to fall in the tournament showed the gap between teams already in the Super 10 second round stage and those aspiring to join them from the first round.

Put in to bat, Zimbabwe skipper Hamilton Masakadza hit three boundaries and a six before a sloppy end to his innings.

Masakadza set out for a single that looked safe until he failed to plant his bat and drag it. His feet and the bat were in the air when the mid-off fielder threw down the stumps.

His opening partner Sibanda (59) showed more responsibility and brought up his fifty with a flat six off Nadeem Ahmed.

Zimbabwe subsequently lost three wickets, including Sibanda's, in eight balls but Chigumbura (30 not out) hit three sixes in his 13-ball cameo to take them past the 150 mark.

For Hong Kong, Jamie Atkinson (53) struck his maiden fifty but did not get much support from his top order colleagues.

Skipper Tanwir Afzal chipped in with a breezy unbeaten 31 but Zimbabwe's bowlers sent down a tidy last two overs.

Hong Kong's 44-year-old Ryan Campbell became the oldest player to make his Twenty20 international debut.

Afghanistan rode half-centuries from Mohammad Shahzad (61) and skipper Asghar Stanikzai (55 not out) to post a total that seemed to justify their decision to bat first.

Scotland offered a robust reply with George Munsey (41) and Kyle Coetzer (40) forging an 84-run opening stand before their chase was derailed.

Once the openers departed, Afghanistan's bowlers stemmed the run flow and then sent down some tight final overs to prevail.
Maryland court orders officer to testify in Freddie Gray case

By Ian Simpson

March 8 (Reuters) - Maryland's high court on Tuesday ordered a Baltimore police officer to testify against five colleagues also charged in the death last year of Freddie Gray, a black man whose death triggered protests and rioting.

In a victory for prosecutors, the Court of Appeals ordered Officer William Porter to testify in the other cases even though he faces a retrial in Gray's death. The move to force testimony in a co-defendant's trial is seen as unprecedented in Maryland.

The order signed by Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera sent the cases back to Baltimore City Circuit Court for trial. She said an explanation would come in an opinion to be filed later.

Gray, 25, died in April from a neck injury suffered in police custody. His death sparked unrest in the majority black city and spurred a U.S. debate on police treatment of minorities.

Prosecutors had tried Porter first, hoping to secure a conviction before using him as a witness in other cases, but his manslaughter trial ended in a hung jury in December.

In January Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams ordered Porter to testify against Caesar Goodson and Sergeant Alicia White, even though Porter faces a retrial in June.

Williams also had denied a motion by prosecutors to force Porter to testify against the other three officers - Lieutenant Brian Rice and Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero. The high court's decision overturned Williams' order in those cases.

Prosecutors and lawyers for Porter appealed the orders. The defense team contended that testifying against the other officers would compromise Porter's constitutional right against self-incrimination.

State attorneys argued before the Court of Appeals this month that Porter would have limited immunity and prosecutors would be barred from using his words against him.

The trials had been stayed pending the ruling. Rice's trial was set to start on Wednesday but a court spokeswoman said it and the other trials would be rescheduled.

A spokeswoman for one of Porter's attorneys, Joseph Murtha, declined to comment on the high court's decision, citing a gag order.

Warren Alperstein, a Baltimore defense lawyer who is closely following the case, said the decision was a clear win for prosecutors but the issue may not be resolved.
Slovenia, Serbia place new restrictions on migrants' entry

LJUBLJANA, March 8 (Reuters) - Slovenia and Serbia said on Tuesday they would place new restrictions on the entry of migrants, putting extra obstacles in the way of those trying to reach the European Union via the Balkans.

The decisions to further restrict routes taken by more than a million migrants in the last year were announced hours after EU leaders declared an end to a mass scramble to reach wealthy countries in Europe from war zones.

"From midnight, there will be no more migration on the Western Balkan route as it took place so far," the Interior Ministry of EU member Slovenia said in a statement.

It said EU leaders agreed in Brussels on Monday that member states must enforce the rules of the open-border Schengen area. This means Slovenia would bar passage to migrants except those who planned to request asylum in the country or who sought entry for humanitarian reasons, which would be individually assessed.

Only about 460 of the almost 478,000 migrants who have passed through Slovenia since last October asked for asylum in the country, with most heading to wealthier northern nations such as Germany.

Non-EU member Serbia said Slovenia's decision meant "a closure of the Balkan route" for migrants and said it would follow suit. "Serbia cannot allow itself to become a collective centre for refugees, so it will harmonise all its measures with those of the EU member states," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Croatia's Interior Minister Vlaho Orepic confirmed late on Tuesday that the former Yugoslav republic, which is an EU member but not part of the Schengen area, will also from midnight apply new rules meaning that only those travelling with valid documents and visas will be able to enter.

At least 34,000 people have been trapped in various parts of Greece from a cascade of border shutdowns further north. That has slowed the numbers reaching Slovenia to a trickle. The last migrants arrived in Slovenia three days ago, according to police there.
Niger opposition suspends participation in run-off election

By Abdoulaye Massalaki

NIAMEY, March 8 (Reuters) - Niger's opposition coalition said on Tuesday its candidate, Hama Amadou, would not contest a run-off election on March 20, increasing the chances that President Mahamadou Issoufou will win a second term.

Amadou has been in prison since November on charges relating to baby-trafficking. He says he is innocent and a victim of political repression. The government denies wrongdoing and says it follows the law.

"The Coalition for an Alternative has decided to suspend its participation in the electoral process and asks its representatives to withdraw from the electoral commission," it said in a statement.

The coalition denounced Amadou's detention and justified its decision to withdraw by saying the constitutional court had not followed procedure when it announced definitive first-round results on Tuesday and had also not proven its independence.

The coalition, which unites about 20 political parties including Amadou's MODEN, also asked its deputies to cease activities at the National Assembly.

Issoufou fell just short of outright victory in the first round on Feb. 21 and was expected to win the run-off as several smaller parties have said they will support him.

He campaigned on a promise to clamp down on Islamist militants and revive the economy in Niger, one of the world's poorest countries.

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is based in Nigeria, has staged a series of cross-border attacks in Niger's southeastern Diffa region, forcing the government to impose a state of emergency there.

Niger produces uranium and oil but is ranked last in the United Nations' Human Development Index and has one of the world's highest fertility rates.
Nigeria hopeful oil producers will meet in Russia by end of March

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA, March 8 (Reuters) - Nigeria is hopeful some members of OPEC will meet other oil producers in Russia before the end of March for talks about an oil output freeze, Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Tuesday.

Africa's biggest oil producer has been pushing for action by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries because the drop in oil revenue, on which it relies for around 95 percent of foreign earnings, has undercut its public finances.

Kachikwu first mooted the possibility of talks in Russia last week.

"We are making progress - we are still hoping to have a meeting in Russia, hopefully towards the end of the month. We are still trying to gather consensus," Kachikwu told reporters in the capital, Abuja.

Oil prices have lost two thirds of their value since mid 2014 as a result of a supply glut caused by booming output from the United States and OPEC. Prices fell below $30 per barrel in January, their lowest in more than a decade.

Benchmark Brent futures were around $39 per barrel by 2034 GMT on Tuesday.

Last month OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia, the world's two largest oil exporters, agreed to freeze output at January levels to prop up prices if other nations agreed to join the first global oil pact in 15 years.

However, OPEC's third-largest producer, Iran, plans to steeply raise production after international sanctions on the Islamic Republic were lifted in January.

"Iraq and Iran are still saying that they cannot commit to specific volumes because of the history of the time they were out," said Kachikwu.

"If we do have the meeting in Russia, it's going to be very dramatic in terms of the price of oil," he added.
RICHMOND  Dozens of young protesters occupied the lobby and front stairs of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality on Monday morning in a demonstration opposing coal ash disposal plans that ended with 17 of them charged with trespassing.

Richmond police closed Main Street in front of DEQ headquarters Monday afternoon as they instructed protesters to leave by 1 p.m., hours after the protest started. The 17 who refused to exit the building were charged with trespassing and released.

Were here to protect their free speech rights, but we also have to protect public safety, Richmond police spokesman Gene Lepley said.

Trespassing, a misdemeanor, can carry punishment of up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

New federal regulations require utilities around the country to close their coal-ash ponds, which have been used for decades to store the potentially toxic waste generated by burning coal. The ash can contain numerous heavy metals such as arsenic and potentially cancer-causing toxins.

Dominion Virginia Power has 11 coal-ash ponds at four sites across the state that it must close after receiving state permits both for disposing of the water and for storing the remaining dried ash.

Protesters say the first pair of DEQ permits granted to Dominion  for wastewater discharge from the ponds at Bremo and Possum Point power stations  are too lenient and would cause irreparable harm to the James and Potomac rivers.

Monday morning, protesters with a group known as the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition called for DEQ Director David Paylor to face them or resign. Among the many chants the students repeated over a bullhorn were Dump the DEQ and DEQ we see through you.

Were here for answers, said Aaron Tabb, a 21-year-old sociology major at Virginia Commonwealth University. We believe if [Paylor] cant make himself available for comment, he should resign.

Five of those arrested Monday are University of Virginia students, according to the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition.

Another protester, Drew Gallagher, said the group wants answers related to 33.7 million gallons of water that were released from the Possum Point plant into Quantico Creek last year. Dominion Virginia Power has said that water was from storm runoff it was permitted to release, not from coal ash storage.

As far as DEQ has been able to determine, that was in accordance with their permit at the time. DEQ was not aware of it immediately, but we dont have any information there was concern with the permit itself, DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said. As weve been saying for a while now, the permits that were recently issued and the permit that existed last year are designed to protect the environment and peoples health and thats what they do. DEQ is very confident the permits will do that as Dominion moves ahead with water removal from its coal ash ponds.

The water from those ponds will be treated then tested inside a large tank to make sure it meets the states water quality standards before it is released into the rivers. Both of those permits, approved in a room of nearly 100 opponents of the plans, are being appealed by environmental groups.

More than 200 coal ash protesters gathered at the Capitol last month before marching downtown past Dominion and DEQ headquarters. Some protesters said Monday that the public should expect more protests as a coalition of environmental groups works to bring attention to what they view as the shortcomings in the states coal ash disposal plans.

The groups said they will argue that the trespassing charges from Mondays protest, as well as those from the February protest, should be dropped because those charged were defending everyones right to clean water.

A Dominion spokesman on Monday said the company remains committed to keeping the James and other rivers in Virginia clean.

Dominion has taken a lead role to close its ash ponds in full compliance with federal and state regulations as part of the closure, Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Rob Richardson said. Water will be filtered, treated, monitored and discharged into nearby waterways in a manner that will fully protect aquatic life, human health and recreational activities such as swimming and fishing.

John Ramsey reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
BRUSSELS - Belgium - Turkey has pulled off the deal of the century by duping the EU with a mega six billion euro payment to take back migrants then release them again to get back into Europe.

What is 6 Billion euros divided by 100,000 migrants? Thats 60,000 euros per person, a princely sum if there were any, and the EU nations are being forced by their heads in Brussels to cough up the cash. Britain itself will be forced to pay 500 million to the fund.

In a time of austerity, where every cut in the budget of Britain hurts millions of Britons, 500 million could easily go towards building a new hospital, or multiple schools, or the crumbling road infrastructure, or to better care for the disabled, instead it is fleeing from the arms of Britain into a black hole, a bottomless pit.

The migrants will keep coming whatever will happen, and this charade will continue ad infinitum.

If Britain was out of the EU, this money could be used in our own country to serve our people, to help our infrastructure, and to increase the quality of lives for the many needy Britons who really deserve better than the deal they are getting right now.

You pay tax. For what? You work day in day out and you get nothing back, instead the money flies into EU arms and is never seen again.

Britain on top of these money requests by the EU pays 55 million per day just to be in the EU.

Vote Leave, let Britain break free from this EU monstrosity, this wasteful ridiculous profligate bunch of thieves.

Deal of the Century

One thing is for sure, the Turks are laughing all the way to the bank, what a coup for Ankara, to have taken the 6 Billion euros. A delightful Turkish win off the backs of the EU Muppet show.

We take the money, then release the migrant. What that migrant does in Turkey is their business, whether they go across to Europe again is none of ours. Hah! What a deal, this is beautiful. Six billion euros, we dont even know what to do with all that cash. Kebabs on us! All right boys, chilli sauce?

Thank you EU. haha
International Womens Day, held each March 8, is an opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women around the world. Over time, it's grown to feature a week-long series of commemorative events and activities acros Canada.



At Dalhousie, theres much worth celebrating, from the universitys longstanding Gender and Womens Studies program to the dedicated work of the Dal-hosted South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre. Theres a whole suite of activities happening throughout the week as well, under the banner of "Redefining Ourselves: Equality, Resistance and Resilence"; see the full schedule at the HREHP website.



There are also many student groups who work across the university to support the advancement of women in their particular fields of study or employment. To mark International Womens Day, we wanted to highlight some of them and their efforts.

Computer Science: Women in Technology Society (WiTS)



The Dalhousie Women in Technology Society (WiTS) aims to promote gender and racial equality in the university and technology sector. Over the past few years WiTS has built a strong presence in the Faculty of Computer Science, with membership increasing from less than 10 people in 2014 to more than 30 in 2016.



Efforts to promote equality include community-based initiatives such as introducing female students in high school to coding, as well as hosting educational networking events for university students. In particular, We Talk Tech is a major event hosted by WiTS each semester that brings together students and tech professionals from numerous areas of the tech industry. These events have provided a great setting for students to meet and interact with professionals in leading roles, learn about diversity initiatives at different companies, and discover the challenges and opportunities that exist in the industry.



Management: Rowe Women in Business Association (Rowe WIBA)



The Rowe Women in Business Association (Rowe WIBA) was started in May 2015 by a group of passionate Bachelor of Commerce students. Its purpose is to focus on a future of advancement of women in business and to inspire young women to take on leadership roles and pursue success. In its first year, the association hosted numerous networking and social events in Halifax and Toronto, workshops, charitable fundraisers and guest speaker events. Its members also run multiple social media initiatives to draw attention to women in leadership issues (#WomenWednesday), to celebrate the co-op work term and career-related achievements of their members (#CoffeeWithWIBA), and to underscore the importance of supporting fellow female students (#WhyRoweWIBA).



The club has quickly grown to over 60 student members (plus executive members) and is currently ramping up to host its first half-day conference on March 18. The Rowe WIBA Atlantic Conference: Inspiring Women to Inspire Change will featuring a lineup of special guests and speakers, including Dal alumni, Dal Board of Governors members, and student employers. You can find more information about the conference on the groups Facebook page.



Agriculture: Female Leaders in Academia (FLIA)



Of all agricultural faculty members across North America, only five per cent are female. Female Leaders in Academia (FLIA) is looking to change that. Hosted on the Agricultural Campus, its a group open to female graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, female faculty and any undergraduate students interested in mentorship and leadership in academia. Founded in September 2014 by Sarah Stewart-Clark, assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Animal Sciences, the group meets monthly to meet female mentors, discuss work/life/family balance, discuss books about females in academia, practise communication and leadership skills and look at new ways to promote science to younger girls in the community.

There have been many barriers for female scientists to vertically advance in academia, Dr. Stewart-Clark explains. FLIA provides the support and inspiration for our female graduate students to expand their careers in science.



A signature event for this group is Girls Get Wise: an interactive workshop introducing science to girls from grades 7-9 in a hands-on way. The workshop involves topics such as analytical chemistry, genetics, marine biology and more.

Engineering: Dalhousie Women in Engineering (WiE) Society



The Dalhousie Women in Engineering (WiE) Society is constantly striving to provide women with various opportunities to spark their interest in Engineering as a profession, to maintain the current female engineering population and to give them tools to succeed beyond postsecondary education. WiE supports the development of young talent in order to diversify the workforce through assisting ambitious students in pursing their career in the engineering field.



The women are involved in several events throughout the year: Women Engineering the Future Expo, Conference on Diversity in Engineering, and several Professional Development Days. One event that particularly stands out is Go-Eng-Girl, a day-long retreat for female high school students and their parents to learn about engineering as a profession. The girls learn about the disciplines currently offered at Dalhousie directly from current female engineering students, as well as other engineering aspects from female professional engineers.



Dentistry: Women in Dentistry Circle



The Women in Dentistry Circle brings together fourth-year female Dentistry students with practising female alumni for an annual session of open and honest conversation, specifically around the issues that affect womens private and professional lives. Topics covered include how having a family affects ones career and what to consider when looking for an associateship position. Participants say the group allows for a safe and honest space to discuss issues that stretch beyond beyond dentistry into the realm of overall work and life balance. The second annual Women in Dentistry Circle will take place on March 22.



Medicine: Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC)



Dalhousies female medical students and clinical faculty are part of a large network of women supporting women in the medical professional. The network, the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC), provides its membership with professional development, continuing education, and financial opportunities to advance in their careers. It also connects students with women in medicine from around the globe for mentoring and career advice.



In Halifax, student reps coordinate FMWC events and encourage new membership; first- and second-year students are quick to sign up to meet a female physician in their field of interest  each year, over 30 student-faculty matches are made. In addition, speed dating nights, career events, and speaker presentations on topics specific to women in medicine make FMWC a popular interest group for female medical students.

Learn more about International Women's Day on campus and around the world.


Archive Reader Comments About DarkeJournal Thanks to your wonderful for sale and garage sale section. I have used both successfully. Keep up the great reporting.

From someone who used the unclassifieds: "Thanks to DJ we rented [out] the house!"

We understand your site really has the best coverage for our county.

Darke Journal is a great website. We kept up with the weather and all the local news on a recent trip. Keep up the GREAT WORK.

Keep up the excellent work with the site. Its refreshing to have such a glowing forum for thought and info in the area!

I'm a huge fan of Darke Journal - thanks for providing this website/email information for the community.

I think we can all agree, this is the best site of its kind for Darke County by far.

Your web site has been a great advertising place for our programs ... we always receive lots of calls. Thanks for all you do.

Must say I think you have done a really great job with the site.

Your web site is such a benefit to the community.

......the journal ROCKS!!!!!

Thanks for all your help. Darke Journal is the number one source for Darke County community news.

I have truly enjoyed keeping up with the Darke County news, but the constant reporting on conservative causes is totally inappropriate.

Darke Journal is sure on top of everything.

I really appreciate you running and bumping the garage sale ad over the last few days. My son and I had a really successful sale, and your site was a big help in making that happen (many people told us that they heard about it through DJ).

I am a huge fan of your website. It brings more useful information than the newspaper does and even though I am attending college and am away from home, I still check out your website about once a day to keep up on local events.

I just love your website. It's better than any newspaper or TV program. Keep up the good work.

I like the DJ because it just gives the facts pure and simple. I also like to read what the readers think. You keep up the good work & you will grow!

I am so glad that I found this site. It is so nice to have such an upbeat & unbiased Darke County news. I look forward to checking it each day. I just found it this month. Plus, I can feel free to voice my concerns on issues. Great web site!

When I turn on my computer in the morning, I check the weather and Darke Journal before anything else. Thank you for the pix & info on this site. It's nice to know what's going on in our great Darke County.

You are doing a great service and this is a great media outlet!

It just gets better and better! Truly, the 'mix' is what makes it so good for all readers.

DJ = nice guy, but should relinquish his website duties.

This is a wonderful site! I am so glad there is a place in this community where people can voice their opinion about issues. In the past for many years this community seems to be run by so called political people with others hiding in the brush waiting to inform their leaders of those who disagree with an issue on hand, just so they can point them out and try to ruin their life. Again I am so glad finally, an average Joe can make an Anonymous posted opinion and not fear that they will be pointed at or looked down for stating how they feel. Thank you D. J.

Its better than most of the media available in and around Darke County.

The web site has had steadily increasing viewership over the last year or two and, at least in my opinion, has become a major player in getting news and commentary to Darke Countians.

Your site is not a freaking jungle.
The Vietnamese husband requested genetic testing because one of the babies looked strikingly different from him and the other child. (File photo)

Hanoi: Vietnam has identified an extremely rare case of bi-paternal twins -- twins with different fathers -- a professor at a DNA testing lab in Hanoi told AFP Tuesday.

A set of twins born to a Vietnamese couple, whose names have not been released, were recently taken for testing because of stark differences in the children's appearances, according to local reports.

"Our Centre for Genetic Analysis and Technology lab has tested and found a pair of bi-paternal twins," Le Dinh Luong, president of the Genetic Association of Vietnam, told AFP.

"This is rare not only for Vietnam, but for the world," he said, explaining that the two children had different fathers but the same mother. This can happen if two eggs from the same mother are fertilised by sperm from two different men during separate acts of sexual intercourse within the same ovulation period.

According to the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper, the Vietnamese husband requested genetic testing at the Hanoi lab to determine whether he was the biological father of both his wife's twins.

The man's relatives pressured him to take the test because one of the babies looked strikingly different from him and the other child, the report said. The results indicated that the man was related to only one of the babies.

Ruling out a hospital mix-up, his wife was found to be the biological mother of both children, Tuoi Tre reported. According to Dan Tri online news site, the twins were the same sex, born on the same day just a few hours apart, but look completely different.

The report said the twins are now two years old and one of them has thick, wavy hair while the other has thin, straight hair. Another rare case of bi-paternal twins was reported in the United States last year, when a court ruled that a man was only required to pay child support for one girl in a set of twins after DNA tests proved he was not the father of both.
China has promised to bring greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by "around 2030" as part of its commitments to a global pact to combat global warming, signed in Paris last year.

Beijing: China's carbon emissions, by far the world's highest, may have peaked in 2014, according to a study published on Monday, potentially putting Beijing under pressure to toughen its climate pledges.

China has promised to bring greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by "around 2030" as part of its commitments to a global pact to combat global warming, signed in Paris last year. Evidence that the country has peaked much earlier could lead to concerns that its existing targets are too easy.

The study, by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at the London School of Economics, said that the 2030 peak was a very conservative estimate.

"It is quite possible that emissions will fall modestly from now on, implying that 2014 was the peak," said the report, noting that recent data already showed that China's emissions fell in 2015.

"If emissions do grow above 2014 levels ... that growth trajectory is likely to be relatively flat, and a peak would still be highly likely by 2025," the authors said.

Xie Zhenhua, China's senior climate change envoy, said at a press conference on Monday that the country's emissions had not peaked in 2014 and were still growing.

While total energy consumption rose 0.9 percent to 4.3 billion tonnes of standard coal in 2015, coal consumption fell 2.2 percent on a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on official data.

Chinese carbon experts said any fall in emissions in 2015 would be mainly due to a slowdown in China's economy, and it was unlikely that emissions had peaked so early.

"I would like to believe that the peak will be around 2030, and if stricter policies for carbon reduction and some reforms in the way local leaders are evaluated on GDP growth, the peak will come in 2025," said Xi Fengming, a carbon researcher with the China Academy of Sciences.

"But I do not think China has reached peak emissions in 2014," he said.

The government said on Saturday that it would cap total energy consumption at 5 billion tonnes of standard coal by 2020, amounting to an increase of 16.3 percent from 2015.

It also said that it would cut carbon intensity - or the amount of CO2 emissions per unit of economic growth - by 18 percent over the 2016-2020 period.

The 2030 peak pledge was made in a joint declaration with the United States in late 2014. China also agreed it would make its best efforts to peak earlier.

One of the main bones of contention during the Paris climate talks was a regular five-year "stocktaking" process that would compel countries to adjust their targets in light of new economic or technological circumstances, with China arguing that any such adjustments must be voluntary.

U.S. climate change envoy, Todd Stern, said in Beijing last week that China could come under pressure to draw up tougher targets if it became clear that the existing goals were too easy.

"It will be up to the Chinese government whether they increase their target but there will obviously be a lot of international opinion looking forward to additional measures - whether it is China or anyone else," he told reporters.
Przewalski horses on a snow covered field in the Orenburg Reserves, a cluster of six nature reserves near the border with Kazakhstan. (Photo: AFP)

Moscow: If the worlds only surviving wild horses had a say in the matter, they might opt for a cosy stable and fresh daily oats, scientists studying them joke.

But the path out of oblivion for the species known as Przewalskis horse  which only two decades ago was extinct in the wild  lies in getting on a plane to China, Mongolia and, most recently, the Russian steppes with their deep snow and icy winds.

Six animals born at a reserve in the south of France are now spending their first winter in Russias flagship reintroduction project for the species.

Eventually scientists hope to have 100 of the endangered animals on the site in the Orenburg Reserves, a cluster of six strictly protected nature areas along the border with Kazakhstan.

The area spanning more than 16,500 hectares (40,770 acres) is the largest unbroken, strictly protected plot of virgin steppe in Russia, safeguarded, ironically, by the fact that it belonged to the military for decades, said Przewalskis horse expert Tatjana Zharkikh, who heads the reintroduction project.

Six Przewalski horses born at a reserve in the south of France are now spending their first winter in Russia's flagship reintroduction project for the species. (Photo: AFP)

They are quite happy

They are quite happy, she said in an interview, despite the harsh climate in the region, with extreme snowfall which in January trapped several drivers on a local highway, leading to a mans death.

The animals actually enjoy rolling around in the snow, scratching their backs on the crusty surface, she said. They are not afraid of wind, snow, cold .. If the Przewalskis horse has enough food, it is practically invincible.

Yet, she quipped: If you ask them, they will tell you: we want a warm stable, daily oats, fresh grass and maybe strawberries and cream. But this is a wild animal and it has to be in its natural habitat.

Despite its hardiness and monumental efforts by conservationists to save the endangered species, there is still a long way before the Przewalskis horse can be considered saved from extinction, said Frederic Joly of the Association for the Przewalskis horse (TAKH) in France, which provided the animals for the Orenburg project.

Native to China, the stocky, tan-coloured horse with a spiky mane once inhabited the Eurasian steppe extending through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Native to China, the stocky, tan-coloured horse with a spiky mane once inhabited the Eurasian steppe extending through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. (Photo: AFP)

Bred to be wild

The species was discovered by Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky who described it in the 19th century, leading to a surge of interest in Europe, followed by a brutal campaign to capture these animals.

Herds were chased down to exhaustion to capture the young foals, said Zharkikh, but in the end the process secured enough animals to save the species after they had gone extinct in their natural habitat.

All 2,000 animals existing today are descendants of just 12 wild-caught horses, including a mare from Mongolia called Orlitsa, gifted to Soviet chairman Kliment Voroshilov during a visit in 1957, and breeding a viable population from such a limited gene pool has been a headache.

Adding to that headache is the fact that the Przewalskis horse can breed with domestic horses to produce fertile hybrids, threatening to dilute the species decades down the line.

Although the Russian project meant to set the horses completely free in the wild, scientists eventually rejected this idea as too risky after studying the experience of other reintroduction centres, opting instead to build a fence around the entire area.

The problem is, young mares who venture out of a protected park can breed with horses kept by herders in nearby villages and then bring hybrid offspring back to the population of Przewalskis horses.

Even a few hybrids can cancel out all conservation efforts, said Zharkikh. What is the point of protection if they are just cute shaggy-haired horses rather than a species?

A wild population would only work if the protected area is much larger, she said, 100,000 hectares or even more, and if such a park is created in the future, it can be populated with Przewalskis horses from the project.

Our goal is to form a reserve of genetically pure animals, said Rafilya Bakirova, director of Orenburg Reserves that hosts the project, dreaming of expanding the project and cross-border cooperation with Kazakhstan.

For now we just want to survive the winter, she said.

Although the species is considered a conservation success, Joly of the TAKH association in France conceded that it is becoming nearly impossible to find a place where Przewalskis horse can be truly wild.

Even sites that look wild like Russian or Mongolian steppes are not completely devoid of human activity, he said.

It indeed shows that there are very few places with no human influence in the world.
Earth is all set to witness another solar eclipse, which will take place between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mumbai: Earth is all set to witness another solar eclipse, which will take place between Tuesday and Wednesday. Although reports suggest that India will miss a total solar eclipse tomorrow, you can still watch it via a robotic telescope service that will be live streaming and recording the entire episode.

The magnificent eclipse will be visible across a portion of the Indian and Pacific Ocean and parts of Indonesia. The total solar eclipse will be visible from within a narrow region, which extends from the Indian Ocean through the East Asian countries like Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi passing through some islands belonging to Australia and ending at the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far away from any country.

Just to let readers know, a solar eclipse is a phenomenon that occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, hence entirely or partially blocking the Sun for Earth-dwellers.

As Solar eclipse occur during the day, the shadow cast by the Moon causes the daylight to grow dim and can become extremely dark if it blocks majority of the Sunlight.

According to reports, the solar eclipse is expected to last for a period of three hours. The exact duration of the eclipse will vary for different locations around the globe. Similarly, the moment where the sun will be totally eclipsed is expected to last between 90 seconds to four minutes.

This map shows the path of the solar eclipse across Earth's surface. (Source: NASA)If the eclipse is viewed from the east of the International Date Line (IDT), it will take place on March 8. People will get the first glimpse of the partial eclipse at 23.19 pm GMT. On the other hand, if it is viewed from the Western side of the IDT, it will be visible on March 9. The last people can witness it around 4.34 am GMT.

Reports suggest that Indonesia and the central Pacific, which will start over Sumatra and end at sunset north of Hawai. Unfortunately, most parts of India and Nepal will only witness a partial eclipse.

Source:NASA

Dr Debiprosad Duari, director of M P Birla Planetarium, Kolkata told PTI that in India, partial eclipse will be seen from the eastern half of the country.

"In most of the places in India, the eclipse will start either before sunrise or around sunrisemaking the viewing of this spectacular cosmic event quite difficult. We will observe a partial eclipse of the Sun", he added.

Solar eclipses are a rare phenomenon and occur once in every 18 months, lasting for hardly a few minutes. According to a media report, the last visible solar eclipse in India was witnessed on January 4, 2011 and the speculated date for the next solar eclipse is December 26, 2019.

How can you watch it?

Even though reports indicate that India will not be able to witness the spectacular show, there are several options for viewers to live stream the whole episode.

NASA and another website called Slooh will stream the live video of the event. Below we have embedded the video players for you to watch it.

People can either watch a live webcast of the eclipse by the robotic telescope service SLOOH.com.

Total solar eclipse! Not in SE Asia tomorrow to see it? No worries. Watch live at 8pm ET: https://t.co/qrm0Dz4jPEhttps://t.co/1h7UUmaUrl  NASA (@NASA) March 8, 2016 Or, you can also tune into NASA TVs public feed.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
We have to squeeze the heart of Daesh in Iraq and Syria so they can't continue to pump their poison in the region and around the world, says Biden. (Photo: AP)

Al-Dhafra Air Base, UAE: US Vice President Joe Biden kicked off a Middle East tour on Monday, vowing that the United States and its allies would "squeeze the heart" and destroy the Islamic State group.

Biden spoke before several hundred US airmen as drones rolled the down the runway at the Al-Dhafra Air Base, a major desert outpost near the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi.

The Emirates is one of the most important US military and political allies in the Persian Gulf. It is also a major commercial hub that includes the business-friendly port city of Dubai.

"We have to squeeze the heart of Daesh in Iraq and Syria so they can't continue to pump their poison in the region and around the world," Biden said, using an Arabic acronym for IS, a militant group he dismissed as "criminals and cowards."

The base hosts American and other aircraft taking part in operations against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, a point Biden noted as he rallied the assembled troops.

"You control the skies over Iraq and Syria and as a matter of fact, you control the skies over the whole damn world," Biden said, drawing cheers.

The Emirates is the first stop on a regional tour that will also take in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. His wife, Jill, is accompanying him.

The trip will include talks on US economic and energy interests, as well as security concerns about Iran and Syria, the White House said.

Earlier in the day, Biden visited Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, pausing outside to remove his black dress shoes in keeping with Islamic custom.

He examined a wall in the ornate mosque bearing the 99 names of God written in Arabic before stepping outside to wave at visiting tourists kept a short distance away.

Accompanying Biden on the mosque tour was its director-general, Yousif Abdallah Alobaidli, and Minister of State Reem al-Hashimi.

Biden later visited Masdar City, a government-backed clean energy campus on the capital's outskirts, taking a few moments to talk to Shefaa Mansour, a student from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, studying at the affiliated Masdar Institute.

He later looked at a model of a desalination plant, something crucial to the Emirates, which experts warn may run out of groundwater in the next 15 years.

Emirati Minister of State Sultan al-Jaber handed him a bottle of water made at the plant. The vice president looked at it, then smiled.

"Now make sure I'm still standing," he said. "Watch what happens when I take the first sip. I'm more energized." Biden then paused for a moment and added: "Do you need a partner? I'm out of a job soon."

The seven-state Emirates federation, which includes the Gulf commercial center of Dubai, is one of the largest oil producers in OPEC.
The tycoon, who was arrested in 2012 on 14 war crimes charges, headed the Diganta Media Corporation that owns a pro-Jamaat daily and a television station. (Photo: Twitter)

Dhaka: Bangladesh's highest court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a top Islamist leader and business tycoon for war crimes, clearing the way for his execution within months.

Chief Justice S.K. Sinha announced in the Supreme Court he had dismissed the appeal of Mir Quasem Ali, who was convicted of murder and abduction during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Ali, a shipping and real estate tycoon, headed a media corporation aligned with Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami before his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of running a militia torture cell that carried out killings including that of a young independence fighter.

"The court upheld his death sentence for the abduction and murder of a young freedom fighter whose body was dumped in a river," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said.

The 63-year-old faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court or he is granted clemency by the Bangladeshi president.

Three senior Jamaat officials and a leader of the main opposition party have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes, despite global criticism of their trials by a controversial war crimes tribunal.

The executions and previous convictions against other Jamaat officials plunged the country into one of its worst crises in 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamist activists clashed with police in nationwide protests that left some 500 people dead.

Ali, a former leader of Jamaat's powerful student wing, helped set up a number of charities, businesses and trusts linked to the party after it was allowed to operate in the late 1970s.

The tycoon, who was arrested in 2012 on 14 war crimes charges, headed the Diganta Media Corporation that owns a pro-Jamaat daily and a television station.

The government shut down the television station in 2013 for inflaming religious tensions. Defence lawyers have said the charges against Ali were "baseless and false" and they argued that he was not at the crime scenes during the war.

Jamaat and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have accused the government of using the war crimes court to target their leaders through phoney charges. Rights groups have also criticised the trials, saying they fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight.
It was the gangrape of a Delhi University student from the northeast in 2005 which left an impact on Alana Golmei. She had just shifted to Delhi from Manipur and had encountered discriminatory treatment towards the people of the northeast.



I spoke to a lot of people from the community living in different pockets of Delhi and realised that the problem is rife. People shared a range of experiences from getting molested in malls to being thrown out of house by the owner due to their northeastern identity, Golmei says.



This is when she thought the community cannot wait for someone to help and it has to come from within.



After consulting her friends, Golmei  along with four others  found the North East Support Centre and Helpline (NESCH) in 2007. She is being honoured with the DCW Achievement Award for her work on International Womens Day on Tuesday by Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).



The Commission will honour 28 people, including men, who have worked for women empowerment.



Helpline team

The present strength of Golmeis team is 15 and she has made her personal number available to receive calls at any hour of the day.



The helpline receives 20-30 calls per month on an average. The number has reduced since the Delhi Police started a helpline, 1093, for people from the northeast.

The helpline was launched after the murder of Nido Taniam in 2014.



When people call her with complaints now, Golmei advises them to first call on 1093 and call her back if their FIR is not registered.



Now I can at least sleep with my phone on silent mode, she says in a lighter vein, referring to the reduction in number of calls.



The helpline receives more calls from men than from women.

There are more physical assault complaints from men. They get beaten up on roads or thrown outside by their landlords, she adds.



Apart from that, Golmeis hands are full when it comes to follow up of cases, approaching courts for victims compensation or holding workshops.



She also holds workshops with the Delhi Police.

When she founded the organisation, besides cases of rape and molestation, northeasterners singled out incidents such as non-payment of salaries and random beating on roads due to their identity.



Minor difference

Golmei acknowledges that the police and the public have become a little more sensitive towards the community since some years and the issue has reached the ears of the government. But the change is only minor, she says.



We received a call from a woman recently who said her employer is following her and keeps asking that she might not have a problem going out with him since she is from the northeast, she said, referring to the peoples perception about the community.



No faith in system

According to her, the judicial system is so time-consuming and inefficient that around 80 per cent people withdraw their cases and leave the capital. Sometimes it is due to the lack of resources and sometimes they are scared and dont have faith in the system.

Golmei had fought for getting justice for a young woman from the northeast who was molested by her employer in 2010.



Her case came up for hearing only last year.



The woman was married by then and had left the state. She does not want to come back as she has very little faith in the system, she says.


Four motorcycle-borne robbers looted Rs 9 lakh cash at gunpoint from the manager and cashier of a liquor shop in west Delhis Baali Nagar.





They fled the spot after looting the duo around 10.30 pm on Sunday. While fleeing, a bike that two of the accused were riding collided with a passer-by. The accused left it behind.



Pramod, the manager, and Bhomaram, the cashier, were going home after closing the liqour shop. They were carrying a beer box which contained Rs 9 lakh in cash.

That they usually do to avoid attention, said a police officer.



Pramod and Bhomaram had walked 100 metres from their shop when four armed men on motorcycles came and circled them.



Two of them had pistols in their hands, and they asked them to hand over the beer box to them, the officer added.



After taking the box, the men sped away.

One of the two bikes collided with a passer-by, and the two riders also fell down, police.said. They ran away, leaving the motorcycle behind, fearing that the locals would catch them.



Bike seized

Police have seized the bike. They are trying to trace the identities of the men through the registration and chassis numbers of the bike.



The bike can help us only if it doesnt happen to be a stolen bike. We are verifying its details. Apart from that, we are also raiding different places for the whereabouts of the culprits, a police officer said.



A case has been registered at Moti Nagar police station. Police are also scanning CCTV footage from the area for more details on the incident.
From riding a motorbike to the Parliament House and demanding introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill to allowing women's entry to temples for worship, women members in Lok Sabha today said financial inclusiveness and education are key to empower their lot.





But at the same time, some women MPs also said that passage of the Women's Bill was not the only solution, but a part of the bigger scheme of things required to uplift the stature of women in the country.



Belting out statistics, some members said there was a need to raise their strength in Parliamentary Standing Committees.



Shatabdi Roy (TMC) said while today is International Women's Day, nothing has changed the woman who works as a house maid or the one who begs on traffic signals with her child in her arms.



She said education was the key to ensure women earn as much as men and get their status in the society. "We don't want a separate seat in the bus, we want to drive that bus. We don't want separate queues...there should be no tax exemption. I want to earn Rs 5 crore and pay my full tax," she said.



Roy said the slogan of 'beti bachao' highlights woman as an asset who can earn for the family. "By doing this, she has been turned into a product," she said, adding she would observe March 8 as Women's Day if March 9 is observed as Men's Day.



Pratushya Singh (BJD) highlighted the plight of women and girls being trafficked.

Hema Malini (BJP) said women excelled in multi-tasking and know the art of balancing between home and work. "They work a lot. They are my inspiration," she said referring to women living in Mumbai who travel to work and handle household activities also.



Bhavna Gawali (Shiv Sena) referred to the refusal of temple authorities at Shani temple in Maharashtra from allowing women to enter the sanctum sanctorum andd said "while we talk of equality, we can't go to temples."



She said women at grassroots level have been provided reservation in local bodies, but the real show is being run by their husbands and fathers.



Questioning such a practice, she said if women are provided 33 per cent reservation in higher education, they would get empowered.



On the Women's Bill, she said nothing has happened on the issue and recalled the stand by late Bal Thackerey that parties should decide on reserving seats for women.



P K Sreemathi Teacher (CPI-M) said women constitute 12 per cent of Lok Sabha strength which should be increased. She said despite Taliban threat, Afghanistan has 28 per cent reservation for women.



Supriya Sule (NCP) referred to BJP member Rama Devi and P K Sreemathi Teacher to point out how they rose to become MPs despite facing odds adding that such members had no political family background.



Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP) referred to a recent speech of Vice President Hamid Ansari to point out that women have little presence in department-related Standing Committees and other panels of the two Houses as compared to their strength of 124 in the lower house.

Ranjit Ranjan (Cong), who rode a motorcycle to Parliament House today, and K Geetha (YSR Congress) said reservation in Lok Sabha was not the solution but part of a larger effort needed to empower women.



Ranjan said while granting reservation, it should be kept in mind that kith and kin of women MPs do not enter Parliament or local bodies, and its benefit should go to women who actually need reservation for upliftment.



Ranjan, who drove the motorbike, said she was initially reluctant due to the reaction of the media and others. "But I kept aside these thoughts and rode the bike," she said.



Sugata Bose (TMC) said her mother, former MP Krishna Bose, had moved a private members' bill in Lok Sabha 20 years ago which called for parties to give 40 per cent seats to women by amending the electoral law.


The National Green Tribunal today questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures in Yamuna Flood plains for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living three-day 'World Culture Festival'.



"You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains," a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.



The direction came after counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said that they have found no debris at the site, when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.



The Green Panel also questioned the building up of pontoon bridge by the Army on river Yamuna for the festival, and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as who gave the permission for setting it up.



DDA, Delhi government, MoEF said that they have no relation with the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge as all the three said that they are concerned only with different issues.



While DDA said it was only required to give no objection certificate for the bridge, Delhi government submitted that its role for the pontoon bridge comes only at the time of flood and MoEF passed the buck on Ministry of Water Resources.



Advocate Rajiv Bansal appearing for DDA backed the authority's decision to grant permission for the event saying that it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.



"The area is meant for recreational activity. The area is with DDA and it is the competent authority. Permission was granted after taking proper legal opinion which was conditional that no permanent structure will be constructed and also that it will be subject to permissions from other concerned authorities," he said.



Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.



The bench after hearing the matter adjourned the matter for tomorrow. The NGT is hearing pleas seeking stoppage of ongoing construction on the flood plains for the Cultural festival.



During the hearing, DDA said that the plea seeking stay of construction activity was filed with a delay after activity had started at the site and it needs to be dismissed.



It said that constant watch is being maintained that no debris or municipal waste is being dumped in Yamuna flood plains and a running contractor is there to remove the debris, if any dumped.



The bench then said that DDA just can't wash its hand off by saying no debris is there as the photographs on record does show the presence of waste at the site.



"In October, November and December, till the time we handed over the site to the organizers, there was no debris at the site. We are telling this with utmost responsiblity that there was no debris," Bansal said.



DDA said that it had granted permission for 24.44 hectare for holding of the event in which 3.5 lakh to 5 lakh people are likely to participate and has till now not found any violations of its conditions by organizers of the event.



The bench asked the Uttar Pradesh government that under what authority of law was the parking area alloted, does the parking area fall under flood plains area, does the area permitted has been exceeded by the organizers and how much money been spent to clear the debris from the alloted area.



Counsel appearing for Uttar Pradesh government said that no debris was found at the alloted area, so there is no question of money being spent.



The counsel further said that permission was granted as per the notification in which flood plains could be alloted for parking purposes during non-monsoon seasons so that there is no damage to environment and no permanent structures could be constructed.



The bench, asked the counsel whether thousands of cars making emission will not cause pollution to the environment.



It asked all the parties to consider the impact of the such a event on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity.



"Assuming that all necessary permissions were taken for the event but has anybody considered what the impact will be on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity.



Has any study being conducted in this regard," the bench said.



It also asked the AOL, whether it has carried out any Environment Impact Assessment study of the event and how did it had satisifed the DDA to grant permission for the function.



Counsel for Art of Living (AOL) foundation said that it has no instructions about the study of environment impact assessment but it has satisfied the DDA for permission by fulfillng the condition that no permanent structures will be constructed on flood plains.



AOL said that no concretization has been done, no permanent structure has been built and only wood, clothes and bamboo is being used at the site.



"We have experience of holding like events in the past and have taken all necessary steps to ensure the safety of people and environment," counsel appearing for AOL said.

The counsel further said that permission from police has not been taken and it will be given after the nod from fire department.



"Due to the terror threat, National Security Guards (NSG) has taken over the venue for the security issue," the counsel said adding that they have put a separation on the banks of river to thwart any untoward incident and proper lighting on pontoon bridge.



The bench asked the DDA as to how the pontoon bridge in which trucks and buses would ply will work without a ramp and concretization on the flood plains.



"No buses, trucks or cars will ply on the pontoon bridge and only people on foot will use it," Bansal submitted adding that it has only provided the no-objection certificate for setting it up.



Advocate Tarunvir Singh Khehar, appearing for Delhi government, said that by a notification of 2014, it can provide permissions for setting up of pontoon bridge only in the eventuality of floods while for rest of the time Ministry of Water Resource will provide the necessary nod.



Counsel appearing for Ministry of Water Resource sought time from the bench to seek instructions on permissions granted for pontoon bridge.



The NGT is also hearing a plea against the foundation's plan to release 'enzymes' into 17 drains joining Yamuna for cleaning the river.



It had also constituted an expert committee headed by Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar to inspect the site of the proposed festival.



The Art of Living foundation, which is organising the function, will have yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars and traditional cultural performances from India and abroad.



Environmental activist Anand Arya, who filed the petition to stop the event, rued that over 1000-acres of the sensitive area between Delhi and Noida, predominantly marshland, stand shorn of even a "single blade" of grass.



He claimed not only its natural "undulating" terrain has been "levelled", pesticides have been sprayed in the floodplain to kill mosquitoes which has adversely affected the lives of a variety of birds, insects and reptiles.



"It's a big loss to the birds especially considering that it's the time for reverse migration. During the day they come from the Okhla bid sanctuary to the floodplain to roost and feed. On top of that, you have light pollution during the night," Arya said.



Another petitioner Manoj Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan questioned the "legality" of the event, and said the area, being destroyed "every moment", will take a long time to recover and slammed the organisers for the "lack of understanding" on their part.



"The natural habitat has been totally devastated. It's the biggest form of violence one can imagine. The red beeds, marshlands have been levelled which house insects and reptiles. The argument that they will plant trees is laughable. You don't plant trees in marshlands," Mishra said.






The government has decided against bringing appointments to the higher judiciary under the purview of RTI Act, Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said today noting transparency can be achieved even without it.



He also said the revised draft memorandum of procedure (MoP), a document to guide appointments to the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts, is in the "final stage" and it will be sent to the Chief Justice of India soon.



"No", Gowda said to a question on whether the draft MoP refers to bringing judicial appointments under the ambit of the right to information law.



He was addressing a press conference on issues related to the Law Ministry. To another question if Section 8 of the Act does not exclude judicial appointments why is the government on the 'backfoot' on the issue, the minister said "transparency can be attained without RTI Act also."



To a poser on whether he has met Chief Justice of India in the process of drafting MoP, he said "yes" but refused to comment further.



He said while drafting the MoP is the responsibility of the Executive, both the Judiciary and the Executive have to "agree" on the final draft.



"It (accepting the MoP) is the domain of the CJI and the Collegium... this MoP will be appreciated by the Judiciary," he said.



He said in view of large number of vacancies and keeping in mind the fact that the process of drafting a new MoP is likely to take "some time", the issue was taken up with the Supreme Court and the process of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary has been resumed.



Officials of the Department of Justice present at the press conference said out of 89 recommendations to elevate additional judges of high courts as permanent judges, 66 files have been cleared by the government. They said 115 names for appointments and elevations are in the pipeline at the moment.



As of now, there are two MoPs -- one dealing with appointment of Chief Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court and the other dealing with appointment of chief justices and other judges of high courts.



The draft MoP for appointment of members to the higher judiciary is being prepared after the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act on appointment of judges to the apex court and high courts.



The Supreme Court had late last year left it to the law ministry to draft the MoP in consultation with CMs and chief justices of the 24 high courts.



The four issues highlighted by the draft MoP are transparency in the appointment process, eligibility criteria, a permanent secretariat for the collegium and a process to evaluate and deal with complaints against candidates.



As of now, only "nine or ten" states have responded to Gowda's letter seeking suggestions. Earlier, sources in the government had said it is unlikely to recommend bringing the process of appointment of judges to higher judiciary under RTI ambit as it apprehends it could lead to a flood of applications from aspirants and "interested parties" seeking file notings and other details.


Questioning his stoic silence over non-payment of salaries to hundreds of employees of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, a section of former women staffers has accused its chairman Vijay Mallya of misleading government and the employees on the revival plan.





In an open letter, which comes on the occasion of International Women's Day, the women employees have also accused the beleaguered industrialist of "killing" two airlines and rendering hundreds of people jobless.



"You say that you are not a defaulter. But you confidently told us during the meeting that banks won't be able to recover more than 5-10 per cent of debt amount. That speaks volumes of your malicious intentions.



"In the same meeting, you promised revival, payment of our salary... This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/DGCA," the women staffers alleged in the letter.



According to sources, nearly 700 of the 1,500 employees, who still claimed to be on the payroll of the defunct airline, are women.



The open letter comes when a consortium of PSU banks have moved Supreme Court seeking a direction that Mallya not be allowed to leave India. The apex court has agreed to hear their plea tomorrow.



A Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) had yesterday barred Mallya from accessing USD 75 million severance package from Diageo till the loan default case with State Bank of India is settled.



Diageo and United Spirits Ltd, owned by the UK-based firm, have also been asked by the DRT in Bengaluru to disclose details of the agreement they have come to with Mallya.



SBI, which leads the consortium of 17 banks that lent money to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines, had moved DRT against Mallya in its bid to recover over Rs 7,000 crore of dues from him.



The former women employees posed a number of questions on Mallya's recent statement that he was making efforts to reach a 'one-time settlement' with banks, and that a "disinformation campaign" had been launched to make him a "poster boy" of all bad loans.



"We the women employees of Kingfisher are forced to write this letter to call your bluff as a response to your media release recently which as usual had nothing about us.



"...you are talking about one time settlement with only banks and not the employees. Why? Because we are weak and vulnerable due to our system?" they asked.



"Coincidentally today being 'Women's Day', we feel pained that our colleague's wife who committed suicide didn't get justice," they added.



The wife of a former Kingfisher Airlines employee in Delhi had allegedly committed suicide, apparently depressed over financial stress due to non-payment of salary to her husband on October 4, 2012, when Mallya had decided to ground the airline due to paucity of funds. However, no FIR was registered by the police in the case.



"You said you are fully cooperating with the agencies, then why did you place legal hurdles in the path of recovery by the banks, which were following due legal process to recover the debt amount? You evaded the recovery process. What are you other than an absconder?" the letter said.



Reminding Mallya that before "hiding" behind the limited liability clause, he should know that laws are not made to be misused, the open letter said, "If you are such a law abiding citizen then follow them in totality, not according to your convenience."



Postulating that had Air Deccan not been acquired by Mallya, it would have been bought over (and would have continued operations), the letter said, "You also killed our mother Kingfisher Airlines which was feeding us."



The ex-women staffers also questioned as to how Mallya, an NRI who is "out of India most of the time" had been elected as a Rajya Sabha MP. They also asked what are "your contributions as a member of RS, other than asking for immunity?"



They also claimed that Mallya had "paid and compensated foreign employees for fear of their strict laws", and this exposed his "double standards" towards our nation and laws.

"Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take note of our toothless laws so that no one suffers in future like we did," they said.
Suspense mounted today over the fate of the controversial three-day cultural extravaganza on the Yamuna flood plains with the National Green Tribunal posing tough questions on the event over which environmentalists have raised a banner of revolt.





While President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of attending the valedictory function on Sunday, speculation raged today over whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event on Friday.



Facing criticism, Art of Living Foundation chief Sri Sri Ravi Shankar rubbished allegations of any damage to ecology saying no tree has been felled and that they would build a biodiversity park in the area.



Amid concerns over security in the wake of fresh terror threats, the Home Ministry has directed Delhi Police to take all possible steps to ensure peace during the event and to ensure that no stampede-like situation arises.



All eyes were on the proceedings before the National Green Tribunal which questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures on the Yamuna plains for the event.



"You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures on flood plains," a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.



The direction came after the counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said that they have found no debris at the site when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.



The green panel also questioned the building of pontoon bridge by the army on the river bed for the festival and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as to who gave the permission for setting it up.



DDA, Delhi government, MoEF said that they have no role in the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge.



The NGT said it will pronounce its order tomorrow.



Counsel for the Delhi Government said that the Disaster Management Authority has granted permission to the event only conditionally while no permission has been granted by police and the fire department.



During the hearing, DDA said that the plea seeking stay of construction activity was filed with a delay after activity had started at the site and it needs to be dismissed.



It said that constant watch is being maintained that no debris or municipal waste is being dumped in Yamuna flood plains and a running contractor is there to remove the debris, if any dumped.



The bench then said that DDA just can't wash its hand off by saying no debris is there as the photographs on record does show the presence of waste at the site.



The authorities also passed the buck to each other over the pontoon bridge with the DDA submitting that it was only required to give no objection certificate for the bridge and Delhi government saying its role comes only at the time of flood. MoEF passed the buck on Ministry of Water Resources.



Advocate Rajiv Bansal appearing for DDA backed the authority's decision to grant permission for the event saying that it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.



Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.



The bench, asked the counsel whether thousands of cars making emission will not cause pollution to the environment.



It asked all the parties to consider the impact of the such a event on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity.



Meanwhile, environmentalists raised the red flag ruing that over 1000-acres of the sensitive area between Delhi and Noida, predominantly marshland, stand shorn of even a "single blade" of grass.



Activist Anand Arya, who filed the petition to stop the event claimed not only the areas natural "undulating" terrain has been "levelled", pesticides have been sprayed in the floodplain to kill mosquitoes which has adversely affected the lives of a variety of birds, insects and reptiles.



"It's a big loss to the birds especially considering that it's the time for reverse migration. During the day they come from the Okhla bid sanctuary to the floodplain to roost and feed. On top of that, you have light pollution during the night," Arya said.



Another petitioner Manoj Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan questioned the "legality" of the event, and said the area, being destroyed "every moment", will take a long time to recover and slammed the organisers for the "lack of understanding" on their part.



"The natural habitat has been totally devastated. It's the biggest form of violence one can imagine. The red beeds, marshlands have been levelled which house insects and reptiles. The argument that they will plant trees is laughable. You don't plant trees in marshlands," Mishra said.



Ravi Shankar cancelled a scheduled press conference he was to address without giving any reasons.



Earlier in the day, he told the media that his organisation will leave the place after building a biodiversity park.



"In the past, our volunteers have brought out 512 tonne of garbage from Yamuna. We have not cut any trees, have just trimmed four. We want a clean Yamuna and we care about the environment," he said.


With background in theatre, Mira Nair ventured into films quite on purpose, when at college she found Cambridge theatre meekly political. She started ordinarily as a student of Delhi University and the thrust of her instincts took her into all the adventures she has taken up. Her films are Indian and at the same time global. They are an artistic take on Hollywood Bollywood films.





The ongoing I View Film Festival, held a grandiose retrospective paying tribute to her work. Some of her acclaimed short and feature-length films were showcased for free. Nair also expressed herself in the panel, The Journey So Far.



What Metrolife found out was that the 58-year-old is well known as a filmmaker but few people know that she is also a social entrepreneur and a passionate film editor.



I wanted to build new narratives through editing documentaries. I understood how cutting the film in a way is also a way to control (emotions), says Nair. She says, Class and economics is my line (of work) and hence I began to make documentaries all about India. There were less documentaries being made in the 80s and it was such a struggle to raise funds.



Nair runs a free film school called Maisha Film Lab in Kampala, Uganda, along with her husband. The school is eleven years old and every year we take 10 students from the place. Now some of them also have grown up to be professional filmmakers, she exclaims.



Guest lecturers and professionals from the film industry are deputed at the school. Her connections with Hollywood and Bollywood both have sufficed. Most of them are my friends and they have never refused. The first year Vishal Bhardwaj was called to teach a class, she avers.



Nair who often shared alternate narratives on mainstream topics such as migration (in Mississipi Masala), woman (in The Namesake), Punjabi weddings (in Monsoon Wedding), also took it upon herself to share the modern African tales as she calls it.



Married to a Ugandian, she lived in the place for some time to realise various issues and conflicts still prevalent in the modern day and age.



She tries to learn about people and their environment and picks up from there. In my childhood (in Orissa) I found the milkmans life infinitely interesting, she laughs. This agog was not her first nor her last. Seemingly all her films went through certain kind of personal journey or were derived from one. The best example remains Salaam Bombay, where she not only lived and worked with street kids but also cast them as method actors, which went on to nominated for the Academy Awards.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) rebels who left the RSS' student outfit citing differences over its handling of the JNU row, today burnt a copy of the ancient legal text Manusmriti despite the varsity administration denying permission for the same.



Weeks after the controversial event against Afzal Guru's hanging was held on campus, five ABVP rebels joined by left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) and Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) burnt the text at Sabarmati Dhaba, which was also the venue of the earlier event.



While three of the organisers were former ABVP office-bearers, two of them are still with the party but differ with their stand on Manusmriti. The university authorities, maintained that they had denied permission for the event and the security was briefed about the same.



"We had denied the permission for the event but in response the students submitted in writing that they will still go ahead with the event. We have got the programme videographed," a varsity official said. Asked about whether the varsity will consider it as an "offence" on part of student's, the official said, "we will see tomorrow".



Giving clear indications of rift within ABVP, Jatin Goraih Vice President of outfit's ABVP unit said, "we had suggested during our party meeting to have a Manusmriti burning event to answer all the left parties' allegations about ABVP being insensitive to the interest of dalits. But there were disagreements and the party ignored us".



"But my conscience said I should. This is not a political cause, but a social one on the occasion of women's day as the book has highly derogatory content about women. Since I decided to go ahead with it, the party is free to take its call whether they will expel me or not. I will not resign," he added.



Pradeep Narwal, who was ABVP's joint secretary at the university, resigned along with Rahul Yadav and Ankit Hans, president and secretary, respectively, of the ABVP unit in the School of Social Sciences at JNU, citing differences on the two-millennia-old book and the "oppression unleashed by the government" on JNU protesters, sharpening the divide since Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide.



Narwal today narrated the "derogatory" text from the book before burning and said he was warned by teachers not to do so but he is not scared of being slapped with sedition.



"We were not allowed to conduct the event. My question to the Vice Chancellor is whether he subscribes to the thoughts propagated in Manusmriti. A teacher today told me that I should not do so as I will be charged with sedition. I am not scared of it," he said while addressing the students.



"Asking for 'azaadi' from the government is not anti-national or seditious," he said, as he shouted slogans of 'brahamanwad murdabad'. While students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and General Secretary Rama Naga, who have been charged with sedition in connection with the February 9 event, gave today's programme a miss, former JNUSU VP Anant Prakash was present.



Responding to the rift in the Sangh student body, JNUSU Joint Secretary Saurabh Kumar Sharma, who is the lone ABVP member in the union said, "it is there wish, if they want to burn they can burn. We are against anti-India activities and they are trying to divert the attention from February 9 event."



"Manusmriti has been rejected by Hindus long ago and it's a mere book now. If they want to burn a book let them. Its the left who don't want us to not believe in Manusmriti," he said.
The UK today appointed veteran career diplomat Sir Dominic Asquith as its new High Commissioner to India.





The 59-year-old Asquith will take over from Sir James Bevan, who joined the UK's Environment Agency (EA) as chief executive last November, soon after Narendra Modi's first visit to the UK as Prime Minister.



"The Honourable Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG (Knight Commander) has been appointed British High Commissioner to the Republic of India in succession to Sir James Bevan KCMG, who has transferred to a non-governmental public body. The Honourable Sir Dominic will take up his appointment during March 2016," a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office statement said.



Sir Dominic has been at the forefront of UK-Libya affairs, having served as ambassador in Tripoli in the past and currently chairman of the Libyan British Business Council.

He holds a number of advisory posts at firms like Dentons LLP, Macro Advisory Partners and Group DF International.



He takes charge in India at a time when India-UK ties are at a high and is expected to be joined in New Delhi by wife and four children.
The first Raisina Dialogue, an international conference hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs, ended on March 3 after three days of deliberations in New Delhi. The conference focused towards geopolitical and geoeconomic integration of Asia and as well Asia's integration with the larger world. Its aims were realisation of Asia's physical, economic and digital connectivity.





One aspect that came out clearly in the conference was the differing perceptions of India and China over Asian connectivity, particularly with reference to Chinas One Belt-One Road (OBOR) initiative. Without na-ming OBOR, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, during his keynote address, stated that New Delhi will join multilateral connectivity initiatives in Asia, only if they were pursued through a consultative process and not through unilateral decisions.



Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj echoed similar sentiments and said that India is working out its own plans for connectivity in Indian Ocean and across Central Asia which are cooperative rather than unilateral. Chandrika Kumaratunga and Hamid Karzai, the former presidents of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan respectively, called for more positive view of China and Chinese investment in the region which should be leveraged as an opportunity.



The Chinese response to Indian concerns was provided by former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing when he stated that the OBOR is not an exclusive initiative for China alone and that China welcomes participation of various countries and regional organisations.



The main thrust of OBOR is creation of physical connectivity from which flows the economic connectivity. As rightly voiced by India, the initiative lacks policy connectivity and guidelines which must be mutually discus-sed and agreed upon and hence signals a degree of unilateralism.



The OBOR is distinctly different to the Asian RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and US articulated TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) initiatives in that while the former is heavy on hardware, the latter two are FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) heavy on software sans any significant hardware component.



The ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) with which India has an existing FTA could also be categorised under software domain. The only comprehensive hardware platform is provided by OBOR which proposes to link the two flaks of Eurasian land mass both throu-gh land and sea cutting through the heart of Asian continent.



The other multilateral agreements in the region relevant to India, though small in scope, but integrate both hardware and software are the Indian initiated BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) sub-regional project, China initiated BCIM (Ban-gladesh, China, India and Myanmar) corridor, the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline and many other initiatives of India such as SAGAR (Security and growth for all in the region) and Sagar Mala which proposes to construct various ports along the Indian coastline to improve foreign trade.



Excellent growth prospects



While these projects are welcome with excellent growth prospects, to be able to realise their full potential for regional and global integration, these sub-regional multilateral components need to be dovetailed into the overall OBOR architecture and hence is the importance of OBOR for India's geoeconomic strategy.



In terms of scope and magnitude, the India-planned connectivity architecture in Asia may not come any closer to the $1 trillion OBOR initiative of China, given the wide gap in fiscal strengths of both at present. Even the BBIN which is a path braking initiative of India, is yet to be fully fructified and the benefits are yet to be accrued. It suffers from many drawbacks one of which is poor road connectivity in the member countries and harmonisation of funding for construction/up gradation of roads and recurring costs of their maintenance.



Apart from the stated objection to OBOR in terms of its unilateralism, India has many concerns; some real and some perhaps imaginary. New Delhi perceives OBOR as China's attempt at encirclement of India through its strategic assets. Second concern is that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor may lead to legitimisation of Pakistans occupation of Kashmir and third is the apprehension that the fructification of China's Maritime Silk Route may nullify India's strategic advantage in Indian Ocean due to increased presence of China's Navy.



India, per se, should not foreclose its options with regard to OBOR. Many of the concerns can be mitigated through dialogue and shedding of some prejudices by both. India should continue to engage China for policy connectivity through consultative process as the only pathway to larger multilateralism and realisation of connectivity objectives.



India should also view TPP through the lens of positives due to the multifarious opportunities it offers in the Asia-Pacific Region. By pragmatically engaging both Beijing and Washington, India should work towards being a bridge between the two powers and competing versions of geoeconomics using its soft power and goodwill. India cannot repeat the historical blunder of 1980s when it was left out of the second wave of globalisation and must decide on its participation in the Chinese and/or American initiatives while they were still in the formative stages.



(The writer is a retired Brigadier)
Imagine if the world omitted women just for a day? There will be a lot of happy, aimless men roaming the streets, no doubt. But, what would happen to the children? Mothers know the names of their childrens friends, where they stay and where each friend is, currently, in the friendship ladder. Fathers, on the other hand, are vaguely aware of some under-age residents in their house.





I remember once, when I was in class 7, I had forgotten my tiffin box at home. My mother sent it over with my father, who reached the school office and requested the staff to hand over the box to me. In which class is she? they asked. He has raised his hand from the floor, palm facing down and said, About this big.



Parent-Teachers Meetings continue to exist because of mothers. They know which teacher to go to for which subject. Fathers have no idea  it is not uncommon to see a dad discussing his childs progress with the security guard.



Mothers also talk nicely with teachers, getting into the details of which chapter in which subject her daughter is struggling with. Fathers, on the other hand, sit there, shuffling their feet and furtively checking their mails whenever the teacher turns to fetch some papers from the shelf behind her.



And, then, to justify their presence, they pitch in suddenly, But, my son loves geography, I dont see why you are saying he did not submit his assignment on Chile.



I am your daughters teacher.



Oh! turning to his wife, Sorry, I thought we were in our sons class.



We dont have a son.



Oh! and he goes back to his emails.



It is natural for mothers to notice small things, hear the unsaid, and remember small things the children asked for. Fathers, however, have trouble sometimes figuring out which children to collect after a party, trying to find out which two are his.



Not to be sexist or dismiss a fathers love and care, but when looking at this situation through a childs point of view, the moms going to be the one to make you feel better because she is going to love and hold you and maybe even feel a little bit of that hurt with you, one expert says.



Women bring this beautiful dimension to family life, as mothers, as wives, as daughters and sisters. This International Womens Day, let us hug the women in our lives and just tell them how much we love them!


Aiming to protect the interest of domestic steel makers, the Centre has brought down the import of steel through various measures for the past few months.





Through various measures like import and safeguard duty, minimum import price and quality control order, the ministry has curtailed steel imports by almost one-fourth in April-February period this fiscal, Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters here. During last fiscal, imports of the metal had risen by about 71%, he added.



The minister said the checks were needed to protect the domestic industry, as the global downturn led to countries, including China dumping cheap steel in India, which has impacted the sales and profits of the companies.



India has become the worlds third largest steel producer last year, leaving behind the US, he said. Since May 2014, steel companies, including state-run SAIL and RINL, have added 16 million tonnes of capacity with an investment of around Rs 1 lakh crore," he said.



Indias steel production rose 7.9% to 88.12 MT in 2014-15 fiscal compared with the previous fiscal. On the ongoing first phase of mine auctions, Tomar said, out of the 43 blocks offered, six have been auctioned.
A 28-year-old software engineer committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling at his home in Nagawarapalya, Baiyappanahalli on Monday night.





The police said that Balaji, a native of Andhra Pradesh, was working with a well-known software firm in Bellandur. He was married to Manjula, an employee with a pharmaceutical company, one-and-a-half-years ago. On Monday evening, Manjula returned home from work and found the house locked from inside. She knocked on the door but there was no response. The neighbours, who came to her help, peeped through the window and found Balaji hanging from the ceiling. They informed the police, who broke open the door and shifted his body for post-mortem.



The family told the police that Balaji was upset over some domestic problem which may have driven to the extreme step. A case has been registered at the Baiyappanahalli police station.


Fresh encroachment of two hillocks and a pasture land (gomala) in the Bengaluru South taluk by some powerful people has been reported.





Sources in the district administration said at least 11 acres and 30 guntas of land in survey number 65 of Halage Vaderahalli in Kengeri hobli near Rajarajeshwari Nagar has been encroached upon.



The said stretch of land is a hillock of single hard granite, where nothing can be grown but some revenue officials connived with the land grabbers to change it to a pasture land in the government records and thereby facilitate its auction.



While four acres have been sold to a private developer through auction, the rest has been encroached upon by some influentials. While khata for the land in question has been issued, the process of converting the land for residential purposes is underway.

Assistant Commissioner of Bengaluru South sub-division L C Nagaraj wrote to the deputy commissioner on March 3, this year, requesting him to cancel the ownership of the land acquired illegally by some individuals and to the land into governments custody.



In his letter, Nagaraj said, The land in survey number 65 is a 'B' kharab land, since it is a 'hill rock'. Being a hard rock it is an uncultivable land. Hence, no agriculture activity can take place. When such is the case, some people fraudulently got this hillock allotted under the 'Grow More Food' (GMF) scheme and reflected the same in the Column-9 of the records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC). There is no provision for allotting a hillock under GMF or gift it under the Inam scheme.



Yet another case



Another encroachment of 25 acres of land at Hanumagiri Hill in Arehalli has been reported. Sources said those, who had encroached upon the Chikka Kallasandra Lake, are involved in this encroachment too and they have put up sheds around the hill. A major builder too is suspected to have a share of at least seven to eight acres in the encroachment. These encroachers have put up sheds there and 'allotted' them to the slum dwellers.



Pasture land encroached



Similarly in Begur, an influential politician, who is into the real estate and granite mining business, has encroached about 33 acres of pasture land, said sources in the district administration. They added that the land has not been granted to any individual under any government scheme but fence and a signboard has been put up and some sheds have also come up there.




The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday registered an FIR against nine persons, including five senior officials of Syndicate Bank, in a Rs 1,000 crore loan fraud case.





Searches were conducted at ten locations in Jaipur, Udaipur and Delhi during which investigators seized a number of documents that could help them in nailing the culprits.



According to the CBI, the accused persons in connivance with bank officials committed a fraud of around Rs 1,000 crore by resorting to discounting of fake cheques and bills against fake Letters of Credit and arranging over-draft limit against non-existent LIC policies.



The bank officials who were named in the FIR include a General Manager, Deputy General Manager, Chief Manager and two Assistant General Managers based in New Delhi, Jaipur and Udaipur. A Chartered Accountant and three others were also named in the FIR.



They faces charges like criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery as well as relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.



The fraud was committed at branches of Syndicate Bank at Malviya Nagar in Delhi and MI Road branches in Jaipur and Udaipur branch.



Since 2011, a CBI statement said, the bank officials in Jaipur and Udaipur colluded with other accused and resorted to discounting of fake cheques, fake inland bills and arranging over-draft limit against non-existent LIC polices.


Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar will not campaign in Kerala and West Bengal for the upcoming Assembly polls.



CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has clarified that the student leader will not travel to the states to campaign. Only four days ago, after an electrifying speech of Kanahaiya at JNU, the CPM leader had declared that Kumar would be campaigning for Left parties in the Assembly polls.



All students supporting the Left will participate in the campaign along with Kanhaiya. For the first time, the nation can see the power of the youth of Left, the senior leader had said.



Yechurys suggestion to send him for campaigning in polls seems to have been withdrawn after an assessment by the Left parties that it might not help much. The poll battle in both the states has regional dimensions and the student leader may not suit the local poll requirement.



Kanhaiya wont travel to Kerala and Bengal to campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls, Yechury said in an interview to TV Channel India Today. Yechury cited condition of the bail and other issues involved in making him poll campaigner.



Kanhaiya Kumar is an endearing person and his speech is his campaign, Yechury added. The All India Students Federation, the organisation Kumar belongs to, is a wing of CPI. Apparently, the CPI is not in favour of pushing the student leader into poll politics. Senior party leaders, including D Raja, were silent over the suggestion of Kanhaiya entering poll politics.
Confusion over fate of the Art of Livings upcoming world cultural festival on the flood plains of the Yamuna continued on Tuesday as the hearing before the National Green Tribunal on an environment activists petition seeking an order to stop holding of the three-day maga event remained inconclusive.



Resuming the hearing, the Green Court posed volley of questions to the Centre and the Delhi government, asking why clearance was given to Art of Living Foundation (AoLF) for the holding of the event.



It also sought to know from the government as to who gave permission for building up pontoon bridge by the Army on Yamuna for mega event. The Water Resource Ministry sought time from the tribunal for seeking instructions on giving reply to its question.



The Green Court also asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain under what authority of law was parking area allotted for the event and that whether the location allotted for parking of vehicles came within the flood plains area.



The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) stated before the NGT bench that no environment clearance was required for construction of temporary structures at the site chosen for organising the event as per Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006.



You file an affidavit by tomorrow (Wednesday) and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains," the NGT bench headed by its chairperson Swantanter Kumar directed the ministry.



Counsel appearing on behalf of the DDA defended the grant of permission for holding of the event, maintaining that the authority gave its nod to the organisers proposal with conditions that no permanent construction will be carried out without clearance from the competent authority.



The area is meant for recreational activity. The area is with DDA and it is the competent authority. Permission was granted after taking proper legal opinion which was conditional that no permanent structure will be constructed and also that it will be subject to permissions from other concerned authorities, the DDAs counsel argued.



The tribunal, however, pulled up the DDA as it submitted before the NGT bench that a constant watch was being maintained to ensure that no debris or municipal waste was dumped on Yamuna flood plains, saying that a running contractor was there to remove the debris, if any dumped.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Centre on a PIL for making packets of tobacco products, including cigarette, as less attractive and plain with a standard colour for all brands.



A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit admitted the petition filed by Allahabad-based senior advocate Umesh Narain Sharma for consideration and issued a notice to the Union government.



Advocate Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that despite high prevalence of tobacco use and over 1 million deaths yearly in India and a clear recommendation by the Allahabad High Court to implement plain packaging of cigarette and other tobacco products, the government has taken no steps to discourage attractive packaging. She also cited Article 47 of the Constitution, which vests in the state the duty to improve public health.



Cigarettes and other products are being packed here in very attractive colours, and being displayed openly in open shops, prompting immature youths to start smoking. Though the court questioned the advocate as to why the petitioner did not intervene earlier, when the issue was being considered in 2008, it agreed to seek the governments reply on the subject.



The petition quoted the Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report-2014, issued by the Canadian Cancer Society, which ranked India at 136, among 198 countries, in terms of prominence of pictorial health warnings on tobacco packaging, much below countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal Thailand.



It said the total economic costs attributable to tobacco use from all diseases in India in the year 2011, amounted to Rs. 1,04,500 crores, which is 1.16 percent of the GDP.
Parliament on Tuesday witnessed women MPs led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi urge the Central government on International Womens Day to enact the long awaited Womens Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha and to give us women our legitimate due.





Addressing the Lok Sabha where women members were allowed to speak on womens issues by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Sonia Gandhi also criticised a law, making educational qualifications mandatory for contesting local polls in some BJP-ruled states. Hinting at Haryana, she was opposed to rule on the grounds that it denied women their right to contest.



In the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptulla, who was allowed to speak without giving the notice for speaking because she as minister for minority affairs could not give notice for zero hour mention, expressed hope that the Women Reservation Bill would be passed by the Lok Sabha soon. She said that real empowerment will only come when women are heard in their families and their opinions are given importance.



Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said that the Rajya Sabha could take pride that it had passed the Womens Reservation Bill six years ago and expressed hope that the Bill will be passed by the Lok Sabha. The law was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 but since then has remained in cold storage.



Gandhi used the opportunity to score political points by highlighting that it was the Congress that has been taking initiatives for women empowerment and took pot shots at the Modi government on maximum governance as she remarked that it does not mean having double standards in relation to women and their rights.



She said that the Congress pledged right to vote to women in 1928, during its regime we have had a first and only woman prime minister Indira Gandhi, a first woman president Pratibha Patil and a first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar and former PM Rajiv Gandhi provided for mandatory reservation for women in panchayats and nagarpalikas.
In a surprise development, a high-level committee looking into encroachment of forest land around Bengaluru has declared in an interim report that the Jakkur-Allalsandra plantation area is not forest land.





The report states that since Government Order numbers are available showing grant of forest lands, it stood as an evidence that these forest lands had been disforested. The report was submitted on December 26, four days before committee head and then chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee retired from service.



The report states that the Jakkur- Allalsandra plantation reserved forest was possibly disforested in 1949 and 1956, and reverted to the Revenue Department for grant to various persons.



The report, signed by Mukherjee, on the one hand stated that the Forest Working Plan recorded that the area was released for military authorities, but on the other concluded stating that the area was reverted to the Revenue Department for grant.



Former additional principal chief conservator of forests (vigilance) C Venkat Subbaiah, who had submitted a report on status of forest lands, has now written to the government to reconsider the interim report.



In his letter dated February 15, 2016, Subbaiah stated that the Forest Working Plan may not be relied upon. It is not known what was the urgency for an interim report by the chief secretary on December 26, Subbaiah stated.



This was based on the entries made in the Forest Working Plan which could not correctly identify the total area of the reserved forests in the division when the statutory proceedings initiated by the jurisdictional assistant commissio- ner is in progress and not concluded, he added.



No gazette notification



In 1940, 177 acres and 28 guntas in Jakkur plantation village was notified as Jakkur-Allalsandra Plantation Reserved Forest. But there is no gazette notification de-reserving the said forest land or even a part of it. In July 2015, assistant commissioner, Bengaluru north sub-division, had issued notices to 50 people in response to an appeal by the Forest Department.



The notices were issued to Industries Minister R V Deshpande and others, including Sobha Inner Technophone (represented by Meera Raghavan), Sobha Inner City Technopolis, Jakkur Aerodrome, Karnataka State Judicial Employees House Building Co-operative Society, H R Suresh, Raj Gopal, S Veeranna and M N Mahadevaiah among others. High-level committee The high-level committee was constituted on October 1 under the chairmanship of senior IFS officer Dr U V Singh.



But on October 26, even before the committee could begin work, the government dissolved the panel and constituted a new committee headed by Mukherjee. The new committee met thriceon October 30, November 26 and December 14before submitting the interim report.




By Kim Willsher

8 March 2016 SLAVUTYCH (The Guardian)  In a biting winter wind, Alexander Petrovich Zabirchenko walks slowly along a memorial to firefighters and workers who died in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, touching each of the portraits engraved in granite. He does not shiver or complain of the cold. He is a big man and draws himself up to his full height before each sombre stone. Here is Valeri, and here Vladimir and Alexandr and Anatoli  I knew these men, he says. I worked with them. They were colleagues and friends. As one of the many Chernobyl workers who returned to the devastated plant to fight the fires, Zabirchenko is an official Hero of the Soviet Union. He bats away the honour with a wave of his hand. These men were the heroes; every one of them. They died preventing an even bigger disaster. They saved not just Ukraine, Russia or the Soviet Union as it was, but the whole of Europe. Next month, thousands of men, women, and children in the northern Ukrainian city of Slavutych, will gather at the memorial here to light candles to the 30 initial victims of the worlds worst nuclear accident. Three decades on, they will remember not just the dead, but the memories and dreams they left behind in Pripyat, the ghost city that was once their home. The story of Pripyat and Slavutych is a tale of twin cities: Pripyat, a former model Soviet metropolis built to house Chernobyl workers but abandoned to radioactive contamination and the ravages of nature; Slavutych, an urban phoenix that rose from the ashes of the disaster to replace it. [] Every morning the train from Slavutych transports workers such as 62-year-old Pasha Kondratiev, 50 minutes along the line to its only destination: the Chernobyl plant. Every evening, around 4.30pm it disgorges them back in Slavutych. All undergo daily radiation checks, including the train. Kondratiev, who started work at the plant 33 years ago, works at Chernobyl checking radiation measuring equipment. On the day of the accident he and his wife Natasha and daughters Tatiana, 12, and Marina, 10, walked to the bridge over the river subsidiary feeding the nuclear plants cooling pond, to get a better view of what was going on. The site was later named the bridge of death, because of the levels of radiation in the area. I could see the ruins of the reactor. It was completely destroyed and there was a cloud of smoke coming from it. Nobody gave us any information, but we knew it was serious. We knew it was something terrifying, Kondratiev says. [more]
For the first time in its history, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona welcomed over 100,000 visitors, most of them in suits. We visit quite a few shows and one of the things that stands out is how well it is run. Whether youre at the airport, subway, or the registration desk, theres show staff right there holding signs and letting you know where to go. Even though the show grew quite a bit again compared to last year, lines were shorter and seats were easier to find at the many food stands and coffee shops.

Click here to read more ...




UAE-based satellite operator Yahsat has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with existing partner IEC Telecom Group (IEC Telecom) in Africa.

The agreement comes ahead of Yahsat taking delivery of its third satellite - Al Yah 3  the launch of which will see the companys satellite broadband product YahClick expand into 18 new African markets. This will almost triple its existing presence across the continent, covering 60% of Africas population.



David Murphy, Yahsats Chief Commercial Officer, commented: With investment, trade and industry set to continue to grow in Africa, having access to the internet and the potential for reliable, broadband connectivity via satellite is high. Building on our existing partnership would ensure YahClick delivers on its promise to have an unmatched service area and provides constant connectivity to aid the socio-economic development of the region.



IEC Telecom is one of the worlds leading mobile and fixed satellite communications service providers, and the MoU will explore ways for it to offer YahClick broadband products, services and value-added solutions to support the satellite operators increased coverage across Africa.



With the uplink based in Athens and Luxembourg, customers will be able to land their traffic directly into Europe, Middle East and Africa, taking advantage of high-speed interconnection throughout these regions. Further, Yahsat and IEC Telecoms standards of infrastructure and advanced data security gateway ensure the highest levels of security for customers sensitive data.
Intelsat has announced an agreement with SkyNet de Colombia to support a new project launched by the Colombian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications.

The Kiosco VIVE DIGITAL Phase III (KDVIII) project is aimed at bringing broadband and internet connectivity to remote communities and schools in rural areas across Colombia. With nearly 4 billion people globally remaining unconnected, bridging the digital divide is critical to bolstering a countrys GDP growth and ensuring inclusion from a social, political and economic perspective for any community.

Under the multi-year agreement, Skynet de Colombia will leverage the high speed performance of Intelsat 29e, the first of Intelsats next generation, high throughput Intelsat EpicNG satellites. Together, Skynet de Colombia and Intelsat will provide broadband and internet connectivity to approximately 600 remote sites, across 250 municipalities. The services delivered to the communities will include internet access as well as programs that promote the use of technologies in the community.

Intelsats high throughput Intelsat EpicNG satellites are bringing unprecedented power, cost savings and accessibility to broadband connectivity to people living in regions where there is a lack of terrestrial infrastructure, said Rene Otero, CTO, SkyNet de Colombia. With greater access to reliable, high quality broadband services, remote communities can receive the same type of advantages and services that are afforded to those that live in the more developed areas of Colombia.

Intelsat EpicNGs efficiency delivers more throughput to the user, the backwards compatibility allows customers to use their existing hardware, and the open architecture enables customers to choose the network hardware that best suits their applications. This delivers unprecedented choice, control and consistent levels of service across the platform at a much lower cost of total ownership, enabling fixed and mobile network operators to cost-effectively enhance their networks to meet growing demands from existing customers while also extending the reach of their networks to capture new growth in remote areas.

The KDVIII project in Colombia is a great example of the role that public and private partnerships can play in ensuring that digital inclusion is available for all citizens, whether they reside in remote communities or urban areas, said Carmen Gonzalez-Sanfeliu, Intelsats Regional Vice President, Latin America and Caribbean.
Co-founder of Apple Computers, Woz explained his support for Apple in the contentious case against the FBI, when he appeared on Conans show.

Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple Computers (now Apple Inc.), expressed his support for Apple against the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The legal tussle between the investigation body and the technology giant became a highly debated discussion of late, after the FBI seized an iPhone 5c belonging to Syed Farook, who was involved in the San Bernardino shooting case. Apple refused to comply to FBIs request of creating a backdoor to the iPhone so that they could take a look inside it, citing precedence and the technique itself as dangerous tools for the future, if in the wrong hands.

Wozniak, talking to Conan about his decision to stand by Apple, reiterated the perils of such a judgement. He stated that had the judgement been passed against Apple to create a security flaw and force unlock the device, it would have given room for other countries to cite the same example to unlock many more iPhones similarly. Particularly mentioning the Chinese Government, he stated that this might even potentially leave many US leaders at points of compromise. He also called FBIs decision to challenge Apple here as the lamest case they could pick.

Standing by what Tim Cook and many others have stated in favour of Apple, Wozniak gave the example of developing a virus-type code for Macs a couple of times, but being so scared of its consequences that he made sure every bit of the code was destroyed, and no one got their hands to it. Similarly, a Government OS version of iOS with a gaping backdoor would potentially leave millions of users worldwide vulnerable to data breaches and minimal privacy. Until now, Apple has been renowned for providing excellent encryption on its devices, encouraging users of various professions to use iPhones.

Watch him talk about his decision on Conans show here:
Personal Group was looking to boost its new online benefits platform on Tuesday, appointing the experienced George Farrow to the post of commercial relationships director.

The AIM-traded company said the role of commercial relationships director was a new one, aimed at progressing the growth of the company's online benefits platform 'hapi'. Its board said the role would also support PG Mobile propositions and the current business development side of the group.

"We are delighted to be able to welcome George to the Personal Group family," said chief commercial officer David Walker.

"He brings with him a wealth of experience in the employee benefits sector, which will help the company to progress through the next stage of its evolution. His combined knowledge of the wider finance industry and reward space will help the group foster new, and support existing, commercial relationships going forward," he added.

Personal Group said that, prior to working in the employee benefits sector, Farrow spent more than 25 years in corporate banking in the UK and New York for NatWest and Lloyds TSB.

During his time at Lloyds, he established a new employee benefits service titled Bringme, before managing its sale to Asperity in 2007.

In 2009, Farow joined Asperity's board - now known as Reward Gateway - initially as client services director, and then becoming chief operationg officer.

"I am excited to be at a company with such great potential and I look forward to playing my part in making Personal Group the go-to benefits provider," Farrow said, commenting on his appointment.

"The company is at the forefront of employee services, centred around its new hapi platform, alongside the recent acquisitions of Lets Connect and PG Mobile. No other provider in the market can offer the multi-faceted proposition that Personal Group does."

Shares in Personal Group Holdings were last down 0.09%, at 582p.
Timing is the biggest question mark surrounding the US decision to lift a four-decade old restriction on crude oil exports, as energy economics and geopolitics spawn an oil glut that has depressed prices to a 12-year low. Washington lawmakers surprise move - in December last year - enables US oil producers to lock in supply contracts with foreign clients without restrictions for the first time since the Arab oil embargoes in the 1970s.

A legal green light that allows the US to ramp up its crude exports has global ramifications. The US, which produces 9.22 million barrels a day (bpd) of oil, will likely jostle with Saudi Arabia and Iran, the vying energy hegemons in the Middle East, for European and Asian market share over the coming five years. Irans appetite to regain market share has intensified following the lifting of sanctions on 17 January and Saudi Arabia is safeguarding its markets to protect the Kingdoms strained budget against low oil prices and the rising expense of the war in Yemen.

OPECs strategy, spearheaded by linchpin Saudi Arabia, to push the US shale oil companies and other high-cost producers out of the market, is working after fifteen months of fiscal pain and sweeping job cuts. US production is likely to slide to 8.3m bpd by late-2016 as producers crumble under burgeoning debt piles - $30/bbl is proving too painful. Oil could already slide as low as $20/bbl if Iran brings the 500,000 bpd it has promised online this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The Achilles heel of OPEC, a cartel characterised by internal bickering, is underestimating the power of shale oil on global oil dynamics and the US has often demonstrated the ability to surprise. The countrys oil output has climbed nearly 50% from 2011 and around 4mn bpd of additional output from 5,000 drilled wells is waiting in the wings for when and if oil prices rise above $50/bbl.

Speculation that the US is eyeing European market share rang true when the countrys first crude export arrived at the French port of Marseille on January 20, just three weeks after the ban was lifted. Fresh competition from the US may calm Russias tempestuous relationship with its European clients, with the latter frequently threatening and failing to diversify its supplier base.

Meanwhile, African exporters have begun turning away from US shores  Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, primarily  to focus on the regional demand that is being fuelled by Africas booming middle class population and industrial growth. Still, West African exporters will continue to supply the US east coast to a degree as with current shipping rates, it is cheaper than transporting domestic crude across the continental US.

While there were restrictions on crude exports, US refiners were free to supply millions of barrels per day of refined products such as diesel, gasoline, LPG and lightly treated condensates to customers abroad for several years, plus 500,000 bpd of crude oil that is mostly destined for Canada. Combined, the US already exports more than most non-OPEC nations.

But this does not mean that the countrys relatively embryonic export market has the leverage to eat into Iran, Saudi Arabia or Russias market share for a while, even though Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France and Turkey have expressed interest. Feeding Italys demand could provide a small boost to the US entry into Europe, as the Libyan barrels that typically supply Italy have been derailed by civil war.

The US unpredictable mix of blends may also scare off Asian customers for now, as many prefer knowing the specifics of the import blend. A company could make, or equally lose, millions depending on the batch that is delivered. The more exploratory South Korean refiners may import test batches, while China and the bulk of the region wait to see how European importers fare. Iran will try to snatch up some of Chinas import appetite, leveraging the rejuvenation of the historic Sino-Iran trade link and the countries newly signed 10-year deal that increases trade to $600bn.

The US export ambitions mark a transformational chapter for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark, which has largely been driven into the wilderness over the last decade as it only served US oil refiners with access to US crude. Now, the spread between the WTI and Brent oil price  the benchmark outside of the US  is set to narrow, eroding the discounts that US refiners have long enjoyed.

It must be noted that the lifting of export restrictions can be reversed in three years, and export licensing requirements can be introduced for up to a year under certain conditions such as national emergencies, sanctions, supply shortages, or an elongated period of high domestic oil prices. Setting such political uncertainty aside, US exporters look set to slowly carve out market share over the coming years and become an invaluable spoke in the countrys economic wheel.
China's trade surplus shrank far more quickly in February than markets had anticipated, but some economists cautioned the data was still subject to distortions linked to the Chinese New Year, even as they pointed out signs of underlying strength.

The country's trade surplus fell from $63.3bn in January to $32.6bn, as exports measured in US dollar terms registered a decline of 25.4% year-on-year, in comparison to the prior month's reading of -11.2% and forecasts for a fall of 14.5%.

However, Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics pointed out how in 2015 the New Year holidays had fallen unusually late in the year, hence provoking distortions in this year's data due to what analysts term 'negative base effects'.

"The trade data are highly volatile during the first couple of months of the year. And other indicators, including

the export orders components of both manufacturing PMIs, don't point to a sharp drop-off in foreign demand last month," Julian Evans Pritchard said in a research note sent to clients.

Import growth, on the other hand, shrank at a 13.8% year-on-year clip in February after a drop of 18.8% in the month before and came closer to meeting market projections for a decline of 12.0%.

Capital Economics thought it likely that a continued surge of invoicing from Hong Kong was still slightly inflating the import data.

Nonetheless, stripping out that effect a recovery was still evident in demand for imports, and hence in internal Chinese demand, Evans Pricthard explained.

A jump in the rate of growth of imports for domestic use was almost entirely the result of increased imports of commodities.

"These are still down year-on-year in value terms but appear relatively strong in volume terms," he said.

Capital Economics's expectation was for Chinese trade to pick up over the coming quarters, as global demand conditions improved slightly in 2016, while imports should benefit from the recovery in commodity prices and Beijing's looser fiscal stance.

Analysts at Danske Bank were of a similar view, telling clients that: "with the March number we expect a rebound in the y/y rate as exports declined more than 33% m/m in March 2015. It means that if the level of exports is unchanged from February to March this year the y/y rate will jump sharply to around +10%, which would be the highest number since February last year."
UK stocks declined on Tuesday as poor Chinese trade data added to worries about the health of the worlds second largest economy.

Chinese exports plunged 25.4% in February from a year earlier, marking the biggest slump in more than five years and compared to analysts expectations for a 14.5% drop.

Imports decreased 13.8% year-on-year, more than forecasts for a 12% slide.

Chinas trade surplus narrowed in February to $32.59bn from $63.29bn in January, below estimates for a $51.25bn surplus. 

Chinese trade data showed February exports plunged 25.4% which has spooked markets already concerned about slowing global growth rather than adding to hopes of more stimulus from Beijing (too much work to do for policy makers?), said Mike van Dulken and Augustin Eden at Accendo Markets.

However, the Lunar New Year holiday may have interfered with the data.

Mining stocks were in the red following the data, including Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

An increase in oil prices on Monday failed to lift the mood although the gains reversed slightly in Tuesday morning trade. Brent crude fell 0.59% $40.60 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dipped 0.61% to $37.67 per barrel at 0903 GMT.

Meanwhile, the market will be watching Bank of England Governor Mark Carneys testimony on Brexit at the parliament committee at 0915 GMT.

The Eurozone will see the release of gross domestic product data at 1000 GMT, which comes ahead of the European Central Banks policy announcement on Thursday.

In company news, Close Brothers was under the cosh after the specialist financial services company warned that its UK trading services business Winterflood remains sensitive to market conditions.

Tescos shares gained as data from Kantar Worldpanel showed the supermarket halved its sales decline in the last three months.

Burberry rallied on speculation that the UK's biggest luxury goods producer is setting up defences against a potential takeover offer.

Worldpays shares edged lower as the group did not recommend a dividend in its full year results despite swinging to a profit in 2015.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,130.56 -0.84%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,753.98 -0.46%

techMARK (TASX) 3,097.85 -0.56%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,438.00p 4.89%

Admiral Group (ADM) 1,990.00p 1.32%

Shire Plc (SHP) 3,789.00p 0.61%

Tesco (TSCO) 192.55p 0.39%

Sports Direct International (SPD) 404.20p 0.27%

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,430.00p 0.23%

Hammerson (HMSO) 549.50p 0.18%

Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,797.00p 0.11%

Capita (CPI) 1,020.00p 0.10%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,675.50p 0.09%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 274.20p -6.06%

Anglo American (AAL) 591.30p -5.86%

BHP Billiton (BLT) 849.20p -5.41%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 561.00p -5.32%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,144.50p -4.14%

Glencore (GLEN) 163.90p -4.01%

ARM Holdings (ARM) 983.50p -2.24%

Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 387.60p -1.97%

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,236.00p -1.90%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 71.45p -1.79%

FTSE 250 - Risers

CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,660.00p 6.34%

John Laing Group (JLG) 219.00p 2.62%

DFS Furniture (DFS) 314.80p 2.34%

Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 89.05p 1.77%

Ophir Energy (OPHR) 86.30p 1.59%

Ladbrokes (LAD) 129.70p 1.49%

Keller Group (KLR) 823.00p 1.35%

Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 2,245.00p 1.35%

Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 2,281.00p 1.20%

Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) 275.20p 1.18%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Close Brothers Group (CBG) 1,289.00p -6.86%

Vedanta Resources (VED) 368.70p -3.28%

esure Group (ESUR) 255.00p -3.19%

Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 203.20p -2.96%

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 420.80p -2.68%

Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 317.00p -2.67%

Greencore Group (GNC) 349.10p -2.62%

Evraz (EVR) 94.70p -2.52%

Aldermore Group (ALD) 220.80p -2.21%

Ocado Group (OCDO) 258.00p -2.16%
John Laing Group has proposed a final dividend of 5.3p per share after the infrastructure investor increased net asset value 15.4% in 2015.

The FTSE 250 group, which floated in February last year, said it had become well established as both a renewable energy and a PPP investor as its investment commitments reached 180.5m, versus an annual average of 135m across the previous four years.

After realisations of 86.3m, net asset value at the year end grew 15.4% to 889.6m, or 242p per share, with profit before tax down 11.5% to 106.6m.

Realisations were short of 100m guidance as management decided to seek better terms on a particular PPP transaction, which was subsequently agreed in February 2016.

With cash yield from the investment portfolio of 38.9m, directors have pledged a final dividend of 5.3p per share in line with policy, including a special dividend of 2.1p per share.

Chief executive Olivier Brousse said: "2015 has been a very good year for John Laing with more than 15% of net asset value growth. Our business model has proved resilient in a volatile macro-economic environment.

"We have the people, agility and brand recognition to take advantage of the markets for new infrastructure in the regions we operate in and we are confident in our future prospects."



The company believes that infrastructure needs are generally "substantial and urgent" due to global population growth, urbanisation and climate change.

The European PPP market was said to be more subdued in the near term, though hopes are for the wider market to follow the bullishness of Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Ireland.

An immature US market offers "significant" prospects for the office opened there in 2014, with several states having passed PPP legislation and "a visible need to replace or upgrade existing bridges, roads and other transport assets".

After the recent COP summit in Paris, confidence is strong for renewable energy, though the markets for onshore wind and solar farms is becoming "increasingly competitive". New markets offer opportunities, however, such as smart meters in the UK or LNG and other energy assets.
The Bank of England is preparing to protect British banks from running out of funds in the event of a Brexit vote by flooding them with a wall of money in the latest sign of the authorities nervousness surrounding the EU referendum. The central bank has announced it will give commercial banks three exceptional opportunities just before and after the June 23 poll on Britains membership of the EU to borrow as much money as they like to offset any threat of a run on banks and prevent a repeat of the chaos of the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008.  Financial Times

The average bonus paid on Wall Street slipped 9 per cent last year to $146,200, as banks hired more staff and tried to cap pay amid a surge in compliance costs and volatile trading activity. The much-watched figure, published annually by the office of the New York State Comptroller, reflects the mood of the securities divisions of New York Stock Exchange member firms, which generate almost one-fifth of the states total tax receipts.  Financial Times

BHS has warned its creditors that they stand to lose as much as 1.3bn if they do not agree to a drastic turnaround plan this month. The beleaguered retailers proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), filed at the High Court, has revealed that it the black hole in its pension fund now stands at 571m, on a buyout basis. The figure has ballooned by nearly 120m since the last triennial valuation in 2012. Landlords, the creditors BHS is attempting convince to give it a chance of survival, are owed nearly 517m. - Telegraph

Philips is pushing ahead with plans for a bumper stockmarket float of its 125-year old lighting arm, dealing a potential blow to UK industrial firm Melrose and its attempts to buy the historic company. The Dutch conglomerate has recently appointed Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as so-called global co-ordinators to lead an Amsterdam listing of the division, The Daily Telegraph understands. - Telegraph

The British and French governments have insisted the Hinkley Point nuclear plant is on track, despite fresh doubts emerging over the 18bn project after an executive row at its main backer, EDF Energy. EDF confirmed that finance chief Thomas Piquemal had resigned, amid reports he wanted the French state-owned company to delay a final decision on building the UKs first new nuclear power station in a generation.  Guardian

Employers are preparing to cut overtime pay and reduce rates paid for weekend working to claw back the extra cost of the new national living wage, according to a report by the recruitment group Manpower. A survey of employers showed that workers who qualify for the wage, which is 50p an hour higher than the 6.70 minimum wage, will see little difference in their pay packets after businesses have made savings in other areas.  Guardian

Burberry is trying to find out the identity of a mystery investor who has built up a stake of about 5 per cent in the luxury retail group. The British brand, known for its check scarves and trenchcoats, is understood to have asked HSBC, which is listed as the custodian for the position, to disclose the identity of the investor. Analysts speculated that the mystery shareholder could be a rival retailer trying to build up a stake before a potential takeover offer, with Macquarie analysts stating that a bad of 17 a share would value Burberry at 8bn.  The Times

Competition watchdog to call for a radical reform of Britains railways, with the scrapping of the system of intercity rail franchises. The competition watchdog will call today for a radical reform of Britains railways, with the scrapping of the present system of intercity rail franchises and a switch to several different train companies offering rival services on the same lines.  The Times
Resource stocks headed lower on Monday following poor data from China, dragging headline London indices into negative territory.

At the close of proceedings, the FTSE 100 ended 0.92% or 56.06 points lower at 6125.44, while the FTSE 250 ended 1.05% or 177.40 points lower at 16,654.03.

A data release earlier in the session suggested that Chinese trade surplus shrank far more quickly in February than anticipated, dipping from $63.3bn in January to $32.6bn, as exports measured in dollar terms registered a decline of 25.4% year-on-year, in comparison to the prior month's reading of -11.2% and market forecasts for a fall of 14.5%.

Traders took it as a cue to indulge in profit-taking as oil futures retreated right from the word go in Singapore. At 1638 GMT, the Brent front month futures contract was down 2.28% or 93 cents to $39.91 per barrel, while the WTI fell 2.72% or $1.03 to $36.87 per barrel.

Away from oil markets, precious metals headed lower as well, with the exception of the COMEX gold April futures contract which rose 0.22% or $2.80 to $1266.80 an ounce. Meanwhile spot gold was down 0.08% or 53 cents to $1,266.80 an ounce.

COMEX silver fell 1.04% or 16 cents to $15.47 an ounce, while spot platinum also slid 0.90% or $8.97 to $1,001.66 an ounce; retreating well below the psychological $1,000 an ounce level that it had breached for the first time since October 2015 on Monday.

Headline base metal futures headed lower across the London Metal Exchange board. At 1635 GMT, three-month futures contracts of primary aluminium (-2.7%), nickel (-6.2%), lead (-2.5%), tin (-5.9%), zinc (-2.0%) and copper (-2.8%) were in negative territory.

Predictably, Glencore (-18.16%), Anglo American (-15.48%), Antofagasta (-9.45%), Rio Tinto (-9.43%) and BHP Billiton (-8.51%) were among the biggest FTSE 100 fallers.

On FTSE 250, Vedanta Resources (-12.72%), Tullow Oil (-7.46%) and Amec Foster Wheeler (-6.69%) were among the biggest fallers.

Additionally, Moody's downgraded Vedanta's corporate family rating to B2 from Ba2, and its senior unsecured rating to Caa1 from B1, with a negative outlook, which weighed further on the company's shares.

Away from resource stocks, supermarket retailer Tesco (+1.75%) rose as data from Kantar Worldpanel showed sales fell 0.8% in the 12 weeks to 28 February, which was a marked improvement from the 1.6% drop revealed a month earlier.

Fixed line telephone and broadband provider TalkTalk was also on the up, as chif xecutive Dido Harding admitted that the security threat to the company was underestimated before a cyber-attack last November.

The attack cost the company 95,000 customers and more than 60m, with its share price more than halving from its 2015 peak by the end of last year.

Finally, luxury brand Burberry closed 6.64% higher at 1,462p after the Financial Times reported that an unknown investor had built up a near 5% stake in the company.

The company had requested help from its financial advisers over concern at the potential for a takeover bid, the FT said.
Olentangy Berlin shuts out Thomas Worthington in Game of the Week

Olentangy Berlin visits Thomas Worthington for the central Ohio high school football Game of the Week for Week 10.
WSDOT says Bertha can go to safe haven 3

SEATTLE  Today WSDOT told Seattle Tunnel Partners that it can continue mining 120 feet to safe haven 3, which is a planned maintenance stop west of the viaduct near Yesler Way.

WSDOT shut down tunneling Jan. 14 after a sinkhole appeared behind the mining machine named Bertha and a barge hauling tunnel muck spilled some of its load into Elliott Bay, damaging 22 timber piles on Terminal 46.

STP had been mining since Feb. 23 in a demonstration period during which it had to show WSDOT that operations were improved while it installed 25 tunnel rings.

Bertha has traveled 1,437 feet and is 15 percent complete with the bored section of the SR 99 tunnel. The machine is near South Washington Street.

STP has been removing tunnel muck by truck as it continues to address issues with barging operations.




European Union leaders sat down with Turkey's prime minister today seeing a glimmer of hope for an end to the refugee crisis that has divided Europe, but they were troubled by having to seek favours from a government that scorns their ideas of human rights. With tens of thousands of migrants hoping to reach Germany stranded in Greece by the closing of borders, the summit will formalise the closure of the Balkan route out of Greece, diplomats said, while pledging help to Athens and seeking assurances that Turkey will, with NATO naval back-up, bar the sea to people smugglers. The leaders in Brussels are likely to tell Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of concerns about rights after the Turkish government seized control of a newspaper critical of its policies. But EU officials said they will also be anxious not to alienate Ankara just as hopes are rising of a solution to the crisis. Fellow EU leaders, long bitterly divided over how to end chaotic movements that have put Europe's Schengen free-movement system in jeopardy, will also assure Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of help housing those now stranded in Greece who hope to follow the million that found refuge in Germany last year. An EU endorsement of recent border closures by Macedonia, Austria and other countries on the route north from Greece will be accompanied by a renewed commitment to revive plans to relocate asylum claimants around the EU, diplomats said. A draft EU agreement will declare that the "West Balkan route is closed", although diplomats added that the statement was likely to go through considerable redrafting. NATO said on Sunday a new naval force secured approval for operating in Turkish and Greek waters. That will lend force to a deal with Turkey to take back migrants halted in its waters and those who reach Greek islands but fail to qualify for asylum. Meeting Davutoglu two days after his government seized control of Zaman, Turkey's top-selling newspaper, EU leaders are torn between anger at Ankara's action and fear of derailing Turkish willingness to stop migrants sailing for Greece. European Council President Donald Tusk, the former Polish premier who is chairing today's talks, had barely left a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday and declared cautious optimism on the migrant crisis when police seized the newspaper. "It's a slap in the face," one senior EU official told Reuters after EU envoys met in Brussels on Sunday evening. Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe, Gauri van Gulik, said, "Using Turkey as a 'safe third country' is absurd ... Europe has an absolute duty to protect refugees and must make the bold decision to fast-track significant, unconditional resettlement as a matter of urgency." However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces regional elections next Sunday, which will pass judgment on her much-criticised decision to open the door to Syrian refugees last summer, is keen to see a three-month old deal with Ankara start working fast. She met Davutoglu in Brussels late on Sunday. Germany has been pushing for resettlement of thousands of Syrian refugees from the more than two million in Turkey. But diplomats say that is unlikely to be discussed in detail by other EU leaders until they see flows from Turkey are falling. Turkish raids

Over a weekend that saw at least another 18 people drown in the straits, Turkish police mounted a raid on a beach opposite Lesbos. Reuters journalists saw them stop some 120 migrants from leaving and arrest at least two from a migrant-smuggling gang. However, some 30,000 migrants are bottled up in Greece and 2,000 to 3,000 more arrive daily. Tsipras, struggling with an economy blighted by the euro crisis, has called for urgent help and insisted Greece will not become a "warehouse of souls". EU officials believe that signs Europe's external border in Greece is being brought under control can ease resistance from some in the Union to a plan to relocate asylum seekers from Greece to other European countries - a scheme that has seen barely 300 people move from Greece over the past few months. Three months ago, EU leaders, fearful that border closures have put their Schengen passport-free zone in jeopardy, agreed to provide 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to help care for Syrian refugees in Turkey. They also promised to revive talks on Ankara's EU membership and speed up a plan to give Turkish travellers easier visa access to the European Union.








Ray Tomlinson, inventor of Email and `@' symbol dies at 74

Ray Tomlinson, the US programmer who invented the electronic mail (email) in the 1970s and chose the "@" symbol for the messaging system, died at the age of 74, his employer said.

Engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first network email in 1971, choosing the '@' symbol to separate the name of the sender from the address of the host computer

Tomlinson invented the direct electronic messaging system in 1971, which helped users to electronically communicate with others on the world wide web. Before the invention of the email users could only send messages on a limited network.

"A true technology pioneer, Ray was the man who brought us email in the early days of networked computers," his employer, the defence contractor and electronics giant Raytheon, said in a statement on Sunday.

Raytheon stated in its release, ''In 1971, in a windowless room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a bearded computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson was hunched before two massive computers, struggling to send the world's first email.

''He had been programming and debugging for hours, trying fruitlessly to get a message from one cabinet-sized computer to another.

''Now he tried again, banging out his name on a teletype keyboard: TOMLINSON. He followed that with an @ symbol  a little-used key he had chosen as a separator  and then the name of the other computer.

''Tomlinson rolled his chair over to the second computer's teletype and banged out TYPE MAILBOX on the keyboard.

''For a moment there was silence. And then with a rattle, the teletype came alive. History's first email had arrived.

"His work changed the way the world communicates and yet, for all his accomplishments, he remained humble, kind and generous with his time and talents, he will be missed by one and all."

Tomlinson, a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detailed his creation on his blog in an attempt to prevent legend from overtaking the facts.

"The first message was sent between two machines that were literally side by side" connected only through ARPANET, Tomlinson wrote.

A company spokesman said Tomlinson died on Saturday, and the cause of death was not yet confirmed.

Tributes poured in from the online world.

Tomlinson was the first to use the @ symbol in this way, to distinguish a user from its host.

However, the use of personal email, which is widely used for electronic communications, was adopted on a mass scale since the 1990s.


Global innovative healthcare company, Randox Health who have bases in Dungloe and Antrim will become the new official partner of the worlds greatest race, the Grand National, and the three-day Grand National Festival staged at Aintree Racecourse.

The five-year deal starts from April 2017, Jockey Club Racecourses announced.

Randox Health plans to roll out clinics nationally and internationally over the next 12 months, including in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin.

The Randox Health checks aim to prevent illness and enhance well being by running hundreds of tests from one simple patient sample. These unique tests give an extraordinary insight into every aspect of a persons health.

Dr. Peter FitzGerald CBE, Founder and Managing Director of Randox, said: "The Randox Health team is extremely pleased to partner the world's greatest race. The Grand National offers us a major public platform to raise awareness of preventative healthcare and to encourage people to take control of their health and wellbeing. We see this partnership as a natural fit, as both organisations invest heavily in the future and we aim to use our partnership to promote a positive lifestyle and to bring enjoyment to millions of people. We care about peoples health and this is the peoples race.

Pat the Cope Gallagher, TD, who has had close associations with Randox since they located in Dungloe, attended the briefing and launch. He told the Democrat, This is a great success for the Gaeltacht and Dungloe - Randox have affirmed their commitment constantly to Dungloe and are a vital ingredient in the community.

This move to sponsor the Grand National, the most prestigious Steeplechase in the world can only enhance the companys name further and by association, Dungloe.
Dorothy "Dot" B. Carn, 82, a resident of Dothan passed away on Sunday, March 6, 2016 at a local hospital. Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 in the Fellowship Hall at Covenant United Methodist Church with Rev. Kyle Gatlin officiating. Visitation with refreshments will follow the service. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Covenant United Methodist Church, 3610 West Main Street, Dothan, AL 36303. Ms. Carn was born February 7, 1934 in Augusta, GA and lived there the early years of her life. After 20 years as a military spouse she moved to Ozark in 1972 then to Dothan in 1992. She was a homemaker for many years then after her children were grown she owned and operated Dot's Sundries in Ozark for 8 years. She loved growing house plants especially African Violets. She also had a special place in her heart for animals particularly dogs. She was a member of Covenant United Methodist Church. Ms. Carn was preceded in death by her son, Martin Eric Carn. Survivors include her children William C. Carn, III, Victoria Osborn, Valerie Hardwick and Jonathan D. Carn; 10 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews also survive. Robert Byrd of Sunset Memorial Park Funeral Home 334-983-6604 www.SunsetMemorialPark.com. Sign the guest book at www.dothaneagle.com.
dpa ElectionsData

With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc.

The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties.
Toyota has revealed price and specification for its new-look Prius, which goes on sale around the country this week.

The fourth-generation hybrid pioneer will be priced from $34,990 plus on-road costs; $2500 higher than the outgoing model but loaded with significantly more standard equipment.

The base model version now scores 15-inch wheels, colour head-up display, auto-levelling LED headlamps, LED daytime running lights, 10-speaker stereo, Toyota's smartphone Link software, leather-accented steering wheel and a wireless phone charger.

The Prius i-Tech now tops the line-up at $42,990 (plus on-road costs), a $1000 decrease. It scores 17-inch alloy wheels, satellite navigation, leather accented seats with eight-way power adjustment (driver's side) and front-seat warmers.

In addition, the Prius will offer a significantly sportier bent than before, Toyota Australia boss Tony Cramb said at the vehicle's national launch on Tuesday.

The new model scores a more efficient yet powerful hybrid drivetrain comprising a re-worked 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine paired with a familiar series/parallel hybrid system, meaning it can run on petrol power, battery power or a combination of both. New double wishbone rear suspension replaces the predecessor's torsional beam configuration, teaming with increased torsional rigidity, more high strength steel and a lower centre of gravity to improve the vehicle's handling, stability and road holding, Toyota says.

Importantly, fuel use has decreased 0.5L/100km or 12.8 per cent on the predecessor, to 3.4L/100km overall.

Revised styling, and a roomier cabin now offering 457 litres worth of boot space rounds out the major changes.

"Toyota has changed the entire focus and perspective of Prius by evoking a more emotional response with a car that is fun to see, touch and drive," Cramb said.

"New Prius is a mainstream car that advances its driving dynamics and driveway appeal while also delivering substantially improved innovation and efficiency."

The Prius formally goes on sale March 8.

2016 Toyota Prius price and specification

On sale: Now

Price: $34,990-$42,990 (plus on-road costs)

Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol (parallel hybrid motor)

Power: 72kW at 5200rpm (53kW)

Torque: 142Nm at 3600rpm (163Nm)

Transmission: Continuously Variable Transmission, FWD

Fuel use: 3.4L/100km combined
Fans and non fans of the Coen brothers will know well at this point that the siblings have a penchant for a certain kind of comedy that borders on the farcical, the preposterous, the slapstick and the camp.

Their new movie falls into this end of the scale and it's a rollicking good ride through a beautiful homage to the golden age of Hollywood.

Hail, Caesar!

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton

Genre: Comedy

Running Time: 106 min

George Clooney plays Baird Whitlock who is kidnapped by a cabal of Marxist screenwriters and dragged to a Malibu mansion where slowly ( like everything here moves slowly) comes under the trance of Stockholm Syndrome and starts to questions the ethics and morals of the studio he works for.

Given the chaotic task of trying to track down Whitlock is the always under pressure Josh Brolin playing Hollywood fixer named Eddie Mannix. Mannix is a classic sort of Coen creation.

He is a simple, honest man, struggling to make sense of and find peace with an increasingly crazy and zany world that encases him. Think Barton Fink or A Serious Man.

The whole thing is as I said a rip on the golden age of Hollywood and I can think of no filmmakers more suited to the task than the makers of O Brother Where Art Thou? and Barton Fink (an obvious precursor to this picture), bar maybe Godard but he would make something so obtuse and so unfunny that youd get more laughs hanging out with the cast of RTEs ultra appalling the Panel, (a show akin to waterboarding, RTE said it was not torture but of course it was) and who would want that?

There are many interesting and diverting subplots here that play out along with the main narrative; one concerns DeeAnna Moran played by the extra sultry Scarlett Johansson, a demanding diva dressed up as a mermaid, who is struggling to hide her unhideable pregnancy from the onlooking world.

Mannix also has to try and convince a hilarious director Laurence Laurentz played by Ralph Fiennes to relaunch the career of singing cowboy Hobie Doyle played by Alden Ehrenreich as a consummate comic actor even though he clearly cant act his way out of an invisible bag.

Not everything here works or is even necessary but it moves along with gusto and balls and provides more laughs than much of the usual plop I review here.

The Coens are the most consistent of filmmakers and have now a remarkable record and string of great movies to their name. Whilst this may admittedly not be a film to place up alongside their greatest work it remains a superior production.

3 out 0f 5

From one film to another and from a good film to a dreadful one.

Truth

Director: James Vanderbilt

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, Dennis Quaid

Genre: Drama

Running Time: 125 min

Truth concerns itself with the true life story of a journalistic team who decided to report on the non attendance, non drafted, non military career of former president of the United States, George W Bush, he of high IQ fame. Fool me once, shame on you.fool me twice...eh...you cant fool me twice.

The story goes that back in September 2004, as the US prepared for a midterm presidential election, the CBS news programme 60 Minutes fronted by Dan Rathers broadcast a story alleging that President George W Bush had used family influence to gain entry into the Texas Air National Guard, a post that allowed Bush Jr to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War.

Blanchett plays Mapes the shows producer and Robert Redford is great throughout his role as the highly respected Dan Rathers. People lose their jobs and we are supposed to think this is all very important stuff indeed, Spotlight level of importance, but its nothing but tedium we experience.

What follows will bore even the most un-boreable of you, trust me. This is the cinematic equivalent of a Dalmane sleeping tablet.

SO if you are suffering from insomnia this is the film for you. Ive seen more entertaining soy milk adverts.

1 out of 5

London Has Fallen

The sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, reacquaints us once again with muscled President played by Aaron Eckhart and his favourite muscled bodyguard played by the never reliable and alarm bell of sh$te ringer Gerard Butler.

The leader of the free world is visiting London on a state do, when terrorists start blowing up lots of monuments in the city and lots of locals and tourists. What country are the terrorists from? Butlers bodyguard informs us they are from F$ckheadistan and thats about as smart as this film gets. Like a lobotomised Daddy Long Legs spending its entire lifespan trying vainly to get its useless body out of an open bathroom window this film is destined to fail. A bromance too far.

Morgan Freeman turns up as vice president, his eyes glazed over with lust, clearly only thinking of his pay check, like everyone here, he should be ashamed.

Terrorists likely are watching this to wind themselves up. Utterly redundant.

Utter detritus..

1 out of eh 4?
Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
The stress that comes with busy schedules can feel overwhelming. Often we feel pulled between responsibilities at work, home and school. Its important to pay attention to the stress we feel and realize that chronic stress can negatively affect our physical and mental health along with our moods and behaviors.

Chronic stress has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, weight gain, sleep problems, and higher levels of depression and anxiety. Taking the time to care for ourselves and regulate our emotions is critical to achieving a balanced and healthy lifestyle. One age-old technique is the practice of mindfulness.

The concept of being mindful means being aware of the present, recognizing your feelings and what is on your mind. Paying attention to what your body and mind are feeling might sound easy, but it takes practice. While it takes a level of commitment to regularly practice mindfulness, the technique can have positive effects on health. Research from the Shamatha Project at the University of California, Davis, suggests that mindfulness helps people feel less stress and decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Mindful meditation is the act of sitting in a quiet area in a comfortable position and being alone with ones thoughts, yet aware of your body and surroundings. If your mind begins to wander, you gently acknowledge this and bring yourself back to the present. The acronym RAIN covers the basic principles:

R: Recognize what is happening. Acknowledge what you are experiencing. Whatever is happening to your body, mind or soul; recognize it. Try to name the emotion you are feeling.

A: Allow and accept the emotion to simply be there. Whatever emotions, feelings or thoughts you recognize, simply allow them. Often when we are dealt uncomfortable thoughts or experiences, we tend to avoid them. By allowing the true emotion without judgment or avoidance we can better understand and we can prepare wiser responses and make wiser choices.

I: Investigate with kindness. Be curious. Pause and ponder. Gently, and with kindness, investigate the experience of the emotion in the present moment. Be conscious of what you are feeling and ask yourself, how is my body responding to this experience? What story seems to be attached to this emotion? What needs my attention? What is this feeling asking of me?

N: Non-identification. Become less entangled with the emotion (whether it is pleasant or unpleasant) and with the story surrounding that emotion. Avoid over-identifying with or clinging to any specific emotion.

Mindfulness can be one tool in your toolbox for managing stress. Using RAIN can be a simple first step in reducing the extra stress in your life. To learn more about mindfulness and to download a free app for guided meditation, visit www.stopbreathethink.org.
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Empire State Development Division of Minority & Womens Business Development hosts free 1-on-1 Technical Assistance SessionsCo-hosted by the Niagara County Community College Small Business Development Center, representatives from the Certification Unit at the Division of Minority and Womens Business Development will be available for one on one introductory sessions regarding the NYS MWBE certification process Wednesday March 16, 2016 from 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm.Interested Individuals can meet with a certification analyst to:All sessions will be held at the Niagara Falls Culinary Institite - 1st Floor, 28 Old Falls Street, Niagara Falls, NY 14303To register for a 20 minute appointment with a representative from the Division of Minority and Womens Business Development please RSVP to Leticia Negron at 212-803-3746 or Leticia.Negron@esd.ny.gov. All sessions are by appointment only.
For those planning to hunt elk in the districts between Butte and Helena, some important changes to the regulations for the 2016 hunting season need to be considered. These changes specifically apply to Hunt District 215 (East Deer Lodge), 318 (Butte-Basin) and 335 (Helena South).

Previously in these districts hunters could hunt antlerless elk by applying for an elk B license by the June 1 deadline. This year, hunters must apply for a special permit by March 15 to be allowed to hunt antlerless elk in HDs 215, 318 and 335.

For the 2016 season, these three hunt districts will be treated as one unit, and a permit for antlerless elk will apply to all three. A total of 800 permits for antlerless elk will be available to be used in any of the three districts.

Its important to note that hunters drawing a permit to hunt antlerless elk will not be allowed to hunt antlered elk in any of these districts for the duration of the hunting season.

Archery only hunters, youth ages 12 to 15, and hunters with a permit to hunt from a vehicle may still hunt both antlered and antlerless elk with their general license.

The deadline to apply for elk B licenses is still June 1.
If you are not filled with projections of how things should or could be, thoughts of the past or the...
turk ceviri

Over 6,500 female entrepreneurs have received funding and advice

Developing and fostering female entrepreneurship is a cornerstone for economic growth. Demonstrating their strong commitment to this goal, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Union (EU) and Turkey have supported 6,500 women entrepreneurs under the joint Finance and Advice to Women in Business programme to date.

Launched in 2014 to increase and strengthen the role of female entrepreneurs in the Turkish economy, the programme combines financing through local banks with advisory support, training, mentoring and networking opportunities to give women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey the tools they need to grow.

To date, the EBRD has made available 300 million to finance women-run businesses through Turkish banks. The European Union, the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Turkish Employment Agency ISKUR are supporting the programme with 38 million for credit enhancement, advice to small businesses and technical assistance for partner banks.

More than 5,000 women-led SMEs have received loans totalling around TL 215 million from Finansbank and TEB, partners in the programme. 70 per cent of financing served the needs of enterprises located outside the large metropolitan areas of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Vakfbank and Isbank will start on-lending under the programme shortly.

In addition, the programme has supported with business advice 130 women-led enterprises operating in 33 different provinces of Turkey. 71 per cent have reported an average increase in turnover of 40 per cent.

The programme also continues to offer new tools to women entrepreneurs. In 2015, the EBRD launched Business Lens, a self-assessment tool that enables women entrepreneurs to take a closer look at their business performance and identify areas for improvement. The tool assesses company data in seven key business areas such as financial management, marketing and sales, human resources and risk management, and generates a tailor-made report to help define a path to growth. Business Lens is free of charge and can be accessed via the programmes website, www.kadinisletme.com.

Jean-Patrick Marquet, EBRD Director, Turkey, said: The success of the programme is a credit to the perseverance and strength of Turkeys women in business. We will continue working in this area to increase womens entrepreneurship in Turkey and grow women-led SMEs. On the occasion of International Womens Day it is more than appropriate to honour the enormous contribution women make to the economy and it our mission to create new opportunities for them.

Ambassador Hansjorg Haber, Head of the European Union Delegation to Turkey, added: "International Women's Day is a day to remember all women who are facing challenges all over the world. At the same time we are witnessing women's further empowerment, increased efforts to improve gender equality and the many positive developments these efforts bring. This gives us inspiration to do more, joining efforts with our partners. The Women in Business programme that the EU is co-financing is a concrete example of how we are reaching out to women to grow their businesses and help them to become successful entrepreneurs. I invite women entrepreneurs as well as the participating banks to make the best of the opportunities offered by this programme."

Mehmet Ali Ozkan, Deputy General Manager of ISKUR: Our institution is a beneficiary of the Finance and Advice for Women in Business programme, an innovative and holistic model accompanied by financial and technical business development tools to strengthen women employers and promote their inclusive and sustainable growth. This programme is also proof of ISKURs determination to strengthen the role of women in business. Women constitute half of our world and we believe that the world is a happier place if women can contribute to decision-making processes and the labour market. We see women as the driving force of development and growth."

Turkey is the first country where the EBRD has implemented a Women in Business programme offering access to both finance and advice for women-led SMEs. Similar initiatives have been launched in 16 countries where the Bank invests.
It deserves it

Heres a crazy idea: When your party is on the verge of nominating a white supremacist hero for president, maybe dont blame the black guy for that.

I understand the urge.

Youre looking at a ballot that has Donald J. Trumps actual name on it. Youre looking at polls that show him leading your partys best and brightest. You see a delegate tote-board that shows only he really has a good chance of wrapping up your partys nomination before the convention.

Youre an adult and you should be embarrassed. Its an open secret that Trump is a clown thats racist or pretending to be racist. Rich or pretending to be rich. Brutally oblivious or pretending to be brutally oblivious.

You get that  and much of your party does too.

You look at the brutal poll numbers and feel nauseous:



You know that for Trump to win will require an avalanche of white males coming out to support him that hasnt been seen in America since before 80s sitcoms invented patronizing tolerance.

But you cant fool us. If you thought Trump had a chance of winning, most of youd start doing that Trump salute right away. And many Republicans are already willing to throw their lot in with the billion dollar baby because hes memorized the names of the Supreme Court Justices you told him to support.

Being a conservative, youve been trained that someone is to blame for every problem whether its the 47 percent, Bill Clinton, or the all-encompassing epidemic of political correctness.

And of course, theres Obama. Hes obviously to blame for everything (except the longest private sector job expansion, 20 million gaining health insurance, and the fastest reduction of the deficit since World War II) including the rise of Trump.

The Huffington Posts Jason Linkins has tracked 23 entities that have been blamed for Trump. And the best one just came out today  Al Franken.

Read a few paragraphs in and you see the real villian isnt Franken  who was denied the seat hed rightfully won for months by Republican legal wrangling  but you guessed it:

The question then becomes: Who started the fire? Obama certainly deserves some of the blame, and he even admitted recently that one of his biggest regrets as president was the polarization that hes leaving behind. The problem is that he hasnt connected his early actions with what transpired.

In his political self-interest he pushed for crazy things like preventing a Depression, insuring 20 million, reforming Wall St., and ending an insane ban on gays in the military. But he wouldnt have gotten away with it if Al Franken hadnt given Democrats the supermajority they needed to keep the government from drowning in Republican obstruction.

Anyone who was paying attention knows this and Mike Grunwald literally wrote a book about it (and how great the Stimulus was  another thing Republicans still wont admit)

Lets get a grip.

Trump may not be a native member of the Republican base but, like most of the party, hes learned its tropes from your media. He gets his conservatism from watching himself on Fox and Friends and listening to himself on the Mark Levin Show.

And his path to winning the GOP nomination  going to the hard right on immigration  isnt some new magical train station he discovered. Its the same thing John McCain and Mitt Romney, your last two nominees did to secure the nod.

The subtle, strategic racism encouraged by the Southern Strategy has morphed into bombastic birtherism and belligerent disdain for Latino immigrants.

The Washington Posts Greg Sargent explains:

Trumps appeal is rooted in his vow to crush the dark forces that are making a lot of Republican voters feel economically and physically threatened (our poll shows Trump backers support harsh measures against immigrants and Muslims), and in his vow to bash heads among the stupid, weak, corrupt elites who are cheating you blind with wage-depressing trade policies that benefit multinational corporations, China and Mexico (our poll shows Trump backers feel the government and the system are failing them).

The GOP elites problem is that its not subtle  more George Wallace than Ronald Reagan  and it could have actual policy implications that could limit the corporatist free trade agenda and prevent the shrinking of Medicare and Social Security necessary to sustain tax breaks for the rich.

Does the GOP elite believe that Trump believes anything hes saying? No.

And thats the problem. They sense that he has finger on the pulse of his party and will keep pressing there until circulation cuts off and he has to find another pulse party. Hes more weather vane than man, endlessly seeking to prove his domination and appeal to authoritarians, which is why he could be dangerous in a general election.

But hes already dangerous to the GOP elite because hes exposed another, equally deep insecurity among right-wing intellectuals: the fear that their movement appeals to rubes, New York Magazines Jonathan Chait explains.

Thats the kind of party Republicans have nurtured, one where free-floating anxiety always has a convenient target and the solutions  gutting the institutions and tax base that built the middle class  always make the problem worse.

The first step is admitting that you have a problem. And that problem is that, by making your political movement all about absolute resistance to your enemies in order to restore a fictional past, youve made yourself vulnerable to someone who personifies everything you hate about your own voters.
As Michiganders go to the polls today to choose their favorite presidential candidate, Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette are going to the State Administrative Board to ask taxpayers to foot the bills for their troubles in Flint to the tune of $2.7 million.

First we have the Attorney Generals request for $1.5 million to pay for Republican donor Todd Floods investigation into the Flint water debacle:

Flood, the former City Attorney for Allen Park, has given thousands of dollars to Republican candidates  including Gov. Snyder and Attorney General Schuette  over the years. Now hes getting his payback, it appears.

Rick Snyder, up to his ears in legal alligators for his mishandling of the poisoning of Flints drinking water with the powerful, odorless, tasteless, invisible neurotoxin lead, is also before the Administrative Board with hat in hand:

You can view the documents themselves HERE. Schuette and Snyders requests are on pages 25 and 26.

There is a straight line between Gov. Snyders policies  including the imposition of Emergency Managers  and the ongoing catastrophe in Flint. The millionaire CEO-in-Chief ought to be footing his own bills instead of reaching into the pockets of Michigan taxpayers.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Brandon Dillon agrees. Heres his statement on this insulting request for a taxpayer bailout:

Its beyond outrageous that Snyder wants to take $1.2 million from Michigan taxpayers to pay for defense attorneys over his involvement in the poisoning of Flints water. That money should go toward replacing lead pipes and getting safe drinking water to Flint families, not for Snyders defense attorneys. Instead of conducting a truly independent investigation into the cause of the Flint water crisis, Bill Schuette is funneling $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars to Todd Flood, who has contributed thousands of dollars to Bill Schuette, and thousands more to Rick Snyder  the man he is supposed to be investigating. The people of Flint deserve better.

State Rep. Jim Ananich from Flint was equally blunt:

Paying more for high-priced lawyers than we are for school nurses or fully refunding victims is another kick in the teeth to taxpayers and my community. Our priority should be sending every resource we can to removing pipes and protecting kids, not covering legal fees.

Its just another day in the corporatocracy of Michigan.

[Snyder caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog]
Apple last week filed a motion to vacate a federal order requiring the company to create a tool or code to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters.

The order would set a dangerous precedent and release a powerful means to breach security on potentially millions of phones around the world, Apple argued.

It transcends one phone and would empower government to make private companies compromise the security of all their users whenever it sees fit, the company said.

This is not a case about one isolated iPhone. Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe, the motion says.

Signature Required

Apple already has tools that could compromise the security of millions of people, so the implication that this code is any different from similar capabilities the company possesses is baseless, according to Stewart Baker, partner atSteptoe & Johnson.

Furthermore, Apple has security in place to protect itself and its users from data breaches, he told TechNewsWorld.

The code that theyre so worried will get out is no different than any of the other codes they write, in that if it gets out, then bad things will happen. Apple already protects its code very aggressively because they dont want that to happen, so theres no super-burden to protecting this code, Baker noted.

This is particularly true because in order to install this code on the phone that is the target it is going to be necessary for Apple to sign the code with their super-secret signature, he added.

What would happen is that Apple would send this signature to the phone, which will identify itself back to Apple, which means Apple almost certainly has to be right in the middle of any such transaction. Its not like you can just steal the code and walk off and use it  because you also have to have Apples signature, Baker said.

If Apples signature is compromised, its the end of security for everyone, and theyre already in a position where they have to protect that aggressively, he added.

The case is a matter of getting information thats imperative to an ongoing investigation, according to Paul Charlton, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson.

What we can say with absolute certainty is that if you think about this as something other than a technology company  if you think about this in terms of Apple being the landlord that holds within its building evidence of terrorist activity  there wouldnt be any doubt in anyones mind that the government should be allowed, with the appropriate court authority,  to go in and take what they need, he told TechNewsWorld.

FBI director James Comey has made it very clear that what hes interested in is not a back door, not a wide open door into this apartment complex, if you will, but entry into a specific apartment  to grab this specific piece of information. That seems narrowly tailored and wholly reasonable to me, Charlton said.

Uninted Consequences

Creating the code the government is asking for would open a Pandoras box of unforeseen consequences, according to Christopher Maurer, assistant professor of information technology and management at theUniversity of Tampa.

We see time and time again that there are really good intentions. There might be a real problem and government is not addressing the underlying issue and instead is creating other issues in the form of loopholes or unintended side effects, he told TechNewsWorld.

One such side effect would be a precedent allowing other law enforcement agencies to order phones to be unlocked, noted Chris Calabrese, vice president for policy at theCenter for Democracy & Technology.

In terms of the idea that this is no different and that this back door doesnt create a vulnerability is just not true. What were talking about is a precedent that will not just be for the FBI but will almost certainly be for those state and local law enforcement, of which there will be tens of thousands across the country. Theyre all going to encounter iPhones. Theyre all going to want them to be unlocked, he told TechNewsWorld.

A back door would be a potentially hazardous tool if it fell into the wrong hands, Calabrese added.

Theres going to have to be an entire process in place on unlocking iPhones somehow, which is to say subverting their security. Thats a giant process designed to be exploited by bad guys. And you just cant say somehow that this is a one-off, he said.

Congressional Action Ahead

Congress eventually will have to answer the larger privacy question, Steptoe & Johnsons Charlton noted.

We are constantly weighing our rights to privacy versus our need for security. Thats why we have a Fourth Amendment. Thats why we have to get search warrants before we conduct searches on individuals homes, he said.

Here, thats exactly what happened. The FBI obtained a valid court order after showing probable cause to believe that theres evidence of terrorist activity on this phone, and right now that court order is still in place, absent the lawyers from Apple being able to reverse that order theyre going to have to turn that information over, Charlton added.

However, incentives already are in place to ensure that customer data is secure, the Center for Democracy & Technologys Calabrese maintained, citing the Sony hack.

There are a lot of incentives to want to build devices that are private and secure. There are reputational harms, potential liability, the requirement that they do a data breach notice if the information gets out, he said.

Weve all seen, for example, what happened with Sony and the devastating result of not having good security in their systems, Calabrese said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published standards for good security and cryptology, he noted. There are guidelines in place that help people know what they need to do. There are best practices out there that have nothing to do with legislation.

On the other hand, rigid mandates might freeze the development of security technology, Calabrese added.

You dont want to say you must do the following six things to secure a phone when in three years those things could be totally out of date but you still have a legal requirement to do them, he said.

Theres a push pull when it comes to whether you should mandate security, Calabrese added. Our view is that you need baseline security standards, and you need to let people know what best practices are and then create incentives to get people to meet those best practices without mandating anything in particular.
In the days following the court order directing Apple to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone associated with the San Bernardino terrorists, supporters have lined up behind both sides.

A federal magistrate last week ordered Apple to create software that would let authorities access data in an iPhone used by the shooters in the attack last year. Apple CEO Tim Cookresponded with an open letter in defense of the companys resistance to the court order.

Analysis of online news and blogs about Cooks letter shows little change in public views, according to Chris Orris, account executive atOxygen PR.

He ran analytics on news stories that contain the words Apple or Tim Cook and also words related to the iPhone decryption issue such as Bernardino, FBI and backdoor.

Sentiment is the general positivity or negativity of the language used in the text. So since the start of the month, the average has been 56 percent positive, 18 percent negative and 26 percent neutral. Since the FBI made its decision on Tuesday, it has averaged 52 percent positive, 19 percent negative and 30 percent neutral, Orris said.

Measuring Sentiment

Analytics gauges the sentiment factor by measuring the balance of positive versus negative words and phrases in an article, he told the E-Commerce Times. Since the process is automated, however, it is not measuring whether the positive or negative phrases are directed at Apple or the FBI.

Generally youre measuring if the author is happy or not, Orris said.

Achart shows that positive sentiment shrank considerably on the day of the court order. It got much better the next day when Apple put out its letter.

Legal Issues

Libertarians and technologists find themselves supporting Apple, while law enforcement and those sympathetic to the safety over privacy movement are sympathetic to the FBIs position, said Eric Crusius, a privacy attorney atMiles & Stockbridge.

Public sentiment has meshed closely with legal reality, he told the E-Commerce Times.

From a legal standpoint, the FBIs position is potentially difficult to support, Crusius maintained. A court is ordering a nonparty private citizen to do something without a finding that the court has jurisdiction over that party, and there hasnt been any accounting for Apples rights in the matter.

However, for those lining up behind Apple, there is the potential of appearing sympathetic to the terrorists, he cautioned.

So long as Apple and its supporters can distinguish the legal issue from that, Apple should wield greater influence in public opinion and over the political establishment, Crusius said.

Libertarian Leanings

Silicon Valley is able to communicate directly with the public via the social media channels it invented, giving it an advantage in winning the hearts of the public concerning privacy in the absence of abject fear of terrorism, said Guy Smith, chief marketing strategy consultant atSilicon Strategies Marketing.

Silicon Valley has undeniable libertarian leanings. Privacy is a fundamental aspect of both local and tech corporate culture, he told TechNewsWorld.

Techies will gain public support, but the feds will win in the end, Smith predicted.

Vantage Points

What side of the issue people come down on depends on how they view the problem. Those who see it as an issue with one phone, one case, are going to side with the FBI, noted Jason L. Bauman, SEO associate atTrinity Insight-Philadelphia.

But if youre like myself and other tech enthusiasts, you see this as an issue of precedent, and youre much more likely to side with Apple. In most cases, the more you know about encryption, the more likely you are to side with Apple as well, he told TechNewsWorld.

The issue also sets an international precedent, Bauman noted. Apple, Google and others already are fighting for data privacy in Russia, China , the EU and other areas.

If they bow to the FBI, they must bow to other countries. And even if youre OK with the U.S. government having access to your private data, are you OK with Russia having the same? China? he asked.

Taking Sides

Edward Snowdens revelations in 2013 about the National Security Agencys data collection practices have colored the debate, according to Ebba Blitz, CEO ofAlertsec.

Society has been polarized by the Snowden revelation, and the discussion is spinning around liberty versus security, she told TechNewsWorld.

The goal with encryption is to protect us from hackers and cybercriminals. By weakening security, we put ourselves at risk, Blitz said.

The risk worsens when the bad guys find strong encryption elsewhere and go dark. Weaker encryption creates vulnerabilities for the good guys and capabilities for the bad guys, she said.

Public Voice

Cook issued a battle cry that thrust the conversation into the public realm. By going public, Apple appealed to its legions of supporters and other technology companies, noted Miles & Stockbridges Crusius.

Federal judges are not immune to public opinion. In the end, they are mere mortals like the rest of us, and Apples actions may help influence the outcome even if they have to take the issue on appeal, he said.

The more discussion that occurs, the more support will continue around Apples no-tamper stand, noted Trinity Insight-Philadelphias Bauman. Siding with the FBI would create a precedent against constitutional privacy guarantees.

Industry thought leaders need to steer the public discussion, noted Vanita Pandey, vice president of product marketing atThreatMetrix.

To be an active participant in this debate, one needs to have a deep level of understanding of both sides. The average public is not as aware as they need to be on the longstanding impact of both decisions, she told TechNewsWorld.

Ultimate Scare

Ultimately, the FBI may have the NSA to thank for the current public outcry, said Dovell Bonnett, CEO ofAccess Smart.

In 1993, the NSA tried to get computer and telephone manufacturers to install the Clipper chip in all their motherboards. The chip would have given the NSA a backdoor into everyones electronic devices without any search orders, he told TechNewsWorld.

The privacy community killed the Clipper Chip proposal in 1996. One result was the release of Pretty Good Privacy software, which allowed consumers to add high-power encryption to their data. That started the trend of making stronger encryption products available to everyone.

So in a roundabout way, NSA caused the problem the FBI is having today with the inability to decrypt data, Bonnett said. So if Apple opens this up, the security/privacy community will develop a solution that will block both Apple and FBI, thus making it even harder for future issues.
Security researchers atPalo Alto Networks last week announced that they had found the first ransomware in the wild aimed at Macintosh computers, but Apple and one of its developers quickly neutered it.

The ransomware  a malware program that scrambles data on a computer and wont unscramble it unless a ransom is paid  was embedded in software for installing an OS X app for sharing files on BitTorrent, a network known as a source for pirated content.

The malware, which Palo Alto Networks called KeRanger, contained a valid Mac application developer certificate stolen from a legitimate developer, so it was able to bypass OS Xs Gatekeeper protection. Gatekeeper is designed to block malicious programs from installing themselves on a Mac.

After uncovering the ransomware, Palo Alto alerted Apple and the developer of the sharing software, theTransmission Project. Transmission pulled the infected installer from its website, and Apple blacklisted the certificate so the malware couldnt be installed on a Mac.

Although Kaspersky Lab spotted the makings of some Mac ransomware in 2014, this is really the first functional ransomware for the Mac, said Ryan Olson, threat intelligence director for Palo AltosUnit 42.

Three Days Too Long

Typically, ransomware launches itself immediately after infecting a machine, but KeRanger was built to sleep for three days before engaging in malicious behavior.

The reason I think they did that was they wanted to prevent users from linking the downloading of Transmission to their systems being infected with malware, Olson told the E-Commerce Times.

If a user who downloads Transmission and double-clicks the installer suddenly finds all files on the machine are encrypted and gets demand for a ransom, that user is going to make the connection to Transmission, let people know about it, and reduce malwares spread time, he noted.

People can do a lot of things with their computer in three days, so when their files get encrypted, theyre less likely to make that connection, Olson said.

In this case, it had a negative impact on them because in those three days, we identified the malware, Apple shut down the certificate, Transmission removed the installer from their website, and we were able to take a lot of actions to prevent this from being successful, he added.

Minimal Impact

Even if the three-day strategy had bought the extortionists some more time, its doubtful the number of infections would have been significant, maintained Liviu Arsene, a senior threat analyst withBitdefender.

The chances of having a large number of people downloading that particular installer in three days isnt that high  maybe a couple of hundred victims at most, he told the E-Commerce Times.

That kind of low infection rate is uncharacteristic for ransomware.

If youre trying to make money with ransomware, infecting one BitTorrent client on a website isnt going to make you a millionaire tomorrow, said Chet Wisniewski, a senior security adviser withSophos.

If you look at the way Windows computers are getting infected, its hitting hundreds of thousands of people at a go. Thats how you make money, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Infecting one BitTorrent client on one website sounds to me more like a proof of concept than a trend, Wisniewski added.

Indeed, there were signs that the malware was unfinished. For example, it contained code to scramble Time Machine backups for a Mac.

We saw some code called encrypt Time Machine, but it wasnt functional, Palo Altos Olson said.

Growth Industry

While this particular ransomware was aimed at BitTorrent users, Mac users should remain wary, warned Steve Kelly, president ofIntego.

The takeaway isnt so much that this was limited to BitTorrent users, he told the E-Commerce Times, but that this sort of thing is possible and is likely to increase.

As ransomware becomes a more popular way for extortionists to make a quick buck, its perpetrators have started expanding beyond its Windows roots.

I think everybody should assume that the threat actors are going to make sure that theyre multiplatform supportive, said Jeff Schilling, chief of operations atArmor.

They definitely want their operations to be platform-agnostic, he told the E-Commerce Times.

We see ransomware in general being very popular with cybercriminals in 2016, and it is spreading from Windows to other platforms, such as Android and Linux, said Stephen Cobb, a senior researcher atEset.

There is no reason to think criminals are not exploring ways to scam Mac users as well, he told the E-Commerce Times.
Facebook has been using artificial intelligence to sharpen its focus on the roughly 10 percent of the world that has been overlooked by the Internet revolution, the company announced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress.

The work has been led by the Connectivity Lab, Facebooks research and development wing, which is tasked with making the breakthroughs needed to connect the world to the Internet. The research was done in collaboration with the Core Data Science, FAIR and Applied Machine Learning teams.

Coding Cartography

Before building the backbone necessary to support Internet delivery in the most remote areas of the world, Facebook set its AI loose on 350 TB of satellite imagery. Its neural network analyzed about 13.4 million square miles of terrain in search of the telltale signs of settlements.

The group started by discarding imagery that appeared to consist of little more than deserts, water and forests. About 99 percent of the landmasses it scanned were devoid of human habitation, according to the Connectivity Lab.

After discarding the satellite imagery of clearly uninhabited areas, the researchers tweaked their neural network to look for signs of settlements.

Facebooks DigitalGlobe satellite image of Naivasha, Kenya (left) and the results of the population density analysis of the same area (right).

The effort comes down to maximizing the productivity of Facebooks drone-based wireless service, said Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT.

The Earth is a huge place, and blanketing the entire planet with wireless would be enormously expensive and unproductive, he told the E-Commerce Times. Instead, Facebook has used AI to identify the location of human settlements, thus significantly improving the overall efficiency of its wireless provisioning efforts.

That effort will speed up deployment of Internet services to areas that need it, while saving Facebook money and other resources.

Theres no sense blanketing a region with wireless if no one lives there, said King.

Access for All

Facebook will make its data public later this year, but it shared one finding about how far the world has progressed: In 2015, the number of people using the Internet grew from 2.9 billion to 3.2 billion, according to a report titled State of Connectivity 2015: A Report on Global Internet Access.

While Internet availability has hit the 90 percent mark globally, about 4.1 billion people werent using it in 2015, Facebook said.

The company has taken heat, especially inIndia, for attempting to deliver its brand of free Internet services to those without access. Still, the extension of the Internet to all populations is sure to have a positive impact on world peace, said Susan Eustis, senior researcherWinterGreen Research.

Enterprise globalization has brought common patterns of commerce to every country where marketing is conducted, she told the E-Commerce Times.

Even the extension to Facebook will likely be a good thing, according to Eustis.

Facebook messaging provides free texting that people love, she said. Facebook will begin to support e-commerce through its free messaging, further stimulating small business in communities worldwide.

Development and deployment arent the only issues standing in the way of Facebooks vision of a fully connected world. Roughly 1 billion people in the world are illiterate, and it could be hard to engage them with a platform thats largely reliant on text, according to Pund-ITs King.

Nearly half the worlds 6 billion people live on $2.50 or less per day. How will they connect to a universally available Internet? he noted. Around 1.8 billion people dont have access to safe drinking water  many would say thats a greater concern than Internet access.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied without comment Apples petition for a review of a lower court ruling that it engaged in price-fixing of e-books.

The company now must comply with a US$450 millionsettlement it reached with 33 states and territories and a private class of e-book purchasers that, together with the U.S. Department of Justice, sued it over the issue.

However, e-book purchasers who were overcharged wont get their hands on any of the $450 million  most of them would be reimbursed through automatic credits at e-book retailers. The credits could be used for future purchases, the DoJ said.

Still, Apple has to take a reserve against a reasonable percentage of this [payout] offsetting profits, pointed out Rob Enderle, principal at the Enderle Group. This isnt as bad as cash, but nearly half a billion dollars wont be painless either.

Apple reportedly has $215 billion in reserve and chalked up a record quarterly profit of $18.4 billion the first fiscal quarter of 2016.

End of a Long Battle

The Supreme Court decision put an end to a four-year battle that kicked off when the DoJ filed an antitrust suit accusing Apple of orchestrating a price-fixing conspiracy with five e-book publishers: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Holtzbrinck Publishers (which does business as Macmillan), Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

The suit alleged the companies conspired to fix prices and end e-book retailers freedom to compete on price, and that they succeed in substantially increasing the prices consumers paid for e-books.

The publishers settled with the DoJ before the case went to court, and Apple soldiered on alone.

Judge Denise L. Cote of the Southern District of New York ruled against Apple in 2013. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that decision last year.

Apple in October filed a petition of appeal, arguing that the ruling would harm competition and that it presented issues of national economic importance.

Its behavior was a bid to break into the e-book market, dominated by Amazon, and to disrupt Amazons monopoly, Apple argued.

It seems reasonable to say that the court case has likely negatively impacted Apples position in the book market, both in terms of sales and reputation, remarked Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

The Rulings Impact

At one level, the strategy Apple and its publisher partners followed was an abject failure, he told the E-Commerce Times. Amazon was then, and still remains, the largest force in online book sales and e-book distribution.

On the other hand, Amazon isnt beloved by everyone, and its overall size and influence are still feared by many, he added.

Amazon and to a lesser extent Apple should continue to dominate the e-book market because of their size and their ability to get volume discounts, Enderle told the E-Commerce Times.

Still, the e-book industry is becoming larger and more diverse, mainly due to smaller publishers and individual authors who have been freed by the Web in the same way that Gutenberg revolutionized printing, King said.

What About the Consumer?

Dont expect e-book prices to fall much more. Instead, celebrate the maintenance of the status quo, Enderle said.

Were down to a few big companies and Amazon already prices very aggressively, so there isnt much room for additional discounting unless the publishers combine. Even then, Amazons direct dealing model with authors may be too far advanced to counter, he noted.

What this prevented was higher prices, he added, and thus, assured low prices will continue for now.
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CASPER, Wyo.  A trial began Monday for a Casper man accused of sexually abusing five children.

Desmond Otto Triplett faces three counts of immoral acts with a child and three counts of second-degree sexual abuse of minor. His trial in Natrona County District Court is expected to last through Friday.

Public defenders Rob Oldham and Tracy Hucke are representing Triplett. Assistant district attorneys Kevin Taheri and Stephanie Hambrick are prosecuting the case.

Authorities contend Triplett sexually abused five children, with some assaults dating back to the 1970s.

An investigation by the Casper Police Department started in October 2013, according to court documents. An unidentified girl, who was born in 2007, reported the assault to her principal.

Police then interviewed at least six other alleged victims, including a woman who said Triplett first assaulted her at a party in 1975, when she was still a child.

Triplett allegedly continued to assault the girl until she became pregnant, and then he forced her to get an abortion, the documents state.

He then forged the girls birth certificate so they could get married. They had a child together, and she eventually divorced him.

Another alleged victim told police Triplett plied her with gifts, telling her she had to pay him back by sleeping with him.

In another instance, Triplett allegedly supplied three young girls with alcohol and sexually assaulted them.

Triplett was arrested in November 2014 and posted a $25,000 bond.
I have never been so excited about an email subscription before.

 Zak S.
WAKEFIELD  MCL Global, the leading B2B publisher of magazines, websites and textile industry reports has today launched a new publication for the global technical textiles market. Textile Evolution (T.EVO) is an innovative, groundbreaking publication, which will provide a unique take on the rapidly evolving technical textiles and high performance apparel sectors. It is already set to become the new industry voice of textile innovation.

The printed bi-monthly T.EVO magazine to accompany this new website will be launched in May at the Techtextil event in Atlanta, USA, and once again cements the reputation of MCL Global as the fastest growing B2B publisher in the textile industry with a proven track record of bringing new high quality textile publications to market.

MCL already publishes Ecotextile News, Knitting Trade Journal, Sustainable Nonwovens, EcoComposites, The Green Guide to ITMA, Textile Standards & Legislation as well as being the brand owner of Planet Textiles  the leading event on textiles and sustainability.

While many other publishers are scaling back, closing down, cutting frequencies or merging their portfolios, MCL is the only the textile publisher that has consistently launched new printed and online titles for the industry over the last few years, said John Mowbray, Editorial Director at MCL.

With T.EVO, we have now brought to market a new, high quality technical publication, which was actually requested by our existing readership of apparel retailers, textile mills and in particular by outdoor and sportswear brands.

Having already published four printed T.EVOsupplements as part of a piloted pre-launch, the reaction to our test marketing has been overwhelmingly positive. T.EVO is brilliant. It made me realise that the market was lacking quality, according to Charles Ross, Performance Sportswear Design, UK. "Its great to hear about niche, valid publications being created rather than hearing about publications disappearing, added one leading global PR company.

The global technical textiles market has developed at considerable pace in recent years, with significant, ongoing progress in areas such as functional fabrics, wearable technologies and the use of nanotechnology to produce new textile products with unique properties.

Given our readership is actively requesting this type of information from MCL, we realised that by using our experience, vast network of contacts, and unique insight into this market, we believe the launch of T.EVO plugs a significant gap in the market and provides the technical textiles and functional apparel sectors with a much-needed reliable new source of unique information.

T.EVO will be read by fabric designers, fabric engineers, textile manufacturers and retailers and brands, as well as government purchasers and industry suppliers. It looks at key innovations in the technical apparel and fabric sectors across the entire technical textile supply chain.

Coverage includes:

Functional fabrics

Raw materials

Textile dyeing and finishing

Textile printing

Fibres and yarns

Technical apparel

Wearable technologies

Textile machinery

Nanotechnology

Industrial fabrics

T.EVO will be published six times a year in printed format, as well as digitised online. All our premium content  including daily news  is archived on the web.

Registered members and subscribers also receive our weekly e-newsletters.To make sure you receive full access to our website and get our bi-monthly magazine delivered direct to your door,subscribe online here where we have a range of cost effective options. Alternatively, contact Katie Best at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call: +44 1977 708488.
(Facebook/MadamSecretary)Elizabeth attends Alison's campus tour the upcoming episode of "Madam Secretary."

Alison (Kathrine Herzer) will be reminded how important and dangerous her mother's job is in the upcoming episode of the CBS series "Madam Secretary."

In "Higher Learning," CarterMatt reports that Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) will find herself in the middle of a rally while attending her daughter's college campus tour. The secretary has taken some time off to fulfill her duties as a parent to her offspring who is bound to make waves at the university. What is supposed to be a low key event will get out of hand once angry protestors lobbying against the Chilean mining operation in the United States discovers that the secretary of state is in close proximity.

Elizabeth will reportedly be ambushed and forced to listen to their complaints, while her bodyguards will prove useless against the mob. Alison will witness how her own mother will deal with the situation while ensuring that her daughter is safe as well. Elizabeth has demonstrated that she is a pro at handling sensitive issues of the state. Will she be able to prove her mettle against a hostile crowd?

Meanwhile, Henry (Tim Daly) and his team are still trying to track down the terrorist leader responsible for the bombing on the American soil. Jibral Disah (Bobak Bakhtiari) is still at large and the United States wants his head on the platter very soon. He and his cronies were the ones behind Mimi's (Kelly Price) death. Henry, Jane (Jill Hennessy) and Jose (Carlos Gomez), the remaining members of Murphy Station, will pursue the mysterious third wife of Disah.

Hijriyyah is said to be the newest wife of the terrorist. Their marriage was kept a secret, which Henry believed to be a huge clue in unlocking Disah's weakness. The madman obviously cares enough for Hijriyyah that he wants to keep her identity under the lid to protect her. For Murphy Station, finding the woman means finding Disah, as the pair is said to be inseparable nowadays. Will Henry finally get a clear lead in the case?

"Madam Secretary" season 2 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
ABC/Image Group LAChances are, youll soon be hearing Luke Bryans new song, Huntin, Fishin, and Lovin Every Day on the radio -- and the bar is set high for the fourth single from his Kill the Lights album. The three previous releases, Kick the Dust Up, Strip It Down, and Home Alone Tonight (with Little Big Towns Karen Fairchild), have all gone to number one.

The ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year is one of the co-writers on the song, as is Thomas Rhetts dad, Rhett Akins. You can bet Luke will be playing the tune on tour, as his Kill the Lights trek swings through Las Cruces, New Mexico; Houston, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Bossier City, Louisiana this week.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A woman accused of choking a man to death in the Heights in 2015 admitted on Monday to deliberate homicide.

Lindsay April Haugen, 32, appeared Monday before District Judge Gregory Todd and pleaded guilty to the strangling death of Robert Glenn Mast, 25, on Sept. 15 in a car in the parking lot of the Heights Wal-Mart.

She previously denied the charge and entered her guilty plea Monday as part of a plea deal in which prosecutors will recommend a 65-year sentence to the Montana Womens Prison in exchange for her admission.

In Montana, deliberate homicide typically carries a sentence of up to 100 years in prison.

Wearing a blue Yellowstone County Detention Facility jumpsuit and with her arms and legs shackled, Haugen spoke only when addressed by Todd or her attorney, simply responding with a yes or no to questions.

According to charging documents, Haugen  who is originally from Oregon  and Mast were driving from Olympia, Wash., to North Dakota when they stopped for food and wine in the Wal-Mart lot.

Haugen told police Mast told her he wanted to die and that she said shed help him if he was serious, the affidavit states.

It goes on to say that when he replied that he was, Haugen climbed into the back seat and put her arm around Masts neck to choke him before holding his mouth and nose shut for as long as 20 minutes.

Haugen then drove to the parking lot of a nearby pizza restaurant and tried to revive Mast, which is where officers found her.

Upon her arrest, she told them that shed always wanted to try killing somebody with her bare hands and saw Masts request as an opportunity to do so.

A sentencing date will be set at a later time. Haugen remains in custody at the county jail on a $400,000 bond.
If the confirmation hearing for John B. King Jr., the nominee for U.S. secretary of education, was any indication, he should have little trouble getting the final nod from the Senate education committee.

A collegial panel of senators quizzed King, currently the acting secretary, on a variety of policy matters and on the new Every Student Succeeds Act, but gave scant indication that he would be caught in the partisan infighting that had stalled confirmation for other Obama administration appointees, including U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

In his Feb. 25 appearance before the education committee, King told lawmakers that, as a former classroom teacher, charter school operator, and state education chief, he recognizes that the best ideas come from classrooms, not from conference rooms. In this new ESSA era, he said, the locus of decisionmaking around the most appropriate supports, interventions, and rewards in our schools is rightly shifting back to states and districtsand away from the one-size-fits-all mandates of No Child Left Behind, which preceded ESSA.

At the same time, King sees a key and continuing role for the federal government in ensuring that ESSAthe latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Actbuilds on the civil rights legacy of the original 1965 law.

New Tone

By the time Kings predecessor, Arne Duncan, left office in December, he had a pretty strained relationship with Republicansand some Democratson Capitol Hill.

But Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the panel, kicked off Kings confirmation hearing on a friendly note.

He recalled that when he was nominated as President George H.W. Bushs education secretary 25 years ago, one senator told him that he had heard some disturbing things about the former Tennessee governor. Alexander had to wait for months for his confirmation.

I dont suspect youre going to have any sort of problem [like] that today, Alexander said. And he ticked off Kings long resume, saying, You have seen our education system from nearly every angle.

Alexander told King he sees King as a potential policy partner on ESSA implementation, but also on college access and affordability as well as on ESSA.

But later, Alexander reminded King that ESSA aims to rein in the Education Department, in part because many in Congress felt that Duncan took executive authority too far, particularly in pushing for teacher evaluations tied to student test scores and for states adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

King agreed that the new law is clear on this point, and that while he believes both policies have a lot to recommend them, the department cant use federal money or new regulatory flexibility to push them.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the committee and a key ESSA architect, said King has spent his career fighting on behalf of students so that they can get the chance to learn, grow, and thrive in the classroom and beyond. ... No one can question his passion for our nations young people.

As he has in recent speeches, King, who is African-American and Puerto Rican, talked about his own background, growing up as the son of two educators in New York City. He was orphaned early in life, and credits his teachers with helping him feel secure and valued.

ESSA and the Feds

Alexanders first question was on the timeline for implementation of ESSA. The senator wanted to know exactly when the Education Department expects ESSA regulations to be completed, and when states plans for accountability and federal spending will be due.

King told him the department is reaching out to the education community and has already begun to think through the early stages of the regulatory process. But he didnt outline a step-by-step plan spelling out what will happen and when.

Murrays first K-12 question was on the teacher shortage in some states, including her home state of Washington: Why is it happening, and what does King think the department can do about it?

King told her that conversations about the teaching profession have gotten hard, but that ESSA offers a chance for a reset. ESSA doesnt require states to adopt teacher evaluations tied to test results, as they had to under the administrations NCLB waivers.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who helped lead the fight to include provisions for educational equity during ESSAs development, asked King how the department plans to make sure that states implement accountability systems that protect vulnerable subgroups of students.

I think theres an opportunity here for states to have smarter interventions, King said. But, he added, if those interventions arent closing achievement gaps, the department may need to step in and ask states to try another solution.

And Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., a former champion of the NCLB law, asked King how he planned to handle testing opt-outs to ensure strong testing-participation rates without forcing [the tests] down parents throats.

King said that, as New York state commissioner of education, he took a hard look at the amount of testing required and asked districts to do the same. Both ESSA and the Obama administrations proposed budget include provisions aimed at making it easier for states and districts around the country to audit their testing systems and eliminate tests that are duplicative or of low-quality.

He said hes optimistic that will help reduce tests and make students feel better about having to take them.
Education advocates and policy analysts are contemplating the possibility of a Donald Trump presidential administrationand, in many cases, having trouble bringing the picture into focus.

With a few exceptions, the real estate developer and front-runner in the Republican race for the White House has steered clear of concrete talk about education policy, instead focusing his campaign on issues such as illegal immigration and international trade. Thats left experts and observers to try to fill in the blanks where they can.

Over the course of his public life, Trump has addressed education issues with differing degrees of specificity. For example, in his 2000 book The America We Deserve, Trump expressed skepticism about the influence of teachers unions on public schools, as well as support for a variety of school choice programs.

Education reformers call this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competitionthe American way, Trump wrote.

Since he began running for president last year, Trump has made one position he holds on education very clear: He despises the Common Core State Standards and has repeatedly pledged to get rid of them. In a recent video his campaign posted to Facebook, for example, he said hed eliminate the standards, without saying exactly how: Were taking common core and its going to be gone.

(The standards were the product of an initiative led by groups representing state governors and schools chiefs. The Obama administration has used federal grants to encourage their adoption and pay for related tests, but states arent required to use the standards or the tests.)

In the video, Trump also said: Well have school boards, and well have local. Were not going to have it through Washington.

Trump has also criticized American students performance on international exams, saying during a January rally in Oklahoma, We have Third World countries that are ahead of us, countries that you wouldnt believe.

In addition, Trump has indicated he wants to either scrap the U.S. Department of Education or significantly cut it back, without providing specifics.

But aside from those remarks, Trump has not laid out a detailed plan for public schools. (His campaign did not respond to requests for comment about his education policy platform.)

And Trump University, a for-profit venture that offered courses in real estate management and development and is the subject of legal claims alleging the university did not deliver promised benefits to students who paid thousands of dollars for them, has received more criticism in recent weeks from one of his rivals for the GOP nomination, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, as well as 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Peering Into the Future

Education Week asked several people from across the political and policy spectrum to weigh in on what a Trump administration and a Trump-led Education Department might do on education. They discussed issues including the Every Student Succeeds Act, the common core, and educational equity. Here are a few of their responses:

On Trumps general approach to education policy issues and the U.S. Department of Education:

Kim Anderson: I havent heard Mr. Trump talk about the value of public education.

Frederick Hess: Hes suggested that theres a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington, and that the Department of Education can be downsized. But hes also made a vigorous defense of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, so it makes you think hes not going to be for trimming things like Title I and [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act].

People Interviewed: KIM ANDERSON, senior director of the center for advocacy and outreach at the National Education Association. FREDERICK M. HESS, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise InstituteHess also writes an opinion blog for edweek.org. CARMEL MARTIN, executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, who previously worked in the Education Department under President Obama. MICHAEL PETRILLI, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, who previously worked in the Education Department under former President George W. Bush. ANDY SMARICK, partner at consulting group Bellwether Education Partners, who worked in the Education Department under former President George W. Bush. LUIS TORRES, director of policy for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Carmel Martin: To the extent hes said anything, hes talked about repealing the infrastructure of what exists that helps children and college students every day.

Michael Petrilli: I certainly dont think youre going to see a Donald Trump whos worried about a limited federal role in education. ... His instinct would be to steamroll Congress and the states if he thought they were getting in his way.

Andy Smarick: Theres a chance that he would decide that gifted education, or STEM education, or rural education, is very important to him. If he decides he has a number of priorities, theres no reason to assume his governing philosophy would be to empower states or empower communities. He could decide he just wants to run these things centrally.

Luis Torres: A Trump administration that aggressively looks to expand charter schools without sufficiently looking at the accountability or the oversight of those schools, that would be a problem.

On how a Trump administrations approach to illegal immigration could affect issues related to education, such as President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, equity, and English-language learners:

Hess: To my mind, this is one of the real veins of frustration that Trump has tapped into, that theres an exquisite politeness about how liberals and so many educators and East Coast media talk about this issue in a way that doesnt talk about how there are pluses and minuses that affect people in different ways. ... He might say, Why are we focusing on children who are here illegally in terms of prioritizing school funding? 

Martin: The Department of Education plays a very important role in civil rights enforcement in our country. ... Obviously, Donald Trump gives us no evidence that he would help us carry that forward.

Smarick: If hes actually serious about deporting 11 million people, it does make me wonder, what are all the ripples that come out of that policy? But he recently said that everythings negotiable.

Torres: We have a lot of young people who are benefiting from President Barack Obamas executive action to provide temporary relief for those students. A Donald Trump presidency, if that happens, would lead to a lot of students not being able to go to college, and they would go back into the shadows.

On whether Trump would push a bill in Congress to ban the common core:

Hess: Almost anything is possible, but it seems not very much is likely. He could introduce a bill outlawing the common core. It seems to me highly unlikely he would do so.

Martin: He would have the federal government telling states and districts what to do regarding their standards, which is the exact opposite of what his rhetoric is.

Petrilli: That would be hard to imagine. I dont know that he understands what the common core is, or what the role of the federal government in common core has been. Hes getting a lot of applause. I think that just evaporates if he were to become president.

On how a Trump administration would affect the transition to ESSA:

Anderson: ESSA is, frankly, the opportunity that educators have in their schools and in their districts and in their states to voice what they believe should happen for the benefit of all students. ... Im not really sure that Trump would have a whole lot to say about a law that Congress has passed and has been very clear in their desire to be vigilant about how ESSA is implemented.

Martin: Hes talking about dismantling the Department of Education. If you dismantle it, you would be abdicating your responsibility under that law. If hes dismantling the agency whose mission is to implement those provisions, ... it would be very bad for kids.

Petrilli: Regardless of whos elected, theres going to be a period of uncertainty. ... If its Trump, I think that time of uncertainty is going to last even longer. Whos going to work in a Trump administration? How many career civil servants at the department will quit?

Torres: He may make it harder for the department to exercise its authority to conduct oversight. So thats a worry for us. ... We want education to be local. But we want to prevent situations where our states are not necessarily acting in the best interests of the kids.

On whether Trump would be more likely to engage with K-12 or higher education issues:

Petrilli: "[About the Education Departments office for civil rights recent approach to sexual assaults on college campuses] You could see him trying to blow that up, saying, Thats an issue for the courts. You could imagine him staking out a populist position on the cost of tuition and student loans. Do I see Donald Trump getting engaged in the minutiae of ESSA implementation? No.

Smarick: I think calling Trump University higher education is very charitable. ... Nothing Ive read suggests that he had a deep passion for making sure that people were well-schooled and well-informed and left with greater skills.

On the background or experience of the person Trump might nominate to be the next education secretary:

Hess: He doesnt strike me as the kind of guy whos likely to have a favorite think tank. Hell probably have somebody who he knows or likesmaybe theres somebody in New York education circles hes known or hes encountered or hes seen on TV.

Martin: What I worry about is that it would be like someone who helped him set up Trump University, and who wouldnt really have the knowledge and skills to do it.

Smarick: He could pick a business executive, he could pick a union leader, he could pick a governor. I have no idea. The fact that he seems to like [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christieif Chris Christie gives him advice on education policy, it could be about anti-unionism, it could be about school choice.

Torres: We would also assume that whoever he picks is obviously not going to be supportive of common core. Theyre going to have a local-control bent.

A major point raised by those who spoke to Education Week is that its unclear how Trump would affect specific policies. Those on the more conservative side of the spectrum said its not apparent whether Trumpeven if he wins the presidency as a Republicanwould adhere to the principles that often guide GOP lawmakers on education policy. And those speaking from a more liberal perspective expressed concerns about how much a Trump administration would care about or engage in government oversight in general for education.
The nationwide shift from paper-and-pencil tests to online standardized assessment has caused serious heartburn for educators and students alike in many places: server meltdowns, frozen computer screens, and test-score dips.

But in a handful of states, the sometimes-temporary, but ill-timed glitches have fueled legislation that would crack down on testing companies and have lasting impact on the role tests play in evaluating schools and teachers.

Indiana lawmakers are considering scrapping altogether the states decades-old ISTEP exam after two years of widespread problems with the administration and scoring of the test.

In Tennessee, where tests were put on hold at the last minute this year because of server meltdowns, the governor and legislators want to let teachers choose whether to factor this years results into their evaluations.

Minnesota teachers, meanwhile, are pushing legislation that would make more transparent the scoring of the statewide exam and complaints that students and teachers file with the state. And Alaska lawmakers want to revamp the states entire accountability system after test scores were botched and arrived late.

Lawmakers Bombarded

In recent months, teachers unions and anti-testing groups have bombarded lawmakers in some states with letters from students and teachers that describe the emotional toll that last-minute online assessment problems have caused.

Weve seen the testing industry suck the joy out of teaching and learning, said Denise Specht, the president of Minnesotas teachers union. Thats not new for educators. But with the glitches, parents and educators can no longer trust the tests.

Testing companies and their allies say unions are exploiting the incidents to eradicate tests, which advocates consider long-standing and reliable tools for grading students. When placing tests online, hiccups are bound to happen, they say.

I think school districts and parents especially want to know how their children are doing in school, and in order to do that, you need some kind of tool to measure that, said Henry Scherich, the president of Measurement Inc., based in Durham, N.C., which was hired to administer Tennessees tests this year. So far, I dont think anybody has come up with a better system than having a testing program.

Adding to the volatility: the recent passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which will give state legislatures greater flexibility in shaping the details of their testing systems to determine whether students have a solid grasp of state learning standards.

Online-Assessment Meltdowns The rocky rollout of computerized assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards has sparked a fierce reaction in several states: Alaska The state school board and several legislators are moving to scrap the entire statewide assessment after test scores were botched last spring and the testing company, the Assessment & Achievement Institute of Kansas, sent the scores to the education department later than anticipated. Indiana In one of his first actions this year, Republican Gov. Mike Pence decoupled evaluations from test scores after the Indianapolis Star revealed that a computer malfunction at the contracted testing company, CTB/McGraw-Hill, led to several districts receiving much lower scores than expected on the states ISTEP test. A subsequent investigation led to political fallout after the Associated Press reported that a school board employee attempted to change the language of a damning audit of the states test. Minnesota After hundreds of teachers complained about server crashes, online calculators that generated incorrect answers, and freezing computer screens, the state education department successfully sued the assessment contractor, Pearson. The state did an audit, and legislators rolled back the amount of testing conducted in schools. But the states teachers union isnt satisfied. Weeks ahead of this years legislative session, which opens March 8, the union is pushing for lawmakers to clamp down even further. Tennessee After contractor Measurement Inc.s server crashed on the first day of testing in January, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam proposed a bill that would allow teachers to decide whether to incorporate their schools test scores into their evaluation scores. Legislators also are pushing to lessen the impact the scores will have on several of the states low-performing schools. The states schools will use paper tests this year. SOURCE: Education Week

In Indiana, which once led the charge in ranking schools and evaluating teachers partly using test scores, even the states conservative lawmakers have turned against the ISTEP exam after a spate of technical problems.

In 2014, the state had already backed away from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, exam after lawmakers determined it was too closely aligned to the controversial Common Core State Standards, which Indiana altered. Within months, the state school board wrote and approved a test that CTB/McGraw-Hill administered online last spring.

Lawmakers and educators seem to agree now that the rollout of the revised ISTEP exam was nothing short of a disaster.

In January, an Indianapolis Star investigation revealed that CTB/McGraw Hill had miscalculated several students scores, setting off a statewide controversy over the legitimacy of the scores. Adding more fuel to the fire, a subsequent investigation by the Associated Press revealed that a school board employee attempted to minimize the critical language in an audit of the exam.

In one of his first moves this legislative session, Republican Gov. Mike Pence in January signed legislation that decoupled the 2015 test scores from teacher pay and school report cards.

After superintendents began complaining last month about problems with this years practice exams, conducted by testing company Pearson (the state fired CTB/McGraw-Hill), legislation was drafted that would eliminate the ISTEP exam by the end of next year. Its moving along swiftly, with strong support from the legislature and governor.

I think theres an important role for standardized testing and assessment over the years, state Rep. Terri Austin, a Democrat, said about the role of testing in the states accountability system. But if were going to tie these types of consequences to a single test, we need to make sure it goes through without a hitch.

Lawmakers havent determined a replacement for ISTEP.

Tennessee Pulls Back

As in Indiana, controversy about the PARCC exam led Tennessee officials to abandon the test and develop a new one.

In the Volunteer State, test scores are heavily wrapped up with teacher evaluations, school report cards, and even students grades. For the past four years, the state has used the scores partly to determine whether to take over several schools in Memphis and Nashville and hand them over to charter school operators, a process thats led to parent protests.

In preparation for the transition from paper-and-pencil to online tests this year, the state spent millions of dollars upgrading school Wi-Fi networks and giving practice exams.

But as 44,513 students logged on to begin math and English exams in early February, computer screens froze. After just an hour, state schools Superintendent Candice McQueen called off the online exams. Schools will administer paper tests instead in April.

Weeks later, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam drafted legislation that would allow teachers to choose whether to incorporate the scores into their exams. Its considered likely to pass.

McQueen said shes re-evaluating the states five-year contract with Measurement Inc.

Scherich, the president of that company, said the state gave up too quickly on the online test. The company had reserved space on 58 servers during the test, he said, and more than 19,000 students managed to complete the exam that day. He said the governors proposal is misguided.

Thats a policy decision that has nothing to do with whether or not our online system works well or not, he said. However, Im sure there was a big sigh of relief around the state from educators when they learned it wasnt going to be part of their evaluation system.

Tightening the Reins

After Minnesota switched to online tests last year, teachers in a survey reported that screens froze, calculators malfunctioned, and questions were hard to read.

Late in last years session, legislators reeled back the amount of time students spend on exams and passed a bill that requires an audit of the exams and allows districts to set aside suspect scores.

Education Minnesota, the teachers union, which is affiliated with both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, says the legislators didnt go far enough. For this years upcoming session, it is pushing a package of legislation that would clamp down on the states testing vendors even further by, among other things, forcing them to raise the standards for who scores tests, banning the use of student data for marketing purposes, and making public any complaints educators file about testing glitches.

Pearson spokesman Scott Overland wouldnt respond directly to the proposed legislation, which he said the company hasnt thoroughly reviewed yet. But he said the company embraces fewer and better tests.

And in Alaska, where state Superintendent Mike Hanley worked for three years to prepare for the rollout of the online exam, he said the scores were botched, and the results from the 2015 exam came in late.

The fallout continues: In response to the testing problems, state lawmakers there are proposing to toss the exam going forward, and the state board will soon vote to replace its accountability system and instead give both superintendents and principals more power to evaluate teachers.
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a bill last week that would have restricted which restrooms and locker rooms transgender students could use in the states public schools, saying it would take decisionmaking authority away from local officials.

H.B. 1008 would have gone into effect March 1 if Daugaard, a Republican, hadnt acted first.

The bill would have created the first state-level restrictions for transgender students by requiring them to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their biological sex, defined as the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a persons chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth, even if that sex doesnt match the gender they identify with.

House Bill 1008 does not address any pressing issue concerning the school districts of South Dakota, Daugaard wrote in a veto statement. As policymakers in South Dakota, we often recite that the best government is the government closest to the people. Local school districts can, and have, made necessary restroom and locker room accommodations that serve the best interests of all students, regardless of biological sex or gender identity.

Daugaard made his decision after meeting with both transgender students and supporters of the bill.

Champions of the measure, including conservative groups and Republican lawmakers, said it would have provided clarity for school districts about a complicated legal issue. Some lawmakers also argued that parents have privacy concerns when children with different anatomy use the same facilities.

But opponents, including advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, argued that the bill would stigmatize vulnerable students and potentially put schools at odds with the U.S. Department of Educations office for civil rights, which has said schools are obligated, under Title IX, to honor transgender students gender identity.

No Legal Clarity

School administrators nationwide have been struggling with legal uncertainty about how to accommodate transgender students. Transgender students whove won access to school facilities in court have done so under state civil rights laws.

The bill, one of several proposals related to gender identity that South Dakota lawmakers will consider in the current legislative session, would have required schools to provide reasonable accommodations if a student with parental consent asserts that the students gender is different from the students biological sex. Those accommodations may include a single-occupancy restroom, a unisex restroom, or the controlled use of a restroom, locker room, or shower room that is designated for use by faculty.

But federal officials have said that such accommodations are inadequate and stigmatize transgender students.

The federal interpretation of Title IX as it is applied to transgender students is the subject of a pending case in a federal appellate court in Virginia.

The ruling in that case may provide further clarity for schools, school law experts have said.

Instead of encouraging local solutions, this bill broadly regulates in a manner that invites conflict and litigation, diverting energy and resources from the education of the children of this state, Daugaards veto statement said.

Preserving local control is particularly important because this bill would place every school district in the difficult position of following state law while knowing it openly invites federal litigation. ... This law will create a certain liability for school districts and the state in an area where no such liability exists today.

Other state legislatures have proposed similar measures, but none has come as close to becoming law as South Dakotas did.
For years, South Dakotas low teacher salaries have seemed about as immovable as the states most famous landmark, Mount Rushmore, which is not far from where Rapid City teacher Tamara Kerns works.

Back in college, she and her fellow aspiring teachers talked about the salary issue, she says. Upon graduation, recruiters from states as far away as Colorado showed up at job fairs to entice teachers with promises of higher pay. And today, her district has had difficulties hanging on to teachers in part because of the pay pressures.

So like many educators in South Dakota, the 10-year veteran was both surprised and optimistic about lawmakers recent approval of a half-penny sales-tax increasethe first in 40 yearsdesigned to boost teacher salaries.

I know that a lot of people feel that what we get paid is kind of the measure of the value that our state and our parents and communities put on education, said Kerns, an instructional-support teacher. In my building, I see people give more of themselves to their kids than I think anybody understands.

The tax increase is the centerpiece of a bipartisan effort to raise the average teacher salary in the state to $48,500. It cleared its final legislative hurdle last week, and Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who has championed the measure, is expected to sign it.

This is truly historic, in that a state like ours, very conservative with fiscal funding and one of the lowest tax rates in the country, would be looking at this, said Wade Pogany, the executive director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota. Its a gigantic move for usand with a Republican governor no less.

Broad Support

The states average teacher salary in 2013-14 was just over $40,000, the lowest of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to National Education Association tabulations. An average salary of $48,500 would bump the state up by about 15 slots, just below neighboring North Dakota.

South Dakotas low teacher salaries were one of the precipitating factors behind Gov. Daugaards decision to create a Blue Ribbon Task Force in 2015 to address education spending. In November, that panel recommended establishing a new dedicated funding source for teacher pay and reorienting its school-financing formula.

Education organizations, many local chambers of commerce, and agricultural interest groups were among those supporting the changes.

Two companion bills that complete the education overhaul

have cleared the state Senate and are awaiting action in the House of Representatives.

But the tax measure was by far the biggest challenge, because both chambers needed to approve it by a two-thirds super-majority. The state House barely cleared the threshold, and in the Senate, the proposal faced an unexpected hurdle when Sen. David Novstrup, a Republican, proposed reducing the sales-tax increase to a quarter of a penny and then to three-tenths of one. In the end, those amendments were defeated, and the bill including the half-cent increase was passed March 1.

Low pay has been an issue in the state for so long that, shortly after the vote, some South Dakota teachers said on Twitter they were still skeptical that the new funding would make its way into their paychecks.

But the bill stipulates that districts that dont put at least 85 percent of the new revenue into salaries will lose half of their state aid.

Districts will need to be accountable to ensure theyre doing what theyre supposed to do, said Mary McCorkle, the president of the South Dakota Education Association. We watch way too many teachers march across the borders.

Funding Formula Altered

The tax increase is expected to be coupled with a major change to the states school-funding formula.

Rather than being based on per-pupil allocations, districts would receive money based on a target student-teacher ratio. For example, a district with 700 students would receive enough cash to cover a 15-to-1 student-teacher ratio, or about 47 teachers paid at $48,500, plus an additional premium to cover benefits and overhead. One goal of the switch is to make districts more accountable for staffing decisions.

In addition, the formula would also gradually account for varying municipal revenue sources, like traffic fines and wind-energy taxes. The change is supposed to equalize school funding among districts so that those with more local revenue dont get a spending advantage.

Initially, every district will see an overall increase in state aid. But its less clear how the changes will play out over time.

Senate Minority Leader Billie Sutton, a Democrat, said his colleagues will be watching the changes closely, especially for their impact on the states many small school districts. Because some of them have more teachers than envisioned under the new formula, they may have to choose between paying their teachers lessor letting some go.

I think were far from done. I think we need to make sure our smaller schools get to where they need to be, Sutton said.

Overall, the plan isnt a perfect solution, he said. But it is a South Dakota solution.
For nearly 20 years, the U.S. Department of Education has required states to flag districts that might be identifying minority students for special education services at rates higher than their peers.

But states, which make the rules for what counts as significant bias, have largely defined the problem out of existence.

Now, the department hopes that proposed regulations will capture more districts that have problems with minority overrepresentation in special educationpotentially close to half the nations school districtsif the rules are adopted and every state chooses to follow the departments recommended bias thresholds.

Thats not a bad thing, from the perspective of the department.

Its not about identifying bad actors. Its an opportunity to check practices and supports, said Michael K. Yudin, the assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, in a Feb. 22 press call introducing the proposal. We cant begin this hard work unless were honest and forthright about the disparities that we see.

State monitoring of whats known as disproportionality was first introduced into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997. But it was the 2004 reauthorization of the law that established the requirement that federal funds beset aside for coordinated, early-intervening services.

'Disproportionality': Enforcing The Rules A new proposal from the U.S. Department of Education aims to get a better handle on whats known as disproportionalitywhether certain categories of students are singled out as needing special education out of proportion to their share of the population in the school system.  Since 1997, states have been required to assess whether their districts are overenrolling minority students in special education, subjecting them to harsher discipline than their peers, or placing them too often in restrictive educational settings.  Districts with significant disproportionality are currently required to spend 15 percent of their federal special education dollars on early-intervention programs for K-12 general education students.  But only about 2 percent to 3 percent of districts have been found to have significant disproportionality nationwide.  States use different definitions for significant disproportionality, so districts that would be identified in one state as having problems might go unidentified in another.  A 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office suggested that the Education Department develop a standard calculation that states must use for determining minority overrepresentation in special education.  The proposed new yardstick would still give states flexibility in figuring out the threshold that defines significant overrepresentation, within limits.  It also would let states use the early-intervention money for students both with and without disabilities, and for children as young as age 3.  The public has until May 16 to comment on the proposal. A final rule will follow at some point. Sources: U.S. Department of Education; Education Week

Districts found to have significant disproportionality are required to use 15 percent of their federal special education allotment on early-intervention programs designed to address minority overrepresentation. In addition to monitoring potential overrepresentation in identifying minority students for special education, states must also evaluate whether districts are disproportionately suspending or expelling minority students with disabilities, or too often shifting minority students into restrictive settings.

Though the money can be spent at all grade levels, current regulations suggest that the primary focus be at K-3. Those regulations have also interpreted the law to mean that the set-aside is meant for students who are not currently identified as needing special education or related services, but who need additional academic and behavioral support to succeed in a general education environment. Early intervention was seen as a key way to prevent special education enrollment.

Few and Far Between

A 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office found that only about 2 percent of the nations school districts were flagged by states for overrepresentation in the areas of identification, discipline, or educational settings. Half those districts were clustered in five states Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, and Rhode Island.

The Education Department provided slightly more up-to-date numbers in the background information that accompanied the proposed rule. During the 2012-13 school year, about 3 percent of the nations districts were identified by states for overrepresentation, it says. About three-quarters of those districts were in just seven statesCalifornia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

Examining the Data

That low rate of identification doesnt match up with other Education Department data, federal education officials say. For example, 876 school districts gave African-American students with disabilities short-term, out-of-school suspensions at least twice as often as all other students with disabilities for three years in a row, according to data reported by states to the Education Department. But, in 2013, states identified fewer than 500 districts in total with significant disproportionality.

The data weve seen makes it very clear that we, as a country, are not living up to the intent of the law, said John B. King Jr., the acting secretary of education, in announcing the rule.

States use risk ratios to calculate overrepresentation. At its simplest, the ratio is derived by dividing the likelihood, or risk, that a minority student falls into a monitored category by the risk that a nonminority student has of being in that category.

A risk ratio of 1.0, for example, would show theres no mathematical overidentification in the example district. A risk ratio of 2.0 would show that minority students are twice as likely as nonminority students to be enrolled in special education. States have developed complex adjustments to that formula to account for variations in demographics and in district size.

The new rule would standardize those calculations, while still leaving it up to states to determine a reasonable risk ratio, in consultation with advisory panels.

But the Education Department has analyzed district data and offered examples of risk ratios that states could use. For example, a district may be identified with significant disproportionality if any racial or ethnic group is placed in separate settings at a rate more than about twice that of their peers who are not in that racial or ethnic group.

District Impact

If every state and the District of Columbia were to follow the Education Departments lead and use its example risk ratios, about 8,100 of the nations 17,000 local education agencies would be found to have significant disproportionality. Local education agencies include traditional school districts and charter schools.

But, the proposal also would eliminate the restriction that the money only be used for general education students. And the set-aside funds could also be used for children as young as 3.

Organizations such as the Center for Civil Rights Remedies said that the department is taking a step in the right direction. For example, its an absurd interpretation to say that minority overrepresentation could trigger the use of the set-aside funds, but that minority students in special education cant directly benefit from their use, said Daniel J. Losen, the director of the center and the co-editor of the book Racial Inequity in Special Education.

But the proposed rule doesnt address what other researchers have said is a problem of under identifying students for special education. The Education Department said it also is seeking comments on the rule about the issue of potential underidentification.

Rhode Island is one of just a few states that had actively been identifying districts with significant disproportionality and guiding districts in using early-intervention money.

About 40 percent of the states 52 districts (which include charter schools and state-run schools) have created early-intervention programs, either voluntarily or because they were required to do so by the state. The federal early-intervention dollars account for about $5 million a year, said J. David Sienko, the states director of special education services.

The money has been used about equally for supporting reading, math, and social-emotional learning, Sienko said.

We saw it as a way to look at school-based practices, he said. Its been really neat because school districts that werent required to use the 15 percent set-aside continued to pursue it.

The public has until May 16 to comment on the proposal.
Pressures from parents, administrators, communities, and policymakers keep the education profession in a state of flux. It has been said that the only constant in teaching is change. Fortunately, the foundation for what teachers, administrators, and support staff do on a daily basis remains constant: We care for children. Most educators enter the profession due to their unquenchable passion for working with kids. It is out of this love for our kids that we cultivate a caring classroom culture.

A key component of a culture of caring is the power of choice. The power of choicewhere students have input regarding what and how they learn, coupled with individualized opportunities to demonstrate their understandingbegins the empowering transfer of the control of learning to the rightful owner. Here are some simple things you can do to enhance your students learning while they do most of the heavy lifting of growing.

Since every student learns differently, it is critical that we focus more on the student than the content. The power of choice provides students the opportunity to choose how they learn the material. One way to allow student choice in how they engage in their own learning is through the use of learning menus . Think of content in terms of appetizers, entrees, and desserts. You can opt to provide as many courses for your students as you see fit. Each course has a variety of activities the students select from. Students work through the activities and report on their reflection on learning after each course.

Another strategy to include the power of choice is problem-based learning. Supply students with an open-ended problem to solve (e.g. How might we encourage more students to eat healthier outside of school?) and resources to explore, study, and present their findings.

You can create a student-centered environment by allowing your class to select, from a list of your teaching strategies, how they want to approach their learning. Suppose your learning target for the day is to understand how Freytags Pyramid applies (or doesnt) to Oedipus Rex. Your students have been given an anticipatory set at the start of class and have now organized their previous learning about Freytags Pyramid and their previous knowledge, if any, about Oedipus Rex. It is time now to dive into the reading. You can let the class (or a randomly selected student) determine whether they do a GIST summarization, Think-Pair-Share , or a cubing activity . It doesnt really matter which strategy you use as long as you include the learners in the decision. Offering students choices in how they learn gives them insight into their own metacognition as well as helping them become their own learning advocates. A side effect of relinquishing some pedagogical control is that the classroom becomes a warmer, more joyful place. You are demonstrating your compassion for them by allowing them to select their options.

While the opportunities for student choice vary greatly across content areas and age levels, offering students choices on what they learn can be a true motivator. Planning a lesson aligned with a mandatory learning standard can still allow for student choice on the specifics they learn. A teacher can teach constitutional law by allowing students to study the procedures followed in the repeal of the Volstead Act, the adjudication of Roe v. Wade, or whatever issue peaks their interests. Even a subject like AP Calculus can allow for some student choice. Giving students total freedom in finding examples of applications of derivatives which are interesting to them results in increased student ownership of learning as well as accessing previously untapped creative outlets. Watching their presentation videos, movie parodies, and their recently created websites reminds us that learning, while requiring active engagement and effort on the part of the student, should be more joyful and less like a chore.

In the area of assessment, choice can be an ally. While the traditional pencil and paper method of assessment is still beneficial to prepare students for standardized tests, this limits student opportunity to express what they know. It is not enough for a student to simply memorize information to show knowledge. Students should be able to apply their learning in situations meaningful to them. Technology advances give todays students incredible opportunities to demonstrate their learning in ways unimaginable only a few years ago. Students can collaborate globally, construct CGI videos, record and mix music, and even modify their untrained voice to sing with perfect pitch. The power of choice provides students many opportunities to show they are meeting (and even exceeding) the standards for each content area. If you are differentiating your instruction, why not differentiate your assessments? In the era of value-added teacher evaluation, this is another opportunity to measure student growth.

We certainly dont advocate that every lesson be project-based or that students have daily choice on how and what they learn. We do, however, advocate for being intentional in making student choice a valued part of your classroom culture. By asking for and responding to students preferences, you are saying, I trust you to do what you need in order to be successful. You give credence to their thinking, shift the balance of the work of learning towards them, and allow students to create and demonstrate their understanding in ways meaningful to them. In essence, the power of choice demonstrates your caring for your students by giving them a learners permit to drive their own learning.
HELENA  Individuals and organizations trying to upend Montana's campaign contribution limits say court rulings have made it impossible for the state to justify the caps.

State attorneys counter that the limits meet the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The two sides asked a federal judge on Friday to decide without a trial whether the limits are constitutional. A ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell could come before the state's June 7 primary elections and potentially affect another gubernatorial election.

Lovell's previous ruling against the caps allowed a $500,000 donation to Republican candidate Rick Hill in the 2012 campaign against the eventual winner, Democrat Steve Bullock. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated the limits, prompting a lawsuit by Bullock against Hill that led to the election's final weeks playing out in a courtroom.

Last year, the 9th Circuit ordered Lovell to re-examine the issue based on a standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which allowed unlimited corporate and union spending in elections. States must prove their caps are preventing what the court called quid pro quo corruption, such as bribery, the 9th Circuit ruled.

Before Citizens United, the state only had to prove that the limits prevented wealthy donors from overly influencing the political process.

The argument now before Lovell comes down to whether the state's limits meet the higher standard, and whether the rules are preventing candidates from waging effective campaigns.

The plaintiffs  a group of individuals, businesses and political parties  argue that the Supreme Court's definition of corruption is limited to explicit exchanges of money for improper promises by public officials. Anything broader would chill financial participation in elections and allow for the abuse of corruption allegations, attorney Anita Milanovich said in her court filing.

"Voters will be unable to hold public officials accountable for behaving inconsistent with their campaign positions," Milanovich wrote.

The high court's definition of quid pro quo corruption is not strictly limited to money for political favors but upholds past Supreme Court decisions that included the appearance of corruption that comes with large contributions, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Cochenour countered.

"There is nothing novel about large contributions posing a threat of corruption; rather, it is inherent," Cochenour wrote in his court filing.

Montana's contribution limits are among the lowest in the nation. The per-election limit on donations to gubernatorial candidates is $660 for individuals and political-action committees, and $23,850 for political parties. The caps to statewide and legislative races are even lower.

Milanovich's clients argued those limits keep candidates from sending information to their voters and harm the election process. Cochenour said the caps target only the top 10 percent of contributions and candidates can still run effective campaigns.

Lovell did not make an immediate ruling.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Airbus Group have announced the signature of a  300 million finance contract to support Airbus Group SE's innovation and R&D programmes in Europe. This new agreement brings the EIBs total support for Airbus Group to  1.6 billion since 2011.

The project concerns research, development and innovation (RDI) activities for the development of innovative aircraft, with improved energy efficiency and reduced operating costs. It will serve to offer effective solutions that will directly impact aeronautical design and production, in particular by optimizing passenger comfort and safety.

Welcoming the signing of the loan, EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle said: "The EU Bank is very proud to finance a flagship of the European aeronautics industry. This cross-border signature symbolizes the strong EIB commitment to supporting the development of innovative and high added-value projects in Europe. Innovation is driving the international competitiveness of companies and employment. That is why we offer financial products tailored to develop the technical and industrial excellence of these companies.

Airbus Group Chief Financial Officer Harald Wilhelm said this latest agreement further strengthens the Companys long-standing relationship with the EIB. Innovation is the lifeblood of Airbus Group and we are pleased that the EIB is again supporting us to develop the worlds most capable and efficient aircraft. We share a common long-term vision regarding the development of the aeronautical industry in Europe.

With fostering innovation as one of its top priorities, the EIB Group provided more than 18 billion in 2015 to support innovative programmes within the European Union. In France in 2015, 18% of the Group's total investment of just over 8.7 billion was devoted to supporting SMEs, innovation, and R&D.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has extended its dedicated EUR 500 million trade and export finance facility for Greece, in order to bolster the competitiveness of Greek companies and support their international trading role.

Supporting the international role of Greek business is a key contribution to strengthen economic activity across Greece. Extending this successful facility will help Greek companies to compete and win new business in the international marketplace, said Nicholas Jennett, Head of the EIBs newly-established Investment Team for Greece.

Under the trade finance facility, originally launched in June 2013 and now extended, the EIB will guarantee letters of credit and other trade finance instruments issued by Greek banks. The EIBs guarantee means that overseas customers of Greek companies can be assured that financial commitments outlined in these trade instruments can be met.

Small, medium and midcap firms from across Greece can receive support for trade and export transactions with a maximum tenor of three years. The facility will also support Greek companies with activities outside Greece to help them to both sell products overseas and compete in domestic and international tenders.

The three leading Greek banks that originally participated in this scheme, National Bank of Greece S.A., Piraeus Bank S.A. and Eurobank Ergasias S.A., have all agreed to extend the initiative.
BUTTE  An Anaconda judge heard pretrial motions Monday in a political corruption case set to begin later this month.

District Court Judge Ray Dayton said he would not immediately rule on any of more than a dozen filings submitted by attorneys for Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl and state Rep. Art Wittich, R-Bozeman, who is accused of accepting unreported contributions from an anti-union group in 2010.

Wittich denies the allegations.

His attorney, Quentin Rhoades, in January filed a motion accusing Motl of destroying evidence that would have bolstered Wittichs claims of biased prosecution, including an email archive belonging to former COPP investigator Julie Steab.

Motl denied the accusation and sought sanctions against Rhoades.

Gene Jarussi, an attorney for the state, has raised the possibility that Steab herself deleted the emails, which she denied Monday.

Montana Chief Information Officer Ron Baldwin said in a sworn statement that Steab purged the emails because it was done through use of Ms. Steabs personal sign-in login ID and password.

But Baldwin, who was called to testify in support of the states claims, said under cross examination that anyone with Steabs email and password could have deleted them.

COPP Program Supervisor Mary Baker, who also took the stand, said she couldnt rule out the possibility that some of those access credentials were inadvertently forwarded to Motl or someone else after Steabs departure in October 2013.

Only a week before Steabs exit, Motl found a former Billings-area state representative had illegally accepted corporate campaign contributions from Western Tradition Partnership, a nonprofit affiliate of a national anti-union group.

He soon extended the complaint against that lawmaker to include eight other candidates supported by WTP during 2010 primary races, including Wittich.

Five months later, Motl issued a decision accusing Wittich and others of illegally accepting campaign cash and services from the group.

Wittichs attorneys said Motl doesnt have jurisdiction to seek penalties against Wittich, since the Bozeman Republican wasnt included in the complaint that sparked Motls initial inquiry into anti-union groups.

The state, for its part, has sought in court filings to stop Wittich from inquiring into any matter related to personal animosity, bias, selective enforcement or other improper motive on the part of (Motl), citing Rhoades alleged propensity toward making stuff up.

Dayton is expected to issue a written ruling on those and other charges before Thursday.

Helena District Court Judge DeeAnn Cooney, who is married to Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, recused herself from the case in late January, according to an article by the Montana Free Press. Helena Judge James Reynolds, who once worked with Motl in a Helena law firm, also declined the case.

Dayton officially took over the lawsuit Feb. 3.

The trial against Wittich is set to start March 28 in Helena.
'Joe Biden can have them': Mastriano vows to bus migrants to Delaware
A man in his mid-40s came out of the front of the house and fired a shot at deputies, McQuillan said. Deputies returned fire and killed the man. McQuillan said he couldn't say how many deputies were directly involved in the shooting or how many shots were fired as of Monday around 11 p.m. The Montana Department of Criminal Investigation was en route to the scene.
Middle-schoolers can be stubborn. Its Nikki Hofmanns job not to just lead them to water, but to convince them to drink.

Young horses, kids  its a lot alike, said next years principal at the new Medicine Crow Middle School. Its really hard to make a 1,200-pound horse to do what you want. Its not about imposing your will. You have to work together; you have to be understanding.

Those are lessons that Hofmann learned growing up on a ranch in Wyoming and in her past 14 years as an administrator at Castle Rock Middle School. At Medicine Crow, shell have the opportunity to establish a new school culture from scratch.

Itll be different from how Hofmann grew up  her high school graduating class had six people. Medicine Crow will have about 600 students. Getting buy-in from students, and especially staff members, will be key, said Shaun Harrington, a former Castle Rock principal who now leads Billings Catholic Schools.

Those people, Nikki (Hofmann) and the entire staff there, have a golden opportunity to look at what they want their building culture to be, he said. That cant rest on one persons shoulders. The staff helps define that culture.

Hofmann isnt looking to build up a rivalry with Castle Rock, but plans to work closely with officials to create a cohesive approach for students feeding into Skyview High.

You cant have two middle schools in a community of this size that are doing completely different things, she said.

At the same time, you dont want them to be identical twins, either, Harrington said. Each building needs to have their own culture and their own identity.

At the very least, Hofmann will need to update her wardrobe; shes used to sporting a lot of blue, a school color for Castle Rock and Skyview.

Im going to a lot of maroon, she said.

Hofmann started her career as a high school English teacher in Gillette, Wyo. During her five years there, she went through a masters degree program that focused on adapting leadership principles often used in administration to classroom teaching. But the experience left her thinking about moving out of the classroom.

After teaching for two years at West High, she took over as the associate principal at Castle Rock.

I never thought Id be in a middle school, and I never thought Id be an administrator, she said. I would never leave middle school now.

We have (students) at their most awkward, physically, emotionally.  Theyre going to make mistakes, theyre going to do dumb things. But now theres a chance to learn from them.

Hofmann plans to focus on easing students transition to the new school. Sixth- and seventh-graders will be entering their first year of middle school as School District 2 transitions to a 6-8 middle school model, and some eighth graders will move from Castle Rock.

Transitioning to a new school can be difficult for students for a myriad of reasons, academic and otherwise.

Am I going to get lost? What if I cant find my locker? What if I cant work the combination? said Hofmann, listing student concerns. Am I going to get stuffed in a trash can? They want to know whats going on, they want to be prepared.

Castle Rock students will visit Medicine Crow in April. A student orientation will be held in August, and Hofmann plans to ease students into their first few days of school with a modified schedule.

Our goal by the end of the first day is that theyll walk out of here going, Oh, that was a piece of cake, she said.

When Hofmann became principal at Castle Rock, it was anything but a piece of cake. When then-Riverside Principal Sharon Tietema was removed in 2014, Harrington moved from Castle Rock to fill the vacancy and Hofmann was promoted.

On Friday, I was the associate principal, she said. On Monday, I was the principal. I moved my office over the weekend.

It was a challenging situation for everyone involved, Harrington said. Even though Nikki (Hofmann) had been an assistant for a long time, the principals role is totally different.

Hofmann credited Castle Rocks staff for helping keep the ship steady.

They never missed a beat, she said.

District officials are staffing Medicine Crow, but Hofmann plans to help teachers prepare for the new school year over the summer. She checks in every few weeks on construction at Medicine Crow, where classrooms are starting to take shape.

We may do something fun in June, she said that she told her family. After that, summer is over.
More states are voting in presidential primaries all across the nation today; find out how to watch live results for the Democrats and Republicans as they come in.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are going head-to-head in two states today: Michigan and Mississippi. Polling before today's primaries shows Clinton with an advantage in both states, with Mississippi being decisively more on her side. It remains to be seen if this will hold up at the end of the night.

Republican candidates Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump are facing off in four states: Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi. While polling data is not available in Hawaii, Trump is ahead in the Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi polls. Again, it will be interesting to see if this holds up in the results.

Known as Super Tuesday 2, this could provide more momentum for frontrunners Clinton and Trump on their hunt for the presidency, or it could help change the race with upsets by Sanders, Cruz, Kasich and/or Rubio.

The primary polls close tonight, with results coming in after 8 p.m. ET.

Watch Super Tuesday 2 Results Live Online Or Via Mobile Devices



All three major cable news networks will devote coverage to the primary results.

As expected, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC will be devoting full coverage to the primaries for Super Tuesday 2.

To watch CNN live, go to their site here.

To watch Fox News live, go to their site here.

To watch MSNBC live, go to their site here.

All three are also able to stream on mobile devices.

Of course, if you don't care about pundit coverage, all three sites will be giving live updates of the results, which you can find at CNN.com, FoxNews.com and MSNBC.com.

Keep Up With Super Tuesday 2 Results Via Social Media



If you wish to live tweet results, simply use hashtag #SuperTuesday on Twitter.
Emira CEO, Geoff Jennett, confirms the JSE-listed SA REIT (real estate investment trust) has refined its strategy to make the most of opportunities in this market, generate distribution growth, gain in size and create value for its shareholders.

Emira has a diversified portfolio of South African commercial real estate, and an offshore investment in Growthpoint Properties Australia (GOZ). Right now, GOZ comprises around 7% of Emiras assets.

Jennett says that while many listed property funds are targeting all their growth offshore in the current market, Emira will take a more cautious approach to growing its international investments.

As a company with its sights set on growth, Emira has targeted growth in both the local and international markets.

For its offshore investment, Emira is aiming for the progressive growth of its international property holdings up to around 10% of its asset value. However, Jennett stresses the importance of specific market knowledge for offshore investment.

Our exposure to GOZ, an investment that has done tremendously well for Emira over the years since our initial investment in 2011, has given us excellent insight into the Australian market. We believe we are now in a position to consider direct investment in this market, should suitable opportunities present themselves, says Jennett. We like this model of gaining quality knowledge about international markets, and will consider extending this into other geographies as we aim to grow our portfolio of international investments from 7% to roughly 10% of total assets.

As a balanced REIT, Emiras South African portfolio comprises 45% office, 40% retail and 15% industrial assets  a mix it is confident is within optimum levels.

There are still opportunities in the local market for a company of our size, says Jennett.

It makes good sense for Emira to focus its investment growth in local markets. The company is led by a skilled group of South Africans with intimate knowledge of domestic property and funding. In this way, Emira is matching its asset base with its skills base.

We believe there is up to 5% room to move in each sector, allowing growth across the various asset classes at different paces in response to market opportunities, availability, preference and performance, says Jennett.

He adds that Emiras strategy also provides the ability to take a stake of up to 5% in alternative asset classes, beyond the traditional mainstay property subsectors. These could include assets such as developments, residential property, student accommodation, frail care, petrol stations and storage, though it has plans to start to with a small co-investment in the residential sector.

This potential asset allocation creates a low-risk opportunity to explore alternative subsectors for suitability and performance, to optimise value for shareholders, says Jennett.

Quality, size and income returns are important factors for Emira. Over the past five years, Emira has undertaken a portfolio clean-out and its disposal programme is now nearly complete. It has achieved a solid core portfolio of properties that offer good performance and potential.

Jennett reports: Our portfolio is looking great. Our assets match our investment criteria well. Now, we are entering a responsible growth phase to ensure Emira enhances its status as a meaningful player in the mid-cap REIT space.

Emira has targeted 90% of its growth in South Africa. Jennett believes there are several ways the REIT will grow. Its growth will be organic, by maximising opportunities in its existing portfolio, as well as through acquisitions, developments, strategic partnerships and corporate actions.

Even in this tough environment there are opportunities to grow. Were committed to keeping pace and even outgrowing the sector, says Jennett.

Its responsible growth strategy also targets other benefits. A larger portfolio of properties create greater economies of scale, increases liquidity and improves share price rating. It will also, in turn, expose Emira to bigger deals, giving it scope to compete on new levels.

Jennett says: Our strategy plays to our strengths and will distinguish Emira as a growing, diversified, mid-cap SA REIT.
HELENA  Helena teacher Melissa Romano, who announced her intent last year to run as a Democrat for superintendent of public instruction, made her candidacy official Monday by filing with the Secretary of State's office.

A quality education is essential for every one of our children to be successful in life, providing the opportunity to realize their strengths, talents and dreams, Romano, a fourth-grade teacher at Four Georgians Elementary School, is quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Montana Democratic Party.

As a parent, a teacher and a person dedicated to a strong public education system throughout Montana, I am running to serve all Montanans as your Superintendent of Montanas Office of Public Instruction," she said in the release.

In 2012, Romano received the National Science Foundation's Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the press release says. She lives in Helena with her husband and four children.

Romano will face off against Republican candidate Elsie Arntzen, a longtime Billings legislator who taught at Billings elementary schools for 23 years. Arntzen officially filed with the Secretary of State's office on Feb. 10.
Concentrations of water or metabolites in rhizome found to be most important for predicting plants' freezing tolerance, adaptation to colder climates

ONTARIO, CANADA - Certain cultivars of plants, while growing healthily in their original climates, can suffer from low sustainability when introduced to differing climatic zones. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Society for Horticulture Science analyzed three cultivars of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), showing that winterhardiness may be directly related to varying levels of water or metabolites within the rhizome of plants.

The three cultivars, 'UC 157', 'Jersey Giant', and 'Guelph Millennium', bred in California, New Jersey, and southern Ontario, respectively, were all tested for their ability to withstand the cold temperatures of southern Ontario for 2 years. Ultimately, 'UC 157' was found to be the least adaptable due to high crown water percentage and low levels of certain rhizome metabolites, with 'Jersey Giant' proving to be intermediate, and 'Guelph Millennium' being the most tolerant.

To test the three cultivars, seedlings of each were established in the greenhouse, once in March 2011, and again in March 2012, and subsequently transplanted to a field in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Samples from storage roots and rhizomes of each cultivar were taken on four different dates during spring of each subsequent year and analyzed for water percentage and metabolite levels. Freezing tolerance was also measured directly with whole crowns.

As the ground experienced changes in temperature during the spring thawing period, the cultivars went through deacclimation and reacclimation periods. "Freezing tolerance during deacclimation was most associated with rhizome traits," explained authors David J. Wolyn and Mahmoud Panjtandoust.

The results showed that 'UC 157' had higher water percentage than 'Guelph Millennium' on all sampling dates. Freezing tolerance was strongly correlated to water percentage within the three cultivars, as well as the levels of other metabolites within the rhizome, suggesting that this organ is the most important for predicting adaptation to different climates.

"Overall, the data suggested that the timing of deacclimation and loss of freezing tolerance in the spring may significantly affect winterhardiness; cultivars that lose freezing tolerance early and cannot reacclimate could suffer most from late spring freeze-thaw cycles," the authors said.

###

The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. electronic journal web site: http://journal.ashspublications.org/content/141/1/22.abstract

Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org
The use of animal manure increases the soil content of antibiotic-resistant genes; however, this is not an irreversible situation

The use of animal manure increases the soil content of antibiotic-resistant genes. However, this is not an irreversible situation.

What does one of the world's longest-running field experiments - under Aarhus University in Denmark - have to do with the appearance of antibiotic resistance? The answer is that it forms the platform for illuminating the interaction between the use of animal manure and the appearance of genes for antibiotic resistance in soil.

New investigations show that when a certain type of antibiotic is phased in, the abundance of resistant genes in soil increases. When the antibiotic is phased out again, the abundance of resistant genes drops - and this happens relatively quickly. The scientists also found a correspondence in time between the first detection of antibiotic resistance in the health service and the detection of such genes for resistance in soil that had received applications of animal manure.

The analyses have been performed by British scientists using soil samples regularly collected since 1923 in the now 122-year-old fertiliser experiment at Askov Experimental Station at the Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University. The results of this partnership among Prof Bent Tolstrup Christensen (Aarhus University), Prof David W. Graham (project leader, Newcastle University in England) and Dr Charles Knapp (Strathclyde University in Scotland) have been described in an article in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Resistance follows the rate of consumption

That bacteria can develop resistance to bacteria is not a new phenomenon. Genes that code for resistance to antibiotics existed even before we discovered and started using antibiotics. Multi-resistant genes have actually been found in 30,000-year-old DNA samples taken in permafrost areas. The problem is that a higher incidence of resistance to antibiotics is highly undesirable.

The experts studied the specific -lactam antibiotic resistant genes. Particularly this group of antibiotics is of considerable importance to human medicine. The resistant genes were chosen because their first appearance in the health system is well-documented.

- We found low levels of the resistant genes before 1960, both in manured soil and in soil treated with inorganic fertiliser, explains Prof Christensen from Department of Agroecology. He is project leader of the Askov Long-term Experiments and co-author of the article.

- Our analyses show a clear increase in the soil receiving animal manure. In the mid-1990s, the use of antibiotics as a growth promoter fell. This led to a corresponding rapid fall in the soil abundance of -lactam antibiotic resistant genes, says Christensen.

Throughout the period, the soil receiving inorganic fertiliser had very low levels of the resistant genes.

There is good news and there is bad news

Another important link is that the development of the abundance in soil of -lactam antibiotic resistant genes closely trail observations of their development in the health service. The timing of the first appearances of the resistant genes in the health service corresponds to the timing of their highest abundance in soil.

- Although the development in the abundance of resistant genes in soil mirrors what you see in the health service, research has not yet made a connection between the two. The results show, however, that the phasing out of antibiotics can swiftly lead to a reduction in the incidence of resistance - and that is good news, says Christensen.

The story does not end here. Analyses of the historical samples also showed another development that is more worrying. Since 1990 there has been a growing level of integrons in manured soil. Integrons promote the exchange of genetic material between bacteria and can therefore accelerate the development of new resistance.

- The rising level of integrons after 1990 in manured soil could indicate that through our efforts to reduce antibiotic resistance, we have unintentionally increased resistance gene exchange and more study is needed on the use of animal manure, says Prof Graham from Newcastle University.

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Facts about the Askov Long-term Experiments

The experiments were established in 1894 and are now one of the longest-running field experiments in the world

The primary objective of the experiments is to study the long-term effects of animal manure and inorganic fertiliser on soil fertility.

Soil samples from the experiments have been collected and stored at four-year intervals since 1923. This soil archive is a unique platform for many different research projects.

Since 1990 more than 50 publications based on the long-term experiments and associated soil archive have been published in international scientific journals.

Read the scientific article "Appearance of -lactam resistance genes in agricultural soils and clinical isolates over the 20th century" in Nature Scientific Reports.

For further information please contact:

Professor Bent Tolstrup Christensen, Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, e-mail: bent.t.christensen@agro.au.dk

Professor David W. Graham, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, e-mail: d.graham@ncl.ac.uk
Unusual sporting injuries in young rugby players

Acetabular fractures affect the socket of the hip bone, and are generally sustained after violent trauma, such as road traffic accidents.

But a group of doctors in Ireland, writing in the journal BMJ Case Reports, describe these injuries in three young rugby players and say "we have not previously encountered these injuries in a juvenile sporting population"

The injuries were sustained while playing rugby union, two during seasonal match play and one during a training drill. Previously, the doctors reported two acetabular fractures in two other young rugby players, aged 16 and 24 years.

All four injuries occurred during the tackle phase of play, and occurred as a result of pressure exerted through a flexed hip with the knee on the ground. This position can be encountered during a two man tackle, as one tackler hits low and the other hits high.

Three of these fractures occurred along with with hip dislocations.

All three boys, as reported in this latest case, recovered following surgery and rehabilitation, without any major implications. However, these injuries can have a potentially devastating impact on growth, sporting participation and lifestyle of young players.

"In order to prevent the potentially devastating consequences of these injuries it may be necessary to implement rule changes or size restrictions in the juvenile game," say the doctors.

Players may be of the same age, but can be different in size and stage of development. This is associated with an increased injury risk, they explain, adding to the problems linked with excessive force in an immature skeleton.

"An evaluation of the rules at the breakdown and an emphasis on proper tackling could aid injury prevention," they explain.

Article: Acetabular fractures in skeletally immature rugby players

Journal: BMJ Case Reports

Public link after embargo lifts: http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2015-211637.full?sid=6b349302-4b01-4b2b-9c8f-0e154c0c54ed

Man has distorted vision after inhaling poppers

A 52-year-old man developed distorted vision after inhaling poppers for the first time.

Writing in an article published in BMJ Case Reports, the doctors who treated the man explain that upon hospital admission he had been experiencing 10 days of blurring in his central vision and metamorphopsia, a type of vision problem where the shape of objects seen are distorted. His peripheral vision was normal.

These problems were experienced immediately after a night of clubbing, during which he inhaled poppers.

An examination revealed disruption of the inner and outer segment layers of the fovea, a small area in the retina of the eye where visual acuity is highest.

Doctors advised the man to stop taking the drugs, and after three months there was marginal improvement in his vision.

Despite the high use of poppers, there have been only around 30 published cases of poppers causing vision loss and damage, but "the actual incidence is likely to be much higher," they say. Disease progression can be prevented by stopping the use of these drugs, but recovery is variable.

Poppers are legal highs regularly used for their euphoric effects, especially by men in the gay community. These are not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act and are available from a range of sources.

However, the 'Psychoactive Substances Bill' is currently under review at the House of Commons proposes to tighten control of substances, including poppers, in the UK.

Article: Poppers retinopathy

Journal: BMJ Case Reports

Public link after embargo lifts: http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-214442.full?sid=a9c05d32-fe63-473c-a714-b4f650da0dee

Routine dental trip leaves patient with a rare infection

A man who visited his dentist for a routine dental cleaning developed a rare and potentially life-threatening infection.

In a BMJ Case Report, doctors say the man had a liver abscess (a pocket of pus that formed in his liver) that was caused by the rare bacterium Fusobacterium necrophorum. If left untreated, the infection can be life threatening.

The 57-year-old man was admitted to hospital in Pennsylvania with a fever and pain on his upper right body. An MRI of the abdomen confirmed a hepatic abscess, and cultures confirmed it to be caused by F. necrophorum.

They say the only possible cause of the infection is the oral cavity as the patient had routine dental examination and cleaning two weeks before. The patient had good oral health, and did not have any invasive dental work.

This case is interesting, say the doctors, because it suggests that even routine dental cleaning may lead to the presence of bacteria in the blood, which can travel to different areas of the body.

They speculate that the dental cleaning may have involved some trauma to the lining of the mouth that could have served as an entryway to the blood stream.

Doctors treated the man by draining the pus and prescribing a course of antibiotic treatment.

Article: Hepatic abscess caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum after a trip to the dentist

Journal: BMJ Case Reports

Public link after embargo lifts: http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2015-210235.full.pdf

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About the journal:

BMJ Case Reports is one of the more than 50 specialist journals published by BMJ. For more information, visit: http://casereports.bmj.com/
Achieving greater parity among women and men in sub-Saharan Africa so they more equally share the benefits of agricultural research is the goal of an initiative announced, March 8, International Women's Day.

A $5M grant to help researchers to create more inclusive and effective agricultural systems by addressing the priorities of both women and men in sub-Saharan Africa has been awarded to Cornell University, in partnership with Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT), will deliver a series of trainings over five years to cohorts of agricultural researchers from the region in the theory and practice of gender-responsive research in the key areas of root, tuber, and banana breeding; grain and legume breeding; small ruminant breeding; dairy and legume value chains; nutrition and food systems; knowledge exchange (extension); and agricultural mechanization.

"Women play critical roles in food production and processing, but their input is frequently overlooked by agricultural researchers," said Hale Ann Tufan, gender specialist and adjunct professor with International Programs in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who will lead the project for Cornell. "Gender-blind research projects and products inadvertently increase the burden on women and limit the potential positive impact of research outputs."

"GREAT will increase opportunities for equitable participation and the sharing of benefits from agricultural research and improve the outcomes for smallholder women farmers, entrepreneurs, and farmer organizations across sub-Saharan Africa," said Margaret Mangheni, associate professor at Makerere University who has more than 20 years of experience with gender-sensitive agricultural development projects in Uganda and across Africa. Mangheni will lead the project at Makerere.

GREAT will train researchers to address the priorities of women and men when setting project goals, implementing projects, and measuring and communicating project outcomes.

Tufan gave an example using cassava, the root that is the main source of calories for more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.

"When research to develop new varieties of cassava is 'gender blind', it means that the needs of women who produce and process much of the cassava in sub-Saharan Africa are neither considered nor met," she said. "When research on the root is 'gender-responsive', researchers seek input from both women and men in new variety development. Gender-responsive research results in higher adoption rates of the new varieties and greater benefits to 500 million consumers."

In September 2016, the first cohort of researchers will learn the concepts and tools for gender-responsive research during an introductory week-long training at Makerere taught by African and international experts. They will then undertake several months of practical field experience collecting data from their ongoing projects, while receiving support from mentors and e-learning modules through a course website. Finally, in 2017, they will participate in a second week of training at Makerere on data analysis, interpretation, and advocacy. After completing their training, each cohort will "put the evidence to work" at events in their home countries to influence policymakers to support gender-responsive policies and practices.

By 2020, GREAT expects to have trained eight cohorts of up to 10 teams each, or more than 200 researchers, representing at least 30 national and international research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers will attend GREAT trainings in project teams from their respective African research institutions. GREAT will foster learning and collaboration within teams and institutions, as well as across national borders.

"By building and engaging communities of researchers equipped with the skills, knowledge, and support systems to develop and implement gender-responsive projects, GREAT will advance gender-responsiveness as the norm and standard for agricultural research," said Tufan.

GREAT will build further capacity in the agricultural research community in sub-Saharan Africa by establishing a center of excellence at Makerere to spin off future courses from the trainings and will integrate gender-responsive curricula at Cornell and Makerere to transform the teaching of agricultural research.

In addition to numerous international and national research program partners whose researchers will participate in the trainings, GREAT will collaborate in SSA with African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). At Cornell, GREAT will collaborate with Advancing Women in Agriculture through Research and Education (AWARE), an initiative that strengthens gender-responsive research and engages a local community focused on empowering women in agriculture. A high-level External Project Advisory Committee of gender experts and agricultural and development professionals will guide GREAT as the project carries out its work.

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A JRC-initiated system estimating postharvest cereal losses in sub-Saharan Africa will be upgraded to allow for monitoring of other crops and improve postharvest management. The African Postharvest Losses information System (APHLIS), now being expanded by the APHLIS+ project, will involve major US, UK and African research organisations with funding from the Gates Foundation. Within this new cooperation, the JRC will lead the design of an early warning system for grains contaminated with carcinogenic Aphlatoxins, and insect and pest attacks which destroy harvested crops.

Postharvest losses can be caused by excessive humidity, drought or change of temperature, contamination by insects or bacteria or simply untimely harvesting, hence threatening food security for vulnerable communities. Research on postharvest losses has gained momentum after the 2008 food crisis and loss reduction is more and more seen as one of the most promising and sustainable ways of increasing agricultural production in Africa, as opposed to approaches relying mainly on resource-demanding intensification.

The current APHLIS model provides evidence-based information on cereal grain weight losses in 38 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, with the contribution of a network of local cereal-grain experts. The most important contribution of APHLIS to small-holder productivity is the provision of loss estimates that enable strategic targeting of investment in postharvest loss mitigation and R&D programmes.

APHLIS+ will take advantage of the achievements of APHLIS and provide an operational framework for collaboration that contributes actively to improved postharvest management and loss reduction. It will be undertaken in association with the Community of Practice (CoP) on Food Loss Reduction initiated by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other international initiatives.

Under the overall coordination of the UK's Natural Resources Institute (NRI), besides the existing network of experts including the JRC, a number of major universities (Purdue University, University of Kansas, University of California, University of Illinois and University of Sao Paolo), the Africa Rice Center, and private partners will now join the effort in the development of APHLIS+. The new project will focus on methods for extending loss estimation to a range of crops wider than just cereals and go beyond weight losses by including dimensions of quality, income and nutrition. The information will be displayed through maps and alerts and will link to other projects concerned with mycotoxin control and climate change adaptation.

The APHLIS+ project will initially be funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with 3 million euro and aims to become a multi-donor initiative during the second phase of the project.

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Related links:

African Postharvest Losses information System (APHLIS)

http://www.aphlis.net

APHLIS+

http://www.aphlis.net/aphlis-plus/

Community of Practice on Food Loss Reduction

http://www.fao.org/food-loss-reduction/en/
Boulder, Colo., USA - The impact of an asteroid at the end of the Cretaceous caused mass extinctions in the oceans, as well as killing the dinosaurs on land. The carbon isotope difference between surface and seabed organisms (foraminifera) also collapsed due to these extinctions, suggesting that organic matter from surface waters did not reach the seafloor for up to 3 million years. However, seafloor organisms, which are dependent on food from surface waters, did not die off, suggesting some food must have reached the seabed.

In their open-access paper for Geology, Heather S. Birch and colleagues investigate this paradox by looking at carefully selected foraminiferal isotopes from a well-dated deep-sea core in the South Atlantic.

By taking into account the likely ecology of the foraminifera studied and whether any water mass changes were occurring at the time, they can better assess the carbon isotope record and transfer of organic matter to the seafloor. Birch and colleagues find that the flux of organic matter was reduced for a much shorter time (1.7 million instead of 3 million years). The authors note that ecology and water mass changes likely did have a small effect on the carbon isotope record, but they cannot explain the full reduction in carbon isotopes on their own.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Partial collapse of the marine carbon pump after the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

Heather S. Birch et al., School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. This article is Open Access online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37581.1.abstract.

Other recently posted GEOLOGY articles are highlighted below:

The oldest Pinus and its preservation by fire

Howard J. Falcon-Lang et al., Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37526.1.abstract.

Scientists have found the oldest fossils of the familiar pine tree that dominates Northern Hemisphere forests today. The 140-million-year-old fossils are exquisitely preserved as charcoal, the result of burning in wildfires. The fossils suggest that pines co-evolved with fire at a time when oxygen levels in the atmosphere were much higher and forests were especially flammable. Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang (Royal Holloway, University of London), who discovered the fossils in Nova Scotia, Canada, said, "Pines are well adapted to fire today. The fossils show that wildfires raged through the earliest pine forests and probably shaped the evolution of this important tree." Modern pines store flammable deadwood on the tree making them prone to lethal fires; however, they also produce abundant cones that will only germinate after a fire, ensuring a new cohort of trees is seeded after the fire has passed by.

Can CO2 trigger a thermal geyser eruption?

Bethany S. Ladd and M. Cathryn Ryan, Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37588.1.abstract.

Geyser periodicity has fascinated researchers for over two centuries. Our work investigated the effect of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) on the geyser eruption mechanism at Spouter Geyser, a thermal geyser in Black Sand Basin of Yellowstone National Park. While it is convenient to think of geysers as pure water systems, the reality is that geyser waters contain various dissolved gases, and particularly CO2 in volcanic regions such as Yellowstone. Dissolved CO2 concentrations sampled with time in the near-surface discharge from Spouter Geyser were highest immediately before eruptions. These dissolved CO2 concentrations, which are heavily degassed by bubble formation in the geyser conduit, were extrapolated to the deep, source-zone conditions to determine whether CO2 partial pressure could contribute to eruption triggering. It was found that water vapor pressure alone was too low to exceed bubbling pressure in the source-zone and initiate eruption. However, added partial pressure from dissolved CO2 contributed about 50-90 kPa to the total dissolved gas pressure in the source-zone immediately before eruptions, enough to induce bubble formation and trigger an eruption.

Eocene Neo-Tethyan slab breakoff constrained by 45 Ma oceanic island basalt-type magmatism in southern Tibet

Wei-Qiang Ji et al., State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9825, Beijing 100029, China. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37612.1.abstract.

This article reported identification of Langshan oceanic island basalt (OIB)-type gabbros, dated at 45.0 plus or minus 1.4 million years ago, from eastern Tethyan Himalaya, southern Tibet. This is the first time to identify OIB-type magmatism in the continental collision belt. Based on the geological and geochemical characters, these rocks are best explained by partial melting of the asthenosphere, and the resultant melts underwent negligible crustal contamination during magma ascent and intrusion. The most possible genetic mechanism for the OIB-type magmatism of this study is slab breakoff of Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere. And this is the first time to find a directly related evidence of slab breakoff in the eastern segment of Himalaya along the Indus-Yarlung suture zone. Together with other results from relevant studies along the suture zone, the slab breakoff is sudden and full-scale at great depth. The slab breakoff model at about 45 million years ago can account for many coeval geological events in southern Tibet.

Cellular dissolution at hypha- and spore-mineral interfaces revealing unrecognized mechanisms and scales of fungal weathering

Zibo Li et al., Key Laboratory of Surficial Geochemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, PR China. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37561.1.abstract.

Most "rock-eating" microorganisms digest rocks using corrosive chemicals excreted by the cells, but fungi do it differently. This is because fungal cells, long and thread-like filaments called hyphae, can exert very high pressure at their tips during growth. As high as 10-20 MPa, equivalent approximately to 100 times that of a typical car tire and strong enough for fungi to penetrate mineral grains, has been measured in association with hyphal extension. However, how such physical forces partake in fungus-mineral interaction is largely unknown. In this study, researchers discovered that fungi attack rocks by first lowering the cells' pH upon attaching to minerals to initiate the dissolution, followed by secreting special biochemical compounds to lock up released nutrients, and finally using the pressure to obliterate the remaining waste rock material to restart the cycle and to continue the destruction process. The amount of minerals consumed by this cycle appears to be substantially larger than previously estimated for cell-promoted weathering. This finding by Li et al. has important implications for environmental geochemistry and ecology because fungal weathering is a major pathway for plants to obtain nutrients from soils.

Shelfal sediment transport by an undercurrent forces turbidity-current activity during high sea level along the Chile continental margin

Anne Bernhardt et al., Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universitat Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37594.1.abstract.

To estimate past and future fluxes of terrestrial sediment and associated organic carbon, nutrients, and pollutants to the ocean, we need to understand the relationship between sea-level changes and marine sedimentation. Delivery of terrestrial sediment from the continent to the deep sea generally occurs during periods of low sea level. If sea level is high, such as during the past ~10,000 years, sediment export to the ocean can occur when a submarine canyon is connected to a terrestrial sediment source, such as a river mouth. Such connections are facilitated when the continental shelf is narrow. Here, we present evidence for pervasive sediment export to the Pacific Ocean offshore the wide shelf of south-central Chile during high sea level. Sediment is transported by an oceanic current that flows at 200-300 m water depth along the continental shelf, where it sweeps sediment onto the continental slope, from where the sediment gets distributed to the deep ocean by sediment-gravity flows. Hence, export of terrestrial sediment to the deep ocean via such undercurrents may be especially effective during periods of high sea level when currents flow along flooded, sediment-covered shelves. Shelf undercurrents may play an important role in sediment supply to the deep sea.

Very long-term stability of passive margin escarpment constrained by 40Ar/39Ar dating of K-Mn oxides

Anicet Beauvais et al., Aix-Marseille Universite (AMU), IRD, CNRS, CEREGE UM34, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, Cedex 4, France. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37303.1.abstract.

In this paper, Beauvais and co-authors determine and interpret the ages of oxides formed in manganese ore deposits and tropical soils on either side of the Great escarpment following the southwestern continental margin of India, known as the Western Ghats. The authors argue that the formation and preservation of tropical soils as old as 47 million years at the foot of the escarpment attests for the early installation of such a topographic barrier, which may even be as old as approx. 60 million years. Their results further indicate very slow rate of erosion by rivers at the foot of the escarpment after formation of the dated soils (less than 5 meters per million years), challenging previous erosion models of the southwestern margin of India, and more generally arguing against relief rejuvenation of continental margins and shields by recent vertical movements. Finally, the authors show that studying the remnants of ancient paleo-soil-capped landscapes is promising for quantifying erosion and sedimentary exports from continents to marine basins on geological timescales.

Tethyan suturing in Southeast Asia: Zircon U-Pb and Hf-O isotopic constraints from Myanmar ophiolites

Chuan-Zhou Liu et al., State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37342.1.abstract.

The Tethys Ocean existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia supercontinents during much of the Mesozoic, which was closed by accretion of a series of terranes rifted from the Gondwana to the Laurisia. Evolution of the Tethys Ocean has been subdivided into three successive Tethys oceans, i.e., the Paleo-Tethys, Meso-Tethys and Neo-Tethys, since the Paleozoic. Relics of the different Tethys Ocean have been preserved as ophiolites in sutures. In this study, we provided high precision zircon U-Pb ages and other geochemical data to constrain the ages of two ophiolites from both western and eastern sutures in Myanmar. These data provide effective constraints on the spatial relationship between these two suture and their relationships with two different sutures that crop out in the Tibetan Plateau. Our data provide critical new constraints not only on formation of the Myanmar ophiolites but also on Tethyan suturing in Southeast Asia, which is essential to our understanding opening and closure of the Tethys Ocean that plays a key role in global plate tectonics during the Mesozoic.

Nearshore along-strike variability: Is the concept of the systems tract unhinged?

Andrew S. Madof et al., Chevron Energy Technology Company, Houston, Texas 77002-7308, USA. This paper is online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2016/03/07/G37613.1.abstract.

In the late 1970s, sequence stratigraphy revolutionized the field of sedimentary geology by providing a systemic framework to correlate bodies of rock across sedimentary basins, and to understand their evolution through time. Sequence stratigraphic models do quite well with depositional systems that are relatively uniform in 2 and 3 dimensions, but they do not adequately explain depositional patterns with significant spatial variability. A simple geometric model of nearshore deposits corrects for this deficiency through simple geometrical constructs, called hinge zones, which explain along-strike variations in depositional patterns in nearshore systems. Examples of fixed and moving hinges illustrate a range of behaviors that will improve outcrop and subsurface predictions of deposits, and will benefit interpretations of ancient environments and the locations of petroleum and groundwater reservoirs.

GEOLOGY articles are online http://geology.gsapubs.org/. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary articles by contacting Kea Giles at the e-mail address above. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please refer to GEOLOGY in articles published. Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.

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Contact: Kea Giles

+1-303-357-1057

kgiles@geosociety.org

http://www.geosociety.org/
BOSTON - (March 8, 2016) - In a national clinical trial led by Joslin Diabetes Center's Beetham Eye Institute, ultrawide field (UWF) scanning technology significantly improved the ability of experts at a remote central location to identify diabetic retinopathy in a patient, and to judge whether the eye disease warranted referring the patient to an ophthalmologist for further care.

The national trial confirms findings of earlier research on Beetham patients with UWF imaging, says Paolo Silva, M.D., staff ophthalmologist and assistant chief of telemedicine, and lead author on a paper appearing today in the journal Ophthalmology.

"These data demonstrate that when we deploy this technology in a community-based setting, we can achieve the same magnitude of reduction in ungradable images and increased identification of eye disease as we saw in the academic research environment," Silva says.

Examining more than 25,000 patients in the U.S. Indian Health Service-Joslin Vision Network (IHS-JVN) telemedicine program, the researchers showed that UWF imaging dropped the number of ungradable eye images by 81% compared to imaging using traditional digital retinal photographs.

The IHS-JVN national network evaluates over 18,000 patients each year. Improved imaging for that total population would translate to almost 4,000 patients who otherwise would have been given urgent referrals for care that ultimately would not have been needed, Silva says.

Traditional Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) photography, which has remained the gold standard for diabetic eye imaging for decades, combines seven retinal photographs to image about 30 percent of the retina. In contrast, "with UWF, we're able to see 82 percent of the retina in a single retinal image, with high resolution," Silva says.

The chances that UWF imaging will produce ungradable retinal images increases with age, partly because people with diabetes are at a much higher risk for developing cataracts than people the same age without diabetes, says Silva. In the study, UWF imaging did perform significantly better with older eyes than did conventional retinal imaging.

Additionally, the study discovered that UWF imaging detected peripheral retinal disease in about 10% of the patients. These peripheral lesions are located outside the retinal area captured by ETDRS images. They can help ophthalmologists predict which eyes are most likely to progress to more advanced stages of diabetic retinopathy, as Joslin researchers reported in another Ophthalmology paper last year.

The IHS-JVN eye telemedicine program covers 97 health care facilities in 25 states, gathering patient images for evaluation at a center in Phoenix, Arizona. The collection sites vary from large academic medical centers to mobile imaging stations in locations as remote as the Arctic Circle or the Grand Canyon. "The network brings the technology to where the patients are," Silva says. "This is the true essence of teleophthalmology for diabetic retinopathy; you go to patients and you evaluate them remotely."

"These often are very isolated communities," says Lloyd Paul Aiello, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Beetham Institute, Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and senior author on the paper. "For this population to receive eye care, many have to take an airplane to a major medical center many miles away. That is a huge expense in terms of their time and travel costs."

UWF camera systems remain much costlier than conventional retinal cameras, with price tags that can exceed $70,000. However, the latest study underlines the significant advantages they can provide, says Aiello.

"Utilizing this new type of camera technology, we can more easily obtain the images, we can read the retinal images faster, we have fewer images that are unusable, and we pick up more disease than we could in the past," he sums up. "And we have now shown this substantial benefit in a large real-world setting."

A broader national comparison study is now underway in the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network, with its initial results expected by late 2016. "If that study also shows that we can use this technology reliably, we expect this type of imaging will used much more commonly," Aiello says.

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Joslin's Jennifer Sun, M.D., MPH, Investigator in the Section on Vascular Biology and an ophthalmologist in Beetham Eye Institute at Joslin Diabetes Center and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Jerry Cavallerano, O.D., Ph.D., Assistant to the Director at the Beetham Eye Institute at Joslin Diabetes Center, were co-authors on the paper. Other contributors included Mark Horton and Dawn Clary of the Indian Health Service-Joslin Vision Network National Reading Center in Phoenix and Drew Lewis of Estenda Solutions in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The research was supported by the Indian Health Service and the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund.

About Joslin Diabetes Center

Joslin Diabetes Center is world-renowned for its deep expertise in diabetes treatment and research. Joslin is dedicated to finding a cure for diabetes and ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives. We develop and disseminate innovative patient therapies and scientific discoveries throughout the world. Joslin is an independent, non-profit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and one of only 11 NIH-designated Diabetes Research Centers in the U.S.
According to a major Swedish cohort study from researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Imperial College London, a surgeon who operates on oesophageal cancer must have performed 60 operations to prevent any lack of experience adversely affecting the long-term survival of the patients. The finding, which is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, has potential significance for clinical practice.

While it is well known that patient survival after oesophagectomy is related to the surgeon's experience of the procedure, no figure has been put on how many operations are needed for the surgeon to attain the competence needed for achieving optimal results as regards patient survival. The new study is the first to examine the surgeon's learning curve in relation to short and long-term fatality rates.

"What the study shows us is that a surgeon needs to perform 15 operations to obtain stable results as regards survival during the first months following the operation, and a full 60 before he or she achieves optimal results on long-term survival," says the chief investigator Jesper Lagergren at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, and also affiliated to the Division of Cancer Studies at King's College London. "What surprised me was that the learning curve for optimising the long-term prognosis for tumour relapse was so long and the effect so pronounced."

Jesper Lagergren's research team has in collaboration with colleagues at Imperial College London examined a Swedish cohort of 1,821 patients operated on for oesophageal cancer in Sweden between 1987 and 2010 by 139 different surgeons. Using data on which surgeons performed which operations, the researchers studied their learning curves and found that even though the surgeons were experienced with other procedures when starting to perform oesophagectomies, the turning point for their learning curves for a stable 5-year fatality rate was at 60 operations.

The form of surgery studied is relatively uncommon with some 150 such operations performed a year in Sweden. The new finding indicates that it is worth concentrating oesophageal cancer operations to a small number of surgeons with a particular interest in this kind of surgery.

"Our results can guide clinical practice and indicate that a properly organised mentorship and training programme should be introduced for oesophageal cancer surgery," adds Professor Lagergren, who is himself an oesophageal cancer surgeon. "Surgeons who start operating on oesophageal cancer should perform many operations together with a more experienced oesophageal cancer surgeon before they begin to operate independently."

###

The study was financed with grants from the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Cancer Society.

Publication: 'Surgical Proficiency Gain and Survival Following Esophagectomy for Cancer', Sheraz R. Markar, Hugh Mackenzie, Pernilla Lagergren, George B. Hanna, Jesper Lagergren, Journal of Clinical Oncology, online March 7, 2016.

The JCO website: http://jco.ascopubs.org/

Karolinska Institutet -- a medical university: http://ki.se/english
MANHATTAN -- A tool being developed by the Kansas State University National Agricultural Biosecurity Center will assist agricultural emergency management coordinators in planning efforts to combat animal disease outbreaks and other emergencies.

The tool is a database called ICAAR, which stands for Identifying Corrective Actions from Agricultural Response. The name sounds complex, but the concept is fairly simple: collect information from states about what they learn from emergency preparedness exercises and how to improve future plans, then allow others with a need to know to access it.

Ken Burton, program director at the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center, says emergency planning team members identify responses and corrective actions after every training or event, with trainings and simulations conducted in all 50 states. The problem is that the information isn't readily available.

"After-action reports, historically, are kept fairly close to the vest and not widely shared," Burton said. "The downside is that there can be a lot of reinventing of the wheel -- a state identifies a problem and others aren't aware, so we aren't maximizing benefit from efforts expended."

ICAAR provides a searchable database to serve as a central repository for emergency response managers and planners to learn from others' exercises, challenges, and successes. The project is supported by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Health Affairs Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Defense Branch, or DHS FAV Defense, through the Food Protection and Defense Institute at the University of Minnesota.

"The database currently contains five years' worth of material, so it has a good start," Burton said. "The more information we can add to the database, the more value it will bring to agricultural response coordinators."

Now the goal is to spread the word about the tool and get feedback on its interface and functionality. In February, Burton gave a talk about the database at a workshop for the Multi-State Partnership for Security in Agriculture the database and interest was high.

"Information sharing in a secure manner is pretty key," Burton said.

Marvin Meinders, chief of DHS FAV Defense, said sharing after-action reports has always been a problem.

"People don't want to put in writing and distribute things that went wrong, but that denies others to learn the lessons and improve their programs," Meinders said. "The strategy with this project is that information will be put in a positive format: 'This is what was done well, these are methods of improvement.' It's a best practices thing.

"What we're trying to encourage is a one-stop shop where people can go to find out things about agriculture readiness and help them put all these pieces together into a readiness program for their state," he said.

Sandy Johnson, emergency management coordinator for the Kansas Department of Agriculture, says a tool like ICAAR is long overdue.

"If you keep doing exercises and don't learn anything from them, that's a little scary," Johnson said.

Kansas is slated to conduct agricultural emergency exercises the week before Christmas in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This year, the focus will be on feedlots and secure beef supply planning. Johnson said exercise development is both complex and expensive. Major challenges in Kansas are traceability of animals, sharing data, and providing adequate veterinary support in a scenario requiring testing of large livestock populations. She likes the idea of learning from other states' exercises.

"Having the ability to learn from other people's mistakes is a great thing," Johnson said.

Meinders said states also could use ICAAR to justify budget priorities.

"In an era of budget cuts, people can use this tool to make the argument that an issue was found to be important, and they can justify conducting exercises," he said.

Meinders said he expects the tool will be ready by the end of this fiscal year.

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Fukuoka, Japan - The successful future of fuel cells relies on improving the performance of the catalysts they use. Gold nanoparticles have been cited as an ideal solution, but creating a uniform, useful catalyst has proven elusive. However, a team of researchers at Kyushu University's International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER) devised a method for using a new type of catalyst support.

In a potential breakthrough technology for fuel cells, a recently published article in Scientific Reports shows how wrapping a graphene support in a specially prepared polymer provides an ideal foundation for making uniform, highly active gold nanoparticle catalysts.

Fuel cells produce electricity directly from the separate oxidation of the fuel and the reduction of oxygen. The only by-product of the process is water, as fuel cells produce no greenhouse gases and are widely seen as essential for a clean-energy future.

However, the rate at which electricity can be produced in fuel cells is limited, especially by the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which must be catalyzed in practical applications. Although current platinum-based catalysts accelerate the reaction, their unhelpful propensity to also catalyze other reactions, and their sensitivity to poisoning by the reactants, limits their overall utility. Despite bulk gold being chemically inert, gold nanoparticles are surprisingly effective at catalyzing the oxygen reduction reaction without the drawbacks associated with their platinum counterparts.

Nevertheless, actually creating uniformly sized gold nanoparticle catalysts has proven problematic. Previous fabrication methods have produced catalysts with nanoparticle sizes that were too large or too widely distributed for practical use. Meanwhile, efforts to regulate the particle size tended to restrict the gold's activity or make less-stable catalysts.

"Creating small, well-controlled particles meant that we needed to focus on particle nucleation and particle growth," lead and corresponding author Tsuyohiko Fujigaya says. "By wrapping the support in the polybenzimidazole polymer we successfully developed with platinum, we created a much better support environment for the gold nanoparticles."

The team also tested the performance of these novel catalyst structures. Their catalysts had the lowest overpotential ever reported for this type of reaction. "The overpotential is a bit like the size of the spark you need to start a fire," coauthor Naotoshi Nakashima says. "Although we're obviously pleased with the catalysts' uniformity, the performance results show this really could be a leap forward for the ORR reaction and maybe fuel cells as well."

The article "Growth and Deposition of Au Nanoclusters on Polymer-wrapped Graphene and Their Oxygen Reduction Activity" was published in Scientific Reports, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21314.

Although novel in its own right, this recent publication is the latest in a chain of developments that the interdisciplinary teams at I2CNER have been carrying out to develop fuel cells and other clean technologies.

###

Research Contact:

Naotoshi Nakashima

International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (ICNER), Kyushu University

nakashima-tcm_at_mail.cstm.kyushu-u.ac.jp

About I2CNER:

I2CNER's mission is to contribute to the advancement of low carbon emission and cost effective energy systems and improvement of energy efficiency. The array of technologies that I2CNER's research aims to enable includes Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Polymer Membrane based fuel cells, biomimetic and other novel catalyst concepts, and production, storage, and utilization of hydrogen as a fuel. Our research also explores the underlying science of CO2 capture and storage or the conversion of CO2 to a useful product. Additionally, central to I2CNER's mission is the establishment of an international academic environment that fosters innovation through collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
Short length of stay after childbirth could mean women and babies miss out on adequate postnatal care

A substantial proportion of women in countries around the world do not stay in health facilities for long enough after giving birth, which could result in them receiving inadequate postnatal care, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine.

The researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine compiled and analysed information from databases and health surveys [1] to look at the length of time women stay in health facilities after childbirth in 92 countries, and found wide variation.

They estimated that the average (mean) length of stay for women after they give birth to a single baby (singleton) via a vaginal birth ranged from 0.5 days in Egypt, to 6.2 days in Ukraine (data available for 71 countries). For caesarean-section deliveries, average length of stay ranged from 2.5 days in Egypt to 9.3 days in Ukraine (data available for 30 countries).

Among the high-income countries studied, lengths of stay have been decreasing since the 1970s [2], and currently women in the United Kingdom stay in childbirth facilities for the shortest period of time after singleton vaginal births, with a mean of 1.5 days [3].

Short stays can mean there is insufficient time to conduct checks and detect, diagnose or treat complications in mothers and newborns, which can increase the risk of death or illness. It can also mean there is not enough time to educate and support new mothers, which can lead to problems such as difficulties with breastfeeding and lack of maternal confidence.

Until now, the data available on length of stay after childbirth has been mainly for women in middle- and high-income countries.

The study authors found that across the 30 low-and-middle-income countries with Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data [4], the proportion of women with vaginal deliveries who stayed in health facilities for too short a period after childbirth (less than 24 hours, as defined by the World Health Organization[5]) ranged from 0.1% (Ukraine) to 83.2% (Egypt). The proportion of women with caesarean-section deliveries who did not stay long enough (less than 72 hours, based on recommendations in the United States [6]) ranged from 1.0% (Ukraine) to 75.3% (Egypt).

In half of the 30 countries with DHS data, more than 20% of women who had their babies in health facilities stayed for too short a period after giving birth.

Study lead author Oona Campbell, Professor of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Our new findings suggest that a substantial proportion of women around the world are leaving childbirth facilities too soon after giving birth. This is especially alarming in low-income countries where access to care after being discharged is often limited. It is crucial we make sure not only that childbirth facilities have skilled care attendants and effective monitoring and treatment, but also that women stay in hospital long enough so that they and their newborn babies can benefit from these.

"Labour and the hours that follow are the highest risk period for women and babies, and many women and their families undertake great efforts to reach health facilities to give birth, travelling long distances at expense. The challenge is to commit to achieving adequate lengths of stay for women in low- and middle-income countries, while ensuring any additional time is used to provide high-quality and respectful postnatal care."

The researchers also developed a framework to examine the factors influencing length of stay after childbirth. This looked at the woman or baby's need for care, the woman's characteristics and those of her family and community, the health system, the health facilities and the care providers. For example, a need to return home to care for other children may lead women to stay for a shorter period. In some countries poorer women are retained in health facilities until health care fees are paid, leading to longer stays.

In the analyses, caesarean-section delivery, low birthweight of the baby, multiple births (twins or triplets), and whether the baby survived, led to longer stays. The researchers also found that older women, poorer women, and women who delivered their babies with doctors, were more likely to have a longer length of stay.

The authors note limitations to the study, including lack of data on postnatal length of stay in many countries, which means additional research is needed, and the reliance on self-reporting in the DHS data. They also acknowledge that the wide variations in length of stay between countries are likely to be influenced by national norms and features of the national health systems (such as stipulation for minimum length of stay, or home visits after birth), as well as by the specific needs of mothers and newborns.

Prof Campbell added: "Ultimately, length of stay is an approximation of what we are really after, which is high quality care for women and babies. Future research should disentangle the variations of length of stay after child birth, taking into account the health status of mothers and babies, and assess the extent to which those staying the recommended amount of time are actually receiving the essential components of postnatal care."

###

Oona M.R. Campbell, Luca Cegolon, David Macleod, Lenka Benova. Length of Stay After Childbirth in 92 Countries and Associated Factors in 30 Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Compilation of Reported Data and A Cross-sectional Analysis from Nationally Representative PLOS Medicine. DOI: 0.1371/journal.pmed.1001972

Once the embargo lifts the paper will be available at the following link:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001972

[1] The researchers compiled information on length-of-stay from databases and recent health surveys covering the 92 countries, including Demographic and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Reproductive Health Survey, and databases compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

[2] Trends in length of stay in 23 selected OECD countries with data over time. (View Supplementary Figure 2 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rgbi5dwf6y9z0at/Trends%20in%20length%20of%20stay%20in%2023%20selected%20OECD%20countires%20with%20data%20over%20time%20%28supplementary%20figure%202%29.jpg?dl=0)

[3] National-level data from DHS, OECD, and CDC-RHS on average length of stay after singleton vaginal delivery for 71 countries. (View Figure 2 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9mb3c6u2rusuhzh/National-level%20data%20on%20average%20length%20of%20stay%20after%20singleton%20vaginal%20delivery%20for%2071%20countries%20%28figure%202%29.jpg?dl=0)

[4] The DHS are standardised cross-sectional, nationally-representative household surveys, usually covering 5,000 to 30,000 households.

[5] The World Health Organization recommends all women in resource-poor settings stay in childbirth facilities for at least 24 hours after giving birth: World Health Organization (2013) WHO Guidelines Approved by the Guidelines Review Committee. WHO Recommendations on Postnatal Care of the Mother and Newborn. Geneva: World Health Organization.

[6] The basis for defining a stay that is 'too short' for caesarean births is less clear. The researchers chose 72 hours because the United States deemed stays of 48-72 hours for caesarean-section problematic and legislated that women be allowed to stay at least 96 hours.

About the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health, with more than 4,000 students and 1,000 staff working in over 100 countries. The School is one of the highest-rated research institutions in the UK, and among the world's leading schools in public and global health. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have made two new discoveries with regard to the beta cells' ability to release insulin. The findings can also provide a possible explanation as to why smokers have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study was conducted on mice and donated beta cells from humans, and is now published in the scientific journal Cell Reports.

The researchers have discovered that so-called nicotinic acetylcholine (nicotine-sensitive) receptors influence the normal release of insulin. They also show that a specific genetic alteration renders dysfunctional nicotine-receptors affecting the number of functional nicotine-sensitive receptors found in beta cells. A reduced number of functional receptors leads to a decrease in insulin secretion, thereby increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

"The receptors in the beta cells that stimulate the release of insulin are normally activated by the signal substance acetylcholine, but they can also be activated by nicotine. Never before has the importance of nicotine-sensitive receptors been shown in terms of the function of beta cells. Our research indicates that people who lack these receptors are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes", says Isabella Artner, researcher at Lund University responsible for the study.

Isabella Artner and her colleagues have also discovered that the gene MafA (muscoloaponeurotic fibrosacoma oncogene family A) found in insulin-producing beta cells control the number of nicotine-sensitive receptors and thereby their ability to receive signals from the central nervous system.

"The effect that this single gene, MafA, alone has on insulin secretion was previously unknown, and nicotine receptors have never before been connected to type 2 diabetes", says Isabella Artner, and continues:

"We know that smokers have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but the reason why has not been firmly established. Perhaps it has to do with the nicotine-sensitive receptors we describe. Our findings increase knowledge about the connection between smoking and type 2 diabetes.

###

Article

MafA-Controlled Nicotinic Receptor Expression is Essential for Insulin Secretion and Is Impaired in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

For more information about the study, please contact:

Isabella Artner, researcher at Lund University,

phone: +46 (0)46 222 3829, email: isabella.artner@med.lu.se

Malin Fex, researcher at Lund University,

phone: +46705988792, email: malin.fex@med.lu.se.
Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a new system that allows Web users to share self-selected aspects of their online activity with their friends and the general public. The hope is to give users themselves, as well as academics and other scientists conducting research in the public interest, access to the same type of browsing data that big Web companies currently collect and mine to better target products to individual consumers.

The researchers also hope that systems like theirs could encourage changes in the regulatory environment that would give Web users more control over which of their data are collected and how they're used.

They describe the new system, which they've dubbed Eyebrowse, in a paper presented last week at the Association for Computing Machinery's conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, in San Francisco. The paper also describes the results of a survey of potential end users, which helped guide the system's design, and of a field trial of the system. The findings suggest that Web users could, indeed, find it worth their while to share data about their online activities.

"We thought of a pretty long list of specific applications of this data that were useful to the end user," says David Karger, an MIT professor of electrical engineering whose group began developing the system in 2010. "Awareness of where your friends are, the ability to run into them, the ability to go somewhere and discover that they were there before, and you may want to talk to them about this thing that you both saw. There's the ability to discover what's popular, in a very broad way. There's collaborative filtering."

"Then there's global analytics," Karger continues. "Google has this interesting 50,000-foot view of the Internet, because they know all the clicks. Most people don't. There are lots of interesting questions about social dynamics. What are Democrats reading? You can't answer that question right now. There are things that the population as a whole would be interested in knowing, and also things that scholars would be interested in knowing."

"The trackers don't give us a choice about what gets tracked," he adds. "And I'd really like to demonstrate that giving people a choice has positive benefits. And maybe someday that will turn into legislation that says that people have the right to decide whether they get tracked or not, in certain circumstances. If people do buy into voluntary tracking, then maybe we don't need involuntary tracking, and that would be pretty wonderful."

"But of course, it only works if people want to do it. So a lot of this paper was about understanding whether and how people want to do this."

Managed browsing

For the past year and half, the lead researcher on the Eyebrowse project has been Amy Zhang, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science and first author on the new paper. She's joined by Karger, who is her thesis advisor, and by Joshua Blum, who received his master's in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT this year.

Eyebrowse currently consists of two components: a website and an extension to Google's Chrome Web browser. Installing the extension involves two mouse clicks and takes seconds. Thereafter, anytime the user visits a Web page, clicking the Eyebrowse icon on the browser task bar will pull down a window offering an array of features.

One is the opportunity to add the site's domain name to the user's "whitelist." As long as the Eyebrowse extension is turned on, the system will record the user's visits to pages on whitelisted sites. But the pull-down window also features a switch for turning Eyebrowse off, for private browsing. (The Eyebrowse icon, an open eye, "closes" when the system is off.) Similarly, it offers a button for reporting visits to sites not on the whitelist.

The pull-down window also lists which members of the Eyebrowse community have visited the page and when, any annotations that they have made to the page, a field that allows the user to make his or her own annotations, and a chat window for Eyebrowse users.

Viewing data

The Eyebrowse website looks much like Facebook's "news feed," with a list of pages recently visited by members of the Eyebrowse community. The user can toggle between two versions of the list, one that includes all Eyebrowse members and one that includes only those actively "followed" by the user.

By default, the lists are sorted according to a simple ranking algorithm, which factors in the number of people that have visited each page, the amount of time they spent there, and the time of the last visit. But the lists can also be sorted according to each of those factors independently.

The website also provides visualization tools that allow users to view both their own browsing histories and those of the Eyebrowse community at large, as graphs, pie charts, and "word clouds" that represent the frequency with which particular words turn up in the sites visited by Eyebrowse users.

The field trial involved 24 users, who used the system for varying lengths of time, from a week to almost three months. Most shared between 10 and 25 links a day, but participants whose friends were also using the system tended to share more, as many as 60 or even 80 links a day.

"What we have built in terms of potential applications only scratches the surface of what is possible with this data," Zhang says. "That's why the data that people have contributed to Eyebrowse is available in an API [application program interface] on the website for anyone to build on top of or analyze."

###

Written by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office

Additional background

ARCHIVE: What are your apps hiding?

http://news.mit.edu/2015/data-transferred-android-apps-hiding-1119

ARCHIVE: Democratizing data visualization

http://news.mit.edu/2014/democratizing-data-visualization

ARCHIVE: Learning software development -- by developing software

http://news.mit.edu/2013/6s194-developing-software-0424

ARCHIVE: Making crowdsourcing easier

http://news.mit.edu/2012/making-crowdsourcing-easier
Satish Nadig, M.D., Ph.D., a promising young researcher and entrepreneur at the Medical University of South Carolina, has received a prestigious award from the National Institutes of Health. It will give the transplant surgeon more time in the lab to pursue an innovative approach that could minimize the harmful effects of immunosuppressant therapy.

The Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award, also known as a K08, provides more than $580,000 in funding for Nadig's work over a three-year period. The idea is to cover a lot of costs so young researchers have the freedom to study and work with the help of mentors to give them the experience to become independent investigators.

Prabhakar Baliga, M.D., chairman of the Department of Surgery, said Nadig's award comes at a time when such funding is hard to come by. "The number of surgeons receiving NIH funding has decreased significantly over the past decade, and the number who perform and get rewarded for more challenging basic science work is a smaller number," Baliga said. "Dr. Nadig's innovative approach is transformative and a radical change in how we approach post-transplant immunosuppression."

Nadig will focus on finding a way to help people who receive organs through transplant surgery avoid the possible side effects of the anti-rejection drug rapamycin. Because it's an immunosuppressant, it can lead to infections and heart disease. Nadig hopes to change that.

"The KO8 study will focus on a targeted delivery system using nanoparticle therapy for rapamycin - packaging, delivering and releasing the drug at the level of the transplanted graft as a means of local immunosuppression, thereby eliminating the systemic side effects," Nadig said. He hopes to find a way to use the medication in a specific place instead of allowing it to circulate throughout the body.

"Historically, transplant surgeons have been the ones who have contributed many significant advances to the science of transplantation through basic science research," Nadig said. "So to continue advancing the science, the junior faculty needs a way to learn how to do research at the NIH level. This program provides for that learning experience through conducting meaningful research under the supervision of a senior faculty mentor."

The KO8 grant will allow Nadig to set aside 75 percent of his time for career development research. His study, called "Nanoparticle Therapy for Targeted Drug Delivery in Organ Transplantation," includes the mentorship of Carl Atkinson, Ph.D., with whom he co-directs the Transplant Immunobiology Laboratory, and Ann-Marie Broome, Ph.D.

Nadig said it's critical that junior faculty members learn research methodology early in their careers. "How else are we going to be able to continue to advance the field, if not for the new faculty? Often, the clinical demands are imposing and the surgeon-scientist has difficulty finding time to not only conduct research but also learn from their mentors. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be supported by Dr. Baliga, a leader in the field of transplantation, and have the endorsement of the Department of Surgery at MUSC, where basic science and translational investigation are highly valued."

Nadig said he's honored to receive the award. "It's the perfect example of the value the NIH puts on mentorship in research. Studies show that junior faculty members who are awarded a K08 early in their careers will advance in their research capabilities, often receiving an R01 award, the most prestigious research award the NIH offers, within a few years of the K08 award. "

Nadig has received other awards and recognition. Most recently, during the January 2016 annual American Society of Transplant Surgeons meeting, he was awarded the Vanguard Prize for his paper titled, "Immunosuppressive Nano-Therapeutic Micelles Downregulate Endothelial Cell Inflammation and Immunogenicity." In October of 2015, the Charleston Regional Business Journal named Nadig one of Charleston's "40 under 40," and in May of 2015, ToleRaM Nanotech, LLC, a company co- founded in 2013 by Nadig, Broome and Carl Atkinson, Ph.D., was selected to participate in the SCRA Technology Ventures' South Carolina Launch Program. ToleRaM also won an international Emerging Company award.

Nadig graduated from the MUSC College of Medicine in 2003 and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy-Transplant Immunology degree by the University of Oxford in 2008. He did postdoctoral training in general surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard University Medical School and a fellowship in transplantation surgery at the University of Michigan Health Systems.

###
A new program designed to help New Jersey school districts identify and meet their needs for digital learning was announced by Education Commissioner David C. Hespe at a meeting of the State Board of Education. The state Department of Education will partner with New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) to develop the "Future Ready Schools-New Jersey" recognition program.

The Future Ready Schools-New Jersey (FRS-NJ) program is designed to promote digital learning throughout New Jersey's elementary and secondary public schools, and to engage students in developing 21st -century skills, by encouraging the best use of digital-learning tools by educators, according to Hespe.

"The program's ultimate goal will be to promote transformative change within our state's districts and schools to support student learning and to ensure that they are ready for college and a modern workforce," he said.

"FRS-NJ will provide needed guidance and resources to school administrators, school board members and other school leaders, helping them identify gaps in districts' preparedness for digital learning, then directing them to resources that can help address those gaps," the commissioner explained.

Modeled after the successful Sustainable Jersey for Schools program, and aligned with the national Future Ready Schools program, Future Ready Schools-New Jersey will launch in the fall.

The FRS-NJ program will be housed in the Collaborative for Leadership, Education and Assessment Research (CLEAR) at NJIT, said Kevin Belfield, dean of NJIT's College of Science and Liberal Arts. Within CLEAR, the Education in a Digital Universe project will design, develop, implement and coordinate an integrated program to promote digital learning in school districts.

"The vision is to foster the effective use of digital-learning tools by educators, so that all students will be college- and career-ready citizens, able to be productively engaged in the digital universe," said NJIT President Joel S. Bloom.

NJSBA Executive Director Dr. Lawrence S. Feinsod noted the importance of technological skills for students entering college and the workforce.

"The National Commission on Mathematics and Science for the Twenty-first Century put a number on it: More than 60 percent of new jobs that our students will enter this century will require a background in science, technology, engineering and math," Feinsod said. "The new FRS-NJ program is meeting a crucial need by helping our public schools prepare. The importance of these fields cannot be underestimated."

The FRS-NJ program will be formally launched in October, at the New Jersey School Boards Association's annual conference, Workshop 2016, at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

FRS-NJ will use data derived from the Department of Education's NJTRAx digital-learning technology readiness reporting system, and other metrics. Initially created to track schools' readiness for PARCC online testing, this system has contributed to New Jersey's having the highest state digital-testing rate for PARCC in 2015. Results showed 99.4 percent of all students who took PARCC did so online.

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About NJIT

One of the nation's leading public technological universities, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is a top-tier research university that prepares students to become leaders in the technology- dependent economy of the 21st century. NJIT's multidisciplinary curriculum and computing-intensive approach to education provide technological proficiency, business acumen and leadership skills. With an enrollment of more than 11,300 graduate and undergraduate students, NJIT offers small-campus intimacy with the resources of a major public research university. NJIT is a global leader in such fields as solar research, nanotechnology, resilient design, tissue engineering and cybersecurity, in addition to others. NJIT ranks fifth among U.S. polytechnic universities in research expenditures, topping $110 million, and is among the top 1 percent of public colleges and universities in return on educational investment, according to Payscale.com.
Rutgers-led study finds answers that could improve forecasts of hurricane intensity, reduce losses linked to inaccuracies

A dynamic process that cools the coastal ocean and can weaken hurricanes was discovered as Hurricane Irene made landfall in New Jersey, according to a Rutgers University-led study published today.

The study's findings could help reduce the uncertainty in hurricane intensity forecasts for hurricanes and typhoons that cross coastal ocean waters before striking populated shorelines.

Hurricane track forecasts have steadily improved over the last two decades, but improvements in hurricane intensity forecasts have lagged.

"This is a missing piece required to close the intensity gap for land-falling mid-Atlantic hurricanes in summer," said Greg Seroka, a study coauthor and doctoral candidate in Rutgers' Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences.

The study, published online in Nature Communications, used observations and models from an ocean observatory that has operated for more than a decade in the mid-Atlantic as part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) network.

"We used IOOS to assemble an unprecedented view of a land-falling hurricane during the highly stratified summer season. We discovered new processes responsible for rapid ocean cooling that reduce storm intensities," said Scott Glenn, the study's lead author and a professor at Rutgers.

Stratification is when the ocean is divided into a warm surface water layer and a cold bottom layer in summer.

While accurate forecasts of Irene's track provided time for preparations and coastal evacuations, the top wind speeds in Irene's official forecasts along the mid-Atlantic coast were too high. Uncertainties in intensity forecasts can lead to unnecessary preparation costs, future public skepticism about storm warnings, and other impacts.

Many people did not immediately heed the warnings for Hurricane Sandy in 2012 because Irene wasn't as bad as forecast. Irene weakened to tropical storm strength just before it hit New Jersey.

Incorporating coastal ocean water conditions in forecasts of storm intensity and impacts will be increasingly critical in the Earth's mid-latitude areas as sea levels rise and peak tropical cyclone intensities migrate toward the poles, according to the study.

Rutgers researchers launched the study as Hurricane Irene cruised up the East Coast in late August 2011. They collected data via satellite, radar, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offshore buoys and a Slocum autonomous underwater glider located about 12 miles southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

They found that Irene's winds mixed the coastal ocean's warm surface layer and cold bottom layer, causing rapid cooling ahead of Irene's eye.

"The mid-Atlantic's extensive network of surface current mapping radars indicated that the strong winds on the leading edge of the storm set up the circulation pattern that cooled the ocean surface," said Rutgers' Hugh Roarty, study coauthor and regional coordinator for the radar network.

"Then the ocean and atmospheric models confirmed the forcing mechanisms for the cooling process and its impact on the storm," said Travis Miles, assistant research professor at Rutgers and study coauthor.

"Satellite imagery from before and after the storm revealed that the ocean surface cooled up to 11 degrees Celsius, or 20 degrees Fahrenheit," said Oscar Schofield, a Rutgers professor and study coauthor.

Josh Kohut, another coauthor and Rutgers associate professor, leads a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and N.J. Department of Environmental Protection marine water monitoring program that helped make the discovery. "A U.S. EPA- and N.J. DEP-funded underwater glider demonstrated that most of the cooling took place ahead of Irene's eye," he said.

Robert Forney, a Rutgers undergraduate who participated in the study, said the researchers subsequently "examined the 30-year historical record and found that the cooling occurred in every hurricane that crossed the mid-Atlantic coastal waters in summer."

That included 11 storms from 1985 to 2015.

"We then looked at typhoons in Asia, and found extensive cooling occurred in Super Typhoon Muifa as it crossed the Yellow Sea" in 2011, said Yi Xu, a study coauthor who earned a Ph.D. at Rutgers and is now a researcher at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.

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Another coauthor is Fei Yu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao, China, who used buoy data to confirm the rapid cooling ahead of Muifa's eye.

The study was funded by the NOAA-led U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System through the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, the NOAA Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region through the Disaster Recovery Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, and the N.J. Board of Public Utilities.
BALTIMORE, MD - The Protein Society, the premiere international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2016 Protein Society Awards. The awards will be conferred at the 30th Anniversary Symposium of the Protein Society (July 16-19, 2016, Baltimore, Maryland USA). Plenary talks from each recipient are scheduled throughout the 3.5 day event.

The Carl Branden Award: Dr. Gary Pielak

The Carl Branden Award, sponsored by Rigaku Corporation, honors an outstanding protein scientist who has also made exceptional contributions in the areas of education and/or service to the field. The 2016 recipient of this award is Dr. Gary Pielak (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Dr. Pielak is a long-standing member of the Protein Society and has served as conference organizer twice. The former Rotating Program Director of the National Science Foundation has advanced the field of protein chemistry through pioneering research in unraveling protein biophysics in living cells. Dr. Pielak and his students developed innovative quantitative techniques to measure protein stability and diffusion in crowded samples that interfere with standard measurement techniques. He has also made major advances in elucidating how the intracellular environment impacts both globular and intrinsically disordered proteins in surprising ways. Dr. Pielak has revolutionized our understanding of how proteins work where they actually function -- inside cells --, and not in the artificial environment of the test tube.

The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award: Dr. Rachel Klevit

The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award, sponsored by Genentech, is granted in recognition of exceptional contributions in protein science which profoundly influence our understanding of biology. The 2016 award will be presented to Dr. Rachel Klevit (University of Washington). Dr. Klevit's research contributions have made a profound impact on the way we understand very important aspects of biological chemistry including how phosphorylation alters protein activity, regulation of transcription, and ubiquitylation. From the first structures of a zinc-finger and the RING E3 ubiquitin ligase BRCA1, Dr. Klevit has pushed NMR spectroscopy to establish new paradigms. Her research has been instrumental in understanding the mechanism of disease of two scourges, breast cancer and Parkinson's Disease. Moreover, she has changed the way research in this area is done. She is an exceptional mentor of younger scientists and wonderful role model for other scientists and educators at all stages of their careers.

The Hans Neurath Award: Dr. H. Eric Xu

The Hans Neurath Award, sponsored by The Neurath Foundation, seeks to honor individuals who have made a recent contribution of exceptional merit to basic protein research. In 2016, the Hans Neurath winner is Dr. H. Eric Xu (Van Andel Research Institute). Dr. Xu established and served as the distinguished Director of the VARI-SIMM Center for Drug Discovery at Shanghai Institute of Materia (SIMM) of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Research in his group has previously been supported by four NIH R01 grants, one Senior Investigator Award from American Asthma Foundation, and one past DOD prostate cancer idea development award, which cover structures and drug discovery of nuclear hormone receptors, hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor Met tyrosine kinase, G-protein coupled receptors, and plant hormones. Two of his research papers on plant hormones were selected as top ten breakthroughs by Science in 2009 and by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, and his recent X-ray laser structure of the first GPCR-arrestin complex was also selected as a top 10 breakthrough by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016.

The Christian B. Anfinsen Award: Dr. Andreas Pluckthun

The Christian B. Anfinsen Award, sponsored by The Protein Society, recognizes technological achievement or significant methodological advances in the field of protein science. The recipient of this award in 2016 is Dr. Andreas Pluckthun (University of Zurich). Dr. Pluckthun is a pioneer of protein engineering. By combining rigorous biophysical studies with the invention of new combinatorial and evolutionary technologies, he has advanced both basic and applied science. His research greatly contributed to enabling the emergence of antibody engineering, by the use of E. coli as an engineering platform and studies on synthetic antibodies which led to the first fully synthetic antibody library. To create a true in vitro protein evolution technology he developed ribosome display of whole proteins. Through his work, designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) were created as a robust alternative scaffold for binding proteins. Innovative directed evolution technologies have led to highly stable G protein-coupled receptors that can be used for structural studies and in drug screening. Several engineered therapeutics, developed on the basis of his research, are now in late phase clinical development.

The Emil Thomas Kaiser Award: Dr. Charles S. Craik

The Emil Thomas Kaiser Award recognizes a recent, highly significant contribution to the application of chemistry in the study of proteins. The 2016 recipient is Dr. Charles S. Craik (University of California, San Francisco). Dr. Craik is the founder and director of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program. His research interests focus on defining the roles and the mechanisms of enzymes in complex biological processes and on developing technologies to facilitate these studies. He is also founder of Catalyst Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on therapeutic proteases. The current research in the Craik lab focuses on the chemical biology of proteolytic enzymes, their receptors and their natural inhibitors. A particular emphasis of his work is on identifying the roles and regulating the activity of proteases and degradative enzyme complexes associated with infectious diseases and cancer. These studies coupled with his global substrate profiling and noninvasive imaging efforts are providing a better understanding of both the chemical make-up and the biological importance of these critical proteins to aid in the rapid detection, monitoring and control of infectious disease and cancer.

The Stein and Moore Award: Dr. Jane Clarke

The Stein and Moore Award is named for Nobel laureates Dr. William Stein and Dr. Stanford Moore. The award venerates eminent leaders in protein science who have made sustained, high impact research contributions to the field. The 2016 recipient is Dr. Jane Clarke (University of Cambridge, UK). Dr. Clarke is Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge. Her research is multidisciplinary, combining single molecule and ensemble biophysical techniques with protein engineering and simulations to investigate protein folding, misfolding, and assembly. In her role as Deputy Head of the Chemistry Department in Cambridge, Dr. Clarke became involved in mentoring, career development, and leadership training for scientists at all stages in their careers.

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award: Dr. Benjamin Garcia

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award, named for the academic journal of the Society, Recognizes a scientist generally within the first 8 years of an independent career who has made an important contribution to the study of proteins. The 2016 winner is Dr. Benjamin Garcia (University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine). Dr. Garcia has been developing analytical and computational tools to understand the combinatorial complexity of simultaneously occurring histone modifications, identifying thousands of uniquely modified histone H3 forms, the significance of which is the focus of current research interest (e.g. combinatorial Histone Code). He also been involved in development of advanced mass spectrometry instrumental approaches using electron transfer dissociation and data-independent acquisition to increase the accuracy and precision for protein and proteome characterization. The Garcia lab has been developing and applying novel mass spectrometry based proteomic approaches for interrogating protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), especially those involved in epigenetic mechanisms such as histones, publishing over 170 publications.

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An article recently appeared in newspapers across the state (Feb. 25 Gazette) regarding an incident that occurred in September of 2014 in north central Montana. A group of armed individuals forcibly detained state Game Warden Dirk Paulsen for more than 5-1/2 hours on a public country road in Blaine County, outside the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

^pThe Tribal Business Committee had issued an order that no Fish, Wildlife and Parks personnel may travel through or on lands owned by or associated with the tribes. This, a result of wildlife citations issued to tribal members who had illegally killed elk on Bureau of Land Management  not submarginal or reservation  lands in the vicinity. The animals taken were trophy Missouri Breaks elk. The acts would have been illegal regardless of who pulled the trigger.^p

^pThe group forcibly detained Paulsen, attempting numerous times to disarm him. Had it not been for Paulsens cool head and professionalism, the outcome of this situation would undoubtedly have been tragic. Paulsen was finally allowed to leave the scene and later personally issued a citation by tribal law enforcement for trespassing on a public, county road.^p

Excellent warden

^pThe Attorney Generals Office investigated and produced an extensive report that, to date, hasnt been acted upon. Yet, due to what appears to be nothing more than purely political reasons, Paulsens unlawful detainment has languished in the hands of the attorney general, the governors office and FWP administrators. After almost two years, they continue to allow the issues to simmer, unable to separate submarginal lands jurisdiction from clearly illegal acts. They boiled up again recently and, as a result Paulsen, was ordered by FWP not to set foot on or travel through tribal lands of the Fort Belknap Reservation. Ostensibly, this order was for his personal safety but it also included a caveat that his failure to comply with the order could result in disciplinary action.

In the incident, Paulsens civil rights were violated, as were many state and federal laws  interfering with an officer of the law, coercion, unlawful restraint and a host of others that would constitute kidnapping by any other standard. Had this act been perpetrated by anyone else, they would be in jail. Yet, no action has been taken. Instead, Paulsen has been vilified, the scapegoat of bureaucratic and political indolence and bungling. All this when he, in fact, is the victim. His excellent record of working with tribal members and personal friendships and affiliations with the community are ignored and Paulsen is condemned a racist because he did his duty: investigating and citing people who willfully and knowingly violated state fish and game laws on public, nontribal lands.

Paulsen was and is doing the job that we have entrusted him to do on behalf of all the people of Montana: protect and enhance our wild resources. That these crimes against him have been ignored is absolutely wrong. No Montanan  regardless of affiliation  is above the law. And allowing armed individuals to a take the law into their own hands in a fashion not unlike what recently occurred in Burns, Ore., and do so with impunity is unconscionable.^p

Stop playing politics

^pOn behalf of sportsmen and women and all Montanans, we condemn the treatment of Paulsen. We urge in the strongest terms that the governor, attorney general and FWP administration stop playing politics, beating around the bush, and allowing these issues to fester. They need to voice strong support for Paulsen in both words and deeds.^p

^pThe state also must finally act to resolve jurisdictional issues with the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes. Working relationships with other tribes in Montana, most notably the Confederated Salish and Kootenai, are in place that respect state and tribal rights and sovereignty while also protecting our precious wildlife resources. Fort Belknap should be no exception.^p

^pTo continue to do nothing is to sidestep the responsibility of upholding the laws of the state, seriously diminishes the value of our wild resources and in essence, officially sanctions the illegal actions that took place on that county road in 2014.^p
University of Oregon researchers say the neural circuitry of foraging behavior is similar to fragmentation in human sleep disorders

EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 8, 2016) -- If you have trouble sleeping, the neurons in your brain may be firing like those in roundworms randomly seeking food in the absence of clues, says University of Oregon biologist Shawn R. Lockery.

That connection is proposed in a theoretical neuroscience paper co-authored by 12 researchers at 10 institutions that is in the journal eLife. The research -- 14 years in the making -- was led by Lockery and supported by the National Institutes of Health.

As humans sleep, neurons fire randomly in between brief, alternating states of wakefulness and sleep. Such fragmentation is heightened in sleep disorders.

The fragmentation as seen in the worms -- the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans -- offers a new framework to identify genetic and physiological underpinnings of the neural circuitry involved in sleep, the research team concluded. The nematode brain is the smallest known to science, containing just 302 neurons and making it a simple model from which to gather basic information, Lockery said.

"Our field has a complete wiring diagram of this worm's brain," said Lockery, a member of the UO Institute of Neuroscience. "You can find the same neuron in any animal you look into and learn to understand how individual neurons function."

Researchers in Lockery's lab tested the predictability of mathematically driven equations about random search strategies in the brain. To do so, the worms were removed from access to their usual food -- bacteria in rotting vegetables -- and placed on clean petri dishes with no sensory clues as to where a meal is located.

Initially, the movements of the worms and the neural networks involved were mapped as the worms crawled forward, paused, reversed, and then resumed their search in another direction.

"Every animal faces the need to find food," Lockery said. "In some instances food is undetectable until you basically fall on it: birds looking for marine invertebrates in the sand will move about and peck until they find their meal. This is called random search."

Humans, too, from hunter-gatherers to those who engage in technologically advanced fishing, exhibit similar random-search behaviors but, "no one has known how the nervous system controls this," Lockery said.

With the mapping done, researchers used lasers to knock out neurons. They expected the worms to spend more time in reverse when neurons linked to forward movement were eliminated, or vice versa. Instead, the reaction was symmetrical. Shorter times were found in both forward and reverse movements.

"There are centers in the human brain stem that promote wakefulness and sleep," Lockery said. "They are coupled just like the system we see in the worms. This involves clusters of neurons that are fighting against each other to be active. We constantly wake up and go back to sleep, but we don't remember it. Sleep is random, just the way the worm's movement is."

Researchers have done similar experiments in rats and mice where neurons related to sleep states were manipulated. The findings are consistent.

"The same paradoxical effect that we found in our worms also occurs in these other organisms," Lockery said. "This line of research suggests that we now have a simple way to try to understand how this fragmentation occurs. That's the first step in understanding how medical science might be able to pursue therapeutics that could mitigate extreme cases of fragmentation."

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Co-authors with Lockery were: William M. Roberts, biology professor emeritus, and Serge Faumont, a senior research associate in the Institute of Neuroscience, both of the UO; Steven B. Augustine of University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia; Kristy J. Lawton of Reed College in Portland, Oregon; Theodore H. Lindsay of Caltech; Tod R. Thiele of the University of Toronto; Eduardo Izquierdo of Indiana University; Rebecca A. Lindsay of Children's Hospital Los Angeles; Matthew C. Britton of the University of Minnesota; Navin Pokala of the New York Institute of Technology; and Cornelia I. Bargmann of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at The Rockefeller University in New York.

Source: Shawn R. Lockery, professor of biology, 541-346-4590, shawn@uoregon.edu

Note: The UO is equipped with an on-campus television studio with a point-of-origin Vyvx connection, which provides broadcast-quality video to networks worldwide via fiber optic network. There also is video access to satellite uplink and audio access to an ISDN codec for broadcast-quality radio interviews.
Ichthyosaurs - shark-like marine reptiles from the time of dinosaurs - were driven to extinction by intense climate change and their own failure to evolve quickly enough, according to new research by an international team of scientists.

The study provides an explanation for one of the longest-standing enigmas in palaeobiology: how and why ichthyosaurs died out. Unlike other marine reptile groups, ichthyosaurs disappeared tens of millions of years before the end-Cretaceous extinction (65 million years ago) that marked the end for dinosaurs and the beginning of the age of mammals.

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

First author Dr Valentin Fischer, of the University of Liege, Belgium, and the University of Oxford, UK, said: 'We analysed the extinction of this crucial marine group thoroughly for the first time. We compared the diversity of ichthyosaurs with the geological record of global change, emphasising the dynamics of these datasets.

'Ichthyosaurs were actually well diversified during the last chapter of their reign, with several species, body shapes and ecological niches present. However, their evolution was much slower than earlier in their history. Additionally, they were seemingly negatively affected by the profound global changes going on during the Cretaceous, as their extinction rate correlates with environmental volatility.'

Causes of extinctions - including the demise of the ichthyosaurs, or 'sea dragons' - have often remained elusive and conjectural, particularly when they cannot be linked to an obvious geological or geochemical event such as a large meteorite or massive volcanic eruption. Ichthyosaurs were regarded as undiversified for a prolonged period before their extinction, and their dying out has previously been linked to minor events including increased competition with other marine predators and a decline in their assumed principal source of food.

However, using a battery of cutting-edge techniques to quantify ancient biodiversity and its fluctuations, the team was able to reconstruct the evolution of the ichthyosaurs during the last 120 million years of their lifetime and assess the causes of their extinction. The researchers - comprising Belgian, British, French and Russian scientists - demonstrated that before their extinction, ichthyosaurs were in fact highly diverse, both in terms of body shape and ecological role.

A two-phase event then suppressed their ecological diversity and wiped out the group at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago. At that time, the Earth's poles were essentially ice-free, and sea levels were much higher than today. Analyses revealed that this two-phase extinction can be associated both with reduced evolutionary rates (a failure to evolve novel body plans for a prolonged period) and intense climate change (strong variations in sea surface temperatures and sea levels).

Dr Fischer added: 'Although the rising temperatures and sea levels evidenced in rock records throughout the world may not directly have affected ichthyosaurs, related factors such as changes in food availability, migratory routes, competitors and birthing places are all potential drivers, probably occurring in conjunction to drive ichthyosaurs to extinction.'

This new work supports a growing body of evidence suggesting that a major, global, change-driven turnover profoundly reorganised marine ecosystems at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous, giving rise to the highly peculiar and geologically brief Late Cretaceous marine world. Ichthyosaurs disappeared in the course of this turnover, while numerous lineages of bony fishes and sharks evolved. The extinction of ichthyosaurs thus appears to be one aspect of a larger event - something the team is currently investigating.

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Tampa, Fla. - The current issue of Technology and Innovation, Journal of the National Academy of Inventors has a special section devoted to presentations from the Fourth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) held March 19-20, 2015, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

The NAI Conference provides an annual forum for the celebration of academic invention and inventors and furthers the mission of the academy to recognize and encourage invention and enhance the visibility of university and non-profit research.

This year's conference was successful in that mission, as noted in the prelude to the conference section, gathering "an illustrious array of scholars who spoke eloquently about the importance of invention not only to the academic institutions that foster it but also to the millions who benefit from the positive impacts on everyday life that innovations provide."

The Special Section includes articles selected from presentations given at the 2015 NAI conference. The NAI Conference section is followed by a new T&I feature, the NAI Fellow Profile, which gives an in-depth look at one of the Academy's dynamic innovators.

The inaugural profile is dedicated to Steven Chu (Department of Physics, Stanford University), scientist, Nobel Laureate, and former U.S. Secretary of Energy. The General Section begins with a look at the role of gender in invention output and follows with articles on innovations in medical research, student IP, and groundwater management.

Special Section: NAI Conference Proceedings

A story about basic science, unexpected observations, and the "arduous" process of finding an industrial partner along the road to the commercialization of what became the drug Lyrica is told by Richard B. Silverman (Northwestern University) in "Basic Science to Blockbuster Drug: Invention of Pregabalin."

"This commercialization process was new to Northwestern University, and there were some oversights in the language of the license agreement, resulting in unpleasant experiences with the industrial partner," said Silverman.

However, Silverman's trials were well worth the effort, as patients benefited from the new drug, and he and the university learned important lessons about the commercialization process.

"Global Patterns of Innovation in 2013" were examined by Ashley J. Stevens (Focus IP Group, LLC), revealing some potentially surprising results. According to Stevens, the U.S. remains the top innovator in the corporate, governmental, and academic sectors. "Sixty-six of the top one hundred and one universities receiving U.S. patents were in the U.S.," reported Stevens. However, second place in the innovator competition went to the Asian countries of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, nations that received almost three times as many patents as Germany, France, Italy, and the UK combined in 2013.

Do "failures" help the innovation process? Yes, said authors Yolanda Leslie Comedy (AAAS) and Sorin Grama (Promethean Power Systems). Citing examples of innovation failures before ultimate successes, the authors maintain that "failure can be an effective tool for innovation" in their commentary "The Critical Role of Failure in the Innovation Process." Many innovators, including Thomas Edison, have learned that failure can be a "key to success," as it brings them closer to what works after finding out what does not work, said Comedy and Grama.

"Wireless Health Sensors for In Vivo Diagnostics," developed by a research team at the California Institute of Technology and reported upon at the conference, are able to provide real-time, quantitative information on a patient's metabolites through a digital wireless communication system. "We have developed," said the researchers, "wireless metabolic sensors for continuous in vivo monitoring of disease progression and treatment efficacy... [that] can be used to monitor patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes or cancer, during treatment."

NAI Fellow Profile

Nobel Laureate and physicist Steven Chu (Stanford University) discusses his most recent work and shares his thoughts on innovative science, teaching students to think, and the importance of communication for scientists. The profile highlights Chu's devotion to innovation throughout his career and track record of innovative output, including his efforts at promoting sustainable energy technologies.

General Section: Gender, Technology Transfer, a 'Culture' of Invention, a Clinical Research Model, Groundwater Management

"Does gender matter in invention?" asked Philippa Olsen of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). "Although more women are entering science and technology fields, women are named as inventors on fewer than one in five patents." In "Invention-Does Gender Matter?," Olsen reports on a roundtable discussion the USPTO held in November 2015 on gender, invention, and gender disparities in patenting. The motivation for the roundtable was to determine what forces drive the disparity and what can be done to close the gap.

In "Consideration of Technology Transfer in Tenure and Promotion," University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft and co-authors, who comprised a task force established by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), examine current approaches for defining technology transfer activities and how they may be assessed in terms of faculty performance for consideration in tenure and promotion. Building on survey results collected from U.S. and Canadian universities in 2014, the authors recommend that university policy statements should acknowledge the merit in technology transfer as part of university work and subsequently evaluate the work as an intellectual contribution while also addressing issues of potential conflicts of interest.

Discussing "Creating a Culture of Invention," Phil Weilerstein (VentureWell) and Nathalie Duval Couetil (Purdue University) note that, increasingly, graduate and undergraduate students are engaged in the generation of intellectual property. How best to align student interest with university policy and practices remains a "work in progress." The authors aim at raising awareness of the needs of student inventors and how those needs intersect with the economic, scientific, and educational outcomes of the institution and its constituents.

An evolving model of "protocol-provided clinical" research has become more standardized, suggest co-authors Harry W. Severance and Kevin M. Spiegel, both of Erlanger Health System (Tennessee College of Medicine). The model under discussion features reduced research-specific infrastructure requirements and offers a pathway for non-university-affiliated and community-based hospitals and healthcare facilities to enter clinical research using business and management operations very similar to those of standard-of-care operations.

In "Innovations in Groundwater Management: Smart Markets for Transferable Groundwater Extraction Rights," written by Richael K. Young (Mammoth Trading) and Nicholas Brozovi (University of Nebraska), the authors state that "No national policy on groundwater use exists in the United States, [but] local groundwater management is emerging across the country in response to concerns and conflicts over declining well yields, land subsidence, and depletion of hydrologically connected surface waters." They further explain how "smart markets" can address needs in sustaining rural livelihoods and groundwater resources. By example, the authors cited a model for transferring groundwater pumping rights for irrigation in the High Plains region and describe how barriers can be overcome and more active trading encouraged.

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The Fifth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors will take place April 14-15, 2016, in Washington, D.C.

The National Academy of Inventors is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 3,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 200 institutions, and growing rapidly. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The NAI edits the multidisciplinary journal, Technology and Innovation. The editorial offices of Technology and Innovation are located in the USF Research Park, 3702 Spectrum Blvd., Suite 165, Tampa, Florida, 33612 USA. Tel: +1-813-974-1347. Email: TIJournal@academyofinventors.org
Marina Suarez, assistant professor of geology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. It includes a $478,000 grant to support her top-tier research in paleoclimatology.

"Dr. Suarez is a wonderful asset to the College of Sciences and a shining example of the top-tier research UTSA is known for," said George Perry, Dean of the College of Sciences and Semmes Foundation Distinguished University Chair in Neurobiology.

"The Department of Geological Sciences is very proud of Dr. Suarez's accomplishments at UTSA," said Lance L. Lambert, chair of the UTSA department of geological sciences. "This award will benefit numerous students as they work with Dr. Suarez, and will also advance our growing reputation in paleoclimatology."

Suarez's passion since childhood has been dinosaurs. In 2011, a new species of dinosaur, Geminiraptor suarezarum, was named after her because she discovered it at a site in Utah with her twin sister and fellow paleontologist, Celina Suarez. The animal lived 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, a critical time in Earth's history.

"The Cretaceous Period is really cool because it was this big transition from an archaic terrestrial ecosystem to something more modern," she said. "During this time, we had more diversification in flowering plants, which had never been seen before. Then we started to get birds and more modern mammals. It was a really important time for life."

During the Cretaceous, many of the dinosaurs seen in the Jurassic Park films were roaming the Earth. There wasn't any ice on the Earth's poles, and submarine volcanic eruptions caused dramatic climate fluctuations.

"What I'm really interested in is how the climate has changed, and how the Earth functions with high levels of carbon dioxide," Suarez said. "I'm also going to get into how the Earth comes back to equilibrium from these extreme conditions, and how that effects life."

The period also saw the planet's climate fluctuating between wet and dry conditions. This led to the formation of isolated environments that Suarez calls "genetic islands," wherein new species of plants and animals formed in very specific conditions.

"For plants, temperature and precipitation are very important," Suarez said.

She plans to study Cretaceous rocks in Utah, China, Spain and Texas. Many of the rocks found in San Antonio are from the same period.

"These fossil soils are fascinating because there's an interaction of many different processes," she said. "If you can understand them, you can work back toward understanding the climate of the Earth millions of years ago."

Suarez also hopes her research will impact current studies on climate change, an issue of considerable concern to world leaders.

"If you want to know how the Earth is going to function in these more extreme conditions, we need to know how the climate has behaved in the past," she said. "You really have to go millions of years back in time."

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Patients risk experiencing anxiety and fear when health care does not meet individual patients' needs. New approaches to reduce anxiety for instance over radiotherapy are needed and design research is well-suited to meet these challenges. This is according to a dissertation at Umea University in Sweden.

Patient experiences are complex and shaped by many factors: the care staff, the medical technology patients are subjected to, the information about the treatment process given beforehand and the institutional structures that health care builds upon.

Anxiety can affect more than a third of all cancer patients as they go through treatment, and this anxiety has been directly linked to a decrease in these patients' quality of life. Tara Mullaney has focused her research on the patient experience of radiotherapy; one of the three main forms of treatment for individuals with cancer, which involves the use of highly specialised medical technologies.

Many of us have either experienced for ourselves or heard stories of other people's negative health care experiences, often in response to interactions with medical technologies. For example, within radiotherapy, the cancer patient must be restrained and immobilised in order to be treated, which can result in feelings of anxiety and claustrophobia during this process.

"I wanted to understand why these problematic experiences exist within radiotherapy today, and how design research could help to call attention to and improve the treatment process," says Tara Mullaney.

In her research, she has investigated the different underlying factors of the patient radiotherapy experience, and has identified three factors that play a crucial role in whether patients develop anxiety.

Interactions with the treatment technologies and a lack of adequate preparatory information can directly trigger anxiety and fear in patients. However, care staff often mediate these emotions by fostering feelings of trust in patients, and helping to adapt the technologies to minimise their negative impact. But why are technologies that cause anxiety and claustrophobia developed in the first place?

"My research suggests that patients are not seen as users of medical technologies, despite closely interacting with them, and as a result of their interactions are often not addressed within the technological development process," says Tara Mullaney.

In addition to her research of the patient experience of radiotherapy, she also developed a series of design interventions aimed at improving this experience.

In one project, funded by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, Tara Mullaney led a team of students from Umea Institute of Design in developing special preparation material for young children going through radiotherapy -- to decrease their fear and worry about the treatment process.

In another design, Tara Mullaney developed a new approach for positioning patients, aimed at decreasing patient anxiety by involving them in this process. This concept has been picked up by the Swedish national testbed for innovative radiotherapy, which has received funding from Vinnova to investigate this possibility further.

Tara Mullaney's research provides both evidence for the importance of designing patient interactions with medical technologies, as well as a methodological approach for how this might be accomplished successfully via design research, given the complexity of health care systems.

"There is a need for health care to shift its focus from providing the best treatment to providing the best care to patients. Care is a concept that encompasses more than the treatment of disease; it also includes the way that an individual is taken care of during their time as a patient. Interestingly, by caring for patients and attending to their experience, it is possible to improve both patient well-being and treatment efficacy," says Tara Mullaney.

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The research has been conducted in collaboration with the radiotherapy departments at three hospitals in Sweden; University Hospital of Umea, Karolinska University Hospital, and Uppsala University Hospital.

Tara Mullaney has dual Bachelor's degrees in Molecular Biology and Social Anthropology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, USA. She also has a Master's Degree in Cancer Biology from Stanford University in California, USA, and a Master's Degree in Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, USA. She was born and raised in Rhode Island, USA.
Umea University-led research on mosquito control and Dengue prevention was presented recently at an international conference held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 24-26 February. The findings and insights from the EU-funded DengueTools research consortium could enhance preventive efforts currently underway in Brazil and other countries experiencing a Zika virus outbreak.

"Controlling the mosquito Aedes aegypti is the most effective way to prevent the spread of many diseases, including dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, Zika, chikungunya, epidemic polyarthritis and potentially others," says Raman Preet, project coordinator for DengueTools. "The main challenge for dengue prevention and control are the movement of viruses and mosquitos facilitated by globalisation. Perhaps equally challenging is building a global disease prevention capacity and generating the political will needed to do so."

Stem the Tide, which had more than 400 delegates, was held in Sri Lanka, a dengue endemic country that has actively worked on this issue since 2009 when a large epidemic hit Colombo. Sri Lanka provides a unique context because the country, unlike other Southeast Asian countries, enjoys robust political support for research and efforts to control and prevent the spread of this mosquito-carried virus.

The high-level political support was most notable as the President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, opened the conference. Several Sri Lankan government ministers and health directors attended, as did representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, insect control companies and groups working on ways to use Wolbachia bacteria to prevent the spread of the dengue virus.

"The conference might have concluded the DengueTools project, but our team is already working around the clock on a proposal to repurpose this strong research consortium as part of an answer to EU's call for Zika research," says Raman Preet. "Targeting Zika would be a perfect continuation for the DengueTools consortium."

The conference, which was the final dissemination of the DengueTools project, was an opportunity to share findings and forge new research collaborations. The conference was also attended by the two other EU-funded dengue consortia, IDAMS, by Professor Bridget Wills at the University of Oxford, and DENFREE, by Professor Anavaj Sakuntabhai at Institute Pasteur.

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More information about the Dengue: Stem the Tide conference, can be found at: http://www.conference.epid.gov.lk

More information about DengueTools can be found at: http://www.denguetools.net
Students in Engineering Physics and researchers at Umea University together with the organisation Space Science Sweden have engaged in a revived race to the Moon. They are developing an instrument to measure the electric field of the lunar surface, something that has never been done before.

"This is a great challenge for our physics students and a fantastic opportunity to work with a project that will make an impression on the Moon", says Maria Hamrin, Associate Professor in Space Physics and Programme Co-ordinator for the Master of Science programme in Engineering Physics at Umea University.

The Moon is our closest neighbour in space and the only celestial body visited by humans. The Moon was a hot destination in the 1960s and 1970s, but then our first outpost in space was abandoned for exploration of other parts of the solar system. Since 1976, only one moon-landing has taken place; in 2013 when China launched a robotic moon lander with a rover an unmanned land craft, to perform geologic studies of the Moon.

But, the race to the Moon is on again - and students and researchers at Umea University take part in the chase. In a new exciting project, they will build a measuring equipment that will be launched in a rocket to the Moon in November 2017.

"This is a fantastic project for our students, but also for the University as whole," says Anders Fallstrom, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Umea University. "Space plays an important part in spiking interest in science and in recruiting students to science education programmes. For a university to have students take part in a project that will land on the Moon is really something extra."

The initiative comes from Space Science Sweden, a group in Umea interested in space issues. Together with the German engineering community PT Scientists, they are participating in the Google competition Lunar Xprize with the aim to send a privately funded robot to the Moon. In collaboration with the car manufacturer Audi, PT Scientists has developed a rover that can drive on the lunar surface, place measuring equipment there and send data back to Earth. The Germans called for enthusiasts willing to develop and carry out experiments on the Moon. Space Science Sweden took on the challenge - and were given the assignment.

"We have developed a thermally protected container for scientific measuring equipment," says Sebastian Sjoquist, Space Science Sweden. "Our own experiment aims at making lithium batteries work in vacuum, but we realised we had room for a scientific experiment too."

"They then contacted our students and researchers to add content to the container," says Maria Hamrin. "We chose to build an instrument that can measure the electric field of the lunar surface, because this hasn't been done before."

The electric field puts the lunar dust in motion, which can interfere with electronic equipment. More knowledge about the electric field is important for future missions to the Moon and other places in place.

Research groups in Space Physics and Optical physics will contribute to the project, while students will be the ones building and testing the instrument.

"Like all space missions it's a high risk project since both the rocket, the rover landing on the Moon and its instruments will be exposed to considerable strain," says Maria Hamrin. "Even if something goes wrong, and the instrument are unable to return data, one of our most important goals will still be achieved: We will have shown that it's possible to build scientifically relevant space instruments with limited resources and in collaboration with students."

Umea University has allocated SEK 150,000 to the project, which funds the building and testing of the instrument. PT Scientists sponsors all costs related to the space flight.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (March 8, 2016)--Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) Professor H. Eric Xu will receive the prestigious Hans Neurath Award in recognition of a 2015 discovery that could lead to the development of better, more targeted therapies for many diseases.

The award, presented by The Protein Society and sponsored by the Hans Neurath Foundation, honors individuals who have made a recent contribution of exceptional merit to basic protein research. Xu was selected based on the groundbreaking determination of the structure of a protein complex that includes a member of a protein family targeted by more than one-third of drugs currently on the market. The discovery was published last year in Nature and was hailed as a major breakthrough that will inform therapeutic development for years to come.

"I am honored and humbled to receive this award," Xu said. "Our determination of the structure of the signaling protein arrestin bound to the G coupled-protein receptor rhodopsin was the result of a decade of hard work in collaboration with scientists in the U.S. and abroad, and use of the world's brightest X-ray laser. Receiving the Hans Neurath Award in recognition of these efforts is a truly unexpected and wonderful surprise."

While genes provide the blueprint for life, proteins are both the building blocks and the workhorses. They play vital roles in virtually all biological functions and processes. Similar to structural and functional components that make up a building, the function of proteins in the human body are dictated by their shape and their interactions with other molecules. A better understanding of protein structure and how the structure informs protein function and interaction is crucial for developing more effective and targeted therapies.

"Dr. Xu's recent determination of the very first high resolution structure of an arrestin-GPCR complex--that of the complex of the photoreceptor of human vision (rhodopsin) with visual arrestin--represents a landmark accomplishment in structural biology that provides wide-ranging insight into a host of basic biological and biomedical processes," said Charles Sanders, Ph.D., a member of the Society's Executive Council. "This work well-merits recognition in the form of the Hans Neurath Award of the Protein Society."

The Protein Society will present Xu with the award during its 30th Anniversary Symposium, which will be held July 16-19 in Baltimore. As part of the presentation, Xu will give a talk detailing his work.

Xu joined VARI as a principal investigator in 2002. He also serves as director of the VARI-Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica--a collaboration with one of China's oldest institutions focused on drug discovery.

The Protein Society is an international, multidisciplinary scholarly organization focused on all aspects of protein research. In addition to supporting scientific collaboration and professional development, the society publishes the prestigious journal Protein Science. The Hans Neurath Award, named in honor of the the founder of Protein Science, is one of seven awards presented annually. Honorees are selected following a rigorous peer nomination and review process.

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ABOUT VAN ANDEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research and science education organization committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations. Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, VAI has grown into a premier research and educational institution that supports the work of more than 330 scientists, educators and staff. Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), VAI's research division, is dedicated to determining the epigenetic, genetic, molecular and cellular origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translating those findings into effective therapies. The Institute's scientists work in onsite laboratories and participate in collaborative partnerships that span the globe. Learn more about Van Andel Institute or donate by visiting www.vai.org. 100% To Research, Discovery & Hope
DETROIT-- The National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year grant of more than $3.6 million that will continue to support the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program at Wayne State University.

The WSU-IMSD program, established in 1978 with NIH support as the Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program, was developed and has been led by Joseph Dunbar, Ph.D., associate vice president for research at Wayne State, along with Rasheeda Zafar, Ph.D., the program's coordinator. WSU-IMSD's goals are to facilitate the entry, persistence and success of significant numbers of underrepresented minority students into science majors, ultimately guiding them to pursue careers in academics and scientific research.

According to Dunbar, many undergraduate students that are exceptionally talented and high-achieving -- particularly students from disadvantaged backgrounds, first-generation college students, and/or underrepresented minority students -- lack the academic tools, persistence, confidence and developmental mentoring necessary to persist effectively in a college environment.

"Many of these students are left behind or drift and become emotionally disengaged in their studies, resulting in them dropping out, changing majors or pursuing careers that are 'convenient' and easier to obtain," said Dunbar. "Our goal with the IMSD program has been to integrate research into the basic fabric of their scholarly activities while at Wayne State, giving them a focused and supportive structure to build their skills and confidence, ultimately allowing them to achieve their goals and ambitions."

The impact of the program over the years has been significant, with IMSD student graduation rates at 87 percent, compared to 21 percent for the comparison group of underrepresented minority, non-IMSD students at WSU with comparable high school GPAs and ACT scores. In addition, 64 percent of the IMSD students have gone on to pursue further degrees, compared to just 11 percent of the comparison group.

"Participating in undergraduate research through the IMSD program has been a proven success for our students," said Zafar. "Taking part in undergraduate research not only promotes critical thinking skills but also promotes creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork and a sense of belonging, all of which are important as we move forward in the 21st century. The IMSD program is a catalyst for not only student success, but institutional changes that enhance the success of all STEM and biomedical science students in the future."

"The IMSD program has been a great success because of Joe Dunbar's leadership of the program, as well as Zafar's expertise," said Gloria Heppner, Ph.D., associate vice president for research at Wayne State. "They have done a superb job of bringing together faculty and students to create a personalized experience that focuses on merging academics and research to a diverse student population. Their program is a role model for many universities and reflects how student development and, ultimately, success is increased when students are involved in other academic activities such as research rather than being the passive recipient of knowledge."

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The award number for this National Institutes of Health grant is R25GM058905.

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://research.wayne.edu
LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Direct access to the morning after pill in pharmacy has made making asmart, positive

decision easier, for women not ready to have a baby

New research, released on International Women's Day, shows that across Europe, more than three in four women (77%) are aware of the morning after pill as an option for managing the risk of an unplanned pregnancy after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure.[1]

(Photo: enlace )

Just 12 months ago, access to emergency contraception was a different story, with women in Germany, Italy and Croatia requiring an appointment with their GP to access the morning after pill. The treatment is most effective when taken as soon as possible after contraceptive failure and this was clearly an obstacle for women seeking the best chance of avoiding pregnancy.

Now, one year on, following a ruling by the European Commission, the ellaOne (ulipristal acetate 30mg) emergency contraceptive pill, is available to 25 EU member states via pharmacy. As a result, more than 114 million women in Europe now have direct access to the latest emergency contraceptive pill.[2]

Sexual behaviour The research which looks at the sexual behaviour of women in 20 European markets shows that women aged between 26-35 years are having more sexual encounters than their younger counter parts. The findings show 1 in 5 (21%) 16-25 year old women say they have no sexual encounters on an average week vs just 8% of 26-35 year olds in the same position. Young Bulgarians proved to be the raciest group averaging at four encounters a week, second only to 26-35 year old Finnish women who enjoy sex five times a week!

The weekend was naturally more popular for a bedroom frolic - 76% of women enjoy a liaison on a Saturday - but for Finland sexual activity was much more consistent across the week, averaging at 42% of women who engage in sexual relations Monday-Thursday.

The study also reveals the importance of sex with more than half (52%) of women citing being spontaneous as a key sign of a satisfying sex life along with being in a secure relationship (74%), looking hot for a partner (55%). Interestingly, Southerners (Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal) are more interested in trying out new sexual positions (34%) than their Northern friends. While 1 in 5 ladies in Spain and in the Czech Republic (19% and 22% respectively) attribute the use of bedroom toys as being key to a satisfying sex life (vs 12% European average).

But with spontaneity often comes the risk of unplanned pregnancy and this may be behind the reason why across Europe, 45% of all pregnancies are unintended.[3] "We understand that women don't want sex to be planned and so in instances where unprotected sex has occurred, which is the case in 30% of sexual intercourses,[4] the emergency contraceptive pill is a smart, positive, choice, to remove that uncertainty," says Frederique Welgryn, Women's Health Therapeutic Domain Director from HRA Pharma, the manufacturer of ellaOne.

Interestingly, whilst overall seven in 10 European women would visit their local pharmacy should they need the emergency contraception pill, women in Italy and Germany would be more likely to seek an appointment with their GP.

"Giving women the freedom to buy the morning after pill from their local pharmacy empowers them to choose the contraceptive option that's right for them, whatever the circumstances," continues Frederique Welgryn, Women's Health Therapeutic Domain Director . "Emergency contraception is not a regular form of contraception but is an effective choice for women who have had a contraceptive failure but who are not ready to have a baby and having access to this treatment at any time of day, without making an appointment is critical to making this choice valuable."

"International Women's Day celebrates the equality of women and we fully support the efforts and progress made on empowering the achievements of women across the social, economic, cultural and political spheres," concludes Frederique Welgryn, Women's Health Therapeutic Domain Director . "Knowledge and understanding of the role of emergency contraception is part of this equality journey - putting women of all ages in complete control of their contraceptive choices."

Notes to editor

About emergency contraception and ellaOne There are different types of emergency contraception available; these include the emergency contraceptive pill and emergency intrauterine device (IUD).[5] Emergency contraceptive pills are commonly known as 'morning after pills', because it is best to take them as soon as possible after unprotected [enlace ] sex [enlace ].[5] The morning after pill is an emergency contraception, which acts before pregnancy occurs. If a woman is already pregnant, it is too late for emergency contraception.

Last year, following the European Commission's keynote ruling, authorising ellaOne(R) to be accessible direct from pharmacies throughout the European Union (EU), the pill's owner, HRA Pharma, has embarked on an ambitious roll out program to ensure the product is made available across EU.

Before the landmark decision was reached, most EU countries required a prescription from a doctor in order for women to gain access to the morning-after pill. Now, ellaOne(R) is eventually available without prescription to over 100 million women.

Women of all ages are now able to get ellaOne(R) quickly in order to prevent unplanned pregnancies which enables them to take control of their own future.

About HRA Pharma HRA Pharma is a privately-held European pharmaceutical company that designs products, devices and supporting services in niche areas of health and makes them available to doctors and patients worldwide. The company targets therapeutic gaps in the areas of reproductive health and endocrinology, and uses innovative marketing solutions and socially-conscious programs to promote healthy management of drugs and diseases. Headquartered in Paris, France and with subsidiaries across Western Europe, HRA Pharma has built a strong network of R&D, manufacturing, distribution and NGO partners which enables it to satisfy critical patient needs and improve patient health in over 80 countries across the globe. Visit http://www.hra-pharma.com for more information.

References

1) ellaOne consumer research, Harris Interactive European research n=4,600, February

2016

2) Brache V et al. Ulipristal acetate prevents ovulation more effectively than

levonorgestrel: analysis of pooled data from three randomized trials of emergency

contraception regimens. Contraception 2013;88:611-18

3) Guttmacher Institute. Sedgh, et al, Intended and Unintended Pregnancies Worldwide,

2014

4) Nappi et al. Use of and attitudes towards emergency contraception: A survey of women

in five European countries, Eur Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care.

2014; 19(2): 93-101

5) NHS choices. Emergency contraception. 2015. Available from:

enlace

. [Last accessed 22 February 2016]

Photo:

enlace

(CONTINUA)
BISMARCK  A Bismarck police officer is on administrative leave after the shooting of a 42-year-old Mandan man Sunday night.

According to a statement from the Bismarck Police Department, James Anthony Scott was shot by police at 11:28 p.m. at 32nd Street and Rosser Avenue in Bismarck and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:51 p.m.

The officer was not injured.

Bismarck police responded to a call at 3240 East Thayer Ave. at 11:11 p.m. The caller reported an intoxicated male in the back of the building armed with a shotgun who wanted to kill the caller. Bismarck Police Sgt. Mark Buschena said it is believed the two knew each other though the specifics of the connection are unknown.

As about 10 officers were enroute, they received additional information that the caller was with a neighbor in back of 3220 East Thayer and that one of the two was armed with a handgun.

Dispatch told the caller to move to an area of safety but the caller refused. The caller then reported the man was walking toward him with a shotgun.

As officers arrived, one officer saw the suspect standing in the hallway of 3240 East Thayer, standing next to a long gun.

That information was broadcast to other officers arriving at the scene.

The suspect then ran out the back door of the apartment building, running northbound toward Rosser Avenue.

An officer commanded the suspect to show his hands and get on the ground. The suspect refused, and the officer, believing the suspect to be armed and dangerous, fired his rifle three times around 11:28 p.m., striking Scott.

Police administered first aid. Metro Area Ambulance responded and transported Scott to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police recovered a shotgun from the apartment hallway.

Buschena said Scott was not armed when first aid was administered to him.

What happened up to that point, thats going to part of the investigation, he said.

The officer has eight years of experience with Bismarck police.

Per department policy, the officer has been placed on administrative leave and the case has been turned over to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Buschena said the officer's name will be released when the BCI investigation is completed.

Buschena said, under state law, officers may use deadly force to arrest or prevent escape when the suspect "has committed or attempted to commit a felony involving violence, is attempting to escape by the use of a deadly weapon or has otherwise indicated that the individual is likely to endanger human life or to inflict serious bodily injury unless apprehended without delay."

Its the third shooting in as many months involving Bismarck police officers.

-- On Jan. 23, an officer shot and injured an 18-year-old man who allegedly drove a stolen car at the officer.

-- On Jan. 31, two Bismarck police officers shot and injured a 26-year-old burglary suspect after the man allegedly ignored officers commands and reached for what was believed to be a weapon in his car parked outside a mobile home. Police said a revolver was found in the vehicles front seat.

The three officers involved in the two shootings were initially placed on administrative leave per department policy. They have since been cleared by a psychologist and have returned to non-enforcement duty as the state crime bureau investigates the shootings
Chronic respiratory infection is the most common complication of cystic fibrosis, but the condition can lead to a range of health issues affecting other parts of the body.

The following are some typical CF complications.

Chronic Infections

Pneumonia and bronchitis are common infections in people with cystic fibrosis. Individuals with the disease are at greater risk of getting lung infections because mucus that builds up in the lungs allows germs to thrive. Minimizing exposure to germs is critical for CF patients.

Infections can be caused by routine, community-acquired bacteria such as Streptococcus or Haemophilus; more serious bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus; or gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas or Klebsiella.

Fungal organisms or atypical mycobacteria can also cause infections in people with cystic fibrosis.

There are strict guidelines about steps people with CF should follow to minimize the risk of catching some of the more worrisome infections, says Noah Lechtzin, MD, the director of the adult cystic fibrosis program and an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

As a rule, the CFF advises that people with CF maintain a minimum distance of six feet from other CF patients and people who are ill. (7) Droplets containing germs that are released into the air when someone sneezes or coughs can travel several feet and land in another persons mouth, nose, or eyes.

Bronchiectasis

This chronic condition damages the airways in the lungs (bronchi). The walls of the bronchi thicken from inflammation and infection, making it harder for people with cystic fibrosis to breathe.

Some signs of bronchiectasis resemble acute bronchitis. Common symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing, fatigue, and coughing up green or yellow mucus. (8)

Nasal Polyps

Nasal polyps are benign tumors made up of inflamed tissues. These small sacs can develop in the nose, leading to chronic congestion and difficulty breathing through the nose.

They are more common in people with cystic fibrosis and other conditions such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, and chronic sinusitis. (2)

Respiratory Failure

Lung disease accounts for more than 90 percent of deaths in people with cystic fibrosis, according to CFF data. (9)

Lung tissue is sometimes damaged so badly that the lungs stop working. In this case patients may undergo evaluation and planning for a lung transplant.

Pneumothorax

This condition, also known as a collapsed lung, happens when air leaks from the lungs and collects in the space that separates the lungs from the chest wall. It causes chest pain and shortness of breath. It is more common in older CF patients.

Diabetes

Almost 20 percent of people with cystic fibrosis will develop diabetes by age 30, according to the Mayo Clinic. (2)

Cystic fibrosisrelated diabetes (CFRD) shares some signs in common with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The thick mucus associated with CF causes scarring of the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin. As a result, CF patients can become insulin deficient (like people with type 1 diabetes). Like people with type 2 diabetes, CF patients can become insulin resistant.

People with CFRD may not show any signs or symptoms and may not know they have it unless they are tested specifically for diabetes.

Nutritional Deficiencies or Malnutrition

When the disease causes mucus to block the tubes that carry digestive enzymes from the pancreas to the intestines, your body can't absorb important vitamins and nutrients. This is often referred to as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Approximately 85 percent of CF patients are exocrine pancreatic insufficient. (10)

Studies have shown that prevention of malnutrition is associated with a better course of pulmonary disease and longer patient survival.

Intestinal Obstruction

This type of blockage keeps food or liquid from passing through the bowel.

Distal intestinal obstruction syndrome (DIOS) is a common CF complication, with an estimated 5 to 12 cases per 1,000 patients annually among children, and higher rates reported in adults. DIOS is mainly seen in patients with pancreatic insufficiency. (11)

Blocked Bile Duct

Your bile duct can become blocked and inflamed, which may lead to liver problems or gallstones.

Research suggests that cystic fibrosisassociated liver disease (CFLD) affects approximately 30 percent of CF patients. CFLD is believed to be the third most frequent cause of death in people with CF, after lung disease and complications related to organ transplants. (12)

Acid Reflux

This happens when stomach acid flows back into the esophagus; it can trigger coughing.

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is common in CF patients, with studies estimating its prevalence as ranging from 35 percent to 81 percent. Research suggests that CF patients who have GER have more severe lung disease with lower pulmonary function and increased respiratory exacerbations. (13)

Infertility

Nearly all men with cystic fibrosis are infertile because the tube that connects the testes and the prostate gland becomes blocked with mucus or is missing altogether. (14)

While most women with CF are able to carry a child, impaired lung function and nutrition can raise their risk of health complications during pregnancy.

Osteoporosis and Osteopenia

People with cystic fibrosis are more prone to developing osteoporosis and osteopenia, two common bone diseases. Lung disease and malnutrition associated with CF can compromise bone health.

Low bone mineral density (BMD) is common in adult CF patients.

Certain medications taken by CF patients, such as steroids to help respiratory function, also can adversely affect bone strength.

Arthritis

CF patients have a high risk of joint inflammation and pain, particularly as they age.

Arthritis, the most common type of joint pain in people with CF, can come and go over time.

Dehydration or Electrolyte Imbalance

People with cystic fibrosis have saltier sweat, which may affect the balance of minerals in the blood and be related to dehydration.
Over at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, John Cook, Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, writes about how to teach students about climate change. He rejects teaching the controversy in favor of instruction that both teaches scientific concepts and explicitly mentions and refutes misconceptions.

Discovery Institute takes no position on climate change, but Cook specifically mentions evolution, too. He notes:

The problem with teach the controversy when it comes to human-caused global warming or evolution is that there is no controversy  not a scientific one, at least. Teaching that scientists have major disagreements where they do not is simply to spread misinformation.

I certainly agree with the second part of his statement  if theres no scientific controversy, we shouldnt teach that there is one. But is there a scientific controversy over evolution? Yes, indeed.

There is ongoing debate over whether evolutionary mechanisms can explain lifes diversity. In Altenberg, Austria, in 2008, a group of 16 distinguished biologists got together to discuss holes in neo-Darwinism. Out of this conference came the book Evolution: The Extended Synthesis. The scientists of The Third Way of Evolution reject intelligent design, but question the ability of natural selection and random mutations to generate diverse biological species.

The late biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences Lynn Margulis stated, New mutations dont create new species; they create offspring that are impaired. Over 950 PhD scientists have signed the Scientific Dissent from Darwinism list, affirming they are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. For a summary of weaknesses and links to scientific articles challenging the major mechanisms of neo-Darwinism, read Casey Luskins article, The Top Ten Scientific Problems with Biological and Chemical Evolution.

Given this reality, it would seem that teaching the controversy over evolution is justified. Teaching about misconceptions on evolution, on the other hand, would be inaccurate and, in effect, mislead students.

Our approach to evolution instruction invites students to explore an area of ongoing scientific debate. It exposes them to the full facts of neo-Darwinian biology. It rejects attempts to indoctrinate in favor of teaching students to think like scientists. Thats good science, and good pedagogy.

Image: European peacock butterfly, by Charlesjsharp (Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
The move by major science journal PLOS ONE to pull a peer-reviewed paper over mentions of a Creator and design looks worse and worse. The Chronicle of Higher Education quotes Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch who says the decision to retract the article on hand biomechanics was knee-jerk. This too caught my attention:

Even Elsevier, a leading publisher of subscription-based journals, has had papers that were clearly intelligent design-driven, Mr. Oransky said.

That is a strange off-handed admission. Were always told there is no mainstream support for intelligent design in peer-reviewed science journals. Suddenly there is.

Meanwhile, the Chinese editor of the paper by Chinese researchers is smeared for being an Evangelical Christian. Regarding the claim that the unfortunate language stemmed from mistranslation:

Chinese-language experts contacted by The Chronicle gave differing assessments of whether the problem might have been largely a matter of translation. One suggested the use of creator rather than nature could be a reasonable explanation. Another was less sympathetic and noted the academic editor listed on the paper, Renzhi Han, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University, appears from a web listing to have had an affiliation with the Chinese Evangelical Church in Iowa City, where he previously worked.

The editor, Dr. Han, should be expecting some significant professional retribution right about now. It may or may not be a coincidence that clicking on the People tab at the Han Lab that he directs at Ohio State currently produces an error message  not found on this server. Speaking to the Chronicle, a PLOS ONE spokesman declined to comment on whether Han has been pushed aside in his editorial role. But the same source is reported to have told another website, For Better Science, that Han has in fact been asked to step down.

As we enter the familiar witch-hunt territory, I wonder if Darwinists have done damage to their cause, not for the first time. What are uncommitted bystanders to think when they read about a case like this? And it has indeed been widely covered. Scott Ott at PJ Media observes, Thank goodness scientists know how to jointly exercise message discipline and enforce doctrine with an iron fist.

Sure, it feels good to denounce creationists but the impression of message discipline and doctrine enforcement is undeniable. If I were advising evolutionists, I would suggest that they cool it with the censorship and the invective, leave aside scapegoats like Dr. Han, and instead have an honest argument with high-level design advocates. But this they refuse to do.

Image: Witch burning, by mullica [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Writing in the London Times, Melanie Phillips is on fire with a righteous indignation at the dark ages, the eclipse of wisdom and integrity, into which science has fallen. She starts with climate change but is only warming up:

The problem of scientific integrity, however, goes far wider. Psychology, neuroscience, physics and other scientific areas have been convulsed by revelations of dodgy research. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, has written bleakly: The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. One reason is that cash-strapped universities, competing for money and talent, exert huge pressure on academics to publish more and more to meet the box-ticking criteria set by grant-funding bodies. Corners are being cut and mistakes being made. But whatever happened to peer-review, the supposed kitemark of scientific integrity produced by the collective judgment of other researchers? Well, that seems to have gone south too. In 1998 Fiona Godlee, editor of the British Medical Journal, sent an article containing eight deliberate mistakes to more than 200 of the BMJs regular reviewers. Not one picked out all the mistakes. On average, they reported fewer than two; some did not spot any.

This reminds me of the PLOS ONE Creator censorship story. I was shocked by this statement from a spokesman for the journal:

This past year PLOS ONE published more than 28,000 articles that were handled by a community of more than 6,000 editors and 76,000 reviewers.

Twenty eight thousand articles? Six thousand editors? Seventy six thousand reviewers? Just one journal? That is absurd. The spokesmans point was that despite quality control checks the occasional error, like attributing the human hand to the design of a Creator, should not be unexpected. But with such a volume of material being published, its obvious that some interest beyond the enlightenment of the scientific community is being served. Theres an industrial quality to the enterprise. Is anyone reading all this stuff? Reviewing it? Editing it? Seems not. Or is it more about satisfying metric expectations, box-ticking criteria set by grant-funding bodies?

Phillips:

The problem lies with research itself. The cornerstone of scientific authority rests on the notion that replicating an experiment will produce the same result. If replication fails, the research is deemed flawed. But failure to replicate is widespread.  A 2005 study by John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at Stanford University, said the majority of published research findings were probably false. At most, no more than about one in four findings from early-phase clinical trials would be true; epidemiological studies might have only a one in five chance of being true. Empirical evidence on expert opinion, he wrote, shows that it is extremely unreliable.

What lies behind it all? Simply the pressure facing scholars from the scientific-industrial-publishing complex? Not just that:

Underlying much of this disarray is surely the pressure to conform to an idea, whether political, commercial or ideological. Ideological fads produce financial and professional incentives to conform and punishment for dissent, whether loss of grant-funding or lack of advancement. As Professor Ioannidis observed: For many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias.

Deeper still:

Underlying this loss of scientific bearings is a closed intellectual circle. Scientists pose as secular priests. They alone, they claim, hold the keys to the universe. The resulting absence of openness and transparency is proving the scientists undoing. In the words of Richard Horton, science has taken a turn towards darkness. But science defines modernity. It is our gold standard of truth and reason. This is the darkness of the West too.

Scientists pose as secular priests. True. Now go back and watch that excruciatingly stupid video from Bill Nye where the celebrity science educator dismisses philosophy in the most shallow, ignorant terms.

You can track what James Burnham called the suicide of the West in a number of areas of public life. The general culture is rife with barbarism. Thats nothing you dont already know. But Philips is picking up on a little acknowledged truth. Confined by ideology and a closed intellectual circle, science, far from being an exception to the trend of decline as some might say, is fully part of it.

Image: Eclipse, Lenexa, Kansas, by Abby182000 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
GREAT FALLS  A judge has sentenced two former leaders of a Chippewa Cree online lending company to more than three years in prison for stealing money from the company and taking bribes.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris sentenced Neal Rosette to 38 months and Billi Anne Morsette to 41 months on Monday.

Morris also ordered the pair to pay $1.4 million in restitution.

Rosette and Morsette used to run Plain Green, a short-term Internet lender that charges high interest rates. They also ran the tribe's first lending company, First American Capital Resources.

They pleaded guilty in December to accepting bribes, conspiracy to embezzle tribal funds and to tax fraud charges.

Prosecutors say they took money in a bribery scheme with a Nevada company that received a portion of Plain Green's revenues.
Draghi undermines himself at ECB conference, weakening US dollar by sending euro bullish

NIESR Predict 0.3% GDP in 3 Months to February, GBP reaction mixed.

The pound to euro rate sees a 1.33pct move in the red today.

The GBP is holding firm against the US dollar, just 0.02 down on today's open.

Earlier: Pound sterling finds relief after UK manufacturing prints above-forecast.

The reverse correlation between the USD and the EUR has seen the former weakened by the latters strength.

The pound sterling (GBP) managed to advance after ECB President Mario Draghi inadvertently strengthened the Euro.

According to Jasper Lawler from CMC Markets, Draghi did the hard work of convincing an apparently divided group of European central bankers that a bazooka was needed but committed the cardinal central banker sin of signalling a possible end to what is essentially an open-ended program.

After predicting that the UK economy grew by 0.4 per cent in the three months to January, NIESR predicts that growth may have slowed to 0.3% in the three months to February, weakening Pound Sterling against several of the majors.

Pound / Dollar Live Exchange Rate Today

Here are some key live fx rates below:

On Saturday the US Dollar to British Pound exchange rate (USD/GBP) converts at 0.885

FX markets see the pound vs us dollar exchange rate converting at 1.13.

The pound conversion rate (against euro) is quoted at 1.146 EUR/GBP.

FX markets see the pound vs indian rupee exchange rate converting at 93.308.

FX markets see the pound vs canadian dollar exchange rate converting at 1.542.

NB: the forex rates mentioned above, revised as of 22nd Oct 2022, are inter-bank prices that will require a margin from your bank. Foreign exchange brokers can save up to 5% on international payments in comparison to the banks.

Jack Meaning, NIESR researcher, claims Output growth at the start of 2016 has been subdued. However, it appears that December 2015 may have been a low point for GDP and ... output growth for the first quarter may strengthen slightly.

Positive figures for UK production in January havent been enough to push the pound to rupee exchange rate into an advance.

However, GBP is eroding losses after figures showed 0.7% monthly growth in manufacturing production and 0.3% growth for industrial production.

The UK currency has been a fairly undesirable prospect so far today, as in addition to the only piece of domestic data coming out negatively, the Pound has also been laid low by the days big Brexit event. This follows the high-profile resignation of BCC Director General John Longworth yesterday.

This was a discussion between Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney and Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe, both of whom were answering questions from MPs about the possible economic implications that could stem from the UK Referendum.

In a heated three-hour session, the BoE members were grilled on whether it would be better to stay in the EU or leave it, despite Carney prefacing the talks with the disclaimer that he wouldnt be offering such an opinion.

GBP/USD Exchange Rate Forecasts from Key Financial Houses

Lloyds, in a briefing to clients today, highlight some key GBP/USD levels to watch:

"If the rebound we have witness ed from the 29th February lows at 1.3835 is merely corrective, then this is the region we should stall and turn lower. 2-year rate spreads continue to support this view."

"A decline through 1.4125 would strengthen our conviction."

Scotiabank suggest the GBP/USD exchange rate outlook is neutrall/ bearish:

"GBPUSD is consolidating the late Feb/early March rally but the fact that trend and 40-day MA resistance in the 1.43 area continues to curb gains suggests sterling may struggle to regain more ground from here."

"Favour fading GBP strength here while spot remains below 1.4310."

Further updates to follow.
Hello everyone,



I am in a difficult position and I will appreciate any suggestions to deal with my problem.



I have already applied for PR (Visa 190) and I want to include my girlfriend as a defecto partner. We have been dating for almost two years now. We met in South Korea but we never officially lived together. Although I was spending at lest 3/7 days with her ever week despite living in a neighbouring city. One year ago, I left for Australia for my education and she stayed in Korea for her education. Since then we have been in a long distance relationship and we talk all the time via Skype, FaceTime etc. She visited me twice in Australia and stayed with me for a period of 2 and a half months and one and a half moth respectively. I am also planning to visit her for three months in middle of this year. We also have a joint Australian bank account since August 2015 but we don't use it that often. We use it only when I need to send her some money.



Considering my long post above. Is it a good idea to include her in my application? And the evidence above is enough to prove that we are in a defecto relationship? Kindly comment
CASPER, Wyo.  Former Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill has filed a defamation lawsuit against state Rep. Tim Stubson, who is running for U.S. House, over comments he posted on his Facebook campaign page.

The suit centers around a Feb. 8 exchange on the Tim Stubson, Republican, U.S. Congress page. An unidentified Fremont County journalist asked Stubson for his position on a 2013 law that removed Hill from the Wyoming Department of Education for about a year, until the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

At the time, Stubsons page had 800 followers, according to the suit, which was filed Feb. 22 in Natrona County District Court.

Stubson wrote on Facebook that Hill had committed many illegal acts that werent disclosed publicly. Stubson alleged Hill was out of control, had to be stopped and had committed many illegal acts, the lawsuit states.

The suit claims the attack was part of a continuing pattern of malicious conduct. It further alleges Stubson made the comments to distract voters from his sponsorship of SF104, the legislation that temporarily removed many of Hills powers.

The defendant has repeated such unwarranted personal attacks upon the plaintiff as a tool in deflecting attention from his voting record relating to an act ruled unconstitutional by the Wyoming Supreme Court (SF104,) the suit states.

Hill seeks damages and costs incurred from the lawsuit. She also seeks immediate court action to stop Stubson from commenting on the matter.

Emblem attorney Rob DiLorenzo is representing Hill. Messages left with DiLorenzo and Hill on Monday were not returned.

Stubson, in an interview Monday, said he has the right to political speech. He said he couldnt specifically comment on the lawsuit and will retain an attorney. Stubson is a Casper attorney.

Obviously, I dont want to talk about the specifics of the allegations, he said. Well deal with those as we move through the court system. The thing I would want to say is I really think this is clearly an attempt to swat back at me for efforts I made on the investigative committee.

The Legislature, in addition to passing SF104, investigated Hills conduct in office, held hearings in Cheyenne and issued a report. A legislative report rebuked her for misconduct in office, but did not recommend lawmakers impeach her.

Hills actions went beyond the statutory authority granted to her office, Stubson said.

Stubson said the battle with Hill illustrates how hard it can be to make public officials accountable and transparent  even someone in his own party.

With respect to the congressional race, if people in Wyoming want someone to stick their neck out and demand accountability in D.C.  no matter who it is, no matter what party  I have a record of doing that, he said.

In 2013, DiLorenzo sent a letter to Stubson and other legislative leaders, threatening to sue them for libel if they released legislative report that rebuked her. The leaders released the report, and no libel suit happened at that time.

Stubson was served the lawsuit last week, when he was in Cheyenne for the Legislatures budget session, he said.

He was served the lawsuit Wednesday  a day before he and Gov. Matt Mead, Attorney General Peter Michael and a number of leaders of the Wyoming Legislature were sued over state construction contracts for the Wyoming Capitol reconstruction and other projects.

Rep. Gerald Gay and a Uinta County resident filed the suit. They are being represented by Hills husband, Drake Hill.

Stubson said the two lawsuits could be connected.

To me it appears there are some common fingerprints on these lawsuits, he said. Ultimately, time will bear that out.

When reached via text message, Hill did not comment on the lawsuit itself, but did say the Star-Tribune retained Stubson for legal work in the past.

Stubson works for the Crowley Fleck law firm, which employs about 150 attorneys, according to its website. The Star-Tribune used the services of another lawyer at the firm in October 2013, when DiLorenzo demanded the Star-Tribune retract a headline on a story related to Hill. The Star-Tribune did not retract the headline and Hills attorney did not file a lawsuit.

The Star-Tribune did retain Stubsons services for employment work at some time before that. However, the newspaper is no longer using his services.
LANDER, Wyo.  Wyomings coal mines have proven resilient employers, even amid a historic downturn that has prompted two of the states largest companies to file for bankruptcy.

But with another round of production cuts expected in 2016, the question increasingly is whether Wyoming mines will resort to layoffs in a bid to trim costs and keep their doors open.

Realistically, if these type of market conditions persist, youre going to see more impact on employees, said Jim Thompson, who oversees coal research at IHS Energy, a consultancy.

Wyoming mines have largely avoided the mass layoffs seen in Appalachia because they are surface mines, capable of producing large quantities of coal with fewer employees.

The average Wyoming miner, for instance, was responsible for 29 tons of coal per hour in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A West Virginia miner, by comparison, produced 2.4 tons per hour.

The low labor costs help make Wyoming coal more economically competitive with natural gas than its Appalachian and Illinois Basin competitors.

And that has likely contributed to the hesitancy among coal companies to lay off employees at western operations, analysts said. A slight increase in natural gas prices, now near 17-year lows, would make Wyoming coal competitive again.

In general, folks like to hang onto their workers because its hard to get them back, said Matt Preston, a coal analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

The sentiment is reflected in employment data. Output from Wyoming mines has fallen 14 percent since 2011, but employment has decreased by 6 percent, according to U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Last year, Cowboy State mines eliminated 104 positions, a decrease of 2 percent. Wyoming mines reported 6,560 employees at years end. Production, meanwhile, fell by almost 20 million tons, or 5 percent, to nearly 370 million tons.

The job losses have been relatively limited even at companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Alpha Natural Resources, which entered Chapter 11 in August, saw employment at its Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines decline 4 percent, or 24 jobs, between the end of 2014 and 2015. It finished last year with 561 employees at both operations. Output at the two mines totaled nearly 38 million tons, an increase of 4 percent.

Arch Coal had 47 fewer employees at four Wyoming mines at the end of 2015, finishing the year with a combined payroll of 1,771. Production at its four facilities was down 3 percent, year-over-year, to 108 million tons. The Missouri-based company filed for bankruptcy in January.

Both Arch and Alpha continue to mine while they navigate bankruptcy proceedings.

Companies that have remained out of bankruptcy say they are lowering production estimates for 2015. Their projections come as analysts continue to predict coal markets will remain plagued by weak demand and too much supply.

Peabody Energy, the operator of North Antelope Rochelle, the Rawhide and Caballo mines in Campbell County, has said it expects to curtail its U.S. production by 29 to 34 percent, a figure that also includes its mines in five U.S. states.

The St. Louis-based company eliminated roughly 20 administrative jobs at its Gillette office last summer and is currently battling to stay out of bankruptcy.

Cloud Peak Energy has said it expects to cut production by 6 percent to 15 percent across its operations, which are based in Wyoming and Montana.

The company already cut back production at its Cordero Rojo mine by roughly 12 million tons, or 34 percent, in 2015, as part of a wider strategy to curtail output in the face of weaker demand. The mine shed 18 percent of its 598 person workforce, though some of those workers were transferred to other Cloud Peak operations.

At a certain point, mines costs per ton will rise if production decreases and employment remains flat, Preston said.

In the long run, thats not a good thing, he said.

Cordero Rojo is a part of a wider long-term trend in the Powder River Basin, where mines producing lower quality coal cutback production and workers. The coal produced at Cordero Rojo has a relatively low heat content of almost 8,400 British Thermal Units per pound.

The largest and most profitable mines in the basin, like North Antelope Rochelle and Black Thunder, generally produce a variety of coal closer to 8,800 BTUs.

No major Powder River Basin operation has shed a larger percentage of its workforce than Peabodys 8,500 BTU Caballo mine in the last four years.

Caballo has eliminated 268 jobs, or 67 percent of its workforce, since the first quarter of 2011. The 11 million tons of production Caballo recorded in 2015 represents a 53 percent decrease from its 2011 output.

Kiewit Corp. cut nearly half its workforce at the Buckskin Mine between 2011 and 2015, finishing last year with 217 jobs, according to MSHA data. The Omaha-based company eliminated 51 positions between the last quarter of 2014 and the last quarter of 2015. Buckskins output has fallen from almost 25 million tons in 2011 to 13.7 million tons last year.

Buckskin is an 8,400 BTU mine.

And Alphas Belle Ayr mine has shed 75 positions, or 21 percent of its workforce over the last four years. The 8,550 BTU mine recorded a 25 percent drop in production between 2011 and 2015.

Peabodys Rawhide and Alphas Eagle Butte mines also produce coal near 8,400 BTUs. They recorded employment decreases of 13 percent and 11 percent over the last four years.

I think one of the 8,400 BTU mines will go idle, said Thompson, the IHS Energy analyst. Which one? I dont think I can tell you which one.
March 6-12, 2016, is Agricultural Safety Awareness Program (ASAP) Week. Each day this week, there is a different safety focus. The American Farm Bureau Federation shares a video for each of these days, highlighting the story of individuals who have experienced farm accidents and tragedies, as well as safety tips and reminders.

Attention to safety must be given to all facets of farming, from ATVs and tractors to grain

bins and rural roads.

Farm safety for kids

Unfortunately, children are just as much at risk of dangers on the farm as adults. Farm Safety for Just Kids, an organization committed to educating others about health hazards, injuries and fatalities that can occur on farms as well as to promote safe farms. Farm Safety for Just Kids website offers resources for teaching children about farm hazards and ways to stay safe around farm equipment, around animals and on rural roads.

Farm safety plans

There are physical, chemical and microbiological hazards on farms.

Farm and Dairy online columnist Ivory Harlow explains how crucial a farm safety plan is, not just for farmers, but for family members, employees and customers, too. Minimizing hazards and training farm workers to respond to accidents are steps you can take to promote safety on your farm.

Agritourism

Agritourism is another facet of farming that warrants attention to safety. The National Childrens Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety offers an agritourism document designed to educate family farm owners about how to reduce the risk of illness and injury to children who visit their farms.

FarmandDairy.com farm safety resources
In a letter in The Times today, 42 leading figures from the UK farming industry have called for Britain to remain a member of the European Union.

Launching Farmers for In alongside a host of farmers from around the UK, the signatories argue that leaving the European Union is a risk we cannot afford to take.

Led by former NFU President, Sir Peter Kendall, the letter has been signed by prominent members of the farming community, including: Lord Plumb DL, former President of the NFU and former President of the European Parliament; Rt. Hon. Sir Jim Paice, former Minister for Agriculture and Food; George Lyon, former President of the NFU Scotland; and Jilly Greed, co-founder of Ladies in Beef.

The letter argues: The European Single Market accounts for 73% of Britains agri-food exports and gives us access to a market more than twice the size of the USA. Outside the EU we could keep all or some of this market, but we would have to abide by EU regulations without a say in their formation and pay into the EU budget without receiving EU payments in return. Wed pay, but have no say.

Sir Peter Kendall, former President, NFU, said: Being part of the world's biggest trading block is crucial to the future of our farming and food industry. Not only does it give us direct access to 500 million of the richest consumers in the world but more EU free trade agreements with more than 50 countries mean we can sell into burgeoning markets across the globe.

Environmental threats cross borders, so do the animal and plant diseases which endanger food supplies, and market volatility isn't just a problem for British farmers. It is pointless trying to tackle these challenges unilaterally, at a country level; only by working together with other member states - with common standards and thresholds - will we give farming the security it needs in today's uncertain landscape. I won't pretend the EU is perfect but I'm convinced that as farmers we're stronger, safer and better off inside.

George Lyon, former President of NFU Scotland, former MEP, former Chief Whip and Deputy Finance Minister, Scottish Government, said: As a seventh generation farmer, I know how much stronger and better off the British farming industry is as a result of our membership of the EU. The CAP is far from perfect, but at least it gives us a level playing field on farm support, safety nets at times of crisis, access to markets and the same rules on SPS and marketing. It ensures UK farmers are not disadvantaged against the vast number of heavily supported and protected agriculture sectors around the world. It is my firm opinion that we must not put all of this and more at risk by walking away from Europe.

Rt. Hon. Sir Jim Paice, Farmer, former Minister for Agriculture and Food, said: Farmers have had the certainty of the CAP behind them and whilst it has many faults it is helping them through the current crisis of falling prices. Inside the EU we gain from the strength of farmers elsewhere; outside we would be of little importance in a country where very few people and even fewer politicians have links with farming.

To pretend as some do that we would get better treatment is cloud cuckoo land. Whilst we might be able to abolish some EU regulations it doesnt mean they would not be replaced by UK ones to address the same issues. The pressure groups and the something must be done brigade would still be here and any government will bow to them. Farmers need the EU not just for support but for free access to our main export market; leaving Europe would put it all at risk.

Jilly Greed, co-founder, Ladies in Beef, said: There have been claims from some Brexit MPs that UK food prices could fall by up to 17% if the Common Agricultural Policy was scrapped. Spending on food as a share of total income has already fallen substantially through aggressive discounting between supermarkets.

An unsupported farming industry would be a disaster for consumers, producers, food processors and manufacturers alike, with already squeezed farm gate prices plummeting in the struggle to compete with increased volumes of cheap imported food, produced to lower standards of product safety and animal welfare. This will have a huge long term impact on our glorious landscape, tourism and hospitality sectors as the farming industry becomes utterly unsustainable.

Full text of the letter

Sir,

Leaving the EU is too great a risk for UK farmers.

Those campaigning for Britain to leave put forward a case that outside the EU, UK farmers would retain free access to the European market at the same time as ditching regulations, continuing to receive support payments and benefiting from free movement to plug the shortage of workers for seasonal jobs.

This might sound like an attractive prospect, until you realise that the Leave campaigns have nothing to back up their claims.

The European Single Market accounts for 73% of Britains agri-food exports and gives us access to a market more than twice the size of the USA. Outside the EU we could keep all or some of this market, but we would have to abide by EU regulations without a say in their formation and pay into the EU budget without receiving EU payments in return. Wed pay, but have no say.

The Leave campaigns talk about trying to negotiate a free trade deal similar to the Swiss model. But that would not cover all products and would not give the same unrestricted access as provided by the Single Market. Where we did get duty-free access we would still be required to meet EU standards and regulations.

In other words, the regulatory bonfire weve been promised by the Leave campaigns just wouldnt happen. In any case, some of the worst regulations, as well as the gold-plating of EU directives, happen in the UK, not Brussels.

On direct payments, Leave campaigners have said it is inconceivable any UK government would drastically cut support. But it is government policy, set by Labour and endorsed by the Coalition in 2011, to abolish direct payments in 2020.

What sort of new national farm policy would we end up with outside the EU? The leave camp is hopelessly divided; some want a more protectionist approach whilst others envisage removing all protection and importing food from wherever it is cheapest.

Leaving the EU is a risk we cannot afford to take. It would mean reducing our access to our most important market, little or no reduction in regulation, no influence on future rules, the speedy abolition of direct support and an uncertain future for UK agriculture.

A nightmare scenario, and one we must resist.

Signed by:

 Sir Peter Kendall, former President, NFU

 Lord Plumb DL, former President, NFU, former President, European Parliament

 John Shropshire OBE, Chairman, Gs Fresh, European farmer and grower

 Rt. Hon. Sir Jim Paice, Farmer, former Minister for Agriculture and Food

 Glyn Roberts, President, Farmers Union of Wales

 Nigel Miller, former President, NFU Scotland, Farmer, Scottish Borders

 George Lyon, former President, NFU Scotland, former MEP, former Chief Whip and Deputy Finance Minister, Scottish Government

 Jilly Greed, co-founder, Ladies in Beef

 Adam Quinney, former Vice President, NFU, Beef and Sheep farmer, Warwickshire

 Sir Ian Grant, former President, NFU Scotland, former Chairman, The Crown Estate, former Deputy Chairman, NFU Mutual

 Rosey Dunn, North Carlton Farm, Chair, NFU North East Regional Board

 Di Wastenage, South West Dairy Farmer and Farmers Weekly Farmer of the Year 2015

 Harry Cotterell OBE, former President, Country Land and Business Association and farmer

 Caroline Knox, NFU County Chair, Isle of Wight

 Peter Chapman, former Vice President, NFU Scotland, former Councillor, Aberdeenshire

 Ross Goatham, NFU Chairman, Swale, Owner, AC Goatham and Son, Kent

 Simon Bainbridge, Owner, Bainbridge Farms, Northumberland

 Guy Poskitt, NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board Chair, Yorkshire farmer, Farmers Weekly Farmer of Year 2012

 Andrew Blenkiron, NFU Chairman, East Cambs and West Suffolk, Estate Manager, East Anglia

 David Richardson OBE, Norfolk farmer, Columnist, Farmers Weekly

 Adrian Ivory, Farmers Weekly Young Farmer and Farmer of the Year 2008

 Greg Bliss, former Chairman, Tenant Farmers Association, Cambridgeshire farmer

 Matthew Naylor, Managing Director, Naylor Flowers Ltd.

 David Christensen, Oxfordshire dairy farmer and member of the Board of Representatives, Arla Foods

 James Hook, Managing Director, P.D. Hook Group, Oxfordshire

 Aled Griffiths, J A & O Griffiths & Sons, Shropshire

 Ian Pigott, Chairman, Farming and Countryside Education (FACE), Hertfordshire arable farmer

 Duncan Worth, CEO, AH Worth & Company Ltd, Chairman, QV Foods Ltd.

 Tom Green, Chief Executive, Spearhead International Ltd.

 Michael Sly, Chairman, English Mustard Growers Ltd.

 Sarah Dawson, former Chairman, NFU National Horticulture & Potato Board, Lincolnshire Vegetable Grower

 Ed Salt, Managing Director, Delamere Dairy, Cheshire

 Charlie Fillingham, Managing Director, Strutt & Parker Farms Ltd

 Stuart Roberts, former Chair, AHDB Beef and Lamb, Farmer, Hertfordshire

 Gwyn Jones, Chairman, European Platform for Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture

 Carol Ford, Commercial Director, AC Goatham & Son

 Stephen James, President, NFU Cymru (SIGNED IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY)

 Minette Batters, Wiltshire farmer (SIGNED IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY)

 Mary Quicke MBE, Managing Director, Quickes Traditional Ltd, Devon (SIGNED IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY)

 Richard Butler, R.J. Butler and Son, Wiltshire (SIGNED IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY)

 Richard Lister, Arable and pig farmer, Yorkshire (SIGNED IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY)

 Richard Beldam, Arable farmer, Gloucestershire (SIGNED IN A PERSONAL CAPACITY)
CHEYENNE, Wyo.  A Wyoming judge has ruled in favor of the city of Cheyenne in a lawsuit over public access to government meetings.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle filed the lawsuit in November 2013, the newspaper reported. Attorney Bruce Moats represented the WTE and argued against Cheyenne's efforts to keep the public out of meetings about a plan for a new city employee pay structure.

Moats said such closed meetings violate the state's Public Meetings Act.

City officials defended meetings, saying the group was only making recommendations, not official decisions.

District Court Judge Thomas Campbell ruled last week that the team wasn't subject to the Public Meetings Act.

City Attorney Dan White could not be reached for comment Friday.

WTE publisher Scott Walker says the newspaper is disappointed by the decision.
High school football scores, live updates Week 10 in Fayetteville

Cumberland County high school football scores and North Carolina live updates from Week 10 of the NCHSAA 2022 season in the Fayetteville area.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took their children skiing in Courchevel in France last week.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Prince William and Duchess Catherine flew to the French Alps for a mini vacation with Prince George, two and Princess Charlotte, 10 months, on Thursday (03.03.16) but refused to say exactly where they stayed.

However, the Daily Mail reports that the family of four stayed in the upmarket village in the Les Trois Vallees ski region which is popular with celebrities.

A source told the newspaper: "'I saw a beautiful picture on a mobile phone of them enjoying lunch.

"They were just eating, that's it. It was in a mountain restaurant. I am from Courchevel and I know the mountain behind."

They were also spotted dining at Le Pilatus restaurant, with an employee saying: "They were here Saturday or Sunday, I can't remember exactly. They had a small table, just for four or five people. No one bothered them."

It is likely that their children's nanny Maria Borrallo joined the family on their trip as both William and Catherine are experienced skiers and were no doubt keen to get on the slopes.

A message on the Kensington Palace Twitter page read: "This was their first holiday as a family of four and the first time either of the children have played in the snow."
Neville was defeated by Kevin Owens this week on Monday Night Raw, and when the victor decided to lay another beatdown on his opponent even after the bell had rung to declare him the winner, Canadian Sami Zayn returned to the ring to gain revenge on an old friend who had turned on him in their NXT days.

As a former NXT champ, Zayn has had a colourful career to-date and actually made his Raw debut in May last year, introduced by Bret Hart to face John Cena as the latest opponent in the US Open Challenge.

Unfortunately, Zayn injured himself on the way to the ring after an energetic entrance, putting him on the shelf for a good six months before he could return to action.

Despite the injury the pair put on a good match before Zayn took a break from in-ring action to recover.

Upon his return in recent months he slotted himself back into the running for the NXT Title, but has now made the move up to the main roster after being heavily rumoured to be taking up a major slot at WrestleMania 32 in Dallas.

Bringing back the spark that was lit within his feud with Kevin Owens, it's now very possible that Zayn gets a shot at the Intercontinental Championship on the greatest night in sports entertainment.

WrestleMania 32 takes place April 3, 2016 and can be seen via pay-per-view or on the WWE Network.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Hong Kong-based Must Group has signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) to set up a garment industry in Bangladesh's Ishwardi Export Processing Zone.This company which will produce the garments will be known as M/s Hoi Bun Fashions Ltd. It will be the 4th industrial unit in EPZs under Must Group and is a sister concern of Lenny Fashion Ltd. of Dhaka EPZ, the BEPZA said.

Hong Kong-based Must Group has signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) to set up a garment industry in#

Hoi Bun Fashions Ltd will invest $30 million for setting up the plant with annual production capacity of 10.4 million pieces different types of garments. Hoi Bun Fashions will create employment opportunity for 3755 Bangladeshi nationals, the BEPZA said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Swedish fashion label H&M has been recognised by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the world's most ethical companies for the sixth year.This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ethisphere and the World's Most Ethical Companies designation. Apart from H&M, there was one other company in the apparel industry were honoured this year, H&M announced on its website.We are very proud that H&M is named as one of the world's most ethical companies. Being an honouree for the sixth time recognises our commitment to set ethical standards and practices in the fashion industry. We will continue our efforts to lead the fashion industry towards a more sustainable future where ethical and sustainable standrads is a prerequisite for success, said Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability at H&M."Companies rely on Ethisphere to continually raise and measure the standards of corporate behavior. Those that demonstrate leadership in areas like citizenship, integrity and transparency create more value for their investors, communities, customers and employees, thus solidifying a sustainable business advantage," explainedEthisphere's CEO, Timothy Erblich. "Congratulations to everyone at H&M for being recognized as a World's Most Ethical Company."

In 2016, 131 honourees were named spanning 21 countries and 5 continents and representing over 45 industries.



The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient (EQ) framework developed over years of research to provide a means to assess an organization's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics.



The EQ framework and methodology is determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.



Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance programme (35 per cent), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20 per cent), culture of ethics (20 per cent), governance (15 per cent) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10 per cent) and provided to all companies who participate in the process. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
A punters account of weekly golf bets and free tips on the European Tour (now DP World Tour) and the PGA with some LPGA & Challenge Tour selections. This blog is intended for readers over 18 years of age
For 2015, nonwovens machines producer and Austria based Andritz Group reported an all time high sales of 6,377.2 million, up 8.8 per cent over 5,859.3 million in 2014.Order intake amounted to 6,017.7 million, which the company said in a press release, was also almost the same as the record level of the previous year in which it touched 6,101.0 million.

For 2015, nonwovens machines producer and Austria based Andritz Group reported an all time high sales of 6,377.2 million, up 8.8 per cent over#

The order backlog at the end of 2015 amounted to 7,324.2 million, down 2.5 per cent compared to the end of 2014, when it stood at 7,510.6 million.According to Andritz, the earnings development was satisfactory considering the extraordinary effects in connection with the measures to optimise the value chain at Schuler.To adjust Schuler's manufacturing capacities to the product mix and business volume, an amount of 78 million was considered in the consolidated income statement, it explained.This was partly offset by project-related positive extraordinary effects of some 40 million in the Pulp & Paper business area, the company added.EBITA for the reporting year amounted to 429.0 million, an increase of 13.0 per cent year on year, while EBITA margin too rose 6.7 per cent as against 6.5 per cent in the prior year.Without these extraordinary effects, the EBITA of the Group would have been 467.0 million and the EBITA margin 7.3 per cent.Net income without non-controlling interests for the year under review also surged to 267.7 million vis-a-vis 210.9 in 2014.The net worth position and capital structure as of December 31, 2015 remained solid as total assets amounted to 5,778.0 million and the equity ratio increased to 21.0 per cent compared to 17.3 per cent at end of earlier year.At the annual general meeting to be held on March 30, 2016, the executive board will propose a significant increase of dividend to 1.35 per share for 2015, up from 1.00 in 2014.Andritz, anticipates continued uncertainty in its main markets and largely unchanged project activity in all four business areas, and expects business development to continue on a satisfactory level in 2016.CEO Wolfgang Leitner said, The main focus this year will lie on further flexibility and adjustment of the group-wide cost and organisational structure in order to adapt to the unchanged and volatile market.By doing so, we want to create a basis on which to continue our long-term profitable growth, Leitner informed. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Producer of specialty papers and fibre based engineered materials; Glatfelter is setting up a new manufacturing facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas.The same is subject to the approval of the Fort Smith board of directors and closing on the purchase of the former Mitsubishi Power Systems building located in Chaffee Crossing.

Producer of specialty papers and fibre based engineered materials; Glatfelter is setting up a new manufacturing facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas.The#

Glatfelter will create up to 83 highly-skilled manufacturing jobs at the new facility with a total capital investment of approximately $80 million, the company informed in a press release.Glatfelter's new Fort Smith facility will supply products to a variety of customers, including those who support the broader wipes and hygiene markets.Chris Astley, senior vice president of Glatfelter said, Locating here, benefits our business in a number of ways and equally important, it will allow us to tap into the area's high-quality workforce.It will enable us to expand our capacity to meet our customers' growing demand for our advanced airlaid products, provide us with closer proximity to key suppliers and customers, he added.In addition to the new Fort Smith facility, Glatfelter has 12 production facilities located across the United States, Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom and the Philippines.The company, headquartered in York, Pennsylvania, employs more than 4,300 people worldwide.Glatfelter's products range from highly technical substrates for products like tea bags, single-serve coffee filters, wipes applications, feminine hygiene products, nonwoven wallcoverings and energy storage. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
While in Rome today, Ambassador Thomson held a bi-lateral meeting with the Secretary-General of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Michele Valensise, during which he thanked the Italian Government for its immediate contribution to the Red Cross to assist the victims of Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji. He brought the Secretary-Generals attention to the recent launching of the UN Flash Appeal to fund humanitarian assistance to be carried out in Fiji in coming months and asked the Italian Government to give consideration to a generous response to the Flash Appeal. He was assured of Italys attention to this matter.

Fijis Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Peter Thomson, delivered the lead address to international scientists attending the Conference on Marine Protected Areas in Rome today. He spoke on the important role the scientific community has to play in the approach to the UN Ocean Conference to be held in Fiji 5-9 June 2017, specifically in this case on importance of marine conservation.Ambassador Thomson said marine protected areas were a central target of Sustainable Development Goal 14, the so-called Ocean Goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. He said the UN Conference to be held in Fiji in 2017 would be the first accountable stage for the implementation of the Ocean Goal and that one of the outcomes of the scientists work in Rome this week should be support for the UN Conference in Fiji in relation to marine protected areas.Fijis Ambassador emphasised that the Oceans Goal would be central to reversing the cycle of decline the Ocean is currently experiencing. He said collaboration between the scientific community and policy-makers was going to be essential if the reversal is to succeed.Ambassador Thomson distributed a paper to the Rome Conference on the impacts of sea-warming on Fijis Coral Coast. The paper was prepared by Fijis Ministry of Fisheries & Forests, describing the Coral Coasts early-February seawater temperature increases and their severe impacts on coral-bleaching and marine life mortality. Referring to aspects of ocean warming, acidification, coastal ecosystems and fish-stocks, Fijis Ambassador encouraged the scientific community to examine the linkages between the various targets contained within Sustainable Development Goal 14.Speaking in his role as current President of the Council of the International Seabed Authority, Ambassador Thomson underlined the importance of marine protected areas for biozones outside the jurisdictions of sovereign nations. He said the International Seabed Authority had already established an environmental management plan protecting 30% of the Pacifics strategic Clarion-Clipperton Zone, but that the Authority should now be turning its attention to other oceanic areas requiring conservation. With regard to the biological properties of the waters of the High Seas, Ambassador Thomson called at the forthcoming UN negotiations for a convention on the governance of biological diversity beyond national jurisdictions to incorporate strong provisions for conservation.
The Fijian Government today received $100,000 Fijian Dollars from the Government of the Independent State of Samoa to assist the Fijian Government with relief and recovery efforts in the wake of severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.



Foreign Affairs Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola received the financial assistance from Mrs Aida Savea, Samoan Student Counsellor, University of the South Pacific, who presented it on behalf of the Government of Samoa.



The donation would be directed to the Prime Minister's National Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation account to help those affected by the cyclone.



Minister Kubuabola asked Mrs. Savea to convey his sincere appreciation to the Samoan Government for their assistance and stated that such assistance would go a long way towards providing assistance to the people of Fiji. Minister Kubuabola said the assistance from international development partners especially their bilateral partners was overwhelming.



Minister Kubuabola also used the opportunity to convey his congratulations to H.E. Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi on his recent re-appoint as Prime Minister of Samoa.
The Minister for Tourism Hon. Faiyaz Siddiq Koya today commended the efforts of the Tanoa Group for their contribution towards growing Fijis tourism sector.



Speaking at the executive managements conference for the Tanoa Hotels at Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi this afternoon, Minister Koya said Government was grateful to companies such as Tanoa Group, which are Fijian companies and have continued to show their commitment and confidence towards raising the tourism sector in Fiji.



Government acknowledges the commitment and confidence shown by the group as a Fijian company which has grown into a regional brand and has obviously set the pace for other Fijian business, he said.



We understand that you have in the past year acquired another milestone by overtaking a hotel in Tonga thus adding to the brand in the Friendly Islands.



Minister Koya said while it was important for any business to grow and be sustainable, ensuring all employees and employers knew the product through its leaders was very critical.



Everyone must be on the same page and it is very crucial that in the tourism sector, that our leaders are very well versed with all facets of the job. We need leaders in every front and I am happy that Tanoa continues to stress this to its employees and staff, Hon. Koya said.



People respond to a positive environment in a positive manner and this is a reflection of our leaders.



In a time when Fiji recovers from a category 5 cyclone which has left thousands of Fijian without homes, Minister Koya said positive leadership in the countrys communities and the nation has shown that Fiji and Fijians are stronger than Winston.
Minister for Education Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy yesterday received $423, 000 worth of assistance from the United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to assist in governments efforts in ensuring that students around the country return to normalcy.



The assistance which includes tents, hygiene kits, school in a box kits and water containers amongst other things will ensure that students education are not hindered as the nation rebuilds itself. Minister Reddy said the Fijian Government was grateful for the assistance of UNICEF and the international community in its assistance during the countrys time of need.



Government continues to work closely with donor agencies and the international community to return the country to normalcy and the arrival of the consignment today is greatly appreciated and we would like to thank UNICEF on behalf of the Fijian government and the Fijian people, Minister Reddy said.



This is a tremendous response on their part in being able to put together and transport the relief supplies to Fiji within a week.

The consignment was transported by Emirates Airways from Copenhagen, Denmark via Dubai and Brisbane.



The consignment includes tents, water containers, mosquito nets, antibiotics, Oral Rehydration Sachets (ORS), hygiene kits, school in a box kits, recreational kits, and 7, 481 tarpaulins.



We are truly appreciative of the assistance and hope that we will be able to put these equipment to good use in the areas such as the islands where nothing has been spared, Minister Reddy said.



Assistant Minister for Health and Medical Services Hon. Veena Bhatnagar was also present at the arrival of the relief items.
Nandamuri Balakrishna, who made a few shocking comments, while speaking at Savitri audio launch, a couple of days ago, corrected his comments and explained his intention.

It is known that Balakrishna has gone overboard saying that, his fans wouldn't enjoy him going behind a girl in his movies. "I must either kiss or make them pregnant," he said. Though the crowd broke into laughter, the women on stage appeared visibly uncomfortable.

Apparently, a case was filed against the hero for making such sexist comments, being a senior actor from a respectable family and most importantly, being an MLA.

Opposition party leader and actress Roja demanded an apology and bashed the actor for his unpleasant behaviour. Since the issue has been drawing a huge row, a statement from Telugu Desam Party, was released, quoting Nandamuri Balakrishna's apology.

Going by the press release, Balayya stressed that he has immense respect towards women and he had no intentions to disrespect them. Balayya requested everyone not to see his comments in a sexist view and reiterated that he treats every woman as his own family member.

The actor and MLA added that he imbibed the virtue of respecting women from his father, NT Ramarao and said he was only making those remarks in his films' context. He has also extended the women's day wishes to all sisters across the world.
Ant Financial Services Group is stepping up efforts to create a credit scoring system that can quickly access the credit history of China's 650 million internet users, according to two people familiar with the company.

With the help of a $3 billion war chest that it soon hopes to amass through a second round of private funding, the Alibaba financial affiliate hopes such a system will facilitate even more online shopping and support earnings by making consumer credit more accessible.

Ant Financial, which is controlled by Alibabas chairman Jack Ma, owns Alipay, the Chinese equivalent of PayPal, which has supported Alibaba's marketplaces for more than a decade and now provides users with consumer finance as well payment services. Shoppers on Tmall and Taobao can take a 30-day repayment loan through Huabei, the online personal line of credit that Alipay users can sign up for after just a few clicks, subject to credit clearance.

The credit scoring system has a huge growth potential in Chinese, where only three out of ten Chinese people have a credit history with the Chinese central bank, said one of the people familiar with the company, who requested anonymity because the Series-B funding has yet to close.

More than 60 million payments for purchases on Alibaba's Nov 11 Shopping Day were made through Huabei, representing 8.5% of Alipay's total transactions on that day.

Ant Financial, whose eventual initial public offering is hotly anticipated, is set to close the Series-B funding round by mid-April. That could raise it more than $3 billion in fresh capital, valuing the fast-growing internet company at nearly $60 billion valuation, up from $45 billion just one year ago.

The higher valuation would suggest that some larger investors are still willing to pay a fat premium for the very best internet startups, notwithstanding general concerns about overly expensive share valuations in the technology sector and a pickier stock-buying climate.

A strong private fundraising market has helped technology startups steer clear of [the] burdensome IPO process in China, the second source familiar with the matter said. Investors shrug off concerns about valuations and growth prospects as Alibaba has built a solid track record of monetisation in Chinas internet market.

Its consistent execution and high-quality management team has been highly regarded by investors, the person added.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and CICC advised Ant Financial on its latest funding round.

The success of Ant Financial's latest funding efforts could buttress investor sentiment as other major Chinese technology plays also prepare to bring out the begging bowl.

WeBank, in which Tencent has a 30% stake, is also looking to raise about $1 billion, valuing the company at $5 billion, according to people familiar with the company.

That is after Chinese P2P loans market operator Lufax completed $1.22 billion of funding in January, valuing the Ping An-backed company at $18.5 billion compared with $10 billion in March last year, when it sold Rmb3 billion-worth of stocks in a private placement. Separately, JD.com said its financial affiliate -- JD Finance -- raised $1 billion from its series-A round, valuing the company at more than $7 billion.

International expansion, IPO

Ant Financial, spun off from Alibaba in 2011, runs Alipay, which has more than 400 million active users. It also runs China's largest online money market fund, Yuebao, and food-ordering app Koubei.

Beyond China, Alibaba and Ant Financial became the largest shareholder of One97 Communications, the parent of India e-commerce company Paytm, by investing $680 million in September, underscoring its ambition to grow beyond China.

More recently, Ant Financial hired veteran lawyer Leiming Chen as global general counsel and senior vice-president in charge of legal and compliance as well as risk management, as it prepares to look beyond China to sustain its heady growth rates.

According to a Morgan Stanley report, India's internet market is expected to grow from $11 billion in 2013 to $137 billion by 2020, driven by a mixed bag of mobile user and income growth.

Ant Financial, formerly known as Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial, completed its initial round of fundraising in June 2015, valuing the fintech company at about $45 billion. According to bankers familiar with the company, Ant Financial may mull a late 2016 or 2017 listing if the conditions are right.

They said the company may decide to list their shares in more than one market, as the company continues to expand beyond China's consumer market.

"An IPO may happen in both China and Hong Kong stock markets depending on market conditions," said one senior banker at a US bank in a previous meeting.
With the first $500,000 under its belt, a fundraising task force is launching its second push to provide funding for a new governors residence.

Jim Poolman, co-chair of the group, says the task force is on its way to meeting a $1 million goal by early summer.

Im proud to report we have the first $500,000 that was required  in the bank, said Poolman of the 118 contributions, which include 20 donations from businesses across the state. In addition, 29 current North Dakota lawmakers have donated to the project, as have more than a dozen current and past elected and appointed state officials.

The $500,000 threshold needed to allow construction to occur was hit just before Christmas.

In 2015, the Legislature authorized $4 million from the states Capitol Building Fund and $1 million from private donations to construct the new residence during the 2015-2017 biennium.

The project is on track for construction to begin in August with a tentative completion date of Thanksgiving 2017.

The current 10,000-square-foot residence was completed in 1960.

In January, the group took a short break from fundraising but has resumed its efforts, according to Poolman, who said, since the beginning of the year, another $150,000 has been committed but not yet collected.

Were going to chronicle the progress  on the website, Poolman said of the construction.

The full list of contributors to the governors residence, as well as more information on the project, can be found at www.friendsoftheresidence.com.

Minor changes are still being made to the design of the residence by Chris Hawley Architects of Fargo, according to Poolman.

I think its very important that its a centerpiece for our state, Committee Chairman Rep. Al Carlson, R-Fargo, chairman of the interim Legislative Procedure and Arrangements Committee, said. Wed better make sure we get it right.

Last fall, the Capitol Grounds Planning Commission approved a layout that puts the new home just north of the existing residence, with a public entrance on the east side facing the Capitol and the private entrance on the west side. The commission also unanimously agreed that a one-story home is preferred.
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/07/16 -- US Nuclear Corp. (OTCBB: UCLE) has announced that it was awarded with a $391,174 USD contract to outfit the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, Heavy Water Storage Facility in Canada with smart new tritium area monitors. The monitors were designed specifically for Ontario Power Generation to detect minute amounts of tritium in designated areas, set to alarm and alert workers if the concentration rises too high. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen and can be a hazard when ingested or inhaled; large amounts are produced in heavy-water reactors such as those installed at Darlington.

This contract comes closely after Ontario Power Generation's statement that it is ready to deliver on the $12.8 billion Government investment for refurbishing Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, which is expected to be completed by 2026 and generate about $14.9 billion in economic benefits.

Robert I Goldstein, President, CEO, and Chairman of US Nuclear Corp expressed, "This project has special significance for us. Back in 1986, we outfitted Darlington Nuclear Generating Station with all the original tritium area monitors, which have now been in continuous use for the past 30 years. I believe it is a testament to our craftsmanship and quality that these instruments have successfully and reliably operated for 30 straight years, and that after such a long interval, the customer again selected us to refurbish the facility's tritium monitors moving forward."

The contract was awarded to US Nuclear Corp. through a competitive public tender.

About US Nuclear Corp.

US Nuclear Corp is a fully-reporting, publicly traded company on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, traded under the ticker symbol UCLE. The Company's operations are principally engaged through its subsidiaries, operating two leading nuclear radiation detection companies, Overhoff Technology Corp. and Optron Scientific Company Inc. The Company designs, manufactures and markets branded, full line radiation detection and specialized advanced tritium technology for the nuclear energy industry and for emerging technological processes such as Thorium and Molten Salt (MSR) reactor technologies both domestically and internationally to customers such as United States Government Agencies, the U.S. Military, Homeland Security, Scientific Laboratories, Universities, Hospitals, nuclear reactor facilities in the United States, China, Canada, South Korea, Argentina, Russia and others.

Safe Harbor Act

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from expectations, estimates and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results.

Investors may find additional information regarding US Nuclear Corp. at the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov, or the company's website at www.usnuclearcorp.com
BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - China's exports and imports declined at a faster-than-expected pace in February, data published by the General Administration of Customs revealed Tuesday. Exports slumped 25.4 percent year-over-year in February, much faster than the 14.5 percent decrease expected by economists. Similarly, imports dipped 13.8 percent in February from a year ago, exceeding economists' forecast for a 12.0 percent fall. The visible trade surplus of the country came in at $32.59 billion in February, which was below a $51.0 billion surplus expected by economists. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Australian dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday. The Australian dollar fell to 4-day lows of 1.4863 against the euro and 83.69 against the yen, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.4745 and 84.69, respectively. Against the U.S., the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars, the aussie edged down to 0.7418, 1.0957 and 0.9885 from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.7468, 1.0975 and 0.9917, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.53 against the euro, 80.00 against the yen, 0.72 against the greenback, 1.07 against the kiwi and 0.96 against the loonie. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
PRESS RELEASE: REGULATED INFORMATION

BIOCARTIS TO HOST WEBCAST TO ANNOUNCE ITS 2015 FINANCIAL RESULTS ON 17 MARCH 2016

Mechelen, Belgium, 8 March 2016 - Biocartis Group NV (the 'Company' or 'Biocartis'), an innovative molecular diagnostics company, today announces that it will host a live webcast on Thursday, 17 March 2016 at 14:00h CET to announce its 2015 results, 2016 outlook and update on its menu of Idylla molecular diagnostic tests.

The live webcast may be accessed on the Biocartis website (https://www.biocartis.com/) or by clicking here (http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/ibfsrxoy). To participate in the questions and answers session, please dial in 5-10 minutes prior to the start time using the numbers below, followed by the confirmation code 1026764. The webcast and conference call will be conducted in English. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Biocartis website (https://investors.biocartis.com/en/overview)('investors' (https://investors.biocartis.com/en/overview)) shortly after.



Conference call dial-ins:

London, United Kingdom (standard international): +44(0)20 3427 1914

Brussels, Belgium: +32(0)2 404 0662

Amsterdam, Netherlands: +31(0)20 716 8296

New York, USA: +1646 254 3388

Paris, France: +33(0)1 76 77 22 25

Confirmation code: 1026764

----- END ----

For more information:

Biocartis

Renate Degrave (Corporate Communications & Investor Relations)

+32 15 632 600 | press@biocartis.com

About Biocartis

Biocartis (Euronext Brussels: BCART) is an innovative molecular diagnostics (MDx) company providing next generation diagnostic solutions aimed at improving clinical practice for the benefit of patients, clinicians, payers and industry. Biocartis' proprietary MDx Idylla platform is a fully automated sample-to-result, real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) system that offers accurate, highly reliable molecular information from virtually any biological sample in virtually any setting. Idylla addresses the growing demand for personalized medicine by allowing fast and effective treatment selection and treatment progress monitoring.

Biocartis launched the Idylla platform in September 2014. Biocartis is developing and marketing a rapidly expanding test menu addressing key unmet clinical needs in oncology and infectious diseases. These areas represent respectively the fastest growing and largest segments of the MDx market worldwide.

More information: www.biocartis.com (http://www.biocartis.com/)

This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Biocartis Group NV via Globenewswire



HUG#1992364


Espoo, Finland, 2016-03-08 08:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SRV GROUP PLC PRESS RELEASE 8 MARCH 2016 AT 9.00REDI the only site in Finland heated renewably with biogasAt SRV's REDI complex, Finland's largest urban construction project under way at Kalasatama, Helsinki, the worksite is being heated using clean, renewable Finnish biogas. The use of biogas in site heating is new in Finland, because the REDI site is the only one in Finland to use the biofuel. Biogas began to be used on the site at the beginning of this year. It is estimated that around 8,000 MWh per year of biogas will be required to heat the three hectare site area."Currently, heat produced with biogas is used in the area of the future parking facility on the basement level of the shopping centre. Ground-supported flooring is being built in the parking facility, and at this stage of the construction biogas-operated fans are blowing hot air, keeping the site warm," explains REDI Site Manager Jukka Nikkola.The biogas is supplied to the site from Gasum's gas network, and it is a Finnish biofuel made completely from renewable raw materials. For SRV, too, this is the first time it has used biogas.The REDI complex is Finland's largest on-going urban construction project. The total revenue of the shopping centre, parking facility and a total of eight towers is expected to exceed EUR 1 billion. The REDI shopping centre will open in Autumn 2018. The REDI towers will rise at Kalasatama in stages over the next ten years and the residents of the first residential tower, Majakka, are expected to move into the building at the end of 2018. REDI will be fully completed by 2023.Further information: Jukka Nikkola, Site Manager, REDI, SRV Construction Ltd, jukka.nikkola@srv.fi Heli Pulkkinen, Communications Specialist, REDI project, SRV Construction Ltd, heli.pulkkinen@srv.fiwww.srv.fi www.redi.fiYou can also find us in the social media: Facebook LinkedIn Twitter InstagramSRV - Building for life
Fujitsu Limited Public and Investor Relations Tel: +81-3-3215-5259 URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/

TOKYO, Mar 8, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced that they have jointly conducted an operational trial using blockchain technology(1), which makes it practically impossible to tamper with transaction histories, to shorten the processing time for cross-border securities transactions, from the current three days to same-day settlement.Combining Mizuho Bank's expertise in post-trade processes as a leading Japanese custodian bank with the expertise of Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories in designing and building payment systems, as well as in applied blockchain technology, the companies plan to utilize their respective strengths to create an exceptionally convenient financial system that reduces the risks associated with cross-border securities transactions, such as price fluctuations.BackgroundDue to the complexity of the process for cross-border securities transactions, it usually takes three days from trade execution to final settlement. This is because at each step in the process, from when the trade is initiated at the securities exchange to the actual settlement, a great deal of time is spent checking the settlement instructions and transaction content for inconsistencies. As the asset manager is exposed to such risks as price fluctuations if the counterparty goes bankrupt during the period between executing the trade and completion of the settlement, it is desirable to shorten the settlement process.Previously, there have been attempts to reduce the number of days required for settlement by eliminating this sort of complicated instruction checking process and sharing data through centralized management. However, issues such as the large cost of system operations management made the initiative impractical.Details of the Joint Trial1. GoalThe goal was to enable low-cost, low-risk cross-border securities transactions by building a system utilizing blockchain technology that can almost instantly share matched trade information in the post-trade process as data that cannot be tampered with, but without building a large-scale settlement system from scratch. This would thereby shorten the time from trade execution to final settlement from the previous three days to the same day (figure 1).2. Trial PeriodDecember 2015 - February 2016 (completed)3. Operational Trial SummaryIn conducting this joint trial, Mizuho Bank was responsible for providing its expertise with the securities settlement process, Fujitsu Limited conducted the development, evaluation, and testing of the trial system, and Fujitsu Laboratories undertook the trial application of blockchain technology.Using the blockchain Open Assets Protocol(2), the three companies built a blockchain-forming system in Fujitsu's cloud environment, recording the information from a confirmation (matched trade information: securities name, quantity of securities, currency code, amount, country of settlement, settlement type, settlement date) as one linked block. In the system, continuously generated blocks containing trade information were chronologically linked as blockchain, becoming information that could not be tampered. And, because the information could be shared between multiple companies, the partners confirmed that it was possible to shorten the time required in the post-trade process.4. Developments Going ForwardThe three companies will use the results obtained in this operational trial to consider further the path to practical application of blockchain technology to cross-border securities transactions from March 2016.(1) Blockchain technologyA system where multiple computers connected to a network share and mutually confirm information such as exchange records. Because it lacks a specific manager, it is resistant to tampering and attack.(2) Open Assets ProtocolA protocol that represents assets, such as stocks (trade-execution information and so forth), over the transactions of the virtual currency Bitcoin.About Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 159,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702; ADR:FJTSY) reported consolidated revenues of 4.8 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.* Please see this press release, with images, at:http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/Source: Fujitsu LtdContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
French Building Materials Distribution Business is Another OpenGate Cross Border Transaction

OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of the France-based business, Bois Materiaux ("B&M"), a leading distributor of building materials, from Wolseley plc. In addition to the purchase price, OpenGate Capital is investing 25 million into the B&M business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

B&M is one of the top three, business-to-business distributors of building materials in France and the second largest in Northern France. The business has two established brands: Reseau Pro and Panofrance. B&M also has a single-branch business, Guimier, a specialty supplier of architectural plaster moldings to the Parisian market. B&M distributes building materials to more than 12,000 trade customers in the residential market, evenly split between new-build and renovation projects. B&M is headquartered in Rennes, France, generates more than 600 million in revenue, operates from 138 sites, and has 2,500 employees.

Commenting on the acquisition, OpenGate Capital's founder and Managing Partner, Andrew Nikou said, "We are incredibly excited to have acquired Bois Materiaux today, yet another cross-border transaction for OpenGate. Since the inception of our firm, we have focused our attention on finding great businesses in Europe and North America with untapped potential. B&M is an example of a business that has the ideal operational characteristics, management team, and skilled employee base that will enable OpenGate to create new value."

B&M is an important intermediary between a large number of suppliers and a wide, diffused customer base by providing a large inventory of products across many conveniently located sites across Northern France.

Sebastien Kiekert Le Moult, Partner at OpenGate Capital responsible for leading the transaction stated, "As we examined the B&M opportunity and saw that it had repositioned itself during the downturn in the French building and construction market, we viewed it as a testament to the long-term viability of the business. As we dug deeper into the business, we quickly recognized there were a lot of levers to create more value through supply chain efficiencies, overhauling business systems, and improving sales programs. This is an opportunity perfectly suited for OpenGate's investment strategy, and we're excited to be working with the team at B&M."

Julien Lagreze, Partner at OpenGate Capital's Paris office stated, "The acquisition of B&M affirms OpenGate's position as a trusted partner for corporations pursuing divestitures as part of their larger strategy. That we have a Paris-based team enables OpenGate to move swiftly and efficiently across Europe and enables us to work with sellers on a local-for-local basis."

The acquisition of B&M represents the second investment by OpenGate in the past two months, following the announcement that OpenGate had acquired Power Partners, a US-based power transformer business, earlier this year.

About OpenGate Capital

OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm specializing in the acquisition and operation of businesses seeking revitalization through growth and operational improvements. Established in 2005, OpenGate Capital is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and maintains offices in New York, Paris, France and Sao Paulo, Brazil. OpenGate's professionals possess the critical skills needed to acquire, transition, operate and build successful businesses. To date, OpenGate Capital has executed more than 40 transactions ranging from corporate divestitures to turnaround acquisitions, industry consolidations and other special situation investments. For more information, please visit www.opengatecapital.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308005168/en/

Contacts:

OpenGate Media Contact

Alanna Chaffin, +1 (310) 432-7000

achaffin@opengatecapital.com

or

OpenGate Business Development Contact

Joshua Adams, +1 (310) 432-7000

jadams@opengatecapital.com
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- On the "Here & Now" show, National Public Radio's syndicated hit news and talk show, global fingerprint sensor expert Tore Etholm-Idsoe, CEO of NEXT Biometrics, told millions of listeners across American about the growing use of fingerprint technology in daily life, including Smart Cards, PCs, tablets, access control for homes and businesses, wider use in Smart Phones and more devices in the Internet of Things (IoT).

At NEXT Biometrics, the world's leading provider of lowest-cost high-quality fingerprint sensors, the CEO said, "We target markets for our advanced fingerprint sensors in the mass market one-to-one context, for which you need to be able to process fingerprint identification and authentication in typically less than one second." NEXT, based on Oslo, Norway is publicly traded on the Oslo Bors (OAX: NEXT).

In the NPR interview with Jeremy Hobson, acclaimed host and news anchor of the popular nationwide radio show, Etholm-Idsoe said, "Fingerprint sensors will now start appearing in a lot of different contexts. Think of it, every day we authenticate ourselves tens of times or more, even up to hundreds of times in different contexts, as we increasingly use fingerprint technology to enter smart phones or tablets or even our homes and more."

Promoting the appearance, NPR said, "Fingerprint recognition technology is replacing passwords in smartphones, key fobs and many other consumer products. Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Tore Etholm-Idsoe, CEO of Next Biometrics, about the future of his industry." The interview is posted at: http://tinyurl.com/jbckenz.

Hobson asked Etholm-Idsoe to detail how NEXT Biometrics customers use fingerprint recognition technology. The NEXT executive said, "Rather than having to type in a password, fingerprint technology will be used in a lot of different contexts such as access control for homes and businesses, for small devices that are entering the market now at an increased pace, as well as in keyfobs and many more applications."

He added, "The fingerprint sensor market was slow until 2013 when Apple put a fingerprint sensor on its iPhone and that changed the dynamic of the market considerably. Now you have fingerprint sensors in almost all smartphones."

Asked about security, the CEO said, "Fingerprint sensors significantly raise the bar for criminals who can often break into pin codes and passwords. In fact, the most common password in the world is 'Password.'" He added. "It's not easy to steal a fingerprint and even creating a fake finger requires placing a finger in a mold and a typical victim is not likely to be willing to cooperate. If you suspect someone has stolen your index fingerprint, just change your designated print to another finger, as most people have nine backups."

"Here & Now" is produced by NPR's Boston flagship affiliate WBUR. The show is broadcast weekdays by more than 500 NPR stations in every state, city and region of America. Hobson interviewed the NEXT CEO from his studio in Boston to a studio in New York, where the Etholm-Idsoe was visiting on business before returning to NEXT headquarters in Oslo, Norway.

NEXT CEO Etholm-Idsoe told NPR, "There are a lot of projects happening now to expand fingerprint technology in tons of devices and applications." NEXT has focused its resources on quality dependent market segments that require high levels of security and convenience coupled with the ability to serve close to 100% of a given population. These markets include Smart Cards, NEXT-Enabled markets, traditional markets, high-end smartphones and quality notebooks. NEXT technology is well suited for these markets.

NEXT is on the cutting edge of fingerprint authentication in the potentially huge Smart Card segment. Based on its patented technology, as previously reported by the company, NEXT's durable highly-reliable fingerprint sensors are ultra-thin and flexible for use in expected large smart card market and with its low price leadership, NEXT is also especially well positioned for the growing use in Internet of Things (IoT) market sectors in years ahead.

ABOUT NEXT BIOMETRICS:

Enabled by its patented Active Thermal Principle, NEXT offers high quality area fingerprint sensors at a fraction of the prices of comparable competitors. A wide range of NEXT product formats including Smartphones, Tablets, PC's, Doors, Time registration systems, Payment terminals, Flashdrives, USB-tokens, Key fobs and many more are targeted.

NEXT Biometrics Group ASA, online at www.NEXTbiometrics.com, is a publicly-listed company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with sales, support and development subsidiaries in Seattle, Silicon Valley, Prague, Taipei and Shanghai. Media and Investor contacts for NEXT Biometrics: Tore Etholm-Idse, CEO, Tore.Idsoe@NEXTbiometrics.com and Knut Stalen, CFO, Knut.Stalen@ NEXTbiometrics.com.

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Contact:

Brian Dobson

DobsonPR.com

Email Contact

203-613-2222




KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- FISSION URANIUM CORP. (TSX: FCU)(OTCQX: FCUUF)(FRANKFURT: 2FU) ("Fission" or "the Company") is pleased to announce results from eleven holes at its' PLS property, host to the Triple R deposit, in Canada's Athabasca Basin region: four holes drilled on the R840W zone, two drilled on the R780E zone and five on the R1620E zone. Of key importance, hole PLS16-476 (line 915W), a 60m step out to the west of the recently-discovered high-grade R840W zone, has hit 38.8m mineralization and 1.44m of greater than 10,000 cps. In addition, hole PLS16-462 (line 840W), also drilled on the new R840W zone, has intercepted 71.5m total composite mineralization, including 3.44m of greater than 10,000 cps.

PLS16-476 (line 915W) was a successful follow-up to a new exploration drilling approach using RC (reverse circulation) drills to allow for potentially low cost, high-efficiency exploration to evaluate, on a first pass basis, high-priority areas. PLS16-476 was testing such an area on the PLG-3B conductor.

Of further importance, hole PLS16-464 (line 1485E) has intercepted 53.0m total composite mineralization, including 11.31m of greater than 10,000 cps. This is the strongest hole drilled to date on the expanding R1620E zone. With the intersection of anomalous radioactivity in PLS16-474 (line 1395E) the gap between The Triple R deposit and the R1620E zone has now narrowed to approximately 195m.

Nine holes were mineralized, with eight returning high-grade intervals. The high-grade R600W zone, the high-grade R1620E zone and the newly discovered High-Grade R840W zone have yet to be added to the Triple R deposit resource estimate. The mineralized trend at PLS, including the Triple R deposit, has now reached a total of 2.53km in length.

Ross McElroy, President, COO, and Chief Geologist for Fission, commented

"This superb batch of drill results has delivered two major achievements: it substantially expands R840W - a high-grade zone we discovered last month at the westernmost end of the 2.53km mineralized trend - and it represents further high-grade growth of the R1620E zone towards the eastern end of the trend - a trend that is one of the longest lateral footprints in the Athabasca Basin region. This really is exceptional progress and our team is excited by the potential of both zones as we continue to move PLS forward."

Drilling Highlights Include:

R840W Zone

-- PLS16-476 (line 915W) -- 38.8m total composite mineralization over a 62.3m section (between 168.7m - 231.0m), including -- 1.44 of total composite greater than 10,000 cps -- PLS mineralized trend extended to the west for a total strike length of approximately 2.53 km -- PLS16-462 (line 840W) -- 60.0m total composite mineralization over a 71.5m section (between 143.0m - 214.5m), including, including -- 3.44m of total composite greater than 10,000 cps

R780E Zone

-- PLS16-463 (line 1080E) -- 59.0m total composite mineralization over a 140.5m section (between 204.5m - 345.0m), including -- 3.85m of total composite greater than 10,000 cps

R1620E Zone

-- PLS16-464 (line 1485E) -- 53.0m total composite mineralization over a 56.0m section (between 69.5m - 125.5m), including -- 11.31m of total composite greater than 10,000 cps -- Strongest mineralization to date on the R1620E zone

PLS16-476 was a follow-up based on 3 exploration RC drillholes (PLSRC16-002, PLSRC16-003 and PLSRC16-004) drilled on line 915W. All 3 holes showed anomalous alteration and PLSRC16-004 encountered anomalous radioactivity in chip samples from 167.64m to 172.21m, with a peak to 3700 cps, at which point the core drill was set-up to complete the hole.

The winter program included 6 exploration Reverse Circulation (RC) holes designed to test high-priority exploration targets as an alternative to core drilling by being potentially more efficient and less expensive. Two fences of 3 holes each were designed for line 915W and line 1215W along the PLG-3B conductor trend.

R840W

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Hand-held Scintillometer Results On Mineralized Drillcore (greater than 300 cps / greater than Collar 0.5M minimum) ------------------------------------------------------------ CPS Grid From To Width Peak Hole ID Zone Line Az Dip (m) (m) (m) Range ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- less than 300 - PLS16-462 R840W 840W 325 -80.2 143.0 186.0 43.0 26800 less than 300 - 197.5 214.5 17.0 8500 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-465 R840W 855W 341 -81.4 156.0 157.0 1.0 330 - 400 165.5 166.0 0.5 320 less than 300 - 171.5 221.5 50.0 21100 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-470 R840W 825W 332 -81.6 188.5 189.5 1.0 1400 - 1500 less than 300 - 194.0 197.0 3.0 460 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- less than 300 - PLS16-476 R840W 915W 338 -78.9 168.7 204.0 35.3 22100 208.5 209.5 1.0 610 - 1300 215.5 217.5 2.0 500 - 4600 230.5 231.0 0.5 360 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basement Total Lake Sandstone Unconformity Drillhole Depth From - To Depth Depth Hole ID Zone (m) (m) (m) (m) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-462 R840W NA 97.9 - 99.4 99.4 317.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-465 R840W NA 98.1 - 99.7 99.7 302.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-470 R840W NA 96.3 - 99.0 99.0 317.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-476 R840W (ii) 108.2 335.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(ii) Hole depth to basement determined by RC hole

R780E

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Hand-held Scintillometer Results On Mineralized Drillcore (greater than 300 cps / greater than Collar 0.5M minimum) ------------------------------------------------------------ CPS Grid From To Width Peak Hole ID Zone Line Az Dip (m) (m) (m) Range ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-463 R780E 1080E 341 -69.9 204.5 217.0 12.5 310 - 17300 223.5 236.0 12.5 360 - 57200 255.5 257.0 1.5 370 - 400 less than 300 - 266.5 270.0 3.5 710 less than 300 - 277.5 290.5 13.0 2200 less than 300 - 306.5 310.0 3.5 760 less than 300 - 314.5 318.5 4.0 1600 less than 300 - 327.0 334.0 7.0 900 337.0 337.5 0.5 310 344.0 345.0 1.0 390 - 560 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- less than 300 - PLS16-471 R780E 1110E 339 -66.8 197.0 238.5 41.5 27400 241.0 245.0 4.0 320 - 13100 less than 300 - 286.0 292.5 6.5 1000 301.5 302.0 0.5 400 316.5 319.0 2.5 460 - 1200 322.5 323.0 0.5 380 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basement Total Lake Sandstone Unconformity Drillhole Depth From - To Depth Depth Hole ID Zone (m) (m) (m) (m) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-463 R780E 7.9 NA 66.1 383.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-471 R780E 7.9 NA 68.3 389.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

R1620E

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Hand-held Scintillometer Results On Mineralized Drillcore (greater than 300 cps / greater than Collar 0.5M minimum) ------------------------------------------------------------ CPS Grid From To Width Peak Hole ID Zone Line Az Dip (m) (m) (m) Range ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-459 R1620E 1395E 346 -67.9 No Significant Radioactivity ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-464 R1620E 1485E 329 -73.7 69.5 121.0 51.5 350 - 52000 124.0 125.5 1.5 350 - 1000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-466 R1620E 1395E 349 -87.9 No Significant Radioactivity ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- less than 300 - PLS16-468 R1620E 1470E 339 -70.3 72.0 81.5 9.5 5500 87.0 101.5 14.5 300 - 3300 104.5 115.0 10.5 360 - 4200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-474 R1620E 1395E 367 -71.2 69.5 72.5 3.0 410 - 1200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basement Total Lake Sandstone Unconformity Drillhole Depth From - To Depth Depth Hole ID Zone (m) (m) (m) (m) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-459 R1620E 7.6 NA 66.6 359.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-464 R1620E 7.0 NA 66.9 218.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-466 R1620E 7.5 NA 60.9 296.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-468 R1620E 7.3 NA 67.1 224.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLS16-474 R1620E 7.4 NA 69.5 221.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natural gamma radiation in drill core that is reported in this news release was measured in counts per second (cps) using a hand held RS-121 Scintillometer manufactured by Radiation Solutions, which is capable of discriminating readings to 65,535 cps. Natural gamma radiation in the drill hole survey that is reported in this news release was measured in counts per second (cps) using a Mount Sopris 2GHF-1000 Triple Gamma probe, which allows for more accurate measurements in high grade mineralized zones. The Triple Gamma probe is preferred in zones of high grade mineralization. The reader is cautioned that scintillometer readings are not directly or uniformly related to uranium grades of the rock sample measured, and should be used only as a preliminary indication of the presence of radioactive materials. The degree of radioactivity within the mineralized intervals is highly variable and associated with visible pitchblende mineralization. All intersections are down-hole. All depths reported of core interval measurements including radioactivity and mineralization intervals widths are not always representative of true thickness and true thicknesses are yet to be determined in zones outside of the Triple R deposit. Within the Triple R deposit, individual zone wireframe models constructed from assay data and used in the resource estimate indicate that both the R780E and R00E zones have a complex geometry controlled by and parallel to steeply south-dipping lithological boundaries as well as a preferential sub-horizontal orientation.

PLS Mineralized Trend & Triple R Deposit Summary

Uranium mineralization at PLS has been traced by core drilling approximately 2.53km of east-west strike length in five separated mineralized "zones". From west to east, these zones are: R840W, R600W, R00E, R780E and R1620E. Thus far only the R00E and R780E have been included in the Triple R resource estimate.

The discovery hole of what is now referred to as the Triple R uranium deposit was announced on November 05, 2012 with drill hole PLS12-022, from what is considered part of the R00E zone. Through successful exploration programs completed to date, it has evolved into a large, near surface, basement hosted, structurally controlled high-grade uranium deposit.

The Triple R deposit consists of the R00E zone on the western side and the much larger R780E zone further on strike to the east. Within the deposit, the R00E and R780E zones have an overall strike length of approximately 1.2km with the R00E measuring approximately 125m in strike length and the R780E zones measuring approximately 900m in strike length. A 225m gap separates the R00E zone to the west and the R780E zones to the east, though sporadic narrow, weakly mineralized intervals from drill holes within this gap suggest the potential for further significant mineralization in this area. The R780E zones are located beneath Patterson Lake which is approximately six metres deep in the area of the deposit. The entire Triple R deposit is covered by approximately 50 m of overburden.

Mineralization remains open along strike both to the western and eastern extents. Mineralization is both located within and associated with a metasedimentary lithologic corridor, associated with the PL-3B basement Electro-Magnetic (EM) Conductor. Recent very positive drill results returning wide and strongly mineralized intersections from the R600W zone and the newly discovered R840W zone, located 480m and 765m respectively to the west along strike have significantly upgraded the prospectivity of these areas for further growth of the PLS resource on land to the west of the Triple R deposit. The recently discovered high-grade mineralization in the R1600E zone, located 300m to the east along strike has significantly upgraded the prospectivity for further growth of the PLS resource to the east of the Triple R deposit.

An updated map can be found on the Company's website at http://fissionuranium.com/project/pls/.

Samples from the drill core will be split in half sections on site. Where possible, samples will be standardized at 0.5m down-hole intervals. One-half of the split sample will be sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories (an SCC ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 Accredited Facility) in Saskatoon, SK for analysis which includes U3O8 (wt %) and fire assay for gold, while the other half will remain on site for reference. Analysis will include a 63 element ICP-OES, and boron.

Patterson Lake South Property

The 31,039 hectare PLS project is 100% owned and operated by Fission Uranium Corp. PLS is accessible by road with primary access from all-weather Highway 955, which runs north to the former Cluff Lake mine and passes through the nearby UEX-Areva Shea Creek discoveries located 50km to the north, currently under active exploration and development.

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the company by Ross McElroy, P.Geol., President and COO for Fission Uranium Corp., a qualified person.

About Fission Uranium Corp.

Fission Uranium Corp. is a Canadian-based resource company specializing in the strategic exploration and development of the Patterson Lake South uranium property - host to the world-class Triple R uranium deposit - and is headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia. Fission's common shares are listed on the TSX Exchange under the symbol "FCU" and trade on the OTCQX marketplace in the U.S. under the symbol "FCUUF."

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Ross McElroy, President and COO

Cautionary Statement:

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of Canadian legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or "has the potential to". Forward looking statements contained in this press release may include statements regarding the future operating or financial performance of Fission and Fission Uranium which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may not prove to be accurate. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: market conditions and other risk factors listed from time to time in our reports filed with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and the Company and Fission Uranium disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.

Contacts:

Fission Uranium Corp.

Rich Matthews

Investor Relations

TF: 877-868-8140

rich@fissionuranium.com

www.fissionuranium.com




Completes Agreement with Societe Generale Equipment Finance

WALTHAM, Massachusetts, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --EuroSite Power' Inc., (OTCQX: EUSP the "Company") an On-Site Utility solutions provider, offering clean electricity, heat, hot water and cooling solutions to healthcare, hospitality, housing and leisure centres in the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe is pleased to announce the previously discussed agreement (press release here) with Societe Generale Equipment Finance (SGEF) has been fully executed. Providing project financing for qualifying On-Site Utility installations, the SGEF agreement allows EuroSite to pursue larger and more varied opportunities.

"Covering new On-Site Utility projects in the mid-to-large end of the market, SGEF's committed project financing means we may now confidently and more aggressively target larger opportunities as well as those customers with multiple potential installation sites," said Paul Hamblyn, Managing Director of EuroSite Power. "With this formal financing agreement in place, EuroSite Power is positioning to rapidly expand its On-Site Utility model throughout the UK," Mr. Hamblyn added.

Under the terms of a typical On-Site Utility agreement, highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) systems are installed and commissioned at a customer's facility at no upfront cost to the customer. The reliable clean power technology is owned, operated, and maintained by EuroSite Power and the customer is billed according to their usage, at a guaranteed discounted rate to local utility fee structures. Because EuroSite Power assumes all the upfront expense of equipment purchase and installation, in the past the Company was constrained by availability of funds in its pursuit of appropriate customer installation projects. The addition of SGEF's committed project financing removes this hurdle and lays the foundation for strong growth.

To facilitate growth in installations and project backlog, the Company has hired additional sales personnel. The new talent will work hand in hand with SGEF's dedicated account management team to streamline the credit and project approval process.

Speaking about the new financing and sales team additions, EuroSite Power chief executive officer Dr. Elias Samaras noted, "This formal agreement for project financing marks a milestone for the Company. As was laid out on the most recent quarterly earnings call, we are extremely focused on executing on our business plan and delivering shareholder value via the previously outlined growth initiatives. The finalized agreement with Societe Generale for project financing, along with the Corona Energy agreement securing discounted long term natural gas supply, give the Company a solid competitive advantage in the market place for winning new business."

As of January 31, 2016, EuroSite Power operated 30 systems totaling 3,078 kW of installed capacity with a combined contract value of $84.9 million.

On-Site Utility

EuroSite Power sells the energy produced from an onsite energy system to an individual property as an alternative to the outright sale of energy equipment. On-Site Utility solution customers only pay for the energy produced by the system and receive a guaranteed discount rate on the price of the energy. All system capital, installation, operating expenses and support are paid by EuroSite Power.

About EuroSite Power

EuroSite Power Limited is a subsidiary of American DG Energy Inc. (NYSE MKT: ADGE). The Company provides institutional, commercial and small industrial facilities with clean, reliable power, cooling, heat and hot water at lower costs than charged by conventional energy suppliers - without any capital or start-up costs to the energy user. More information can be found at www.eurositepower.co.uk.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, as disclosed on the Company's website and in Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. This press release does not constitute an offer to buy or sell securities by the Company, its subsidiaries or any associated party and is meant purely for informational purposes. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, even if subsequently made available by the Company on its website or otherwise. The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.
BOTTINEAU  A man charged with killing two fellow employees of a hog farm near Souris in north-central North Dakota was sentenced to 45 years in prison Thursday.

Jeremy Isaac Rodriguez Rios, 20, was charged with two counts of murder, both Class AA felonies, in Bottineau County District Court after police say he confessed to fatally shooting Brian Story, 37, and Christopher Sluder, 50, on March 24, 2015, at Turtle Mountain Pork, a commercial hog operation where all three men worked, according to court records.

Rodriguez Rios, of Bottineau, entered an Alford plea Thursday, which means he entered the plea as part of an agreement without actually admitting guilt.

He was sentenced Thursday to 45 years in prison for each of his murder charges, to be served at the same time, with credit for 337 days served, in addition to $1,025 in fees. He had previously faced a maximum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bottineau County Sheriffs deputies found Sluder and Story shot to death at the hog farm after 911 callers reported the two employees were unconscious, according to court records. The farm is between Landa and Souris, about 75 miles northeast of Minot.

Deputies found one of the men in a hallway connecting two of the hog barns, the other in a hog barn on a walkway between pigpens, and multiple spent 9 mm Winchester Luger cartridges near one of the victims, according to a court records.

Employees told authorities Rodriguez Rios was among a group of employees who allegedly engaged in a verbal altercation with Sluder and Story about employee work performance, according to court records.

Rodriguez Rios was arrested after officers questioned him about a picture of a black handgun that was posted to his Facebook page 10 days before the murders, a criminal affidavit said. Officers then obtained a search warrant for the suspects apartment, which had a firearm case for a 9 mm handgun, a box of Winchester 9 mm ammunition and a cellphone.

According to the affidavit, Rodriguez Rios admitted he shot both victims and disposed of the handgun in a sewage pit located below the hog barns.

Sluder, originally of Melvern, Kan., was married and had a son and a daughter, according to his obituary. Story, originally of Prineville, Ore., left behind a wife, two daughters, a son and a grandson, according to his obituary.
MEIKLES LIMITED

SHAREHOLDERS' UPDATE

Shareholders are advised that recent developments in negotiations with Government over sums due to the Group necessitate an update for the benefit of Shareholders and Stakeholders.

The Company also considers that it is appropriate to include a trading update for the further benefit of Shareholders and Stakeholders. This update is based on the trading period of nine months to the end of December 2015 and the outcome of recently concluded negotiations with the Government of Zimbabwe.

Shareholders are advised that a basis on which funds are to be recovered has been agreed. The Government has undertaken to repay the outstanding funds in terms of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Debt Assumption Act of July 2015. Negotiators in both Government and the Company are to be commended on the conclusion of the agreement. The local business community should be encouraged by such a progressive interaction between Government and a participant in the private sector. The International community and investors may be well advised to take note of this positive development.

The Group will now be able to grow to its potential and develop its strategies, without the specific uncertainties caused in the period when negotiations were still ongoing. All entities of the Group have growth plans, which will be to the benefit of all Stakeholders. All Stakeholders will learn of these plans as they are exposed in the public domain.

In thanking Government, which we do most sincerely, it must be noted that the reward to all will be to witness the Group's progress in the next twelve to eighteen months, a major benefit to all Stakeholders and to the community at large.

Trading Update

Group turnover for the nine month period to 31 December 2015 of $347 million compares favourably with that of the previous period of $310 million, an increase of 12%.

Overall margins, together with operating income margins at 21.8% were marginally better than those of the previous period of 21.2%. The sales mix in the Group as a whole does distort this comparison, as margins do vary over Group activities.

Expenses expressed as a percentage of turnover decreased from 21% to 19%.

EBITDA increased by $9.5 million relative to the previous period.

The financial implications of the agreement with Government will be included in our audited results for the full year to 31 March 2016.

BY ORDER OF THE BOARD

8 March 2016
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Hungary's foreign trade surplus decreased in January from a year ago, as imports grew faster than exports, preliminary data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office showed Tuesday. The trade surplus shrank to EUR 509.2 million in January from EUR 703.9 million in the corresponding month last year. The expected surplus for the month was EUR 746 million. Exports climbed 1.0 percent year-over-year in January and imports went up by 4.3 percent. The share of EU member states was 82 percent in exports and 76 percent in imports. The statistical office is scheduled to release the final data for January external trade on April 1. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that Canadian artist Stan Douglas is the recipient of the 2016 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography for the sum of SEK 1,000,000 (approx. EUR 110,000). The award ceremony takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden on October 17, 2016. The day after, on October 18, an exhibition of Douglas's work will open at the Hasselblad Center. On the same day, the Hasselblad Foundation will host a symposium with the award winner, and a new book about Stan Douglas will be published by MACK.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7779451-stan-douglas-2016-hasselblad-award-winner/

The Foundation's citation regarding the 2016 Hasselblad Award Winner Stan Douglas:

An artist of outstanding significance, Stan Douglas has received international recognition for his powerful photographic art, as well as his work with video and film. His practice reflects carefully and poignantly on the history of photography and film, offering new understandings of the cultural and technological developments of both media. Furthermore, Stan Douglas has an open and highly innovative approach to both analogue and new digital formats. At the heart of his work lies a strong interest and commitment to social issues of race, gender, identity and post-colonial politics, whilst maintaining a valuable self-critical perspective on the role of the artist in contemporary culture.

The Jury

The 2016 Jury, which submitted its proposal to the Hasselblad Foundation's Board of Directors, consisted of:

Roxana Marcoci, Chair

Senior Curator of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Elvira Dyangani Ose

Freelance Curator and Lector of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University ofLondon, London

Florian Ebner

Head of Photography, Museum Folkwang, Essen

Duncan Forbes

Co-Director and Curator, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur

Clare Grafik

Head of Exhibitions, Photographers' Gallery, London

"Douglas's engagement with the histories of still and moving images, sociological approach to staged and performative work, and critical attention to the apparatus of photography - in terms of historic styles, processes and vintage equipment, and the most sophisticated digital languages of contemporary technology - are transformational." notes Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator of Photography at MoMA, New York and Chair of the 2016 Hasselbald Award Jury.

Jenny Blixt

Public Relations Officer



+46(0)31-778-21-54

+46(0)708-93-07-12

jb@hasselbladfoundation.se



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341177 )



Video:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7779451-stan-douglas-2016-hasselblad-award-winner/


LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New report from ICIS shows stronger liquidity and shifting trends with renewable energy

Trading on the over-the-counter (OTC) European power markets increased in 2015 year on year, while the expansion of renewable energy has led to a shift in trading patterns.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150511/743802 )



Germany remains the largest electricity market in Europe, and traded volumes have begun to grow again, despite ongoing low prices.

However, French market participation has increased, and it has now overtaken the UK to become Europe's second most liquid power market.

Another trend is the move towards trading contracts for shorter and more immediate delivery. Wind and solar generation accounts for more of Europe's generation mix than ever before. The uncertainty over supply has created a greater need to trade.

"Growing trading volumes are good news, while more short-term trading shows the markets are adapting to new generation," says Zoe Double, head of power at ICIS. "The more trading in European power markets, the stronger the price signal, and the more responsive companies can be in allocating resources and spreading their risk."

European energy policy promotes energy trading, but slower economic growth across Europe in previous years and consequent lower demand has affected the amount of electricity changing hands in the markets.

Falling energy prices have also played a part - with lower prices and less volatility, some liquidity providers have chosen to focus on other areas for trade, pulling out of many European markets.

Most European power is still traded 'over-the-counter' in most power markets, although individual markets vary significantly. The European Power Trading Report uses ICIS' expertise in providing data, news and analysis to give insight into 14 different European power markets, both established trading centres and emerging markets. The report is freely available from the ICIS website.

About ICIS

ICIS is an independent price reporting agency focusing on global energy, petrochemical and fertilizer markets, and we have covered European electricity markets for nearly two decades. The analysis and data that we produce is widely used as a reference price in energy contracts.

It is our aim to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions.

With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of Reed Elsevier Plc.

About Reed Business Information

At Reed Business Information we provide information and online data services to business professionals worldwide. Customers have access to our high-value industry data, analytics, information and tools. Our strong global brands hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of Reed Elsevier, a leading global provider of data, information and solutions for professional customers.

About Reed Elsevier

Reed Elsevier is a world leading provider of information solutions for professionals. We help scientists make new discoveries, lawyers win cases, doctors save lives, corporations build commercial relationships, insurance companies assess risk, and government and financial institutions detect fraud.

Media contacts

Tara Sabanandan, Marketing Manager, ICIS

Email: tara.sabanandan@icis.com

Direct: +44(0)207-911-1713


NICOSIA (dpa-AFX) - Lenders are set to return to Greece to restart debt relief talks, Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said after the meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on Monday. Finance ministers repeated their calls to deepen pension and income tax reforms. 'There is enough common ground, enough preparation has been done for their mission to continue, hopefully to work towards a successful completion,' Dijsselbloem said in Brussels. The mission chiefs will return to Athens, perhaps already tomorrow, he said. Dijsselbloem stressed that more work needs to be done from the part of Greece. 'There are still fiscal gaps to be filled and some of the reforms will have to be deepened,' he added. On their return, lenders will take decision concerning the issue of debt management and debt relief. Dijsselbloem expressed willingness to do whatever necessary to make the annual debt surplus manageable. According to the current bailout terms, Greece has to achieve a budget surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP by 2018. Elsewhere, Cyprus will exit its EUR 10 billion bailout program successfully this month. The nation requested funds in 2013 when the banking collapse became unmanageable. The country drew only EUR 7.3 billion of the total bailout fund. In a statement, Eurogroup said it supports the Cypriot government's decision to exit its macroeconomic adjustment programme without a successor arrangement. Cyprus has not completed the last prior action under the review, which is the privatization of the Cypriot Telecommunications Authority. Eurogroup said the privatization would be another growth-enhancing step. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 --Lieberman Software Corporation today announced its selection by CWPS as the privileged access management platform provider in the company's MSP program. As part of the CWPS cyber security product portfolio, Lieberman Software's Enterprise Random Password Manager (ERPM) is now offered as a solution to securely manage access to powerful privileged identities in large enterprise environments.

"We are pleased to welcome CWPS as an Authorized Partner to deliver products and services to both public sector organizations and private sector companies," said Richard A Weeks, Vice President of Channel & Business Development at Lieberman Software. "CWPS has an excellent reputation and is well established and positioned to help us continue expanding into key federal government agencies, which are high value targets of advanced cyber attacks. Together, Lieberman Software and CWPS can provide 'security inside the firewall' when cyber attacks penetrate the network perimeter."

Securing Privileged Access in Government Organizations

Due to the high volume of sensitive data contained in federal agencies, government enterprises are frequent targets of cyber attack. Criminal hackers and nation-state attackers launch social engineering, spear phishing and similar exploits to defeat conventional perimeter security defenses and penetrate the network. From there they look for privileged credentials, which allow them to move laterally throughout the IT environment and anonymously access valuable data.

ERPM eliminates that lateral motion by time-limiting how long a captured credential can be abused. It automatically discovers privileged accounts throughout the enterprise -- on-premises, in the cloud and in hybrid environments. It brings those accounts under management, and audits access to them. Privileged credentials can be updated as frequently as necessary. So even if an attacker steals a credential, it has a limited lifetime and is not shared among multiple systems. The stolen credential cannot be leveraged to leapfrog between systems.

Following last year's data breach at the US Office of Personnel Management, the White House Chief Information Officer (CIO) launched a "cybersecurity sprint" to protect government systems against evolving threats. The White House Fact Sheet stated that federal agencies must tighten policies and practices for privileged users, which aligns with ERPM's core functionality.

And by providing the accountability of showing who on the IT staff had access to systems with sensitive data, at what time and for what stated purpose, government agencies can better verify their compliance with regulatory mandates such as CAG, FISMA, FIPS and others.

"Privileged credentials are a primary attack surface in many major data breaches," said Jason Waldrop, CEO of CWPS. "These credentials hold the keys to access an organization's most critical enterprise computing and information assets. For that reason we needed to provide an enterprise-level privileged access management solution for both the public sector organizations and the private sector companies in our MSP network. We selected Lieberman Software's Enterprise Random Password Manager for its ability to automatically discover and continuously secure privileged identities at scale, either on-premises or in the cloud."

For more information on ERPM see www.liebsoft.com/erpm.

About CWPS

CWPS is one of the leading providers of professional and managed services for IT solutions in the Washington, DC metro area. Supporting commercial enterprises and the Federal Government, we specialize in cloud, collaboration, storage, and virtualization solutions. We provide on-going, managed support services for all the solutions we design and deploy. Our major partners include Amazon Web Services, Alert Logic, Cisco, Nimble Storage, Microsoft, VMware, and Citrix. For more information visit: www.cwps.com.

About Lieberman Software Corporation

Lieberman Software proactively stops cyber attacks that bypass conventional enterprise defenses and penetrate the network perimeter. The company provides award-winning privileged identity management and security management products to more than 1,400 customers worldwide, including nearly half of the US Fortune 50. By automatically securing privileged access - both on-premises and in the cloud - Lieberman Software controls access to systems with sensitive data, and defends against malicious insiders, zero day attacks and other advanced cyber threats. Lieberman Software is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, with offices and channel partners located around the world. For more information, visit www.liebsoft.com.

Product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

Media Contact

Dan Chmielewski

Madison Alexander PR

1-714-832-8716

1-949-231-2965

dchm@cox.net




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Based on the current rate of progress, it will take over 100 years before women earn the same wages as men.

In Ontario today, even though women now account for roughly half of the labour force, they continue to make 31.5 percent less than the average annual earnings of male workers - one of the largest reported gaps in the world. It amounts to a gendered wage penalty that is compounded by race, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity and ability. It is an economic price that women pay at every wage level, regardless of their age, education or occupation.

Action on wage equality cannot wait another year, let alone one hundred.

This year, as millions of women around the world observe March 8 as International Women's Day, the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is calling on the Ontario government to take concrete action to close the gender wage gap by 2025. Under the banner the "Ontario We Want" the OFL, affiliates and our community partners are demanding a stronger commitment to pay equity and a sweeping overhaul of Ontario's outmoded labour laws to lift every worker out of poverty.

"For over a century, women have sought to unionize their workplaces as a vehicle to pull themselves out of low wage conditions, secure decent benefits and improve their standard of living," said OFL Secretary-Treasurer Patty Coates. "However, many women continue to find themselves in precarious employment and earning sub-poverty wages. To maximize women's economic potential, we need to raise the floor for every single worker."

A recent study on the rise of precarious employment tells the story of a dramatic restructuring of Ontario's labour market where as many as 50 percent of all workers are trapped in temporary, part-time and contract jobs. Women are over-represented in this vulnerable majority of workers, making up 70 percent of part-time workers and over 60 percent of the 1.7 million Ontarians who earn at or near the minimum wage.

Women workers who do not belong to a union are eight times more likely to earn poverty wages and half as likely to have a workplace pension. Unionized women receive an average pay boost of $7.83 an hour and benefit from better job security and workplace benefits. The fair wages and work hours that unions have negotiated for women workers in Ontario deliver nearly $231.2 million more every week into the provincial economy and provide critical support to families. However, regardless of union membership, all Canadian women have benefited from the achievements of unions. Laws guaranteeing the minimum wage, pay equity, maternity leave, and harassment free workplaces were all secured because of the work of trade unions.

"Closing the gender wage gap will require more than just equal pay for equal work," said OFL President Chris Buckley. "While the expansion and enforcement of pay equity legislation can provide strong tools for leveling the playing field for women, they won't be able to reach their full economic potential without broad improvements to employment standards, a $15 minimum wage and easier access to joining a union."

As part of the "Fight for $15 and Fairness" movement that is sweeping Ontario, the labour movement is using the occasion of International Women's Day to highlight the need for pay equity and labour law reform by calling on Ontario to "Make it Fair."

"2016 is the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in a Canadian province. Nellie McClung and the 'Famous Five' led this historic victory in Manitoba and paved the way for women's suffrage across Canada," said Coates. "What better way to honour their legacy than to make sure that one hundred years from today, young women will look back on wage discrimination as a similar relic from another century."

The OFL is encouraging women workers across Ontario to celebrate International Women's Day by attending community events being held across Ontario and to join the campaign to raise wages and working standards for every worker.

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.

Contacts:

Joel Duff

OFL Communications Director

416-707-0349 (cell)

jduff@ofl.ca




BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Switzerland's consumer prices declined at the slowest pace in 13 months during February, figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed Tuesday. The consumer price index dropped 0.8 percent year-on-year following 1.3 percent fall in the previous month. Economists had forecast 1.1 percent decline. On a month-on-month basis, the CPI climbed 0.2 percent in February, marking the first increase in four months. In January, prices fell 0.4 percent. Economists were looking for a modest decline of 0.1 percent. The harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, which is meant for EU comparison, fell 0.9 percent annually in February after a 1.5 percent drop in the previous month. The decline was the weakest since July. Compared to the previous month, the HICP rose 0.2 percent in February, after a 0.7 percent fall in the previous month. The increase was the first since October. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Aberdeen International Inc. (TSX: AAB) ("Aberdeen" or the "Company"), is renewing its Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB"), subject to Toronto Stock Exchange ("Exchange") approval, to buy back its common shares through the facilities of the Exchange. Any purchases made pursuant to the NCIB will be made in accordance with the rules of the TSX and in some instances may be effected through alternative Canadian trading system and will be made at the market price of the common shares at the time of the acquisition.

The Board of Directors of Aberdeen believes that the underlying value of the Company is not reflected in the current market price of its common shares, and may not be so reflected at certain times during the course of the NCIB, and has thus concluded that the repurchase and cancellation of common shares pursuant to the proposed NCIB presently constitutes an appropriate use of financial resources and would be in the best interest of Aberdeen shareholders.

The maximum number of common shares that may be purchased for cancellation pursuant to the NCIB is that number of common shares that represents 10% of the common shares in the public float. Based on the 66,168,462 common shares in the public float as at March 2, 2016, the maximum number of shares to be purchased and cancelled would be 6,616,846 Aberdeen notes that the number of its shares in the public float is less than the 95,529,128 total basic issued and outstanding Aberdeen common shares as of March 2, 2016 because the public float number does not include 29,360,666 common shares held by Aberdeen reporting insiders. Daily purchases will be limited to 11,322 common shares other than block purchase exceptions. This number represents 25% of the average daily trading volume for the six month period from September 2015 to February 2016 being 45,290. The actual number of common shares that would be purchased, if any, and the timing of such purchases will be determined by Aberdeen considering market conditions, share price, its cash position, and other factors including other investment opportunities. Aberdeen had a previous NCIB, which terminated effective February 15, 2016, pursuant to which Aberdeen purchased 1,820,294 securities at a weighted average price of $0.135.

Purchases under the NCIB are permitted to commence on March 10, 2016 and will terminate on March 9, 2017 or the date upon which the maximum number of common shares have been purchased by Aberdeen pursuant to the NCIB. There cannot be any assurance as to how many common shares, if any, will ultimately be acquired by Aberdeen under the NCIB. Aberdeen intends that any shares acquired pursuant to the NCIB will be cancelled.

Aberdeen will make no purchases of common shares other than open market purchases that may be made during the period that the NCIB is outstanding.

About Aberdeen International Inc:

Aberdeen International is a private equity investor and advisor focusing on the global mining and natural resources industry. African Thunder Platinum, Aberdeen's premiere investment, is a lower-cost platinum group metals producer in South Africa's well-known Bushveld Complex. Aberdeen has further enhanced its mineral investment holdings with the acquisition of the Diablillos lithium-potash project in Argentina.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.aberdeeninternational.ca and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and check out Aberdeen's YouTube Channel.

Cautionary Note

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this press release constitutes "forward - looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated timing with respect to normal course issuer bid, the ability of the Company to generate additional value for shareholders as a result of the normal course issuer bid, past success as an indicator of future success; the appreciation of their share price; the Company's plan of business operations; and anticipated returns. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, financing risks, acquisition risks, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts:

Aberdeen International Inc.

Rob Hopkins

Investor Relations

+1 416-861-5899

info@aberdeeninternational.ca




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Ontario's construction industry is cautiously optimistic about growth in 2016. Thirty-one per cent of contractors across Ontario's construction industry are expecting to grow their business this year and 52 per cent say they will maintain current work levels. The findings are contained in the annual Construction Confidence Indicator, released today by Ipsos Reid and the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS). The Indicator, with a score of 57 in this year's survey, reveals contractors' perceptions of business conditions for the next 12 months.

"The construction industry is still expecting to grow, but remains cautious," says Sean Strickland, CEO of the Ontario Construction Secretariat. "While the Construction Confidence Indicator still shows an overall expectation for growth, it has been on a downward trend since rebounding from the 2009 recession, which clearly speaks to the current state of the economy."

Detailed geographic data collected for the first time by the OCS suggest certain regional economies and cities will significantly outpace others. Firms in London, Ontario expressed the greatest increase in confidence over 2015, surpassing last year's most confident contractors in the GTA. Firms in northern Ontario, where just over half of firms expect to see business decline as they look ahead to 2016, expressed the least optimistic economic outlook in the province.

Findings from the province-wide survey also indicate only a small minority of construction firms-six per cent-expect to "benefit greatly" from the federal government's $125 billion infrastructure spending plan.

"Ontario's construction economy is a regional patchwork of diverse and changing business opportunities," Strickland says. "It's critical that firms have timely information that helps them grow their business and anticipate skilled labour needs. This includes a more clear and substantive conversation with federal and provincial governments about how firms can make the most of infrastructure dollars in the future."

Reflecting the diversity of the construction industry in Ontario, contractors expect different sectors to lead growth in different regions. The residential sector is expected to lead growth in the GTA and Niagara Region, while the institutional and engineering sectors are expected to lead growth in Ottawa and Niagara. Increasing confidence in manufacturing is adding momentum for construction in the industrial sector, particularly in Windsor and Sarnia.

For a comprehensive regional and municipal breakdown of construction confidence, skilled labour shortages and attitudes toward federal infrastructure spending, visit: http://iciconstruction.com/2015/11/12/construction-industry/

The OCS, a partnership of 25 building trade unions and signatory contractors in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, released the survey findings today in time for its 16th Annual State of The Industry & Outlook Conference. The conference brings together industry and government leaders to discuss the future of Ontario's construction industry, and is free of charge to OCS's industry stakeholders. Speakers at this year's event included: The Hon. Deb Matthews, Deputy Premier, President of the Treasury Board and Minister Responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy; Craig Wright, Senior Vice President & Chief Economist, Royal Bank of Canada; Craig Alexander, Vice President of Economic Analysis, CD Howe Institute; Mark Romoff, President & CEO, The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships; Livio Di Matteo, Professor of Economics at Lakehead University and Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute; Sean Strickland, CEO, Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS); and Katherine Jacobs, Director of Research, OCS.

More information about the conference can be found here: http://iciconstruction.com/state

About the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS)

OCS was formed in 1993 as a joint labour/management organization representing 25 unionized construction trades and their contractor partners in Ontario's industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) construction sector. Its mandate is to enhance Ontario's ICI construction industry by developing relationships, facilitating dialogue, providing value-added research, disseminating important information to client groups and promoting the value of ICI unionized construction across Ontario and beyond. Visit the OCS online at http://www.iciconstruction.com.

Contacts:

Media Inquiries

Katy James

Pilot PMR

katy.james(at)pilotpmr.com




ELY, Minn.  Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has said no, again, to a Twin Metals Minnesota request to access state land in the Ely area to do advance work for a proposed copper mine.

In a strongly worded letter to Twin Metals made public on Monday, Dayton said he has grave concerns that the proposed copper-nickel operation along the Kawishiwi River about 10 miles southeast of Ely poses a real risk to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Dayton said he even has expressed his concerns to federal regulatory officials that mining isnt appropriate for the area.

Its the strongest comment yet by any elected official against the second major copper mine thats slowly working toward reality in Minnesota.

It was first reported in February that Dayton would not approve a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources agreement allowing Twin Metals to access state lands where it plans a major underground copper-nickel operation.

The request at the time came from the company with heavy lobbying by Iron Range lawmakers, who called the request routine and asked Dayton to approve the access.

The company hasnt yet applied to start an environmental review, and has yet to make public its engineering plans for how the mine would be built. But Twin Metals wants to get on the land when its frozen during winter months to conduct preliminary reviews and background assessments of whats there.

Immediate approval of the access agreement is necessary to (keep) project development activities on schedule, to sustain ongoing investment in the region, and to allow Twin Metals to conduct certain field activities during winter months, Range lawmakers wrote last month.

Dayton said no, although he met with DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr and top Twin Metals officials privately on Feb. 17 to discuss the issue.

But in a letter from Dayton to Ian Duckworth, Twin Metals CEO, dated Sunday, Dayton made it clear he isnt budging.

As I told you, I have grave concerns about the use of state surface lands for mining related activities in close proximity to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Dayton said in the letter. I am not questioning the qualifications of either Twin Metals or its parent company Antofagasta PLC. Rather, my concern is for the inherent risks associated with any mining operation in close proximity to the BWCAW and my concern about the state of Minnesotas actively promoting advancement of such operations by permitting access to state lands.

While not inside the federal wilderness boundary, the mine would be adjacent to the BWCAW.

Strong opposition

Daytons comments in February made it appear that he wanted to finish the regulatory process for the proposed PolyMet copper mine near Hoyt Lakes before addressing Twin Metals issues. But this weeks letter sends a much stronger message of long-term opposition by the DFL governor.

The BWCAWs uniqueness and fragility require that we exercise special care when we evaluate significant land use changes in the area, and I am unwilling to take risks with that Minnesota environmental icon, Dayton wrote.

While the dispute centers on state lands in the area, much of the Twin Metals operation is proposed on private and federal land in the Superior National Forest. Dayton said he called the director of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that oversees mining issues on federal lands, to express my strong opposition to mining in close proximity to the BWCAW.

I was informed that the BLM is in the process of making a determination pertaining to the renewal of Twin Metals federal lease holdings in the area, Dayton said in the letter. I believe the BLM decision will offer further guidance on the future of mining in the area.

Its not clear what that federal agency guidance might be or what impact it would have on the future of Twin Metals.

In a statement on Monday night, the company said Twin Metals received Governor Daytons correspondence regarding our project late this afternoon, and the company is currently assessing the governors position.

In a statement on the issue in February, the company said the request for access to state lands would provide Twin Metals access to specific state lands for the purpose of conducting environmental, mineral assessment and geotechnical due-diligence activities in support of the potential mine.

Dayton this week repeated that he has directed the DNR not to authorize or enter into any new state access agreement for mining operations on state lands near the BWCAW.

Copper mining supporters say DNR staff members have signed off on the access but that the final approval has been sitting on the governors desk without action for several months.

Frank Ongaro, director of Mining Minnesota, the Duluth-based copper industry trade group, said the governors letter sends a chilling message to all companies looking at copper possibilities north of the Iron Range.

Ongaro said it seems ironic that Dayton said as recently as Thursday that he wouldnt interfere with the DNRs handling of the PolyMet proposal but has now done exactly that with Twin Metals  overridden DNR staff to kill the access agreement

At a minimum, from an industry-wide point of view, the governors comments are of grave concern. It not only has an acute impact on one specific company, but it will impact the entire industry operating in Minnesota, Ongaro said. Its a terrible precedent. It sends a very negative message to investors looking at developing minerals in the state of Minnesota.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Sixteen years. That is the average time a woman can suffer before receiving a proper diagnosis of a bleeding disorder and, moreover, receiving the proper treatment that will change her life forever. With the new app Me, the Canadian Hemophilia Society (CHS) provides women concerned with their frequent and heavy menstrual bleeding with a practical and reliable tool to help them evaluate their menstrual flow and present their doctor with quantified evidence. This very simple assessment may allow them to finally put a name on what has been upsetting their lives for so many years.

Me - Period Flow Assessment

The CHS created, in collaboration with Mirego, a mobile application called Me - Period Flow Assessment. It is a very easy and free app found on iOS and Android platforms. Me features the same components as a conventional menstrual chart which allows the assessment of blood saturation level of pads and tampons, augmented with the benefit of automatically calculating menstrual scores. Women are warned when their score represents a risk of possible menorrhagia and are recommended to contact their doctor for further assessment.

It is important to understand that this is not a menstrual calendar; the CHS developed this app specifically for women who have bleeding issues. For discretion, only Me is displayed on mobile devices.

Background

For more than fifteen years, the CHS has played a world-leading role in raising awareness about bleeding disorders that affect women. With this expertise, in 2012, the CHS initiated a national awareness program: CODErouge / WHEN WOMEN BLEED TOO MUCH.

As part of this program, the CHS attends various medical conferences, such as the Annual Clinical and Scientific Conference of the Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians of Canada (SOGC) or the Annual Family Medicine Forum, in order to increase knowledge among health care providers about the diagnosis and management of inherited bleeding disorders. Although participants at these conferences have been very interested in a conventional menstrual assessment chart distributed by the CHS, also available on its website, it became quite clear that a mobile app would be the next step.

With Me, the CHS hopes to substantially increase the number of women who will receive a proper diagnosis. At this time, 90% of women affected with a bleeding disorder do not know about it! Me can end up being the beginning of the answers they have sought for so long. With Me, school weeks spent in bed, missed business meetings, activities cut short, could become things of the past. Me, a remarkable tool that will allow so many women to take control over their monthly struggles, to take control of their lives.

Links to download the app:

iOS: https://goo.gl/SuXlF5

Android: https://goo.gl/1KOpJU

About the Canadian Hemophilia Society

Founded in 1953, the Canadian Hemophilia Society is a national voluntary health charity. Its mission is to improve the health and quality of life of all people in Canada with inherited bleeding disorders and ultimately to find cures. Its vision is a world free from the pain and suffering of inherited bleeding disorders.

About CODErouge

CODErouge / WHEN WOMEN BLEED TOO MUCH has been created by the Canadian Hemophilia Society to help identify undiagnosed women with bleeding disorders, such as von Willebrand disease, and to ensure that they have access to appropriate medical care. To learn more about the symptoms related to bleeding disorders and on the CODErouge program, please go to www.coderougewomen.ca.

Contacts:

Chantal Raymond

National communications manager

Canadian Hemophilia Society

514-848-0503, ext. 226

craymond@hemophilia.ca

www.hemophilia.ca




HOUSTON, TEXAS -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Greenfields Petroleum Corporation (the "Company" or "Greenfields") (TSX VENTURE: GNF)(TSX VENTURE: GNF.DB) is pleased to announce that it, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Greenfields Petroleum International Company Ltd. ("GPIC"), has entered into a share purchase agreement with Baghlan Group Limited (in liquidation) (acting by its liquidator, John Ayres, as agent and without personal liability) ("Baghlan") and its liquidator as agent for and on behalf of Baghlan (the "Liquidator"), pursuant to which, GPIC has agreed to purchase Baghlan's 2/3 interest (the "Interest") in Bahar Energy Limited ("BEL") and Baghlan's interest in a shareholder loan receivable due from BEL to Baghlan (the "Acquisition"). BEL is a company incorporated in Dubai and is currently the sole shareholder of Bahar Energy Operating Company Limited ("BEOC"), the operating entity of the Company's project in Azerbaijan (the "Project"). The aggregate consideration payable by GPIC for the Acquisition includes a cash payment of USD$6.0 million, and a release and discharge of liabilities, claims and demands in relation to certain default loan amounts and any and all other obligations, liabilities, claims or demands of any kind owed to BEL, BEOC and/or Greenfields by Baghlan (the "Default Obligations"). Greenfields estimates the Default Obligations to be an aggregate of USD$57.6 million. Upon completion of the Acquisition, BEL will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. USD$6.0 million has been placed into escrow pending satisfaction of certain conditions to the completion of the Acquisition. Greenfields anticipates closing of the Acquisition to occur within 3 months of the date of this news release. Completion of the Acquisition is subject to certain closing conditions, including, without limitation, receipt of the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") and other necessary regulatory approvals.

In order to fund the Acquisition, the Company has agreed to restructure its debt and, in that regard, has signed a fifth amending agreement (the "Fifth Amending Agreement") to the loan agreement dated November 25, 2013 (the "Loan Agreement") with its senior lenders (the "Senior Lenders"). The Fifth Amending Agreement provides for, among other things: (i) additional funding in the aggregate amount of USD$7.0 million to satisfy the purchase price in respect of the Acquisition and for working capital purposes; and (ii) an extension of the maturity date under the Loan Agreement from February 29, 2016 to May 16, 2016 in order to facilitate the completion of the Restructuring Transaction described below.

In consideration of the Senior Lenders entering into the Fifth Amending Agreement, the Company has agreed to: (i) obtain the approval of holders ("Debentureholders") of the 9.00% convertible unsecured subordinated debentures due May 31, 2017 (the "Debentures") for the conversion (the "Debenture Conversion") of the CAD$23,725,000 aggregate principal amount of Debentures into an aggregate of approximately 33.2 million common shares in the capital of the Company ("Common Shares"); (ii) issue, in connection with the completion of the restructuring, up to an aggregate of 2,394,000 Common Shares for every USD$1,000,000 of principal due to the Senior Lenders under the Loan Agreement; and (iii) issue, in connection with the completion of the restructuring, an equivalent number of Common Share purchase warrants ("Warrants") to the Senior Lenders (collectively, the "Restructuring Transaction"). Contemporaneous with the completion of the Restructuring Transaction, the Company anticipates a sixth amendment agreement will be signed extending the maturity date under the Loan Agreement to December 31, 2017.

The Warrants will have the following terms: (i) each Warrant shall entitle the Senior Lenders to purchase a Common Share at an exercise price of $0.375 per Common Share; (ii) Warrants will only vest in the event of a dilutive issuance of securities by Greenfields and only as to such number of Warrants as are necessary to maintain each of the Senior Lenders' equity position in Greenfields; (iii) all rights to unvested Warrants will terminate upon the earlier of: (A) the maturity date under the Loan Agreement, being December 31, 2017; or (B) the date on which all amounts owing under the Loan Agreement are repaid in full; and (iv) all vested Warrants may be exercised at any time, and from time to time, for a period of five years from the date of their issuance.

The Debenture Conversion will be implemented upon the approval of the Debentureholders, by way of extraordinary resolution, pursuant to and in accordance with the terms of the indenture governing the Debentures. Greenfields expects to hold a meeting of Debentureholders ("Debentureholder Meeting") to consider the conversion of Debentures promptly upon completion of the Acquisition. The Company will provide further particulars of the Debentureholder Meeting and the Shareholder Meeting in a separate news release once such particulars are available. The extraordinary resolution approving the Debenture Conversion must be passed by 66 2/3% of the Debentures present in person or by proxy and voting on the resolution.

The Common Shares to be issued to the senior lenders pursuant to the Fifth Amending Agreement will result in: (i) the Company's issued and outstanding capital exceeding its authorized share capital as set forth in the Company's amended and restated memorandum and articles of association; and (ii) the Senior Lender owning, directly or indirectly, more than 20% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares which, pursuant to the policies of the TSXV, results in the Senor Lender becoming a "Control Person". As a result, the Company is required to obtain shareholder approval with respect to: (i) an increase in the authorized share capital of the Company; and (ii) the Restructuring Transaction, including the creation of the Senior Lender as a "Control Person" (the "Shareholder Resolutions"). Each of the Shareholder Resolutions must be approved by a majority of the votes present in person or by proxy and voting on the Shareholder Resolution at the meeting called for such purpose, excluding Common Shares held by the Senior Lenders. A special meeting (the "Shareholder Meeting") of shareholders of Greenfields will be called on the same day as the Debentureholder Meeting, to consider the Shareholder Resolutions.

If Greenfields is unable to obtain the requisite approvals of the Debentureholders and the Shareholders, then any of such failures constitutes an event of default under the Fifth Amending Agreement and all loan amounts outstanding become immediately due and payable. In such case, Greenfields will be unable to pay such accelerated amounts and continue as a going concern.

Further details with respect to the Restructuring Transaction will be included in the information circular to be mailed to shareholders of Greenfields and Debentureholders in connection with the Debentureholder Meeting and the Shareholder Meeting. The Debentureholder Meeting and the Shareholder Meeting will be held promptly after completion of the Acquisition with closing of the Debenture Conversion and issuance of Common Shares and Warrants to the Senior Lenders to occur shortly thereafter upon satisfaction of all conditions related thereto. A copy of the Fifth Amending Agreement and the information circular will be filed on Greenfields' SEDAR profile and will be available for viewing at www.sedar.com.

The Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction

The following are the key elements to the Restructuring Transaction:

-- allows the Company to consolidate its current one third (33.33%) interest in BEL and become the 100% shareholder of BEL; -- reduces the Company's debt; and -- reduces the Company's annual cash interest and financing expenses.

"The restructuring transaction provides the best available solution to reduce our debt levels, consolidate our interest in Bahar Energy Limited and normalize our capital structure to allow us to stabilize and fully exploit the potential of our asset in the Bahar ERDPSA," said John Harkins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Greenfields.

Management and the board of directors of Greenfields (the "Board") believe that the Restructuring Transaction is in the best interest of all stakeholders, and provides a number of benefits to the Company, including the following:

-- normalizes Greenfields' capital structure in order to persevere in the challenging oil price and equity market environment; -- substantially improves financial strength and reduces financial risk; and -- positions the Company to realize maximum value from its asset base.

Over the past twenty-two months, Greenfields has thoroughly investigated and exhausted a broad range of financial and strategic alternatives, all of which have failed to generate acceptable proposals. The significant decline in oil and gas prices has further exacerbated Greenfields' position with respect to asset distribution opportunities and other strategic alternatives.

The Board has determined that the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction are in the best interests of the Company, the Debentureholders and the current shareholders given, among other considerations, that such transactions will consolidate the Company's interest in the Project, will reduce Greenfields' net debt and simplify Greenfields' capital structure. The determination to approve the Restructuring Transaction was made based on a range of factors, including a verbal opinion received from Dundee Securities Ltd., Greenfields' financial advisor with respect to the Restructuring Transaction, addressed to the special committee of the Board that, subject to the review of the final form of documents, the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction are fair, from a financial point of view, to shareholders.

The Board believes that the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction are a significant and positive development for Greenfields and its stakeholders. It is a solution that is considered fair to the Debentureholders and to the current shareholders, and it delivers on the Company's key commitment to explore and pursue strategic options to improve its capital structure. The Board and management believe that the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction will create a financially stronger company and better allow for the pursuit of Greenfields' business and operational goals.

The Acquisition and Restructuring Transaction remain subject to approval in their entirety by the TSXV.

About Greenfields Petroleum Corporation

Greenfields is a junior oil and natural gas company focused on the development and production of proven oil and gas reserves principally in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Company plans to expand its oil and gas assets through further farm-ins, and acquisitions of Production Sharing Agreements from foreign governments containing previously discovered but under-developed international oil and gas fields, also known as "greenfields". More information about the Company may be obtained on the Greenfields website at www.greenfields-petroleum.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements concerning: the Acquisition; the Restructuring Transaction; the Debentureholder Meeting and the Shareholder Meeting, including the timing thereof; the key elements of the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction, including the effect on the Company's debt and annual cash interest and financing expenses; the ability of Greenfields to exploit the potential of Greenfields' asset base in the ERDPSA; the benefits of the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction; and the future financial position and focus of the Company. In addition, the use of any of the words "scheduled", "can", "will", "prior to", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "should", "forecast", "future", "continue", "may", "expect", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including, but not limited to, the Acquisition and the Restructuring; the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner, the necessary regulatory, court, Debentureholder, shareholder and other third party approvals and the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner and the other conditions to the closing of the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct.

Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties most of which are beyond the control of Greenfields. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These risks include, but are not limited to, the failure of the Company to obtain necessary securityholder, regulatory, and other third party approvals, or to otherwise satisfy the conditions to the Acquisition and the Restructuring Transaction in a timely manner, or at all. Additional risk factors can be found under the heading "Risk Factors" in Greenfields' Annual Information Form and similar headings in Greenfields' Management's Discussion & Analysis which may be viewed on www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Greenfields undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The Company's forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Greenfields Petroleum Corporation

John W. Harkins

Chief Executive Officer

(832) 234-0836



Greenfields Petroleum Corporation

A. Wayne Curzadd

Chief Financial Officer

(832) 234-0835

info@greenfieldspetroleum.com

www.greenfields-petroleum.com




ST. LOUIS, MO--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - On 2015 Partek scientists answered over 12,000 questions from researchers around the world and trained an additional 3,000 plus researchers through complimentary webinars, onsite workshops and one-on-one web meetings. The Partek field application team consists of PhD and advanced degree scientists around the globe who are not only experts in the use of Partek software but also in the analysis of genomic data.

"Analyzing next generation sequencing and microarray data is complex, time-consuming and involves a lot of back-and-forth discussions," said DJ Meyer, chief operating officer for Partek. "Our customers ask questions of their data, consider the results and ask more questions. Our scientists devote a considerable amount of time understanding our customer's data and helping them complete their research," Meyer said. He goes on to say "It's because of this dedication to our customers that Partek software was cited in more than 900 NGS and microarray peer-reviewed publications last year."

Partek customers value this approach to customer service. "My team and I highly appreciate the constant willingness of Partek scientists to help solve problems and provide us with exemplary support via tutorials, phone, internet conferences, etc.," said researcher Dr. Mariusz Kowalewski at the Institute of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Zurich. "It has been a good experience and we hope for a longstanding cooperation," said Dr. Kowalewski.

While Partek has been busy training scientists, so have their customers. Dr. Florent Dumont, a bioinformatician at Institut Cochin in Paris, has not only used Partek software to contribute to several of his own publications, but to also train other scientists. Dr. Dumont said, "I use Partek Software because it's so reactive and easy to use and it enables me to perform analysis sessions 'live' with researchers."

For questions about Partek software products or to set up a training event, contact Partek.

About Partek Incorporated

Partek Incorporated (www.partek.com) offers a comprehensive portfolio of software solutions that help scientists turn genomic data into meaningful discoveries. Leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic and government research organizations worldwide leverage Partek solutions to streamline the analysis of RNA, DNA and Epigenetic studies and have proven the value of the software with over five thousand scientific citations in biomarker, cancer genomics, systems biology, neurodegenerative diseases and developmental biology research. With support scientists worldwide, Partek supports customers at every step of the analysis process. Founded in 1993 Partek is headquartered in St. Louis, MO, USA.

Partek is a trademark of Partek Incorporated. The names of other companies or products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Kathi Gosche

Partek Incorporated -- USA

+ 1 314 878 2329 x117

kgosche@partek.com
MIDLAND, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Easi-Set Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Smith-Midland Corporation (DE) (OTCQX: SMID) project update. Western Monmouth Utilities Authority in Manalapan, N.J. operates more than 30 pump stations, servicing over 79,000 customers. With stations surpassing 40 years old, it was time to make them more efficient, aesthetically appealing and safe. Five of the stations recently were overhauled using Easi-Set Buildings, and plans are underway for additional locations.

The manufacturer and installer was Easton, Pa.-based Oldcastle Precast Inc., one of Easi-Set Buildings' licensed producers. General contractor Coppola Services Inc., Ringwood, N.J, selected the company for the WMUA project.

The first five sites were chosen so safety issues and outdated equipment could be addressed first. Two of the sites had wet-well mounted pump stations with no buildings. George White, collections superintendent with WMUA, says, "All of the controls were in cabinets exposed to the weather, which was a safety hazard when working on them in foul weather." The other three stations were cinder block buildings that housed the controls for the pumps; an emergency generator; and the dry well for the pumps, which was accessible by going down a ladder. The authority upgraded to submersible pumps in the old wet wells, so the former building locations had to be moved to accommodate the new technology. The attractive buildings now house all the controls plus a small bathroom for employees.

Precast concrete was selected for ease and speed of installation, as well as aesthetic options. The two new wet well buildings are Easi-Set Model 10' x 12' R-10 insulated buildings, and the three dry well pump stations are Easi-Set Model 12' x 16' R-10 insulated buildings. All five buildings have a modular wooden truss roof and fiberglass shingle roof coverings installed over the precast roof system, as well as a manufactured stone veneer exterior. The upper section of the insulated precast sidewall is a simulated lapboard siding created with textured form liner material. All doors, hardware and louver dampers were installed in the buildings prior to delivery.

"The aesthetic appeal with the options available on the Easi-Set Buildings is what convinced the owner to go with these particular buildings," says David Beesley, project manager for Coppola Services. "The look of siding and cultured stone was desired to blend in with the residential neighborhoods these pump stations are located in. The precast concrete provides the owner with low maintenance and durability. For us, as the contractor, it improves scheduling by allowing for a one-day install of the precast rather than the time consumed with forming rebar, pouring concrete and cure times. This allows subsequent work such as plumbing, electrical and piping to begin immediately, which may save several weeks or more per site."

The project is anticipated to be complete by April; the fifth building was delivered in February. While Coppola Services was constructing the underground structures onsite, Oldcastle was pouring and prepping the building, cutting weeks out of the project schedule. Because each building was set onsite in one day by Oldcastle technicians, other trades could quickly move ahead with their work.

"Ease of installation is one of the many advantages to selecting an Easi-Set Building," says Moffette Tharpe, managing director of Easi-Set Worldwide. "The buildings are factory cast and assembled. Larger structures might require additional time to install, but a typical installation is one day, not days, not weeks. This is very appealing to general contractors and owners when it comes to scheduling and budget."

WMUA currently has plans to renovate and upgrade another pump station, and they have again selected an Easi-Set Building. "After meeting with WMUA representatives at our Easton facility, they left impressed with the durability and strength of Easi-Set Buildings, only commenting that the hardest decision for their project would be what the exterior finishes should be," says J. David Worthington, manager of Oldcastle's Easi-Set Buildings Division.

Discover more about Easi-Set Buildings and its network of precast concrete licensed producers at www.EasiSetBuildings.com or by calling 800-547-4045.

Easi-Set Worldwide, a wholly owned subsidiary of Smith-Midland Corp. (Del.), a public company, licenses the production and sale of Easi-Set products and provides diversification opportunities to the precast industry worldwide. Easi-Set's pre-engineered buildings are designed to provide durability, convenience and long-lasting security under a variety of applications. These maintenance-free structures are available through licensed precast concrete manufacturers across North America. Each producer manufactures Easi-Set's buildings with the patented post-tensioned roof and floor system to guarantee a weatherproof structure. For more information about Easi-Set Worldwide or licensing opportunities, contact Easi-Set by calling 800-547-4045 or visiting www.easiset.com.

Oldcastle Precast Inc. has more than 80 locations nationwide with 3,000 employees. Products range from utility vaults, reinforced concrete pipe, catch basins, drainage and septic tanks to retaining walls, storm shelters, wall panels, concrete barriers and more. Employees are committed to upholding core values of reliability, quality and service in cutting edge ways. Visit www.oldcastleprecast.com or call 888-965-3227.

Link back to original article on NuziNet.com

Link back to Smith-Midland Corporation on NuziNet.com

Media Contact:

Kate Gawlik

773-458-4901

kategawlik@gmail.com




Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Columbus A/S invites shareholders, investors, analysts and media to its Capital Markets Day on 5 April 2016 in Copenhagen. Release no. 3/2016To seal the Columbus15 strategy and to introduce Columbus' new 5-year strategy Columbus2020, Columbus is hosting a Columbus Capital Markets Day on 5 April 2016.The day will provide a presentation of the Columbus2020 strategy, which will drive accelerated value creation in the years ahead. Further, the day will provide a financial update and review of the Columbus15 strategy as well as the fiscal year 2015.Columbus' capital markets day will be held at ABG Sundal Collier, Forbindelsesvej 12, Copenhagen and will start at 9:00 am CET and end at approximately 11:00 am CET.Please register for the event to Rind Danielsson, rind.danielsson@abgsc.dk.Columbus will be represented by:Ib Kune, Chairman of the BoardThomas Honore, CEO & PresidentHans Henrik Thrane, Corporate CFOFor further information please contact:Communication Manager, Tine Rasmussen, tra@columbusglobal.com, +45 29690677See also: http://ir.columbusglobal.com/events.cfmTranslation: In the event of any inconsistency between this document and the Danish language version, the Danish language version shall be the governing version.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=550672

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
COSTA MESA, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- NEMUS Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: NMUS), a biotech company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of cannabinoid-based therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs, today announced that Brian Murphy, MD, NEMUS Bioscience's CEO and CMO, will present at the 28th Annual ROTH Conference. The conference will be held March 13-16, 2016 at The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dana Point, CA.

EVENT: 28th Annual ROTH Conference

DATE: Wednesday, March 16, 2016

TIME: 10:30 AM PDT

LOCATION: Ritz Carlton, Dana Point, CA, Salon 5 - Pink

To schedule a meeting with management, please contact Adam Holdsworth at 646-862-4607, or adamh@pcgadvisory.com.

ABOUT NEMUS BIOSCIENCE, INC.

The Company is a biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of cannabinoid-based therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs in global markets. Utilizing certain proprietary technology licensed from the University of Mississippi, NEMUS is working to develop novel ways to deliver cannabinoid-based drugs for specific indications, with the aim of optimizing the clinical effects of such drugs, while limiting the potential adverse events. NEMUS' strategy will explore the use of natural and synthetic compounds, alone or in combination. The Company is led by a highly qualified team of executives with decades of biopharmaceutical experience and significant background in early-stage drug development.

For more information, visit http://www.nemusbioscience.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including statements about the potential benefits of cannabinoid-based medicine and the timing of our near term, intermediate term and long term goals. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price could be materially negatively affected. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology including "goal," "focus," "aims," "believes," "can," "challenge," "predictable" "will," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. We operate in a rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. As a result, it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements the Company may make. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, uncertainty regarding the results of future testing and development efforts and other risks that are described in the Risk Factors section of NEMUS' most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by law, NEMUS disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

PCG Advisory Group

Investor Relations

Adam Holdsworth

Email: adamh@pcgadvisory.com

Phone: 646-862-4607



Media Relations

Sean Leous

Email: sleous@pcgadvisory.com

Phone: 646-863-8998




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Targeted Microwave Solutions Inc. (CSE: TMS)(OTCQX: TGTMD) ("TMS") announced today that it has entered into loan agreements with Dr. James Young, the Chairman of the Board, and Satellite Overseas (Holdings) Limited, in the aggregate principal amount of US$2 million.

"We are pleased to have received these loans from our Chairman and our largest shareholder," commented Larry Siegel, the Chief Executive Officer of TMS. "With over US$4 million cash on hand, we can accelerate our research and development program, while pushing forward on near-term commercial opportunities."

Each loan agreement provides for the issuance of a promissory note by TMS in the aggregate principal amount of US$1 million. The notes mature on March 8, 2018 and will accrue interest at a rate of 3% per annum, calculated semi-annually. TMS may prepay the loans in whole or in part without additional penalties, fees or charges. Closing of the loans is subject to receipt of any applicable exchange approvals.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Dr. James Young, Chairman of the Board of Directors

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain statements which are, or may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that address or discuss activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate may occur in the future. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical and, in this news release, include, without limitation, statements regarding: the expected use of the proceeds of the loans. When used in this news release, words such as "estimates", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "projects", "will", "believes", "intends", "should", "could", "may" and other similar terminology are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts of our management. Because forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which are difficult to predict, our actual results, performance or achievements or the actual results or performance of the industries and markets in which we operate and intend to operate may be materially different from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant uncertainties and risks, should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in our forward-looking statements, including the matters described in our public filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Accordingly, readers should exercise caution in relying upon our forward-looking statements and we undertake no obligation to publicly revise such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Targeted Microwave Solutions Inc.

(778) 995 5833

office@tmsenergy.com



Kin Communications Inc.

Roger Blair

(604) 684-6730 / 1 (866) 684-6730 (toll-free)

TMS@kincommunications.com




08 March 2016

Andalas Energy and Power Plc

("ADL" or the "Company")

Signs Tuba Obi East gas project farm-in agreement

Andalas Energy and Power Plc, the AIM listed investment company, is pleased to announce that it has conditionally entered into a farm-in agreement for the Tuba Obi East ("TOE") Technical Assistance Contract ("TAC") ("the concession"), which is located in the South Sumatran basin approximately 30km north-west of Jambi city in Jambi province, Sumatra.

Highlights:

ADL to acquire 30% working interest in TOE TAC via a farm-in;

TOE is the entry point for Andalas into the profitable Indonesian gas and power sector;

Any future gas production from the concession may support either: Gas export with the project located close to a major export route; or Gas-to-power being located in an area where a significant shortfall in power generation exists;

Farm-in via execution of a US$1.075 million work programme;

work programme; Work programme comprises technical studies and the drilling and testing of one well which would be put into production on success;

Work programme is being jointly operated by Andalas;

Planning and preparations for drilling are advancing rapidly;

Subject to well results, further gas and power development studies will be undertaken;

Gaffney Cline and Associates is in the final stages of completing a Competent Person's Report ("CPR") assessing the gas resources within the TAC; and

and Associates is in the final stages of completing a Competent Person's Report ("CPR") assessing the gas resources within the TAC; and Farm-in constitutes a reverse takeover pursuant to the Aim Rules and, accordingly, the farm-in agreement is subject to the approval of Andalas' shareholders in general meeting.

An admission document which will include notice of a general meeting seeking shareholder approval will be published in due course.

Andalas CEO, David Whitby, said "The signing of this agreement follows the Letter of Intent announced on 3 February 2016 and secures ADL's foundation gas asset. We are keen to take full advantage of the opportunity Tuba Obi East now affords Andalas, and we regard it as the base upon which a profitable Indonesian gas and power business can be built.

"TOE has all the essential features to be a successful first asset for the Company. It has gas proven by two wells into the reservoir zone that has been defined on 3D seismic and confirmed by well logs, all whilst located in a prolific hydrocarbon basin. In addition, the field is close to both gas and power infrastructure and has easy access to Indonesia's burgeoning energy market which is generating high prices for producers. It represents an unrivalled opportunity for a new Indonesian gas and power market entrant like ADL."

Farm-in Summary

As previously announced, under the terms of the proposed farm in, Andalas will acquire a 30% direct working interest in the concession through the execution of a single well work programme. The work programme includes the completion of a geological, geophysical and reservoir ('GG&R') study along with the drilling and flow testing of a single well to assess the deliverability, recoverable volumes, and gas quality in the Air Benakat formation.

Block operator PT Akar Golindo and Andalas will jointly operate the well work programme, which is expected to cost around US$1.075 million. Andalas has also agreed to pay a further sum of US$500,000 to PT Akar Golindo if the concession is renewed beyond its expiry date of 15 May 2017.

Pursuant to Rule 14 of the AIM Rules for Companies this farm-in constitutes a reverse takeover and, accordingly, the farm-in agreement is subject to the approval of Andalas' shareholders in general meeting.

Work Progress

Under the terms of the agreement the Company will be the technical operator for the Tuba Obi East well work programme. Accordingly, ADL's in-country team has expedited the design, planning and site preparations for the farm-in well (provisionally called TOE-2). The concession operator, PT Akar Golindo, has also been supporting this work.

Two well locations (a preferred location and an alternate) have now been selected and site surveys have been completed, along with the inspection of potential drilling rigs, during the week commencing 22 February 2016. The drilling team is now progressing the rig selection process whilst services contracting continues apace, with the preparation of critical tender documents.

Additionally, ADL has prepared a draft gas and power development plan for the TOE concession. As part of the TOE-2 well approval process this plan will be presented to Pertamina (the Indonesian national oil company) in the coming weeks. Work has also commenced on a power production feasibility study in parallel with GG&R evaluations of gas discoveries in the area surrounding the concession.

As part of the reverse takeover process, representatives from the Company's nominated adviser, Cantor Fitzgerald (Europe), have visited the field. Gaffney Cline and Associates in Singapore has almost completed its CPR assessing the gas resources within the concession. The results of their analysis are expected shortly. Andalas will publish the Admission Document in due course.

Tuba Obi East Gas

Tuba Obi East is located in the South Sumatran basin approximately 30km north-west of Jambi city. The wells previously drilling in the concession have tested gas in the key South Sumatra hydrocarbon bearing formations, namely, the Air Benakat Formation ('ABF') and the Talang Akar Formation ('TAF'). A total of six wells (three wells within the concession and a further three just outside) have been drilled through these zones, with a number having been logged across the ABF and TAF. Several have also flowed gas to surface.

Crucially, the ABF has flowed gas outside the TAC at commercial rates, but only limited data from this formation has been gathered within the concession area. Andalas' technical analysis indicates that this reservoir zone contains potentially substantial gas resources that can be proven via the drilling and flow testing of the proposed TOE-2 well. If the work programme proves successful, the TOE-2 may be completed as a future production well.

Further GG&R and development studies will be undertaken following the analysis of test results from the well. This work will be conducted in parallel with development planning and a proactive approach to the renewal and extension of the concession contract. Preliminary discussions will also be held with targeted gas and power consumers.

**ENDS**

For further information, please contact:
SHENZHEN, China, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Stylish Smartwatch Inspired by the Spirit of Paris' Montmartre

Swiss timekeeping, classic French design and Chinese innovation combine to celebrate the elegance of analog and smart connectivity, with the launch of Emie's minimalist smartwatch collection, nevo Balade Parisienne.

The nevo watch concept was born from the idea that useful technology can be beautifully integrated into modern products without sacrificing style.

nevo Balade Parisienne combines precision timekeeping, activity tracking, phone notifications, sleep monitoring and silent alarms for style-conscious wearers - compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Wearers can even set an inactivity reminder to ensure they keep moving throughout the day.

nevo Balade Parisienne is inspired by the spirit of Montmartre in the heart of Paris, with its old-time charm and twisting lanes. The collection comes to life in four styles - Tertre, Lepic, Saules, and Ravignan. Their unique case finishes, dial colours and leather strap designs celebrate this great city and honour urban minimalist style, creating a new classic.

The French-designed smart-timekeeper is aimed at passionate and active people. Water resistant to 50-meters, selfie lovers with Android devices will adore the opportunity to capture the moment from their wrist.

The watch is a product of Emie Lab, the hardware-accelerator funded by Emie, China's leading design-led technology company that helps creators and designers realise their ideas.

Vicky Yang, marketing director of Emie comments: "The nevo Balade Parisienne smartwatch combines Swiss science, French design and Chinese innovation to create a minimalist smartwatch that is simple, stylish, and smart.

"Emie believes that great innovation comes from the love of life and a desire to complement and enhance it. This watch is a fusion of craftsmanship and connectivity, a product designed for the spirit of modern times."

The premium design, feature-packed smartwatch is available to buy internationally through http://en.emie.com/emie-nevo-balade-parisienne-smartwatch and retails at $169.99 USD.

Technical information:

Compatibility:

Bluetooth 4.0

iOS 8 and above

OTA firmware upgrade function

Activity Tracking:

Steps

Distance, calories burned

Sleep time and quality

Notifications

Inactivity reminder

Calls, texts, emails & more

Daily goal reached

Up to 10 silent alarms

Hardware

42x12mm stainless steel case

5 ATM water resistant

CR2032 battery cell for smart features (up to six months)

364 cell for timekeeping (five-plus years)

Contact: Alex Kent, alex@makehoney.com , +44(0)-7538-730-650
FARGO  An Oregon man accused of distributing fentanyl linked to two overdose deaths in Grand Forks pleaded guilty Monday in Fargo federal court.

Brandon Corde Hubbard, 41, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances resulting in serious bodily injury and death, distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and money laundering.

Hubbard entered the plea as part of an agreement, filed Dec. 21, in which he admitted his role in selling the drug that led to the overdose deaths of 18-year-old Bailey Henke and 19-year-old Evan Poitra in Grand Forks. Both died after taking fentanyl citrate, a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Hubbard faces two life sentences on the first two counts, but through the plea agreement, prosecutors would recommend a lesser sentence. However, Hubbards first two counts also carry a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

During Mondays court hearing, Judge Ralph Erickson explained Hubbard must be sentenced to at least 20 years in prison unless the prosecution asks the judge for a lesser sentence.

Hubbard accepted responsibility for two deaths and four overdoses resulting in serious bodily injury in North Dakota and Oregon through his plea.

U.S. Attorney Chris Myers said he would seek restitution for all victims at the time of sentencing, but he wasnt sure Monday how much that would be. The restitution could cover expenses such as medical and funeral bills, Judge Erickson explained.

Hubbard was an integral part in a large scale drug distribution conspiracy that spanned multiple countries and stretched across the United States. He imported $1.5 million worth of fentanyl citrate from China and Canada and then distributed them by mail throughout the U.S., according to court papers.

The Grand Forks Narcotics Task Force began investigating after the overdose death of Henke on Jan. 3, 2015. Through great police work and a little bit of luck, the investigation revealed that Hubbard used the Dark Web to anonymously distribute fentanyl, among other drugs, from his home in Portland, Ore., Myers said.

The Dark Web refers to public websites which servers IP addresses are hidden, making it difficult to identify who is operating them.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program, a national award, honored 20 individuals in February for their work in Operation Denial with the outstanding cooperative effort award, including members of the Grand Forks County narcotics task force, Grand Forks Police Department, States Attorney David Jones, Grand Forks Sheriffs Office and UND Police Department.

Nine defendants have been charged in North Dakota and three defendants charged in Oregon as part of Operation Denial.

One of the recipients of drugs from Hubbard was Ryan Jon Jensen, 20, of Grand Forks, who was sentenced Feb. 1 to 20 years in prison for his role in the fentanyl overdose deaths.

Four others from Grand Forks have been sentenced to federal prison as a result of Operation Denial: Joshua Tyler Fulp, 20, received 12 years; Kain Daniel Schwandt, 19, 3 years; David Todd Noye Jr., 18, 3 years; and Jameson Robert Sele, 20, three years.
Northcote Energy Ltd / Index: AIM / Epic: NCT / ISIN: VGG6622A1057 / Sector: Oil & Gas

08 March 2016

Northcote Energy Ltd

('Northcote' or 'the Company')

Notes Andalas Energy & Power Update

Northcote notes the announcement today from Andalas Energy and Power Plc ('Andalas') regarding its conditional farm-in agreement to acquire a 30% working interest for the Tuba Obi East ('TOE') Technical Assistance Contract ('TAC') ('the Concession') which is located in the South Sumatran basin approximately 30km north-west of Jambi city in Jambi province, Sumatra (the "Farm-In"). Andalas believes that any future gas production from the Concession may support either gas export with the project located close to a major export route or gas-to-power being located in an area where a significant shortfall in energy generation exists. The Farm-In constitutes a reverse takeover pursuant to the Aim Rules and, accordingly, the farm-in agreement is subject to the approval of Andalas' shareholders in general meeting.

Pursuant to the terms of its participation right, Northcote has the right to participate in any project alongside Andalas at a level that is equal to 12.5% of Andalas' participation, or 3.75% net interest in TOE if Northcote were to elect to participate, until 30 April 2020. Northcote will have 20 business days (from the date that Northcote receives written notification from Andalas that it intends to proceed with its investment) to notify it of its intention to participate in the concession. Northcote is yet to receive this written notification. Should Northcote elect to participate in the Farm-In it would be expected to fund its proportional share of the farm-in costs, estimated at a total gross amount of US$1,575,000 constituting US$1,075,000 in respect of the work programme and a further US$500,000 if the concession is renewed beyond its expiry date of 15 May 2017 as well as reimburse Andalas for its share of the direct third part costs incurred in connection with this investment decision.

Northcote Managing Director Randall J. Connally said, "We are very excited about the progress Andalas is making in Indonesia and its focus on natural gas projects which given the strong domestic market provide excellent potential for revenue diversification. Pursuant to our agreement with Andalas, Northcote will have twenty business days from the date we are notified of details regarding the project to make a decision as to our participation. Therefore we will notify the market in due course."

**ENDS**

For further information visit www.northcoteenergy.com or contact the following:

Randy Connally Northcote Energy Ltd +1 214 550 5082 Ross Warner Northcote Energy Ltd +44 7760 487 769 Roland Cornish Beaumont Cornish Ltd +44 20 7628 3396 James Biddle Beaumont Cornish Ltd +44 20 7628 3396 Elliot Hance Beaufort Securities Ltd +44 20 7382 8300 Nick Bealer Cornhill Capital Limited +44 20 7710 9612 Elisabeth Cowell St Brides Partners Limited +44 20 7236 1177

Notes:

Northcote Energy Limited is an entrepreneurial energy company with diverse interests. The Company combines a portfolio of US exploration and production assets in Louisiana and Oklahoma with the development of new business opportunities in the US and also in Mexico as well as Indonesia via a strategic relationship with Andalas Energy and Power Plc.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) San Francisco Roundtable announced that registration for its popular Innovation Dinner event at Levi's Stadium, is now open, TO CSCMP MEMBERS ONLY, THIS WEEK ONLY.

Starting Monday, March 14, 2016, event registration will be open to the wider public as well. Last year, the first time Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott participated, the event sold out almost immediately and a waitlist of more than 40 was turned away.

This year's program will be very similar, with a keynote talk by Ronnie Lott, followed by a moderated conversation with Innovation Champions, Jim Miller, VP Worldwide Operations for Google and T.S. Khurana, head of engineering and operations for Facebook. Moderator and event chair, Michele Carroll, president of Carrollco Marketing Services and the CSCMP SF Roundtable, said that the conversation is sure to follow up on controversial subjects raised last year -- from sacrificing logistics cost efficiencies for speed to market, to how these leaders are create a culture of innovation, attract and retain needed talent in this demanding space.

CSCMP's dynamic SF Roundtable is making good on its commitments this year, with 'meatier programs,' giving more back charitably and increasing academic scholarship programs. This year's competition among students pursuing supply chain management careers is also now live, with online application available at http://www.cscmpsfrt.org/page-374886. In addition to the MIQ Logistics Scholarship of $2500, CSCMP SF Roundtable itself will award a $2500 prize to a deserving student. AND there will be an Ambassador selected from deserving entries to represent the Roundtable at the Annual CSCMP Conference in Orlando, FL in the fall.

This Thursday, March 10th, CSCMP presents 'Grain to Glass - Supply Chains of Northern CA Craft Breweries,' featuring the CEO of Devil's Canyon Brewing Company, the Co-Founder & EO of Headlands Brewery and the CEO and Partner of Ciatti Beverages, an innovative supplier. There will be samples, an interactive presentation and a tour. To register and for more information, go to http://www.cscmpsfrt.org/event-2148802.

CSCMP's San Francisco Roundtable is one of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professional's (CSCMP) largest and most dynamic roundtables. It offers educational events, unparalleled networking opportunities with thought and business leaders, and an annual scholarship competition. www.cscmpsfrt.org.

Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation helps improve the quality of life in the Silicon Valley region through the provision of funding for food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and other basic necessities of life. The Foundation supports activities that drive a strong sense of community engagement and serves as a forum for non-partisan research and analysis of public policy issues affecting the Silicon Valley region, including education, energy, environmental protection, health, housing, land use and transportation. http://svlg.org/svlg-foundation

Contact:

Michele Carroll

Email Contact

+1 925.980.1767




SURREY, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Ascot Resources (TSX VENTURE: AOT) is pleased to announce that it is planning a minimum 50,000 metre drill program in 2016, at its Premier gold property near Stewart, British Columbia. Work is expected to commence, weather permitting, in early April. The program is designed to expand on the historical (non-compliant) resources in the old Premier Mine area of the property by drilling on twenty-five metre centres and following up with additional drill holes on high grade targets.

In 2016 the Company will also re-assay 7,550 rejects from 196 holes drilled underground in the old Premier Mine area by Westmin, in 1996. This will allow the data to be used for a new NI 43-101 compliant resource.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

ASCOT RESOURCES LTD.

Per: John A. Toffan

John A. Toffan, President and Director

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release relative to markets about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation; statements regarding the exploration and mineralization potential of the Premier property, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Ascot's expectations include fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; and uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Ascot does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Ascot Resources Ltd.

(604) 379-1170

www.ascotresources.ca




CHICAGO, IL, and NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Custom House Global Fund Services, a leading independent hedge fund administration specialist, is pleased to announce the expansion of its sales and operations in North America. Sebastien Sacre was appointed Managing Director of the Chicago office, the U.S. headquarters for Custom House, while John Lumley, who joined as the Head of Sales, Americas, will be based in New York.

"We are extremely pleased to have talent of the caliber of Sebastien and John join our global team and spearhead our operations and business development in the Americas," said Mark Hedderman, CEO, Custom House Global Fund Services. He added, "Sebastien is responsible for the running of our Chicago office and also the further enhancement of our PERE offering while John's invaluable experience across operations, product and business development places him perfectly to lead Custom House's growth in the region."

Mr. Sacre joined Custom House from JPMorgan Chase, where he was a Vice President and Office Lead in the Private Equity and Real Estate Services group, managing the fund administration for private equity funds of several internal and external clients. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Sacre was a Senior Manager in the Audit Financial Services Industry group at Ernst &Young, working out of E&Y's Luxembourg, Toronto and Chicago offices, handling the audits of hedge funds, private equity funds and mutual funds.

Mr. Lumley has over sixteen years' experience in fund administration across operations, product and business development and was previously Product Head for Global Fund Services at J.P. Morgan, New York. In addition to positions at J.P. Morgan, he has experience on both alternative investments and investment banking with roles at GlobeOp Financial Services, Deutsche Bank, and Salomon Brothers.

About Custom House Global Fund Services

Custom House Global Fund Services is a leading independent hedge fund administration specialist ideally located to deliver services in Europe, Asia and the Americas. We partner with established hedge fund managers, start up managers, family offices and institutional managers, with a combination of experience, global presence and technology. Founded in 1989, Custom House grew with the alternative investment industry providing superior fund administration and investor services and today provides one of the most advanced service offerings available to fund managers. With over $20bn in AUA, Custom House provides fund administration services to more than 200 managers and 500 investment funds. The firm has offices in Chicago, Dublin, Geneva, Guernsey, Hong Kong, London, Malta, New York, Rotterdam, Shenzhen, Singapore, Sofia and Sydney. For more information, visit www.customhousegroup.com.

For further information, please contact:

Rosalia Scampoli

LJOPR

Tel: (212) 404 2395

rscampoli@ljopr.com




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Prime Minister's Office

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on the occasion of International Women's Day:

"On this special day, we celebrate the many achievements of women in Canada - and around the world - and we reaffirm our commitment to gender equality.

"While we have made enormous progress towards equality over the years, we know that we still have a lot of hard work to do. Far too many women and girls continue to face injustices and discrimination.

It is unacceptable that in 2016, women are still denied an education, forced into an early marriage, or made victims of gender-based violence. As leaders, as parents, as community members, upholding women's rights should be - and must be - a priority for us all.

"Canada's theme for this year's International Women's Day - Women's Empowerment Leads to Equality - reminds us that we all benefit when women and girls have the opportunities and the resources they need to succeed.

"We remain committed to advancing gender equality, so that Canada can become a country where all women and girls can reach their full potential.

"Today, I encourage all Canadians to join me in celebrating International Women's Day. I also urge you to take part in the Government of Canada YouAreEmpowerment campaign to honour a woman who has inspired you."

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca

Contacts:

PMO Media Relations:

613-957-5555




LONDON, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Note to editors: There are two photos associated with this press release.

On International Women's Day, International Justice Mission Canada joins the PledgeforParity.

IJM Canada's PledgeforParity includes a commitment to ending violence against women in the developing world. In the developing world, women routinely encounter violence-rape, domestic abuse, sex trafficking-and are frequently unable to secure the protection of the law for their safety.

"Until women, especially women in the developing world, are adequately and proportionally protected from violence with laws that are enforced on their behalf, gender parity will remain unrealized," says Ed Wilson, Executive Director of IJM Canada.

According to the United Nations, it is estimated that one in five women worldwide will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. In the developing world, statistics paint a dire portrait of gender violence:

-- In Peruvian cities, 22.5% of women have ever experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner, and 7.2% by a current partner. (WHO) -- One in five women in the Philippines experience domestic violence. (Inter-Agency Task Force on Violence Against Women) -- In Zambia, 38% of women between the ages of 15 and 19 have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. (The World's Women) -- In Thailand cities, 29.9% of women have ever experienced sexual violence from an intimate partner, and 17.1% from a current partner. (WHO)

Roadblocks to justice for a victim of violence in the developing world are particularly devastating. In many instances, laws protecting her from violence are simply not enforced. The UN has found that at least 119 countries have passed laws on domestic violence and 125 have laws on sexual harassment, but women need more than good laws to ensure their protection and to break the cycle of impunity.

"Laws on paper are of no use to the woman who does not receive protection from violence in her daily life. We want to ensure that laws protecting women are enforced fairly, honestly and quickly so that women are safe," adds Mr. Wilson.

Until laws that protect women from violence are effectively enforced, inequality will persist. IJM has proven that effective law enforcement can, in fact, protect women. Learn more at IJM.ca/Our-Solution

International Justice Mission is a global organization protecting the poor from violence throughout the developing world. IJM partners with local authorities to rescue victims of violence, bring criminals to justice, restore survivors, and strengthen justice systems. International Justice Mission Canada shares in this mission.

To view the photos associated with this press release, please visit the following links:

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160308-1046016_Maya_800.jpg

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160308-1046016_Charito_800.jpg

Contacts:

Petra Kooman, Public Affairs Manager

(519) 679-5030 x. 229

pkooman@ijm.ca

www.IJM.ca




TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - Engineering Group DRA International ("DRA") is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire Met-Chem Canada Inc. ("Met-Chem") from UEC Technologies LLC, which is part of United States Steel Corporation.

Met-Chem is a consulting engineering company, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which provides services including resource estimation, mine design and planning, and mineral processing to the metals and minerals industry world-wide. With particular strengths in mining and geology, Met-Chem is an excellent fit for DRA, which has specialist capabilities in design engineering, mineral processing, EPCM project delivery and contract operations. Together DRA and Met-Chem have strong and comprehensive capabilities at each stage of the project life-cycle.

Established over 40 years ago, Met-Chem is well-respected with mining clients in Europe, Africa, China, India, North and South America. In addition to its mining expertise, Met-Chem has developed a good track record in industrial minerals in recent years.

DRA will retain Met-Chem's office in French-speaking Montreal, Canada, from which it will continue to service clients in Quebec, Eastern Canada, North and West Africa, as well as globally.

DRA, which originated in South Africa, established an office in Canada in 2005 and acquired Taggart Global in 2014. "DRA continues to expand its business in the Americas, and the acquisition of Met-Chem is a logical next step for our growth in this region," said Wray Carvelas, CEO of DRA Americas. "This acquisition allows us to offer enhanced services to our existing mining and mineral clients and we look forward to servicing new clients, in the Americas and other regions such as French-speaking Africa, with our expanded capabilities."

About DRA

DRA is a multi-disciplinary global engineering group that originated in South Africa and delivers mining, mineral processing, energy, water treatment and infrastructure services from concept to commissioning, as well as comprehensive operations and maintenance services for the mineral resources and energy sectors. DRA has offices in Africa Australia, Canada, China and India and the United States.

About Met-Chem

Met-Chem was established in 1969 as a consulting engineering company, headquartered in Montreal, and provides a wide range of technical and engineering services. Met-Chem is well-recognized for its capabilities in mining, geology and mineral processing and has a talented team of engineering, technical and project management personnel with experience in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and India.

For further information please contact:



Wray Carvelas

CEO DRA Americas Inc.

416-800-8797 ext 101
MILWAUKEE (dpa-AFX) - Auto parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc.'s (JCI) Chairman and CEO Alex Molinaroli has refuted accusations that the company was in financial distress and sought funds from the federal government in 2008 as part of the U.S. auto industry bailout. In an op-ed on the Detroit Free Press website, Molinaroli has refuted the erroneous allegations and laid out the truth about the company's actions as well as ongoing contributions to the U.S. economy. 'That is simply not true. Johnson Controls did not request and did not receive aid from the government during the financial crisis. Nor did the company declare bankruptcy,' Molinaroli said in the op-ed. Johnson Controls noted that the inaccurate attacks have become a recurring theme in stump speeches, debates and campaign ads during this presidential campaign season. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Burberry Group PLC (BRBY.L) shares jumped about 6% Tuesday morning on speculation that U.K.'s biggest luxury-goods producer could be the target of an activist investor or a takeover bid. A routine shareholding disclosure filed last month showed an undisclosed investor had briefly accrued a stake of more than 5% in Burberry, and a Financial Times report late Monday on Burberry's response to the stake led to the share-price move. Burberry asked HSBC Holdings, which is listed as the custodian of the stake, to name the investor, reports said citing a person familiar with the conversation. However, under U.K. rules, once an investor's stake has crossed 5%, the target company can mandate disclosure of the stake's owner. Burberry expects to get more details from HSBC in coming days, the reports noted. In London, Burberry is currently trading at 1,451 pence, up 80.00 pence or 5.84%. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Editors Note: There is a photo associated with this press release.

DHL, the world's leading logistics provider, announced today that it has received 6 awards at the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service gala held in Las Vegas on Friday, March 4. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top sales awards, contact center awards, and customer service awards.

"We take great pride in the quality of our people and it's rewarding to see them recognized for their outstanding efforts in providing exceptional customer service," said Andrew Williams, CEO of DHL Express Canada. "Our employees are empowered to go the great lengths to exceed the expectations of our customers and it has a profound impact on the strength of our business."

Being Insanely Customer Centric is an integral part of DHL's culture and DNA. These awards are a true testament to DHL Express Canada working together 'As ONE' in delivering great service quality to its customers consistently. With a team of 150+ Customer Service professionals, DHL offers customer service quality that exemplifies the DHL global motto: Excellence, Simply Delivered.

The awards include Contact Center Leader of the Year, Customer Service Leader of the Year - Transportation, Contact Center of the Year, Customer Service Manager of the Year, Customer Service Department of the Year - Airlines, Distribution and Transportation and recognition for DHL Express Canada's Straight to the Top Team for Customer Service Complaints Team of the Year - Transportation.

These recognitions are part of over 100 awards won globally, reinforcing DHL's efforts to promote superior customer service throughout its organization and with its partners around the globe.

"Our unrelenting focus on customer satisfaction is how we keep our eyes on the prize," said Kerri Evans, Head of Customer Service at DHL Express Canada. "We devote a lot of time and resources into training and skills development for our employees, which creates a deeper sense of engagement and leads to a better customer experience."

The awards were presented to honorees during a gala banquet on Friday, March 4 at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 200 executives from around the world participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and select the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

The full list of winners in all categories is available at www.StevieAwards.com/sales.

You can find the press release for download as well as further information on www.dpdhl.com/pressreleases www.dhl.com/InMotion.

DHL - The Logistics Company for the World

DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. DHL's family of divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 325,000 employees in over 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including e-commerce, technology, life sciences and healthcare, energy, automotive and retail, a proven commitment to corporate responsibility and an unrivalled presence in developing markets, DHL is decisively positioned as "The logistics company for the world".

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 56 billion euros in 2014. For more information, go to: www.dpdhl.com.

To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160308-DHL_Stevie.jpg.

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Tasneem Dasoo

Argyle Public Relationships

416-968-7311 ext. 250

tdasoo@argylepr.com




MEXICO CITY (dpa-AFX) - Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto has said that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's inflammatory comments about his country recalls the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. The Mexican leader urged Americans to vote with caution, quoting newspaper interviews published Monday, highlighting Trump's criticism of the Mexican government and migrants. Nieto warned that such comments seek very simple solutions to complicated problems, and can hurt US-Mexican ties. Nieto is not the first Mexican leader drawing a parallel to Trump with Hitler. His predecessors, Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox also slammed Trump's call for Mexico to pay for a border wall. Trump, who leads the race for the Republican nomination, has railed against immigrants and especially immigration from Mexico, accusing the country of sending drug dealers and rapists to the United States. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- ProPlus Design Solutions, Inc., the leading SPICE modeling, giga-scale SPICE simulation and design for yield (DFY) solution provider, will demonstrate its giga-scale SPICE simulators and new process and device evaluation tool during TSMC 2016 Technology Symposia this month.

The TSMC North America events will be held March 15 in San Jose, Calif., March 22 in Boston, and March 24 in Austin, Texas.

Among the products to be demonstrated will be NanoSpice Giga, and MEPro. NanoSpice Giga, the first and only GigaSpice simulator, replaces FastSPICE for accurate verification and signoff of large-block and full-chip memory designs. MEPro, a newly launched tool that bridges circuit design, CAD and process development teams, improves a user's understanding of devices and the process platform through a systematic evaluation of device or circuit level performance targets. It gives users a high degree of confidence on process platform selection and adoption, allows easy management of multiple platforms and process revisions, and provides assistance to improve circuit designs.

ProPlus will host a webinar Thursday, March 31, at 11 a.m. P.D.T., following the final TSMC Technology Symposium, titled, "ProPlus MEPro: A New Tool for Process and Device Evaluation." The 60-minute webinar will be presented by Dr. Bruce McGaughy, ProPlus' chief technology officer. It is meant for CAD and circuit design teams using multiple process platforms from different foundries, or those having early access of process platforms with numerous process revisions. To register, go to: http://bit.ly/1RlyYgy

For more information about ProPlus Design Solutions, visit www.proplussolutions.com

About ProPlus Design Solutions

ProPlus Design Solutions, Inc., delivers Electronic Design Automation (EDA) solutions with the mission to enhance the link between design and manufacturing. As the leading provider of nano-scale SPICE modeling, the innovative giga-scale SPICE simulation and design for yield (DFY) applications, it provides the industry's golden SPICE modeling platform, the first and only GigaSpice simulator, and the only integrated DFY design platform. Founded in 2006, ProPlus Design Solutions has R&D centers in San Jose, Calif., Beijing and Jinan, China, and offices in Tokyo, Japan, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Shanghai, China. More information about ProPlus Design Solutions can be found at www.proplussolutions.com

NanoSpice, NanoSpice Giga, NanoYield, BSIMProPlus, NoiseProPlus, MEPro and Nano Design Environment are registered trademarks of ProPlus Design Solutions. ProPlus Design Solutions acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services.

For more information, contact:

Nanette Collins

Public Relations for ProPlus Design Solutions

(617) 437-1822

Email Contact




MADRID, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Telepizza s igns a master franchise agreement with Al Bayan Holding Group , one of the leading business groups in the country

Telepizza is currently present in 14 countries and its international sales represent over 30% of total chain sales

Telepizza pushes ahead with its international strategy and reinforces its commitment to international markets through master franchise agreements with local partners. The company expects to launch operations in Saudi Arabia following the signing of a master franchise agreement with Emtyaz Catering Company, a 100% subsidiary of the Al Bayan Holding Group, which is the Strategic Partner for Telepizza in Saudi Arabia and one of the leading business groups in the country.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7780751-telepizza-franchise-expansion-saudi-arabia/

The agreement includes a commitment to open up to 100 stores within the next ten years, and construction of the first four stores has already begun in the capital city of Riyadh, with openings planned between late April and early May this year. The company aims to continue expanding its brand to other Saudi locations, including the west -Jeddah- and eastern areas of the country.

With this new strategic partner, Telepizza aims to become market leader for pizza delivery in Saudi Arabia, whose market value in 2016 is estimated by Euromonitor to be 1.3 billion euros and has growth prospects of 6% (CAGR) over the next 5 years.

Telepizza's local partner in this venture is a diversified business group with interests in several companies, in sectors such as food and beverages, as well as real estate development and construction.

"Our international expansion is gaining momentum after a strong launch, which has been reinforced by international partners who have extensive local knowledge and expertise in key markets, and who are interested in growing our brand globally," explains Pablo Juantegui, CEO of Telepizza.

Flexibility and brand recognition

Telepizza has a solid model and a recognized brand, scalable to different markets with a wide degree of flexibility for the franchisee.

"We have a great competitive advantage: our capacity to respond quickly and our flexibility to apply local concepts to the business, both of which are key to our success. In addition, we have the differentiating value of an innovative product -freshly handmade quality pizzas in a Mediterranean style- concepts increasingly valued in the international markets," explains Giorgio Minardi, President International of Telepizza.

The flexibility of its franchising model, with its capacity for response, support of an experienced team and quality service, are key elements for investors that are interested in growing along with Telepizza in markets with growth potential.

"We are very pleased to join the Telepizza Company. Its unique brand concept and the high degree of product innovation -freshly handmade quality pizzas in a Mediterranean style - have been crucial when selecting a new partner. Telepizza has strong cultural and quality values, very similar to what we have established in Al Bayan Holding Group. We look forward to growing together in this long term successful partnership," says Mr. Nasser Al Hammad, Executive Vice President of Al Bayan Holding Group.

International strategy

Telepizza's international strategy is focused on growth in markets where it is currently operating, exploring new business opportunities, and entering new markets, either organically, through acquisitions of local companies or via master franchises.

Currently, the company is present in 14 countries and its international sales exceed 30% of the total sales.

About Telepizza

Telepizza is a leading pizza delivery company recognized for its freshly handmade quality pizzas in a Mediterranean style, friendly served anytime, anywhere at a great value.

Due to its pioneering positioning in the sector with a 30-year history and its management model, it has experienced a solid international growth with a consolidated presence in 14 countries of Europe, Latin America and Africa, and more than 1,300 stores worldwide.

http://www.telepizza.com

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SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - ISCS is pleased to announce the successful implementation of SurePower Innovation and its newly released, SurePower Insights', by The Barnstable County Mutual Insurance Company (The Barnstable), a Massachusetts-based insurance solution provider.

The Barnstable chose the SurePower Innovation suite to modernize the company's overall core administration architecture, as well as to provide additional functionality for underwriting, agent/consumer portals and mobile capabilities. The Barnstable mitigated the risk typically involved in a major project, like a core administration system replacement, by building a close working relationship with ISCS, utilizing an agile implementation methodology, and taking advantage of ISCS's complete managed SaaS solution, SurePackage', for deployment.

"Software-as-a-Service is without question the right approach for us," said John DeMello, president and CEO of The Barnstable. "We're a very lean organization with only 12 employees. Hosting our own software and managing the related equipment is not our core business, and the SaaS business approach takes that burden out of our hands. And, the agile approach allowed us to carve up our requirements into 12 monthly releases, and enabled us to achieve a seemingly overwhelming task of simultaneously bringing up three lines of business for four companies within a year."

The Barnstable, as part of the overall implementation, also deployed SurePower Insights, ISCS's business intelligence (BI) solution which produces real-time, dynamic, 360-degree insight into consumer, agent and company resource data. The addition of this new analytics platform greatly augments The Barnstable's ability to turn data into actionable information, improving overall service to their customers and agents.

ISCS's SurePower Innovation provides a flexible platform from which The Barnstable can easily automate policy, billing and claims administration, as well as other critical areas such as quoting/rating, underwriting, reinsurance, producer/commission management, while experiencing real-time BI. Additionally, SurePower Innovation's mobile features and functionality enable versatility for insurers in terms of handling agent and policyholder needs anytime, anywhere, a significant benefit to The Barnstable's network of agents.

"Years ago, ISCS made a commitment to bring a complete managed SaaS solution to our clients. We're pleased that The Barnstable was able to benefit from that and have such a smooth transition to SurePower Innovation," said Andy Scurto, president of ISCS. "We look forward to a long and successful relationship with them."

About ISCS

ISCS is the developer of SurePower Innovation, a cloud-based modern enterprise suite for property and casualty (P&C) insurance organizations writing personal, commercial and specialty lines. SurePower Innovation extends beyond core administration (policy, billing and claims) to include reinsurance, business intelligence, document management, mobile, insurance accounting, producer/commission management, portals and more. ISCS consistently delivers SurePower Innovation as a complete, managed SaaS solution via ISCS's SurePackage' deployment option, allowing insurers to focus on the business of insurance. For more information, visit the company website at www.iscs.com.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Overhulse

St. Nick Media Services

(859) 803-6597

jen@stnickmedia.com


PEARL RIVER, NY and SILICON VALLEY, CA--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - ACORD, the insurance industry's global data standards and services association, is pleased to announce the second semi-final for the 2016 ACORD Insurance Innovation Challenge (AIIC), an innovation competition-business incubator hybrid launched in 2015, will be held on May 23 in Silicon Valley. This semi-final will be hosted by the Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator (SVIA) in conjunction with the Q2 "Insurance Disrupted: Disruptive Business Models | InsurTech Invest" Conference at the Crowne Plaza Foster City-San Mateo, CA on May 24 and 25.

"The success of the SVIA's Insurance Disrupted event last November demonstrates the deep connections they have with the InsurTech community in Silicon Valley," said Bill Hartnett, head of innovation for ACORD and AIIC executive sponsor. "SVIA has opened the door for an innovation dialogue and connections between Silicon Valley and the established industry can have tangible benefits for the insurance industry globally. Considering the mission of the AIIC, working with SVIA to identify and promote innovation in and for the insurance industry was the logical next step."

"The ACORD Insurance Innovation Challenge has been groundbreaking in this area and we are honored to be a part of it," said Natalie Wood, SVIA's chief revenue officer. "Establishing a partnership with ACORD is a critical step for us in establishing an ongoing innovation dialogue with the industry."

"We actively seek partners with a demonstrated commitment to the digital future of the industry; ACORD has clearly made that commitment," said Mike Connor, SVIA's CEO. "Digitally transforming one of the world's most critical industries is a rewarding and challenging process. We are excited about what our partnership with ACORD can contribute to the industry's digital future."

There are four scheduled semi-finals for the 2016 AIIC, to be held in Des Moines, Silicon Valley, New York City and London. Individuals and companies can select any one of the semi-finals and pitch in front of a panel of judges comprised of insurance company professionals, analysts, entrepreneurs and thought leaders. In the case of the AIIC Silicon Valley Semi-Final, individuals registering for the May Insurance Disrupted Conference will have the opportunity to register for and attend the AIIC pitches for a nominal additional charge. All AIIC qualifying pitches will get feedback from program mentors prior to the event, answer questions from the judges, and be graded on impact, ingenuity, applicability to the insurance industry, and quality of the presentation.

The submission process for the AIIC Silicon Valley semi-final is open now through April 11 at www.acordchallenge.org, leading up the May 23 pitches which will take place just prior to the opening reception for the SVIA's Insurance Disrupted event at the Crowne Plaza Foster City-San Mateo. Early-stage startups are encouraged to submit a well"defined concept for a product or service that demonstrates the potential to disrupt or transform traditional approaches to all aspects of the insurance business and the industry at-large.

Winners of the AIIC Silicon Valley semi-final will have the opportunity to join other semi-finalists in presenting to a panel of judges before a live audience at the ACORD2016 event, November 1-3 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida. The winners, selected based on a ranking derived from a combination of responses from the live audience and the judging panel, will receive a prize package valued at $25,000.

Click here to watch an interview about the AIIC with ACORD CEO & President Greg Maciag and ACORD Head of Innovation Bill Hartnett.

Click here to follow the AIIC LinkedIn Showcase page.

For more information about ACORD, the ACORD Insurance Innovation Challenge, or the ACORD2016 event, call 845.620.1700, or visit www.acord.org, www.acordchallenge.org, or www.acord.org/acordevent, respectively.

About ACORD

ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is a global, nonprofit organization serving the insurance and related industries. ACORD facilitates the development of open consensus data standards and standard forms, and works with its members and partner organizations to drive implementation of those standards. ACORD members worldwide include hundreds of insurance and reinsurance companies, agents and brokers, software providers, financial services organizations and industry associations. ACORD maintains offices in New York and London. For more information, visit the association website at www.acord.org.

About Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator (SVIA)

Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator (SVIA) is an open innovation outpost. SVIA's charter is to help accelerate the innovation process for the Insurance Industry. SVIA is facilitating a dialog, contacts, and investments that accelerate development of a digital generation of insurance. SVIA does this through its quarterly Insurance Disrupted conference series, startup showcases, studies and reports, and by facilitating executive forums and highly customized meetings. For more information, please visit www.sviaccelerator.com.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/3/7/11G086457/Images/AIIC_Stacked_Logo-8b9292dfb517acd3b0d7ed7f6007de45.jpg

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Media Contact:

Jennifer Overhulse

St. Nick Media Services

859.803.6597

jen@stnickmedia.com
The Octapharma Group publishes its 2015 annual results reporting revenue of 1.513 billion Euro, representing an increase of 233 million Euro or 18.2% compared with the 2014 figure.

Gross profit in 2015 was 582 million Euro, 140 million Euro higher than in 2014. The reported gross margin improves to 38.5%.

Operating expenses were 231 million Euro, 60 million Euro higher than in 2014, and include the significant investment Octapharma has made to gain access to new technologies for the development of its recombinant product portfolio.

Operating income is reported at 351 million Euro, the highest in the history of Octapharma. Net cash from operating activities is reported at 382 million Euro or 25% of revenue and provides the platform for future investments.

Chairman and Chief Executive of the Octapharma Group, Wolfgang Marguerre, said: "The year 2015 has been another record-breaking year for Octapharma in which we reached sales in excess of 1.5 billion Euro with a pre-tax profit of 363 million Euro. Being profitable means we can better serve patients globally by investing in the things that make a real difference; making our factories bigger, expanding our fleet of plasma centres, developing new products and exploring novel recombinant technologies."

Trade receivables and inventory both increased, but at a lower rate than the rate at which sales increased, as a result of careful management of these asset positions.

The investment in fixed assets was 115 million Euro in 2015. Adding the investments into research and development, in 2015 the Octapharma Group invested more than 240 million Euro into the future of the company.

The capacity extension and efficiency improvement program, "Program 2019", which represents a 400 million Euro investment over 5 years, is well on track.

The equity ratio increases to 84% and underlines the commitment of the shareholders to continue investing profits into the development of the company. This strong financial position empowers Octapharma to invest in strengthening the organisation, allowing it to better fulfil its mission of providing lifesaving products to more chronically ill patients around the world.

To download the full Octapharma Group 2015 Annual Report visit the Octapharma Annual Report website: www.annualreport.octapharma.com

About Octapharma

Headquartered in Lachen, Switzerland, Octapharma is one of the largest human protein manufacturers in the world, developing and producing human proteins from human plasma and human cell lines. As a family-owned company, Octapharma believes in investing to make a difference in people's lives and has been doing so since 1983.

Octapharma employs more than 6,200 people worldwide to support the treatment of patients in 105 countries with products across three therapeutic areas:

Haematology (coagulation disorders)

Immunotherapy (immune disorders)

Critical Care

Octapharma owns five state-of-the-art production facilities in Austria, France, Germany, Mexico and Sweden.

For more information visit www.octapharma.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308006279/en/

Contacts:

Octapharma

Corporate Communications

Claudie Qumsieh

claudie.qumsieh@octapharma.com

http://www.annualreport.octapharma.com/
BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Votacall, a leading provider of Cloud-based voice solutions and business communication systems with an expertise in VoIP, Unified Communications (UC) and Call Center design and deployment, today announced that their award winning Hosted PBX product suite was named a finalist in the 2016 BIG Innovation Awards by the Business Intelligence Group.

Votacall is a leading provider of business-class Hosted VoIP solutions and they attribute much of their success to a clearly defined and companywide initiative of delivering an unrivaled communications experience and the organizations innovation strategy is at the center of it all. Votacall is constantly testing, developing and deploying new functionality, applications and products within the Cloud Voice Product suite in an effort to promote productive and efficient business communications and absolute investment protection for their customer base.

"We want to be known as the VoIP Solution Provider that delivers an unrivaled customer and communications experience," said Andy DeAngelis, Chief Operating Officer, Votacall. "The only way to accomplish this is to listen to your customers and make constant innovation a priority. Our innovation strategy is equal parts the products and services that we offer our clients as it is the tools and processes that we utilize to support our them. We place a high priority on both sides of the innovation coin and in doing so are working towards fulfilling our mission of being the customer experience alternative in the Hosted PBX market."

"It was clear from our judges that Votacall was clearly deserving of being recognized as a leader in innovation and we are proud to award them the 2016 BIG Innovation Award," said Russ Fordyce, managing director of the Business Intelligence Group. "Congratulations to the entire team. This is well-deserved recognition of your pursuit of excellence and creativity in solving problems."

Organizations from across the globe submitted their recent innovations for consideration in the 2016 BIG Innovation Awards. Nominations were then judged by a select group of business leaders and executives who volunteer their time and expertise to score submissions and provide feedback.

For more information, check out our website www.votacall.com

For what's happening in an around VoIP, take a peek at our blog: blog.votacall.com

About Votacall

Votacall is a leading provider of Cloud-based voice solutions and business communication systems with an expertise in VoIP, Unified Communications (UC) and Call Center design and deployment. Votacall is committed to delivering the latest best in class offerings to our end users through constant market and product research. Our approach allows our customer base to stay ahead of the technological curve at the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in the industry. The Votacall tag line states that you must INNOVATE to effectively COMMUNICATE. We base our organization and its daily operations on those two words. The world is changing, technology is changing, organizations are changing, it is of the utmost significance that you partner with a company that respects and embraces change.

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About Business Intelligence Group www.bintelligence.com

The Business Intelligence Group was founded with the mission of recognizing true talent and superior performance in the business world. Unlike other industry and business award programs, business executives -- those with experience and knowledge -- judge the programs. The organization's proprietary and unique scoring system selectively measures performance across multiple business domains and then rewards those companies whose achievements stand above those of their peers.

Andy DeAngelis

Votacall

Email Contact



Russ Fordyce

Business Intelligence Group

Email Contact

+1.909.529.2737

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KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Maya Kanigan, Founder of the Women in Leadership Foundation, celebrates International Women's Day with the launch of LeadingTalent.ca - Canada's first job portal dedicated to connecting top female candidates for management and senior leadership positions with employers.

LeadingTalent.ca will facilitate the hiring process for recruiters and organizations whose goal is to have a diversified workforce that includes women in top leadership roles. As the demand for women candidates continues to increase this portal will save employers time by providing them with a pool of highly-qualified candidates capable of helping to improve their business performance.

With the declining participation rate in the Canadian labour force and as more Baby Boomers retire, employers and governments will be facing their most challenging issue yet - an impending skills shortage. Increasing the number of women in management roles and fully engaging the talent of highly-skilled women will help address his challenge.

Maya Kanigan founded Women In Leadership Foundation (WIL) in 2001, a national charity that helps women develop leadership skills through mentorship, workshops, forums, and webinars. The job board is a natural extension to the Foundation's mandate. "Our job board continues our work of advancing women in leadership roles by bringing a sought after talent pool and top employers together. More women in the workforce and in leadership positions will improve businesses, increase our national productivity and is critical to the growth of our economy," says Maya Kanigan, WIL Founder & President.

"Our partners are committed to advancing women's leadership; they understand the business case for having more women in leadership roles and its positive impact on business. Furthermore, our partners also recognize that in order to retain and attract women to middle, senior and top management positions, it is key to showcase that there are opportunities for women at their workplaces," added Kanigan.

As we recognize International Women's Day today, LeadingTalent.ca invites everyone - men and women - to embrace the International Women's Day call for action to accelerate gender parity; something that the World Economic Forum has predicted will take 117 years to achieve on a global scale. For the continued growth and sustainability of the Canadian economy employers will benefit from the inclusion of more women in leadership positions.

Sign on today to try out LeadingTalent. The first 50 employers in March to post jobs will be upgraded to receive a Featured Employer Profile until September 1, 2016 enhancing their brand and increasing public awareness that they support the inclusion of women in leadership positions.

Contacts:

Women in Leadership Foundation

Maya Kanigan, Founder & President

Main: 250.764.0009

Mobile: 250.317.7818

www.womeninleadership.ca



Leading Talent

David Mossman, Co-Founder

Main: 250.764.0009

info@leadingtalent.ca

www.leadingtalent.ca




LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

From 12-14 April, Stuttgart will once again be the epicentre of Europe's medical technology industry, hosting the Medtec Europe trade fair for the 15th time. With 600 companies from 30 countries attending, over 6,500 international decision-makers will have the chance to discover the latest developments in this highly dynamic market, to expand their network and order products then and there. The European medical technology market is estimated to be worth 100 billion euros, making it the world's second largest after the USA. With over 170,000 employees in this highly specialist sector, Germany is one of the leaders within Europe*. "No other industry, measured by the number of registered patents, is so driven by innovation as medical technology. Baden-Wurttemberg, the region of inventors and innovators, is once more the heart of the European medical technology industry. Messe Stuttgart has been proving for years that it is the ideal location for this trade fair," explains Fabienne Valambras from the organiser, UBM.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130723/629764-a )



More information, more networking, more guidance

To offer visitors a high level of guidance and added-value, the organiser, UBM, has been extending the range of trade fair features that it offers.

Innovation tours: Tours put together by experts in the sector give visitors the chance to learn specifically about new developments in areas that are particularly relevant to them, thereby saving them time. In total, nine specifically themed tours were put together - such as the one on "Packaging, labelling and sterilisation," and "Medical materials and components".

Cardio Unmet Needs - Clinical Meets Industry: For the first time, UBM is bringing clinical personnel and developers from the manufacturing industry to the table to discuss the challenges the cardiology sector will be facing in the future in developing technical devices. Experts from the University Hospital of Heidelberg, Papworth Hospital (UK) and the Deutsches Herzzentrum [German cardiology centre] will be holding discussions with visitors, by way of an open panel, on current problems and requirements.



Innovation lab: This forum will give developers, designers and in general all those interested in medical technology the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in the fields of generative manufacturing procedures, miniaturisation, personalised instruments, biologizing and molecular diagnostics.

Sharing Technology for Life - Demo Area: One of the absolute highlights of this year's Medtec will be the construction of a fully automated clean room production line. Leading manufacturers from Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Finland and the USA have come together for the first time to present this showcase.

Conference sessions: Short presentations by renowned organisations such as Dassault Systems (USA), NSF Health Sciences (UK) and TUV SUD will give professional visitors the opportunity to undertake further professional training through short presentations, thereby effectively managing their time.

Medtec Europe Start-up Academy: In this format, presented for the first time last year, 30 innovative European medical technology start-ups will have the opportunity to present their innovations to an international audience.

Breakfast meetings: Networking is to take pride of place at Medtec Europe. The broad range of opportunities includes taking part in one of the breakfast meetings, which will broach, among other things, these subjects: "Market access barriers

and legislation in the American market" and "Dental instruments".

Medtec meetings: This user-friendly, on-line tool enables visitors and exhibitors to easily organise their event meetings in advance. This particularly user-friendly service, located in a designated area, can be used during the trade fair. The area also offers a relaxed lounge atmosphere for individual meetings:

Source: The European Medical Technology industry in figures. http://archive.eucomed.org/uploads/Modules/Publications/20141003-medtech-brochure-digital-1.pdf

About UBM EMEA

UBM EMEA brings people together and offers companies an opportunity to make business contacts from across five continents, to meet clients, present new products, advertise their own brand and increase their market share. This is possible thanks to premium brands such as Medtec, Fi Europe, Routes, CPhl, IFSEC, Ecobuild, Seatrade and many others. UBM EMEA exhibitions, conferences, award programmes, publications, websites, training courses and certification programmes make up a significant part of the marketing initiatives of companies from seven different industrial sectors.

About Medtec Europe

Medtec is one of the leading professional trade fairs for medical technology in Europe. It offers sector insiders direct access to the latest technologies and solutions, including unique opportunities for networking and training. This annual event is visited by 6,000 decision-makers from 64 countries and is being held in Stuttgart the heart of the German medical technology industry, for its 15th year running.

UBM EMEA is committed to continuous improvement and sustainability

To ensure long-term profitability, UBM EMEA has set itself the goal of becoming one of the leading companies in the sustainability sector, and applies its sustainability strategy to all its key company decisions. At UBM EMEA it is extremely important for us to be aware of the effects that our actions have on the environment and the districts in which our events take place. The foundation stone for our journey towards sustainability is our ISO 20121 certification - the sustainable event management system. UBM EMEA is one of the first large organisers to implement this principle successfully and that has managed to operate this sustainable event management system, meeting the guidelines of the international standard, ISO 20121.



Press contact:

Fabienne Valambras

Event Manager

UBM EMEA | 240 Blackfriars Road | London | SE1 8BF

T: +492241/95978-13| E: fabienne.valambras@ubm.com


PUNE, India, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Network Analytics Market by Type (Solutions and Services), by End User (Cloud Providers, Telecom Service Providers, ISPs, Satellite Communication Providers, Cable Network Providers) - Global Forecast to 2020", published by MarketsandMarkets, The market size is estimated to grow from USD 768.2 Million in 2015 to USD 2,317.5 Million by 2020, at an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.7% from 2015 to 2020.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 68 Tables and 49 Figures spread through 131 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Network Analytics Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/network-analytics-market-1244.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The need to address the increasing challenges in effectively maintaining higher QoS and QoE will drive the Network Analytics Market

The end-users are evaluating their networks and preparing future infrastructures to support the tremendous demand for data. In 2015, the world saw over 150 billion app downloads and the number is projected to reach over 200 Billion in 2017. The need for VoIP and video conferencing is rising high as more number of enterprises adopting these trends. Thus, the telecom operators, internet and cloud service providers are reeling under the pressure of intelligently managing network complexities which are created by converged services with the help of network analytics solutions and services.

Network Intelligence solutions expected to show growth positive trends during the forecast period

The network intelligence solutions are expected to dominate the market from 2015 to 2020 with the largest market share than the network analytics services segment, due to growing network challenges faced by the organizations worldwide. Furthermore, due to future saturation in the solution segment in the developed economies and variation in global governmental network and radiation norms and regulations, demand for professional services is expected to gain traction in the next five years.

Telecom service provider (TSP) segment to contribute maximum market share

The TSP segment is expected to contribute the largest market share in the Network Analytics Market in 2015. The cloud service provider segment is expected to grow at the rapid rate from 2015 to 2020, in the Network Analytics Market. The market is also projected to witness growth in the Internet service provider (ISP) and satellite communication segment during the forecast period.

Ask for Sample Pages @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=1244

North America expected to contribute the largest market share

North America is expected to have the largest market share and dominate the Network Analytics Market from 2015 to 2020, due to presence of a large number of analytics vendors headquartered in the U.S. APAC offers potential growth opportunities, as there is rise in smartphone penetration and larger infrastructure investments by Communication Service Providers (CSP) and cloud service providers.

The major vendors in the Network Analytics Market include Accenture, Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Networks, IBM, Brocade Communications, and SAS along with others. The report also includes Key Innovators in the market such as Polystar, PathSolutions, and SevOne among others.

The report covers detailed information regarding the major factors influencing the growth of the Network Analytics Market, such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. A detailed analysis of the key industry players has been done to provide insights into their business overview, products and services, key strategies, new product launches, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, agreements, collaborations, and recent developments associated with the Network Analytics Market.

Browse Related Report

Social Media Analytics Market by Type, Applications (Customer Segmentation & Targeting, Multichannel Campaign Management, Competitor Benchmarking, Customer Behavioral Analysis, & Marketing Measurement), Vertical, Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/social-media-analytics-market-96768946.html



Analytics as a Service Market by Solutions (Financial Analytics, Risk Analytics, Customer Analytics, Marketing Analytics, Sales Analytics, Web & Social Media Analytics, Supply Chain Analytics, Network Analytics, & Others) - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/analytics-as-a-service-market-159638048.html

About MarketsandMarkets:

MarketsandMarkets is world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.



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BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss stock market ended Tuesday's session in the red, reversing the gains of the previous day. The market fluctuated between 7,930 and 8,010 points today and ended the day below 8,000.



Disappointing trade data from China had a negative impact on investor sentiment Tuesday. A pullback in crude oil prices also contributed to the negative mood. Investors also remain nervous ahead of Thursday's announcement from the European Central bank.



The Swiss Market Index decreased 0.60 percent Tuesday and finished at 7,971.15. The Swiss Leader Index fell 0.73 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.56 percent.



The weakest performing stock Tuesday was Transocean. Shares of the oil-driller dropped 7.4 percent after a pullback in crude oil prices. The company also announced an agreement with Keppel FELS to delay the delivery and related payments of five high-specification jackups until 2020.



Another pair of cyclicals also finished notably lower. LafargeHolcim declined 3.4 percent and ABB lost 1.5 percent.



Financial stocks also turned in a weak performance. Credit Suisse decreased 2.5 percent, UBS surrendered 1.8 percent and Julius Baer lost 1.3 percent. Among the insurers, Baloise weakened by 1.3 percent, Swiss Re fell 1.0 percent and Swiss Life lost 0.9 percent.



The index heavyweights all finished with modest losses. Nestle and Roche both finished lower by 0.4 percent, while Novartis fell 0.3 percent.



Shares of luxury goods company Richemont advanced 1.0 percent. Reports of takeover interest in the U.K.'s Burberry triggered gains among other luxury goods companies.



In the broad market, Vontobel sank 4.9 percent. Fund manager Rajiv Jain will depart the company in May.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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DUBLIN, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The global nuclear power market is set to grow at a CAGR of 2.26% by 2019, according to a recent report available from Research and Markets. The report states that the availability of safer nuclear technology is supporting the growth of this market. This forecast growth could be higher than expected if French electric utility company Electricite de France SA is successful in securing the USD 25.5 billion they require to build Britain's largest power station.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )



The Hinkley Point C project is expected to generate thousands of skilled jobs within the French nuclear-engineering industry, but has not been without controversy. Last week financial chief Thomas Piquemal quit EDF due to CEO Jean-Bernard Levy's decision to press on with the financially uncertain project, which has received support from French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Hollande said last week that EDF will make a final decision on investments in the near future.

The global nuclear reactor construction market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.22% by 2019, as forecast in an industry report. This growth could be lower due to an increasing focus on the safety of reactors, and the French nuclear watchdog has expressed concerns about the strength of the reactor vessel to be used in the Hinkley Point C project. The same reactor model is currently under construction at Flamanville in France, a project that has tripled in costs and is six years behind schedule.

The global nuclear fuel assembly market is projected be worth USD 32.1 billion by 2025, as stated in a market report. The report notes that an increasing global demand for electricity will require the deployment of new plants. The success of the Hinkley Point C project will influence the future of nuclear plant construction projects, not just in Europe but on a worldwide scale.

For further information on this topic, and a full list of all related documentation, please visit the Nuclear Power section at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/rm/MNIR.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-07/at-edf-politics-wins-as-hollande-pushes-for-25-billion-project

About Research and Markets

Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

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DUBLIN, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The global personal luxury goods market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.45% by 2019, according to a report available from Research and Markets. The report states that global personal luxury brands are aggressively investing in new product launches and expanded retails stores into different geographies, but these businesses face a major risk with respect to maintaining brand desirability. This suggestion was supported today with news of Burberry Group Plc's potential takeover offer. Underperformance in the markets has made the fashion label an approachable target.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )



A mystery investor has built up a stake of around 5% in Burberry, and the label is setting up defenses to contest any takeovers. Burberry stock has dropped by 27% in the last year, with Christmas revenue lower than that forecast. Speculation of the takeover boosted the company's market value to USD 9.1 billion this week, and had a positive effect on the stocks of rival brands such as Prada SpA, who saw a rise of up to 10% in Hong Kong. However, investors remained concerned about Burberry's brand management.

If successful, the takeover could see further increases to Burberry's market value, allowing the brand to compete against competitors and make gains. The global menswear market is estimated to be worth USD 553.6 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% over the 2014-2019 period, as forecast in a market report. Brand restructuring could help Burberry re-establish their hold in this market area.

The global shoulder bags markets is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 5.53% by 2019, as forecast in an industry report, and Burberry will be keen to take advantage of this growth. Again, brand restructuring will be paramount to Burberry's advancement in this market as forecast earnings are expected to fall for a second year in a row.

For further information on this topic, and a full list of all related documentation, please visit the Consumer and Personal section at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/rm/MNKL.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-08/burberry-surges-on-speculation-trenchcoat-maker-may-attract-bid

About Research and Markets

Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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DUBLIN, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A recent report published on Research and Markets expects the enterprise data management market size to grow from $64,789.7 million in 2015 to $105,195.3 million in 2020. According to the report, there is an increased need for management of the voluminous business data that is generated in organizations on a daily basis.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )

On Monday, market giant Microsoft announced it will release a new database product that works with the Linux operating system. This is the first time that Microsoft has let SQL Server run on a platform other than Windows. Enterprise software has remained one of Microsoft's most profitable sectors, but they face competition from several free, open-source database options. According to reports, the relational-database market is valued at $33 billion and is forecast to grow 6.6% percent a year on average through 2019.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella says Windows', for all its success, has never been in high-end computing. But this venture gives it an opportunity to go after a big market it has never participated in. A recent report projected the high performance computer market to grow at a CAGR of 5.45% during 2015-2020. It says the emergence of big data has increased the demand for systems that can handle data intensive workload. A similar report on the big data enabled market predicted growth at a rate of 23% by 2020.

Microsoft say the product will likely be available in mid 2017, and invited companies to sign up now for a private private preview of the product on the Ubuntu version of Linux.

For further information on this topic, and a full list of all related documentation, please visit the High Performance Computing section at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/rm/MNIK.

About Research and Markets

Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-oracle-software-idUSKCN0W92AP

Contact:

Research and Markets

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BEVERLY, MA--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - Cellceutix Corporation (OTC: CTIX) (the "Company"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies with oncology, dermatology, anti-inflammatory and antibiotic applications, is pleased to announce that Dr. Stephen T. Sonis, D.M.D., D.M.Sc., has joined the Cellceutix Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Sonis is one of the world's foremost experts in the research and clinical treatment of cancer-related oral mucosal toxicities. He currently holds appointments at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine as Professor of Oral Medicine (part-time), and is a Senior Surgeon at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital .

Dr. Sonis also is a Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Biomodels, LLC, a preclinical contract research organization that evaluates novel drugs for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Widely respected by his professional peers, he is the author of over 250 original publications, reviews and chapters, 11 books, and 5 patents, serves on a number of editorial boards, and is a founding member of the International Society of Oral Oncology and the International Academy of Oral Oncology.

Dr. Sonis is a graduate of Tufts University and Harvard University and completed his post-doctoral education at Oxford University.

"Cellceutix is pleased to welcome Dr. Sonis to our team," said Leo Ehrlich, Cellceutix Chief Executive Officer. "Dr. Sonis is arguably the world's foremost expert on cancer-related oral mucositis. Of equal importance, he is no stranger to Brilacidin, having helped research its oral rinse formulation and application prior to Cellceutix's acquisition of the compound in 2013. His expertise in clinical study design and execution will be invaluable as Brilacidin-Oral Mucositis (OM) continues to be evaluated in an ongoing Phase 2 FDA trial."

Brilacidin-OM, which has been granted Fast Track status by the FDA, is an oral rinse formulation of the Company's lead defensin-mimetic, Brilacidin, for the prevention of oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer. Oral mucositis is a common and often debilitating inflammation and ulceration that occurs in the mouth as a side-effect of certain cancer treatments, afflicting approximately 450,000 patients each year in the United States. Its occurrence can severely affect the course and outcome of cancer therapy, not to mention has painful and debilitating effects on patients. There are no FDA-approved drugs for the prevention of oral mucositis in patients being treated for head and neck cancer.

"I'm very pleased to be able to continue my involvement in the development of Brilacidin as a member of Cellceutix's Scientific Advisory Board" remarked Dr. Sonis. "The need for an effective intervention for mucositis is pressing and, based on our pre-clinical testing of the drug, we're hopeful that Brilacidin will be successful in dealing with this significant unmet need."

More information about the Phase 2 Trial of Brilacidin for Oral Mucositis

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02324335?term=cellceutix&rank=2

Alerts:

Sign-up for Cellceutix email alerts is available at http://cellceutix.com/email-alerts/sthash.CRfqSmmY.dpbs

About Cellceutix:

Headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, Cellceutix is a publicly traded company under the symbol "CTIX". Cellceutix is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies in multiple diseases. Cellceutix believes it has a world-class portfolio of compounds and is now engaged in advancing its compounds and seeking strategic partnerships. Cellceutix's anti-cancer drug Kevetrin concluded a Phase 1 clinical trial at Harvard Cancer Centers' Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Cellceutix is now preparing its FDA application for a Phase 2 ovarian cancer study. In the laboratory Kevetrin has shown to induce activation of p53, often referred to as the "Guardian Angel Gene" due to its crucial role in controlling cell mutations. Cellceutix is in a Phase 2 clinical trial with its novel compound Brilacidin-OM for the prevention of Oral Mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer. Brilacidin-OM, a defensin mimetic compound, has shown in an animal model to reduce the occurrence of severe ulcerative oral mucositis by more than 94% compared to placebo. Cellceutix's anti-psoriasis drug Prurisol is in a Phase 2 trial. Prurisol is a small molecule that acts through immune modulation and PRINS reduction. Cellceutix's lead antibiotic, Brilacidin, has completed a Phase 2b trial for Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections, or ABSSSI. Top-line data have shown a single dose of Brilacidin to deliver comparable clinical outcomes to the FDA-approved seven-day dosing regimen of daptomycin. Brilacidin has the potential to be a single-dose therapy for certain multi-drug resistant bacteria (Superbugs). Cellceutix has formed research collaborations with world-renowned research institutions in the United States and Europe, including MD Anderson Cancer Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the University of Bologna. More information is available on the Cellceutix web site at www.cellceutix.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause Cellceutix's actual results and experience to differ materially from anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward looking statements. Cellceutix has in some cases identified forward-looking statements by using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "hopes," "estimates," "looks," "expects," "plans," "intends," "goal," "potential," "may," "suggest," and similar expressions. Among other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements are Cellceutix's need for, and the availability of, substantial capital in the future to fund its operations and research and development; including the amount and timing of the sale of shares of common stock to Aspire Capital; the fact that Cellceutix's compounds may not successfully complete pre-clinical or clinical testing, or be granted regulatory approval to be sold and marketed in the United States or elsewhere. A more complete description of these risk factors is included in Cellceutix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Cellceutix undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any such forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by applicable law or regulation.

INVESTOR AND MEDIA CONTACT:

Cellceutix Corporation

Leo Ehrlich



Email contact


According to Technavio's latest report, the global iron ore market outlook is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 3% during the forecast period.

The global iron ore market is growing at a steady pace during the forecast period. Primarily, iron ore is consumed in steel making. Approximately 98% of iron ore produced is used in the steel making process. Thus, the market is driven by the demand from sectors such as construction, infrastructure, transportation, and related industrial applications.

The major iron ore producing regions are Australia, and Brazil. Brazil hosts five of the largest iron ore mines, Australia five, and Africa one. The Australian iron ore sector is export-oriented and exports approximately 80% to 90% of its production.

According to Chandrakumar Badala Jaganathan, a lead analyst at Technavio for metals and mineralsresearch, "Approximately 70% of seaborne iron ore demand is from China, thus making Chinese imports one of the primary price determining factors in iron ore."

In this report, Technavio covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global iron ore market outlook for 2015-2019.The report also presents the vendor landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the top five vendors operating in the market. The market is segmented into the following four regions:

APAC

Europe

Americas

MEA

APAC: largest market for iron ore

The iron ore market in APAC is expected to reach 1.70 billion metric tons by 2019, growing at a CAGR of over 3% during the forecast period.

The iron ore market in APAC is expected to grow at a fast pace during the forecast period. The market is driven by an increase in demand for iron ore from the infrastructure, transportation, and manufacturing sectors in this region.

Australia, China, and India are the major producers of iron ore in this region. The economic growth in China has resulted in an unprecedented demand for iron ore, which has led to increased production in Australia, to meet this demand. The iron ore producers in Australia are continuously expanding mines and shipping ports. China, Japan, and South Korea are the major importers of iron ore in this region and use it mainly for steel production.

Request for a sample: http://goo.gl/fgMCPj

Europe: market to grow at a CAGR of 3%

The iron ore market in Europe is expected to exceed 338 million metric tons by 2019, growing at a CAGR of over 3% during the forecast period.

Technavio expects the iron ore market in Europe to grow at a moderate pace during the forecast period. The major iron ore mining companies in this region continue to reinvest their profits in the development of mines.

Germany, France, Italy, and the UK are the major importers of iron ore in this region. East European players in Russia and Ukraine continue to be dominant in the iron ore market. "However, the iron ore market in this region is expected to struggle due to weak global iron ore prices," says Chandrakumar.

Americas: steel industry to boost growth of iron ore market

The iron ore market in the Americas is expected to exceed 174 million metric tons by 2019, growing at a CAGR of almost 3% during the forecast period.

The iron ore market in the Americas is driven by the infrastructure revival in North America. Also, the steel industry, in Canada and the US, will grow at a robust pace during the forecast period which will boost the demand for iron ore.

Brazil dominates one-third of the iron ore exports in the world. The major iron ore producing companies in Brazil are Vale, CSN, Samarco, MMX, and Usiminas.

MEA: potential untapped sources for iron ore

The iron ore market in MEA is expected to exceed 60 million metric tons by 2019. Technavio expects the market to grow at a moderate pace during the forecast period.

South Africa, Algeria, and Mauritania are the major iron ore producing regions in Africa. Central and West Africa are witnessing a growth in iron ore exploration and mining. However, there are many countries in Africa with unmined iron ore deposits. Also, reserves with high-quality iron ore have been discovered in Iran, which will contribute to the production of iron ore in this region.

Key Vendors:

BHP Billiton

China Minmetals

Fortescue Metals Group

Rio Tinto

Vale

Some of the other prominent vendors listed in the report are: African Minerals, Anglo American, ArcelorMittal Brasil, ArcelorMittal Canada, Arrium, Assmang, Atlas Iron, BC Iron, Bemisa, Brockman, CITIC Pacific, Cliffs Natural Resource, and China Metal Products.

Browse Related Reports:

Superalloys Market 2015-2019

Global Nickel Market 2015-2019

Global Coal Mining Industry 2015-2019

Purchase these three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform.

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160308005122/en/

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media@technavio.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- 10Fold, a leading North American public relations firm for B2B technology companies, hosted its sixth annual Security Never Sleeps event during last week's 2016 North American RSA tradeshow. More than 75 CISOs, security architects, venture capitalists, and security vendors participated in the cybersecurity discussion. The event featured a panel of experts including Renee Guttman, CISO for Royal Carribean, and Michael Kearn, Information Security Officer for U.S. Bank, Rhonda MacLean, board member and advisor for several security companies and Fahmida Rashid, senior writer at InfoWorld, among others. The panel led by moderator Deborah Radcliff, Executive Editor, of SANS Institute -- discussed trending topics such as ransomware, security backdoors, and the future of cyber attacks.

Radcliff: What would you do if your business was held hostage by ransomware?

Rashid: Ransomware is something that all companies should have a defense plan for ahead of time. If a business is struck by ransomware, this isn't a question of what to do next, but more of a question of -- what did you do two weeks ago to try to protect your company from this occurrence? Planning ahead is vital.

Maclean: I know of a small healthcare provider that was recently hit by ransomware and could no longer access any of its patients' files, essentially disabling them from doing business. The company was asked to pay 500 Bitcoins in order to regain access to the files. It is happening more and more often these days, regardless of the company size.

Kearn: Small to medium sized businesses are particularly at risk because they typically can't defend themselves against such an attack. It's a numbers game -- the more attacks, the most return on attack efforts for the criminals. Ransomware is the new trend in lazy crime ware.

Radcliff: What new threats or threat techniques are keeping you up at night?

Maclean: My biggest worry these days is how fragile and vulnerable the infrastructure of our power grids, utilities, etc., is. If these are to be compromised we will no doubt see ramifications within the stock market, causing a ripple effect across the nation. We must switch from seeing this as a cybersecurity discussion to more of a business risk discussion.

Guttmann: Any destructive event that disrupts our general sense of well-being is something that keeps me up at night.

Kearn: My job is to see what others don't see and I question myself when I do find a vulnerability or threat. I ask myself, "Am I the only one who has discovered this?" I am not likely to be the only one that has pinpointed a vulnerability. So, my concern stems from the question -- have I done enough to protect against threats?

For more information on Security Never Sleeps, please visit: http://10fold.com/sns2016/.

About 10Fold

10Fold is a leading North American public relations firm with regional offices in San Francisco, Pleasanton and Capistrano Beach, California. As a privately owned company founded in 1995, 10Fold provides strategic communications and content expertise to B2B organizations that specialize in networking, IT security, cloud, storage, Big Data, enterprise software, AppDev solutions, wireless, and telecom. The award-winning, highly-specialized account teams consist of multi-year public relations veterans, broadcasters and former journalists. 10Fold is a full-service firm that is widely known for its media and analyst relations, original content development, corporate messaging, social media and video production capabilities (through its division ProMotion Studios). For more information, please visit www.10fold.com or follow us on Twitter (@10FoldComms) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/10FoldComms).

Media Contact:

Sadie Albers

10Fold

salbers@10Fold.com

949-315-8678




FRESNO, California, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FocusVision, a market research technologies firm, has named Jamin Brazil as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. Brazil most recently served as CMO of FocusVision and CEO of Decipher*, which was acquired by FocusVision in 2015, a company he co-founded.

"I am honored to lead FocusVision as we continue to provide world-class market research software solutions to our customers globally," said Brazil. "That's what we do for our customers-provide them with the best tools to get meaningful insights. Our customers are the heart of our operation."

Eric Grosgogeat, who served as CEO of FocusVision for eight years, has stepped down to pursue other opportunities.

"We would like to thank Eric for his leadership and contributions to FocusVision and we wish him the very best for his future," said Dennis Malamatinas, chairman of the FocusVision board.

FocusVision has been best known for its best-in-class research facility video streaming and has expanded its offerings with the acquisition of four leading market research technology firms: Revelation, Decipher, ResearchReporter, and KinesisPanel.

With these additions, FocusVision has become the leading global company to offer end-to-end solutions for both quantitative and qualitative research practices. In 2015, FocusVision was named one of INC 5000's fastest growing private companies.

"Jamin has full support of the board," said Malamatinas. "He successfully built Decipher, knows the research space well and we are certain that he will provide the leadership to take FocusVision to the next level."

About FocusVision

FocusVision is the leading global provider of quantitative and qualitative technology solutions to the market research industry, providing an online survey platform, research facility video streaming, webcam focus groups, ethnography streaming, panel management and mobile device usability studies. FocusVision's services allow research professionals to engage with respondents in any place, at any time. FocusVision has over 350 employees and offices in the US, the UK, Bulgaria, Brazil, Australia and Singapore. For more information, visit www.focusvision.com.

*Decipher is known as Decrypt in the UK

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160308/341747

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160119/323385LOGO
TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japanese car maker Toyota's robotic division is working on a new wearable device that will help blind and visually impaired people to get around easily. Toyota unveiled details about Project BLAID, a wearable device designed to help guide visually impaired people through indoor spaces, such as office buildings and shopping malls. The device is worn on the shoulders and it uses a series of cameras and sensors to detect the presence of doors, escalators, pathways and restroom signs. Speakers and vibration motors will send information about the surroundings to the user, while the device will contain voice recognition features that will allow users to interact with it. Toyota did not disclose any details about the availability of the device. 'Toyota is more than just the great cars and trucks we build; we believe we have a role to play in addressing mobility challenges, including helping people with limited mobility do more,' said Doug Moore, Manager, Partner Robotics, Toyota. 'We believe this project has the potential to enrich the lives of people who are blind and visually impaired.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Taxpayers should be vigilant when they are contacted by an organization, either by telephone, mail, text message or email, that claims to be from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requesting personal information such as a social insurance number, credit card number, bank account number, or passport number. These are scams and taxpayers should never respond to these fraudulent communications or click on any of the links provided.

If you fall for a tax scam or fraud, you risk your financial security and your identity. Also, you may not be meeting your obligations under Canada's tax laws. The consequences of your actions could range from embarrassment, to inconvenience, to serious legal trouble.

Keep these facts in mind

-- The CRA does not send emails with links and ask you to divulge personal or financial information. Even though an email asking for personal information may look authentic, it does not come from the CRA. The sender is phishing and attempting to steal your personal or financial information. If you call the CRA to request a form or a link for specific information, a CRA agent will forward the information you are requesting to your email address during the telephone call. This is the only circumstance in which the CRA will send an email containing links. For more information, go to www.cra.gc.ca/fraudprevention. -- The CRA does not call taxpayers requesting immediate payment by credit card or by prepaid credit card or ask that you verify information about your passport, health card, or driver's licence. -- You are responsible for the information on your return, even if someone else prepared it. Be aware of who you are dealing with at tax time and what their credentials are. Stay away from tax preparers who offer you false, fictitious or fraudulent tax claims such as charitable donations, false child care expense claims, or false business expenses or losses. -- You can correct a past mistake. The CRA offers a second chance to make things right through its Voluntary Disclosures Program. If you make a valid disclosure before you are aware that the CRA has started any compliance action against you, you may only have to pay the tax owing plus interest, but not the penalties. For more information, go to www.cra.gc.ca/voluntarydisclosures.

Even though scams may sound compelling and convincing, they are scams. In addition to high fees you may be asked to pay, frauds and scams are not legal and can cause serious tax consequences for you. If you make false claims on a return, the CRA can reassess it to determine correct amounts and you will have to pay interest on outstanding amounts. Also, you may be charged penalties and be prosecuted for tax evasion. For information about security of taxpayer information and other examples of fraudulent communications, go to www.cra.gc.ca/security.

The CRA's online services make filing and managing your taxes easier

The CRA's online services are fast, easy, and secure. You can use them to help file your income tax and benefit return, make a payment, track the status of your return, register for online mail, apply for child benefits, and more. Access the CRA's full suite of self-service options-register for My Account at www.cra.gc.ca/myaccount today, and start managing your tax matters online!

Stay connected

To receive updates when new information is added to our website, you can:

Follow the CRA on Twitter - @CanRevAgency.

Subscribe to a CRA electronic mailing list.

Add our RSS feeds to your feed reader.

You can also watch our tax-related videos on YouTube.

Contacts:

Philippe Brideau

Media Relations

Canada Revenue Agency

613-941-6269




SOLUTIONS 30, Europe's leading provider of Solutions for New Technologies, today announced the acquisition of 50% of the capital of Autronic, a Spanish company active in support for new technologies and preferred partner of Vodafone Spain.

Autronic, which generates 12 million in revenue annually and employs 200 people, will be consolidated in the group as of 1 March 2016. The deal includes the option for SOLUTIONS 30 to increase its stake to full ownership in two to three years.

Active throughout Spain, the similarities between Autronic's and SOLUTIONS 30's business models and profit levels will accelerate integration of its operations.

Commenting on the acquisition, Gianbeppi Fortis, Chairman of the Executive Board of SOLUTIONS 30 said: "Spain's economy recovered strongly in 2015 with growth rates among the highest of the eurozone's largest economies. The Spanish market is a major objective for SOLUTIONS 30, and our holding position since 2011 provides a springboard for growth. A few short months after taking over Rexion, the historic provider of IT solutions in Spain and Portugal for Hewlett Packard, the acquisition of Autronic, Vodafone's telecoms and fibre optic partner, is decisive on three levels. First, it helps us to achieve critical mass in the Spanish market. Second, it consolidates our links to Vodafone - one of our major clients - and again demonstrates our capacity to support major accounts in their European operations. Third, it gives us a footing in Spain's promising fibre optic market."

Next key dates:

April 26, 2016: Publication of revenue for the 1st quarter 2016 and 2015 results.

April 28, 2016: Presentation of Results 2015 to the conference center Edouard VII Paris 8

About Solutions 30

The SOLUTIONS 30 Group (ex PC30) is Europe's leading provider of solutions for New Technologies. Its mission is to make the technological changes that transform our daily lives accessible for everyone, individuals and businesses alike: yesterday computers and the Intranet, today, digital; tomorrow, the technologies that will make the world ever more connected in real time. Since its founding, the Group has handled more than 7 million calls by drawing on a network of regional technicians. SOLUTIONS 30 currently covers the whole of France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Spain.

SOLUTIONS 30 is listed on the Alternext market - ISIN FR0010263335 - code ALS30, eligible for the PEA-PME share savings plan,

and on the Frankfurt stock exchange on the XETRA electronic system (ISIN FR0010263335 - code EO2)

For more information, please visit our website www.solutions30.com (http://www.solutions30.com/)

SOLUTIONS 30 CONTACTS :

Nezha Calligaro

+352 2 648 1917

nezha.calligaro@solutions30.com (mailto:nezha.calligaro@solutions30.com)

PRESS CONTACT :

Samuel Beaupain, EDIFICE

+33 (0)6 88 48 48 02

samuelbeaupain@reseau-edifice.com (mailto:samuelbeaupain@reseau-edifice.com)

LISTING SPONSOR :

Herve Guyot, GENESTA

+ 33 (0)1 45 63 68 60

hguyot@genesta-finance.com (mailto:hguyot@genesta-finance.com)

COMALTO:

Jean-Francois CARMINATI

+33 (0)6 63 87 57 60

pr sol30 (http://hugin.info/143517/R/1992888/733572.pdf)



This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: SOLUTIONS 30 via Globenewswire



HUG#1992888


MONTERREY, MEXICO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/08/16 -- Fomento Economico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. ("FEMSA") (NYSE: FMX) (BMV: FEMSAUBD) (BMV: FEMSAUB) ("FEMSA" or the "Company") held its Annual Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting today, during which the shareholders approved the Company's annual report for 2015 prepared by the Chief Executive Officer, the Company's consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2015 and the election of the Board of Directors and its Committees for 2016.

The shareholders approved the payment of a cash dividend in the amount of Ps. 8,355 million, consisting of Ps. 0.5208 per each Series "D" share and Ps. 0.4167 per each Series "B" share, which amounts to Ps. 2.5000 per "BD" Unit (BMV: FEMSAUBD) or Ps. 25.000 per ADS (NYSE: FMX), and Ps. 2.0833 per "B" Unit (BMV: FEMSAUB). The dividend payment will be split in two equal payments, payable on May 5, 2016 and November 3, 2016. In addition, the shareholders established the amount of Ps. 7,000 million as the maximum amount that could potentially be used for the Company's share repurchase program during 2016.

FEMSA is a leading company that participates in the beverage industry through Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world; and in the beer industry, through its ownership of the second largest equity stake in Heineken, one of the world's leading brewers with operations in over 70 countries. In the retail industry it participates with FEMSA Comercio, operating various small-format store chains including OXXO. Additionally, through its Strategic Businesses unit, it provides logistics, point-of-sale refrigeration solutions and plastics solutions to FEMSA's business units and third-party clients.

Media Contact

(52) 555-249-6843

Email Contact

www.femsa.com



Investor Contact

(52) 818-328-6167

Email Contact

www.femsa.com/inversionista




Atera S.A., a Luxembourg-based tissue engineering company, closed a 1.2m equity funding round.

Backers included private individuals with a experience in life science business and startup funding.

The company intends to use the funding to further commercialize its existing portfolio of human tissue models and expand related research.

Led by Dr. Bart De Wever, CEO, Atera specializes in research and development, validation, manufacturing and commercialization of advanced human tissue models to address the demand for high-quality test methods for product evaluation, gradually reducing and replacing animal experimentation, for both industrial safety & efficacy testing as well as medical research.

A follow up round of equity funding is planned to develop the companys contract research activities and initiate the commercialization of the recently acquired mini brain technology.

FinSMEs

08/03/2016
Silicon MicroGravity (SMG), a Cambridge, UK-based developer of a novel sensor technology used by oil companies to enhance oil recovery, secured $3m in funding.

The round was led by Imperial Innovations, with the partipation of Cambridge Enterprise and grant funding from the UK Government.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop its technology. The first field trial in a production well is scheduled for 2017.

Formed in 2014 by Dr Ashwin Seshia and his team at the University of Cambridge, Silicon MicroGravity develops a novel sensor technology product that can capture and analyze data on behalf of oil companies.

Its sensors, developed in partnership with BP, can measure one billionth the level of Earths gravity and can be sent deep into boreholes to distinguish oil from water. Once the position of water is established and tracked, reservoir engineers can mitigate the potentially damaging results of water reaching a production well.

FinSMEs

08/03/2016
It is International Women's Day, a time to celebrate love and respect towards women and a time to especially be aware of the importance of feminism.

But one of our politicians has once again reminded us that words like equality, women's empowerment, respect and basic decency are meaningless for an alarmingly large section of leaders in our country.

TDP MLA and actor Nandamuri Balakrishna had this to say on Friday during the audio releasing function of the movie Savitri: "If I play eve-teasing roles, and just follow girls, my fans will not accept. Either a kiss should be given or they should be made pregnant. Thats all. We have to commit ourselves."

Balakrishna is an MLA from Hindupur constituency in Andhra Pradesh and is the brother-in-law of Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu, reported IBNLive.

"We have received a complaint against Nandamuri Balakrishna alleging that he made some vulgar comments against women at an audio release function for a movie held three days ago. We are seeking legal opinion on the issue," Saroornagar police inspector S Lingaiah told PTI.

YSR Congress MLA RK Roja on Monday had demanded an apology from both Naidu and Balakrishna over the remark. "While the top leadership itself has been pursuing anti-woman policies, it percolates down the line resulting in the harassment of women at various levels and such government should apologise to the women community, Roja told reporters on the eve of International Womens Day.

An NDTV report said that Balakrishna had apologised on Monday, saying that he had only said something which he thought his fans expected from him and that he had not meant to insult any woman.

"My comments, made during the audio release of Telugu movie Savitri, were not intentional. They were not intended towards anybody. If anybody got annoyed by my remarks, I apologise to them," The New Indian Express quoted Balakrishna as saying. "I have utmost respect for women. I treat any woman as my own sister. It is a tradition I acquired from my father NTR. I never show disrespect to the members of the fairer sex."

However, this apology came only after a police complaint was lodged by a section of lawyers on Monday against him.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear tomorrow a plea filed by a consortium of 17 PSU banks seeking a direction that industrialist Vijay Mallya be restrained from leaving India.

"List it for hearing tomorrow," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit said, when Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for PSU banks, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing.

Rohatgi said that the plea has been moved by 17 banks, including State Bank of India, against Mallya whose various firms have taken loan from them. Mallya owes Rs 7,000 crore to these banks.

The plea has come in the background of Mallya's resignation from the chairmanship of United Spirits last week. Diageo, the current owner of the liquor company, has agreed to pay $75 million or Rs 515 crore to Mallya as severance package.

Soon after he signed the agreement with Diageo, Mallya had said that he plans "to spend more time in England, closer to my children", indicating he may be moving out of the country.

Subsequently, State Bank of India moved the Bangalore Debt Recovery Tribunal seeking his arrest and first right of the severance package. The bank also sought to impound Mallya's passport. The move comes a day after the debt recovery tribunal in Bangalore told Diagoe

With PTI
By Nalini R Mohanty

CBI director, Anil Sinha, hogged the limelight last week for his no-holds-barred chastisement to the heads of the public sector banks for their laid-back approach in taking to task the large borrowers.

In the inaugural session of the 7th conference of the CBI and Indian Bank Association on 2 March at Mumbai, Sinha minced no words to put the top officials of the public sector banks in the dock for humongous loss of the taxpayers money.

The head of the top investigative agency of the country talking down to the chairmen and managing directors of the public sectors banks present there as the colluders in the financial bungling of gargantuan proportions must be unprecedented.

The CBI boss began his indictment with an overview of the dismal banking scenario in India: During the last six years, gross NPAs in PSBs have gone up from Rs 44,957 crores into 2009 to Rs 3 lakhs crores in 2015 (sic)."

He went on to say: The level of gross NPAs as percentage of gross advances has also gone up from 2% in 2009 to 4.36% in 2015. And we are not even considering huge amounts tied up in accounts under restructuring.

Sinha then came to the crux of the matter: There is also a rise in quantum of high value frauds in borrower accounts, especially those pertaining to periods from 2008 to 2012. There is also rising trend in case of bank frauds and financial crimes taken up by the CBI. CBI investigated 171 cases of bank frauds in the year 2015 involving funds of Rs 20,646 crores.

By his own account, the total value of the 171 cases that the CBI investigated last year is less than 5% of the total stressed loans that is as good as lost. But bank officials are not losing sleep over the matter; they are content by handing over the cases of relatively smaller borrowers to the CBI.

Anil Sinha hit the bulls eye when he said: the crisis in the banking and financial system runs deep and there is a growing sense of anguish among the public that while banks are strict on retail borrowers, the big borrowers and large-scale fraudsters are able to not only evade the law but enjoy the fruits of crime.

The CBI chief put the onus of such a mess squarely on the banks: Something is seriously wrong... a significant part of the defaults are wilful and fraudulent. What causes greater concern is that a major part of the NPAs and frauds are in large value accounts. Added to this is the unduly slow and long process by which such loans and advances are red-flagged, declared NPAs, then as wilful defaulters and finally as fraudulent. The whole process is so time consuming that it allows such large borrowers ample time to walk away with the funds. A large part of such funds move outside the country to tax havens through hawala and other unofficial channels. As a result of these limitations, investigations by CBI are grossly hampered.

CBI head cited a concrete example: CBI has recently registered a case of cheating and fraud against Kingfisher and its erstwhile management involving allegations of defrauding banks to the tune of nearly Rs 7000 crores. This case was registered in July 2015, but the loans/ advances were taken during 2004 to 2012. However, despite our repeated requests, the banks did not file a complaint with the CBI. We had to register the case on our own initiative.

The CBI boss touched the raw nerve when he said: The accountability mechanism in banks and financial institutions are weak and diffused. In the end, no one seems accountable. The message to the public is that rich and powerful are able to avoid consequences of cheating and fraud, while the ordinary citizens are promptly booked. This undermines faith of people in rule of law which has dangerous consequences in democracy.

Sinha concluded by saying that the challenge was to fix the fraudsters and public officials who collude with such cheats.

Strong words. But then it is futile to expect the colluding bank officials to step up efforts to expose and book the defaulters. They would rather do their best to keep their underhand dealings under wraps for as long as possible. It will be left to the CBI to proactively pursue such cases of fraud in the larger interest of the poor taxpayers of the country.

Will the CBI do it? The CBI chief talked about his organisations own initiative in the case of Kingfisher. But there are much larger cases of bad loans. CBI had, on its own initiative, exposed the sinister deal between the then chairman of the Syndicate Bank, S K Jain, and the vice president of Bhushan Steel, Neeraj Singhal, in 2014.

Singhal had allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to Jain as the latter had entered into an agreement to roll over the Rs 100 crore loan that Singhals company had taken from the bank but had defaulted on repayment. Both were arrested, but they were out on bail in two months as the CBI failed to submit the charge sheet. It has filed the charge sheet a year later, last October, and the outcome is awaited.

Imagine the scenario: if the official of the Bhushan Steel paid Rs 50 lakh to the CMD of a bank who had lent Rs 100 crore, how much this troubled company must have paid to the top officials of other banks which have advanced thousands of crores?

Mind you, Bhushan Steel has a loan account of more than 35000 crore from public sector banks; its market capitalisation (not to talk of collateral) is not even worth Rs 3,500 crore. Still the bankrupt steel company got large dollops of money from the nationalised banks when the UPA government was in power.

During the current NDA regime, instead of declaring the loan as NPA, Bhushan Steel managed to restructure its loan and got fresh infusion of capital from the public sector banks.

Will the CBI chief walk the talk and unravel the sinister nexus between top bank officials and promoters of Bhushan Steel  all the lies, cheating and multi-faceted corruption that went into it?

If CBI could act proactively in a case involving Rs 7,000 crore of default (Vijay Mallya and Kingfisher) under his stewardship, Anil Sinha owes it to the nation to expose the shenanigans of much larger deals involving 20 other big defaulters; he would go down history as a great crusader for public cause if he and his team ensure that all the colluders are brought to justice.
New Delhi - Germany will partner with India to develop Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore as smart cities.

Germany would contribute to Indias smart city programme and will help develop the cities of Kochi (Kerala), Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) as smart cities, State Secretary in Germanys Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Gunther Adler, told reporters here.

The three cities are among the 20 cities which are to be developed as smart cities, announced by Urban Development Ministry in January this year.

Germany had earlier set up a six-member joint committee with India to identify the cities which it could develop as smart cities.

The committee had two representatives of Urban Development Ministry, one from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, and three from Germany.

German Ambassador to India Martin Ney, addressing the press conference, said Germany is an ideal partner in Indias mission to create smarter cities as the country is very strong at smart planning for urban centres.

We have developed the technologies to make life in cities easier. We have developed the processes to bring on board the stakeholders to make cities thrive and German companies have developed smart solutions to make smart cities, he said.

Germany had already been engaged in various fields related to smart cities such as sustainable urban mobility, water and waste-water management, renewable energies and energy efficiency, the Ambassador said.

We have been supporting important Indian initiatives such as Swachh Bharat, National Mission for Clean Ganga and Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation, he added.

Germany is Indias second largest bilateral donor with a record commitment of 1.5 billion euros (Rs 11,0000 crore) agreed last year, Ney said.

PTI
 U.N. School Celebrates Palestinian Stabbing of Jews | Main | Palestinian Leader Expresses Great Sorrow and Deep Anguish Over Death of Terrorist 

March 08, 2016

More Palestinian Terror Attacks, More Role Reversing Headlines

It seems whenever there is a rise in Palestinian terrorism, there is a concomitant rise in bad headlines attempting to reverse the roles of victim and perpetrator.

New Zealand TV originally headlined an AP story about three of today's terror attacks against Israelis perpetrated by Palestinians as follows:



But after we contacted them about their distorted headline, they immediately amended it to the following more accurate:



The International Business Times, meanwhile, also weighed in with a role reversing headline and an article that erroneously minimized Palestinian aggression. The IBT headline:



The article by Priyanka Mogul also downplayed Palestinian violence by erroneously stating that



The attempted stabbings by Palestinians and shootings by Israeli forces occurred hours before US president Joe Biden arrived in Israel.

Contrary to her statement Palestinians did not just "attempt" to stab Israelis, nor was it only Israeli forces who "shot" with guns. Palestinians critically injured Israelis with guns and seriously wounded Israelis by stabbing them.

CAMERA contacted the editors at the International Business Times, which claims to be "a trusted source of real-time news, intelligence and analysis." But the distorted news story and headline they put out have yet to be amended.

Posted by RH at March 8, 2016 03:33 PM

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This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a comment
Gurgaon - Haryana has received investment commitments of Rs 3 lakh crore and the number is expected to rise further on the last day of the global investor summit tomorrow, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said today.

However, a statement released by the state government said that 11 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), involving investment of Rs 18,159 crore, were signed with different companies on the first day of Happening Haryana Global Investor Summit which kicked off here today.

When the Summit was conceived five months ago, it was designed as the first event towards realising the goal of achieving an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore or $16 billion set when the policy was announced on August 11, 2015, the Chief Minister said in his address at the summit.

"But now, I am told by our Chief Secretary that the commitments so far had already exceeded this target by two hundred per cent. We hope by tomorrow, this number will see a still more substantial increase," he said.

"This reflects a resounding endorsement of the policy commitments and an appreciation of the steps taken by my government to implement these," he said.

According to the official statement, an MoU of Rs 15,000 crore for financial services signed with ICICI Bank.

Bharti Airtel signed a pact of Rs 2,000 crore investment in electronics, IT and ITeS sector.

Besides, an MoU involving an investment of Rs 283 crore was signed with Star Wire (India) Limited for manufacturing special and critical steel adopting high-tech technologies.

The MoU of Rs 200 crore was signed with Minda Kosei Aluminium Wheel Private Limited for automobile parts, alloy wheels, of Rs 190 crore with Honda for worker housing, and another MoU of Rs 150 crores with Plasser India Private Limited for manufacturing unit for track maintenance machines.

Apart from this, MoUs of Rs 100 crore each were signed with Minda Industries and Mindarika Pvt Ltd for automobile parts switches.

Another MoU of Rs 80 crore was signed with T G Minda for automobile parts rubber hoses and an MoU was also signed with Snapdeal for e-commerce, release said.

Meanwhile, Indiabulls Housing Finance in a statement said that the company together with its group firm Indiabulls Real Estate has committed an investment worth Rs 25,000 crore in Haryana over the next seven years.

PTI
NEW YORK Global oil markets jumped more than 5 percent on Monday, with Brent hitting a 2016 peak above $40 a barrel, after Ecuador said it was holding a meeting of Latin American crude producers as OPEC sought a higher anchor price for oil.

Technically-driven buying in crude and a commodities rally also boosted oil. Industry data showing a smaller-than-expected build in stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for U.S. crude futures was another supportive factor.

Oil has rallied more than 50 percent since hitting 12-year lows less than two months ago. The rally began after Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries floated the idea of a production freeze to support prices in an oversupplied market.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said his government will host a meeting in Quito on Friday with Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico "to reach consensus over oil, especially prices."

Separately, major OPEC producers are talking about a new oil price equilibrium of around $50, New York-based consultancy PIRA told Reuters.

"It's more confirmation that oil producers are close to achieving some kind of a deal on price support," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "It's feeding bullish sentiment into a market that's turned 180 degrees from where it stood just weeks ago."

Brent LCOc1, the global crude benchmark, settled up $2.12 at $40.84. Its session peak was $41.04, the highest since Dec. 9. That was 51 percent above the 12-year low of $27.10 on Jan 20.

U.S. crude CLc1 finished up $1.98 at $37.90 a barrel, near a 2-month high. On Feb. 11, it hit a 2003 low of $26.05.

Some of the recent gains in oil were also helped by chart-related buying as Brent and U.S. crude breached multiple resistance levels between $30 and $38.

Asset rotation by investors have also led to higher allocations into commodities, along with equities. Gold and iron ore prices hit multi-month highs on Monday while Asian equities rose to two-month highs.

Hedge funds raised their bullish bets on Brent to a record high and on U.S. crude to a November peak during the week to March 1.

On the production front, U.S. shale oil output was expected to fall for a sixth month in a row in April, a government forecast said.

Some analysts said the global crude market remained oversupplied by around 2 million barrels per day and higher prices could prompt U.S. shale producers to swiftly add rigs they had cut.

Morgan Stanley noted the rally was also driven by dollar depreciation. "The upside should be limited by bloated global inventories and producer hedging," it said.

(Additional reporting by Libby George in LONDON and Henning Gloystein and Manesha Pereira in SINGAPORE; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia next month, its Foreign Minister Adel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir on Tuesday called on him during which they expressed keenness to elevate ties between the two countries to strategic level by boosting cooperation in key areas of trade, security and counter terrorism.

"Both leaders exchanged views on further strengthening bilateral relations, including in the fields of trade, investment, energy, and security cooperation. They also discussed regional situation. They agreed that the two countries have shared interest in peace and stability in the region," a PMO statement said.

Emphasising that India attached high importance to its close and friendly relations with Saudi Arabia, Modi also expressed confidence that his forthcoming visit there would provide an opportunity to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a new level.

Modi will travel to Saudi Arabia on a two-day State visit from 2 April as part of his three-nation trip starting from Belgium on 30 March.

After Belgium, he will also visit Washington to attend Nuclear Security Summit from 31 March. On his part, the Saudi Minister conveyed that relations with India were accorded a high priority in their foreign policy and "deeply appreciated" the constructive role being played by the Indian community in the development of his country, the statement said.

During his less then 24-hour-long visit, the minister, who arrived late last night, also held "substantive discussion" with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj covering issues of bilateral, regional and multilateral interest.

He conveyed to Swaraj that India was one of the most important relationships for Saudi Arabia, which was keen to upgrade the ties to a strategic level covering security, counter terrorism, maritime links, trade, investment and people-to-people ties, MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. The visiting minister also emphasised that "Saudi Arabia was India's largest supplier of crude but wanted to go beyond and make it a true energy partnership", Swarup said.

Swaraj also asserted that India too was keen to take the relationship with Saudi Arabia to the next level and wanted a strong security and counter terrorism partnership with that country. "In this context, she sought Saudi's support for India's draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT)," the Spokesperson said, adding that the two ministers also discussed the regional situation and the threat from IS.

On trade front, she noted that though the trade volume was good but the investment from Saudi Arabia was very low  less than $60 million  and in this context, she invited Saudi investment in India's infrastructure sector, the Spokesperson said.

The External Affairs Minister also took up some of the issues facing Indian workers in Saudi Arabia and said the existing labour agreement with Saudi Arabia should be expanded to include sectors other than domestic workers.

PTI
New Delhi: The Indian Army's decision to make pontoon bridges for the Art of Living Foundation's upcoming World Culture Festival was taken after Delhi Police expressed a fear of stampede at the venue, where around 30 lakh people are expected, a source close to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told IANS.

The source also said the Art of Living Foundation may not be charged for the bridges as there is no policy in place for it.

The defence minister has, however, directed the defence secretary to formulate a policy for the army's involvement in such events in future.

The army, according to the source, was approached by the Art of Living Foundation for construction of six bridges across the Yamuna to the flood plain where the mega event is being organised.

The army had initially refused, but it was only after Delhi Police expressed fear of a stampede that the defence ministry agreed to engage the army in the process.

"Public safety is a government concern, and Delhi police said there could be a stampede with the huge crowd gathering there," sources close to the defence minister told IANS.

"It was in that view that the ministry asked the army to assist with the construction of the bridges," the source said.

While initially the army had agreed to construct only one bridge, with the huge crowd expected, it was decided that one more bridge needed to be constructed.

"This bridge was to be set up in the Kumbh Mela in Madhya Pradesh, it was diverted here and will be taken to Ujjain later," the source said.

This year, the army will be assisting in making floating bridges in Ujjain, where the Kumbh is taking place this year.

"The minister has told the defence secretary to formulate a policy for providing army's assistance to such events, whether they should charge or not. One reason why the army does not charge for such events is that once it starts taking money, a lot of groups can approach it," the source added.

The move of involving the army for construction of the bridges, however, has drawn sharp criticism from various quarters.

The festival, organised by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation, is scheduled to be held from 11 to 13 March on a site that is thought to be a part of the environmentally sensitive flood plains of the Yamuna river.

The Art of Living along with the Delhi Development Authority is facing a case at the National Green Tribunal for alleged violation of environmental laws and polluting the Yamuna river. The NGT is expected to deliver the verdict in the case Tuesday.

IANS
New Delhi: Makarand Paranjape, poet and professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, on Monday took on students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charge, asking him whether he checked his facts before delivering the much celebrated speech.

"Kanhaiya said in his celebrated speech Golwalkar met Mussolini. Did you check your facts? it was Moonje who met Mussolini.

"I am not saying they were not impressed by the fascist, they were. They thought it is a very good idea to have an authoritarian system.

"Please let us agree on what is factual and what is not.

"Fascism stands for anti-democratic position and so does Stalinism," Paranjape said, while addressing the students at JNU.

"I am proud to belong to a country where one so called judicial murder created such a huge ruckus.

"Do you know how many judicial murders were committed from 1920 to 1950s in Stalins USSR?

"Seven hundred and seventy nine ninety nine thousand five hundred and fifty three. Almost a million and how many people were executed for criminal and civil charges? Only 34000," he added.

Paranjape was speaking at the Speak-in at the administration block, the 15th of the edition.

What, however, stand out was that his speech was interrupted first by sloganeering by Kanhaiya Kumar and was also booed by some students in the audience, unlike other speakers who took a pro-Left position on the issue of Nationalism debate and Paranjape was also made to face questions from audience, again led by Kumar.

Speaking amidst a gathering which was either neutral or pro-Left, Paranjape still took on Kumars citing "misrepresentation" during his speech after his release from jail post the interim-bail.

Speaking on the topic "Uncivil wars: Tagore, Gandhi, JNU and Whats left of the Nation?" Paranjape said: "When we (JNU) consider ourselves to be a democratic space we should also ask ourselves if this is entirely true.

"Isnt it possible that this is a Left hegemonic space, where if you disagree you are silenced, you are boycotted, you are brow beaten, or ... (at this point he was shouted before Shehla Rashid, JNUSU VP had to stand up to ask the students to maintain order) but I love JNU too.

"We dont beat the people we disagree with," he said.

Attacking the Left politics, the professor asked the audience as to why it is so difficult to accept the legitimacy of the Indian state.

Stating that the present discourse in JNU in particular and in the country in general has destroyed the middle ground, he said that only the extreme are left.

He said by 'Left of the Nation' in his topic he want to bring out what left ideology in India has been with respect to nationalism.

"My friend Kanhaiya said ours is the oldest organization and we have fought a lot for independence.

"I want to ask him what about the flip flop that happened by the communist party of India when they suddenly declared that the imperialist war was a peoples war.

"The Community party of India wrote to the British that they will not agitate when you are fighting, we will cooperate with you.

"When he said we fought for Independence of India, I want to know what the evidences.

"We have too many statements from everywhere here, can you show me a statement from North Korea, or even from China. China even today and it is ruled by the communist party of India though it is a capitalist state.

"I have made many Chinese intellectuals in a cafe, over a drink they will tell you how bad certain things are. But ask them to take out a morcha they cant.

"So who is democratic and who is not we have to deeply deeply ask ourselves," he said.

PTI
New Delhi: The government rolled back the proposal to tax EPF withdrawals as it realised that concerns raised by lots of people are very legitimate, said Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, on Tuesday.

".. we realised that other than looking at something that would guide people towards retirement income, it actually

resulted in situation where lots of people felt 60 per cent of the corpus of EPF that was restricted in terms of withdrawal was taking flexibility away from their own retirement plan which was a very legitimate concern that has come up," Sinha said at an event organised by industry body FICCI.

Sinha said that the objective of the proposal was to provide 'further benefits to salaried class as far as pension

was concerned'.

In the face of all round attack, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday completely rolled back the controversial proposal to tax the employees' provident fund (EPF) at the time of withdrawal.

In the Budget for 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to tax 60 per cent of the corpus of the EPF

contributions created after 1 April, 2016 at the time of withdrawal. He proposed to exempt these from income tax if the amount was invested in pension annuity scheme.

The Minister further said that government wants to work for the people who are saving for their retirement.

"I want to assure, every one who is saving for retirement that government is on your side, government wants to work with you, and it wants to provide you incentives and the opportunities... that's why we have modified EPF now."

The minister said the objective of proposal to tax EPF at time of withdrawal was to strengthen the pension system in this country and bring EPF and NPS on par so that our salaried class that were saving for retirement would be able to make a choice between two schemes independent of their tax structure.

"The objective of proposal to tax the employees' provident fund (EPF) at the time of withdrawals was never ever

to raise tax revenues," he said.

PTI
"When I was a student, I was taught that students are the future of the country. But now the future is being charged with sedition," tribal activist-turned-politician Soni Sori told Firstpost. She was in JNU on Monday to express solidarity with students who are protesting the sedition charges slapped on them by the police.

Making her first public appearance after she was discharged from Apollo Hospital where she was undergoing treatment following the acid attack on her in Chhattisgarh, Sori said she was "brutalised" for questioning "the oppressive policies of the state government and the excesses being committed by the police on tribals."

"My face today is the symbol of our struggle for Bastar. The condition there and here in JNU are the same. Kanhaiya (Kumar, the JNU Students' Union president) and others have been booked under sedition charges in the same way I was sent behind bars on fake charges of being associated with Maoists. When we question the oppressive policies of the governments and raise our voices against it, we become seditious and are branded anti-nationals. It is not in the domain of the government to judge and distribute certificates of patriotism and anti-nationalism. We strongly reject it," she said. She added the more they attack her the more she would get strength to fight back.

"If the government," Sori said, "has to accomplish its ideas of Young India, Skill India and Make in India, it will have to do justice to its students instead of branding them anti-nationals."

Asked about her views on "azaadi" (independence), she was quick to reply that she and thousands of her fellow tribals and adivasis also want "azaadi" from "government oppression, from the witch-hunt and the way we are targeted by the state". She said innocent persons were being picked up and killed in cold blood by the police and security forces on the pretext of being Naxalites. "We cannot sleep peacefully at night inside our houses. There is always this fear that we will be picked up and framed as Naxalites."

She said their "resolve to create a just and independent society cannot be weakened by acid attacks, threats and cold-blooded murders. We will continue to fight till the last breath and we shall win one day."

Bastar is one of the most steadfast bastions of Naxalism in the country and one of the few remaining places where Red insurgency continues to hold sway. It is seeing an upswing in police operations. It involves not just more boots on the ground but deployment of 'surrendered Maoists' in greater numbers.

Sharing her experience of spending time with students in JNU, Sori said she was extremely delighted and not scared of anything. "I am feeling as if I am azaad here. There is no fear. But when I return to Bastar, the same fear and suffering will welcome me. Ladai karne wala kabhi safe nahin rehta (those who fight never remain safe). I will have to go back to captivity which is surrounded by heavy deployment of police forces, rape and other harassments. But I am not scared. I accept it as a challenge. The fight against injustices meted out to my fellow tribals and adivasis will go on and one day, truth and peace will prevail," she said.

Asked why she was attacked, she said the "assault on me might be a warning not to raise the issue of alleged encounters and question police forces led by nationalist IG SRP Kalluri".

Recently, 40-year-old Hidma was killed by the police in an alleged encounter in Sulenga village in the Madum area of Bastar district. The police said that he was a Naxalite and had a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, but Sori claimed that he was an "innocent farmer, a father of seven, who was asked by the force to show them the way into the jungle". She had also questioned the authenticity of another alleged encounter in the same village on 7 February after which she was attacked.

Asked if JNU student Umar Khalid, who is under arrest on sedition charges, could be part of the plot to attack her as he had taken her name during a speech  as alleged by IG Kalluri  she said, "I can only laugh at this conspiracy theory". "It is completely nonsense and absurd. The nationalist Chhattisgarh police are attempting to frame an innocent young man to hide their failure and help justify the crackdown at JNU conducted by their counterpart in Delhi," she added.
 U.N. School Celebrates Palestinian Stabbing of Jews | Main | Mayor of Beit Jala Lays It on Thick at Christ at the Checkpoint 

March 08, 2016

Palestinian Leader Expresses Great Sorrow and Deep Anguish Over Death of Terrorist



A condolence letter from Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to the family of a terrorist killed trying to run over Jews expresses great sorrow and deep anguish.?

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MERI), a non-profit organization that translates Arab and Persian media, Abbas sent the letter on March 6, 2016 to the family of Amani Hosni Jawad Al-Sabatin. Two days before, on March 4, Sabatin was killed after she attempted a car-ramming attack against a group of Israeli soldiers at Gush Etzion junction, just south of Jerusalem.

In his letter, Abbaswho has frequently been referred to by press and policymakers as a moderate?calls the deceased terrorist a martyr who quenched the land of Palestine with her pure soul.? After expressing his sorrow and anguish, the PA leader states:

I beseech Allah the Exalted and the Omnipotent to bestow upon this martyr His many mercies, and may she rest in Paradise. May Allah fill your heart with forbearance and consolation.?

This was not the first instance of Abbas glorifying terrorists, live or dead. As CAMERA has noted (Wheres the coverage? Abbas is No Angel,? May 20, 2015) Abbas has praised Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who helped perpetrate the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre that murdered 38 Israelis, including 13 children. He had similar kind words for Nazi collaborator Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Abbas called al-Husseiniwho organized attacks against Jews in British-ruled Mandate Palestine and was wanted by Yugoslavia for recruiting Muslims into Adolf Hitlers SS during World War IIa pioneer? on official PA TV on Jan. 4, 2013.

On Feb. 4, 2016, Abbas hosted 11 families of Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis in his office (Palestinian official takes time off from glorifying terrorists,? The Hill, Feb. 12, 2016).

The Interim Agreement of the Oslo Accords of Sept. 28, 1995 states that the PA and Israel shall seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other and, without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression, shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction.?

The agreement was signed by Abbas predecessor, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) head Yasser Arafatwho reaffirmed the Palestinian commitment on Jan. 15, 1997 in a Note for the Record attached to the Hebron Protocol.

Abbas also signed the Interim Agreement on behalf of the PLO, having served as the head of groups Negotiating Affairs Department during talks between Israel and the United States. Yet, unlike his letters in Arabic to the families of terrorists, Palestinian anti-incitement commitments have been better known in English.

The same day that MEMRIs translation of Abbas letter praising al-Sabatin was made public, a senior aide to Abbas named Husam Zomlot told The Wall Street Journal, Over the next 10 months [of the current U.S. administration], President Obama could be the savior of the two-state solution or bury it (White House Working on Renewed Mideast Peace Push,? March 8).? When it comes to burying peace, Abbas seems more than ready to affix his signature.

Posted by SD at March 8, 2016 04:35 PM

Why is Obama giving this terrorist Abbas millions in aid?

Pres Abbas' Fatah org calls on Palestinians to pray for the dead terrorist who murdered an American & wounded 9



https://twitter.com/ofirgendelman/status/707510047895588864

Posted by: Ken Kelso at March 9, 2016 08:04 AM

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While President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari called for passage of the Women's Reservation Bill during the two day National Conference of Women Legislators on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made no mention of it when, in the same conference, he said we should move towards women-led development from women's development.

Speaking during the conference on Sunday, PM Modi said, "Women have higher success ratio despite the fewer opportunities they get in comparison to men," Modi referring to Rwanda, saying that the east African country was brought back to its feet by women after massacres in which a large number of men were killed.

He urged women to work more towards srcutinising bills in parliament, saying they have a long-term perspective of events.

"I would urge Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, can you create an e-platform of women representatives," he said.

Meanwhile, inaugurating the conference, Mukherjee had said the country has not been able to achieve more than 12 percent representation for women out of the total membership of Parliament, which is "a sad commentary on us".

The Women's Reservation Bill, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 9 March, 2010, was never tabled in the Lok Sabha.

Even when the bill was passed, it had seen opposition from several parties. Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav and JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav had protested saying passing of this bill would ensure only upper class women get the chance of being a member of parliament. "This bill aims at depriving the backward castes and Muslims of the chance of getting elected. It will only help elite upper caste women get elected," Sharad Yadav had said.

The bill, which reserves 33 percent of seats in parliament and the state legislatures for women, lapsed for the fourth time with the 15th Lok Sabha holding its last sitting ahead of the April-May general elections.

Those who oppose the bill say that it defeats the purpose of equality if women get the right to reservation in parliament and other legislatures. Some others say that it would harm the chances of people from the backward classes.

The Indian Constitution does offer equal opportunities for women, but given our gender biased society women do not have equal chances of getting elected.

And when the Prime Minister wants 'women-led' development, there is a need for larger numbers of women in power to affect policy changes that help improve the status of other women in our country.

Though naysayers have continued to opposed the bill, research has revealed that political reservation has increased redistribution of resources in favour of groups that benefit from such reservation.

While the incumbent NDA government had promised to table the bill that aims to provide a 33 percent reservation for women, nothing has been done so far. Sushma Swaraj, after the NDA was voted to power, had sought the support of Congress for passing the bill. She had said, "A lot of parties have spoken about women empowerment, but we have done our bit by making a woman the chief minister of Gujarat. We also have 25 percent women in our cabinet and even the speaker of Lok Sabha is a woman."

Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda had said in 2015 had said that the bill would be tabled in Parliament after 'careful consideration'.

"The issue involved needs careful consideration on the basis of consensus among all political parties before a bill for amendment in Constitution is brought before Parliament," Gowda had said.

Women's empowerment or women-led empowerment cannot happen on its own. Without a well researched and constructive government agenda, meant solely for the development for women, there cannot be any progress in the grass roots.

And with a Parliament where over 85 percent of representatives are men, there cannot be government policies that can improve the lives of women.

Scandanavian countries are known to be the best examples of gender-balanced societies. And a quick look at their parliaments can show why. A piece on The Huffington Post titled What Makes the Nordic Countries Gender Equality Winners? points out that all Nordic countries are on the top ten in the list of countries that have high number of women in parliaments, Sweden being the highest (among Nordic countries)  47.3 percent.

Such high representation has ensured legislations that promote gender equality  paid maternity and paternity leaves, equal pay for equal work and even reservations in boards of publicly listed companies.

PM Modi had mentioned the society of Rwanda while addressing the conference. The Rwandan Parliament has the highest number of women in the world and that was brought about by a quota law just like what the Women's Reservation Bill proposes. The quota was introduced in 2003, and by 2008 there were more women in Parliament than men with 56 percent and by 2013 it was 64 percent.

The bill for reservation of women in India, since its inception, has been opposed. It was first introduced in parliament by HD Deve Gowda's government as 81st Constitution Amendment Bill. Soon after, Gowda's government became a minority and the 11th Lok Sabha dissolved. The Bill was the referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee which presented its report to the Lok Sabha in December, 1996.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government had introduced the bill four times in the Lok Sabha, in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003. However it failed to gather consensus.

The Bill was again introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2008, after the UPA came to power, and then referred to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice.

After the Standing Committee presented its report, the bill was tabled in both the houses of Parliament in 2009 amid protests by the SP, JD(U) and the RJD. The bill was moved again in the Rajya Sabha in March, 2010 and it was passed with a majority.

And even as India is trying to fill in the huge gender gap, having more women in Parliament could be a could be a good start, and passing of the Women's Reservation Bill could be a steps towards achieving a more gender balanced society.
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Monday arrested Adarsh Sharma, the man who claims to be president of Purvanchal Sena which had announced through posters a reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who "shoots" JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.

"Sharma has been arrested under charges of defacement of public property, abetment of offence punishable with imprisonment, public mischief, criminal intimidation and forgery," a senior police official said, adding investigation is underway and more charges can be added in the case.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Police had detained Sharma for questioning at a police station in New Delhi district. On Saturday, posters announcing Rs 11 lakh reward for shooting dead Kumar were seen stuck on a wall near Press Club of India and bus stops and metro stations in New Delhi district.

The poster said "whosoever shoots JNU Students' Union president and seditionist Kanhaiya will be rewarded Rs 11 lakh on the behalf of Purvanchal Sena".

The posters carried the mobile number and name of Sharma. On the same day, the police registered a case of defacement of property and questioned one person, who was allegedly involved in sticking the posters on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. The other sections were added later in the FIR.

PTI
Whether Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living (AOL) Foundation eventually succeeds in holding its ambitious World Culture Festival (WCF) 2016 on the floodplains of river Yamuna in Delhi is debatable, but one thing is certain: it'll not find it easy to explain its position to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

It's the NGT that recommended a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL Foundation for causing damage to Yamuna floodplains and it posed tough questions to the representatives of the AOL Foundation and the government agencies at the NGT court on Tuesday.

At the hearing, the respondents (mainly government agencies) either contradicted their earlier statements or failed to justify why they granted the necessary permissions for the three-day event to AOL Foundation.

Here's a glimpse into what happened at court:

NGT to AOL Foundation

(A) On DDA's permission to organise the festival on Yamuna floodplains

NGT: Delhi Development Authority (DDA) gave you permission, then it was revoked, and later it was again granted. Could you please tell how AOL Foundation convinced DDA to get the permission again?

AOL Foundation (vague in its reply): No reason was cited. We again applied and permission was granted with a few conditions attached by the DDA. What changes on ground that led to the permission is not known, but we'll present it tomorrow.

[Note: Originally, the permission wasn't given by the DDA due to a standing prohibition order of the NGT not to hold any kind of event on Yamuna floodplains.]

(B) On number of visitors attending the festival

NGT: Without any confusion, give us the exact figure of the number of visitors attending the event. Numbers have differed every time: one number was given to the court and another was quoted in the advertisement.

AOLF: The estimated number is three lakh. It will be between two and three lakh.

[Note: However, the AOL Foundation on its official website has claimed that 3.5 million (35 lakh) people from 155 countries are expected to congregate at the World Culture Festival.]

(C) On Environment Impact Assessment of the project

NGT: Did you conduct any environment impact assessment?

AOLF: Not on paper, but we had meetings with various ministries and officials.

(D) Regarding permission

NGT: Delhi Police and the fire brigade haven't yet granted permission to WCF.

AOLF: Permissions from most authorities have been taken. Permission from the police and the fire brigade will be taken once the stage is ready.

(E) On construction

NGT: Can't a temporary construction on the ground be considered as a 'construction'?

AOLF: It's temporary by nature and eco-friendly materials have been used.

NGT: How can a stage (structure) of 40 feet high and equally large in size remain erect without digging the ground to fix poles using boulders, compaction of floodplains, levelling etc?

AOFL: No concretisation was done and mud used for levelling. Used plates to hold the poles of the structure in place. [But there was no clarity on whether digging was conducted or not]

[Note: NGT asked the authorities concerned, including the DDA, whether they ever visited the venue after they gave the permissions and once construction began.]

Questions NGT asked various government agencies

On pollution: What about the pollution that would be caused because of the emission from thousands of vehicles used by attendees to arrive at the venue?

On construction of Pontoon bridges and ramps: On what basis was permission? Did any government agency conduct inspections during construction?

On impact of the event on the environment: Did any of the authorities  DDA, National Capital Territory, UP government, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Water Resources, etc  consider the impact of this mega-event on floodplains, the environment, the river?

Why is Delhi Pollution Control Committee's (DPCC) permission not needed?

DPCC's lawyer Biraja Mahapatra reasoned that since it's a cultural festival unlike any industrial activity, no permission of DPCC was needed.

The NGT disagreed, stating that the event will have repercussions on the environment with vehicles adding to pollution levels. Mahapatra then said the DPCC would revisit the original application of AOLF and get back to the NGT during the next hearing on 9 March.

It came as a surprise to the NGT when many of the agencies revealed that they were not aware of the size of the festival and the area it would cover while granting permission.

What environmental activists say:

Anand Arya, one of the petitioners against AOLF and DDA, told Firstpost, "DDA raised objections to AOLF's application because the said venue is a 25-year floodplain line and as per the NGT, it's sacrosanct. No celebrations can take place over there. Now the organiser has to tell the tribunal on what basis they again got permission after cancellation."

The environment expert added, "It's surprising to find government agencies unaware of the size of the festival. How can they give permission without having a detailed plan of the mega event? Moreover, the damage that would be caused to Yamuna bio-diversity that was built over centuries can't even be imagined. Now the AOLF has reduced its visitors from 35 lakh to 3 lakh! Even if permission is given on the basis of 3 lakh visitors and if the number swells up, are they prepared to handle any mishap?"

"It seems to be a case of connivance between the DDA and AOLF, because despite having a standing order from the NGT, permission was granted to hold this mega event," another activist said on condition of anonymity.

What AOL Foundation says:

"Allegations have been levelled against us for violating environmental norms. Before we began, we put applications to relevant authorities, seeking permission. We've written to the Ministry of Environment and DPCC - both the agencies are top most as far as environment issue is concerned. Rest, we'll present before the NGT tomorrow," said AOL Foundation's counsel Akshama Nath.

What next?

Petitioners, organiser of WCF and government agencies are waiting to hear the verdict from NGT after the hearing on 9 March.

[Disclaimer: The story carries only the essence of day's proceedings at the NGT and is not a verbatim representation.]

In pics: Despite trouble with the NGT, Art of Living continues preparations for World Culture Festival
New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures in Yamuna Flood plains for Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living three-day World Culture Festival.

You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains, a Bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.

The direction came after counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said they have found no debris at the site, when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, and no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

The Green Panel also questioned the building up of a pontoon bridge by the Army on the Yamuna for the festival, and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as who gave the permission for setting it up.

The DDA, Delhi government and MoEF said they have no relation with the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge.

While the DDA said it was only required to give a no objection certificate for the bridge, Delhi government submitted that its role for the pontoon bridge comes only at the time of flood. The MoEF passed the buck to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Appearing for the DDA, Advocate Rajiv Bansal backed the authoritys decision to grant permission for the event saying it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.

The area is meant for recreational activity. The area is with DDA and it is the competent authority. Permission was granted after taking proper legal opinion which was conditional that no permanent structure will be constructed and also that it will be subject to permissions from other concerned authorities, he said.

Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.

The bench adjourned the matter for tomorrow. The NGT is hearing pleas seeking stoppage of ongoing construction on the flood plains for the Cultural festival.

During the hearing, DDA said that the plea seeking stay of construction activity was filed with a delay after activity had started at the site and it needs to be dismissed.

It said that constant watch is being maintained that no debris or municipal waste is being dumped in Yamuna flood plains and a running contractor is there to remove the debris, if any dumped.

The bench then said that DDA just cant wash its hand off by saying no debris is there as the photographs on record does show the presence of waste at the site.

In October, November and December, till the time we handed over the site to the organizers, there was no debris at the site. We are telling this with utmost responsibility that there was no debris, Bansal said.

DDA said that it had granted permission for 24.44 hectare for holding of the event in which 3.5 lakh to 5 lakh people are likely to participate and has till now not found any violations of its conditions by organizers of the event.

The bench asked the Uttar Pradesh government that under what authority of law was the parking area allotted, does the parking area fall under flood plains area, does the area permitted has been exceeded by the organizers and how much money been spent to clear the debris from the allotted area.

Counsel appearing for Uttar Pradesh government said that no debris was found at the allotted area, so there is no question of money being spent. The counsel further said that permission was granted as per the notification in which flood plains could be allotted for parking purposes during non-monsoon seasons so that there is no damage to environment and no permanent structures could be constructed. The bench, asked the counsel whether thousands of cars releasing emissions will not cause pollution to the environment.

It asked all the parties to consider the impact of the such a event on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity. Assuming that all necessary permissions were taken for the event but has anybody considered what the impact will be on the environment, river, ecology and biodiversity. Has any study being conducted in this regard, the bench said. It also asked the AOL, whether it has carried out any Environment Impact Assessment study of the event and how had it satisfied the DDA to grant permission for the function.

PTI
New Delhi: "Union HRD minister is acting like the patron saint of ABVP", eight Opposition parties including Congress, Left and AAP on Tuesday said while accusing the Modi government of harassing Allahabad University Student's Union President Richa Singh.

Drawing parallel with dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad University and the JNU row involving Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest, leaders from the parties in a joint statement trained their guns on HRD minister Smriti Irani reminding her that she is a minister of the entire country and not just the RSS and BJP.

Jairam Ramesh and Rajeev Shukla (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Javed Ali Khan (Samajwdi Party), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Bhagwant Man (AAP) and Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD), who signed the joint statement said they are "aghast" that University administration across the region are "hunting" students, who have a different view than that of the ABVP.

"We are agonized over the fact that the first ever lady President of Allahabad University Student's Union Richa Singh is being harassed by the administration...," they said.

"A government, which refuses to learn that autonomy of education institution is foundation of democracy, is sowing widespread discontent in campuses by its blatant support to ABVP's goondaism," they said. Noting that Richa Singh, a PhD scholar, had won as an independent candidate in Allahabad University while all the other seats were won by ABVP, the leaders claimed that she came into the eye of the storm for protesting against the proposed visit of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.

"ABVP members allegedly attacked the protestors but instead of investigating the attack, an enquiry was set up on Richa Singh herself. Further, there is a move now by the Vice Chancelor to declare her admission null and void, using some technical grounds, in order to get rid of what appears to be the only thorn in ABVP's side.

"We are aghast that University administration across the region are hunting students, who have a different view thatn the ABVP," the said.

Alleging that the HRD Minister is acting like the "patron saint of ABVP", they said, "we wish to remind her that she is a minister of this vast, diverse country and not just the RSS/BJP.

"It is her responsibility to encourage and protect all Constitutitional freedoms in University campuses. If Richa Singh is made a victim of ABVP's diktats, on the heels of Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar, then the students of this nation will be forced to rise in revolt," the statement said.

PTI
Thirty years after being born in an era unfamiliar with in vitro fertilisation technique, Mumbai's first and India's second test-tube baby, Harsha Chawda-Shah, delivered a healthy baby boy of her own on Monday.

According to a report by The Times of India, the boy was delivered using Cesarean-section by the same team of doctors who had helped Harsha's parents conceive her in 1986.

"I am God's gift and I believe my baby is also special," Harsha said in the report while she was still recovering from the surgery at Jaslok Hospital. "My baby is a blessing for me and there are no words to explain what I feel at this moment."

In the same report, infertility specialist Dr Indira Hinduja said delivering the baby felt like life has come a full circle for her team.

Harsha was born eight years after Durga alias Kanupriya Agarwal's birth in Kolkata that was embroiled in controversy for decades. Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay was given the honour of making India's first test-tube baby, long after he had killed himself, unable to take the ostracism and criticism from the medical community.

On speaking to The Quint , Dr Hinduja confirmed that both the mother and the child were doing great. Dr Kusum Zaveri, who was also a part of both the teams said, "Harsha has always been in touch with us. We meet and interact on a regular basis. It is but natural that she chose us to help deliver her baby."

Harsha's husband Divyapal, a businessman, in a report by DNA , said he was happy to become a father and could not wait to take Harsha and the baby home. The couple had tied the knot on 14 May, 2012, the report said.

Dr Hinduja, who was part of both the deliveries was quoted by DNA saying, "There is no reason why test tube babies cannot conceive normally. In Harsha's case, we had to do a C-section because it indicated a breach presentation." Harsha's mother Mani Chawda, a Jogeshwari resident, was sure her child will lead a normal, healthy life. On speaking to The Hindu, Mani, who was now a grandmother said, I had been married for five years, but didnt conceive. Thats when my family doctor referred me to Dr Hinduja. He even showed me an article in a Gujarati magazine on children born with assisted reproduction techniques. I visited Dr Hinduja then."

Though the test tube baby technique was in practice in the western world, it was not popular back then in India. "We had to take so many permissions  from the Ethics committee of KEM Hospital, ICMR, said Dr Hinduja, who has delivered more than 15,000 test tube babies after Harsha, in the same report by The Hindu.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday decided to pull out of a cultural extravaganza being organised by Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as a controversy raged over the three-day event on the flood plains of river Yamuna that has raised environmental concerns.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate event on Friday and the President was to attend the valedictory function on Sunday.

"The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances," an official of the Rashtrapati Bhavan said on Monday.

The event drew criticism after some activists petitioned the National Green Tribunal, a qusai judicial body on environmental issues, asking it to stop the event as it would have a deep impact on the Yamuna flood plains. The Tribunal is expected to give its judgement on Tuesday.

While the organisers expect 35 lakh people to attend the function, concerns have been raised by experts about the likely damage to the environment that may be caused by holding it on the flood plains of the already polluted river in east Delhi.

The AOL foundation, which is organising the function, will have yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars and traditional cultural performances from around the world.

The three-day event will be held from 11-13 March on the west bank of Yamuna to celebrate 35 years of the foundation.

Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority and the foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains.

It had also constituted an expert committee headed by Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar to inspect the site of the proposed festival.

Ravi Shankar, however, has defended holding of the event saying that he would have received a red carpet welcome in any other country for holding such an event.

Comparing the importance of the festival to the Olympics, Shankar also said that the NGT report is biased.

He said the committee constituted by the NGT was "biased" and claimed that the organisers of the event had not cut a single tree.

He denied claims that the Yamuna flood plains was being destroyed because of the event and said it was an eco-friendly function.

PTI
 Palestinian Pastor Helps PA Official Broadcast Propaganda at Christ at the Checkpoint | Main | Palestinian Leader Expresses Great Sorrow and Deep Anguish Over Death of Terrorist 

March 08, 2016

U.N. School Celebrates Palestinian Stabbing of Jews



A United National Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Gaza City held a ceremony that celebrated stabbings of Jews by Arabs.

Elder of Ziyon, an American blogger and researcher who writes about antisemitism and the Arab-Israeli conflict, reported on March 7, 2016, that while Israelis were being stabbed and run over daily by Palestinians,? the UNRWA school held a function on Oct. 20, 2015 that supported the attacks.

The blogger notes that timing of the ceremony leaves no doubt that it was specifically to support the wave of terror that was then reaching its height.?

On his Web site, Elder of Ziyon shows pictures of UNRWA studentsmost of who appear to be younger than ten years oldholding signs praising attacks against Jews. The images were posted to the schools Facebook page. Among them are:

A young girl, kneeling and holding a sign reading, We heed your call, oh al-Aqsa, our blood and souls we will sacrifice for you, oh al-Aqsa.?

A smiling girl displaying a sign saying, (We) are masters and not slaves, we are the ones from among whom a shahid [a "martyr"; someone killed while attempting a terrorist attack] is born every day.?

Two young boys jointly lift a placard: My soul is a sacrifice for you, oh al-Aqsa, Jerusalem is in our hearts, al-Aqsa is in danger, everybody rise in order to save Jerusalem, let us join hands in order to liberate and save Jerusalem.?

Elder of Ziyon noted that none of the signs held by the children spoke of despair? or any of the other excuses frequently offered by journalists and policymakers as the reason for Palestinian violence against Jews. Instead, the majority of the signs referred to the al-Aqsa libel.?

As CAMERA has noted (Incitement over Temple Mount Leads to Palestinian Violence, Again,? Sept. 16, 2015), that more than 80 year old libel consists of Palestinian leaders falsely claiming that Jews are somehow endangering the al-Aqsa mosque. This allegation has been used to provoke Arabs into attacking Jews in 1929, 1996 and 2000, among other instances. On Aug. 1, 2015, Abbas invoked the libel by claiming that Israel was seeking to invent a history? regarding 3,000 years of Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, part of which is occupied by al-Aqsa mosque.



On Sept. 16, 2015 Abbas proclaimed on official PA TV: The al-Aqsa [mosque] is oursand they have no right to defile it with their filthy feetWe bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing.? The PA leaders exhortations were followed by Palestinian terrorist attacks. UNRWA schools and facilities have been used to promote hatred and murder of Israelis before, serving as a de facto employment and indoctrination bureau for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) before in some cases being appropriated by Hamas. As CAMERA has noted (Canadian Government Says Terrorists Can Receive Aid Funds,? Feb. 18, 2016), a recent debate erupted in Canadas parliament over funding UNRWA after it was pointed out that the U.N. organizations payroll included employees drawing antisemitic cartoons and praising terrorist attacks. A 2015 investigation by the U.N. found that Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group, used UNRWA schools as arsenals and launch pads for missiles fired indiscriminately at Israeli civilians during the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. Elder of Ziyon reported that the recent images of children praising the murders of Jews by Arabs is proof positive that despite UNRWAs denials, its schools are being used as a platform to teach hate and violence.? He wrote that since there are no checks and balances? against UNRWAs behavior, the public, the media and the donors? must demand answers.? The images of UNRWA school children endorsing hate and murder can be found here.

Posted by SD at March 8, 2016 02:28 PM

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Military veterans are slamming the use of Indian Army soldiers for building bridges over the river Yamuna to please a godman as "illegal", "shameful" and a "rot in governance." CNN IBN reports of a terror threat at the venue and The Indian Express says Delhi Police has warned of "pandemonium." The Indian Army on its toes for a godman? Really?!

Around 4:30 am Wednesday IST, Delhi resident Vimlendu Jha, who has opposed the event, posted a video on his Facebook page where a Hindu Mahasabha leader with a flowing beard and dressed in an orange kurta is threatening to kill Jha, calls him a CIA agent and also anti-national, dragging the #JNURow pet phrases across the Yamuna.

As the saying goes, @SriSri chose the wrong river. Yamuna is too powerful to let him destroy her! @yamunajiye  vimlendu jha (@vimlendu) March 8, 2016

Links: World Culture Festival website

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that Army soldiers' deployment for construction of pontoon bridges over Yamuna river for the controversial three-day World Culture Festival being organised by Goodman Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living Foundation is to ensure safety but Delhi's cops have drilled a hole into that argument. The Indian Express reports that Delhi Police has written to the Urban Development Ministry warning of "utter chaos and pandemonium."

Parrikar said the decision to employ soldiers for the construction of the bridges was taken to ensure there is no law and order situation and security threat to lakhs of people expected to attend the three-day event starting from Friday. Former military officials reject the explanations given by the minister arguing that that defence forces are meant for protecting country from external security threats.

Sending 120 soldiers of the Army to Yamuna floodplains to build bridges for a private cultural extravaganza is absolutely wrong and illegal. The provision of the Army in aid of civil authority is governed by Section 130 of the CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code). This legal clause states that decision to requisition armed forces should be taken by the executive magistrate of the highest rank, which is the district magistrate, not even the chief minister. And he or she can do it under emergency circumstances such as riots and natural calamities when his or her police force cannot do a particular job, former IAS officer MG Devasahayam, who has served a stint in the Army, told Firstpost.

It is alarming, he said, that the government is going out of its way to help a controversial programme, which organisers claim will be attended by 3.5 million people, which may cause permanent environmental damage. The event has come under scanner of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which looks after environmental issues. Even the President, the supreme commander of the defence forces, who was to preside over the valedictory function, has refused to attend it. In such a situation, facilitation of such programme is a sign of rotten governance that is going on in the country, he added.

The president had earlier agreed to attend the opening ceremony on 11 March but later opted out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also not take part in the event on the pretext of security threat. Asked when the Army has been used during Kumbh Mela and even the Commonwealth Games, then why such a hue and cry this time, Major General (retired) Satbir Singh said the defence forces have got a clear cut task to defend the country from external and internal security threats. They are also called to aid the civil authorities in case of natural disasters.

Our soldiers are not meant for such shit. It is a compromise with the dignity of the countrys defence forces. It is a shame that the government is giving undeserved public resources to an individual in return of his political support, he added. Colonel (retired) Pushpendra Singh also strongly condemned the decision and said that the Army should not be deployed for any such function. It is meant to secure borders.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) defended its permission to the event before an NGT bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar. Heavens will not fall if the function is organised at the venue. We can see what needs to be done to restore the area, but today we are at the threshold of the ceremony, the DDA is reported to have told the NGT.

As he faced criticism for destroying Yamuna, Art of Living chief Sri Sri Ravi Shankar sought to placate fears. I want Yamuna to be clean. We have not cut any tree, some trees have been trimmed only, he said, adding that his foundation will leave the spot as a beautiful bio-diversity park.

On Monday, as pictures of soldiers working on the Yamuna bridge for the event began to circulate, President and Supreme Commander of the Army, Pranab Mukherjee, said he will not attend the World Culture Festival.

An online campaign entitled Don't destroy the #Yamuna Floodplains - Shift the Art of Living Festival on Change.org has so far got 19,545 signatures. The signed petition, which says, Sri Sri, please stop killing my already dead Yamuna, I beg! Destroying the floodplains is not cultural, not spiritual, will be sent to the president, the prime minister, the chief justice of India, the chairman of the NGT, the chief minister of Delhi and the Art of Living Foundation.

In its journey of 1376 km from Yamunotri to Allahabad, 22 km of river Yamuna flows through Delhi. Ironically, this journey of 22 km through the most powerful city of the nation is primarily responsible for choking the river. What enters the city as a revered river unfortunately exits as a drain, a dead water body. Amidst this chaotic ecosystem, floodplains come forth as the only hope for survival of the river.

As the integral part of the aquatic system of any river, floodplains are the natural space for the river to dissipate its energy. A river with vulnerable and damaged floodplains is one step closer to death, to say the least, it adds, reads the petition. Unfortunately, the floodplains of Yamuna in Delhi have already been injured with mega constructions. Akshardham temple, Delhi Transport Corporations Depot, Common Wealth Games Village, main office of the Delhi Metro, to name a few, are technically on the floodplains of the Yamuna.

These constructions, however, stand proud and tall despite the NGT orders that restrain any construction, be it temporary or permanent, on the floodplain of the river Yamuna in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. It is Zone O, which means its ecologically sensitive zone and therefore no construction should be allowed in this area.

While the river struggles to flow, preparations are in full swing to organise the mega event on the floodplains. The event venue is spread over 1,000 acres of floodplain. The area is within 10 km of the Okhla Birds Sanctuary.

It is the joke of the year when people say that the Art of Living is polluting the Yamuna! (1)  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 3, 2016

The Art of Living should be lauded & rewarded for even choosing such a polluted place for a prestigious international event. (2)  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 3, 2016

It takes enormous courage & commitment to ready a place where once, one could not even breathe due to the stink. (3)  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 3, 2016

Thanks to the efforts of over 100,000 Delhi households who for 3 months prepared enzymes to clean nallahs, methane emission has reduced.(4)  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 3, 2016

(With FP Staff)
Kolkata: West Bengal's main opposition Left Front on Monday released its first list of 116 candidates that included former Asian Games gold medallist runner Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, and said talks were on "at a fast pace" for an understanding and not an alliance with the Congress, for the upcoming state assembly polls. The state is slated to hold the seven-phase polls from April 4 to May 5.

LF chairman Biman Bose also ruled out any joint campaign with the Congress.

"Discussions were on at a fast pace. We already have a front. Now we are forging a new front. Earlier we had parties like the Nationalist Congress Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal with us. Now the Janata Dal-United will be part of the expanded Left front. Some other parties are also keen to join," said Bose.

Regarding the Congress, he said the LF was trying to work out an understanding with the Congress, which would ensure there was no split in anti-Trinamool Congress votes.

"If the Congress has faith in the LF slogan of 'Trinamool hatao, Bangla bachao, and BJP hatao, desh bachao', it will be with us. We are trying to work out an understanding with the Congress, and neither a front, nor alliance.

"Congress has ruled the state for long. Congress also had an electoral understanding with the Trinamool Congress in the past. Today we welcome the Congress if it shares our slogan against the Congress. But understanding does not mean an alliance or a front," said Bose.

Ruling out any joint campaign with the Congress, the LF chairman said: "LF will campaign from LF platform, and Congress from its platform. There will be no platform sharing on the campaign trail".

However, in the event of violence during the poll campaign, the LF, its associates and the Congress will rush to the spot without carrying the respective party flags.

Bose mocked posters and graffiti linking the LF spearhead Communist Party of India-Marxist poll symbol sickle-hammer-star with the Congress' symbol hand. "This is not our stand. Sickle-hammer is sickle-hammer. Hand is hand."

Asked to give details about its "understanding" with the Congress including if the Left will contest in all the 294 seats, Bose replied: "This is only the first list, there are more lists to come, you will get know all the details."

Sikdar, a former CPI-M MP, would be in fray from Sonarpur North seat in South 24 Parganas district, while State CPI-M secretary Surjya Kant Mishra would contest from his old constituency of Narayangarh of West Midnapore district.

Mishra, also the leader of the opposition in the assembly, is the only CPI-M politburo member from the state featuring in the first list.

Bose also said it was a "political tradition" in Bengal of not projecting anyone as the chief ministerial candidate and refused to comment if Mishra would be the face of the coalition.

A significant feature of the list made public on the day was that 68 of the candidates were fist timers in assembly polls. The list includes 16 women, and 25 from the religious minorities.

Among the candidates announced on the day, six are from Forward Bloc, five from the Communist Party of India (CPI), one each from Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) and the rest (113) from Front spearhead Communist Party of India-Marxist.

The list also includes nine former state ministers and five former parliamentarians.

IANS
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday things were moving in the right direction after the European Union agreed a draft deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, a touchstone issue for voters in state elections on Sunday.

The deal is a crucial sign of progress for Merkel, who is battling domestic resistance to get an EU plan for handling the crisis, which brought more than a million migrants to Germany last year.

"Overall, things are going in the right direction," Merkel told SWR radio, while trying to assuage worries that Turkey is blackmailing Europe: "No. We are seeking a balance of interests," she said.

EU leaders welcomed an offer by Ankara to take back migrants crossing into Europe and agreed in principle to its other demands but delayed a deal until March 17-18.

"Finally, there are concrete steps towards a joint European refugee policy," said Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in Merkel's ruling coalition.

The CDU and SPD had lost support before Sunday's votes in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt, but Merkel's own rating rebounded last week from February's 4 1/2- year low in February.

Forsa pollster Manfred Guellner said the draft deal would help shore up her support among Germans, although it would widen the divide separating the CDU and SPD from the anti-immigration AfD party and Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU).

"The majority will say 'That is Merkel. She is toiling away again ... and she is on the right path'," Guellner said.

But pollsters draw a clear distinction between support for Merkel as chancellor and for her party in the state votes.

The anti-migrant AfD is expected to do well after it scored 13.2 percent in local elections in the state of Hesse at the weekend to become the third biggest party in councils there. Senior AfD member Paul Hampel condemned the summit outcome.

"Using Turkey as a highly paid bouncer has several dangerous pitfalls," he said, mentioning Ankara's demands for more money, faster EU accession talks and quicker visa-free travel.

There is widespread scepticism among conservatives in the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's CDU, about Turkey joining the EU.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer said Bavaria had "serious misgivings" about granting this plus EU visa liberalisation to Turks in return for Turkish concessions on the refugee crisis.

He said clarity was needed on which EU states would take refugees from Turkey. "It can't be the case that we ultimately have a German contingent."

CSU lawmaker Hans-Peter Friedrich told SWR: "We mustn't put ourselves in the hands of the Turks."

(Additional reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker in Munich; Writing by Madeline Chambers and Paul Carrel, editing by Larry King; Editing by Catherine Evans)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Peshawar: At least 21 terrorists were killed in fresh air strikes when fighter jets in Pakistan pounded militant hideouts in Shawal Valley, a mountainous area in North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

"Operations continue. Important heights & passes along Pak-Afghan Border secured. Valley's sanitisation in progress," Asim Bajwa, DG Inter-Services Public Relations tweeted.

"21 terrorists were killed last night when military jets pounded militant hideouts in Shawal valley of North Waziristan as operations continue," Bajwa said.

"Combined with strikes by Pakistan Air Force & Combat Army Aviation, ground force continue hunt for fleeing terrorists through chase,cordon and search op-1," he said.

Pakistan began its operation to clear Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds in North Waziristan in 2014, and claims to have killed more than 3,750 militants since then with no civilian casualties.

Zarb-e-Azb military campaign was launched in June last year after militants had attacked the international airport in Karachi, killing 26 people including airport security staff.

In late February the army said it was entering the final phase of the operation.

PTI
Washington: A woman traveller wearing a pair of gun-shaped high heels and carrying two bracelets that were lined with realistic-looking bullets in her carry-on bag was stopped by US airport officials and had to delay her flight to abandon the 'dangerous items' after security agents spotted them.

The Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the female traveler at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) was delayed for an unspecified amount of time on Saturday when agents discovered the gun shoes in her carry-on bag.

"Shoes and bracelets that are less than ideal to wear or bring to a @TSA checkpoint. These delayed a traveler at BWI," Farbstein tweeted.

"Friendly reminder from ?@TSA: Realistic replica firearms and ammunition are not permitted past TSA checkpoints," she said.

Farbstein said the woman was told she could put the items in her checked bags, but she chose instead to abandon the shoes at the airport and bracelets in order to board a flight.

No charges were filed against the unnamed woman, CBS Balitmore reported.

Meanwhile, the manufacturer of the gun-shaped high heels is looking for the unnamed owner who had to surrender her shoes to the TSA agents.

The shoe manufacturer, Pleaser USA, announced on their Twitter page that they are searching for the shoe owner.

"Please contact so we can reunite you with a FREE pair of Bondgirl shoes for having to forfeit yours in lieu of missing your flight," the company says.

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is the largest of three major airports serving the BaltimoreWashington Metropolitan Area in the United States, the other two being Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport

and Washington Dulles International Airport.

PTI
Jerusalem: Israel on Tuesday refuted a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "surprised" the Obama administration by cancelling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of US presidential primaries.

The spat comes amid tense relations with US President Obama in the last year of his presidency, and shortly before US Vice President Joe Biden was set to touch down in Israel.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US had offered to meet on one of those days. "We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. "We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit."

But Netanyahu's office said Israel's ambassador to the US had already informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" Netanyahu would not make the trip.

It said the ambassador told the White House there would be a final decision on Monday. That day, Israeli news reports erroneously reported that Netanyahu would not travel because he was unwilling to meet with Obama. Netanyahu's office said it then informed the White House directly that Netanyahu would not be visiting.

Netanyahu was invited to address a summit of the pro-Israel group AIPAC. An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said Netanyahu wanted to avoid potential meetings with presidential candidates at the summit. Netanyahu was accused of siding with Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign and he appears wary of sparking any additional claims of meddling in American politics.

"It's a tumultuous primary season in the United States ... we don't want to inject ourselves into that tumultuous process," the official said.

It was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the US and its closest Mideast ally. Relations between Israel and the US never fully recovered after Obama incensed Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden's last visit to Israel in 2010 was also marked by a diplomatic spat with Washington, when Israel announced settlement construction plans during his visit.

Netanyahu's office said Tuesday the prime minister is "looking forward to the visit of Biden and discussing how we can meet the many challenges facing the region."

Vice President Biden is not expected to offer any new initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he travels to Israel and the West Bank. The White House has said it does not believe either side has the political will for reviving the peace process as the last year of Obama's administration winds down.

However, there have also been reports the Obama administration is considering setting parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to make it easier for Obama's successor to pursue. Israel rejects an imposed formula and says any outline of a peace accord has to be reached through direct negotiations.

AP
Stockholm: The United Nations' lead official on climate change says the next UN leader should be a woman, but she has no plans to seek the job.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, says a female candidate should succeed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he finishes his second term this year.

But when asked whether she could be that woman, the 59-year-old Costa Rican diplomat told The Associated Press on Tuesday it was "not within my plans."

Figueres' role in shaping last year's long-awaited Paris Agreement to fight climate change has raised her international profile.

Four men and three other women so far have been nominated for the post. Although the UN nomination system observes no fixed rule, many diplomats take the view that it's Eastern Europe's turn to receive the top post under an informal rotation system. Six of the existing candidates are from Eastern Europe.

Figueres says she hasn't decided what to do after she leaves her job in July after six years in charge.

The Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, listed Figueres among its "women to watch" in the race for secretary-general, while Vogue magazine called her "one of the most promising" potential candidates.

Jean Krasno, a City College of New York professor who oversees a campaign to elect a woman as the next UN leader, described Figueres as "exactly the kind of secretary-general that we need, (someone) who can broker global agreements."

Figueres said it's "about time" that a woman gets the job. "And I have no doubt that there will be strong candidates to compete for that responsibility," she said in a telephone interview from her office in Bonn, Germany.

She took the helm of UN climate change policy in 2010 at a low point following an acrimonious summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, that failed to produce an envisioned landmark agreement to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

"I very quickly realized that the tone had to change," Figueres said.

Citing her motto of "Impossible is not a fact, it's an attitude," she set out to persuade government, business and civic leaders to keep their faith that diplomacy could rein in climate-changing pollution.

Chances for a deal improved in November 2014 when the world's top greenhouse gas polluters, China and the United States, jointly announced efforts to control their emissions.

AP
Islamabad: The kidnapped son of a liberal Pakistani governor assassinated by his bodyguard has been found, senior officials said Tuesday, just over a week after his father's killer was hanged.

Shahbaz Taseer is in "feeble" health, said Aitzaz Goraya, head of the Counter-Terrorism Department of southwestern Balochistan province, where officials said he was found after a police raid.

Taseer had been abducted by Islamist gunmen from the city of Lahore in August 2011, months after his father Salmaan was killed for opposing the country's controversial blasphemy laws.

The governor's assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29.

The Pakistani Taliban have never officially confirmed their involvement in the kidnapping, but a militant source told AFP Tuesday that an army operation in the tribal areas had made it "difficult" for the group to keep him.

"That's why they preferred to set him free," the source said.

Militant commanders have privately told AFP in the past Taseer was being kept somewhere in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan.

Pakistan began its operation to clear Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds in North Waziristan in 2014.

The source Tuesday said Taseer was moved after Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched.

"Acting on a tip off, intelligence forces and police went to a compound in the Kuchlak district some 25 kilometres north of Quetta" in the southwestern province of Balochistan, Goraya said.

"We surrounded the compound and we raided it. We didn't find anyone. A single person was there and he told us my name is Shahbaz and my father's name is Salmaan Taseer."

But the owner of a roadside restaurant in Kuchlak told reporters that Taseer was recovered after he came to his restaurant on foot on Tuesday evening, made a phone call and then personnel from paramilitary the Frontier Corps came and picked him up.

"He had grown long hair with a scruffy beard and was frantically asking for a telephone or mobile phone" the owner of Al-Saleem hotel told reporters in Kuchlak.

"He ate food here, paid a bill of 350 rupees and then called someone from a waiter's mobile," the owner said, adding that minutes later FC personnel arrived.

A second militant source said the Taliban had been demanding up to two billion rupees ($20 million) for Taseer's release.

Security analyst Imtiaz Gul said it was possible a ransom had been paid and that Taseer had been abandoned by his abductors once they received the money.

- Safe return

Mumtaz Qadri, the police bodyguard who shot the governor 28 times in Islamabad in 2011, was hanged last week in what analysts said was a "key moment" in Pakistan's long fight against militancy.

It demonstrated the state's willingness to uphold the rule of law against extremism, observers said.

The governor had called for reforms to the country's controversial blasphemy law, which carries the death penalty and which critics say is largely misused.

But Qadri was hailed as a hero by many conservatives eager to drown out calls to soften the legislation.

Shahbaz Taseer's brother Shehryar said on Twitter the hanging was a victory for Pakistan, but not his family.

"The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants," he wrote.

Shahbaz Taseer's father-in-law Salman Ghani also confirmed his freedom to AFP.

Former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who belonged to the same Pakistan People's Party as Salmaan Taseer and whose own son was kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in May 2013, told Geo News: "It is a very big day for Salman's family."

He added: "After this release, I am very hopeful that my own son will be freed."

AFP
Two polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona border violated the constitutional rights of non-believers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a jury said on Monday.

The civil rights trial marks one of the boldest efforts by the government to confront what critics have long said was a corrupt regime in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The seven-week trial provided a rare glimpse into the communities that for years have been shrouded in secrecy and are distrustful of government and outsiders.

The jury, which reached a verdict on the fourth day of deliberations, awarded $2.2 million to six residents eligible for damages. But the towns will have to pay only $1.6 million because lawyers negotiated a settlement in that part of the case. The judge will now decide what other punishments to impose.

Federal authorities have not specified the changes they will seek, but they could ask for the Colorado city marshal's office to be disbanded and for its duties to be handed over to local sheriffs.

Richard Holm, who was awarded damages, hailed the verdict as a step in denting the sect's control over the towns but said the verdict will be hollow if the judge doesn't disband the marshal's office.

"For there ever to be a decent community, there's got to be new faces, new control," said Holm who left the sect in 2003 but still lives in the area.

Town leaders will abide by whatever changes are ordered by the judge, Colorado City attorney Jeff Matura said, but the government's actions won't change people's religious beliefs. "There is nothing that the government can do or really should be able to do to change someone's faith," Matura said.

The towns were accused of doing the bidding of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism, which disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. The trial came as the federal government waged fights on multiple fronts to rein in church activities.

A grand jury in Utah has indicted several church leaders on charges of food stamp fraud. A judge on Monday ordered the man who runs the day-to-day operations of the sect to stay behind bars until trial in that case.

The US Labor Department has a separate action against a ranch with ties to the church over a pecan harvest in which children were forced to work long hours with few breaks.

During the civil rights case, the Justice Department said town employees assisted the group's leader when he was a fugitive and took orders from church leaders about whom to appoint to government jobs.

They say local police ignored the food stamp fraud scheme and marriages between men and underage brides.

The jury found the marshal's office violated the rights of nonbelievers by breaking the First Amendment's promise that the government won't show preference to a particular faith and force religion upon people.

Jurors concluded officers treated nonbelievers inequitably when providing police protection, arrested them without having probable cause and made unreasonable searches of their property.

One woman who was denied a water connection testified that she had to haul water to her home and take away sewage for six years. A former sect member said police ignored hundreds of complaints of vandalism on his horse property because he was no longer part of the church.

"Today's verdict reaffirms that America guarantees all people equal protection and fair treatment, regardless of their religious beliefs," said principal deputy assistant attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division. "When communities deny their residents critical services simply because of where they worship, they violate our laws and threaten the defining values of religious freedom and tolerance that are the foundation of our country."

The towns deny the allegations and say the government is persecuting town officials because it disapproves of their religion. "If this was any other community in America, this would not be happening at this level," Hildale attorney Blake Hamilton said after the verdict. "The scrutiny these communities have been under is just unprecedented."

AP
LONDON (Reuters) - A Saudi bombmaker believed behind several failed but ingenious attempted attacks on the West is the most likely creator of an improved "underwear bomb" discovered in a plot foiled by U.S. and allied authorities, security experts and officials say.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who once provided the bomb for a suicide mission by his younger brother, a fellow militant, is described by security officials as one of the most dangerous and innovative explosives experts ever to serve al Qaeda.

Believed to be in his early 30s, Yemen-based Asiri became an urgent priority for Western counter-terrorism officials following his alleged role in planning strikes on the United States in 2009 and 2010, plots that included the failed bombing of an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.

Asiri, who survived a U.S. drone missile attack last year, has drawn scrutiny for his skill at fashioning bombs using a hard-to-detect powdery substance called pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, and hiding them in clothing or equipment.

"If we assume Asiri is behind all these attacks, then he is at the top of the list of the most dangerous al Qaeda operatives," Mustafa Alani, a Gulf security expert with good Saudi contacts, told Reuters.

Richard Barrett, who heads the al Qaeda-Taliban sanctions monitoring committee at the United Nations, said he was "pretty certain" Asiri was the top suspect in the latest plot.

"He has a particular skill for making things which are effective without being detectable," he said. "This example looks like an evolution from the one he gave the Christmas Day bomber ... and so I think it is likely to have been his."

"DEVICES OF THE UTMOST SOPHISTICATION"

The Obama administration said on Monday that authorities in the Middle East recently seized an underwear bomb which they believe al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), had intended to give to a suicide bomber to blow up an airliner bound for the U.S. or another Western country.

The discovery of an AQAP international plot at such an early stage will have been a source of guarded relief to some in Western governments, given that other such attempted bombings have been found uncomfortably late in the execution phase.

The Detroit plot for example was discovered only when the device misfired as the airliner flew over U.S. territory.

A 2010 plot, in which two cargo planes bound for the United States contained bombs concealed in printer cartridges, was discovered only after repeated searches of the aircraft.

The then British Security Minister Pauline Neville-Jones, hinting at the plot's late detection, described the conspiracy as "an attack involving devices of the utmost sophistication. That it was not a success is down to the professionalism of our security services and those of our partners."

A Riyadh-born former chemistry student who once plotted to bomb oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, Asiri served nine months in jail in Saudi Arabia for attempting to join a militant group in Iraq to fight U.S. troops there.

He later moved to Yemen and joined AQAP, providing the bomb that killed his younger brother in a failed bid to assassinate Saudi counter-terrorism chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in 2009.

Later that year, security sources say, Asiri was behind the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day. Both the Detroit airliner bomb and the bomb used in the failed attack on the Saudi prince turned out to have been sewn into the would-be bombers' underwear, rather than implanted inside body organs or cavities, U.S. officials say.

"ONLY ONE MAJOR BOMB MAKER"

The cartridge bomb plot followed in 2010.

In an English-language al Qaeda online magazine called Inspire, the network boasted that the cartridge plot cost only $4,300 and had achieved one important goal by scaring the West.

It hinted that Asiri had trained others in his Yemen-based group, saying: "Isn't it funny how America thinks AQAP has only one major bomb maker?"

Gauging the extent of Asiri's inventiveness, and of his ability to inspire the imaginations of his colleagues, has become a preoccupation Western security officials.

U.S. and allied officials, for example, say they are increasingly concerned that doctors working with AQAP will implant bombs inside living militants to try to circumvent airport security measures and bring down planes.

However experts suspect that Asiri's expertise may not be easily transferrable. "He may have tried to train people," said Barrett. "But I think he has a particular ability which is probably not easily learned by others, and clearly we haven't seen more of these things emerging yet."

Will McCants, an analyst of violent Islamist movements at CNA, a U.S. non-profit research organisation, told Reuters that from the U.S. perspective Asiri was among the most dangerous al Qaeda operatives. He was "very, very clever at getting around U.S. and allied security measures."

But he added: "I just don't think his innate imagination can be easily passed along."

(Reporting by William Maclean; Editing by Jon Hemming)
DETROIT U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump sought to regain campaign momentum as four states including Michigan voted on Tuesday, after a barrage of attacks from fellow Republicans and a tightened race created an opening for those seeking to block him.

The Republican front-runner split four contests on Saturday with conservative rival Ted Cruz, who positioned himself as the prime alternative to Trump in the race for the party's nomination in the Nov. 8 election.

Michigan is the biggest prize up for grabs in Tuesday's contests. Most opinion polls show the New York real estate magnate hanging on to a solid double-digit lead there over Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has climbed in some opinion polls in the Midwestern state.

While Kasich is in last place in the number of delegates amassed, which are needed to clinch the nomination at the party's July convention, a strong showing for him in the state could complicate the math for any one anti-Trump candidate.

"The whole world's watching what's going to happen in Michigan tonight," Kasich, 63, told a rally in Lansing.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is the favourite of a Republican establishment alarmed by Trump's controversial proposals and crude style and anxious about Cruz's uncompromising conservatism. But Rubio, 44, lags behind and may need a win in his home state next week to keep his campaign alive.

Trump, 69, faced a week of blistering attacks from the party's establishment that ended with a mixed showing in Saturday's contests in Louisiana, Kentucky, Kansas and Maine.

That encouraged some Republican leaders and donors who are trying to block him from a clear shot at the party nomination.

FLORIDA ADS

Anti-Trump Super PACS have spent millions in advertisements designed to attack Trump's character in Florida, a state Rubio calls home and Trump calls a second home. Florida's 99 delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis.

"They are trying and they're spending millions of dollars but I have a tremendous following," Trump said Tuesday on Fox News, taking credit for the massive Republican voter turnout in the 2016 campaign. "That's what's happening - there's life now in the Republican Party," he added.

Many mainstream Republicans have been offended by Trump's statements on Muslims, immigrants and women and alarmed by his threats to international trade deals. Trump said on Tuesday he has not assembled a foreign policy team, despite having said he would have one in place by February, and dismissed criticism his statements would be harmful to U.S. interests.

Conservatives meeting in recent days at the Republican Governors Association retreat in Park City, Utah, and a think tank gathering in Sea Island, Georgia, believe Trump will be vulnerable to another blast of attacks before a big day of voting on March 15, the Washington Post reported.

Apple (AAPL.O) CEO Tim Cook, Google (GOOGL.O) co-founder Larry Page and billionaire Philip Anschutz, as well as congressional leaders, were among those attending the Sea Island event, the American Enterprise Institute's World Forum over the weekend, which was closed to media, the Huffington Post reported.

Tesla (TSLA.O) and Space-X entrepreneur Elon Musk told Reuters he gave a talk on technology innovation at the forum. He said he was an independent who believes "in supporting reasonable candidates that show wisdom in their actions, understanding that no one is perfect, and empathy for all."

On Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats were also voting in Mississippi, and Republicans in Idaho and Hawaii were making their choices on a day when 150 Republican delegates and 166 Democratic delegates will be up for grabs.

But the focus was on the industrial battleground of Michigan, where Trump's relentless anti-free trade rhetoric and promise to slap taxes on cars and parts shipped in from Mexico has resonated in a state that has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing and auto industry jobs.

In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton, 68, has a solid lead in Michigan opinion polls over rival Bernie Sanders, 74, a U.S. senator from Vermont.

Big Michigan wins for Trump and Clinton would set them up for a potentially decisive day of voting on March 15 in Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.

Michigan was the state that spawned the term Reagan Democrats to refer to largely white, working-class voters who abandoned their party to vote Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980s.

Sal Isabella, a Dearborn insurance agent, said he was for Trump because he would make things happen.

"He'll be like Reagan," Isabella said. "He'll make some big changes and we need big changes."

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Megan Cassella and Susan Heavey in Washington and Deborah Todd in San Francisco; Writing by John Whitesides and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Peter Cooney and Frances Kerry)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Jerusalem: Israel on Tuesday refuted a White House claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "surprised" the Obama administration by cancelling a planned visit to Washington, saying that the White House knew Netanyahu was considering not coming.

Netanyahu had been expected to visit later in March on a trip coinciding with a major pro-Israel group's annual summit, but his office said he would not travel because he did not wish to come at the height of US presidential primaries.

The spat comes amid tense relations with US President Obama in the last year of his presidency, and shortly before US Vice President Joe Biden was set to touch down in Israel.

The White House said Israel had proposed two dates for a meeting between the leaders and the US had offered to meet on one of those days. "We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting," said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council. "We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit."

But Netanyahu's office said Israel's ambassador to the US had already informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" Netanyahu would not make the trip.

It said the ambassador told the White House there would be a final decision on Monday. That day, Israeli news reports erroneously reported that Netanyahu would not travel because he was unwilling to meet with Obama. Netanyahu's office said it then informed the White House directly that Netanyahu would not be visiting.

Netanyahu was invited to address a summit of the pro-Israel group AIPAC. An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, said Netanyahu wanted to avoid potential meetings with presidential candidates at the summit. Netanyahu was accused of siding with Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign and he appears wary of sparking any additional claims of meddling in American politics.

"It's a tumultuous primary season in the United States ... we don't want to inject ourselves into that tumultuous process," the official said.

It was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the US and its closest Mideast ally. Relations between Israel and the US never fully recovered after Obama incensed Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden's last visit to Israel in 2010 was also marked by a diplomatic spat with Washington, when Israel announced settlement construction plans during his visit.

Netanyahu's office said Tuesday the prime minister is "looking forward to the visit of Biden and discussing how we can meet the many challenges facing the region."

Vice President Biden is not expected to offer any new initiative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he travels to Israel and the West Bank. The White House has said it does not believe either side has the political will for reviving the peace process as the last year of Obama's administration winds down.

However, there have also been reports the Obama administration is considering setting parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to make it easier for Obama's successor to pursue. Israel rejects an imposed formula and says any outline of a peace accord has to be reached through direct negotiations.

AP
sex offenders collage.jpg

(Mississippi Sex Offender Registry photos)

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- They are predominantly white, middle aged and male. While the majority are from Mississippi, they also come from at least 20 other states, including as far away as Washington, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

They are the 236 convicted sex offenders currently registered in Jackson County.

Using information from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety's Sex Offender Registry, The Mississippi Press compiled extensive data on the county's registered sex offenders.

With 236 offenders, Jackson County ranks fourth among Mississippi's 82 counties, trailing only Hinds (641), Rankin (368) and Harrison (319) counties. Jackson County also ranks fourth in sex offenders per capita, with one offender for every 591 residents.

Among Jackson County's communities, Moss Point has the most offenders with 80 -- 33.9 percent of the total. Ocean Springs is second with 48, followed by Vancleave (30), Gautier (27), Pascagoula (25) and St. Martin/Latimer (15).

It should be noted, however, that in some cases the offenders may have postal addresses of a particular municipality, but actually live outside the city limits. Registered offenders in the Gulf Park Estates area, for example, are outside the Ocean Springs city limits, but have Ocean Springs addresses.

Six others offenders have the Jackson County Adult Detention Center as their listed address, while four are homeless.

Moss Point Police Chief Art McClung told The Mississippi Press he was unaware of the number of sex offenders in Moss Point, but he also noted it's likely not all are actually residing inside the city limits.

"I wasn't informed of that," McClung said about the sex offenders in or near his city. "I didn't know there were that many. The sheriff's department is in charge of tracking that, but it's something I'm certainly going to inquire about."

Broken down by race, 161 of Jackson County's offenders are white, 71 are black, three are Hispanic and one is of "unknown" race. Eight of the offenders are women. Many of them have aliases listed on the state registry. One offender, in fact, had 57 different known aliases.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, it is estimated that 80 percent of all addresses in the U.S. have at least one registered sex offender living within one mile.

Vicki Spiers is the Sex Offender Coordinator/Investigator for the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. Under state law, all convicted sex offenders must register with the sheriff's office in the county in which they will reside, even if their residence is inside a municipality.

Spiers noted the constant fluctuations in the number of offenders residing in the county at any given moment (Note: since research for this story began, four more sex offenders registered in Jackson County).

"Sex offenders frequently do not stay in one place," Spiers said. "They are constantly on the move. Those who don't are generally living at their childhood or family homes."

When convicted sex offenders register with the county, in addition to the requisite paperwork, they are also required to provide a DNA sample which is sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab. Once all requirements with the sheriff's office are met, the offender must go to a Department of Public Safety office where he or she is issued an ID card which they must carry on their person at all times.

Those ID cards must be renewed every 90 days. If they are not, the offender goes into "non-complaint" status after a 10-day grace period and their driver's license is automatically suspended.

Spiers noted that Jackson County currently has four offenders who are non-complaint, but one is currently hospitalized and two others have moved to other states which do not require sex offenders to register, meaning Mississippi has no way to officially document their whereabouts.

The one other non-compliant offender has a warrant out for his arrest, Spiers said.

In 2011, Spiers started the county's own sex offender registry, where the public can view or search for Jackson County registered offenders. She updates the registry "at least" three times a day, she said, adding that the number of registered offenders in the county has grown steadily over the past five years.

As noted, there are four registered offenders who currently list their address as "homeless," a point of consternation for local law enforcement officials.

"It's very disturbing that the Department of Corrections will release a sex offender with homeless as their registered address," said Ocean Springs Chief of Police Mark Dunston. "That's very troublesome."

Spiers agreed.

"I don't like it any more than anyone else does, but that's the way it is," she said. "The trouble with homeless offenders is how do I verify them? Where are they homeless? They may be living in a homeless camp somewhere, but there are five or six homeless camps in Pascagoula alone."

Spiers said she used to require the homeless offenders to report to the JCSO once a week, but was told that was a violation of their civil rights. Recently, however, she has learned it is not a violation and is about to reinstitute the once per week check-in for homeless offenders.

Spiers also said the transient nature of the homeless has her working very closely with her counterparts in Harrison County to track the movements of homeless offenders.

Dunston said that while sex offenders are not required to register with his department, his personnel routinely monitor the sex offender registry and receive notifications when an offender registers inside the Ocean Springs zip code. Municipal police departments are also notified when the Department of Corrections releases a sex offender from their custody if the offender is from the local area.

All told, the 236 sex offenders in Jackson County have combined for convictions on 334 sex-related charges. Sexual battery/assault is the most frequent, with 95 convictions, followed by touching of a child, mental defective or helpless person for lustful purposes with 56 convictions.

What follows is the complete list of offenses on which Jackson County's sex offenders have been convicted. Some of the charges, although listed separately, may be similar, but worded differently depending on the state in which the crime occurred:

Members of the public can register to receive notifications when a sex offender registers to reside in a particular area through the state's sex offender website.
flag rally.jpg

Jackson County NAACP president Curley Clark (at right) led a rally in support of removing the state flag from Jackson County properties prior to Monday's board of supervisors meeting. Supervisors would ultimately vote 4-1 to keep the flag flying above county-owned facilities.

(Tyler Carter/The Mississippi Press)

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi --With only one dissenting vote, Jackson County supervisors voted Monday to keep the Mississippi state flag flying on county-owned property.

Supervisors President Melton Harris, the lone African-American among the five supervisors, cast the only vote in opposition.

"I believe the flag is a divisive symbol that will continue to divide the citizens of Jackson County and those in our state," Harris said.

But fellow supervisor Ken Taylor cited a state law which reads 'the state flag shall receive all the respect and ceremonious etiquette given the American flag.'

"What you all need to do is to go down to Jackson and speak with our Governor, Attorney General, and House Speaker Phillip Gunn," Taylor said. "That is where we need to take this battle, not at the local county. That is our state law and we need to respect it."

Mississippi is the last state in the nation to fly a state flag with a Confederate symbol. Several Mississippi counties and cities -- including the state capitol of Jackson -- have voted in recent months to remove the state flag from public properties.

A standing room only crowd was on hand for Monday's Jackson County supervisors meeting, with most present to hear the board's discussion and vote on whether to keep the state flag flying over county properties.

A large crowd was on hand Monday morning to support efforts to take down the flag in Jackson County, led by Jackson County NAACP Director Curley Clark.

"I'm disappointed, but not dismayed," Clark said after the vote. "They had the opportunity to do the right thing and stand on the right side of history, but they chose not to."

Prior to the vote, the public comment portion of the meeting was moved up on the agenda to allow members of the audience to weigh in on the issue.

Reverend Dr. Ashley Beatty-Perry, minister of the Gautier Presbyterian Church spoke during the public comment section of the meeting Monday imploring the Board of Supervisors to make the right decision in regards to taking down the state flag.

"We are looking for a new time, a new place, a new way to be a people together," said Rev. Ashley Beatty-Perry of the Gautier Presbyterian Church. "Why in the world we would want to hang on to a symbol that is so divisive that disrespects so many people is beyond me.

"I am asking you as a minster to find within your heart what you know is the right thing to do. You represent all people and we are looking for a flag that will represent all people and will allow us to move forward together."

Clark indicated he believed the supervisors' vote was politically motivated.

"The board decided to take the politically expedient route rather than the correct way to improve race relations in Jackson County and across the state," Clark said. "Jackson County could have led the way in being progressive until a new flag was approved."

Clark, who described Monday's vote as leaving the effort to change the state flag as "knocked down, but not out," said he has spoken with Moss Point native Carlos Moore, a Grenada attorney who has filed suit against Gov. Phil Bryant and the state over the flag.

"I have talked to Carlos and right now, we're in a discussion to find out exactly what role we can play in his efforts to have the Governor change the flag," Clark said. "We are waiting on direction from the national office of the NAACP to see if we can join Moore as a co-plaintiff in Carlos's lawsuit."

"We plan to start along the coastal line and work our way up, Clark said.
Check out the new FoneArena Daily video that gives you a quick roundup of todays technology news.

httpv://youtu.be/xDKUbHHDFQA

Samsung today launched its flagship Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones in India priced at Rs. 48,900 and Rs. 56,900 for 32GB variants, respectively. These are available for pre-order on official site and Flipkart starting today, till March 17th and go on sale from March 18th. All the pre-orders get a free Gear VR headset.

Amazon India is gearing up to launch its own digital wallet in the country by Q2 2016, according to a latest report. The news comes only days after its rival Flipkart launched the Flipkart Money Wallet.

Indian company Zebronics today launched its own virtual reality headset called the ZEB-VR for Rs. 1600. It is available exclusively from Snapdeal at an offer price of Rs. 1,375.

Rajan Anandan, Googles Managing Director for South East Asia and India has said that the company is initiating talks with telecom operators in India to pilot its Project Loon initiative.
Starbucks UK has stood up in support to breastfeeding as it declares its 800 store outlets parent-friendly, making it one of the first high street chains to do campaign for the cause.

The giant coffee company expressed its solidarity with breastfeeding mothers by signing up to the campaign by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) that aims to encourage more business and private firms to help and provide breastfeeding mothers the space and facility to do so.

Also, Starbucks has been giving their baristas and staff ample training in sought of better understanding of the needs of the parents and customers with children and babies, serving them "without judgment".

"We know from our members that many struggle with unwanted attention and comments on their feeding method whether it's by breast, bottle or in a high chair, when out and about with their baby or child," Sarah McMullen, NCT head of research and quality, told The Guardian. "It's important that parents feel reassured they have the support of staff and won't be judged. We also know that it can be a challenge for establishments to understand and assist with the needs of parents with very young children,"she added.

Rhys Iley, vice-president of operations for Starbucks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "We recognise that parents out on their own with very young children, sometimes for the first time, appreciate some support.

To further encourage everyone, Starbucks is also actively adapting its facilities to cater everyone, most especially nursing moms. "We have already refreshed our training and improved our facilities," Iley said. "We hope parents of young children visiting our stores will let us know, there and then, if there is anything we can do to improve their experience."

Shaming of breastfeeding mothers in public has caused online discussion and call for change in societal view of the act.
It may seem incredible to many, but the fact is that food giants like Coco-Cola and McDonald's are trying to entice more customers not with their products, but with innovative packaging. Recently, both these companies have released their products in special cardboard packaging that can be folded to make virtual reality (VR) goggles!

For instance, one can fold the cardboard packaging of 12-packs of Coke products to convert it into VR goggles, which will hold a smartphone - something akin to the manner in which Google Cardboard works. It is very simple and all that the user needs to do to get a pair of Coke-themed VR goggles is cut the cardboard packaging with something sharp and bind the loose sides with tape for added structural integrity.

With the growing popularity of VR, apparently more and more non-technical companies are opting for the new media, perhaps with a view to substitute some of its advertisement expenditure. The only difference between the McDonald's and Coca-Cola goggles is that while the former is accompanied by a game app, as of now, the latter is devoid of any app, Mashable reported.

Currently, Coca-Cola is exploring ways to enter the Cardboard headset market and has already developed a few options to convert its packaging into viewers.

While these new packaging inventions are yet to arrive on the shelves of supermarkets, the video launched by Coca-Cola demonstrates three different options of converting their packaging into viewers. The three methods by which one can convert the Coca-Cola package into a viewer are based on getting the cardboard in the exact shape. The first method, called "Origami" has two punch-out pieces on the side of the package that can be assembled easily by folding it and placing pre-made tabs into punched-out gaps.

Meanwhile, McDonald's has rolled out a trial version in Sweden which converts its iconic Happy Meal box into a VR headset. The inventive packaging has been dubbed Happy Goggles and the trial was launched along with a ski-themed VR game titled "Slope Stars." The company plans to release 3,500 such headsets in 14 restaurants all over Sweden over the weekends of March 5 and 12, Packaging News reported.

Watch how the Coca-Cola and MacDonald's goggles work in the videos below:
The exotic Chinese cuisine is celebrated for its richness and essence in many cities around the world, especially around United States. San Francisco has one of largest Chinese population in United States. It is here where the Americans were first introduced to their desired Asian cuisine, the Chinese.

The Chinese won the hearts of the Americans with their delicious food, their cleanliness and even their professionalism. The first Chinese restaurant in San Francisco was called Macao and Woosung. It was started by Norman Asing.

With time, Chinese immigrants were ill-treated by the Americans with the emergence of taxes, and with a discrimination against the Asians as well. However, Americans could not give up on their delicious food prepared by the Chinese.

In the 20th century, many chop suey joints were introduced in America. It was later discovered that chop suey is not originally Chinese. It was translated as leftover of food. But the Americans found it delicious and affordable.

Chinese food became popular since they gave the Americans an exotic Asian experience without the need to spend much. The Americans loved Chinese restaurants since they had take-away and delivery options as well. Those were days when KFC and McDonalds did not make an impact on the Americans yet.

In fact there is a tradition according to which the Jews eat Chinese on Christmas. This is because Jews were barred from entering restaurants due to racism and anti-Semitism. Hence they made it a point to visit Chinese restaurants where they were welcome. This soon became a tradition that was followed among the Jews.

Today, there are nearly 45,000 Chinese eateries across America. The Chinese American Restaurant Association in the United States helps in the buying power that can only be received from chinese restaurant owners standing together. By doing their business and services together, the Chinese association is making an impressive business in America.
Bid farewell to the Colonel Sanders you know. KFC revealed on Thursday that they will be replacing their brand icon with another person. And this time, he is black.

Comedian David Alan Grier was unveiled the newest face of KFC, acting as the fast food giant's founder, Colonel Sanders. It was confirmed on Twitter, making him the first African-American to portray the role.

Being his usual funny self, Grier tweeted; "Breaking News: has been cast as the first African-American Colonel Sanders in the new KFC and Campaign.#KFC"

In the past years, the role was given to Norm MacDonald and Darrell Hammond. Colonel Sanders is famous as the icon of KFC, with his smiley face fully-bearded. Breaking the notion that the fast food company is rumored to be racist, this is a "bold move" by KFC.

KFC's twitter responded to Grier's tweet, saying; "@davidalangrier, I saw your tweet. I've always been a huge fan of yours, but I never knew you were such a fan of mine! Excited! DM (Direct Message) me!"

It's also worth noting that the display picture of KFC's Twitter account is of the Colonel, which in the near future, will be replaced by Grier's face.

The 2016 Super Bowl marked the last bigtime event of MacDonald in character, as a commercial bidding goodbye to him was aired. He started being the Colonel August of 2016, replacing Hammond which took the role in May.

According to the company, the active participation of Colonel Sanders is working.

"If you looked at social media over Halloween, there were zillions of Colonel Sanders costumes - not just kids, but adults," Kevin Hochman, KFC's chief marketing officer, told Business Insider.

Though the happy-looking Colonel is loved by many, KFC still knows that 20% of their customers hate the new Colonel Sanders Ads, but the fact doesn't bother them.

"They're actually talking about KFC, and you can market to love and hate - you cannot market to indifference," Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed said in May.
They say that the success of a company is based on the amount of care and concern the company has for its employees. With that, its no wonder why Dropbox, Pixar, Apple and Google are one of the top earners in their respective fields.

Putting the companies that allocates the least budget to their staff's benefits, especially their food, the aforementioned companies spend big amounts of money just to provide the best for their employees, to which their success is indebted.

Their cafeterias are comparable to restaurants; their food could be mistaken as gourmet food prepared by world class chefs.

GOOGLE

If the sleeping pods and slides as stairs aren't enough to make you jealous, wait till you learn about the food their employees eat daily-for free. Not only them, but their family and friends could come as their guests to the banquet too.

According to the Daily Mail, Google's New York office is home to Hemispheres, a cafe that serves three meals a day - and snacks - for free. Accompanied by the Manhattan skyline, you'd think that this is not located in an office, but a world class restaurant in a five-star hotel. Complete with a salad bar, a burger station, three entree stations, a dessert bar and a FroYo machine, employees feel that they are in a vacation.

DROPBOX

Bon Appetit reported that Dropbox head chef Brian Mattingly once worked in one of Google's kitchens, uplifting the quality of food and service with the highest standards. Aside from Mattingly, the company's workers are also privileged to taste the works of pastry chef Laurie Moran, who previously concocted sweets at New York City's Le Bernadin and Dominique Ansel's popular bakery in Japan.

Choices are not limited. Dropbox caters to everybody's food choices-vegan options, low-calorie options, as well as foods of different international cuisines like Indian, Asian, and Mediterranean.

APPLE

Apple's Cupertino employees also get the world class treatment during lunch time.

Local cafeteria called Caffe Macs disguises as your comfort food heaven, offering ramen burgers, nachos, ribs, fish, coq au vin, pizza, and even oysters. If that is not enough to satisfy your cravings, you can also order pho, sushi, paella, steak, and pasta. And that's just for lunch.

For breakfast, you can request for French Toast with strawberries, chocolate chip pancakes, and eggs, too, as well as dessert, fresh squeezed juices, and several flavors of gelato.

The Huffington Post reports that lunch and dinner meals are mostly free, subsidized by the company as well

'This cafeteria would do excellent if it were a restaurant open to the public,' gushed one fan on Yelp, while another said: 'Consuming a delicious and beautifully plated $8 meal within this clean-cut yet organic space, it may seem that for a brief moment, life is complete. '

PIXAR

Some say the the most creative ideas we conceive happen when we were full-not hungry. Pixar got its employees creative juices flowing with the quality (and quantity) of food they serve their workers.

"[Steve Jobs] wanted a space that felt like the Musee D'Orsay in Paris,' Craig Payne, the senior design project manager, told BuzzFeed. With that, Cafe Luxo's interior and overall design follows an open space layout, naturally lit by the sun in the morning and the stars at night.

Of course a spectacular space should be accompanied by great food. Employees at Pixar eat things like smoked maple salmon, tofu ramen, hamburgers, toasted ravioli, and steak, and also have access to a burrito bar, a cereal bar, and pizza from a wood-fire pizza oven-any time they want. These delicious food are beautifully arranged in classy flatware, making you not want to eat and mess it up.
The traditional method Asian restaurants use to prepare and cook noodles is to store them in room temperature, but Washington state's Board of Health is looking to quash the practice.

This process, practiced in a number of local noodle houses like the Hue Ky Mi Gia in the Lincoln District in Tacoma, but the local health officials now require the fresh noodles to be refrigerated. This move has sparked some resistance from local noodle manufacturers and restaurant owners.

"The rice noodles, you can't really refrigerate those," said Huy Tat in an interview with The News Tribune."We don't store them in there, because they get really hard."

The recent development also disturbs Tim Louie, president of the Tsue Chong company based in Seattle's International District which is responsible for making over 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of fresh rice noodles. His concerns are in line with Tat, saying the noodles would be automatically ruined if it were placed straight at the fridge.

"Culturally, in Asia, we keep the stuff out," Louie said when reached for comment by The News Tribune. "We don't even refrigerate it - we keep it out until it's consumed. But of course, here in the U.S., the laws are different."

Fortunately for noodle makers and restaurant operators, the new food safety rules might be revised, thanks to the state Legislature. A bill sponsored by Rep. Tomiko Santos in the state House asks the local Board of Health to reconsider whether fresh noodles or rice cakes should go into the fridge or not. Without the said measure, the Board of Health would not issue new food safety recommendations until 2018.

Basically, the bill instructs the board to develop new requirements based on scientific research. A study by Asian scientific journals backs up noodle makers and restaurant owners. It states rice noodles remain fresh at room temperature at least for a day after they are produced.

Furthermore, Sen. Bob Hasegawa, who sponsors the bill in the Senate, said that state's food rules fail to take into account the noodles made from rice. Instead, it uses the food safety rules for noodles which contain wheat and animal products.

Legislators also cite cultural considerations, saying that the new board measure clashes with Asian culinary traditions.
Non-alcoholic sparkling beer is becoming increasingly popular in Germany, as more and more people are opting for healthier lifestyles. Though the beverage was introduced in the European nation way in the late 1980s, it took over three decades to draw the attention of the German consumers.

In fact, the popularity of non-alcoholic wines is emerging alongside the increasing demand for non-alcoholic drinks throughout Germany. Currently, Germans no longer consider alcohol-free drinks to be a substitute beverage only meant for drivers and pregnant women. Instead, they are being considered to be a positive option for people looking forward to healthier drinks. There are a number of reasons for this emerging trend, reports Mintel.

Obviously, concern about their health is the prime reason for so many Germans adopting alcohol-free beverages. As these beverages offer several health benefits, at least 20 percent Germans now say that they want to reduce their alcohol intake with a view to lose weight. Another reason for the growing popularity of non-alcoholic sparkling beer is the rise in the Muslim population in Germany. This section of the population is now seeking non-alcoholic alternatives.

The latest trend has prompted major German wine producers like Rotkappchen-Mumm Sektkellereien and Schloss Wachenheim AG to invest more in this section of the beverage market. In fact, Henkel, a leading wine and spirits producer in Germany, has now become the largest German sparkling wine brand after it launched alcohol-free versions of their beverages last year.

The flavor of almost all the latest varieties of non-alcoholic beverages launched in Germany is very similar to that of full alcohol sparkling wine, mainly because of the sophistication in the production process. Using vacuum distillation, winemakers are now able to distil off alcohol at a much lower temperature, and preserve wine flavors, thereby creating alcohol-free wine that tastes much better.

Meanwhile, non-alcoholic beverages are also becoming increasingly popular in Australia. While the continent nation is witnessing a surge in the demand for alcohol-free drinks, even brewers are working to improve their processes to create new non-alcoholic drinks. Of late, people in Australia are seeing quite a few non-alcoholic options in the market, The Huffington Post Australia quoted Peter Nixon, Business Manager at Dan Murphy's Australia.

According to Nixon, the increase in demand for non-alcoholic beverages can be largely attributed to the growing awareness among people about health and lifestyle changes. While people are seeking things with taste good, they want to continue drinking provided it is not an alcoholic beverage, especially when they are in a social situation.
In a significant development, Mars Inc. has recalled various chocolate bars from 55 countries following the discovery of plastic in one of the company's products. The move comes in the wake of a customer in Germany discovering plastic bits in a Snickers bar in January. During investigations, it was revealed that the bar containing plastic was produced at Mars factory in Veghel in the Netherlands.

The recall included Mars, Milky Way, Snickers and Miniatures products, in addition to particular types of Celebrations confectionery boxes, carrying best-before dates varying from June 19, 2016 to Jan. 8, 2017. However, a spokesperson for the company said that the dates are unlikely to be same in all countries, BBC reported. These products were marketed in a number of European countries including Britain, Germany and France as well as some Asian countries.

According to the spokesperson, all the products that have been recalled were made at the Mars factory in Veghel. The recall is in effect on Monday, Feb. 29. The spokesperson further stated that they were not sure that only the particular Snickers bar purchased by the German customer contained plastic and, hence, the company decided to recall all products made at the Veghel factory. However, the company did not specify the exact number of affected bars or what will the recall cost to it.

Nevertheless, the recall is certain to affect the company's factory in Veghel, which employs roughly 1,200 people. A statement issued by Mars Netherlands asserted that the company was closely working with the Dutch food safety authority on the issue, Food Processing reported.

Mars is among the largest food companies in the world and markets as many as 29 chocolate brands, which include Galaxy, M&M's, Maltesers, Twix, and Bounty. In addition to chocolate, Mars also makes Uncle Ben's Rice, Wrigley gum, Dolmio pasta sauce as well as Pedigree pet food. Last year, the company's global sales were worth $33bn.
Ovaltine is your malted milk powder with nutritious ingredients like milk, egg, and cocoa. The popularity of Ovaltine has reached the U.S. having Nestle as its manufacturer. Ovaltine may not have solved the planet's nutrition problems, but it has nutritional value since four teaspoons of Ovaltine mixed with 8 ounces of skim milk provides a solid helping of vitamins A, C, D, B1, B2, and B6, as well as niacin and phosphorous. Fat content is zero. Then comes the ban of Ovaltine.

Now, for the Lifetime Ban of Ovaltine:

1. Denmark Tragedy

In 2011, Ovaltine was banned in Denmark under legislation because food authorities claim that it is a rich source of Vitamin B and folate. Vegemite, along with Marmite were also banned. Denmark has strict food safety laws that restrict foods fortified with vitamins or minerals.

2. Canada Followed Denmark

In January 2014, Canada followed suit Canada has banned the sale of a string of iconic British foods such as Marmite, Ovaltine and Irn-Bru because they contain illegal additives, it was claimed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has launched a drive to crack down on the sale of unapproved goods and increasing its inspections of suppliers.

The other British products are banned like Ovaltine because they are "enriched with vitamins and mineral" where it contains illegal additives. Some Canadian businessmen who own food store are worried that their food products are not among Canadian "approved food list".

Ovaltine is highly promoted as more of a health drink or a breakfast shake, but it still fails to gain much brand recognition among anyone younger than 40. This was because of its previous ad campaign making it a sleep aid before bed. The problem is, consumers want a meal for a drink and Ovaltine did not evolve yet.

In Northern America, it's only Canada that has banned Ovaltine. It still has milk products in the U.S. and hopefully, it won't be banned like Denmark and Canada!
Photo: Shutterstock

Nine years after the California Department of Corrections lost control of their health care system to a federal oversight body due to inhumane conditions caused by overcrowding, moves to reduce the prison population and regain control of prison healthcare are not impacting womens prisons in the same way that they are mens prisons.The cruel and unusual punishment of the system that illegally sterilized people in womens prisons continues to cause significant pain and suffering for people behind these walls. Substandard living conditions are made worse by measures to address overcrowding that do not return people in womens prisons to their communities.Justice Now surveyed people at Central California Women's Facility and California Institution for Women, the two womens prisons in California, regarding the effects of the grotesque levels of overcrowding they were faced with. Surveys, with names removed, from both 2014 and 2015 indicate that overcrowding in California's women's prisons has exacerbated longstanding issues, making already inhumane living conditions even worse. More than half of those surveyed described experiencing some level of difficulty accessing healthcare.Additionally, in the surveys many people noted that stress levels had increased and tempers were shorter as a result of the substandard living conditions. Over 80 percent of people said that they have witnessed and/or experienced more violence within the prison, yet whats more alarming is that two thirds said that they have witnessed an increased number of deaths, suicides, or attempted suicides.Many people also report reduced access to things like educational classes and self-help groups. Hakim Anderson, serving a 15-life sentence at Central California Women's Facility noted, the waiting list [for educational and vocational programs] could be 2 to 3 years long, and these are things that we [lifers] are required to take. They added that the college waiting list is worse, saying, there's like 400 or 500 people on the list and that [wait] can be close to three years. Hakim said that the waiting list is so long that they might get a date for parole before getting into college classes again.Another issue people brought up in the surveys was the difficulty in accessing sanitary supplies such as toilet paper, pads, tampons, and hand soap, which increases health risks. In order to get pads and tampons in prison, people have to request them from the guards, and they are often asked to provide proof of their period to receive menstrual supplies (e.g. by showing the guard a used tampon or pad). Tracy Jones, a member of Justice Now who has been recently released from Central California Women's Facility explained, this is degrading, sexist, and downright disrespectful, because I shouldnt have to ask you to give me something that I need that the state is giving you money to buy for me that should just be given to me.Historically, this has not been a resource issue, but rather a way to continue to dehumanize people. Forcing people in prisons to justify their need for pads and tampons is indicative of the way our society perceives people in prisons. It is this devaluing of people in prison that allows the living conditions in womens prisons to continue to be so abysmal, which also has serious consequences on the wellbeing of those in womens prisons. Overcrowding at both womens prisons has impeded mental health care access to the point that in 2014, California Institution for Womens suicide rate was 7.6 times the suicide rate for all people in prison in California and 12.7 times the national suicide rate for women in prison . When people are treated as less than human, it inevitably impacts their mental health.Part of the problem is that we continue to shove people into womens prisons at an alarming rate. From 1932 till 2003 (approximately 71 years), there were approximately 99,999 admissions into womens prisons in California. From 2004 to 2012, a period of eight years, Californias womens prisons had approximately 65, 091 admissions. This drastic increase in the number of people entering Californias womens prisons highlights a crisis we have yet to address.In order to address these issues it is necessary to tackle them from multiple points. First, the state needs to invest more money and resources into addressing the entry points for incarceration. This includes examining arrest rates and understanding causes of arrest, thereby allowing us to find ways to reduce the number of people entering prisons. A major part of preventing incarceration is investing money into things that strengthen our communities, such as education and healthcare.One solution that could have reaching impacts for women and mothers is repealing the Maximum Family Grant to CalWORKS recipients. CalWORKS is a welfare program that gives monetary aid and other services to eligible families in the state. The grant was introduced in the 1990s as a way to punish and discourage poor women from having children by denying them additional aide and food stamps, often forcing parents into tough circumstances and criminalized choices simply to feed their families. Another solution is to examine and take action against the school to prison pipeline, which maintains the prison-industrial complex through the criminalization and punishment of Black children from young ages, as shown by multiple studies.Second, we need more sustainable sentence reforms and decarceration strategies in order to reduce the number of people in prisons and to bring people back home to their communities. One example is SB 219, a law Justice Now co-sponsored that would expand the existing alternative custody program, which allows people to go home from prison early. These policies should not only be for those with non-violent, non-serious, non-sexual offenses (also known as non/non/nons). Doing so results in a sense of hopelessness and worthlessness for those who are left out and not considered for release as a result of being continually ignored and excluded in policy changes, despite the fact that people with serious or violent offenses " return to prison at a lower rate than [people] with a non-serious/non-violent offense ."Finally, we need more programs like our fellowship program that support people coming home from prisons so that they have the resources and community support they need to stay home and out of prison. Justice Nows fellowship program breaks down employment barriers faced by people recently released from womens prisons by providing a paid position without paying attention to their conviction. By combining these tactics and by working directly with people in prison we can continue to work together towards sustainable strategies for decarceration and for preventing incarceration.
International Womens Day (IWD) 2016 kicked off on Tuesday with celebrations all over the world recognizing the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women.

The event was established back in the 1900s and later recognized by the United Nations (UN) in 1975. The goal is to achieve gender equality for women worldwide, a mission that is still ongoing. The UN initiative helps raise awareness with a new theme each year, this year being, Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality. The year 2030 is the target to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, as well as ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning, according to a UN statement.

Social media is a buzz with people sharing how they are celebrating the day by tweeting a #PledgeForParity selfie, participating in IWD events or making donations to female focused charities.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) joined the celebration this year with their signature Google Doodle video showcasing the next generation of Doodle-worthy womenthe engineers, educators, leaders, movers and shakers of tomorrow. Google traveled to 13 cities around the world and asked more than 300 women to share their dreams by filling in the blank of the following sentence: One day I will ______ The result? An inspiring video featuring a diverse group of women including cameos from Anthropologist Jane Goodall, who says she wants to discuss environmental issues with Pope Francis, Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and activist Muzoon Almellehan. Google is encouraging all woman inspired by the video to tweet their dreams with the hashtag #OneDayIWill.

To commemorate International Women's Day, Facebook partnered with Mihaela Noroc, a Romanian photographer and creator of the popular The Atlas of Beauty Facebook page, to highlight six women who are changing the world around them.

In Washington D.C., Together for Girls, a public private organization dedicated to ending violence against children with a focus on sexual violence against girls, partnered with New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen on Capitol Hill to recognize International Womens Day.

Last month, Senator Shaheen introduced the Sexual Assault Survivors Act, legislation to establish basic rights across the United States for sexual assault survivors and empower them to pursue justice. A new petition on Change.org is calling on Congress to enact the legislation; It gathered nearly 50,000 signatures in just 24 hours.

Together for Girls hopes IWD will shed a light on sexual violence as a human rights violation on a global scale. The goal of the Every Hour Matters campaign is to increase awareness about the need to rapidly access post-rape care and calls on national and community leaders to ensure services are available in all communities.

Most people are unaware of the many services that can help survivors heal from the trauma of rape. Survivors have 72 hours to receive post-exposure prophylaxis that can prevent HIV and 120 hours to receive emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy. Depending on the circumstances, rapid treatment for trauma may also prevent other short- and long-term health consequences, said Michele Moloney-Kitts, director of Together for Girls.

According to Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS) in the United States, an estimated 11% of high school girls report that they have been raped, and VACS notes the majority of those rapes go unreported. VACS is the first national survey of its kind on the prevalence of emotional, physical and sexual violence against children developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Division of Violence Prevention.
According to a survey from the National Federation of Independent Business, U.S. small business confidence fell in February. Suzy Welch, author of The Real Life MBA suggests there are multiple reasons for the decrease.

What small business people are expressing with this lack of confidence is that theyre uncertain, Welch told FOX Business Networks Neil Cavuto. Theyre uncertain about the election, theyre uncertain about regulation, theyre uncertain about the minimum wage going up and theyre uncertain about whats happening in China so theyre in this environment where it feels again suddenly like theres zero visibility.

Welch shared her thoughts on how some small businesses feel about GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.

I have a theory that nobody is paying attention to Donald Trumps actual policies, such as they were, Welch said. So when he says Im going to slap tariffs here they say yeah, yeah, the details will get worked out when he gets there. What I like is his strengths. I like his toughness. I like his loving of America. He feels more like me than any of the other candidates.

Some voters have complained that Donald Trump hasnt defined his policies and plans. Welch explained why she believes it isnt necessarily worrying small businesses.

Americans know from experience that you can sit there and talk about all your policies and all your positions, Welch said. Then they get to Washington and it all sort of falls to pieces or it gets negotiated and moved around. People are tired of that. Theyre actually looking for somebody who sort of shares their general feelings about America and their toughness.

Welch also commented on Wall Streets reaction to the presidential election.

Theres an element on the Street that says we know Hillary, and Hillary will come around. But, I think right now everybodys scratching their heads.
Image source: Apple.

According to a pre-publication note in DIGITIMES, which cites "Taiwan-based Apple supply chain makers," the iDevice maker is rumored to "have plans to launch a 5.8-inch iPhone featuring rigid AMOLED display panels in 2018 or even earlier in 2017."

Samsung Display is said to be the "first candidate" to supply these panels, with LG Display and Japan Display joining in later. It's worth noting that although LG Display should be in a position to supply AMOLED displays in high volumes in the 2017, Japan Display has said that it is targeting 2018 for the mass-production start of OLED displays.

Per the note, DIGITIMES' supply chain sources believe that 50 million of these AMOLED-equipped iPhones will make it out to customers in the first year of availability.

This sounds like a second-generation iPhone ProAccording to reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is planning to release two variants of its large-screen iPhone 7 Plus this year: one with a single-lens camera and one with a dual-lens camera. The dual-lens variant has been rumored elsewhere to be marketed as the iPhone Pro.

Although it doesn't appear that the initial iPhone Pro will come equipped with an AMOLED display, particularly if it launches alongside the iPhone 7/7 Plus this fall, it could make a lot of sense for a second-generation iPhone Pro -- which could launch in the fall of 2017 -- to come equipped with such a display.

Such a product would surely be priced higher than the already pricey Plus model, meaning that even if the AMOLED displays on the device cost more, the device's higher price should more than offset the component cost increase.

Whatever it takes, Apple -- get OLED into the iPhoneApple is widely believed to be falling behind its competition in display technology, so a transition to more advanced OLED displays -- even if it is limited to a high-end halo iPhone model -- is something that Apple needs to pursue sooner rather than later.

We will see later this year whether Apple and its iPhone LCD suppliers (generally known to be mainly Japan Display and LG Display ) are able to make sufficient advancements in technology to allow the iPhone 7/7 Plus/Pro to be competitive in terms of display quality and performance.

Nevertheless, the benefits from OLED displays are quite clear. Indeed, after seeing the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge in person, the displays on the iPhone 6s/6s Plus look pale, washed out, and just frankly bad. Apple needs to get high-quality OLED displays integrated into next-generation iPhones as soon as possible.

Not only will moving to such technology help Apple's competitive positioning vis-a-vis Samsung and all of the smartphone vendors that will source OLED panels from Samsung, but the improvement in image quality is so dramatic that it may actually serve as a real catalyst for current iPhone owners to upgrade.

I know that the day Apple includes an OLED display on an iPhone, I will be the first in line to get my hands on such a device. I'm sure I'm not alone in this sentiment.

The article Apple Inc. Reportedly Planning Huge 5.8-inch iPhone With AMOLED Display originally appeared on Fool.com.

Ashraf Eassa has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Author.

Tesla Motors just launched its 90 kWh battery pack last year, but it looks like the company is preparing to move on up again.

The 90 kWh option was added as a $3,000 option last summer, offering an additional 5 kWh that would increase range by approximately 6% compared to the 85 kWh battery. That's enough to get the Model S to nearly 300 miles of EPA-rated range. Earlier this year, Tesla removed the 85 kWh option on new orders and streamlined its Model S options to 70 kWh and 90 kWh, similar to what is available on the new Model X. Although the pricing didn't change, and the upgrade costs a cool $13,000.

But Tesla may already have a 100 kWh battery on the horizon.

Message in a Model SA technically inclined member of the Tesla community, Jason Hughes, recently hacked into a Model S and uncovered some mysterious code that references a "P100D." A couple days later, Hughes said that his car had received a remote firmware downgrade request, and suspected that Tesla wasn't all too happy with him spilling the beans. Hughes asked Musk directly about it, to which Musk responded:

Note that Musk didn't deny any of Hughes' findings. Assuming that Tesla does have a 100 kWh in the wings -- which isn't an unreasonable assumption at all -- what does that mean for investors?

Cost is the top priorityFor starters, a 100 kWh battery would be an impressive technical achievement in itself. Tesla has said before that it expects to make performance improvements of 5% to 7% per year, but a 100 kWh battery pack would represent an 11% improvement in capacity from the 90 kWh pack.

This could show that Tesla is continuing to expand its battery performance strategy. Right now, the absolute top priority on the battery front is reducing costs in order to make the $35,000 Model 3 viable. Just last month at an energy industry conference, CTO JB Straubel said, "We don't really need more performance, we don't really need much more range; we need to focus on cost."

But even as Tesla is hard at work ramping up the Gigafactory to realize the necessary economies of scale, boosting capacity and performance is still important for other reasons -- even if it's a secondary goal right now.

The more the merrierOn numerous occasions, Musk has referenced a possible electric truck in Tesla's future -- first in 2013 but then again in January of this month. "I think it is quite likely we will do a truck in the future," Musk said at a start-up conference earlier this year in Hong Kong, "I think it's sort of a logical thing for us to do in the future."

Considering the weight and towing expectations for light-duty trucks, an electric truck would need a pretty large battery to accommodate the market's demands. Gas-powered trucks and SUVs are some of the biggest cash cows for traditional automakers right now, particularly right now with low gas prices.

It's far too early to really speculate about a Tesla truck in detail, but knowing that it's on Elon Musk's radar already does suggest that eventually a much larger battery would be needed to launch such a product. In fact, reducing battery costs is doubly important in this regard, since I imagine the market for $100,000 trucks is quite small.

Even longer term, Musk says he already has an idea on how to possibly make a supersonic electric airplane. I can't even fathom what type of battery capacity that would take, but that's probably a decade away at a minimum (if at all).

The article Does Tesla Motors Already Have a 100 kWh Battery in the Pipeline? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
It's time for bank regulators to get off their high horse and start working with the bank industry. Image credit: iStock/Thinkstock.

Americans are right to blame the nation's biggest banks for causing the financial crisis, but overregulating the entire industry is doing more harm than good. That's the theme of M&T Bank CEO Robert Wilmers' 2015 shareholder letter, a must-read for bankers and bank investors.

To understand where Wilmers is coming from, it's critical to appreciate the central role that banks play in economic growth. They provide capital, which is one of three variables that dictate the size and direction of an economy -- the other two being labor and productivity. Banks do this by aggregating the savings of people like you and me and then lending that money out to individuals and businesses that want to invest.

There's no question that this activity is fraught with hazard. By necessity, banks must be highly leveraged in order to play their role in economic growth. The typical bank borrows $10 for every $1 that it holds in capital. Thus, a mere 10% decline in the value of an ordinary bank's assets will render it insolvent -- which, in the absence of deposit insurance, would rob its depositors of their savings.

This is why the bank industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States. This is particularly true in the wake of the financial crisis, which was fueled in no small part by a handful of the nation's biggest financial institutions who conveniently forgot that their principal job is to allocate other peoples' capital as opposed to lining their own pockets.

M&T Bank's Robert Wilmers. Image credit: M&T Bank.

But there's a point at which regulations, and public policy more generally, become counterproductive. This is where we're at today, argues Wilmers -- who, it's worth pointing out, has served as a gleaming beacon of prudent and profitable banking for the 33 years that he's led Buffalo, New York-based M&T Bank.

"Despite a shared objective of maintaining the safety and soundness of the financial system, today's banking environment is typified by a relationship between institutions and governing agencies that is less than collaborative -- a product, it seems, of a political atmosphere where pressure remains upon banks to prove themselves reformed," writes Wilmers.

The impasse between regulators and bankers has had two unintended consequences. The first is that it's fueled the growth of shadow banks -- nonregulated financial entities such as hedge funds and private equity firms.

Nonbanks have grown their loan portfolios by 13.2% since the crisis, compared with only 0.5% at commercially chartered banks. And the migration toward nonregulated entities has been especially acute among mortgage servicers. "In 2010, none of the top five and only one of the top 10 mortgage servicers were non-banks," explains Wilmers. "By 2015, five of the top 10 servicers were non-banks, with servicing balances amounting to $1.3 trillion, or about a 13.6% market share."

Lest anyone need a reminder, shadow banks such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were at the epicenter of the 2008 crisis. It's this paradoxical consequence of the post-crisis regulatory environment, in turn, that concerns the 82-year-old chairman and CEO of M&T Bank: "As nonbanks make new forays into the lending space, one wonders if the proper mechanisms are in place to balance their desire to increase the size of their portfolios with the level of institutional restraint required to pull back from the extension of credit to businesses whenever conditions, terms and risk reach the inevitable peak of the cycle."

A second consequence has been to clamp down on banks' ability to further their core mission of providing capital to people and businesses. The rapid increase in compliance costs, for instance, diverts capital that could otherwise be used to lend. Wilmers cites a 2015 Federal Reserve study showing that 22% of the typical community bank's bottom line is consumed by compliance costs. For M&T Bank, a large but not enormous regional lender, such costs equated to $432 million last year.

Wilmers cites an array of statistics to show that small businesses have been hardest hit by this trend:

Sales at small firms are still 10% below pre-crisis levels.

Roughly half of small businesses that apply for credit are denied.

New business formation is at the lowest level in more than two decades.

And the companies that do form are employing fewer workers than similar start-ups a decade ago.

To top things off, unnecessarily high compliance costs will only serve to further fuel industry concentration. This follows from the arithmetic fact that the nation's biggest banks, which also happen to be the least interested in financing small businesses, are the only ones with the scale and sophistication to absorb the added costs of a higher, and oftentimes duplicative, regulatory regime. Thus, far from helping to alleviate the too big to fail problem, overregulation may be aggravating it.

In sum, Wilmers makes a strong case in his latest letter that it's time for a dtente between regulators and bank industry participants. "It is past time for government and the banking industry to turn the page and begin to work together -- not to serve the narrow interests of lenders or investors but to advance the broader goal of reinvigorating the American economy." Suffice it to say that it's hard to argue with that.

The article The Collateral Damage of Overregulation originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Maxfield has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Cadillac's first-ever XT5 crossover. Image source: General Motors.

Investors who are savvy about the automotive industry understand the growing importance of having not just a successful luxury lineup, but a globally successful luxury marque. The key statistic is worth repeating: Luxury vehicles generate 10% of global industry sales, yet produce roughly one-third of industry profits.

General Motors' Cadillac lineup hasn't quite lived up to expectations yet in its attempt to compete with leading European luxury brands, but it remains a potential catalyst if GM can improve the brand's image and sales figures. However, when you look at the current situation, it might be easier said than done.

Competitive advantage Compared to crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. , with its struggling Lincoln brand, Cadillac offers GM investors a small competitive advantage. Lincoln has thus far only taken baby steps in its turnaround story after sales declined to a 32-year low in 2013. Last year marked the first since 2008 that Lincoln's sales topped 100,000, and it was the first time since 1998 that the brand logged two consecutive years of sales gains.

If all goes well -- and that's far from guaranteed -- Lincoln hopes to sell 300,000 units across the globe annually by the end of 2020. That's years behind Cadillac, which sold nearly 278,000 units globally last year.

Furthermore, just last month J.D. Power announced that the average transaction price for a new Cadillac topped $55,000 in the U.S. -- the highest among full-line luxury brands. However, Cadillac is in a less-than-enviable position compared to its European counterparts.

Part of the problem facing Cadillac is that GM's umbrella of brands makes its retail footprint far different than those of European automakers. Looking at the U.S. market, Cadillac has more than 920 stores, which is roughly triple the size of Mercedes' or BMW's network -- and Cadillac sells about half the volume of those two brands. Cadillac's sprawling footprint is partly due to dual Chevrolet-Cadillac or Buick-GMC dealerships that also sell a small number of Cadillac vehicles annually.

Even worse, at a time when GM is trying to elevate its Cadillac brand image, dealerships making the vast majority of their profits from Chevrolet trucks and SUVs are less willing to invest the time, effort, or resources to promote the Cadillac brand.

One way GM is trying to change its retail strategy is through virtual showrooms. Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen believes they're a critical step in the overall turnaround plan for the marque. Cadillac is hoping that roughly 400 of its lowest-volume-selling dealerships in the U.S. market will voluntarily remove the luxury vehicles from their lots, and instead order from regional inventory centers when a sale is completed. Those same stores would complete the sales using a "concierge-style" approach, where salespeople would visit prospective buyers at their homes or workplaces with a tablet or touchscreen tool to show off the vehicles.

Will virtual showrooms work? Raise your hand if you're skeptical. Yeah, me too. And so was Byron Hansen, a dealership owner in Utah, when speaking with Automotive News.

"How does having fewer Cadillacs on display at dealerships in all of these communities help sales?" asked Hansen, whose dealership sold about 30 Cadillacs last year. "It makes you wonder what they're trying to accomplish."

To me, it doesn't appear that virtual showrooms are likely to be the solution to Cadillac's retail presence issue in the U.S. market. And while Cadillac is already a competitive advantage for Detroit's largest automaker versus rival Ford, it remains an underrated catalyst among investors. The brand could certainly move the needle on margins and bottom-line profits if it can eventually achieve the presence of European luxury brands.

With Cadillac looking for ways to narrow the gap with those European brands, GM shareholders should keep an eye on its upcoming vehicle launches and hope for critical acclaim and sales success. Cadillac is launching the CT6 sedan this quarter, followed by the first-ever XT5 luxury crossover, which is aimed at a very fast-selling segment.

The article General Motors Faces Tough Situation With 1 Critical Catalyst originally appeared on Fool.com.

Daniel Miller owns shares of Ford and General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Over the past year ConocoPhillips' stock has nearly been cut in half, which is exactly what's happened to the price of oil:

COP data by YCharts

That's gut-wrenching volatility for most investors, especially the company's primary investor group, which are income seekers. In fact, that investor group has been burned twice by the company, not only being hurt by the significant slide in the stock price, but more recently by the company's decision to slash its dividend by two-thirds. As such, the company's risks have become very real to investors. However, when compared to many other oil stocks, the company actually is at the lower end of the risk spectrum. Here's why.

Its risk is correlatedConocoPhillips' primary risk is its direct exposure to oil and gas prices. That's because when oil prices head south, it takes ConocoPhillips' cash flow with it:

COP Cash from Operations (Quarterly) data by YCharts

This leaves the company with less cash to invest in oil and gas projects and to pay out in dividends. Further, weaker cash flow has forced the company to borrow money to bridge the gap between cash flow and spending, impacting its debt metrics, which has the potential to limit the company's financial flexibility.

In other words, if oil continues to go lower, and stays there for a lot longer, it increases the company's financial risks. For example, it might need to borrow more money in order to maintain the status quo, or the company could be forced to make further cuts including eliminating its dividend.

Risk is really relativeHaving said that, on a relative basis ConocoPhillips isn't as risky as some of its peers. For example, at the moment ConocoPhillips has a strong investment grade credit rating. That's a big competitive advantage when a growing number of peers are seeing their credit rating cut below investment grade. Anadarko Petroleum , for example, had its credit rating recently cut to below investment grade due to its "high debt levels relative to cash flow" and the "expectation of some production declines caused by reduced capital investment." That downgrade is a big blow to Anadarko Petroleum, because its credit is now seen as junk, suggesting that it faces major uncertainties due to its exposure to very weak industry conditions. ConocoPhillips' credit rating, on the other hand, implies that it has a solid ability to meet its financial commitments despite current conditions, which suggests it has minimal bankruptcy risk.

Having said that, ConocoPhillips doesn't have the cash war chest of rival Occidental Petroleum , which currently has more than $3 billion in cash on its balance sheet:

COP Cash and Equivalents (Quarterly) data by YCharts

For perspective, that's enough cash to fully fund Occidental's 2016 capex budget, which will actually grow its production 2% to 4% over last year's rate. In addition, Occidental Petroleum has another $1.2 billion in cash coming in the door from a lawsuit settlement and a non-core asset sale, which will further bolster its cash position making it a lower-risk oil stock. Now, compare this to ConocoPhillips, which needs to spend $6.4 billion in 2016 just to keep its production flat and yet only has $2.4 billion in cash on its balance sheet. So, if commodity pricesdropped significantly, taking ConocoPhillips' cash flow with it, its cash position wouldn't be able to carry the company as far as Occidental Petroleum's war chest would.

Investor takeawayConocoPhillips' inherent riskiness is really relative. Because of its exposure to oil and gas prices, it's riskier than a company that has no exposure. That said, compared to its peers it's less risky than a company like Anadarko Petroleum, but in some ways a bit riskier than Occidental Petroleum. Because of this, I'd probably characterize it as a medium risk stock. It's not the crme of the crop in the oil patch, but it's nowhere near the bottom either.

The article How Risky Is ConocoPhillips' Stock? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt DiLallo owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
IMAGE SOURCE: STARBUCKS.

Starbucks has been one of the most extraordinary success stories in the consumer sector over the last several years. Shares of the coffee emporium are up by an impressive 285% over the last five years on the back of highly caffeinated global expansion and smoking-hot financial performance.

On the other hand, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, growth tends to slow as a company gains size, and Starbucks stock is priced at a premium versus the broad market. Besides, Starbucks operates in a remarkably competitive industry, and McDonald's has recently introduced its all-day breakfast menu in the U.S with remarkable success.

Is now the right time to buy Starbucks, or are the best days already in the past for investors in the company?

Some important risks to watchStarbucks stock trades at a price to earnings ratio of 36. That's twice the S&P 500, which is currently trading at a P/E ratio of 18. And companies in the restaurant space trade at an average P/E ratio of 29, according to data from Morningstar.

Starbucks is a high-quality business and thereby earns its premium valuation. But at its current price, the stock is vulnerable to investor disappointment -- for example, if the company's growth were to decelerate. Starbucks already has 23,571 stores around the world, and it's not easy to continue finding promising new locations when you've reached such a massive scale.

Success also attracts competition. McDonald's launched its all-day breakfast menu across the U.S. in October 2015, and it has been a major success for the fast-food giant. After several quarters of stagnant or even declining sales at home, McDonald's announced a 5.7% increase in comparable store sales in the U.S. for the quarter that ended in December.

Can Starbucks keep delivering?No company is immune to competition, but Starbucks has nevertheless delivered impressive returns over the years for investors, and there is no reason to believe that even McDonald's can derail Starbucks from its long-term trajectory.

Starbucks benefits from enviable competitive advantages. Brand differentiation, a reputation for quality, and a unique customer experience make it one of a kind. The company gets to sell its products for premium prices because customers appreciate these characteristics. Starbucks is also well ahead of the competition when it comes to technological innovation. Nearly 21% of all its transactions in the U.S. were paid via mobile applications last quarter, which means both a better experience for customers and more efficient operations for the company.

Starbucks is the market leader in specialized coffee, particularly at the high end of the price spectrum. While McDonald's can gain ground with competitively priced products, chances are that it will steal market share away from lower-priced competitors as opposed to Starbucks.

Judging by the latest financial report from the company, Starbucks has been firing on all cylinders, and there is no sign of a slowdown in growth. Total revenue increased by a healthy 12% last quarter, reaching a record $5.4 billion. Global comparable sales grew 8% on the back of a 4% increase in traffic versus the same quarter in the prior year.

Even in the U.S., the company's most mature and highly penetrated market, comparable store sales jumped by 9% last quarter. This shows that demand remains remarkably strong, and that new store openings are not cannibalizing sales from existing locations. Product innovation is a major growth driver for Starbucks, and the company is expanding not only in coffee, but also in areas such as tea, juice, and food.

On a global scale, Starbucks still has a lot of room to expand its geographic presence. The company opened 150 new stores in China last quarter, and is planning to open 500 new stores annually in the country over the coming five years. While product innovation will be the main growth driver in the U.S., Starbucks should profit from both new products and a wider geographic footprint internationally over the long term.

Everything indicates that Starbucks will continue delivering above-average growth rates in the future, so its premium valuation is no reason to stay away from the company's stock. While it is always important to watch out for changes in the competitive landscape, Starbucks is second to none in terms of brand power and competitive differentiation in its industry. All things considered, Starbucks stock looks well positioned to continue delivering rock-solid returns for investors in the years ahead.

The article Is Now the Right Time to Buy Starbucks Stock? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Andrs Cardenal has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Source: Taiwan Semiconductor.

Consumers aren't the only ones anticipating the next iPhone (which I'll just call the iPhone 7 for simplicity's sake). The next iteration of Apple's flagship device is also reportedly spurring an increase in 16-nanometer chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

According to reports from Economic Daily News (later republished on DIGITIMES), Taiwan Semiconductor is increasing production from 40,000 12-inch chip wafers last month to 80,000 this month.

Taiwan Semiconductor isn't an Apple-only supplier of course, so part of the increase in production could be for one of the company's other clients. But the timing makes sense, as Apple usually releases new versions of its iPhone in September. The current ramp up would give Taiwan Semiconductor ample time to produce processors in time for the iPhone 7 release date.

Such a huge increase in production also matches up with rumors that Taiwan Semiconductor might be the only supplier of iPhone's A10 processor.

For now, the news of Taiwan Semiconductor's production ramp-up and position as the exclusive supplier of the iPhone's next processor have yet to be confirmed. But if they prove true, it could be great news for the semiconductor maker.

Splitting chip production Apple typically splits up its iPhone processor production between different companies. Most recently, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sport processors that were made by both Taiwan Semiconductor andSamsung.

Apple likes to balance out its suppliers so that it doesn't lean too heavily on one company, and so it can keep the upper hand in negotiating for supply costs.

But China Times noted recently that Apple liked the cost-effective processes Taiwan Semiconductor uses, and is interested in working exclusively with the company. That would match up with longtime rumors that Apple is looking to part ways with Samsung's chips production.

We won't find out for sure whether or not Taiwan Semiconductor earned the only spot in the iPhone 7 until the eventual teardown shows exactly what's inside, so investors will have to wait until at least mid-September to know for sure.

Apple needs a major win, too While Taiwan Semiconductor is looking to the iPhone 7 to boost its business, Apple is aiming for the same thing as well.

Apple forecast its first revenue drop in about decade for the first three months of the year, in part because of weakening iPhone sales growth. That's sparked a lot of worry among Apple investors because the company earns about 68% of its total revenue from the device, so any sales slowdown weighs heavily on the company.

The next iPhone is expected to have a faster processor, a possible sapphire display, a dual-lens camera, wireless headphones (with no physical headphone jack), dual speakers, and could be waterproof.

And while consumers will look for upgrades like this in the next iPhone, Apple will be crossing its fingers for improved sales, and Taiwan Semiconductor will be looking for the same. Let's hope all of them won't be disappointed this coming fall.

The article Taiwan Semiconductor May Be Doubling Chip Production for the iPhone 7 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Fiat.

The automotive industry has been less than receptive to rumors that Apple is building its own electric car.

Last year, General Motors icon Bob Lutz said, "Apple has no experience. There's no reason to assume Apple will do a better job than General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, or Hyundai. I think this is going to be a gigantic money pit."

Tesla Motors'outspoken CEO Elon Musk has offered both positive and negative feelings about Apple's foray into autos, saying that Apple's entry will "expand the industry" but also noting that when Tesla fires an engineer they go to Apple. "If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I'm not kidding," he said in the past.

The disdain some automakers have for Apple became more apparent recently with comments fromFiat ChryslerCEO Sergio Marchionne. At the recent Geneva auto show, Marchionne said this about Apple's car plans:

I highly doubtMarchionne is just looking out for Apple's best interests. It's more likely thatFiat Chrysler simply isn't too keen on the idea of more competition in the already-competitive automotive space.

Sticks and stonesThis, of course, will do little to dissuade Apple. It's likely the automakers are just a bit paranoid of what a full-fledged Apple Car might look like (though I doubt Tesla is very worried considering its lead in the electric vehicle space).

I'll admit I've had my doubts about Apple being able to pull off its so-called Project Titan car. I wrote about my skepticismlast year, but even I'm starting to come around.

Despite some news over the past few months that Apple lost some Project Titan executives to other companies, Apple appears to be on course for its 2019 or 2020 car release date.

The latest Apple car news is that the company is leasing a former Pepsi factory that Silicon Valley Business Journal says could be used for electric vehicle research.That factory adds to about three or four other locations that are speculated to be research and development sites for Apple's car.

Of course, Apple's been quiet about its possible car plans, but even its CEO Tim Cook is commenting a bit more about it these days. At its annual shareholder meeting last month, an investor asked Cook about an Apple Car. Cook responded by saying, "Do you remember when you were a kid and Christmas Eve was so exciting? You weren't sure what was going on downstairs? Well, it's going to be Christmas Eve for a while."

That's probably not the answer the investor, or any of us, wanted, but it's still a much more positive picture than the automakers are painting about Apple's plans -- and it's probably much more accurate, too.

The article This Automaker Thinks Apple's Car Project Is an Illness originally appeared on Fool.com.

Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple, Ford, and Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
U.S. equity markets pared steep losses Tuesday as traders digested weak data from China, and watched oil prices reverse early gains.

China Trade Data Disappoints

Data from the worlds second-biggest economy overnight renewed investor concerns about an economic slowdown in the economy. Trade data showed exports plunged 25.4% in February, far worse than the 14.5% drop Wall Street expected. Imports, meanwhile, slumped 13.8%, compared to a forecast for a 12% decline.

Commodity imports, however, showed modest gains for the month. Iron ore imports rose 4.5%, copper rose 10.5%, and steel products remained flat in February from the month prior.

Larry Shover, chief investment strategist at Solutions Fund Group, said there is likely to be much doubt about the ability of Chinas central authorities to revive the nations growth with easier credit and more fiscal policy.

Maybe that will temper the rally in non-oil commodities and show up the different dynamics faced by oil and other commodities, or maybe the market will shrug the data off, he said.

Chinas Shanghai Composite index closed the session up 0.14% after losing as much as 2%.

Oil Prices Waver

Global oil prices reversed earlier gains on Tuesday after closing out a blockbuster rally of more than 5.5% in the prior session, settling at the highest level since December.

In recent action, West Texas Intermediate crude prices declined 3.40% to $36.62 a barrel, while Brent, the international benchmark, shed 2.69% to $39.7 a barrel.

The commodity is on the hunt for price support in the absence of any news from the worlds global producers. A few nations, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, and Venezuela have floated the idea of capping future production at January levels  but on the contingency that other nations follow suit. So far, no action has been taken, and markets have traded higher on hopes of a cap on the horizon.

Shake Shack Plunges

The New York-based burger chain on Monday revealed a jump in quarterly revenue, but guided investors lower on its annual same-store sales outlook.

For the quarter, Shake Shack (NYSE:SHAK) said it earned a profit of 7 cents a share, up from 5 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue, meanwhile, saw a 47% jump.

The company said it sees comparable-store sales, or those open 12 months or longer, rising between 2.5% and 3% in 2016. That was below FactSets consensus expectations for a 3.1% gain. Shake Shack has also said it plans to expand to 450 locations by the end of September from just 75.

The news sent Shake Shack shares plunging more than 10%.

United Shareholders to Launch Fight for Board Seats

Following months of talks with United Continental Holdings, the parent company of United Airlines (NYSE:UAL), two shareholders are set to launch a public fight for board seats.

Longtime airline industry investors PAR Capital Management and Altimeter Capital Management, nominated six directors, including Gordon Bethune, former CEO of Continental Airlines, to the companys board.

In a letter, the shareholders, who own just more than 7% of United, called the companys appointment of three new people to its 15-person board cynical and an attempt to preserve power.

Shares of United Continental Holdings were down more than 2% in pre-market action.
What:Shares of Boston Beer fell 13% Tuesday after analysts at two firms issued negative notes regarding the craft brewing specialist.

So what:Keep in mind Boston Beer most recently disappointed investors by turning in mixed fourth-quarter 2015 resultsand light guidancethree weeks ago. Most notably, its founding chairman, Jim Koch, voiced his belief that Boston Beer has lost market share as new craft brewers enter the market and existing brewers expand their regional distribution. Meanwhile, CEO Martin Roper outlined plans to continue investing in the company's brand to sustain market share, while at the same time evaluating spending to ensure investments are carefully allocated to support growth.

Nonetheless, Citi's Wendy Nicholson initiated coverage on Boston Beer today with a "sell" rating and price target of $186, saying, "While craft beer continues to outpace the overall U.S. beer category, the increasing fragmentation of the category has led to slower growth for the more well-entrenched players like [Boston Beer]."

In addition, Boston Beer received a downgrade to "underperform" from "outperform," and a $200 price target from CSLA's Caroline Levy, who noted "ongoing weakness in its flagship brews" and recent discussions with distributors have caused her to reduce her outlook for depletions -- a key measure for how quickly Boston Beer's products travel from warehouses to consumer outlets -- to be flat in 2016, compared to Boston Beer's guidance for depletions growth in the mid-single-digit range.

Now what: Apart from the flat depletions growth expected by CSLA, these analyst notes don't offer any groundbreaking news or change what we already knew from Boston Beer's quarterly report last month. And to be fair, today's drop effectively brought Boston Beer stock back to where it stood immediately following that report, and shares now trade below each of the respective price targets set by the analysts in their respective notes. As a result, for long-term investors willing to watch Boston Beer's growth story continue to play out, I don't think today's plunge should be of great concern.

The article Why Boston Beer Co, Inc. Stock Fell Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Boston Beer. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Mattel stock soared in February and you can thank Barbie and Hot Wheels for starting the rally and rumors about a merger with chief-rival Hasbro for keeping it going.

Source: YCharts.com

What: The toy company saw its stock close at $27.59 on Jan. 29 then run all the way to $32.53 when the month closed on Feb. 29, a 17.9% gain, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The run-up began after the company reported better-than-expect Q4 results, which showed renewed strength in its crucial Barbie and Hot Wheels brands.

Those two product lines are housed in Mattel's Girls & Boys Brands division, which was up 1% in constant currency versus the prior year, according to the earnings release. More importantly, worldwide gross sales for the Barbiebrand were up 8% while global gross sales for the Wheels category, which includes the Hot Wheels and Matchbox brands, were up 26%.

So what: Given the intense competition in the toy industry Mattel had to fight off concerns that children had moved on from its core brands. Barbie has faced these questions before as tastes turned, at least for a while, to more realistic dolls, or other toys altogether. Hot Wheels don't generate the same press speculation about whether their enduring popularity will wane, but the classic line does have to battle higher-tech competition.

These Q4 numbers show that both lines did well in the holiday season and that efforts to tweak the toys to keep them relevant to today's kids have worked.

Now what: The sales numbers may have sent Mattel stock moving in the right direction, but it's fate in 2016 may well be dictated by whether its possible merger with Hasbro actually occurs. If such a deal were to happen it would face regulatory concerns and there are questions as to whether joining the two companies is even a good idea.

"I don't know if there would be a benefit, and I think that's why it hasn't happened yet," said Jim Silver, editor in chief of TTPM, a toy review and research firm, told The Los Angeles Times.

That might explain why the early month Mattel rally mostly stayed even as the month wore on. The company has righted its own ship, but it's future has become as uncertain as Barbie's devotion to any one particular career. But, whether the two companies merge or not, Mattel shareholders can take solace in the fact that two of its biggest cash cows look well setup for the future.

The article Why Did Mattel, Inc. Stock Gain Nearly 18% in February? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Daniel Kline has no position in any stocks mentioned. He never had a Barbie, but has often stepped on a Hot Wheels before going to bed. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Hasbro. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source:TBIT via Pixabay.

What: Shares ofOmeros Corporation , a biotechnology company developing products aimed at treating a variety of diseases, lost more than 12% of their value during the month of February, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

So what:Despite the stock's drubbing, the company did have some good news to report: It is seeing an uptick in demand for its compassionate-use program.

A Finnish physician requested special access to use OMS721 -- an experimental compound being researched as a treatment for thrombotic microangiopathies such as atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome -- in a patient who was previously being treated by Alexion Pharmaceutical's Soliris, but was not adequately responding to the therapy. Omeros agreed to provide the patient with OMS721, and the treatment is expected to start this month.

In a separate case, the company received a request to provide OMS721 compassionately to a young patient with aHUS who was on long-term dialysis. The patient was in need of a kidney transplant but her aHUS prohibited her from being able to undergo the surgery. However, after the patients used OMS721, she became healthy enough to receive a kidney transplant.

Now what: Seeing an increase in demand for the company's compassionate-use program should be encouraging for Omeros' investors as it likely increases the odds that the OMS721 will eventually find its way through the regulatory approval process. If that were to happen then it might hold the potential to eventually wrestle some market share away from Alexion Pharmaceutical's Soliris. That's a huge market opportunity for the company -- Alexion sold more than $2.5 billion worth of Soliris in 2015 and expects that number to surpass $3 billion in 2016.

However, since OMS721 is only in phase 2 study, it will be some time before that could happen and, until then, investors' eyes will remain glued to how sales of Omidria -- a drug used during cataract surgery -- are going. So far, sales growth of Omidria has been a bit disappointing -- last quarter, sales of the drug were just $3.2 million, but management said that logistical and accounting issues masked the drug's much faster actual growth rate.

For 2016, Wall Street expects Omeros' revenue to jump more then 385% on the back of a huge increase in Omidria sales and believes that the company will cut its net loss in half. If Omeros can live up to those lofty expectations, it wouldn't surprise me to see the stock get its mojo back.

The article Why Omeros Corporation Dropped 12% in February originally appeared on Fool.com.

Brian Feroldi has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Source: yelp.com

Not everyYelp employee is happy.

The company, whose shares have dramaticallyunder-performedthe broader S&P 500 over the past 12 months, has come under fire from two former employees. Writing on Medium, Talia Jane and Jaymee Senigaglia faulted the local reviews giant for poor working conditions.

It's not clear that Yelp has done anything improper. "[There are] two HR sides to every story," wrote CEO Jeremy Stoppleman in response, but the issue raises important questions for investors. Yelp's struggle to grow its workforce has played a key role in its recent underperformance.

Low pay and a hostile environmentIn February, Jane penned an open letter to Stoppleman, in which she criticized the company's compensation structure. "Every single one of my coworkers is struggling," she wrote. "I haven't bought groceries since I started this job. Not because I'm lazy...[but] because I can't afford [them]. Bread is a luxury to me."

It may have been possible to write off Jane's criticism as the ramblings of a lone disgruntled worker, but just days later, a second employee came forward. Senigaglia, a single mother, alleged that she was let go in the midst of serious personal trauma. Her boyfriend was involved in a mountain biking accident and suffered a brain bleed. She chose to go to the hospital rather than come into work, and suffered the consequences. "While in the ICU today [I] got a phone call from my manager, director, and HR who said I could either come in now or resign."

"Yelp employs thousands of people and provides new job opportunities to hundreds each year," Yelp said in response. "Unfortunately, we had to part ways with Ms. Senigaglia due to repeated absences (10 of her 59 workdays with Yelp) despite many exceptions to accommodate her needs."

The company garners a 3.5 out of 5 stars on workplace review site Glassdoor, which isn't particularly impressive, but is far from horrific. For comparison, GrubHub and Groupon (two similar firms of near equivalent size) hold a 3.1 and 3.4, respectively.

Failing to hit revenue targetsStill, their criticism is worth noting, as Yelp's ability to expand and retain its workforce is vital for its success. Yelp depends on its salesforce for its revenue, as tens of thousands of local merchants must often be courted individually.Its inability to hit employment targets last year played a key role in its disappointing guidance, which helped fuel the company's sell-off.

Last July, Yelp shares fell more than 16% after the company posted a second-quarter earnings report that featured disappointing guidance. In particular, Yelp's revenue just wasn't growing as fast as analysts had anticipated. According to management, the issue wasn't with the company's business model or the market in general, but rather a salesforce that simply wasn't growing fast enough.

"For the full-year 2015 we are lowering our outlook...Approximately two thirds of our lower expectations for full-year 2015 revenue is due to lower than expected headcount," said CFO Rob Krolik on the company's July earnings call (via Thomson Reuters).

Krolik offered additional color, blaming the company's inability to hire as quickly as needed on broader strength in the San Francisco economy. "With the strength in the tech sector particularly in San Francisco, we have not grown the sales team as quickly as planned," he explained.Jane and Senigaglia's accounts lend credence Krolik's remarks, as both cited the high cost of living in the Bay area as a fundamental aspect of their grievances.

Yelp's management is well aware of its dependency on its workforce, but seems confident that employees view the company favorably. Last month, Stoppleman bragged that 91% of respondents to a companywide engagement survey said they'd recommend Yelp as a great place to work.

Yelp had about 3,800 employees at the end of 2015. Two out of several thousand, then, amounts to a mere rounding error. Still, it's one aspect of Yelp's business investors should be mindful of.

The article Yelp, Inc. May Have an Employee Problem originally appeared on Fool.com.

Sam Mattera has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Yelp. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
How to combine passions for food, friends, and global aid? A Portland couple is cooking 194 dinner-party meals that recreate food from all the United Nations member states.

Laura Hadden and her husband, Jesse Friedman, started the United Noshes project about three and a half years ago when they lived in New York City.

Since then they've worked their way through the alphabet from Afghan food to Lao cuisine, hosting small groups of friends as well as big dinners in banquet halls (their blog drew curious strangers over time).

The price to attend? Originally a small donation to the UN's World Food Program, it's now one to Portland-based MercyCorps, NPR reports. They've raised nearly $23,000 so far.

"We felt we had to acknowledge the fact that many people couldn't even enjoy the sorts of foods we were celebrating from their own country," Friedman says.

But it's not always easy: "There are disasters of technique and some things that are just bad," Friedman tells the Jewish Daily Forward. "We made headcheese from Iceland and it was terrible. We call those milkshake meals because even after you eat, you need to go out after for a milkshake." They also grew weary of African fare after many similar meals in a row, until discovering the island nation of Comoros, with its mouth-watering lobster in vanilla creme fraiche sauce.

They've spread the word by hosting United Noshes events in the Bay Area, Seattle, DC, and Boston, and "met hundreds of people who are adventurous," he says.

They expect to finish in about four more years: "Weve always said that if it gets tedious then we can just stop," says Hadden. "But it hasnt gotten boring yet." (Now see why foodies are rejoicing in California.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Dinner Party's Goal: 194 Global Meals

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A Canadian couple whose son died of meningitis in 2012 allegedly tried to treat the child with home remedies like olive leaf extract and whey protein rather than seek medical attention, CBC News reported. David Spehan 32, and Collet Stephan, 35, plead not guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life for their son.

Ezekiel Stephan was 19 months old when he died in March 2012 after feeling ill for several weeks, the news station reported. His parents had allegedly consulted a friend who was a nurse who reportedly told the couple that the boy likely had meningitis and had been using an eye dropper to feed him supplements. The Stephans, who own a nutritional supplements company called Truehope Nutritional Support Inc., tried using water, maple syrup, juice with frozen berries and a mixture of apple cider vinegar, horseradish root, hot peppers, mashed onion, garlic and ginger root, CBC News reported.

They allegedly only called for an ambulance when he stopped breathing, the news station reported. Ezekiel was taken to a hospital but taken off life support after five days. Canadian officials said the couple is not accused of not loving their son, but ignoring his medical needs.

Meningitis is a disease caused by the inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). The severity of the illness and treatment differ, depending on the cause. Whether Ezekiel was sickened by bacteria or a virus was not disclosed.

The couple, who have three other children and operate a Facebook page called Prayers for Ezekiel, are asking for support and donations to help pay for their court fees.


The makers of a popular childrens applesauce product issued a voluntary recall after food product residue was found in product pumps during an inspection, GoGo squeeZ said. However, parents have been taking to social media to complain of mold found in their childrens snack pouches.

According to Buzzfeed, parents have been complaining about a black, moldy substance in the pouch, but the company did not acknowledge that in the recall.

We found food product residue in two product pumps in one of our factories during an inspection by the Michigan State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), GoGo squeeZ founder and CEO Michel Larroche wrote in a post on Facebook. While it is possible the food product residue may have been incorporated into finished product, we test our applesauce extensively, and at this time, we have not seen evidence of this in our pouches.

The recall includes GoGo SqueeZ applesauce pouches with Best Before dates between 12/4/15 and 3/4/17, but does not impact GoGo squeeZ Organic products or GoGo squeeze YogurtZ.

The company has been responding to the parents complaints of mold via social media, according to Buzzfeed, asking consumers to email more information. No illnesses have been reported in connection to the current recall.

In 2015 a recall was issued after mold was found in some packages.

"Many of you know that last year we had a recall for a different reason, and as a result, we understand you may be losing patience with us," Larroche posted. "We have worked hard to earn your trust, and we are taking action to make sure we continue to deserve it."


Did you know that one in 10 Americans experience symptoms of heartburn at least once a week?

If chronic heartburn is left untreated, it can lead to a more serious condition, like gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD.

To prevent acid reflux, avoid triggers like:

*Smoking

*Certain supplements or medications

*Alcohol

*Fatty foods

*Citrus fruits

*Stress

*Being overweight

There are over-the-counter and prescription medications to help prevent and ease the symptoms of acid reflux. But for those who prefer a more natural approach, there are other solutions.

Natural remedies for heartburn include:

*Chewing gum  Chew a piece of sugar-free gum 30 minutes after eating, which can help wash away acid.

*Licorice  Experts say licorice has stomach-healing properties that can get to the root of the problem rather than just calming symptoms. But be careful  eating too much could have serious side effects.

*Baking soda  Mixing a half teaspoon into a glass of water can help neutralize stomach acid. But it shouldnt be used for chronic heartburn because its high in salt.

*Slippery elm  Research suggests that adding a couple of tablespoons of this herb to a glass of water can help coat and protect the stomach.

*Aloe  This plant can reduce inflammation in the stomach. Some experts suggest drinking aloe juice, but use caution, because it can also be a laxative.

*Melatonin  Taking this supplement can help protect the digestive tract.

Many home remedies are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so consult with your doctor before trying any of them.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was arranging and funding shipments of blood products to Puerto Rico to ensure an adequate supply of safe blood as the U.S. territory struggles with an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

The first batch arrived in cash-strapped Puerto Rico on Saturday, the HHS said in a statement on Monday. (http://1.usa.gov/1QCj7LK)

The shipments are being provided to Puerto Rico through the American Red Cross, the Blood Centers of America, and America's Blood Centers, the HHS said.

U.S. health officials expect many thousands of residents to be infected once the mosquito season reaches its peak this summer.

The Zika outbreak began in Brazil last year and is spreading rapidly in Latin America and in Caribbean nations, prompting the World Health Organization last month to declare a global public health emergency.

Zika has been linked to numerous cases of microcephaly in newborns, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.
You might recall the biblical tale of the fellow thrown into the lions den, only to survive the ordeal and see his oppressors instead fed to the beasts.

Im not saying thats why Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders agreed to do an hour-long Fox News town hall in Detroit Monday.

Still, lets assume their motives were less than spiritual.

For Sanders, it couldnt be simpler: trailing in the Democratic presidential race, he needs an upset victory in Michigan to keep alive his faint hopes of denying Clinton the Democratic nomination. Hes in no position to decline free airtime.

As for Hillary Clinton, making her first Fox appearance since June 2014, the calculation reeked of self-awareness.

On the eve of a vote in an anti-NAFTA state, Clinton doesnt want Sanders to get the last word on free trade and her ties to the financial elites. Besides, if she ends up with Trump as a general-election opponent, shell be spending more time in Michigan making sure the state remains true-blue (Michigan last voted Republican in 1988).

So what did we learn from Bernie and Hillarys visit to the lions den?

Contrary to what he said in Sundays contentious debate, Sanders admitted that white Americans arent strangers to poverty (maybe he Googled Bobby Kennedy Appalachia). Otherwise, he stuck with the script: lavish spending on infrastructure, education and health care, plus death to Citizens United.

Heres where watching Sanders gets very tiring, very fast (he fielded Bret Baiers questions for the town halls first 25 minutes) name the topic  poverty, health care, national debt, college tuition  and it leads back to income inequality, Wall Streets inequities and social injustice.

Lets face it: Sanders, like modern artwork, elicits different interpretations. If you Feel the Bern, you love the message discipline. If you dont know the lyrics to The Internationale and prefer to quote Churchill rather than Attlee, you see a 74-year-old man unhealthily parked at the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets.

Then again, Sanders was merely the warm-up act for Clinton, who hasnt done an extended media availability since three weeks before last Christmas.

It didnt take long to see why Clinton first declined the Fox News invite before accepting  and may not return for another 21 months (though the questions were not as contentious as they could have been).

The Democratic frontrunner was asked by Baier to explain why Libya fell into chaos (she called the situation deeply regrettable, but stood by the decision to take out Muammar Qaddafi) and deftly maneuvered past his question on scenarios when abortion wouldnt be an option (weve got continue to stand up for a womans right to make these decisions  and to defend Planned Parenthood). Pressed on the State Department email controversy, she went into clarify mode (using the personal server was a mistake, nothing I sent was marked classified).

Voters may not trust Clinton, but shes good in town hall settings  in part, because the indoor venues keep her voice at easier-on-the-ears, lower-decibel levels.

Hillarys answers to audience-fed questions usually weaved a clever historical narrative. With repetition, shes getting good at applause lines (we have to rip away the school-to-prison pipeline and replace it with a cradle-to-college pipeline). Confronted by a Bernista as to why shes not on board with his free-college plan, she talked smack about tuition prices, called on states to spend more on higher-ed and reminded the audience that she has a very specific plan to deal with student debt.

Still, Hillarys not her husband. And it shows.

Whereas Bill Clinton is empathetic, his wife is policy-emphatic  maybe thats one reason why shes struggled with the youth vote. And you know Bubba would have linked Nancy Reagans passing to a more harmonious Washington.

Curiously, the former first lady didnt reference Mrs. Reagan and their membership in what may be the worlds most exclusive womens club.

Like Daniel, Bernie and Hillary walked away unmauled.

But its not just the lions that are hungry.

A lot of us still want to know how either candidate can lead a divided nation.
On March 30, 1981, at 2:25 p.m., President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton through a side door after speaking to a union group. Outside was a gaggle of staff, secret service, reporters, and bystanders, including one determined to end Ronald Reagans life at that moment.

As the president headed toward the car, a reporter barked out a question. With a smile, Reagan raised his left arm to deflect it. But he could not deflect what was about to fly in his direction. A few feet from the safety of the backseat of his presidential limo, Reagan heard what sounded like firecrackers. It was gunshots.

Secret Service agent Jerry Parr thrust Reagan into the car, landing on top of him. Jerry, get off, cried Reagan, I think youve broken one of my ribs. Noticing the frothy blood bubbles emerging through Reagans lips, Parr commanded the driver to get to a hospital fast. They reached George Washington University Hospital in minutes.

Only once Reagan was on the table did the doctors determine the terrible extent of the 40th presidents injury. John Hinckley had employed .22 Devastator bullets designed to explode on impact. One of the bullets had ricocheted off the armored car, flattened, and sliced into Reagans body through his left armpitso tiny that surgeons only discovered it after finding a hole in the presidents jacket. The projectile traveled downward, bounced off a rib, punctured a lung, and finally halted in Reagans chest, less than an inch from his 70-year-old heart. The president lost a huge amount of blood and proceeded to survive a perilously close call.

Of course, nearly all of this has been reported before. Never reported, however, was the unique reaction of Nancy Reagan. It was shared with me in February 2006 by Louis Evans, the longtime pastor of the National Presbyterian Church, who kept it to himself for 25 years. Knowing my work on Reagans religious faith, the aging Evans decided to share the story with me.

The Reagans attended the National Presbyterian Church during their first weeks in Washington. Evans was their new pastor. The day after the assassination attempt, a distraught Nancy was in need of spiritual counseling. She asked Evans to track down Donn Moomaw, who for two decades had been the Reagans pastor at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church in California.

Evans picked up Moomaw at the airport and brought him to the White House, where they were greeted by Mrs. Reagan in a room that included a small group of close friends: Frank Sinatra and his wife, the Rev. Billy Graham, and a Los Angeles businessman, the name of whom escaped Evans.

Nancy began by uttering words that shocked her friends. Im really struggling with a feeling of failed responsibility, she confided. I usually stand at Ronnies left side. And thats where he took the bullet.

Yes, Nancy had deep regrets: If only she had been next to Ronald Reagan as he strolled to that limousine, positioned between him and Hinckleys pistol, she could have taken that bullet for him.

Imagine that. It was a bracing thought to Evans then, and should be to us today.

When Evans informed me of this, I quickly shared it with the late Bill Clark. I was Clarks biographer at the time. Clark worked literally side-by-side with both Reagans, beginning way back when he was Governor Reagans chief of staff in Sacramento. He knew both very well. He was not at all surprised by Evans account. In fact, Clark waxed Biblical, telling me without hesitation: I agree with the Scripture that she would have laid her life down for her friendfor her best friend. She would have done that for him.

It was always understood that Nancy was Ronald Reagans supreme protector, the one who played bad cop and watched his back as he trusted everyone, regardless of their loyalty. Their son Ron once said that his dad trusted everyone and his mom trusted no one. Reagan left the White House with the highest approval ratings of any president since Eisenhower; she would never win a popularity contest. Nancy received a lot of bad press, not all of it undeserved. Yet, what Evans told me adds a heightened appreciation for Nancys commitment to her spouse.

Ronnie is my hero, Nancy once glowed. My life began when I got married. My life began with Ronnie. She was willing to give that life for him.

Nancy Reagans reaction to her husbands shooting should be seared into our memories of this First Couple, regardless of political differences. It is an inspiring image of one womans undying devotion to her life partnera woman who now at last is reunited with her Ronnie.


The Michigan Republican primary season kicked off on Thursday night at the Fox Theater, one of the few presentable public venues left in downtown Detroit.

The theater (pronounced thee-ay-tor in local parlance) was packed with vociferous Republicans who came to cheer and jeer The Donald, Little Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Governor John Kasich of Ohio. Most of the people in the hall were imports from out of town; Republicans who live within the city limits are as rare as Jehovahs Witnesses in Mecca.

Back in the early sixties, when I was in high school, the Fox was a palace of dreams, especially during Christmas vacation, when the Motown Revue came to town for a glorious annual home stand. A two dollar ticket ($2.50 for evening performances) got you Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Marvelettes, The Temptations and Little Stevie Wonder. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles closed the show. Not only that, there was a free movie.

The Motown stars themselves were role models, at least on stage. The labels own, Barry Gordy, insisted that his stars comport themselves publicly with maturity and manners. There was a lot of flash to these shows, but no cheap vulgarity. A performer who openly mocked fellow artists would have found himself out on the street. One who alluded, by word or gesture, to the size of his penis (or the female equivalent) would have been dragged off the stage and summarily executed by a firing squad of Motown executives.

There was never a need for such harsh punitive measures. The young stars of Motown were not saints, but they were professionals. Their audience wasnt comprised of saints either, but we expected a certain level of sophistication and style from Smokey, Marvin and the Tempsan expectation that was delivered night after night.

The candidates on stage at the Fox on Thursday did not meet those standards. They were, by turns, crude, predictable, shallow and nasty. They werent star material. They werent even audience material. A teenage Ted Cruz would have skipped the Motown Revue to study for an extra credit civics quiz. Donald Trump would have been out cruising Woodward Avenue in his dads Cadillac while giving the finger to kids with cheaper cars. Marco Rubio would have spent the night practicing his dance moves in the mirror. As for John Kasich, he would have taken his sweetie bowling.

On Tuesday, Michigan voters are going to be obliged to choose among these four Republican candidates, now fully grown and ready, in their opinions, to lead the free world. Kasich says hes qualified by virtue of his sterling performance as governor of Ohio, a proposition that will be tested when his constituents vote in the Ohio primary on March 15. Ted Cruzs main qualification is that he isnt Marco Rubio. Rubios running on the insinuation against Trump.

As for Trump, well, hes probably all right if you dont mind a president who opens his first State of the Union address by slapping the Speaker of the House, firing a couple shots in the air and mooning the public.

Me, I dont have the problem of voting in Michigan. But if I did, I know what Id do. Id write in Smokey Robinson.
Ted Cruz

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, waves as he takes the stage at a town hall-style campaign event, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Peterborough, N.H. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

(Elise Amendola)

Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate

Ted Cruz

is set to headline Pennsylvania's premier gathering of conservative activists - but the big question is whether the GOP nominating race will be over by the time he gets here.

The Texas senator will address the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, which is being held on the weekend of April 1 and April 2 at the Radisson Penn Harris hotel in East Pennsboro Twp.

Other speakers slated for the conference include U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, President of the Heritage Foundation; State Senator Scott Wagner; Daniel Garza of the LIBRE Initiative; Congressman Mike Kelly; John Gizzi of Newsmax and Jeff Lord of the American Spectator and CNN.

Voters in three states: Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi all cast their ballots this Tuesday. The polling average put together by Real Clear Politics shows Donald Trump leading by an average of 12.3 percentage points in Michigan.

There is some evidence, however, that attacks by Cruz and other mainstream Republicans may be eating into Trump's national lead in the GOP primary field.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday showed Trump still leading, but with a softer command, 34 percent, down from 37 percent in January. Cruz trails in second at 25 percent, up from 21 percent in January, the poll showed.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio increased his margin to 18 percent in the new poll. Ohio Gov. John Kasich also saw his support build with the winnowing of the GOP pack, up to 13 percent, from 2 percent in January.

With winner take-all states beckoning, there's an outside chance the Republican contest could be settled by next week. Rubio and Kasich need to win their home states to preserve their campaigns and deny Trump the delegates he needs to wrap up the nomination.

And Politico notes that we could find out as soon as today whether the nation has reached peak Trump.

Pennsylvania voters head to the polls on April 26 - which seems like a lifetime away at this point.

The rest of the day's news starts now.

The Tribune-Review profiles Rep. Mark Rozzi, who's looking to extend the statute of limitations for church sex assault victims.

The Post-Gazette looks at Gov. Tom Wolf's move to boost the minimum wage for some state workers.

PhillyMag looks at why Donald Trump is trouble for Pat Toomey's re-election effort.

WITF-FM looks at how millennials skip doctors' visits and go straight to urgent care instead.

BillyPenn gets your day started with a lovely pic from the Instagrams.

The Inquirer looks at a one-time, pretty massive $15m grant by the William Penn Foundation to expand Pre-K in Philadelphia.

One SEPTA officer has been cleared, and another disciplined, in the death of a man who was stunned 10 times, NewsWorks/WHHY-FM reports.

A statewide judicial disciplinary panel has been asked to move proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin to Harrisburg, The Associated Press reports (via The Morning Call).

Roll Call looks at Mike Bloomberg's entirely unsurprising decision to sit out the presidential race.

What Goes On.

Budget hearings roll on today. Here's the day's schedule.

In the Senate (all meetings in Hearing Room 1, North Office Building)

10 a.m.: Dept. of Education

1 p.m.: Pa. Liquor Control Board

3 p.m.: Dept. of Health

In the House (all meetings in Room 140, Main Capitol)

9:30 a.m.: Dept of Health/Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs

11:30 a.m.: Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency/Fire Commissioner

1:30 p.m.: Dept. of Education

Heavy Rotation.

Here's one that popped up on shuffle on the way to work this morning. It's the Public Enemy classic "Fight the Power."

Tuesday's Gratuitous Hockey Link.

Once again, it's Jaromir Jagr's world. We're just living in it. The NHL great passed Gordie Howe on the NHL's all-time points list on Monday night. Legend. Just legend.

And now you're up to date. See you all back here in a bit.
The American Diner in Liverpool, N.Y., may be the most politically incorrect diner in the Empire State  and possibly the nation.

The American Diner is a gun-toting, beef-eating, Constitution-loving establishment owned by Michael Tassone.

Click here to join Todds American Dispatch  a must-read for Conservatives!

Mr. Tassone is a no-nonsense God & Country fellow who takes pride in Old Glory and his signature Animal Burger  made from 24 ounces of American Love.

We talk religions and politics and we encourage people to carry their guns, Mr. Tassone told me. The Second Amendment protects all the rest of them.

They also encourage folks to say Grace.

 If people dont like it  they can go to Dennys, he said.

And just so diners arent caught off-guard, they post their talking points on the menu.

? We dont like political correctness or special interest

? If you really dont like America  LEAVE

? Actually, I did build MY business

? Everyone doesnt get the same size trophy

? Govt and taxes are the problem

And these days Mr. Tassone is especially upset with the government.

On Dec. 31, 2015, the state of New York implemented a new minimum wage for tipped workers. Wages increased from $5 to $7.50 an hour.

Its absolutely killing us, Mr. Tassone told me. My payroll has gone up over $21,000. We have to find a way to pay for that.

Its a problem facing family-owned restaurants across New York, reports the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Many have been forced to pass along the additional costs to their customers.

I had to lay off a worker and I have to work 103 hours a week, he said. I just have to try to take on additional time and hours to make it work.

And he also decided to poke a bit of fun at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Obama by naming a new breakfast special in their honor.

Its called the Dictator Obama/NYS Special (King Cuomo).

The breakfast includes two eggs and a slice of toast for $3.59. The tax is $27.99.

We took a good jab at them, he said.

As you might imagine, the Obama special isnt exactly selling like hot cakes.

If they really want to pay that much for two eggs and a piece of toast, well sell it to them, he said.

Mr. Tassone illustrated how difficult its becoming to run a business in America. Theres only so much you can tax consumers.

On the other hand, a sandwich named after the first lady is one of the diners hottest items.

Its called, The Anti-Michelle Obama, Dont Tell Me What to Eat or Feed My Kids Burger.

Its a 16-ounce beef patty with bacon and cheese  along with a side of fries.

He might want to throw in a pack of Rolaids, too.
Much has been made during the latest GOP Presidential process which candidate might be most like Ronald Reagan; a President with such charisma and charm.

I had the honor of meeting him in the Oval Office when I was a student at Stanford University. I'll never forget him saying to me, Wow. Great school, It's a shame its getting so liberal".

All these years later traveling across the country for my book "Getting Real", I was honored again to see firsthand the life the Reagan's shared, visiting and speaking at the Reagan Library in California.

But for all the pomp and circumstance you'd think would come with being President of the United States, where you truly get the "real story" about the Reagans is at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara.

There, the modest way the Reagan's chose to live.

The clothes still in the closet as he left them 20 years ago. The focus on their relationship -- not material things.

Remembering Mrs. Reagan takes us back to a simpler time. A time now, where the infighting within the GOP has grown so fierce, maybe we wish we were still there.


Imagine living every day, every moment of your life in fear. That is the reality of thousands of women around the world. They have reason to fear because they are Christians living in places where the worship of Jesus is forbidden and because they are females in countries where women are not afforded even the most basic human rights. In far too many places, Christian women are targets of violent persecution.

Tuesday is International Womens Day, a day when we celebrate women, past and present, for their remarkable contributions to society. But it should also be a day when we celebrate the courage of women who stand up for their faith even under threat of torture and death.

Just last week, 16 people were shot to death, including four nuns, in a retirement home in Yemin run by a charity established by Mother Teresa.

Last year, Batima,* a Kyrgyzstani Christian was beaten by her siblings after converting to Christianity. Violence against Christians in Pakistan is also increasing. In January, a Christian teenaged girl was killed and her two-friends injured when they were attacked by a group of Muslim extremists.

In Bangladesh, the growing Christian minority population is facing increased restrictions and persecution. One reported incident was of 20-year-old Christian woman who was gang-raped in the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka. And we must not forget the 219 Christian school girls from Chibok, Nigeria, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants nearly two years ago.

Many more Christian women are indirect victims of persecution, having been widowed by brutal attacks on their husbands from groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram.

In January, I met with Gladys from Nigeria and she told me of how her husband was captured, tortured and burned alive while out sharing his faith in Christ along with a pastor friend. Gladys told of how she viewed her husbands charred corpse without realizing that she was looking at her own husbands remains. And she related how she was speaking out about how God is sustaining her in the aftermath of this horrible murder. Her faith humbles me.

These are just a few examples of how Christian women have been targeted and persecuted for their faith. For each story told, there are hundreds of others left untold.

Because Islamic terror groups are the leading driver of the global persecution of Christians, as their reach increases, so too does the threat to Christians in general and Christian women in particular. The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep Ed Royce, R-Calif., drew attention to the plight of women living under ISIS rule in a hearing he convened last summer. In opening the hearing, Royce noted:

Violence against women is in fact a sinister and calculated strategy that goes to the heart of ISISs survival. By forcing local women to marry into ISIS, the group expands its demographic base while reducing the population of those diverse communities it seeks to eradicate and replace. Simply put, ISIS needs women  needs to control them  to establish its caliphate and give rise to the next generation of ISIS.

And so I return to International Womens Day. As we contemplate the significance of this occasion, I would put one question to us all: How best can we honor persecuted women on International Womens Day? I recommend we take a multi-pronged approach.

First, we must continue to advocate on behalf of the persecuted with Americas leaders and international bodies like the United Nations.

Second, we need to support efforts to provide practical aid, spiritual encouragement and safe haven to those who have been persecuted or remain under threat of persecution.

And finally, all people of faith must continue to pray for the persecuted. As I have the privilege of meeting brave women who remain committed to their Christian faith in the face of persecution, over and over again I hear one thing: Encourage Christians in the West to pray that we will remain strong and faithful no matter what may come. Their faith inspires me to keep fighting for them every day.

On this day dedicated to honoring women, wont you join me in praying for all those enduring or living under threat of persecution for their faith?

*Editor's note: Name changed for security reasons

Emily Fuentes is the communications director at Open Doors USA, a leading advocate for persecuted Christians around the world.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders laid out some of their key differences Monday in a Fox News Channel town hall event in Michigan -- including Clinton springing a surprise alternative to Sanders' millennial-friendly, free-college-tuition plan.



Please click here to watch the Democratic Town Hall Live

Sanders opened by defending his auto-bailout vote, which Clinton hit him on during their debate the night before.

What I did not vote for was the bailout of Wall Street.  She did vote for that, Sanders said, referring to Clintons time as a New York senator.

The front-running Clinton and the Vermont senator made their cases in Detroit on the eve of Michigans Democratic and Republican presidential primaries.

Most polls show Clinton with a double-digit lead in Michigan, as she enters the primary with 1,130 delegates, compared to 499 for Sanders. Either needs 2,383 delegates to win the party nomination. The two will also compete in the Mississippi Democratic primary Tuesday.

Sanders on Monday night also hammered his message of economic equality and prosperity.

There is no candidate in this race who has talked more about poverty than I have, he said. In the richest country in the history of the world, we have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country. We have too many people living in poverty. We have got to change our national priorities.

He also repeated his calls for helping roughly 29 million Americans without health care, arguing the problem is in part the result of pharmaceutical companies gouging the country.

We have many more (Americans) who are underinsured, Sanders said. And we are getting ripped off big time by the pharmaceutical industry, which are charging us the highest prices in the world.

Clinton, meanwhile, was asked at the outset of the event about the ongoing classified email investigation being conducted by the FBI, claiming once again that she was not notified that she is a subject of that investigation.

Absolutely true, Clinton responded to the question by Fox News Special Report host Bret Baier.

Clinton also said neither she nor her lawyers have been informed that any members of her staff or former staff are targets of the investigation, which focuses on her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Clinton also stood by decision, as part of the Obama administration, to remove Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. But she acknowledged the deeply regrettable aftermath, in which the Islamic State terror group has flourished in parts of that country.

If there had not been that intervention  we would be looking at something much more resembling Syria now, Clinton said.

She also argued that the United States and its allies saw more turmoil in leaving a dictator in place, like Russia has done with Syrian leader Bashar al Assad. And she said the Libyan people have since had two fair elections to "get themselves a better future."

Clinton also used the forum to introduce her answer to Sanders popular free-tuition college proposal, unveiling the outlines of a plan in which students will no longer have to borrow money to attend a public college or university.

She said the New College Compact plan would also help with non-tuition costs.

It is absolutely imperative that we make college affordable, Clinton said.

Both candidates also explained their position on abortion, amid continuing debate about stopping the procedure after five months of pregnancy, with the exceptions for the life and health of the mother and baby.

I am very strongly pro-choice, Sanders said. That is a decision to be made by the woman, her physician and her family.

Clinton said she objects to the recent effort in Congress to pass a law saying no such exceptions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Because although these (exceptions) are rare, they sometimes arise in the most complex, difficult medical situation, she said.
The Obama administration is facing growing pressure to step up and formally call the violence against Christians in the Middle East genocide, as evidence of atrocities mounts ahead of a looming deadline to decide on a label.

The pressure comes amid scores of reports that Christians are being slaughtered, that Christian women are being raped and sold into slavery, and that Christian churches are being demolished.

Less than a year ago, a video surfaced purporting to show 30 Ethiopian Christian men marched onto a beach before being beheaded and shot by the Islamic State, supposedly for refusing to renounce their faith.

But with the administration facing a March 17 deadline to decide how to label the situation, officials have hedged when asked which way they may decide.

Secretary of State John Kerry faced tough questioning on Capitol Hill days ago, when pressed on why the administration hasnt yet called the violence genocide.

It does require a lot of fact-gathering, Kerry said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. I mean you have to get the facts from the ground, more than just anecdotal.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., countered that the whole world knows that Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East.

It's clear, he continued, it's time for America to act -- and the excuse that we've got to study it, we've got to ask the lawyers what the wording is  It's unacceptable.

A new ad, and petition drive, launched by the Knights of Columbus and In Defense of Christians is putting additional pressure on the administration, citing statements from presidential candidates of both parties calling whats happening genocide.

With the U.S. Commission on International [Religious] Freedom having stating this, with 200-plus bipartisan sponsors [of a House resolution] having stated this, with the major presidential candidates of both parties having stated this, the question is, does the State Department want to stand alone as a genocide denier? Andrew Walther, a vice president with the Knights of Columbus, told Fox News.

He said the U.S. has a checkered past in terms of labeling mass killings as genocide, and said there's a real opportunity here to get it right.

All you have to do is look at the pictures and you know this is genocide, Walther said.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump look to rebound from weekend setbacks with victories in Tuesday's Michigan primary, the first big industrial state to be contested in the 2016 presidential race.

Squeezed between high-profile Super Tuesday and high-stakes primaries next week in Florida and Ohio, Tuesday's contests are unlikely to dramatically reshape either party's primaries. But with 150 Republican and 179 Democratic delegates at stake, the races offer an opportunity for the front-runners to pad leads and rivals to catch up.

In addition to Michigan's primaries, both parties will hold their primary in Mississippi Tuesday, with Republicans also caucusing in Idaho and voting in the Hawaii primary.

But Michigan is the night's crown jewel in terms of delegates. Fifty-nine are at stake in the Republican race, while 130 will be awarded on the Democratic side.

While Trump has stunned Republicans with his broad appeal, he's forged a particularly strong connection with blue-collar white voters. With an eye on the general election, he's argued he could put Midwestern, Democratic-leaning industrial states such as Michigan and Wisconsin in play for Republicans.

A Monmouth University poll released Monday showed Trump winning 36 percent of likely GOP primary voters, 13 percentage points ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said Michigan was part of his "home court" last week, polled a close third with 21 percent of the vote, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio placed fourth with 13 percent of the likely vote.

Victories by Cruz in Kansas and Maine have threatened to make the Republican race a two-man sprint to the finish. But Kasich and Rubio are holding out hope they can win their winner-take-all home states March 15.

Entering Tuesday, Trump leads the Republican race with 384 delegates, followed by Cruz with 300, Rubio with 151 delegates and Kasich with 37. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.

"It's not just the whole country that's watching Michigan  now the world's beginning to watch," Kasich said Monday during a campaign stop in the state. "You can help me send a message about positive, about vision, about hope, about putting us together."

Rubio sought a boost in Tuesday's contests from Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee. Romney has recently become an outspoken critic of Trump and recorded a phone call on Rubio's behalf in which he warns Republicans that if the real estate mogul wins the nomination, "the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished."

Romney has not endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary, but clearly says in the phone recording that he's speaking on behalf of the Rubio campaign. A Romney spokeswoman said the former Massachusetts governor has offered to help Rubio, Kasich and Cruz in any way he can.

During a stop at a catfish restaurant on Monday in Mississippi, Cruz said the current vacancy on the Supreme Court means Republicans can't take a chance on Trump.

"He's been supporting left-wing politicians for 40 years," Cruz said.

On the Democratic side, Clinton boosted her delegate lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over the weekend, as a win in Saturday's Louisiana primary canceled out wins for Sanders in the Kansas, Nebraska and Maine caucuses. The Monmouth University poll gave Clinton a 13-percentage point lead over the self-described democratic socialist among likely voters.

Ahead of Tuesday's two Democratic contests, Clinton had accumulated 1,130 delegates and Sanders 499, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

In an effort to boost his standing in Michigan, Sanders has repeatedly accused Clinton of being disingenuous when she asserted that he opposed the bailout of carmakers General Motors and Chrysler during the Great Recession.

Sanders defended his voting record on the issue again during a Fox News town hall in Detroit Monday night.

"What I did not vote for was the bailout of Wall Street.  She did vote for that, Sanders said, referring to Clintons time as a New York senator.

Sanders and Clinton both voted in favor of an auto bailout bill in 2008, but it failed to clear the Senate, prompting then-President George W. Bush to announce about a week later that the federal government would step in with $17.4 billion in federal aid to help the carmakers survive and restructure. The last $4 billion was contingent on the release of the second installment of the Wall Street bailout funds.

Sanders did vote for a 2009 motion to block the release of those funds, though the measure was defeated by 45 Democrats, including Clinton, and a handful of Republicans.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Iran on Tuesday again threatened to walk away from the nuclear agreement reached last year with global powers, hours after the country breached international agreements by test-firing ballistic missiles.

Irans most recent ballistic missile test, which violates current U.N. Security Council resolutions, comes a day after the international communitys nuclear watchdog organization disclosed that it is prohibited by the nuclear agreement from publicly reporting on potential violations by Iran.

Iranian leaders now say that they are poised to walk away from the deal if the United States and other global powers fail to advance the Islamic Republics national interests.

If our interests are not met under the nuclear deal, there will be no reason for us to continue, Abbas Araqchi, Irans deputy foreign minister, warned during remarks delivered to a group of Iranian officials in Tehran.

If other parties decide, they could easily violate the deal, Araqchi was quoted as saying by Irans state-controlled media. However, they know this will come with costs.

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.
The Obama administration said Monday that it was "surprised" to learn that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had canceled a planned visit to Washington later this month, and denied an Israeli media report that claimed the White House was unable to arrange a meeting between President Obama and Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's visit had been planned to coincide with the American-Israel Political Affairs Committee's annual conference. The White House said Israel had proposed for the two leaders to meet on either March 17 or 18 and the U.S. had offered to meet on March 18.

"We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the Prime Minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price told reporters Monday. "Reports that we were not able to accommodate the Prime Minister's schedule are false."

A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited sources close to Netanyahu who claimed "no appropriate time" could be found to hold the meeting.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said Tuesday that Israel's ambassador to the U.S. informed the White House last week there was a "good chance" Netanyahu would not make the trip.

An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, told the Associated Press Netanyahu wanted to avoid meetings with presidential candidates.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also said Tuesday theres no reason to consider this a snub, but stressed the White House would have preferred to have heard about the change in person as opposed to reading about it in the media.

They should have just told us, he said. I think its just good manners. But he said there was no offense taken.

The unusually pointed pushback from the White House was the latest signal of ongoing tensions between the U.S. and its closest Mideast ally, which have never fully recovered since Obama incensed Netanyahu's government by pursuing and then enacting a nuclear deal with Iran. The flare-up comes just days before Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with Netanyahu during a visit to Jerusalem.

This isn't the first time Obama had been caught off guard by Netanyahu's travel plans. Last year, the White House accused Netanyahu of a breach of longstanding diplomatic protocol when he announced plans to speak to a joint session of Congress without consulting or notifying the president. Netanyahu used that speech to implore U.S. lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel sees as emboldening its archenemy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
For all the talk of the Republican establishment trying to stop Donald Trump, it's the media establishment that is cranking up the volume to deafening levels.

Whats remarkable about this sustained assault is that it comes with equal force from the right and the left, united in their passion to stop the man who is winning the most Republican primary votes.

Presidential campaigns are rough, and opinion journalists often pound away at the candidates they dislike. These politicians get attacked on their record, background, temperament and for just about anything untoward theyve done since grade school.

But Ive never seen anything like this.

The tone of the media attacks over the last two weeks is apocalyptic, as if each commentator is undertaking a solemn mission to save the planet from an awful fate. Stop, they seem to be shouting, stop before it is too late!

Now theyre all entitled to speak out, based on their conscience. But the cumulative effect, combined with celebrities coming out of the woodwork to denounce Trump, carries a whiff of desperation.

Whats more, Trump has shown an uncanny ability to thrive on bad press, calling out journalists and casting himself as a crusader against media bias. The news business is a very popular target these days.

For liberal commentators who routinely strafe Republicans, Trump is a natural target. In the past, some have acted more bemused than appalled by The Donald, viewing him as destined to lose badly if he won the nomination. Now theyre not so sure he couldnt drive Hillary Clinton crazy and put some traditionally Democratic states in play, so the gloves are off.

For commentators on the right, Trump is viewed as a threat to conservatism and as engaging in a hostile hijacking of the Republican Party. Some are convinced that he would either lose in a landslide or ruin the GOPs brand.

Im offering excerpts here to highlight how these pundits are depicting Trump as not just a bad candidate but a threat to civilization.

Slate Editor-in-Chief Jacob Weisberg says that Trump, as a reality TV star and cyberbully on his third wifeis himself a good illustration of the breakdown of any moral order possibly remaining. He says Trump represents what autocratic attitudes look like in a modern American context. He is unfriendly toward the free market, the free press, and the free exercise of religion while paying lip service to these values. He is xenophobic, conspiratorial in his worldview, admiring of violence and torture, contemptuous of the weak, and unwilling to tolerate criticism or peaceful dissentbut all in the name of correcting excesses of tolerance.

The Washington Posts Ruth Marcus says that since she last wrote about him, Trump has proved himself to be even less knowledgeable and even more unhinged. His election would constitute a grave threat to American values and, potentially, American democracy

Trump is Nixon with all of the megalomaniacal willingness to abuse power and none of the crafty realpolitik.

David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, poses this question: How has Donald Trump, the coddled scion of a New York real-estate baron, emerged as a populist hero? How does the beneficiary of a draft deferment due to bone spurs on his feet get away with questioning the military record of John McCain, who endured five years as a prisoner of war? Trump believes that his appeal is based largely on what he calls his heroic lack of political correctness but which is more accurately described as a breezy penchant for race-baiting, war crimes, and content-free policy pronouncements.

Salon says that after watching Trump spewing hate, stoking xenophobia and attacking the Washington establishment  this thought keeps coming to mind: Is Donald Trump just David Duke in a better suit?

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes that now finally  at long last  major Republicans are raising their heads and highlighting Trumps actual vulnerability: his inability to think for an extended time about anybody but himself.

He seduces people with his confidence and his promises. People invest time, love and money in him. But in the end he cares only about himself. He betrays those who trust him and leaves them high and dry.

National Reviews Ian Tuttle challenges his credibility: Trump believes in nothing except the force of his own personality. Often, its not quite correct to say hes lying, because he never believed anything in the first place. Donald Trump is post-truth.

Another Times, columnist, Nick Kristof, views Trump as a bad dream: Is there any scarier nightmare than President Donald J. Trump in a tense international crisis, indignant and impatient, with his sweaty finger on the nuclear trigger? He adds: Ive never met a national politician so ill informed, so evasive, so bombastic and, frankly, so puerile.

And its not just the print people. CNN commentator Sally Kohn said the other day that the media are giving Trump too much attention, and when he institutes internment camps and suspends habeas [corpus], well all look back and feel pretty bad.

All this is unfolding in an environment in which many celebrities are also trashing Trump. Miley Cyrus and others have threatened to move to Canada if hes elected, and Louis C.K. said in a mass email:

Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30sHe is an insane bigot. He is dangerous.

Perhaps, if the noise level gets loud enough, it could sway some voters. But I think it underscores Trumps appeal, to his supporters at least, that powerful forces are aligned against himthe same forces that they blame for empty promises and economic anxiety.

If Trump keeps winning, these commentators are going to have to examine why he is connecting with the very voters who refuse to heed their ominous warnings.
A dozen former detainees at Guantanamo Bay are suspected of returning to the battlefield on behalf of various militant groups, according to a report released by the Obama administration Monday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said that seven of the 144 detainees who have been freed since President Barack Obama took office in 2009 have been confirmed to have returned to fighting as of Jan. 15. The ODNI's previous report, from this past July, said six detainees had gone back to battle.

The number of suspected recidivist detainees was double the number in this past July's report. The increase is likely to spark new protests by Republicans opposed to President Obama's plan to shut down the facility and transfer dozens of detainees to prisons in the U.S.

Under Obama's plan, roughly 35 of the 91 current prisoners will be transferred to other countries in the coming months, leaving up to 60 detainees who are either facing trial by military commission or have been determined to be too dangerous to release but are not facing charges. Those detainees would be relocated to a U.S. facility.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said last month that Republicans are taking legal steps to stop Obama from closing the prison. Ryan told reporters that lawmakers have the votes to block Obama's plan in Congress and enough votes to override any veto.

"These detainees cannot come to American soil," Ryan said at the time.

The ODNI report does not specify where or for which groups the former detainees are confirmed or suspected to be fighting.

The report also found that 111 of 532 prisoners released by the George W. Bush administration had returned to the battlefield, while another 74 were suspected of doing so.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Reuters.
Japanese tailors transform bespoke suiting with their blend of meticulous detail and classic training

Bespoke suits at the menswear label Ciccio can easily set back a discerning gentleman a cool HK$35,000. However, despite its Italian-sounding name and its classic Italian looks, Ciccio suits are not made in Naples or Florence, but in an atelier in Tokyo's trendy Aoyama district.

The label comes from the nickname of its founder, Noriyuki Ueki, who had a stint with master tailor Antonio Pascariello in Naples about 12 years ago. Ciccio is one of the new breed of Japanese brands - albeit the most famous - including Camoshita, Ring Jacket, and Tomorrowland, that are beginning to attract international the attention of global audience with their mix of traditional classic men's suiting and Asian aesthetics.

"The heritage behind classic Italian suiting is [impeccable]; I went to Naples to learn all that. Japanese [tailoring] is very exquisite," Ueki says. The result, for Ueki and his fellow Japanese artisans, is a style that merges Italian classics and Japanese craftsmanship.

Not all of the new breed of Italian-trained Japanese suitmakers have returned to Japan. It's not difficult to find Japanese master tailors at work in some of the most prestigious bespoke suiting houses too, and artisans such Kotaro Miyahira has set up Corcos in Florence while Kenjiro Suzuki has established himself in Paris.

The emergence of Japanese tailors focused on classic sartorial style has much to do with the country's deeply rooted artisan culture.

"Young, promising tailors are very committed to their craft," says Alan See, co-founder of The Armoury, which stocks classic menswear and represents bespoke tailors across the globe. "This commitment, almost obsession with details, is in [the Japanese] culture. There's a [major] sense of artisanship."

Sam Lobban, the buying manager for online men's retailer Mr Porter, agrees. He says that in addition to the worship of heritage, precision and dandyism are two other elements of Japanese culture that complement classic suiting, helping to make Japan one of the first countries in Asia to embrace the style.

"A fine-tailored suit with impeccable craftsmanship can represent the ultimate uniform for a working man," Lobban says. "Japan also has dedicated magazines to men's suiting and tailoring, signifying the significance it plays in men's fashion."

While British tailors are known for structured cuts and Italian suiting opts for a more fitted silhouette, the Japanese style strikes a perfect balance between a classic Western look and Asian aesthetics.

"I always consider the iconic style from a different period of time, say the 1930s or the '70s, and express my aesthetics with contemporary arrangements," says Yasuto Kamoshita of Camoshita. "I think my fans like the way I dress by expressing classic style in the mood of the times with Japanese sensitivity."

Tomorrowland menswear director Daisuke Nakajo concurs, saying he takes a similar approach to put a modern twist on classic suiting. "For the two British tailoring styles - the Savile Row and New British style - we decide what [elements] to take and leave out, and I believe we can grasp the essence of British styles [this way]," he says.

While classic Western suiting emphasises effortless elegance, the precision of the fit is a signature feature of Japanese tailoring. "Japanese tailors are perfectionists, meticulous with details such as the position and angle of the lapel," says Brandon Chau, a Hong Kong socialite and entrepreneur who became a bespoke suit lover seven years ago. "My fitting with an Italian tailor might take only five minutes, whereas with a Japanese tailor it can take longer than an hour. I was told by a friend to hit the loo before my first fitting with a Japanese tailor."

Apart from the school of innovators, there are also purists such as Ciccio's Ueki, who strive for the authenticity of traditional suiting.

"They are willing to experience and travel back to the classic roots," See says. "More importantly, they are doing it out of interest or passion instead of too much commercial sense - it's not like they are planning to have their company listed in two years."

Often held as a best-kept secret among well-heeled gentlemen, the Japanese style of menswear not only appeals to Asian customers, but also reaches out to the international market.

"There's no longer much difference between Western and Asian customers," Kamoshita says. "Social media is probably one of the reasons behind that. I believe that each person has a different way to express themselves. The way they dress reflects their personal tastes, lifestyle and values."

The Armoury, which stocks Ciccio and Ring Jacket in its Hong Kong and New York stores, has witnessed the growing interest. "Since we started representing Ring Jacket in New York, for instance, it's been performing really well in a global context," See says. "It's because of the fit, the quality and really the craftsmanship behind [the pieces]."

Mr Porter's Lobban also recognises the growing demand. The website has launched Camoshita for the 2016 spring/summer collection as a highlight of their Japanese collaborations.

"We find the Japanese approach to design and tailoring has a very global appeal," Lobban says. "Japanese tailoring often extends from the traditional Italian aesthetics, combining colour, patterns and textures in an impeccably precise fashion. Italians are often bolder in terms of fabric selection, while the Japanese are particularly good at fusing workwear and sportswear elements into traditional tailoring."

Mainstream luxury menswear brands are also riding on this new wave of tailoring. In October, Ermenegildo Zegna launched its Zegna Couture Made in Japan collection in Tokyo, featuring Japanese artisans in bespoke suiting as well as quality denim. And more labels are offering made-to-measure services catering to customers' increasing demands for menswear and classic suiting.

As the Asian market continues to grow in importance not only in menswear but the luxury industry as a whole, the region's aesthetics are also influencing global trends. "With Asia being the dominant force in luxury brands today, we cannot neglect the demands and sartorial needs of our Asian customers," Lobban says. "More Asian designers are holding powerful roles in the industry. Asia is an exciting and vibrant continent, both culturally and aesthetically, and fashion and style is something that its various nations share a strong passion in."

See more red bridesmaid dresses | purple bridesmaid dresses
President Obama has taken the rare step of inserting himself into a local legislative contest in Illinois, cutting an ad for a challenger who is competing against an incumbent Democrat known for siding at times with Republicans.

In a 30-second television ad, Obama says hes learned from his days in the state legislature that follow-through is everything and therefore is throwing his political weight and endorsement behind Juliana Stratton over Rep. Ken Dunkin of Chicago.

Obama says hes backing Stratton because she will stand up for our children, our seniors and our working families. He says Stratton will fight for gun control and tougher penalties for violent offenders.

But there likely are other factors at play, in what is shaping up as one of the nastiest and toughest political battles in Illinois.

Dunkin has sided with Republicans during key votes -- denying House Speaker Michael Madigan what would otherwise be a 71-vote veto-proof majority -- and has received campaign contributions from allies of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Stratton, by contrast, is backed by unions and has picked up the support of almost all the other prominent Democrats in the state.

There has been bad blood between Obama and Dunkin for years.

During a February visit to Springfield, Ill., Obama riled up the lawmaker when he said reaching across the aisle for the sake of compromise doesnt make me a sellout to my own party.

Dunkin jumped out of his seat and interrupted the president by shouting Yes!

Obama snapped back, Well talk later Dunkin. Sit down.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told WLS-AM News that Obamas endorsement is about getting lawmakers to work together and end the Illinois budget deadlock.

Its not a political endorsement. Its an endorsement to move forward and finally get the city and the state, most importantly, moving forward, he said.

On Monday, Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for Cook Countys States Attorney Anita Alvarez, said her office is looking into a complaint against Dunkin that alleges his office paid voters.

A spokesman for Dunkin told the Chicago Tribune the accusations are baseless.

While a rarity, Obama has endorsed other local candidates in the past. In 2014, he announced his endorsement of now-D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower. Obamas endorsements of Bill de Blasio of New York, Annise Parker of Houston and Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans may have helped all three clinch victories.
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PRESENTING YOUR MARCH 8 PRIMARY DAY FIELD GUIDE

With slightly more than one-third of Republican delegates allocated, the GOP contest roars into its middle phase today. Four years ago, this was the point at which the GOP frontrunner started to put it away. This time, its different.

Contests in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii will award 150 delegates to the remaining Republican candidates, who are each trying to reach the magic number of 1,237.

All of the states reward their delegates proportionally so we can expect something of a split decision. How that split shapes up, though, will provide essential clues about the state of the race as it enters its decisive phase.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has won about 44 percent of the delegates so far, about 10 points better than his closest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz, meanwhile, is doubling up Sen. Marco Rubio. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has just 4 percent of the delegates so far.

Trump needs to do substantially better to win the nomination outright. To get on a good foot, Trump needs to start approaching a 60-percent threshold of all the remaining delegates to avoid a contested convention. Results from five contests over the weekend, however, show Trump going in the wrong direction, grabbing just 31 percent.

Did Thursdays rough and rowdy debate in Detroit, combined with a new onslaught of character attack ads against Trump and the dire warning from native Michiganian Mitt Romney, have an effect? New national polling suggests some slippage for Trump, but todays results will tell us even more.

[Watch Fox: Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier bring you the latest results tonight as the polls close at 8 p.m. ET]

MICHIGAN

It was the Great Lakes State that in 2012 helped save Romney from a protracted and even more painful nominating process. Romney pulled off a narrow victory in the state his father had governed, but narrow was enough to dispel concerns about his chances in a two-man race with former Sen. Rick Santorum.

Could it do the same for Trump?

The math is a little different this time in that there are three bidders for Michigans delegates: Trump, Kasich and Cruz. In the final pre-election poll, Trump remained ahead, but his margin was shrinking over the other two contenders, with considerable shrinkage the final two days the poll was in the field.

A three-way tussle and a fairly even delegate split would not be helpful for Trumps efforts to subdue the resistance within his party. Heres a look at where the contenders will look to try to find a breakout performance:

Michigan is a politically diverse state that has been undergoing massive demographic reordering in the past decade with the collapse of Detroit. But the Motor City metro is still the largest trove of votes in the state by far.

One of the reasons Trump should do very well in Michigan are places like Wayne County, home to Detroit, and Macomb County, to the citys northeast. Many voters here are the archetypical Reagan Democrats. Trumps message on tariffs, trade and China is a winner with blue-collar, pro-union voters pummeled by successive decades of industrial decline. Plus, his support for government-run insurance programs, federal funding for Planned Parenthood and harsh attacks on former President George W. Bush are no liabilities.

But dont forget about the minivan set.

Oakland County is home to some very high-end suburbs and has lots of Republican voters -- accounting for 15 percent of the nearly 1 million primary votes cast four years ago. Thats good news for Kasich, who has been blitzing his neighboring state for weeks, and whose nice-guy message and aggressive pragmatism should be a good fit for voters who went almost two-to-one for Romney four years ago.

Cruz, on the other hand, is looking west to the Republican heartland of the state. Western Michigan is loaded with conservative Dutch Reformed Christians and other stalwarts of the right. Communities like Grand Rapids in Kent County and nearby communities could propel Cruz into contention. The Texans test will be not just winning in more populous places, but also besting Trump in the many rural counties that account for the rest of Michigans vote.

Wayne County (Detroit Metro)

--Population: 1,764,804

--Median household income: $41,421

--Race: Caucasian, 55 percent; black, 39 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 22 percent

--2012 election: Obama 73 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 14 percent

--In 1909, Wayne County built the first mile of concrete highway in the world.

[2012 Republican Primary: Mitt Romney, 41 percent; Rick Santorum, 33 percent; Ron Paul, 16 percent; Newt Gingrich, 6 percent]

Macomb County (Regan Democrats)

--Population: 860,112

--Median household income: $54,059

--Race: Caucasian, 83 percent; black, 11 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 23 percent

--2012 election: Obama 51 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 16 percent

--Named for Detroit-born Alexander Macomb who was accredited for the key victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh in the War of 1812, and was later commanding general of the U.S. Army.

[2012 Republican Primary: Mitt Romney, 41 percent; Rick Santorum, 33 percent; Ron Paul, 16 percent; Newt Gingrich, 6 percent]

Oakland County (The Burbs)

--Population: 1,237,868

--Median household income: $66,436

--Race: Caucasian, 77 percent; black, 15 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 44 percent

--2012 election: Romney 53 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 15 percent

--Royal Oak, located in Oakland County, was the setting for Clint Eastwoods 2008 film Gran Torino.

[2012 Republican Primary: Mitt Romney, 50 percent; Rick Santorum, 29 percent; Ron Paul, 11 percent; Newt Gingrich, 7 percent]

Kent County (GOP Heartland)

--Population: 629,237

--Median household income: $52,716

--Race: Caucasian, 83 percent; black, 10 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 33 percent

--2012 election: Romney 53 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 12 percent

--Former President Gerald Ford grew up in Grand Rapids.

[2012 Republican Primary: Rick Santorum, 42 percent; Mitt Romney, 40 percent; Ron Paul, 10 percent; Newt Gingrich, 5 percent]

MISSISSIPPI

The Magnolia State should smell so sweet for Trump. Trump crushed the competition in neighboring Alabama  another Deep South state with an open primary  last week. He won almost three-quarters of the delegates with a 22-point victory over his closest competitor.

Trump didnt fare as well on Saturday in Louisiana, Mississippis neighbor to the east, winning just one more delegate than Cruz. Louisiana, though, restricts its Republican primary to party members and was held on a weekend, giving the advantage to high-propensity voters.

His Alabama stomping should be the yard stick by which to measure Trumps performance in Mississippi today. It is the poorest state in the Union, and has the highest percentage of African American residents of any state. In contests so far, Trump has dominated with economically disadvantaged white voters who live in close proximity to substantial minority populations. Trump ought to be head and shoulders above Cruz.

But if Cruz aims to make things interesting in Mississippi, it will be along the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, stretching from suburban Memphis in the north down to Biloxi in Harrison County to the south. Cruzs support from State Sen. Chris McDaniel, the renegade who forced incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran into a bruising runoff in 2014, as well as Gov. Phil Bryant, show signs that the divided state GOP maybe uniting behind Cruz. Should that be the case, Cruz just has to hope that there are not enough white Democrats left in Mississippi to put Trump over the top.

Hinds County (Capitol Idea)

--Population: 243,729

--Median household income: $38,021

--Race: Caucasian, 27 percent; black, 71 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 28 percent

--2012 election: Obama 71 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 12 percent

--Jackson is home to Malaco Records, the leading independent label for gospel and soul music.

[2012 Republican Primary: Mitt Romney, 40 percent; Rick Santorum, 27 percent; Newt Gingrich, 27 percent; Ron Paul, 4 percent]

Harrison County (Gulf Breeze)

--Population: 199,058

--Median household income: $42,285

--Race: Caucasian, 70 percent; black, 24 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 21 percent

--2012 election: Romney 62 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 13 percent

--Confederate President Jefferson Davis has his home post-Civil War home here facing the Gulf Coast, called Beauvoir estate.

[2012 Republican Primary: Mitt Romney, 32 percent; Rick Santorum, 31 percent; Newt Gingrich, 30 percent; Ron Paul, 6 percent]

IDAHO

Idaho could make a claim to be the most conservative state in America. Its 32 delegates are nothing to sneeze at, but it gets little electoral attention because of its remoteness and widely dispersed population. This year, however, it has gotten love from Rubio and Cruz who are looking for a win in the closed primary there.

In 2012, Romney romped winning all the delegates, but that can be attributed at least in part to the states large Mormon population. That was no impediment to Trump in neighboring Nevada, but the race looks different now and so does the political makeup of the Gem State.

Religious liberty is a big issue here and both Cruz and Rubio have honed in on the subject. But this looks like a better opportunity for Cruz to pull off an outright win.

Ada County (Jeez, Napoleon)

--Population: 426,236

--Median household income: $55,805

--Race: Caucasian, 92 percent; black, 1 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 36 percent

--2012 election: Romney 55 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 13 percent

--Home to the state capital of Boise and the most populous county in the state.

[2012 Republican Primary: Mitt Romney, 52 percent; Rick Santorum, 23 percent; Ron Paul, 22 percent; Newt Gingrich, 4 percent]

HAWAII

Republicans are almost as rare in Hawaii as snow days, but they still get to vote and they still get 19 delegates. There were only about 10,000 voters who came out for the closed GOP caucuses four years ago, and they matched the states moderate leanings with a big win for Romney.

If Rubio hopes to notch a win tonight it will be in Aloha State.

Honolulu County (Mild Wind)

--Population: 991,788

--Median household income: $73,581

--Race: Caucasian, 23 percent; Asian, 42 percent

--Adults with bachelors degrees: 33 percent

--2012 election: Obama 69 percent

--Residents 65 or older: 16 percent

--Home to the site of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.

[2012 Republican Caucus: Mitt Romney, 50 percent; Rick Santorum, 26 percent; Ron Paul, 15 percent; Newt Gingrich, 10 percent]

Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM

POLL CHECK

Real Clear Politics Averages

National GOP nomination: Trump 35.6 percent; Cruz 19.8 percent; Rubio 17.4 percent; Kasich 8.8 percent

Michigan GOP Primary: Trump 37.3 percent; Kasich 25 percent; Cruz 19.8 percent; Rubio 10 percent

National Dem nomination: Clinton 49.6 percent; Sanders 40 percent

Michigan Dem Primary: Clinton 57.6 percent; Sanders 39.2 percent

General Election Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +3.4 points

Generic Congressional Vote: Democrats +1

[GOP delegate count: Trump 384; Cruz 300; Rubio 151; Kasich 37 (1,237 needed to win)]

MY, HOW MINNESOTAN OF YOU

MinnPost: Within a month Northeast Minneapolis is going to have the first full-fledged water bar of its kind, an establishment where you can sit and drink a variety of local tap waters to your hearts content. Their delightful motto: Water is all we haveIts the culmination of work from a team of Minneapolis social practice artists who specialize in community engagement, and the idea is to start calling attention to the importance of communal water systems. For the next year theyll be serving Twin Cities waters to the masses and, they hope, starting conversations that could not be more fundamental to our everyday lives.

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.
Bernie Sanders pulled off a shocking upset in Michigan's Democratic primary Tuesday night, beating Hillary Clinton in a race that most polls had him trailing by double digits and eclipsing the front runner's earlier win in Mississippi.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump, meanwhile, regained any momentum lost last weekend against challenger Ted Cruz, sweeping to convincing victories in Michigan and Mississippi while sending a message to the Republican establishment to jump on board  or get out of the way.

Cruz was projected to pick up a win in the Idaho GOP primary, while Trump was projected to easily win the Hawaii Republican caucus.

But Trump's earlier victories were more valuable in terms of delegates. And Tuesday's results may also seal the fate of Marco Rubio, who appeared once again to finish the night failing to gain any delegates.

Cruz appeared to have beaten John Kasich for second place in Michigan by approximately 8,000 votes. Kasich is counting on a win in his home state of Ohio next week to salvage his campaign.

On the Democratic side, Clinton easily won Mississippis primary earlier Tuesday, thanks in part to her overwhelming support from black voters, and likely will pick up more delegates in Tuesdays contests than Sanders.

But the Vermont senators surprising Michigan win could give him a bounce as he and the rest of the candidates charge into the vital March 15 primaries in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.

Michigan is the ninth and largest state that Sanders has won so far in the Democratic presidential campaign. All 15 pre-election polls in Michigan this year showed Clinton leading Sanders by double digits.

For his part, Trump is looking to March 15 to sideline the rest of the GOP field for good  something he tried to start doing Tuesday night. At a press conference at his golf club in Juniper, Fla., he said of his remaining rivals, Theyre pretty much all gone.

Michigan was the biggest prize of the four states that voted Tuesday.

On the Republican side in Mississippi, Trump defeated Cruz by 47 percent to 36 percent of the vote, with Kasich a distant third at 9 percent and Rubio garnering just 5 percent of the vote.

Trump celebrated his wins at a lengthy press conference Tuesday night, teasing the special interests and others that ran ads against him.

It shows you how brilliant the public is, because they knew they were lies, Trump said.

He started his victory talk with a subdued and conciliatory tone, appearing to take the first steps to patch up any differences with the party brass. He noted House Speaker Paul Ryan recently called him.

He could not have been nicer, Trump said.

But he soon slipped into his standard fare, making cracks about his remaining rivals. He took a shot at Cruz, noting the Texas senator positions himself as the only candidate who can beat him, but he never beats me.

Both Trump and Clinton had a mixed performance this past weekend where they effectively split the delegate field with their top rivals.

The stakes on Tuesday arguably were higher for Trump, whose delegate lead over Cruz shrunk on Saturday as they each won two contests. Cruz has been pushing to consolidate conservative support on the heels of those races, arguing Trump is not the candidate he claims to be.

He is pretending to be an outsider, Cruz told Fox News.

But Trump used his wins Tuesday to downplay the chances for his remaining rivals, as he and the rest of the field look ahead to next weeks vital winner-take-all contests in Ohio and Florida.

I think were going to do really well in Florida, he said. Its my second home.

Kasich, who campaigned in Michigan Tuesday, told Fox News he was focusing on the Midwestern states  and repeated his vow to win Ohio.

Rubio, too, is looking for a comeback win in his home state next week, all the while battling calls from his rivals to drop out. But Trump leads in the Florida polls, and Rubio endured another disappointing night in Tuesday's contests.

Looking ahead, Rubio rallied a home-state crowd Tuesday evening, saying: I believe with all my heart that the winner of the Florida primary next Tuesday will be the nominee of the Republican Party. ... And I need your help. I need your vote.

Clinton, meanwhile, is still trying to regain her footing as Sanders has demonstrated his grassroots support in several recent contests. Over the weekend, he claimed three victories to Clintons one.

Thanks in part, though, to so-called superdelegates  party leaders and officials free to support whomever they want  Clinton maintains a huge delegate lead over Sanders. She had 1,221 to Sanders 571, as of early Wednesday morning.

Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri stressed Tuesday that their campaigns strategy focuses on winning delegates, and told Fox News theyll pick up more delegates than Sanders from Tuesdays contests regardless of the Michigan results.

On the GOP side, Trump leads Cruz in the delegate count 446 to 347, with Rubio trailing at 151 and Kasich at 54, as of early Wednesday morning.
Mitt Romney is blasting out robo-calls on behalf of Marco Rubio and John Kasich -- and against Donald Trump -- in the states voting Tuesday, marking his most direct appeal yet on behalf of any candidate since he delivered a scorching condemnation of Trumps candidacy last week.

Voters are going to the polls Tuesday in Republican contests in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii.

Romneys team still insists the partys 2012 presidential nominee is not endorsing any candidate, describing the latest robo-calls as more a bid to combat Trump than an indicator of support for Rubio or Kasich. Romney reportedly did pro-Rubio calls in all four states holding contests Tuesday, and recorded a pro-Kasich call in Michigan only.

"Gov. Romney has offered and is glad to help Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Gov. John Kasich in any way he can, a source close to Romney said in a statement. He's been clear that he believes that Donald Trump is not the best person to represent the Republican Party and will do what he can to support a strong nominee who holds conservative values to win back the White House. "

Romney, though, is walking a fine line as he launches his anti-Trump campaign.

He insists hes not endorsing anyone, and is not entering the race himself -- and only wants to boost Trumps rivals in states where they have a chance of beating the Republican front-runner, with the apparent goal of depriving Trump of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

The robo-calls indeed are more about Trump than any rival candidate.

According to a copy of the pro-Rubio message obtained by The New York Times, which first reported the story, Romney indicates that hes calling on behalf of Rubio and then urges voters to support a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud.

If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, I believe that the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished  and Im convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton, Romney reportedly says.

Still, its unclear why Romney chose to record most the calls on behalf of Rubio.

Rubio is trailing in the polls in Michigan -- which offers the biggest delegate prize among primaries being held on Tuesday. Trump has held the lead there, but faces the closest challenge from Ohio Gov. Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.



Rubio has won only two of 20 contests to date  Puerto Rico and Minnesota  but is banking on winning his home state of Florida next Tuesday. Trump, though, continues to lead in the polls in the Sunshine State and is working hard to knock out Rubio next week.

Fox News Serafin Gomez and Jessica O'Hara contributed to this report.
Colorado departments and agencies are paying dues, fees, memberships and joining professional associations to the tune of $2.7 million during the 2014-15 fiscal year, a legislative memoobtained by Watchdog.org shows.

Those include big-ticket items such as the nearly $150,000 the state Education Department paid to the Illinois Migrant Council, almost $20,000 the governors office paid a travel lobbying association and more than $36,000 to a state dental director organization, accordind to the memo.

And there are also small-ticket items detailed in the memo that raise eyebrows, like a few hundred dollars each to dozens of regional chambers of commerce, apparently the International Lactation Consultant Association, listed only as the ILCA, and even the Denver Press Club.

In light of the states budget crunch, state Rep. Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs, is proposing to slash the amount state agencies spend on associations and membership fees in half. He concedes his bill has little chance of passage, but legislative staff research raises questions about why the state is spending so much money on groups, lobbying and associations.

Other than some legitimate memberships for professional and licensing organizations, why does the government have be a member of all these organizations, said Joshi, who commissioned the legislative research on how much the state pays each year and provided the document to Watchdog.org.

Kathy Green, spokeswoman for Gov. John Hickenlooper, said all of the spending serves a legitimate need for taxpayers and some of the expenses detailed in the staff research are either inaccurate, miscategorized  not association spending  or not funded by state tax dollars.

But despite Watchdog.org providing detailed items from the memo to each department, Green, who taxpayers pay nearly $135,000 a year to answer reporters questions, would not return phone calls to discuss specific spending. Instead, she emailed a general statement Wednesday.

Click for more from Watchdog.org.
The West Virginia legislature successfully overturned the veto of Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblins veto on Saturday in a bipartisan effort to enact permitless gun carry in the state.

Beginning June 5, anyone over age 21 who can legally possess a firearm will be allowed to carry it concealed on their person without having to obtain a permit. West Virginia has long allowed permitless open carry but, like most states, required a permit to carry a concealed firearm. With the new law the state will become the eighth in the nation to implement what gun rights activists call constitutional carry.

The law also creates a provisional permitting process for those between the ages of 18 and 20 who wish to carry a concealed firearm within the state. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 had previously been excluded from the permitting process altogether.

West Virginias move to permitless carry marks the continuation of a national trend that began in 2003. Before then, only Vermont allowed law-abiding adults to carry concealed firearms without a permit. The pace accelerated over the last five years, with seven states adopting the policy.

Concealed carry laws vary from state to state, but most adhere to one of three basic structures. The most popular, which is in effect in 34 states, is commonly referred to as a shall-issue structure, where applicants must be issued a permit if they pass a background check along with whatever training and identification requirements are set by the state.

The most restrictive type of concealed carry law, adopted by only eight states, is the may-issue structure in which applicants can still be denied a permit even if they meet all of the requirements set out by the state. May-issue concealed carry laws often issue very few concealed carry permits to residents.

Click for more from Washington Free Beacon.
Experts in the U.K. have discovered the remains of an Anglo-Saxon island, which they are touting as a site of huge archaeological importance.

Archaeologists from the University of Sheffield identified the island at Little Carlton near Louth, Lincolnshire. It is thought the site is a previously unknown monastic or trading centre but researchers believe their work has only revealed an enticing glimpse of the settlement so far, explained the University of Sheffield, in a press release.

Related: Archaeologists find woman's 2,500-year old seal in Jerusalem

The Anglo-Saxon era in Britain spanned from the 5th to the 11th centuries.

The amazing Lincolnshire discovery was sparked by Graham Vickers, a local man with a metal detector who unearthed a silver stylus from a disturbed plough field. Vickers reported the find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which encourages the voluntary recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public.The ornate writing tool, which dates back to the 8th century, was the first of a number of items found at the site.

Related: A new chapter in the story of Joan of Arc's ring

Artifacts found at the site now include a total of 21 styli, around 300 dress pins, and a huge number of Sceattas, which are coins from the 7th-8th centuries. A small lead tablet bearing the letters spelling the female Anglo-Saxon name Cudberg was also found.

Hugh Willmott, senior lecturer in European historical archaeology at the University of Sheffield, and Pete Townend, a doctoral student at the university, visited the site to carry out targeted geophysical surveys. The archaeologists also used measured and mapped magnetism in the soil and performed 3D modelling to visualise the landscape on a large scale.

Related: Oldest Muslim graves in France discovered

The imagery showed that the island they had discovered was much more obvious than the land today, rising out of its lower surroundings, explained the university. To complete the picture the researchers raised the water level digitally to bring it back up to its early medieval height based on the topography and geophysical survey.

In an attempt to find out more about life at the site, University of Sheffield students opened nine evaluation trenches, which revealed items indicating that the islands may have been an Anglo-Saxon industrial area. They also found significant amounts of pottery and butchered animal bone.

Related: Why did ancient Europeans just disappear 14,500 Years Ago?

Our findings have demonstrated that this is a site of international importance, but its discovery and initial interpretation has only been possible through engaging with a responsible local metal detectorist who reported their finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said Willmott, in a statement.

A computer-generated timelapse video posted to YouTube by the University of Sheffield shows how the island became part of the modern landscape.
Visitors to the grave of William Shakespeare can't help but notice this to-the-point inscription: "Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones," it reads (with the spelling cleaned up).

Curse or not, a group of documentary filmmakers has begun poking around in unprecedented fashion. The crew from UK's Channel 4 became the first to gain permission to examine Shakespeare's grave at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon earlier this year, reports the Telegraph, though they're using radar rather than shovels.

The results of their study, part of commemorations marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, will be revealed in a documentary this spring. "We can confirm a scan of the grave has been completed," says a church rep.

If nothing else, the work "is likely to give a clearer picture of a possible family vault," reports the Telegraph, adding that the playwright is buried next to his wife, daughter, son-in law, and grandson-in-law.

It's also possible the study could put to rest a long-standing rumor, as noted by the Stratford Observer: "There has been historical speculation as to whether Shakespeares skull was removed by grave robbers and re-buried outside of his home town." But a Jezebel blogger isn't banking on bombshells: "Educated guess: Spiders, bones, and possibly an ill-advised earring." (Could this be the famous skull?.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Filmmakers Ignore Curse, Scan Grave of Shakespeare

More From Newser
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says that African mobile phone operator MTN fueled the countrys Boko Haram insurgency by failing to disconnect unregistered sim cards.

Buhari made the comments Tuesday during a visit to Nigeria by South African President Jacob Zuma, the BBC reports.

MTN missed a mid-2015 deadline to disconnect cards, according to the report.

Related: Department of Defense to test its cybersecurity with 'Hack the Pentagon' competition

"You know how the unregistered [sim cards] are being used by terrorists and between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram," said Buhari, during a joint press conference with Zuma. "Unfortunately, MTN was very very slow and contributed to the casualties," he added, in his first public comments on the case.

The phone giant was fined $5.2 billion in October by Nigerias telecoms industry regulator for failing to disconnect the cards, although this was later reduced to $3.4 billion. Last month MTN announced that it has paid $250 million in a goodwill gesture towards a possible settlement in the case.

MTN provides service to over 200 million people in Africa and the Middle East. Nigeria is reportedly the phone giants largest market.

Related: Pirates hack shipping company

The company has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from FoxNews.com.

Dozens of emaciated-looking Boko Haram members begging for food have surrendered in northeast Nigeria, the military and a civilian self-defense fighter said last week.

Food shortages could indicate that Nigeria's military is succeeding in choking supply routes of the Islamic extremists who have taken their fight across Nigeria's borders. Some 20,000 people have died in the six-year uprising.

Related: Apple developing unhackable iPhone technology, report says

In the 10 months since he took office promising to halt the insurgency, Buhari has replaced the leadership of the military, moved the headquarters for the fight from the distant capital of Abuja to the heart of the northeastern insurgency and resupplied soldiers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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It was a run-in with the enemy that was too close for comfort, and more than 70 years later, the details remain vivid in the mind of a Navy veteran who served aboard a legendary ship.

U.S. Navy Torpedoman 1st Class James Nerison was part of the PT-305 crew patrolling off the coast of Corsica in 1944 when a pair of German destroyers locked onto them. The Higgins Industries Patrol-Torpedo boats were known for their speed and maneuverability, but they were up against superior Nazi firepower.

We couldnt shake them off for about 45 minutes and we were drawing a lot of fire, Nerison, now 91, recalled. I secured the torpedo rack that we launched the torpedoes with and ran up to the skipper and said, Do you want me to throw over a smoke pot?

The young sailor was referring to a 5-gallon can with chemicals that emitted smoke as a distraction. He was given the approval to toss the container over the side, and the German warships quickly started firing at it as PT-305 slipped off into the darkness.

We got off to one side and they werent able to find us that night, Nerison said.

The California natives experience is just one of many among the 44 officers and enlisted men who called PT-305 home during World War II. Now Nerison, along with Joseph Brannan, a former 1st class gunners mate who also served on PT-305, hope to ride the boat once again.

The National World War II Museum, located in New Orleans, on Tuesday launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 to complete its PT-305 restoration project, and hopes to have the boat sailing Louisianas Lake Pontchartrain by early next year.

It helps us cover all of the costs that are needed to transport the boat to the water and cover all the testing and certifications so the boat is ready to operate, Tom Czekanski, the museums director of exhibitions and collections, told FoxNews.com.

The battle-hardened boat, which operated in the Mediterranean along the coasts of southern France and Northern Italy, conducted more than 77 offensive patrols and operations, fought in 11 separate actions and sank three German ships during its 14-month deployment, according to the museum.

After the war, PT-305 took on a civilian role as a tour boat in New York Harbor, a fishing charter and an oyster boat, while falling into disrepair before the museum scooped it up in 2007.

"German planes would see you in the daytime and come out of nowhere and strafe you and bomb you"  Joseph Brannan, 93, former First Class Gunners Mate on PT-305

A volunteer crew, which includes people from all walks of life -- from students to architects -- has already worked more than 100,000 hours on the project at the museums restoration pavilion.

Parts for restoring the boat -- such as engines, deck fittings and exhaust ports -- have come from other PT boats and nearly $3 million from in-kind donations.

Czekanski said ever since the museum opened in 2000, curators have coveted a working Higgins PT boat. All thats left to be done, he added, is the installation of mechanical systems, such as plumbing lines. The weapons on the ship, however, will not be operational.

Once the boat is available for the paying public to ride on, the museum hopes it will generate enough revenue to cover its upkeep and ensure that future generations can learn about the heroics of the veterans that served aboard PT-305.

The restoration of PT-305, like all museum restoration projects, is aimed at making history accessible to todays audiences in as detailed and authentic a way possible, said museum executive vice president and COO Stephen Watson.

Nerison can't wait to see his old boat sail again.

I was taken aback by the fact that my boat was finally going to be restored, Nerison told FoxNews.com. Im just lucky to have been on the boat that is going to be on show for everybody to see.

PT-305, built by New Orleans-based Higgins Industries  a company that specialized in manufacturing small boats -- was completed on December 8, 1943. It was then assigned to the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 22.

The boats, designed for stealthy torpedo attacks on enemy supply and troop barges, relied on speed and maneuverability to get away from danger.

They are fast and nimble and a great piece of American ingenuity used in the war, Czekanski told FoxNews.com.

PT-305 also conducted reconnaissance missions, landed troops on occupied coasts and carried generals, making most of its movements at night underneath the cover of darkness.

German planes would see you in the daytime and come out of nowhere and strafe you and bomb you, Brannan, 93, told FoxNews.com.

There were no railings on the outside of the boat and we never lost anyone, he added.

Brannan, an Arkansas native who said he was very excited about the project, started serving on PT-305 in December of 1944.

In June 1945, Brannan and Nerisons squadron returned to New York from the Mediterranean and the war ended before PT-305 could be overhauled for deployment to the Pacific.

"We didn't need the eyes anymore, because we had her home at last"  Tom Czekanski, the National World War II Museums director of exhibitions and collections

But the boat didnt look the same as the first time it crossed the Atlantic.

Nerison, who wanted a fix for the stuffiness of the crews quarters, said when the crew was based in Saint Tropez in Southern France after fighting began to subside, he managed to find some brass portholes at a boatyard.

He asked the skipper if he could install one on each side of the boat -- and the problem was solved.

That was a modification that I dont think any other PT boat in the Navy had at the time, Nerison told FoxNews.com.

Following the war, the Navy burned 118 boats off the coasts of the Philippines to downsize its fleet.

Only a handful of PT boats survived  PT-305 being one of them  and it was sold as military surplus for $10 along with the rest of the squadron, the museum said.

During its civilian life, PT-305 underwent additional modifications  such as the removal of 13 feet from the stern -- to reduce operating costs and to comply with Coast Guard regulations.

Czekanski led the trip to Galveston Island to retrieve PT-305 from the Defenders of America Naval Museum in Galveston, Texas, in April 2007.

The restoration team had painted eyes on the front of the boat, which, according to nautical legend, would help it find its way home.

"We didn't need the eyes anymore, Czekanski said, because we had her home at last."
Investigators say a mudslide most likely caused a commuter train to derail in a remote area of Northern California late Monday, sending one of the leading cars tumbling into a swollen creek and injuring nine people.

The apparent mudslide swept a tree onto the tracks, derailing a car on the Altamont Corridor Express train, Union Pacific Spokesman Francisco J. Castillo said.



Fire officials said four people were seriously hurt, while five others had minor injuries.



"It was dark, wet, it was raining. It was very chaotic," Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. "This is an absolute miracle that no one was killed, no passengers or first responders."

The train was traveling at 35 mph in the 40 mph zone, Altamont Corridor Express spokesman Steve Walker said.

Alameda County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson told the Associated Press that the two front cars on the Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) train No. 10 went off the tracks near Niles Canyon Road in Sunol, about 45 miles east of San Francisco.

Images posted on Twitter showed one of the cars partially submerged in water.

VIDEO: #ALCOFirefighters conduct a search of the derailed train in #Sunol. pic.twitter.com/fA2XeTENWU  Alameda County Fire (@AlamedaCoFire) March 8, 2016

Nelson said crews had to fight the creek's currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car.

Altamont Corridor Express official Steve Walker said the train's first car was carrying six passengers and one crew member when it fell into Alameda Creek. He said the second car also went off the tracks, but remained upright.



There were 214 passengers traveling in the train at the time of the derailment, officials told KCBS. The uninjured riders were transported to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton after being checked by paramedics.

According to the ACE's website, the train departed San Jose at 6:38 p.m. local time and was due to arrive in Stockton at 8:50 p.m. local time. The operator announced that no trains will run on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from KTVU.com.
The search for a popular Georgia high school teacher who vanished on Sunday ended when crews found his body off a hiking trail northwest of Atlanta.

The remains of 30-year-old Scott Salter turned up late Monday, Fox 5 reports.

His death appears to have been an accident, investigators told the news station. They say he was in a secluded area where the terrain is rocky.

Search teams began looking for the teacher after he failed to show up for work Monday morning at Cass High School in Cartersville. Salter's car was found in the parking lot of the nearby Cooper's Furnace Hiking Trail.

Salter's family thanked friends and volunteers for their support.

Cartersville is roughly 40 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Click for more from Fox 5.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The search for a New York City nurse missing for three months led crews to dig up recently-laid concrete in front of her home, local media reported Monday.

When Mahfuza Rahman missed work for several days in December, worried colleagues called her husband. Mohammad Chowdhury said Rahman had traveled to her native Bangladesh and would return in early March, but Rahman still hasnt walked through the doors of Bellevue Hospital Center.

Rahman, 30, was officially reported missing by fellow workers on March 4, and on Monday police began scouring Rahmans Bronx apartment for clues to her disappearance, The New York Post reported. She was last seen leaving Bellevue on Dec. 8.

Detectives are looking at a second-story back room where the NYPDs canine unit reportedly picked up a scent, and authorities have also dug up concrete outside the home, sources told The Post. Police are also interested in several rooms inside the home that were recently painted, a source told The New York Daily News. Officials took a computer tower and several documents from the house as well, CBS New York reported.

Chowdhury is not around to aid the investigation. He and his daughter left the U.S. for Bangladesh, a source told The Post. Travel records confirm that Chowdhury and his daughter were on a flight out of the country, but so far no records of Rahmans supposed trip to Bangladesh have been uncovered, police told NBC New York.

On December 15th, he told me, Watch my house, I got to go to my country for two weeks, neighbor Jose Garcia told CBS New York. Thats it. Thats the last time [I saw him].

Police said foul play is not suspected at this point.

Right now, its a missing person investigation, a police official told The Daily News. We dont have any evidence of foul play. She could have just left.

Bellevue Hospital has not commented on the investigation.

Click for more from The New York Post.
The deadly January police shooting of the spokesman for an armed militia that had occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge was justified, officials said Tuesday; however, the actions of FBI agents during the incident remain under review.

Oregon State Police fired six of eight total shots during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that resulted in the death of rancher Robert LaVoy Finicum, authorities said. The first three shots were fired at the truck Finicum was driving as it approached an FBI roadblock, and none of those shots struck Finicum or the other occupants of the truck. The final three shots fired by police were the fatal ones, all of which struck Finicum in the torso after he had left the truck and appeared to be reaching into his jacket near the area of a gun.

Of the eight shots fired, the six shots fired by the Oregon State Police were justified, and, in fact, necessary, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said.

Two other shots  neither of which hit Finicum  were fired by FBI Hostage Rescue Team agents. Those agents, however, allegedly did not disclose their role in the incident during the subsequent investigation. They are currently the subject of an ongoing investigation by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Justice and Deschutes County.

Officials at Tuesdays news conference played synched videos of the encounter, one taken by an occupant of Finicums truck and the other recorded by an official aerial vehicle, which showed the final, anxious moments of Finicums life.

Finicum and other members of the militia had been on their way to a public meeting Jan. 26 when Oregon State Police pulled the groups two trucks over, intent on arresting several members for the illegal occupation. The occupants of one of the vehicles, including the militias leader, Ammon Bundy, complied. Finicum and two other people in his truck did not.

At one point, Finicum can be seen and heard leaning out the driver side window yelling, You can go ahead and shoot me and Okay boys, this is gonna get real. You want blood on your hands?

Eventually, Finicum takes off from the traffic stop, driving at a reported 70 mph as he approaches a roadblock set up a little more than a mile from the initial stop. Finicum yells hold on as he tries to veer into the snow and steer around the roadblock, nearly hitting a police officer in the process. But Finicum ultimately crashes into a 3-foot high snowbank and the truck comes to a stop.

Under Oregon law, Mr. Finicum was using his truck as a dangerous weapon, Norris said.

Finicum then exited the vehicle, ignoring three commands by police to lie down on the ground. Though Finicum has his hands out for most of the brief encounter, he reached with his right hand toward his left jacket pocket three times. Police later found a 9-mm. handgun in that pocket. Officers had also been told to expect that Finicum would be armed with a pistol.

The first two times Finicum reached near his jacket officers held their fire. But the third time, two officers fired the shots that killed him. At the time, an Oregon trooper was attempting to get near enough to Finicum to use a Taser to apprehend him by non-lethal means.

[The cops] believed he was reaching for a handgun and believed he was about to use deadly force against them of the trooper armed with a Taser, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said.
A former Alabama armored transportation company worker has agreed to plead guilty to stealing nearly $200,000, all in quarters, federal prosecutors said.



The U.S. attorney's office in Birmingham said 49-year-old Stephen Lancaster Dennis of Harpersville agreed to plead guilty to theft.



A statement released Monday about the case said Dennis has to repay $196,000 to Brink's Co., the armored transportation company he worked for at the time of the heist.



Prosecutors said Dennis was a money-processing manager at a Brink's facility in Birmingham, where coins were stored for the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank. They said the man took 784,000 quarters in early 2014 by using beads to fill bags that were supposed to contain $50,000 each in quarters.



Dennis faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
A gunman who tried to shoot his co-workers at a Florida store Monday slowly approached them in the back of the building, pulled out his weapon, and said, "You better run."

But when he tried to pull the trigger, investigators said his gun jammed.

That may have given his colleagues the time they needed to escape. In fact, deputies say the man's gun jammed a second time before it finally fired. They say he managed to shoot just one co-worker, who's now recovering in the hospital in good condition.

The gunman, 34-year-old James Cameau, had been feeling dejected while working at the Jacksonville Granite store, Fox 30 reports. He went home at his lunch break and returned with a semi-automatic pistol, WFMY adds.

As many as 11 employees were in the back of the store when Cameau approached, Clay County Undersheriff Craig Aldrich said. Once the man's gun jammed, they reportedly bolted to the front of the store and toward their cars.

Once his gun started working, he fired several shots, investigators add.

One shot hit employee Dean Hagins Jr. in the back. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital. Other shots hit cars outside the building.

Investigators arrived within minutes, but they say Cameau had barricaded himself inside a closet where security equipment was stored. Once they found him, they say he'd shot and killed himself.

"A tragedy was averted today," Aldrich said. He said Cameau had been arrested just once before, for driving under the influence of alcohol. Investigators are still looking into why he chose to open fire.

Click for more from Fox 30.
A brawl that erupted at a high school cafeteria in Ohio Tuesday forced police to deploy pepper spray as officials canceled classes for the rest of the day and Wednesday, local media report.

Police handcuffed at least six people at East High School in Youngstown, according to WKBN.

It's not clear what sparked the fight. The school has come under increased scrutiny over trouble disciplining students, The Youngstown Vindicator adds.

Police said they helped get the brawl under control by locking students and staff in classrooms. Some students complained about the pepper spray, but there were no reports of anybody seriously hurt.

Superintendent Steve Stohla told reporters the school would close Wednesday in part to give everyone a chance to calm down. He said it came on the advice of police.

Youngstown is approximately 70 miles southeast of Cleveland.
Trustees and alumni at a presitigious Ohio college are turning up the heat on the school administration, which has so far taken no action against a nutty professor who believes Jews were behind 9/11 and the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in France.

The Board of Trustees at Oberlin College demanded answers in a statement posted on the school's own website, with Chairman Clyde McGregor blasting "rhetoric and composition" Professor Joy Karega for anti-Semitic online postings.

These postings are anti-Semitic and abhorrent, McGregor said in the statement. We deplore anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry. They have no place at Oberlin.

As an Oberlin alumna, I can tell you that the vile anti-Semitism now on full public display before the nation has festered on the campus for decades.  Michelle Malkin

These grave issues must be considered expeditiously, he continued, adding that the school and faculty must "challenge the assertion that there is any justification for these repugnant postings and to report back to the Board.

On Monday, Oberlin officials released a joint statement with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, AJC Cleveland, the Anti-Defamation League Cleveland Region and the Cleveland Hillel Foundation, which met with Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov and his senior staff.

In a welcoming atmosphere, we discussed, openly and candidly, the potential implications of a professors personal views on classroom activity and student intimidation, the statement reads. We also discussed our shared respect for academic freedom."

The groups also announced that college is following procedures already in place to deal with the matter.

A school spokesman told FoxNews.com that no action has been taken as of yet.

Nothing has been changed since we posted the board statement, he said.

The latest stance from Oberlin brass was a stark departure from the initial response.

In a short statement released in February, officials for the school stated that they respected Karega's right to express her views.

Oberlin College respects the rights of its faculty, students, staff, and alumni to express their personal views, reads the statement. Acknowledgement of this right does not signal institutional support for, or endorsement of, any specific position.

Last week, Krislow released a statement defending academic freedom.

The screenshots affected me on a very personal level. I am a practicing Jew, grandson of an Orthodox rabbi. Members of our family were murdered in the Holocaust, Krislow said in his open letter. As someone who has studied history, I cannot comprehend how any person could or would question its existence, its horrors, and the evil which caused it.

I am also the son of a tenured faculty member at a large research university he also said. My father instilled in me a strong belief in academic freedom. I believe, as the American Association of University Professors says, that academic freedom is the indispensable quality of institutions of higher education because it encourages free inquiry, promotes the expansion of knowledge, and creates an environment in which learning and research can flourish.

The offensive posts go as far back as January 2015, when Karega posted an image of an ISIS terrorist pulling off and Mask with the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the caption, FRANCE WANTS TO FREE PALESTINE? TIME FOR A FALSE FLAG

The non-tenured professor also claimed in another post that the Islamic State is not Islamic, but rather a CIA and Mossad operation, writing "theres too much information out here for the general public not to know this.

She also once claimed that Israeli and Zionist Jews orchestrated the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

Karegas social media screeds on Facebook are just the latest in a string of incidents perceived by many as anti-Semitic on the famously liberal college campus.

As recently as January, some 200 Oberlin College graduates signed an open letter to the northern Ohio school, blasting what they called a hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty on campus. The critics charged that the Boycott, Divest from, and Sanction Israel movement on campus has morphed into raw racism.

"Several student organizations at Oberlin have assumed the role as the mouthpiece of the BDS movement, which claims to be a defender of Palestinian rights, but whose inflammatory language falsely portraying Israel as an illegitimate, colonialist and murderous regime demonstrates that its primary goal is to demonize the Jewish state," reads part of the letter.

Conservative columnist and Oberlin alum Michelle Malkin said anti-Israeli rhetoric has long been in fashion on the idyllic campus.

As an Oberlin alumna, I can tell you that the vile anti-Semitism now on full public display before the nation has festered on the campus for decades, Malkin tells FoxNews.com. Despite its professed commitment to tolerance and diversity, the left-wing faculty, administration, and much of the student body have embraced Israel-bashing and Jew hatred as a feature, not a bug, of an Oberlin education.

Malkin said it is troubling that school has not taken any action.

The waffling and spinelessness of Oberlin's president Marvin Krislov is also no surprise, she says. He and other tenured radicals are much more comfortable manufacturing fake hate crime and hate speech outrage than they are with dealing with the real deal.

Karega posted a final statement on Facebook Saturday, saying she was done talking about the issue.

I will no longer be making any statements concerning my situation at Oberlin, she wrote in her post. We have reached a point where it is time for me to defer to my legal counsel.
A police chief who rushed without backup into a Kansas lawnmower factory and fatally shot a gunman who had killed three people and wounded 14 more insisted Tuesday that it was no act of heroism and that any officer would have acted as he did.

In his first public statement since the Feb. 25 shootings, Hesston Police Chief Doug Schroeder said he was thankful for Excel Industries employees who provided valuable information to help him locate the gunman inside the facility.

About 300 people were working second shift at the Hesston plant when Cedric L. Ford -- apparently upset about a former girlfriend's protection from abuse order that had been served hours earlier -- barged in armed with an assault-type rifle and a pistol and opened fire.

Schroeder, one of a force of just six full-time officers in the town 30 miles north of Wichita, entered the plant alone to stop him.

"I feel God has prepared me throughout my life and career for these events. I am not a hero," Schroeder said. "I know hundreds of law enforcement officers, each one of them with a different skill set, personality and abilities. I can't think of one officer who wouldn't have done the same thing I did."

After the shootings, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton called Schroeder a "tremendous hero" and said Ford would have undoubtedly shot more people had the police chief not halted his rampage.

Schroeder cited stories he has heard about employees helping each other to safety and providing first aid to injured co-workers.

Ford shot two people en route to the factory and another 15 at the plant, three of whom died.

The police chief offered his condolences to the families of the victims and thanked the first responders and crisis management personnel who responded to the shooting.

"The citizens of Hesston, Newton and Harvey County are resilient. No one had to ask for an extra measure of patience with each other; they just gave it," he said. "Thank you for the support and caring you have shown me and my family. I look forward to returning to a leadership role in the community as we all begin to heal."

The city said Schroeder would not be talking to the media. The Associated Press left a phone message for Walton on Tuesday requesting an update on the investigation.

The plant, which has been closed since the shooting, is expected to resume operations on Thursday.
Chicago police say they identified the triggerman in the execution-style murder of a 9-year-old Chicago boy last November after the suspect bragged about the shooting while in jail.

Police charged 22-year-old Dwright Boone-Doty with the murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee. The boy was lured from a park to a nearby alley and shot in the head, police say, as part of an ongoing gang feud.

I have been a prosecutor in Chicago for nearly thirty years and I tried hundreds of cases involving senseless gang violence and gang-related homicides on the streets of Chicago that involved unspeakable acts of rage and violence but I must tell you today that I dont think Ive ever been more disgusted and appalled, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

The killing on Chicago's South Side was in retaliation against Tyshawns father, according to police. Boone-Doty was arrested on unrelated gun charges later that month.

Fox News learned Boone-Doty also was surveilling the grandmother of Tyshawn Lee and potentially had plans to kill her. Police say the suspect initially planned on torturing the 9-year-old boy by cutting off his ears and fingers.

Investigators were able to tie Boone-Doty to the shooting when police say an inmate informant in the Cook County Jail told authorities the suspect boasted about shooting Tyshawn Lee. Detectives obtained court authorization for the informant to wear a wire, which captured Boone-Doty linking himself to Tyshawns death as well as an October slaying of 19-year-old Brianna Jenkins.

The jail informant also told police that the suspect planned on writing a rap song about the brutal murder.

Police say Corey Morgan, 27, also was charged with Tyshawns murder. There is a warrant for the arrest of a third suspect, Kevin Edwards, 22, in relation to the killing.

Initially, police say Tyshawns father did not cooperate, as part of a gang code of silence. However, investigators now say he is speaking to them.

Tyshawn was shot in the head and grazed in the back, right forearm and right hand, according to an autopsy report reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The man being hunted by police in connection with a quadruple homicide on Monday night is now suspected in the death of a fifth man on Tuesday.

Officials said Pablo Serrano-Vitorino, who may be armed with an AK-47, may be responsible for the shooting death of a 49-year-old Missouri man in his Montgomery County home, ABC17 reported. The murder occurred near where Serrano-Vitorino abandoned his pickup truck.

Montgomery County schools were on lockdown Tuesday.



Officials said Serrano-Vitorino, 36, was a neighbor of the four men shot and killed on Monday, according to FOX4. Authorities said he was believed to be at the Kansas City, Kan. house when the shooting unfolded.

Three men were dead when police arrived at the residence around 11 p.m. Monday, and a fourth, found on the porch, died later from his injuries. One of the men was able to place the initial phone call to police. The identities of those killed have not been released.

Cops found Serrano-Vitorinos red 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck abandoned in Missouri on Tuesday, shortly before discovering the body of the Montgomery County man.



Serrano-Vitorino was in Wyandotte County Jail in June 2015 for alleged domestic battery, a Wyandotte County Sheriffs Office spokesperson told FOX4.

Click for more from FOX4.
An Indiana man who police say confessed to killing seven women was charged with murder Monday in five of the slayings and now faces the death penalty in each of the cases.

The Lake County Prosecutor's Office filed the charges against Darren Vann, 44, in the deaths of Teaira Batey, 28; Tracy Martin, 41; Kristine Williams, 36; Sonya Billingsley, 53; and Tanya Gatlin, 27. The women's bodies were found in 2014 in abandoned buildings in northwest Indiana.

Vann, of Gary, was already charged with murder in the strangulation deaths of Afrikka Hardy, 19, and Anith Jones, 35. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in all seven cases, The (Munster) Times reported.

Police said shortly after the bodies were found that Vann had confessed to all seven killings. Calls to the prosecutor's office during business hours Monday went directly to a recording.

One of Vann's attorneys, Gojko Kasich, said he has not yet seen the court documents and could not comment on the new charges.

Vann was arrested Oct. 18, 2014, a day after Hammond officers found Hardy strangled to death inside a motel room. The other bodies were found in buildings across Gary.

Billingsley and Gatlin were the last two women to be identified, nearly four months after Vann's arrest.

Vann has pleaded not guilty in the Hardy and Jones deaths.

According to court records, a brown cord recovered by detectives contained DNA from Hardy and Jones, and Jones' DNA was found on a pair of Vann's shoes. Prosecutors contend Vann used the cord to kill both women. A judge last year granted the state's request to prevent the coroner's office from releasing the autopsy reports on Hardy and Jones.

It was not immediately clear whether the new charges would affect Vann's trial date of July 25.


Iraqi Christians are begging for help from the civilized world after Mosul, the northern city where they have lived and worshiped for 2,000 years, was purged of non-Muslims by ISIS, the jihadist terror group that claims to have established its own nation in the region.

Assyrian Christians, including Chaldean and Syriac Catholics, Syriac Orthodox and followers of the Assyrian Church of the East have roots in present day Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran that stretch back to the time of Jesus Christ. While they have long been a minority and have faced persecution in the past, they had never been driven completely from their homes as has happened in Mosul under ISIS. When the terror group ordered all to convert to Islam, pay a religious tax or face execution, many chose another option: flight.

"By 12 noon on Saturday, the Christians -- all of them -- left the city," Yousif Habash, an Iraqi-born bishop of the Syriac Catholic Church, told FoxNews.com.

Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, included 60,000 Christians in 2003. By last month, the number had dwindled to just 35,000. It now stands at zero, according to Ignatius Yousef Younan III, patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church.

"We have to pray to wake our master, the Lord Jesus," a somber Younan, who was in Mosul earlier this month and has discussed the situation with the Pope, said Wednesday on Fox & Friends.

Habash, who roundly criticized the Obama administration and the United Nations, specifically, for what he called their "careless absence" in taking action against the militants, said such violent intolerance demanded action from the international community.

[pullquote]

"Where is the conscience of the world? Where is the United Nations? Where is the American administration to protect peace and justice?" he asked. "Nobody has said a word."

Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, is the "first cradle of Christianity in Iraq," Habash said. But after Islamic militants seized the city on June 10, Arabic letters with a chilling ultimatum were left at the homes of Iraqi Christians.

"The letter said that if you don't convert or if you don't pay, there is a sword between you and us, meaning execution," Habash said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned ISIS's actions on Sunday, a day after Mosul's Christian population fled to other areas, such as the nearby self-rule Kurdish region.

"What is being done by the Daesh terrorist gang against our Christian citizens in Ninevah province, and their aggression against the churches and houses of worship in the areas under their control reveals beyond any doubt the extremist criminal and terrorist nature of this group," al-Maliki said in a statement released by his office. "Those people, through their crimes, are revealing their true identity and the false allegations made here and there about the existence of revolutionaries among their ranks."

Pope Francis also called for an end to Christian persecution in Mosul, holding a moment of silence Sunday in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

"Violence isn't overcome with violence. Violence is conquered with peace," the pope told the crowd. "Our brothers and sisters are persecuted, they are chased away."

The U.N. said on Sunday that at least 400 families from Mosul -- including other religious and ethnic minority groups -- had sought refuge in the northern provinces of Irbil and Dohuk.

Dr. Sallama Al Khafaji, a member of the Iraq High Commission for Human Rights, reportedly told a local news agency that ISIS militants forced their way into the home of an Assyrian family in Mosul, demanding a "jizya" or poll tax. When the family said they could not produce the money, three jihadist militants raped the mother and daughter in front of the husband and father, who later committed suicide, according to the report.

Mosul is home to some of the most ancient Christian communities, but the number of Christians has dwindled since 2003. On Sunday, militants seized the 1,800-year old Mar Behnam Monastery, about 15 miles south of Mosul. The resident clergymen left to the nearby city of Qaraqoush, according to local residents.

Irbil's governor, Nawzad Hadi, has pledged to protect fleeing Christians and other minority groups. The territory is currently home to more than 2 million refugees and internally displaced people from Iraq and Syria, according to the United Nations.

FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Iran sentences tycoon to death for alleged corrpution

An Iranian court has sentenced a well-known tycoon to death for corruption linked to oil sales during the rule of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the judiciary spokesman said Sunday.

Babak Zanjani and two of his associates were sentenced to death for "money laundering," among other charges, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi said in brief remarks broadcast on state TV. He did not identify the two associates. Previous state media reports have said the three were charged with forgery and fraud.

"The court has recognized the three defendants as 'corruptors on earth' and sentenced them to death," said Ejehi. "Corruptors on earth" is an Islamic term referring to crimes that are punishable by death because they have a major impact on society. The verdict, which came after a nearly five-month trial, can be appealed.

A news website run by the judiciary identified the two associates as British-Iranian businessman Mahdi Shams, who was detained in 2015, and the other as Hamid Fallah Heravi, a retired businessman.

Zanjani was arrested in 2013 during a crackdown on alleged corruption during Ahmadinejad's rule. Iran's Oil Ministry says Zanjani owes more than $2.25 billion for oil sales he made on behalf of Ahmadinejad's government.

Zanjani is one of Iran's wealthiest businessmen, with a fortune worth an estimated $14 billion. He was arrested shortly after the election of President Hassan Rouhani, who ordered a crackdown on alleged corruption during the eight-year rule of his hard-line predecessor.

Iran has in the past executed other wealthy individuals found guilty of similar charges. In 2014, Iran executed billionaire businessman Mahafarid Amir Khosravi over corruption charges.



URL

https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-sentences-tycoon-to-death-for-alleged-corrpution
Six months after fleeing a Taliban assault on her city, the owner of an Afghan radio station devoted to women's rights is back home and returning to the airwaves.

Zarghona Hassan is a lifelong activist and the founder of a radio station in Kunduz that until last year reached hundreds of thousands of listeners across northern Afghanistan, where the vast majority of women are illiterate and largely confined to their homes.

Radio Shaesta  Pashto for "beauty"  had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence.

A program called "Unwanted Traditions" took a critical look at centuries-old Afghan customs, like the forced marriage of young girls in order to resolve disputes. "Introducing Elites" featured interviews with women who have succeeded in politics and activism, and those who have helped other women in their communities.

"We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights, of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats," Hassan said.

Programming also encouraged women to take an active role in ending the country's 15-year war by exhorting their brothers and sons to lay down arms, she said.

Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan, where the literacy rate is less than 40 percent and much of the population lives in remote communities. Wind-up radios requiring no batteries are popular and widely accessible in communities where electricity is erratic or non-existent.

In northern Afghanistan, where just 15 percent of women can read and write, radio is a rare portal to the outside world. The U.N. Development Program says Shaesta reached up to 800,000 people.

"I've met illiterate women weaving carpets with the radio on because they can listen and it doesn't interrupt their work," Hassan said. "I once met a farmer out in his field who had a radio hooked over the horn of one of his cows."

Hassan often invited Islamic scholars onto her programs to give their seal of approval. But the Taliban, who espouse a harsh version of Shariah law, view her and other women's rights activists as purveyors of Western influence who threaten the country's moral fabric.

She has received more death threats than she can count, one of which even specified an exact date. So when the insurgents stormed into Kunduz on Sept. 28, she knew she had to run.

"The Taliban had a list of all the women who were working in the government, civil society, media, women's organizations," she said. "I knew they were going to come for me." She hid in a relative's basement for two days before donning an all-covering burqa and fleeing the city.

The Taliban held Kunduz for three days, during which they looted businesses and hunted down activists and journalists. Afghan forces backed by U.S. airstrikes pushed them out more than two weeks later, but by then the militants had looted Shaesta and burned it to the ground, along with another radio outlet run by Hassan that was oriented toward youth.

Now, six months later, she has returned to Kunduz, and Shaesta has come back on air in time for International Women's Day on March 8. She was able to rebuild the station with a $9,000 grant from the UNDP, which said it hopes to encourage a "courageous voice for change."

"Women's rights are a key lever toward improving the lives of the entire community," said UNDP country director Douglas Keh. "When women and girls have the same opportunities (as men and boys) in education, and the same economic opportunities, society as a whole benefits."
As many as eight rockets fired from Syrian territory controlled by the Islamic State terror group landed in Turkey on Tuesday, killing two people including a 4-year-old boy, officials said.

The mayor of the border city of Kilis, Hasan Kara, said Turkish artillery retaliated by firing at ISIS targets in Syria.

At least one of the rockets fired from Syria hit a neighborhood in Kilis, killing a woman and injuring two boys riding inside a car. The youngest boy died on his way to hospital, while his 6-year-old brother was in stable condition.

Kara said officials were urging people in the area to stay indoors. Schools in Kilis were evacuated and would remain closed.

The Turkish military has been retaliating to any rockets or shells fired from Syria that land on Turkish territory in line with its rules of engagement.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said one of the rockets fired from Syria landed in an area close to a hospital. At least two rockets fired exploded on empty land.

A black plume of smoke was seen rising from a building in the residential district, Reuters reported, citing TRT World.

It was not clear exactly who fired the rockets. It is not uncommon for a stray rocket to land in southern Turkey due to the civil war unfolding not far away.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Beheadings, imprisonment and eviction from ancestral homelands made 2015 the worst year on record for persecution of Christians, with North Korea topping a list of 10 otherwise Muslim nations as the most dangerous places for followers of the Gospel, according to a new report.

Islamic extremism and authoritarian governments combined to make last year the worst in modern history for Christians around the world, according to Open Doors USA. The trend spiked upward in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, with thousands of Christians killed or imprisoned, and even more chased from their homes.

"Islamic extremism continues to be the primary driving force behind the expansion of persecution, said Open Doors President and CEO David Curry. It is no longer just a Christian problem, but a global problem that must be addressed.

It is no longer just a Christian problem, but a global problem that must be addressed.  David Curry, Open Doors USA

An estimated 7,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2015, up nearly 50 percent from the previous year and the highest number since such statistics have been tracked. Nigeria, Eritrea and Pakistan were among the countries that experienced the biggest  and bloodiest  spikes.

"The report confirms what we have seen develop in these countries -- a rise in Islamic extremism that tragically targets minority religions -- especially Christians, said Jay Sekulow, chief council for the American Center for Law and Justice. The brutality is unspeakable, with nearly 1 million Christians being slaughtered or displaced in the Middle East.

It is up to the United States to bring about change, according to Curry.

As the dominant power in the free world, [the U.S.] must lead the charge in bringing more relief and aid to those suffering," he said.

Of the top 10 countries on the list, nine are of a Muslim majority, but topping the list is the totalitarian regime of North Korea.

Under the family dynasty now ruled by Kim Jong Un, Christianity is seen as a Western-based mass delusion. Out of the countrys estimated 300,000 Christians, nearly 70,000 are imprisoned in the Hermit Kingdoms notoriously brutal labor camps. Those Christians that are not imprisoned are forced to hide their faith, even from members of their extended families.

Driven by ISIS violent reign in the north and west, Iraq was the second most dangerous place for Christians last year. The terrorist organization, which has a large presence in Iraq, Syria and Libya, has made beheading of Christians its bloody hallmark, even as it cleanses large swaths of the Middle East of all religious minorities.

The number of Bible followers there has fallen to an estimated 275,000, from 1.5 million in 2003. Some experts in the international community believe that the Middle Eastern country could see its Christian population completely gone within five years. The dwindling numbers are due to genocide, flight and forced conversions at the hands of ISIS jihadists.

The countrys second-largest city, Mosul, was once home to a thriving Christian community as old as the religion itself, but was overrun by ISIS and purged of its Christian residents.

Third on the list is the African nation of Eritrea, where Christians are systematically imprisoned for their faith by an authoritarian regime.

Also in the top 10 were Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Libya.

Sekulow says that more needs to be done in Washington to combat the seemingly global issue.

We continue to urge the full Congress and the Obama administration to act, he said. We've heard from nearly 215,000 Americans who understand what's at stake: Christians are being murdered daily because of their faith."
Pakistani security agents on Tuesday recused the son of a slain governor, abducted five years ago from the eastern city of Lahore just eight months after his father's assassination, officials said.

According to government spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar, a joint operation by the country's intelligence agency, paramilitary forces and the counter-terrorism police found Shahbaz Taseer in the Kuchlak area near Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province, which shares a border with Afghanistan.

The now 33-year-old Taseer was kept hostage in the room behind a local hotel, said the spokesman. Wasay Khan, spokesman of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said Taseer was safe and well and that he will be taken to the city of Lahore to be reunited with his family.

The operation was conducted after intelligence reports that some people brought a man from across the border and kept him in Kuchlak, Khan said. He did not provide more details of the rescue operation.

Taseer was abducted in August 2011, eight month after his father, secular Gov. Salman Taseer, was assassinated in Islamabad by his guard, Mumtaz Qadri, over accusations of blasphemy. Qadri was convicted of the killing and hanged last week in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The hanging triggered protests in several cities and tens of thousands of Pakistanis attended Qadri's funeral in Rawalpindi.

Qadri had said he killed Taseer because the governor had allegedly committed blasphemy by campaigning to change the laws and by supporting a jailed Christian woman accused of desecrating Islam's holy book, the Quran.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws allow for anyone convicted of insulting Islam or the Prophet Muhammad to be sentenced to death, though people often take the law into their own hands.

In a related development, a group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban and calling itself Jamat-ul-Ahrar had claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on Monday outside a courthouse in the northwestern city of Shabqadar.

The group said the bombing that killed 17 people -- according to the latest death toll reported on Tuesday -- was a revenge for the hanging of Qadri. Initially, 11 were reported slain in the explosion but the death toll rose after six of the more than 20 people who were wounded died in hospitals overnight.

The local Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups have been waging war against the state for over a decade, killing tens of thousands of people. Jamat-ul-Ahrar described the bombing as an attack on the judiciary, which "gives verdicts against God's divine laws."

Meanwhile, Pakistan's military said Tuesday it has entered the final phase of an offensive against the militants in the tribal northwestern region. Overnight airstrikes targeted several hideouts in the town of Shawal, killing 21 militants, according to a statement by the Pakistani army.
The Latest on Syria's conflict (all times local):

2:10 p.m.

An official says at least three rockets fired from Syria have landed on the Turkish side of the border, killing one person and injuring another.

The mayor of the border city of Kilis, Hasan Kara, said one of the rockets hit a populated neighborhood causing the casualties and widespread panic. Two other rockets exploded on empty land.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said one of the rockets landed in an area close to a hospital.

It was not immediately clear who fired the rockets or whether Turkey's military has fired back in response.

The Turkish military has been retaliating to any rockets or shells fired from Syria that land on Turkish territory.

___

11:20 a.m.

The U.N. envoy for Syria will begin holding "substantive" talks between the Syrian government and the opposition no later than Monday.

A spokeswoman for Staffan de Mistura says the talks will officially start on Wednesday but logistics and other issues mean that delegations are likely to arrive in Geneva over several days.

Spokeswoman Jessy Chahine specified the timetable on Tuesday, amid media reports giving various dates for the start of the talks.

The last attempt at peace talks collapsed within days in early February over a Russian-backed government offensive near the northern city of Aleppo. A U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire that began late last month has significantly reduced the violence.

Chahine says a task force focused on humanitarian aid and ceasing hostilities would meet Wednesday.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has assured visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that Islamabad is still supporting a fragile peace process in neighboring Afghanistan.

His comments on Tuesday came days after the Taliban announced that they would not participate in proposed peace talks with the Afghan government until foreign forces stop attacking their positions and leave the country. The Taliban announcement was seen as a setback to efforts made by Pakistan, Washington and Beijing to arrange face-to-face talks this month between Kabul and the Taliban in Islamabad.

A government statement says Khan made his comments Tuesday during a meeting with Hammond, who arrived here after holding talks with the Afghan leadership.
South Korea said Tuesday it will sanction 40 individuals and 30 organizations abroad, mostly in North Korea, as part of its unilateral punitive measures on the North for its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.



The announcement came a day after North Korea warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes in response to the start of Seoul-Washington military drills it views as an invasion rehearsal. This year's annual drills are the largest ever.



The South Korean government said in a statement that the sanctions target 38 individuals and 24 organizations in North Korea, and two individuals with nationalities of third countries and six organizations in other countries.



The statement said South Koreans will be barred from engaging in financial dealings with those blacklisted people and organizations, whose asserts in South Korea will be frozen.



South Korea also said it will ban the entrance of any ship which has also stopped at a North Korean port in the previous 180 days. Currently only North Korean ships are banned.



It's unclear how much the South Korean steps will sting in North Korea, which has already had rounds of international sanctions imposed on it for its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. Security Council last week adopted its toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades.



But Seoul's announcement underscores a continuation of its hard-line policy on the North. South Korea already shut down the operation of a jointly run factory park in North Korea, the last major cooperation project between the rivals, in the wake of the ongoing tension.



Earlier Tuesday, Seoul's spy agency accused North Korea of having hacked into the smartphones of dozens of key South Korean officials, stealing text and voice messages and their phone call logs.



The National Intelligence Service said in a statement that the cyberattacks were made between late February and early March. It didn't say which officials' phones were hacked or whether the stolen text and voice messages contained any sensitive information.



The statement said North Korea also unsuccessfully tried to hack into email accounts of South Korean railway officials earlier this year in a preparation for cyberattack on the South's railway transport control system.



There was no immediate reaction from North Korea. Seoul has accused Pyongyang of launching a slew of cyberattacks in recent years. Pyongyang has denied the claims.


SAFE HOMECARE Announces Franchise Opportunities For Aspiring Entrepreneurs That Have A Passion For Providing Personal Care

SAFE HOMECARE, a Licensed Homecare Agency Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Is Now Offering Franchising Opportunities Throughout the United States.

February 11, 2016 // Franchising.com // TULSA, Oklahoma  SAFE HOMECARE is proud to announce that they are currently offering franchise opportunities to qualified candidates throughout the United States, effective today. Qualified applicants who are awarded the opportunity to own and operate a franchise will be provided with an exceptional business model, extensive training, and consistent, ongoing support from senior management.

SAFE HOMECARE provides non-medical, in-home care and companionship services that make a significant difference in the lives of seniors, adults, and others needing assistance in their daily lives. The services provided by SAFE HOMECARE include: one-on-one time, companionship, mealpreparation, laundry and light housekeeping, basic medications management, personal care (including shower assistance, incontinent & colostomy care),transportation to/from appointments, Dementia and Alzheimers support, pet care/dog walking, and more.

The Company, founded by Jeff Krueger in 2014, prides itself on providing no-cost in-home nurse assessments and top tier professional caregivers who are not just a warm body, but who provide compassionate interactive care - reliably, consistently and professionally to those in need of assistance up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

All caregivers at SAFE HOMECARE are thoroughly screened, bonded, insured, and monitored/evaluated by an on-staff nurse, on an ongoing basis, to ensure the highest quality of care and companionship is delivered each and every time.

SAFE HOMECARE already has an established market presence and substantial market penetration throughout the metro area of Tulsa, Oklahoma. From that highly successful platform, the company is looking[VJ1] to initially expand the SAFE HOMECARE brand throughout the United States.

According to Adam Krueger, COO, the senior population demographics are exploding, signifying the right time to consider the next big thing, which is supplementing the daily needs of the aging baby boomers.

Ty Timmons, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Company points out that being in on the market opportunities associated with the silver wave is todays equivalent of being on the ground floor of the Internet boom. Dont we all wish we had been at the right time and place in our lives to have been able to take advantage of that emerging market opportunity? asks Timmons.

SAFE HOMECARE has built a business model to enable the right candidates, those individuals who possess the caring gene and who want to make a meaningful difference, to seize this opportunity to participate in the ever-growing senior care market. Everyday nearly 10,000 people turn age 65, and many of the them need, or will need in the near future, in-home care and companionship services. According to AARP, 92 percent of people over the age of 65 want to stay in their homes as long as possible.

SAFE HOMECARE has very high standards of care, professionalism and accountability, says CEO, Jeff Krueger. Having worked tirelessly to position and maintain the SAFE HOMECARE brand as the preferred provider of caregivers in the communities we serve, we have established and maintained extremely high performance standards  so we are very selective in deciding which candidates are awarded a franchisee.

Potential franchise candidates can expect to receive a tested and perfected model, extensive training and on-going management support, materials and the benefit of the senior management teams experience. During franchisee training, at the corporate headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, franchisees will learn all things SAFE HOMECARE, including the companys unique and highly successful marketing strategies, which are essential ingredients to maximizing location performance.

It may be hard to believe, but the demographic reality is that someone in the U.S will be turning 65 years of age every 11 seconds for the next 20 years, adds Krueger. This is a terrific opportunity for those looking to become their own boss, while engaging in an undertaking that also has the additional reward of making a difference by improving peoples lives.

To Learn More About Becoming a SAFE HOMECARE Franchisee, Please Visit The SAFE HOMECARE Website, safehomecarefranchise.com, or contact SAFE HOMECARE at Franchise@safehomecare.com or 855-953 Safe (7233).

SOURCE SAFE HOMECARE

Contacts:

Lamont Johnson

The Art Department, LLC

305.219.2242.

lamont@artdepartmentpr.com

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Chipotle's Cultivate Festival Debuts in Miami; Returns to Phoenix & Kansas City

Schedule announced for popular music, food and ideas festival; fans can text to win the ultimate Cultivate experience.

DENVER - (BUSINESS WIRE) - March 8, 2016 - Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) has announced the preliminary lineup for its 2016 Cultivate food, music and ideas festivals, with events returning to Phoenix and Kansas City for a second year, and one debuting in Miami.

This year marks the sixth year of the Cultivate Festival, which encourages attendees to think and talk about food and food issues in a fun and engaging environment. Cultivate Phoenix will be held Saturday, April 30, at WestWorld of Scottsdale; Cultivate Kansas City Saturday, July 23, in Penn Valley Park; and Cultivate Miami Saturday, Nov. 12, in Bayfront Park. All festivals start at 11 a.m. and end at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

"We are changing the way people think about and eat fast food, and that includes helping people understand how food is raised and prepared," said Mark Crumpacker, chief creative and development officer at Chipotle. "The Cultivate events allow us to bring people together for a celebration of food and music, but also to educate them about how food can be raised responsibly and prepared safely."

In addition to live music and on-site chef demonstrations, each Cultivate event will include five interactive experiences focused on sustainable food - including activities that allow attendees to explore the importance of animal welfare; issues surrounding genetically modified foods, or GMOs; the secret to making Chipotle's famous guacamole; and the reality of processed foods. The events also feature a Kids' Zone that will feature activities and snacks.

All three festivals will have an Artisans' Hall featuring local artisanal desserts for purchase and a Tasting Hall serving local specialty beers, wines and ciders. Each festival also will feature Cultivate Mexican Lager, a Mexican-style lager brewed exclusively for Cultivate through a collaboration among nationally acclaimed breweries Arizona Wilderness (Cultivate Phoenix), Boulevard Brewing (Cultivate Kansas City) and Cigar City Brewing (Cultivate Miami).

Chipotle has also partnered with IZZE to give customers a chance to win a trip for two to the 2016 Cultivate Festival of the winner's choice in Phoenix, Kansas City or Miami. For more information on how to enter, and official rules, visit chipotlecultivate.com.

Festival Details

Phoenix: Cultivate Phoenix will feature musical artists Young the Giant, Echosmith, Lukas Graham, Betty Who, Holychild, and Jared & The Mill. Chefs include Aaron Sanchez (Chef/Partner at Johnny Sanchez in New Orleans and Baltimore, host of Cooking Channel's Taco Trip and judge on Food Network's "Chopped"); Amanda Freitag (co-host of Food Network's "American Diner Revival" and judge on "Chopped"; author of "The Chef Next Door"); Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix and Tucson, Pane Bianco in Phoenix); Stephen Jones (the larder + the delta); and Charleen Badman (FnB Restaurant) with Pavle Milic (FnB Restaurant, Los Milics Wine).

Cultivate Phoenix will feature musical artists Young the Giant, Echosmith, Lukas Graham, Betty Who, Holychild, and Jared & The Mill. Chefs include Aaron Sanchez (Chef/Partner at Johnny Sanchez in New Orleans and Baltimore, host of Cooking Channel's Taco Trip and judge on Food Network's "Chopped"); Amanda Freitag (co-host of Food Network's "American Diner Revival" and judge on "Chopped"; author of "The Chef Next Door"); Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix and Tucson, Pane Bianco in Phoenix); Stephen Jones (the larder + the delta); and Charleen Badman (FnB Restaurant) with Pavle Milic (FnB Restaurant, Los Milics Wine). Kansas City: Musician talent will be announced in early summer. Chefs include Andrew Zimmern (three-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and teacher); Carla Hall (Chef and Co-Host of ABC's Emmy Award-winning "The Chew," chef at Carla Hall's Southern Kitchen and author); Colby Garrelts (Chef/Co-owner of Bluestem and rye Restaurants, co-author of "Made in America" and "Bluestem" cookbooks); Gerard Craft (chef/owner of Niche Food Group: Niche, Pastaria, Porano Pasta, Brasserie by Niche and Taste Bar); and Michael Corvino (executive chef and general manager, The American Restaurant).

Musician talent will be announced in early summer. Chefs include Andrew Zimmern (three-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer and teacher); Carla Hall (Chef and Co-Host of ABC's Emmy Award-winning "The Chew," chef at Carla Hall's Southern Kitchen and author); Colby Garrelts (Chef/Co-owner of Bluestem and rye Restaurants, co-author of "Made in America" and "Bluestem" cookbooks); Gerard Craft (chef/owner of Niche Food Group: Niche, Pastaria, Porano Pasta, Brasserie by Niche and Taste Bar); and Michael Corvino (executive chef and general manager, The American Restaurant). Miami: The music lineup for Cultivate Miami will be announced later in the year. The chef stage will feature Richard Blais (chef, restaurateur, television host); Freitag; Michelle Bernstein (Crumb on Parchment, CENA by Michy, Seagrape); and Michael Schwartz (chef/restaurateur, The Genuine Hospitality Group).

Partners for the 2016 Cultivate Festivals include IZZE, Tabasco, Annie's, Breville, California Avocados, Naked Juice, Evolution Fresh, Lifeway Kefir, Loomstate, Tree Top Organic Apple Juice, Organic Valley, Plum Organics and Tea-rrific! Ice Cream.

Chipotle's inaugural Cultivate Festival was hosted in Chicago in 2011. Following its success, the festival expanded to Denver (2012 and 2013), San Francisco (2013 and 2014), Dallas (2014) and Minneapolis (2014 and 2015). The 2015 festival series marked its debut in Phoenix and Kansas City.

For more information, including specific activities at each festival, please visit: Chipotle.com/cultivate.

About Chipotle

Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO, started Chipotle with the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical fast food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere. Through our vision of Food With Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food from using ingredients that are not only fresh, but that -- where possible -- are sustainably grown and raised responsibly with respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers who produce the food. In order to achieve this vision, we focus on building a special people culture that is centered on creating teams of top performers empowered to achieve high standards. This people culture not only leads to a better dining experience for our customers, it also allows us to develop future leaders from within. Chipotle opened with a single restaurant in 1993 and operates more than 2,000 restaurants, including 20 Chipotle restaurants outside the U.S. and 13 ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen restaurants, and is an investor in an entity that owns and operates three Pizzeria Locale restaurants. For more information, visit Chipotle.com.

SOURCE Chipotle

Contact:

Danielle Moore

Chipotle

303-222-5948

dmoore@chipotle.com

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CruiseOne Recognizes Franchisee with National Business Award In Celebration of Womens History Month

CruiseOne Honors Karen Coleman-Ostrov With OPAL Award For Leadership And Community Service

March 08, 2016 // Franchising.com // Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  For the fourth year in a row, the leading home-based travel franchise CruiseOne celebrates Womens History Month in March by honoring a female CruiseOne Vacation Specialist and Franchise Owner with the OPAL Award for Women. The company has named Gilbert, Ariz. resident Karen Coleman-Ostrov the 2016 recipient of this prestigious award.

The OPAL Award recognizes a female franchise owner who demonstrates Outstanding Performance And Leadership. The honoree is active in community and civic organizations, is among CruiseOnes top selling agents and has exhibited strong business skills. Coleman-Ostrov will receive three months of waived fees and a $100 gift certificate.

We are pleased to recognize Karen with this years OPAL Award because of her passion for travel and for helping others, both in her local community and within the CruiseOne franchise system, said Tim Courtney, vice president of franchise development at CruiseOne. Karen is a role model who loves inspiring others and believes in the importance of making a positive impact in all aspects of her life.

Coleman-Ostrov has been a CruiseOne franchise owner for five years and embodies the spirit of the OPAL Award and Womens History Month through her involvement with the women-only networking groups Womens Success Referral Group and Female Empowered Networking, both of which work to empower and support local businesswomen, as well as partners with regional charities to improve the community. In addition, she has aligned herself with CruiseOnes signature charity Make-A-Wish, by donating her previous car to the organizations Wheels for Wishes initiative.

CruiseOne is committed to being Rich in Diversity and empowers all owners, agents and employees to reach their highest potential by leveraging their broad range of talent, experiences, personalities, viewpoints and ideas to generate business growth.

For more information on owning a CruiseOne travel franchise, please visit www.cruiseonefranchise.com or call 888-249-8235.

About CruiseOne

In operation since 1992, the home-based travel franchise CruiseOne is ranked in the top three percent of all franchises worldwide and is a member of the International Franchise Association. As part of World Travel Holdings, the worlds largest cruise agency and award-winning leisure travel company, CruiseOne franchisees are able to offer their customers the lowest possible pricing on vacations with its 100 percent Best Price and Satisfaction Guarantee. CruiseOne has received partner of the year, a top-ranking status, by all the major cruise lines including Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines. For more information on CruiseOne, visit www.CruiseOneFranchise.com. Like CruiseOne on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CruiseOneFranchise, and follow us on Twitter at @CruiseOneBiz.

SOURCE CruiseOne

Media Contact:

Rachel Shapiro

Public Relations Specialist

CruiseOne

954-958-3664

RShapiro@Wth.com

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Jersey Mike's Subs Opens First Harrisburg Location

Owners Celebrate With Fundraiser

March 08, 2016 // Franchising.com // Harrisburg, NC - Jersey Mikes Subs, known for its fresh sliced/fresh grilled subs, opened in Harrisburg on March 2. Franchise owners Mike and Julia Whitcomb held a grand opening fundraiser from Wednesday, March 2 to Friday, March 11 to support Hickory Ridge Middle School, Hickory Ridge High School, Pitts School Elementary, Harrisburg Elementary School and Patriots Elementary School.

The new restaurant, located at 7234 Caldwell Road, circulated 7,500 coupons throughout the community with various offers. For each offer redeemed the store will donate $2 donation to Hickory Ridge Middle School, Hickory Ridge High School, Pitts School Elementary, Harrisburg Elementary School or Patriots Elementary School.

Julia and I have lived in the Harrisburg area for over 20 years and truly love this community, said Whitcomb. Julia grew up visiting the Jersey Shore and visiting the original Jersey Mikes so when looking to open our own business we immediately thought of Jersey Mikes. It is a blessing that we are able to celebrate the opening of our family business by partnering with our local schools and we look forward to welcoming customers on opening day. Our entire family is honored and excited to serve you and your family!"

The Whitcombs are exemplary Jersey Mikes franchise owners who share the companys commitment to quality products and exceptional customer service, and who are dedicated to giving back to the local community. Since 2010, Jersey Mikes locations throughout the country have raised nearly $14 million for worthy local charities and have distributed more than 1.5 million free sub sandwiches to help numerous causes. All March long, franchisees throughout the nation are celebrating the 6th Annual Jersey Mikes Month of Giving. Last year, $3 million was raised for 150 different charities nationwide.

About Jersey Mikes

Started in 1956, Jersey Mikes now has 1,500 restaurants open and under development nationwide. In 2015, for the second year in a row, the company was named the #1 fastest growing chain in the Nations Restaurant News Top 100, and continues to win best sub awards in virtually every market it enters.

The growth is fueled by passionate Jersey Mikes fans who crave their subs made Mikes Way with the freshest vegetables  onions, lettuce and tomatoes  topped off with an exquisite zing of the juice  red wine vinegar and olive oil blended to perfection. Jersey Mikes premium meats and cheeses are sliced on the spot, piled high on in-store baked bread and served up with a helping of neighborly banter from a dedicated and high-energy team.

The restaurants hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. You can contact this location directly at (704) 454-3040.

SOURCE Jersey Mikes

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McAlisters Deli Celebrates Successful Year for Franchise Sales in 2015

Award-winning Fast Casual Concept Announces 2016 Expansion Plans for Franchise Development

March 08, 2016 // Franchising.com // ATLANTA, Ga.  McAlisters Deli, a leading fast casual chain, announced a successful year of franchise growth in 2015, with $548 million in system-wide sales. The companys success was fueled in part by new deals signed with multi-unit franchise owners from other high-profile restaurant brands.

In 2015, McAlister's opened 27 new restaurants and secured nearly 60 commitments for new restaurants. The company entered new markets, including Chicago, Rochester, and Orlando, and will continue its aggressive expansion this year with new restaurants being developed in significant markets, such as Miami, Naples, Buffalo, and northern New Jersey. This growth is fueled by both existing franchisees as well as new partnerships with experienced multi-unit franchise owners with notable portfolios.

The McAlisters Deli brand has become a top choice for some of the most successful multi-unit franchisees in the country, said McAlisters President Carin Stutz. Were thrilled about the growth of our company which is largely thanks to our dedicated franchisees.

This year, McAlister's will also remain focused on significant development in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic and is seeking experienced, multi-unit franchise owners in hopes of developing in Milwaukee, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Tampa, and Denver.

McAlister's currently operates more than 350 franchised locations in the U.S., across 27 states. The company has attracted a record number of franchise inquiries in recent years due to its quality leadership, healthy sales to investment ratio, and exceptional company performance.

To learn more about franchising opportunities with McAlisters, please contact (888) 855-DELI (3354) or franchising@mcalistersdeli.com, or visit www.mcalistersdelifranchise.com.

About McAlister's Deli

Founded in 1989, McAlister's Deli is a fast casual restaurant chain known for its sandwiches, spuds, soups, salads, desserts and McAlister's Famous Sweet Tea. In addition to dine-in and take-out service, McAlister's also offers catering with a selection of sandwich trays, box lunches, desserts, a hot spud bar and more. With numerous industry accolades, the McAlister's brand has more than 350 restaurants in 27 states. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. For more information, visit www.mcalistersdeli.com.

About FOCUS Brands Inc.

Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 5,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 60 foreign countries under the brand names Carvel, Cinnabon, Schlotzskys, Moes Southwest Grill, Auntie Annes and McAlisters Deli, as well as Seattles Best Coffee on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more.

SOURCE McAlister's Deli

Media Contact:

Lauren Tweet

Allison+Partners

(404) 832-7182

McAlisters@allisonpr.com

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Moes Southwest Grill Celebrates Record Year for Franchise Sales in 2015

Leading Southwest Brand Signed Significant Deals with Experienced Multi-Unit Franchisees

March 08, 2016 // Franchising.com // ATLANTA, Ga.  Moes Southwest Grill, a leader in the fast-casual Mexican restaurant space, experienced a strong year of results in 2015, with $641 million in system-wide sales. The companys success was fueled in part by new deals signed with multi-unit franchise owners from other high-profile restaurant brands.

In 2015, Moes opened 68 new restaurants and sold 186 new franchise deals. The company entered new markets, and will continue its aggressive expansion this year with new restaurants being developed in significant markets, including Phoenix, Tucson, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Southern California.

This is an exciting time to be a part of Moes; the franchise owners we are attracting not only see Moes as a quality brand to add to their portfolios, but genuinely want to grow with the company, said Bruce Schroder, President of Moes. The success weve experienced in 2015 gives us great momentum to build on as we continue to expand into new markets.

This year, Moes intends to continue its aggressive expansion, remaining focused on significant development in the western part of the U.S. Moes will continue to seek experienced, multi-unit franchise owners in hopes of developing throughout the state of California, the Pacific Northwest, Detroit, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Nebraska in the years to come.

Moes currently operates more than 650 franchised locations in the U.S., across 39 states. The company has attracted a record number of franchise inquiries in recent years due to its quality leadership, healthy sales-to-investment ratio, and exceptional company performance. Moes has had positive same-store sales for 25 consecutive quarters.

About Moes Southwest Grill

Welcome to Moes! Founded in 2000 in Atlanta, GA, Moes Southwest Grill is a fast-casual restaurant franchise featuring fresh, handmade, customizable southwestern food in a welcoming environment that rocks. Moes is committed to serving only the highest quality ingredients 100% of the time at all of our locations in the U.S and abroad. While Moes is best known for its burritos packed with a choice of more than 20 fresh, flavorful ingredients, the menu also features kids, vegetarian and low-calorie options, all served with free chips and salsa. Check out Moes online at www.moes.com.

About FOCUS Brands Inc.

Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 5,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 60 foreign countries under the brand names Carvel, Cinnabon, Schlotzskys, Moes Southwest Grill, Auntie Annes and McAlisters Deli, as well as Seattles Best Coffee on certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit www.focusbrands.com to learn more.

SOURCE Moes Southwest Grill

Media Contact:

Lauren Tweet

Allison+Partners

(404) 832-7182

Moes@allisonpr.com

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National Hiring Event Offers 1,000 Opportunities to Live the "Merry Maids Life"

Positions Available Across the Country

MEMPHIS, TN - (Marketwired - March 07, 2016) - Picture going to work every day to a job where you're part of a great team, your clients are excited to see you and you know that you are helping others. That's the "Merry Maids Life," and Merry Maids is offering nearly 1,000 people the opportunity to join the largest professional home cleaning company in the U.S., during its Merry Maids National Hiring Event, March 7-13.

"Working for Merry Maids isn't just a job, it's a career," said Joe Chaves, president, Merry Maids. "We're always looking to hire, develop and retain great talent. If you want a career that's focused on working with great teams, creating career opportunities and exceeding client expectations, Merry Maids has opportunities for you."

Debra Johnson, training manager and home cleaning expert, Merry Maids, said working with Merry Maids has allowed her to experience almost all aspects of the business in her nearly 18 years with the company.

"From cleaning homes, to running a branch, to now overseeing all training for franchise owners, I've been able to continue to grow in my career with Merry Maids," said Johnson, who began as a team member. "We also have several franchisees who started out as team members, decided they wanted to own their own business and now run their own business. It's up to you how far you want to go."

With more than 35 years of experience in residential cleaning, and as a business unit of ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV), Merry Maids offers a variety of growth and development opportunities, a positive work environment, and a competitive compensation package. Other benefits include:

Paid training

Weekly pay

Day work only (no nights, weekends or holidays)

Paid mileage

Employee discount offers

Full-time and part-time positions available (varies by location)

Medical and retirement plans (varies by location)

"It's very rewarding to be a part of making someone else's life better, and letting them come home to a clean home where they can relax and focus on what's most important -- family," said Johnson.

Merry Maids is encouraging interested applicants to search for job openings across the country by geographic location and apply online at www.MerryMaidsHiring.com or visit Facebook.com/merrymaids.

About Merry Maids

Merry Maids is the largest home cleaning franchise network in the United States. Merry Maids provides services in 48 states and the District of Columbia through approximately 470 company-owned locations and franchised outlets. The company also provides home cleaning services in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom and has licensing arrangements whereby licensees provide these services in Hong Kong, Japan, South America, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia. Through its company-owned and franchise locations, Merry Maids employs more than 8,000 home cleaning professionals that service homes on four continents, including more than 200,000 homes in North America every month. Merry Maids is a business unit of ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV), a leading provider of essential residential and commercial services. Go to www.merrymaids.com for more information about Merry Maids or follow us at twitter.com/MerryMaids andfacebook.com/MerryMaids.

About ServiceMaster

ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SERV) is a leading provider of essential residential and commercial services, operating through an extensive service network of more than 8,000 company-owned locations and franchise and license agreements. The company's portfolio of well-recognized brands includes American Home Shield (home warranties), AmeriSpec (home inspections), Furniture Medic (furniture repair), Merry Maids (residential cleaning), ServiceMaster Clean (janitorial), ServiceMaster Restore (disaster restoration) and Terminix (termite and pest control). We serve residential and commercial customers through an employee base of approximately 13,000 company employees and a franchise network that independently employs an estimated 33,000 additional people. The company is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. Go towww.servicemaster.com for more information about ServiceMaster or follow the company at twitter.com/ServiceMaster orfacebook.com/ServiceMaster.

SOURCE Merry Maids

Media Contacts:

Alison Bishop

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Scooters Coffee Expands Kansas Locations

Newest Location in Wichita Celebrates Grand Opening

March 08, 2016 // Franchising.com // Wichita, KS  Scooters Coffee, the Midwest-based coffee franchise that has experienced tremendous growth over the past year, will increase their Kansas presence with the companys latest Grand Opening in Wichita, KS (801 E Douglas Ave, Suite 110) on Friday, March 11th. To celebrate the opening, the new location will offer $1 medium drinks all day.

We have enjoyed watching the Scooters Coffee brand grow in the state of Kansas, said Don Eckles, CEO and co-founder of Scooters Coffee.

On Grand Opening Day customers can also expect to receive several fun giveaways; beginning at 9am, the first 100 customers will receive a t-shirt or coffee mug. For the afternoon crowd, there will be $5 gift cards given away for the first 100 customers beginning at 2pm.

In celebration of this new store opening, the location will be treating customers to a Week of Specials, following the festive Grand Opening event on March 11th. The week of specials are as follows:

Monday, March 14th - $1 Any Size Caramelicious

- $1 Any Size Caramelicious T uesday, March 15th - $1 Any Size Mocha or White Mocha

- $1 Any Size Mocha or White Mocha Wednesday, March 16th - $1 Small Fruit Smoothies

- $1 Small Fruit Smoothies Thursday, March 17th - $1 Small Candy Bar Drinks

- $1 Small Candy Bar Drinks Friday, March 18th - Half-off Any Drink Any Size

Pat Do will own this location, and Tolli Rasmussen will oversee operations. Pat Do is an entrepreneur who was approached by the DAT Coffee Company to consider investing in Scooter's in 2008. As Scooter's grew, he became more interested in being an active partner, and in 2014 he became an active 100%-owner in DAT Coffee Company with the desire to make the Wichita area a growing force for Scooter's Coffee.

The Wichita grand opening marks the latest move in the companys extraordinary growth. With more than 135 stores in soon-to-be 15 states, Scooters recently signed a large Area Representative Agreement in Phoenix, along with several other Multi-Unit Agreements in Florida, Oklahoma and Arkansas. In late 2015, the company opened its first location in Roswell Georgia (Atlanta metro) and plans to build several more stores in the Atlanta area. At the same time, Scooters will continue to build locations in the Midwest region, with several stores slated to be opened in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota and Missouri.

The company also added depth to its product profile in 2015, with the release of its toasted gouda cheese ciabatta and bagel breakfast sandwiches, along with the Southwest Breakfast Burrito. Scooters, which hand-crafts its pastries and roasts its own 100% shade-grown coffees (sourced through the Arbor Day Foundation), at their Omaha headquarters, will add several innovative items to the menu in 2016, including a comprehensive iced tea program and more breakfast options.

About Scooters Coffee

Founded in 1998 by Don and Linda Eckles in Bellevue, Nebraska, Scooters Coffee roasts only the finest coffee beans in the world at its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Scooter's success over 17 years of history is simple: Stay committed to the original business principles and company core values. The Scooter's mantra, often recited to franchisees, customers and employees is: "Amazing People, Serving Amazing Drinks, Amazingly Fast. It represents the company's business origins from 1998 and reflects a steady commitment to providing an unforgettable experience to loyal customers.

For more information, visit scooterscoffee.com or Facebook.com/ScootersCoffee.

SOURCE Scooters Coffee

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass.  A Virginia policewoman who was fatally shot her first day on the job was laid to rest next to her father in a Massachusetts cemetery Monday after a stirring tribute from hundreds of officers from around the country who came to pay their final respects.

The flag-draped casket of 28-year-old Ashley Guindon made its way from a funeral home to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Springfield along a route lined by hundreds of saluting officers standing next to their motorcycles. Hundreds more stood at attention outside the church before filing inside to the sound of a bagpiper.

The Rev. Mark Stelzer, himself the son of a former Springfield police chief, noted during his homily the risks officers face every day.

Those of us who grew up in a law enforcement family know firsthand the constant fear that any day of a loved ones duty as a police officer could be his or her last day of duty, he said. Any day could spell the end of watch.

Guindon was killed Feb. 27 while responding to a domestic dispute at a home in Woodbridge, her first day with the Prince William County Police Department. An Army staff sergeant assigned to the Pentagon was arrested on murder and other charges in the death of Guindon and another person.

She came to our department all too briefly with such passion, drive and a desire to serve, Stephan Hudson, police chief of Prince William County, said in his eulogy.

Guindon spent her early years in western Massachusetts before her family moved to New Hampshire.

After the funeral, her hearse was accompanied to St. Thomas the Apostle cemetery in West Springfield by dozens of police motorcycles as schoolchildren and other residents lined the streets. A Marine Corps honor guard stood at attention for the former Marine reservist at the cemetery.

Guindon was laid to rest next to her father, David, who died in 2004.
Global and Chinese Dicumyl peroxide Industry outlook, Trends and Research Report: Radiant Insights

Radiant Insights has announced the addition of "Global and Chinese Dicumyl peroxide Industry, 2015 Market Research Report" Market Research report to their database

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The 'Global and Chinese Dicumyl peroxide Industry, 2010-2020 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Dicumyl peroxide industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Dicumyl peroxide manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.

Read Complete Research Report @ http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-dicumyl-peroxide-industry-2015-market-research-report

Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2010-2015 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Dicumyl peroxide industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.

The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2015-2020 market development trends of Dicumyl peroxide industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Dicumyl peroxide Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2010-2020 global and Chinese Dicumyl peroxide industry covering all important parameters.

To Request Free Sample Copy of this report, visit here: http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-dicumyl-peroxide-industry-2015-market-research-report#tabs-4

Table of Contents

Chapter One Introduction of Dicumyl peroxide Industry

1.1 Brief Introduction of Dicumyl peroxide

1.2 Development of Dicumyl peroxide Industry

1.3 Status of Dicumyl peroxide Industry

Chapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Dicumyl peroxide

2.1 Development of Dicumyl peroxide Manufacturing Technology

2.2 Analysis of Dicumyl peroxide Manufacturing Technology

2.3 Trends of Dicumyl peroxide Manufacturing Technology

For more details, visit Radiant Insights @ http://www.radiantinsights.com/

Chapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers

3.1 Company A

3.1.1 Company Profile

3.1.2 Product Information

3.1.3 2010-2015 Production Information

3.1.4 Contact Information

3.2 Company B

3.2.1 Company Profile

3.2.2 Product Information

3.2.3 2010-2015 Production Information

3.2.4 Contact Information

3.3 Company C

3.2.1 Company Profile

3.3.2 Product Information

3.3.3 2010-2015 Production Information

3.3.4 Contact Information

3.4 Company D

3.4.1 Company Profile

3.4.2 Product Information

3.4.3 2010-2015 Production Information

3.4.4 Contact Information

About Radiant Insight

Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. It assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. The Organization has a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-and-chinese-dicumyl-peroxide-industry-2015-market-research-report

Contact Info:

Name: Michelle Thoras

Email: sales@radiantinsights.com

Organization: Radiant Insights Inc

Address: 28 2nd Street, Suite 3036

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/global-and-chinese-dicumyl-peroxide-industry-outlook-trends-and-research-report-radiant-insights/106320

Release ID: 106320

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Vancouver Glass Company Announces New Focus On Frameless Glass Shower Doors

( March 08, 2016 ) Vancouver, BC -- Vancouver Glass, a local glass provider and repair shop, has announced a new product spotlight on frameless shower glass doors.

As trends are always evolving in the interior design industry, it's up to local businesses to be creative and innovative when it comes to their products. Vancouver Glass, a well-known shower door provider in Vancouver, has launched a new website focusing on the service of frameless glass shower doors.

On their new website, Vancouver Glass describes their frameless shower doors as, "modern, functional, and exceptional. With over 60 years of experience, our possibilities for your glass shower doors are endless". Also on their website, you'll find client testimonials, a gallery of past shower door projects, and an easy-to-use contact form for any inquiries.

Frameless glass showers are a great way to update the shower in your home. They create an oasis-like atmosphere of modernity and sophistication. With Vancouver Glass, you are able to customize the glass to fit your unique design needs. Whether you are transforming your bathtub to a stand-in shower or adding an additional shower door to your existing bathroom, Vancouver glass can design, create, and install the custom frameless shower door of your dreams.

To revolutionize the glass industry, Vancouver Glass offers many different design styles, material finishes, and glass types. This gives clients an enhanced shower enclosure that blends into, and complements, the room.

When designing your new bathroom, consult with the Vancouver Glass experts. With over 60 years of experience, their employees are professional, highly trained, and experienced in the glass shower industry. For more information about the possibilities for your frameless glass shower door in Vancouver, contact Vancouver Glass today and visit www.frameless.vancouverglass.ca.

About Vancouver Glass - Vancouver:

Vancouver Glass repairs and replaces residential and commercial glass in the Metro Vancouver area. They are located at 1706 East Hastings, Vancouver, BC, and can be reached by phone at (604) 253-7707. To learn more, visit the Vancouver Glass website at www.frameless.vancouverglass.ca and like their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/Vancouver-Glass-546616028848778/?fref=ts.

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Halo Capital Announces Plans for Upcoming Business Funding Teleconference

( March 08, 2016 ) New York, NY -- Halo Capital, an established leader in small business loan options, today announced plans for its upcoming Business Funding Teleconference on February 13, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.

The event will be held online at http://www.halocapitalgroup.com. The goal of the Business Funding Teleconference is to train small business owners on techniques and strategies to improve creditworthiness.

Nate Feldman, Co-Founder at Halo Capital Group, said registration to the Business Funding Teleconference is limited and the cost is absolutely free.

"I am very excited that we are able to offer this amazing teleseminar to our online customers," said Feldman. "This is a tremendous opportunity for any small business owner to learn about new ways to get funded through alternative lending websites ."

To learn more about the Business Funding Teleconference or to register for the event, call 888-892-7939 or visit https://halocapitalgroup.com.

Founded in 2013, Halo Capital has helped many businesses and consumers with small business loan options. The company's mission statement is "to help businesses get access to business loans with the best rates and terms possible". To learn more about Halo Capital, you should call 888-892-7939 or visit them online at https://halocapitalgroup.com.

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Global Salmon Fish Market 2016 Edition Now Available at MarketReportsOnline.com

The Global Salmon Fish Market Report: 2016 Edition research of 64 pages with 63 Charts to the food and beverages industry segment of its online data and intelligence library. Feed production is one of the factor that initiated growth of salmonids worldwide.

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The worldwide cultivated salmon business sector has made colossal commitment to the general fish industry. The previous couple of years enrolled a striking development in the generation of aquacultured salmon. Norway and Chile are the predominant makers, with more than three-fourth share of the worldwide cultivated salmon. Other major delivering regions include UK and North America. As far as utilization is concerned, the overall salmon utilization is separated among noteworthy markets: the European Union crisp and solidified business sector, the Japanese new and solidified business sector, the US new and solidified business sector, canned salmon markets and different markets. The European Union rules the overall salmon business sector. As far as cultivated salmon creation is concerned, the worldwide business sector is dominated by Marine Harvest, Leroy Seafood, and Cermaq, SalMar.

Complete report available at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/448402.html.

The business has seen a few changes in its long history, which have added to its development reliably. Discussing the present business sector inclines, industry growth is augmented by the factors such as rising per capita income and global GDP, rate of urbanization. Key trends observed in the salmon industry growing preference for Salmon based on age group, situations and country of origin. Feed production is one of the factor that initiated growth of salmonids worldwide. Notwithstanding, the salmon business sector is confronted with various difficulties, including organic dangers and ecological risks, rising sealice levels which call for pressing answers for stay away from any decrease in the business sector development.

The present report dissects the business sector size and division of the worldwide salmon business sector. The different drivers, opportunities and the difficulties confronted by the business sector are additionally examined in subtle element. The aggressive part of the business sector is highlighted and the key players are profiled with their techniques for this business sector.

Purchase a copy of this Salmon Fish Market research report at USD 800 (Single User License) http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=448402.

Table of Contents

1. Seafood Industry

1.1 Overview

1.2 Classification

1.3 Industry Analysis

1.3.1 Seafoods Industry by Production

1.3.2 Seafoods Industry by Utilization & Consumption

1.3.3 Seafoods Industry by Trade

2. Salmonids Industry

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Atlantic Salmon

2.1.2 Pacific Salmon

2.2 Production & Cost Structure

2.2.1 Establishing a Salmon Farm

2.2.2 Atlantic Salmon Life / Production Cycle

2.2.3 Production Inputs

2.2.4 Production Costs

2.3 Industry Analysis

2.3.1 Global Salmon Industry Supply by Volume

2.3.2 Global Salmon Industry Supply by Type

2.3.3 Global Salmon Industry Supply by Value

2.3.4 Global Salmon Industry by Consumption

2.3.5 Global Atlantic Salmon Industry by Volume

2.3.6 Global Atlantic Salmon Industry by Region

2.3.7 Global Farmed Atlantic Salmon Industry by Volume

2.3.8 Global Farmed Atlantic Salmon Industry by Region

3. Atlantic Salmonids - Regional Market Analysis

3.1 North American Atlantic Salmon Market

3.1.1 North American Atlantic Salmon Market by Harvest Volume

3.1.2 The US Farmed Atlantic Salmon Market by Consumption

3.2 European Atlantic Salmon Market

3.2.1 Norway Atlantic Salmon Market by Harvest Volume

3.2.2 UK Atlantic Salmon Market by Harvest Volume

3.2.3 EU Farmed Atlantic Salmon Market by Consumption

3.3 APAC Atlantic Salmon Market

3.3.1 Asian Farmed Atlantic Salmon Market by Consumption

3.3.2 Russian Farmed Atlantic Salmon Market by Consumption

3.4 Latin America Atlantic Salmon Market

3.4.1 Chilean Atlantic Salmon Market by Harvest Volume

3.4.2 Brazillian Farmed Atlantic Salmon Market by Consumption

4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Growth Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Global Population

4.1.3 Rising Income Levels

4.1.3 Rising Urbanization

4.2 Key Trends

4.2.1 Feed Production

4.2.2 Growing Preference for Salmon

4.3 Challenges

4.3.1 Environmental Issues

4.3.2 Sealice

4.3.3 Growing in Size, Limited in Access

4.3.4 Quality, not Quantity

4.3.5 On-Land Salmon Farming

5. Competitive Landscape

5.1 Competition on the Basis of Market Cap

5.2 Competition on the Basis of Farmed Atlantic Salmon Production

6. Company Profiles

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For more information about us, please visit http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=448402

Contact Info:

Name: Ritesh Tiwari

Organization: Market Reports Online

Phone: + 1 888 391 5441

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/global-salmon-fish-market-2016-edition-now-available-at-marketreportsonline-com/106215

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Webscout Announces Three New Offices Available in Hamburg

Webscout announced today the availability of three new centres in Hamburg, Germany through their online service.

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Webscout announced today that three new centres in Hamburg, Germany are now available to rent through their online service, including space in the Central Business District and in Stadthausbrucke.

"We are happy to be able to announce the availability of new office space for rent in Hamburg", said a spokesperson for Webscout. "With today's announcement, Webscout now has thirteen office buildings available, which is an important step towards realising our goal of providing the best possible business premises to companies in Hamburg."

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Another new office centre is situated on Stadthausbrucke, overlooking the water, and provides fully furnished office suites complete with IT and communications systems, security staff and car parking.

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About Hamburg

Hamburg is the economic centre and major industrial city in Germany as well as being an important European powerhouse. Key attractions include business friendly policies, a highly educated work force, strong purchasing powers and international trade. Hamburg is a major port with more than 15,000 ships passing through annually, as well as being the location of first rate trade fairs and conventions.

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OfficeSpace.com.au, a leading Australian-based office space provider, today announced that they have added two new office buildings in Adelaide, South Australia.

"We are pleased to be able to announce the availability of new office space for rent in Adelaide's Central Business District," said Officespace.com.au spokesperson Teresha Aird. "These new locations extend OfficeSpace.com.au's offering in South Australia, and help meet increasing demand for affordable, professional office space in the city of Adelaide."

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"A lot of the feedback we have received from businesses over the years has been regarding the necessity for affordable, flexible rental terms for office space, and these two new Adelaide office buildings are part of our mission to meet these requirements," continued Teresha Aird. "Adding these new offices is an important step towards realising our goal of providing the best possible business premises to companies in Adelaide."

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Roland Dickey, Jr. has had a busy year in 2015, but his personal engagements on the conference circuit have not deterred him from continuing the aggressive growth of his Dickey's Barbecue franchise, which now offers Texas style barbecue nationwide in over 540 locations. Roland Dickey, Jr. is continuing explosive growth plans across the Pacific by bringing its signature slow-smoked barbecue to Hawaii with the addition of five future store locations following a newly executed Development Agreement. The five locations in and throughout Hawaii and will be owned and operated by current franchisee, Jack Chubb.

"Dickey's has grown rapidly nationwide, and we are proud to add our 44th state," says Roland Dickey, Jr., CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. "The new stores in Hawaii are our first venture as a company beyond the continental United States, and we look forward to further expansion overseas in the future."

The first of the new five Hawaii stores are slated to open before the end of 2016. A former hospital administrator, Jack Chubb retired from his 34-year executive tenure and decided to become a business owner. He spent most of his research time at his local Dickey's Barbecue Pit enjoying the authentic Texas-style barbecue, when he decided that the barbecue chain was the right opportunity for his next career move. "I love providing a great guest experience, and my favorite thing is to see the guests' faces light up when they eat at Dickeys," says Chubb. "Barbecue invokes great memories for most people, and I am happy to provide that experience in my stores and excited to bring it to Hawaii."

Roland congratulated the franchisee on their successes, "We are thrilled to see Jack take us to our 44th state. It's exciting to see Jack's growth in his current community and with our brand. Our franchisees are an essential part of our brand and it's always exciting to see them succeed at such a high level. These events will be huge in Hawaii, and also represent a bigger victory for our business nationwide."

About Roland Dickey, Jr.

As CEO of Dickey's Barbecue, Roland Dickey Jr. has enthusiastically led his family's company to new heights, overseeing its evolution from local barbecue joint to the fast-casual chain named one of the fastest growing in America. Utilizing explosive growth in franchising, Dickey Jr. has helmed the third generation family business to a national audience, while still retaining the brand values of authentic, down-home food, served with a signature brand of southern hospitality.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.rolanddickeyjr.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Mark Valentino

Organization: Dickey's Barbecue Pit

Phone: 972.248.9899

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/roland-dickey-jr-announces-expansion-into-44th-state/106347

Release ID: 106347

For more information visit r



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New Spiritual Book for All Ages! Book By Dunnett Albert Launches March 9, 2016

Dunnett Albert is launching her brand new book, "Where is Heaven Anyway? A Hattie the Hummingbird Story", available through through Amazon, targeted at fans of the Children's, Spirituality, Grief & Loss, Hummingbirds, Frogs, Animals world. More information is available at: http://www.hattiethehummingbird.com

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Spiritual minstrel Dunnett Albert is launching her brand new book, "Where is Heaven Anyway? : A Hattie the Hummingbird Story". The book is set to go live in all formats March 9, 2016, available through Amazon online and is expected to become a big hit with fans of the Grief and Loss, Spirituality, Hummingbirds, Frogs, and Children's world.

More information on the book can be found here: http://www.hattiethehummingbird.com

This is the first book Albert has authored and released publicly. The book was written with the aim in mind to help people of all ages understand that loved ones never truly leave each other. There's also particular excitement about this launch because it is the first in a series of spiritually open-minded children's books surrounding the main character Hattie the Hummingbird, to help children and people of all ages become more beautifully conscious of everyone and nature around them.

Where is Heaven Anyway? A Hattie the Hummingbird Story, sets its main focus on Hattie the Hummingbird and the loss of her dear friend Auggie the Frog. Readers will likely find a particular interest in Hattie as she discovers the true location of Heaven through her sweet and curious nature. The book's cover art and illustrations were created by Catherine Wilder. Where is Heaven Anyway? A Hattie the Hummingbird Story is being released by independent publishing through Amazon.

Dunnett Albert has a background in spiritual development and life after loss of a loved one. This helped shaped the creation of the book by inspiring her to help more of the world understand the true location of Heaven, and the passing of all loved ones.

When asked about why they wrote the book, Albert said: "It was a soul-stirring message I felt compelled to write and share with the world. It is a story of love and comfort for all who, like myself, miss someone very dear to them every single day."

Albert has hopes that the book will comfort people of all ages, and give parents an easy-to-understand tool to teach their children the concept of where "Heaven" is. This positive outlook from the author is certainly testament to their optimism considering some of the mishaps during its creation. At one point despite being a great author, Dunnett realized her lack of artistry when she attempted to illustrate the book herself, thankfully Catherine Wilder lent her beautiful imagination and artistic skill to help Hattie come to life for all to visually enjoy.

In a recent interview, the author made a point of thanking her family for their part in the creation of the book, saying: "to my parents, who have always encouraged me to see the world beyond what my eyes and brain could comprehend, and feel their love all around me from any distance."

Those interested in learning more about the book can visit here: http://www.hattiethehummingbird.com

For more information about us, please visit http://www.hattiethehummingbird.com

Contact Info:

Name: Dunnett Albert

Organization: Henley Publishing



Release ID: 106265

For more information visit r



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Fair Trade Products retailer Vavavida offers new Recycled Sari Boho Chic Handbag

Vavavida, an online marketplace for Fair Trade Products is happy to announce the release of the new Recycled Sari Tote. Vavavida donates a portion of the proceeds from each Fair Trade bag back to the countries they were sourced from.

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Vavavida, an online marketplace for Fair Trade Products is happy to announce the release of the new Recycled Sari Handbag.

What makes these Boho Chic Handbags so special is the fact that Vavavida donates a portion of the proceeds from each Fair Trade bag back to the countries they were sourced from.

70% of the artisans making Fair Trade products are women so by providing a global marketplace for these women to create and sell these one of a kind bags, Vavavida continues to help empower these women and ensure a feature for them to continue their craft.

Check Out This Video : https://youtu.be/_87G0UmEHT0

A Sari is the traditional dress of women in India consisting of a very long narrow piece of cloth elaborately swathed around the body. The Sari is associated with grace and widely regarded as a symbol of grace in the South Asian cultures.

Sari's are made from weaving brightly colored silk to produce a unique variety of colors and patterns. The process of using recycled Sari's to create new fashion items is a result of socially conscious consumers demanding more products that are eco-friendly and produced in a sustainable environment.

Because every Sari has it's own unique color and pattern, each Recycled Sari Tote is absolutely unique. Each handbag is spacious, lightweight yet durable and is perfect for the bohemian lifestyle.

" Planning on visiting your local farmers market? Well don't forget to bring your Recycled Sari Pocket Tote! "

Each Recycled Sari Tote is a fashion statement and conversational piece designed to bring out the inner flower child.

More About Vavavida:

Vavavida specializes in Fair Trade Bohemian and Boho Chic Fashion items procured from around the world. Vavavida's online Fair Trade marketplace provides an opportunity for socially conscious consumers to connect with local artisans and craftsman from countries like India and Peru so they can purchase fashion items. Each item procured by Vavavida comes with a Fair Trade story associated with it further connecting the consumer to their purchase.

Vavavida works with suppliers from all over the world promoting Fair Trade. By purchasing fair products these suppliers are able to continue working in a sustainable way that is good for them, their community and the local environment.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.vavavida.com

Contact Info:

Name: Antoine Didienne

Organization: Vavavida



Release ID: 106242

For more information visit r



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A director of company Wealth Capital Limited of London is to be disqualified as a director for 11 years, after selling unsuitable carbon credit investments.

Darren Bartlett has given an undertaking to the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills to be disqualified as a director for a period of 11 years for selling carbon credits as an investment on the basis they would increase in value.

Mr Bartletts disqualification means from 11 March 2016 he cannot promote, manage or be a director of a limited company until 2027.

It follows investigation by the official receiver at the public interest unit, a specialist team of the Insolvency Service, whose involvement commenced with the winding up of the company in the public interest following an investigation by company investigations, also part of the Insolvency Service, into the affairs of the company.

According to the investigation by the official receiver, between June and October 2012 Wealth Capital Limited cold called members of the public to sell them carbon credits, charging around two-and-a-half to nearly three times what it had paid its supplier for carbon credits.

In total, the firm made sales of 273,000 and achieved an estimated gross profit of at least 175,000.

According to the government, it was clear as early as 2010 that HM Revenue & Customs, the Financial Conduct Authority and the registries and the carbon credit markets own self-regulating authorities considered there was no viable exit strategy for the carbon credits sold by Wealth Capital Limited at at time.

Paul Titherington, official receiver in the public interest unit at the Insolvency Service, said: Mr Bartlett should have known that the carbon credits his company was selling were wholly unsuitable as an investment, particularly at the price his company charged.

Anyone showing such blatant disregard for commercial morality should expect to be banned from running any limited company for a lengthy period time.

He added the Insolvency Service would pursue those who misuse companies to deprive members of the public of their hard earned money.

ruth.gillbe@ft.com
Isa provider Willis Owen has halted clients access to their investments as a direct result of the collapse of the Avalon platform.

Jason Chapman, managing director at Willis Owen, said Avalon provided its Isa plan manager administration functions and also the Sipp administration processes.

Just over 800 of our customers are currently unable to access our platform. We are working hard to bring our services back online as soon as possible, and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We will keep customers informed.

In February this year, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme was working with the administrators of Avalon Investment Services.

The Sipp administrator went into administration on 22 February and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme said at that time it was working to understand what the firms insolvency might mean for its customers.

On 26 February, Embark Group, the parent company of Hornbuckle, took over self-investment pension administrator Avalon Investment Services.

Following the deal, Embark Group will set up a new entity, Embark Investment Services, which will be the regulated entity which has instant savings account permissions.

As such, Embark Group will use the acquisition to bring Isa and nominee capability to the group.

However, trading will continue under the name Avalon, Mike Douglas, head of propositions at Embark Group, told FTAdviser at that time.

Mr Chapman added in a statement today (8 March): Hornbuckle Mitchell (part of the Embark Group) has purchased the assets of Avalon and are going to run Avalon with the existing team in place. This change will not affect customer investments in any way.

Antony Devine, independent financial adviser at Devine Financial Management, said this is a good example of why you should not invest with such a minor platform.

He said: Willis Owen, which is the surviving gem of the former Honister Capital group which went into administration in summer 2012, is a very small company in terms of an investment retailer, and has historically been reliant on contracts with third parties like Avalon to be able to supply its services to customers.

There isnt any real risk to customers losing any of their holdings from the Avalon situation, as the custodians have that squared away in the normal fashion, but being unable to allow customers to trade on their accounts, with no indication as to how long this might persist, at this time of significant market instability is a very serious matter.

He added if he were a customer of Willis Owen he would be taking a closer look at the company, especially in terms of its financial strength and infrastructure, and probably wouldnt be thinking of staying there after this is sorted out.

ruth.gillbe@ft.com
Protection experts have argued the personal protection market needs deconstructing and product literature needs trimming down to stop people being put off from buying cover.

According to senior figures, some of the literature and technical guides on products can be more than 100 pages long, which they argue can be overwhelming for advisers who do not specialise in protection.

Paul Avis, marketing director at Canada Life Group Insurance, said innovative change on protection products should centre on their deconstruction.

We often think about innovation as adding product complexity or segmentation, he said. However, the innovaton is all about making it admin light, and not through product technical evolution.

It is about making it easier for the target audience to understand immediately what the offer is and making it incredibly easy for them to buy.

Mr Avis said: From an advisers perspective it is all about selling the benefit rather than administering the benefit.

Alan Lakey, director of protection specialist website CIExpert, admitted some people might be put off if they receive too much information on financial products.

He said The problem is how do you offer comprehensive protection without it being complex?

On the face of it it is simple. The problem arises when you realise youre not covered, which can certainly fuel the fire about insurance companies taking money and never paying out.

So it is a real predicament and I am not sure there is an easy answer, but there are some things that can be avoided. Its a real predicament and Im not sure theres an easy answer, but there are some things that can be avoided. Alan Lakey

Mr Lakey said companies have a tendency to waffle, use psychological sales techniques, and irrelevant photos.

The CIExpert boss also pointed to proposals to bring in a two-tier system that offers comprehensive plans for specialist advisers and simple plans for non-specialist advisers and consumers buying online, an idea he said could work.

Kevin Carr, chief executive of Protection Review, said the industry needs to find the right balance between simplicity and comprehensive cover, which he argued isnt always easy.

However, if all products were simple and if they all looked the same, many people wouldnt consider advice to be necessary, which would remove the adviser from the process.

That isnt to suggest that products should be unnecessarily complicated, but at the end of the day it is the advisers job to understand the market as much as they know their client.

Richard Sadler, head of retail protection propositions at Zurich, admitted protection policy terms and conditions are often lengthy, and pointed to Zurichs research, which found that most customers dont actually read the documents.

He said: We continue to make improvements to our policy documents to make them more customer friendly, however, we dont believe that the length of those documents is a major factor in the protection advice and purchase process.
Skipton Building Society has lifted broker restrictions on its Help to Buy mortgage range, and launched new products for the Help to Buy London and Scotland shared equity schemes.

The society is offering access to to its Help to Buy purchase and remortgage products to the entire intermediary mortgage market, which were previously only available only to new-build specialist firms.

Kris Brewster, Skiptons head of products, said: We are delighted to offer these new Help to Buy London and Scotland products, demonstrating Skiptons continued commitment to supporting the needs of the new build market.

We believe this new range offers great value for purchasers of new properties in London and Scotland and for those wishing to remortgage their existing new home.

The Help to Buy London mortgages will be offered at 55 per cent loan-to-value, and will include two and five-year fixed rate mortgages with a range of fee options.

Skipton is also creating a new Help to Buy Scotland range at 80 per cent LTV, with two and five-year fee free, fixed rate mortgages, and free standard valuations.

Mr Brewster said: We have a total of 19 products in our Help to Buy product range, which we can now offer to the whole of the market via intermediaries and directly through Skipton.

This will not only enable people to get the keys to their dream new home but to ensure it best meets their financial needs.

All Help to Buy products, including the new London and Scotland deals, are also available direct from the lender via Skipton Direct.
Farming families will be hit hard if the government succeeds in pushing through a massive hike in probate fees.

The cost could rise from the current 150 flat fee to 20,000 for estates worth more than 2m, which would include most family farms.

The move is outlined in a government consultation designed to raise an additional 250m/year.

Solicitor John-Paul Dennis of north-west law firm Kirwans said the farming community was likely to be disproportionately hit by the changes, which could prove disastrous for those who were to inherit.

Probate fee proposals These are fees for grant of probate (where there is a will) or grant of letters of administration (where someone dies without a will)  collectively known as grants of representation Current rates  flat fee of 150 Proposed rates Estates worth up to 50,000  nil Estates valued between 50,000 and 300,000  fees to double, from 150 to 300 Estates worth 300,000 to 500,000  fee of 1,000 Estates worth 2m or more  20,000

See also: How to tie up legal and tax succession issues

While farms were high in value, that value was tied up in land, buildings and livestock and cash was often short.

In many cases, this will mean those seeking to administer agricultural estates will need to borrow against their own assets, he said.

The proposals also brought other dangers, including the risk that people may be tempted to cut corners rather than seek proper legal advice, said Mr Dennis. There was also a danger that more estates would remain unadministered.

These new rules may result in increased pressure from family members to transfer property many years before they expect to die, an act that would leave them extremely vulnerable financially in the final years of life, as well as, of course, meaning that the government may not be able to use the estates of older people to subsidise fees for things such as residential homes, something that is certainly not in the interest of the state.

Many legal professionals were objecting to the proposals, said Mr Dennis. The probate registry is one of the most efficient parts of the court system and does not cost the taxpayer a great deal of money.

In fact, prior disclosures by the government show, if anything, the registry makes a modest surplus based on its current charges, and similar organisations such as the Office of the Public Guardian and Court of Protection have been tasked to be cost neutral, hence our bewilderment at the huge spike in proposed fees.
Tail docking is prohibited in the UK, meaning tails have to be kept at full length.  Tim Scrivener

An ultimatum has been given to 90% of the US dairy industry to phase out routine tail docking in dairy cows.

The board of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) hastened a resolution by five years to set 1 January 2017 as the date for discontinuing the harmful practice on dairies participating in a national welfare programme.

The Famers Assuring Responsible Management (Farm) Animal Care Programme was formed in 2009 to highlight industry progress on animal welfare and currently represents over 90% of US milk supply.

See also: Farmers reminded tail docking is illegal

Speaking in October, NMPF president and CEO Jim Mulhern said science, technical advice and requests from customers and consumers are all aligned on the issue of tail docking.

Tail docking was prohibited in the UK under the Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) Regulations 2007. According to a letter in Veterinary Record in 2011 reporting a small number of tail docking instances in UK dairy calves found during routine inspections.

But its practice varies within the US, depending on region and state.

Maarten Boers, a veterinarian at the Livestock Partnership, told Farmers Weekly that cleanliness and clean environments were better ways of preventing tails becoming a source of environmental mastitis.

Tail trimming is routinely carried out to clean tails during high-risk periods such as the winter periods or after housing, he added.

He said in the US tail docking is often carried out to prevent mastitis.

Much tail docking is done to prevent clinical mastitis cases on the much more productive, high yielding, hind quarters which have larger orifices.

There is a strong suspicion in the industry that having larger orifices and high production and being being located closer to the tail is why we see more mastitis cases in the hind quarters, although research is yet to prove this.

He stressed that in the UK surgery to remove part of the tail of cattle must be performed only as a therapeutic action in response to injury or disease, such as when a tail is broken or trodden on by other cows.
In Early 2014, Microsoft acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from creator Epic Games and gave the property to a relatively untested studio now called The Coalition. Thankfully, The Coalition is being guided by the capable hands of veteran Gears developer Rod Fergusson, who was a driving force on the first three Gears of War games. Aside from a tease at last years E3, we know relatively little about this new Gears of War, so we traveled to The Coalitions office in Vancouver, British Columbia to learn more about the history of the studio, to discover what happened to the world of Sera after Gears of War 3, and to go hands-on with a few new weapons and cover mechanics.

In our 14-page cover story, youll learn how the team is aiming to stay true to what makes Gears of War tick. We speak with studio head Rod Fergusson and the rest of the team and discover how The Coalition is taking the franchise 25 years into the future, to a time when the world is wracked by massive windstorms that radically change the field of battle. The Coalition is a big fan of the first Gears of War, so we talk with the team about how it aims to bring the series back to its darker, horror-themed roots. Afterwards we break down the three new playable characters and confirm two-player couch co-op. Then we get hands-on time with Gear of War 4s new close-cover melee system.

Gears of War 4 will be an Xbox One later this fall. Check out the full cover image below for a glimpse of the adventure that awaits.

(Click image above to see full spread)



Watch the trailer above (or watch and share it on YouTube) showing off our month of exclusive content.

Beyond the revival of Gears of War, the April issue is packed with another month's-worth of great stories. First, we speak with Final Fantasy XVs Hajime Tabata and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's Naoki Yoshida to learn about how Square is refocusing development on its most important RPG series. Then we speak with The Witness Jonathan Blow and ask him about the challenging puzzles in one of this years most beloved indie games. Matt Miller speaks with Joe Madureira and the team at Airship Syndicate about their video game revival of the beloved comic series Battle Chasers. Since this is the April issue, Darth Clark returns for our annual poke at the video game industry in Game Infarcer. Meanwhile, demos on Star Fox Zero, Abzu, and exclusive new details on an upcoming Heroes of the Storm character help round out our preview section. Finally, we look back at our last 20-years of catching Pokemon in our Classic GI section.

Print subscribers can watch for their issue to arrive in the next week or two, but you can read the full digital issue now on PC/Mac, iPad, Android, and Google Play. You can also get the latest issue through third-party apps on Nook, Kindle, and Zinio starting tomorrow. To switch your print subscription to digital, click here, or to create a new subscription to the digital edition, click here.

Our Gears of War 4 coverage doesn't end with this sizeable 14-page cover story. Return to our hub throughout the month for more information on the new weapons and enemies, the history of The Coalition, and a roundtable with the games voice actors. You can access the hub by clicking on the banner below.
F.Y.I. is a community calendar. To accommodate demand for the print edition, we ask that items be brief and include time, date, place, address, admission cost and a contact number for publication. Inclusion of items is at the discretion of the Gazette-Times. Further information is available at 541-758-9524 or jane.stoltz@lee.net.

Assistance

WEDNESDAY

Emergency food boxes, by appointment, North Corvallis Ministry Center, 5050 N.E. Elliott Circle. Appointments: 541-220-1040.

AARP TaxAide, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Corvallis Senior Center, 2601 N.W. Tyler Ave.; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Corvallis Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Certified counselors will prepare and e-file tax returns for low- and moderate-income taxpayers of all ages, free of charge. Appointments: 541-602-5829.

Stone Soup lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., gymnasium, St. Marys Catholic School, 501 N.W. 25th St. Free meal for those in need.

Vets United, noon to 2 p.m., multipurpose room, Community Outreach Inc., 865 N.W. Reiman Ave. Support for veterans; round-table discussion.

Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA), 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Corvallis Senior Center, 2601 N.W. Tyler Ave. Free, confidential, impartial Medicare counseling and education. Appointments required; call 541-812-0849.

Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 4 p.m., St. Vincent de Paul Society Corvallis Conference Food Pantry, campus of St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 N.W. 25th St. No appointment needed. Information: 541-757-1988, ext. 317.

Classes

WEDNESDAY

Academy for Lifelong Learning, 9:30 a.m., First Congregational United Church of Christ, 4515 S.W. West Hills Road. Frederick (Rick) Colwell presents Down but Not Out: Exploring Life in the Deep Earth. Information: 541-737-9405 or admin@all-osuaa.org.

Teen Yoga, 4 p.m., Live Well Studio, 971 N.W. Spruce Ave. Open to all teens at all levels. Information: 541-224-6566 or www.livewellstudio.com.

Events

WEDNESDAY

Wobbler story time, 10 a.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. For ages 1 and 2.

Rise and Shine Story Time, 10 a.m., Philomath Community Library, 1050 Applegate St. Ages 2 to 4. Information: 541-929-3016.

Random Review, noon to 1 p.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Calyx Press Director Alicia Bublitz will present Damsels in Distress: Women in Classic Dystopian Novels. Lunches OK.

Fundraisers

WEDNESDAY

Fundraiser, 11 a.m., Papas Pizza, 1030 S.W. Third St. Mention Kings Valley Charter Schools Parent-Teacher Organization and a percentage of the restaurants sales will go to the organization.

Government

WEDNESDAY

Corvallis Housing and Community Development Advisory Board, 11:30 a.m., Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 S.W. Madison Ave.

Corvallis Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board, 5 p.m., Sunset Meeting Room, Sunset Building, 4077 S.W. Research Way. Information: 541-758-1911.

Corvallis Downtown Advisory Board, 5:30 p.m., Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 S.W. Madison Ave.

Corvallis Planning Commission, 7 p.m., downtown fire station, 400 N.W. Harrison Blvd. Work session on Oregon State University-related plan amendments.

Health

WEDNESDAY

American Red Cross mobile blood drive, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Northwest Hills Community Church, 3300 N.W. Walnut Blvd.

Benton Health Center, 1 to 7 p.m., 530 N.W. 27th St. Family medicine for infants, children and adults. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-766-6835.

Lincoln Health Center, 1 to 7 p.m., 121 S.E. Viewmont Ave. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-766-3546.

Monroe Health Center, 1 to 5 p.m., 610 Dragon Drive, Monroe. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-847-5143.

Free medical clinic, 6 p.m., Community Outreach, 856 N.W. Reiman Ave. Provides care to low-income people without health insurance. Provides primary medical care and referrals to those needing further medical attention or services offered by other agencies.

Organizations

WEDNESDAY

The Mid-Valley Bicycle Club offers rides open to the adult public on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Information: www.mvbc.com.

Corvallis Morning Rotary, 7 a.m., Osborn Aquatic Center, 1940 N.W. Highland Drive. Information: 541-740-5877.

Kiwanis Club of Corvallis, noon, Papas Pizza, 1030 S.W. Third St. Meet new people and find out how to get involved in the community.

Philomath Lions Club, noon, annex, Benton County Historical Museum, 1045 Main St., Philomath. Information: 541-929-5006.

Corvallis Bridge Club, 1 p.m., Heart of the Valley Bridge Center, 1931 N.W. Circle Blvd. Sign up 20 minutes beforehand. Regular and novice duplicate bridge. Information/partners: 541-740-1072 or www.corvallisbridge.org.

Plan ahead

Benton Bowmens Out of the Wet Indoor 3D Shoot, Saturday and Sunday, horse arena, Benton County Fairgrounds, 110 S.W. 53rd St. Cost: adults, $20 a day or $30 for both days; youth ages 12 to 17, $10 a day or $15 for both days (must be accompanied by an adult). Registration: www.bentonbowmen.com.

Schools

WEDNESDAY

Linn Benton Lincoln Education Service District Board of Directors, 5:40 p.m., boardroom, LBL ESD, 905 Fourth Ave. S.E., Albany.

Support groups

WEDNESDAY

Support group for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Information: Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence hotline, 541-754-0110.

Her Journey. Faith-based class for women impacted by domestic violence. Information: 866-262-9284.

Alcoholics Anonymous:

7 a.m., noon, room 11, First Christian Church, 602 S.W. Madison Ave.

7 a.m., upstairs, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 N.W. Circle Drive.

Noon, First United Methodist Church, 1165 N.W. Monroe Ave.

5:30 p.m., library, pastoral center, St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 N.W. 23rd St.

6 p.m. (mens meeting), Acme Counseling, 129 N.W. Fourth St., Suite 100.

6:30 p.m., upper room, Monroe United Methodist Church, 648 Orchard St, Monroe.

7 p.m., Crossroads Christian Fellowship, 2555 N.W. Highland Drive.

Youth Motivating Others Through Voices of Experience, 6 p.m., Grace Lutheran Church, 435 N.W. 21st St. Opportunity for ages 14 to 25 with experience in the mental health, Department of Human Services or juvenile justice systems to meet and learn to advocate for themselves and others. Information: 541-740-6306 or hilary.ofsn@gmail.com.
One of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons more notable lines about education during the March 6 debate was her vision for an education SWAT team. This team of teachers and principals, active and retired, would be backed by the U.S. Department of Education to go into struggling schools to provide emergency support and resources, according to the former secretary of state.

It wasnt immediately clear if Clinton was floating a plan specifically for helping Detroit schools, the subject of a question during the debate broadcast by CNN, or for low-performing districts in general. (We reached out to Clintons campaign for more details on Monday, but it has yet to respond). Watch her remarks below:

Clinton did not pitch this idea explicitly as a federal intervention in schools. But unless Clinton handles it the right way, the proposal, it could face political blowback. Why?

One issue could be the new Every Student Succeeds Act and the priorities of the people who wrote it.

Conservative lawmakers like Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the respective chairmen of the House and Senate education committees, have touted ESSA as a rightful return of K-12 policy power to states after a long, damaging period of Washington meddling. Generally speaking, the new federal education law gives states more authority over several accountability policies, including teacher evaluations and school turnaround efforts. On the latter, while ESSA lays out several criteria by which low-performing schools must be identified, such as high schools with relatively low graduation rates, the interventions that can be used to try to help those schools are left up to districts and states.

In fact, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., stressed this point during a back-and-forth she had with Acting Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., during a House hearing on ESSA late last month .

So if lawmakers, advocates, and others begin to believe that this plan (however general and whatever its intentions) could involve federally backed groups swooping in to put their footprint on a district, then the idea of a SWAT team may not get far at all.

At the same time, its important to stress that Clinton didnt say a SWAT team could tell districts what to do. Clinton suggested the teams would provide support where desired. And, again, Clinton never indicated her support for a federal takeover of schools or districts. Detroit is also under state control, a concept that Clinton said she opposes, so perhaps only state-run districts would qualify for these SWAT teams and not most schools deemed low-performing under federal law.



Clinton is not the first person to use this same language as part of a plan to fix schools.

Way back in 1988 in Florida, for example, Dade County Superintendent Joseph Fernandez unveiled a SWAT team of principals, curriculum experts, auditors, and others who would examine struggling schools and prescribe cures.

As Education Week reported at the time, Fernandez was inspired by the academic bankruptcy law used in New Jersey to have the state take over struggling school districts . Although he was operating on a smaller district scale, Fernandez said when he unveiled the plan that schools with the most extreme difficulties could have their principals removed and teachers transferred, depending on the SWAT teams findings.

If my team of experts goes into a school and finds that the problem is management, you can bet the management wont be there the next day, Fernandez said.

If Joseph Fernandezs name sounds familiar, its because after his time in Dade County, he took over New York City public schools in 1989 . The New York Times noted that, among other actions, Fernandez gained attention for transferring several principals and dismissing one principal during a visit to an elementary school because the school was too dirty. The Times makes no mention of any SWAT team, however.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
By Sarah Tully. This story originally appeared on the K-12 Parents and the Public blog.

In most parts of the country, the concept of school choice is closely aligned with charter schools. But what do parents do in the eight states where charter schools arent allowed?

A group of parents in Nebraska is mobilizing to get more options for their children within the Omaha public school system. But they mainly have their sights on getting the Nebraska legislature to approve a charter-school law.

Parent Clarice Jackson, founder of Our Children Our Schools , said other states have had charter school laws for up to 25 years old, but its not something that Nebraska has tapped into.

We know its not a silver bullet. It could be the right education choice for their child, Jackson said. Im perplexed why anyone in the state would be opposed to an option that could be beneficial for a child.

The kickoff meeting for Our Children Our Schools was held Feb. 25, as reported by KETV Omaha . About 30 people attended the first event, but the groups Facebook page is growing, with more than 500 people. A core group has had discussions for about a year and a half, and some rallied for school choice at the Nebraska Capitol in January .

The group plans to start a political action committee to raise money for candidates who support charter schools.

This isnt the first time Jackson has pushed for school change. Her late daughter struggled with dyslexia as a child, prompting Jackson to start the Voice Advocacy Center , a special education and dyslexia screening and tutoring center.

She said Nebraska schools have allowed parents to transfer outside of their neighborhood schools under open enrollment and the federal No Child Left Behind Act (now being phased out as the Every Student Succeeds Act phases in). But many parents are unaware of those options or are unwilling to send their children across town to school.

Jackson was unhappy with her sons school, so he began getting up at 6:30 a.m. to take the bus to another middle school starting in 5th grade.

Were not anti public school. Were anti-failing school, Jackson said. We want to help schools.

In addition to charter schools, Jackson said she hopes her group serves as a forum for parents to talk about similar problems across different schools and get heard by administrators.

Especially for African-American families who are in schools that are perpetually failing, that option for high-performing charter schools should have been on the table a long time ago, said Jackson, who is African-American.

She added: I can see if charters just came out last year and the state says it doesnt know much about them to be jumping on bandwagon. But they have been around for 25-plus years. We can look at what models work.

Eight states do not have charter school laws. That number includes Washington where the states high court nixed the law in September.

Nebraskas push for charter schools has been tough. Gov. Pete Ricketts supports charter schools, even signing a proclamation as part of National School Choice Week in January .

But Omaha school board members and some lawmakers have had concerns over previous legislation attempts, as have as the Nebraska school board and teachers union members . Last year, a Nebraska charter bill was heard, but it died in a legislative committee .

So far this year, a school-choice bill , which would establish state tax credits for donors who create scholarships for low-income students to go to private schools, was brought back after failing last year. But the bill has yet to gain traction.

Alabama is the most recent state to sign a charter school law. Also, Kentucky lawmakers are now considering a bill to begin charter schools .

Related stories:
Alycia Meriweather, the Detroit school districts executive curriculum director, will serve as the school systems interim superintendent .

Meriweather will oversee all academics in the district, which has historically been one of the nations lowest performing. Detroit scores the worst among big-city school districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in math and reading.

Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, the districts new state-appointed transitions manager, announced the hire Monday. Together, Rhodes and Meriweather will assume the duties of former emergency manager Darnell Earley, who resigned in February .

I have been with Detroit public schools since I was a 4-year-old in the districts Head Start program. I am a graduate of DPS and a lifelong resident of the city of Detroit. The success of DPS and its students is personal for me, Meriweather said in a statement released by the district .

A former middle school science teacher, Meriweather began her career in the district in 1995. According to the release from the district, she did not initially seek the position; district teachers and residents urged Rhodes consider her for the opening.

While Meriweather oversees academics, Rhodes will focus on lobbying lawmakers to pass legislation proposed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder that would provide $715 million in new funding for the district, which could run out of money in April.

Rhodes did not establish a timeline for how long Meriweather will serve as superintendent. Detroits public schools have been under state control, and the leadership of emergency managers, since 2009.
Incident at Cologne swimming pool : Child indecently assaulted at swimming pool

Cologne police detained six men at the weekend on suspicion of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl in this swimming pool. Foto: Oliver Berg

COLOGNE Cologne police detained six men aged between 17 and 45 at the weekend on suspicion of indecently assaulting a girl at the Zundorf swimming pool.

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On Sunday afternoon a 12-year-old girl approached the lifeguard at the pool and reported she had been indecently assaulted by a 45-year-old man. The incident happened near the slide. The victim was standing with friends when suddenly several men blocked the end of the slide. The 45-year-old then apparently fondled the girl over her swimming costume.

Swimming pool staff immediately informed the police and detained the six suspects until police arrived. The men are from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq and are aged 17, 19, 22, 23, 24 and 45. They have been banned from the pool. Cologne police said five of the six were asylum seekers. The men have since been released. Police are appealing for witnesses.

A spokeswoman for KolnBader GmbH said they were treating it as an isolated incident. As such, no specific measures are currently planned. There is generally a high level of awareness of potential problems. For example, picture cards have been created to familiarize non-German speaking bathers with the swimming pools rules and regulations.

Last week a leisure pool in Norderstedt near Hamburg introduced single sex queues for slides after a serious sexual assault on a girl. In January Bornheim temporarily banned adult male migrants from pools after a 54-year-old was assaulted and other swimmers complained of being subjected to verbal abuse and offensive gestures. The ban has since been lifted and no further incidents have been reported.
Homelessness in Bonn : Homeless sleeping rough in Bonn main station

Main station in Bonn at 5.30 a.m.: This Romanian family has been sleeping in Bonn main station for several weeks. Foto: Martin Wein

BONN A Romanian family is among those sleeping rough in Bonn main station. Authorities have now offered them accommodation.

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At Bonn main station shortly before 6am at the end of last week a dozen commuters warmed up with a cup of coffee and shops prepared to open. No one took any notice of the four people huddled together in cheap sleeping bags in front of the bookshop in a small alley leading to platform one. Two others were sleeping a short distance away. The four looked completely exhausted and no one wanted to wake them.

The family, including a teenage boy, is from Romania. They have been coming to sleep in the warm station for a while now. The police know about them but have not asked them to move on as they are not causing any trouble.

Deutsche Bahn is also aware of them, but say they too are turning a blind eye. A spokeswoman said the station is left open at night, particularly in the winter months, so people have somewhere to spend the night in an emergency. Staff wake the homeless in the morning and move them on.

Shop staff at the station say on some nights in recent weeks it has become like a dormitory. Gregor Bunnagel, head of the Bonn Railway Mission, is well aware of the problem. There are people sleeping rough across the city, he says. Some do so of their own free will, but most dont.

There are homeless shelters in Bonn but some are only open to Bonn citizens and some are men only. Authorities are now trying to help the family.

And in the meantime, what will become of a family that freedom of movement allowed to come to Bonn, but which now has no future? According to Gregor Bunnagel, there are cases where people return to their own country. But some remain hopeful of a better life, even though they are here without any prospects.
NOT AGAIN! Nigeria Army Loses General Yushau Abubakar In Road Accident

bohlah at 8-03-2016 08:16 PM (6 years ago) (m)

The Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Army, Major General Yushau Mahmood Abubakar is dead.

The Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Army, Major General Yushau Mahmood Abubakar is dead.

The Nigerian Army revealed that Abubakar was involved in a road accident along Maiduguri-Damaturu road on Tuesday, which claimed his life.



Major General Yushau Abubakar was the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole before his recent deployment to Army Headquarters, Abuja.



Also involved in the road accident was the Acting General Officer Commanding 3 Division, Brigadier General MSA Aliyu.



Colonel Usman Kukasheka, the Director Army Public Relations also disclosed that Brigadier General Aliyu sustained injuries from the accident, and is currently receiving medical treatment.



The Nigerian army has confirmed his death via a press statement. See press release below:



The Nigerian Army revealed that Abubakar was involved in a road accident along Maiduguri-Damaturu road on Tuesday, which claimed his life.Major General Yushau Abubakar was the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole before his recent deployment to Army Headquarters, Abuja.Also involved in the road accident was the Acting General Officer Commanding 3 Division, Brigadier General MSA Aliyu.Colonel Usman Kukasheka, the Director Army Public Relations also disclosed that Brigadier General Aliyu sustained injuries from the accident, and is currently receiving medical treatment.The Nigerian army has confirmed his death via a press statement. See press release below: Quote The Nigerian Army wishes to inform the public of the involvement of its Chief of Training and Operations (Army), Major General Yushau Mahmood Abubakar and the Acting General Officer Commanding 3 Division Nigerian Army, Brigadier General MSA Aliyu in a road traffic accident along Maiduguri-Damaturu road today. Regrettably, we lost Major General Yushau Abubakar at the incident, while Brigadier General Aliyu sustained some injuries and is receiving treatment.





For more scintillating and juicy stories, follow the official Naijapals accounts On Twitter - https://twitter.com/Naijapals and Facebook - www.facebook.com/naijapals

Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 8-03-2016 08:16 PM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero

sssmasterg at 8-03-2016 08:38 PM (6 years ago)

(m) Rest in peace Posted: at 8-03-2016 08:38 PM (6 years ago) | Upcoming Rest in peace Reply

charisVEC at 8-03-2016 08:42 PM (6 years ago)

(m) I see..God....Wat a terrible news...we have rilli lost great men dis month...Rip sir..iissokkay Posted: at 8-03-2016 08:42 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac I see..God....Wat a terrible news...we have rilli lost great men dis month...Rip sir..iissokkay Reply

gogoman at 8-03-2016 10:47 PM (6 years ago)

(m) RIP........ but stop chopping our money!!!!!!!!!!!! Posted: at 8-03-2016 10:47 PM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero RIP........ but stop chopping our money!!!!!!!!!!!! Reply

zezprincess at 8-03-2016 10:50 PM (6 years ago)

(f) Hmmm,road users,drivers should be very very careful especially now that is rainy season,no over-speeding,no overtaking,Remember,slow&steady wins the race,.RIP general,quick recovery to the injured. Posted: at 8-03-2016 10:50 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Hmmm,road users,drivers should be very very careful especially now that is rainy season,no over-speeding,no overtaking,Remember,slow&steady wins the race,.RIP general,quick recovery to the injured. Reply

samdove28 at 8-03-2016 10:51 PM (6 years ago)

(m) THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND, WHY ALL THESE PEOPLE THEY DIE LIKE FOWL LIKE THIS. THIS COUNTRY REALLY NEED SERIOUS PRAYER OOO...RIP Posted: at 8-03-2016 10:51 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND, WHY ALL THESE PEOPLE THEY DIE LIKE FOWL LIKE THIS. THIS COUNTRY REALLY NEED SERIOUS PRAYER OOO...RIP Reply

Oworen25 at 8-03-2016 10:52 PM (6 years ago)

(m) Na wow oh na the new sickness where dey for town be this, road accident Posted: at 8-03-2016 10:52 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Na wow oh na the new sickness where dey for town be this, road accident Reply

BournIdentity at 8-03-2016 11:45 PM (6 years ago)

(m) E don happen again,,,rip Posted: at 8-03-2016 11:45 PM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero E don happen again,,,rip Reply

raynebee at 8-03-2016 11:46 PM (6 years ago)

(f) RIP Posted: at 8-03-2016 11:46 PM (6 years ago) | Hero RIP Reply

kp45 at 9-03-2016 12:25 AM (6 years ago)

(m) RIP Posted: at 9-03-2016 12:25 AM (6 years ago) | Hero RIP Reply

imaria at 9-03-2016 01:46 AM (6 years ago)

(f) God has started dealing with Nigeria bad eggs anyway RIP Posted: at 9-03-2016 01:46 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac God has started dealing with Nigeria bad eggs anyway RIP Reply

emma4love3 at 9-03-2016 01:56 AM (6 years ago)

(m) bad roads in nigeria even in the north with their roads the death is too high soon roadsafty wil come with info to tackle accident problens Posted: at 9-03-2016 01:56 AM (6 years ago) | Hero bad roads in nigeria even in the north with their roads the death is too high soon roadsafty wil come with info to tackle accident problens Reply

Fran6ixfox at 9-03-2016 07:01 AM (6 years ago)

(m) not again Posted: at 9-03-2016 07:01 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac not again Reply

sssmasterg at 9-03-2016 07:04 AM (6 years ago)

(m) Death has no respect to anyone of us rest in peace soldier Posted: at 9-03-2016 07:04 AM (6 years ago) | Upcoming Death has no respect to anyone of us rest in peace soldier Reply

raynebee at 9-03-2016 07:56 AM (6 years ago)

(f) RIP Posted: at 9-03-2016 07:56 AM (6 years ago) | Hero RIP Reply

Eazyatumeyi at 9-03-2016 09:12 AM (6 years ago)

(m) RIP to our gallant defender. Posted: at 9-03-2016 09:12 AM (6 years ago) | Hero RIP to our gallant defender. Reply

botlex at 9-03-2016 10:11 AM (6 years ago)

(m) I said this yesterday, that this is not ordinary. Something is wrong somewhere. Posted: at 9-03-2016 10:11 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac I said this yesterday, that this is not ordinary. Something is wrong somewhere. Reply

cynubani at 9-03-2016 11:47 AM (6 years ago)

(f) next is buhari maybe on his trip abroad Posted: at 9-03-2016 11:47 AM (6 years ago) | Newbie next is buhari maybe on his trip abroad Reply

dollar22 at 9-03-2016 01:16 PM (6 years ago)

(m) They should stop the killings of Biafrans #FREEBIAFRA #NNAMDIKANU Posted: at 9-03-2016 01:16 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac They should stop the killings of Biafrans #FREEBIAFRA #NNAMDIKANU Reply
Researchers warn about psychological impact of virtual reality News oi -GizBot Bureau

Researchers have warned that immersion in virtual reality (VR) can cause behavioural changes in consumers that may last even after they leave the virtual environment.

The technological capacity for generating virtual worlds from home computers will soon be widely available to the general public, as special head-mounted displays are brought to market that create the illusion of being immersed in virtual three-dimensional worlds.

SEE ALSO: Weekly Round-Up: Top 5 Devices Launched in India

But citing recent studies, Michael Madary and Thomas Metzinger from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany said that VR may create vast opportunities for psychological manipulation - a risk that has received far less attention so far.

"These studies suggest that VR poses risks that are novel, that go beyond the risks of traditional psychological experiments in isolated environments, and that go beyond the risks of existing media technology for the general public," the researchers wrote in a recently published article in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

Based on their analysis of the risks, both researchers offered concrete recommendations for the use of VR. For example, in experimental work developing new clinical applications, researchers should be careful not to create false hopes in patients.

They should repeatedly remind them of the merely experimental nature of the research. Madary and Metzinger also noted that a code of ethical conduct, however important it may be, can never function as a substitute for ethical reasoning itself on the part of researchers.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Galaxy S6: 5 Differences and 5 Similarities!

They warned about content such as violence and pornography, where the advanced technology may increase the risk of psychological trauma. "Users should be clearly informed of these dangers, as well as risks of hallucinations, personality changes, and the powerful unconscious influence of advertising in VR," they said.

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#1

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has been with Google since 1998 and has been the head of YouTube since 2014.

She has consistently pushed the company to innovate and become the leader in delivering online video content.

Wojcicki has been with Google since the beginning: she was their 16th employee and the company worked out of her garage for its first few months.

Everything from Google's AdSense to Google's Youtube purchase and even Google's search engine dominance is also Wojcicki's idea. She started by partnering with universities and had them include a Google search bar in their websites.

She's a mom to five kids, and she is always home for dinner, devoting the hours of 6:00-9:00pm only to her family completely.

As of May of this year, YouTube was valued at $80 billion, leaving eBay, Yahoo, and Starbucks in its dust.

Source

#2

Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and the best-selling author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. She was born in Washington, D.C., in 1969.

Sandberg was married briefly at the age of 24 and then got divorced a year later.

In 2004, she married Dave Goldberg, who became one of her biggest supporters her. Unfortunately, he died in 2015, due to a head injury.

Sheryl worked for Google until 2008, with her tenure marked by stunning professional success and an ever-growing reputation as one of the top executives in the country.

She also made it to the billionaires' list in early 2014, based on her stake in Facebook, which made its initial public stock offering in 2012, the same year that Sandberg became the first female member of the company's board of directors.

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#3

She served as a CEO of eBay for 10 years and under her direction; the company became an online auction giant that went from sales of $86 million in her first year to a staggering $7.7 billion a decade later.

After failing to win the California governor's race in 2010 she was tapped to run computer giant Hewlett-Packard in September 2011.

Whitman is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.

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#4

She was Google's 20th employee and its first female engineer. She worked on projects like Google Maps, Google Earth, Street View, Google News and Gmail.

After spending 13 years at Google, she was appointed the CEO of Yahoo in 2012.

In September of 2013, Mayer was ranked number one by Fortune magazine in its annual "40 Under 40" list of business leaders.

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#5

Co-Chief Executive Officer, Oracle Corporation.

The Israeli-born, Boston-raised executive is credited with spearheading its aggressive acquisition strategy. She helped close over 85 acquisitions over the past five years that helped Oracle to secure a top position in the world of enterprise technology.

She is also the board of directors for HSBC Holdings, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations.

She is one of world's highest-paid female executives, earning nearly $38 million in 2014.

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#6

She is the Senior Vice President, Apple and was the highest-paid female executive in the U.S in 2014.

Angela has had a long and successful career in the fashion and retail industry and played a very important role in Burberry's return to popularity.

Revenues during her tenure rose from 2 billion to over 7 billion, and Burberry is now one of the five largest luxury brands in the world with 530 stores scattered around the globe.

She has also featured on a TEDx talk earlier where she talked about the "positive and transformative power of human energy."

She is the first female on Apple CEO Tim Cook's executive team.

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#7

She started out as a summer intern at Xerox, and 36 years later became the chief executive officer of the same company.

She is the first African-American female chief executive of a Fortune 500 company and became one of the most powerful women in corporate America.

She also spearheaded Xerox's largest ever acquisition Affiliated Computer Services in 2010.

She earned roughly $18.6 million, a $1.1 million salary, a $2 million cash bonus and $15.5 million in Xerox stock.

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#8

She joined Google in May 2015 as the CFO.

Earlier she worked at Morgan Stanley for 22 years and closely handled the IPO's of biggies like eBay, Priceline, and Amazon.

She is one strong woman who has worked through childbirth and even breast cancer.

She also likes spending her free time flipping houses and will never take a day off.

It is estimated that the new CFO Ruth Porat will make at least $70 million this year.

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#9

Hood began working at Microsoft in 2002 and is the first female chief financial officer at Microsoft.

She manages the company's productivity applications and services including Microsoft Office 365, Office, SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics ERP and Dynamics CRM.

Hood played a central role in takeovers of companies including Skype.

She also assisted on the $1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer Inc. last year.

She has an annual base salary of $570,000, along with Microsoft stock valued around $6.5 million.

Source

#10

In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed James as a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC)

James joined Intel in 1987 as a product manager and then was named the president in May, 2013

News is she will join hands with Oracle pretty soon.

Source

#11

Gwynne Shotwell, 49, is president and chief operating officer of SpaceX.

Shotwell is No. 2 at the pioneering company behind founder and chief executive Elon Musk.

Shotwell's has nearly 20 years of experience in the Aerospace industry with half in senior management/ executive positions.

In 2004, she was elected to the California Space Authority Board of Directors and she also serves as a Member of Board of Governors at Aerospace Industries Association.



We can't thank all the women enough for the amount of sacrifice they make in their lives to take care of everyone in the family. Plus these efforts are doubled if they have a responsibility of hundreds employees and crores of rupees on their shoulders. Hats off to such women out there who do all the hard work and yet never complain. Have a Proud & Happy Women's Day.

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The number of students taking the SAT in programs sponsored by their states or districts has soared by 89 percent between last March and this March, while the number opting to take it on their own, outside of those programs, has dropped 22 percent in the same time period.

Those numbers illustrate the dramatic shift thats taking place in SAT test-taking patterns as the College Board pushes hard to secure statewide testing contracts. Take a look at the change in numbers between the March 2015 administration and the March 2016 administration, which debuted the newly redesigned SAT:

Youll see that the overall 1.5 percent increase is driven by the rise in the number of tests being given as part of the College Boards school day program. That program allows states or districts to give the test to all their juniors, or make it available for those students. The national program reflects the students who take the SAT on their own. Nearly 23 percent fewer students took the SAT that way in March 2016 than did so in March 2015.

As weve reported, the College Board has been pushing hard to secure more statewide contracts. Thats been ACTs modus operandi for many years, and it has a long list of statewide contracts to boast about. For College Board, a small list is growing.

Five statesConnecticut, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, and New Hampshirecurrently require all juniors to take the SAT. Others, such as Idaho, offer it to all students for free, but dont require it. Some school districts, such as New York City and Houston, have similar programs. Those boost the number of students taking the college-entrance exam, which is key to the point of offering it: Such programs aim to reduce college-application barriers and get students thinking early about college preparation.

As the debut of the redesigned SAT drew near, college counselors and test-prep professionals speculated that administration numbers would be much lower than last year, since many counselors had been advising students to wait until early kinks, if any, had been worked out. That prediction seems to have held true in the slice of the SAT world where students choose for themselves whether to take it or not.

Early Feedback From New SAT

There have been some positive reports emerging from the frontlines of the new SATs maiden voyage, however. Kaplan Test Prep surveyed 500-plus students who took the test, and 60 percent said they found the questions straightforward. About the same proportion, though, criticized the test section lengths as too long. Forty-eight percent said the test was about as difficult as theyd expected, 30 percent said it was tougher, and 22 percent said it was easier than theyd expected.

Perhaps reflecting the uncertainty about the new SAT, 56 percent of the respondents in the Kaplan survey said they had already taken, or were planning to take, the ACT as well. Seventeen percent said they hadnt planned to take the ACT too, but changed their minds and did so. Those trends continued the trend Kaplan has been seeing toward a two-test landscape, according to Lee Weiss, the companys vice president of college admissions programs.

College Board officials have emphasized that the new SAT was designed to better reflect what students learn in high school. But if the Kaplan survey is any indicator, that might not be taking shape the way theyd hoped. When Kaplan asked students if the new SAT reflected what they have learned in high school, 16 percent said very much so, 56 percent said somewhat, 23 percent said not too much, and 5 percent responded not at all.

Rosier survey figures about the new SAT were released by the College Board . In its survey of 8,089 test-takers, 71 percent reported that the test reflected what they learned in high school. By a 6-to-1 margin, students said they preferred the new format. Three-quarters found the reading section easier than, or about as easy as, theyd expected. One of the College Boards key aimsto test vocabulary thats useful rather than obscureseems to have had an impact. Eighty percent of the students College Board surveyed said the vocabulary on the test would be useful to them later in life, while only 55 percent said so the previous year.

The College Board also asked students about test prep, since it has been pushing hard to make those services accessible to more students through its partnership with Khan Academy. The number of students who paid for test-prep services was down 19 percent compared with the March 2015 SAT administration. Half of all the students who took the March 2016 test used the free Khan Academy preparation services, and 98 percent said they were extremely, very or somewhat helpful, according to the College Board.
1

From budget smartphone like Coolpad Note 3 to premium device like Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, a huge number of smartphones last year came with embedded with a fingerprint scanner. The tech world was expecting something new from the Samsung's 2016 flagship devices.

The iris or eye scanner that unlocks the smartphone by recognizing the eye-print of the user. Smartphone makers like Microsoft, ZTE and more have already implemented iris scanner on their handsets. Considering the iris scanner, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge have definitely missed this features.

2

The display of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge comes with QHD resolution and produce rich colors, but it is pretty much the same as of last year flagship handset in terms of quality. Well, the tech experts were expected that Samsung to take on Apple in terms of display technology, using a new touchscreen technology of its own to rival the 3D Touch of iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

3

Google has given its full support to the new standard of USB Type-C and many smartphone makers like Microsoft, OnePlus and Xiaomi have already implemented the USB Type-C in their phones. Surprisingly, neither Galaxy S7 nor S7 Edge is equipped with USB Type-C connector. However, both devices feature fast-charging.

4

Users ask for better selfie smartphone and surprisingly Samsung gave the front flash a miss in its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Samsung would have come with artificial flash similar to the iPhone 6s's screen flash.

5

Glass and metal are premium materials are great for smartphone construction, the handset looks stylish and feels good. Well, Samsung has just rehashed the design of last year's smartphones. Well, other OEM's are using exclusive materials like ceramic, leather and wood for their devices.
Washington

Its hot. The four finalists for 2016 National Teacher of the Year have been in a conference room in the headquarters of the Council of Chief State School Officers here on the last day of February, and the thermostat has not cooperated. The candidates have gone through the wringer, and this group interview isnt even the last thing on the docket.

The finalists are here in part to meet the officials who ultimately decide which one gets to be National Teacher of the Year, with the CCSSO acting as coordinator.

After all of the travel, thoughthe monuments, the press, the policy gurustheres still energy to talk about a conversation topic theyve found lacking today: teacher retention, especially for educators of color.

In my district we have a targeted recruiting effort for minority teachersblack and Latino specificallybecause that is what our demographics look like in my district. And its just been such a challenge to attract that population, to retain that population, says Jahana Hayes, a high school social studies teacher from Waterbury, Conn.

Here beside Hayes are Nate Bowling, from Tacoma, Wash.; Daniel Jocz, from Los Angeles; and Shawn Sheehan, from Norman, Okla. All of them teach high school social studies except for Sheehan, who teaches high school math.

If you want to recruit and retain teachers of color, you have to make schools a place where students of color feel comfortable and feel like theyre successful, Bowling adds, saying there are a whole host of factors why students of color might have a less-than-positive school experience. If you were miserable some place, why would you go back to make things miserable for yourself?

Bowling is ready for this conversation. In the weeks since the CCSSO announced the names of the teacher of the year finalists, he published an essay called The Conversation Im Tired of Not Having in which he offers a scathing indictment of systemic inequity in U.S. schools:

As a nation, we're nibbling around the edges with accountability measures and other reforms, but we're ignoring the immutable core issue: much of white and wealthy America is perfectly happy with segregated schools and inequity in funding. We have the schools we have, because people who can afford better get better. And sadly, people who can't afford better just get lessless experienced teachers, inadequate funding, and inferior facilities."

Bowling says that his essay was a lot of me thinking aloud. He wants a focus on finding effective educators and figuring out how to keep them, rather than on obsessing over the worst educators . Were not paying enough attention to who inspires. ... For me, its not that Im disengaging from the policy argument, but the quality of the educator in the classroom is more important than whatever standard is being used, whatever curriculum is being used.

Federal data point to a diminishing number of black teachers throughout the country, and lower retention rates than for white teachers. At least one out of every five new teachers (if not more) will leave the profession within five years . Efforts to curb teacher attrition may be non-existent in many districtsthe teachers here say their districts didnt offer them much attention, if any at all.

Ive had colleagues that have just left the profession and no one asked them why, and they were some of our most effective educators, Jocz says. There is no effort in placemaybe at a local school site where you have rock-star administrationtheres nothing to retain talent, to develop talent, to recognize talent, on any scale that Ive seen in public high schools or just schools in general in Los Angeles.

Bowling says that the pull of high administrative salaries has lured too many teachers away. Perhaps, he said, those teachers would have stayed if they could make more money in their classroom position.

How do you do that? You have to fund it with taxes. Full stop. Right? Bowling said. How do you do that? You create leadership roles where teachers can lead from the classroom. But doing that means you need more FTE [full-time equivalents]. How do you get more FTE? You have to raise taxes. So thats dead.

He would know. His state has been engulfed in legislative wrangling over the budget, furthered by a state supreme court ruling, McCleary v. State of Washington, that held Washington had failed to meet its constitutional obligations toward education funding . And South Dakota offers another example of how long it can take to increase teacher salary through tax changes.

Hayes state, Connecticut, actually has a system for teacher induction, but its one of only four states in the country to have a state-funded, multi-year induction program, along with Delaware, Hawaii, and Iowa. Thats according to a new report released this month by the New Teacher Center, an organization that consults on teacher-induction programs.

In a Washington panel discussion timed to coincide with that reports release on March 1, education experts mused about why states had paid so little attention toward efforts to keep teachers. Former Kentucky education commissioner Terry Holliday said that recent federal money spent on teacher evaluation, funded primarily through Race to the Top , could have been better spent elsewhere.

Just think if wed spent all that money on induction programs and effectiveness programs what we would have today, and elevated teacher voice, and elevated the continuum of professional development, and linked and aligned preservice all the way through teacher-leadership positions, Holliday said.

Within Hayes district, she and colleagues worked together to set up a new retention program last year for teachers of color, due to worries about that groups low retention rate. Teachers meet once a month with a retired superintendent to go over areas where they say they need more assistance.

This group of teachers said I dont feel supported, and what we did in response to that is said, Lets create a network of support. And that doesnt really happen as often as it needs to happen, Hayes says.

Oftentimes teachers, our voice is lifted and everyone is saying the same thing, and then 10 years laterthrough policy or legislationyoure answering that challenge, but weve moved on to something else, she adds.

Image, left to right: National Teacher of the Year candidates Nathan Gibbs-Bowling, Jahana Hayes, Daniel Jocz, and Shawn Sheehan. Images via the CCSSO.

More on retention efforts:

Follow Ross Brenneman on Twitter for more news and analysis of the teaching profession.
NATO Secretary General welcomes expansion of NATO deployment in the Aegean Sea

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Press Release (2016) 032

Issued on 06 Mar. 2016

NATO took swift decisions to deploy ships to the Aegean Sea to support our Allies Greece and Turkey, as well as the EU's border agency FRONTEX, in their efforts to tackle the migrant and refugee crisis. NATO ships are already collecting information and conducting monitoring in the Aegean Sea. Their activity will now be expanded to take place also in territorial waters.

Our commanders have defined our area of activity in close consultation and coordination with both Greece and Turkey. Our activities in territorial waters will be carried out in consultation and coordination with both Allies. The purpose of NATO's deployment is not to stop or push back migrant boats, but to help our Allies Greece and Turkey, as well as the European Union, in their efforts to tackle human trafficking and the criminal networks that are fueling this crisis.

NATO's Maritime Command has also agreed with FRONTEX on arrangements at the operational and tactical level. NATO and FRONTEX will be able to exchange liaison officers and share information in real time, to enable FRONTEX, as well as Greece and Turkey, to take action in real time.

This is an excellent example of how NATO and the EU can work together to address common challenges. I welcome the fact that we were able to finalise these arrangements in such a short time. In this crisis, time is of the essence, and cooperation is key.

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B-52s join French forces for close air support exercise

By Senior Airman Joseph Raatz, 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron Public Affairs / Published March 07, 2016

MORON AIR BASE, Spain (AFNS) -- U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortresses joined French aircraft and ground troops from a dozen nations to kick off a close air support exercise in the Mediterranean March 7.

Serpentex, an annual French-led exercise, involves joint terminal attack controllers from 12 partner countries. Operating on the French island of Corsica, the JTACs work together to practice properly identifying targets and using that data to call in air strikes from nearby French and American aircraft.

'Serpentex is a great opportunity to have all the JTACs from coalition nations in one place, training together to increase interoperability and work on communication skills,' said Maj. Sarah Fortin, the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron assistant director of operations. 'It gives them a chance to train and get smart on what they have to do and what their capabilities are, so later on down the road when it counts, they can perform effectively and efficiently.'

Serpentex differs from other joint-military exercises in the region as it concentrates solely on close air support. This critical capability puts the power of precise, concentrated air strikes in the hands of troops on the ground, who can call these strikes in to defend themselves against enemy attacks or to eliminate vital targets with lethal accuracy.

This is the first year B-52s have been invited to participate in the exercise, as the role of close air support has traditionally been filled by various fighter platforms. The Stratofortress is well-suited for this application, however, as it can loiter for extended periods and carries a wider range of munitions than any other aircraft in the U.S. inventory.

During the exercise, the B-52s joined with French fighters to support JTACs from several NATO nations, as well as those from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who are also participating this year. Training with a wide range of mission partners ensures a more comprehensive learning experience, Fortin explained.

'Working alongside our coalition partners out there will be a great experience for everybody,' Fortin said. 'Most of them haven't worked with bombers for these types of missions before. We have a longer duration and a lot wider turn radius than some of the fighters, so they're going to have to find a new pacing for calling us in for close air support. But I promise that bomber CAS is worth the wait.'

The B-52s involved in Serpentex also participated in the Norwegian-led Cold Response 16, a large-scale NATO military training exercise in the Trndelag region of Norway involving 16,000 troops and comprising air, ground and maritime operations. The bombers will be participating in both exercises simultaneously for a short time as Cold Response winds down. Temporarily stationing the aircraft in Europe allowed for more sorties, shorter flight times, less fuel burned and more training hours.

'The ability to train bomber aircrews in different geographic combatant commands is essential to maintaining a strong, credible bomber force that enhances the security and stability of our allies and partners,' said Lt. Col. Dennis Cummings, the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron commander. 'Our ability to smoothly and effectively conduct these multinational missions is heavily indebted to the hospitality of Spain and fantastic support we are receiving from U.S. Air Forces (in) Europe.'

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Coalition Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, March 7, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted six strikes in Syria:

-- Near Hasakah, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL building, four ISIL vehicles and an ISIL heavy machine gun.

-- Near Ayn Isa, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 12 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle.

-- Near Fallujah, a strike destroyed an ISIL front-end loader.

-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL heavy machine gun position.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIL rocket rail.

-- Near Mosul, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL used bridge.

-- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun position and three ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar position and three ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Tikrit, two strikes struck an ISIL improvised weapons factory and an ISIL headquarters.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Strategy-Driven Processes Behind Budget Request, Official Says

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2016  One of the most important processes in the Defense Department for getting military capabilities in the field hides behind an innocuous acronym -- the PPB.

It stands for planning, programming and budgeting, and the process is the nexus for connecting strategy to capabilities.

Along the way it connects all other aspects of the department, from day care to health care, from managing legacy systems to building new ones and from recruiting to retirement. The PPB process leads to the annual Defense Budget Request -- pegged at $583 billion for fiscal year 2017.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies examined the process during a discussion at their headquarters this morning.

Strategy-Driven

The budget request is a strategy-driven document, said Robert M. Scher, the assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, as he described the FY 2017 process.

This is a new security environment, he said. Defense Secretary Ash Carter gave very clear guidance that, in this new era, the budget must enable the United States to deter adversaries, and, if that fails, to win the nation's wars, Scher said.

"He also was very clear about ensuring that we looked at five  evolving issues," he said. The era of great power rivalry has returned, Carter said, and the United States must focus on Russia and China, North Korea and Iran. And, terrorism is a global concern.

"We need to be able to say that we can do more than one thing and more than one thing at a time, and be able to address all of these challenges," Scher said. "[Carter] consciously didn't want to prioritize them."

In short, the military has to be prepared for full spectrum operations in all domains, including the new ones of space and cyber, he said.

Funding Capabilities

The budget has to fund capabilities for those going into harm's way, Scher said, but this budget "continues a trend, but continues it more directly and more consciously on understanding that we have to look at new things and new ways of doing things to deal with great power adversaries, and the security environment we have."

Innovation must be a part of that process because the American military cannot fight the same way it did 10 or 20 years ago the assistant secretary said.

Balance is key, Scher said. "We look at this balance in two different ways," he said. "One, is the balance in the mix of capability, capacity and readiness for each of the military services." The strategic guidance was to favor a bias towards modernization and recovering readiness rather than force structure.

"The second part is balance between resourcing today's fights and preparing for the future threats and conflicts," he said. "Key to this is we will not be able to prevail in a future conflict against a great power if we don't start thinking, planning about it now and today."

The most credible way to ensure deterrence is to not only know you can win, "but to know how you win, who you'll work with and how you'll get there," Scher said.

This is fine if you are faced with only one conflict, but the United States has to be able to do more than one thing at a time, the assistant secretary said. The U.S. military has to be able to deal with multiple conflicts at any one time.

This shows up in the budget. "Some of these key capabilities are very focused on anti-access and aerial denial threats, including investments our posture in Europe, modernizing fighter and air attack, lethality in the undersea force, research and development," he said.

Third Offset Strategy

But there is also the third offset strategy driving the process. "I think this budget reinforces the secretary's guidance to figuring out how we can offset some of the key capabilities that our adversaries and potential adversaries are building," Scher said.

Scher addressed each of the threats. Russia, he said, is doing what it can to shift the European security environment by undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighboring countries. "So, figuring out what we do to deal with Russia in the near-term and the long-term was a huge focus for us," he said.

Anything the United States does will be in concert with allies, "and we will continue to do that," Scher said.

The budget looks to increasing U.S. military presence in Europe and at making investments in infrastructure, especially air fields, to be able to account for rapid deployability, he said.

Countering China

China is an enigma -- not an enemy, he said, but its actions are unsettling a crucial part of the world. U.S. strategy "is also partly about dealing with the potential adversary that we could see in China based on their behavior and their capability and what they are building," Scher said.

China is trying to restrict access and freedom of movement in the South China Sea, he said. "So, we need to take a look  at where we have advantages and where we can do things, such as engaging targets at standoff range and emphasize our undersea capabilities, and make bets on future technology that will be useful," the assistant secretary said. "We are going to continue and have continued in this budget to move forward on posture issues in the Asia-Pacific region."

Iranian and North Korean actions compel the United States to continue to make investments to counter them, Scher said. Iran's malign influence in the Middle East, he added, continues to be a grave concern and North Korea's nuclear program and ballistic missile programs are disturbing.

"Finally, we did not forget about fighting global terrorism," he said. "It is an ongoing condition and is where we have forces still in harm's way, and where we must  place a priority focus."

He said fighting global terrorism will be a generational struggle and capabilities must be in place to deal with this threat.

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Capability, Risk Drive Shift in DoD Operational Energy Strategy

By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2016  The Defense Department's 2016 Operational Energy Strategy, the first issued since the inaugural report in 2011, shows how changes in the department and its operational environment demand a shift in approach to energy challenges, a senior defense leader said during a recent interview.

Amanda Simpson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for operational energy, is the official who will work with defense components to oversee the strategy's implementation.

As defined in Section 2924 of Title 10 U.S. Code, operational energy is the energy needed for training, moving and sustaining military forces and weapon platforms for military operations.

"In other words, this is the fuel used in ships, jets, combat vehicles, and contingency bases -- it powers our global operations," she said.

"Everyone thinks that less expensive fuels means there is no need to worry about how much and how we use energy in the military," she added. "If fuel was free, we'd still have to pay an operational price for our energy needs, so it's something we do need to worry about, or at least consider."

Simpson added, "The cost of energy far exceeds the price of fuel."

Strategy Shift

According to the report, the 2016 strategy shifts the department's focus toward a refined set of objectives, including the following:

-- Increasing future warfighting capability by including energy throughout future force development;

-- Identifying and reducing logistic and operational risks from operational energy vulnerabilities; and

-- Enhancing the force's mission effectiveness with updated equipment and improvements in training, exercises and operations.

"Virtually every platform that comes out  whether it's the new truck, the new tank, the new ship, the new plane, the new soldier gear  has more capability hands-down, but also costs us energy in operations," Simpson said.

"So, how do we make sure that we're able to support this equipment in the field? We never want to say don't use energy or restrict the amount of fuel that's available to the troops," she added. "Sometimes, this means adapting the equipment, but, often, changing our tactics, techniques and procedures may be just as important as the new gadget."

Operational Changes

Simpson said several changes contributed to the shift in energy approaches.

These include DoD's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and the vast distances involved in operating there, continuing support of global operations that include revisionist states and violent extremists groups, and anti-access/area-denial weapons like mines, ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced air defenses and improvised bombs of all kinds, according to the strategy.

Simpson said she groups the new approach into three categories -- "what are the things that we can do now, what are the things we should be planning for tomorrow, and what are the things we must do for the future?"

Future, Tomorrow, Today

For the future, the department must consider energy supportability in the field of new weapon systems.

"It's not just a question of planning for it, we need to consider it early on in the design process, early on in requirements," she said, noting that there's now a mandatory energy key performance parameter for every DoD acquisition program.

"With the right energy supportability analyses, you can come up with a parameter that describes the needed performance of your system in a scenario that assumes constrained logistics capacity and lethal adversaries, she said, adding, "These KPPs may not be exciting -- it could be payload ton-miles per gallon, for instance -- but they reflect rigorous supportability analyses that directly link operational energy to warfighting capability."

For the "tomorrow" category, she said, "we have operational plans, we have forces strategically located, we have forces to be deployed, and we need to look at those for energy implications -- how do we make sure that we're ready, how do we minimize the risk they face due to our energy needs?"

For the "today" category, Simpson said, the department is focused on the contingency bases and air, land, and sea systems already operational in the field.

"We can't immediately issue you a new tank, we're not going to change the engine today in that fighter aircraft, but we can field mid-life upgrades, improve our TTPs, or provide commanders with better information on their energy use in the field," she explained.

Reducing Vulnerability

As a whole, the department is looking at a range of basic strategies to reduce vulnerability created by its need for energy, Simpson said, including improved engines, better ways to track fuel usage, and even putting operational energy risks and opportunities into wargaming.

"Putting [such] analytical capability into wargaming and, to some extent, our exercises, is a huge force multiplier with regard to understanding our liabilities because of our dependence on fuel and the risks associated with it," she said. Then, she noted, "we can come up with strategies for mitigating those risks, long before the actually occur in the field."

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Defense Official: Programming Stitches Together Strategy, Capabilities

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2016  The planning, programming and budgeting process for an organization the size of the Defense Department is not pretty, but it does work.

Dr. Jamie M. Morin, DoD's director of cost assessment and program evaluation, discussed the programming aspect of planning, programming and budgeting -- probably the least familiar aspect of the process -- during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies headquarters here today.

Programming, he said, "is really about connecting the broad goals of our strategy and of our operational planning with the capabilities, the capacity and the readiness that's required to carry them out."

Delivering Deterrence

Programming looks at "delivering comprehensive deterrence for the nation so that we can secure a beneficial peace for the American people and for the world," Morin said.

The PPB process began in the early 1960s when then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was seeking a better way to tie strategy to resources. Each successive administration has tried to improve the process. "Part of what we are trying to do is tighten that linkage from strategy all the way through to budget," Morin said.

It starts with defining critical objectives, he said. For the fiscal year 2017 defense budget request, that meant clear and early guidance from the secretary of defense as to the strategic priorities.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter "gave us that guidance early enough that we could charter some very specific and focused analytic efforts to get at the critical questions that turned into the details of the budget," Morin said.

Strategic Portfolios

Personnel from the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office worked on strategic portfolio reviews deliberately designed to reach across the different structures of the department, he said, noting that these reviews were not limited to a service, a domain, a weapons system or one appropriations lineup.

These reviews are "the department's analytical crown jewels for this last cycle and were core to us aligning resources to the most critical challenges facing the department," Morin said.

To illustrate his point, Morin used the review of power projection.

DoD has to be able to field the right capabilities in a sufficient quantity in order to provide that comprehensive deterrence for adversaries and potential adversaries around the world, he said.

"Potential adversaries need to understand and be very cognizant of the capabilities the United States can bring to bear if we need to defend allies, if we need to defend American interests," Morin said. "Whether or not those capabilities are up to the snuff and make that potential adversary think twice, is really at the heart of global deterrence."

There were three major thematic findings in the power projection strategic portfolio review, he said.

"First, it placed a great emphasis on the ability of the United States to deliver effects from range," Morin said.

"The second critical theme is about disaggregating complex systems, extremely expensive systems, extremely valuable systems, extremely precious systems, into simpler elements in order to carry out military tasks," he said.

Sanctuary

The third principle is to leverage areas of sanctuary. "Again, if others are seeking to keep you out so that you cannot defend allies or defend interests, it's important to be able to act from domains or from means where you enjoy a relative sanctuary," he said.

One aspect Morin's team brings to the equation is the ability to look farther into the future, giving them a planning horizon far enough out that new technologies and weapons systems start to come in.

"To emphasize both the sanctuary piece and the delivering effects from range piece, I highlight one specific domain example, which is what this program and budget do in the undersea," he said. "That's an area of extraordinary advantage for the United States, an area where we enjoy a relative sanctuary, an area where we have technological advantages built up over decades that give us extraordinary capability. So you see across the future years' defense plan, over $40 billion of additional investment in American undersea capabilities."

That money goes to fielding more state-of-the-art Virginia-class submarines, Morin said, and to the initial stages of modernizing undersea nuclear deterrence with the Ohio Replacement Program.

But it goes farther, he said. "One extremely important one is the investment in what we call the Virginia payload module," Morin said. "The Virginia payload module is really an extended-cab version of your standard Virginia attack submarine. And it's an extraordinarily high-leverage one. Because while the run-of-the-mill Virginia offers you 12 [Tomahawks], the Virginia payload module version offers you 40. So, more than triple the shooting capacity, as well as capabilities to support a whole host of other special missions and weapons systems."

But, Morin said, the Navy can't stand still in undersea warfare. Programmers recommended upgrading submarine combat systems and investing in improved acoustics and sensing technology, he said.

"And we're also looking towards unmanned capability and the Virginia payload module will also give those submarines more capability to host various unmanned systems," Morin said.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-076-16 March 07, 2016

Statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on Airstrike in Somalia

On Saturday, March 5, the U.S. military, in self-defense and in defense of our African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) partners, conducted an airstrike in Somalia against Raso Camp, a training facility of al-Shabaab, which is a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda. The strike was conducted using manned and unmanned aircraft. The fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to U.S. and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces in Somalia.

The removal of these fighters degrades al-Shabaab's ability to meet the group's objectives in Somalia, including recruiting new members, establishing bases, and planning attacks on U.S. and AMISOM forces.

We continue to assess the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/687305/

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Cold Response 16: CAC Marines scout area for enemy

US Marine Corps News

By Cpl. Immanuel Johnson | March 7, 2016

Light Armored Reconnaissance Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force, Combined Arms Company, test their reconnaissance skills in a cold-weather environment during Exercise Cold Response 16 in central Norway, March 4, 2016.

"Being a part of BSRF, we (Combined Arms Company) have the opportunity to participate in Cold Response 16," said 1st Lt. Grant McCloskey, a Light Armored Reconnaissance platoon commander with CAC. "We had the chance to cross-train with the Norwegians in Rena. Our counterparts gave us essential tips and tricks on how to survive in this cold-weather environment."

By learning crucial cold-weather survival skills from their Norwegian counterparts, CAC Marines are able to apply those skills in a tactical environment when conducting route reconnaissance missions.

"As a Light Armored Reconnaissance unit, we go out and scout the area, looking for the enemy," said Lance Cpl. Sanjay Lohar, a rifleman with BSRF. "We go on patrols to ensure the area our implemented defenses cannot see is clear."

LAR is a mobilized reconnaissance unit that provides commanders with vital intelligence of the enemy by penetrating their lines and determining their strength, location and size. They set up defensive positions and push out patrols to establish forward observation posts in order to accomplish this mission.

"Before Cold Response even started, my platoon occupied a piece of land on high terrain that overlooked the valley," said McCloskey. "As soon as we occupied the area, we set up defensively and fortified our positions, pushing out four daily patrols and a night patrol to scout the enemy."

"What we do as foot-mobile patrols is we can fill those gaps the LAV's cannot see," said Lohar. "Our job is to scout the blind spots and clear the area if need be."

Norway provides a unique training environment and challenges the Marines to not only do their jobs well, but to excel in an extreme environment.

"The training we received back stateside definitely prepared us for this, but the cold weather environment makes it challenging," said McCloskey. "We can operate in any clime and place and when we are called to go, we can execute the mission and task at hand."

Exercise Cold Response includes 13 NATO and partner nations and approximately 16,000 troops. The exercise provides a platform to refine collective crisis-response capabilities and the opportunity to learn from NATO partners.

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NATO Secretary General discusses instability on NATO's southern borders with Turkish Prime Minister

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

07 Mar. 2016

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met on Monday (7 March 2016) to discuss the conflict and instability on NATO's southern borders. Mr. Stoltenberg thanked Turkey for its efforts to tackle the current refugee and migrant crisis and stressed that NATO stands in solidarity with Turkey.

The Secretary General underlined that Turkey is generously hosting more than two and a half million refugees and is "bearing the brunt of the greatest refugee and migrant crisis since the Second World War in Europe." He also praised Turkey's commitment to NATO's surveillance deployment in the Aegean Sea. NATO ships are currently collecting information and conducting monitoring to support Turkey, Greece and the EU's border agency Frontex in their efforts to tackle human trafficking and the criminal networks. Earlier today, the Secretary General also met with Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos to discuss the details of NATO's deployment.

"Over the week-end, we decided to step up our efforts and our support to assist international efforts to deal with the crisis. We are expanding the area of activity into the territorial waters of Turkey and Greece, in close coordination with both Allies. So NATO is starting activities in territorial waters today. We are expanding our cooperation with the EU's border agency FRONTEX. And we are expanding the numbers of ships in our deployment", the Secretary General said in a joint press point with Prime Minister Davutoglu.

Mr. Stoltenberg explained that NATO's Maritime Command has exchanged letters with Frontex. "This will allow us to exchange liaison officers and to share information in real time. So that Frontex, as well as Greece and Turkey, can take even more effective action. This is a great example of how NATO and the European Union can work together to address common challenges," said the Secretary General.

During his meeting with Prime Minister Davutoglu, the Secretary General also discussed the situation in Syria. As part of NATO support to assist with the refugee and migrant crisis, Allies have decided to intensify intelligence, surveillance and monitoring along the Turkish-Syrian border. "This will complement the assurance measures for Turkey we decided late last year, including more AWACS presence and an increased naval presence," said Mr. Stoltenberg. He added that NATO will also continue to augment Turkey's air defences with Patriots.

The Secretary General underlined that the Syrian ceasefire remains the best possible basis for renewing efforts to reach a negotiated, peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria. He added that NATO remains concerned by the Russian military build-up in Syria and the eastern Mediterranean: "Russia's military activity in the region has fuelled the humanitarian crisis and driven more people to Turkey's borders. It has also caused violations of NATO airspace. So more than ever, it is important to see calm, de-escalation and dialogue."

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How Justice Scalia's Death Impacts Your Business

The legal community is still adjusting to the reality that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died last month. His absence leaves the outcome of many cases more difficult to predict than before. Let's look at how the high court influences your small business and a few cases that illustrate this.

When we think of Supreme Court cases, we generally think of civil rights, most likely, and not matters that impact small businesses on a daily basis. But actually as workers or employers we're impacted by a wide range of matters awaiting resolution by the nation's highest court.

Everyone's Business

The first case on the docket for consideration in light of Scalia's death comes in the immigration context, according to Inc. In United States v. Texas, the court will consider whether Texas and 25 other states are justified in their efforts to thwart an executive order.

The order seeks to halt deportation of millions of undocumented citizens, including parents of children born in this country. Oral arguments on the case are scheduled for April, with a decision expected in June. Scalia's death leaves a hole in the court and the hearts of his colleagues and this case is considered important to many employers, Inc. writes.

Public and Private Stuff

Next up is Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, a case about whether public-sector unions can collect fees from non-union members. Scalia expressed opposition to the practice but what will happen now is anyone's bet. The outcome of this matter could reportedly influence the private sector in right-to-work states.

A case that is ostensibly about veteran-owned businesses and government contracts could also have reverberations in businesses nationwide, Kingdomware Technologies Inc. v. United States. This is a case challenging the federal government's Department of Veteran Affairs for awarding a contract to a non-veteran-owned business over Kingdomware. Federal government contracts are a huge boon to businesses and how they are awarded is important to many.

Split the Difference

Despite all the predictions that came before Scalia's death and that have come since, the outcome of Supreme Court cases is never known until an opinion is issued. But with a vacancy on the high court, there is no shortage of opinions on who should fill the seat and what the next Justice's opinions will mean for all of us.

Got Questions?

If you have a question about how these laws or any others impact your business, speak to a lawyer. Counsel can give you guidance to ensure you make wise and informed decisions that work for your business and your workers.

Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Google+.

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USS Lassen Enters 4th Fleet Area of Operations

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160307-17

Release Date: 3/7/2016 4:11:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Huey D. Younger Jr., U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command & U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs

PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) arrived in the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations to begin conducting counter illicit trafficking operations in support of Operation Martillo, March 2.

Operation Martillo is a U.S., European and Western Hemisphere partner-nation effort launched in January 2012 targeting illicit trafficking routes in coastal waters along the Central American isthmus.

U.S. military participation is led by Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-South), in support of U.S. Southern Command.

Operation Martillo demonstrates a clear commitment of the Western Hemisphere and European nations to work as partners to counter the spread of transnational criminal organizations, and to protect citizens in Central America from the violence, harm and exploitation created by these criminal networks.

Operation Martillo is an international, inter-agency operation that includes the participation of 14 countries committed to a regional approach against transnational criminal organizations moving illicit cargo. To date, partner nation efforts have contributed to 57 percent of all disruptions to illicit trafficking and 60 percent of the metric tons captured as part of the Operation Martillo initiative.

'We have been planning and training for this deployment for well over the past year,' said Cmdr. Robert Francis, commanding officer, USS Lassen. 'The entire crew is thrilled to be a key asset in counter illicit trafficking.'

Lassen departed Yokosuka, Japan, Jan. 6, for her new homeport of Mayport, Florida, after serving nearly 10 years as part of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces.

U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet supports U.S. Southern Command's joint and combined military operations by employing maritime forces in cooperative maritime security operations in order to maintain access, enhance inter-operability, and build enduring partnerships in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions.

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Secretary of Defense Visits Joint Base Lewis-McChord

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160307-14

Release Date: 3/7/2016 3:57:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Seth Coulter, Navy Public Affairs Support Element, Det. Northwest

TACOMA, Wash. (NNS) -- Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Ashton Carter spoke with U.S service members during a troop talk at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, March 4.

During the last day of his trip to the West Coast, the secretary said the active-duty, National Guard and reserve service members who work at the installation constitute a significant asset as the military faces challenges such as the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese and Russian aggression, North Korean threats, Iran, and the accelerated fight to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

'We are here not only to protect our people, but to leave something for our children,' said Carter. 'You represent a terrific relationship between the military community and the larger national community. It's very important to our country.'

As much as Carter talked about the future of military preparedness he also praised service members who are at the forefront of protecting the country.

'It was nice for him to come and praise all of the armed forces for what they have done and continue to do,' said Sonar Technician 2nd Class Elijah Tuttle, stationed with USS Michigan (SSGN 727), from Beaverton, Oregon.

Many service members were chosen to represent their commands, while getting a chance to meet the SECDEF.

'For me this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet someone I would have never had the ability to meet outside of the military and it was and honor to be selected to be here,' said Missile Technician 2nd Class Samuel Blevins, stationed with USS Michigan (SSGN 727), from Knoxville, Tennessee.

Under the SECDEF, the mission of the Department of Defense (DOD) is to provide the necessary military forces to deter war along with the protecting and security of the United States of America, which is headquartered at the Pentagon.

'The SECDEF is the principal defense policy adviser to the president and is responsible for the formulation of general defense policy and policy related to all matters of direct concern to the Department of Defense, and for the execution of approved policy,' according to his website. 'Under the direction of the president, the secretary exercises authority, direction and control over the Department of Defense. The SECDEF is a member of the president's cabinet and of the National Security Council.'

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150 Shabab militants killed in Somali drone attack: Pentagon

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 7:11PM

More than 150 people have reportedly been killed in a US drone attack in Somalia over the weekend.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis claimed on Monday that the fatalities occurred on Saturday when the drone carried out the strike on a training camp of al-Shabab militants about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The militants "were there training and were training for a large-scale attack. We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and (African Union) forces,' said Davis.

Declining to give further details, Davis noted that the training camp had been under surveillance for some time prior to the drone attack.

Somalia is the sixth country, where the United States has used assassination drones to launch missile strikes. The US military has also used drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen.

Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.

The militants have been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities by government troops and the African Union Mission to Somalia, which is largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, and Kenya.

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DynCorp mercenaries to replace Blackwater in Yemen

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 11:7AM

The first batch of mercenaries from the private US military firm DynCorp has arrived in the Yemeni city of Aden to replace paid militants from another American company.

Under a USD-3-billion contract between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and DynCorp, mercenaries from the company are to be deployed to Yemen, where UAE forces are fighting against the Yemeni army and Popular Committees on Saudi orders, Khabar News Agency quoted an official with Yemeni Defense Ministry as saying.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the first group of the mercenaries recently arrived in the port city of Aden to replace those of Blackwater, a notorious American group now renamed Academi.

He added that the new militants included special naval forces, who entered the port of Ras Omran southwest of Aden.

DynCorp is a rival of Blackwater, which hires mercenaries and sends them to fight in foreign countries on paid missions.

Blackwater had decided to withdraw from Bab-el-Mandeb region after the Yemeni forces inflicted heavy losses on them. The UAE was forced to bring in the new mercenaries from DynCorp for the same reason.

Yemen has been under military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March last year. At least 8,400 people have been killed so far in the aggression and 16,015 others sustained injuries. The strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country's facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

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'US building two airbases in northern Syria's Kurdish region'

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 10:36AM

The United States has almost completed the establishment of an airbase in Syria's Kurdish-held northern territory amid construction of a second base there, a new report says.

The second airbase will have dual military and civilian use, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing the Erbil-based news website, BasNews.

A spokesman for US Central Command (CENTCOM) has, however, said the US was not taking control of any airfields in Syria.

The Kurdish news website, quoting an unnamed 'military source,' said most of the work on a runway in the town of Rmeilan in Hasaka was complete while a new airbase southeast of Kobani, right across the Turkish border, was being built.

The source told the news website that scores of US experts and technicians were involved in the project.

Syrian Kurds recently said the Rmeilan airstrip was being used by US military helicopters for logistics and deliveries.

The United States sent dozens of special operations troops to northern Syria last year to "advise" forces in their fight against the Daesh (ISIL) militant group.

'Our location and troop strength remains small and in keeping with what has been previously briefed by defense officials,' the CENTCOM spokesman said in a statement. 'That being said, US forces in Syria are consistently looking for ways to increase efficiency for logistics and personnel recovery support.'

The US military ties with the Syrian Kurds have grown deeper despite the concerns of NATO ally Turkey, which views the Syrian Kurdish PYD party as a terrorist group.

US-led airstrikes have been hitting purported ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria for more than a year. The offensive, however, has failed to stop the advances of the extremist militants.

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South Korea, US launch military exercises amid North threats

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 5:21AM

South Korea and the US have started large-scale military exercises amid a threat by North Korea to attack the two countries with nuclear weapons if they go ahead with the drills.

About 17,000 American troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans are taking part in the two sets of annual war games dubbed "Foal Eagle" and "Key Resolve." The drills, which kicked off on Monday, will continue until April 30.

The joint US and South Korean military command said it had notified North Korea of "the non-provocative nature of this training."

Pyongyang has claimed the exercises are "undisguised nuclear war drills," which threaten the North's national sovereignty, and warned of "indiscriminate" nuclear attacks against the US and South Korea in response to "even the slightest military action."

This is not, however, the first time North Korea threatens the US and South Korea with an attack over the annual military exercises in the region. Pyongyang has long considered the drills, which happen under its nose, as provocative, and has threatened to take action. The US and South Korea go ahead with the exercises every year, nonetheless.

South Korea's Defense Ministry has said there is no sign of any unusual military activity by the North that would indicate preparation for action against Seoul and Washington.

North Korea has been at odds with the South since the end of the Korean War of the early 1950s. An armistice ended all military hostilities between the two Koreas back then, but no peace deal ever ensued, meaning that, while the two countries are not at war, they are not at peace, either.

In the tensions that emerge too frequently, the US has been taking South Korea's side. Washington says Pyongyang is after developing long-range missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and can reach the US. North Korea says its adversaries, including the US, seek to bring the regime in Pyongyang down, and it is thus strengthening itself against hostile countries.

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Turkey Presses EU At Summit To Curb Migrant Flow

March 07, 2016

by RFE/RL

Turkey is pressing EU leaders for a number of concessions, including a doubling of funding from the bloc, in exchange for deeper cooperation to curb the flow of migrants to Europe, according to diplomats being quoted as intense negotiations continue in Brussels.

Representatives from the European Union are trying to hammer out a deal with Ankara to ensure the large-scale and fast-track return to Turkey of migrants who have fled their countries for economic reasons rather than to escape the direct effects of war in places like Syria.

Details of the talks between leaders of the 28 EU states and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu remain scarce amid reports of tough bargaining as the summit runs into overtime.

It's the latest diplomatic push to establish control as Europe faces its biggest inflow of migrants since World War II, with the strains threatening to divide EU members and reverse decades of work to establish the border-free Schengen zone.

News agencies have quoted diplomats as saying privately that Turkey has raised its price for cooperation with the EU beyond earlier demands, yet also has offered to do more to curb the flow of refugees than it had offered previously.

Diplomatic sources said the Turkish side was requesting a doubling of the EU's offer in November to provide 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to help Ankara care for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Other reports suggested Ankara was also pushing for faster movement in negotiations on Turkey's eventual membership in the EU, as well as to ease EU visa rules for Turkish citizens.

Davutoglu said ahead of the summit that he hoped it would 'not just focus on irregular migration but also on the Turkish accession process to the EU.'

He also said he hoped for a 'turning point' at the summit, adding that Turkey was indispensable for the EU, just as Europe was for Turkey.

A purported draft of an agreement was said to call temporarily for the speedy readmission to Turkey of 'all irregular migrants' crossing into the Greek islands and more Turkish staff to help achieve that goal, as well as increased cooperation by Turkey with the EU and UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, to resettle Syrians on a burden-sharing basis through a formula of 'for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU member states.'

Turkey has long sought EU membership, but the accession process has been slowed by European concerns over human rights issues in Turkey, including treatment of minorities and press freedom, among other issues.

The atmosphere of the EU-Turkey meeting was partly clouded hours ahead of the March 7 meeting as EU officials expressed dismay over Ankara's seizing control of Turkey's best-selling newspaper, Zaman.

Authorities took control of the paper on March 4 at the request of an Istanbul prosecutor, reportedly over allegations the paper has links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a strong critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara has frequently accused Gulen's followers in Turkey of seeking to topple the state, a claim Gulen's supporters deny.

European Parliament chief Martin Schulz said immediately after meeting with Davutoglu that the seizure of critical newspapers runs contrary to the values of the bloc Turkey seeks to join. 'Freedom is a non-negotiable element of European identity,' Schulz said.

EU leaders were also expected to discuss on March 7 whether to declare the Balkan route closed after Austria and four Balkan countries unilaterally decided to limit the number of border crossings to a trickle late last month.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who is chairing the summit, has reportedly proposed that the EU approve a draft statement saying that 'irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route are coming to an end; this route is now closed.'

But diplomats say privately that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is resisting the push to endorse the border closures.

Backed by EU member states Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary, non-EU member Macedonia is currently limiting the number of refugees it will allow to cross its border from Greece to 300 a day.

In choosing who will enter, Skopje has barred anyone from areas in Iraq and Syria it does not consider to be active conflict zones and stopped admitting Afghans and other nationalities altogether.

Brussels has opposed such moves in the absence of a broader consensus.

The states along the Balkan route began choking off entries after Vienna said it would accept no more than 80 asylum seekers daily, raising fears they would see thousands of migrants stranded on their territory. Vienna also said it would allow no more than 3,200 people to transit Austria daily.

The EU estimates that between 2,000 and 3,000 people continue to arrive in Greece from Turkey each day, raising the risk that thousands of new migrants will back up in Greece now that the Balkan route has shrunk.

Greece, whose economy is struggling amid a continuing debt crisis, already has a back-up of some 30,000 migrants and is among the EU's worst-equipped states for dealing with the influx.

The March 7 summit is expected to assure Athens that the European Union will help with housing the migrants now stranded in Greece.

But it remains uncertain whether the EU states will be able to agree on Athens' demand that the bloc speed up the relocation of registered asylum seekers from Greece to other counties.

Efforts to agree late last year on mandatory redistribution quotas for EU states foundered on opposition from several Eastern and Central European members.

Ahead of the summit, NATO announced it was expanding its naval mission against people-smuggling in the Aegean Sea by deploying warships in Greek and Turkish waters, reinforcing its flotilla, and deepening cooperation with the EU's Frontex border agency.

But efforts to prevent the sea crossings are hampered by Turkey's long coastline, which offers many possibilities for clandestine people-smuggling.

The Balkan route has become the main entry point for migrants to Europe since last year, with 880,000 people using it in 2015 alone.

The numbers have increased this year, with almost 132,000 crossing from Turkey to Greece in the first two months of this year, nearly as many as in the entire first half of 2015.

More than 400 migrants have died or disappeared while attempting to reach Greece from Turkey aboard unseaworthy boats since the beginning of 2016. On March 6, a boat capsized off the Turkish coast with the loss of 25 lives.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/eu-turkish-leaders- gather-in-brussels-for-migrant-summit/27593151.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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White House To Report Death Tolls From Drones, Counterterrorism Strikes

March 07, 2016

The Obama administration says it is preparing to release a report on how many people have been killed by U.S. drones and counterterrorism strikes outside of active war zones since 2009.

The move announced by the White House on March 7 would lift one of the elements of secrecy that has shrouded the U.S. counterterrorism program for years.

Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, said the disclosure will cover strikes in undeclared U.S. battlefields  such as Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia.

The tabulation will cover the years since Obama took office, but it won't cover the active war theaters of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

Monaco said the report would be published in the 'coming weeks,' but did not provide an exact date for the release.

U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups have pressed for more transparency about civilians killed by U.S. drones.

In related news, the Pentagon said on March 7 that it had launched a series of U.S. drone strikes against a training camp in Somalia for Al-Shabaab fighters, killing an estimated 150 militants in the terrorist group.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the attack on the night of March 5 involved multiple drone aircraft that fired bombs and missiles at militants in the training camp, about 200 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu.

Davis said U.S. intelligence indicated the group was preparing for a 'large-scale' attack and posed a threat to U.S. and African Union forces in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based branch of Al-Qaeda, has been accelerating an offensive of terrorist attacks in recent weeks aimed at disrupting elections later in 2016, undermining an international peacekeeping mission, and bringing down Somalia's Western-backed government.

Despite being forced out of Somalia's major urban areas, Al-Shabaab continues to carry out deadly terrorist attacks in East Africa.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and The Guardian

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/us-report-death- tolls-drone-counterterror-strikes/27596015.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Azerbaijan Air Force Flies Into Turkey For Week Long Joint Excercies

Sputnik News

13:40 07.03.2016(updated 13:51 07.03.2016)

Azerbaijan's Air Force servicemen arrived in the central Turkish city of Konya for participation in the annual planned exercises, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Turkey and Azerbaijan have started joined air force drills, Azerbaijani media reported.

According to the APA news agency, Azerbaijan's Air Force servicemen arrived in the central Turkish city of Konya for participation in the annual planned exercises, scheduled for March 7-25.

The drills will involve three MiG-29 fighter jets, three Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft and three military transport aircraft Il-76 of Azerbaijan's Armed Forces.

These are the second joint Turkey-Azerbaijan military drills. In 2015, the armed forces of the two countries held both land and air force exercises, according to the media outlet.

 Sputnik

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China Alarmed as 305,000 US, S Korean Troops Launch Largest-Ever Drills

Sputnik News

13:01 07.03.2016(updated 13:49 07.03.2016)

China is very concerned about the military drills between South Korea and the United States, believed to be the largest-ever joint exercises of the two countries amid increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula, according to China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  China is seriously concerned about the joint military exercises of the United States and South Korea, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Monday.

Military drills between South Korea and the United States, believed to be the largest-ever joint exercises of the two countries amid increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula, kicked off earlier in the day.

'China is also very concerned about the military drills. We will not accept any trouble-making behavior at our doorstep,' Hong told reporters.

Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, two joint US-South Korean military exercises on dispatching the US overseas forces to the Korean Peninsula, presuppose practicing the elimination of Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction.

As many as 15,000 US servicemen joined around 290,000 South Korean soldiers in the drills expected to last until April 30. In 2015, Washington sent four times fewer troops than now, while the number of Seoul soldiers is now 1.5 times higher.

 Sputnik

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S Korea-US Drills Focus on Training Plan to Launch Strikes on N Korea

Sputnik News

07:25 07.03.2016(updated 08:32 07.03.2016)

The South Korean media reported Monday that joint military exercises with the US will have a special focus on developing the countries' ability to launch precision strikes on North Korea's top leadership.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  The South Korea-US joint military exercises will have a special focus on developing the countries' joint capability to launch precision strikes on North Korea's top leadership, state media reported Monday, citing military officials.

On Monday, the annual springtime joint exercises kicked off in South Korea. The US contingent includes some 17,000 troops, which is said to be the largest number of US forces in South Korea in decades. Washington has stepped up efforts at deploying strategic weaponry in South Korea in response to North Korean violations of UN resolutions, specifically its nuclear test and ballistic missile launch earlier this year.

'The focus of the exercises will be on hitting North Korea's key facilities precisely,' one of the officials told Yonhap News Agency.

Another source said that the allies had an operational plan under which they would be practicing hypothetical attacks on North Korea's leadership and its nuclear arsenal, in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula. The plan also stipulates training operations to detect, destroy and defend against North Korea's alleged nuclear weapon and missiles.

North Korea sees the joint exercises as a pretext for war and a direct threat to Pyongyang, and promised on Monday to launch a nuclear strike 'of justice' in the event that the enemy 'even slightly' threatens North Korea.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un put his country on nuclear high alert, so its nuclear weapons may be used at any moment.

During last year's Seoul-Washington exercises, Pyongyang fired short-range ballistic and surface-to-air missiles as it believed the drills to be part of an invasion of the North.

 Sputnik

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Update: air strikes against Daesh

7 March 2016

British forces have continued to conduct air operations in the fight against Daesh

Latest update

Daesh terrorists have again been struck hard by Royal Air Force aircraft over Syria and Iraq.

- Tuesday 1 March  Typhoons destroyed a 122mm howitzer in western Iraq.

- Wednesday 2 March  Tornados and Typhoons conducted eight attacks on rocket-launchers, vehicles, a mortar team, and massed terrorists in northern Iraq, whilst a Reaper destroyed an armed vehicle in eastern Syria.

- Thursday 3 March  Typhoons destroyed two buildings in northern Iraq where Daesh terrorists were gathered, as well as two heavy machine-gun positions.

- Friday 4 March  Typhoons conducted three attacks in northern Iraq against Daesh positions.

- Saturday 5 March  Typhoons used 16 Paveway bombs to destroy a large weapons factory in western Iraq.

- Sunday 6 March  Typhoons supported Kurdish forces, silencing a heavy machine-gun position.

- Monday 7 March  a Reaper destroyed a terrorist-held building in western Iraq.

Detail

Whilst RAF Tornado GR4s conducted extensive reconnaissance missions against suspected terrorist locations, RAF Typhoon FGR4s patrolled over western Iraq on 1 March to support Iraqi army operations south-east of Haditha. One of the few large artillery pieces operated by Daesh  a D-30 122mm howitzer  was located close to the Euphrates, and was successfully destroyed by a Paveway IV precision guided bomb.

On 2 March, Typhoons were active over a wide swathe of northern Iraq, providing close air support to the Kurdish security forces. East of Mosul, Paveways were used to destroy two groups of terrorists with vehicles, the aircraft then flew west to the area north-east of Tall Afar where they conducted a series of four Paveway attacks on a number of rocket-launchers and a stockpile of rockets. A second Typhoon mission bombed a Daesh mortar team south of Sinjar, while a pair of Tornado GR4s used a Paveway to demolish a building north of Mosul where a large group of terrorists had been observed. In eastern Syria, an RAF Reaper worked closely with other coalition aircraft to support Syrian Democratic Forces south-west of As Shadadi, as they followed up on their recent successes against Daesh in the region. A coalition surveillance aircraft identified a terrorist truck, armed with an anti-aircraft gun, concealed in an orchard, and passed the target to the Reaper for prosecution. A Hellfire missile scored a direct hit on the vehicle.

Typhoons were in action again near Mosul on 3 March, they used Paveways to destroy two buildings where Daesh terrorists were possibly planning an attack. Later that night, Typhoons also bombed two heavy machine-gun positions south-west of Sinjar.

The Typhoons continued to provide close air support to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on Friday 4 March, delivering three attacks with Paveway IVs against Daesh positions near Tall Afar, Kisik and Sinjar.

On Saturday 5 March, four Typhoons joined other coalition aircraft in a large coordinated operation against terrorist locations in western Iraq. The RAF aircraft targeted a large Daesh weapons factory in the countryside near Qubaysah, some miles west of Ramadi. The Typhoons released a total of 16 Paveways, which completely demolished workshops and storage sheds. The following day, a Typhoon mission returned to northern Iraq and assisted Kurdish forces south-west of Sinjar, who had come under fire from a terrorist heavy machine-gun team. A Paveway IV destroyed the target.

Reaper remotely piloted aircraft have also been extremely active over the period, primarily flying surveillance missions. An attack was conducted by a Reaper the morning of Monday 7 March, when a Hellfire missile was used to destroy a Daesh-held building in western Iraq, close to the Syrian border.

Previous air strikes

1 February: Two Tornados flew reconnaissance and close air support for the Kurdish peshmerga in northern Iraq. Near Kisik Junction, they used a Brimstone missile and three Paveways to attack three rocket launchers and a Daesh vehicle, then over Qayyarah, a further Brimstone and Paveway destroyed an ammunition truck and a mortar position. Typhoons operated in the area of Ramadi, where they conducted successful attacks on three terrorist strongpoints.

2 February: Typhoons worked closely with other coalition aircraft to target a group of terrorists manoeuvring in the open near Ramadi, hitting them with a Paveway IV guided bomb. The Typhoons then flew to the area north of Habbaniyah, where they conducted a Paveway attack on a terrorist-held building. Further north, a pair of Tornado GR4s bombed a Daesh mortar team that was firing on Iraqi troops near Bayji.

3 February: Typhoons and Tornados providing close air support to Iraqi forces clearing Daesh positions in the area around Ramadi. The Typhoons destroyed a terrorist building with a Paveway, then used two more Paveways to engage a pair of Daesh groups, armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, which were engaged in close combat with Iraqi troops. Despite the proximity of the friendly forces, the precision of the Paveways and careful planning by the aircrew allowed both targets to be struck successfully. The Tornados similarly had to attack a series of Daesh positions close to Iraqi forces, and these were also highly successful: Paveway attacks accounted for four groups of terrorist fighters, including one heavy machine-gun and two mortar teams, and when machine-gunners opened fire on the Iraqis from the windows of a single storey building, the Tornados launched a pair of Brimstone missiles which accurately struck both windows.

Later in the day, Typhoons used a Paveway to destroy a mechanical excavator which had been converted into a large booby-trap, positioned amongst trees next to a road east of Ramadi.

4 February: RAF patrols over the countryside around Ramadi and Fallujah. Typhoons bombed three Daesh positions, as well as a group of terrorists caught moving in the open, whilst Tornado GR4s again attacked extremists engaged in very close combat with Iraqi forces; Paveways were used to destroy a heavy machine-gun team and a strongpoint, but in one instance, the terrorists were so close to the Iraqi troops that even a Paveway could not be used safely. Fortunately, the Brimstone missile's precision and small warhead allowed one to be fired into the midst of the Daesh fighters to significant effect. The following day, Typhoons operated around Habbaniyah and Ramadi, using eight Paveways to destroy an armed truck, a recoilless gun, two Daesh-held buildings, a command and control position, two weapons caches and a workshop producing truck-bombs.

7 February: Tornados used a Brimstone missile to destroy a truck-bomb near Habbaniyah, while Typhoon missions near Ramadi successfully attacked a garage containing an armed pick-up truck which was firing through the doorway at advancing Iraqi soldiers, and a terrorist-held building. Throughout all these missions, the Typhoons and Tornados were supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, with Sentinel aircraft providing essential strategic surveillance support to the coalition.

9 February: A pair of Typhoon FGR4s, supported by an RAF Voyager air refuelling tanker, destroyed an armoured vehicle, converted into a large truck-bomb, blocking a road with a Paveway IV guided bomb south-west of Kirkuk.

10 February: Typhoons provided close air support to Iraqi troops engaged in close combat with Daesh extremists north of Habbaniyah. The Typhoons struck the terrorists with a pair of Paveway IVs.

11 February: As Iraqi ground forces clear the remaining pockets of Daesh within Ramadi city they are also turning their efforts to Daesh strongpoints to the north and east of the city, supported by coalition aircraft. A pair of Typhoons, working in close cooperation with a coalition surveillance aircraft, successfully conducted two Paveway attacks on groups of terrorist fighters. Later that day, a second Typhoon mission over the area used Paveways to destroy a heavy machine-gun position and an accommodation block used by Daesh.

12 February: Typhoons were also active east of Ramadi, bombing two groups of terrorists, as well as a team planting improvised explosive devices.

14 February: A Tornado mission successfully targeted a compound north of Habbaniyah, where around 16 Daesh extremists had been observed, striking it with a pair of Paveway IVs.

15 February: Two Tornado GR4s conducted an armed reconnaissance patrol over northern Iraq in support of Kurdish security forces. A group of Daesh extremists were identified in a pair of buildings south-west of Kirkuk and were able to attack both at the same time with Paveway IV bombs. A Brimstone missile destroyed a terrorist vehicle and before the Tornados returned to base a Paveway was used to attack a weapons cache.

Meanwhile, RAF Typhoons alongside other coalition aircraft conducted a series of coordinated attacks on Daesh facilities. The targets included a large weapons store at Abu Kamal, on the Syrian bank of the Euphrates which was destroyed with four Paveway IVs. An RAF Reaper provided surveillance support to several of the other coalition attacks.

16 February: Tornados patrolled over northern Iraq and came to the assistance of advancing Kurdish forces who were under fire from Daesh heavy machine-gun and mortar teams south-east of Mosul. Paveway attacks successfully dealt with the threat.

17 February: A Tornado mission interrupted a Daesh team preparing to fire nine artillery rockets, hitting them with Paveway to impact the middle of the line of launch rails.

18 February: RAF Tornado GR4s and a Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducted counter-Daesh missions over Syria. North of Abu Kamal, a Tornado patrol used a pair of Brimstone missiles to strike a large engineering vehicle being used for wellhead repair and maintenance in a Daesh-controlled oilfield. Meanwhile, north-west of Raqqa, a Reaper worked closely with coalition jets to prosecute a group of Daesh extremists who were attacking members of the moderate Syrian armed opposition. The Reaper provided targeting and surveillance support to three successful coalition air attacks, then conducted a fourth attack using its own Hellfire missile. Over Iraq, other Tornados continued to support Iraqi army operations around Ramadi, in the course of which they used Paveway IVs to bomb three Daesh-held buildings.

19 February: Typhoon FGR4s and Tornados patrolled over western Iraq. North-east of Ramadi, an Iraqi helicopter reported coming under fire from an anti-aircraft gun concealed beneath a carport. A Paveway IV delivered by a Typhoon removed the threat. The Typhoons then dropped two Paveways on a large building where a group of terrorists, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, were holding out against the advancing Iraqi troops. North-east of Al Asad airbase, a coalition surveillance aircraft identified a set of five rocket launchers and an ammunition stockpile set up in a palm grove, and was able to guide in a Tornado flight which destroyed both targets with Paveways, then used a third Paveway to eliminate a group of terrorists caught in the open. Later in the day, a second Tornado patrol used Paveways to destroy four Daesh-held buildings north-east of Ramadi, including two used to prepare truck-bombs. In northern Iraq, a Typhoon mission operated north-east of Mosul, supporting the Kurdish peshmerga, and destroyed two buildings from which the terrorists had been fighting. Over Syria, a Reaper and other coalition aircraft supported moderate Syrian opposition forces north-west of Raqqa; our Reaper assisted in one coalition air strike, then used a Hellfire to destroy an Daesh improvised armoured vehicle.

20 February: RAF Reapers in action over both Syria and Iraq again. North-west of Raqqa, a Reaper tracked a Daesh machine-gun team that had been firing on Syrian opposition fighters. The terrorists retreated to a small building, where they were joined by other extremists. The Reaper then successfully attacked the group with a Hellfire missile. In Iraq, again north-east of Ramadi, another Reaper worked closely with another coalition remotely piloted aircraft to provide close air support to the Iraqi ground forces. The Reaper assisted its coalition partner in an attack, then conducted two attacks with its own Hellfires on two Daesh groups engaged in close combat with the Iraqi troops.

22 February: A Typhoon flight patrolled east of Mosul and was able to identify a Daesh team that was planting improvised explosive devices, they hit with a Paveway.

- Wednesday 24 February  Tornados destroyed a terrorist weapons factory in Mosul.

- Thursday 25 February  Tornados and Typhoons conducted five attacks in Iraq and Syria, silencing mortar and machine-gun positions, and destroying bunkers.

- Friday 26 February  Tornados and Typhoons conducted three attacks in northern Iraq against Daesh mortar and rocket teams, and a checkpoint.

- Sunday 28 February  Tornados and Typhoons conducted three attacks in northern Iraq against mortar and sniper teams; a Reaper conducted five attacks in northern Syria.



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Ban calls for more female police in UN peace operations to combat violence against women

7 March 2016  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Member States to contribute more female police, especially French-speaking women, to serve in UN peace operations.

"They can put communities at ease and stand as inspiring role models for local women," he said at the opening of the Fifth General Assembly of the Kigali International Conference on the role of security forces in combatting violence against women, held in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

He said that the deplorable problem of law enforcement personnel being implicated in the perpetration of violence against women and girls happens "too often," and the UN remains firmly committed to a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse.

"Since I became Secretary-General almost a decade ago, I have been a staunch advocate for ending violence against women and girls," he said, noting that in 2008, he launched the UNiTE campaign aimed at raising public awareness and increase political will and resources for preventing and ending all forms of violence against women and girls worldwide.

Today, scores of leaders and ministers, hundreds parliamentarians and millions of individuals have added their names to the action call, and their tireless efforts have put this struggle at the centre of the2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, he said.

Police play an essential role in fighting abuse, Mr. Ban said. They work with judicial counterparts, investigate allegations, identify alleged perpetrators, promote accountability and ensure access to remedies for victims. These are important conditions for effective prevention.

Bringing Security Council resolution 1325 to life

Through community policing, they empower societies, manage criminality, deter violence, help rebuild safety and promote public trust, he continued. They bring to life Security Council resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions on women, peace and security.

Stressing the need for strong laws to end violence against women, including female genital mutilation, he said that UN and African Union police in peace operations help prevent and address sexual violence in conflict, which disproportionally affects women and girls.

The UN will hold a Chiefs of Police Summit, or UN Cops, in New York this June, Mr. Ban noted, encouraging all to participate in this valuable opportunity to exchange views on how to address the pressing security and rule of law challenges and how police personnel in the field can gain skills that they can bring home to their national services.

Visit to Elementary School

Mr. Ban also visited Primary School Mohamed Maazouzi, together with Nouria Benghabrit-Remaoun, Minister of National Education of Algeria, and chatted with five-year-old and 11-year-old students.

In Algeria, the net school enrolment rate for children six to 16 years old rose from 88.3 per cent in 2006 to above 96 per cent in 2015 with full parity between boys and girls, according to the UN. From 1996 to 2013, the illiteracy rate for all Algerians over 10 years old dropped from 75 per cent to 20 per cent.

In 2014, Algeria spent 16 per cent of the national budget in education, the second highest allocation after national defense. In 2015, the Ministry of Education's budget reached approximately $8 million, for the benefit of 8.5 million children and students representing 22 per cent of the total population learning in more than 25,000 schools.

Amid the impressive achievements, the UN points out that there are 330,000 children under 16 years old who are out of school and 500,000 at risk of dropping out.

Mr. Ban also met with the survivors and the families of the victims of the 2007 bombing of the UN House in Algiers as well as UN staff before he left for Germany.

Refugee influx into Europe

Upon receiving the German Media Award while in Baden-Baden, Mr. Ban highlighted the plight of refugees fleeing war and persecution and arriving in great numbers in Germany and other European nations.

While lauding the generosity shown to the refugees in many places across Germany and Europe, he noted that the border restrictions being put in place by Governments along the Balkan land route are not a solution.

"I call on all countries to keep their borders open, to expand legal pathways to asylum, and act in a spirit of solidarity," said the Secretary-General, while adding that there is a need for greater sharing of responsibility among all States, not just those in Europe.

On Tuesday, he will be in Berlin, where he will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials.

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US: Airstrike Kills 150 Al-Shabab in Somalia

by Dan Joseph March 07, 2016

The Pentagon says a U.S. airstrike in central Somalia has killed more than 150 Al-Shabab militants who were preparing for a large-scale attack.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters Monday that the weekend attack targeted an Al-Shabab training camp about 195 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu. He said both manned and unmanned aircraft were used in the strike.

Davis said the U.S. had learned the fighters were set to depart the camp, and 'posed an imminent threat' to U.S. and African Union forces in Somalia.

'Initial assessments are that more than 150 terrorist fighters were eliminated' in the attack, he said.

The Somali army commander in the region, Colonel Mohamed Omar, gave a death toll of 69 militants killed and 42 wounded, citing reports by local residents. Omar added he expects the casualty total to rise.

Eyewitness accounts

Witnesses tell VOA's Somali Service that the airstrike hit Al-Shabab's Raso training camp between the villages of Dharyiow and El-Dibi in the central Hiran region. The witnesses say the aircraft made two passes over the camp, firing three missiles each time.

According to local villagers, Al-Shabab commanders were at the camp to oversee the graduation of hundreds of trainees when the airstrikes occurred. There was no immediate word on whether any top Al-Shabab leaders were among those killed.

Under surveillance

Pentagon spokesman Davis said the U.S. had watched the camp for several weeks before the attack.

Somali military officials believe the recruits were being prepared for attacks in Hiran and in Somalia's Middle Shabelle region.

The U.S. has a small number of advisers in Somalia assisting the African Union force AMISOM, which is fighting Al-Shabab. The Islamist militant group has been fighting to overthrow the Somali government since 2007.

The U.S. has launched numerous airstrikes against the group, including one that killed the group's longtime leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, in September 2014.

VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb and VOA Somali Service Senior Editor Harun Maruf contributed to this report

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In Senegal, Presidential Term Limits Spark Hot Debate

by Alpha Jallow March 07, 2016

Senegal's President Macky Sall has come under attack ahead of the constitutional referendum set for March 20. The proposed changes would limit a president to two five-year terms. But Sall has stirred controversy as saying the limit would not apply to his current term, which runs until 2019.

Campaigning is on in Senegal to vote "Yes" or "No" to the new constitution March 20.

In the "yes" camp is the Minister of Youth and Employment Mame Mbaye Niang. He met residents in Thiaroye, a low-income suburb of the capital.

He says none of the proposed constitutional changes are to help the president. He says these changes are about strengthening democracy and the rule of law and improving quality of life. He says he just passed through a neighborhood where people were complaining they lost their land. This reform will address those problems, he says, so you need to vote yes.

The 15 proposed changes include giving more power to the National Assembly and local administrations while also expanding on existing laws about land inheritance and local communities' control of natural resources.

But the proposal is meeting fierce resistance.

A new single by rap group Y En A Marre is calling on people to vote "no" in the referendum.

Y En A Marre played a leading role in demonstrations against ex-president Abdoulaye Wade in 2012 when he ran for a third term at 87 years old.

The group helped Macky Sall beat Wade but now is threatening more protests, this time against Sall.

The group's coordinator, Fadel Baro, says Macky Sall has failed to bring the big reform he promised and instead just wants to make small changes that have nothing to do with the lives of ordinary Senegalese. He says Macky Sall went back on his word and like all leaders who behave this way, he will pay a heavy price.

The key dispute here is over the shortening of the presidential mandate. Sall has repeatedly promised, even before he was elected, to reduce his term from seven to five years. But now that the provision is up for a vote, Sall says the new rule cannot legally apply to his current seven-year term.

That explanation has not played well with some of his supporters, who say Sall broke his word.

Human rights campaigner Aboubacry Mbodj says we are surprised that Sall changed his tune just a few weeks before the referendum. You know in Africa, he says, promises are very strong and sacred.

But Djibril Balde of the ruling coalition, Benno Bokk Yakaar, says Sall is still making history.

Balde says this is really quite extraordinary and rare in Africa for an elected president to campaign in favor of reducing his potential time in office.

Over the past two years, presidential term limits have become one of the burning issues on the continent. Efforts by leaders to extend their stays in office have led to unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, and the ouster of longtime Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore in 2014.

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China's second aircraft carrier to be equipped with J-15, military expert says

People's Daily Online

By Yuan Can (People's Daily Online) 17:04, March 07, 2016

China's domestically produced J-15 carrier-based fighter will be deployed on the country's second aircraft carrier, said military expert Yin Zhuo in a recent interview.

Similar to the country's first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, China's second aircraft carrier will mainly load J-15 with supports from anti-submarine warfare helicopters, early warning helicopters and rescue helicopters, according to Yin in an interview with China National Radio.

Yin said in the interview that the gross tonnage of the second aircraft carrier might be larger than that of the 55,000-ton Liaoning, which was originally built in Ukraine before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Liaoning prototype is constrained by the Montreux Convention.

According to Yin, the second aircraft carrier will be newly designed, but its appearance will be based on the Russian Project 1143.5 Orel Class design for the sake of stability of fluid mechanics

Yin said the new aircraft carrier will also feature a new design that allows the vessel to carry more ammunition, aircraft and fuel, greatly improving its self-sufficiency and combat effectiveness at sea.

The construction of China's second aircraft carrier, the country's first to be independently designed, was announced by Ministry of Defense spokesperson Yang Yujun on Dec. 31, 2015.

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China reaffirms its supportive stance for the non-public sector

People's Daily Online

(People's Daily) 10:29, March 07, 2016

Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks on adherence to China's basic economic system indicate that China will not change its stance of providing support to the non-public economy, said a commentary published by People's Daily.

Xi made the remarks at a panel discussion of political advisors from the China Democratic National Construction Association and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce during the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

During his speech, Xi reaffirmed the importance of both public ownership as well as the non-public sector, explaining that these two significant components of China's socialist economic system should complement rather than contradict each other.

"China must unswervingly strengthen and develop the public sector and also unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector," Xi said, urging the non-public sector to become even more successful.

Xi's remarks laid out the dynamic guiding China's economic development  China will adhere to its basic economic system, with public ownership playing a dominant role and diverse forms of ownership developing side by side.

In addition, it is China's overarching policy to offer consistent support to both the public and non-public economy.

Such an overarching policy, and ongoing maintenance of China's basic economic system, should provide confidence in the non-public sector and the whole Chinese economy.

As Xi explained China's supportive stance for the non-public sector, "the role the non-public economy plays in China's economic development has not changed, China's policies in encouraging, supporting and guiding the non-pubic economy has not changed, and China's commitment to creating a favorable environment for the non-public sector has not changed either."

Thanks to favorable policies launched by the country, China's non-public sector has grown rapidly since China began to reform and open up over 30 years ago.

Nowadays, the private economy accounts for over 60 percent of GDP, and creates more than 80 percent of jobs. Moreover, 65 percent of fixed asset investment and 67 percent of direct foreign investment come from the non-public sector.

Given its achievements, China has no reason to diminish its support for the sector.

In the recent years, China released a series of legislation to protect the legitimate interests and rights of all forms of economy. A higher priority was placed on equality in rights and opportunities for all market entities.

Since the 18th National People's Congress of the CPC, China also introduced numerous measures that grant the non-public sector more market access and ensure its equal growth opportunities. A series of policies encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of the non-public sector were also launched.

Those non-public businesses are at present experiencing the best policy environment ever.

Local governments now need to put these policies into practice by formulating detailed measures suitable to their own conditions, thus allowing local private companies to truly benefit from such policies.

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No sign of diversion of Iran nuclear material: IAEA

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 1:33PM

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again reaffirmed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, saying the body has no indications of a diversion of nuclear material toward non-civilian purposes.

"The Agency has found no indication of the diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in his introductory statement to the Board of Governors on Monday.

"Iran's Additional Protocol has been provisionally implemented since January 16th, 2016," he added.

He said a nuclear agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries went into effect on January 16.

Amano noted that both the 35-nation Board of Governors and the Security Council have asked the UN nuclear agency to undertake verification and monitoring of Iran's nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA and to report to the two bodies.

He said Iran should implement its commitments under the JCPOA for many years to come while the IAEA has to verify, monitor and report on its implementation.

The IAEA chief noted that he would continue to report the findings "in an objective and factual manner" including details which the agency considers necessary.

The UN nuclear agency's chief noted that he established a new Office of Safeguards Verification in Iran in the Department of Safeguards on March 1st.

On February 26, the IAEA released its first regular report since the implementation of the JCPOA which verified Iran's commitment to the nuclear agreement.

The IAEA said it 'has been verifying and monitoring the implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments', adding it was satisfied.

After the JCPOA went into effect, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US were lifted. Iran, in return, has put some limitations on its nuclear activities.

The nuclear agreement was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council  the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia  plus Germany on July 14, 2015 following two and a half years of intensive talks.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a press conference on Sunday, if any members of the P5+1 group does not abide by its commitments under the JCPOA, Tehran will soon react.

Iran invited to attend full IAEA activities: Amano

Speaking to reporters, Amano said with the removal of UN Security Council resolutions imposing some restrictions on Iran, the Islamic Republic is currently invited to participate in the full range of the IAEA activities.

"There had been some restrictions in terms of technical cooperation before the JCPOA's Implementation Day but since UN Security Council resolutions imposing those restrictions have now been removed, Iran is invited to participate in the full range of the agency's activities and symposiums," Amano said in response to PressTV's question about the level of technical cooperation between Iran and the IAEA after the nuclear agreement went into effect.

He added that Iranian experts are invited to take part in IAEA training courses.

Elsewhere in the press conference, the IAEA director general noted that Iran and the agency began to implement the Additional Protocol from January 16.

Based on the normal procedure, Iran has to submit a declaration to the IAEA within 180 days which the agency will review and may ask further questions or seek clarification, he said.

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25 killed in militant raid in Tunisia

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 10:57AM

At least 25 people, including four civilians, have been killed in Tunisia in an exchange of gunfire between security personnel and unidentified gunmen near the Libyan border.

Tunisia's Defense and Interior Ministries announced in a joint statement that a group of gunmen targeted a police station and military facilities in the eastern border town of Ben Guerdane, situated approximately 600 kilometers (372 miles) southeast of the capital, Tunis, early on Monday.

Army units repelled the attack, killing 21 militants and capturing six others. Four civilians also died in the crossfire.

The Tunisian military has dispatched reinforcement forces and helicopters to Ben Guerdane. Local residents have been ordered to stay indoors.

The militant attack came amid rising international concern about the growth of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in neighboring Libya, which has been struggling with instability since 2011. Back then, the country's former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown, and armed groups as well as regional factions engaged in armed clashes in a battle for power.

The capital, Tripoli, is controlled by a political faction that calls itself Libya Dawn and is allied with powerful armed forces based in the city of Misrata. The faction has reinstated the old parliament, known as the General National Congress, in the capital.

The internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni is on the other hand based in the northeastern city of Bayda, with its elected House of Representatives being based in Tobruk.

Last week, Tunisian security forces killed five heavily armed men who had sneaked into the North African country from Libya.

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53 Dead in Extremist Attack Near Tunisia-Libya Border

by VOA News March 07, 2016

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi says his country is at war with 'barbarians,' following an attack by suspected militants that left at least 53 people dead near the Libyan border.

Essebsi spoke Monday, hours after dozens of suspected extremists rampaged through the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan, targeting police and army posts.

'This is an unprecedented attack, planned and organized, and whose goal was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate,' the president said from the capital, Tunis.

Television footage showed bodies littering a local roadway, along with bullet-riddled cars and discarded weaponry, as security forces regained control of the town after the dawn attack.

Authorities say at least 10 soldiers were killed in the fighting, along with 35 extremists and seven civilians.

The battle was the second such border clash in and near the town in the past week, and comes as Britain prepares to send military advisers to help secure the porous border region.

Last month, the Pentagon said U.S. warplanes struck a nearby Islamic State training camp inside the Libyan border, killing dozens of terrorist recruits and likely senior Islamic State militant Noureddine Chouchane.

Chouchane was linked to attacks last year on a museum in Tunis, and a beach resort outside the capital, which together killed at least 60 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Tunisia has battled Islamist militancy at home and across its border with Libya since a 2011 popular uprising ousted longtime President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and ignited the Arab Spring protests that have transformed the region.

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He said: I had issued a strict notice prohibiting any digging activity in those ancient areas but they did not follow my direction. So I went to the location along with other officials and finally ordered them to arrest the offenders.

Mrauk-U is an archaeologically important site containing many ancient forts. Previously Battalion LIB 378 of the Burma Army occupied the site, but they have since moved to another area.

A Mrauk-U elder said that officials were behind a deal to sell earth from the archaeological site to local businessmen and that he was dismayed that half of the earth had already been removed from the site.

When Narinjara asked Nyein Lwin how the site could be safeguarded when officials were involved with the illegal removal of earth from there he said: "The judiciary should step in here. The judges should examine the matter and issue appropriate directives. We must make everyone accountable for illegal activities irrespective of their religion or community.

Most of those arrested were under-age, only 10 were adults. U Myint Thaung, the chief of Mrauk-U Police Station said that the under-age offenders would be given warnings and released, but the adults would be prosecuted under the archaeology laws.

He said: "Most of the arrested were from Paung Dock Village. They have been involved in the business of selling earth for some time."

Local residents said that many ancient buildings in Mrauk-U were facing an uncertain future as the authorities were not becoming involved with preservation initiatives, though they appreciated U Nyein Lwin's prompt action on this occasion that led to the arrest of those illegally removing earth.

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
Taliban claims attack on court compound in NW Pakistan

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 2:48PM

A faction of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for a recent deadly bombing which killed at least 15 people and injured over two dozen others in the country's troubled northwest.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban's Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction, said the Monday's blast at a court compound 'was especially done as vengeance for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri."

Ehsan also stressed that the blast targeted the court complex as Pakistan's judiciary was strengthening laws against militancy in the country.

The attack occurred on Monday morning when a bomber blew himself up as the officers were trying to stop him from entering the court building in the town of Shabqadar, located some 150 kilometers northwest of the capital, Islamabad. Authorities said at least two children were among the dead.

Qadri, who assassinated Salmaan Taseer, the former governor of the country's province of Punjab in 2011 who sought reforms to Pakistan's blasphemy law, was executed at 04:30 local time (23:30 GMT) at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi on February 29, after all his petitions and mercy appeals were rejected.

The execution has triggered protests in some cities by supporters of extremist and militant groups. Qadri's funeral brought supporters of pro-Saudi Wahhabi groups on to the streets, who hailed him as a hero.

Taliban and other militant groups had earlier threatened to unleash attacks if Qaderi was executed.

Qadri shot Salman Taseer-- the high-profile member of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Punjab Governor -- 28 times while guarding him in an Islamabad market in early 2011.

Critics say Pakistan's blasphemy laws are largely misused, with hundreds of people languishing in jails under false charges. In most cases, even unproven allegations frequently stir mob violence and bloodshed.

The law has raised concerns among rights activists and some liberal politicians who say it is often exploited by extremists or those who want to settle personal scores.

The developments come at a time when the Islamabad government is trying to tackle the growing militancy, political instability and extremism in the country.

In late January, Chris Murphy, a top American senator, accused Saudi Arabia of funding some 24,000 Wahhabi religious schools in Pakistan through an unleashed "tsunami of money" in order to "export intolerance" across the south Asian country.

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Taliban Suicide Bomber Kills 13 in Pakistan

by Ayaz Gul March 07, 2016

A Taliban suicide bomber has blown himself up outside a local court compound in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 13 people and wounding at least 36 more.

Authorities say police personnel, women and children were among those killed and wounded in the attack Monday in the town of Shabqadar.

A local security official, Additional Assistant Commissioner Tariq Hassan, told reporters that police guards identified and intercepted the bomber, but when they tried to grab him he detonated the bomb.

'One of the police officials grabbed him and sustained serious injury from the fire shots of the suicide bomber but the policeman continued scuffling with him for up to 10 yards before becoming breathless. In the struggle, the suicide bomber was left fully confused and haggard to locate his target before blowing himself up,' said Hassan.

The massive explosion, witnesses say, caused widespread damage and destroyed several vehicles at the judicial complex.

A spokesman for the militant group Jamatul Ahrar, a member of the Pakistani Taliban waging insurgency against the state, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

In a statement sent to reporters, the group said the attack was meant to avenge the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, a police bodyguard executed for killing the governor of Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab over his call to reform the blasphemy law.

The group has vowed to carry out more attacks against the Pakistani judiciary and those linked to it.

Islamist parties in Pakistan have been agitating against the February 29 execution and have held country-wide protests to condemn the country's judiciary as un-Islamic.

Qadri was part of the detail protecting governor Salman Taseer when he shot and killed him in 2011 in a busy market in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan's blasphemy law mandates the death penalty for insulting Islam or the Prophet Mohammad.

The Pakistani Taliban has been waging a violent campaign to try to dislodge what it says is an un-Islamic military and governance system in the country. The extremist group has killed thousands of Pakistanis in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks in the decade long effort.

Military-led security operations have destroyed major hideouts and strongholds particularly in tribal areas near the Afghan border, preventing the militants from carrying out major attacks in recent years.

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S.Korea's spy agency to hold emergency meeting over DPRK's cyber terror threats

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 16:10, March 07, 2016

SEOUL, March 7 -- South Korea's spy agency will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to go over the preparations of government agencies against potential cyber terror threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Yonhap news agency reported Monday.

The meeting will be convened by Choi Jong-il, the National Intelligence Service (NIS)'s third deputy chief in charge of industrial intelligence and cyber security affairs.

Attending the gathering will be director-general-level officials from 14 ministries, including the office for government policy coordination, the financial regulator and defense and science ministries.

The meeting would be held as possibility became higher than ever for the DPRK to commit terrorist attacks in cyberspace against South Korea in protest against the international community's fresh sanctions on Pyongyang, the NIS was quoted as saying.

Hours after the UN Security Council's adoption of new sanctions resolution on the DPRK's latest nuclear test and rocket launch, Pyongyang fired six short-range projectiles into eastern waters last week in a show of anger at the fresh UN resolution.

Adding to Pyongyang's anger, South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest-ever joint annual war games on Monday, which the DPRK called 'undisguised nuclear war drills.' The DPRK threatened 'pre-emptive and aggressive nuclear strikes' against South Korea and the U.S. mainland in protest against the spring drills.

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Russian Land Force to Receive 1,400 Hardware Units in 2016

Sputnik News

15:23 07.03.2016(updated 15:33 07.03.2016)

The Russian Land Force will receive over 1,400 units of technical reconnaissance equipment, systems of reconnaissance, control and communication, which will increase the share of modern equipment up to 39 percent, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Intelligence units of the Russian Land Force will receive 1,400 hardware units in 2016, the Russian Defense Ministry's press service said Monday.

'The 2016 state defense order prescribes the delivery of over 1,400 units of technical reconnaissance equipment, systems of reconnaissance, control and communication, which will increase the share of modern equipment up to 39 percent,' the press service said.

According to the ministry, over 3,000 junior operational reconnaissance specialists are expected to be trained in 2016, which is set to let successfully and effectively carry out intelligence and special tasks, the statement reads.

 Sputnik

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Turkey shelling Syria Kurdish fighters in Aleppo: YPG

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 6:9PM

A Syrian Kurdish official says Turkey has fired artillery shells at Kurdish fighters in Syria's northern province of Aleppo.

Redur Xelil, an official from the Kurdish People's Protection Units, also known as YPG, said on Monday that the Turkish army's shells hit Tal Rif'at town in Aleppo.

A number of Kurdish fighters were injured in the attack, Xelil added.

On Saturday, YPG said Turkish tanks targeted its members in Qamishli city near the Turkish border. The group also said that the shelling triggered clashes between the two sides and that one of its members was seriously wounded.

Turkish shells also hit Kurdish positions in northwest Syria on Friday, YPG also noted.

Ankara accuses Syrian Kurdish group Democratic Union Party, also known as the PYD, and its military wing the YPG of having links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group that has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.

The YPG, which is nearly in control of Syria's entire northern border with Turkey, has been fighting against Daesh.

Angered by the rapid advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters in areas near the Turkish border, Ankara shelled their positions inside Syria last month.

Also on Monday, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov urged world powers to react to Turkey's shelling of Kurdish fighters in Syria.

The Russian defense Ministry also said in a statement that eight ceasefire violations, two in Hama, three in Aleppo and three in Idlib, had been registered in Syria over the past 24 hours.

The ceasefire has been in place since February 27. The truce was brokered by the United States and Russia. It does not cover areas of the country that are under the control of the Daesh Takfiri terrorists as well as the al-Qaedaaffiliated al-Nusra Front.

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Iran, Russia urge diplomacy to settle Syria crisis

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 6:17PM

Senior Iranian and Russian diplomats have once again reaffirmed the importance of settling the five-year-old crisis in Syria through political approaches.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his visiting Russian counterpart Mikhail Bogdanov exchanged views in Tehran on Monday about the latest developments in the region, particularly in Syria and Yemen.

The Iranian and Russian officials emphasized that the two countries must hold more consultations in an attempt to promote peace talks in Syria.

They also stressed the importance of restoring unity to Syria and maintaining the Arab country's territorial integrity.

Amir-Abdollahian said a successful fight against terrorism needs the firm determination of all countries and an end to financial and arms assistance to terrorist groups.

Bogdanov, who is the Russian presidential envoy on the Middle East and Africa, said Tehran and Moscow must hold regular consultations to help solve regional problems through diplomatic approaches and restore stability and security to the crisis-hit countries.

He added that representatives of all Syrian parties and groups should participate in the upcoming peace talks in Geneva as a key condition for the success of the negotiations.

On March 1, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said the next round of negotiations to end the deadly conflict in the Arab country will kick off on March 9.

A ceasefire agreement in Syria, brokered by Russia and the United States, entered into force on February 27. The Syrian government accepted the terms of the truce on condition that military efforts against Daesh and the al-Nusra Front Takfiri militants, who are excluded from the ceasefire, continue.

Iran and Russia say the decision on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fate is up to the Syrian people and that they support the Syrian army and its allies fighting militants.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people and left 1.9 million injured, according to the Syrian Center for Policy Research.

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Biden rules out military solution for Syria

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 6:3PM

US Vice President Joe Biden has ruled out a military solution to end the years-long conflict in Syria, urging all parties involved to focus on a political settlement.

"That should be clear to everyone," Biden said in Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, on Monday. 'So as hard as it is, we have to keep trying to reach a political settlement.'

The stop in Abu Dhabi marks the beginning of Biden's Middle East tour which involves stops in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, the AFP reported.

Fighting in Syria has seen a sharp decrease after the agreement on the cessation of hostilities, negotiated by the US and Russia, went into effect on February 27.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi-backed opposition groups are slated to resume UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva as the shaky truce holds.

The negotiations aim to end the five-year conflict which has consumed the lives of at least 270,000 Syrians, displaced millions more and devastated the war-torn country's infrastructure.

Describing the truce as "not perfect," Biden said "a political solution between the parties is the only way to end the violence and give the Syrian people the chance they deserve to rebuild their country."

Daesh will be wiped out

Later in the day, Biden went to a military base where he told hundreds of American and US allied troops that Washington was going to 'squeeze the heart of Daesh' out.

'We have to squeeze the heart of Daesh in Iraq and Syria so they can't continue to pump the poison in the region and the rest of the world,' he said.

Biden noted that the fight would take time, but said the US will stay committed until "the evil" is wiped out.

Since late September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting airstrikes purportedly against Daesh extremists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or the United Nations.

The air raids in Syria are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against alleged Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August last year.

However, the US-led raids have been largely ineffective in wiping out Daesh.

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Saudi-backed Syria opposition group 'to attend peace talks'

Iran Press TV

Mon Mar 7, 2016 11:26AM

A Saudi-backed Syrian opposition group says it will take part in the upcoming round of UN-brokered peace talks for Syria in Geneva.

"After consultations, the High Negotiations Committee agreed to go to Geneva. The delegation is expected to arrive on Friday," Riad Naasan Agha, a spokesman for the group, told AFP on Monday.

He attributed the opposition body's decision to a decline in the alleged violations of a truce agreement on the part of the Syrian government forces.

The agreement on the cessation of hostilities, which was negotiated by the US and Russia, took effect on February 27 and has led to a sharp drop in fighting in much of Syria despite sporadic violations and mutual accusations of breaches.

"We have noticed a sharp decline in ceasefire violations in recent days and progress in the humanitarian file," particularly with regards to aid deliveries to besieged towns, Agha said.

"We find that the international community is insisting that all the sides, especially Russia and the [Syrian] regime, must respect the truce," he added.

He said the HNC hoped that nothing would happen that would prevent the group from participating in the talks.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country's pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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Syria Ceasefire Regime Violated Eight Times in Past 24 Hours

Sputnik News

18:19 07.03.2016(updated 19:01 07.03.2016)

During the past 24 hours, the cessation of hostilities in Syria was violated eight times (two times in Hama province, three times in Aleppo, three times in Idlib), according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  During the past 24 hours the Russian Center for Syria Reconciliation registered 8 violations of the ceasefire regime, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

'During the past 24 hours, the cessation of hostilities was violated 8 times (2 times in Hama province, 3 times in Aleppo, 3 times in Idlib,' the ministry's Reconciliation Center bulletin reads.

The ministry cited the shelling by the Ahrar ash-Sham militant group of the residential neighborhoods in Idlib province near the village of Minish that wounded three civilians.

The ministry added that the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Air Forces conducted no strikes against opposition groups that have joined the ceasefire.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with opposition factions and Islamist terrorist groups fighting the Syrian Army.

Russia and the United States reached an agreement on the ceasefire in Syria on February 22. The truce excluded the Islamic State and the Nusra Front terrorist groups, both of which are outlawed in Russia.

The Syrian government has confirmed its readiness to halt its military actions in accordance with the Russia-US agreement. Some opposition forces have been skeptical about the ceasefire, but in general have agreed to adhere to it. The ceasefire took effect on February 27.

 Sputnik

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Now 35 Syrian Armed Groups Agree to Ceasefire - Reconciliation Center

Sputnik News

18:10 07.03.2016(updated 18:25 07.03.2016)

The total number of illegal armed groups that have declared their commitment to the implementation and adoption of the terms of the cessation of hostilities in Syria reached 35, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The total number of armed groups agreeing to the ceasefire regime in Syria has reached 35, the Russian reconciliation center said in a daily newsletter published on the Russian Defense Ministry's website Monday.

'Over the past 24 hours agreements have been reached with commanders of five units totaling up to 550 people, operating in Damascus province. The total number of illegal armed groups that have declared their commitment to the implementation and adoption of the terms of the cessation of hostilities reached 35,' the center said.

The Latakia-based ceasefire monitoring center said talks were ongoing with leaders of four militant groups acting in Damascus, Daraa and Hama provinces.

 Sputnik

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White supremacists (and vaguely racist uncles on Facebook) occasionally pipe up with the idea that the Irish were, effectively, held as slaves in America. Though often subject to indenture and other forms of brutal labor conditions, the slavery claim is nonsense, writes Liam Hogan.

It's one of those things that half-innocently surfaces in the media over and over again, though, because it looks like a strange fact, invites "curiosity gap" propagation, and offers the bittersweet pleasure of adversity oneupmanship. Particularly interesting are the images used to provide an illusion of truth. Above, a photo of some Texan farm kids commonly described as depicting Irish slaves.
Russia Sends List of Syrian Settlements Requiring Humanitarian Aid to UN

Sputnik News

11:52 07.03.2016(updated 12:38 07.03.2016)

The Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria has prepared a list of conflict-torn settlements requiring humanitarian aid and appealed to the United Nations, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria recently prepared the list of settlements requiring humanitarian assistance and has sent the document to the United Nations, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

'On the basis of numerous appeals from local [Syrian] administrations, as well as on the basis of our own data, on March 2, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria prepared a list of settlements which urgently require the delivery of humanitarian aid. The document, which is a specific list, was sent to the UN,' Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told reporters.

On February 22, Russia and the United States reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2268 endorsing the Russia-US agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Syria on February 26, shortly before the ceasefire came into force. The ceasefire took effect on February 27.

The ceasefire is aimed at enabling international humanitarian assistance to reach besieged parts of Syria and ending violent clashes between government and opposition groups.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the civil war in Syria has left at least 250,000 people dead, and over a million injured. At least 13 million Syrians remain dependent on humanitarian assistance.

 Sputnik

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Russia Delivers 620 Tons of Humanitarian Aid to Syria - Russian MoD

Sputnik News

11:40 07.03.2016(updated 12:30 07.03.2016)

The Russian Federation has delivered hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to several of Syria's most conflict-ravaged provinces, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  About 620 metric tons of humanitarian aid and medicine have been delivered to the Syrian provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Damascus, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

'We have already delivered and handed over more than 620 tons of humanitarian aid, medicine and other essentials to the local population of the Syrian provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Damascus,' ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated.

Russia is ready to help with the organization of humanitarian aid supplies to the Syrian population, along with providing the unloading and storage of the cargo at the Hmeimim airbase, he added.

The Russian Defense Ministry is also ready to allocate vehicles for the transportation of humanitarian supplies from a Russian naval facility in the port of Tartus and the Hmeimim airbase to the areas of direct distribution of aid to the Syrians in need, Konashenkov outlined.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting several opposition factions and militant groups. The conflict has significantly damaged the country's economy and caused a humanitarian disaster.

A US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force on February 27 across Syria. It was supported by Damascus, as well as by dozens of opposition groups on the ground. The Islamic State and the Nusra Front (both outlawed in Russia) are not part of the deal.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Opposition Ready to Attend Geneva Peace Talks

by VOA News March 07, 2016

The main Syrian opposition group signaled Monday it intends to take part in renewed U.N.-led peace talks set to begin later this week.

Riad Nassan Agha, a spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, said representatives plan to start arriving in Geneva on Friday.

He also said the HNC has noted a decline in reported violations of a cease-fire that has been in effect since February 27, as well as progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura originally intended to reconvene Syrian parties for peace talks late last month but pushed back the date as the United States and Russia led efforts to implement the cessation of hostilities.

Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed in a phone call Sunday that there should be no delay in starting the new round of negotiations.

A foreign ministry statement said the diplomats shared a 'positive assessment' of the cease-fire and humanitarian access to besieged areas in Syria.

The goal of the peace talks is to bring about an agreement on a political transition to end Syria's five-year war with a new constitution and new elections.

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Defense ministry apologizes for furor over search case

ROC Central News Agency

2016/03/07 11:50:26

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense issued a public apology Monday over the controversy caused by military police's visit to a civilian's home in connection with an alleged online sale of classified government documents.

Along with the apology, the ministry also made a six-point statement on the controversy, which stemmed from an online post on March 5 that accused military police of searching a man's home without a warrant.

Posting under the username 'spicy chao tien pepper,' the person said she was the man's daughter and that their home had been searched a few days before the anniversary of the 228 Incident because her father possessed some documents related to the White Terror rule of the Kuomintang.

The documents were seized and her father was taken away for questioning, the poster said.

Responding to a flood of criticisms and debates that erupted in the wake of the post, the defense ministry on Monday urged the public to discuss the matter rationally and objectively.

It said it will ask the Control Yuan, which functions as an ombudsman and government watchdog, to investigate whether the defense ministry's Security Division or the Taipei Military Police had made any administrative mistakes.

Prosecutors have also been asked to investigate the matter and unearth the truth, the ministry said.

It said there is a difference between having a document as part of a personal collection and putting it up for public auction. Selling classified documents from the government's archives could jeopardize national security and contravene the law, the ministry said.

Classified documents should be placed in the care of the relevant government units or the police, the defense ministry said, adding that online auction of such documents is inappropriate.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Kao Kuang-chi () has asked the relevant personnel at its Security Division and at the Taipei Military Police Station to hold a press conference Monday to explain their handling of the matter, the ministry said.

It said the press conference will be recorded and posted on YouTube and the Facebook page of its spokesman.

(By Lee Ming-chung and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/pc

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Civilian's house was not searched: Military Police Command

ROC Central News Agency

2016/03/07 15:11:27

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) No actual search action was carried out by military police at the home of a civilian who was suspected of selling classified government documents online, a general at the Military Police Command (MPC) said Monday.

MPC Chief of Staff Feng Yi () made the statement at a press conference held by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) to respond to accusations that the military police had searched a civilian's home without a warrant.

The accusation was first made in an online post, dated March 5, by a person with the username 'spicy chao tien pepper.'

The poster said she was the civilian's daughter and that their home had been searched a few days before the anniversary of the 228 Incident because her father possessed some documents related to the White Terror rule of the Kuomintang, which is now the ruling party.

The documents were seized and her father was taken away for questioning, the poster said.

The post triggered a flood of criticisms and debates over the legitimacy of the military's action.

At the Monday's press conference, Feng said military police had received a tipoff that the man, surnamed Wei, was selling classified documents online, and the police subsequently launched an investigation into the allegation.

Because the probe was still in an early stage, no actions such as filing for a search warrant were taken, Feng explained.

Posing as potential buyers, the investigators met with Wei at his home and he handed them the documents, which were being stored in a damp-proof cabinet, Feng said.

Prior to that, however, Wei had given signed consent to having his home searched but 'no actual search was carried out,' Feng said.

As for the government documents concerned, Captain Chan Kuo-yi () of the MND's Security Division said an initial investigation found that Wei had sold three declassified documents online.

After declassification, the documents should have been destroyed but probably were sneaked out, Chan said.

Also at the press conference, defense ministry spokesman Maj.Gen. Luo Shou-he () said the case did not involve any Taiwanese or Chinese spies.

What military police were investigating were documents from the 'classified White Terror archives,' Luo said.

His statement, however, was contradictory to that of Hsieh Ming-te (), the top political warfare officer at the Military Police Command, who said Sunday that the documents in question were related to communist Chinese spies and their confessions after they surrendered to the Kuomintang government in the 1960s and 1970s.

Addressing an allegation by Wei's daughter that the military police had offered her father NT$15,000 (US$460) 'as a reward for his cooperation' in the investigation, Lieutenant General Wen Chen-kuo (), head of the Political Warfare Bureau, said the money was offered as a reward to help track the leak of the documents. Wei's daughter said her father had turned down the offer.

Meanwhile, Luo said the defense ministry has asked the watchdog Control Yuan and prosecutors to launch an investigation into the case.

Strict punishment will be doled out if any violations of the law are found, he said.

He called for rational discussion of the case and urged people to judge the military's conduct after the truth has been revealed.

'Many online posts are far removed from reality,' and therefore are not helpful in the process of finding out the facts, he said.

The Prosecutors' Office of the Taiwan Taipei District Court has started an investigation into the matter.

Military police are obliged to assist in a judicial investigation if necessary and to report their findings to prosecutors, according to Major General Shen Shih-wei () of the defense ministry's Human Rights Protection Division, who cited the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Shen said his initial understanding was that the case was still in an early stage and there was no need at the time to report to prosecutors.

(By Lu Hsin-hui, Tai Ya-chen and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/pc

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Military police's move to recover documents inappropriate: premier

ROC Central News Agency

2016/03/07 17:25:27

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) The military police's efforts to obtain old government documents that were being advertised for sale online -- that have sparked accusations of an illegal search -- were inappropriate, Premier Simon Chang () said Monday.

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) should reassign those involved in the case so that an investigation into the alleged misconduct can be carried out smoothly, Chang said at a press briefing.

The uproar was triggered when a woman surnamed Wei accused military police of conducting an illegal search at her home in late February related to her father's collection of documents from the White Terror era dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.

On Sunday, the Military Police Command rejected Wei's accusation of an illegal search, stating that Wei's father voluntarily cooperated in the investigation and handed over the three classified documents being advertised.

It said the military police's meeting with Wei and their visit to his home was videotaped and showed that no search was conducted, the command said.

Wei's father caught the attention of investigators because he put MND documents related to the White Terror period that he described as 'classified' up for auction online.

The MND apologized Monday morning for the controversy stirred up by the military police's handling of the case and said it would fully cooperate in the Taipei Prosecutors' Office investigation into what happened.

Given that prosecutors have begun looking into the matter, the Cabinet will not interfere with the process, Chang said, but he hoped prosecutors could share information that will help clarify the facts without compromising their investigation.

Chang said the documents in question were 50 years old and should have been destroyed 20 to 30 years ago under declassification procedures.

Instead, they fell into the hands of a private citizen, and 'it is debatable whether it was appropriate' for the MND to launch an investigation targeting a 'leak of classified documents,' Chang said.

He also questioned the use of military police to investigate civilians because any contact with civilians should be made through prosecutors and said have Wei's father sign a form stating that he agreed to cooperate with the military police's search was not an appropriate practice.

Obtaining a search warrant first would have been a better approach, Chang said.

Though the MND contended that military police have the power as judicial police to investigate criminal offenses, deciding whether or not to use military police should depend on the nature of a case, the premier added.

President Ma Ying-jeou (), meanwhile, instructed that the Cabinet and relevant government agencies find out what actually happened in a speedy manner and make the facts public, Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen () said.

Any political maneuvering over the case before the facts are clarified through the judicial process was unnecessary and could have a negative impact on society, Chen added.

(By Tai Ya-chen, Hsieh Chia-chen and Kay Liu)

enditem/ls

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China's Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail plan unilateral: minister

ROC Central News Agency

2016/03/07 16:23:27

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) China's proposal to construct a high-speed rail line between Beijing and Taipei as a national project is a unilateral idea that has not been mentioned to Taiwan, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Jian-yu () said Monday.

Chen said such a project has never been discussed between the two sides nor has he ever received any communication from China on the project, was referred to in a draft of China's 2016-2020 development plan that was released Saturday in Beijing.

'It's nothing but a unilateral and subjective idea of mainland China,' Chen said. 'No discussions have taken place between two sides, let alone consensus.'

Such a project would involve major policy in Taiwan, not just his ministry, Chen said.

On Sunday, Chen Deming (), president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), said in Beijing in response to media questions that it will take time before the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can begin discussions on the project.

'There is a problem of political willingness between us,' Chen said.

He said China, however, has the engineering technology and funds to implement such a project.

On Taiwan's side, it has other required technology, Chen Deming said, adding that if the two sides can cooperate, they would be able to easily resolve any challenges on such a project, including water, electricity and natural gas supply.

'But we have to wait patiently until the time is right for discussions,' he added.

China's draft development plan mentioned a transit link across the Taiwan Strait by 2030 and included a map of the planned project, showing a rail line connecting Taipei and the Chinese city of Fuzhou and linking to Beijing.

ARATS is the intermediary body founded by Beijing to handle cross-strait affairs in the absence of formal bilateral ties.

(By Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/pc

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Undersea tunnel across the Taiwan Straits technologically ready: NPC deputy

People's Daily Online

By Huang Jin (People's Daily Online) 14:10, March 07, 2016

Zhang Zhaomin, Director of FTA of Pingtan county in Fujian province and deputy to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), told media in Beijing that the undersea tunnel project of Beijing-Taipei Expressway is technologically ready to proceed. The realization of the project depends on the decision of Taiwan.

According to Zhang, who was just transferred from the Fujian Provincial Transportation Department to Pingtan at the end of last year, the BeijingTaipei Expressway is planned as an extension line of the BeijingFuzhou Expressway. By now, most parts of the BeijingFuzhou Expressway are already open to traffic.

Zhang said that the segment of the expressway connecting to Taiwan is planned as an undersea tunnel. Experts tend to build a 126-kilometer-long tunnel from Pingtan to Taipei. Technical feasibility studies have been carried out on both sides over the past four years. Now experts have a good grasp of the seabed and its geological conditions.

Zhang said that Pingtan is the closest place to Taiwan on the mainland. Last year, high-speed ro-ro ships transported around 120,000 passengers across the strait. About 200,000 packages entered or exited Taiwan through Pingtan.

Last year, Pingtan launched the TaiwanPingtanEurope sea-rail combined transport project. This year, the county will continue to promote cross-strait direct flights and the combined transport project.

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Turkish Prime Minister Urges More NATO Support

Sputnik News

22:20 07.03.2016(updated 22:41 07.03.2016)

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on Monday for increased NATO support for Turkey.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on Monday for increased NATO support for Turkey over a range of humanitarian and terrorist-related issues.

'As NATO, we have to look at all these challenges, humanitarian challenge, challenge coming from terrorism, and challenge coming from the presence of foreign forces in Syriathe mission of NATO is becoming even more important, and solidarity of NATO will be influential for the futurewe want to see more visible NATO presence on our border, so that will create a deterrence for those that may have the intention to test the capacity of NATO,' Davutoglu said during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels following Monday's Turkey-EU summit.

The EU-Turkey summit focused on stemming migration flows into the European Union. The sides discussed cooperation on migration, focusing on a speedy implementation of the EU-Turkey action plan. Stoltenberg and Davutoglu met after the close of the summit, discussing NATO forces deployment to the Aegean Sea in order to curb illegal migration.

During the press conference, Davutoglu stated that NATO's capacity is essential for preventing migrants crossing the waters between Greece and Turkey, praising the alliance's Sunday decision to extend its maritime humanitarian operation in the Aegean. NATO must act in conjunction with the European external borders agency Frontex, as well as Turkey and Greece, the prime minister said, adding that Turkey and Greece plan to cooperate closely on the issue.

The previous Turkey-EU summit was held in November 2015, also focusing on migration, as well as the process of Turkey's accession to the European Union.

Earlier on Monday, European Parliament President Martin Schulz stated that attempts at linking the settlement of the refugee crisis with the Turkish accession to the European Union should be prevented.

The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. EU border agency Frontex recorded more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings into the bloc in 2015.

 Sputnik

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Turkish Prime Minister Disagrees With EU on Media Freedom, Kurdish Issue

Sputnik News

17:40 07.03.2016

European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz said that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu disagreed with the European point of view on media issue.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu did not agree with the EU stance on the situation with the media and attitude toward the Kurds in his country, European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz said Monday.

On Friday, a Turkish court ordered the Feza Media Group, which includes opposition newspaper Zaman, Today's Zaman daily and the Cihan news agency, to be placed under the management of government trustees. Following the incident, Schulz has called the seizure of the Zaman newspaper another attack on the freedom of press in Turkey.

'We discussed the internal situation in Turkey. From my side [I raised], the Kurdish question, the Zaman case during the weekend. I had a very open exchange with the prime minister, who disagreed with my point of view. I think this is not a surprise and I insisted that for the European Parliament and the European Union freedom of media is a key element of the European identity. The prime minister explained from his point of view the case, I took note about the explanation,' Schulz told reporters.

Ahead of the meeting of the EU heads of state or government with Turkey, the EP president and Davutoglu talked over the refugee crisis, Ankara-Brussels relations, including the implementation of an action plan to combat migration, a readmission agreement, the issue of visa liberalization, control over the border, NATO's actions in the Aegean Sea, relations between the EU and, in particular, Greece and Turkey for better border control.

Ankara has also been conducting a special operation to suppress the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the country, which has been fighting for independence of Kurdish territories from Ankara since 1984. The group, which is considered by Ankara to be a terrorist organization, seeks to create a Kurdish state in parts of Turkey and Iraq.

 Sputnik

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An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more.

But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be  and shouldnt be  bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre.

Have an interest in what youre writing about

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Include fascinating details

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consider your own opinion

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EU Accused of Ignoring Human Rights in Turkey

by Dorian Jones March 07, 2016

The leader of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party has accused the European Union of ignoring the deteriorating human rights situation in the country in a bid to secure a migrant deal with Ankara.

As the EU looks for cooperation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stem the growing number of migrants entering Greece from his country, potential human rights abuses are being overlooked, according to Selahattin Demirtas, the head of the People's Democratic Party in Turkey.

As Turkey seeks to join the EU, the EU is obliged to confront Turkey over its human rights record, Demirtas said. However, he added, European diplomats and political leaders have told him that the EU needs Erdogan, so they are failing to confront him on his record so as not to make him angry.

Demirtas declined to specify names, saying the comments occurred in what he called closed-door meetings.

Human rights groups

His allegations come as Turkish security forces continue a major crackdown against the PKK, the Kurdish rebel group, in towns and cities across Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Human rights groups say nearly 200 civilians, including children, have been killed by fighting that has forced tens of thousands from their homes  and many more to live under a 24-hour lockdown.

Andrew Gardner, an Amnesty International Turkey researcher, says there is a worrying international silence over the situation.

'The situation internationally has been very disappointing in terms of the international community really turning a blind eye to the serious abuses that have been going on in the southeast of Turkey,' Gardner said.

Despite such concerns, Brussels has unfrozen Ankara's bid to join the European Union. The bid has been blocked, in part, because of human rights concerns. Turkey is demanding further progress in its membership bid in exchange for cooperation over the migrants.

Additional concerns

Concerns over human rights in Turkey deepened further Friday, with a court seizure of the country's best-selling Zaman newspaper. Zaman was one of the last mainstream papers critical of the government and the president.

The court has given no reason for its decision. French Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault says the seizure is unacceptable, and a pluralist media is a European standard.

Observers say that, while the move against Zaman may be embarrassing for Europe's leaders, it is unlikely to get in the way of its courting of Turkey's leaders. Last year, a world press freedom index by rights group Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 149th out of 180 countries.

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Ajax vehicle brings Merthyr Tydfil factory back to life

7 March 2016

A disused forklift truck factory in Wales has been officially opened as a specialist engineering hub for the British Army's next generation of armoured vehicles.

The opening will create 250 new and highly skilled jobs.

Following a 390 million commitment to the Ajax armoured vehicle by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), General Dynamics UK decided to turn the former Linde Forklift Truck factory in Merthyr Tydfil into an assembly, integration and testing centre for Ajax.

The site, which will begin assembling and testing the Army's first fully digitised Ajax vehicle in 2017, was opened by Ministers from both the UK and Welsh Governments.

Minister for Defence Procurement Philip Dunne said:

'The opening of this new facility is a major development for both Merthyr Tydfil and the British Army. It is another reminder of the importance of Defence investment right across the UK: the Ajax programme alone is sustaining 2,800 jobs across the country, 550 of which are here in Wales.'

'This new facility, like the next generation vehicle it will produce, is more evidence of our 178 billion commitment to provide our Armed Forces with the equipment they need. Thanks to the close partnership between the UK Government and industry, this site will spring back in to life as a significant centre of employment and bring in valuable skills with a lasting legacy for the entire region.'

In addition to the 250 jobs being created at the Merthyr Tydfil facility, the Ajax build programme is sustaining 300 jobs at General Dynamics in nearby Oakdale, and a further 2,250 jobs at more than 210 companies across the UK supply chain.

The British Army will receive 589 Ajax vehicles which will come in six variants and replace the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked). Ajax will form a central component of the UK's new Strike Brigades announced in the Strategic Defence and Spending Review at the end of last year.

Head of Armoured Vehicles at the MOD's Defence Equipment and Support organisation Major General Robert Talbot-Rice said:

'Ajax represents the biggest single order for armoured vehicles for the British Army in three decades. Today's opening is a big step towards fulfilment of this huge national project to put world beating equipment into our soldiers' hands.'

'The design of Ajax builds on lessons learned on the battlefield. It is the Army's first fully digitised armoured vehicle, able to tackle the world's toughest terrain and highly resilient against likely threats.'

The 589 Ajax vehicles will be the 'eyes and ears' of the British Army on the battlefields of the future. The new vehicle will give the army enhanced intelligence, surveillance, protection, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities, and it will be able to defend itself with a highly effective 40-millimetre cannon, which was developed jointly with France.

To date, the MOD has committed 4.5 billion in contracts with General Dynamics to deliver the Ajax vehicle.

Wales Office Minister Alun Cairns said:

'The UK government is determined to see as many MoD projects designed, built and manufactured here in the UK.'

'General Dynamics' decision to bring the assembly, integration and testing of Ajax vehicles to south Wales is an enormous vote of confidence in the skills and expertise of the workforce. This grows the defence footprint in Wales and is an excellent example of the UK and Welsh Governments working together in the interests of the Welsh economy.'

'The Welsh manufacturing sector is surging from strength to strength. Today's event showcases the invaluable contribution our home-grown talent is making in the provision of first-class protection and support to the brave men and women working in front line situations around the world.'

The British Army's Chief of the General Staff General Sir Nicholas Carter said:

'The opening of this facility is great news for the British Army.'

'Ajax will deliver a first class armoured capability to our ground forces. The combination of firepower, protection and mobility, as well as range and reach, will provide the battle winning edge to our new Strike Brigades.'

The first vehicle is expected to be completed at the Merthyr Tydfil facility in 2018, with the first Army units to receive the vehicle equipped by mid-2019 and ready to deploy from the end of 2020.

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UN atomic energy chief prioritizes verification, monitoring in Iran for 2016

7 March 2016  Noting that 2016 will be an important year for nuclear security, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today presented the Agency's plan for the year, which includes verification and monitoring work in Iran among its top priorities.

Addressing the opening of the Agency's Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Director General Yukiya Amano said that the Agency "has found no indication of the diversion of declared material from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran."

"Iran is now invited to participate in the full range of Agency activities, including technical meetings, conferences, training courses and workshops," Mr. Amano said.

The decision was made in light of Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), which endorsed what is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between the E3+3.

In July, Iran and a group of six countries  China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and United States  reached the JCPOA, entrusting the IAEA with verifying and monitoring Iran's commitments. The Agency reports in parallel to the Board and the Security Council.

Mr. Amano noted that implementation of the JCPOA "has just started," that Iran has to implement its commitments "for many years to come," and that the IAEA has to verify, monitor and report on that implementation.

Fighting Zika and other nuclear applications

Among the nuclear applications in 2016, Mr. Amano highlighted the Agency's response to the outbreak of the Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He said the IAEA is providing portable equipment and its training that would allow for quick detection of the virus in the field, similar to nuclear-derived technology made available by the Agency in 2014 to respond to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.

The Agency is also helping countries in those regions which seek to deploy a sterile insect technique against the Aedes mosquito that can transmit the Zika virus and other pathogens, Mr. Amano noted.

"The Agency will facilitate the transfer of a gamma cell irradiator to Brazil to enable the country to scale up production of sterile male mosquitoes for release in pilot areas," he said in reference to international activities planned and carried out in close coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

Renovation of IAEA nuclear application laboratories

The Board was told that IAEA nuclear application laboratories near Vienna, in Seibersdorf, play a vital role in research and in transferring technology such as the sterile insect technique to Member States, but are in urgent need of modernization.

"Without full renovation of the laboratories, our capacity to respond to Member States' request for assistance, on Zika and in other areas, will be significantly limited," said Mr. Amano.

The Director General appealed to all Member States to contribute to the renovation of the laboratories, which are in need of some 6.5 million Euros, and for the construction of additional facilities.

Fifth Anniversary of Fukushima incident

The address today comes just days ahead of the anniversary of the tsunami that occurred on 11 March 2011 and disabled the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident.

Tens of thousands of people who had been evacuated from their homes have still not been able to return, Mr. Amano said.

"There is widespread recognition that everything humanly possible must be done to ensure that no such accident ever happens again," he noted.

He invited countries to attend the IAEA International Conference on Nuclear Security in December. The conference "will be a very important event which will help to set the agenda for our work in the next few years, underlining the Agency's role as the global platform for improving nuclear security."

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New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping almost all the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
Results Support Presence of Higher Grades in the Central Core Including a 54 Metre Intersection of 1.023% Cu Near Surface

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 7, 2016) - Los Andes Copper Ltd. ("Los Andes", or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:LA)(OTC PINK:LSANF) is very pleased to announce the results of V2015-05 and the upper portion of V2015-08 of the first stage of the 2015-2016 diamond drill program. The lower portion of V2015-08 will be reported as it becomes available, as it was drilled approximately 2 weeks after the upper portion. For further information on drilling results please refer to the Company's news release dated February 26, 2016.

Cautionary Statement: All thicknesses from intersections from drill holes are down-hole drilled thicknesses. True widths cannot be determined from the information available.

Highlights from these two drill holes are:

All of V2015-08 deserves to be highlighted. From 130.0 metres to a depth of 379.0 metres (the end of the sequence that has been assayed), a total length of 249.0 metres, the average grade was 0.736 % Cu, 178 ppm Mo and 1.4 g/t Ag.

V2015-08 had a 54.0 metre intersection, from a depth of 130.0 metres to 184.0, metres, with an average grade of 1.023 % Cu, 128 ppm Mo and 1.4 g/t Ag.

V2015-05 had a 52.1 metre intersection, from a depth of 492.2 metres to 544.3 metres, with an average grade of 0.812 % Cu, 190 ppm Mo and 2.0 g/t Ag.

The results support the new geological model showing how the central higher grade core extends over an area of at least 700 metres north-south and 700 metres east-west.

Location of Drill Holes:

Hole Easting Northing Elevation

(metres) Azimut

(degrees) Inclination

(degrees) Final depth

(metres) V2015-05 366,182 6,413,275 2,050 290 -60 638.00 V2015-08 366,159 6,413,538 2,150 290 -75 725.50

All coordinates are in UTM WGS84

A drill hole location plan is available on our website: www.losandescopper.com

Summary of Drill Holes

Drill Hole V2015-05

This hole was drilled in the eastern part of the central core, 280 metres to the south-east of V2015-03. The purpose of this hole was to support the northern extension of the hydrothermal breccias identified in the re-logging of the historical drill holes to the south.

The top of bedrock was located at 36 metres with the drill hole intersecting a sequence of andesitic host rock, cut by dioritic porphyry and hydrothermal breccias. The leached zone extended to a depth of 72 metres before entering the supergene mineralisation. From 72.0 metres to a depth of 192.0 metres, a length of 120.0 metres, the average grade was 0.537% Cu, 169 ppm Mo and 1.4 g/t Ag.

The drill hole intersected a hydrothermal breccia from 492.2 metres to 544.3 metres, a total length of 52.1 metres, with an average grade of 0.812% Cu, 190 ppm Mo and 2.0 g/t Ag. This confirms the extension of the higher grade breccias from the south.

Depth From (m) Depth To (m) Length (m) Cu % Mo ppm Ag g/t 72.0 638.0 566.0 0.425 216 1.2 including 72.0 192.0 120.0 0.537 169 1.4 including 492.2 544.3 52.1 0.812 190 2.0

All thicknesses from intersections from drill holes are down-hole drilled thicknesses True widths cannot be determined from the information available.

Drill Hole V2015-08

This hole was drilled in the eastern part of the central core, 270 metres to the north of V2015-05. The aim of the hole was to show the depth extension of the mineralisation beneath the historical drill holes drilled in this area.

From a depth of 3.0 metres to a depth of 61.5 metres the hole intersected a post mineralisation dacitic dyke. The drill hole then entered the andesitic host rock that has been intruded by small tourmaline and hydrothermal breccias. The leached zone extended to 130.0 metres. From a depth of 130.0 metres to 184.0 metres, a total length of 54.0 metres, the average grade was 1.023% Cu, 128 ppm Mo and 1.4 g/t Ag. Also within a diorite intrusive, from 198.8 metres to 241.0 metres, a total length of 42.2 metres, the average grade was 0.905% Cu, 134 ppm Mo and 1.9 g/t Ag. These results clearly show the higher grade potential in the central core.

The overall assay results from a depth of 130.0 metres to a depth of 379.0 metres, the end of the sequence that has been assayed, had a total length of 249.0 metres with an average grade of 0.736% Cu, 178 ppm Mo and 1.4 g/t Ag.

The assay results from 379.0 metres to a depth of 725.50 metres are still pending and will be reported when available as this portion of the hole was drilled approximately 2 weeks after the upper portion.

Depth From (m) Depth To (m) Length (m) Cu % Mo ppm Ag g/t 130.0 379.0 249.0 0.736 178 1.4 including 130.0 184.0 54.0 1.023 128 1.4 including 198.8 241.0 42.2 0.905 134 1.9

All thicknesses from intersections from drill holes are down-hole drilled thicknesses True widths cannot be determined from the information available.

QA/QC

Quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of duplicate and standard samples in to the sample stream. Drill core samples were sawn in half, labelled, placed in sealed bags and were shipped directly to the preparatory laboratory of ALS Minerals in Coquimbo, Chile. All geochemical analyses were performed by ALS Minerals in Lima Peru. All samples were assayed using the method ME-MS61, a four-acid digestion with an ICP-MS finish. Copper samples with grades above 0.6% Cu were reanalysed using ALS method Cu-OG62, a four-acid digestion with an AAS finish.

Mr. Amberg is the Qualified Person and has prepared and approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release.

Team Credentials

Mr. Amberg is a geologist who is a graduate of the Royal School of Mines, London, has a MSc. from University College and is also a Chartered Geologist with the Geological Society of London. He has close to 30 years of diverse experience having worked in Asia, Africa and South America for both multinational and junior companies. He began his career in 1986 working with Anglo American in South Africa before moving on to an exploration position with Severin-Southern Sphere. In 1990 Mr. Amberg moved to Chile where he first worked with Bema Gold on the Refugio project before taking up a position with Rio Tinto. At Rio Tinto he was involved in exploration programs in the Atacama and Magallanes Regions and managed the Barreal Seco (now part of Las Cenizas) exploration program. In 1996 he joined Kazakhstan Minerals Corporation in Kazakhstan, setting up and managing offices for the drilling and resource estimation for JORC compliant feasibility studies on three large projects that are now operating mines. He became General Director for two joint ventures in KazMinCo where he managed all technical and local issues. In 2001 he returned to Chile where he started a geological consulting firm specialising in project evaluation and NI 43-101 technical reports. Mr. Amberg's clients included Rio Tinto, Barrick, Codelco, Anglo American, Pan Pacific Copper and various junior mining companies. He joined Los Andes Copper in 2012 as Chief Geologist and is now also the President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Amberg is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

Gonzalo Saldias is a geologist who is a graduate of Universidad Catolica del Norte, Chile. He has over 35 years of experience working within Chile and internationally; mainly on copper porphyry, epithermal gold silver and iron-oxide copper gold systems. For the last seven years, he worked for Antofagasta Minerals evaluating copper porphyry projects within Chile, assessing their geological and economical potential. Prior to that he had worked for ten years with Placer Dome Latin America, generating and evaluating exploration projects within the region. Prior to Placer Dome, he worked for Codelco as head of exploration geology for the El Salvador Division, developing the prospective areas near to the mine. He also worked for Northern Resources, Homestake, Utah, Anaconda and as an independent consultant.

Certain of the information and statements contained herein that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Securities Act (British Columbia), Securities Act (Ontario) and the Securities Act (Alberta) ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend"; statements that an event or result is "due" on or "may", "will", "should", "could", or might" occur or be achieved; and, other similar expressions. More specifically, Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information; including, without limitation, the achievement and maintenance of planned production rates, the evolving legal and political policies of Chile, the volatility in the Chilean economy, military unrest or terrorist actions, metal and energy price fluctuations, favourable governmental relations, the availability of financing for activities when required and on acceptable terms, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, current and future environmental and regulatory requirements, the availability and timely receipt of permits, approvals and licenses, industrial or environmental accidents, equipment breakdowns, availability of and competition for future acquisition opportunities, availability and cost of insurance, labour disputes, land claims, the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Management's Discussion and Analysis in the Company's financial statements.

Such Forward-Looking Information is based upon the Company's assumptions regarding global and Chilean economic, political and market conditions and the price of metals and energy, and the Company's production. Among the factors that have a direct bearing on the Company's future results of operations and financial conditions are changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, a change in government policies, competition, currency fluctuations and restrictions and technological changes, among other things. Should one or more of any of the aforementioned risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the Forward-Looking Information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Mar 7, 2016) -

All amounts expressed in US dollars

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE:ABX)(TSX:ABX) (Barrick or the "company") announced today the Reference Yield, Tender Offer Consideration and Total Consideration (each as defined below) in its cash tender offer (the "Tender Offer") for specified series of outstanding notes (the "Notes"). The terms and conditions of the Tender Offer are described in an offer to purchase (the "Offer to Purchase") and the related letter of transmittal (the "Letter of Transmittal"), each dated February 22, 2016.

The Tender Offer

The Tender Offer commenced on February 22, 2016. Barrick, Barrick North America Finance LLC and Barrick (PD) Australia Finance Pty Ltd (together, the "Offerors") are offering to purchase for cash the series of Notes set out in the table below for an aggregate purchase price (including principal and premium) of up to $750,000,000, as such amount may be increased by the Offerors, plus accrued and unpaid interest on the Notes from the last applicable interest payment date up to, but not including, the settlement date. The amount of a series of Notes that is purchased in the Tender Offer will be based on the order of priority (the "Acceptance Priority Level") for such series of Notes as set forth in the table below, with 1 being the highest Acceptance Priority Level and 7 being the lowest Acceptance Priority Level. If there are sufficient remaining funds to purchase some, but not all, of the Notes tendered of any series, the amount of Notes purchased in that series will be subject to proration using the procedure more fully described in the Offer to Purchase.

The following table presents the applicable Tender Offer Consideration or Total Consideration to be paid to each holder of Notes accepted for purchase and the Reference Yield used in the calculation of such consideration.

Title of Security CUSIP Number Acceptance Priority Level Reference U.S. Treasury Security Reference Yield Fixed Spread (basis points) Tender Offer Consideration (1) Early Tender Premium (1)(2) Total Consideration (1)(2) 2.50% Notes due 2018(3) 067901AN8

067901AM0

C03420AE3 1 0.750% due Jan. 31, 2018 0.908% +165 $968.80 $30.00 $998.80 6.80% Notes due 2018(4) 06849RAB8 2 0.750% due Jan. 31, 2018 0.908% +260 $1,047.63 $30.00 $1,077.63 6.95% Notes due 2019(3) 067901AB4 3 0.750% due Feb. 15, 2019 1.075% +320 $1,045.20 $30.00 $1,075.20 4.95% Notes due 2020(5) 06849UAC9 4 1.375% due Jan. 31, 2021 1.438% +280 $994.79 $30.00 $1,024.79 4.40% Notes due 2021(4) 06849RAD4

06849RAF9

U0684TAA4 5 1.375% due Jan. 31, 2021 1.438% +355 $943.33 $30.00 $973.33 3.85% Notes due 2022(3) 067901AL2

067901AJ7

C03420AD5 6 1.375% due Jan. 31, 2021 1.438% +385 $896.58 $30.00 $926.58 4.10% Notes due 2023(3) 067901AQ1

067901AP3

C03420AF0 7 1.625% due Feb. 15, 2026 1.914% +360 $887.69 $30.00 $917.69

(1) Per $1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase. (2) The Early Tender Premium is included in the Total Consideration for Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn in the Tender Offer at or prior to the Early Tender Date (as defined below). (3) Barrick is the applicable Offeror for the 2.50% Notes due 2018, the 6.95% Notes due 2019, the 3.85% Notes due 2022 and the 4.10% Notes due 2023. (4) Barrick North America Finance LLC is the applicable Offeror for the 6.80% Notes due 2018 and the 4.40% Notes due 2021. (5) Barrick (PD) Australia Finance Pty Ltd is the applicable Offeror for the 4.95% Notes due 2020.

Holders of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 4, 2016 (the "Early Tender Date") and accepted for purchase will receive the applicable "Total Consideration", which includes an early tender premium of $30.00 per $1,000 of principal amount of Notes accepted for purchase (the "Early Tender Premium"). Holders of Notes who validly tender their Notes after the Early Tender Date, but at or prior to the Expiration Date (as defined below), will be eligible to receive only the applicable "Tender Offer Consideration", which is an amount equal to the applicable Total Consideration minus the Early Tender Premium. The Tender Offer Consideration or Total Consideration, as applicable, will only be paid to holders of tendered Notes to the extent that the applicable Offeror accepts such Notes for purchase.

The Tender Offer Consideration or the Total Consideration, as applicable, for each series per $1,000 principal amount of Notes was determined by reference to the applicable fixed spread (the "Fixed Spread") specified for such series over the applicable yield (the "Reference Yield") based on the bid side price of the applicable reference U.S. Treasury Security (the "Reference U.S. Treasury Security") specified for such series of Notes on the front page of the Offer to Purchase or in the table above, as calculated by Citigroup Global Markets Inc., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (the "Dealer Managers") at 2:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 7, 2016.

In addition to the Tender Offer Consideration or the Total Consideration, as applicable, accrued and unpaid interest on the Notes accepted for purchase will be paid from the last applicable interest payment date up to, but not including, the settlement date.

Withdrawal rights with respect to the Notes tendered expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 4, 2016. Subject to the terms and conditions contained in the Offer to Purchase, holders may tender Notes until midnight, New York City time, on March 18, 2016, unless extended (such date and time, as the same may be extended, the "Expiration Date").

The settlement date for the Tender Offer will follow promptly after the Expiration Date. The Offerors expect the settlement date will be March 21, 2016.

The Tender Offer is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase. If any of the conditions are not satisfied or waived by the Offerors, the Offerors will not be obligated to accept for purchase, purchase or pay for, validly tendered Notes, in each case subject to applicable laws, and may terminate the Tender Offer. The Tender Offer is not conditioned on the tender of a minimum principal amount of Notes.

Questions regarding the Tender Offer may be directed to Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at +1 800 558-3745 (toll-free) or +1 212 723-6106 (collect), HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. at +1 888 472-2456 (toll-free) or +1 212 525-5552 (collect), or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at +1 866 834-4666 (toll-free) or +1 212 834-3424 (collect). Copies of the Offer to Purchase and the Letter of Transmittal may be obtained from the Information Agent, Global Bondholder Services Corporation at +1 866 470-3800 (toll-free) or +1 212 430-3774 (collect) or in writing at 65 Broadway, Suite 404, New York, NY 10006.

This press release is neither an offer to purchase, nor a solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities. The Offerors are making the Tender Offer only by, and pursuant to, the terms of the Offer to Purchase and the related Letter of Transmittal. The Tender Offer is not being made in any jurisdiction in which the making of or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities laws, blue sky laws or other laws of such jurisdiction. None of the Offerors, their respective boards of directors, the Dealer Managers, the Depositary, the Information Agent or the trustees or indenture agents for the Notes makes any recommendation as to whether holders should tender or refrain from tendering their Notes, and no one has been authorized by any of them to make such a recommendation. Holders must make their own decision as to whether to tender their Notes and, if so, the principal amount of Notes to tender.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain information contained in this press release, including any information as to the company's strategy, projects, plans or future financial or operating performance, constitutes "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words "expect", "will", "may" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the company or the other Offerors in light of management's experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements or information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in the spot and forward price of gold, copper or certain other commodities (such as silver, diesel fuel, natural gas and electricity); changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/or changes in the administration of laws, policies and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property, and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States and other jurisdictions in which the company does or may carry on business in the future; risk of loss due to acts of war, terrorism, sabotage and civil disturbances; litigation; risks associated with working with partners in jointly controlled assets; and the company's ability to successfully complete transactions. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect the company's actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Specific reference is made to the most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the SEC and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities for a discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements.

The Offerors disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - March 07, 2016) - Klondex Mines Ltd. (TSX: KDX) (NYSE MKT: KLDX) ("Klondex" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the promotion of Mr. Mike Doolin to Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective immediately. Mr. Doolin replaces Mr. Brent Kristof and will lead the operations of the Company's key properties. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Doolin held the position of Vice President, Technical Services for the Company.

Paul Andre Huet, President and CEO commented, "We want to congratulate Mike on his recent promotion and look forward to his leadership at our operations as we continue to create value for our shareholders. Additionally, we want to thank Brent for his contributions to Klondex and wish him well in his future endeavors."

Mr. Doolin is a 25-year veteran of the mining industry with substantial experience in the design and permitting of mining projects; extensive work in milling, metallurgy and assay operations. He also brings years of experience successfully managing small and large teams on multiple projects. Prior to joining Klondex in 2012, he served with Great Basin Gold as the Esmeralda Mill Manager where he was responsible for all on-site operations. Mr. Doolin's experience also includes tenures with McClelland Laboratories, Eagle Picher Minerals, GD Resources, Marigold Mining, Corona Gold, and Round Mountain Gold, all in Nevada gold country. He earned his Bachelors of Science degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and Chemistry from Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology.

About Klondex Mines Ltd. (www.klondexmines.com)

The Company is a well-capitalized, junior-tier gold and silver mining company focused on exploration, development, and production in a safe, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective manner. The Company has 100% interests in the Fire Creek property and the Midas mine and mill in Nevada, USA and recently acquired the Rice Lake mine and mill in Manitoba, Canada.

Cautionary Note Regarding Technical Information

A production decision at the Midas Mine was made by previous operators of the mine, prior to the completion of the acquisition of the Midas mine by Klondex and Klondex made a decision to continue production subsequent to the acquisition. This decision by Klondex to continue production and, to the knowledge of Klondex, the prior production decision were not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. Readers are cautioned that there is increased uncertainty and higher risk of economic and technical failure associated with such production decisions.
VANCOUVER, March 7, 2016 - Avino Silver and Gold Mines Limited (ASM: TSX-V, ASM: NYSE--MKT, GV6: FSE, "Avino" or "the Company") regrets to report the death of two contractors on Saturday, March 5, 2016 due to an accident at the San Gonzalo Mine on the Avino Property in Durango, Mexico.David Wolfin, on behalf of Avino, offers his deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the deceased.Avino's management and staff are supporting the Mexican authorities with their investigation into the accident and expect a report later this week. Avino does not expect the accident to affect production from the San Gonzalo Mine.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD"David Wolfin"David Wolfin, President & CEO, Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.Safe Harbor Statement - This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (together, the "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including our belief as to the extent and timing of various studies including the PEA, and exploration results, the potential tonnage, grades and content of deposits, and timing, establishment, and extent of resource estimates. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the dates of technical reports, as applicable. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.Such factors and assumptions include, among others, the effects of general economic conditions, the price of gold, silver and copper, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government authorities, uncertainties associated with legal proceedings and negotiations and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking information. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; uncertainties and risks related to carrying on business in foreign countries; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain of our officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; currency fluctuations; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; tax consequences to U.S. investors; and other risks and uncertainties. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.Cautionary Note to United States Investors - The information contained herein and incorporated by reference herein has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. In particular, the term "resource" does not equate to the term "reserve". The Securities Exchange Commission's (the "SEC") disclosure standards normally do not permit the inclusion of information concerning "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" or "inferred mineral resources" or other descriptions of the amount of mineralization in mineral deposits that do not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards, unless such information is required to be disclosed by the law of the Company's jurisdiction of incorporation or of a jurisdiction in which its securities are traded. U.S. investors should also understand that "inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. Disclosure of "contained ounces" is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures.Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.T 604.682.3701F 604.682.3600ir@avino.comwww.avino.comSuite 900, 570 Granville StreetVancouver, BCCanada V6C 3P1
March 8, 2016 / TheNewswire / Vancouver, BC - Dajin Resources Corp. ("Dajin") (C:DJI) (OTC: DJIFF) (Frankfurt: A1XF20) is pleased to report that Dajin Canada Director Dr. Catherine Hickson and Dajin Argentina President, Mr. Cosme Beccar-Varela have recently completed a visit to Jujuy Province in northwestern Argentina.

During Dr. Hickson's visit to Argentina, meetings were held with several senior Argentine government officials including Daniel Meilan, Secretary of Mining, Ministry of Energy and Mining for Argentina and Dr. Miguel Soler, Secretary of Mining, Ministry of Energy and Mining for Jujuy Province. Dr. Hickson also met with the indigenous community of Inti Killa, Tres Morros which is located on the Salinas Grandes in Jujuy Province. Dajin signed a cooperation agreement with the community? of Tres Morros, represented by Mr. Andres Castillo, to provide support during the exploration phase of the San Jose Project. All parties present were satisfied with the results of this meeting and look optimistically to advancing the exploration program.

Dr. Hickson wishes to announce that Dr. Beatriz Coira, a well-known and respected geologist with international experience and based in Jujuy has agreed to join Dajin's Technical Advisory Board. Dr. Coira has been studying tectonics, volcanology, geothermal and mining resources in the Puna region of Argentina for many years. She will provide Dajin with a valuable and important link to historical work in the Puna region in addition to her continuing research with the National Science and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina.

On December 29, 2015 the first UGAMP meeting was convened to review community and environmental consideration for exploration. Full support for the project to move forward was received from the people present at this meeting. A second UGAMP meeting has been scheduled for March 15, 2016.

About Dajin: (www.dajin.ca)

Dajin is an early stage energy metals exploration company holding a 100% interest in 215 placer claims known to contain lithium and boron values in the Teels Marsh region of Mineral County, Nevada. These claims, which cover 4,574 acres (1,851 hectares), are the birth place of US Borax Corp's first borax mine. Dajin has entered into an option agreement with Nevada Energy Metals Inc. (C:BFF) to explore their 191 placer claims covering 3,851 acres (1,558 hectares) in the Alkali Lake region of Esmeralda County, Nevada, 7 miles (12 kilometers ) northeast of Rockwood's Clayton Valley Lithium operations..

Dajin also holds a 100% interest in concessions or concession applications in Jujuy Province, Argentina that were acquired in regions known to contain brines with potassium, lithium and boron values. These concessions total approximately 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) with 80,248 hectares (198,000 acres) located in the Salinas Grandes/Guayatayoc salt lakes basin adjacent to concessions held by Orocobre Ltd. (C:ORL), who is partnered with Toyota Tsusho. Dajin recently completed an agreement with the Tres Morros Cooperativa for exploration of the 4,400 hectares (10,873 acres) San Jose and Navidad concessions within the Salinas Grandes salar.

DAJIN RESOURCES CORP.

Brian Findlay, President

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility

for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
March 08 2016 / TheNewswire / Vancouver, BC - Nevada Energy Metals. (TSX-V: BFF) (OTC Pink: SSMLF) (Frankfurt: 2AFBV) is pleased to announce that its common shares are accepted for continuous trading on the electronic trading platform XETRA(R) on the Frankfurt Exchange under the ticker symbol 2AFBV with the International Security Identification Number (ISIN) CA64130N1087

BankM helped facilitate the XETRA(R) listing and will also act as Nevada Energy Metals' Designated Sponsor on the electronic trading platform. Designated Sponsors secure higher liquidity and a better pricing by quoting binding bid/offer prices with a tight spread and enable the trading on the electronic platform XETRA(R) of Deutsche Borse AG.

CEO Harry Barr "We are pleased to have our company accepted for trading on the Xetra(R) electronic platform. Germany has been a robust) market for retail and institutional Investors who follow the mining and exploration industry. Our objective is to continue to broaden our shareholder base in Europe."

About Nevada Energy Metals: http://nevadaenergymelas.com

Nevada Energy Metals Inc. is a Canadian Based exploration and development company who's primary listing is on the TSX Venture Exchange. The company's main focuses are brine based lithium exploration targets located in the mining friendly state of Nevada. As of the 13th of January the company has completed a $900,000 CAD secondary funding to carry out an exploration program on the area known as Alkali Lake and Alkali Flats. This lithium target is located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, just 12km from Rockwood Lithium, the only brine based lithium producer in North America. Nevada Energy Metals must complete a one-time payment of shares, cash payments over three years and complete certain exploration milestones to earn its 60% interest. Nevada Energy Metals has acquired, by staking, 100 placer claims covering 2000 acres (809 hectares) at Teels Marsh, Nevada. The property, called Teels Marsh West is a highly prospective Lithium exploration project, 100% owned without any royalties, located on the western part of a large evaporation pond.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Harry Barr Chairman & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Ormeggio at The Spit showcases seaside views and progressive Italian dining. Photo: Christopher Pearce

Address Spit Rd Mosman, NSW 2088 View map Book online Opening hours Wed-Thu 6:00  10:00 PM, Fri-Sat 12 Noon  3:00 PM 6:00  10:00 PM, Sun 12 Noon  3:00 PM 6:00  9:30 PM Features Licensed, Outdoor seating, Accepts bookings, Business lunch, Family friendly, Romance-first date, Views, Gluten-free options, Vegetarian friendly, Private dining, Bar, Events Prices Expensive (mains over $40) Chef Alessandro Pavoni and Victor Moya Payments eftpos, AMEX, Cash, Visa, Mastercard Phone 02 9969 4088

When you're paying $135 a head for a nine-course degustation from two of Sydney's most left-field, progressive chefs, you don't expect a parma. But there it is, in the flurry of introductory snacks. It's not what the local pub would call eggplant parmie, however. The tiny bite-size confit eggplant, bronzed with tomato powder and topped with buffalo mozzarella cream and dots of basil emulsion, rests on a bed of river pebbles; at once strangely alien and deliciously familiar.

Then there's a vitello tonnato in the form of a tiny polenta taco of veal tartare spiked with anchovy and topped with a tuna mayonnaise emulsion and a purslane leaf. Even something listed simply as "parmigiano reggiano" appears as a cheesy little blini of a macaron, filled with parmesan cream and topped with spherified pearls of balsamic vinegar. That's what I call starting with a bang.

Now that their sideline trattoria, Chiosco, is going gangbusters day and night, Ormeggio's Alessandro Pavoni and head chef Victor Moya have introduced a brave new concept to their gloriously situated waterside restaurant. "A Trip Through Italy" is the promise, with each dish inspired by different regions of Italy in tasting menus that range from $55 per person for lunch to $105, $125 and $135 for dinner.

The vitello tonnato; eggplant parmigiana; and parmigiano reggiano and aged balsamic vinegar. Photo: Christopher Pearce

The snacks having run riot through Emilia Romagna and Piemonte, the kitchen proceeds to take apart and put back together again the food of the Veneto, Puglia, and Campania in a white-knuckle ride through the contemporary sleights-of-hand of low-temperature cooking, freezing by liquid nitrogen, dehydration and rehydration.

First comes baccala alla Vicentino  a dazzling snow of rehydrated and cream-gunned salt cod served on a puddle of creamy baccala mantecato, a skin of snowpeas and a fluorescent pea puree that is icily intense. Next, a risotto that isn't. A disc of carnaroli rice, creamy with burrata, is lidded with sweet raw scampi flesh and dusted with dehydrated cavolo nero; a quieter but truly enjoyable dish I could eat time and again.

The "trip through Italy" is more a creative journey than a rigid bus schedule of regional exploration. A small wedge of Glacier 51 toothfish labelled all'aqua pazza suggests the sunshine, sea and tomatoes of the south, but is coated instead with an extraordinarily dense swamp-green parsley gel, slightly gummy from the extracted collagen of the skin, scattered with pink lantana flowers.

The view from Ormeggio at The Spit. Photo: Christopher Pearce

Then it's back to Piemonte with a beautifully al dente twirl of capsicum tagliolini, wound like yarn into a ball and lightly coated with hazelnuts and spanner crab; followed by precision-plated lozenges of oozy-rich, caper-dusted wagyu tenderloin served with glossy cavolo nero leaves filled with turnip mayo.

The wine-matching ($80 supplement) is intriguing but misses a trick by not always sticking to the brief. A Mantra Muse chardonnay served with the Piemonte-inspired pasta is a charming wine from the Margaret River and a favourite of sommelier Jeremy Croft, but I would love to see, say, a Piemontese arneis, for a greater sense of place.

Desserts continue the theme of familiar flavours in unfamiliar forms. Basil sorbet with tomato crumb and gel brings a welcome burst of acidity; and an apple strudel inspired by the Alto Adige is a smash-up of cinnamon crisp shards, pickled apple, baked apple sorbet and raisin crumble.

Toothfish all'aqua pazza. Photo: Christopher Pearce

What fun  and, as always at Ormeggio, what beautiful risotto and pasta. This level of new wave Italian may be more of a journey through the minds of two of Sydney's most forward-thinking chefs than through Italy; but it's most certainly a trip.

THE LOWDOWN

Address: D'Albora Marinas, Spit Road, The Spit, Mosman

Best bit: New wave Italian on the water

Worst bit: The love affair with liquid nitrogen

Go-to dish: The snacks  vitello tonnato, eggplant parmigiana and parmigiana reggiano with aceto balsamico.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.
The falafel hot plate at Tahini. Photo: Darrian Traynor

Code Black Coffee founder Joseph Haddad will stop at nothing in his search for the perfect falafel  including visiting his hometown of Beirut for the first time in 20 years, with business partner Bridie Manson.

With secret recipe for the fried chickpea fritters in hand, they opened Tahini this week. It's an open-fronted, 90-seat Lebanese dining hall with a Melbourne cafe sensibility geared towards high-volume CBD foot traffic that wants to dine in or take away.

Haddad has brought head chef and family friend Anthony El-Aridi over from Lebanon, consulting extensively with Melbourne's Lebanese community and stealing a few family recipes along the way. A made-to-order falafel and tahini wrap will have you eating at your desk in no time, while a mix of char-grilled skewered meats, salads, falafel and hummus makes a soufra (feast).

Tony Haddad fries falafels at Tahini. Photo: Darrian Traynor

Set in the ground floor of the William residential complex, the Zwei-designed space (Code Black, Thaiger) mixes fluoro hues, communal tables and contemporary Arabic and English typography. "Ahlan wa sahlan", painted on the floor, means "welcome, but three times as much", Haddad says. Indeed.

Open Mon-Wed 7am-4pm; Thu-Fri 7am-9pm.

199 William Street, Melbourne (via Guests Lane), tahinilebanesediner.com.au
Maurice Terzini has a busy 12 months ahead. Photo: Supplied

Maurice Terzini was instrumental in Melbourne's pub revolution and now the veteran restaurateur is looking to do the same in Sydney after key stakeholders at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar snapped up The Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills. "Yes, it's our group and the guys from Hotel Harry," Terzini says. "I'll be creative director and partner." Expect a major reboot down the track with short-term plans to open a fun, temporary operation featuring a "dining room, wine room and public bar".

Apollo restaurant designer George Livissianis will craft The Dolphin's interior and Terzini confirmed he'll stick with his trademark Italian leanings. He will also tap some of the intel he picked up 20 years ago operating The Melbourne Wine Room. "A lot of people don't realise how important the Wine Room was to the evolution of hotels. We'll use some of it for inspiration, like the incredible wine list," he explains.

Terzini has a busy 12 months ahead, opening an osteria-style bar in Bali and a restaurant-bar in the Sydney CBD. "Once I get those out of the way I can really focus on the long-term plans for the hotel," he says. "It's a little bit forgotten; we want to bring it back from the dead. But we won't be changing the name; everyone knows The Dolphin."
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By Staff Report

Angelo State University will host a concert, "British Duet: Clarinet and Piano," featuring clarinetist Tim Bonenfant of the ASU music faculty and San Angelo native Michael Schneider on piano at 7:30 p.m. March 24.

The concert will be held in the Carr Education-Fine Arts Building's Eldon Black Recital Hall, 2602 Dena Drive, and is free and open to the public. The concert program of music by British composers includes Sonatina for clarinet and piano by Roger Fiske, Sonata for clarinet and piano, Op. 109, by York Bowen, Sonatina for clarinet and piano (1951) by Malcolm Arnold, Sonata for clarinet and piano, Op. 129, by Charles Villiers Stanford, and "Gate" for clarinet and piano by Graham Fitkin.

For more information, contact ASU's Department of Visual and Performing Arts at 325-942-2085.
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Sometimes truth is so much stranger than fiction that it turns into satire. Case in point: Travis County's newly elected Republican Party chairman, Robert Morrow.

Morrow is a 51-year-old self-employed investor and JFK assassination conspiracy theorist who ran an ad in an Austin publication in 2011 asking strippers to disclose their sexual experiences with then-Gov. Rick Perry. The ad also asked gay people to quit covering for Perry.

The ad did not ask strippers or gay people to quit covering for LBJ in the Kennedy assassination. (Sometimes pointing out glaring omissions helps one accept satirical reality.)

But that's 2011 news. The 2016 news is that the Travis County Republican chairman-elect regularly tweets comments about Perry's and Hillary Clinton's sexual orientation, Bush family criminal behavior and other assorted subjects. Morrow's Twitter feed also includes numerous soft-porn photos of silicone-enhanced women.

Morrow is guilty of behavior in general that "would get most children spanked, for good reason," according to one county GOP precinct chair who also says Morrow is unfit to be party chairman.

Funny he should say that. Party members are looking frantically into how they can remove Morrow, pressure him to resign or, failing that, dissolve and start anew without him.

This is not a unanimous effort. The guy did, after all, win the election, which means not only that somebody voted for him, but a majority did - 55 percent of those who bothered to vote for a Republican party chair.

And as surely as the Travis County GOP establishment is looking into undoing that mandate, some members of that voting majority stand ready to defend it.

"The reason the Republican party has not grown is because of those idiots," an anti-establishment, pro-Morrow precinct chairman told the Texas Tribune. "Just because Robert Morrow is whacked out a little bit, you have to look at the other side of the book."

What does this situation sound eerily like? What whacked-out candidate comes to mind?

Establishing further the Trump-ness of Travis County's situation, the deposed county chairman, James Dickey, knew all about Morrow's proclivities and tweets but chose not to act upon them. Being on Twitter, it was easy enough to find. If there's anything redeeming about Morrow, it's that he doesn't conceal or apologize for who he is or what he does.

I should know. In 2011 when he ran that ad, we criticized his tactics in an editorial. So he called me and told me all the things he knew to be true but couldn't confirm firsthand, and how he came to know them. A lot of his information came directly from strippers, and there was a reason for that.

"I'll admit it," he said, "I like strippers."

Having seen Morrow's explicit Twitter feed, having read accounts of the party chairmanship dust-up in the Texas Tribune, Austin American-Statesman and elsewhere, and having seen him quoted by the Tribune that those who want to depose him can go do something to themselves that starts with the letter "f," I don't think my disclosure of our conversation violates a confidence or reveals anything not already known about him.

Nevertheless, everything about Morrow is coming out now in a torrent - now that it's too late to prevent his election. Sound familiar?

The Travis County Republican Party story is full of salacious, disgusting material that I'm not sure is fit for a family publication. While it's not an exact replica of what is happening to the party at the national level with Donald Trump, it's close enough. The Morrow story, like the Trump story, can't and shouldn't be ignored.

I don't disagree with any of the bad things Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and John McCain say about Trump. But if they don't want Trump they had better figure out how to beat him according to the rules. If Trump, like Morrow, wins enough votes, the party should do the honorable thing, follow its own rules rather than try to rewrite them or interpret them creatively, and honor its people's decision to nominate a dishonorable candidate. A party that shows no faith in the system has no business expecting the people to have faith in the party.
It's always a big deal when policymakers, labor and management come together and find meaningful solutions to contentious fiscal issues, especially when those issues involve public pension systems. As unfunded pension liabilities continue to skyrocket across the nation, reaching at least $2 trillion, consensus among stakeholders for reform should no longer be the exception but the rule of thumb. And we need to look no further than Arizona's sweeping overhaul of its statewide public-safety pension system to see how it can be done.Arizona's Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) was on a downward trajectory, with $12.7 billion in liabilities and only $6.2 billion in assets. The plan's debt has been mounting for years due to factors that included poor investment performance and an unsustainable cost-of-living formula structure. Further, reforms that were enacted in 2011 are being challenged before the state's Supreme Court . So it's a good thing for the state's public safety workers and taxpayers that state Sen. Debbie Lesko and other legislators decided to act before it was too late. And they did it thoughtfully by making it a bipartisan effort and including the PSPRS, firefighters' and police officers' associations, and local governments.Major provisions of the Arizona reforms include replacing the broken cost-of-living formula structure with a traditional Consumer Price Index-based calculation for employees and retirees; offering new workers a choice between a defined-contribution plan and a traditional defined-benefit pension plan; and requiring new employees and their employers to share equally, 50/50, in retirement account costs. Without immediate changes, Arizona's pension debt would have continued to escalate, with every downturn in the market putting the system at risk of collapse.Unfortunately, it's not only Arizona that has found itself in this predicament. The vast majority of America's public pension systems are houses of cards built on risky holdings such as stocks, hedge funds and real estate. Unbalance just one piece of the structure and the houses collapse. We can see this scenario already playing out across the country as many state and local governments face service cuts and tax increases due to tremendous pension debt.Today's pension crisis is due to policy decisions made years ago by legislative bodies that created unsustainable systems, lulled by years of a bull market into thinking they could increase benefits based on unrealistic and risky market expectations. But bull markets don't last forever. When the bottom falls out, taxpayers are left to pick up the shortfall.If pension systems were set up with less risk (as they once were), more sharing of that risk and lower return expectations, then the real cost of retirement benefits would be more apparent to everyone. So while the recent market downturn isn't fully to blame for the funding crisis we face today, it is exposing our pension systems for what they are.History shows that as government pension plans face insolvency, policymakers tend to increase taxes and/or pull funds from important public services, such as education, public safety and transportation, to pay down pension debt. In Arizona's case, to help make up the shortfall, required employer contributions to the plans increased by as much as 145 percent over the past few years, exceeding 60 percent of payroll in many jurisdictions throughout the state.Growing pension costs are also threatening the long-term solvency of public employee retirement plans, putting at risk these workers' hard-earned benefits. As with all workers, public employees should be able to count on every dollar in benefits that they've earned and not have to watch their futures go down the drain because of unsustainable pension systems. We have seen enough municipal bankruptcies to know that pubic employees and retirees suffer in that process.Today's policymakers didn't create the mess they find themselves in, but they can certainly take a page from Arizona's playbook and begin turning the tide to make their systems sustainable. While it's easy to kick the can down the road for another day, if policymakers don't get control of the public pension crisis now the ramifications will be dire not only for public employees but also for the public they serve.
As the U.S. Supreme Court debates legislation that makes access to abortion more difficult, advocates and lawmakers are pushing forward on another aspect of reproductive rights: birth control.California and Oregon each passed laws over the past couple of years that let pharmacists dispense birth control without a prescription. In Oregon and Washington, D.C., new laws require insurers to pay for 12 months' worth of contraceptives at a time.Similar legislation is being introduced elsewhere, including a few states that are generally more conservative and skeptical about reproductive rights. So far, a total of 11 states -- Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin -- have seen bills introduced this year that would allow pharmacists to dispense birth control. Three states -- Hawaii, Washington and Wisconsin -- are considering 12-months-supply legislation.I believe that if a bill like that could make it to the floor of a more red-leaning state, it would pass, said Mary Nolan, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon. Once people realize that birth control is just a basic part of womens health care, they will allow for opportunities to make it more accessible.Birth control has been a tough sell in red states in recent years. Federal law requires insurance plans to pay for some form of contraceptives, but 20 states offer exemptions from the mandate for some employers and insurers.In Tennessee, one of the more conservative states, advocates hope the new contraceptives bill will start a conversation about reproductive freedom with those who arent comfortable with abortion.We have seen a lot of anti-abortion rhetoric and legislation in recent years," said Allison Glass, state director of Healthy and Free Tennessee, a coalition focused on sexual and reproductive freedom. "If we need to focus on contraceptive access in order to give women choice throughout their reproductive life, then thats what we will do."While this type of legislation hasn't created an immediate outcry from conservative groups, it also isn't being embraced with open arms. Some state affiliates of the Family Research Council didn't have a comment on the pending legislation in their states, while others expressed concerns."I just feel that it's something that should stay between the physician and the patient," said Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Council. "We're not talking about an aspirin, we're talking about a potent medicine with side effects."In Tennessee, the Family Action Councilis worried that the bill would lead to abortion-inducing pills also being dispensed without a doctor's prescription. The group also objects to the lack of a minimum age requirement.California has no age restriction, but Oregon pharmacists require a girl younger than 18 to get her first birth control prescription from a doctor. In both those states, women have to fill out a health questionnaire and have a short consultation, in which pharmacists will encourage them to see a doctor for further medical advice.Californias law is set to go into effect April 1, once standards by the California Pharmacy Board are finalized. From there, it's up to pharmacies to decide if they want to participate. As is the case in Oregon, California will likely only require pharmacists to complete a training if theyve been out of school for a certain amount of time. Several hundred pharmacists in Oregon have already completed the hours-long online training this year, according to Nolan.Glass, the Healthy and Free Tennessee director, isnt particularly optimistic that her state will pass its birth control measure this year. But she's encouraged it's being debated nonetheless."Whether or not it passes, its more about a longer term strategy to improve access to care," she says. "If we really want to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies, then we could start with contraceptive access. But the fact is, it takes a lot of courage [to make] this sort of culture change work in Tennessee."
By Melody GutierrezThe California Assembly swore in a new speaker Monday who pledged to make poverty reduction, increased government oversight and voter turnout his key priorities.Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, was formally sworn in to replace Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and becomes the first legislative leader in 20 years who could remain in a top position for an extended duration.Lawmakers elected after 2011 have the ability to serve 12 years in one house, under term limit changes adopted by voters in 2012. Under the old system, lawmakers could serve eight years in the Senate and six years in the Assembly. That means Rendon, who won't term out until 2024, could lead the Assembly for eight years with the support of his party."Otherwise you have all these speakers of two years, two years, two years, and by the time they know what they are doing, some other guy is biting at their ass," said John Burton, a former Senate president pro tem who is now chairman of the state Democratic Party.In the past 20 years, there have been 11 Assembly speakers. In the 20 years before that, there were just two: Willie Brown and the late Leo McCarthy, both San Francisco institutions.Rendon, 48, said term limits created in 1990 created a volatility in leadership that allowed for the Legislature to concede much of its power to the executive branch. He said the change in term limits gives lawmakers the ability to do more during their time in office."Voters put their faith in us to do more and to do better," he said.Rendon is regarded as a low-key leader who prefers to work behind the scenes. He said he will not author any bills, instead preferring to support his colleagues with their legislation. The new speaker said he supports ballot measures to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and extend temporary taxes under Proposition 30.He's also been a critic of the embattled California Public Utilities Commission, which he said needs to be held accountable to ratepayers."Despite not authoring legislation myself, I will continue fighting for the needs of my district and for what I believe in," Rendon said.Growing up, Rendon said he was a terrible student who benefited from the state's social safety nets, like food stamps, English as a second language programs, affirmative action and an affordable college education. He worked his way through community college and Cal State Fullerton with graveyard shifts at factories and warehouses, he said. On Monday, he thanked his wife, Annie Lam, the daughter of immigrants who herself worked in the fields picking fruit while in high school."Neither Annie nor I was born with much, but we worked hard, and somehow we ended up here," Rendon said.Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, said to much applause that for the first time in the state's history, both houses of the Legislature will be led by Latinos. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon took office in 2014.Rendon's ascent marks the second time in recent decades that both the Assembly and Senate are led by Southern California Democrats. De Leon is from Los Angeles.The last time both houses were led by either two Northern or two Southern Californians was in 1994-96 when Brown led the Assembly and Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, led the Senate.Before that, both houses were led by Southern California Democrats from 1971 to 1974 when Speaker Bob Moretti of Van Nuys led the Assembly and President Pro Tem James Mills of San Diego led the Senate."I think geography is relevant, but I also think it's overrated," said former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "The thing about leadership is regardless of where you are in the state, you have to be conscious of the needs of everyone in the state."
On Monday, in the morning, at City Hall, Rockhampton, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey received a briefing on local issues from Rockhampton Regional Council representatives, met Council staff and toured facilities.

Following, at the Rockhampton Queensland Police Service Complex, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey received a briefing on operations, met staff and toured facilities, and then, in the afternoon, returned to Brisbane.
Description

GIS - 8 March 2016: The Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security will sign an Agreement for Reimbursable Technical Assistance with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The Fund will support the setting up of an operational and necessary legal framework for the development of the Seeds Sector in Mauritius.

It would also carry out a review of the Seeds Act 2013, and develop draft priority Regulations for the setting up and operation of institutions created under the Act; prepare detailed roles and responsibilities of each section of the National Plant Varieties and Seeds Office; set up management systems for the running of the National Plant Varieties and Seeds Office; and develop seeds testing capacity.

IFAD, a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. It is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries . Seventy-five per cent of the world's poorest people - 1.4 billion women, children and men - live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods.

The goal of IFAD is to enable poor rural women and men to improve their food and nutrition security, increase their incomes and strengthen their resilience. Its multilateral orientation provides a strong global platform for discussing rural policy issues and raising awareness of why investment in agriculture and rural development is critical to eliminating poverty and food insecurity. By advocating for poor rural people and mobilising funding for projects that transform rural areas, its work contributes to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Description

GIS - 08 March, 2016:  The Nation has my commitment that there will be an electoral reform during the mandate of my present Government to ensure better women representation in the National Assembly.

The statement was made by the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, at the official ceremony organised by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare to mark the International Womens Day, celebrated on 8 March.

Representatives from the public and private sectors as well as civil society organisations were present at the event to reflect on the theme chosen this year: Championing Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

The Prime Minister called for bold, innovative, decisive, sustained and collective actions to deliver successfully on the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - Goal 5 which focuses on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. We must cement our commitments to empower women and girls; we must ensure that our future policies and strategies are shaped by a greater gender analysis, he stressed.

According to Sir Anerood Jugnauth, a series of measures have been initiated to contribute towards the implementation of SDGs including goal 5. The measures to address gender equality as listed by the Prime Minister include new opportunities in terms of SME development where women will be key drivers of socio-economic endeavours; skilling and reskilling which will directly benefit women who wish either to start an economic activity or join the labour market; the revamping of Women Centres across the country into Women Empowerment Centres; and the strengthening of laws to deal with violence and abuse against women and children.

For her part, the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Marie-Aurore Perraud, underlined that women and girls continue to face a multitude of barriers to gender equality. It is critical that we flag out some of the gender gaps in the field of education, health, employment, leadership and economy, that still undermine womens and girls full potential, she affirmed.

The Minister also reiterated the political commitment of Government to work towards a gender inclusive society. Action is the only way forward. There can be no other substitute, she averred.

It is noted that during the official ceremony, the Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment Award was launched. The Award, to be held on annual basis, is open to the private sector with a view of encouraging enterprises to demonstrate how far and how effectively their respective policies, programmes, projects, and activities are gender responsive. A cash prize of Rs 100,000 will be awarded to the best Corporate Gender Champion.

The official ceremony was followed by a national dialogue on  Championing Goal 5 of Sustainable Development Goals: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls . On that occasion, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Usha Chandnee DwarkaCanabady, gave a presentation on the way to turn SDGs Gender Commitments into actions. Mrs DwarkaCanabady thus proposed the following five-pronged strategy: create partnerships and agree on a way forward; stock taking on the existing gender equality framework; coordinate action by developing costed measurable and time bound action plans and strategies; mobilisation of fund through shared responsibilities ; and create a follow-up mechanism at domestic level.
$1 million grant in S.F.

Praise for Google

College costs $47,000

(TNS) -- Its not unusual to see tech companies donating to schools to boost science programs, create coding classes or build computer labs to help stock the workforce of the future.But Google is going further with its recent $5 million in community grants  including $1.75 million to Oakland and San Francisco schools  by taking on systemic racism.The Google.org grants align with a growing national movement focused on racial justice and fueled, in part, by the killings of young black men like Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.They are also acknowledgment of a company that struggles with racial diversity: African Americans make up about 2 percent of Googles overall workforce and 1 percent of technology employees.It was just hard to ignore racial justice as a theme, said Justin Steele, who oversees Bay Area and racial justice grants for Google.org, the companys nonprofit arm.San Francisco Unifieds My Brother and Sisters Keeper program will get $1 million to provide support to each of the citys 250 black high school seniors, giving them one-on-one support through the nonprofit uAspire to get into college and secure the financial aid to pay for it.An additional $750,000 will go to Roses in Concrete, an East Oakland charter school focused on the health, housing and education needs of its children.Each of these organizations and their leaders have shown a deep, fundamental understanding of racial injustice and are actively finding ways to rid our systems of social, educational and economic exclusion, Steele said.Additional grants will support first-generation college students as well as efforts to combat stereotypes and increase education around historic racism  placing markers, for example, at thousands of lynching sites around the country and creating the nations first memorial to lynching victims.Google.orgs donations are recognition of a severe achievement gap amid the wealth of Silicon Valley, said Muhammed Chaudhry, president and chief executive of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation For a corporation to get their hand into (racial justice) is very commendable, he said, though he cautioned that one-time funding without a long-term plan wont lead to systemic change.It will now require persistence and sticking to it, Chaudhry said. This is not an easy subject. Its not a short-term play here.This is the second round of racial justice funding from Google, with Oaklands African American Male Achievement program among those receiving a grant late last year.In San Francisco, school district officials and students said the money is a welcome, if rare, affirmation of the challenges faced by the citys African American youth.This is Google saying, Were paying attention, and we want to be part of the process for changing the status quo, said Linda Jordan, the African American community liaison at Mission High School. Im extremely happy that a tech company has stepped up in this manner.Hatim Mansori, 17, is among the three dozen black Mission High seniors looking for financial aid. Hes been accepted to several colleges and is waiting to hear from one of his top choices, Stanford.Hes also considering Morehouse College, where the annual cost is about $47,000. So far, hes pulled together roughly $23,000 in financial aid.We are always at the bottom of achievement, Hatim said. A lot of that has to do with the lack of resources in the African American community  racial injustice, Google called it.The grant money directed to the citys black students is appreciated, he said.Im working very hard to create a new stereotype for African Americans, he said. Were more than prisoners and inmates. We actually go to college and succeed.
On March 7, the White House released a trove of open datasets and tools to cultivate job growth, transportation, education and affordable housing under an initiative it calls the Opportunity Project. At a morning press conference, U.S. CTO Megan Smith unveiled the project, saying it is meant to promote economic mobility using modern digital services and data that helps cities and residents enhance their quality of life. The vision, she said, was to create a joint platform with local communities, businesses, technologists and other groups to help residents prosper. The initiative drew support from variety of cities and tech companies that worked with the White House to create 12 different Web apps on the Opportunity Projects site, at Opportunity.census.gov. The participating cities included Baltimore; Detroit; Kansas City, Mo.; New Orleans; New York City; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. Data comes from a number of sources, with much generated by the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Smith commended all of the agencies, cities and offices that were pivotal to the portal's launch.When we want to team up and theres an urgent need to do that, we can do that, Smith said. Its in that spirit that the Opportunity Project is here.A taste of whats envisioned can be found in the Web apps that allow visitors to do things like find affordable housing, discover high performing schools, locate nearby job openings and compare a neighborhoods living cost to its economic opportunities. opportunity-project.png Aden Van Noppen, a White House advisor for local innovation at the Office of Science Technology & Policy, said the idea sprang from a realization that meaningful open data at the federal level required support. Instead of simply publishing datasets through sites like Data.gov, the U.S. government's open data portal, Van Noppen said the administration learned agencies can assist by combining and curating data, establishing civic and industry partnerships, and opening the data up to developers  through methods like application programming interfaces Twelve development teams began work on the apps two months ago, and the hope is that civic developers and cities will post additional apps to the site soon.We see that as the art of the possible...of what we can really do with this data and with this spirit of collaboration, Van Noppen said.Real estate company Zillow, one of contributing tech partners, worked with Baltimore to create an app that identifies which neighborhoods can benefit most from additional affordable housing. A Zillow spokesperson said the app pairs Zillows own housing data with Opportunity Project data and other sources to map high-impact neighborhoods while tracking statistics on crime, jobs and nearby amenities.One of our core values at Zillow is to help everyone find their way home, the spokesperson said. This tool will help [housing] developers and local officials find neighborhoods that strike the best balance between access to opportunities for families, solid development and growth potential and a reasonable cost of living.In light of housing shortages in cities, the spokesperson said Zillow has prioritized affordable housing as a company goal. Previous to the launching the app, Zillow added several new features to its services that help renters hunting for affordable housing identify accessible properties. This might mean income restricted housing or landlords, dubbed Community Pillar Landlords that will adjust screening standards to accommodate renters with imperfect housing or credit history.In an accompanying release, the White House said the Opportunity Project would be part of President Obamas message when he speaks at the arts and industry tradeshow South by Southwest on Friday, March 11, in Austin, Texas. Likewise, it should be noted that the news comes only a month after the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report recommending additional funding and agency support for smart city and open data initiatives.Van Noppen said as work progresses, the White House will reach out to additional cities, companies, nonprofits and the public for support. The U.S. Census Bureau has also released a software development kit on GitHub for interested developers.
No kind words

Democrats delighted

Immigration stance

Cultural mismatch

No response

(TNS) -- The prospect of a President Trump is rattling Silicon Valley  even if his fellow Republicans cant find any trace of his campaign there.The nations tech hub is waking up to the reality that billionaire developer Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican nomination. A Trump Effect is moving through the valley, freezing the check-writing hands of conservative donors as they wait to see how the primary campaign drama plays out.For Democrats, Trumps history of misogynistic and anti-immigrant statements has been a boon, a jolt to fundraising for Hillary Clinton since Trump took hold of the GOP race by steamrolling through the Nevada caucuses.Perhaps it isnt surprising that some tech world conservatives fear Trump  theyre still wondering what he meant when he proposed closing areas of the Internet to combat terrorism.Most of my friends think hes a f idiot, said libertarian-leaning venture capitalist Michael Kim, when asked about Trump when he was a panelist at a recent Palo Alto event on venture funding and tech policy. But as they watch Trump march toward the nomination, theyre kind of in the resignation stage.Sitting next to Kim on the panel and offering a slightly more diplomatic take was Ted Ullyot, a Republican and former general counsel of Facebook who is now working on tech policy for venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz. Ive never heard anybody say anything good about Trump, he said.Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman  who was a top fundraiser for also-ran candidate Chris Christie  urged the New Jersey governors donors not to support Trump even though Christie had endorsed him.Donald Trump is unfit to be president, said Whitman, a candidate for California governor in 2010. He is a dishonest demagogue who plays to our worst fears. Trump would take America on a dangerous journey.Valley Democrats, on the other hand, are thrilled at Trumps lead, particularly those supporting Clinton, who dominates tech donations among all candidates. For them, Trump is giving more people a reason to give  to a Democrat.The phones are ringing a lot more in the past few days, said tech executive Amy Rao, who has raised more than $1 million for Clinton going back to her first White House run in 2008. And theyre people I know who vote Republican, and theyre asking what they can do to help Hillary.Wade Randlett, a longtime valley fundraiser for Democratic candidates, quipped, Does manure help to grow roses?Trump doesnt smell much better to valley conservatives. His policy proposals  thinly sketched as they are  are anathema to its Republicans, many of whom tend to be socially progressive and fiscally conservative.Trump is a trade protectionist and his call for a 35 to 45 percent tariff on imports from China doesnt go over well in a region that relies on trade with Asia. He also opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which many top technology firms support.Uber is spending $1 billion competing in China, while Trump wants to raise tariffs and is selling a protectionist agenda, said Matt Mahan, CEO of Brigade, a San Francisco startup working to increase participation in civic discussion. The last thing you want is a trade war.To others, Trumps hard-line position on immigration is a deal-breaker. Not only has he called for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but he also has vowed to end the H-1B visa program, which many tech companies rely on to hire highly skilled workers from abroad. Trump has called it a cheap labor program that is neither high skilled nor immigration: These are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay, according to his website.Thats a little bit scary in terms of decision-making if thats how youre going to run a country, said Christine Hughes, chairwoman of the San Francisco Republican Party, who has hosted fundraisers for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race Friday.Trumps anti-immigration rhetoric  like his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.  doesnt go over well in a region where 44 percent of tech startups were founded by an immigrant between 2006 and 2012, according to the Kauffman Foundation Trump also lost points in the valley when he called for a boycott of Apple for refusing the FBIs request that it unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino gunman.Culturally, hes a mismatch. He is a scion who made his money through real estate  that gets shrugged off in the nations innovation capital. His positions opposing same-sex marriage and abortion rights are out of step in the valley.Its complete disbelief (in the valley), and its disorienting, said Garrett Johnson, co-founder of libertarian-leaning Lincoln Initiatives, which tries to bring together Washington policymakers and valley technologists. Nobody knows how things will play out.The effect is that donors are frozen, said Rob Stutzman a longtime GOP operative who is raising money for Rubio after supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who also left the race. There are still a lot of people on the sidelines. Theyre wondering, Do I get behind Trump and rationalize moving behind him, or wait?It is even hard for people who want to support Trump to get involved.I have gotten calls from people asking me, Can you hook me up with the Trump campaign? Hughes said. She emailed the campaign and got an automated response that someone would get in touch. And that was three weeks ago.Jan Soule, who is president of the Silicon Valley Association of Republican Women, recently tried to find the Santa Clara County chair for the Trump campaign. She couldnt. Nevertheless, Trump won a recent straw poll among the associations members.Among the people I talk to, people either say, Ooooh, I like Trump, or theyre just plain afraid of him, Soule said. They say, Oh, my God, he cant be elected.There is no equivocation among Democrats. The Trump Effect is a growing positive for them.Im suddenly getting much more outreach from my community  theres been a spike in interest in the last couple of weeks. said Stacy Mason, a Palo Alto fundraiser for Clinton and co-founder of WomenCount , a crowdfunding site for female Democratic office seekers.There is a deeper and deeper concern that he could actually be elected president, said Chris Kelly, an early top executive at Facebook who hosted a fundraiser at his home for Clinton in August. I think that could drive a lot of energy our way.
In 1998, the FBI launched the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a database that federally licensed gun dealers use to determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to purchase a firearm. Unfortunately, by all accounts, the data in NICS is woefully incomplete, which means that the background checks are not preventing those who shouldnt have guns from buying them. Bad data leads to bad results, yet attempts to fix this problem have consistently run into political opposition.To give just one example, until recently, many state law enforcement agencies did not send information about individuals with known mental health problems to NICS because doing so risked running afoul of federal health privacy rules, and changing these rules would be contentious. It was not until this past January that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services finally modified privacy rules in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act so state agencies can report certain relevant information to the NICS when they lawfully determine someone poses a danger to themselves or others.However, even this rather banal change originally faced strong opposition from groups like the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which argued it would discourage those with mental health problems from seeking treatment. The APA eventually came to support the new rules , but only after nearly three years of regulatory delay. And while the new rules are better than before, many states still do not have mandatory reporting laws to ensure that the NICS database has a complete set of records on individuals who are ineligible to purchase guns because of mental illness. As a result, the nations gun laws go under-enforced.One might reasonably hope that once a policy decision has been made through the legislative or regulatory process, implementing it would be fairly straightforward. But in reality the political process carries on, and government databases have become a popular battleground, especially since accusations about privacy and security risks can quickly galvanize public opposition. As a result, government agencies find themselves fighting political battles, rather than technological ones, as they try to use databases to solve serious policy issues from curbing prescription drug abuse to improving student education.Advocacy groups often object to standard database management practices to undercut the implementation of certain policies. For example, a basic feature of a relational database is to have a primary key that links together different records. But when it comes to health care, Americans still do not have unique patient identifiers to securely link their electronic health records stored on various computer systems, even though this would improve patient safety, because privacy groups have consistently fought efforts to create one.Or consider the recent fight in Alabama over abusive payday lending practices . State law limits individuals from borrowing more than $500 from short-term lenders; however, these limits are difficult to enforce without a database to track multiple loans. When the Alabama Banking Department tried to establish such a database , payday lenders sued the state, claiming it didnt have this authority. The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of the state, but again, the legal challenges delayed implementation of the database for almost a year.The politicization of databases is particularly problematic because as we move further into the digital era, government agencies increasingly will rely on technology to operate efficiently and effectively. If building a database to enforce a law or implement a regulation becomes a political action, rather than a technocratic one, public administration will suffer. No government technology projects will be delivered on time and on budget if every line of code has to undergo judicial review or be subject to regulatory oversight.Theres not a simple solution to this problem, as it is naive to suggest that we can take politics out of public-sector projects. However, obstructionist politics  whether driven by affected industries, privacy absolutists or other forces  is now a problem not just for state legislators, but also state CIOs. The states that find the best strategies for dealing with this challenge may be poised to lead the next era of e-government.
Pros and cons

Cameras in Wasco

(TNS) -- The largest law enforcement agencies in Kern County, Calif., are in agreement that body-worn cameras would provide a valuable service for officers and the general public.But there are two obstacles: Money and storage.There are the initial camera costs, with each camera running about $1,000, but the storage costs are where the real expense comes in.According to a recent Time article online , nearly a third of the 18,000 state and local police departments in the U.S. are purchasing body-cameras for their officers. That number is only expected to grow, and even local agencies say its likely just a matter of time before theyre also using body-cameras.And departments in larger cities, the article says, can generate more than 10,000 hours of video a week, requiring some agencies to turn to cloud-based high-volume storage facilities. Storing that much data comes at a steep price.The New Orleans Police Department, according to the article, plans to pay $1.2 million for body-cameras, with much of the cost going toward storage.And those costs dont reflect the time and work necessary to review the footage to see what portions can be released to the public.Kern County sheriffs Sgt. Ian Chandler said the body-cameras used by deputies under his command in Wasco can shoot in either 720p or 1080p resolution. If shot in 1080p, about twice as much data is being stored in the system.Deputies download their cameras at the end of their shift, and that information is kept in the server for a minimum of 13 months. A portion of the video can be redacted from either the beginning or the end of the footage, but otherwise it cannot be edited, Chandler said.All the footage is downloaded and can be called up if needed. But whats usually reviewed is footage used in investigations and that can assist the District Attorneys office in a prosecution. Also reviewed is any footage involving a citizen complaint about deputy behavior.Bakersfield police Sgt. Gary Carruesco said body-cameras are discussed every budget cycle but none have been purchased yet. He said Chief Greg Williamson isnt opposed to them, but understands there is going to be a lot to look at before theyre implemented.It really comes down to the money aspect, Carruesco said.The cameras the department has looked into cost anywhere from $400 to $1,000. Carruesco said about 200 officers who interact with the public, including patrol, gang officers and police service technicians, would need the cameras.Using the $1,000 number, thats a total of $200,000 to purchase a camera for each officer interacting with the public.The storage of data for those cameras costs even more. Carruesco said it would cost about $100 a month in storage costs for each camera.With 200 cameras, that adds up to $20,000 a month  or $240,000 a year  in storage costs. Between the purchasing and storage costs, the BPD would be spending about $440,000 in its first year of using body-cameras, plus an additional $240,000 every year afterward.And that figure doesnt include maintenance or replacement costs.The cost outweighs the benefit in a monetary sense, but in the sense of transparency its a no-brainer, Carruesco said.Officer Robert Rodriguez, spokesman for the Bakersfield California Highway Patrol office, said theres no doubt the CHP will eventually have body-cameras, but he doesnt believe it will be anytime soon. He said securing funding and researching the best product will take time.Many outside law enforcement, in light of controversial cases from Ferguson to Freddie Gray, have also argued for body-cameras to help ensure police act appropriately. Some believe body-cameras are more likely to stop officers from using what they believe to be excessive force in making an arrest or dealing with a situation where a suspect is exhibiting unusual behavior.Six Baltimore police officers are charged with criminal offenses in the death of 25-year-old Gray, who suffered a fatal neck injury April 12 while inside a police van. He died a week later. The Baltimore Sun published a column by Dan Rodricks last year arguing that, in a post-Freddie Gray world, there is the potential of police body cameras to influence behavior and provide a video record that resolves complaints in light of the raw resentment some people feel toward law enforcement.Bakersfield defense attorney Michael C. Lukehart described the cameras as a mixed blessing.I think almost all police officers acting in good faith would welcome a record of what they do to save them from unwarranted criticism, Lukehart said.The general public would be surprised if all the interactions involved in normal police work were reported, he said. For example, upper middle class residents would be surprised at how rough police can act in some of their duties, while those living under different conditions more hostile to police would be shocked at how well officers perform their jobs.Each person has his or her own preconceived notions about police, and seeing the reality of their work would likely have a strong impact on those notions, the attorney said.Lukehart said one concern he has is that officers, realizing all their actions are being recorded, could be inhibited from doing some of the things they need to do. With all the recent criticism against police, officers may be tempted to avoid getting into a situation where they also might be criticized or become the subject of a lawsuit.Wasco deputies began wearing body-cameras in April of last year in a pilot project. The city paid $895 each for 18 cameras from WatchGuard.The results have been very positive, Chandler said Tuesday.While several weeks remain until the numbers are officially tallied, Chandler said citizen complaints have decreased. He said there have been several instances where people came to the substation to file a complaint, but upon watching footage taken from a body-camera admitted they were mistaken in how they remembered what occurred.The cameras also make Chandlers job easier in evaluating the work of deputies. He can see firsthand how they interact with the public.I cant be here all the time, but with the body-worn camera I can be, Chandler said.The cameras are to be turned on whenever a deputy is engaged in a call for service. When the call is over, its turned off until the next call.Unlike agencies that spend thousands of dollars a month in storage costs, Chandler is able to store all the substations data in-house. As a supervisor with just 16 sworn staff, the footage they accrue can be stored on a dedicated server with eight terabytes.While theyve proven economical with the relatively few deputies in Wasco, providing cameras to each of the estimated 500 patrol deputies or other Sheriffs Office personnel who contact the public would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchasing and storage.Its extremely expensive and still relatively new technology for law enforcement, Chandler said.Sheriff Donny Youngblood said he wishes the county had the money to put body-cameras on all deputies. He said the cameras bring out the best behavior in everyone, from the deputy to the person he or she is questioning.The video is beneficial to us more than it is to anybody else, Youngblood said. Even if its negative, its beneficial. Then we can address a training issue.
the biggest cybersecurity threats facing state government;

the best cybersecurity methods for helping to protect state networks;

top causes of data breaches;

how to respond to a data breach; and

how to help protect mobile devices.

Cybersecurity is stuck to the top of every vigilant CIOs priority list, and yet so much work remains to be done. Data breach incidents continue to soar, and yet 80 percent of government officials and their staff reported not knowing if their state has a cyber emergency incident plan in place, according to survey results released March 7 by the Governing Institute, sister organization to. The survey revealed several similar trends supporting the theory that government is prioritizing cybersecurity, but is not fully equipped to handle the threats posed by todays environment.The purpose of the survey was to examine current baseline cybersecurity knowledge of state elected and appointed officials in order to identify educational needs regarding this topic, said Todd Sander, vice president of research for the Governing Institute. We found that, although legislators know the risks are high, many are not as involved as they could be, and significant cybersecurity gaps remain.Though cybersecurity remains a constant talking point, only 18 percent of surveyed legislators sit on a committee that designates cybersecurity as part of its official mandate, according to the survey. Also discovered was that a dearth of funding, knowledge and personnel could partially account for this disparity, as 43 percent of survey respondents cited funding as a limiting factor to cyber development, 50 percent cited personnel, and another 43 percent said there is a general lack of cyber comprehension in their state.This study shows that legislators are aware of the cybersecurity risks in their state networks and want to know and do more, said Chris Boyer, assistant vice president, Global Public Policy at AT&T, who supported the survey along with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). Were here to help, including our participation in efforts like this that shine a light on how industry and public-sector entities can work together to address the growing cybersecurity threat.Education is a priority for 87 percent of respondents, who said they are interested in furthering cyber education programs in their states. The areas that respondents wanted to learn about most were:Hardly a week passes without news of private government data falling into the wrong hands or being jeopardized by improper handling. Among the most recent major government data breaches were the infiltration of CIA Director John Brennans email account and the release of 29,000 FBI and Department of Homeland Security employees' contact information. And last month, hackers stole IRS data containing personal information of 100,000 taxpayers. Download the infographic to get a visual look at the survey data.
Renault is tipped to make considerable progress with its power unit in 2016, as the works team prepares to unveil its new race livery.

After the Lotus buyout, the Enstone team has been running in familiar black during testing but is expected to switch to Renault's traditional yellow - with a weight-saving matte finish - for the race season.

Renault has announced that the livery will be shown mid next week in Melbourne, but was giving little away about the colours. "Black, blue, yellow, red, striped?" the French carmaker teased.

The works team aside, Renault is also expected to put its full concentration into improving the power unit in 2016, after two seasons of sub-standard performance with Red Bull in the 'power unit' era so far.

Despite the re-branding of the engines as Tag-Heuer, Red Bull is looking forward to the progress.

Auto Motor und Sport claims Renault's step forward since the end of last year has been modest, but a 35 horse power step for Canada is now scheduled.

"The jump should be as big as the one made last year by Ferrari," declared Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

Also making progress since 2015 is McLaren's works partner Honda, although comments by Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button suggest the actual power leap has not been huge.

"A little more (power) will come for Melbourne through the software," said team boss Eric Boullier.

There is scepticism in the paddock, however, about just how much progress McLaren-Honda can make in 2016 after the unmitigated disaster of last year.

"The first season with Honda was completely awful," former F1 driver Mika Salo told Finland's Ilta Sanomat newspaper.

"The winter tests have shown an improvement, but will it be enough? It's hard to say, but they will surely make some kind of improvement," he added.

(GMM)
The 'King Of Bad Times'

Vijay Mallya who was once the King of good times faced a serious decline in fortunes with his Kingfisher Airlines venture that turned out to be a disaster.

The Airlines which ceased operations in 2012 is nearly $1.2 billion in debt. Vijay Mallya had borrowed around Rs 6300 crore from various Indian banks with IDBI being the primary lender.

However, the general perception in the nation is that Mallya being a RS member with wide political contacts would get away scott-free.

Last month, in order to overcome his financial crisis, he had signed a $75 million deal with Diageo to relinquish the chairmanship of United Spirits Ltd (USL), which the British spirits maker now owns. But trouble is brewing for Mallya with Indian authorities moving against him.

A Debt Recovery Tribunal restrained him from accessing the Rs 515 crore that he received from the sale of the spirits business to Diageo Plc while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a money laundering case against the flamboyant businessman.

The tribunal passed an interim order asking Mallya not to receive the money and corporate entities Diageo and USL not to disburse the amount during pendency of the application filed by SBI and other banks.

The banks say they have lent about Rs 6,300 crore to the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. The ED also registered a case against Mallya, and the former chief financial officer of Kingfisher Airlines for fraudulently obtaining a Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI Bank and laundering the money.

Four senior IDBI Bank executives are also accused in the case. Mallya is thoroughly miffed but for all the wrong reasons.

He says that he is trying to reach a one-time settlement with the banks and adds, Why am I being singled out as a willful defaulter when large borrowers who owe much more to the banks have not been so labeled?

So, Mallya does not dispute the merit of the cases filed against him. He is concerned only at being singled out from among a vast group of financial criminals.

The Ambanis, Vijay Mallyas, Ramalinga Rajus and Sujana Chowdarys are destroying this nation. The day the government takes action against these people, faith in the system would be restored immensely.
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Behind The Scene: Run Raja Run!

Every time that Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is on the back foot on some issue in the State, he escapes to a foreign nation in the name of bringing investments to AP.

This time, with Sakshi leaking details of the ill-gotten wealth of CBN, his son and TDP Ministers in Amaravathi, Naidu to escape the heat is running off to UK.

And heres the official explanation for the visit: With a UK-based government agency promising British investors loans up to 85 per cent of the project cost, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu aims at attracting investments to the tune of at least Rs 1,000 crore in the development of new capital Amaravati during his two-day visit to London next week.

The UK Trade & Investment is the government agency that has assured British companies loans up to 85 per cent of the project cost for investing in Amaravati.

Towards that end, consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (CWC) prepared an investment strategy for the companies seeking to invest in Amaravati.

Ahead of the CM's visit to London from March 10-13, the strategy report was prepared free of cost by PWC in association with us, said Vemuru Ravi, head of the AP Non Resident Telugu Corporation.

Why would PWC do anything free of cost? Anyways, the yellow media will splash big pictures of the successful UK visit with mind boggling figures and deals. By the time Babu comes back, everything would have been forgotten!
Kokam has successfully deployed two Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) Oxide Energy Storage Systems (ESSs)a 24-megawatt (MW) system / 9-megawatt hour (MWh) and a 16 MW / 6 MWh systemfor frequency regulation on the South Korean electricity grid. The 24 MW system is the largest capacity Lithium NMC ESS used for frequency regulation in the world.

Operational since January 2016, the two new systems, along with a Kokam 16MW / 5MWh Lithium Titanate Oxide (LTO) ESS system deployed in August 2015, provide South Koreas largest utility, Korea Electric Power Corporation, with 56 MW of energy storage capacity for frequency regulation. These three systems are part of the worlds largest ESS frequency regulation project, which is scheduled to have deployed 500 MW of battery-based energy storage when it is completed in 2017.

In addition to improving grid reliability, the Kokam ESSs will enable KEPCO to improve its operation efficiency by reducing its need for spinning power generation reserves. This will allow KEPCO to shift energy generation to lower cost, more efficient power plants and decrease wear and tear on all its power plants.

For example, the three Kokam ESSs will deliver an estimated annual savings of US$13 million in fuel costs, providing fuel cost savings three times larger than the ESSs purchase price over the systems lifetimes. In addition, by reducing the amount of fossil fuels burnt for frequency regulation, the Kokam ESSs will help reduce KEPCOs greenhouse gas emissions.

The new 24 MW and 16 MW Lithium NMC ESSs utilize Kokams innovative Ultra High Power NMC battery technology. Designed for high-power energy storage applications, such as frequency regulation, wind or large solar power system ramp rate control, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and voltage support, Kokams Ultra High Power NMC battery technology delivers:

Higher energy density: This higher density enables 2.4 MWh of energy storage to be installed in a 40-foot container, compared to 1~1.5MWh of energy storage for standard NMC batteries.

High power cycle life: Ultra High Power NMC batteries can last up to 10,000 cycles, compared to 3,000 - 5,000 cycles for standard NMC technologies, increasing an energy storage system's expected life.

Better charge, discharge and max power rates: Ultra High Power NMC battery technology has charge, discharge and max power rates of 4C, 8C and 15C, compared to 2C, 3C and 4C for competitors. This enables Ultra High Power NMC systems to receive and dispatch more power when needed.

Improved heat dissipation: With a heat dissipation rate that is 1.6 times better than standard NMC technologies, Ultra High Power NMC batteries can be used at a higher rate for longer periods of time with no degradation in battery life or performance.

The systems also use Kokams KCE 40-foot container, which features a direct cooling design, in which the containers Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system only regulates temperatures inside the systems racks rather than the entire container. This results in 70% less air conditioning auxiliary load than standard containers.
Shanghai OnStar and the Midea Group are partnering to integrate onboard telematics and smart household technology. Due to the growing demand and use of onboard telematics services, the automobile has become a mobile Internet platform. Likewise, smart household technology is increasing in popularity. A platform that combines the two will enable consumers to easily and safely manipulate what goes on in both their vehicles and their homes.

Shanghai OnStar offers a range of more than 20 exclusive services that safeguard subscribers and their vehicles. Its 4G LTE technology, which was launched last year, is the first onboard wireless Internet service of its kind in China.

Midea, Chinas most popular home appliance brand according to the Hurun Report, is a pioneer in smart household technology. Its M-Smart strategy is based on the Internet of Things. The ultimate goal is to revolutionize smart household technology to allow for complete intelligent control of air, nutrition, water and energy systems.

Seamless integration between onboard telematics and smart home technology will support a people-vehicle-life ecosystem to enable consumers to be fully connected to every aspect of their lives.
Guilford Technical Community Colleges annual Spring Job Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 16 at Medlin Campus Center on GTCCs Jamestown Campus, 601 E. Main St. in Jamestown. More than 100 employers are expected to attend.

The event is free for all job seekers, including GTCC students, alumni and the general public.

The registration fee for employers is $200 and includes breakfast and lunch for up to two employer representatives. To register, visit http://supportservices.gtcc.edu/job-fair/.

For information, call (336) 334-4822, Ext. 50229.

GTCC to offer 6-week classes for seniors

Guilford Technical Community College will introduce a new senior education program this month thanks to a $1,250 grant.

Cynthia Graves, director of Community Education and Leisure Studies in GTCCs continuing education division, recently received the Lead the Way grant from the North Carolina Community College Adult Educators Association. The grant has allowed Graves to develop a new program, Steppin N2 Life, for adults ages 55 and older. The course is designed to celebrate healthy aging, make healthy lifestyle choices and provide lifelong training opportunities for personal enrichment.

The six week series will be offered from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursdays, March 17-April 21 in the Continuing Education Center on the Greensboro Campus, 3505 E. Wendover Ave. The cost is $40 for all six classes. The series include:

Safety and fall prevention

Computer training

Caregiving tools and resources

Medication education, detection and safety

Estate and financial planning

Nutrition and overall wellness.

To register, visit http://conedhome.gtcc.edu/product/steppin-n-2-life-a-senior-education-series/ and use course code CSP-4000-SEN16.

For information, call (336) 334-4822, Ext. 55021 or email communityeducation@gtcc.edu.
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With Valentine's Day fast-approaching, some may be feeling the pressure of last minute reservations to make the holiday special for their significant other.

Restaurant booking site OpenTable recently published their list of 100 most romantic restaurants in America to dine at this year. And one option is right here in southwestern Connecticut.

Contemporary French restaurant Homestead Inn - Thomas Henkelmann in Greenwich carved out a spot on the coveted list after an analysis of over five million reviews of over 20,000 restaurants across the country.

While reservations for dinner on Valentine's Day are hard to come by, there are open reservations on days preceding and after Valentine's Day if your love doesn't mind waiting for a luxurious dinner. With a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on the booking site, they may not mind waiting for a seat at a table before or after the holiday.

Homestead Inn is located in the historic Belle Haven section of Greenwich and just minutes away from downtown Greenwich, making a scenic walk through the prestigious neighborhood. According to its website, Homestead Inn has played host to captains of industry and celebrities in search of a private evening to dine out. The restaurant is routinely commended for it's cuisine and offer private, wedding, and corporate events.

Click here to check out America's best and worst cities for Valentine's Day

If you're willing to travel a bit furtheror closer depending on where you areHartford's ON20 made the list as well. Labeled a contemporary American restaurant, ON20 packs similar culinary chops and the reviews to back it up.

Nearby New York City also cracked the site's "top 100," providing more options for the special day. Erminia Ristorante and Rainbow Room Dinner & Dancing, in New York, and River Cafe and Zenkichi, in Brooklyn, left past patrons highly impressed.
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GREENWICH  The grand marshal of the St. Patricks Day Parade was formally given the title of grand marshal this weekend. Heres the announcement from organizers....

CATHY LAVATY INSTALLED AS 2016 ST PATRICKS PARADE GRAND MARSHAL

Cathy Lavaty was installed as the Grand Marshal of the 42nd annual Greenwich St. Patricks Parade by the Greenwich Hibernian Association on Saturday evening, March 5, at the organizations annual St. Patricks dinner dance. The Parade will be held on Sunday March 20th at 2 p.m.

This years St. Patricks dinner dance also acknowledged the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. The Easter Rising led to the eventual establishment of Ireland as an independent country. Memorials to the Rising are being held across the world and will culminate on April 24, the 100th anniversary of the start of the Rising.

Cathy was installed by last years Grand Marshal, Brian OConnor in front of a sellout crowd of friends, relatives and members of the Greenwich Hibernians.

Cathy is a lifelong resident of Greenwich. She graduated St. Mary Grammar School and St. Mary High School before attending Berkley Business School in White Plains, NY. After graduation Cathy went to work for the National Broadcasting Company in New York where she worked for 38 years before retiring in 2005. At NBC Cathy worked in the news division, first as Program manager for the Nightly News, then on the Today show and finally for Dateline.

Cathy is involved with her church, St. Mary of Greenwich, both as a Trustee and as Chair of the parish Social Concerns Committee. She is a Board member of the NBC New York Employees Federal Credit Union and is also a Board member of the Today Show Charitable Foundation, Inc.

Cathy met her husband, Walter Kelly, a retired New York City Police officer on St. Patricks Day 1975. They were married in 1980. When not overly busy at home, Cathy and Walter enjoy their second home on Cape Cod. Last September, Cathy and Walter made their first trip to Ireland.

Cathys Irish roots go back to her grandparents George and Catherine Kelly who came from County Cork in Ireland in the late 1800s. The family home was on Oakridge Street in Greenwich. George was the first custodian of Hamilton Avenue School. Their daughter, Virginia Kelly, married Charles Lavaty

Parade information and updates will be posted on the Greenwich Hibernians website: www.greenwichhibernians.org
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Starting an online business begins with filling a need and building credibility, but the factors that go into making your online business a smashing success dont stop there. While the barriers for setting up a company are low, the majority of people starting an online business fail largely due to mistakes that seem obvious in hindsight -- such as overestimating profits or trying to be too many things to customers from the onset. But there are many more mishaps business owners experience.

To enhance your shot at success, try and avoid these 10 common mistakes when starting an online business.

Related: How to Make Money Online: The Basics

1. Not having a plan of attack.

You dont need to have a formal business plan -- but you still need a plan. People regard the business plan as homework they dont want to do but planning helps me -- whatever my success is, says Tim Berry, chairman of Palo Alto Software, which produces business-planning software and author of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan.

While the big-format business plan is growing obsolete, Sujan Patel, vice-president of marketing at the software company When I Work and the founder of several SaaS startups, says, You dont need a formal 20-page business plan to successfully plan a business. You need to know who your customers are, what you are selling and what people are willing to pay for your product or service.

In addition, work out how much cash youve got and how long it will last.

2. Focusing too much on the little stuff.

First, you need to get your business off the ground, says Steve Tobak, founder of Invisor Consulting, a business strategy firm, and author of Real Leaders Dont Follow: Being Extraordinary in the Age of the Entrepreneur. While this directive may seem obvious, new business owners can get really bogged down by the details. Dont do this.

By getting sidetracked focusing on things like how your business cards look or the design of your logo, founders are wasting valuable time. Instead, concentrate on tasks that will help propel your business to the next level.

3. Not worrying about money.

Be optimistic -- just not about money. Theres a very good chance that your company will run out of money before it makes any, cautions Tobak. Know how much cash youve got to run your business, what your burn rate is and make sure that you have a plan to try to get more before you run out.

Too often business owners scramble to raise funds when its already too late. Instead, founders from the get-go should create a financial plan, detailing milestones and how much money it will take to reach these goals.

Related: Dont Start a Business Online Unless Youre Willing to Run the Gauntlet

4. Undervaluing what youre selling.

Whether youre selling a product or service, set the price at what it needs to be to make a worthwhile profit.

Cynthia Salim, the founder and CEO of Citizens Mark, a line of ethically-sourced professional blazers for women, set the starting price for her product at $425 after considering the labor and material costs for her line. The price is what it needs to be, Salim says.

Patel also points out that as your business evolves continue to adjust your price points.

5. Ignoring customer service.

With so many of our business transactions happening over the Internet, its easy to forget that customers are people who are way more likely to return to your website if they have a good experience.

Make sure you have some way of interacting with the people visiting your site, Tobak says. Whatever domain -- through live chat, survey, email or phone.

Also, monitor social-media sites for brand sentiment and check out review sites like Yelp to see who isnt happy with his or her experience and reach out.

6. Giving away too much and getting nothing in return.

Before youve established credibility as a seller or an expert, offering something for free can turn into a conversion and long-term customer, especially for those entrepreneurs focused on offering services. However, the cost of free product can add up, so think of offering something useful and intangible in exchange for a customers email address, such as a free ebook, recipe, instructions, webinar, guide or checklist, advises Joel Widmer, the founder of Fluxe Digital Marketing, a content-strategy firm.

Related: The Top 5 Mistakes People Make When Starting a Business

7. Spreading yourself too thin on social media.

When youre starting off with marketing and building your brand, test out one or two main social audiences where you know your audience is and can build a customized audience with a small budget. Dont blow your advertising budget at the start.

As a general rule, Facebook and Pinterest tend to be better for product sales. LinkedIn is a better field for a business personality trying to build his or her own brand, explains Widmer. LinkedIn is also a good place for repurposing content.

8. Skimping on early hires.

Entrepreneurs rush the hiring process to quickly fill positions in order to scale their business. But by going down this route, founders run the risk of issues down the road, including a mismatch in skillset and business needs, a personality that doesnt bode well with the culture or a lack of commitment to the companys mission.

So, when hiring look for people who have the skills you dont and embody the qualities you respect. The first five hires will set your companys temperature for the rest of its existence, Patel emphasizes.

9. Underestimating the obsession and drive it takes to succeed.

Youve read a lot about the importance of work/life balance -- forget about it. (At least for the first year or two.)

Dont worry about time, Tobak says. Big ideas do not come when you are trying to manage every minute of your time. They dont come when you are multitasking. They come when you are focused on one thing. Let everything else fade to black.

10. Thinking that everything is one size fits all.

Just because a product or strategy has worked for one company doesnt mean it will work for you. Have a healthy degree of skepticism about what you read and see successful elsewhere, Patel recommends. If you can test your product using minimum financial and resource risk, then do so.

Related: To Succeed With Your Small Business Avoid These 5 Mistakes

This article was originally published on October 16, 2015.

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Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
HARTFORD  The Schaghticoke Indian tribe  with financial help from Las Vegas mogul MGM Resorts  is challenging the states plan to build a new casino in the Hartford region.

Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky on Monday filed suit in U.S. District Court in Hartford to overturn a state law passed last year allowing the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Indian tribes to jointly build a third casino off of their federally recognized reservations.

Both tribes agreed to build the small-scale gaming facility along Interstate 91 to buffer competition from a mega casino MGM is building in nearby Springfield, Mass. Sites now under discussion are in Windsor Locks, East Hartford and Hartford.

Velky said the law authorizing the joint casino is unconstitutional because it excluded other parties, such as his Kent-based tribe, from bidding for the valuable facility. MGM last year filed a similar lawsuit against the state, indicating the company is interested in also bidding.

Without any competitive bidding or gaming study, Connecticut shut out the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation and awarded to one pair of native American tribes the exclusive ability to develop a highly valuable commercial enterprise, Velky said.

Alan Feldman, an MGM vice president, said the casino giant is helping finance the Schaghticokes lawsuit because they have similar interests. He declined to say how much MGM is contributing to the suit.

We have a mutual interest, Feldman said. We both feel the [law] is unconstitutional.

Andrew Doba, a spokesman for MMCT Venture, the company formed by the Mohegan and Pequot tribes to build the casino, said MGM funding of the Schaghticoke lawsuit raises concerns.

After weeks of not returning phone calls from reporters, Chief Velky finally revealed that his operation is being bankrolled by MGM, Doba said. This startling revelation should raise a red flag for anyone who is concerned about MGM's plan to steal jobs from Connecticut residents.

Rejected

Velky said the tribe in January submitted an application to the state for permission to bid on a casino under the law passed by the General Assembly, but the petition was rejected.

The state has a long history of discriminating against the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, Velky said.

Recently, the state fought our federal recognition, supposedly because they didnt want another casino in Connecticut, Velky said. Now Connecticut wants to open a new casino, but only if the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation doesnt get an opportunity to submit a proposal to operate it. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation seeks equal treatment.

The Schaghticokes have been repeatedly denied federal recognition, which carries permission to build a casino on reservation land. The tribe owns a state recognized 400-acre reservation in rural Kent.

Neither Velky nor Feldman would say how much MGM is contributing to the Schaghticoke lawsuit, which is expected to be costly. They are paying some and we are paying some, Velky said.

We were approached by MGM about the right to operate a casino, Velky added. We asked MGM to help us financially.

Both Feldman and Velky said no deals have been struck with the Schaghticokes over operating or partnering in a casino if their lawsuits prevail and the state is forced to open the process to bidders.

Its premature to discuss that today, Velky noted.

Feldman also denied that MGMs decision to finance the Schaghticoke legal action is designed to delay the Connecticut casino and allow MGMs Springfield resort to open before the state is able to siphon customers.

MGM has said the new casino should be built in southwestern Connecticut because the location would earn the operator and the state more revenue. Although Bridgeport is considered a prime location, Feldman said there have been no discussions with city officials.

Devon Puglia, a spokesman for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and Jacyln Falkowski, a spokeswoman for Attorney General George Jepsen, declined comment on the lawsuit.

Open process

Velky acknowledged the lawsuit seeks to force an open bidding process in which anyone could seek the right to build the planned casino.

Once they moved the casino off the reservation, it became a commercial operation that we have a right to apply for, Velky said.

The Pequots and Mohegans could withhold the 25 percent of their slot revenue collected by the state if a casino is built outside of a federally recognized reservation. But by agreeing to jointly build the casino, and allowing it to be placed on non-reservation land, both tribes avoided the conflict and pledged to continue paying the state slot money.

The Pequots and Mohegans have watched gaming revenue drop dramatically as competition in New York State, Massachusetts and Rhode Island lured gamblers away.

The tribes fear the MGM Springfield casino will further erode revenue and cost Connecticut thousands of jobs.
The coolest college students will be heading to the hottest Spring Break spots this year. To find out where those spots are, lifestyle site Thrillist asked co-eds where they would be traveling and combined those answers with data from STS Travel (a company that specializes in planning large-group spring break adventures) to find the best Spring Break spots for 2016.



Check out the top 10 here and visit Thrillist for the full list and more information.
Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Misspelled 'Coumo' tax hits food tabs We spelled his name wrong purposefully. We know that https://t.co/7ui3qWUj8m pic.twitter.com/af7pvZpmtq  Democrat & Chronicle (@DandC) March 5, 2016

A different place upstate, the American Diner near Syracuse, has the Dictator Obama/NYS Special (King Cuomo) breakfast special  two eggs and some toast for $3.59 plus $27.99 in taxes. A third spot upstate, the restaurant at Belhurst Castle, has also added a surcharge thats 4.75 percent, but it looks considerably more official  right below the real tax, the receipt claims a NYS Labor Surcharge is occurring. It also helps that Belhurst Castles fee spells all of the words correctly, unlike Back Nines Coumo tax.

Back Nines owner says the reason for calling the governor out by name is pretty obvious. I guess what I do is blame Cuomo for signing the bill, so that is why I used his name, he told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, before adding: We spelled his name wrong purposefully. We know that. He says the surcharge brings in $300 to $400 a month, enough to offset a weeks wages. The taxs days might be numbered, though, because Aquilina appears to live by the mantra that the customer is always right: I do know firsthand that three [customers] refused to pay it, and I said, Fine. Thats no problem. Ill take it off your bill.

[Democrat & Chronicle]
Although, Charles Feltman probably didnt do any pop-ups.

When people think of hot dogs, they likely think of the iconic Nathans as the original, but fellow Coney Island brand Feltmans preceded it by half a century. It was founded in 1867 by German immigrant Charles Feltman, who is often credited with having invented the hot dog or Coney Island red hot. Feltmans went out of business in 1954, after which Nathans, opened by a former Feltmans employee, assumed the mantle and later claimed that it serves the original Coney Island hot dog. And in that all-important mark of a famous New York City food brands significance, there is even a European impostor. Last April, Coney Island historian Michael Quinn and his brother Joseph, who own the original trademark, promised to revive the historic brand, and, nearly a year later, theyre ready to kick things into high gear.

The Feltmans revival went into action last May with a (very modern) pop-up at Ditmas Park bar Sycamore, which specializes in bourbon and is located in the back of a florist shop. Other pop-ups were hosted around town, and hot dogs were sold at St. Marks Augurs Well  no doubt a statement to next-door neighbor and nouveau dog specialist Crif Dogs. The following month, Quinn set up shop on the Lower East Side, where Feltmans does thrice-monthly pop-ups at Parkside Lounge on Houston Street. At all of these pop-ups, they have served just hot dogs and housemade mustard.

Now Quinn says theyre gearing up for the real comeback. The hot-dog entrepreneur tells Bowery Boogie that theyre looking to expand big by Memorial Day weekend and that consumers will soon find Feltmans hot dogs at restaurants around the city. The wieners themselves are in good hands. To ensure the expansion is done right, Quinn has brought on sausage-industry veteran Josef Brunner, who helped make the hot dogs for the late Bark Dogs, to produce hot dogs according to the Feltmans recipe. A return to Coney Island is still in the cards, too, and Quinn launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the brick-and-mortar.

Its always a great thing to see a truly historic brand make a comeback, but Quinn appears to be going the extra mile to do it right. He didnt have to hire a guy with Brunners pedigree and experience, after all. The return of the original hot dog couldnt have come at a more important time, either, what with Burger Kings inexplicably successful dogs threatening to take over the country.

[BK Mag, Bowery Boogie]




Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





Cost of the next election...

About the resources necessary to lead the second round of elections, the provisional president said that when they will know the budget, they will evaluate the possibilities "When the Electoral Commission will have forwarded to the executive the budget, the Government will evaluate if it can take from the Haitian government funds the full cost the organization of elections and if necessary, we will seek the support of friendly countries."



Eligibility of PM studied this week

The deputy Abel Descollines, first Secretary of the Office of the Lower House, informs that a plenary meeting will probably be held this Tuesday for the constitution of the Commission to study the documents of the Prime Minister named Fritz Jean-Alphonse. He also said hopes that by Friday "the Chamber will be able to host the Prime Minister for the presentation of its General Policy."



Sauveur Pierre Etienne accuses Privert of delaying tactics

Sauveur Pierre Etienne, Coordinator of OPL, accuses the President a.i. ocelerme Privert, of engaging in delaying tactics in relation to the Agreement, whose he is responsible for the implementation, he also denounces the fact that former President Rene Preval took indirectly the control of the National Palace and wants to do the same with the Primature.



Issue of concept of political balance

According to Ronald Lareche, Vice President of the Senate, a plenary session to elect a President to head the Senate should be held this Tuesday, March 8. But a dialogue of the deaf between the majority and minority bloc in the Senate leaves little hope on that election. The minority Bloc refuses that the Presidency, the Prime Minister and the President of the Senate are all 3 of Lavalas trend and advocates that the President of the Senate is the same trend as that of the lower house in order to have a balance [2-2] between the Legislature and the Executive. However, for the majority bloc in the Senate, it is not acceptable that the two chambers have the same political tendency which would create an imbalance between the two branches of Parliament...



Vows of Jocelerme Privert to women staff

Monday, March 7, as part of International Women's Day (8 March), the Head of State a.i. Jocelerme Privert addressed his vows to the women staff of the National Palace on the occasion of International Women's Day. The First Lady of the Republic of Haiti, Dr. Ginette Michaud Privert, met representatives of Christian women associations at Calvary Chapel on the eve of International Women's Day and to commemorate the World Day of pray.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















EDF finance chief resigns over opposition to UK nuclear project

French state-owned energy group EDF has confirmed that its finance director has quit ahead of an expected final investment decision on the 18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in the UK. Thomas Piquemal stepped down because he feared the project could jeopardise EDF's financial position, according to reports.

Image: A Franck

Jean-Bernard Levy, chairman and chief executive of EDF, said that he regretted the "hastiness" of Mr Piquemal's departure. The company's board is expected to finalise in April how it will fund the project after postponing the decision a number of times.

Levy said the board was studying the investment in Hinkley to ascertain the best way to finance the power plant. He added that EDF aimed to announce a final investment decision "soon".

Last month, Chris Bakken, EDFs Nuclear New Build director and head of the UK project, said he was leaving to pursue other opportunities.

The Guardian said the resignation of such an important figure on the EDF board will make it much harder for the remaining executives to proceed with Hinkley in the short term.

But according to the BBC, Piquemals resignation could mean that political expediency has won out over the many financial or technical concerns over the 18bn project. Both the UK and French governments are committed to Hinkley, as is EDF CEO Levy, and the finance directors resignation removes a trenchant critic of the scheme, said to be the most expensive power station project in the world.

In October last year, EDF agreed a deal under which China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) would pay a third of the cost of the 18bn project in exchange for a 33.5% stake. But according to reports, EDF is struggling to find the cash for its remaining 66.5% stake and is seeking help from the French government, which owns 84.5% of EDF.

EDF is also facing opposition from French union officials, who have suggested that investment in Hinkley should be delayed until 2019. The CFE-CGC Energy union said there were problems with a similar reactor design in France that needed to be solved.

As well as huge debts, EDF is grappling with a collapse in power prices in France and huge cost overruns on another nuclear project in France using the same reactor technology planned for Hinkley. It also needs to spend 55bn to upgrade its ageing French nuclear plants, 5bn on a smart meter rollout and several billion euros to take over and restructure the reactor unit of Areva, a loss-making state-owned French nuclear engineering company.

EDF admitted recently it was going to have to sell a range of assets to raise cash. Piquemal is believed to be concerned that the chief executive, Levy, wants to proceed with Hinkley before those sales have been completed.

The new Hinkley plant was originally due to open in 2017, and it has come under fire for both its cost and delays to the timetable for building.

The UK government has also been criticised for guaranteeing a price of 92.50 per megawatt hour of electricity  almost three times the current cost - for the electricity Hinkley will produce for 35 years.





Contact Details and Archive...
One of Australias biggest banks has responded to backlash over its harsh treatment of an employee who was fired after a mental breakdown and left to wait years for an insurance pay-out.



The Commonwealth Banks life insurance business CommInsure has responded to allegations of unethical and unscrupulous behaviour in its life insurance business, and following a recent Four Corners report, will likely be a target of an ASIC investigation.



CBA chief executive Ian Narev admitted his company had "a long way to go" to better help employees suffering from mental health issues.



"I accept that we, like many big businesses, have got much more work to do to bring our understanding of mental illness up to the level it ought to be at," he was quoted in The Australian.



The head of advocacy group Beyond Blue has criticized CBAs treatment of employee Matthew Attwater, who was ill-health retired after suffering from major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.



Beyond Blue chairman Jeff Kennett, who described the banks actions as disgraceful, said the bank had "a great deal to answer for".



"For the Commonwealth Bank  to be doing this sort of thing to one of their own employees is disgraceful. Why do they get away with it? Because they're big," Kennett was reported saying in The Australia.



Attwater, once one of the banks most prized employees who won the "best of the best" award in 2010, suffered major depression and PTSD in 2013 after a violent assault.



With his focus at work negatively affected, his employer relied on a psychiatrists report which found Attwater would not be able to do his job at any foreseeable time in the future or in any on-going manner to support the decision to end his employment.



However when making an insurance claim, CommInsure used the same report to find that he was actually capable of returning to work.



"How can one department say 'no sorry you're so disabled that you can no longer work for us and that you'll never ever be able to work in any industry' and then an insurance assessor looks at that and says 'well no not really, you can, there's more things that you can do'," Attwater was quoted in The Australian.



CommInsure took two-and-a-half years to assess Attwater's claim, during which time he was forced to sleep in his car.



Soon after being interviewed by Four Corners last month, Attwater's case was finally settled.



According to his lawyer, Attwaters was a straightforward case where he suffered a very severe injury.



Kennett said insurance companies should not be solely motivated by greed.



"Please remember these companies are taking premiums every year and then they deny a person that claims," Kennett says.



"They don't offer to pay the premiums back but they will invariably, as seems to be the case here, delay the process, they weaken the individual so these cashed up organisations literally trample over the individual rights of so many citizens."



Patricia Ryan from The Workplace employment lawyers says employers need to do more to manage mental health in the workplace, or risk legal backlash.



Mental health problems, especially depression and anxiety, are common in the community, Ryan told HC Online.



While some people have a long-term mental illness, many may have mental illness for a relatively short period of time, she says.



However, Ryan says the vast majority of workers with mental illness succeed in their chosen career while managing their mental illness.



She reminds employers of their legal obligations in relation to the management of mental illness in the workplace.



These obligations come from a number of state and Federal laws as follows:
controversial resignation of FWC vice-president Michael Lawler who took sick leave at full pay for more than nine months while helping his partner fight a Federal Court ruling serves as a key example of how not to handle long-term sick leave, says McDonald Murholme managing direct Alan McDonald.The resignation of vice-president Lawler brings to a conclusion reputational damage to the Fair Work Commission , McDonald told HC Online.The Commission has been criticised for paying sick leave to the vice-president while he appears to work to assist his partner Kathy Jackson in the Federal Court, he says.McDonald points out that a sick or injured employee must not work, even in a voluntary capacity, for someone else while claiming sick leave from their employer.Lawler continued to collect his $430,000 salary during his sick leave, while helping his partner, former Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson, fight a Federal Court ruling that she misappropriated $1.4 million of union funds.FWC president Iain Ross told a Senate hearing in October that he had approved 215 days of sick leave for Lawler on the basis that he was medically unfit to perform his duties, the ABC reported."He did not seek and I did not approve leave for the purpose of assisting his partner in legal proceedings," Ross told the hearing.But because Mr Lawler was a statutory office holder, the FWC was powerless to sack him, as a vote by both houses of Parliament would have been required to remove him from his position.A week ago, former Federal Court Judge Peter Heeley received an independent report on Lawlers conduct while at the FWC.McDonald welcomed Lawler's resignation and says while the Government was too slow to remove him from his position, should make public the findings of the Heeley report.It is not surprising that there would be a lot of public interest in this matter because the Fair Work Commission should comply with excepted standards, he says.The Heeley report about Lawler will be kept private so we will never know whether it contained a recommendation that Lawler repay for sick leave in part or in full,Such a recommendation if made would be embarrassing for the president who authorised the payments apparently without sick leave certificates.McDonald said that the report should have been published in the interests of transparency and to help avoid such a mistake in the future.He said the issue was very sensitive for the FWC president, since Lawlers payments were based on a very high salary and using public money.The president felt constrained to act because Lawler was appointed by the Executive Council, not him, McDonald explains.He was dependant on the government to act. The government was very slow to do so.As there appeared to be a very poor relationship between the vice-president and the president, the ability of the president to quietly influence Lawler's conduct failed, Murholme says.So it was a combination of factors unlikely to be repeated which caused this terrible example of how not to deal with a long term sick leave situation to occur, he told HC Online.He says the good news is that a replacement for Lawler's role should not be required, because there are already three vice-presidents in the FWC where traditionally there have only been two.Around $1 million a year can be saved by not reappointing another vice-president, McDonald says.The business community might be very concerned if there is a further appointment given the poor handling of the Lawler illness.Lawler resigned from his position of as a presidential member of the Fair Work Commission on March 03, 2016.
By Jesse Wood

In the March 15 primary, Ronnie Marsh and Sue Counts are vying to represent the Democrats in the race for the District 93 seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives that covers Ashe and Watauga counties.

The winner will face either Republicans Lew Hendricks or incumbent Jonathan Jordan in the general election in November.

Sue Counts

In 2008, Sue Counts retired as the Watauga County Extension Director for the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, where she had worked since 1993.

Prior to her work with the extension, Counts, a native of Dickenson County, Virginia and a graduate of Virginia Tech, worked as a nutritionist for 30 years with Dickenson County Head Start, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Hyattsville, Md., the New Jersey Department of Health, the Howard University School of Dentistry, the Avery County Health Department, and at Appalachian State University.

Counts first ran for District 93 in 2014 and lost to Jordan with 47 percent of the vote.

When announcing she was running again in December, Counts said, I ran in 2014 against incumbent Jonathan Jordan, who votes in lockstep with the Raleigh leadership and contrary to the interests and well being of his constituents, and I lost, but I did NOT feel defeated. Ive never been a quitter and I am not going to start now when so much is at stake. Not when I have a duty and the ability to make lives better.

While Counts is facing Marsh in the primary, she definitely has Jordan in the crosshairs when responding to questions and making pitches to voters.

Asked why she was running for office, Counts responded that shes passionate about the people of Watauga and Ashe counties, and I believe the people of our district deserve better representation than weve got down in Raleigh.

Im sure Rep. Jordan will offer this year, just as he has every election year, an impressive spin on what he has accomplished in Raleigh on behalf of the district. But the truth of his service will not be found in the glossy, expensive mailers hell crowd into our mailboxes again this year, Counts said in an email. The truth is that in Raleigh, he has voted against almost every program in the state that benefits working people, retirees, the poor, and our public schools. His budgeting priorities help the very wealthy at the expense of the hardworking people and small businesses in Watauga and Ashe.

In particular, Counts cited Jordan supporting the increase in consumption taxes (on labor, repairs, installation and maintenance) that irked local small business owners across a swath of industries in favor of lowering personal income taxes.

The NC State Legislature promised no new taxes, then gave a substantial tax cut to out-of-state corporations doing business in North Carolina and balanced those cuts off the backs of hard working customers of small businesses Counts said. The state has now increased sales taxes on hundreds of essential services. They increased taxes on your car repairs and inspections, increased taxes on the labor in getting an oven installed or having your toilet unclogged, added a tax to fix the hole in the sole of your boot, and even added a tax on having the monument installed at your loved ones grave.

Counts added, You can count on me to do the right thing, the fair thing, in Raleigh for all the people of our district. Thats what my life has always been about, and I have a record to prove it.

To see more issues of concern to Counts and to read more about her candidacy, click to www.suecountsfornchouse.com.

Ronnie Marsh

Like Counts, Ronnie Marsh also retired from public service.

A graduate of Appalachian State University, Marsh spent nearly 30 years as fire marshal for the Town of Boone before hanging up his fire hat at the end of 2014. Marsh spent another eight years with the local fire department before becoming the towns fire marshal. He also served on number of local, regional and state boards pertaining to fire safety.

Speaking by phone on Monday, Marsh said that he decided to run for office after being approached by some local individuals to bring back some common sense to the state legislature with a no-nonsense approach. But even before being asked to run, Marsh said he started hearing what a disconnect that the people are having with their local representatives.

Marsh cited the gutting of education and mental health programs as issues that were important to him. He mentioned how Appalachian State University used to be called the Appalachian State Teachers College and how the Reich College of Education is one of the main degree programs offered by the local university.

This past year was one of the lowest graduating classes out of there because no one wants to teach in North Carolina, Marsh said.

He talked about how the State of North Carolina is defunding mental healthcare, especially in light of suicides and drug overdoses that have occurred locally. He said that mental health funding was cut $110 million this year and $135 million is estimated to be cut next year.

So something has to change, Marsh said.

When Marsh announced his intention to run for the N.C. House in December, Marsh said his candidacy was focused on people before politics.

I feel politicians in both major parties have become disconnected from the people they serve. Ashe and Watauga counties have become melting pots for special interest groups in both parties, which have resulted in actions being waged in the public media by our representatives, Marsh said in an announcement during the candidate-filing period.

In making a pitch to voters on Monday, Marsh said, I am local. Ive lived here and I know I have a pulse on what is Watauga and Ashe County and what the core values are in this area, Marsh said. I am going to very honest. I believe I am the one individual that can stop this separation  parties against parties. Weve got to stop and got to start working for the people.

To see more issues of concern to Marsh and to read more about his candidacy, click to http://www.marshforstatehouse.com/#ride.

###

Early voting began on March 3 and runs through March 12. Election day is March 15. Click here for more details on voting sites, hours and more.

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By Jesse Wood

In the March 15 primary, Lew Hendricks and incumbent Rep. Jonathan Jordan are vying to represent the Republicans for the District 93 seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives that covers Ashe and Watauga counties.

The winner will face either Democrats Sue Counts or Ronnie Marsh in the general election in November.

Jonathan Jordan

The only mailer Ive received so far this primary season is from the Home Builders Education Fund, one that touts Rep. Jonathan Jordan, who is running for re-election, as helping North Carolinians achieve the American Dream.

Jordan has a record of lowering taxes to encourage economic development and promote job creation. A strong North Carolina economy means more people will be able to experience the American Dream of homeownership, reads the mailer, which has pictures of a couple holding a key ring and another picture of a smiling family standing in front of a home.

Jordan is a Jefferson-based lawyer and he is seeking his fourth term as representative in the N.C. House. In February, he was named co-chair of the House Committee on Education on Universities and months earlier was named chair of the Joint Legislative Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee

When announcing that he was running for office again, Jordan said in a statement in December: Dont believe the negatives thrown at our legislative record regarding education funding: North Carolina ranks 7th in the nation for state support for education. Our state funding stands at 57 percent of total education funding, with the national average being only 46 percent. Over the past four years, our Republican legislature has restored $1.2 billion to education to replace $1 billion cut in the two years before we even gained our majority.

Speaking late last week, Jordan stated that two goals of his if he re-elected are to continue improvement with education and continuing tax and regulatory reform.

Under Republican majority, the N.C. General Assembly is in the process of phasing out personal income tax in the state and moving towards consumption taxes. Beginning in March, a new tax was levied on dozens and dozens of services, from car repairs to upholstery.

In response to unhappy citizens and small business owners, Jordan stressed to High Country Press that these tax increases were part of the phasing out of the state income tax and that by allowing a one-cent sales tax increase to expire in 2011, his first year in office, taxpayers have saved $5 billions or $1 billion per year.

Its not going to stay this way. The plan is to phase in sales tax to take over the income tax. If everybody looks at the income tax changes, it more than makes up for any changes for sales tax increases, Jordan said. They need to look at the overall process and see that its a phase-in and a move toward a consumption tax.

Jordan added that a consumption tax is the fairest kind of tax because it taxes based upon the money you spend and not your income. Jordan said that having no income tax is a big job creator for states and would keep North Carolina on a competitive footing with neighboring states that dont have an income tax.

He also stated that improvements for education that hes eyeing during a potential next term is working on increasing teacher pay for veteran teachers. He noted that salaries for beginning teachers were raised and that phase two of this measure is to look at raising salaries for veteran teachers.

We want to make sure they are covered, Jordan said.

To see more issues of concern to Jordan and to read more about his candidacy, click to www.jordan4nchouse.com.

Lew Hendricks

When Lew Hendricks announced his candidacy on the first day of filing in December, he said that Jonathan Jordan hasnt earned the right to have a free pass in the Republican primary.

The Republican and Independent voters in Watauga and Ashe County deserve to have a choice. I will give them that choice, Hendricks said in a statement. A vote for me is a vote for an unwavering commitment to public education. It is a vote to represent the best interests of the people of Watauga and Ashe County and not the special interests.

Hendricks said that those were the two most glaring differences he offered to Republicans and independent voters marking off a Republican ballot in the primary.

Hendricks spent 10 years in the U.S. military  in both the Navy and the Army. In the Navy, where he was primarily a cryptologist, he did a tour on the USS Vella Gulf, a guided missile cruiser, in the Persian Gulf, and as an Army officer, where he was a platoon leader in an aerial delivery unit, Hendricks was deployed to Iraq in 2011.

In between his separate time as Navy and Army personnel, Hendricks continued his higher education and worked as a budget analyst at the U.S. Department of State. Today, hes a small business consultant, which he says offers him the flexibility to run for office  and if he wins  to represent the constituents of Ashe and Watauga counties.

In speaking on Monday, Hendricks cited public education as what should be the number one priority in the state, but said he doesnt see the commitment from the General Assembly for public education.

That issue really bugs me right now, Hendricks said.

Hendricks said he was particularly frustrated that the budget wasnt passed last year until after the school year had already started. This left school officials in a state of limbo to begin the school year.

What that means is local teachers, principals and superintendents didnt know what they were working with. They didnt know if they would have teacher assistants or not. Not giving them time to plan is failed leadership, Hendricks said.

On his website, Hendricks notes that North Carolina should have a lower teacher/teacher assistant ratio and that the state ranks in the bottom 10 of states as far as teacher salary and spending per pupil are concerned.

Asked about something that the N.C. General Assembly did that he agreed with or didnt agree with, Hendricks mentioned that he didnt agree with the ag-gag bill, $2 billion bond package and, the already mentioned, passing of budget after the school year began.

Hendricks has gone on record stating that he will vote no for the $2 billion bond package based on fiscal-conservative principles and because going into debt is not a good thing, according to this interview on YouTube.

Speaking to HCPress.com, Hendricks criticized the million dollar campaign sponsored by the state to get the bond package passed and said he thought putting this issue on the ballot amounted to a copout by state legislators  because they dont necessarily have to defend their position.

To see more issues of concern to Jordan and to read more about his candidacy, click to www.hendricks4nchouse.com.

###

Early voting began on March 3 and runs through March 12. Election day is March 15. Click here for more details on voting sites, hours and more.

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Story and photos by Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

For some people, working in the kitchen is just another part of a busy, everyday routine  another item on the never-ending to-do list that comes with running a family; but for people like Beth Zagst, its so much more.

She found her calling six years ago when she realized that working in the kitchen was the common denominator among the most important aspects of her life  providing for her family, connecting with people and channeling her creativity.



Today, she owns and operates Ugga Mugga Bakery in downtown Blowing Rock. Her relentless work ethic and passion for baking have yielded quick success in the High Country, where she enjoys her life as a wife, a mother, an artist and a self-funded entrepreneur.

At Home in Carolina

Zagst first started baking from her home in a small town in backcountry New Hampshire, selling her first cakes at the local farmers market.

In addition to baking for friends and family, she stayed busy playing trumpet with a renowned horn band, which kept her out until 2-3 a.m. most weekend nights. The late night performances eventually took a toll, and she decided to stop touring with the band.

Worried she might feel incomplete without the creative outlet that music had always provided, Zagst soon found that baking and decorating cakes offered an even better avenue for her artistic vision.

Long story short, baking cakes, doing the fondant work and getting creative filled that creative gap for me. It fulfilled the same drive that playing music did, Zagst said. I never thought of it that way or expected it to happen, but thats what happened. If youre a creative person you have to do something, you have to create something, you have to give, and so baking was just that.

The trumpet remains an important hallmark of her story  in fact, you can find one hanging on the wall in her shop today or incorporated in her bakerys logo.

Three years ago, Zagst and her husband, Brandon, decided to leave behind the cold New Hampshire winters and relocate with their two daughters, Zoey and Seger.

I love the four seasons, but the climate up there is just ridiculous. Its nine months of a strong, strong winter, she said. The winter we left it was -34 degrees. Thats just silly.

The crew soon found themselves heading for the land of the long leaf pine, unknowingly jumping into the heart of a premier wedding and special events destination.

We looked all over the South for what my husband does, and this just lined up for us, Zagst said. I had no idea it was going to be a wedding Mecca, or a place for my business to land amazingly, but thats just how fate happens sometimes.

Ugga Mugga in the High Country

She named her business in Blowing Rock after an important part of her childhood, paying homage to her older brother and sister, who live in Texas and Indiana, respectively.

Im born and raised Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thats where the show Mister Rogers was filmed and thats where he lived, said Zagst. On the show, Daniel Striped Tiger would say Ugga Mugga, Lady Elaine, and then theyd rub their noses together, so Ugga Mugga meant love.

Im the youngest of three in an extremely close family, so we would sit together and make a train and say Ugga Mugga, Ugga Mugga all the time. Even in college I would say, If I ever have a bakery, Im going to name it Ugga Mugga Bakery, which is silly, because I never knew it was going to happen. It named itself 10 years before I even opened it, so I couldnt change it, even if I wanted to.

Two years after the move, Zagst was ready to add a retail storefront to her bakery and did so at 1107 Main Street in Blowing Rock.

Just a quick flight of stairs down from Main Street and its upstairs neighbor, TazMaRaz Boutique, Ugga Mugga is tucked quietly into the hub of the villages popular shopping district.

The open space houses her fully-equipped commercial kitchen and a welcoming retail space, which always features a colorful environment, the chefs favorite tunes in the air and an elaborate display of fresh-baked goodies from each weeks rotating menu.

I can be the person who retails and services and styles the front, and I can also be baking and decorating cakes, she said. I love that people can watch me decorate, design, stack and make stuff. People love that and thats really fun.

Its close enough to bring in some foot traffic, but secluded enough to allow Zagst time for wedding cakes and custom orders. It offers convenience for her customers, but lets her balance time between her family and her business.

This space also allows me to be an entrepreneur, a mom and a wife, she said. I know it will grow, but I have to do it at my own pace. My kids come first.

Ugga Mugga bakes fresh new products five days a week for Main Street shoppers and beautiful, delicious, perfectly constructed custom cakes and desserts for weddings and special events.

The more she works in the kitchen, the more Zagst learns about how she can grow in her profession and how she can make her products better for her clients.

We do everything from scratch  everything  with high-end, expensive ingredients. On every single recipe for six years, I have scratched out, re-written, scratched out, re-written to enhance them, she said. Every single day Im Pinterest-ing and watching to see what Ina did (Inas my favorite chef) or what other cooks do  reading and figuring out how to improve. Im not gonna stop.

I did so many wedding cakes last year, and I want them to be the minimum and modicum of what I can do on the next cake.

Ambition and Drive

As a self-funded entrepreneur, Zagst takes pride in what she has accomplished, which is due to a relentless work ethic, unstoppable ambition and the support of her family.

I started this bakery on my own with what is in my heart and what is in my head. Its completely self-funded from the profits of the first thing I sold, she said. I didnt take out a billion dollars in business loans. I went slow and had an extreme amount of patience, and now everything in here is mine.

She believes that the support of her husband, also a self-starting entrepreneur, is an essential part of her success.

My husband started his own business this year and he works full-time at the hospital. Do we overwork right now? Hell yeah, but we have a supreme work ethic, she said. Being with someone who appreciates the drive and the energy that I have is absolutely second to none, and my husband is all of that.

He is extremely driven, as well, so he appreciates that in me. The kids, of course, are always helping and having fun with it.

Zagst attributes much of her own energy and work ethic to the example her parents set for her.

My dad worked two jobs his whole life so that his children could go to college and do what they wanted to do, she said. And the mom who was everyones mom  that was my mom. I get it from her.

I had those kind of parents who stayed up until 2 a.m. sewing Girl Scouts badges; or remodeled one extra bathroom to pay for trumpet lessons and band trips; or the ones who had a million kids over every weekend.

Wedding Cakes and More

Although she may have stumbled into the local wedding industry by chance, Zagst is right at home in this community of creative, hardworking professionals.

I love doing interesting, different, fun cakes and creations, she said. When I have a bride who wants a pie dessert bar, a nontraditional design or even something very traditional, they know what they want and I get to create it. Then, on the wedding day, I get to see it come to fruition.

Its the conclusion of heres my love and heres what I made for you and your family to enjoy. I like to bake and to feed people, so its certainly the perfect job for my personality.

Ugga Mugga is a member of the High South Event Professionals network  a community of like-minded industry pros who work together to promote the mountains of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia as the premier special events destination in the Southeast.

Zagst is active in the association and enjoys the personal connections that the members make with one another.

Those people are my coworkers. They may not be here every day, but they are here every day, she said. If a bride walks in here and I dont talk to them about 10 different vendors, something is wrong. I had no idea when we moved up here that there was a group like this, but to have their support is huge.

Meet the Zagst and other preferred local vendors at the High South Wedding Expo at the Boone Mall on Sunday, March 20.

Stop by Ugga Mugga

Right now, Zagst says shes booking like crazy for the upcoming wedding season and looks forward to the new folks shell meet through her retail space this summer.

As an obvious people person, she enjoys meeting new folks, and will likely invite you to watch her work in the kitchen if you have time to stop by. Every new client is another new friend for the Zagst family, and her cheerful personality will keep you coming back to visit Ugga Mugga time and again (although the delectable desserts dont hurt, either).

The bakery is located at 1107 Main Street Suite B in Blowing Rock, to the left and just downstairs from TazMaRaz. Its open to the public during winter months from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Want to know more? Check out uggamuggabakery.com.

I never shut up, so Im always talking with everyone as theyre standing around and watching me work; or Ill say, This just came out of the oven, try this. I grew up in a food is love family, so thats always fun, said Zagst. Its so nice because theyll look at me and say, Wow, this is what youre meant to do, isnt it, honey? They all say that to me, and Im like, youre right, yeah.

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He also poured cold water on the hopes of integrating the settlement into collective agreements by drawing attention to its low coverage among the affiliate unions of SAK.

Jyri Hakamies, the director general at the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), has voiced his satisfaction with the decision of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) to give its tentative approval to a settlement on measures to boost the competitiveness of domestic businesses  the so-called social contract.

No more than roughly 60 per cent of the affiliate unions of SAK voted on Monday for the integration of the settlement into their collective agreements. The social contract would, as a result, cover approximately 80 per cent of all employees in Finland.

Hakamies argues that it is impossible to move forward as long as almost half of the affiliate unions of SAK continue to oppose the settlement. We're currently unable to launch union-specific negotiations because the settlement can't be approved with these parameters, he said at a press conference on Monday.

EK underscores in a press release that the settlement is of such importance to Finland and Finnish workplaces that it must cover everyone. The ball is now firmly in the court of SAK. The work to fulfil the coverage [criteria] must continue, says Hakamies.

Matti Tukiainen, the director of employment and sustainable growth at SAK, commented on the statement by Hakamies in an interview on YLE Radio Suomi later on Monday, estimating that the conditions imposed by EK are yet another stumbling block for the social contract.

SAK, he said, was hopeful it could continue its efforts to bump up the coverage of the settlement while conducting the union-specific negotiations.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Petteri Paalasmaa  Uusi Suomi

Source: Uusi Suomi
The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) announced its refusal to proceed to union-specific negotiations as long as nearly half of the affiliate unions of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) oppose the so-called social contract. Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre), in turn, adamantly turned down the calls of trade unions for income tax concessions.

The outlook for an agreement on measures to restore the competitiveness of Finnish industries went from bright to uncertain over the course of Monday.

Silja Paavola, the chairperson of the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses (Super), voiced her frustration with the latest turn of events.

We don't even have anyone to negotiate with. An agreement was reached at the level of confederations, but that's no longer agreeable to EK. The situation is wide open. We have no clue what to do. I don't know what to tell our members because anything I tell in the morning will be old information by the afternoon, she laments.

Super estimates that the Government is not fully committed to the settlement brokered by labour market confederations on 29 February, despite receiving news of the settlement with apparent relief and even delight.

Paavola reminds that the parent union of Super, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK), was supportive of the settlement. But it wasn't good enough for the Government and more clauses were introduced, she says.

She also voices her support to the demands of several other trade unions for tax concessions by estimating that introducing the concessions would go a long way toward breaking the gridlock.

She points out  similarly to Riku Aalto, the chairman of the Finnish Metalworkers' Union  that the concessions were initially a prerequisite for the settlement.

Sipila, however, reiterated on Monday that the tax concessions can be carried out only if the competitiveness measures yield the desired effects and pleaded with the affiliate unions of SAK to re-consider their stance on the settlement.

The Taxpayers' Association of Finland has warned that the purchasing power of consumers will crumble unless the concessions are introduced.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Jenni Tamminen  Uusi Suomi

Source: Uusi Suomi
Gardai said Ryan was initially too intoxicated to be interviewed. Stock picture

A drug addict who was "out of it" when he took a six-year-old boy from outside a shop before stealing his chicken nuggets and then abandoning him has been jailed for three years.

Garda Elaine Holmes told Noel Devitt BL, prosecuting, that the young boy, who has Down syndrome, had been with his parents at a hospital appointment before his father took him to Burger King to get food.

The man later left the child in a buggy outside a shop and went into it momentarily. He returned to find the boy was gone and called gardai immediately.

Gda Holmes said a woman had spotted Ryan pushing the buggy with the little boy and could clearly see he was "out of it". He then abandoned the child outside Arnotts and she got security staff in the shop to raise the alarm.

The child was reunited with his father within 10 or 15 minutes.

Arnotts staff had gone through CCTV footage and gardai had a description of the culprit before Gda Holmes met with the father.

She then spotted Ryan walking towards her with his eyes closed and arrested him immediately. Ryan was initially too intoxicated to be interviewed, but later told gardai "if it was me I am very sorry for what I did".

Damage

David Ryan (28), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to intentionally or recklessly taking the child without consent at Liffey Street Upper on June 11, 2015.

He has 112 previous convictions which were all dealt with in the District Court and include criminal damage, public order, theft and fraud offences.

Sean Gillane SC, defending, said the State had agreed that the guilty plea was on the basis of reckless commission rather than intentional.

A victim-impact report said the boy had been upset at school the next day, but otherwise there had been no significant knock- on effect.

Sean Gillane SC, defending described it as "every parent's worse nightmare".

He said it was very evident that his client had been "out of it", that he took the chicken nuggets off the child and moved on.

Counsel said Ryan was utterly oblivious to the panic going on around him

Mr Gillane said he hoped the child's father would take some comfort from the knowledge that the boy had been under the observation of a passer-by at all times.

Ryan had written a letter of apology for "the hurt and pain" he had caused the boy and his family.

Judge Melanie Greally said that for those 15 minutes the boy's father had no idea what had happened. She added that "the anguish, fear and terror that accompanied those minutes must have been extreme".

She acknowledged that the child was never in any danger and that Ryan never bore him any malicious intent.

"It arose out of the fact that you were manifestly out of it and that you had not been acting in a deliberate and conscious way," Judge Greally said to Ryan.

She noted that he had very severe addictions problems, was remorseful for his actions and had issues surrounding his childhood. She then jailed him for three years.
LENOIR  Burke County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin sentenced a Lenoir woman to five to seven years in prison after she entered guilty pleas in Caldwell County Superior Court on Feb. 29, according to a press release from the District Attorneys Office.

Lisa Marie Harmon, 34, of Lenoir, pled guilty to charges of possession of a firearm by felon, possession of stolen goods and obtaining property by false pretenses. She had previously been convicted of possession of firearm by felon and larceny in Burke County and common law robbery in Caldwell County.

The release states that Harmons habitual felon status enhanced her sentence.

According to the release, officers from the Lenoir Police Department and Caldwell County Sheriffs Office arrested Harmon in a convenience store in Lenoir in September 2015 after a handgun was found in her vehicle.

Officers learned that she had pawned and attempted to pawn stolen goods in 2015 as well.
Theyre talking but not through the media  which theyve used only to let their actions speak. Its a relatively new experiment in Indo-Pak relations bedevilled historically by vituperative slugs. Gentle nudges seem to be working for now. The etymology of the new lexicon could be in the growing chemistry  and suggestions of trust  between the two national security advisers.

Their off-camera engagements have yielded results  including a terror alert last week to New Delhi from Islamabad. The optimism stems as much from other signals: Pakistan lodging an FIR on the Pathankot attack; its foreign minister saying a phone number the attackers used was traced to Jaish-e-Mohammeds Bahavalpur base; the information that JeM chief Masood Azhar is in custody.

Against this backdrop has come a bigger straw in the wind the hanging on February 29 of Mumtaz Qadri, a police commando who pumped bullets into West Punjab governor Salman Taseer for seeking reforms in the countrys blasphemy laws. Politically, the execution is a big deal for the Sharif brothers  Nawaz and Shahbaz  given its religious-political implications in their home province.

Qadri was deified after the 2011 killing by a rabid assortment of Mullahs and advocates. They feted and garlanded him for taking out the very person he was assigned to safeguard.

The hanging and the intelligence alert NSA Ajit Doval received from Pakistani counterpart Naseer Janjua on possible cross-border attacks during Mahashivratri, could be read as a gingerly shift to containing, if not immediately confronting, anti-India groups based in the countrys eastern enclaves in Punjab. A Pakistani official distinguished the push in the east from the armys Zarb-e-Azb operation on the Af-Pak border in the west. The task in Punjab isnt easy as it cannot be performed militarily, he reasoned.

In southern Punjab where groups such as JeM have formidable clout, the answer lies in intelligence-based police operations made credible by parallel India-Pak dialogue on resolvable issues. Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed touch a chord with people on Kashmir. We have to have a counter-narrative. Theyd dwindle into history if we give Kashmiris an environment of comfort, the official said.

For the present, the civilian regimes actions in tandem with the army are subtle, not frontal. For instance, PEMRA (the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) got LeT headman Saeeds support for and threat of more Pathankot-type cross-border strikes blacked out in the local media. It reportedly has gag orders in place against groups revelling in anti-India rhetoric.

An aide of Nawaz Sharif explained the effort was to narrow the field of play for terrorist organisations through legal restrictions. They cant be allowed a free run of the place with over 5,000 lives lost and 1.80 lakh Pakistani troops engaged in counter-terror operations, he said.

And like many others I met  journalists, diplomats, politicos, think-tankers  the PMs aide advocated early resumption of FS-level talks. Recalling what he termed Prime Minister Narendra Modis assurance to Sharif in Lahore (before the Pathankot attack) to not let anything disturb the dialogue process, he cautioned: trust deficit will increase if dialogue is postponed further. Such positions arent sustainable.

Imtiaz Gul of the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) underscored the need for an outcome-oriented dialogue to disincentivise (sic) the theory of victimisation in Kashmir the militants exploited for popular traction. He didnt go into details. Whats well known is that Pakistans security forces arent untouched by the exponential rise of the religious middle-class in the Islamic Republic.

Even the army cannot but pay heed to internal feedback on its anti-terror campaign, said a Lahore-based commentator. The officers promoted to higher ranks now come from the deeply religious middle-class. From Islamabads standpoint, that makes advances on the political front with New Delhi imperative to balance out action against anti-India jihadists.

So whats doable in the immediate future? Cognizant though of our armys position against withdrawing from strategic heights it occupies in Siachen, Pakistani experts consider the glacial confrontation resolvable  what with a blueprint inherited from 1989 and revisited in Track-2 military to military engagements. The psychological factor of an understanding on Siachen will be huge, said former Pakistan high commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan. But for that to happen the two sides have to develop an equally huge reservoir of trust!

(The writer travelled to Pakistan recently as a guest speaker at the Centre for Research and Security Studies)
During a meeting with UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in New Delhi in February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Islamic State (IS) cannot be tackled through military means only. Instead, Modi said, any counter-offensive against the group should be preceded by a sociological and psychological analysis of those who are attracted to the IS ideology. The Crown Prince agreed to the PMs proposal and added that the UAE was opposed to extremism since al-Qaeda days and it had also sent troops to Afghanistan to fight Osama bin Laden.

Aware of Modis plan to travel to Saudi Arabia on April 3, the Crown Prince conveyed the willingness of the Gulf countries to join hands with India against terrorism. While the UAE is a frontline State in the battle against the IS, India is starting to feel the impact of this radical ideology with a section of Sunni Muslim youth eager to join the IS Caliphate.

Indias security agencies have identified 28 youth fighting for the IS in Iraq and Syria, out of which six may have been killed. Recently, 22 people were arrested for acting on behalf of the IS in India, taking the total number of radicalised youth beyond 100. India is finding it hard to counter this spurt in radicalisation because its intelligence agencies are understaffed at the field level.

Read | Restricted meeting between Modi and Abu Dhabi crown prince at 7 RCR

It is in this backdrop that the Modi government is promoting a four-day World Sufi Forum (WSF) from March 17 to 20. The meet will be attended by more than 200 international delegates from Pakistan, the United States, Britain, Canada, Egypt and Turkey, and over 100 papers will be presented. The event, which is being organised by the All India Ulema and Mashaikh Board, will showcase Indias Islamic heritage that rejects violence and supports inclusivity.

Led by Sufi scholars such as Canada-based and Pakistan-born Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, the WSF will spread the spiritual and universal message of Islam. Sufism could be a strong counter to the IS troopers as it never pursues political power or tries to change social structures.

Instead, Sufism stands for multiplicity, tolerance, acceptance and love.

Read | How the Internet helped Islamic State snag terror recruits in India

Musicians such as Nizami brothers will highlight the cultural aspect of Islam and spread the message of inclusiveness through qawalis.

This counter-narrative will not end with the WSF: Later this year, scholars from Deoband are organising a conference to expose the IS.

Modis visit to Saudi Arabia  on his way back from the nuclear security conference in Washington  should be seen in context of the country joining hands with the West Asian powers to prevent radicalisation of youth and eradicate extremism.

Read | PM Modi gets set for tour to Saudi Arabia, Brussels and US

With seven million Indians in West Asia (two million in Saudi Arabia), Modi must ensure that the Indian convergence is linked only to terrorism and not to any sect or a country.

Although Chinese President Xi Jinping did the balancing act when he visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran in one year, Modi does not need to do so as Indias relation with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel are independent of each other and transparent.

While trying to prevent radicalisation within India, Modi needs to reach out to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE to ensure that the two Sunni-dominated states do not become gateways for Indian youth to join the IS. This convergence has started to bear fruit with friendly West Asian countries keeping an eye on Indian youth. These countries have state-of-the-art cyber interception technologies and they have often acted as warning systems against threats emanating from the IS or other terrorist groups against India.

The cooperation with Saudi Arabia would also restrict the movement of Pakistan-based jihadi groups, which have acted as a strategic arm of the State in targeting India with hardly any ideological baggage.

Even though Saudi Arabia heads the 24-nation coalition to counter extremism, it needs Indias support to ensure that the campaign to counter the IS is not limited to any particular faith or ideology.

With the security of its seven million citizens as its priority, India can act as an honest broker since it has time-tested links with all major powers in West Asia on counter-terrorism.

READ | ISIS opens new help desk for militants to evade tracking

Indias Islamic traditions can remind the world that the fundamental principles of the faith can be expressed in different ways without any dilution of the core religion. This character is evident not only in India but also in Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics.

This broad-based front to contain, restrict and then eradicate the IS cult is the need of the hour as it has the potential to take advantage of the existing geographical-political vacuum in West Asia and can also redefine existing relationships among nation states and non-State players.

The Modi government is rightfully concerned about youth radicalisation and understands the larger threat that emanates from a certain section of the Indian Muslim clergy and pro-Pakistan Kashmiri separatists since radical thoughts transcend geographical boundaries.

Modi is correct in saying that the IS cannot be tackled only through military offensives. Its rabid ideology must be challenged by a counter-narrative that is inclusive, and India must lead that movement by example.

.

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Two years after MH370 went missing and key questions remain unanswered: Where is the plane and what happened in the cockpit in the early hours of March 8, 2014?

Amid the conspiracy theories, there are two main views on what might have happened.

The first suggests that the captain hijacked the plane and flew it with all 238 other people on board to their deaths by crashing in the southern Indian Ocean.

The second view, and the one to which I subscribe, is that there was some form of mechanical fault.

Under that scenario, the pilots tried to get back to safety in Malaysia, but became incapacitated and the plane flew on; or that the pilots are heroes, and knowing they were doomed, set a course to avoid ground casualties and died after the plane crashed.

The simple, short answer as to which is true: we don't know. Anyone who tells you they do know is, frankly, making it up.

Read | Everything you need to know about the Malaysia Airlines MH370 mystery

The pilot theory pins the probable blame on 53-year old captain Zaharie Shah. I don't agree for a variety of reasons.

Pilot suicide is incredibly rare. When it happens it is shocking and deeply troubling for the traveling public. The most recent of course was the horrible crash of Germanwings 9525 in March 2015, where the first officer, Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit, then reset the autopilot altitude to 100 feet sending the plane crashing into the French Alps.

Whether premeditated (as the evidence shows with Germanwings) or on the spur of the moment, the deranged mind doesn't spend hours carefully plotting flight plans, working out how to disconnect every communication tool on the aircraft, then flying elaborate routes around countries ostensibly to avoid military radars. No -- they take over the aircraft and crash the plane. MH370 doesn't fit this pattern. And so far I can't find any case that would suggest it does.

With pilot suicide cases, we tend to find out the potential reasons relatively quickly. With Germanwings, we found out almost immediately the psychological and medical issues suffered by Lubitz. He had been doctor shopping in the weeks before the crash, visiting numerous general practitioners, psychologists. He had ripped up sick notes in his apartment and had been researching online suicide methods and the locking mechanism of the cockpit door.

Read | Suspected MH370 debris handed to Malaysian experts

With MH370, we have no real evidence. None whatsoever. We have a few rumors, a bit of gossip and a few circumstantial facts which some wish to string together to make a case against the pilots.

Let us not forget Captain Zaharie had been a pilot with Malaysian airlines since 1981. He was a captain on the 777 for more than 15 years. He was exceptionally experienced -- a training captain -- who had been paired with 27-year-old first officer Fariq Ab Hamid. Hamid was transitioning to the 777 fleet and this was one of his first 777 flights out of the simulator on the real metal. Hamid was engaged to be married to a pilot at another airline.

The Factual Report published on the first anniversary of the plane's disappearance actually goes so far as to dismiss these accusations. It says, "the captain's ability to handle stress at work and home was good. There were no significant changes in his life style, interpersonal conflict of family stresses."

I am not naive and obviously can see that the Malaysians might want to put the "best face on" to protect the reputation of their country's pilots. But we have to take the report at face value -- it's all we have on the record.

In the absence of that hard evidence, alternative theories flourished, bolstered by rumors. Like how the captain circled his home island of Penang for "one last look," or how the plane flew at different altitudes and routes to avoid radar. These make good yarns but aren't true.

There was no circling of Penang and there was no major change in altitude -- the Malaysian radar turned out to be wrong. These theories were all debunked by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in a rebuttal to Australian veteran pilot Byron Bailey who argues for the "rogue pilot" theory.

Also, the plane was spotted by Thai radar, which ignored it because it wasn't relevant. Finally, never forget that the plane was spotted by the Malaysian military as it flew across the country on that fateful night but was also ignored. A rogue pilot couldn't have banked on the failure of an oblivious radar operator not to scramble jets to see what was going on.

Read | MH370 flight lawsuits gain pace as two-year deadline approaches

I shall leave it to others to make the case against the pilots on technical grounds. But we must stick to the facts.

The fact is there is no evidence to say the pilots did this.

Before I am prepared to convict a lifelong captain or a newbie first officer of hijacking a plane and killing 238 other people, I want more than a few odd rumors, a lot of scurrilous gossip and a heap of poor arguments. I am prepared to be proved totally wrong. Until such time I am not prepared to say "it was the pilot that did it."

Richard Quest is CNN's Aviation Correspondent.The views expressed are personal
We have come a long way from the times when only 38 women MPs were represented in Parliament (5.3%) to the current day when 12% of Parliament is composed of women MPs.

Yet, we are much behind nations like Iraq, China and even many African nations like Rwanda and Tunisia. Interestingly, these nations fare better than us in the UNDP inequality index too. Indeed, development of any nation is concomitant to development of its female population, which in turn is linked to their representation in the policymaking process.

The reservation for women in Parliament has been a long-standing issue that has transformed itself into a dormant political missile, which is brought out at the beck and call of political parties to stir up vote banks and then swiftly hidden away once a political purpose is solved. Talk of womens reservation began for the first time in Parliament when the HD Deve Gowda-led United Front government introduced the Womens Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996. It was not passed and since then, the ghost of this bill has been called upon a number of times by various parties, for one reason or the other.

The proverbial rally between the governments has continued ever since, and has stretched for so long that even Vicky Nelson and Jean Hepners record-breaking game would

be put to shame. The NDA government re-introduced the bill in the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999. It moved the bill again amid uproar in 2002 while Left parties and the Congress gave assurances to support the bill, if taken up. After having been introduced twice in that Parliament, it was considered best to send the genie of the bill back into the bottle rather than some protesting MPs to the well, who were, well, products of the Mandal days and were vehemently protesting against any form of further reservations around the well of the House. Just before the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, Vajpayee blamed Congress for stalling the bill and said BJP and its allies would pass the legislation after getting a decisive mandate in 2004 elections. That, of course did not happen, and here exactly was the trick  it was a claim that was not meant to be fulfilled.

In 2004, the UPA Common Minimum Program declared: The UPA government will take the lead to introduce legislation for one-third reservations for women in Vidhan Sabhas and in the Lok Sabha. In 2005, BJP announced complete support for the bill. Next, Uma Bharti and others objected to the bill and demanded a caste quota within the bill. The deuce continued as the House was adjourned ahead of schedule without taking up the bill.

During the UPA-II government, the bill was passed on 9th March 2010 by the Rajya Sabha yet no voting took place on it in the Lok Sabha  another U-turn! One can wonder,

as to why it was not passed in UPA-II straightaway? Why was the opportunity missed? The answer was blowing in the wind and the obvious answer is: elections.

Yet, as political calculations go, this time, the UPA mandate was lost and the bill came back in the court of the BJP dominated 16th Lok Sabha.

The rally has now resumed. In the Womens Legislators Conference, held on 5th and 6th March, I came across all Congress delegates again speaking about women

reservations. Even Mrs. Sonia Gandhi demanded the same in Parliament on Tuesday in her Womens Day address. It is now to be seen if the current government will support this bill, or will they put the ghost back into the coffin.

The bill is now 18 years old and must get its right of adult franchise. Amidst the mutual bickering of the parties, it is the women of the nation who have been at the losing end. The women of this nation now look with hope, yet again, eagerly awaiting their bill to be passed in Parliament they elected. We must hope that this time the issue of women representation will emerge as a victor of political consensus rather than as a victim of discord.

(The author is a Member of Parliament from Nizamabad. The views expressed are personal.)
The Congress announced on Tuesday a list of 75 seats it would contest in the West Bengal assembly polls next month, further cementing an informal electoral pact with the Left parties to take on a formidable Trinamool Congress.

Top Congress sources added the party may finally contest around 80 seats, effectively giving away the remaining 214 seats to the Left and other allies. It, however, didnt name any candidates.

On Monday, the Left Front unveiled a first list of 116 names. The other candidates would be announced soon.

Senior Congress strategists in Delhi told HT there may not be joint campaigns with Left leaders but top Congress leaders including party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will go to Bengal to seek votes.

This is the first time the two traditional rivals have buried the hatchet and come together to take on the Trinamool.

The alliance is based on electoral compulsion. Workers want the alliance. After talks with the Left, we announced the names of 75 seats. These seats have been unanimously agreed upon, said Adhir Chowdhury, Congress state president.

We are looking to contest in 100 plus seats. The rest Left Front will contest. Talks are on to decide on the other seats.

He said the Congress and Left Front should not beat around the bush about the alliance. But Left Front chairman Biman Bose made it clear on Monday there would be no joint campaign or sharing stage.

In Delhi, a Congress leader pointed out the party needs both the CPI(M) and the Trinamool at the national level to counter the Modi government that enjoys an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

This is one of the key reasons why we cant chose one party over another in Bengal, he said.

While announcing the candidate list, the Congress leader made it clear that the Left would keep a distance with Congress at the grassroot level and only joint flag-less protests would take place in case of violence.

We would be happy to go for a joint campaign. It was the workers who made us get into this alliance and it is the workers who are demanding that we walk together. Biman Bose may not like me, but it is the people demand that we should come together. Why the hide and seek? said Chowdhury.

The Congress state president did not mince words and stated that party would campaign for Left candidates in the state.

Where there are Left Front candidates and we have no candidates, we will campaign for them. However in Murshidabad, in one or two seats there may be a friendly fight. But we will talk about it with them (CPIM), said Chowdhury.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday flagged off Shakti Rath in Bhopal the occasion of International Womens Day. Various functions in Bhopal and Indore marked the occasion

The Shakti Rath will publicise policies and schemes related to welfare of women. Women and child development minister Maya Singh was present on the occasion.

To commemorate International Womens Day, various programmes were organised in the city. DGP Surendra Sinh felicitated police officers and brave girls in a function organised at Bharat Bhawan by MP polices Crime Against Women cell. Sinh said MP police were acting tough on criminals. In the past two years, in more than 6000 crime cases against women, culprits were given life imprisonment and capital punishment.

Balaghat, IG, DC Sagar, DSP Kamla Joshi, Indore, IG, RP Shrivastava and his team and Bhopal IG Yogesh Chaudhary and his team were felicitated for their contributions. Painting and debate competition were also organised.

SBI organises medical check-up camp for women

State Bank of India organised a medical check-up camp for underprivileged women at Village Ratanpur near Bhopal. SBI has adopted this village under its Digital Village Scheme. These camps were organised pan India by SBI. In MP & CG the Bank organised twelve such camps to address the medical need of underprivileged women. The camp has been named as Vanita Aarogya Sampada the women beneficiaries underwent eye check-up, cancer detection, gynaec check-up, general check-up and check-up for diabetes.

NGO felicitates women

An NGO Sangini -Gender Resource Centre- felicitated 125 house hold workers for their active participation in raising voice against injustice with women in their areas.

The NGO director Prathana Mishra, activist Upasana, corporator Seema Saxena honoured women.

A symposium was organised to discuss over issues related to women in a city hotel.

Aarambh Organisation in coordination with Sight Savers organized an free eye camp for women. The 300 women participated in the camp.

Women bank employees also organised a rally to observe the International Womens Day.

Contractual female teachers hand over red roses to CM

Contractual female teachers handed over red roses to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan demanding their regularisation of their services.

Free rides in buses for women in Indore

Female passengers enjoyed free rides in Indores buses on Tuesday, a scheme announced by authorities to celebrate International Womens Day.

The special i-buses, decorated with pink balloons, were crowded as hundreds of women stepped in to take advantage of the plan.

Its amazing that the district administration even thought about it. My friends and I were visiting several places today and it came as big relief for us since we did not had to pay any ticket fee, said Gauri Sharma, a student.

Mayor Malini Gaud called it a gift from the administration for all women in the city.

It came as a pleasant surprise to me, said Suneeta Nagrani, a housewife. The entire journey would have cost me about forty rupees. But I didnt have to pay anything.

Film Jai Gangaajal screened

A private movie theatre organised a special screening of the film Jai Gangaajal in which Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra plays a tough cop. About hundred women were allowed to watch it free.

I came with my daughter and my mother-in-law to see this film. We had heard a lot about the movie and it is a wonderful gift on this day, said Priyanka Deshpandey, a housewife.

A media school in the city also arranged a felicitation programme along with a group discussion on Challenges and opportunities faced by women journalists.

The institute, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, honoured and lauded the efforts of female reporters and commentators in highlighting womens issues.

Senior journalist Shashindra Jaldhari attended the programme that saw participants speak out on gender discrimination at workplace.
When film-maker Maneesh Sharma met Shah Rukh Khan 12 years ago, little did he know that he would go on to direct the actor in the future. In 2004, I had decided to move to Mumbai to make films. I had a concept in mind and I wanted to meet some top actors to discuss it. Mr Khan was the first one on my priority list. I managed to connect with him with the help of his spot boy. SRK was very gracious and asked me to meet him, recalls the film-maker, whose upcoming directorial features the star.

Watch: Shah Rukh Khan in Fan trailer

Maneesh says he was surprised when he reached SRKs house. When I reached Mannat, I was amazed to see so many fans standing outside his residence. Somewhere, I felt good that I could cut through the crowd. Thats when the idea of my next struck me, he says, adding that there are a lot of commonalities between Shah Rukh and him. We studied in the same college in Delhi and had the same drama teachers. It felt really good when I shared this information with him. We chatted for almost an hour. He came till the gate to see me off. I was surprised, says Maneesh.

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Apart from being lauded for his performances in Bollywood movies, Irrfan Khan is also one of the first Indian actors to make a mark in international cinema. He has been part of Hollywood, Canadian and British films in the past. The actor recently signed another international venture, a Bengali-English project, which is being helmed by popular Bangladeshi film-maker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. Now, we have come to know that Irrfan, who is well-versed in Bengali, will need to brush up on his skills.

Read: Indian directors should head to Hollywood, says Irrfan Khan

Read: 4 times Irrfan Khan turned down Hollywood

A source close to the actor says, Irrfan can speak Bengali fluently. However, Bangladeshi Bengali is different from whats spoken in India. So, to prepare for the film, he will have to learn this particular dialect.

Irrfan Khan attends the 61st Filmfare Awards 2016 ceremony in Mumbai on January 15, 2016. (AFP)

The source adds that though the film will largely be shot in English, Irrfan will have many dialogues in Bengali as well. He has started brushing up on his language skills already and is learning the nuances of the local dialect to get the pronunciation right. He will start shooting for the film next week, says the source.

We tried reaching Irrfan, but he remained unavailable for a comment.

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Usually, economic growth goes hand in hand with emancipation of women. But data available with the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows otherwise for India. Between 2004 to 2011, when the Indian economy grew at a healthy average of about 7%, there was a decline in female participation in the countrys labour force from over 35% to 25%. Its a puzzling picture; over the past few decades access to education for Indian women has increased but still they have increasingly stayed away from employment.

The New York Times has analysed the data to link it with age old gender norms in India; in a male dominated society, women are rarely encouraged to seek jobs outside their homes. There are also biases against certain jobs which lead to poor participation of women in the labour force.

But in certain sector like financial services, Indian women lead the charge. While only one in 10 Indian companies are led by women, more than half of them are in the financial sector. Today, women head both the top public and private banks in India.

Another example is Indias aviation sector, 11.7 percent of Indias 5,100 pilots are women, versus 3 percent worldwide. But these successes only represent a small section of women in the country.

India does poorly in comparison to its neighbours despite a more robust economic growth. In comparison to India, women in Bangladesh have increased their participation in the labour market, which is due to the growth of the ready-made garment sector and a push to rural female employment. In 2015, women comprised of 43% of the labour force in Bangladesh. The rate has also increased in Pakistan, albeit from a very low starting point, while participation has remained relatively stable in Sri Lanka. Myanmar with 79% and Malaysia with 49% are also way ahead of India.

Research done by ILO shows that there has been a some increase of women employment in urban areas, rural India shows the exact opposite trend since 2004. ILO attributes this to three factors: increasing educational enrolment, improvement in earnings of male workers that discourages womens economic participation, and the lack of employment opportunities at certain levels of skills and qualifications discouraging women to seek work.

But no study on Indian women is complete without considering their contribution to household work which goes without any national accounting.

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Indias largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Tuesday launched an initiative -- iWork@home -- to allow its women employees, the option to work from home. This allows women who may need to be at home either during pregnancy or childcare, to work from home for a period of upto one year.

Employees will be provided access to their required operating systems in a safe and secure manner, thereby creating a seamless office-like environment.

According to a study, undertaken by the bank about a year ago, two-thirds of the women employees quit their jobs for constraints arising out of maternity and childcare needs.

Women opting for this programme can even seek an extension of the work-from-home period beyond one year. However, extension will be granted to only on careful consideration of performances.

Besides this, the bank will also bear the costs for children and their caregivers when women managers have to travel out on business.

Lack of support system due to predominance of nuclear families, inadequate infrastructure facilities like creches and long commute time further accentuate the problem. To ensure that the women do not leave the workforce, there is a strong need for a robust support system, both at home and at work, Chanda Kochhar, managing director & CEO, ICICI Bank said.

Although women form 48% of Indias population, their representation in the workforce is much lower than men, Kochhar added.
Worried about the fate of loans worth thousands of crores of rupees given to the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, a consortium of 13 banks on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking to restrain industrialist Vijay Mallya from leaving India.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi sought an urgent hearing of the petition filed by 13 banks, including the State Bank of India, which also sought the impounding of Mallyas passport.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur agreed to hear it on Wednesday.

The banks move comes a day after the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against Mallya and the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) barred him from touching the Rs 515 crore settlement he reached with Diageo. The DRT will hear the matter again on March 28.

The ED case is based on a CBI probe into alleged wilful default by the high-flying owner of Kingfisher Airlines on a Rs 900-crore loan in conspiracy with IDBI Bank representatives.

The SBI, the largest lender of Kingfisher, had approached the DRT in Bangalore to restrain Mallya from withdrawing Rs 515 crore he got as a severance package from London--based Diageo.

Mallya had quit the chairmanship of its Indian company, United Spirits Ltd, last month.

Banks Kingfisher Airlines owes money to have demanded first right to the Diageo cash, arguing that they were left with unpaid debts worth Rs 7,000 crore when the company collapsed more than three years ago.

The SBI declared Mallya once known as The King of Good Times for his flashy lifestyle and lavish parties a wilful defaulter last month. A wilful defaulter is one who uses borrowed funds for purposes other than it was meant for.

The SBI and others have also appealed to the Karnataka high court that the businessman be arrested and his passport impounded.

Earlier, former Kingfisher Airlines employees had written an open letter blaming Mallya for the grounding of the carrier and damaging the countrys reputation in the aviation industry.

Read | Wont abscond from India, negotiating deal with banks: Vijay Mallya

Read | Islands, castles, stud farm, vintage cars: How rich is Vijay Mallya?
For some time now, I have been studying the socio-politics and socio-economics of Maharashtra and trying to make sense of its various community configurations.

In the 1990s, the then chief minister Sharad Pawar attempted some social engineering during the rehabilitation of earthquake victims in Latur and faced resistance. The government had decided to resettle the people on the basis of economic status, rather than social norms. Which meant you could end up with just about anybody as your neighbour. When I spoke to one of the women who was at the centre of the protest I was startled to discover it was not food habits or religion that was affecting her sensibilities. I am willing to accept a Muslim as my neighbour and I have no problems with their kurbani during Id. But I will not live beside a Maang or a Mahar!

Read | Maha cabinet approves law to rein in social boycott practices

Maangs and Mahars were considered among the lowest in the caste hierarchy and Pawar attempted to blunt the edge of their social ostracism. But he did not succeed. Although the government was firm in its resolution to mix up the castes in the villages and get rid of their enclaves, dig a common well and build a temple and mosque at opposite ends of the village, the resistance was huge. The lower castes got socially boycotted  finally, it was they who appealed for a special zone for themselves so that they could be at peace with their neighbours.

Decades later, little has changed. Now chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is trying to address the issue by bringing forward a Bill to outlaw such social boycott. Resistance, this time, is coming from his own party, many who believe this attempt at social engineering will hurt the BJP. Fadnavis has been compelled to seek advice from the Centre about the Bill I am not sure Delhi will oblige.

Read | Farmers see PM Modis budget as all promise, no delivery

Even the Congress and NCP, for over 15 years of their rule in the state, dragged their feet over a Bill to outlaw superstitions and witch-hunting. It was the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar that energised the government to disregard the objections of the Shiv Sena and the BJP, and pass it in the legislature. But despite that the law is not being implemented in the manner it should.

I can understand Fadnavis need to bring forward a progressive law like the one he is propounding because in the past year it has become obvious, despite the tectonic shift in the polity of the state, the social ethos remains rational and progressive. Villagers are getting highly rattled by some of the regressive programmes of this government, particularly the ban on beef. This has less to do with Muslims and Dalits who may have been large-scale consumers and more with farmers in a drought-racked state unable to sell their cattle or keep them fed. Many have been abandoning their cattle in the nearest towns  the increasing number of unclaimed cattle in Maharashtras cities is noticeable.

Read | Irrigation plan soon for all districts in Maharashtra

Earlier there was a lot of disgust among villagers against the rural elite like the Pawars or the Deshmukhs. According to Prakash Pawar of the Shivaji University in Kolhapur, it was visible during both the elections in 2014 that the Marathas had been isolated by other groups. But the upper-caste domination in government continues and the lack of progressive policies disappoint them. Given this, I believe Fadnavis is on track with his anti-social boycott Bill. But will he be allowed to become the liberal face of the BJP?

The answer, I guess, is already blowing in the wind.

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The Art of Livings mega cultural extravaganza which begins just three days from now on the ecologically fragile Yamuna banks is still to get security, traffic, fire and structural safety clearances.

The traffic police have warned the organisers of the World Cultural Festival, possibly the biggest Delhi has ever seen, that lack of proper clearances could cause massive traffic snarls in the city.

There have been several issues we have raised with the organisers but there is serious lack of coordination. Surprisingly, we are not the only agency facing a problem with the way the event is being organised. Several letters have been sent from other agencies as well conveying their concerns, said a Delhi Police senior official.

Read more: President to skip Art of Living show; NGT hearing on event today

The event is still to get fire and security clearances from the Delhi Fire Services and the police. The fire department has raised serious concerns. Despite several reminders, the department was awaiting an estimate of the number of participants and a blueprint of the event with the number of entries and exits.

In case the permissions are not taken, we will have to apply our own interest. But it will help us effectively manage the event if we are given these details. We can plan our resources better. We have had over a dozen exchanges with the Art of Living organisers but the issue is unresolved, a fire official said.

Saraswati Akshama Nath, counsel for the Art of Living, told HT that participants will park their vehicles at the Millennium Bus Depot from where a shuttle service will operate.

Read more: Art of Living didnt inform about scale of event at Yamuna plains: DDA

Senior Delhi government officials, however, refuted the claim. Sources in the transport department said that the depot had not been approved as a parking lot for the event.

The organisers have projected that over 3.5 million people will be a part of this festival, which could possibly get them into the Guinness World Records.

Police said the last time the city had seen such a massive gathering was Narendra Modis election campaign in Rohini in 2013 where 2.5 lakh people participated. Permissions and clearances for the rally had been given a month in advance, according to police records.

We will try to accommodate as many vehicles in the available parking space we have. We are not just dealing with the participants but other commuters who will be affected by an event of such proportions. The current plan is to allow maximum vehicles s in the parking lots after which we will have to send them back, said Muktesh Chander, specialal commissioner of police (traffic). ).

The event is also due to get a structural safety certificate from m the central public works departtment. After the fire at the Make e in India event in Mumbai, the e department is particularly cauutious in issuing safety certificatess unless completely convinced of f the arrangements.

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Art of Living Foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, under fire for organising a massive event on the Yamuna floodplain, said on Tuesday his organisation will build a biodiversity park in the area, rubbishing allegations of ecological harm.

Ravi Shankar told reporters not a single tree was cut in the run up to the World Cultural Festival to be held between March 11-13 and that four trees have only been trimmed in the riverine area.

Read: Prez pulls out of Art of Livings Yamuna event: What we know so far

Villagers said that their buffaloes never went near the water in the past. Now I have been informed by them that those buffaloes have entered the water. The villagers are very happy.

We will leave the place after making a biodiversity park there. In the past, our volunteers have brought out 512 tonne of garbage from Yamuna. We have not cut any trees, have just trimmed four. We want a clean Yamuna and we care about the environment, Ravi Shankar said.

Watch: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Not even one tree has been cut for the event





The event, slated to take place between March 11-13 on the west bank of Yamuna floodplain near DND flyover, has been organised to celebrate 35 years of The Art of Living. It is being supported by the Centre and the Delhi government among others, and is expected to attract around 35 lakh people.

It has come under the scanner of National Green Tribunal after a set of petitions were filed demanding its cancellation over concerns of potential permanent damage to the riverbed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the event on Friday and President Pranab Mukherjee was to attend the valedictory function on Sunday.

However, Mukherjee on Monday pulled out of the event in the wake of controversy citing unavoidable circumstances.
A gang of extortionists that trapped property dealers and businessmen using women and shot intimate videos to extort money has been busted, police said on Monday.

One member of the gang, a small-time financer who suffered losses in his business, was arrested on Sunday from southwest Delhis Najafgarh by the special cell .

Police said the gang had extorted money to the tune of around Rs 80 lakh from four businessmen in the last three years. All the four cases were registered at different police stations.

The female member of the gang would call a potential victim, preferably a well-to-do property dealer, and befriend him on the pretext of selling a flat. She would convince him to come to the flat to see its condition and fix the deal. While the woman would engage him in a conversation, the male members of the gang would arrive and overpower the victim. They would drug him and shoot intimate videos with the woman, said a senior police officer.

They would later show him the video and blackmail him, the officer said.

Police said the gang even posed as crime branch officers in a couple of cases. When a few victims resisted, the female members threatened to implicate them in a false rape case.

Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, DCP (special cell), said gang member Arvind Kadyan, who has been arrested, is a close associate of habitual extortionist Sandeep alias Rinku of west Delhis Nangloi.

Kadyan was arrested following investigation into a kidnapping case registered at the Uttam Nagar police station.

The gang had extorted R40 lakh from Mahender Yadav, a property dealer who was honey-trapped by a woman in December 2015, said the DCP. They demanded R50lakh but Yadavs family could arrange only R40 lakh.

They forced him to tell his family that he was in Haridwar for a business deal and wanted R50 lakh for the deal, the DCP said.

They filmed intimate videos of Yadav with the woman and threatened to circulate it if he reported the matter to the police. Yadav approached the police after he was released by his abductors.

Efforts were on to arrest other members of the gang.
New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday the Central Bureau of Investigation did not follow proper procedure in summoning his officials.

Kejriwal tweeted that CBI had been issuing informal summons to his office staff through phone, instead of issuing written notices, in connection with the raid conducted at Delhi secretariat on December 15, 2015.

CBI summons Delhi CMs staff informally on phone without notice. Staff of other ministers called earlier like this, (sic), Kejriwal tweeted.

According to senior officials from the Delhi government, the CMs staff was summoned over the phone on Monday. Kejriwal has in the past alleged that officers and staff members of his cabinet colleagues too were summoned by CBI sleuths informally. No notice was served to them too.

The AAP government functionaries alleged that officers were harassed by the CBI by being made to sit in the CBI office for hours and then sent back.

CBI sources, on the other hand, said that the Delhi government was aware of the fact that the agency had called three officials of the Delhi secretariat this week in its corruption probe against IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, principal secretary to Kejriwal.

A deputy secretary working in the general administration department of the Delhi government had sent a letter to a CBI SP on Monday, requesting for ensuring that the three secretariat officials were questioned in a staggered manner and not on the same day. His point was that their questioning on the same day would disrupt the day-to-day work at the CMs office, said a CBI source.
How big is the area that the Art of Living has occupied on Yamuna floodplains for its World Culture Festival? The answer depends on which side is answering the question.

The organisation had sought clearances for 97.4 acres, as per the DDA. However, the pamphlets and officials statements by the organisation claim the area of the venue to be 1,000 acres.

But after a controversy erupted over the use of floodplains for construction and other activities, the Art of Living (AOL) on Monday said it did not use any extra space than the area allotted to it.

AOLs counsel Saraswati Akshama Nath contradicted the claims in the pamphlets. We are spread only over an area of 97 acres. We have not occupied any area that was not allotted to us, she said.

Read more: President to skip Art of Living show; NGT hearing on event today

A petition against the event is being heard in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the next hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which was pulled up by the NGT last Monday for giving permission to AOL to hold the festival, refused permission twice  once in February, 2015 and the next in November 2015  before giving in.

Read more: Art of Living didnt inform about scale of event at Yamuna plains: DDA

The DDA allotted an area of 60.34 acres. The remaining 37.06 acres was allotted by the UP irrigation department. DDAs lawyer at the National Green Tribunal alleged that the organisers had spread to area for which permission was not given, a charge refuted by AOL.

A pamphlet and a fact sheet shared with the Hindustan Times on March 2, clearly states that the area for the venue is 1,000 acres.

According to Nath, kachcha roads have been constructed to get people from one part of the floodplain to the other. She did not comment on whether the area of the roads, along with the allotted 97.4 acres, makes the total area 1,000 acres.

The initial idea was to use the UP land for parking. This plan seems to have been shelved for now. The DDA land is being used for the 7-acre stage and seating.

Sources in the DDA said the organisers have exaggerated the area as well as the number of participants in a bid to create a world record for the biggest gathering in the world.

The two pontoon bridges, built by the Indian Army, have to bear the load of the 35 lakh people that the organisers say will attend the festival.

Sources said the capacity of the two bridges is only 80,000 people in one day, a far cry from the numbers that the organisation is expecting to attend. A pontoon bridge may collapse if the load increases.
A high-profile controversial event planned on Delhis eco-sensitive Yamuna floodplain appeared uncertain on Tuesday after the national green tribunal asked the Centre to explain why the organisers werent asked to get an environmental clearance.

The organisers of the World Culture Festival, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankars the Art of Living Foundation, admitted before the green court that with three days to go, no fire department or transport department permissions had been obtained.

The NGT adjourned the matter until Wednesday, when a verdict is expected.

The developments came a day after President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of the three-day cultural extravaganza in east Delhi that is under fire for flattening the floodplain, destroying birds nesting sites and choking the polluted Yamuna with construction debris.

Read: Prez pulls out of Art of Livings Yamuna event: What we know so far

You (ministry of environment and forests) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.

The direction came after environment ministry counsel said they found no debris at the site, when an expert team had visited and as per the Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

The green panel also questioned the controversial building of a pontoon bridge over the Yamuna by the army and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel who gave the permission for setting it up.

Organisers have cleared over 1,000 acres of land for the festival that opens on Friday to mark the 35th anniversary of the Art of Living Foundation.

Read: Art of Living to build biodiversity park on Yamuna floodplain: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The organisers told the NGT they did not conduct any environment impact study as the environment ministry didnt ask for it.

Has any authority concerned considered the impact of the ArtofLiving festival on river, biodiversity? Kumar asked.

The foundation also said it expected 200,000-300,000 people to turn up, contradicting its own promotional material that said 3.5 million people were to attend the festival. It said buses meant to ferry people to the event would be housed at the millennium bus depot but admitted the transport departments permission hadnt been sought yet.

The fire departments permission would be sought in a day or two, it added  barely any time before the event opened on Friday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the festival where cultural performances, spiritual talk and yoga and meditation sessions will be held over three days.

Read: Army used for Art of Living event after stampede concern: Official

Though Modis has confirmed his schedule, sources said his office was aware of the controversies and was keeping a track of the developments.

Construction is banned in the eco-fragile area, but a stage spread over seven acres has come up on the west bank of the Yamuna along with several other temporary structures, including pontoon bridges.

HT wrote about bulldozers and other heavy machinery being used to level the ground for chairs and carpets and pitching tents. Crops were damaged as farmers were asked to clear fields to cut roads.

The floodplain has been completely destroyed; the natural vegetation consisting to reeds, and trees has been completely removed, a panel told NGT.

Dismissing the NGT report as biased, Ravi Shankar said not a tree was cut and he would have received a red-carpet welcome in any other country for holding such an event.

The spiritual guru, who has a worldwide following, denied that the floodplain was destroyed and said it was an eco-friendly function.

(With inputs from agencies)
Handwriting is an important skill to learn. Like any other skill, it gets better only with practice. During examination time, students are taught the importance of time and stress management, but it is equally important for them to understand the need for good handwriting.

Its no surprise that as technology has become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, the act of writing with a pen has been somewhat forgotten. However, despite the increased use of computers, the skill of handwriting remains important in our education system.

To highlight this particular aspect, HT-PACE organised a calligraphy workshop in various schools across Delhi and NCR. Participant schools included Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar, The Heritage School, Vasant Kunj, Delhi Public School, Sector-45, Gurgaon, De Indian Public School, Rohini and Lilawati Vidya Mandir, Shakti Nagar.

Ajay Vasudeva, director of Creative Hands, who conducted the workshop, said handwriting is not hand-writing, its the brain which is writing. Because handwriting is such a complex skill, many children have difficulty mastering it. This may cause frustration and distress and affect a childs desire to write. It may also cause anxiety for the parents and teachers who see the child struggle to put his or her ideas on paper.

The resource person in his session elaborated on how children find a range of imaginative ways to hold a pencil if they are not supported and trained in developing a tripod pencil grip. He placed colour markers on the shaft of the pencil to show where to place the thumb and index finger when a tripod grip is used.

Kavya, a Class 4 student of De Indian Public School, Rohini, said, I have learned the basics of writing, such as the correct way to hold the pen, making basic shapes with it, and then combining these shapes into letters and numerals. The whole experience of learning this art was quite educative.

Avni Dagar, a Class 4 student of De Indian Public School, Rohini, said, The important thing that I learnt from the workshop was that calligraphy requires consistent practice like every other valuable skill. However, it is also not that difficult to learn this art as it first appeared.

Read more: Try your hand at calligraphy, cartooning, much more

The students had a good time learning the finer arts of calligraphy. I thank my school for giving me the opportunity to learn calligraphy and wish that such sessions are conducted again, said Karandeep Singh, a Class 3 student of De Indian Public School, Rohini.
Gurgaon MP and Union minister of state for defence, Rao Inderjit Singh, said the recent strife and violence in Haryana during the Jat agitation does not augur well for the state and is a zero sum game. Singh criticised the Haryana government for its failure to manage the agitation.

The minister was speaking at the valedictory function of the Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit that concluded on Tuesday.

I can say this on the basis of my experience and understanding that the recent strife will not be allowed to recur as everyone is a loser when something like this happens, Singh said.

The 10-day agitation demanding reservation for the Jat community in education and government jobs had brought the state to a standstill in the third week of February. Protesters vandalised public property, blocked road and rail transport and damaged channels carrying water to Delhi and Gurgaon.

Referring to the resentment brewing among the youth and certain sections of society, Singh said there was a need to balance development and take industries to backward areas.

More importantly, the industry should think about giving back to society in terms of jobs and subsidiary work, which can become a steady source of income, the Gurgaon MP said. He criticised the private sector for not employing locals.

The Union minster also reminded the state government about the importance of creating adequate infrastructure, and bringing water to the city. Where will the water come from? Where are the roads? If the government does not plan and deliver on these things, the promises of development will not mature, he said.

Haryana, a water-starved state, needs to turn this condition around. The centre and state should together strive for sustainable development, he said.

The protesters had also damaged a water supply channel to Gurgaon, leaving the city parched for over a week.

Appreciating the role played by the people of Gurgaon and south Haryana during the agitation, Singh said this maturity was the reason that the city raced ahead and became attractive for foreign and local investors over the last three decades.

After speaking his mind for about 10 minutes, Singh lauded the Haryana government for its perseverance. I also laud the investors, who preserved their faith in the state despite the challenging times. Offers of investment worth `5 lakh crore are overwhelming indeed, he said.

The minister also congratulated the state government for its resolve in improving the infrastructure. Creating educational and skill development opportunities for those whose lands were acquired for setting up industries and other infrastructure projects, is also imperative, he said.

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Actor Ron Perlman says the third part of his and Guillermo Del Toros popular film series Hellboy may never happen, but, never say never.

However, the 65-year-old actor, who played the comic book character in both 2004s Hellboy and its 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, is still not willing to rule the idea, reported Digital Spy.

Watch the first Hellboys trailer here

Read: Fantastic Beasts trailer: Harry Potter prequel had us at Lumos Maxima

He admitted that the third adaptation of Mike Mignolas classic comic will probably will never happen, though you never say never never.

Watch the Hellboy 2 trailer here

The actor has been interested in bringing the red-skinned hero back to the big screen, and is still frequently discussing the possibility  while Mignola has almost ruled it out with the same frequency.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
The Indian Army was directed by the defence ministry to build floating bridges for Art of Livings upcoming event on the Yamuna floodplain after the Delhi Police expressed fears of a stampede at the venue, ministry and army officials said Tuesday.

The armys effort to build two pontoon bridges have come under criticism amid growing opposition to the March 11 event that critics say will damage the eco-sensitive Yamuna floodplain. Organisers of the event expect 35 lakh visitors from across the country to show up at the three-day festival. The number of concurrent visitors at any time is estimated to range from 2 to 3 lakh.

Read: Prez pulls out of Art of Livings Yamuna event: What we know so far

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankars AOL Foundation hasnt had to pay anything for the construction of the bridges because the army doesnt have a policy of charging a fee for such help, which it usually extends at times of natural disasters.

The Art of Living had approached the army to set up six pontoon bridges across the river to the floodplain, but the force was reluctant, said an Indian army official who didnt want to be named because sensitive nature of the issue.

Read: 5 things you need to know about Art of Living cultural festival

It agreed to build a couple after receiving a directive from the defence ministry, where officials defended the decision citing concerns around public safety.

The construction of the bridges has been criticised on the ground that the army was being pressed into facilitating what is seen as an event organized in violation of public rules and regulations.

Following the public outcry, defence minister Manohar Parrikar is reported to have asked his ministry to put together a policy for the armys involvement in such events.
The vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Zameeruddin Shah on Monday revealed that, during his recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he cautioned the latter against any move to change the minority character of the university as it would be a setback for the nation.

Shah made this revelation while addressing a seminar on Communal Harmony organised by Sir Syed Awareness Forum in the university staff club.

A five-member delegation led by Shah met Modi in New Delhi on Saturday, wherein the vice-chancellor had raised the issue of AMUs minority status before the PM.

Addressing the seminar Shah further said, I requested the Prime Minister not to interfere with AMUs minority status as the sentiments of Indian Muslims are attached to it. Also, the issue of restoration of minority character of AMU is pending with the Supreme Court.

I also reminded the Prime Minister that in 1980 the Janata Party had promised to restore the minority character of the university in its manifesto. I asked him that if he was committed to Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas then why should the government try to alter AMUs minority status added Shah.

He also apprised the Prime Minister of the ongoing research on cleaning the Ganga at AMU.

Referring to the reported illegal establishment of the varsitys three off-campus centres in Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar, he asserted that they had been approved by concerned authorities.
The Congress on Tuesday gave an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha after a church in Chhattisgarh was vandalised and its parishioners were thrashed and assaulted causing a furore.

Congress leader KC Venugopal gave the adjournment motion.

Meanwhile, the Centre has sought a report from Chhattisgarh government on the vandalism of the church and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju asserted that police have already taken necessary action and the guilty will not be spared.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the Raipur church, which some people attacked and vandalised during the Sunday prayer.

As per reports, a group of youth stormed the church and attacked worshippers alleging religious conversion.

Five people, including two women, sustained minor injuries.

The Chhattisgarh Christian Association has demanded stern action against the vandals.
Cant boil an egg is a phrase used for a person who cannot cook. At a festival in Mizoram last week, 500 people stuffed boiled eggs into each others mouths to cook up the revival of a pre-Christian custom.

In the 19th century, Welsh missionaries discouraged the celebration of Mizo festivals and practices they considered pagan. The customs included Chhawnghnawh that in the olden days entailed stuffing rice, meat and eggs into each others mouths and washing it down with Zu or local fermented alcohol.

The egg part of Chhawnghnawh staged a comeback during the spring-heralding Chapchar Kut festival in northern Mizorams Kolasib district on Friday, more than a century after it vanished from the celebrations.

Mizorams biggest festival, Chapchar Kut marks the clearing and readying of hill slopes for jhum or shifting cultivation.

The return of Chhawnghnawh is part of the process to preserve culture and ethnical heritage of the Mizos and pass it on to the future generations, said Mizorams horticulture minister PC Lalthanliana, who presided over the celebration.

The egg part of Chhawnghnawh staged a comeback during the spring-heralding Chapchar Kut festival in northern Mizorams Kolasib district on Friday, more than a century after it vanished from the celebrations. (HT Photo)

Kolasib district is better known for the armys Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairangte, about 130 km from Mizoram capital Aizawl.

Officials said the revival served two purposes  connect todays generation with the ways of their forefathers and mark the progress in farm activities under the Lal Thanhawla-led Congress governments new land use policy.

Southeast Asian link

This years Chapchar Kut in Kolasib district was a departure from the past in terms of showcasing lesser known dances such as Siktuithiang Lam, Khuangchawi, Tlanglam, Miraung Inchuh and Chhepchher Nena Zai. These were performed alongside the more popular Cheraw, Chai, Chheihlam and Sarlamki dances.

Cheraw, better known as the Mizo bamboo dance, entails female dancers stepping in and out of spaces created by clashing bamboo poles. The dance arguably is the Mizos cultural link with various ethnic groups across Southeast Asia, China and beyond in the Philippines.

Cheraw is closest to the variants of the Chin and Karen groups in Myanmar and Thailand. If the bamboo dance is more of a sport for the Lizu, Hmong and Miao communities of southeast China, it has a martial connotation for Borneos Murut tribe who call it Anggalang Magunatip.

The Tinikling variant in the Philippines imitates the movement of a bird that dodges bamboo traps set by rice farmers while the Singkil or Kasingkil, also in the Philippines has traditionally been a solo performance, usually by a woman showing off her steps to potential suitors.

In Thailand, the Lao-kra-top-mai is a theatrical variant. The Robam-kom-araek of Cambodia and Mua-sap of Vietnam incorporate elaborate hand gestures.





Pre-Christian festival

Chapchar Kut is an agricultural festival that predates Christianity in Mizoram, celebrated for almost 500 years before the arrival of the Welsh missionaries in the 1900s.

In 1960, a member of the erstwhile Mizo Hills District Council named Hrangaia reintroduced Chapchar Kut as a symbolic celebration. The dances and certain customs in tune with Christian beliefs were revived, but the egg-specific Chhawnghnawh took 56 years to stage a comeback.

Chapchar Kut is one of three annual festivals of the Mizos celebrated to mark three different stages of the agricultural cycle. The other two are Mim Kut and Pawl Kut, also revived in the last century.

Oral traditions say Chapchar Kut was first celebrated in Seipui village in adjoining Myanmar that has a sizeable population of Mizos and their ethnic cousins.

Chapchar Kut used to be celebrated to thank the gods for saving the people from harm during the clearing of forest on hill slopes for jhum cultivation at the beginning of a year.

Today, the festival is observed in the last part of February or the early part of March when the trees and bamboos felled for jhum are left to dry and the shifting cultivators have time to relax and enjoy.

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Romanian law shaves 30 days off a convicts sentence for every book published while in prison. This has created a raft of prison literature there.

You may be misled into thinking India has a similar law. For prison literature  lets call it Pris Lit, in the finest tradition of Chick Lit  has begun to flourish here. Every other day you hear of someone talking about publishing a book they wrote, or thought of, while in prison. But do not expect an Indian Orange is the New Black, the prison memoir made into a gripping series on Netflix, any time soon.

Pris Lit is not new to the country. Mahatma Gandhi wrote My Experiments with Truth in Punes Yerwada jail. The Discovery of India was the result of four years that Pandit Nehru spent in Ahmednagar prison. Jayaprakash Narayan wrote Prison Diary while, well, in prison.

They were part of a glorious global tradition. Miguel de Cervantes writes in his prologue to Don Quixote that the book was begotten in a prison. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrims Progress, narrating Christians journey to the holy city, while incarcerated. Oscar Wilde, while spending two years in prison for gross indecency, wrote De Profundis.

It may have something to do with the solitude in prison releasing the creative juices. None of the luminaries above were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. The non-rigorous one, though it engages prisoners in various tasks -- say cooking, or cleaning  leaves them with time to reflect and introspect. However, the likes of Wilde and Gandhi may feel a bit disconcerted to know who all are churning out Pris Lit in India these days.

The latest best seller is Life Mantras, written by Subrata Roy in Delhis Tihar jail. It is the first part of a Thoughts from Tihar trilogy. Roy, the chief of Sahara Group, has just started his third year at Tihar for his companys failure to return investors money.

Sanjay Dutt, who has just come out of the same Yerwada jail where Gandhi wrote My Experiments, found the time to write about his lifes experiences while making cane items and paper bags during his time there. It seems he wrote 500 couplets, all in Hindi, with the help of two other inmates, and wants to publish them in a book called Salaakhen.

The fastest fingers, though, seem to be on Kanhaiya Kumar (oh, he should have gone to KBC), the JNU students union president charged with sedition. The buzz is that he gathered enough during his brief stay in jail before being released on bail to think up a book.

Should we, then, do something to facilitated writing by prisoners? At present, all they get is some paper and pen. No computers for them. That wont do at a time publishers accept only soft copies.

But will it be worthwhile to spend on computers to promote Pris Lit? On the evidence of Romania, no. The Pris Lit there has been utter crap. The latest Indian output may not redeem the genre any time soon.

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Thirty years ago, two city gynaecologists made history when they delivered Mumbais first test tube baby. On Monday the duo  Dr Indira Hinduja and Dr Kusum Zaveri  assisted that baby, now a 29-year-old Harsha Shah, to give birth.

Shah gave birth to a boy after a caesarean section at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai. Shah, who was born with the aid of assisted reproduction technology on August 6, 1986 at KEM Hospital, had conceived naturally within months of her marriage.

A pioneer in assisted reproduction technology in the country, Dr Hinduja said Harshas delivery was significant and encouraging for couples looking to try in vitro fertilization (IVF) for conceiving. Many couples are worried whether the baby born through IVF will be able to conceive naturally. Harshas baby is a proof that babies born through IVF are as normal as any other child, said the doctor who runs a fertility clinic at a private hospital in Mahim.

Shahs baby was born healthy, weighing 3.1 kilograms, and was delivered by the same team of medical professionals who delivered Harsha years ago.

Dr Hinduja started experiments in IVF in 1984 on animals at KEM Hospital in Parel. On December 2, 1985 , her team successfully transferred an embryo prepared in a petri-dish into Harshas mothers womb, the first time in India where such an attempt was made. Harshas mother, Maniben, had suffered from tuberculosis, which had permanently damaged her fallopian tubes. She was desperate to have a baby, and when we explained the new technique to her, she agreed to it immediately, she said.

We did the procedure and spent the next few days praying that it would be successful, added Dr Zaveri.

Dr Indira Hinduja (left) and Dr Kusum Zaveri (Right) who were part of the team that helped during Harshas birth during 1986, were present when the 29-year-old delivered. (HT Photo )

The doctors were naturally thrilled at the medical implications of Harshas delivery, but for the new father, Divyapal Shah, his sons birth was a natural fact. We had planned this baby. We didnt have any apprehensions about Harsha or the baby. We are a normal family and I am as happy as any father in the world would be, said the businessman from Matunga.

For Dr Hinduja, Harshas birth will always be a special occasion, and the two share a special bond.Coincidentally, Manibens pregnancy test came positive on my birthday. There was an international conference going on at KEM and a senior doctor interrupted it to announce the big news of the pregnancy, she recalled. The doctor also blessed Shah at her wedding in May last year.
The National Green Tribunal was hearing a petition asking for the cancellation of the World Culture festival, being organised by the Art of Living Foundation, on the grounds that the festival upsets the ecologically-fragile Yamuna floodplains.

To be held from March 11-13, the three-day event is set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will have the organisations founder, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in attendance, aside from other spiritual guest speakers.

The event is expected to see a gathering of 35 lakh people, and has a venue spread over an area of 1,000-odd acres.

Construction is banned in the eco-fragile area, but a stage spread over seven acres has come up on the west bank of the Yamuna along with several other temporary structures, including pontoon bridges.

Activists argued that preparations for the event forced birds to migrate from the area. The floodplains have been flattened, destroying birds nesting sites and choking the polluted Yamuna with construction debris, they added.

3:45pm

Art of living council tells the National Green Tribunal that it will seek permission for the fire department in a day or two -- an admission that may be controversial given the festival is scheduled for Friday.

Sri Sris lawyers say buses ferrying people to the festival will be parked at the governments Millennium Bus Depot, but the transport department hasnt given them permission yet.

The hearing is adjourned to Wednesday and a verdict is expected before lunch.

Buses will be parked in millennium bus depot - #ArtofLiving counsel at #NGT @htTweets

Transport department has not given permission for it  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

03:10 pm

The stage being constructed at the river banks has been causing the controversy, given its extent. Organisers are also constructing a pontoon bridge, but the Delhi government argued that it had given permission for its construction only in case of a flood.

The large stage, estimated to be covering about 7 acres, will face the plains where around 35 lakh people are expected, as publicised by the Art of Living foundation (AOL). However, the organisations lawyers told the NGT that only about 2-3 lakh people will attend the event. The tribunal countered the argument with the discrepancy in numbers.

If only 2-3 lakh ppl expected, why take permission for 5 lakh ppl - #NGT to #ArtofLiving @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

03:00 pm

Organisers are yet to receive several clearances for conducting the event. The fire department alleged that despite several reminders, organisers failed to supply the required information for granting the permit. Lawyers representing the AOL said the organisers were going to do so after construction of the stage was completed.

Fire & delhi police clearance will be sought after the stage is constructed - #ArtofLiving fest counsel to #NGT @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

02:41 pm

Taking exception to the various arguments, the NGT questioned if any of the parties involved had considered the impact of the festival on the Yamuna river, the floodplains and the eco-systems around it. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had earlier contested the activists claims that the event was damaging the biodiversity in the area; he stated the organisation was not polluting the river.

Has any authority concerned considered the impact of the #ArtofLiving fest on river, biodiversity? - #NGT chairperson @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

02:56 pm

The NGT questioned the Uttar Pradesh governments counsel over sanctions granted for using the Yamuna floodplains as a temporary parking area. The tribunal was reacting to the lawyers observation that the government had authority to do so only during the non-monsoon season.

Can UP temporarily change land use from floodplain to parking area?- #NGT chairperson asks UP govt counsel on #ArtofLiving case @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

12:56 pm

DDA denied there being any debris on the floodplain and hence questioned the necessity for levelling the floodplains. The NGT rebutted the argument questioning whether the AOL foundation brought the debris, and if so, what was the DDA response team doing.

What was quick response team doing when debris allegedly brought in by #ArtofLiving fest organisers? - NGT asks DDA counsel @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

Contention in #NGT right now is whether #ArtofLiving brought in debris to Yamuna floodplain or they were present already @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

We asked #ArtofLiving to refer to #NGT directions on levelling of floodplain - DDA counsel @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

12:38 pm

Counsel for the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) raised questions about the activists motive, citing that the petition couldve been filed much earlier than just a few days before the event.

DDA counsel thunders - why did they (petitioners against #ArtofLiving fest) sit twiddling thumbs for 2 mnths be4 approaching #NGT @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

The three-day extravaganza is slated to kick-off on Friday in east Delhi.

In its report, an NGT-appointed panel said it was too late to scrap the cultural and spiritual meet, and instead suggested a fine of Rs 120 crore to restore the floodplains.

10:30 am DDA only granted conditional permission, clueless about event size

On March 3, DDA had submitted that it had granted conditional permission for organising the event and had no idea about the magnitude of the programme.

The DDA had denied the suggestion that it had provided 3.5 hectare of land for a parking lot on the banks of the river and said it had only provided over 20 hectares for the recreational programme.

Other clearances for the event, including safety and traffic, are yet to be given.

DDA says it #ArtofLiving fest organisers to take permission from all possible authorities, including #NGT IN Dec, 2015 @htTweets  mallica joshi (@mallicajoshi) March 8, 2016

The NGT is also hearing a plea against the foundations plan to release enzymes into 17 drains joining Yamuna for cleaning the river.

Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi government, DDA and Art of Living Foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction on the flood plains. It had also constituted an expert committee headed by Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar to inspect the site of the proposed festival.

10:00 am Watch: Army builds pontoon bridge on Yamuna for Sri Sri festival

WATCH: Army personnel construct pontoon bridge in Delhi for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival.https://t.co/cOSTHAPC8R  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

Meanwhile, the Indian Army, which has built a pontoon bridge on the Yamuna for the festival, is likely to build one more to ease movement of a large number of people expected to attend the controversy-ridden mega event.

The Art of Living foundation, which is organising the function, will have yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars and traditional cultural performances from India and abroad.

9: 30 am President not to attend Sri Sris event in Delhi

President Pranab Mukherjee will not attend a festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living in the wake of the controversy over holding the three-day cultural function on the Yamuna flood plains beginning this Friday.

The president had earlier agreed to attend the opening ceremony of the three-day event here on March 11 along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. More than 35 lakh people are expected to attend the event.

The Art of Living along with the Delhi Development Authority is facing in the National Green Tribunal a case of alleged violation of environmental laws and polluting the Yamuna river. The NGT is expected to deliver the verdict in the case later this week.

According to some estimates, about 35,000 people will attend a musical evening as part of the larger event on the bank of Yamuna in the national capital.
Questioning his silence over non-payment of salaries to hundreds of employees of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, a group of former women staffers has accused Vijay Mallya of misleading the government and employees over a revival plan.

In an open letter, which comes on the occasion of International Womens Day, the women employees also accused the beleaguered industrialist of killing two airlines and rendering hundreds of people jobless.

You say that you are not a defaulter. But you confidently told us during the meeting that banks wont be able to recover more than 5-10% of debt amount. That speaks volumes of your malicious intentions.

Read: ED registers money laundering case against Vijay Mallya, IDBI officials

In the same meeting, you promised revival, payment of our salary... This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/DGCA, the women staffers alleged in the letter.

According to sources, nearly 700 of the 1,500 employees, who still claimed to be on the payroll of the defunct airline, are women.

The open letter comes when a consortium of public sector banks have moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction that Mallya not be allowed to leave India. The apex court has agreed to hear their plea on Wednesday.

Read: Wont abscond from India, negotiating deal with banks: Vijay Mallya

A Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) had on Monday barred Mallya from accessing $75 million (Rs 515 crore) severance package from Diageo till the loan default case with State Bank of India is settled.

Diageo and United Spirits Ltd, owned by the UK-based firm, have also been asked by the DRT in Bengaluru to disclose details of the agreement they have come to with Mallya.

SBI, which leads the consortium of 17 banks that lent money to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines, had moved DRT against Mallya in its bid to recover over Rs 7,000 crore of dues from him.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday pushed for early passage of the womens reservation bill in Parliament, with the subject finding resonance among lawmakers on International Womens Day.

Gandhi said the NDA governments maximum governance philosophy also means giving us women, our legitimate due, a demand that was endorsed by female lawmakers in both Houses across party lines.

The long-pending bill that would amend the Constitution aims to reserve a third of the seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women.

Maximum governance is more than just accelerated pace of economic growth. It is also expanding the base of disagreement without inviting retribution or retaliation, the Congress chief said. Surely, maximum governance does not mean to have double standards in dealing with womens rights.

Experts say among numerous womens issues that need to be addressed in India, an important one is to ensure that they have a voice in the highest seats of power.

At a conference of female legislators in Delhi on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi avoided any mention of the quota legislation. The government has refused to set a time frame for bringing a fresh bill, insisting that consensus among political parties is needed for its passage.

Criticising the move by some BJP-ruled states such as Haryana and Rajasthan to set minimum educational qualifications for fighting panchayat polls, Gandhi said it denies for no fault of theirs a large number of rural women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes their constitutional rights.

This compels our urgent legislative attention, she said.

The Rajya Sabha passed the womens quota bill when the UPA was in power in March 2010 amid high drama that saw marshals evicting unruly members. However, the bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in accordance with parliamentary rules.

Gandhi said the Congress gave the country its first female Prime Minister, first female President and first female Speaker. She pointed out that because of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis vision women comprise over 40% of elected local body and panchayat posts in the country.

Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the government is trying to evolve consensus on the bill and expressed hope that it would succeed soon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi saluted the accomplishments of women on the International Womens Day, and expressed his governments unwavering commitment to their welfare through schemes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.

Saluting the accomplishments of all women on International Womens Day & gratitude for their indispensable role in our society, he said on twitter.

From Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao to better health & education facilities, our Govts efforts towards women-led development are unwavering, Modi said.

The Prime Minister said his governments skill development initiatives will empower women to contribute to Indias growth.

Our financial inclusion efforts, skill development initiatives & MUDRA Bank will empower our Nari Shakti to contribute to Indias growth, he said.

Also read | Stop the selfies: PM Modi, walk the talk on women empowerment

Female lawmakers urge for passage of womens bill on Womens Day
President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of a cultural extravaganza being organised by the Art of Living as controversy grew over the environmental concerns of hosting the event on the ecologically fragile Yamuna flood plains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the World Culture Festival (WCF) on Friday and the President was to attend the valedictory function on Sunday.

Though the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) confirmed Modis schedule, inside sources said the office was aware of the controversies and was keeping a track of the developments.

The event drew criticism after some activists petitioned the National Green Tribunal (NGT), a quasi judicial body on environmental issues, asking it to stop the event as it would deeply impact the rivers flood plains. The tribunal is expected to give its judgement on Tuesday.

In its report, an NGT-appointed panel said it was too late to scrap the cultural and spiritual meet, and instead suggested a fine of Rs 120 crore.

The recommended fine would be used for ecological restoration as huge quantity of debris is to be removed, the site de-compacted, natural topography and contours restored, temporary roads removed, natural vegetation re-planted and so on , according to experts.

What is the controversy about?

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living Foundation (AOL), which is organising the event in east Delhi from March 11-13, has come under fire for flattening the floodplain, destroying birds nesting sites and choking the polluted Yamuna with construction debris.

The WCF is expected to see a gathering of 35 lakh people, and the venue has been spread over an area of 1,000-odd acres to accommodate the crowd. However, the preparations are fatal to the ecologically fragile Yamuna floodplain, and have reportedly forced birds to migrate from the area.

In spite of construction being banned in the area, a stage spread over seven acres has come up on the west bank of the Yamuna along with several other temporary structures, including pontoon bridges.

Hindustan Times wrote about bulldozers and other heavy machinery being used to level the ground for chairs and carpets and pitching tents. Crops were damaged as farmers were asked to clear fields to make roads.

Read more: 5 things you need to know about Art of Living cultural festival

Dont attend Art Of Living event: Delhi-NCR residents write to Prez

Over the weekend, a group of residents from across Delhi-NCR wrote to President Mukherjee, urging him not to take part in AOLs festival.

Lima Rosalind, a conservation education and interpretation professional, told HT that doctors, scientists, IT professionals, chefs, army personnel, environment activists and experts had written to the President to make sure the voice of protest was heard.

The hue and cry that we are destroying Yamuna is nonsense: Sri Sri

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, however, has defended his organisation, saying that he would have received a red carpet welcome in any other country for holding such an event. Comparing the importance of the festival to the Olympics, Shankar also said the NGT report was biased.

Shankar further claimed that the organisers had not cut a single tree, and denied that the Yamuna flood plains were being destroyed; instead he argued that the WCF was an eco-friendly event.

Art of Livings mega Yamuna festival has no fire, traffic nod yet

Meanwhile, the cultural event  possibly the biggest Delhi has seen  is yet to get the required clearances including security, traffic, fire and structural safety.

Traffic police have warned organisers that lack of proper clearances could cause massive traffic snarls in the city, and the fire department has raised concerns as the Delhi Fire Services is yet to give the green light.

Despite several reminders, organisers have allegedly failed to provide the required information for a permit, including an estimate on the number of participants and a blueprint of the venue, marked with the number of entries and exits.

Confusion over extent of venue: DDA allotted 97.4 acres, AOL pamphlet says 1,000 acres

The organisation had sought clearances for 97.4 acres, as per the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). However, pamphlets and official statements from AOL claim the venue is 1,000 acres big.

As the controversy over the use of floodplains grew, AOL on Monday clarified it was not use any extra space other than the allotted area.
Yoga guru Ramdevs Haridwar-based food park has become eighth private sector client of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that guards important government installations like nuclear plants and airports across the country.

Not only his food park but Ramdev himself is a Z category protectee of the central paramilitary forces.

The CISF chief Surender Singh in his annual press address said the paramilitary force has got formal orders from the governments order in this regard.

The force has deployed 35 armed personnel for anti-terror duties at the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park Private Limited of Ramdev in Haridwar.

Like all government and private sector units, the food park has also got into a memorandum of understanding with the CISF to bear the entire cost of the deployment.

The food park is paying Rs 40 lakh per month to the CISF for the deployment, said a CISF official.

The CISF had sent its contingent at the food park in 2015 only on temporary basis after some protests erupted there. But now the force has taken formal charge of securing the facility.

The government amended the act after the 2008 Mumbai attacks to enable the CISF to provide security to private clients as well.

Electronics City (Bengaluru), Infosys campuses in Bengaluru, Mysore and Pune, Reliance Refinery and Petrochemicals in Jamnagar, Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd project executed by the Tata group in Mundra and the Tata Steel project based in Odishas Kalinganagar are the other private sector clients of the CISF. Despite getting many requests from private sector, the force is grants security to select few private clients.

The CISF will also take over security of the iconic Victoria Memorial in Kolkata along with six other government installations.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. Selfie with daughter. A day when only female parliamentarians speak.

Since coming to power two years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled a string of schemes for the upliftment of women  he has spoken publicly about the importance of the girl child, the need to stop female foeticide and boost womens education.

In an address to a convention of female legislators last week, he repeated many of these themes, asking the women to use technology and become more effective.

A few days before, speaking in the Lok Sabha, Modi had suggested Parliament mark Womens Day by letting only female legislators speak.

With just 12% of the Lok Sabhas 543 elected members being women, this is just an exercise in making headlines.

A far more substantive measure would be to increase the number of female parliamentarians  and theres a ready way to do that.

The womens reservation bill that has been stuck in Parliament for decades, came close to fruition in 2010, when the bill passed Rajya Sabha.

With a commanding majority in the Lok Sabha, Modi can easily make 33% reservation for women in Parliament a reality  but it appears he isnt interested in substantive steps.

In both elections last years  Bihar and Delhi  the BJP gave around 10% of its tickets to female candidates, underlining the fundamental barriers that women face while entering politics when not related to a male leader. In both elections, Modi played a crucial campaign role and could have changed the statistics if he so wished.

Outside the sphere of political decision making, little has happened. The funds for the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme has been increased to Rs 100 crore now from Rs 75 crore but the mandate of the project remains unclear.

One of PM Modis flagship schemes, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao was supposed to boost female education and initiate a nationwide campaign against female foeticide. But apart from high-voltage campaigns, it appears to have achieved little else.

It is unclear how much a measly allocation of Rs 75-100 crore can achieve on a national scale. Even the West Bengals Kanyashree scheme that supports female school students, works off a Rs 1,000 crore corpus.

One of Modis other ideas, Selfie with Daughter, drew social media scorn for being obviously publicity driven. Modi asked fathers to take a selfie with their daughter and post it on Twitter and Facebook.

Such exercises that short-change the origins of female foeticide and the web of reasons that disenfranchise women and stop them from going to school, wont improve things.

Two out of three adolescent girls in India drop out of school and child sex ratio is at an alarming 914 girls per 1,000 boys. Selfies arent going to improve that.

What will help is concerted effort to expand and bolster health and education services across the country, with constant and massive financial allocation for these critical sectors. The Prime Minister hasnt shown much interest in these.

Womens empowerment in India isnt an isolated issue: it is intimately connected with issues of caste, class, religion and ability.

So when Union ministers insult a Dalit mother whose son killed himself after alleged caste discrimination, or when BJP leaders ask Hindu women to have at least five children, or demonise Muslim women, theyre misogynist and Modi would do well to shush them.

Many of these tasks are difficult but commitment to womens development is a long-haul promise, not something that can always be marketed for social media likes.

Womens Day will be far better celebrated with less casteism, less barriers for poor women to become decision makers, more women in panchayats and Parliament and greater health, education access.

Indias goal should not be to have a day when women parliamentarians speak but to have so many female MPs that women can speak every day. The proof of Modis commitment to womens empowerment is in the pudding of greater substantive effort, not selfies.

The views expressed by the writer are personal.

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Three Army and two Air Force officers were arrested and dishonourably discharged from service over the last three years after they were believed to have been spies for Pakistani intelligence operatives, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said the involvement of the arrested personnel with ISI has been established and one of them has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of 7 years.

The Army personnel arrested were not high-ranking officers and many of them have been trapped in doing so, Parrikar said, adding that the government is taking steps to ensure that more troops do not get brainwashed.

In a written reply, he said, During the last three years and the current year, three serving Army Personnel have been arrested for alleged involvement in spying activities at the behest of Pakistan Intelligence Operatives.

He added that Such incidents of spying have existed in the past also and service personnel are regularly educated on the modus operandi being adopted by the Pakistani Intelligence Operatives.

Further, such spying activities are related to providing defence related information like Army deployment, movement and training exercises, appointment of senior officers, formation sign, tactical number etc, the Defence Minister said.

He also said in case of the Army, the services of three personnel who were arrested have already been terminated while services of two personnel of Indian Air Force have been terminated.

When pointed out that earlier a minister has said that a total of 11 Army personnel were arrested for involvement with ISI, Parrikar said his reply is about serving Army officers.

He then informed that seven ex-servicemen had also been arrested on charges for spying.

He said while the Army has already terminated their services, cases have also been filed against them, which are undergoing in different courts. Parrikar assured the members that the government is following all procedures as per law in this matter.
Three people were killed when the crude bombs they were making accidentally went off at Bindapur village in West Bengals Murshidabad district on Tuesday morning. Three others were also injured in the incident.

Police said the bombs were supposed to be used in the run-up to the upcoming elections.

Two of the victims were identified as Minar Sheikh and Bashir Sheikh (both in their 30s), but there was no information on the third.

An officer with the Bharatpur police station said the incident occurred around 4.30 am. Over 100 crude bombs and a substantial amount of raw materials were recovered from the spot, he added.

Sources told HT that two groups owing allegiance to Kashem Sheikh and Taher Sheikh, both leaders of rival Trinamool Congress factions, had fought for control over the area a few days ago. The bombs were probably being made by one of these factions in preparation for another clash.

Factionalism has been a prominent feature of the Trinamool Congress almost since its inception. Despite various party leaders  including chief minister Mamata Banerjee  asking workers to sink their differences and work for the common cause, the problem couldnt be reined in.

Hafizul and Tarik Hussain, both brothers of Khairashole gram panchayat member Jabir Hussain, were killed under similar circumstances in neighbouring Birbhum district last month. The blast had brought down parts of the building in which the explosives were being made.

A couple of years ago, over 800 crude bombs were found stockpiled at a primary health centre in Birbhum district.
To promote yoga, ayurveda, astrology and vaastu, a two-year diploma course is being introduced this academic year at the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, a deemed university.

The university, which offers certificate courses, decided on introducing the diploma following a high demand for such subjects by students looking for jobs in the sector.

The human resource development (HRD) ministry is boosting Sanskrit universities to encourage students in taking up such courses. It in fact increased the funding for the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan from Rs 62.75 crore to Rs 109 crore under the planned head last year.

Vice-chancellor of the Delhi-based university, Parameshwara Narayana Shastry said enrolled students will be able to study both the diploma course along with their bachelors or masters. We will offer dual degree to ensure students are able to study it along with their degree courses. The matter will be placed in our next meeting for clearance.

Citing that job opportunities have increased manifold in such fields, Shastry said, We are planning to increase more courses through the distance learning mode in various subjects including ayurveda, yoga.

In January, the HRD ministry set up a committee on yoga education in universities. The committee is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modis yoga guru, professor HR Nagendra, chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana, Samsthana, Bengaluru. Prof Nagendra is tasked with identifying yoga courses that can be offered and structuring the syllabi for conducting a National Eligibility Test (NET) in Yogic Art and Science.

Recently, the ministry also allowed such universities to start unlimited centres across the country. This benefits the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan institute that already has 10 campuses across the country.

The university will now be allowed to expand much further.

Enrollment at the Sanskrti university has increased in the past few years, from its earlier number of 17,203 students to 18,216 in 2014. The demand for distance education also went up from 664 students to 905 in 2014.

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Women lawmakers on Tuesday dominated the first hour in Rajya Sabha, which marked a departure from the usual practice by deciding to celebrate International Womens Day in Parliament.

The IWD is a day to celebrate the acts of courage and determination of ordinary women in India and throughout the world. The day reminds us to assess the progress in gender equality, womens empowerment and their rights, Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari said in his opening remarks.

He also underlined issues like crimes against women and girls, domestic violence, female foeticide, honour killings as urgent issues, adding, the need of the hour calls for introspection and a change in our mindset.

While it was business as usual in Lok Sabha, minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla, one of the senior women lawmakers in the House, used the occasion to urge the early passage of the womens reservation bill that envisages 33% reservation for the fairer sex in state assemblies and Lok Sabha.

Rajya Sabha had earlier passed the bill during the UPA governments tenure in 2010, but kept pending in Lok Sabha and lapsed with the 15th Lok Sabha expiring its term.

Heptullah began by demanding an end to discrimination faced by women in their own homes. She called for passing a resolution that the MPs will work for creating a women-friendly society.

Congress Ambika Soni was not pleased about being given only three minutes to speak on critical issues like the reservation bill. She said when the bill was passed in Rajya Sabha, there was hope that it would be passed in Lok Sabha as well.

Soni said the bill has become a touch-me-not as there has been no discussion, no amendment and no passing of the crucial bill.

She said if MPs feel there is a defect in the bill, there should be a discussion.

As women MPs raised the issue of 33% reservation, deputy chairperson PJ Kurien was quick to point out Rajya Sabha can take pride that it managed to pass the bill seeking reservation for women. He said efforts should be made to ensure that the bill passed by the House becomes a law.

In Lok Sabha, Congress chief and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi also sought the early passage of the bill saying maximum governance means giving women their due.

There are 66 women MPs in the 544-member Lok Sabha and 31 women MPs in the 241-member Rajya Sabha at present.

President Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari had pointed out the poor representation of women in Parliament and its various committees during the recently concluded National Conference of Women Legislators.

Mukherjee even expressed his displeasure over the pending womens reservation bill.
A debt-ridden man in Indore allegedly put his wife on sale on Facebook for Rs 1 lakh and said the buyer could do anything with her, prompting police to register a case against him.

The accused, Dilip Mali, said he was innocent and that someone hacked into his account to put up the post. He hadnt logged onto Facebook for the past six months, he added.

But an FIR against him said Mali posted his wifes biodata and picture along with his mobile number on Facebook. The post has since been deleted.

The matter came to the fore on Sunday evening when his wifes brother saw the post and informed her.

She filed a complaint with the police, who registered a case under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

The couple were married in 2012 and have a three-year-old daughter, she informed the Aerodrome police station. In her complaint, she wrote the family moved to Indores Shubham Nagar three months ago from Khargone district.

But they had to shift to Kaveri Sangam Nagar following repeated visits by money lenders, from whom Mali had taken loans after moving to Indore.

She said Mali -- who hails from Sanawad town in Khargone district -- needed money desperately to repay the loans and hence took this route. She said Mali intentionally tried to malign her and family members, and that she would now teach him a lesson.

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Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje presented on Tuesday a pro-industry budget focused on attracting investment, creating jobs and taking development to the backward regions, while keeping an eye on managing the fiscal deficit.

Past the mid-way mark of her five-year term, Raje wooed the industry, whose investment is crucial for the governments plans of a turnaround in the state battling severe drought.

The budget contained a slew of incentives for the industry including start-ups, with tax exemption on several goods and bio-technology as a thrust area for the government in the next year.

The Congress, however, hit out at the government, saying Rajes third budget lacked direction with nothing for farmers, youth and the poor.

The government set aside Rs 99,693 crore for plan development and pegged the fiscal deficit at 5.62 % of the gross state domestic product for 2016-17.

This was despite revenue deficit of Rs 5,231 crore because of fall in crude oil prices, drop in the states share in central taxes and increase in subsidy given to power companies, Raje said.

In her three-hour long speech, Raje, who also holds the finance portfolio, said Rs 40,000 crore was kept for UDAY (Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojna) scheme --- the Centres programme to deal with the debt of state run distribution companies.

To create an investor-friendly environment, the government waived entry tax on 14 items and reduced entry tax on 18 items. Nine important items were exempted from entry tax.

Raje announced a reduction in value added tax from 14.5% to 5.5% on all types of plastic goods, pickles, measuring tape, carpets, electric switchgears, SD cards, memory cards, pen drives and health fitness equipments.

VAT exemptions were also given to solar torches, biomass stoves, kerosene lamps, hurricane lanterns, kerosene wick stoves, kerosene pressure stoves, sugarcane, sattu, marble articles costing up to Rs 1,000, sewing needles, safety matches and camphor, among others.

Raje said the tax proposal would result in Rs 300 crore revenue generation while relief worth Rs 325 crore was given.

The CM said the government simplified tax regulations and pushed ease of doing business to create conducive business atmosphere. Tax collection, appeals and refund have been made online.

Those taking loans up to Rs 10 lakh for start-up units will be exempt from stamp duty on loan documents. The government has also set up a Rs10.85 crore corpus under the Start-Up Policy 2015.

To give encouragement to food processing, Raje announced units set up in food parks would get additional subsidy and concessions apart from those mentioned in the Rajasthan Industry Promotion Scheme 2014.

A Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet is planned in November 2016 to attract investment in agri-based industry. Raje said benefits would be given to agri-based industry under the Rajasthan Agro-Processing and Agri-Marketing Promotion Policy 2015.

Biotech was announced as a thrust sector and major exemptions were given to it. Those setting up an industry with an investment of Rs 5 crore to Rs 25 crore will get 60% investment subsidy and 10% employment generation subsidy; for investments over Rs25 crore, the subsidy will be 70% and employment generation subsidy will be 10%. These units will get 100% exemption on entry tax on capital goods.

For balanced growth in the state, the budget proposed additional benefits such as electricity fee waiver and interest subsidy to industrial units proposed to be set up in backward and most backward areas.

The budget also made provision for women entrepreneurs. Industrial units set up by women would be given 100% exemption from land use conversion charges. This benefit would also be given to SC/ST and disabled entrepreneurs.
From drought in more than 35% of the villages, law and order situation, claims of investment in Make in India to unfulfilled assurances of reservation to dhangars (shepherds) and Muslims and irregularities by some of the ministers  the Opposition parties are all set to corner the state government during the budget session that starts on Wednesday.

Sixteen months after coming to power, the state has been in the eye of the storm over various issues. Most districts in Marathwada are facing drought, with acute shortage of water and fodder. Although the state cabinet toured the drought-hit areas to pacify people, the Opposition claimed despite the unprecedented situation, the government failed to announced official drought in the state, a move which could have brought more benefits for citizens.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, during a press conference after the customary tea party, said the government was serious about the issue and didnt want to politicise it. We have disbursed Rs2,436 crore to farmers in record time and Rs2,000 crore more will be released soon. The government has also taken some other measures including restructuring of loans, waiver in school fees, among others. The Opposition should look at the drought sensitively as the situation is unprecedented, he said.

Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the state has spent more than Rs10,000 crore, including the central governments relief package, in the past one year. The Opposition is also expected to discuss the recent attacks on the police personnel in Latur and Thane.

The crime rate in Nagpur, the hometown of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, too, will give additional ammunition to the Opposition over the law and order situation. Exemption in electricity duty amounting to Rs500 crore to a private power generation company, multiple directors identification numbers (DINs) held by union minister Nitin Gadkari and state education minister Vinod Tawde, BJP funding to a Marathi daily are also among the issues identified by the Opposition.

The BJP and Sena can heave a sigh of relief because of the rift between the Congress and NCP. The Congress believes the NCP has a hidden pact with the BJP and can anytime join the government if the need arises. The Congress lags in the coordination between their leaders, as some of them are accused of going soft on the CM.
The state government on Tuesday hinted at bringing in stricter norms, including mandatory installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, to regulate dance bars.

While directing the state to issue licences to dance bars last week, the Supreme Court (SC) had made it clear the CCTV cameras should be installed at the entrance of dance bars, but the government cannot force bar owners to install them inside.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said although the apex court has turned it down , the government will look at it while introducing the fresh bill in the legislature. Although the SC has given its ruling, the state legislature has the power to enact a law in the interest of society. If cameras installed in five-star hotels do not invade privacy, they why so in bars? There should be some kind of parity. The first draft of the bill regulating dance bars will be discussed with all party leaders in the first week of the session, he said.

Fadnavis said the state argued forcefully in the apex court and succeeded in convincing the Supreme Court to accept some of its norms. The SC had raised objections to seven norms, but we convinced it in favour of six of them. We have not given permission for operation to any of the bars, he said.

The bill, however, has not been included on the list of proposed bills released by the government on Tuesday. The government is ready with 20 bills to convert them into legislations, with approval from both the houses of the state legislature. Of them, six have been pending since the winter session.

State officials said the draft of the dance bar regulation bill is in final stages. We dont want to introduce the bill in a haste. Although it is not on the list, the government can introduce it whenever it wants. If the session ends, the state can promulgate an ordinance for it, said a senior official.

Dhananjay Munde, leader of opposition in the legislative council, said, The way the case was contested in the court shows the intention of the government. If their intentions are good, the government should bring in the new bill to ban dance bars within the next 15 days. All opposition parties will stand with the government to pass it unanimously, Munde told reporters.

The ban was lifted by the SC on two occasions during the Congress-NCP rule in the past. We have fought the case tooth and nail and do not want to politicise the issue, said the CM.
As International Womens Day is being celebrated, an obvious question that comes to mind is: Why are there no women leaders in top positions of power in Maharashtra?

While Mamata Banerjee and J Jayalalithaa are busy planning their electoral battles to retain power in their states in April, and Mayawati is a serious contender in next years UP Assembly elections, why has Maharashtra not seen any woman politician as a chief ministerial contender? Forget chief minister, we have never seen a woman becoming home minister or finance minister; we have never seen a woman officer as the chief secretary, Mumbais civic chief or as police commissioner. The positions of power have always been out of bounds for women in Maharashtra, a state that calls itself a progressive.

There are just a handful of women among the top leaders of the main political parties in the state.

The BJP has rural development minister Pankaja Munde, the NCP has MP Supriya Sule as part of their parties top decision making teams. The Sena has Neelam Gorhe in its top brass while the Congress has none.

Traditionally, the idea of our political parties to make women part of their decision-making process meant tokenism: Head of the partys womens wing, who sits quietly as decisions are taken by the partys top leaders. Or it is the dynasty daughters or wives of powerful leaders who have to toe the line of their fathers or husbands.

Since Maharashtra came into existence in 1960, there have only been a handful of women leaders who made it to the top brass of their parties on their own, and have influenced the partys decisions. We remember Mrinal Gore, Ahilya Rangnekar, former president Pratibha Patil and Prabha Rau.

Even in the current context, most prominent women leaders come from political dynasties, although Pankaja Munde or Supriya Sule have shown they have independent minds and the potential to make it to the top.

Then, there are few exceptions like Gorhe, who came from the socialist movement without a family cushion. Can any of them occupy top positions of power? How tough is it for women politicians to make a bid for the same?

There obviously is a glass ceiling, they say. When they try hard to make their space, they face obstacles from insecure male colleagues. Often, parties think women cannot handle the obvious tools to win an election money power and muscle power the way their male colleagues handle them.

While several politicians build their support base through a particular community or caste or an interest group, such as a cooperative sector, women politicians do not get such an advantage.

It is quite strange: Being a woman, they find themselves at a position of disadvantage, but at the same, time they cant build a strong support base among women.

Women voters are divided into classes, castes and even sections such as rural and urban. There is no strong support base,says Gorhe, a prominent womens rights leader in Maharashtra. There is no networking among women thinkers, politicians and support groups, as is seen in the west.

In fact, the hurdles for women politicians begin at the very first step in the corridors of power: the elections.

Parties give fewer tickets to women candidates and even among them, relatives of male politicians get priority, while several capable women politicians dont even get a chance to contest.

As we celebrate womens day, lets hope more women become a part of the top brass of political establishments and wield power.

Lets also hope it would be a step towards gender equality, as policies of parties and governments run by them would be influenced by women politicians.

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A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped and set on fire by her boyfriend in Greater Noidas Tigri village on Monday.

The girl was admitted in Delhis Safdarjung Hospital ICU with more than 60% burns. Police said accused Ajay Sharma (18), who lived in the same village, was arrested at his house.

A police team is with the victim at the hospital. Her statement was recorded. She accused Ajay of rape and attempt to murder, said Rakesh Yadav, circle officer 3, Greater Noida.

The girls father, a tailor who runs a shop in the locality, said: At about 2.30am (on Monday), Ajay came to meet my daughter. The duo was having an affair. They met on the roof, where he raped her and set her ablaze. He fled from the spot.

He said around 10 months ago, the family complained about Ajay repeatedly peeping into their house. But his family promised that he will not disturb us again, so we did not follow the complaint, the girls father said.

Policemen were deployed in Tigri village following the incident, fearing tension.

No untoward incident was reported from the area so far. Deploying police was a precautionary measure as the victim and the accused are from different religions, said Yadav. He said the situation was under control and they called a peace meeting between the groups.

Unidentified man tries to molest girl

An unidentified person allegedly sneaked into the room of a B Tech student at a girls hostel and tried to molest her, police said. The incident occurred on late Sunday night when the victim, a first year student of a private college here, was sleeping in her room.

The victim said about 2 am, she felt like someone was touching her. She woke up only to see a man standing in front of her bed. She shouted for help but the man escaped through the window and fled the spot, said Abhishek Yadav, superintendent of police (rural), Gautam Budh Nagar.

A case was registered at Knowledge Park police station.
Wheat crop over 100 acres of land was inundated due to a breach in a distributary at Fallarh village near Bathinda on Monday morning.

Officials of civil and police administration and canal lining department rushed to the spot and the breach was repaired.

Talwandi Sabo tehsildar Iqbal Singh said the water entered the fields by the time the breach was repaired. He said the crop was damaged but will suffer a damage if the crop gets flattened due to winds with water in the fields.

Rain effect Muktsar admn orders crop damage assessment

Muktsar: The Muktsar administration officials on Monday visited Goniana, Bhagsar, Rahurianwali and Balmgarh villages in the district to take stock of the loss caused to the wheat crop due to heavy rain and hailstorms on Sunday.

Deputy commissioner Summet Jarangal, who was accompanied by additional deputy commissioner (development) Kulwant Singh, assured the farmers that the administration has ordered the assessment of the damaged crop and the government would help them.

He also directed the revenue officials to prepare correct reports. Even as rain is good for crops at this juncture, a heavy rainfall accompanied by hailstorms flattened the wheat crop in various parts of the region.
As announced by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders earlier that the partys focus would now be on strengthening its grip in Doaba in the coming few months, party convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Dera Sachkhand at Ballan village of this district on March 15.

The dera has a strong sway among the Dalits across Doaba and in other parts and political parties try to woo it to tilt political equations in their favour. A senior official of the dera management talked about Kejriwals visit.

When contacted, AAP organisation-building head in Punjab Durgesh Pathak shared the itinerary saying Kejriwal would reach the dera around 4pm, after visiting former BSP supremo Kanshi Rams family in Rupnagar and paying obeisance at the Kiratpur Sahib gurdwara. The dera is situated around 7 km from Jalandhar.

It is for the first time that the Delhi CM will visit a dera with a view to garnering political support for his party.

Kejriwals move to visit the dera has come against the earlier moral stand of the party against the proliferation of deras in Punjab. In an interview to Hindustan Times during his previous tour to Punjab in February, when he was asked about his view on dera politics, he had denied commenting on it saying his party was beyond the politics of religion and caste.

Read: Kejriwal to visit BSP founder Kanshi Rams family

A senior AAP leader from Doaba told HT that the move to visit the dera had been taken after analysing all pros and cons.

Earlier, there was a feeling in a section of the party that Kejriwals visit to the dera might irritate the dominant and radical Sikh community, till now considered the stronghold of the party.

However, when the senior leadership was told that politics is not possible in Punjab without the blessings of the deras, the move to visit Ballan was finalised, a leader said.

Though in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the party managed to win four seats with a total vote share of 24.4%, at that time too, the AAP leaders refrained from visiting any dera.

The move is yet another effort by the AAP to woo Dalits, who comprise the largest vote share in Punjab. The same day, BSP supremo Mayawati will also be in Punjab for a party rally.

With the next assembly elections in Punjab headed for an exciting triangular contest, the Dalit share of votes in the state could be the key to who wears the crown.

On February 13, Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh had also visited Dera Ballan to hold a secret meeting with dera head Sant Niranjan Dass.

The dera has been close to the Congress and BSP in the last few elections.

Read: Five key words to define Arvind Kejriwals Punjab tour

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Break the silence, report crime against women. Call 1091, reads the poster, drawn by a school student, just above the corridor that leads to the three lockups guarded by woman cops in Panchkula districts Mahila Police Station.

Spic and span, the double-storeyed white building in a quiet corner of Mansa Devi Complex, looks more like a well-maintained college hostel than a typical police station in Haryana. To be fair, this state-of-the-art police station houses accommodation for woman police trainees on the first floor, but the ground floor, with an airy courtyard, is encircled by about 10 rooms, including those of investigating officers and one dedicated to the helpline service. Though the police station is manned largely by woman cops, they are assisted by a few male colleagues.

More walk-ins

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Purnima Singh, 31, a Haryana police officer of the 2011 batch, is in charge. A hush descends as her white Toyota Innova screeches to a halt and she swiftly walks into her spartan office, acknowledging salutes on the way. Her voice booms but the tone is reassuring as she counsels a young woman from Pinjore and her mother who have waited for nearly two hours. After hearing them out, she suggests a counselling session. We get more cases of matrimonial disputes and domestic violence here. Sometimes there are 20 to 30 complaints a day, she says. I draw satisfaction from the fact that there are more walk-ins now than we used to see when this police station opened six months ago. I find counselling works in most cases, she says, admitting its difficult to say yet if crime against women has come down.

Women police personnel attend to complaints. (HT Photo)

Reaching out

The ACP believes that setting up Mahila Police Stations in every district of Haryana is a breakthrough in itself. Rainuka Dagar, a Chandigarh-based sociologist who specialises in gender issues, agrees, The law is the first line of defence. Woman police stations signal the readiness of this defence. The state is accepting certain gender practices as criminal and safeguarding women against them. Dagar believes the move is gradually breaking the thought that police stations are alien spaces for respectable women. She, however, cautions, After a couple of years, these police stations should be merged into the mainstream as women are not exclusive citizens but part of the system. As of now, ititss also important that the staff, including men, are gender sensitised. Though we are an all-woman police station, we prefer that male colleagues arrest male offenders, she says.

Any concerns?

Eve-teasing is a challenge in this urban district. Girls are bold now but we are proactive and have conducted sensitisation campaigns in schools and colleges to educate boys to desist from irresponsible behaviour. Such efforts instil confidence in girls,girls, she adds.

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The Congress party whose leaders had to face the ire of Jat quota stir victims, on Monday accused the BJP government of sponsoring the violence. It demanded dissolution of Haryana Vidhan Sabha and imposition of Presidents rule in the state.

The Congress Legislature Party passed a resolution at a meeting, the first after the quota stir, here to make these demands. The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, which also met subsequently, adopted the resolution. AICC general secretary and in-charge of partys Haryana affairs Shakeel Ahmad, who was present at both meetings, told reporters that the state machinery had completely failed to tackle the situation, while inflammatory statements given by some leaders of the ruling BJP fuelled the stir.

Demand for judicial probe

The Congress also demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court into the quota violence, besides registration of cases against BJP and INLD leaders whose provocative statements incited the violence. Ahmad, who was accompanied by Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, CLP leader Kiran Choudhry and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, even played a video clip purportedly showing BJP MLA from Rewari Randhir Kapriwas administering a divisive pledge to a gathering.

Ahmad also accused finance minister Capt Abhimanyu and Indian National Students Organisation leader Pradeep Deswal of provocative remarks. Choudhry said the CLP also decided to raise the quota agitation violence issue in the ensuing budget session. All Congress MLAs, except Kaithal MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala and Tigaon MLA Lalit Nagar, attended the CLP meeting in which the party drew its strategy for the forthcoming budget session.

The two meetings saw MLAs and other leaders of the faction-ridden Congress taking digs, not all of them subtle, at each other.

Bhukkals gripe

Former education minister Geeta Bhukkal griped about the visit of some party leaders to her area, which was the worst affected by the agitation, without her knowledge. Former minister Capt Ajay Yadav took potshots at BB Batra, ex-MLA from Rohtak, sarcastically asking him why he (Batra) could not protect Rohtak city and Punjabis, whom he represented, from the rioters.

Panipat leader Bijender Singh also joined in, telling Batra that unlike him, they managed to avert violence in their respective areas. When Batra retorted that the violence was not the handiwork of locals, Yadav rejected the claim.

During the HPCC meeting, Yadav said that Virender, who is facing sedition charges in the audio-clip case, should surrender before the police.

He said that instead of touching OBC quota, the party should demand reservation on the basis of economic status irrespective of the caste.

On Congress partys stand on Hoodas aide Virender, Ahmad said that he (Virender) had already given his reply to a show-cause notice served on him by the HPCC president and the matter had been forwarded to the disciplinary committee of the AICC for further action.

He brushed aside quesries on objections raised by former HPCC chief Phool Chand Mullana on the matter.
The district police on Monday registered a cheating case against two persons on the complaint of a man who alleged that his brother along with his brother-in-law duped him of Rs 18 lakh.

According to the police, complainant Darshan Kumar, a resident of Dharamgarh, in his complaint said his brother Ashok Kumar and Ashoks brother-in-law Raj Kumar, a resident of Samana, cheated him of `18 lakh on the pretext of giving him a land of that value.

Darshan said he sold a piece of land in Rs 18 lakh, but his brother Ashok Kumar took the money from him with a promise to give him land at some other location. Darshan said Ashok deposited the money in his own account. However, when I asked him about the land, Ashok started ignoring me and after a period of time, he denied about any such deal. When I asked him to return my money, Ashok refused to do the same, Darshan said in his complaint.

Darshan registered a case at Dharamgarh police station against Ashok Kumar and Raj Kumar. He said Ashok committed the fraud with the help of Raj Kumar. Meanwhile, the police registered a case under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the IPC and further investigations were on in the matter. Both the accused are on the run, the police said.
After the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), the mini-Parliament of Sikhs --- Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) --- has moved the Supreme Court seeking a ban on sardar jokes.

We have moved the apex court that has fixed a hearing on March 15, said SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar in a release.

The Supreme Court is already hearing a public interest litigation which seeks ban on jokes that target Sikhs. The PIL was filed by Sikh lawyer Harvinder Chowdhury in December last year.

The PIL claimed that such jokes portray the Sikhs as a low-intellect community.

The petitioner has demanded that the government must intervene and remove all such jokes from websites.
Punjab assemblys budget session beginning Tuesday is set to witness fireworks with the opposition Congress geared up to launch an all-out offensive against the ruling SAD-BJP alliance over a host of issues, including river water dispute.

This session is critical for both Congress and SAD as each of these parties would try and score political brownie points and influence public perception in the run-up to the Punjab assembly polls due early next year.

The Congress has already announced that its legislators would hold a foot march to the assembly over the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal project.

While the Congress will primarily target the BJP-led Union government over its affidavit in the Supreme Court favouring early completion of the SYL canal, it will also try to put the SAD, an ally of the saffron party, on the mat for not opposing the Centres stand.

The SAD-BJP alliance will counter this by blaming the former Congress governments at the Centre and in Haryana for conspiracy to rob Punjab of its river waters. The alliance leaders said the Congresss proposed march should be a regret march for its partys doings.

Besides, the opposition is also expected to corner the treasury benches over the killing of two Sikhs protesting against sacrilege of the holy book, atrocities on Dalits, farm suicides and drug menace.

Leader of the opposition Charanjit Singh Channi has proposed a detailed discussion on the issue of providing reservation to Jats and also Punjabis coming under attack during the recent Jat stir.

The ruling alliance is also ready with a white paper highlighting its development initiatives. While a joint meeting of the SAD-BJP legislature parties would be held on Tuesday, SADs core panel met on Monday to chalk out its strategy.
The bodies of four militants lying in the mortuary of the Pathankot civil hospital for the past two months are giving sleepless nights to health authorities.

The four militants, who stormed the Pathankot airbase in January 1, were killed by security forces.

The civil hospital mortuary can accommodate only five bodies. Already, four slots (AC chambers) have been occupied by these bodies. We are facing huge congestion, says Pathankot civil surgeon Dr Ajay Bagga who has written to principal secy (health) Vini Mahajan and director health Dr HS Bali to take up the matter with director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora.

The hospital authorities are also worried about the security of these bodies.

If anything goes wrong, we dont want the blame to come on us, said an official.

We have already sent the autopsy reports of these bodies to authorities concerned, he added.

Sources said the National Investigating Agency (NIA) had directed the local police to guard these bodies. Police want these bodies to be kept at the hospital till a word comes from the agency.

Dr Bagga says there are many medical colleges with bigger mortuaries across the state. The bodies should be shifted to one of these medical colleges, he added.

Pathankot senior superintendent of police RK Bakshi said since the NIA was handling the case, he was not in a position to tell for how long these bodies would be kept at the civil hospital.
The opposition Congress MLAs staged a walkout in the Vidhan Sabha during the governors address on the opening day of the budget session on Tuesday.

Earlier, Congress legislators were prevented from entering the Vidhan Sabha as they insisted on carrying black flags inside. The Congress demanded the resignation of the SAD-BJP government for having failed to protect the water rights of the state.

The Congress MLAs, who were wearing black bands, staged the walkout raising slogans against the government for its inability to speak against the Centres move of filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court favouring early completion of the SYL canal to give more water to Haryana.

The filing of the affidavit is being seen as the Centres stand against Punjabs Termination of Water Agreements Act of 2005. Congress MLAs said, We are protesting as the SAD-BJP gover nment in Punjab has failed to raise its voice against the move.

Earlier, at 9 am, over a dozen Congress MLAs, led by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Charanjeet Singh Channi, wearing black bands and carrying black flags, began a march from the high court chownk, roughly half a kilometer from the Vidhan Sabha. (Keshav Singh/HT Photo)

At 9 am, around a dozen Congress MLAs, led by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi--who were wearing black bands and carrying black flags besides raising slogans against the state government--started a march from the high court chowk, about half a kilometre from the Vidhan Sabha. They were stopped outside the assembly gate. MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring climbed over the gate to open it for the other MLAs.

Later, the Congress legislators blocked the entry point to the Vidhan Sabha and prevented the ruling party MLAs from entering the house, who were later pacified by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. The delay in the entry of MLAs delayed the governors address by five minutes.

As governor Kaptan Singh Solanki began his address, the opposition MLAs started raising slogans against the government before staging the walkout.

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal pacified them and urged them to allow other MLAs to enter. Eventually, there was a five minute delay in the governors address. (Keshav Singh/HT Photo)

Channi later told HT, In a well thought-out plan, the Centre has given an affidavit in the Supreme Court declaring its unacceptability to the Termination of Water Agreement Act of 2005 passed by the Cong ress. Channi demanded the resignation of deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, who holds the home portfolio. Channi also demanded the registration of a case against the policemen who pushed the woman MLAs of his party to stop them from entering the Vidhan Sabha. He said the SAD hadnt said anything against the affidavit, which meant they were a party to it.

Further course of action

Channi said the CLP would meet on Thursday to chalk out his partys further course of action. Senior party leaders, including Punjab party affairs incharge Shakeel Ahmed and secretary Harish Chaudhary, will attend the meeting. Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh is also expected to be present. Our protest against the government inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha will continue, Channi said.

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Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday said he is ready to go to jail but would not allow a single drop of water to flow into Haryana through the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

He told Punjabis to be prepared for the struggle to save Punjabs waters being snatched away following the connivance by Akalis with the BJP. He said the party would raise the issue and expose the double face of the Akali Dal in the Vidhan Sabha session.

I will soon announce the date for taking out a march to save the waters and need your support, Amarinder said while addressing a rally at Ghanaur organised by former MLA Madan Lal Jalalpur.

Amarinder said since the division of Punjab, the state had got a raw deal on waters; thus, he passed the termination of agreements Act, 2004, to annul all water agreements.

Now, this Act has been challenged by the SADs coalition partner, the BJP government at the Centre, to support Haryana. Let me tell you, I wont hesitate from taking any step to stop the SYL link canal. I am ready to even go to jail, but wont allow any flow of water through the SYL, Amarinder said, adding that chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had failed to protect the interests of the state.

Amarinder wondered why Badal had not protested against the Centres stand against Punjab in the Supreme Court. Any sincere and well-meaning leader who has any love for Punjab would have strongly protested against it and withdrawn from the government, he said, adding, What to speak of withdrawing from the NDA government, they have not uttered even a single word of protest. This, he said, amounted to an abject and meek surrender for personal interests and for the ministerial berth for Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Taking Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal head on over his claims of knowing Punjab and serving its interests better than others, Amarinder asked him to choose any of the 117 constituencies in the state and he (Amarinder) would contest against him from that constituency only.

Amarinder said Kejriwal is yet to make his stand clear on the SYL issue despite the former having asked him to do so a week ago. Kejriwals silence says he is still in a dilemma as he belongs to Haryana, he said.
Indian students would prefer to come to Britain for higher studies but visa restrictions had led to dwindling numbers in recent years, Indian high commissioner Navtej Sarna said here on Tuesday.

Speaking at a joint Commonwealth and Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Groups in the House of Lords, Sarna apprised MPs and lords of various initiatives of the Narendra Modi government to boost trade between the two countries, and highlighted plans for Indo-UK Year of Culture in 2017.

I was in Oxford the other day and was somewhat disappointed that there are only 373 Indian students there. This could be easily increased, but some UK visa difficulties are making other destinations such as Australia and New Zealand more attractive, he said.

Sarna told the lawmakers that the Indian college-going population was nearly 140 million, many of whom would prefer to go to British universities. Indian student numbers have halved since the David Cameron government came to office in 2010.

Nearly 100 British academics are scheduled to travel to India under the GIAN programme, Sarna said, besides plans to send around 20,000 British students to India. The GIAN programme aims to augment the countrys existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reform, and elevate Indias scientific and technological capacity to global excellence.

The India-UK relationship in the area of education had achieved much in recent years, he added.

Sarna recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an extremely successful meeting with representatives of the Sikh diaspora during his visit here in November.

Efforts were on to double trade between India and Britain, Sarna said, and highlighted moves to float rupee bonds  dubbed masala bonds  on the London Stock Exchange to raise funds for railways and infrastructure development in India.

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Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, was rescued during an army-led operation in Quetta on Tuesday, almost five years after he was kidnapped from Lahore.

Anwar-ul Haq, the official spokesman of the Balochistan government, told reporters that Shahbaz was fit and fine and would spend the evening with his family.

Shahbaz was kidnapped by members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who had demanded a ransom worth millions of dollars for his return. There were also speculations that the TTP had demanded a prisoner exchange between Shahbaz and Mumtaz Qadri, who was executed in Rawalpindi last week for assassinating Salmaan in 2011. It is not clear whether he was in TTP custody at the time of his release.

Fazlullah Kakar, an official of the Balochistan government, said Shahbaz, who was abducted from the Gulberg area of Lahore on August 26, 2011, was recovered from Kuchlak, located on the outskirts of Quetta city, the capital of Balochistan province.

He was held captive in a run-down house located behind a popular hotel in the area. As the rescuers moved in, his captors fled the scene and disappeared into an illegal settlement in the area. We are now conducting an operation to find them out, said Kakar.

Interior minister Chaudhry Nisar also confirmed the recovery during a Senate session, praising the law enforcement agencies for rescuing Shahbaz.

Quetta is considered to be a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban and it is believed that many members of their leadership live in the city or have their family there.

We were made to believe that Shahbaz was being kept in Afghanistan, said security analyst Ehsan ullah, who added that Quetta now seems to be the centre for many terror groups.

There are some, however, who insist that Shahbaz was released only after a ransom was paid. The fact that the captors were not recovered suggests that this was done after payment of a ransom, said journalist Mujeebur Rehman Shami.

Meanwhile, the youngest son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Ali Haider Gilani still awaits release. He was kidnapped during an election campaign rally on May 9, 2013.
More than 40 Indians are believed to be in the custody of the Islamic State in hot spots such as Iraq, Libya and Yemen, which continue to attract healthcare workers and missionaries like Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was grabbed by gunmen during a raid on an old peoples home in Aden last week.

Despite the abduction of 40 men from Punjab in Iraq in June 2014, construction workers and nurses from India continued to travel to the Middle East, drawn by the lure of jobs with dollar salaries and driven by the lack of domestic opportunities.

Others, like 55-year-old Uzhunnalil were missionaries who wanted to care for people in countries such as Yemen where governance and healthcare has been hit hard by months of fighting.

Read | Two Indian sailors killed as ship catches fire off Yemen

Though it is almost two years since the men from Punjab were taken hostage by the IS in Iraq, their families in Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur say they have no information on their whereabouts even after a series of meetings with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.

Davinder Singh, a resident of Murar village in Kapurthala whose brother Gobinder Singh is among the abducted men, said the only information hed received from the government is that the kidnapped Indians are safe.

Usha Rani, a resident of Churwali village whose husband Surjit Menka is among the abducted men, said the government should clear the air and tell us the whereabouts of our family members. She added, We are tired now with the fake assurances of the central government.

We have only received assurances from the government and nothing else ever since my brother Manjinder Singh went missing in Iraq two years back, said Gurpinder Kaur, a resident of Amritsar.

The last meeting we had with the external affairs minister was in February in New Delhi and she assured us the hostages were alive and the government was putting in its best efforts to secure their release. Now we do not want these assurances or any other help from the government. All we ask for is to bring back the hostages. We can only pray for their safety, she added.

Read | Missing Indian priest in Yemen abducted by terrorists: Sushma Swaraj

Most of the families in Punjab have also been disheartened by the revelations of Harjit Masih, who escaped from the terrorists in Iraq. After being brought back to India, Masih said all 40 hostages had been killed but his claim has been rejected by authorities.

The assurances that the government gave after Masihs claim has kept us going. A lot of time has already passed, now the government must bring back Manjinder and the others or come out with the truth, said Gurpinder Kaur.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the families of Tiruveedula Gopikrishna, Chiluveru Balaram and Ramamurthy Kosanam  all abducted in Libya last year - are anxiously awaiting information about them.

Gopikrishna and Balaram, both teachers, were abducted in July, while Ramamurthy, a physician, was kidnapped in September  all from Sirte area of the strife-torn country. In all cases, the men were on their way home for an annual vacation when they were taken hostage.

Gopikrishna hails from Tekkali in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh and Balaram from Karimnagar in Telangana. Kosanam, from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh, had been working in Libya since 1999 but had made plans to return permanently.

In July last year, the government said it had secured the release of two other Indians  Lakshmikant and Vijay Kumar  who were abducted in the Sirte area.

I am in touch with the external affairs ministry, which says they are safe and that efforts are on to bring them back. Their word is the only hope we have, said Muralikrishna, the brother of Gopikrishna, a 39-year-old MTech who was teaching computer science at Hoon near Sirte since 2007.

With this prolonged absence of my brother  the main economic source  the family is facing a tough time here.

Like many others, Gopikrishna, who has two school-going children, went to Libya for the better pay. But lately even the salaries were irregular due to the strife in Libya, said Muralikrishna.

In a village in Keralas Kottayam district, the relatives of Father Uzhunnalil have been praying for his safe return since they received news of his abduction in the Yemeni port city of Aden on Friday. Suspected IS members killed 16 people, including an Indian nun, at a home run by the Missionaries of Charity before abducting the priest.

Sister Sally, another Keralite who survived the attack, said she saw the terrorists tying the hands and legs of the priest and throwing him into a truck before speeding away. She was the only person who saw the gunmen abducting the priest.

Uzhunnalils relatives said he went to Yemen five years ago after working at a charity home in Bangaluru. He travelled to Ramapuram village three months ago to participate in events marking his mothers death anniversary.

We are totally in the dark. We were told the chief ministers office is in touch with the MEA to ensure his safe return, a cousin said.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy has spoken to Sister Sally, who hails from Thodupuzha in Idukki district and is now in a hospital in Aden. Efforts are on to fly her back to India.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Tuesday there was no let up in efforts to trace the abducted Indians. The government continues to make all efforts to get the release of all Indians held captive abroad, he told HT.

There are at least 200 priests and nuns from Kerala, who are known for their service worldwide, working in strife-torn areas of Iraq, Yemen and Syria.

Sadly most of the killed were nursing inured and aged people. They can kill us but they cannot take away our spirits, said a senior priest from Kottayam.

The Middle East has always attracted Indian workers, who made a beeline for oil and chemical projects, construction, banking and nursing. Indians also head IT departments of major corporations.

In 2012, remittances from Indians in Gulf countries amounted to more than $30 billion, nearly half the total remittances of $69 billion.

(With inputs from Ramesh Babu, Harkirat Singh, Jatinder Mahal, Prasad Nichenametla and Palakh Dutta)
European leaders said they have reached the outlines for a possible deal with Ankara to return thousands of refugees to Turkey and are hopeful a full agreement can be reached at a summit next week.

Turkeys Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, outlined proposals early on Tuesday morning to resettle one Syrian refugee in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey from the Greek islands.

After 12 hours of talks in Brussels, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the one in, one out proposal as a breakthrough that would deter refugees from making the perilous sea crossing to Greece, but said Europe needed more time to agree final details.

EU leaders will aim to seal the deal with Turkey at another summit on March 17-18.

However, the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said he was deeply concerned by the proposed deal. As a first reaction Im deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law, said Grandi, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the European Parliament on Tuesday.

The Turkish proposals, which had been agreed with Merkel and the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, on the eve of the summit, came as a surprise to other EU leaders. One said EU officials were left scrambling to find out if it was legally and logistically possible, while another diplomat said it was naive to think that such a complex plan could be agreed so quickly.

David Cameron said the proposal to return all refugees who make it across the Aegean Sea to Greece could provide the basis of a settlement that would finally close the refugee trail through the Balkans. It has been a long and difficult evening but I think we do have the basis for a breakthrough which is the possibility that, in future, all refugees who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey, the UK Prime Minister said.

Following the summit, the European Union chief, Donald Tusk, said: the days of irregular migration to Europe are over.

Human rights groups say returning asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey would be illegal, but the EU is desperate to reduce the flow of migrants and refugees coming to Europe.

The German chancellor gave a strong signal that she supported doubling aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey, as the EU bargained with Ankara to do more to check the refugee influx.
British foreign secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday urged Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process between the two countries.

Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a pre-condition for starting the dialogue process, said Hammond while addressing a joint press conference with Pakistan foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad.

The foreign secretary advised Pakistan to speed up investigation into the Pathankot terror attack. I welcome Pakistans commitment to vigorously pursue the Pathankot attack investigations and we hope the country will make progress in the probe, he said.

Aziz told Hammond that a joint investigation team was in the process of completing its probe into the attack. The team will visit India in a few days and hopefully a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries will take place. The Indian High Commissioner has himself stated that foreign secretaries meeting is not linked to the Pathankot investigation, Aziz said.

Aziz also confirmed that his government had shared intelligence with New Delhi about possible terror attacks in India. Sharing of intelligence among nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world.

However, this time it was somehow leaked to the media. But this showed Pakistans commitment to fight terrorism, Aziz said.

Hammond also lauded Islamabads role in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is a victim of terrorism and we want to work with it to take on the threats it faces, Hammond added.
Gurjinder Singh aka Garry Dhaliwal has been given life sentence for the murder of aspiring model and Simon Fraser University student Maple Batalia five years ago.

The New Westminster Supreme Court, on Tuesday, pronounced the sentencing to Dhaliwal, who wont be eligible for parole for 21 years.

The sentencing came on the eve of International Womens Day. Notably, some feminist groups had launched a petition seeking justice to Maple and had organised vigils in her memory near the site of her murder.

19-year-old Batalia was brutally killed in the parking lot near the university campus in Surrey in September, 2011.

Originally charged with first degree murder, Dhaliwal had pleaded guilty for the second degree murder last week. He had admitted that he had shot her and also slashed her with a knife.

Dhaliwal was an ex-boyfriend of the deceased woman, who wanted to be a model and actress. According to the Crown, he was jealous after the victim broke up with him and had been confronting her frequently.

Maples mother, Sarabjit Batalia shouted at Dhaliwal in the court, Why did you kill my daughter?

She told HT that she was so disturbed that she left the court early. She will now be attending the trial of Dhaliwals co-accused Gursimar Bedi, who faces charges of accessory after the fact and manslaughter.

Read:Punjabi youth pleads guilty in Maple Batalias murder in Canada
Former Nepal prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been elected president of the Nepali Congress, the countrys oldest political party.

The 69-year-old, head of the partys so-called rebel faction, secured 1,822 votes to defeat acting president Ram Chandra Poudel, who bagged only 1,296 of the 3,140 votes cast. There will be no factions within the party now. My sole focus will be on keeping it united and working together with others, Deuba told reporters after getting elected late on Monday night.

He said that the Nepali Congress, being the largest party in the countrys parliament, will play a leading role in implementing the new constitution  which was adopted last September.

This is the first time in over two decades that the Nepali Congresss top post has gone to someone outside the prominent Koirala clan.

Read: Three-cornered fight for leadership of Nepali Congress

The party presidents post fell vacant after the death of former prime minister Sushil Koirala last month, weeks ahead of the Nepali Congress 13th general convention. The first round of the voting held on Sunday was a failure, with none of the three candidates managing to secure more than 50% of the total votes. Deuba fell short of the figure by just 11 votes. A second round of voting was held on Monday, after general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula  who came third in the first round  withdrew from the race.

The counting of votes for the posts of general secretary, treasurer and 61 members of the central working committee will take place on Tuesday.

Although Deuba has been the prime minister thrice, this is the first time he managed to secure the top post in the Nepali Congress  a party he has been actively involved with for nearly five decades. He lost the post to Girija Prasad Koirala in 2000 and then to Sushil Koirala in 2011.

Read: Madhesi parties say Nepal PM Olis India visit unsuccessful

Differences with the leadership had made Deuba leave the party to form the Nepali Congress-Democratic in 2002. Though both the parties merged in 2007, Deuba continued to be seen as the leader of the rebel faction due to his uneasy relationship with the Koirala camp.

Formed over seven decades ago, the Nepali Congress led several agitations to overthrow the hereditary rule of the Rana prime ministers and restore democracy in the Himalayan nation. Though the party is not a constituent of the ruling coalition, headed by the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, speculations are rife that it will join the government soon.

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British foreign secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday asked India and Pakistan not to allow non-state actors to derail their peace process as he urged Islamabad to speed up its investigation into the Pathankot attack.

Settling the Kashmir issue should not be a precondition for starting the dialogue process between the two countries, Hammond said during a joint news conference with Pakistan foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz.

I urge both Pakistan and India not to allow non-state actors and other pressure groups to derail the peace process, he said.

I welcome Pakistans commitment to vigorously pursue the Pathankot attack investigations and we hope that the country will make progress in the investigation, said Hammond, who was in Islamabad for a day-long visit.

India has blamed the January 2 terrorist assault on Pathankot airbase on the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Aziz said a joint investigation team is in the process of completing its probe into the Pathankot attack. The probe team will visit India in the next few days, he said.

He further said there is no precondition for a meeting of the foreign secretaries of the two countries. However, he said the meeting could take place only after the Pakistani probe team visits India.

Pakistan had shared intelligence with India about possible terror attacks, Aziz said. Sharing of intelligence among various nations of the world is a routine practice and this happens around the world. However, this time it was somehow leaked to the media. But this showed Pakistans commitment to fight terrorism, he said.

Hammond lauded Pakistans role in the fight against terrorism and said Britain will continue its support for the war on terror.
Social media - Twitter hashtags in particular - can lead to changes in the real world, researchers who analyzed the effects of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement reported.

According to the research team headed by Deen Freelon at the American University School of Communication's Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), the BLM movement, which aims to increase awareness about police brutality against African-Americans with the hopes of ending it, has been driven forward mainly with the help of social media over the past two years.

To better understand how BLM utilized social media to advance its cause in 2014 and 2015, Freelon and fellow researchers, Charlton. D. McIlwaine, of New York University, and Meredith D. Clark, of the University of North Texas, analyzed 40.8 million tweets, more than 100,000 web links and 40 interviews with activists directly involved with BLM and allies of the movement.

The team found that the #Blacklivesmatter hashtag, which began in the summer of 2013, did not gain much traction until after the protests in Ferguson started in August 2014. Other hashtags that were linked to the movement, such as #HandsUpDontShoot and #Justice4All, were also not widely used in the beginning.

The team specifically found that the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter started to become increasingly popular after Nov. 24 when the St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough revealed that the grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson had fatally shot African-American teenager Michael Brown.

On that day, the number of tweets that included the hashtag totaled 103,319, which was more than four times the amount that was used on the day before. The researchers concluded that these tweets were largely responsible for making the Brown case a national issue as opposed to a state one.

"BLM hubs were successful in projecting their anti-brutality messages through various nonactivist networks; in criticizing the media harshly for their portrayal of anti-black police brutality; and in educating some audiences rather than simply preaching to the choir," the report wrote. "This report showcases how Black Lives Matter and related movements have used social media tools to broaden conversations about the general capacity of online media tools to facilitate social and political change."

The report added that through tweets and other social media platforms, the movement was able to spread its messages without the use of mainstream news outlets. These messages, which presented viewpoints about police brutality that were different from the press, managed to affect a wide group of people across the country.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Last June, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals definitively determined that Apple, together with a number of publishers, engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy, violating federal antitrust laws.

Apple and the publishers found themselves ar the center of a controversial e-book price-fixing case. Through the course of the issue, and as tensions rose, the publishers ultimately settled, but Apple opted to take its case to the high court.

The e-book price-fixing case was sparked back in 2010 when Apple entered the digital books marketplace. Prior to the company's entry, the e-book market was all but dominated by yet another tech giant, Amazon, and its ubiquitous Kindle E-Reader. Books purchased through the Amazon store were immensely affordable, with Kindle editions of books being sold at almost rock-bottom prices.

Amazon and its customers loved the business model, but a number of publishers hated it. Unfortunately for the publishers, Amazon practically had a monopoly on the e-book market, with competitors such as Barnes & Noble failing to make a significant dent in the company's e-book revenue.

All this changed when Apple entered the market, however. When Apple entered the scene with its iPad device and its dedicated iBooks app, publishers were overjoyed. With Apple's popularity in the market, it could be a serious competitor to Amazon. Plus, Apple allowed publishers to set their own prices, with the tech giant taking a cut from each purchase.

Known as "agency pricing," Apple's tactic practically prevented discounting on e-books. Publishers were finally able to charge more for their e-books, ultimately forcing Amazon's hand and raising e-book prices significantly. When Apple entered the fray, e-books that previously sold for $9.99 on Amazon ended up being priced at $12.99, in some cases even as high as $14.99.

When the case went to court, Apple fought tooth and nail. However, the company's efforts were shot down by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in a 2013 ruling when she determined that Apple played a "central role" in a conspiracy to increase e-book prices.

Refusing to give up and despite the added ruling from the 2nd Circuit back in June, Apple nonetheless filed an appeal. Unfortunately for the company, it seems like its battle in the e-book market is over, and for the first time in quite a while, Apple has found itself on the losing side.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By comparing the rings of pine trees growing in the Florida Keys to historical records of Spanish shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea, researchers from the University of Arizona (UA) devised a new way to study hurricane activity.

Using this innovative approach, researchers found there was a dramatic 75 percent drop in the number of Caribbean hurricanes from 1645 to 1715, when the planet went through what is known as the Maunder Minimum. This time period is associated with very low sunspot activity and relatively cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere.

"We're the first to use shipwrecks to study hurricanes in the past," said lead author Valerie Trouet, an associate professor in the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. "By combining shipwreck data and tree ring data, we are extending the Caribbean hurricane record back in time and that improves our understanding of hurricane variability."

Hurricanes gain energy from heat stored in tropical oceans. Therefore, current global climate models indicate hurricanes will be more intense as temperatures continue to rise.

The hope, researchers said, is to improve hurricane forecasts and better predict how tropical cyclones will behave under future climate changes, specifically on a regional scale.

"We're providing information that can help those models become more precise," Trouet added.

Previously, lake sediments were studied to develop a record of hurricanes. This data alone could only provide hurricane information on a century level.

The new study, however, provides a more detailed annual record of Caribbean hurricanes, dating as far back as the year 1500 - the days of Christopher Columbus.

As trading between Spain and the Caribbean became increasingly popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain was diligent in its record-keeping of ship traffic. Therefore, if a ship did not make it to its destination, or was wrecked at sea, it was duly noted.

Furthermore, strong winds and surging seas associated with hurricanes stunt the growth of pine trees, which is reflected in the rings inside their trunks. This evidence combined with ship records confirms the occurrence of hurricanes.

The UA study has vast implications, as learning more about how climate change impacts hurricane activity is imperative to developing better emergency management strategies.

Their findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Lindsey, the first woman to receive a uterus transplant in the United States, said that the transplant is an answer to all her prayers and that she is extremely grateful to the donor's family.

The transplant took place at the Cleveland Clinic on Feb. 24.

"First and foremost I would like to take a moment to express the immense gratitude I feel towards my donor's family. They have provided me with a gift I will never be able to repay and I am beyond thankful for them," said 26-year-old Lindsey at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic.

"When I was 16 I was told I would never have children. From that moment on I have prayed that God would allow me the opportunity to experience pregnancy, and here we are today at the beginning of that journey," continued the woman, who was wheeled into the interview by her husband Blake.

The last names of the couple have not been disclosed to protect their privacy.

The couple have three sons, adopted through foster care.

Lindsey went through a nine-hour surgery and is part of a study that "will eventually allow 10 women with uterine factor infertility (UFI) to receive uterus transplants."

"Although there appears to be potential for treating UFI with uterine transplantation, it is still considered highly experimental. Cleveland Clinic has a history of innovation in transplant and reproductive surgery and will explore the feasibility of this approach for women in the United States. Women who are coping with UFI have few existing options. Although adoption and surrogacy provide opportunities for parenthood, both pose logistical challenges and may not be acceptable due to personal, cultural or legal reasons," said Dr. Tommaso Falcone, Ob/Gyn & Women's Health Institute Chair.

The first birth through a uterus transplant took place in Sweden in September 2014 under the guidance of a research team from the University of Gothenberg.

"The exciting work from the investigators in Sweden demonstrated that uterine transplantation can result in the successful delivery of healthy infants," said Cleveland Clinic lead investigator Dr. Andreas Tzakis.

Explaining more about the procedure, Tzakis said that "unlike any other transplants, [uterus transplants] are 'ephemeral.' They are not intended to last for the duration of the recipient's life, but will be maintained for only as long as is necessary to produce one or two children."

Lindsey will be monitored for a year, and only then undergo in vitro fertilization, using frozen embryos. If all goes well, births will happen through caesarean section, and the transplanted uterus will be removed once Lindsey has one or two babies so that she does not have to be on anti-rejection drugs through her lifetime.

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To fight the Zika virus, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working on a drug that seems to be sending a glimmer of hope.

The test was conducted at Utah State University under an ongoing program by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The Durham, N.C.-based BioCryst Pharmaceutical company announced Monday that its preclinical study at Utah University showed one dose of its "experimental antiviral drug" enhanced the survival rates of infected mice.

Zika, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, has so far been linked with brain damage to babies, and Brazil seems to be the epicenter of the epidemic. No vaccine or treatment has been discovered for the illness transmitted by the virus.

The team tested two doses of the drug BCX443 on a couple of groups, and then evaluated the effect of another placebo and an oral antiviral called ribavirin on two other controls. The researchers were trying to evaluate the effects of the drug on immune-deficient mice that were suffering from the virus.

While seven out of eight mice receiving the "standard" dose managed to stay alive, the others that got either a low dose, a placebo or ribavirin died after 28 days.

BCX4430 was given through intramuscular (I.M.) injection twice a day. The first one was given four hours before the virus attack, and went on for eight days. Of these, two dose levels were subjected to tests.

It was found that in the standard dose BCX4430 group, seven out of eight mice survived even after 28 days.

In the other low-dose BCX4430 group, and also in control groups in which the mice were given only placebos or ribavirin at two dose levels, not a single mouse survived.

It was hence discovered that the "overall survival" for the standard dose level of BCX4430 was superior.

Median survival was also better in both control groups. It worked out to more than 28 days for BCX4430 standard dose and 23 days for the low-dose group, while the control group survived only for 14 to 17 days.

Jon P. Stonehouse, president and CEO of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, said, "BCX4430 currently represents the only single drug that has demonstrated a survival benefit in non-human primates infected with Marburg or Ebola viruses."

The development of this promising drug is largely funded by the U.S. Health and Human Services' BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) unit.

"This new BARDA contract provides continuity in the ongoing development of our broad spectrum antiviral, '4430, and moves this program closer to the finish line," Stonehouse said.

The data is being presented at a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, March 7 to 9.

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While mental health can be described as "our emotional, psychological, and social well-being," mental illness "can affect your thinking, mood, and behavior."

Mental health problems can wreak havoc, not only with a person's life, but also with the lives of his or her near and dear ones.

Recognizing this, a bipartisan Senate committee has announced that it is working out ways to address the mental health crisis in the United States. Senate health committee members announced on March 7 that they are working on the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016.

"One in five adults in this country suffers from a mental illness, and nearly 60 percent aren't receiving the treatment they need. This bill will help address this crisis by ensuring our federal programs and policies incorporate proven, scientific approaches to improve care for patients," said Senate Health Committee Chairman Alexander (R-Tenn.).

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in the year 2014 "there were an estimated 43.6 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States with AMI in the past year. This number represented 18.1% of all U.S. adults."

"I hear far too often from families in my home state of Washington and across the country about loved ones who are unable to get mental health care they desperately need, with tragic consequences. Our mental health system has been broken for far too long, and I'm pleased that Democrats and Republicans were able to break through the gridlock and agree on policies to help deliver quality, integrated care to our neighbors, friends, and loved ones who struggle with mental illness," said Senate Health Committee ranking member Murray (D-Wash).

"Our mental health system is broken. The Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 begins to fix it. We have all seen a promising life destroyed by untreated mental illness. Destroying not just the person, but also their family," said Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), stressing the requirement for such a bill.

"Our mental health care system is failing those who need it most. Individuals struggling with mental illness may go years without receiving treatment, ultimately suffering in isolation, or being cast aside and abandoned by the very system they should be relying on. Too many Americans with serious mental illness slip through the cracks, and Congress must act to stop it," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

The Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 will hopefully go a long way in mitigating mental health issues in the United States and address the needs of mental health patients and their caregivers.

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With the help of technology, the blind and the visually impaired might finally be able to "see" the world a little bit better. As part of its ongoing programs in its robotics division, Japanese carmaker Toyota unveiled Project BLAID on Monday, a wearable device that has the potential to aid millions of visually impaired people worldwide.

According to the Japanese automobile giant, the goal behind the company's efforts is simple. Toyota wants to create a world where the blind and the visually impaired can enjoy life with more freedom, independence, confidence, and most of all, mobility.

Project BLAID is primarily designed to help visually impaired individuals navigate through everyday locations, such as the interior of buildings and vast shopping malls. Through a series of cameras and sensors on the device, BLAID is able to detect the presence of doors, escalators, pathways and even restroom signs.

Currently, buildings that are designed with the visually impaired in mind have beacons installed to help with navigation. Of course, some buildings have no such technology in place, leaving visually impaired individuals to navigate using instinct and experience alone.

The BLAID device definitely looks futuristic, resembling a sleek and portable travel pillow that slightly drapes around a person's shoulders. Once worn, the device would be controlled by the user through voice command and a series of dedicated buttons, with BLAID responding to the user's input through audio and haptic cues.

That, according to Toyota, is simply the beginning. As Toyota stated in its official blog, as the device gets even more refined, the company is planning to integrate a number of more advanced features such as mapping, object identification and even facial recognition software.

Doug Moore, a manager of Partner Robotics at Toyota, said that he is optimistic about the project. He further added that Project BLAID is a testament to just how much the company aims to enrich people's lives.

"Toyota is more than just the great cars and trucks we build; we believe we have a role to play in addressing mobility challenges, including helping people with limited mobility do more. We believe this project has the potential to enrich the lives of people who are blind and visually impaired," he said.

Of course, Project BLAID is still in its developmental stages. Toyota has also not announced the price range for the device. Nevertheless, the fact that such a prominent company such as Toyota is pursuing the endeavor is something that is definitely worthy of anticipation.

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Apple might have ushered in the age of touchscreen-based smartphones with the original iPhone, but during the past few years, the tech giant has struggled to keep up with the competition which has built up technological advances through the years.

Take Samsung, for one. For the past few years, the South Korean electronics manufacturer has used a specialized OLED display for its products, making their screens extremely vivid and bright. Apple, on the other hand, has stuck to traditional LCDs.

The difference in the quality of Apple's iPhone screens and Samsung's flagships have gotten very pronounced, with the current flagship model, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, having screens that look downright pale in comparison to their rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Even other competitors, such as the LG G5, have screens that outshine the panels installed on Apple's pricey handsets.

It seems like Apple is finally willing to take the plunge towards OLED displays, however, as a Japanese publication Nikkei reported on Wednesday that the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant is planning to roll out an iPhone with an OLED display as early as 2017.

If the reports are true, Apple's flagship for the following year, possibly dubbed the iPhone 7S, would have a completely revamped display from its predecessors, which would be a unique decision for Apple since the company usually saves its significant improvements for the numerical upgrades to the smartphone line.

Yet another challenge for Apple would be manufacturing the OLED displays in quite a short period of time. After all, if the company does indeed intend to release an OLED iPhone for 2017, it would need to expedite its manufacturing process significantly.

A possible workaround that Apple might take, of course, is to feature the OLED display for the company's alleged ultra-premium line for 2017, the rumored iPhone 7S Pro, the successor to the rumored iPhone 7 Pro which is also rumored to be set for release later this year.

With numerous sources stating that Apple intends to introduce a halo iPhone model for this year, the Nikkei report about Apple releasing an OLED-equipped iPhone for next year becomes a very real possibility.

Though using OLED technology would further increase the iPhone's already stellar price, one thing is sure. Dedicated Apple fans would no doubt do everything they can to afford the company's latest offerings.

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Global warming is affecting almost every ecosystem and region across the globe. Now, scientists have found it's even impacting plant-supporting soil fungi.

In this latest study, the researchers looked at how shifts in the tropical mountain cloud forest ecosystem would affect resident fungal species in Monteverde, Costa Rica. The scientists found that as the moist mountain soil dries out due to a warming climate, the fungi infrastructure that supports the abundant plant life will also change.

The impact on this ecosystem may be significant. If the higher-elevation soil becomes similar to lower-elevation soil (which is warmer and drier), it will spur the growth of the type of fungi flourishing at lower elevations that breaks down plant material. If this degradation of plant material escalates, it will release significantly increased amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

While they make up less than 1 percent of the planet's land surface, tropical mountain cloud forests such as the one in Costa Rica contain about 20 percent of the world's plant species and 16 percent of its vertebrate species.

The cloud layer of these forests is rising due to global warming, leading to drier conditions. Consequently, these ecosystems are undergoing rapid shifts as plant species either become extinct or are forced to follow their optimal climates to higher elevations.

"These mountains provide a unique opportunity to predict how soil fungi will change in response to climate," said Caitlin Looby of the University of California. "The properties of these mountain soils are sensitive to the rising cloud layer. Our work demonstrates that fungal community composition shifts with elevation and with climatic factors that co-vary with belowground responses to elevation, such as temperature and moisture."

Soil fungi and plants have developed a mutually beneficial arrangement. For example, some fungi help plants by growing into their root cells and increase the root surface area available to absorb water and nutrients. In exchange, the roots give the fungi the sugars they carve. Other fungi help breakdown plant material, which releases carbon dioxide. The findings could mean big changes for these types of fungi.

"Any changes in climate could have important ecological consequences by potentially altering how these communities are structured and by altering the responses of important belowground processes that may mitigate or accentuate climate change," said Looby.

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The United States has shipped blood to Puerto Rico to help with the island's fight against Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that has been spreading throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Monday that the first batch of blood reached Puerto Rico on Saturday, March 5. The HHS will be arranging and funding more shipments, which are being provided by the American Red Cross, the Blood Centers of America and America's Blood Centers, within the near future.

"Availability of safe blood products for the residents of Puerto Rico is a major priority for HHS," said Karen B. DeSalvo, the HHS acting assistant secretary for health. "We are arranging the importation of blood products from areas unaffected by local Zika transmission to ensure the safety of Puerto Rico's blood supply."

The HHS said that without screening measures in place, Puerto Rican health officials cannot really know if their local blood supply is contaminated with the virus. Since current evidence suggests that Zika, like many other viruses, can be transmitted through a blood transfusion, the HHS does not want to put anyone's life at risk. The virus has been linked to birth defect microcephaly and Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

The blood will be collected in the continental U.S. where there have been no confirmed cases of Zika. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that all blood should be collected this way until some kind of screening test for the virus becomes available.

"In areas with active Zika virus transmission, the FDA recommends that whole blood and blood components for transfusion be obtained from areas of the U.S. without active transmission," the FDA's guidance read.

The FDA also issued new blood donation guidance for people from areas that have not had a case of an active Zika infection.

"In areas without active Zika virus transmission, the FDA recommends that donors at risk for Zika virus infection be deferred for four weeks," the FDA wrote in a news release last month. "Individuals considered to be at risk include: those who have had symptoms suggestive of Zika virus infection during the past four weeks, those who have had sexual contact with a person who has traveled to, or resided in, an area with active Zika virus transmission during the prior three months, and those who have traveled to areas with active transmission of Zika virus during the past four weeks."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently has an Alert Level 2 travel warning for Puerto Rico. The warning advises all travelers to practice enhanced safety precautions.

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Following what appears to be a successful population recovery of grizzly bears living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has proposed removing the iconic animals from the nation's endangered and threatened wildlife list.

The wildlife agency reported that the bears have rebounded from an estimated 136 in 1975 to a population of more than 700 today.

"The recovery of the Yellowstone grizzly bear represents a historic success for partnership-driven wildlife conservation under the Endangered Species Act," FWS Director Dan Ashe said in a news release. "Our proposal today underscores and celebrates more than 30 years of collaboration with our trusted federal, state and tribal partners to address the unique habitat challenges of grizzlies. The final post-delisting management plans by these partners will ensure healthy grizzly populations persist across the Yellowstone ecosystem long into the future."

The FWS also released documents explaining how the agency plans to monitor the bears and their habitat, pending they are delisted.

"Even with this proposed delisting, the Service remains committed to the conservation of the Yellowstone grizzly bear, and will stay engaged to ensure that this incredible species remains recovered," Ashe added.

The iconic grizzlies - spread across Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho - now range over more than 22,500 square miles. The FWS says that grizzlies have maintained stable populations for more than a decade, suggesting the Yellowstone ecosystem is at or near its carrying capacity for the bears.

However, determining recovery is based on more than just the number of bears wandering the park. For instance, the quantity and quality of habitat is examined, along with the ratio of male to female bears.

Going forward, there will be a 60-day comment period, in which people can weigh in on the proposed delisting of Yellowstone grizzly bears.

"We will continue to be part of a strong monitoring program, implementation of the conservation strategy, and partnership with our state and federal partners," Ashe said. "We are look forward to hearing from the public about the proposal and consulting with Native American tribes."

If the bears lose protection under the Endangered Species Act it means they can be hunted. Therefore, delisting the bears raises concern among conservationists, who feel the the FWS's proposal is premature.

"Yellowstone's amazing grizzly bears are loved by people around the world, and they deserve a real shot at survival," said Andrea Santarsiere, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's frustrating to see the Fish and Wildlife Service moving to strip protections for bears when these majestic creatures live in just a tiny fraction of their historic range and face a slew of ongoing threats. The science just doesn't support removing protections for Yellowstone's bears right now."

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Subramanya Construction & Development Company Limited (SCDCL) and The Oberoi Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Maldives to build a luxury resort in Maldives.

Subramanya Construction & Development Company Limited (SCDCL) and The Oberoi Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Maldives to build a luxury resort in Maldives. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in the presence of Mr. Moosa Zameer, the Honourable Minister of Tourism, Government of Maldives.

The investment for acquisition and development of the resort will be undertaken by SCDCL, a Bangalore-based real estate development company.



(L-R) Mr. Moosa Zameer, Hon. Minister of Tourism Government of Maldives; Mr. P.R.S. Oberoi Executive Chairman, The Oberoi Group; and Mr K.N. Balasubramanyam

Commenting on the partnership, Mr K.N. Balasubramanyam, Chairman and MD, SCDCL said, "A luxury resort in Maldives requires expertise in design and operations of world-class standards. The Oberoi Group, which is rated as the best luxury hotel brand in the world, is well suited for this development. We look forward to working with The Oberoi Group to create more of such luxurious offerings globally and would like to say that this extraordinary project will make a major contribution to our long-term partnership."

Mr. P.R.S. Oberoi, Executive Chairman, The Oberoi Group said, "We are extremely pleased to partner and assist SCDCL in the design and management of the proposed luxury resort. We look forward to bringing the Oberoi hospitality to Maldives."

He further added, "The resort will reflect the legendary Oberoi service delivered by an attentive and caring team, making it the preferred choice for luxury travellers."

The Honourable Minister of Tourism, Government of Maldives, Mr Moosa Zameer stated after signing the MOU, "With growing demand of luxury hospitality services in Maldives, it is imperative to bring in the best in the industry and our partnership with The Oberoi Group will be a testament to this."

The Oberoi Group, which was founded in 1934, operates 30 luxury hotels in several countries, two luxury Nile Cruisers, and a motor vessel in the backwaters of Kerala under the luxury 'Oberoi' brand. The Group is also engaged in flight catering, airport restaurants, travel and tour services, car rentals, project management and corporate air charters.
Meli Hotels Announces Its 15th Hotel in Indonesia

Melia Hotels International today announced the signing of Melia Bintan, its 15th hotel in Indonesia and second on the island of Bintan, following the announcement of Gran Melia Bintan, representing its growing presence in the country.

Melia Hotels International today announced the signing of Melia Bintan, its 15th hotel in Indonesia and second on the island of Bintan, following the announcement of Gran Melia Bintan, representing its growing presence in the country.

Owned by Kurnia Land, Melia Bintan is another milestone in Melia Hotels International's development and growth strategy in Indonesia and Asia.

"This new project is an exciting addition to our resort portfolio in Indonesia, where we've had over 30 years of experience," says Bernardo Cabot, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Melia Hotels International. "Our momentum continues to be fueled by strong demand for our exceptional guest accommodations and service. Melia Bintan will provide discerning travellers a gateway to the one of the world's newest meccas for luxury travel."

Bintan, the largest island in the Riau archipelago, is blessed with pristine beaches and 23,000 hectares of white sandy coast facing the South China Sea. The island is a short ferry ride away from Singapore and Malaysia, and the addition of a new international airport will give travellers around the world greater access to this tropical paradise.

Melia Bintan is located in a privileged coastal enclave, with 280 rooms and villas covering and area of eight hectares. Managed under the Melia Hotels & Resorts brand, the hotel will have numerous amenities for guests' enjoyment, such as the renowned Yhi Spa; the Level lounge and suites, where each detail is designed and crafted specially to create unique guest experiences; two beachfront restaurants; a swimming pool with water attractions; and a fitness and large-scale convention center.

Melia Hotels & Resorts is the most international brand of the group, highly valued by travelers worldwide and characterized by the personalized experiences provided through the Passion for Service culture of the brand. The brand has over 30 years of presence in Asia with the opening of Melia Bali, an iconic hotel since Melia Hotels International was the first international hotel group in the Island of Gods.

In 2016 Melia Hotels International celebrates its 60th Anniversary and maintains its robust momentum in Asia, aiming to double its portfolio in the region with the addition of 30 hotels in the next three years. The leading Spanish hotel has 32 hotels in the region, with seven of them due to open this year.
DoubleTree by Hilton Bogot - Calle 100 Hotel Opens in Colombia

DoubleTree by Hilton has broadened its presence in Colombia today with the opening of DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota -Calle 100. The hotel joins the recently-opened DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota - Parque 93 as the brands first two properties in Colombia. Both hotels are managed by Hoteles Cosmos, and the DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100 is owned by Inversiones Libra S.A.

Set in a quiet section of the Chico neighborhood in the capital city of Bogota, the ultra-modern, 88-room, full-service hotel offers easy access to the citys dynamic business district and the grand Autopista Norte highway. The Bogota World Trade Center, Park 93, and Usaquen, which boasts numerous nightclubs, gourmet restaurants and elegant shops, are all within a short walk and Bogotas El Dorado International Airport is located roughly less than nine miles northeast.

The emergence of Bogota as a fast-growing business and tourism destination makes it an ideal location for DoubleTree by Hilton, said Dianna Vaughan, senior vice president and global head, DoubleTree by Hilton. Our staff around the world creates rewarding experiences for our guests every day, and we are thrilled to bring our care-focused service to DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100. This spirit of hospitality is complemented by the stunning decor, well-appointed guestrooms and exceptional amenities in this new hotel, and we look forward to making sure every experience is a memorable one for our guests.

Each stay at DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100 begins with a warm DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie, and refreshing towel at check-in. The hotel offers complimentary Wi-Fi throughout its public areas and guest rooms and a 24-hour business center/connectivity lounge, plus it is the areas only hotel offering a 24-hour fitness center featuring Precor equipment, steam room, Irish sauna and indoor swimming pool.

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DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100 perfectly balances emblematic design with contemporary luxury. Built to maximize natural light, the hotel offers stunning views of the nearby Andes Mountains or bustling downtown Bogota from many of its guest and meeting rooms. Its sleek modern elements feature brown and light teal blue color tones, while marble finishes accent the spacious and open property.

The hotels guest rooms feature high ceilings and trendy decor, with numerous modern travel comforts such as soundproof windows, air conditioning and bathrooms with a marble shower. Guests will enjoy all the comforts of home with a 42-inch HDTV, mini-refrigerator, coffeemaker, multimedia hub and laptop-sized safe. The hotels suites offer a whirlpool bath and a separate living area and dining room.

The hotel is ideal for business meetings, weddings and other special gatherings, thanks to nearly more than 16,000 square feet of meeting and event space. Its 20 meeting areas include an amphitheater, executive boardroom and a grand ballroom accommodating up to 1,200 guests. For smaller groups, the hotel offers the Meetings Simplified by DoubleTree by Hilton package which includes the meeting room, basic meeting Wi-Fi, meeting room supplies including a flipchart, markers, extension and power cord, and all day non-alcoholic beverage service. Catering services and a dedicated event staff are available to enhance any event.

DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100 brings a level of elegance and style that distinguishes it from other hotels within this vibrant neighborhood, said Olga Mantilla Lievano, general manager, DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100. We are excited to offer a world-class travel experience for business and leisure guests, who are sure to appreciate the globally-renowned service that distinguishes DoubleTree by Hilton.

Delectable international and Colombian cuisine is available in the hotels Gastronomy Center, which includes three restaurants, two bars and a bakery. The Guadalupe Restaurant offers an extensive international menu, focused on grilled meats, soups, and gourmet specialties. The 2,600 Meters Bar, on the second floor, pays tribute to Bogotas location above sea level and title as the city that is 2,600 meters closer to the stars. DoubleTree by Hiltons Wake Up DoubleTree Breakfast is available in Guadalupe Restaurant for guests, while those preferring to dine in the comfort of their room can conveniently order room service 24-hours a day.

In addition to the iconic warm chocolate chip cookie welcome, guests will enjoy other DoubleTree by Hilton brand amenities, including a variety of gourmet coffee and tea, the refreshing London-based Aroma Actives natural skin and body care line, and an industry-recognized service culture built around the idea of CARE, which stands for Create a Rewarding Experience for guests, Team Members and the community.

DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota - Calle 100 participates in the Hilton HHonors loyalty program, which is open to all guests and free to join - visit here for enrollment information. HHonors members always get our lowest price with our Best Price Guarantee, along with HHonors Points, free standard Wi-Fi, access to digital check-in and Digital Key, and no hidden fees, only when they book directly through Hilton. To mark the hotel's opening, Hilton HHonors members will earn double bonus points from April 1, 2016 through July 1, 2016 when booking the best available rate. Based on availability, Gold and Diamond members will also enjoy free premium Wi-Fi and upgrades to the hotel's exclusive Hilton HHonors floor and complimentary Wake Up DoubleTree Breakfast.

DoubleTree by Hilton Bogota  Calle 100 is located at Transversal 21 #98-20, Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia 110911.
2 Chainz just dropped his collaborative album with Lil Wayne, Collegrove, last week, and today he stopped by Wendy Williams show to talk about the project, the definition of trap music, and of course, the heartbreaking passing of his friend and Street Execs associate, Bankroll Fresh.



The rapper started his appearance off by explaining that the album is more of his own dedication to Lil Wayne, rather than a fully collaborative project, which explains how he was able to put the album out through Def Jam (though he mentioned he has a great relationship with Cash Money). [Wayne is] like my brother, my friend, actually my favorite rapper. I just felt like it was time to put out a project or for somebody to just acknowledge that he had a lot to do with moving the culture to where it is now, he said.



Chainz then addressed Wendys confusion about trap music, giving her a brief rundown of the rap style thats been getting so much attention. They have a new trap music where its kind of sort of like EDM, but the trap music that I talk about speaks of things that go on inside the neighborhoods of Atlanta, Georgia, where you come from, he explained. I always tell people, if I was from Denver, I would probably know how to ski, but Im from Atlanta, so I know how to trap.



Before he left, the rapper addressed the death of Bankroll, sharing some kind words about the charimatic rapper. He was an authentic trap rapper from Atlanta, who touched many lives and lit up every room he went to, he shared. It was super unfortunate, super unnecessary, super senseless. And it just made me want to step up and use my platform for more positivity.



Watch the full interview below.
Yasiin Bey, fka Mos Def, appeared in court today outside of Cape Town to work out some legal details of his case. Bey was originally arrested for using a fraudulent passport and overstaying his artists visa by a few years. However, he ran into a hiccup when the judge would not allow him to appear while wearing his turban. The emcee reportedly left and then chose to return with a scarf draped loosely around his head.

The proceeding went quickly, as the state called the hearing to request a postponement of the official court hearing while they finish their investigation into the matter. Yasiin Beys lawyer, Shahied Schreuder, agreed to the postponement. The new court date has been set for March 24, only a few weeks away. Meanwhile, the rapper will continue to live in South Africa while out on bail.

Beys lawyer has been trying to soften the states impeding punishment for Yasiin Beys crime, saying that the Brooklyn emcees presence in the country has been beneficial to its arts industry. Many more international celebrities are looking at South Africa as a destination of choice for retirement and business, said Schreuder. We need to encourage that.

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Yesterday investors showed strong support for the stock of CannaVEST Corp (OTCMKTS:CANV). The sudden wave of increased buying pushed the ticker from an opening price of just above $0.2 all the way to a close at $0.25. This meant that in a single day CANV had added nearly 27% to their value. Not to mention that this is the highest closing price for the stock since December.

There was no immediate reason for the sudden upwards burst displayed by the stock but yesterday's performance may have been a late reaction to the PR issued by CANV last Thursday. Last year the company entered into a securities purchase agreement that boosted the financial resources of CANV considerably at the expense of issuing a sizable amount of convertible notes. The threat of potentially severe dilution and the fact that the notes could be turned into common shares at a significant discount to the market price eroded investors' confidence in the stock. The consequences for the stock were dire - CANV crashed from around a dollar at the start of November 2015 to a new 52-week low of 0.10 in January 2016.

The management team decided that they needed to do something to remedy the situation and at the start of February they announced the prepayment of $535 thousand worth of notes and $160 thousand in prepayment premium. Just a couple of days later, however, investors learned that one the note holders rejected the prepayment. In the next weeks there were no more updates but on March 3 a new press release announced that CANV were able to prepay the investor holding the last of the convertible notes in the total amount of $158 thousand. Initially the news failed to get investors excited with CANV closing just 5.3% in the green on the day of the PR and falling in the red on the very next day. Still, after the weekend investors' sentiment appears to have changed thanks to the fact that CANV has now retired 100% of its outstanding convertible notes.

This is without any doubt a massive step in the right direction but CANV should still be approached with caution. In order to secure the funds necessary for the prepayment of the notes the company sold a $850 thousand note that this time has no conversion feature. And while CANV's financial state is stable the company needs to show its ability to keep the revenues growing while keeping the expenses in check. Opening the latest quarterly report reveals that at the end of the third quarter of 2015 CANV had:

 $1.12 million cash

 $20.1 million total current assets

 $2.15 million total current liabilities

 $4.15 million product sales

 $989 thousand net loss

The balance sheet is definitely not that bad. After all it is not that common of a sight to see a pennystock company report over $9 million in product sales in nine months. At the same time, however, the net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, of close to $5.6 million is a serious reason for concerns. By the end of March CANV should submit its annual report for 2015 and the numbers inside it could very well determine the direction of the stock.
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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-08 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Turkey's proposals were extremely radical for the majority of EU member states, says Alt. FM Xydakis [01] Turkey's proposals were extremely radical for the majority of EU member states, says Alt. FM Xydakis "There was convergence in practical issues and this is positive. We did not reach an agreement because Turkey's proposals were extremely radical for the majority of the EU member states," Alternate Foreign Minister responsible for European Affairs Nikos Xydakis stated to Athina 9.84 FM on Tuesday referring to the EU-Turkey Summit on the refugee issue. "There was progress for Greece in relation to the rapid readmission of migrants to Turkey which is also a message to the migrants not to follow this route. Europe is putting pressure so that something changes until March 17, but the legal and institutional framework is based on a Greek-Turkish bilateral agreement on the implementation and acceleration of the readmission process. Turkey has shown that it wants to cooperate", said Xydakis. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-08 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] More women in top management positions, Grant Thornton survey [01] More women in top management positions, Grant Thornton survey The percentage of women in senior executive positions grew to 24 pct from 22 pct, but still one in three enterprises have no women participation in top management positions, Grant Thornton said its global survey released on Tuesday to mark the celebration of Woman's Day. In Greece, the percentage of women holding top management positions was stable at 27 pct, while a 29 pct of Greek enterprises have no women in their top management teams. The survey said it was encouraging that the vast majority of respondents said there were both the necessary structures and support for women to remain in their top management positions in the long-term. Elpida Leonidou, partner in Grant Thornton in Greece said: "It is very logical to have this difference between men and women considering that women are more burdened with the raising of their children and housekeeping". Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-08 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] PM Tsipras in Izmir for 4th Greece-Turkey High Level Cooperation Council [01] PM Tsipras in Izmir for 4th Greece-Turkey High Level Cooperation Council Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir on Tuesday for the fourth session of a High-Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) aiming to further improve bilateral relations between the two countries. The visit will begin with the HLCC, which got underway on Tuesday afternoon and will be followed by the signature of agreements and joint statements to the press at 16:30. Greek government sources said the agenda for the meeting will focus mainly on transport, trade and tourism, including a ferry link between Izmir and Thessaloniki and a rail link between Thessaloniki and Istanbul. In terms of Greek exports, Turkey's interest focuses mainly on construction materials, while in terms of Turkish investments to Greece, on tourism and real estate. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will also discuss the refugee crisis, with Greece stressing the need to implement and speed up migrant readmission procedures. The Council meeting will be followed by a Greek-Turkish Business Forum starting at 18:00, with the participation of 36 Greek businesses and other organisations mainly active in the tourism, real estate, food and drink, construction, logistics, transport and building materials sectors. At 19:00 on Tuesday, the Greek prime minister will make a speech at a ceremony where he will be granted an honorary doctorate from Izmir University. The visit will end with a dinner given by the Izmir Chamber of Commerce and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey at 20:00. Ten ministers will accompany Tsipras to his visit to Izmir, among which Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-08 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Refugee camp at Idomeni: nothing like Glastonbury, bar the mud [02] Sea cruise association expects less passengers this year [03] NATO force begins patrols along Turkish coast to control traffickers [01] Refugee camp at Idomeni: nothing like Glastonbury, bar the mud With their numbers at 13,000 and counting, overnight rain brought more misery for the refugees now literally stuck at the camp in Idomeni, near the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Stuck at the border and stuck in the mud, their hopes of crossing the border were evaporating a great deal faster than the water from the rain-soaked blankets that they spread out in the sun to dry on Tuesday morning. FYROM authorities have kept the passage to the no-man's land closed since Monday, allowing no one through, and no one knows when and under with what conditions the flow of refugees will resume. People's faces were visibly haggard after a night of battling to keep their families dry, digging ditches around the tents in an effort to keep the water away. The day for most began with the usual making of the tea over open fires, with water boiled in tin cans, and then lining up to queue for food. The longest line was in front of the non-governmental aid organisation Praksis, which hands out 18,000 sandwiches - two for each adult and one for each child - with cheese, lettuce and egg. The camp is also still growing, with dozens more tents going up in adjacent fields. Despite the appeals made by aid workers, no one wants to leave and temporarily go to a relocation centre, where the conditions are much better. Only a few say they have decided to apply for the relocation programme, for which they must have earlier applied for asylum in order to qualify. The only relief for those at the camp comes from the volunteers that come from all over the world to help in any way they can. Among them a group of young people from Denmark, Germany, UK and the United States that first met on the Aegean island of Lesvos and then followed the refugees to Idomeni, setting up a tent next to a caravan and daily making and handing out hot tea. [02] Sea cruise association expects less passengers this year The Association of Cruise Shipowners and Shipping Agencies met with Shipping and Island Policy Minister Theodore Dritsas and discussed developments in the port of Piraeus ahead of the summer season and government initiatives regarding migrants and refugees temporarily accomodated in the port's passenger terminals. Association members said that sea cruise reservations were down for this summer, with Th. Kontes, president of the Association speaking to ANA-MPA stressing that some companies, such as AIDA, cancelled their arrivals to Greece -following terrorist attacks in Turkey- and turned to western Mediterranean destinations. He noted that Greece will have around 350-400,000 less sea cruise passengers this year compared with 2015. Kontes said the sea cruise companies asked for better docking facilities in the port of Santorini. [03] NATO force begins patrols along Turkish coast to control traffickers The NATO force in the Aegean on Tuesday began patrols along the Turkish coast to control and stop the lines to Greece used by refugee and migrant traffickers. The commander of the Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2), Rear Admiral Jorg Klein, was given diplomatic permission to enter Turkey's territorial waters on Monday night. Negotiations between the EU and Turkey were still underway in Brussels at the time, while the NATO Secretary General had talks on the same day with the Turkish prime minister and the Greek defence minister. The SNMG2 flagship, the German frigate 'FGS-BONN', began patrols northeast of Lesvos in Turkish waters early on Tuesday morning, acting mainly on the information it was given by the Greek National Defence General Staff, the Hellenic Navy and the Hellenic Coast Guard about the movements of traffickers and migrants to the Greek islands. The information was handed over to Rear Admiral Klein and NATO Maritime Command Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Giorgio Lazio during their recent visit to Athens. Of the other ships in the SNMG2, the Turkish frigate "TCG-Barbaros" (F-244) is stationed between the Greek islands of Kos and Astypalaia, the Greek frigate "Salamis" is sailing off the island of Agios Efstratios, the British tanker "Mount1 Bay" is in the central Aegean between the islands of Andros and Chios, awaiting orders. Also due to join the NATO operation are two more British ships and a French frigate, while a Canadian and Italian ship currently in Italy are scheduled to return. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
nt line workers are aware of obstacles that senior leadership will likely never encounter yet theyre often left out of decisions surrounding protocol  at least in some organizations. Here, HRM spoke to two Kiwi companies thatve given a voice to their employees and found smarter solutions as a result.If employees have got a question, a concern, a suggestion, any feedback, we have a system called Brainwave where they go on to it in the store and log the comment, says Jan Jones, general manager of people support at Warehouse Stationery.The questions and the ideas that Brainwave has thrown up have led to significant improvements within the business, she adds, sharing a recent cost-saving example in which an employee suggested buying a spare set of blades for the in-store guillotines, rather than having one set repeatedly sharpened.A little more investigation and we realized that if we bought a second pair of blades at a one-off cost for every store then the blades can get sharpened less and rotated instead, saving significant amounts of money over the course of a year and beyond, reveals Jones.Those sorts of simple yet highly effect suggestions come from people doing the job every day, she adds.Its not just the company that benefits from the employee communication platform, says Jones, workers also value the voice it gives them and appreciate being heard by the CEO, who personally responds to every suggestion.Being able to ask something of the highest person within the company without it being a hierarchical thing, that does give them a sense of empowerment, she adds.The response isnt always; Yes, great idea, were going to do that, but there is always a personalised response, she says. The illustration is that we really want everybody to understand theyve got a voice, an equal voice and a channel to get their voice heard.Kim Ibberson is the HR manager at Recreational Services  she says the company has implemented a similar program because execs know theyre not always the best ones to implement new procedure.We could suggest something and it could be totally wrong because were not the ones who are hands-on out there doing it, she told HRM. Its a great system to have and its great for the staff to see that their contributions, ideas or concerns are being heard and action is being taken.
Oxford Dental/Facebook

An Edmonton dentist and his staff opened up their office last weekend to a group of Syrian refugees, many of whom had never had dental work done before.

After a Syrian family came to his office last month, Dr. Yousif Chaaban realized that refugees' dental coverage only took care of emergency surgery, not routine dental work.

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So, he decided to do the work for free.

"Their teeth are just full of cavities, decay all over their teeth. It's unfortunate. They came to this country and a lot of them are in pain," Chaaban told CBC News. "We brought them in [today] because they don't have coverage."

A number of Syrian refugees in Canada have been facing serious dental health issues, many of which require emergency work.

On Sunday, Chaaban and his team at Oxford Dental helped out nearly 40 Syrian refugees.

An Edmonton company, Patterson Dental, provided the supplies.

Dr. Yousif Chaaban and his team at Oxford Dental are challenging other dentists to help Syrian refugees in Canada. pic.twitter.com/bOnB9mZXGN  Sarah Kraus Global (@SarahNKraus) March 6, 2016

It's not the first time Chaaban has stepped up to help out his community. In 2015, he partnered with other dentists at Abbotsfield Dental to offer a free day of care for Edmonton's homeless youth.

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Chaaban said there are many more refugees who need help, and is urging other dentists to lend a hand.

I want all dentists to open up their eyes to this and hopefully open up their doors  be gracious and kind enough to help them, Chaaban told Global News.

Dental bus

A bus in Calgary has been providing a similar service.

In February, the Alex Community Health Centre brought free mobile dental health care by bus to Syrian refugees in the city, according to Metro News.

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Last year, Justin Trudeau explained that he had appointed a gender-equal cabinet "because it's 2015."

This year, a Vancouver councillor is filing a motion for stronger gender representation on city committees "because it's 2016."

Andrea Reimer's motion, which is set to be put forward on International Women's Day (March 8), would require women to make up at least half of all committees, CBC News reported Monday.

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Andrea Reimer is set to table a motion requiring gender equality at Vancouver City Hall. (Photo: Andrea Reimer/Facebook)

Reimer says there needs to be an official commitment for the initiative, even though the city makes an effort to achieve this goal already.

"We'd really like to put that into formal policy language so that it's not surprising to anyone, that they understand this expectation," said Reimer, who is also the city's deputy mayor.

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The motion, which is set to be tabled Tuesday and debated at council next month, already has the support of Mayor Gregor Robertson.

According to The Province, Robertson said he "strongly" supports the idea, and hopes others will also be on board with such "common-sense policies."

We believe we live in an equal society, so lets represent that in the real world."

Reimer's upcoming motion also calls for a review of social policy grants and subsidized housing to ensure women are being treated fairly when it comes to social services, Global News reported.

The city councillor said that she was "very proud to be Canadian" when Trudeau's gender-balanced cabinet was announced. It looks like she might be bringing the same change to the municipal politics of Vancouver.

We believe we live in an equal society, so lets represent that in the real world," said Reimer.

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tsvibrav via Getty Images Male and female figurines standing on top of coin piles with other figurines in the background. Wage gap and corporate structure concept.

March 8 marks International Women's Day (IWD), a day meant to celebrate women's global achievements, but also tackle some of the biggest issues that hold them back. This year, the IWD's main focus is to accelerate gender parity, something The World Economic Forum believes won't happen until 2133.

According to a new report from Statistics Canada for the Globe and Mail, Canadian women who work full-time still earn 73.5 cents for every dollar men make. These numbers are even lower for Indigenous and women of colour.

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On a global scale, the gender pay gap in Canada is more than twice the global average, according to research firm Catalyst Canadam the Canadian pay gap is on average $8,000, while globally it's at $4,000.

This number, which is a slight jump from a reported 72 cents per dollar in 2015, is no surprise to Sarah Kaplan, a professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

"Even though Canadian culture has an emphasis on all aspects of diversity, Canada has been quite slow to deal with issues like gender pay gap," she tells The Huffington Post Canada. "What we do know about Canada's gender pay gap is that it has plateaued."

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While there have been studies that argue the gender pay gap is lower in the public sector vs. the private one, Kaplan says a gap is still a gap. And although the current wage gap is an improvement from the '60s and '70s, when the women's rights movement was first gaining steam, the fact that it has plateaued is quite problematic, she adds.

Why do women earn less?

Kaplan says there are several factors why women make less than men, and cites maternity leave as one of the biggest.

"If [women] do take the time off, they are typically giving up a salary and wage growth right at that crucial moment of their career," Kaplan explains. "This pushes that baseline salary from where future promotions will grow."

CEO and entrepreneur Gigi Stetler who works in a male-dominated world of RV sales says in her experience, some women still believe making less than a man is a norm.

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"A major reason why men are still making more than women is because most women are accepting this reality," she tells The Huffington Post Canada. "We can't be afraid to ask for a raise, take on more work, or take a leap and start our own businesses."

But it's easier said than done. Not all women have the resources or opportunities to ask for promotions or a higher wage, and even if women are more educated than men, some groups of Canadian women still fall far behind.

"We have to look at how we are socially programmed to use gender as a status marker and as an excellence marker  a female means not as high quality."  Prof. Sarah Kaplan

According to a recent report on the gender wage gap from The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Oxfam Canada, working full-time Aboriginal women made 26 per cent less than non-Aboriginal men, while women of colour made 32 per cent less than non-racialized men.

Another reason, the report notes, is women are still working in occupations that tend to have lower wages - in their example, truck drivers (97 per cent of whom are male) make a median annual wage of $45K, while childhood educators (97 per cent of whom are female) make $25K.

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Higher education was once an argument for why women made less, but today data suggests more women in Canada have post-secondary degrees compared to men.

"The education gap has been closing extremely rapidly, so that's not going to be an excuse in the future," Kaplan says.

The art of negotiation is not an easy 'fix'

But even when it comes to working in the same industry, men and women are still not equal. While women neglecting to ask for raises might be one component of the problem, Kaplan argues it goes beyond just training women to be better negotiators.

Women and men who ask for raises are seen differently, Kaplan adds. A woman who asks for a raise can be labelled as unlikable, undesirable, pushy or aggressive, by bosses of any gender.

"I don't think we can blame this on women not asking," she explains. "We have to look at how we are socially programmed to use gender as a status marker and as an excellence marker  a female means not as high quality."

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Kaplan says studies have shown when employers are looking at two identical resumes, for example, they are most likely to hire, give a raise or promote the male employee. "That isn't any negotiating, it's just the CV," she says.

How do we close the gap?

Over the years, there have been plenty of solutions offered on how to fix the gender wage gap, and Kaplan suggests companies should start doing a salary analysis.

In 2015, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., announced it would give all female employees a $3,515 pay boost, after a report found female faculty members were making much less than men, the CBC reports. Of course, this is not something all companies can afford to do, but Kaplan says it's the right thing to do to correct the imbalance.

"What ends up happening when organizations do [an analysis] is that they find all sorts of reasons why women are paid less," she explains, adding some common ones include women not working with high-profile clients, for example.

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"It's also seen as a very risky strategy, because you are admitting your female employees have been poorly paid, even though we all know it's true."

Transparency is another way to close this gap. In our society, it is still taboo to talk about wages and learn what our colleagues make. Kaplan says this is why the wage gap in the public sector may be smaller. In Ontario, for example, the Sunshine List (an annual report of public sector employees making more than $100,000) is available to everyone, and people are more likely to ask for raises, she adds.

In an interview with Fast Company, author and professor Art Markman says if you do find out your colleagues make a salary that's higher than yours, you should ask for a raise.

Kaplan says there have been initiatives from some employers in the U.S. to make salaries more transparent, and in doing so, this is the best way to empower women to not only negotiate, but demand equal pay.

And possibly, all of these many moving parts could help close that gender wage  if not for this generation, then maybe the next one.

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Courtesy

It's well known the fashion industry is dominated by male designers, even when it comes to women's wear.

A 2015 article from Forbes says women in fashion aren't taken as seriously as men, while Lauren Sherman asks, "Why Is Fashion, Of All Places, Still a Mans World?" on The Man Repeller.

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In Canada, male designers have historically held the spotlight (think Joseph Mimran and David Dixon), but now more and more women are starting to make names for themselves. Despite the lack of representation at some fashion weeks, Canada can attribute several of its commercial successes to women, including Kit and Ace founder (and former lululemon athletica Inc. lead designer) Shannon Wilson and Tristan co-founder Denise Deslauriers, as HuffPost blogs editor Nicholas Mizera notes.

For International Women's Day, we spoke to female Canadian fashion designers to hear their thoughts on what it's like to be a woman in the industry  where they face challenges because of their gender and where they see it as a strength.

"When I became a mom, I did not fully go on maternity leave as most women do. Being an entrepreneur, you can never stop working, especially in the fashion industry, which is so fast-paced and demanding. Both required a lot of passion and dedication, and sleepless nights.

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"As a woman designer, I understand what women want and what they really need. I know what they look for in a luxury coat."

"While being a female designer/entrepreneur in the fashion industry is beneficial to my namesake brand, it isn't without its pressures. Long hours are involved in pursuing a career in fashion design and when coupled with owning your own business, it can be a struggle to properly balance business and personal life.

"Appearance as a women working in the fashion industry can also be daunting; all eyes are on you. A pressure that I have long realized existed, and has inspired me to make change.

"Since the inception of Di Carlo Couture, I have built a reputation for producing one of a kind pieces that perfectly reflect and compliment women of all shapes and sizes. At Di Carlo Couture, we celebrate women each and every day. It is my mission to empower women by helping them look and feel their very best. "

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"I could share many sexist encounters that Ive experienced on the job but who wants to read that tired story again? Pas moi. Instead, Id like to remind us women that it begins with us. It begins with us teaching others how we are to be treated and also, that you may have to work a little bit harder to get your foot in the door.

"For myself I dont see it as working harder rather than positioning myself on an equal ground with others no matter who they are or what they do.

"I become most frustrated when its women gate-keeping other women, usually out of jealousy or fear of the other doing better than them, and P.S.  the gatekeeping is never subtle. We should be more focused on building an industry that serves all and not one. Nothing can evolve from one.

"Being a female designer designing for women is an obvious advantage. I know what women want to feel like, look like, act like in their clothes. There are things a man  sorry guys  simply cannot understand. A lot of the biggest brands have a male designer behind them, but let me tell you behind him are many exceptionally talented women. Now lets support each other, ladies and get to the front of that line with style and grace!"

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"I was raised by a single mother, so growing up I had no idea that there were people out there that did not believe that women are capable, amazing people who are worthy. As I grew older that changed. I have seen mens opinions taken over mine, when I was more knowledgeable on the subject, just because of their gender.

"Occasionally I am not taken seriously as a businesswoman because of my gender, especially dealing with people outside the fashion world.

"Right now I am focusing on helping my fellow women in the industry. I have heard one too many times from healthy, beautiful models that their agencies are forcing them to lose weight or they wont get work or even be put on their roster. It is so wrong that in 2016 this is still an issue, and it needs to be stopped. This is why I am doing an all open-casted show next week at Toronto Fashion Week. I am showing all different shapes and sizes to prove you dont need to be a very specific size to be able to show clothes beautifully."

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"One of the biggest challenges I find being a woman in this industry is lack of support from other female entrepreneurs. We are definitely getting better as a society to have women-supported events, awards, mentorships, etc. but as a whole, women can be more critical of other women. We should be supporting each other and celebrating our accomplishments instead of trying to tear each other down.

"Being a woman designing women's wear brings a personal understanding of the way women want garments to fit. For example, I am always hyper-aware of how undergarments will work with each piece I design. I think it has helped differentiate me from men in my same field because I'm not only thinking about the look, but always the practicality of each garment and how it will transition into a woman's wardrobe."

"To be totally honest I havent had a single moment where Ive given any thought to how my gender may have factored in to my business challenges. My father and grandfather were amazing business role models for my sister and I. Their steadfast business ethic always demonstrated that everyone was treated with equal respect.

"Truthfully, the creative process is different for everyone; all the little idiosyncrasies that we all bring to the process are not gender-specific in any way. Im the girl who refused to wear matching socks as a child and thats what I bring to my craft. Whatever that is, that quirky, intuitive desire to create my own rules, has less to do with my gender and more about trusting my creative process."

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"I think male and female designers face the same challenges in the industry. I dont think either gender faces any more challenges than the other.

"One benefit of being a woman is being able to try on the clothes and create a proper fitting sample. Fit is so important especially with our line of work wear and the clientele that comes with it. We really want women to be comfortable in our dresses and for it to take them day to night. There is no other way to test that other than trying it on."

"I would say that one of the challenges in being a woman, and a young one, would be that I wasn't taken seriously. It definitely is a challenge when it comes to negotiating pricing with factory owners that not only are men but also older than me. We also have factories that are overseas and their mentality is also different. I don't have this issue so much anymore because I have been with the company for many years and I've earned my place.

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"On another note, being a woman designer definitely has it's benefits. As a woman, I know what I need out of my clothing. All these wardrobe issues that we have, I always have these in mind and always try to better my product. I know about them because I wear the items and know what feels good and what doesn't. For example, this season for FW16, I decided to make these silk top bodysuits that are perfect to wear with your trousers. They are so perfect because you can bend over and not be worried about anything."
Sidney Conley/Facebook

A mom-to-bes sweet tribute to her late partner has touched the hearts of people everywhere.

Nicole Babbs partner Deonta Bennett died unexpectedly last month from unknown causes, just two months before their second baby was due. To keep his memory alive, the mom decided to incorporate Bennett in her maternity photos with her four-year-old son Landen.

The Jackson, Mississippi couple had always wanted to do a maternity photo shoot, but was unable to do so with their first child because he was born prematurely. Before Bennetts death, he suggested the idea again, but he sadly passed away before the couple could go through with their plans.

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Despite this, Babb decided to do the shoot and enlisted the help of local photographer Sidney Conley.

I wanted to do something special because he's been there for my son since day one, the mom told ABC News. Its memories for my son of his father and for my daughter who will never meet her father, it's memories for her as well.

In late February, Conley then took photos of Babb and her son and later digitally added images of Bennett to create some beautiful family portraits.

I thank you for trusting me with your vision Nicole Babb #sidneyconleyphotography Posted by Sidney Conley Photos on Monday, February 29, 2016

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After sharing the images on his Facebook page, Conleys photos quickly garnered over 77,000 likes and 100,000 shares. Deeply touched by the post, one user wrote: This absolutely brought tears to my eyes. This is truly beautiful. May he rest in peace.

Another said, Absolutely beautiful way to create memories!! GOD BLESS.

Conley was also moved by his images, reports the Daily Mail. Just how I edited [the photos] with him looking down on them, it's showing that he's making sure they're okay, the photographer said.

Thanks to Conleys amazing work, Babb is certain Bennett would have been thrilled with the pictures. He wouldve been so excited just like when we did our engagement photos, she told Global News.

[My son] was so excited when he looked at them, the mom, who is due on March 25, added. He said, Mama, how did they put daddy in the picture? I just told him that hes now an angel and that they put an angel in the pictures.

Family portraits honouring late family members are nothing new, but are always deeply moving. In October 2015, for instance, a heart-wrenching photo of a family paying tribute to their miscarried babies also captured the internets attention.

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One day I will no longer have to write posts about how women are still being discriminated around the world on the basis of their gender.

Google marked International Womens Day on Tuesday by unveiling a doodle celebrating the diverse and multifaceted aspirations of women and girls around the world.

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The scope of their endeavour brought their female-only crew to 13 countries to interview 337 women and girls. They were each asked to complete the sentence, One day I will

Their responses are undoubtedly inspirational.

From the United States:

From Japan:

From Brazil:

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From Egypt:

From Nigeria:

Google said in a statement they wanted to celebrate the doodle-worthy women of the future.

Even women who are already accomplished arent done dreaming, the company said. The series also features anthropologist and animal rights activist Jane Goodall as well as activist Muzoon Almellehan and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

Celebrated annually on March 8, International Womens Days roots stem from a crowd of women, 15,000-people strong, who marched through the streets of New York City demanding better pay, shorter working hours, and the right to vote.

That, of course, was in 1908. And somehow, theres still a long way to go.

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There's a class of cyber crime that essentially kidnaps your data and holds it for ransom.

And even Apple customers aren't safe anymore.

Security firm Palo Alto Networks reported Sunday that a form of ransomware had infected Transmission, a BitTorrent installer that works on the Apple operating system.

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This marked the first time that ransomware had successfully attacked Apple's Mac computers, Palo Alto's threat intelligence director Ryan Olson told Reuters.

Ransomware is a cyber threat that infects a system, encrypts its data and asks people to pay ransoms in order to retrieve it, Reuters reported.

Palo Alto discovered the threat, which it has dubbed "KeRanger," after attackers "infected two installers of Transmission version 2.90" on March 4.

"When we identified the issue, the infected DMG files were still available for downloading from the Transmission site," it said.

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KeRanger managed to enter Apple's operating system after it bypassed Gatekeeper, a feature that protects users from malware.

The ransomware managed to maneuver around Gatekeeper because it had a Mac app development certificate.

KeRanger works by embedding itself in the Transmission apps, then waiting three days before encrypting data. It then demands that users pay one bitcoin (around C$550) to obtain their data again.

Apple has responded to the threat by revoking the app certificate, while Transmission has taken the infected installers off its site, Palo Alto said.

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Those who downloaded Transmission 2.90 might have seen their data become inaccessible on Monday, he added.

A spokesperson for Apple responded by reiterating to various media that it had revoked the certificate associated with the infected BitTorrent installer.

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For self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada has a role to play to head off predictions global economic gender parity will take 117 years to become a reality.

Trudeau was questioned on solutions to accelerate the closing of this gap during a live global town hall hosted by The Huffington Post Canada on Monday. University of Toronto student Bushra Ebadi asked Trudeau what Canada could do to bring gender parity to fruition in her lifetime.

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"I think theres not one solution, theres multiple, multiple solutions that can be pursued at the same time," Trudeau told Ebadi and the audience.

"So how do we do it? There are top-down decisions to take, like I did in appointing a gender-equal cabinet."

"There are other decisions we need to take around legislative tools, for example not turning it into a bargaining element in negotiation between a union and an employer," he continued. "Saying, this is a core value that has to be achieved."

Trudeau also listed education in schools, "cracking down on patriarchal thinking and gender-based violence, and supporting womens reproductive rights as solutions to gender inequality.

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I mean theres an entire social change that has to go... theres a lot of work still to do, Trudeau said. But I know there are an awful lot of people who are pulling together to work exactly on this, because it matters so deeply; not just to Canada, but to the world.

Political representation

Introducing Canadas newly appointed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet #PM23pic.twitter.com/cqWIO0JjwP  Canada (@Canada) November 4, 2015

When Trudeau appointed his gender-balanced cabinet in November with his famous Because its 2015 quip, his move had both political and economic effects for his ministers.

As members of Parliament, Trudeaus 15 female ministers earned a base salary of $167,400, equal to their male contemporaries. By becoming cabinet members, they now earn $80,000 more, for a total annual income of $247,500.

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Increased female representation in cabinet hasn't had an immediate economic impact for women, but theres evidence south of the border that its a smart move. When FiveThirtyEight tracked how pay parity was related to female representation in American politics, they found that the wage gap was narrower in U.S. states with more women in office.

Legislation

There are two types of legislation that can address the wage gap  pay equity, where female-dominated occupations are paid the same as male-dominated occupations of comparable value, and pay equality, where all genders working an identical job are paid equally.

In Canada, the Ontario Pay Equity Act was first enacted in 1987 to prevent wage discrimination against employees, including female workers. Similar acts in other provinces and territories have followed.

Approximately 10 to 15 per cent of wage gap cases are due to discrimination, states the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which counted only reported cases of pay inequity.

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But pay equity and pay equality laws are not standardized across the country. Provinces like Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and British Columbia have no pay equity legislation. Alberta, which has no pay equity or pay equality legislature, has the widest gender wage gap in Canada.

The NDP introduced a pay equity motion to the Liberal government in February. The motion called for a parlimentary committee to examine pay inequity and passed the House of Commons, with support from the NDP and the Liberals.

Pay equity is a fundamental human right. We welcome todays NDP motion on closing the pay gap between men and women.  Patty Hajdu (@PattyHajdu) February 2, 2016

The gender pay gap is wider for marginalized women: lesbian couples, women with disabilities, Indigenous women, racialized women, newcomers, and transgender women all face higher amounts of pay inequity.

Currently, Labour Canada does not enforce how employers practice pay equity or take wage gap complaints. Instead, it encourages workers to consider filing a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

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Education

More women (64.8 per cent) than men (63.4 per cent) earned a post-secondary education in Canada, according to data from the 2011 National Household Survey. Past Statistics Canada studies point to differences in early development and in the way male and female children are socialized in terms of parental expectations around school  girls spend more time on homework at an earlier age, develop stronger study habits and are more aware of the correlation between education and income.

But although women are now the majority on campus, they still battle rape culture, pick-up artists and men's rights groups vying to carve some influence with the student body.

And women's higher education also doesn't translate to guaranteed better-paying jobs. Women aged 25 to 29 with undergraduate university degrees earned 89 cents to every dollar made by male graduates according to 2005 StatsCan info; women in the same age group with college degrees made 80 cents to every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

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Patriarchal thinking

Patriarchal thinking centres around the idea that men or traditionally "male" concepts are dominant or valued over others. When it comes to gender parity, it can influence the workforce through occupational segregation.

Recent info from Catalyst revealed segregation in the Canadian workforce in areas such as bricklayers, automotive technicians, electricians, among others which are overwhelmingly male. On the flipside, dental technicians, early childcare educators and office administrative assistants were predominantly female.

Many female jobs such as nursing, childcare, and housekeeping are among the lowest-paying jobs. Solutions to occupational segregation suggest men and women need to re-socialize how industries can be more accessible for women.

Researchers from Wharton and McGill University looked into the causes of gender segregation in the workplace and found that employer behaviour wasn't the sole factor  women themselves were avoiding certain types of jobs, such as investment banking, for specific reasons. They based their decisions on factors that included pay and schedule flexibility, their ability to identify with the job, and their belief they could get the job if they applied for it.

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Women just didnt think they would get jobs there, so they didnt apply, researcher Matthew Bidwell said  even though they were just as likely to get the job as male applicants if they did apply. As solutions, he and research partner Roxana Barbulescu concluded that creating flexible workplaces that accommodated family and caregiver needs, and changing the way roles are structured to be more gender-neutral, could help erode occupational segregation.

Gender-based violence

The United Nations reports that one in three women has faced physical and/or sexual violence. But violence against women doesn't affect just one gender, there are widespread implications. Economy-wise, Statistics Canada reports that when women are victimized, their productivity at work falls, thus impacting how effective they are as employees.

In a study, the Department of Justice Canada found that spousal violence against women cost Canadians $7.4 billion in 2009 alone; the majority of that was from intangible costs that can't be recovered, as suffering, loss of affection and loss of life.

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Womens reproductive rights

Alternatives to legal abortions push many women to illegal and underground services, which endanger their welfare. A World Health Organization report revealed that unsafe abortions counted for 13 per cent of all maternal deaths.

The right to choose parenthood is a tenet of reproductive justice that Trudeau has long championed, with his commitments to pro-choice law-making evident in much of his campaigning. In 2014, he announced anti-abortion Liberal candidates could not run for the Liberals, a stance he later clarified. The Liberals' pro-life stance was expanded during federal elections last year, when the party said abortions could be legally funded across the country through the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Initiative.

Internationally, the Trudeau government announced Monday it would commit millions of dollars in funding toward reproductive health services globally, including a UN contraception-supply program, but did not commit any of that funding toward abortion services in relevant countries.
WASHINGTON  The White House says a special relationship is developing with Canada's new prime minister  a bond that will be reinforced this week with a series of bilateral agreements, champagne toasts, and a rare black-tie dinner.

Justin Trudeau arrives Wednesday for a three-day visit to the U.S. capital  a place he's already unusually well-known for a Canadian politician  with the first prime ministerial state dinner in 19 years as its centrepiece.

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An administration official described a unique alignment of priorities between President Barack Obama and the prime minister, who will be hosted by the White House, the State Department, American University and a gathering of think-tanks.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, last November. (Photo: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA via The Canadian Press)

"I think there is a developing special relationship between this president and prime minister," Mark Feierstein said during Tuesday's briefing.

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"They're both young leaders with similar visions, both have a progressive vision of governing, both very much committed to appropriate use of multilateral tools, both committed to diversity.

"I think there's a coincidence, very much, in terms of the agendas that both administrations have. I think we're seeing that reflected for example on the issues of climate change and refugees."

Officials have hinted at the prospects of a wide-ranging agreement on climate change, new border-security measures and an effort to avoid an impasse in the softwood-lumber dispute.

'My hopes are very low': Clement

Trudeau's political opponents back home question whether this might be more marketing plump than meat.

Conservative MP Tony Clement pointed out that several issues were already in the works under the previous government, and wondered how anything substantive could happen with a last-year president blocked by a hostile Congress.

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"My hopes are very low," said Clement.

But the prime minister arrives with an advantage rarely available to his recent predecessors: The ability to influence a conversation in the United States.

He's riding a wave of glam-mag coverage and glowing profiles, the latest on "60 Minutes." His status as a progressive celebrity was illustrated at a White House briefing this week. An Obama spokesman was asked whether the president would also participate in a gay-pride parade  and follow the example of the leader next door.

Canadians made 'splash' in Paris: White House

White House officials said they've noticed a tangible difference in another area: climate change. One described an instant spike in Canadian effort on the file after Trudeau's election, something that was apparent at the recent Paris summit.

"The climate relationship with Canada really just ramped up dramatically, quickly," said White House climate envoy Todd Stern.

"Canadians in Paris were extraordinarily effective... They made a very positive splash."

He said the shift began with Environment Minister Catherine McKenna's appearance at a pre-summit meeting. Then he said Canada joined a new agreement of high-ambition countries that had eluded parties for years, and he credited her with helping facilitate it.

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The White House hints at an impending deal to cut methane emissions up to 45 per cent in the oil and gas sector. A co-operation agreement on clean technology is also said to be imminent. So is a deal to track travellers who leave Canada or the U.S. by land, as already exists for air travel.

"They're both young leaders with similar visions, both have a progressive vision of governing, both very much committed to appropriate use of multilateral tools, both committed to diversity."

McKenna described the possibility of agreement on multiple fronts.

"There's a lot of discussions going on," she said. "I think there's joint actions that we can be taking together to tackle climate change."

She'll be one of several ministers joining Trudeau, who flies Wednesday into Andrews Air Force Base. During his visit, he'll stop to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery.

Officials from both countries describe a fair bit of jostling for tickets to the main event, with people pleading for invites to Thursday's state dinner: "I never realized how popular I am," one Canadian official said.

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Maple Leaf flags are already dotting the public spaces around the White House, down Pennsylvania Avenue which leads past the Canadian embassy to the U.S. Capitol.

In an ironic twist of political cinematography, the backdrop includes a large billboard that says: "Coming 2016: TRUMP."

The real-estate-developing-reality-TV-star happens to be opening a large hotel on the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue now lined with Canadian flags.

Trudeau has made it clear he'd rather avoid discussing the Republican front-runner and his proposals  like suspending Muslim travel to the U.S.

The prime minister was pressed this week with a line of questioning he'll likely hear in Washington and replied: "I'm not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now."

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Chris Jongkind via Getty Images High rise apartments and low density housing in part of Toronto's skyline.

One-quarter of Ontarians have crippling housing costs

UN warns of rising evictions, growing homelessness

Advocates say Canada must recognize right to adequate housing

As housing costs rise rapidly in parts of Canada, advocacy groups and economists are raising the alarm about eroding affordability. Now the UNs Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is adding its voice to the chorus.

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A committee report released Friday says Canada faces a persistent housing crisis and governments must do more to address the issue.

The committee said it was particularly alarmed at the absence of a national housing strategy; insufficient funding for housing; inadequate housing subsidy within the social assistance benefit; shortage of social housing units; and increased evictions related to rental arrears.

The report comes as evidence mounts that housing affordability is deteriorating in Toronto and Vancouver, which have seen double-digit house price growth in the past year, and rental rates rising at 3 to 4 per cent annually. The Royal Bank of Canada warned last week that housing in these two cities is reaching dangerously unaffordable levels.

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Another study suggests the problem is not limited to Toronto and Vancouver  and younger people are bearing the brunt of it. The study from the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA) found that, nationwide, Canadians spend 38.5 cents on housing for every dollar they have after core expenses such as food, clothing, debt and child care.

But one-quarter of Ontario residents spend nearly twice that  at least 62 cents for every dollar on housing. And 60 per cent of these people are under the age of 45.

A lot of the pain were seeing is in the middle class and among under 45-year-olds, CANCEA president Paul Smetanin told the Globe and Mail.

But the UN also sees pain at the lower end of the economic ladder. It says Canada is seeing an increase in homelessness and an increase in evictions due to unpaid rent.

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The UN reviewed Canadas housing policies in the context of the country being a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. That treaty asserts the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing.

But Canadian courts have balked at declaring a right to affordable or adequate housing. The Supreme Court last year declined to hear a case in which Toronto social activists were pushing to have affordable housing declared a right.

Those groups, which took their case to the UN committee, applauded its report this week.

"A committee of international human rights experts was able to see what the Canadian government [refuses] to see  that we are failing to protect a large and vulnerable portion of our population from violations of their fundamental right to housing," Kenneth Hale of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) said in a statement.

In a survey released last month, pollster Angus Reid said two-thirds of Canadians would like to see the government intervene somehow in the housing market. The survey found Canadians clear across the country are concerned about the cost of housing, despite the fact that rising housing costs have lately been limited to Toronto and Vancouver.

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The UN committee is urging Canadian governments to spend more money on ensuring an adequate supply of affordable housing, to tighten tenants protections against eviction, and to repeal laws that penalize homelessness, such as municipal anti-camping bylaws, among other things.

All eyes are on Canada now to see if the new Liberal government will show that it is indeed serious about real change by complying with its international human rights obligations," ACTOs Helen Luu said.

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Canadas next set of new banknotes will feature a woman, Finance Minister Bill Morneau confirmed Tuesday.

The surprise announcement coincided with an Ottawa press conference celebrating International Womens Day.

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As we know, women are and have always been instrumental in our country, Morneau said. But its now been almost 150 years that weve not had a Canadian woman on our banknotes  with the notable exception of course of the Queen.

Also in attendance was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who earlier revealed a special commemorative coin and a stamp to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a womans right to vote in Canada.

Now is the time.

Morneau added that the Bank of Canada had been thinking about putting an iconic Canadian woman on the next set of banknotes for quite some time.

Earlier this year, an NDP MP wrote an letter to Morneau arguing its time to break through the paper ceiling by featuring a woman on Canadian bills.

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We all agree  we meaning people in finance, obviously the prime minister, and all of our colleagues  agree that now is the time for us to move forward, the finance minister said.

The government will hold online public consultations for Canadians who want to submit suggestions for the new bill.

Morneau said the series of banknotes featuring a Canadian woman is expected to roll out in 2018.

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shutterstock real estate cheerful home buyer

Though perhaps somewhat uncharacteristic, when it comes to real estate, women have been more than a little late to the party. It's not hard to understand either when you look at the surrounding factors. Consider this: As recently as fifty years ago, Canadian women were not able to obtain a bank loan on their own. In fact, it was a small credit union here in B.C. who changed all that forever when, in 1961, Vancity became the first financial institution in Canada to lend to women without a male co-signer.

If recent trends are any indication however, not only have women started showing up to the party -- they're practically throwing it. Today we have more Canadian women in the job market than at any other time in our history; and recent census numbers show that women have far surpassed men in obtaining post-secondary schooling. All this higher learning has led to better jobs, and, as a benefit, increased financial freedom; all components that traditionally held them back from buying real estate.

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Recent numbers in Canada indicate that 25 per cent of homebuyers are single women, whereas only 10 per cent are single men. In the last major Female Buyers Report undertaken in 2007 by Royal LePage, they found that 30 per cent of single, never-before married women, and 45 per cent of divorced or separated women own their own home. Piggybacking on those numbers, the report found that 56 per cent of women are willing to participate in bidding wars, compared to just 49 per cent of men. That's a good thing too, particularly if they're living here in B.C.

In Vancouver, bidding wars are so commonplace women tend to view them as a "price of entry" into the aggressive housing market. And that doesn't even take into account the actual price of admission; another arena which women seem poised to tackle. Kitsilano and downtown Vancouver are typically the most desirable areas, with the price range of first-time female homebuyers set impressively between $350,000-$450,000.

The message then, at least when it comes to real estate, seems pretty clear: Prince Charming can keep the horse; his damsel in distress already owns the house (and decorated it too).

The LePage report is a fascinating eye into a microcosm that has, until recently, been largely overlooked. Not any more. Today there are even books being written on the subject, as illustrated by Brenda Bouw's Homegirl: The Single Woman's Guide to Buying Real Estate in Canada. An informative guide, the book is a type of What to Expect When You're Expecting for real estate. In it, Bouw offers up all sorts of advice for women new to the housing market - -from how to get the most out of your property to what you can expect during negotiations.

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As more and more women exhibit their eagerness to enter the real estate market, a whole new crop of related services are popping up as well. From Mortgages for Women, an Ontario based mortgage broker operated by women for women whose website advertises, "Because Prince Charming is NOT a Mortgage Strategy," to shifting attitudes towards female homebuyers, women have waved their cheque books in the air and the market is listening.

With the numbers of women purchasing real estate at an all-time high, the trend shows no signs of slowing down. The message then, at least when it comes to real estate, seems pretty clear: Prince Charming can keep the horse; his damsel in distress already owns the house (and decorated it too).

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ajari via Getty Images At window

Trigger warning: This article contains graphic detail about sexual assault or domestic violence, depending on the topic.

The catcall came as Brynn Chleirich walked alone through an Ottawa grocery store parking lot. A stranger in his late 30s was leaning against a car, smoking and staring at her. "Hey sweetie, you look pretty badass," he leered, following up with lewd suggestions.

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"This has to stop," Chleirich, a 41-year-old single mother replied, staring back at her harasser.

In an instant the man went from smiling to hurling unprintable slurs at Chleirich. He stubbed out his cigarette and started to walk past her. Then, he spun around without warning and drove his fist right into Chleirich's eye.

What stands out most about this story for us is hearing Chleirich say that being assaulted was less traumatic than having to tell her five children what happened.

As her attacker fled, Chleirich sat stunned and bleeding on the slushy pavement. A woman who had seen the assault rushed over to help. Had that woman not convinced her to file a report and offered a ride to the police station, Chleirich says she would likely have told people her injuries were from walking into a door, rather than see the pain it would cause her family when she told them the truth.

Sadly, such stories are all too common. Only 40 per cent of non-spousal violence against women, and 10 per cent of sexual assaults, are ever reported to authorities.

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Reporting violence has become a hot topic once again with women testifying against media personality Jian Gomeshi, and charges facing Bill Cosby. But Chleirich's story highlights a critical but rarely discussed piece of the puzzle: the pain of opening up to loved ones about what one has endured.

In her 20 years of counselling assault survivors, Lynne Jenkins tells us she's met many women who didn't report attacks because, like Chleirich, they feared the heart-rending impact on, and reaction of, family and friends.

Some women fear their families will not believe them, or will blame them for provoking violence, says Jenkins, director of counselling at Toronto's Barbra Schlifer Clinic for female victims of violence. Other women want to protect their families--from emotional pain, and potential public shame.

Rape victims worry their partners will reject them, seeing their bodies as spoiled and unclean.

On the day of her terrible assault, Chleirich's nine-year-old twins were the first to come home and see their mom with a black eye. Her voice cracks remembering the fear and pain in their faces as they tried to make sense of what had happened. "Are there bad people in our neighbourhood, mommy?" one asked, terrified.

"I wasn't prepared for their questions," Chleirich says, nearly sobbing as she recalls the incident.

The reaction of her 16-year old son was worse. Chleirich had hoped for hugs and comfort. Instead he flew into a violent rage because someone had dared hurt his mother. Chleirich had to ask her 20-year-old adult son to come home and talk his brother out of hunting down the assailant.

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Jenkins tells us she's seen the stress of assault tear entire families apart and ruin friendships. While most of Chleirich's family and friends have been supportive, one formerly close-knit circle of girlfriends accused her of simply seeking attention.

Chleirich's attacker was never caught, yet we are struck by how much she has gone through without ever having set foot on a witness stand.

Later this month when the judge delivers his verdict on Ghomeshi case, Canadians will undoubtedly vigorously debate the ruling. In the midst of that discussion, and whichever way the judge rules, we can't forget that female victims of assault are not just plaintiffs; they are our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. The courage and pain they've endured even in telling their stories is beyond measure.

Brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger founded a platform for social change that includes the international charity, Free The Children, the social enterprise, Me to We, and the youth empowerment movement, We Day. Visit we.org for more information.
Cathy Yeulet via Getty Images Stock Traders Celebrating In The Office

She says you're on a bridge to nowhere and you're gettin' there fast

Put it in the past, put it in the past.

--Sam Roberts, "Bridge to Nowhere"

To go a little outside my comfort zone and borrow a catchy chorus from Canadian songwriter Sam Roberts, I'd like to see government pension bridge benefits put in the past.

If you work in the private sector, you may not know the term "bridge benefit," since your retirement in all likelihood will not give you this little-known feature.

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If you're a government worker or you work in the public sector, chances are pretty good that you've heard of the bridge benefit, and you may well be celebrating your good fortune for having such a sweet deal in place for early retirement, one that other Canadians can only dream of.

Ordinarily Canadians who retire before age 65 and choose to draw CPP early receive reduced benefits for the rest of their lives. That makes sense as they will not have paid in as much in premiums. The bridge benefit allows many government workers to claim their full pension early, penalty-free. In most cases, it is roughly equal to the unreduced CPP/QPP benefit, and it is paid until age 65.

If this seems rather unfair, that's because it is.

The harsh reality is that the cost is borne by taxpayers, most of whom get no such benefit.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has just published a research snapshot breaking down some of the numbers of the bridge benefit across public pension plans in Canada. The federal government and most provincial public sector pension plans -- except Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba -- offer the bridge benefit.

The perk also appears to be a financial incentive for government workers to stop working: 81 per cent of public sector workers retire before age 65, compared to 60 per cent of workers in the private sector, and fewer than half of self-employed people. No wonder it is civil servants who seem to be the largest group of younger retirees, wintering in Florida while the rest of us are hard at it.

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The financial impact of the bridge benefit is put into stark relief when you consider that members of provincial and federal pension plans can retire as early as age 55.

It's expensive: the bridge benefit varies across public sector pension plans and falls in the range of $7,400 to $8,800 per worker, per year. In 2010 to 2011, about 55,000 federal civil servants received the perk at a total cost of more than $385 million.

The harsh reality is that the cost is borne by taxpayers, most of whom get no such benefit. And the cumulative economic effect of such perks is to create a bridge to underfunded pension plans and a stressed social safety net.

Some government organizations, including the Bank of Canada, have already seen the light, finding the bridge benefit to be unsustainable, and have eliminated it from their plans.

Governments across the country need to follow suit and move quickly to return sustainability and accountability to the public sector pension system. Commitments to current employees should be honoured, but this benefit should be phased out for those civil servants still far away from retirement.

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In the context of an unfunded public service pension liability amounting to an estimated $300 billion as of 2012, it's even more critical than ever to bring government pensions in line with the rest of the working world.

Small business is calling for the end of the bridge benefit.

Play it again, Sam: "Put it in the past."

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ASSOCIATED PRESS In this photo taken Monday, Sept. 23, 2013, a woman strings peppers preparing themt for drying in the village of Donja Lokosnica, 200 kilometers (125 Miles) south of Serbian capital, Belgrade. The village, Donja Lokosnica is well known for its bell and chilli peppers, which local residents make into paprika spice. Out in the fields, peppers - which only grow close to the banks of the Juzna Morava river - are first picked before being transported to the village to be strung from countless buildings and houses. With every house - including roofs, garages and walls - covered in peppers, each establishment produces around 2-3 tonnes of paprika each year. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

By Joanne Gassman

It's International Women's Day and what better way to celebrate than to take a bite of a sweet, red chili pepper.

You may not know it, but these can be a critical ingredient of women's empowerment. Well, they're actually a critical ingredient for picante de pollo, a popular chicken dish in Bolivia. But stay with me and I promise this will become clear shortly.

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A couple years ago, I travelled to this Latin American country to see first-hand CARE Canada's Tukuy Yanapana development project. Funded by the Canadian government as well as a group of dedicated women volunteers in Vancouver called I Am Powerful Vancouver, this initiative has worked for the past three years to help improve the lives of more than 54,000 people.

How is this done? Through an emphasis on gender equality.

In Bolivia and across the world, structural barriers often prevent women from reaching their full potential and helping lift their countries out of poverty.

Cultural norms, legal hurdles and limited rights prevent too many women from opportunities to become more self-sufficient and have a stronger voice in key decision-making.

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In Bolivia, where CARE works, women traditionally were not considered key actors in local economic development. They were left out of decision-making. Those who had small businesses had trouble accessing public funds and said they felt isolated and on their own to support their income generating activities.

Imagine trying to start your own business in your city if you were unable to access any support, influence decisions or raise your voice if you wanted to make a difference.

Changing how women access economic opportunities at the local level in Bolivia is a complex mixture of addressing gender roles both in the household and community, tearing down barriers that prevent women from accessing markets and finding ways to support municipal governments to cultivate business development. In many cases, these local governments do want to help, but lack the resources to open the doors for new entrepreneurs.

As part of the Tukuy Yanapana project (which means "we all collaborate"), CARE has worked with families, local associations and municipalities to foster a climate that allows women to participate fully in local economic development. And play a real leadership role.

This project began in 2012 and focused on four municipalities. Through this work, CARE has seen tangible improvements in local economic development for both women and men. Producers have earned more profit thanks to better business planning and local governments have been able to find new ways to encourage growth and cut the red tape holding women back.

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Such results have a rippling effect as many people I spoke to in my travels noted that with increased income they would ensure their children received a better education. And we know that each year at school increases a girl's future earnings by up to 20 per cent.

These achievements coupled with CARE's previous learnings were shared with the Government of Bolivia, which has taken CARE's approach to gender equality and now extended it across the country in their new official guide to local economic development. This important document will provide a framework for more women to earn money, become self-sufficient and lift themselves from poverty.

Of course, this is just a starting point to improving gender equality. But as women in Canada know, change comes through important increments, inspired by strong female role models able to guide the way forward for a new generation.

This includes women like Paulina Leon Morales. She is 50 years old and is the proud president of her local agricultural association, named APA, which produces and packages many of the traditional foods that Bolivians love so much.

Her association has worked to bring local farmers together to pool their efforts to sell their produce. Through Paulina's leadership and APA's better business planning, they expect to see production increase in the coming years by 40 per cent, which translates into a significant profit for the farmers in her community.

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This boost in production will include red chilies, which can be ground into spice and are a pivotal ingredient to Bolivia's national dish. Such little peppers are proof that with a focus on gender equality you can add more flavour to any country.

Joanne Gassman is the chair of I Am Powerful Vancouver, a local group of volunteer women committed to raising funds for CARE Canada. In celebration of International Women's Day, I Am Powerful Vancouver is participating in the CARE Walk In Her Shoes challenge to support this project in Bolivia. For details visit: care.ca/vancouverwalks
Tetra Images via Getty Images Female engineer working on model of wind turbine

By Bipasha Baruah

Concerns about environmental sustainability and fossil fuel insecurity have convinced many countries to transition to solar, hydro, bioenergy, wind and other renewables. Since producing and distributing renewables is more labour-intensive than producing and distributing fossil fuels, this shift is creating new employment opportunities and also addressing energy poverty in remote and under-served communities.

Renewable energy employed 7.7 million people globally in 2014 -- an 18 per cent increase from the previous year. Employment in the sector is expected to continue growing in the future. Applying a gender lens to the enthusiasm for renewables reveals a major blind spot since women are marginalized globally in employment in the sector. Worldwide women constitute fewer than six per cent of technical staff and below one per cent of top managers in the renewable energy sector. Without appropriately targeted training, apprenticeships, employment placement, financial tools and supportive social policies, transitioning to renewables may exacerbate existing inequities and hinder human development goals.

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In OECD countries, the share of female employees in renewables has been estimated at about 20 per cent. Data from Canada, US, Spain, Germany and Italy indicate a general trend of women being employed mostly in non-technical occupations in renewables -- in sales, followed by administrative positions and finally engineers and technicians. In absolute numbers, the largest sources of renewable energy employment for women in industrialized countries are solar photovoltaic, solar heating and cooling, wind power, biomass and biofuels.

The underrepresentation of women in this sector is part of a bigger problem of the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. There is an obvious economic benefit for women who choose to pursue these paths. While wage inequality also exists in STEM jobs, it is smaller. Women in STEM jobs earn 33 per cent more than those in non-STEM occupations. The gender wage gap in STEM jobs is roughly 14 per cent. For non-STEM jobs, it is 21 per cent.

Unlike North America and Europe, where women remain a minority in engineering programs, comparatively large numbers of middle-class women in some emerging economies -- India and China, for example -- study engineering. Although women continue to experience employment discrimination in various forms in such countries, recruitment, especially for entry-level positions, is not a challenge. In China, 40 per cent of engineers are women. In India, 37 per cent of electronics engineers are women. The corresponding figures for civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering are 20 per cent, 18 per cent, 16 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

In the 1980s, 58 per cent of engineers in the USSR were women, but a well-established tradition of state-enforced gender diversity disintegrated in the 1990s and 2000s with the collapse of the USSR and its industrial model. In 1998, women accounted for 43.3 per cent of engineers in Russia; in 2002, only 40.9 per cent. And the numbers have continued to decline further. The Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) that were formerly part of the USSR, but joined the European Union earlier in the 1990s, revealed similar patterns of comparably high but declining rates of participation by women in engineering and technology fields.

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that in Estonia, for example, female professional and technical workers still outnumber men two to one -- 68 per cent compared to 32 per cent. Estonia offers significant tuition incentives to draw high-school graduates into fields such as engineering and continues to be identified by the WEF as the country with the highest per-capita number of female engineers, even as the numbers of women joining the field have declined over the decades. Although I am not advocating a return to Soviet-style central planning, it is important to emphasize that state initiatives aimed at improving representation and removing barriers for career advancement for women do work, and they can benefit the renewable energy sector in industrialized, emerging and developing economies.

Broadly speaking, the global energy workforce represents a vertically and horizontally gender-stratified labour market, with women concentrated in the lowest-paid positions, closest to the most menial and tedious components and furthest from the creative design of technology and the authority of management or policymaking. However, there are both qualitative and quantitative differences in women's employment in renewables in different contexts. Much of the expansion of renewables in the Global South has occurred because large numbers of rural, urban poor and remote communities either have no access to the grid, or unreliable access to electricity. A large volume of employment has been generated for both women and men in these contexts because organizations serving such communities (the initiatives of Solar Sister in various African countries, Barefoot College in India, Char Montaz in Bangladesh are good examples) have actively sought to use renewable energies technologies to also secure and improve livelihoods.

Such off-grid, mini-grid and stand-alone renewable energy initiatives have offered women a large volume of employment (albeit often insecure and poorly compensated) as well as opportunities to participate in decision-making. These initiatives are deployed at the local level where women are more likely to be involved in the procurement, design, installation, operation, maintenance and consumption of energy. Decision-making within bigger energy utility systems in both the Global North and South are, by contrast, made by higher-level professional staff within the spheres of generation, transmission and distribution where women are almost always severely underrepresented.

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There is tremendous additional potential to create livelihoods for women in the renewable energy sector. However, women can gain optimal traction from renewable energy initiatives only within the context of wider socially progressive policies and more transformative shifts in societal attitudes about gender roles. This is as true for developing countries and emerging economies as it is for industrialized nations. Restructuring paid employment in innovative ways -- through, for example, the creation of more part-time jobs and arrangements like work-sharing -- while expanding social protection and delinking it from employment status, have been suggested in some industrialized countries as a way to accomplish economic security, environmental protection and gender equity. However, without more transformative social changes in gender relations, such strategies may reinforce rather than challenge existing gender inequities both in paid employment and in unpaid domestic labour.

The growth of the renewable energy sector should benefit both women and men but we must be proactive about enabling women to establish a stronger equity stake to compensate for historical and contemporary economic injustices and unequal outcomes. This will require more concrete and proactive actions and policies. Simply creating opportunities for training and employment in new fields and suggesting that women are not unwelcome in them is obviously not enough.

Bipasha Baruah is the Canada Research Chair in Global Women's Issues at Western University, and an associate professor in the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of CCIC or its members.

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KatarzynaBialasiewicz via Getty Images A doctor breaking the news to his sick patient

Conscientious objection and civil disobedience have been instrumental in ending slavery and stopping wars, leading to the attainment of many human rights. When people are asked to uphold a law they find unjust or unethical, it is important for them to speak up and voice what they think is right. South African Apartheid, the Vietnam War, and other state-sanctioned atrocities needed to be challenged because they were violent alienations of inalienable human rights.

But conscience should not be used to oppose laws that advance human rights, and this is why the Catholic Church's response to physician-assisted death is deeply problematic. When dealing with the issue of conscience, we need to differentiate between harmful objection and helpful objection. To assist or not to assist, that is the question.

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Yes, I understand that the terms 'harmful' and 'helpful' can seem, or be, subjective -- but not always. Slavery harms people. War harms people. Marriage equality helps people. Gay-Straight Alliances help people. Physician-assisted death helps people, too. And conscience, though personal, must be put in its place if it's used to justify causing or allowing harm or suffering.

Now I also understand that conscientious objectors to physician-assisted death think they're helping people, too, albeit in a roundabout way. They think that physician-assisted death is a violation of God's plan, and the eternal afterlife may be compromised by our choices in our present, physical life. But these are the objectors' reasons, not the reasons of the people seeking assisted death. In a liberal society we don't make decisions for other people based on our religious beliefs.

Allowing people to opt out of obeying the law on religious grounds can be a slippery slope. You can't oppose anti-discrimination laws because your religion tells you, or you think your religion tells you, that women are inferior, or that LGBTIQ people are sinners. You can't commit violent acts because your religion tells you, or you think your religion tells you, that infidels should be punished.

Reasonable accommodation of religion, and the freedom to practice religion, are essential protections, and they promote harmony in societies that are blessed with diversity. But there are lines. Proactively opposing laws that are designed to alleviate suffering (or advance well-being), which for people suffering irremediable pain from an incurable condition means physician-assisted death, is unjust and unethical. We can't conscientiously object on religious grounds to laws prohibiting terrorism, forced marriage, or discrimination. We also can't use religion to restrict access to another's court-appointed right -- in this case, the right to dignity.

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Yes, conscience is a personal matter, and I do not believe that people should be forced to do something they feel is patently wrong. But they can't deny another's medical right because they disagree. Catholic doctors should at least refer patients to colleagues who will be sympathetic to their plight, and the same thing goes for health workers and educators when it comes to "Sex Ed".

Besides, conscience is clouded by dogma and not always based on accurate information. That's why I'm inviting conscientious objectors to see what were actually dealing with here -- to see a real live case -- and then see what their conscience says. There is nothing holy about irremediable pain. Physician-assisted death is not the taking of a life; that patient's life, as far as he's concerned, is over. Forcing someone to suffer far more than "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to" is no different than directly inflicting said pain; it's being a party to torture.

I, a lowly blogger, and not a medical professional, am not the arbiter of what is right and just. But I do know that to question what we think our religions tell us is right is essential, and that the questioning process is ingrained in the pure practice of religion and spirituality. Questioning is an act of bravery.

I want every Catholic physician to individually question, through deep prayer or meditation, if they think God wants them to enable the unnecessary, terrible suffering of another human being. I want them to question their convictions, and those of the people who purportedly speak for God. If we permit people to cause or allow harm or human suffering on religious grounds, we are on a slippery slope toward a dark and "undiscovered country" indeed. But it is taboo to question people's self-appointed religious freedoms. Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.
Bloomberg via Getty Images Christy Clark, premier of British Columbia, smiles during an interview in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014. Canada's ambition to become a top LNG exporter is on track even with oil's plunge as investment decisions on two mega-projects are set to come next year, Clark said. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images

When I first met Christy Clark, I remember thinking we had a lot in common.

Journalism has changed a lot, but at the time, female reporters and anchors were unusual -- in fact, when I was the first female reporter at CKNW, some listeners complained: how could this woman report the news? Likewise, Christy was also a woman in an untraditional place: cabinet. Then, as now, she was smart and charismatic, but more than anything else, completely unintimidated by the daunting task of making history.

This Sunday Christy Clark will make history again, as the longest-serving female premier in Canadian history. As someone who has gotten to know her very well, this comes as no surprise.

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This is the same woman who drove across the province in rickety, ancient cars with a handful of young idealists to revive the B.C. Liberal party, almost by sheer force of will.

This is the same woman who stared down doubters and raised eyebrows when she not only became a mother while serving in cabinet, but arranged a nursery in the legislature so she could keep working.

Nobody asks male politicians (or journalists, for that matter) about balancing work and family, the clothes they wear -- or worse -- their dating life.

This is the same woman who, moved by the story of a young man on the other side of the country who came up with a new way to stand up to bullies, moved heaven and earth to introduce his vision -- Pink Shirt Day -- to British Columbia.

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This is the same woman behind the greatest comeback in Canadian political history, becoming B.C.'s first elected female premier, despite being told her opponent could literally "kick a dog" and still beat her.

And this is the same woman who has led her government to four consecutive balanced budgets, the best-performing economy in the country and increasingly global attention for showing you can protect the environment and still create jobs.

In short, she's never been afraid of shattering glass ceilings.

It's that quality that inspired me to work on her campaign to lead the B.C. Liberal party in 2011. I realized not only was she the best person for the job, but she was someone who also had to prove and re-prove herself every single day because she was a woman -- and would never shrink from the challenge.

Bringing up sexism can rub some people the wrong way. You have to be careful not to overstate the issue -- Canada is one of the world's most progressive and equitable societies, and we've come a long way in a very short time.

But in my experience women are still treated differently in subtle ways. Nobody asks male politicians (or journalists, for that matter) about balancing work and family, the clothes they wear -- or worse -- their dating life. For a lot of people, it's not even something they're conscious of. It's just less difficult to imagine a man in the same role.

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Identifying the issue is one thing, affecting change is quite another. The challenge is threefold: to help people consider the idea of women in positions of authority; to support and encourage more women to choose untraditional career paths, and crucially, to accept that women will approach things differently.

You can see this in Christy's approach to governing, from the team she recruited, to how they each pull their own weight. She isn't a one-woman government. She rightfully considers each and every member of her caucus a leader in their community -- and lets them lead.

But it goes deeper than that, in ways you don't necessarily hear about. For example, when I worked for her in government, she asked me to reach out to people and communities who weren't used to being asked their opinion, and bring them in -- literally bring them to her office to meet and discuss their issues with the premier.

Two-way communication has always been a core principle of hers. Just look at how she's governed the province for the last five years: asking British Columbians when they'd like Family Day, how to proceed with transportation investments and the best way to modernize liquor policy.

That hadn't been done before on anything like that scale, and it's still happening today, mostly far away from cameras and media attention. This new approach to governing and leadership is very much a reflection of Christy Clark, the person.

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It's not just her, either. Half her cabinet are women, as are the lieutenant-governor, Speaker of the House and government caucus chair. Her deputy chief of staff and party president are both women, as are increasing numbers of appointments to boards and crown corporations.

It's worth pointing out she has accomplished all this without quotas -- every single one of these women are in their roles because they're the most qualified. Christy Clark has never been anyone's token, and would never ask that of anyone else.

On Sunday Premier Christy Clark will surpass former Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak as Canada's longest-serving female Premier. B.C. can be proud of that -- but rest assured, she's not done making history just yet.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - This Feb. 5, 2016 file photo shows the Flint Water Plant tower in Flint, Mich. Michigan, seeking to prevent another oversight fiasco after lead poisoning in Flint and a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in the area, is considering new water testing rules for hospitals and possible changes to how large facilities manage their water systems that could include new monitoring requirements. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

The Flint, Mich. water crisis is a harsh example of why managing public services matters. Failure can be a matter of life and death.

Despite this, most glory in the public service goes to policy developers -- not the grunts on the frontlines. In Canada, policy shops are where deputy ministers and senior officials focus almost all of their time and attention. It is also where politicians love to wade. This is not unique to our country, as Flint demonstrates in a particularly ugly fashion.

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But service delivery is where the rubber hits the road of real life. Recommended reading: What is Government Good At?, by Donald Savoie of the University of Moncton. A former Canadian federal deputy minister, Professor Savoie describes the policy-versus-operations paradigm as well as anyone and speaks truth to power. Unfortunately, truth does not always lead to salvation.

Today we have Flint, but back in 2000, two hapless brothers, Stan and Frank Koebel, ran the water treatment plant in Walkerton, Ont. In May of that year, locals began suffering the effects of E. coli poisoning, up to and including death.

Many years later those who survived continue to endure devastating health issues. In sum, there had been testing that showed the water was contaminated, but the Koebel brothers and the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission continued to report that it was safe to drink.

All was OK with the groundwater source. Except all was not OK. The water was contaminated from farm runoff. It was killing people, five in all, with another 2,500 becoming ill.

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The you-know-what literally hit the fan. The easy thing was to put the blame on the Koebels, and rightly so. The subsequent investigation and trials not only proved the brothers incompetent and negligent, but also guilty of drinking on the job (beer, not water). But it was not that simple.

Clearly the checks and balances that people would expect for something as important as potable water safety had failed in a catastrophic way. The various levels of government had policies in place. They were, however, less than diligent on the delivery side.

The people of Walkerton paid the ultimate price. Then-Ontario premier Mike Harris paid some much lesser political price. And, unfortunately, those responsible for enforcing water regulations went home to their cozy beds unscathed. At least I hope their consciences ache even now.

Fast forward to 2016 in Flint, Mich., where lead in the drinking water has reached a level that is making people sick. Like Walkerton, by sick, I mean in a life threatening and permanent harm kind of way. Children are especially vulnerable as lead threatens their livers and kidneys.

While the situation is still ongoing, investigations are finding results that can only be described as ridiculous, irresponsible and potentially criminal.

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Among the findings was that government regulators may have known of the dangers well in advance, and if they did then they took a cavalier attitude even as lives were at risk. If this is true, they would have been more than negligent -- dismissive and even mocking toward the people of Flint who expressed concerns.

It seems like Flint officials put cost savings policies above all. State regulators seem to have operated at the same level of diligence and responsibility as the Koebel brothers. Like the brothers -- and despite all evidence to the contrary -- they assured people that the water was fine.

Ironically, I expect public service leaders and politicians to continue their focus on policy while paying lip service or even scoffing at delivery. Suffering will continue. This includes the confidence people have in their leaders and government institutions. A small bit of Karma.

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In 2007, Ashley Smith died in federal custody in Kitchener, Ont., after spending extended periods of time in segregation (or solitary confinement). In 2010, Edward Snowshoe died by suicide while in custody in Edmonton, Alta., after spending 162 days in segregation. These cases have become emblematic of the incredible problems with the continued use of segregation in prisons.

However, Smith's and Snowshoe's cases are only unique insofar as they died while in segregation. Every year, thousands of people are placed in segregation in jails and penitentiaries across the country. We don't know their names, their stories, or the impact that segregation has had on them. Only occasionally do their stories come to light. One such story is that of Christina Jahn, a woman with mental health disabilities and cancer, who filed a human rights application alleging that she was held in segregation for more than 200 days at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre because of mental health disability and gender.

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The Ontario Human Rights Commission intervened in Jahn's case, and in 2013, a historical settlement agreement was reached with Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to improve the treatment of prisoners with mental health disabilities in Ontario's correctional facilities. The settlement has led to major policy changes, including mental health screening for all prisoners upon admission, and prohibiting use of segregation for any prisoner with mental health disabilities barring undue hardship.

These are important steps. Yet the OHRC continues to have serious concerns about the extent of the reliance on segregation and violation of prisoners' right to be free from discrimination under Ontario's Human Rights Code.

The numbers paint a troubling picture. From April to August 2015, the Central-East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont. placed more than 1,100 people in segregation. In the same four-month period, the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre placed more than 550 people in segregation. During a one-year period, four women at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre were in segregation for more than 30 continuous days, and two for more than 60 aggregate days.

Systemic data about the use of segregation in both provincial and federal contexts indicates that segregation is being overused on -- and causing particular harm for -- vulnerable groups, such as black and indigenous prisoners, women, and those with mental health disabilities. For example, in May 2015, the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator reported that, "Black inmates are consistently over-represented in administrative segregation, particularly involuntary and disciplinary placements" and that "Aboriginal inmates continue to have the longest average stay in segregation compared to any other group."

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The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has found that segregation of any duration constitutes torture when used on those with mental health disabilities, and that "indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement, in excess of 15 days, should also be subject to an absolute prohibition." The Special Rapporteur also notes that "solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system."

We cannot let another prisoner die alone in a jail cell while we consider how to reform a practice that is clearly harmful and contrary to human rights law.

The extent and gravity of Code concerns with the use of segregation is why the OHRC is taking the rare step of advocating that Ontario show bold leadership by publicly committing to eliminate this practice across all its institutions. This is the type of leadership Premier Kathleen Wynne's government has shown on a number of files, such as violence against women and racism, and is poised to show in relation to prisoners' rights as well.

Minister of Community Safety & Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi is currently conducting a comprehensive review of Ontario's use of segregation. In response to the Minister's call for input from stakeholders, the OHRC made a submission calling for an end to segregation, and recommended interim measures, such as external oversight and strict time limits, to reduce the harm of the practice.

The time to act is now. We cannot let another prisoner die alone in a jail cell while we consider how to reform a practice that is clearly harmful and contrary to human rights law. The Ashley Smith inquest produced a slew of recommendations to significantly limit the use of segregation; but practices on the ground do not appear to have changed. It should not take legal action, such as Jahn's human rights case or lawsuits launched in British Columbia and Ontario, to compel action.

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Ending segregation is not a revolutionary, unrealistic, or aspirational idea. It is primarily one of adequate resources and political will. Minister Naqvi has already shown bold leadership in relation to reform of policing, and we are encouraged by his review of segregation and commitment to hire thousands of correctional officers. A first step would be to promote the hiring of diverse candidates, including those with mental health expertise and a solid commitment to human rights. The Minister will also have to refocus existing resources to greater utilize dynamic security, which is prison-speak for relying more on positive and supportive interactions between staff and prisoners, and less on the use of force and segregation.

Most notably, the government will have to put significant resources into mental health services and supports for prisoners, including housing those with mental health disabilities outside of the traditional prison environment and in community-based settings. This will mean psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors as full-time staff, along with engaging programming and educational opportunities.

All of this will, of course, require sustained leadership, time and effort, and ultimately, a major cultural shift in our correctional system.

Moreover, if the government is truly committed to reforming the correctional system, it must increase funding for women's corrections to ensure substantive equality for female prisoners. It must also disrupt the systemic discrimination that results in the over-representation of indigenous people, members of racialized communities, and persons with mental health disabilities in our criminal justice system. This means more community mental health resources, zero tolerance for discrimination in policing, and addressing the ongoing socio-economic disadvantage of racialized people and those with mental health disabilities.

The solutions are clear, albeit challenging, but the political environment is ripe for a new approach to corrections -- one that is firmly grounded in equality, human rights, and human dignity. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to banning long-term segregation for federal inmates, and the OHRC hopes to see Ontario go even further by publicly committing to ending the practice altogether.

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This blog post was previously published in the Law Times, March 7, 2016
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Just after International Women's Day, President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau, two feminist world leaders will reconnect at the State Dinner: and a new moment in Canada-U.S. relations officially begins.

Both men are strong supporters of the need to achieve gender equality in the public, private and political sectors (currently the World Economic Forum estimates the gender gap won't close until 2133).

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President Obama and PM Trudeau are also each at particularly interesting points in their political journeys, one where they could join together to create a permanent social change in terms of tackling gender inequality by bringing global attention on the potential of adolescent boys to be the catalyst to achieve a new era in gender relations.

I have three sons and I'm doing my best to raise them with an entirely different set of values on gender, sex, care, family and work but frankly it can feel like an uphill struggle -- and I often think how much more effective all our personal efforts would be if they were done against a social and cultural backdrop that shared this as a public goal.

Imagine the transformative possibility of a coordinated national campaign that proactively combined the best of social behaviour, "nudge" theory, gender studies and marketing to actively create a new frame on gender, care and careers for teen boys -- one that would become the foundation for truly equitable partnerships and workplaces in the near future.

It's an issue that Canada with our relatively progressive public frame and new style of political leadership is uniquely positioned to lead: incubating the best of global ideas on gender equality and then sharing the results and outcomes with the world.

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A focus on teen boys reflects both the growing consensus that men need to be the solution to the gender parity gap and the natural opportunity that comes with this particular life stage.

In her recent best seller Unfinished Business Anne Marie Slaughter, calls for a men's movement. She argues that the majority of gender inequalities will only be solved when both men and women have the same range of choices in terms of careers and care giving.

Women are expected to act like professional men plus traditional women.

Similarly, Brigid Schulte best-selling author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has The Time advocates that the conversation this International Women's Day should be on men, since that is the only way to effectively disrupt the current paradigm where: women are expected to act like professional men plus traditional women.

I agree. Men are essential but currently they tend to come to this issue much too late -- usually when they are already parents, employers or colleagues.

This is why despite high expectations for a new generation entering the labour market and women taking on significantly more in the workforce the U.S. Bureau of Labor found that the number of hours which men and women spend on housework, cooking, child care and housework has hardly moved between 2003 to 2011.

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This is the second shift, also described as the "stalled revolution" on the home-front.

First identified by Arlie Hochschild, in The Second Shift: Working Parents and The Revolution At Home her research showed the detrimental impact this unequal labour division has on women's careers and well-being.

She also found that this pattern continues because individuals enter adult relationships with their gender ideologies on families and relationships already deeply conditioned -- making positive changes difficult.

This is why adolescent boys hold so much promise.

Adolescence is the optimal time to be deliberately, positively and proactively shaping norms on gender and care.

Unlike adult men (or women) who need to be persuaded to evolve their thinking and then actively reminded to overcome years of unconscious bias, teen boys are naturally in the midst of forming beliefs on gender, relationships, parenthood and care.

A 14-year study from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University found that male adolescent views on sex shape their fatherhood outcomes -- including whether or not they live with their children.

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This finding suggests that adolescence is the optimal time to be deliberately, positively and proactively shaping norms on gender and care.

Tackling gender bias and the second shift to create gender parity in society is not just about justice.

Research shows that gender equity is ultimately about optimizing the world we all live in.

Countries with greater gender equality have better economic growth; companies with more women leaders are more profitable and parliaments with a higher female representation enact more legislation on key social issues including education and health -- which in turn benefits more citizens.

To disrupt this status quo, we absolutely need men but our most effective means of leapfrogging us all forward is to raise a different kind of man.

Currently women remain stuck in the lower to middle rungs of the workforce in virtually every profession and industry. They also continue to face a substantial a 72 per cent pay gap and its getting wider.

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To disrupt this status quo, we absolutely need men but our most effective means of leapfrogging us all forward is to raise a different kind of man -- just as we have done with our daughters (who now graduate from universities and colleges in greater numbers than men and start out expecting a more equal playing field).

Both Prime Minister Trudeau and President Obama are at a unique moment in their political careers -- one that lends itself to bold initiatives: an investment in a shared conversation and strategy to shift the frame on gender, care, equality and parenting in the next generation of boys would be groundbreaking.

When that generation of men come of age, it would have a transformative ripple effect on families, workplaces, public spaces and relationships.

To collectively prosper, we know we need our girls and so now we need to strategically and positively focus on our boys.

Reva Seth is the best selling author of The MomShift: Women Share Their Stories of Career Success After Children (Random House) & a Senior Associate at progressive think tank Canada 2020. She is mother of three boys.

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Fuse via Getty Images Businesswoman Holding United Nations Flag in Meeting

This Tuesday March 8 -- International Women's Day -- Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, under-secretary general of the United Nations and executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, will visit Ottawa for the first time.

The official visit represents the first in over a decade by the head of the UN agency responsible for sexual and reproductive health, who will meet with Canadian civil society and government officials to strategize on advancing UNFPA's aim to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

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The visit is an opportunity for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a self-proclaimed feminist, to explain exactly how the government will champion gender equality, women's bodily autonomy and choice.

While maternal newborn and child health has been a top development priority for Canada since the Harper era, the limited focus on human rights, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights and core-funding cuts to UN agencies working in the area of sexual health, women's rights and human rights (more broadly) have meant that less than half of funding needs for reproductive health in humanitarian settings are being met. Specifically, only 43 per cent from 2002 to 2013.

When it comes down to it, this is about human rights and saving millions of lives.

This means that to date, three out of five of all maternal deaths take place in humanitarian and fragile contexts. Every single day some 507 women and adolescent girls die from pregnancy and childbirth complications in emergency situations and in fragile States; and in general, the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls are not being met.

If prime minister Trudeau is serious about engaging with the United Nations and promoting gender equality, increasing funding for multilateral organizations that are working to advance women's rights -- which include sexual and reproductive rights -- should be top priority.

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The visit is an opportunity to hear how Canada can demonstrate its renewed leadership on the global stage. It's also an opportunity for Canada to take real action for gender equality beyond cabinet appointments: because it's 2016.

Ending the previous government's refusal to fund abortion services abroad was a strong first step, but to truly move forward on this in a sustained and systematic way, we need a Canadian global policy on sexual and reproductive rights to guide Canada's overseas efforts both in terms of foreign policy and international development.

Other donors -- like the Dutch, the Danes and the Finns -- all have such policies, which provide government officials with clear guidance on how to safeguard and advance sexual and reproductive rights in global policy dialogue, and how to best meet sexual and reproductive health needs through development assistance.

Such guidance could include how the Government of Canada will take strong and progressive positions at global forums such as the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women, as well as plans to again support local and national organizations that advocate for increased access to abortion services, comprehensive sexuality education and family planning.

Canada needs a policy that will address these issues head on. A policy that will address a comprehensive and integrated package of sexual and reproductive health services and information, prioritize gender equality and women's empowerment, and support comprehensive sexuality education by collaborating with multilateral institutions (like the UNFPA) that are working to advance sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality and human rights.

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When it comes down to it, this is about human rights and saving millions of lives. Because in 2016, women in Syria should not have to go into labour without access to trained care providers. Because in 2016, women in Canada or elsewhere in the world should not have to travel hundreds of kilometres to access medically necessary procedures like abortion. Because in 2016, on International Women's Day, we should be working toward real gender equality.

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Gene J. Puskar/AP This photo shows a neon Heinz ketchup sign on the side of the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, March 25, 2015. H.J. Heinz Co. is buying Kraft Foods Group Inc., creating what the companies say will be the third-largest food and beverage company in North America, the companies announced Wednesday. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Written by Elisa Krovblit

In 2014, Leamington, Ontario was dealt a blow. The Heinz (now The Kraft Heinz Company) plant shut down due to the company's global restructuring, and production was moved stateside. After 100-plus years of production in Leamington, residents relied on the plant and never thought that day would come. As a town of 30,000 struggled with the loss of 740 good jobs and the loss of lifelong careers, farmers also had to rethink their existence as 'The Tomato Capital of Canada' would not have the local-dedicated demand for the product.

When it happened to Flint, Michigan, it was total devastation. I was in Flint in 1991, and it was eerie. As GM pulled out and the auto manufacturing sector tapered off in the 80s, the city literally went to waste. It was a ghost town, a shadow of its former bustling self.

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Windsor felt it in 2008 when their automotive sector diminished. It wasn't as hard hit as Flint, but it made a mark.

Leamington was Heinz-dependent. And when they left, they left a lot of questions and concerns about the future that would start to affect residents in many ways.

Without those jobs, income for many was at issue. With reduced income, people would be spending less, paying less tax and not spreading the wealth around. With the loss of the Heinz plant's property taxes alone, significantly less money for capital projects would be put into public coffers. With a number of people leaving to pursue jobs elsewhere, the real estate market softened and prices were affected. Leamington even considered cutting builder levies in half to encourage new home construction because they sought to be proactive in mitigating the fallout.

But it wasn't total devastation. It hurt many, and there were casualties that forced some to leave, pursuing employment and prosperity elsewhere, but it would be an interesting turn of events that changed the tides.

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While many of us may have grown up with "Heinz, because there's no other kinds," believing that the brand and the word ketchup were synonymous, a Canadian company may have just earned the respect of those die-hard Heinz loyalists. In fact, it's had sell-out success!

French's -- which is to mustard what Heinz was to ketchup, has stepped in. A Canadian company, Highbury Canco Corporation, started ketchup production for French's in the former Heinz plant. This is where real estate and condiments meet in the middle. Though the previous workers had to newly apply for their jobs -- and many at a salary much reduced from its former level, ketchup production has resumed under the new brand. Production is steady and employment has improved.

It may have been the little bit of help from a viral post that sealed the deal on its success. Orillia resident Brian Fernandez, thrilled to find a Canadian alternative to Kraft Heinz ketchup, sung its praises and it was the Facebook post heard round dinner tables of the country! Just over 131,000 shares at publication time, Fernandez' post bid a not-so-fond farewell to Heinz and embraced the benefits of the locally made, preservative-free, high fructose syrup-free and artificial flavour-free French's ketchup.

One caveat -- though Heinz left the town in a bit of a lurch, Highbury Canco is also contracted by Heinz to produce pasta sauce, vinegar and tomato juice, among other products, according to Leamington Mayor John Paterson in a response to Fernandez. Mayor Paterson urges people not to boycott Kraft Heinz products because many residents' jobs depend on those orders!

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Easter comes early in 2016 and shoppers will need to negotiate the sticky web of Bank Holiday opening hours.

Good Friday is on 25 March, Easter Sunday on 27 March and Easter Monday on the 28th.

Because running out of wine/cake/drill bits and being faced with a landscape of shuttered shops is a decidedly bleak prospect indeed.

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Easter opening times to cater for all your shopping needs

Here are the Easter Bank Holiday opening hours to cover at least some of those essentials.

The majority of Tesco Express stores will be open as normal throughout the Easter weekend.

Almost all the bigger stores will be open as normal on Good Friday, closed on Sunday and will have restricted hours on Bank Holiday Monday.

Tesco customers will be able to check the opening hours for their local stores from the weekend at the store's online locator guide.

Most Local stores are open as usual over Easter, including Sunday. Use the online finder for store specific information.

Easter opening hours vary from store to store, with some outlets remaining 24 hours, but customers can check their local branch online at Asda.com.

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ALDI stores will be closed on Easter Sunday. Customers can check their local branches here.

Store specific, with the website to provide detailed information on some Sunday closures.

Good Friday - Majority of core branches will open between 8am and 8pm. Convenience stores between 7am and 10pm

Saturday -All branches will trade their normal hours

Easter Sunday: No core and convenience branches will trade

Easter Monday - Majority of core branches will open between 9am and 6pm, with some variations of 8am - 8pm and 10am - 4pm. The majority of convenience branches will trade as usual.

For store specific information, visit the website.

Lidl stores will be closed on Easter Sunday and open as usual on other dates over the bank holiday period. Customers can check their local branch here.

Good Friday - All stores open at usual times, all stores close at 8pm

Easter Saturday - All stores open as usual

Easter Sunday - All stores in England, Wales and Northern Ireland closed. All stores in Scotland and Isle of Man open as usual

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Easter Monday - All stores open at 7am, all stores close at 8pm

Further store specific information can be found here.

Good Friday - 6.30am - 9pm

Easter Saturday: 6.30am - 9pm

Easter Sunday: Closed, with Scottish stores opening from 10am - 4pm

Easter Monday: 6.30am - 9pm

Customers can use the chain's online store finder, although outlets will generally be open from 10am - 4pm on Easter Sunday and 8am - 8pm on Easter Monday.
While the idea of eating your Big Mac while floating down a river might appeal to some, it seems the idea sank like a stone in 1986 - but the abandoned McBarge still exists.

Built in 1986 for Vancouvers Expo 86, the McBarge was supposed to represent a brave new vision for the food industry.

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But alas, it seems peoples appetite for fast food didnt quite stretch to eating while floating.

And so the McBarge has spent 30 sad years anchored offshore in Burrard Inlet, southwestern British Columbia.

However, a few brave souls have since ventured onto the floating restaurant

The McBarge See gallery

But fear not, Maccie Ds lovers - the McBarge is destined for a new life!

Its new owner, Howard Meakin, president of Sturgeons Developments, told the Vancouver Sun: It will be restored and refitted.

It could be in Vancouver, but it could be in other places as well. Were not saying exactly where its going to be located, but the plan is that it will undergo extensive renovations.

And I cant tell you what the plan is. Were under a non-disclosure agreement, but it fits in with the 30th anniversary of the Exposition. It will all happen in 2016, and we expect that its going to take probably most of the year to do the work.

It will remain in B.C., most definitely.
File photo dated 06/10/15 of Boris Johnson, who has accused the Government of offering "miserly" compensation to people whose homes are affected by major transport projects such as HS2. Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Boris Johnson has described an order that his City Hall staff not speak out in favour of EU membership as a "cock up".

On Tuesday it was reported that the London mayor's senior staff had been sent a memo telling them to publicly support his campaign for Brexit.

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The revelation is embarrassing for Boris as only earlier this week he had complained that an anti-EU business leader had been gagged by the pro-EU side.

"Nobody has been gagged, I was only made aware of this edict very late last night and it ceased to be operative as soon as I was made aware of it," Boris said this morning following a report by the BBC.

"The only thing I can say is it obviously hasn't been operative because you have members of my, not just my advisory team, taking a very different view from me and so they can and so they shall and with complete impunity too, by the way. So there you go. I had no knowledge of that. Yes its a cock up."

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The instruction had sent out by Boris' chief of staff Sir Edward Lister.

Boris said his team had "complete freedom to say what they want" and "have been for some days". And quoting former Chinese leader Chairman Mao as he insisted his staff we free to say what they wanted, he added: "Let 100 flowers bloom folks".

The mayor of London recently blamed "the agents of Project Fear" for forcing the resignation of John Longworth as director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) after he contradicted the organisation's neutral position by personally backing UK withdrawal from the EU.

Sir Edward's email, obtained by the BBC on Monday, stated that "GLA (Greater London Authority) officers, can, when not at work, express personal opinions (which may be contrary to the Mayor's views)."
Women should vote to leave to leave the European Union as the Suffragettes did not fight for the right to vote just to give powers away to Brussels, Conservative employment minister Priti Patel has said.

However the claim was dismissed by pro-EU female Labour MPs as "farcical".

Patel, the employment minister and one of the leading Brexit campaigners, said this morning the voice of women in politics was being "drowned out" by the power of the EU.

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"Our predecessors fought long and hard basically for women to have the right to vote, women to be successful and be independent and make choices as well," she said.

"Women didnt fight for the right to vote to then give away powers and decision-making to Brussels and to unelected bureaucrats in Europe. Women didnt fight to get the right to vote to see money, hard-pressed taxpayers cash, being sent to the European Union."

This morning, to mark International Women's Day, Patel joined other anti-EU female politicians at the launch of the 'Women for Britain' campaign in Westminster.

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Speaking to Sky News ahead of the launch, Patel said: "I think the purpose really, not just of today but of the campaign going forward and the debate in the referendum campaign, is to make sure that their voices are heard and that they do come out and vote in particular and that they listen to the arguments."

"They listen to the fact that this is a great opportunity during the course of this debate to take back control, something that women will feel strongly about, rather than giving away powers."

However Labour MP Stella Creasy said the minister wanted to make British women the "surrendered wives" of Europe by backing Brexit.

And former leadership candidate Liz Kendall told the BBC Daily Politics Patel's reference to the Suffragettes was a "foolish and farcical comment to make".

Hey @PritiPatel_MP why do you want to make us the surrendered wives of Europe? certainly not what suffragettes stood for #StrongerIN  stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) 8 March 2016

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Former Labour Europe minister Emma Reynolds, who is backing the 'Remain' campaign, said Patel was wrong to say women would be better off outside the EU.

"It's absolutely the case women are incredibly important in this campaign. they could hold the key to success or failure. There are one million more women than men who can vote," she said.

Reynolds added that EU membership had brought rights at work for women that could be at risk if Britain left. "All these rights we take for granted perhaps at an EU level; paid annual leave, paid maternity leave, part time workers' rights and agency workers' rights are on the ballot paper come the 23d of June," she said.
Donald Trump's voicemail appears to have been hacked by Anonymous, the hacktivist collective.

In a video posted on YouTube, the alleged hackers can be heard changing the US presidential candidate's greeting to a message recorded in the voice of a Scooby Doo cartoon character.

The original greeting begins with Trump saying: "Hi this is Donald Trump and I am running for the presidency of the United States of America."

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After deleting this message, the audio is replaced by an outgoing recording said in the voice of Matthew Lillard, the actor who played Shaggy in Scooby Doo.

The "hack" also revealed Trump's relationships with the "liberal media" in the US, Gawker reported.

The leaked recordings reportedly included messages from MSNBC journalists thanking Trump for donations to a charity event.

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives at the Hillsborough inquest in Warrington, where Coroner Sir John Goldring is continuing to sum up the evidence. Peter Powell/PA Wire

A leading member of Unite is facing a backlash after pointing out that a Labour peer heading an inquiry into anti-Semitism had links to Labour Friends of Israel.

Jennie Formby, political director of Britains biggest union, spoke out days after the appointment of Baroness Royall to lead the investigation into claims of anti-Jewish conduct by some in Oxford University Labour Club.

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Ms Formby raised the matter at a meeting of the ruling National Executive Committee last week, pointing out that Lady Royall had once taken part in a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) delegation in 2007.

Jennie Formby, of Unite

NEC members told HuffPost UK that Ms Formby raised the issue of the inquiry, which will also look into claims of bullying and smears in the partys youth wing elections, to ask how it would be staffed and conducted.

She then said that she had not before heard of Baroness Royall  who is a former Cabinet minister and Labour leader of the Lords  but that a quick Google search had revealed a Jewish Chronicle article stating she had links to the partys Israel group.

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Fellow NEC member Shabana Mahmood swiftly interrupted to describe Ms Formbys remarks as highly inappropriate, before the chair of the meeting moved on.

Baroness Royall, arriving for Cabinet in 2009

Several members were shocked at Ms Formbys remarks, with one telling HuffPost our jaws dropped.

Joan Ryan, chair of Labour Friends of Israel, told HuffPost UK she was writing to Ms Formby to clarify why she had raised Baroness Royalls involvement with the group on a trip nine years ago.

Im a bit bemused and surprised as to why anybody would think being on a Labour Friends of Israel delegation would in any way rule you out of undertaking this inquiry. We have got every confidence in Jan Royall, she said.

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Michael Dugher MP

Labour MP Michael Dugher, a member of LFIs officer board, added: How on earth does attending an event organised by Labour Friends of Israel bar you from looking into anti-Semitism? It is pure ignorance to somehow question Jan Royalls suitability.

A friend of Baroness Royall said: Jan is both angry and perplexed about these comments, which have been made by someone who is clearly unaware of her long-standing commitment to the peace process and the need for a two-state solution.

Not to mention the time she has spent working with colleagues in our sister parties across the middle-east.

But a Unite spokesman said that there appeared to have been a misunderstanding of the NEC remarks.

Far from questioning Baroness Royalls appointment, Ms Formby was proposing that the NEC should consider what additional support could be given to Jan, given the remit she needs to fulfil and the extent of the complaints that have been made, the spokesman said.

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Unite remains supportive of a full consideration of these allegations and will support Baroness Royall in every possible way in this matter.

Labour general secretary Iain McNicol

Ms Formby sparked controversy last year when she moved a motion at the end of an NEC meeting to bar G4S from providing security for party conference because of concerns over its operations in Israel.

The motion was eventually overturned following objections from those pointing out Labour policy was not to boycott firms operating in Israel.

Labour Friends of Israel has already complained to party general secretary Iain McNicol that the Oxford anti-Semitism inquiry conducted by Labour Students was rolled into a wider inquiry by Baroness Royall into the NEC election for the partys youth wing.

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The group today wrote to Mr McNicol to demand that he publish the results of the interim report into Oxford University Labour Club.

It is alleged that some students engaged in anti-Semitic conduct, including singing a Hamas protest song Rockets Over Tel Aviv.

But some of those involved vehemently deny the claims against them, pointing out they have only ever engaged in legitimate protest and criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
Hannah Azieb Pool was just six months old when she was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea by a white British academic, after her mother died in childbirth. Pool and her adopted family eventually relocated in Manchester and she went on study at University of Liverpool.

It was there, aged 19, that she received a letter with an Eritrean postage stamp. It was from a brother she never knew she had, telling her of a family she never knew existed. A decade later she returned home to meet her birth family - including her father, who she thought died long ago.

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Her journey towards acceptance of her complex identity has influenced the woman she is today: a fearless journalist, thought leader and Senior Programmer Contemporary Culture at the Southbank Centre, working on Women Of The World Festival, which launched its 6th edition on 8 March, International Women's Day.

As an adopted black child growing up in a white family and a white society, Pool says she "struggled" with who she was.

"I was bullied by white kids for being black and by black kids for being 'not black enough'," she tells The Huffington Post UK, adding that individuals who, like her, exist outside "tick boxes of identity" have a tough time fitting in.

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Hannah Azieb Pool

After meeting her birth family, her relationship to her identity changed forever: "I never felt more British as when I was in Eritrea. It helped root me in the UK and recognise the things about me that are very, very British."

Now, Pool describes herself as a British-Eritrean diaspora, but strongly believes that identity is fluid: "Where I say Im from depends on who is asking me, but as we grow it changes, too."

That's why she has dedicated her life to helping others reclaim their identity, by ensuring greater diversity in media and the arts through her work as a journalist and senior programmer for WOW festival.

Pool has been involved in WOW since the beginning, when she chaired a panel for the first festival in 2010. Since then she has worked on the programme team to deliver the festival each year.

The programme is informed and curated through a series of 'think-ins' (or brainstorms) with past speakers and influencers, which run in October and November.

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The talks are then developed and finalised by a small programming team, of which Pool is a part. While each member of the team has their own specialities and interests - Pool's being how Africa is represented in the west in journalism and the arts - they work across all areas "to keep the programme and ideas fresh".

This year she is particularly excited to welcome Kimberle Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum and professor of law at prestigious universities, who coined the term "intersectionality" in 1989. Today, Crenshaw is active in the Say Her Name campaign, about police brutality towards black women in the US.

Pool is particularly proud of WOW's diversity, in terms of speakers and audience. All to often, she says, the media and arts are dominated by white, middle-class, male voices.

"If you open up a lot of mainstream newspapers, comment and analysis is often a white male voice - or a white female voice."

Pool, who ran the first beauty column for women of colour in a national UK newspaper, says that the internet is key in driving change, but it is slow progress.

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"I wrote The New Black for The Guardian long before the rise of beauty bloggers," she says. "The internet has made it better. Now, black women are creating forums that include them, so we can be heard. But while it's better in mainstream media, we still have a long way to go."

"Brands have had to sit up and take notice of black women as loyal and dedicated customers," she adds. "But many still have the cheek to come out with a latte coloured foundation and say its for all."

But visibility is just one way she is helping the next generation, Pool is also a hands-on mentor helping black and ethnic minority students break into journalism and the arts.

"My story is an extreme version of a very common story," she says.
Crowdfunding website Indiegogo has announced a new campaign on International Women's Day to help more female entrepreneurs succeed in the technology industry over the next 12 months.

The push will include working with partners like Girls in Tech and Blooming Founders to encourage more women to feature their ideas on the site while also offering additional campaign mentoring from Indiegogo's experts.

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Writing on the company's own blog, Elena Ginebreda-Frendel said: "Too often were ideas going unborn because they lacked access to funding, because the gatekeepers that control finance had made the decision that those ideas werent worthy."

"Not because they were bad ideas, and not for lack of a hardworking team, but because of unconscious biases that affected the decision-making process."

Citing a recent report from Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, the site found that women were more likely to raise more money than men, simply because of the more inclusive and positive language they use.

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Lu Li, Founder and CEO of Blooming Founders who have partnered with Indiegogo on the new campaign said: "Now, women get a fair chance and more access to investors, both men and women who, in contrary to established funding institutions, are willing to back a woman-led business idea."

The website also has the success stories to back it up. Former Peace Corps volunteer Lisa Curtis dedicated her life to malnutrition and so set about creating a range of ultra-nutritious but tasty drinks and bars.

She would then use the profits from this to help combat malnutrition in Haiti by supporting the farmers that can then make the produce for the drinks.
'International Women's Day' (IWD) is an event of celebration for many as people remember the great strides still to take towards full gender parity, but honour hard-won campaigns that saw women win the vote, receive better political representation and begin bridging the pay gap.

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Outside Britain however, thousands of women are fighting simply for the right to self-determination. Often-forgotten, their bid for safety and control over their own bodies is a bitter struggle most have never known.

Human Rights Watch has urged people to use IWD as a chance to recommit to support those still subject to oppression and violence.

Women are showing solidarity with their peers worldwide

Schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram to Isis sex slaves; from refugee mothers fleeing Syria to persecuted transgender women in Jamaica are all reminders there is still much work to be done.

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We have a lot to celebrate on International Womens Day  the world has never been a safer, more equal place for women and girls," the charity's women's rights division director, Liesl Gerntholtz, told HuffPost UK.

"But, there is still much that needs to be done to ensure that all women and girls benefit from progress.

"We should spare a thought for the women fleeing wars and conflict who dont know where they will sleep tonight or how they will feed their children.

"For the millions of girls still at risk of female genital mutilation and child marriage; the women who cannot decide when and how they have sex or make decisions about the most intimate aspects of their lives; and the women and girls whose unpaid labour fuels communities and countries.

"For these women, we need to recommit ourselves to ensuring that their rights are protected and they can enjoy the same freedoms as the rest of the world.

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To recognise the plight thousands of women across the globe are still facing, we've highlighted five groups still fighting for a lot more than most on International Women's Day.

Forgotten women on IWD See gallery

There are countless other examples of where women are still fighting for basic human rights, but these samples serve to demonstrate just how far the world has to go towards achieving anything for millions of women to celebrate about.
Chris Gorman for HuffPostUK

The battle to protect Jeremy Corbyn from a coup by Labour MPs has begun in earnest after left-wingers unveiled a rule change to ensure party members can vote for him in any new leadership election.

Corbyn supporters in the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) group today revealed plans to ensure sitting Labour leaders will automatically get on the ballot following a leadership challenge.

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The move, which would have to be approved by this years party conference in Liverpool, follows HuffPost UK's story on Monday that Labour MPs now expect an attempt to oust Mr Corbyn this summer.

'Moderate' Labour MPs are plotting to get the required 50 names needed for a challenge, should the party go backwards in this Mays elections in English councils, Scotland and Wales.

Leftwing veteran and NEC member Pete Willsman

But Corbyn supporters are planning to 'circle the wagons' around the Labour leader to reflect the views of hundreds of thousands of party members who voted for him last year.

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Amid a race against time by both sides to exploit the party rules, the CLPD secretary Pete Willsman urged local constituency Labour parties (CLPs) to table crucial changes to ensure that Mr Corbyn would not need to get Labour MP and MEP nominations should a challenge be successful.

And in a bid to boost any future leftwing successor to Mr Corbyn, he also tabled a rule to cut the nominations for future leadership contests from 15% of MPs and MPs to just 5%.

Current party rules state that where there is no vacancy, nominations may be sought by potential challengers each year prior to the annual session of Party conference.

A nomination must be supported by 20 per cent of MPs and MEPs, in effect 50 names needed.

But the amendment by the left-wing CPLD, which strongly supports Mr Corbyn and helped him to his landslide victory last year, adds an extra sentence to the rules.

In the event that a potential challenger attains the threshold and that an election will take place, the incumbent (Leader or Deputy Leader) will be automatically included on the ballot paper if they inform the General Secretary in writing they wish to be a candidate in the election, it states.

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Mr Willsman's letter today

National Executive Committee member Mr Willsman said on his blog that current rules did not clearly spell out what would happen to a sitting leader in the event of a challenge.

Mr Willsman said: The current rules were not drafted with the objective of excluding an incumbent Leader (or Deputy Leader) from being able to re-stand for election if challenged. Party members would expect an incumbent to be able to stand against their challenger/s in such an election.

But unfortunately, the lack of precise clarity in the way the rule is written is exploited by hostile media speculation claiming that a challenge can be mounted against our current Leader Jeremy Corbyn with him excluded from the ballot paper. Labour needs its rule book to be clear to ordinary people."

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Jeremy Corbyn after his landslide victory in September 2015

He added that in the event of a Leadership challenge, it would not help the Party if it ends up in court having to argue over the meaning of its rules.

Establishing clarity on this rule would discourage media stories that the Leader can be replaced in a coup and assist the party in uniting to fight our political opponents. The purpose of this rule change is simply to tidy up the existing rule.

The closing date for constitutional amendments to leadership rules is 24 June, and the partys ruling NEC would be expected to approve them before any conference vote.

On Monday night, Mr Corbyn faced down his critics at the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting, telling them to 'stop sniping' and unite for the May elections.

But several MPs believe that his poor poll ratings, combined with a loss of seats in key English councils and the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, will underscore the need to act swiftly to repair the party ahead of the 2020 general election.

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The leadership rule change was part of a raft of amendments proposed on Tuesday by CLPD. A further amendment suggests that in future leadership contests where there is a vacancy, the current requirement for 15% nominations  equivalent to 38 MPs and MEPs  is reduced to just 5%.

Mr Willsman said that prior to 1988 the threshold required for a valid nomination to stand for Leader or Deputy Leader was 5 per cent of Labour MPs, whether there was a vacancy or an incumbent in post.

The current requirement, when there is a vacancy that a candidate has to be nominated by 15 per cent of the PLP plus EPLP, allows for an undemocratic restriction in the choice of candidates that can be voted on in a leadership ballot."

He added that in both 2010 and 2015 some MPs got around the current rule and ensured a representative field of candidates by nominating a candidate they did not intend to vote for. This allowed Diane Abbott MP in 2010 and Jeremy Corbyn MP in 2015 to be included in the respective ballots.

It was widely believed neither would win a leadership election. Since Jeremy's election as Leader several MPs have indicated they will not again nominate to help widen the party's choice.

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That potentially means, under the current rule, that a candidate who perhaps has the support of 5 per cent of MPs and MEPs, but also would be the choice of 60 per cent of Labour Party members, affiliated supporters and registered supporters, could be denied a place on the ballot paper.
This is what I think is doing your reputation and the reputation of the Bank of England harm. That you are coming out with the standard statements of the pro-EU group.

That the figure for foreign direct investment in 1970 was that the UK received more than France and Germany combined before we were a member of the European Union. We have consistently received more direct investment.

That statement you make about the dynamism of the economic could just as well refer to the reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher.

It is speculative and beneath the dignity of the Bank of England. To be making speculative pro-EU comments.
A Tory MP has apologised for shouting out "bollocks" loudly in the Commons chamber as MPs discussed the EU referendum.

Backbencher Michael Fabricant had been deeply, but succinctly, unimpressed with the claim the UK would lose 1.7bn of legal services work in the event of Brexit.

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His outburst came after former Tory justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said as England and Wales have "by far the largest law firms in Europe" their businesses would be damaged if the UK voted to leave the EU on June 23.

Fabricant, sat nearby, shouted in response: "Oh, bollocks."

He later apologised - in a manner of speaking. "Mr Speaker may I personally apologise to you for inadvertently perhaps, or through frustration, using an eight letter word beginning with 'b' ending with 'cks' when a colleague of mine was raising yet another scare story about what a disaster it would be if we were to leave the EU. It was unseemly," he said.

Listen to the offending yelp below:

John Bercow told Fabricant while he had heard him use the word he had ignored it so as not to draw attention to it due to its "unseemliness"

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He added: "However the honourable gentleman has now done so."

As noted by @ParlyApp, there is a fine history of the word "bollocks" being uttered in the Commons.

In In 2013, Tory MP Tim Loughton was given "special dispensation" to say it in the chamber which discussing a vexatious constituent.

And in the same year, the SNP's Pete Wishart was told off for saying "total and utter bollocks" when discussing Tony Blair's case for invading Iraq.

During today's session, Michael Gove, who is campaigning for Brexit, also chewed on his pen thoughtfully as his junior minister Shailesh Vara told MPs why the government believes membership of the European Union is a good idea.

Vara who supports Cameron's 'Remain' campaign, said the government's position was that the UK "will be better off in the EU".

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And he said it was "somewhat rich" of Labour MPs to be making fun of the Tory benches for being split given their own internal divisions.
As a teenager, fashion-mad Phoebe Gormley spent her summers shadowing world-famous tailors in Savile Row and Jermyn Street. When she started asking around about where to find made-to-measure womenswear, however, she was informed none of the tailors liked making clothes for women as they were "too hard to please".

So Gormley submitted a business plan to her parents, proposing to quit university, and put her final year's tuition fees towards starting her own ladies-only tailors.

"That was on the Friday," she recalls. "By Monday I was down in London working in an incubator in the City and bringing Gormley & Gamble to life."

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Phoebe Gormley in her Savile Row store

The "Gamble" half of the name comes fittingly from Gormley's own gamble. She was enrolled in a costume design course at Nottingham Trent University, but ditched her education in pursuit of her dream.

The 22-year-old is now firmly established in Savile Row, at "lucky number 13", and her first sale was in October 2014, to the CEO of Virgin Money Jayne-Anna Gadhia.

"Things have been snowballing ever since," she tells The Huffington Post UK.

Her business, which she and her five staff fondly refer to as "G&G", is based around empowering women.

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"There's power in knowing something has been made specifically for you; your body, your lifestyle and your aspirations. I guess through G&G Im trying to make that feeling accessible to all women. In short  I want my customers to feel like they can take on the world.

"Even when I was 14, wearing pieces Id hand-sewn - badly - from scraps from my dads old tuxedo I would feel like a boss in tailored outfit."

But launching G&G wasn't without its hurdles. When Suffolk-born Gormley first started out, the manufacturer she'd based her business plan around pulled out at the last minute.

"They thought I was too 'green' because of my age and sex. As you can imagine, this was a pretty big blow.

"Since then, however, I can only really say that my sex has been an advantage. Other women have been so supportive, and Ive established an incredible network of mentors and friends. Being female-led company in such a male-dominated industry does also make G&G stand out, which is so important for a small business," Gormley explains.

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Gormley started interning on Savile Row when she was 15

"Most clients are just surprised no-one has done it before," she continues. "Women have such varied body shapes it is amazing that we are all expected to fit into the same off-the-peg sizes.

"Im always overwhelmed by the level of interest customers show in the business  several of my clients now sit on my board of advisors and are integral parts of the company.

"Im lucky enough to dress women from a wide range of backgrounds and careers, and theyve all helped shape Gormley & Gamble in some way  whether its offering a small tip on growing the business, making a key introduction, or hosting a private shopping evening at their houses."

Last year, Gormley was named "young star" at the Women of the Future awards, which she says was "incredibly humbling". But she says the favourite moment of her business so far is "the moment the customer tries their piece on for the first time".

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Gormley in her lucky number 13 store

"I always say this, but it really is true. When it fits like a glove.. it never ceases to be a favourite moment.

"Its a great reminder of why I started the company  as a founder you can get so bogged down in bills, finances and business plans, the look of sheer joy on a customers face makes it all worthwhile."

And, as for advice for other young women wishing to start their own business, Gormley says don't be afraid to ask for help.

"I definitely felt like I was in it alone when I first started out, but as soon as I reached out for support and advice I was amazed by how many people were there and wanted to support," she says. "However, I would also say if you do go to someone  a parent, friend or mentor - for help, dont waste their time. Go with proper questions, and potential solutions for them to help you work through.

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The Government has had its offer of a one per cent pay increase for thousands of public sector workers derided as "miserly", as unfavourable comparisons with MPs' pay expose a shocking disparity.

Tuesday's decision means medics, including junior doctors, dentists and some nurses, as well as members of the armed forces will continue to be affected by the decision to adopt a one per cent cap on public wages.

The announcement comes just days after the latest increase in MPs' pay brought their total raises to 11.3% this year alone. Last month it was confirmed MPs would have their pay increased by 1.3% to 74,962, following a backdated rise of around 10% last year.

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Trade unions have argued public sector workers are worth more than a "slice of 1%"

Chancellor George Osborne has insisted annual public sector pay increases must be capped until the end of the decade, and the latest decision continues the policy ahead of next week's annual Budget.

Trade unions were quick to slam the increase as wholly inadequate.

UNISON Head of Health Christina McAnea said: "Government pay policies since 2010 have seen most health staff lose thousands in real terms  nurses are down more than 4,700 since then.

"This one-percent pay rise falls way below what health workers need and deserve after years of pay cuts, especially as changes to national insurance and pension contributions will absorb much of this miserly increase."

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Unite assistant general secretary for public services, Gail Cartmail said: Once again, the hardworking and dedicated employees in the public sector are the whipping boys for the governments misguided and discredited austerity agenda."

And the gulf between the pay rise of politicians and that of public sector workers was heavily criticised last month, when people made the link between the junior doctors' strike and MPs' pay.

#JuniorDoctorsStrike Support our splendid junior doctors and patients.... whilst MPs get 11.3% pay rise in just nine months-disgraceful  Melissa J Maguire (@MelissaJMaguire) February 10, 2016

#supportthestrike Our doctors already work weekends, and the work they do is amazing, life saving! Meanwhile MPs get another pay rise?  andrew o brien (@andobrien) February 10, 2016

#VictoriaLIVE MPs pay rise 11% and they've got a new one of 1.3%? And then they have the nerve to tell Drs to cover 6-days with 5-days pay!  Rocket the Raccoon (@rocket_the_racc) February 10, 2016

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However, not all public workers had their pay restrained by the cap.

The Treasury decided prison officers would be given a 1.36% increase following "highly ambitious" reforms.

Junior doctors will strike from 8 am tomorrow in the continuing dispute over the imposition of new terms and conditions.

Defending the decision to award an increase of 1.3%, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) earlier said: "This is in line with our determination on MPs' pay, published in July 2015, where we committed to adjusting MPs' pay for the rest of this Parliament at the same rate as changes in public sector earnings published by the Office of National Statistics.
The Eagles, still mourning the death of co-founder Glenn Frey, have been dealt another tragedy, with the death of Randy Meisner's wife at the home she shared with the band's former bass guitarist.

Police are investigating the death of Lana Meisner on Sunday evening from a gunshot wound. She had made an emergency call an hour and a half before she died, claiming her husband was waving a gun around and "acting erratically".

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Randy Meisner (third left) was one of the Eagles' co-founding members

However, TMZ reports that Los Angeles Police have concluded that it was an accident that claimed Lana's life, with sources claiming she was "moving a rifle stored inside the closet" when it accidentally fired.

According to the website, police sources have shared that evidence appears to show the gun was discharged inside its case, and the bullet's trajectory "enough to conclude Randy was not involved".

Despite not having to be investigated for any involvement in his wife's death, this is still a tragic catalogue of events for Randy Meisner, who has suffered from long-term alcohol and drug addictions since the 1960s.

The couple had been the subject of rumours and speculation, speaking out last year to deny that Lana was keeping her musician husband drunk by force-feeding him bottles of vodka. A Los Angeles court later appointed a temporary conservator to oversee the management of Meisner's welfare, after he was diagnosed as bipolar and with suicidal tendencies.

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Randy is best-known as one of the co-founding members of the Eagles, alongside Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Glenn Frey, who died in January this year.

Formed in 1971, the Eagles remain one of the worlds best-selling bands with sales of more than 150million records. Randys most famous contribution is the song Take It To The Limit, which he co-write and sang. He left the band in 1977, after struggling to deal with the fame.
Seumas Milne with Jeremy Corbyn London News Pictures

Jeremy Corbyns spin doctor was a candidate for the far-left Maoist Party in school elections in the 1970s, a Tory former schoolmate has revealed.

Seumas Milne, the Labour leader's communications chief, stood on a Communist ticket during a mock election at the private Winchester College in 1974, John Whittingdale, now the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has told journalists.

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The minister, who ran against the Guardian journalist-turned-adviser in the school ballot, went on to brandish an austere poster used during the campaign that backed the principles of the former China dictator.

John Whittingdale with his Seumus Milne "vote Maoist" poster at Lobby lunch. Always bring a story, they say pic.twitter.com/wHTHPeV2iS  Graeme Demianyk (@GraemeDemianyk) March 8, 2016

Milne, 56, is seen as an increasingly influential figure at the upper echelons of the Labour Party, which is facing discontent from its own MPs over its lurch to the left under Corbyn.

Whittingdale went on to read out to hacks extracts from the Milne-penned manifesto.

He said: Under a Maoist government factories and farms will be run by committees of workers elected by the workers (as in China where this has worked well).

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If a Maoist government was elected, foreign debts would be renounced as they were after the Russian revolution - and we would withdraw from Nato and the EEC.

Military spending would be cut and all troops would be recalled.

After last years spending review, Labours Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell confronted George Osborne with a copy of Chairman Maos infamous Little Red Book in an attempt to belittle the Chancellor that many think back-fired.
Pakistani officials say security agents have rescued the son of a murdered governor after he was abducted five years ago.

Baluchistan government spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar said on Tuesday that a joint operation in the Kuchlak area near Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, uncovered Shahbaz Taseer in a room.

Spokesman Wasay Khan of the paramilitary Frontier Corps told the Associated Press Taseer is safe and will be taken to the city of Lahore to be reunited with his family.

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Shahbaz Taseer was abducted five years ago following the murder of his father

Taseer, who is now 33-years-old, was abducted eight months after his father, Governor Salman Taseer was assassinated in Islamabad by his guard, Mumtaz Qadri, over accusations of blasphemy.
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 09: Student nurses and health workers take part in a demonstration against government plans to scrap the NHS bursary on January 9, 2016 in London, England. The government are proposing to scrap the bursary and from 2017, are asking future nurses, midwives and other allied health professionals to pay up to A50,000 to train to care. Future nurses and midwives will find it extremely difficult if not impossible to pay this debt off. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Carl Court via Getty Images

Jeremy Hunts decision to axe the student bursary for nurses could have a disruptive impact on hospitals recruiting and retaining staff, an independent report warned today.

The NHS Pay Review Body argued both the supply and quality of people applying to train as nurses could fall because the bursary system is to be replaced by student loans.

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Student nurses and midwives can get a payout from 1,000 to more than 4,000, depending on circumstances and location, from the Government to help pay for their training.

In last years Autumn Statement, Chancellor George Osborne announced the scheme would be scrapped as part of an 800million package of savings.

Todays report from the NHS Pay Review Body flagged up concerns over the impact of cutting the scheme, and said: "The removal of the incentive of the bursary could have an unsettling effect on the number and quality of applications for nursing training places in the early years

The report added: The removal of bursaries for student nurses could also have a disruptive impact on supply or the quality of supply; at the least, precedent suggests a risk that demand for these courses from potential quality students could fluctuate in the first two or three years, as the new arrangements are phased in.

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In a statement to the Huff Post UK, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing backed up the concerns raised in the report.

Janet Davies said: Replacing bursaries with student loans could put the future supply of nurses at risk.

The average age of a student nurse is 29 and this move could deter mature students, who already have loans to pay back and families to care for, from entering the profession.

The move to loans also risks severing the critical link between the NHS and nursing students and could impact on the ability to ensure that the right numbers of nurses are in the right place and with the right skills.

The proposals will make it significantly more difficult to plan for the future workforce and the RCN is equally as concerned about the implications for practice education, placement availability and support.

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The effect of the changes must be closely monitored to protect the future of nursing.

Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander

Labours Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander urged the Government to think again over the plans, which are set to come into force from August next year.

She said: This is yet further evidence that Ministers are taking a huge gamble with the future of the NHS and patient safety. There is already a shortage of nurses in the NHS and scrapping bursaries risks making the recruitment and retention of staff even harder.

This is a political decision, motivated by short-term financial savings. Nurses and midwives shouldnt be saddled with a lifetime of debt to pay for this Tory Governments financial mismanagement of the NHS.

The report is also right to warn about the impact on the quality of students entering NHS careers should bursaries be removed. The application process for nursing is currently very vigorous  and rightly so  as it is essential we recruit professionals with the right values and attributes.

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The announcement of the abolition of the bursary scheme provoked protests on the streets of London, Manchester and Newcastle, with thousands of student nurses and midwives marching to show their opposition to proposal.

Almost 160,000 people signed a parliamentary petition calling for the Government to rethink its policy, and in response the Department of Health said the move on to a student loan system would enable up to 10,000 additional nursing, midwifery and allied health training places over this parliament.

Rather than denying thousands of UK applicants a place to study nursing, midwifery and the allied health subjects at university, we will be boosting participation and securing the future supply of these professions to the NHS.

This will mean more applicants will get the chance to become a health professional.

The Department of Health spends around 826m every year to fund 60,000 students through their three year degree courses.

The NHS Pay Review Body handed workers just a 1% rise for 2016/17, in line with Government restrictions.

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However, it was also announced today that prison service workers will get a 1.36% pay increase.

The deal was rubber-stamped by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands, who said it was in light of highly ambitious prison reform being introduced.

Referring to the 1% increase for other public sector workers, Mr Hands said:

Our armed forces, NHS workers and prison officers do a brilliant job serving our country but with an increasingly turbulent global economy, pay restraint continues to be a key part of our plan to finish fixing the public finances.

The independent OBR estimates that 200,000 public sector jobs have been protected thanks to our average 1% pay policy so we can continue to deliver crucial public services.

Unite the Union assistant general secretary for public services, Gail Cartmail, said the 1% increase showed public sector workers were whipping boys for the Governments austerity agenda.

She said: Many public sector staff are enduring levels of poverty pay, while tax-breaks and sweetheart deals for tax-avoiding multi-nationals are the order of the day.

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The five things you need to know on Tuesday March 8, 2016

1) SNIPER FIRE

Well, last nights PLP didnt disappoint those of us gathered outside. Ive written my usual full account HERE. Jeremy Corbyn, in his quiet way, told Labour MPs to stop the sniping and he rallied round Jon Trickett over the local elections campaign (though note the Trickett line has shifted from being confident about May to saying they will be difficult elections).

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Barry Sheerman and Emma Reynolds wanted Jezza to show some passion for the EU In campaign, some talked about the local elections, others about Corbyns poor poll ratings and failure to connect with working class voters. One real flashpoint came when women MPs tackled him over his call for prostitution to be decriminalised, with Fiona Mactaggart and Sharon Hodgson (the latter hardly a Blairite usual suspect) barely concealing their fury.

Yet what really sparked anger was the briefing afterwards from Corbyns spokesman, when he claimed the PLP mainstream had asserted itself and that a line in the sand had been drawn over all the backbiting and MPs agreed to unify. Several MPs told me there had been a clear operation to get loyalists to back the leader to make it look like he had more support than he really had.

One MP told me: I have never briefed after PLP but that was a fucking disgrace. I feel sorry for Jeremy because he is so clearly struggling and out if his depth. They lined up a load of people to try and pre-emptively brief that if we do badly in May it's because of a divided PLP. But it's so obvious that we are losing because Jeremy is shit, the party is floundering.

The wagons are certainly being circled around Corbyn by his allies. And theres now a race against time between him and his critics on the leadership rules. As I wrote yesterday, Corbynistas want to change the rules at Septembers conference to ensure he automatically gets on any ballot after a challenge, and moderates say they have one last shot at ousting him before then - probably in July after the EU referendum. Its looking like game on.

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As for the anti-semitism/students row, I hear last week's NEC was more fractious than thought. At one point Unite's Jennie Formby questioned whether Jan Royall was the best person to lead the party inquiry - because she had Googled her and found the baroness had once attended a Labour Friends of Israel event, in 2007. Shabana Mahmood intervened to say Formby's remarks had been 'highly inappropriate' and the matter was left there.

2) BORIS TALKS TURKEY

The Inners cant conceal their delight today as it emerged that Boriss chief of staff told his City Hall staff that they are not to speak out in favour of staying in the EU. An email seen by the BBC shows Eddie Lister telling colleagues to "either advocate the Mayor's position or otherwise not openly contradict it. The line from Team Bojo is that this only applies to staff acting in their official capacity - and its nothing like No10 dirty tricks against Brexiters.

The Mail has splashed on No10 refusing to deny Daniel Korski had got in touch with the BCC over John Longworths Brexit backing (you still with me, reader?). BCC president Nora Senior told the Telegraph the call was about getting "clarity", rather than pressure.

Boris is famously the great-grandson of an outspoken Turkish politician who ended up hanged. The late-night EU-Turkey deal could offer fresh ammo for the Brexiteers here, not least the deal to fast-track Turkish membership and the UK being forced to pay an extra 250m blackmail fund to Ankara. Hungarian PM Viktor Orban is kicking off, telling the Today prog of his concerns, though Merkels one-in-one-out refugee scheme seems voluntary.

Its a busy old day for Brexit-related matters. Bank Governor Mark Carney appears before the Treasury Select amid accusations among the Outers that hes scaremongering by unveiling contingency plans to pump billions into banks to avoid chaos after Brexit (its the FT and Telegraph splash). Oh, and Brexittastic Michael Gove has Justice Questions - will he baulk at restrictions now on him when speaking from the frontbench? Nicky Morgan had no problem using Education Qs yesterday to further her pro-EU cause.

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3) SISTERS DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES

In case you missed it, its International Womens Day (the PLP certainly hadnt). Theres lots going on, and Priti Patel wins the Crowbar Of The Day Award by using the event to talk about Brexit: yes, women who campaign to quit the EU are like Suffragettes fighting for our democratic freedom.

Theres a backbench debate, but perhaps the most intriguing Parliamentary session will be when a group of sixth formers take over the Women and Equalities Committee at 10.30am. They will turn the tables by sitting in the MPs seats and quizzing Maria Miller and others.

Speaker Bercow is holding an event with Action Aid tonight to mark the woman he most admires, and he has chosen Aung Sang Suu Kyi. He has written a blog for HuffPost on just why. It is not the responsibility of women alone to fix a world that so often acts to their detriment, he writes.

Not everyone is enamoured of the day itself. I note a piece in the Times by the PMs former speechwriter Clare Foges, who reveals: the one time I downed pen in protest was when I was asked to write the annual IWD message, in which the prime minister would be called upon to praise the achievements of this group called women (as though we were a smallish sub-section of society like, say, the people of Guernsey, or Buddhists, or the ambidextrous, rather than 50 per cent of the population).

BECAUSE YOUVE READ THIS FAR

Watch three-year-old cancer sufferer Isabel Zoia-Dickson sing Adele songs in hospital

4) SUNDAY (HORSE) TRADING

That Sunday Trading vote tomorrow looms ever closer and so too does the prospect of it being kicked into the long grass. The SNP meets tonight to decide if it will kill the plan by siding with Labour and Tory rebels and the Telegraph has a scoop: at least 30 of the SNPs 56 MPs are pushing their party to oppose the Government.

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SNP MPs have told the paper that it would be impossible for them to vote for the changes and that they would be very surprised if the party supported the government. One said: The role of opposition parties is to oppose. If the governments on a sticky wicket I dont think we should let them off it.

Some in the party are worried by the perception that Nicola Sturgeon has done a deal with George Osborne at the expense of Scots retail workers. And there was a significant signal from Stewart Hosie,the SNP deputy Westminster leader, who yesterday appeared to harden the partys stance towards the move by saying it stood on the side of workers over the reforms.

Speaking of Osborne, Chuka Umunna today blogs for HuffPost that the Budget looks like it will be aimed at the 150,000 Tory members he needs for a leadership contest rather than the wider public. Osbo will have to find a few hundred million if hes to stop the fuel duty rise that 150 Tory MPs have today come out against.

5) POT SHOT

The Lib Dem spring conference is this weekend in York. In years gone by, junior newspaper hacks would trundle along in the sure hope that sniffing out a rogue motion on drugs policy, buried in the agenda papers, would be their only hope of getting a few column inches.

In a bold new media strategy aimed at getting a better shot of coverage, the party has today decided to do the hacks job for them - by producing a great big review that recommends legalisation of cannabis. Yes, the independent study calls for over-the-counter sales of the drug, grow-your-own weed for personal use and so on. It says that 1bn could be raised in taxes annually, and points to US states where the world hasnt collapsed after decriminalisation.

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Tim Farron is right behind the policy, as is Prof David Nutt. But another key member of the review group is the current Chief Constable of Durham, Mike Barton. It all reminds me of Bunny Colvin, the cop in The Wire who set up his Hamsterdam experiment. Where the US leads, will we follow, one day?

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Women get paid less than men in every government department, Whitehalls own figures have signalled.

Each Whitehall office was asked to reveal the gender pay gap, and either admitted men get paid more than female counterparts by up to thousands of pounds a year, or did not answer the question, it emerged on International Womens Day.

Earlier this week, it was reported in The Times that the department headed by the Conservative Equalities Minister, Nicky Morgan, paid male civil servants 22.30 an hour compared to an average of 20.54 for women.

The Labour Party said based on working a 37 hour week they were 3,386 a year worse off than their male colleagues.

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But further investigation by The Huffington Post UK shows the pay gap is not restricted to her Department for Education - there are at least ten, possibly more, where salaries are unequal.

Nicky Morgan has said the "talents of women and men recognised equally and fairly in every workplace"

A series of written parliamentary questions tabled by Labour shows the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Health, Department for Transport, Department for Energy and Climate Change, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Equalities Office, Department for International Development, and the Attorney General's Office all boast a divide in favour of men.

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The Department for Work and Pensions admitted the "gender pay gap" in 2015 was 3.7%, with women paid 22,212 compared to men on 23,059. It pointed out this was "considerably narrower" than the UK-wide 19.2% gap.

The difference in pay was as high as 9.87 an hour in the Attorney Generals Office. The smallest gap was in the Home Office, but men were still better off by around 900 a year.

Differences in pay in the Attorney Generals Office

Labour condemned the figures as deeply embarrassing for ministers, but the government said the civil service was increasingly equal and more diverse than the majority of British employers.

Other departments were less forthcoming.

The Cabinet Office and Leader of the House of Commons' Office said the data was "not available" - despite others furnishing a response.

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The Cabinet Office's response

The Treasury, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Communities and Local Government provided links to data that did not reveal the information requested.

The Department for Justice, Ministry of Defence and Northern Ireland Office said supplying the data would be at a "disproportionate cost", so did not compile the data.

The Scotland Office and Wales Office said they were subject to other departmental policies, so did not provide the information.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is yet to respond.

Kate Green MP, Labours Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, said: This is deeply embarrassing for David Cameron and indicative of the Tories failure to help working women.

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He must now explain the reason for the pay gap in his own government, as well as outline his long term plan to get to the root causes of financial inequality for women.

In a speech last month Ms Morgan, the Education Secretary and Equalities minister, said bosses who failed to close the gender pay gap had nowhere to hide.

In recent years weve seen the best employers make ground breaking strides in tackling gender inequality. But the job wont be complete until we see the talents of women and men recognised equally and fairly in every workplace.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said this week: "This Government has gone further than ever before in tackling the gender pay gap.

"Only last month we unveiled a raft of measures requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap and we are extending that duty across the public sector.

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"We have a world class civil service that is increasingly equal and more diverse than the majority of British employers.
Congo Textbook 2006: Education Civique et Morale. Education pour la paix

Today, on International Women's day, we are investigating the persistence of gender bias in textbooks, and reminding policy makers that until it is addressed girls' motivation, participation and achievement in school will continue to be undermined, affecting their future life chances.

As well as investigating the way that gender discrimination and inequality is reflected in textbooks' pages, a future policy paper later this year will look at the way that education for sustainable development, and global citizenship, including human rights, environmental rights, peace and non-violence, and cultural diversity are portrayed. As such, our focus on textbook content supports the emphasis in the Sustainable Development Agenda on inclusive, quality learning.

Gender bias in textbooks holds back girls' achievement

Textbooks are used by teachers as a core means of teaching in 70-95% of classroom time. Gender-sensitive books can encourage children to discuss gender stereotypes and help promote equitable behaviour. Conversely, discriminatory gender norms and practices conveyed in and through textbooks can lower their engagement in the classroom and limit their expectations in education and in life.

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Unfortunately, however measured - in lines of text, proportions of named characters, mentions in titles, citations in indexes - girls and women are under-represented in textbooks and curricula.

Studies of Chinese pre-primary and primary textbooks cited in the EFA GMR 2008 showed that males were disproportionately represented, and females appeared frequently only in reading materials for very young children. The proportion of male characters rose from 48% in books for 4-year-olds to 61% in those for 6-year-olds. In social studies texts all scientists and soldiers were depicted as male while all teachers and three-quarters of service personnel were female. Females represented only about one-fifth of the historical characters in the twelve-volume primary Chinese textbooks, and appeared dull and lifeless in comparison with the more vibrant males.

In India, on average, more than half the illustrations in primary English, Hindi, mathematics, science and social studies textbooks depicted only males, while only 6% showed just females. In the six mathematics books used in primary schools, men dominated activities representing commercial, occupational and marketing situations, with not a single woman depicted as an executive, engineer, shopkeeper or merchant.

Tunisian English Textbook. Year 7

Research has also found that the proportion of female characters to males in mathematics textbooks in Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and Tunisia was 30% in each country in the late 2000s. In addition, both genders were generally shown in highly stereotyped household and occupational roles, with stereotyped actions, attitudes and traits. Women were portrayed as accommodating, nurturing household workers and girls as passive conformists, while boys and men were engaged in almost all the impressive, noble, exciting and fun things, and almost none of the care-giving roles.

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We have a new opportunity to set matters straight

The EFA GMR 2015 showed that the setting of global education goals in the past provided an impetus for donors and governments to redress gender bias in education. With the beginning of our new education agenda set last year by the UN renewed efforts in this direction are needed.

One of three strategies in Pakistan's 2001-2015 EFA action plan to improve gender parity and equality was a call for curricula and textbooks to be free of gender bias, for instance. In addition, international agencies including the World Bank have promoted policies and initiatives to tackle gender bias in textbooks in low income countries. Several large education initiatives - including in Bangladesh, Chad, Ghana, Guinea and Nepal - had explicit components aimed at eliminating gender bias from curricula and/ or textbooks. Similarly, UNESCO has also funded gender audits of textbooks, including in Jordan and Pakistan. In China, the Ford Foundation funded research to investigate gender bias in textbooks and supported the development of education plans, activities and reference materials to promote gender equality.

Despite these attempts to provide greater gender balance, however, recent studies show that bias in textbooks remains pervasive in many countries, including Georgia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nigeria and Pakistan and some high income countries such as Australia.

A 2015 study in Pakistan, for example, found no change in the negative portrayal of women in Pakistani text books since 2004. In Iran in 2012, men made up 80% of characters in books designed by the Ministry of Education.

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In Australia, despite there being more females than males in the country, a study carried out in 2009 found that 57% of the characters in textbooks were men. There were double the amount of men portrayed in law and order roles, and four times as many depicting characters engaged in politics and government.

Why the resistance to update?

A lack of political leadership and weak support by civil society limit enactment of policy reform to eliminate gender bias in instructional materials. In some instances, policy recommendations from the global level have failed to find sufficient national support, resulting in slow progress. While the findings of the Ford Foundation research were widely disseminated in China, some stakeholders were skeptical about the importance of advocating for change. In Pakistan, resistance within institutions responsible for curriculum reform and textbook production has contributed to the low political priority given to textbook revision, reinforced by a lack of public support. Another challenge, as found in Georgia, is that key professionals responsible for providing guidelines for textbook production and approving textbooks for use lack adequate knowledge regarding gender sensitivity.

However, some countries are showing positive change, with textbooks reflecting gender equality and women and girls' active participation in society. In Jordan, women are portrayed as prime ministers, as fighters and pilots. In Palestine, they are shown as street demonstrators, and voting.

Some Indian and Malawian textbooks challenge students to identify gender bias in accompanying illustrations and urge them to discuss these stereotypes with their peers. Sweden, likewise, is also complimented for its egalitarian approach to gender in its textbooks.

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#Between the lines
ICT for learning may be a trendy and popular topic as a blog on this site last week discussed, but the fact remains that children from poorer households are less likely to have access to ICT both in and out-of-school. As a result, they take longer to adapt to using the technology or hone their ICT skills. The Dakar Framework in 2000 warned of the risk of ICT exacerbating existing inequalities and said such technology should serve, rather than drive, education strategies. With no huge changes in access to ICT since those days, this advice still stands. But has the advent of mobile learning moved the conversation along?

How wide is the digital divide?

A girl in Nigeria carries out her homework.

In poorer countries the 'digital divide' is often more extreme as computer resources remain greatly overstretched. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), in Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Nepal and the Philippines, over 100 children share a single computer in primary schools. This is partly because many schools still have no electricity. In Nicaragua, for instance, only a quarter of elementary schools have electricity. In Nepal, only 6% of primary schools and 24% of secondary schools have electricity.

The digital divide is apparent within countries too. In China, UIS shows that the primary learner/computer ratio in rural areas is 29:1, double what was found in urban areas.

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Outside of whether ICT is available in schools or not, the digital divide is also found between those who have access to technology outside of classrooms and those who do not.

In Rwanda, where computers have been introduced into secondary schools, the majority of students (79%) were also using ICT out-of-school. However, girls and rural children were less likely to have that same access in their communities, and were left disadvantaged relative to urban boys.

Similarly, studies in 10 Southern California schools have shown that providing a laptop in schools improved children's technology skills, but did not result in higher test scores, or reduce learning gaps between rich and poor. Only when pupils were given access to laptops 24/7 did their learning improve relative to others.

To bridge any digital divide, in Latin America and the Caribbean, various programmes have provided computers to poor children in schools. Yet the GMR 2015 showed that the programme in Uruguay, for instance, did not significantly improve learning. Perhaps it could be induced that this was because these children did not have the same access to ICT out of schools as their wealthier peers.

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Can mobile learning bridge the divide?

In developing countries, while less than 20% of the population can access the Internet, mobile phones are accessible to over 70%. Requiring less infrastructure than computers, mobile phones have perhaps the greatest potential for delivering ICT-based learning to the marginalised, and even in fragile contexts. Their key and notable attribute is their power to extend educational experiences beyond classrooms and to enable a wide range of informal and non-formal learning. They are also a far more cost-effective alternative to computers.

But evidence on whether portable ICT devices can support learning is mixed at best

Some projects have shown learning benefits as the GMR 2015 showed, such as an adult education programme in Niger where exercises on mobile phones improved reading and numeracy outcomes significantly more than in programmes without mobile phones. Or the MoMath Project in South Africa, which reached 25,000 learners with mathematics content via mobile phones and led to a 14% increase in mathematics skills.

Likewise, a study analysing a programme where smart phones were provided for additional instruction in the USA demonstrated a 30% increase in test scores by low-income learners.

And radio instruction in Honduras was shown to enhance performance of marginalised groups by up to 20%; an extremely cost effective intervention: it cost only US$2.94 per student in the first year and US$1.01 per year thereafter.

But there are equal amounts of examples where the evidence is fuzzy, and where disparities are not reduced as hoped. In rural India, an after-school programme used mobile phones to support learning for children from low income families. Learning in how to spell common nouns improved, but the gains were greatest for children in more advanced grades who had stronger foundation skills.

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In addition, there is as yet no clear evidence that using mobile phones to text or send emails invariably improves literacy skills, even if it is probable that it should increase the demand for literacy skills in the long term.

Perhaps mobile learning has greater potential when viewed from a lifelong learning perspective, rather than in bolstering school performance. The GMR 2012 showed that the approach could have huge benefits for improving livelihood opportunities for young people. Those in rural contexts, for instance, with proper training could use the technology to access information and financial services that can increase productivity and earning.

From this broader viewpoint of education quality, mobile learning should be valued for the role it can play providing distance learning for teachers as the GMR 2013/4 showed. In South Africa, a teacher education programme supplements paper-based distance learning with text messaging. Likewise, in Malawi, battery-powered DVD players and interactive instructional DVDs are used to assist with training.

That the concrete evidence is not yet there to build an undeniable link between mobile learning and education quality certainly does not mean we should turn our back to it. It is vital that innovative approaches are sought and pursued if we are to attain the ambitious new SDG agenda in education. However, it is equally as vital that the importance of not leaving anyone behind is respected in that quest.
The 8th of March marks International Women's Day across the world. Launched for the first time in 1910, it has become a day where we reflect and celebrate the achievements of women across the economic, political and social spheres. At a glance, women have come far. Less than 100 years ago women were deprived of the vote in Britain, sharply contrasting with today's society where people like Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton are household names in politics.

As the figure of women advances in society, so too do our education systems and opportunities in employment. The rail industry has transformed beyond recognition. Advancing in leaps and bounds, gone are the days of steam power, greasy overalls and an entirely male workforce. Today women are playing an increasingly important role and leading the way in every aspect of the industry, from apprentice engineer to head of fleet, customer service advisor to people director, depot manager to continuous improvement leader, planning analyst to finance business partner, to name a few.

However, Women in Rail's recent Industry Survey uncovered that just 16% of the workforce in rail is female, at a time when our sector is going through a period of exponential growth most industries would envy.

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So, in honour of International Women's Day, I want to remind everyone of some of the many fantastic women who contribute to make rail such a great sector to work in, and have been inspirational to the entire industry. To do so, I asked a few of rail's most influential women questions about the lessons they have learnt from their career and their advice to women hoping to enter the industry and move up the ladder.

I spoke with Anna Walker, former Chair at the Office of Rail Regulation, Wilma Allan, Chief Financial Officer at Govia Thameslink Railway, Karen Boswell, Managing Director of Hitachi Rail UK, Dyan Crowther, Chief Operating Officer at Govia Thameslink Railway and Maggie Simpson, Executive Director at Rail Freight Group.

The first thing I asked them was about the difficulties that they had faced in their day to day careers. Their answers were almost unanimous: overall their main obstacle has been overcoming their own lack of self-confidence and balancing their career with family life.

Dyan stated: "Sometimes people, men essentially, assume I'm the PA rather than the boss!" She remedies these prejudices by always assuming people don't know who she is: "Don't be afraid to make yourself stand out!" After all, as Karen states: "As a woman you live more under the microscope than a man," so you might as well be known!

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So, as such successful women, what career advice would they give to anyone hoping to succeed? This is particularly crucial in an industry that sees just 0.6% of women in a senior role (Women in Rail, Industry Survey, 2015). Anna states: "Focus on what really matters to you, go for a job which enthuses you regardless of the title given to you." Maggie added "Sometimes you just have to do it and bugger the consequences. You have to believe everything will fall into place."

Finally, I wanted to know, as a woman at the top, what has been the most rewarding thing about their career? Their answers were exceptionally similar: all involved using their experience to help mentor others. Wilma nicely summed the shared sentiment, "The quiet knowledge that I helped someone succeed in realising their career potential, both for men and women, is what gives me real satisfaction."

So, on this day as we celebrate 105 years of women's achievements, it is apparent that although we have come so far, there remains work to be done to achieve true equality in the rail industry and wider business.

Both have much to gain from this shift - studies have shown time and time again that companies with a more diverse workforce are more successful. The statistics speak for themselves here: companies with more women on their boards outperform their rivals with a 42% higher return in sales, 66% higher return on invested capital and 53% higher return on equity.
In a school in Zambia, schoolgirls will be marking Women's Day in a way that should be unremarkable: by attending lessons.

They are there in part because their school now has three basic necessities which schoolchildren -- indeed, everyone -- in the developed world take for granted: a tap, safe private toilets, and a way to wash their hands with soap.

These should be basic components of a school. They should be unremarkable.

But access to water, sanitation and good hygiene are still missing in too many schools and communities around the world.

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One in three schools without sanitation

Unicef monitoring tells us that one in three schools around the world still do not have safe, private toilets, increasing the likelihood that girls will drop out at puberty and entrenching the cycle of poverty. Cutting short the education of these future mothers will also affect the next generation.

However, WaterAid and its local partners have now added these essentials to Lubunda Primary School, to help change the course of the community, and make families healthier and more able to earn a living.

Alice Namonje, the menstrual hygiene coordinator, with some of her students at Lubunda Primary School in Zambia. Photo: Chileshe Chanda, WaterAid

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"Absenteeism was high among girls. Some could stay away from school for a week, when they finish their periods," said Alice Namonje, 38, a teacher at the school, who now also teaches girls what to expect during menstruation and how to manage their periods as part of the new programme.

"Many girls have ended up stopping school because sometimes they are stigmatised during their periods," she said. However, private toilets and the ability to wash properly has made it easier for teenage girls to attend all month long.

Breaking the silence

"Girls should not stay at home because of menstruating, We are breaking the silence, because menstruation is natural," Ms Namonje said.

Children no longer need to spend hours fetching water that is likely unsafe to drink, but instead can collect clean water from a tapstand. The students now understand and promote the importance of handwashing with soap, and are healthier and cleaner as a result.

Their school will improve as it becomes more attractive to teachers. Who wants to spend their professional day thinking about where and how they will go to the toilet, or unable to count on a refreshing glass of water after a long morning's teaching?

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And crucially for girls, once they reach puberty, having a safe, private toilet can mean the difference between going to school and dropping out of class for a week every month as they try to deal with their period in a discreet and dignified way.

An issue that affects over a billion women and girls

It is incomprehensible that as we celebrate all the achievements of women in this modern world, some 1.2 billion women and girls still live without adequate sanitation and 330 million women and girls still live without access to clean drinking water. Nearly all these women and girls live in the developing world.

Dirty water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene including lack of handwashing facilities with soap have a greater impact on women and girls' health, safety and right to education. Dirty water and a lack of sanitation claim more than 150,000 girls' lives every year before they even start school through diarrhoeal disease.

WaterAid's research and experience has shown that when women are empowered to speak out on access to water and sanitation, communities - including homes, schools and medical facilities - are more likely to accommodate the needs of girls and women, improving everyone's health, well-being and economic status.

'My children will never go through what I went through'

Leah N'gandwe, 37, knows this first-hand. The farmer from Wachani Village in Lubunda district said that in her own childhood, she walked daily more than an hour to an unprotected well that was the village's main water source - a chore which interrupted her education.

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"It was not easy to be educated, especially as a girl," she said. "It was so burdensome that even while at school I was feeling the pressure of the obligation to draw water. Our parents always made the job of drawing water a responsibility of a girl.

Leah N'gandwe with her daughters Maggie, 10, and Catherine, 7, and grandchild Chansa, 4 at her home in Wachani Vllage, Lubunda. Her daughters can now attend school more regularly thanks to the addition of a water pump and safe, clean toilets. Photo: Chileshe Chanda, WaterAid

"I could have been educated if we had water close to our home," Ms N'gandwe said. "Now, my children will have no excuse to fail at school.. My children will never go through what I went through."

This International Women's Day, WaterAid is calling on governments to make safe, private toilets and handwashing facilities a priority in homes, schools and healthcare facilities, to address the inherent gender discrimination that comes when these services are lacking.

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The theme of this year's International Women's Day is #PledgeForParity. We celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women. We look back with pride on our mothers' and grandmothers' achievements, but also focus with anger and determination on the injustices which hold women back today. And we look at the practical measures which are needed to advance the cause of women, not just in Britain but around the world.

And on this day it seems appropriate, given the ongoing debate about Britain's membership of the EU, to reflect on the hard-won rights and freedoms women have achieved through the European Union - and the risks to gender equality inherent in leaving Europe.

Being in Europe means the UK is bound by common rules which ensure protections for women in the workplace, tackle gender discrimination, and fight against income inequality. From maternity leave and work protections during pregnancy, to rules preventing harassment and unequal treatment at work, women in Britain benefit from EU protections every day.

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These benefits make a real difference to people's lives - they're not just abstract statistics. This referendum is about the new mum who can spend time with her children without having to give up her job. It's about the cleaner on a zero-hours contact who is freed to go for a scan on work time. And it's about the graduate on her first job who is protected from being paid less by her sexist boss.

Many of us will take these rights for granted. But were we to pull out of Europe, there is no shortage leave campaigners who would like nothing better than to reduce them. Nigel Farage said that working mothers are "worth far less" than men. And the leader of the Vote Leave campaign, Matthew Elliott, called for childcare benefits to be cut by 80% when he led the Tax Payers' Alliance.

Women, just as much as men, are better off in the EU thanks to the jobs our membership creates, the security it delivers, and the action on climate change it pioneers. We know that financial crises and austerity hit women hardest, so the boost that the EU gives our economy matters more to us than it does to men. Similarly cross-border work on tax evasion and financial regulation is crucial for safeguarding us from the dangers of an unregulated market. On climate change, much as the Paris climate agreement does not go far enough, if you listen to representatives from Small Island States - some of the poorest countries with the most to lose from climate change - they'll tell you that working with the EU was key to getting the crucial 1.5 degree climate goal into the final agreement. The deal gives us at least a chance to curb the looming threat of catastrophic climate change.

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As feminists, we care about women across the world, not just our country or even our continent. The global fight to end violence against women and gender discrimination is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Being in Europe gives Britain the power to work with our European allies in promoting common values of non-aggression and equality to protect and empower women. To this end, the UK draws on a host of European initiatives to fight for women in Europe and across the world. These include common action to stop sex trafficking, and funding for projects aimed at ending female genital mutilation.

All of us are better off when we work together on the shared challenges we face. Every woman who has taken maternity leave, benefited from anti-discrimination laws, or got a job created by doing business on the continent has the EU to thank, at least in part. It is this that should be at the forefront of our minds - not just on International Women's Day, but on every day from now until 23 June.
A year ago I proposed founding a new political party focused on gender equality. I did this because each successive international women's day reminds us not just what women have achieved but how many barriers still block our way. I also wanted to find a way to re-engage the multitudes of women who feel so excluded from the national political debate that they no longer exercise the very right Suffragettes fought hard to secure. Nine million women eligible to vote at the last election did not do so.

On 23 June, the UK again goes to the polls, this time to decide whether to remain in the European Union or to leave it. If the debate remains stuck in its current mode - puffed up male politicians posturing to secure the favour of their own party members rather than putting the national interest first - it would hardly be surprising if nine million women again stayed home. Yet this would also be a tragedy. One reason women are badly served by politics is that the views of women are poorly represented in the political process.

The Women's Equality Party aims to change that. That idea I voiced last year, a vision shared with Sandi Toksvig, has solidified into a substantial political force. We have 45,000 members and registered supporters and 72 branches, we're running candidates in the London mayoral and assembly elections and for the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament in May, and today we celebrated International Women's Day by seizing the Europe debate.

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We are calling for a Women's Bill of Rights to enshrine and extend the protections afforded to women by the EU. Leave or stay, such a Bill is long overdue.

Without question, EU membership has served British women well. A clause in the Treaty of Rome asserting the right to equal pay came to be interpreted as a wider right to equality, contributing to social progress and the improvement of living and working conditions for women across Europe. Together with the Equal Pay Directive this forced the UK to introduce and then expand its own national legislation on equal pay as part of its membership of the EU.

The wider legislation that followed, such as maternity leave, was significant too. Prior to the implementation of the EU maternity leave law, women in the UK were not eligible for maternity leave unless they had worked for the same employer full time for two years or part time for five years. The change in legislation expanded the rights to leave for 45% of British working women.

These rights must be protected in case of Brexit. The Leave camp claims there is no need to worry. The history of the struggle for women's rights tells us there is every need. Rights are more easily rolled back than they are won.

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Yet this is not to say all criticisms of Europe are wrong. The EU was and is lacking in ambition for its female citizens. The driver of these changes was never primarily a concern for women's wellbeing but worries that competition between business would be distorted by irregular implementation of equal pay legislation. Similarly, faced with high unemployment, many European countries saw maternity leave as an opportunity to open up jobs to those who needed work without having to increase their national debt.

What Europe overlooked - and successive UK governments also seem too easily to ignore - is that enabling female participation in the labour force creates an economic windfall for the entire population. If gender segregation of jobs was reduced and women's employment was increased, it could be worth an extra 23billion to the UK economy alone.

Moreover Brussels and Westminster alike tend to recognise only the needs of those women in full-time employment and to do even less for the many women in part-time or insecure work or unemployed (though often jobless women work flat out caring for family members).

Our party model is about finding common ground; most parties at very least pay lip service to the benefits of gender equality. We opened membership to members of all other parties and we have members from all of the main parties. We rigorously keep our focus on gendered issues - and far from making us a single-issue party, this means our remit is huge. Gender inequality permeates every area of life. Our elected representatives will be bound by our six core objectives - equal representation, equal pay, equality through and in education, shared opportunities and responsibilities in parenting and caregiving, equal treatment by and in the media and an end to violence against women. On all other issues they, and our wider membership, have freedom to choose and define their own positions.

On Europe this means a free vote. I will cast mine to remain in Europe, as I would rather the UK government spends its energy - and money - on a drive for gender equality, instead of struggling with the consequences of Brexit.

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Whatever the outcome on 23 June, women will only win with a Women's Bill of Rights.
Udoka has grand ambitions for her Lagos-based skin care company. By 2021, she wants her customer base to cover the whole of Nigeria. Demand for her products is already high, but to realise her goal she needs to expand her factory, recruit more staff and formalise her finances. That's why she joined my Foundation's Road to Women's Business Growth project, an exciting new initiative we are delivering in collaboration with the ExxonMobil Foundation.

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Today Udoka will be one of the 500 Nigerian women who are celebrating International Women's Day by graduating from the first stage of the project - and I am honoured to be hosting a special event in Lagos to mark this achievement. Over the last three months women across the country have undergone rigorous training to develop the business management and financial literacy skills they need to take their businesses to the next level.

It is an exciting and important time to be delivering this project. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, thanks to expansion in sectors such as telecommunications and a booming film industry. And yet, despite this, a significant gender gap in economic activity persists.

According to the World Economic Forum's latest Global Gender Gap report, Nigeria has slipped seven places since the previous year in its ranking on gender equality, sitting at 125th out of 145 countries. On average, women in Nigeria earn 23% less than their male counterparts, and only 34% of women have access to a bank account, compared to 54% of men.

In order for Nigeria's economic growth to be truly inclusive women entrepreneurs must be empowered to realise their full potential. That's exactly what my Foundation is seeking to do.

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The women I am celebrating with today are all established business owners running small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in a diverse range of sectors, from fashion, retail and health, to education and mechanics. These women have enjoyed some degree of success but are struggling to take that next step on their road to growth.

Our research showed that one of the biggest barriers standing in their way is access to finance. Of course, this problem is not unique to Nigeria - women run 30% of all registered businesses worldwide, yet only 10% of women entrepreneurs have access to the capital they need to grow. Our project is tackling this issue in three key ways.

First, we have mobilised the skills and resources of a range of partners. Training is being delivered by our partner on the ground, the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan-Atlantic University, an expert in SME business development. Representatives from our financial partner, Diamond Bank, have also connected with women at regular intervals, providing information on financial products and demystifying loan application procedures. Research shows that facilitating direct links between women and financial services is crucial. After all, it's not enough to simply teach women about abstract financial concepts; they need the opportunity to put those learnings into practice.

Second, the Road to Growth training course is completely unique. It has been built from scratch and customised to meet the needs of women owners of small businesses in Nigeria. Research we conducted at the start of the project showed that these needs centre largely around financial management skills, such as managing cash flow, interpreting financial statements and understanding loan processes. Our technology partner, Emerging360, designed a bespoke learning curriculum which fills these knowledge gaps.

Finally, we are using technology to deliver the project in a way that fits with the realities of women's lives. The training has been delivered partly in traditional classroom settings, and partly through online learning modules which the women can access via hand-held tablets. This 'blended learning' approach allows women to benefit from networking opportunities and peer-to-peer learning, whilst also giving them the flexibility to learn in their own time and at their own pace.

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Over the next six months the women will continue to receive support to build their businesses, with one hundred participants benefiting from more intensive support. Udoka isn't wasting any time in putting her new-found skills into practice, however. Before she started the training, she struggled with basic financial spreadsheets and was juggling all aspects of the business herself, from marketing to human resources and book-keeping. Now she has become much more organised; she has got to grips with her growth plan, hired an in-house accountant and is even considering selling shares in her business.

Women like Udoka are poised to act as change-makers in their communities and economies. After all, research shows that when women earn, they plough the majority of their income back into the health and wellbeing of their families. Empowering women entrepreneurs is an economic catalyst we cannot afford to ignore.

Watch a video of Udoka talking about her business on our YouTube page.
The Government's new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy is an important moment - abuse isn't straightforward and women need both early intervention and crisis support to be available

Today is International Women's Day. It's also the day the Government publishes its refreshed strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.

The stats on violence against women are staggering. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. Closer to home, two women are murdered every week in the UK, and a further 100,000 are at high-risk of being murdered or seriously harmed by their partner.

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The Government's new strategy contains three key elements that could make a real difference to the lives of women and girls living with abuse:

-early intervention

-local commissioners appointing specialist domestic abuse services in a coherent, effective and sustainable way

-addressing the behaviour of perpetrators.

It is really encouraging to see the Government recognise the importance of these factors.

Building important innovation on firm foundations

It is vital that this innovative shift complements rather than replaces current provision, especially those supporting victims of high-risk domestic abuse. SafeLives' research has shown that we have just half the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (Idvas) as are needed to ensure those victims in the greatest danger get effective support.

Provision is patchy at best, and the subsequent impact on professionals' caseloads - and, ultimately, the quality of support offered to victims - is of real concern.

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Everybody's business - earlier intervention

Domestic abuse is so much more than a criminal justice issue - for instance, we know that victims are 5 times more likely to be in regular contact with health professionals than the police. Our evidence also shows that victims of domestic abuse are frequent users of physical and mental health services, typically accessing them 13 times before receiving support from a domestic abuse service.

These two facts alone make increased leadership from the Department of Health vitally important. We call on Ministers there to share their plans to implement the strategy, alongside the Home Secretary and Communities Secretary.

Domestic abuse victims need a single point of referral for all safeguarding concerns including domestic abuse, substance misuse, mental ill-health and neglect - allowing us to identify vulnerable women and girls as early as possible and recognising that domestic abuse cannot be understood as an isolated problem. It needs to be approached holistically, something that impacts the whole family and a range of vulnerabilities.

The role of local commissioners

The Government is right to say that local provision for victims of abuse is too fragmented. The importance of good commissioning cannot be overstated. Local authorities, health commissioners and Police and Crime commissioners could do much more with existing funding if they worked together in a more co-ordinated way.

Asking 'why doesn't he stop?' not 'Why doesn't she leave?'

For too long, we've been focusing on the wrong questions, asking women victims of domestic abuse why they don't leave, rather than asking why their perpetrators won't stop.

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We know from talking to women that they want their partners or ex-partners to receive specialist intervention to stop the abuse. We must respect and respond to this. While refuges around the country are turning victims away due to lack of space, less than 1% of perpetrators get any specialist intervention to address their behaviour. They need to be held accountable and this strategy signals the Government's intention to improve the situation.

Abuse is complicated - provide help when women need it
By Liz Yarrow and Kara Apland, Coram Children's Legal Centre's International Team

Access to sexual and reproductive health is crucial for the fulfilment of women and girls' most basic rights, from the right to health and education, to the right to be protected from violence and abuse.

Yet there is no country where women possess the unequivocal right to make choices in relation to their own reproductive and sexual health. In fact, female sexuality and reproduction is a matter that is heavily controlled, regulated, restricted - even criminalised - in law in every state around the world.

In the UK we often assume that such restrictions do not apply to us. We think of our legal framework as relatively progressive: made up of laws which protect the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls and promote their empowerment. Abortion is legal in the UK, we have free and relatively access to a range of different forms of birth control, and most of us receive sexual and reproductive health education in school - we may say. We might juxtapose ourselves to places like the US where women's access to sexual and reproductive health is deeply politicised; where legal battles around public funding for services are constantly waged, and voters choose which candidate to support according to their position on abortion.

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We - the authors - work with a team of researchers from Coram International and have recently conducted several studies on how law regulates young people's sexual and reproductive health, in partnership with the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the UN Population Fund. Our research took us to 10 jurisdictions across the world, including England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We found that laws governing women and girls' sexual and reproductive rights share a number of restrictive characteristics across both the developed and developing world and in countries with diverse cultural and religious traditions. In short, we found that the law does impact on women's reproductive freedom and health, often with devastating effects.

The most extreme example of this can be found in El Salvador - a case study country in our research - where there is an absolute legal prohibition on abortion: even if abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother, and/ or if the foetus is not viable. In several cases, women have been prosecuted after suffering miscarriage; accused of 'murder' and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. The prosecution of miscarriage has been termed a 'by product' of the law criminalising abortion; yet it is arguably the direct consequence of a law which does not recognise women and girls as humans with inalienable rights over their own bodies and health, but treats women and girls as vessels for protecting and preserving foetuses, and criminalises women and girls who fail in this duty assigned to them in law.

El Salvador may seem like an exceptional case, yet in every state in the world abortion is legally restricted and depends either on the question of whether the pregnancy was 'deserved' (was the woman to blame for getting pregnant?), or on a balance, which negotiates the legal rights to life and health of a woman against dominant social and religious norms.

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In many states, such as Senegal, abortion may only be allowed if a woman's life is at risk. Other states, such as Indonesia, permit abortion when a pregnancy results from rape. India has a particularly telling provision: legalising abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy for women who are married and on birth control. The law passes judgment on the actions and decision making of the woman concerned - was she taking precautionary measure to prevent pregnancy? Was she behaving in a morally responsible way, or was she having sex outside of marriage?

In England and Wales it is often assumed that abortion is legal and available to women 'on demand'. In fact, the law- introduces contingencies. For a woman to access an abortion two doctors must agree that a continuation of the pregnancy would be a greater risk to her physical and mental health - or (interestingly) to that of her children - than a termination, and termination must occur within the first 24 weeks of gestation.

In practice the law on abortion in the UK is flexibly and liberally applied, but we cannot take access to sexual and reproductive health services for granted. The recent debate regarding legislation to make SRE mandatory in schools demonstrates that legal protection for sexual and reproductive rights remains a politically contested space and that legal protections are far from guaranteed.

Reports for our latest study, conducted in partnership with the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the United Nations Population Fund in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, will be published later this year.
I am always surprised that many young women (and men) don't personally identify as feminists. To be a feminist is to believe that men and women, boys and girls, should have the same rights and opportunities, and be treated with the same dignity and respect. That seems like something we should all be able to get behind. It doesn't mean that you hate men, and it isn't defined by what you wear or your sexuality. In fact, men and boys, and society as a whole will benefit from a more just and fair world, a world in which neither men nor women are confined to socially constructed cages based on their sex.

But I guess the position of women has advanced so significantly in the last 50 years, at least in the western world (due to the tireless work of the women's rights movement), that it is easy to forget how far we still have to go.

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Yes, women have joined the formal workforce in increasing numbers. But they still earn substantially less than men with the same level of education. Across the OECD, women can expect to earn 73% of what men do. In Australia alone they earn nearly 20% less than men, and men will accrue more than twice the amount of Superannuation women do, which represents, on average a $43,619 difference when they retire.

In OECD countries, more women complete tertiary education (46% of women versus 31% of men). And yet, employment rates remain lower for women. Among tertiary educated people, 79% of women are employed versus 88% of men. There are numerous reasons for this, including the marketability of gendered professions - when asked, far more boys than girls say they can envisage themselves pursuing a career in engineering or computing.

Yes, men have started to become more engaged in parenting, but still, in almost every OECD country, women spend more time engaged in unpaid household labour, washing, preparing food and caring for sick family members. In America, women spend more than 2 hours a day on chores, compared to 82 minutes for men. Even in Finland, women spend 137 minutes each day on household duties, compared to 91 minutes for men. This is in spite of the fact that women have also increased their time spent in the workforce. Where is this time being made up? From a loss of personal or sleep time. This happens because societies assume that these tasks come naturally to, or are the responsibility of a woman.

Yes, women have more choice over whom they marry, when and even if they marry, but still at least 1 woman per week in Australia and 2 women per week in the UK is killed by a current or former partner.

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And yes, as a woman you can theoretically be whatever you want to be. But if that's an actress know that females comprise only 30% of all speaking roles; if you want to be an author know that you're much less likely to win the Booker prize - 31 of 45 previous Booker winners have been men; and if you dream of being a politician you'll be joining only 22 per cent of all national parliamentarians who are female. And the list goes on.

Sure, there are some places where it is better to be a woman, and some places where it is much worse.

In Tunisia and a number of other countries, if a woman is raped, the perpetrator may not be charged with a crime if he agrees to marry his victim. In Yemen, an 8 year old girl recently died on her wedding night after being forced to marry a man five times her age.

You might think that these are isolated incidents but they are not. Globally 1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. In the developing world, one third of girls are married before the age of 18, and one in nine are married before the age of 15. In 127 countries marital rape is not considered a crime.

We should be outraged. All of us.

Ultimately you still might chose not to identify with the the word feminist. However I would urge you to, because as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie argues, otherwise we deny that it is women who have, for centuries, been excluded. But whatever you decide to call yourself, we must all recognise that there is still a very long way to go before women and men have equality.

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In fact, although there is much to celebrate, progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places. The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already protracted pace of progress meant the gender gap wouldn't close entirely until 2133. That is 117 years away!!! Think about that for a moment. That means you won't see gender parity in your lifetime. Your children (if you have them) won't see it in their lifetime. And, your children's children might not even live to witness gender equality.
Women across the world are still being denied careers and education, sometimes in the name of religion, but always because of prejudice.

So we need action now, not just more attention, as we mark International Women's Day on March 7. There is still a mountain to climb.

The World Economic Forum estimates that gender parity will not now be achieved until 2133, several generations longer than its prediction only last year.

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So, more than 200 years after the Industrial Revolution brought women into the workplace in vast numbers, we wait another 117 for parity with the men we live and work alongside?

That is simply unacceptable. Gender inequality, as measured by pay, education and opportunities, is arguably the last great prejudice and should be treated accordingly. Not with rolling (male) eyes and reluctantly set 'targets', but with legal action backed up by penalties including - perhaps - trade and aid sanctions.

What is being denied women is often cloaked in societal values, just as prejudice against homosexuality was and remains in some places.

But concerted effort by politicians, artists and opinion formers have changed attitudes to being gay in much of the world, and within a generation.

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There is little such systematic effort evident to deal with the often misogynistic misery inflicted against women over much of our planet; or even in advanced nations, where a pernicious prejudice remains.

Take the UK. Women visibly fill most of the lower paid clerical jobs and seem only reluctantly allowed into top boardrooms. The softer, so-called 'caring' professions, invariably less remunerative, are where they end up, just as they did a generation ago and the one before that.

There are still very few women in most professions, and they are certainly not half the numbers in any of them.

At a very basic level, not enough is done to encourage flexible working in this country. But it starts much earlier. Schools should do much more to draw on female mentors from their areas, people prepared to come in and talk about life as lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, soldiers and farmers.

Women are also often their own worst enemy, pulling up the drawbridge behind them and not helping others.

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But men hold the key and must be encouraged to take this seriously. It is hard not to wonder if homosexuality had been confined to women whether gay rights would ever have advanced as they did.

The continuing male bias in Western countries is, we have all diplomatically been told, largely unconscious. Perhaps. Or is it just disguised?

Not much else explains the steeper path to advancement, equal pay and access to jobs that plainly still exists.

The frustration is what a nonsense it all is. Research and just plain common sense suggests that the global economy would be richer and the human condition advanced by parity. Women are not just half the global workforce, they represent 70 per cent of global demand.

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development has estimated that GDP in the developed world would increase by 12 per cent within 20 years if equality was achieved.

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Memento Park just outside Budapest is a bizarre wonderland. It's where the Hungarians deposited all its unwanted Communist statues after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Its statues depict generally disreputable Communist figures and other assorted enemies of democracy, and they were erected in order to force sinister Communist influence onto residents through constant exposure.

And now they comprise a shrine where locals and tourists alike go to mock the dystopian pomposity of the regime with selfie sticks and funny faces. How much better that is - for history, for education, for Hungarian national catharsis and just for good old-fashioned fun - than would have been wholesale destruction of the (admittedly unsavoury) statues.

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I wonder if the Cecil Rhodes martyrs - who have now set their sights on Queen Victoria - have ever visited Budapest. I suspect they haven't, or else they wouldn't dream of suggesting that demolishing history is a sensible way forward.

Owen Jones argues that the protestors are "forcing us to confront our history". Well, they're certainly forcing us confront British history (this article being a case in point). But if they have their way, we will be the last. Future generations won't.

What will prompt students in 20 years' time to discuss the moral legacy of empire? They won't be reminded of it, as we are today, by walking past a statue of a questionable queen. The statue won't be there. It will just be a stump, and we can't learn from a stump.

Removing Queen Vic will also not be nearly as cathartic as the anti-Rhodes lobby seems to believe. Deleting the mugshot doesn't reverse the crime. Modern Britain is still riddled with the consequences of its imperial past, economically, structurally, linguistically. It continues to live off the proceeds. We can pull down as many statues as we like but it won't change the fact that contemporary British society is built on colonial roots.

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For sure, that's an issue which we as a society have to face up to, but we can do so without resorting to childish tactics which erase uncomfortable passages of British history. It's not as if the continued existence of a statue or monument implies that anyone supports every aspect of what it stood for at the time it was unveiled. There may be a statute of Queen Victoria standing on a Royal Holloway College lawn but nobody could seriously suppose that means Royal Holloway College institutionally supports every excess of the British Empire - far less that its students or passing visitors do.

All a statue is is a statement: 'The people of such-and-such-a-year thought that this person was worthy of memorial.' That statement continues to be true today even if we wouldn't form the same conclusion these days. So how far should the erasure go? Should we also destroy the college's 1880s archive which no doubt includes written records of the statue's construction? Those records will make exactly the same statement as the statute itself does.

And what of all the other statues, gravestones and other memorials throughout the United Kingdom that commemorate historical figures of questionable morality? Let's face it, virtually every statue of anyone who died before about 1950 (and many of those born later) is all but guaranteed to be somewhat questionable: its subject will inevitably have said something racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic or anti-feminist or pro-slavery or pro-child labour or somehow objectionable.

That's how the progression of time works: people in the future always look back and, with the benefit of hindsight, spot moral flaws. The only way to fulfil the Rhodes martyrs' mission to its proper conclusion would be to destroy virtually the entirety of pre-1950s British history.
In Syria, massive and systematic violence continues to take place out of sight, in centres of detention away from the war's frontlines.

Earlier this month, the UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) released a report on death in detention. This followed equally harrowing reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on enforced disappearances and deaths in regime detention. Arbitrary detention is an inhuman, senseless tactic of war. The actions of the Assad regime are against international human rights and humanitarian law. With peace negotiations due to restart soon, it is vitally important to see efforts to build confidence.

The release of arbitrarily held detainees, including women and children, would be an opportunity to signal a desire to change the status quo and to demonstrate a real willingness to solve the conflict politically. Alongside this there should be an end to brutal treatment of all detainees in Syria and information should be provided to families on the location and status of disappeared persons.

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The Syrian Opposition, represented by the Higher Negotiations Committee at the Geneva peace talks, have made clear that they need to see three confidence building measures: the Cessation of Hostilities (hudna), humanitarian access, and the release of detainees by the regime, particularly women and children. The international community has also repeatedly called for the early release of any arbitrarily detained persons in Syria. Releasing prisoners and revealing the fate of the disappeared are both steps all actors, particularly the regime who holds tens of thousands of detainees, should take as confidence building measures towards a negotiated peace.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights more than 65,000 individuals, have been forcibly disappeared between March 2011 and August 2015. While the fate of the disappeared remains unknown, reports suggest that many face unimaginable abuse. The CoI report states that the regime has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, torture, rape or other forms of sexual violence. The subhuman conditions experienced by detainees of Asad's prisons were highlighted in the 'Caesar' photographs smuggled out of Syria in August 2013. These included more than 28,000 photos of deaths in regime custody. They reportedly show at least 6,786 individuals - tortured, strangled and starved people - who died in detention. The reports leave no question that the mass detentions by the regime are part of a widespread attack against the civilian population.

While the regime is by far the largest perpetrator of illegal detention, terrorist organisations such as Daesh and Al-Nusra Front (ANF), also arbitrarily detain civilians. CoI concluded that extremist groups, as well as the regime, have committed the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, and torture. ANF, for example, has conducted mass executions of prisoners and has set up detention facilities in Idlib where deaths in detention were documented.

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The UK has been clear that human rights violations and abuses in Syria are unacceptable and perpetrators must be held to account for their crimes. Last week, Human Rights Minister Baroness Anelay welcomed the beginning of the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva with a particular hope to secure a strong resolution that renews the mandate of the CoI in Syria. The CoI should be granted access to Syria so that one day Asad and other perpetrators of human rights abuses can be held to account. There can be no lasting peace without justice; there must be no impunity.

Since the cessation of hostilities came into effect on the 27 February we have seen a reduction in violence. This is a step forwards, particularly with the increased access for aid, but must be sustained with a reduction in reported violations.

In the same way the cessation has opened up the possibilities for greater access to besieged areas, it should open up possibilities for the release of detainees suffering subhuman conditions. We have possibly the best chance at peace in five years. To keep progressing towards a negotiated settlement, confidence must be built and maintained.

As part of the International Syria Support Group, the UK will continue to pressure the regime and its backers, particularly Russia, to address the issue of arbitrarily detained persons.
Emmeline Pankhurst broke into the House of Commons to petition Prime Minister Herbert Asquith for women to get the vote and during her trial for that crime she declared: "We are here, not because we are lawbreakers; we are here in our efforts to become lawmakers."

When my female colleagues and I entered parliament last May we were democratically elected, we did not have to break in.

Academic research recently showed that boards with more women do 36 per cent better than those without. Helena Morrissey, leading activist for gender equality and the estimable Chief Executive of Newton Investment, a global investment management company said on the publication of the statistics: "It seems pretty obvious to me that companies that have women at the top are also more likely to have inclusive cultures."

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My own opinion is that we need more women in business and politics to make it more interesting, more balanced, more colourful and ultimately, because we are 51% of the population and so ought to be, better represented.

Whilst we have come a long way since the days of Emmeline Pankhurst, there is still a long way to go until we can truly say we have equality. The number of male MPs in the House of Commons today outnumbers the number of female MPs ever elected. In October 2015, City AM reported on the Davies review that "The Davies Review is setting a new target for a third of all board members at Britain's biggest listed companies to be women, as a separate new study warns that the country's boardroom diversity 'risks going into reverse gear'."

Whether through further active engagement with business, quotas, campaigning or bespoke programmes, we need to do more. We are slowly making progress with diversity and equality in our democratic institutions. My colleagues and I are also doing our best to modernise and bring the UK parliament into modern times because fundamentally, equality and diversity should start at the heart of our democracies.

It is well known that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been a champion of equality and her gender-balanced Cabinet set an example on the world stage when it received praise from the UN's Women's Policy Division as 'a role model to emulate'. She has written today about the importance of gender balance and equality in the work place.

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In addition, the work of the Scottish Government and SNP Cabinet colleagues can be seen in its efforts to encourage balanced boards, women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers, and people of all races, gender, ability and sexuality to get involved in society and politics, not to mention the SNP's record investment in childcare.

It seems ever obvious that it is not the why we should get more women involved, more the how we do it. There are no easy answers but when I've got up at 5 am to fly to London on a Monday morning then the House sits until 1am, you do wonder whether Parliament will ever reflect a normal working week. We don't just need to create a more family and female friendly Parliament, we need to tell young women in every school, college, university and workplace that they can do anything.

Diversity of every kind makes for a richer more balanced society. We need more LGBTI and BAME people too. That starts at the grassroots; I grew up with a single Mum who worked all hours as a lecturer and ran about at weekends entertaining my brother and I, whilst sitting on every school board and local activist group she could. She trod a path of 'anything and everything is possible' and I simply followed suit. That does not mean it is easy but she told me from a very young age that I could do anything and no boy or man was any better, or indeed any worse than me.
There is a misconception that equality means treating women the same as men. For women in the criminal justice system, government reports have tried to address the differences between male and female offenders. Despite these reports, the specific needs of women are not addressed. International women's day 2016 is a day when people everywhere have an opportunity to support the idea of gender equality.

#HeForShe? is an international campaign which invites people around the world to stand together for gender equality. International women's day is a time to understand that gender equality is not just a women's issue. It is a human rights issue, where powerful voices are heard in order to try and change the world.

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The theme for International women's day 2016 is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step it Up for Gender Equality". On Tuesday 8th March, the United Nations, governments and others in civil society will encourage the implementation of new goals to step up commitments on gender equality, women's empowerment and human rights. In particular the United Nations is encouraging women's access to food, reducing hunger, ensuring access to water and sanitation. The agenda is not just focusing on a few countries but is designed for all countries. In particular, the United Nations aim to create an action plan for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.

Equality for women in prison

Women in prison have human rights and will need specific understandings of humanity which can take into account their issues. There are many ways that the compliance and implementation of human rights can be achieved for women in prison. Feminist academics highlight the gap between international rhetoric and the reality for women. International Women's Day 2016 is an opportunity to recognize how equality for women affects everyone and can be applied to all areas of life including women in prison. The first step towards change is to be aware of the issues. This means understanding issues for women in prison beyond stereotypes.

Initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakityapha from Thailand, the Bangkok Rules (2010) were aimed at supplementing the 1995 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for The Treatment of Prisoners. The Bangkok Rules are a significant development in the official recognition of the specific issues for imprisoned women as well as support from within the prison and stakeholders in the community. In order to monitor the compliance of nation-states there is a reliance on naming and shaming by the United Nations, international or national non-governmental organisations and the media (Follesdal et al, 2014; Nash, 2009; Van Gundy and Buamann-Grau, 2013). Since the introduction of the Bangkok rules there have been criticisms about the lack of compliance by nation-states and how there are few empirical studies connected to their implementation (Barberet, 2014; Van-Gundy and Baumann-Grau, 2013; Walby, 2011). The international and regional legislative frameworks relevant for women in prison overlap and have guidance which is difficult to interpret.

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In order to analyse these complex issues and the relevant standards, research for women in prison is a blog and website which has the aim of educating people about international and local issues which affect women in prison. Research for women in prison promotes the work of organisations involved in prisons, the views of prisoners and research findings. Research for women in prison uses international legislation and provides knowledge about broad issues such as housing or healthcare that could improve the equality of women everywhere.

Telling women's stories is a powerful way of making change. The prison was an institution which formed an important part of the campaigns of the suffrage campaigners who fought to win the vote for women in England. Thousands of women were imprisoned for their campaigns for women to have the vote. Despite winning this battle, there is a need for all women today to become involved and care about equality. This doesn't mean everyone should start campaigning. If actions taken by people challenged issues or recognized areas for change then this could collectively led to steps towards the United Nations goals.
In a world obsessed with identity politics I want to bring things back to basics and explain why I believe we should leave the EU and why I think gender has absolutely nothing to do with it.

I run my own business (I am a physiotherapist with my own practice), I stood for parliament in Ashfield at the 2015 General Election, I'm a District Councillor and I am a Director of Grassroots Out, the campaign for Britain to leave the EU. In short, I am a busy, politically motivated person who happens to be a woman.

I grew up understanding that my life and ambitions were my responsibility. As a child my parents provided for me and nurtured me, they helped me to become self reliant and to get ready to shoulder the burdens of adulthood. My local community was a safe place where I was known and was given the freedom to take those first steps. Because of this, I believe the most important support structures in our lives are the most local. We need strong families and strong communities.

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Beyond that we do need certain centralised services to be run by a central government; education, justice, hospitals, major infrastructure and so on. Those services are, of course, paid for by us through a centralised tax system. The most important aspect of this system is that we get to vote on the people that we entrust with spending our hard earned money for the common good. If a majority don't like what the government is doing then they will get voted out.

This is very basic but it is of vital importance in the EU debate.

When the EEC was formed the public was led to believe that we were joining a free trading community. That seemed sensible enough.

However, as many people warned at the time, a political union has been slowly imposed on us without our consent. The formation of the single currency, the dissolving of national borders, powers over justice, policing, social policy being ceded to the EU. We regularly hear members of the European Commission suggesting tax raising powers, the formation of a European army and a common European foreign policy.

The most disturbing thing about the European Commission is that these people who rule over us are unelected.

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British voters have no way of getting rid of the EU Commission. If we don't like the decisions that they are making on our behalf there is nothing we can do to rectify this. Because we are in the EU, we, the British voter is powerless. There is no democratic accountability.

This is the reason the EU Commission do not respect and fear public opinion - because public opinion is worthless.

The EU Commission are remote and unaccountable yet they can spend our money as they choose.

I believe that government should be as close to the people as possible and the EU is the antithesis of that.

People complain that Westminster is too remote from their everyday lives and yet seem unconcerned by the EU having more and more power over our everyday lives.

That's why I'm out every weekend knocking on doors and talking to people about the EU referendum.

While we remain ruled by the EU, Britain will remain undemocratic.

Returning power and democracy to our great nation is something that every proud Briton, should be fighting for, regardless of whether they are man or woman.

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Our mother's voice is very often the strongest, and for good or bad, we hear it deeply within us, the loudest voice of all. It took me 48 years to learn that my Ma is not always right, for I was 48 years old before I learned that for life to function beautifully, there has to be balance, equality and a beautiful status quo.

When I was young, my Ma used to tell us that she had enough love for EVERYONE. There was no need to fight for it, there was no need to 'keep accounts' and there was no need to feel the lack. She had enough for all.

When I was an angst-ridden teenager, I used to argue with her, 'You love Daddy more than he loves you" and she would reply peacefully, "I love him enough for two, dear, so it doesn't matter who loves who more."

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In my novel Catching Infinity, the wife Karin van Achterberg loved her husband PW Vanderleyden 'enough for two' too. She loved him deeply, loyally and with great patience: she stayed at home and raised their three sons whilst he played at being the 'great' Professor. In truth, he was just a mediocre man who believed too much in his own publicity. But she, The Wife, was always there when he came home, ever ready to listen about his work though it bored her to death. She did not give a damn about Fibonacci numbers or the Grand Universal Theory, but nonetheless she quietly listened to his monologue. He never once asked her about her day because he was so full of his own self-importance. Thus, he never appreciated how she had grown in their 17 years of marriage and after 17 years, he had forgotten too that he had once been passionate about her, that he had involuntarily sank down to his knees at the altar on their wedding day in gratitude to God that this beautiful woman would take a gawky farm boy like him to be her husband.

How many Karin Van Achterbergs are there in the real world?

I intentionally set the story in a homestead deep in the South African veld, in a place where women do not walk out on their marriages. Karin's husband had hurt her immeasurably, but she took it stoically. Being religious, she saw the suffering as her cross to bear. Love will triumph in the end, she told herself. She believed that, totally.

What made Karin's story poignant was the fact that she was the only child and she was so loved by her old parents. They treated her like a Princess and taught her only about the good things in life. This wasn't the suffering they envisaged for their beloved daughter.

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When I started writing Catching Infinity, Karin was just a secondary character but as the story developed, I began to feel an affinity for her. She became the women I have known in my life and parts of her became me. I wanted to reach into the story and tell her (oh, so many times), "Karin, leave this man. He is not worth it. You can walk out of an abusive relationship, girl, do it!"

As a devout Catholic, I live my faith through Karin. But as a yogi, I believe in balance, equality and a beautiful status quo as eschewed in a beautiful balancing pose. When all is on balance, you catch fire inside. It is a liberation, a jivamukti. And as a yogi, I celebrate being alive, not being killed by life. Here's to putting life into your days, not days into your life - LOVE
Dementia is one of the great challenges of our age. How we tackle the impact of this devastating disease - on those affected, on their loved ones and on the health and care system - is a benchmark against which this generation will be judged. Last year the Prime Minister laid out his challenge on making the UK the most dementia friendly country in the world by 2020. In the last few days we launched our plans to rise to this challenge, publishing a detailed roadmap to how we get there.

So, why highlight dementia on International Women's Day? It's important to recognise that the burden of the disease falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women. Half a million women every year are living with dementia in the UK according to a report from Alzheimer's Research UK.

As a government, we have made dementia a priority. We want to make sure that those with this condition receive the best care available, and that their carers are given the support they need.

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We know from the Alzheimer's Society's findings that people with dementia experience longer stays in hospital. Hospitals can be frightening for some people with dementia. That is why we have committed to safer, more consistent care in hospitals throughout the week, as well as better integration with community services.

While those with advanced dementia deserve the very best and safest care, we know that we cannot neglect those who have an increased risk of developing the disease. Awareness raising, education and discussion of risk reduction for dementia in the NHS Health Check will be extended for the first time to those aged 40 or older, down from 65 currently, in a pilot scheme.

Developing dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing. Making informed choices today can have a huge influence on our health and can reduce our risk of living with dementia in the future. Public Health England's new One You campaign aims to give adults the motivation and support they need to make simple lifestyle changes to improve their health now, and reduce the risk of developing conditions like dementia in later life. This includes things like eating well, moving more, quitting smoking and drinking less.

Families want to know that their loved one is receiving the best possible care following diagnosis. So for the first time ever, leaders across the health, social care, local government and voluntary sector organisations have signed a joint declaration, committing to improving care and support to people with dementia following diagnosis.

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We also want to win the race to find a cure, or disease-modifying therapy, for dementia. We're investing up to 150 million into developing a Dementia Research Institute. The Prime Minister has also recently appointed a new dementia envoy, ARUK's David Mayhew, to continue to take our leadership in dementia research to the world.

On this day in particular, as I write this on the train to Manchester, to speak at the ARUK Conference, I am reminded of the many women who are leading the fight against dementia. Women such as Professor Maria Spillantini, who was the first person to identify a key protein in dementia; Dr Selina Wray, who is developing a new stem cell technique that will help with new drug development; and Dr Tara Spires-Jones, whose work will help prevent cell damage caused by Alzheimer's.

These women are leading the way. And through their efforts, and those of the wider research community, we hope to help many women and men - and their families - to live healthier, fuller lives.
From women's suffrage to female representation on boards, International Women's Day has celebrated the achievements of women for more than 100 years.

On the surface it would appear that 2016 has been an exceptional year for female empowerment. Presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton is making waves in the race to the White House with the potential of a first female president. Over in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to victory last year while high-profile women like Emma Watson made huge advances for feminism at the UN with her "HeforShe" campaign.

Despite such public progress, the so-called 'glass ceiling' continues to be blamed for a lack of female advancement in the workplace. Yet this outdated expression does not fully explain the real hurdles women still face in the workplace in 2016.

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The reality is that female staff leave companies for a huge number of reasons, from a range of positions in the corporate hierarchy. Our research shows that women make up 51 percent of the non-management workforce, dropping to 40 percent for mid-level positions, 32 percent at department head level and just 21 percent at the top executive level.

It is right that fewer women are making it to the top than men. Notable exceptions, such as CEO of Newton Investment Management, Helena Morrissey, have climbed to the top of their organisations while raising a large family. Yet she is regrettably a rare example; too few women are able to achieve a balance between the demands of family and professional life.

It's no longer the 'glass ceiling' that is preventing female advancement in the workplace. Our research shows that there is no one barrier at a specific point up the ladder that blocks women from fulfilling their leadership potential, but rather collections of micro-decisions that ultimately lead to a lack of diversity at the top of many companies. All too often managers are overlooking women for opportunities based on assumptions and second-guessing, for example high-risk, high-reward assignments will be undesirable due to women with children because on the strain on family commitments.

The solution, surprisingly, may come from the world of crime prevention. Rather than fixating on the 'glass ceiling', a more appropriate vision is the 'broken windows' theory, which holds that small acts of crime, such as littering, graffiti, or broken windows, will escalate to more serious ones if ignored. Diversity issues are very similar. Small decisions about women and their careers made the same way many times aggregate to create a more serious lack of equal opportunity for women, impairing their ability to carve a place for themselves in the corporate world. As with small criminal actions, these seemingly harmless oversights by employers will build up and ultimately result in driving out valuable female talent.

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Of course, prevention is better than a cure. Smart companies today will focus their efforts on preventative measures to address what might look like minor challenges in the way of female advancement. They put the time in to understand and engage female employees early in their careers. They help women achieve their full leadership potential by 'mending the windows', whether that means enabling flexible working practices, openly discussing career ambitions and opportunities, or seeking new ways to support and quickly reintegrate those who have taken maternity leave.

Those companies that invest the time and effort are seeing clear rewards. Our research shows that firms with diverse leadership generate twice the revenue and profit growth as those without.
Today is a celebration of women. I will spend the day trying to get across the message that we women are still being murdered and abused. Others will be using the time to shout loud about women's achievements, speaking of great women, courageous women, women at the top. I will love each story or lament for what others have that we women don't. There is one thing I think that we women have that our brothers should envy and replicate - we have each other.

The relationships I have had with women are life-changing. It is hard to put in to words the awesomeness of female friendship, many writers have tried to get the depth of women's relationships to leap off a page or transmit on to our screens. The howling laughter of moments of sorority doesn't have a word, let's try and invent one.

Here is a homage to my lifeblood. My family, my friends, my work. These are my stories but I'm sure every woman could write the same.

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My mom died when I was in my twenties. There is no one, nor will there ever be anyone, who inspires me as much. The mother of three sons and little me, the youngest of the bunch, we became each other's feminist icons. The daughter of a single mom, living on dinner lady wages, my mom fought every 1950s path laid out to her. She resisted the job in the haberdasher's section at Beattie's department store, as was her foretold future, stuck two fingers up to the teacher who told her she'd never find a man as she couldn't make a jelly. Got herself educated and became pretty eminent. She made pretty damn fine milk jelly rabbits for me every birthday as well as keeping a man, and filing government reports to improve the NHS.

No one will ever replace my mom, but my mother-in-law does a pretty good job. She ran away from home at 16 because, as the eldest and only girl, the aspirations for her were little more than being around to look after her brothers. In later life she wears this job well as now nearly every day she takes part in raising my kids. I don't call her mom, but that's what she is to me. She threatened to get a t-shirt that said, "check me out, my daughter-in-law is an MP". The success is ours not mine.

My mates are wet-your-knickers hilarious. I wish I could have a wedding every year just so there was a chance to dress them up and make lavish speeches about each and every one of them. These women have sat in A&E waiting rooms with me all night, left casseroles on my doorstep every day for the two weeks after my mom died. They picked my kids up because I missed my train, forgot about a meeting or was in labour. Sat with me keeping me laughing while my mom was in eight hours of surgery in another country and I was too pregnant to travel.

We have an unwritten rota for taking care of each other. A simple text of a joke that has been running for over 10 years, lifts the dullest day. A bunch of flowers when you get a promotion, paying for a massage when they know you are stressed, even though you didn't tell them. More than anything it is the laughing we do together, it is infectious, it hurts like you can't breath because you couldn't laugh anymore. When one of us does well it feels like we've all had a win. To Alex, Ruth, Jess, Jayne, Amy E, Gemma, Bryony, Maya, Amy T, Emma, Helen, Iseult, Marcella, Katherine, Hannah, Nat, Caroline and Penny, Happy International Women's Day.

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Now I find myself working with far fewer women than I am used to. When working at Women's Aid I was surrounded by amazing women. Their sole purpose was the advancement of women, staff and survivors. I would never have made it without my boss Sara Ward. She knocked off my edges, loved me, propelled me and placed the stepping stones in front of me to eventually leave her for a fancy life in London. Fewer bosses invest as much, sacrifice as much, or give as much of a toss. I owe her so much. I hope to ape this model for Sophie and Amrita, who work with me. They deserve the benefit of my networks, my capital, my support. Chances are, if you receive an email from me it's one of them who sent it. They deserves a piece of my success, they helped to build it.

Westminster is a tougher gig. Politics is naturally competitive. The walls of the Commons are lined with "look at me" wallpaper and carpeted with jealousy. Not if you are a Labour woman. If you are a Labour woman you join the "you bloody well better be as good as you can be" sorority. Within weeks of arriving in Westminster Margaret Hodge, Harriet Harman, Baroness Corston, Fiona MacTaggart, Heidi Alexander, Gisela Stuart and Meg Hillier sat me down over a cuppa and told me how they would help me be marvellous. The women in the PLP cheer when another speaks. When I fall over or stand strong, text messages flood in from Alison McGovern, Shabana Mahmood, Stella Creasey, Yvette Cooper, Kate Green, Lucy Powell, Gloria de Piero, Diana Johnson, Kezia Dugdale, Caroline Flint, Jenny Chapman and many more. The women of the 2015 intake, each and every one, pushes their sisters forward, offers help and advice and delights in each other's successes. There are more new women than there are new men, We know we are standing on the shoulders of those who went before, we won't let them down.

So yes, we might get beaten and abused more often. Yes we still don't have hardly any of the top jobs and get paid less. It's crap that caring responsibilities still mostly fall to us and our razors and deodorant cost more. But my god I'm glad to be a woman.
It was twelve years ago, in my capacity as the then shadow secretary of state for international development, that I travelled to Burma for the first time. That visit marked the beginning of my own personal commitment to that country, and my admiration for the woman many considered its rightful leader-in-exile, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

I did not enter that country on a visa, visit the cities or meet with government officials as would usually be the case during such a trip. Instead I visited internally displaced Karen peoples in the jungles across the border from Thailand, and Karen and Karenni refugees on the Thai side of the border. I heard stories of unimaginable brutality, met parents who had seen their children killed in front of them, and heard survivors tell of the most excruciating cruelty. One man described how he had been tortured all night and hung upside down, his body swinging repeatedly against a pillar; others had endured agonising water torture. Rape was routinely used as a weapon of war, compulsory relocation was a fact of life and human mine-sweepers were commonplace in a country suffering in the iron grip of a merciless military junta.

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Aung San Suu Kyi defied this evil for over quarter of a century. She was subject to repeated house arrest, separation from her husband and children and at least one assassination attempt, but remained resolute in her aim: to bring the principles of democracy, freedom and liberty to the people of Burma. As she said in 1997, "Those of us who decided to work for democracy in Burma made our choice in the conviction that the danger of standing up for basic human rights in a repressive society was preferable to the safety of a quiescent life in servitude."

Few of us, I suggest, would have demonstrated Suu Kyi's courage, and it is simply incredible that this courage continued to manifest itself, unwaveringly, for so long, and even in spite of the fact that the dream of freedom - both hers and her country's - often seemed unlikely to be realised.

By the time Suu Kyi addressed both of our Houses of Parliament on 21 June 2012, there was cause for optimism. She had, along with 42 of her National League for Democracy (NLD) colleagues, been elected to the Burmese parliament. She used part of her speech - as inspiring an address as I can recall hearing - to appeal for assistance from the UK Parliament. In responding to this appeal, the House of Commons agreed to provide a programme of research support in the Burmese Hluttaw, and this was later broadened to include committee assistance. This was not about telling the Burmese how to run their country or forcing them to model their parliamentary mechanisms on ours. Rather, it was offering support to a nation trying, arguably for the first time, to establish its own democratic mechanisms.

Since then, thankfully, the people of Burma have spoken - spoken decisively against the brutal military junta that has terrorised them for decades and spoken unmistakably in favour of the fundamental change epitomised and espoused by Daw Suu. Whatever her title or particular office in the new government being formed, my earnest hope, shared I am sure by countless millions around the world, is that Daw Suu will be in the driving seat. That will be hugely to the advantage of all of her people, women and men alike, who suffered too much for too long with too little done to mitigate their plight. They now enjoy the prospect of freedom thanks to the unwavering leadership of the most courageous woman of our times.

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To mark International Women's Day, Action Aid and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association are holding an event in the State Rooms of Speaker's House. I suspect that it will be both a celebratory and an aspirational event. Much progress has been made with respect to women's rights and representation globally, but there is still much more that we can do. One in three women is still the victim of violence in her lifetime, and some attitudes still prevail - even in Britain - which, if they do not explicitly facilitate such abuse, do little to challenge it.

It is not, nor should it be, the responsibility of women alone to fix a world that so often acts to their detriment. But, on International Women's Day, the work of fearless and determined women such as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi inspires millions around the world who are striving against oppression and for justice, equality and freedom.
Camille is a little Pekingese-mix dog with saucer-huge brown eyes. Gentle and kind, he was obviously someone's pet for the first few years of his life. Pekingese dogs are a firmly established part of Chinese heritage dating back to the time of the emperors - beloved companions of their masters and revered in the palaces. How, in August 2015, he came to be in a cage on the back of a truck bound for slaughter, with over 300 other dogs big and small, we will never know.

Was he stolen? Or was he sold into the dog meat trade - a cruel industry where over 10 million dogs and cats each year are brutally tortured for food and fur?

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NoToDogMeat is our UK charity founded in 2013 with the special aim of rescuing dogs from the dog meat trade and ultimately to completely end the trade along with its inescapable cruelty. Last year in August I visited China again and was accompanied by our charity trustee Robert Donkers.

In China activists have been recording each rescue as a number derived from the date it occurs - for example #710 is 10th of July. In 2015, rescues #809 and #816 happened days apart in the scorching summer heat of Beijing. This meant volunteer resources and temporary holding yards for housing the rescued dogs were stretched to the limit.

These yards - which are rented on a short-term basis - have to be stocked with necessary medical supplies and partitioned with makeshift fencing to separate large from small dogs and males from females. Volunteers sleep outside keeping watch over the severely dehydrated and often injured dogs by flashlight, to make sure they are not stolen by angry traders keen to recover their merchandise.

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Rescue #809 - Camille is in the centre blue cage, his face towards the camera.

Despite the basic conditions and apparent chaos there is great camaraderie among these Chinese activists. Many of them are students and young professionals wanting to make a difference. This was the scene Robert and I encountered in the early hours of the morning as we arrived at the first base to help with the #816 survivors during our trip to China last year.

Our visit later that day to #809 yard near Daxing another hour away was particularly heartbreaking as it was feared distemper had broken out meaning the entire rescue could be in vain. Knowing how hard the activists had worked to secure release of these poor souls - packed tightly in cages on their way to slaughter - we needed to do more than just help out on the ground. We needed to find a way to move at least some of the dogs to safety.

Activists appealed to all shelters and to us to help them divide up the hundreds of rescued dogs and we agreed to help fund the much needed vaccinations and immediate medical needs of over 140 of them. These dogs were entrusted to Mr Zhao, a kind-hearted rescuer who has devoted his life to saving dogs and lives with his wife in two small rooms at his own yard north of Beijing. It was at this shelter two days later in the sunshine I am pictured saying hello to Camille again - this time without the cage.

With Camille at Mr Zhao's shelter

At their new 'home' (for the time-being), the sickest of the dogs had been marked on the head in purple - signifying they had tested positive with distemper. It was sad being with them in the yard, seeing their fur matted, mostly skin and bone, yet still so friendly and trusting. Many of the dogs - especially the larger ones - could barely move as disease raged through them. As a small charity with only the beginnings of an international adoption process in place we knew we had neither the financial resources nor manpower to place them all at an animal hospital - where they would stand a real chance of survival - so we were faced with making the heart-rending decision of who to take and who to leave.

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We agreed with Mr Zhao that we would help fund a new quarantine facility and pay for as much general care as we could and, with heavy hearts, chose several small dogs to take with us to Beijing Hospital - and one of them was Camille.

Sure enough, Camille's blood work said the disease distemper had taken hold and for the next month we hoped and prayed for him to pull through as he fought for his life. In the end our prayers were answered and he made it despite the odds, as did our other dogs -but still they all needed to be kept in isolation. Our friends at TACN could not host them at their shelter but, instead, helped us find a wonderful small and inexpensive boarding kennel and we set the ball rolling on a process to bring Camille and his brothers back to Europe.

All smiles as Xiaoli picks up Camille to take to the airport

Unlike adoptions to America where, after just 10 days, a dog can often fly to his new home with only basic vaccinations, the process of bringing dogs into Europe can last over 3 months and involves multiple vaccinations and rigorous blood testing. We were happy to be patient knowing our rescues would be well-fed and able to rest from the disease and trauma.

Only one dog can travel with one passenger at any given time and last week, as we were preparing our own trip to go back to go back to China, we received wonderful news that at last a kind Chinese journalist had agreed to bring Camille to Paris! He arrived late on March 2nd greeted by our charity's mascot Samoyeds and, as you can see from the photos, has quickly settled in.

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Camille's first visit to the vet in Paris.

Camille still has a terrible skin condition for which he has started treatment - this was aggravated by the lack of quality food in China where there are no controls on animal food content. We are confident he will make a full recovery and be part of our campaign team! He has such a gentle spirit and shows no sign of aggression. If he is traumatised he hides it well - perhaps he knows his dark days are now behind him.

Having personally seen unbearable cruelty in the last 6 years, and never really knowing what happens to the dogs we have helped rescue, it feels good to have this one dog in my arms. Camille is the first of the Chinese dogs that we know of to come off the trucks and be on his way through Europe to the UK. With further support from donors we hope he will be one of many and we can continue to work with activists in China and beyond who, like us, believe eating man's best friend has no place in this millennium. It is time for the annual slaughter of dogs and cats for food and fur to end. If you would like to find out more about our work please visit www.notodogmeat.com or follow us on social media www.facebook.com/NoToDogMeat . In my next report, I will be back in China with further news of the continuing rescue efforts.

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Find out how to help rescued Chinese dogs with NoToDogMeat buy-a-bag scheme by clicking here.

You can also donate by texting BARK to 70770
International Women's Day is an important opportunity to reflect on where we are in our fight for gender equality in the UK, in Europe and around the world.

For those of us facing the UK referendum on EU membership this June, it is also extremely important to reflect on how much the EU has done, and continues to do, to promote women's rights and gender equality.

Since being elected as an MEP in 2014, I have been heavily involved in promoting the cause of gender equality within the European Parliament and beyond, most notably as an active member within the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee.

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For women and men and persons of all gender identities who care about equality and social justice, guaranteeing rights and advancing equality is one more crucial reason that the UK must remain a member of the European Union, and lead the way towards a more equal Europe.

Gender equality is one of the core values of the European Union, and this was enshrined in its founding treaties. Throughout its history, the EU has been a progressive force advancing women's rights, non-discrimination, as well as LGBTI rights.

From its foundation, the EU pushed for employers to pay men and women equal wages for equal work, paid maternity and paternity leave. EU laws on return to work have meant that a woman's job must be held open so she can return to work without loss of status or pay. Many older women will remember the days when getting pregnant meant losing your job.

In previous mandates, Labour MEPs worked to secure rights for agency workers, which led to a European directive. More than half of agency workers are women, and now, due to EU legislation, agency workers now have more clearly defined rights. This means better access to childcare and the same rights as permanent staff, including pay and holidays.

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The EU also guarantees equal rights to a pension. Pensioner poverty is a real problem for women many who have been excluded from company pension schemes because they took breaks to have children or because they worked part time. EU law now prevents discrimination and guarantees equal rights for all social security benefits.

The EU also works constantly on combatting violence against women. The European Protection Order is in place to protect victims, such as women who have suffered domestic abuse, across Europe. Those who have already been granted protection in one EU country, through a restraining order, for example, have similar protection if they move to another EU country.

Together with my Socialist and Democratic colleagues in the European Parliament's Gender Equality Committee, I have been working hard to push for more political action on VAWG at both EU and Member State level, and now finally our persistence has paid off. On March 4th 2016 the European Commission announced that it will finally propose ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the international treaty aimed at combatting VAWG.

This broad range of EU legislation, adopted democratically among Member State governments and the European Parliament has positively affected the life of every woman and man in the UK and across Europe. They are intended to establish a firm social dimension to the Common Market, agreeing on common high standards, so as to avoid Member States violating citizens' rights for big-business gains.

In the March 2016 plenary session, to mark International Women's Day, the European Parliament voted on a report which I have co-authored on advancing a gender equality perspective across all of the European Parliament's decision-making. One of the important innovations of the European Union is 'gender mainstreaming' - which means taking a gender perspective in all policy areas and legislation, across all sectors and at all levels. This is yet another important step in our common struggle, for women's rights and true gender equality.

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The commitment to gender representation is reflected in the make-up of EU Parliamentarians. In the European Parliament 35% of members are women - much higher than the UK Parliament at 29%. Among Labour MEPs the statistics are even better, as 55% of our MEPs are women.

A gender perspective is not always obvious in the policy-making process, unless we make it explicit. For example, austerity policies and cuts to public services have a tendency to negatively impact women more than men.

I have also co-authored a report on the inclusion of gender-equality in anti-poverty policy, to make sure the exclusion of women, and LGBTI persons, and the obstacles they face are addressed. Austerity policy has impacted women disproportionately, and this is something we rarely take into account. My report, which will be is set to be voted on during the April plenary, seeks therefore to highlight the phenomena of the feminisation of poverty.

Take another issue which is in the headlines - during the ongoing refugee crisis, 55% of the refugees that have come to Europe are women and children. They require specific concerns to be addressed, such as protection from violence, proper sanitation, and access to health and education. The Parliament will be adopting another resolution on the situation of women refugees this session, co-authored by Labour MEP colleague, Mary Honeyball.

With a fresh commitment to advancing gender equality in its work and a striving to increase representation of women in decision-making, we hope for the European Parliament to set a global model of best practice.

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The EU is an important platform for us to advance equality between men and women, and LGBTI persons in the UK and across the world. There's no doubt the UK, and British women and girls in particular, would lose out enormously if it were to step away. Now is the time for women and men to get engaged in the debate, to understand what is at stake, and to make sure that the UK remains an active member of the EU, leading the way towards an ever more equal Europe.
There have been big victories in the battle for women's rights. Here in Britain we've made enormous progress in the last 150 years since the MP John Stuart Mill first tried to get Parliament to give women the same political rights as men.

But let's be clear: it's all still taking far too long. The pace of change has not been fast enough - and that's what we need to keep at the forefront of our minds this International Women's Day if we are to achieve the acceleration in progress for women that we want and so badly need.

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Across the world girls' opportunities in life are curtailed long before they reach adulthood, simply because they are a girl. That's just plain wrong. I believe women's rights are the greatest unmet human challenge of our times, but I also passionately believe it's a challenge we can meet in the coming years.

Since taking on the role of International Development Secretary in 2012, I have made it my priority to transform the lives of the poorest girls and women around the world. It truly is at the heart of anything my Department does and while there is undoubtedly a long way to go until we have true equality, I am incredibly proud of what we've achieved, working alongside others, so far.

In 2014 we held the first ever Girl Summit event in London, aimed at ending child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) within a generation. Since then six countries with high levels of child marriage; Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Yemen and Zambia, have begun action to end this serious violation of human rights. The UK is providing 25 million to drive these changes forward and is helping to strengthen the law across countries where child marriage is most prevalent, with the potential to reach around 2.5 million girls at risk.

Last May, Nigeria took the historic step of banning FGM, followed in November by The Gambia. Egypt and Kenya already have laws in place and are now upping their game to ensure they lead to more arrests, which can act as a vital deterrent. FGM is nothing short of an extreme form of violence against women and girls and the UK has pledged 35million to support the fight against this terrible practice.

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I am proud that the UK has been able to play a role in making sure these issues are now being talked about and being dealt with, shining a light on what remain difficult issues. It is just as important that over the last five years we have enabled almost 10 million additional women to use modern methods of family planning and supported more than five million births with the help of trained medical professionals.

One of the most important things we can do for any young person is to educate them. The UK has helped over five million girls get a decent education in the last five years through training 190,000 teachers, building classrooms and ensuring the poorest girls and boys have school bursaries and textbooks. But this is still not enough - over the next five years we will help 6.5 million more girls go to school, stay in school and learn. This will lead to higher wages and more opportunities, as well as meaning they're less likely to marry young and have children early. An education transforms a girl's life.

Quite simply, no country can develop if it leaves half of its population behind. Investing in girls' education, reproductive health, women's economic empowerment and tackling violence is one of the best strategies for eradicating poverty and boosting economies - including our own in the UK. Girls and women everywhere need control over their lives - the power to make their own choices about their health, their marriage, their family, their education and their careers. That is why we will continue to put improving the lives of girls and women at the heart of everything we do.

It took sixty years after John Stuart Mill's petition to Parliament for women to get the vote here in Britain. In this century let's turbocharge the pace of change on girls and women's rights. Women and the world cannot afford to wait.

Justine Greening is the Secretary of State for International Development, and Conservative MP for Putney

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It's a bloody outrage. European women are paying tax on products they need to use every month when they have their period. This is why, inspired by the End Tampon Tax campaign, I am using International Women's Day to launch a campaign at EU level for a VAT exemption on sanitary products.

Many will be aware of Laura Coryton's petition which has been signed by over 300,000 women and men to demand that the Treasury axe an 'outdated and overtly sexist tax'.

VAT is a sales tax charged at different rates depending on how essential products are deemed to be. Many items considered essential are either zero rated or exempted. Food products are an obvious case in point, although the list also includes baby clothes, cycle helmets and incontinence pads. Surely tampons, sanitary towels and mooncups should also be considered as essential purchases? Or is the government suggesting that women choose to have periods or should manage them without sanitary products?

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As well as exemptions and zero-rated tax, there is also a reduced VAT rate on certain products. When Britain first joined the EU in 1973, the then Labour government agreed to a 17.5% VAT rate on such products. Following extensive lobbying by Labour MP Dawn Primarolo in 2000, this was eventually reduced to 5%.

The Tories have always sought to absolve themselves of responsibility for the tax on sanitary products by waving their arms in the direction of Brussels. It is true that the VAT Directive only allows the UK to lower the VAT rate to 5%, not to 0%.

However, when the VAT Directive was last negotiated in Brussels in 1991, the UK Tory government asked for a long list of exemptions. Crucially this did not include sanitary products, even though the EU Commission has always said it would be 'perfectly reasonable' for the tampon tax to form part of the negotiation with Britain.

Furthermore, an attempt by Labour to amend last autumn's finance Bill, which would have forced the government to open negotiations with the EU on exempting sanitary products, was defeated. Just three Tory MPs supported the amendment. This is one of many examples where national government inaction is conveniently blamed on the EU.

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But a new window of opportunity has opened: the VAT Directive is going to be changed. The Commission is soon to release an Action Plan and national governments, businesses and the public will be consulted. The review will consider whether to grant national governments greater autonomy in rate-setting and whether to allow for exemptions, zero rates and super-reduced rates in a revised VAT regime.

As I will be working on the VAT review as part of my role on the Economics Committee, there is a real chance to build renewed momentum behind a Europe-wide VAT exemption for tampons, towels and mooncups. However, such an agreement will require the support of all 28 EU member states. So now is the time to support my efforts and shout out for bleedin' change!

Cashing in on women's menstrual cycles is just one way in which tax systems around the world discriminate against women. VAT is being used to bolster government revenues that have been lost as a result of globalisation and individual and corporate tax dodging. Men are more likely to accumulate wealth, own property, and be CEOs and shareholders, so any preferential tax treatment of capital disproportionately favours men.

A further response by governments to reduced tax revenues is of course to implement cuts to the public sector and public services, which evidence suggests impacts disproportionally on women.
photo: D R Hood via Likely Story

Award-winning film-maker D R Hood took time out of her busy schedule raising money for her latest feature to chat to me about being a director and screenwriter. I have had the pleasure of working with Hood as an actor on a number of her projects and as a director, Hood has an astounding ability to direct the actor in what feels like a partnership between the two. I felt less like I was being told what to do and more that we were discovering together, which is a gift for an actor. Hood's first film Wreckers - complete with an all-star cast, was called "a debut which changed the face of British cinema" by Artificial Eye. After D R Hood's stunning debut I couldn't wait to find out about this new feature: This Family.

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Still from D R Hood's debut feature Wreckers, Likely Story

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you are up to right now?

I am a filmmaker; I have made many short films and my first feature Wreckers with Benedict Cumberbatch, Shaun Evans and Claire Foy, came out a few years ago. Now I am prepping my new film This Family, about grown up children and their parents. Last year we decided to start making the film in fragments, using landscapes, old slides and cinefootage to build up a sort of 'documentary of the soul' for the main character Owen - and now we are running a Kickstarter campaign so that we can complete casting and film the core drama. We have Diana Quick attached as the matriarch, Marianne, in the extended family of characters, and Rob Sheehan attached as the younger brother, Danny, and the fantastic Sinead Matthews, who is a brilliant theatre actress, as Auntie Anna. We are about to go and find our Owen and the rest of the ensemble!

photo: actor Diana Quick via Likely Story

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photo: actor Robert Sheehan via Likely Story

What's your most memorable moment as a director?

There are so many memorable in an amazing way and in a more testing way as well. We are building our new film out of rehearsal techniques, and some of the moments I have experienced as director in rehearsal are incredibly enlightening and help you visualise the film as it develops. I don't usually rehearse the actual script but I do explore the relationships with the actors. I remember on one of our shorts the actors doing an improvisation using barbie dolls as their children, which was visually quite extraordinary and compelling. I also remember hearing Benedict Cumberbatch bring to life one particular line in a reading of Wreckers that somehow made sense of the whole script - I think for him as well as for me. I thought, that's the key to the story right there, then it helps you make the film. It's amazing to watch when you see actors 'get it'. More testingly, there have been moments where you know you don't have time to shoot what you want and then you have to make really hard choices very quickly, or if you are not managing to communicate successfully with an actor about a particular moment.

What's your pet hate as a screenwriter?

It's not actually a pet hate, it's more a pet love/hate: in Game of Thrones I love it whenever they have a massive chunk of exposition or plot to get through they just put it in the brothel and have some girl on girl action going on behind the character who's doing all the talking.

photo: This Family inspiration via Likely Story

What is your favourite moment in the This Family screenplay?

I love it all of course, but actually I think some of the smaller moments will be the really magical ones. Family life in my experience is about a chain of un-finished moments, stuff going on in corridors and people being interrupted in bathrooms and talking about food and life just unfolding, and there's a lot of that in the script before we get to the bigger revelations.

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Who is your favourite character in This Family?

There are ten of them and I love them all. Every character is the most important one. The 'point of view' character is Owen but all the other characters have their own moments, sometimes private and not with the rest of the family. Lots of the family are very talkative but I have a special soft spot for Uncle Brian who says almost nothing but who holds the key to the depths of the film in a way.

photo: a ghostly presence, inspiration for This Family via Likely Story

Why do you need to make this film?

Families are everything. Wreckers was about life in a small community and for years I wanted to communicate something about that, having grown up in a village. Now it's families and growing up. Simple subjects but important ones to me. Also, I think it's a film that will last over time and will really explore family history, and even touch on wider history in a way that I think will last. We're also making it in a very unconventional way, so if you're attracted to films that last beyond the year that they're made and which are a little bit left field, and films about families, then this one is for you.
Today we will celebrate International Women's Day. The theme this year sets us a challenge as well as a deadline.

Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up For Gender Equality.

As women make up approximately half of the world's population, gender equality seems only fair, doesn't it?

Can we do it?

In the late 19th century, the demand for the woman's right to vote began with the suffragette movement in the UK. The crusade swept through many countries, fuelling the call for more women's rights throughout the Western world. In 1909, the Socialist Party of America organised the first International Women's Day (IWD) in New York City to honour the 1908 women's strike against appalling working conditions in a garment factory.

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Since the first IWD, we have come a long way. Today more women hold positions of power; they are more visible in the boardroom, in politics and in the professional workforce. More girls and young women are educated and make their own decisions about their futures. This is cause for great celebration. We have made a difference.

But these accomplishments, though highly significant, do not point to consistent and international gender equality. They do not embrace us all. All over the world, girls are still married off as children or trafficked into forced labour and sex slavery. In many places women are seen as a commodity like livestock, to be sold or traded. They often meet with horrific violence in their own homes. In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive. They are made to stand in lines separated from men in restaurants and cafes. They are forbidden to leave their homes without a male chaperone. They have been denied some of the most basic rights to choose.

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And so our struggle continues to offer women the freedom to control their own destinies, to live without fear and to be respected for their intellect, wisdom, ideas and humour. We fight to combat inequality in pay, healthcare and education, and we battle discrimination and violence toward women and girls. We strive to give all women - from all cultures and countries - the right to be equal citizens of the world.

As I am of Bangladeshi heritage, I feel strongly for the plight of South Asian women.

Recently, in Bangladesh, a 22-year-old pregnant woman was brutally murdered by her husband of seven months. His rage was fuelled by the fact that her dowry was not large enough to sustain his pleasures. He beat and stabbed her while his family stood by. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. Stories like this are very common, but as a woman is seen as belonging to a husband, justice is often not served when she is subjected to abuse.

So how can we create gender equality by 2030?

We can learn about the history of women's rights and the purpose behind IWD. We can celebrate the lives of the suffragettes and the activists who helped us get to where we are.

We can also become more informed about the plight of women all over the world. The statistics of rape and violence against women are outrageous. We can find out more about discrimination in and out of the workplace as well as in and out of our own culture and country.

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We can also donate to women's causes, domestically or abroad, or volunteer at a women's shelter, getting to know and reach out to women seeking refuge from poverty or abuse.

We can continue the conversation and speak out for the women of the world.

So on Tuesday 8th March this year, let's remember the long journey we have taken to get to where we are today. Let's celebrate our victories and remember the women who have given their lives to champion women - all women.

But let's also look past the successes and continue the journey toward a truly equal world, where men and women are not the same, but they are equal - where differences are respected and applauded and we work together to create a peaceful and powerful planet.
Mums matter to everyone, even to a potential James Bond! Many fine actors have played James Bond. My personal favorite was Roger Moore, who for me was the quintessential English spy that as a boy I always imagined Bond to be! Sean Connery came close, but for me never quite had the sense of irony that I felt Moore captured.

The author Ian Fleming originally created Bond as someone far more sinister than the charismatic character played by Moore, so maybe the role now played by Daniel Craig is closer to its originators vision? Craig is without doubt a very fine actor so makes a great Bond.

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In my opinion there is another actor, now dead unfortunately, who would have certainly made a brilliant Bond had he been young enough at the time, and that was Cary Grant. Without doubt Grant had the looks, acting talent, and presence, to have made the role his own.

Originally from Bristol in the UK, Archibald Leach renamed himself Cary Grant and metamorphosed into the biggest movie star of his day. He appeared in many famous big budget movies, including North by North West, and To Catch A Thief. Today he would be right up there with Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio or George Clooney. It is said that women would faint when they met Grant in person such were his looks and charm.

The hugely successful and iconic actor visited Bristol from his California home whenever he could, but not for the reasons you might think! There is a side to Grants life which is tinged with great sadness. It is the story of his mother, Elsie Leach, who was committed to Bristol's Lunatic Asylum in 1913.

Cary was only nine years old at the time. He was told that his mother had gone on a long holiday! As the years passed he assumed she had died. He was 31 and established in Hollywood, when he was informed his mother was still alive and incarcerated in an Asylum. He flew immediately to Heathrow and drove straight to Bristol in the Rolls Royce he kept in London.

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Grants father, Elias, who was an alcoholic, had had her admitted to Bristol's asylum later known as Glenside Hospital. It was a secure facility for the mentally ill. Today, you can still see the imposing pennant stone building, now housing students, as part of the history of the old Asylum. Elsie's story is told in the patient's chapel by Glenside Hospital Museum.

Grant met his mother, who was sane, but unstable, and somewhat institutionalised. He negotiated with the authorities for her immediate release, firstly taking her to a hotel, and then he found her a nursing home in Bristol where she lived out her remaining years in relative happiness knowing that her hugely famous son loved her and was covering all the bills. He visited her most years, travelling from his Los Angeles home to do so, which always got the staff and residents of the Care Home excited, as you might imagine. It would be like George Clooney turning up today at your local hospital to see his mum. It might cause a stir don't you think?

In those days many people were admitted to mental asylums for things that a GP would deal with today. Some then found themselves in a system that they just couldn't escape from and spent their entire lives in hospital. The understanding of mental illness was in its infancy and GPs keen to help would enforce electric shock treatments and lobotomies.

All of this is sinister enough to become a future Bond movie? Think 'Norman Bates' in the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'Psycho' but very definitely on steroids! Perhaps Bond could be incarcerated there by 'Dr Fear' when visiting his old mum? Just in case any producers are reading this I'm up for that part!

Seriously though it's a shame that Cary Grant was too old to play the part of James Bond by the time Fleming created the character. Benedict Cumberbatch the current star of the TV series 'Sherlock' might be a good choice when Daniel Craig hangs up his gun?

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If you're a tourist (or perhaps a movie producer) doing some research a visit to Glenside Hospital Museum in Bristol would be worth it. It's very easy to get there by train or car and makes an interesting couple of hours. I found it fascinating.
I am proud to come from New Zealand, the first self-governing country in the world in which women gained the right to vote in 1893. More recently, New Zealand was also the first democracy to have all key Government roles fulfilled by women, e.g. Prime Minister, Chief Justice and Governor General. I also come from a long tradition of strong women and I feel I owe it to my courageous and heroic forebears to do all that I can to stand tall and true in my own life.

So, on International Women's Day (IWD) 2016, this amazing and inspiring celebration of women worldwide that has been observed for over 100 years, I want to let other women know about how mindfulness has transformed my life over the past thirty years, and how it can transform their lives as well, which is why I decided to write 'Mindfulness for Women'.

As I worked on the book I realised that for me personally, many of the themes stemmed from pride in my NZ heritage as a woman. I also came to see it as a tribute to all the wonderful and gutsy women who have populated my life, from my grandmother, my numerous leggy and confident aunts, my mother and my three amazing sisters; to the key friendships formed in my all-girls high school and the women's Buddhist communities that I have been involved with for decades. Many of these friendships are still going strong today.

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I have met women who have achieved incredible things. I am not just talking about careers or outward achievements, but women who in very difficult circumstances - whether illness, pain or other life situations - have managed to create a satisfying and joyful life for themselves through practising mindfulness and the associated qualities of kindness and compassion. This is why I am deeply passionate about women being able to use mindfulness to fulfil their potential.

At school in New Zealand in the seventies, girls were encouraged to dream big and to understand that obstacles were there to be overcome. At that time I was super-fit. I adored the mountains and wilderness and my dream was to be a wildlife ranger. But there was a hitch. The New Zealand Wildlife Service didn't employ women but I wasn't going to be deterred. At 15 years old I went to see a Director at their Head Office and asked what I would have to do to convince him to employ me. He told me to get a very good qualification, which was when I decided to become a veterinary surgeon in the knowledge that this would be the ideal skill to have when working with the magnificent creatures I would be living amongst in the mountains and the sea.

You may know my story and how this wasn't to be as I seriously injured my spine when I was 16. It was devastating to lose that particular dream. But the conditioning of being told "you can do anything as a woman" had a huge impact on me and gave me the courage and confidence to found Breathworks - an international mindfulness organisation - many years later.

I was happy to co-write Mindfulness for Women with a journalist, Claire Irvin, a dynamic magazine editor with her finger on the pulse of many of the issues facing modern women. Claire's experience will also resonate with many readers: like many younger women she juggles a full-on career with bringing up her two small children. She has to balance countless demands and organise her life with military precision.

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To Claire, mindfulness and meditation were initially just more things to add to the never-ending 'to-do' list. But, as we worked together, Claire became increasingly curious about mindfulness and decided to keep a practice diary. This has become an integral part of the book and I am sure many women will relate to Claire's experience of initial resistance followed by genuine excitement as she began to reap the fruits of taking time each day to stop and get to know her own mind and heart. Also essential to this book are our moving and gritty case studies of women who have found mindfulness, sometimes in the most harrowing of circumstances.

My wish is for women from all walks of life to read the book and discover that inner peace is only a breath away. To find self-belief and to stand tall as they go about their lives. Most of all, my wish is that we recognise how we are continually shaping the world with our thoughts and actions and that, with the help of mindfulness, we can become positive agents of change and transformation in the world. This is what IWD is all about: women believing in themselves and other women and campaigning to make the world a better place for women living today as well as future generations.

You can read extracts here and here:
As the MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston, I have met many fascinating and brilliant constituents. But today on International Women's Day, one in particular stands out. Her name is Tasleem Mulhall - a force of nature and an inspiration.

Tasleem was born in Yemen but now lives in London. While still a teenager, Tasleem's parents took her out of education; beat her and tried to force her to marry a stranger more than twice her age. Instead, Tasleem ran away and became homeless until she was eventually spotted by a kindly stranger, who took her in. And it is this oppressive background that makes her such an impressive ambassador for Freedom Charity, an organisation that prides itself on saving young children from forced marriage.

Tasleem has forged a life of her own, rising above the most appalling of circumstances.

But sadly Tasleem's case is far from unique.

An astonishing one in three Londoners encounter harassment or violence simply because they are born female. This violence ranges from the barbaric horrors of Forced Marriage and FGM through to the domestic violence, sexual abuse and common assault.

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What all these crimes have in common is that they often take place behind closed doors, by the very family members the victim has trusted to keep them safe. And they affect women of all ages, incomes and ethnicities. These crimes often seem invisible. But that makes it even more important they are addressed.

If I am elected as Mayor of London on the 5 May, I will make tackling these crimes a priority.

First, I will be on the side of the victim. I will insist that police, prosecutors and teachers all have the training they need to spot women and girls at risk, that they handle these cases with the utmost care and sensitivity, and that they don't fall for the myths and stereotypes which often conspire against action.

Second, I want every woman in London to have the confidence they need to report these crimes. To ensure that happens, I will carry out a London-wide 'Know your Rights' campaign, in multiple languages. I want women of all ages and backgrounds to understand that violence and coercion are not acceptable - and that we will support them to become free of their abusive partners.

As part of this commitment, I will work with local authorities to fund more specialist support services for communities where women and girls are more likely to face FGM or forced marriage. I am clear that this is not a cultural issue that is best left unaddressed behind closed doors. It is a child abuse issue. Perpetrators should feel the full force of the law and victims should be given our full support.

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Third, I will make it as easy and painless as possible for vulnerable young women to find help and support, wherever they live in London.

Boris has quadrupled the provision of Rape Crisis Centres; backed three emergency Haven centres for victims of sexual assault and also funded independent Domestic Violence advocates in every borough.

I will maintain that funding and also work with Government to provide further support, particularly for women's refuges. Where possible, I will work with local organisations on the ground, who are plugged into the local community, and can give women they know the helping hand they need at the moment they are ready to take it.

Fourth, I will work with the police and the justice system to drive up conviction rates. Currently, just one in ten domestic abusers are successfully convicted - and it is appalling that there has never been a successful prosecution for FGM.

So I will ensure police officers wear body-worn cameras when attending crime scenes in order to gather the best possible evidence.

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I will work with the Met, the NHS and the Crown Prosecution Service to co-locate specialist police and legal teams in London's emergency Havens in order to gather the best possible evidence in order to support the prosecution process.

And I will lobby the Government to put the needs of women and girls at the heart of the justice system. Vulnerable victims deserve access to timely justice, rather than a drawn out ordeal. As Mayor, I will campaign for the Ministry of Justice to prioritise domestic and sexual violence as they go through the courts.

Finally, Government needs to get much tougher on the violent offenders who carry out these crimes. Men who receive court orders banning them from family home should have a GPS tag fitted as standard - and sent to prison immediately if they breach it.

And all violent offenders should be forced to attend specialist prevention programmes as condition of bail. All too often, the weight of the law is not enough to stop offenders. Their moral compass is broken and needs to be fixed.

London is a great city, but I want it be a great city - and a safe city - for everyone. That's why tackling violence against women and girls will be a defining issue of my mayoralty.

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Rare Birds

Each year on International Womens Day we inevitably shine the spotlight on women of all ages and backgrounds who are doing extraordinary things.

For entrepreneur Jo Burston, every day is International Womens Day. Through her platform Rare Birds, Burstons vision is to achieve a global community of 1 million women entrepreneurs by 2020, and shes continually gathering women in business, telling their stories and building a community that shares information and resources.

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And the community globally is growing. Women control more wealth than ever before and run 34 percent of small businesses in Australia -- a number thats increasing.

We asked Burston, also the publisher of entrepreneur profile book #IFSHECANICAN, to share her tips for 10 women to keep an eye on this year and her list is very philanthropic. Many of the women here are social entrepreneurs, who use their businesses to make a difference in the world.

I think that we have had so much focus recently on the wonderful and brilliant tech entrepreneurs of Australia and some of the bricks and mortar businesses that I think we need to focus on the up and coming and existing social entrepreneurs that shape social and economic outcomes for Australia both now and in the future, she told The Huffington Post Australia.

These women have what I call a profitable smart heart -- they are thinking like entrepreneurs and running serious businesses and while some of them are not for profit, some of them are for profit and I think thats a very new model to take forward into the future thinking of how we are going to change the world.

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Burston says starting a company to make money to do some good in the world is an increasingly popular concept, particularly among younger generations, and 2016 is the best year yet for opportunities.

The perception was always that youre a not-for-profit or youre a commercial business and then this whole concept of social entrepreneurship evolved, she said. Its saying we want to make money, but we want to make money for good. The future movement, and particularly when I speak to millennials of Australia, is that they want to change the world and they want to create businesses that are profitable, but that also change the world.

1. Steph Lorenzo, Project Futures

This not-for-profit organisation has raised more than $3.2 million since 2009 to stop human trafficking and slavery by empowering individuals to take action in their communities.

I met Steph a few years ago and she was running a campaign called Stella Fella, she said. Here was this young, vibrant, passionate, charismatic entrepreneur who wants to change the world by stopping sexual slavery and modern-day slavery for adults in Australia.

She is incredibly smart. She is a commercial thinker but she knows how to exchange value and relationships to create good and whether thats financial or an exchange of goodwill or relationship building -- what she stands for is remarkable but I tell you that woman could sell ice to eskimos. She could probably do anything as an entrepreneur and she would be successful.

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Her level of self-assurance and self-ability makes her such an amazing role model for other young women and young boys to aspire to because she is so authentic and so genuine, and that just translates into everything that she does. I see that in all these women -- that authenticity shines through and thats what builds relationships.

Jo Burston says Steph Lorenzo could successfully do anything as an entrepreneur, but she's choosing to help end sexual slavery in the world.

Rosie OHalloran took a trip to Uganda on a whim while at university and wound up falling in love with the country -- but was despondent about the number of homeless children in Kabale, southern Uganda. So she set up a home for them called our place.

Despite her own misgivings about her abilities, O'Halloran has also gone on to set up the Institute for Global Women Leaders which develops leadership programs and encourages women globally to be leaders, businesswomen and changemakers.

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I see a lot of external communities which are a long way behind Australia from a social and economic perspective and the incremental amount of change that one person can make is enormous, Burston said.

Her education programs are in schools, so I think thats how she funds the change she wants to make in her Foundation, so its around education of westernised girls in leadership and she then takes that funding to transfer the learning to the Ugandan community.

For Rosie it is a learning curve. Rose is all heart and that big heart has a lot of sensitivity around it. If I was 21 and in Uganda and looking at what shes looked at I think Id be pretty culture shocked, to be honest.

Rosie O'Halloran is helping Ugandan women and children to thrive.

3. Justine Flynn, Thankyou

Justine Flynn, her husband Daniel Flynn and friend Jarryd Burns began selling bottled water in 2008 to give communities in developing nations access to clean drinking water. They expanded to body care and food products to fund sanitation and food delivery projects and recently announced their brand new ventures into New Zealand and the baby market.

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For me with Justine, she had a global vision from day one and I really admire that, Burston said. I think any entrepreneur who wants to change the whole world and not just their postcode and then goes about doing it is unique.

Her vision, capabilities and core strengths were pretty phenomenal from the start. A water crisis is a pretty real thing. Doing what she is doing, its a lifelong commitment to get there so its all in-all out mentality that she has to have to do it.

I think the partnerships that theyll form and the resonance they have with mainstream audience and everyday people and the resonance it has with the greater global community is incredibly strong so I cant see it going anywhere but forward. From my own entrepreneurial instinct as a person who likes to create impact, I think they will have a massive global impact.

Justine Flynn has an impressive all-in global vision, says Burston.

4. Layne Beachley, Aim for the Stars Foundation

Seven-time world surfing champion Layne Beachley is now giving back through her Foundation which offers scholarships, mentoring and support for young women in arts, business, science, environment and sport.

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Layne has got an incredibly social heart and she has a story that is really relevant to what she does, Burston said.

Her whole story has been a female in a very male-dominated sport where female prize money and sponsorship was never at the same level as what the guys were getting, even though she was the most successful surfer on the planet and had more world titles than Kelly Slater at one stage -- she was still earning a lot less money than the guys.

Her own story advocates what she is doing for young women. Through Aim For The Stars Foundation shes saying it doesnt matter if you want to be a ballerina or a scientist or an astronaut or an engineer, we are going to show you how to do that through our leadership program and then well get mentors to help you on your journey. I think that emulates her own journey of what would it have been like if someone had done that for her versus her literally doing it on her own.

Ive met a lot of the girls, one was a racing car driver, one was a professional martial artist who was taking a program into schools to show girls how to be self-defensive when they were out at night so it is really diverse. And that diversity is what Layne has really succeeded at doing.

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Surfing champion Layne Beachley offers scholarships to young women.

5. Jan Owen, Foundation for Young Australians

Jan Owen runs a foundation that delivers a range of programs -- which are codesigned with young people rather than developed for them -- to empower youth, foster great ideas and events such as the Unleashed Festival and create opportunities that result in social change across Australia.

Shes such a pioneer and one of the matriarchs in social entrepreneurship in Australia, Burston said. What she has dedicated in her life is pretty incredible.

"If you look at the young Australians that shes nurturing and are nurturing each other now through the sustainability of that program its pretty easy to see that the future entrepreneurs, inventors, social changemakers and leaders of Australia are coming from that source.

Jan Owen is a pioneer for social enterprise and a role model for many women entrepreneurs.

6. Rosie and Lucy Thomas, Project Rockit

Rosie and Lucy Thomas are sisters who saw the opportunity to create real social change by tackling the issue of bullying in school communities with their ever-expanding business, Project Rockit. They conduct workshops within schools and offer online anti-bullying programs too.

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I think they are phenomenal and I love how confident they are, I love that they have their own stories of bullying in school communities, I love that they are so non-judgemental and open-minded, confident, self-assured and have a really strong clear message for young people around anti-bullying and around cyber bullying, Burston said.

They equip young people to be able to handle the issues, because often we know the parents arent equipped to know how to handle technology or cyber bullying or even schoolyard bullying. They step in as a generation of Gen Y with a voice that resonates with that younger school-aged person who is perhaps going through those problems.

They are both really cool chicks. What they are doing is changing the script in the minds of young people at a grassroots level so we know that by the time these young people are going to be in the workforce or running their own business that mindset is already going to be different, and I think that changes the whole generation for the future.

Lucy Thomas, left, is fighting against school and cyber bulling with her sister Rosie, right, with their startup, Project Rockit.

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7. Tina Tower, Begin Bright

Tina Tower has created a huge franchise or early education centres to prepare children for school. She built her empire despite being told she had no head for business and by sacrificing her home life and disrupting her marriage. She also won the Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year Award in 2014.

For someone like Tina education is the key to freedom, and I believe that as well, Burston said. To get young people ready for school and form a love for solving problems and learning how to love learning is pretty hard.

I think to take something of that level and to have children, build a business and then push it into a franchise system -- I can only imagine the amount of work that it took her. She would have had a pretty tricky ride to get there. But over the other side of the hill she has launched 24 centres around Australia and that has happened in a short space of time, since 2011.

Theres room for growth this year. I think the space that shes in is really still undervalued in Australia and the market cap for it is really high.

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Tina Tower was told she had no business sense -- well, she's really showed them.

8. Le Ho, Capital City Waste Services

Le Ho is a Vietnamese refugee who took over a commercial waste management company for recyclables in Sydney and turned it into a multi-million dollar company with expansion plans to other states this year.

Les a really special woman to me because she came here as a migrant -- and we know now 30 percent of SMEs are either owned by migrants or children of migrants so we have a really high growth area there that we need to acknowledge, she said.

So for her to go through that by definition makes her tenacious. To take on a business that is male dominated but also go through the journey shes had to come and prosper in Australia, it makes me a proud Australian.

She has this attitude that she will never, ever give up. When she started with the business in 2010 she had just had a baby, and then she tackled a male-dominated industry with hardly any capital and she was running it from her car -- she didnt even have an office. Even when she was turning over $5 million she was still running it from her car.

Its a highly unusual industry but she saw an opportunity and she knew she could turn it around because of her tenaciousness and skills and attitude and thats exactly what she did.

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Vietnamese migrant Le Ho is kicking butt in a male-dominated industry.

9. Sasha Titchkosky, Koskela

Founder of Koskela, a Sydney furniture and artisan store that works with Indigenous artists in Australia and aspires to be carbon neutral.

Sasha knows business -- she is very commercially minded and very confident in business and she has this beautiful philanthropic softness that comes through and this big heart because she wants to make an impact, Burston said.

I know that Sasha understands where the furniture comes from, she knows the hands that are on it to make it, she knows the artisans, the craftspeople, where it comes from and how it gets to her and what the carbon expense is. Its really beautiful stuff and high quality and its all indigenous work that she promotes.

The fact that 85 percent of it has been independently certified by Good Environmental Choice Australia as being environmentally innovative is exceptional in Australia.

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For a furniture store to not only survive but thrive and grow and be recognised internationally from the perspective of the impact she has on the environment, the standards that she has in manufacturing and her commitment to being carbon neutral is really unique -- I have never come across a business like that in Australia in the furniture trade.

Sasha Titchkosky sells furniture made by Indigenous craftspeople.

10. Audette Excel, ADARA Group

ADARA Group consists of two Australian corporate advisory businesses whose sole purpose is to support its nonprofit international development organisation, Adara Development, working to improve health and education for women, children and communities in need.

Shes a legend, Burston said. Shes like Jan Owen, shes a pioneer on what she has done and she has an Order of Australia.

She was the previous Managing Director of The Bermuda Commercial Bank and was one of the youngest women in the world to have ever run a publicly traded bank before she founded ADARA group, so shes a woman who has come out of the highly corporate environment and knows how to do all the nuts and bolts of how to do business and then totally immersing herself and all of her energy into doing good.

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I think that happens as we become seasoned or serial entrepreneurs as well, that trend happens. I had my big time in my career and absolutely loved it and Ive been a corporate entrepreneur a couple of times over and then you just get to a point where you want to give back.

The motivations today are about fulfilment. I dont want to be happy or sad I just want to be fulfilled. I get that feeling watching these women succeed and do all these great things and that inspires more women to do it.

Audette Excel made her career in big business and now dedicates her life to 'giving back'.

Experienced entrepreneurs lead the way

To further her goal to see one million female entrepreneurs by 2020 Burston has today announced the Rare Birds Ambassador Program to foster entrepreneurs in regional Australia and in cities around the world.

The program will appoint 100 international ambassadors by June 2017 and already has 15 ambassadors from around the world on board -- from as far afield as Wagga Wagga in regional NSW to Texas in the US -- of which eight are female and seven male

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Its time we accept that mobilising 50 percent of the global population of entrepreneurs requires one hundred percent diversity, said Burston.

From day one, I have said we are not a womens organisation, we are a global movement which supports women entrepreneurs. That support comes from all genders, cultures, nationalities and politics.
Motivate Publishing via Getty Images Red wine is a type of wine made from dark-colored (black) grape varieties. The actual color of the wine can range from intense violet, typical of young wines, through to brick red for mature wines and brown for older red wines.

The price of schooies, bevvies, frothies and even Cold Ones would rise under a proposal to reform Australia's alcohol tax arrangements, in an attempt to raise government funds and reduce consumption.

Modelling commissioned by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) sets out how Australia would look with a new framework for taxing alcohol, which would include an overhaul of how wine is taxed and adding 10 percent to current excises. FAREs PreBudget Submission 201617 would see wine and cider taxed in the same way as beer, based on the volume of alcohol rather than the current situation where wine and cider is taxed based on its selling price.

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"Replacing the way in which wine is taxed in Australia would ensure a fairer tax system where wine, which currently represents 40 percent of all pure alcohol consumed but only 15 percent of alcohol tax collected, pays for its share of the resulting alcohol harms," FARE said in a statement.

"Economic modelling by ACIL Allen Consulting and commissioned by FARE, forecasts such a change would generate $2.9 billion in revenue while reducing the total alcohol consumed by 9.4 percent."

The report sets out several hypothetical models of alcohol tax, including a volumetric tax that levels an excise of $56.46 per litre of alcohol, with the first 1.15 percent to be excise-free.

Under such a system, domestic cask wine could rocket up in price by up to 235 percent, while cheap bottled wine may shoot up by 100 percent; bad news for uni students everywhere.

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At the pub, under FARE's proposals, a schooner of regular beer -- which, for argument's sake, we'll say costs around $5 -- would set you back another five cents. Packaged beer would rise by up to 3.4 percent, while spirits and ready-to-drink beverages would increase by six percent and 4.75 percent respectively.

The proposals were warmly welcomed by other Australian alcohol advisory bodies.

"Australias current system for taxing alcohol is incoherent and flawed from both a public health and economic perspective: it favours the production and consumption of cheap alcohol, contributes to the growing burden of alcohol-related harms, and does not recoup the costs of these harms across the Australian community, said Dr John Crozier, Co-Chair of the National Alliance for Action on Alcohol and Chair of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Trauma Committee.

"This modelling demonstrates that alcohol tax reform is both an economic and health imperative, with the potential to reduced alcohol-related harms, offset the economic costs that result from these harms, and contribute to Government revenue."

Also in favour was Public Health Association of Australia CEO Michael Moore.

"There are three main areas where alcohol policy can be improved  pricing, availability and marketing. Pricing will play the most significant role. A change in the tax regime increasing alcohol excise by ten percent will reduce availability, have an impact on chronic disease and reduce alcohol-fuelled violence," he said.
Mark Metcalfe via Getty Images SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 07: NSW Premier, Mike Baird arrives at the State Funeral Service for Australian horse racing trainer Bart Cummings at St Mary's Cathedral on September 7, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. Cummings passed away on August 30th in Sydney. He won a record 12 Melbourne Cups as trainer and is known as the 'Cups King'. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

All public service jobs will soon be flexible in New South Wales after state premier Mike Baird announced the policy on Tuesday, in a bid to get more women into senior positions.

Delivering the announcement at an International Women's Day breakfast in Sydney, Baird said all public service roles -- currently 380,000 -- will be flexible by 2019.

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The government will implement an online job share register and will also train senior executives about unconscious bias, which is a systemic and cultural issue holding many women back from leadership positions.

Currently, we only have 1 to 2 percent of our senior managers in formal flexible arrangements," Baird said on Tuesday.

"We have to tear down the obstacles to attracting good candidates, we must undo the notion that work is confined to the desk, and we must create and retain a pipeline of senior women managers.

At the moment, despite women accounting for 64 per cent of the workforce we only have 36 percent in senior leadership roles. So we have more to do but we have a very clear plan to do it.

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Congratulations @mikebairdMP on announcing All Roles Flex for the entire NSW public service. A game changer! #iwd#makeallrolesflex  Elizabeth Broderick (@LizBroderick) March 7, 2016

'100% of public service jobs will be flexible by 2019, because if not, why not?' @mikebairdMP@UNWomenAust#IWD2016#allrolesflex  Sydney Uni Business (@sydney_business) March 7, 2016

Great to see @mikebairdMP Baird announcing #allrolesflex NSW public sector.At #IWD2016..We must stop having to choose between care & career.  A/Prof Rae Cooper (@Raecooper1) March 7, 2016

On Tuesday afternoon, Minister for Women Michaelia Cash told the National Press Club the government would consider adopting a similar policy to the Baird government.

Cash said governments and big corporations needed to lead by example, and recognised Telstra's successful implementation of the policy.

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"If an organisation as big as Telstra is able to do it, then I think within the public service, we need to be able to look very carefully at the practices that we have and ensure that we're also leading the way," Cash said in Canberra.
When you start your Monday with good news and a delicious breakfast, it can lead to a great day. So weve partnered with Jimmy Dean to bring you the top feel-good stories happening across the country, perfect for sharing with family and friends. They remind us that together, we can make the world a better place.

If You Need A Reason To Celebrate

Join Keys the cat in commemorating, well, everything, with an enthusiastic, paws-in-the-air celebration! Keys photo went viral after being shared on Imgur this past weekend. Her human, Peter Mares, told The Huffington Post that she seems to enjoy her Internet fame, accepting treats as rewards for posing for the camera.

If Youre Worried Kids These Days Got No Respect

Meet Amelia Meyer. The 8-year-old brain cancer patient had one wish to be granted from Make-a-Wish Missouri. Instead of choosing that coveted trip to Disney World, she put her community first and asked to help clean up the parks of Kansas City -- which she did, along with hundreds of volunteers, last Saturday.

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If You Love A Good Comeback

Get inspired by the monarch butterfly population, which has increased dramatically over the past year after dwindling to a scary number in 2013. The monarchs return to its winter grounds in Mexico City last October has sparked a huge population growth, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says we now have the capacity to save the North American population.

If All Those Bullying Headlines Make You Sad

Know that there are many students who share compassion for their classmates. Take the fifth-graders at Mark Bills Middle School in Peoria, Illinois, for example. Several students have been giving up their recess once a week and replacing it with an American Sign Language to better communicate with a deaf classmate.

If Youre Scared Of A Tech Takeover

Take a note from Chick-fil-A. The fast food chain is reminding us what really matters at dinnertime (besides food) with an innovation they call the cell phone coop. To prevent restaurant patrons from staring at their screens, any party who keeps their silenced cellphones inside the cardboard coop for the duration of their meal wins free ice cream cones for dessert.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

There have been a number of attacks against Bernie Sanders concerning his position on race, poverty, and his "ghetto" comments at the recent Democratic presidential debate with Hillary Clinton. People in mainstream and social media have claimed these remarks show that Sanders doesn't understand African Americans, "poor whites," or even poverty in the United States.

In short, Sanders stated that "white" Americans don't know what it's like to live like African Americans in U.S. ghettos. The statement was right on, but commentators quickly took it out of context.

Certainly, we need to critique candidates on their words, but we also need to judge politicians based on their actions and past policies. The Sander's campaign is built on creating economic equality for all people, and his platform and personal history include attacking institutional racial inequality as well.

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People often miss that systematic racism is wrapped up tightly within economic inequality. There is no separating the two.

Tackling all inequality means targeting the fight against racism as well as combating the prison industrial complex and harmful economic policies (NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP). When those in the media say that these issues must be taken on separately, we must ask, to what purpose are those arguments made?

"What it's like to be living in a ghetto"

On Sunday, March 6, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon asked the Democratic presidential candidates to address their "racial blind spots." Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders gave solid answers.

Clinton spoke about how several personal experiences working with African Americans helped motivate her stance against racial injustice. She promised "to tear down the barriers of systemic racism that are in the criminal justice system, in the employment system, in the education and health care system."

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Sanders agreed with Clinton and shared similar experiences, including a recent conversation with young people in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Bernie relayed what one of the young women in the movement told him:

"You don't understand what police do in certain black communities. You don't understand the degree to which we are terrorized, and I'm not just talking about the horrible shootings that we have seen... I'm just talking about everyday activities where police officers are bullying people."

After relating the woman's words from the BLM movement, Sanders answered:

"When you're white you don't know what it's like to be living in a ghetto, you don't know what it's like to be poor, you don't know what it's like to be hassled when you walk down the street, or you get dragged out of a car. And I believe that as a nation in 2016 we must be firm in making it clear: We will end institutional racism and reform a broken criminal justice system."

Cue the Twitterverse going wild. Bernie Sanders thinks all African Americans live in ghettos? He doesn't think "white people" know poverty? Some media outlets even grossly cut and truncated the quote to say, "When you're white... you don't know what it's like to be poor."

Sanders said none of these things, yet corporate media is not always interested in providing the proper context and people aren't always as discerning. (U.S. media also wasn't that interested in reporting on Monday that Sanders won 3/4 states over the weekend in the Democratic primary race.)

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The point of the original question was to have each candidate explain a "racial blind spot." Sanders first gave an example of not realizing 20 years ago how much trouble an African American congressman and colleague of his had hailing cabs in Washington, D.C. He then moved to his "ghetto" comments, where Bernie stated: Euro-Americans don't know what it's like to experience both poverty and racist police brutality/bullying at the same time.

Ghettos, Prisons, and Jobs

We need to talk more about the racism and extreme poverty that exists today in U.S. ghettos. Ghettos by general definition are urban spaces where those in power place an undesirable group of people, and this area of the city is reserved for that minority group. The definition dates back hundreds of years in Europe, where Christians separated Jewish people from the rest of the population.

In U.S. history, ghettos and their counterpart, barrios, are reserved respectively for African Americans and Latinos -- though similar Native American reservations are primarily located in rural areas. Yes, "white" Americans have and still do live in many low-income neighborhoods, some even in racialized ghettos, barrios, and reservations.

However, state, federal, and private institutions never created these places for Euro-Americans. Historically, European immigrants lived in concentrated ethnic enclaves, yet they were not ghettoized in the U.S. like people of color. The biggest difference is that Euro-Americans moved out of their neighborhoods, which means they were never permanently funneled into U.S. ghettos.

The very definition of ghetto is based on a space where class and race are directly connected through discriminatory mortgage lending, redlining, and other practices. This was the point Sanders needed to make clear, but perhaps felt was already known: the ghetto is a place primarily for low-income African Americans today.

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The U.S. ghetto also has a symbiotic relationship with the penal system -- the two have become inextricably linked with each other. Ghettos feed prisons and prison turn people back into the ghetto.

Sanders addressed this in the debate as well, saying that as president he "would make sure that those people who left jail had the education and job training so they don't go back into the same environment which got them in jail in the first place."

Social commentators missed reporting this statement and other more substantive issues. Mass media has also underreported Bernie's $5.5 billion jobs program to fund employment opportunities for young people, specifically aimed at reaching African American and Latino youth in low-income areas.

Ex-felons often reoffend and return to prison because they're stigmatized and discriminated against in jobs as well as blocked from receiving financial assistance with housing, student loans, and other aid (no thanks to the 1994 Crime Bill and 1996 Welfare Act). This is all a part of what we call institutionalized or systematic racism.

55 Years of Civil Rights Activism

As a "white male" Sanders has significant privilege, but let's not get the narrative twisted: Bernie has used that privilege to be on the right side of history for over the past 55 years.

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Since the early 1960s, Sanders has spoken out against both racial and economic injustice. While at the University of Chicago, he was a chapter leader of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) after the groups merged.

While a student, Sanders stood against discriminatory student housing at his university. In the summer of 1963, Chicago police arrested Bernie for his civil rights activism as he worked with thousands of others against segregationist education policies in Chicago Public Schools. He chained himself to other protestors, including an African American woman, who can be seen alongside him during an act of civil disobedience.

Two weeks later, Sanders was at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Here, young Bernie heard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak on the issues of class and race going hand-in-hand, as the name of the march suggests.

Since then, Bernie has spoken out for the poor and people of color. Dr. Cornel West, an avowed Sanders supporter, says: "We need black working people, poor people, middle class people who care, to understand that. We can understand the black elite sometimes pulling back because Bernie is hard in terms of accountability of elites, no matter what color."

Most national politicians don't directly address the poor because it isn't politically advantageous (Obama has spoken about poverty at times, but Lyndon B. Johnson was the last President to declare a direct War on Poverty). When Sanders recently spoke on the "ghetto," he walked into a political minefield where "white" Americans followed with complaints that they were overlooked in terms of class and African Americans contended that they're not all poor -- both fair criticisms.

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Still, Sanders answered the call to speak frankly on race while moving past the political focus on the middle class. Bernie's words and his life work have shown a solid understanding of the need to take on the two dangerously intertwined issues simultaneously.

If we are only willing to fight for the middle class, people of color will continually be left behind.

Vote On Record, Not Corporate Media Feed

Without a doubt, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have the best understandings of U.S. racial injustices out of the viable candidates running for president. However, Sanders demonstrates that he understands institutional racism and class inequality are connected in ways that must be addressed together.

Mainstream media has been uneven in their coverage of Sanders, and even Clinton, compared to other candidates. Unfortunately, this will be an ongoing problem, just as Trump will continue to poll high as long as these same media outlets keep giving him free publicity for his asinine commentary.

While this message is brought to you by someone who supports Bernie Sanders, it is more importantly a message that warns we all need to be careful consumers of the media. We should not expect that mainstream media will report everything correctly, as they have their own biases and interests.

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In other words, we should never expect that 6 corporations that control 90 percent of mass media would fairly treat a candidate who firmly stands up against corporate welfare and greed.

We also need to be aware of the social media we produce and reproduce. Everyone writing on the 2016 U.S. election is influenced by their position in society or positionality. Our race, class, sex, among other life conditions, all influence the policies and political candidates we choose to support.
NEW YORK, March 2, 2016-- Customers visit the Apple store of the Grand Central Terminal in New York, the United States, March 1, 2016. On Feb. 29, 2016, a magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York adjudged that All Writs Act wasn't sufficient to order Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unlock the phone of a convicted drug dealer. (Xinhua/Wang Lei via Getty Images)

In the aftermath of the tragic attacks in San Bernardino, an iPhone belonging to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the assailants, propelled the previously cloistered debate on encryption into the mainstream.

The current legal clash between Silicon Valley and American law enforcement over encryption is hardly a new one. Apple and other American technology companies have been arguing these cases in the courts for several years. In most cases, Silicon Valley willingly complies with law enforcement's requests. But from Apple's perspective, this case is not like most cases.

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Apple tallied a precedent-setting victory on Feb. 29 when a federal judge in New York rejected the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's request to unlock an iPhone seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. In its argument, the FBI and DEA cited the All Writs Act, a law originally passed in 1789, which authorizes the federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of the law." This act is the same statute cited by the government in the case involving Farook's iPhone, where the FBI is seeking to compel Apple to write code that overrides the device's auto-delete security function -- a project it estimates would cost over $100,000 -- giving the FBI unlimited attempts to crack Farook's passcode and access its data.

Encryption is ubiquitous and here to stay.

In response, the defense argues that the All Writs Act does not give the court the right to "conscript and commandeer" Apple into defeating its own encryption, thus making its customers' "most confidential and personal information vulnerable to hackers, identify thieves, hostile foreign agents and unwarranted government surveillance."

Cyber security is a huge public safety concern. On the one hand, the FBI is confronted with its current dilemma of gathering evidence in a terrorism case. On the other hand, Apple is considering the strategic implications of a world in which strong encryption is ubiquitous but only available to bad actors and not consumers of American products.

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There are no easy answers to this problem, and both sides are acting out of genuine interpretation of the law and their duties. At this stage, it seems likely that a narrow judicial interpretation will favor Apple's argument. But this one is headed to the Supreme Court and big issues are at stake. Certainly the broader policy debate will undoubtedly continue in the aftermath of any legal outcome -- as it certainly should.

Protesters carry placards outside an Apple store on Feb. 23 in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

It is important for Americans to understand that this is not the first time technological advances have hindered the ability of law enforcement officers to do their jobs. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into the law the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. CALEA was a direct reaction to the telecommunication industry's transition to digital telephone switches, which were often incompatible with the FBI's traditional lawful wiretapping tools and techniques.

The law was not without controversy, but it did enjoy a healthy majority of support in both chambers of Congress because it struck the right balance between security, measured by the preservation of our criminal justice system, and privacy, measured by protection against unwarranted surveillance. The people, through their elected representatives, agreed that any increased burdens on telecommunications companies were offset by the greater good.

Not unlike the years preceding CALEA, we are once again at a crossroads where new technology is placing additional burdens on industry to assist law enforcement, and the people, through Congress, must again intervene in the best interest of the American public. Unlike with CALEA, though, security in this instance is measured not only by preserving law enforcement's access to certain forms of evidence, but also combating the threats posed by criminals operating in cyberspace.

Likewise, privacy is measured by protection against unwarranted surveillance not just from our own government, but more likely from adversarial foreign governments like Russia and China who routinely capitalize on weak or non-existent encryption -- not to mention protecting citizens of foreign authoritarian states who rely on American products to shield domestic surveillance.

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Protestors organized by Fight for the Future during a demonstration in support of Apple outside FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. on February 23. (Erkan Avci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Unfortunately, the mainstream debate on encryption is tainted by an exaggerated reaction to the Edward Snowden leaks. Many of those who side with Apple do so merely out of anxious suspicion of government surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency. We, however, reject this line of reasoning in the context of encryption. After all, just read the newly declassified report cited in a recent article in The New York Times describing that the NSA is actually collecting much less communications than once believed.

Moreover, the back-and-forth is also skewed by a lack of nuanced understanding of encryption itself, especially the difference between end-to-end, at rest and in-transit encryption. In fairness, anyone who talks about the FBI seeking a "backdoor" in the context of this case needs to spend more time understanding the technology involved.

Rather, the better argument in Apple's favor considers the practical implications of a ruling against it. Consider the situation if the FBI does compel Apple to help crack Farook's phone. What happens on the day after? Despite Apple's weakened encryption, the technology will remain ubiquitous and readily accessible to terrorists and law-abiding citizens alike.

Most likely, the terrorists will react to the legal precedent by abandoning their use of American products for communications and data storage. As a result, the FBI still will not be able to access terrorist communications. Law enforcement will have the legal authority and technical means to gather evidence, but there will be no evidence to gather because their targets will have moved to the litany of apps and devices designed, developed and manufactured overseas. And a segment of Silicon Valley's customers -- perhaps less than most activists would lead you to believe -- will boycott American-made products for embellished accusations of complicity with unwarranted surveillance by the American government.

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Ultimately, it is for Congress to address both sides of the encryption issue without sacrificing security or privacy.

We've talked to law enforcement officers across this country and sympathize with their frustration. From local cops to state troopers to federal agents and U.S. attorneys, law enforcement officers want to do their job as they see it -- gathering evidence to support their investigations and prosecuting criminals and terrorists. The law gives them this authority but in the digital age, encryption prevents them from accessing data on media that until now was readily available for a jury to consider.

Just as the FBI is seeking to compel a burdensome act on Apple, the gap between law enforcement's authority and its investigative capacity also represents an unfair burden and a public safety risk. The Obama Administration's proposal of a blue ribbon commission to look at this is timely, but it is only a first step.

Ultimately, it is for Congress -- representing all of us -- to address both sides of the coin in a manner that weighs the societal pros and cons of encryption and minimizes the burdens for all parties, including citizen users of American products. Congress must do so without sacrificing security or privacy in an age of new digital threats. This will require public hearings, much thought and carefully constructed legislation that will withstand court scrutiny.

Encryption is ubiquitous and here to stay. As a society, we must find the right balance between security and privacy and recognize that encryption is not just about privacy but about public safety as well.

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Earlier on WorldPost:
By Kenneth Hein, Global Marketing Director, gyro

There you are, sitting at the gate waiting for the flight attendant to call for priority seating. It's taking longer than it should because the clean up crew didn't show up on time. It's only a small delay, they promise. You've heard it all before.

You've already scanned for important e-mails and read your texts. Now it's time to scan for a useful item to read. Something catches your eye. The article is about troublesome trends in your industry, and it provides three options for overcoming these challenges. It's well written and offers unique thinking. Only after you finish it do you realize that it is "sponsored content." You make note of the company that created the article just as the flight attendant invites you to board.

This is the exact scenario in which business-to-business (B2B) content marketing wins. Successful executives are expert multitaskers. The moments throughout the day when business decision makers are commuting or just waking up aren't really downtime. In fact, 44 percent of executives focus on news the second they wake up, according to Quartz Insights.

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These are the times when content marketers win. Executives have a need to keep absorbing information at nearly all times. If you are providing them with something informative and useful, they will read it on their mobile device. Conversely, they aren't going to click on a mobile ad or watch pre-roll. In fact, they are absolute experts at clicking off of those units at maximum speed.

To reach B2B decision makers most effectively, here are four musts:

Optimize for mobile. Executives are not stationary; they are moving targets who consume copious amounts of content on their mobile devices. And this trend has hit critical mass. By 2017, U.S. adults will spend an hour or more per day using their mobile device than they will their computer. That number will likely double to two hours for B2B marketers, per eMarketer. Solve a problem. Execs are hardwired to operate in problem-solving mode. Provide them with actionable steps. Don't leave them with: "Here's the problem." There has to be a solution. Say something new, and say it with integrity. Content must load quickly. As important as it is to avoid wasting their time with inferior content, it's equally as important to make certain that your content loads in three seconds or less. If not, you've missed your opportunity. In fact, peak performance is a 2.4-second load time, per SOASTA. Google has taken this into account with the launch of its Accelerated Mobile Pages in October. Sharability. Content must be easy to share. If it can't travel, what's the point? While some execs aren't big sharers, they are very receptive to receiving information from peers.

We are at an interesting moment in history when strong brand-created content is winning the battle for executives' attention more than ever. It's no wonder that

are looking to boost their budgets marketing, per the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs.
New programmatic channels are moving beyond digital

By James Brown, Managing Director UK & Ireland - Rubicon Project, and Kirsti Wenn, COO - Amplifi (Dentsu Aegis Network)

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few years, the word 'programmatic' will be very familiar to you. We've hit the ground running in 2016, and programmatic isn't going anywhere; it's here for the long haul. What will be new for this year is the increasing variety of media channels outside of the traditional programmatic space that will begin seriously investing and therefore incorporating automated advertising technology. We are edging that much closer to a fully automated and integrated media landscape.

The benefits of automation are finally being realised by the wider media and marketing industry. Automated advertising is no longer bound to the confines of digital display; we're seeing it begin to branch out into TV, out of home (OOH) and even print.

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UK-based premium broadcaster Sky pioneered TV automation back in 2014 when it launched its audience buying tool AdSmart, allowing brands to serve automated, targeted TV ads based on collective data points from each household, plus other attributes based on subscription data. However, near the end of 2015 we saw other UK broadcasters start to come on board and invest in automated advertising too. Channel 4 announced the launch of its Premium Video Ad Xchange (PVX), allowing advertisers to buy demographic audience segments across devices and platforms on its All 4 service using programmatic technology. Whilst ITV announced a partnership with RadiumOne to launch its Ad Sync + product, a similar offering to Channel 4's PVX. The potential to expand automated advertising into the TV sector means that in the not too distant future you will begin to see it rolling out in a big way on linear broadcast channels too - and we've seen the beginnings of this recently, with Rubicon Project recently announcing a partnership with AdMore to automate linear TV advertising across more than 100 million homes in the US.

Another sector fairly new to automation is OOH, which is expected to be worth $45 billion worldwide by 2019. Although most of the buying and selling is still processed manually there are some innovative companies such as Ayuda, Live Nation, TouchTunes, and Bitposter, who are looking to disrupt this model by exploring automation. The latter, for example, started automating the trading of both digital out of home (DOOH) and traditional OOH for 98 per cent of the UK's outdoor inventory across 300,000 paper and digital sites when it partnered with Rubicon Project in September 2015.

Even print, the most traditional advertising channel and perhaps most unlikely to be looking at automation technology, is delving into this area of advertising. Last year Time Inc., America's largest publisher, started using automation technology to sell print ads across its premium titles for the very first time. In response to the introduction of automation in print, a non-profit initiative was launched - the Publisher Advertising Transaction System (PATS) - which aims to simplify and increase efficiency of transactions between publishers and media platforms by offering a single access point to book across publishers' total print and digital audiences.

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The utopian ideal of a united online platform where media buyers can connect to all and any media type is getting closer by the minute. That's not to say there won't be challenges - as with any transition in business there will always be hurdles to jump. In order to create a unified platform it requires parties from both sides of the advertising ecosystem to collaborate to create a single process and way of working. If they can do this, they will reap the rewards. Automation removes the antiquated manual processes of buying and selling ad inventory, empowering companies and people to spend more time on creative and valuable work for their clients. In addition, the huge amount of data that will be garnered will offer invaluable insights for both brands and agencies.

Although the consumer isn't currently affected directly by automation, once we're able to fully understand the breadth of their cross-channel interactions with brands and content, we will be able to tailor their experiences to create a truly "omnichannel" approach, which is when they too will reap the rewards of automation.

With automated advertising technology being incorporated across such a vast variety of sectors, how much closer are we to seeing a fully automated media landscape emerge? At the current speed of innovation we should expect to see this unified marketplace sooner than you might think. Watch this space.
By Oli Whitten, Head of International - Rubicon Project

It's being asked a lot lately: Does the automation of advertising compromise the creativity that is so important for the industry? In particular, are we becoming so focused on data and performance that we are ignoring the importance of brand?

The very idea of branding has human emotions at its root: more than ever this year, there has been debate around branding, automation and creativity, and how each of these three key factors in advertising can interact. Advertising automation does not diminish the capacity for creativity; rather, it gives brands the opportunity to be proactive instead of reactive.

In short, automation offers immediacy and data to further fuel branding campaigns, and as the industry matures, there seems to be increasing consensus on this point. Heineken USA Senior Media Director Ron Amram probably explained it best at last year's Cannes Lions: "Programmatic is a fantastic learning engine that allows you to apply data to see what's working and then feed that back into your creative process."

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Maturation of the Market

Automation originated as a means for publishers to trade unsold inventory, but has since evolved far beyond that. It has naturally progressed up the value chain to now include premium inventory, luxury brands and the top global advertisers, and it is also now a dynamic space in which branding campaigns can thrive. As more and more buyers and sellers are embracing the automation of digital advertising, its potential as a creative catalyst is starting to be fully realised.

Art versus Science

Automation's disruption of the advertising industry was initially met with its fair share of naysayers; and this scepticism still endures with some today. The dominant industry view is that automation is simply a tool, or a means to achieve better results for branding and performance campaigns alike; and this is reflected in a report from the IAB, which forecasts that advertising automation is set to account for up to 80% of display ad spend in the next three years.

It has become apparent that advertisers have started to change their habits accordingly - a report from Celtra for example indicates that 74% of marketers are already using display advertising to build brand awareness. This number really speaks volumes about the paradigm shift we are seeing, as rich media innovations such as HTML5, native ads and video have unleashed further opportunity for advertisers to create impactful brand engagement across all media.

Adapting to a Changing Advertising Environment

Automation is clearly affecting everyone in the industry: from agencies, to publishers, to brands. And some of those brands have embraced it with open arms, seeing it as another weapon in their creative arsenal, rather than a threat. Changing the creative mid-stream, in response to how a campaign performs will become an automatic process. Rather than simply building a handful of creative executions and targeting them at pinpointed audiences, creative will be broken down into elements that can be automatically constructed for the specific viewer. It's a process called programmatic creative and it's the ultimate in personalisation.

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Awareness and Affinity, through Automation

As we've seen time and again advertisers are increasingly using automation to deliver impactful branding campaigns that will engage and connect with the right consumers.

Instead of seeing programmatic as a threat to branding and creativity, buyers and sellers alike are increasingly casting themselves as advocates for automation. By using data to support creative intuition, it means that branding and technology can not only co-exist, but also push the boundaries of advertising into a whole new realm.
Australia has recently seen a 108% increase in startups. This shows that Australia is really on the up. Bigcommerce is one company that was featured on Business Insider. After raising millions via American venture capitalists, this eCommerce platform became the most funded startup in Australia.

But why are companies starting to establish themselves in Australia? This article will attempt to understand why it's the case.

Australia Loves Startups!

Governments across Australia's regions are realizing the value of creating business communities. The barriers to creating a company and the various legal obligations a new company has to abide by are relatively small. It's not like the US where setting up a company can take many days to accomplish.

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There are more coworking spaces, more grants, and more business help available for companies in all sectors.

The Economic Landscape

What separates an economically depressed area of the world from an economically prosperous area of the world is the current political and economic climate. But a by-product is this is the number of businesses opening their doors.

Take areas of Europe as an example. In countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal businesses are not opening their doors, instead, for the first time they are closing them for the last time. The same can be said for many areas of North America.

Australia has managed to remain relatively isolated from the economic woes of the rest of the world. It's managed to keep its economy afloat. As a result, startups are seeing Australia as a stable place to begin following their dreams.

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A Strong Community Attracts More

Startups communities tend to form clusters. They are not spread over a wide area and the community tends to be extremely dense. This comes as a result of people wanting to associate with those with the same beliefs and goals in mind. Even businesses operating in different niches can benefit from associating with other small businesses.

Many startups are one-man operations. Support is often in slow supply. In many areas of Australia, including Melbourne and Sydney, coworking spaces have exploded in order to facilitate this.

For the startup community, this leads to a snowballing effect where more and more companies want to get in on the action. It's why Silicon Valley grew so quickly, along with the startup communities in Tel Aviv and Paris.

The Australian Lifestyle

It's important to mention that what makes the Australian startup community so unique is it isn't just about local people deciding to start their own organizations. There are people from all over the world coming to Australia to benefit from the infrastructure in place.

To begin with, they find the lifestyle extremely welcoming. Yes, living costs are much higher than in other countries, but wages are also higher and it's possible to charge higher prices for the same products and services.

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Australia is a pleasant place to live with lots to do. Most cities in Australia are extremely modern and come with all the resources needed for businesses to grow.

Will the Trend Continue?

Like all instances of growth, particularly with the tech industry, there are fears that it could end in tears. The same concerns have been raised among unicorns in the US. Unicorn companies are startups valued at over a billion dollars.

There's the feeling that this could turn into a bubble, and this bubble could burst, taking a lot of Australia's startup industry with it.

As of the start of 2016, there are no signs of slowing. Startups are gaining more and more investment from venture capitalists, but there are no indications that this could lead to many companies failing to meet expectations. Granted, the biggest tests are still to come. Many of these companies have yet to reach their potential and few of them have opted for an IPO.

The success or failure of Australia's most promising startups will inform speculators about the wider industry and its future.

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One benefit of the Australian startup industry is that there is only one unicorn. The other billion dollar companies have justified their high valuations through billion dollar progress.

Conclusion

Regardless of whether Australia's startup bubble will burst, it's clear that this country is the place to be for ambitious startups. There are few barriers to starting a company here and there is an established network ready and waiting for newcomers to take advantage of it. Everything a startup needs is available in Australia.
Camden, New Jersey maintains a reputation as a violent morass that swallows economic opportunity. Decades of failed economic programs had led many people to conclude Camden is the quintessential unsolvable quagmire of urban plight. Then, in a sweeping series of legislation and press releases, the world learned that New Jersey was going to send hundreds of millions to the struggling city in order to - once again - rebuild. A newly formed economic agency would give sellable tax credits to companies that promised to hire in the city. National and statewide observers offered a tired cheer. With the satisfaction that Camden was once again being taken care of, we shifted our crusade to other neglected towns like Flint, Michigan. Yet we turned our heads too soon. Behind the cascade of taxpayer money purportedly ameliorating Camden's woes is a far more insidious strategy, undertaken by a political faction that has organized a network of operatives to work backroom deals in order to profit from the state and federal purse, and prevent any other person, organization, or movement from stymieing their cause. It is the Norcross machine.

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A trio of brothers heads the machine: George, Phil, and Donald Norcross. George Norcross, the oldest, is the undisputed leader of the gang. George owns or sits on the board of a few major companies in New Jersey and is the de facto dictator of the South Jersey Democratic Party. Phil Norcross, the middle brother, is the lawyer and lobbyist that apply the grease to make the political machine run. Donald Norcross, the youngest, is the United States Congressman from New Jersey's 1st District and acts as the conciliatory public relations piece that assures the public that Norcross interests are, in fact, your interests. Other powerful figures such as State Senate President and soon-to-be Governor candidate Steve Sweeney and Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. are the officers that marshal the operation. Through constant pressure, control of donors, and good-old-fashioned bullying, nearly every elected Democratic official south of Trenton is in some way connected to George Norcross's empire. This empire is one based on a very old, simple concept: Pay-to-Play. If you want to do business on Norcross turf, you are expected to donate to their politicians, PACs, and charities. Depending on how much you give and how little you resist their wishes, you can earn yourself lucrative government contracts and partnerships. Business gets done, the Norcross machine gets their cut, democracy is rampantly stifled, and any complaints or resistance are crushed with employment threats or other bullying. Welcome to life in South Jersey.

Over the last 30 years, George Norcross has shown an adept ability to buy, evade, or bully any enemy or impediment to his political machine's growth. Somehow, even when caught red-handed doing this in the Palmyra Tapes, it never led to any prosecution under then Attorney General Chris Christie. In return for Christie's partnership, George withheld substantial Democratic support from Christie's gubernatorial opponent Barbara Buono (she publically blasted Norcross in her concession speech). Moreover, the Philadelphia Inquirer investigated George in the early and mid 2000's. Once journalists got close, George bought the paper, fired the editor, and required journalists to investigate other stories (in 2014, a lawsuit took the paper away from George).

This article, however, is an examination of how the Norcross Machine has beset Camden with a host of new economic, education and governmental problems, while sharing huge profits with themselves and major corporations.

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After years of solidifying his political machine, George finally pushed for the kind of major economic legislation that could be plainly rife with graft but impossible to stop because of his legion of underlings. Through Donald's position as a State Senator before he was a Congressman, coupled with support from State Senate President Steve Sweeney, George was able to pass the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) in 2013. The bill spent billions of tax dollars to stimulate economic opportunity in at risk areas. Camden was given a near blank check for development, just so long as corporations were willing to create some jobs. On the surface, the bill sounds harmless. However, among the fine print the EOA has funneled hundreds of millions of our tax-dollars into the Norcross family's companies and other organizations that donate to their campaign.

Of the $1.1 Billion sent to Camden, over half has gone to companies that the Norcross family has a financial interest in or have donated heavily to their campaigns. The relief did not address some of the main problems that plague Camden. None of it has gone towards addressing the fact that the city is a food desert. None of it went to small, Camden resident owned businesses. Most of the money actually given out to companies resulted in jobs being moved from their current suburban locations into the new Camden location. Of the very little actual job creation that happened, the cost per new job to tax payers has been exorbitant. Below is a brief overview of the nepotism associated with the Norcross tax credits:

1. Holtec International

Holtec received $260 million from EOA legislation to move their headquarters from nearby suburb Marlton to Camden. George Norcross leads their board of directors. On top of that, company executives have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Norcross campaigns.



Estimated cost per new job created: $215,000



2. Cooper Health System

Cooper received $40 million from EOA legislation to expand operations in Camden. George Norcross leads their board of directors. Company executives contributed tens of thousands to Norcross companies.



Estimated cost per new job created: $250,00



3. Philadelphia 76ers

The Sixers received $82 million from EOA legislation to build their practice facility in Camden. Phil Norcross was the broker on the deal between the Sixers and the state. Most jobs are just being moved from the current facility staff in Philadelphia.



Estimated cost per new job created: $328,00



4. Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin received $107 million from EOA legislation to move a facility to Camden. Lockheed has been one of the biggest supporters of Norcross campaigns in recent years, support that has been reciprocated by votes by Donald Norcross to expand their defense contracts with the federal government.

Estimated cost per new job created: $300,000



5. American Water Works

American Water Works received $164 million from EOA legislation to move from their already state of the art facility in Voorhees to a new facility in Camden. The company has donated thousands to Donald Norcross' congressional campaign. Many of the jobs will just be moved from the Voorhees plant.



Estimated cost per new job created: $500,000

One of the more pernicious effects of the EOA has been to cause a dramatic rise in land prices in Camden. Since the State gave exorbitant sums of money to corporations to develop the city, a vacant lot in Camden that might have been worth $20,000 five years ago is now worth millions. Because of this rise in land value, property taxes and also rising. But, the property taxes aren't going up for the corporations. At the direction of the State, the corporations that bought land through the EOA Act all use the Cooper's Ferry Partnership to avoid full property taxes for 20 years. The Cooper's Ferry Partnership acts as a real estate holding company. The corporations that buy the land give it to Cooper's Ferry and pay them a management fee, with an agreement in place to buy it back from them after 20 years for $1. Because of Cooper's Ferry's non-profit status, if it holds onto the real estate for the corporations, a special piece of the EOA Act is activated which keeps the landholder from paying property taxes for 20 years.

Meanwhile, Camden's education system has also undergone a series of major changes that benefit the Norcross family. Through Donald, Phil, and Steve Sweeny legislation, some state aid for Camden public schools has been reallocated to charter/Renaissance schools. Unsurprisingly, most of the new charter/Renaissance schools are either directly owned by or partnered with the Norcross Foundation. These charter schools have been accused of expelling underperforming kids back to the public schools. Because of this process, the Norcross charter schools reap the statistical benefit of improving test scores by removing the students who bring down the average. To the unaware, it seems as though the charter schools are performing well. This statistical trick provides false evidence to policymakers that the Norcross charter school experiment is succeeding and should receive more money for their schools. Meanwhile, the public schools are faced with educating more students with less and less funding.

Finally, Camden's problems delve into the police force created to maintain law and order. Camden's reputation has always included violence. Prior to 2012, the Camden City Police was a struggling under-funded and under-staffed unit. Funding pressure caused the police force to disband, leaving the city virtually unprotected aside from a contingent of State Troopers. In 2012, crime spiked to all time highs. Since then, the Metro police - controlled by a Norcross led Freeholder Board - police Camden. The Board praises its success by pointing to improved crime rates. But similar to the success of charter schools in the city, it is merely a statistical trick. Not only does the Metro compare their current crime rates to 2012 when the Camden City police disbanded, it also lumps in statistics from some suburbs even though they have nothing to do with Camden. So, of course crime is down from the year where there was essentially no police in America's most violent city. However, crime is not noticeably lower from pre-2012 levels, even with heavy investment in equipment and manpower.
Consider this: In his 1982 book Critical Path, futurist and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller introduced the "Knowledge Doubling Curve." He noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century and by the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. When Fuller delivered his work there was no World Wide Web, iPhone or iWatch. In a 2006 report issued by IBM, they projected that by 2010, the world's information base would double in size every 11 hours.

As leaders we must ask ourselves, with the pace of technology and information growing exponentially, have we considered the implications for humanity? And if knowledge has doubled every 11 hours, will our sense of responsibility keep up?



Returning from Davos

My time at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, gave me the opportunity to reflect on the disparities between short-term pressures and long-term strategic thinking. I left Davos more concerned with how we're going to utilize existing technology in a way that is useful to all of us -- not just in an effort to move further and faster.

According to the Global CEO Survey, launched at Davos by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 86 percent of respondents are making changes to how they measure success. Considering their place in a globalized world, these leaders said success must not be measured by profit alone. Said Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital in a WEF article, "A measure of success is how you give back to society."

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This still left me wondering if leaders are prepared to expand the definition of "giving back to society" beyond dollars donated to charity, and if they are, what might the new definition be?

Transparency in Innovation

"Transparency" has become an oft-used word in business to appeal to an evolving consumer demand to know everything from how their data is used to understanding what goes into their food. However, its significance is more than a buzz word used in marketing materials.

If the world's CEOs are committed to measuring success by the role their organizations play in humanity at-large, then transparency should be the guide. As leaders we must ask ourselves:

How are we considering and communicating the opportunities -- and risks -- of our products?

What steps have we taken to ensure people, from employees to business partners, are treated ethically and humanely?

Can we answer honestly that our innovation addresses a need and offers a human solution to an important cause -- or is what we do only for our own vanity and profit?

Walking the Talk

A number of organizations are leading the way in innovation through the lens of humanity and transparency.

U.S.-based outdoor retailer Patagonia was elevated for its transparency with the release of a Cyber Monday campaign, "Don't Buy This Jacket." The ad challenges and encourages consumers to rethink consumption, citing "environmental bankruptcy" and a desire to leave a world inhabitable for future generations. The company goes further by providing a breakdown of the environmental cost of their popular R2 Jacket.

To make it required 135 liters of water, enough to meet the daily needs (three glasses a day) of 45 people. Its journey from its origin as 60 percent recycled polyester to our Reno warehouse generated nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, 24 times the weight of the finished product. This jacket left behind, on its way to Reno, two-thirds its weight in waste.

Let's also consider Kaggle, a community of data scientists from over 100 countries and 200 universities, brought together to bridge the gap between data problems and solutions. The community is open to all data scientists at no charge, who are then given opportunities to solve complex problems from some of the world's biggest companies through master's competitions. In turn, Kaggle is able to aggregate and share the very best thinking from its community.

Another well-known example is Tesla, who in 2014 famously released its battery patents for open source use to advance electric vehicle technology. In a public letter, CEO Elon Musk cited that, "We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla's position..."

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Finally, inspired by these and similar organizations, Solar Impulse has offered its work as scientific learning for researchers to explore the body's response to sleep deficiency, long duration flights (five days and five nights!), high altitude conditions, and exposure to non-pressurized environments. This information will provide current and future innovators with data to help drive ongoing solar discovery, space exploration and revolutions in air travel.

What can a leader do?

The culture of transparency the companies above adopted is part of their DNA. It is weaved into the fabric of the organization and encompasses all operations including hiring decisions and leadership management and behavior.

While many leaders are not in a position to change their entire business model, there are still small steps that can be taken to create a more transparent and humanitarian organization:

It starts from the inside out -- employees should be the first to know Check ego -- question the root of decision-making to ensure it's to better the organizations and those it touches, rather than personal desire for accolades Be deliberate -- make thoughtful choices for the business that respect immediate shareholders and everyone touched by the product downstream Remain centered -- meditative practices give leaders the aptitude to be open and intentional

As a concluding thought, I am reminded by John Gerzema, pioneer in the use of data to identify social change, in one of his TED talks "Companies have to be innovative in leading with values the same way they have to be innovative in their products and services."

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So what does an industry do when it cannot find enough qualified workers? It creates them. That's the approach JetBlue Airways is taking in fighting the national pilot shortage.

This week, the New York-based airline launched a program it's calling "Gateway Select" to attract new pilots. Here's the deal: you don't actually need any aviation experience to apply.

In the U.S., the typical route to a commercial flying gig is to either come out of the military - which has been downsizing for decades - or to put yourself through flying school, followed by several, low-paying years flight instructing until you get enough hours to meet the regulations and fly for an airline. Then, you apply to a regional airline, spend several more low-paying years flying between Newark, NJ and Ithaca, NY back and forth, back and forth, until a "mainline" carrier - such as JetBlue, Delta, United, etc. - has an opening. During all this time, you hope the price of oil doesn't go up, because that usually leads to job losses and airline bankruptcies.

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The shaky career path commercial pilots have been offered has lead to a collapse in the number of young people going into the profession. I have long argued that the regional airlines, with help from the pilot unions, are largely - though not entirely - to blame for creating the pilot shortage. How do you convince an 18-year-old to spend $80,000 on learning to fly when their first airline job will likely pay $24,000 a year and provide so little job security? "Maybe I'll just go to work for a tech startup instead" is what many are thinking.

Further, Congress hasn't helped since lawmakers raised the minimum hours needed to be an airline pilot to 1500. The move followed the crash of a Colgan Air turboprop in Buffalo, which exposed gaps in the airlines training programs and culture.

The result? Some regional airlines have blamed the pilot shortage on their financial woes, with Republic Airways Group citing the shortage in their recent bankruptcy filing. I'm dubious of that claim, but there may be some merit to it.

So the regionals are now playing catch-up. Many have pumped up the starting salaries and are offering unheard of bonuses for new pilots. That's a good first step.

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But JetBlue has decided that the best way to hire new pilots is to mint them itself. JetBlue is seeking those with a passion for flying but with no actual experience in the cockpit. The airline will train candidates from the start and four years later, they will graduate with the skills and ratings to fly JetBlue's airplanes. Many European airlines have used this approach but it's new for Americans.

Learning to fly doesn't come cheap. The airline is charging about $125,000 for the entire course. But students will earn money flight instructing. To start, JetBlue is filling only twenty-five positions. However, pilots will graduate with a job at an airline generally considered among the best to work for.

Beyond attracting new pilots, JetBlue is hoping to attract a more diverse workforce. The industry's record of diversity is atrocious. According to recent surveys, only 4.1 percent of air transport pilots are women and just 2.7 percent are African American or Latino. Overall, the diversity in the general pilot population isn't any better. About 6 percent of pilots are women.
Appearing in newspapers in my conservative congressional district in Virginia (VA-06).

Why have our politics become so dysfunctional? The answer is really not so hard to find.

Our founders knew the nation would always have its divisions -- of interests, values, opinions. The hope in framing the Constitution was that we'd nonetheless find ways to move the nation forward by negotiating compromises.

The question "How can we fight to increase our power?" would always be there, they understood, but the question "How can we cooperate to serve the good of the nation?" was supposed to have greater weight.

But in our times the spirit of conflict has overpowered the spirit of cooperation. And it is clear that it was on one side of the battle lines that this view of politics as a kind of war gained ascendancy.

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Since the early 90s, I have been in regular contact with both conservatives and liberals. As Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich embarked on their campaigns to foster hostility toward "librels," one could hear growing hostility from people on the right toward those on the other side.

This antagonism from the right escalated for a very long time, as I can testify, before it began to be reciprocated by many liberals. Only rather recently has the anger that liberals have been receiving from conservatives for nearly a generation has begun to be returned.

The practice of politics as war was strengthened still further during the presidency of George W. Bush. The year 2002 was pivotal in the choice of strife over cooperation.

In the wake of 9/11, the Democrats -- in accordance with the American custom in wartime -- set aside differences and rallied round the president. But then President Bush (and his strategist Karl Rove) chose to break apart that national unity in order to gain an electoral advantage. They deliberately put into the bill creating the Department of Homeland Security a "poison pill" --an irrelevant piece, which they knew Democrats could not support, that undermined labor -- to trap the Democrats into voting against that form of the bill.

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The idea for that department had come from the Democrats (and been resisted for months by the president), but now their "no" votes could be used to defeat them in the coming elections for being "soft on terrorism." In order to gain the Republicans another Senate seat, they even smeared an American patriot like Senator Max Cleland of Georgia -- who'd left three of his limbs in Vietnam -- as someone aligned with Osama bin Ladin.

Politics as combat took new form when Barack Obama became president, and the Republicans decided to make it their priority to make him fail. Such a decision was unprecedented in American history -- let alone at a time of national crisis, when the economy was teetering on the edge of an abyss, and when therefore the president's failure could mean suffering for millions of Americans.

Because of the across-the-board obstructionism the Republicans chose, we've lately seen the least productive Congresses of our history. Can anyone name an issue that the Republicans have approached in the spirit of "What can we accomplish, despite our differences, that will create a better America?"

And now the spirit of strife has erupted in spectacular fashion in the two biggest political stories of the present moment.

As soon as a vacancy opened on the Supreme Court, the Republicans in the Senate made an unprecedented declaration of non-cooperation. Never before in American history has a Senate refused categorically to consider any nominee they might receive from the president in office when a vacancy opened up on the highest court. "Advise and consent" has been perverted into the all-out strife of "no consent no matter what."

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Meanwhile, in the race for the Republican nomination for president, an apparently unstoppable frontrunner -- of a nature likewise unprecedented -- has arisen.

Never have we seen a candidate in the presidential arena so eager to pick even unnecessary fights - not only with his presidential rivals, but also with Fox News and Megyn Kelly, Mexicans and Muslims, journalists. With this bellicosity, Donald Trump has captured passions in the Republican base to become the Party's dominant leader. Trump is a leader suitable for a party that for a generation has taught its followers to see politics as a form of combat.

Politics as cooperation requires both sides. Politics as war can be imposed upon the whole system by the choice of any one side.
One might suggest that I'm too biased to write a love letter to teachers. True, I'm an educator myself. I taught English at a public high school for three years at the start of my career, but that was 15 years ago. Since then, I've been teaching college students. But this love letter is not for my colleagues in academia, as much as I respect them. No, this tribute is for the K-12 teachers, those in the trenches, as I've come to think of them.

My family relocated this past summer and I left my university position, giving up tenure (gasp!). I have been spending this transition year doing a combination of writing, part time teaching, and author visits at schools. I teach at a university and I also substitute teach at my sons' school, among other public schools in our county. It's this latter experience that has affirmed what I've suspected all along: our teachers are working harder than we give them credit for, and they deserve our support, and appreciation, more than ever.

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Substitute teachers do not have papers to grade or standardized tests to worry about, so we have the luxury of time to listen and observe. I've learned a lot about our teachers of late. I've been in schools with limited resources where teachers are doing the best they can with what little they have. They're using their own money to provide their students with the extras, or in some cases, the necessities. They keep a supply of one dollar bills in their desk drawers to give to students who have "forgotten" their lunch money (again). Yet, when I eat lunch with them, I don't hear them complain about the lack of resources or their overcrowded classrooms.

Instead, they discuss their excitement about Read Across America, the successful fundraiser for a student with a heart condition, their joy over their students' accomplishments, both large and small. These teachers have well over 20 children in their classrooms; they have students with not only educational needs but social and emotional needs as well, and they remain enthusiastic, kind, patient, and creative. They are concerned about our children's safety and happiness; they are committed to bullying-prevention efforts; they are aware of the individual needs of each child, and they work diligently to meet them.

With the addition of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, our teachers have more pressure on them than ever. They must prepare our students for these tests, knowing all the while that a standardized test can't measure kindness, resilience, creativity, enthusiasm, intuition, character, motivation, manners, work ethic, self-esteem, courage, compassion, effort, a sense of humor, or a love of learning--qualities that they see, and value, in our children.

What has impressed me about my sons' elementary school is that despite the pressures of Common Core and the challenges of being a large school (1100 students K-5), the teachers go above and beyond to provide their students with educational, social, and community-outreach opportunities. The fourth graders put on an annual Veterans' Day reception which local veterans attend (there's not a dry eye in the house!); the kindergarteners celebrate the 50th day of school by learning about the 1950s and dressing in the style of the decade (there's nothing cuter than 5 year olds in poodle skirts and leather jackets!).

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They do a fundraiser for the American Heart Association; they collect stuffed bunnies for a local children's hospital. There's a school dance called the Watkins Wiggle and a fall event called Pumpkin Lighting. We have a Chess Club, a Lego Club, a Jog/Walk Club, and many other such clubs to keep our kids active and engaged outside of school. None of this would be possible without the dedication of the staff.

It would be easy for them to say they don't have time to accomplish all of this, understandable, even, given the standardized tests and the size of the student body, but as far as I can tell, these teachers believe in educating the whole child. They prepare our students for the required tests, of course (and their scores are impressive if you care about such things), but they're ever mindful that there's much more to educating a child; there's much more to our kids than a number on a page.

I recently covered for a teacher so she could attend the out-of-town funeral of a former student. I saw first-hand what such a loss does to a school, how these teachers love our kids. Yes, their job is to teach them, but they come to truly care for them, and when something happens to one of their students, they feel it. The whole school feels it.
A woman carries a sign for equal pay as she marches with other protestors in support of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of an expanding national movement known as Fight for 15, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, in Miami. The event was part of a national protest day to coincide with the April 15 deadline for filing income taxes. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

As coverage of another presidential election overtakes airwaves, neither of us were surprised to see the media seize on the story of generational divide in voting patterns. Young women are betraying their feminist foremothers by "feeling the Bern" and older women have yet to get with the times, where economic issues are as important as what chromosomes a leader claims. Or so the overly reductive narrative tells us.

The generational rift makes for sensational headlines, but falls short of understanding the full range of issues that are important to women of all ages -- not to mention races, classes, religions, and abilities. Women are not a monolith -- should that really still strike the mainstream media as clickbait?

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The women's movement has and continues to be a big tent movement -- interested in wage parity alongside climate change, affordable childcare alongside sexual freedom, global health alongside criminal justice. Why? Because while women are not a monolith, they do understand one thing pretty universally: all issues are interconnected. You pull one snag and the whole world unravels.

That's good sense, but it doesn't make for easy movement building. After all, if you can't tackle issues in silos, it makes it harder to create finite goals for impact. While the women's movement worldwide has been strengthened by its nuanced understanding of how identities and issues overlap, it has often slowed us down when setting agendas and finding consensus for collective action.

This is why, especially on the occasion of International Women's Day, we believe it's imperative that we study the organizations that have gotten the multi-issue movement really moving, especially on economic rights. Take the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), which has created large-scale change at the intersections of labor rights, women's empowerment, gender-based violence, and health for over four decades. Of the female labor force in India, more than 94 percent of women are in what's called "the unorganized sector." Recognizing the dire need for education and empowerment among this population, SEWA has done everything from targeting sexual and economic exploitation, to creating childcare co-ops, to setting up literacy programs. SEWA is proof that grassroots can inform the treetops; it has been globally recognized and held out as a model to be replicated elsewhere.

Another great example, this one born stateside, is the National Domestic Worker's Alliance (NDWA). Founded in 2007, NDWA has done revelatory work both making visible and fighting for the rights of domestic workers in 36 cities and 17 states. There are at least 1.8 million such workers -- such as nannies, elder caregivers, and housecleaners -- in America, and the number is only expected to rise. Rather than relying on traditional labor organizing tactics of collective bargaining against a single employer, they've often had to get creative about how they engage both workers and their employers -- many of whom are mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons with obvious incentives to make the critical caretaking work that domestic workers do a dignified experience. NDWA has gotten Domestic Workers Bill of Rights on the books in six states and counting, and they won a landmark victory when the Department of Labor released new regulations to cover homecare workers under federal minimum wage and overtime protections nationwide. But even more interesting, their efforts touch on a huge range of issues -- economic rights, to be sure -- but also immigration, racial justice, the feminization of the caring professions, and the growing elderly population, among so many more.

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Sometimes it's not an organization, but a movement, that demonstrates just how effective, not just enlightened, multi-issue efforts can be. Black Lives Matter -- which has exploded onto America's streets and consciousness over the last two years -- was started by three self-described black, queer women. Despite the fact that the mainstream media has sometimes painted it as a narrowly focused fight only interested in protesting police violence, the vision and tactics employed by this decentralized network have been vast. Black Lives Matters chapters have tackled everything from affordable housing to criminal justice to media representation.

Interestingly, Alicia Garza -- one of the founders -- cut her teeth at the NDWA, where she still works. She will be joining Reema Nanavaty of SEWA, among so many other innovative leaders, to help us launch a new series at the Aspen Institute today called Aspen Forum on Women and Girls: Conversations Across Generations. In it, many of the world's foremost experts on critical issues facing women and girls, particularly economic, will come together across difference and share solutions.

Three decades ago, UCLA and Columbia law professor Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" to describe the multi-issue quality of the women's movement. In brief, intersectionality is the idea that just as identities are intertwined (Crenshaw, herself, is both African American and female, an academic and activist, for example), so must our understanding of institutions of oppression be intertwined. This fall, she wrote with great urgency about how the term has become part of our everyday lexicon, but that it doesn't always lead to the kind of enlightened action that we might hope for:

"Intersectionality alone cannot bring invisible bodies into view. Mere words won't change the way that some people -- the less-visible members of political constituencies -- must continue to wait for leaders, decision-makers and others to see their struggles."

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What makes us most hopeful is that the historically invisible no longer seem to be waiting. A wide range of impatient, courageous rabble rousers, both globally and here in the U.S., are becoming un-ignorable -- even to the notoriously myopic mainstream media. There's never been such an exciting time for women of different generations to come together at the intersections and on the frontlines of the key issues of our times. See you there!
This interview is part of a series on Trailblazing Women role models (Entrepreneurs and Leaders) from around the world and first appeared on Global Invest Her. You have to see what you can be.

'You can do it! It doesn't matter where you are from, whether you are a boy or a girl. It's very important we don't strip ourselves of our choices. Women can become their own worst enemies. It's not men who tell us we can't apply for a certain job, it's that women just don't apply! If I can do it, you can do it. Believe in your idea and work very hard. Treat others with respect and don't lose sight of your business goal.'

Marta is a passionate entrepreneur and avid champion of diversity in the fintech industry. As a Polish expat, Marta experienced first-hand how challenging it was to send money home. She joined Michael Kent, CEO, in 2012 to co-found Azimo and drastically change the way people living abroad send money to their family and friends.

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As General Manager and Co-founder, Marta oversees day-to-day operations, works closely with the CEO to scale the business and is responsible for all staffing processes and decisions across the UK and Poland, where she opened Azimo's second office in late 2013. In the past two years, the company has seen 100 per cent growth in personnel, raised $30million in Series A and B funding and is amongst the fastest-growing fintech companies in Europe.

Prior to Azimo, she built her first business, Travelnity, a social media website for travellers and expats, rapidly growing the business in times preceding Facebook's success. From there, she ran high-profile events in London and New York City for London 2012 Olympics and Somerset House.

Marta was recognized by Forbes as one of Europe's 30 Under 30 for Finance, Innovate Finance as one of 100 most important Women in Fintech in 2014 in the UK and by Puls Biznesu as one of 10 most important Polish Businesswomen in 2015. Marta holds a Masters in Organisational Psychology from Jagiellonian University in Poland and a Management degree from Columbia Business School.

See her linked in profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martakrupinska and follow her on Twitter: @mmeentrepreneur



Who is your role model as an entrepreneur?

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I haven't had one particular role model I look up to, but have draw inspiration from a variety of places and times in my life. I was born in the 80's in socialist Poland where there we no opportunities even to travel, not to mention start companies. The 90's on the other hand were a true playground for entrepreneurs who were taking over public companies and privatising them, travelling abroad, setting businesses up... I thought it was incredible how people could start off without any experience or resources, to try to better their own lives and those of people around them.

On that note I really look up to Julia Groves, Founding Chair of the UK Crowdfunding Association. She started her career in sustainable energy and took a leap of faith and became very successful in the crowdfunding space. I admire people without a specific advantage or years of experience, who manage to trailblaze their idea and move it forward.



What is your greatest achievement to date?

Setting up Azimo - a digital money transfer service for European migrants to send money to basically anywhere in the world in 70+ currencies, at up to 90% lower than high street money transfer companies. I knew from personal experience how broken the money transfer industry was and in how desperate a need the migrants who send money home every month to better the lives of their families, yet had to pay up to 10% of money sent for their transactions. When I was 18, I needed to make extra money to help my family out, so I bought myself a plane ticket to Dublin and worked 16 hour shifts in a restaurant. After 3.5 months I had saved 3000 that I wanted to send back home and the bank said they would charge me 60 to send it!

So I went to Western Union and they told me, I would have to send it in 6 transactions and each would cost 20. It felt so unfair to hand over so much of my hard-earned money, so instead bought a Ryanair ticket - which worked out to be cheaper- and took it back to Poland myself. Fast forward a few years, through my first successful startup in 2008, to 2012 in London, when I met Michael Kent my fellow co-founder and Azimo's CEO. He had built a successful offline money transfer business Small World Financial Services with his business partner Ricky Knox, now founder of Tandem Bank. We knew there was a way to make this broken industry better and so together, we built Azimo.



What has been your biggest challenge as a woman entrepreneur?

As an entrepreneur, my key challenges are: where do I get money? Find top talent and retain them? Acquire customers? I don't like to focus on the negative gender point of how hard we women have it, but instead focus on the positive stories of female entrepreneurs who are successful to set the right example. That said, looking back at some of challenges I've faced as a woman in tech, I remember sitting in a room full of men where they all assume you know nothing about the technical jargon they are discussing. I could quote situations when I felt I wasn't being taken seriously, especially being a young, female, migrant, Polish entrepreneur. I can also recall how great it felt to prove these people wrong!

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I saw a photo recently of black woman wearing a t-shirt with the caption 'I wish I had the self confidence of a mediocre white guy' and that really made me think. Women need to be more confident in their abilities and just go for the roles they want and not be afraid to be an assertive or empathetic leader - without fear of being branded respectively a 'bitch' or too weak.

We also need to ensure that we educate both men and women that biological differences don't necessarily dictate your personality traits. Men can be empathetic, just as well as women can be assertive. Does it then solve the gender conversation when there's a token woman in the boardroom? No. We need to promote feminine leadership traits more, as well as have more women in executive positions. At Azimo we have one woman investor on our board and we already have very interesting conversations about team management, inclusion and collaboration. I'd like to see more of that.



What in your opinion is the key to your company's success?

Our team. In order to lift the business off the ground, you need an insane amount of energy and keep the pursuit of the bigger goal top of mind. I am fortunate to work with smart, innovative, driven people on our team, who link their personal story to the team vision. As you grow from 3 to 90 people, you cannot orchestrate growth. You need to make sure you work with people who value what you value, are better than you at what they do and try to achieve the same goal. You could think that it's hard to attract talent when everyone wants to work for the likes of Google or Facebook, or Asos. Indeed it is, but we attract people who empathise with our customers and see our purpose. We have a second generation British Indian guy who left Asos to work with us because, as he said 'The world needs another pair of jeans. I saw my family struggle with money transfers. What you guys are doing is important.' Our team gives us the momentum not to give up, to build the business, achieve success and create a fantastic place to work.



If you could do 1 thing differently, what would it be?

I like what Sheryl Sandberg said in 'Lean In' on how 'women always wait for someone to put a tiara on their head'. I wish I needed less of an external pat on the back to see that what I do has value and to push forward. I wish I spoke with more confidence and spoke up when I felt I was not treated fairly in the past. I wish that more women were less scared of failure. As a woman it adds another layer of complexity, because some people can say 'she failed because she is a woman'. I believe humility is very important and you need to be humble to grow and scale, but not to the extent that you quiet your voice.



What would you say to others to encourage them to become entrepreneurs?

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There has never been a better time to build your own business. Technology is shaping the way we work. You no longer have to rent an office, build a warehouse or factory, hire 500 staff or do expensive TV advertising. You can become an entrepreneur as soon as you launch a simple website. I think we owe it to ourselves that when the opportunity arises, we take it - man or woman. As millennials, we are re-shaping work and can take the opportunity to do things the way we want to. Work is not just a 9-5, we are self-realising and self-expressing through what we do. If someone has an idea and feels they want to bring it into the world, then do it! The next corporate job will still be waiting for you if you want it later.



How would you describe your leadership style?

I am a collaborative leader and I want to empower the team - a first class manager hires first class people. Everyone in Azimo is better than me at something and that's fantastic. My super power is my people skills - I attract people who believe in my vision and mission to build something great. I don't link my ego to it. It's all about the ability to listen and give people enough freedom and room to trust them to do a good job. If my team don't do a good job, it's my fault: either I haven't given them enough context or support, or have simply hired the wrong person.



What advice would you give to your younger self?

"Grow some balls". It goes back to that confidence thing and having the courage to push my ideas forward. To not care if people disagree with me and to not undermine myself if it doesn't go the way I want. I went to Web Summit in 2015 and one of the top executives of Tinder said 'when we launched, we had come up with this idea of swiping and everyone said it was stupid. There were already enough dating apps out there like Match.com, Meetic etc., but if you don't get people opposing your idea, you probably aren't innovative enough.' I wish I'd had more confidence earlier and worried less about what the world would say if what I did, all turned out wrong. There is no such thing as failure - only the opportunity to learn.

If someone offers you a job or task and you have no idea, say yes and figure it out later! I had never been to Dublin, New York or London before I moved to these places, or launched a new business before when I was 20 and building my first startup - all of those were complete unknowns to me, but I believed I could figure it out. It's not about how much you already know, it's about how fast you can find it out.



What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

I would like Azimo to become a verb, where instead of someone saying 'I need to send some money home', they say 'I'll Azimo it'. There are 7 billion people on this planet and only 2 billion have bank accounts. On the other hand, there are already 2.6 billion people who have smartphones, and that is expected to reach 6.1 billion by 2020. Most mobile growth will come from the emerging markets, where people will be able to set up mobile wallets to access money, drastically increasing financial inclusion. In 5 years, I would like to start thinking about what the next big thing is, and I'd like to stay in the social inclusion space. I'd also like to start a family, which is important to talk about - I feel modern women sometimes shy away from admitting that they have other aspirations besides relentlessly building a successful career. All in all, I am very excited about the future.



3 key words to describe yourself?

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Watch Anne Ravanona's TEDx talk on Investing in Women Entrepreneurs.
One of the most important things I've learned from many years of activism, is that the world's most challenging problems... and their solutions, are interconnected. As I reflect on what it will take to achieve gender equality, it's clear that any real solution must also achieve environmental equality.

Today, all over the world, women are disproportionately paying the price for the damage we're doing to our planet. Talk about a lose lose situation! Climate change is making the lives of millions of women much harder. In many parts of the developing world, women walk for miles each day to collect water and firewood for their families. As the planet warms and water gets scarcer, the burden on these women will only get heavier, eating into precious time that could be spent on education or productive work. If food and water run out altogether, climate migration forces the break up of communities and creates competition for resources, leaving women more vulnerable to violence.

Women are often denied education and an equal voice in civic decision making which may have led to tragic examples like Bangladesh in 1991, when the women outnumbered men by 14 to 1 in the 140,000 people who died from the flood-related effects of Cyclone Gorky, partially due to insufficient access to information and early warnings.

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Women in the US aren't exempt either from environmental threats. All of us here in America, men and women alike, are exposed to toxic chemicals in our daily lives. But studies have revealed unexpectedly high levels of little-known neurotoxic chemicals in women's breast milk, placing an even higher burden on women as they try to do their best for their babies. Breastfeeding is still considered the healthiest start for our children, but worrying about passing on toxic chemicals to a nursing infant isn't something new mothers should have to go through.

What gives me an enormous amount of hope when I read these kinds of stories, is that while women may be disproportionately suffering from the pollution of our planet, we're also at the forefront of stopping it. I'm inspired every day by the many courageous women out there who aren't willing to stand by and watch their homes, health, communities, and livelihoods be destroyed.

An important step to achieving gender equality, is having role models that women can to look up to. We must share stories of their power in order for other women to understand that this power belongs to them too. Here are just a few of those who've inspired me recently.

In Flint, Michigan, it was often the watchful eyes of moms that noticed their children becoming forgetful or struggling to find words they would normally use. We now know these were signs of lead poisoning from the city water supply, though the authorities insisted that the water was safe. Facing unknown health impacts, folks in Flint are rightfully demanding clean water, new water pipes and long term healthcare. Nayyirah Sharrif and Melissa Mays are two incredible women working tirelessly in Flint right now to organize a community that's been irreparably poisoned by their own water. Follow Flint Rising and Water You Fighting For to find out how you can help them.

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Last year's fight to stop oil drilling in the Arctic brought together one of the most beautifully diverse movements I've seen in years, with women from all over the US and beyond playing crucial roles. There's something pretty messed up about companies like Shell seeing the receding Arctic ice caps (that are melting because of global warming) as a way to access even more oil. Especially when we know that climate change is going to hit women harder. Resistance to this madness came in many forms, from the Raging Grannies in Seattle, to a female Indigenous hiphop artist in Alaska, to brave young women who climbed oil rigs and hung off bridges, all saying "sHell No" to Arctic drilling.

Another critical piece in the puzzle when it comes to gender equality is to make sure we are giving women the space participate as citizens or activists. Giving our time and skills to a cause we care about can be incredibly rewarding, but with women still earning less and doing more housework than men, time and energy are precious commodities. As a single mom, I have been incredibly lucky to live in shared housing compound with friends that support me. I literally couldn't do my job of leading Greenpeace and raise my daughter without this community. Not everyone is as fortunate, which is why I believe that many of the solutions to gender inequality are also key to solving many of our planet's problems.

We need to challenge systems and practices that give rise to inequality and injustice in all its forms - like the dangerous erosion of voting rights in this country. If we could count on equal pay, shared housework, adequate childcare, access to reproductive healthcare, and flexible working hours, not to mention safe, clean water, I can only imagine how many more strong, vocal, active women would be able to speak up for their communities and for those in communities less fortunate than them. Surely, for the sake of our daughters and our planet, that's the ultimate win win.
Donald Trump stood up the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) this weekend because the optics of a hostile reception would have been terrible for him. Instead, he went to Wichita, but he still lost Kansas to Ted Cruz.

Then he went to Florida; it's over for Sen. Marco Rubio unless "Little Marco" gets a plurality in that winner-take-all March 15 primary. But Ted Cruz will not (per Mitt Romney) lay low in the Sunshine State to give Rubio a leg up, toward Romney's objective of denying Trump a first ballot victory in Cleveland.

In Saturday's four primaries Cruz won more delegates than Trump, bringing Cruz to 302, compared to Trump's 389. The strong Cruz campaign is organized, competent, and funded. More importantly, Trump performed poorly in Thursday's Fox News debate, amidst Trump's continuing, avoidable blunders. He refuses to be briefed on basic domestic and foreign policy issues. If Trump continues this way, he will self-destruct, if not soon than later, surely eventually.

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Actually, Trump's candidacy could have been downsized last year. That's when the candidates and their SuperPACs started to spend what now amounts to more than $660 million dollars raised to date, and still counting, not including what outside groups and lobbyists spent, for example on their own polling. Quantitative research last summer would have confirmed that Trump's lead was more than name identification. Open-end questions would have provided Trump supporters' verbatim responses that indicated why they favored Trump. And focus groups would have probed how to address and even co-opt his key contentions such as porous borders must be secured, trade deals are costing American jobs, the Iraq war was a mistake, our allies should contribute more for defense.

If the "vast right-wing conspiracy" headed by the Koch brothers were so all knowing and powerful, why did they squander their influence on Scott Walker? They should have provided counsel to all the Republican candidates, so they could have been more impressive in the debates and stolen Trump's raisond'etre.

Trump's The Art of the Deal outlined his likely campaign strategy and previewed his mastery of branding himself. Did any of the anti-Trump "strategists" read it? Trump intended to use free media, and he controlled most news cycles. On Twitter alone, he set the agenda. As everyone realizes after the fact, Fox News and CNN interrupted regular programming with "breaking news" of live Trump appearances where he simply gave his standard stump speech. It seems like ancient history now -- but last year Sunday television news repeatedly interviewed him by telephone, as if he were on the radio. And right-wing talk radio patronized Trump with as many interviews as possible, often with softball questions. Early on, candidates should have protested the pro-Trump media bias.

Instead of dialogue that resonates, anti-Trump forces have pushed ineffectual hits that emboldened Trump's supporters. For example, Trump easily disposed of criticism that he had changed positions on issues like abortion. Focus groups of evangelical voters (that were never conducted) would have shown a plurality opting for Trump and also how to retrieve these Trump-tilting evangelicals for other candidates.

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From the outset, Trump made a prop of Jeb as Exhibit A of The Establishment; without Jeb, Trump would have had to invent him. Only a small part of Jeb's SuperPAC ad dollars were anti-Trump. Until recently, hardly any advertising dollars from Jeb and others went against Trump. The opposition attacks now appear desperate. Even factual assertions seem like smears. Some current ads are shrill ("he's a phony"). But, at least, the timing may work in this compressed period of Trump scrutiny. Still, the real need is for "real people" to go against Trump.

Last year Beltway insiders insulted the intelligence of Trump supporters. Then came the National Review attack, which helped Trump. What was required was grassroots activism, not the intellectual highbrow. A credible ad campaign to connect intimately would have featured real and disillusioned former Trump voters. The "dark money" American Future Fund (AFF) is now running ads in Florida with people claiming they were scammed by Trump University. Expect Trump to challenge the source of AFF money. But the ads are a step above past anti-Trump advertising, because a "real victim" speaks.

The candidates last year should have preempted Trump's issues, and I don't meet immigration. They should have raised the ante of his collusion with government by pursuing Rand Paul's libertarianism and the Huckabee-Santorum populism, attacking Wall Street and supporting Main Street. All the candidates should have bashed hedge fund tax preferences and pursued Millennial issues of Uber and others related to tech and the sharing economy. Why didn't Republican candidates provide an alternative to Obama's pro-Arab/pro-Muslim tilt? They should have immediately called for Arab nations to absorb the Syrian Muslim refugees; instead this became Trump's issue.

Attacks on Trump remain unclear. Trump's use of eminent domain for private gain was not to build schools and highways. Releasing his income tax returns is not to determine his net worth. Trump's refusal should be compared to Hillary's refusal to release her Goldman Sachs speech transcript. And why not challenge Trump's attempt to redefine the First Amendment, because he would protect not just himself but the very politicians he claims to oppose? Republican "foreign policy experts" criticized Trump for popular positions, like wanting our allies to pay more for their defense or for saying Putin should take ISIS. Republican primary voters do not favor wholesale interventionism. All this plays into the hands of the bigoted Pat Buchanan who cherry-picks Trump's most appealing populist notions.

Look at the time opponents, again and again, devoted to Planned Parenthood. On this issue, Republican hardliners have threatened a "government shutdown" (rather than having Barack Obama held accountable). But Republican savers see their IRAs and 401k crash at such machinations, and they think Wall Street speculators exploit the gyrations. Ironically, Trump is seen as anti-Wall Street.

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If Romney had shown the passion against Obama that he now shows against Trump, he would have been elected president in 2012. Trump had criticized Romney's campaign for months, so he inoculated against much of Romney's attack. Romney should have attacked Trump in front of young people and anti-Establishment voters and surely not from Utah. As time goes on and the field has narrowed, Romney's supposition that non-Trump voters are anti-Trump may prove true. But that naive assumption backfired last year.

Mitt Romney started a dialogue with his wide-ranging, at times, uncharacteristically personal attack on Trump. But it helps Trump when politicians attack him. Instead, anti-Trump forces should be coordinating authenticity - get -- as I've already written -- "real people" and at various levels -- in interviews, news conferences and in advertising.

It was apparent last year that Trump could fall short of a majority in Cleveland. Allowing for this possibility, the anti-Trump folks should have celebrated letting the delegates decide in an "open" convention. Instead, they adopted the pejorative term "brokered convention" which conjures up images of a smoke-filled room of insiders. This is precisely the establishment image Trump wants to run against.
On February 13, the Supreme Court lost its most animated dissenter, Justice Antonin Scalia. His family mourns the loss of a husband and father; the country, one of the most influential judges in history and an intellectual anchor of conservatism. Were the American constitution not "dead, dead, dead" by Scalia's own interpretation, it too would likely mourn one of its greatest defenders.

Found dead in bed of natural causes following after an afternoon of quail hunting, Scalia leaves behind a legacy like no other at a time like no other. More importantly, he leaves behind a vacancy of enormous political significance: with the Supreme Court split 4 and 4 the winter before a general election, the stakes could not be higher. A partisan political battle over his replacement has begun to rage, proving that as large as he was in life, Scalia is perhaps even larger in absence.

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With political polarization at a boiling point, the roles of the President and the Senate in choosing and confirming a successor are embroiled in controversy. It's easy to see why: the newest Justice, when accepted, will undoubtedly rebalance the Supreme Court, whether slightly or drastically to the left or right.

Political repercussions

Even prior to Scalia's death, the possibility of Justice appointment played a crucial factor in the upcoming election, as the next president would likely be appointing seats as one or more lifelong justice appointees reached retirement age. But this notion had only been an abstract one -- now that there is a tangible vacancy, it may just become the most important issues in the race.

Senate Republicans as well as GOP candidates have signaled that they don't believe President Obama has the authority to nominate a successor, though technically speaking it is his constitutional duty. The process, as explained in my recent Now I Get It segment for Yahoo News, plays out as such: the President selects a nominee, the Senate Judiciary Committee sets a hearing for questioning, and then the Senate votes. At least 60 votes are needed to proceed to confirmation. This is especially difficult when the Senate's dominant party is opposite the President's, as it is today.

Following the news of Scalia's passing, I spoke with Constitutional Accountability Center President Elizabeth Wydra, Yahoo News Chief Washington Correspondent Olivier Knox, and former clerk to Justice Scalia Professor Brian Fitzpatrick about the political implications.

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"We're looking at a real doozy of a political fight," Olivier Knox said. "If [President Obama] could get someone, a progressive onto the court, it would shift the balance of the court, which has been going rightward for a long time." On the other hand, Knox admits, "If he could nominate someone that the Senate would play a major political price by blocking, that could help him out."

But Fitzpatrick, a law professor and former clerk under Scalia, is not sure it's in anyone's best interest to nominate a successor before the election. "It seems to me a very unusual situation... the President has every right, I think, to nominate someone if he wants to but the Senate also has the right to do what it wants to do in confirmation."

Waiting until the election would allow the next president to choose a more conservative or progressive candidate; in today's climate of gridlock, only a moderate candidate would have the slightest chance at confirmation.

But would Scalia have cared for political expedience over the constitutional duty? Elizabeth Wydra argues that as a constitutional originalist and textualist, he would not. "The constitution says 'the President shall nominate and appoint with the Senate's advice and consent" she said. "It's [President Obama's] constitutional duty which he has said he's going to fulfill, and I think that's the right thing to do here... There's no good reason in our constitutional democracy for the president and the Senate not to be able to do their jobs."

Though controversial, there is no tradition of leaving a Supreme Court vacant because of an upcoming election; leaving the seat vacant would prevent the court from doing the full work required of it. With cases they are considering now ranging from immigration to abortion, voting rights and unions, Wydra says, "the American people deserve to have a full Supreme Court [present to] consider and decide."



The hope for cooperation

The Senate may have little choice but to block the nominee, however moderate or qualified he or she may be. With senators defending their seats in two dozen states in November, even hearing a nomination could be damaging to their support base.

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Finding a candidate may prove difficult, regardless of outcome. "What kind of person would subject themselves to that?" Fitzpatrick pondered. "I think it's going to be hard for the President to find a serious person who wants to go through a process that's stacked against them."

The situation speaks volumes to the gridlock and polarization that has come to characterize the American political system. Ironically, the Supreme Court has been the one branch of government to withstand this division.

"Politically, I would hope that the Senate could actually look to the Supreme Court as an example here," Wydra said, "because the Supreme Court has the highest approval ratings of the branches of government." Justice Scalia's own surprising friendship with progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and lifelong craving for intellectual challenge is a testament to this as well.

New Jersey Junior Democratic Senator Cory Booker, who I interviewed recently, echoed this sentiment. The current climate, he said, is "contributing to what I think is the disintegration of... civility, of bipartisanship in the Senate."

Booker, a fervent Clinton supporter, recently published a book called United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good on the importance of making bipartisan decisions in advancing the country as a whole. "The reality is this country is great because we find ways to work together," he said. "What's being celebrated now only weakens us, weakens our bonds, our ties, and the fabric of the country."

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Booker has hope still, though logic points to the probability that whoever President Obama puts up will be blocked uncategorically.

One could certainly describe the rejection of constitutional order, using Scalia's own terminology, as "pure applesauce." The Justice's richness in color, passion, and humor will certainly be missed in his absence -- if not some of his less charitable traits. But the longer this vacancy remains, the poorer we will all be served by America's jammed up political wheels.
Jim Toy's legacy is impressive. He was the first person to come out publicly in Michigan, and a founding member of many key gay rights organizations. In 1972, he co-authored the "Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation", making the Ann Arbor city council, the first governing body of its kind in the nation to officially recognize Gay Pride. Now, most major U.S. city councils have followed Toy and Ann Arbor's lead.

A year before he had co-pioneered another success, the University of Michigan's Human Sexuality Office (HSO), the first staffed university office for addressing sexual orientation issues in the world. Now the HSO is U of M's impressive Spectrum Center and every major university has followed suit.

Persistence

I met Jim Toy in 1973, when I was a U of M undergraduate. I witnessed his persistence over the next 21 years as he secured the addition of "sexual orientation" to the University of Michigan's non-discrimination bylaw. It was like watching an ant take the Sahara one grain of sand at a time. It was also a crucial victory that turned the tide for gay rights at the University of Michigan with critical implications for students, athletes, faculty, and staff.

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University of Michigan President Emeritus, James Johnson Duderstadt, who was sitting University President at the time, says, "Toy's greatest strength is his compassionate leadership."

In 2001, the City of Ann Arbor Chief of Police invited Jim to provide trainings on sexual orientation and gender-identity concerns to the City's police officers.

"I had the pleasure of meeting Jim for the first time when I became the Chief of Police in Ann Arbor," says current Miami Beach, (Florida) Police Chief, Daniel J. Oates "The police did not have a good reputation with the LGBT community at that time. Everyone said the same thing: Talk to Jim Toy... what impressed me most was the aura of peace and calm that surrounds him. His persona exudes wisdom and peace. He is so easy to talk to, and to be in his company is to enjoy life."

"Struggling for our rights, we may inevitably do some harm. The good must outweigh the harm," says Jim.

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With Toy's achievements, it is not surprising that the Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project honored him by naming a community resource center after him and the University of Michigan Spectrum Center's library bears his name.

He is so revered that in 2013 a mayoral proclamation designated Jim's birthday, April 29, as "Jim Toy Day". Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, says,

"When working with Jim, one is immediately struck by his moral clarity, his gentle dignity, and his dogged optimism. Getting to know and work with Jim has been one of the great joys of my public service, a true honor."

Jim Toy Discusses his life with NBC

However, nothing could honor Jim Toy as much as how comfortable he is being himself. He's bi-racial (Chinese/white), born in 1930 and grew up in central Ohio during World War II, which was brutal. Although, not one to fight his private demons publicly, Toy does say, "I wore a cardboard sign around my neck when I went to junior high that read: I AM NOT A JAP."

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"My identity is a tapestry woven from many threads--race and ethnicity, color, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability/disability, appearance, age, religious belief, political belief, etc. If one of the threads is plucked, the whole fabric moves," Toy told NBC.

Toy describes himself as "advanced", others say he is 80 and officially retired. Advanced or octogenarian, he still does what he always did - attends meetings, takes notes, champions individuals and causes and serves Michigan students, faculty, staff and alumni by making things better, one drop of life at a time.
So, the Hachette Book Group is acquiring the Perseus Books Group again, 18 months after its first failed attempt to do so. This time it looks like the deal will stick, though.

If you read industry news deals or press releases, you'll see all kinds of positive spin on deals like these. This is the third major publishing merger in the past three-plus years, preceded by the 2013 merger between Penguin and Random House and the acquisition earlier that same year of Harlequin by HarperCollins. The companies like to talk about expanding their global reach and investing in broadening their lists. And while these corporate agendas sound good on paper, the consolidation of publishing is not good for authors.

Legacy book publishing is already an inflexible dinosaur. Big publishers throw ludicrous sums of money at celebrity projects and well-connected authors. The inequity between author advance monies and monies allocated to marketing campaigns can only leave you scratching your head as to why a company would acquire an asset only to underfund it once it becomes a product. And then there's the flooding of the marketplace with as much inventory as they can get accounts to take despite the mutually understood but unspoken agreement that as much as 50 percent of those books will be returned. In fact, it's a losing enterprise, and legacy publishers are the only publishers that can afford to keep this kind of business model afloat because of their strong backlists that keep a steady stream of income coming in to enable this crazy cycle.

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Publishers having more money and more weight to throw around means that those authors at the top will keep getting their huge (and now maybe huger) advances, and that agents and editors will keep scouting for "big books," which during my time as an editor for the Perseus Books Group meant "sure bets." Sure bets come in the form of proven authors, authors with celebrity connections, and authors with huge existing author platforms. (If you don't know what an author platform is, read this.)

When big publishers talk about being able to take more and bigger risks, they mean more and bigger risks to outbid and outperform their competitors at the top, everyone scrambling after the same few projects. I know lots of agents who only shop to the Big Five (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette). The occasional project they shop to a small house they consider pro-bono work.

Houses breed cultures, of course. What workplace doesn't? But within book publishing, consolidation means fewer decision-makers and fewer personalities. It means a mandate from the top to acquire only the most commercial works. Editors in New York are taught to look for a certain kind of book, and this leads to myopic thinking about what's good, and even what's publishable. Due to the desire for celebrity connections, big book publishing is also fueling a type of publishing that's bottom-line driven, sacrificing the passion projects and special projects that editors used to be able to take risks on. Exclusively bottom-line driven publishing has created lowest common denominator publishing, where publishers are undervaluing (or just not seeing as viable) what's quirky, unique, and fringe in favor of appealing to the masses. And I don't think I need to go into a sidebar here about the general taste and sophistication level of the American masses.

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Back in December, BurgerBusiness.com reported that the McDonald's co-op in central North Carolina had tweeted that it had plans to expand the All Day Breakfast menu. Then the tweets disappeared, the company said any such expansion if it happened would be local but not national. But now the McDonald's Triad Co-op not only has the bigger All Day Breakfast menu it promised -- 17 items; nearly double the nine on the national rollout menu -- it has a modified logo to promote it.

Initially, a market was either all-day-biscuit or all-day-muffins. Pick one. However, McDonald's Triad Co-op -- with 26 franchisees operating 92 McDonald's restaurants -- has both. Actually it has three platforms: muffins, biscuits and McGriddles all day, disproving the company's assertion that stores couldn't handle both biscuits and muffins all day.

The original All Day Breakfast menu unveiled in October offered nine items: Three muffin sandwiches (or three biscuit) plus Fruit & Maple Oatmeal, Sausage Burrito, Fruit & Yogurt Parfait, Hotcakes, Hotcakes & Sausage and hash brown.

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Perhaps a harbinger of what's to come nationally, the Triad market All Day Breakfast menu (above) looks like this: Three muffin sandwiches (Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin and Sausage McMuffin with Egg); four biscuit sandwiches (Bacon, Egg & Cheese, Sausage Biscuit with Egg, Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Biscuit and Sausage Gravy & Biscuit); three McGriddles (Bacon, Egg & Cheese; Sausage, Egg & Cheese, and Sausage); Hot cakes an Hotcakes with Sausage; Sausage Burrito; Fruit 'N Yogurt Parfait; and Fruit & Maple Oatmeal; and hash brown. That's 17 items.

A menu this big deserves a different logo, and the Triad Co-op is using one that trumpets "Bigger Menu."

All Day Breakfast came to McDonald's Australia last week, and, surprisingly, it's even more limited than the original U.S. menu. There are just six items on its "All Day Brekkie" menu, one of which is a buttered English Muffin. No biscuits; no McGriddles; no burritos, yogurt of oatmeal.

But what they do have that we lack is apparel (above). McDonald's Australia has teamed with designer Emma Muholland to create "All Day Brekkiewear" apparel. Initially at least, the clothing can be had only as a contest prize. Perhaps the clothing will be sold through the Big Mac Shop online apparel store that McDonald's operates in Canada, Australia and Europe.

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For lunch and dinner, McDonald's Australia has brought back two past LTO favorites: A Lamb & Feta McWrap, as well as a Chicken Caesar McWrap (Grilled or Crispy chicken).

Also on HuffPost:
My husband is very supportive. My three grown sons feel some mixture of pride, amusement, and embarrassment about my latest book Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir, which has been featured in popular publications and websites. My friends are happy for me in my new role as a marijuana advocate.

But my mom does not approve.



You would think at my age it wouldn't matter. After all, I'm collecting Social Security myself. Barcroft TV, a UK outfit, made a short documentary about me with the demeaning title, "Potty Pensioner Puffs A Joint A Day For Fifty Years."

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Still, I want my 92-year-old mother to encourage me in my candor about cannabis.

After all, we have so much in common. She's always been a free spirit, a bohemian, a woman of the senses. Like me, she's a writer, and her subject of choice is the French author Colette, who celebrates touch, taste, smell (senses marijuana enhances). Like me, my mother has been passionate about various causes, in her case noise pollution and historic preservation. Why can't she have more sympathy for cannabis legalization?

Her dry assessment of my book? "I liked it more than I intended."

In all fairness, she's given pot a try. I got her high once or twice, with great difficulty, for she has trouble with the smoking process. She coughs a lot and seems to believe that tilting her head back, rather than inhaling, will bring smoke into her lungs. Once high, she is merry and talkative--pretty much the same way she's usually merry and talkative.

A few years ago, while traveling together in Hawaii, my oldest son gave my mother a marijuana cookie. Then they drove around the island in their rented convertible. From my son's account:

As we're driving the sun is setting, and I've got Thievery Corporation on the stereo. My very cool grandmother, who has never liked ANY electronic music, turns to me and goes: "This music is soooooooo good!" I cracked up. Pretty soon she's telling me "I get it, I really get it! I know why everyone likes marijuana!" It wasn't long before she was asking for some water, and then more or less fell asleep.



But while my mother enjoyed these experiences, she doesn't approve of regular use. She's not sure marijuana should be legalized, because she doesn't like the idea of children getting stoned. I explode, "Nobody likes that idea! But there will be strict age limits." She looks dubious.



She herself is a "high on life" kind of person, although she's too sophisticated to put it like that. She doesn't have the need to enhance, or escape from, reality. She gets no particular pleasure from alcohol, either: what's the point when life is so exciting and hilarious just as it is?

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"Not everyone has that outlook, mom. Not everyone is as lucky as you."



A week after that conversation, something wonderful happened. My mom read an article in the New Yorker which said that blacks and whites use weed at comparable rates but in state prisons, there are significant racial disparities in "low level drug offenders -- possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia." In New York state, a black person is 4.5 times as likely as a white person to be arrested for weed.



And for a few days my mother's attitude changed. I even got an email saying she was proud of me for fighting injustice. Then Pope Francis became her new crush, because of his environmental encyclical, and my mother slipped back into her usual disdain for cannabis.

Last summer, I gave a reading at Canio's Bookstore in Sag Harbor, where she lives. Shortly into the Q & A, my mother stood up, clambered onto the stage, and pronounced, "I just want you all to know that I do not endorse my daughter's ideas!"

I have been to many readings, but I've never seen the like! Perhaps I should introduce her to my new vaporizer.
DORAL, FL - MARCH 06: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes an appearance prior to the start of play during the final round of the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral Blue Monster Course on March 6, 2016 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Well, that was a quick counter-revolution. The Republican Party establishment, realizing it was teetering on the edge of a very dark abyss, tried to marshal its once-formidable forces to defeat Donald Trump. Out trotted Mitt Romney, backed by John McCain -- the party's two previous presidential candidates -- to condescendingly explain (establishment-splain?) why Trump was utterly inconceivable as their proud party's nominee. Trump was beyond the pale, absolutely unacceptable, not welcome, an interloper, and the only possible thing to do would be to shun, expel, reject, ostracize, and shame Trump into handing the Republican Party's voters back to their rightful owners. The hashtag "#NeverTrump" appeared as a rallying cry, and millions of dollars are being donated by fatcats for the purpose of (finally!) running some scathing anti-Trump ads to take the insurgent down.

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That's all fine and good, as far as it goes. The problem with this nascent movement, however (only one of its problems, I should say), is that it simply doesn't go far enough. The entire premise briefly saw the light of day, and then it was immediately kneecapped by just about everyone involved in the effort. This was most evident on the last Republican debate stage, hosted by Fox News. Fox had kicked off the GOP debate season by asking how many candidates would forswear a third-party bid and support the eventual nominee, no matter whom he or she turned out to be. This was intended to "trap" Trump, and was followed by actual party loyalty oaths signed by each candidate in fealty to the Republican National Committee. Last week, Fox moderators put a bookend on this initial question by asking at the very end of the debate whether all the four remaining candidates would support the Republican nominee -- even if it was Donald Trump (for Trump, it was even if it is not you, of course). All four answered in the affirmative. Marco Rubio is promoting the whole "Never Trump" theme on his campaign site, but he stood there and admitted that "never" might not be quite as long as you'd imagine. "Never Trump," except if he wins the nomination, in other words, and then: "Reluctantly Trump, because Hillary Clinton."

Almost everyone involved in the effort to tear down Trump eventually had to admit the same thing. Here is Mitt Romney, on yesterday's Meet The Press, answering a question about a hypothetical open national convention and whether he would run if the convention begged him to:

I'm not going to be a candidate, I'm going to be endorsing one of the people who's running for president. And one of the people, I can guarantee you this, one of the people running for president, one of the four, is going to be the Republican party nominee.

Got that? "One of the four" -- in other words, Mitt made a long speech full of many detailed reasons why Donald Trump is absolutely unacceptable as a presidential candidate; but if Trump becomes the nominee, then Mitt will put party in front of country and go right ahead and support Trump anyway.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan issued a statement of his own last week, after Trump's David Duke gaffe. Like Mitt's, it was strongly-worded. Also like Mitt, Ryan immediately backed away from it. The Washington Post put this doublethink on prominent display:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan stepped in front of cameras Tuesday and delivered just the sort of high-minded, clear-eyed, aspirational message that has made him a Republican Party standard-bearer. "This party does not prey on people's prejudices; we appeal to their highest ideals," he said. "We believe all people are created equal in the eyes of God and our government. This is fundamental, and if someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this." Moments later, asked what if that nominee were in fact Donald Trump -- who days before had balked at denouncing the Ku Klux Klan -- he was forced to retreat from the moral high ground. "I plan to support the nominee," he said.

Now, to be fair, some Republicans do mean what they say when they vow they'll never vote for Trump. They say they'll stay home, or vote for (shudder!) Hillary, or write in Condi Rice, or whatever else helps them sleep at night -- but they will not vote for Trump, even if he does become the Republican nominee. Unfortunately, though, most of the people who have publicly taken such a strong stand are relatively minor characters in the GOP. All the high-profile ones -- the Republican congressional leaders, the current candidates for president not named Trump, and the previous presidential nominees -- they all want to have it both ways. Trump is completely unacceptable -- right up until he faces off with Hillary Clinton, and then suddenly he magically becomes a lot more acceptable.

By taking this inherently contradictory stance, they have undercut the #NeverTrump movement in its infancy. If never doesn't really mean never, then why even bother? Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz spent two hours begging voters to see the light and reject Trump because he was wrong about so many issues near and dear to Republican hearts, and then they completely negated all of it with their answer to the final debate question. "OK, well I guess I'll just ignore everything else I've said tonight about how dangerous it would be to have Donald Trump as our party's nominee, and say that I'd fully support him if he beats me," was their clear message. Fox did the nation a public service by asking the question so pointedly, in fact, because it exposed the weakness of the #NeverTrump movement in unequivocal fashion.

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Which is why I'm predicting that #NeverTrump is going to fade away pretty quickly, especially if Trump wins either Florida or Ohio next Tuesday. In fact, let's have a little contest in the comments section for what the hashtag should morph into. Perhaps "#Never*Trump" (so you can add a footnote to it later)? Here are a few other suggestions, to get the ball rolling:

#NeverTrumpOhWaitDidRubioJustLoseFlorida?

#NeverTrumpUntilTheConventionAtLeast

#NeverTrumpExceptNeverNeverNeverClinton

#OKWhatTheHellGoDonald

We've only got a little over a week before #NeverTrump starts its inevitable decline. So the contest will remain open until we all watch the returns come in next Tuesday. What do you think #NeverTrump should become, at that point? Let everyone know, down in the comments. [Winners will receive absolutely nothing, other than a hat tip in a future column, just to be clear.]

Chris Weigant blogs at:
"The State Department has completed two environmental impact statements on the pipeline with the help of Cardno Entrix, a private environmental consulting firm that has said its biggest clients include TransCanada Corp., the owner of the Keystone pipeline system, whose current routes extend from Hardisty, Alberta, to Oklahoma and Illinois.

Cardno Entrix gained national attention last year as the environmental consultant for BP after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Environmental Protection Agency has criticized the resulting assessments as fundamentally flawed.

"What we've seen from the State Department recently are sloppy reports, inadequate investigations and a total disregard for the dozen accidents that occurred" in the existing Keystone I pipeline, said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. "If the president doesn't stand up, all signs point to an agency that is simply going through the motions before giving its approval."
Just when you think this political season can't be any more ridiculous, you turn on the TV and who is sitting on the panel to weigh in on the politics and political climate of the country?

The gay guy from American Idol.

A 74-year-old socialist is running for president, Donald Trump is talking about setting up a registry of Muslims in the U.S., and Clay Aiken is talking about politics on cable news.

Surely these are end times.

I know that seeing reality stars in the political arena must be jarring. But then again, maybe not. Donald Trump is, if nothing else, a reality star -- one whose growing influence over millions of voters is a bit terrifying. I know and like Trump as a person but let me be clear: I would never vote for him.

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No matter -- I still respect where he's coming from. That's because Trump and I have more in common than our time on reality shows. We've both run for office as outsiders appealing to the increasingly vocal voters who are fed up with Washington and the politicians who seem like they no longer represent ordinary people.

During my 2014 campaign for the U.S. House seat in my North Carolina home district, I spent my time trying to convince remarkably Republican voters to vote for me despite my decidedly progressive views. In a district like mine, a Democrat must win over conservatives to even have a prayer. In fact, if every Democrat in North Carolina's 2nd District had voted for me, I still would have needed some Republicans to cross over and give me a chance.

And that meant rubbing shoulders with plenty of Tea Party voters. So there I was, gay as Christmas, campaigning at a pig pickin' where the raffle giveaway was a semiautomatic rifle and the local state senator insisted on calling our president by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama (jingoistic emphasis on the "Hussein").

Throughout the campaign, though, I came to discover that many voters on the right and left in my district (and I daresay the country), despite having very different political beliefs, shared one thing in common -- their disdain for politicians.

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To be clear, I also don't want my Tea Party friends from North Carolina to keep winning elections and voting people into office. But I appreciate their involvement in the process. I appreciate that they have joined the conversation as outsiders, as voices that don't necessarily represent the norm or the expected or the typical. I certainly don't agree with them, but I think their participation should be respected.

Which brings us to 2016. What we're seeing on the national stage is basically what I experienced in my little corner of North Carolina but writ large.

Primary voters are saying loudly and clearly that they are fed up with a system that rewards those who play the political game at the expense of their constituents. On the left, we're seeing that in the surprisingly resilient campaign of Bernie Sanders, who, despite being written off as dead by the mainstream media, keeps winning more states. On the right, we're seeing it in Donald Trump's seemingly unstoppable march to the Republican nomination.

And while Trump is legitimately terrifying, I would argue that the rise of outside politicians like Trump and Sanders may ultimately be a good thing for our country.

Maybe these aren't end times after all. Maybe it's a beginning.

Maybe it's the beginning of the movement that Bernie Sanders talks about -- where power starts being taken away from the Washington politicians and put back into the hands of the people. Maybe it's the beginning of a shift in politics where those running for office are more willing to speak unscripted and unapologetically, like Trump does, because they aren't worried about the money they need to raise from lobbyists.

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Maybe it's just the beginning of a real and serious national conversation about this important issue. If that's all it turns out to be, it's still an important step ... and the conversation will have gotten started by two very unexpected voices.
A new survey has found that 61 percent of LGBT people would not travel to a destination where homosexuality is illegal.

The survey of over 900 readers, carried out by my travel company OutOfOffice.com in conjunction with Attitude Magazine, did however find that 60 percent of travellers did not want to be restricted to LGBT friendly destinations only, rather wanting freedom to travel to any destination.

It really upsets me that in this day and age the LGBT community still feel unable to travel to any destination on earth. Clearly there is still some way to go in order to break down the barriers that exist and to ensure that the law is made equal everywhere.

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But the survey results also show that there is still a lot of trepidation when it comes to choosing where to travel as an LGBT individual. Whilst there are parts of the world where it's dangerous to be LGBT, there are also parts of the world that outlaw homosexuality but that with the proper advice it is still safe to travel to such as India and the Maldives.

Homosexuality is illegal in over 70 countries worldwide and many countries still do not have equal employment, marriage or adoption rights.

But it's encouraging to see that 60 percent of LGBT travellers don't want to feel restricted by the law either, even if they do at the present moment.

Personally, I want to see the world and I would and have travelled to a number of places it's technically illegal to be gay. I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power and as long as you are aware of the law of a country that should not prohibit you from exploring and enjoying it.

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The law is developing all the time and it's important that LGBT travellers seek expert advice before travelling to certain destinations. There are great resources on the internet such as Equaldex that provide the most up-to-date information anywhere online about the existing laws relating to LGBT rights in any country.

Other findings from the survey included:

- Majority of respondents (52 percent) travelled in a couple whilst 21 percent travelled solo.

- 64 percent of those surveyed said that they would take up to 2 holidays in Europe of a week or more in the next year whilst 56 percent said they would do the same worldwide.

- Paris was the most popular city people expected to visit in the next 12 months, with Barcelona and Amsterdam next on the list.

- Internationally, New York was the most visited destination with Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami and Thailand next.

- The majority of respondents (82 percent) opt for a beach holiday or one which involves culture, history and heritage (82 percent) with 58 percent saying they enjoy nightlife and clubbing.

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Kevin Winter via Getty Images

I remember attending a 4th of July picnic by Northwestern University in 1995. I wasn't a huge alternative music fan, but one of my friends played the album Jagged Little Pill. Usually, it took at least three listens for me to fall in love with an album, but I was instantly hooked on Alanis Morissette's latest effort. I had heard "You Oughta Know" on a new music special, but it didn't completely burn in until I heard it at the picnic.

All of my friends, who were diehard alternative music fans, couldn't stop bragging about how much the song meant to them. Everybody could identify with this song as well as others from the album. During that summer, they became Alanis Morissette "stans." The funny thing is that three years later, they wouldn't be caught dead listening to Morissette's new album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, though -- technically, at least -- the album was just as good as her 1995 megahit. For them and many others, Alanis Morissette had "ruined" alternative music.

Back in 1995, however, Morissette lent a voice to feminists, gay men, lapsed Catholics, and others. Her music and voice displayed a repressed angst that sold incredibly well since many could identify with it. "You Oughta Know" was about a jilted lover everybody had at one time or another. "All I Really Want" was about a hostile relationship. Perhaps the most powerful song on the album was "Forgiven," a song about Catholic guilt, hypocrisy, and (possibly) abuse before the world was comfortable talking about this in the early 2000s.

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It was as if Alanis took the confronting feminist mantle from Madonna and explored the topics of sexuality, repression, and non-guilt for a new generation of women. Ironically, Jagged Little Pill was released on Madonna's record label Maverick. In 1995 and 1996, Alanis Morissette was literally Queen of the Universe.

There were some lighter and fluffier songs on Morissette's album such as "Hand in My Pocket" (about discovering positive things in negative situations), "Ironic" (hope you never have rain on your wedding day) and "You Learn." Alanis's popularity peaked during the Summer of 96, when she toured to promote Jagged Little Pill. I remember seeing her at the Poplar Creek Music Theater near Chicago. It was a great show in which the audience was really involved. The only thing I didn't like was how Morissette constantly did some move where she circled around and pulled her hair. Still, it was one of the most memorable concert experiences of my life.

Soon, the backlash started. It didn't help that Morissette won five Grammy awards the next year. For many people, Alanis took alternative music and turned it into mainstream music, which was cheapened even more after she won all the Grammys. More and more, people doubted her authenticity, especially since she recorded two fluff pop albums as a teenager. Morissette would soon be dissed by Joni Mitchell and Jagged Little Pill was named the worst album of the year in a late 1996 Rolling Stone reader's poll.

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Alanis was able to produce one more big hit in 1998 with "Uninvited" from the City of Angels soundtrack. Later that year, her new album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie sold well at first, but faded away fast and failed to produce a top-ten hit. The album garnered excellent reviews, but the backlash and the new music scene, now filled with teen pop and hip hop, did Alanis in -- at least in terms of commercial success.
Ethiopia is suffering from the worst drought on record. It is vital that the United States and its partners act now to sustain the progress that has been made over the years in reducing hunger. The drought is caused in part by El Nino, which has disrupted weather patterns worldwide, and led to a widespread hunger crisis in Ethiopia today.

The Ethiopian government estimates that 10.2 million people are in need of emergency food aid. Hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of severe malnutrition because of lack of food. They are in addition to the nearly 8 million people already receiving aid through Ethiopia's existing anti-hunger and similar programs.

A decade before the drought, Ethiopia's economy grew by 10 percent annually. This enabled it to invest in agriculture and infrastructure, as well as health and education. These investments, supported by partners including the United States, have helped Ethiopia strengthen its resilience against crises. For example, the Production Safety Net Program helped to significantly reduce hunger and develop many large-scale water conservation and agricultural projects. Because of these investments, Ethiopia has weathered past severe droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, Ethiopia was not severely affected when neighboring Somalia suffered famine in 2011. In this current drought, the country might still be able to escape the kind of devastation it experienced in the 1980s when hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. Nevertheless, Ethiopia needs our help. According to USAID, over one-third of Ethiopia's people live in poverty. Four out of every ten children under five are stunted. Through our taxpayer-funded Feed the Future program, we reach 16.8 million Ethiopians. This USAID-administered program supports agriculture, food security, and nutrition projects. In just three years, Feed the Future has helped reduce stunting among children by 9 percent.However, the current drought could jeopardize all the progress that has been made in Ethiopia. In January, USAID provided $97 million in emergency assistance for Ethiopia. Last week, USAID administrator Gayle Smith dispatched a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to the drought-stricken country.

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The team will provide technical assistance to the Ethiopian government. In addition, DART will provide emergency food assistance, safe drinking water, and better nutrition. It will also help ensure Ethiopians can grow life-saving crops to feed themselves in the coming months. The shift from emergency assistance to self-sufficiency is important in order to meet the immediate needs of Ethiopians, as well as their long-term self-reliance.

We, at Bread for the World, have supported USAID's proactive approach in the past, and we continue to do so now in light of Ethiopia's drought. Investments made now will save lives and money later. The Ethiopian government estimates that $1.4 billion is needed. However, less than half of that has been raised. Our government, our churches, our charities in the United States must do more to meet this need.

We know the damage malnutrition and hunger can do, especially among pregnant women and children below age 2. The physical and cognitive damage caused by malnutrition in the critical 1,000 days of an infant is irreversible. The consequences, including stunting, are lifelong.

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We, at Bread for the World, urge our federal government and other partners to ensure that agricultural development aid is combined with social protection programs. These investments will help reach vulnerable women and children in the poorest countries.
There's been a lot of talk about how public schools in America are in desperate need of an upgrade, and Silicon Valley is starting to show interest in applying technology to solve the problem.

I applaud the tech community for their commitment to preparing future generations for careers in the 21st-century workplace - but what about the millions of working-age Americans struggling to keep up with changing technology and the growing skills gap those changes are creating today?



The "21st-century workplace" isn't some futuristic concept we need to plan ahead for; it's already here. With globalization and labor automation more commonplace than ever before, companies are desperate to find employees with current tech skills as well as those who understand how business is conducted across borders.

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We can't afford to wait for better-suited graduates to enter the workforce 10+ years from now. The next generation of workers needs a modern education, but they also need parents with jobs.

While the unemployment rate may have fallen to an eight-year low in January, we also have a record number of job openings. This may sound positive, but it reveals a disconnect between people looking for work and companies looking for talent. According to the latest report by the Social Security Administration, more than half of all US workers currently earn less than $30,000 a year, which means a lot of employed people are stuck in crummy, low-paying jobs. Moreover, many of those low-wage workers simply don't have access to the education and skills training that would qualify them for better jobs.

Even workers comfortable in good jobs don't have a sense of security anymore. Great employees are the lifeblood of great companies, and in today's knowledge-based economy this is more true than ever. At the same time, though, today's "great" employee is quickly outdated with the next update of tomorrow.

For companies, hiring employees of every age who are willing, able, and excited to learn new skills is now vital to maintaining a competitive edge. These employees continue to make valuable contributions over the course of their careers, even as their roles change to meet new market demands.

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Retaining these lifelong learners -- and creating an environment that continues to attract them -- means providing the resources to pursue skills growth. It also means fostering environments conducive to continuous learning and giving employees generous access to training programs on platforms they can access from anywhere and anytime.

Of course, providing the resources is only half the battle.

Companies can provide every educational resource under the sun, but employees are the ones who ultimately must use them. Employees must be engaged and actively want to learn. They expect to consume educational content just like they consume every other kind of content -- as on-demand, interactive video that is accessible across devices.

In addition, educational programs should expand people's areas of expertise. Workers should be encouraged to explore skills potentially unrelated to their work but delivered in a way that demonstrates relevance. For example, everyone can benefit from learning new project management skills, but the way you deliver training to an engineer is not necessarily the most effective way to train a marketer or salesperson. Ultimately, programs should be tailored to meet the unique skills of the individual.

Not every company can build its own training platform. However, when the democratization of educational tools and resources is taken into account, it is possible for every company to make significant strides in reskilling their employees and setting them up for ongoing success in today's rapidly-changing workplace.
As many of us who share our lives with a canine companion or several have long known, dogs suffer from the "green eyed monster" in much the same way we do. And now there's scientific evidence to confirm our suspicions.

Dogs React Jealously When Owners Pay Attention to Faux Dog

Two researchers at the University of California, San Diego conducted a jealousy study with 36 small dogs. The dogs were all under 35 pounds and/or shorter than 15 inches. This was so the researchers could more easily control undesirable behaviors. In the group of 36 were 14 mixed breed dogs and a variety of purebred toy and small breeds.

Each dog was videotaped in his or her own home while the owner interacted with a barking, whining, tail-wagging animatronic dog, a children's book, and a plastic jack-o-lantern. The owners were told to ignore their dogs while interacting with the other objects. The videos were then evaluated for aggressive, disruptive, and attention-seeking behaviors from the dogs.

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The dogs barked at -- and a quarter of them snapped at -- the robotic dog when their owners petted or praised it. About a third tried to get in between their owner and the stuffed dog. The dogs displayed less of this type of behavior when their owners paid attention to the jack-o-lantern or read aloud from the children's book.

About 78 percent of the dogs tried to push or touch their owner when the owner was interacting with the fake dog, compared to 42 percent that interfered when the owner was handling the jack-o-lantern. And only 22 percent displayed the behavior when the owner read the children's book.

Dogs Are Motivated to Protect Important Relationships

According to the researchers, the dogs' jealousy was triggered by social interaction and not just because their owners were ignoring them to focus on the pumpkin or the book. Also, most of the dogs (86 percent) sniffed the butt of the robotic dog, indicating they viewed it as real.

According to study co-author Christine Harris, a UC San Diego psychology professor, in a news release:

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"Our study suggests not only that dogs do engage in what appear to be jealous behaviors but also that they were seeking to break up the connection between the owner and a seeming rival.

"We can't really speak to the dogs' subjective experiences, of course, but it looks as though they were motivated to protect an important social relationship."

These findings are similar to results of human studies in which babies as young as 6 months showed jealousy when their mothers paid attention to realistic-looking dolls, but did not show jealousy when mom read a book.

"We share a tremendous amount of emotional life with dogs."

Patricia McConnell, an animal behavior expert and best-selling author of several books about dog behavior, while impressed with the UC San Diego study, was not surprised by its findings:

"I think we share a tremendous amount of emotional life with dogs," McConnell told CNN. "But I have never thought of jealousy as a particularly complex emotion (in animals). Is human jealousy exactly like dog jealousy? I'm sure it's not."

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The UC San Diego researchers theorize that social animals like dogs and humans might be driven by nature to feel jealous in the face of threats to important relationships.

What we do know for certain is that the emotion of jealousy, when acted upon, can have significant psychological and social consequences. The researchers hope future studies will further explore the triggers and internal drivers of jealousy.

Dr. Karen Becker is a proactive and integrative wellness veterinarian. You can visit her site at: MercolaHealthyPets.com

Her goal is to help you create wellness in order to prevent illness in the lives of your pets. This proactive approach seeks to save you and your pet from unnecessary stress and suffering by identifying and removing health obstacles even before disease occurs. Unfortunately, most veterinarians in the United States are trained to be reactive. They wait for symptoms to occur, and often treat those symptoms without addressing the root cause.
I always felt that being single in NYC was the best way to experience the city. It meant having all the time in world to devote to shopping, while also spending evenings lingering over "Sex & the City" type dinners amongst girlfriends, and no man to feel jealous about or bored with. Sorry guys, this was NYC in the 90s and the 2000s and girls did just wanna to have fun.

Then I grew up a bit and outgrew NYC, I'll admit it. Outgrew it because while the Big Apple is exceptional as a playground for the very young, there is a generational gap that hits those stuck now between the ages of the bar-hopping twenty-somethings and the gala-attending sixty-something crowds. If you find yourself somewhere in the middle there, have I got the perfect place for you!

Dubai is the new mecca -- pardon the pun -- of the single and fun seeking. There are communal lunches, morning markets that encourage interaction, Polo brunches and wine and cheese evenings that can't be beat. Add to that a once-a-week ladies night that offers, every Tuesday, free drinks and great noshes, at every bar and restaurant in the megalopolis -- and you've got the perfect storm to create an idyllic single's paradise.

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I picked a few favorites based on my own hobbies and taste but there is definitely way too much to do and much too little time to do it in, in Dubai.

The Long Table is a concept that has been recreated around the world, after a restaurant in Bangkok created a communal dinner table where people could meet and mingle, while having their meal. The Dubai Long Table brunch didn't hold the Guinness World Record for longest table, held instead by a company in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but it did hold my own personal record of most pleasant group of people surrounding my seat. I ended up knowing the matriarch of the family of five that were seated next to me and by the end of the brunch we'd all gotten our photo taken in colorful wigs and giant glasses. You know how they say that OPC -- "other people's children" -- are the best because you get to give them back at the end of the day? Well, I really didn't want to give these pint-sized rockstars in the making back at all, they were that cute, smart and inspiring.

But back to The Long Table. There were more than a 1,000 tickets sold for the brunch and even to my left I met two young and eligible bachelors who may have been snatched up by someone less interested in the junior group to my right. Yet we all know that a brunch is only as great as its food. For starters we were served some yummy eggplant appetizers along with smoked salmon and basil hummus dip, our mains consisted of chicken kebabs and a lamb cooked so beautifully it melted in my mouth, and dessert was a yummy cheesecake square with lemon curd. I bet I know the chef who came up with that last concoction...

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After lunch, my newly adopted family took me to see the HEAT by Mario Testino exhibit inside the Dubai Design District, or D3 as it is called here. There I met artist and fashion photographer Saeed Khalifa who wrapped up the show perfectly in a few words for me. "I am a big fan of Mario's work and I collect all the magazines and books his photographs are featured in, but seeing them this size and upclose, gave me goosebumps," said Khalifa, and I had to agree. There is something about the way Testino photographs women that goes beyond beauty, capturing the feminine spirit to its core.

On a different day, I had to try out the brunch at the Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club. On the weekend of the semi-finals to the Julius Baer Gold Cup, it was divine to sit at a table field-side, surrounded by food, a glass of bubbly in hand and watching what is quite possibly the most beautiful sport in the world. I sat through all six chukkers that make up a polo match, and sampled every kind of cuisine offered as part of the buffet, from Indian favorites like chicken biryani, to American soul food including mac & cheese and smoked chicken wings.

Right before dessert, which featured ice cream, chocolate tarts and a reinvented tiramisu, I ventured into the Polo Club's Cheese Room which boasts 56 different types of cheeses. Which gives me a smooth segue into their weekly Thursday evening "Cheese Vault and Raclette" event, where great wines and Champagne can be paired with any of the cheeses and enjoyed in a spectacular club room, complete with plush leather sofas and equine paintings.

If that wasn't enough, there is also a special spa package offered at the Polo Club, which includes a massage, unlimited use of the pool and gym, and a leisurely meal to be enjoyed by the polo field. Ralph Lauren's Polo Bar in NYC doesn't have anything on this place, I tell you!

Where is the best place for a single woman to come to terms with just how much the world has to offer, and where the true wonders of "singledom" lie? On my way out of the Dubai Polo Club, I stepped into the property's stables, which are so lush and well maintained even a human would be lucky to call them home. As I wandered through the long, impeccably clean lanes and was greeted by the soft characteristic nickering that horses use as a social "hello" to communicate with humans, I realized that the best way to be single is to never feel alone. How do I achieve that, you ask? By surrounding myself with friends, family and foals, all the while enjoying good food.

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Oh, and most certainly, by being in Dubai.
The artist's sacred trinity of life, struggle, and death is not a moralistic tale; it is a representation of the Chicano experience. Curator Selene Preciado, from the catalogue Jose Montoya's Abundant Harvest: Works on Paper/Works on Life

The artist to whom Ms. Preciado refers is Jose Montoya (1932-2013), considered by many the dean of Chicano cultural workers. Preciado co-edited Jose Montoya's Abundant Harvest: Works on Paper/Works on Life with Richard Montoya, playwright, filmmaker and son of the artist. The exhibition, a comprehensive survey that includes nearly 2,000 works, recently opened at UCLA's Fowler Museum. I was privileged to attend the opening reception.

The reference to Preciado and Montoya as "co-editors" is intriguing given that we are talking about a museum exhibition. As I made my way through the gallery the term, editor, made abundant sense, for Montoya was not only a prolific visual artist, he was masterful poet and musicianthe observant and loving chronicler of Chicano life. As Preciado notes, "For Montoya, the line and the word were interchangeable: his drawings were poetry; and his poems, drawings." Through Montoya's oeuvre, the exhibition closely examines the role that artists and poets played in the Chicano Movement. Abundant Harvest also includes a wall-mounted version of "Resonant Valley," a classic poem that affords us a poignant glimpse into his early life as a farmworker in California's central San Joaquin Valley, and a video featuring Montoya in an interview and performance.

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I am a product of the Chicano Movement. Jose Montoya, who was a half-generation ahead of me, loomed large in the social, political and cultural orientation that informed my early intellectual upbringing. I was an undergraduate at San Diego State when Chicano Park sprung up in the city's Logan Heights neighborhood in April 1970. Jose was part of the artist crew that executed the dramatic murals on the bridge support columns that dot the park. I can remember attending several music and poetry performances featuring Jose and his work. Later, as a law student at UC Davis, I attended exhibition openings and other programs organized by the irrepressible locura known as the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), a Sacramento-based Chicano artist collective he helped found. Essentially, Jose Montoya epitomized the Chicano Renaissance.

The Fowler and the co-editors could not have done better in characterizing the exhibition as Abundant Harvest. The 2,000 drawings on view constitute only a portion of his prodigious body of work. Jose drew constantly, in sketchbooks, on napkins or scraps of paper; whatever was available. Employing a wicked economy of line, he produced complete and complex scenes and portraits, notably of the pachucos and pachucas, who he referred to as the first "freedom fighters" of the Chicano Movement. Also included in his works are zoot suiters, cholas and abuelitas, soldiers and sailors (Montoya served in the Korean War), and farmworkers and other working class folkall rendered with deliberate tenderness.

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The exhibition's organizers chose an ingenuous approach to arrange the drawings. They curated nearly 100 individual boxes that evoke the grape trays used to hold the San Joaquin Valley's harvest. They stand in long rows like grapes planted in a vineyard, allowing visitors to walk freely among them and view their contents. Four of the rows are also named for the cardinal directions that are at the core of many mestizo-indigenous religious practices. The center row consists of actual grape trays filled with drawings of his favorite pachucos and pachucas, a kind of altar to his beloved freedom fighters.
By Ana Jose Varela-Gonzalez





Galicia is a peripheral region in the northwest of Spain, a coastal area and the destination for pilgrims on the route known as the Way of Saint James. Over the past eleven centuries the route has became an important axis for trade and for the dissemination of knowledge among the pilgrims travelling it and the towns it traverses. Galicia, as many other regions in the developed world, faces three intertwined challenges: an aging population, a high rate of unemployment (around 18 percent) and high production costs which hinder competition with other regions and Spain's competitiveness with other countries. High unemployment is compounded by a 24 percent income gap faced by Galician women.



Under such circumstances economic output and employment can be improved through sophisticated, research-based products and innovation that can deliver high-value products and services as well as high-quality employment. To address these issues, in 2011, Fundacion Barrie -an organization dedicated to Galicia's social and economic development where I work- started to think about ways to boost prosperity in the region through more balanced, diversified, and sustainable growth.



First, we analyzed the production of research in Galicia. The Report on Science in Galicia revealed that the technical level of approximately 6,600 researchers working in Galicia resembles that of scientists in any other part of the world. However, they were not as successful as other areas in generating economic value from their research and academic outcomes. Several relevant factors contributed to this situation. First, researchers and technology transfer professionals needed to improve their so-called transferable skills (effective communication, decision making, teamwork, leadership, time management, etc.). Secondly, to commercialize research results, it was necessary to develop international networks. Ultimately, we found that academia and industry often worked separately and did not fully understand each other.



Those three areas lacking development were tackled through courses, seminars, and workshops taught by the most prestigious organizations, researchers and technology transfer professionals who collaborated to improve the skills of Galician researchers. To expand their international networks, we promoted their participation in top international events focused on research results commercialization.

However, the biggest challenge was finding ways for academia and industry to work together. We reviewed examples from other countries and decided to establish a Research Seed Fund that would bridge the gap by creating public-private partnerships to generate economic value from research and intellectual capital. The fund would serve a double purpose. On the one hand, it would fund technological and science results to be developed to a stage where they could be transferred to industry. On the other hand, to ensure success, researchers and business professionals would be working together to build economic viable projects. This could be achieved by setting up new companies, or by licensing technologies to existing businesses.

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NasasBiotech researchers a spin-off of the Research Seed Fund, working at the laboratory.

For the selection process, we partnered with technology transfer offices seeking research projects that fit the purpose of the fund. An initial selection of 75 projects was reduced to seven which were presented to the investment committee and evaluated for various factors: the quality of the technology, its uniqueness, its advantages over existing technologies, the team behind it, the competition, the expected returns, and estimated time to market. Finally, five projects were chosen and we launched a strategic partnership whereby, Barrie Foundation earms a percentage of returns produced in order to create an evergreen fund. For each project, we developed a work plan with different milestones. Each milestone provides an opportunity to stop or continue a project. During the initial stages a considerable amount of effort was devoted to verification, proof-of-concept, or prototyping work. Then it was time for commercial viability and marketing strategies to be analyzed and implemented.

Of the five projects selected, only one did not meet milestones requirements and was abandoned. The Research Seed Fund continues supporting the remaining four projects, which range from biomedicine to high-performance computing software. In less than four years it has shown promising results: four validated proofs-of-concept, three new international patents, thirty nondisclosure agreements and five material transfer agreements signed, three licensing agreements, along with the founding of two new Galicia-based companies (Torusware and NasasBiotech).

Now that the methodology to harness the innovative potential of academia has been tested, we are aiming to increase its reach with the launch of a new project to transfer the Research Seed Fund methodology to public authorities so that the model created by Barrie Foundation can be replicated and scaled up. It will not be a mere handover of theoretical knowledge, but a very practical one. Over the next year we will be working with the Galician Innovation Agency to reproduce and improve the model we developed. Like the pilgrims Way of Saint James over the centuries, the Research Seed Fund seeks to foster dialogue, promote the dissemination of knowledge, and contribute to the economic and social development of those along the way.

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Pregnant woman holding a cigarette

Senator Blumenthal held a roundtable discussion with 15 medical professionals at the Yale School of Medicine recently to address the opioid epidemic in Conn. They shared anecdotes, suggestions and opinions about curbing the use of and misuse of drugs. In the opening paragraphs of the Register Citizen news report was the story that gave insight into the stigma that the medical field places on babies born to mothers that use drugs.

Wolfson treated the child as part of a physical diagnosis course. Now a cardiologist at Yale New Haven Hospital and chairman at the Connecticut State Medical Society Council, Wolfson said he recalls his teacher's response after he told him that he couldn't find anything wrong with the baby. "He says, 'You're right, there is nothing wrong with him; he's a junkie,'" Wolfson said.

Junkie, addicted baby, oxytot is the language used by many medical professionals while caring for these babies. From the day that these babies are born, a stigmatizing label has been placed upon them. The media then uses such language to shock and reinforce the myth that babies are born addicted. They are not; they have Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, (NAS) which is treatable.

Not only is this language an assault on pregnant women, referring to their babies as junkies continues the stigma and the underlying contempt into the next generation. Doctors know that NAS is treatable and that babies are not born addicted yet they do not speak up to correct the myth. These doctors know better; but they remain silent as the public outcry demands that pregnant women be forced into treatment, have their babies removed and reported to child protective services, charged with child abuse, arrested and imprisoned. When medical professionals allow themselves to refer to these babies in stigmatizing language, they perpetuate discrimination against pregnant women and the care of their infants to continue.

Advocates for prevention, treatment and recovery from substance use disorder are at a loss as to how to advocate for pregnant women that may have used during their pregnancy or who have substance use disorder. Pregnant women are left without support, little treatment options and an awkward silence of shame. Frightened, they fail to seek prenatal care, fail to confide in their doctors and may deliver without needed medical support. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist Committee Opinion reaffirmed in 2014 that drug enforcement policies deter women from seeking prenatal care and are contrary to the welfare of the mother and fetus. The opinion further states that obstetricians are encouraged to work to retract legislation that punishes women for substance abuse during pregnancy. Furthermore, other leading medical and public health groups -- such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association and the March of Dimes -- all oppose punitive responses to prenatal drug use. Contrary to these respected medical recommendations, legislators continue to pass laws to punish pregnant women or use legislation to force them into treatment; treatment that goes unfunded, does not provide for the complex issues of treating pregnant women, are extremely limited within states or simply does not exist.

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Fueled by media depictions of babies receiving neonatal aftercare, men and women alike view these infant pictures as distasteful and agree that mothers be held accountable when babies are born with symptoms of NAS. Unlike babies with fetal alcohol syndrome, which may leave permanent disabilities, babies with NAS do not show long-term effects and thrive normally. The public does not seem to understand that "Oxytots" grow to be beautiful children.

Advocates seeking forced treatment demand that women be held accountable for exposing their babies to substances while in the womb. Yet forced addiction treatment mandated through the criminal justice system and other forms of coercion is medically unsound and is viewed as unethical by both addiction specialists and the medical field. Legislators and governors are pushed by well meaning advocates wishing to expand treatment options without realizing that coercion is an unacceptable medical practice. Trying to prevent substance use and abuse in the youngest of children, legislation is written so that pregnant women as well as their doctors, nurses and hospitals are placed under strict guidelines and reporting requirements concerning pregnant women.

Hospitals have been forced to set policies of testing for drugs during pregnancy and birth and report these findings to police, many times without the mother's knowledge or consent. Babies are taken away from mothers, not allowed to nurse, may not be allowed to go home with the mother and may be placed in foster care. Mothers may lose housing benefits and medical benefits as well as other children in their care.

As the opioid and heroin crisis has expanded across the United States so too have laws specifically written against pregnant women that use drugs. These laws may have the best of intentions but are now being used to detain, force care and harshly punish. Instead of a welcomed birth event to be celebrated, the family is left distraught, shamed and traumatized. The doctor needs to report; a junkie was born.

Propublica investigative report titled, When the Womb is a Crime Scene expertly reported on how laws are being used to criminally charge and prosecute pregnant women. Although laws vary across the county, legislation in South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin are particularly harsh. Laws originally intended to protect mothers from assault of their unborn child are now being used to criminally prosecute pregnant women themselves. These are not isolated instances; pregnant women have a reason to fear.

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It is in the best interest of society for pregnant women to receive the prenatal healthcare that they deserve without stigmatizing language from medical professionals and the interference of law enforcement. For the sake of the child and the family, a new tone must be set during prenatal care and in the delivery room. A baby is born, not junkie, not addicted baby or oxytot; a beautiful baby.

Compassionate health care without fear-based legislation is what is needed to help families. Pregnant women need to be encouraged to seek prenatal care and substance treatment that is of benefit to the mother and child. They need privacy to honestly speak with their doctors about their medical needs without judgment or shame. More medical professionals need to advocate and protect the needs of the patient as they guide them through their pregnancies and birth. Supportive community services such as visiting nurses, parenting support, baby and mother wellness checks, nutritional counseling, educational services and childcare need to be affordable and easy to access. Respect, compassion, support and acceptance should be the standard of care and legislation should reflect that; our society depends on it.

This video gives further explanation into the unintended consequences of laws against pregnant women.

___________________

Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.
A vote for Sanders is, effectively, a vote for Clinton.

The Republican debate on Thursday, March 3, was an instructive moment in American politics. Viewers watched as the GOP establishment attacked the front runner Donald Trump in a coordinated effort and ended with every candidate on the stage re-pledging to support the billionaire if and when he becomes the nominee.

Before anyone on the left starts making hay, though: Bernie Sanders already did the exact same thing for Hillary Clinton back in late 2014. Sanders swore, before his campaign even began, that he would support the likely Clinton general election candidacy.

The American political duopoly does not allow for principled independence.

For the GOP, forcing Republican candidates for the presidential nomination must have seemed like a stroke of genius back in August. At that time, a Trump nomination didn't seem realistic. Party elders thought they could end a Trump independent bid for the presidency by forcing a public pledge during a prime-time debate.

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Things didn't work out the way the GOP establishment wanted them to. Trump not only refused to pledge allegiance to party over self in August (he later recanted), he actually gained support in the aftermath of that public stand. It's support that has continued, despite the efforts of party brass and his two closest challengers Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

Now, all three candidates sharing the limited real estate on the Republican stage -- Cruz, Rubio, and John Kasich -- have pledged once again that they will support Trump if and when he is the GOP nominee.

Many liberals have pointed out the hypocrisy in spending two hours tearing down an admittedly repulsive politician, only to end those hours by pledging to support him in the event of his nomination. And they are right -- this is the lowest form of hypocrisy and craven partisan pandering.

A vote for Rubio, Cruz, or Kasich is a vote for Trump.

Unfortunately, if a begrudging pledge by Trump's fellow Republicans to support him in the general election renders their criticism of him toothless, then what does that say about a pledge by an Independent Senator from Vermont whose candidacy is ostensibly based on striking terror in the hearts of the Democratic establishment?

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Or, to put it a different way: If Sanders wants to "highlight differences between himself and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton" on issues relating to party orthodoxy re free trade and the corporatocracy, that's fine as long as he doesn't pretend those differences really mean anything. Because they don't if the nominal socialist plans to endorse Clinton anyway, with no conditions -- which is, again, exactly what he promised to do.

It puts the lie to Sanders' declaration that he and Clinton are "trying to treat the American people with intelligence." Sanders is selling his supporters out to a different degree than other sheepdog Democrat candidates before him by promising to support the eventual Democratic nominee and not to run third party; his nominal independence could have left the possibility open but he closed the door on it before he even announced his candidacy.

A vote for Sanders is a vote for Clinton.

This leaves Sanders supporters with two viable ideological options: Either their candidate runs third party, in which case he is at least as much a liar as Clinton; or he endorses her and is a toothless Democratic Party shill whose candidacy only exists to shepherd unenthusiastic progressives to the party and Clinton.

These are similar to the two options that face the Republican electorate: Either their candidates reject the buffoonery and flirtation with white nationalism that the Trump campaign has begun to represent; or they agree to endorse him in the event he wins the nomination, rendering all their complaints meaningless.

The latter is the realistic choice for each party. And that will only lead to more disillusionment and anger, because even in the face of the public's utter rejection of establishment politics and partisan power plays, the duopolistic political machine continues onward into the future, crushing hope and idealism under the weight of its well funded heels. Sanders or Rubio, Clinton or Trump -- it makes no difference in the end.

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As long as the American electoral system is allowed to run as a duopoly, rhetoric and movements within the two parties will be empty and fail to create any alternative to the political system. The empty promise of the Sanders candidacy and the craven refusal to buck party bosses by the non-Trump GOP candidates makes this crystal clear.
President Obama's long-promised plan for closing Guantanamo Bay has gone to Congress - with something of a whimper. It is not much of a plan, is it? It is essentially a restatement of what he said seven years ago when, as his first promise in office, he made the obvious case that the Cuban prison has been a disaster for America.

It is twelve years now since a U.S. intelligence officer opined in public that for every detainee we have abused and held without trial we have provoked ten people to wish us harm. He would surely revise his estimate upwards today: while Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda was a "small organization" in 2001, numbering a few hundred, thousands of disaffected youth have flocked to the ominous black banner of ISIS. And ISIS has used the infamous orange uniform of Guantanamo as a symbol, tormenting their hostages before savagely murdering them. This is not to suggest ISIS is anything but a barbaric group of millenarian misfits, but rather that the symbolism of Guantanamo has created a grotesque counter-symbolism that threatens global security. As both President Bush and President Obama have recognized, Guantanamo is destructive of our national interests and destructive of our effort to create a compelling counter-narrative to ISIS in the Middle East.



So President Obama is right: Guantanamo has been a disaster, undermining everything we stand for. But what does his new "plan" actually provide? Does it restore American moral authority? Does it stop the bleeding in the battle for Middle Eastern hearts and minds?

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There are some telling facts. President Obama projects that if Guantanamo remains open, and the current 91 detainees are whittled down to some 60 or so, they will be costing us some $15 million a year per prisoner. You would think for that money that they were being maintained in some Trump residence. But from my experience in the miserable conditions - for prisoner and soldier alike - at what has been labeled the Gitmo Gulag, it is unfathomable where our tax dollars go. There are 91 men, many debilitated by protracted hunger strikes, shackled in a maximum security facility patrolled by detachments of soldiers and armored HUMV's on a spit of land in Cuba ringed by shark-infested waters. They are not going anywhere. Yet Guantanamo spends vast amounts on unnecessary security that is a colossal waste of resources. Many of the young reservists are indoctrinated by commanding officers that they are guarding "the worst of the worst," despite the fact that only ten of these men have ever been charged with a crime and many have been cleared for release for years and are waiting for a third country to take them.

Yet President Obama's "solution" is troubling. He speaks of working with Congress as if, in this most bizarre of election years, it is likely that the party of Trump, Cruz and Rubio, after seven years of frustrating him at every turn, is going to quietly close the prison down. Ultimately, Obama is going to have to take a leaf out of his Republican predecessor's book and assert executive authority, here made the more credible in his role as Commander-in-Chief.

Second, the President is vague when he advocates changes to the Military Commissions, first confected in 2003, as if the current Congress would agree to that either. This discredited and dysfunction tribunal has thus far convicted not a soul in 13 years, not even the alleged 9/11 conspirators. He should simply turn to Article III courts and the Uniform Code of Military Justice - as required by the Geneva Conventions and by good sense. For this, he needs no Republican approval. American courts have a far better record, promptly and effectively trying accused terrorists. The Military Commissions cannot even sort out what law or procedure applies. The Military Commissions have failed. Anyone who can be tried should be tried in Article III courts.

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Third, he advocates continued detention without trial - ad infinitum - for some prisoners if they are transferred to the mainland. This appears to be a group of 40-50 whom the President has determined cannot be tried, but he will not release. Presumably, the evidence is either not available to be submitted to a court or obtained by torture. But it also may not exist. Having seen numerous dossiers, I cannot but conclude that much of what counts as intelligence would be laughed out of court. Bringing these men to America would simply establish Guantanamo North, a place where America, for the first time in its history, asserts a right to detain without trial for life. Frankly, they might be better off in Guantanamo where at least they have each other and their shared history of indefinite detention, rather than being dispersed in American prisons and forgotten.
As perhaps never before in our history, all the pieces are in place for a democracy movement to take off in America, one strong enough to tackle the system-roots of our country's crises.

What? You don't see it?

I understand, because it is really hard to discern the democratic impulse in a political culture increasingly dominated by bluster, bullying, and blame, all bank-rolled by a tiny minority.

But here's all I ask -- that you take in the six key pieces below, and then imagine what they could add up to, and your place in them.

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One: We're angry. Not handfuls of marginal "activists" but most Americans -- left, right, middle -- are really pissed. We know things are foundationally unfair, and getting worse -- in just the first three years after the '08 Wall St. crash, 91 percent of all income gains went to the top 1 percent. So today the 20 richest Americans hold as much wealth as the bottom half of our entire population. Twenty people? Please let this sink in. In the Manhattan coffee shop where I sit, that's the number in easy view. Incredible.

Two: We now know the system is rigged. We know that those making the rules in Washington and our state houses make them in the service of those who fund them, not the vast majority of us. Out of 120 million American households, just 158 families contributed nearly half the money in the early stage of the 2016 presidential election. No wonder 84 percent of American adults believe that money has too much influence in politics. We feel evicted from our home -- democracy itself

Three: We're finally connecting the dots. More and more of us grasp that whether the outrage most afflicting us, or moving us, is hunger and homelessness, racism in all its forms, roadblocks to unions, an unjust justice system, crippling student debt, unaffordable housing, assault on voting rights, our climate catastrophe, or a maddening healthcare system, we see that without democracy we're stuck. Our inability to solve any of these problems -- for which solutions are already known -- comes back to one thing: the growing democracy deficit as the voices of regular citizens are drowned out by the megaphones of great wealth.

Four: We agree on solutions. Fully 85 percent of us want deep change or a complete "rebuild" of our campaign finance system. Almost two-thirds of us want "citizen-funded" elections and 80 percent oppose secret or "dark" money in political contests. And 78 percent of us want the Citizens United ruling overturned. I for one can't recall such widespread agreement across party and generational lines, ever.

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Plus, another great thing: Most of the solutions favored by so many Americans today are already proven to work. They include at least these five elements:

Citizen-funded elections

Disclosure of political funding sources

A strong election-rule enforcement agency staffed by people who believe in the rules

A ban on non-persons (i.e. corporations) influencing elections. (Among many reasons for limiting participation to real human beings is that healthy democracy depends on citizens able to weigh the impact of their choices on the wellbeing of our whole society not just on our own pocketbooks. Corporations fail the test.)

An end to the "revolving door" between lawmaker and lobbyist that lures legislators to make choices based on future employment options and circles lobbyists with strong loyalties to industry back into shaping laws.

Five: We're uniting across old divides. Did you ever imagine environmental, civil rights, and labor activists all organizing toward common goals? Likely not. Yet, recently 131 organizations came together to create a Unity Statement of Principles on solutions to the undue influence of money in politics. And two years ago six huge but very different groups -- the Sierra Club, NAACP, Greenpeace, AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers of America, and Common Cause -- created a coalition called Democracy Initiative to press forward essential democratic system-reforms. It helped lead the 2015 thousand-mile march for voting rights restoration. Now roughly fifty issue organizations are on board.

Plus, thought-leaders from both left and right are standing up for democracy. Robert Reich, who most recently wrote Saving Capitalism for the Many Not the Few, is a powerful progressive voice. Law professor Richard W. Painter made the "Conservative Case for Campaign Finance Reform" in the New York Times last month. And Tea Party strategist John Pudner now leads Take Back Our Republic, an organization building conservative support for reducing the influence of private wealth in politics.

Six: A massive and savvy citizens' movement is taking off. We've learned a lot since the Occupy Movement focused hearts and minds on the inequality crisis. The movement now arising is organized, goal oriented, and amazingly unified. So, this April, get ready to join in two of its unprecedented public actions.

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First is Democracy Spring. Launched last fall by 99Rise and Avaaz, it now has one hundred organizational backers, including the Small Planet Institute. Demanding fundamental electoral reform for citizen-funded elections, voting rights protection, and beginning the process of amending the constitution, its march begins April 2nd at the Liberty Bell in Philly and travels to the steps of the capitol on the 11th. There, 2,000 have already pledged to risk arrest if Congress does not act on its demands.

Starting on the 16th, a broad coalition, Democracy Awakening, takes up the torch! A series of public actions include a march, teach-ins, a concert, a human circle around the capitol, and visits to legislators to press the case for democracy in America. Already about 200 organizations, including mine, are official endorsers.

These mobilizations are enabled by strong communications across issue lines and really savvy use of social media. They are intergenerational, with a spirit appreciative of diversity of views. All this looks, feels, talks, and walks like what could be an historic citizens' movement.

Surely, you would not want to miss out!

On the sites linked above and at our Field Guide to Getting-Money-Out of-Politics Movement you'll find groups eager for your enthusiastic engagement. There are so many ways to jump in: Join or start a campus group through Democracy Matters or get in through your faith community through DemocraticFaith.com. Ask teachers and students you know to bring the debate on the shape of our democracy into their classrooms. Sign up to help register voters and to get out the vote this election year!

To seize this moment in which six essential pieces are now in place, there is, though, one still-needed ingredient I've yet to mention: the catalytic agent bringing all this to life.

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Some might say that ingredient is greater compassion, but I sense that human hearts are good enough. Since our species is so deeply social, what's even tougher to come by is courage--the courage to break with the pack and take a stand.

True, the deeply human need for inclusion and camaraderie can be increasingly met within the growing throngs of gutsy people who've gotten the democracy movement this far, but we still need guts to speak up and act up.

So let's help each other be heroes. Often, it only takes one gutsy soul to trigger a cascade. And, as we show up, I think we'll discover that the surging, solutions-oriented democracy movement is a whole lot more fun than either ranting or moping. It's truly stirring, and it's changing my life.
I'm Fred Raillard, CEO, Co-founder and Creative Chief Officer of FF GROUP, a social, content, tech solutions for brands company based in Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and New York. In partnership with FF GROUP, BFM Business launches #FredinChina, a social media podcast in "Chine Hebdo", the weekly radio broadcast of Mathieu Jolivet. #FredinChina is essential to know and understand the world's largest economy.

I fell in love with China, and live in Shanghai with my wife and sons since September 2012. With my teams at the FF Shanghai agency we monitor, analyze and decrypt this ultra-connected China with nearly 800 million netizens by sharing what we see, hear and read on Weibo, WeChat, Huaban, Youku. I prepare this column with Jing Qian from FF Shanghai.

Click here to listen to all the podcasts.

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Massive celebration for Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar

The HotTopic of the week is Leonardo DiCaprio and the Academy Awards ceremony. So after 22 years he got an Oscar, and according to the Baidu index, this is the best score ever for the Oscars ceremony. There are a few reasons for that. First of all, there are not many Hollywood actors that are super famous in China because Chinese and Asian films are more popular in China compared to western films. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the few really famous actors all over China, and people just love him. He is a source of inspiration to Chinese people, and on the Internet you can see tons and tons of memes with people playing around with Photoshop, using Leonardo DiCaprio's silhouette, twisting the story and meaning in order to communicate things through these memes. Secondly, Chinese women also love him as he used to portray a polite and good boy image when he was younger, and now that he is older, a bit fatter and funnier, he became what they call an 'uncle' here. They love the fact that he changed from this nice adorable boy to an 'uncle'. There is a lot of affection for him and it was funny to see that.

Moreover, any excuse to do business in China is good. You have these girls in China called 'dai gou', who go overseas to buy luxury products that are cheaper than in China, and who sell them for a higher price when they return. They are personal shoppers in China because they have access to all these products abroad. This time, the dai gou made a special promotion to celebrate Leonardo DiCaprio's win. This had no link but the promotion really happened, and the whole subject got 2.5 billion media impressions in China.

Harper's Bazaar makes a big hit with its "Boys Love" new cover

No brand really stood out this week, so we had to make a difficult choice. So we chose Harper's Bazaar, a fashion magazine.

As you know, nowadays all the fashion magazines have to re-invent their business models and have to work extremely hard on getting the attention they need and making the best possible use of advertising to get noticed and stay relevant.

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Bazaar invited 2 very famous male actors, Hu Ge and Huo Jianhua to be together on the cover as well as an editorial in the magazine shot by a famous Chinese photographer, Chen Man. It was a huge success, based on this trend of having famous people together in a cool and intimate moment. It's interesting, as Chinese women loved this story about men. It's a women's magazine but it turned out to be a great idea to show men on the cover instead of women, and confirmed the mega trend in China of showing beautiful men together. Chinese women just loved it. On the first day, Bazaar sold 50,000 magazines, later a second market of second-hand magazines appeared as well. People wanted to own the magazine, and were prepared to spend 20 to 30 times the price on social networks to get their hands on it. Overall it was a resounding success, getting 380 million media impressions.

New content regulations

The HotPost of the week is related to new content regulations in China. It's not the first time that we mention this office that is supposed to control the diffusion of information globally, on both TV and now more and more on video platforms on the Internet. We have already talked about this office a couple of times on #FredinChina, and this time they have posted a new regulation explaining taboo subjects that are forbidden on TV and in online content. Homosexuality is now a taboo and a forbidden subject. Having sexual relations outside of marriage is another taboo. Having a one-night stand is also disapproved as well as teen romance. Surprisingly, ghost stories are also deemed as taboo now.

So just in the first day, this post got 147 thousand retweets on Sina Weibo with a lot of comments and reactions from young people who saw it as China going backwards. They asked if people should now just look at really positive news on CCTV (the main TV channel). There were also questions about the logical reasoning behind this. If homosexuality is now a taboo, will Beijing one day forbid Apple from being in China as the CEO is homosexual?

Last week there was another regulation concerning the Chinese Internet, forbidding foreign companies from posting content on Chinese social media. In short, Beijing is getting more and more controlling over anything and everything that is broadcasted in China online and offline, on the Internet and on TV.

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We are appalled as Daesh, Boko Haram and other extremists endeavor to shred our sense of humanity, carrying out despicable acts from Paris to Jakarta. We reel from the tragedy of lives lost and families uprooted by natural disasters in Nepal and Ethiopia. We worry about the threat of epidemic diseases like Ebola wreaking havoc in countries across Africa and South America. And we understand that what happens in countries as close as Mexico or as far away as Syria impacts us here in America.

As the worldwide landscape continues to evolve, and with the power of social media and technology connecting us all more closely than ever before, we are truly a global community. What may appear to be a distant concern has the power to impact Americans right here on our home soil. That is why our foreign assistance budget matters--it is both our shield and our olive branch, our tool to promote U.S. national security and development goals abroad.

The fiscal year (FY) 2017 State Department and USAID foreign affairs request is $50.1 billion, and includes $34.0 billion for foreign assistance programs and activities overseas. It may seem like a lot, but in reality this foreign affairs request makes up just one percent of the total federal budget. Despite its small sliver of U.S. federal budget pie, this one percent has enormous effect on U.S. national security and development goals. This one percent works on behalf of the American people to end the scourge of epidemic diseases like malaria; bolster democracies around the world; counter violent extremism; enhance nations' law enforcement capacity; and much more. As Secretary of State John Kerry stated in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 23, "... that one percent... is the minimum price of the leadership role that the United States of America plays on a global basis... And the scope of that engagement... is absolutely essential to protect the interests of our nation and to keep our citizens safe."

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The FY 2017 Budget request prioritizes our efforts to address the crises in Syria and Iraq, counter Russian aggression; combat climate change, bolster global health programs, and address other critical regional challenges and opportunities. Our support for the expected peace agreement in Colombia is a prime example of how the Department of State and USAID take advantage of critical windows of opportunity. We, American taxpayers, are helping end one of the longest-running civil conflicts in our hemisphere, between the Colombian government and The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, FARC.) Our foreign assistance budget is more than our taxpayer dollars at work--it is a symbol of our American values, of peace, democracy, and hope.

Foreign assistance funding allows us to address multi-faceted challenges before they crash into our shores--and the return on investment is palpable. Our military is the finest in the world, and our security assistance programs enhance the capacity and interoperability of our partners to address common security challenges, while at the same time promoting American values among the leaders of foreign forces. Further, the Department's assistance to foreign militaries is primarily comprised of U.S. equipment and services, including U.S. manufactured helicopters, planes, and radios, which helps to create and sustain jobs here at home. In terms of global health, since 2000, the number of children who die from malaria has fallen by more than 50 percent--that adds up to more than 6 million lives saved, a vast majority of which are young African children. Our Feed the Future program is contributing to substantial reductions in child stunting and poverty; for example, in Honduras, average incomes of Feed the Future beneficiaries increased 55 percent between 2012 and 2014, helping nearly 27 percent of more than 135,000 beneficiaries rise out of extreme poverty. These are just a few of the advancements made possible in part with your support.

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You are our most important stakeholders, and we are committed to showing you accountability, transparency, and the effectiveness of foreign assistance dollars. Informed, data-driven decisions drive our strategy to address these increasing global challenges, and are a critical component of this commitment. Last year, the State Department updated and expanded its evaluation policy, requiring each bureau to conduct evaluations every year and, for foreign assistance programs, to publicly post results within 90 days of completion. We also expanded the quantity and quality of data available on ForeignAssistance.gov, which publishes the aid data of the agencies that implement foreign assistance activities on behalf of the American public. These critical monitoring and evaluation efforts make us a more transparent government better able to serve you, and more effective in our use of U.S. dollars abroad.
"First rule of maintaining a healthy marriage while parenting an infant is nothing thats said between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. can be held against you."
DES MOINES, IA - NOVEMBER 20: Republican presidential candidates (LtoR) Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Santorum, and Carly Fiorina pray following the Presidential Family Forum on November 20, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Attendance at the event was lower than organizers had hoped as an early-winter snowstorm moved through the area dumping several inches of snow on the city. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Recently I wrote about presidential candidate Marco Rubio's comment that "all the answers are in the Bible" and his remarks to an atheist that our rights could only come from a creator. A number of readers agreed that Rubio's view made no sense, but they also mentioned that religious views of other candidates are just as bad, or worse. I agree. Rubio has never claimed that God told him to run for president. That alone distinguishes him from current candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich, and dropout candidates Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Scott Walker.

Of those who dropped out, despite God's support, Ben Carson remains the most active politically. He is the new national chairman of My Faith Votes, an organization that wants Christians to decide who will be the next president and all national and local leaders.



So who was the last non-Christian president? William Howard Taft (1909-1913). Taft was a Unitarian. Earlier presidential icons Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln had no religious affiliation. None believed in the Trinity, and Christians accused all three of being atheists.

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Well, what about this year's remaining presidential candidates?



Ted Cruz: Fittingly, Cruz launched his campaign at Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell. At a National Religious Liberties Conference, Cruz said, "Any president who doesn't begin every day on his knees isn't fit to be commander in chief." In addition to eliminating atheists from presidential consideration, Cruz apparently would also like a prayer test for all candidates. His Religious Liberty Council seems to equate religious liberty with a God-given right to discriminate against gays. Pastor Rafael Cruz, Ted's father, has served as a surrogate for Ted's campaign. Pastor Cruz says that there is no such thing as separation of church and state, America is a Christian nation, and the Ten Commandments are the foundation of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. It would be interesting to ask Ted Cruz if he also believes this.

Donald Trump: Some Republicans think Trump is a RINO (Republican in name only), but I think Trump is a CINO (Christian in name only). I assume he's an atheist because I can't picture him believing in a power higher than himself. "Love your neighbor" is inconsistent with deporting 11 million neighbors. Trump's slogan sounds more like "Make America hate again." Among Trump's many unbelievable comments, here's the funniest: "Maybe I get audited so much because I'm a strong Christian." All things being close to equal, I prefer voting for an atheist. With Trump, however, things are not nearly close to equal.

John Kasich: Kasich said he was waiting for a message from God before entering the presidential race, but to his credit he said his family was a more important consideration. Though he is personally against gay marriage, many Republicans criticize his stand against "religious liberty" because of his radical idea that government officials should follow the law of the land, even when it conflicts with biblical scripture.

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Hillary Clinton: Clinton is a liberal Christian who says that the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself. The second part is secular, and the first part says nothing about political decisions. I'm fine with Clinton taking comfort in religion during difficult times, though I hope she mentions that public policy should not be based on particular religious views.

Bernie Sanders: Sanders is the first Jew ever to win a primary. He rarely mentions religion, though when questioned he says he's proud to be a Jew. He was asked on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" whether he believed in God, and Sanders replied, "What my spirituality is about is that we're all in this together and it's not a good thing to believe that as human beings we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people." Sounds like a secular humanist to me. Before the South Carolina primary, I went to a forum featuring Bernie Sanders in Charleston, where I live. During the Q&A, I said to Sanders: "You know how thrilled the LGBT community was when Barney Frank came out as the first openly gay member of Congress, which helped reduce discrimination against gays. I don't think you are the only Jewish socialist in the country who believes in God, so I'm hoping you will do for atheists what Barney Frank did for LGBTs and be the first senator to acknowledge being an atheist. It would mean so much to our community." Sanders paused for a moment, looking uncomfortable for the first time that evening, and responded, "Not gonna happen." Bernie's answer to my question was by far the shortest he gave that evening, and the only one that elicited no applause from an otherwise supportive audience.
At the end of February, after years of turning a blind eye to evidence that Peru has been exporting illegally taken timber to the U.S. in clear violation of its commitments under the U.S.-Peru trade pact, the U.S. is opening its eyes -- just slightly -- to the trade violations. For the first time ever, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is asking Peru to verify the legality of one timber shipment of one exporter. While we welcome this announcement, we are also deeply concerned that this action is both too narrow and too late.

In 2007, the United States Congress passed a free trade deal with Peru. In response to the illegal logging crisis in Peru that was fueling climate disruption, destroying communities and ecosystems and threatening U.S. jobs, the deal included a detailed set of binding obligations to curb illegal logging and associated trade. Years later, however, the obligations still haven't changed the reality on the ground, and the illegal logging crisis continues unabated.

In 2012, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) published a multi-year investigative report which documented that at least 112 illegal shipments of cedar and mahogany wood -- laundered with fabricated papers and approved by the Peruvian government all in violation of the trade pact -- arrived in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010. Using rules in the U.S.-Peru free trade pact, EIA and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in 2012 petitioned the USTR to take action under the trade deal and verify the legal origin of all shipments from two companies, including Maderera Bozovich SAC, because of their history of exporting significant volumes of timber to the U.S. from logging concessions with illegal activity. Environmental organizations and labor unions also called on the U.S. to take action to verify the legality of shipments from these two companies, but the USTR did not do so, and the illegal activity continued.

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In 2015, Peru's own government officials found that several shipments from a company called La Oroza had falsified documents, claiming that the wood was legally cut on land belonging to an indigenous community when instead it had been illegally taken elsewhere. This is particularly significant because La Oroza is owned by the same proprietors as Oroza Wood SAC, which EIA identified in 2012 as a supplier of illegally harvested timber to Maderera Bozovich SAC. Because the USTR and Peruvian officials failed to investigate the well-documented violations back in 2012, the owners of Oroza Wood were able to continue operating, under a slightly different company name, illegally.

Now, four years later, it's the same company -- La Oroza -- whose shipment of wood triggered the USTR to request that Peru verify the legality its timber. In the long interim, while the USTR looked the other way, La Oroza shipped illegal wood to the U.S. in plain sight. In a documentary last year, Al Jazeera followed the illegal shipments of timber from La Oroza to the United States; the illegally taken timber now could be anywhere, including your dining room floor.

Even worse, in October of last year, Peru's forestry oversight agency found that in 94 percent of 144 surveyed logging operations, wood slated for export had been logged illegally. In January, Peru's government responded to the finding by firing the person in charge of the forestry oversight agency.

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Despite such flagrant violations, the USTR has consistently refused requests to enforce the trade deal's anti-illegal logging provisions. In the first 2,581 days of the agreement, Peruvian timber companies with a documented track record of illegality sent well over 100 shipments of wood to the U.S. Not once did the USTR ask Peru to verify any of these shipments.

It wasn't until last week, after more than seven years, that the USTR made its first such request, for a single shipment of a single exporter. This almost complete lack of enforcement undercuts U.S. businesses and workers by allowing U.S. consumers to unwittingly support environmental destruction.

Peru now has 45 to 75 days to verify whether La Oroza's most recent shipment was legal. After that, the U.S. can decide "within a reasonable time" whether to deny the shipment from entering the United States and/or block entry to all CITES-listed shipments from La Oroza.

This issue is particularly timely given that twelve nations across the Pacific Rim, including Peru and the United States, have recently signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement at a casino in New Zealand. As Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said upon the symbolic signing ceremony, "Signing the TPP is Russian roulette for our economy and our climate." The fate of the TPP, which still has to go to U.S. Congress for a vote, is uncertain; the pact is increasingly controversial in Congress, and is opposed by all major presidential candidates and more than 1,500 civil society organizations.

But one thing is certain. If it has taken this long for USTR to use the incredibly detailed set of rules in the US-Peru deal to take a small step toward holding Peru accountable for the blatant violations, it's hard to imagine how the TPP, with its far weaker rules on illegal logging, is going help transform illegal activity in Peru's forest sector. This is why, in late 2015, 13 environmental organizations urged Congress "to withhold its vote on the TPP until Peru has addressed past violations and until it has come into compliance with its new TPP environmental obligations."

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It's time to create a new model of trade that puts communities and the environment above corporate profits. Join us.
While poaching in KwaZulu-Natal is in fast forward, the prosecutorial system in some areas appears to have gone into reverse. Many of the worrying poaching cases are linked to a magistrate, Deuteronomium Ngcobo, and a defense attorney, Mr Z.W. Ngwenya. This is of concern to police officers who mounted a successful sting operation to arrest an alleged rhino poaching kingpin, Dumisani Gwala, who Ngcobo then released on R10 000 (US$650) bail.

Photo credit: Jamie Joseph / savingthewild.com

The problem of questionable legal decisions goes back several years. In Hluhluwe in 2014 three men were accused of conspiracy to hunt rhino. One of them, Ngubane, pleaded guilty and was represented by Ngwenya. Magistrate Ngcobo released him on bail and then later issued a small fine. The other two, Sikali and Mdule, pleaded not guilty. They were represented by a different defense attorney before a different magistrate. Bail was denied and they are still in jail. [CAS 25 / 06 / 2014]

The following month four men were arrested inside a private Zululand game reserve and charged with conspiracy to hunt rhino. The case was split between two courthouses. Accused Sipho Hlope and Zakhele Joko Khumalo were represented by advocate Ngwenya before Magistrate Ngcobo at Mtubatuba courthouse. They pleaded guilty and were given the option to pay deferred fines over an extended period.

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The other two accused, Sibusiso Mthembu and Zakhele Masinga, pleaded not guilty. Their case was moved to Empangeni Court under a different magistrate and they were sentenced to eight years imprisonment without the option of a fine. [CAS 78 / 07 / 2014]

Several months later Michael Hlatswayo, Mbongiseni Masondo and Mhlonganani Ndlovu were arrested for unlawfullly hunting rhino. With Ngwenya as their defense attorney they appeared before Ngcobo and were given a small fine. [CAS 9 / 11 / 2014]

In January last year Warrant Officer Christopher Gumbi from Jozini Crime Intelligence was arrested near Ubombo in KwaZulu-Natal after allegedly pointing a weapon at two undercover agents posing as poachers. He then fled with the 'sting' rhino horns in an unmarked police vehicle carrying fake registration plates. According to the media statement from KwaZulu-Natal South African Police, 'The suspect was charged for armed robbery, possession of horn and defeating the ends of justice.'

Represented by Ngwenya, Gumbi was granted R500 (US$32) bail by Ngcobo who later acquitted him of all charges, claiming that the police fabricated the story. A police spokesman at the time commented that 'poaching syndicates appear to have infiltrated the country's judicial system,' saying the case 'speaks of endemic corruption'.

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In December 2014 Ngwenya represented Gwala after he was arrested in a complicated sting operation. Dockets of conspiracy to deal in rhino horn, dealing in rhino horn, attempted murder and resisting arrest were opened. Magistrate Ngcobo granted him R10 000 (US$630) bail and released six of his implicated luxury vehicles seized under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The South African Police Services immediately obtained a court order to repossess the vehicles, but when the Asset Forfeiture Unit arrived at Gwala's house, he had a five litre container of petrol and threatened to burn the vehicles if the officers didn't back off. The vehicles then 'disappeared' and only one has been recovered.

To put the fines and limited bail bonds into persepctive, rhino horn is, per weight, worth more than diamonds or cocaine on the black market in China and Vietnam, fetching up to US$100 000 a kilo. An average of one rhino is killed every nine hours and there are only around 20 000 left in the wild. Yet poaching in certain KwaZulu-Natal courtrooms continues to be treated as a petty crime.

Impoverished former poachers I spoke to who had been recruited from rural communities bordering wildlife areas in KwaZulu-Natal told me that when they were given a fine, they had to kill another rhino to pay off their debt to Gwala. They asked that their identities be withheld for fear of their lives.

Rhino owners in the region are now deeply concerned about the outcome of Gwala's case. Most of them claim to have been victims of Gwala's alleged poaching syndicate. They say they will be attending Gwala's trial.

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Trial dates for Gwala's appearance are expected to be announced on March 9 at his next court appearance. The court house has been moved to Ngwelezane in Empangeni where he will be represented by a new defense attorney Mr M. Ntshangase. A new magistrate is being assigned. This time, justice may be done.

Photo credit: Jamie Joseph / savingthewild.com
Unbalanced old fashioned pan scale with a man and woman showing the inequality of the sexes with the male having a heavier weighting illustration

International Women's Day has been observed since the early 1900s, with the first happening in 1908 in New York City. The day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and also serves as a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Depending on how far back in history we go, we can say that progress is being made -- but in the U.S., parity, for any group, is still far off.

In the U.S. women gained the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. That victory took nearly 70 years after the 14th Amendment extended protection to all citizens, defining citizens solely as white males. In 1870, the 15th Amendment passed, guaranteeing black men the right to vote. But it was not until 50 years later, through woman's suffrage advocates such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony that women gained the right to vote. And still today, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), first introduced in 1923 to give women equal status under the Constitution, remains defeated!

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Women have come a long way when we look at singular accomplishments of American women across a variety of backgrounds: 1872, Victoria Woodhull, first woman to run for United States President; 1928, Amelia Earhart, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean; 1934 Lettie Pate Whitehead, The Coca-Cola Company, first American woman to serve as a director of a major corporation; 1949, Georgia Neese Clark, Treasurer of the United States; 1972, Katharine Graham, The Washington Post Company, the first female Fortune 500 CEO; 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor, first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; 1983, Dr. Sally K. Ride, first American woman sent into space; 1993, Janet Reno first female Attorney General of the U.S.; 1997, Madeleine Albright first woman to serve as Secretary of State; Carly Fiorina was the first woman to be CEO of a Fortune "50" company; and Janet Yellen, 2014, confirmed to lead the Federal Reserve.

These are great milestones but that's the irony -- these accomplishments illustrate we have miles to go with several stones in the way. These women may be firsts, but they are not a collective force representing an equal footing of scale to their male colleagues. Specifically, looking at the government and U.S. corporations, women's progress has been glacial! And it begs the question, why aren't there more women filling the 100 seats in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives today? Currently, there are only a paltry 20 (20 percent) and 84 (19.3 percent) women filling Congressional seats, respectively. From the hallowed halls in government to those in Corporate America, women are just not there in the numbers they should be. It's 2016 and only 20 women, or 4 percent of the S&P 500, are CEOs and of the Fortune 1000 board seats, just 20 percent are currently held by women.

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This is why the Women's Forum of New York, founder of the International Women's Forum with over 5,000 strong, spearheads the Corporate Board Initiative, which asks CEOs to sponsor women so they can unlock the boardroom door. The candidates in the Women's Forum database are unique because CEO's have endorsed them as board ready. And to encourage parity in the boardroom by 2025, the Women's Forum hosts a biennial Breakfast of Corporate Champions to honor companies that meet the threshold of 30 percent women on their board with special recognition to those reaching parity with 40 percent women in their boardrooms. Yet less than 3 percent of the Fortune 1000 are at that threshold. As said by Ken Chenault, CEO, Chair of American Express at the November 19, 2015 Breakfast of Corporate Champions about how long it will take to reach gender parity on boards: "If you were told it would take over 50 years to achieve a business objective would you accept it"

Compared to developing countries too, the U.S. lags. In nations where you would least expect progress towards gender parity to have been made, mandates or quotas have propelled women ahead of those in the U.S. In 2015, Kenyan women held 19.8 percent of the board seats while last year in the U.S. women held 19.2 percent; (in 2016 we increased .8 percent up to 20 percent). In 2004, Malaysia's cabinet approved a policy requiring that women must comprise at least 30 percent of public sector decision-making positions. Within six years, women in the public sector held 32.2 percent of leadership positions, moving up from 18.8 percent.

In the U.S. various entities in the public and private sector continue to argue that we do not need quotas or mandates to create change. We continue to say we can self-regulate. We continue to celebrate instead of mandate. While it is great to "celebrate" women in the U.S. Congress and in Corporate America -- all faces of society continue to be under-represented in the halls and boardrooms of these institutions. The solution is to recognize, not ignore, half the population. The solution is to embrace the women who are the voters, employees, shareholders and drivers of economies by their strength and ability to influence 85 percent of the purchasing decisions. In 2016 the call to action is clear. Gender parity by 2025 must be the objective of all U.S. Congressional leaders, CEOs/Board Chairs in the corporate world, and all other sectors. We are the United States of America, the World Power, we should not be lagging; we should be leading!
Mathai: "People are totally missing what happened tonight in South Carolina," wrote Mathai in an analysis on Facebook. "It doesn't make sense at all but, wait, it does. It wasn't about Trump. The Republicans of South Carolina rejected Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, Sen. Lindsay Graham, and Congressman Trey Gowdy. Why? Because they all endorsed the establishment candidate Rubio, but what's worse? A few months ago they sold the people of South Carolina out by immediately submitting to the leftist, racist political correctness and removing the confederate flag without discussion. They cursed out the conservative base in South Carolina by listening to the leftists and tonight the base returned the favor. This wasn't about Trump. It was about establishment Republican control of once popular but now loser politicians in South Carolina. Tonight, Haley, Scott, Graham, and Gowdy (with Rubio) are urinating in their pants as their time in office is coming to a close really soon! You turn on your constitution loving, Republican platform supporting base, and you will pay a price. Trump and Cruz rode the wave."
ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 5: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump guides everyone to pledge to vote for him as he speaks during a campaign event at the CFE Federal Credit Union Arena in Orlando, FL on Saturday March 05, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The media frenzy surrounding Donald Trump has inverted the nature of our problem. That a demagogue will come along to foment dissent is no surprise; that his despicable views find such gleeful resonance with so many of our voters is the frightening story, not Trump. Trump is that ominous lump we first feel in our collective breast, an ill-omened warning of a more virulent disease about to attack our body politic. Trump's ascendancy is nothing more than the visible symptom of the underlying disease, a metastasizing cancer of ignorance and hate consuming our society. Trump is not scary - he is a buffoonish Mussolini with bad hair; but those who wish to vote for him are truly terrifying.

The media have either missed or ignored the central shift that should be the focus of reporting: Trump's supporters bring to light the fact that right wing theology has moved from traditional conservative values to the full embrace of authoritarianism.

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Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering

We are witnessing a society going or gone mad, a collective lunacy that has detached from reality. We have seen this before and it did not end well. I despise facile references to past historic abuses, because such overreach diminishes the true horrors of atrocities such as the Holocaust or Stalin's purges. But with Trump and his supporters we simply cannot ignore the parallels to Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Muslims are the new Jews; propaganda dominates the airways, masquerading as hard fact; a fringe candidate rises on the wings of hate, paranoia and grievances real and imagined, promising a "return" to better times less tainted with the unwashed and unclean who have corrupted our virtues and undermined our economy. But...but, the claim of parallels between our situation now and Europe then - in the early part of this century - is so commonly quoted and so badly abused, the burden of proof is high. So let's meet that challenge.

Trump proposes that the U.S. Government should shut down mosques; yes, just like Nazi Germany closed synagogues. Should we have our own version of Kristallnacht now? Worse, if there can be a worse, pining for the good old days of internment camps for the Japanese during World War II, Trump suggests that the government create a database to track Muslims - much like the Nazis tracked Jews. Perhaps we should require that all Muslims wear yellow crescent moons to make them easier to identify. If it was good enough for the Nazis, it is good enough for us, no?

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It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into philanthropy and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

You think I'm pushing the parallel between Trump and the rise of fascism and National Socialism too far? Then perhaps this will feel more familiar when you realize that nearly 35% of Trump followers support banning gays and lesbians from the country. Yes, you read that correctly. In South Carolina, a CBS poll concluded that 75% of Republican voters supported banning Muslims from the United States. Remember, Hitler wanted to ban Jews from Germany. Trump and his followers want to ban Muslims and the entire LBGT community. The parallel is really not a stretch.

With enough mental gymnastics, just about any fact can become misshapen in favor to one's conformational bias.

Criss Jami

Trump describes immigrants as rapists and criminals. "But you have people coming in and I'm not just saying Mexicans, I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they're coming into this country." Never mind the pesky fact that there is no evidence that immigrants commit more crimes than people born in the country. Here is the conclusion from a Congressional Research Service report from 2012: "The overall proportion of noncitizens in federal and state prisons and local jails corresponds closely to the proportion of noncitizens in the total U.S. population."

If you a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

Joseph Goebbels

With this dark but factually incorrect perspective on the influx of criminals, Trump not surprisingly has a solution when he says all undocumented workers "have to go." This means that a candidate for the presidency of our country is proposing, seriously, that we locate, round up, arrest and then forcibly deport a population of 11 million people. To find these undesirables in our midst, would we create a secret police like the Stasi in East Germany, so neighbors would rat on neighbors? Who would take care of the children left behind? Do we perhaps create camps in which we concentrate these populations prior to expelling them?

Trump accuses Obama of being "weak and ineffective" on terrorism. Of terrorism he says, "This is a war, believe me. We're going to have to knock them out and knock them out hard." The implication is that Obama does not know this, or if he does, has done nothing about it. Yet Obama has decimated Al Qaeda, and has aggressively pursued ISIS and other terrorist organizations. Drone strikes under Obama have killed nearly 2,500 people, including innocents who suffer from such attacks. Under Obama's leadership, there has been no attack like 9/11 as there was under Bush. But no matter that Obama has kept us safe (certainly safer than Bush):

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Perhaps the most extreme proclamation from Trump is that he would kill the families of terrorists. He would order our military to kill innocent non-combatants. He has proposed that we kill the family members of ISIS terrorists because they "know what is going on" because they are related to the terrorists. There is yet another pesky fact that intentionally killing civilians in wartime is a crime against humanity under two international treaties signed by the United States: the Hague Convention and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Voters may dismiss all of this with a wave of the hand, claiming that Trump does not mean what he says, or that Trump is simply breaking the mold and saying what others are afraid to utter; or that while his rhetoric may be extreme his governance would not be. This easy dismissal of extremism we have seen before as well, and that too did not end well. On November 21, 1922, Cyril Brown published in the New York Times a story on the up and coming Adolf Hitler. While noting Hitler's increasingly vocal anti-Semitism, the author dismissed this as "not so violent or genuine as it sounded" but rather a political ploy to pander to the angry German masses. The article goes on to report that Hitler was "merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes."

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The Cult of Ignorance: Mainstream Extremism

As with demagogues and tyrants from the past, Trump did not arise in a vacuum. No, indeed, the GOP has long been nurturing the conditions that created this monster and his followers. The beginning of the end was Sarah Palin, the first national candidate in memory to embody stupid and embrace dumb. For the first time, at least in my lifetime, a national candidate wore ignorance as a badge of honor. And we have only gone downhill from there. This year we have witnessed Republican presidential hopefuls descend down to historic and frightening lows of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia, each vying to outdo the other to glorify ignorance. The ugly truth is that Trump's brazen and popular foray into the realm of vile rhetoric builds on a terrible reality of conservativism in the United States: right-wing thought has fully embraced ignorance and hate as legitimate political platforms.

We are witnessing the clash of reason and faith, between science and religion, between truth and the big lie, between demagoguery and sane debate. Nowhere is that made clearer than in the Republican debates. History will show we reached the nadir of public discourse when Donald Trump on national television in a presidential debate defended the size of his penis - but that is really nothing but comic relief, even if mired in 6th grade male humor, compared to the horror of the anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-reason positions these candidates have taken.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

Isaac Asimov

But unlike in the times Asimov references this "strain" has become mainstream, the bedrock of conservativism, not some offshoot of extremism or undercurrent in society. The dumbing of America has reached new extremes, and these extremes have paved the way for demagoguery. Here are some frightening statistics:

18% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth.

74% of Republican Senators deny the validity of climate change

50% of Americans between the ages of 18-24 believe it unnecessary to know the location of other countries, even from those in which important news is being reported

42% of Americans believe God created human beings in their present from less than 10,000 years ago

25% of public school biology students believe that humans and dinosaurs lived on earth at the same time

Rather than rail against this outrage, Trump and his ilk proudly promote their disdain for science and ignorance of the scientific method, a gaping chasm of reason that is front and center in the field of candidates on stage with Trump. With the big lie and the reliance on faith rather than fact politicians are not constrained by the annoying shackles of reality. Denying the truth of climate change is now mandatory for any Republican; the GOP is perhaps the world's only remaining significant political organization that reject the obvious certainty of human-caused climate change. False statements about Planned Parenthood are taken at face value by party sympathizers even when easily shown to be fantasy. Fighting evolution is part of the GOP fabric, a modern day version of the Church's attacks on Galileo. Ignore the fact that we can demonstrate evolution in a Petri dish; it has been proven across multiple fields of science including genetics, biogeography, and paleontology. Even the Pope in 1996 grudgingly admitted that evolution is "more than just a theory." But the GOP hangs on to the fifteenth century, touting the wonders of medieval sorcery.

Trump's campaign highlights like few others could that we are in a race for the bottom, in which the candidate who best embraces ignorance and hate wins. Once beliefs are divorced from reality, anything goes. With no common understanding of even baseline truths, we lose the ability to have any meaningful discourse to solve our very real problems. We can magically deport 11 million people. We can identify Muslims and track their movements. We can close mosques. All without consequence. Sure, why not, because reality and objective truths are no constraint.

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We are plumbing new depths of depravity here; previously any one of Trump's extreme proclamations would have knocked a candidate out of the race within a few hours of being verbalized. Now, the crazier the talk the more traction the candidate gains. The cancer is spreading. Before talking about his penis, Trump openly mocked a New York Times reporter by imitating his spastic movements. Trump believes the normal human act of going to the bathroom is too gross to be mentionable. He has denigrated Hillary Clinton for taking a bathroom break during a debate saying that "I know where she went. It's disgusting." There has likely never been a more misogynist candidate; he constantly degrades women. He said that Arianna Huffington, "...is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man - he made a good decision." If he does not like a question from a female reporter he will dismiss her as menstruating. Trump has called women "pigs", "dogs", and "disgusting animals." This is a candidate for president of the United States - a candidate that could survive only with an electorate too dumb, too ignorant, too hateful to stop the madness - reminiscent of 1920s Germany.

Take America Back: Make America Great

The slogan and its many variations of "make American great again" often show up in conservative circles. To what age are we harking back to exactly? The days of owning slaves? Again, perhaps you believe I'm resorting to hyperbole here. Alas, no (and I am not making this up): polls show that nearly 40% of Trump supporters question whether the Emancipation Proclamation was a good thing. We cannot be surprised that the White Supremacist movement has embraced Trump as one of their own; or that Trump only reluctantly and unconvincingly puts any distance between himself and David Duke.

Do we pine to return to the economic meltdown of the Bush Administration, the war crimes of torture, the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history? Do we want to go back to the days of losing 700,000 jobs per month? Massive and growing deficits (which have shrunk by $1 trillion under Obama)? Wait, let's pause here: in fact, the deficit under Obama is now 2.5% as a percent of the total economy, below the average of the past 50 years. So we want to make American great again by returning to debilitating deficits? Do we really want to take America back to two wars unfunded and poorly managed, a collapsing housing market, the banking industry on the brink of ruin, a stock market declining after losing 25% of its value during Bush's 8 years? Do we want to return to the glory days of gas at $4 per gallon? Do we want to make America great again so we can again witness the auto industry on the verge of bankruptcy? What the hell are these people talking about when they want to make American great again? Do they mean they want to go us to go back to the Clinton Administration, the only other period of extended economic prosperity in the last 50 years? American never stopped being great; proof is we have recovered, once again under Democrat leadership, from the disastrous years of incompetent Republican rule.
Fahma Mohamed looks directly down the camera. She has a focus and tenacity well beyond her years. Calmly, firmly she calls on the British government to equip teachers to do more to prevent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The 17-year-old says: "We won't back down. We won't go away."



Fahma Mohamed, the British schoolgirl who took on FGM

Photo Credit: Fahma Mohamed

As we mark International Women's Day, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the challenges still facing women across the world. There is, though, real hope to be found in the countless stories of women and girls who, like Fahma, are fighting back on their terms to create real change thanks to the power of the internet and tools like Change.org -- inspiring others and uniting women globally.

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Fahma's story inspired Jaha Dukureh, who successfully called on President Obama to investigate the scale of FGM across the U.S. and Jaha's story in turn inspired Masooma Ranalvi in India, who has launched a petition alongside a group of FGM survivors, calling for an end to FGM in India -- a brave and inspiring thing to do in country where FGM has been hidden in the shadows.



Fahma with Jaha Dukureh, the woman she inspired to start a campaign in the United States

Photo Credit: Fahma Mohamed

Then there are stories like Amanda Nguyen's. One afternoon she visited a rape crisis center months after having survived the horrible ordeal of sexual assault. While she expected this to be the step that started to bring her closure, what she found was disregard for what victims had endured and little protection for their rights.

She's campaigning to improve care after sexual violence and to protect the rights of survivors across the U.S. She has the backing of Funny or Die, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and more than 69,000 people who care about justice for rape survivors. You can join her here.

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Computer scientist Alan Kay said "the best way to predict the future is to invent it," and I'm reminded of that every day when I see women using Change.org to shape the global news and political agenda -- surged forward by the power of their personal experiences. Two mothers, on opposite sides of the world, tell this story as profoundly as you will ever see.

When Nora Fraisse's 13-year-old daughter killed herself after being bullied at school in France, Nora knew she had to everything she could to stop this from happening to anyone else. She bravely told her story to millions of people across France and built a powerful movement -- persuading the French government to introduce sweeping bullying prevention and support programs, including a national awareness day and a crisis hotline.

Thousands of miles away in the U.S. state of Indiana, Danielle Greene was living a strikingly similar nightmare. Her daughter, Angel, had taken her own life after two years of bullying. Danielle has been campaigning in memory of her daughter to uphold legislation that helps schools tackle bullying. She won in Indiana and now her campaign is going national.

These women are part of a growing trend at the intersection of political engagement, technology and gender equality. We know that when women have the confidence to tackle challenges, they are often more successful: although men are 38 percent more likely to start a petition on Change.org, women are 14 percent more likely to win. Women win because they are amazing storytellers, willing to expose their vulnerability, which rallies others behind them. They win because they are natural sharers, building community and engaging their friends, family and wider networks. And women win because they are persistent, able to withstand the struggle when things get tough, and see their campaigns through to victory, turning moments of tragedy and fear into joyous, world changing movements.

These are ordinary women. They are women who, at least at first, do not see themselves as activists or leaders, yet they stand up, mobilize communities, and engage with governments and companies to solve the problems that impact their families and their futures.

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It is these women and girls, and all the people who raise their voices to support them, that give me hope for the future of my daughters and women everywhere. While there is a long road to true equality, with our own stories as inspiration and using technology to spread those stories to others, we can all be as powerful as Fahma, Jaha, Masooma, Amanda, Nora, Danielle and the millions of other women fighting to make the world a better place.

Join them by adding your voice. Or tell your own story and start your own campaign. What will you change?
Empowering girls and women is powerful. Today, we know it is the key to economic growth, political stability, and social transformation. World leaders, experts and scholars alike are giving their voice to this critical endeavor.

When women succeed, nations are more safe, secure and prosperous.

Barack Obama, 44th US President

There is no tool for development more effective than

the empowerment of women.

Kofi Annan, 7th UN Secretary General

Empowering women is key to building a future we want.

Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics

So then, why isn't this happening on a mass scale?

Brutal Reality: Violence Against Girls and Women on a Mass Scale

Astonishingly, the exact opposite is true on the ground. Rather than uplifting and empowering girls and women as the most powerful force for transformation and progress, horrific violence is perpetrated against them...every minute, every hour, every day.

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Every minute, 2 girls and women are raped in South Africa.

Every hour, 48 girls and women are raped as a weapon of war in Congo.

Every day, 3 women are killed by their male partner in the United States.

In fact, more than 100 million girl babies have been killed, aborted, and neglected to die...simply because they were girls. Girls are truly the dying breed.

What is Women's Empowerment?

So how do we empower girls and women? And what exactly is women's empowerment?

Surprisingly, there is no common definition of women's empowerment. In fact, the word "empowerment" does not exist in most languages. Although the phrase "women's empowerment" is used pervasively in the Gender Equality & Women's Empowerment space (and beyond), it is generally in the context of issues -- economic empowerment, political participation, and girls' education.

Furthermore most of the data that have been collected is on gender equality -- or more accurately inequality -- counting the number of boys vs. girls, men vs. women. There is dearth of information on women's empowerment, particularly at the global level.

Defining Empowerment & Gathering the Data: First-Ever Global Survey on Women's Empowerment

According to the World Bank:

Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.

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Empowerment is a process. Through the process, an individual becomes an agent of change. More simply put, it's the "can do" factor, going from "I can't" to "I can."

So, are girls and women empowered?

4GGL - For Girls GLocal Leadership - simply asked them. As a non-profit and a social change movement with the mission of igniting the next generation of empowered women leaders and changemakers around the world, 4GGL launched the first-ever global survey on women's empowerment, targeting today's millennial women.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, young women (and young men) participated in our online survey. We received the most voices from the Middle East and the United States. Here is a snapshot of our preliminary findings:

More than ever before, today's young women have more choices and control in their lives. They had the most choices in education, the least in career choices.

What do young women want to change the most in their lives? Their career and income, followed by personal development (physical, mental and habitual).

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Who contributes the most to creating this change? More than 60% identified themselves. Family and government were distant second and third (18%, 15% respectively.) Friends were the least contributing factor.

Now the critical question: For those young women who became agents of change - empowered - how did this happen? A staggering 46% replied "self-awareness," a process of "knowing who they are." This was followed by experience. Education was a distant third.

This is revolutionary. Given that girls' education is the main focus and what is funded in today's girls' empowerment work, it is time to rethink our strategy and action around the world. This is not to say girls' education isn't important or shouldn't be funded. It is to boldly challenge conventional assumptions on what empowers girls and young women. It is also to invite partners in more data collection and to scale this endeavor.

Foremost, it is a call to action to support girls and young women in self-actualizing their inner power - empower - to truly leapfrog women's empowerment. The next generation of empowered women leaders and changemakers will transform our world.

Today's Young Women Are Leading Change

What is indisputable, reinforced by the 4GGL's global survey, Voice & Choice: What (Young) Women Want, is that violence against girls and women is the single most important issue to millennial women. It is the greatest moral tragedy of our time and we must take action now to end it.

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What is extraordinary is that today's young women are not waiting on us. From Neda in Iran to millennial women in Tahrir Square and the 2016 US Presidential Election, young women are advocating for and leading the change.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich stated, "Well-behaved women seldom make history."
Terry Knopf makes an important point in her article in the Columbia Journalism Review about Boston news coverage of the Catholic Church: for years, many reporters -- in print and broadcast media -- did not cover the Catholic archdiocese in the same way they covered government or other big institutions. Their reverence and respect for the Catholic religion -- in many cases, the religion of their childhood -- blinded them to possible wrongdoing inside the institution itself.

But that changed on the first Thursday in May in 1992, 10 years before the Globe's reporting depicted in the movie Spotlight.

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The lead story on WBZ-TV's six o'clock newscast that night was the I-Team's investigative report on former priest James Porter. The story revealed that Porter, while a priest in southeastern Massachusetts in the 1960s, had molested large numbers of children, that the Catholic Church moved him from parish to parish knowing that he was a serial pedophile, that the Cardinal at the time was made aware of Porter's crimes and did little or nothing to stop him, and that even law enforcement had turned a blind eye to Porter's rampage.

In that story, viewers heard Porter's voice for the first time. In a recorded phone interview, I asked him how many children he had molested. His answer, without a trace of remorse or emotion: "50 or 60, I guess." Porter didn't know that the statute of limitations was frozen the moment he left Massachusetts more than 20 years earlier. In 1993, Porter pleaded guilty to molesting 28 children and spent the rest of his life behind bars.

The I-Team's May 1992 story unleashed a torrent of local and national coverage focused on Porter and other pedophile priests in Boston. Within days, I, along with investigative producer Paul Toomey, began getting phone calls about other priests including John Geoghan, the priest who was the focus of the Spotlight coverage 10 years later.

In 1992 and 1993, we reported dozens of stories that revealed that there were numerous pedophile priests in the Boston Archdiocese, and that church hierarchy had systematically covered up for these criminals and had placed them in assignments that allowed them to continue destroying young lives. We revealed -- in the early 1990s -- that the problem was so huge that there were treatment centers for pedophile priests in New Mexico and Maryland.

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From May 1992 on, dozens of journalists in Boston -- TV and print -- were covering the dark side of the Catholic Church. There was no circling of the wagons and no blind mice, as some assert in Terry's article. There certainly were viewers and reporters, including some of my own colleagues at WBZ, who questioned why we were "going after" the Catholic Church. To their credit, the managers at WBZ never asked that question and were supportive of our efforts to expose crimes and a cover-up of unfathomable proportions.

By the late 1990s, the stories about pedophile priests in Boston diminished in number, not because anyone was deliberately ignoring the topic but because, many of us -- including reporters at The Boston Globe -- believed there wasn't much more to report. Boston Phoenix reporter Kristen Lombardi's stories and Globe editor Marty Baron's fresh eyes on the topic changed all that. The Globe brought legal action that resulted in the release of documents that gave all of us the first inside look at exactly what the church hierarchy knew and when they knew it. It would be the most damning evidence of all.

The role of investigative reporting is to expose what's wrong inside government, big businesses and big institutions like the Catholic Church. My 16 years of Catholic education taught me the difference between the religion and the institution. That's why in the early 1980s, in my first stint as I-Team reporter at WBZ-TV, I did a three-part series of stories entitled "Power of the Cloth" examining how the Boston Archdiocese was failing to provide its nuns a decent wage and benefits. Those stories immediately made me persona-non-grata in the eyes of the archdiocese and that continued until my last day on the job at WBZ in May 2008, when I left to start the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

My final story at the station was an in-depth look at what had happened to some of the pedophile priests who the church had defrocked or dismissed but, for one reason or another, never went to jail. We found one ex-priest living a few doors down from an elementary school in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, another was a visiting nurse going into homes without any supervision and another was living in a small New Hampshire town. Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley refused our requests for an interview and his PR flack whisked him away when we tried to ask him some questions. Not much had changed in 25 years.

There are many important take-aways here. Investigative reporting requires persistence and patience. It requires a thick skin to ward off intimidation by the powerful, and even to shrug off the criticism of one's peers. Most of all, it requires the dogged pursuit of wrongdoing in the face of multiple obstacles.

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On a personal note, watchdog reporting has been my life-long passion. It began in my Catholic high school in Connecticut when a group of us started an alternative newspaper after the principal banned any reporting in the school paper about the Vietnam War. It flourished through a 30-year career in print and broadcast journalism and it took a new turn in 2008 when a colleague and I launched the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news outlet with a dual mission: to ensure the survival of serious, in-depth investigative reporting and to train a new generation of watchdog journalists.

NECIR's talented reporting staff has published more than 150 investigations over the past seven years and we have trained more than 500 professional, college-aged, and high school journalists from around the nation and the globe.

One of the most fulfilling moments of each year is when I work with the students who attend our Summer Investigative Reporting Workshop for high school students. Last year, 132 students from 26 states and 15 countries came to NECIR for two weeks to learn how to do investigative reporting. I see myself in each of these young reporters and I admire their commitment to holding the powerful accountable. I also share their belief, as the movie Spotlight so powerfully conveys, that journalism truly can make a difference.
Rivers have been the lifeblood of India for centuries, nourishing the bodies of its people and the soil of its lands. Since ancient times, they have held deep spiritual significance in Indian heritage, playing a central role in sacred Vedic texts, rituals, and beliefs. While India depends on its waters, individuals and communities, companies, and governments have lost sight of their interdependence with the natural environment, hiding behind bureaucracy, pointing fingers and deflecting blame. The future of the rivers requires rising above political posturing to mobilize collective action towards solutions.



River Yamuna iPhotograph, Credit DOTW News

With this goal in mind, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar decided to host the Art of Living Foundation's World Culture Festival on the Yamuna River in the Delta River Valley in an area that was barren, polluted and unfit for any event. As one of the first NGOs to start putting attention on the Yamuna River several years ago, the Art of Living Foundation has taken on additional cost and risk in order to clean the river and the land, wading through bureaucratic red tape to secure permits from the city government. Through the organizing of the World Culture Festival, have raised public environmental awareness and environmental stewardship by orchestrating an eco-friendly event of this scale and clean up the valley.



River Yamuna in New Delhi, Photo Credit : AP

The Delhi Yamuna River Valley has long been a ground for companies and government agencies to dump waste while city officials have looked the other way. With little care for the river as a natural resource, individuals driven by political corruption, corporate greed, and shortsighted ignorance have left the Delhi River Valley in such a state of pollution that it serves as a black mark on India's environmental record. Government regulations alone cannot change the hearts and minds of people whose decisions keep the future of its sacred natural resources in the balance.

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The Art of Living Foundation is not new and has long been a leader in river restoration, which is part of what makes new accusations about the environmental integrity of the World Culture Festival especially surprising. Guided by academic and technical experts through approaches like tree planting, tanks, injection wells, groundwater wells, and removal of tons of garbage and waste, the organization has been restoring 16 rivers across India, through an effective methodology that is now being replicated across the country. The secret to the Foundation's success in restoring and sustaining healthy rivers lies in its approach: inspiration and education across multiple sectors, oriented towards long-term change, not just short-term cleanup. This approach engages technical experts, volunteers, members of surrounding villages, and corporations. It is essential to engage the community most affected, who are often unknowingly contributing to the problem, and the institutions whose practices dramatically influence environmental outcomes.

"We need to revive the ancient practice of honoring and conserving the balance of nature. Rivers are the lifeline of any civilization. Unfortunately, our rivers have been neglected for a long time and as a result, many have been polluted or dried up... The success of this effort requires both inspiration and expertise." - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
If you're concerned about Donald Trump winning the nomination, there's some good news. His losses in Kansas and Maine were no accident, as both contests are closed, limited only to party faithful. And future caucuses and closed primaries may deny Trump the GOP nomination.

After Donald Trump stormed his way to wins in primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina and many Super Tuesday states, folks just figured it was inevitable that he would win, and was the darling of the Republican Party. Long-forgotten was his stumble in the Iowa Caucus to Ted Cruz. But after Cruz won Kansas and Maine by double-digits, it made analysts sit up and take notice that the once invincible armor of Trump's had some weaknesses.

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In their assessment of the Saturday election contests, The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim and Jennifer Bendery were quick to note that both Cruz victories occurred in caucus states. But they tempered expectations by noting that while Trump doesn't do well in caucus states, only two small state caucuses remain.

"Saturday night was a major victory for Cruz symbolically, but in terms of actual delegates, it was a relatively minor setback for Trump. And there are several caveats: Cruz won in caucus states, where turnout is much lower, and they favor candidates who are extremely well organized, rather than ones like Trump, who are bringing disaffected voters back into the system. Only two remaining states, Hawaii and Utah, hold caucuses rather than primaries. Trump is not set up to win caucus states, because his strategy relies entirely around free media exposure."

A Trump staffer took to Facebook to blame Trump's ignorance of how delegates in primaries and caucuses are chosen, according to Grim and Bendery.

But there's more to it than that. Trump has been doing better in open states, and not as well in closed primary states. Here's a quick refresher for the Donald: open states means any registered voter (Democrat or Republican or an independent) can participate in a GOP primary, while closed states have a Republican Party membership limit.

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After initial reports surfaced that Trump won Louisiana in a blowout, the contest tightened. In the end, Trump squeaked by with a three point win, and a tie for Cruz in terms of delegates. Louisiana's contest is also closed, not open, a result that bodes ill for tycoon.

As of March 5, Trump has won most of the open states, with a rare exception being Minnesota, where Senator Marco Rubio limped to a win after Trump and Cruz ignored the state. Cruz won an open primary in his home state of Texas. But Trump has not done as well in closed states, with a lower winning percentage, tempered by those recent setbacks.

Yes, there may only be two caucuses, but plenty of closed primaries abound. There are almost twice as many caucuses and closed primaries as fully open ones, with a few mixed cases in between.
When the United States proudly elected and reelected Barack Obama, we took a positive giant-step in our evolution as a nation. Bolstered by the promise inherent in our progress, I believed, along with many others, in our ability to continue moving forward.

But, apparently, we are instead degenerating. We are dragging our knuckles and stooping to the shameful level of potentially electing Donald Trump: a serial liar, racist, narcissist, buffoon -- with no experience whatsoever in public office.

Think about this: Since election season began, our standards for leadership have been so debased that basic mental stability has become a criterion. Suddenly "soundness of mind" has to be included as a serious consideration when we vote. That's a bad sign.

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My late father, one of the most loyal Republicans I've ever known, would be vomiting all over his TV listening to Donald Trump and watching his juvenile antics. He would be appalled and ashamed of what's happened to the GOP. My father would never have converted to the left, but if Trump was elected president, I believe he would pack his bags and move back to Europe. He would even consider moving back to his native Greece where the current economic turmoil would seem like a pesky toothache compared to having an unstable, nut job in the White House.

Like many others, I believed at first that the people who were supporting Donald Trump were small, irrelevant factions of disgruntled Americans -- insignificant numbers of angry, anti-establishment objectors. But with Trump's popularity surging recently, it is sinking in that I was wrong -- really wrong.

My recent blog on Huffington Post a few months ago entitled, The New Plague in America: The Denial of Reason, was even more accurate than I believed at the time of writing it. The "dumbing down of America" continues. And it just keeps getting worse.

Interestingly, all of Trump's inexcusable behavior -- his brazen lack of decorum, bigotry, misogyny, harsh treatment of protestors at his events, initial refusal to disavow the KKK's support of his campaign and plenty of other examples -- only seems to fan the flames of his momentum. He's like a dirty snowball gathering strength and size. Except that dirt is actually a fungus and it's infecting our country at an accelerated pace.

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Even the countless articles written about his unhinged temperament, malignant self-absorption, and poor judgment doesn't seem to deter his followers. He's truly the new Teflon Don. Nothing sticks to him.

But, why? Here's one hypothesis:

Trump's fans seem to be supporting him as an act of rebellion -- like one colossal, anti-institution temper-tantrum. Their rebellion seems less a statement of active support than one of open resistance to the current political establishment. Trump's supporters are dismayed and feel let down for the last eight years, especially on the Republican and Conservative side. A vote for Donald trump is a gut-vote.

In a way, I get it. I am also disenchanted with our political establishment. The whole system stinks. The two party paradigm feels rigged. I feel the agony.

However, what we are seeing is a "blind rebellion" spawned by unexamined anger and fear. I say "blind" because Trump's voters are being duped by his outrageous and impossible promises. He assures he will stimulate instant economic prosperity and lots of "winning." In fact, he claims that "We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning." Makes me wonder: Did he get an endorsement from Charlie Sheen?

Trump's empty presidential aspirations also include building massive border walls, rounding up and throwing millions of illegals out of the country, ridding the world of terrorism in one fell swoop, etc. These are titillating promises to those who are so afraid and full of resentment.

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This kind of blind rebellion also inspires dangerously irrational thinking. Trump's shallow assurances are lulling his supporters into a pathological form of denial. For example, some of his fear-mongering rhetoric (Mexicans are sending over rapists and drugs; all Muslims are subversives, etc.) is exacerbating this blindness and obscuring their ability to see what's really going on here.

In psychotherapy we use the term, "cognitive distortions" to describe how excessive worry and long-term exposure to stress skews our thinking. These are negative thinking styles that patients identify within themselves and then work to replace with more realistic assessments. One of those is called "Emotional Reasoning."

Emotional Reasoning is when we think something is true just because we feel it. Emotional Reasoning confuses feelings with facts. It impairs our intellect and literally distorts reality. It's what separates us from the animal kingdom. We as humans can stop and think things through with our intellect. Animals operate on instinct and impulse.

As a nation, I thought we had risen above that. It appears we haven't.

Emotional Reasoning speaks from the primitive brain, or the fight/flight/freeze response system. When we feel threatened and sense imminent danger, the amygdala (the tiny but powerful fear center in our brains that alerts the organism to potential dangers) takes charge. Once in defense mode, we are unable to employ prudent thinking. Our hairy ancestor--the caveman -- needed it a long time ago to preserve the species and keep us alive. Our scary contemporary -- The Donald -- is using it to keep us in fear.

It is his supporter's primitive brain function that is being stirred up by Trump's animosity and fear-inducing dialogue. His words activate the primitive brain function by suggesting that the U.S. will collapse under another Democratic victory; or that we will soon be invaded and attacked by Muslims, the Chinese, Mexicans and God knows who else. The only thing his supporters want to hear is that a quick fix to their anxiety is on the way. But Donald Trump is not a panacea for our problems. At best, he is an expired vial of generic Xanax.

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There is also another psychological process occurring here. Consider how he reacts whenever he is criticized or challenged. He emotionally retaliates with rancorous intent like an elementary school kid ready for a playground brawl. Subsequently, his followers react to the doomsday fears he purports in exactly the same way he reacts to his critics. No intellect involved here. Monkey see, monkey do.

It's called Projection Identification, which occurs when someone projects their own negative qualities, or negative fears onto another. That recipient then internalizes the projection and comes to believe that he or she is characterized by it. Donald Trump's own feelings of hate, xenophobia and paranoia settles further into his follower's psyche every time he opens his reckless mouth.

Emotional Reasoning and Projective Identification are not what we need in Washington. If Donald Trump wins the White House, all this mislead, prejudiced claptrap--as Mitt Romney warned in his press conference on March 3rd--would be disastrous. Romney said that Donald Trump's "domestic policies would lead to recession and his foreign policies would make America and the world less safe."

If it could get any scarier, consider the ominous scene that unfolded during a University of Central Florida rally in Orlando last Saturday. Trump asked his followers to raise their right hands and take a pledge affirming their commitment to voting for him. The gesture was clearly reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) recently introduced the Sexual Assault Survivors Act in the U.S. Senate, legislation that will codify basic rights for sexual assault survivors. That wouldn't have happened without Amanda Nguyen, a twenty-four-year-old Harvard alum and aspiring astronaut who previously worked at NASA and currently works as the Deputy White House Liaison at the State Department. Seriously.

Amanda is also the founder of Rise, an organization working with Congress and state lawmakers to protect the rights of sexual assault survivors, a mission she took on after being raped in Massachusetts and finding that "navigating the broken system was worse than the rape itself." Every six months, she would have to request an extension to stop her untested rape kit from being destroyed by the state.

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She learned this wasn't uncommon. In states throughout the country sexual assault survivors risk having their untested rape kits destroyed, sometimes without their knowledge. Others make rape victims pay for their own kits. The rights and protections for survivors vary by state and that's something Amanda is working to change by having Congress pass a Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights.

It's heavy stuff. So when approached with the idea of partnering with Funny or Die to create a video highlighting the absurdity of these laws and directing people to her petition on Change.org, it seemed far fetched. How would comedy be used to inspire people to take action on an issue as serious as sexual assault? It was a bit of a gamble, but it worked.

Within a few hours of the video's release, over 50,000 people signed her petition asking Congress to pass Shaheen's legislation.

The video stars Erin Richards from Gotham playing the leader of a group of supervillains brainstorming all the evil things they could do to destroy their arch nemesis' beloved city. But when one of them starts suggesting making sexual assault survivors pay for their own rape kits or destroying untested kits (the most evil things he can think of), they're all horrified to learn these are actual things happening in states around the country. They decide it's time to (temporarily) team up with the good guys and get these laws changed.

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This is smart and funny, and a powerful way to use humor to inspire people to take action. We've seen other petitions on Change.org use comedy to build support for a serious issue too. Last year GLAAD created the Celibacy Challenge, a video starring Alan Cumming that pokes fun at the FDA's announcement that gay men could donate blood as long as they had remained celibate for one year. Nearly 30,000 people signed GLAAD's petition asking the FDA to ditch the proposal. And Steve-O from Jackass launched a Change.org petition and video asking Wendy's to offer a veggie burger to customer -- it's short and goofy and helped him gain over 40,000 supporters.

In a profile in Elle, Amanda explained what it was like to work with Funny or Die on the video:

It was fantastic! Humor gives us a way to talk about difficult, awkward issues. And quite frankly, that's what sexual assault is. It's remarkable that we're able to use humor and to use social justice comedy to get the word out there. Whatever platform people have in their lives and wherever they come from, they can use that to contribute to this cause. There are so many ways for us to do this. We want to try them all.

Amanda's campaign is already inspiring others to start petitions asking their Senators to cosponsor the legislation or for state lawmakers to pass legislation at the state level. Using Movement Pages, one of Change.org's newest features, there are now eight petitions all connected in one place on our platform, providing an easy way to find a petition to sign or to start your own.
More than half the millennials consider at least one of their parents to be their best friend. There was a time when a good parent was supposed to be an authority figure. Now we want to be friends as well, and with all these parents being buddies with their kids, it's no wonder we want a leader who we could be buddies with as well.

It's hard to imagine sitting around in your Wranglers having a beer with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, the Dalai Llama, Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Angela Merkel. Each of those leaders feels like someone you'd want to meet with on your best terms, someone who deserves all of your respect. It's an election year, and we will be deciding on the person who will be our next leader, and one of the leaders of the world. Do we want the most intelligent person, the most well informed or someone whose opinions we agree with? For many Americans, the candidate we like best is the one who agrees with our own ideas.

Recent elections have shown that from the time presidential candidates have appeared on television for debates, Americans have come to need their leaders to look good. It's hard to imagine Abraham Lincoln, who suffered from depression and probably Marfan's disease, coming across as the bon vivant Americans wish for now. Obama and Michelle both eat burgers and fries. They seem funny, friendly and likable. But no president in recent years got elected on quite the amount of likability as W. who seemed like he would be a lot of fun to hang out with -- and that won out over intelligence and experience for many Americans.

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In the current election, it appears that it will come down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and part of the election question will come down to likability. In a spouse, likability is a real plus. In a friend, certainly, but should it be a primary reason for voting for the leader of our nation? When the Donald insults women, people cheer, and that makes him feel that he is likable. Hillary's intelligence makes her seem less likable to some voters. We don't get to choose our parents or our bosses, but we do get to vote for who will lead our country.

Claudia Rankine's book Citizen has taken the country by storm. In it, we see micro-aggressions against African Americans told in poetic narratives. She tells stories of people being clearly insulting; each one is a reality we've seen and heard. Someone says to a black woman in line, "I didn't see you," as if it were possible to be invisible.

The Donald is clearly comfortable with not being politically correct; he's comfortable with micro-aggressions which are for him plain speech. To win a political campaign, you have to be willing to insult your opponent. You have to be willing to get down in the mud, to get dirty.

I've long realized that I like to be in a room with people who seem brilliant, people from whom I can learn. I think of conversations with truly great people: Rita Dove, Claudia Rankine, Percival Everett, Peggy Shumaker, Blase Bonpane, all of them people I have learned from. If you're in the room with someone who is highly intelligent, who is a great leader, do you feel small or do you feel lucky? I feel extremely fortunate, and I think this country would be fortunate if we could have a wise leader.

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Seema Reza, who leads the writing program at Walter Reed Hospital, has a new book coming out this year called When the World Breaks Open. It's a narrative memoir which traces her divorce, motherhood and her leadership of the writing program. She is a leader who, having risked all to divorce her husband, is ready to walk the tightrope with her returning vet students and her sons between being likable and being a leader. She writes of a taste for sour, sweet, flesh, sugar, fire. "The sweetness lingers in the corners of my lips, I catch it on the tip of my tongue and words I form are gentle, kind, ingratiating..." She writes of a world where balance is the dance of life. Where strength means willingness to take risks with grace.
Today as the world celebrates International Women's Day, I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to three incredible women that Fistula Foundation is fortunate to work with, who have dedicated their lives to helping women who suffer from the devastating childbirth injury obstetric fistula.



Habiba Corodhia Mohamed

Outreach Manager, Action on Fistula

Kenya

Many women who suffer from fistula live in the shadows, hiding their condition out of shame, perhaps not even knowing treatment is available. But Habiba Corodhia Mohamed always finds a way to bring the condition, and these women, into the light.



Habiba is the founder of WADADIA, a community-based organization in western Kenya that provides psycho-social support, economic empowerment and reproductive health to women in need. She also serves as outreach manager for Fistula Foundation's Action on Fistula program, a three-year initiative to transform the fistula treatment landscape in Kenya. Generously funded by Astellas Pharma EMEA, Action on Fistula has already delivered free, life-changing fistula surgeries to 912 women to date - in large part due to the tireless work of Habiba and her team, which travels to some of the most remote corners of Kenya to educate communities about obstetric fistula and help find and refer patients for treatment.



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Edna Adan

Edna Adan University Hospital

Somaliland

Edna Adan is a woman of many firsts: the first woman in Somalia to drive a car, the country's first female qualified midwife, and the first lady of Somaliland after a marriage to the prime minister. Her career led her to the top post with the World Health Organization, where she stayed until retirement. Then, she cashed in her pension and her life savings to fulfill a lifelong dream of opening a hospital that could address health problems facing women and children in the Horn of Africa, which suffers one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.

Life in this part of the world can be extremely difficult for women, who face cultural expectations for bearing a large number of children even if it means their own health is put at risk. Here, a woman must seek permission from a male family member - even their son or a grandson - before leaving the house for any reason at all, even a life-threatening medical emergency.

But thanks to Edna Adan, women have more access to health care than they ever had before, and Fistula Foundation is proud to have funded fistula treatment at her facility, Edna Adan University Hospital, since 2009. Edna's hospital is one of the largest buildings in Somaliland's capital city, Hargeisa. Its medical reputation is so stellar, it has become the "go to" facility in the region for UN and other development workers. Edna runs training programs, not just for midwives and nurses, but also for lab techs and pharmacists and anesthetists, creating the human resource capacity in health that Somaliland needs.



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Dr. Mulu Muleta

Women and Health Alliance International

Ethiopia

Dr. Mulu Muleta was born and raised in the village of Abebe, in Ethiopia, one of seven children. When she was a teenager, her mother was badly injured in a car crash. Inspired by the dedicated hospital staff who nursed her mother back to health, Mulu decided to enroll in medical school. Upon graduation, she held the distinction of having become one of the country's first female Ethiopian-trained obstetrician-gynecologists. She went on to work at Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa where she learned to treat obstetric fistula. Today, I can tell you without hesitation that she is one of the finest fistula surgeons in this world.

While she could have taken her talents anywhere, Mulu chose to stay in Ethiopia to help deliver life-changing care to women in her own country. Based in Addis Ababa, she serves as Senior Medical Advisor for a long-term Fistula Foundation partner, Women and Health Alliance International (WAHA). In her role with WAHA, Mulu performs fistula surgery at various teaching hospitals in Ethiopia, but she also spends her time training the next generation of African surgeons to build their skills in treating complex cases of fistula.

But I cannot do her full story justice. For that, I will direct you to a brilliant article about Mulu that appeared in Newsweek.



Dr. Mulu Muleta And The Afterbirth Miracle



These three women have dedicated their lives to helping other women get the medical care they need and deserve. I am proud to call them partners, and I can think of no more fitting way to mark International Women's Day than by sharing their stories with you. I hope you will share the link to this post to help spread the word, so more people can "meet" these three remarkable women!

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Two quotes from Claudia Goldin, Harvard University professor and leader in gender economics research, during the Freakonomics podcast "The True Story of the Gender Pay Gap" stick with you. At least they have stuck with me.

"It's hard to find the smoking guns, OK? The smoking guns existed in the past," and "I don't think that they [differences between men and women] go the real distance."



Numerous Small Injustices

I posit that the Gender Pay Gap, like any project with just 20% left to completion, has numerous small details to address instead of any smoking guns. Think of it as a thousand cuts causing the remaining pay gap. None of these cuts by themselves "go the real distance" but put together the results are alarming. For example, the question of previous pay in the hiring process is one of those thousand cuts. The question continues and compounds the gap when job offers are based on past pay. Women who have experienced discrimination in the past are unable to get away from it each time that question is asked. That is why, I first recommended salary history be banned from the hiring process in an April 2012 Change.org petition. At the time, salary history was not part of the gender pay gap discourse. The idea has gotten momentum. MA, CA, HI, and MD have filed bills that would make it unlawful. In a recent New York Times article, Linda Babcock co-author of Women Don't Ask stated it is the most effective action an employer can take to close internal gaps.

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The same Change.org petition, called for job advertisements to include the minimum pay or a pay range for the job. One study shows that women engineers state $17,000 below the amount men state in the desired salary field on job applications. Similar to a job offer being anchored on previous lower pay, women themselves are anchoring their desired salaries based on their statistically lower pay.

Some of the other cuts that impact the gender pay gap, include:

Lowered perception of credentials on a resume or application when a woman's name instead of a man's name is on it.

Negative personality references in job reviews for women at a much higher rate than men.

Women are lied to more than men in negotiations.

Unintended Biases Impact Pay and Promotions

The incremental effect of these and other cuts women experience in the workforce grows over time. The compound effect can really be seen about 10-15 years into a career unfortunately the most common culprit considered at that time is motherhood. Another commonly considered culprit is a slower advancement in career. Many of the cuts that impact pay impact career advancement. Salesforce discovered this in their recent pay audit that resulted in $3 Million in pay raises for its women employees. The audit also resulted in many promotions. The cause and effect is hard to determine. Do women opt out or slow down work to raise kids thus slowing down their pay and careers or do women realize their careers are not paying and progressing as well making it easier to opt out or slow down?

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Want to make a political scientist's head explode? Explain to them how Donald Trump is a winner because he is leading polls and winning crowded primaries.

In the back of their mind, the political scientist is thinking "he's 'winning' because the vote is fractured," and resisting the urge to say "the worst way to pick someone for office is to just take the person with the most votes, but not a majority." Or, as Natalie Jackson put it last fall in evaluating Trump as a frontrunner, "not so fast."

In that spirit, we want to talk to you about an obscure 18th century philosopher, Nicolas de Condorcet. The Marquis de Condorcet was a French mathematician was concerned with fair systems that preserved majority rule. He thought a good voting system picked a candidate from a crowded field (three or more candidates) who would beat any other candidate in a head-to-head contest. Back last fall, Gaddie blogged that "For Trump to be a definitive frontrunner, he should be able to defeat any other candidate head-to-head, absent other choices. ... One way to tease out Trump's Condorcet potential is to ask voters to consider every potential trial heat." A Condorcet winner can consistently lose in a crowded field. But, because they are everyone's second choice, they beat any other opponent in a head-to-head contest (this has been the Rubio/Kasich argument throughout the primary season.)

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A Condorcet loser can consistently win with pluralities. This is the problem for Republicans and Mr. Trump -- he's not a Condorcet winner. We now have evidence in national polling of Republicans that Trump is not the Condorcet winner, and, in fact he's the Condorcet loser. Donald Trump is a loser. New polling from the Washington Post and Gary Langer at ABC shows Trump clearly losing to both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Trump's an especially powerful loser among evangelicals and core conservatives. (No test number for Kasich was made available). Ted Cruz is the strongest candidate against Trump in this test.
BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - MARCH 13: A young African woman at work in the fields, checking the crops to be harvested just outside Bangui pictured on March 13, 2014 near Bangui, Central African Republic. (Photo by Thomas Koehler/Photothek via Getty Images)

Across Africa, radio is levelling the field for women farmers, giving them access to the knowledge and opportunities they need to secure better harvests and a brighter future.

Mebrihit Tsegaye is one of the millions of African women who rely on farming. With the wellbeing of her three children on the line, she regularly participates in a radio listening group with women in her community to make her farm as successful as possible. This gives her dependable access to agricultural radio programs and connects her with other women farmers. Together, the women discuss their issues and challenges and what they are learning about over the radio, finding strength in each other and the women's voices they hear on the air.

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For women like Mebrihit Tsegaye of Ethiopia, radio is key to a successful farming business. She tunes in regularly as a member of a women-only listening group, which gives her reliable access to radio programs and much more.

Photo credit: Farm Radio International

The "silent pillar" of African agriculture

Africa's female farmers are sometimes referred to as the "silent pillar" of agriculture. They play a vital role in agriculture across the continent, responsible for up to 80 percent of household food production, but their contributions and needs are often overlooked. Worldwide, women receive only five percent of agricultural extension services, whether we are talking about higher-quality seeds, training opportunities or access to credit.

Women farmers do much more than just tend to their fields, busy with a triple burden of work that also includes responsibilities in the household and community. This leaves them with less time to access agricultural information and services than their male counterparts.

But time is just the first obstacle. Agricultural information is often delivered through tools that women do not have access to or know how to use, such as cell phones. Add to the challenge the fact that most agricultural advisors are men, which creates a huge barrier in societies that consider it inappropriate for women to interact with men from outside the family -- even over the phone.



With limited resources and decision-making power, women farmers typically also have smaller plots of land than men due to patriarchal systems of land use and ownership. They may also be relegated to less profitable crops, as there is a tendency in some countries to divide agricultural production by gender.

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Ironically, despite all of the food that they produce, women farmers in Africa are more likely to live in extreme poverty and to experience hunger, malnutrition and poor health. But it need not be this way. Investing in and empowering Africa's women makes sense for pragmatic reasons as well as moral ones. In fact, the UN estimates that closing the gender gap in agriculture could lift 150 million people out of poverty.

How radio is putting women first

I am proud to be part of an organization that is working to put women farmers first. FRI has worked for almost four decades to ensure that radio is accessible and relevant to all farmers, male and female. However, we realize that this means paying even more attention to the needs and wants of women farmers.

In 2013 we launched a special initiative, Her Farm Radio, to highlight projects that place particular emphasis on reaching, serving and engaging female farmers. And we are learning and changing a lot as a result, to the benefit of the millions of African women farmers reached through our broadcasting partners and development projects.

Because of Her Farm Radio, we are increasingly engaging female farmers in research to learn about their needs and focusing on agricultural interventions with specific benefits for women, mothers, and children. This means everything from putting more focus on so-called women's crops to exploring gender relations over the airwaves. An increase in the number of female broadcasters and guests is also helping to feature women farmers' voices and perspectives more prominently in radio programs.

Changes like these help make radio programs more relevant to women, but they are useless if women can't tune in. We have learned to air programs when women tell us they are available, and to establish community listening groups in which women can listen together on group-owned wind-up radios. Having women listen to the radio in groups can overcome access issues with the added benefit of bringing women together to share information, ideas and opinions, and to access training and other support opportunities.

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The widespread adoption of cell phones across Africa has meant that farmers can increasingly participate in radio programs by calling in or responding to mobile polls, but women's voices remain underrepresented. The simple act of adding and promoting women-only phone lines has made it possible for radio stations to field as many calls from women farmers as from men over the airwaves, giving women farmers a stronger voice. Community listening groups also make it easier for women to call into stations by giving them shared access to cell phones and a safe, supportive environment.

Changes like these take time, but already we are seeing results and hearing from women farmers how radio is changing their lives. In my work as FRI's executive director, I have had the pleasure of traveling across Africa and spent a year living in Tanzania to be closer to our work on the ground. I've seen how excited and eager farming women and men are to tune into radio programs that are produced just for them and that feature the voices and experiences of farmers like them.

I'll never forget Agnes, a cassava farmer in the Soroti District of Uganda, telling me how her daughter runs to fetch her every Sunday at 7 pm, calling, "Mother, mother, our radio show is coming on!" Agnes was clear: "This show belongs to us."

Clearly, there is still much work to be done, but radio is doing its part to transform the silent pillar of African agriculture into an empowered one whose voices are heard loud and clear.

Follow Farm Radio International on Twitter: https://twitter.com/farmradio

Follow Farm Radio International on Facebook: www.facebook.com/farmradio

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Farm Radio International works with more than 600 radio partners across 39 African countries, reaching tens of millions of small-scale farmers and their families. Learn more about its life-changing work at www.farmradio.org.
Can you like a guy whose mouth doesn't turn up when he smiles? (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Last night Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debated for the seventh time, in Flint, Michigan. They showed how different they are from each other--and from the Republicans, too, who have turned their debates into childish namecalling sessions with boasting about dick size. Literally.

Meanwhile, primary voting is in full swing. Here are the delegate totals so far:

Republicans

Trump - 384

Cruz - 300

Rubio - 151

Kasich - 37

(You need 1237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.)

Democrats

Clinton - 1130

Sanders - 499

(You need 2383 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.)

Several more states are voting in March, including states with with a lot of delegates and symbolic importance, like Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida. Through the end of March, 1312 Democratic and 652 Republican delegates are up for grabs.

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We have 4 Republicans still in the race, and two Democrats. And each one has a major, possibly fatal flaw.

Trump - blowhard

Donald Trump, blowhard. (mikehogan2/Flickr)

Trump fans say they like that he speaks his mind and "tells it like it is." But he also blusters and boasts--scapegoats and discriminates against Muslims, Mexicans, women, and undocumented immigrants--so he's been painted as a demagogue and a fascist and a crude bully.

A look at tomorrow's front page...

'TRUMP IS HITLER'https://t.co/gSH8f2cCDV pic.twitter.com/dlxllcdMVu  New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 6, 2016

His authoritarian, take-no-prisoners style attracts voters, but it also seriously repels them.

This is a problem for Trump because in state after state, voters who are making up their minds at the last minute aren't voting for him. (In early states they were voting for Rubio. Now they're going Cruz.) That helped him lose Kansas and Maine to Cruz over the weekend, when Republicans in 4 states plus Puerto Rico voted. Only 84 delegates separate Trump and Cruz right now. It's pretty clear Trump's style isn't winning him many new fans.

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Cruz - unlikeable

Everybody Hates Ted Cruz pic.twitter.com/7NnxwQwmih  Senator DryChris Del Monte (I-ON) (@DryChrisVII) March 7, 2016

It sounds harsh, but Cruz is personally disliked by almost everybody, including his own Republican colleagues in the Senate, and his college roommate.

No. Ted has no empathy and desires to control people. He's a bad person, and I choose to spend my kindness on others https://t.co/FbA2umCWpA  Craig Mazin (@clmazin) February 26, 2016

A lot of people just find him creepy, loathsome, and insincere.

But beyond that, a lot of people in both parties think Cruz is dishonest and sneaky. And too many people are enjoying buying into the theory that Ted Cruz is the infamous Zodiac killer. Really. If you're seen as a creepy liar, it's hard to get people to like you, and if you can't get people to like you, how can you get them to vote for you? Will most of the country vote for someone they can't like?

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Rubio - lightweight

Can Rubio take the heat? (Giphy)

Rubio likes to talk about how he represents the future and that it's time to look forward instead of to political veterans and party elders. (His campaign theme is "a new American century.") Rubio and Cruz are the same age, but somehow Rubio comes off younger and greener.

Frank Luntz focus group on Rubio: he won, but still "boyish," "student council president," "orator," "young looking"  John Durant (@johndurant) February 26, 2016

He's often described as young, boyish, and inexperienced, adjectives that don't scream presidential. More recently, Trump has taken to calling Rubio a lightweight, and the label is sticking.

Rubio essentially argues Obama has deliberately tried to ruin America. Then he wonders why GOP voters respond to Trump. #Lightweight  David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 5, 2016

Kasich - boring

John Kasich, being exciting. (Giphy)

Months into the campaign, after 11 Republican debates, Ohio Governor John Kasich is still unknown and unclear to so many people. Why? He just doesn't make a strong enough impression. He tries to portray himself as reasonable, practical, and mature, but he can come off just ... boring. And that's a big thing that keeps him from being better known.

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I just feel like John Kasich is like this shoe. Sensible, reasonable, boring. Nothing too showy or exciting here. pic.twitter.com/8IGSSemuxf  T. J. Raphael (@TJRaphael) February 26, 2016

Clinton - inconsistent

Who is the true Hillary Clinton? (Giphy)

Glance at the Twitter hashtag #WhichHillary to see people accusing Clinton of changing her positions when it seems like it would help her politically.

Even a lot of Democrats who like that she's very experienced and qualified also think she's dishonest and untrustworthy. Yikes. Republicans go further and deem her a serial liar, perhaps even to a criminal level.

My interpretation: Hillary is Strong and Experienced at being a Liar, Dishonest, Untrustworthy pic.twitter.com/glMquPsIWB  Darien (@DarienBresee) September 7, 2015

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This image keeps many Democrats from supporting Hillary.

I have no problem with Hillary being a moderate Democrat. My problem is that she lies constantly about her views based on what's popular.  abel. (@FeeIThaBern) March 6, 2016

Sanders - unrealistic

He's a democratic socialist calling for a sustained political revolution. His tax plan would raise taxes 34%. He has big goals, like replacing Obamacare with a single-payer health care system and dismantling the big banks. But his plans for how to actually achieve these goals can sound thin.

How realistic is Bernie Sanders about which of his plans he could actually accomplish? Some Democrats call him a dreamer with unrealistic goals.

I love Bernie sanders and his head is really in the right place with a lot of what he wants to do but it's just so unrealistic  Single Mother (@IllestCypher) March 4, 2016

And some Republicans are harsher, dismissing him as a cranky, crazy old socialist.

Am I crazy or is Bernie Sanders a communist and people are really voting for him?  Kevin Brown (@KMBrown0402) February 14, 2016

The thing is, a lot of people are sick of these characterizations.

I hear how Trump is Hitler Reborn, how Cruz is a crazy cultist, Hillary is a wicked witch and Bernie is a communist. I'm sick of it.  Jack of all Shades (@Shade_21) February 27, 2016

Still, they do stick, for a reason, and they could make a difference in the primaries and caucuses still to come before the nominations are set.
By Denise Dunning, PhD

Founder & Executive Director of Rise Up

In celebration of International Women's Day, we honor women leaders who are building a better world, and reflect on the enduring obstacles to gender equity that we continue to fight. Next week's 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a critical space to examine the progress we've made and the challenges we face in advancing the rights of women worldwide.

This year, CSW will focus on the linkages between women's empowerment and sustainable development, creating a unique opportunity for activists and researchers to advocate with global policymakers for women's rights.

The importance of supporting women to come together and advocate for our rights is undeniable. But I do have one question. Where are the girls?

While women's empowerment is crucial, girls' empowerment is also one of the most promising strategies we have to achieve sustainable development. Ensuring that girls are healthy, educated, and enabled to speak out for their own rights is key to creating a better world - for girls, their families, communities, and countries.

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LGL Girl Leader in Uganda sharing her leadership skills with girls in her community.

Girls know best their own realities and challenges. Girls are their own best advocates, able to effectively articulate both their own needs and solutions. Girls need and deserve the opportunity to raise their own voices and speak out for their own priorities. Yet, the global community continues to pretend that creating spaces for women is tantamount to ensuring girls' meaningful participation.

People often ask me if we are expecting too much for girls to stand up for their rights and advocate with decision makers. Policymakers tell me that they doubt that their own daughters would be able to speak out to a group of policymakers during a UN meeting, much less a marginalized girl from a poor community. Too many decision makers doubt girls' ability to speak out for their own priorities, to advocate for their rights.

And while I understand this point of view, I know it is wrong. I have seen a 15-year-old indigenous Mayan girl from Guatemala give a keynote advocating for girls' rights from the floor of the UN, alongside Ban Ki Moon and Melinda Gates. I have watched an 18-year-old girl from rural Malawi give one of the most inspiring TED Talks I have ever seen, sharing her powerful work to end child marriage with over a million viewers.

So what will it take to create spaces for girls' meaningful participation? Beyond decision makers' resistance to hearing girls' voices, logistical and financial challenges are not simple to overcome. Traveling to New York is expensive and girls under the age of 18 need a chaperone. And getting a visa to come to the US is no small feat, especially for girls like Norwu, a girl leader from Liberia.

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Norwu was selected to join Rise Up's delegation to attend the 60th Session of the UN CSW to share her powerful advocacy for girls' education in Liberia. But when Norwu went to the US Embassy in Monrovia, her visa request was denied. The consular officer probably saw Norwu as a flight risk, a poor girl with no future in Liberia who would likely overstay her visa and never leave the US.

And herein lies the problem. As long as we all - UN officials, policymakers, consular officers, and decision makers of all kinds - continue to view girls like Norwu as poor girls with no future, that is exactly what too many of them will become.

But if we open our eyes to the possibility, strength, and power that girls can have, they will become leaders who change our world.



LGL Guatemalan Girl Leader, Emelin, speaking at the CSW59 last year.

Norwu wrote a prescient blog in 2014 where she shared her own experience, and that of too many millions of girls around the world: "We are the victims and survivors of early marriage, teenage pregnancy, sexual violence, discrimination, and the lack of healthcare. We are the ones left behind in our society for so many reasons, especially ignorance and the high poverty rate in our country."

When are we going to stop leaving girls like Norwu behind?

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Rise Up Achieves large-scale change by ensuring that girls, youth and women can stay healthy, finish school, escape poverty and overcome violence. We invest in local solutions, innovation and advocacy to end injustice and improve health, education, livelihoods and rights around the globe.

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The Flint disaster is a horrifying example of government gone wrong. The people of Flint are facing severe water contamination on a massive scale-- up to 12,000 children and their parents are facing lasting health and mental deterioration as a result of serious lead poisoning, others are infected with Legionnaire's Disease--more than ten are dead, and many more are affected. It didn't have to be this way.

If the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance (part of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) had explicitly recognized and prioritized their responsibility to provide clean drinking water for citizens, the Flint disaster could have been averted. Instead politics, penny-pinching, and the needs of business stakeholders reigned supreme.

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If a government department does not explicitly discuss, confront and make choices about these dueling objectives, their default option is to prioritize the needs of the more visible, organized and vocal stakeholders. And more often than not, those stakeholders already happen to be in a position of privilege--often white and usually wealthy.

It is a surprisingly common problem. Many government leaders either fail to explicitly identify their core clients, or grapple with what they perceive to be dueling objectives. Who are the clients of police? If the police shoot an unarmed person, whose safety are they prioritizing? Who are the core clients of children's services departments? Are they in charge of protecting the family unit, or are they in charge of protecting children?

As I discuss in my book, Mission Control: How Nonprofits and Governments Can Focus, Achieve More, and Change the World, government leaders must make an explicit effort to clarify what their core mission is, and particularly, who their real clients are. It is not enough to feel stuck between dueling objectives, nor is it good enough to say, "We are operating in a tight budget".

In the case of Flint, if anyone had taken the time to ask this question, the answer would have been obvious. Providing safe drinking water should have been absolutely core to the mission of the Office of Drinking Water. And perhaps more importantly, their core clients are the citizens of Flint--not the businesses who use water in their factories, nor the organizations who receive funding to reroute water. And serving those clients means building a system that works for all citizens, especially those who are coming from the position of the least privilege. If a system doesn't work for those who need it most, it does not work.

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I've taken large state government departments through this exercise, and it can change lives. By asking: Who should we prioritize?-- government leaders are better able to identify and respond to the needs, and protect the rights, of their core clients. Asking this question is the first critical step in the process. What comes next is to ensure systems throughout the institution support the more vulnerable clients. The priority should be clear from the top down: from what leaders say and do, to how budgeting decisions are made, to who is recruited and what behavior is rewarded. This is true even in cases (like Flint) when governments are operating with limited budgets, reduced infrastructure spend and convoluted accountability.



What would this have looked like in Flint? It would have meant that when complaints came from citizens living in poverty, they are actually given more weight and priority than when complaints came through from big corporations. In reality the opposite happened -- when General Motors reported the new water source was corroding their engine parts, their water supply was switched off and they were provided with an alternative supply source, but when citizens complained, they were told they must have been mistaken--even the governor's Chief of Staff recognized the behavior, noting in an email,

These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us.
The pillars (called lingam in Sanskrit) of Lord Shiva -- identified as a supreme god, along with Brahma and Vishnu, constituting the trimurti (trinity of gods) -- are strewn all over the world, including Washington D.C., Luxor, Paris, and Karnataka. A Shiva lingam, a pillar that can be made out of myriad materials such as stone, clay, snow, rice, any substance, is an exception to anthropomorphic images found in Greek, Roman, and Hindu mythologies associated with gods and goddesses. The pillars have been built over the centuries for various causes; they are installed at temples, pantheons, public squares, and in private precincts; they are erected to memorialize religious and secular events; they leap toward the skies with differing heights; and, sometimes, the words of modern and ancient languages are inscribed on their slender-looking giant frames.

In Hindu scriptures, the story of Shiva lingam captures the pointless struggle between Brahma and Vishnu, the two formidable gods, competing for supremacy over each other. In the midst of their irresolvable conflict, a lingam wrapped in fire appears between them. The quarreling gods are asked to go and find the beginning and the end of the lingam. When they fail, Shiva steps out of the pillar and claims sovereignty. Brahma and Vishnu prostrates in submission to Shiva. The Shiva pillar, therefore, represents the humbling power of an unlimited god. Most importantly, the story emphasizes third-party intervention for arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and the eventual resolution of controversies of immense proportions.

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The pillars, with or without lexes, regardless of elevation and architectural design, have been built to symbolize reconciliation, light of awareness, fire of creativity, valor of undertakings, revolution of form and substance, as well as incomprehensible states of cosmic consciousness. The pillars can be found all over the world. Most pillars are built as war memorials, tributes to men and women of immense significance, and to numerous other objectives. Whatever the purpose, the notion of pillar remains, in its origin, an element of metaphysics associated with temples, faith traditions, gods, and goddesses.

The Shiva pillar in itself is formless; it is an idea, an abstraction, a principle, and an element of cosmic consciousness that cannot be fully captured but may be represented in a material form. Despite variant themes, the pillars may or may not be attributed to Lord Shiva, a supreme entity that speaks to all forms of life, including the human species, cultivated and naturally sprouting in all times and in all locations. Lord Shiva is not Hindu, Christian, or Muslim. Lord Shiva cannot be captured in any image, let alone in any specific image. Nothing resembles Lord Shiva. The pillars of Shiva are endeavors to understand the secrets of beings and forces of animation that occupy the known and unknowable multiverses.

The pillars, known as obelisks in English, were the architectural darlings of Egyptian Pharaohs. Placed in pairs at the entrance of Egyptian temples, the obelisks paid tributes to the sun-god Ra (Helios in Greek) and to other sources of light emanating from the cosmos. The Greeks and the Romans were enamored with Egyptian obelisks and decorated their own temples with imported and homemade pillars. When in the seventh century Egypt embraced Islam, Muslim rulers continued to protect the obelisks in Luxor, Ayn Shams (Heliopolis), and Cairo. Partly out of generosity and partly out of conquests and colonialism, the Muslim rulers have gifted several ancient obelisks to foreign countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

An Egyptian obelisk, made out of red granite, stands in Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican City, the heart and soul of Roman Catholicism. Such are the ironies associated with Lord Shiva that the Vatican obelisk belongs to an unknown Pharaoh, who could not have predicted that the pillar he dedicated to the sun-god Ra in Egypt will be excavated, ferried, and installed faraway to celebrate Jesus, a Christian God. Some pillars appropriated during colonial occupations have been returned to their native lands. An Ethiopian obelisk taken by the Italian army in 1937 was returned to Ethiopia in 2005.

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The pillars may be erected for secular reasons. Completed in 1884, the Washington Monument, a 555 feet tall obelisk made out of marble, granite, and gneiss, commemorates George Washington, the first United States President. The pillar rejoices the founding of a new nation, a revolution, a written constitution, and a ruler placed under the sovereignty of law. The words "Laus Deo" translated as "Praise be to God" are inscribed on the capstone. The pillar resembles a needle, with a modern elevator climbing its interior altitude in seventy seconds, which stands silently, even among fervent winds, near the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. The monument reflects intricate states of consciousness and interacts with viewers as a vivacious force. The Native Americans, the progeny of African slaves, the President-hopefuls, the undocumented aliens, the Christians, the Satanists, and the Hindus look at the Washington Monument with discrete eyes and experience differing feelings and mutually irreconcilable states of consciousness. Much similar is the inherent power of a Shiva lingam wherever erected.

Even secular France, with low tolerance for any fusion of state and religion, is blessed with the pillars of Shiva. A more than three thousand years old Luxor obelisk that Egyptian ruler Ali Pasha gifted in 1829 was erected in 1836 in Place de la Concorde, where King Louis XVI was executed after the French revolution. However, the most famous lingam in Paris is a modern pillar, the 1063 feet tall Eiffel Tower, constructed out of wrought iron in 1889. Completed in a relatively short period of two years, this iconic airy-fairy pillar was vehemently opposed by writers, artists, and other intellectuals. Little did the literati know that the tower would become the most feted identity of France! The names engraved on the tower are those of engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, as if serene science has triumphed over resentful art. Now, however, the tower attracts all, engineers, mathematicians, scientists, architects, poets, and philosophers to appreciate the charm of a marvel pillar overlooking a city with a thousand stories. During the Second World War, the Nazis planned to dismantle the tower after hoisting a Swastika flag on its top. The German general, however, refused to obey the orders of demolition, preserving the tower. Much similar is the inherent majesty of a Shiva lingam wherever erected.

The lingams associated with Lord Shiva may be easily found in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some ancient Shiva lingams appear to be in the image of human phallus. However, an exclusive correlation of Shiva lingam with phallus is an embarrassing inaccuracy of Western orientalism, an epistemic discipline developed partly to ridicule non-Christian religions found in the colonized lands. A Shiva lingam constructed at Kotilingeshwara temple in the state of Karnataka stands 108 feet tall, much taller than the obelisks found in Egypt. Some ancient lingams have been found in the ruins of Indus Valley located in Pakistan. The Vedas and Puranas mention the lingam as a sacred pillar. A hymn in Atharvaveda praises the lingam as a sacrificial post (Yupa-Stambha). Shiva Purana describes the lingam as a pillar of fire without knowable extremities. In popular Hindu culture, the lingams carry numerous representations ranging from the union of lovers to reconciliation between the opposites.

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Courtesy of Record Store DayThe complete official list of releases for Record Store Day 2016 has been unveiled, and, as usual, it's stacked with exclusive vinyl releases from artists of all generations, including such classic-rock acts as The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elvis Presley, The Monkees, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The Doors have a pair of special Record Store Day offerings this year -- a three-LP set titled Live at the Aquarius: The First Performance and a seven-inch single featuring "Break On Through" backed with "A Feast of Friends." Live at the Aquarius: The First Performance comes on blue vinyl and boasts performances from a show that The Doors played at the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood. The single is one of a series of "Disquaire Day" singles being issued in solidarity with France in honor of the victims of the recent Paris terrorist attacks.

Creedence Clearwater Revival's Record Store Day release is The 1969 Box Set, which includes vinyl and CD versions of the three classic albums the band issued in '69, three seven-inch vinyl EPs, two posters, a 60-page scrapbook and some collectible items.

Presley's contribution to the campaign is I'm Leaving': Elvis Folk-Country, an LP featuring songs that the King of Rock 'n' Roll in Nashville from 1966 to 1973, and including covers of tunes written by Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Gordon Lightfoot and others.

Like The Doors, The Monkees are offering two special releases for Record Store Day. The first is a 10-LP set called Classic Album Collection gathering together the band's nine studio albums, and a disc of B-sides and bonus tracks. The second is a seven-inch picture-disc resembling the Monkees logo and featuring "mono TV versions" of the songs "Saturday's Child" and "You Just May Be the One."

Fleetwood Mac's Record Store Day release is an alternative version of their 1979 album Tusk. The two-LP set includes recordings also featured in the deluxe box set of Tusk the came out in December 2015.

Dylan's contribution is a seven-inch EP called Melancholy Mood, which was created for his upcoming Japanese tour and includes some tracks that will appear on his next studio album, Fallen Angels.

Petty and the Heartbreakers' special release is Kiss My Amps II, an LP of previously unreleased live performances by the band, including covers of songs by The Byrds, The Monkees, The Traveling Wilburys and Little Feat.

Other artists that are releasing exclusive discs for the 2016 Record Store Day initiative include The Animals, David Bowie, Cheap Trick, The Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Kinks, The Moody Blues, Graham Nash, Keith Richards' 1970s side project The New Barbarians, Todd Rundgren & Utopia, Patti Smith and The Turtles.

Record Store Day 2016 will be held April 16. Metallica is serving as the event's official ambassador. Visit RecordStoreDay.com for the full list of releases and more details about the initiative.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Marlen Melgar leads a meeting of the Tambla Municipal Womens' Network. Photo by Trini Ariztia/LWR.

Marlen Melgar serves as the coordinator for the Office on Women in the municipality of Tambla, in the Lempira district in Honduras. Her job is to help women's agricultural enterprises advocate for funding from the 5% of the municipal budget that by law is earmarked for gender activities.

Both the office and the position are brand new, created as a result of the advocacy of the women's network in the municipality. Being the first in this position makes Marlen understandably both excited and nervous.

"[When I first got the position] I thought, 'I don't know anything about how to be a coordinator.'" Marlen says. "There had never been such a space for women before."

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The Women's Network is part of the Gender in Agriculture from Policy to Practice (GAPP) project initiated by Lutheran World Relief, with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Feed the Future initiative, in 10 municipalities in Western Honduras. The aim of GAPP is to help women and men to advocate for policy changes that enhance women's access to credit and respond to their needs in agriculture. It is part of an effort to foster gender-balanced leadership that is being highlighted as part of the March 8 commemoration of International Women's Day.

With the training and support provided by the GAPP project, the Women's Network of Tambla has organized its board of directors and committees, and has taken the initiative to create a rural savings bank with the goal of carrying out activities that generate income for the network and its members.

Since the start of the project, GAPP has directly reached 2,721 women in strengthening their civic participation by building leadership, public speaking, and management skills in 10 women's networks in the Lempira district. These networks serve as a collective voice for women in their respective communities.

The project has also been directly working with 885 men to reinforce partnership and collaboration with women using an innovative masculinities methodology to promote changes in male attitudes towards equitable political and economic participation by women.

Rodrigo Ramos, a grain farmer, is the president of a rural credit institution in the nearby Tomala municipality. Along with men from other rural credit institutions, he participated in the intensive gender awareness training.

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Rodrigo Ramos and others who participated in gender training. Photo by Trini Ariztia/LWR.

During the trainings, Rodrigo shared life experiences that have shaped his notion of gender roles, and recognized that in order to promote gender equality, he and other men need to play an active role. "My big challenge is to involve more women in the rural credit institutions and their boards," he says. "I am hopeful that at least two women will soon be part of the board of directors. We've been actively lobbying on behalf of these women."

Today, members of the women's municipal networks are working with local governments to effectively use the allocated public funds, while men who participated in gender awareness training are becoming more aware of the challenges women face and are working to ensure they receive equitable resources.
Jeff Buck is again going undercover. No photo of him is available

Jeff Buck spent more than twenty years working as an undercover drug officer and eventually became the police chief of the small town of Reminderville, Ohio.

Takedown tells a true story, one that could be mistaken for fiction. While working as police chief of Reminderville, Ohio, Jeff Buck realized a domestic assault case had links to the murder of a drug runner in upstate New York. That, in turn, had connections to a syndicate smuggling billions of dollars of drugs across the U.S.-Canadian border. As Buck plunged back into his old world, he uncovered a complex drug smuggling chain linking the Hells Angels to the Russian Mob, and to Native American tribal land straddling the U.S.--Canadian border.

In Takedown, you mention your wife was less concerned about your working narcotics than she was about your being a police chief. How come?

My wife always said I was really good at undercover work, and if something bad was going to happen, I would be able to control the situation. But, as a police chief answering calls with my officer, I never knew what I would come upon. Virtually anything could happen on those calls, particularly when they were about a domestic violence situation.

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How did a domestic violence case in Ohio lead you to the biggest drug gang in the U.S.?

The domestic violence situation in my town involved a dispute between two Russians, Kevin Sorin and his girlfriend, Ashley Schmid. It turned out Kevin was also a "subject of interest" to the police in the neighboring community of Beachwood, where he was under surveillance for his involvement with Russian organized crime in this Cleveland suburb.

I met with the Beachwood police, and together we launched a large scale drug investigation.

We identified Kevin Sorin as the courier, and began a rolling surveillance operation which entailed tracking the couple who drove each week to New York State. They always rented cars with New York plates in order to be inconspicuous, but since the cars were equipped with On Star, with the help of the car rental company, we were able to track the vehicles, which led us to uncovering the enormous drug trade taking place at the U.S.-Canadian border.

Takedown notes important differences between the northern drug trade out of Canada and the southern trade run out of Mexico. What are they?

The southern border has twenty-two thousand border agents responsible for two-thousand miles of border. The northern border has two thousand agents responsible for fifty-five hundred miles of border. The difference in manpower is enormous. When we worked with the northern taskforce and talked with agents from federal, state and local agencies, they indicated the drug trafficking on the northern border is just as bad as that on the Mexican border. The same amount of drugs comes in and there's also human trafficking crossing over from the north. One of the 9/ll hijackers used the border at the Akwesasne reservation, which is also involved in the drug trade. There's an area on the reservation that looks like a typical street in any town except one side of the street is in Canada, and the other side is in the U.S.

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The National Drug Intelligence Center estimated in 2009, Canadian-based traffickers and organized crime drug smugglers were ferrying between thirty-three and fifty-six billion dollars a year over those northern borders.

Talk about the alliance formed by the Hells Angels and criminal elements of the Akwesasne reservation, as well as the role the ice bridge played.

The Hell's Angels use some of the Indians on the reservation as their importers and exporters. They get their product into the U.S. and the money goes back to them in Canada. The ice bridge is simply a part of the St. Lawrence River that's frozen-over in winter. It's a link between Canada and the U.S. that you can walk or drive across without any interference.

Tell us about "heat runs" and other measures you took to protect your family.

Simply put, you never want to take a bad guy home with you. When I left the office or an operation, and was on the way home--especially late at night--I would do a heat run. I would pull into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart and wait to see if anyone was following me. I would just sit there and see if anyone would drive past me. I always wanted to make sure no one was following me because we followed bad guys all the time.

In Takedown, you mention seventy-five percent of the time while you were working undercover, you didn't carry a gun. How come?

The criminal organizations involved in the drug trade were very professional. They couldn't move millions of dollars of product by being violent, leg-breaking gangbangers. They were well-prepared, and quite educated about law enforcement's techniques. It wasn't the way it's depicted on TV. The first thing that could tip someone off that I was an undercover agent was my carrying a gun. And, it could cause a problem in a relationship I was trying to build undercover with organized crime.

How did you get the nickname 'Dope Ghost'?

One of my friends, and a partner back in the 80s, began calling me that because I was able to move around at night and show up without anyone knowing I was there. The name just stuck.

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What are your thoughts about the "War on Drugs"?

When the federal government had a shortfall on December 15th, it found the money needed to keep the government operating in the Asset Forfeiture Fund, the repository for monies taken from drug organizations. The government took a total of about 1.2 billion dollars from that fund to help balance the budget. That was money the various task forces depended upon to take drugs off the streets. I believe now, because of reduced funding, we're going to see a huge spike in drug trafficking and use, and there will be an upsurge in the heroin epidemic throughout the nation.

What thoughts do you have when people say the War on Drugs has been unsuccessful and emphasis should be on treatment?

I believe emphasis should be on treatment. First-time drug offenders have to be treated differently from hard-core users. But we also need to tackle the problem from another angle.

Most people have no idea how many drugs law enforcement agencies keep off the streets every day. When we impede drug traffickers' organizations, we limit the amount of product available for sale. The War on Drugs has to be fought on two fronts: limiting supply and offering treatment.

Congratulations on your collaboration with Jon Land in writing Takedown, a chilling true-life account of extensive criminality affecting our nation, and activities on our northern border about which most Americans know very little.
At first glance, the issue of Illinois special taxing districts doesn't seem like fodder for edgy comedy.

But John Oliver, host of the acclaimed HBO comedy news show Last Week Tonight, devoted a generous, 15-minute segment of Sunday's show to that very topic. And despite Oliver's disclaimer acknowledging his unlikely subject at the top of the piece -- "Hello to the people watching for the first time because of our Trump piece, and also I presume, goodbye" -- the segment was both hilarious and highly informative.

I had especially high hopes for this one after being contacted by a "Last Week Tonight" researcher on Saturday about a video on the Reboot Illinois YouTube channel in which Gov. Bruce Rauner and Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti announced the findings and recommendations of a task force looking for ways to reduce Illinois' nearly 7,000 government bodies, which is the highest number in the nation by far.

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Our video didn't make the final cut, but Illinois did.

"When special districts have only one job, it makes it all the more noticeable when things go wrong," Oliver said as a segue into the plight of Evergreen Park and Cook County's many mosquito abatement districts. (It starts at 8:50 in the video above).

While not dealing extensively with Illinois, the piece shows the biggest problem with small taxing districts: Some can be so small that they lack oversight and, despite their obscurity, they often are responsible for large chunks of taxpayer dollars.

Enjoy the video. It's unlikely you'll find this topic in this context again anywhere. Then take a look at the findings of the Illinois task force. The extreme cases highlighted by Oliver in other states could be playing out right now in some tiny government unit somewhere here in the Land of Lincoln.
As the presidential candidates discuss and debate how to improve our country, nurturing the youngest Americans should be top of mind for all who are serious about securing our future. When babies get a good start in life, their chances for success, and ours, increase exponentially. This means better school outcomes, workforce readiness, social stability and global competitiveness -- results in which all the candidates should have a stake.

For many working families, a good start in life for their new babies includes child care. When heading off to work, all parents deserve to be confident that their babies are receiving the best quality care possible. Unfortunately, the real story of infant-toddler care in America is that quality programs are few and far between and out of reach for those children who could benefit most. In general, when quality child care can be found at all, it eats up too much of families' budgets -- more than 24 percent of median income for single parents. For low-income children -- many of whom face daily stressors ranging from hunger to unstable housing to parents frazzled from coping with making ends meet -- affordable, high-quality early childhood programs can make the difference between success and failure. Yet these children are more likely to have access only to low-quality care that actually can be detrimental to development.

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Why should ensuring access to high-quality child care be at the center of an agenda to strengthen our country's future? Because today's babies will be the core of our mid-century workforce and investing in them now gives us the greatest chance for impact. Right from the beginning, babies' brains are exploding with activity and are hungry for input. In fact, during the first three years, 700 new neural connections are formed in the brain every second. That's 42,000 per minute and more than 2.5 million in an hour. It is at this time that the foundational architecture of the brain is formed, setting the stage for future learning.

For the more than six million infants and young toddlers who spend at least part of their day in the care of someone other than their parents, this is the setting in which much of this explosion of development unfolds. The nature of the relationships and connections that grow between caregivers and children are huge factors in a child's healthy physical, social-emotional and cognitive growth, and they are at the heart of child care quality. Babies learn from the interactions they have with the adults who care for them, whether at home with their parents or in child care with their caregiver. When relationships between caregivers and children are nurturing, individualized, responsive and predictable, they increase the odds of desirable outcomes -- building a brain architecture that provides a strong foundation for future learning, behavior and health.

Infants and toddlers in child care benefit from caregivers who understand how to respond to individual social and emotional needs and are trained in facilitating the play and exploration that are the basis for baby learning. A child care center or family child care home should be a place where a nurturing staff provides an environment rich in language and activities guided by the young child's own agenda for discovery. While child care providers are the central ingredient in providing high-quality care, it continues to be an under-compensated, yet high stress, occupation. In 2014, the national median wage for childcare workers was only $9.48 an hour, and those who work with our youngest children are hit the hardest. Caregivers serving babies and toddlers earn 28 percent less than those working with 3- to 5-year-olds.

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Some markers for high-quality care: staff with only a few children to care for at once, rooms where children aren't overwhelmed by large numbers, low staff turnover fueled by adequate compensation, and educational qualifications. Early Head Start -- the federal program that provides comprehensive child development and family support services to infants and toddlers and their families with incomes at or below the poverty line -- is built on proven benchmarks to ensure the best outcomes, which should be the standard for all child care settings. For centers, that includes:

A ratio of one staff person for every four infants and toddlers;

No more than eight children in a group at one time;

And requiring a Child Development Associate Credential or above for the caregiver (or completion of one within a year of starting service) and training in early childhood development with a focus on infant-toddler development.

Early Head Start is a beacon for infant-toddler child care quality, especially for very young children in poverty who could most benefit from high-quality environments. But only a very few infants and toddlers (1 in 20 of those eligible) are able to access the program due to underfunding at the federal level. Elsewhere, young children are left to individual state child care requirements rarely shaped by the needs of young brains. Clearly, we need to flood our nation's early child care landscape with quality if more children are to get the strong start they need to thrive.

With so much at stake, why aren't all the candidates talking about the big investments in early childhood that will create our future workforce, parents, and leaders of this country. It seems like a no-brainer. The need for supports for working families -- like child care -- is popping up on the campaign trail, although details often are sparse and don't necessarily take the child's development into account. The President's Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposes to invest $82 billion over the next 10 years in quality child care for low-income families. The Child Care Access to Resources for Early-learning Act (Child C.A.R.E. Act), recently introduced in Congress, would take the first legislative step to ensure that all low-income families with infants and toddlers have access to high-quality child care by 2026. These are much-needed blueprints that show the way to critical improvements in one of the most important contributors to this country's growth, competitiveness and prosperity.

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President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and Chief Security Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) are attending the funeral of the British Prime Minister when all hell breaks loose. London is attacked by scores of terrorists who have somehow infiltrated British law enforcement and secret service. Every major British landmark - Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, St. Pauls, Buckingham Palace - are blown to smithereens. What's a tourist to do? File for refund or buy more film?

If all this seems familiar, it should. Barely two years ago, also on Mike Banning's watch in Olympus Has Fallen, President Asher was almost killed and Vice President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) was then Speaker of the House, and similarly relegated to the command center with little plausible dialogue. Perhaps London bridges wouldn't have fallen if Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs (Angela Bassett) and Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillen (Melissa Leo) had been replaced since the last episode in this Presidential punishment franchise. With such a bad safety record, it's a wonder that President Asher was even re-elected!

Of course, two years ago the villains were the unspeakably evil, treacherous North Koreans - always one would think, an appropriate and reasonable target. But having pulverized them in the Presidential Protection Playoffs, we now get an even more heinous enemy - the inevitable threat from war-torn Western Asia. The xenophobia rating from Pakistan and Yemen must be high indeed, as in the film's entire 99-minute run it is hard to find a single positive depiction of a person who might be from this area. As at a Donald Trump rally, it helps to have the enemy color-coded.

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And just why are these bad guys so upset? Two years earlier, a regrettable explosive targeting error killed many innocents at the wedding of the daughter of evil mastermind arms dealer Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul). Who was to know such evil people attended weddings or even had children? Didn't they understand the concept of collateral damage? Don't they know how dangerous weddings in Pakistan can be?

In the two years post reception, Barkawi and his sons compromised British intelligence, trained scores of followers to infiltrate police and set up headquarters in a huge, heavily trafficked downtown London building, which the British spy agencies somehow overlooked. Hard to believe that such an over-achiever was only No. 6 on Interpol's Most Wanted List. One can only imagine how evil the villains in forthcoming sequels will be!

Barkawi's battalions colorfully dispatch every world leader attending the London funeral. But not surprisingly, Mike Banning almost single-handedly rescues President Asher. Banning drives, shoots, hurls grenades and insults countless over-matched terrorists. And who besides those who saw Olympus Has Fallen would have seen that coming! In the film's climactic scene, Banning battles to save President Asher from a beheading that the terrorists threaten to exhibit on YouTube, a staging tasteless enough to rival even the most popular cat or Kardashian clip.

Director Babak Najafi (Easy Money II) keeps the action flowing and pyrotechnics exploding. Writers Creighton Rothenberger and wife/partner Katrin Benedikt, both of whom also worked on Olympus Has Fallen and The Expendables franchise, set the tone of the movie with Banning baiting Barkawis with lines like, "I don't care what 'Stan' you come from," or, "No matter what you do, we'll be here in a thousand years." Although for many a guilty pleasure, the hope is that this mildly xenophobic franchise will have run its course by then.
The Irony of Oil Abundance

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

Three and a half years ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) triggered headlines around the world by predicting that the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia to become the worlds leading oil producer by 2020 and, together with Canada, would become a net exporter of oil around 2030. Overnight, a new strain of American energy triumphalism appeared and experts began speaking of Saudi America, a reinvigorated U.S.A. animated by copious streams of oil and natural gas, much of it obtained through the then-pioneering technique of hydro-fracking. This is a real energy revolution, the Wall Street Journal crowed in an editorial heralding the IEA pronouncement.

The most immediate effect of this revolution, its boosters proclaimed, would be to banish any likelihood of a peak in world oil production and subsequent petroleum scarcity. The peak oil theorists, who flourished in the early years of the twenty-first century, warned that global output was likely to reach its maximum attainable level in the near future, possibly as early as 2012, and then commence an irreversible decline as the major reserves of energy were tapped dry. The proponents of this outlook did not, however, foresee the coming of hydro-fracking and the exploitation of previously inaccessible reserves of oil and natural gas in underground shale formations.

Understandably enough, the stunning increase in North American oil production in the past few years simply wasnt on their radar. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the Department of Energy, U.S. crude output rose from 5.5 million barrels per day in 2010 to 9.2 million barrels as 2016 began, an increase of 3.7 million barrels per day in what can only be considered the relative blink of an eye. Similarly unexpected was the success of Canadian producers in extracting oil (in the form of bitumen, a semi-solid petroleum substance) from the tar sands of Alberta. Today, the notion that oil is becoming scarce has all but vanished, and so have the benefits of a new era of petroleum plenty being touted, until recently, by energy analysts and oil company executives.

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The picture in terms of resources in the ground is a good one, Bob Dudley, the chief executive officer of oil giant BP, typically exclaimed in January 2014. Its very different [from] past concerns about supply peaking. The theory of peak oil seems to have, well, peaked.

The Arrival of a New Energy Triumphalism

With the advent of North American energy abundance in 2012, petroleum enthusiasts began to promote the idea of a new American industrial renaissance based on accelerated shale oil and gas production and the development of related petrochemical enterprises. Combine such a vision with diminished fears about reliance on imported oil, especially from the Middle East, and the United States suddenly had -- so the enthusiasts of the moment asserted -- a host of geopolitical advantages and fresh life as the planets sole superpower.

The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle East but on the Western Hemisphere, oil industry adviser Daniel Yergin proclaimed in the Washington Post. The new energy axis runs from Alberta, Canada, down through [the shale fields of] North Dakota and South Texas... to huge offshore oil deposits found near Brazil. All of this, he asserted, points to a major geopolitical shift, leaving the United States advantageously positioned in relation to any of its international rivals.

If the blindness of so much of this is beginning to sound a little familiar, the reason is simple enough. Just as the peak oil theorists failed to foresee crucial technological breakthroughs in the energy world and how they would affect fossil fuel production, the industry and its boosters failed to anticipate the impact of a gusher of additional oil and gas on energy prices. And just as the introduction of fracking made peak oil theory irrelevant, so oil and gas abundance -- and the accompanying plunge of prices to rock-bottom levels -- shattered the prospects for a U.S. industrial renaissance based on accelerated energy production.

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As recently as June 2014, Brent crude, the international benchmark blend, was selling at $114 per barrel. As 2015 began, it had plunged to $55 per barrel. By 2016, it was at $36 and still heading down. The fallout from this precipitous descent has been nothing short of disastrous for the global oil industry: many smaller companies have already filed for bankruptcy; larger firms have watched their profits plummet; whole countries like Venezuela, deeply dependent on oil sales, seem to be heading for receivership; and an estimated 250,000 oil workers have lost their jobs globally (50,000 in Texas alone).

In addition, some major oil-producing areas are being shut down or ruled out as likely future prospects for exploration and exploitation. The British section of the North Sea, for example, is projected to lose as many as 150 of its approximately 300 oil and gas drilling platforms over the next decade, including those in the Brent field, the once-prolific reservoir that gave its name to the benchmark blend. Meanwhile, virtually all plans for drilling in the increasingly ice-free waters of the Arctic have been put on hold.

Many reasons have been given for the plunge in oil prices and various conspiracy theories have arisen to explain the seemingly inexplicable. In the past, when prices fell, the Saudis and their allies in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would curtail production to push them higher. This time, they actually increased output, leading some analysts to suggest that Riyadh was trying to punish oil producers Iran and Russia for supporting the Assad regime in Syria. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, for instance, claimed that the Saudis were trying to bankrupt those countries by bringing down the price of oil to levels below what both Moscow and Tehran need to finance their budgets. Variations on this theme have been advanced by other pundits.

The reality of the matter has turned out to be significantly more straightforward: U.S. and Canadian producers were adding millions of barrels a day in new production to world markets at a time when global demand was incapable of absorbing so much extra crude oil. An unexpected surge in Iraqi production added additional crude to the growing glut. Meanwhile, economic malaise in China and Europe kept global oil consumption from climbing at the heady pace of earlier years and so the market became oversaturated with crude. It was, in other words, a classic case of too much supply, too little demand, and falling prices. We are still seeing a lot of supply, said BPs Dudley last June. There is demand growth, theres just a lot more supply.

A War of Attrition

Threatened by this new reality, the Saudis and their allies faced a painful choice. Accounting for about 40% of world oil output, the OPEC producers exercise substantial but not unlimited power over the global marketplace. They could have chosen to rein in their own production and so force prices up. There was, however, little likelihood of non-OPEC producers like Brazil, Canada, Russia, and the United States following suit, so any price increases would have benefitted the energy industries of those countries most, while undoubtedly taking market share from OPEC. However counterintuitive it might have seemed, the Saudis, unwilling to face such a loss, decided to pump more oil. Their hope was that a steep decline in prices would drive some of their rivals, especially American oil frackers with their far higher production expenses, out of business. It is not in the interest of OPEC producers to cut their production, whatever the price is, the Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi explained. If I reduce [my price], what happens to my market share? The price will go up and the Russians, the Brazilians, U.S. shale oil producers will take my share.

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In adopting this strategy, the Saudis knew they were taking big risks. About 85% of the countrys export income and a staggeringly large share of government revenues come from petroleum sales. Any sustained drop in prices would threaten the royal familys ability to maintain public stability through the generous payments, subsidies, and job programs it offers to so many of its citizens. However, when oil prices were high, the Saudis socked away hundreds of billions of dollars in various investment accounts around the world and are now drawing on those massive cash reserves to keep public discontent to a minimum (even while belt-tightening begins). If prices continue to be low, we will be able to withstand it for a long, long time, Khalid al-Falih, the chairman of Saudi Aramco, the kingdoms national oil company, insisted in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The result of all this has been an oil war of attrition -- a struggle among the major oil producers for maximum exposure in an overcrowded energy bazaar. Eventually, the current low prices will drive some producers out of business and so global oversupply will assumedly dissipate, pushing prices back up. But how long that might take no one knows. If Saudi Arabia can indeed hold out for the duration without stirring significant domestic unrest, it will, of course, be in a strong position to profit when the price rebound finally occurs.

It is not yet certain, however, that the Saudis will succeed in their drive to crush shale producers in the United States or other competitors elsewhere before they drain their overseas investment accounts and the foundations of their world begin to crumble. In recent weeks, in fact, there have been signs that they are beginning to get nervous. These include moves to reduce government subsidies and talks initiated with Russia and Venezuela about freezing, if not reducing, output.

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An Oil Glut Unleashes World-Class Havoc

In the meantime, there can be no question that the war of attrition is beginning to take its toll. In addition to hard-hit Arctic and North Sea producers, companies exploiting Albertas Athabasca tar sands are exhibiting all the signs of an oncoming crisis. While most tar sands outfits continue to operate (often at a loss), they are now postponing or cancelling future projects, while the space between the future and the present shrinks ominously.

Just about every firm in the oil business is being hurt by the new price norms, but hardest struck have been those that rely on unconventional means of extraction like Brazilian deep-sea drilling, U.S. hydro-fracking, and Canadian tar sands exploitation. Such techniques were developed by the major companies to compensate for an expected long-term decline in conventional oil fields (those close to the surface, close to shore, and in permeable rock formations). By definition, unconventional or tough oil requires more effort to pry out of the ground and so costs more to exploit. The break-even point for tar sands production, for example, sometimes reaches $80 per barrel, for shale oil typically $50 to $60 a barrel. What isnt a serious problem when oil is selling at $100 a barrel or more becomes catastrophic when it languishes in the $30 to $40 range, as it has over much of the past half-year.

And keep in mind that, in such an environment, as oil companies contract or fail, they take with them hundreds of smaller companies -- field services providers, pipeline builders, transportation handlers, caterers, and so on -- that benefitted from the all-too-brief energy renaissance in North America. Many have already laid off a large share of their workforce or simply been driven out of business. As a result, once-booming oil towns like Williston, North Dakota, and Fort McMurray, Alberta, have fallen into hard times, leaving their man camps (temporary housing for male oil workers) abandoned and storefronts shuttered.

In Williston -- once the epicenter of the shale oil boom -- many families now line up for free food at local churches and rely on the Salvation Army for clothes and other necessities, according to Tim Marcin of the International Business Times. Real estate has also been hard hit. As jobs dried up and families fled, some residential neighborhoods became ghost towns, Marcin reports. City officials estimated hotels and apartments, many of which were built during the boom, were at about 50-60% occupancy in November.

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Add to this another lurking crisis: the failure or impending implosion of many shale producers is threatening the financial health of American banks which lent heavily to the industry during the boom years from 2010 to 2014. Over the past five years, according to financial data provider Dealogic, oil and gas companies in the United States and Canada issued bonds and took out loans worth more than $1.3 trillion. Much of this is now at risk as companies default on loans or declare bankruptcy. Citibank, for example, reports that 32% of its loans in the energy sector were given to companies with low credit ratings, which are considered at greater risk of default. Wells Fargo says that 17% of its energy exposure was to such firms. As the number of defaults has increased, banks have seen their stock values decline, and this -- combined with the falling value of oil company shares -- has been rattling the stock market.

The irony, of course, is that the technological breakthroughs so lauded in 2012 for their success in enhancing Americas energy prowess are now responsible for the market oversupply that is bringing so much misery to people, companies, and communities in North Americas oil patches. At the beginning of 2014, [the U.S.] was pumping so much oil and gas that experts foresaw a new American industrial renaissance, with trillions of dollars in investments and millions of new jobs, commented energy expert Steve LeVine in February. Two years later, he points out, faces are aghast as the same oil instead has unleashed world-class havoc.

The Geopolitical Scorecard From Hell

If that promised new industrial renaissance has failed to materialize, what about the geopolitical advantages that new oil and gas production was to give an emboldened Washington? Yergin and others asserted that the surge in North American output would shift the center of gravity of world production to the Western Hemisphere, allowing, among other things, the export of U.S. liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to Europe. That, in turn, would diminish the reliance of allies like Germany on Russian gas and so increase American influence and power. We were, in other words, to be in a new triumphalist world in which the planets sole superpower would benefit greatly from, as energy analysts Amy Myers Jaffe and Ed Morse put it in 2013, a counterrevolution against the energy world created by OPEC.

So far, there is little evidence of such a geopolitical bonanza. In Saudi attrition-war fashion, for instance, Russias natural gas giant Gazprom has begun lowering the price at which it sells gas to Europe, rendering American LNG potentially uncompetitive in markets there. True, on February 25th, the first cargo of that LNG was shipped to foreign markets, but it was destined for Brazil, not Europe.

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Meanwhile, Brazil and Canada -- two anchors of the new world oil map predicted by Yergin in 2011 -- have been devastated by the oil price decline. Production in the United States has not yet suffered as greatly, thanks largely to increased efficiency in the producing regions. However, pillars of the new industry are starting to go out of business or are facing possible bankruptcy, while in the global war of attrition, the Saudis have so far retained their share of the market and are undoubtedly going to play a commanding role in global oil deals for decades to come (assuming, of course, that the country doesnt come apart at the seams under the strains of the present oil glut). So much for the counterrevolution against OPEC. Meanwhile, the landscapes of Texas, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Alberta are increasingly littered with the rusting detritus of a brand-new industry already in decline, and American power is no more robust than before.

In the end, the oil attrition wars may lead us not into a future of North American triumphalism, nor even to a more modest Saudi version of the same, but into a strange new world in which an unlimited capacity to produce oil meets an increasingly crippled capitalist system without the capacity to absorb it.

Think of it this way: in the conflagration of the take-no-prisoners war the Saudis let loose, a centuries-old world based on oil may be ending in both a glut and a hollowing out on an increasingly overheated planet. A war of attrition indeed.

Michael T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of The Race for Whats Left. A documentary movie version of his book Blood and Oil is available from the Media Education Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @mklare1.
Doctor handing out a prescription, hand only

I have a vivid memory of crying on the phone to my mom when I was a child because I missed her. I was in Vermont with my dad, grandparents and two of my siblings while she stayed home with my younger sister who was very ill. That's the first real memory I have of my sister's life-long struggle with chronic illness and unfortunately she's missed out on much more in her life than just that trip to Vermont.

During my teen years, I watched my sister go through periods of extreme pain, what seemed like a million doctor's appointments in which they could never really figure out what was wrong, followed by multiple surgeries. She struggled to form strong bonds with friends because she felt that no one could quite understand what her life was like, to the point that she simply stopped opening up to people about what she would go through. She missed school sometimes and certainly missed out on a lot of normal teenage milestones. She still graduated on time and headed off to college and I remember crying at her graduation because I was so proud of how far she'd come while dealing with such a hard physical (and emotional) struggle.

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Now, as an adult, my sister continues to live with chronic illness and pain. She successfully graduated from college, although there were some very difficult periods of time, and became a nurse. She wanted to be a nurse because she cares so much about other people and she's been on the opposite end of nursing care so many times that she wanted to make a difference for other people with serious health conditions. Unfortunately, adulthood has only made things more challenging for her.

See, the thing about chronic illness is this; oftentimes it is invisible to others (especially those you work with) and you never really know when you're going to have a flare up. You live with a certain amount of constant anxiety, not knowing when the next cycle of your illness will arrive. It's impossible to plan for, especially financially. And the current lack of paid family & medical leave is a huge hurdle for people with chronic illness who truly want to maintain steady employment.

It's a common misconception that most people take paid family and medical leave for parental leave. In fact, most of the employees who take this type of leave in California, New Jersey and Rhode Island, the three states with a system of paid family and medical leave, take it for their own serious health issue.

I know that paid family and medical leave would greatly benefit people, like my sister, who live with serious illnesses because during those times that it is too challenging for them to work, they would be able to take paid time off to take care of themselves. People in this position shouldn't be punished for being ill. They should be allowed the time off they need to come back to the workforce as happy, productive employees.

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Another important component of paid family and medical leave is the ability for a parent to care for a sick child. If my state of Connecticut had this system when my sister was growing up, my mother would have been able to make more advancement in her professional career because she would have had access to paid time off during the times that my sister had major surgery. Instead, my mother worked a retail job so that she could get most of her hours in on the weekend and then be there for my sister during the normal work week when doctor's offices are open. My mother passed up opportunities for advancement in her job that would have provided her with a higher salary because she was the main caregiver in our family. And with 4 children, she and my father had a lot of mouths to feed; some extra money in her paycheck would have gone a long way. She says now that she missed out on all the fun (weekends) and took care of all the business (appointments, care of my siblings).

Today, on a day that recognizes the fight for women's equality, I couldn't help but reflect on the experiences of my sister, mother, and all those who struggle to be economically secure while dealing with chronic illness. The time is now for paid family and medical leave. Seriously ill employees shouldn't have to worry about how they are going to pay their bills at the same time as they worry about how they will get through the day.

To learn more about Connecticut's efforts to create a system of paid family & medical leave click here.

Michelle Noehren is the Events & Special Projects Director at the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and the Co-Chair of the Campaign for Paid Family Leave.

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One of the most prevalent talking points in the 2016 election cycle is the role of religion, and the in-grouping and outgrouping that political figures are using to describe America.

While Donald Trump's comments about banning Muslims from entering the country have drawn the most criticism, the racializing of Islam has been in full effect for well over a decade. This racialization has also dovetailed with American ideological polarization, making Islam -- and the role of Muslim-Americans -- a combustible topic of discussion.

What activists now call Islamophobia reflects a trend of outgrouping and Othering religions and cultures that are deemed incompatible with amorphously defined American values. As noted scholar Khyati Joshi has written about extensively, racializing religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism has also created an environment where Christian privilege is frequently assumed and subsequently imposed upon the public sphere.

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But the racialization of minority religions began long before Islamophobia. In fact, prior to the 1980s (which saw the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. backed-mujahadeen in Afghanistan, the first Palestinian intifada, and Islamic clerics' death threats against author Salman Rushdie over the Satanic Verses), Islam was relatively benign within the scale of America's religious and social discourse.

Compared to the pervasive anti-Semitism in American social discourse throughout the 20th century, Islam wasn't vilified as much as it was marginalized and exoticized -- primarily in the minds of Hollywood producers who viewed Muslims as harem-holding turbaned sheikhs or belly dancers. Ironically, Islam was seen as a positive force against the "darkness" of the Axis powers, highlighted by Frank Capra's reference to the Quran in the famous World War II propaganda film, Why We Fight.

Instead, the racialization of religion in the American imagination -- and the creation of a permanent Other that continues to this day -- was the way Hinduism and "Hindoos" were represented. For starters, "Hindoos" was a term to describe anyone from India, meaning that many of those labeled as such in America weren't necessarily Hindu. The majority of "Hindoos" were in fact Sikh, though smaller numbers of Hindus and Muslims were part of the racialized, vilified, and attacked Indian community in the Pacific Northwest during the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of the victims of the infamous anti-Hindoo riots of 1907 in Washington state were Sikhs, though at the time, many Sikhs in America also self-identified as Hindus/Hindoos.

Even while Americans couldn't tell the difference among "Hindoos," Hinduism found itself in the crosshairs of American journalists, academics, cultural producers, and social activists whose interest were based upon fascination, disgust, the need to save, or a combination of all of the above. But ideologically, both liberals and conservatives believed that Hindus (and "Hindoos") were incompatible with America.

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The 1923 U.S. Supreme Court case United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind effectively racialized religion and ethnicity by denying Thind the same racial privileges as a white person. Thind (a Sikh who preached a unique blend of spirituality that drew from Hinduism, Sikhism, and Christianity to American audiences), in arguing for his U.S. citizenship, claimed his status as a "high caste Hindu of full Indian blood" qualified him for naturalization as a "free white person." The Court disagreed and nullified his naturalization, which also led to the citizenship revocation of A.K. Mozumdar, an Indian-born Hindu associated with the International New Thought Alliance.

Even as the Court racialized religious identities, the image of "Hindoos" as mystical and menacing became etched into American culture. Films like D.W. Griffith's The Hindoo Dagger (which he directed before The Birth of a Nation) portrayed Hinduism as an occult and a tradition of Black magic, while Katherine Mayo's 1927 book Mother India passionately argued that Hindu Indians were unfit were self-governance based on their "depravity."

Similarly, Indology in the early 20th century -- and into modern times -- framed Hinduism as incompatible with modernity, and as scholars Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee write in The Nay Science, Indologists also projected their anti-Semitism onto Hindus. They wrote that Indologists' "Brahmans were creatures of their own imagination, caricatures of rabbis drawn with brown chalk."

Even after racial "Hindoos" became Hindus (and Muslims and Sikhs), especially after the Asian Exclusion Act was lifted in 1965, Hinduism continued to be viewed as a racialized Other, foreign to the American imagination when it came to spirituality and the idea of religion. As such, Hindus continue to be viewed from a lens in which their Americanness is often placed at odds with their Hinduness. Hinduism is still largely racialized, seen as more of an Indian/immigrant religion (which is quite prominent in school textbook descriptions) than one that has been a (largely unrecognized) part of American society for more than two centuries, including Transcendentalism, the influence of ahimsa on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez, and the spread of yoga.

All of this is to say that race and religion remain volatile factors in the American public sphere. When they're combined, the combustible alchemy can leave some religious groups permanently on the margins. Even while conservatives rail against "radical Islam" and liberals pat themselves on the back for being more inclusive towards Muslims, these ideological debates miss the mark on how race and religion are weighed in the public sphere.

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In this interview pioneering media literacy activist Jean Kilbourne discusses the saturation of sexualized advertising in our media-driven culture and the harm it causes young women.



Omega: Today, 50 percent of 3- to 6-year-old girls worry about their weight and 30 percent of women want a body shape that is actually 20 percent underweight. Have things changed in your 40 years of observing women in ads?

Jean: The pressure on girls and women to look impossibly perfect is worse than ever--and on girls younger than ever--because of Photoshop, increased cosmetic surgery, and the fact that celebrities have to be perfect-looking all the time--if they're not, they're shamed.

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There's one standard of beauty for women: the very thin, increasingly young woman. People say, "There have always been statues or paintings of idealized female beauty." Yes, being attractive has always been more important for women than men--more than it should be. But one painting of an exceptional figure is not the same as 3,000 ads a day--and television shows, video games, and pornography--all saying, "This is what a beautiful woman is, which is a woman's value, and this is a product you can purchase to become beautiful."

When women feel compelled to achieve an impossible standard of beauty, they waste a lot of time, psychic energy, and money. Imagine what teenage girls could do with that extra time, if they didn't get made-up and figure out their wardrobe before school every morning--to say nothing of the time shopping and browsing? What if they were encouraged to spend those hours in another way? It could be quite impressive what they could accomplish.

Instead, teenage girls are told they can do STEM programs or be in sports, but still need to look incredibly perfect and very thin. So, it's not like they're let off the hook. It's good to have the expanded opportunities, but it's not like that takes the place of searching for that ideal beauty.

Omega: Women in ads are generally portrayed as passive, vulnerable, or submissive, so boys from a young age see women objectified sexually. What are your current perspectives about the connection between advertising and violence/safety?

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Jean: I've never said that ads directly cause violence, but they create a climate in which women are seen as objects and when that's done to people violence becomes more likely. It's the same with racism or homophobia that's dehumanizing. That's why soldiers are taught to dehumanize the enemy, because otherwise it's hard to kill them. Being abusive to a thing--as opposed to a person--is not a big deal.

The White House has a campaign against violence and sexual assault on college campuses with a couple of very good commercials in which famous actors and athletes speak out against violence and sexual assault. We need more of that--any public message--to change the norms. Because the norm is still that if a young woman is drunk or dressed a certain way, sexual violence is her fault and women tend to take on all that blame and shame.

Pornography is a whole other issue. The fact is most kids in America learn about sex through pornography, because they're naturally curious and we don't teach them sexual education in school, or if we do, we teach lies. Most pornography is violent, misogynistic, and totally unrealistic.

Omega: Brand campaigns like Pantene's "Not Sorry," and Verizon's "Inspire Her Mind," are a new marketing trend being called "soft feminism" or "pink-washing" while "feminist" is still an edgy label. What is next for feminism?

Jean: When I started speaking, I was so alone. It wasn't all right for women to speak in public let alone about feminism and sexism. People thought my ideas were radical--even feminists thought advertising was unimportant. Now, so many organizations and films and such are raising feminist issues and seeing the connection with advertising and the mass media.

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We need an environment that makes it easier for women to advance and for men to be with their children. We have an environment that makes it maximally difficult--we're a nation with very unfriendly policies towards women and families. The childcare and family leave that we lack is appalling, especially if you look at other developed nations.

So much of a woman having a career depends on having money to afford support. It's a different universe for someone like Sheryl Sandberg or the professional women she's addressing, who can mostly afford help. The truth is most women who work can't lean in if they can't lean back and have somebody catch them. It's a very individualistic, American approach: pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You can make it if you try hard enough.

And we need to deal with violence against women as a society. My point has always been that advertising creates a climate in which violence becomes more likely--which is now a mainstream idea--so I'm hopeful for my daughter and this younger generation.

There's much more tolerance and more of an acceptance in general of gender fluidity--even in the face of the remaining homophobia--that's happened so quickly. Twenty years ago if somebody said gay marriage was going to be legal, nobody would have believed it, so that gives me hope as well.

Explore more with the Omega Women's Leadership Center.
My childhood and young adulthood in Turkey flew by while I was studying seven days a week to make it to one of the few highly competitive prestigious public universities. In order to please my parents, teachers and society, I studied mathematics.

As it is today in Erdogan's Turkey, in the 80s, the political and economical environment was unstable. We were always told to study something "real" and pursue our passion as a "hobby." I did not want to be a mathematician, but I did not know what to with my life.

During college, I was depressed. When I tried to imagine my future, all I could see was being trapped in a cubical in an insurance company, suffocated with work for which I had no passion. In those years, I wished there would be a book that would have given me hope. There was not, so I decided to write it.

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Dare to Disappoint is a graphic memoir and my growing up story in Turkey. In it I tell how I heard my own voice, amid voices of militaristic, politically polarized, economically unstable culture. I became a comics and media artist after studying mathematics.

Like me, for various reasons, people may feel trapped into careers where they have no passion. Recent studies show that around 50 percent of employed people wish to change careers and up to 86 percent of job seekers want a job outside of their current field. If that includes you, how do you make a major career transition?

There is no magic formula and the transition will require passion, patience, persistence, and possibly the support of people who care about you. Based on my experience, here are three pieces advice.

1. Practice becomes life-style

Author and New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell suggests that a talented person needs to practice 10,000 hours to become an expert. I agree to an extent, and even Gladwell acknowledges that becoming an expert is dependent on the starting age, talent, effectiveness of the practice and other factors.

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In the last year of college, I began drawing obsessively up to six hours a day. Five months later, my own progress shocked me. I looked at my drawings or watched my hand draw something and say, did I really draw this?

When I became obsessed with drawing, I drew at home, I did systematic exercises but also I carried a notebook and a pen with me wherever I went. If I was sitting with friends at a cafe, I drew while I talked to them, if I was at the bus stop, I drew while waiting for the bus.

After a point, drawing felt natural, my hand demanded the practice. I learned that even before reaching 10,000 hours, the progress during a relatively short focused duration is stunning. The hours that we invest to cultivate our passion can turn into a life style.

2. A long process

One common misconception is to assume transition is going to happen suddenly. One morning you wake up and you have the courage to quit your job and you become a stage actress. In most cases, the transition happens over years.

To reach the ability to draw what I see in my mind, for many years I drew obsessively. But drawing was just one part of my passion. I wanted to have a unique aesthetic for creating graphic novels. After ten years of drawing, I experimented for five more years by making one image per day and posting it to my online comics journal. I began mixing drawings and collage. I taught myself to use watercolor and acrylic. I became fearless about making mistakes and I learned how to turn mistakes into a part of the work, all of which helped inform the art for my book.

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Also, when you face challenges or barriers or think the transition is taking too long, know that the end goal isn't everything. You can also focus on the pleasure taken from the journey.

3. Two full time jobs

Unless you have personal wealth, you will probably have to work two jobs through the transition. Meaning, staying at your original job to pay the bills while you invest in your passion project until that grows enough to be how you pay the bills. In time, the line between the day job and the passion project gets blurry and they merge.

I worked as a teaching assistant at Bilgi University in Turkey while working as a comics artist for a weekly humor magazine, Leman. My income from the comics magazine was barely $100 per month. My "real" job as a teaching assistant at a university was demanding, with long days and weekend hours. However, this job allowed me to pursue a Master's degree in Radio TV Film with a scholarship. Then, I become a lecturer. I moved to the United States and earned my Ph.D. I became a faculty member.

Throughout this process, I continued to draw compulsively, as if drawing was my second full-time job. After years, I obtained a meaningful balance between being a scholar and a comics artist and my day job blended into drawing and art. For me now, there is no day job, there is only passion.
The court battle between the FBI and Apple presents an important first amendment issue: Whether the government can force a company to engage in expression -- to wit, the writing of computer code -- that the company not only objects to, but views as inimical to its interests and its customers' interests.

Apple claims that this coercion violates its first amendment rights. Can this argument really succeed? Yes, in my view. Although Apple's argument is somewhat overstated -- as are all arguments in litigation -- the order against Apple is a forbidden form of government censorship. Instead of barring the company from saying what it wants to say, the order compels Apple to say something it doesn't want to say.

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The computer program that Apple has been ordered to write for the FBI would disable some of the iPhone security features that are, at this writing, preventing the FBI from cracking the personal password on an iPhone used by Syed Farook, who, with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a December 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino.

There's no doubt that computer code is "speech" for purposes of the first amendment's free speech safeguards. Like the symbols in a musical score, code is expressive and communicative, even if it doesn't necessarily translate to words. Code can be functional as well, but that does not detract from its speech-like qualities. The equivalence of code and speech has been acknowledged in multiple appeals court decisions (while the Supreme Court has yet to address the question).

It's also clear, from Supreme Court decisions going back over 50 years, that government coercion of speech triggers first amendment scrutiny. For example, the Court struck down New Hampshire's requirement that cars display the state's motto, "Live Free or Die," on license plates. Forcing citizens, against their will, to promote the state's message is an impermissible infringement of citizens' free speech rights, the Court held. For the same reason, public schools can't compel students to say the "Pledge of Allegiance," and newspapers can't be required to offer a "right of reply" to public officials criticized in the papers' editorial pages.

In more recent cases, the Court has held that organizers of a private parade could not -- consistent with the first amendment -- be required to include a group whose message interfered with the organizers' intended message. The Court has also invalidated a rule requiring a regulated utility to include a consumer watchdog's newsletter in the envelope the utility used to bill its customers.

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There are limits to this theory, however. Free speech protections do not categorically prohibit all instances of government coercion of speech. For example, public corporations are required by federal law and regulations to disclose, through filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, extensive financial data about their operations and any material changes in financial circumstances. No one would seriously contend that mandating these communications and messages -- which may often include statements with which corporate management disagrees -- violates the constitution.

The same is true for other products and services subject to comprehensive regulation to protect consumers. Advertising and labels for medications are dense with health warnings and disclosures. These are not only mandated by government, but government agencies control their content down to the exact words used and where they are located. Another example: disclosures required of companies selling financial products and services, especially when marketed to individual investors.

Government compulsion of speech, though generally forbidden, may be sustained if the compulsion derives from, and is necessary for enforcement of, a comprehensive system of regulation designed to protect consumers or the public. Comprehensive regulations, as in the laws establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Food and Drug Administration, reflect considered policy choices, and the balancing of competing interests, by the law-making branch of government.

Where does this leave Apple in its battle with the FBI? The court order directing Apple to write security-weakening code transgresses first amendment limits. It is coercive speech of the kind the Supreme Court has consistently disapproved, and it cannot be justified as part of a Congressionally-prescribed, comprehensive system of regulation.

The order against Apple is based on the All Writs Act, an 18-century (really!) statute conferring power on federal courts to issue injunctions and other orders "necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions..." This is an historically important grant of power to federal judges to enforce their decisions. However, it is not a source of legal authority for rendering those decisions in the first place.

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Nothing in the All Writs Act authorizes the Magistrate's underlying decision limiting the amount of encryption that may be offered on smartphones. The Magistrate's order, after all, does not merely require the production of some existing records, data or information -- the standard fare for search warrants or subpoenas. It requires, rather, that Apple take affirmative steps to create, for the FBI's use, new code that compromises the encryption that Apple designed as part of the iPhone's operating system.

Congress conceivably could pass a law giving federal courts (and the FBI) this power as part of a comprehensive regulation of security, including limits on encryption of data, for hand-held devices. But Congress hasn't done so. It has addressed this complex subject only in a law (the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) regulating communications "carriers." (Think AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, et al).

The All Writs Act is a far, far cry from the kind of federal statute that can overcome the first amendment's prohibition against government coercion of speech. The Act says nothing about digital security and encryption. And a law that says nothing about a subject matter obviously can't be characterized as comprehensively regulating that subject matter.

Bottom line: The first amendment strips the courts of power to compel Apple to write new code to disable security features on the San Bernardino iPhone. Free speech protections are triggered by the order's directive to Apple to create a computer program. Although the "coerced speech" doctrine is subject to a limited exception for certain comprehensive regulatory laws, that exception is not available here.
In November, the Food & Drug Administration approved for the first time a modified, fast-growing salmon for human consumption. More than five years ago, FDA accepted a risk assessment's conclusion that the modified fish was safe to eat and posed no threat to the environment. The FDA re-opened the process for additional comment because critics challenged the science, among other things. This landmark decision to go forward spotlights two key issues: the importance of assuring scientific integrity of government regulations, and a key difference between how North American regulators view science from their European counterparts.

Major enhancements in human and environmental health impact studies have allowed regulators to dive deeper into scientific determinations, but they also have given partisans tools to obfuscate the dialogue. In litigation, important causation decisions are expected to be based on battles of opposing experts, but the regulatory process is supposed to be less partisan where subjective agendas are set aside for real science. People must believe FDA, for example, when it approves a drug as safe and effective for its labeled indications. When the Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Disease Control or other agency issues exposure guidelines for potentially harmful substances, it should reflect the best scientific knowledge. Scientific understanding evolves, and these regulations and standards should reflect those advancements.

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For progressives, the importance of this process is more than just assuring that regulations are appropriately tailored to known risks. It is essential for protecting the integrity of the government and the regulatory process itself. Thus, while competing viewpoints on the science may infect submissions to federal agencies, just like they do in court, it is the agencies' responsibility to make decisions that are not unduly influenced by partisans on any side. Submissions from all stakeholders, including both for and against industry, should be treated with the same scrutiny so that agencies are not unduly influenced by anyone's tainted lenses.

For modified salmon, reopening the investigation affirmed the initial results. A few years ago, the Canadian Environment Minister reversed course when reopening its rulemaking on siloxanes. Siloxanes have been used since the 1940s in a variety of household products, including deodorants, shampoos and cosmetics. It gives these products a smooth, non-greasy texture that helps in their applications. When the products are used, the siloxanes either evaporate into the air or wash off and go down the drain.

In the early 2000s, scientists in Norway developed computer modeling suggesting that siloxanes, namely those known as "Siloxane D5," could have adverse environmental impacts. Computer modeling has become an increasingly useful tool in assessing health and environmental risks, but it has obvious limitations given that it is not based on actual results such as epidemiological studies. In 2006, Canadian officials began reassessing its rules for Siloxane D5. In 2009, Canada issued a proposed order to add Siloxane D5 to its Toxic Substances List, which much like California's Proposition 65 leads to significant restrictions on product use.

Before the new rule took effect, the Silicones Environmental Health and Safety Council of North America filed a Notice of Objection requesting an expert Board of Review to investigate the integrity of the modeling. Canada's Minister of the Environment appointed three independent, highly respected toxicologists to this review panel. This was the first time an official Board of Review was used in Canada since it adopted this process for potentially serious and irreversible threats in 1999. The panel conducted a multi-disciplinary evaluation of the nature and extent of any hazards posed by D5 to the environment and biological diversity.

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In 2011, the Board of Review issued a report concluding that the modeling used to predict Siloxane D5 in the environment was wrong. What they found was that regardless of whether Siloxane D5 entered the environment in the ground or air, it migrates to the air and degrades rapidly. As a result, "it is virtually impossible for Siloxane D5 to occur in any environmental matrix at concentrations sufficient to produce harm to the environment," and that "Siloxane D5 does not pose a danger to the environment or its biological diversity."

The Board further found that a key error in the modeling was that it used other types of silicone as surrogates for the physical and chemical properties of Siloxane D5. It then recommended better transparency for how modeling is developed and that agencies have better means for reviewing regulations to make sure they reflect the best scientific knowledge. In 2012, the Canadian Minister of the Environment endorsed the findings and removed Siloxane D5 from its list of toxic substances.
Answer by Lee Garibaldi, writer and editor, on Quora.

The last time I quit heroin, I went cold turkey on a friends couch. It wasn't really planned but it happened something like this:

I was living with some junkie in her parent's house. Her parents were both coke heads and they knew I was doing heroin but they had a 'no needles' policy so when they found out we were shooting up, they "politely asked me to leave." I was left with very little money and no place to go. I had been homeless before and did not really look forward to it. Luckily an old friend of mine had reached out to me a week before and offered me her couch for as long as I wanted. So I got in touch with her and told her I had nowhere to go. She agreed. I bought bus tickets along with ten bags of dope and ten new needles. I was going for a gradual reduction technique.

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The bus trip from Tampa to Miami took about ten hours with about half a dozen stops. By the time I got to my friends house, I had one bag of dope left. One. It was the middle of the night when we reached her house and I took a small shot before going to bed. I finished it off the following morning in her bathroom and committed to going cold turkey. I knew nobody in the area so there was no way I could get anything even if (when) I caved. It was Nov. 10, 2007. I'll never forget. The first morning, I was very nervous as I sat and waited for the inevitable. My friend sat with me chatting and catching up and I tried not to let her see how much I was freaking out inside. As the hours went by, I kept running into her bathroom to do what the people I knew called "cotton shots" and "scrape bags" (keeping empty bags and used cottons to try to get a tiny bit of dope just to take the edge off). I thought doing this would help or delay the withdrawal or something (because this is what I had been told when I was a wee junkie and it stuck with me). But in reality, it was just like a nervous tic. My body said "it's time for a shot" so I did whatever I could to comply. The first thing I noticed was that I was shaking violently as I tried to shoot up what was basically just dirty water. I was jabbing at my arms and bleeding everywhere. I was also sweating profusely. Or what some junkies may call the cold sweats because I was freezing cold and burning hot at the same time. Over the course of about a week, week and a half, I kept doing this. I spent most of my time in my friends bathroom. Between shooting up water, vomitting constantly in her toilet, and soaking my achy body in a hot bath, I didn't do much else. Or I don't remember much else. The pain is indescribable and I won't even try to describe it. Suffice it to say that I hurt in places I didn't know I had. Every inch and every cell of my very being screamed out in endless agony for days on end. I begged my friend to help me find something - anything - that could "get me through this." She tried (or claimed to) but she didn't have a clue. One day she came to me with some prescription strength ibuprofen and I almost strangled her. But after all she was letting me stay in her house and puke in her toilet so I couldn't afford to be a bad house guest.

Interestingly enough, my parents had a vacation home nearby and were coming in from Israel around that time. Which worked out well for me because a few days after they arrived, my friend informed me that her roommate needed the couch for some of her friends who were coming to stay for awhile. Luckily by that point I had already gone through what was to be the worst of it. I told my parents I was coming down with a bad case of the flu and needed a place to crash for awhile. My parents knew the truth and they had seen me go through it several times in the past but they didn't say a word. I threw away all my bags and needles and headed to my parents. I spent the next few weeks there shacked up in their bedroom, sleeping on an air mattress, refusing to leave the room. Once the physical pain started to recede, the mental anguish hit like a train and I couldn't move. I cried a lot. At first I tried to hide my pain from my parents but it was pointless and I just didn't care. Seeing as how I've been diagnosed bipolar, I figured what is the difference between this and a depressive episode, anyway? So I rode it out like anyone else. I thought about killing myself but didn't have the strength to follow through with any of my half assed plans. I thought about trying to find dope in this city - how hard could it be - but I was so depressed that the idea of trying to get out of bed was exhausting enough, let alone getting dressed and leaving the house. Besides, I had no money and I knew my parents didn't trust me so what was I going to do? Steal money? Forget it. I didn't have the strength. I started going online and hoping to connect with people who might be able to help but no luck there. I ended up reaching out to the guy who I had been "dating" for like a week before I had skipped town. As it happened, he had also been kicked out of his house around the same time and had left the state. But he missed me a lot and wanted to come back. I asked my mom if my "boyfriend" could stay with us for awhile and she agreed. So he hopped the first plane over here. And that's how my real life started, I suppose. I ended up marrying that guy and having a child and then divorcing and now we are working things out or whatever. But we don't do heroin. And we don't use needles. We are both well aware of the pain and the consequences of the drug. Still we seem to have different views. I feel like there is a junkie living in my head and she will never go away. For this reason, I think of myself as forever an addict and I don't trust that I will turn down a shot if offered. He claims to feel no desire for the drug at all but he was not as hard into it as I was nor was he using for nearly as long as I had been using. He didn't even know how to shoot up on his own; I had shot him up a few times and clearly he wasn't as much an addict as I was. Lucky him. But I will never rid myself of that voice in my head, my inner junkie. She is locked away in the back of my mind but she is always screaming and begging to be let out. There's always that suggestion of just one time. Just one hit. For fun this time. I'm in control.

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Except I'm not. Because I'm shaking now just thinking about it. Thinking about using. Thinking about the pain of withdrawal. Thinking about the feeling of the needle jabbing into my skin again and again in a fruitless effort to find a vein as the tears stream down my face, blinding me and I tell myself to stop - just stop it. But I can't stop. I keep pulling out and searching around, digging inside my skin and I don't feel that pain. Not that pain. Because that is nothing compared to the other pain. The real pain. I wrote once about the very first time I shot up by myself - the day I learned how. I'm not sure if I posted it on Quora or somewhere else but it was a bloody affair. I'll never forget the hours of anguish sitting on my bathroom floor screaming and crying and throwing things as I tore my arms apart trying to find a vein. I started in the morning when I woke up sick. It was long past sundown when I finally hit a vein and my bathroom looked like a murder scene and I was soaked - soaked in my own blood (as well as sweat and tears but mostly blood - so much blood). But it didn't matter because I had hit and I felt no pain. The blood didn't phase me. I developed a fetish for it. To this day, I enjoy the taste of my own blood and the sight of blood in any situation. And to this day, when I look down at my arm, it is a perfectly natural reaction for me to unwittingly trace my finger softly across my arm in search of a good vein. Because that's what I do when my hands are not busy. I'm always searching for the perfect vein. My eyes search, my fingers search and my inner junkie screams for just one more time to play.
Even as we celebrate a big victory, we are mourning another tragedy.

It is International Women's Day, and two events in our own Hemisphere -- a historic conviction of two military officers from the Guatemalan military for sexual crimes committed 30 years ago and the brutal assassination of Honduras' leading woman activist -- seem to sum up where we stand globally on women's rights. In some ways, women are making such huge leaps forward. In other ways, they are more at risk than ever.

Let's start with the victory.

Thirty years ago in a small village called Sepur Zarco, located in rural northeastern Guatemala, large landowners invited the Guatemalan military -- then waging a genocidal war against the Mayan people of Guatemala -- to set up camp. As the military moved in, soldiers "disappeared" many of the small farmers of the community, Mayan campesinos, and raped their wives. Some of the women managed to escape to the mountains, where they foraged for food and watched many of their children slowly die of starvation. The others were held as hostages and forced into sexual and domestic slavery at the camp. The women lived in constant fear for their lives, and at the end of it all, were ostracized by their own communities.

Now fast-forward twenty years.

In 2003, women's organizations in Guatemala began to work with the women of Sepur Zarco, helping them to heal and see that they were not to blame for what happened. A few years into this process, 15 of the women decided that they were ready to break the silence. They asked their new friends from national women's organizations to help them take their case to court.

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And take it to court they did -- all the way to the Supreme Court of Guatemala. The landmark case, which started on February 1 and finished on February 26, is unique in the relatively short history of sexual violence litigation worldwide. While international tribunals have focused on sexual violence in past wars, for example in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, the case of Sepur Zarco is believed to be the first time that women who were raped by the military during war sat across from their perpetrators in the highest court of the land where the crimes actually took place.

This was no accident.



It was the result of more than a decade of hard work on the part of the Alianza Rompiendo el Silencio y la Impunidad (Alliance to Break the Silence and Impunity), a coalition of Guatemalan women's organizations. They were persistent and clever, choosing to strategically use this case to make larger changes in Guatemala's justice system by applying international standards around litigating sexual violence committed during armed conflicts to the Sepur Zarco case. Importantly, the Alliance insisted on putting the survivors at the center of the process. And they protected the survivors at every step of the way, recognizing that a case that pitted poor indigenous women against former military men who still hold a great deal of political and economic power in Guatemala would involve high levels of risk.

Last but certainly not least, the Alliance reached out for support to the global women's movement -- calling on the sisterhood for everything from financial support to declarations of support and the physical presence of international observers in the courtroom.

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Watching the trial unfold was like waking up on an alternative feminist planet: the activists who supported the plaintiffs to trial were all women, all but one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs were women and the judge presiding over the case is highly respected woman known for bravely taking on high profile, high risk cases. Every time one of the sneering defense lawyers referred to the Mayan women as "prostitutes" or their supporters as "terrorists", the supporters in the court room snapped photos, tweeted #TodasSomosSepurZarco and made it abundantly clear to everyone to everyone inside the courtroom and those who were watching from afar who are the real heros.

So it is no wonder that on February 26, when the court found the two military men guilty of crimes against humanity, including sexual violence and sexual slavery, women in Guatemala and around the world celebrated. A leader in the fight against sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo sent her congratulations, and said how inspiring the case was for women in her country who still suffer widespread sexual violence and have almost no access to justice.

But sadly, the warm glow from the Sepur Zarco victory was short-lived. Early this morning, the news broke that Berta Cacerces, a fearless and prominent Honduran activist, was assassinated in her home during the night.

For several years now Berta had experienced threats as a result of her work to peacefully denounce a proposed hydroelectric dam that threatened the lives and livelihoods of indigenous peoples in the area. Berta and her fellow activists were successful in delaying construction of the dam. In 2009, Berta was one of the most prominent voices denouncing a coup d'etat in her country.

In a country that the UN has called one of the most dangerous in the world for women human rights defenders, Berta has refused consistently to back down -- or shut up. Now her community has lost one of its most fearless and globally recognized leaders, and her children have lost their mother.

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Bertha's death is emblematic of the extreme violence women human rights defenders experience in Honduras and throughout Central America. As women become more organized, and more effective through their organizing to take on transnational corporations in Honduras, or the military in Guatemala, they also become a bigger threat to the status quo.

And so, in some cases, they pay with their lives.

Berta's death is a sobering reminder that the fight is not over for the women of Sepur Zarco. Leaving Guatemala City, and returning to their rural homes, the women of Sepur Zarco will need to watch their backs. Their perpetrators are now in jail, but many of the men who ordered the atrocities 30 years ago still wield considerable power in Guatemala -- and are bitter that a group of "powerless" indigenous women have exposed their secrets.

Berta's story also serves as a reminder to the global sisterhood on this International Women's Day that we need to be ever vigilant in our support of the women who are at the highest risk of backlash for upholding all the principles we hold dear in the women's movement.

As Berta Cacerces once said, "It is a global fight and it is a global problem. It is a problem in this continent not only faced by us but by all people that have a sense of justice and freedom."
Source: Ashley Benzo Instagram

Like every 16 year old, I committed a number of skincare sins from sleeping with my makeup on to over-plucking my eyebrows. But, worse than both of these, were the lengths I went to when it came to covering up my blemishes. Before I started taking the contraceptive pill, I would suffer from flair ups around the forehead area. I tried everything from over-the-counter acne products to medicated prescription products. Here is the advice I wish I'd received about acne when I was younger.

Choose the Products That you Cover up Blemishes With Carefully

As a teenager, getting skin flair ups was only half of the problem. Worse than waking up with angry looking spots was having to go to school with them. Acne can deflate your self confidence and I can't count the amount of time I spent in drugstores trying to find a thick enough concealer or foundation to cover up my spots. I practically had shares in Clearasil. The medicated foundation that was two shades too dark for my pale skin only managed to highlight my flaws and draw more attention to my spots thanks to its caked on finish.

New York dermatologist Whitney Bowe, MD states that covering up is a crucial aspect of an acne sufferer's life. My first piece of advice to my younger self would be to carefully choose the products that you use to cover your blemishes. It is natural to want to hide your flaws but excessive makeup can often make your skin look worse. Inspirational beauty blogger Em Ford created an influential YouTube video back in 2015 about readers' reactions to her acne and creates regular tutorials on how to create a flawless face in spite of your blemishes.

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Create a Kick Ass Skin Regime

As an adult my skincare regime has evolved massively and takes around 15 minutes to complete. But as a teenager, I was lucky if I graced my heavily made-up skin with anything more than a face wipe. My first skincare regime consisted of a cheap cleanser, toner and moisturiser and it rarely helped to keep my flair ups under control.

There Is No Cookie Cutter Acne Cure

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, acne is the most common skin problem with over 50 million Americans affected each year. Treating acne is mostly trial and error, there is no one universal treatment that will work for everyone. Everyone's skin type is different and therefore the product that worked miracles on your best friend's skin may not have the same effect on yours. Even the most expensive acne cream in the world may not be suitable for your skin type and can do more harm than good. There are plenty of options available to you and seeing a physician or a dermatologist is the perfect way to discover your skin type and find products that can prevent flair ups and blemishes.

The key is to take the time to find out what works for you. Experiment with different products and even try a no makeup day to see how your skin reacts. A key piece of advice I would give to my younger self is that too much swapping and changing of products won't do you any favours. Give your skin the opportunity to breathe and don't rule out a gentler product such as a Micellar water.

Money Can't Buy You Clear Skin

When I got older my beauty regime went from drugstore brands to high-end designer products that promised the earth. I think one of the most common myths about acne treatments is that the more you pay for a product, the more chance you have at finding a solution.

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As a blogger, one of the perks is that I get to test out a lot of the latest beauty products. If this has taught me anything, it's that some of the pricier products contain many of the same ingredients as cheaper drugstore brands but look more professional. I would tell my 16-year-old self not to get duped by pretty packaging.

You might want to turn to high-end acne preventing products to fix the issue, but they don't necessarily do the trick. You'll find plenty of not-so-great reviews of the popular acne line Proactiv, but there are many less expensive options in the drugstore that can help. You want to try products that boast a combination of salicylic acid (at least 2%) and benzoyl peroxide.

Neutrogena and Clean & Clear both make inexpensive products for acne that have the exact same active ingredients as the more expensive skincare lines.

Be Wary of Celebrity Endorsed Products

When I was a teenager, I was prone to jumping on the bandwagon and skincare products were no exception. Without the presence of beauty bloggers to look up to, it was the likes of Jessica Simpson and Nicole Scherzinger singing the praises of various acne-busting lotions and potions that caught my attention.

Like all teenagers, I took a very naive approach to my skincare routine basing my choices on who I wanted to look like the most at the time. Today I spend more time researching a product before rushing out to buy it and one look at these Proactiv reviews will make you question what you see in advertisements.

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Here's to happy endings. Here's to the people who believe the truth that the light will always win over the darkness. Here's to those who understand that the shadow of who we are in building walls will always be drowned out by who we are when we stand in the full light, building bridges. Here's to those who run into fire-fights, to bullets and bombs to pull the innocent to freedom. Here's to the innocent willing to start new lives in far-away lands, pulling family and friends behind them, in the hope that what they left in home will be nothing compared to the joy of a promised land.

Here's to the ones with the broken hearts, who hope in joy in the shadow of the face of death. Here's to the optimists who laugh in the face of cynics. Here's to the weak who laugh and triumph in the face of bullies. Here's to that kid, wounded and harassed by the police on the city streets of north St. Louis because of the color of his skin. Here's to that cop from Tower Grove who chooses to embrace him rather than shoot him. Here's to his wife, passionate about justice, but always worried that he'll come home.

Here's to a country that comes to its senses and elects a decent human being rather than the flashiest human being. Here's to that young woman from Palestine who gets off the bus to show her credentials every day to go to work in Jerusalem and still keeps her dignity. Here's to that young man from Israel who greets everyone with a warm "good morning," in whatever language he thinks you speak at the Damascus gate every day. Here's to him for thinking that I speak French. Here's to the guy in Rome who drives people back and forth from the airport and overcomes his fear of flying to see his mother in a far off city when she is in trouble.

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Here's to the guy from Argentina who wanted to leave Rome, but still took on the big job. Here's to the woman from Germany who knew that at the end of 500 miles of walking she'd find the answer that she was looking for, and found it. Here's to the guy who held on to his dreams of being a priest, even when the odds seemed insurmountable. Here's to the girl from Brazil who went to Rome and had the faith to become a woman. Here's to the woman from Ireland who never listened when they told her she'd only be good enough for that little island off the coast.

Here's to everyone who has ever heard that they weren't good enough, and didn't believe it. Here's to everyone who had ever made a powerful enemy, and knew their own worth enough to laugh in the face of certain doom. Here's to the kid on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation that found a way out, but still cares for his family. Here's to the kid who stayed. Here's to my grandfather, and your grandmother when they left poverty and fear behind and braved the seas for something more in the United States. Here's to the grandparents of future generations doing the same on our southern borders. Here's to those that see the illusion of water in the deserts of Jordan, and Syria, and Iraq, and Libya, and still are all the more courageous to brave the real waters of the Mediterranean.
How do you really help someone effectively who has experienced a loss, perhaps the death of a loved one or a loss due to relationship that has terminated or health that has been compromised ? Americans don't do a good job of handling loss. We are a "forever young" society and the idea that somehow life will end at some point is usually something many people will try to avoid. If you doubt this, consider the success of filmmaker Woody Allen, the filmmaker who has devoted a lot of celluloid to this matter.

On March 4 2016 I attended an enlightening conference entitled "Pilgrimage Through Loss" that was held at Austin Theological Seminary Austin, TX. One of the Keynote Speakers Dr. Linda Lawrence Hunt of Whitworth University Spokane, WA reflected upon when her Krista 25-year-old married daughter Krista was killed in 1998 while volunteering in Bolivia:

"People would say things to me like God needed another angel or God gives us no more than we can handle."

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Linda Hunt said "When I heard that, I just wanted to strangle them."

I can certainly emphasize with Dr. Hunt's feelings. We tend to get very uncomfortable when other people are in emotional pain and are experiencing loss. There can be the temptation to rush in and say things, platitudes, in the attempt to make it better, perhaps in the attempt to make us feel better as listeners.

Maybe, what would be more appropriate is to just be willing to be present with the person who is experiencing loss, to be silent and to not covey statements that might be construed as insensitive or callous.

Grief can express itself differently in different cultures. Here in the United States, a person can experience the death of a family member. There can be lots of activity regarding visitation of surviving family members, a viewing for the deceased, a funeral or memorial service, a following reception, and after that there may be little or no further contact with the bereaved person. However, in Okinawa, Japan someone may die in a village and the rest of the members of that community will take it upon themselves to visit and sit with the person who is grieving for several hours. Here the experience of grief becomes shared by the community. This phenomena of support can go on for thirty days for the family that is affected.

There is no normal cycle of grieving. When people experience loss, how it will be expressed will have to do with characteristics like culture, religion, ethnicity, etc. As Renee Davis LCSW of Round Rock, Texas would say:

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"What is Normal? It is just a setting on the dryer."

Those who want to help people who experience grief, including helping professionals, need to listen intentionally. There is no right thing to say about loss, it is about listening and helping the person to arrive to a better place.

Rev. Dr. James Ellor of Baylor University School Of Social Work has noted:

"Death is a projective process (Irving Yalom) According to Ecclesiastes, the conception of life was described as being a puff of wind. The choice becomes how do we use our time, past, present, future and not enough. Death stacks up on us as we grow older, losses become tougher to work with. A worthy question to ask someone who is experiencing loss is what's changed in your life since the last time you got through a similar experience?"

Each one of us is a unique human being. We have different histories, interests, goals and dreams. People don't grieve the same way. Some people don't grieve at all.

As humans, we need to be open and respectful of the spaces and the feelings that surround all of us. Those who grieve don't want easy to clean up answers, and at the same time those who grieve do not wish to be ignored.

May we balance the desire to help with the need to listen this day and always.
Many Germans are worried about the shock that their society is receiving with the sudden arrival of probably more than one million refugees. There is concern about the economy; there is concern over jobs; there is concern over religious identities, culture, schooling and young people. Yet the process of change has inevitably started with the volunteers being the unsung heroes of integration.

Following the tragic events in Fukushima in 2010, Japan mobilized well over one million volunteers in the first six months. When I was in Japan recently for the Sendai Conference in Disaster Risk Reduction, I visited a volunteer center where young students were still engaged with the affected population.

One example that was presented was the simple practice of giving foot massages and engaging people in mundane conversations about their day. Through these acts of kindness, people who had lost their house, worldly goods and families restored their faith in humanity, while the young students who helped these people learned a lot about life, respect and the power of giving.

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The volunteer engagement that we now see in Germany - like the one I just mentioned in Japan or the one following Hurricane Katrina in Florida - will continue for quite some time. The human connection created is an important part of healing after a disaster and will be an important part of the integration that needs to happen in Germany and many other European countries affected by the refugee crisis. German volunteers are leading by example in more ways than one.

In late November 2015, the German Government announced the creation of 10,000 youth volunteer placements in the next three years to assist with the refugee influx. This sends again a strong signal about how volunteers are valued in the assessment of a response. It also shows how deliberate the authorities are about engaging, managing and equipping the national volunteer effort.

It also is smart to increasingly engage young people and create new relationships in society. As we have recently seen in Sri Lanka after the crisis, engaging youth volunteers and volunteerism in general are means to build bridges across divided communities.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally Monday, March 7, 2016, in Madison, Miss. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Repugnant beyond redemption.

Whatever its dire implications, for a time the GOP presidential race had the terrible fascination of a multi-car collision. No more. Now we can see the casualties close-up -- reason, dignity, honesty and hope. And, not least, a once great political party reduced to the intellectual and moral level of a mindless fraternity house.

In belatedly attacking the repulsive Donald Trump, the party establishment and also-rans have stripped bare his appalling candidacy without giving voters a plausible alternative. The residue evokes that abysmal frat house the morning after a drunken party -- stubbed cigarette butts leaving burn holes in the coffee table; a carpet stained with red wine spills; an acrid smell whose origins are nauseating to consider. A sodden lout is sprawled on the couch, snoring with his mouth agape; a pale young woman in the bathroom applies lipstick with trembling hands, dimly recalling the shame she wishes to forget. All one can do is rush outside, desperate for a gulp of air.

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Faced with such debris, it seems almost trivial to analyze the political fallout. But it can be gamed out easily enough.

However damaged, Trump stands atop a scrum of rivals diminished in stature and prospects. Rubio has shrunk to his actual size, retreating to Florida as though it were Elba. Cruz has introduced America to the sanctimonious and treacherous tactician his colleagues loathe, shedding the evangelicals he so badly needs. With admirable persistence, Kasich is calling for uplift in a political landscape polluted by insults and lies, a thick smog of anger choking his intended audience.

The primary calendar remains Trump's friend . Over the weekend he added a brace of delegates by winning in Louisiana and Kentucky -- albeit by lesser margins than expected, reflecting a slippage in late deciders. Continuing a pattern, Cruz took two closed caucuses in Maine and Kansas, but has yet to win a primary outside his home state. Rubio's decline accelerated despite the asterisk of Puerto Rico; Kasich achieved next to nothing.

Though very late polling suggests that Kasich is on the rise in Michigan, by tomorrow morning, in all likelihood, Michigan and Mississippi will have padded Trump's delegate count. Alone among the contenders, he has scored victories in all regions; his demographic reaches from blue-collar voters to evangelicals and so-called moderates. His sole ideology, anger and frustration, is the new opium of the GOP masses.

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This despite another wretched debate swathed in Trump's trademark squalor. His favorite organ, he advised us, is the equivalent of those "97 story buildings" he boasts of erecting. Otherwise, it was the same now-stale act -- insults, boasting, misstatements of fact and empty promises of greatness personified by "Trump" alone. Enduring four years of this from our president would resemble being relentlessly pounded over the head with a bag of sand until one succumbs to stultitude.

But what Republican can now stop him? That Marco Rubio is the establishment hope captures his hopelessness -- and theirs. True, he appeals to affluent Republicans with private club manners for whom Mitt Romney was their kind. But he can't hijack the evangelicals, or persuasively channel Trump's angry populist appeal. Worse, the reality of Rubio has been exposed -- a candidate without a core, too callow and shallow to persuasively fill the office he seeks.

Ted Cruz? It is hard to imagine him cleaning up in delegate-rich states like California and New York, whose populace is not drawn to a hard-line conservatism wherein the smarmily pious Cruz summons a political Rapture. And John Kasich still appears better suited to another year, in a party which has voided its toxins.

At this point in the calendar, it seems clear that none of them can stack up enough delegates to win outright. So now the establishment strategy is to deny Trump a majority of delegates by keeping all three rivals in the race from now until the convention. The idea is that Rubio takes Florida; Kasich Ohio; and Cruz a few conservative bastions, after which they collectively win enough states to block Trump's path.

This, at best, is deeply problematic. As a matter of arithmetic, it is certainly possible to deny Trump the roughly 54 percent of delegates he would need to win from here on out. But Rubio, Cruz and Kasich are like the occupants of a life raft, allies by necessity, yet eyeing each other with self-interest and suspicion. Sooner or later, cannibalism will ensue.

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Indeed, Ted Cruz is already poised to take the first bite -- by investing more resources in Florida, he hopes to take votes from Rubio, effectively delivering the state to Trump. This will hardly be the last instance where, by accident or design, one of the also-rans snacks on another -- Cruz in particular still seems bent on driving his rivals from the race. This go-it-alone strategy involves a very high-risk gamble: that in a two-man race Cruz can force the potentially volatile Trump to implode, having first helped him compile a daunting delegate lead.

Yet the establishment's stop-Trump strategy requires all three also-rans to live -- especially, and ironically, Cruz, second only to Trump in filling the GOP establishment with fear and loathing. A special problem is that Rubio, fading badly, is another key component. The scenario for deadlock requires him -- or Kasich -- to ward off The Donald in mainstream states with large urban populations, venues where, no matter what he may imagine, Cruz is unlikely to thrive in a one on one race against Trump. But to survive Rubio must win Florida -- if he does not, it is hard to conceive what would sustain him in the miserable weeks to come.

All this illustrates the problem with assuming that each of Trump's rivals can appropriate pieces of the electoral map. That construct is like a tower of building blocks assembled by a two-year-old: snatch away the blocks marked "Ohio" or "Florida" and the whole thing topples. Unless Kasich and Rubio beat him in their home states a week from today, Trump will seize a prohibitive delegate lead in a matchup with Cruz. Even a victory in one of those states would give him a commanding margin in a race where Cruz and whoever else survives are still dividing votes.

But let us suppose, however improbably, that the ill-matched trio make it ashore in Cleveland, and then manage to stop a wounded Trump on the first ballot. What is to keep one of them from then cutting a deal with Trump? And, if not, what awaits them? A fractured party; a mass of alienated Trump supporters; a potential third-party which splits the GOP vote. In this environment, it seems unlikely that any of them can hold the GOP together.

So who is the Savior? Mitt Romney? The base would spit him out. Paul Ryan? If Ryan remains sane, he will flee this invitation as though it were ebola. Presiding over the insane asylum which is the Republican House is sacrifice enough.

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The absolute last gasp of poison gas is the idea of a third party should Trump prevail. Let me venture a fearless prediction -- no elected official with any interest in their future will throw themselves on this funeral pyre. (Bill Kristol, chronic promoter of fools like Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin, has offered up Dick Cheney. I can't shake the idea of his campaign theme song: "Where have you gone, Richard Bruce Cheney? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.") Whatever comes of this idea will be pitiful indeed.

So now we have dispensed with the all too grim horserace. The larger question is when, if ever, the established GOP will take responsibility for the rise of Donald Trump.

Last week, several New York Times reporters exchanged anecdotes about when they first thought the threat of Trump was real. The median date fell in the latter part of 2015. So where was the Republican establishment all this time?

The answer is simple: living out the Faustian bargain through which they had long since swapped their political souls for dwindling pieces of Republican turf. Last week, a few GOP professionals surfaced with the truth. Having failed in his effort to raise money from GOP donors to fight Trump from the start, consultant Alex Castellanos wrote: "If our self-indulgent Republican Party establishment had really wanted to prevent a takeover of the GOP, they should not have gorged on political power while they failed to do anything to prevent the decline of the country. Our leaders could have led. They could have done more than say 'no' to Democrats while offering no alternative."

Veteran strategist Scott Reed remarked: "I'm amazed that people are acting surprised. Trump has been building for months, and the voters are speaking." And media mastermind Mike Murphy stated the obvious -- that Trump "would set the party back decades."

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Yet the sustained obliviousness of the GOP elite was truly impressive. The pompous panjandrums of the Wall Street Journal now wax indignant that Donald Trump has jumped the traces of bellicosity, free trade, and privatizing Social Security. Here is the small detail they've missed: The GOP has been offering the embattled middle and working classes tax cuts for the wealthy, wars they don't want, and trade policies which leave them fearful for their jobs. In thrall to a political orthodoxy dear to the donor classes, the Republican establishment has lost touch with the base, believing that rhetorical red meat was enough to satiate the great unwashed.

Now comes Trump, promising healthcare "to take care of everybody"; vowing to protect entitlement programs; and blaming Republican free-market policies for the plight of working people. Belatedly, the Republican elite is discovering the truth -- when it comes to ideological purity, most voters care much more about the reality of their own lives. And a whole lot of them think that the GOP establishment has sold them down the river of free trade, lining its own pockets in the bargain.

This divide between the establishment and Trump supporters is a scalding rebuke to the politics of plutocracy. Which makes risible the establishment's warnings that Trump is playing these folks for fools. Who do they think wrote that playbook?

But looking in the mirror overtaxes their gifts for introspection. Hence -- having awakened like Rip van Winkle the day after Super Tuesday -- their tardy and often hypocritical efforts to excommunicate Donald Trump.

Mitt Romney gave the speech of his lifetime, a comprehensive and searing excoriation of Trump's intellectual and personal unfitness. No minced words -- it was perhaps Romney's finest political hour, and one of the few good ones in this pitiful GOP campaign.

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Romney reminded evangelicals about Trump's values, such as they are. He informed struggling Americans of the many ways that Trump has exploited their fellow workers. He awakened those worried about national security to Trump's stupefying ignorance of geopolitics and military affairs. He advised those enamored with Trump's business career that it is pocked with fraud and failure. He even extracted a little payback for John McCain, his erstwhile rival, noting that when McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, the draft-avoidant Trump was racking up sexual scores so as to regale the world with his manliness.

But the GOP should have said all this six months ago, in a swelling chorus -- Trump's odious qualities were ever in plain sight. His putrid response to Romney was embarrassingly typical of all that has come before -- recycled insults and boasts, delivered in semi-coherent sentence fragments. There was nothing which involved anything but himself -- not a a policy, not a thought. Just another chapter in the annals of his repulsiveness -- in 2012, Trump informed us, Romney "was begging for my endorsement. I could've said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees.'"

This should have been a telling moment, confirming all that Romney said. But at this late date the message was blunted and, for some, incendiary. The truth of Romney's jeremiad was eclipsed by speculation that he is angling to become the party's savior. And, quite predictably, Trump supporters were infuriated by what they saw as another condescending message from the face of the elite.

Yet suddenly the establishment was transfixed by its own righteous indignation. A cadre of billionaires, at last perceiving that they are losing their grip on power, coalesced to spend millions on air time for scathing attack ads trashing Trump. Eleventh hour denunciations rained down on Trump from all quarters of the GOP establishment -- business interests, foreign policy mavens, elected officials.The two Whitmans -- Meg and Christine Todd -- respectively called Trump "a dishonest demagogue" and accused him of "hate-mongering and racism."

Truly, did they just discover this? Given the tone the GOP has struck on immigrants and Muslims, including American citizens, did they really think all this is unique to Donald Trump? What about Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio? Or, for that matter, the Republicans in 2012?

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But the questions abound. Where were all these worthies when Ted Cruz and a cabal of Tea party fanatics were shutting down the government? When birthers were inflaming the Republican electorate with race-based denunciations of Obama? Or when all 300 elected Republicans in the House and Senate voted against the Iran deal, taking a grave foreign-policy issue down the same low road of cynical partisan politics.

Where were these tribunes of truth when the GOP became a fact free zone -- immune to climate science, claiming that massive tax cuts could help balance the budget, rewriting history to blame partisan rancor solely on Barack Obama? Where were they when the kids of the less fortunate were being squandered in the neoconservatives' tragic misadventure in Iraq? Where were they when the anxious middle class was sliding into insecurity and despair?

And where were they eight months ago, when this man they so deplore was using racist dog whistles to run away in the polls -- and with their party?

They were tending to their own parochial interests beneath a self-serving cone of silence, while ignoring that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were shamelessly echoing Trump's rhetoric about Mexicans and Muslims. One must say it -- the glee with which they seized on Trump's stupidity regarding David Duke as a fig leaf for theatrical outrage is a classic of pretext and hypocrisy. What courage indeed it takes to denounce the Ku Klux Klan.

In truth, Trump is not an accident thrust by fate on an undeserving party. He is a mirror of what the GOP has become. He is, quite simply, a particularly embarrassing manifestation of the party's aversion to fact, appeals to fear, immunity to reason, and nihilistic denunciations of government as the source of all our problems. The GOP has offered America no concrete solutions -- instead, it has stoked political distemper for its own self-serving ends, re- packaged in absurd and cynical dumbshows like the 70 or so votes to defund Obamacare. It has abdicated any claim to serious governance, let alone to be the steward of our collective future .

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It should not be this way. Americans deserve real arguments and real choices grounded in the real world, not a Democratic president elected by default. Should the party someday right its course, and reenter the realm of reason, the country will be better off.
Doing the math, Trump needs 55% of remaining delegates to win a majority, Cruz 59 percent, Rubio 69 percent and Kasich 77 percent. Given that Rubio has only won one state to date plus Puerto Rico and Kasich hasn't won any, the chance that either of them will win the nomination outright is virtually nil. Thus, the only hope for the establishment GOP is for neither Trump nor Cruz to get an overall majority and for Rubio or Kasich (or Ryan or Romney) to be picked in a brokered convention. This seems to be the plan embraced by those advocating the #NeverTrump strategy. But if the final vote/delegate totals are anything like they currently are, with Trump at 43 percent of delegates, Cruz at 34 percent, Rubio at 17 percent and Kasich at 4 percent, it would require the GOP to egregiously ignore its own primary voters to have anyone but Trump (or potentially Cruz) as its nominee.
On International Women's Day, we have a responsibility to ask ourselves what more we could be doing to advocate for the women in our lives. It's important for us to take this moment to reflect on the state of gender inequality around the world, because, while progress has been made, it's clear that we still have a long way to go. For example, we live in a world where at least 79 percent of countries have legislation that impedes women's economic participation and more than 1.3 billion women don't have an account at a formal financial institution.

As a company with a sales force 3 million strong and composed of 95 percent women, gender equality is a business imperative for Tupperware Brands -- we can't afford to not pay attention. Economic empowerment of women is -- and always has been -- the mission of our entire company. Through economic empowerment, we aim to not only support progress toward gender equality, but also help make it a reality in the near future.

As part of this commitment to gender equality, and along with nine other business leaders, I have partnered with UN Women's HeForShe campaign to take concrete steps to advance gender equality within our organizations as IMPACT 10x10x10 Corporate Champions. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, HeForShe hosted a panel of the IMPACT Champions, announcing an unprecedented public disclosure of internal gender parity data. I was proud to share with the audience that Tupperware Brands has reached gender parity on our board, where women hold 50 percent of seats, trumping the international average of 17 percent. We have also achieved gender parity in our hiring; 61 percent of our new hires were women in 2015.

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Identifying solutions for gender inequality is common discourse among global leaders. And while it is critical for us to have conversations like these, there's only so much that can be accomplished by business leaders, policy makers and international organizations. In reality, taking a top-down approach toward advancing gender equality is only one side of the coin.

So we need to ask ourselves: how can we do more? How can we move beyond policy, for example, and support a bottom-up approach to address the issue of gender equality?

A bottom-up approach means taking action at the grassroots level by engaging boys and men to respect, support and empower the women in their lives. It means educating fathers, husbands, sons and brothers about the importance of feminism, women's rights and gender equality. We need to engage all men in the fight for parity, not just policy makers or business leaders. Because when it comes to women in communities around the world, parity starts with those they interact with in their daily lives.

That's why Tupperware Brands has launched a new initiative within our company and Tupperware community to help advance gender equality beyond our corporate network, with the hope of sparking change in the daily lives of our sales force.

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The TupperMen initiative aims to engage the spouses and partners of our sales force staff in the movement for gender equality through educational materials that teach and inspire men to enact change. Since women's empowerment starts in the home and in communities, we all need to do our part to facilitate critical conversations and foster a culture of equality. In 2016, this initiative will be mandatory in all our markets across the globe, supported by a framework that can be customized by the local markets. Reaching the spouses and partners of our sales force will create a powerful network of advocates for gender equality, not only directly impacting our sales force, but also the communities in which they live.

It's critical to keep women's empowerment at the forefront of both the global and community agenda. Achieving gender equality won't happen if the charge is led solely by business leaders and policy makers - we need fathers, husbands, sons and brothers to join the fight too. We must all work together to empower the women in our lives, because, ultimately, all of us are stakeholders in gender equality.



Tupperware Brands is a global brand helping to empower women around the world. Research shows that Mexican women who work with Tupperware experience life changes that are nothing short of transformational.
In my lifetime, we've witnessed significant strides in advancing the collective rights, health and wellbeing of women around the globe. Today is a day for celebrating the progress we've made.

However, we cannot be complacent. We now confront a new range of health challenges, especially non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which arguably receive too little attention from the global health community.

For years, governments and leading global health organizations have focused attention and resources on improving sexual and reproductive health, with the key aim of reducing maternal mortality and morbidity -- and their efforts have been successful. But today, NCDs, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, have replaced maternal mortality and morbidity as the leading threats to women's health. NCDs account for seven of the top 10 killers of women, and 18 million women around the world die from them each year.

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So it is timely that the women's health agenda move from a predominant focus on our reproductive organs and we reframe the discussion of women's health such that the focus expands to include women's whole bodies -- and the diseases that today are most frequently killing us.

As we do this, we must be careful to avoid another dangerous pitfall: being considered the same as men. (And yes, the irony of suggesting this on International Women's Day, of all occasions, isn't lost on me.)

We have fought and we continue to fight to be regarded equally, and rightfully so. But perhaps counter-intuitively, we must demand to be treated differently than men when it comes to our bodies and the global discussion on health care.

Why? Because women's bodies are different and health systems have a differential impact on women compared to men.

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We now know that there are differences for women and men in both disease occurrence and outcomes. Yet, far too commonly, there is no examination of health data, separately for women and men, and women are underrepresented in many scientific and clinical studies.

Let's consider this issue with respect to diabetes.

In our recently published paper, Women's Health: A New Global Agenda, my co-authors and I highlighted strong and consistent evidence for a substantial sex difference in the effects of diabetes on the risk of another NCD: cardiovascular disease. Women with diabetes have a 44 percent higher risk of developing ischemic heart disease, and a 27 percent higher risk of stroke compared to men with diabetes. And, if that weren't enough, a recent report from the UK national diabetes audit found that women with diabetes were 15 percent less likely than affected men to receive the care recommended by national guidelines or to meet treatment targets.

But it's important to note that diabetes develops over decades -- meaning that we have an opportunity to identify individuals at high risk for diabetes and, subsequently, to intervene to prevent or delay the onset of the condition. Through prevention, we can save women's lives and maintain their wellbeing, but we have to start by understanding how risks of disease occurrence differ and then tailor prevention strategies to address the differential risks.

Moreover, we need to better understand how health systems differentially impact women and men and take these into consideration when determining health improvement solutions.

My colleague Mark Woodward, a co-author on our women's health paper, contributed to a study in the journal Surgery examining outcomes in post-surgery cancer patients in Southeast Asia. The study sought to identify factors associated with adverse outcomes such as death, treatment discontinuation, and financial catastrophe (defined as out-of-pocket costs of over 30 percent of yearly household income). Women were significantly more likely than men to experience financial catastrophe. This is a sad reality, and it again underscores the need to firstly examine health data separately for women and men, and then produce solutions that ensure better outcomes for women.

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Many nations are making commitments to women's health, and that's an achievement worth celebrating. But if the approaches they implement don't take the realities of sex differences into consideration, we'll be sitting here in a few decades wondering why we achieved so little.

We have a small window of opportunity before national strategies, aimed at addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are firmed up and if these fail to deliver concrete plans to meet the SDG targets, then we will miss the opportunity to save millions of women dying prematurely. That is why we are calling for the United Nations and other UN agencies such as the World Health Organization to take the lead in ensuring that sufficient resources are put into reducing the burden of NCDs in women, and to ensuring a gendered approach to research and health systems development.

As we celebrate International Women's Day, and the decades of progress we've achieved, let's remain determined to continue the important, urgent work of improving the lives of all women. Complacency isn't an option. Let's remain focused on the future, where the new challenges lie.
Anti-atheist terrorism is gaining momentum around the world. While major events like the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris and the murders of rationalist bloggers in Bangladesh brought attention to this unfortunate problem, it's far from isolated to those individual incidents. In the last few weeks, several instances of anti-atheist terrorism suggest that these events aren't just the actions of hateful individuals, but are the result of governmental policies which malign and discriminate against atheists.

Russia is a country which not long ago was considered at least a safe haven for atheists, but in the past two decades, it turned toward traditional religion with surprising speed. Now, a Russian citizen, Victor Krasnov, is being prosecuted for what he said about religion on social media. His atheism and his conviction that traditional religions are fairy tales have not just resulted in legal charges, but ironically in psychiatric care: he was placed under evaluation for a month--as if accepting reality is sign that one has had a break from reality.

The struggle for full religious liberty is underway in Malta as well--despite the language in the Constitution of Malta that "all persons in Malta shall have full freedom of conscience and enjoy the free exercise of their respective mode of religious worship." In backlash to a sensible move legislating the removal of blasphemy laws, which are described as "crimes against religious sentiment" in the Maltese Criminal Code, there's now a push to keep such laws in place and expand them to include vilification of atheists. Keeping blasphemy laws of any kind is a mistake, and expanding them is even worse. Freedom of thought and expression should not be curtailed.

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Another example comes from Saudi Arabia, which is supposed to be a US ally. According to a recent WIN/Gallup poll, over a million atheists reside within the monarchy. But in Saudi Arabia, blasphemy laws are enforced by the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a government entity which is just as scary as it sounds. Last year, the state tried to make an example of an atheist to discourage other citizens from leaving Islam and embracing nontheism. Raif Badawi was sentenced to receive 1,000 lashes for his atheism, but this still wasn't enough for the religious authorities. Just last month, according to the Associated Press, Saudi Arabia sentenced another Saudi nonbeliever, this time to ten years in prison and 2,000 lashes for sending atheist tweets.

In the cases above, we see countries driven by fear and religious oppressiveness to make and enforce rules that remove people's freedom from religion. And without freedom from religion and freedom of religion, religious liberty becomes a theocratic imposition of one religion over an entire population.

The Freedom of Thought Report annually catalogs discrimination against nonreligious people on behalf the International Humanist and Ethical Union. In the foreword to the latest Freedom of Thought Report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief Heiner Bielefeldt writes, "Laws against 'insulting' religion in relatively secure, relatively secular countries, for example, are not only analogues of the most vicious blasphemy laws anywhere in the world, but help to sustain the global norm under which thought is policed and punished."
Around the world, conflicts are exposing people to unimaginable tragedy. In Syria, an estimated 14 million people have already fled the country in the five years since civil war broke out, seeking refuge in Turkey and Lebanon, throughout the European Union and in the United States. In Nigeria, the threat kidnapping at the hands of Boko Haram lingers over residents in northern states, forcing many families into refugee camps as villages are considered unsafe. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Sudan, long-term conflict has displaced nearly three million people, eroding the social fabric and forcing some to abandon their homes - and families - for more than three decades. Estimates show that on average, refugees spend roughly 17 years away from home when crises hit.

Even in times of peace, gender discrimination profoundly impacts women and girls' lives. When crises hit, women's and girls' vulnerabilities to discrimination are magnified, as family and social structures begin to break down and too often government entities and the justice system, which are often already stretched thin, can no longer meet their needs. In times of conflict, women's and girls' prospect to live a healthy, empowered life go from an uphill battle to virtually impossible.

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During periods of social upheaval or instability, incidents of violence against women increase, including sexual violence and domestic violence at the hands of husbands or partners. Opportunities for a quality education become limited and opportunities for women to earn an income to support their family are few and far between. In some settings, there has been a big uptick in girls forced into marriage when they're still children, as parents marry their daughters off in an effort to protect them from threats of violence within camps. For example, in Jordan, UNICEF found that rates of child marriage had more than doubled among Syrian refugees. Barriers to safe, comprehensive health care are myriad and impact women's and girls' ability to live a safe, healthy life and can even end in tragedy: A recent report by the United Nations Population Fund found that 507 women and adolescent girls die in humanitarian settings every day, due to a lack of reproductive health services.

In the development field we know that women must be central to any community-building efforts if they are to succeed. The same is true during times of conflict. Yet despite the enormous challenges that women face during times of conflict, women's voices may not be reflected in peace and recovery efforts.

When conflicts arise, we must ensure women and girls are not only active participants in tackling the challenges they face on a daily basis, but we must also give them the tools, the space, and the agency to begin to rebuild the social fabric. This is critical to creating an atmosphere that meets peoples' needs, ushers in peace and creates resilience against future conflict - and the evidence shows why this matters.

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The International Center for Research on Women evaluated a dozen initiatives in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and the Congo - countries where civil strife and conflict have affected millions of people - and found that the programs that gave space and opportunity for women to contribute to the rebuilding of their community were far more successful in helping to repair the social fabric than programs that excluded women. These initiatives also showed greater promise for sustained peace and development within communities.

Currently, only nine percent of negotiators in peace talks have been women. While United Nations resolutions passed in the past two decades have underscored the importance of women's role in preventing, managing and resolving conflicts, their inclusion in these critical conversations is sparse - to the detriment of their communities. When women and girls are included in the rebuilding of their communities, the long-term policies are likely to be more inclusive of and responses to, problems faced by women, girls, and their families.


At first blush Hoi An (Vietnam) appears a prosperous hub for trade and tourism. Look deeper and you'll find people living in extreme poverty, including children with disabilities who receive very little in terms of social assistance. Children's Hope in Action (CHIA) operate out of the coastal town to provide support services to disadvantaged and disabled children and their families that are typically facilitated by government in wealthier countries. Production duo Bill Bycroft and Rachel Turner shot this short profile about CHIA for Impolitikal while travelling through Vietnam in late 2015. Find out how the organisation is changing lives in Hoi An in tangible ways.
Basavanna told me the story of what happened at the spot, which is a few minutes out of Jummanahalli, midway on the southward journey from Ballupet to my coffee plantation. Passing by it the last time I went there, I tried to imagine the fear that came visiting the planter's home that sits right by the road on that spot in our coffee country. Basavanna, who owns a terrific plantation near mine, knows everything that happens in coffee-towns Ballupet and Sakleshpur and all round.

When I bought my plantation some years ago I'd asked Lokesh, the agent who found it for me, "Aren't there break-ins hereabouts? People live such long distances from one another."

"Such things happen only in Bangalore sir," he'd said, showing hurt in his eyes. "Nothing like that happens here in Malnad."

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I live in Bangalore. Some weeks after I'd taken possession of the place, a planter's son from nearby asked if I could drop him off at Ballupet. It was evening, and raining. My wife and I were in front, the neighbor's son sat in the back.

"You're lucky," I told him, "to live in this beautiful place at your age."

"No, uncle," he said. (All older men are addressed uncle in this part of the world.) "It's really boring here."

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid.

"I prefer Bangalore, uncle. When it rains here I really hate it."

We fell silent. The shrill incessant hum of the jeerunde had begun in the dusk that was upon us. The rain stoked their pitch even higher, and the body of the collective shrieking shook with its intensity. The world had become more sound than sight. All we could see were hedges and solar fences -- and rain, and the wiper that fought it over the windshield.

"Last month, uncle," the boy said after a while, "some people broke in, dragged me and mom and dad to the basement. They tied us up there. They took the TV, stereo, cash. All they could carry, actually."

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"God," my wife said, "that must've been scary."

"Don't you keep a gun at home?" I asked.

They own a double barrel. But father and son had been scared to go for it. The men were armed with knife, sickle, and machete. Their faces were hid behind mufflers. The family has an Alsatian in the yard, but they keep him caged because he bites owners and visitors both. And he barks 24 hours.

I asked people about it on my next visit. They acknowledged the fact of the robbery. But several of them said the boy's father had himself organised it. "Why?" I asked. Different folks had different answers.

Another time, in the chill of January, during picking season, there was a break-in on the plantation next to mine. This time, armed men had broken into the supervisor's quarters, tied him up, gone to the store, and made off with sacks of fresh-picked coffee. The planter there lives in Bangalore, like I do. When I asked people on my plantation about it, they were positive it was an inside job. "How can you cart out a load like that otherwise?"

Lokesh has laid it into me that lies are told only in Bangalore. In Malnad, truth is sovereign.

There's not a whisper of any hanky-panky regarding what happened at the spot I've mentioned above. Basavanna told me the details. At midnight, a gang arrived in a van at the bungalow by the road, broke open the gate, and drove up to the main door of the plantation-home. The home is occupied by a mid-aged couple. The gang carried a simple tool to ram the door with: a sack filled with large stones, twisted tight for grip. After a few rounds, any door gives.

The couple woke to the thudding. After the first moments in which realization came, and fear with it, the planter took courage and went and pulled his never-used gun from where he'd stored it, loaded it, and just when the door sounded like it was yielding, he fired through a window into the yard outside.

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The terrible sound stopped and silence took its place. Then the men began to speak, rallying, gathering courage. As much fear as they'd caused inside, so much fear was now upon them. There was enough time for the planter's shaking hands to reload and fire again.

Talking ceased. A few feet in the dark behind the planter, his wife was working the handphone. Outside, there was only repeated rustling, followed by urgent voices, speaking fast. Fear flowed freely, from inside to outside, and even as the planter loaded another round into his gun, hands still trembling, he heard the shutting of van doors, ignition, tires working on mud and concrete. In a moment the fleeing van was visible through his window, and the planter fired, but into empty space.
"He is reading at a first grade level now," I said to the doctor, holding my breath.

"What?" she said with a mix of surprise and concern. "He's ten."

I paused for a moment, and decided to ignore the comment welling up in my throat about how I am pretty sure I know how old he is.

"Well, two years ago, he was at a preschool level, so really, he has made two years worth of progress in two years," I said, sure she would nod her head and appreciate the progress.

She didn't.

We spent the rest of our time together talking about the many options for dyslexia interventions, and getting him to "grade level."

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I left feeling so sad for my youngest son, who works so hard, but never feels like it is enough.

I understand why he feels this way.

Learning disabilities are so sneaky.

His doctor is well-versed in dyslexia and learning differences. She knows exactly what his IQ testing and learning profile mean. She knows the asynchrony of a child profoundly gifted in some areas, and profoundly delayed in others.

And she still cannot believe, after educational therapy and daily instruction for more than two years, that he is only capable of reading Hop On Pop on his best day.

I understand why she feels this way.

Learning disabilities are so sneaky.

The doctor surprised me when she said, "With his needs, there is no way the school system would be able to adequately help him. You might be able to eventually get the school district to pay for him to go to special private school, but that would take years and I am not convinced it would be a good fit for him either."

"So you see my dilemma, " I thought to myself, but did not say.

Learning disabilities are so sneaky.

I came home to my children, exhausted and feeling the weight of it all.

I walked away from the appointment with good advice about all the things I need to do.

And I am grateful for it.

And I am tired of it.

It feels like we are running some sort of race -- with grade level as the finish line.



Grade level means nothing to my children.

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My oldest is reading at a college level proficiency, but cannot perform sequential tasks, requiring even the most basic executive function.

My youngest is several grade levels ahead in history and science, but couldn't read the word "said" yesterday.

I cannot use grade level as the standard.

I know this. And yet I long for it. I want progress to be faster and more linear. I want grade level so much it hurts sometimes.

I want to be able to say to anyone who asks, "Yes, they are at grade level," and never again have the discussion about how to speed up their progress.

I want to avoid the panic that rears its ugly head first thing in the morning and last thing at night. "Am I doing this right? What else can I do? Am I failing these children?"

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My children are children. They are not math equations. They are not projects with completion dates.

As convenient as it would be for them to achieve grade level expectations, this is just simply not possible sometimes. More importantly, when I think about who they are becoming, what matters most in their lifetime, and how they will be most successful as adults, the less reading levels and math standards even matter.

So today, rather than worrying about all the progress we haven't made, I choose to focus on all that my sons have accomplished.

Rather than worrying about grade levels and deficits, I choose to see the computer that my son built in less than two hours, on his own.

I choose to see the book that my little guy picked up, and the true joy with which he read it, rather than the words on the cover -- Step 1 Ready to Read.

Today, I will do the best that I can for these children and...
By Diana Csank



On March 9, Pennsylvania's highest court will hear arguments about fracking and fundamental environmental rights -- rights affirmed in Article I, Section 27 of Pennsylvania's constitution, the "Environmental Rights Amendment."



The case on appeal was originally filed by the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation in March 2012. It focuses on a series of short sighted government decisions to address state budget gaps by converting public natural resources into quick cash. More specifically, through an unprecedented expansion of the state's oil and gas leasing program, Pennsylvanians lost nearly a tenth of their state forests to private fracking interests, which gained rights to both public minerals and public lands -- for decades.



PEDF is now asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to judge whether the Governor and DCNR, as trustees for public natural resources under the Environmental Rights Amendment, complied with the same when they leased so much public minerals and lands without first assessing how much the public would lose, and what it would take to make the public whole again.



The government has already conceded that it has fiduciary duties under the state constitution to "conserve and maintain" public natural resources.[1] Or, as the plurality of Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices put it in Robinson, "to prevent and remedy the degradation, diminution, or depletion of our public natural resources."[2]



Moreover, the record shows DCNR -- the agency charged with leasing decisions--wanted to stop leasing to the fracking industry because it did not have a good handle on the impacts, but then, under political pressure, leased more and more public minerals and forestlands anyway.



As a result, "pipeline infrastructure build-out" alone "will impact communities and the environment in every county in Pennsylvania," according to the government's own projections. [3]



Photo: "A Push for Pipelines" - February 17, 2016



On Wednesday, John Childe will argue for PEDF that -- before any decision to lease the "common property of all the people"[4] -- the government should have completed a comprehensive study of fracking's impacts with special attention to present and future generations' fundamental environmental rights affirmed in the Environmental Rights Amendment. Further, PEDF will argue leasing should have proceeded only to the extent that the government could show, on the record, compliance with the constitutional "conserve and maintain" standard. This is a commonsense look before you leap argument, and it is firmly rooted in the text of the Environmental Rights Amendment.
By Andrea Issod

Hydrogen Energy California (HECA) Coal Plant Developer Throws in the Towel

We did it! For years, alongside local community groups and activists, Sierra Club has been fighting the ill-conceived $4 billion dollar proposal to ship coal into California to produce fertilizer and power. On March 3, just days before the California Energy Commission was scheduled to hear arguments about whether the project should be reinstated from a six-month suspension or terminated, the developer officially withdrew its application. Coincidentally, this news came exactly one year to the day from when Sierra Club, HECA neighbors, and the Association of Irritated Residents set the wheels in motion to kill the project.

Above, that's Nikolas Leon making a homemade "No on HECA" sign. Below, Nikolas displays his handiwork.

Every aspect of the HECA proposal was more ridiculous than the next. HECA planned to ship coal by open-top railcar over 650 miles into the leading clean energy state, draw 7,500 acre-feet annually of usable agricultural water away from an over-tapped aquifer during an historic drought, and burn coal in the most polluted air basin in the country, affecting environmental justice communities already suffering the lowest health outcomes in the state. Incredibly, HECA would not have even provided any benefit to California's energy consumers. The project would have produced only 53 MW of added power to the grid during its maximum electricity production, and it would have pulled 62 MW from the grid during maximum fertilizer production.

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This hecka bad idea has persisted for the last eight years largely because of funding from the Department of Energy, which doled out at least $150 million dollars of taxpayer money for HECA's public relations consultants, lobbyists and lawyers, and scandalous backroom dealings with the state Public Utilities Commission. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle after conducting a review of 65,000 emails, PG&E Vice President Brian Cherry told a former PUC President Micheal Peevy that "'you owe' another PG&E executive for keeping alive the struggling $4 billion project near Bakersfield. A month later, Cherry called on Peevey's top aide to repay the debt by intervening to appoint an administrative law judge he wanted to oversee a $1.3 billion rate case [regarding the San Bruno pipeline explosion.]"

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Below, a 2013 "No on HECA" citizen rally in Buttonwillow, California. Note the handmade sign at left, being held by Nikolas Leon's grandmother Marion Vargas of Bakersfield.

HECA's demise is further evidence that the last-ditch efforts to save the industry with the myth of "Clean Coal" have failed. The Kemper plant in Mississippi, one of only new coal plants that has actually been built in the last decade, with $270 million of help from the Department of Energy, is now estimated to cost at least $6.6 billion, $4 billion more than originally proposed, and the plant has not even been able to successfully burn coal yet. The FutureGen project in Illinois is officially dead, after over a decade of work and $200 million of taxpayer money since President Bush originally proposed it in 2003.

After seven years of fighting HECA, the prevailing sentiment is aptly summarized by Chris Romanini, one of the leading activists from HECA Neighbors:

"This is a tremendous victory for HECA neighbors and the people of Kern County who have opposed this disastrous project from day one. For eight years, we've lived in the shadow of this terrible proposal that would have taken our precious water and sickened our families with dirty air. As a fourth generation farmer, I'm just relieved to finally have this project behind us and can once again see a future for my grandkids farming on our land."

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Hate speech in the public sphere takes place online and offline, and affects young girls and boys, women and men. We also see hate speech attacking vulnerable groups like people with disabilities, LGBT-persons and other minority groups.

Social media and the Internet have opened up for many new arenas for exchanging opinions. Freedom of speech is an absolute value in any democracy, both for the public and for the media. At the same time, opinions and debates challenge us as hate speech are spread widely and frequently on new platforms for publishing.

Hate speech may cause fear and can be the reason why people withdraw from the public debate. The result being that important voices that should be heard in the public debate are silenced. We all benefit if we foster an environment where everybody is able to express their opinions without experiencing hate speech. In this matter we all have a responsibility.

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I am especially concerned about women and girls being silenced. Attempts to silence women in the public debate through hate speech, are an attack on women's human rights. No one should be silenced or subjected to threats when expressing themselves in public.

Women are under-represented in the media. In order to get a balanced public debate it is important that many voices are heard. We must encourage women and girls to be equal participants with men. Hate speech prevents women from making their voices heard.

I also call upon the media to take responsibility in this matter. In some cases the media may provide a platform for hate speech. At the same time, I would like to stress that a liberal democracy like Norway strongly supports freedom of speech as a fundamental right.

The Norwegian government takes hate speech seriously. In November, prime minister Erna Solberg and I launched a political declaration against hate speech on the behalf of the Norwegian government. Anyone can sign the declaration online and take a stand against hate speech.

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Politicians, representatives of labour unions and organizations are among those who have signed and supported the declaration.

This year the Government will launch a strategy against hate speech. In this connection I have organised several meetings involving organizations and individuals to round table discussions on hate speech, and and received a lot of useful input for our strategy.

One of the things I heard about is how desctructive hate speech can be for women and girls who participate in the public debate. Some are ridiculed, subjected to sexually offensive language and even threatened with rape and violence.

This underlines the importance of combating hate speech. We cannot afford that women are silenced in the public debate, because of their gender.

We need arenas for dialogue, tolerance and awareness of the consequences of hate speech. It is important that we discuss this issue with our own children and in schools. We adults have a great responsibility. We need to think about how we express ourselves when children are present. What we say in our family settings have consequences for how our children behave against other people - online and offline.

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In order to combat hate speech we also need knowledge. I have initiated a research that will look into attitudes towards Jews and how minorities look at other minorities. In addition, the University of Oslo has established a centre for research on right-winged extremism. One of the centre`s mandate is to look into hate speech.

The police plays a vital role in the fight against hate speech. Some expressions of opinions are forbidden by law. The new Norwegian General Civil Penal Code's section 185 protects against serious hate speech which wilfully or through gross negligence is made publicly. The Norwegian police forces has established a net patrol that are working on this issue. Additionally they have strengthen their efforts against hate crime.

Hate speech may be directed against people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation. Hate speech can have serious consequences for individuals, groups and the whole society. It is important to take a stand and show that this cannot be tolerated. Politicians, organizations and other actors in the public debate must show responsibility and actively work against hate speech.
I walk in to the exclusive industry leaders/celebrity laden/best place to feel like a star, yet not be bothered like one, restaurant in tinsel town. The elegant private social club "The Soho House" in search of the long legged dark beauty, who also happens to run a fashion empire and 100% empower the very definition, of what I like to call a "Momtrepreneur." Yes that would be the one and only, first lady of fashion herself Rachel Roy. Having designed and dressed for the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama, to the First Lady of reality TV Kim Kardashian. It's no wonder that Roy's creations are donned on celeb clientele such as Diane Sawyer, Oprah, Penelope Cruz, Eva Mendes and Gwyneth Paltrow to name a few. She's a modern day working mother to two daughters, who intertwines her experience of travel, culture, and business acumen (having studied psychology and English at Western Adventist University in Maryland), before relocating to New York, and then Los Angeles...And so begins my fun in person, (tete a tete) designer to designer interview, with my lovely friend to find out her latest endeavors.

SHM: You're not only an inspirational designer but an "instructional" one, on how to do it and maintain it "like a boss" ... I read you recently spoke at The White House's Small Business Week last May, and also being included in the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2007, as well as being in the CFDA "Designers of Instagram" 2016 book. You also have your own first book "Design Your Life" coming out March 15th, 2016 -- Congratulations! After all these stellar accomplishments, what else could be on the Rachel Roy bucket list?

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RR: Being that I'm from humble beginnings, a working class family, of Indian and Dutch descent, I've always been motivated on being a voice for men and women who might not have the opportunity, to make it happen with empowerment... I would like to provide employment through what I do... My ethos being quality of life, over quantity wins every time. For instance, the "lovebomb" bracelet, that I made with artisans in Laos were made from pieces of discarded bomb fragments add to my creed of be socially conscious, and enabling women to be stronger. It's conveying how love can beat war. It will be available on my site starting this month.

SHM: Tell us what to expect in your epic tome "Design Your Life?" Where and when we can get our hands on it?

RR: I was asked to compile into a book, the insight on the helpful tools that I've learned through the years from the ground up, launching and continually growing your own brand and label. It's a sort of style guide, no matter what part a person's life is in. I wanted to guide the reader, in developing his/her inner confidence, while also helping them distinguish, and to develop their interior spirit, as well as their best exterior physical appearance/style attitude. I provide some of my personal stories, the imperative role that style and technique have played to my path of success and a fulfilling fashion career. It's creating success through personal style. The book is available now for pre-order on http://RachelRoy.com, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million to name a few.

SHM: What are the select must have pieces from your collection?

RR: My favorite "go to" is the trench coat. It's so classic yet so versatile at the same time. It's a stylish fail-safe coat... it's also fun to wear it without anything underneath and turn it into a chic dress. I love a jumpsuit! I wore one to my first visit to The White House. I think menswear is very alluring on a woman's body, plus a nice jumpsuit elongates the frame, brings in the waist and creates a sharp shoulder. It's extraordinarily flattering on all shapes and sizes.

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SHM: I like you, am so blessed and have two daughters... Curious to know, what is your best advice here, with being a strong Mom and a successful businesswoman? What might be a typical day in the life of Rachel Roy?

RR: I like to start off the day with an "intention"--- I wake up and set the intent for the day. For instance, "today my intent is to have a beautiful day with my daughter Ava." It reminds me to always be thankful. I learned this from attending Oprah's "Super Soul Sunday" sessions at UCLA. The classes were so completely positive and life altering. I became informed on how for example sending an email everyday to thank someone, truly benefits your sense of gratitude. It also reminds us as human beings, that doing something that takes less than 30 seconds when giving nice energy it will also manifest forward, and give you back nice energy. For instance, every Monday my team spends fifteen minutes in the morning, to express something that we're grateful for--- It sets the tone and mood for unity for the start of the week.

SHM: What's one thing you'll never stop doing?
Beira, Mozambique - September 29: Students in school uniforms posing for a photo on September 29, 2015 in Beira, Mozambique. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)

The United Nations has changed the way it speaks about International Women's Day this year, supporting a cause I have believed for a very long time. Fighting for women's rights is not just a women's issue. It is a universal development issue, and is central to leaving behind a more fair and sustainable world than the one we found.

This global challenge needs action and leadership on a local level. Even though we share the same goal around the world, the obstacles we face are often different.

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In Africa, Gabon, we have a unique set of problems and opportunities. Too often, women's rights in Africa appear in the global media for all the wrong reasons; sexual violence, female genital mutilation and human trafficking. These horrific crimes not only devastate lives but too often paint African women as victims, not the leaders of their own and the region's future.

As the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated, "I call on all leaders to make tangible commitments that will secure true gender equality throughout the world."

None of us, whether in business, politics or any public sphere of life, should be content to live in a world where half the population still enters the workforce at a disadvantage to the other.

The reasons for women's position in African political systems and job markets are complex. However, poor access to good education and healthcare are two key driving factors, which we are looking to strengthen in Gabon.

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In Africa, women are less likely to receive primary education, acquire literacy skills and have the chance at further education. Equally, unique health risks through childbirth, gender-specific types of cancer, pose a disproportionate threat to women and further restrict equal opportunities.

So we are left with stubborn statistics like Africa having amongst the lowest proportion of women employed on non-agricultural work. But this can't stop us for striving for progress and parity.

At the Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation, we are committed to improve the lives of women and families, with targeted programs for mothers. We also offer scholarships for exceptional young male and female students, to help them become tomorrow's leaders. All our work is focused on the future and we aim to be a model for the African region and beyond.

It is my dream that education can be the ultimate tool for social mobility, where all young people thrive based on merit. But for this to happen, we must provide greater support to women, mothers and families so that the children of our next generation will not be held back by financial or medical disadvantage.

Finally, it's imperative that we also overcome physical boundaries -- those inherent in society that tell women they can't be anything they want. Just because these obstacles are less visible, does not make them any less real. To combat this, in 2014 I launched a program for "Gabonese women and Leadership" which is dedicated to empower women in Gabon through mentoring and other support.

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Through these initiatives I am hopeful that I will see all women -- especially the women of Africa -- reach equality in my lifetime.


By Krista Fincke

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Legislature held a hearing on a ballot initiative that would repeal the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, which include the Common Core. The Legislature would instead enact the old Massachusetts standards, and then establish an expensive and chaotic process for writing new standards. As a teacher, I believe that this would be a big mistake.

I began teaching in Massachusetts after the Common Core was adopted in 2011, so I haven't experienced anything except the rigor that the Common Core has to offer. For many teachers like me, the current standards are the only ones we have ever known. And they are worth knowing. The depth and rigor of the Common Core has pushed us to evaluate the skills we are teaching, allowing lessons to drive critical thinking and analysis.

In my five years as a middle school science teacher in Chelsea, my school has seen improvements in all subjects. English teachers have transformed how they teach writing, asking students to find evidence and support their claims with reasoning. We are doing the same in science, where I ask my students to not just memorize important information, but to apply it to new problems. In my earth science class, students analyze graphs about the average air temperature changes since 1880 and the change in carbon dioxide levels from 400,000 years ago to today. From these graphs, using background information about the greenhouse effect, students draw conclusions about the rise in temperature. Through this process, they are not only able to solidify information in a different way, but are practicing the crucial skills of analysis and critical thinking which are central to their future success.

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In addition to increased rigor in English and science, math teachers at my school have noticed that each new batch of 5th graders is more prepared to tackle complex, conceptual math problems. We attribute this to the Common Core. Four years ago, our 5th graders came to us unable to multiply or divide. With Common Core, teachers introduce fractions in 3rd grade and then gradually cover often complex math concepts so that, by 5th grade, our students are not only able to multiply, divide, and use fractions, but have a strong understanding of math on a conceptual level.

According to our 5th grade math teacher, Sarah Sutton, "Since students had a strong understanding of fractions when they enter 5th grade, they showed mastery of subtracting with regrouping within the introductory period this year, whereas in the past, students struggled even after three periods of review." Because of this solid understanding, Sarah was able to cut months of the typical 3rd and 4th grade remediation and start with 5th grade content in September. Because of Common Core, her students are now prepared to tackle content at their grade level in a more comprehensive way.

As a teacher, I want to feel confident that my students will walk out of my classroom better prepared for life outside of our school's walls. Repealing Common Core would undo all of the progress schools and teachers have made to increase the rigor in their courses.

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I sought out a teaching position in Massachusetts because it is a state known for its top notch education system and high expectations of both teachers and students. Taking away Common Core moves us in the opposite direction. I hope legislators take this into consideration when deciding if repealing the Common Core is the right path for our state, for our schools and, most importantly, for our students.
Follow Teri on Instagram here: nocrumbsleft for more delicious recipes and photographs sure to make your mouth water.

I love Amsterdam: those good-looking, strong-bodied, vibrant, outspoken people, whirling through the streets on sturdy Dutch bikes. Add the sheer lack of cars, and you feel like you're on a movie set. Our double windows opened out over the canal, which was so remarkable. There is something about gazing over Amsterdam, and the way the sky goes on and on, that really makes you feel connected to the universe. We went expecting to love the herring, and we did, but we also made a couple unexpected culinary discoveries, including one bite that transported me back in time.

The Dylan Hotel on the canal is a wonderful hidden gem off a courtyard in the middle of the 9 Small Streets area, which is in the heart of the Amsterdam canal district. De 9 Straatjes is a lively area peppered with cafes, shops and restaurants snaking around little canals. The Dutch people are refreshingly honest, out there, and will always tell you exactly what's on their mind. They are what a friend refers to as a strong cup of coffee, but I like a strong cup of coffee. Take for instance the moment we (cool urban Americans) were told at the jeans store that we were wearing our jeans wrong--apparently they wear theirs a bit more baggy. At first taken aback, I then realized they weren't being mean when they said, "You need a bigger size"--they were just being Dutch.

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I'm not typically a pancake or crepe person although my daughter Lucy was born a pancake connoisseur. By the way, when the Dutch say pancake, what they mean is crepe. There is a constant line for the cafe called "Pancakes!" and to me it looked maybe a bit touristy, but I wasn't going to get in the way of the Dutch pancake dream of my fellow foodie. Or, as we say in my family, I wasn't going to be a Santa crusher (so named after the kind of person who wants to crush others' dreams of Santa when they still believe, "Santa crusher" has come to mean anyone who dashes another's hopes and expectations).

Tolerant of her hopes, I agreed to wait in line with her, and my suspicion could not have been more off-base. What I learned is that you can't tell a pancake spot by the line out the front door. The typical wait here is 45 minutes...and that's because all those other patrons knew something I didn't, which is that the pancakes are amazing...once you get in. The staff transforms the experience and makes it worth the wait (wait? What wait? In truth, the people-watching on this street is beyond extraordinary). What is it about that staff? They are perhaps the most authentically kind and friendly people on the planet--is it because they eat these marvelous crepes? Their genuine goodness affects the entire eating experience. You are immediately brought a warm cafe and a tiny stroopwafel, which is like the calling card of Amsterdam cafes and consists of two waffles with a caramel syrup in the middle: perfect for a snack while you decide what to order.

I chose the gluten free lemon and sugar, and Lucy ordered the Nutella banana. We justified adding a bacon crepe because legitimate pancake research demands trying a savory one too. And my Instagram followers expect no less. It was so delicious that we were stunned into silence. We ate pretty much without speaking. Is it just me, or do you also know that feeling when your food finally arrives in perfect condition, and you have a slight irrational moment of aggressive fear that the people you are with might just ask you to share? "Pancakes!" is the happiest place ever, staffed with people who are authentically bright lights that enhance the delicate sweetness of the fare.

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I've mentioned that I travel with a list: I have a preconceived notion of what the culinary high points might be, but what I love the most are the unexpected ones. We came back to the Dylan's beautiful lounge, a seductively quiet oasis, merely in search of a soothing cup of tea and a break from the busy 9th Street District. Our tea was served in delicate China cups and teapots, and alongside were some nondescript cookies that one might have overlooked, especially in light of other treats that have wowed us.

First bite revelation: this unassuming Dutch cookie is the original windmill cookie (I could envision the Nabisco package), the very one that my favorite childhood cookie is based on! It wasn't just a delicious cookie; it was a delicious moment, unexpectedly transporting me back to childhood but with a wisdom and savory realization that could only come with perspective. It was a crisp, light cookie perfect for dunking and certainly not the kind of cookie you want only one of. I learned they are called Speculaas cookies and are a Dutch spiced cookie originally made for their winter festival, but so popular that they are enjoyed all year. It transcended the packaged windmill cookie from days gone by. Even with the realization that this is where that cookie came from I cannot really pay enough homage to this cookie experience, except to say that when dipped in tea it was a cookie masterpiece. Of course we found a way to access a few more and greedily indulged.
A vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, re-energize, and forget about stress and all that is wrong with the world, but this could be when the "wrong" attacks.

Skipping out on holidays can kill you, according to science, but a vacation doesn't come without possible health risks. Do your homework before you book a flight because you may be headed to a place where Dengue fever is widespread or where venomous snakes are lurking.

Health Hazards of Vacations See Gallery

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Make sure you are not prone to deep vein thrombosis, which can be deadly. Always be prepared for the worst, just in case you get stranded on a cold mountain for days or end up a victim of theft on a busted cruise ship.

Vacation hazards are common everywhere, whether you choose to go camping in the mountains, skydiving in Dubai, relaxing on a tropical beach or exploring the jungle on safari.

It's important to look out for signs of trouble and be cautious of your surroundings. Deadly animals, lethal viruses, extreme weather conditions, and adrenaline pumping sports all put you at high risk for a vacation gone wrong.
There's a lot more good news for women in science than you might expect. Research shows that the landscape for women working in scientific disciplines - including maths, engineering and technology - has improved dramatically over the past 50 years.

Gender representation and sexism are taken far more seriously than used to be the case. Behaviour that may once have been swept under the carpet is now openly and roundly condemned.

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir Tim Hunt, resigned in 2015 from University College London in the wake of a sexism row. Also in 2015, renowned astronomer Geoff Marcy quit the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, after being found guilty of sexually harassing women students. And the world's most important science journals have dedicated entire issues to gender and equality concerns.

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These sea changes have been largely driven by three factors: the general advancement of women in society; the implementation in many countries of gender-sensitive policies designed to attract more women to the sciences; and, as illustrated above, a growing awareness in the global scientific community about the realities of gender bias.

But, as the world celebrates International Women's Day on March 8, it's worth exploring what still needs to be done - and whether science can ever be a truly equitable space while society more broadly is not.

No gender parity yet

The United Nations' 2016 theme for International Women's Day is:

Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step it up for gender equality.

This is linked to the UN's Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals. Scientists still have a long way to go before hitting the 50/50 mark for women's representation.

The problem starts from student years: women are significantly more likely to drop out of science careers at doctoral level than their male counterparts.

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Beyond university, women scientists remain in the minority. The most recent UNESCO Science Report shows that only about 30% of the world's researchers in science, technology, engineering and maths are women.

Their under-representation is even more pronounced when one considers rank - women are far less likely to become full professors in these fields, to become members of the prestigious Academy of Science or to sit on scientific journals' editorial boards.

So what is holding women back in university classes and research labs? A number of studies have suggested the following factors:

gender bias at graduate level;

unconscious gender bias in applying performance and promotion evaluation criteria;

a disparity in funding awards - men get more funding to conduct research that will go on to boost their professional reputation;

a lack of institutional support for women; and

more personal and cultural aspects such as the idea that women must put their families first and take on more domestic responsibilities than their male colleagues.

So: we know that gender bias in science is real. We know that it must be addressed. But are scientists focusing too much on trying to patch up what is actually broader societal damage? Scientific research and endeavour doesn't exist in a vacuum: it is being conducted in a world full of gender bias.

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Women must feel free to take risks

As a student, I was extremely shy and barely ever asked questions during lectures.

I see the same thing happening now that I am a lecturer. Female students don't ask a lot of questions. Nor do they take risks by challenging my assertions or questioning me closely about something they don't understand. This is what happens when you've been raised in a patriarchal society - and most are - that discourages women from asking questions or standing out in any way.

It has been reported that girls' lack of self-confidence directly impacts their performance in school maths and science.

This doesn't surprise me. After all, science is based on engaging with a process of trial and error. Self-confidence gives a person the freedom to allow themselves to fail, take risks and not fear getting things wrong.

Those risks are bound to increase as one climbs the ladder to become a principal investigator or group leader on a research project. Leadership and decision-making are based on both competence and self-confidence.

Women certainly don't lack the former. Employers, institutions, lab managers and colleagues all have a role to play in making work a safe space for women scientists to take risks without feeling judged.

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A far bigger battle

This is the heart of the matter. As long as scientists focus only on individual episodes of gender bias in their fields - or in any other facet of human life - not much will really change.

Science exists in a social and cultural context that prioritises men over women. While women are still undermined, discriminated against, denied access to education and paid less than men, there cannot be true equality in science.

Emanuela Carleschi, Senior Lecturer in Condensed Matter Physics, University of Johannesburg
by Lorraine Perricone - Dazzo, US Partnerships Manager at Restless Development

Let me tell you the story of Eva, a high school girl from rural Tanzania who may be leading the very first grassroots campaign inspired by the new UN Sustainable Development Goals - also know as the Global Goals.

Eva has started a petition in her village. At the launch of the campaign she said, "I would like to see safe and sustainable water for my community. I would love to see [my town] free from preventable diseases. I want to see many positive things happening to me, my family and to all of [my town] - if we use our voices together, we will be heard."

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In 2014, students from Eva's school wrote to the former Tanzanian government to ask for clean water and safe toilets at their school. They are still waiting to hear back. Continuing their effort to be heard, Eva wrote to US President Barack Obama, and this time she did hear back. In a speech made at the UN General Assembly in September 2015, President Obama endorsed her calls to action.

This inspired Eva.

She knew that at that event, world leaders from 193 nations signed a commitment to achieve the Global Goals - including Goal #6 about clean water and sanitation. Equipped with the knowledge that her nation's leader had made a promise, Eva and her town were ready to take action again. They have started organizing to get what they need. The voice of ordinary citizens will be heard.

When President Obama made that speech, I was lucky enough to be watching on a big screen, surrounded by my colleagues from all over the world. We had just said goodbye to the final guests at an event that aimed to show world leaders the vital role of young people in achieving and monitoring the Global Goals. And there was Eva - already doing it.

With her letter she had inspired the President of the United States to insist to a room full of the most powerful people in the world that the only way to achieve the Global Goals is to listen to and include young women like Eva in the process. Young people can, and will continue to, hold leaders accountable to their promises for a better world.

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Many of you may have heard statistics like 'half the world is under 30' - and some may remember that just a few years ago half the world was under 25. This is because, though we have the largest youth population ever, it won't be around for long. The world is about to pass the point where more people will be above 30 years of age than younger. The total number of young people is beginning to plateau and will eventually begin to drop in the coming decades. We are in the era of Peak Youth, which presents an opportunity that cannot be missed.

The millions of members of the Peak Youth generations - like Eva and dare I say, myself - must use our #YouthPower and secure the future. Guided by the ambition of the 17 goals - together we can work hard toward the visionary world free from poverty, climate change and inequality that we want and need.

We can do this by using the power of our numbers and by demanding to know how, when and by whom the Global Goals will be delivered. These questions can then be turned into action. Problems to solutions. Promises into reality.

Eva's campaign will hopefully inspire many more people towards this vision -of young people leading accountability for, and ultimately achieving, the Goals. My organization and I will play our part too; we are working hard to enable the power of our massive youth generation to make the Goals a reality.


Author's Note: This post is the second part of an article series of the same name. You may read the first part here.

"Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck/For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck/For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop/Here is a strange and bitter crop"

-Billie Holiday Strange Fruit

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Criminologist Katheryn K. Russell-Brown, the late Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, the late legal scholar Derrick Bell, along with numerous other social scientists and legal scholars have continually observed that the history of "racialized" laws and "racialized" law enforcement harkens back to the arrival of the first slave ship in Virginia circa 1619. As Judge A. Leon Higginbotham put it:

[T]he Constitution's references to justice, welfare and liberty were mocked by the treatment meted out daily to blacks from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries through the courts, in legislative statues, and in those provisions of the Constitution that sanctioned slavery for the majority of black Americans and allowed disparate treatment for those few blacks legally "free."

This centuries-old intersection of racial animus and the promulgation of American law represents an amalgamation of physical, behavioral, and psychological components that has led to a tragic cycle of dehumanizing black people, and subsequently justifying their deaths. In so doing, the United States has exhibited the height of its depravity, and depths of its savagery, "with slavery being its cruelest example, but a close second being [it's] infatuation with lynchings." Hence, "those who want to understand the meaning of the American experience need to remember lynching."

Lynchings in the United States represented a barbaric means to brutalize and control blacks through the machinations of state-sanctioned fear and violence; they became "a [literal] spectator sport" for thousands of Southern whites, and further reinforced the ideological underpinnings of segregation through sheer carnage. Whether performed via hangings, shootings, "burning at the stake, maiming, dismemberment, castration, and other brutal methods of physical torture," for nearly a century, lynchings amounted to public, ritualized murder welded by the crucible of racial oppression in the United States. U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves, for the Southern District of Mississippi, said as much in a speech he delivered to three young white men convicted of killing a 48-year old black man named James Craig Anderson, as they went "nigger hunting" one night in 2011. In his speech, Judge Reeves said, "Lynchings were prevalent, prominent, and participatory. A lynching was a public ritual--even carnival like--within many states in our great nation."

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Notwithstanding the terror lynchings caused, many stood in vocal opposition to them. For example, Mary Church Terrell, the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, challenged the notion lynchings were perpetrated to preserve the sanctity of white womanhood (as it was often said at the time), or to subdue black people's desires for freedom. Rather, in 1904 she published a piece which declared, "Lynching is the aftermath of slavery." Following the lynching of three of her friends--Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart--Ida B. Wells-Barnett penned a scathing critique of the white-supremacist societal order that could sanction such sadistic violence. In it, she observed, "The world looks on with wonder that we have conceded so much and remain law-abiding under such great outrage and provocation." In another speech Wells-Barnett delivered to a Chicago audience in January of 1900, entitled Lynch Law, she plainly said:

Our country's national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. It represents cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avow that there is an "unwritten law" that justifies them in putting human beings to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, and without right of appeal.

Mainly occurring in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, the threat of racialized terror loomed large for decades.

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Between the years of 1877 and 1950, Equal Justice Initiative documents 3,959 people in a dozen Southern States died at the hands of lynch mobs. The Tuskegee Institute, which maintained a database on lynching between the years of 1882 - 1968, calculated 4,749 lynching deaths, with lynchings peaking in the 1890s. Using the Equal Justice Initiative's records, that amounts to roughly one person per week dying at the hands of a lynch mob during that bloody, seventy-three year period. Using the Tuskegee Institute's records will yield a similar frequency over the span of eighty-six years. Regardless of the metric used, the number of blacks killed by police officers in the past few years are on pace to exceed those ghastly numbers. More specifically, police officers in the United States on average kill one person every eight hours. Considering The Counted's findings that these killings disproportionately impact black people, in the epidemic of police killings, we presently have an epidemic akin unto lynching.
Every governor and community college president in the country is paying close attention to Tennessee's successful free community college program. The hope is that if this can be accomplished in Tennessee, there is no reason why it can't happen nationwide.

Republican Governor Bill Haslam instituted Tennessee Promise in February 2014, making the state the first in the nation to provide free community college. The Obama Administration saw Tennessee Promise as a model that could work across the country and advocated free community college for all in January of 2015.

Governor Haslam realized how important a community college education is after traveling the state on a listening tour and asking business and industry leaders what they needed to build their workforce. What he learned was that vacancies in many industries were not being filled due to a lack of qualified workers, particularly in IT and information systems. These jobs required a post-secondary education and qualifications that the state's 13 community colleges and 27 colleges of applied technology could readily provide.

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As the former CEO of a manufacturing company, I know first-hand that companies in Indiana are facing the same shortage of workers. Ivy Tech now works with hundreds of Indiana businesses to train their future workforce. Many of our students already attend Ivy Tech for free because they are enrolled in an apprenticeship program where their employer pays their tuition and they earn while they learn.

The board of College Promise, the White House's task force, formed to move the idea of free community college forward, recently met in Tennessee to learn more about the successful practices instituted by that state.

As a board member of College Promise, I am impressed by Tennessee's initiatives. The state starts preparing students for community college while they are in high school by working with guidance counselors and letting every student know that community college is free.

At the present time, Tennessee Promise is only for students graduating high school. The state simply does not have the resources to enroll non-traditional students. High school students, who graduated in 2015, marked the first class to have free community college.

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This number of students enrolled at Tennessee's community colleges has risen dramatically. There are now 16,291 students enrolled, representing a 24.7 percent increase at community colleges and 20 percent at colleges of applied technology - formerly known as technical schools.

Tennessee has initiated a Summer Bridge Program that helps high school students, who have enrolled in community college, become more college-ready, both academically and socially.

All of these students are assigned to a volunteer mentor - often a business person from their community who can guide them through the community college admission process. There are 9,301 mentors in Tennessee.

The state is removing any financial obstacles, particularly for students who would be the first in the family to attend college and have no guidance on how to get financial aid, or students from low-income families.

In 2015, Tennessee became the highest rated state in the country for the percentage of high school seniors who completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This is vitally important. Many low-income students already receive enough aid so that their community college tuition is free. But they have no way of knowing this unless they fill out FAFSA.

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In addition, Tennessee has instituted the "last-dollar" scholarship. This works by factoring in what a student's financial aid package would be after receiving a Pell Grant and a Tennessee Hope scholarship, which is based on merit. The state fills in the last-dollar gap, which averages around $970 per student.

An interesting component of Tennessee Promise is the requirement that every student do eight hours of community service. The architects of the plan believed that this would establish a powerful connection between the student and where he studies that would be mutually beneficial.

Students are required to begin their postsecondary education in the Fall, directly following high school graduation and remain at an eligible institution for four consecutive semesters. They must enroll fulltime each semester and maintain satisfactory academic progress, which at most institutions is the equivalent of earning a 2.0 GPA each semester.

My College Promise colleagues were most interested in how Tennessee expects to pay for free community college. The funding comes from $110 million from the state's lottery reserves along with a $47 million endowment, created by the state General Assembly. I think it is imperative that states take on this initiative with their own resources, as it could take years for the federal government, despite President Obama's good intentions, to fund free community college.
By Christopher Kelly

"The Millennial Generation" is often uttered with a sneer. Generalizations and misunderstandings are rife among employers who don't know how to appeal to this tricky breed. Are they motivated only by "culture"? Do they start twitching if kept away from technology? Do they really want to work standing up?

Despite the rumors, we Millennials aren't that different from any other generation. Our environment has molded us in different ways, but our aspirations have a very familiar ring -- we're just more likely to act on our satisfaction and dissatisfaction than any other previous generation.

As Millennials now make up 53.5 million people in the American workforce, it's time you started relating to them as colleagues and friends, rather than as aliens who've invaded your office. Here are some truths about us that might help you understand us better:

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1. We were raised by Baby Boomers. Millennials were largely raised by Baby Boomers, who were raised by the World War II generation. While the Greatest Generation passed on rationing and thriftiness, Baby Boomers handed over a vision to pursue one's dreams without fear of failure and give back along the way.

For me, happiness is a life goal. This has nurtured my view of purposeful work and lifestyle -- so you can see why Millennials crave meaningful careers.

2. We're here because we want to be. While young people were once likely to constrain themselves to narrow paths to prescribed success, Millennials will move if they're unhappy. Formerly, jobs were lifetime commitments to which employees pledged loyalty in exchange for gold Rolexes and pensions. In today's on-demand economy, both sides of that paradigm have fundamentally shifted.

Millennials expect that their own personal development will be measured in days, weeks, and months -- not years. The Millennial workplace needs to feel like a university, where learning happens every day and milestones are celebrated as semesters pass. Otherwise, Millennials feel stuck and will move on to pursue challenges elsewhere.

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The best salesperson I ever hired was a former nursery school teacher. She was 24 years old and realized she needed to be in an office. She's not flaky -- she's as driven and goal-oriented as anyone I've known. Just because Millennials don't put up with conditions they don't like doesn't mean they're spoiled. And if a Millennial has chosen your company, you can bet he or she wants to be there.

Treat Millennials like volunteers, not employees. Understand that, with this new generation, the authority no longer holds the cards -- the employee does.

3. We don't have work-life separation. Previous generations had a home personality and a work personality, and they had to adapt to their surroundings. Today, technology has created an environment where this generation is the same throughout. For example, I don't wait to communicate with my employees the next morning -- I send an email from home, after hours. Likewise, I have the freedom to use some time at work for leisure or to address personal matters. I grant the same freedoms to my employees.

Millennials see work as another activity that follows them anywhere, not as merely a "place." Respect them for how much work they complete, and they're more likely to reward a job with their loyalty.

4. We look for all kinds of progress. It's not just the traditional salary promotion that tempts Millennials to work harder. It's getting happier, getting fitter, making creative progress and making a difference. Care for your Millennial counterparts by contextualizing every task you give them and make projects purpose-driven. We tell our team that the meetings we host today are the newspaper headlines tomorrow. Our employees feel like they're a cutting-edge part of the business world -- even the one who's busing tables or changing linens.

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One of our core mantras is to become 1 percent better every day, as individuals and as a company. It's an attainable, seemingly modest goal that inspires us to challenge ourselves but also amounts to transformative progress at the end of months and years.

Praise and encouragement is a kind of progress, too. Give your Millennials a vision of the growth they could make within their roles -- and help them achieve those goals with continued education.

5. We follow our dreams. Part of the reason employers like Google overtake traditional companies is that they actively acknowledge their employees' lives outside work. They know their employees want to pursue other projects that don't necessarily involve the business.

Google's 20 percent time, in which employees spend some of their working time following their pet projects (while still applying those projects to the betterment of Google), has been a landmark policy because it tells Millennials that their ideas matter. Similarly, we make sure that every employee has a hammer and is actively engaged in building and refining the business.

6. We're part of your family. I was speaking at a panel for human resources executives and they asked, "Who are these Millennials?" I reminded them that they're part of their families. As a leader, see them as you see the real people in your life: your child is a Millennial. Your little sister is a Millennial.

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And just as a family does, measure the success of your workplace by asking one simple question at the end of the day: "How was your day at work?"

To understand and successfully motivate Millennials, acknowledge that each individual is the CEO of his or her own career. The more you empower Millennials to take ownership of their time and performance, the harder they'll work, and the longer they'll stay.
By Matthew Kriner

Fears of a terrorist attack happening in the United States are at their highest since 2005. Even more surprising is the rate at which Americans seem to think we're losing the War on Terrorism.

According to a CNN/ORC poll released December 28, 2015, 80 percent of Americans do not believe the United States is winning the War on Terrorism, with 40 percent of respondents indicating that the terrorists are winning. Another 40 percent of respondents said that neither side is winning, and only a pitiful 18 percent viewed Americans as holding the upper hand in the global war on terror. Compare that to the 2006 numbers just after the highly lauded Anbar Awakening (a stratagem which shifted the fight against ISIL's predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq and is being floated today as a response to ISIL's growth and control in Iraq), when nearly the same numbers of Americans said neither side was winning, but 34 percent gave the victory to the United States and its allies, and only 20 percent said the terrorists were winning.

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At first, one would expect a surge in attacks on American soil would be the culprit, but the reality is that America is enjoying a period of relative safety from global terrorist organizations like al Qaeda. So what is it that's driving Americans to perceive their world as MORE dangerous, particularly when so many favorably view the current administration's ability to stop terrorist attacks?

Simply put, it's the media. Not just American or Western media outlets, but the media arm of ISIL itself. Each time a terrorist attack is covered in the media two things happen: the public is informed, but the terrorist organization is also given free advertising. From airline hijacking by the PLO, and al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine, to ISIL's Twitter accounts, terrorist groups have capitalized on the ever encroaching news cycle. Much discussion has gone into whether this is an acceptable side effect of the free press, but without doubt one could say that ISIL has become a veritable master manipulator of this byproduct of a free society.

Having nearly perfected the attention-grabbing terror spectacular we've grown uncomfortably used to seeing in the media, ISIL has ramped up its propaganda machine to the point that even a casual observer would assume that it has dramatically expanded its territorial claims. However, the organization has lost roughly 14% of its controlled lands in the last year, is currently facing a 20-30 percent fighter return rate, and just recently ceded Ramadi back to Iraqi forces. Not exactly a formula for success.

Consider another factor - the political rhetoric bordering on xenophobia in the 2016 Presidential race. Candidates such as Donald Trump have staked an impossible-to-flank position on combatting terrorism by suggesting a ban on Muslims entering the United States, claiming that Muslims danced and cheered in New Jersey on 9/11, and adopting an attitude of machismo which has driven other candidates in the field toward more extreme rhetoric. Take for instance this line by Senator Ted Cruz from a December 5 speech at Rising Tide Summit, an event with significant conservative and Tea Party connections: "[W]e will utterly destroy ISIS. We will carpet bomb them into oblivion. I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out."

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Blustery bravado like this will invariably paint the picture that ISIL is as potentially destructive as the Third Reich, particularly when it's paired with the terror spectacular media coverage surrounding the self-declared caliphate. The simple fact is that ISIL presents a low direct operational threat to the American homeland, and we have whipped ourselves into a paranoid frenzy concerning its capabilities and growth. Thus, the resurgent fears of a major (or even minor) terrorist attack, with direct operational connections to ISIL core, occurring in the United States following the events in Paris and San Bernardino are all too understandable. People desire strength in the face of existential threats, and that's precisely how both ISIL has portrayed itself to the West, and how Western leaders have portrayed ISIL to their citizens. But it is not an existential threat to the United States of America. And while we shouldn't be surprised that 80 percent of Americans either think we're losing the war on terror or that neither side is winning, we also shouldn't accept the rabble rousing narratives of fear mongers. To do so would give terrorist propaganda legitimacy, and ultimately make winning the war on terrorism impossible.
Dynamic Graphics,2007 via Getty Images A burglar opening a safe that is a computer screen

Last Tuesday, militant organisation Al-Qaeda hacked the Indian Railways' website to display its cyber prowess, as per news reports. They hacked the page of Bhusawal division of Personnel Department of the Central Railway and left a message for Indian Muslims.

However, this is not the first incident in recent times that a website of a prominent Indian organisation or authority has been compromised. Hackers from all over the world have bypassed the securities of several governmental websites. As the Indian government pushes the 'Digital India' initiative, it should be vary of cyber threats from all around the world.

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Here's a look at some of the websites that have been targeted by hackers in recent times:

1. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

Indian Telecom regulator TRAI's website was hackedsoon after it released millions of email IDs which were used to send the response to a consultation paper last April. Famous hacker group Anonymus' India wing was behind this and they claimed the responsibility on twitter as well.

2. Indian Army

In April 2015, the army's Principal Comptroller of Defence Accounts Officers (PCDAO) website was reportedly hacked in April 2015. It has personal and financial information of army personnel. Many officers were unable to access their salary information.

3. Various University website hacks

In February, JNU's library website was compromised to warn the 'anti-nationals' and 'Traitors'. The official website of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) was also hacked in the month of January and an FIR was filed by the officials to investigate the hack.

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4. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Indian Space Research Organization's marketing arm Antrix saw its website hacked in July 2015. Users were redirected to a buying portal while trying to access the website. Later on, there was a 404 error on the web page. No organization or hacker took responsibility but Chinese hackers were

5. Kerala Government website

Last year in September, Pakistani hackers took down the Kerala government website and replaced its page with "Pakistan Zindabad" and "Security is just an illusion". Hackers also displayed their names and said, "We are an army of Pakistani hackers". In response, Indian hackers took down 120 Pak websites. Similar incident happened when hackers took down Indian Revenue Services (IRS) website.

6. Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI)

Pakistani hackers have been targeting Indian cyberspace since a long time. In December 2010, they attacked the intelligence agency CBI's website. The 'Pakistani Cyber Army' also left a message about filtering controls of National Informatics Center (NIC).

Even after taking security measures, a lot of websites of authorities are getting hacked. And it is not just them, even the website of consumer companies in India are being hacked and the danger of user data getting out is always lurking. Recently it was found that the website of world's cheapest phone was a security nightmare. Earlier, there have been incidents such as Ola Cabs and Microsoft India hacks have taken place.

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While launching Digital India PM Narendra Modi said, "The world is terrified by this (cyberwarfare) India has a big role to play in this. India has talent. India can provide a shield to the world by providing innovative and credible solutions. We should accept this challenge to ensure that the entire world lives in peace". We have to wait and see how much of this is implemented in the future.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS A Freedom 251 smartphone, which is to be priced at Indian Rupees 251 or USD 3.6 approximately, is shown during its release by an official of Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

Advanced Computer (Adcom), the company that made the phones being marketed as Freedom 251, has distanced itself from the controversy saying it had no idea that the phone will be used as a prototype for the Freedom 251, touted as the world's cheapest smartphone.

In a press release, the founder and the chairman of the company Sanjeev Bhatia has clarified that Adcom is not involved in prototyping or production of the phone.

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Last month Freedom 251 was launched formally and review units were sent to the media. Those phones had a white paint coating above the screen. And once that coating peeled off it showed the Adcom logo. Upon asking Ringing Bells that rebranding the phones can be a potential lawsuit, co-founder Ashok Chaddha said "Sanjiv Bhatia, the Director of ADCOM, would confirm the true version" of events.

"We sold the Adcom phones at 3600 to Ringing Bells as we sell it to any customer. We had no idea that the phone will be used as a prototype for Freedom 251 and would be distributed in media. If this tarnishes our image we will take legal action against Ringing Bells," Bhatia said.

"Touted to be the biggest scam of the millennium, Freedom 251, had recently announced that it would give out 25 lakh handsets in the first phase before June this year. Ensued by such unrealistic price rates and naive pronouncements, the parent company Ringing Bells was not only accused of running a disgraceful ploy, but has also relabeled our brand ADCOM. To clear the air around, I would like to underline few facts pertaining to case, as this scam exhibits the potential of maligning our brand name ADCOM which is our trademark since 2001," he said.

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"Yes, it is true that, although we sold the handsets to Ringing Bells earlier, like we sell ADCOM mobiles to lacs of users; we were absolutely unaware of the reselling plans of the company in question. Furthermore, we still havent been able to evaluate their pricing policy, as we sold the handsets at Rs. 3, 600 per unit. We are deeply grieved by this incident where our mobile phone has been presented to masses for Rs. 251, and therefore, would not hesitate from taking any legal actions against the company, in case the entire fiasco impacts ADCOMs brand name or subsequently we face any other kind of losses. We would also like to assert that ADCOM is in no way connected or linked with Ringing Bells or Freedom 251 and bears no responsibility what so ever, in the whole swindle and regret the inconvenience caused to our valued customers from all over the country," he added.

Last week, early freedom 251 customers who had made an online payment started getting refunds. The company said it is going to switch to cash-on-delivery model only. In another controversy, the Ringing Bells' Noida office was shut down in the case of the premise being illegal. Meanwhile, the government of India has also distanced itself from the phone. We have reached out to Ringing Bells for the comment.

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Bartosz Hadyniak via Getty Images Young Indian woman in desert village

NEW DELHI -- Over the past year, the Supreme Court has countered traditions and practices which have stigmatized and isolated Indian women for centuries, and rendered them socially as well as economically weaker citizens.

A lot of work even needs to be done before women can feel that they are equal members of society - in theory and practice, but judgments towards that end are coming fast and furious.

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On Women's Right Day, 2016, here are eight judgments which aim to empower Indian women in their personal and professional lives.

It was pointed out that inspite of guarantee of the Constitution, Muslim women are subjected to discrimination.

Sole Legal Guardian

The Supreme Court ruled that an unwed mother in India can become the sole legal guardian of a child without the consent of the father, and she is no longer required to disclose the father's name.

Inalienable Right To Stridhan

The Supreme Court ruled that a woman can claim her stridhan back from her husband and his family members even if they are not divorced. In other words, a woman can claim her stridhan even after separation from her husband.

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Head Of The Family

The Delhi High Court has ruled the eldest female member of a family can be its Karta, a position which was only reserved for the eldest male. In other words, women can now be the legal head of their households.

"If a male member of a Hindu Undivided Family, by virtue of his being the first born eldest, can be a Karta, so can a female member," it said.

Right To Dance

The Supreme Court ruled that dance bars in Maharashtra would remain open, and stayed the law which banned dance performances in bars, hotels and restaurants in Maharashtra, rendering thousands of women unemployed.

In The Navy, Now

The Delhi High Court ruled for women to be granted permanent commission in the Navy, ensuring that women naval officers enjoyed rights similar to their counterparts in the Army and the Air Force.

No Compromise In Rape

The Supreme Court has ruled that there can be no mediation and no compromise can be reached with the culprit in cases of rape or attempt to rape.

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Any kind of liberal approach has to be put in the compartment of spectacular error.

Live-In Relationships Recognized

The Supreme Court ruled that an unmarried couple living together for a long time would be presumed to be legally married, and a woman would be eligible to inherit her partner's property.

Money For Acid Attack Survivors

The Supreme Court ruled that acid attack survivors should be included in the disability list, and any compensation over the minimal Rs. 3 Lakh would also be paid by state governments.

Rights Of Muslim Women

The Supreme Court asked that a Public Interest Litigation be registered to examine whether "discrimination" suffered by women under Islamic laws violates fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian Constitution and international conventions.

The Supreme Court also called for a reassessment of the Muslim Women Act, 1986, which requires a Muslim man to pay maintenance only for the period of iddat (three menstrual cycles or three months after divorce). India's Criminal Procedure Code, which applies to all citizens, provides maintenance to divorced women for their lifetime with the exception of remarriage.

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daboost via Getty Images Mixed India and Pakistan flag, three dimensional render, illustration

The 87 Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen freed by Pakistan, who were stranded for more than 30 hours at the Wagah border, were today allowed to cross into their homeland after all legal formalities were completed.

"Today we have handed over 87 Indian nationals mostly fishermen to BSF India," Pakistan Rangers spokesman Muhammad Asif told PTI adding the Indians were handed over after meeting the legal requirements.

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Owing to lack of coordination between the Pakistan Rangers and Foreign Ministry, the Indian nationals who were released from the Landhi Jail, Karachi on March 6 could not be handed over to the Indian authorities.

They remained stranded at the Wagah border yesterday as the Rangers said "the Indian officials concerned did not turn up (at Wagah)".

Earlier, Pakistan Rangers official Major Waheed said that all arrangements to hand over the released prisoners to the Indian authorities were made but none of India's foreign ministry officials reached Wagah to sign the documents to hand over the prisoners.

After the release of the 87 prisoners, another 457 Indians remain in jail in Karachi and most of them are fishermen arrested for territorial violation.

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Landhi Jail deputy superintendent Shakir Shah said the 87 Indians had been in jail for more than two years.

They had completed their sentences and were freed after verification of their travel documents sent by the Indian authorities.

Both Indian and Pakistani fishermen are often arrested for illegal fishing since the Arabian Sea border is not clearly defined and many boats lack the technology to fix their precise location.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Indian Air Force (IAF) cadets march during their passing out ceremony at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013. A total of 202 personnel including 37 women graduated as flight cadets on Saturday from the academy reputed to be the premier training institution of IAF, a press release said. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

An announcement by Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on International Women's Day will pave the way for hundreds of Indian women in years to come to realize their ambition in male-dominated work spaces. The first batch of women fighter pilots, three cadets who are currently in training, will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on June 18.

Raha said three women trainee officers have volunteered for combat role.

"We inducted women as pilots in 1991, but on only helicopter and transport (planes). I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved the IAF's proposal to induct women as fighter pilots. Very soon...on June 18, the Air Force will get women fighter pilots.

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"As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training...they are on par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18," Raha said.

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Women in Armed Medical Corps' organised to mark International Women's Day, which was also attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. The Defence Ministry had cleared the proposal of inducting women as fighter pilots in October last year.

Parrikar lauded Raha's insistence to push forward the proposal to induct women as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force.

"Though I approved and support the proposal, it was he who was consistently pushing the file to the MoD (Ministry of Defence) level. I congratulate you for initiating the seminar which will go a long way in deciding the role of women in uniform and not only in the Armed Medical Corps," Parrikar said.

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Three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream, they are under training: IAF Chief Arup Raha pic.twitter.com/faHHtMMePM  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

They are doing reasonably well.Passing out parade is scheduled on 18th June. We feel all 3 will get commissioned in fighter stream-IAF Chief  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

In October 2015, at a function celebrating the Indian Air Force's (IAF) 83rd anniversary, Raha had announced that the IAF was planning to induct women as fighter pilots.

Asserting that all the three trainees should get commissioned on that day and become the first women officers in the fighter stream, Raha told ANI that subsequently they would go to the advanced jet training, and later proceed to the regular squads.

"I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved IAF's proposal to induct women as fighter pilots, and this year, the Indian Air Force will get its first woman fighter pilot," Raha said.

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Raha had suffered severe criticism in March 2014, when he had issues with employing women in the IAF. According to The Times of India, Raha had said, "As far as flying fighter planes is concerned, it's a very challenging job. Women are by nature not physically suited for flying fighters for long hours, especially when they are pregnant or have other health problems.''

Even former Defence Minister AK Antony had said, "As a society, we are not ready for our women in combat roles. What if they are taken as PoWs (prisoner of war)?" But now, the Air Chief Marshal seems elated by the developments in the IAF.

As of 2015, the headcount of women in the armed forces was just over 3,300, including 1,300 in the air force, according to the Hindustan Times.

India's air force currently has women serving in seven areas  administration, logistics, meteorology, navigation, education, aeronautical engineering and accounts.

Apart from India, women fly fighter jets in several nations across the globe, including countries like the United States, France and Israel. (Inputs from PTI)

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NEW DELHI -- Search giant Google on March 8 celebrated the International Women's Day with its doodle that features real women rather than animated characters.

Google has started a campaign named #OneDayIWill to empower women across the globe and it is promoted by a video, which was produced after meeting 337 women from 13 different countries across the world.

Creators of the doodle Lydia Nichols, Helena Leroux and Liat Ben-Rafael have tried to get together the aspiration of women around the globe and bring them in limelight so as to inspire the next generation.

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The video also features British primatologist Jane Goodall, Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and activist Muzoon Almellehan.

It even gives an option for women to share their #OneDayIWill experience and celebrate International Women's Day with Google.

After the video the viewer is directed to the Google search page for International Women's Day showcasing various web pages sharing knowledge over the same.

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Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 6: Historian Romila Thapar and Harbans Mukhia with JNU students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Campus on March 6, 2016 in New Delhi, India. Thapar said that it will be difficult for the government to 'control' the thinking process unless it turns into a totally 'anti-democratic dictatorship'. She told 'JNU is not likely to suffer a setback as there is much intellectual support for it in the country. There are other universities too that discuss a range of ideas as are discussed in the JNU. The existence of a varsity is intended for that to discuss ideas of every kind.' (Photo by Sushil Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday sought security for JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in view of two "rewards" announced by two persons on his life and for chopping off his tongue, after which the government said adequate protection will be provided to him.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, the senior Congress leader said one Adarsh Sharma of Purvanchal Sena had put up posters announcing reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who kills Kanhiaya Kumar.

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Azad also said Kuldeep Varshnay, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, had also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for cutting off Kumar's tongue.

"Provide security to Kanhaiya Kumar. His life is in danger," he said.

He said first fake videos were circulated against the student leader and then he was booked under charges of sedation.

"When he is out on bail, there is conspiracy to kill him," the Congress leader said.

He also sought strict action against those who made fake videos related to Kanhaiya Kumar.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said adequate security will be given to Kanhaiya Kumar.

He also said BJP took immediate action Varshnay and legal action too would be taken.

Regarding the alleged fake videos, Naqvi said investigation was on.

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STR via Getty Images Nalini Sriharan (C), who was convicted in the assassination case of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, attends the cremation of her father Sankara Narayan in Chennai on February 24, 2016. Gandhi was killed in a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in 1991. AFP PHOTO / AFP / STR (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)

CHENNAI -- Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was today granted one-day parole by the Madras High Court for attending the 16th day obsequies of her father, who died last month.

She had filed a petition seeking three days leave from today for attending the obsequies of her father, who passed away last month.

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The 16th day obsequies of her father are scheduled to be held at Kottur here tomorrow, she submitted.

Justice R Mala, before whom the plea came up, granted her 24-hour parole starting from today at 4 PM to 4 PM tomorrow.

The judge said she should be under police escort and be brought back to prison by 4 PM tomorrow.

In her petition, Nalini submitted that she had made a representation on March 2 to the Superintendent of Special Prison for Women in Vellore, where she is lodged, seeking three days leave but the official had not responded.

She said she was granted parole for 12 hours on February 24 to attend the cremation of her father Sankaranarayanan.

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Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.

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Hutchinson's Orscheln Farm store has become a Bomgaars location

The Hutchinson store was one of 73 the FTC said Tractor Supply could not own due to anti-trust concerns. Transition to new store could take 15 months.
"We need to talk about insurance the way we want to hear about it," says insurance educator
The worlds largest independent provider of claims management solutions has set up a cyber incident response platform for the clients of global insurer Chubb Crawford and Company has launched a new partnership with Chubb, whose clients will receive a single point of contact and a 24/7 incident response platform to report cyber incidents.Crawford said its incident managers will help policyholders navigate through the complexities of a cyber incident from start to finish, offering access to a global network of crisis management service providers.The new platform will be available to current and future policyholders who purchase cyber cover through Chubb in Europe. It is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of international and domestic organizations across Europe, including both larger and middle-market companies in Continental Europe, the UK and Ireland.The outputs of our cyber network solution are clear: to minimise the impact of a cyber-related event on Chubb customers business operations and brand reputation, said Douglas Mower, Crawford vice president and innovation director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.Tim Stapleton, vice president and cyber insurance product manager, overseas general insurance at Chubb, noted that cyber incidents develop quickly and have a number of complex moving parts.It is crucial that our insureds have immediate access to a provider that can help them take control of the situation and respond accordingly. This is a global solution with a local feel, Stapleton.
Health insurance plans sold through the online exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act will now carry ratings based on the size of networks included.According to changes published Tuesday in the Federal Register, insurance carriers will be allowed to sell health plans with narrow provider networks, but will be labeled as such on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange. Maximum out-of-pocket costs for consumers under the ACA will also increase next year to $7,150 for an individual and $14,300 for families.The announcement comes amid consumer complaints over the limited choice of doctors and hospitals included in exchange plans  networks that were narrowed even further by some insurers in an attempt to control costs.Yet these plans continue to sell as cost-conscious consumers elect low premiums over a greater choice of healthcare providers.The changes should make it easier for these consumers and assisting insurance agents to reliably determine the size of a plans provider network and to compare it to that of other plans in the same geographic area. Previously, agents could only determine whether policies covered a specific doctor.This could be really helpful for a lot of consumers, Sabrina Corlette, a consumer advocate and professor at the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University, told the New York Times.Narrow insurance plans have come under fire from insurance regulators, consumer groups and healthcare providers since their growth in popularity under the ACA. The National Association of Insurance Commissioner released a model law last year that would require insurers to include enough healthcare providers for consumers to get the services they require without unreasonable travel or delay.The American College of Emergency Physicians has also spoken out against the narrowness of insurance plans.According to a new poll from the group, seven in 10 emergency physicians say their patients have delayed medical care because of excessive out-of-pocket expenses, high deductibles and high co-insurance payments. In addition, 73% of respondents say narrow networks allowed by insurers have caused disruption in necessary care, and another 67% say primary care physicians are sending patients to emergency departments to receive medical tests or procedures when health insurers refuse to cover them in an office setting.Rural parts of the country are especially in danger of having few policy options with access to wide coverage. One study suggested that as many as 83% of plans offered in Georgia include narrow networks, and another study from Harvard suggested that 15% of plans offered through the federal marketplace did not include any doctors for at least one critical specialty.Insurers, however, have argued that narrow networks allow consumers to save money in an environment of increasing costs. The latest rules from the White House have preserved that option.
Celeste Harp is leading the program to make Berkshire County an 'age-friendly community.'

Program Aims to Make Berkshires 'Age-Friendly'

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Between 40 percent and 50 percent of the population in most towns in Berkshire County is older than the age of 50.



And if 50 is the new 30, and middle age is now considered 60, then half of the population has a lot of living left to do.

That's why the Berkshires have joined an effort to be an "Age-Friendly Community," defined as "a way to help older adults remain healthy, active and engaged in their community as long as possible." Internationally, the World Health Organization defines and supports age-friendly communities, while in the United States the AARP fills that role.



Locally, the Berkshires have Celeste Harp, an energetic and passionate advocate of growing old gracefully. In late 2015, Harp was named program manager for the Berkshire County Age-Friendly Community effort, a five-year program funded by a grant from Tufts Health Plan Foundation. As she has settled into the role and began making connections, she already has brainstormed ideas like forums on March 31 and April 1 on helping seniors "age in place" in their homes (call 413-442-1521, Ext. 37) as well as an upcoming "senior speed dating" event for adults 70 and older to meet a new friend or companion (call 413-442-0907).



"This is about a cultural change of how we view aging," Harp said. "Why does your life end (with the death of a spouse)? Life goes on. It should be full and positive."



As such, there are "eight domains of livability" that have been targeted for the focus of the program: outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; housing; social participation; respect and social inclusion; civic participation and employment; communication and information; and community support and health services. A task force has been created with subcommittees to research each "domain" and develop recommendations.



These committees are not starting without a solid foundation. Harp said Berkshire County is well poised to develop such a plan because of the "stunning" beauty of the area, a good cost of living and plenty of cultural opportunities.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, right, with DEC Commissioner Alyssa Schuren and hazmat specialist Richard Spiese at the former ChemFab in North Bennington. Spiese explains the surface water situation to the governor during a brief tour of affected areas. The governor, joined by state Sens. Brian Campion and Dick Sears, left, assured Pembroke Landscaping owner Ron Pembroke that the state would be testing the Walloomsac River that runs behind his property. The former ChemFab building is believed to be the source of the water contamination. Shumlin addresses North Bennington residents at a forum at Bennington College. Sen. Dick Sears explains how the investigation began with an email. PreviousNext

Shumlin: North Bennington Will Be Made 'Whole Again'

NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt.  Gov. Peter Shumlin assured residents of North Bennington on Tuesday that the state would do everything possible to address its "horrid situation"  including putting pressure on the company responsible for its contaminated water.



Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics has been identified as the source for the perfluorooctanoic (PFOA) found in the municipal water of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and is believed to be responsible for the same toxin found in private wells in North Bennington.



"We're going to require the company to make us whole again and do everything that we can to hold them accountable for getting us in this mess," Shumlin told more than 100 residents who packed into the Elizabeth Coleman Center at Bennington College on Tuesday morning.



Frequently stating "we're all in this together," the governor vowed that "my team is going to work together with you to get answers."



The state Department of Environmental Conservation is in the process of testing wells within a 1.5-mile radius of the former ChemFab on Water Street, which Saint-Gobain operated until relocating in 2002. Some 135 samples have been tested so far and DEC Commissioner Alyssa Schuren said surface water and soil testing will begin this week.



Soil and surface water testing at sites such as the Walloomsac and Paran will help determine if the contamination is ground based or airborne (through rain). If samples on the edge of the radius test positive, the circle will be expanded.

Residents with questions or information about the North Bennington water situation can call 802-828-1038 between 8 and 4:30 weekdays; an incident command is also being set up by DEC to better disseminate information.



According to an initial post from the governor's office, a wastewater treatment plant well has shown PFOA levels of 618 parts per trillion and a business well showed levels of 168 ppt. Results from three residential wells showed a range of 40 parts per trillion to 2,880 parts per trillion.



Vermont's standard level of PFOA is 20 parts per trillion.



A caravan of regional news media followed the governor, Schuren and Bennington County's state Sens. Dick Sears and Brian Campion on a brief tour of North Bennington. The group stopped outside the former ChemFab on the Route 67 curve into the aptly named Water Street, then went to Pembroke Landscaping to speak with owner Ron Pembroke.



Shumlin and his team stressed that the priority right now is to address the current water situation. Saint-Gobain has been providing bottled water and filters for affected residents; water buffaloes have also been brought in for use.



The most comprehensive way to deal with the issue would be to extend the main water line from Bennington into the village. Schuren said capacity does appear to be an issue but pressure might be.



"We're continuing to have conversations with the town to see if we can get that line extended, ideally at no cost to North Bennington," she said. "That's one of the things we're pushing the company into doing."



Sears, a village resident, said, "North Bennington would appreciate no cost. ... As a taxpayer, I really appreciate it."



Saint-Gobain has reportedly reached out to the town's engineer, Otter Creek Engineering of Middlebury, to begin design and engineering studies along that line.



The next phase, Shumlin said, will be to look at any long-term effects and any other parties who may be responsible.



Shumlin said he wanted the effort to be as transparent and inclusive as possible. Several residents at the community forum thanked the governor for his efforts and applauded him at the forum's conclusion.



Officials are urging any residents who may have worked at the plant or know of other issues to let them know immediately. At least one team was in Pownal on Tuesday investigating whether ChemFab had deposited materials in that town's landfill based on a tip.



With Shumlin planning to leave office at the year, North Bennington residents were looking for assurances they would not be forgotten in the long run.



"We're expecting pushback," said Sandy Sumner, who owns the second well that tested positive for PFOA. "Is there anyway you can give us some guarantee then when the pushback does come, the state is prepared to see this through ... possibly for years to come?"



Shumlin said urged residents to press the candidates for governor on the issue.



"We know Montpelier can sometimes forget this side of the state," said the Brattleboro native.



"I'm not running for election ... but you've got legislators who are, a state that cares and other governors that care," he continued. "Let's first find out how deep it is and how it got there and work out the details with the company to hold them accountable."
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We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
Press Release: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2015 Article IV Consultation with Montenegro

Press Release No. 16/95

March 8, 2016

On February 19, 2016 the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Montenegro.1

Montenegros economy has rebounded in the past year, and strong growth looks set to continue in 2016, at just over 4 percent. The medium-term outlook is boosted by the construction of the Bar-Boljare highway. The government intends to pursue other fiscal incentives and public infrastructure projects to promote economic development and connectivity. However, although the governments growth strategy can bring substantial gains, it also carries sizable risks, notably to the public finances. Montenegro also remains vulnerable to fluctuations in external demand and global financial conditions.

Recent fiscal measures that reduce revenues and ease restraints on current spending add to budget pressures from the highway. Even with relatively high growth, staff projects deficits of around 8 percent of GDP over the next three years, contributing to substantial financing needs. During that time, gross public debt is expected to reach 80 percent of GDP, from 66 percent in 2015.

Increased growth should gradually boost bank profitability and allow lending conditions to ease further. Yet low provisioning and weak asset quality remain concerns, and could hold back credit growth if not properly dealt with.

With shrinking fiscal buffers, and because the economy lacks control over its own currency, the ability to absorb shocks depends crucially on the flexibility and competitiveness of the real economy. Low labor productivity and employment hold back potential growth. In this context, the process of aligning labor laws with those of the EU provides an opportunity to improve the flexibility of labor market outcomes, boost participation rates, and reduce informality.

Executive Board Assessment2

Executive Directors welcomed Montenegros strong growth performance and the favorable outlook. However, they noted that the heavy reliance on large infrastructure projects to support growth also poses risks to fiscal and external sustainability. Accordingly, Directors emphasized the need for sound macroeconomic policies to address these risks. They also encouraged the authorities to reduce financial sector vulnerabilities and to implement structural reforms to boost potential growth and increase resilience.

Directors welcomed the authorities commitment to address vulnerabilities and looked forward to the preparation of a credible fiscal consolidation plan. They underscored the need for immediate and durable consolidation measures to maintain sustainability, contain risks, and preserve market access. In this context, they observed that new pension provisions and social allowances, planned public wage hikes, and strategic tax incentives would add to budget pressures. They called for measures to contain the public sector wage bill, improve the sustainability of the pension system, and strengthen revenue collection to reduce the public debt to GDP ratio to 60 percent of GDP over the medium term. Directors suggested that these policy measures be complemented with a stronger fiscal framework, including detailed medium-term plans and public financial management reform.

Directors noted that the financial system is largely stable, and that bank capitalization and liquidity appear adequate in general. However, the still high level of non-performing loans, low provisioning and bank profitability, and weak asset quality are sources of vulnerability. Directors recommended that policy recommendations from the Financial Sector Assessment Program be implemented to address these vulnerabilities. In particular, Directors noted the need for an independent asset quality review of banks and measures to enhance emergency liquidity assistance. They also recommended that steps be taken to enhance the regulatory, supervisory and resolution frameworks, and to develop the macro-prudential framework.

Directors emphasized that structural reforms should help boost potential growth and competitiveness. Specifically, they noted the need to improve labor market flexibility and the investment environment, and to reduce non-wage disincentives to employment.

Montenegro: Selected Economic Indicators 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Proj. Proj. Output, prices and labor market (percent change, unless otherwise noted) Real GDP (percent change) 3.2 -2.7 3.5 1.8 4.1 4.6 Nominal GDP (in millions of euro) 3,265 3,181 3,362 3,458 3,641 3,840 Industrial production -10.3 -7.1 10.6 -11.5 13.7 ... Tourism (Overnight stays) 10.2 4.3 2.8 1.5 15.6 ... Unemployment rate (in percent) 1/ 19.7 19.7 19.5 18.0 -- -- Consumer prices (average) 3.1 3.6 2.2 -0.7 1.6 0.9 Consumer prices (end of period) 2.8 5.1 0.3 -0.3 1.4 1.4 General government finances (percent of GDP) 2/ Revenue and grants 38.5 39.9 41.3 43.5 40.6 42.2 Expenditure 45.3 45.7 47.6 46.1 48.0 51.4 Fiscal balance -6.7 -5.8 -6.3 -2.6 -7.4 -9.2 Primary fiscal balance -5.3 -4.0 -4.2 -0.3 -4.9 -6.8 General government gross debt 45.6 53.4 55.2 59.9 66.5 70.5 Monetary sector (end-period, percent change) Bank credit to private sector -13.0 -3.1 2.1 -0.4 2.3 2.7 Enterprises -20.3 -4.9 0.4 -2.8 2.2 ... Households -3.2 -1.1 3.7 1.7 2.7 ... Private sector deposits 1.2 7.2 1.3 6.1 9.0 ... Balance of payments (percent of GDP, unless otherwise noted) Current account balance -17.6 -18.5 -14.5 -15.2 -13.3 -18.6 Exports of goods and services 42.3 43.7 41.3 40.1 41.8 39.8 Imports of goods and services -64.3 -68.1 -61.4 -60.0 -59.7 -63.0 Foreign direct investment 11.9 14.5 9.6 10.2 15.7 12.0 External debt 3/ 145.0 155.9 151.5 154.8 152.1 154.8 REER (CPI-based; average change, in percent; -3.2 3.2 0.8 -2.0   + indicates appreciation) Sources: Montenegro authorities; and IMF staff estimates and projections 1/ Labor Force Survey (LFS) data. 2/ Includes extra-budgetary funds and local governments, but not public enterprises. 3/ Staff estimates, as private debt statistics are not officially published.

Montenegro: Selected Economic Indicators 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Proj. Proj. Output, prices and labor market (percent change, unless otherwise noted) Real GDP (percent change) 3.2 -2.7 3.5 1.8 4.1 4.6 Nominal GDP (in millions of euro) 3,265 3,181 3,362 3,458 3,641 3,840 Industrial production -10.3 -7.1 10.6 -11.5 13.7 ... Tourism (Overnight stays) 10.2 4.3 2.8 1.5 15.6 ... Unemployment rate (in percent) 1/ 19.7 19.7 19.5 18.0 -- -- Consumer prices (average) 3.1 3.6 2.2 -0.7 1.6 0.9 Consumer prices (end of period) 2.8 5.1 0.3 -0.3 1.4 1.4 General government finances (percent of GDP) 2/ Revenue and grants 38.5 39.9 41.3 43.5 40.6 42.2 Expenditure 45.3 45.7 47.6 46.1 48.0 51.4 Fiscal balance -6.7 -5.8 -6.3 -2.6 -7.4 -9.2 Primary fiscal balance -5.3 -4.0 -4.2 -0.3 -4.9 -6.8 General government gross debt 45.6 53.4 55.2 59.9 66.5 70.5 Monetary sector (end-period, percent change) Bank credit to private sector -13.0 -3.1 2.1 -0.4 2.3 2.7 Enterprises -20.3 -4.9 0.4 -2.8 2.2 ... Households -3.2 -1.1 3.7 1.7 2.7 ... Private sector deposits 1.2 7.2 1.3 6.1 9.0 ... Balance of payments (percent of GDP, unless otherwise noted) Current account balance -17.6 -18.5 -14.5 -15.2 -13.3 -18.6 Exports of goods and services 42.3 43.7 41.3 40.1 41.8 39.8 Imports of goods and services -64.3 -68.1 -61.4 -60.0 -59.7 -63.0 Foreign direct investment 11.9 14.5 9.6 10.2 15.7 12.0 External debt 3/ 145.0 155.9 151.5 154.8 152.1 154.8 REER (CPI-based; average change, in percent; -3.2 3.2 0.8 -2.0   + indicates appreciation) Sources: Montenegro authorities; and IMF staff estimates and projections 1/ Labor Force Survey (LFS) data. 2/ Includes extra-budgetary funds and local governments, but not public enterprises. 3/ Staff estimates, as private debt statistics are not officially published. 1 Under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country's economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board. 2 At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chairman of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities. An explanation of any qualifiers used in summings up can be found here: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/misc/qualifiers.htm.






Imperial Valley News Center

FSIS Issues Public Health Alert For Imported Chicken Product Foreign Matter Contamination

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert to notify the public of a recall conducted by Maxi Canada, Inc., a Quebec, Canada, establishment, involving approximately 103,752 pounds of chicken product that may be contaminated with metal pieces. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) notified FSIS of the recall, which affected products exported to the United States.

The chicken nugget item was produced in July 2015, and was imported to the United States between July 30, 2015 and March 5, 2016. The products subject to the public health alert include the following:

38-oz (2.975-lb) boxes of Yummy brand fully cooked CHICKEN BREAST NUGGETS | 100% All Natural* | Nugget-Shaped Chicken Breast Patty Fritters with rib meat PRODUCT OF CANADA with a BEST IF USED BY date of 07/17/17.

The products bear establishment number Canada Est. 348 and UPC number 064563225782. This item was shipped to retail locations in the United States nationwide and can be found at retailers such as Kroger, Wal-Mart, and Safeway.

The problem was discovered when a consumer from the United States complained to Maxi Canada, Inc. of a foreign object in the product. Maxi Canada, Inc. initiated a recall on March 5, 2016, and CFIA subsequently notified FSIS.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness potentially associated with the recalled product should contact a health care provider.

Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.
Imperial Valley News Center

Browsing in Public

Cambridge, Massachusetts - Researchers at MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a new system that allows Web users to share self-selected aspects of their online activity with their friends and the general public. The hope is to give users themselves, as well as academics and other scientists conducting research in the public interest, access to the same type of browsing data that big Web companies currently collect and mine to better target products to individual consumers.

The researchers also hope that systems like theirs could encourage changes in the regulatory environment that would give Web users more control over which of their data are collected and how theyre used.

They describe the new system, which theyve dubbed Eyebrowse, in a paper presented last week at the Association for Computing Machinerys conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, in San Francisco. The paper also describes the results of a survey of potential end users, which helped guide the systems design, and of a field trial of the system. The findings suggest that Web users could, indeed, find it worth their while to share data about their online activities.

We thought of a pretty long list of specific applications of this data that were useful to the end user, says David Karger, an MIT professor of electrical engineering whose group began developing the system in 2010. Awareness of where your friends are, the ability to run into them, the ability to go somewhere and discover that they were there before, and you may want to talk to them about this thing that you both saw. Theres the ability to discover whats popular, in a very broad way. Theres collaborative filtering.

Then theres global analytics, Karger continues. Google has this interesting 50,000-foot view of the Internet, because they know all the clicks. Most people dont. There are lots of interesting questions about social dynamics. What are Democrats reading? You cant answer that question right now. There are things that the population as a whole would be interested in knowing, and also things that scholars would be interested in knowing.

The trackers dont give us a choice about what gets tracked, he adds. And Id really like to demonstrate that giving people a choice has positive benefits. And maybe someday that will turn into legislation that says that people have the right to decide whether they get tracked or not, in certain circumstances. If people do buy into voluntary tracking, then maybe we dont need involuntary tracking, and that would be pretty wonderful.

But of course, it only works if people want to do it. So a lot of this paper was about understanding whether and how people want to do this.

Managed browsing

For the past year and half, the lead researcher on the Eyebrowse project has been Amy Zhang, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science and first author on the new paper. Shes joined by Karger, who is her thesis advisor, and by Joshua Blum, who received his masters in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT this year.

Eyebrowse currently consists of two components: a website and an extension to Googles Chrome Web browser. Installing the extension involves two mouse clicks and takes seconds. Thereafter, anytime the user visits a Web page, clicking the Eyebrowse icon on the browser task bar will pull down a window offering an array of features.

One is the opportunity to add the sites domain name to the users whitelist. As long as the Eyebrowse extension is turned on, the system will record the users visits to pages on whitelisted sites. But the pull-down window also features a switch for turning Eyebrowse off, for private browsing. (The Eyebrowse icon, an open eye, closes when the system is off.) Similarly, it offers a button for reporting visits to sites not on the whitelist.

The pull-down window also lists which members of the Eyebrowse community have visited the page and when, any annotations that they have made to the page, a field that allows the user to make his or her own annotations, and a chat window for Eyebrowse users.

Viewing data

The Eyebrowse website looks much like Facebooks news feed, with a list of pages recently visited by members of the Eyebrowse community. The user can toggle between two versions of the list, one that includes all Eyebrowse members and one that includes only those actively followed by the user.

By default, the lists are sorted according to a simple ranking algorithm, which factors in the number of people that have visited each page, the amount of time they spent there, and the time of the last visit. But the lists can also be sorted according to each of those factors independently.

The website also provides visualization tools that allow users to view both their own browsing histories and those of the Eyebrowse community at large, as graphs, pie charts, and word clouds that represent the frequency with which particular words turn up in the sites visited by Eyebrowse users.

The field trial involved 24 users, who used the system for varying lengths of time, from a week to almost three months. Most shared between 10 and 25 links a day, but participants whose friends were also using the system tended to share more, as many as 60 or even 80 links a day.

What we have built in terms of potential applications only scratches the surface of what is possible with this data, Zhang says. Thats why the data that people have contributed to Eyebrowse is available in an API [application program interface] on the website for anyone to build on top of or analyze.

Data has traditionally been used by anyone from corporations to the government, says Mor Naaman, an associate professor of information science at Cornell Universitys new Cornell Tech campus in New York City. But the goal of this system is to make the data more useful for the individuals themselves, to give them more control, and to make it more useful to communities.

In previous research, we found that its difficult for users to cognitively manage all these different privacy settings, remembering what they mean and when and how to apply them, Naaman cautions. I think that will be something to address going forward. But there is potential, and I hope to eventually see it in a commercial product.
Imperial Valley News Center

International Women's Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On International Womens Day, we celebrate the worlds women past, present, and future and recognize their many contributions and reflect on what more needs to be done to empower over half of the worlds population.

"We remember the extraordinary achievements of women throughout history, and we applaud the women of today who lead, inspire, and work to improve their communities, seek solutions to conflict, cure disease, and build peaceful and prosperous societies. We pledge to young girls that equal opportunities for success will not be limited by gender.

"My daughters and granddaughters constantly show me that gender does not define potential. And as Secretary of State, Ive seen first-hand how gender bias and discrimination only hold countries back. The United States remains committed to empowering women and girls and achieving gender equality globally. We do this because no economy will fully prosper if half its population is excluded from participating. No government will meet the needs of its people if it does not fully represent everyone. And no great challenge facing the world today will be solved if we do not harness the full potential of the talent in society.

"Since 2007, the State Department has honored extraordinary leaders from around the world with our annual International Women of Courage Award. Through this award, we have recognized women who have contributed to global peace, prosperity, and progressoften in the face of incredible adversity. I look forward to celebrating this years awardees on March 29.

"From human rights to human security, women have made our world a better place. As we honor their courage this month, we renew our commitment to women and girls around the world, to landmark international frameworks like the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and to the centrality of gender equality in the Sustainable Development Goals.

"Last December, I visited an organization in Athens called the Melissa Network, where volunteers help migrant and refugee women integrate into Greek society or assist them in moving to another country. I spent some time with these volunteersall of whom were womenpreparing supplies for refugee and migrant women. They are at the front lines of the European migration and refugee crisis, helping other women find a better place and a better future. Thats something all of us can do, should, and must do, and theres no better day than International Womens Day to recommit ourselves to this cause."
State Health Department Holding Summit to Discuss Online Games and Internet Gambling

Sacramento, California - California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith announced the department is gathering nationally recognized problem-gambling treatment experts to discuss issues such as Internet and app-based gambling.

The CDPH Office of Problem Gamblings (OPG) annual summit will be held in Los Angeles on March 7 - 8, 2016, with the theme of Changing Lives.



As gambling has entered our phones, pockets and purses, the triggers that affect the estimated one-million problem gamblers in California have become ever closer and constant, said Dr. Smith. The increase in ways in which people can gamble brings additional challenges for problem gamblers and their families.



Workshops on treatment and prevention will include treating the next generation of problem gamblers. Participants will hear from people in recovery and honor excellence in responsible gambling and in the treatment of gambling disorders.



The annual summit is held in March to coincide with Problem Gambling Awareness month. The 2016 Problem Gambling Awareness month theme is Dont Ignore the Signs of Problem Gambling. Signs include depression, guilt, shame, financial devastation, broken relationships, loss of employment, and even physical and mental health-related issues.



For confidential, no-cost help with problem gambling, call 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537), visit the OPG website or text SUPPORT to 53342 (normal text-messaging fees apply). The OPG website has treatment options for gamblers and their families, self-help workbooks in 21 languages and a short quiz to help you identify problem-gambling behavior.



OPG is responsible for developing prevention and treatment programs to reduce the prevalence of gambling disorder among California residents. It is funded through Indian gaming, the California Lottery and cardrooms.
FTC To Study Credit Card Industry Data Security Auditing

Washington, DC - The Federal Trade Commission has issued orders to nine companies requiring them to provide the agency with information on how they conduct assessments of companies to measure their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

PCI DSS audits are required by the major payment card issuing companies of retailers and other businesses that process more than 1 million card transactions in a given year, and are intended to ensure that companies are providing adequate protection to consumers sensitive personal information.

The nine companies receiving orders from the FTC are: Foresite MSP, LLC; Freed Maxick CPAs, P.C.; GuidePoint Security, LLC; Mandiant; NDB LLP; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; SecurityMetrics; Sword and Shield Enterprise Security, Inc.; and Verizon Enterprise Solutions (also known as CyberTrust).

The FTC is seeking details about the assessment process employed by the companies, including the ways assessors and companies they assess interact; copies of a limited set of example PCI DSS assessments, and information on additional services provided by the companies, including forensic audits.

Information collected by the FTC will be used to study the state of PCI DSS assessments.

The Commission is authorized to issue Orders to File a Special Report by Section 6(b) of the FTC Act.

The Commission vote to issue the orders was 4-0.
U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy

Washington, DC - The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy will meet in open session in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building (First Street at Constitution Avenue, NW) in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 8 from 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

The Commission Members will welcome Mr. Michael D. Lumpkin, the Coordinator of the new Global Engagement Center at the Department of State. Mr. Lumpkin will discuss the newly formed center and how it will coordinate, integrate and synchronize messaging to foreign audiences that undermines the disinformation espoused by violent extremist groups, including ISIL.

This meeting is open to the public, Members and staff of Congress, the Department of State, Department of Defense, the media, and other governmental and non-governmental organizations. To attend and make any requests for reasonable accommodation, please e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 7, 2016. Please plan to arrive by 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 8 to allow time to pass through security.
U.S. Department of State and Arkansas Announce Launch of Year Two "Arkansas Declaration of Learning" in Support of Secondary Education and Learning With Historical Objects and Art

Washington, DC - U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry announces the launch of the second year of the Arkansas Declaration of Learning program, which works collaboratively with Arkansas teachers and school librarians teaching 7th-12th grade students in the fields of art, English language arts, and social studies to develop innovative curriculum that brings history to life and shares the importance of civic engagement with students.

Through this program, teachers have the opportunity to work with historic art, as well as objects from national and state partners, to develop innovative lessons for their classroom and school libraries that inspire student learning. While Arkansas is the first state in the country to participate in this national program, all states are eligible to apply, and others are already in the pipeline.

Applications are now open and close at midnight on March 29, 2016. Stipends will be provided to selected participants.

This innovative public-private partnership, launched in 2015, is conducted by the U.S. Department of States Diplomatic Reception Rooms in partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, and the Arkansas Department of Education. To date, more than 1,700 Arkansas students have benefitted from this initiative.

In 2015, a group of 28 Arkansas teachers and school librarians were selected to create dynamic teaching tools using historic objects, works of art, and primary sources from the collections of the founding partners: the U.S. Department of State, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.

Objects selected for the program were used to tell national and state-based stories that vibrantly illustrate the many ways our nation valued civic engagement during our countrys formative years, and the importance of this continued focus today.

This program is part of a national Inter-Agency Educational Initiative that began when representatives from 13 national partnering organizations signed the Declaration of Learning in 2012.

This document pledged that the U.S. Department of State, the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, and 11 other national organizations would work with state and local partners to co-create learning tools for educators and students in middle and secondary education using historic art and objects from their respective collections and best practices in education.

The Diplomatic Reception Rooms are the site for many of our nations diplomatic meetings and events including summits, treaty negotiations, official State Luncheons, and important Presidential speeches.

Located on the top two floors of the U.S. Department of State, these 42 rooms are modeled after 18th century historic rooms and spaces in our countrys history. The rooms house a historic museum-quality collection of more than 5,000 fine and decorative art objects valued at $150 million that tell the story of our countrys founding and formative years (1730-1840).

The rooms and their historic collections were created and are sustained through generous gifts from American donors, corporations, and foundations.

To apply to participate in the program, please visit: http://bit.ly/1M2Cubo
The White House Launches The Opportunity Project, Utilizing Open Data to Build Stronger Ladders of Opportunity for All

Washington, DC - In the lead up to the President's historic visit to SxSW, today the Administration is announcing the launch of The Opportunity Project, a new open data effort to improve economic mobility for all Americans. As the President said in his State of the Union address, we must harness 21st century technology and innovation to expand access to opportunity and tackle our greatest challenges.

The Opportunity Project will put data and tools in the hands of civic leaders, community organizations, and families to help them navigate information about critical resources such as access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, and other neighborhood amenities. This project is about unleashing the power of data to help our children and our childrens children access the resources they need to thrive. Today, the Administration is releasing a unique package of Federal and local datasets in an easy-to-use format and accelerating a new way for the federal government to collaborate with local leaders, technologists, and community members to use data and technology to tackle inequities and strengthen their communities.

Key components of this announcement include:

 The launch of The Opportunity Project and Opportunity.Census.gov to provide easy access to the new package of Opportunity Project data, a combination of Federal and local data, on key assets that determine access to opportunity at the neighborhood level. This data can now be used by technologists, community groups, and local governments in order to help families find affordable housing, help businesses identify services they need, and help policymakers see inequities in their communities and make investments to expand fair housing and increase economic mobility.

 The release of a dozen new private sector and non-profit digital tools that were built in collaboration with eight cities and using the Opportunity Project data to help families, local leaders, advocates, and the media navigate information about access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, neighborhood amenities, and other critical resources. Participating cities include Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as organizations and companies such as Redfin, Zillow, GreatSchools, PolicyLink and Streetwyze.

 More than thirty additional non-profits, community organizations, coding boot camps, academic institutions, and local governments have already committed to use the Opportunity Project data to build stronger ladders of opportunity in communities across the country.

 The Administration is issuing a Call to Action to the public to develop new tools, offer additional sources of data, deepen community engagement through the use of the data, and other actions. We want to hear about what new steps you are taking or programs you are implementing to address these topics.

This project represents an important continuation of how the Federal government is working with communities and technologists to enhance the power of open data by making it more accessible to a wide variety of users across the country, and by facilitating collaborations between software developers and community members to build digital tools that make it easier for communities and families to solve their greatest challenges.

New Administration Announcements

 Launching Opportunity.Census.gov. This new platform provides easy access to the Opportunity Project digital tools, and for software developers and community partners to access the data, build new tools, and connects with others through a community of practice, facilitated by the U.S. Census Bureau, in collaboration with the Presidential Innovation Fellows. The Administration launched this website to help ensure that an increasing number of users continue to collaborate with each other and take advantage of the Opportunity Project data. This interactive site invites software developers, data users, community leaders, and local governments to learn, connect and build as part of a larger community of practice. In addition, to support the long-term creation of applications and civic engagement, the Census Bureau created a new Opportunity Module for CitySDK, a software development kit that makes it easier to build products with open data from federal and local government. Both opportunity.census.gov and the CitySDK are open-source and available on Github.

 Release new, comprehensive and updated data on geographic access to opportunity. For the first time, the public, including software developers, local leaders, and community groups, can access a curated list of datasets compiled for the Opportunity Project. The data informs a new mapping tool created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a resource for communities to make more informed, data-driven investments that expand access to opportunity and reduce segregation, fulfilling long-standing obligations under the Fair Housing Act. The data also includes: publically available data generated primarily by the American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau, the authoritative data source on our nation's population and economy; open data from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, and Agriculture; and local datasets from eight cities, with information on community assets such as playgrounds, grocery stores, and health clinics. Cities include Baltimore; Detroit, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

 Federal agencies will continue to engage with external developers, non-profits and community members to facilitate access to Federal and local data made available through the Opportunity Project, allowing for the development of additional tools specifically for particular populations and issue-areas. These may include LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, returning citizens experiencing re-entry challenges, unemployed and under-employed Americans searching for jobs, military veterans, people with disabilities, and rural communities.

 The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Rural Development will enable youth to design digital tools that support rural community development. They will engage high school students in articulating the types of community assets that would attract them to remain and invest in their rural communities, and provide the results as youth-generated content for opportunity.census.gov to help other technologists partner with them to design digital tools. They will do this through a series of Opportunity Project focus groups on access to opportunity in rural areas at the Stronger Economies Together conference in September.

Private Sector Commitments

 Redfin released Opportunity Score, a tool that shows users jobs they can get to from any home or apartment, without a car, in 30 minutes or less.

 PolicyMap released a new tool to help individuals and families looking to rent or buy a home in Philadelphia find neighborhoods with the characteristics and amenities most important to them.

 Azavea released transitanalyst.com, a new tool that shows transit accessibility to community assets such as day care, health care centers, Head Start locations, healthy grocery stores, playgrounds, and recreation centers.

 Zillow released Invest in the Future, a new tool that identifies areas of a city with access to opportunity that also have the potential for affordable housing development.

 diversity.data.kids.org released the How Affordable is Opportunity? Tool that reveals racial and ethnic inequities in the cost of neighborhood opportunity for children, through narrative story maps and interactive mapping and data tools for use by policymakers, advocacy organizations, and the media.

 Community Commons released Location Opportunity Footprint Tool, a new tool that shows the intersection of job proximity, school proficiency, and location affordability indices to create a customizable opportunity footprint for local advocates, non-profits, and all those seeking investment to strengthen their neighborhoods and communities.

 Measure of America released Data2Go.nyc, a tool that provides up-to-date information on neighborhood assets and challenges required to craft effective solutions.

 GreatSchools released the Opportunity Badge that identifies high-performing schools given the cost of living in the neighborhood and shows how schools provide access to opportunity, broken down by race and ethnicity, to help all parents make the best decisions possible for their children.

 PolicyLinks National Equity Atlas released a tool that illustrates access to healthy, opportunity-rich neighborhoods by race/ethnicity for the 100 largest cities, 150 largest metropolitan regions, all 50 states, and nationwide for community advocates and policymakers.

 Streetwyze will release a new feature on its mobile app in select cities that uses the power of local knowledge to highlight experiences happening beneath the regulatory radarthe new feature allows residents to ground-truth the Opportunity Project data, create real time feedback, and improve the validity, reliability, and accuracy of data at the street level.

 Esri incorporated opportunity data into their ArcGIS platform, Community Analyst and Business Analyst tools, which hosts 700,000 user sessions monthly, making opportunity data easily found and used by future planners and software developers.

 Socrata will now allow for data comparisons between cities, counties and metro areas by including Opportunity Project data in its nationwide Open Data Network, normalizing it, and optimizing it for search engines so the data is easy to discover. Opportunity Project data scan now be incorporated into all Socrata domains.

The following organizations are committed to leveraging the Opportunity Project by developing new tools, offering additional sources of data, deepening community engagement through the use of the data, and other actions.

Commitments to Enhance Existing Digital Tools

 The True Colors Fund will help LGBT youth experiencing homelessness find the resources and opportunities they need to thrive by incorporating Opportunity Project data into its True Connect app, which is being developed later this year. The True Colors Fund will also release its data on safe and inclusive services under an open source license so that future teams can include LGBT-friendly resources in their digital tools.

 The National Association of Counties (NACo) will increase county government access to information that can help families, businesses and counties officials expand access to opportunity by incorporating Opportunity Project data into the open access County Explorer tool. NACO represents all of Americas 3,069 county governments  roughly 70 percent of which are considered rural.

Commitments to Increase the Impact of Tech-Training Programs

 Seven coding bootcamps will incorporate Opportunity Project data in their curricula and/or as part of special prize challenges. Students will be encouraged to use the data in their final projects in order to build apps and other tools that are civic-minded and relevant to the needs of their communities. Bootcamps include the Telegraph Academy, General Assembly, Operation Spark, The Iron Yard, Sabio.la, Metis, and Flatiron School.

 General Assembly will hold a multi-city, cross-functional hackathon in conjunction with National Civic Hacking Day in June that leverages the Open Opportunity Data. The hackathon will be open to graduates from all of GA's immersive programs, including web development, Android development, user experience, data science, and product management, as well as other members of the wider GA community. Participants will collaborate, using the Opportunity Project data, to create applications and resources to make their communities stronger.

 #YesWeCode will work with 100 tech equity focused community-based organizations across the nation to integrate Opportunity Project data into their tech skill training curriculum. They are also committed to developing a community of practice amongst 20 - 50 community college partners around curriculum integration of Opportunity Project data during their National Convening of Community Colleges in the fall of 2016.

 The National Consortium of Data Science and Technology Meetup Organizers will coordinate a multi-city mentorship and internship program that will use Opportunity Project data and a new Civic Tech playlist to help youth both learn about and serve the needs of their local communities with technology. LRNG will partner with the University of Chicago and the National Science Foundation's South Big Data Hub to create the Civic Tech playlist and digital badges to connect young people across the U.S. to skills like data science.

 The Mobile Dev Corps class at Flatiron School will work with Opportunity Project data to build mobile applications that address their communities' questions and challenges. Mobile Dev Corps is a scholarship-based training-program and a partnership between Flatiron School and the City of New York's NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.

Commitments to Deepen Community Engagement

 The Participatory Budgeting Project will enable communities to make better budget decisions by incorporating Opportunity Project data and tools into participatory budgeting processes across the country so that neighborhood participants can have easier access to meaningful community data.

 The City of Boston will empower young proposal developers in Youth Lead the Change, the first youth-led participatory budgeting process in the country, using data tools created through the Opportunity Project. This process will allow young people to vote on how $1 Million of Boston's capital budget will be spent. The data will help participants to access information about community spaces to evaluate neighborhood projects and assess community need.

 Neighborland, a community engagement software platform, created a page where neighborhood residents ideas for improving opportunity will be uploaded and publicly accessible. This project site will be live for 3 months from todays launch to the National Day of Civic Hacking, and the data on resident ideas will be open to developers.

 Code for America will challenge the civic tech community to improve access to economic opportunity by using their skills to conduct user research and create civic tech apps using the Opportunity Project data as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking in June.

 The City of New Orleans will host a Design Jam with ex-offenders, technologists, community advocates and 2-1-1 social services data stewards in April 2016 to identify requirements for digital tools needed to support re-entry, including technical, usability, and data concerns.

Commitments to Incorporate Additional Datasets

 Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco will support advocacy for better opportunity in neighborhoods for people with disabilities by identifying and open high-value data sets.

 CharityLogic will help communities paint a more complete picture of opportunity that includes nonprofit resources such as food pantries, job training, and mentoring programs by adding a data export module to its iCarol software. 2-1-1 social service information & referral hotlines for more than a dozen states will then be able to export their social services data into an open, machine-readable format compliant with the Human Services Data Specification that software developers can build upon. VIA LINK, the 2-1-1 provider in New Orleans, will export its data for a pilot to build re-entry resources.

Additional Private Sector Commitments

 Esri and Socrata will reduce barriers for software developers and data scientists as they build nationwide digital tools on local data, by collaborating on research and development to normalize information models across disparate local government data sets.

 The Center for Government Excellence, supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities partnership and the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, will facilitate collaboration between the Opportunity Project and any of their 25 cities that would like to add their data to the platform and benefit from utilizing the existing data and tools. They are currently working with more than two dozen local governments to build capacity for decision making that is rooted in evidence, transparent accountability, and community engagement.

 RISE (Research and Innovations in Social, Economic and Environmental Equity) at Boston College School of Social Work will launch a research study using Opportunity Project data called "The Social Context of Opportunity." Researchers will investigate how race, income, and places affect access to opportunity. This collaborative project will produce scientific and publicly-accessible reports about how opportunities are tied to different social dimensions of peoples lives.
Young women feel the Bern, older ones back Hillary

Berkeley, California - In a lively and sometimes heated intergenerational exchange, Berkeley Blog authors are hashing out gender and generational dynamics of the Democratic side of the presidential campaign, and why, in particular, so many young women back Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.

In one post, history Ph.D. candidate Peggy ODonnell writes of feminist fault lines and how the increased economic insecurity they face is fueling young womens support for Sanders.

I gather that many young women feel that feminism has run its course, responds Robin Lakoff, a professor emerita of linguistics.

But if a Republican were to win the White House, What do you think will happen to young womens reproductive rights, not just abortion but contraception? she asks.

(Lakoff has written extensively about language, gender and power, as in a 2015 Berkeley Blog post noting pundits obsession with how Hillary Clinton delivers her message, rather the content of what shes saying.)

In a response, ODonnell decries not-infrequent public put-downs of young women by other women who are their seniors. In recent memory, she writes, young women have been publicly critiqued by women for the sound of our voices and our speech patterns, the way we write our emails, and how we dress and present ourselves.

Jeremy Adam Smith, of the Greater Good Science Center, adds two more pieces. One, looking at gender bias and power differences, is What do young women want from Bernie Sanders? His second post is titled What Clintons campaign reveals about women and power.

For many Berkeley students hes spoken with, the Iraq War and the Great Recession are their two generation-defining forces, he writes. Their concerns are actually pretty economic  shockingly economic: theyre worried about student debt and their job prospects, and (to a lesser degree) about housing (this is the Bay Area, so everyone feels eaten alive by rent).
Statement From the Third U.S.-Japan Development Dialogue

Washington, DC - On March 3 and 4, the United States and Japan held the third senior level U.S.-Japan Development Dialogue and related events in Washington, D.C. The Dialogue addressed a broad range of development policy priorities and assistance efforts to address global and regional challenges, including global development frameworks and the Sustainable Development Goals, Japans G7 leadership, Japans Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), and the emergence of new donors and institutions into the international system.

The U.S. and Japanese delegations also discussed joint efforts on global challenges such as global health, addressing gaps in infrastructure investment, disaster response and relief, and the importance of collaborating on humanitarian assistance coordination in the lead up to the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS).

Both sides highlighted the importance of gender and womens economic empowerment as cross-cutting issues in global development frameworks and development assistance around the world, and pledged to utilize international platforms including the G7 and APEC to raise these issues and advocate for concrete policy changes. They affirmed the critical role women play in ensuring peace, prosperity, and stability around the world and reaffirmed the importance of girls education, especially for adolescent girls, in reducing poverty, promoting economic growth, and fostering stable communities.

Across the Development Dialogue meetings, representatives of the United States and Japan addressed key regional development challenges, including enhanced connectivity in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, improving the investment and business environment in Africa, responses to the conflict in the Middle East and North Africa region, and efforts to respond to refugee crises, as well as democratic transitions in new and emerging governments such as Myanmar.

Charles H. Rivkin, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs and Wade Warren, Assistant to the Administrator for Policy, Planning and Learning, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), participated in a strategy meeting with Takio Yamada, Director General of the International Cooperation Bureau, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Development Dialogue discussion was co-chaired by Lisa Kubiske, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Finance and Development and Patricia Rader, Senior Deputy Assistant to the Administrator for Policy, Planning and Learning, USAID, with Director General Yamada, and Shinya Ejima, Director General of the Operations Strategy Department, the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Director General Yamada and Kurt Tong, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs also participated in a side event including civil society organizations, hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Continued Detention of Nadiya Savchenko

Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "I am deeply concerned about the health and welfare of Ukrainian pilot and Rada Deputy Nadiya Savchenko, who since Friday has refused food and water to protest her continued detention by the Russian Federation.

"In the 20 months since she was captured in eastern Ukraine and taken to Russia, Ms. Savchenko has reportedly endured interrogations, solitary confinement, and forced psychiatric evaluation. Her trial and continuing imprisonment demonstrate disregard for international standards, as well as for Russias commitments under the Minsk agreements.

"The United States once again calls on Russia to immediately release Ms. Savchenko and return her to Ukraine."
Vice President Joe Bidens Meeting with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Washington, DC - The Vice President met today in Abu Dhabi with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The leaders discussed the full range of regional and bilateral issues that define the close partnership between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, including enhancing counter-terrorism cooperation against Al-Qaeda and ISIL, advancing U.S. -GCC relations, and working to resolve the conflicts in Yemen, Syria, and Libya.

Noting his visit to Masdar, the Vice President commended the UAE for its global leadership advancing renewable energy innovation and integration. The Vice President thanked the Crown Prince for the UAE's generous humanitarian support to Syria and contribution to the international stabilization fund for Iraq. The Vice President encouraged increased UAE and GCC assistance to Iraqi communities liberated from ISIL. The two leaders also discussed ways to advance bilateral cooperation on finding a cure for cancer. They reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to the strategic partnership between the United States and the United Arab Emirates as a hallmark of regional cooperation.
UK Police to Use Auto-Rickshaws For Patrolling, Desis Ask 'Tongas Next?'
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Author J.K. Rowling has written a four-part introduction to the world presented in Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the adaptation of which will be released in cinemas this November.

The collection is designed to preview a new place and time within her wizarding world, enlightening readers about "a previously unexplored corner" of the universe.

The first installment, titled Magic in North America, was announced yesterday (7 March) alongside a specially produced video explaining the purpose of the new works.



The writing - as well as the video - will be unveiled in the UK on Pottermore over four consecutive days, the first arriving today at 2 PM.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will star Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, a 'magizoologist' who accidentally unleashes a suitcase of magical beasts in 1920s New York.

Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell and Ron Perlman will all star in the film released 18 November which Rowling recently confirmed will be a trilogy.
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The first piece of writing from JK Rowlings new History of Magic in North America online mini-series has been published on Pottermore, imagining a different context to the plight of the Native American tribes.

The series is being parcelled out in four parts this week, designed to give some context to upcoming Harry Potter spin-off movie, Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them.

Rowling focuses on Native Americans in her first five paragraphs, to be considered canon, creating a distinction between the origins of magic in the Americas and Europe.

What we learned

Wizarding communities were aware of each other centuries back

"Various modes of magical travel  brooms and Apparition among them  not to mention visions and premonitions, meant that even far-flung wizarding communities were in contact with each other from the Middle Ages onwards."

Wizards are found in every corner of the globe

"The overall ratio of wizards to non-wizards seemed consistent across populations, as did the attitudes of No-Majs, wherever they were born."

Rowling imagines medicine men as early wizards

"In the Native American community, some witches and wizards were accepted and even lauded within their tribes, gaining reputations for healing as medicine men, or outstanding hunters. However, others were stigmatised for their beliefs, often on the basis that they were possessed by malevolent spirits."

Some tribesmen were Animagi, and, generally, North America was more gifted at potions, Europe, spells

"The Native American wizarding community was particularly gifted in animal and plant magic, its potions in particular being of a sophistication beyond much that was known in Europe. The most glaring difference between magic practised by Native Americans and the wizards of Europe was the absence of a wand. The magic wand originated in Europe."

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will star Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, a 'magizoologist' who accidentally unleashes a suitcase of magical beasts in 1920s New York.

Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell and Ron Perlman will all star in the film released 18 November, which Rowling recently confirmed will be a trilogy.
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The fight for gender equality will always seem to inevitably fall in front of the camera, so starkly visible amongst its onscreen heroines and celebrity actors. But, to bring those iconic female characters to screen and create those spectacular roles for our Jennifer Lawrences and Lupita Nyong'os, there is a desperate need for diversity behind the camera as well.

That's how to really combat the same old stories forever being told and retold in Hollywood movies; there are hundreds of voices and visions being shut out from filmmaking due to the same old biases and archaic structures. New approaches to the camera, to the written word, to sets and stunts; yet women largely make up only 15-19% of behind-the-scenes roles.

It's time to recognise the extraordinary work of women behind Hollywood's cameras; and, though this list is only a tiny portion of those contributions, these women's creative achievements are certainly worth the celebration.

Ava DuVernay - Director/ Marketer/ Distributor

DuVernay's multi-talented creative force is fast making her one of Hollywood's biggest names, thanks to her rich visualisation of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches in Selma, her searing documentation of the racial inequality embedded into the prison system in the Oscar-nominated The 13th, and her television adaptation of Natalie Baszile's Queen Sugar; plus, her latest is just about to hit cinemas - Disney's epic fantasy A Wrinkle in Time.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy - Producer/ Director

Sharmeen made history in 2016 as the only Pakistani to win two Academy Awards; she was also the only woman of colour to win that year. Her powerful, moving documentary on honour killing, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, even sparked political change. "The Pakistani Prime Minister has said that he will change the law on honour killing after watching this film," she stated during her acceptance speech. "That is the power of film."

That year, a loophole was repealed that allowed the perpetrators of honour killings to avoid punishment by seeking forgiveness for the crime from another family member, and thus be legally pardoned.

Maryann Brandon & Mary Jo Markey - Editors

The female team who edited Star Wars: The Force Awakens helped bring to life one of the world's most beloved franchises: from the thrills of seeing the Millenium Falcon burst into action, to the terrors of Kylo Ren's powers or the mysteries of Rey's dream sequence. The blockbuster pair were also responsible for editing Abrams' other films: Mission: Impossible III, Super 8, Star Trek, and Star Trek: Into Darkness. They're also set to work on Star Wars: Episode IX.

Maryse Alberti - Cinematographer

Maryse Alberti knows how to make a fight look good; she's lensed both Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler and Ryan Coogler's Creed. She's a major player in a field particularly devoid of women, who make up less than 4% of the membership of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Jenny Beavan - Costume Designer

The world fell in love with Mad Max: Fury Road's Jenny Beavan at 2016's Oscars, as she picked up her gong for Best Costume Design. Though her self-deprecating attitude and bedazzled biker jacket were both charming and refreshing on their own terms, Beavan boasts an incredible body of work which previously saw her win an Oscar for 1987's A Room with a View. This year, her stunning work will be seen in both Disney's Christopher Robin and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

Marielle Heller - Director

Heller's already made a splash in Hollywood with her debut feature, The Diary of a Teenage Girl. Adapted by Heller herself from Phoebe Gloeckner's diaristic graphic novel, the frankness of Minnie (Bel Powley)'s sexual awakening amongst the backdrop of '70s San Francisco is a refreshingly honest, non-judgemental portrait of feminine-driven sexuality in a system which seeks to suppress it. Her next project Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which stars both Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant, is set for release this year.

Judy Becker - Production Designer

She captured the pulsating nerve at the heart of the '70s in American Hustle, and the dreamlike romance of Carol. She created the backdrop to the burning love of Brokeback Mountain, the acute pain of Shame, and the ambitions of Joy. Becker's Oscar-nominated work has put her in high demand amongst some of Hollywood's finest directors, particularly in her frequent collaborations with David O. Russell.

Zoe Bell - Stunt Double

Bell is surely stuntwork's most recognisable face, thanks to her string of acting roles in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight. However, she'll forever best be remembered as Uma Thurman's stunt double in the Kill Bill movies; though her heavy slate has seen her work on the likes of Iron Man 3, Alias, and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Nina Yang Bongiovi - Producer

With Bongiovi onboard as producer, Ryan Coogler's 2013 flick Fruitvale Station, documenting the last day of Oscar Grant III before he was shot by police, has now catapulted both its director and star Michael B. Jordan to the big leagues. Alongside production partner Forest Whitaker, she also produced the critically acclaimed Dope; and looks to strike gold once more with documentary Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?

Victoria Alonso - Producer/ Visual Effects

If you want proof it's Marvel's visual effects team that are keeping the studio on top of their game, just look to Victoria Alonso. Having served as visual effects producer on the likes of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, she became Marvel's visual effects chief for its Phase I movies, before a promotion to the Executive Vice President of Physical Production to the studio. She's a lifelong advocate for the promotion of women in the visual effects industry; something her position will now surely inspire in future generations.

Kelly Marcel - Screenwriter

Marcel's daunting task of adapting the steamy blockbuster novel Fifty Shades of Grey clearly paid off; her name is now attached to a certified blockbuster and the fastest-selling R-rated title of all time. However, Marcel actually started out her career doing uncredited re-writes for Nicholas Winding Refn's ultraviolent 2009 biopic Bronson. Now how's that for range?

Patty Jenkins - Director

Having helped Charlize Theron win her Academy Award for Monster, Jenkins is now striding into cinematic history; she's directing Wonder Woman's solo film, bringing to screen one of DC's most iconic properties after 76 years left trapped within the page. Having previously departed from Marvel's Thor: The Dark Wold, Jenkins will now be the first female director to take on a major project for the DC universe.

Rachel Portman - Composer

Portman is the go-to soundtrack for your tragic, yearning romances; she's penned the music for the likes of Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, One Day, The Duchess, and Never Let Me Go. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Awards, for Emma in 1996; in 2010, she was appointed with an OBE for her contributions to British film.

Amma Asante - Director

Asante has crafted some of the most beautiful, lush love stories put to film in the past couple of years: between Belle's tale inspired by the portrait of mixed race aristocratic Dido Elizabeth Belle, or last year's A United Kingdom. Starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, Asante captured the interracial romance between Prince Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams. Their love sparked international outrage, though Khama overcame his troubles to lead Botswana's independence movement.

Katie Dippold - Screenwriter

One of the brightest voices of the current comedy scene, Dippold graduated as a writer for Parks and Recreation and MADtv to pen the hit The Heat, alongside co-writing last year's Ghostbusters reboot with Paul Feig. This year, she's behind the mother-daughter comedy Snatched, starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn.

Niki Caro - Director

Having first shot to fame for the Oscar-nominated Whale Rider back in 2002, Caro last year releasedThe Zookeeper's Wife. Starring Jessica Chastain, it recounts the story of Warsaw Zoo's keepers, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who helped to save hundreds during the Nazi invasion of Poland by hiding them within their zoo's cages. She now boards Disney's highly-anticipated live-action take on Mulan.

Francine Maisler - Casting Director

Though Oscars night always leaves us inevitably fawning over the performances of its winners, it's always important to remember the skills of a great casting director in herding the perfect actor into the perfect role. Maisler helped Leonardo DiCaprio to his Oscar for The Revenant, Lupita Nyong'o to hers for 12 Years a Slave; she was also behind landing Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda their roles in Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, as well as pairing Ryan Gosling with Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson - Director

Originally a storyboard artist, Yuh has achieved a whole host of honours with her debut feature Kung Fu Panda 2. She's the first woman to solely directed an animated feature from a major Hollywood studio, the second woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and her film is the most financially successful to be directed by a woman. She's directed her first live-action film with sci-fi thriller The Darkest Minds, out this year.

Megan Ellison - Producer

Ellison has risen to the position of one of Hollywood's super-producers in the space of just 10 short years; founding Annapurna Pictures, she's produced the likes of Zero Dark Thirty, Joy, True Grit, Her, Foxcatcher, and American Hustle. Her dedication and passion landed her in TIME's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2014. Last year, Ellison acted as producer on Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit, and Alexander Payne's Downsizing.
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A plan was put in motion to project the image of Daniel Craig on the side of Big Ben this week, but blocked by Westminster City Council who were quick to point out that, iconic though Bond might be, centuries of political history trumps a spy film franchise.

The PR stunt, designed to celebrate Bond's London heritage, the role of Parliament in the latest 007 film, Spectre, and, more importantly, its DVD release, had the blessing of the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, but Westminster City Council overruled saying it was wholly inappropriate.

The imagery would diminish the appreciation of the building, compromising its historic integrity, a spokesperson said.

"By virtue of its size and illumination the advert would also harm the visual amenity of the Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square Conservation Area as well as the Westminster World Heritage Site."

I guess Bond isnt the best figure to be illuminating on Parliament either, given his penchant for increasingly inventive unsanctioned killings.

A spokesperson for Mr Bercow said: "All requests to beam an image onto Big Ben require the agreement of the Speaker but it is ultimately a matter for Westminster City Council as to whether to grant permission for any such displays to take place."
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DC may have stolen J. Jonah Jameson himself (JK Simmons) away from poor, old Spidey; but Marvel won't be feeling too sorry for themselves.

Deadline reports Disney channel star Zenadaya will be joining the cast of their planned Spider-Man solo film, with Tom Holland in the titular role.

It's fitting for their plans to reinvent the character as a younger iteration; Zendaya is currently one of the Disney Channel's key stars, leading their spy series K.C. Undercover and with past roles in Shake it Up! and Good Luck Charlie.

She's also released several singles, including 'Swag It Out' and 'Replay'; although it's questionable at this point as to whether Marvel has any intentions to take advantage of her musical abilities. There's been a pretty strong track record of Spider-Man and musicals not getting on so well; so that would perhaps be ill-advised.



She's down to play a character known only as 'Michelle'; either a re-fashioned name for a classic character from the Spider-Man universe (Black Cat? Spider-Woman?), or brand new creation to serve as one of Peter Parker's classmates. It doesn't, however, appear as if she'll be playing any sort of romantic lead, leaving the casting door wide open for a potential Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson.

The untitled Spider-Man reboot hits UK screens in 2017; though Tom Holland is set to make his debut as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, which opens 29 April.
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Given that just over half a decade ago Ben Wheatley was shooting films with a budget of 20,000 over eight days [2009s Down Terrace], you could describe his rise in cinema as stratospheric, except it would imply that his work is still remotely of this planet.

Its certainly not the case with High-Rise, a brilliantly, riotously surrealist film that makes the human condition look alien and yet scarily familiar.

Based on J.G. Ballards 1975 modern classic novel, it centres on a young doctor (played by Tom Hiddleston) who is seduced by the lifestyle of a high-rise apartment building in which the residences get more expensive the higher up you go - ranging from the council housing-esque bottom floors to the wild opulence of the penthouse.

Maybe its the fact that Hiddleston once played F. Scott Fitzgerald [2011s Midnight in Paris], but for a dystopian British drama set in the 70s, it weirdly (and not displeasingly) reminded me of The Great Gatsby. Innocent young narrator drawn into mad parties with half-enthusiasm, half skepticism? Check. Mysterious millionaire designing these parties for reasons and befriending our protagonist for reasons that are unclear? Check. Array of characters who fall in and out of love at whim and an over-arching theme of the corrosive nature of wealth and the pursuit of it? Also check.

Its clear from the synopsis that the High-Rise is a pressure cooker, and it doesnt take long for it to explode, to supernova in fact.

Wheatley doesnt waste a single shot here, with the buildings kaleidoscopic downfall being characterised by rampant hallway sex, apocalyptic flat parties and blood in the aisles of the Kubrickian in-building supermarket. One scenes sees a woman dressed in 18th century regal costume waiting to be fucked in the arse while someone rides a horse across her shag pile carpet. Another sees a goat wandering lost through a burning hallway, surrounded by overturned trollies, with a balloon tied around its neck. Its the kind of film in which you find yourself wishing you could mentally take stills from it while sat in the theatre.

You get the sense that Wheatley had an absolute blast making this, that he was finally given a budget deserving of his talents (north of $5 million, quite the leap) and decided to absolutely run riot with it. I hope you find it boldly funny and invigoratingly shocking, he said of the film, and it more than delivers on both fronts, my only quibble being the use of a Thatcher quote (the satire was already pretty evident).

I think what makes High-Rise so successful is its willingness not to provide you with all the facts. Had this adaptation been entrusted to a more perfunctorial American director, you can imagine the first act being a slick blow-by-blow account of how the buildings financial system works, but Wheatley shuns exposition, instead throwing you in at the deep end (along with several bottles of champagne and a lawn chair).

Coming off the back of the Oscars and its mostly dreary Best Picture nominees (DiCaprio falling over and getting up ad infinitum [The Revenant], sweaty Boston newsroom men standing in meeting rooms with their hands on their hips [Spotlight]), High-Rise is a welcome, hallucinogenic-laced shot of adrenaline in the arm.

High-Rise opens in cinemas on 18 March.
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Tony Hall, the BBC Director-General, has highlighted the long-term decline in British television programming and highlighted UK content has fallen by 2,000 hours and 250m in investment in the past five years.

Lord Hall painted a dark picture of the future of British TV if the BBC is allowed to diminish in comparison to Netflix and other global giant competitors.

He said that a neglected BBC would be at risk of sleepwalking into decay, leaving the UKs creative industries damaged, and Britain diminished as a result.

He suggested that such a scenario would result in a UK dominated by global gatekeepers, partial news, and American taste-makers.

Speaking at the Media & Telecoms 2016 & Beyond conference in London, Lord Hall noted the rapid rise of Netflix. When I spoke here last year, Netflix was available in around 60 countries. Now it is in close to 200.

He pointed out that The Queen, the streaming services much-anticipated royal drama starring Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, is the first programme, by the way, Netflix has made about Britain, out of the vast sums they have spent on content so far.

Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Show all 14 1 /14 Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 House of Cards - Season Four - 4 March Last time we were in Frank Underwoods White House things werent looking to great for the President, his first Lady having just walked out on him. What will happen next in the critically acclaimed show is anyones guess. Netflix Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Daredevil - Season Two - 18 March Back in Hells Kitchen things were seemingly getting better. Kingpin is in prison and the crime syndicates should have dispersed - for the meantime at least. Unfortunately for Matt Murdoch, theres a new anti-hero in town: The Punisher. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Flaked - 11 March According to Netflix, Flaked is set in the insular world of Venice, California. It follows the serio-comic story of a self-appointed 'guru' who falls for the object of his best friends fascination. Soon the tangled web of half-truths and semi-b******* that underpins his all-important image and sobriety begins to unravel. Arnett plays Chip, a man doing his honest best to stay one step ahead of his own lies. Netflix Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season Two - 15 April Following the story of 29-year-old Kimmy Schmidt on her journey through New York, season two is set to start right where the last left us. The Tina Fey created sitcom has already been renewed for a third season, so you know this one has to be good. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 The Ranch - 1 April A comedy starring Ashton Kutcher. Based on a failed semi-pro footballer who returns home to a Colorado ranch. It also has some of the producers from Two and a Half Men behind it, which just happens to be one of the most successful shows of all time. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Marseille - 5 May Netflixs first French language original is a tale of power, corruption and redemption. Sounding like it could very well be the next Narcos. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Grace and Frankie - Season Two - 6 May The tale of a retired cosmetics mogul and a hippie art teacher living together was a hit across the world, especially in the US. Starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, the show has already been renewed for a third season. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Orange is the New Black - Season Four - 17 June Another Netflix powerhouse, Orange is the New Black will see us returning to Litchfield Penitentiary. Prepare for more Piper, Alex and Red come June. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Stranger Things - 15 July Eight-episode series starring Winona Ryder that follows a small community as they look for a young boy who has seemingly vanished. It all sounds quite scary. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 The Get Down - August 12th "Told through the lives and music of a ragtag crew of South Bronx teens, The Get Down is a mythic saga of the transformation of 1970s New York City. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, this is sure to be as stylish as anything hes done before. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 The Crown - Spring Starring Doctor Who actor Matt Smith, the period drama reveals the political rivalries and romance behind Queen Elizabeth II's reign and the events that shaped the 2nd half of the 20th century." Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Luke Cage - Fall 2016 First appearing alongside Jessica Jones in her Netflix series, Luke Cage will pic up the pieces, seeing Cage come to terms with his super-strength and impenetrable skin. It is unknown whether Kathryn. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 Narcos - Season 2 - Fall 2016 Its back. The Netflix series hyped to match Breaking Bad was an astounding success around the world, apparently watched more than Game of Thrones. Well find out what happens to Pablo Escabar now he doesnt have the protection of all his men. Netflix Inc. Netflix originals to look forward to in 2016 A Series of Unfortunate Events - Fall 2016 Netflix is set to revisit the much-loved childrens novel, putting Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf in a show that looks so much creepier than the 2004 film. Not much else is known - i.e. casting - but Lemony Snicket is on board as executive producer, so get excited.

Referring to research from media regulator Ofcom, Lord Hall said there were cultural consequences to allowing the BBC to lag behind international rivals.

As global competition rapidly grows, overall investment in original British content is in long-term decline. Over the past few years  as the BBCs spending has fallen  it has gone down by nearly 250 million, reducing the volume of new UK content broadcast each year by around 2,000 hours.

The Director-General stated the case for BBC Studios, his idea for transforming the organisations production capabilities by allowing it to make shows for other outlets.

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BBC Studios  and the removal of quotas associated with it  will open us up to the widest and most competitive range of suppliers, and encourage independent producers to bring us their very best ideas, he said. Studios is not only the best answer if we are to meet audience expectations while providing them with value for money. It is also the only answer if we are to remain one of the top programme-makers in the world.

BBC Studios received a setback last week when Peter Salmon, the projects director, left for a job in the independent production sector.
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Since the release of Making a Murderer, the curious murder of Teresa Halbach has been brought into the limelight once more, with convicted murderer Steven Avery at the centre of it all.

In December, Netflix released the 10-part series, in the process creating hundreds of armchair detectives, all attempting to answer the question; did Avery really murder Halbach in 2005?

In recent weeks, his new lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, has vowed to prove her client's innocence, saying she has found forensic evidence that will help her case.

Now, she claims Avery has an airtight alibi that will prove had nothing to do with her murder. Writing on Twitter, she explained: Cellphone tower records of (Avery and Halbach) provide airtight alibi for him. She left property he didnt.

Zellner claims there are phone call records that were never heard during the original hearing, and that they prove the pair were not together at the time of her murder.

She previously said that it was obvious who did actually commit the crime, but failed to detail who.

Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions Show all 5 1 /5 Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 1985: Steven Avery is falsely convicted of raping a Penny Beernsten She was jogging along the shore of Lake Michigan when she was threatened with a knife and attacked. Ms Beernsten identified Avery as her rapist from a line-up that did not include the actual attacker. AFP/Getty Images Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 2003: Conviction overturned Avery's 32-year prison sentence was overturned after DNA testing by the Wisconsin Innocence Project proved his innocence and found a hair from Gregory Allen. He was convicted of the rape and Avery was released. Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 2004: Avery files federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County police A Wisconsin Department of Justice investigation found police had committed no criminal offences or ethics violations, sparking a lawsuit from Avery seeking $36 million compensation. Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 2005: Avery is arrested for Teresa Halbach's murder His Avery Auto Salvage business was the freelance photographer's last appointment of 31 October. She was reported missing four days later and police later found her car, bones, teeth and belongings at the site. Avery pleaded not guilty but was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Timeline: Steven Avery's convictions 201: Netflix releases Making a Murderer The 10-episode documentary came after Avery's conviction was upheld in a 2011 appeal.

Since the series release, many members of the original prosecution and defence have become celebrities in their own right. Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, Averys defence team, are going on tour together, with Buting publishing a book on the American justice system.

 Making A Murderer- Where are they now?

Meanwhile, Ken Kratz has spoken out against the series, saying the filmmakers made him seem like a supervillain while also revealing what he claimed to be evidence left out of the docudrama.
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It's half past eleven on a crisp and sunny winter morning and Nicole Pisani is having a carrot mash crisis. In 30 minutes or so, the first of her 600-odd lunch guests will start arriving, but before then, she needs to sort out the carrots and do a tasting of the day's dishes with her kitchen team. Pisani is the chef at Gayhurst Community School, an east London primary that overlooks the highly desirable London Fields, which means the children she feeds leave for school each morning from some of the UK's most in-need postcodes as well as from 1m houses.

Pisani came to Gayhurst a year ago after a career in some of the capital's leading restaurants, latterly Nopi, Ottolenghi's glitzy central London restaurant, where she rose to head chef and cracked out an 80-hour work week. This all changed when she spotted a tweet from Henry Dimbleby, the owner of Leon Restaurants. Dimbleby had recently drawn up the School Food Plan, a set of mandatory standards for food served in maintained and free schools and academies, which came into effect last year. His children were at Gayhurst, and the school needed a new chef. Pisani got the job and set about overhauling the school's menus  with a budget of just 80p per meal  and convincing parents their kids could eat better. In just 12 months, she's set a trend for restaurant chefs moving to schools, and has big plans for a new food-education centre.

Jamie Oliver won our hearts and minds a decade ago with his school-dinners crusade. Can Pisani pick up where he left off? Unfairly, his war on turkey twizzlers was branded a failure because it didn't solve all the problems with school food overnight. Last year, Oliver said his push on school dinners had failed because eating well "is a posh and middle-class concern" and that he hadn't "single-mindedly gone for it".

But there were improvements: economists found that achievement and attendance were up in the schools involved. Thanks to Oliver, school food is back on the agenda, and maybe the gentler approach of Pisani and Dimbleby can shore up its foundations. Already, three other chefs have seen Pisani's example and followed her from stressful kitchens and food businesses into schools, and she has just announced plans for a new dream, her "School of Food", a training centre where school cooks, children and local people can learn about food. "It's the next level for us," she says. "We've made the school dinners work here, the chefs are trained; the last step is to get the kids into the kitchen to understand the food.

"We've just found the space and, if the council says yes, then we'll need to find the money. It won't just be for London schools  hopefully it will work internationally."

First, though, it's Friday and fish day  and fish is notoriously difficult to get children to eat. "In the beginning, the hardest thing for me was getting them to eat fish. You have to give in to certain things, so I gave in to frying fish." It works: one little boy is raring for his fourth portion.

Pisani's fish is shallow-fried hake in a coconut and pumpkin crumb. Since she took over, frozen burgers and pizzas of questionable origin and vegetables boiled until they disintegrate have been replaced with freshly prepared food and a range of flavours as wide as her hungry customers are diverse. Alongside the hake there's a samphire stir-fry with corn, peppers, leeks and kale, the rescued carrot mash mixed with pumpkin, and, controversially, whitebait. The little critters have been cleverly crumbed to obscure their eyes and, amazingly, most children agree to try a few. Ultimately, a quick poll of those eating at the long, low tables laid out in front of the serving station reveals very little love for the whitebait. Nine-year-olds Esme and Georgie say the flavour is a bit too strong for them, but that they'd try them again.

Food trends in 2016 Show all 11 1 /11 Food trends in 2016 Food trends in 2016 Celeriac root We had a kale obsession in 2015, but 2016s vegetable sine qua non is predicted to be the knobbly celeriac root. Celeriac milk (Tom Hunt at Poco in Bristol serves it with winter mussels and wild water celery), celeriac cooked in Galician beef fat (from Adam Rawson of Pachamama, hot new chef in the capital) and salt-baked celeriac (to be found in Matthew and Iain Penningtons kitchens at The Ethicurean in the West Country) are just a few examples. Getty Images Food trends in 2016 Middle Eastern food The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook (24.95, Phaidon) by grand-dame Salma Hage, author of the bestseller The Lebanese Kitchen (whose halva is pictured here), is out in April  Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton Food trends in 2016 Non-alcoholic cocktails Grain Store mixologist Tony Conigliaro has created Roman Redhead, a riot of red grape juice, beetroot, pale ale and verjus, and Rose Iced Tea (black tea, rose petals, anise essence, pictured here) Food trends in 2016 Gin The discerning will be slurping Hepple gin  from chef Valentine Warner and cocktail guru Nick Strangeway  which is punctuated with bog-myrtle nuances Food trends in 2016 Argyll and Bute Restaurant followers are getting in a froth about Pam Brunton in Scotland, who opened the Inver restaurant in Argyll and Bute to acclaim last year Food trends in 2016 Andy Olivers Som Saa One of the most eagerly awaited restaurants of 2016 will be the permanent incarnation of Andy Olivers remarkable pop-up Som Saa opening very soon in east London. Oliver, who worked at Thai god David Thompsons Nahm in Bangkok, raised a whopping 700,000 through crowdfunding, and is renowned for his piquant Thai flavours and obsessive attention to detail, including in his home ferments and DIY coconut cream  Adam Weatherley Food trends in 2016 Venison Another ruminant in vogue is venison, with Sainsburys doubling its line for 2016. It provides a protein-packed punch, with B vitamins and iron, and its low in fat. Its entry into the mainstream is in part thanks to the Scottish restaurant Mac and Wild, just opened in London, whose Celtic head chef Andy Waugh (who also runs the Wild Game Co) has been touting it as street food for years (his venison burger pictured here) Food trends in 2016 Goat From Brett Grahams The Ledbury to Angela Hartnetts kitchens at Lime Wood Hotel in the New Forest, Cabrito is the go-to goat supplier among the chef cognoscenti (roasted loin of kid pictured here)  but this year, domestic cooks can get in on the action, as Sushila Moles and James Whetlor of Cabrito offer their meat through Ocado Mike Lusmore / mikelusmore.com Food trends in 2016 Coffee Coffee sage George Crawford is launching the much-anticipated Cupsmith with his partner, Emma. Crawford believes that 2016 is the year purist coffee will finally meet the masses; Cupsmiths mission will be to make craft coffee as popular as craft beer on the high street. The company roasts Arabica beans in small batches, improving its quality  but sells it online, at cupsmith.com, in an approachable way: expect cheerful packaging and names such as Afternoon Reviver Coffee (designed for drinking with milk  no matter how uncouth, most of us want milk) and Glorious Espresso Julia Conway Food trends in 2016 120-day-old steak Hanging meat for extremely long lengths of time has become an art. In Cumbria, Lake Road Kitchens James Cross is plating up 120-day-old steak (pictured here). The beef is from influential ager Dan Austin of Lake District Farmers, who is currently investigating the individual bacterial cultures that go into this maturing process Food trends in 2016 Lotus root Diners can expect root-to-stem dining - cue the full lotus deployed by the Michelin-starred Indian Benares in its kamal kakdi aur paneer korma Getty Images

But most have at least tasted the whitebait, one of many small triumphs for Pisani, who this time last year was met with children having meltdowns and parents asking for their children not to be served veg. Pudding is a choice of small strips of chocolate pancake or yoghurt, which brings another surprise: lots of the kids go for the yoghurt. Food costs have gone down (less meat is served and they have a deal on fish through Dimbleby's contacts), but labour costs are up due to increased preparation time. The employees have more responsibility and are more engaged. While this model, as Pisani is busy proving, can be replicated, not every school chef can have a Dimbleby on speed dial.

The smallest children eat first. Pisani has to feed the 600-plus pupils and teachers in an hour, compared with the 550 covers over a full day at Nopi. Staff and sometimes parents eat with the children. Year One teacher Huw Greenwood says the food before was "nice but less exotic", observing that now, the children look forward to lunch. "There's occasionally an unpopular vegetable," he admits, "but there's lots of sharing, which is good."

Trainee teachers Sarah Hutson and India Guthrie are at Gayhurst for five weeks on the School Direct programme. "The food is amazing," Hutson beams. A teaching assistant says she is enjoying the food but, she confides anonymously, "while it's a balanced meal, it's not always to the children's taste."

Communal eating, where the food is acknowledged and discussed, not gobbled down, is at the heart of the School Food Plan, which itself provides some surprises. It isn't a pious, impenetrable vision of daily hummus and lentils and dishes stripped of all sugar and salt, but an ambitious philosophy backed up by sensible guidelines such as no cakes, biscuits, pastries or desserts to be provided except with lunch, and for free, fresh drinking water to be available at all times. The School Food Plan is the outcome of an independent review of school food commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) and written by restaurateurs Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent. It aims to increase the take-up of school meals by improving food in schools. The plan sets out actions for head teachers so they can improve both the food on offer and how children learn about it. The DfE is also funding training in 5,000 schools that most need the help in making these improvements.

"Eating in school should be a pleasurable experience: time spent sharing good food with peers and teachers," the report begins. "These school food standards are intended to help children develop healthy eating habits and ensure that they get the energy and nutrition they need across the whole school day. It is just as important to cook food that looks good and tastes delicious; to talk to children about what is on offer and recommend dishes; to reduce queuing; and to serve the food in a pleasant environment where they can eat with their friends."

Pisani is readying herself for her next challenge with the School of Food and has trained up Chery-Lynn Booth, also a veteran of smart London restaurants, to take over at Gayhurst. "Getting children to try new food is half the battle," says Booth, who like Pisani has cut her hours in half by moving out of restaurants. "And you'll never get a kid away from their burger, but we use good-quality meat and put toppings out on the table so they can choose their own."

Both women say the job satisfaction here vastly outweighs any they've experienced before. "It's an amazing feeling when the kids walk in to get their food and they all say, 'Hi, chef!'" Booth says.

Two miles away, another Hackney primary, Mandeville, also has a new chef in the kitchen. Angela Church met Pisani through restaurant colleagues. She has a background in restaurants and private catering, and now uses her expertise to feed children well.

"My aim is to firstly feed them a balanced meal daily and secondly to foster an environment of excitement and joy around food and mealtimes," she says. Two of Church's staff are currently training in Gayhurst's kitchen, and the spot Pisani has found for her School of Food is over at Mandeville.

Jessica Vos was running food markets and planning to open her own restaurant when she heard about Pisani last year. She now serves a fully vegetarian menu at Greenside Primary in west London after the school decided to bring its catering in-house last autumn. "I make everything from Indonesian noodles to Mexican burritos, frittata, pasta, curries and pies," she says. "Everything is made from scratch, every day, and I try to use seasonal and local produce where possible.

"That special feeling you get when a child comes up to you and tells you they loved your food never gets old."

All the chefs report greater job satisfaction and are working far fewer hours. Their pay has been hit, but they get longer holidays. "When I started out cooking 20 years ago, I thought it would be amazing to teach kids to cook," Pisani says. "And now I am. Last year, I was getting really tired working so many hours, so it made sense for me to say yes to this, but now it's my dream."
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For years, doctors and researchers have been concerned about a surprising trend: More and more women with early-stage cancer in one breast were choosing to have double mastectomies to reduce the risk of cancer in the other.

Many of the patients said they thought an aggressive approach would help their quality of life by lessening their worries about future cancer and making them more comfortable with their bodies.

But new evidence released Monday shows that the surgery doesn't improve peace of mind or quality of life very much.

Researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute surveyed thousands of women who had cancer in a single breast and underwent single and double mastectomies. They wanted to see whether the double-mastectomy patients were less anxious, more satisfied with their physical appearance and more confident in their sexuality. They found that the double-mastectomy group had only a slight edge  primarily among women who had undergone breast reconstruction.

What this shows is removing a healthy organ doesn't improve quality of life as much as women think that it might, said senior author Shelley Hwang, the institute's chief of breast surgery. She said that women continued to have anxiety about cancer, regardless of which surgery they had.

Studies over the past decade have shown a sharp increase in the use of double mastectomies  contralateral prophylactic mastectomies, or CPMs  to treat breast cancer in a single breast not caused by an inherited gene mutation. More than 11 percent of women had such surgeries in 2011, compared to just 1.9 percent in 1998, according to a 2014 study.

But unless a woman has a gene mutation that places her at significantly increased risk of a new cancer in the other breast, CPM doesnt prolong life, and our study shows that it doesnt make for a notably better quality of life, Hwang said.

Breast surgeons as a community are very worried about women using this kind of surgery to alleviate anxiety, she added. Surgery is meant to cure a biological problem, not make people feel less anxious.

Many women with cancer in one breast overestimate their risk of developing cancer in the other breast, which is actually low. Some doctors aren't adequately explaining the risks involved, she said.

Maybe we need to educate women better, she said, adding that double mastectomies carry their own risks, including possible numbness across the chest wall, chronic pain and repeated infections.

13 ways to help prevent cancer Show all 13 1 /13 13 ways to help prevent cancer 13 ways to help prevent cancer Stopping smoking. This notoriously difficult habit to break sees tar build-up in the lungs and DNA alteration and causes 15,558 cancer deaths a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Avoiding the sun, and the melanoma that comes with overexposure to harmful UV rays, could help conscientious shade-lovers dodge being one of the 7,220 people who die from it 13 ways to help prevent cancer A diet that is low in red meat can help to prevent bowel cancer, according to the research - with 30 grams a day recommended for men, and 25 a day recommended for women 13 ways to help prevent cancer Foods high in fibre, meanwhile, can further make for healthier bowels. Processed foods in developed countries appear to be causing higher rates of colon cancer than diets in continents such as Africa, which have high bean and pulse intakes 13 ways to help prevent cancer Two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day were given as the magic number for good diet in the research. Overall, diet causes only slightly fewer cancer deaths than sun exposure in Australia, at 7,000 a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Obesity and being overweight, linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, causes 3,917 deaths by cancer a year on its own Getty 13 ways to help prevent cancer Dying of a cancer caused by infection also comes in highly, linked to 3,421 cancer deaths a year. Infections such as human papilloma virus - which can cause cervical cancer in women - and hepatitis - can be prevented by vaccinations and having regular check-ups 13 ways to help prevent cancer Cutting back on drinks could reduce the risk of cancers caused by alcohol - such as liver cancer, bowel cancer, breast cancer and mouth cancer - that are leading to 3,208 deaths a year 2014 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Sitting around and not getting the heart pumping - less than one hour's exercise a day - is directly leading to about 1,800 people having lower immune functions and higher hormone levels, among other factors, that cause cancers 2011 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Hormone replacement therapy, which is used to relieve symptoms of the menopause in women, caused 539 deaths from (mainly breast) cancer in Australia last year. It did, however, prevent 52 cases of colorectal cancers 2003 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Insufficient breastfeeding, bizarrely, makes the top 10. Breastfeeding for 12 months could prevent 235 cancer cases a year, said the research AFP/Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Oral contraceptives, like the Pill, caused about 105 breast cancers and 52 cervical cancers - but it also prevented about 1,440 ovarian and uterine (womb) cases of cancer last year 2006 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Taking aspirin also prevented 232 cases in the Queensland research of colorectal and oesophagal cancers - but as it can also cause strokes, is not yet recommended as a formal treatment against the risk of cancer

To conduct the study, Hwang and other researchers surveyed 4,000 women who participate in the Army of Women, an organization that provides volunteers to researchers conducting breast-cancer research. All had undergone single or double mastectomies, and the researchers measured their physical and sexual well-being, as well as satisfaction in their appearance.

The Duke study, which was published online Monday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that women who had CPMs tended to be younger, with higher incomes and earlier-stage disease. The study also found that having breast reconstruction was the single most important factor in a better quality of life.

Hwang stressed that the research excluded women with a much higher cancer risk due to the presence of a genetic mutation, such as BRAC1 or 2. That's a totally different situation, she said.

The Duke study echoes the findings of a study presented last year at a conference of the American College of Surgeons. That study found that for younger women with early-stage, non-inherited cancer in one breast, a single mastectomy leads to a slightly higher quality of life and lower costs over the two decades, compared with CPMs.

The Washington Post
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Eurozone finance ministers celebrated in Brussels as Cyprus exited its bailout programme  the fourth EU country to do so, while Greeces creditors continued to stall over its latest rescue package.

The ministers, gathered for a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, confirmed that Cyprus would exit its three-year, 10bn (7.7bn) programme on 23 March. The IMFs president, Christine Lagarde, congratulated Cyprus on its accomplishments under the economic adjustment programme, which has delivered an impressive turnaround.

Cypruss bailout exit follows those of Ireland, Spain and Portugal, who were all offered aid packages in the wake of the economic downturn. Nicosia eventually only spent 7.25bn of the total 10bn earmarked in the bailout, and its economy returned to growth in 2015, a year earlier than its creditors foresaw.

Indeed, Cyprus has outperformed on almost every major economic indicator, as it has refocused its economy on tourism, shipping, construction and business services. Its debt is lower than forecast (106 per cent in 2015 rather than 126 per cent), it has a budget surplus (down from a 5.5 per cent deficit in 2013), and the current account is almost in balance.

The bailout was launched in March 2013, when Cypriot banks collapsed and the country imposed capital controls to prevent complete financial meltdown. While the economy slumped by 5.9 per cent in 2013 and shrank by another 2.5 per cent in 2014, provisional figures show that it rose by 1.4 per cent in 2015, and it is forecast to grow by 1.5 per cent this year.

The exit comes despite concerns that Cyprus failed to take steps towards the privatisation of the islands state-owned telecommunications operator, CYTA, when it was blocked in parliament. As a result, Cyprus will not receive the final 175m of its funds, and will only see a closure of the bailout programme at the end of the month, when the three-year rescue expires.

By contrast with Cyprus, Greece was yesterday caught in a new row between the EU and IMF over how strictly to hold Greece to the reform commitments of its own bailout. The Washington-based IMF is demanding that Athens agree reforms worth 9bn, or 4.5 per cent of GDP, before it signs off on its third bailout, worth up to 86bn in loans. But the EU  represented by the EUs rescue fund the European Stability Mechanism, the ECB and the European Commission  says the demands are unnecessary.

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, has accused the IMF of employing stalling tactics and arbitrary estimates to delay a reforms review crucial to unlock the bailout. However, both IMF and EU representatives are due in Athens today, suggesting they are moving closer to each others positions.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Eurogroup president, also indicated that talks could start as soon as April on Greek debt relief. Mr Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister, said the talks could start as soon as lenders verify Athens has carried out promised reforms.
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Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has been accused of damaging his institution's reputation by the Treasury Select Committee.

Carney appeared in front of the Committee to answer questions on the Bank of England's position on the EU referendum.

At the start of the meeting he confirmed to committee members that the Bank of England would not be giving a view on whether the UK should remain part of the EU in the referendum on June 23.

"We will not be making, and nothing we say should be interpreted as, any statement on the UKs membership of the European Union," Carney said.

But he was quickly accused of toeing a pro-EU line by Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said that he was being "speculative" and acting "beneath the dignity" of the Bank of England by pushing a pro-EU agenda.

"I will not let that stand," Carney replied.

During the debate, Mark Carney said that the EU had a positive effect on the economy at two points: when Britain joined the EEC and when the single market was created.

Carney said that the language used in the Bank of England's 19-page to the Treasury committee was "careful" and not "conclusive". That letter is available to read in full here.

Carney later said that there would be likely be "issues with financial stability" if the UK voted to leave the EU.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

"We will do everything we can in our power to ensure financial stability. In terms of shorter term instabilities that might arrive, we can mitigate that. We can take actions to get inflation back to target," he said.

"But thats not to say there would not be issues in the short term with financial stability. And that reduction in financial stability would be associated with poor economic outcomes as we have seen in the past."
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Npower is to cut thousands of jobs after reporting an annual loss of 137 million (106 million) compared to a profit of 227 million in 2014.

The German-owned company said its 11,500 employees will be reduced by 2,400, through a mix of those who work directly and indirectly for npower.

Its owner RWE earlier announced a loss of 637 million (492 million) in 2015, compared with a profit of 2.2 billion in 2014.

Npower lost 351,000 customers, or more than 6 per cent of its UK energy customers, in 2015.

It said in a statement it will make "extensive cost savings to help turn around the significant losses made in 2015 and return the company to profitability".

Paul Coffey, chief executive of RWE npower, said: "Npower results continue the trend seen earlier in 2015, but they are nonetheless extremely disappointing and we are starting a two-year process to fix them.

"They show a business that tried to do too much, too soon, while not focusing enough on the fundamentals in a constantly changing market. This led to over-complicated processes and procedures resulting in unhappy customers, too many complaints and extra costs to put things right.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

"These issues are not insurmountable. Over the past few months, we have looked at every part of npower, and over the next two years we're fundamentally changing how the company operates."

Npower warned that inaccurate bills would lead to additional problems in 2016.

In December, npower was ordered by the energy watchdog Ofgem to pay 26 million to customers for sending out inaccurate bills and not handling complaints correctly.

Professor David Elmes from Warwick Business School told the BBC that the job losses were the result of npower "returning to normal business" after it hired lots of extra staff to deal with billing issues last year.

"What we see here in the UK with Npower is a company that made some really quite serious mistakes in terms of implementing an IT system to bill customers, they ended up billing customers late or with the wrong information," Professor Elmes said.

"They've put that behind them and that some of the job losses are related to getting back to normal business after they took on a lot of extra people to sort out the problem," he added.
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Sainsbury's is winning the supermarket wars, according to the latest data from Kantar World Panel, a market research company.

Sainsbury's is leading the fight back against discount chains Aldi and Lidl. It was the only one of the big four - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda - to grow sales in the 12 weeks ending February 28. That gives it the longest run of sales growth for any of the main retailers since March 2013.

Its 0.5% sales rise matched that of the overall market, though Kantar said this was still being held back by the ongoing price war and food deflation. Food prices are down 1.6 per cent across the board.

The data shows that Tesco is making some progress with a turnaround plan that has slowed its declinning sales.

Tesco sales dropped 0.8 per cent in the 12 weeks ending February 28 versus a 1.6 per cent decline the previous month.

Kantar's head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: A renewed focus on price promotions has helped stem the flow of shoppers leaving the retailer despite the closure of around 50 stores in the last year.

Under chief executive Dave Lewis, Tesco is attempting to come back from a string of profit warnings and an accounting scandal. It is also trying to stave off the threat of discounters Aldi and Lidl, which are increasingly encroaching on traditional grocers' territory.

The supermarket, Britain's biggest, surprised at Christmas with a better-than-expected 1.3 per cent rise in sales.

The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 Show all 20 1 /20 The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 1. British Airways British Airways has come top of a list of the best British brands for third year in the row. The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 2. Rolex Rolex retained second position, also for the third year running, but faced increasing competition from third placed LEGO The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 3. Lego LEGO jumped up eight places in 2016 The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 4. Dyson Dyson, the electronic goods specialist, climbed ten places to fourth, its highest ever position in the survey, following a high profile advertising campaign fronted by eponymous entrepreneur James Dyson The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 5. Gillette The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 6. Mercedes-Benz Mercedes Benz only sent 55 C55 AMG estates to the UK in right-hand drive The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 7. Apple Core values: Apple was ordered to pay $625.6m by a court in East Texas The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 8. Jaguar The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 9. Kellog's The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 10. Andrex Andrex puppy: Soft, strong and very long... no wait, thats the product, not the pup. Very sweet, though The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 11. Nike The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 12. Heinz Heinz, Jaguar and Marks & Spencer all re-entered the top 20, replacing Boots, BMW and Fairy. The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 13. Coca-Cola The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 14. John Lewis John Lewis' festive advert features a girl, Lily, who connects by telescope with an old man alone on the Moon The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 15. Haagen-Dazs 5. Haagen-Dazs chocolate fondant 3.29 for 200ml, tesco.com Overwhelmingly chocolatey  with both chocolate ice cream, sauce and brownies in the mix. Just don't eat more than one. The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 16. Google Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 17. Virgin Atlantic Winging it: behind-the-scenes documentary 'Virgin Atlantic: Up in the Air' ITV The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 18. Marks & Spencer Getty The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 19. Amazon.co.uk AFP The 20 best-loved British brands in 2016 20. Microsoft The biggest faller within the Top 20 was US tech giant Microsoft, which dropped 16 places. Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Grocers have dropped their prices to compete with Aldi and Lidl, where sales were up 15.1 per cent and 18.9 per cent, respectively.

There was however an increase in spending on chocolate, flowers and sparkling wine as shoppers stocked up for Valentine's Day and in preparation for Easter.

The Co-operative also made some progress. Sales jumped 1.9 per cent and the grocer increased its market share to 6 per cent thanks to an increase in shopper frequency.
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Thomas Cook has cancelled all flights to Sharm el-Sheikh until at least October 31, extending a travel ban to the region that was expected to last until the end of May.

The travel operator has extended the ban on security concerns despite no change in travel advice from the UK's Foreign Office.

Thomas Cook said in a statement: We appreciate that this may be frustrating for our customers who have been looking forward to their holiday and we would like to assure them that we are doing our upmost to ensure they are still able to enjoy a Thomas Cook holiday."

Customers who had booked to travel to Sharm el-Sheikh before the end of October are able to cancel or change their booking to another destination free of charge.

The Foreign Office imposed a ban on UK airlines flying in and out of Sharm el Sheikh in January, on security concerns about the airport.

The ban came after a holiday flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg came down in the Sinai desert with the loss of all 224 people on board. The Russian government says a bomb was planted on the Airbus while it was on the ground at the resorts airport.
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The life and murder of Berta Caceres reflected the title of her fellow Latin American Gabriel Garcia Marquezs famous novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. The Honduran activist, for the environment and the human rights of her indigenous Lenca people, long knew her days might well be numbered. Honduras has the unenviable reputation as the worlds most lethal country for environmental activists, with more than 100 murdered over the last five years, including several during the last two months.

I fear for my life, she told the newspaper El Universo last year. Honduras is a country of total impunity. No one cares if they kill us. Its not that we want to be Rambo, but this is a vital fight for our ecosystem, for our home. At the time, she lived an Arafatesque life, rarely staying in the same house for more than one night and not speaking on the phone for fear of assassination. She said she was being constantly watched by police or government agents.

Having taken on big business, landowners, developers and thereby her government which backs them, Caceres, a 40-year-old mother of four, had received many rape or death threats. But she said she would fight on and called on other campaigners to do so. Given the worldwide reaction to her murder, they surely will. Hundreds of Hondurans took to the streets after her death and supporters around the world, including recent Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio, condemned the killing.

Recommended Read more Hondurian activist killed in own home over opposition to electric dam

The government had promised to protect her and police had been posted around her home at El Calvario, near the capital, Tegucigalpa, until two months ago. But they were nowhere to been seen around her family home in La Esperanza, in the Intibuca district 150 miles west of the capital, when she was killed there. They claimed she had not told them she had moved.

How the hitmen, at least two of them, managed to break down her door and pump four bullets into her is being investigated, if the government is to be taken at its word. Her fellow activists said a Honduran investigation would have zero credibility and that it should be an international one. A government minister said she had asked the police to move away from her door because they bothered her.

Her family and fellow activists question that, noting that many of Hondurass notorious political killings in recent years were carried out by hitmen alleged to have links with the police or army. The government said it was a burglary, but nothing was taken other than her life; and her brother, with her at the time, was only slightly wounded as he tried to protect her.

As if anyone needed reminding, her murder brought back to Honduras the dark days of the 1980s Central American guerrilla wars, in which they and their neighbours fought to rid themselves of dictators backed by the US. Many of those who died in that era were, like Caceres, from the native Lenca, the largest indigenous group in Honduras. Although she was a child at the time, she witnessed much of the horror.

The motive for her killing was almost certainly the fact that she had co-founded a group called the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH), on behalf of the natives who had been in the Central American nation long before the Spanish conquistadors arrived.

More specifically and recently, she had been campaigning against wealthy plantation owners, illegal loggers and a hydroelectric project which threatened the lands and lives of the Lenca people, including what to them is a sacred river. She had kept the project stalled until her death.

I cannot freely walk on my territory or swim in the sacred river and I am separated from my children because of the threats, she told an interviewer [three of her four children live in exile abroad]. I cannot live in peace, I am always thinking about being killed or kidnapped.

But I refuse to go into exile. I am a human rights fighter and I will not give up this fight. But in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable. When they want to kill me, they will do it.

After her death, Leonardo DiCaprio, who had called for environmental activism in his Oscar-winners speech last Sunday, said: This is incredibly sad news from Honduras. The world has lost an incredible leader. We should all honour the brave contribution of Berta Caceres  ecologist, humanitarian and inspiration for all.

Last year, Caceres was one of six winners of the global Goldman Environmental Prize  often described as The Green Nobel  for her opposition to the Agua Zarca dam project in the Gualcarque river basin, which includes German, Dutch and Finnish investment. One of the other prize winners was Howard Wood of Arran in Scotland for his campaign for a community-developed marine protection area. After receiving her prize, Caceres told The Guardian: We must undertake the struggle in all parts of the world, wherever we may be, because we have no other spare or replacement planet. We have only this one, and we have to take action.

PHIL DAVISON

Berta Isabel Caceres Flores, human rights and environmental activist: born La Esperanza, Honduras 4 March 1973; four children; died La Esperanza 3 March 2016.
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A luxury hotel in France has turned down a booking from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry saying it would be unethical to cancel existing reservations to make way for the Royals.

Le Hotel Marotte in Amiens said it would not be able to accommodate the Royals while they represent Britain at the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in France, as they were "already booked solid".

The Royal Family and their aides are understood to have requested four suites for two nights between 30 June and 1 July at the only five-star hotel near the battlefields, according to French newspaper Courrier Picard.

The hotel's manager, Oliver Walti, told the paper they were contacted by the French Foreign Ministry in January about the suites, but were unable to accept the offer.

Royal skiing holiday in French Alps Show all 6 1 /6 Royal skiing holiday in French Alps Royal skiing holiday in French Alps Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, with their children, Princess Charlotte and Prince George, enjoy a short private skiing break in the French Alps Reuters Royal skiing holiday in French Alps The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after she threw a snowball at him during a short private break skiing in the French Alps Royal skiing holiday in French Alps The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after she threw a snowball at him during a short private break skiing in the French Alps Royal skiing holiday in French Alps The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walk together during a short private break skiing in the French Alps Royal skiing holiday in French Alps The Duke of Cambridge cuddles Princess Charlotte, as they enjoy a short private break skiing in the French Alps 2016 Getty Images Royal skiing holiday in French Alps The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, during a short private break skiing in the French Alps

The Foreign Ministry has contacted us in January to see if we were able to accommodate the Royal Family on the occasion of the Somme commemorations," said Mr Walti.

"We had to decline the offer, it is impossible, we are already booked solid.

We could not tell people who have booked with us for months and who have already paid for their stay, sorry, but the Royal Family is coming, we will have to cancel. Its just unthinkable ethically.

Estelle Walti, who runs the hotel with her husband, told the Daily Mail: Weve been booked up for this period for a month, so unfortunately we couldnt help them.

"Its not because we didnt want the Royals here - its just that we werent going to let other customers down.

The hotel, which describes itself a 5 star boutique hotel has twelve rooms in both traditional and modern buildings, which cost up to 350-a-night.

 Royal holiday

According to Courrier Piccard, it provides services such as a luggage valet, round the clock room service and rose petals and warm dressing gowns on demand.

The hotel has previously accommodated two heads of state and celebrities such as Lenny Kravitz.

According to Tripadvisor there are no available rooms in Amiens over the two nights the Royals are expected to be in the city, with many rooms being booked up over a year in advance in anticipation of the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

Hundreds of people including royals, politicians and relatives of those who died in the 1916 battle are due to arrive in the city for the occasion commemorating one of the largest battles of the First World War fought by the British and French armies against the German Empire on both sides of the River Somme.
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Each year International Womens Day reminds us of how far women still have to go.

The World Economic Forum estimates the gender pay gap will not close until 2133, the current figure of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their life is one-third and only a fifth of parliamentary seats across the world are held by women.

When continuing with the fight for equal rights, it can be inspiring to remember the women before us who put the issue of their rights on the map. When IWD is marked, prominent feminists who have advanced the cause are celebrated. Game-changing icons that instantly spring to mind include Mary Wollstonecraft, the Pankhurst sisters and Gloria Steinem, for example.

While their impact is immeasurable, there are also lesser known women who the women of today should thank for their fights to secure even the most basic of freedoms.

Dr Stella Moss, a Lecturer in History at Royal Holloway, University of London and Dr Red Chidgey, a Lecturer in Gender and Media at Kings College, London, spoke to the Independent about less recognised women who fought tirelessly for gender equality and women's issues.

Charlotte Despard (1844-1939)

Charlotte Despard Creative Commons (Creative Commons)

While the WSPU (Womens Social and Political Union) and the NUWSS (National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies) are widely remembered as forces which campaigned for female suffrage in the 19th and 20th centuries, another group should also be remembered: The Womens Freedom League.

Anglo-Irish Suffragette Despard, along with Teresa Billington-Greig, formed the group after becoming disillusioned with the autocratic leadership style of the WSPU. Less militant than the suffragettes, the group adopted more constitutional methods of protest, according to Dr Moss.

One protest was the census evasion of 1911, Despard encouraged women to boycott the census on the grounds of being expected to participate in the government record while still without the vote.

When the WSPU halted protests to help with the war effort during the First World War, Despard continued to campaign for the equal treatment of women during wartime, says Dr Moss. She remained politically active until her death also joining the fight against fascism in the 1930s and campaigning for an independent Ireland

Despard deserves to be better remembered today for the significant contribution she made to the campaign for womens voting rights, as well as her tireless efforts towards social and economic justice for women after the franchise had been won, Dr Moss says, Even into her nineties, she continued to press for womens equal rights.

Lady Rhondda (1883-1958)

Margaret Mackworth, who became better known as Lady Rhondda, was a key figure in fighting for all women to have the vote, even after the legislation of 1918.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 only enabled married women over 30 to vote and this was something Newport-born Lady Rhondda believed needed to change. She continued to lobby for change and in 1928 the 1918 act was expanded to include completely equal franchise rights.

Voting aside, she lobbied for equal pay, the equal treatment for women in employment, and the social and economic reforms this led to is something Dr Moss believes paved the way for the landmark 1970 Equal Pay act and 1975 Sex Discrimination Act.

She founded feminist publication Time and Tide in 1920 and took over as editor from 1926 until her death in 1958.

Lady Rhondda merits greater recognition for the immense work she did in the mid-twentieth century in securing fairer treatment for women, especially in the workplace, Dr Moss says. Though the feminist movement is often thought to have collapsed after the vote was won and remained dormant until the 1960s Womens Liberation movement, the significant contribution of women like Lady Rhondda reveals a broader, more expansive history of feminist campaigning in Britain.

Helen Brook (1907-1997)

Brook (Brook)

Dr Chidgey credits Brook as a pioneer in the field of sexual health advice for young people  something that is evident by the Brook sexual health charity centres, founded by Brook, which still exist today.

In the 1950s Brook volunteered with the local family planning centre before opening her own service in 1964 which specifically targeted young, unmarried women despite both the societal stigma they faced and barriers that prevented them accessing contraception advice. The clinic faced controversy but continued to provide an extremely important service, especially considering the worrying number of dangerous backstreet abortions (abortion wasnt legalised in the UK until 1967).

Against the backdrop of fatal backstreet abortions, and three years before the Family Planning Act permitted local health authorities to give birth control advice, regardless of marital status, the Brook Advisory Centre took a pragmatic view, Dr Chidgey says.

Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Show all 22 1 /22 Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Katharine Hepburn I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Betty Friedan No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Maya Angelou I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Emmeline Pankhurst I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody elses equal rights, its our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America." AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Nawal El Saadawi They said, You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Germaine Greer All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Naomi Wolf A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Atwood Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feministso many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sexbut what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Bette Davis When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Jane Austen I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Gloria Steinem A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Anais Nin I hate men who are afraid of women's strength Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Elizabeth Warren I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut womens access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Malala Yousafzai In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education  Is the power for women, and thats why the terrorists are afraid of education Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world" Getty Images

Olive Morris (1952-1979)

Jamaican-born Morris moved to the UK as a child. A member of the Black British panthers, she campaigned to advance the rights of Black British women, co-founding the Brixton Black Womens Group and the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent.

In the face of discrimination for both their skin colour and gender, the groups campaigned on issues like equal access to education, decent living conditions, police brutality, domestic violence and reproductive rights.

Too often women of colour are left on the sideline when talking about feminist history, Dr Chidgey says. Morris achieved so much in her short life. She died of Hodgkin Lymphoma in 1979.

When remembering Olive, theres one word that comes to mind: fearless, Dr Chidgey summarises.

Dorothy Height (1912-2010)

Dorothy Height in 2005 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Across the pond, Height was leader of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, combing her fight against racism and the entrenched segregation in the Deep South with her fight for gender equality.

Stood just a mere few feet away from Dr Martin Luther King on the podium when he gave his landmark I Have a Dream speech in 1963, Height was often the only woman in the civil rights movements inner circle.

She organised Wednesdays in Mississippi - a weekly meeting which brought black and white women together in an attempt to build bridges.

During her time at the National Council she organised programmes to help African-American women, including voter registration drives and childcare, housing and career schemes, reports the Washington Post.

Throughout her life she continued to press the issue of equal pay for men and women and was invited by President Kennedy to witness the signing of the Equal Pay Act in 1963.
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On International Womens Day it is important to remember the women who tirelessly campaigned for even the most basic of freedoms which are easily taken for granted today.

That seems to be what many people are doing today. According to Google Trends the two most searched for individuals on International Womens Day are Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony - two prominent US Suffragists.

The 19th amendment, which ruled no US citizen can be barred from voting on the basis of sex, was passed in 1920. This was two years after the Representation of the People Act was passed in the UK which allowed women who owned property or were married to property owners to vote. The suffrage was then extended to all women in 1928.

Together Stanton and Anthony were a force to be reckoned with. They co-founded organisations including the Womens Loyal National League, the American Equal Rights Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association. As well as campaigning for womens rights, both Stanton and Anthony were prominent activists for abolishing slavery.

Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Show all 22 1 /22 Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Katharine Hepburn I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Betty Friedan No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Maya Angelou I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Emmeline Pankhurst I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody elses equal rights, its our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America." AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Nawal El Saadawi They said, You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Germaine Greer All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Naomi Wolf A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Atwood Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feministso many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sexbut what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Bette Davis When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Jane Austen I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Gloria Steinem A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Anais Nin I hate men who are afraid of women's strength Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Elizabeth Warren I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut womens access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Malala Yousafzai In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education  Is the power for women, and thats why the terrorists are afraid of education Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world" Getty Images

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1892 until 1900. Stanton travelled across the US giving speeches and urged young women to get an education. She also lobbied on property rights, employment rights and divorce reform for women. She became the first woman to run for congress in 1866. Although unsuccessful, she paved the way for many future female politicians.

It was her stirring speeches which grabbed attention, such as the speech on destructive male given in 1868 at the Womens Suffrage Convention where she advocated womens involvement in decision-making to counter that of mens and called a mans government civil, religious and social disorganisation.

Elizabeth Stanton (Creative commons)

Society is but the reflection of man himself, untempered by womans thought; the hard iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state and the home.

No one need wonder at the disorganisation, at the fragmentary condition of everything, when we remember that man, who represents but half a complete being, with but half an idea on every subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all sublunary matters.

Susan B. Anthony met Stanton in the 1850s. As well as the issue of female suffrage, Anthony lobbied for equal education opportunities and equal pay. She also campaigned for property rights and equality within marriage - in 1860 the New York Married Womans Property Bill was enshrined allowing women to have their own property and custody of their children.

Susan B. Anthony (creative commons)

In 1872, Antony gained widespread public interest after she was the subject of a court case for attempting to vote in the presidential election. She was found guilty of illegal voting but used the platform to embark on a speaking tour, ensuring as many people as possible heard her side of the story.

Stanton and Anthony became lifelong friends and after Stantons death in 1902, she apparently told a reporter: For fifty years there has been an unbroken friendship between us. When asked what period of their lives they enjoyed the most, she said: The days when the struggle was the hardest and the fight the thickest; when the whole world was against us and we had to stand the closer to each other.
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When the identity of the tattooed dead man found tied to a supermarket trolley and dumped in a north London canal was discovered to be an Italian art thief, it invited all sorts of lurid theories. Was it a Mafia hit or a long-running feud over criminal loot?

The more mundane and grubby truth surrounding the death of Sebastiano Magnanini emerged yesterday as the final hours of the struggling addict were revealed to have involved a fatal quest for a deadly hit of class A drugs in north London  and his exploitation by a group of petty criminals.

Mr Magnaninis misfortune was to have met Michael Walsh, 41, who took the man from Venice back to his flat where they took heroin and crack cocaine. As the freelance carpenter apparently lay in a drug-induced stupor, Walsh and another man  attracted by the lure of new trainers and a tracksuit  took his bank card and stole nearly 2,000 from his account.

Recommended Read more Two arrested over murder of homeless man found burning in tent

When Walsh returned to the flat and found the 46-year-old dead, he panicked and disposed of the body with another accomplice in a north London canal, a court heard yesterday.

The two men were captured on CCTV pushing the trolley to the canal and then weighing the body down with weights, Scotland Yard said. The body was found soon afterwards.

The incompetent crime had echoes of Mr Magnaninis own blighted criminal past. The Italian was jailed for 18 months in 1998 for the theft of a valuable painting  a 1732 work by the Rococo master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo  from a church in his native Venice.

Michael Walsh gave Mr Magnanini heroin and crack cocaine before taking his bank card (PA)

That operation to steal The Education of the Virgin was ham fisted. Mr Magnanini was one of two men who evaded rudimentary security but when their knife proved unsuitable for the job, they went to find a third man.

During the night, the trio went for a drink in a local bar before returning to the church where they smoked joints while carrying out the work.

The trail of clues meant that the slightly damaged painting was recovered within three months from a warehouse and the group caught.

Since then, Mr Magnanini had been involved only in petty crime and had travelled widely  to Colombia, Cambodia and Thailand, according to his friends.

He had subsequently spent his time between Italy and Britain where he worked as a freelance carpenter. His friends described him as a free spirit, though while he had struggled with his addiction, he had contacted friends to tell them that he wanted to retrain as a journalist in London.

Police were able to follow his trail after leaving work in southwest London in September last year as he travelled across the capital using public transport to arrive in north London.

His body found near a tunnel on the Regents Canal in north London. His hands and feet had been tied together in the foetal position and the trolley was weighed down with dumb-bells, Blackfriars Crown Court was told.

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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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He was eventually identified from fingerprint checks after Scotland Yard released details about his tattoos, including a lizard and a fish on his torso, to try to find out who he was.

Walsh was yesterday jailed for four years for preventing the lawful burial of Mr Magnaninis body. Paul Williams, 64, who helped him dispose of the body was jailed for two years. Daniel Hastie, 22, who helped clear the Italians bank account, was jailed for a year.

Judge John Hillen told them: There are two matters of concern to the court, the disrespect shown to the mortal remains of a fellow human being and disregard for the dignity of the person that that body represents and the family and friends of that person.

Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Reeves, of Scotland Yard, said: Walsh and Williams showed a callous disregard for the consequences of their actions and Walsh stole from a man who was either dead or dying.

If they had been successful in concealing Sebastianos body, his family would have had to endure even longer than they did without knowing where he was or what had happened to him.
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Two former NHS nurses have been captured on camera offering to inject Botox illegally as part of a BBC investigation revealing the alarming scale of the uncontrolled cosmetic business operating beyond the law.

Both men were struck off the nursing register for other misdemeanours but they have continued to hold Botox parties across the West Midlands, according to BBC Ones Inside Out.

The revelations highlight the need for better regulation of the non-surgical cosmetic industry which experts have warned is a crisis waiting to happen because of the lack of consumer protection and licensing, and the rise in unscrupulous practitioners.

One of the former nurses, Jonathan Henk, who calls himself Jonny Botox, offered to inject a reporter posing as a customer in her own kitchen, telling her that he has been a nurse for 26 years when in fact he was struck off in 2012 for having sex with a vulnerable patient when he was a psychiatric nurse, the BBC alleged.

Mr Henk has never held the nursing qualifications needed to prescribe any drugs, including Botox, which is a prescription-only medicine used to relax the facial muscles involved in skin wrinkling, the corporation said.

One of Mr Henks customers, a 52-year-old woman from Tamworth called Diane, complained about the treatment she received from him.

Diane, a former customer of Jonathan Henk, said she had headaches after the treatment (BBC)

I had headaches on the night and for a couple of days after. It felt like someone had put an axe in my head.Im devastated, I trusted him to do treatment on my face, she said.

Reporters for the programme spoke to ten former patients who said they were unhappy with the treatment they received from Mr Henk. They complained of being left in pain, and some had swollen foreheads after the injections.

When the BBC interviewed Mr Henk, he admitted that he should not have prescribed Botox  which is a criminal offence if the prescriber is struck off or unqualified  and said that some customers had complained that it had not worked.

I only know one person who was really unhappy.If they are unhappy with the service and they want a refund, thats fine, Mr Henk told the BBC.

The second nurse, James Kearsey, is suspended from the nursing register for hiding a conviction of assault from his hospital bosses, the programme alleges. He was also caught on camera offering the BBC reporter Botox injections at his home clinic in Stourbridge.

Although some nurses can prescribe Botox legally if they have the necessary prescribing diploma, they are not legally allowed to do so if they lack the qualification or if they have been struck off the nursing register.

The BBC alleges that Mr Kersey illegally prescribed Botox, which he stores at his home. He has repeatedly refused to respond to requests for a statement or interview from the programme makers, the BBC said.

James Kearsey secretly filmed by the BBC programme (Jacqui Meddings)

The BBC repeatedly approached James Kearsey in writing and then in person but hes refused to comment on the allegations, said a BBC spokeswoman.

Rajiv Grover, former president of the British Association for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said Botox can only be given to someone on prescription, although it can actually be administered by anyone without medical qualifications.

If they are struck off, they are breaking the law if the prescribe it. If they are not a suitably qualified medical professional, its a criminal office, Dr Grover said.

In addition to Botox injections, which are supposed to eliminate unwanted wrinkles, the other uncontrolled area of cosmetic treatment is the injection of dermal fillers, which are supposed to fill out the fatty areas of the skin lost through ageing.

As things stand at the moment, my dog has better protection in law than patients undergoing dermal-filling treatment, Dr Grover said.

A Government review on the cosmetic industry published in 2013 pointed out that non-surgical treatment  namely Botox injections and dermal fillers  is largely beyond any regulations or control.

In fact, a person having a non-surgical cosmetic intervention has no more protection and redress than someone buying a ballpoint pen or a toothbrush, said Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS Medical Director, in his foreword to the 2013 report.

It is estimated that the business of cosmetic surgery and other non-surgical interventions is worth about 3.6bn a year, much of which is almost entirely unregulated, Sir Bruce said.

Inside Out, BBC One, 7.30pm
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Legalising the sale of cannabis in specialist shops would generate 1bn a year in tax revenue and reduce the harm done to users and society, according to the most detailed plans ever drawn up for the liberalisation of UK drug laws.

The study, which was carried out by a panel of experts including scientists, academics and police chiefs, calls for the UK to follow the lead of some US states and allow the sale of cannabis to over-18s in licensed retail stores.

The reports conclusions will form the basis of a new drugs policy being drawn up by the Liberal Democrat Party, which is expected to debate the issue at its spring conference later this week.

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Under the plans proposed by the expert panel:

Adults would be able to buy cannabis from licensed single-purpose stores modelled on pharmacies, like the marijuana dispensaries operating in Oregon and Colorado.

Home-cultivation of cannabis would also be legal for personal use and small-scale licensed cannabis social clubs could be established. However, branding, promoting or advertising cannabis products would be banned.

The price, potency and packaging of all sold cannabis would be controlled by the Government with a new regulator established to oversee the market. The price would disproportionately rise for higher-strength cannabis to discourage sales of the most harmful forms of the drug.

Both drug production and sales would be taxed, raising, the panel claims, between 500m and 1bn a year. However, unlike some countries that have legalised cannabis, the panel does not come out in favour of ring-fencing the revenue for drug treatment, prevention and harm reduction.

A new regulator would be established to oversee the market, possibly modelled on Ofgem and Ofwat.

The experts behind the study say legalisation would reduce drug-related crime and mitigate the harmful effects of the drug on users.

The panel was set up last year by the former Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb and has been chaired by Steve Rolles, from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

The report's key recommendations Allowing the sale of cannabis to over-18s from specialist, licensed stores. The report proposes allowing home-cultivation for personal use and small-scale licensed cannabis social clubs.

A new regulator to oversee the market.

Regulation around the price, potency and packaging of cannabis from retailers, with policy informed by best practice in tobacco and alcohol regulation.

Single-purpose outlets to sell cannabis modelled on pharmacies.

Cannabis to be sold over the counter by licensed vendors, in plain packaging with clear health and risk reduction information.

Other panel members include Mike Barton, the Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary, Professor David Nutt, the former chair of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, and Niamh Eastwood, executive director of the drugs charity Release. In the report, the authors say that while they do not dispute that taking cannabis is harmful  legalisation and regulation is a better way to mitigate the risks.

Drug policy to date has (almost) always been driven by political and ideological agendas that have ignored scientific, public health and social policy norms, they write.

We are fully aware of the health harms associated with cannabis use, but contend that a rational policy must pragmatically manage the reality of use as it currently exists, rather than attempt to eradicate it using punitive enforcement.

 USA: Sanders calls for an end to federal marijuana prohibition

This, they said, was an approach that, however well intentioned, has historically proved to be ineffective and counterproductive.

Mr Rolles said the reality was that millions of people used cannabis anyway, and there was a pressing need for Government to take control of the trade from gangsters and unregulated dealers.

Legal regulation is now working well, despite the fear-mongering, in Colorado and Washington, and will roll out across the US over the coming years, he said.

Where cannabis is and isn't legal Show all 10 1 /10 Where cannabis is and isn't legal Where cannabis is and isn't legal UK Having been reclassified in 2009 from a Class C to a Class B drug, cannabis is now the most used illegal drug within the United Kingdom. The UK is also, however, the only country where Sativex  a prescribed drug that helps to combat muscle spasms in multiple sclerosis and contains some ingredients that are also found in cannabis - is licensed as a treatment Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal North Korea Although many people believe the consumption of cannabis in North Korea to be legal, the official law regarding the drug has never been made entirely clear whilst under Kim Jong Uns regime. However, it is said that the North Korean leader himself has openly said that he does not consider cannabis to be a drug and his regime doesnt take any issue with the consumption or sale of the drug MARCEL VAN HOORN/AFP/Getty Images Where cannabis is and isn't legal Netherlands In the Netherlands smoking cannabis is legal, given that it is smoked within the designated smoking areas and you dont possess more than 5 grams for personal use. It is also legal to sell the substance, but only in specified coffee shops Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal USA Although in some states of America cannabis has now been legalised, prior to the legalisation, police in the U.S. could make a marijuana-related arrest every 42 seconds, according to US News and World Report. The country also used to spend around $3.6 billion a year enforcing marijuana law, the American Civil Liberties Union notes AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Where cannabis is and isn't legal Spain Despite cannabis being officially illegal in Spain, the European hotspot has recently started to be branded, the new Amsterdam. This is because across Spain there are over 700 Cannabis Clubs  these are considered legal venues to consume cannabis in because the consumption of the drug is in private, and not in public. These figures have risen dramatically in the last three years  in 2010 there were just 40 Cannabis Clubs in the whole of Spain. Recent figures also show that in Catalonia alone there are 165,000 registered members of cannabis clubs  this amounts to over 5 million euros (4 million) in revenue each month Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Uruguay In December 2013, the House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill legalizing and regulating the production and sale of the drug. But the president has since postponed the legalization of cannabis until to 2015 and when it is made legal, it will be the authorities who will grow the cannabis that can be sold legally. Buyers must be 18 or older, residents of Uruguay, and must register with the authorities Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Pakistan Despite the fact that laws prohibiting the sale and misuse of cannabis exist and is considered a habit only entertained by lower-income groups, it is very rarely enforced. The occasional use of cannabis in community gatherings is broadly tolerated as a centuries old custom. The open use of cannabis by Sufis and Hindus as a means to induce euphoria has never been challenged by the state. Further, large tracts of cannabis grow unchecked in the wild Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Portugal In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the use of all drugs, and started treating drug users as sick people, instead of criminals. However, you can still be arrested or assigned mandatory rehab if you are caught several times in possession of drugs Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Puerto Rico Although the use of cannabis is currently illegal, it is said that Puerto Rico are in the process of decriminalising it RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images Where cannabis is and isn't legal China Cannabis is grown in the wild and has been used to treat conditions such as gout and malaria. But, officially the substance is illegal to consume, possess and sell Getty

But other drug experts were less enthusiastic. Harry Shapiro of the charity DrugWise, said that while there was a case to decriminalise cannabis and make possession of small quantities of the drug a civil offence like a parking fine, any further moves should only go ahead with caution.

There is a strong case to be prudent and see what happens elsewhere before making decisions in this country, he said.

However, the paper is likely to prompt the Liberal Democrats to become the first British political party to come out in favour of legalisation.

At the last election, the Green Party advocated setting up a Royal Commission to review currently controlled drug classifications, within a legalised environment of drug use.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said he was now convinced that the prohibition of cannabis had failed. We need a new, smarter approach and I welcome this report ahead of the debate at spring conference, he said.

It is waste of police time to go after young people using cannabis and ludicrous to saddle them with criminal convictions that can damage their future careers.

A legal market would allow us to have more control over what is sold, and raise a considerable amount in taxation.

I have always said that we must have an evidence-led approach to drugs law reform, and this report should be taken seriously. Britain has to end our failed war on drugs. The status quo causes huge damage and we urgently need reform.
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More than 3,500 migrants were detained in wholly unacceptable conditions lacking in human decency after crossing the English Channel at the height of last summers crisis, a new report says.

Inspectors criticised conditions at short-term immigration holding centres in Kent used to confine those who attempt to gain entry into the country without being detected.

The figures emerged as European Union leaders were set to cave in to fresh demands from Turkey for an extra 3bn in aid  double their previous agreed figure  in exchange for help preventing Syrian refugees from leaving Turkish soil.

The last-minute demands came while they met at a summit in Brussels as leaders tried to agree measures to halt the flow of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.

Last years refugee crisis led to a 126 per cent increase in detentions at the UKs main holding facility at Dover Seaport last year, the report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) says. In the first nine months of 2014, there were 2,118 detentions, while in 2015 the figure had increased to 4,785.

In the three months to the end of September alone, there had been 2,781 detentions. In addition, 822 men were held at an overflow facility in Folkestone called Frontier House. The combined total is equivalent to 40 people being stopped every day.

 David Cameron refers to Calais as 'bunch of migrants'

Throughout the summer migrants massed in Calais made thousands of attempts to reach Britain, with a number dying as they tried to make the journey. The crisis was said to have cost the economy millions of pounds as hauliers were forced to dispose of contaminated goods and wait in lengthy queues on the M20 in Kent.

HMIP described the response to high numbers of migrants arriving through the Channel Tunnel as inadequate, saying the basic physical needs of detainees were not met and conditions lacked decency. Their report said the Dover Seaport facility was crowded, poorly ventilated and smelled badly.

A child stands among razor-wire fencing on the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni (AFP)

It was not designed to hold people for more than a few hours but over the summer detainees were held for an average of 18 hours. The holding room had religious books and a prayer mat, but no compass to indicate the direction of Mecca.

Conditions were equally poor at Frontier House where there was nowhere suitable to rest, no shower facilities and no windows at while the pay phone did not work.

Chief Inspector Peter Clarke said: There is no doubt that the increases in migration initially overwhelmed the existing facilities and an emergency response was required.

This inspection took place some months after that emergency response was initiated and it was unacceptable that arrangements were still not in place to process detainees quickly, efficiently and decently, while ensuring that the most vulnerable, such as children, were safe and that the basic physical needs of all detainees for food, rest and clothing were met.

The refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 70 1 /70 The refugee crisis - in pictures The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Syrian refugee holding a baby in a lifetube swims towards the shore after their dinghy deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A refugee raises a child into the air as Syrian and Afghan refugees are seen on and around a dinghy that deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Syrian and Afghan refugees fall into the sea after their dinghy deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A refugee cries as he holds a child on the Serbian side of the border with Hungary in Asotthalom Reuters The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees stand in front of a barrier at the border with Hungary near the village of Horgos, Serbia Reuters The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A refugee from Syria prays after arriving on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos aboard an inflatable dinghy across the Aegean Sea from from Turkey. Greece sent troops and police reinforcements to Lesbos after renewed clashes between police and migrants, the public broadcaster said, while Syrian refugees on the island were targeted with Molotov cocktail attacks The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Police try to stop refugees going under a fence to board a train at a station near Gevgelija, Macedonia. Several thousand refugees in Macedonia boarded trains to travel north after spending a night in a provisional camp. Macedonia has organised trains twice a day to the north border where they cross into Serbia to make their way to Hungary The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees push each other as they try to board a bus following their arrival onboard the Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Greece The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees are welcomed by locals after their arrival at the main railway station in Frankfurt, Germany. Over 1,000 more refugees arrived in Germany to cheers and "welcome" signs, but calls grew for a European solution to its worst refugee crisis since World War II The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A young Syrian boy arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing in a dinghy with other refugees from Turkey AP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees walk on the railway tracks between Bicske and Szar, some 40 kms west of Budapest, trying to reach Germany EPA The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Hungarian policemen stand by the family of refugees as they wanted to run away at the railway station in the town of Bicske, Hungary The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A family is arrested by local police after their local train coming from Budapest and heading to the Austrian border has been stopped in Bicske, west of the Hungarian capital The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A man is arrested by local police after his local train coming from Budapest and heading to the Austrian border has been stopped in Bicske, west of the Hungarian capital The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict More than 2,500 refugees have died trying to reach Europe this year and the struggle continues as they travel through the continent Getty Images The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees protest in front of a train at Bicske railway station. Hundreds of people, were stranded on a train in Hungary for a second, demanding passage to Germany in a standoff with riot police The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Syrian refugees arrive on the shores of Lesvos island Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Syrian refugees on the Greek Macedonian border Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees storm into a train at the Keleti train station as Hungarian police withdrew from the gates after two days of blocking their entry The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees storm into a train at the Keleti train station in Budapest The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees cross the border between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece, near the town of Gevgelija, Macedonia. The Gevgelija-Presevo journey is just a part of the journey that the refugees, the vast majority of them from Syria, are forced to make along the so-called Balkan corridor, which takes them from Turkey, across Greece, Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary, the gateway to the European Union, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A refugee helps up an exhausted fellow refugee as they cross the border between Macedonia and Greece, near the town of Gevgelija, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict People breaking through a police cordon and crossing the border between Macedonia and Greece, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees pass the border between Macedonia and Greece, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Macedonian policeman carries a child across the border between Macedonia and Greece, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Syrians sleep on railroad tracks waiting to be processed across the Macedonian border in Idomeni, Greece, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Czech police officer marks a refugee with a number after more than than 200 refugees were detained, mostly from Syria, on trains from Hungary and Austria at the railway station in Breclav, Czech Republic, September 2015 AP Photo, CTK/Igor Zehl The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A baby is lifted on to the Norwegian vessel Siem Pilot during a search-and-rescue mission off the Libyan coast, September 2015 AP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Budapest's main international railway station ordered an evacuation as hundreds of people tried to board trains to Austria and Germany, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict People wave their train tickets and lift up children outside the main Eastern Railway station in Budapest, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict People protest at the Eastern (Keleti) railway station of Budapest, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugee children sleep in the surrounding green area of the Keleti railway station in Budapest, September 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Syrians cross under a fence into Hungary at the border with Serbia, near Roszke, August 2015 Reuters The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees who have just crossed the border from Serbia into Hungary walk along a railway track that joins the two countries, August 2015 Getty Images The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Police arrest refugees at Cobham Services on the M25 in Surrey, August 2015 Twitter: @bigwheeluk The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Men hold a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and fellow refugees during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, August 2015 AFP/Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Syrian father holds his children close as his arrives on the Greek Island of Kos, August 2015 Eyevine The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A tourist offers water to Iranian refugees as they arrive by paddling an engineless dinghy from the Turkish coast (seen in the background) at a beach on the Greek island of Kos, August 2015 Reuters The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Syrian holds his 30-day-old baby on an overcrowded train as they travel through Macedonia. Tens of thousands of refugees, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, use the Balkans route to get into the European Union, passing from Greece to Macedonia and Serbia and then to western Europe, August 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A man rests on a platform at the train station in Gevgelija, on the Macedonian-Greek border, August 2015 Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees react after boarding the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship MV Phoenix some 20 miles (32 kilometres) off the coast of Libya. Some 118 refugees were rescued from a rubber dinghy off Libya. The Phoenix, manned by personnel from international non-governmental organisations Medecins san Frontiere (MSF) and MOAS, is the first privately funded vessel to operate in the Mediterranean, August 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Authorities are being overwhelmed as they try to fight off hundreds of refugees, prompting France to beef up its police presence, July 2015 AFP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict People escape from the French Police as they try to catch a train to reach England, July 2015 EPA The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A man jumps over a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel, in Calais, northern France, July 2015 PA/Thibault Camus The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Two men cling to the roof of a freight truck as it leaves the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone, July 2015 Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A man climbs a security fence of a Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles near Calais, July 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Men help a man squeeze through a gap in a fence near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles in Calais, July 2015 Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Desperate for entry to the EU, the group of people risked being washed away by the sea at Ventimiglia rocks, June 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Stranded refugees spend night on rocks - they were supplied with emergency blankets after a cold night next to the sea, June 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees climb in the back of a lorry on the A16 highway leading to the Eurotunnel in Calais, June 2015 Getty Images The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A police officer sprays tear gas to men trying to access the Channel Tunnel on the A16 highway in Calais, northern France, June 2015 PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Men jump out of a lorry after being discovered by French gendarmerie officers, June 2015 AP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A man sits under the trailer of a lorry, June 2015 AP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Belgian navy sailor passes life vests to refugees sitting in a rubber boat as they approach the Belgian Navy Vessel Godetia, June 2015 AP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict People on the Belgian Navy vessel Godetia after they were saved during a search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, June 2015 AP The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Iraqis wait as they are detained by Hungarian police after crossing the Hungarian-Serbian border illegally near the village of Asotthalom, Hungary, June 2015 Reuters The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Syrian refugees walking on train tracks through Macedonia on the Western Balkans migration route, after entering Europe through Greece, June 2015 Reuters The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A group of people huddle together during an operation to remove them from the Italian-French border in the Italian city of Ventimiglia. Italy and France engaged in a war of words as a standoff over hundreds of Africans offered a graphic illustration of Europe's migration crisis. Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano described images of refugees perched on rocks at the border town of Ventimiglia after being refused entry to France as a "punch in the face for Europe", June 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A man is carried by Italian police in Ventimiglia, Italy. Police reportedly removed refugees from under a railway bridge, June 2015 EPA The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict People queue after disembarking from the Royal Navy ship HMS 'Bulwark' upon their arrival in the port of Catania on the coast of Sicily, June 2015 GIOVANNI ISOLINO/AFP/Getty Images The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A Syrian child holds a drawing as he waits to disembark from Belgian Navy vessel Godetia at the Augusta port, Italy. Around 250 refugees from Syria arrived at the Sicilian harbour from a Damascus refugee camp, June 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A dinghy overcrowded with Afghan refugees arrived on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, May 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict An Afghan child is helped off a rib on the Greek island of Kos, May 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict An Afghan girl holds the hand of a woman as they arrive on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, May 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Refugees crossed part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, May 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Afghan refugees arrive on a beach of Kos, May 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Rescuers help children to disembark in the Sicilian harbor of Pozzallo, Italy in April 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict A boat transporting refugees arrives in the port of Messina after a rescue operation at sea, April 2015 Getty The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Armed Forces of Malta personnel in protective clothing carry the body of a dead man off Italian coastguard ship Bruno Gregoretti as surviving refugees watch in Senglea, in Valletta's Grand Harbour, April 2015 The refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees fleeing conflict Rescued people talk to a member of the Malta Order after a fishing boat carrying refugees capsized off the Libyan coast, is brought ashore along with 23 others retreived by the Italian Coast Guard vessel Bruno Gregoretti at Boiler Wharf, Senglea in Malta, April 2015

The events of the summer and early autumn of 2015, in terms of the numbers of migrants arriving through the Channel Tunnel were indeed unprecedented, but in light of the build-up of activity over several months they were not unpredictable.

The HMIP report said Dover Seaport and Frontier House are contracted out to the private security firm Tascor.

A spokesman for the company said: Despite the unprecedented influx of migrants in the Dover area, Tascor worked with the Home Office in order to ensure detainee welfare was not compromised. This included providing additional staff to support the increased demand, in line with the Home Office requirement and ensuring employees received training around trafficking issues.
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Peers in the House of Lords have reluctantly backed down in their battle with MPs over a cut to disabled peoples benefits after being accused of overstepping their mark.

The Government was twice defeated by defiant Lords over reducing Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for people in the work-related activity group (Wrag) from 103 to 73 a week. Peers were arguing to delay the cuts pending a parliamentary report on the impact on claimants.

But Lords in the upper chamber ran out of options after the Speaker of the Commons attached a financial privilege to the Bill. The privilege can be used by the Commons as grounds for overruling any Lords proposal that has a cost implication.

"This is a black day for disabled people, warned the independent crossbencher Lord Low of Dalston, during the debate on Monday evening.

He added: The Commons have spoken decisively and we must now bow to their wishes, but we do so under protest. Lord Low also accused the government whips of working overtime last Wednesday night in the House of Commons, going round handing out bribes and blandishments like there was no tomorrow.

Research by the Disability Benefits Consortium suggests the low level of benefit is already failing to meet disabled people's needs.

 Tanni Grey Thompson gives speech on Employment and Support Allowance

A survey of 500 people in the affected group found that 28 per cent of people had been unable to afford to eat while in receipt of the the benefit. Around 38 per cent of respondents said they had been unable to heat their homes and 52 per cent struggled to stay healthy.

Lord Freud, the minister of state for the DWP, said: The Commons voted solidly to reject those amendments, and the Motion now asks this House to accept that decision. In addition, the Commons Speaker has also ruled that these changes attract financial privilege. As noble Lords have not tabled amendments to the contrary, I will make the presumption that the House is now prepared to accept the changes, albeit with great reluctance, and will not defy convention.

The eleven-time Paralympic gold medallist Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson, who last week used an emotive speech in the Lords to condemn the ideological cuts, expressed her deep disappointment with the result.

By this action, the Government have betrayed the trust of disabled people and they should not be surprised if they forfeit it for the rest of their time in office. <p>Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson</p>

She said: I and others spent a great deal of time last week working through every possibility of tabling another amendment to send this dreadful and punitive part of the Bill back to the other place. Unfortunately, because of parliamentary procedure, that was not possible. Placing financial privilege on these amendments means that the other place ultimately has its way, and it is entitled to do thatjust as we were entitled and absolutely right to ask the Commons to think again.

As a Chamber appointed because of our expertise in areas such as this, we know and understand the impact this Bill will have, even if no formal impact assessment was carried out. I apologise to the people affected by this Bill that, at this point, we could not do any more. This may be the end of the legislative process, but it is the start of the negative impact the Bill will have on thousands of peoples lives.

"By this action, the Government have betrayed the trust of disabled people and they should not be surprised if they forfeit it for the rest of their time in office."

The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned Show all 16 1 /16 The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "One case where the claimants wife went into premature labour and had to go to hospital. This caused the claimant to miss an appointment. No leeway given" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Its Christmas Day and you dont fill in your job search evidence form to show that youve looked for all the new jobs that are advertised on Christmas Day. You are sanctioned. Merry Christmas" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "You apply for three jobs one week and three jobs the following Sunday and Monday. Because the job centre week starts on a Tuesday it treats this as applying for six jobs in one week and none the following week. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks for failing to apply for three jobs each week" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A London man missed his Jobcentre appointments for two weeks because he was in hospital after being hit by a car. He was sanctioned" 2011 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Youve been unemployed for seven months and are forced onto a workfare scheme in a shop miles away, but cant afford to travel. You offer to work in a nearer branch but are refused and get sanctioned for not attending your placement" 2013 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "You are a mum of two, and are five minutes late for your job centre appointment. You show the advisor the clock on your phone, which is running late. You are sanctioned for a month" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man with heart problems who was on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) had a heart attack during a work capability assessment. He was then sanctioned for failing to complete the assessment" Rex The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man who had gotten a job that was scheduled to begin in two weeks time was sanctioned for not looking for work as he waited for the role to start" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Army veteran Stephen Taylor, 60, whose Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) was stopped after he sold poppies in memory of fallen soldiers" 2014 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man had to miss his regular appointment at the job centre to attend his fathers funeral. He was sanctioned even though he told DWP staff in advance" 2014 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Ceri Padley, 26, had her benefits sanctioned after she missed an appointment at the jobcentre - because she was at a job interview" Jason Doiy Photography The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man got sanctioned for missing his slot to sign on - as he was attending a work programme interview. He was then sanctioned as he could not afford to travel for his job search" 2012 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Mother-of-three Angie Godwin, 27, said her benefits were sanctioned after she applied for a role job centre staff said was beyond her" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Sofya Harrison was sanctioned for attending a job interview and moving her signing-on to another day" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Michael, 54, had his benefits sanctioned for four months for failing to undertake a weeks work experience at a charity shop. The charity shop had told him they didnt want him there" Getty The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Terry Eaton, 58, was sanctioned because he didnt have the bus fare he needed to attend an appointment with the job centre" Getty Images

Priti Patel, the Employment Minister, last week criticised peers in the upper chamber for overstepping their mark and insisted the Government must press ahead with the plan.

Conservative ministers are arguing that cutting the ESA entitlement from April 2017 for new claimants in the work-related activity group (Wrag) would provide and incentive for them to return to work. Peers, however, claim there is no evidence of this while campaigners insist it will push benefit claimants into further poverty.

The Welfare Reform and Work Bill has been at the centre of a parliamentary tussle between MPs and peers, with some Tory MPs also expressing misgivings about the ESA cut, which will apply to new claimants next year.

If we dont get this right we will damage not just the employment prospects and wellbeing of these vulnerable claimants, but also our reputation and our trust among the electorate, said Conservative MP Heidi Allen.
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David Cameron has been accused of pursuing an appalling and totally immoral policy towards refugees that shows the Government doesn't have a "bloody clue" what it is doing.

Speaking to The Independent, the former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown said the Prime Ministers support of a Nato mission in the Aegean Sea that will forcibly return refugees to Turkey was tantamont to the UK Government abandoning the very people it claims to be helping.

There is great confusion about if they are going to take them back to Turkey or to Greece, he added.

They havent a bloody clue what they are doing. Im just really concerned that, as usual, the Government has sanctioned an appalling and totally immoral policy without working out the details.

I think they are getting away with blue murder.

Lord Ashdown (Getty)

On Monday, Britain announced it will take part in an unprecedented intervention into the refugee crisis in the Aegean Sea, sending ships to the region to pick up refugees and take them back to Turkey.

The plans have sparked condemnation from human rights groups, who argue that Turkey cannot be designated a safe third country for refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other nations.

Lord Ashdown said the sea mission amounted to rescuing refugees before abandoning them and cautioned that clashes could break out when migrants are forcibly returned to Turkey, which many will have spent their life savings trying to leave.

I think it will stem the boats coming to Greece, he added. But [the refugees] will take another route to Europe and I think there will be violence.

The UKs ships  RFA Mounts Bay and two border force cutters  are joining German, Canadian, Turkish and Greek naval vessels to patrol the narrow strait between Turkey and Greek islands that have seen more than a million refugees land in flimsy smugglers boats over the past year.

Britain previously deployed two Border Force boats in the area on proactive search and rescue missions but withdrew them quietly last October as disasters and drownings continued.

 Cameron on asylum policies

Lord Ashdown accused the Government of completely ignoring all the people who are dying on the way to us while championing a resettlement policy for only 20,000 Syrians over five years.

He noted that the very small amount of refugees being taken directly from UN camps excluded Iraqis, Afghans and other nationalities making up a large proportion of those arriving on European shores.

Taking refugees from one country doesnt mean we can tell the rest to stay out, Lord Ashdown said. We are legally obliged to consider asylum claims on a case by case basis.

The Court of Appeal controversially ruled that failed asylum seekers could be forcibly deported to Afghanistan last week, designating it a safe country despite the continuing conflict.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

While almost 90 per cent of Syrian asylum seekers and three quarters of Eritreans had their applications granted by the British Government last year, the figure for Afghans stood at little over a third.

Lord Ashdown called for a completely new framework for handling the refugee crisis, warning that it would be a mistake to treat it as a temporary problem.

He argued for large refugee camps to be created in Greece and Macedonia, where thousands of migrants are currently trapped following border closures and controls along the Western Balkans route.

The life peer said he would prefer to see asylum seekers given adequate shelter, food and access to education in Europe rather than forcing them to remain in Turkey, which is already struggling to humanely house more than 2.5 million displaced people.

The strategy currently being negotiated would see economic migrants and refugees alike taken back to Turkey, where they would be put to the back of the line for legal asylum and resettlement in Europe thanks to their attempts to reach Europe illegally.

Syrian refugees wait in Izmir, Turkey, to travel into Greece. Many people are still undertaking the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to one of the Greek islands (EPA)

It has been dubbed out the one in, one out deal thanks to a clause stipulating that for every Syrian sent back from a Greek island, another Syrian would be entitled to a legal, safe trip to Europe.

The UN has voiced concern and called for legal safeguards for asylum claims, while Amnesty International condemned the policy as absurd.

Turkey is seeking 6 billion (4.7 billion) in return - twice as much as a two-year deal with the EU struck in November - as well as the opening of new chapters in its long-stalled negotiation to join the EU.

The demands have created alarm among human rights organisations just days after the Turkish government seized control of the countrys largest newspaper in the latest assault on freedom of the press.

Lord Ashdown called European policy towards Turkey crazy, adding: They are now using the leverage they have got and who can blame them?

Turkish riot police use water cannon and tear gas to disperse supporters at Zaman daily newspaper headquarters (GETTY)

The irony is that when Turkey was actually reforming we refused to let them in and now its going in the opposite direction. We have subcontracted a problem we should be dealing with.

European leaders said they had discussed press freedom with Turkish politicians at an emergency summit on Monday, when Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi insisted on a specific reference to the issue in the final statement.

The finalisation of the deal has been delayed until 17 March at the earliest as negotiations continue.

A spokesperson for Downing Street highlighted comments the Prime Minister made on Monday on the possibility of refugees being returned to Turkey.

Mr Cameron said: That would, if implemented, break the business model of the people smugglers, and end the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe and now that is something that I've been arguing for a year and I think that it is significant, but only if it's fully implemented, and that's what needs to happen next, that will make a real difference.

British contributions to the refugee crisis have topped 2.3 billion, amounting to the country's largest ever humanitarian response, the spokesperson added.
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Cincinnati Police is investigating footage recorded by an African-American male accusing a police officer of harassment before he is arrested for jaywalking.

Charles Harrell, 29, uploaded the video to Facebook which starts off with him saying this is what we have to go through in Cincinnati harassment. Cant even be a black man; enjoy your morning because the police is going harass you.

Walking down the street, cop just asked me do I have a problem?

At this moment, Mr Harrell is stopped by the police officer, Baron Osterman, who accuses him of illegally crossing the road.

Black man films his arrest for jaywalking in Cincinnati

The situation escalates when Mr Osterman asks Mr Harrell to sit his stuff down.

I dont have to sit my stuff down dont f*****g touch me, why are you touching me? I can get my ID out of my pocket.

You are violating my constitutional rights you are violating my human rights, you are violating everything.

Mr Harrell was arrested for a pedestrian violation, possession of a small amount of marijuana and resisting arrest on 6 February. He has pleaded guilty to the drug charge.

He posted the video on Facebook on 1 March and it has been viewed over 750,000 times.

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Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police President, Dan Hills, said "Officer Osterman did absolutely nothing wrong. He should be commended for staying very professional while Mr Harrell became very belligerent."

The footage has caused controversy because Mr Osterman was involved in the police killing of a black male, Nathaniel Jones, in 2003. It was ruled that he used excessive force in subduing Jones in 2004, but he was later cleared in 2008 and awarded financial compensation.

The Cincinnati Police Department has released a statement since the release of the footage.

"We take all citizen concerns and complaints seriously. As such, the incident is under investigation by both the Internal Investigations Unit of the Cincinnati Police Department and the Citizen Complaint Authority, which provides a neutral, independent review of the incident.

We are committed to transparency and will provide further information once we have allowed both the criminal trial and the administrative investigations to run their course.

On 4 March, Mr Harrell was also charged with contempt of court after a lawyer reported that he took photos with his mobile phone while inside the courthouse.

The prosecution and defence are scheduled to meet today.
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A student pilot from Egypt has agreed to leave the US after posting on his Facebook page to say the world would thank him he killed Donald Trump.

I literally dont mind taking a lifetime sentence in jail for killing this guy, I would actually be doing the whole world a favor, Emadeldin Elsayed wrote, according to his lawyer, Hani Bushra.

US Secret Service agents interviewed the 23-year-old in early February about the post. Mr Elsayed was not charged with a crime, but his visa to attend flight school was revoked.

He was then arrested by immigration authorities, who said he could return home voluntarily as long as he departed by 5 July.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

Mr Elsayed said earlier that he never intended to hurt anyone and wrote the post because of Mr Trump's comments about Muslims.

"He's being detained, I think, primarily because he's a Muslim and he's a Middle Easterner," Mr Bushra told the Associated Press.

"This kid is going to become a poster boy for hating America."

Donald Trump previously called for a "complete shutdown" on Muslims entering the US.
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A former missionary from Oklahoma has been found guilty of sexually abusing children in Kenya.

Matthew Lane Durham, 21, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Monday as he begged the judge for mercy.

Judgment from God is central, not the judgment of man, Durham said in an Oklahoma City courtroom on Monday, according to Reuters. I do not fear Gods judgment.

Acting US Attorney Mark Yancey said that Durham took advantage of his position as a ministry volunteer to sexually assault the children, who were both male and female between the ages of 4 and 10-years-old.

The significant sentence imposed today will remove the threat of any other children being exploited by him. However, the innocence of the child victims cannot be restored and their lives will never be the same, he said, according to KWTV.

It is our hope and prayer that his conviction and lengthy sentence will someday bring them some comfort and peace.

After Dunham completes his prison term, he must spend his life on supervised release and must register as a sex offender. He's also been ordered to pay $15,863 in restitution.
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Hillary Clinton hopes the challenge of her rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Bernie Sanders, may finally be about to burn out. She is expected to gain a big win in the Michigan primary on Tueday and press home her advantage a week later in the swing states of Ohio and Florida.

While Mr Sanders, 74, celebrated victories at the weekend in three small states  Kansas, Maine and Nebraska  he still cannot escape the reality that he is already lagging dangerously behind Ms Clinton in delegate numbers, a deficit that will become increasingly difficult to make up.

Anger seemed to flicker on the Vermont Senators face on a debate stage with Ms Clinton in Flint, Michigan, on Sunday night, where the two of them clashed over a wide range of issues, from Ms Clintons past enthusiasm for free trade deals to Mr Sanders opposition to the 2009 car industry bailout.

While not quite at the level of the most recent Republican debates, which saw more trading in personal insults than in policy prescriptions, it was the testiest of the Democrat debates so far.

Lets have some facts instead of some rhetoric for a change, Ms Clinton snapped at Mr Sanders at one point, after suggesting that his is a one-note campaign focused only on Wall Street and income equality. He repeatedly tried to paint Ms Clinton as being beholden to the big banks and corporate America.

Let me tell my story, you tell yours, Mr Sanders said at another moment. Your story is voting for every disastrous trade amendment and voting for corporate America.

In pictures: US Elections 2016 Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: US Elections 2016 In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters after rival candidate Hillary Clinton was projected as the winner in the Nevada Democratic caucuses Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes photos with workers at her campaign office in Des Moines, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, second from left, prays before lunch with supporters at Drake Diner in Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Maryland Governor. Martin O'Malley, speaks during a campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks, as his wife Jane OMeara Sanders looks on, at a campaign event at Iowa State University Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio speaks at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at a campaign event at Fireside Pub and Steak House in Manchester, Iowa. Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum visiting supporters at a house party in West Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Ted Cruz campaigns at Greene County Community Centre in Jefferson, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Senator Rand Paul speaks during a Caucus rally at his Des Moines headquarters in Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Jeb Bush speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa AFP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin introducing the arrival of Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 A portrait of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders at his campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Campaign badges on sale ahead of a Trump rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Centre in Waterloo, Iowa Getty

Ms Clinton was most dangerous when she reminded viewers that Mr Sanders voted against the $23.4bn bailout of the car-making industry, which is concentrated in Michigan, especially near Detroit. I went with them. You did not, she said. If everybody had voted the way he did, I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, taking four million jobs with it.

Mr Sanders countered that he did not vote for what became auto bailout because it was part of a larger bail-out for the banks on Wall Street which he was unable to countenance. You know what I said? I said let the billionaires themselves bail out Wall Street. It shouldnt be the middle class of this country.

Bernie Sanders portrayed Hillary Clintons record as one of voting for corporate America during the debate between the candidates for the Democratic nomination, in Flint, Michigan (EPA)

Still well-funded thanks to its success raising cash in small donations, the Sanders campaign insists that it will continue fighting all the way to the Party convention in Philadelphia in July. However, a big win by Ms Clinton in Michigan today  a CBS poll indicated an 11-point lead  would reinforce her position as the front-runner, a status she recaptured with her lopsided victory in South Carolina two weeks ago.

All the coming primary states  Michigan, Ohio and Florida  have significant numbers of African-American voters who have proven to be Ms Clintons firewall against the Sanders insurgency.

Ms Clinton now has at least 1,130 delegates to Mr Sanders 499. Those tallies take the so-called super delegates into account  members of Congress, governors and party officials and so on  who have overwhelmingly sided with the former first lady. It takes 2,383 to win the nomination.

The theme of Wall Street and its part in triggering the recession was taken up by President Barack Obama yesterday when he defended his record of introducing regulations to rein the big banks in.

Hillary Clinton talks to voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan (Reuters)

I want to emphasise this because it is popular in the media and the political discourse, both on the left and the right, to suggest that the crisis happened and nothing happened. That is not true, Mr Obama told reporters.

At a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Mr Sanders also continued to accuse Ms Clinton of supporting free trade agreements that he says have robbed America of jobs. She has supported virtually every one of these disastrous trade agreements that have wreaked havoc on the US economy, he said.

The issue was also one of the flashpoints on the debate stage on Sunday. Mr Sanders was sarcastic in his assessment of Ms Clintons recent shift in expressing doubts about a new 12-country Pacific trade deal negotiated recently by Mr Obama. Secretary Clinton has discovered religion on this issue, but its a little bit too late, he said.

There was one thing, however, they could agree on: a mutual distaste for the antics of the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. I think Donald Trumps bigotry, his bullying, his bluster, are not going to wear well on the American people, Ms Clinton said. We have to end the divisiveness.

Mr Sanders said he would love to run against Mr Trump and noted many polls showed him faring better against him than Ms Clinton. That will be easier said than done if Ms Clinton wins in Michigan, Ohio and Florida.
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Donald Trump has launched an all-out attack on Senator Marco Rubio in an attempt to prevent the Florida native from winning his home state next week  and thereby drive him out of the race for the Republican nomination.

The property tycoon turned his attention from contests being held in Michigan and Mississippi  where Mr Trump was believed to have the edge over his opponents  to Florida, with a new television ad campaign calling Mr Rubio a corrupt and no-action politician.

Mr Trump hopes to sustain momentum in the race for the Republican nomination through to next Tuesday, when Florida and Ohio hold the first winner-take-all primaries of this election cycle. They are also key because each is home to one of his rivals  with Governor John Kasich, currently well behind in fourth place, needing to win in his own state Ohio.

Mr Rubios campaign would surely crumble to nothing if he fails on his own turf to repel the New York billionaire. He has faced weeks of discouraging numbers but his hopes were boosted by a new Monmouth University poll that showed him just eight points behind Mr Trump across the state, far closer than before. He is performing particularly strongly in the Miami area.

But he has so far failed to win backing from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Once allies, the men fell out when they found themselves competing on the campaign trail. Mr Bush abandoned his own candidacy two weeks ago.

The 60-second anti-Rubio advert from the Trump camp resurrects allegations that Mr Rubio abused a Republican Party credit card for personal expenses before he was a US Senator, an error for which Mr Rubio says he long ago made amends. Another corrupt, all-talk, no-action politician, its narrator growls.

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In a statement, Mr Trump called the Senator a lightweight and dishonest.

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In my opinion, he is a total crook and I am doing the people of Florida a great favour by further exposing him, Mr Trump added. The exchange over the Sunshine State, where Mr Rubio also faced negative advertising by supporters of Senator Ted Cruz, came as all the campaigns awaited results from voting in Michigan and Mississippi.

A double victory for Mr Trump next week in Florida and Ohio would put him on a fairly easy path to accumulating the simple majority of delegates he would need to lock up the Republican nomination. If he falters, however, a plausible alternative scenario would arise: that Mr Trump would arrive at the Party convention in July with only a plurality, not a majority, of delegates, at which point the anti-Trump movement would doubtless pounce and attempt to muster support for somebody else.

Senator Marco Rubio speaks with patrons at the Melao Bakery in Kissimmee, Florida (AP) (Getty Images)

The Anyone-but-Trump forces are taking encouragement from a new Washington Post poll that showed a narrowing of Mr Trumps lead among Republicans nationally. Mr Trump maintained the support of 34 per cent of Republicans against 25 per cent who back Mr Cruz. But when the same poll was last taken, he was leading Senator Cruz by 37 per cent to 21 per cent.

This comes after Mr Trump has battled through a series of new controversies and faced a more co-ordinated series of attacks against him than ever before. That effort has been led by Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, who, after assailing Mr Trump in a biting speech last week, has been making telephone recordings for both the Kasich and Rubio campaigns urging households to reject the billionaire.

Mr Trump was put on defensive for leading a rally in Florida with a hand gesture that to some looked like a fascist salute, which he insisted was merely him feigning being sworn in. Earlier this week Mexicos President, Enrique Pena Nieto berated him for making these strident expressions that seek to propose very simple solutions and added, Thats the way Mussolini arrived and the way Hitler arrived.

 Clinton Vows Not to Let Trump Become President

Mr Trump said on ABC News that echoes of European fascism had never occurred to him. I didnt know it was a problem, he said. Sometimes well do it for fun... Sometimes theyll scream at me, Do the swear-in, do the swear-in. He meanwhile evinced horror at Mr Pena Nietos remarks. Its a terrible comparison, Im not happy about that certainly. I dont want that comparison. But we have to be strong and we have to be vigilant.

Immigration: The Latino vote

Donald Trump claims to have attracted a large number of new voters to his campaign, but his rise may also have inspired a rush of another sort. Record numbers of immigrants are reportedly applying for citizenship, in the hope of voting against the billionaire Republican frontrunner in November.

Mr Trumps xenophobic rhetoric has frustrated many Latinos since his campaign launch last June, when he first claimed Mexico sent rapists and drug traffickers across the border into the US.

The New York Times found that applications for naturalisation from permanent US residents had gone up by more than 10 per cent from 2014 to 2015, increasing towards the end of last year. In 2016, immigration activists told the newspaper, the number of applications could be near one million: around 200,000 more than average.
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The President of Mexico has said his country will never pay for the border wall being proposed by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, describing the billionaires strident rhetoric as reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.

President Enrique Pena Nietos outspoken remarks, published on Monday in Mexicos Excelsior newspaper, echoed those of his predecessors Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox, who have both compared Mr Trump to the Nazi dictator in recent weeks.

The Republican front- runner has built his White House bid partly on a platform of antagonism towards Mexico, promising to build a wall the length of the southern US border to keep out Mexican rapists and drug traffickers. He has repeatedly said Mexico will fund its construction. Mr Pena Nieto said there was no scenario in which his government would pay for the wall.

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The Mexican President went on: There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations. Thats how Mussolini got in, thats how Hitler got in  they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis. The rise of fascism, he added, had led to global conflagration.

Mr Trumps verbal attacks on Mexico may have alienated many US Latinos, but they have served him well among white, low-income voters without college degrees. Today, he plans to expand his coalition of supporters to include the so-called Reagan Democrats of the US Rust Belt, as the Republican presidential race sweeps into Michigan. Polls give the property mogul a double-digit lead over his rivals in todays primary election in the state.

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Last week he held a large rally in Macomb County, whose blue-collar industrial workers were found by pollsters to have swung dramatically from the Democrats to Ronald Reagan during the 1980 election, helping to clinch that Republican victory. Now those voters appear to be flocking to Mr Trump, potentially posing a threat to Democrats across the Midwest  not just in Michigan but also in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Mr Trumps pledges to crack down on immigration, curb free trade and return manufacturing jobs to the US play well in Michigan, home of the troubled US car industry. On the campaign trail, he has made much of a new $2.5bn Ford plant in Mexico; speaking in Macomb, he vowed to impose hefty tariffs on vehicles manufactured there.

Mr Trump has denied claims of a personal relationship with an alleged racist mobster who was a regular at one of his casinos. Trump Plaza in Atlantic City was fined $200,000 (140,000) after a 1991 investigation found the casino removed black dealers from its tables at the request of Robert LiButti, who had hurled slurs at its female and African-American workers.

The late Mr LiButti, who had ties to mafia boss John Gotti, socialised with Mr Trump several times, his daughter Edith Creamer told Yahoo News. But, in a statement, Mr Trump said: I knew many high-rollers. I assume Mr LiButti was one of them, but I dont recognise the name.
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Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg laid all the groundwork necessary for a major presidential campaign before abandoning his plans for an independent candidacy over concerns that he might clear a path to the White House for Donald Trump.

Mr Bloomberg had hired dozens of campaign staffers who spent months preparing for his potential presidential run, it has emerged. He paid for strategists to conduct polling in more than 20 states, and opened campaign offices in Texas and North Carolina.

The campaign built a website and commissioned television advertisements promoting the 74-year-old as a pragmatic, centrist technocrat who could solve problems free from the pressures of party ideology, according to details leaked to The New York Times. Planned campaign slogans included: All Work and No Party.

The billionaires plans were so far advanced that he had even vetted a prospective running mate, retired admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also discussed his intentions with US Vice-president Joe Biden and the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The possibility of a Bloomberg candidacy was first raised publicly in January, when Mr Trump was already the Republican front-runner, and socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posed a serious threat to Hillary Clintons dominance of the Democratic primaries.

Were the parties to pick nominees from the far left and right, Mr Bloomberg believed he could make a successful run up the political centre. But now, with Mrs Clinton well on her way to the nomination, his third-party bid might have done little more than sap her support in the election.

 Clinton Vows Not to Let Trump Become President

In a column published on Bloomberg View on Monday, Mr Bloomberg said he was flattered by those urging him to run, and believed he could win several states in Novembers general election, but not enough to win the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidency.

Without a majority for Mrs Clinton, Mr Trump or himself, it would fall to a Republican-held Congress to select the next President. There is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump, Mr Bloomberg wrote. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience.

Thanks to the financial and media empire that bears his name, Mr Bloomberg is worth an estimated $36.5bn (25.6bn), a personal fortune more than eight times that of Mr Trumps. Like the property mogul, he intended to fund his own campaign, to the tune of at least $1bn.

The two billionaires have wildly divergent temperaments. Mr Bloomberg accused Mr Trump of conducting the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on peoples prejudices and fears.

A 2016 bid would probably have been Mr Bloombergs final opportunity to run for high office. Originally a Democrat, he was twice elected mayor of New York on the Republican ticket, but declared himself an independent in 2007, before serving his third and final term.
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Malaysia foiled a plot by the so-called Islamic State to kidnap government leaders including the countrys Prime Minister, it has been revealed.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the countrys Deputy Prime Minister, said jihadists attempted to kidnap him and two other Malaysian officials  including the Prime Minister Najib Razak and the defence minister, Hishammuddin Hussein.

He added that Malaysias anti-terrorism unit, who stopped the plot, also managed to prevent attempts to create chaos in Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

"On Jan. 30, 2015, a total of 13 people with ties to Daesh [Isis] had planned to kidnap the leaders, including the prime minister, home minister and defence minister," Mr Hamidi said.

According to the Straits Times, he added that police had foiled four attacks planned by Isis in Malaysia. In one incident, in September 2014, there was a plan by the group to test improvised explosive devices in the northwest state of Kedah. "They also wanted to destroy the Free Mason Lodge in Bukit Jalil".

He added: "Although there is no proper Daesh (Isis) establishment in the country, those who were here were being influenced and have been receiving orders from the network in Syria.

"We detected plans to attack several locations in Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, attempt to rob of firearms from army camps, making of explosions, robbing cash-in-transit vans as well as plot to kidnap the country's leaders for ransom.

Last week the Prime Minister of Malysia vowed to fight extremism and terrorism in southeast Asia where officials said Isis have been working to co-opt local terror groups.

Speaking at a business conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he said that the two countries will remain "inseparable partners" against terror groups that have caused havoc in the Middle East and around the world.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with you in this fight," Najib said, according to the Star Online newspaper. "And we will never tire in the battle to defend the true, authentic Islam."
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The Malaysian Prime Minister has said the search for flight MH370 "has been the most challenging in aviation history".

Najib Razak made his comments in a statement to mark the second anniversary since the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared from radar screens on 8 March 2014. It had been travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

It is believed that the aircraft, which had 239 people on board, crashed into the Indian Ocean.

A wing part, the flaperon, washed up onto the French island of Reunion in July 2015. More debris from plane is believed to have been discovered in Mozambique in early March, though this has not yet been confirmed,

Prime Minister Razak said he expected the search operation for MH370 to be completed later this year.

Here is the statement in full:

"Today, we mark the second anniversary of the disappearance of flight MH370. We mourn the loss of the 239 people, including 50 Malaysians, who were on board.

"The discovery of debris on the island of Reunion last July provided further evidence that, as I announced on 24th March 2014, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean. But we know that neither the passage of time, nor this evidence, will comfort those whose grief cannot be assuaged.

MH370 debris - in pictures Show all 7 1 /7 MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris French police officers carry a piece of debris from a plane in Saint-Andre, Reunion Island. AP MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris Police carry a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion, in the east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion AFP PHOTO / YANNICK PITOUYANNICK PITOU/AFP/Getty Images MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris The plane part is being taken to France for further investigation Reuters MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris French gendarmes and police inspect a large piece of plane debris which was found on the beach in Saint-Andre, on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion Reuters MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris French gendarmes and police inspect a large piece of plane debris which was found on the beach in Saint-Andre, on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion Reuters MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris Johnny Begue, a member of a local shore cleaning association, in Saint-Andre, French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, holds the remain of a suitcase found the day before on the same site Getty Images MH370 debris - in pictures MH370 debris Searches continued on Friday for other possible MH370 debris along beaches on the island of Reunion AP

"The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history. Amidst some of the worlds most inhospitable terrain  at depths of up to six kilometres, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the worlds fastest currents  the search team have been working tirelessly to find MH370s resting place. We are grateful for their efforts.

 Family members still in the dark over fate of MH370

"The current search operation is expected to be completed later this year, and we remain hopeful that MH370 will be found in the 120,000 square kilometre area under investigation. If it is not, then Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the way forward.

"We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonising mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost. On this most difficult of days, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who will never be forgotten."
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Why are we talking about this now?

Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a "beheading mission" against Kim Jong-un himself.

It's the kind of option military planners tend to consider but almost never use. Neither the U.S. military nor South Korea's defense ministry has actually said it is part of the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises that began this week and will go on for about two months.

But Pyongyang, already feeling the squeeze of new sanctions over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, is taking a plethora of "beheading mission" reports from the South Korean media very seriously. That goes a long way toward explaining why its own rhetoric has ratcheted up a decibel - even by its own standards of bellicosity. It could also explain some subtle rejiggering afoot in the North's military strategy.

What is a beheading operation?

That's what the North and South Korean media have been calling it. The military prefers to call them decapitation strikes. But, by whatever name, it's hardly a new concept.

They are targeted attacks to eliminate an adversary's leader, or leaders, in an attempt to disrupt or destroy its command chain as soon as a crisis breaks out or appears imminent. They are seen as particularly effective against enemies with a highly centralized command focused on a small group, or one leader. With the leader out of the way, the thinking goes, it's a lot easier to take the rest of the enemy's forces down - or at least keep them from maintaining a coordinated and sustained offensive.

North Korea is a prime example of such an adversary.

The U.S. has used such strikes, often employing drones, to take out key figures in terrorist groups. Pyongyang tried one on South Korean President Park Chung-hee, current President Park Geun-hye's father, at his residence in 1968. So it's no surprise to anyone - especially Pyongyang - that Washington and Seoul would consider such an option if a war were to break out in Korea. That they wouldn't publicly trumpet training for it is also par for the course. And, officially, they haven't.

All we really know is Washington and Seoul agreed last summer on a new plan for how to train for and deal with a major North-South crisis. It's called OPLAN 5015. The "O" stands for operation. Officials have not announced details of how the new OPLAN - which, like all OPLANs, is classified - differs from the previous one.

What have reports been saying?

Since about June, when the new plan was signed, South Korean media have been reporting the new operation plan includes pre-emptive and decapitation strikes. More has come out since the North's nuclear test in January and rocket launch last month, as Seoul's government has tried to underscore its tough stance vis-a-vis Pyongyang.

According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises will include training and simulations of surgical, pre-emptive strikes on nuclear and missile sites, along with training for a "beheading operation" aimed at removing Kim Jong-un and toppling his government in the event of a war. It has also reported that another set of exercises, now being held by U.S. and South Korean marines, features training for amphibious landings on North Korean shores and, again, attacks on North Korea's leadership.

The reports have generally been thinly sourced or anonymously reported. They have not given any details about how the troops would train for such attacks, though the presence of U.S. special operations units has been noted as ominous.

North Korea launch short range projectiles Show all 6 1 /6 North Korea launch short range projectiles North Korea launch short range projectiles A man watches a TV news program showing a file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, AP North Korea launch short range projectiles North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaking during a ceremony for the scientists, technicians, workers and officials who worked on the recent successful launch of a satellite EPA North Korea launch short range projectiles People watch a TV news program showing a file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, AP North Korea launch short range projectiles North Korean soldiers guard the truce village of Panmunjom at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, North Korea AP North Korea launch short range projectiles People watch a TV news program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea AP North Korea launch short range projectiles An undated file picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean ruling Workers Party EPA

North Korea, meanwhile, has been almost theatrically apoplectic over the ink being spilt that its leader has a target on his back.

The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army issued a statement late last month calling a decapitation plan the "height of hostile acts." Warning the doom of the U.S. has been sealed, it said the North's weaponry is "ready to open fire." The day the exercises began, the North's Minju Joson daily said "a historical moment has just come" and its enemies "will sustain the bitterest defeat" from the North's "ground, naval, underwater, air and cyber warfare means, including nuclear strike means."

What is behind the bluster?

Potentially, quite a lot.

North Korea has increasingly shifted its military toward "asymmetrical" warfare tactics that involve surprise, stealth or other means to gain an outsized advantage against a bigger, better-equipped enemy. Its focus on cyber, special forces and nuclear weapons are classic examples.

A decapitation strike could potentially neutralize all of that. Somebody needs to call the shots.

Its long-held ace in the hole, the threat of a massive artillery attack that would devastate Seoul, has also lost some of its credibility. Some experts believe its weaponry has grown older and less reliable. Seoul, meanwhile, has been testing new missiles with precision-strike and bunker-buster capabilities - exactly the kind of weapons that could figure into a decapitation strike.

Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual (Reuters)

Never one to roll over under pressure, the North last week made quite of a show of its latest answer to that problem: a large-caliber, multiple-launch rocket system with a range some experts believe could allow it to be positioned out of reach of U.S. or South Korean counterattacks and fire projectiles hard to intercept with missile defense systems.

It is conceivable the North could design nuclear-armed shells for such a weapon.

Even before the current media barrages, experts have been seeing an "action-reaction" cycle fanned by the North's fears of a decapitation strike and signs Seoul and Washington are at least considering the option, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California.

"The appearance of a new long-range artillery system that is specifically linked to North Korean fears about decapitation strikes deserves our attention, even if the possibility of nuclear armament is only hinted at," he wrote in a recent analysis for the influential 38 North website. "Far more attention needs to be paid to North Korea's evolving nuclear doctrine, on the one hand, and South Korea's development of conventional doctrines that involve pre-emption and decapitation on the other."

Associated Press
The community is invited to the first ever Pilates Party in the Park: Strings, Serra and Fusian at the Lower Presidio Historic Park in Monterey, CA. This special free event will be coordinated by the Old Monterey Foundation on Saturday, April 2, 2016 from 11:30 a.m.  1:30 p.m. to raise awareness of this beautiful park. Pilates Party in the Park: Strings, Serra and Fusian will feature a Pilates demonstration and 30 minute classes by Pilates Monterey, a performance by internationally renowned violinist, Eldar Hudiyev, plus delicious food for purchase from the popular Fusian Street Food Truck. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own mat for Pilates, towel or folding chair for watching the demos and listening to the violin performances.

Event Schedule:

11:30 a.m. Welcome and Introductions, Demos on the Wunda Chair (Pilates Apparatus) and Eldar Hudiyev, Violinist performance

Noon  12:30 p.m. A 30 minute mat Pilates class, beginner/restorative class for all levels

12:30 p.m.  12:45 p.m. Break to enjoy Fusian Street Food Truck, Violinist performance, Wunda Chair demos

12:45 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. - 30 min class - Power Pilates (a little more fast paced)

12:45 p.m.  1:00 p.m.  Violinist performance, Drawing for a Free Pilates Session, Wrap Up

For more information, go to www.oldmontereyfoundation.org or call (831) 521-2313.

Directions to the Lower Presidio Historic Park and Presidio of Monterey Museum:

From Monterey, take Pacific Street past the Monterey Conference Center and the First Theater to the end of Pacific where it forks, take the left fork;, turn left onto Artillery Road, turn right on Corporal Ewing Road and follow it to the Presidio of Monterey Museum in the center of the Park against the hill; from Pacific Grove, take Lighthouse Avenue in New Monterey, turn right on Private Bolio Road, quickly turn left on Corporal Ewing Road and follow it to the Presidio of Monterey Museum. http://www.monterey.org/museums/Home/Map-and-Directions?2)



About The Lower Presidio Historic Park

The Lower Presidio Historic Park, described as The Most Historically Significant Site on the West Coast and One of the Most Beautiful Places in Monterey is on its way to becoming a true historic public park to be enjoyed by locals and visitors. Old Monterey Foundation, in cooperation with the City of Monterey and Department of the Army, has raised initial funds to begin Phase One of the project to enhance and restore this historic 25.3-acre site and is now seeking public donations to help complete Phase One of the $680,000 project. Old Monterey Foundation invites everyone to become members of Friends of the Lower Presidio and make tax-deductible donations to more quickly restore the park. They are also raising funds to restore the historic Father Serra statute.

The Lower Presidio Historic Park is one of the least-visited historic parks in the area due to some confusion about whether the public is allowed in the area. Situated in a hidden in plain sight location, the Park can be found on Corporal Ewing Drive above Pacific Street at the Lighthouse Curve in Downtown Monterey. The park features spectacular views of the Monterey Bay and Harbor and will become a jewel of the City of Montereys park system.

About Pilates Monterey

Specializing in post-rehabiitative Pialtes training, Pilates Monterey is a private Pilates Studio that offers private, semi-private and small group Pilates instruction as well as comprehensive Pilates Teacher Training. There is something for everyone at any level at Pilates Monterey. Learn Pilates with expert guidance and address your personal goals in their fully-equipped studio. You can also work one-on-one in a private session, experience an equipment group, or try a mat class. They also have the Peninsula Pilates Project which is a not-for-profit organization devoted to restorative Pilates classes for survivors of cancer or other debilitating diseases. The trained professionals at Pilates Monterey offer, free of charge, 4 weeks of classes and guide women and men recovering from cancer, enduring chemotherapy and/or radiation through a gentle and effective Pilates method mat exercises. For more information, go to www.pilatesmonterey.com.

About Eldar Hudiyev, Violinist

Multi-award-winning Eldar Hudiyev is originally from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan and started playing violin at the age of 6. For 11 years, he attended a Special Music School in Ashgabat and then studied at the Turkmen National Conservatory. In 2001, he became a finalist in the undergrad exchange student exchange program and studied at West Texas A&M University. He holds a BA degree in violin performance from University of Oklahoma and an MA degree from the Boston Conservatory. He teaches violin, viola and piano and is the winner of numerous musical competitions. He currently resides in Monterey and is available for performances at weddings, concerts and corporate events. To reach Eldar Hudiyev, email hudiev@yahoo.com.

About Fusian Food Truck

Founded in 2015, the Fusian Street Food Truck specializes in Asian Fusion food and also owns the Bubble Tea Shop located in North Salinas. Laos-born Toun Ray moved to Salinas in 1989. At the event, they will offer Vegetarian Spring rolls wrapped in rice paper (with mandarin orange sweet chili sauce, Fusian tacos (tri-tip on a corn tortilla with a mango salsa), Pho Vietnamese Noodle Soup (beef broth, tri-tip, rice, bean sprouts, cilantro, thai basil, onions, jalapeno and a squeeze of loin with hoisin sauce and siracha hot sauce). They will also feature six flavors of Bubble Tea, a tea-based flavored drink that uses sugar in the raw syrup or stevia, low fat dairy creamer and Jasmine green tea. The flavors will include Thai tea, horchata, mocha tea, mango, green tea, and tharo. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/Fusian-Street-317834011754058/info/?tab=overview



To arrange an interview with Bill McCrone, Secretary of Old Monterey Foundation, please contact Wendy Brickman at (831) 633-4444 or email brickman@brickmanmarketing.com. For more information and directions, to donate and become a member of the Friends of the Lower Presidio, to volunteer and learn about future Old Monterey Foundation events, go to www.oldmontereyfoundation.org.








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A former nursery school teacher who was raised by adoptive parents after being abandoned as a baby has been given the go-ahead by the Philippines Supreme Court to run in the presidential elections in two months time.

Senator Grace Poe, 47, had been disqualified by the countrys elections commission last December on the grounds that she was not a natural-born citizen and did not have the 10 years of Filipino residency required of presidential candidates  despite having been front-runner in the polls.

Recommended Read more North Korean ship seized by the Philippines following UN sanctions

But on Tuesday she was able to tell a cheering crowed of left-wing supporters at an International Womens Day rally in Manila that the decision to exclude her had been overturned by the countrys most senior panel of judges by nine votes to six.

This victory isnt only mine, a triumphant Ms Poe declared in a park in the centre of the capital. This is most of all a victory for the oppressed, a victory for those who are burdened by this system and a victory for women.

Womens role goes beyond looking after homes: we can do a lot of things. Lets make 2016 the year when women triumph in government.

 Philippines bucks the trend on teen pregnancy rates

Asked afterwards how she felt, she replied: Relieved, but this is only the start. We need to do a lot of things. There is now a big opening for us to start our work.

Recommended Read more US Marine found guilty of killing transgender woman in Philippines

The decision provided a major boost to the campaign of Ms Poe, who is already leading in popularity polls, and removes a cloud of uncertainty from what is shaping up to be a tightly fought four-way race to succeed President Benigno Aquino III, whose six-year term concludes at the end of June.

Pulse Asia, an independent polling body, placed Ms Poe in the lead with the support of 26 per cent of respondents in a survey conducted last month of 1,800 people nationwide, followed by Vice-President Jejomar Binay, who got 25 per cent. The former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, whose candidacy has been backed by Ms Aquino, and tough-talking Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of southern Davao city, each got 21 per cent. Ms Poes lead was slightly wider in January.

She will now be the candidate to beat, political analyst Ramon Casiple said, adding that people who were concerned that she may be taken out of the race because of her legal troubles now have a clear choice.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Although relatively new to politics, Ms Poe carries a popular family name and has a heart-rending life story in a country where many are swayed more by personalities than policy positions.

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She was adopted by one of the Philippines most famous movie couples after being left at a Roman Catholic church by her natural parents, whose identity is unknown. Her late father, Fernando Poe Jr, was an action star who mostly played roles as a defender of the poor in a country where about a quarter of the more than 100 million Filipinos subsist in poverty.

She moved to the US as a student and settled in Virginia, marrying an American and giving up her Philippines citizenship until she decided to return home in 2004, after her father died. She came top in the Philippine senatorial race in 2013, running on his legacy. She was also accused by the election commission of lacking the required 10-year Philippine residency to be a candidate for president  a claim that the Supreme Court also rejected.

 Expansion of US troops in the Philippines faces resistance

Appearing often in campaign sorties in a white shirt and blue denim trousers that many people identify with her father, Ms Poe has run on the same pro-poor platform that he supported, pledging that, under her presidency, nobody will be left behind.

Recommended Read more Terrified passengers forced to jump from burning ferry in the Philippines

Whoever takes over from President Aquino will need to grapple with poverty, corruption and Marxist and Muslim insurgencies  persistent problems facing a country that three decades ago toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos through a people power revolt.

The election is being closely watched by investors who fear the political succession could scupper average economic growth of more than 6 per cent a year and derail efforts to crack down on corruption made under Ms Aquino.

Ms Poe has campaigned on a pro-poor campaign, promising to build on Ms Aquinos programmes of creating jobs and building infrastructure, which have helped to propel the Philippines to become one of Asias fastest growing economies.

AP/Reuters
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Six months after fleeing a Taliban assault on her city, the owner of an Afghan radio station devoted to womens rights is back home and returning to the airwaves.

Zarghona Hassan is a lifelong activist and the founder of a radio station in Kunduz that until last year reached hundreds of thousands of listeners across northern Afghanistan, where the vast majority of women are illiterate and largely confined to their homes.

Recommended Read more Afghan Taliban commander shot dead by woman in Baghlan region

Radio Shaesta  Pashto for beauty  had sought to educate them about their rights and address taboo subjects such as reproductive health and domestic violence. A programme called Unwanted Traditions took a critical look at centuries-old Afghan customs, such as the forced marriage of young girls in order to resolve disputes. Introducing Elites featured interviews with women who have succeeded in politics and activism, or helped other women in their communities.

We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights and of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats, Ms Hassan said.

Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan, and in the north, where just 15 per cent of women can read and write, it is a rare portal to the outside world. Radio Shaesta reached up to 800,000 people.

 Widespread corruption in Afghanistan despite reform promises

Ive met illiterate women weaving carpets with the radio on because they can listen and it doesnt interrupt their work, Ms Hassan said.

She invited Islamic scholars on to her programmes to give their seal of approval. But the Taliban views her as a threat to the countrys moral fabric. One of her many death threats even specified an exact date. So when the insurgents stormed into Kunduz last September, she had to run. She hid in a relatives basement, then donned an all-covering burka and fled the city.

Over three days the Taliban looted businesses, hunted down activists and burned Shaesta. Now, six months later, Ms Hassan has returned to Kunduz and, helped by a $9,000 United Nations Development Programme grant, the station was back on air in time for International Womens Day.

Womens rights are a key lever toward improving the lives of the entire community, said UNDP country director Douglas Keh. When women and girls have the same opportunities [as men and boys] in education, and the same economic opportunities, society as a whole benefits.

AP
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A pair of twins has been discovered to have different fathers, after the dissimilarity between the children prompted their parents to take DNA tests.

The children, from Vietnam's northern Hoa Binh province, are two-years-old and distinctive by one having thick, wavy hair, while the other has thin, straight hair.

Both the mother and father took DNA tests as it had been feared they may have been given the wrong baby at the hospital, reports Viet Nam News.

The tests, carried out by the Hanoi Centre for Genetic Analysis and Technology, proved that the twins both belonged to the mother.

The 34-year-old husband was found to be the father of only one of the twins, making the children bipaternal.

Bipaternal twins are extremely rare and this is reportedly the first case to be recorded in Vietnam.

Dr Keith Eddleman, director of obstetrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York told CNN that it is possible for a woman to conceive bipaternal twins through two acts of sexual intercourse.

 DNA debate result

A womans egg has a life-span of between 12 and 48 hours, he said, while a sperm can last for between seven and 10 days. It is during this overlap that it is possible for two eggs to be fertilised.
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Completely closing Europes external borders and sending all illegal migrants back to Turkey will only strengthen criminal groups and push refugees into the hands of Isis, the International Organisation for Migration has warned.

Speaking in an interview with The Independent, the IOMs EU director said a deal being forged in Brussels to try and stop the flow of refugees into Europe actually risked undermining the security of the economic bloc.

Eugenio Ambrosi said the idea of border controls as a security safeguard was a myth, warning that turning Europe into a fortress would simply increase unchecked illegal migration while raising resentment among those who are kept out.

In Brussels on Monday, EU officials discussed with Turkey a radical plan to send back all potential refugees arriving in Greece while closing off the western Balkans land route of irregular migration.

Under the terms of the deal, Turkey would require a registered Syrian refugee to be welcomed by Europe for every unregistered one that is sent back on the boats, as well as concrete progress on plans to integrate Ankara into the EU fold.

Mr Ambrosi said the IOM is recording around 2,500 daily refugee arrivals into Europe at the moment and predicts the substantial flow to continue throughout 2016, if not quite reaching the million-plus figure who entered the continent last year.

And while he welcomed some of the legitimate and adequate measures on the table in Brussels, Mr Ambrosi said attempts to shut borders entirely were doomed to fail.

The complete closure of the border seems not only excessive but also not very effective, he said. These people are fleeing for their lives  so they are not going to be stopped by a fence.

Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Show all 15 1 /15 Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to break a Greek police cordon in order to approach the border fence at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees flee tear gas fire by the Macedonian police, after trying to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to break a Greek police cordon in order to approach the border fence at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees in the northern Greek village of Idomeni approach the Greek-Macedonian border as they try to enter Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Macedonian riot police officers stand next to part of the border fence brought down by protesting stranded refugees and migrants during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees break an iron fence and throw stones from the Greek side of the border as Macedonian policemen push them back, near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A girl cries as she flees clashes during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Refugees try to broke an iron fence from the Greek side of the border as Macedonian police stand guard, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees and migrants in the northern Greek village of Idomeni approach the Greek-Macedonian border as they try to enter Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A man helps children to run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas at a group of refugees who tried to push their way into Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A woman carries a child on the Greek side of the border as they run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas at a group of refugees who tried to push their way into Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Refugees run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A woman falls as refugees with their children run away after Macedonian police Getty Images

Rather than being deterred, the measures are likely to drive people traffickers to use other, more dangerous routes to get people into Europe, Mr Ambrosi said. For the traffickers and smugglers, these people are disposable items  once they get paid to put people across a border they dont care if they arrive safely on the other side.

And Mr Ambrosi said those who are deterred from making the journey would be left as easy prey for criminal and terrorist recruiters.

Asked if Europe was pushing these desperate people into the hands of Isis, he said: There is that risk.

Im not saying that is happening with everyone who is turned away right now, but marginalised people are easier prey of all sorts of criminal groups, not just terrorists.

If you look at the profiles of the terrorists who carried out recent attacks in Europe, they all come from some level of history of marginalisation within their own society. The terrorist group offers them a way out  not necessarily a good one, but it might become the only one.

The deal agreed with Turkey remains provisional, with a final decision due to be made at the next summit between leaders in 10 days time.

But speaking to reporters after more than 12 hours of discussions, EU chief Donald Tusk said: The days of irregular migration to Europe are over.

David Cameron said the agreement to turn all refugees back to Turkey formed the basis for a breakthrough. The Royal Navy this week joined the effort to turn back boats in the Mediterranean.
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Q. Is it legal to send people who land in Greece back to Turkey?

A. The United Nations 1951 Convention on Refugees bans expulsions except on grounds of public order. International asylum rules say all applications have to be properly reviewed, and asylum seekers cannot be returned to a country that does not offer proper protection. The parties failed to say how individual needs for international protection would be fairly assessed during the rapid-fire mass expulsions they agreed would take place, says Bill Frelick from Human Rights Watch.

The plan could also fall foul of EU rules  Article 19 of the EUs Charter of Fundamental Rights bans collective expulsions.

Q. Can Turkey really be considered a safe country to return refugees?

A. While Turkey has ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is the only country in the world to apply geographical limitations, so only Europeans are currently guaranteed refugee status there.

While Syrians have the right to international protection in Turkey, this right does not cover other refugees like Afghans and Iraqis fleeing war. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says it is concerned that it would leave Syrian refugees unprotected and at risk of being sent back to a war zone.

 EU summit leaders back Turkey's refugee plan

Questioned about this, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker insisted the plan was legal: Greece had determined that Turkey was a safe country, so the returns policy was legal. But human rights groups say such returns are almost certainly illegal.

Amnesty International says it is absurd to describe Turkey as safe. Turkey has forcibly returned refugees to Syria and many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing, said Iverna McGowan, head of the groups EU office. By no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a safe third country that the EU can cosily outsource its obligations to.

Q. How will the EU resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey?

A. The plan says the EU will take in as many Syrian refugees from Turkish camps as it sends back, but it is unclear how they will be taken in by European countries. Angela Merkel said that those returned from Greece would go to the back of the queue, but it remains uncertain how those who are to be relocated will be chosen out of a pool of at least 2.5 million Syrians in Turkey.

Hungarys hardline anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised to veto the scheme, but officials have said it is likely to be a voluntary coalition of the willing including Germany and the Netherlands.

Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope warned that it risked being an undeliverable plan at great cost, like last years scheme to relocate 160,000 refugees, which has so far found new homes for just 660. Last years silver bullet was a relocation system that did not work, he said. This years seems to be an all-encompassing deal with Turkey that relies on their goodwill, despite little evidence that they have delivered on promises already made.
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The United Nations has voiced grave concerns about plans for blanket returns of refugees to Turkey as part of a radical deal aimed at saving the European Unions commitment to open borders.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Donald Tusk, head of the European Council, emerged after 12 hours of talks with EU leaders in Brussels to announce a breakthrough in tackling Europes refugee crisis. The days of irregular migration to Europe are over, he said.

That boldness appeared premature, as Hungary threatened a veto while the UN and human rights groups warned that the proposed deal with Turkey could be both illegal and immoral.

The deal with Turkey, spearheaded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the EU summit in Brussels, aims to restore order by halting chaotic illegal migration in exchange for a system of quotas to relocate people to Europe in an orderly fashion. Alarmed that the numbers of arriving migrants have shown no sign of falling, countries along the route into western Europe last month began closing their borders, triggering a backlog in Greece. Slovenia said it would no longer allow migrants to transit through the country, bar humanitarian exceptions.

The deal quickly ran into controversy over a plan to forcibly return those arriving in Greece on rubber dinghies, sending them straight back to Turkey. For every Syrian returned to Turkey, Europe would resettle one Syrian already living in Turkey. Those who attempted the illegal crossing would be sent to the back of the queue.

A baby sleeps near railway tracks at the makeshift camp near the village of Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border, where thousands of refugees and migrants are stranded (Getty) (Getty Images)

The pushback against the proposal was led by the UN, which warned that it could violate international and European law to return vulnerable people to Turkey, where some nationalities lacked legal protection. Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under international law.

 EU summit leaders back Turkey's refugee plan

Amnesty International said that the mass return of people would be a death blow to the right to seek asylum and described the proposals as alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane. The group pointed out that the arrangement would make every resettlement place offered to a Syrian in the EU contingent upon another Syrian risking their life by embarking on the deadly sea route to Greece.

Others said the arrangement incentivised Ankara to allow smugglers to continue to operate. Further questions remain about how authorities might force people who had paid hundreds of dollars and taken huge risks to return if they resisted deportation, and about the eligibility criteria for relocation to Europe.

Elizabeth Collett, director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe, said the smugglers would find other routes into the heart of Europe. We are talking about a multi-billion-dollar smuggling business that is capable of adapting to different circumstances, she said.

EU leaders were bounced into the deal after being blindsided by brinkmanship from Turkey. Having expected to rubber-stamp an agreement crowned by 3bn in aid for refugees, Mr Davutoglu arrived in Brussels demanding twice that sum. He also insisted on a speedier timetable for giving Turkish nationals visa-free travel into the EUs passport-free Schengen zone, and the resuscitation of Turkeys dormant EU membership bid.

Greek police guard the border with Macedonia (AP)

The deal first emerged at a dinner on Sunday night at the Turkish embassy in Brussels with Mr Davutoglu, Ms Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The scheme undermined Mr Tusk, who last week laid the groundwork for a different deal under which Turkey would have agreed to take back refugees intercepted in the Aegean. It prompted frustration that Mr Tusks careful diplomacy over the previous weeks appeared to have been undone by Ms Merkel in just one night.

Turkey, meanwhile, was accused of exploiting Europes desperation to extract maximum gain. Mr Davutolgu insisted that Turkey, which is already home to 2.5 million refugees, was simply seeking burden-sharing.

The EU now has just over a week to hammer out the final details before yet another summit at the end of next week, when Turkey is expected to formally confirm the deal.

The agreement was forged against a backdrop of deteriorating freedom of expression in Turkey. Last week, the state took control of a newspaper linked to an arch-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

 Greeks doing what they can to help refugees

Even as leaders thrashed out the details on Monday night, the crackdown was widened with the seizure of Cihan News Agency, which is owned by the same company as Zaman newspaper.

The clampdown prompted widespread criticism. The former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon told The Independent that Europes policy toward Turkeys hopes of EU accession was crazy. He said: The irony is that when Turkey was actually reforming, we refused to let it in and now its going in the opposite direction.

While Mr Tusk said that Europe cannot stay indifferent to concerns about press freedom, he and EU leaders were unwilling to allow the deal to be derailed amid growing domestic pressure to tackle a crisis that has strained EU cohesion to the limits.

A boy peers through a fence at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni (AP)

Mr Erdogan is determined to bring in a new constitution that would grant him executive powers. To do so, he will either have to win the support of 14 opposition MPs to put the proposal to a referendum or call a fresh election in the hope of securing the right numbers.

Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey expert at St Lawrence University in New York State, said that being seen to have forced Europe to play on Ankaras terms would be a political boost for the President. The deal would be depicted, he said, as Turkey standing up to Europe and forcing Europe to come to terms with it even on an equal level.

International Womens Day: President Erdogans view

Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on International Womens Day to declare that a woman is above all else a mother. The President also criticised contraception, saying that it was used to dry up our nation.

Mr Erdogan has repeatedly called on Turkish women to have at least three children. He has described abortion as murder and condemned birth by Caesarean section as unnatural.
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Two Israeli security forces guards had their cover blown after their vehicle got stuck in mud in a small German town and they had to be rescued by the local fire brigade.

The incident left Mayor Klaus Langer of Quarnbek, located in northern Germany, with a bill of 1,263.01.

He billed the Israeli embassy in Berlin, which has since agreed to pay the full cost of rescuing the two guards and retrieving their car.

Mayor Langer told The Independent that he sent the bill to the embassy in early March, although the embassy has said it is confused over why the payment was requested so long after the incident.

In December, Israels newly-built submarine was set to make its way from the Kiel harbour along the Kiel Canal to the Middle Eastern country. Guards had been sent to secure the area, which the embassy says police were aware of.

All was going well until two of the guards, who were in Quarnbek, managed to get their car stuck in mud in a forbidden street, according to the Mayor.

Upon receiving a call from a local lady who was concerned as to why the men were in the area, Mayor Langer asked the police to go down to the scene to resolve the issue.

But retrieving their car from the mud was a job too big for the police alone. Instead, they had to call in the help of the local fire brigade and use a tractor belonging to a local farmer.

Mayor Langer said he had been forced to go public about sending the bill because he had been waiting for the Israeli embassy to get in touch regarding the costs incurred since the incident happened.

If I do something wrong in a foreign country, I go to the authorities and say I made a mistake and I will pay for it.

Since December I have been waiting for this," he said.

The embassy told The Independent that they would be paying the bill.

In a letter written to Mayor Langer, Avi Nir-Feldklein, a minister at the embassy, apologised for the incident, adding that the guards' presence had been coordinated with the German authorities and abided by the law.

"We [would like to thank the] voluntary firefighters brigade for pulling the vehicle out of the mud. Of course it is your right to send a bill for this service to us. And of course we always pay our bills. However, it would be helpful in the future if you send bills to us in the first place and not to the media."

Mr Nir-Feldklein added that the embassy was confused over the Mayor's intentions because the bill had arrived three months after the incident. He also commented on the fact that local media in Germany had reported the story before the embassy received the bill on 7 March.

"This time flow makes us wonder about your intentions in this issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me in future directly before you talk to the media," he said.
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Why are we asking this now?

The EU and Turkey have agreed a draft deal that will supposedly stop the flow of refugees into Europe and send them back across the sea?

The EU's 28 leaders have celebrated the deal, with Donald Tusk saying it means the days of irregular migration to Europe are over.

David Cameron, too, has said it would break the business model of the people smugglers and end the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe.

But is it all really that simple? We asked the International Organisation for Migrations director for the EU and Nato, Eugenio Ambrosi, and asked him: If not Europe, then where?

How many people are coming over into Europe right now?

Eugenio Ambrosi: "From the beginning of year about 150,000 have come across, with a rate of daily arrival in Greece that has decreased over the last couple of weeks. Right now there are around 2,000 to 2,500 arrivals a day, which is a 50 per cent drop from the first few weeks of the year.

"At the beginning of the year we were gearing up for another million, but we will have to see what impact the discussions with Turkey and the closing of borders here and there have on the numbers. There is an element of uncertainty.

"Even so, the number reaching Europe is still going to be substantial. These people are fleeing for very serious reasons, they are running for their lives  so they are not going to be stopped by a fence."

What happens if they are all turned back to Turkey?

EA: "It is fair to consider Turkey a safe country at the moment, but you cannot have an approach that is purely theoretical, saying that since it is a safe country you can have a flow of people going there indefinitely.

"Lets not forget, we have rightly asked Turkey to keep their border open with Syria to provide asylum for the flow of people still fleeing that country. But if they also receive people sent back from various European countries there will come a point when the number is too high to offer appropriate conditions to these people.

"There is a risk if the population grows substantially and very fast, in terms of danger from physical violence but also in terms of the limited opportunities that are actually offered to these people.

"It is a question of how much the Turkish infrastructure will be able to take the burden. Lots of these people are children  how are you supposed to provide some sort of education to all these people who will be stranded for we dont know how long?"

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Can illegal migrant routes into the EU be shut altogether?

EA: "The idea of completely closing the border seems not only a bit excessive but also not very effective.

"When you shut down borders completely you end up increasing irregular movement and therefore, by definition, you increase the number of irregular, undetected, faceless people coming into your territory.

"That is more difficult to control, from many points of view but eventually including internal security. Without talking about terrorists, you have a bunch of people where you dont know who they are, you dont know where they are, so that in itself is a security management issue.

"Before giving up, traffickers and smugglers will try other, more dangerous routes. For them these people are disposable items  once they get paid to put people across a border they dont care if they arrive safely on the other side.

"I wouldnt be surprised if we see a return to movement across the central Mediterranean. It is a route that has continued in far lower numbers since the [safer] western Balkans movement became the preferred one in the last six or seven months. It might renew  and in bigger numbers."

Where else can the refugees turn?

EA: "We cannot just leave it to the neighbouring countries, they are already overwhelmed. Lebanon alone has the same number of refugees as arrived in Europe in the whole of last year  among a population of just 4.5 million.

"It is becoming too big a challenge, and if the burden isnt shared people are bound to move on. Just thinking that the rest of the world can deal with the problem does not work because sooner or later this huge movement of people will affect Europe in the end anyway.

"Other countries are looking at the possibility of legal resettlement which, because the transfer is taken care of by governments, can be done to any part of the world.

"Canada has resettled 25,000 Syrians over the past couple of months, while the US is doing a bit. But others, particularly Gulf states closer to the region, should do more.

"In order to tackle the immediate consequences of this conflict, better sharing of the charge of the refugee population that is right now 90 per cent weighing on neighbouring countries is important because there is no other solution.

"Europe has a bigger role to play. Right now resettlement of citizens to Europe is at a very low level compared to other parts of the world. The myth that everyone wants to reach Europe is incorrect."

How can Europe do more?

EA: "There is definitely a lot that needs to be done, by Turkey but also by all the EU member states, to fight trafficking more aggressively. People smuggling is a transnational crime, so by definition it has links across borders  thats the way it works and thats why they are effective.

"But the fight against trafficking is not just about stopping boats, destroying boats or arresting people. It has to do with much more aggressive prosecution of the masterminds of the criminal groups, but also needs to be accompanied by a different policy in terms of legal migration.

"The traffickers business model is not just based on boats or herding people across unchecked border lines  it is largely based on the fact that legal channels for refugees or migrants to reach Europe are non-existent.

"In the absence of any legal option, if you are desperate or in need you will pursue less legal options."

What happens if no one takes them?

EA: "There is also some truth that the tougher you get with a population in need, especially coming from the region of the Middle East and Arab countries, the more likely it is that you raise resentment among this population that is kept out.

"And the more you increase resentment of these people, especially the youngsters, the easier prey they become for whoever wants to exploit that resentment."

[You mean pushing them into the hands of groups like Isis?] "There is that risk. Im not saying that is happening with everyone who is turned away right now, but you increase the risk of that, yes.

"Marginalised people are easier prey of all sorts of criminal groups, not just terrorists.

"But again if you look at the profiles of the terrorists who carried out recent attacks in Europe, they all come from some level of history of marginalisation within their own society.

"The terrorist group offers them a way out  not necessarily a good one but it might become the only one."
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Chancellor Angela Merkels claim of a breakthrough at the refugee summit has been met with widespread scepticism in Germany despite her hopes that the outcome would save her party from disaster in key regional elections this weekend.

While many in her government hailed the result as a promising shift towards an agreement, and Ms Merkel described the result as a quantitative step forward, opposition parties were less enthusiastic. The leftist Die Linke party said the outcome was blackmail by Turkey.

Several German media outlets asked how Europes current unwillingness to take in refugees could be reversed. So far there has been little hope of this, remarked Der Spiegel.

Ms Merkels party is on course to suffer badly at elections in three German states on Sunday, at the hands of the xenophobic Alternative for Germany party which opposes her refugee policies.
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Almost half of Jewish Israelis believe Arabs should be "expelled or transferred" from Israel, a survey has found.

A study carried out by the Pew Research Centre found that around one in five adults questioned strongly agreed with the controversial statement, which amounts to ethnic cleansing under some definitions.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the act as attempting to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of persons belonging to particular ethnic group, while a United Nations report in 1993 additionally specified the use of force or intimidation.

(Datawrapper)

In Pews survey, 48 per cent of Jewish respondents said Arabs should be removed from Israel, while a similar share disagreed with the statement.

While 54 to 71 per cent of Jews who defined themselves as ultra-Orthodox, religious or traditional supported such a step, only about 36 per cent of the secular community did.

While religious identity influences Israeli Jews views on the expulsion of Arabs, the survey finds that even after taking this and other demographic factors into account, Jews views on the expulsion of Arabs are most strongly correlated with their political ideology, the Pew Research Centre report noted.

The further to the left Israeli Jews place themselves on the political spectrum, the more likely they are to oppose the expulsion of Arabs from Israel.

Those supporting the cleansing tended to be Russian-speaking, rather than Hebrew or Yiddish, male, and with a Jewish education to secondary level or below.

(Datawrapper)

Reuven Rivlin, the President of Israel, called the findings a wake-up call for Israeli society.

It pains me to see the gap that exists in the public's consciousness - religious and secular - between the notion of Israel as a Jewish state and as a democratic state, he added.

A further problem is the attitude towards Israel's Arab citizens.

Israeli Arab is the Israeli governments definition of non-Jewish citizens and many members of the minority, who are predominantly Muslim, identify as Palestinian.

In the same survey, almost 80 per cent of Jewish Israelis said Jews deserved preferential treatment in Israel, while a similar proportion of Israeli Arabs claimed they had seen discrimination against Muslims.

The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child

The research appeared to show that all religious and ethnic groups had lost hope for a two-state solution, with half of Arabs saying co-existence was possible compared to 40 per cent of Jewish Israelis.

The most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014, just before a seven-week war in Gaza, and tensions have worsened in recent months with a resurgence of violence that has seen an estimated 28 Israelis and 172 Palestinians  mostly attackers  killed.

Pew conducted through face-to-face interviews in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian with more than 5,600 Israeli adults from October 2014 to May 2015 for the research.

The survey used the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics definition of the Israeli population, which includes settlers living in the West Bank as well as Arab residents of East Jerusalem.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Go to the circus, laugh at the clowns, and then go home and have nightmares about them. That's entertainment.
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A senior Isis leader, Abu Omar al-Shishani, a Syrian-based Georgian national, may have been killed in an air strike by the US-led coalition, it has been reported.

Reuters said that US officials said the militant may have been killed near the Syrian town of al-Shadad.

The United States had offered up to $5m reward for information about Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, who officials said served as the groups de facto minister of war. Born in 1986 in Georgia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union, Shishani had a reputation as a close military adviser to Isiss leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was said by followers to have relied heavily on Shishani.

The undated images claim to show Al-Baghdadi addressing a mosque

Two US officials told the news agency that a determination about Shishani's fate was not certain and that the results of the operation still were being reviewed. A third official limited himself to saying Shishani was targeted in the strike.

The US State Department described Shishani as a senior Isis commander and Shura Council member based in al-Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria.

Inside Isis secret tunnels Show all 7 1 /7 Inside Isis secret tunnels Inside Isis secret tunnels Network of underground tunnels was discovered by Kurdish forces after they regained the town of Sinjar in Iraq Inside Isis secret tunnels A member of the Peshmerga forces inspects a tunnel used by Isis militants in the town of Sinjar, Iraq Reuters Inside Isis secret tunnels An entrance to the tunnel used by Islamic State militants is seen in the town of Sinjar, Iraq Inside Isis secret tunnels The secret tunnels allowed militants to freely move underground Inside Isis secret tunnels The tunnels appear to be wired with electricity Inside Isis secret tunnels Some of the tunnels are 30 feet deep Inside Isis secret tunnels Concerns remain that parts of the tunnels are rigged with explosives

It said he was identified as Isiss military commander in a video distributed by the group in 2014.

Shishani, whose name was originally Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, oversaw a prison facility near Raqqa where Islamic State possibly held foreign hostages.
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An American graduate student was stabbed to death and ten others were wounded in attacks across Israel on Tuesday.

Vanderbilt University identified the American victim as 28-year-old Taylor Force, a US Army veteran and MBA student at the university.

"This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world," Chancellor Nick Zeppos wrote in a letter to the student body.

Israeli police said that a Palestinian man went on a stabbing rampage in Jaffa at the popular boardwalk in Tel Aviv. The assailant was shot dead by police and later identified as Bashar Masalha, 22, from Auja, Haaretz reports.

Israeli police search the Jaffa port area of Tel Aviv. Amir Cohen/Reuters (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Four Palestinian attackers were shot and killed in the course of the days violence as Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel to meet former Israeli president Shimon Peres.

Vice President Biden later tweeted in response to the attack saying "there is no justification for such acts of terror.

The violence came as Israel disputed suggestions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had surprised the Obama administration by scrapping a planned visit to the US.

Mr Netanyahu had been penciled in to attend an annual conference hosted by American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel group, in Washington later this month.

Israel insisted it had informed the White House in advance that there was a good chance Mr Netanyahu would stay at home.

Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans since October 2015, Reuters reports. Israeli forces have killed nearly 180 Palestinians, most of whom they claimed were assailants.
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A nine-year-old girl living within Isis-held territories was openly raped in a hall where she was being detained alongside other women, it has been claimed.

The distressing report appears in the wide-ranging analysis Children of the Islamic State, released by the London counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam, which has investigated how the terror group indoctrinates children.

Girls, it claims, are known as the pearls of the caliphate and must remain veiled, hidden, confined to the home, and taught to look after husbands. In one particularly disturbing case study used by the authors of the report, two young women allege that they had been raped by Isis members or fighters associated with the extremist group.

One of the women described how she heard screams of girls who had been taken to from the main hall where she and others were detained. Another Isis fighter pointed a gun at young girl who had been resisting.

The women were then escorted from Mosul to a school in Tal Afar, a district in northwestern Iraq, where there were more than 100 small children. The report adds: The second girl said she was raped in a hall where she was being detained with other women in Mosul after her abduction by IS. She said the guards raped her three times a day for three days.

According to her account, she also saw an eight or nine-year old girl being raped openly in the hall. IS then moved her and other women and girls to an abandoned school in Tal Afar.

 Swedish teenager describes Isis experience

In a separate account a young woman recounted that, after her capture in Sinjar in August 2014, she moved to Tal Afar with a hundred other girls and young women.

After several days, she and a thirteen-year-old girl were sold to IS fighters. The fighter who bought her raped her and if she tried to resist, he would beat her with his shoes. She reported, I used to hear a lot of cries and screaming from the other girl in the house, as God knows what the man was doing to her. She was too young to understand and probably was very scared.

In the same report, it was claimed that more than 31,000 pregnant women living within Isis-held territories were being used to create the next generation of terrorists. Nikita Malik, a senior researcher at Quilliam, told The Independent: Theres a systematic creation of the next generation of mujahideen  the next generation of fighters.

Inside Isis secret tunnels Show all 7 1 /7 Inside Isis secret tunnels Inside Isis secret tunnels Network of underground tunnels was discovered by Kurdish forces after they regained the town of Sinjar in Iraq Inside Isis secret tunnels A member of the Peshmerga forces inspects a tunnel used by Isis militants in the town of Sinjar, Iraq Reuters Inside Isis secret tunnels An entrance to the tunnel used by Islamic State militants is seen in the town of Sinjar, Iraq Inside Isis secret tunnels The secret tunnels allowed militants to freely move underground Inside Isis secret tunnels The tunnels appear to be wired with electricity Inside Isis secret tunnels Some of the tunnels are 30 feet deep Inside Isis secret tunnels Concerns remain that parts of the tunnels are rigged with explosives

She added that it shows its not being done randomly in any way, this is a very long-term preparation for these children to grow up with severe religious, theological and national indoctrination.

Details of the so-called Islamic States treatment of women has been well documented by the United Nations Assistance Mission in the region. In January, it claimed those being held as slaves by Isis are predominately women and children and come primarily from the Yezidi community.

The UN said it was able to verify reports that, on 21 June last year, between 800 and 900 children were rounded up in Mosul and abducted for military training. It said it had also been informed that those who refused Isis commands were flogged, tortured or raped.
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The airlines have France covered - or do they? Even though 10 million people fly from the UK to more than 30 French airports each year, there are dozens of towns and cities that are well worth a visit, yet are unserved by air. Some of them have frustratingly fallen off the map of airline routes from the UK (such as Reims, Dijon and Rouen), while others never appeared on it in the first place - fascinating cities such as Troyes and Besancon, south-east of Paris.

Handily, all of these places are accessible with a single change of train in Paris or Lille - the latter being much easier thanks to a simple, same-station connection rather than a cross-city trip. Book by 21 March for travel in the spring, and you can travel from London St Pancras for 37 one way fare to all of the above stations, as well as the fine and historic city of Le Mans. This fare is barely more than the standard lowest price to Paris or Lille, so the add-on price for the SNCF (French Railways) portion of the journey is just a few pounds.

For a fiver more, Eurostar and its partner will get you to Clermont Ferrand, high in the Massif Central. Going east, you could reach Nancy - perhaps the biggest and most interesting city in France that has never had a direct air link from Britain. The same price applies to Strasbourg, which has some flights from the UK, but easyJet is ending its service from Gatwick later this month.

At the 47 price point, a number of southern cities come into play - notably Valence, with a rich Roman heritage and an ambience that is definitely Provencal. The top price in this promotion, 51 one-way, takes you to southern destinations such as Agen and Cannes.

Now for the rules. These are from prices and demand may make your journey significantly more expensive. You can travel between 21 March and 2 June. But there are some serious black-out dates: the Easter weekend (from Good Friday to Easter Monday), both May bank-holiday weekends (Friday to Monday inclusive) and the weekends of 8-10 April, 22-24 April and 13-16 May.

More details at eurostar.com
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How often do we hear the lament that public officials dont give straight answers to straight questions? Yet, when they do, they often get told to keep their opinions to themselves.

Mark Carney has been accused of taking a pro-EU stance in the Brexit debate.

Beneath the dignity of the Bank of England, spat the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg yesterday, after hearing the Governors testimony on the economic and financial implications of Britain leaving the EU.

Not really. The Governor was giving a pretty measured set of answers to questions from the Treasury Select Committee. Mr Rees-Mogg, an enthusiastic Brexiter, evidently didnt like those answers.

But so what? Does that mean we shouldnt hear Mr Carneys thoughts? Would we really rather prefer it if the Governor had told MPs: Well, I could provide answers to your many questions but I prefer to say nothing since anything I do say will be construed as either supportive or negative, and therefore beneath the dignity of the Bank. Would that really have been in the public interest?

Of course, if Mr Carney had been taking dictation from Downing Street that would, indeed, be a disgrace. But theres no evidence of this. If we believe the Bank to be independent we should listen to what the institution, and its Governor, has to say.

That does not mean, by the way, that the Banks views on this should be taken as some kind of holy writ.

And what of those economic and financial consequences? It was Mr Carneys predecessor, Lord King, who actually summed it up best at the weekend. Leaving would not usher us into a land of milk and honey. But nor would we be instantly assailed by plagues of locusts.

Project Utopia and Project Fear are both economically silly. If the Bank were able to convey that simple message it would elevate the debate considerably.
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David Cameron doesnt want Britain to share responsibility for the huge numbers of refugees escaping to Europe from war and conflict.

At a summit yesterday about the refugee crisis  and specifically about the idea that EU countries might collectively decide where in Europe asylum seekers should be placed  he boasted about our supposed get-out-of-jail-free card.

Mr Cameron asserted, We have an absolutely rock-bottom opt-out from these things.

The Common European Asylum System calls for EU member states to share responsibility for asylum seekers. The countries bordering the Mediterranean  Greece, Italy and Malta  simply cannot cope with the sheer volumes of refugees literally washing up on their shores. The rest of Europe needs to help out and take their fair share.

But no, we dont and we wont, says Mr Cameron. In or out of the EU, sharing responsibility for refugees coming to Europe isnt for us.

There's no prospect of Britain joining a common asylum process in Europe, said the PM. We'll have our own asylum approach, our own way of doing things, keeping our borders.

Recommended Read more EU plans over asylum applications play into the hands of Brexit campai

Well, yes, but it seems our way of doing things is not to do anything. Well happily throw money at the refugee camps nearer to Syria and bring a few of them here  very few, in fact - but well not get involved in alleviating the enormous refugee crisis nearer to home.

And quite likely, the Prime Minister has considerable support at home for taking this shameful approach.

Is it surprising? Not really. According to much of the rhetoric now, migrants are all bad  and theyre all the same. EU migrants, non-EU migrants, economic migrants, illegal migrants, asylum seekers, refugees  whats the difference? None, if you follow some of our media and politicians.

Isnt the country full up, asked TV entertainer Noel Edmonds. The PM referred to migrants in the Calais Jungle as a bunch and a swarm. Columnist Katie Hopkins referred to them as like cockroaches. The Daily Mail referred to them as illegals.

This xenophobic attitude doesnt represent all of Britain, or all Britons. Quietly, and unassumingly, British volunteers are working hard helping refugees arriving on the Greek islands or stuck in Calais.

Without any fuss, the British Jewish community is probably doing more than any other to privately sponsor Muslim Syrian refugees to come to Britain. Theyre grateful for the private support given to Jewish refugees by Britons in the 1930s and want to help todays refugees.

But thats the discreet face of Britain, the one we dont hear about. The other, more public Britain now on show to the world seems to shun all foreigners, especially those who need our help the most.

According to some news reports in the right-wing press, people risking their lives to reach Europe across the Mediterranean are migrants merely travelling here for a salary boost. But actually, around 90 per cent of them are genuine refugees fleeing from war, terror and oppression in Syria, Iraq an Afghanistan. Around half arriving in Greece so far this year are women and children.

And its not just misinformation about refugees, but all categories of migrants.

According to reports in the Daily Express and Daily Mail last month, uncontrolled EU migration is bleeding dry the NHS. Its nonsense. Although some hospitals are under pressure, its not because of migrants.

According to Mr Cameron, Britain shouldnt only close its door to refugees. He said we also need a brake on EU migrants, by cutting their in-work benefits. But 90 per cent of EU migrants dont even take such benefits. Instead of being a burden, theyre mostly in gainful employment, making a significant net contribution to government coffers  and the NHS.

When Cilla Black died, the Daily Mail ran a Mac cartoon showing her waiting to go to heaven. Sorry about the long queue, Cilla, an angel tells her. There are thousands of illegals trying to get in.

It referred to the many refugees who had drowned trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.

This misinformation and prejudice by some of our media and politicians is helping to turn Britain into a country thats fundamentally inward-looking and xenophobic.

Shouldnt we put a brake on that, before its too late?

Read Jon Danzig's personal blog here
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Nuclear energy is a subject that divides opinion at the best of times. It is, say some leading scientists, the greenest way to produce our power requirements; activist groups, including Greenpeace, argue that the potential consequences of accidents make nuclear energy unconscionable. Some economists point to dwindling fossil fuel reserves and say the nuclear option makes long-term financial sense; others point to the rock-bottom price of oil and to the fracking industrys potential to question those assumptions.

Today there are renewed question marks over Britains long-standing plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, following the resignation of EDFs chief financial officer, Thomas Piquemal  apparently because he disagreed with the firms planned investment in a new reactor at the Hinkley Point site in Somerset. Several of EDFs board members are said to share Mr Piquemals concerns.

This a big moment both for EDF, the French utility firm, and for Britains nuclear future. After all, the building of the new reactor on the Somerset coast was intended to be a model to be repeated at seven other sites. The British Government regarded the deal as so critical that it was willing to agree a hefty fixed tariff on the energy the new plant would produce  at 92.50 per Megawatt hour (MWh) in 2012 prices it is around double the UKs standard wholesale electricity price. This was the necessary quid pro quo for EDFs 18bn investment in construction.

Yet EDF has experienced considerable turbulence ever since the Hinkley Point plan was negotiated. First, it is increasingly debt-laden, to an extent far exceeding its market capitalisation. Second, other projects which use the same EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) technology to be employed at Hinkley Point have run into difficulties. In Finland, the Olkiluoto 3 plant was supposed to have been completed in 2009 and to have cost 3bn. Seven years on and the new power station remains offline and has overrun its initial budget by some 5bn. Perhaps of even greater concern are the problems encountered at the Flamanville site in northern France, where serious anomalies in the reactor vessel have been found by the French nuclear regulator.

EDF has also been hit by the fall in global energy prices. It agreed a deal last October to sell a 33.5 per cent stake in the Hinkley Point project to the China General Nuclear Power Corporation, which will pick up a third of the construction costs. Even so, there is speculation that EDF will not be able to bear the remainder without significant state support  the French government owns 84.5 per cent of the company.

All of this sounds like a prelude to an about-turn by EDF. In fact, though, Mr Piquemals departure may simply clear the way for the investment at Hinkley Point (and potentially thereafter elsewhere in Britain) to proceed. EDFs chief executive remains full-square behind the project. More importantly, so does the French government. A volte-face would cast doubt over the countrys position as Europes leading player in the nuclear power market.

Politics, in short, is likely to win the day  quelle surprise. Yet if the major focus by analysts is on the potential pitfalls for EDF, might we not consider the matter from the point of view of British consumers? The falling price of energy casts greater doubt than ever on the fixed price negotiated by the UK Government for Hinkley Points output; and the problems identified at Flamanville remain to be fully explained. Nuclear power may well be a central component of our future energy needs  but not at any cost.
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There are now two Europes on display to the world.

One of them is rotten with racism. Its a Europe which bribes the Turkish state to stop refugees coming into the continent.

Its a Europe where fascism is on the rise  both the Alternative for Germany party and Our Slovakia made electoral breakthroughs last week-end.

Its a Europe in which the debate on staying in or out of the EU is dominated by both sides insisting a vote for them will result in fewer migrants.

The other Europe is one of solidarity. Its a place where people turned up to stations across Germany to welcome the trains bringing refugees.

Its a continent where solidarity with refugees has reached heart-breaking levels in Greece. At the week-end, in Athens Syntagma Square, more than 10,000 people contributed eight truckloads of clothes and food to help refugees  this from people who have themselves been devastated by the EUs austerity programme.

Its a Europe where people from across the UK have rejected the racist narrative of the popular media to deliver help to the refugees and migrants rotting in camps in Calais and Dunkirk.

I want nothing to do with the first, racist Europe. I am proud of the second Europe, which has nothing to do with the structures of the EU and exists despite them. I wonder which Europe will prevail.

Sasha Simic

London N16

The UKs willingness to send warships to assist in efforts to prevent people from reaching Europe represents a disturbing stage in the militarisation of the refugee crisis, while the measures being proposed at the EU-Turkey summit represent the very opposite of what a modern response to peoples movement needs to look like.

Europe is trying to offload its international responsibilities on to other countries at this summit. Its obscene that one of the richest parts of the world, which continues to grow wealthy from the resources of other countries, is contracting out its human rights duties to poorer countries.

Turkey is conducting a brutal war on its Kurdish population and cracking down on any form of dissent. It is unconscionable that we would give billions of pounds to this government to offload our responsibilities.

British and European proposals are inhumane and backward-looking. One of the greatest achievements of the EU is freedom of movement. Many of us in Europe enjoy this right to move around the world with relative ease. This cannot be a right which only applies to the most wealthy people in the world.

Nick Dearden

Director, Global Justice Now, London SW9

I am writing to you to protest, very strongly, about the Dave Brown cartoon printed in todays edition of The Independent (8 March). It is tasteless, exploitative, and unfair.

Dave Brown has manipulated a tragic incident in the most crass way possible, using the image of a real dead child whose name is known to all of us. Would he have used the image of a British child killed in a car crash, or in a swimming pool, to make his point?

Furthermore, it isnt Angela Merkel who is responsible for the EUs rejection of refugees and/or immigrants coming from, predominantly, the Middle East. Each member state is responsible for the chaos that has ensued in this crisis, by appallingly bad foresight and pathetically inadequate organising skills.

So-called EU values and principles appear to have melted like a snowball in hell in the face of this disaster

Susan Byrne

Rugby

How many billions did Britain spend on the military campaign that brought about the fragmentation of Iraq and the rise of Isis? Lets spend a fraction of that on helping those suffering untold misery as a result.

Hilary Wise

London W5

We might ask why Turkey has not controlled its own borders.

John Whitehead

London EC2

Poor basis for a pension review

The Governments review of the state pension appears to be based on the belief that people are living longer and so it cannot be afforded. This is dubious.

Longevity is not uniformly going up  those living in Kensington may be living longer, but that is not the case in more socially challenged areas such as Middlesbrough and Solihull. Also, while the baby-boomer generation may be living longer, the same is unlikely to apply to those born after 1964, as society moves to a more sedentary, online-dominated existence. The obesity epidemic is one sign of the health implications of such living.

The question of affordability is also relative. Government figures last year indicated that the National Insurance Fund was 100bn in credit.

So if a review of retirement age takes place, it should not on the basis of rising life expectancy or unaffordability. Some may suspect this to be just another underhand way of further cutting the welfare net of support  this time by removing the right to retire altogether from vast swathes of the population  hardly progress for the fifth biggest economy in the world.

Paul Donovan

London E11

A democracy for the rich

Stories like that of the millionaire recluse who plans to fund independent candidates at the next general election make me wonder what kind of democracy we are living in.

Charities and trade unions find themselves under considerable state regulation if they wish to campaign politically, but wealthy individuals with no mandate are free to interfere in the political process on a whim. What price plurality in our democracy?

Jane Carolan

Glasgow

What sovereignty are you restoring?

How will sovereignty be given back to the British people, as EU exiters claim, when 54 per cent of British-registered companies are foreign-owned, when multinationals can run rings around HMRC, when we have a record trade deficit, with everything for sale to finance it?

We have a voting system that is not fit for purpose, allowing a party with less than 25 per cent voter support to force through punitive legislation without challenge.

None of this is a consequence of EU membership, so how can any of this be resolved by leaving?

Anthony Davies

Burton on Trent

Second-class citizens under Israeli rule

Stephen Lewis (Letters, 8 March) writes that Israel has universal suffrage for all citizens and therefore qualifies as a democracy.

A democracy, surely, is a state for all its citizens. Yet, despite 20 per cent of its population being non-Jewish, Israel calls itself the Jewish State and actively discriminates against its non-Jewish, Palestinian population.

In the Negev, in southern Israel, Palestinian Bedouin citizens are seeing their villages razed to the ground by the Israeli state, which is constructing Jewish-only towns in their place. And, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, illegally occupied by Israel since 1967, around 4 million Palestinians live under Israeli control, but without being able to vote for the successive Israeli governments which control every aspect of their lives. However, Israels illegal settlers, living on the same land, have full voting rights in Israeli elections.

Not only is Israel not a democracy, it also operates a system of apartheid in the Palestinian territories it holds under occupation.

Amena Saleem

Bromley, Kent

To infinity and beyond

Ben Chu (Economic Review, 7 March) says psychologists have observed a greater reduction in purchases when price moves from zero to 5p than when it moves from 40p to 45p, even though the absolute change is identical. Econometricians and even the layman will not be surprised that an infinite price increase has a greater effect than one of 12.5 per cent.

David Hasell

Thames Ditton, Surrey

Women who fail to be feminists

Yasmin Alibhai-Browns article Successful women too often turn their backs on their sisters (7 March) was based on a false premise. It is no more realistic to expect that all women will be feminists than to expect all working-class people to be socialists, or all rich people to be Tories.

Tony Pointon

Portsmouth

Holiday with an exclamation mark

We are taking my grandson to a holiday cottage in Devon this summer. Unfortunately, he may now lose marks in his What I did in the summer essay. We are taking him to Westward Ho!

John Sculpher

Wickham Market, Suffolk
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If he lives up to his promises  and the early signs are good  Justin Trudeau is shaping up to one of the most ambitious liberal premierships in modern history. He has welcomed refugees into Canada while EU nations have begun a backlash against them, stood up to Putin over land grabs in the North Pole and, in a show of respect across the ideological divide, has confirmed he will work with Donald Trump should the situation become necessary. Hes even been photographed with two Canadian baby panda bears this week. Little practical impact there, but sterling PR work; he knows how to polish a reputation, the perfect veil under which to smuggle policies so radical that they had previously been cast adrift.

The province of Ontario, we learn this week, is set to become the first region of the country to test a basic income, a social support system that does away with means-tested welfare and replaces it with a single, universal payment that every citizen is entitled to. It is the ultimate leveller  and, as such, is the latest fad in leftish circles. And, apparently, Trudeau and his party are interested in extending this idea further.

First suggested by such figures as the philosopher Bertrand Russell in the inter-war years, the idea of a universal basic income  a monthly income, just enough to cover essential bills, paid as a benefit of citizenship, and which prevents anyone resident in a wealthy economy falling needlessly into poverty  has gained popularity in recent years, since the welfare systems of developed nations have begun to crack under pressure, leading to calls from the right to dismantle them altogether.

The idea is exciting for three reasons. First, it creates a system of social support that removes the stigma created by means-tested welfare. Those who are out of work because they are disabled, studying, between jobs or caring for a child or relative are all treated in the same way as those who are, in fact, working. Second, with a basic income to rely on, work always pays, encouraging enterprise and creativity. Tax takes rise as personal allowances are axed, while earned income is taxed at a higher level.

And third, perhaps hardest to believe and yet undoubtedly true, its a hell of a lot lighter on the public purse than a means test. If you remove a bureaucracy, you remove cost.

Detractors are easy to find. Critics warn that giving away free money will lead a laziness pandemic, a general outbreak of fecklessness that will steadily destroy any economy. Not everyone can follow their passions at work, they retort; if our citizens dont need to work to pay their bills, how will we find anyone to clean the toilets?

The only way to find out if it works is to try it and see what happens. So far, trials of such schemes have been relatively small, taking place in individual Indian villages and in some parts of South America  all successful, but theres only a little we can learn there thats transferable to large national economy. Utrecht in the Netherlands is attempting something similar city-level, but as a stepping stone is planning to offer the payment to those already on benefit; at this stage, thats not universal. Finland is set to launch a basic income later this year, but its wealth as a small nation is contingent on a high-tech economy and a small population, making it less useful as an exemplar to other western countries.

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So all eyes are now trained on Ontario, and Trudeaus Canada, for what happens here could place us at the cusp of the biggest overhaul of the welfare state in a century. Few formal details about the policy have emerged to date, but Premier Kathleen Wynne said her local government would test a growing view at home and abroad that a basic income could build on the success of minimum-wage policies and increases in child benefits by providing more consistent and predictable support in the context of todays dynamic labour market.

At home, the Conservative government has little interest in the idea, although the case for a basic income from the right has been made on the grounds that it reduces state involvement and interference in private lives.

However, one of its long standing advocates on the left, John McDonnell, has gone from being an anonymous backbencher to shadow chancellor in a matter of months. Meanwhile, in Britain the welfare system has become unaffordable, creaking under the weight of housing benefit paid to even the moderately paid to cope with the costs imposed by a broken housing market. The appetite for a huge shift of perspective is growing.

In June, Switzerland will be the first country to vote on the introduction of a national basic income. If the people vote yes, a monthly stipend of anything up to 1,700 could be paid to every single resident. If Canada, Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands are taking the basic income seriously, then Britain cannot keep dismissing it without its own test of the evidence.
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A perennially unfortunate consequence of International Womens Day is that broadcasters use it to remind us all of the existence of the nations most irrelevant campaign group, Justice For Men and Boys, the self-styled only anti-feminist party in the English-speaking world.

Its head, Mike Buchanan (a former Conservative Party consultant) is, every year, only too happy to do the rounds on the news channels, riding on the coat-tails of the exploitation of women to gain a bit of cheap publicity for his own weird cause.

Only this year, for the first time, he found himself outdone by Priti Patel and the Women For Britain campaign, which was launched yesterday morning.

There are still three-and-a-half months to go until the referendum itself, and we can but hope that a bunch of Tory and Ukip women evoking the spirit of the Suffragettes to agitate for Brexit might prove to be the high-water mark in rank stupidity terms. But obviously I doubt it.

It began with an iPhone video plea from a 16-year-old girl now widely known as Lexie Brexit, after an impassioned intervention from the audience on the BBCs Question Time last week. I just want to thank you all for standing up to an increasingly undemocratic EU, she said, in scenes more commonly experienced at North Koreas May Day Games.

Then we were on to a second video, made by Ukips Suzanne Evans, lovingly shot around the base of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue in Westminster. Sadly it was filmed before Sunday, when Dr Helen Pankhurst, Emmelines great-granddaughter, went on a womens march and demanded an apology from anti-EU campaigners for exploiting her family name. For Britain to move out of the European Union would have appalled her and her Suffragette daughters, she said. Numbering Emmeline among the prominent supporters of the Vote Leave campaign is outrageous.

 Patel talks Brexit

Still, anyone who saw Ms Patels advocacy for the death penalty on Question Time, even as Ian Hislop patiently explained that wherever it is practised, innocent people are executed, will realise that she is not the most capable when it comes to thinking on her feet, so two full days notice was never going to be long enough for her to come up with some alternative arguments.

Everyone should remember that iconic figure, Emmeline Pankhurst, she began. In many ways, Women For Britain are fighting for exactly the same cause. (No theyre not.)

Emmeline Pankhurst was not the only hero in town. Boudicca, who stood up to the Roman invaders, also came in for special praise. Elizabeth I, who defended Britain from the Spanish Armada. Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, all these womens legacies are apparently under threat from the faceless bureaucrats of the European Union.

An unfortunate technical glitch meant that the soaring plateaus of the Patel oratory had a tendency to be interrupted by the sudden appearance of Lexie Brexits paused face set in what looked to be a pained grimace. Its possible she understood the absurdity of Ms Patels promise that we could build a brand new hospital every week if we left the EU. Where would we find the Bulgarians to do the work?

Arguably though, the star of the show was on the undercard. Businesswoman Emma Pullen, of the British Hovercraft Company, received a standing ovation for her reason for wanting out of Europe: Weve done pretty well on our own since the Romans went home. Justice For Men and Boys will be back next year. It cant come soon enough.
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I hate to begin on such a pompous note, because no one could have enjoyed the humour more. But even with this Republican primary season, there must come a time when the laughter stops.

Not that its been wildly sophisticated. Oscar Wilde would have rejected such witticisms as Marco Rubios suggestion that Donald Trump wet his pants during a debate. Noel Coward would have forsaken former Mexican President Vicente Fox growling, live on Fox News (no relation), I will not pay for that focccccccckkkkking wall. Mark Twain would have little space for anything, penis size-related or otherwise, that has flowed from Trumps capacious gob. For fans of gross-out comedy, on the other hand, the GOP production of Dumb And Dumber And Dumber Still And Dumbest Of All has often been hilarious.

That said, everyone sane will have a bespoke tipping point when the mirth mutates into something less pleasurable. For some it may have come a while ago, when the notion of President Trump went from the dementedly satirical to the easily quantifiable (about 25 per cent currently in betting markets). For others, it will remain on hold until Trump, as the candidate, is running neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton.

For this William Q No-Mates, it came at about 9.30pm on Saturday, alone at home watching a live stream of a Trump rally in Florida. Id already sampled many bite size chunks from similar events; 10 second clips of Trump ranting in that semi-stream of consciousness style about America never winning, demeaning his opponents, bragging of his Croesus wealth, committing himself to war crimes, torture, and so on.

In morsel form, that familiar stump shtick is hugely entertaining. Only when you gorge on the banquet do you understand that the performance filling vast arenas with white, middle-aged and very resentful Americans is a wholly original hybrid.

A Donald Trump rally exists, on its own, in that weird Venn diagram intersect where WWE Wrestlemania meets an echo of Nuremberg. Trumps well-known affection for wrestling was obvious from the bits of business that peppered the performance. Every few minutes, he gazed towards a part of the stadium where a posse of loyalists were yelling Trump, Trump, Trump at someone they had surrounded. Get him/her out, he said, glancing on as security guards jostled the protester, invariably young and usually dark skinned, from the arena. Ten years ago... he muttered in wistful reflection, that once the protester would have had a thrashing, though perhaps this was code for 100 years ago when the penalty for such insolence might have been a lynching.

The coup de theatre came when he claimed to have seen a woman faint at least 30 yards from the stage. I love people who faint, he declared  an even more doolally observation, if thats possible, than I love the poorly educated. It wasnt entirely clear that this fainting was a set-up until a few minutes later, when a burly guy approached the stage with a large bouquet of flowers supposedly intended for the tangerine-faced huckster.

Dont give them to me, said The Donald. Run after the fainting woman and give them to her.

What disturbed here wasnt the blatant phoniness of this WWE-style vignette (yeah, yeah, we get it, big-hearted Donald sacrifices a floral arrangement for a victim of low blood pressure). It was the crowds willingness, in a heroic collective act of will, to swallow it.

When Trump asked those same credulous fools to cement a solemn, binding oath to vote for him come what may by raising arms, thousands of right hands rose at a slightly more vertical angle than that favoured by the Nazis. That was the moment when following Trump mutated from guilty pleasure into an emetic.

Regardless of what the comedian Louis CK and others suggest, Trump isnt Adolf Hitler. For one thing, his forensic style  disjointed, staccato, demanding the highest safe dose of Ritalin  lacks an iota of the Fuhrers brutal eloquence and hypnotic fluency. For another, Hitler was not a two-bit charlatan with an arrestable-offence spray tan. He had unshakable beliefs. Trump believes in nothing enough to make genocide a central plank of his presidency.

What unnerves about the feverish enthusiasm for Trumps nasty gibberish is the timing. For all the wage stagnation and income inequality, despite the grinding poverty that still afflicts black people in its major cities, Americas economy is doing all right. Unemployment is low. White people, like those at the Florida rally, do not lack calories. From the girth on view, quite the reverse.

When white Americans were going hungry, during the dust-bowl depression of the 1930s, they elected an arch liberal, Franklin Roosevelt, as president. Now a minority that is dangerously sizeable, in both meanings of the term, raises arms to as transparent a grifter as Trump. The arc of history is hardly linear, but no one could call this a pleasing trajectory.

And if its happening now, at a time of comparative prosperity, what must be the potential for a less incurious, better disciplined, more likable demagogue than Trump if and when the global economy crashes again? What awaits when Chinas GDP overtakes Americas, and the false sense of terminal decline cynically fostered by Trump becomes a reality?

Most of us have lived our entire lives in the blithe assumption that democracy is a rock solid certainty for Western powers. Watching those hands rise, hearing whites menacingly booming USA, USA at the removal of peaceable black and brown compatriots, that assumption was thrown into smug relief by the distant shudder of a properly dystopian future.

An ancient formula states that: comedy = tragedy + time. This Republican primary season has turned so many verities on their heads, so here perhaps is another. Long after the laughter has faded, when economic conditions better suit the more skilful semi-fascistic rabble-rouser for whom Trumps candidacy has laid the ground, that old formula may need reversing to: tragedy = comedy + time.
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The mood came perilously close to euphoria. The deal reached in Brussels after eight hours of talks offered the first hope for six months that the EU might have a workable plan for addressing the human emergency unfolding on and around its shores. Chancellor Angela Merkel, it seemed, had worked another miracle. The EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, spoke of a game changer.

Re-examined in the cold light of day, however, the outline agreement raises a host of questions, of principle and practice. Lets start with the practice.

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The central idea is that all irregular migrants, including Syrians, who arrive on Greek territory from Turkey will be sent back. For every one person returned to Turkey, a Syrian refugee who is recognised as such in Turkey will be resettled in the EU. It is an ingenious scheme, designed to destroy the business model of people-traffickers and break the link  as David Cameron has put it  between boarding a boat and reaching the EU. Those returned to Turkey will be sent to the back of the resettlement queue.

But just imagine the scenes. Even apprehending, let alone returning, would-be asylum-seekers will be far easier said than done. The Greek, Turkish and Italian shores are a smugglers paradise. Nato ships may be helping with surveillance, but the numbers needed to screen those arriving will be large, and neither Greece nor Italy has taken kindly to the notion of EU officials policing their sovereign borders.

How is it proposed that hundreds of people, including fit young men, pregnant women and small children, will be embarked on to ships destined for somewhere they desperately do not want to go? Remember those Central European stations last year? Once, force might have been used out of media sight. But mobile phones have changed all that  as has the vigilance of those who doughtily champion the refugees cause.

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As the Calais Jungle illustrates, many would rather take the chance of a safer, or better, life in the UK tomorrow than more orderly and sanitary living conditions in France today.

For all these reasons it is hard to see how the agreement with Turkey, as currently couched, can work without at least the show (if not the use) of force. Are the EU governments prepared for this? Are they braced for the inevitable outcry? Is Germany? Is Sweden? More to the point, is such coercion what the European Union is about?

The thinking behind the deal must be that, after some people have been demonstratively returned, and equivalent numbers of Syrians have been flown to an EU country  to much media fanfare and warm local receptions  the message will get through, and the market for traffickers will decline. If Merkels words of welcome girdled the Earth with such speed last year, perhaps the opposite message can do the same. Hope, though, has an admirable habit of trumping despair, and while there is little purpose in reprising the past, the truth needs to be acknowledged. The proposed new arrangements amount to little more than a belated attempt by the EU to regain control of its own borders.

The refugee crisis is widely seen as a failure of the Schengen agreement. But Schengen, which abolished frontier controls between its signatories, did not fail. What failed was control of the EUs external border on which the viability of Schengen was predicated. If the external border can be secured, the new internal controls  those fences and border posts  can be dismantled again, as Merkel, for one, so fervently wishes.

Reasserting the external border, however, also means strengthening what has often been criticised, including by human rights champions inside the EU, as fortress Europe. Their complaint is that almost no one has been able to enter the EU legally, so even those qualified for asylum must in one way or another circumvent the law. The scheme to resettle Syrians from Turkish camps helps to address this dilemma  but only for Syrians, and only from Turkey.

This is also where principle comes in. If people arrive, albeit having paid traffickers, with a legitimate claim to asylum can the EU (or Greece, or Italy) legally turn them back? The answer from EU officials in the early hours of yesterday was yes, because they had voluntarily left a place of safety. But the argument will surely be open to challenge, both because it would deny all refugees any choice in their destination and because of the political situation in Turkey.

There is a further point relating to Nato. If its assistance is required, in whatever form, to secure the EUs borders, does this not undermine a distinction that the EU has always insisted upon: between the political and economic Union, and the quite separate military alliance? It is a blurring of lines that Russia, among others, would gleefully seize upon as proof that it was right all along about the EU and Ukraine.

In the end, all these qualms could turn out to be academic. The deal done this week has bought Angela Merkel time  the details will be hammered out only in 10 days time, after crucial regional elections in Germany. Thereafter, the price demanded by Turkey could well be rejected as too high. It includes not only more money for refugee facilities, but visa-free travel for Turks to the Schengen zone, to start as early as June. France could join the new EU member states in baulking at this, while David Cameron, too, might object to any visa liberalisation in the run-up to the referendum  even though it would affect only Schengen countries, of which the UK is not one.

Even if terms can be agreed, those Syrian refugees who would be resettled from Turkey will need somewhere to go. Which takes us back to the failed EU quotas of last summer. The quest of the refugees for safety; the hopes of so many others for a better life, and the earnings of the traffickers all have a long way left to run.
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This week, women across the UK have been tweeting pictures of their hands. On each hand is a postcode. Every one of those tweeted palms represents one woman; each postcode, a place they were verbally, physically or sexually abused.

This was the brainchild of the Womens Equality Party. Ive already outlined why theyll get my vote before. Now Sophie Walker, the partys London mayoral candidate, wants to create a sexual harassment map of London. Her aim is to show that violence towards women is one of the biggest challenges facing our generation, and it's working.

Twitter has been flooded with responses, but that shouldnt be surprising. In 2014 1.4 million women suffered domestic abuse at the hands of the partner in the UK. In the same year, 31 per cent of women reported theyd been sexually abused at some point in their life.

In less than a week since its creation, the map already shows just how little the day-to-day interactions between men and women have improved.

In truth, what each postcode on a palm and pin on the map actually represents is a man.

These may be womens hands stretched out in defiance of a womans issue, but its one caused by men. Men are the culprits, and its the men who have to change.

On Saturday thousands of women paraded through London in defiance of the abuse suffered at the hands of men. The message was clear: theyve had enough of the catcalls, the groping and the rapes. Theyve had enough of the beatings, and theyve had enough of being ignored when they speak out against it.

The march was, of course, peaceful. But when reports surfaced of men being ejected from the march, its all us men could do but complain.

Why cant we march with them? Or, Wheres our march against male abuse? came the predictable responses.

And that typifies the problem perfectly.

For hundreds of years men have tried to tell women whats best for them. It still seems to be the most difficult task imaginable for us to stop, listen and absorb what women are actually saying. Instead we issue a patronising Calm down, dear, turn the issue back to us, or mansplain ourselves to climax.

For us to decide we have a right to march with women against domestic abuse defeats the protests very objectives. Instead, in this and many other cases, we need to take a step back and listen to whats being said and, only then, ask how we can help.

Last week a company dared to offer women the option of period leave. A couple of days a month, if necessary, for women to take off work if their periods became unbearably painful.

Cue the men, and our utter derision at the very thought of a woman-only benefit. This despite the fact that women earn 300,000 less than men over their working life, just for being women.

Lets be clear: these complaining men dont have uteruses, or periods. Thus, we didnt deserve or require a place in that debate. Our place, in that instance, was to listen. Then (and see if you can spot a pattern emerging here) ask how we can help.

If period leave isnt necessary, what is? Did anyone of us even bother to ask?

For centuries, men have asserted their self-entitled dominance on every possible debate, discussion or dinner table discourse. Weve carried out the lions share of the atrocities around the world, and those closer to home. Weve done unspeakable things behind closed doors to the women in our lives and others besides.

When the status quo has been challenged, weve shouted down opponents and attempted to belittle women into silence.

Well, no more.

The women are talking and its time we started listening. We have to ask what they want and respect whatever comes as the answer.

Its the least we owe them.

Happy International Women's Day, everyone.
Staffing levels are expected to increase in almost every industry

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are the only sectors in Ireland that are expecting a decline in staffing levels in the second quarter of the year.

Restaurants and hotels are reporting strong growth in the opening months of 2016 with employers expecting to increase their staff levels by 12pc.

According to a new report from ManpowerGroup, a workforce solutions firm, net employment across all sectors in Ireland is expected to increase by 5pc in the three-month period between April and June.

Sales director at ManpowerGroup Ireland, Cara OLeary, said employers intentions to increase staff levels reflects a growing confidence in the Irish economy.

The restaurant and hotels sector is expected to enjoy the highest levels of year on year growth in employment levels, as demonstrated by recent news that a number of new hotels are to be built in Dublin city centre, Ms OLeary said.

The strongest hiring intentions for the second quarter of the year were signalled by the electricity, gas, and water sectors.

The employment outlook for those sectors is positive with employers expecting to increase staffing levels by 19pc for the quarter.

Manpower surveyed 620 Irish employers and found that employers in Connaught reported the strongest hiring intentions out of all the provinces polled.

In February APC and MSD announced the creation of 300 new jobs in the pharmaceutical sector.

The announcements from both firms were for highly skilled jobs due to be filled over the course of the next 18 months.

Interestingly the construction sector reported a net employment outlook of plus 9pc for the upcoming three-month period.

It represents a two percentage point increase on the same period last year and a six percentage point increase on the previous quarter.

According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, the construction industry created just under 10,000 jobs over the course of 2015.

The predicted increase in employment in the sector would be in line with the rise in activity in the industry in the opening months of the year.

The financial and business services sector is predicting a return to growth after a reduced forecast at the start of the year.

Employers in the industry are expecting to report an 8pc increase in staffing levels in the second quarter of the year.
The global gathering of Nuffield scholars kicked off in Cavan at the weekend. It's the first time that the annual conference has taken place in Ireland, and given that it represents a collective of the brightest minds working in the international farm sector, it is an event that we should be proud to host.

Ahead of his address to the scholars, Rabobank's Senior Vice President for rural banking, Bart Ijntema, spoke of his concerns about the lack of profitability in farming becoming a major disincentive to getting enough young people interested in the sector.

"The profits along the food chain are not equally divided at the moment," he said. "The retailers, processors and input suppliers are making a return on investment of 15-20pc, while the average at farm level is barely 2pc.

"I think this is a big part of the reason that the average age of farmers is increasing globally. It's about 60 years on average now in the US and Australia, and heading for 65."

The situation isn't much better in Ireland, with 55 often being quoted as the average age of the Irish farmer.

This comes at a time when the world is going to need young, energetic farmers more than ever before.

Mr Ijntema summed it up best with this astounding fact.

"With the world's population increasing to 9 billion by 2050, and a moral responsibility to lift 800 million people out of hunger, the food requirement for the next 35 years will be bigger than the total amount of food harvested by man since time began."

Wow.

This is part of the reason that he believes that the world's food system is hurtling towards a food deficit rather than a food surplus by 2020.

"First world consumers have been the biggest beneficiaries of European and US policies that aimed at never allowing their continents to go hungry - it basically guaranteed a flow of cheap food. But since 2009, we've seen a flip of the underlying fundamentals of supply outstripping demand.

"Obviously, dairying is suffering from a particular combination of factors at the moment, but we believe that this will change soon," he said.

And it's not just the extra mouths to feed that will underline future prices.

Instead, the Rabobank boss thinks that the supply constraints in global food production from here on in - be it environmental in the Netherlands or New Zealand, high costs in hotter climes, or a lack of infrastructure in the rest of the world - will be bigger than the demand constraints.

He says that this will move prices up in general. In dairying, he sees milk prices increasing by 10pc.

That's welcome news, but will it be enough to put the French off their big push at next week's EU farm council meeting where they are going to seek new production fines to be imposed on processors that increase their milk volumes in 2016. Quotas by the backdoor? You betcha.
Hundreds of farmers will be reviewing fines and clawbacks by the Department of Agriculture following a decision by the Ombudsman's office to return 25,000 to a Kerry farmer forced by the Forest Service to stump up years of payments after his woodland was destroyed by flooding.

"This case should never had gone to the Ombudsman," said the IFA's forestry chairman, Michael Fleming.

"If the Forest Service was functioning in a fair manner this could have been resolved years ago. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident and highlights a policy to recoup payments on occurrences beyond the control of farmers".

However, the Department of Agriculture hit back at the accusations, claiming they had a duty to protect public money.

"Overpayments have arisen for many different reasons.... an overpayment is notified for recovery only where the terms and conditions of the scheme have not been complied with, e.g. where the area planted is lower than the area claimed," it said in a statement.

In response to claims that its approach had discouraged farmers from planting land, the department said that surveys showed that its policy of recouping overpayments was not identified as a deterrent.

The case published by the Ombudsman involved a farmer who planted 15ha of land in northwest Kerry.

While the Forest Service had turned down his initial application for grant-aid in 2004, the farmer won his appeal with the help of Mid Western Forestry consultants, despite a letter from the South Western Regional Fisheries Board advising the Department that part of the site was prone to flooding.

However, the biggest change occurred when the local authority stopped maintaining local drains due to budget restrictions in 2009. This was the time when the forestry was flooded, and the plantation was lost.

The owner informed the Department, who waited until December 2013 to decide that the damage was not a force majeure, and that the farmer was obliged to pay back all the grant aid paid out on the area up to that date.

"This farmer had farmed this land all his life, and up to 2009, it had never flooded on him. So he planted it in good faith," said Nicholas Cotter of Mid Western Forestry Services.

"It is a terrifying thing for any farmer to get the letter that states that they have 30 days to pay up or else face interest penalties and have the money deducted from the next earliest farm payment.

"The reality is that in most cases the legal advice required will cost more than the money that is being claimed back. So farmers are very reluctant to take on the Department.

Similar cases

"There are hundreds of cases out there the Ombudsman would be very interested in."

The IFA's Mr Fleming added that he was getting a lot more calls in the days since the story first broke. "I've got a very similar case in another county with 26,000 at stake, and I've heard of cases where up to 52,000 was demanded by the Department," he said.

However, Mr Fleming said the situation should improve following the introduction of an Independent Appeals Office through the Farmers' Charter last year.

"Prior to this, farmers appeals were being ruled on by the same section that had caused the problem in the first place," he said.

The Department maintains that it has operated an independent appeals mechanism since 2002, and that one third of 323 cases were allowed or revised in 2014.
Fane Valley Co-Op and ABP Food Group confirmed yesterday that their proposed 50:50 joint venture in relation to Slaney Foods will be assessed by the EU's competition authority.

National authorities will also be involved in the process.

Trevor Lockhart, chairman of Linden Foods, which is owned by Fane Valley Co-Op, said that he looked forward to a positive resolution.

"Further growth internationally is key to the long term success of the Slaney beef and lamb businesses. ABP, with its international sales footprint, is an ideal strategic fit. Both companies are top payers for quality cattle. This is a strategic emphasis that will not change with this transaction," he said.

"Structural change within Irish beef processing is a fact of life in 2016 and with the beef sector becoming increasingly globalised, further strategic developments of this nature within the industry are inevitable.

"After carefully considering our options, we are delighted that we are partnering with ABP," he added.

Paul Finnerty, CEO of ABP Food Group, acknowledged that the move to corner 28pc of the Irish beef kill by his company had generated controversy among farmers.

"We should not underestimate the looming risks of Mercosur, TTIP and Brexit,  any of which will further accelerate a more challenging market environment," he said, before adding that the long term view was positive.
Revenue at Grafton Group, a builders merchanting and DIY group, have jumped by 6pc to 2.21bn (2.86bn) while operating profits at the firm rose 15pc.

The group, which has operations in Ireland, posted an operating profit of 126.8m for last year, up significantly from 110.1m in 2014.

The company published its annual results for 2015 this morning which showed operating profit margins at the firm increased by 40 basis points to 5.7pc from 5.3pc while basic earnings per share grew 19pc to 41p.

The Grafton dividend increased 16pc in the year off the back of an improvement in profitability.

Grafton chief executive, Gavin Slark, said the group had made "continuing progress" in 2015.

"We continued to invest in organic growth initiatives and selective acquisitions, most notably Isero in the Netherlands.

"We are confident about the overall prospects for the Group and expect to deliver organic growth in the year ahead and to also benefit from recent development activity as well as exposure to the strengthening economies in Ireland and the Netherlands," he said.

The firm said that growth had returned to its Irish DIY business and that it had made a successful entry into the Dutch merchanting market after completing the acquisition of Isero.
AIB is seeking summary judgment against a husband and wife over alleged unpaid loans for around 5.5m.

The money said to be owed by company directors Oliver and Stephanie Kelly, of Rosbarnagh House, Torquay Road, Foxrock, Dublin, arises out of a number of loans advanced to them by AIB between 2003 and 2010.

AIB Mortgage Bank is seeking judgment of 778,942 while AIB Plc is seeking 4.754m from them.

The bank says it issued a demand for the repayment of the loans in December.

It claims the couple have failed, refused or neglected to satisfy its demands.

Mr Justice Brian McGovern admitted the case to the Commercial Court yesterday.

Lawyers for the couple had opposed the bank's application to have the case admitted on grounds including that AIB had delayed in bringing the proceedings.

Joseph Lyons, a manager in AIB's financial solutions group, said in an affidavit there had been extensive discussions with the couple with a view to restructuring their borrowings between May and December of 2015.

AIB said it offered the couple terms, but its offer was not deemed acceptable by the Kellys. A counter proposal offered by the couple was "not sustainable", Mr Lyons said.

Matters also came to light during the negotiations that caused them concern, he said.

It was discovered a judgment mortgage of 1.5m had been registered against a primarily debt-free asset of the Kellys by an employee or agent of theirs who had assisted them with their property portfolio over a 10 to 15-year period.

Mr Lyons said it had not been told of the proceedings, which issued in 2014, resulting in a judgment being issued in February 2015.

The Kellys did not dispute the action because they are in significant debt, he said.

The Kellys had asserted there was some money owing to the employee/agent but they disputed the amounts claimed, Mr Lyons said.

AIB was not satisfied with explanations it received in relation to this matter.

AIB was also advised the defendants are in the process of transferring part of their clothing business to Turkey. The resultant transfer of assets outside the EU remains a concern, Mr Lyons said.
Irish Continental, which trades under names including Irish Ferries, is on course for a record year in 2016 after posting strong results for 2015.

Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) soared almost 50pc to 75.5m last year as cheaper fuel, stronger sterling, and improved tourism and cargo figures fed into its performance.

Revenue at the company, headed by chief executive Eamonn Rothwell, rose 10.5pc to 320.6m. Mr Rothwell owns about 15pc of the company.

The volume of roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) freight was 9.9pc higher during the year, while the number of cars carried rose 5pc to just under 401,000.

It carried 1.67 million passengers, which was up 2pc on 2014.

Irish Continental (ICG) chairman John McGuckian said that the company maintains a "pivotal position" in facilitating Ireland's international trade and tourism, and is "operationally geared" to the economic recovery in Ireland.

"We have seen the benefits of this recovery continue into the early weeks of 2016 which, notwithstanding a weakening in sterling and assuming current oil prices, gives us confidence that we can look forward in 2016, in the absence of unforeseen developments, to further growth in revenue and earnings," he added.

In the year to date, ICG said that the number of cars it carried is up 4pc year-on-year, while Ro-Ro freight volumes are up 14pc.

In its container and terminal division, the number of containers carried is 12pc higher.

ICG also acquired four container vessels late last year for a total cost of 24.2m.

Three are being used by ICG's freight subsidiary Eucon on routes between Ireland and mainland Europe, while another - the bulk carrier MV Ranger - is on contract to a third party.

Davy Stockbrokers said that it's likely to move its own 2016 EBITDA forecasts for ICG from 87m to closer to 90m on the back of lower fuel prices and strong trading.

Analyst Stephen Furlong said car volumes will be tempered by weaker sterling.
Giving cash to thousands of older people to move out of larger homes could free up properties for families, a leading think tank has suggested.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) estimates that around 26,000 couples are empty nesters - they are living in large homes after their children have left.

These people are over the age of 50, and in homes with four or more rooms.

Trinity lecturer Dr Ronan Lyons and Nama are among those who have suggested that older parents could be given financial incentives to leave their large homes to allow them be bought by families.

First-time buyers are struggling to get on the first step of the property ladder because of a lack of supply, plus the massive increase in the deposit required to get approval for a mortgage.

Buyers in Dublin are now using a deposit of 50,000 on average to secure a mortgage.

In a new academic paper on incentivising older people to move house, the ESRI said there was little evidence that elderly people regularly move home in this country.

Looking at people aged 50-plus over the course of three years, it found just 3.1pc moved home during this time.

And unlike some other countries, there is no evidence of older people moving out of Dublin or urban areas into rural areas.

The ESRI report did note that a large number of older people living alone are already in small homes - so there wouldn't necessarily be a bonanza of large homes available under an incentive scheme.

However, it also noted "a reasonable proportion of older couples living in houses with seven or more rooms."

Three out of 10 of those over the age of 50 are in homes of seven or more rooms, which equals about 26,000.

But the report found there were social disadvantages to getting empty nesters to move out. The ESRI says large numbers of older people living alone did not have children.

Co-author Dr Alan Barrett said: "While the data shows scope to achieve greater availability of housing through incentivising mobility of older people, any such policy should consider the potential for social isolation among older people who move to an unfamiliar area."

The ESRI does not state what incentives could be put in place to get empty nesters to downsize, but they could include a dropping of property tax for a period, or a subsidy for moving.

The new ESRI report, in response to the housing crisis, came as a separate study revealed that just 8,000 homes were sared last year.

Property Industry Ireland, which is part of employers' body Ibec, said there was an increase in new buildings in the last three months of last year, but added that market activity remains depressed.

Estate agents body IPAV (Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers) called for a Cabinet post for housing.

It said the cost of building the average house could be reduced by 32,000 if the State provided builders with access to low-interest lending, and reduced VAT and levies on construction.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank has been called on to relax one of two lending restrictions that it is claimed is keeping first-time buyers out of the market.

Buyers are subject to rules on the size of deposits and on the amount of income they can use.

New Zealand brought in two similar lending rules - a limit on the amount borrowed relative to income and rules on the sizes of deposits. But it eased back on these rules six months later. The rules here have seen mortgage deposits swell to 51,000 on average in Dublin. This is double what it was in 2012.

Mortgage experts estimated as many as 12,000 people will be locked out of the housing market because the Central Bank has left them in "rent jail". The Central Bank said it will publish a review in November on the rules that determine the amount that can be borrowed.
Mark Carney's scope to sidestep Brexit is dwindling. With a referendum on Britain's European Union membership looming, the Bank of England governor has spent months trying to skirt the charged debate.

An appearance before MPs today may throw him right in, as happened before the Scottish independence vote when his comments were hijacked by campaigners from both sides.

The stakes are high, with Goldman Sachs Group and BlackRock among those warning the vote puts trade and investment at risk and many economists saying the full implications of an exit are almost impossible to quantify.

While Mr Carney has said there's little evidence of an economic impact so far, some surveys signal the uncertainty is already having a detrimental effect. "The governor will simply have to give a view," said Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec Securities in London. "It'll be very difficult to avoid specific questions about trade access and the potential impact on growth, inward investment, the prospects for the financial sector. He'll be fairly frank, I don't think there's any avoiding it."

Mr Carney and deputy governor Jon Cunliffe will testify at Westminister's Treasury Committee today on the economic and financial costs and benefits of EU membership.

In a report in October, the central bank considered the impact of membership on its mandate, but didn't give a detailed assessment of the merits or the implications of an exit.

That hasn't stopped political point-scoring, with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne hailing the document as being in line with the government's thinking that the UK should remain. Eurosceptic lawmaker and Treasury Committee member Steve Baker said the same document was a "clear warning" about the risk of power transfer to Brussels.

Last month, Prime Minister David Cameron hinted he wants to see the BOE go further with its analysis, saying it should "set out the figures so people can make a judgment".

"It's a political forum - the questions will be quite wide-ranging and that could be difficult for him," said Ross Walker, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland in London.

"His language will be cautious and technical and maybe a bit dry, but in terms of identifying the risks, that might tend to reinforce the view of someone who is more cautious about a UK exit." (Bloomberg)
Eddie Redmayne in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on the cover of Entertainment Weekly

In your twenties or thirties and still suffering from Severe Hogwarts Withdrawal Syndrome? Then 2016 is your lucky year (like a normal year, but with just the right amount of Felix Felicis).

This summer, were returning to J.K. Rowlings magical world through the Harry Potter sequel play The Cursed Child  and in November, Warner Bros are treating us to the Harry Potter spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Set in 1920s New York, the film is Rowlings first screenplay, and stars Eddie Redmayne as Ministry of Magic Employee and British Wizard in New York Newt Scamander (future author of one of Potters school textbooks, the titular Fantastic Beasts).

Rowling announced on Monday that four new pieces of writing, all of which will set the scene for the forthcoming film, will be released on the Harry Potter fan website website Pottermore.

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Each piece will be released separately, with the first arriving today at 2pm (and the other three at 2pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively).

The new stories will revolve around a brand new American wizarding world.

Rowling rooted Harry Potter in Britain and in British folklore, although wider European history also got a look in  thanks to Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, we got a glimpses into Europes wizarding schools in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, while there was more than a whiff of Nazi ideology to both Voldemorts pureblood-obsessed Death Eaters, and the Greater Good movement started by Dumbledores former love object/nemesis Grindelwald.

Now Rowling will be taking inspiration from US culture and history.

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His movie career is about to get a major boost with the release of his first studio picture, multi-million euro production The Conjuring 2, this summer.

But Dublin actor Simon Delaney said that he has no intention of giving up his weekend slot on TV3.

The 45-year-old presents Saturday AM with Anna Daly and said he has no plans to leave Ireland in the coming months as his wife Lisa is expecting their fourth child.

"I'm here now for a while and I'm loving the show," Simon told the Herald.

"I'm doing Driving Miss Daisy at The Gaiety and we've also got baby number four on the way. My wife is seventh months pregnant now so she is due this May."

With the light chat show generating approximately 140,000 viewers every weekend, Simon said he is committed to the show and growing its audience base.

Ex-Ireland AM star Anna also presents Sunday AM with broadcaster and former politician Ivan Yates.

"We're only six months on the air," Simon said.

"Presenting is fine. It's just having a chat with someone and people are pointing cameras at you. I love it because we're keeping it light."

The Conjuring 2 is out this June and follows the hugely popular first movie, which generated over 300m.

Simon plays an English man in the movie, which is based on the real-life Enfield 'hauntings' that took place in the north London suburb in 1977.

"It's the first studio movie I've done and it was shot on the lot in Warner Bros, which was amazing in itself," he said.

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While Simon could not go into detail about his character in the movie, he said: "He is on the right side of evil."

Simon and food historian Regina Sexton are ambassadors of Bord Bia campaign 'Ham & Bacon - A Family Favourite', which runs from March 7 until March 20.
Ireland rugby player, Niamh Briggs, left, hands a national flag and a copy of the proclamation to Eilis Prendeergast, 16, a student at Dominican college, Sion Hills, Blackrock,

Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland with his wife Sabina and Heather Humphreys, Minister for Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht,

Students wave a tricolour at a state ceremonial event where over 6,000 secondary school students received National Flags and a copy of the proclamation in Croke Park

Ryan Tubridy poses for a selfie with Teresa Rigney, 16, Ellie Rath, 15, Hazal Burke, 15 and Chloe Callaghan Redmond, 16, students at Our Ladys School, Terenure

Cian Whitaker, 14, a student from St Paul's Secondary School, Oughterard, Galway receives the national flag from his father, Lt Col Johnny Whitaker, over 6,000 secondary school students received National Flags at a special State Ceremonial event in Croke Park. Picture credit; Damien Eager

Lilly Whelehan (14) from the Ursuline Convent, in Thurles, Co Tipperary, who spoke about her great, great, great, great grand uncle Thomas Francis Meagher. Photo: Damien Eagers

As a direct descendant of the Irish revolutionary who unveiled the Tricolour for the first time, 14-year-old schoolgirl Lilly Whelehan was more than a little nervous when she took to the podium at Croke Park where her great, great, great, great grand uncle was being honoured.

Not only was it her "nerve-racking" duty to thank President Michael D Higgins for attending the State ceremony yesterday, marking the final chapter in the Ireland 2016 Flags for Schools project, she also had to address more than 6,000 of her peers and teachers from every school in the country - in front of RTE broadcaster Ryan Tubridy no less, who acted as master of ceremonies.

"It was very scary," said the secondary school student from the Ursuline Convent in Thurles, Co Tipperary, still nervously clutching her neatly hand-printed speech.

But like her revered ancestor, Thomas Francis Meagher, she fearlessly rose to the challenge and pulled it off without a hitch.

And 168 years after he first hoisted the Tricolour at the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club in Waterford, before it was flown from the roof of the GPO by the insurgents during the Easter Rising, Lilly beamed with pride in the knowledge that his dream of the green, white and orange banner symbolising Irish national identity eventually came true.

"It's the same for everyone else, I'm just proud that it's our flag," she said.

Her history teacher, Carmel Keating, said the school was particularly honoured to be among more than 3,200 secondary schools taking part in the Flags for Schools initiative, launched last year in conjunction with the Defence Forces and the Department of Education.

"It was an honour when we found out that Lilly was actually in the school and that she was related to Thomas Francis Meagher.

"I suppose the fact that it's a flag of peace as well and symbolises the two traditions in Ireland and bringing those together," she said.

"It's now up to the next generation to keep that peace going," she added.

President Higgins gave the keynote address at the ceremony in which representatives of every secondary school in the country was given a handmade flag and a copy of the Proclamation by a member of the Defence Forces.

Primary schools across the country have already received their flags and Proclamations from Defence Forces personnel who visited their schools over the past five months.

Informing them that many of the insurgents in the Rising were the same age as the students sitting before him in the Cusack Stand, Mr Higgins called on them to "take charge of change and imagine what Ireland might yet become".

Rev Michael Cavanagh, chair of the Thomas F Meagher Foundation, spoke in a similar vein, reminding the students that "you've been given a responsibility to communicate the flag's message".

"We ask you to live the flag's message," he added.
Ellen Byrne and her children were trapped in their home for days during the Easter Rising

In 1916, Easter Sunday fell on April 4th, and the main preoccupations in Ireland were the Great War, the injured soldiers returning to Ireland and the setting up of Red Cross hospitals. But what was life like for the women of the city?

Servants

The spring equinox and the brighter longer days revealed the dust and grime of wintertime, and the imminent Easter holiday became the annual frenzy to clean out homes. It had become a vital part of every woman's life, whether she lived in a mansion, a comfortable house, employing servants, was a cottage dweller or lived in a Dublin tenement.

In the homes of the more wealthy it was an intense period of cleaning as the servant girls all returned to work after their one day off to visit their homes on Mother's day.

The mistresses of these homes also employed a daily charwomen to do the heavy work. Others who could not afford a servant might employ a charwoman one day a week.

For example, Mrs Caffrey who lived in Corporation Buildings worked as a charwoman. She was 31-years -ant daughter Christina, aged 22 months. She was paid the going rate of one shilling and sixpence a day plus extras. This meant she was probably given a meal, and some employers passed on their cast-off clothes to these women.

One of Mrs Caffrey's clients was a Mrs Connor, who owned a butcher shop at 5 Manor Street. She was a widow aged 88, her two sons ran the business, and they all lived above the shop, which comprised four rooms. Mrs Caffrey also worked for families in Prussia Street, Rathdown Road, Aughrim Street and Botanic Road. She earned 7/6 for a five-day week. Her husband a labourer brought home 10/- so the weekly family wage was 17/6.

Wages

The 'family wage' was and is still a working class concept because everyone who worked contributed to the home. Children of working class families generally left school at a young age to contribute to the family wage. The middle class were salaried and the artisan and lower working classes were paid weekly. For example, Eamonn Ceannt worked for Dublin Corporation and earned 250, which is just under 5 a week.

On his salary he could afford to rent his home, support his wife, and son, and keep a live-in servant. In contrast, James Connolly, general manager of the ITGWU, earned 2 a week (104 a year). In 1916, his wife Lillie gave details of the family wage.

While he lived in Dublin his family lived in Belfast and the family wage was 5 8s. This was made up from James' pay, of 2, and remaining 3 8s came from his two daughters Nora and Ina, who worked in factories in Belfast. This was typical of many working-class families as the children went out to work early, and Connolly's children were bringing home the bulk of the family income was normal.

Connolly lived mostly in Dublin, at the house of Madam de Markievicz and paid for his lodgings. This meant that his two eldest daughters were keeping the family in Belfast.

Widows

The life of widows was to say the least precarious. The most well-known case of a descent into poverty is that of Sean O'Casey's mother, who lived in severe poverty in East Wall. There was no widow's pension and these women were generally left to survive as best they could. There were several widows' homes in the city run by the various religious charities.

My own grandmother, Ellen Byrne, was 33 in 1915. She had three children, an infant of eight months and two daughters aged 9 and 6. She was widowed in the wake of the 1913 Lockout and lived in Marlborough Street. That Easter weekend she enjoyed a brief respite from her daily life.

Mrs Byrne was a box maker and when her husband died, she went back to work at the Dublin Box Factory. She did not have an extended family and she was advised to put her children into an orphanage. She found a way around this and the Sisters of Charity in Gardiner Street came to her aid. Her two daughters attended the primary school run by the order in Gardiner Street and they had a creche for infants of "respectable widows".

Every morning Mrs Byrne got the baby ready and the two girls made his breakfast and fed him, and then on their way to school they left him in the creche. The girls were given dinner at school and after school, collected him, brought him home and took care of him until their mother returned from work. On this Easter weekend, they would relax and if the weather was fine they would go to Bray on the train.

Killed

After Easter 1916, life changed forever for these women. Christina Caffrey lost her infant daughter, Christina, when she was killed by a bullet outside their home. The infant was the second-youngest child to die that week.

Mrs Ellen Byrne and her children were trapped in their home in Marlborough Street and for days they went without food.

Her daughter Jenny had a lifelong abiding memory of that time because she thought she was going to die from hunger, or be shot dead. Nora Connolly lost her father, who was executed on May 12, 1916. Nothing would be the same again.

Ann Matthews is a historian and playwright.
Luas drivers are to meet in the coming days to ballot for an all-out strike that could bring the tram network to a complete halt.

It came as talks between their union Siptu and Luas operator Transdev broke down last night, with management saying a scaled-back pay claim by drivers of between 25pc and 35pc still did not provide any "realistic basis" for negotiations.

While it could take up to a month before an all-out strike starts - as drivers would have to be balloted and then serve a 21-day strike notice - in the interim they may decide to ramp up their work-to-rule.

While a work stoppage due to take place today was called off ahead of the talks, a 24-hour strike on St Patrick's Day and another 48-hour strike on Easter Sunday and Monday now look set to go ahead.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last night, Siptu's Willie Noone said drivers found it "bizarre" that, after revising down their 53pc pay claim and calling off today's strike and their work-to-rule, that the "company decided they wouldn't even engage" in the talks.

"We always said the 53pc claim was over a five-year term and that was radically changed. To show good faith it was cut in half." He said union representatives would now meet members to consider "all-out strike action".

However, while talks with drivers broke down, discussions will proceed on Friday in relation to 3-4pc pay claims by two other Luas groups - revenue protection officers and the supervisory grade.

In a statement released following the ending of talks at the Workplace Relations Commission last night, Transdev said that while the revised position put forward by these two groups was still "significantly beyond the company position (it) does provide a basis for further discussion".

However, in relation to drivers, the company said: "The 'bottom line' positions put forward by drivers and traffic supervisors do not provide any realistic basis for negotiations."

Transdev said it was willing to offer pay increases only of up to 3pc.

The pay claim lodged by Siptu ahead of the strikes was for increases ranging from 8.5pc to 53.8pc, for 16 traffic supervisors, eight revenue protection supervisors, 37 revenue protection officers, and 172 tram drivers. However, early on it admitted it did not expect to achieve its maximum demands. It revised down the maximum pay rises to between 25pc and 35pc.

It is understood that, over the course of five years, a 30pc pay rise for drivers, on a current salary of 42,000, would equate to an extra 12,600. But they are also believed to be seeking a 10pc bonus, taking their final salary at the end of the five-year period to just over 60,000.
Anti-pylon campaigners have failed in a bid to stop a planning inquiry into a huge new north-south electricity interconnector that could lead to the erection of 299 pylons across three counties.

Members of GAA clubs, farmers and residents were among 150 people who attended the first day of an oral hearing into the planning application at the Nuremore Hotel in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, yesterday.

Earlier, lawyers acting for the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) had failed in their High Court attempt to get an injunction stopping the An Bord Pleanala (ABP) hearing.

Their barrister, Patrick Neilan, told ABP inspector and chairperson of the hearing, Brid Gannon, that the injunction had been refused but leave for a full hearing on March 18 had been granted.

Ms Gannon and fellow ABP inspector Deirdre McGowan are expected to take up to 12 weeks to hear submissions from more than 900 groups or residents. Many are objecting to the 286m plan to erect the pylons - some 56m high - along a route between Woodland, near Batterstown, Co Meath, to Clontibret, Co Monaghan.

EirGrid planner Des Cox told the hearing the new planned route was chosen to avoid homes, nature reserves, lakes and historical sites.

Jarlath Fitzsimons, senior counsel for Eirgrid, said an original proposal for the interconnector had been put forward in 2009 and withdrawn the following year.

The NEPCC's legal challenge was based on the fact that, although EirGrid had made the planning application, the work would be carried out by ESB Networks.

Campaigners want the interconnector put underground, with independent experts saying that this would cost an additional 500m.

EirGrid says this option would also make the link less efficient.

The hearing continues today.
A 39-year-old Detective Garda suffered psychological injuries after a prisoner defecated in his cell and rubbed his excrement over his face, the High Court was told today.

Cavan based Det. Garda Linda Harkin told the court that in June 2005, she had brought a cup of tea to a prisoner who had been brought in for questioning in relation to a serious gangland murder investigation.

She told her barrister, Frank Martin, that the prisoner had not wanted to co-operate during interviews, but had not caused any trouble when she brought him meals and accompanied him on a confined recreation walk.

Det. Garda Harkin told a Garda Compensation hearing that on the second day of his detention she had brought him a cup of tea which he had requested.

She had left it on his cell door hatch and had looked in to check on him. She saw that the prisoner had put his head close to the hatch and she could see he had excrement all over his face and in his mouth.

Det. Garda Harkin said she was shocked when the prisoner had opened his mouth and she saw it was filled with excrement. It had been covering his teeth and she could see he was trying to swallow it. They were almost nose to nose and she feared he was going to spit it in her face.

Det. Garda Harkin, of Rocklands, Cavan, is suing the State for compensation for personal injury. She claims she developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and short term anorexia.

She said the smell had been overpowering in the cell area and she had later developed a hypersensitivity to smell.

She told Mr Justice Bernard Barton that following the incident she had immediately felt sick and had gone to a sink and vomited. She felt weak and later had been unable to drive home. She was collected that evening by her husband.

Judge Barton today held, in a preliminary issue in the case, that the prisoner had intended maliciously attacking Det. Garda Harkin and had not been acting out of an alleged psychological condition.

Barrister Esther Earley told the court that malice had to be proved in Garda Compensation cases or accepted by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform prior to a hearing that it existed in the case.

Mr Martin, who appeared with solicitor Michael Ryan for Det. Garda Harkin, said it was clear that what had happened in the prisoners cell was no potty training accident as there had been toilet facilities in the cell. It had obviously been a malicious attack.

Judge Barton heard the prisoner had later been charged and convicted under the Criminal Damage Act for damage to three cell blankets and had been ordered by a District Court judge to undergo psychiatric treatment.

Judge Barton said he was satisfied the prisoner had known that Det. Garda Harkin would be the one to bring him his tea or check on him and he had approached the hatch in his cell and had made sure his face would be visible close up.

After deciding the preliminary issue Judge Barton adjourned the remainder of the hearing to a date to be fixed.
The forensic evidence given to the jury in the infamous Maguire Seven case was more compelling than the evidence used against a Dublin man accused of a gang murder, said a defence barrister at the Central Criminal Court.

Gary Flynn (31), of Rossfield Drive in Tallaght, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Seamus 'Shay" O'Byrne at Tymon Park North in Tallaght on March 13 2009.

During his summary of the trial's evidence defence counsel Giollaiosa O'Lideadha SC told the judge and jury that gunshot residue found on the cuffs of Mr Flynn's hoodie when he was arrested hours after the shooting did not prove he was involved.

He said the evidence of Dr Thomas Hannigan of the Forensic Science Laboratory was that it is possible for gunshot residue to transfer from one person to another. He said that the residue on Mr Flynn's cuffs could have come from people involved in the killing, who transferred it to Mr Flynn when they met up afterwards.

Referring to the Maguire 7, who were convicted due to nitro-glycerin found on their hands, he added that at least the prosecution in that case had an expert witness, who although he may have been lying, was willing to say that the presence of nitro-glycerin meant they must have handled explosives.

He said that in this case the prosecution's own witness, Dr Hannigan, had said that innocent transfer of gunshot residue is possible. He also pointed out that Dr Hannigan had said that car brake pads can create the same residue given off when a gun is fired.

Going through the State's case in the trial Mr O'Lideadha said each of the pieces of evidence could rationally be rejected by the jury. Part of the state's case, as explained by prosecuting counsel Alex Owens SC in his summary last Friday, is that Mr Flynn bought a top-up for a phone that has been linked to the alleged murder gang.

Mr Flynn was seen on CCTV buying the top-up at a Topaz garage on the Fortfield Road in Dublin less than two hours before the shooting.

Mr Owens said that Mr Flynn then got into a Primera car at the Topaz garage and traveled with the alleged gang to murder Mr O'Byrne. Mr Flynn was caught on CCTV again at Leisureplex in Coolock 30 minutes after the shooting with Eugene Cullen, who has already been convicted of murder in relation to Mr O'Byrne's death.

Mr O'Lideadha said the CCTV does not show Mr Flynn getting into the Primera at the Topaz garage. He said the jury must consider that he could have bought the top-up, handed it to Mr Cullen in the waiting Primera, and then made his own way to Coolock.

He added: "Gary Flynn was friends with Eugene Cullen and was with him before and after, but there is no evidence that he knew anything about the murder or that he participated in the murder."

Garrett O'Brien, who has been named in court as the man who shot Mr O'Byrne, has also been previously convicted. Mr O'Lideadha said it is possible that Mr O'Brien, having shot Mr O'Byrne, then met with Eugene Cullen who met up with Gary Flynn 30 minutes later at Leisureplex in Coolock and transferred gun residue to him.

"Does that alternative scenario give rise to a finding that is irrational?" he asked the jury.

Justice Patrick McCarthy began his charge to the jury, saying that they must act as judges of the facts in the case. He told them that the onus is on the prosecution to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt and that there is no onus on the accused to prove anything.

Justice McCarthy will continue his charge to the jury of eight men and three women on Thursday. One of the jurors was discharged because he is unable to sit through the rest of the trial.
A 51-year-old French polisher, currently appealing conviction and imprisonment for damaging a 10 million Monet painting, was said by a judge today to have deliberately set a trap to cause a traffic collision.

Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, said Andrew Shannon had by the manner in which he had driven his car purposely and with intention set a trap for a lorry driver behind him.

In what had earlier been described by barrister Frank Beatty as a road rage incident, Judge Groarke said Shannons actions were utterly irrational.

Shannon, who told the Circuit Civil Court he had 47 previous criminal convictions, sued an international haulage company and its driver, Ross Buckley, for 38,000 damages for whiplash injuries and more than 3,000 repairs to his car.

Mr Beatty, who appeared with Francis Gaughan of BLM Solicitors for Noel Malone International Haulage Ltd, said Mr Buckley would tell the court that Shannons evidence was entirely misleading.

He will say you were driving erratically and engaged in a road rage incident immediately prior to the inevitable collision, Mr Beatty said.

He will say you were gesticulating and screaming and shouting at him and deliberately jammed on your brakes just ahead of him.

Mr Shannon, of Williams Way, Ongar, Clonee, Dublin 15, said such suggestions were just not true and did not happen.

Shannon said he had passed Buckleys articulated truck on its left hand side and moved in front of it from a bus lane on the Navan Road. A car in front of him had suddenly stopped and he had to carry out an emergency stop. The lorry had run into the back of him. He denied having driven like a madman along the bus lane.

He told Mr Beatty he was not currently in prison as his conviction for criminally damaging a Monet painting was under appeal.

Buckley, who said he had one million miles of accident-free driving across Canada and all of Europe, said he saw Shannon gesticulating at him and shouting and screaming. He allowed him to enter in front of him from the bus lane and for no reason whatsoever Shannon had jammed on his brakes. He was unable to avoid an impact.

Dublin Bus driver Petru Apopei said Shannon had suddenly hit the brakes in front of the artic. He thought it was an intentional act.

Judge Groarke, dismissing Shannons claim, said that for all intent and purposes Shannon was inviting a collision to occur.

Whether the intention was to set up a claim is neither here nor there. Did the plaintive drive in such a grossly reckless fashion as to set a trap for the defendant? he asked.

Should that be so and the defendant driver was remiss in not being able to stop as he might have done, is the plaintiff entitled to recover damages? I say no, Judge Groarke said.

If the driving of the vehicle is being done to set up or invite an impact or seeking to test the driving ability of a vehicle behind, then a trap is set and the stopped vehicle is not now a motor vehicle but is being used as a sort of weapon, the judge said.

I find in the circumstances it would be irrational if I was to make a finding of negligence against the defendants and I therefore dismiss the claim with costs, Judge Groarke said.
A drug addict who was 'out of it' when he took a six-year-old boy from outside a shop before leaving him minutes later and taking his chicken nuggets has been jailed for three years. Stock Picture

A drug addict who was "out of it" when he took a six-year-old boy from outside a shop before leaving him minutes later and taking his chicken nuggets has been jailed for three years.

David Ryan (28), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly taking the child without consent at Liffey Street Upper, Dublin, on June 11, 2015.

Sean Gillane, defending, said the State had agreed the guilty plea was on the basis of recklessness.

Ryan has 112 previous convictions including criminal damage, public order, theft and fraud.

Garda Elaine Holmes told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the boy, who has Down syndrome, had been with his parents at a hospital appointment.

The father later left the child in a buggy facing into a shop which he went into briefly.

He returned to find the boy was gone.

The child was reunited with his father within 15 minutes.
A PENSIONER who claimed he broke his leg when he slipped on a badly repaired footpath while clearing snow and ice from outside a neighbour's house has withdrawn his High Court action for damages.

William Moran (76) sued Fingal Co Council over the accident on December 8, 2010 at Sheepmoor Grove, Blanchardstown, Dublin.

The council denied his claims and says he slipped on ice during the bad winter of 2010/11.

Mr Moran said he had cleared snow that day andwas scattering salt to melt the ice when he tripped on an uneven pathway outside the neighbour's house. He claimed the pathway was left in that condition as a result of footpath repairs carried out some years earlier on behalf of the council.

The case was due to resume today when Mr Justice Michael Hanna was told by counsel for Mr Moran that it was being withdrawn.
Adrian with his wife, former Circuit Court Judge Yvonne Murphy and their sons (from left) Eoin, Hugh and Daniel in 1998

Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, pictured above with former TD Pat Rabbitte (on right) during the Beef Tribunal in 1992

The President has led tributes to the late Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, who died suddenly at his home in Dublin.

Michael D Higgins described him as "one of the great legal minds of his generation".

Mr Hardiman, who had sat on the Supreme Court for 16 years, passed away unexpectedly in the early hours of yesterday morning at the age of 64.

He is survived by his wife, former Circuit Court judge Yvonne Murphy, and their three sons.

A former Fianna Fail election candidate and founder member of the Progressive Democrats, he was considered one of the country's foremost legal figures.

He had a distinguished career which saw him appointed straight from the bar to the nation's highest court at the relatively young age of 48.

President Higgins said Mr Hardiman had excelled as a law student and as a debater and student leader at UCD and immediately established a reputation as a gifted advocate and orator from the very earliest stages of his career as a barrister.

He said Mr Hardiman had made an immense contribution to the development of Irish law.

"The depth and rigour of his legal analysis has been matched by the eloquence and clarity of his judgments.

"A strong voice on the court, he has been rightly recognised as a particularly passionate defender of civil liberties and of individual freedoms," said President Higgins.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he was shocked and saddened by Mr Hardiman's death.

"Adrian had a long and illustrious legal career and was one of the great minds of our time," said Mr Kenny.

"As well as his enormous contribution to our judicial system, he had a love of our language, a huge interest in history and politics and was also a published writer and broadcaster."

The Supreme Court sat briefly yesterday to commemorate their late colleague.

All nine remaining Supreme Court judges were on the bench, but the seat where Mr Justice Hardiman normally sat was left empty.

The Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, said the State had lost "a colossus of the legal world".

Tributes were also made by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, and the chairman of the Bar Council David Barniville.
A former Ryanair pilot who quit his job after being demoted for refusing to carry bags he claims may have posed a security threat, said he was flabbergasted when a senior airline official told him the practice wasnt uncommon.

Mark Christensen (41) told the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) today that he was left stunned when Peter Bellew, the budget airlines former deputy director of flight operations, told him that the courier-type bags containing cash from the airlines in-flight sales on its fleet of jets are carried at times on board without documentation.

This is despite strict aviation regulations requiring all bags and other cargo brought on board by airline staff be sealed and signed off on official documents, the tribunal heard.

Mr Christensen, who was a pilot with Ryanair for 17 years, said he refused to bring the cash bags back to the airlines Dublin hub on a flight from Manchester because he was ultimately responsible for the safety and security of the flight and its passengers and crew.

I had no idea what the contents of the bag were. It could hold anything, he said of the incident that occurred a week after the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity in New York City on September 18, 2014.

In my opinion, it did pose a safety risk to the aircraft. It was an unacceptable risk, he said, adding he was unable to access the bags for a visual inspection because they were sealed.

To me I was just carrying out my normal duties in a prudent and responsible manner, he said.

He described an ensuing investigation into the matter by Ryanair human resources deputy director Darrell Hughes as more of an interrogation and ambush which he felt was lopsided, unfair and impartial in which the issue of the airlines procedures on undocumented cargo was never addressed.

He testified that the subsequent disciplinary process in which he was demoted from the senior position of captain to first officer  with a loss of basic pay of around 50,000 a year  as completed unwarranted and an unacceptable sanction.

He tendered his resignation in October 2014 and refused to retract it as requested by Mr Bellew, who has since gone on to the post of Chief Operations Officer for Malaysian Airlines, the tribunal heard.

I firmly believe what I did was correct and I would still do it today, he said.

Mr Christensen is now seeking six months pay in compensation from the airline, claiming he was constructively dismissed.

He is currently working as a pilot in China as a captain there but is commuting every month to be with his wife and three-year-old daughter who remain in Dublin.

Ryanair barrister Martin Heyden, SC, told the tribunal that he will produce evidence to show that there was documentation accompanying the cash bags.

The airline previously told the tribunal that Mr Christensen was uncooperative and that he refused to carry the bags before checking for documentation.

The hearing resumes tomorrow.
A woman who claimed she and her husband were accused of planning to 'do a runner' after filling up at a petrol station has been awarded 7,500 in damages for defamation of character.

Lauren Cannon (25), who is now married to her then partner and fellow claimant Ian Kavanagh, said that in April 2013 they had called to the Texaco Petrol Station and Spar shop at Coolquay, The Ward, north Co Dublin, for a fuel re-fill.

She told her barrister Matthew Jolley how, after Mr Kavanagh put petrol in their car, a supervisor blocked him from re-entering the driver's door and said: "You were not going to pay, you pay for petrol now."

She got out of the front passenger seat to go into the shop to pay and the supervisor followed her and stood beside her in the queue until she paid.

Mr Jolley told Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, it was always Ms Kavanagh's intention to leave the car and pay for the fuel once Ian informed her of the amount.

Ms Kavanagh, formerly of Killegland Meadow, Newtown, Ashbourne, Co Meath, told the court the couple are now living in Co Mayo.

She said that as she had stood in the queue to pay she asked the supervisor what was the problem and he said: "Yous were not going to pay."

Judge Groarke said the supervisor had "defamed Ms Kavanagh in circumstances for which there was no defence available". He told counsel for Claremont Enterprises Limited, which trades as Claremont Filling Station and Spar, Coolquay, he was dismissing Mr Kavanagh's claim for defamation, with no order as to costs, but would award Ms Kavanagh 7,500 damages together with her legal costs.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are set to go head to head in the race for the job of Dail chairman or Ceann Comhairle.

But up to four candidates are set to contest the position, which will be chosen by a first ever secret ballot of TDs when the Dail reconvenes at 10.30am on Thursday. Dublin Central Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan is to announce today whether she is standing - and she may emerge as the favourite in a contest to be decided by transfers under PR.

Fine Gael looks set to nominate Wicklow TD Andrew Doyle while Sinn Fein has signalled it will field Caoimhghin O Caolain, who has been a TD for Cavan-Monaghan since 1997.

Fianna Fail has formally chosen Kildare South TD Sean O Fearghail to stand. The 45-year-old, who has been at Leinster House as a TD and senator since 1997, was chosen at a parliamentary party meeting yesterday by a secret ballot.

He defeated newly re-elected Donegal TD and former minister and MEP Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher, and Michael Moynihan of Cork North West, who had party leader Micheal Martin's backing. A fourth candidate, former Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith of Cavan Monaghan, withdrew his name, and so did John McGuinness of Kilkenny, who had also been linked to the contest.

Party officials said they would not reveal the vote breakdown after the meeting at Leinster House, which lasted little over an hour. The Fianna Fail vote by secret ballot was a relatively new departure and it precedes a first-ever election of a Ceann Comhairle by secret ballot.

Up to now, the Ceann Comhairle was effectively chosen by the incoming Taoiseach as a plum job which has the pay and perks of a minister. It also means an automatic return to parliament next time without contesting an election.

Support

For Dublin Central's Maureen O'Sullivan, success would be the second major turnaround in her political fortunes inside a fortnight. First elected in a by-election in June 2009 to replace Independent Tony Gregory, she was resigned to losing the seat at the count 10 days ago and had actually left the count centre in the RDS.

But an extraordinary turn of transfers saw her return to the RDS to be declared elected. Now she is has a chance of being automatically returned without a contest next time.

Ms O'Sullivan last night was due to meet supporters in her constituency to discuss the issue, having already expressed an interest.

"I am considering things very carefully and after discussion and some reflection I will make an announcement on the issue on Tuesday," she told the Irish Independent.

It is understood Ms O'Sullivan was first encouraged to consider standing by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan. She would be likely to generate a lot of support amid the smaller political groups and Independents and could gain valuable transfers.

It also emerged that Fine Gael's Andrew Doyle of Wicklow was on the cusp of declaring his candidature. "I was encouraged by some colleagues and supporters to go for it. And I'm giving it serious thought," he said.

It is understood that Mr Doyle's supporters include Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton and Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan.

Leinster House officials have said that candidates require a total of seven TDs to get on the ballot paper. TDs can only back one nominee, though that backing does not preclude standing themselves.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny will today present Independent TDs with a suite of reform proposals aimed at winning their support for a Fine Gael-led government.

Mr Kenny's ideas are largely based on his party's manifesto, which proposed to restrict the use of the guillotine, extend the time available for Opposition TDs to question ministers, and change the way members of the Dail committees are selected.

Fine Gael is also proposing to set up a Parliamentary Investigations Unit.

Meetings involving Mr Kenny will take place with the Independent Alliance's Shane Ross, Kerry brothers Michael and Danny Healy-Rae and Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan today. A number of Fine Gael ministers, including Leo Varadkar, Frances Fitzgerald and Simon Coveney, will also be involved.

But within Fine Gael, there is a growing view that the talks with Independents are somewhat pointless as some form of deal involving Fianna Fail looks to be the only viable option for forming a government.

A senior source last night said that the key aspects of any coalition deal will surround the economy and public services, and not political reform.

"At the end of the day, this will come to whether some agreement can be reached between the two main parties.

"If not, we are heading towards fresh elections," the source said.

The latest round of talks comes after Mr Kenny's accepted "the indications are nobody will be elected as Taoiseach" when the 32nd Dail sits for the first time on Thursday.

Speaking in Brussels, where he attended an emergency EU summit on the migration crisis, he said he could not "put a date" on when coalition talks would be finished.

"For me, the work of government goes on," Mr Kenny said. "I am prepared obviously in my capacity as Taoiseach to work for the formation of a government that the country deserves and that the people need."

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin met with members of the Independent Alliance yesterday, who continue to stress that they had yet to decide what way to vote on Thursday.

But they were extremely positive about their meeting with Mr Martin, which lasted over 90 minutes.

Mr Ross said the Fianna Fail leader the showed "more energy" than Mr Kenny in his approach.

"He's hungry and he wishes to put forward some very radical proposals and we didn't see that from the Taoiseach last week," Mr Ross said.

The group presented Mr Martin with a proposal to end the Taoiseach's absolute power to call a general election by fixing Dail terms at five years.

They also sought measures to end political cronyism in state board appointments and remove political influence from appointing judges.

Michael Fitzmaurice, who represents Roscommon-Galway, said Mr Martin was receptive to the idea of appointing a Rural Affairs Minister and so-called "rural proofing" of major policies to ensure they promoted regional development.

Finian McGrath said he presented demands on health and disability services reforms as well as measures to tackle gangland crime.

Speaking with reporters afterwards, Mr Ross was forced to defend his description of Enda Kenny as a "political corpse" in an article he wrote for the 'Sunday Independent'.

Mr McGrath and Mr Fitzmaurice said it was clear that there were questions about Mr Kenny's future as Fine Gael leader - and they wanted to be sure they were speaking to people with full authority to do a deal.
Despite Ms Burtons public backing for Mr Kenny, Mr Sherlock last night said no decision would be taken until after the parliamentary party meets tomorrow.

A Labour Party minister has insisted his party's support for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach is not a foregone conclusion.

Junior Trade Minister and Cork East TD Sean Sherlock last night said the party would "collectively" decide on whether to back Mr Kenny during Thursday's vote amid growing calls from members to abstain.

Tanaiste Joan Burton caused major disquiet within the party after she endorsed Mr Kenny for Taoiseach just hours after Labour's disastrous election result.

Several TDs have been inundated by Labour members urging the party to abstain rather than back the Fine Gael leader.

Despite Ms Burton's public backing for Mr Kenny, Mr Sherlock last night said no decision would be taken until after the parliamentary party meets tomorrow.

"That will be a collective decision. Any pronouncement in advance of the meeting is purely speculative," Mr Sherlock told the Irish Independent.

"There has to be a broad discussion involving all members of the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) ahead of Thursday. Where Labour sits within the Dail firmament will be discussed thereafter," he added.

At a meeting of the Labour general council on Saturday, a number of delegates called on the party to instead abstain from Thursday's vote.

Such calls, which contradict the remarks by Ms Burton, were made by representatives from both the Limerick city and Dublin Fingal branches.

Both branches saw their TDs in Jan O'Sullivan and Brendan Ryan returned.

It's understood Mr Ryan in particular has been urged by Labour members in his constituency to push for an abstention.

However, Ms Burton is likely to be backed at the meeting by Dail colleagues Brendan Howlin, Alan Kelly and Willie Penrose.

"We will back Enda Kenny on Thursday and then all bets are off," Mr Penrose said.

Communications Minister Alex White, who will not be present for the vote as he lost his Dail seat, said their support of Mr Kenny would be "effectively the last act of this election" and "largely symbolic".

He also singled out Labour's deputy leader Alan Kelly for criticism, saying he expects him to come forward with an analysis of the campaign.

He described comments made by Mr Kelly about power being "a drug" in an interview with the 'Sunday Independent' as "ridiculous".

"I think that leadership calls for a sense of judgment, the impact of what you say on other people.

"A leader always has to look around the corner at what is going to happen next, they are qualities you look for in any leader," Mr White said.

The remarks were made as a leading Labour senator backed Ms Burton to remain as leader.

Ivana Bacik said the "last thing" the party needed was a "divisive and damaging" leadership contest. "In Labour we're a very democratic party - we tended to perhaps wash dirty linen in public so I think we've suffered such a massive electoral blow in this election that I would personally favour Joan staying on," Ms Bacik added.
Maura Healy-Rae campaigning with her father Danny in Kerry last month. Photo: Don MacMonagle

She is the newest member of the country's best-known political dynasty - but entering public life is no huge leap for Maura Healy-Rae.

The 25-year-old English and History teacher says her interest in politics was sparked growing up in Kilgarvan and through admiration of her grandfather, Jackie.

She will be co-opted onto Kerry County Council next week to replace her father, Danny, who was elected to Dail Eireann alongside his brother Michael, the first siblings to ever have achieved the feat in the same constituency in the same election.

Her brother Johnny has been an Independent member of Kerry County Council since his co-option in 2011 to fill the seat occupied by his uncle Michael, who was elected to the Dail that year.

"It's a privilege to be taking up a seat on Kerry County Council that was first won by my grandfather in 1973," Maura told the Irish Independent.

"I've also seen how my father has put his heart and soul into it for the past 14 years and he'll certainly be a hard act to follow."

Ms Healy-Rae will be one of two new councillors co-opted onto the local authority at a special meeting next Monday.

A replacement for Fianna Fail's John Brassil has yet to be announced.
The next Government will face pressure to create a new senior Minister for Housing after a number of homelessness charities demanded the housing crisis is tackled with a voice at Cabinet level.

Currently, Fianna Fail supports such a role and Sinn Fein is understood to be considering the idea.

The Simon Community has also called for a minister at Cabinet level, saying the housing crisis needs to be a "red-line issue".

A spokesperson for the charity said an "additional voice at Cabinet table" is needed, after the Super Junior Housing Ministry brief was merged into the Environment Minister's during the last Dail term.

"There are over 1,700 families without a home," said Niamh Randall, Simon Community spokeswoman.

"We're talking about real families here. This (a Cabinet Minister) is something that could have a real difference on homelessness.

"Government reaction to the housing crisis has been too slow to something that is the issue of the decade."

However, Focus Ireland's director of advocacy, Mike Allen, described the creation of the role of a Cabinet 'Minister for Housing' as "window dressing".

He insisted a dedicated team of civil servants - working solely on the issue of the housing crisis - was also needed to help tackle the crisis.

"We're not criticising the current team which looks after the issue," Mr Allen said.

"They are very professional at what they do but they also have to deal with a range of other issues alongside housing."

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny met senior civil servants dealing with homelessness yesterday after speaking with Mr Allen on Friday.

Mr Allen was "pleased" with the talks with Mr Kenny, but said it would have been better had he met him "two or three years ago, when the issue was emerging".

"We know what the Taoiseach's plans are, they have been in Government for five years, and some are quite good but not adequate to the scale of the problem," he argued.

Mr Allen added he remained open to meeting other political parties on the issue as groups look to draw up a Programme for Government.

A statement from the Taoiseach said he remained "committed to relieving hardship for homeless families".

Meanwhile, Saint Vincent de Paul supported the idea of a 'Housing Minister' but said it was "secondary to the issue of homelessness".

"For us, housing provision has been the poor cousin for years," said the charity's head of social justice and policy, John Mark McCafferty.

"Housing has been the biggest failure of this Government," he said.

"We don't just need supports to the private rented sector, we need new houses to be built around the country."
New research suggests Ireland is likely to face more periods of extreme temperatures, rainfall and drought than ever before throughout the 21st century.

The findings from Maynooth University forecast that extreme seasonal conditions are to be the "new normal" by the end of this century.

The research is part of the ongoing project 'Irish Climate Futures: Downscaling for Decision Making' led by Dr Conor Murphy of Maynooth University's Department of Geography and working collaboratively with international colleagues.

Researchers have used more than 150 years of data to project extreme seasonal conditions on Ireland.

The results show that the likelihood of seasonal extremes has increased significantly since records began.

The summer of 1995 was the driest and warmest on record and projections show that as many as 26 out of the final 30 years of this century could be even warmer than this.

However, the research has warned that an increase in extremely warm summers will have significant consequences for society, as despite Ireland's temperate climate, mortality rates in Ireland are affected by temperature.

The summer of 1995 saw a notable rise in mortality.

A suggested increase in dry summers and wet winters also implies a challenge for water resource management and agriculture.

For wet winters, the most extreme one on record occurred in 1994/95, although the group is awaiting figures for the winter just past.

The new research suggests that one in every eight winters will be as wet as the wettest so far experienced.

These trends look likely to increase further.

The project aims to more effectively link climate science to the needs of decision makers who will ultimately be tasked with adapting to climate change.

"The impetus behind this research was a desire to combat the 'psychological distancing' that is widespread amongst the general public and decision makers," said author Dr Tom Matthews, previously of Maynooth and now at Liverpool John Moores University.

"There is an undeniable need for us all to reduce our emissions and plan appropriately for climate change.

"However, there is a common perception that climate change is temporally, geographically, or socially distant from people's lives, and this reduces public engagement with the issue.

"By contextualising climate change relative to extreme weather that people have observed in their own lifetimes, it is our hope that this research will provide a more tangible reference point for a wide range of audiences," he added.

Maynooth University President Philip Nolan welcomed the findings, which he said were "academically significant and socially important".

"Climate change is the most pressing problem facing humanity as a whole, and Maynooth University academics and scientists have consistently distinguished themselves in their efforts to tackle it," he said.

The study, the first of its kind in Ireland, explored the increasing likelihood of seasonal extremes.

Using data dating back over 150 years, it identified the most extreme weather periods on record and then developed climate model experiments to project patterns over the next 100 years.
All Garda leave is being cancelled in Dublin in the run-up to the 1916 centenary commemorations at Easter. Stock picture

All Garda leave is being cancelled in Dublin in the run-up to the 1916 centenary commemorations at Easter.

Leave for gardai in some other locations will also be affected as security chiefs finalise a major plan to combat any threats from or disruption by dissident republican terrorists.

Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan pledged yesterday that every step would be taken to ensure that the public could enjoy the commemoration events in safety.

She said the threat posed by dissidents remained a top security priority for gardai and they were working closely with the PSNI in the wake of last Friday's bomb attack, which severely injured a prison officer in Belfast as he drove to work.

The commissioner said 31 people had been arrested by gardai last year in connection with inquiries into dissident activity and 26 of those had been charged with terrorist-related offences before the Special Criminal Court. A comprehensive plan had been drawn up for the 1916 events with the main Garda objective being the protection of the community.

The commissioner was speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary.

Confirming the plans to put extra gardai on the streets over the Easter weekend, Deputy Commissioner John Twomey said policing on the day would be commensurate with the risk involved and that would be assessed continually.

Monitoring of suspected activists and known supporters of dissident groups such as the Real IRA, the New IRA, Oglaigh na hEireann and the Continuity IRA is being increased on both sides of the border.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said: "This is a very important year for us, we have important celebrations coming up and there is every reason to believe they will be enjoyed and celebrated by very many people."

She said there was always a potential security dimension.

"But we have no particular information at present in relation to any specific threat," she added.

Asked about the three recent gangland murders in Dublin, Ms O'Sullivan said that organised crime activity had to be viewed in context.

She pointed out that there had been 22 gangland murders in 2009, compared with three last year. But she also acknowledged that there had been a resurgence in organised crime activities since the start of the year.
Newborn babies skin may be able give clues about food allergies they will suffer in the future. Thinkstock Images

Newborn babies skin may be able give clues about food allergies they will suffer in the future, new Irish research has found.

A weakness in the babys skin barrier may also enable doctors to predict whether they will suffer from other allergic conditions such as asthma.

The research from paediatricians in Cork University Maternity Hospital confirms that food allergies are associated with skin barrier defects, even in children who do not suffer from eczema.

This should help in the design of clinical trials than can help prevent and treat allergies.

Prof Jonathan Hourihane, head of the department of paediatrics and child health in University College Cork, said: We used simple, non-invasive measurements to support and extend previous human and mouse studies.

We have confirmed that food allergies are associated with skin barrier defects.

This is even in children who do not get eczema and this link can be found even before the newborn baby leaves the maternity hospital.

We think this research has great potential.

He added: It not only grants us a platform to comprehend how allergies may start, but should allow us to design and develop further studies and clinical trials in the years ahead which will help us understand how to prevent allergies  right from day one.

The findings, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, offer hope that the onset of lifelong allergic conditions  which has reached epidemic proportions  can be tackled by early preventative strategies.

Of the 1,903 Irish newborns involved in the study, which also included the UK Food

Standards Agency, it was found 1,260 had food allergy assessment and tests at two years of age.

Food allergy was proven in 56 children.

Newborns with allergic parents whose neonatal trans-

epidermal water loss was in the top 25pc of readings were 18 times more likely to have food allergy at two years children in the lowest 25pc.

Peanuts are the leading cause of food-related anaphylaxis, triggering a life-threatening reaction.

Others include various types of nuts, milk, fish, seafood, eggs and some fruit.
A photo of smiling Baby Karol on the altar at St Mary's Cathedral. (Inset) Mother Anna Rozycka carries a photograph of her 11-month-old son to the altar

The mother of an 11-month-old baby found dead at an apartment in Killarney on Sunday has led about 500 mourners at a special memorial mass in the town.

Close family friend, Damian, paid tribute to the little Karol Rozycki, whom he said brought so much happiness in his all too short life.

He told mourners at St Mary's Cathedral: "Karol was a lovely boy. In his short life he gave us so much happiness, more than someone with a long life could have. May he rest in peace."

A sobbing Anna Rozycka carried a photograph of her smiling baby son to the altar at St Mary's Cathedral in Killarney.

Expand Close Anna Rozycka and her son Karol / Facebook

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She made the grim discovery of her child's lifeless body at around 6pm on Sunday after she returned from work - on Mother's Day.

He was pronounced dead at the scene some time later.

It is understood the child had been suffocated, though gardai have not revealed the results of the post-mortem examination for operational reasons.

Officers are still waiting to interview her partner, Andrzez Piolunowicz, who had been minding the child and is in University Hospital Kerry in Tralee, where he is said to be in a serious but stable condition.

The photograph, some toys, flowers and candles were among the symbols offered at the mass for Baby Karol, who is believed to have been smothered to death at his home in Killarney on Sunday.

Polish Chaplin Piotr Delimat, the chief celebrant of the bilingual mass, said little Karol or 'maly Karolek', as he was referred to throughout, had united both communities.

"Karol has brought the Polish and Irish communities together. He unites us, a baby boy and all our children no matter where we're from, we all love our children.

About 500 people attended the mass, including members of the Polish community, people from the town and Anna's colleagues from the Aghadoe Heights Hotel, where she worked.

Parish priest, Fr Kieran O'Brien, said many ordinary people had contacted him, wishing to show their support for the young mother.

He added: "Today is a sad occasion for Anna, her family and the Polish community here in Killarney as we try to journey with them to lighten their burden in whatever way is possible.

"Anna is very grateful for all the support she has received, from her colleagues in the Aghadoe Heights Hotel, the Gardai, residents and staff at Park Place, and the wider community here in Killarney.

"To see so many of you gathered in our cathedral says many things to Anna.

"What she asks now from us is our prayers for her family.

"We think baby Karol and the 11 months he shared their family life and how he brightened up their lives and I'm sure baby Karol will continue to be their strength at this time. And we pray God will heal his family's broken hearts."
Fellow state troopers pay their respects following the death of Sean Cullen (inset)

Tributes are being paid to an Irish-American police officer and father-of-one who was killed while attending a car fire in New Jersey last night.

Sean Cullen (31) lost his life when he was struck by a vehicle passing the scene of an active car fire. There were several fire and police vehicles at the scene at the time, 6ABC report.

It is understood the stopped vehicle that was on fire was also struck in the collision; the impact of the crash causing the burning vehicle to spin.

Mr Cullen was transported to hospital by helicopter where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Another two women were hospitalised after the incident but their conditions are unknown.

The incident occurred on the Interstate 295 in Deptford Township and is currently under investigation.

Today, we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Trooper Sean E. Cullen #7594, who was tragically... Posted by New Jersey State Police on Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Mr Cullen is survived by his fiance, his 9-month-old son, mother, father, two brothers, and a sister.

He was born in Dublin in 1985 and emigrated to the US with his family when he was three years old.

Troopers salute as flag raised, then lowered to half staff in Bellmawr, where fallen Trooper Cullen was stationed. pic.twitter.com/97l9YLchOT  Katherine Scott (@KScott6abc) March 8, 2016

The New Jersey State Police trooper began his career in the State Police in 2014 after graduating from college with a degree in Criminal Justice in 2007 and working as a police officer and a patrolman for several years.

The young man's death was announced this morning by state police who wrote online: "Today, we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Trooper Sean E. Cullen #7594, who was tragically killed in the line of duty as a result of a motor vehicle crash last night on Interstate 295 in Deptford Township."

Mr Cullen has been described as "honorable, loyal, and faithful". He was also a man who was proud of his Irish heritage and his family.

Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police Colonel Rick Fuentes said today: "It is with a heavy heart that we mourn the passing of Trooper Sean Cullen, who made the ultimate sacrifice while helping those in need.

"We ask that you keep Trooper Cullen's family, friends and loved ones in your thoughts and prayers as we deal with this painful loss."
Liam Sutcliffe, the man who claims responsibility for blowing up Nelsons Pillar only succeeded in doing so on his second attempt.

Mr Sutcliffe claimed to have tried to blow it up for the first time on February 28, 1966.

First time we tried it was the 28 February  it didnt work and we went back the next morning and replaced it the following Monday inside on the top of the pillar, he said.

He explained that there were six or seven people on the viewing platform when he placed the bomb inside on the top of the pillar.

However, Richard Behal also claimed to have wanted to blow up the pillar before Mr Sutcliffe got there first.

I had sussed it out I had the plans for it, he explained.

I was on the run at the time from having escaped from Limerick prison, he told RTE Radio One's Liveline.

Richard Behal claimed to have been in prison after been accused of having used an anti-tank gun to attack a British warship in Waterford harbour.

On the night the pillar was blown up, he claims to have been in a house in Ballyfermot  I did not know that it was going to be bombed or that it had been bombed until my hostess came in and said Oh my god Richard Nelsons Pillar has been blown up.

I was elated, it was a job I had planned to do, I had actually taken engineering calculations  I wouldnt have blown it exactly as it was blown  I had planned to do an upward blast at the feet of Nelson, he explained.

Mr Behal was inspired by the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising which he said was of immense importance.

Gerard Griffin who was a night porter in the Anchor Hotel on OConnell street at the time remembered the night the pillar was blown up.

There was a bang and a flash and you couldnt see up or down North Frederick Street for smoke and dust.

It was in the air for a couple of hours and when it cleared all you could see was people arriving on push bikes looking for bits of souvenirs.

He added that he thought it was very lucky that no one had been hurt, it was probably a miracle that no on was hurt, Mr Griffin said.

Stephen Maughan was a taxi driver the night the pillar was blown up and was directly next to it when it detonated.

Now living in North Carolina, in the United States he told Liveline that he had been described as the luckiest man to be alive in Dublin, in the Irish Independent the next morning.

The explosion went off above me, it blew a circle of flame around the pillar it started raining down pieces of the pillar and I got thrown around I drove over the pieces of granite.

It was a carpet of one tonne or more rocks that came down  I was very lucky I got through, he explained.
The pillar before it was destroyed in 1965. Independent Newspapers Ireland

Historian Donal Fallon with the head of Nelsons statue, which now sits in Dublin City Councils Pearse Street Library. Photo: Douglas OConnor

For almost 160 years British Admiral Horatio Nelson stood stoically watching over the nations main thoroughfare.

From his breezy perch atop a lofty Romanesque column, the Viscount remained a thorn in the side of Irish Republicans long after independence.

From his granite throne on OConnell Street, just metres away from Irelands symbol of freedom, the GPO, the memorial stood proudly defiant.

However, on a still night in 1966 shortly after 1.30am, his time ran out  and he was blown from his roost by an IRA splinter group to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rising.

Irish Independent photographer Tom Burke was on duty for the Evening Herald on the night of the explosion, working from the papers old home on nearby Abbey Street.

I was working for the night column at the time. It was known as the Going Places column, recalled Mr Burke. I was in the dark room developing photographs when I heard an unmerciful bang. A colleague came in shouting that the pillar was gone.

The cloud of smoke was unbelievable. It consumed the street.

The head of the statue, which was photographed on the night by Mr Burke, was found amid the rubble and stored in a Dublin Corporation depot.

However, a team of enterprising, cash-strapped students saw an opportunity and swiped the bust before leasing it to a London antique dealer who displayed it in his window. The head later popped up on stage with The Dubliners before finally being handed over to Dublin Corporation. It has now found a permanent home in the reading room in Dublin City Councils Pearse Street Library.
A century-old old bottle of whiskey once owned by a famed Belfast publican is going under the hammer - and could fetch almost 20,000 (28,420).

The booze, distilled in 1916, is being sold as part of an auction of artefacts associated with the Easter Rising at Whytes in Dublin.

After spending 50 years in a barrel in bond storage, it was bottled in 1966, the 50th anniversary of the Rising, and later bought by Frank McGlade, owner of P & F McGlade on Belfasts Donegall Street.

One of only four known surviving bottles from the original cask, it is estimated to fetch between 11,720 and 19,530 when it comes up for sale next Sunday.

Situated close to the Belfast Telegraph and Irish News offices, McGlades was a favourite haunt of journalists from both the local and national Press.

The bar was known as a haven of peace amid the sectarian violence of the Troubles, where punters from both sides of the religious and political divide could socialise in harmony.

Expand Close 1916 Rising medal sent to the wife of Joseph Plunkett. / Facebook

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It was also a popular drinking spot for local politicians, SDLP leader Gerry Fitt was a regular, as well as trade unionists and students from the nearby College of Art.

Sadly the hacks preferred watering hole was gutted by a fire started by an electrical fault in 1983.

Thought to be the oldest bottle of Irish whiskey to come to auction, it is just one lot in the sale of hundreds of artefacts connected to the Easter Rising.

Also listed is an original copy of the proclamation of the Irish Republic published by the Irish Volunteers to announce the start of their doomed bid to overthrow British rule in Ireland.

The poster, dated April 24, 1916, is one of only 17 known surviving examples and is expected to go for around 195,000.

Also up for grabs is a 1916 Rising medal sent to the wife of Joseph Plunkett.

Following the rebels surrender, Plunkett was executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol.

In 1941 his wife Grace had become a prominent republican and refused to attend the presentation ceremony. When it was eventually posted to her she threw it in the bin.

It was rescued and is now thought to be worth between 54,690 and 78,130.

An officers buckle from the Armagh Militia is up for around 300.

Various other items for sale include letters from key Rising figures, photographs and newspapers carrying reports of the rebellion.

Ian Whyte, managing director of the auction house, said it was one of the best collection of 1916 artefacts he had ever encountered.

He said: To own and handle a piece of history brings the past to life in a very special way.
A security alert is underway at a police station in west Belfast, where it's understood a man threw a device at the building.

Police officers and staff who were inside Woodbourne police station have been evacuated.

It's believed a 'rucksack-type' object was thrown and a man has been detained.

The Stewartstown Road has been closed at its junctions with Blacks Road and Suffolk Road as police examine the suspicious object.

A PSNI spokesperson said motorists should seek an alternative route.

Woodbourne was the target of a bomb attack in August 2013, when two devices were thrown at the station. Children picked up an unexploded pipe bomb and carried it to the front of the station - luckily no one was injured as it did not explode.

Meanwhile, police are warning the public in Lurgan to be vigilant after reports of a device in the Lake Street area.

Officers have searched the area with dogs, however, nothing untoward has been found.

Chief Inspector Davy Beck said: We have conducted a number of enquiries and have searched the area. Nothing untoward has been found however we would urge the public to be vigilant.

"If you notice anything which looks out of place or suspicious, do not approach or touch it but contact us straight away on 101 or 999 in an emergency.

We would like to hear from anyone who has information in relation to these reports. We can be contacted in Lurgan on 101.
A demand has been made for Irish language words to be removed from manhole covers in Ballymena.

The call echoes the time when fast-food giants McDonald's famously 'gave way' to unionist councillors.

Timothy Gaston, the deputy mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, a member of Jim Allister's Traditional Unionist Voice party, wants metal coverings installed as part of a 4m public realm scheme in Ballymena to be replaced.

The coverings are bilingual and as well as the word 'water' they also contain the word 'uisce', which is the Irish word for water.

Several years ago the councillor's father Sam Gaston, then a DUP councillor, succeeded in getting McDonald's to replace the word 'yield' from the drive-through at their Ballymena restaurant.

He said it was the word used in the Republic and McDonald's said they had made a mistake and replaced it with the phrase used in Northern Ireland - 'Give way'.

Now, Timothy Gaston is urging the removal of recently applied water covers which feature the Irish language. He said: "I hope this is an oversight and I encourage the contractor to get these changed as soon as possible.

"Constituents have contacted me to raise questions over the use of the Irish water hydrant covers on the ratepayer-funded public realm project in Ballymena town centre." A Mid and East Antrim Borough Council spokesman said: "Our officials are currently looking into the issue of the water main covers in Ballymena, so cannot make any further comment at the moment."

The Irish language row coincided with further uproar in Ballymena in recent days about fake flowers being put in to brighten up unsightly digging on the town's streets as part of the public realm scheme to install new footpaths.

The plastic flowers on Ballymena's streets are not fantastic, says Mr Gaston. He branded them a waste of money and questioned whether the placement of the flower tubs was the best use of public cash. "If the council wants to spend money to help the appearance of the town centre I certainly would be encouraging them to use that money to make the coned areas more wheelchair and buggy-friendly," he said.

Many traders and members of the public in Ballymena slammed the fake flowers as tacky but others praised the bid to take away from the unsightly look of the dug-up streets.

The council spokesman said: "The flower displays are designed to visually soften the impact of the ongoing works."

The council has not revealed how much the fake flowers cost or how much it could cost if the 'Irish' covers are replaced.
Paying for water infrastructure through general taxation would benefit wealthy people more than the less well off, the chairman of the Public Water Forum has said.

Dr Tom Collins has heavily criticised the way water charges were introduced, saying Irish Water should never have treated citizens like customers.

He added that adequate attention was not given to the issue of affordability when the Fine Gael-Labour coalition brought in the charges.

Water charges were introduced at obviously a very bad time in Ireland and there were a lot of people who were not able to pay, Dr Collins told RTE's Claire Byrne Live programme.

The Public Water Forum was set up as an independent consumer consultative forum to feed directly into the activities and work of both Irish Water and the Commission on Energy Regulation.

His results comes after a week of confusion where Fianna Fail claimed the abolition of water charges would be a red-line issue for entering coalition with Fine Gael before backtracking amid anger from members of the public who have paid their bills.

An opinion of 1,000 adults by Amarach Research for RTEs Claire Byrne Live programme found that 49pc do not intend to pay their next bill, compared to 22pc who said they will. Another 22pc didnt know while the 16pc said charges dont apply to them.

Despite his criticism of how charges were introduced Dr Collins warned that substantial funding is needed to pay for repairs to the system.

He said the problems are 'actually nearly frightening'.

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There is so much potential for breakdown, for danger, for inefficiency, he said.

The State has been left with a massive bill for investment because previous generations passed it on, Dr Collins said.

He asked whether the current generation now want to pass it on to the next.

What was underground in 1916, namely Victorian water systems, are still there, he said.

However, he warned that linking water infrastructure to taxation or bringing in flat charges would benefit the better off.

If you keep rates within the tax envelope you are actually subvent the better off on the back of the poor, he said.

Dr Collins said it was 'a critical and fundamental flaw' to treat water like any other resource.

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To treat it like telephone or TV stations is to fail to recognise how basic a necessity it is, he said, adding: Certainly there should be a basic entitlement.

Earlier in Brussels Finance Minister Michael Noonan said a future Fine Gael-led government would be prepared to discuss water charges - but not abolish them.

Fine Gaels position is that we want a national utility for water rather than it reverting to local authorities and we want water charged for, and its within that space that any discussions with a future partner in government [] will have to take place, he said.

He said there would be no compromises on the structure of Irish Water but there were "issues around the edges that could be discussed and charges need not necessarily reflect the economic cost of the utility.
We have all had experience of feeling bloated or having swollen ankles after a hard day on our feet. But imagine what it would be like if your body swelled up of its own accord and no amount of resting, detoxing or dieting would make any difference.

This is the reality for thousands of people who suffer from a condition known as lymphoedema. This debilitating disorder is caused by a build-up of fluids, coupled with the breakdown of the lymphatic system.

Throughout March, Lymphoedema Ireland is hoping to raise awareness and funds to help those with this chronic condition.

Nina Murray is a civil servant living in Wexford. Married to Tony, the 36-year-old developed lymphoedema in 2009 after battling cervical cancer, which also left her infertile.

But she was relieved to have survived the disease and returned to work only to discover that fate had delivered her another blow.

"I was off work for six months recovering from treatment and surgery and a few days after I returned, I noticed that my lower left leg was bigger than the right," she recalls.

"It went down overnight, but I went to a doctor who thought maybe I may have injured it. But I had read about lymphoedema online and when I asked the doctor about this, she said I would have to be extremely unlucky to get it."

So Nina, who was busy planning her wedding to Tony, stopped thinking about her swollen leg and decided to concentrate on her big day. Unfortunately, the swelling got worse and she realised that something was seriously wrong.

"During the last fitting for my dress I noticed that the left side of the bodice seemed to be fitting strangely, but I reckoned it was due to all the pre-wedding champagne. Then, we went to Mauritius for our honeymoon which was a nightmare, as the long-distance flight, mosquitoes, heat and strappy shoes made the swelling much worse - so I went to see my GP as soon as we got back," she explained.

"There were no services available for treating lymphoedema, so I went to see a physiotherapist who broke the news to me that I did have the condition and my leg would never return to normal.

"I would have to stop wearing heels, shaving my legs, taking hot baths and would have to wear made-to-measure compression tights every hour of every day for the rest of my life.

"I felt angry, resentful, victimised and scared. My cancer could come back, I couldn't have kids and now one of my legs was bigger than the other - forever. It was a lot to take in."

Eight years after being diagnosed with lymphoedema, Nina's life is very much affected by her condition. She believes much of her discomfort could have been avoided if she had known in advance that having survived cancer, she was at risk of the disorder.

"Today, I wear three layers of made-to-measure compression garments which include a toe glove on my left foot, a thigh stocking on my left leg and full tights," she says. "The full set cost 850 - and I have to have two so I can wear one while the other is in the wash. They need to be replaced every six months and I don't get any financial assistance with the cost.

"I need to moisturise my skin every day to avoid cracks, I can't shave or wax and I have to carry antibiotics everywhere in case I develop a skin infection called cellulitis.

"I also need to regularly have manual lymph drainage therapy to stop additional fluid accumulating on my legs. My left leg is significantly bigger than the right one (33 inch inside leg and a size 9 shoe), so getting clothes to fit is very difficult as you can't buy trousers with one leg wider than the other.

"But I've always been very open about what happened to me and the fact that I have lymphoedema, so I don't feel that it's a secret or something that I have to hide - and of course, it's not really possible to hide it.

"If I had known what lymphoedema was and what to look out for, things could have been different. If I had been told to wear compression garments as a precaution or as soon as the swelling appeared or if I could have afforded to pay for treatment in the early days (in the absence of publicly funded treatment), my leg wouldn't be this big and maybe I could wear short dresses and strappy sandals and get on with my life."

Nina has learned to live with her condition and advises others to try and do the same. "I had lymphoedema for four years before I met anyone else with the condition, but after getting involved with Lymphoedema Ireland, I have met lots of others, some worse off and others better," she says. "My advice to anyone who has had surgery or radiotherapy would be to find out about this condition and its symptoms. Then be vigilant and respond quickly by getting fitted with compression garments.

"They are not sexy and are far from comfortable, but they will stop the limb getting bigger. I would also encourage people to find a specialist with experience by contacting Lymphoedema Ireland and to connect with other people living with the condition. Try to look beyond the swelling because if you don't, you can't expect anyone else to."

* For more information see lymphireland.com

About lymphoedema

Lymphoedema is a long-term swelling caused by a build-up of fluid in the body's tissues. This happens when the lymphatic system, which normally drains fluid, isn't working properly

Lymphoedema can affect any part of the body and people all ages. Approximately 15,000 people in Ireland are estimated to have lymphoedema, with over 1,200 developing the condition annually following treatment for cancer

Lack of treatment can lead to increased swelling and pain, irreversible damage to the lymphatic system, recurrent infections, the inability to work and reduced psychological well-being and quality of life

There are two types of lymphoedema: Primary Lymphoedema develops if you have a body structure which puts you at a higher risk. This is known as a genetic abnormality of the lymphatic system. You may be born with this condition or it may develop later in life

Secondary Lymphoedema develops because of damage to lymphatic vessels or from an overload of fluid in the tissue-causes include; radiotherapy, advanced cancer, deep vein thrombosis, cellulitis, paralysis and obesity

There is no cure, but if diagnosed early, extreme swelling can be controlled and reduced, infection prevented and the range of movement can be improved to limit the extent of the disorder and the impact it has on the life of the patient.

Early warning signs:

1. Transient swelling of a limb or other region of the body.

2. Infection.

3. Aching, heaviness, stiffness in the affected body part.

4. Limitation of movement

5. Tightness or temperature changes to areas of the body

6. Clothing, jewellery or shoes may feel tighter.

7. Swelling may be aggravated by heat, overuse, sustained positions and prolonged inactivity and more obvious at the end of the day.
The sudden death of Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman is not just a tragic loss for his family, friends and the legal profession.

We, the citizens, have also lost a brilliant advocate, a relentless interrogator and due process bodyguard who at times - especially in his stunning, trenchant dissents - felt like the last line of defence between the citizen and the State.

A fearless and occasionally truculent warrior, whose skills of cross examination were sui generis (in a class of their own), Adrian Hardiman was not just a legal colossus and a lawyer's lawyer. He was also a lawyer for the little man who stood up for the citizen when the State crossed the line.

A celebrated historian; intellectual, political animal, Joycean scholar, author and orator, the Dubliner could have turned his hand to any vocation.

But it was the law to which Adrian Hardiman devoted his life - and we are much richer for it.

He honed the debating skills for which he later became renowned at UCD's L&H debating society.

It was at UCD where he would meet his future wife, former Circuit Court Judge Yvonne Murphy, who won widespread acclaim for her chairmanship of the Commission of Investigation into the Archdioceses of Dublin and Cloyne.

It was also at UCD where Adrian Hardiman moved with contemporaries such as Michael McDowell, former PD leader, Tanaiste, Attorney General and Justice Minister.

In 1985, the prominent campaigner against 1983's 'right to life' referendum that led to the introduction of the perennially divisive Eighth Amendment, ran for Fianna Fail in the local elections in Dun Laoghaire.

However, it is the PDs with which he was affiliated before his elevation to the Supreme Court.

That was no ordinary matter either.

Called to the bar in 1974, he became a Senior Counsel in 1989. During a stellar 26-year career as a barrister, he amassed a seemingly peerless tally of memorable court appearances including a legendary cross examination of the late Taoiseach Albert Reynolds at the Beef Tribunal.

In 2000, Adrian Hardiman, arguably at the peak of his career as a Senior Counsel, was appointed to the Supreme Court directly from the Law Library, an extremely rare honour and a measure of the esteem in which he was held. In the coming days and weeks, colleagues, scholars and jurists will debate what was Adrian Hardiman's 'finest hour': they've a catalogue of fine hours to choose from.

Whether it was Abbeylara, Dellway (the Supreme Court battle between property investor Paddy McKillen and Nama) or the mistreatment of Donegal businessman Frank Shortt, Adrian Hardiman deplored and decried any abuse or misuse of State authority.

In the McKillen case, Judge Hardiman warned of the intoxicating "cry of the emergency" one he said producing "an exhilarating freedom from the need to consider the rights of others and productive of a desire to repeat it again and again".

It was the rights of others, especially accused people facing the full rigours of the State, that Judge Hardiman placed at the heart of his practice and jurisprudence.

That, you could say, is his legacy.

For me, Adrian Hardiman's finest hour was his unrivalled dissent, last year, in a controversial Supreme Court ruling that overturned the long-standing rule that evidence obtained in breach of an accused person's constitutional rights could not be admitted at their criminal trial.

Many argued the rule was inflexible, and, in a US style 4/3 split, the majority of the Supreme Court agreed. But Judge Hardiman, in a ferocious dissent, said the rewriting of the rule in Kenny gave gardai "effective immunity from judicial oversight".

Although he lost that battle, to my mind he won the principle.

In an increasingly troubled world, where 'emergencies' are used as cloaks to subdue rights and conceal wrongs, voices like Adrian Hardiman's are needed now more than ever.

Dearbhail McDonald is former Legal Editor
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Colette Browne Opinion Every effort must be made to retrieve oral histories of mother and baby home survivors

With three days to go until the Mother and Baby Homes Commission ceases to exist as a legal entity, we are being told that audio recordings of hundreds of witnesses which were deleted may not actually be gone forever. It is another usual twist in a most emotional saga. For decades, survivors of mother and baby homes have been denied a voice and denied autonomy. When they fell pregnant, many through rape and abuse, they were marched to the doors of religious institutions.
It would be odd to agree with everything said by a judge - on and off the bench - over a 15-year judicial career.

I had more than my fair share of disagreements with the late Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman since his appointment to the Supreme Court in 2000. Yet even when he was at his most disagreeable, he was brilliant and never boring. At a personal level he could be deeply humane and insightful about human nature. He was scintillating about almost everything else.

It was quite impossible - even if it might, at times, have been easier - to find him dislikeable. The grief expressed by friends, colleagues and even adversaries on his sudden and premature passing is felt very genuinely.

Apart from being an outstanding advocate and jurist, he was a free-ranging intellectual, as comfortable engaging on issues of history, literature and politics as he was on big issues of law.

He was a fearless champion of the rights of accused persons, with a deep scepticism about the power of the State - and, in particular, the police - over individuals in the criminal process. For some this meant that he over-identified with 'bad guys', but, for Mr Justice Hardiman it was all about a properly disinterested commitment to justice and the rule of law.

His concerns about the abuse of power by State authorities were grounded in experience and historical evidence and he could be quite animated about the degree to which this went under-addressed by media and academic commentators.

He could be scathing about those who identified themselves or were identified as 'human rights lawyers'. He viewed the contemporary human rights project as too expansive and all-embracing, especially when it came to socio-economic rights and rights like equality that he would be inclined to dismiss as 'politically correct'.

His scepticism about human rights stemmed from a coherent but somewhat unbalanced commitment to libertarianism. His seemingly 'anti-State' position on criminal justice matters must have infuriated the powerful.

By contrast, his anti-State reasons for opposing socio-economic rights, extensive judicial review of administrative decisions or constitutional equality must have been music to their ears while confusing those others who, by virtue of their beliefs, don't distinguish between the rights of accused people and the rights of marginalised people.

He would have dismissed this as ideology without acknowledging that he too had ideological baggage. His trenchant defence of the Irish Constitution of 1937 was always at its most vigorous when juxtaposed with some argument in favour of the European Convention on Human Rights. Inevitably, this led to accusations of defensiveness and sometimes juridical jingoism. This was probably the kind of provocation that he intended.

The passing of someone who didn't just "live greatly in the law", but who also lived greatly, provides temptation to luxuriate in cliche.

Ireland has lost a public figure who was pugnacious in defence of his constitutional orthodoxies and allergic to sanctimoniousness whether faith-based or secular.

He could be fearlessly and shamelessly polemical and, even if you found that infuriating, you could never accuse him of lacking conviction or sincerity.

Professor Donncha O'Connell is Head of the School of Law at NUI Galway and is a part-time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission
FF leader Micheal Martin should forget about Civil War politics and acknowledge the will of the people. Photo: Gareth Chaney, Collins

This is not a chess game and our TDs should go ahead and put a democratic government in place, rather than treating the honest people of Ireland who elected them as pawns.

Admittedly, Irish Water is a top-priority national utility; quality water is essential for the survival of humanity and costs money. It should be treated as such in government but not scandalously used as a 'red herring' to jeopardise the wishes of the people to get a government in place. Neither should politicians and legislators be hypnotised or persuaded by the media.

Europe has thrown up plenty of examples of government formations in recent times. Sweden and the Netherlands have done well with fragmented governments, while in Italy a change of government has almost been an annual event since World War II.

As mentioned by David Quinn (Irish Independent, March 4), in the 2011 election Fine Gael got 76 seats and Fianna Fail 19 seats, adding up to 95 seats. In 2016, Fine Gael polled 50 seats to Fianna Fail's 44, 94 seats in all. However, this is in a smaller Dail; the 31st Dail had 166 seats, compared to 158 this time. Left-wing parties and Independents have around 50 seats. It all adds up to the fact that the centre parties between them have a higher percentage of the total, 59pc this time as against 57pc last time.

It's obvious, therefore, the real reform that Micheal Martin needs to bring about is to forget Civil War politics and acknowledge the wish of the people.

Fianna Fail should form an alliance with Fine Gael and present the country with an experienced, efficient and sustainable government, sooner rather than later.

James Gleeson

Thurles, Co Tipperary

Bailout made things worse

Like Frank Smyth (Irish Independent, Letters, March 7), I believe the Fine Gael/Labour Government messed up and, like Frank, I did not vote for Fine Gael this time round.

However, I differ greatly with Frank on the suggestion that the Troika bailout was a success; indeed, I would suggest "bailout" is an entirely disingenuous name, as while the dictionary definition defines it as bailing water out of a floundering vessel, the Troika bailout only "bailed" more debt into an already greatly overburdened nation. Debt has not been diminished for Ireland; in fact, it is increasing year on year.

Indeed, there could well be an horrific ulterior motive in the whole "bailout" philosophy. As technology takes industry and commerce into entirely unprecedented territory of oversupply and minimal growth, investment opportunities in production and trade are greatly reduced and vast amounts of surplus money become available for diversion towards lending to already grievously over-indebted nations.

Another tragedy is that the "bailout" has done nothing to address the real economic problems of the 21st century.

Rather than offer relief, debt only compounds modern problems which are not the result of "recession" or economic ability but, conversely, the outcome of greatly increased ability to produce gross oversupply with diminishing dependence on human labour. Economic ideology is simply unable to cope with such reversed economic conditions.

Padraic Neary

Tubbercurry, Co Sligo

Put country before party

Politicians are putting party before country by refusing to entertain the idea of some form of an arrangement with Fine Gael.

Fianna Fail has made a remarkable comeback in General Election 2016. That party has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes, which is also something the Labour Party should take some solace in.

However, with leading figures such as Niall Collins and Timmy Dooley from Fianna Fail and Leo Varadkar from Fine Gael pouring cold water on the idea of a 'grand coalition', it looks like the country will be heading to the polls sooner rather than later.

It is obvious that a coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail should be the basis of the next government.

The two largest parties could very well find themselves punished by the electorate if we are forced to the polls again soon.

Not only are the public election weary but they expect their newly elected public representatives to work together and just get on with it - the same way they have had to over the last few difficult years. In other words our newly elected TDs need to stop throwing the toys out of the pram, play nicely together and put their country before their party. Failure to do so could mean the public choosing parties or individuals who will.

Killian Brennan

Malahide Road, Dublin 17

Backing the wrong horse

Throughout history, Irish republicanism has always backed the wrong horse.

From Spain, to France, to Germany, to King James, none of them ever gave a damn about Ireland except in so far as it could be used to further their own agendas. The notion that Ireland ever had any "gallant allies" in Europe is a republican fantasy, and unfortunately, this is still the case today in relation to the EU.

The British people have recognised that the European Union is in need of a fundamental re-think but, unlike Ireland, they will not be bullied in the forthcoming referendum either by the EU or their own politicians.

Whether some people here want to acknowledge the fact or not, it will always be in Ireland's interests to back the UK, despite whatever Angela Merkel, Jean-Claude Juncker and their ilk may threaten. Whichever new Irish government emerges from the current mess, please back the right horse this time - for a change.

Peter Keating

Charleville, Co Cork

Repeal the Eighth Amendment

The results of the recent Amnesty International/Red Sea poll attest to the increasingly apparent support in Ireland for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment to Bunreacht na hEireann.

The results of the poll will, no doubt, be disputed by those who oppose any change, for any reason, to this Amendment, which has been the cause of untold hardship and trauma to so many women.

We know about the thousands of women who have had to travel to other jurisdictions to obtain abortions. We have also seen the grotesque lengths to which this State is prepared to go to prevent women from obtaining a termination in this jurisdiction.

In advance of the inevitable forthcoming debate on what, if anything, ought to be done about the Eighth Amendment, the self-styled "pro-life" lobby might oblige us all by answering one simple question: how far should Irish law go to force a woman to give birth against her will?

Cecilia Ni Choileain

Cavan town, Co Cavan
Art Malik said some writing on American TV shows is 'dull'

British actor Art Malik has criticised the depiction of terrorists in American screen productions as "very lazy writing".

Pakistani-born Malik opened up about his reluctance to make a career move to Los Angeles in the wake of hit 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie True Lies, in which he played a terrorist.

Malik said he preferred not to uproot his family, b ut he added that he also chose to avoid America because of the "dull" writing in certain projects.

"Playing out-and-out terrorists who terrorise people and don't actually move the conversation on are not worth doing so that's probably another reason I don't go back to America, because a lot of it is like that," he told the Radio Times.

"It's boring, dull, very lazy writing."

Malik's television breakthrough came in 1984 with the award-winning epic The Jewel In The Crown, which centred on the last days of British sovereignty in India.

The 63-year-old's career has come full circle as he will soon be seen as the Maharajah of Amritpur, one of the most affluent princes in India, in the new series of Channel 4's Raj-set drama Indian Summers.

In the second series, which jumps forward three years to the summer of 1935, t he Maharajah heads to Simla, the summer capital of British India, to enter negotiations on the upcoming government of India bill.

Rising politician Ralph Whelan, played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes, attempts to ingratiate himself with Malik's Maharajah, but the artful man is unwilling to give up his immense power.

Australian actress Rachel Griffiths, known for the hit series Six Feet Under, joins the cast as Sirene, the Maharajah's mistress who is hiding a surprising past.

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Series two also sees The Vicar Of Dibley's James Fleet join a cast which already boasts Julie Walters, The Borgias' Jemima West and Bedlam's Nikesh Patel.

Mr Selfridge's Alexander Cobb, Shameless star Aysha Kala and Game Of Thrones' Patrick Malahide also reprise their roles for the new series, which starts on Sunday.

London-raised Malik spoke of his "delight" at appearing in Indian Summers.

"It's wonderful and exciting to once again delve into this period in our history and of course to join such a fantastic cast is a delight," he said.

Like a number of other black and minority ethnic actors, Malik also offered his opinion on the issue of race and diversity in British television.

"Look at the people who make the decisions," he said. "Whether they're the head of Bafta or whatever they do, who are they?"

"When will we get a female director-general of the BBC? Where is the colour when you go further up the food chain? It disappears," he said.

:: Indian Summers is broadcast on Channel 4 at 9pm on March 13.
Every so often the 'sloppy tracksuit' remark gets thrown around in relation to women and motherhood.

This time it was Pippa O'Connor Ormond (31) that said it. Her words were printed on Mother's Day and the debate around it ran into today, International Women's Day.

"There is no excuse for someone not to have their hair washed. Or to be in a sloppy tracksuit. It's going to take the same amount of time to put on a pair of nice jeans and some flat boots, so it's about making a conscious effort," she said in an interview.

Some met her words with anger, others met them with humour. We spoke to high-profile Dublin mums about the pressure to look good in motherhood - stylist Lisa Fitzpatrick, journalist June Shannon, newly-elected Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell - and also examined how other celebrity mums - Amy Huberman, Kim Kardashian and ex-model Aoife Cogan - have handled their transition into motherhood.

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June Shannon and her husband Tony Curtis are now proud parents to Clodagh, who's six-months-old - but only after six years of trying for a baby, which included a miscarriage and rounds of IVF. For June, she hasn't given her wardrobe a second's thought over the last six months.

"It doesn't feature at all [on my priorities list] what I wear," she says. "I had a c-section so for the first few weeks I wore tracksuit bottoms because they were more comfy. I don't think it matters what you wear.

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"For us, when we were lucky enough to have a baby, I haven't even thought about it, what I wear, in the last six months. As long as she's cared for and fed and happy - that's all I think about."

June adds that it is often women who put themselves under these extra pressures to look a certain way, when all that matters is that you are taking care of yourself.

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"We put ourselves under so much pressure, we don't need other women weighing in saying how we should look or what we should look like.

"As long as you mind yourself, and it's hard to mind yourself in the throes of a newborn, getting enough sleep and everything, but your priorities are different when you become a mum, so the last thing you worry about is what you wear, I think," she says.

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One mum who styles people for a living and dispenses much sought-after fashion advice, both here and abroad, is Lisa Fitzpatrick (44). She dresses only for herself and has no time for negativity.

"From my perspective, I worked Friday, I was in Cork and Killarney and came off after Mother's Day and today I'm off," says Lisa.

"Today, for me, is house jobs and I'm in a tracksuit bottoms and I'm in a lovely top, my skin is clean and fresh and full of moisturiser - it's great not having make-up on.

"I'm in black Nike runners, black and pink tracksuit bottoms, a loose top and a really nice casual bomber jacket.

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"I'm bombing around doing a million jobs on my day off, feeling really comfortable.

"I look good and I feel good, my skin is clean and my hair is fresh."

The celebrity stylist advocates kindness above everything else.

"I have no interest in somebody saying something that's going to damage someone, that's going to be mean, that's going to be unkind. I think be kind to one another," she adds.

"If somebody wants to go out wearing no make-up because they don't want to wear it, it's their prerogative, it's their choice and who am I to dictate? I know what suits me.

"I know I've good days and bad days, all kinds of days and how dare anyone question me about how I feel about how I look. I am what I am and who I am." Lisa believes new mums with a baby should just wear what they want to wear.

In terms of women in general commenting on other women's appearance, she wants to call a halt to it.

"Stop talking negative. If you've nothing good to say, say nothing at all. It's so awful to say something negative about someone and how dare you."

In terms of celebrities, both here and abroad, that go their own way in the motherhood style stakes, we've Amy mum-of-two Huberman's book to take a leaf out of.

Amy posted a photo to Instagram last year, five months after giving birth to her son Billy. It received some negative comments and so she deleted the image.

"I'm a bit of a newbie to Insta (Instagram) but I deleted a pic because it was all getting a bit 'post-baby body' commentary. Which is a bit boring and silly really, isn't it? There's more important things to life. Like towels with eyes," she said.

Former model Aoife Cogan has always been known for her bohemian style, even on her wedding day to Gordon D'arcy.

So when it came to pregnancy, she stayed true to her own fashion tastes then too.

International social media mogul Kim Kardashian mightn't be what you'd call an average role model, but when it comes to dressing her bump, she never shied away from showing it to the world.
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former three-term mayor of New York City, has opted against mounting a third-party White House bid that could have further roiled this year's already extraordinarily unpredictable presidential campaign.

Bloomberg, who has spent months mulling an independent campaign, made his decision official through an editorial posted by the Bloomberg View.

"There is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz," Bloomberg wrote. "That is not a risk I can take in good conscience."

The former mayor had indicated he'd have spent $1 billion of his own money on the run.

Those close to the process said Bloomberg had believed the dominance of Donald Trump among Republicans and the rise of Bernie Sanders amid Democrats had opened a centrist lane for a non-ideological, pragmatic campaign. But Hillary Clinton's string of recent victories has given her a firm grip on the lead for the Democratic nomination and is blocking Bloomberg's possible path, aides to the mayor said.

The decision concludes Bloomberg's third and likely final flirtation with a White House run, a possibility that had grown popular among New York's business class and, the mayor's aides had believed, could have resonated with moderates and independents across the nation dissatisfied with the polarisation in Washington and the rise of the political parties' fringes.

Meanwhile, Mexico's president has hit back at Donald Trump's months of taunts, warning the brash billionaire is "damaging" its relationship with the US.

Enrique Pena Nieto said he rejected the "discriminatory" comments coming from his nation's northern neighbour.

Mr Trump launched his campaign in June with the suggestion that many Mexican immigrants were rapists. He promised to build a wall along the border and has accused Mr Pena Nieto's government of taking advantage of the US.
Randy Meisner, far right, with fellow Eagles members (left to right) Don Felder, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey, at the peak of the bands fame in the late 1970s. Picture: RB/Redferns

The wife of Randy Meisner, one of the founding members of The Eagles, has been shot dead at the couple's home in Los Angeles.

Lana Rae Meisner (63) died on Sunday at their house in the Studio City neighbourhood. She had earlier called police to report domestic violence, according to gossip website TMZ.

Mr Meisner (69) was then taken to hospital in the early hours of Monday morning, the website said.

Police told TMZ that an hour and a half before Mr Meisner called to report that his wife had been shot, she had rung them to report domestic violence at the house. A police officer visited the property, Radar Online reported, but left without incident. She claimed Mr Meisner was waving a BB gun and "acting erratically".

Mr Meisner then rang police at 6.59pm and told them his wife went into another room, closed the door and he heard a gunshot. He says he then went into the room and discovered she had been shot in the head. A source told Radar Online that Mr Meisner told police his wife "was stumbling around, looking for something in a closet where there were two guns".

The source continued: "She was looking for something in the hall closet, and Randy told cops one of the guns was falling and in the process, Lana Rae caught it and it ended up blowing her head apart."

A police source told the site: "Randy seemed to be in shock and wasn't even able to acknowledge that Lana Rae was dead from a gunshot wound."

At 4.45am yesterday, the website reported, Mr Meisner was taken to the hospital after "acting in an altered state".

Mr Meisner founded The Eagles in 1971 with Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon. They achieved huge success with 'Hotel California', but Mr Meisner quit in 1977 after a string of disputes with the others. When the band reformed in 1994 and 1999, he was excluded from the line-up - although he insisted he bore them no ill will.

Frey died in January, aged 67.

Mr Meisner has had long struggles with alcohol, and a series of health problems. His last solo performance was in 2008.

And he had had many conflicts with his wife in the past.

TMZ reported that his children attempted to get a conservatorship (a US form of legal guardianship) based on his alleged mental instability, and that he was previously in an Encino hospital where he threatened to kill everyone there with an AK-47.

The Meisners' marriage made headlines last spring when Mr Meisner refuted a TMZ story claiming Lana Rae wanted to kill him. She had been accused in that report of keeping her husband in a "state of near-constant inebriation" because "he is easier to control when he's drunk." Later, in June, Mr Meisner was placed under 24-hour care following a hearing in which he was alleged to have threatened to shoot hospital staff and to end his own life. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Scientists have found a Japanese songbird follows rules similar to human syntax in order to communicate a variety of messages (Toshitaka Suzuki/PA Wire)

Language rules for combining words to generate novel meanings - known as syntax - can no longer be thought of as uniquely human.

Scientists have found that a Japanese songbird follows similar rules to communicate a variety of messages.

The Japanese great tit was already famed for its wide vocal repertoire. Threatened by numerous predators, the small bird produces a variety of different calls.

Researchers observed the behaviour of the birds while playing back recordings of their own singing.

Calls were broken down into "note types", designated A, B,C and D, which were combined in different ways.

The team showed that ABC calls signified "scan the horizon for danger", for example when encountering a perched predator.

"D" calls, translated as "come here", were used when discovering a new food source or enticing a partner to a nest box.

Playing a combination ABC-D call caused the birds both to approach the loudspeaker and scan for predators.

But when the call ordering was artificially reversed (D-ABC) it produced no response.

"This study demonstrates that syntax is not unique to human language, but also evolved independently in birds," said Dr David Wheatcroft, one of the researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden.

"Understanding why syntax has evolved in tits can give insights into its evolution in humans."

The findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications.
Fariq Abdul Hamid, left, and Zaharie Ahmad Shah were the pilots on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said he is hopeful that missing Flight 370 will still be found as politicians observe a moment of silence to mark the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

Mr Najib said the wing part found on France's Reunion island last July was evidence that the flight tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

He added that an ongoing search is expected to be completed later this year and Malaysia "remains hopeful" that the plane will be found.

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If the search turns up nothing, he said in a statement on Tuesday that Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a meeting to determine the way forward.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet vanished mysteriously with 239 people on board while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 2014.

Under international aviation law, next of kin must file claims against the carrier Malaysia Airlines by that date  even though they still have no idea why the plane carrying their loved ones vanished from the skies on March 8, 2014.

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There has been a rush of cases lodged in recent days in Kuala Lumpur by lawyers for some of the 227 passengers  mainly Chinese and Malaysian  and 12 crew who boarded what should have been a routine overnight flight to Beijing.
The remains of Manfred Bajorat. He was last heard from a year ago

Fishermen recover the yacht off Barobo in the Philippines, in which the mummified sailor was discovered

Unseen footage shows the moment a sailor in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race discovered the mummified body of a man on a stricken ship.

German sailor Manfred Fritz Bajorat was found by the LMAX Exchange crew east of the Philippines on board a Sayo yacht on January 31.

Stumbling upon the boat while racing between Australia and Vietnam, one man swam out and boarded the craft - making the grim discovery once he put his head inside the cabin.

The crew notified the US Coast Guard in Guam and the Falmouth Coastguard of the discovery and the location of the drifting boat, more than 400 miles (644km) from land, and were instructed to carry on racing as they were of no assistance.

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Skipper of the LMAX crew Olivier Cardin said: "In the spirit of the Clipper Race and the crew of team LMAX Exchange, we put the racing aside in the hope of assisting the stricken vessel and any fellow sailors marooned.

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"After boarding the drifting vessel, we unfortunately discovered the body of a lone sailor. We remained on site, under instruction, until released by the USCG who continued with the recovery.

"As a team we found comfort that he was found and that peace will be given to his friends and family who have been looking for him. Our words and thoughts were shared for the sailor as he now rests in peace."

Clipper Race director Justin Taylor also notified the German Embassy in London, which informed the German police, who were then able to trace the sailor's next of kin via the boat registration details provided by the team.

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The news of the man's death was made public when the deceased sailor was re-discovered by Filipino fishermen at the end of February.

A spokeswoman for the Clipper Race said "out of respect" they chose not to publicise what the crew had found after they had stopped racing - hoping to "avoid causing unnecessary alarm within the international sailing community".

"As a company we also felt it was inappropriate to create a news story out of such tragic circumstances, plus the experience was quite distressing for the crew member who went aboard, who does not wish to talk publicly about it," the spokeswoman added.

"We feel desperately saddened for Mr Bajorat's family, who have now been subjected to the publication of graphic images. Our thoughts remain as ever with them."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks through a pair of binoculars as he guides the multiple-rocket launching drill.

North Korea has threatened to launch "indiscriminate" nuclear strikes against South Korea and the US mainland as the two allies began their largest-ever joint military exercises.

The order for a "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" was announced in a statement released by the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army, although analysts say smaller-scale attacks are far more likely over the duration of the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve manoeuvres, which conclude in late April.

"This is the wrong time for the North to attack," said Daniel Pinkston, an analyst with The International Crisis Group in Seoul, pointing out that the US has mobilised 15,000 troops for the drills while South Korea is fielding a further 300,000 personnel.

"Primarily, this declaration is for the domestic audience and it feeds into the rhetoric surrounding the sacrifices their citizens are having to make," he said.

Mr Pinkston said that should North Korea use nuclear weapons or launch a pre-emptive attack, "the retaliation would be absolutely devastating and everyone would support that response - even China and Russia".

Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at the Japan campus of Temple University, said that a nuclear first-strike would be "suicide" for the regime of Kim Jong-un, although the young dictator does have a number of possible courses of action open to him.

"There is the possibility of cyber-attacks against targets in the South or further afield, as we have seen in the past, they could carry out artillery bombardments of the South's islands off the west coast of the peninsula, or they could arrest more American tourists and effectively hold them to ransom," Mr Dujarric said.

In February, state media showed footage of a tearful Frederick Otto Warmbier admitting to stealing a sign from his hotel in Pyongyang.

"There are many things the North can do that fall just short of the point at which they can expect to be on the receiving end of real retaliation", Mr Dujarric said.

Pyongyang's threats come just days after Mr Kim ordered his nation's military to put its nuclear arsenal to be placed on standby for use "at any moment", a response to tough new UN sanctions imposed two months after North Korea's fourth nuclear test and the launch in February of a rocket.

The rival Koreas' usual animosity occasionally erupts in bloody skirmishes - 50 South Koreans were killed in attacks in 2010 that Seoul blames on the North - and there is always a worry about an escalation of violence.

Always ragged relations between North Korea and its rivals Seoul and Washington have worsened following North Korea's nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket test last month that outsiders say was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The United Nations recently slapped the North with harsh sanctions, and South Korea has taken a harder than usual line, with a new North Korean human rights law and the president in Seoul warning of a collapsed government in Pyongyang.

South Korea says it will announce new unilateral sanctions today.

The US and South Korea have also begun formal talks on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD). After watching its northern neighbour perfect an array of ballistic missiles - and test four nuclear weapons -South Korea has asked America to provide the THAAD system to protect as much of the country as possible.

But the arrival of this highly sophisticated missile shield on the Korean Peninsula would change the military balance in East Asia. The THAAD system would not only be a safeguard against North Korea's nuclear arsenal, but against China's as well.

America has responded to China's protests by urging Beijing to rein in North Korea. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Shocked tourists have described the moment a crocodile attacked an animal sanctuary worker in Australia.

Renee Robertson was overseeing a feeding show at Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville, Queensland, when the 2.5-metre crocodile named Tipper cornered her.

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Footage of the incident shows the creature moving towards Ms Robertson before lunging at her. She is heard crying out as the crocodile mauls her arm, before a colleague fights it off with a stick.

Ms Robertson was taken to hospital, where she was recovering from serious injuries to her arm.

The screams you could hear were shocking, we felt so helpless for the poor woman in the enclosure, witness Frank He told The Courier-Mail.

There were quite a few people watching the show, and we were all just in shock.

Luckily the girl was only attacked by the small female crocodile that was about 2m long; there was a larger male one near the water that was twice as big.

Eight people were treated for shock after the incident.

Senior Queensland ambulance operations supervisor Ross MacDonald said Ms Robertson had been "fully conscious on arrival.

Our paramedics just stabilised her with pain relief and intravenous fluid and transported her through to Townsville hospital, he told Guardian Australia

Bob Flemming, the owner of the sanctuary, said Ms Robertson had surgery to repair serious injuries to her arm.

"There was no nerve damage so that was the best news we could have had," Mr Flemming told the ABC.

"She had surgery and last report I heard she was sitting up in bed having an ice block. We're very fortunate that she's going to fully recover."

Mr Flemming said the sanctuary had not seen an attack for more than 20 years, adding the crocodile would not be put down.

It was a very unfortunate incident and one that were very sad about, he told The Courier-Mail. As Tipper is a crocodile, shes certainly not going to be euthanised but well review our training procedures and make sure it never happens again.

He said he was trying to determine what happened.

The incident is expected to be investigated by workplace health and safety officials.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Police react to a suspicious vehicle near La Carillon restaurant following a series of deadly attacks in Paris.

BRITAIN is facing the threat of "enormous and spectacular attacks" by Isil as the extremist group aims to wage war on Western lifestyles, the UKhead of counter-terrorism has warned.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said that while in the past few years the Islamist group has called on would-be jihadis to attack police and the military, their plots are now broader "plans to attack Western lifestyle".

He said: "In recent months we've seen a broadening of that, much more plans to attack Western lifestyle, and obviously the Paris attacks in November.

And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we've seen foiled to date."

"You see a terrorist group that whilst on the one hand has been acting as a cult to use propaganda to radicalise people to act in their name ... you also see them trying to build bigger attacks."

Mr Rowley said the "shared effort to look for any possible links of those networks or other networks that have reached the UK is obviously a massively high priority".

In the last three years the number of arrests of terrorist suspects has risen by 57pc, compared with the previous three years. Around half led to a charge.

Last year, just over three-quarters (77pc) of those arrested were British nationals, 14pc were female and 13pc were aged 20 and under.

The number of girls and women and the number of teenagers is a new trend, Mr Rowley said. "That would not have been the picture that one would have seen a few years ago. That is an indication of that radicalisation, the effect of the propaganda and the way the messages of Daesh (Isil) are resonating with some individuals," he added.

Scotland Yard has seen more than 20 families and around 50 young people go through family court proceedings over concerns about radicalisation in the past year.

Police are beginning to use trained psychologists who can provide advice both about how to deal with those at risk of being influenced by extremists, as well as terrorists in the event of an attack.

The number of trained firearms officers across the UK is also being increased in the wake of the Paris atrocities, which saw 129 people killed in co-ordinated attacks by extremists.

Official advice was issued at the end of last year to "Run, Hide, Tell" if marauding gunmen are found to be on the loose - meaning get as far away as possible, hide, and if possible call the police.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron attended the EU leaders' summit at the European Council in Brussels yesterday. Mr Cameron reiterated his stance that there was "no prospect" of the UK joining an EU quota scheme to divvy up migrants around the bloc.

The policy, to be proposed in papers on March 16 ahead of a summit in Brussels, proposes creating a new quota system to share out asylum claims.

It poses a challenge to Britain because it may replace the 'first country' principle under the Dublin rules, that say asylum seekers must stay, and can be sent back to, the first EU state they reached.

Those rules allow Britain to deport around 1,000 people a year to other EU states.

Mr Cameron did not address the fate of Dublin, but said Britain would not be a part of any new quota scheme.

"Well we have an absolutely rock solid opt-out from these things, so there's no prospect of Britain joining a common asylum process in Europe.

"We'll have our own asylum approach, our own way of doing things, keeping our borders. Again it underlines the best of both worlds, the special status that we have."

And a senior business leader who resigned after being suspended for suggesting the UK could have a brighter future outside the European Union may join the Vote Leave campaign, Boris Johnson has said.

Brexit supporters have claimed that pressure from Downing Street forced John Longworth out of his post as director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Matilde Conejero appeared at Uxbridge magistrates' court in west London accused of assaulting her two sons

Marco Pierre Whites estranged wife kicked her youngest son repeatedly in the groin and grabbed him by the hair, a court heard .

Matilde Conejero, 51, allegedly assaulted Marco Pierre White jnr, 20, then laid into her eldest son, Luciano, 22, when he stepped in.

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At Uxbridge Magistrates Court, the mother of three, of Chiswick High Road, west London, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault by beating. She is due to stand trial in May.

Spanish-born Ms Conejero, who appeared on court papers as Matilde White, first met her chef husband while working as a bar manager in one of his restaurants. Relations between the couple began to break down in 2005 when she accused him of cheating with financier Robin Saunders.

The chef spent 14 hours in a police cell after he and his wife had a row.

The pair split in 2007, with Matilde filing for divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour.

But divorce proceedings were withdrawn in 2011 after running up legal bills estimated at 3 million.

Leeds-born Marco Pierre White, 54, was the youngest chef to be given three Michelin stars at the age of 33. He has since run a string of renowned restaurants in London alongside several steakhouse bar and grills across the country and is now known as the television face of Knorr.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Turkey said it would be willing to make greater efforts to contain irregular migration. Photo: PA

European Union leaders late last night said they had reached the outlines for a breakthrough deal with Ankara to return thousands of migrants to Turkey.

Officials said they were confident that a full agreement could be reached at a summit next week.

During 12 hours of negotiations, Turkey insisted that any agreement would require Europe to advance Turkey's long-delayed hope of joining the bloc.

As an additional step, Turkey said it expects EU nations to ease its visa restrictions on Turkish citizens within months.

Turkey said it would be willing to make greater efforts to contain irregular migration.

"This is a welcome approach," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. However, she warned that "it needs more time" for the member states to fully approve it.

Breakthrough

British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We do have the basis for a breakthrough which is the possibility that in future all migrants who arrive in Greece will be returned to Turkey."

The sides will now reconvene at a two-day summit starting on March 17.

Turkey, home to 2.75 million refugees chiefly from neighbouring Syria, surprised EU counterparts yesterday by demanding a doubling of funding beyond the 3bn already pledged.

"Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davatoglu told reporters in Brussels.

For its part, the EU sought to gain stronger commitments from Turkey to take back refugees who have reached European shores and ease a crisis that has left an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 souls encamped in the wintry cold on the Greece-Macedonia border.

"To stop refugees arriving in Greece, we have to cooperate with Turkey," French President Francois Hollande said.

Even though many saw the outlines of a deal, it was still too early to clinch it.

In the Turkish capital Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of failing to provide enough of the already pledged funds.

He also criticised Europe for refusing to accept asylum seekers more readily, linking that policy to needless deaths as thousands opt to cross illegally by sea from the Turkish coast to offshore Greek islands.
A Syrian refugee woman and her baby wait on a roadside near a beach in the western Turkish coastal town of Dikili, Turkey, after Turkish Gendarmes prevented them from sailing off for the Greek island of Lesbos by dinghies. Reuters/Umit Bektas

The United Nations and human rights groups have voiced concerns about the European Union's plans to send thousands of migrants back to Turkey amid fears the country cannot properly provide for them.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed overnight to the broad outlines of a deal that would essentially outsource Europe's refugee emergency. People arriving in Greece having fled conflict or poverty would be sent back to Turkey unless they apply for asylum.

For every migrant sent back, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee, thus trying to prevent the need for people to set out on dangerous sea journeys, often arranged by unscrupulous smugglers.

Turkey stands to gain billions of dollars in refugee aid, faster EU membership talks and visa-free travel for its citizens within four months.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that under the proposed deal, which was welcomed by all 28 EU countries, migrants who enter Europe illegally will be sent back and have to join the end of the queue to enter Europe.

But the UN and rights groups are not convinced that Turkey is a safe destination. More than 2.7 million refugees, many from Syria, are in Turkey. Most are housed by Turkish families or live out in the open, and few have government-funded shelters.

"I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.

Amnesty International warned that the plan, the details of which are to be worked out at a March 17 summit in Brussels, is legally flawed. Europe's attempt to have Turkey designated as a safe country is "alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane", the group said.

"Turkey has forcibly returned refugees to Syria, and many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing," said Iverna McGowan, head of Amnesty's European office.

"By no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a 'safe third country' that the EU can cosily outsource its obligations to," she said.

The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said the deal is cynical and a sign that "European leaders have completely lost track of reality".

"Clearly, Europe is willing to do anything, including compromising essential human rights and refugee law principles, to stem the flow of refugees and migrants," said the group's humanitarian adviser Aurelie Ponthieu.

Separately, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he is worried by Europe's increasingly tough asylum policies, growing anti-refugee rhetoric and attacks on migrants.

"Extreme right-wing and nationalistic political parties are inflaming the situation where we need to be seeking solutions, harmonious solutions based on shared responsibilities," Mr Ban said on a visit to Berlin.

Speaking after meeting with Mrs Merkel, Mr Ban said he is "deeply worried by growing anti-migrant and anti-refugee rhetoric and by violent attacks against these communities".

The UN chief said the EU "can do much more" to manage the refugee influx, which pales next to the efforts of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to take in more than 5 million people between them.
A Malaysian woman lights a candle for the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at a church in Kuala Lumpur on the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance (AP)

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said he is hopeful that missing Flight 370 will still be found as politicians observe a moment of silence to mark the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

Mr Najib said the wing part found on France's Reunion island last July was evidence that the flight tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

He added that an ongoing search is expected to be completed later this year and Malaysia "remains hopeful" that the plane will be found.

If the search turns up nothing, he said in a statement on Tuesday that Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a meeting to determine the way forward.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet vanished mysteriously with 239 people on board while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 2014.

"The search has been the most challenging in aviation history," Mr Najib said in a statement.

"We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonising mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost."

After two years, the plane's disappearance remains one of the biggest mysteries in modern aviation.

The Australian-led search effort has spent more than 130 million dollars scouring a vast area of the Indian Ocean nearly 4 miles (6.5km) deep. Investigators have said the search will end by June unless fresh clues are found.

Families of those on board have appealed to authorities to keep the search alive.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said crews have combed about three-quarters of the 46,000 square mile (120,000 sq km) search zone. He said the government is waiting for verification of two more possible pieces of debris, which were discovered recently in Mozambique and Reunion island.

The international investigating team issued an interim statement as required by international aviation laws on the anniversary of the plane's disappearance, but did not provide any fresh clues about the cause.

The statement said a final report will be completed only when the aircraft wreckage is located or the search for the wreckage is terminated.
Nancy Reagan with her husband, former US president Ronald Reagan

US first lady Michelle Obama will attend Nancy Reagan's funeral, the White House has announced.

The private funeral for the wife of former president Ronald Reagan will be held on Friday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Mrs Reagan will be buried next to her husband at the library.

Details on others who would be attending the funeral were not released.

Mrs Reagan, 94, died of congestive heart failure at her Los Angeles home on Sunday.

Her 93-year-old husband, the nation's 40th president, died on June 5 2004. His remains were flown to Washington DC to lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol and then a service at the Washington National Cathedral. His coffin was then flown back to California.

Tens of thousands of mourners filed past his coffin in the days before his interment service at the library, tucked into hills north west of Los Angeles.

After the service, a tearful Mrs Reagan kissed and stroked her husband's coffin while clutching an American flag. "I love you," she said quietly.
Migrant mother holds her children waiting on the Greek side of the border near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija. Photo: AP

Rauda escaped Syria after 19 rockets hit her house. She now lives in neighbouring Lebanon with her family in a tent where she experiences the cold, misery and humiliation.

"Before the war, we were living happy, as if we were in heaven," she explained.

Rauda left all of her possessions behind and made a run for it.

"As we were leaving there were a lot of snipers shooting at us."

Rauda's story is not uncommon.

During the time I have spent with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Turkey, what struck me was how the deep psychological and emotional wounds of war were so raw. The Syrian war has wrecked their lives.

All they want is peace and to be able to lead a dignified life. Rauda, living a shattered life as a refugee, reminds us of the distress and trauma so deeply experienced by those who have fled the war.

In Lebanon, where there are no formal refugee camps, Syrian families live wherever they can find a safe space; under plastic sheeting, in ramshackle buildings or in single rooms with no window glass and exposed to the elements .

Many families have been living like this since the war in Syria began five years ago.

Syrians seeking refuge in Lebanon face myriad protection issues. Women and girls have been disproportionately impacted by the crisis.

Of the over 5 million people who have fled Syria to neighbouring countries, four out of five are women and children; 27pc of the female refugee population is under 18. Physical, sexual, and gender-based violence, early and forced marriage, trauma, harmful traditional practices, lack of access to education, family separation and an inability to access basic social services are pervasive in the lives of Syrian refugee women and girls.

The vulnerability of Syrian refugees in Lebanon increased significantly last year; an estimated 52pc of them are now unable to meet their minimum survival requirements and more than 70pc are living below the poverty line. Girls are disproportionately affected by the Syrian conflict - early marriage, child labour and domestic violence are among their primary risks. Sabah Al-Hallak, a member of the Syrian Women's League, prefers the candid wording of 'forced marriage', as this highlights the lack of decision-making that girls tend to have.

Syrian families don't want to deliberately put their girls in danger. However, many choose child-marriage as an economic coping mechanism, where girls as young as 13 are often married to an older man so they can be 'looked after'.

These are among the desperate measures taken to cope with their very harsh daily realities.

Child marriage can have devastating and damaging effects on a girl's life where they are deprived of education, leaving them trapped in a punishing cycle of limited economic opportunities and domestic violence, with disregard for their role and dignity.

These young girls, already survivors of war and trauma, are now at risk of mental health issues stemming from stress, abuse and social isolation.

Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than adult women.

The World Health Organisation has found that "pregnancy and childbirth complications are the second highest cause of death among 15-19-year-old girls globally".

Newborn babies are at higher risk of mortality when born to adolescent mothers.

To try and reduce the risk of violence to girls and women, Concern's innovative 'Engaging Men to Promote Resilient Communities' programme in Lebanon aims to strengthen community members' capacity to address, prevent, and respond to protection issues, including sexual and domestic violence as well as inter and intra-community conflicts. The programme is informed by a growing acceptance of the critical importance of engaging men in fostering functional, non-violent communities.

This acceptance is steeped in an understanding that men are perpetrators, survivors, and witnesses of risks to violence and therefore their engagement is integral to the prevention of harm.

The conflict in Syria has not only created a crisis requiring intervention, but also presents a critical entry point to foster men's use of non-violent coping and conflict resolution strategies, support for gender equality, and women's meaningful and active participation in decision making.

The psychosocial support to women and education on sensitive gender issues and the engagement with men is positively impacting on men's behaviour and attitudes.

It seems that the new concepts of gender equality and addressing conflict through non-violent communication are giving way to a fresh type of thinking and behaviour that is fostering more peace in the home in particular.

Today, as we mark International Women's Day, we must remember Rauda, and other women who are in similar situations, and all those girls who have become child brides. We must ensure that her dignity - and that of all other Syrian women and girls - is protected and that they can all live in peace.

Brid Kennedy is Regional Director Asia & the Middle East with Concern Worldwide
A Syrian man rides a bicycle through a devastated part of the city of Homs (AP)

Fighting in Syria has killed more civilians in the past two days than in the previous eight, marking a deterioration of the conflict's partial ceasefire, according to a monitoring group.

Eighty civilians have died in fighting in the ceasefire areas since it took effect 10 days ago, more than half of them in the last two days, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It documented 240 deaths in total, including from the ranks of militants and government forces.

Syria's official news agency SANA said government forces have repelled a "terrorist" assault on a strategic position south of the contested city of Aleppo.

The observatory said al Qaida's affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, led the assault on Al Eis hill on Monday night but could not capture it.

Meanwhile, a four-year-old child died after rockets fired from Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria landed on the Turkish side of the border.

The mayor of the border city of Kilis, Hasan Kara, said Turkish artillery retaliated by firing at IS targets in Syria.

As many as eight rockets landed in Turkey, with at least one of them hitting a populated neighbourhood in Kilis and killing a woman and injuring two boys in a car. The youngest boy died on his way to hospital, while his six-year-old brother is in a stable condition.

Mr Kara said residents are being urged to stay indoors. Schools in Kilis were evacuated and would remain closed.

The Turkish military has been retaliating to any rockets or shells fired from Syria that land on Turkish territory in line with its rules of engagement.
MICHAEL EADS/Independent Mail Yue Wang is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Her team has received $360,000 to help the Air Force overcome some of the challenges it faces in using teams of unmanned vehicles and other robots.

SHARE MICHAEL EADS/Independent Mail Brandon Ross, assistant professor of civil engineering, and his team have received $500,000 to help make buildings more adaptable. He explained the work Monday while colleague Feng Ding listened. MICHAEL EADS/Independent Mail Feng Ding is an assistant professor of physics. He will use the $506,569 his team was awarded to better understand nanoparticles, which he discussed Monday as colleague Yue Wang listened in.

By Mike Eads of the Independent Mail

Clemson University's College of Engineering and Science showed off a quintet of young faculty members Monday who are attracting federal research dollars for work on smarter building designs, more efficient robots, improved computer simulations, cheaper ways to make fertilizers and better ways to anticipate how using nanotechnology in medicines will affect patients.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research's Young Investigator Program has given awards to Yue Wang, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Joseph Scott, an assistant professor of chemical engineering.

Wang came up with an idea for improved operation of robots and drones during a fellowship last summer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. She has been given $360,000 to advance her investigation of how such machines can better emulate human anticipation and adaptation skills.

Another $330,000 went to Scott for his team's work on ways to "rigorously account for the uncertainties in computer models," he said.

"More and more, we're using computer simulations to inform decisions that we make," said Scott. "The simplest example the Air Force is interested in is an aircraft simulating a trajectory that it might try to fly through some obstacles. If that simulation is a poor, or moderate, simulation of reality, a trajectory that appears to be safe may lead to a collision."

Three more faculty members have received awards from the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Programs.

Feng Ding, an assistant professor of physics, got $506,569 from the NSF program for work on how to better understand the effect of nanoparticles on the human body when used to treat medical conditions. Such particles are used more and more in drug delivery, and his work utilizes supercomputers to run models of how a given drug might affect the part of the body being targeted. Ding said the work could help researchers during the approval process to set up better trials that derive more accurate data.

Looking at ways to make buildings more adaptable netted civil engineering Assistant Professor Brandon Ross and his team a $500,000 award from the NSF. The idea is that multiple uses can be worked into the design of a building before it's even built, so that in 20 or 30 years it can be repurposed more easily and cheaply. That approach would keep otherwise structurally sound buildings from being bulldozed after their initial use is over simply because renovating them is prohibitively expensive.

Rachel Getman's award came for her research into a new way to make ammonia for use in fertilizers. Her $503,922 NSF prize will fund more work on ways to more easily extract the necessary hydrogen from water to mix with nitrogen. The research could lead to cheaper fertilizers for developing economies and hydrogen to run fuel cells for use in homes and vehicles.

Getman said her award comes five years into work on the subject with different colleagues and two months' worth of "10 hour days, 6 days a week" spent writing the grant proposal. She's grateful for the recognition, but hardly ready to rest on her and her colleagues' laurels.

"It feels really good, but also really humbling because now we've got a lot of work to do," said Getman.

The award winners are contributing to the university in ways that extend beyond the federal grants, according to their boss.

"Young student talent that will be joining Clemson will get to work with these faculty members, to rub shoulders with these exemplary talents," said Anand Gramopadhye, dean of the college. "That creates a wonderful ecosystem for Clemson and bodes well for the future of Clemson and of the state  I think success breeds success."

Follow Michael Eads on Twitter @MikeEads_AIM
Elections in Anderson County: How to vote early and what to know
Sgt. Mike Roberson of the Anderson Police Department wears a body camera on his left shirt pocket. Roberson said the camera is a valuable tool in his arsenal and has helped save his reputation when people file frivolous complaints against him.

By Mike Ellis of the Independent Mail

The parents of Zachary Hammond will be speaking to a state Senate Judiciary subcommittee Wednesday to push for tweaks that would allow parents to view dashboard and body camera footage of fatal police shootings within 10 days.

Hammond was shot and killed July 26 in a botched drug sting at a Seneca Hardee's. Video of the shooting was not made public until Oct. 27, after the Independent Mail and other newspapers filed a lawsuit seeking its release and after prosecutors declined to press charges against the Seneca Police Department officer.

Angie and Paul Hammond are pushing for an amendment to the state's body camera laws so parents like them could have a better understanding earlier of what happened, Angie Hammond said.

Most law enforcement officers throughout the state will be required to wear the body cameras by the end of the year.

The footage, however, will not be available under the state's Freedom of Information Act unlike dashboard video, which is subject to the state open records rules.

The body camera rules in South Carolina were a national first, approved last summer in the wake of a North Charleston officer who was charged with murder after civilian video footage was released. In the video the officer appears to shoot a fleeing man in the back.

The legislation is beginning to take shape in local departments as most agencies have finished the first step: turning in policies about body cameras.

A quarter of South Carolina's law enforcement agencies failed to turn in their body camera policy homework to a state regulating organization by a Monday deadline.

The agencies were required to give detailed plans, including how officers will activate the cameras, who wears the cameras and how the footage gets stored.

About 240 of the state's 320 law enforcement agencies met the deadline while others turned in the work on Tuesday, said Maj. Florance McCants of the state Law Enforcement Training Council.

The state training organization has four attorneys reviewing the policies and 179 have gone through the approval process, McCants said.

There is no specific penalty for the agencies that missed Monday's deadline, but they could lose out on a chance for a quicker reimbursement from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety to cover the cost of the cameras.

The state set aside $3.4 million in 2015 and budgeted $2.4 million each following year in supporting funds to help local agencies pay for the cameras.

Lt. Kelley Hughes of the Department of Public Safety said in an email that the state will distribute the money to as many agencies as possible to fund the purchase of cameras along with storage and maintenance costs.

Applications to get state funding are due April 29 and the agencies must first get their policies approved by the Law Enforcement Training Council.

Agencies are not required to use the body cameras until they receive funding and have 270 days after the policy is approved to start using the cameras.

Many Upstate agencies already use body cameras. The Anderson Police Department uses small, beeper-sized cameras that clip to the front of a uniform.

Lt. Tony Tilley said it helps reduce legal liabilities for the department and is another tool to build evidence against suspects.

Oconee County Sheriff's Office road patrol deputies also use body cameras.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Jimmy Watt said the benefits include easier prosecution of crimes in court, as well as clearing good deputies from false complaints while also holding bad deputies accountable.

Click here to view the documents submitted to the Law Enforcement Training Council by the Anderson Police Department and here to view the documents submitted by the Oconee County Sheriff's Office.

Follow Mike Ellis on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM
China, the worlds biggest user of rice and wheat, plans to keep grain production stable through 2020 and, while it will import some grain, the country wont rely on foreign purchases for supplies, Agriculture Minister Han Changfu told reporters before the annual legislature meeting in Beijing.

The country vows to improve mechanisms for grains pricing and enhance its stockpiling system, and expects grains output to exceed 550 million metric tons in 2016. China has about 1.4 billion mouths to feed and President Xi Jinping has singled out increasing agricultural output as among the countrys priorities.

Xi has urged the nation to take the lead in developing genetically modified crops and the recent purchase of Syngenta AG by China National Chemical Corp. will help expand the amount of food produced per hectare. Syngenta is the largest pesticide maker and a producer of yield-boosting GM crops. The country is assessing reforms to its state corn purchase and reserve program, the government said in January.

China has become the worlds largest importer of soybeans and purchases rose 14 percent to a record last year, customs data show. Inbound rice shipments climbed 31 percent and corn purchases were up 82 percent, they show. The country imports most of the soybeans it consumes, while rice and corn onl

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a part of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40], announced the acquisition of Venus Communications Ltd., one of the leading PR and communications agencies in Vietnam. The agency will become part of the MSLGROUP brand, Publicis Groupes flagship strategic communications and engagement network.In Vietnam, MSLGROUP is a part of Publicis One, a global communications enterprise that brings together Publicis Groupe agency brands capabilities and expertise under one roof.has more than 40 employees across offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Over the course of ten years as an affiliate of MSLGROUP, Venus and MSLGROUP have collaborated successfully on numerous international client assignments across Asia and globally.As a leading PR and communications agency in Vietnam, Venus Communications is renowned for its creative approach and strengths in public relations and activation. It already is seamlessly working together with Publicis Groupes other agencies in Vietnam.Having foundedMai Huong will continue in her current roles:and Chair of Publicis Groupe in Vietnam. Venus Communications clients include MasterCard, FedEx, Rolls Royce, BAT, Mead Johnson, and Sanofi.Effective immediately, Venus Communications will operate under the brand name of MSLGROUP withVenus Communications officially becoming a part of MSLGROUP is a natural step after having been a trusted partner for so long. It strengthens MSLGROUPs position to lead the ongoing transformation of the public relations industry in Asia.are undisputed leaders of the communications industry in Vietnam who will add vision and experience to our network of best-in-class agencies,While always continuing to provide our clients with local insights and expertise, joining MSLGROUP will provide best-in-class global and regional resources for our clients. It will also give our employees opportunities for international careers and access to world leading talent programs, said Tuan Giang Quang, Managing Director, Venus Communications.Venus is joining us at the most exciting time in MSLGROUPs Asia history. As the largest international PR network in the region, we are also doing some of the best work in Asia demonstrated by our 41 wins in global and regional award programs in 2015. But more important than awards, MSLGROUP is accelerating further with a new strategy to further climb the value chain and deliver higher value work to our clients, to continue to lead the industry changes in the region.
Hotels aggregator OYO Rooms has announced that it would be partnering with Digital payments company PayPal. This partnership will help the company source payments from global consumers and help Indian consumers make international bookings.PayPal will help OYO accelerate its business by providing protection against online payment risks and frauds. PayPal also promises Seller Protection, thus safeguarding OYO rooms from unauthorised transactions and mitigating associated risks.This move by OYO is a part of its global expansion scheme. This partnership will enable OYO customers to to pay for their bookings in Malaysia and other South East Asian countries. Last year OYO had set out to raise $400 million from investors. However due to slow fundraising environment and stiff competition it had to tone down its investment expectation to a quarter of $400 million.The Gurgaon-based company is also facing problems in the acquisition of its smaller rival ZO Rooms. OYO Rooms is also facing stiff competition from travel portals MakeMyTrip and Goibibo both of which have raised new rounds of funding plan. OYO is reaching out to investors in online travel and etailing space to raise funds.OYO Rooms currently operates in more than 250 Indian cities including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa, Chennai, Kolkata, and others. OYO Rooms provides standardized hotel rooms with features such as an air-conditioner, TV, complimentary breakfast and Wi-Fi with 24x7 customer service support. There is also an OYO Rooms App for guests for booking rooms, ordering beverages and requesting room service.
: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd plans to invest INR 45,000 crore by 2020 in capacity expansion of its Mumbai and Visakhapatnam refineries, besides to augment its marketing infrastructure.: Tata Motors has signed a strategic agreement with Bharat Forge Limited and General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS)of the US, for the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoDs) prestigious Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) program.: The pharma company has entered into an agreement with Moberg Pharma, Sweden and its affiliates to acquire Jointflex, Fergon and Vanquish brands for a total consideration of $10 million plus inventory value at closing.: The tyre company is planning to invest up to $600 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) next fiscal to enhance capacity, according to reports.: Thomas Cook has announced a strategic collaboration with Western Union Business Solutions and DCB Bank.: Godrej Consumer Products is planning to acquire home and personal care companies in Africa, Indonesia and India, according to reports.PVR is planning to renegotiate the terms of the deal to acquire DT Cinemas, DLF's cinema exhibition business, according to reports.Sterlite Technologies has signed partnership deals with telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices and internet service provider Spectranet for its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network being rolled out in the country, according to reports.Ashok Leyland Ltd announced an expansion of its unit in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at an investment of US$10 mn.: Ashoka Buildcon announced that Ashoka Concessions, a subsidiary of Ashoka Buildcon (Company), has informed the Company that one of its Associate Companies viz. PNG Tollway (SPV) has given Notice of termination of the Concession Agreement to NHAI in respect of the Project viz. to undertake Design, Engineering, Finance, Procurement, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of 6 laning of Pimpalgaon - Nashik - Gonde Section of NH - 3 in the State of Maharashtra on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.: Nalco is planning to invest around Rs. 900 crore in Kakrapar Atomic Power project to acquire 26% stake in the plant, according to reports.: Ajanta Pharma has announced that it has received US FDA nod for Almotriptan Malate tablets.: Cox and Kings has partnered with RBL Bank to launch the 'Save Now Travel Later' programme to suit every budget.: Siemens Ltd on Friday announced the sale and transfer of its healthcare business to a subsidiary of its parent Siemens AG for Rs.3,050 crore.: Agitating employees at Tata Motors Sanand plant are now considering to approach the Gujarat High Court to direct the company to recognise their union, reports a business daily.
Indianas adult adoptees have achieved a reality thats taken years to accomplish  equal access to the most basic parts of their identity. Gov. Mike Pence signed Senate Bill 91 into law today, making Indiana the 14th state to give adult adoptees from the closed records period access to their original birth certificate and adoption records.

Advocates from Hoosiers for Equal Access to Records (HEAR), a non-profit formed to push for adult adoptee access legislation in Indiana, commended the Governor for singing the bill as part of his statewide effort to make Indiana the most adoption-friendly state in the country.

Today marks a tremendous victory for hundreds of thousands of people adopted in Indiana, said Pam Kroskie, president of HEAR. We are deeply grateful to the Indiana General Assembly for passing this legislation, and thank Governor Pence for his partnership on this critical issue.

Under current law, Hoosiers adopted after 1994 have access to their records. Those adopted between 1941 and 1993 during Indianas closed records period are forced to use a difficult and expensive intermediary system to obtain their original birth certificate and adoption file information. Effective July 1, 2018, the new law will equalize access to information for all Indiana adoptees.

In the two years before the law takes effect, Kroskie plans to continue providing educational resources to the state and general public through her sister nonprofit, Indiana Adoption Network (IAN).

A major component of this new law will be utilizing the two years we have to share information so that all Hoosiers involved in the adoption process are aware this bill has passed, said Kroskie.

Hoosier families affected by the legislation can contact IAN for more information.
To be successful in Bollywood, you either need a godfather, a filmy family or some kick-ass talent. But most importantly, you need an awesome manager. A manager is the closest person to a celebrity. They are their best friends, and know the stars inside out, through their highs and lows, keeping secrets affairs hush hush. Because no ambition or luck will matter if you do not have the right business acumen, and THIS is where managers come in.

So whether it's meeting a filmmaker for a script-reading session, or blocking dates for shootings, award ceremonies, promotional events, signing on endorsements or even planning the personal vacations of their stars, these managers maintain their calendars and do everything well within the nick of time.

But Bollywood's fascination with female managers is relatively new. Women secretaries were actually an oddity in 1970s-1990s, where male secretaries like Rikku Rakesh Nath, Punkej Kharbanda, Anwar Khan and Vikas Bali called the shots. Only Jaya Bhaduri had a woman, Susheela Kamath, as her secretary, and she was in a minority of one. This Women's Day, let's take a look at 14 wonder women of Bollywood, without whom these stars cannot even breathe!

1. Runali Bhagat - Arjun Kapoor

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She was a fashion stylist for reality shows for nine years. Today, she manages Arjun's career, helping him make the right professional choices. She loves travelling and believes that she's not here to make drastic changes but to do her work diligently. Just to point out, she even manages Rani Mukherji, but we are sure she's a bit relaxed on Rani's account as of now!

2. Anjali Atha - Hrithik Roshan

Twitter

The hunk is hugely dependent on Anjali. A fashion design student, she took up celebrity management because she loved working with big brands and travelling! She has got the perfect combo of charm, competence, poise, authority and discipline to make an amazing manager.

"The split-second decisions, going over the pros and cons, and choosing what is best for the actor are some of the great things about being a celebrity manager." - Anjali Atha

3. Ritika Nagpal - Anushka Sharma

desimartini

She worked as a producer/director for Bollywood shows, until one day, when her boss told her to try celebrity management. Commitment, patience and multi-tasking are her strengths. And if you see Anushka frequently in the news for the right reasons, you know who to credit.

"Ritika is a super-girl with strength, patience and commitment. I think shes my biggest support in the profession, and I am grateful for her presence."  Anushka Sharma

4. Reshma Shetty - Salman Khan

indiatoday

Her savvy skills can be seen in how she has transformed Salman, the personality who was mired in legal trouble, into a cleaner brand and the face of 'Being Human'. We call her the most successful of the lot, considering the way she has built brand Salman, the highest grossing Bollywood actor today. Even Sanjay Dutt had hired her for some time. Super efficient, super sensitive and a super gal, that's Reshma!

5. Mrinaal Chablani  Priyanka Chopra

ndtv

If you've ever wondered how PeeCee manages to hop between her Hollywood and Bollywood projects with finesse, Mrinaal is your answer. If you see the career graph of the actress, you would know Mrinaal's stint has played well for the actress. In fact, Mrinaal calls Priyanka her family!

"A manager is someone who always has your back, and with Mrinaal, I have never had a moment of doubt about that for close to a decade. Girls... we run the world!"  Priyanka Chopra

6. Susan Rodrigues - Ranveer Singh

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She wanted to be an anthropologist but ended up managing Ranveer's career. She is excellent at multi-tasking and says that Ranveer has become a big part of her life. For her, its a special bond that is hard to explain.

"Susan is the lifeline and the backbone of my team. In a way, she has grown and evolved along with me. I'm lucky to have her managing my work."  Ranveer Singh

7. Tejal Shetty - Parineeti Chopra

Her stint in the television industry made her a good fit for the hectic work-mode of an actor. The two have developed a strong bond as they spend a serious amount of time together, enough for them to share inside jokes that no one else is privy to. What's more, they even shop together.

"I call Tejal 'Tiger Shetty' and for good reason! She is my bodyguard, protective mother, nutritionist, health inspector, travel agent  everything! As an actor, I am always conscious never to be unreasonable, throw tantrums or make anyones life difficult. But God knows that Tejal wouldn't allow that anyway."  Parineeti Chopra

8. Shrutika Shetty - Aditi Rao Hydari

silconindia

"I am a complete movie buff, to take a job as a celebrity manager was totally the ideal thing to do." Shrutika believes that you learn from every celebrity. Aditi is both a friend and a boss to her.

"We have to play dual roles as managers. While I say that, I think we also have to be available at the time of any crisis." - Shrutika Shetty

9. Karuna Badwal/Pooja Dadlani - Shah Rukh Khan

The Badshah cannot do with just one. So he has two managers and both women. Karuna has worked as SRK's business manager for seven years. So much so that the actor made her the co-producer of his film Chennai Express. Pooja, on the other hand, helps to make communication with SRK easier. He even attended her birthday party.

"Karuna has been part of SRK's team for a long time. She helped build Kolkata Knight Riders as a brand and also assisted Shah Rukh with the marketing of his films. Given her involvement with SRK's other investments, it seems it was a natural decision for Shah Rukh to rope her in as part of the film's crew." - A source

10. Zenobia - Akshay Kumar

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The petite supergal Zenobia is a permanent part of Akshay's entourage at hotel corridors, his make-up trailer, and even flies to foreign destinations to co-ordinate his diary. She will treat you exactly the way she knows her boss will want you to be treated!

"I've always wanted a woman to manage my affairs because women are trustworthy, efficient and unobtrusive. I have come to depend so much on Zenobia that I'm completely lost if she is not around." - Akshay Kumar

11. Sandhya Ramachandran - Katrina Kaif

ibn

Sandhya is almost like Kat's shadow. So much so, that the star depends on her for everything from changing a light bulb to collecting a cheque!

"Sandhya can fix everything from a switch in the house to organising my daily affairs with super-efficiency." - Katrina Kaif

12. Binky Mendez - Aamir Khan

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Like her employer, she too is a perfectionist. We hear she keeps a minute-to-minute tab on Aamir's professional and personal commitments. Tiny, with a warm smile, Binky is not intimidated by either the media or filmmakers. She's present at airports to see her boss off, to receive his wife, organise his appointments diary and even take care of his social work commitments. Aamir admits he depends largely on Binky to make his life run smoothly.

13. Tanuja Mehra - Bipasha Basu

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Bips doesn't move without her girl, Tanuja, trailing her. She accompanies Bipasha everywhere from shoots to parties and even on her vacations.

"I'm myopic and so sometimes bypass even people I know. If Tanuja isn't around, I'd be a bit lost." - Bipasha Basu

14. Poonam Damania - Kareena Kapoor

Kareena has developed a relationship of trust and reliability with her manager. So much so that when gossip chases Kareena, it becomes Poonam's job to ensure that gossip does not interfere with the actress' image.

Most Bollywood superstars today are deeply programmed by women. And the reference is not to their wives or mothers but to the super-efficient women who run their professional lives seamlessly and unobtrusively.
Half the worlds population menstruates, but the issue is still a source of shame and embarrassment. Clue, a womens app, tied up with the International Womens Health Coalition to investigate. They asked 90,000 females from 190 countries about their period, and found that many women are still very uncomfortable talking about it. 86% of the women said they didnt mind discussing it with other women, but only 34% said they were comfortable discussing it with men. Some countries are worse off than others. In Russia for example, only 14% of women said they would be comfortable discussing it with their male friends or colleagues while in Japan the figure is as low as 12%.

The survey found that there are over 5,000 ways to refer to periods indirectly.

In Italian we say, my friends came to visit me

I say that I have my days

The red tide

In my family its Aunty Flo

Time of the month

In Chinese we say hey, my aunty is visiting

Cover image via telegraph.co.uk
In what would turn out as a huge relief for lakhs of salaried Indians, the government has announced the withdrawal of a budget proposal to tax Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals.

Announcing the decision in the Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would like to conduct a comprehensive review on it.

Finance minister @ArunJaitley announces roll back of EPF tax proposalhttps://t.co/3qeKYz9Ot7  Times of India (@timesofindia) March 8, 2016

The proposal to levy tax on withdrawing 60 per cent of EPF deposit was made in the Union Budget presented last week. This meant that only 40 per cent of the deposit was tax free.

It had also suggested that if the employee re-invested 60 per cent of the EPF in an annuity or pension fund then it will not be taxed.

However the move to tax EPF withdrawals, which were tax free till now, had created quite a big storm. It was not only opposed by the opposition, but also from the RSS and BJP affiliate trade unions.
The 15th edition of the speak-in at Jawaharlal Nehru University had poet and professor Makarand Paranjape talking about 'Uncivil wars: Tagore, Gandhi, JNU and what's left of the nation'.

CCCB

"I was walking to the department when I saw this person on a bicycle with a placard 'I am not an anti-national'. I think we all are not anti-national. When you hear my views of Left hegemonic practices, sometimes bordering on dictatorial practices, I hope I don't need to carry a sign 'I am not anti-JNU', unlike any of you," said the professor of English at JNU.

He questioned how many students would support Kashmiri separatism and very few hands went up. But his speech was interrupted, first by sloganeering by Kanhaiya Kumar, and then by some students who booed him.

PTI

Paranjape took on Kumar's "misrepresentation" during his speech after his release from jail.

"Kanhaiya said in his speech Golwalkar met Mussolini. Did you check your facts? It was Moonje who met Mussolini. I am not saying they were not impressed by the Fascists, they were. They thought it is a very good idea to have an authoritarian system. Please let us agree on what is factual and what is not. Fascism stands for anti-democratic position and so does Stalinism. I am proud to belong to a country where one so-called judicial murder created such a huge ruckus. Do you know how many judicial murders were committed from 1920 to 1950s in Stalin's USSR?" Paranjape said.

Stating that the present discourse in JNU in particular and in the country in general has destroyed the middle ground, he said that only the extreme are left.

He said by 'Left of the Nation' in his topic he wanted to bring out what the Left ideology in India has been with respect to nationalism.
The obituaries all cited Raymond Tomlinson, who died over the weekend, as the "inventor" of email, but out in the cold in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shiva Ayyadurai bristled.

A few eulogies were a little more nuanced, noting specifically that the New York-born Tomlinson is widely recognized for selecting the @ symbol to connect a username with the destination address email, making it a central part of the communications process.

Even G-mail was guarded, tweeting, "Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map. #RIP."

Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map. #RIP  Gmail (@gmail) March 6, 2016

But that was of little comfort to the Mumbai-born Ayyadurai, who emigrated to the US with his family when he was only seven, and has been fighting an epic battle to be recognized as the primary inventor of email as we know it when he was only 14.

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"I'm the low-caste, dark-skinned, Indian, who DID invent #email not Raytheon, who profits from war, death and lies," he raged in one tweet a few hours Tomlinson's death, referring to the deceased man's employer, best-known as an armaments company.

I'm the low-caste, dark-skinned, Indian, who DID invent #email. Not Raytheon, who profits for war & death.Their mascot Tomlinson dies a liar  Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai (@va_shiva) March 7, 2016

Many others also came out in support of his claims.

Dear @gmail, even Google says Shiva Ayyadurai @va_shiva is the founder of e-mail. Then y r u tweeting a wrong info. pic.twitter.com/Zwi5baVCok  Logesh Kumar (@CrypticThought_) March 7, 2016

Sorry Twitter. It's not Ray Tomlinson but Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai @va_shiva who invented email. Sad to know Ray passed away but the truth stays.  James George (@jamesgeorge) March 7, 2016

PO'd! Ray Tomlinson WRONGLY credited 4 email whn EVERY1 honest knos Shiva Ayyadurai @va_shiva invented, has copyright &is a victim of racism  Fran Drescher (@frandrescher) March 6, 2016

@gmail Ur information abt invention of email may be wrong. V.A.Shiva Ayyadurai is t inventor of e-mail. do u agree? pic.twitter.com/tEPZMkO4bx  Rajiv Gandhi (@nanbarajiv) March 7, 2016

So what is the truth?

The FACTS are that Shiva Ayyadurai does have the first US copyright for Email, or "Computer Program for Electronic Mail System," in 1982. Numerous awards and honors recognize his work, from a "Westinghouse Science Talent Search Honors Award for creating EMAIL".

In 1981 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History accepted his code, papers and artifacts demonstrating HIS WORK on EMAIL. And while he may not have written the first email program or code, he is recognized in some quarters as the first to devise the form closest to today's email - on commission from the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Forgotten

A sham he is not, as attested by number others honors that are undisputed. But missing from the scroll is the official recognition, from the government and the tech community at large, which says he only capitalized on the infrastructure provided by the military and other pioneers, including Tomlinson, to make some contributions in the advancement of electronic mail as we know it today.

In interviews, Ayyadurai has argued that as a 14-year old in New Jersey in 1978, he not only had no access to the early technologies that were strictly in the military domain, he didn't need their parts, their protocol, or the Internet. His work centered on using local area networks and Ethernet cords.

Why?

Many including some media outlets, who credited Ayyadurai for the invention of the email, have been forced to retract or clarify their stories - by the powerful US military-industrial complex, according to Ayyadurai.

The US defense establishment, he argues, wants the public to believe that their tax dollars are well spent to invent things like Velcro and GPS (both of which it did). But often, innovations came come from humble, hum-drum low cost environments which do not suck up billions of dollars - which is the point he is trying to prove.

What did Tomlinson do?

What Tomlinson did, Ayyadurai clarifies, is send text messages between computers. "It is also an obvious and inescapable fact that sending a text message is not email - since email, as we all know, is a system that includes features such as Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Folders, Attachments, Carbon Copies. Groups, Forwarding, Reply, Delete, Archive, Sort, Bulk Distribution, and more," he writes on his website.

The word email

Ayyaduari invented a software system that duplicates the features of the Interoffice Mail System.

"I named my software "EMAIL," (a term never used before in the English language), and I even received the first US. Copyright for that software, officially recognizing me as The Inventor of Email, at a time when Copyright was the only way to recognize software inventions, since the US Supreme was not recognizing software patents," he writes.

Recognition

Ayyaduari has influential supporters, including the philosopher-activist Noam Chomsky, who has known Ayyadurai since he was a sophomore at MIT, and who noted in a testimonial that "the steps taken to belittle the achievement" of a 14-year old immigrant ... "suggest an effort to dismiss the fact that innovation can take place by anyone, in any place, at any time."

citelighter

"Given the term email was not used prior to 1978, and there was no intention to emulate '...a full-scale, inter-organizational mail system,' (which is what Ayyadurai did) as late as December 1977, there is no controversy here, except the one created by industry insiders, who have a vested interest to protect a false branding that BBN (a military contractor like Raytheon) is the "inventor of email", which the facts obliterate," Chomsky noted in his support for Ayyadurai.
A team of archaeologists excavating the mysterious megalithic structures at Vangchhia in Champhai district of Mizoram was of the opinion that a city belonging to a greater lost civilization might have once existed there. The excavations concluded on Wednesday.

nelive

Vangchhia is Mizoram's only ASI-protected site.

Sujeet Nayan, assistant superintending archaeologist at ASI Delhi and director of the excavation at Vangchhia, said this was one of the most important archaeological finds of the present time. He said the site held the key to hitherto-unknown facts about Mizoram and the northeast.

The team documented more than 50 structures at Vangchhia and will return soon for further research and study. It collected fragments of charcoal that will be sent to specialized laboratories for carbon dating and other scientific analysis.

"We were exploring what lay beneath the bushes and thick foliage. The entire site could hold traces of a lost city or a greater lost civilization. It is amazing to stumble upon so many things. We need more time and research to reach a final conclusion," said Nayan.

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The team came across burial sites that seemed like water pavilion and terraces that were reminiscent of palatial buildings.

The retaining walls or terraces were made of big stones and the average height of each terrace ranged from 10 to 25 feet.

"The terraces might have served as burial sites, but this can't be ascertained as of now," Nayan said. "There are nine terraces. We explored around eight. We also found evidence of what seems to be a water pavilion. We presume people here liked their environment and the water pavilion is comparable to those found in Mughal structures," he added.

Vangchhia is close to the Myanmar border and comprises rolling hills and thick forests. The excavation was conducted after the director general of ASI visited the site in November last year and the objective was to study the structures that have floral, animal and human depictions on them.

The menhirs of Vangchhia are Mizoram's first ASI-protected monument.

Fragments of charcoal and pottery dug up will be sent to laboratories for carbon dating and other scientific analysis.

 ASI said a city belonging to a greater lost civilization might have once existed there.
It's not easy to manage both your home and work, especially if you are working woman and more so if you are Indian.

newkerala

About four months ago Niambari Bahadkar, an operations manager at ICICI Bank, realised that increasing responsibilities towards ageing parents were making it tougher for her to pursue her job. But she was not the only one finding it difficult to handle her duties at home along with work.

Tinaz Jokhi, assistant manager operations was dealing with the pressure of changes in life owing to her recent marriage. Suchita Gaonkar, who works with user acceptance testing team, was finding her daily commute to office after taking care of two kids too taxing. Vishakha Chauhan, who was in the final stages of her pregnancy, felt that though she was fit enough to work, the commute to work was just not possible for her at this stage.

On Monday, the bank, keeping in mind the business case for retaining such women who very often opt to drop out from the workplace at key life stages, announced an initiative called iWork@home that uses technology to enable women employees to work from home for an extended period of time depending on their needs.

Employees will be provided access to their required operating system in a safe and secure manner to create a seamless office-like environment, initially for a period of up to one year. The technology platform has been developed by ICICI Bank in partnership with students of IIT Delhi.

yourstory

"We wanted to create a stronger support system for women to ensure that they do not leave the workforce at key life stages. We decided to use technology to make life simpler for women managers," said Chanda Kochhar, MD at ICICI Bank. The bank will roll out the facility across several core functions and at the same time ensure that there is no loss of productivity.

iWork@home has the potential to become a highly scalable programme and will allow women managers to avail themselves of the facility for long periods of time, said Kochhar. It has a three-level security protocol to ensure that only the concerned employee can access the system. The bank has also designed a unique facial recognition technology to ensure that no one can impersonate the employee and get access to its applications.

guim

Besides, the bank will now provide women managers with children up to three years of age the cost of travel and stay of the child, and caregiver. "This will help our young managers focus on their work without emotional stress of staying away from their children," said Kochhar. Experts welcomed the bank's move.

"ICICI's leadership in the space of gender parity speaks loud and clear with the number of women leaders the bank has sent out to the world," said Saundarya Rajesh, founder of Avtar Career Creators & FLEXI Careers India.

"This initiative comes in the domain of the concept of career enabler that says that if we can help women tide over domestic responsibilities we can see a 25% jump in the retention of women," she said.
Follow us on india s 15 most successful female entrepreneurs

New Delhi: Gone are the days when women were considered no match for all powerful men in this world.

The male dominated world was always reluctant to even acknowledge the fact that women were as good as men on parameters of hard work, intelligence quotient (IQ) and leadership traits.

The new generation women across the world have overcome all negative notions and have proved themselves beyond doubt in all spheres of life including the most intricate and cumbersome world of entrepreneurship.

Yes, there is a section among women who believe in short-cuts but at the same time there is no dearth of women who are confident ,believe in themselves and have enormous fire in their bellies to take on the best in the business and beat them at their own game.

India too has its own pool of such bold and fearless women who have made a mark for themselves both within the country as well as overseas.

Their relentless zeal, incessant quench for success and willingness to walk the extra mile have broken all myths about their inborn limitations that were supposed to be major roadblocks on their success expressways.

Let's meet 15 such Indian women who can be easily termed as role models for every Indian- both males and females:

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Follow us on fm withdraws epf tax proposal announced in budget 2016

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced the rollback of his budgetary proposal that allowed a part of the Employees Provident Fund withdrawal to be be taxed. Jaitley made the statement in the parliament today.

Clarifying government's stand on the issue, Jaitley said,"ain argument is that employees should have choice of where to invest, idea is to make people join pension scheme."

Howevere, the tax proposal for NPS scheme has been retained, the Finance Minister said.

The controversial proposal created massive uproar among the salaried class so much so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to intervene and ask Jaitley to reconsider the proposed tax.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has in his Budget for 2016-17 proposed taxing 60 per cent of withdrawals from the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) on contributions to be made after April 1, unless the sum is reinvested in pension product such as an annuity.

Apart from this, the government is to introduce a Bill to further amend the Enemy Property Act, 1968 and the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 in the Lok Sabha.

The government is also hopeful of passing the new Aadhaar bill in Lok Sabha today despite Congress' objections on it being presented as a money Bill.

Besides, the government will also seek the passage of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

On Monday, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the real estate Bill would become a reality' during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament. I am holding discussion with all stakeholders, he informed domestic and global investors at the Happening Haryana' conclave in Gurgaon.

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Follow us on international women s day 2016 google doodle celebrates with one day i will...

New Delhi: Global internet search giant Google on Tuesday marked the International Women's Day with one of its special doodles featuring real women rather than animated characters.

The International Women's Day, celebrated on March 8, is a global event aimed at inspiring women and celebrating their achievements.

Google posted a short video on its home page in which some women are seen sharing their aspirations, completing the sentence "One day I will..."

Liat Ben-Rafael, who co-created the doodle, told Mirror Online it was important to her to feature real women in the video, rather than animated characters, which usually appear in Google doodles.

"International Women's Day is a celebration of the women who are here today working towards a better future, and in that sense it was important for me to make sure that we celebrate the real women," she said.

"It's the unsung heroes, this is what we're celebrating, so not showing the real women behind this would be a big loss."

Google users can watch the video on by clicking on the play button on the Google home page in their browsers on March 8.

Users are also encouraged to share their own aspirations on social media, using the hashtag #OneDayIWill.

Here is the Video for "One day I will..." Delhi:

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Follow us on cbi books 5 senior officials of syndicate bank in rs 1 000 cr scam

New Delhi: There is trouble in store for some senior officials of the state-run Syndicate Bank with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booking them on charges of fraud and cheating as part of their investigations into an alleged fraud to the tune of Rs 1,000 core.

Five senior bank officials have been booked under six sections of the IPC and the relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, on charges of causing an alleged loss of Rs 1,000 crore to the bank.

The CBI today conducted searches at 10 locations including Jaipur, Udaipur and New Delhi leading to the recovery of some incriminating documents. The searches were conducted at bank branches and the residences of bank employees, the CBI said today.

The alleged fraud includes the use of fake bills and providing overdraft limits against non-existent life insurance policies, the spokesperson said. According to the CBI, the said fraud was allegedly committed at branches of Syndicate Bank at Malviya Nagar & MI road branches in Jaipur and Udaipur.

It was further alleged that since 2011, the bank officials of branches at Jaipur and Udaipur colluded with customers and resorted to discounting of fake cheques, fake Inland Bills and arranging over-draft limit against non-existent LIC polices.

The amount involved in individual transactions ranged from Rs. 40 lakh to Rs. 5 crore. However, a majority of them were in the range of Rs. 2.54.0 crore (approx.) To avoid detection, many of these transactions were nullified from the proceeds of new fraudulent transactions.

The accused officials include former General Manager, FGM Office, Syndicate Bank, New Delhi; former DGM, Regional Office, Syndicate Bank Jaipur; former Chief Manager, MI Road Branch, Syndicate Bank, Jaipur; former AGM, Malviya Nagar Branch, Syndicate Bank, Jaipur and former AGM, Syndicate Bank, Udaipur. Besides, the CBI has also booked a Chartered Accountant and certain private companies among others in the case.

This is the second major scam to hit Syndicate Bank in the past two years. In 2014, the bank's CMD S K Jain was suspended and placed under arrest on charges of bribery. The agency has filed two cases against Jain, accusing him of receiving a bribe of Rs.50 lakh through conduits and abusing his official position to enhance the credit limits of some companies in violation of laid-down procedures.

Another state-run lender, Bank of Baroda, was also caught in the midst of a major controversy last year after agencies unearthed a massive money laundering scam involving Rs 6,172 crore.

It was alleged the black money was remitted from Bank of Baroda to Hong Kong camouflaged as payments for non-existent imports like cashew, pulses and rice. The amount was allegedly deposited in 59 accounts in cash as advance for imports that never existed.

It is also alleged that the amount was deposited in 59 accounts of the bank's Ashok Vihar branch (New Delhi) in cash as advance for import and the money was sent to some select companies in Hong Kong.

The massive scam at BoB also prompted the Reserve Bank of India into action. The central bank, in the aftermath of the scam, has asked all scheduled banks to conduct a thorough internal audit and place the report before their respective audit committees. A summary of the same also needs to be submitted before the RBI.

(With agencies)

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Follow us on telecom firms request trai to postpone deadline on call drop

New Delhi: Telecom service providers have requested the sector regulator not to enforce its order on call drops compensation from Monday, as the matter will be heard by the apex court on March 10.

In a joint letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) said: "Please note that the Supreme Court has directed the matters to be listed on March 10, 2016 for final disposal.

"In view of the above and since the aforesaid matters are sub-judice before the Court, we request you to keep your letter dated March 2, 2016 in abeyance," it added.

The TRAI had given time till March 7 to the telecom service providers to submit a compliance report regarding compensating customers for call drops.

The Supreme Court on March 4 refused to pass any interim order on compensations for call drop as it will hold a hearing on March 10 on a plea by the associations of telecom operators challenging the regulator's decision.

The COAI and the AUSPI had earlier challenged the Trai's October 16, 2015 decision making it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers from January 1, 2016.

Latest Business News
Follow us on miracle twins born from same mother have different fathers

New Delhi: In an extremely rare case of birth of bi-paternal twins, Vietnam houses twins born from same mother but have different fathers.

According to media reports, the twins, born to a Vietnamese couple, were taken for a test owing to huge differences in their appearances.

"Our Centre for Genetic Analysis and Technology lab has tested and found a pair of bi-paternal twins," Le Dinh Luong, president of the Genetic Association of Vietnam, told a leading news agency.

This can happen if two eggs from the same mother are fertilised by sperm from two different men during separate acts of sexual intercourse within the same ovulation period, he explained saying that This is rare not only for Vietnam, but for the world."

The report said the twins are now two years old and one of them has thick, wavy hair while the other has thin, straight hair. The man's relatives pressured him to take the test because one of the babies looked strikingly different from him and the other child, the report said.

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Follow us on an open letter to vijay mallya by women employees of kingfisher airlines

New Delhi: He may be in the dock over a spate of unpaid loans totalling a whopping Rs 7,600 crore, but former Director of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya has displayed no sign of remorse whatsoever.

Two days ago, Mallya issued a statement dismissing allegations of being a wilful defaulter, saying he was in the process of arriving at a one-time settlement with banks over his dues. He had also charged banks and the media for sullying his image, saying that banks which are already reeling under a spate of bad loans were projecting him as the poster boy of NPAs (Non Performing Assets or bad loans).

However, the justifications by the flamboyant business tycoon have found few takers among his former employees at Kingfisher Airlines who have been battling for payment of their salary dues. Women employees of the airline have now written an open letter to Mallya, castigating him for his high handedness.

Here is the full text of the letter:

Dear Mr. Mallya,

We the women employees of Kingfisher are forced to write this letter to call your bluff as a response to your media release recently which as usual had nothing about us. Exploitation is in your blood that's why you are talking about one time settlement with only banks and not the employees, Why? Because we are weak and vulnerable due to our system? Coincidentally today being 'women's day we feel pained that our colleague's wife who committed suicide didn't get justice. (Delhi police didn't even register F.I.R. against you)-

1. You said you are fully cooperating with the agencies then why in the first place you placed legal hurdles in the path of recovery by the banks, which were following due legal process to recover the debt amount. You evaded the recovery process then what are you other than absconder? Due to our curse you are facing humiliation daily.

2. You say you are targeted and there are bigger defaulters against whom no action has been taken you may be right but those people at least didn't exploit their employees, however, why don't you talk about very small borrowers who are targeted by banks while hands in glove with corrupts like you.

3. Before hiding behind limited liability clause please remember laws are not made to be misused and if you are such a law abiding citizen then follow them in totality not according to your convenience. Whom you suggest that we should ask our dues from-the shareholders who are almost ruined by you? Your intentions were never good that's why you never appointed CEO until it was very late. You not only killed Air Deccan (which Ambanis would have,otherwise,taken over) but also our mother Kingfisher Airlines which was feeding us. You should have gracefully exited like Capt. Gopinath did when he was not able to manage the airline.

4. You say that you are not a defaulter but you confidently told us during the meeting that banks won't be able to recover more than 5-10 percent of debt amount, that speaks volumes of your malicious intentions, in the same meeting you promised revival, payment of our salary and pleaded in the name of God to stop our agitation against you as you said people were boycotting you like a leper.

5. Do you ever realize the money you have gulped is paid as tax by a person earning as low as 2.5 lakhs/annum. Your personal security Kingfisher Villa is taken over by banks, we still wonder why you should not be treated as undischarged insolvent and be debarred from the R.S.

6. You say you are an NRI then why are you member of Rajya Sabha when you are out of India most of the time. What are your contributions as a member of R.S. other than asking for immunity and how you got elected also need to be answered.

7. You have track record of not paying even IPL players. When we protested before RCB, Virat Kohli tweeted "Today kingfisher Airlines employees booed me for their salary but whom should I boo to get my salary", he later on deleted that tweet at least, he expressed his helplessness and also that he was your victim as well, unlike Yuvaraj who remained indifferent to our appeal.

8. You paid and compensated foreign employees for fear of their strict laws that exposes your double standards and the respect you have for our nation and its law (so unbecoming of a member of parliament) . Our Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi should take note of our toothless laws, so that no one suffers in future like we did. This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/ DGCA Mr. Ajith Singh (Then civil aviation minister) was hands in glove with you.

9. We appeal to our Prime Minister to take very serious view of this and remove you from the committee of R.S. if not from the membership.

10.People those who have joined new company are not able to get tax refund as I.T. department is adjusting it against the income tax due in our account which was not submitted by you. We request our finance minister to resolve this issue.

11. You kept depositing PF but not salary again due to fear of action against you.You have even issued us tax sheet (In lieu of form-16) for the full year 12-13 but have paid us only till June 2012.

You are indifferent to us but we feel pity on you for what you have done to yourself and your empire. We don't feel happy to insult you but our contention is that why you kept us in dark. You should have immediately paid us when the first life was lost but instead, you used us as human shield to prolong your legal battle.

We want to end this letter with a positive note that there are numerous business man who have donated their wealth to charity you at least pay us our rightful dues.

Wishing for your speedy recovery.

Women employees,

Kingfisher Airlines

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Follow us on coincidence or planned ranbir kapoor makes quick exit as soon as salman khan enters party

New Delhi: The tussle between Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor is not new in Bollywood. Their relationship became worse after Ranbir started dating Salman's ex-girlfriend Katrina Kaif. Since then, the two actors have never shared the screen space and neither did they show warmth at any of the public appearances.

Recently when Kat and RK parted ways, Salman was considered as the reason behind as before the break up news broke out Katrina was spotted with the Sultan' star.

Moreover, she also appeared at Salman Khan hosted Bigg Boss to promote her movie Fitoor'. Salman greeted and pampered Katrina well and the chemistry between the ex-lovers grabbed a lot of attention. It further infuriated Ranbir's hatred for the Bajrangi Bhaijaan' actor.

Now, he is doing very bit to avoid Salman Khan at all the events. As per the media reports, both Salman and Ranbir attended the wedding of the daughter of an industry biggie last night but didn't face each other.

Ranbir had clearly told his driver to alert him after he spots Salman entering the venue, said the report.

So, as soon as Salman entered the party with his family, Ranbir made the exit to avoid meeting the superstar.

Interestingly, Katrina and Ranbir, before their breakup, had ditched meeting Salman in similar fashion last year at Anil Kapoor hosted Diwali party.

Now, with Ranbir's latest demeanour, it seems he is not ready to bury the hatchet very soon. We wonder what Salman has to say about this.

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Follow us on emraan hashmi gets himself a highly expensive gift

New Delhi: Emraan Hashmi is one of those actors in Bollywood who have been very choosy and particular about what he wants, be it a movie or something personal.

Apparently, the actor is quite obsessed with shopping and can't resist himself of spending money on his shopping spree.

But the man-of-choices Emraan left everyone stunned' after he got himself a highly expensive' gift.

Wondering what it could be?

Well! Emraan Hashmi has reportedly bought himself a watch. But this isn't any ordinary watch. In fact you will be surprised to know that the Raaz 2' actor has spent around Rs. 2.1 crore for this limited edition Audemers Piguet watch. Apparently, only 30,000 of this watch were manufactured for global sales.

No wonder we said it a highly expensive gift.

Talking about Emraan's love for shopping, the actor confessed he is obsessed with shopping for watches.

I have a penchant for watches. I'm freakishly obsessed with buying them. While travelling, I usually hit a watch store first and get dragged out. I've lately had to put a lid on it as my wife said it's gotten too much and we may have to sell the house if my watch shopping continues the way is, Emraan was quoted saying.

So far the actor has a huge collection of watches, which includes brands like Rolex, Omega, Rado, Cartier, Audermars Piguet, Breguet, Jaeger Le Coulture, Piaget and Girard Perregaux to name a few.

Currently, Emraan Hashmi is busy with his two forthcoming movies Azhar' and Raaz Reloaded'.

Latest Bollywood News
Follow us on under fire art of living moots biodiversity reserve at yamuna river bank

New Delhi: Ahead of their three-day World Cultural Festival', Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living has today said that the bank of the Yamuna River should be made into a biodiversity reserve so that its flora and fauna could be rebuilt. It further said that this would transform into a green lung for the national capital.



The Art of Living has requested the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to incorporate this proposal under its Delhi Master Plan 2021.



The request follows the cleaning of the Yamuna floodplains by AOL volunteers in the last three months ahead of the three-day World Culture Festival that begins March 11, it said in a statement.



The Biodiversity Reserve, if it comes up, would cover the Mayur Vihar-Yamuna belt area between the Nizammudin Bridge over the river and the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) expressway.



Biologists and environmentalists who have a complete understanding of the Yamuna and its surroundings and are overseeing the DDA's Biodiversity Management Society have already created successful Yamuna Biodiversity and Aravali Biodiversity projects. It is therefore the right time for them to step into this project. Let us work to rejuvenate the river and reduce the toxicity and pollution. The Art of Living statement read.



The AOL is also seeking the support of biologists, conservationists, ornithologists and environmentalists to take up the recommendation collectively with the DDA.



The AOL has also offered its support in any such endeavour, including volunteering by thousands of its members, to help set up such a Biodiversity Reserve.



The AOL said it believes the Biodiversity Reserve would be the best environmental solution to the extreme pollution of the Yamuna which urgently needs integrated effort by various disciplines.



The World Culture Festival, to be held March 11-13, is a clarion call to the people to help mobilise support for river rejuvenation and help set up the Biodiversity Reserve.

Latest India News
Follow us on hc grants 24 hour parole to rajiv gandhi assassination convict nalini to attend father s rites

Chennai :Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was on Tuesday granted one-day parole by the Madras High Court for attending the 16th day obsequies of her father, who died last month.

She had filed a petition seeking three days leave from today for attending the obsequies of her father, who passed away last month.

The 16th day obsequies of her father are scheduled to be held at Kottur here tomorrow, she submitted.

Justice R Mala, before whom the plea came up, granted her 24-hour parole starting from on Tuesday from 4pm to 4pm.

The judge said she should be under police escort and be brought back to prison by 4 pm on Wednesday.

In her petition, Nalini submitted that she had made a representation on March 2 to the Superintendent of Special Prison for Women in Vellore, where she is lodged, seeking three days leave but the official had not responded.

She said she was granted parole for 12 hours on February 24 to attend the cremation of her father Sankaranarayanan.

Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the case on January 28, 1998. Her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on April 24, 2000.

Latest India News
Follow us on iaf to get first batch of female fighter pilots on june 18

New Delhi: As the world celebrates International Women's Day today, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha announced that the IAF will get its first batch of female fighter pilots on June 18th this year.

"As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training and are at par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18th," Raha said.

He claimed that all three trainees should get commissioned on that day and become the first women officers in the fighter stream.

Raha added that subsequently they will go to the advanced jet training, and later proceed to the regular squads.

"I must thank the Defence Minister for having approved IAF's proposal to induct women as fighter pilots and very soon on 18th June this year, the Indian Air Force will get its first woman fighter pilot," Raha said at a seminar on women in uniform in the Army Medical Corps (AMC).

He stated that it was the AMC which first provided the opportunity to women to serve in the defence. Now there have been many options for women to prove their calibre.



Last year, in March Raha had said that women are physically not suited to fly fighter planes as it is a very challenging job and women by nature are not physically suited for flying fighter planes for long hours, especially when they are pregnant or have other health problem.

Later he stepped back and changed his statement saying that there is no doubt that women could become fighter pilots.

IAF currently has women in seven areas of administration, logistics, meteorology, navigation, education, aeronautical engineering, mechanical and electrical and accounts.

Currently, there are about 1500 women on its rolls of which 94 are pilots and 14 navigators in air force.

Latest India News
Follow us on india has lesser woman mps than pakistan and nepal report

New Delhi: Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed that only female MPS should speak in Parliament on March 8 to mark the International Women's Day.

The prime minister complimented the contribution of women in strengthening the nation. A country is not made strong by its infrastructure. Every citizen of India strengthens the nation and mothers give strength to these citizens. It is the mothers who have been contributing to nation building for years, he added in his speech.

The representation of women in parliament in India is so poor that even our neighbours- Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh fare better than us as women are better represented in their parliaments, says a report by according to Factly.in, a data-journalism portal.

Women's representation in elected bodies, Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies is a cause of huge disappointment. Out of 543 members in the Lok Sabha there are only 66 women, which is a mere 12%. In the Rajya Sabha, there are 31 women out of 245 MPs. Whereas, when we talk about Nepal and Bangladesh it is 29.5% and 20% respectively.

So much so that even Afghanistan has a better position than India. They have 27.7 % of women ministers in parliament.

Rwanda has 5 times more female MP's than India

The most impressive country is Rwanda, East African country which has the most female-dominated Parliament in the world, with 64 per cent of female politicians, outnumbering the men.



Britain has more female MPs than ever with almost a third of our Parliament made up of women - but when you look at our progress in a global context, we have a long way to go

India's position in the world

India proved poorly even when compared with her immediate neighbours. Nepal with a much better postion is followed by China and Pakistan.

When we look at the past, in 2009, four major states Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand did not elect a single woman MP. In 2014, both Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand have failed to elect a woman, while Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala have each elected only one woman MP.

The scenario for women Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) across all state Assemblies in India is even worse, with the national average being a pitiable 9%.

Latest India News
Follow us on jnu professor exposes kanhaiya kumar asks if he checked his facts

New Delhi: Makarand Paranjape, poet and professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday took on students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar who is facing sedition charge, asking him whether he checked his facts before delivering the much celebrated speech.

"Kanhaiya said in his celebrated speech Golwalkar met Mussolini. Did you check your facts, it was Moonje who met Mussolini," Paranjape said.

"I am not saying they were not impressed by the fascist, they were. They thought it is a very good idea to have an authoritarian system. Please let us agree on what is factual and what is not," he said.

"Fascism stands for anti-democratic position and so does Stalinism," Paranjape said while addressing the students at JNU.

"I am proud to belong to a country where one so called judicial murder created such a huge ruckus," he said asking whether they know how many judicial murders were committed from 1920 to 1950s in Stalin's USSR.

"Seven hundred seventy nine, ninety nine thousand five hundred and fifty three. Almost a million and how many people were executed for criminal and civil charges? Only 34000," he added.

Paranjape was speaking at the Speak-in at the administration block, the 15th of the edition.

Paranjape's speech was interrupted by sloganeering by Kanhaiya Kumar and was also booed by some students in the audience. Paranjape was also made to face questions from the audience led by Kanhaiya.

Speaking amidst a gathering, which was either neutral or pro-Left, Paranjape still took on Kanhaiya's citing as "misrepresentation" during his speech after his release from jail post the interim-bail.

Speaking on the topic "Uncivil wars: Tagore, Gandhi, JNU and What's left of the Nation?", Paranjape said: "When we (JNU) consider ourselves to be a democratic space we should also ask ourselves if this is entirely true. Isn't it possible that this is a Left hegemonic space, where if you disagree you are silenced, you are boycotted, you are brow beaten." At this point he was shouted before Shehla Rashid, JNUSU vice-president had to stand up to ask the students to maintain order. "But, I love JNU too," added.

"We don't beat the people we disagree with," he said. Attacking the Left politics, the professor asked the audience as to why it is so difficult to accept the legitimacy of the Indian state.

Stating that the present discourse in JNU in particular and in the country in general has destroyed the middle ground, he said that only the extreme are left.

He said by 'Left of the Nation' in his topic he want to bring out what left ideology in India has been with respect to nationalism.

"My friend Kanhaiya said ours is the oldest organization and we have fought a lot for independence. I want to ask him what about the flip flop that happened by the communist party of India when they suddenly declared that the imperialist war was a people's war."

"The Community party of India wrote to the British that they will not agitate when you are fighting, we will cooperate with you.

"When he said we fought for Independence of India, I want to know the evidences. We have too many statements from everywhere here, can you show me a statement from North Korea, or even from China."

"I have met many Chinese intellectuals in a cafe, over a drink they will tell you how bad certain things are. But ask them to take out a morcha they can't. So who is democratic and who is not we have to deeply deeply ask ourselves," he said.

Latest India News
Follow us on women s day spl 10 unsung woman heroes of freedom struggle

When woman, whom we call abala becomes sabala, all those who are helpless will become powerful. Mahatma Gandhi said this while addressing a the All India Women's Conference in Dec 1936.

He believed that India's salvation depends on the sacrifice and enlightenment of her women.

The history of Indian Freedom Struggle would be incomplete without mentioning the contributions of women.

When most of the men freedom fighters were in prison the women came forward and took charge of the struggle.

While we often remember Rani Laxmi Bai as the one to raise the flag against British rule, sacrifices of many women freedom fighters are still lesser known in the country.

Here is the description of 10 brave women who played an important role in the pre independence struggle.

1.Tara Rani Srivastava

Tara Rani Srivastava was born into a very poor family in Saran, Bihar. She was married at a very young age of 13. She along with her husband Phulendu Babu actively participated in the Quit India movement. A young Tara and her husband were very passionate about the Independence struggle.

Once Mahatma Gandhi called the people for hoisting the flag in front of Siwan police station. On Gandhiji's call, Phulendu assembled a massive crowd of men and women in front of the police station to hoist the national flag on its roof.

Both Tara and Phulendu stood in front of the crowd and raised slogans. Soon police started firing and Phulendu fell to police bullets but Tara Rani was not discourged.

Infact demonstrated exemplary courage, she bandaged her husband's wounds and marched with the national flag straight towards the police station. By the time she returned, her husband had died.

Tara inspite of seeing her husband dead, remained placid. She without loosing her courage continued her struggle despite of facing all hurdles on her way.

2.Bhikaji Cama (1861  1936)

Bhikaiji Rusto Cama was a very prominent lady in the Indian independence movement.She was born as Bhikai Sorab Patel in Mumbai in a very well-to-do Parsi family. At the age of 23, she was married to Rustom Cama, who was son of K. R. Cama.

Rusto Cama was a wealthy, pro-British lawyer who aspired to enter politics. Their marriage was not a happy one, so Bhikhaiji spent most of her time and energy in philanthropic activities and social work.

She had set up Free India Society in London in order to rally Indian youths. She also went to Paris and founded a centre there. She was the one who planned the Indian national flag.

As an Indian representative to the International Socialist Congress held at Stuttgart in Germany, 1907, she waved the flag

before the crowd and appealed to the delegates to co-operate with the Indians so that they all can free themselves from the British rule.

A number of Indian cities have streets and places named after Bhikhaiji Cama, or Madame Cama,as she is also known.

On India's 11th Republic Day, 26 January 1962, the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a commemorative stamp in her honour.

Bikhaji was just not a part of the Indian Independence Movement, she was also a strong ally for gender equality. She donated most of her personal possession to an orphanage for girls.

3.Begum Hazrat Mahal( 1820  1879)

Begum Hazrat Mahal also known as Begum of Awadh, was one of the most pivotal rebellion during the 1857 Indian rebellion, against the rule of the British East India Company.

She was the first wife of the then Lucknow ruler Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. One of the strongest women, who rebelled against the British East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. She even took the harge of the affairs in the state of Awadh and seized control of Lucknow after Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had been oust to Calcutta.

She is famously known as the 'Lakshmi Bai' of Oudh. She was also a big supporter of fellow mutineers like Nana Saheb.

She greatly motivated the masses to rebel against the British Raj. Such was her devotion and pledge to her people that the Begum even went on to brace the city of Lucknow against the advancing British troops. After a long siege, Lucknow was again re-captured by the British, forcing Hazrat Mahal to retreat in 1858.

She spent the remaining years of her life in Nepal, passing away in 1879 in Kathmandu.

Latest India News
Follow us on climate chief it s time for a woman to lead united nations

Stockholm: The United Nations' lead official on climate change says the next UN leader should be a woman, but she has no plans to seek the job.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, says a female candidate should succeed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he finishes his second term this year.

But when asked whether she could be that woman, the 59-year-old Costa Rican diplomat told The Associated Press today it was "not within my plans."

Figueres' role in shaping last year's long-awaited Paris Agreement to fight climate change has raised her international profile.

Four men and three other women so far have been nominated for the post. Although the UN nomination system observes no fixed rule, many diplomats take the view that it's Eastern Europe's turn to receive the top post under an informal rotation system. Six of the existing candidates are from Eastern Europe.

Figueres says she hasn't decided what to do after she leaves her job in July after six years in charge.

The Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, listed Figueres among its "women to watch" in the race for secretary-general, while Vogue magazine called her "one of the most promising" potential candidates.

Jean Krasno, a City College of New York professor who oversees a campaign to elect a woman as the next UN leader, described Figueres as "exactly the kind of secretary-general that we need, (someone) who can broker global agreements."

Figueres said it's "about time" that a woman gets the job. "And I have no doubt that there will be strong candidates to compete for that responsibility," she said in a telephone interview from her office in Bonn, Germany.

She took the helm of UN climate change policy in 2010 at a low point following an acrimonious summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, that failed to produce an envisioned landmark agreement to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

"I very quickly realized that the tone had to change," Figueres said.

Citing her motto of "Impossible is not a fact, it's an attitude," she set out to persuade government, business and civic leaders to keep their faith that diplomacy could rein in climate-changing pollution.

Chances for a deal improved in November 2014 when the world's top greenhouse gas polluters, China and the United States, jointly announced efforts to control their emissions.

Latest World News
Follow us on bihar ministers in soup over courtesy meet with shahabuddin in jail

New Delhi: The Nitish Kumar government on Tuesday came under fire from the opposition BJP when its ministers were caught on camera dining with former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin in a Siwan jail.

The criminal-turned-politician is serving a life term in connection with a murder case.

RJD Minister Abdul Ghafoor along with another party MLA met the convict on March 6. A photograph of the three dining together comfortably has been doing the rounds of internet and has sparked off a controversy.

After getting hold of the photograph, BJP has slammed the Bihar state government accusing it of functioning with criminals from inside the prison. The state government is run by criminals like Shahabuddin from jails. The photo proves it all, said Mangal Pandey, Bihar BJP chief.

Defending himself over the entire row, Abdul Ghafoor said, Circuit house is next to prison and he has been our party's MP. So I paid him a courtesy visit.

Shahabuddin was awarded life imprisonment by a special Siwan court for his role in the infamous 2004 acid murder case.

The case, in which two brothers, sons of a Siwan businessman, were drenched in acid, was termed the rarest of rare' by the court.
Follow us on real estate bill to be reality in budget session itself venkaiah naidu

Gurgaon: Urban Development Minister Venkiah Naidu today expressed confidence that the Real Estate Bill will become a "reality" during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.

"Real Estate Bill is going to be a reality in this Budget session itself. I am holding discussion with all stakeholders," he informed domestic and global investors at the 'Happening Haryana' conclave here. Stressing that the law would be a "regulation and not strangulation", he said, "nobody should worry except the fly-by-night operators".

"We are also working on ease of doing business and ease of approval and permission. We have got positive signals from all parties," the Minister said.

The Real Estate Bill is pending in Parliament.

Last week, the Congress wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Naidu, asking them to pursue the Bill passed in the first leg of Budget session of Parliament.

Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2013. It was referred to the Standing Committee which submitted its report in February, 2014. After the NDA government was formed, the Bill was again referred to a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha, which submitted its report on July 30 last year.

The proposed real estate law is aimed at protecting the interest of the buyers and sellers.

The Cabinet had in December 2015 cleared 20 amendments to the Bill which seek to regulate transaction between buyers and promoters of residential real estate projects by establishing state-level regulatory authorities.

Naidu also assured all help to Haryana for infrastructure development in the state.
Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

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Hollande's Hypocrisy

France Honours Saudi Crown Prince for 'Fighting Terrorism and Extremism'

By MEE and Agencies



March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " MEE " - President Francois Hollande has awarded the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honour, to visiting Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the president's office confirmed on Sunday.

The office had released no statement on the visit that took place Friday, but it was reported by the Saudi news agency SPA, which said Nayef was cited for his "efforts in the fight against terrorism and extremism".

A Hollande aide said Nayef, who is the Saudi interior minister, received the honour as a "foreign individual, a common protocol practice," noting that Hollande himself received Saudi Arabia's top honour during one of his visits there.

Bilateral ties are strong, sealed by major arms deals as well as Riyadh's participation in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group.

News of the bestowal of the Legion d'Honneur on Nayef sparked harsh criticism on social media from opponents to the death penalty, many tweeting using the hashtag "#honte" (#shame).

Saudi Arabia on Sunday carried out its 70th execution so far this year, beheading a man convicted of murder.

On 2 January, 47 people were executed for "terrorism," including Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force behind protests that began in 2011 among the kingdom's minority Shia.

As interior minister, Nayef would have been closely involved in the approval of the executions process.

Most people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.

Others, as reported by Middle East Eye, have their limbs amputated before they are killed, and others are crucified after being put to death.

Among the 47 executed were a mentally ill man and a prisoner who was arrested while still a juvenile.
Hillary Haunted by Libya

By Eric Margolis



March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - I went to Libya in 1987 to interview its strongman, Muammar Khadaffi. We spent an evening talking in his colorful Bedouin tent outside the Bab al-Azizya Barracks in Tripoli which had been bombed a year earlier by the US in an attempt to kill the troublesome Libyan leader.

Khadaffi predicted to me that if he were overthrown, Libya would break up into two or three parts and again fall prey to western domination. His efforts to bring the Arab world and West Africa out of subservience and backwardness would be ended, he foretold.

The Libyan leader was right. Today, after his death, Libya has splintered into warring camps. The US, France and Egypt are expanding their influence in Libya, lately also joined by Italy, Libyas former colonial ruler. They have installed the usual set of yes-men to do their bidding. Old habits die hard.

We will be hearing much more about Libya after the big wins by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in last weeks Super Tuesday Democratic primaries

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will shortly face the return of a major threat that has bedeviled her since 2012  the attack by jihadists on the US Consulate in Tripoli, Libya and the killing of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and his bodyguards.

Republicans have been trying to lay blame for Benghazi on Clinton. So far they have not been very successful. But brawler Donald Trump can be counted on to attack Hillary over Benghazi, her record as a do-little Secretary of State, and her legal troubles. Whats more, the true story of the phony liberation of Libya may finally emerge.

Neither the Democrats nor Republicans have so far dared reveal what really happened in Benghazi. The so-called 2011 popular revolution in Libya was an elaborate plot by France, Britain, the US, aided by the Gulf Emirates and Egypt, to overthrow Libyas four-decade long strongmen Khadaffi and seize control of his high-grade oil.

Western intelligence and quasi-government NGOs used the same tactics of subversion in Libya that they employed in the successful color revolutions Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, but failed in Iran and Russia.

The French wanted to overthrow Khadaffi because he claimed to have helped finance former President Nicholas Sarkozys election. Sarkozy denied the charged. The Gulf Arabs wanted Khadaffi dead because he kept accusing them of stealing Arab wealth and being puppets of the Western powers.

French intelligence agents had tried to assassinate Khadaffi in the 1980s. Britains MI6 sought to kill the Libyan leader with a massive car bomb in Benghazi. Both attempts failed.

The regime change operation begun in 2011 by the US, France and Britain by engineered popular protests in Benghazi. They were soon followed by covert military operation led by US, British and French special forces against Khadaffis rag-tag army, followed by heavy air attacks. The tame western media obligingly closed its eyes to this Western military intervention, instead hailing Libyas popular revolution.

After Khadaffi was overthrown and murdered (reportedly by French intelligence agents), huge stores of stockpiled arms became available. Secretary of State Clinton, who had championed the overthrow of Khadaffi, decided to arm the Wests newest color revolution, Syrias anti-Assad rebels.

Most of these Libyan arms were stockpiled in Benghazi, covertly flown to Lebanon or Jordan, then smuggled to the anti-Assad rebels in Syria. US Ambassador Stevens was overseeing the arms transfers from the US consulate in Benghazi. He was killed by anti-American jihadists battling the occupation of Libya, not terrorists.

Hillary Clinton, who is bankrolled by heavy-duty neocons, holds chief responsibility for two calamities: the overthrow of Khadaffi and Syrias terrible civil war. Khadaffi had been restraining numerous North African jihadist groups. After his overthrow, they poured south into the Sahel and sub-Saharan regions, menacing western-dominated governments.

We also learn that Clintons State Department green lighted over $150 billion of arms sales to 16 repressive nations that had donated large sums to the Clinton Foundation  a sort of government in exile for the Clinton clan.

All very sordid business. No wonder so many Americans are furious at their political class. Lots of ammo for Donald Trump.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation  Pakistan, Hurriyet,  Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia. http://ericmargolis.com/
A United, Democratised Europe Is Our Only Weapon Against A Dark Continent By Yanis Varoufakis Following the Berlin Launch of DiEM25, eleven representatives of the GREENS (including two Members of the European Parliament) sent DiEM25 an Open Letter welcoming its 'birth' and urging us to unite in the fight for a Democratic, Sustainable, Humanist, Open Europe. Here is Yanis Varoufakis' reply to their Open Letter (which you can download here or here in pdf): March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Huffington Post " - Dear Young European Greens, Dear Florent, Julien, Karima, Michel, Rui , Vedran, Adam, Laura, Teo, Zakia, Patrick, You are right: Dreaming of a united, democratised Europe is our only weapon against a divided, authoritarian, potentially Dark Continent. Our common dream is the only antidote to the common nightmare already in the works. But to become an effective antidote we need to join forces. We need to overcome the usual tendency of progressives to fall prey to the sirens of discord. We need a broad coalition of European Democrats from across the Left, Green, Liberal and Progressive Conservative divides. As Brian Eno put it in DiEM's Berlin Launch, Democrats are people who know that they do not possess the answers but who, at the same time, remain convinced that, together, it is possible to come up with good answers, helpful actions, and sensible policies. Your open letter, to those of us who initiated DiEM25, is a source of great hope that our utopian dream is not only the sole alternative to a frightful dystopia but also that it is a pragmatic project. The fact that you were with us at DiEM25's Berlin Launch (some physically, others in spirit) makes DiEM25 your movement, your infrastructure. Together with the many others from different movements, organisations and political parties who have also joined DiEM25, you, we, others who will join in soon, have the opportunity to start building up our Conversation, to organise our Assemblies, to plan out Actions, to work towards the New Consensus that Europe needs to arrest the process threatening to deconstruct its institutions, dissolve its integrity, and lose its soul. You bring to DiEM25 something invaluable: the voice of the younger members of the Green Movement. Truth be told, some of us older members of the Left, of Social Democracy, of the Trade Unions, of the Liberal Democratic tradition, have in the past paid insufficient attention to the corrosive effect on our very thinking of the growth-at-all-cost mentality. Since then, we have grasped the extent of our planet's stress (at the hands of a humanity driven by myopic private profit maximisation -- or capital accumulation as we Leftists prefer to call it) and the simple truth that social justice can never prevail if human society continues obliviously to undermine its environment. Still, even though we have woken up to this reality, we need you, Europe's Young Greens to keep us alive to the centrality of the environmental agenda in forging the mind set necessary to back any progressive project. Let me now turn to practical matters -- to how we propose to turn DiEM25 from an intention to a genuine movement. To make DiEM25 our common infrastructure, our joint movement, we need to energise millions of Europeans around six common threats and challenges that demand common European solutions: DiEM25's Six Campaigns, Six Assemblies, Six Policy Papers To develop DiEM25 as a grassroots movement we must engage members in a continual dialogue on the following six discursive 'battlegrounds': Transparency Now! -- DiEM25's first campaign will aim at demanding that all EU-level decision-making be exposed to European citizens' gaze. We shall demand that meetings of the European Council, ECOFIN, Eurogroup, FTT, ESM etc. become accessible to Europeans. Additionally, we plan to expose the opacity of decision-making processes that have a capacity to ban democracy for a very, very long time (e.g. the current TTiP negotiations) Imagining A Democratic European Union Constitution -- and the process leading to the CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY that will bring it about Open Europe: Refugees, Migration and Solidarity With 'Others' Labour, Its Value and The Distribution Of Income In Europe's Societies The European Green New Deal And Europe's Money -- Financing the Green Transition while dealing effectively with DEBT, BANKING CRISES, INSUFFICIENT INVESTMENT, INTRA-EUROPEAN IMBALANCES & POVERTY ALLEVIATION. Plus, integration of monetary policy across the Eurozone-nonEurozone divide, DiEM's strategy against the establishment's violent backlash (including threats of shutting down the banking system of any member-state that adopts DiEM's policies), a policy on parallel payment systems as well as parallel currencies, a broader perspective on how to organise the global monetary system (of which Europe is the largest economy) Green Transition and Technological Sovereignty -- What should Europe be investing in? And how can Europe avoid becoming hostage to the technological choices made by multinational giants for multinational giants Each of these issues-'battlegrounds' will occasion a process of grassroots meetings, taking place all over Europe, culminating to a large event, an Assembly, to be convened in one European city. We propose five steps: Step 1 -- Preliminary Agenda -- A list of questions/issues for each of the six 'battlegrounds' will be circulated to motivate DiEM25 members to post ideas and proposals on diem25.org

Step 2 -- Events -- Members will convene physical meetings in their region to discuss the particular issue-'battleground'. (We envisage Town Hall meetings, meetings in theatres, cinemas, cultural centres etc.)

Step 3 -- Policy options paper -- All policy recommendations, concerns and suggestions emanating from the EVENTS will be compiled (one per issue-'battleground') with a view to putting together a POLICY OPTIONS PAPER to be submitted to the relevant DiEM Assembly

Step 4 -- Assembly Paper -- Each POLICY OPTIONS PAPER will be debated in the respective Assembly, until a final ASSEMBLY PAPER is compiled

Step 5 -- Referendum -- Each of the six ASSEMBLY PAPERS will be put to a vote of all members (using DiEM's digital platform). If/when passed, DiEM's POLICY PAPER on the issue will have been completed. This bottom-up process will yield six DiEM Policy Papers on the issues that threaten to destroy the EU and which, taken together, will constitute DiEM's Comprehensive Program for Democratising the European Union. In addition to the Assemblies, and the process leading to them, DiEM25 will be organising other campaigns and events throughout Europe in response to unfolding developments. For example, in late May 2016, we intend to hold a DiEM Event in London, prior to the pivotal UK referendum on EU membership, to discuss the issue of sovereignty at the national and EU levels. Dear Young European Greens, Dear Florent, Julien, Karima, Michel, Rui , Vedran, Adam, Laura, Teo, Zakia, Patrick, There are no guarantees that we shall succeed. DiEM25 is offering only a glimmer of hope. In Berlin, together, we lit a small candle, refusing to waste our energy cursing the darkness. It is now up to us all to turn this candle into a beacon of hope. Your letter confirms that we have already begun. So, let's shake Europe together. Gently. Compassionately. But firmly! Carpe DiEM25
Syria - Preparing For The Next Major Push By Moon Of Alabama March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Moon Of Alabama " - There seems to be some progress in the regional "games" around the conflict in Syria. The Turkish Prime minister Davutoglu currently visits Iran. The Iranians let some lucrative economic projects dangle in front of his eyes. But the main points were about Syria. According to this Turkish source Davutoglu said these issues were agreed upon: taylieli @taylieli #Turkish PM Davutoglu: We've reached on deal with #Iran for 5 matters: 1) A joint visit to #Jordan to discuss on #Syria, on coming days (1) 2) The continuity of ceasfire in #Syria

3) The unity of #Syria

4) The participitation of all -internal- actors in #Syria's future (2) 5) The joint act to defeat all kind of terrorism inc. #Isil in the geography of #ME. (3) This smells like an bit of change in the so far rigid Turkish position. Russian military transport traffic through the Bosporus has markedly increased. A lot of new trucks, tanks and artillery are coming to Syria. In the summer the Russian aircraft carrier will take station at the Syrian coast. This is likely the build up for a major campaign. Meanwhile the U.S. is building a second (small) airport in north east Syria to, allegedly, support its Kurdish proxy forces there in the fight against the Islamic State. Syria and Russia should be very careful in allowing such creeping occupation. It is difficult to get rid of such U.S. incursions once they are established. On Friday another U.S trained, paid and armed force, probably only a few dozen or so, attacked the Syria-Iraq border crossing at Tanaf which was in the hand of the Islamic State. The "rebel" marketing campaign claimed that this group was the "New Syrian Army". The border crossing is also near the Jordan border from where these fighters came. They had U.S. (or Jordan) air support and managed to capture the handful of lone buildings in the desert that constitute the station. But 24 hours later the Islamic State said it was again in full control of it. If true, and I believe it is, this "new Syrian army" is a sad joke and will not play a role in the race to Raqqa. In total everyone seems to use the current relative quiet of the "cessation of hostilities" to move into launch positions for a possibly final campaign against IS and the other objectionable subjects. It will be a hot summer in Syria.
War On Syria Saudis, Turks Bid to Open Lebanon Front



By Finian Cunningham March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " SCF " - With a series of blatant measures, Saudi Arabia and its regional allies are evidently trying to destabilize Lebanon. The development is apiece with how Saudi Arabia and Turkey have both sought to undermine the ceasefire in Syria and to escalate that conflict to a region-wide level. A New York Times report this week poses a rather naive conundrum: Diplomats and analysts have spent several weeks trying to understand why the Saudis would precipitously start penalizing Lebanon  and perhaps their own Lebanese allies  over the powerful influence of Hezbollah, which is nothing new. Well, heres a quick answer: Russias very effective squelching of the covert war for regime-change in Syria. That has sent Saudi Arabia and Turkey into a paroxysm of rage. Russias military intervention in Syria to defend the Arab state from a foreign-backed covert war involving myriad terrorist proxy groups, has dealt a severe blow to the machinations of Washington, its NATO allies and regional client states. While Washington and its Western partners seem resigned to pursue regime change by an alternative political track, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are stuck in the covert-war groove. They are betting that the terrorist proxy armies they have weaponized can somehow be salvaged from withering losses inflicted by Russian airpower in combination with the ground forces of the Syrian Arab Army, Iranian military advisors and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Hence, the immediate breaches of the cessation called a week ago by Washington and Moscow in Syria. Turkish military shelling across the border into northern Syria is not just a breach. It is an outrageous provocation to Syrian sovereignty, as Moscow has pointed out. Simultaneous Saudi military mobilization, including Turkish forces, on its northeast border with Iraq, as well as the reported deployment of Saudi fighter jets to Turkeys Incirlik airbase opposite Syrias northwest Latakia province can also be viewed as calculated moves to undermine the tentative ceasefire. The logical conclusion of this reckless aggression by both Saudi Arabia and Turkey is to precipitate a wider conflict, one which would draw in the US and Russia into open warfare. The series of Saudi-led initiatives towards Lebanon should be interpreted in this context. In the past week, Saudi Arabia and its closely aligned Sunni monarchies in the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The word anachronistic comes to mind, belying an ulterior motive. The Saudi rulers, led by King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, also announced that they were canceling plans to grant Lebanon $4 billion in aid. Most of the aid was to be in form of military grants, to be spent on upgrading the Lebanese national army with French weaponry and equipment. Without providing any proof, the GCC states  Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman in addition to Saudi Arabia  issued travel warnings to their nationals intending to visit Lebanon. The GCC also claimed that Hezbollah was interfering in their internal affairs and trying to recruit Gulf nationals into the organization to fight in Syria. The GCC has even threatened to deport Lebanese expatriate workers, some half a million of which work in the Gulf. There were also regional media reports last week of a large cache of weapons having been seized by Greek authorities, stowed illicitly onboard a cargo ship sailing from Turkey to Lebanon. The cumulative intent seems patent. The Saudis and their regional allies  who have been pushing for regime change for the past five years against the Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah-allied government of President Bashar al-Assad  see the escalation of regional instability as the best way to salvage their covert war in Syria. Washington, London and Paris probably have sufficient cynical intelligence to realize that the covert war involving terrorist proxies is no longer a viable option  given the formidable forces arrayed in support of the Syrian state, not least Russian air power. The Saudis and the Turkish regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan appear to be inflexibly wedded to the covert war agenda. For these powers anything less than the outright removal of Assad would be seen as a grave blow to their despotic egos and, for them, an unbearable boost to their regional rival, Shia-dominated Iran. The GCC criminalization of Shia-affiliated Hezbollah is obviously a fit of revenge-seeking given how the militia has ably helped the Syrian army retake major areas from the regime-change Sunni extremist insurgents, in conjunction with the Russian air strikes. The steady shutting down of border crossings in Latakia, Idlib and Aleppo has cut-off the terror brigades from their weapons supply routes via Turkey. This is partly why the Erdogan regime has responded by cross-border shelling in order to give re-supply efforts a modicum of artillery cover. Moreover, the Saudi-led campaign to sanction Hezbollah is also aimed at destabilizing the sectarian fault lines inside Lebanon. Hezbollah may be denigrated by Washington and some other Western states as a terrorist group and of presiding over a state within a state due to its military wing which exists alongside the Lebanese national army. Nevertheless, Hezbollah has constitutionally recognized legitimacy within Lebanon. This is partly due to the militias primary role in driving out the US-backed Israeli military occupation of the country in 2000 and again in 2006. For many Lebanese people, including Christians and Sunni Muslims, Hezbollah is held with pride as an honorable resistance force to US-led imperialism in the region. The party  which Russia also recognizes as a legitimate national resistance movement  comprises about 10 per cent of the Lebanese parliament and holds two cabinet positions in the coalition Beirut government. So the Saudi-led proposal to sanction Hezbollah seems nothing more than a gratuitous bid to open up sectarian fissures that have cleaved Lebanon in the recent past during its 1975-1990 civil war. The provocation of labeling a member of government in a foreign state as terrorist  seemingly out of the blue  has to be seen as a tendentious bid to destabilize. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah this week condemned the Saudi bid to inflame sedition in Lebanon, and it is hard to disagree with that assessment. There are still pockets of extremist Sunni support within Lebanon that the Saudis and Turkey appear to be trying to incite. During the Syrian conflict, there have been sporadic outbreaks of violence in the cities of Sidon and Tripoli by Salafist elements with close links to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Now those same elements are being incited to take to the streets again. It is not clear if Lebanon can hold together. A government minister linked to a pro-Saudi faction has resigned in recent weeks over what he claims is Hezbollah domination in Lebanese politics. Many Lebanese are discontent over social and economic problems dogging the country. A refuse-collection backlog over the past year has left large parts of the capital overflowing with putrid waste. The tiny country of four million is also feeling the strain of accommodating some one million Syrian refugees. The thought of re-opening old wounds and re-igniting the horror of civil war is a heavy burden on most Lebanese citizens that may be enough to make them baulk at malign pressures. But what can be said for sure is that the role of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab monarchies is absolutely unconscionable and criminal. They seem fully prepared to plunge yet another neighboring country into a sectarian bloodbath in order to gratify their illicit regional ambitions. Finian Cunningham is a former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages
Reverse Robin Hood: Six Billion Dollar Businesses Preying on Poor People

By Bill Quigley



March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Many see families in poverty and seek to help. Others see families in poverty and see opportunities for profit.

Here are six examples of billion dollar industries which are built on separating poor people, especially people of color, from their money, the reverse Robin Hood.

Check Cashing Businesses

Check cashing businesses. Cash a $100 check? At Walmart that will be $3. At TD bank non-customers pay $5 to cash a check from their bank.

Nearly 10 million households containing 25 million people do not have any bank account according to the FDIC. Most because they did not have enough money to keep a minimum balance in their account.

Check cashing business are part of a $100 billion industry of more than 6,500 check cashing businesses in the US, many which also provide money orders, utility bill payments and the like, according to testimony provided to Congress by the industry.

Pawn Shops

More than 30 million people use pawn shop lending services for an average loan of $150. One company, Cash America, has 84 check cashing centers and 859 lending locations in the US, over 260 in Texas alone, extending over $1 billion in pawn loans. In their 2014 annual report they disclose that 30 percent of people never return to redeem the item they pawned and the sale of those items makes up over half of the company revenues. The company paid millions in penalties in 2013 for overcharging members of the armed services and filing inaccurate court pleadings in thousands of cases. The CEO was given $6 million in 2014.

Overdraft Fees

Overdraft fees, when there is not enough money in the checking account or credit card to cover all purchases, is an $11 billion industry for banks, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A recent New York Times article explains how banks sometimes charge overdraft fees even when the customer has enough money in their accounts to cover the purchase and were forced to pay more than a billion dollars for manipulating the order of purchases to maximize the chances that their customers will have to pay extra fees.

Payday Loans

Payday loans are used by people over 15 million times a year and can lead to deep debt problems and usually involve incredible percentages of up to 391 percent according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Pew Charitable Trusts reported pay day loans are a $7 billion dollar a year industry. The Federal Trade Commission won a $300 million case against two payday lenders who were deceiving borrowers, who, for example, took out a $300 loan thinking it could be repaid for $390 when in fact the lender was charging $975 to pay off the $300 loan. The US Department of Justice indicted former race car driver Scott Tucker on criminal charges for operating a $2 billion nationwide payday loan operation which routinely charged interest on loans for over 4.5 million people of 400 to 700 % per year. The nations largest pay day loan company, Advance America, charged nearly 140,000 people in North Carolina annual percentage rates exceeding 450 percent until it was stopped by the state.

Car Title Loans

More than 2 million people use auto title loans every year, paying about $3 billion in fees each year, with typical annual percentage rates of 300 percent, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Center for Responsible Lending estimates there are over 7000 businesses which loan money to people based on holding the title to their cars, usually charging up to 300 percent annual interest, which they advertise as 25 percent per month. The average borrower gets a loan of $951 and pays off $3,093.

Debt collection

Debt collection is a $13 billion dollar a year industry employing more than 140,000 workers in 6,000 companies, according to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Debt collectors make more than 1 billion (yes with a b!) contacts with consumers each year, according to their own industry newsletter. Twelve million people (5.3 percent of consumers) are at least 30 days behind on their payments, according to the Urban Institute. Thirty-five percent of all adults with credit files, 77 million people, have debt in collection reported in their files. Pro Publica reviewed five years of court judgments and found the rate of judgements was twice as high in mostly black neighborhoods as it was in white ones.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has over 74,000 complaints about improper debt collection, its number one complaint, according to a recent report of the Alliance for A Just Society.

These are not just small companies but big names like Citigroup, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, in fact the Alliance for Just Society reported the big companies in debt collections have made nearly $100 million in contributions to federal candidates and parties since 2001 and another $280 million on federal lobbyists.

Citibank was sued twice by the federal CFPB over falsified documents and providing inaccurate information in debt collections and agreed to settle the case.

The debt collector with the largest number of complaints, Encore Capital Group, specializes in buying up debts from other creditors and then filing hundreds of thousands of lawsuits was forced to cancel more than 4,500 court judgments against borrowers in New York after it was charged with filing shoddy lawsuits.

JPMorgan Chase paid over $130 million to settle a case against it brought by attorney generals from 47 states for improperly collecting debts under what is called robo-signing, where legal documents are approved and filed without proper review. JPMorgan earlier paid $389 million in fines and refunds to credit-card consumers for problems with debt collections.

Conclusion

These businesses target families with incomes below $35,000 and people of color are three times more likely to receive abusive loans than whites. People with blemished credit are often passed over when seeking jobs.
Arab Days of Shame By Ghassan Kadi



March 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Saker" - The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has finally had it its way. A meeting held last month of GCC and other Arab Foreign Ministers has condemned Iran for the attack on the Saudi Embassy incident, and the Lebanese Foreign Minister Basil; from the 8th of March Coalition pro-Hezbollah camp, abstained from voting. As a result, Lebanon was punished by Saudi Arabia as the latter decided to renege on the $4bn aid promise to the Lebanese Army and Internal Security. And then just a few weeks later, the Arab Interior Ministers convened in Tunis and declared Lebanons Hezbollah a terror organization (1&2). Lebanons Interior Minister Mashnouk, a 14th of March Hariri man, also abstained from voting. The debauched Saudi royals, the same lazy criminals who die from obesity and self-inflicted diabetes whilst they are starving and bombing Yemen, the same people who poured billions upon billions of dollars to kill Syrians in an attempt to create an Islamic state in lieu of its secular government, that scourge of a family that rules with an iron fist wreaking havoc and creating wars between Arabs and Muslims and never once fired a single bullet at Israel, they actually had the audacity to call the shots and had Hezbollah declared as a terrorist organization. Strange days indeed. What is of significance here is the almost utter silence about this development in Western media. Try to Google this milestone event using any key words, and you will not find any references in the well-established highly-read mainstream Western news agencies. Interesting indeed. What is even more interesting here as an observer is that quite often Western media go abuzz with what they believe is taking the Arab World by storm, but in reality, no one in the Arab World would be talking about it or least concerned. The issues of Saudi military land intervention in Syria and their alleged ownership of nuclear weapons for example, are hardly ever discussed in the Levant and the whole Middle East. They are seen as some kind of bad-taste jokes. Such topics seem to only make news headlines in the West. Back to the Tunis decision. The Arab states that did not vote in favour of the motion are Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria and Iraq. I wonder if the readers are missing something here.Palestine, as represented by Abbass Palestinian Authority (PA), has in fact voted for declaring Hezbollah as a terror organization. Whilst Hamas is not acknowledged as a representative of the Palestinian people, Ismail Haniyye, who is entirely in Qatars pocket, would probably also vote in favour had he been asked to vote. Mahmoud Zahhar, a prominent Hamas leader, has however condemned the decision. This is not surprising given that Zahar went against his rank when Hamas leaders went cahoots with Qatar against Syria. Zahhar had always been the voice of reason in Hamas. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP and the PFLP General Command have also condemned the decision, but Mahmoud Abbas is quite silent. He is probably feeling too sheepish to make any comments. Even if his heart is with Hezbollah, he cannot go against the Saudi dictates. The Palestinian position is not taking keen observers by surprise. After all, earlier on, Hezbollah pioneered the tunnel technology and passed on the information to Hamas leaders in order to help with their fight against the Israelis in Gaza. When the War On Syria started and Hamas decided to align itself with Qatar against Syria and her people, Hamas passed on this technology to the terrorists. All the tunnels around greater Damascus, and especially in the Jobar region, were built by technology and information that was passed on to the terrorists by Hamas. So for Hamas a would-be vote against Hezbollah is not impossible to imagine. Hezbollah is receiving quite a bit of support from progressive Arab parties, especially, and whilst its officials made quite a few verbal responses to the Saudis, it seems that Hezbollah is not trying to escalate the situation with the PA. In an Arabic article published on Al-Manar of the 3rd of March 2016 (3) and titled: The Palestinian Authority And The Terrorist Decision Against Hezbollah), the author (Islam Al-Rawashda) opens his article by saying that it is not surprising to see the Saudis go after Hezbollah. In his next paragraph however, he is questioning how did the PA allow itself to join the gang and endorsed the decision against Hezbollah. Isnt Hezbollah engaged in fighting Israel? Did it not liberate Arab land from occupation? Does is not support Palestine? These are the kind of questions he asked. But the official Hezbollah spokespeople seem to unwilling to engage in making anti-PA statements. Clearly, they dont want to give their adversaries more ammunition and do not want to be seen standing against Palestinians; not even their corrupt pro-Saudi authority. The schism inside the Arab World is reaching unprecedented levels. The pro-Western camp represented by Saudi Arabia and its followers has stooped to levels previously seen as unimaginable. Even as Saudi Arabia is down on its knees financially, bogged down in a war it cannot win in Yemen and losing all control over the War On Syria, it still has a few billions stashed here and there to draw from and use to continue to buy friends. And whilst it continues to spend billions on its terror campaigns and on destabilizing the region, whilst it is supporting all the fundamentalist Madrasas all over the globe, it withheld its promised gift to the Lebanese Army under the pretext that the Lebanese Government and Lebanese Army have become tools in the hand of Hezbollah and Iran. As the Arab Saudi camp is becoming more audacious, audacious enough for the PA to vote against Hezbollah; the only army that disturbs Israels security, the only Arab organization that has taken back land from Israel militarily, the only Arab army that has actually threatened the depth of Israel, then no one should expect any good from other Arab pro-Saudi states that are distant geographically from Palestine. If the Palestinians themselves do not know who their enemies and friends are in standing up against Israel, why should the Moroccans? And if the Palestinian people did not like what their government has done, why did they not take to the streets in protest? There are some reports of minor dissent, but nothing serious. There is one word to describe the Palestinian reaction, and the word is disgusting, but in this literary context, I shall stick to the word appalling. If we wind the clock back a bit, just a few years earlier, we can clearly remember how both the PA and Hamas have sided against the Syrian government. Here we ought to remember that had it not been for the Syrian government and its support to the different Palestinian organizations in the 1970s onwards, they would have vanished. After all, the official Hamas HQ was actually in Damascus for many years, and it was in Syria where Khaled Mashaal operated until he moved to the Five Star Hotels of Qatar and Istanbul. Palestinians have a great cause, but for a major part, their leaders have been nothing but rascals, ungrateful rascals. And how can we forget what happened to Lebanon? It was because virtually half of the Lebanese have supported the Palestinian cause that the already existing political/religious division in Lebanon expanded and took the country to Civil War in 1975. The Palestinians played a huge part in pouring oil over fire, and their only objectives were what they could get out of it, and did not give a damn about the destruction that was inflicted upon Lebanon as a result. And the whole breakdown between Arafat and Assad father in 1976 onwards was based on Arafats insistence on the so-called Palestinian Decision. Assad tried in vain to convince him that the Arab-Israeli conflict is much bigger than what the Palestinians can handle. He tried to convince him that this matter is as important for Syria as it is for Palestine. He reminded him that Palestine is the southern region of Syria, but to no avail. Arafat wanted to be the master of his decisions even if this screwed up the entire Arab World around him. Half a century or so later, Palestinian leaders are not so much as dogmatic and indoctrinated as Arafat was. They are simply up for sale. The PA leaders have grown to love Saudi and other oil money, and Hamas leaders are up for sale and rent by any Sunni Muslim money. There is no difference between the two. But as the Arab Saudi camp continues to stoop lower and lower, the resistance camp is growing more organized, more powerful, more successful and closer to victory. Which day in history has marked the biggest day of shame for the Arabs? Arguably, it has always been said that Arab states reached their lowest point in history on June the 5th 1967 during the Six-Days War. The 3rd of March 2016 decree of the Arab interior ministers in Tunis is by far a much lower point, and one wonders if they are poised to stoop even lower. Shame on them. 1. http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/889141 2. http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160303/1035689377/arab-states-hezbollah-terrorist-organization.html \ 3. http://www.manar.com/page-29251-ar.html
Global Economic, Political and Military Configurations By James Petras March 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Mapping the emerging global economic, political and military configurations requires that we examine regions and countries along several dynamic policy axis: 1. Capitalist versus anti-capitalist

2. Neoliberal versus anti-neoliberal

3. Austerity versus anti-austerity

4. War command centers and war zones

5. Political change and socio-economic continuity

6. New Order and political decay Though many of these dimensions overlap, they also highlight the complexity and influence of local and national versus global power relations. We will first identify and classify the regimes and emerging movements, which fall into each of these categories, and then proceed to generalize about current global trends and future perspectives based on approximations of the real correlation of forces. Capitalism versus Anti-Capitalism Capitalism is the only economic system throughout the world. However, it has and continues to experience periods of severe crisis, stagnation and breakdown. Several regimes continue to declare themselves socialist (like Cuba, Venezuela and China) even as they pursue large scale foreign investments, establish free trade zones and provide incentives to stimulate expansion of the private sector. Anti-capitalist parties, movements and trade unions have emerged and some still engage in large-scale class-struggles. But others have capitulated, like Syriza in Greece, and Refundacion Comunista in Italy, which renounced any anti-capitalist pretense and embraced neo-liberal variants of capitalism. Anti-capitalist tendencies are at best implicit in the mass working class strikes occurring in China, India and South Africa and explicitly by minor parties in Europe, Asia, South America and elsewhere. Much more significant are the conflicts and struggles between variants of capitalism: neo-liberal and anti-neoliberal regimes and movements; and between austerity and anti-austerity regimes and movements. In military terms, conflicts can best be understood by differentiating between war (command) centers in the imperial countries and war zones. Neoliberal and Anti-Neoliberal Correlations of Power The balance of power has shifted toward pro-neoliberal regimes over the past two years. Even where political regime changes have occurred, they have not been accompanied by any significant shifts toward anti-neoliberal policies. Latin America has witnessed the biggest shift toward hard-right neoliberal regimes and policies. Right-wing extremists won presidential elections in Argentina and legislative elections in Venezuela. In Brazil the so-called Workers Party regime has embraced a neoliberal austerity program. In Bolivia, the social democratic Movement to Socialism lost the recent referendum allowing a third term re-election for President Evo Morales. The organized forces that defeated the referendum were predominantly hardline neo-liberals. Elsewhere, in Latin America political changes, from hardline neoliberal presidents to ostensible social democrats (Chile and El Salvador) and nationalists (Peru), simply led to the continuation of free market economic policies. Even socialist regimes, like Cuba, have introduced market incentives and free trade zones for foreign multi-nationals. In the Middle East and North Africa, popular revolts against incumbent neoliberal despots were violently suppressed. Recycled neoliberal military autocrats and politicians returned to power in Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Iraq and Yemen. Iran, under the recently elected reformist Rohani regime, has opened the oil and gas fields to foreign capital and captured about 40% of the legislative deputies in the February 2016 election. In Asia, neoliberals, who took power in recent elections in India and Indonesia, are moving to de-regulate and promote foreign multi-national capital penetration. China and Russia have moved to facilitate financial capital flows  resulting in multi-billion-dollar capital flight and the relocation of new billionaire families to Canada, England, the US and other Western countries. In Europe, Scandinavian and Low Countries, Social Democrats have embraced and deepened neoliberal policies even as they lose support to right-wing anti-immigrant parties. In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania hardline neoliberals have imposed harsh austerity programs provoking protests of no great political consequences, as the opposition has promoted the same policies. Russia, under Putin, has succeeded in the reconstruction of the state and economy after the destructive policies of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. But apart from ending the flagrant pillage of the economy by a gangster-ridden oligarchy, Russia is still an oil-dependent state in which billionaires invest and disinvest with facility. Greece, which became a bankrupt vassal state under the rule of corrupt right-wing parties, experienced an electoral revolt in January of 2015, electing a supposedly leftist anti-neoliberal party. Syriza under the leadership of Alexander Tsipras embraced a brutal European Union  IMF austerity program plunging Greece deeper into debt, stagnation, poverty and vassalage. In Portugal, an anti-austerity alliance between the Socialist (social democrats) and the Communist and Left Bloc parties formed a new government. However, under pressure from the EU, it capitulated, surrendering its tepid anti-austerity proposals. In Canada, the opposition Liberal Party defeated the Conservatives, offering cosmetic changes and promptly reneged on its promises to end austerity. In sum, the neoliberal- austerity onslaught provoked mass electoral opposition that led to political changes, bringing to power parties and leaders who embraced almost identical policies! In some cases, the changes deepened neoliberal policies by extending austerity measures; in other cases, they modified some of the restrictions on salaries and social expenditures. The February (2016) elections in Ireland are a case in point: The neoliberal austerity enthusiasts in the governing coalition (Fine Gael and the Labor Party) were defeated and the Fianna Fail re-emerged as a leading party, even though it had brought about the economic crisis and breakdown! The only exception to this revolving door politics was an increase in the vote for the national-populist Sinn Fein Party and a scattering of anti-neoliberal and left parties. In the end, the two neoliberal parties are likely to form a coalition regime. In Europe, the main anti-neoliberal, anti-austerity parties are right-wing conservatives who have won election in Poland and Hungary and opposition parties like the National Front in France. The major exception is in Spain where a leftist party, Podemos, has embraced an anti-austerity program, even as it offered to form a coalition government with the neoliberal Socialist Party. The coalition regime never came about. The return, continuation and triumph of neoliberal and austerity parties and policies occur despite a deepening economic crisis and growing popular hostility. In the Middle East, North Africa, the Baltic and Eastern European states, Egypt, Tunisia, Lithuania and Poland, repression has undercut leftist opposition. Secondly, nationalist parties and conservative regimes have pre-empted attacks on austerity as is the case in France and Hungary and have marginalized the Left. Thirdly, international tensions, wars, coups and military build-ups in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Turkey and Southeast Asia have temporarily undercut popular opposition to neoliberal and austerity programs. In the Ukraine, the US-backed neoliberal regime has virtually collapsed and is widely discredited. The problem is that the most aggressive opposition comes from the neo-Nazi Right! In the short-run, international conflicts have temporarily distracted popular opposition to neoliberalism. However, over time, the wars, coups and military destruction are exacerbating the domestic crisis, as refuges flood and threaten to disintegrate the European Union. EU sanctions toward Russia over the Ukraine exacerbated the economic crisis. The Saudi-Turkey-US-EU-sponsored terror war against Syria and its allies heightens tensions and dampens investment in the region. In other words, neoliberal/austerity regimes are threatened less by internal opposition than they are by the expansion of war zones, emanating from imperial war centers. War Centers and War Zones The economic and political configurations and divisions, which we have described, emphasize the varieties of capitalist regimes, the advance of neoliberalism and the emergence of variations among capitalists (austerity versus anti-austerity). US and EU militarism has deepened cleavages between emergent (China) and re-emergent (Russia) capitalist powers. The political-economic map and the correlation of forces are deeply affected by military conflicts. Wars, coups and insurgencies profoundly impact the scope, depth and character of socio-economic systems, above and beyond the dichotomies stated above. Essentially the global military divisions can be understood through identifying war (imperial command) centers and war zones. War centers are countries and regimes, which plan, organize, fund and execute military action against other countries. The war centers usually are run by imperialist regimes, which span the globe with military bases in order to defend and promote financial and multi-national corporation domination in other countries. The war centers, form alliances, but also compete among themselves; they have follower regimes providing bases, mercenary soldiers and political support, even to the point of sacrificing their own economic goals in order to serve the dominant war centers. Follower regimes participate only at the periphery of decision-making. War centers have global interests (US, EU), regional interests (Saudi Arabia and Israel  the Middle East) and local interests (Ukraine  Crimea). The war centers with global interests have clearly defined adversaries: They target emerging military and economic competitors, like Russia and China; nationalist regimes, like Venezuela, Syria and Iran; popular anti-imperialist movements (Hezbollah in Lebanon) and Islamist anti-Western movements (Taliban in Afghanistan). The war centers, at the same time, correlate with neoliberal regimes and destroy or undermine lucrative markets and prosperous sites for investments by expanding the war zones. War zones, defined by the US and the EU, have included Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine and earlier Yugoslavia. The ensuing wars succeeded in ousting incumbent regimes and splintering target countries, but failed to consolidate political control and, above all, destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, trade, financial and resource extraction opportunities. The war centers have engaged in three levels of military engagement: (1) High intensity, signifying long-term large-scale warfare involving massive expenditures and commitments of troops such as Iraq and Afghanistan; (2) Middle level intensity, involving US-EU air wars and the use of proxy mercenaries as in Syria, Ukraine and Libya; and (3) Low intensity wars providing military support to regional allies, e.g. Israels onslaughts against the Palestinians, Saudi Arabias assault on Yemen and Turkeys war against the Kurds in Iraq, Syria and Kurdish regions of Turkey. The war centers in the EU and US have differences over China. The EU favors market expansion, while the US seeks to intensify the military encirclement of China. Likewise, Europe and the US have differences over sanctions against Russia: the economic elite in the European Union, with billions of Euros invested in Russia is divided. Meanwhile the US mobilizes its clients in Poland and the Baltic countries to escalate military operations on Russias borders. The growth of military tensions reflects both economic competition (US-EU versus China) and military expansion (US-EU coups in Ukraine). Conclusion The growth and advance of neoliberal and austerity regimes are largely the outcome of domestic or internal class conflicts. These, in turn, are the result of political-electoral contests where the imperial powers play an indirect role (mostly financial/propaganda). In other words, the advance of neoliberal capitalism is not a result of imperial wars. It conquers because of its electoral advances and because of the defeats, retreats and capitulations of the trade unions and leftist political parties. The limits of neoliberalism have been clearly set by destructive wars from the imperial military centers; the sanctions imposed on independent capitalist countries; and the alliances with destructive, aspiring regional hegemons (Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia). The prolonged war economy and the neoliberal policies of the imperial centers have concentrated wealth, undermined economic growth, provoked downward social mobility and led to massive population displacement in war zones. Widespread malaise among voters subject to the destabilization and disintegration of the European Union and the brutal concentration of wealth, power and privilege within the US has led to the emergence of social democratic and right-wing nationalist mass electoral movements. High intensity warfare and prolonged austerity and social polarization have created a chaotic political universe and a multitude of diverse conflicts within the capitalist system. If the anti-capitalist left is nowhere near overthrowing the system, the system may self-destruct, in a war of all against all: the great sow devouring her own progeny. James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.
Why Does the West Hate North Korea? By Andre Vltchek March 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - New sanctions, and once again, new US-ROK military exercises right next door; new intimidations and new insults. For no other reason than because the country that never attacked anyone, is still determined to defend itself against appalling military, economic and propaganda provocations. How much more can one country endure? More than 60 years ago, millions of people above the 38th parallel died, were literally slaughtered by the US-led coalition. After that, after its victory, the North Korea was never left in peace. The West has been provoking it, threatening it, imposing brutal sanctions and of course, manipulating global public opinion. Why? There are several answers. The simple one is: because it is Communist and because it wants to follow its own course! As Cuba has been doing for decades As several Latin American countries were doing lately. But there is one more, much more complex answer: because the DPRK fought for its principles at home, and it fought against Western imperialism abroad. It helped to liberate colonized and oppressed nations. And, like Cuba, it did it selflessly, as a true internationalist state. African continent benefited the most, including Namibia and Angola, when they were suffering from horrific apartheid regimes imposed on them by South Africa. It goes without saying that these regimes were fully sponsored by the West, as was the racist madness coming from Pretoria (let us also not forget that the fascist, apartheid South Africa was one of the countries that was fighting, on the side of the West, during the Korean War). The West never forgot nor forgave the DPRKs internationalist help to many African nations. North Korean pilots were flying Egyptian fighter planes in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The DPRK was taking part in the liberation struggle in Angola (it participated in combat operations, alongside the Peoples Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA)), it fought in Rhodesia, Lesotho, Namibia (decisively supporting SWAPO) and in the Seychelles. It aided African National Congress and its struggle against the apartheid in South Africa. In the past, it had provided assistance to then progressive African nations, including Guinea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mali and Tanzania. The fact that people of the DPRK spilled their blood for freedom of the most devastated (by the Western imperialism) continent on earth  Africa  is one of the main reasons why the West is willing to go all the way, trying to punish, systematically discredit, even to liquidate this proud nation. The West is obsessed with harming North Korea, as it was, for decades, obsessed with destroying Cuba. The West plundered Africa, an enormous continent rich in resources, for centuries. It grew wealthy on this loot. Anybody who tried to stop it, had to be liquidated. The DPRK was pushed to the corner, tormented and provoked. When Pyongyang reacted, determined to protect itself, the West declared that defense was actually illegal and that it represented true danger to the world. The DPRK refused to surrender its independence and its path  it continued developing its defensive nuclear program. The Wests propaganda apparatus kept going into top gear, spreading toxic fabrications, and then polluting entire Planet with them. As a result, entire world is convinced that the North Korea is evil, but it has absolutely no idea, why? Entire charade is only built on cliches, but almost no one is challenging it. Christopher Black, a prominent international lawyer based in Toronto, Canada, considers new sanctions against the DPRK as a true danger to the world peace: Chapter VII of the UN Charter states that the Security Council can take measures against a country if there is a threat to the peace and this is the justification they are using for imposing the sanctions. However, it is not the DPRK that is creating a threat to the peace, but the USA which is militarily threatening the DPRK with annihilation. The DPRK has clearly stated its nuclear weapons are only to deter an American attack which is the threat to the peace. The fact that the US, as part of the SC is imposing sanctions on a country it is threatening is hypocritical and unjust. That the Russians and Chinese have joined the US in this instead of calling for sanctions against the US for its threats against the DPRK and its new military exercises which are a clear and present danger to the DPRK is shameful. If the Russians and Chinese are sincere why dont they insist that the US draw down its forces there so the DPRK feels less threatened and take steps to guarantee the security of the DPRK? They do not explain their actions but their actions make them collaborators with the USA against the DPRK. US/NATO Threatens the DPRK, China and Russias Far East The US/NATO military bases in Asia (and in other parts of the world) are actually the main danger to the DPRK, to China and to the Russian Far East. Enormous air force bases located in Okinawa (Kadena and Futenma), as well as the military bases on the territory of the ROK, are directly threatening North Korea, which has all rights to defend itself and its citizens. It is also thoroughly illogical to impose sanctions on the victim and not on the empire, which is responsible for hundreds of millions of lost human lives in all corners of the Globe. Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are:  Exposing Lies Of The Empire  and  Fighting Against Western Imperialism .Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism . Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania  a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia:  Indonesia  The Archipelago of Fear . Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter .
The US Military Will Commit Donald Trump's War Crimes

By Charles Davis

March 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " teleSur " - The billionaire Republican may be as bad as it gets, but there's no reason to believe the military would refuse to fight his illegal wars.

When the former head of an organization that has assassinated people with drones and tortured prisoners at black sites around the world suggests the Republican frontrunner for the presidency is out of line, proposing national security measures that shock the legalistic conscience of this amoral bureaucrat  to the point, he posited, that others may refuse to lift a blood-stained finger for their commander-in-chief  people sit up and listen.

I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language that Candidate Trump expressed during the campaign, said retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, during a recent interview with Bill Maher, a smug liberal Islamophobe with a television show. Some of Donald Trumps proposals, would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict, said Hayden. And, he added, You are required not to follow an unlawful order.

Trump is, of course, a pathetic man with horrific ideas; in a civilized nation his inherited wealth would be stripped from him and used to fund reparations for Mexicans and renovations for mosques, and he would be barred from holding a retail sales position, much less public office. In the race for the White House, however, the wealthy blowhard is doing rather well, at least among white nationalists and other Republican constituencies. Call him a proto-fascist or right-wing populist or some other term not printable in a family publication like teleSUR, the billionaire's self-assured demagoguery appeals to the authoritarian mind: whether he's promising to deport or kill 'em all, Trump is promising angry white men that he will do bad things to those who upset them, while saying to hell with political correctness and the Geneva Conventions.

Its his brash personality which attracts, but also offends. A President Trumps illegal orders  like torture that he's promised would be a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding; killing the families of "terrorists" would not be all that substantively different than those given out by his predecessors responsible for hundreds of thousands of dead in illegal wars of aggression from Iraq to Vietnam, but whereas they downplayed the "bad apples" that invariably thrive in wartime, the bad apple is what Trump celebrates: the all-American rebel in a green Army jacket proudly doing the dirty work required to make an empire great again. William Calley, an Army officer charged with murdering 108 Vietnamese civilians, would be greeted with a hero's welcome at a Trump rally, and that's the problem some have: Crimes like his are supposed to be quietly dismissed by a circuit judge.

It's hard to believe someone like Hayden, who oversaw an extrajudicial CIA assassination program for George W. Bush that in Pakistan alone droned to death no less than 160 civilians during his tenure, objects to Trump on the basis of a morality the career militarist never previously disclosed. Hayden was a happy killer, by all outward appearances, and an advocate of killing people based not just on who we think they are but on their pattern of life": If it acts like a terrorist it is a terrorist, especially if it's a military-age corpse, at least for bookkeeping purposes. Killing a whole family might be a bit much, but then Hellfire missiles fired at homes in Waziristan do not discriminate between terrorists and toddlers.

Trump may be worse than anyone else who has come as close to presidential power as he has, limiting ourselves to the modern era, but thats troubling to those who lack the sort of power they fear he will abuse. The national security establishment, a group to which a former head of the CIA no doubt belongs, perhaps fears an imperial salesman who lacks tact; a mass murderer without social grace. But the national security establishment cant even agree on that. Some rather like Trumps no-nonsense militarism, stripped of romantic sentiment and any rhetorical concern about human rights.

Michael Flynn was the head of President Barack Obamas Defense Intelligence Agency, making him the top-ranking military intelligence officer in the United States. Like the head of the CIA, this would make him very much a part of anything that might be called the national security establishment. Reuters describes him as an advocate of working closely with Russia to resolve global security issues, and reports that hes now advising Trump on foreign affairs.

OPINION: Afghanistan: The Forever-War We Never Question

The "establishment," then, cant decide if Trumps rhetoric is beyond the pale or spot on. All that rhetoric about deporting Muslims, and shooting them dead with bullets dipped in pig's blood, bothers some in Washington, but certainly not all. And power is persuasive: If a president orders the military to do something then it effectively becomes legal  what court, with what army, would dare object?  and only those who refuse to go along ever feel the full wrath of the law.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal, according to one of its architects, former Pentagon policy adviser Richard Perle. He admitted as much a few months into the war, but the after-the-invasion confession didnt bother the confessor. I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing, said Perle. International law  would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone.

Precisely zero such architects of an admittedly illegal war have been prosecuted for violating the international prohibition on aggressive war. Those who refused to follow an unlawful order, however -- they all got charged, for what is really an illegal order is a lot like the question of what is art and what is pornography: its in the eye of the discerning viewer, in this case the U.S. military, which always deems noncompliance by a soldier as obscenity.

It is the duty, the obligation of every soldier, and specifically the officers, to evaluate the legality, the truth behind every order  including the order to go to war, said Lt. Ehren Watada back in 2006. He refused to participate in the Iraq war, saying, My participation will make me a party to war crimes. He was subjected to a military court martial on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

Chelsea Manning was an Army private who was horrified to learn that the U.S. military was handing over Iraqi civilians to the puppet government of Nouri al-Maliki, knowing they would be tortured. She used her access to reveal that and other crimes, including a 2010 U.S. attack on unarmed civilians in Baghdad, killing more than a dozen.

In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Donald Trump, if he becomes president, will kill lots of people. No one should take his opportunistic, and by now obvious and belated critique of the Iraq war during 20 seconds of a debate to be more than it is: an opportunistic, obvious, belated critique, made on the campaign trail. His criticism of regime change is as empty as George W. Bushs stated opposition to nation building, and neutralized by his support for regime preservation, which is no less a sin, and no less imperialism, when externally imposed.

That things have been terrible, from a preserving innocent foreign life perspective, doesnt mean they cant get worse  but in the case of former spooks with sudden conscience syndrome, Trump could use better critics. If the likes of those advising him are any sign, chances are they will be the same ones eager to carry out his illegal orders, and the first to condemn those who refuse.
Smelling EU Fear, Turkey Moves in for $6.6bn Kill

By Finian Cunningham

March 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " RT " - When the Ankara government carried out a brutal media crackdown at the weekend and then saw minimal Western protest as a result, President Erdogan knew he had the upper-hand  to leverage the refugee crisis.

It seems more than strange that, only three days before a high-profile summit was to take place between European Union leaders and Turkey on Europes refugee crisis, the Ankara authorities carried out an audacious assault on democratic rights.

The violent police seizure of Turkeys biggest opposition newspaper, Zaman, and its immediate cowing into a tame pro-government publication represents the most brazen authoritarian move to date by the ruling AK party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish opposition politicians denounced the full-frontal assault on independent media as tantamount to a coup detat by Erdogan.

But the Western response to the draconian display of state power was more muted than ever. There was hardly any Western media coverage of the Zaman seizure. Both Washington and the EU merely issued perfunctory statements of concern, and breathlessly urged Ankara to respect free speech and core European values.

In recent months, Erdogan has been locking up journalists and closing critical media outlets. Under his increasingly autocratic rule, the Ankara authorities have prosecuted thousands of citizens who have insulted the president through social media.

More gravely, Erdogan has ordered a bloody wave of repression against ethnic Kurds in the countrys southeast, with disturbing reports of mass killings by Turkish troops. Turkish military have also been shelling across the border at Kurdish positions in Syria for several weeks now.

It is not as if EU leaders are oblivious to Erdogans rogue conduct. An EU report issued in November highlighted the growing repression of human rights. But still Erdogan continued his autocratic power-grab anyway. And the full-scale assault on an opposition news media outlet at the weekend is arguably his most flagrant move yet. The timing suggests it was a gambit to test EU resolve.

In other words, Erdogan knew from the Western silence and empty platitudes that there would be no repercussions for his repressive gambit. And why was that? Because, as Erdogan is all too aware, the EU is on its knees to gain his cooperation on ending the refugee crisis assailing its very foundations. That, in turn, meant that he could send his prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to Brussels to extract whopping concessions.

Significantly, at the last minute before the Brussels summit opened on Monday, Turkeys premier Davutoglu pulled out some new ideas. One of those new ideas was that Ankara was no longer requesting $3.3 billion in EU aid, as it had done four months previously. Ankara was now demanding double the money.

Davutoglu hinted at the upper-hand when he arrived in Brussels, saying: The whole future of Europe is on the table. And he also let it be known that Turkey was talking more than just refugees, adding that Ankara expected a new era in Turkey-EU relations.

The upshot of negotiations in Brussels this week is that Turkey is to receive a 100 percent increase in promised financial aid from the European Union  to $6.6 billion  supposedly for accommodating Syrian refugees on its territory.

Ankara also wrung a promise from Euroland that its 75 million citizens could avail of visa-free travel by as early as June this year; and, perhaps the biggest prize of all, Turkey got a commitment from Brussels to speed up its long-delayed accession to the European Union.

A Financial Times report hinted at the delicate balancing act: EU leaders tread carefully over Turkeys media crackdown, adding: Leaders careful not to jeopardize deal with Ankara on migration.

In theory, the EU has been spared the nightmare scenario of thousands of refugees crossing on a daily basis from Turkey into Greece and thence further north. The uncontrolled migration over the past year was threatening the very existence of the 28-nation EU, with member states publicly bickering over closed borders and perceived unfair burdens.

What Ankara appears to be giving in exchange is its cooperation in the systematic return of all refugees presently in Greece  some 30,000  back to Turkey. At some unspecified future date, the EU is committed to take back Syrian refugees in equal numbers in a seemingly orderly process of asylum application. However, it remains to be seen if such a complex arrangement of refugees being brought back to the EU can work in practice. For one thing, the EU will still have huge problems among its member states refusing to take up quotas of asylum seekers.

Nevertheless, what may be deemed certain is the forcible shipping back  as European Council President Donald Tusk put it  of refugees from Greece to Turkey. The days of irregular migration to Europe are over,said Tusk with a tone of relief following the Brussels summit.

In that grim task of hauling back beleaguered families, the NATO military alliance is to take the lead. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the alliance was increasing its naval presence in the Aegean Sea to intercept refugee boats.

The deal thus smacks of an emergency measure where supposed lofty EU principles are being thrown overboard.

EU leaders were increasingly desperate to halt the flow of migrants and this is the outcome. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was under particular pressure to stem the human tide following her erstwhile open door policy.

The refugee pathway into Europe has thus been blockaded with this latest EU-Turkish deal, even though there are serious ethical and legal implications over such a drastic measure. Under EU law, all refugees have the right to seek asylum. That is no longer guaranteed, but what is guaranteed is that any refugee boat intercepted in the Aegean will be forced back to Turkey by NATO warships. That is a signal escalation of raw power over humanitarian rights.

The irony of all this is bitter. Only last week, NATO leaders were accusing Russia of weaponizing Syrian refugees for alleged political objectives to do with undermining the European Union. That preposterous contention is not worth dignifying with closer examination.

Much closer to reality though is that NATO member Turkey is the party that has weaponized refugees. Erdogans state has played a prominent role in inciting the five-year war in Syria for regime change in Damascus. The war is in danger of dragging on even further given Turkeys ongoing role in illegally supplying weapons and insurgents into Syria. That is the background to why nearly three million Syrian refugees have ended up in Turkey and for why Europe has incurred the destabilizing influx of migrants.

As Syrian President Bashar Assad said recently, Europes refugee crisis would be quickly solved if the covert war on his country was stopped. That is achievable if European powers clamped down on Turkey and Saudi Arabia sending weapons and mercenaries into Syria.
A former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.), has denied reports in the media that the sum of $1 million cash was found during a search of one of his mansions in Abuja by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Speaking through his counsel, Samuel O. Zibri, SAN, the former defence chief described the reports as malicious, wicked and false.

The statement read: The said publication is not only malicious but wicked. It is totally false and smacks of media campaign of calumny against the person of Air Marshal Alex. A Badeh (rtd).

The 10-count charge against our client along with the proof of evidence in the Federal High Court are public documents and can be accessed by the general public.

There is no such allegation and we challenge the faceless EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) official to substantiate his claim.

The trial has commenced and as a law-abiding citizen, our client will defend himself in accordance with the law.
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the International Womens Day, President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with all Nigerian women.

Buharis message was contained in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media sand Publicity, Garba Shehu in Abuja.

On this day set aside by the global community to encourage and celebrate womens social, cultural, economic and political achievements, President Buhari reaffirms administrations commitment to the promotion of womens rights and the well-being of women in all geopolitical zones of Nigeria, the president said.

He noted that the theme of this years International Womens day, Pledge for Parity, is consistent with the promise by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to remove all impediments to the realization of equality by Nigerian women and he assures them that his administration will continue to do all within its powers to fulfil that pledge.

Accordingly, President Buhari has directed the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to move quickly to identify critical issues militating against the well-being and progress of Nigerian women, with a view to rapidly devising adequate plans, programmes and strategies to address them.
National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, has made a new controversial claim yesterday during an interview, saying that he possesses some classified information proving that the CIA is behind the theory of Global Warming. Snowden, who lives as a fugitive in Russia after leaking documents about the NSAs surveillance programs, has made some previously unreported allegations during an interview with the Moscow Tribune.

Mr. Snowden says the CIA first orchestrated the spread of the Global Warming scare in the 1950s, in order to divert the attention of the scientific community, from the dangers of the weapons race and reinforce its control over research institutes.

I have documents showing that the CIA invented the whole thing, claims Edward Snowden. Global Warming was invented to both scare people, and divert their attention from other human-made dangers like nuclear weapons. The CIA gave millions of dollars to any scientist who would confirm the theory, so many unscrupulous scientists did what they were told in order to get the money. Now, there is so much fake data to confirm that Global Warming exists, that they actually convinced everyone that it was real.

Edward Snowden was hired by an NSA contractor in 2013 after previous employment with Dell and the CIA. In the month of June of the same year, he revealed thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists. He also claims to be in possession of CIA documents, linking the agency to many illegal activities. The US government filed espionage charges against him shortly after his revelations were made public. He has been living under asylum in Moscow, after fleeing the US for Hong Kong in the wake of the leaks.

WNDR.
Nigerians have been urged to cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari to reform the electoral process and make it more participatory.

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Femi Ojudu, who made the call, said that the era of do-or-die politics was over because Buhari is determined to change Nigerians perception about politics and entrench a new political order devoid of desperation.

He spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, yesterday during a Transformation Leadership Seminar organised for youths.

According to Senator Ojudu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be held responsible for introducing brigandage into the nations polity since the advent of democracy in 1999.

He, however, assured that the Buhari administration would redirect the psyche of Nigerians and make them see election as a civil matter, rather than a war.

Ojudu said: Elections in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and other states in the South-south under former President Goodluck Jonathan were like wars.

The presidency was so much involved and that gave some PDP top shots and other interested parties the motivation to terrorize the opposition.

But President Buhari is not interested in who wins elections. He is only interested in the due process not being jettisoned.

His coming to the presidency is by popular mandate and Mr President is passionate about making our democracy a beacon to other fledgling democracies in Africa. No more killing or maiming and whoever does that under whatever guise will face the wrath of the law.

In a lecture titled The Ekiti Character as a Development Asset, a professor of History, Banji Akintoye, said Ekiti cannot afford to fail because it boasts of brains that can make things happen in the face of difficulty.
Following last Fridays alleged invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly by the Department of State Services, Governor Ayodele Fayose has said he will have to reconsider the deployment of DSS operatives at the Government House and other establishments in the state.

The governor alleged that the DSS under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari was now operating outside its constitutional mandate.

Fayose, however, vowed that he and the people of Ekiti State would not be cowed by one million armed DSS operatives.

The government of Ekiti State may have to reconsider the usefulness of men of the DSS in the government house and other institutions of the State government, Fayose said in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.

According to the governor, the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government was pursuing a clandestine agenda of truncating democracy in Ekiti State and other Peoples Democratic Party-controlled states like Rivers and Bayelsa.

If Buhari likes, let him relocate all DSS men in Nigeria with the entire ammunition in their armoury to Ekiti, the will of Ekiti people can never be broken, he said.

They will only try, and like they have always done, they will fail because dictatorship has never triumphed over the people.

Even Buharis dictatorship between 1984 and 1985 ended one day and Nigerians will also outlive his present dictatorship.

The governor said the SSS under Lawal Daura had abandoned its core mandate of providing intelligence for the protection of the internal security of Nigeria as provided in the Security Agencies Act Cap. N74 LFN, 2004.

Instead of assisting the police, military and other security agencies with classified matters, we now have a DSS that is running after perceived opponents of the president, arresting goat and fowl thieves as well as husbands who assaulted their wives, he said.

If the DSS was alive to its responsibilities, we wont be having Boko Haram insurgents killing Nigerians, all these kidnappings and Fulani herdsmen killings, raping and destroying farmlands in the South-West, South-East and North-Central zones in the country would have been nipped in the bud.

Mr. Fayose also noted that the same way Buhari as military head of state used the defunct National Security Organisation (NSO), headed by Ambassador Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi from Katsina State, is the same way he is using the DSS, headed by another of his kinsman, Lawal Daura to harass, oppress and intimidate Nigerians.

It is obvious that democracy in Nigeria is becoming unsafe in the hands of Buhari and his APC and those keeping silent now because of politics may also end up in the belly of this roaring lion that is threatening to consume our democracy, he warned.

Therefore, Nigerians and the international community should take special notice of the use of the DSS and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to muscle opposition.

As for me, I wish to say once again that I am not among those Nigerians that are afraid of harassment by any agency of the federal government.

I make bold to state that in the overall interest of democracy and well-being of Nigerians, I will continue to speak my mind on issues bordering on governance in Nigeria. I will not be intimidated.
Nigerias vice priesident, Prof Yemi Osinbajo turned 59 today and many Nigerians have taken to social media to congratulate him including his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari. A lot of you already know that the Vice President is married to Dolapo, Obafemi Awolowos grand daughter, with whom he has three kids but not many of you know where Prof Yemi was born, where he went to secondary school and many other things. On this auspicious day, INFORMATION NIGERIA has put together 10 interesting facts about him, you should know

 Yemi Osinbajo is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Senior Partner in the Law firm of Simmons Cooper Partners.

 He was appointed Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in 1999 and reappointed for a second term in 2003. During the period of his public service, he commenced the Lagos State justice reform project.

 Yemi Osinbajo was educated at Corona primary School, in Lagos, Nigeria. Between 19691975, he attended Igbobi College Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

 Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was also the Pastor in charge of the Lagos Province 48, Olive Tree provincial headquarter parish, Ikoyi before his inauguration into office as the Vice President of Nigeria.

 In 1981, he was employed as a law lecturer at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. From 1983 to 1986, he was Senior lecturer of Law at the University of Lagos. From 1988 to 1992, he was an Adviser (legal advice and litigation) to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ajibola.

 From 1997 to 1999 he was made Professor of Law and Head of Department of Public Law, University of Lagos. From 1999 to 2007, Osinbajo was Member of Cabinet, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, also Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.

 When the All Progressives Congress (APC) was formed in 2013, Yemi was tasked, with other notable Nigerians, to design and produce a manifesto for the new political party. This culminated in the presentation of the Roadmap to a New Nigeria, a document published by APC as its manifesto if elected to power .

Happy birthday Prof. Osinbajo!!!
Today is the International womens day, in celebrating women all over the world INFORMATION NIGERIA put together a list of 5 Nigerian women who made an impressive mark on Nigerian history during their life time

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti: was a teacher, political campaigner, womens rights activist and traditional aristocrat. She served with distinction as one of the most prominent leaders of her generation. She was also the first woman in Nigeria to drive a car. Her political activism led to her being described as the doyen of female rights in Nigeria, as well as to her being regarded as The Mother of Africa. Early on, she was a very powerful force advocating for the Nigerian womans right to vote. She was described in 1947, by the West African Pilot as the Lioness of Lisabi for her leadership of the women of the Egba clan that she belonged to on a campaign against their arbitrary taxation. That struggle led to the abdication of the Egba high king Oba Ademola II in 1949. Kuti was the mother of the activists Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a musician, Beko Ransome-Kuti, a doctor, and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, a doctor and a former health minister of Nigeria.[2] She was also grandmother to musicians Seun Kuti and Femi Kuti.

Margret Ekpo: was a Nigerian womens rights activist and social mobilizer who was a pioneering female politician in the countrys First Republic and a leading member of a class of traditional Nigerian women activists, many of whom rallied women beyond notions of ethnic solidarity. She played major roles as a grassroot and nationalist politician in the Eastern Nigerian city of Aba, in the era of an hierarchical and male-dominated movement towards independence, with her rise not the least helped by the socialization of womens role into that of helpmates or appendages to the careers of males.

Hajia Gambo Sawaba (1933-2001) was a Nigerian politician and activist who was a supporter of the Northern Elements Progressive Union during the Nigerian First Republic. She was one of the early members of NEPU in Zaria, then the party identified with the working class and poor and was manned by their main support base. Her political activities during the period earned her persecutions from both the colonial authorities and the native administrations which resulted in her being incarcerated for more than a dozen times. Her biography included notes on several instances of beatings and assaults attributed to the NPCs Yan Mahaukita. She is also known for some of her charitable causes and also for her views on womens liberation in the arena of politics.

Dora Akunyili: was the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria and Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications from 2008 to 2010. She was a pharmacist and governmental administrator who gained international recognition and won several awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights. Following her appointment as the Director General of NAFDAC in April 2001, Akunyili established as a top priority the eradication of counterfeit drugs and unsafe food. Before her assumption of office in NAFDAC, fake and substandard foods and drugs were sold in Nigeria without any form of regulation, until she came along. Although Akunyili faced considerable risk to her personal safety in her fight to combat the issue of fake drugs, she was determined.

Ameyo Adadevoh: was a Nigerian physician. Her great-grandfather, Herbert Macaulay, is one of the most celebrated founders of modern Nigeria. Her father was a physician and former Vice chancellor of the University of Lagos and she was also the grand niece of Nigerias first president Nnamdi Azikiwe. She is credited with having curbed a wider spread of the Ebola virus in Nigeria by placing the patient zero, Patrick Sawyer, in quarantine despite pressures from the Liberian Government. On 4 August 2014, it was confirmed that she had tested positive for Ebola virus disease and was being treated. Adadevoh died in the afternoon of 19 August 2014. She was posthumously praised for preventing the Nigerian index case from leaving the hospital at the time of diagnosis, thereby playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus in Nigeria.

These are our top 5!!!
The Lagos State House of Assembly has called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to relocate the Mile 12 market on Ikorodu Road to a more conducive location.

The call was sequel to last weeks bloody clash between Hausa traders and Yorubas, which left at least 10 persons killed and properties worth several millions of naira destroyed.

Reacting to the incident on Monday, the Assembly described it as unfortunate, adding that it could have been averted.

The issue was brought under matter of urgent public importance by Jude Idimogu.

The lawmakers urged Governor Ambode to relocate the Mile 12 and Owode-Onirin markets elsewhere after feasibility studies and accompanying infrastructure must have been provided.

While condoling those who lost loved ones in the crisis, the Assembly condemned the killings and the attitude of soldiers deployed in the market, who it alleged could not forestall the crisis.

It also urged Ambode to constitute a high-powered enquiry into the skirmish.

Earlier, Speaker Mudashiru Obasa said the incident followed disagreement among brothers, adding that government should act decisively on the issue.

He said: Soldiers have been stationed at the market since 1999, yet they have not been able to solve the problem.

There is a police station there, what did the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) do, when the incident occurred?

It is a market without structure; we can move the market to another place if we can provide an alternative. We should look at a new planning; we cannot have such a market at the centre of a megacity.

Obasa further called for the probe of military men stationed at the market since they could not forestall the riot and suggested the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV).

In the same vein, Deputy Speaker Wasiu Sanni Eshinlokun said the market was not well organised, adding that a visit there would reveal that it is not a conventional market.
The Chief of South African National Defence Force, General Zakaria Shoke has re-affirmed his countrys willingness to work with the Nigerian Armed Forces to the benefit of the two countries, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters has said.

The Director, Defence Information, Rabe Abubakar, in a statement on quoted General Shoke as making that commitment when he visited the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin in his office in Abuja on Monday.

According to Abubakar, a Brigadier General, The Chief of South African National Defence Force promised to support Nigeria in its quest to end Boko Haram in the country.

General Shoke further maintained his Armed Forces commitment to the development of the Nigerian military in the area of capacity building, exchange programme and logistics support, among others.

He said Nigeria is very important to South Africa, hence the need to working together for the benefit of both countries, especially now when Nigeria is fighting Boko Haram.

While responding, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olonisakin thanked the South African Chief of National Defence Force for the visit and solicited for more cooperation in defence related matters. This, he said would go a long way in strengthening the two countries bilateral cooperation.

General Olonisakin also requested for training of more Special Forces and other equipment that could be used in the operations against Boko Haram which has been substantially decimated and degraded. He said the war against terror is closing up and would soon end.

The occasion also witnessed briefing from the three services of the Nigerian Armed Forces, who stated the need for logistics and training support to further terminate the war against Boko Haram soon.
Punch

The President, Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, has said his company should be able to generate about 12,000 megawatts of electricity for the country by 2018.

Vanguard

ABUJAThe Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, declined to quash the six-count treason charge the federal government entered against the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.

Daily Times

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday approved the appointment of Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, as his Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Guardian

Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd), has pleaded not guilty to the 10-count charge leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Daily Trust

There is a heavy fighting going on at strategic Bita town near Gwoza in Borno state between Boko Haram and the Military.

National Mirror

n its efforts to ensure that retired civil servants are smoothly exited from public service, the Lagos State Government last month paid 243 retirees from the mainstream civil service, local governments, state universal basic education, teachers establishment and pension office and other parastatals pension entitlements worth N904 million. A statement issued by Mrs Ajoke Lawal of the Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC), indicated that the payment brought the number of retirees paid between August last year to February, 2016 to 2,652, adding that the total accrued rights paid by the State government so far has amounted to N11.556 billion.

Leadership

South African President Jacob Zuma has arrived Nigeria on a two-day working visit. The Nation Kanus trial: Court grants witnesses partial secrecy A Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday, rejected a prayer by pro-Biafra agitator, Nnamdi Kanu, and two others, for an order dismissing the charges against them. Tribune Ekiti PDP Reps caucus condemns DSS invasion of state assembly Six members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the Ekiti State House of Representatives have condemned last weeks Friday invasion of the state House of Assembly by armed men of the Department of State Service (DSS), describing the invasion as criminal desecration of the scared hallowed chamber which must be condemned by all lovers of democracy in the world.

Nigerian Pilot
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has sent a message of condolence to President Muhammadu Buhari, the governor of a Kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello and the family of the Minister of State for Labour, late James Ocholi, SAN, over the death of the minister.

The NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said in separate condolence letters that the death of the minister is a great loss to all Nigerians.

It would be recalled that Ocholi died on Sunday in an accident on Kilometre 57, Kaduna-Abuja expressway after the vehicle he was traveling in had a burst tyre on motion and summersaulted several times. The accident also claimed the life of the late ministers son, his wife and the driver, who reportedly died on Monday at the National Hospital, Abuja, from injuries sustained.

The letter to the President reads: On behalf of the Nigeria Labour Congress, I wish to condole you on the tragic death of the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN) and members of his family.

In the brief moment we have worked together, I found Mr Ocholi earthy, humble, lively and knowledgeable. I had no doubt in my mind he was an asset in government-labour relations and certainly, he was going to play a more critical role in the future. His death is therefore a big loss to all of us.

Mr. Ocholi was a civil, decent and humble man; a legal luminary; and an illustrious son of Kogi State, who brought to bear on his job, clinical efficiency and humanity. He was a trusted ally of Labour It is a shame, death has robbed us of this irreplaceable and priceless gem.
A group of Palestinians have launched an ambitious $34.5bn lawsuit against US-based tycoons, charities and firms for supporting Israeli land grabs, settlement-building and other violations of Palestinians rights these past four decades. They seek damages from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; Irving Moskowitz, a philanthropist with property interests in East Jerusalem; and megachurch pastor John Hagee for financing the construction of settlements on Palestinian soil.

Lawyers also name such charities as Christian Friends of Israeli Communities and private firms, including Dead Sea-based cosmetics maker Ahava, UK-based security firm G4S and the industrial powerhouse Israel Chemicals Limited. Were not in this for the money, but well probably pick the pockets of some very wealthy corporations, Martin McMahon, a lawyer for the complainants from the firm Martin McMahon and Associates, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

Its about time that the world woke up to the fact that Palestinians are being murdered every day with US taxpayer dollars. The case is brought by Bassem al-Tamimi, an activist, and about 35 other Palestinians and Palestinian Americans who say they have seen their loved ones killed by Israeli forces and lost their land to settlers and business and construction schemes. They allege five counts of conspiracy, war crimes, aggravated trespass, pillage and racketeering via various legal mechanisms, including laws against organised crime and US entities linked with overseas human rights abuses.

Aljazeera.
The National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned what it termed the maltreatment and unlawful incarceration of opposition leaders in the country by the All Progressives Congress-led federal government.

The NEC made this position known in a communique issued on Monday at the end its 69th meeting at the partys national secretariat in Abuja.

The communique was signed by the partys national chairman and secretary, Ali Modu Sheriff and Adewale Oladipo respectively

The PDP NEC also said it had observed the erosion of fundamental human rights and constitutionally guaranteed personal liberty of Nigerians especially key leaders of the PDP by the federal government.

The party condemns the incessant harassment, maltreatment and unlawful incarceration of PDP leaders at various levels by government-controlled law enforcement and prosecution agencies.

It particularly condemned the alleged invasion and raiding of Ekiti State House of Assembly last Friday and the subsequent arrest and continued detention of four PDP members of the House by the Department of State Services on trumped-up charges.

The party, therefore, demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the four PDP members of the Ekiti Assembly.

It also called on the international community and all civil rights organizations worldwide to take note of the denial of fundamental human rights, abuse of liberties and freedom of individuals; and the rapid descent of Nigeria into totalitarianism.

The party also condoled with the families of its 18 members who it said were murdered in Ogoniland in Rivers state.
A pensioner has donated her entire monthly pension of Ten Thousand Naira (N10, 000) to support the President Muhaamadu Buhari-led administrations war against corruption.

Mrs. Rose Arabameh Julius, who retired as a cleaner from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, (LUTH) also promised to contribute N1,000 every month out of her pension towards the rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs).

According to a statement in Abuja, the lady said that she was making the donation because she was convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari is a tested man of integrity who can be trusted to restore the lost glory of Nigeria and drastically curb corruption in the country.

The pensioner also commended the Presidents efforts to end the Boko Haram insurgency and rehabilitate internally displaced persons.

Receiving the donation on behalf of President Buhari, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina thanked Mrs. Julius for her faith in the Buhari administration.
A suspected member of Boko Haram, Muktar Umar, who allegedly fled Maiduguri in the Northeast, has been arrested in Ogun State.

The 22-year-old suspect was paraded on Monday by the Ogun State Police Command after his arrest in Kara area of Ifo Local Government Area of the state.

The state commissioner of police, Abdulmajid Ali, said Mr. Umar fled the insurgents base, following the heat being experienced by them in the hands of the joint military task force.

Ali further said the suspect thereafter sneaked out of Maiduguri to Isheri area of Lagos State as his first contact.

The police commissioner said the suspect later relocated to Kara  Mowe area of Ogun state near Lagos last February 25, where he was arrested by the police after a tip-off.

Ali added that police investigation had also revealed that Muktar fled the Borno State capital two and half years ago into Ogun and was initiated into Boko Haram by one Mustapha.

According to him, exchange of intelligence between the Command and its counterparts in Borno coupled with support of members of the Hausa community in Kara, helped in the identification and arrest of Muktar.

Speaking to reporters through an interpreter, Umar denied membership of Boko Haram sect, saying it was his friend, identified as Mustapha that was declared wanted by the police for terrorism.

He said he was wrongly declared wanted by the authorities alongside his friend.

Mr. Umar said he decided to relocate to Kara community three years ago on the advice of his father.
Turkey and the EU have reached an agreement on the main points of a proposal to tackle the massive influx of refugees into Europe. Donald Tusk, European Council president, said the leaders had made a breakthrough that sent a very clear message that the days of irregular migration to Europe are over.

The announcement came at the end of a long day of meetings in Brussels, during which Turkey is known to have asked for an additional $3.3bn in return for checking the flow of refugees across the Aegean Sea. The next step involves the presentation of the proposal to EU leaders at a key European Council meeting due to be held on March 17 and 18.

Turkey is due to receive $3.3bn until the end of 2018 to cover the costs of dealing with refugees, but it reportedly asked for double the amount during Mondays talks.

Martin Schulz, head of the European Parliament, confirmed that the request for additional money came at the summit between Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkeys prime minister, and EU leaders. After protracted negotiations, Martin Selmayr, spokesperson for Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission (EC), said on Twitter: Deal. Breakthrough with Turkey.

Another statement, from the Twitter account of Xavier Bettel, Luxembourgs prime minister, said: President of #EUCO will take forward the proposals and work out the details with the Turkish side before the March #EUCO. The agreement could see Turkey and the EU cooperate to end the flow of irregular refugees to Greek islands and start resettling Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to the EU.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Rivers State during the 2015 elections, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has described the state as a killing field, following the murders in some parts of the state recently.

Peterside, in a statement yesterday, specifically condemned the murder of Ofinijite Amachree, an APC stalwart in Buguma, Asari-Toru Local Government Area.

Amachree was beaten and then burnt alive in Buguma on Monday while five were clubbed to death between Saturday and Sunday.

The murder of Amachree took place barely 48 hours after the Ward 4 chairman of APC in Omoku, headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA, Franklin Obi, was beheaded at his home by masked gunmen at 9 pm. His wife and 18-year-old son, Bestman, were also killed.

The APC governorship candidate lamented the execution, describing it as frightening and unprecedented.

According to him, the pathetic security situation in the state is unfortunately an affront on the Federal Governments power to protect life and property within its territory.

Peterside, who spoke in Port Harcourt said the state urgently needs help.

The security situation in our state is distressing and we cannot continue to live under such a desperate situation. I am again drawing attention to daily killings in Rivers State.

Last Friday, Mr. Franklin, APC Ward 4 chairman in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government was killed and beheaded in Omoku. His wife and son were also killed. Franklin, who recently moderated APC ward meeting in the council, hails from the same ward as the state chairman of the PDP, Felix Obuah.

Four APC persons were killed in Obibi, Etche council in the last 48 hours. Gabriel Cookey was clubbed to death in Opobo, Opobo/Nkoro councils.

Only yesterday morning, in Buguma, Ofinjite Amachree, an APC member was set ablaze by alleged thugs of PDP.

In fact, in the last two weeks, over 30 APC members have been killed in different parts of the state. We are tired of this bloodbath; this is why we are calling on the Federal Government to come to our aid.

As citizens of the state, we know that this heart-rending situation is a fallout of loss of moral right by the Nyesom Wike-led government to fight criminality having allegedly benefited from their activities. But this killing must stop and the time is now.

Unfortunately, members of PDP are allegedly heeding the call by Wike to burn alive members of the opposition and other electoral personnel, who stand in their way to victory in the rerun elections.
Senate President Bukola Saraki today paid a condolence visit to the family of the late James Ocholi (SAN), former Minister of State for Labour.

The Senate president made the visit in the company of a group of senators. During the visit, he urged Ocholis children to stay strong in these difficult times.

The senators also thanked them for the exemplary life that he lived in continued service of his community and his country.

Ocholi died in a road accident along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Sunday afternoon. The Kogi state indigene and his son died on the spot of the accident. His wife, who slipped into coma after the accident, died hours later. His driver who was rushed to the hospital also died later.

The late ministers car was reported to have had a burst tyre before somersaulting several times.
Somali rebel group al-Shabab has denied US claims that more than 150 of its fighters were recently killed in air strikes. Washington said on Monday it had carried out several strikes in southern Somalia on the Raso training camp, in which it claimed more than 150 of the al-Qaeda-linked groups fighters died.

The Americans are dreaming. We never gather that many of our fighters in one place. We know the security situation, Abdulaziz Abu Musab, the groups military operations spokesman, told Al Jazeera in a phone call on Tuesday. Yes, the attack happened and it happened at the location they mentioned, but the number they are telling the world is a lie, Musab added.

The armed group, which is fighting Somalias internationally recognised government, has recently attacked and overrun military bases belonging to African Union troops. The US air strikes occurred at 14:00 GMT on Saturday at a camp situated about 130km from Belidogle airport in the Lower Shabelle region  a major base AMISOM troops. American soldiers are also present at the Belidogle base.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said: The fighters were there training and were training for a large-scale attack We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and [African Union] forces. It was an air operation. Initial assessments are that more than 150 terrorist fighters were eliminated. Al-Shabab on January 15 attacked and captured an AMISOM base home to Kenyan troops in El Adde, southwestern Somalia. The group killed dozens of Kenyan troops and captured several soldiers.
Embattled Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Rickey Tarfa, who is currently in a legal battle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has denied bribing a judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Hyeladzira Ajiya Nganjiwa, with N5.3million.

The senior lawyer said he read about the allegation in the media and has not been served with a fresh charge.

Explaining his relationship with the judge, Tarfa said before being appointed to the Bench, Justice Nganjiwa was absorbed into his firm in 1995 immediately after leaving the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) where he rose to the position of Deputy Director (Prosecution).

He said Nganjiwa was with his law firm until he was appointed to the Federal High Court in 2012.

Speaking through his Head of Chamber, Mr. John Odubela, the senior lawyer said Nganjiwa, who specialized in criminal law, attracted many briefs/clients because of his expertise.

Tarfa said upon his appointment as a judge, the law firm continued with the cases he brought to the chambers.

In the light of the above, we have continued to discharge the firms financial obligations to him in respect of cases he has handled for the firm as a practicing legal practitioner in our law firm and those he brought to the chambers, the statement said.

Tarfa accused the EFCC of persecution, describing the 27 count charges filed against him as ridiculous.

We have cause to once more react to the malicious trial by media of our Rickey Tarfa (SAN) by the EFCC. Trials are never won on the pages of newspapers, the airwaves and on online platforms.

The recent 27 count charge allegedly filed against Tarfa by EFCC is not only laughable because as at the time of issuing this press statement, Tarfa is yet to be served with the charge. The media is, however, awash with details of the said charge, he lamented.

On the allegation of the falsification of age, the statement said Tarfa always marked his birthdays publicly and has no reason to lie about his age.

For the umpteenth time, we as a law firm, assure all our clients and members of the public that we are law abiding and would never be involved in any act in contravention of the law of the country.

We restate that we appreciate the goodwill, support from colleagues, friends, clients and lovers of human rights, through calls, text messages and personal visits since this persecution commenced and pledge that the 28 year old firm of Rickey Tarfa & Co. will continue to practice its trade in the best traditions of the bar.
Tunisias border with Libya was closed on Tuesday after a brazen attack by suspected ISIL fighters on a frontier town left at least 53 people dead. Gunmen attacked the eastern town of Ben Gardane on Monday and fighting continued past nightfall. Tunisian Prime Minister Hassid Essid said the assault was an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attempt to carve out a stronghold on the border.

This is an unprecedented attack, planned and organised. Its goal was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said. Tunisian interior and defense ministers traveled to the town to oversee heightened border protection operations on Tuesday, according to a joint statement.

The attackers simultaneously targeted an army barracks and police posts with heavy weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenades. The government imposed a curfew in Ben Gardane. A security and military campaign began last week in Ben Gardane after Tunisian security officials said terrorist groups had infiltrated the country. Officials said the campaign followed raids in Libya against ISIL. Fighters trained in Libya carried out several deadly attacks inside Tunisia last year. Al Jazeeras Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Ben Gardane, said the strategically important town is regarded as the gateway to Libya.

It serves as a hub for arms trafficking and smuggling of everyday goods. Tunisia has built a fence along the border with Libya, but that doesnt seem to stop the movement of armed attackers coming in from Libya and targeting the army and security forces, she said. In the past week we have seen several incidents of people coming across.

Aljazeera.
Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday said there is need for proper rehabilitation and psychological therapy for women and children who are victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.

The wife of the president, who stated this in her message to the 2016 International Womens Day, called for special attention for areas ravaged by the insurgency to boost the spirit and morale of the inhabitants, especially women and children.

The message was contained in a statement issued last night by her media aide, Mallam Zakari Yau Nadabo.

According to Mrs Buhari, the theme of this years Womens Day: Pledge for Parity, was apt as it would challenge world leaders to take actions with special emphasis on the dynamics of modern society in which women had proved their capacity in chosen fields of endeavour.

The wife of the president also charged governments at all levels and other stakeholders on women empowerment.
Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have raised the alarm over plot to coerce them into impeaching Governor Ayodele Fayose. According to the lawmakers, a sum of $1 million was being promised some of the members that will be ready to be part of the impeachment plot.

In the last four days, eight of our members had been visited by some men, who claimed to be officials of the DSS, said Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Hon Gboyega Aribisogan in his address to journalists on Tuesday.

Our members were told that their names were among those to be arrested and they must cooperate if they do not want their bank accounts frozen and be kept in DSS detention indefinitely.

We are here to inform the public through your various medium the open involvement of men of the Department of State Service (DSS) from Abuja in the plot to unseat our State Governor, Mr Peter Ayodele Fayose.

Last Fridays invasion of the State House of Assembly by armed men of the DSS in which four of our members were abducted, has been established to be a prelude to the clandestine plot to coerce members of the House of Assembly to impeach Governor Fayose.

As at today, even Hon Afolabi Akanni that we were able to confirm was with the DSS in Abuja is being held incommunicado. No one has been given access to him, not even his lawyers and doctors. We do not have any information as to the whereabouts of the other three.

We are aware of the plot to arrest no fewer than 18 of our members with a view to forcing them to sign impeachment notice against Governor Fayose.

The plot is being hatched by the same elements who masterminded the impeachment of Governor Fayose in 2006, which was eventually declared illegal by the Supreme Court and they are boasting of support of the DSS and the Presidency.

In the last four days, eight of our member had been visited by some men, who claimed to be officials of the DSS. Our members were told that their names were among those to be arrested and they must cooperate if they do not want their bank accounts frozen and be kept in DSS detention indefinitely.

They went on to promise that proper arrangement had been made for the impeachment of the governor, with a sum of $1 million already earmarked for sharing among cooperating assembly members.

Also, our members were told that they will be provided with soft-landing in the APC if they cooperate. One of them revealed that they promised to make him the Speaker, and eventually the Acting Governor.

We however wish to tell the plotters of evil against the government of Ayodele Fayose and by extension the people of Ekiti State that we, members of the State House of Assembly are not interested in their evil plot.

We are prepared to spend the rest of our tenure in DSS cell, instead of joining people that we roundly defeated in five straight elections to cause another political instability in Ekiti State.

These agents of destabilisation should be reminded of the 2006 episode, which was responsible for Ekiti State having six governors in three years!

Most importantly, Governor Fayose is our benefactor. He is our leader on whose political strength we are members of the State House of Assembly. We can even be called his stooges, we dont mind. We will never do anything to jeopardise his interest and be extension, interests of Ekiti people.

We therefore wish to state unequivocally that we are not interested in any $1 million.

We wont because of any blood money join forces with enemies of our State, who are desirous of destabilising the State just because they lost power, Aribisogan said.
The federal government says South African President Jacob Zumas visit to Nigeria at the behest of President Muhammadu Buhari is aimed at deepening trade relations between both nations.

The South African leader is expected to begin a two-day visit to Nigeria on Tuesday.

Speaking with State House correspondents on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyema, said President Zuma was coming with a large entourage of investors.

The minister further hinted that the meeting would also discuss the numerous challenges confronting Nigerians living in South Africa.

The meeting is also expected to calm the tension that may exist at another level among the citizens of both countries.

The meeting between both presidents is very timely. Nigeria and South Africa are the pillars of this continent. And moving forward, both countries have to work together, both presidents have to be close. So, this meeting is going to help to increase the trade between both countries, and theyre both facing inimical challenges. So, its absolutely important that President Zuma is coming with a large entourage of business people. So, were going to be looking at areas of cooperation in the trade sector, he said.

If there have been a number of things that have been in the news recently about Nigerians in South Africa, some of the challenges that they face there, and were determined that this should not foul the relationship between the two countries. I believe that the visit is important because its going to give us an opportunity to really look at what is causing this problem and what the two governments can do about it. Its also very important symbolically and emphatically that Nigerians and South Africans can see from this visit how close the two countries are and how close the two leaders are, Onyema added.
The first known working ransomware aimed at Macs contained hints that the cybercriminals were working on a way to encrypt backups in an attempt to force payment, security researchers said today.

Dubbed "KeRanger" by Palo Alto Networks, whose researchers discovered the malware on Friday, the attack code included a non-working "stub" function labeled "_encrypt_timemachine."

"We believe that they had plans to finish [the function] at some point," said Ryan Olson, director of threat intelligence, Unit 42, Palo Alto's name for its research lab. "But they went live a little earlier than they expected."

Palo Alto Networks' researchers Claud Xiao and Jin Chen identified KeRanger early Friday, just hours after it reached the wild, and finished their analysis Saturday. On Friday afternoon, they reached out to Apple to alert the Cupertino, Calif. company of their findings. By Sunday, Apple had revoked the digital certificate used to sign the malware, and Transmission, the company whose free Mac BitTorrent client had been used to distribute the attack code, had removed the tainted version and issued an update to scrub the ransomware.

Because KeRanger contained a three-day, hard-coded delay before executing, the quick work by Palo Alto, Apple and Transmission meant that few if any Mac users had their files locked up, and so did not have to hope they had backups or the $400 to pay the extortionists.

But the criminals were more ambitious than most: They planned to create code that would have encrypted not only more than 300 file types stored on a Mac's internal hard drive, but also on any Time Machine backups.

Time Machine is the backup software baked into OS X. Although Time Machine works with any external drive, Apple sells its own Time Capsule backup devices. Because Time Machine is essentially fire-and-forget once enabled, it's a very popular choice for Mac owners for backing up the contents of their desktop and notebook computers' storage drives.

Ransomware is a very profitable criminal activity, said Thomas Reed, director of Mac offerings at Malwarebytes. "It's the biggest money maker," Reed asserted, of the many ways criminals try to monetize their malware.

The category has victimized computer owners for more than a decade, and while it has, like all malware, changed since it debuted, ransomware has some basic properties: If a machine is infected, the code encrypts all or parts of a drive -- typically by selecting the most valuable file types, like Microsoft Word or Excel documents -- then displays a message demanding payment for the key that will decrypt the data. Increasingly, that payment is in the form of Bitcoin, the digital currency.

KeRanger wanted one Bitcoin, or approximately $412 at Monday's exchange rate.

One way to avoid paying such extortionists is by restoring the system using recent backups.

Ransomware writers now typically disable Windows' "System Restore" feature, which regularly takes snapshots of the PC, then lets the user return to that milestone, said Olson. It's less common for ransomware to explicitly target backups on Windows, however, perhaps because the operating system's integrated Backup functionality is little used and scores of alternatives vie for market share.

"Some Windows ransomware will encrypt backups as well as the main drive," said Reed, although he acknowledged the practice was not widespread.

Reed, who authors Malwarebytes Lab's official blog, TheSafeMac.com, pointed out that Time Machine backups are "infamously fragile," and it's possible that had the hackers implemented an encrypt-all-external-backups feature in KeRanger, users would have found their backups trashed, not just locked up. In that case, paying the ransom wouldn't have done any good, at least for the backups.

"As long as you're respectful of it, and using Time Machine to do restoration, you're good," said Reed. "But if you go messing with Time Machine backups with another app, you can break the whole thing, so you can't restore at all."

While there may not be much that Apple could do to prevent Time Machine backups from being encrypted by hackers -- Reed said that KeRanger would have spotted any drive "mounted" to the Mac, a task that Time Machine does in the background when it initiates a scheduled backup -- Mac users can recover a ransomware-locked system if they have multiple backups, both Olson and Reed said.

"Ideally, you should have multiple backup systems, with only one connected to your computer at one time," said Reed. "Redundancy is good."

Storing one backup offsite is also a good idea, added Olson, a tip that ensures data survivability in case of natural disaster, theft or fire.

This story, "First Mac ransomware had sights on encrypting backups, too" was originally published by Computerworld .
The latest version of MapR's Converged Data Platform (CDP) has Docker -- and Apache Mesos -- on its mind.

The update adds the MapR Posix Client, which exposes the proprietary MapR-FS filesystem used by CDP to Docker containers as "a fully distributed, secure, reliable, read-write file system." It also allows Docker containers to access the MapR-FS file system for persistent storage. Thus, applications in containers can use MapR-FS instead of Docker data volumes as a store for persistent data. Through this mechanism, users can "deploy data-oriented applications in Docker with the assurance that critical data will be persisted across application or server failures, or container movement across servers with no manual intervention."

[ Dig into the the red-hot open source framework in InfoWorld's beginner's guide to Docker. Pick it up today! | Get a digest of the day's top tech stories in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

Further, CDP implements Apache Myriad, an open source framework for scaling Hadoop clusters with Apache Mesos. Apache Myriad allows various elements within CDP to work with Mesos as a management system. Mesos was devised as an application deployment and resource management framework for whole data centers; in contrast, YARN, the Yet Another Resource Negotiator job framework used in modern Hadoop deployments, only deals with Hadoop jobs.

Myriad lets Mesos launch and manage YARN node managers and, thus, YARN jobs. MapR claims this allows a convenient path to multitenanted architectures, with Myriad partitioning resources between multiple YARN governors.

YARN and Mesos are hard to reconcile because they differ philosophically in how they request and allocate resources. Mesos offers details about available resources, so the best fit for the job at hand can be calculated. YARN makes decisions about scheduling, so resources managed by both frameworks have to be kept separate. Myriad, by contrast, allows resources to be allocated evenly across both frameworks.

Myriad was created in part by MapR, which becomes the first major commercial Hadoop distribution to make use of the project for production. That said, Myriad has since been received by the Apache Foundation for potential stewardship, so it's possible other distributions -- Hortonworks, Cloudera, Pivotal -- could add Myriad in time.

The growing use of containers has inspired novel approaches to data locality. Cisco, for instance, has new hardware designs intended to alleviate the problem, but MapR's strategy resides entirely in software.
When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella extolled his company's love for Linux -- an open source operating system it previously opposed -- it would be natural to assume that commitment came with a few caveats. On Monday, the company doubled down on its love for open source in one of the most surprising ways possible.

SQL Server, one of the most popular pieces of database server software, and a crown jewel of Microsoft's enterprise software empire, is coming to Linux.

It's a shocking move from Microsoft, after Nadella first professed love for Linux in late 2014. The company plans to have SQL Server available for Linux by the middle of next year, Microsoft Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie said in a blog post. The goal is to provide a consistent data platform across both Windows and Linux.

SQL Server for Linux will carry key features that users expect from the server software, including a Stretch Database service that lets administrators send data from on-premises servers to the Azure cloud for storage while keeping it accessible for applications that query a particular database table.

"This is an enormously important decision for Microsoft, allowing it to offer its well-known and trusted database to an expanded set of customers," IDC analyst Al Gillen said. "By taking this key product to Linux, Microsoft is proving its commitment to being a cross-platform solution provider."

Starting on Monday, the company is rolling out a private beta test of the software with the core relational database components of SQL Server. It's unclear when the public will be able to try SQL Server on Linux.

All of this comes as Microsoft has sent out its first release candidate beta for SQL Server 2016 on Windows, too.
Pigs sure sprouted wings yesterday when Microsoft announced, without warning or preface, that it was doing the previously unthinkable: producing a version of SQL Server for Linux.

This shakeup has implications far beyond SQL Server. Here are eight insights into why this matters -- for Microsoft, its customers, and the rest of the Linux- and cloud-powered world.

1. This is huge

The facts alone are seismic. Microsoft has for the first time issued one of its server products on a platform other than Windows Server.

You wanted proof Microsoft is a very different company now than it was even two or three years ago? Here it is. Under Steve Ballmer's "Linux is cancer" reign, the most Microsoft could muster was a grudging admission of Linux's existence. Now there's the sense that Linux is a crucial part of Microsoft's future and a vital component in its continued survival and success -- definitely not Dad's Microsoft.

2. Microsoft isn't going open source with its server products

You can definitely drop the thought of Microsoft open-sourcing its server products. Even on a practical level, this is a no-go; the legal clearances alone for all the first- and third-party work that went into any one of Microsoft's server products would take forever.

Don't consider this a prelude to Microsoft SQL Server becoming more like PostgreSQL or MySQL/MariaDB. Rather, it's Microsoft following in the footsteps of vendors like Oracle. That database giant has no problem producing an entirely proprietary server product for Linux and a Linux distribution to go with it. But that doesn't make Oracle an "open source company" -- a misleading term spawned mainly by observing one outlier, Red Hat.

Microsoft's newfound enthusiasm for open source is largely practical, and the same goes for this embrace of Linux. Microsoft's biggest motivation is exposure and market share. Linux servers remain far more numerous than Windows Server installations, so why not attempt to capture some of that market?

3. This is a slap at Oracle

Another motive, directly inferred from the above, is that this move is a shot across Oracle's bow -- taking the fight for database market share directly to one of the chief platforms.

Oracle has the most revenue in the commercial database market, but chalk that up to its costly and complex licensing. However, Microsoft SQL Server has the largest number of licensed instances. Linux-bound customers looking for a commercial-quality database backed by a major vendor won't have to settle for Oracle or contemplate setting up instances of Windows Server simply to get a SQL Server fix.

The threat isn't an immediate one. Migrating away from Oracle is never a snap (even if most of the obstacles revolve around licensing terms rather than technical issues). In the meantime, Oracle can continue to milk its installed base, either in-place or by moving customers to its burgeoning cloud environment.

Still, Microsoft has been trying to carve more slices from Oracle's pie, and new customers seeking a solution of Oracle's caliber on Linux are likely to gravitate to SQL Server on the basis of cost alone, now that the choice exists.

4. MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL are in no danger

This part goes almost without saying. Few if any MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL users would switch to SQL Server -- even its free SQL Server Express edition. Those who want a robust, commercial-grade open source database already have PostgreSQL as an option, and those who opt for MySQL/MariaDB because it's convenient and familiar won't bother with SQL Server.

5. We're still in the dark about the details

So far Microsoft hasn't provided any specifics about which editions of SQL Server will be available for Linux. In addition to SQL Server Express, Microsoft offers Standard, Enterprise, and Business Intelligence SKUs, all with widely varying feature sets. Ideally, Microsoft will offer all editions of SQL Server, but it's more practical for the company to start with the edition that has the largest market (Standard, most likely) and work outward.

6. There's a lot in SQL Server to like

For those not well-versed in SQL Server's feature set, it might be hard to understand the appeal the product holds for enterprise customers. But SQL Server 2014 and 2016 both introduced features appealing to everyone trying to build modern enterprise business applications: in-memory processing by way of table pinning, support for JSON, encrypted backups, Azure-backed storage and disaster recovery, integration with R for analytics, and so on. Having access to all this without needing to jump platforms -- or at the very least make room for Windows Server somewhere -- is a bonus.

7. The economics of the cloud made this all but inevitable

So saith Larry Seltzer at ZDNet, and I agree. As more enterprise computing moves into the cloud (although some will by necessity remain in-house), Linux will remain appealing as a target platform because it's both economical and well-understood as a cloud environment.

As Seltzer argues, "SQL Server for Linux keeps Microsoft in the picture even as customers move more of their computing into public and private clouds." A world where Microsoft doesn't have a presence on platforms other than Windows is a world without Microsoft, period.

8. This is only the beginning

Seltzer also believes other Microsoft server applications, like Sharepoint Server and Exchange Server, could make the jump to Linux in time.

The biggest sticking point is not whether the prospective audience for those products exists on Linux, but whether the products have dependencies on Windows that aren't easily waved off. SQL Server might have been the first candidate for Linux deployment in part because it had the smallest number of such dependencies.

IDC analyst Al Hilwa noted in an email that SQL Server actually had its roots in the Unix world, since it originally began as a joint project with Sybase to support OS/2. "The product was evolved exclusively for Windows until this week when a Linux version, rumored to be in the lab for years, became available," Hilwa said.

The implication is that Microsoft has had this project in the works for some time and, by the same token, has potential solutions to the dependencies that other Windows Server products have on Windows.

The obstacles inherent in porting Windows Server apps to other platforms can be overcome in time with expertise, effort, and motivation. Microsoft has never lacked for the first two, and now it has the third as well: the motivation to not remain hidebound by the Windows legacy as the rest of the world moves on.
Triple Digit Hog Rally Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 4:40PM CDT Lean hogs extended their rally into the weekend with another $0.20 to $2.10 gains in the front months. December was up the most on Friday, but is still a $1.40 discount to Feb. Through the week, December... HEZ22 : 89.125s (+2.41%) HEJ23 : 93.850s (+0.78%) KMZ22 : 98.000s (+1.16%)

Cotton Limits the Weeks Pullback with Friday Strength Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 4:40PM CDT Cotton futures traded in a wide 413 point range from +253 to -160 (Dec). At the close the front months were 32 to 173 points in the black. December closed the week at a net 402 point loss, having spent... CTZ22 : 79.13s (+2.24%) CTH23 : 78.55s (+1.67%) CTK23 : 78.15s (+1.44%)

Wheats Closed Mixed on Friday Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 4:40PM CDT CBT SRW futures ended the last trade day of the week with 1 to 1 1/2 cent gains. For the December contract that meant a net 9 cent loss for the week. KC futures pulled back by 1/2 a cent to 2 cents on... ZWZ22 : 850-6s (+0.18%) ZWH23 : 869-4s (+0.17%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.8533 (+0.24%) KEZ22 : 948-2s (-0.16%) KEPAWS.CM : 9.0581 (-0.16%) MWZ22 : 961-4s (-0.10%)

Nov Beans Held under $14 Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 4:40PM CDT The Friday session ended with soybean futures 3 1/4 to 4 cents higher with November options having expired. Nov soybeans spent the week in a 41 1/2 cent trading range and ended 11 3/4 cents higher from... ZSX22 : 1395-4s (+0.29%) ZSPAUS.CM : 13.5026 (+0.29%) ZSF23 : 1404-4s (+0.32%) ZSH23 : 1411-6s (+0.28%)

New Contract High for Dec Cattle Barchart - Fri Oct 21, 4:40PM CDT Cattle added another 62 to 75 cents to the upside on Friday, with December printing a new life of contract high of $152.50. Dec gained a net $4.65 for the week. The weeks cash trade picked up on Thursday... LEV22 : 150.475s (+0.47%) LEZ22 : 152.425s (+0.49%) LEG23 : 155.525s (+0.44%) GFV22 : 175.275s (-0.17%) GFX22 : 178.350s (+0.45%)
Update 3/16/16  Sovran Self Storage Inc. CEO David Rogers and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Gregoire also participated in a roundtable presentation during the 2016 Global Property CEO Conference. The executives were scheduled to speak today at 7:30 a.m. ET.

A webcast of the presentation was broadcast live via Veracast. A replay will be available through June 14, according to a Sovran press release.

Based in Buffalo, N.Y., Sovran operates the Uncle Bobs Self Storage brand, comprising more than 500 facilities in 26 states. Its portfolio of owned and managed facilities comprises more than 36 million square feet.

3/7/16  Spencer F. Kirk, CEO for self-storage real estate investment trust (REITs) Extra Space Storage Inc., will make a roundtable presentation during the 2016 Global Property CEO Conference, an event designed for institutional investors. Produced by Citigroup Inc., the conference will be held March 13-16 at Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Fla. The event typically features presentations from more than 100 companies from around the world. Although investor attendance is by invitation only, some sessions will be offered through live webcasts or audio, and may be made available as recordings after the event.

Kirk will present at 8:10 a.m. ET on March 14. A live webcast will be available through Veracast, with a recording available through June 14.

Previous conferences have featured executive presentations from all four of the largest publicly traded U.S. self-storage REITs, but only Extra Space has announced its intention to participate this year.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space owns or operates 1,347 self-storage properties in 36 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. The companys properties comprise approximately 900,000 units and 101 million square feet of rentable space.
Several real estate firms that specialize in self-storage commercial property have released online reports highlighting key performance metrics from the fourth-quarter 2015 financial results issued by the five largest publicly traded, U.S.-based self-storage real estate investment trusts (REITs)CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage Inc., National Storage Affiliates Trust, Public Storage Inc. and Sovran Self Storage Inc.

Bayview Advisors released its 10-page Self-Storage Industry and REIT Report Q4 2015 and End of Year 2015, which highlights year-over-year results on rental revenue, tracks quarterly occupancy during the last 16 quarters, and includes dividend amounts, facility counts, square footage and stock prices for the five REITs as well as AMERCO, the parent company of U-Haul International Inc. It also includes self-storage performance summaries for each company.

A three-page Self Storage REIT Report from the national self-storage team at JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) offers a collective overview of storage REIT performance as well as individual breakdowns of the five REITs on expenses, NOI, occupancy and revenue.

An eight-page Q4 2015 Self-Storage REIT Report from the National Self Storage Group (NSSG) of Marcus & Millichap and The Mele Group, a self-storage advisory firm and partner affiliate of NSSG, offers a collective overview of storage REIT performance as well as individual breakdowns of the five REITs on acquisition activity, net operating income, occupancy, revenue and other metrics.

The 32-page Self Storage Market Overview from MJ Partners Real Estate Services offers a market overview, including capital summaries, implied cap rates, investment activity and portfolio structure for the five REITs, as well as chart data and side-by-side comparisons on self-storage facility performance. It also contains information from analysts on macroeconomic trends impacting the U.S. storage industry as well as a look at storage REIT performance as a whole.

Finally, a five-page 4Q15 Self Storage REIT Report from NGKF Capital Markets provides an overview and analysis of self-storage REIT performance collectively and in comparison to other REIT sectors. It includes market indexes and comparison charts examining self-storage REIT occupancy, adjusted FFO, dividends per share, same-store revenue and historical stock prices. It also includes highlights from all five REIT fourth-quarter financial statements.

Launched last year, BayView is a boutique firm specializing in self-storage acquisition, development, facility expansion and renovation, refinancing, and sales. It has offices in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Tampa, Fla.

JLL is an investment-management firm specializing in real estate services for property investors and occupiers. The company has more than 230 corporate offices around the world and a global workforce of more than 60,000 employees. It completed $138 billion in acquisitions, finance and sales transactions in 2015.

The Mele Group is Marcus & Millichaps top self-storage advisory team, according to a press release. The group's client base consists of individual property owners, real estate investment trusts, and private institutional-level funds and firms. In 2015, the group closed 47 self-storage transactions in 11 states for more than $280 million.

Marcus & Millichap has more than 1,500 investment professionals in offices throughout the United States and Canada. The company closed more than 7,600 transactions in 2014 with a value of approximately $33.1 billion.

Based in Chicago, MJ Partners is a full-service real estate brokerage and investment banking company specializing in commercial real estate, mortgage banking and consulting services. The company's clients include major financial institutions, private equity funds, REITs, opportunity funds, insurance companies, pension-fund advisers, corporations, private developers and entrepreneurial businesses.

NGKF Capital Markets is a group within commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF), which offers investment sales, transaction management, debt placement, proprietary lending, and appraisal and valuation advisory services. Together with its affiliates and London-based partner Knight Frank, NGKF employs more than 11,000 professionals, operating from more than 340 offices on five continents.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney stepped into the line of fire today during a parliamentary hearing over the central banks views of a possible U.K. departure from the European Union. Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a so-called Eurosceptic, aggressively attacked Carney for statements the central banker made that argued that a U.K. exit from the EU would have negative economic repercussions. According to Rees-Mogg, Carney exceeded the mandate of the Bank of England by wading into a political debate. Carney responded that the Bank of England was solely commenting on economic factors and had made no recommendations of a political nature. During the session, the pound sterling declined versus major currencies as traders assessed potential political motivations for a Brexit, despite short-term damage that most experts agree would ensue. For European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, who testified before the European Parliament that it was his view that concessions made to the U.K. were insufficient to guarantee that it would vote to remain within the EU, this comes as a further complication before his banks monetary policy announcement this Thursday. Struggling with slow growth that has exacerbated deflationary pressures, Draghi is loath to lose critical intra-EU trade with Britain.

Japanese GDP revision better than forecast, if still negative. Today the Japanese cabinet office released revised data in which GDP contracted 0.3 percent versus the prior quarter or an annualized 1.1 percent. Despite the contraction, the figures marked an improvement over initial estimates and outperformed consensus forecasts. Still, the reading confirms the enormity of the issues facing Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as their efforts to combat deflation have been thwarted by global volatility that has driven the yen higher despite easing efforts. Current consensus estimates among economists project another contraction for the first quarter to confirm a recession, with the yen rising more than 5 percent versus the U.S. dollar year-to-date.

Chinese trade data disappoints. Both import and export data for February issued by Chinas General Administration of Customs today fell well short of consensus expectations with a 25.4 percent year-over-year decline in shipments abroad. The data marked the sharpest contraction on record in local currency terms. While sobering, the data is subject to seasonal distortions caused by the timing of the Lunar New Year celebration that effectively shut down commerce for more than a week.

SCOTUS refuses to hear firms tax appeal. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from three financial services companies seeking to overturn unfavorable tax rulings. Two banks, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and BB&T Corp., and insurer American International Group executed structured transactions designed by Barclays to generate foreign tax credits that lower courts deemed to be abusive since they were solely motivated to offset taxes. More than $1.5 billion in deductions were denied to the three financial firms.

SEC sues over failed Curt Schilling video game. The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled yesterday a suit against Wells Fargo & Co. as well as the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., a state agency, alleging that the two misled investors during a bond offering by a video game company run by Hall-of-Fame Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The suit alleges that Schillings firm informed both the bank and agency that it required $75 million to launch its initial product but that this was not disclosed to investors who placed a total of $50 million with the firm. Schillings company, 38 Studios, subsequently defaulted after failing to find the additional capital.

Portfolio Perspective: Is Demand Rising in China?  Robert Savage, CCTrack Solutions

The biggest story overnight is in the China trade report  with imports minus 13.8 percent year over year  weaker than the minus 10 percent year over year expected. But these imports are better than the minus 18.8 percent from January and the minus 20.5 percent in February 2015. The timing of the Chinese Lunar New Year makes demand comparisons difficult and taints much of the report, however. Digging down into the details, the breakdown from the customs administration shows that imports of commodities in February were significantly higher in volume terms, even though their value is still falling due to the drop in global commodity prices. The volume of crude-oil imports jumped 24 percent year over year in February and iron-ore imports were up 8.3 percent year over year, suggesting companies are taking advantage of low global prices to start restocking on the expectation of a pickup in domestic economies. Data from Port Hedland, Australias largest iron-ore shipping hub, showed iron-ore exports rose to 36.6 million tons in February, up from 33.7 million tons in January. Februarys iron-ore imports, after adjusted for the number of working days, came to a new record of 4.6 million tons a day. Last December when iron-ore imports were at a monthly record, average daily imports were only 4.18 million tons. The same factors were at work for crude-oil imports, which also rose to a new daily record of eight million barrels in February after adjusting for working days.

Robert Savage is the chief executive officer of CCTrack Solutions, a hedge fund firm, in New York.
You need to be assertive but fair, and clear on the vision. Who needs to do what by when? You will continue to work harder with even greater focus. Youre accountable to other business owners buying into your vision.

You must have strong ownership of the brand and the ability to share it with a new network of business owners who must and will embrace it as their own.

You are OK with not having all the greatest ideas in your business, and more important, you are OK with encouraging this.

You will have taken legal advice and have a franchise agreement that has been developed with an authentic reputable franchise development and legal team.

You will develop a training arm for all franchisees composed of internal and external consultants/trainers.

You must have a recruiting system for franchisees that is more about de-selection than selection.

While franchising has slowed down in recent years from the rapid rates seen in the 1990s to early 2000s, it is an exciting method to grow your business. But the decision to travel down this route is often a more bright shiny light-driven campaign rather than a well-thought-out plan. And this, in turn, ends in failure. However, if done correctly, franchising can be a very effective way of expanding and growing your brand quickly.For well-run businesses with systems and processes, procedures and rules, franchising will provide benefits and satisfaction for all parties. However, be under no illusion. This is not an easy path to take. Establishing a business model that can be considered for franchising has to be undertaken with education, skill, patience and, not surprisingly, capital.And I have one bonus tip that I will explore a little further in the article  you simply must have a defined target market.So, what should business owners do if they believe their business has what it takes to become a franchise opportunity?Before anyone invests in your franchise, you need to be absolutely sure that you can define who your target markets are. You need to be clear about who will buy the product and why. You need to be able to identify them with great clarity. If you are a bookstore owner and are considering a franchised bookstore, its nogood to simply say, I know there are plenty of book lovers out there, so Ill be fine.Theres no room for vagueness, guessing, crossing fingers or hopeful estimations when it comes to this stuff. The skills and tools required to create an idea are very different from the skills and tools required to grow market share.Having made the decision to franchise your business, your franchisees are going to want to know that this will provide them with a product or service that they think other people or organizations want to buy. But thinking this and knowing how and why it will happen are two very different things. At some point in their busy lives, with all sorts of other options available to them, you want people to look at the product and say, Yes, this is what I need. These people or organizations are referred to as the target market, and you and the franchiseesneed to know exactly who they are, and how youre going to grow and service them.How do you know when your business is ready to be considered for franchising? Here are my top seven tips:1 Proof of concept, establishing a franchise system and preparing it for market can take as long as three years. The business needs to be making a healthy predictable profit  this is non-negotiable.2 The business should be making a positive cash flow without key/critical staff being present. Having theright management structure is also non-negotiable.3 There needs to be uniqueness  but not extreme uniqueness. The best uniqueness is often found in acustomer delight system.4 You have a predictable operations procedure with good systems and how-to manuals for all tasks, including testing and measuring for all activities.5 You have a proven lead generation system that delivers leads within a cost-per-lead budget.6 You have a progressed and defined sales system to ensure a 60% conversion on all leads, regardlessof the sales skills of the person selling.7 You have a culture of open, honest communication.So how do you tell when your business is suitable for franchising? When you know your business inside out! Your business is ready when you are not motivated by the initial capital investment of a franchisee. Ultimately, you will be ready when you already have enough money in your bank account; you will continue to invest in the training of your franchisees, ensuring the reputation of your brand and concept continues to growrelevance.This is a slightly amended version of an article written by Stefan Kazakis, business strategist and author of From Deadwood to Diamonds. It has been shortened to make it suitable for web publishing.
Small Broking Company of the Year

Medium Broking Company of the Year

Large Broking Company of the Year

Underwriting Agency of the Year

Direct General Insurance Company of the Year

Small - Medium General Insurance Company of the Year

Large General Insurance Company of the Year

Life Insurance Company of the Year

Innovation of the Year

Professional Services Firm of the Year

Service Provider to the Insurance Industry of the Year

Womens Employer of the Year

Youth Development Employer of the Year

Young Insurance Professional of the Year

Insurance Leader of the Year

ANZIIF Lifetime Achievement Award

Submissions for the 2016 Australian Insurance Industry Awards are now open; it has been announced by the Australian New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance ( ANZIIF ).Now in their 13year, the awards recognise the best and brightest in the insurance industry and Prue Willsford , CEO of ANZIIF, said that the event gives the industry a chance to celebrate their achievements.The Awards is an event for the entire industry and one that gives businesses an opportunity to promote their achievements and those of their staff, Willsford said.For this reason, we are inviting previous winners, finalists and submitting companies as well as businesses that have never participated to submit for the categories relevant to them.ANZIIF also unveiled the 16 categories of the awards, which will be presented by Asia Insurance Review as co-hosts, with submissions set to close on April 26:Last year, Marsh took out the Large Broker of the Year award whilst GSA won the Medium Broker title and Consult Insurance Solutions took out the Small broker award.
Insurance Business has unveiled its third annual Hot List which brings together the leading lights of the insurance industry.The 37-strong list features business leaders, Government ministers, educators and the heads of leading industry bodies and highlights the continual change the industry faces.Now in its third year, the Insurance Business Hot List is a great way to highlight the biggest challenges of the previous year and those set to meet them in the future.Insurance Business editor Tim Garratt said that compiling this years Hot List was a difficult task that highlights the strength in depth of the industry.Locking down a definitive list of hot insurance leaders is near impossible. This feature gives us the opportunity to spotlight a selection of key figures, who find themselves at the centre of activities and events likely to draw the interest of the wider insurance community, Garratt said.Readers will be unsurprised to see a number of the names and faces included in 2016. But there are some, whose profile may not be as high, currently doing work to which wed like to draw attention.Garratt noted that the Hot List is a way of highlighting the strong work being done across the industry in a variety of ways.Some may agree with our choices, and others may be surprised, Garratt continued.But what we want to achieve with this feature is to highlight some of the excellent work being undertaken across the general insurance space and those playing an integral role in making it happen.To view the Hot List, click here or to read the full e-magazine version of Insurance Business, click here.
Claims in the credit insurance space in February were the highest recorded since the height of the GFC in 2009, a leading player has revealed.National Credit Insurance Brokers ( NCI ) revealed the figures last week as 141 claims were received in February with a total claim value of $10,021,956.Major insolvencies across Australia, including Dick Smith, My Baby Warehouse and Allied Traffic Services, amongst others, all added to the claim pool in a significant way, NCI said.Kirk Cheesman, Managing Director of NCI said that the increased claims offer a timely reminder of the importance of credit cover.There has definitely been a major increase in the trade credit risk aspect over the past quarter, resulting in the highest level of claims received in a month by NCI for seven years, Cheesman said.It is a timely reminder why trade credit insurance gives comfort and assists businesses in protecting themselves against bad debts.Cheesman stressed that the current environment is not only important to those working in the space but for clients as they need to be kept aware of the changing landscape of the market.It is also a reminder to our clients to ensure they are trading within the terms and conditions of their policy, including advising us of any repayment plans, overdue amounts past maximum extension period and focusing on early collection with their clients, Cheesman continued.
XS Brokers, a wholesale brokerage and managing general agent based in Quincy, Massachusetts, has hired Gerard Prast as assistant vice president. Prast is based in the firms West Hartford, Connecticut, office.



Prast will be responsible for business development, continuing to grow the XS Brokers brand presence among retail agents throughout Connecticut and neighboring states.



Prast was most recently chief operating officer at the Continental Agency in Hamden, Connecticut. Prior to that, he worked with Nationwide and Crum & Forster in their commercial underwriting departments.

Topics Agencies Connecticut
CNA Hardy, a specialist commercial insurance provider for clients within the Lloyds and company markets, announced it has joined Lloyds Insurance Company (China) Ltd. in Shanghai by establishing CNA Hardy Underwriting division on the platform.

The company began operating from the platform on Jan. 1, 2016.

Cathy Sun has been appointed to lead the development of new business written through the Lloyds China platform, on behalf of CNA Hardy Syndicate 382.

Sun joins from XL Catlin, and has over 20 years industry experience predominantly in property, but also in casualty, construction and marine cargo. She is based in Shanghai and will lead new business development in China and manage CNA Hardys China domiciled risks.

CNA Hardys immediate focus in China, via Lloyds China, will initially be the same classes of business offered through its Singapore office. These are: property treaty, construction, marine and casualty. There will also be a focus on developing new lines of business as its experience in the market deepens.

Dave Brosnan, CEO of CNA Hardy said: We are delighted to announce our participation in the Lloyds China platform as we continue to build out our capabilities in Asia. This is an exciting time of growth for us in the region and being part of the Lloyds China platform will ensure we continue to build enduring relationships with our global customers and producers, delivering innovative and specialized solutions by product and industry specialism.

Source: CNA Hardy

Topics Excess Surplus Lloyd's China
A leading data breach response insurer says its breach response unit handled 60 percent more data breaches in 2015 than in 2014 in the U.S., with a concentration of incidents in the healthcare, financial services and higher education sectors.

Breaches caused by either hacking or malware nearly doubled in relative frequency over the past year. In 2015, 32 percent of all incidents were caused by hacking or malware vs. 18 percent in 2014.

Twenty-four percent of all breaches in 2015 were due to unintended disclosure of records such as a misdirected email, which was down from 32 percent in 2014., according the report by specialty insurer Beazley. The loss of non-electronic physical records accounted for 16 percent of all breaches in 2015, which is unchanged from 2014.

We saw a significant rise in incidents caused by hacking or malware in the past year, said Katherine Keefe, global head of Beazleys Breach Response (BBR) services unit. This was especially noticeable in healthcare where the percentage of data breaches caused by hacking or malware more than doubled.

Beazley said its findings are based on its response to more than 2,000 breaches in the past two years: 777 incidents in 2014 and 1,249 in 2015.

The proportion of breaches involving third party vendors more than tripled in the past year, rising from 6 percent of breaches in 2014 to 18 percent of breaches in 2015.

Ransomware in Healthcare

Hackers are increasingly employing ransomware to lock up an organizations data, holding it until a ransom is paid in nearly untraceable Bitcoin. Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles reported suffering a ransomware attack in February 2016 and ultimately paid the hackers $17,000 in Bitcoin. The FBI has warned that healthcare systems are more vulnerable to attacks than those of other sectors.

Beazley said this trend is borne out by its data, which show breaches involving ransomware among Beazley clients more than doubled to 43 in 2015. The trend appears to be accelerating in 2016. Based on figures for the first two months of the year, ransomware attacks are projected to increase by 250 percent in 2016.

Clearly, new malware programs, including ransomware, are having a big impact, said Paul Nikhinson, privacy breach response services manager for BBR Services. He said hacking or malware was the leading cause of data breaches in the healthcare industry in 2015, representing 27 percent of all breaches, more than physical loss at 20 percent.

Healthcare is a big target for hackers because of the richness of medical records for identity theft and other crimes. In fact, a medical record is worth over 16 times more than a credit card record, he said.

Higher Education

Higher education also experienced an increase in breaches due to hacking or malware with these accounting for 35 percent of incidents in 2015, up from 26 percent in 2015, in Beazleys account data.

Colleges and universities are reporting increased spear phishing incidents in which hackers send personalized, legitimate-looking emails with harmful links or attachments. The relatively open nature of campus IT systems, widespread use of social media by students and a lack of the restrictive controls common in many corporate settings make higher education institutions particularly vulnerable to data breaches, according to the Beazley specialists.

Financial Services

In the financial services sector, hacking or malware accounted for 27 percent of industry data breaches in 2015 versus 23 percent in 2014. Trojan programs continued to be a popular hacking device, according to Beazleys data.

Protection Steps

Attacks often succeed by exploiting misconfigured systems or human error, such as luring employees to respond to phishing e-mails. Beazley offered five steps organizations can take to help protect their data:

Train employees to be aware of the information they need to protect  personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI)  and to avoid falling for phishing attacks and other forms of social engineering.

Develop a robust incident response plan. Data breaches cannot be well handled on the fly. Advance planning can help avert serious reputational or financial harm. A well thought out and practiced incident response plan should guide management through the life cycle of a breach  from the initial suspicion that something is amiss to full-blown forensic analysis, legal advice, customer communications and PR assistance.

Categorize potential data risks by threat level. Over-reacting to a breach can be as damaging as under-reacting.

Review supplier contracts carefully to ensure that your customers data is well protected when it is in the hands of suppliers or vendors.

Encrypt data, particularly mobile devices, laptops, and thumb drives, which are most likely to be lost.

Source: Beazley Breach Response (BBR)

Related:

Topics Trends Cyber Training Development
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a Geismar, La., biodiesel plant $70,000 and has cited a biofuels company over a September hydrogen gas explosion.

The Advocate reports that OSHA also cited Renewable Energy Group, an Iowa-based biofuels producer, on with three willful safety violations over the companys alleged failure to ensure that a flammable chemical was no longer in a plant pipeline that was under repair.

An OSHA field operations manual states that a willful violation means a company demonstrated disregard or indifference to employee safety.

REG spokesman Anthony Hulen says the company disagrees with OSHAs findings and the classification of the citation. Hulen says the company will contest the citation. OSHA officials were not available for comment.

The Sept. 3 explosion injured four workers.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Workers' Compensation Louisiana
Two taxicab drivers are suing the city of Jackson, Mississippi, claiming the city has imposed restrictive regulations on the taxi industry.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy announced March 2 that taxicab drivers John Davis and Shad Denson have filed the lawsuit, claiming that the citys regulation have prevented them from starting their own taxicab companies.

Mississippi Center for Public Policy attorney Mike Hurst says that to operate a company in Jackson, one must possess a Jackson business license, a physical office in Jackson staffed 24 hours a day and at least eight vehicles.

Davis and Denson argue that its nearly impossible to start a business, while companies such as Uber operate under much more lenient regulations.

Councilman Melvin Priester says he cant comment on pending litigation.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Personal Auto Mississippi
The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that an artist can sue UPS in state court over two paintings removed from their shipping tube while in transit and sold by the company UPS contracts to handle its lost-and-found operation.

The court ruled that artist Ivana Vidovic Mlinars lawsuit can go to trial, rejecting UPS argument that federal law applies.

Mlinar didnt purchase insurance in 2005 when she shipped her paintings, Advice and The Messenger, from a South Florida package store that used UPS. The paintings, which she valued at $30,000, were headed to a New York City exhibit that she saw as a major opportunity to advance her career. When the shipping tube arrived at the gallery, however, it had been cut open and was empty.

Mlinar contacted UPS, which told her it couldnt help her directly because the package store was its customer, not her  even though she had been given a UPS receipt and tracking number. The package store gave her a $100 coupon and she partly blamed herself for not buying insurance.

But the situation changed in 2007. Mara Hatfield, Mlinars attorney, said the artist was contacted by a Missouri man who had bought Advice from a company, Cargo Largo. UPS contracts with that Kansas City, Missouri,-based company to handle its lost-and-found operation. Any goods Cargo Largo cant return, it gets to sell.

Hatfield said Cargo Largo sold Advice to the Missouri man for $1,000  a fraction of its value. He also acquired The Messenger from another party. Realizing the paintings value, he listed them on Craigslist, offering to trade them for a used Mercedes-Benz. He also contacted Mlinar, who had placed an identification sticker on the back of her paintings.

This development led Mlinar to file suit in Florida court against UPS, Cargo Largo and the packing store, alleging they had profited from criminal activity  the theft of her paintings  and had violated her copyright. She also accused UPS of deceptive trade practices by having the packing store give her a UPS receipt and make it appear she was a UPS customer.

The buyer returned the paintings in exchange for being dropped from the copyright lawsuit.

UPS argued that under a century-old federal law governing interstate shipping, lawsuits involving lost goods must be tried in federal court. The companys lawyers argued that since the two-year federal statute of limitations had expired, Mlinar couldnt sue in federal court, either.

Floridas lower courts agreed with UPS, but the state Supreme Court reinstated the lawsuit March 3 and ordered it heard. The seven members ruled Mlinar has a possible argument that her paintings werent simply lost, but that criminal activity took place. Under those circumstances, the lawsuit can be tried in state court.

UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said that the company looks forward to trying the case and that Mlinar has not provided any evidence substantiating wrongdoing by the company.

Cargo Largo did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Florida Legislation Missouri
Duke Energy is violating state pollution laws because its coal ash pits are polluting nearby waterways, North Carolina environmental regulators said Friday. Fines are being considered.

The state Division of Water Resources sent letters to the countrys largest electric company accusing Duke Energy of violating state law by allowing wastewater to leak from coal ash basins at 12 of the companys 14 current or former coal-burning power plants.

Wastewater is what leaks from coal ash ponds into nearby water bodies. Coal ash is the residue left after decades of burning coal to generate power. It contains toxic materials like arsenic and chromium.

Duke Energy, which has 30 days to respond officially to regulators, said in a statement Friday there is nothing new here and work to shut down the ponds is underway.

The best way to reduce or eliminate seeps altogether is to safely remove the water from ash basins and close them in ways that protect people and the environment, the statement read. Thats exactly what Duke Energy is doing right now.

State regulators did not issue violation notices for two closed coal-ash plants  Riverbend near Mount Holly and Sutton near Wilmington. The Sutton plants basins dont seep and state regulators issued a permit for seeps at Riverbend, state spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco wrote in an email.

Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Frank Holleman said his group has been telling Gov. Pat McCrorys environmental agency, the Department of Environmental Quality, about the illegal discharges for three years.

It has taken DEQ three years to take this proposed action. But still, at many of these sites, DEQ is only proposing to issue fines, Holleman wrote in an email. Proposed fines will not do these communities or their rivers one bit of good.

The utility pointed to comments made by department Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder to a state legislative committee in January that every earthen impoundment  like an ash basin  has seeps. Reeder told lawmakers the leakages present a very low risk to dirtying surface waters beyond what regulatory standards allow.

DEQ is holding hearings this month to get public input on proposed classifications for all 32 coal-ash pits at 14 plants that will set their clean-up schedule. The agency has said only the basins at four plants the General Assembly already designated as high risk must be excavated and trucked away from waterways.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pollution North Carolina
Its looking like Florida lawmakers will not provide resolution for two controversial issues currently facing the Florida insurance industry, this year at least.

With just three days left in the 2016 Florida Session, legislative attempts at addressing the rising cost of water damage claims from the misuse of assignment of benefits and regulating and mandating insurance requirements for the Florida ridesharing industry have stalled.

The bills introduced in the Florida House and Senate meant to address the assignment of benefits abuse problem  being called a critical issue by insurers, consumer and industry advocates  were dropped in mid-February. However, a compromise bill introduced by another lawmaker still has a glimmer of hope of being passed before the 2016 session ends on March 11.

According to the Florida Sun Sentinel, an amendment that required notification to insurance companies soon after a contract is signed between a policyholder and repair contractor was added late last week to the bill. The amendment was one aspect of AOB reform requested by the insurance industry. As of March 8, the bill was still on the table, but insurance insiders say it doesnt offer all the protections and reforms the industry wanted.

Meanwhile, insurers and their advocates warned that Florida homeowners can expect rate increases if something isnt done to deal with skyrocketing water losses, particularly in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Given the latest data, rates in those counties would have to nearly triple to pay for non-wind related losses, the government-backed property insurer Citizens said in statement. Under Florida law, Citizens rate increases are limited to 10 percent a year.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) released its analysis of the data call it issued last fall to homeowners insurers. According to OIR, water losses have increased by 46 percent over a five-year period, and insurers would have to raise rates by at least 10 percent in order to cover the increase.

It also found a dramatic rise in the use of assignment of benefits for water loss claims of at least 10 percent from 2010-2015.

This is a true crisis, said Barry Gilway, Citizens president, CEO and executive director. Im not sure people are fully aware of that.

Citizens spokesperson Michael Peltier said in an e-mail to Insurance Journal that regardless of the legislative outcome, Citizens has filed a slate of proposed rule changes with OIR, which will be ruled on at a later date. One such change is the requirement that policyholders give 72 hours notice to Citizens or their insurance agent in the event of a loss or damage to covered property.

Ridesharing

Some had hoped this would be the year the state would finally pass a law regulating the ridesharing industry, but that doesnt look to be in the cards after all.

Instead, the Florida debate has gotten even more contentious, with taxi companies and ridesharing, or transportation network companies (TNCs), escalating their attacks against each other.

The state has been inundated with negative ads by taxi companies against ridesharing firm Uber as legislation not supported by either industry is at a standstill in both the House and Senate. Uber launched attack ads against Senate President Andy Gardiner and taxi company Mears Transportation, but they were pulled from YouTube for copyright infringement, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Uber is blaming Mears for their lack of progress in passing legislation this year in Florida  legislation by the way that will have zero impact on whether Uber continues to operate in Florida, but instead will save them millions in taxes, insurance and legal costs. Who wouldnt like that? said Roger Chapin, executive vice president, Public Affairs, for Mears.

Chapin, whose company Mears is also a member of the Florida Taxicab Association, said the House version of the TNC bill was passed in the form Uber approved. The Senate version called for stricter insurance requirements and didnt address other aspects of ridesharing that have been part of similar state TNC insurance models. The Florida Taxicab Association has been pushing for this version to go through.

Logan McFaddin, state government relations regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers of America (PCI), said the House version addresses insurance coverage requirements for TNC drivers and also deals with other regulatory issues. It is considered TNC model legislation and is similar to what has been passed in 29 other states. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has also said he approves of this model.

However, taxi cab companies argue the House bill offers Uber and others like it a competitive advantage by not requiring the same level of insurance coverage and eliminating other passenger protections.

The Florida Taxicab Association believes all vehicle for hire drivers, whether they be taxi, rideshare, or transportation network company drivers should be required to pass a Level II background check that includes fingerprinting and Uber drivers should be required to have adequate insurance 24/7, the Florida Taxicab Association said in a statement.

McFaddin said if Florida lawmakers fail to pass a bill this session, ridesharing regulations will continue to be controlled at a county level statewide, and the insurance requirement will still be up in the air.

Related:

Topics Carriers Florida Legislation
Julie Diane Shinar, 44, of Long Beach, Calif., was convicted of theft by embezzlement in Long Beach Superior Court.

Shinar was ordered to serve three years of formal probation and pay $29,158 in restitution to her victims.

Shinar reportedly received cash payments from clients and instead of remitting the payments to the insurance carrier she used the funds for her own benefit between November 2011 and February 2013.

Similar to a Ponzi scheme, Shinar used payments from some clients to cover the policy premiums for whose cash she embezzled, according to the California Department of Insurance.

Clients who paid by check never received a policy and most clients were unaware of Shinars action. The embezzlement was discovered during a routine insurance company audit of Shinars trust account, according to CDI.

During the course of the insurance carriers investigation, Shinar admitted to keeping the policyholders premiums for her personal use. The insurance company terminated Shinar and notified the department of the misappropriation of funds, which prompted the CDI investigation.

Shinar violated her fiduciary responsibility as a trusted insurance broker to scam consumers, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in a statement. Shinars theft left policyholders exposed to significant financial risk, leaving them liable and without coverage.

Topics California Agencies
A nationwide mortgage lender is appealing a $213,000 emotional distress judgment awarded to a Bellevue, Wash. mom who was fighting to keep her home.

Leticia Lucero sued Cenlar after the company failed to notify lenders her home was no longer in foreclosure. She then noticed charges amounting to more than $26,000 on her mortgage.

Judge Robert Lasnik, a federal judge in Seattle, found the company was annoyed Lucero sued and was tacking its legal fees related to her case onto her mortgage.

The judge wrote in his opinion that nothing in state law allows Cenlar to make Lucero pay the companys legal fees.

Cenlar could not be reached for comment.

An attorney for Lucero says the ruling could mean other cases where homeowners argue lenders are causing emotional distress during negotiations.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Washington Homeowners
Panoramica privacy

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What Is a REIT ETF?

Real estate investment trust (REIT) ETFs are exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest the majority of their assets in equity REIT securities and related derivatives. REIT ETFs are passively managed around an index of publicly-traded real estate owners. Two frequently used benchmarks are the MSCI U.S. REIT Index and the Dow Jones U.S. REIT Index, which cover about two-thirds of the aggregate value of the domestic, publicly-traded REIT market.

Key Takeaways Real estate investment trust (REIT) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) invest in equity REITs and related derivatives.

REIT ETFs are passively managed and designed to mirror REIT indexes.

These ETFs tend to be top-heavy, where the largest REITs make up a greater weighting.

Investing in REITs through a REIT ETF is a way for shareholders to engage with this sector without needing to personally contend with its complexities.

1:48 An Introduction To Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

How REIT ETFs Work

Real estate investment trust (REIT) securities have traits of both equities and fixed income securities. Their high-dividend yields provide consistent income, but valuations can swing along with the equity market. REITs must pay out the majority of profits to investors each year. Many REIT ETFs are stakeholders in REITs that own income properties that generate money through rent and leasing activity. Such properties can include warehouses, apartment complexes, and hotels.

Investors should closely read prospectus materials when researching REIT ETFs. Many different indexes exist with varying areas of focus such as commercial mortgages and high-risk mortgages. Investors may unknowingly have exposure to these more "risker" areas of the real estate market.

Special Considerations

REIT ETFs are by design intended to emulate or mirror REIT indexes. This means that REIT ETFs may be top-heavy with the largest REITs making up a greater weight of their value. A REIT ETF might invest in smaller REITs but typically this is done to a lesser degree.

Some perspectives view the REIT ETF model as a way for investors to earn steady returns over time. While they might seem highly concentrated on the top REITs, those REITs have developed track records for performing well and generating revenue. REITs must also pay at least 90% of its income to shareholders via dividends, making them solid dividend investments.

Though much of the real estate market was hit hard during the financial crisis, many REITs continued to prosper. The fiscal durability of such REITs is often attributed to experienced management. The leadership at a large REIT tends to have a specialized understanding of the real estate market and its fluctuations.

Investing in REITs through a REIT ETF is a way for shareholders to engage with this sector without needing to personally contend with its complexities. The largest REITs generate a major portion of the industrys revenue. This does not make REITs immune to market shifts. Some REITs have faced steep price declines that may have followed excess speculation by investors.

Investing through a REIT ETF might not allow for direct control over which REITs shares will be purchased. Investors can study the REITs that are being invested in as well as the portfolio of properties they hold.
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Monday, Oct. 19, 1987 is known as Black Monday. On that day, stockbrokers in New York, London, Hong Kong, Berlin, Tokyo and just about any other city with an exchange stared at the figures running across their displays with a growing sense of dread. A financial strut had buckled, and the strain brought world markets tumbling down.

Key Takeaways The "Black Monday" stock market crash of Oct. 19, 1987, saw U.S. markets fall more than 20% in a single day.

It is thought that the cause of the crash was precipitated by computer program-driven trading models that followed a portfolio insurance strategy as well as investor panic.

Precursors of the crash also lay in a series of monetary and foreign trade agreements that depreciated the U.S. dollar in order to adjust trade deficits and then attempted to stabilize the dollar at its new lower value.

Program Trading and Portfolio Insurance

On that day in the United States, sell orders piled upon sell orders as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Index both shed value in excess of 20%. There had been talk of the U.S. entering a bear cyclethe bulls had been running since 1982but the markets gave very little warning to the then-new Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan.

Greenspan hurried to slash interest rates and called upon banks to flood the system with liquidity. He had expected a drop in the value of the dollar due to an international tiff with the other G7 nations over the dollar's value, but the seemingly worldwide financial meltdown came as an unpleasant surprise that Monday.

Exchanges also were busy trying to lock out program trading orders. The idea of using computer systems to engage in large-scale trading strategies was still relatively new to Wall Street, and the consequences of a system capable of placing thousands of orders during a crash had never been tested.

One automated trading strategy that appears to have been at the center of exacerbating the Black Monday crash was portfolio insurance. The strategy is intended to hedge a portfolio of stocks against market risk by short-selling stock index futures. This technique, developed by Mark Rubinstein and Hayne Leland in 1976, was intended to limit the losses a portfolio might experience as stocks decline in price without that portfolio's manager having to sell off those stocks.

These computer programs automatically began to liquidate stocks as certain loss targets were hit, pushing prices lower. To the dismay of the exchanges, program trading led to a domino effect as the falling markets triggered more stop-loss orders. The frantic selling activated yet another round of stop-loss orders, which dragged markets into a downward spiral. Since the same programs also automatically turned off all buying, bids vanished all around the stock market at basically the same time.

While program trading explains some of the characteristic steepness of the crash (and the excessive rise in prices during the preceding boom), the vast majority of trades at the time of the crash were still executed through a slow process, often requiring multiple telephone calls and interactions between humans.

1:03 Black Monday

Ominous Signs Before the Crash

There were some warning signs of excesses that were similar to excesses at previous inflection points. Economic growth had slowed while inflation was rearing its head. The strong dollar was putting pressure on U.S. exports. The stock market and economy were diverging for the first time in the bull market, and, as a result, valuations climbed to excessive levels, with the overall market's price-earnings ratio climbing above 20. Future estimates for earnings were trending lower, but stocks were unaffected.

Under the Plaza Accord of 1985, the Federal Reserve agreed with the central banks of the G-5 nationsFrance, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japanto depreciate the U.S. dollar in international currency markets in order to control mounting U.S. trade deficits. By early 1987, that goal had been achieved: the gap between U.S. exports and imports had flattened out, which helped U.S. exporters and contributed to the U.S. stock market boom of the mid-1980s.

In the five years preceding October 1987, the DJIA more than tripled in value, creating excessive valuation levels and an overvalued stock market. The Plaza Accord was replaced by the Louvre Accord in February 1987. Under the Louvre Accord, the G-5 nations agreed to stabilize exchange rates around this new balance of trade.

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy under the new Louvre Accord to halt the downward pressure on the dollar in the second and third quarters of 1987 leading up to the crash. As a result of this contractionary monetary policy, growth in the U.S. money supply plummeted by more than half from January to September, interest rates rose, and stock prices began to fall by the end of the third quarter of 1987.

Market participants were aware of these issues, but another innovation led many to shrug off the warning signs. Portfolio insurance gave a false sense of confidence to institutions and brokerages. The general belief on Wall Street was that it would prevent a significant loss of capital if the market were to crash. This ended up fueling excessive risk-taking, which only became apparent when stocks began to weaken in the days leading up to that fateful Monday. Even portfolio managers who were skeptical of the market's advance didn't dare to be left out of the continuing rally.

Program traders took much of the blame for the crash, which halted the next day, thanks to exchange lockouts and some slick, possibly shadowy, moves by the Fed. Just as mysteriously, the market climbed back up towards the highs from which it had just plunged. Many investors who had taken comfort in the ascendancy of the market and had moved towards mechanical trading were shaken up badly by the crash.

The Bottom Line

Although program trading contributed greatly to the severity of the crash (ironically, in its intention to protect every single portfolio from risk, it became the largest single source of market risk), the exact catalyst is still unknown and possibly forever unknowable. With complex interactions between international currencies and markets, hiccups are likely to arise. After the crash, exchanges implemented circuit breaker rules and other precautions to slow down the impact of irregularities in hopes that markets will have more time to correct similar problems in the future.

While we now know the causes of Black Monday, something like it can still happen again. Since 1987, a number of protective mechanisms have been built into the market to prevent panic selling, such as trading curbs and circuit breakers. However, high-frequency trading (HFT) algorithms driven by supercomputers move massive volume in just milliseconds, which increases volatility.

The 2010 Flash Crash was the result of HFT gone awry, sending the stock market down 7% in a matter of minutes. This led to the installation of tighter price bands, but the stock market has experienced several volatile moments since 2010. The rise of technology and online trading have introduced more risk into the market.
Legendary value investor John Anthony Griffin tells up-and-coming investors to "build the ark on their sunny days," passing on sage advice from Julian Robertsonhis mentor and former boss.

Griffin founded the hedge fund Blue Ridge Capital Management in 1996. Griffin, who frequently teaches at some of the most respected U.S. colleges, relishes the role of teacher just as much as the role of the hedge fund manager.

Key Takeaways John Griffin founded Blue Ridge Capital in 1996, which reached more than $12 billion in assets under management at its peak in 2013.

Griffin closed the fund in 2017, citing the hedge fund industry as a humbling business. Blue Ridge Capital employed a long-short strategy.

Griffin worked alongside famed investor and founder of Tiger Management Corp. Julian Robertson and considered one of the Tiger Cubs.

His philanthropic mission is to fight poverty in New York City.

Griffin serves as a visiting professor at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

Alison Czinkota / Investopedia

Early Life and Education

Born in 1963, John Griffin received his bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce in 1985. In 1990, he earned an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Before completing graduate school, Griffin worked as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley Merchant Banking Group from 1985 through 1987. He then partnered with investing titan Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management Corp.

Along with Griffin, Robertson employed and taught Lawrence Bowman, Lee Ainslie, Tom Brown, Paul Spieldenner, Andreas Halvorsen, and Steven Mandelall of whom started their own funds. The group is colloquially known as the "Tiger Cubs."

Notable Accomplishments

John Griffin acted as president at Tiger Management from 1993 until 1996. In addition to his duties as president, Griffin served as a portfolio manager for Tiger Management from 1994 through 1996.

15.4% The average annual return of Blue Ridge Capitals return over the two decades it operated.

In 1996, Griffin founded Blue Ridge Capital Management. Blue Ridge is best known for its long-short strategy, the practice of complementing stock purchases with corresponding short positions. The strategy is considered risky by some, but its practitioners argue it is an effective way to boost returns.

Most value funds only invest in an asset when it is considered undervalued, while overvalued funds are ignored. However, Griffin believes that overvalued assets can also be shorted to make returns.

The long-short strategy worked extremely well for Griffin in the run-up to the Great Recession. He reportedly pocketed more than $620 million, and Blue Ridge generated a net return of 65% in 2007. The fund reached its height in assets under management (AUM) in 2013 at $12 billion.

Wealth and Philanthropy

There are no reliable estimates of John Griffin's net worth after his monstrous 2005 and 2007 earnings. His hedge fund managed more than $6 billion in assets before closing at the end of 2017. It is unknown how much of that belongs to Griffin or how much income he earned along the way. Griffin closed the fund, citing the industry as being a humbling business.

$77.1 million The price John Griffin paid for his New York City townhome. It was the highest price paid for a residential townhome in the city as of July 2022.

Griffin enjoys headlining hedge fund and value symposiums, often bringing along other Tiger Cubs to speak to large audiences of eager investors. He is a visiting professor at the University of Virginia and an adjunct professor of finance at Columbia Business School. He has also created or served on several foundations to help nonprofits and investors, including the Blue Ridge Foundation, the Tiger Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation, and the Julian. H. Robertson Foundation.

Griffin is particularly focused on inner-city poverty in his hometown of New York City. He is the founding chair and a board member of iMentor, a relationship development program for students in low-income areas.

John and his wife, Amy, founded the John & Amy Griffin Foundation to further his mission of fighting poverty in New York. In addition to his foundation, John is a board member for the Blue Ridge Foundation of New York, with a mirroring mission.

The Griffins have also gifted millions to their alma mater, the University of Virginia, and contributed to K-12 education reforms.

Special Considerations

In terms of a lasting investment influence, John Griffin is revered for his rigid and thorough fundamental research, which includes a laundry list of variables to analyze. His long-short strategies are a testament to his determination to find returns regardless of the market conditions. According to Griffin, "The future is uncertain; it is always a difficult time to invest."

In addition to his marked successes, Blue Ridge also laid out a series of "top reads" for mimicking investors across four broad categories: behavioral finance, analytics, economic indicators, and historical parallels.

What Happened to Blue Ridge Capital? Blue Ridge Capital founder and CEO John Griffin terminated the fund's operations in 2017.

How Old Is John Griffin Blue Ridge? Hedge fund expert John A. Griffin was born in 1963.

How Did John Griffin Make His Money? Although successful in his role as President of Tiger Management, John Griffin made his fortune operating Blue Ridge Capital (closed in 2017), a wildly successful hedge fund that managed more than $12 billion in assets when active.

The Bottom Line

John Griffin, the founder of former hedge fund Blue Ridge Capital, is an aggressive value investor, who rarely tolerates sitting on the sidelines. Mentored by billionaire hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, Griffin earned his seat as one of America's most successful hedge fund managers, overseeing more than $12 billion in assets at the peak of operations. Post Blue Ridge, John Griffin remains committed to his passion: combating inner-city poverty and promoting quality education. Turning purpose into action, he shares his expertise in the academic arena, inspiring future generations of financial professionals.
Aiming to help retailers translate Google searches into product sales, and make some money along the way, Alphabets (GOOG) Google rolled out a new service dubbed Shopping Actions.

Daniel Alegre, Googles president for retail and shopping, told Reuters that with the new program retailers can list products on Google Search, Google Express and Google Assistant, its voice-activated digital assistant found on mobile phones and smart home devices. Retailers can link their loyalty programs and offer up customized product recommendations based on previous purchases. In exchange for the listing, Google gets a cut of any sales that come as a result. Among the retailers already using it, Reuters named Ulta Beauty (ULTA), Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), and Costco Wholesale (COST) as customers.

Alegre told Reuters Shopping Actions was born from a realization that tens of millions of consumers ask where can I buy a product while searching on Google. Mobile searches inquiring where to purchase products jumped 85% on Google over the past two years, but the typical way it plays out is that consumers search on Google and then purchase on Amazon (AMZN). By offering the ability for retailers to list their products on desktop computers, mobile devices and Google voice-activated products, Google thinks it can help them get an edge over Amazon and its huge e-commerce reach.

We have taken a fundamentally different approach from the likes of Amazon because we see ourselves as an enabler of retail, Alegre said. We see ourselves as part of a solution for retailers to be able to drive better transactions ... and get closer to the consumer. (See more: Google Launches Google Pay to Rival Apple.)

Google is trying to take any complications out of the equation as well with its new program. Customers are given a single shopping cart and the ability to check out instantly, something that Amazon customers have come to love. By doing that, consumers may stick with the retailers instead of heading over to Amazon. If a shopper is in the market for a new pair of shoes, he or she can put that in the shopping cart and if later that same day the consumer needs toothpaste, that too can be added to the shopping cart and purchased together. Consumers will no longer have to go to the individual retailers' websites which is why so many prefer one-stop shopping at places like Amazon. (See more: Amazon to Stop Selling All Google Nest Products.)

Mary Dillon, the Chief Executive at Ulta, told Reuters that since using the program customers shopping baskets have increased by 30%. Meanwhile, Target Chief Information and Digital Officer Mike McNamara said that during the past six months the number of items landing in Google Express baskets from Target has increased close to 20%. Target shoppers will shortly be able to link their online account and loyalty card with Google accounts as well as get a 5% discount on all purchases plus free shipping. This is just the beginning for Target and Google, he said.
The consumer staples sector, the sixth largest sector weight in the S&P 500, is prized by investors for two primary reasons: its defensive posture and steady dividends. In other words, there is a lot to like in the staples sector for conservative investors looking for income. After all, many of the largest consumer staples stocks, including those that reside in the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP), have some of the longest dividend increase streaks in the U.S. However, investors can add some excitement, and maybe higher returns, with the consumer staples sector by trying alternative weighting methodologies.

Among exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the staples sector, the biggest names employ market capitalization weighting, but the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples ETF (RHS) merits consideration as well. Actually, the equal-weight RHS warrants a look in the near term because consumer staples stocks often prove sturdy in May. "For example, the consumer staples sector of the S&P 500 Equal Weight rose 4 percent on average, ahead of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index's 0.8 percent, while outperforming 63 percent of the time since 1990," said CFRA Research Head of ETF and Mutual Fund Research Todd Rosenbluth in a note out earlier this week. (See also: A Guide to Investing in Consumer Staples.)

RHS tracks the S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples Index. A frequent criticism of the equal-weight methodology is that, when it outperforms cap-weighted indexes, it does so because the equal-weight methodology puts more emphasis on smaller stocks. To be sure, RHS is not heavily allocated to the most familiar staples stocks, such as Dow components The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) and The Coca-Cola Company (KO). (See also: S&P 500 ETFs: Market Weight vs. Equal Weight.)

Still, it is hard to argue with the way RHS does business. Over the past three years, RHS has topped XLP by 620 basis points. Here is where the critics might step in and claim that RHS has been significantly more volatile than a cap-weighted competitor due to increased small-cap exposure. However, RHS has been barely more volatile than its cap-weighted rivals over the past three years. "In addition to our favorable view on many of the RHS's holdings, CFRA is positive on the modest volatility of the ETF. Indeed, the three-year standard deviation for RHS of 10.1 is below the 10.2 of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) despite having greater exposure to more moderately sized companies," said CFRA.

About 54 percent of the roster in RHS is allocated to food makers and food retailers, with another 19 percent dedicated to beverage companies. (See also: When Is the Right Time for Food and Beverage Stocks?)

.


In certain cases, individuals who immigrate to the United States when they're age 65 or older may be entitled to draw Social Security benefits, just like any natural-born American citizen. In other cases, immigrants may only draw on their home countrys retirement programs. And some immigrants qualify for benefits from both countries. Heres an overview of how the rules work.

Key Takeaways People who immigrate to the United States at age 65 or older may be entitled to Social Security benefits.

They must either have 40 U.S. work credits (about 10 years' worth) or come from a country that has a totalization agreement with the U.S.

Totalization agreements allow immigrants to combine their work credits from both the U.S. and their home country.

The U.S. has totalization agreements with more than 25 other nations.

If you live or retire abroad and are eligible for Social Security payments, you can still get them.

Do Immigrants Over 65 Qualify for Social Security?

Most people who immigrate to the United States after reaching retirement age have not accumulated the requisite 40 work credits to qualify for U.S. Social Security unless they worked in the country for a cumulative 10 years when they were younger.

However, those who are able to legally work in the U.S. for a year and a half after arriving, and who earn at least $1,510 per quarter in 2022 and $1,640 in 2023, may qualify to receive prorated U.S. Social Security benefits, under a totalization agreement with their countries of origin.

A totalization agreement is an arrangement between two countries with similar social security programs that ensure workers and their employers dont pay Social Security taxes on the same earnings in both countries. It also prevents individuals from double-dipping when they claim benefits.

The U.S. has such agreements with the following countries:

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Chile

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Japan

Luxembourg

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Slovak Republic

Slovenia

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

The United Kingdom

Uruguay

Qualified Alien

A non-citizen may be able to collect Social Security benefits as a qualified alien if they meet one of seven categories, according to the Social Security Administration.

Lawfully Admitted for Permanent Residence (LAPR) in the U.S., which includes "Amerasian immigrant" as defined in P.L. 100-202, with a class of admission AM-1 through AM-8; Granted conditional entry under Section 203(a)(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as in effect before April 1, 1980; Paroled into the U.S. under Section 212(d)(5) of the INA for a period of at least one year; Refugee admitted to the U.S. under Section 207 of the INA; Granted asylum under Section 208 of the INA; Deportation is being withheld under Section 243(h) of the INA, as in effect before April 1, 1997; or removal is being withheld under Section 241(b)(3) of the INA; A "Cuban and Haitian entrant" as defined in Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 or in a status that is to be treated as a "Cuban/ Haitian entrant" for SSI purposes.

Mark Hebner, Index Fund Advisors, Inc. "An immigrant who comes to the U.S. from Italy, for example, and has some work history in both countries, but not enough to fully qualify for Social Security benefits in either country, can combine their foreign and domestic work history in order to qualify for Social Security benefits."

How Totalization Agreements Work

Consider the following scenario, illustrating how a totalization agreement can benefit a late-arriving U.S. immigrant.

Penelope recently moved to the United States. She lived in Spain for most of her life, but when she was younger, she spent nine years working for an American company in the U.S. During that time, she earned 36 Social Security credits, which unfortunately falls short of the 40 credits she needs to qualify for Social Security benefits here.

Penelope also worked for 12 years in Spain. Under that country's rules, she would need 15 total years of contributions to qualify for retirement benefits.

Thanks to the totalization agreement, she can combine her work credits from both Spain and the U.S. in order to receive Social Security benefits. Without that agreement, she wouldnt qualify for benefits in either country, despite having paid into the two national systems for a combined 21 years.

The U.S. Social Security Administration checks with its foreign counterparts in determining whether an immigrant applicant is eligible for benefits.

Collecting U.S. Social Security From Abroad

In some cases, immigrants who earned at least 40 work credits in the U.S. and consequently qualify for U.S. Social Security, may decide to return to their home country, and still receive their U.S. benefits. This currently applies to the following nations:

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Chile

Czech Republic

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Luxembourg

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Slovak Republic

Slovenia

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

The United Kingdom

Uruguay

Special Considerations

If you are a qualified alien you may be eligible for Social Security benefits if you were receiving SSI and were legally living in the U.S. on or after Aug. 22, 1996. If you have 40 qualifying work credits under your belt, you may qualify, or if your spouse or parent worked any of those 40 credits.

In addition, if you are serving and on active duty in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, or honorably discharged, you may qualify as well as if you are a dependent child, widow or widower, or a spouse of specified U.S. military personnel. Those qualified aliens, again, residing legally on Aug. 22, 1996, or after, who are blind or disabled, also qualify, as do refugees and asylum seekers, under specific conditions.

Others include "Cuban or Haitian entrant under Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 or in a status that is to be treated as a 'Cuban/ Haitian entrant' for SSI purposes; or 'Amerasian immigrant' pursuant to P.L. 100-202, with a class of admission of AM-1 through AM-8."

How Long Does It Take to Get a Social Security Number for Immigrants? If all of your paperwork is filled out correctly and submitted, it should only be approximately two weeks before you receive your Social Security number.

How Much Do Immigrants Receive in Social Security Benefits? This depends on many factors, including how much they earned during the necessary 40 qualifying credits of work. There isn't a specific set amount given to immigrants versus an American citizen receiving Social Security benefits.

Do Immigrants Get Social Security if They Never Paid Into It? No. You must qualify for Social Security benefits by working a specified number of credits during your working years.

Can a Green Card Holder Apply for Social Security Benefits? Like anyone, you must have 40 qualifying credits, approximately 10 years, to earn Social Security benefits. Green card holders who pay into the system may qualify for their benefits, just like anyone else.

The Bottom Line

Some immigrants age 65 and older are eligible to draw Social Security benefits in the U.S. or to collect those benefits while living abroad; however, many are not. In fact, a Social Security Administration report found that 37% of all individuals who fail to qualify for Social Security benefits are immigrants who arrived in the United States at age 50 or older and have insufficient earnings histories.
Remaining in the Workforce

Many people are quick to assume older adults are retired, but the fact is, millions of Americans age 65-plus work either full or part-time.

The reasons for remaining in the workforce  or going back to it  vary. For many, its a matter of necessity, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession, when many people lost their jobs, homes and retirement savings. For others, its a matter of choice  to stay active, challenged, and engaged in their communities.

Key Takeaways For many people, reaching age 65 means retirement. But for others, working later on in life is necessary to maintain their financial security or to avoid boredom.

If you do continue to work past age 65, not all jobs are going to be as desirable for you - or from the perspective of employers.

Here, we go through just a few of the most popular jobs for those older individuals in the workforce.

Popular Jobs If Youre 65-Plus

Most people who work beyond retirement age  which is 65 years old, according to the U.S. Census Bureau  do so in bridge jobs that span the period between leaving a career and leaving the workforce altogether.  Thinking about working after retirement age? Here are six popular jobs for people 65 and older.

Accounting/Bookkeeping

Accounting and bookkeeping clerks use specialized computer accounting software, spreadsheets and databases to post financial transactions and produce financial reports, such as balance sheets and income statements.

Adjunct Faculty

Part-time faculty (adjuncts) accounted for a significant portion of the instructional faculty at nonprofit colleges and universities  and you dont always need a Ph.D. to snag one of these teaching jobs. While the pay is generally low  perhaps only a few thousand dollars per course  many retirees find the work fulfilling. Plus, once youve taught a course a couple of times, you wont have to devote as many hours to class prep.

Event Coordinator/Planner

Even if youve never worked as an event planner, you may have planned (or helped plan) dozens of events over the years  birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries and the like. You can put this experience to work to find a job or start your own business, tapping into your network of friends and family. Job growth between 2019 and 2029 is expected to be 8%, compared to an average of 4% growth across all occupations, and the median pay was $24.33 per hour in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Project-Based Consultant

Rather than filling a full-time position, many companies will find a consultant to help with a specific project. This can be an excellent way to put your decades of experience to work without committing to a full-time job. Depending on your skill set and experience, its possible to earn upwards of $50 or even $100 an hour.

Retail Sales

Retail salespersons held about 4.3 million jobs in the United States in 2019, according to BLS data  in general merchandise stores (19% of all retail salespersons), clothing stores (16%), building material and supplies dealers (10%), sporting goods, hobby, and musical instrument stores (6%), and automobile dealers (6%). Nearly one in three retail workers was employed part-time in 2020, and the median hourly wage was $12.14 for retail salespersons, as of May 2019. These jobs may have an added perk: employee discounts for the products your store sells.

Teacher's Assistant

Teacher assistants (or aides) work under the supervision of a licensed teacher to give students extra attention and instruction. They may work with an entire class, in small groups or one-on-one  in elementary, middle and high schools, preschools, and childcare centers. The BLS estimates job growth of 4% between 2019 and 2029 and the 2019 median pay was $27,920 per year. Many teacher assistants work on a part-time basis, and in most school systems, youll get your summers off.

The Bottom Line

More people are working past retirement age  for extra cash, to stay active and challenged, or some combination of reasons. Some switch to new jobs within the career fields where they worked for years. For others, however, a retirement job means trying something entirely new.

While the jobs listed here are popular among the 65-plus crowd, there are, of course, many other options for older adults  including working as a member of an event staff team (think: music and sport venues), a tour guide/docent, a patient advocate, or an online or in-person tutor.
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Every March the IrishCentral team receives several messages complaining about the offensive Irish products being sold for St. Patricks Day. We asked our readers if its time for the sale of these products to stop and their answer was a near unanimous yes.

From a t-shirt decorated with Donald Trumps face calling on (presumably the Irish) to Make St Patties Day Great Again to a clover bedecked shirts with Todays a good day to get drunk the Irish have had enough.

We asked our readers It is time to stop the sale of offensive St. Patricks Day merchandise?"

From the 1,870 readers polled the results were as follows:

78% - Yes! It needs to stop now

5% - No. Live and let live

13% - People are too sensitive

4% - Don't care

Just some of the 500+ comments we received on the story include:

- Neil Ryan: To all those who say we're being too thin skinned, tell us what's important/sacred to you and let us insult it all the time.

- Judith Powers: I've been fighting this battle, loudly, for decades. Four leaf clovers, St. "Patties" Day, calls to drunkenness, stupid green hats - everything. I don't know how we can end it once and for all, but I'll keep fighting it the rest of my life.

- Bill Lynch: How about the St Patrick's Day drink special, an "Irish Car Bomb"? Now that is truly reprehensible.

- Kevin Ahern: As an Irish-American, I say who cares about goofy stereotypes? We are proud of our heritage and some stupid tee-shirts won't change that.

- Daniel Bendig: It's offensive...not just to Irish. It's offensive to anyone who's had their culture debased and reduced to stereotypes.

Clearly people are annoyed so whats next?

Last year, famously, Kevin Westley, a radio host and Irish dance instructor from Long Island, bought over $400 worth of offensive t-shirts from his local Walmart and then returned them after St. Patricks Day. This year he found that his local stores in East Meadow and Uniondale werent stocking the joke St. Patricks Day products.

Read more: No offensive Irish t-shirts at Walmart this year - victory for activist Kevin Westley

This is one small victory but the other big stores such as Target nearby continue to stock them, according to Westleys wife, Joan.

In 2014 Bed, Bath & Beyond, the national houseware chain, apologized to the Irish community and confirmed that they had removed from sale items deemed insulting to customers of Irish heritage.

This was after IrishCentral and our sister publication, The Irish Voice, wrote about the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Americas largest Irish group, protest against the many items carried in their Christmas Tree stores which insulted the Irish.

Finally an email from the houseware store Customer Service Manager Raj Chandan to Neil Cosgrove, National Anti-Defamation Chairman of the AOH, stated that offensive items would be immediately removed from their sister chain, Christmas Tree Shops.

Chandans mail read, Be assured that Bed Bath & Beyond meant no disrespect to your organization, nor to others of Irish heritage, and we apologize.

Although there have been small victories, the problem remains. Amazons selections for example, the aforementioned Donald Trump T-shirt and the main image above. On their site they define Examples of Prohibited Listings as products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.

Seems to fit!

Following the horrific massacre of nine African Americans inside a Charleston, SC church in June 2015 major retailers Walmart, Amazon, Sears and eBay stopped selling Confederate flag merchandise. The only suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, was photographed with the flag and white supremacism views he had shared online.

OneNewsNow.com reported that the retailers' reasons for pulling the products were similar. eBay said the flag has become a symbol of "divisiveness and racism." Walmart, meanwhile, said, "We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer."

So what is and isn't divisive and or offensive to someone? Offensive is defined as something "causing someone to feel hurt, angry or upset."

While were in no way saying joke t-shirts for St. Patricks Day are in anyway the same, the definition of offense remains the same.

If you spot a t-shirt or piece of merchandise why not let us know where you saw it? Email us at editors@irishcentral.com.

More importantly, let your local store, and their headquarters, know that you do take offense and that Irish America has had enough.
Irish American President Ronald Reagan always made sure the White House had a bit of craic for St. Patrick's Day.

Long, long ago, and long ago it was, as the Irish storytellers begin a major yarn, there was a US President who had more fun on Saint Patricks Day than any president in history: Ronald Reagan.

Today, in President Reagans presidential library in Simi Valley, CA, his actual Air Force One holds pride of place, but right behind that significant plane is the Ronald Reagan Pub, which Reagan had transported brick by brick from his ancestral home of Ballyporeen in Co Tipperary.

On his trip to Ireland in 1984, the President drank Guinness with a priest in the aptly-named Ronald Reagan Pub and reminisced fondly about his Irish roots.

President Reagan was an Irish storyteller par excellence, but some of the antics on St.Patricks Day would be hard to match.

In 1986, it was actual "leprechauns" who made their appearance during a cabinet meeting. Reagan was laughing so hard he didnt notice one had crawled into his lap and another had pretended to shoot him.

All good fun, except for the Irish Ambassador who looked aghast!

Then, in 1988, there was the St. Patricks Day bowler hat he wore during the day. Dressed otherwise in his always impeccable suit and tie, the President's jaunty green hat would have made a cat laugh, which was truly the intention.

That same year, the proud Irish American President took time out of his schedule to visit Pat Troy's Irelands Own, an Irish pub in Alexandria, Virginia, for a pint and a chat:

* Originally published in August 2016, last updated in 2022.
Representative groups of students, teachers and the finest young athletes from every secondary school in Ireland were presented with an Irish flag and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in the first of the Irish governments events to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916.

Among those honored at the event was Thomas Francis Meagher the man behind the Irish tricolor, born in Waterford who became a Brigadier General in the Union Army during the US Civil War.

The event at Croke Park, which included some 6,000 students, is the culmination of the Ireland 2016 Flags for Schools program. The Flags for Schools initiative, which was jointly run by the Irish Defence Forces and the Department of Education and Skills, began in September 2015. It was a hugely popular and successful program with over 3,200 schools receiving their own handmade tricolor and special pack, which included a copy of the Proclamation and booklet on the proper care of the national flag.

Mondays ceremony, held in collaboration with the Thomas F. Meagher Foundation, included a keynote address by President Michael D. Higgins and is the first of its kind in the history of the state.

The National flag, the Tricolour, was first raised in Waterford in 1848 by Thomas Francis Meagher and was brought to Dublin prior to 1916 by Irish Volunteers from Waterford City.

Thomas Francis Meagher was born in the Mall, Waterford on August 23, 1823. In 1843 Meagher joined the Young Ireland, the radical group which published The Nation and was committed to the overthrow of British rule in Ireland. Meagher would eventually move to America where he served in the Union Army during the Civil War, rising to the rank of Brigadier General.

In 1848 William Smith OBrien and Thomas Francis Meagher led a delegation to Paris to congratulate the new French Republic. They returned to Ireland bearing a tricolor flag, a symbol of reconciliation between the Orange and Green on a neutral white background, made for them by French women who sympathized with the Irish cause.

At the event on Monday, an actor playing Meagher read his words on the design of the Irish tricolor. He said The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between Orange and Green and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.

Ryan Tubridy hosted the event, which included a formal presentation of a handmade flag to a representative of every secondary school and education center by the Defence Forces. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, who is leading the Ireland 2016 program, made a special presentation of the Flag to representatives from sporting organizations. The ceremony concluded with a special performance by Seo Linn.

Speaking in advance of the ceremony Minister Humphreys said, Over the past five months, primary schools the length and breadth of the State have received a tricolor and a copy of the Proclamation, specially delivered by a member of the Defence Forces. The Flags for Schools program has arguably been the most important of Ireland 2016 to date, bringing history to life for young people in an exciting and interactive way. It has allowed our school children to reconnect with our National Flag and fully understand its peaceful message.

I would like to thank the Defences Forces, the Department of Education and indeed all of the school teachers and principals which have made this initiative a success. Today we are teaming up with the Thomas F Meagher Foundation to complete the program by providing a National Flag to every secondary school in the State. This is the start of what will be a very busy few weeks of commemorations, when I hope people right across the country will come together to remember our shared history, reflect on our achievements and re-imagine our shared future.

The Ireland 2016 Centenary Program, led by Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys, is a year-long program of activity to commemorate the events of the 1916 Rising, to reflect on the countrys achievements over the last 100 years and to look towards Irelands future.

Full details of the program are available at www.ireland.ie. Follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter @ireland2016 #ireland2016.
A 16-year-old boy has been imprisoned after a judge said she felt she had no option because of the lack of adult supervision in his life.

Judge Melanie Greally heard that the teenager, who cannot be name because of his age, had no one in court to support him and has no appropriate adult in his life since his mother died five years ago.

The teenager had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary on June 7, 2015. He had previous convictions for burglary and possession of drugs.

The boy and an accomplice were hiding under a blanket in the house they had broken into when Gardai found them.

Greally said it was with deep regret that she was imposing two and half years detention, but said she felt she had no option.

She hoped that the level of stability the teenager would get in a custodial environment would better equip him to deal with life on his release.

The judge suspended the last 18 months on strict conditions, including that he engage with the Probation Service and attend for any alcohol and drug therapy it recommends.

Read more crime news here

Hopefully the time you spend in custody will help you get things back on track, Greally said to the boy after he entered his bond.

Garda Colin Hetherington told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that there was a woman and a young baby in the house at the time of the burglary.

The woman heard the sitting room window being smashed in and went downstairs to see the teenager and another man coming into the house carrying sticks and weapons. She knew the teenager.

She heard one of them say, Im gonna cut her up if I get up to her, but she didnt know which of the intruders it was.

Hetherington said the woman was so terrified that she got out of the house through a skylight onto a roof and then jumped down into her neighbors garden.

Gardai were called and later found the teenager and the other man hiding under a blanket on a mattress in a converted attic. They were both arrested. The co-accused has since taken a bench warrant.

- Dublin People
Irish star chef and author Clodagh McKenna appears every month on "The Rachael Ray Show" in New York, which means that her inspired brand of traditional Irish cooking is not just receiving national attention; its also a worldwide hit. Cahir O'Doherty talks to her about her latest book "Clodagh's Irish Kitchen" and her mission to bring tradition and innovation together in Irish cooking.

Food connects you to a place. Just think of how much you sometimes miss a real Irish soda scone or a properly made breakfast to know its true.

Irish chef and cookbook author Clodagh McKenna, 39, who has trained in Paris and New York and worked at the world famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, deeply understands the power of food to transform a mood, a day and even your health.

With a series of successful cookery books and two popular Dublin restaurants to her name, her star is on the ascent in the U.S. too, which means that she visits constantly.

Im back and forth every month, she tells the Irish Voice. Im back in New York on the weekend of the 14th of March to do 'The Rachael Ray Show' and later Im hosting a party at Soho House doing the food. Then Im flying up to Canada for St. Patricks Day to do a live show there as well. Itll be a full week!

How does she make the case for Irish cooking and baking to an international audience which may not know there's more to the Emerald Isle than 50 shades of potatoes?

I do it by cooking really. Im sharing the dishes I love, or my interpretation of old traditional dishes that I put a fresh or modern take on, she says.

I always think the proof is in the pudding, and since mine is a Guinness cake or a whiskey caramel bread and butter pudding its the kind of recipe that often gets picked up by magazines like Better Homes. I make the case for Ireland by cooking and showing people, which makes them want the recipes and want to try them.

Her creativity in the kitchen is astounding and explains her success. McKenna nimbly cross-references Irish recipes with European and even eastern influences and makes easy-to-prepare dishes that are notably Irish and yet consistently sophisticated.

Ive always been cooking, she explains. Ive been doing it professionally for 17 years and Ive always been interested in food so it was a natural progression for me to adapt traditional Irish recipes.

Luckily I was able to make a career out of it. The creative side, creating the recipes, comes really easily to me and I love it.

McKenna says that nowadays her whole world revolves around Irish food, whether its eating out or writing or reading cookery books and testing new recipes.

I cook every single day. Im not one of those chefs who writes a book but doesnt cook at home. I like to share them on my Instagram page, she says.

McKennas enthusiasm and skill have made her one of the most recognizable faces of Irelands cooking renaissance, and her influence can be felt nationwide.

Its great that in the last 10 years, perhaps especially in Dublin, everybody is using a lot more locally produced and seasonal food and thinking about how they can make it really good and coming up with lovely recipes, she says.

Her own innovation when it comes to recipes has come from tried and tested experience, she reveals.

I wasnt doing the same thing 10 years ago. It comes with being confident and knowing your own style and growing your own style of cooking, McKenna says.

My friends are all in the food industry as chefs or restaurateurs or something related. Every night Im going to something related. Im either cooking at home or Im going to the launch of a new restaurant.

Good cooking makes for memorable days and nights. It also turns a house into a home, McKenna says.

Were similar to the Italians in that so many Irish stories are centered around the kitchen. We were having cups of tea and bread and butter rather than great pasta dishes, but there was so much home cooking that went on from stews to casseroles to soups to breads, she says.

Its such a massive part of our lives. There are so much stories and nurture and attachment to cooking and I think that we dont look at that enough. Id like to help us to.

She thinks of her cookery books as efforts to put traditional Irish flavors on the culinary map and be proud of them and to remember that we did all our growing up around the kitchen.

The minute you walk into an Irish home youll be offered a cup of tea and something to eat. Ireland is great for baking tea bracks and porter cakes for example and while they might seem a little dull and everyday to us, visitors to or country think theyre beautiful and unique, McKenna says.

A well-made tea brack is just as good as a panettone from Italy. Thats how I think.

In "Clodagh's Irish Kitchen" McKenna reminds us that a picnic on the shore with a flask of tea and a good tea brack to share (delicately spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg) is her idea of a perfect day. Especially if its home made!

We've been sitting on a gold mine in Ireland for decades and it's time we realized it. Her book takes our traditional dishes and connects them to the world's great cuisines.

McKenna wants to share two seasonal recipes from "Clodagh's Irish Kitchen" with Irish Voice readers. In Ireland in spring lamb is often served, and McKenna has a recipe for it that would be welcome and timely on St. Patricks Day or Easter. In this one she has added barley, as the Irish often do, to make them more substantial and tasty.

RECIPE: Clodagh McKennas Irish lamb stew with pearl barley recipe

This is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods, says McKenna. I grew up having this exact recipe once a week, and I would imagine the same goes for most Irish people. We all have our own variations of Irish stew and, when cooked right, this dish is so delicious.

Make a very well-avored stock, use good-quality lamb, and thicken the casserole juices to make a gravy. Its a fantastic mid-week supper for the whole family. It can be made the night before and reheated.

At least once every month I will bake a tea brack at home. It is possibly one of the easiest and most satisfying recipes to make, McKenna says.

RECIPE: Clodagh McKennas Irish tea brack recipe

You do have to soak the fruits for a few hours, or overnight, but the rest is just weighing and mixing together.

Its delicious fresh on the day its made but, to be honest, I prefer it a couple of days later, toasted with butter and jam. The cake is dense and moist  a real crowd pleaser!
For many, the biggest surprise about the blowing up of Nelsons Pillar in Dublin on March 8, 1966, is why it took 157 years. The resentment had run deep. Almost fifty years after the 1916 Rising an Englishman still towered over every other notable in the city, many groused.

When the pillar was constructed circa 1808 the Protestant Ascendency class who had erected it celebrated. To them, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson was a once-in-a-lifetime hero, the man who at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 had turned the tide against Napoleon.

But after Irish independence was won his presence and preeminence atop the 120-foot high pillar became increasingly controversial. He had been famously cold-hearted and an adulterer, some said. Why not have an Irish patriot replace him, they asked?

Habit, wrote Samuel Beckett, is a great deadener. People seem to have gotten used to him. The pillar had a certain grandeur, James Joyce had written. It had also become a landmark. Did it matter if it was in honor of some long ago, far away Brit?

Apparently, it did. In the early hours of the morning of March 8, 1966, a huge explosion rocked central Dublin and the top half of the pillar was blown sky-high.

Senator David Norris, who thought the bombing ignorant and unnecessary, told RTE: It provoked the only recorded instance of humor in that lugubrious figure, the late President of Ireland Eamon De Valera, who is said to have phoned the Irish Press to suggest a headline British Admiral Leaves Dublin By Air.

Later the Irish Army was sent in to finish the job with a controlled explosion. Some men were later arrested but never charged. Dublin quickly adjusted to the missing monument.

Though many supported the dramatic demolition the rejoicing was by no means unanimous. Senator Owen Sheehy-Skeffington lamented in the Senate that the man who destroyed the pillar made Dublin look more like Birmingham and less like an ancient city on the River Liffey - the pillar gave Dublin an internationally known appearance.

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And Nelsons head?

What happened to Nelsons head after the explosion merits a mention. Seven hearty students from the National College of Art and Design reportedly stole it on St. Patrick's Day from a storage shed in Clanbrassil Street.

Later they leased the head for over $300 dollars a month to an antique dealer in London for his shop window. Then it reappeared sometime later on the stage of the Olympia Theatre for a concert performance with The Dubliners.

After further comical wanderings (which included an unlikely appearance in a ladies' stockings commercial) the high-spirited students finally handed it over to Lady Nelson. It was later stored in the Civic Museum in Dublin and now resides in the Gilbert Library, on Pearse Street where its now rarely seen.

But of course, it was an Irish poet (Louis MacNeice) who said it best in his poem entitled Dublin:

Grey brick upon brick,

Declamatory bronze

On somber pedestals 

O'Connell, Grattan, Moore 

And the brewery tugs and the swans

On the balustraded stream

And the bare bones of a fanlight

Over a hungry door

And the air soft on the cheek

And porter running from the taps

With a head of yellow cream

And Nelson on his pillar

Watching his world collapse.

IrishCentral History Love Irish history? Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group.

* Originally published in March 2016.
An Independent TD says he wants to get the best deal for the people of Ireland on the formation of a government.

Sean Canney's comments come after the Independent Alliance met with the Fianna Fail leader today.

One of the TDs, Shane Ross, said Mr Martin was more energetic than Enda Kenny whom he described as a "political corpse".

But Deputy Canney says it's not about the personalities.

"I think we've got to come back from personalities here, this is about the country, this is about getting a strong government.

"We're not dealing with one person when were dealing with Micheal Martin, he's just a figurehead at the moment as is Enda Kenny.

"So basically as far as we are concerned - it's about government, it's about the full government, it's about the Dail and it's about getting that right - getting the reforms there and it's all about that.

"It's not about ego or personalities or whatever and that's exactly where we are going, going looking for the best deal for the people that elected us."
A 15-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a New Delhi hospital after being raped and set on fire on the rooftop terrace of her family's home in a village outside the city, Indian police have said.

The attack is just one of several recently reported cases of rape against women or children in India - underlining the persistence of such violence despite a public outcry three years ago that led to stronger laws to prevent sexual assault.

In the latest case, police arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly raping and attempting to burn the girl to death in Tigri village, near the New Delhi suburb of Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, on Monday, according to constable Yadram Singh of Bisrakh police station.

Mr Singh said the man "had severe burns on his hands" and has been charged with several offences, including rape, attempted murder, assault of a minor and causing grievous injury.

The teenager is in a critical condition in a New Delhi hospital, Mr Singh said. Indian newspapers reported that she was suffering from burns to 95% of her body.

Mr Singh's police report on the case describes how the girl's parents found her with severe burns, after hearing her screaming from the rooftop terrace a few hours before dawn yesterday.

The girl later told police that she was raped, beaten and then set on fire by a man who she said had been stalking her for months, Mr Singh said.

India's women and children are considered particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and harassment thanks to widespread social taboos against speaking about sexual assault.

The stigma is enough to keep many from even reporting crimes, while many others face police resistance in filing complaints.

Experts say that has started to change since the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 triggered national anger and demands that more be done on women's safety.

The government rushed through legislation to double prison terms for rape, and to criminalise voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women.

But activists say more action is needed, including better educating youths and adding basic safety infrastructure such as street lights and public bathrooms.

The public debate has also increased Indian newspaper reports of rape and assault, including several in just the last few days.

Yesterday, police in the financial capital of Mumbai said they were investigating whether a four-year-old girl whose body was dumped in the bushes on the city's outskirts had been raped before being killed, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The girl reportedly went missing after being separated from her mother at a railway station on Sunday night.

In other cases in Uttar Pradesh, police arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of raping a six-year-old on Sunday night, while separately they were investigating nine people for allegedly gang-raping a woman when she went into the fields to urinate last month, PTI reported.

And last week, three boys reportedly kidnapped a teenage girl from her home and raped her repeatedly in an agricultural field in the northern state of Haryana and later in New Delhi before she escaped, the news agency cited police as saying.
An appearance before lawmakers this week may throw him right in, as happened in the build-up to the Scottish independence vote when his comments were hijacked by campaigners from both sides.

The stakes are high, with Goldman Sachs and BlackRock among those warning the vote puts trade, hiring and investment at risk and many economists saying the full implications of an exit are almost impossible to quantify.
Our members are enraged cabbage is selling for 29c a head  a third of the recommended retail price, said Billy Cotter, chair of North Cork IFA.

There are about 100 local farmers affected. Our industry is in crisis. Were being hammered by this.

Lidl and Aldi are putting pressure on farmers, but theyre also putting pressure on other shops in the area, who will also now be chasing farmers to lower their prices.

"Its a race to the bottom.

Some 60 farmers joined IFA-led protests yesterday outside Lidl and Aldi outlets in Glanmire, Co Cork.

They were part of a national series of protests outside the two German-owned retail chains.

IFA national chairman, Jer Bergin, accused Aldi and Lidl of gross hypocrisy by selling fresh produce below the cost of production while claiming to support Irish growers.

The use of below-cost selling as a tool to drive footfall seriously distorts the market for all Irish vegetables and ultimately undermines Irish production and the financial viability of our specialist growers, said Mr Bergin.

These growers have invested hugely in their farm businesses to supply Bord Bia Quality Assured Irish fresh produce for consumers. Their sustainability cannot be taken for granted.

The IFA says new consumer laws have failed to address below-cost selling.

We need an independent ombudsman in place who can effectively police retailers and enforce the legislation, he said.

Ironically, legislation exists in Germany, the headquarters of the two retailers, which outlaws this practice of below-cost selling.
On Sunday, the tanker became the first to deliver Iranian crude into Europe since mid-2012, when Brussels imposed an oil embargo in an attempt to force the Middle Eastern nation to negotiate the end of its nuclear programme.

The ban was lifted in January as part of a broader deal that ended a decade of sanctions.

The 275-metre tanker started offloading its cargo into a refinery owned by Espanola de Petroleos, near Algeciras, a few miles from Gibraltar.

By midday, the vessel had already pumped to shore about a fifth of its cargo.

In southern Spain, the tankers arrival was met with little fanfare.

It was a quiet Sunday at the refinery, and for the workers, the Monte Toledo is just one of the eight or so vessels they expect to receive this month.

By the time the refinery has taken in all the Iranian crude, another tanker from Algeria will be already waiting. Nonetheless, theres a wider significance.

As the Monte Toledo started to pump to shore through two 21-inch floating hoses connected to a giant buoy and a 1.8km submarine pipeline, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani declared in Tehran that more oil exports will be added soon.

Ali Tayebnia, the countrys minister of economy and finance, said that Irans oil exports will soon return to two million barrels a day.

Around Europe, other tankers with Iranian oil are close behind the Monte Toledo.

In February, 29 vessels loaded crude from Iran.

Of those, three are heading toward Europe  the Eurohope tanker is sailing to Constanta, an oil port in Romania, and the Atlantas is on its way to France.

Another one, the Distya Akula, is anchored at the mouth of the Suez Canal, and is likely to head into a Mediterranean port.

The Monte Toledo and its companions are the vanguard in the return of Iran into the European oil market.

Although the increase falls short of the 500,000 barrels a day that Tehran had promised, there are signs that exports into Europe will pick up.

Banking restraints, however, mean some customers are finding it hard to transfer payments for Iranian crude and the National Iranian Oil has offered to swap crude for gasoline to get deals done.

Iran will want to win back customers in Europe, where Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other rival suppliers stepped in after the embargo was imposed.

Tehran also faces a rival unknown four years ago: The US has started exporting crude into refineries in the Mediterranean.

Before the embargo Europe imported on average about 400,000 barrels a day of oil from Iran, according to the IEA.

If all goes as Tehran has planned, it will boost its production back to the 3.6m barrels a day it pumped in 2011.
Dont hold your breath, she told reporters in Brussels about the timing of decisions targeting Apple and online shopping giant Amazon.com, whose tax affairs in Luxembourg are also under intense scrutiny.

Im just warning you, she said.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan had previously said a ruling wouldnt come until after the election.

The two companies are slated to be next in the firing line months after the EU watchdog ordered the Netherlands and Luxembourg to recover as much as 30 million in back taxes from Starbucks and a Fiat Chrysler unit.

While Ms Vestager refuses to be drawn into speculation, analysts say in the Apple case, repayments could potentially dwarf those amounts.

Ms Vestager in January signalled shes willing to add Google parent Alphabets 130m (168m) tax deal with the UK to her growing list of investigations.

All of the companies cited by the EU say they have done nothing wrong and that any tax arrangements were in line with applicable laws.

Despite saying the next wave of decisions isnt imminent, Ms Vestager said she wont wait for the EU courts to decide on pending appeals by Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Fiat against last years state aid repayment orders.

No, we wait for the job being done thoroughly and with the quality that we want it to be done with, she said.

Ms Vestager last month responded to criticism of the EU state aid probes by US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

While the EUs tax probes have been focusing so far on US companies, including an ongoing investigation into McDonalds, the commission in January ordered Belgium to recover about 700m in illegal tax breaks given to at least 35 companies, including Anheuser-Busch and BP.

Meanwhile, Apple must pay $450m (409m) to end an antitrust suit after the US Supreme Court yesterday refused to question a finding the company orchestrated a scheme to raise prices for electronic books.
Paddy Kelly was speaking as newly available accounts showed Tegral Building Products returned to profit in 2014 with a pre-tax surplus of 2.78m.

The firm had recorded a pre-tax loss of 2.25m in 2013.

Revenues, for 2014, jumped 36% to 37.14m.

However, Mr Kelly said business was flat in 2015 compared to 2014 and the slight pick-up in trading has only really been seen on the east coast and is yet to spread nationwide.

We are really waiting for a recovery in the regions so we can improve our performance in Ireland, he said.

We warned the Government about this a year ago when we opened our roofing academy that we needed to do something in the regions  and nobody listened, unfortunately. he added.

The principal activity of the company continues to be the manufacture and sale of roofing, cladding products, profiled metal sheeting and purlins.

The increase in 2014 revenues was largely driven by landing a contract with its sister firm in the UK.

Sixty per cent of what we are manufacturing is now going into the UK after securing that contract, according to Mr Kelly.

In 2010, the company secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanala to construct a new 75m state-of-the-art production facility on a 38-acre site outside Athy.

However, the project has been shelved for the long term, with Mr Kelly explaining we were looking to move off our existing site in the middle of the town and moving two or three miles outside of Athy but it is shelved as we just wouldnt get the money for the investment.

On the prospects for 2016, Mr Kelly said things are looking okay but the home market is difficult.

It will be flat or maybe a 5% rise in revenues.

He added that the firm opened up a roofing academy that trained 500 people in 2015, saying this helps to increase our product mix.

A breakdown of the companys sales show that Irish revenues in 2014 increased by 2.8m to 21.8m while European revenues almost doubled to 15.3m.

The boost in business, at the time, resulted in the Kildare firm increasing its workforce from 102 to 127 staff, with employees now numbering 140.

A breakdown of the numbers employed show that 78 are in production and maintenance and 49 work in administration, sales and distribution.

The firms 2014 wage bill increased 26% to 7.19m, while directors pay jumped from 254,202 to 307,502.

A note attached to the accounts states the company has received a large number of claims in relation to health and safety issues.

It adds: The directors have made provisions, where appropriate, for discharging any liability arising from these claims.

The accounts show the firm recorded an actuarial loss on its pension scheme of 3.4m in 2014 compared to an actuarial gain of 3.83m in 2013.

At the end of December 2014, the company had accumulated losses of 21.5m.

However, called up share capital of 16.6m and a revaluation reserve of 1m contributed to a shareholders deficit of 1m.

The firms selling and distribution costs last year totalled 2.6m with administrative expenses of 202,558 and other operating expenses of 746,485.

The profit in 2014 takes account of non-cash depreciation or 608,715.
The $16.5bn (15.04bn) merger of fire and security specialists, Tyco and the US building efficiency firm will deliver $150m of tax savings each year and $500m in costs over the first three years.

The so-called tax inversion, which will see the newly combined entity domiciled in Ireland with its global headquarters in Cork, drew strong criticism in the US with presidential hopefuls such as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders calling it a disaster for US taxpayers.

His rival for the democratic nomination Hillary Clinton also vouched to put an end to tax inversions and block deals such as the Tyco and Johnson Controls merger if elected to the White House.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Tyco chief executive George R Oliver said he considered the deal a merger of equals and claimed it put the focus on the US tax system.

What I would say [is] theres always going to be criticism but it really brings to focus the tax structure in the US.

"We have been domiciled in Ireland or Switzerland and that has been very effective for us in being able to reinvest and being able to create value for our shareholders so I think it brings attention in the US to the tax structure, Mr Oliver said.

Its not the first time inversions have concentrated attention on the US where companies face a 35% rate of corporation tax after tougher rules were introduced by the US Treasury in September 2014 and again last November in response to similar deals.

Those moves aimed to stem the flow of inversions but appear to have had little effect so far.

Mr Oliver also said the company is interested in expanding through acquisitions and said its Irish tax domicile offers further scope for growth too.

Tyco Ireland general manager Donal Sullivan said it was too early to know how the merger would affect its global headquarters in Cork but said it would certainly work out positively for its Irish operations.

Unquestionably, its positive but its still early days.

"Were six or seven months away from the merger completing so its really too early to have definite plans on the table.

"Thats all going to get worked out over the next little while and once the merger completes and we become one company then really those doors start to open as to what you can practically do.

What youll see is the amount of research and development that we do here is likely to expand because we just now have a much greater product portfolio and a lot more things that we have to combine together on software platforms that our teams do here, Mr Sullivan said.

He said the management teams of both companies were very encouraged by what theyve seen in Cork and the talent thats being attracted to work for Tyco.

Speaking at the official opening of the One Albert Quay office development of which Tyco is the anchor tenant, Mr Sullivan said as part of its lease agreement the company has the option to take up additional office space to accommodate more workers should it need to.

Tyco employs about 260 staff in Cork and is continuing to hire as part of a 600-person recruitment drive.
At a special sitting of the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon, Ms Justice Susan Denham told the packed court she and her colleagues on the court had lost a good and true friend.

The presidents of the Court of Appeal and High Court, Mr Justice Sean Ryan and Mr Justice Peter Kelly, joined the chief justice and the other Supreme Court judges to sit in memory of the late judge whose chair was left empty for the brief special sitting, which was televised.

Former Tanaiste and Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, a good friend of the late judge, was among the many senior lawyers and former judges who attended the sitting.

In the statement read on behalf of the Supreme Court by the chief justice, she said the court had learnt with great sadness of the death of Mr Justice Hardiman.

The State has lost a colossus of the legal world: a good and true friend has been lost by his colleagues on the court.

Former Tanaiste and Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell

The statement said Mr Justice Hardiman had a most successful career as a barrister, he was a leader at the Bar, was renowned for his extensive practice and great skill, including in cross examination.

After 26 years of practice, the judge was appointed directly to the Supreme Court in 2000, it said.

Since that time, he has added greatly to the jurisprudence of Ireland in many important judgments. He has written expressing the view of a majority of the court and he has written trenchant dissents.

While this was not the time to analyse the great store of his judgements, two of those, DPP V Gormley and DPP v White, personified his concern for the protection of persons and their dignity.

His profound knowledge of the law, and his fluency in expressing his views, have added immensely to the legal jurisprudence of this state.

Mr Justice Hardiman, the statement said, was a Renaissance man, a historian who spoke and wrote on many topics, including the trial of Robert Emmet and the 1916 Rising.

He was due to give a lecture this Easter Monday on the 1916 Proclamation.

Catherine McGuinness and Adrian Hardiman

He was also a remarkable and engaging Joycean scholar who has written on many aspects of James Joyce and lectured at home and abroad, in riveting lectures, on this great Irishman, the statement said.

However, it is as a colleague and a friend that the members of the court will miss him.

His eloquence in conference, his depth of knowledge, his humour, but most of all his friendship, will be sorely missed by each member of the court.

The court also conveyed its deep regret to the judges wife Yvonne and sons, Eoin, Hugh and Daniel.

Earlier yesterday the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, led the court in a minutes silence to mark the death of Mr Justice Hardiman.
Mr Mullally, who was out for his retirement party, called out leave her alone, leave her alone to a man he saw harassing a woman.

When the attacker refused to stop, the 57-year-old remonstrated with him, but was punched twice in the head. Falling, he banged his head off the footpath.

The horror was observed by the mans brother and sister, who ran to his aid.

The attacker and his girlfriend fled in a car.

The tragedy unfolded outside an apartment complex on Harolds Cross Rd, south Dublin, at around 3.45am on Saturday.

Mr Mullally, who has a teenage daughter, was brought to St Jamess Hospital, where he died early on Sunday. Gardai subsequently arrested a man, aged 45, and questioned him in relation to the attack. It is understood the man, from the Tallaght area, admitted to hitting the deceased.

He was released without charge, pending a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. An autopsy was conducted yesterday morning and gardai are hopeful of an early charge in the case.

This is a desperate case, a tragedy, said one garda source. But its pretty clear-cut in terms of the investigation.

Detectives have also interviewed the attackers girlfriend to get her account of what transpired.

Officers have a number of key witness statements, including those of the deceaseds brother and sister.

That will be crucial in any prosecution, as will the statements of the suspect and his girlfriend.

Mr Mullally had been out with family and friends, celebrating his retirement from Guinness.

They had been socialising in town, before they went to a local pub in Harolds Cross.

Sources said that when Mr Mullally and his brother and sister left, at around 3.45am, he spotted a fight involving a couple on the footpath, up the road, outside a block of apartments.

He said leave her alone, leave her alone, said a source, and the fella said look, this is a domestic, its none of your business.

Mr Mullally went over to help the woman.

He received two boxes and banged his head off the footpath, said the source. The source said the offender disappeared, along with his girlfriend, and that they got into a car and left. But gardai tracked the couple down and arrested the man, who lives in Tallaght.

He was arrested early on Sunday morning. He was taken to Terenure garda station, under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

The man admitted that he stuck Mr Mullaly. Gardai also spoke to his partner.

Detectives are examining the mans background, and the circumstances leading up to the incident, and any other relevant factors.

Local sources said Mr Mullallys organs were donated, reflecting the selflessness of the man.
According to published documentation, the department paid Kildare-based DSV Air and Sea Ltd and Air Partners plc a total of 154,573 for the four chartered flights out of Dublin to European cities.

The department did not disclose the total number of deportees on all flights or the number of deportees per flight.

A spokesman said the number of returnees on each flight cannot be disclosed for fear they could be individually identified.

He said: Unfortunately, due to the nature of the flights, we are unable to provide the figures requested as these are commercially sensitive, and providing the details could impact on future contracts.

The 2015 annual review by the States Naturalisation and Immigration Service confirms that the numbers of failed, deported asylum seekers or illegal migrants more than doubled, from 111 in 2014 to 251, last year.

Department records show DSV Air and Sea Ltd was paid a total of 95,673 for three flights while Air Partners plc was paid 58,900 for one flight.

DSV Air and Sea Ltd flew to Madrid and Brussels (twice) to link with charter flights to Lagos in Nigeria and Kinshasa in Congo.

Air Partners plc received 58,900 in relation to a charter flight from Dublin to Rome to link up with a charter flight to Lagos.

A justice spokesman said the charters were run in conjunction with the EU agency Frontex. The number of seats available to Ireland is determined in discussion with Frontex.

Factors such as the number of EU countries taking part, the destination country, and relative size all influence the decision.

The agency was established in 2004 to reinforce and streamline between EU national border authorities.

The number of foreign nationals deported or removed from the State last year increased by 60% to 3,790.

Along with the 251 deported, 3,451 foreign nationals were refused entry into the State at ports of entry and were returned to the place from where they had come.

The annual review by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service records that the largest proportion of those deported/refused entry were from Brazil, accounting for 9.6%, followed by Albania (9.2%), Nigeria (7.5%), South Africa (7.4%), and Pakistan (6%).
David Ryan, aged 28, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to intentionally or recklessly taking the child without consent at Liffey St Upper on June 11, 2015. He has 112 previous convictions which were dealt with in the district court and include criminal damage, public order, theft, and fraud offences.

Sean Gillane SC, defending, said the State had agreed that the guilty plea was on the basis of reckless commission rather than intentional.

Garda Elaine Holmes told Noel Devitt BL, prosecuting, that the boy, who has Down syndrome, had been with his parents at an appointment before his father took him to Burger King to get food.

The man later left the child in a buggy facing into a shop before he went into it momentarily. He returned to find the boy was gone and called gardai immediately.

Gda Holmes said a woman had spotted Ryan pushing the buggy with the boy and could clearly see he was out of it. He abandoned the child outside Arnotts.

The child had been reunited with his father within 10 or 15 minutes. Arnotts staff had gone through CCTV footage and gardai had a description of the culprit before Gda Holmes met with the father.

She then spotted Ryan walking towards her with his eyes closed and arrested him immediately. Ryan was initially too intoxicated to be interviewed but later told gardai if it was me I am very sorry for what I did.

A victim impact report said the boy had been upset at school the next day but otherwise there had been no significant knock-on effect.
In fact, Ireland is likely to be subject to periods of extreme temperatures, extreme rainfall and drought on an increasingly regular basis, according to researchers at Maynooth University.

Change is already at hand. The research also reveals that previously out-of-the-ordinary periods of extreme weather have become significantly more regular since the mid-19th century.

The authors of the study warn that extreme seasonal weather has significant societal implications.

They say wet and stormy conditions during winter 2013/14 resulted in widespread flooding and coastal inundation and that the increasing likelihood of wet winters implied a significant challenge for water resource management and agriculture.

Similarly, hot summers have been associated with increased mortality in Ireland (Pascal et al, 2013), whilst rainfall deficits have impacted the agricultural sector (Stead, 2014). The effects of the latter have the potential to propagate internationally through Irelands agricultural exports (Hunt et al, 2014), the report says.

Yet despite the economic and human costs associated with seasonal extremes being embedded in the public consciousness, communicating to stakeholders the exact scale of the challenge posed by climate change still presents significant difficulties, the report says.

Lead author Tom Matthews, previously of Maynooth and now at Liverpool John Moores University, said the impetus behind the research was a desire to combat the psychological distancing that is widespread among the general public and decision makers.

There is an undeniable need for us all to reduce our emissions and plan appropriately for climate change. However, there is a common perception that climate change is temporally, geographically, or socially distant from peoples lives, and this reduces public engagement with the issue, Dr Matthews said.

While few of this generation will be around to experience it, 26 out of the final 30 years of the 21st century are expected to be warmer than 1995, the driest and hottest summer on record. Analysis shows the likelihood of an equally warm summer has increased 56-fold since 1900.

The researchers projections also show that one in every eight winters will be as wet as the wettest so far experienced (1994/95) and that the likelihood of a similarly wet winter recurring has doubled since 1850.

The research, published in the international journal Climate Risk Management, uses more than 150 years of collected data and sophisticated modelling to map and project extreme seasonal conditions in Ireland.

The publication of the paper is an output from the ongoing project, Irish Climate Futures: Downscaling for Decision Making, led by Conor Murphy of Maynooth Universitys Department of Geography. The universitys president, Philip Nolan, described climate change as the most pressing problem facing humanity as a whole.
To mark International Womens Day, the National Womens Council of Ireland (NWCI) was joined by newly elected TD for Dublin Bay South Kate OConnell (FG); Mayos Lisa Chambers (FF); Tanaiste Joan Burton (Labour); Joan Collins (Ind); Catherine Murphy (Social Democrats); and Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan (SF).

A total of 35 women were elected to the Dail in the recent election, and now make up just over 22% of all deputies. This marks an increase from the previous record of 25 women TDs in the 2011 election.

As a result of the gender quota, a political partys state funding can be slashed by 50% unless 30% of its candidates are women.

Louise Glennon of the NWCI said that, given the slow pace of change in terms of female representation over the last number of elections, this general election was hugely significant for women.

Louise Glennon of the NWCI

Gender quotas were necessary to accelerate the pace of change for womens equality, and it is clear that they were successful. Progress wasnt happening without quotas: 20% of candidates in 1997 were women, but this fell to 18% in 2002, 17% in 2007, and 15% in 2011, said Ms Glennon.

It took 19 years for the percentage of women in the Dail to increase from 12% to 15%. In one election its gone up to 22%, from 15%, in spite of political trends which saw several women lose their seat, and two women not stand for re-election. This is hugely significant.

NWCI director Orla OConnor said it was crucial that womens equality was discussed in any negotiations for the next programme for government.

Women voters in particular want to see investment in public services, we want an affordable childcare model, and investment in frontline domestic and sexual violence services, said Ms OConnor.

Repealing the Eighth Amendment was also a key issue for voters, and one which was not a priority for the majority of candidates.

NWCI director Orla OConnor

Meanwhile, a study has ranked Ireland 28th for the number of women on boards.

The survey by EY and the Peterson Institute for International Economics was carried out across almost 22,000 publicly traded companies (52 in Ireland) from 91 countries worldwide.

The top five countries for having women on boards were Norway (40%), Latvia (25%), Italy (24%), Finland (23%), and Bulgaria (22%).

Of the Irish companies surveyed, the results indicate that 2% have a female chair and 8% a female chief executive.

Mike McKerr, the managing partner of EY Ireland, said the study shows that companies must do better.

Companies that advance women into leadership roles will benefit from more engaged workforces, stronger cultures, and improved economic performance, he said.

We know that gender-balanced companies achieve better results. As business leaders we need to ask ourselves: Have we made enough progress? Are we helping enough women find their way into leadership roles in order to make our businesses better?
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney dismissed speculation that a deal between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail hinges on Enda Kenny being removed as leader, and he said the party must not allow itself be distracted from urgent political goals.

Mr Coveneys comments come as Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to respond in writing today to demands from the Independent Alliance in relation to Dail reform.

Mr Coveney rejected suggestions that his remarks about water charges last week had damaged his future leadership credentials and he warned that the greatest danger now facing Ireland is a political vacuum.

Fine Gael is very united behind our leader at the moment, he said in Cork yesterday. Enda Kenny leads the largest party in the country, we got the biggest vote and we have the highest number of TDs in the Dail.

It was not a good election for Fine Gael. There is no hiding that fact. We are still the largest party and with that comes responsibility and a strong mandate.

Now is the time for us to be united, clear and strong in terms of putting a government together that we can either support or be part of.

That is what the country needs and thats what we have an obligation to do. The last thing we need in Ireland right now is another election. The attempts to put a government together are deadly serious.

He said investments by companies such as Tyco in Cork could be at risk in a political vacuum.

That has happened in other EU countries where they are looking now at maybe second elections. International investors and financiers are now more cautious about lending to certain countries as a result.

The biggest risk to Ireland in terms of economic growth at the moment is politics  nothing else. There is lots of uncertainty outside Ireland already right now. We need a stable government in place to build on the hard-earned progress of the last five years.

What we have at the moment is a very uncertain political landscape after an election where people have decided not to vote for any one obvious combination of parties in government.

We in different political parties now need to figure out a way of putting a sensible, stable government together than can take the country forward.

Some political parties [Sinn Fein] have said they have no interest in being in government which I find strange. Others are going to work towards finding a way to form or be part of the next government. Certainly, Fine Gael is in that category. We will take our time, we will talk to everybody who want to be constructive, he said.
Speaking in the wake of a car bomb attack by dissident republicans in Belfast last week, she pledged that the gardai would remain on heightened alert for any threat of violence and would also remain vigilant at the funeral today of Dublins latest gangland victim, republican Vincent Ryan, 25, who was shot dead in Finglas last Monday.

Attending the passing-out ceremony for 99 new garda members at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary, Ms Fitzgerald said that Garda Commissioner Noreen OSullivan and her senior officers had been in contact with the Ryan family about the funeral arrangements and they made it clear they did not want revenge.

This is a very important year for us. We have important celebrations coming up and there is every reason to believe they will be enjoyed and celebrated by very many people.

Obviously, there is always an ongoing security situation and thats very much within the operational remit of the garda commissioner to manage that. But we have no particular information at present in relation to any specific threat.

Garda Colm OLoughlin, from Monageer, Co Wexford, gets a kiss from his daughter Molly, 2, at the Garda graduations in Templemore yesterday. Garda OLoughlin will be stationed in Tullamore.

As we see in Ireland, and around the world even; if you have saturation policing you can have criminal events, you can have murders. But what you have to do is take every possible action and give the resources that are necessary to have the greatest degree of public safety that can be provided.

I believe there is very good operational work at present, there have [been] ongoing investigations into recent murders.

This is not an easy situation; its a challenging situation for An Garda Siochana. These are people who, as we have seen, are intent on revenge and weve seen the appalling atrocities that theyve committed.

And every effort will be made to pursue those prosecutions and bring these people to justice. As Ive said before, these people are not outside the law.

There was a concern over the possibility of paramilitary display at the funeral. When Vincent Ryans brother, the Real IRA key figure Alan Ryan, was murdered in September 2012 men and women dressed in paramilitary uniforms fired shots over his coffin.

The public, I believe, are appalled at those types of displays and An Garda Siochana will take every step possible to ensure there is a dignified funeral, she said.

Garda Andrew Barrett, Doughcloyne, Co Cork, with his daughter Helen. Garda Barrett will be stationed in Waterford.

Earlier, the garda commissioner said she accepted that there has been a resurgence in gangland murders in the past two months in spite of armed patrols and checkpoints around Dublin but said that, now matter how many gardai there are, they cannot be everywhere all the time.

The commissioner also pointed out there have been 41 reports with more than 700 recommendations on work of the gardai over the past 10 years.
Gardai mounted a security operation at his home in leafy Clontarf, north Dublin, after he flew in on Friday.

Sources said the head of the Hutch family  who has a death threat from the Kinahan crime cartel hanging over him  came back to attend a christening.

It is understood the ceremony took place in Finglas, on Dublins northside.

Finglas was the site of the gangland murder of dissident republican Vincent Ryan last Monday week.

His funeral takes place in Donaghmede, north Dublin, this morning.

Gardai do not believe there is any connection between Ryans murder and the Hutch-Kinahan feud.

Gardai organised uniformed and armed patrols at the Monks home once they learned of his arrival at Dublin Airport.

He is the brother of Edward Hutch, who was shot dead at his home in Dublins north inner city on February 8.

Dissident republican Vincent Ryan

The murder was retaliation for the shooting dead of Kinahan gangster David Byrne, from Crumlin, south Dublin, at the Regency Hotel on February 4.

The main target, Daniel Kinahan, the elder son of crime boss Christopher Kinahan, escaped.

A massive Garda operation, including checkpoints, armed patrols and the Garda helicopter, was set up covering both the north inner city and the Crumlin-Drimnagh-south inner-city area.

That operation has been gradually scaled down over the weeks.

They have all been reduced, but you cant keep them up, not at that level, said one garda source.

Meanwhile, a policing plan is in place today for the funeral of 25-year-old Vincent Ryan, a member of the Real IRA in Dublin.

The family issued a statement at the weekend saying that the father of a newborn girl would not receive a military funeral.

This is unlike the funeral of Vincents brother, Alan Ryan, shot dead in September 2012 at the hands of the same crime bosses suspected of ordering Vincent Ryans murder.

Alan Ryan

Alan Ryan, then leader of the Dublin Real IRA, received an overt paramilitary funeral, with shots fired over his coffin.

In the statement, brother Dermot said Vincent Ryan was a staunch and honourable republican who, after his release from prison, did not report back to the IRA.

He said Vincent Ryan had stepped aside from involvement in republican activity to build his barber business and create a family life.
The tutors, who provide vital education for children who do not have school places  mainly children with autism  were classed as self-employed until a few months ago and sorted their own tax and insurance.

But Revenue ordered the Department of Education to treat them as PAYE workers and deduct tax at source, and while the department is complying, it says the tutors are employed by the parents whose children they teach.

Meanwhile, the Department of Social Protection, which decides their status for PRSI purposes, insists they remain self-employed and barred from holiday and sick pay and other benefits.

The confusion left some tutors without pay for six weeks over Christmas and the Department of Education has warned they could wait up to 12 weeks at certain times of the year.

Some were taxed at the high emergency rate which they can not claim back because they have no employer to issue them a P60. Their tax relief on expenses has also been slashed to just 500 a year when they must spend much more on materials, courses, and transport.

Tutors say the uncertainty is also making it impossible to get bank loans and mortgage approval and they are worried about how they can make an honest declaration for insurance cover.

Fiona Mallin, a tutor with 12 years experience, said the move to the Department of Educations payroll had caused repeated problems. When you fill out any legally-binding form, its impossible to give a clear answer, she said.

Up to a few months ago, parents claimed home tuition grants out of which they paid tutors directly, but the system changed after the Comptroller & Auditor General found some tutors were not paying tax.

Elaine ODwyer from Cork has brought a complaint to the Ombudsman on behalf of more than 200 tutors who have begun chronicling and sharing their experiences in a private online forum.

The tax issue could have been sorted by making sure every tutor was registered for tax and had a tax clearance cert before they could be employed. Were all being punished because a few werent compliant, she said.

Another tutor said the way they were being treated was demoralising. The reason youre there in the first place is because the State hasnt provided a suitable place for the child and you feel very disrespected when the State treats you like this.

She said it was symptomatic of the haphazard way home tuition services had been left to develop, without any regulation, supervision or inspection.

The Departmentof Education said it was acting on instructions from Revenue. Revenue said it had acted following a balanced consideration of the broad criteria set out in the code of practice for determining employment or self employment status.

The Department of Social Protection provided the same explanation.
An unrepentant Mr Ross was pressed about his comments at Leinster House yesterday, but said he was merely reflecting reality.

He made the assertions in his weekly column in the Sunday Independent and his colleagues were called on by the media to either stand by or distance themselves from the comments. The six-strong Dail grouping strongly backed Mr Ross, saying they shared his views.

The remarks were widely seen as overly personal and vulgar by other politicians.

I agree and share Shanes view, Dublin Bay North Independent TD Finian McGrath said.

Both Mr McGrath and Michael Fitzmaurice said it was abundantly clear there were questions about Mr Kennys future as Fine Gael leader.

They added they wanted to be sure they were speaking to people with full authority to do a deal.

The Independent Alliance members were speaking to the media after they held talks with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, ahead of a first vote to elect a taoiseach on Thursday.

The meeting ran over and the press conference was delayed as a result.

The group had met with Mr Kenny last week.

Sometime in the middle of the exchanges an awful truth dawned. We were possibly in dialogue with a political corpse, Mr Ross wrote of the meeting with the Taoiseach last Friday at Government Buildings.

Despite claims on Sunday that the group would abstain from the vote for taoiseach on Thursday, Mr Ross told the Irish Examiner that they had yet to ultimately decide on a course of action.

Mr Ross said it may be as late as Thursday morning before they announce their intentions. But the group was very positive about their meeting with Mr Martin which lasted more than 90 minutes.

He said Mr Martin distinguished himself in terms of his engagement in a way Mr Kenny did not.

Mr Ross said the Fianna Fail leader showed more energy in his approach.

Hes hungry and he wishes to put forward some very radical proposals and we didnt see that from the Taoiseach last week, he said.

Several members of the Independent Alliance have expressed deep concern about voting for Mr Kenny given that the electorate rejected his government.

Mr Ross said they presented Mr Martin with a move to end the Taoiseachs absolute power to call a general election by fixing Dail terms at five years.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin

The group also sought measures to end political cronyism in state board appointments and remove political influence from appointing judges.

The Independent Alliance also wants to end the secrecy surrounding the workings of the Dail committee on procedure and privileges. This regulates the parliament and deals with disciplinary issues.

Michael Fitzmaurice, who represents Roscommon- Galway, said Mr Martin was receptive to the idea of appointing a rural affairs minister and so-called rural proofing of major policies to ensure they promoted regional development.

MichaelFitzmauriceTDCREDITFacebook_large.jpg[/timcap]

Mr McGrath said he presented demands on health and disability services reforms as well as measures to tackle gangland crime.

The new TD for Galway East, Sean Canney, said he spoke about balanced regional development.

The four were accompanied by Longford-Westmeath TD, Kevin Boxer Moran. The other member of the group, John Halligan of Waterford, did not meet with reporters at Leinster House.
Its EU target for 2020 is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the non-emissions trading scheme (non-ETS) sector by 20% on 2005 levels.

The non-ETS sector covers emissions from agriculture, transport, residential, commercial, non-energy intensive industry, and waste sectors.

Figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show Irelands non-ETS sector emissions are projected to be between 6% and 11% below 2005 levels by 2020, compared to the 2020 target of 20%.

As a result, the country is unlikely to meet 2020 EU greenhouse gas emission targets.

The agency noted that although Ireland has overachieved in terms of annual obligations in the early years of the compliance period (2013-20), it will not be sufficient to meet the compliance obligations.

As a result, Ireland is expected to breach annual obligation targets in 2016 or 2017, depending on the level of implementation of emission reduction policies and measures.

The EPA also said that, even with the full implementation of policies and measures out to 2020, these will not be enough for the country to meet the 2020 targets.

Projected increased emissions from the agriculture sector  impacted by the Food Wise 2025 Strategy  and growing transport sector emissions, dominate the projected emissions trend.

Agriculture and transport are projected to account for 76% of Irelands non-ETS sector emissions in 2020.

For the period 2014-20, agriculture emissions are projected to increase by around 6% to 7%.

Transport emissions, meanwhile, are also likely to show strong growth over the period to 2020 with a 10% to 16% increase on 2014 levels.

The EPA director general, Laura Burke, said a balance must be struck between a focus on economic growth and reducing emissions.

The adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change in December provides an ambitious, legally binding framework for global action on climate change, said Ms Burke.

In addition Ireland has taken a national policy position that commits us to reducing our carbon emissions by 80% in 2050 on 1990 levels across the electricity generation, built environment and transport sectors while achieving carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land use sectors.

New obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for 2021-30 are being negotiated this year at EU level.

The further away Ireland is from the 20% reduction target in 2020, the more difficult it will be to hit compliance targets for the following decade.

Ms Burke said that, based on the current projections, the country faces considerable challenges to become a low-carbon economy.

Ireland must follow a pathway to decarbonising energy, transport, and heating.

We must break our dependence on fossil energy infrastructures.

He continued: In addition the agriculture, forestry, and land-use sectors should achieve effective greenhouse gas emissions neutrality by 2050.
The alarm was raised early yesterday when locals spotted a man in difficulty at the base of steep cliffs at Sandy Cove, near Castletownshend, in West Cork.

The national ambulance service arrived at the scene and contacted Valentia Marine Rescue Sub Centre at 9.42am for assistance, while a paramedic began treating the casualty on scene.

Valentia immediately tasked Toe Head Coast Guard unit, which specialises in cliff and coastal rescues, and the Shannon-based coastguard rescue helicopter Rescue 115.

Members of the Toe Head unit were on the scene within 10-minutes and mounted a rescue operation.

The helicopter arrived at the scene at 10am and after the crew consulted with the Toe Head unit, a decision was taken to airlift the casualty from the shore.

He was stabilised for transport, and was winched on board at 11.15am and was flown to Cork Airport, where an ambulance was waiting to transfer him to CUH.

A spokesman for Valentia coastguard said the man, who its believed may be living in the Skibbereen area, was treated for hypothermia on route.

We were very fortunate to have a specialist cliff rescue team close by, he said.

The Toe Head unit, which trains regularly on the many cliffs in the area, had spent a day training in the Sandy Cove area just over a fortnight ago. It was not clear how the man got into difficulty.

There is a popular cliff walk in the area and locals said that after days of heavy rain, underfoot conditions on the cliff top path may have become unstable.

Meanwhile, a seriously ill fisherman, 30, was airlifted to hospital from a fishing trawler off the Co Clare coast yesterday. The alarm was raised at 9.45am when the Irish Coast Guard marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Co Kerry were contacted by a doctor on the Aran Islands.

It is understood the doctor had been contacted by the crew of the Arkh Angell which was fishing about 40km west of Hags Head at the time. A man on board the Irish-registered trawler was reported to have been suffering from abdominal pains and was airlifted to University Hospital Galway for treatment.

Its understood he is a foreigner.
Fine Gaels position is that we want a national utility for water, rather than it reverting to local authorities, Mr Noonan said in Brussels yesterday.

We want water charged for, and its within that space that any discussions with a future partner in government will have to take place, he said.

While he said there was no room for compromise on the structure of Irish Water, he admitted that there are issues around the edges that could be discussed.

When asked yesterday if water charges should reflect the economic cost of building and maintaining water infrastructure, Mr Noonan said not necessarily. Water charges have become a political bargaining chip following the inconclusive election result, with Fianna Fail saying they should be scrapped.

Sinn Fein, the Anti- Austerity Alliance and several Independents are also against water charges although a large majority of Irish and other Europeans surveyed by the EU in 2012 said they were in favour of users being charged.

Since 2010, all EU countries have been obliged to charge for water, for environmental reasons and to cover the costs of providing the service.

If a future government lowers water charges, they will have to come up with extra cash to fund upgrades to the infrastructure, which the European Commission called weak in its latest staff report on Irelands economy.

The commission said in the report the structure and level of water charges already means that Irish Water is reliant on government subsidies to fund a significant portion of its costs.

It means future water upgrades will eat into any future governments precious fiscal space  the flexibility they have for extra spending without breaking EU budget rules.

The issue of fiscal space caused confusion during the election campaign, but Mr Noonan defended the Governments figures and repeated that there would be an extra 1.5bn available for any new government under EU rules.
Mr Barry claimed a seat for the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit group in the competitive four-seater constituency of Cork North Central.

The first-time TD who became involved in socialism and political activism as a teenager was expelled from the Labour Party along with Clare Daly, Joe Higgins, and Ruth Coppinger for his membership of the Militant tendency in 1989.

In earning a Dail seat he ousted outgoing Labour TD Kathleen Lynch.

What I hope to do is to provide a strong radical left-wing voice for real change, he told the Irish Examiner.

Areas such as low pay, the housing crisis, heath cuts and the abolition of water chares and property tax are important to me.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Mr Barry returned to Ireland in 1971 when he was eight, and grew up in Dublins Rathfarnham. However, the 52-year-old admits to having a long-standing connection with Cork.

I decided to move down to Cork for six months in the early 90s and I stayed for 25 years, said Mr Barry who lives in Blackpool with his wife Patricia.

Outgoing Labour TD Kathleen Lynch

First elected to Cork City Council in 2002, he helped increase support for the AAA grouping in Cork and the alliance managed to take three seats in the council elections in 2014.

This was Mr Barrys fourth time to run in a general election and he is now ready to take on the challenge of national politics.

Its a new job, a new challenge but the message will remain the same, we just have a bigger platform, said the Manchester United fan.

During the election campaign he set out to target the seat of sitting TD and junior minister Kathleen Lynch, which in the end proved a successful manoeuvre.

He was elected on the seventh count.

He said: We had been campaigning away for many years but the water charge issue gave our campaign an extra boost.

Going into the election we were seriously challenging for a seat and that increased as the campaign carried on.

AA-PBP wants to replace the Labour party and build a new radical left who will not sell out.

He now joins the five other members of the AAA-PBP elected to Leinster House including two other first timers  Gino Kenny of Dublin Mid-West and Brid Smith who claimed a seat in Dublin South Central.
It is a small but potentially deadly organisation which has been linked to the killing of a police officer and a prison warder.

With the centenary of the Easter Rising approaching later this month, senior police officers have said they are concerned that dissidents opposed to the peace process may attempt to hijack the anniversary by launching an attack.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) recruit Ronan Kerr, 25, died in a booby-trap car bomb in Omagh in Co Tyrone in 2011. Prison officer David Black was shot dead as he drove to work on the M1 in Co Armagh in 2012.

While the actions of the violent extremists remain sporadic and the number involved low, last weeks incident in east Belfast has provided another stark reminder of their capacity and intent. Police believe the threat posed to members of the security forces in Northern Ireland is severe.

The New IRA is a dissident group which opposes Sinn Fein and its peace strategy.

It is said to consist of individuals from Omagh, Coalisland, and the Toomebridge and Ballyronan areas along the shore of Lough Neagh, and in counties Monaghan and Louth, with their actions directed from Belfast.

In 2014, Gavin Coyle was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for possession of explosives and firearms with intent to endanger life and membership of a proscribed organisation  the IRA.

Coyle was arrested as part of the investigation into the murder of Constable Kerr.

Police had raided industrial units near Coalisland in Co Tyrone and found one of the largest caches of weapons and explosives in Northern Ireland for many years. The New IRA also claimed it murdered Northern Ireland prison officer Mr Black. He was driving to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Irelands high security jail, when he was attacked and killed.

It followed a dispute at the prison, where a number of dissident inmates were held.

MI5, responsible for national security in the North, has said dissidents seek to destabilise Northern Ireland through the tactical use of violence, targeting members of the police service and other security personnel as well as trying to cause disruption and economic damage.

They have very little public support. However, although security force pressure is constraining the threat and all dissident republican groups are under pressure, some attacks continue to get through, he said.

There were 16 national security attacks in 2015 and the threat to life posed by dissident republicans persists.

Police have not confirmed whether Semtex explosive was used in Fridays attack, but the groups statement claimed it contained a quantity of Semtex and a commercial detonator. Semtex was supplied by Libya to the Provisional IRA in the 1980s during the Troubles.
Mr Justice Hardiman, who was 65, was married to retired circuit court judge Yvonne Murphy, and was a father of three and grandfather of three. He was at home in Portobello in Dublin when he died and his family described his passing as peaceful.

President Michael D Higgins led the tributes, saying he had learnt of his death with great sadness and that his passing was an enormous loss to the legal world and to Irish life.

President Higgins described Mr Justice Hardiman as one of the great legal minds of his generation who had made an immense contribution to the development of Irish law.

A strong voice on the court, he has been rightly recognised as a passionate defender of civil liberties and of individual freedoms. He was committed to the public world and the world of ideas and always gave generously of his time to debate and discuss matters of public importance, he said.

The Supreme Court, to which Mr Justice Hardiman was appointed in 2000, was convened specially yesterday afternoon to mark his passing. Chief Justice Susan Denham said prior to the sitting that she had received the news of her colleagues death with great sadness and shock. She described Mr Justice Hardiman as a man who had made great and courageous efforts on behalf of those who sought justice.

He neither favoured nor feared any interest and went about his work with great integrity, grit and dedication, she said.

David Barniville, SC, chairman of the Bar Council, described Mr Justice Hardiman as a colossus who would be sorely missed both by his contemporaries and younger members of the profession.

He was unfailingly generous with his time and knowledge and took enormous pride in mentoring students and new barristers, he said.

Catherine McGuinness and Adrian Hardiman

The Law Society also expressed its sorrow, director general Ken Murphy saying:  The Irish people have lost a fierce protector of their rights against any over-reaching by the power of the State.

As one of the most brilliant barristers of his generation, he was a powerful, punchy and highly persuasive advocate. Fearless, fluent and articulate, he could think on his feet to handle with ease whatever was thrown at him, he said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny expressed his condolences to Mr Justice Hardimans family on behalf of the Government. Adrian had a long and illustrious legal career and was one of the great minds of our time, he said. Most importantly, Adrian was also a much-loved husband and father.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald described him as a fearless defender of the Constitution and a man of extraordinary intellectual ability. Fianna Fail Leader Micheal Martin said he had always known him as extremely kind, generous and good-natured.

Adrian was a hugely respected judge, known for his great intellect and wit, and was one of the outstanding lawyers of his generation Mr Martin said.

Tanaiste Joan Burton sent condolences on behalf of the Labour Party, describing him as a liberal voice on many issues.

His funeral will take place on Thursday morning at the Church of the Holy Name, Ranelagh in Dublin.
Chaplain Fr Piotr Delimat said the Polish community in the Kerry tourist town had been very affected by the death but he was confident it would support each other and the family.

Baby Karol Rozyckis mother has been named as Anna Rozycka, who raised the alarm. Karols father, Andrzez Piolunowicz, is receiving treatment in hospital.

Supt Flor Murphy said the body of baby had been discovered in a bedroom in the Park Place apartment building off High Street, at around 6pm, after gardai had been alerted.

Also in the apartment was a male with serious injuries, the senior Killarney-based garda said. He said the man was taken to Kerry University Hospital in Tralee and was receiving treatment.

The scene is still being preserved.

The infants body which had remained overnight, on Sunday, in the apartment was removed to Kerry University Hospital yesterday and a postmortem conducted.

Dr Margot Bolster, State pathologist, arrived at the apartment on Sunday night and conducted a preliminary investigation.

Supt Murphy said the results will determine the course of the investigation.

Gardai are appealing to anyone in the Park Place apartment complex yesterday between 1pm and 6pm or anyone with any information whatsoever to contact the gardai, he said.

Garda technical experts from Dublin arrived yesterday to examine the apartment.

Both parents work in one of the top local hotels.

It is understood the mother of the child, in her 20s, who is a chef, raised the alarm when she returned from work around 6pm.

Her partner, Mr Piolunowicz, is in his 30s.

He was discovered seriously injured and was taken to Kerry University Hospital in Tralee.

Family members and friends, and neighbours in the apartment as well as Ms Rozycka, were spoken to by gardai yesterday.

Gardai are waiting to interview the injured father.

Fr Delimat, the Polish chaplain in Kerry, seconded from the Archdiocese of Krakow, said he was liaising with the family involved and would continue to do so.

The Polish community in Killarney is well-organised, he said.

Twice a month there is a Polish mass in one of the towns two parish churches.

Many of the Polish families have children and they are all very affected by the death, he said.

We are all really touched by this, Fr Delimat said.

The priest said he had just completed, this weekend, a two-day retreat with the Polish community in Killarney on the theme of Gods forgiveness.

He would be keeping in contact with the family and the community would be supportive of them, he felt.

One Polish woman living in the apartment complex said Sunday had been very quiet in the complex. Everyone was very shocked.

The family had been living there for some months.
The study, published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), finds that many older people already live in smaller properties, particularly those who live alone.

However, it found there was scope for incentivising trading down among older couples. Entitled Housing and Irelands Older Population, it also outlines potential problems, such as negatively impacting on the health of the people who move.

The study is based on data gathered for The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), which tracks changes in the lives of its nationally representative population aged 50 and above, with the most recent data for 2012.

The ESRI paper is based on analysis of almost 6,000 people and found that one-third of those aged over 50 live alone, as do 63% of those aged over 80. Almost 90% of cases analysed involve so-called empty nesters  people who have had children who have left the family home.

According to the report, 40.6% of TILDA participants live in houses with four rooms or fewer, while almost 14% live in houses with seven or more rooms. When it comes to couples, more than 30% live in a house with seven or more rooms. The vast majority of people both living alone (78.3%) and couples (94.3%) own the property.

Charting changes between 2009, 2001 and 2012, the study found those aged in their 50s and those aged 80 and above were more likely to have moved than those in their 60s and 70s, and widows, those born outside of Ireland and those who are separated or divorced, were also more likely to have moved.

According to the report: The findings suggest that there is scope for generating more mobility in housing but any policy initiatives should be sensitive to concerns related to social isolation and negative health consequences if older people leave familiar communities.

The low rate of trading down and trading out also suggest that there might be scope for freeing up supply of larger houses and in urban areas.

However, it concludes that any economic benefit which might accrue from the mobility of older people should be set against possible costs in terms of social connectedness and health.

The study does not look at what incentives could be used but Alan Barrett, who is ESRI director, said people could be subsidised to move through incentives to sell, or tax breaks on rental income.

Justin Moran of Age Action said many older people feel really infuriated by any suggestion that they should leave the area they have lived in and that Ireland did not have a history of providing suitable sheltered accommodation for older people moving in later life as occurs in other countries.

We have not planned for an ageing population, he said.

That view was echoed by Anne Dempsey of Third Age, who operate a senior persons helpline. She said while some older people might like to move as they feel unsafe living alone, a house was often seen as having symbolic as well as real value.

She said planning for an ageing population needed to involve people living in their home areas in a safe and secure environment and in an age diverse population.
Ms Burton and her entourage had left a graduation event at An Cosan Education Centre at Jobstown, Tallaght when a demonstration was held which delayed her for about two hours on November 15, 2014. She and her team had been attempting to travel by car to St Thomas Church for the rest of the ceremony when it is alleged violence broke out.

Mr Murphy, aged 32, with an address at The Copse, Woodpark, Ballinteer, appeared at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court along with 18 others, some facing charges of false imprisonment and violent disorder.
Turkey has doubled its price for holding refugees and preventing them from reaching EU shores, threatening to scupper the latest attempt to resolve the migrant crisis.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Irelands share of the initial 3bn package for Turkey to care for Syrian refugees would be 22m and double this if the EU agrees to Turkeys demand for a second 3bn.

However, before talks started with prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Ankara asked to double the money and grant by June short-stay visa-free entry that would be used mainly for business people and students.

They also want negotiations to begin immediately on the countrys long- delayed accession to the EU, and in exchange would accept back migrants who came through Turkey, provided the EU took an equal number of those who qualify as refugees.

However, Turkey says it will only take back refugees once those already on the Greek islands have been removed  something that diplomats say will be difficult as sending back refugees before their asylum requests are processed breaches the UNs Geneva Convention.

Mr Davutoglu also met Nato officials in Brussels. Nato and the EUs border agency Frontex have agreed to patrol international waters and return migrants found there to Turkey.

Ireland has said it will resume its mission in the Mediterranean rescuing migrants from Libyan waters and bringing them to Italy in line with a bilateral agreement with the Italians.

The issue of press freedom was raised with the prime minister at the meeting after the closure of Zeman, a newspaper critical of the government, and of the Kurds being targeted by the Turkish army in attacks.

EU leaders are expected to agree to step up humanitarian aid especially to Greece where 800,000 refugees have arrived in the past year.
Almost 400 people, including Tyco chief executive George Oliver and several senior executives who jetted in from the US, attended the official opening yesterday of the firms new offices across three floors at the hi-tech One Albert Quay complex in Cork City.

The building, built over the last 18 months by John Cleary Developments (JCD), sets the benchmark for future office development in the city, guests were told.

With plans lodged recently for a similar office block twice its size nearby, the combined effect of both was described as a catalyst for the development of the citys docklands.

It is understood the IDA is already in talks with another company seeking up to 150,000 sq ft of similar hi-tech office space in the city within the next two years.

Tyco, which received 10,000 applications for its first recruitment drive for the Cork operation, will employ 500 people there working in sourcing, procurement, research, development, information technology, compliance, HR, and finance.

It comes just eight years after Tyco, which acquired Sensormatic in 2001, downsized its assembly operations in Cork. Following a global review, the decision to relocate its global base from Switzerland to Cork was announced in January 2014.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney praised Tycos Irish management team, led by Donal Sullivan, for their ambition and vision. He also praised JCD for delivering a building tailored to Tycos needs.

It is a huge statement from Cork on where the city is going. Facilities like this are attracting new companies like Tyco, which will ensure the city grows outwards, and which will provide a real counterpoint to Dublin for development, said Mr Coveney.

Mr Sullivan said they are thrilled with the building, which will act as a talent magnet. The 60m building has been embedded with Tycos protection, security, and asset-tracking systems, and features solar panels, rain harvesting, smart parking, energy-saving lift, and lighting systems.

Daryll Fogal of Tyco said it will serve as a technology template for its other operations around the world.

Were trying to find the best people and were finding them in Cork. But once you hire those people they have an expectation of what their lifes going to be like at work and we think this exemplifies that he said.

Business: 16
AS PART of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the death of Cork writer Frank OConnor (born Michael Francis ODonovan), on Thursday, his son, Oliver ODonovan, will donate 642 letters to UCC library.

These letters were correspondence by his father and mother to each other between 1945 and 1950. A theologian and Church of England priest, ODonovans mother was writer, Joan Knapes, who became OConnors lover in 1943. While the couple never married, they lived as man and wife, in Dublin, from 1950 to 1953, when they broke up.

OConnor had a complicated domestic life. He had five children by three women. ODonovan was 20 when his father died, at 63. The letters, which include everything from multi-page, handwritten letters to scrappy telegrams and a few words scribbled on the back of post-cards, are mainly from the period 1952 to 1953.

When my father went off on long lecture visits to North America, including Harvard, he and my mother wrote to each other every day, explains ODonovan.

Every detail of their daily lives is covered. Theres also a fascinating account of the time when problems blew up between my father and his wife, Evelyn. They got stuck in annulment proceedings, which sound completely tortuous and painful. Theres a lot of material there for a future biographer to correct, and improve the existing record of that period in his life.

Looking forward to @fotoole lecture on Frank O'Connor @UCC - 10 March, Boole 2, UCC, 6pm. Details here: https://t.co/WsbnIOUMa3  English UCC (@EnglishUCC) March 3, 2016

The letters also include OConnors reaction to a five-day voyage to America on a liner, and of arriving there for the first time, which stunned him. It opened up a whole world for him. Theres humour in the letters, of an ironic, slightly detached kind. He presents himself in a droll way, the innocent observer who is always taken aback and caught out, and made a fool of by everybody else, which, of course, was not the truth at all. It was just a witty pose he liked to strike. The letters are very entertaining reading. He was always the observer.

OConnor, whose early life was marked by his fathers alcoholism, debt, and the ill-treatment of his mother, did not have a normal father/son relationship with ODonovan. I didnt see my father often during my childhood. My parents had a very broken relationship. We all lived together, as well as my fathers mother, in south Dublin, from 1950 to 1952. After my parents broke up, I would be sent across to him on holidays. We travelled in France together when I was 13. We talked and he kept a curious eye on my education.

He had an extremely exploratory, restless, speculative and interested mind. He liked to present himself as essentially untaught, an untutored genius. But he wasnt as untaught as all that. By todays standards of secondary education, I think he would have come out quite well.

How did OConnor, an atheist, react to his sons religious leanings? He was ironic about it, as you would expect. He teased me about it, insofar as he knew where I was going at the time. I was still only a student when he died. He was interested, and sometimes puzzled, but he let me find my way.

ODonovan hasnt been keeping a close eye on the legacy of his father. When I come to Cork, I see the work the Munster Literature Centre does [to keep the memory of OConnor alive]. Then, theres the little head of him in the library. When I was a child, I always looked forward to the day when Id see a statue of my father in the city. I wouldnt object to one, providing it was a good one.

The Dublin literary establishment, to which my father belonged, moved on and left him behind. But Cork is still interested in him and I always appreciate that.

Oliver ODonovan at Frank OConnor House on Douglas Street, Cork

However, the Frank OConnor International Short Story prize, awarded annually for a new short story collection, and worth, at its peak, 50,000  the richest short story prize in the world  has been axed.

In its place is the Frank OConnor International Short Story Fellowship. This year, the inaugural fellowship has been awarded to Canadian writer, Zsuzsi Gartner.

The Cork City Council-funded fellowship, worth 15,000, will see Gartner living in Cork, and working with the literary community here, for three months, and contributing to the Cork International Short Story Festival.

Pat Cotter, director of the Munster Literature Centre, says Cork has dealt appropriately with the legacy of Frank OConnor.

Putting up the major short story award for eleven years was a huge commitment. Back in 1993, I tried to get what I was calling the Frank OConnor Summer School off the ground. But it was very difficult. says Cotter.

His reputation was fairly invisible. None of the major critics were paying attention to Frank OConnor. He was dismissed as a backward social realist. But the award, and the 17 years of the Cork International Short Story Festival, have redressed that problem.

In retaining Frank OConnors name in the fellowship, we are committed to his memory.

Whatever about the critics, OConnor has had a significant influence on leading writers, including Richard Ford and Julian Barnes. Many contemporary Irish writers are influenced by his mastery of the short story, including Claire Keegan and Anne Enright.

There has also been a resurgence of the Irish short story in recent years, via writers such as Kevin Barry, Colin Barrett and Madeleine DArcy. OConnor may not yet have a statue in his hometown, but his legacy clearly lives on.

Remembering Frank OConnor 50 years on. Readings on Thurs 10 Mar 12 noon in Grand Parade library. #corkcitylibrary pic.twitter.com/mwyg4MncJH  Cork City Libraries (@corkcitylibrary) March 7, 2016

As part of the Frank OConnor anniversary event, four Irish writers will each discuss a Frank OConnor short story: Danielle McLaughlin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Mary Morrissy and Brendan Matthews. A number of scholars will also examine OConnors work
Our first thoughts today must be with Adrians wife, Yvonne Murphy, son, Hugh, and daughter-in-law Alison, and sons Eoin, and Daniel.

Adrian was a proud husband and a proud father. He took immense pleasure in the achievements of his wife and sons. He was, too, an entirely doting grandfather.

In the coming days there will be many words of tribute from many sources. In truth, he inhabited a number of worlds with huge distinction.

For us, his colleagues, his judgments, his interventions in court and his contributions in conference and discussions were all incisive and illuminating. For a person who sometimes appeared to espouse cool detachment, he held strong and passionate beliefs, particularly in the liberty of the citizen, and the rights of accused persons. He held strong opinions, but no grudges. At a personal level, he was the most entertaining, amusing and generous of companions.

His judgments were written in his distinctive style, sometimes very direct, but always clear. For law students and commentators, they were always a pleasure to read. For us, as colleagues, whether we agreed or disagreed with him in individual cases, he was always courteous and considerate, and maintained an unswerving loyalty to the Court which he served with such distinction.

He was a counsel who was able to bring to bear extraordinary powers of energy, oratory, flashes of wit and strength of character, to each case in which he was involved. He was a devastating cross-examiner, but his predominant characteristic was his sheer presence in Court, which he dominated by force of character.

He was a man of strong loyalties. First, of course, to his family, to his school, but, in a very deep way, to the history department in UCD, and those who taught him there. For his entire life, he spoke with the deepest respect and affection of all those historians. His choice of career, however, did not prevent him making a huge contribution to his other worlds of history and literature.

His capacity for analysis and engagement in cases of the past was remarkable. No one who attended his lectures on the trial of Robert Emmet will forget it. He wrote many brilliant articles on James Joyce and the law. One of the great regrets will be that he will not live to see the forthcoming publication of his great work on Joyce and The Law. The depth of his scholarship, in law, history and literature, was recognised by his membership of the Royal Irish Academy.

One of his most pronounced characteristics was a truly prodigious memory. He could recall, without effort, vast tracts of poetry, especially from the Victorian and Edwardian era. He had a capacious vocabulary that enlivened his conversation as much as his vivid judgments . He was a wry observer of human nature, and of the idiosyncrasies of people he encountered both inside and outside the law. He enjoyed company, but nothing gave him more pleasure than being at his house in Portnoo, where he did much of his writing, walking and thinking.

While sometimes critical of the State, he was, in truth, profoundly loyal to it, and its institutions. He recognised and espoused the value of the dissenting view at a time when consensus had frequently led to wrong conclusions, and wrong paths. He had a great love of the Irish language, which he made clear in one of his most distinctive judgments in OMaicin v Ireland. His loyalty was to the law, in the very best sense.

He was a student of the Constitution, its evolution and the way in which its identification of rights was there for the protection of each individual. He gave his heart and soul to each judgment. Those judgments will stand as a monument to him, as much as his extraordinary literary and historical engagement.

Any person who witnessed Adrian Hardiman in court, either as a barrister, or as a judge, knew that they were witnessing something unique, a person who was a master of both the art and craft of law.

He was always an ebullient colleague, full of spirit and life. It can be justly said that no one was quite as alive as he was, as he was both at work and in leisure. His judgments contained a high degree of principled consistency, even in circumstances where, as he knew, the conclusions he arrived at might be criticised.

He was at his best, and perhaps his happiest, defending an unpopular person, or position, against the populist consensus.

Adrian Hardiman died far too young. He had far too much still to give at a time when clarity, detachment and rigor, but also humour and generosity, are so necessary. He was a unique person, and irreplaceable. For his family, the only consolation, at this dreadful time, is that he gave so much to them and to Ireland. For us , his colleagues, he leaves an irreplaceable store of fond personal memories.

His Colleagues.
IN THE usually arid language of Supreme Court legal judgments, Adrian Hardimans contributions delivered a welcome drop of refreshment.

Not shy about injecting passion into his conclusions, he would declare a contrary claim as astonishing, a perceived breach of legal principle as horrifying, and an ill-argued point as bewildering, nonsense, or, on a good day, both.

Eloquent as might be expected of a Joycean scholar, he could deliver a hammer blow of a put-down with Wildean succinctness  as witnessed when he was left to pass judgment in the troubling case of a woman seeking the right to be recognised as the legal mother of her twin babies, created from her eggs but born to a surrogate.

Admonishing successive governments for their failure to legislate for the stampede of advances in assisted reproductive technology, Hardiman described the situation as one akin to where road traffic law had failed to reflect the advent of the motor car.

Another time, he figuratively banged the heads of Department of Justice officials together by declaring them guilty of an extraordinary form of groupthink in their mishandling of an immigration case.

And in one of his particularly devastating critiques, Hardiman said the wrongfully convicted Donegal businessman Frank Shortt had been perjured into prison by out of control gardai in a campaign that was nothing less than an obscenity.

He could never be mistaken for being populist, however. Nobody who pens a 166-page dissenting view  as he did in last years admissability of evidence ruling  is going to be popular in the common sense.

In recent years he had unsentimentally ruled against hard-luck immigrants and victims of sex abuse, while delivering in favour of criminals, a Garda killer, a member of Sean Quinns family, and expenses scandal TD Ivor Callely.

TD Ivor Callely

Just last month, while majority opinion was slapping the back of Operation Yewtree in Britain over its, albeit belated, crackdown on celebrity sex abusers, Hardiman was questioning the unquestioning belief that the accuser must always be believed at the expense of the right to the presumption of innocence of the accused and acquitted.

His propensity to go against the grain never seemed contrived, nor even, though many have said it, courageous. It just seemed natural, even necessary, for him to present an alternative viewpoint and, where warranted, stamp it with his approval.

Adrian Hardiman was born in 1951 in the newly created suburb of Coolock on the northside of Dublin City. His father was a teacher and for a time the president of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland.

He went to school at Belvedere College where he excelled at English and then studied history at UCD where he was president of the student representative council, the forerunner to the students union.

He was auditor of the Literary and Historical Society, and it was in UCD that he met his wife-to-be, Donegal girl and now retired circuit court judge Yvonne Murphy, who was studying law part-time while working at the Revenue Commissioners.

The pair went to Kings Inn to train as barristers and Hardiman graduated in 1974, quickly earning a reputation as a confident and capable counsel in the grim environs of the Dublin criminal courts before going on to develop a wide brief covering everything from crime to constitutional law and libel to public liability.

His interest in politics survived his student days and in 1983 he acted as chair of the Anti-Amendment Campaign against the referendum that brought in the constitutional ban on abortion.

He would later show his liberal cards again when he successfully represented the Well Woman Centre against the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child over the provision of information on abortion.

In the meantime, he stood unsuccessfully for Fianna Fail in Dun Laoghaire in the 1985 local elections. His attachment to the party did not survive the Haughey era, however, and, disaffected with the leadership, Hardiman left and became a founding member of the Progressive Democrats.

He acted as legal adviser to the partys first leader, Des OMalley, whom he also represented during the Beef Tribunal, where he famously cross-examined then-taoiseach Albert Reynolds. His questioning of Reynolds led to, or at least accelerated, the collapse of the coalition government after he offered Reynolds the choice of describing OMalleys claims as incorrect or dishonest and Reynolds plumped for dishonest.

Adrian Hardiman Senior Counsel with Pat Rabbitte TD during the Beef Tribunal. 1992 Photo: RollingNews.ie

He made another memorable contribution to tribunal history when he represented Liam Lawlor against the Flood Tribunal and secured the late TDs right not to be compelled to turn up for questioning in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

He represented yet another politician, Democratic Left leader Proinsias de Rossa, in the landmark libel case that resulted in colourful exchanges with Eamon Dunphy in the witness box, an unprecedented 380,000 award against the Sunday Independent, and a 13-year battle that only concluded in the European Court of Human Rights in 2005.

After 26 years at the bar, Hardiman was appointed to the Supreme Court  a somewhat unconventional selection given he had never presided over a lower court.

He was 49 and one of the highest earning barristers in the country, taking a drop in income to commit to the new job, so he took it not a little personally when the row over judges salaries broke out and the 2011 referendum was passed to enable governments cut judicial pay.

It wasnt the money he cared about, Hardiman insisted, but the dangerous principle that judges could be cowed into submission by fear of financial uncertainty at the hands of a given government without an independent mechanism being in place to adjudicate on the matter.

Barrister Adrian Hardiman debating in the Shelbourne hotel. Photo: RollingNews.ie

He lost that argument but sometimes, even when he was on the losing side, it was his contribution that was remembered most. He dissented from the majority judgment in favour of relaxing the bar on admissibility of evidence in cases where there was a breach of constitutional rights in obtaining the evidence last year.

While his Supreme Court colleagues ruled to allow wriggle room for inadvertent breaches, he was adamant that such a change could propagate all sorts of inadvertent breaches. He was horrified at his colleagues opposing view, he said. They didnt hold it against him  praise came in thick and fast after news of his loss broke yesterday.

He is mourned by his wife Yvonne, their sons Hugh, Eoin, and Daniel, and their grandchildren.
The fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Syria on March 11 is a milestone in a crisis which has been marked by diplomatic failure, botched policies, and perhaps most shameful of all, broken promises to men, women, and children fleeing for their lives.

The recent 999-call for help from refugees hidden in a container in Rosslare is a stark reminder that Ireland cannot remain removed from a Europe-wide crisis which is deteriorating rather than improving.

The scenes in Calais and on the Mediterranean may grab the headlines, but there are also refugee camps in Cherbourg and Roscoff, where at least some of the occupants are hoping to reach Irish shores.

The current domestic political limbo cannot be an excuse for a lack of action by the Government. The political uncertainty we face here is nothing compared to the uncertainty of those getting onto boats fleeing for their lives into an unknowable future  and this should be the priority regardless of party politics.

The reality is the policy decisions to take in 4,000 men, women, and children were made six months ago  yet overall, the numbers resettled here are only a fraction of that: 500 in the five years since the start of the crisis.

No doubt the anniversary will stir memories of the terrible scene of a childs body lying on a Turkish beach which sparked revulsion across Ireland, forcing our then government into action  including a crisis cabinet meeting and promises delivered on the steps of Government Buildings to offer shelter, protection, and hope.

As a country we have a duty to honour those commitments.

We are not alone in falling short on delivering on promises to those fleeing for their lives. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees confirms that combined EU governments have only resettled 325 people from Greece  despite promises to shelter 66,400.

It is the failure to implement those programmes that is creating the hot-spots and bottle-necks of humanity on Europes borders  where we have all borne witness to babies being handed over and under barbed war  scenes which Europe thought it would never see again.

The number of lives lost on the high seas in the first two months of this year stands at 418, a toll made even starker by the fact highlighted by the International Organisation for Migration that two children drown every day. On this anniversary Ireland should stand in solidarity with the people of Syria and all those fleeing war and tyranny.

There are a number of actions which should be taken immediately, including a political decision to redeploy the Irish navy on search and rescue where it saved 8,000 lives last year, immediately honour our previous commitment to take in 4,000 refugees, and to publish a comprehensive integration strategy for those arriving here.

The Irish people are ready for action, with many having made commitments to welcome refugees into their communities and indeed their homes, and it is time for the Government to follow the will of its people. In the longer term, Irish policies in the area of migration will need to be addressed so as to reflect a world where the reality is that one in every 122 people have been forced to flee from their home.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland has campaigned to highlight shortfalls including the failure to introduce a fair immigration system with clear rules and guidelines as well as independent appeals. In addition, we need proper procedures in place to protect vulnerable groups such as children travelling alone or those who have fallen victims to human trafficking gangs and are being subjected to sexual and labour exploitation.

A promised national action plan on human trafficking remains at a draft stage and has yet to be published.

Next September, through its ambassador at the UN, Ireland will co-chair a global summit on refugees.

Preparations for that gathering must be advanced so that our mission at the UN not only has the resources to secure commitments from countries on aid and resettlement, but that we will follow up and ensure they are honoured.

However, failure to implement our own resettlement programme will only serve to undermine any effort to achieve that. The summit can only be a success if we are to lead by example.

Since the arrival of refugees in Rosslare, the Immigrant Council has also committed to taking action. As an independent law centre, we are, for the first time, sending lawyers abroad to assess the legal needs of those in camps in France and to see how they can be addressed. It is a first for us and the findings will determine the future course of our response to the crisis.

In the coming days, there will be commemorations and events to remember the lives lost over the past five years  there will be poignant moments for us all as we recall the scenes of tragedy which stand like milestones in a bloody journey.

It is right to remember  but it is also right to commit to action and to do everything possible to ensure those scenes are not repeated over and over again.

[social=twitter]https://twitter.com/BriKi/status/702558702000283649/social]

Brian Killoran is chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland
TWO questions. Does anyone really want to govern this little country of ours? And secondly, what is all this guff about new politics?

New politics, youd have thought, involves leadership and vision. More to the point, it involves a willingness to do business out in the open, and a sense of honesty about mistakes. All weve had, since the election, is the usual mooching around behind dark windows.

The cute politicians we elected are all keeping their powder dry, because thats what cute politicians do.

So, were supposed to be electing a Ceann Chomhairle on Thursday. Its an innovation (not a revolution, as described by some), because any member of the Dail who has the support of seven others can put themselves forward, and then therell be an election by secret ballot. Independent TD Maureen OSullivan looks like a likely candidate and will announce her decision today, while Independent TD Denis Naughten will put himself forward if she does not. Fianna Fail has selected Kildare South TD Sean O Fearghail as its candidate. Sinn Fein is said to be supporting Caoimhin O Chaolain.

But the pressing point is that there has been little discussion of what the prospective candidates would like to do with the job  how theyd like to make it different, how they would see themselves contributing to a fuller role for our national parliament.

The prime consideration for nominations is likely to be whether nominating someone for the office could result in numbers being reduced on the floor of the Dail. Thats why the largest party in the parliament is unlikely to allow any of its members to contest.

In other words, the new politics is pretty much the same as the old politics. Its not about reform, its about tactics.

Then well move on to the bigger issue of the day, the election of a taoiseach. As of now, three candidates will go forward. None of them will win. In all probability, none of them will even speak. None of them will stand there and say, I want to be Taoiseach. And heres why.

The horse-trading will start, behind closed doors. Little by little, a programme of government will begin to emerge. There will be endless leaks, and probably almost as many denials, about whats in it, whos supporting it, what election promises are being abandoned. As time goes by, and the formation of a government gets closer, the leaks will be all about whos in and whos out, who are the winners and the losers in Cabinet formation.

The media, of course, will have great fun. Every day therell be a headline about Enda Kennys desperate bid to cling on to power. Many of the same newspapers will have editorials demanding that he make whatever compromise is necessary, in the national interest, to form a government. Hell be every night thinking hes damned if he does and damned if he doesnt.

Enda Kenny

Heres the thing though. The election is over. The people of Ireland have made a decision. Its a complicated and subtle decision. For example, they clearly rejected Fine Gaels campaign message and the core of their election platform  the total abolition of the USC  but they kept Fine Gael as the largest party.

They clearly offered Fianna Fail a significant measure of forgiveness for the past, and perhaps sent them a message that they might be fit again for government in one more election, but not just yet.

They rejected everything the Labour Party had to offer, but kept the party alive. They liked the cut of Sinn Feins jib, but were slightly put off by something about them. And the people exercised their right to protest, by electing more protestors than ever before.

In overall terms, the people made an angry, but entirely coherent, decision. Faced with a decision like that, is there, do you think, the remotest possibility that a leader might stand up in the Dail and say something like the following:

First of all, I acknowledge the anger in the peoples recent decision. I believe they were angry because we failed to get everything right in the last four years. Cuts were necessary, but some of them were unnecessarily harsh. The proper development of our water system is necessary, but we went about it the wrong way.

"But perhaps above all, when there was growth again in the economy, we failed to recognise that there were many things in our community that the people wanted addressed as the first priority. We offered tax cuts when people wanted better, more accessible and more compassionate services.

So we got it wrong. In the next five years, we have to concentrate instead on seeking to govern in the interests of the whole people. Thats why I have decided to publish a platform for government that takes account of the real needs of our society.

"We will set out to fix the things that really need to be fixed, and we will implement much more modest tax cuts, to enable resources to be applied where they are most needed.

Of course, if a leader in the current situation wants to attract support, he has to be prepared to negotiate. But not in secret, and not from a blank sheet of paper that basically says whatever youre having yourself. Instead, a real leader, someone who wants to govern, would now be publishing a core document that sets out principles, but also acknowledges the real priorities demanded by the people on election day.

On water, it would acknowledge failure and suspend payment for five years, until a proper and accountable infrastructure is in place. On regeneration (both urban and rural), an issue which dominated the election right down the western seaboard and in other places, it would put forward a radical, community-based programme and a Cabinet level post.

A transformative leadership platform would make it an absolute priority to end homelessness, especially among families with children, within two years. That can only happen if a single agency is given the power and the resources to do it.

The platform would also begin to address the needs of children in disadvantaged areas, people with disabilities, travellers and elderly people, perhaps through the establishment of a government department of social and community care with real critical mass, and through the development (at last) of real rights in law for people who cope with disadvantage.

A leadership document would also embrace parliamentary and other reform with enthusiasm, and not in the grudging way were used to. It would set out to genuinely open parliament up as a place where law can be initiated, the executive kept on its toes, and the aspirations of people highlighted.

The real fear at the moment seems to be that a minority government would be held hostage, and that the opposition would determine when the next election is going to happen.

A leader who wanted to govern would be throwing down the gauntlet, by saying these are the things Im going to do  support me or vote against me. Lets not have the usual old game of musical chairs. Lets have a bit of imagination and real leadership instead.

On the water charges, we should acknowledge the failure and suspend payment for five years
ONE of these days, somebody somewhere in power is going to finally say enough is enough and initiate an investigation into Nama.

So far, the signs are that the scandal bubbling under Nama is going to continue to be ignored, but that cant go on forever. As new nuggets of information continue to tumble out the smell is growing. And thats before the new Dail sits and Mick Wallace gets stuck back into it.

The matter at issue is the sale of Namas portfolio in Northern Ireland: around 850 properties were sold as a bundle to a US investment firm, Cerebrus for 1.3bn in June 2014. The sale has since become mired in controversy.

Wallace told the Dail last year that 7m had been diverted into an offshore account as a backhander to some who had facilitated the deal. These included businessman Frank Cushnahan, who served on Namas advisory body in the North and would have had access to confidential information. Mr Cushnaahan denies any impropriety or receiving any money. It has emerged, however, that 7m had been diverted to an Isle of Man account but was later retrieved.

The sale to Cerebrus went ahead after a previous bidder, Pimco, informed Nama that it had come to the companys attention that somebody was due to receive monies in an improper fashion. Pimco then withdrew from the process, or were asked to leave by Nama. The entities differ on their parting of ways.

There have also been allegations that 15m was to be paid to three public and business figures in the North for facilitating the deal. Cerebrus has denied making any payments, and Namas position is that anything that may have been planned or paid occurred on the buyers side of the deal and has nothing to do with Nama.

Then last week matters took an interesting turn. The BBCs Spotlight programme broadcast an investigation into the affair that included covert recordings of meetings. In one of these meetings, Mr Cushnahan appears to confirm that he was due to receive a fixers fee for the deal. There have also been reports of contacts between some of the business figures involved and senior people in the DUP which havent been satisfactorily explained.

Frank Cushnahan

So what? some might say. Smoke can be generated without a fire, and while there may be some embers in this story, explanations other than sinister can be forwarded for much of what happened.

That might be sustainable if nobody else was interested in it. As it happens, there are currently three separate investigations into the deal. The policing body for the US stock exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is investigating the matter. So also is the UKs National Crime Agency, a body that is described as Britains equivalent to the FBI. The BBC confirmed over the weekend that the NCA had been in contact over the programme and in particular the covert recordings that were broadcast.

There is also an inquiry under way by a committee of the Northern Ireland Executive, which has heard from a number of witnesses, but crucially not from the main people in Nama. That inquiry is likely to be short circuited by the elections to the executive scheduled for next May.

Three different bodies are now conducting criminal, regulatory and political inquiries into a deal which, if it was untoward, most likely resulted in citizens of this State being the victims. None of those inquiries are being conducted by agencies of this State or any instrument appointed by the Oireachtas.

This matters greatly because the shortage of public money over the last eight years led to severe hardship for some and a drop in living standards for many. In such a scenario, it is imperative that the citizens have full confidence that nobody has been benefiting from their pain.

So far, Namas stance of Nothing to do with us, gov has been backed up by the outgoing government. The agency says that the best result was achieved for the agency in disposing the assets as was done.

The Department of Finance has largely echoed Namas position. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan did not instruct Nama officials to co-operate with the inquiry by the Norths parliamentary committee inquiry. To a large extent, the attitude appears to be to keep the head down and play dumb.

Yet the questions will not go away. If there is any suggestion that monies were due to be paid to somebody for fixing a deal, why would that have been arranged unless there was an advantage to some parties? And how could such an advantage accrue without there ultimately being some cost to Nama, and by extension, the citizens?

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan

Why was the sale process continued and completed so quickly after a problem was identified with the previous bidder? And why was there such a rush to dispose all the assets in one bundle in a property market which was expanding?

There is no suggestion that the principles in Nama, the chairman and chief executive, were engaged in anything untoward. The integrity of Frank Daly and Brendan McDonagh respectively is not up for grabs.

But a suspicion remains that the reluctance to have a proper investigation in this jurisdiction is driven by the fear that whatever tumbles out will ultimately result in embarrassment at the least for either Nama or its political masters.

We have been here time and again. Prior to the establishment of any number of tribunals or commissions of investigation over the last two decades, there were repeated attempts to drag feet and keep the head down, in the hope that the issue will go away or be buried with time.

The most recent example of that approach was in the run-up to the establishment of the commission of investigation into matters pertaining to IBRC, the State entity winding down Anglo Irish Bank.

Frank Daly and Brendan McDonagh

The trajectory of the suspicious elements involved in the sale of Namas northern loan book is taking on a similar character. And its not going to run out of steam anytime soon. Wallace has already indicated that he has more information to introduce under Dail privilege because its not being dealt with by the State.

There is no sign of this going away.

In the meantime, it reflects poorly on the State that it is willing to sit back and watch agencies in other jurisdictions investigate the matter on behalf of Irish citizens.
Michael Healy Rae got a mandate of nearly 20,000 first preference votes from the people of Kerry and his brother Danny got over 10,000.

I am aware of people in my locality who travelled from their jobs in high finance in Dublin to vote for the above TDs - one particular person with a Masters in Finance Project Management.
The findings from insurer Aviva suggest the pursuit of happiness pays off with age.

Asked to describe their current level of happiness with life, fewer than two in five people (38%) aged between 40 and 49 years old described themselves as either extremely or quite happy, compared with nearly half (47%) of thirtysomethings.

But happiness levels start to bounce back for the 50- to 59-year-old age bracket, with 43% of people describing themselves as happy.

The research found that happiness levels steadily climb from 50 onwards, approaching and into retirement, with 51% of people aged between 60 and 64 described as happy, nudging up to 59% of 65- to 74-year-olds.

Two-thirds (66%) of people aged 75-plus describe themselves as happy.

Many people in their 40s find themselves in the squeezed middle bracket of having both dependent children and ageing parents to consider.

Avivas findings also suggest that retirement has a big part to play in happiness. Retired people were twice as likely to be extremely happy than those who were still working, at 14% versus 7%.

People who had been retired for more than 10 years report even higher levels of extreme happiness, with 16% describing themselves as extremely happy.

And nearly two-thirds (62%) of current retirees feel their experience of retirement is better than they had expected.

Pensioners in Britains East Midlands were most likely to feel that their experience of retirement is better than they imagined it would be, with 68% feeling this way, according to the study of 6,000 people.

Retirees in Yorkshire and Humberside were the most likely to be comfortable enough not to worry about money, while those in Wales and London were the least likely, according to the findings.

One in 10 (10%) retirees in London said retirement was worse than they had imagined, marking the highest proportion of any region surveyed.

On average, 7% of retirees feel their experience of retirement has turned out to be worse than expected.
The goldfish in question is being held at a police station in the northwestern town of Bodo while officers try to track down its owner

Norwegian news agency NTB says officers found the goldfish in a jam jar at the Nordlandshall indoor soccer stadium and decided to take it back to the police station because they couldnt find the owner.

Ina Selfors, spokeswoman for the Nordland police district, told NTB

she hopes the owner will contact them, adding that until then the fish will stay in the jam jar and keep us company.

Rower uncovered

ENGLAND: The all-female Yorkshire Rows team ended up revealing more than expected when they joined BBC Breakfast to talk about their record-breaking trip across the Atlantic.

Eagle-eyed viewers spotted that one clip of the foursome at sea briefly showed Helen Butters, 45, naked from the waist down.

The four Yorkshire mothers  Butters, Janette Bennadi, Frances Davies, and Niki Doeg  did not notice the slip, but told hosts Dan Walker and Louise Minchin that being naked was an occupational hazard.

Bennadi, 51, said: It was so wet all the time  to wear clothes all the time was a bit silly really because theyd just get wet and theyd take a long time to dry so it was easier [to be naked].

But it was unfortunately the exposed Butters who was hesitant about stripping in front of her friends. She admitted: I was the last one to embrace my nakedness.

The accidental flash was not missed by viewers, particularly men, who took to Twitter to share their thoughts.

Chris Saunders tweeted, Was it really necessary for such a gratuitous naked crotch shot of Yorkshire Rows at 6.46am today? Nearly put me off my coffee.

But Robert Currey wrote, Congratulations to wonderful, naked Yorkshire Rows ladies who rowed the Atlantic. Surprised & admittedly delighted at BBC Breakfast uncoverage.

Another asked the important question: Who is going to play her part in the imminent movie? ... Sharon Stone?

Yorkshire Rows set a Guinness World Record as the oldest all-female crew to cross an ocean when they arrived in English Harbour, Antigua, on February 25, 67 days and five hours after leaving La Gomera in the Canary Islands.

They were competing in the 3,000-mile Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

Rickrolling ruckus

USA: Motorists in North Carolina who tried scanning fake parking tickets ended getting rickrolled.

WLOS-TV reported the fake tickets in Asheville included a code that could be scanned with smartphones and pulled up a music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song Never Gonna Give You Up. The practice of having that video pop up is known as rickrolling.

Ashevilles transportation director said the tickets were clearly fake. The tickets were for $100 (90). The citys normal parking fine is $10.

Police say whoever handed out the tickets could be charged with littering.

Parking services manager Harry Brown said the fake tickets caused extra work and aggravated those who got the tickets and at least one person tried to pay.

Belch benefits

TURKEY: A sonorous burp after a doner kebab led to a fine for Vienna bartender Edin Mehic.

But the belch also had its benefits  an all-expenses paid trip to Istanbul, compliments of a chain famed for the Turkish specialty.

A policeman ticketed and fined Mehic last month asserting the belch was too loud  and too close for comfort. But many took his side, including an Istanbul-based company serving the sliced meat sandwich that saw Mehics punishment as a downer for the doner.

The chain confirmed that it picked up the tab for the flight, hotel and a sightseeing tour during Mehics two-day visit last week. And theres more to what Mehic calls his dream trip. The chains CEO wrote him a check reimbursing his 70 fine.

Three-wheeler

USA: A New Hampshire woman caught the attention of a small-town police chief when he spotted her driving on three tires and saw sparks flying up from the metal rim where the fourth tire should be. Police in Cornish say Samantha Clark-West, 20, was subsequently arrested on charges including driving while intoxicated and reckless operation.

The Newport woman is also charged with unlawful possession of alcohol, driving without a valid licence and misuse of plates.
Local television broadcast images of soldiers and police crouched in doorways and on rooftops as gunshots echoed in the centre of the town.

Bodies of dead militants lay in the streets near the military barracks after the army regained control.
The latter called the drills nuclear war moves and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

South Korea said the exercises would be the largest ever, following North Koreas fourth nuclear test, in January, and a long-range rocket launch last month, which triggered a UN Security Council resolution and tough new sanctions.
Syrian government forces, backed by Russias air force, Iranian troops and Iraqi militias, have continually breached the temporary ceasefire and used barrel bombs and toxic gas, he told reporters on a conference call.

Syrias armed forces have always denied using barrel bombs or chemical weapons.

Just a few minutes before we came on this conference there was a massacre committed by the air forces of the Russians and the regime in Abu Dhuhour, he said, referring to a settlement in eastern Idlib governorate.

Tens of people had been killed and tens wounded, he said. The opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) would consult military commanders and other leaders about whether to attend the talks, he said.

It will be before the end of this week, there will be a clear decision about this, Hijab said through a translator.

Hijab said he had sent a letter to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to complain that a map of armed groups positions, published by the Russian Defence Ministry and which would legitimise air strikes in certain places, was inaccurate.

If it is being taken seriously it would represent a clear and flagrant violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement, he said.

The HNC would send a representative to Geneva in the next few days to give an accurate picture to a ceasefire taskforce, he said.

Russia has said its air strikes are only targeting banned groups that are not part of the ceasefire deal, such as the Nusra Front. Hijab said Nusras positions were close to but not interlinked with opposition positions.

If the talks go ahead, the formation of a transitional governing body will be top of the agenda, Hijab said.

He said that President Bashar al-Assad must leave Syria as soon as such a body is formed and face international justice for war crimes.

The UN resolutions governing the peace process say there must be free and fair elections, supervised by the UN within 18 months, without specifying anything about Assad.

But Hijab insisted Assad could not contest the election.
Intense negotiations attempting to change the dynamic of the migrant crisis, and reopen the prospect of Turkey joining the EU were adjourned after twelve hours following an emergency summit in Brussels.

EU leaders said they would resume again at their next summit on Thursday week and in the meantime experts will try to find a solution.

Turkey pushed the EU to breach Geneva Convention rules on asylum while the EU refused to officially say that the Balkan route for mainly Syrian refugees was closed despite countries having shut their borders.

Turkey, that has 2.8m from neighbouring Syria seeking safety, raised the stakes just hours before the meeting that was meant to last just a few short hours.

They made new proposals that would appear to help the EU dig itself out of the near impossible situation with thousands of migrants crossing mainly to Greece daily.

Apart from doubling the 3bn the EU promised them last November to 6bn over the next two years to care for their Syrian refugees, they also want short stay visa-free travel that would mainly facilitate students and business people, by June.

Unexpectedly they agreed to take back migrants that came through Turkey  as most now do  in exchange for the EU taking an equal number of bone fide refugees.

This was posing some problems however as they say that the Greek islands, that are housing most of the refugees must be cleared first and they will only take those that arrive after that.

However this will require EU member states to agree to take these refugees  something they have more or less failed to do so far.

The European Commission is to propose that in future all asylum seekers would be pooled among the Schengen states, which does not include Ireland or Britain.

Turkey also demanded that five chapters be opened immediately to progress their EU accession  something that in 2005 they were assured would be finalised by 2015.

While negotiations can begin on these, finalising them would require the agreement of all member states and Cyprus has blocked so far while France is not enthusiastic either.

The temperature was also raised over the weekend by the government seizure of the countrys main daily newspaper, Zamen, that was critical of the president Recep Erdogan.

Turkey also wants support for a no-fly zone around part of the border with Syria where Syrians fleeing other parts of their country could be reassured of being safe.

However this would also need a lot of international and UN Security Council agreement and a reassurance that asylum rights would be respected.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny brought a message he had received from the aid agency, Goal, to the meeting, warning that the shutting of the border crossing between Turkey and Syria at Bab al-Hawa, through which mostly Irish aid travels to a million people, would force more to flee into the EU.
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley, said that while in the past few years the Islamist group has called on would-be jihadis to attack police and the military, their plots are now broader plans to attack Western lifestyle.

He said: In recent months, weve seen a broadening of that, much more plans to attack Western lifestyle, and, obviously, the Paris attacks in November.

"Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader.

And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that weve seen foiled to date.

He added: You see a terrorist group that, whilst on the one hand has been acting as a cult to use propaganda to radicalise people to act in their name ... you also see them trying to build bigger attacks.

Mr Rowley, who is the national policing lead for counter-terrorism, said that IS is trying to get supporters who have received military training in Syria into northern Europe, to stage attacks.

The counter-terror boss said the shared effort to look for any possible links of those networks, or other networks that have reached the UK, is obviously a massively high priority.

In the last three years, the number of arrests of terrorist suspects has risen by 57%, compared to the previous three years. Around half led to a charge.

Last year, just over three-quarters (77%) of those arrested were British nationals, 14% were female, and 13% were aged 20 and under.

The number of girls and women, and the number of teenagers, is a new trend, Mr Rowley said.

That would not have been the picture that one would have seen a few years ago.

"That is an indication of that radicalisation, the effect of the propaganda, and the way the messages of Daesh (IS) are resonating with some individuals, he added.

Scotland Yard has seen 20 families, and 50 young people, go through family court proceedings, over concerns about radicalisation, in the past year.
Burma Can Burmas Human Rights Commission Fight Sexual Violence in Conflict Areas?

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission says it is ready to address sexual violence perpetrated by the military, but rights groups remain skeptical.

RANGOON  The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has said they are ready to address cases of sexual violence perpetrated by the Burma Army, but rights groups remain skeptical of the commissions ability to achieve justice.

If there are women being abused in the conflict areas, we want them to make complaints to the MNHRC, but they havent done it so far, Dr. Than Nwe of MNHRCS Policy and Law section, told The Irrawaddy. If some cases are related to the military, we would ask the military for an explanation.

Lway Cherry, secretary of the ethnic Taang Womens Union and policy board member of the Womens League of Burma (WLB), explained that trust in the commission depended on the results that the government-founded investigative body was able to achieve.

So far we have not heard about the sexual abuses cases shared with the MNHRC being fairly solved, she said, adding that rights groups have long been sending evidence of military-perpetrated sexual violence both to government and non-government bodies, in search of justice for the victims.

While MNHRC members insist that they help as much as they can regarding crimes against women in conflict areas, in more than three years of operation, few cases related to the militarys reported campaigns of systematic sexual violence against ethnic women have been pursued by the commission.

On Wednesday, which is also International Womens Day, the WLB highlighted in a public statement the need for better justice regarding cases of sexual violence against women in Burmas conflict zones.

The rapists or perpetrators are still being given impunity, the statement said.

In November 2015, the WLB, the Kachin Womens Association of Thailand (KWAT) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) reported that sexual violence perpetrated by the Burma Army remains ongoing in ethnic areas. SHRF cited eight cases of rape in as many months in Shan State, all allegedly by government troops. SHRF added that such crimes are rarely prosecuted.

Many of the gender-based cases that the MNHRC handles are related to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, on which Dr. Than Nwe feels the commission has dealt with effectively.

We try to solve [these cases] by meeting the relevant ministries. We are now working with UN Women on the issue, said Dr. Than Nwe. We were able to intervene by informing the respective ministries. They are required to respond to us within a month. They can not ignore and hide as they must respond us.

Burma Partnership, who has monitored and investigated the commissions work, laments that the MNHRC has been unable to uphold its mandate of human rights protection and promotion. They attribute this to a lack of independence, effectiveness and transparency, due to government ties.
Burma Kachin Groups Urge Halt to Resource Extraction in Northern Burma

Over 60 organizations representing the Kachin and ethnic subgroups call for suspending resource extraction in northern Burma until political stability there can be achieved.

More than 60 civil society organizations, political parties and religious groups representing the Kachin and ethnic subgroups released a statement on Monday calling for a halt to resource extraction in northern Burmas Kachin State until political stability in the region can be achieved.

The groups put forward the demand after holding a forum to discuss natural resource governance in Kachin State, in the regional capital Myitkyina.

The statement, made by 61 signatory groups, called on respective stakeholders to stop all project operations and natural resource extraction in ethnic areas without [first] resolving conflict politically, adding that strife in the region was fueled by natural resource-based interests.

Kachin State is rich in natural resources such as gold, jade and other precious stones, as well as a significant but shrinking endowment of teakwood forests. The state has also been fertile grounds for conflict in recent years, particularly since a 17-year ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese government collapsed in 2011.

Mondays statement asserted that the Kachin people were the rightful owners of the states natural resource endowment, urging business stakeholders to disclose all information transparently and educate the peopleon grievance mechanisms in natural resource extraction, taxation, licensing processes, revenue-sharingwith consideration for the right to know of the people.

The coalition also called on the government to ensure free, prior and informed consent with local communities before issuing operational permissions for any projects.

The statement proposed empowering the Kachin State government with ultimate management authority on natural resource extraction, taxation and revenue-sharing.
Burma NLD Announces Second Official Party Voice

The National League for Democracy designates an additional spokesperson, after Aung San Suu Kyi was earlier this year declared the partys sole voice of authority.

RANGOON  The National League for Democracy (NLD) designated an additional spokesperson on Tuesday, doubling the exclusive club of those allowed to speak officially on party matters, after chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi was earlier this year declared the partys lone voice of authority.

A statement released by the partys central committee said Zaw Myint Maung of the Mandalay divisional legislature had been assigned as an additional spokesperson for the partys policies and the transitional process.

In January, the NLD announced Suu Kyi as sole spokesperson on party matters after senior NLD member Nyan Win was quoted by Agence FrancePresse (AFP) revealing details on prospective candidates for legislative speakerships in the Union Parliament.

An apparent breach of NLD plans for the official rollout of its speakerships roster, the party quickly sought to cast doubt on Nyan Wins remarks, which ultimately proved to be true. The confusion highlighted what has been an opaque NLD march to the halls of power in Naypyidaw.

The party has defended the aversion to divulging details in recent months by saying its leadership had to handle things delicately at present, amid an uncertain transition period ahead of a handover of power at the end of March.

A medical doctor by training, Zaw Myint Maung has been tipped as a prospective candidate for chief minister of Mandalay Division. He is an NLD central committee member and was recently appointed to a five-member NLD secretary group. He is a former political prisoner who served 19 years behind bars and won a seat representing the NLD in Burmas abortive 1990 election, the results of which were ignored by the ruling military junta of the time.

The NLD is expected to reveal its pick for the presidency this week, with that individual due to take the reins of government on April 1. Suu Kyi is barred from assuming Burmas highest civilian office, owing to a contentious constitutional provision on presidential eligibility that disqualifies those with spouses or children of foreign nationality.

The NLD leaders two sons are British, as was her late husband.
Commentary Burma Army Chiefs Fixation on Ethnic Disarmament Hinders Peace Process

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaings insistence that ethnic armed groups operate under his command is an obstacle to building peace in Burma.

As armed conflict intensifies amidst both an ongoing peace process and a democratic transition, the time has come for the Burma Army to change its mindset if it truly wishes to build peace with the countrys many ethnic groups.

Fighting broke out in one Kachin State location in June 2011, between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Organization. Five years later, at the end of outgoing President Thein Seins term, armed conflict with government forces has spread to ethnic Palaung (Taang), Shan, Arakan, Karen and Kokang areas.

Governmental power will soon be transferred to Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD), the winner of Novembers general elections. Many ethnic armed groups wish to seek peace under her leadership, but they dare not offer full trust to the Burmese government as long as there are military men who continue to attack them on their land. The Burma Army will remain an important political player, but one that has repeatedly shown itself to be an obstacle to peace and democracy in the country.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Burma Army, has spoken of professionalizing the military in line with Burmas political reforms, which were initiated in 2011. He has reminded the military to treat civilians more humanely, to end the recruitment of child soldiers and the reliance on forced labor.

But one thing that has not appeared to have changed is Min Aung Hlaings insistence that ethnic armed groups operate under his command. This has hurt Burmas peace process and contributed to intensified fighting in northern Shan State, where government offensives encourage ethnic armed groups to build up troop numbers, vowing not to disarm under the current conditions. Large numbers of internally displaced civilians in Kachin and Shan states is a reminder that reforms have not impacted these areas.

There is no guarantee that Min Aung Hlaings views on disarmament will evolve with a new NLD-led government. The Burma Armys hope is that the ethnic armed groups will one day act as militias which defend government interests in their respective regions. For those who refuse to participate, the Burma Army will likely deploy more troops to their areas, surrounding and isolating the groups in order to pressure them to give up their struggle.

Most ethnic armed leaders do not speak of disarmament as an option; they believe they may need to fight again. They feel that their armies exist to protect their people and their regions, and to provide them with a power platform in the country. If they cease to be armed, the groups worry that the government may no longer listen to them.

These groups are aware of Min Aung Hlaings intentions, and they continue to reinforce troops to defend against the Burma Army, even amidst the ongoing peace process. While ethnic armed groups feel that they need to pursue peace, if left with no other choice, they will continue to use force to fight for their goals.

Lawi Weng is a senior reporter for The Irrawaddy.
Burma From Myanmar Sweatshops to Billionaires in Switzerland

Oxfams Head of Global Campaigns reflects on a recent visit to Myanmar.

The young garment factory workers share a tiny room in a wooden shack, spotlessly clean, with pictures of Myanmar pop stars beside a photo of their parents back in the village. But there is no escaping the smell of the open drain outside. The three sisters and their cousin all work in factories making clothes for export to the UK, United States and other countries for household brands such as GAP, Primark, H&M and Tesco. They belong to a labor rights group working with Oxfam to fight for better conditions for workers, and we are there to hear about their experiences on the factory floor. Myanmars garment sector is expanding fast, now employing around 300,000 people90 percent female and mostly under age 25.

Daily average wages of US$2.80 are not enough to survive on. Oxfams recent survey found that almost half of garment workers are trapped in debt and have to borrow money to meet basic needs like food, medicine and transport. They work up to 11 hours a day, six days a week, rarely receiving sick pay despite this being a legal requirement. Many reported working into the night to meet impossible production targets, on one occasion sewing until 6.30am before restarting at 7.30am every day for a week. Safety was a big concern, with one in three reporting a workplace injury and many afraid of factory fires because of blocked exits.

In the week we visited Myanmar, Oxfams report An Economy for the 1% caused a stir at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, revealing that 62 billionaires now own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world. The report shows that the global economic system is skewed in favor of the top one percent, who have seen half of the total increase in global wealth in the past 15 years, while the bottom 50 percent have had to make do with just one percent.

Interestingly four of the worlds 62 richest billionaires made their fortunes in high-street fashion. Amancio Ortega of Spain, worth $64 billion, heads garment giant Inditex, owner of Zara. Swede Stefan Persson, worth $24 billion, is chairman of H&M and a 28 percent stakeholder. Tadashi Yanai of Japan owns Uniqlo and is worth $20 billion. The fourth is Phil Knight, who until June 2015 had spent 51 years as chairman of Nike, and is worth $21 billion.

H&M buys from factories in Myanmar and Uniqlo is considering doing so. Inditex pioneered the model of shorter supply chains and reduced lead times, now the norm in fast fashion. But this business practice puts huge pressure on suppliers and their workers, leading to forced overtime and pressure to squeeze wages as low as possible.

H&M does at least publish which factories produce its clothes in Myanmar. Many big brands refuse to even do this. As one of my colleagues put it, Can you think of one good reason why a high street brand would want to hide where its clothes are made? Both H&M and Inditex have taken steps to address poverty wages, for instance by signing an agreement with global union IndustriALL to promote sector bargaining. However, between 2001 and 2011 wages for garment workers in most of the top 15 apparel-exporting countries fell in real terms.

Some commentators have accused Oxfam of being anti capitalist for throwing rocks at an economic system than has helped to reduce global poverty. It is of course true that real progress has been made. The young women we met now earn more than the extreme poverty line of $1.90 a day, so are no longer officially counted as poor. But is that really good enough?

Oxfam recognizes the power of capitalism to transform peoples lives  but we believe the current warped market fundamentalist model, as the Bank of England Governor calls it, is failing us all. Matthew Paris, a former Conservative MP writing about our Davos report in The Times newspaper, put it best when he said that listening to those trying to defend todays capitalist system reminded him of Communists trying to defend the USSR: How much longer, then, can we market liberals shrug off huge failures in the working examples we have of capitalism?If the free market is to be defended in the new century, these inequities are no longer something from which the center-right can turn away.

Throughout our history, the majority of those who fought to stop children having to go to work, or for a ten hour working day, or for a weekend, or paid holiday, sick pay and above all for wages which allow ordinary women and men to live a decent life were not anti-capitalists. They just believed we could do better. Activists of the past were dismissed as naive or seditious or both, but what they fought for we now see as being a part of a civilized society.

Today we have to continue that fight. We need to make capitalism work for the majority rather than the top 1 percent. This can be done. For example, a critical mass of companies could commit to source from countries with good labor regulation, adapt their business practices so factories can afford to pay a living wage and ensure workers are free to negotiate with management.

We have the talent, technology and imagination to build a more human economyone where we have not just minimum wages, but maximum ones too. Where we see an end to this extreme wealth that benefits no one but a tiny elite.

When I met those young women in Myanmar learning about their rights, and the successful struggles of other garment workers in Thailand and Cambodia, I was filled with hope for the future. For a better, fairer, future they will fight for. I know I want to do all I can to help them.

Max Lawson is Oxfams Head of Global Campaigns. This article originally ran on Oxfams blog, From Poverty to Power.
5 Mobile Development Trends for 2016

It is understandable to see significant ebb and flow in the mobile sector as technology evolves and tastes change. The latest trend is that one of the subgroups  the one with the odd nickname of phablets  is making a move.

Last week, InformationWeek reported on an IDC study that found that the phablet (phone-tablet) percentage of handset sales worldwide will increase from roughly 20 percent now to about 33 percent in 2020. The reason for the popularity of phablets is that, according to Anthony Scarsella, research manager of IDCs mobile phones team, consumers are still migrating upstream with regard to device size.

At one point, the goal of phone makers was to make devices as small as possible. The advent of mobile video gradually reversed that trend. The change had an important side benefit for the ecosystem: The move to larger phones made it possible to enlarge batteries. This helped moderate on-device power shortages.

IDC is not the only firm noting the worldwide growth of interest in phablets. Last month, Adobe Digital Indexs report on mobile trends in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) suggested the same thing. It said that mobile growth is expanding, but tablet growth is decreasing. The beneficiary is the phablet category, according to the story on the study at CMO:

Whats most interesting, according to ADIs report, is that smartphones are not only being used more to access the Web, they are actually being used differently than in the past. ADI hypothesizes that the release of larger-screen devices, such as the iPhone 6S, is behind this shift in consumption. The larger screens are turning smartphones into both lean back and lean forward devices, according to ADI.

The story is the same in Russia. Telecom Paper says that an item at the Russian language site Comnews.ru reported that retailer Euroset found that 7.5 million phablets were sold last year in Russia. That is an increase of 2.7 million compared to 2014. Tablet sales declined from 9.4 million to 6.1 million during the same period. Revenue totals rose and fell, respectively. Thus, phablet sales overtook tablet sales during the year.

Content creators must react to this development. At Yahoos Mobile Developers Conference last month, Paste Magazine reported that Senior Vice President of Publishing Products Simon Khalaf said that mobile represented an increasing percentage of Yahoos revenues, with phablets driving this growth. The challenge to Yahoo and other companies is creating content that is compelling on devices with much more real estate to fill.

The trend line is toward the space above a smartphone and below a tablet. Its a phabulous time to be in the phablet business.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
Microsoft will make its SQL Server available for Linux by mid-2017, according to Scott Guthrie, the company's executive vice-president for its Cloud and Enterprise Group.

Guthrie made the announcement as a blog post on Monday, US time.

He said a preview of the core relational database capabilities of SQL Server would be presented at a Microsoft Data Driven event in New York on Thursday. The event is meant to kick off launch activities for SQL Server

Guthrie wrote: "SQL Server on Linux will provide customers with even more flexibility in their data solution. One with mission-critical performance, industry-leading TCO, best-in-class security, and hybrid cloud innovations  like Stretch Database which lets customers access their data on-premises and in the cloud whenever they want at low cost  all built in."

The blog post quoted Al Gillen, group vice-president of infrastructure at IDC, as saying that this would accelerate the overall adoption of SQL Server.

Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and MariaDB, a fork of MySQL, are the databases commonly used on Linux.

From the blog post, it appears as though Microsoft will be working with both Red Hat and Canonical to implement this initiative. SUSE Linux, the first Linux company to tie up with Microsoft back in 2006 when it signed a patent-licensing deal, appears to have been

Paul Cormier, president of products and technologies at Red Hat, was quoted by Guthrie as saying: "SQL Servers proven enterprise experience and capabilities offer a valuable asset to enterprise Linux customers around the world.

"We believe our customers will welcome this news and are happy to see Microsoft further increasing its investment in Linux. As we build upon our deep hybrid cloud partnership, spanning not only Linux, but also middleware, and PaaS, were excited to now extend that collaboration to SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, bringing enterprise customers increased database choice."

Red Hat signed a deal with Microsoft late last year for the deployment of Red Hat solutions on Microsoft's cloud offering, Azure.

Canonical owner Mark Shuttleworth was also quoted in Guthrie's post. "We are delighted to be working with Microsoft as it brings SQL Server to Linux," he said. "Customers are already taking advantage of Azure Data Lake services on Ubuntu, and now developers will be able to build modern applications that utilize SQL Servers enterprise capabilities."

There was a time when Microsoft would not even consider making its software available for other platforms. Now, it has to do everything it can to work with others, especially Linux, given the extent of enterprise use of what was once considered an outsider. Microsoft's acquisition of Xamarin and its announcement of Microsoft R Server, based on its acquisition of Revolution Analytics, with support for Hadoop and Teradata, are other initiatives towards a similar end.
KeRanger, the infected Mac OS X torrent client, is virtually identical to version 4 of the Linux.Encoder Trojan that has been infecting thousands of Linux servers since the beginning of 2016.

According to Bitdefender researchers, the Trojan Transmission torrent client update dubbed KeRanger racks up some firsts, being the worlds first piece of fully functional Mac OS X ransomware, first Mac OS X malware distributed via a signed software update from a legitimate developer, and the first cross-platform ransomware ever. But it is the same code as used in Linux.Encoder.

Bitdefender provides more insight into this historic bloody nose for Apple Macs.

Defeating the Mac OS X defences

Mac OS X ships with a security feature called Gatekeeper. It allows users to restrict which sources they can install applications from to minimize the likelihood of deploying a tainted app. The default setting allows users to install applications from the Mac App Store and identified developers (namely applications that are digitally signed by a developer).

To circumvent Gatekeeper, the attackers have digitally signed the Transmission update package. According to Apple, a legitimate certificate issued by Apple was used. The developer listed on this certificate was a Turkish company with the ID Z7276PX673, which was different from the developer ID used to sign previous versions of the Transmission installer.

This is not the first time cybercriminals managed to circumvent Gatekeeper by misusing legitimate digital certificates. In 2013, a backdoor signed with a compromised digital certificate (MAC.OSX.Backdoor.KitM.A) was found on the computers belonging to Angolan civil rights activists.

What does it do?

Once the infected installer is executed, the Trojan connects to the command and control centres via TOR and retrieves an encryption key. After encryption finishes, KeRanger creates a file called README_FOR_DECRYPT.txt that holds the information on how the victim should take to pay the ransom.

The encryption functions are identical and have same names: encrypt_file, recursive_task, currentTimestamp and createDaemon to only mention a few. The encryption routine is identical to the one employed in Linux.Encoder, explained Catalin Cosoi, Chief Security Strategist at Bitdefender.

Lessons learned

Six months ago, ransomware was a threat that only Windows and Android users had to worry about.

In December last year, worlds first piece of Linux ransomware was spotted in the wild after encrypting thousands of web servers. Fortunately, Bitdefender researchers could circumvent the encryption algorithm and provide decryption utilities for all four variants in the wild. It seems that the developers behind the Linux.Encoder malware has either expanded to Mac OS X or have licensed their code to a cybercrime group specialized in Mac OS X attacks.

It is worth emphasizing that nothing short of a fully-fledged, native MacOS X security solution with real-time, behaviour-based detection techniques could have saved MacOS X users from having their systems infected and their files encrypted. There is more, much more, to security than merely disallowing unsigned software Cosoi concluded.
Organisations with customers or clients in the EU need to prepare for changes in the data privacy landscape, warns a software vendor.

"Companies are moving too slowly" with their preparations for the expected next generation of the Safe Harbor agreement between the European Union and the US, BMC Software executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing Paul Appleby (pictured) told iTWire.

Commercial organisations and government bodies need to move quickly to navigate these changes, he said, warning of likely "draconian" penalties for breaches of the privacy shield provisions.

This makes it a significant issue for businesses that have customers within the EU.

BMC has been working to accommodate these changes and is helping its customers prepare for the proposed rules, but very few non-EU businesses comply at this stage.

"We're not seeing companies move fast enough," Appleby told iTWire, so BMC is encouraging its customers to understand the likely ramifications and prepare for the introduction of Privacy Shield, aka Safe Harbor 2.0.

The reason the issue is being revisited is that the original Safe Harbor arrangement between the EU and US was ruled invalid by the Court of Justice of the European Union, in part because of the revelations concerning the US government's large-scale information gathering programs.

A preliminary agreement concerning Privacy Shield has been reached between the US and the European Commission, but the endorsement of a committee of EU member states is still required.

The Safe Harbor arrangement was put into place to allow companies to transfer data from the EU to the US - even though US law fell short of the EU's privacy requirements - providing the company certified that it met those EU requirements.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reports that telco Vaya has taken measures to address ACCC concerns following a spike in consumer complaints.

In December 2015, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released a finding that Vayas implementation of a Security Deposit was in breach of the TCP Code.

This saw the ACCC commence an investigation into Vayas practices after customers complained about emails they received with contract variations.

The news comes just a day after the Amaysim-owned Vaya MVNO introduced a range of updated and better value plans, which iTWire reported on here.

The ACCC explained the Vaya investigation issue by noting that, in September 2014, Vaya sent an email to selected customers stating that at the end of their 24 month contract they could keep their current plan if they paid a monthly $9.90 fee called a Plan Freeze Fee, on top of their monthly access fee.

The explanation continues, which is that Vaya sent this email to customers before their 24 month contract expired and in some cases charged the fee before customers contracts expired.

Then, in February 2015, we are told that Vaya sent an email to its customers stating that all customers were required to pay a once-off, refundable $20 Security Deposit (Security Deposit) in accordance with Vayas Terms and Conditions and the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code (TCP Code).

Uh oh.

The ACCC said that it formed the view that Vayas Plan Freeze Fee email was likely to be misleading because it represented that consumers were required to pay extra fees, when in fact, under their contracts rates were fixed.

The ACCC also said that it considered that Vayas Security Deposit email was also likely to be misleading as it failed to inform consumers of their rights of termination under Vayas terms and conditions and Vayas obligations under the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code (TCP Code).

So, what are the steps that Vaya took to address these concerns? They were:

Vaya refunded all customers who were incorrectly charged the Plan Freeze Fee.

Vaya informed customers who complained about the Security Deposit and Plan Freeze Fee of their right to terminate their contracts without penalty.

Vaya committed to improving the transparency of its customer communications and advertising.

ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission welcomes voluntary action by businesses in addressing consumer complaints.

More below, please read on:

When signing up for contracts, the ACCC advises that consumers should familiarise themselves with their rights in the event of a contract variation.

If consumers have concerns about changes to their telecommunications contract they can:
Microsoft's SQL Server is headed for Linux in 2017. What does this mean for Linux and Windows users alike?

As my colleague Sam Varghese already announced, Microsoft is making SQL Server available for Linux by mid-2017, according to Scott Guthrie, the Redmond giant's executive vice-president for its Cloud and Enterprise Group.

While Microsoft has become more Linux-friendly in recent years - even contributing to the Linux kernel since 2009 - this announcement was unexpected, at least by this writer.

The days are gone of Microsoft's brickwall approach seeking to lure everyone to its operating systems. Just as Microsoft has been working to make non-Microsoft platforms viable first-class citizens on its Azure cloud, and just as Microsoft has been working to make its Microsoft Office suite available on any smartphone and tablet, so too this may be the beginning of a Microsoft push to de-couple its server products from the Windows server platform.

A Linux-based SQL Server may be just the beginning; it is now entirely conceivable we may see a Microsoft Exchange on Linux in the future.

Of course, Exchange has a greater tie-in with Active Directory than SQL Server does, and it is not inconceivable the Linux edition of SQL Server will only support SQL Server authentication from day one. This is a problem Microsoft will need to solve for Microsoft Exchange.

Linux databases traditionally have a greater reliance on command-line tools than GUIs, with MySQL, MariaDB, Postgres and more being easily scripted and controlled from the shell. On Windows, SQL Server only ever came with limited command-line tools though PowerShell now fills much of this gap. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft proposes to cater for Linux admin requirements in this regards, and then if any new tools will funnel from the Linux direction through to Windows.

It will also be very interesting to benchmark the two and compare licensing to see just how like-for-like the Linux and Windows offerings will be, and further, if a free version of SQL Server changes the web hosting world with its heavy dependency on the LAMP stack.

Nevertheless, whatever eventuates, gone are the days of Microsoft using its software to bring people to Windows Server and its days of Linux-bashing; instead it's increasingly evident Satya Nadella wants to take Microsoft products to the world, with the choice of operating system becoming, in time, no longer a limiting factor.
The predicted huge demand for home battery power storage has prompted Australian battery maker Redflow to set up its new battery laboratory in Adelaide.

Redflow has established a battery laboratory in Adelaide to assist with its software development and to certify its zinc bromide flow batteries with multiple inverters.

The Kent Town-based lab will support its core R&D facilities in Brisbane and provide important support for the impending launch of the companys residential battery. Commercial capacity installations will occur from June this year.

Redflow Executive Chairman Simon Hackett, who is developing Battery Management System (BMS) software for Redflow's residential battery, has established the battery lab. SA is at the leading edge of the renewables revolution through its solar panel uptake and wind power generation capacity, he said.

Redflows Adelaide battery lab focuses on delivery, demonstration and training rather than development, which will expedite supplying the huge demand for batteries that is expected in Australia during the next few years.

Redflow, also a sponsor of WOMADelaide 2016, is using the lab to ensure that its batteries work well with inverters from a range of manufacturers, aiming to simplify the deployment process for installers.

The obvious next step is to embrace batteries for energy storage - in homes, businesses and indeed the entire electricity grid - to allow us to time shift renewable energy from when its generated to when its needed, he added.

Recent research from US-based IHS Technology states that Australias energy storage market will grow from less than 500 battery installations in 2015 to more than 5000 systems in 2016, as households seek to use energy storage to avoid increasing electricity costs.

This makes Australia one of the top five global markets for energy storage in 2016, with the US, Japan, Germany and the UK. IHS predicts that between 2016 and 2018, Australias residential and commercial energy storage demand will double each year, leading to as many as 30,000 Australian households having solar photovoltaic energy storage systems by 2018.

Simon Hackett said that widespread dispersion of residential energy storage, coupled with grid-scale storage, would transform how the electricity network operated. At the moment, the network spins up gas-fired generators to meet brief energy demand peaks. In future, batteries will replace the need for those peaking generators with a much smoother way to accommodate spikes in demand. With its high renewables ratio, SA is ideally placed to leverage energy storage.

Redflow also reported it had completed an oversubscribed capital raising of $7.36 million and concurrently launched a $5.56 million entitlements offer. These funds will provide extra working capital for its residential battery rollout and to continue developing a new higher energy battery.
Will Smith appeared in public in New York City recently, for the first time after 88th Academy Awards show host Chris Rock poked fun at Smith and wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.

Smith was smiling and showing peace signs at his first public appearance after Rock ridiculed him for his behavior following up to the Oscars.

Chris Rock, who hosted the Oscars this year, made fun of Will Smith and his wife Jada's decision to boycott the most important ceremony for the movie industry - and Jada's appeal to others to boycott it, too.

This year's Oscars were ablaze with reactions trending social media controversy after #OscarsSoWhite had been trending for a while before the Oscars. The controversy addresses the movie industry's failure to nominate a single person of color for an Oscar for the second consecutive year.

Rock talked about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy by saying that "people went nuts" this year. "Spike [Lee] got mad. Jada [Pinkett Smith] went mad. Will [Smith] went mad. Everyone went mad!" he said.

Numerous stars, including Will Smith, wife Jada, Daniels, director Spike Lee, the Rev. Al Sharpton appealed to actors and actresses of color to boycott this year's Oscars ceremony to express indignance at the Academy nominating only white actors and actresses in the four Oscars acting categories.

Rock poked fun at Smith's wife saying that it was incredulous that Jada would boycott the movie awards considering she worked in TV. He referred to her 'not being invited to the ceremony in the first place.

Speaking about Will Smith, Rock said Smith's frustration must stem from not being nominated for his movie "Concussion" - but Rock ridiculed that too, with a punch line implying Smith got overpaid for another one of his movies.

Will Smith, however, seemed oblivious at his first public appearance post-Oscars as he left the set of his new film, "Collateral Beauty" in New York on Monday. The actor smiled, signed autographs and took a few selfies with his fans. He also showed the peace sign.
After Joseph Gordon-Levitt announced his exit in the production of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman," a new writer Eric Heisserer is hired by New Line Cinema to bring the comic adaptation to life. Heisserer, a seasoned horror writer is now the main man to bring the story of Morpheus, the god of Dreams into the big screen.

Hollywood Reporter wrote that Heisserer is a credible writer in the field of horror and some of his best works include "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Thing" and "Final Destination 5." Aside from this caliber of movies in his name, Heisserer also is the key man in making the script for "The Conjuring 2" as well as producing and writing for the film "Lights Out."

The departure of the "Dark Knight Rises" actor was clearly unexpected. Gordon-Levitt posted a message on his Facebook account to deliver the message of his intent to exit as the film's director/ actor.

"Recently, as you also might know if you like to follow these sorts of things, the sorta 'ownership' (for lack of a better term) of the Sandman material changed hands when Warner Brothers shifted the entire catalogue of Vertigo comics (an imprint of DC) to their subsidiary, New Line," he said as reported by Gamespot.

"And a few months ago, I came to realize that the folks at New Line and I just don't see eye to eye on what makes Sandman special, and what a film adaptation could/should be. So unfortunately, I decided to remove myself from the project. I wish nothing but the best for the team moving forward."

Meanwhile, the author of the 75-issue DC/Vertigo comic "Sandman," Neil Gaiman also expressed his sentiments over Gordon-Levitt's exit from the film. Gaiman who started making "Sandman" in 1989 paved way for the comics to be recognized in greater lengths.

"For the record, my respect for [Joseph Gordon-Levitt], is undiminished," the Comics author Neil Gaiman wrote from EW. "Getting to know him was the best bit of the last round. He's special."
A move is being initiated in all the states of the union to enact regulations that will stop teachers who are known sexual abusers from being hired in any school in the United States.

Currently, only the states of Oregon, Missouri and Pennsylvania have regulations to that effect. However, a federal mandate approved in December is now requiring states to consider the potential risks of re-hiring teachers charged with sexual abuse.

Previously, a teacher charged with sexual misconduct can still get a teaching position in a new school, sometimes accompanied with attractive recommendations. This practice is called "passing the trash."

The problem has insidiously inserted itself in the country's school system. A lengthy report from USA today in 2007 revealed that there are thousands of such sex offenders in the teaching profession in the United States.

The report stated that most of the sexual abuses were never reported. Those that were reported received no action, with some cases investigated but not proven, and many abusers affecting several victims.

The schools, the courts, the state or even the federal government were not able to find a sure fire method of keeping the molesting teachers away from the classrooms.

In recent times, several Rhode Island teachers accused in a sex abuse scandal at the St. George's School were terminated but were able to get new jobs in different schools all over the country.

The Government Accountability Office, in a 2010 study revealed that offenders used their new teaching positions to abuse more children sexually.

But now, a fresh federal mandate requires all state to develop policies that make it illegal for schools to assist a teacher to get a new teaching position if they are suspected as abusers of children. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is the man credited with this bill to make it a federal legislation.
Following a series of complaints from irate customers, Amazon has chosen to bring back the encryption on its Fire devices. Consumers have criticized the company for the lack of security for the products it is selling in its website.

The complaints increased when customers realized that Amazon disabled its Fire Devices' encryption feature without any warning to its users. In response to the growing criticisms, the company has opted to reinstate the security feature and said it will be available with the soon-to-be released software update this spring.

Without any announcement, Amazon took out a Fire tablet security option when it updated its latest version of the company's Android-based operating system. Some say the online seller resorted to this move to reduce its operating and maintenance costs but it compromised the security of its devices to a considerable degree.

The online marketing company admitted that it made such a move just a few days ago. It even justified the removal of the security feature by saying that only a few people really use it.

But security experts and device owners quickly reacted and the company received numerous complaints against its unilateral move. They believed that Amazon was unjust in removing a vital feature.

The company's move became suspicious in the context of the ongoing battle between Apple Inc. and the FBI regarding the security of private devices. Interestingly enough, Amazon is among the tech heavyweights that requested the federal court to make a favorable decision towards Apple and not the FBI.

Bruce Scheiner, a noted cryptologist was among those who criticized Amazon's move to take out its security features of the Fire devices. He did not mince his words and said the company's action is "stupid" since it scrambles data and prevents anybody from accessing the device unless they type in the right password.
GREENSBORO  Former President Bill Clinton spoke Monday at Elon University School of Law, urging residents to vote for his wife, Hillary, in the North Carolina primary next week.

The former president spoke for nearly an hour, discussing a wide range of policy issues and repeatedly referring to Hillary Clinton as the best change-maker Ive worked with in my life. He praised her experience and commitment while imploring audience members to use their votes to keep a Democrat in the White House.

This is a big election, Clinton told the hundreds of people packed into the law school library. If youre a Democrat or a progressive, we cannot afford to give the other party  given the state of their debates  the Congress, the White House or the Supreme Court.

Clinton lauded his wifes proposal for making college more affordable, a system where low-income students can receive more financial aid while higher-income families pay more in taxes to help offset the cost.

That plan, Clinton explained, would be more effective than the universal free tuition proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

It will keep college costs down, Clinton said. If you just pay for tuition, you will encourage people to charge more for tuition. But if you do debt-free graduation instead, itll help a lot more people.

The former president also praised his wifes ability to work with Republican legislators.

She never got anything done in Washington that didnt also have Republican support, he said. The fact that the Republicans have attacked her so relentlessly for three years ... hasnt bothered me a bit. Thats what they do to people they dont want to run against. She will be fine if you stay with her.

Several hundred law students and residents came to hear Clinton speak, lining up outside the school hours before the event. Some were hard-core supporters who had already decided to vote for the former U.S. Secretary of State, but others were still weighing their options.

Im undecided between the Republicans and the Democrats for the first time ever, said Sheila Brady, a registered Democrat who attended the rally with her husband. Im frustrated with the way things are going. But on the other hand, were scared of Trump.

Clinton spoke in Raleigh before coming to Greensboro and appeared in Charlotte later Monday. The Republican National Committee denounced his stops in the state, noting that neither Clinton had won in North Carolina before.

What her campaign forgets is that North Carolinians have already rejected Clinton and her husband three times before, Kara Carter, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Republican Party, said in a statement. No amount of spin will change the fact that voters dont trust Hillary Clinton.
The N.C. Department of Transportation Division of Aviation and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associations Air Safety Institute are offering a pilot safety seminar. It will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. March 15 in the Sears Applied Technologies Building at Guilford Technical Community College, 601 E. Main St., Jamestown.

The seminar series, Emergency: Getting It Right When Things Go Wrong, will offer pilots advice on preventing and dealing with unexpected situations and emergencies. It will also offer problem-solving techniques and off-airport landings.

For more information, call Tom Freeman of the Division of Aviation Safety, at (919) 814-0559.

Melissa Hall
DEARBORN, Mich.  It is here in the industrial Midwest, not in the South, where Ted Cruzs audacious theory of the 2016 race was supposed to be put to one of its most important tests. Michigans primary today  and especially what happens in the Detroit suburbs that in 1980 were ground zero for a new political species, Reagan Democrats  will answer this question: Can Cruz locate and motivate legions of recently nonvoting conservatives, millions of them nationwide, especially whites without college experience, who can be pulled back into voting in numbers sufficient to determine the election in November?

But the best-laid plans of mice and men and even senators often go awry, and one problem with Cruzs plan is that it was formulated in olden days, in the world B.D.T.  Before Donald Trump. He, too, is courting this cohort of the disaffected, whose grievances about politicians certainly cannot this year include being ignored by them. But although Trump may bestride the political scene mastodon, Patrick Colbeck and Wendy Day are undaunted.

Colbeck, 50, was an engineer with no interest in politics until, six years ago, he did something almost unprecedented even among members of the national legislature: He read the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. He concluded that this is about control and has nothing to do with care. Now he is a Republican state senator, the first Michigan legislator elected from the tea party, and a thorn in the side of the GOPs legislative leadership on spending and other matters. Which is to say, he is somewhat like Ted Cruz, of whose Michigan campaign Colbeck is chairman.

Day, 43, is the wife of a soldier who has a Purple Heart from two tours in the Middle East, and the mother of a 19-year-old soldier just back from his first deployment, in Kuwait. She was working with war widows before becoming state director of the Cruz campaign because hes been to Babylon and survived. Meaning hes resisted the seductive nature of Washington. Now she travels with a spreadsheet, supplied by Cruzs national campaign headquarters in Houston, detailing the expected March 8 vote in all of Michigans 4,500 precincts and the number of votes Cruz needs to get in each in order to win the state.

Houston projects that Cruz needs 345,000 of the 1.08 million votes the campaign expects to be cast. Day has on her phone a picture of two of those voters who, with no prompting from the campaign, set up a table outside a tractor supply store to educate voters about Cruzs enthusiasm for the Second Amendment. Other volunteers held a fundraiser at a gun range to pay for a Cruz billboard.

Yes, each such anecdote testifies to Cruzs ability to energize a passionate cadre, and, yes, as has been said, the plural of anecdote is data. Today, however, much more than when Winston Churchill said so eight decades ago, We have entered the region of mass effects. In Michigan, as in many of the Super Tuesday states, the Cruz campaign mounted the most ambitious efforts to create telephone-and-shoe-leather get-out-the-vote operations, all of which strengthen the sinews of American democracy. In its approach to Iowa, the campaign identified 150 clusters of Iowans for special attention, including a group of 60 who signed a petition seeking legalization of the sale of fireworks in the state, a group that received a blessing from Cruz in his libertarian mode.

But todays saturation journalism about presidential politics  and especially the insatiable appetite of television for the garish sights and sounds of Trump, whose campaign consists almost entirely of feeding this appetite  can raise waves of passion and distraction that wash away more methodical ways of engaging with voters.

A Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll, taken Feb. 14-16, after Iowas caucuses and New Hampshires primary but before South Carolinas primary and Nevadas caucuses, presented a microcosm of the GOPs national problem: Trump 25.2 percent, undecided 21.3, Cruz 15, Marco Rubio 11.8, John Kasich 10.5, Ben Carson 9, Jeb Bush 5.3. Trump had the highest unfavorable rating (41.3), but the combined 37.3 percent of the three serious Trump rivals still in the race is too fragmented to derail him. And Kasich, from contiguous Ohio, is targeting Michigan.

Michigans primary comes a week  an eternity  after Super Tuesdays 11 primaries altered the political landscape. Michigan is one of the 18 states (and the District of Columbia)  with 242 electoral votes  that Republicans have lost in six consecutive presidential elections, so attention must be paid.
Land and Space Journal Sentinel business reporter Tom Daykin talks about commercial real estate and development. SHARE

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A development site near Wauwatosa's Mayfair Collection mixed-use project has been sold to a Florida-based investor.

The former Ponderosa restaurant, 3161 N. Mayfair Road, was sold to Jasue LLC for $665,000, according to state real estate records posted Tuesday. The property includes a 1.2-acre lot and a vacant 7,150-square-foot building, according to city assessment records.

Jasue is an affiliate of Kin Properties Inc., based in Baco Raton, Fla. The company plans to demolish the restaurant and seek a tenant for a new retail building, said Robert Crum, vice president of leasing.

Kin owns over 725 commercial properties, totaling 30 million square feet, in 45 states and Canada, according to the firm's website. Most of Kin's properties are single-tenant retail properties, such as drug stores, clothing stores and restaurants.

Kin also owns the neighboring former Kmart, 3201 N. Mayfair Road, that was redeveloped last October as an At Home store.

The Wauwatosa property, which was sold by Shorewood-based Central Investment Co., is east of The Mayfair Collection.

The Wauwatosa Common Council in February approved a proposal setting the stage for the city to eventually spend nearly $54 million to help finance the mixed-use development's expansion.
Kim Sponem is the chief executive and president of Summit Credit Union, the second-largest credit union based in Wisconsin. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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The big trend in the credit union industry in Wisconsin is clear  fewer, but bigger, institutions.

Only five years ago, there were 203 credit unions chartered in the state. Today, there are 150.

Among the largest in the state  second only to Landmark  is Madison-based Summit Credit Union. Summit's president and chief executive officer is Kim Sponem.

Her institution not only has witnessed the consolidation trend, it has been a part of it several times. Most recently, Summit last summer took over Janesville's Educational Employees Credit Union, adding to Summit's membership and assets, which now approach $2.4 billion.

Summit has 31 branches in Wisconsin, which includes three that are located in Madison area high schools, where they are used as part of financial education efforts for students.

Credit unions offer many of the same services as banks, but they are not-for-profit cooperatives owned by their members instead of by stockholders.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison who learned the business through the Credit Unions Executives Society and gained experience in various credit union executive roles, Sponem is one of the industry's most visible leaders in the state.

Since 2002, Sponem has been a top leader of what today is Summit Credit Union. She was CEO of Great Wisconsin Credit Union when Summit merged into that institution in 2008; the Summit name was kept. She served as president of the merged Summit for two years before adding the role of CEO.



Last year, she was appointed to a three-year term on the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council, which reports to the Chicago Federal Reserve System with front-line information on economic conditions and lending trends. The panel meets twice a year.

"Love it," Sponem said. "It's really very interesting and engaging, and it's an honor to serve on it."

Sponem recently talked with the Journal Sentinel about Summit and the credit union industry. Here is an edited version of that conversation.

Q.What is driving consolidation in your industry?

A. In 2015 there were 10 credit unions that merged. We are at about 150 credit unions today. A lot of what's driving it is increased regulation and technology. A lot of those (merging) credit unions are smaller credit unions, and the demands from a regulatory perspective and a technology perspective weigh heavily on them. Occasionally there will be a merger that will be more out of wanting to increase reach and economies of scale.

Q.How would you characterize Wisconsin's business climate today?

A. I think Wisconsin's business economy is pretty strong right now. The economy, while it's not growing at a robust rate, it's growing at a steady rate. I think there's consumer optimism and I think the business climate is really pretty positive at the moment.

Q.Are there any segments of lending that are particularly hot?

A.Certainly SBA  Small Business Administration  lending is really hot for us. We are the No. 1 SBA lender in Wisconsin among credit unions. Since 2012  in three years  our SBA loans have quadrupled. We're doing a lot of that business and we really like it.

We've also done quite a bit of business with nonprofits and co-ops as well.

And then mortgages, mortgage lending. We've just continued to see really strong volume in the mortgage area. We're the No. 1 mortgage lender in Dane County.

Q.Helping members with personal finance seems to be one of the things some credit unions focus on. What would be your top tips for someone who made a New Year's resolution to straighten out his or her finances?

A. I would say it's hard to do it completely on your own. Summit offers to sit down with anyone who wants to look at their finances in more depth. We'll spend an hour with somebody free of charge just to look at where they are today, where they want to get to, and then help them develop a path forward. Having somebody else looking at your situation is really valuable.

We all can read an article that says, "Well, you know, if you just don't go to Starbucks and buy coffee." But the reality of people's lives is it's typically not that simple, and there are things that people are doing and habits that people are in that are prohibiting them from getting where they want to go. Somebody who is trained at looking for those and helping identify those areas and then work through that can really help someone  one hour one day, and then follow up for an hour in another month. It will make a difference.

Q.Who would a person meet with at Summit to discuss personal finances?

A. Every person in our branch  every lender, every new-accounts person, every representative in our branch  knows how to do this.

That would be my tip. If it truly is your New Year's resolution and you're serious about it, start with sitting down with somebody like us, because we're able to ask the right questions to get at where the opportunities are. Because in everybody's finances there are opportunities that can help people get where they want to go.

Q.Banks complain that credit unions, especially big ones like Summit, are becoming more bank-like and earnings minded, and don't deserve their income tax exemption anymore. Do they have a point? What sets Summit apart from a bank the same size?

A. That is the age-old argument that 25 years ago when I started in this business  I've heard this several times a year.

If the question is simply what we do different, being a large credit union, well, I know of no bank in a high school. We do not make money being in high schools, and I don't know any bank that is there. I don't know any bank that can list six financial education programs  like I could right off the top of my head  that Summit has developed and implemented.

We only exist for the benefit of our members. Our earnings go into reserves. If a credit union were to dissolve, those reserves would go back to our members. If a bank dissolves, where do their earnings go? Not back to their customers.

We are fundamentally structured differently and we only exist to help our members. That fact that we've grown means that we are resonating with consumers. Our cooperative difference is resonating with what consumers want and what they expect out of their financial institution.

Q.Mobile banking has caught on quickly. What are some of the financial functions Summit members can do with their smartphones or tablets, and are you surprised at how quickly mobile banking has been adopted by consumers?

A. Summit's number of mobile users increased by 68% from 2014 to 2015.

When you look at all the apps people download now, it just makes sense they are going to download our app. What can you do with it? You can deposit checks, you can check your balance at any time, you can look and see what check or what payment went through. On your tablet you can apply for a loan. You can do a lot of the things you can do on our online, more-traditional computer format.
Johnson Controls corporate headquarters at 5757 N. Green Bay Ave. in Glendale. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Johnson Controls Inc. and its automotive spinoff company will continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal income taxes despite the shift of its headquarters to Ireland after its merger with Tyco International Inc., the company's top executive says.

Writing in the Detroit Free Press, CEO Alex Molinaroli of Johnson Controls responded to attacks on the company levied on the presidential campaign trail, including at Sunday's Democratic debate between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

During the debate, Clinton said she would charge the company "an exit fee" because of the corporate tax shift, known as an inversion.

Molinaroli's column was published as voters in the auto industry's home state headed to the polls Tuesday to vote in the presidential primary.

Johnson Controls has been criticized for its move to shift its corporate headquarters to Ireland, where Tyco is based, as part of a merger that is expected to be completed in October.

Johnson Controls has said it expects to see $150 million in savings on its taxes thanks to the shift to become an Irish company for tax purposes. The deal will be good for Milwaukee, because the North American headquarters and management team of both Johnson Controls and the automotive spinoff company Adient will be based here, the company has said.

"The two companies will continue to pay significant U.S. taxes  in excess of $300 million annually in federal and state income taxes as well as $50 million to $100 million in property tax, sales and use tax and excise tax," Molinaroli wrote. "In addition, the companies will continue to pay hundreds of millions in payroll taxes related to our U.S. employees."

In a statement Tuesday, Johnson Controls said Molinaroli's column was written "to set the record straight" in response to "inaccurate attacks (that) have become a recurring theme in stump speeches, debates and campaign ads during this presidential campaign season."

The company never sought a government bailout during the auto industry's crisis when carmakers and suppliers were on the verge of bankruptcy, he wrote.

"Johnson Controls did not request and did not receive aid from the government during the financial crisis. Nor did the company declare bankruptcy," Molinaroli wrote.

Johnson Controls executive Keith Wandell, now the retired CEO of Harley-Davidson Inc., had gone to Capitol Hill to testify about the state of the auto industry.

The company was asked by its customers and the Senate Banking Committee, Molinaroli wrote, to testify in 2008 on behalf of automotive suppliers on proposed government support to U.S. automakers, who were struggling due to the financial crisis.

"Johnson Controls was not in financial distress and did not request aid from the government," Molinaroli wrote, adding that Wandell emphasized in his testimony Johnson Controls was diversified and profitable.

"Unlike many automotive suppliers, we would weather this storm," Wandell testified.

During Sunday's debate, Clinton vowed "to go after companies like Johnson Controls in Wisconsin. They came and got part of the bailout because they were an auto parts supplier and now they want to move headquarters to Europe. They are going to have to pay an exit fee."

Clinton and Sanders have both criticized the inversion plan. Republican candidates who have spoken on the issue have said it shows the need for corporate tax reform.

Last month, while in Milwaukee for a debate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Clinton stood outside the company's corporate office in Glendale for a campaign ad critical of the inversion plan.

"When I'm president, when companies walk out on America they'll pay a price," she said.

In his column, Molinaroli said the company's U.S. employment has grown to nearly 36,000 employees, an increase of 8,000 "since the low point of the financial crisis."

Defending the company's commitment to the country, Molinaroli said the company is spending $400 million to $600 million a year here in capital expenditures.

"In recent years, the company invested an additional half billion dollars on new IT initiatives in the U.S.," he added. "Including our equity joint ventures, our U.S. capital investments swell by another $100 million to $200 million annually."

The column does not mention the global staff reduction of about 3,000 employees that the company announced last summer. Local reductions as part of that include the reduction of nearly 200 information technology workers in West Allis after the company announced it was putting a major information technology on hold.

Separately, the company announced last fall it was cutting nearly corporate 300 jobs in Glendale as it moved to consolidate the four accounting and finance "business centers" it has around the world. The remaining business centers are in Slovakia, China and Mexico.
SHARE Amanda Porterfield will co-anchor the weekend evening newcasts on WDJT-TV (Channel 58). Weigel Broadcasting Kristen Barbaresi, who has worked at TV stations in Madison and La Crosse, is joining WDJT-TV (Channel 58) as a full-time reporter. Weigel Broadcasting

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WDJT-TV (Channel 58) has named Amanda Porterfield co-anchor of its weekend newscast.

Porterfield, who will share the weekend desk with co-anchor Eric Levy on the newscasts at 5, 9 and 10 p.m. Saturdays, and at 5:30, 9 and 10 p.m. Sundays. She started at the CBS affiliate Monday.

A former anchor in Champaign, Ill., and TV reporter in Chatanooga, Tenn., Porterfield has ties to Milwaukee. "Part of my family is from Milwaukee and having lived here for years as a child, I am happy to be back as a journalist," she said in a statement released by WDJT.

Porterfield's grandfather is Harry Porterfield, the 87-year-old former dean of Chicago television news who left WBBM-TV at the end of last year when his contract wasn't renewed.

WDJT also added Kristen Barbaresi as a full-time reporter. A multimedia journalist who worked at WKOW-TV in Madison and WXOW-TV in La Crosse, she starts at the Milwaukee station March 14.

Meanwhile, WDJT's sister station, WYTU/Telemundo Wisconsin, has named Miguel Ramirez as co-anchor for its 10 p.m. weeknight newscast. Ramirez, who worked as a news director in radio and television in Overland Park, Kan., Kansas City, and Naples, Fla., also began his new gig Monday, co-anchoring with Jocelyne Pruna.

Telemundo Wisconsin and WDJT are both owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co.
Anjali Pathak

When Anjali Pathak was a little girl, her grandmother gave her a small rolling pin. Every night, her grandmother made chapattis, a traditional bread, and Pathak worked right alongside her.

Well before she was born, Pathak's family had created the Patak's brand of Indian curry pastes, spice and sauces. She grew up working in the kitchen, tasting sauces and sampling dishes created by her mother for the family business. The kitchen has always been central to her family, a happy place.

For a while, Pathak worked in the family business bringing Indian flavors to the world. Born and raised in Britain, her palate has always been international. Now she's sharing her modern Indian cooking and international influences with her own cooking school, Flavour Diaries, recently opened in Mumbai.

She shares her influences and home cooking in her second cookbook, "The Indian Family Kitchen" ($27.50, Clarkson Potter), published last month.

Pathak, who is currently in Mumbai, responded to questions via email. Find more of her recipes at anjalipathak.com.

Q.What are your food roots?

A. I grew up in a hugely foodie family and was lucky enough to live with two incredible cooks  my mother and grandmother. They were wonderful teachers and relished the fact I wanted to learn about Indian cooking and spices from a young age. I spent much of my childhood in the kitchen and tasted all sorts of interesting creations my mother had developed which would hopefully find their way into a jar that would soon sit on supermarket shelves across the world.

Patak's was a household name by the time I was born, always known as a truly authentic Indian food brand. As I grew older, I started learning the tricks of the trade and spent much of my teens working in different areas of Patak's. Eventually this lead me to join the business after university. Not long after, I started developing products of my own.

I also started food writing, and within a few years I had started writing my first cookbook that I authored with my mother, Meena. ... That gave me confidence to take my skills further, and I enrolled in the prestigious Leiths School of Food & Wine in London. ... I chose to step away from Patak's.

I teach master classes all over the world and have recently embarked on a crazy journey and have opened up my very own cookery school in Mumbai.... Just as my parents have taken Indian food to the world, I'm proud to say I'm now doing the reverse. I've brought my style of Indian food back to India.

Q.How did you get started cooking?

A. My first experiences in the kitchen were when I was a toddler and my mother and grandmother would pick me up, sit me on the countertop and share the secrets of their spice box. With all the colors, shapes and sizes, I was hooked. My first recipe I ever learned was chapattis. The Indian flatbreads served at most meals were the staple when we had a traditional dinner, and they were made fresh by my grandmother every evening.

Q.What defines your kitchen workspace?

A. My spice box. It's always on my countertop when I cook. I take it everywhere I travel, and always fill it up with local ingredients that I use to create my dishes. Fresh ingredients make all the difference and I always discover something new in every city I travel to.

Q.What are the essential ingredients that define Indian cooking?

A. There are a few ingredients that are ubiquitous to most Indian dishes  the holy trinity of Indian cooking  fresh garlic, root ginger and fresh chilies. Used alone or as a combination, these create the backbone of most recipes.

Q.Tell us about this cookbook.

A. "The Indian Family Kitchen" is a collection of recipes that reflect how we cook today with seasonal and vegetable-forward recipes. Some recipes have been passed down through my family, and the rest reflect my style of cooking that is fuss-free, full-flavored with a hint of spice. The recipe that I knew I had to include was my Tadka Dhal recipe. I grew up with dhal (lentils) gracing the dining table for our Indian meals, and I absolutely love it. It's my comfort food.

Q.Your grandparents founded Patak's, the Indian food brand. How much is that a part of your world now, and how does it influence your own cooking?

A. I chose to take a step away from Patak's around eight years ago and I now work with spices and flavors from around the world, not just India. This has allowed me to grow as a chef and I love experimenting outside of Indian cuisine.

Q.Can you give an example of recipes that may have been modernized?

A. I always stay true to my roots and use well-known flavors, however I have used spices in modern ways. One example would be my Balti Baked Squash with feta and mint. Instead of making a curry with Balti spices, I have rubbed hollowed out squash with a delicious fresh Balti spice mix and roasted it in the oven until soft. I then scoop it out and mix it with fresh ingredients and return it to the oven for five minutes just to finish it off. This is one of my favorite recipes.

Q.What's the one kitchen tool that you can't live without?

A. The one kitchen tool I can't live without is my spice box. I carry it with me everywhere I go, usually carrying it empty and filling it with fresh spices when I land in that country. Then I know I am cooking with the same quality ingredients from that region.

Q.Your father met your mother while on a spice buying trip to India. Do you remember your first visit to an Indian spice market?

A. My first visit to an Indian spice market lead me to buy more green cardamom than I knew what to do with. As soon as I saw all the beautiful spices piled up in sacks, my eyes were in heaven. The scents were incredible and the colors were sensational. My nose led me to the fragrant green cardamom and before I knew it I was asking for a 500-gram bag, which would last me a lifetime! It is still my favorite spice today.

Q.What's your trick for foolproof rice?

A. My trick for foolproof rice, which is the technique I share in my cookbook, is cooking rice using plenty of water, the drainage method. It's the best way to get fluffy grains every time as you drain off any extra water once the rice has puffed up and cooked to perfection.

Q.Meringues don't usually come to mind when thinking Indian food, but you've got a lovely meringue recipe included in the book. What's the story behind the meringue recipe?

A. Meringues aren't traditional for Indian cuisine, but then again, neither is my cookbook. I have shared a recipe I love to eat. Meringues were an important part of my culinary training at Leiths School of Food & Wine and I have fond memories of our meringue days at chef school. It's a great recipe to add in spices, so do play around with your favorite sweet spices. You'll certainly impress anyone you serve it to.
The American Club: Napa Valley Wine Dinner, 6:30 p.m. March 18. $135 per person. Five-course meal with reception. 419 Highland Drive, Kohler. Information and reservations: (855) 444-2838; www.americanclubresort.com.

Demonstration Kitchen: Chefs demonstrate selected recipes from preparation to presentation at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. $40.95 per person, includes tax and fee. The Shops at Woodlake, 725 Woodlake Road, Kohler.

Irish Feast with a Twist. March 12.

Field and Stream. March 19.

Apple Holler: Open year-round for seasonal family activities, and a variety of Wisconsin products. 5006 S. Sylvania Ave., Sturtevant, (262) 884-7100; www.appleholler.com.

Bartolotta Restaurants: From special dinners to tasting events, experience an assortment of unique events. Pricing is per person, plus tax and gratuity. www.bartolottas.com.

Bay View Community Center: Cooking classes and workshops. Registration required. 1320 E. Oklahoma Ave. (414) 482-1000; www.bayviewcenter.org.

Italian Cooking. March 31. $18.

Rhubarb. April 13. $18.

Tofu. April 18. $16.

Braise Culinary School: 'Braise Basics' classes and dinners held at Braise Restaurant, 1101 S. 2nd St. Registration: (414) 212-8843, or email info@braiselocalfood.com.

Cedar Creek Winery/Cedar Creek Settlement: Open House, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 19-20. Barrel taste the 2015 vintages, enjoy cooking-with-wine demos/tastings, and vine pruning with winemaker Philippe Coquard. N70-W6340 Bridge Road, Cedarburg, (800) 827-8020.

Cooking with Class:Food demonstration classes by Staci Joers. Information: (262) 681-2908; complete schedule, including other locations, at www.cookingwithclass.us.

Caledonia Park and Recreation Dept.: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. East Side Community Center, 6156 Douglas Ave., Racine. (262) 681-2908.

Spring Seafood Fling. April 7.

Franklin Community Education & Recreation: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. Franklin High School, 8222 S. 51st St., Franklin. (414) 423-4646.

Spring Seafood Fling. April 6.

Greendale Park & Recreation: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. Greendale High School, 6801 Southway, Greendale. (414) 423-2790.

Fondue. March 15.

Spring Seafood Fling. April 19.

New Berlin Park & Recreation: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. Hickory Grove School, 2600 S. Sunny Slope Road, New Berlin. (262) 797-2443.

Spring Seafood Fling. April 4.

Nicolet Park & Rec Dept.: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. Nicolet High School, 6701 N. Jean Nicolet Road, Glendale. (414) 351-7566.

French Toast. March 16.

Ethnic Sandwiches. April 12.

Pewaukee Park and Rec: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. Wagner Park, N31-W23320 Green Road, Pewaukee, (262) 691-7275.

French Toast. March 14.

Ethnic Sandwiches. April 11.

West Allis Park & Recreation: Classes meet 6:30-9 p.m. Nathan Hale High School, 11601 W. Lincoln Ave., West Allis. (414) 604-4900.

Spring Seafood Fling. April 5.

Davians Banquet & Conference Center: Milwaukee West Suburban Christian Women's Club brunch, 9:30-11 a.m. March 21. $15. Ennjoy Irish music and guest speaker. Reservation required. 16300 W. Silver Spring Drive, Menomonee Falls. Info: Lois, (262) 251-3841.

Indulgence Chocolatiers:Chocolate Pairing Classes. $25 per person. Preregistration required. Walker's Point, 211 S. 2nd St. (414) 223-0123; indulgencechocolatiers.com

Sivas Sonoma Wines. March 15.

Coast to Coast IPAs. April 14.

Founders Brewery Beers. April 19.

Joyce Molenda Kitchen: Danish Pastry Class, 6:30-9 p.m. March 10, or 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. March 12 or 19. $30. 12236 W. Harrison Place, West Allis. (414) 321-1345, JoyceMolendakitchen@gmail.com.

Marcus Restaurant Group:Winter Chef Series will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturdays at the Mason Street Grill Chef's Counter, 425 E. Mason St. Each session includes demonstration, tasting and culinary tips from the chef. $29 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Reservation required, call (414) 935-5950, or email m1res@marcuscorp.com.

A Taste of Ireland. March 12.

Milwaukee Public Market: Cooking classes. Times and prices vary. Registration required. 400 N. Water St. (414) 336-1111; www.milwaukeepublicmarket.org.

Milwaukee Recreation: Classes held at a variety of locations. Register at: www.milwaukeerecreation.net

The Mindful Palate: Ann Wegner LeFort and The Mindful Palate teach cooking, canning and food preservation classes throughout Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin. mindfulpalatemke.com.

Monona Terrace: CSA Open House, noon-4 p.m. March 13. Learn about FairShare, meet local food producers and sample food from alternative CSA vendors with shares such as chocolate, salmon, bread, and more. Free. 1 John Nolen Drive, Madison. www.csacoalition.org/events/open-house/

New Berlin Community Center: New Berlin Police Citizens Academy Alumni Association 'Wine and Beer Tasting,' 6-9 p.m. March 12. $35. Event includes food samplings from local restaurants. 14750 W. Cleveland Ave., New Berlin. nbpcitizensacademy.org

NuGenesis Farm: Public and private cooking and nutrition classes. N68-W33208 County Road K, Oconomowoc, (800) 969-3588; www.nugenesisfarm.org.

Pfister Hotel: Afternoon Tea in Blu is held Friday to Sunday with seatings at 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. (through March 27). Reservations required. Served with an assortment of fresh scones, sandwiches and pastries. 424 E. Wisconsin Ave. (414) 935-5950.

Polish Center of Wisconsin: Easter Brunch, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. March 27. All you can eat buffet featuring tenderloin and pork loin, Polish sausage and pierogi, smoked fish, assorted salads and pastries. $29 Adults; $12 Children 6 to 12. Reservation required. 6941 S. 68th St., Franklin. (414) 529-2140.

Ray's Growler Gallery and Wine Bar:Wine classes and events. Registration required. 8930 W. North Ave., Suite G, Wauwatosa. (414) 258-9821; raysgrowlergallery.com/events

A Tasting Tour of American Pinot Noir. March 22. $30.

Amazing Imported Values. April 5. $20.

Piedmont: Italy's King of Quality. April 12. $25.

River Bend Nature Center: 'Sugarin' Off' pancake breakfasts to celebrate the maple sugar harvest, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 13 and 20. $8 adults/ $5 children. 3600 N. Green Bay Road, Racine. www.RiverBendRacine.org.

Tess: Two Brothers Brewing Beer Dinner, 6:30 p.m. March 23-24. $56 per person, plus tax and gratuity, includes all beer and five-course gourmet dinner. Reservation required. 2499 N. Bartlett Ave., (414) 964-8377.

Goose Island Brewing Rare & Vintage Beer Dinner. April 20.

Urban Ecology Center-Riverside Park: Local Farmer Open House, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. March 12. Free. Talk with local farmers and learn about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription options. 1500 E. Park Place, (414) 964-8505.

Water 2 Wine: Introductory Wine Tasting Class offered five times weekly. $30 per person. Call ahead to register. 17135 W. Blue Mound Road, Brookfield, (262) 784-9463; www.water2wine.us/milwaukee

Waterford Wine Company:Seminars, 6-7:30 p.m. RSVP required. $30, credited toward a six-bottle purchase. 1327 E. Brady St. (414) 289-9463; waterfordwine.com/tasting.

Waukesha County Technical College: Hands-on noncredit cooking courses. Classes held at 327 E. Broadway, Waukesha. (262) 691-5578; www.wctc.edu/non-credit.

Spanish Tapas. March 23. $29.45.

Meatless Mondays. April 4. $29.45.

Fresh Herb Cooking. April 4. $59.20.

The Basic Cook: Poach/Braise. April 5. $29.45.

Wellspring Education Center: Certified organic farm and retreat center offering programs in wellness. Reservation required. 4382 Hickory Road, West Bend. (414) 522-6989; www.wellspringinc.org.

Home cheese maker Linda Conroy presents two courses in Home Creamery, providing instruction, recipes and samples.

Cultured Milk and Fresh Cheese. April 2. $58.

Feta and Mozzarella. April 23. $58.

Wollersheim Winery: Open for tours and tastings from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, year-round. 7876 Highway 188, Sauk City, (608) 643-6515; www.wollersheim.com.
Blasts From the Past Highlights from this day in history Blasts From the Past looks at significant events that happened on this day in history. SHARE

Today's highlight in history

On March 8, 1917, Russia's "February Revolution" (referring to the Old Style calendar) began in Petrograd; the result was the abdication of the Russian monarchy in favor of a provisional government.

On this date

In 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan; within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese that for the first time opened two ports in Japan to U.S. ships.

In 1965, the United States landed its first combat troops in South Vietnam as 3,500 Marines arrived to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang.

In 1966, Nelson's Pillar, a 120-foot-high column in Dublin honoring British naval hero Horatio Nelson, was bombed by the Irish Republican Army.

In 1979, technology firm Philips demonstrated a prototype compact disc player during a news conference in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

In 1983, in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals convention in Orlando, Fla., President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire."

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, setting off a massive search. (To date, the fate of the jetliner and its occupants has yet to be determined.)

Ten years ago: Six months after Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush got a close-up look at the remaining mountains of debris, abandoned homes and boarded-up businesses in New Orleans.

Five years ago: Voters in Bell, Calif., went to the polls in huge numbers and threw out the entire City Council after most of its members had been charged with fraud. (Residents were infuriated to find out that former City Manager Robert Rizzo had been receiving an annual salary of $1.5 million, and that four of the five City Council members had paid themselves $100,000 to meet about once a month.)

One year ago: Thousands of people crowded the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, many jammed shoulder to shoulder, to commemorate a bloody confrontation 50 years earlier between police and peaceful protesters that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Associated Press
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Attorney General Brad Schimel asked a Vilas County court on Monday to issue a gag order banning attorneys from talking to the media about securities fraud charges against two well-known Vilas County businessmen.

Brian Eliason, 38, and David Eliason, 40, were each charged with 10 felony counts of securities fraud last month for not providing full disclosure about their company, Eliason Inc., in 2009 when they sold more than $3 million in investments in an entity that has since failed.

The brothers, who were featured in a favorable Inc. Magazine story in 2008, have denied any wrongdoing and their attorney, Stephen Kravit, sharply criticized prosecutors and issued a four-page press release proclaiming his clients innocence.

"Everything the state says (in the criminal complaint) is wrong," Kravit told the Journal Sentinel on Saturday.

The charges against the Eliasons were originally reported by the Northwoods River News .

Schimel's motion argues that Kravit's press release and statement can influence jury selection if the case goes to trial in the county.

"Vilas County has a population of approximately 21,430 as of 2010," states the motion, written by assistant attorney generals Amber Hahn and Christopher Liegel. "...without an order limiting statements made to the public, publicity in this case could have a substantial effect on the ability to empanel a fair and impartial jury."

The Eliason family is well known in the area. "The defendants are long time residents of the county, former business owners in the county, and their father, Donald Eliason, has been a business owner in Vilas County for nearly 40 years." prosecutors wrote.

A spokeswoman for Schimel declined comment on the motion. Kravit also declined comment except to note that the state asked him last week to endorse the request for a gag order  an invitation he refused. Kravit on Monday provided the Journal Sentinel with his email response to the state prosecutors.

"The ethics rules allow public statements to protect clients in their business and affairs against wrong or prejudicial statements made by others," Kravit told prosecutors, arguing that the criminal complaint filed by the state contains "wrong and prejudicial public statements, meant just as much to prejudice the jury pool in Vilas county."

Kravit's email argued: "It is the wrong approach to try to stifle the voices of those wrongly accused."

The charges against the brothers involve sales of securities in the now-defunct Eliason Combination Fund. The investment, known as a tenancy-in-common, or TIC, calls for the company to borrow money from lenders to finance purchases of real estate, which is then syndicated  or sold in pieces  to investors.

Prosecutors contend the brothers did not tell investors about the dire financial condition of their company, Eliason Inc., which "did not have the funds to continue covering operational expenses beyond 2009," the complaint states.

Kravit said the investment failed because of the economy and because 60% of the Eliason Combination Fund's revenue came from rent paid by American TV and Appliance and Borders Books, both of which closed.
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An Arkansas researcher tasked with tracking the achievement of students enrolled in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program released a study Tuesday saying those who attended private voucher schools were less likely to commit crimes than their peers in Milwaukee Public Schools.

Patrick J. Wolf of the School Choice Demonstration Project at the University of Arkansas said his findings suggest that voucher schools "have a positive effect on character traits and behaviors" of the students who attend them.

Milwaukee Public Schools officials issued a statement Tuesday dismissing the report as biased and lacking in scientific rigor. They noted the study was not peer reviewed.

"The authors admit that they cannot conclude that the voucher program affected criminality, but they treat the relationship as 'causal' anyway," it said. "There are a number of serious issues that raise questions about the validity of this report."

Jim Bender of the advocacy group School Choice Wisconsin issued a statement saying the study's results "confirm what parents already know  that school culture matters."

"Parents are seeking environments where strength of character plays a significant role."

Tuesday's report is the latest in a series issued by Wolf, who holds the 21st Century Chair in School Choice at Arkansas' Department of Education Reform.

Earlier studies, mandated by the Wisconsin Legislature in 2005, suggested that voucher students outperformed their MPS counterparts in some areas. Wolf said in 2012 that there was no clear "winner" between the voucher schools and MPS on test scores, but that voucher school students had higher rates of graduation, college admissions and remaining in college once they got there.

The Legislative Audit Bureau, which was required to review Wolf's findings, found the difference in academic performance statistically significant in only two of the six cohorts studied.

In the latest study, which goes beyond the legislative mandate, Wolf and graduate student Corey DeAngelis ran the names of 2,200 MPS and voucher students who took part in the earlier longitudinal study through the Wisconsin Court System's online database  controlling for such factors as family income and composition and parental education.

They say students who attended private voucher schools and were now between the ages of 22 and 25 were:

 5 to 7 percentage points less likely to commit misdemeanor crimes.

 3 percentage points less likely to commit felonies.

 5 to 12 percentage points less likely to be accused of committing any crime.

"The effects of the voucher program on reducing crime rates are especially clear... for males who commit more crimes than do females," they said.

Alex Molnar of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado called the report "bupkis," and said it was based on an unrepresentative and biased sample and "almost laugh out loud flawed."

Wolf and his department have been criticized as partisan on school choice issues, in part because of their funding from the Walton Family Foundation, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in school choice initiatives over the last two decades and has pledged $1 billion more over the next five years.

Wolf dismissed the criticism as unfounded, saying his largest funder is the U.S. Department of Education and that his studies also point to deficiencies in some choice programs.

"If I'm a researcher biased in favor of vouchers, I'm not very good at it," he said.
UW-Madison professor Sara Goldrick-Rab announced Monday night that she is leaving to take a job at Temple University. Credit: Mark Hoffman

By of the

Sara Goldrick-Rab, the outspoken University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who vowed to leave Wisconsin after state lawmakers changed tenure protections last year, announced on her blog that she has accepted a job at Temple University and will start July 1.

She is known for her research on college access and affordability and her prolific activity on Twitter (@saragoldrickrab).

Goldrick-Rab will continue to be a professor of higher education policy and sociology at the public university in Philadelphia, which has a faculty union with collective bargaining rights.

Goldrick-Rab, 39, said she looks forward to joining a university and a state "that embraces its responsibility for providing the earned tenure protections required to rebuild public higher education."

"There are daily attacks on the ideas of scholars who challenge current practices and policies employed by university administrators, state legislators and even governors," she wrote. "McCarthyism is alive and well  especially here in Wisconsin."

Goldrick-Rab said tenure has been vanquished throughout the UW System.

"In its place is a savvy new #FakeTenure that fools even the most intelligent people into believing it is real. Except it is not. Following passage of #FakeTenure by the UW Regents later this week, firing me would be quite easy."

The Wisconsin HOPE Lab that Goldrick-Rab founded in 2013 to research effective ways to make college more affordable will disband at UW in July 2018, when a five-year, $2.5 million gift from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corp. expires.

Goldrick-Rab said in her blog post that she will work as a consultant while the lab completes its work funded by the Great Lakes gift.

The lab in the School of Education has about a dozen staff, including Goldrick-Rab, and its managing director will take over leadership responsibilities.

All told, Goldrick-Rab has attracted roughly $10 million in federal research dollars to UW-Madison.

She has influenced higher education policy testifying before Congress and has been invited to the White House to discuss her research on a key presidential campaign issue: college access and affordability.

Goldrick-Rab tweeted herself into a world of controversy last summer by finding future Badgers on Twitter and essentially encouraging them to take their money elsewhere  as well as for comparing Gov. Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler.

That was after the Legislature cut $250 million in funding for the UW System and removed tenure protections from state statute. Tenure protections were immediately moved to UW Board of Regents policy until a new policy could be drafted.

The regents are expected to approve a new policy Thursday, when they meet in Madison.
Bascom Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Credit: Mark Hoffman

By of the

The University of Wisconsin-Madison last semester gave out $726,436 in raises and $8 million in research support to retain 40 top faculty members competing universities tried to lure away, according to information obtained by the Journal Sentinel through an open records request.

The $8.72 million went to individuals who got job offers between July 1 and Dec. 31, took them to central administration, and agreed within that time frame to stay at UW-Madison. Additional retention efforts within schools and colleges were not included in those numbers.

If the state's flagship campus hadn't succeeded in keeping the 40 in Wisconsin, they collectively would have taken $18 million in federal research grants elsewhere, Chancellor Rebecca Blank told the UW Board of Regents last month.

"Staying on the top, in terms of quality and reputation, requires continual investment," Blank said. "I can't afford not to."

Campus officials said they have seen an increase in the number of professors entertaining job offers from other universities since state lawmakers last summer cut $250 million from the UW System's 2015-'17 budget, weakened layoff protections for tenured faculty and reduced the role of faculty governance in campus decisions.

No new state funding was allocated for pay raises, and there was no across-the-board salary increase for faculty or staff.

The raises to faculty retained by UW-Madison's central administration during the last six months of 2015 ranged from 4.34% to 49.68%. Some of the $726,436 was associated with promotions.

Many who got the smallest raises, relatively speaking, got the largest research grants to pay for research assistants, equipment, labs and other items that support faculty research programs and graduate students, according to university officials.

Three oncology professors in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research got the top research grants for staying: $813,000 went to Christopher Bradfield, who also got a $17,729 (10.1%) raise; and $500,000 each went to Elaine Alarid and Shigeki Miyamoto.

A stem cell researcher and an astronomy and physics professor each got the next highest research support. Emery Bresnick, who also is director of the Blood Research Program, and astronomy and physics professor Ellen Zweibel each got $450,000.

The remaining faculty received between $31,644 and $400,000.

Typically, faculty retention awards to support research come from indirect cost recovery from federal research awards, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and private gifts, university officials said.

UW-Madison also was able to hang onto Barry Burden, the oft-quoted director of the Elections Research Center, and Bas Rokers, a neuroscientist and contributor to the National Geographic "Brain Games" TV series.

Morale problems cited

But the $8.72 million investment in 40 faculty members won't help morale among the rest of the faculty, said Anna Haley-Lock, an associate professor of social work who is leaving for Rutgers. She was among six faculty members listed as receiving retention offers but deciding to leave, though she said she did not seek a retention offer.

"I find it disappointing there's this big focus on targeted retention," Haley-Lock said. "It's about how to retain superstars instead of the importance of making all faculty feel valued and protected."

The biggest salary increase  $56,421  went to Marcy Carlson, an associate professor of sociology whose pay was bumped up 49.68%, from $113,579 to $170,000. She is affiliated with the Center for Demography and Ecology and the Institute for Research on Poverty.

Carlson turned down a job offer from Cornell University that would have made her a full professor and director of a demographic research center, the Cornell Population Center. While it wasn't part of her retention offer, Carlson will be promoted to director of the UW-Madison Center for Demography and Ecology this fall.

"UW was very responsive in their retention offer, matching everything that Cornell had offered," Carlson said in an email to the Journal Sentinel.

Carlson said her salary had been below what several other associate professors in her department earned before she got the raise. In addition to the raise, she received $240,928 in research support.

Her husband, Tim Smeeding, is a distinguished professor in the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs. He didn't request a pay increase, but received $44,672 in additional research support.

"We really value and believe in this university. It's a great place to be a social scientist," said Carlson, who told Cornell that she was happy at UW in 2014  the first time the university recruited her.

Faculty fear decline

Several faculty members who agreed to stay at UW-Madison after getting outside job offers told the Journal Sentinel they're still nervous about the flagship university's future.

In particular, they said they worry UW-Madison will be challenged to maintain its world-class status if repeated cuts in state funding and the erosion of tenure protections and shared governance make outside job offers increasingly attractive.

"At a certain point, people aren't going to stay because they worry about the health of the institution," said Dhavan Shah, who was recruited last year by Michigan State, Penn, University of Texas-Austin and Syracuse but decided to stay at UW-Madison.

"The implications of change are gradual," Shah said. "The decline will be real. It will be felt over time."

Shah is a communications professor who says he has attracted some $27 million in grants for interdisciplinary research at UW-Madison. His research interests include how technology can be used to help older people "age in place," and to reduce relapses in addiction.

Shah said he and his wife, who also is a professor at UW-Madison, decided to stay for family reasons, and because "we have a nice life here."

Shah's pay was increased $32,683 to $196,000. He also received $200,000 in research support. But he said he still left more than $100,000 on the table between the salary and additional research support offered by Michigan State.

The University of Minnesota in one fell swoop last summer attempted to hire away five of UW-Madison's seven international relations faculty members in the political science department.

All five agreed to stay, but it cost UW-Madison about $1 million: $123,412 in pay raises, plus $320,000 over four years to cover a majority of the cost for a new faculty position, plus $320,000 to the group for a special initiative to recruit top graduate students in international relations. Each faculty member also received additional research support totaling $325,000.

Professor Jon Pevehouse, co-author of what is widely considered the leading textbook on international politics, received the highest raise: $52,603, bumping his pay up 30.5% from $172,397 to $225,000.

The other four international relations faculty who agreed to stay included: associate professor Mark Copelovitch, whose pay was increased $22,789 (20.3%) to $135,000; associate professor Helen Kinsella, who got a raise of $21,245 (20.8%) to $123,000; associate professor Jessica Weeks, who got a $14,100 (12%) boost to $131,000, and assistant professor Jonathan Renshon, who got a $12,675 (15.2%) boost to $96,000.

The five professors were recruited by John Coleman, who taught political science for more than 20 years at UW-Madison and chaired the department before leaving to become Minnesota's dean of the College of Liberal Arts in August 2014.

Another UW-Madison political science professor who directs the Elections Research Center said the department "has been fighting off offers from other universities in a serious fashion" all academic year  universities in both the U.S. and other countries.

"Like many faculty, my decision was a complicated mix of considerations," the professor, Barry Burden, said in an email to the Journal Sentinel. "In the end it was my excellent colleagues, family considerations, and additional resources from the university that helped me decide to stay in Madison."

Burden received a $32,186 (22.5%) raise to $175,000, plus $100,000 in research support.

"I have to believe," he said, "that the university can weather the budget cuts and uncertainties of recent years."

Haley-Lock, the associate professor of social work, and her husband, Eric Lock, a senior lecturer in social work, both got better pay offers at Rutgers  his was considerably more. But it wasn't all about the money, Haley-Lock said.

Faculty at Rutgers have strong union representation, she said.

Haley-Lock said she's concerned a cultural shift is taking place in Wisconsin, including the weakening of tenure protections and shared governance.

"The demonization of unions and shared governance concerns me personally, and it's also what I study," she said. "When you begin to curb effective representation of employee interests, that correlates to bottoming out work conditions for workers and reduced job satisfaction."
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By

It all happened so quickly. I was watching the news when I heard about the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia when a CNN news alert popped up on my phone to tell me Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the next president, not President Barack Obama, should be the one to fill the vacancy.

So much for mourning. And so much for the supreme law of the land, our Constitution. Obstruction has been the norm for Republican senators, especially on judicial nominations. Their doubling down in this case isn't surprising, but it is despicable.

Although a few (very few) Republican senators have suggested they might consider Obama's nominee, the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have said there will be no hearings. Republicans have even said they will not give the simple courtesy of meeting with a nominee. All of this, and a nominee hasn't even been named yet. With few exceptions, Republicans, including Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, are putting politics above our Constitution.

Let's get one thing straight: The Constitution is clear. It is the president's obligation to fill vacancies on the federal bench and the Senate's duty to provide "advice and consent" on those nominations. There is no exception to these constitutional duties in an election year.

Republican leadership has said the people should have a voice in who the next Supreme Court Justice is and Johnson has gone along with that misleading talking point. Let's be clear, we the people have a say in who the next justice is. And we voiced it by re-electing Obama to a second term. He has nearly a year left in his term.

If Republicans are successful in their political endeavors to skirt the Constitution, we will go through this Supreme Court term and most of the next with a court hindered in the ability to perform its duties. Four-four ties could become common, leaving lower court rulings in effect and setting no precedent. In many cases, this means federal law could be different in different parts of the country because one court ruled one way and a different court ruled another way and the Supreme Court, which is supposed to be the ultimate tiebreaker, comes up with a tie of its own.

Americans deserve better. We deserve a Supreme Court capable of handling the most complicated legal questions in a way that is fair and certain. We will not have that until we have a ninth justice, and waiting a year is not an option. We need the Supreme Court at full strength now.

The Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics. Sadly, the Republicans have made it into election year fodder. Our senators  Johnson included  must answer the call to serve the Constitution faithfully. Nothing short of that is acceptable.

Obstructionism is nothing new for Johnson. In Wisconsin, there also has been a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit for nearly six years, and Johnson has refused to give his approval to the nominee, Donald Schott, despite the fact that Johnson recommended him to the president.

The people of Wisconsin are being robbed of a voice on the Seventh Circuit and the Supreme Court. The Constitution is calling. It's time Johnson answers the call.

Caroline Fredrickson is the president of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy in Washington, DC.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (left) and Ald. Bob Donovan (right) have dueling attack ads running on the radio in the mayors race. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

By of the

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is striking back.

After being targeted by radio advertisements from an outside group, the third-term mayor has launched his own attack ads against his challenger, longtime Ald. Bob Donovan.

A pair of radio ads released last week by Barrett's campaign portray Donovan as someone with "Scott Walker's ideas and Donald Trump's temperament."

In the ads, the longtime alderman is accused of having "unsteady, erratic behavior" like Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2016 presidential race, and siding with Walker and Republicans in the state Legislature "when they've tried to hurt Milwaukee."

The ads specifically cite a pair of incidents involving Donovan, including a 2007 clash in which a constituent accused Donovan of cursing him out and trying to slap him in front of the man's 6-year-old niece.

The man previously had two other people file restraining orders against him, and had been urging Donovan to help him take on a problem property next to his house. In the other incident, which happened in 2008, Donovan was bloodied after scuffling with an apparently drunken man who had urinated in front of a store in his south side district.

One of the ads mentions those incidents as well as his legal troubles in 2005, when Donovan was charged by federal authorities with misdemeanor fraud after being accused of failing to disclose his financial ties to a nonprofit community group. He founded the group, the Milwaukee Alliance, after being elected to the Common Council in 2000, and his wife, worked there.

Prosecutors dropped the charge after they discovered Donovan had disclosed his ties to the group to city ethics officials in 2002. But as part of the deal to dismiss the criminal complaint, he agreed to pay a $2,500 penalty to the city, play no role in providing money to the alliance and have no association with a nonprofit receiving federal funds for two years.

Donovan's campaign described Barrett's ads as inaccurate.

"It doesn't seem the mayor thinks he has a successful record to run on," Donovan said in a statement.

Barrett's radio spots, his first attack ads of the campaign, come in the wake of a series of ads targeting him by the group Milwaukeeans for Self-Governance.

That group, led by conservative political operative Craig Peterson, recently released two new radio ads targeting Barrett's record. In one a woman's voice sounds panicked as she describes her car being stolen at gunpoint.

"I am so mad," the woman says. "I keep hearing Tom Barrett telling me Milwaukee is safe. Well it isn't."

Peterson said the ad was a "dramatization," and acknowledged the woman speaking was not actually a carjacking victim but said he didn't believe that would raise questions about its credibility.

"That's a scenario that happens every day in Milwaukee," he said. "That is reality in Milwaukee right now."

In another ad by the group, a man talks about problems facing Milwaukee, and accuses the mayor of trying to fix the city's woes with a streetcar.

"People say he's a nice guy, but we are tired of nice," the man says. "We need action."

Milwaukeeans for Self-Governance has previously released radio spots featuring Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and former Milwaukee Alds. Michael McGee Jr and his father, Michael McGee Sr. But they are the first attacking Barrett by name.

A spokesman for Barrett's campaign dismissed the group as conservatives trying to help Donovan distract voters from his record.

"It's no surprise that Scott Walker's allies are pouring money into this race to help Bob Donovan. But Donovan just can't escape his past, running as a Republican and supporting Scott Walker's policies that hurt Milwaukee," said Patrick Guarasci, campaign adviser for Friends of Tom Barrett. "Bob Donovan: Scott Walker's ideas, Donald Trump's erratic behavior. That's why he's too dangerous for Milwaukee."

Peterson, who hasn't worked on any of Walker's campaigns, bristled at the Barrett campaign's description of the group.

"I have a long record of being ambidextrous with both parties," he said.
Then-Judge Rebecca Bradley speaks at the state Capitol after being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Gov. Scott Walker, right. Credit: Associated Press

Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley has apologized for her college writings 24 years ago in which she called gays "queers," said she had no sympathy for AIDS patients and said homosexual sex "kills." In a statement, she said those comments were not "reflective of my worldview" and have "nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist."

Gov. Scott Walker said Monday it was clear her views had changed since she wrote those comments for the Marquette University student newspaper. And Journal Sentinel columnist Christian Schneider wrote on this page Tuesday that "I care more about what Rebecca Bradley thinks now."

Fine. What does she think now?

Given the bile and hatred that filled her commentary 24 years ago, she owes voters today an explanation of how her views have changed. What does she believe today about AIDS patients? How does she characterize gays? Does she still believe that homosexual sex kills? What are her views on gay rights and gay marriage, which essentially has been sanctioned by the highest court in the land? Did she support the 2006 state constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage?

What exactly is Bradley's "worldview" these days?

Bradley has not sufficiently spelled it out. The Journal Sentinel reported that she declined an interview request on the issue and has declined to say whether she agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year finding a constitutional right for gays to marry.

Bradley also has declined to say how she voted on the constitutional amendment, which later was thrown out by federal court rulings.

There are a few signs her views have changed: She said that she has presided over adoptions by gay couples, attended a 2013 fundraiser of two gay-rights groups and donated to a camp for children with HIV/AIDS. She said she has become far more "empathetic" over the years thanks to her own life experiences. Her campaign said she that while she has never performed a gay marriage, she would if asked.

Bradley's column, as well as two Marquette Tribune letters to the editor she penned in 1992, were unearthed by the progressive group One Wisconsin Now, which distributed them Monday after a Capitol news conference. That group and the liberal People for the American Way called for her to resign from office.

Bradley's campaign manager called the idea absurd, and the manager is right. Many people in public life have written or said things in the past of which they are ashamed. In most cases, if they repudiate those ideas, as Bradley says she has, the past should not be allowed to dictate the future.

But voters will be going to the polls in about four weeks to decide whether she or JoAnne Kloppenburg will win a seat on the state Supreme Court. They deserve to know the answers to those questions.

In her statement, Bradley said her writings "have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state." She's wrong. Of course they do. Her beliefs 24 years ago were part of the person she was then, and that person is still part of her DNA.

That's not to say her views are the same now as they were in college. Most people think different in their maturity than they do as immature young adults. Worldviews do change. But sometimes they don't.

We don't expect Bradley has become a champion for gay rights. But we do think the voting public deserves to know how her views have evolved and exactly what she believes now.
Gov. Scott Walker, shown in October after he appointed Rebecca Bradley to an opening on the state Supreme Court, declined on Tuesday to say whether he would have made the appointment had he known about Bradleys anti-gay commentaries as a student at Marquette University in 1992. Credit: Associated Press

By of the

Supreme Court Justice and candidate Rebecca Bradley, while in college writing for Marquette University's student newspaper, compared the practice of abortion to the Holocaust and slavery.

Writing for the Marquette Tribune in 1992, Bradley equated abortion to "a time in history when Jews were treated as non-humans and tortured and murdered," and "a time in history when blacks were treated as something less than human." Bradley also compared the "handful of deaths" of pregnant women while abortion was still prohibited to the lives of "millions of babies that are murdered every year at the hands of abortionists."

"Where does any difference lie between mutilating a baby in the womb (a legal act) and murdering one's child outside of the womb (an obviously illegal act)?" Bradley wrote.

This is the second day in a row that Bradley's college writings  unearthed by a liberal group  have come under scrutiny. On Monday, attention was on a column in which she derided gays as "queers" and said she had no sympathy for AIDS patients and addicts because they had effectively chosen to kill themselves. At the time, the paper's editors wrote that the column drew more responses than anything printed by the Tribune in years, according to The Associated Press.

Bradley apologized Monday for the writings on AIDS patients and gay people and said that she has since presided over adoptions by gay couples, attended a 2013 fundraiser of two gay-rights groups and donated to a camp for children with HIV/AIDS. One Heartland executive director Patrick Kindler confirmed Tuesday that Bradley had donated undisclosed amounts in 2007 and 2008 to the charity, which runs a camp for children affected by HIV/AIDs. Kindler said that, had he known of the column then, he would have asked Bradley if her views had changed before accepting the donations.

The comments about abortion carry interest because candidates for the state Supreme Court rarely offer their perspectives on the subject. Indeed, both Bradley and her opponent, JoAnne Kloppenburg, have shied away from sharing their views on issues such as gay marriage and abortion, which could come before the Supreme Court.

In the 1992 Marquette Tribune article, Bradley wrote: "Women even declare some right to control their bodies, neglecting the fact that in choosing abortion they are asserting a right to control another body, and a right to murder their own flesh and blood."

Further in the piece, she wrote: "Do not be persuaded by any pleas for a woman's right to control her body or 'choose' to be pregnant or not; they have no moral or ethical basis..."

Bradley declined an interview with the Journal Sentinel both Monday and Tuesday. Bradley campaign spokesman Madison Wiberg on Tuesday declined to comment on the abortion column, and said it would be improper for the candidate to give an opinion on an issue that could come before the state Supreme Court.

Mistakes of youth

Speaking Tuesday, GOP Gov. Scott Walker said many people make mistakes in their youth and declined to say whether he would have appointed her to the state's highest court had he known of her anti-gay statements.

Walker said Tuesday that Bradley's 1992 views did not reflect those of young conservative activists, like himself, at the time but declined to condemn them.

"I think a good chunk of society probably has different views than they did in college," he said.

The head of a conservative gay-rights group, the Log Cabin Republicans of Wisconsin, Devin Gatton, defended Bradley on Tuesday, saying her attendance at a 2013 fundraiser for two other gay rights groups shows her views have changed.

"Justice Bradley has matured and grown up from where she was decades ago," Gatton said in a Facebook post.

But U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who is gay, said Tuesday that Bradley should state what her views on homosexuality are today, describe how and why they changed, and meet with people such as AIDS patients whom she had criticized.

As for the donations to the children's camp, Pocan said: "That's equivalent to having a gay friend. That doesn't mean squat."

Bradley's views on abortion are "not just extreme and out of touch but dangerous," said Jenni Dye, research director for One Wisconsin Now, the liberal group that found the columns.

Officials with Wisconsin Right to Life didn't respond to requests for comment.

An aide to Kloppenburg said the candidate did not write for her college newspapers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has checked online archives and reached out to the staffs at the student newspapers at the universities she attended for her undergraduate, graduate and law school studies. So far, nothing has turned up.

Kloppenburg's campaign manager Melissa Mulliken said she respects as the "law of the land" U.S. Supreme Court rulings such as the 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade legalizing abortion, the 2014 ruling legalizing gay marriage and a 2008 decision upholding the right to own firearms.

Jason Stein reported for this story from Madison, Annysa Johnson reported from Brown Deer and Mary Spicuzza reported from Milwaukee.
Brooks stares down judge on Day 15 of Waukesha Christmas Parade trial

Darrell Brooks called his ex-girlfriend as a defense witness Friday morning. His examination was cut short after an argument over some photographs.
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By Luljeta Krasniqi Veseli and Charles Recknagel | ( RFE/RL |  

In the beginning, when I went [to Syria], everybody was greeting us. But later, they were looking at us differently. They were scared of us, Arben tells RFE/RL correspondent Luljeta Krasniqi Veseli.

Ideals give way to disillusionment easily in Syria, where foreign militants who go with ideals of helping the Syrian population often find themselves embroiled in battles between rival groups for plunder and territory instead.

Arben has seen that firsthand.

The 27-year-old Kosovar Albanian, who spent 10 months in Syria before returning home, also says he saw goodwill turn to hostility among civilians caught up in the conflict zone as abuses mounted and noncombatants increasingly feared the ranks of foreign-born militants like him.

Speaking recently to RFE/RLs Balkan Service, the grandson of a Kosovar imam says videos from the conflict persuaded him to go to Syria in May 2013.

But he says that he soon found his idealism about combating the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad collapsing amid turf wars between powerful rival commanders.

Each of them wanted to have his own territory, he says. Children and women were not spared. No one was safe.

Arben, not his real name, will not divulge exactly where he was located in Syria or with which group. He says only that he was near Aleppo. The city, Syrias second largest, has been the focus of fierce fighting between regime troops and a loose coalition of rebel groups that includes units from the secular Free Syrian Army, the Al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, and the fundamentalist militant group that has claimed to set up a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State (IS).

Arben says the hard-line Islamist Al-Nusra Front and IS were among the most brutal of the groups toward civilians.

Al-Nusra would take the wives of those they had fought against once they seized an area, he says. They also robbed the houses.

He says such abuses sickened him. At the same time, he notes, they frightened civilians to the point that no one trusted any foreign volunteers, including himself.

In the beginning, when I went [to Syria], everybody was greeting us, he recalls. But later, they were looking at us differently. They were scared of us.

Back in Kosovo since the middle of 2015, Arben is one of an unknown number of his countrymen who have traveled to Syria to take part in its civil war. Newspapers in Kosovo estimate the number of those who have gone in the hundreds, with most recruits attracted to the conflict after turning to radical Islam.

INFOGRAPHIC: Foreign Fighters In Iraq & Syria  Where Do They Come From? (click to expand)

Arbens path was different. He says he became interested in Syria due to his own experiences during the Kosovo conflict of 1998-99. During the conflict, the forces of the then-president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo as Belgrade sought to quash a separatist rebellion.

I experienced the war as a child in Kosovo and terror offensives as well, so I wanted to offer humanitarian help to the small children and families [in Syria], he told RFE/RLs Balkan Service.

Religion, he says, was not his foremost concern. At the time, he says, he attended his local mosque for prayers but not on a regular basis because was busy working in an Internet cafe.

When he first arrived in Syria after being smuggled across the Turkish border, he was pleased. He was initially assigned by the group he joined to activities like fixing refugee camps, schools, and [doing] clean-up, and felt he was helping the Syrian people.

But after that we started to train every morning, he says. We were prepared to give humanitarian aid and military aid. We were trained to use AK-47s, and I attended the training but I did not participate in combat.

He says that he was not sent to the front line because he was still new and inexperienced. But there was fierce fighting in the area around him, including suicide bombings in schools and mosques. He says the bombings were to terrify local populations into submission as rival warlords expanded their power.

Arben says he counts himself lucky to have gotten out after 10 months. But to leave, he first had to overcome the suspicions of his group that he was deserting them. He says he lied to his superiors that his parents were sick and begged to be allowed to return home to care for them.

Since returning to Kosovo, Arben says he has broken off all contact with his group in Syria.

Asked if he would go again, he shakes his head.

Never. I regret I was there, he says. Since I came back, I dont want to hear anything about Syria and I never look at those videos anymore.

He adds, I am surprised that there are people interested in [joining] this fight, even women. It has nothing to do with Islam.

Written in Prague by RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel based on an interview by Luljeta Krasniqi Veseli, an RFE/RL Balkan Service correspondent in Kosovo.

RFE/RL

Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Ruptly TV: Syria: At least 14 killed after al-Nusra backed militants target Aleppos Sheikh Maqsood district
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

A year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intervened in US politics in a big way, addressing a Republican-dominated Congress and lobbying it against the UN Security Council deal with Iran forestalling that countrys civilian nuclear research program from ever becoming militarized.

Netanyahus startling direct intervention in US policy-making crashed and burned, since President Obama was able to sign on to the JCPOA last summer and make it stick. Republicans were unable to undo the deal, then or ever after.

That Netanyahu functions as a US Republican even as he heads a foreign state disturbed many prominent Democrats, including pro-Israel ones.

Now Netanyahu has canceled his annual trip to appear at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Not only has he bailed on AIPAC, but he thereby more or less declined a White House dinner invitation.

One possible reason for Netanyahus absence is that, having declared himself an active Republican last year, he would inevitably be asked this year which of the candidates he supports.

That brings us to the other problem with the GOPization of Israel, which is that the frontrunner, Donald Trump, speaks of being even-handed as between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which is against everything Netanyahuism stands for.

Trump does not need the donations of rightwing Jewish Americans such as Sheldon Adelson, and nor are they being proffered to him.

Chemi Shalev of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (The Land) thinks that American Jews on the whole wont vote for Trump because of his far rightwing rhetoric. Most American Jews are diehard Democrats, and many are liberals and leftists. A small minority, mostly very wealthy, votes Republican, but that proportion could virtually evaporate with a Trump candidacy.

The unwisdom of Netanyahu arrogantly putting himself at the center of US policy-making and of his siding so openly with one party over the other is now on full display.

-

Related video:

Vote It: Israels Netanyahu Declines Meeting With Obama
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - ALX Uranium Corp. (ALX or the Company) (TSXv: AL; FSE: 6LLN; OTCQX: ALXEF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Holystone Energy Company Limited (Holystone) for a three year strategic partnership.

Under the terms of the agreement dated March 7, 2016, Holystone will :

subscribe to 12,500,000 common shares of ALX for a price of $0.06 per share for gross proceeds of $750,000. No Warrants.

be granted by the Company the right for three years from closing of the private placement to participate in future financings for the next three years to maintain their pro-rata ownership interest in ALX.

Appoint one representative to the Board of Directors of ALX, based on its intent to form a strategic funding partnership with ALX going forward.

This partnership will be the foundation for ALX to pursue a three year exploration strategy in the Athabasca Basin based on its current portfolio of properties, including its position in the Patterson Lake South district. It will also be the foundation to pursue new opportunities.

The Company is pleased that Holystone will appoint Dr. Howard Haugom to the Board of Directors, as Holystones representative. Howard Haugom is co-owner of Quilts Etc., a national linen retail chain and a partner at Burkehill Capital Corp, a Vancouver based private equity firm. He has taught extensively at Simon Fraser University, worked for both the private (Canadian Pacific) and public sectors (BC Treasury Board) as an Economist, and has been a consultant to the gold resource sector. Mr. Haugom received Economic degrees (specializing in international trade/finance and Resource Economics from the University of Victoria - BA and MA, 1984) and a PhD ( 1991) from Simon Fraser University.

Completion of the Private Placement, targeted for Friday, March 11, is subject to a number of conditions, including, without limitation, receipt of all regulatory approvals, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Closing of the private placement may require two or more tranches in order to maintain an investment level of 9.9% until the Personal Information Form of the incoming Director and representative of Holystone have cleared Exchange compliance; once cleared, Holystones investment in ALX will remain below 19.9% unless ALX shareholder approval is obtained for a change of control.

The common shares issued or issuable pursuant to the Private Placement will be restricted from trading for a four month hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws and policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the Exchange).

About ALX Uranium Corp.

ALX Uranium Corp. was formed as the result of a business combination between Lakeland Resources Inc. and Alpha Exploration Inc. ALX is based in Vancouver and its common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AL", on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 6LLN and in the United States OTCQX under the symbol ALXEF. ALX is actively exploring a portfolio of early-stage properties. Technical reports are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) for several of the Companys active properties. ALX continually and proactively reviews opportunities for new properties, whether by staking, joint venture or acquisition.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.alxuranium.com or contact Roger Leschuk, Corporate Communications at Ph: 604.681.1568 or TF: 1.877.377.6222 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors



ALX Uranium Corp.

"Michael Gunning"

Dr. Michael H. Gunning

Chairman

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Statements in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward looking statements in this news release for example that the private placement will close, that the full subscription amount will be received; that the Purchaser will continue with ongoing participation in financings; and that ALX can source new property opportunities. It is important to note that actual outcomes and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include economic, competitive, governmental, environmental and technological factors that may affect the Company's operations, markets, products and prices. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially may include that Holystone or terms of our agreement with Holystone are not acceptable to the Exchange; that Holystone fails to pay the agreed subscription; that the TSXV does not approve the PIFs of Holystones representatives; misinterpretation of data; that we may not be able to get equipment or labour as we need it; that we may not be able to raise sufficient other funds to complete our intended exploration and development; that our applications to drill may be denied; that weather, logistical problems or hazards may prevent us from exploration; that equipment may not work as well as expected; that analysis of data may not be possible accurately and at depth; that results which we or others have found in any particular location are not necessarily indicative of larger areas of our properties; that we may not complete environmental programs in a timely manner or at all; that market prices may not justify commercial production costs; and that despite encouraging data there may be no commercially exploitable mineralization on our properties.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Nickel One Resources Inc. (the Company) (TSXV: NNN) (formerly Redline Resources Inc.) is pleased to announce the immediate commencement of a minimum 1500m, 10 hole diamond drilling program on its recently acquired Tyko Nickel Project (the Property). The purpose of the program is to validate historical diamond drill results on the Property and extend known areas of mineralization.

There are two significant Nickel-Copper-Platinum-Group Elements (PGE) showings on the Tyko Project; the RJ and Tyko Showings. These showings are separated by 2 km with a 10km ultramafic conduit structure has strong potential to host additional Nickel-Copper-PGE mineralization. To date, only 12 shallow drill holes have been completed on the Tyko Property. The two most significant drill holes are noted below:





Hole # From_m To_m Length_m Ni_pct Cu_pct Pd_ppm TK-06-001 17.40 21.55 4.15 1.09 0.76 0.42 TK-06-005 25.00 31.20 6.20 1.05 0.50 0.12

This drilling program is planned to confirm orientation of mineralization in the channel structures, extend the continuity of mineralization at the RJ and Tyko showings and test additional targets. The drilling program is expected to cost approximately $300,000.

CEO Michael Collins comments, "The board and management are very excited to be bringing the Tyko Project to the public market and to be drilling so quickly after opening to trade. With two great targets to start and 10 km of potential on the projected channel structure, there is lots of room to find additional mineralization".

The Company also announces the appointment of Vance Loeber to Vice President, Corporate Development. Vance has over 30 years of international finance experience and specialises in resource funding. Vance was one of the founders of U.S. Silver, Sandspring Resources and Carlisle Goldfields.

About Nickel One and the Tyko Property

Nickel One is a newly created public company focused on creating value for shareholders through exploration and development of high quality Nickel copper-PGE projects. Nickel One is committed to exploration and development of the Tyko Project, which comprises 52 mining claims, totalling 698 claim units on 11,168 hectares located in the Olga Lake area, Thunder Bay Mining District, Ontario, Canada.

The following is a summary of the interpretations, conclusions and recommendations contained in that technical report (the Report) prepared by Alan Aubut, P.Geo. of Sibley Basin Group Geological Consulting Services Ltd., dated April 28, 2015, entitled National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report, Tyko Nickel-Copper Occurrence, White Lake Area, Ontario, Canada, Thunder Bay Mining Division, NTS 42C13NW and 42C14NE, Geology Technical Report. A full copy of the report has been filed under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The Property is underlain by Archean gneisses, granites, tonalites and mafic-ultramafic rocks that have undergone high-grade metamorphism. Exploration to date has identified nickel, copper and PGE mineralization in mafic-ultramafic rocks at the RJ and Tyko showings which may represent a feeder system to the nearby large (>10km in diameter) Bulldozer Intrusive Complex.

The Property shows many similarities with mafic to ultramafic feeder systems such as Voiseys Bay in northern Labrador and Jinchuan in China. These deposits are characterized by magmatic sulphides collecting within the feeder of a large intrusive body due to variations in geometry that caused changes in flow dynamics such that immiscible sulphides were able to settle out and collect in structural traps. However it has not been proven that a comparable system exists on the property.

The Report summarizes previous drilling on the property by earlier operators (Table 1). While it is concluded that the Property has excellent potential for hosting an economic nickel-copper deposit, additional work needs to be done to locate and define such a deposit. This includes completing a mechanical stripping program to better expose the interpreted feeder system and additional diamond drilling to confirm its lateral extent and to test areas identified by geophysics as having greater concentrations of sulphides which may or may not contain nickel, copper and platinum group elements. The report recommends a phased exploration approach with a total projected cost of completing the first phase of CAD$396,000

Table 1: Historical drilling results from the Tyko Project (2006/07); Aubut, 2015

Hole # From_m To_m Length_m Ni_pct Cu_pct Pd_ppm TK-06-001 17.40 21.55 4.15 1.09 0.76 0.42 TK-06-002 30.15 31.61 1.46 1.02 0.58 0.71 TK-06-003 63.92 65.00 1.08 1.06 0.51 0.12 TK-06-004 82.00 84.00 2.00 1.20 0.51 0.13 TK-06-005 25.00 31.20 6.20 1.05 0.50 0.12 TK-07-001 67.00 70.00 3.00 0.39 0.33 0.12 138.50 142.60 4.10 0.30 0.22 0.04 TK-07-002 100.00 104.65 4.65 0.43 0.28 0.04 TK-07-003 105.50 107.00 1.50 0.80 0.38 0.13 TK-07-004 NSV TK-07-005 NSV TK-05-006 82.00 83.00 1.00 0.34 0.51 0.24

NSV: No significant values

True width indeterminate

This drilling program will be supervised by Neil Pettigrew, P.Geo., Vice-President of Fladgate Exploration Consulting, Thunder Bay. Mr. Pettigrew is a Qualified Person in the evaluation of Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Element (Ni-Cu-PGE) deposits and has reviewed and approved this press release. Mr. Pettigrew will also be responsible for the QA/QC design and sampling protocol for the analysis of drill core from the Tyko Nickel Project and reporting.

Nickel One also announces that it has commenced trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol: 7N1.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD:

VP Corporate Development

For further information contact:

Vance Loeber

Phone:

Fax: 778-327-6675

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Nickel One Resources Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - March 08, 2016) - Batero Gold Corp. ("Batero," "the Company") (TSX VENTURE: BAT) is pleased to report results from the holes drilled at the La Cumbre deposit ("La Cumbre") at the Company's 100% owned Batero-Quinchia project ("the Project"), located in Risaralda, Colombia. These 11 holes represent 36% of the Company's planned 2015/2016 infill drill program.

La Cumbre near surface Drill Highlights:

DDH-ZO-011 106.9 m grading 1.47 g/t gold and 2.34 g/t silver from 4.5 m to 111.4 m including 17.5 m grading 2.05 g/t gold and 0.72 g/t silver from 4.5 m to 22.0 m

DDH-ZO-004 22.3 m grading 1.19 g/t gold and 1.25 g/t silver from 3.7 m to 26 m

DDH-ZO-005 35.5m grading 1.02 g/t gold and 5.33 g/t silver from 2.5 m to 38.0 m

DDH-ZO-009 37.4 m grading 0.81 g/t gold and 2.96 g/t silver from 4.6 m to 42 m

See Figure 1, Figure 2 for a Location Map and Cross Sections of 2015/2016 Drill Hole Locations. Please visit www.baterogold.com for all maps.

See Table 1 for 2015/2016 Drill Hole Results and Table 2 for Drill Hole Specifications.

The 2015/2016 infill drill program was initiated after receipt of a gap analysis from Heap Leach Consulting SAC outlining steps required to move towards a production decision on the higher grade central portion of the La Cumbre deposit. Prior to drilling, 9,593 meters of drill core were re-logged and an updated geological model was completed. A total of 30 infill drill holes totalling of 3,000 metres are planned for the 2015/2016 drill program with 11 drill holes completed to date (see assay results in Table 1). An additional 12 drill holes have been completed and assay results are pending. All drill holes were completed on time and under budget.

The infill drill results at La Cumbre continue to outline additional volumes of higher grade oxidized gold mineralization in the deposit's core which grades in excess of 1.0 g/t gold and occurs near and at surface. Infill drill results also extend the trend of La Cumbre's higher grade core to the south. The 11 holes reported here total 907.95 metres and are located within a 530 metre northwest-southeast striking zone of continuous gold mineralization that starts at surface.

"We are pleased that the results from our 2016 drill program continue to outline grades of over 1+ g/t gold in the large continuous zones of mineralization at La Cumbre," stated Felipe Ferraro, Batero's President and Chief Executive Officer. "These positive drill results serve as encouraging signs for the future of the Batero-Quinchia project."

Drill Hole Program Results

The 2015/2016 development drill program was designed to (i) infill the areas of interpolated higher grade mineralization along a northwest-southeast trending corridor, (ii) step out to the northwest and southeast to extend the areas of interpolated higher grade mineralization, and (iii) step out to the north of La Cumbre towards the El Centro zone to test near surface higher grade linkage between the deposits. The drill holes were sited to provide both geological and geotechnical information including definition of the oxide, transition and sulphide zone depths.

Table 1 - Drill Hole Results HOLE ID From (m) To (m) Thickness (m)* Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Comments DDH-ZO-001 0.80 73.20 72.40 0.34 1.85 Oxide Zone 0.80 21.40 20.60 0.41 1.72 including 0.80 12.00 11.20 0.48 1.46 Transition Zone 21.40 45.00 23.60 0.33 2.28 DDH-ZO-002 1.90 100.00 98.10 0.68 2.58 Oxide Zone 1.90 45.40 43.50 0.78 3.04 Gold grains including 1.90 42.00 40.10 0.8 2.97 visible in Transition Zone 45.40 54.60 9.20 0.73 3.15 drill core DDH-ZO-003 2.20 91.00 88.80 0.64 1.52 Oxide Zone 2.20 35.60 33.40 0.97 1.27 including 2.20 34.00 31.80 1.04 1.17 Transition Zone 35.60 43.40 7.80 0.5 2.03 DDH-ZO-004 3.70 80.25 76.55 0.56 1.38 Oxide Zone 3.70 37.40 33.70 0.93 1.12 including 3.70 26.00 22.30 1.19 1.25 Transition Zone 26.00 50.00 24.00 0.17 1.33 DDH-ZO-005 2.50 101.55 99.05 0.74 3.23 Oxide Zone 2.50 26.60 24.10 1.02 6.6 including 2.50 12.00 9.50 1.36 15.6 Transition Zone 26.60 36.00 9.40 1.05 2.71 DDH-ZO-006 0.70 28.20 27.50 0.46 0.83 Condemnation Hole Oxide Zone 0.70 26.00 25.30 0.48 0.69 Transition Zone 26.00 28.20 2.20 0.156 2.51 DDH-ZO-007 8.00 72.20 64.20 0.31 0.57 Condemnation Hole Oxide Zone 8.00 41.75 33.75 0.45 0.49 including 8.00 24.00 16.00 0.56 0.48 Transition Zone 41.75 46.00 4.25 0.16 2.42 DDH-ZO-008 0.60 100.00 99.40 0.52 0.76 Oxide Zone 0.60 17.30 16.70 0.42 0.31 Transition Zone 17.30 23.60 6.30 0.33 1.07 Contact Zone 48.00 54.00 6.00 1.14 1.93 DDH-ZO-009 4.60 100.00 95.40 0.52 1.69 Oxide Zone 4.60 50.50 45.90 0.74 2.4 including 4.60 42.00 37.40 0.81 2.96 Transition Zone 50.50 57.26 6.76 0.55 1.97 DDH-ZO-010 No significant results Condemnation Hole DDH-ZO-011 4.50 111.40 106.90 1.47 2.34 Oxide Zone 4.50 72.00 67.50 1.37 1.78 including 4.50 22.00 17.50 2.05 0.72 Transition Zone 72.00 106.00 34.00 1.74 3.23

* Thickness is the downhole thickness of the intersection and is not a true width. There is currently insufficient information to determine the true widths of the intersections.

Table 2 - 2015/2016 Drill Hole Specifications HOLE ID Easting Northing Elevation Dip Azimuth Total Depth DDH-ZO-001 420763.00 585317.00 1874.97 -90 0 73.20 DDH-ZO-002 420844.00 585305.00 1871.60 -90 0 100.00 DDH-ZO-003 420786.00 585382.00 1902.28 -90 0 91.00 DDH-ZO-004 420866.00 585450.00 1895.11 -90 0 80.25 DDH-ZO-005 420866.00 585401.00 1895.10 -90 0 101.55 DDH-ZO-006 420946.00 585486.00 1866.98 -90 0 28.20 DDH-ZO-007 420851.00 585551.00 1891.94 -90 0 72.20 DDH-ZO-008 420999.00 585455.00 1868.00 -90 0 100.00 DDH-ZO-009 420723.00 585348.00 1889.46 -90 0 100.00 DDH-ZO-010 420599.00 585506.00 1956.81 -90 0 50.15 DDH-ZO-011 421088.00 585352.00 1842.00 -90 0 111.40

Batero is working towards the preparation of an updated resource estimate, focused on La Cumbre's high grade oxidized gold mineralization at surface as the basis of a comprehensive technical report that will encompass all of the work completed to date at La Cumbre. The high grade core at La Cumbre is expected to improve both the average grade and contained ounces in an updated mineral resource estimate, as the +1 g/t grade of the core is well above the average grade of the oxide mineral resource estimate previously reported.

The Company is also currently evaluating the most efficient and cost effective mine scenario, including a leach processing circuit, and the optimum starter pit production rate from the high grade oxidized mineralization at La Cumbre. La Cumbre's transition zone, which was not included in the initial oxide resource estimate, will be included in this evaluation. The resulting mine scenario is anticipated to be the first stage of a potentially larger mine plan.

Batero is focused on accelerating the La Cumbre deposit towards a development decision. Engineering, environmental impact assessment, archaeological studies, and social baseline studies are all sufficiently advanced to support any development option. The company intends to initiate a hydrogeological study which is a key component of future environmental permits.

Pending the positive results of the technical report, the Company will assess the merits of advancing the development of the La Cumbre deposit.

Sample Preparation, Assays, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Core is collected, logged (geological & geotechnical), cut and sampled at Batero Gold's drilling camp at the project area. Core samples are bagged and securely stored before shipment to ALS Minerals' sample preparation facilities in Medellin, Colombia. Prepared samples are then shipped to ALS Minerals' analytical facilities in Lima, Peru for analyses. Gold is analyzed by atomic absorption following fire-assay of a 50 gram aliquot sample. Multi-element analysis is achieved by four acid digestion and an Induced Coupled Plasma-Emission Spectroscopy finish.

The Company's quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program includes the regular insertion of blanks, multiple certified assay standards and duplicate samples into the sample shipments. These quality control (QC) samples are inserted in every assay batch, with each batch containing approximately 24 samples for approximately 12% QC samples. Monitoring of these QC samples is a critical part of Batero Gold Corp's QA/QC protocols that involve the re-analyses of a minimum of 10 samples bounding any failed control sample. A third party check laboratory receives 5% of all samples to verify the original assay analyses.

Roger Moss, Ph.D., P.Geo., Consultant to Batero Gold, is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information provided in this news release.

Batero Gold Corp will be exhibiting at PDAC in Toronto on March 8th and 9th. Please visit booth 3129 in the Investors Exchange Area.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF BATERO GOLD CORP.

Felipe Ferraro

President & CEO

Batero Gold Corp.

About Batero

Batero is a precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on moving the La Cumbre oxide deposit toward a production decision. Once the appropriate level of study has been completed, Batero intends to target the near surface higher grade oxidized gold mineralization at the deposit. Batero is also pursuing opportunities to acquire prospective high-grade, production focused mineral properties in Colombia and Latin America. In pursuing these objectives, Batero plans to leverage its secure treasury position, strong regional relationships, experienced management team, and long-term financial partners. Common shares of the company trade on the TSXV under the symbol "BAT".

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to intentions, predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "estimates", "intends", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements or information and are intended to identify forward-looking information.

Although Batero believe the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information. Such factors include, among others, risks relating to the completion of the transactions described herein; risks relating to property interests; the global economic climate; metal prices; dilution; environmental risks and non-governmental actions.

Batero's forward-looking statements and information are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this press release, and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, Batero does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements or information in the event that circumstances or management's assumptions, beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, or there should occur or develop changes in any other events affecting such statements or information. For the reasons set out above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Did a crime happen, or didnt it? Finding out is the job of eight investigators at the Kearney Police Department.

Much of Mondays Citizens Police Academy class was taught by KPD investigations sergeant Kyle Harshbarger, who has been a cop for 20 years, four of those years in investigations. He, along with investigators Doug McCarty and Boyd Weller gave the class an overview of fingerprinting, shoe and tire print casting techniques, and the use of high intensity alternative light at crime scenes.

No crime scene is the same, and investigators are tasked with looking at a bigger picture when they get to a scene. The investigators gave academy participants a run down of how they handle a crime scene, what they look for and the intense, detailed work that goes into processing a scene.

Much of what Harshbarger and his team does is applying science to criminal and civil laws.

"The different between patrolling the streets and investigations... my mind doesnt shut off," Harshbarger said. "You go home and you just think about it."

Going into a crime scene, investigators must be cautious not to transfer, or carry any evidence on their shoes or bodies in, or out, of a scene. Such as blood on their shoes.

Sometimes first responders, like firefighters and paramedics, inadvertently leave evidence as they render immediate aid. After leaving the scene, investigators are tasked with trying to figure out which shoe prints were involved in the crime, and which prints belong to first responders.

Using "elimination evidence," police often times have to photograph the soles of firefighter and paramedics shoes to eliminate them as suspects.

An unusual aspect in Kearney is that street officers conduct their own investigations. Often times in bigger cities, street officers hand over even the smallest of crimes such as bike theft, to investigators. Not in Kearney.

Half to three-fourths of Kearneys cases are investigated by the street officers from start to finish, said Sgt. Jason Koetters, Citizens Academy instructor.

When a major crime happens in and around Kearney its the job of street officers, or those first responding, to secure the scene, locate witnesses, and potential suspects.

Despite the popularity of TV crime scene investigation shows, much of what is portrayed isnt reality, KPD investigators say, but instead called the CSI effect. An exaggerated portrayal of forensic science that influences public perception about how law enforcement solves crime.

Harshbarger, who has also taught a forensics class at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for 10 years, and other investigators scoff at the notion that crimes can happen, be investigated, an arrest be made and the suspect be convicted in 45 minutes. Although there are some true techniques, there are more bogus ones.

McCarty showed class participants the super glue method to develop fingerprints in KPDs crime lab. The lab was added to the law enforcement center in 2004, and allows McCarty to do the initial leg work of fingerprint analysis locally, without sending it to the Nebraska State Patrol crime lab in Lincoln. What used to take six months to get results from the state lab, now takes one day at KPD.

McCarty and other investigators can also do the initial collection and processing for DNA evidence, but the actual analysis is completed by the forensic scientists at the state lab. An example of that is KPD investigators can determine if a sample is blood or not, but they cant decipher the type of blood. Whether its from a human or an animal.

DNA tests conducted at the state lab are free to all local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Nebraska.

Class members dusted items for prints, retrieved those prints, and look at them under a microscope. We also used the same casting materials police use to try and obtain foot prints from a scene.

One of the most interesting, and disturbing, things we did in class this week was see how police use a high intensity light beam to collect evidence  blood, urine, hair, semen  not easily seen by the naked eye. Who said police work wasnt a dirty job?

Next week we learn about accident investigation.
ELWOOD  Gary Bodenheimer of Elwood received the National Kidney Foundations Richard K. Salick Advocacy Award at the 2016 Kidney Patient Summit in Washington, DC. The award is the highest honor NKF bestows on advocacy volunteers.

Bodenheimer is a Kidney Advocacy Committee patient liaison with the National Kidney Foundation. He represents Nebraska by staffing information tables at community fairs, communicating with pharmaceutical companies about various health issues, and advocating in Washington, D.C. for better care for kidney patients.

Bodenheimer was diagnosed with stage 4 chronic kidney disease in 2013. Since his diagnosis he has made it his mission to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease.

When I talk to people, I say, Get tested, dont wait. Chronic kidney disease has no symptoms, its a silent killer, Bodenheimer said in a press release. Get to the doctor, it wont hurt. They can tell you if your kidneys are functioning properly.
TECUMSEH -- Four inmates at the Tecumseh State Prison attacked a guard Monday afternoon and two other guards who responded to the assault.

The guards suffered minor injuries  bumps and bruises  and were treated at a hospital, said Andrew Nystrom, a spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. He said he hadnt received word of any injuries to the inmates, who were restrained by the guards.

The prisons maximum-security unit, where the attack occurred, was on lockdown Monday evening during the investigation. All other areas of the prison were operating normally.

One of the guards had been escorting an inmate from the unit when the inmate struck the guard, Nystrom said. Three other inmates started assaulting the guard and the two other guards who arrived to help, he said.

The prison was the site of a riot in May 2015, when two inmates were killed in a disturbance that lasted for hours.
FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2015 file photo, English actress Emma Watson poses for photographers during the photocall for the film, "Regression," in Madrid, Spain. Watson, the UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, and Forest Whitaker, a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace, joined UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on International Women's Day at The Public Theater in Manhattan. They were there to announce a week of arts events aimed at initiating a dialogue about gender equality. (AP Photo/Abraham Caro Marin, File)
Anti-war protesters shout slogans during a rally opposing the joint military exercises, dubbed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, between the U.S. and South Korea near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 7, 2016. North Korea on Monday issued its latest belligerent threat, warning of an indiscriminate "pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice" on Washington and Seoul, this time in reaction to the start of huge U.S.-South Korean military drills. The letters at a banner read "Stop, the joint military exercises, dubbed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, between the U.S. and South Korea." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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Family fun for everyone Halloween is every kids dream holiday, with costumes and candy, tricks and treats. Some of my favorite memories with my family have centered around Halloween,...
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Lets say a Chinese patient comes into labor and delivery  simply logs onto the CultureVision website. Next, click on the Chinese section and finally click Labor, Birth and Aftercare. Just that quickly you have the information you are looking for.

CultureVision boasts that it is the first comprehensive, user-friendly database that gives health care professionals access to culturally competent care. The websites automatic slideshow, entitled Did you Know? shifts between messages such as: some Latina new mothers consider themselves to be in a cold state for six weeks after a birth, and may wish to consume only warm foods while recuperating, and some Asian immigrants may wish to avoid floors and room numbers with a 4 in them.

My parents are immigrants trained in quantitative disciplines. My grandparents grew up in Taiwan and later lived in Japan, Ireland, and the Netherlands. I was born in a suburban town in Michigan. My education was primarily American, though I have studied abroad in London and Denmark. This is my sixth year in Providence, RI as a member of Brown Universitys community. I am a medical student, a second child, a sister, a public optimist and personal pessimist.

My culture is much more than American, much more than Taiwanese, and spans much more than the hyphen between Taiwanese-American could ever encompass.

And its definitely more complicated than Asian.

The cultural competency framework that has become the mainstay of medical education is often times employed in detrimentally reductionist ways. It seems to propose that exposing physicians to homogenized, static and packaged ideas of culture will aid them in estimating patient behavior, preference or response in the clinic, thereby diminishing health care inequality. Knowledge of customs is not necessarily useless  there is no intrinsic harm in having basic knowledge of certain cultural traditions or beliefs. The exertion of these assumptions in the clinic  the idea that a physician can diagnose a patients cultural, ethnic and racial background through cursory physical examination and then quietly consult an application to infer their beliefs  is, however, all together reductive and inadequate. Training like this paves the way for even well-intentioned student-doctors to be explicitly ignorant under the auspices of clinical benefit. It spoils the good intent to create better patient outcomes by legitimizing the validity of stereotypes and the development of physician bias.

Racial competency and the standardized patient

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines cultural communities as populations who may be distinguished by common values, language, worldview, heritage and institutions of beliefs about health and disease. Given that this definition encompasses a large variety of social identities, why does cultural competency so often utilize skin color phenotype as a proxy for racial identity, and subsequently, systems of belief? Using culture as a reference to race seeks to understand health care experiences and beliefs through a single prism, divorcing it from existing and dynamic intersections class, gender, sexuality, locality and more. The employment of racial categories as subheadings for expertise on cultural competency, really whittles down to an attempt towards racial competency, which sounds, and is, problematic.

In addition, cultural competencys focus on the racial identities of people of color frames whiteness as a standard  a default  from which racial otherness departs and is made foreign. This enforces the idea that the values and beliefs of people of color are different and, therefore, require special training to understand and accommodate. But what are these values different from? These cultural values are noted as deviations from ideas of normalcy, while the dominant systems that have come to define normalcy escape the same scrutiny of culture. Why is culture racialized in a way that often excludes white populations? Is white not a race? Does whiteness not have a cultural set of values, language, worldview, heritage, and institutions?

If the point of cultural competency is to examine discordant beliefs or understandings between patient and physician, why do these models continue to assume a static departure point: that the health care provider is white or acultural? Thus, while cultural competency teachings attempt to recognize how culture, race, and identity define health among minority groups, it fails to acknowledge how members of dominant cultural groups, institutional paradigms, doctors and training programs within hospitals are similarly influenced by a culture of their own, or indeed, by the culture of medicine itself. In doing so, it trains physicians to seek mastering the Other, rather than examining the internal cultures, prejudices, fears, or identifications of the Self.

Did you know? White males 

I have little epistemic knowledge on what it means to be a white male, let alone the innumerous other social identities he might hold. Yet, in following the general trends of contemporary training tools, I could seek cultural competency by reading some sort of manual on white, maleness as a technical skill to add to my clinical repertoire.

This reads strangely because whiteness is not considered a racial category equally alongside racial notions of Latina new mothers or Chinese immigrant patients. It reads strangely because we have never received training materials on whiteness or Caucasian beliefs because it is assumed that those are standard aspects of hospital culture. It reads strangely because a manual on what white men believe about health sounds downright ridiculous, too broad and reductive a swatch to be clinically meaningful.

Providers do not enter the clinic with a blank slate. They arrive with their own set of beliefs and understandings that are equally different from the patient, as the patient is from the provider. The distance between both parties is the same, no matter which side you deem the starting point.

The central endeavor of cultural competency is to examine, be aware of, and consider differences in beliefs, understanding or history between patient and provider in order to mitigate unequal care. This venture is limited if we place the departure point always at the same place: one that not all health care professionals occupy.

Competency outside the clinic

To address health disparities comprehensively, it is important to note that the inter-cultural communication barriers that cultural competency seeks to address are not only between physician and patient, but also between patient and system. In its emphasis on individual patient interaction, cultural competency locates the cause of inequality not only within clinic walls, but also largely within the context of patient behavior and lifestyle choices. While addressing communication barriers and counseling on lifestyle habits is important, the source of unequal care in America does not center solely upon physician uncertainty of foreign cultural practices. There is more discordance to be considered than the differences between patient and provider  they are only two small players in a much bigger game.

In emphasizing only individual physician and patient behavior as the source of health disparities, cultural competency fails to consider larger issues of historic and contemporary systemic inequality. It scrutinizes only perceived differences of minority populations rather than understanding the larger systems that dictate differential access to care or asking physicians to reflect on their own privileges and assumptions. Indeed, health care providers who have tolerant, nondiscriminatory attitudes will not necessarily be culturally competent if they are not trained to recognize when actions and inactions that support the status quo as usual unintentionally but systematically privilege some and marginalize others. By collapsing larger issues of violence, poverty, and racism into more comfortable terms that allow practitioners to discuss ethnicity and culture in the context of patient behavior, the cultural competency model fails to address broader issues of power and inequity that that remain at the heart of health care disparities.

What then?

Based on these critiques, it is incredibly important that medical schools and training programs embrace the analytic frameworks of cultural humility and structural competency in lieu of cultural competency. While cultural competency sees patient preference as a series of generalized stereotypes to be mastered, cultural humility relinquishes expertise from physician to patient. It acknowledges the complex formation of individual identity and belief, and integrates a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and critique, to redressing the power imbalances in the physician-patient dynamic, and to developing mutually beneficial and non-paternalistic partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined populations into the profession.

In addition, structural competency addresses cultural competencys failure to look beyond the patient-physician interaction to redress disparities. Structural competency instead contends that many health-related factors previously attributed to culture or ethnicity also represent the downstream consequences of decisions about larger structural contexts, including healthcare and food delivery systems, zoning laws, local politics, urban and rural infrastructures, structural racism, or even the very definitions of illness and health. Both cultural humility and structural competency are invaluable frames of analysis for preparing student doctors to be competent providers (instead of providers with artificially limited competencies) and together provide robust scaffolding for attending to cross-cultural clinical interactions and health care disparities.

Competent care is not about reading patients physical characteristics and indiscriminately applying what experts tell you about a population, nor is it about employing static stereotypes about social identities. Competent physician-patient interaction is about respect. It is about deferring to the expertise of the patient in order to ascertain what it is that they believe and desire. Every clinical interaction is inherently cross-cultural. We cannot continue to conceptualize attention and efforts to this dilemma as a competency, as if a certain level of consideration is sufficient for our needs as clinicians. It is an ever-present challenge that requires deference  humility  rather than proficiency.

Jennifer Tsai is a medical student. This article originally appeared in in-Training.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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What if you woke up tomorrow and learned that your grandmother had been kidnapped overnight by a couple of strangers, thrown in a white van, and taken to a distant warehouse where she spent the subsequent forty-five minutes being tortured before finally succumbing to her death?

Where she was repeatedly beaten in the chest, where a tube was shoved down her throat, where she was tasered with high voltage, where a metal drill was bored into her leg, where she was stabbed multiple times in the neck, arms, and groin?

As far-fetched as this scenario may seem, these theatrics are played out every day in the United States and around the world. Every year a third of a million people are transported to hospitals via ambulance for cardiac arrest. Usually, the chest compressions are initiated in the field. Either an intravenous line is started by the paramedics, often in the antecubital fossa of the elbow, or if there is nowhere to insert an IV, an intraosseous line is drilled into the proximal tibia in the leg. If the patient is in ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia, they are electrically shocked at 200 joules. If the patient has good anatomy and is transported by an experienced paramedic, they are endotracheally intubated and given oxygen via a bag valve mask.

Once the patient reaches the hospital, the physician, nurses, and technicians will take over the resuscitation. The patient will often be given a cocktail of medications (e.g., epinephrine, atropine, bicarbonate, calcium gluconate, vasopressin, lidocaine, and/or amiodarone), none of which has ever been shown to improve clinical outcomes in cardiac arrest.

Despite all the best efforts and actions performed in the field by the paramedics  or in the emergency department by technicians, the nursing staff, and physicians  over 95 percent of patients presenting in cardiac arrest will die. The majority of the remaining few who survive will end up being transferred to rehab facilities or nursing homes, some of the time in a permanent vegetative state. Within a few months, most of these survivors will end up dying of horrible infections like pneumonia, urine infections, or sepsis.

Does that sound like the way your grandmother wants to live out the remaining hours of her life?

The good news is that having a very simple conversation about end-of-life care can spare your loved ones from this scenario. In doing so, you can find out what their expectations, goals, and wishes are  if and when theyre ever in this situation. Some elderly family members may want every drastic measure taken to revive them despite the odds. But given the low likelihood of survival, most of them would likely choose to go peacefully.

What we as emergency physicians are advocating is for everyone to have this simple conversation with their family members. It should be done early, while theyre healthy, and thoroughly, giving them all options they can take prior to succumbing to cardiac arrest.

If they decide they would not like to be taken to a hospital under any circumstances or revived, then the three following actions should be taken:

Fill out a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) form. They are free, quick, and serve as orders that your physician or any medical professional must follow. Under the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1991, hospitals are mandated to honor an individuals health care decisions, including issues dealing with end-of-life care.

Make sure your family member tells all her friends, colleagues, or anyone with whom she interacts (i.e., anyone who might be in a position to call an ambulance) about her wishes.

In case nobody is around to make sure her wishes are fulfilled, advise her to get some kind of marker on her body to help medical personnel recognize and honor her wishes. There are a wide variety of options, including commercial bracelets or necklaces with the DNR logo.

We do not mean to denigrate end of life care or the services provided by paramedics, technicians, nurses, and doctors. We are emergency physicians and are proud to provide life-saving treatment to anyone who presents to the ER. Our greatest challenge as emergency physicians is to make timely decisions with very little information. We never know what kind of condition the patient was in before being brought into the ER by the ambulance. Our mindset is always to do everything possible during cardiac arrest situations, but we are well aware that this may not be the best strategy for many of our patients. In the elderly, in particular, we may be doing more harm than good. When the chest is being compressed, and oxygen is being supplemented, the patient may theoretically be feeling every procedure being performed on her: the pounding at her chest, the sharp needles poking her body, the electrical shock delivered at her heart.

This may not be the kind of care elderly parents and grandparents want. If youd like to learn more, we refer you to arguably the best two books written on the topic: How We Die: Reflections on Lifes Final Chapter by Sherwin B. Nuland and Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande.

Whether youre a physician or not, we all need to advocate for earlier and more thorough discussions regarding options for end-of-life care. We need to be honest with elderly loved ones when educating them about the efficacy of CPR and cardiac resuscitation. Above all, we need to consider their values and honor their last wishes.

Alberto Hazan is an emergency physician and author of Dr. Vigilante and The League of Freaks series. This article originally appeared in the Doctor Blog.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Daffodil Day is taking place on this Friday and the Irish Cancer Society, lead partner, Dell and Kilkenny nentrepenur Bobby Kerr are appealing to lcoal businesses to come on board to bring Daffodil Day to their workplace and help people across Ireland affected by cancer.

Over 200 companies have already signed up to participate in Daffodil Day this year but the Society needs more businesses to get involved to ensure it can continue to provide its free services and support to people with cancer in Kilkenny. Last year three companies in County Kilkenny supported Daffodil Day.

Bobby said 40,000 people hear the dreaded words you have cancer every year and last year I was one of them. I was diagnosed with cancer of the head and neck. Cancer is a very serious disease and has a major impact on your life. I couldnt have gotten through my diagnosis without support. I know that Daffodil Day funds free nationwide services that provide support for those with cancer, and their families, all over Ireland. So please support Daffodil Day on Friday March 11th.

40,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and as cancer incidence grows so does demand for the Irish Cancer Societys services. Latest figures show that 704 people from Kilkenny were diagnosed with cancer in 2013. The overall target for Daffodil Day 2016 is to raise 3.5 million, funds that will be used by the Society to continue to provide its free nationwide services.

Commenting on the importance of businesses across Ireland to participate in this Campaign, Mark Mellett, Head of Fundraising, Irish Cancer Society said; Not only does taking part in Daffodil Day raise money for people affected by cancer, it is also a fun way for staff to come together to fight back against a disease that affects every family in Ireland. Doing Daffodil Day in your workplace offers a great opportunity for employee team building and can be hugely motivating for staff. vices and with the help of the business community this Daffodil Day.

Night Nursing is one service funded by Daffodil Day. Seventy five percent of cancer patients wish to die at home surrounded by family, yet only 25% get to do so. The Irish Cancer Society provides the only night time care service for cancer patients in their own homes. In 2015 the Societys nurses provided 7,956 nights of care to over 1,940 patients, 64 cancer patients in Kilkenny received 252 nights of care, this service is fully funded by the people of Ireland who consistently support the work of the Society. Registering is easy and can be done online www.cancer.ie/daffodildayatwork; Emailing corporate@irishcancer.ie

or calling 01 231 6625.
With less than two weeks to go, nearly 500 people have signed up to take part in Darkness Into Light, the annual Pieta House fundraising and awareness event, in Kilkenny city on May 9.

With less than two weeks to go, nearly 500 people have signed up to take part in Darkness Into Light, the annual Pieta House fundraising and awareness event, in Kilkenny city on May 9.

Darkness into Light is a unique, early morning social gathering which begins in darkness at 4.15am as people walk or run a 5km route while dawn is breaking. The event in Kilkenny will start and finish at the James Stephens Barracks (Newpark Gate).

Darkness Into Light is truly unique. The sight of thousands of people in yellow t-shirts walking and running towards dawn is simply extraordinary. The event has really turned into an awareness campaign loved by Irish people everywhere. Im encouraging everyone to get out and register, dont let this event pass you by, Joan Freeman, founder of Pieta House said.

Darkness Into Light is now in its seventh year and last years event attracted 80,000 participants in 39 locations across Ireland, including in London and Sydney.

While Darkness Into Light raises much needed funds, it is also about awareness, solidarity and local communities. This year, Pieta House is asking those taking part to connect with others at the event. Walkers/runners are encouraged to speak to the person beside them, tell a story or simply say hello, connect and acknowledge one another. Make your presence known.

Register online at dil.pieta.ie or registration will be open on 15 High Street (beside Burkes Boutique), on Friday May 1, Saturday, May 2 and Friday, May 8 between 11am and 6pm. T-shirts will also be available for collection on these dates.

Route: Starts at James Stephens Barracks (Newpark Gate); New Road; at the bottom of New Road turn left on to Greensbridge Street and proceed on to Michael Street; turn right on to the lane at traffic island, immediately after Lake School leading to the Library; turn left on to Johns Quay, turn immediate right on to Johns Bridge; cross over Johns Bridge and turn left immediately on to Canal Walk. go along there until you reach the carpark and turn right on to the Bennettsbridge Road; proceed straight down along to Castle Road and to The Parade; High Street, through Parliament Street. At the T junction at Irishtown turn right on to Vicar Street; right again at the Troysgate roundabout; proceed straight up New Road, finishing at James Stephens Barracks

Pieta House

Pieta House is a suicide and self-harm crisis centre founded in Lucan, Co. Dublin in 2006. With ten centres throughout Ireland, Pieta House provides a professional, one-to-one therapeutic service for those who are experiencing suicidal ideation or engaging in self-harm. A doctors referral or psychiatric report is not required and the service is completely free of charge. Pieta House has supported 17,500 people, with more than 5,000 of those seeking help in 2014. Pieta Houses vision is to have a centre within 100 kilometres of everyone in Ireland.
Tax procrastinators, rejoice. You have until April 18 (April 19 if you live in Maine or Massachusetts) to file your tax return this year. Thats because federal offices in Washington, D.C., will be closed on Friday, April 15, for Emancipation Day. So resolve to use the extra time to make sure you take advantage of all of the tax breaks available to you.

Dont expect a lot of help from the IRS. Last year, fewer than 40% of taxpayers who called the agency reached a customer service representative, and the average wait time for those who did was 30 minutes. This year, the IRS was able to use a $290 million budget increase to hire additional customer service reps. Still, you can expect dropped calls and long wait times.

At the end of December, Congress revived some expired tax provisions that could cut your taxes. Better yet, lawmakers agreed to make some of the tax breaks permanent. And dont overlook money-saving tax deductions and credits that have been around for years. For example, if you looked for a job last year in your same line of work, you may be able to deduct your job-hunting costs, even if you didnt land a new position. You must itemize to claim this tax break, and the expenses can be deducted only to the extent that total miscellaneous expenses exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. If you changed jobs last year and moved at least 50 miles farther from your home than your old job (or 50 miles from home if it was your first job), you can deduct a long list of moving expenses. You dont have to itemize to claim this write-off.

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Help for homeowners. Lenders typically require buyers who put down less than 20% to buy private mortgage insurance. Congress revived the break allowing itemizers to deduct PMI premiumsas long as you obtained your mortgage in 2007 or later and the loan is for your primary residence or a second home thats not a rental property. The deduction phases out if your 2015 adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000 and disappears if your AGI exceeds $109,000. This tax break is good for 2015 and 2016.

Theres relief for taxpayers who had mortgage debt written off due to foreclosure or a short sale, which occurs when a home is sold for less than the mortgage balance. Ordinarily, forgiven debt is taxable, but Congress extended through the end of this year a provision that excludes from taxes up to $2 million in forgiven mortgage debt on a principal residence. The exclusion will also apply to mortgage debt forgiven in 2017 if the agreement to discharge the debt was signed in 2016.

Write off sales taxes. Congress also revived and made permanent a deduction for state and local sales taxes that you can take instead of the write-off for state income taxes. This deduction primarily benefits residents of the nine states with no income tax, but taxpayers who live in states with low income taxes, along with seniors who live in states with special breaks for retiree income, could also get a bigger tax break by deducting their sales taxes. Taxpayers who made a big purchase last year may also get a bigger deduction by claiming sales taxes, says Lisa Greene-Lewis, a CPA with TurboTax. Go to the IRS's Sales Tax Calculator (opens in new tab) to figure out how much you can deduct in sales taxes, based on your income and your state and local sales tax rates.

An opportunity to deduct college bills. If you paid college tuition bills last year, dont overlook the American Opportunity tax credit. This credit is worth up to $2,500 per eligible student during the first four years of college. Now its permanent, so you no longer have to worry about losing the tax break before your child gets a degree.

You can claim the credit for qualified expenses you paid for a dependent child, yourself or your spouse. If you have more than one child in college at the same time, you can claim multiple credits. Married couples filing jointly qualify for the full credit if their modified adjusted gross income is $160,000 or less; for single filers, the cutoff is $80,000. Married couples with MAGI of up to $180,000 and singles with MAGI of up to $90,000 can claim a reduced amount.

When claiming qualified expenses toward the credit, make sure you report the amount you paid, not the amount you were billed, says Aaron Blau, an enrolled agent in Tempe, Ariz. For example, if you received a tuition bill in December but didnt pay it until January, you cant use that amount toward your American Opportunity credit for 2015, he says. By now, you should have received a Form 1098-T from your childs college or university. Look at Box 1, which will show you how much you paid in qualified educational expenses during the year. (Some schools report the amount that was billed during the year in Box 2; in that case, use receipts of your payments.) If you claim expenses that dont match whats on the form, expect the IRS to reject the credit. Starting in tax year 2016, taxpayers will be required to have a 1098-T in order to claim the American Opportunity credit, along with other educational tax credits.

Tax breaks for good deeds. As you scramble to finish your tax return, dont overlook charitable contributions you made during the year online or via payroll deduction in addition to donations made using credit cards and checks. Youre required to keep records for all donations, even small ones. For contributions of less than $250, keep the bank record, credit card statement, receipt or written acknowledgment from the charity. If you made a donation via text message-a popular option after a natural disaster-your cell-phone bill should be sufficient. For donations of cash or property valued at $250 or more, you should have an acknowledgment in writing from the charity, which should state whether you received any goods or services in exchange for your gift.

Congress reanimated an expired tax provision that allows taxpayers age 70 and older to transfer up to $100,000 from their IRAs to charity. The contribution counts toward donors required minimum distributions without increasing their adjusted gross income. If you didnt transfer the money from your IRA to charity before December 31, you cant take advantage of this tax break to reduce your 2015 AGI. But if you want to make a charitable transfer in 2016, you dont have to wait until December to see whether the provision will once again be extended. Its here to stay.

New health care rules. If you have health insurance through your job, you should receive a Form 1095 from your employer confirming your coverage. Some employers provided this form to their workers last year, but it wasnt mandatory. Employees of large companies will receive a 1095-C; those who work for small companies, as well as those covered by military or government insurance plans, will receive a 1095-B. Employers send a copy of the form to the IRS, too. You dont need to attach the 1095 form to your return, and if you filed before you received the document, you dont need to amend your return. As was the case last year, you simply check a box on your tax return to show that you had health insurance coverage in 2015. Keep a copy of the 1095 with your tax records.

If you bought health insurance through one of the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act, you should have received IRS Form 1095-A. This form shows the amount of any subsidy you received. You do need this form to file your return, so if you havent received it, log on to your health care marketplace website and search for an electronic version.

Use the information to fill out Form 8962, which is used to determine your subsidy, based on the estimate you provided of your 2015 income. If you overestimated, youll receive a credit in the form of a larger tax refund or smaller tax bill. If you underestimated and got a more generous subsidy than you deserved, your refund will be reduced or what you owe will increase.

As was the case last year, taxpayers who were uninsured for all or part of the year may owe a penalty. The penalty for 2015 is $325 per person or 2% of household income above the filing threshold, whichever is greater. (To see what you owe, use the calculator at www.healthinsurance.org (opens in new tab).) Before you pay, make sure youre not eligible for an exemption. There are more than 30 provisions that could eliminate or reduce the size of your penalty, says Mark Ciaramitaro, vice president of health care services at H&R Block. You can find a full list at www.healthcare.gov (opens in new tab)

Contribute to a traditional IRA. You have until April 18 to make a 2015 contribution to your IRA. The IRA deduction is above the line, which means you can claim it even if you dont itemize. It will reduce your adjusted gross income dollar for dollar, which could also beef up other tax breaks tied to AGI.

If youre not enrolled in a 401(k) or some other workplace retirement plan, you can deduct an IRA contribution of up to $5,500 ($6,500 if youre 50 or older), no matter how high your income. But if you have a company plan, the right to the IRA deduction is phased out as 2015 adjusted gross income rises between $61,000 and $71,000 if youre single or between $98,000 and $118,000 if youre married and file jointly.

If your spouse is covered by a workplace-based retirement plan but you are not, you can deduct your full IRA contribution as long as your joint AGI doesnt top $183,000 for 2015. You can take a partial tax deduction if your combined AGI is between $183,000 and $193,000.

Contribute to a SEP-IRA. If you or your spouse earned self-employment income last year, you can shelter even more from the tax man with a SEP-IRA. In 2015, you can contribute up to 20% of net self-employment income (business income minus half of your self-employment tax), up to a maximum of $53,000. You have until April 18 (or October 18 if you file for an extension) to set up and fund a SEP.

Fund a health savings account. You also have until April 18 to fund a health savings account for 2015. To qualify for the full contribution, you must have had an HSA-eligible policy on December 1, which means your policy had a deductible of at least $1,300 for individual coverage or $2,600 for family coverage. You can contribute up to $3,350 if you had single coverage or $6,650 if you had family coverage (and you can contribute an additional $1,000 if you were 55 or older in 2015). As with contributions to a deductible IRA or SEP, money you invest in a health savings account will reduce your AGI dollar for dollar.

Reporting HSA distributions

If you took money out of a health savings account last year to pay for medical expenses, you should have received Form 1099-SA from your HSA provider. The IRS will also receive this form, so make sure you reconcile it on Form 8889 of your tax return. (This is also the form you use to report contributions to your HSA.) Youll be asked how much of the distribution was used for qualified medical expenses; for most taxpayers, it will be the entire amount. Heres why its important to get this right: Withdrawals from an HSA for nonqualified expenses are taxable, and youll also pay a 20% penalty if youre under 65.
(Kitco News) - With more than 100 years of mining history the Yukon government is confident that its initiatives and commitment to bring companies and community stakes holders together will lead to continued growth in the sector.

In the last few years, the Yukon Government has embarked on an ambitious project, creating an extensive Mineral Development Strategy.

In an interview with Kitco News at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister, the hon. Scott Kent said in they are preparing to launch the first draft of the strategy in the spring. He added that this will help provide a framework for companies planning to create projects in the territory.

We have always said that we have wanted to exit these current market conditions in a much stronger position and I think we are on our way to accomplish that, he said. Our strategy will harmonize all the legislation and make the regulator process easier. But it is more than just legislation, the strategy looks at infrastructure, incentives and public education.

He added that the consultations between communities, first nations, government and mining companies has paid off and he is confident that the work that has been done will help to advance the industry in the territory.

Another area that the government hopes will continue to grow in the sector is innovation. He added industry advancement might come from an unusual place: placer miners, small operations that sift surface gravel looking for gold.

Mining is in our DNA and it has been interesting to see some of the ideas that these placer miners are coming up with to be efficient as possible, he said. Placer miners produced 60 million ounce of gold last year and their production has been fairly consistent over the years.

Kent noted that there is a lot of potential in the Yukon with companies like Victoria Gold with its fully permitted Eagle Gold project as well as Kaminack Golds Coffee Project, which is making headlines across the investment community. He also highlighted Western Copper and Golds major Casino project and Wellgreen Platinum, which is exploring what could be the biggest platinum deposit outside of South Africa.

However, he added there are still some challenges as the Canadian territory continues to develop as a word-class mining region. One of those challenges is infrastructure. Kent added that through their mineral strategy, they are hoping to tap into federal funding to help develop roads and enhance its power grid.

One area of priority is to improve access to the Dawson range, he said.

Although the government has aspiring goals for the future. Kent reiterated that the sector is heading in the right direction.

I like to think I am cautiously optimistic for the mining sector in the Yukon, he said.

By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com

Follow Neils Christensen @neils_C
Venticelli (Geoff Finney, from left) and Salieri (Nelsen Spickard) don't take kindly to the behavior of Mozart (Luke Walker) and his wife (Melissa Fenwick). (Photo by BAINBRIDGE PERFORMING ARTS)

SHARE The Mozarts at home: Melissa Fenwick as Constanze and Luke Walker as the title character in "Amadeus." (Photo by BAINBRIDGE PERFORMING ARTS) Mozart (Luke Walker) and his wife, Constanze (Melissa Fenwick) unmask, and unwind. (Photo by BAINBRIDGE PERFORMING ARTS) Venticelli (Geoff Finney, left) hangs on every word uttered by Salieri (Nelsen Spickard). (Photo by BAINBRIDGE PERFORMING ARTS)

By Michael C. Moore, mmoore@kitsapsun.com

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND - As a director at Bainbridge Performing Arts, Kate Carruthers annually embraces the old adage, "Always do something that scares you."

Well, as scary shows go, Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" is right up there.

"It's my first musical," said Carruthers, who's made her yearly spring slot in BPA's season schedule a haven for plays that are challenging for both the company and the audience. Last year, she directed the Kevin McKeon/Book-It Repertory adaptation of the David Guterson novel "Snow Falling on Cedars," and two years ago she helmed a two-part production of Robert Schenkkan's massive, dark "Kentucky Cycle."

But she admits that "Amadeus," Shaffer's fictionalized account of the relationship between composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, is a frightening hike on a whole new trail for her.

"I try to do things that are challenging," she said, pointing out that her first musical isn't really a musical at all, at least not in the strictest sense. While steeped in the music of both composers, and others of the period, its musical content is more as a soundtrack than a narrative device.

"It's very cinematic," said BPA's music director Josh Anderson, who'll martial a 10-voice choral ensemble and a 15-piece orchestra culled almost entirely from the membership of the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and performing orchestrations rewritten especially for the production by BSO's Jon Brenner. "It's very rarely done with live music. Most productions use prerecorded music, so this is a very exciting challenge."

And another thing for Carruthers and Anderson to wrap their heads around.

"It's more like a play with music," Anderson said. "The challenge is to weave the music into the texture of the story."

Carruthers said she was moved to look into the possibility of bringing "Amadeus" to BPA by a conversation with an actor friend who said the play was on his "bucket list." She looked into it and was intrigued to the point of submitting it. Ironically, the actor responsible for her interest was then unable to take part in the project.

Coincidentally, though, the play piqued the interest of both Anderson and production manager Deirdre Hadlock at about the same time.

"I had read the script and was excited about it, and just then Deirdre asked me what I thought about it," Carruthers said.

Anderson said he remembered recommending "Amadeus" to the BPA board, noting that it would fit in to the company's efforts to create collaboration between BPA's theater and symphonic endeavors.

"It all came together," Carruthers said, "and it's continued to come together surprisingly smoothly."

"Amadeus" is about professional jealousy - Salieri, a hard-working, well-liked court composer, is both enamored and jealous of the god-given talent possessed by the boorish prodigy, Mozart. And his jealousy becomes an obsession that undoes them both.

"In a play (opposed to a musical), the words are the engine, and Shaffer's words are incredible," Carruthers said. "But the music is so exquisite, also. I wondered, with our smaller orchestra and choral group, if we'd be able to give it the impact it deserves. I was scared, for instance, that we couldn't get a big enough sound for the Requiem. But it sounds pretty incredible in here."

Luke Walker, who just finished playing Bert in BPA's pre-holidays production of "Mary Poppins," returns to play the title role of the spoiled, uncouth genius who was famous by his fourth birthday, and wrote copious amounts of timeless music until his death of a "severe military fever" (although Salieri would have you believe otherwise) weeks shy of his 36th birthday.

But "Amadeus" really belongs to Salieri, the man who claims he poisoned Mozart rather than witness the continued abuse of his genius. In that role, Carruthers calls on Nelsen Spickard, who so capably anchored last spring's production of "The Drowsy Chaperone" as "Man in Chair."

It's the first time Carruthers - who does one piece a year for BPA and is also a regular contributor with Island Theatre - has worked with either actor.

"Both roles are really challenging, and have huge line loads," Carruthers pointed out. "But it's been a huge gift getting to know both Luke and Nelsen, and getting to work with them."

Melissa Fenwick makes her BPA debut as Mozart's wife, Constanze.
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By Chris Henry, chenry@kitsapsun.com

BREMERTON  Bremerton High School is among 21 schools recently honored by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for excellence in preparing students for life after graduation.

The Career Guidance Award of Excellence is given to public middle schools and high schools that show high standards in developing schoolwide college and career readiness. Three districts also earned the award.

The award is connected to the state's Career Guidance Washington guidelines for postsecondary preparation.
SHARE Daniel Farley William T. Johnston

By Andrew Binion of the Kitsap Sun

PORT ORCHARD  A man imprisoned in Nevada for assault with a deadly weapon has been charged for a 2011 Illahee robbery over a rare coin collection where the victim was struck in the head with an ax and later died.

Daniel Scott Farley, 32, is not facing a murder charge for the death of William "Bill" Thomas Johnston, 61, who died about five months after the attack due to those injuries, doctors found. A pathologist who reviewed Johnston's death ruled he died of homicide.

That's because prosecutors believe Johnston's chronic health issues would prevent them from proving murder to a jury. Farley was charged with first-degree robbery Thursday in Kitsap Superior Court and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

If convicted, it would be Farley's second conviction for first-degree robbery. His first was in 2004.

Investigators allege that Sept. 28, 2011, Farley and another man broke through the front door of Johnston's house on the 7900 block of Illahee Road and attacked him with an ax as he tried to retrieve a pistol to defend himself. The other suspect has not been named.

When Johnston regained consciousness, the pistol was missing, along with a collection of rare coins that he said were worth about $50,000.

A Navy veteran, Johnston owned a concrete business and ran for Kitsap County sheriff in 2002, garnering nearly 15 percent of the vote against incumbent Steve Boyer.

His brother, Jim Johnston, of East Bremerton, said Monday that he was OK with the robbery charges rather than a murder charge but that it was unfortunate it came too late to help the man whom Farley assaulted in Nevada.

Farley pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December in Elko County District Court for a count of battery with a deadly weapon upon a person 60 years old or older. He will be eligible for parole in 2021, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections.

"As far as I am concerned, just as long as some justice is achieved," Jim Johnston said.

Jim Johnston said he and his brother came to Kitsap County from New York in the mid-'70s, with Bill Johnston arriving first and working on building Bangor. The two went into business and ran Johnston Concrete Finishing until the mid-1990s.

Jim Johnston said his brother had a severe drinking problem  people who knew him reported Bill Johnston would drink up to 24 cans of beer a day  but was kindhearted and allowed people without homes to stay with him.

"He would let them live in his cars, so many people stayed with him," Jim Johnston said.

It was through one of the people who stayed with Bill Johnston that Farley became aware of the coin collection, investigators found. Jim Johnston said his brother began collecting as a youth and was very proud of the collection.

"That was his downfall," Jim Johnston said, noting that the 2011 incident was not the first time somebody attempted to steal the coins. "He showed it to everybody."

Bill Johnston told investigators he did not recognize the two men who barged into the house, however, sources contacted by investigators said a woman who had stayed with Bill Johnston knew about the coin collection and pressured Farley into doing her "dirty work." According to documents, Farley told his mother about the robbery but threatened to kill her if she went to the police.

Neither the pistol nor the coins has been recovered. According to people detectives contacted, Farley himself did not know where the items were.

"They sold some of the coins and (Farley) buried the rest in the Port Orchard area, but because of his drug use (he) could not recall where he buried them," a detective wrote in court documents.

Bill Johnston was flown to a Seattle hospital for treatment for his head wounds and later returned to his house, but his health deteriorated rapidly. He told family members that he was falling a lot and asked that an ambulance not be called, according to records obtained by the Kitsap Sun through the state Public Records Act. Johnston's health continued to decline until he was admitted to hospice.

A Harrison Medical Center doctor wrote in medical records Feb. 14, 2012, that the injuries from the robbery "led to (his) decline and perhaps death in the near future. Although (Johnston) has some cognitive dysfunction originally, the assault has resulted in this illness."

Johnston died Feb. 23, 2012, about five months after the robbery.

The pathologist who conducted the death review found the manner of Johnston's death was homicide and wrote Johnston "died of blunt force injuries to the head" with chronic liver disease as a contributing factor, due to his drinking.

Kitsap County Chief Felony Prosecutor Chad Enright said because of Johnston's history of excessive drinking and reports of him repeatedly falling, prosecutors doubted they could prove a murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for a criminal conviction.

"I think the issue was being able to separate the injuries that occurred that day from subsequent injuries he had from other times he had fallen, the impact alcohol had on him and whether he had fallen due to alcohol use," Enright said. "It was an issue of being able to identify precisely what injury caused his death."

If convicted of the robbery charge, it's possible Farley could face life in prison under the state's "three-strikes" law. That will depend on the legal similarities between Washington state assault laws and the Nevada law for which he was convicted, and ultimately would be decided by a judge, Enright said.

"Usually it turns on some little word in there that makes one statute broader than the other," Enright said.

In the Nevada case, Farley was accused in March 2015 of hitting a man in the face with a broom handle. Farley then broke off the head a rake, leaving it with a sharpened end, threatened to kill the man and then stabbed him in the neck, according to Nevada court records. While being booked into jail, officers found a small bag of meth on Farley.

While in jail in Nevada, in June 2015, Farley allegedly told another inmate about the robbery in Illahee, relaying information that had not been publicly revealed, such as burying the coins. That information was sent to investigators in Kitsap.

Farley allegedly told the other inmate that "he did not trust the other male so he buried the gun and coins together, in a wooded area," according to the documents.

In addition to the robbery conviction, Farley has five misdemeanor assault convictions from Kitsap County.

He also was convicted of two counts of third-degree assault, felonies, that occurred in October 2011, about a month after Johnston was robbed. One was for punching his mother in the face, hitting her with a belt and stabbing her in the hand with a broken meth pipe at her Bremerton home, according to court records. The other count was for assaulting his girlfriend.

When a Bremerton police officer spoke to a family member about Farley, she said he "is a very dangerous person and advised he does not need to be on drugs to be violent," according to court records.

Farley is expected to be brought to Kitsap to face the current charges. If convicted, he would return to Nevada to serve his sentence there, then be brought back to Washington to serve his sentence for the robbery.
SHARE William Reeder

By Ed Friedrich of the Kitsap Sun

SEABECK  Bill Reeder Jr. skimmed the jungle treetops in his Cobra, guns blazing from the attack helicopter.

Under heavy fire himself, the Army captain knocked out several North Vietnamese guns. After rearming and refueling, he and his team returned and helped dozens of friendly Vietnamese forces and one American soldier escape. It was April 14, 1972.

Forty-four years later, the Seabeck man and another Cobra pilot, Daniel Jones of Arizona, will be presented Silver Star Medals for their heroism that day in the Central Highlands.

The Silver Star is the third-highest Army decoration for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States, behind the Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross.

The two pilots didn't receive the awards in 1972 because they weren't properly processed. The American they saved, Maj. John Duffy of Santa Cruz, California, brought the oversight to the attention of U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-California, who got the mistake corrected.

Reeder's actions took place during the fight for Firebase Charlie. The Army of Vietnam's 11th Airborne Battalion entered the battle with 470 soldiers. Only 36 and their American adviser, Duffy, fought through the night after abandoning the base. They were rescued the next morning. The remaining 434 battalion members were killed, captured or missing in action.

Without the attack helicopter support provided by Reeder, Jones and other air crews, "None of us would have survived," Duffy said. "Everyone would have been killed. They saved my life. I wouldn't be here today if not for their heroism that day in 1972."

Tuesday's ceremony will be at the Presidio of Monterey in Monterey, California.

Reeder, who retired as a colonel, was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese less than a month after the battle for Firebase Charlie. He recently wrote a book about his POW experience, "Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam." The Naval Institute Press is publishing it next month.
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Doris Smith, Bremerton

What goes around, comes around

Since a message was sent to Congress over the last 8 years to obstruct any and all of President Obama's initiatives, no matter what, why are these same people loudly complaining about a do-nothing Congress and abandoning our precious democratic system of government?

I pray that someone somehow will emerge to help our country take responsibility for allowing politics to rule over reasonable negotiations and who will have the needed support of voters. It will take a remarkably high-minded apolitical group of people to straighten out this mess.
Paul Little writes:

If you are one of those people whose employer hasnt been ponying up their contribution to your KiwiSaver fund, you might be wondering about your retirement plan  such as, will you have one. It was reported last week that $29.3 million in contributions and penalties is owed to KiwiSaver by employers who have not been passing on workers contributions, deducted at source, or not paying their compulsory 3 per cent contribution, a figure, its worth noting, that is a meagre third of what Australian employers must contribute to their workers retirement.

Of that $29 million, some of it will just be paperwork errors, and some will be deliberate decisions not to pay.

In the first case, they are effectively stealing from staff who would presumably be shown the door were the situation reversed. Employee contributions, however, are Government guaranteed; employers contributions are not. Naturally the Government isnt interested in making good the money delinquent employers dont pay  that would reward delinquency. The alternative would be to pursue them through the justice system, but the amounts in many cases will be so small this would not be cost-effective.

I agree it is effectively theft when an employer deliberately doesnt pass tax payments from staff on, and instead spends them on other activities.

A great example of this is this case from 2011. This nasty employer didnt even pass on the PAYE from the staff. And they never got prosecuted for it, despite the large amount.

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The Herald reports:

The melanoma drug Keytruda should be funded here, Labour says  despite the head of Pharmac saying cancer experts here found no proof the drug helps people live longer.

Labour leader Andrew Little said the findings from Pharmac made with the help of senior cancer doctors and the possibility of a similar drug becoming available did not mean Keytruda shouldnt be funded.

The evidence that is around, admittedly on a patient-by-patient basis here in New Zealand, those who have funded it for themselves, it has made a difference for at least some of them. 

Pharmac chief executive Steffan Crausaz, in an interview on TV3s The Nation this weekend, said nine senior cancer doctors in New Zealand helped the agency review Keytruda.

The committees have reviewed the evidence, and in their view Keytruda hasnt been proven to help people live longer lives. It does have some effects on tumour size and tumour progression, and thats important, but what they really want to see is whether it actually helps people live longer and live better.
Stuff reports:

An $18 million blowout refitting the Health Ministrys head office in 2014, has bought a strong rebuke from Treasury, accusing the ministry of serious financial mismanagement.

Thats very strong words, but justified.

Independent auditors were called in to investigate how the ministry miscalculated the levels of its cash reserves, and a $24 million refit required a further $18 million from the Government to complete.

Some projects, especially IT, will cost more than originally forecast. But a 75% blow out on a building refit is well beyond acceptable. It isnt entirely clear if the $18 million is extra costs or cash they thought they had, but didnt. Either scenario is unacceptable.

The Director General of Health, Chai Chuah, said the Health Ministrys corporate finance team made a mistake in its forecasts, TVNZ reported.

It was forced to ask for the funding boost at the last budget.

TVNZ reported Treasury was very concerned about the funding miscalculation, citing papers describing it as serious financial mismanagement.

In a letter to Ministry of Health Director General of Health Chai Chuah, Treasury chief executive Gabriel Makhlouf said the the new bid for funding brings into question the governance and financial management practices of the Ministry.

PwC was bought in by Chuah to investigate.

Labour health spokeswoman Annette King has called for Chuahs resignation, while Chuah said he accepted the ministry made a mistake.
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Matthew McConaughey is already getting buzz for his work in "Free State of Jones," set to open in theaters on May 13.

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By Rafer Guzman, Newsday

Is it too early to predict the Oscars for 2017? Yes, but it's too much fun to pass up.

After all, Oscar-nominated films aren't that hard to identify. They seem to be created using a handful of familiar ingredients: socially relevant topics, historical figures, well-regarded actors, previously nominated directors and - let's be honest - major-studio money. There are always surprises like "Mad Max: Fury Road," the action-epic that received 10 nominations, but these are few and far between. Raise your hand if you knew that "Spotlight," "The Danish Girl" and "The Revenant" would be Oscar contenders even before they were released.

Using this highly unscientific approach, along with gut instinct and a dash of Internet buzz, here are 11 films we might see at the 2017 Academy Awards.

"FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS": She was an eccentric socialite in the early 1900s who sang opera despite a lack of rhythm, pitch, tone or ability to pronounce foreign words. Nevertheless, she became a cult sensation and, in 1944, at the age of 76, played a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. Why is this film an Oscar contender? Jenkins is played by Meryl Streep. Directed by Stephen Frears ("The Queen").

"FREE STATE OF JONES": Matthew McConaughey plays Newton Knight, a farmer who led an armed rebellion against the Confederacy in Jones County, Mississippi, during the Civil War. With Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell and Brendan Gleeson. Written and directed by Gary Ross ("Seabiscuit"). Opens May 13.

"MANCHESTER BY THE SEA": Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said he wants an Oscar, and this new film could be part of his plan. Directed by playwright-filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan (the 1996 Broadway hit "This Is Our Youth"), it stars Casey Affleck as a mess of a man who suddenly finds himself the guardian of his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges). Following rave reviews at Sundance, Amazon snatched it up for $10 million. A release is expected this year.

"RICHARD PRYOR: IS IT SOMETHING I SAID?": Stand-up comedian Mike Epps stars as the controversial comedian in a biopic that follows him from his rough childhood (Oprah Winfrey plays his brothel-running grandmother) to the heights of his career. Eddie Murphy plays Pryor's father. Directed by Lee Daniels ("Precious").

"SING STREET": A rock and roll romance set in 1980s Dublin, written and directed by John Carney, whose indie film "Once" (2007) earned an Oscar for best original song ("Falling Slowly"). This project just might earn another thanks to original music by Scottish songwriter Gary Clark, a veteran of the '80s who fronted the overlooked pop band Danny Wilson. Opens April 15.

"SULLY": Tom Hanks plays Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who in 2009 became a national hero for saving the passengers and crew of US Airways Flight 1549 by staging an emergency landing in the Hudson River. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Opens Sept. 9.

"THE BIRTH OF A NATION": Nate Parker's film about the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner became a sensation at this year's Sundance, and Fox Searchlight purchased it for $17.5 million - a festival record. Parker wrote, directed and stars in the film alongside Gabrielle Union, Armie Hammer and Penelope Ann Miller. Opens Oct. 7.

"THE FOUNDER": He didn't win for "Birdman" and wasn't even nominated for "Spotlight," but Michael Keaton could get another shot at the gold as Ray Kroc, the Illinois salesman who turned McDonald's into a global enterprise. Written by Robert D. Siegel ("The Wrestler") and directed by John Lee Hancock ("The Blind Side"). Opens Aug. 5.

"THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN": This could be another "Gone Girl" or "Room," a film adaptation of a best-selling thriller. Emily Blunt plays Rachel, a British woman whose commuter train passes the home of a seemingly happy married couple she does not know. When the wife disappears, however, Rachel becomes increasingly involved. With Rebecca Ferguson and Justin Theroux. Directed by Tate Taylor ("The Help"). Opens Oct. 7.

"THE QUEEN OF KATWE": A biopic of Phiona Mutesi, a girl from the slums of Uganda who dreams of becoming a world chess champion. With Lupita Nyong'o as Mutesi's mother, David Oyelowo as a chess-savvy missionary and India's Mira Nair ("The Namesake") as director, this Disney project has obvious acting-nomination possibilities. It's scheduled for a fall release.

"WILSON": Woody Harrelson plays a neurotic misanthrope trying to connect with the teenage daughter he has never met (Isabella Amara). The director is Craig Johnson (2014's well-received drama "The Skeleton Twins") and the boutique cast includes Laura Dern and Judy Greer. It's written by comic artist Daniel Clowes, an Oscar nominee for his "Ghost World" screenplay in 2002.
Campbell County General Sessions Judge Amanda Sammons (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel

JACKSBORO, Tenn. - Suzanne Webb was barred from entering Campbell County General Sessions Court and then arrested for being late, records show.

Webb is not alone. A News Sentinel investigation into Judge Amanda Sammons' practice of barring entry by the public to the public courtroom over which she presides as she sounds her docket revealed more than a half dozen instances in which Sammons ordered defendants arrested after being made late by her own policy.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the state's adult courtrooms and the hearings taking place within them are open to the public. To close a courtroom to the public, one of the parties involved in the case must request a closure and prove why the need for closure outweighs the public interest. A judge then decides.

Sammons daily orders bailiffs to bar the public from entering her courtroom at the start of her two daily dockets - 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. The News Sentinel learned last year bailiffs were locking the doors and confronted Sammons. She denied ordering the doors locked, saying the bailiffs misunderstood her command to simply bar entry during the reading of her docket. She did not provide any legal authority for blocking people from walking into court during that period.

After that October interview, bailiffs, who are employees of the Campbell County Sheriff's Office, stopped locking the doors but continued to block entry based on Sammons' command from the bench, which is recorded and has been reviewed by the News Sentinel.

Sammons did not return a phone message Monday.

Webb arrived a few minutes before 9 a.m. on Sept. 24 for a hearing in a misdemeanor vandalism case for which she already had posted bond.

"My sister dropped me off," she recalled. "I was in the building and an officer was scanning my purse."

She then walked to the courtroom doors.

"They said the door was locked," she said of the bailiffs. "They said I could not go in because she was sounding the docket."

Webb was allowed in a few minutes later and sat down, reading a book to pass the time before her case was called.

"She called my name," Webb said. "She asked me why I was late."

When Webb, 39, explained that she was held outside the door, "she said that's no excuse. She said, 'You're going to jail. You've violated bond.' "

Webb, whose only prior record involved a driving on suspended license charge that was dropped after she paid an outstanding ticket, was led to the jail holding area beside the courtroom and handcuffed. Sammons set a bond of $424.50 to be paid in cash - the exact amount Webb would owe in restitution and court costs if convicted in the vandalism, court records show.

Webb was allowed to call her aunt, who brought the money. In the meantime, bailiffs allowed her to stay in the jail holding area instead of putting her in a cell after the bailiff who had scanned her through security realized she had been ordered arrested.

"He was like, 'What are you doing here?' " Webb said.

The News Sentinel reviewed a half dozen similar incidents in which defendants who arrived at the courthouse but were not allowed inside court until after Sammons read the docket were ordered arrested for failing to appear.

Ryan Daniel Currier was ordered held without bond for 24 hours in December 2014. Laura Ray Hatfield was ordered to post a $15,000 bond in November. Joann Cook McCamey was arrested on a bench warrant in January and ordered to pay a $650 bond. Jason G. Inman was ordered held on a $75,000 bond in March.

Webb returned to Sammons' court last October to have the vandalism charge, which Sammons dropped in return for forfeiture of the cash bond, expunged from her record.

"They came in and announced (Sammons) was going to be late because she was in another court," Webb said.

The News Sentinel confirmed that on the date of Webb's last court appearance - Oct. 19 - Sammons was in Campbell County Circuit Court Judge John McAfee's court in one of a string of appeals of her controversial decisions.
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By News Sentinel Staff

KNOXVILLE - A Whittle Springs Middle School student walking home from school was struck by a car when she darted into oncoming traffic at a crosswalk Monday afternoon, police said.

The student, identified as 12-year-old Jameela Dompier, looked for traffic in only one direction instead of both ways before she ran into the crosswalk at Fairmont Boulevard and Whittle Springs Road and was hit by a 2003 Cadillac, according to a Knoxville Police Department news release.

Traffic on Fairmont had the green light at the time, police said.

The student was taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with what were described as nonlife-threatening injuries.

The driver of the Cadillac, Tony Jackson, 24, of Knoxville, was cited for driving without insurance.

More details as they develop online and in Tuesday's News Sentinel.
SHARE A scenic view of Knoxville is pictured along the Best Medicine biking trail at Baker Creek Preserve on Friday, March 4, 2016, in South Knoxville. Legacy Parks announces construction of the state-of-the-art mountain bike park on the 100-acre wood property that is part of the Urban Wilderness. The trail project is funded by the $100,000 grant from Bell Helmets won last summer by the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club. The construction also coincides with the Professional TrailBuilder's Association's Annual Sustainable Trail Conference that will be held all week in Knoxville, March 5-11. (Shawn Millsaps/Special to News Sentinel) Brian Hann, Project Manager, stands on a maintenance road above recently cleared out brush during construction of the Baker Creek Preserve biking trail on Friday, March 4, 2016, in South Knoxville. Legacy Parks announces construction of the state-of-the-art mountain bike park on the 100-acre wood property that is part of the Urban Wilderness. The trail project is funded by the $100,000 grant from Bell Helmets won last summer by the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club. The construction also coincides with the Professional TrailBuilder's Association's Annual Sustainable Trail Conference that will be held all week in Knoxville, March 5-11. (Shawn Millsaps/Special to News Sentinel) A dirt ramp is seen along the Devil's Racetrack, the expert biking trail at Baker Creek Preserve on Friday, March 4, 2016, in South Knoxville. Legacy Parks announces construction of the state-of-the-art mountain bike park on the 100-acre wood property that is part of the Urban Wilderness. The trail project is funded by the $100,000 grant from Bell Helmets won last summer by the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club. The construction also coincides with the Professional TrailBuilder's Association's Annual Sustainable Trail Conference that will be held all week in Knoxville, March 5-11. (Shawn Millsaps/Special to News Sentinel) From left, Carol Evans, Executive Director of Legacy Park Foundation, Brian Hann, Project Manager and Morgan Simmons, News Sentinel reporter, take in the view of Knoxville at Pappy's Point, part of the Baker Creek Preserve biking trail project on Friday, March 4, 2016, in South Knoxville. Legacy Parks announces construction of the state-of-the-art mountain bike park on the 100-acre wood property that is part of the Urban Wilderness. The trail project is funded by the $100,000 grant from Bell Helmets won last summer by the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club. The construction also coincides with the Professional TrailBuilder's Association's Annual Sustainable Trail Conference that will be held all week in Knoxville, March 5-11. (Shawn Millsaps/Special to News Sentinel) Related Photos Photos: Baker Creek Preserve

By Morgan Simmons of the Knoxville News Sentinel

This week, Knoxville is going to be at the epicenter of all things trails.

The Professional TrailBuilders Association - America's largest private sector group of trail specialists and professional trail contractors - will be in town through Friday for its annual Sustainable Trails Conference. During its early days, the organization contracted mostly with the federal government to build trails on national forest lands. More recently, a growing segment of the work is for cities like Knoxville that recognize the far-reaching benefits of trails and urban green space.

"We've been to a lot of communities all over the country doing conferences and workshops, and Knoxville is one of the most energized and forward-thinking trail towns we've seen," said Michael Passo, executive director of the association. "The groundswell of support here is amazing."

The group picked a good time to come to town. In South Knoxville just across from South-Doyle Middle School, professional trail crews are putting the finishing touches on a 100-acre mountain biking and hiking park that's been officially named the "Baker Creek Preserve."

The Baker Creek Preserve will be added to Knoxville's Urban Wilderness, which currently includes 1,000 acres and more than 40 miles of multiple-use trails. The eight new trails at the Baker Creek Preserve will range in difficulty from beginner to expert. Work this week began on a steep, challenging downhill mountain bike trail called the "Devil's Racetrack" that's funded by a $100,000 Bell Helmets grant awarded to Knoxville's Appalachian Mountain Bike Club after a nationwide competition.

The remaining seven trails at the Baker Creek Preserve are being built with a $200,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to the Legacy Parks Foundation.

The preserve is expected to open this spring. The property includes a picturesque creek and towering sycamore trees, as well as panoramic views of downtown Knoxville and House Mountain from the top of the knob. At the base of the knob will be an adventure playground with natural boulders and logs, and a kid's loop trail suitable for budding young mountain bikers.

"We have some of the best trail builders in the country helping to design and build these newest trails," said Brian Hann, chair of the Legacy Parks Trails and Greenways Task Force and past president of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club. "Excellent trail design and construction leads to easier trail maintenance and a great experience for trail users."

South Knoxville is gaining a reputation for environmental stewardship. In 2013 the National Wildlife Federation recognized the South Woodlawn Neighborhood as the first and only community wildlife habitat in the state of Tennessee. The community wildlife habitat program gives national recognition to neighborhoods and communities that work to protect water resources and preserve green landscapes.

When the Professional TrailBuilders Association comes to town, its members leave a segment of sustainably built trail in each city that hosts the conference. While in Knoxville this week, the organization will construct a short trail and footbridge over Baker Creek linking South-Doyle Middle School to the Baker Creek Preserve.

Carol Evans, executive director of the Legacy Parks Foundation, said the new trail will create a recreational amenity and a safe walkway to school for adjacent neighborhoods.

"I'd love to see parents pick up their kids, park their cars and come out to play," Evans said. "We'll have outdoor play structures - swings with chimes and fun stuff that trick you into getting outdoor exercise."
SHARE An autographed photograph of former First Lady Nancy Reagan given to USAF MSgt Perry Boyd, left, of Knoxville. (PERRY BOYD/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL) Retired USAF MSgt Perry Boyd, who did security on Air Force One for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, is pictured at his home in Knoxville on Monday, March 7, 2016. (Shawn Millsaps/Special to News Sentinel) Ronald Reagan, with his wife, Nancy, campaigns for President May 20, 1976, at McGhee Tyson Airport. (NEWS SENTINEL ARCHIVE)

By Georgiana Vines of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Everyone knows how devoted former first lady Nancy Reagan was to her husband, President Ronald Reagan, but she also cared deeply about her mother, said a Knoxvillian who worked security aboard Air Force One for the couple.

"She was a very caring person. She cared very much for her husband and she took care of her mother, Mrs. (Edith) Davis," recalled Perry Boyd, who was in Air Force police work assigned to President Jimmy Carter in 1977-81 and Reagan in 1981-1984.

Retired USAF MSgt Boyd, who's lived in Knoxville since 2007, said he was assigned to travel with Mrs. Reagan sometimes when she was going from Washington, D.C., to the couple's ranch in California ahead of the president. Frequently on the way, she would stop in Phoenix, Ariz., to spend time with her mother.

"She was real tight with her mother," Boyd said.

The mother, an actress like the Reagans, died in Phoenix in 1987 at age 99. Nancy Reagan died Sunday at age 94.

Boyd said he found Mrs. Reagan to be gracious and personal.

"I really respected the work she did for kids and against drugs. I'm very sad of her passing. I'm happy she made it to 94," Boyd said.

The Reagans were in Knoxville during his presidency, including for the opening of the 1982 World's Fair. They stayed afterward at the Huntsville home of then-U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. Mrs. Reagan also tied in a campaign event with a visit to Children's Hospital on Oct. 29, 1984.

During his career, Boyd also was part of a crew that worked security on trips that Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford took but he was never assigned to them on a full-time basis.

The native of Kenton, Tenn., enlisted in the Air Force in 1964 and said he got the opportunity to work with the 89th Wing at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington while stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base at Anchorage, Alaska. President Nixon had gone there to meet with the Emperor of Japan.

"We supported the (89th) at Elmdendorf," he said. Afterward, he was given an opportunity to "volunteer" for a transfer to Andrews Air Force as part of a five-member security team. It took three years to get the clearances and approvals needed, he said.

In the job, the main function was to protect the airplane. Everyone coming into a certain zone surrounding the plane had to be vetted, he said.

"We worked with the Secret Service. They took charge. We guarded it 24 hours a day and coordinated local (security) support," Boyd said.

The Air Force security team didn't attend events with the president and first lady, so Boyd said he didn't meet people like Prince Charles and Diana when Mrs. Reagan went to London for their wedding in 1981.

"Typically we took care of getting them there and getting them back home. We weren't part of their objective," Boyd said.

Frequently on board Air Force One after events, the president and first lady would go to the back of the plane where members of the press, like UPI's Helen Thomas and ABC's Sam Donaldson, were.

"They were at a table across the aisle from us. The president or first lady would lean on our table. It was a casual atmosphere," Boyd said.

When Boyd retired in 1984, President Reagan invited Boyd, his wife, Cathy, and their sons, Michael and Mark aboard Air Force One where their photograph was taken. Boyd said people often thank him for his "service and sacrifice" when they find out he was in the Air Force.

"I don't feel I did anything that was a sacrifice. It was a privilege. I'm glad I could be there," he said.

Boyd moved to Knoxville because other members of his family were here. His brother is Tom Boyd, CEO and board chairman of BioPet, and a nephew is state Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd.

As for the Reagans' visit during the World's Fair, Fred Marcum had an opportunity to meet Mrs. Reagan when they stayed at the Howard Baker home. Marcum eventually became a spokesman for Baker but at the time was "one of the most junior people there," he said. He was the driver for Admiral John Poindexter, Reagan's national security adviser.

"She was very pleasant, what little I was there," he said.

After their visit, Baker designated a room in the guesthouse as the "President's Room" in honor of Reagan. Businessman Pete Claussen, who now owns the Huntsville home, said Monday he is maintaining the Reagan Room.

"There is a rug in there with the presidential seal," he said.
The Rev. Valentino McNeal listens to Preston Hawkins, attorney for the Mount Olive Baptist Church members, during their dispute before Chancellor Michael Moyers Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Moyers dismissed the case saying the court does not have jurisdiction in the case. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE photos by SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL Members of Mount Olive Baptist Church cast their vote on whether to remove Valentino McNeal as the church's pastor on Monday, March 7, 2016. Pastor Valentino McNeal walks into to Mount Olive Baptist Church during a special meeting where members on whether or not to remove Valentino as their pastor on Monday. This is the second time the church has voted to remove McNeal as its pastor. The Rev. Valentino McNeal listens to Preston Hawkins, attorney for the Mount Olive Baptist Church members, during their dispute before Chancellor Michael Moyers Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Moyers dismissed the case saying the court does not have jurisdiction in the case. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Related Photos Photos: Mt. Olive Baptist Church votes to remove pastor

By Lydia X. McCoy of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Members of Mount Olive Baptist Church have voted - again - to oust its pastor, the Rev. Valentino McNeal.

During a meeting Monday evening, members voted 135-4 to ratify a vote in May to remove McNeal and then voted 130-5 to terminate his and his wife's membership at the East Knoxville church.

This is the second time the church, one of the largest and oldest black churches in Knoxville, has voted to remove McNeal as its pastor. In May, the congregation voted 86-5 to remove him, but McNeal has refused to leave.

In July, six of the church's members filed a petition in Knox County Chancery Court asking for the court's help in removing McNeal as pastor. The petition noted "disturbing changes" at the Dandridge Avenue church, including the use of the building, the removal of several members from prominent positions in the church and how the church's money was being spent.

Last month, Chancellor Mike Moyers dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that in Tennessee courts do not have jurisdiction in such cases. Church member Theotis Robinson Jr. said when Moyers dismissed the case, they were told it was up to the church to work out a solution.

"So that's what we did. We took matters into our own hands and short-circuited a yearlong appeals process," he said. "Nobody wanted to see this go on another year.  So basically what we did tonight was our only option."

Robinson, who writes a column for the News Sentinel, said the vote means that members have regained control of the church.

"All of the craziness and foolishness that has existed here for the last two or three years under the former pastor's leadership has come to an end," he said. "We can now worship in peace without being demeaned from the pulpit by him."

Church members also voted to put an interim pastor in place, Jesse Williams.

The next steps, Robinson said, involve healing the church, which has roots stretching back to pre-Civil War slavery years.

"As you can imagine, over the course of a couple of years, lots of hard feelings have evolved within this institution," he said. "And we have to find ways to heal that, come together in unity and move forward to serve the community in which we exist.  That's going to take some work and some time, but we will get there."

McNeal, who was at the church Monday but did not participate in the vote, said he still doesn't plan on going anywhere.

"There is no legal right; no matter how many lawyers that they have here," he said. "It's the same thing. It's going to be right back in the courts. They change the locks. Well, guess what, we're going to change them back."

McNeal, who has been Mt. Olive's pastor for nearly five years, said church members aren't following Biblical, ecclesiastical or the legal bylaws and instead have broken away from the church.

"Just because you have a name on the church roll doesn't mean that you are being led by God. So that's why we have strict, very strict, leadership principles in this church," he said.

"Those that have started this rebellion against God - remember it's not a rebellion against this pastor - they did not adhere to those leadership principles of this church. So when I hold them responsible for them, they want to get rid of me. That's the bottom line and that's where we are."
SHARE Robertsville Middle School teacher Mardee Miller, pictured last week, shows a shoe made of old blue jeans and cutout tire tread that will keep sand fleas from burrowing into Ugandan children's feet. Four clubs at Oak Ridge school have teamed up to help counter the problem that can cause numerous health woes through a campaign called Zero Jiggers, launched by a North Carolina nonprofit, Sole Hope. (BOB FOWLER/NEWS SENTINEL) Robertsville Middle School 7th-grader Robert Ashburn, pictured last week, cuts blue jeans to form the tops of shoes that will be put together in Uganda for small children to wear to alleviate the problem of tiny sand fleas burrowing into their bare feet. (BOB FOWLER/NEWS SENTINEL) Robertsville Middle School students, from left, Emily Avila, Nataliyah Bohano, Kenna Gibson, Hannah Aybar and Areli Ortiz, pictured last week, cut out patterns on old blue jeans to form what will become the tops of shoes given to Ugandan children to stem the problem of tiny sand fleas, called jiggers, that burrow into soles and lay eggs. (BOB FOWLER/NEWS SENTINEL)

By Bob Fowler, bob.fowler@knoxnews.com

OAK RIDGE - They're called jiggers, tiny sand fleas that burrow into the soles of barefoot children in Uganda and lay their eggs in sacs inside their feet.

It's a vexing, painful problem that can cause numerous health woes - infections, difficulty walking and even death - for victims in that dry, sub-Saharan African country.

An Oak Ridge woman who said she was searching for a religious mission and four clubs in Oak Ridge's Robertsville Middle School have teamed up to help create a solution.

"I was looking for a project that would be interesting in the winter months," said Barbara Neal, a member of Central Baptist Church of Oak Ridge.

Neal said she learned of the jigger infestation issue through a North Carolina nonprofit, Sole Hope, which has launched a campaign titled Zero Jiggers.

The components of what will become homemade shoes from nearly all-recycled materials are being made by various groups, and will be assembled in Uganda.

Neal pitched the idea of helping out to fellow church member Searcy New, a teacher at the middle school. "She (New) thought it would be a good opportunity for (Robertsville educator) David Scott and his before-school Christian group" to work on the project, Neal said.

So the before-school Bible study club, Lighthouse; joined by the service project group, the Titans Club; InterAct, a branch of Rotary International; and Chain Links, which focuses on building relationships, tackled the task.

The request went out for old, worn bluejeans, and students responded. "Everybody has old jeans," said Neal, a nurse at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge.

Patterns for shoe tops for toddlers were traced onto the contributions, and students since Feb. 1 have been cutting them out.

Hundreds of those tops will be conveyed in April to Sole Hope, and then sent to Uganda, where they'll be affixed to cutout tire treads that will serve as soles. Missionaries will go to villages, wash victims' feet, use sterilized safety pins to extract jigger egg sacs, and bandage the afflicted feet so they heal before the children are outfitted with their new shoes. Neal said her church will be providing some of the material for that procedure.

"I'm really proud of our students for getting together, working together," Scott said. "We've had some come in at lunchtime, we've had some come in before school, and some have even come in and stayed a little bit after school to help cut these out, so it truly is a community project that we've been doing."

Students said they've enjoyed the effort. "I'm really happy that I get to help people in need," said seventh-grader Hannah Aybar.

"It's fun, and it's good to know that we did something good to help other people," student Kenna Gibson said.
Gov. Bill Haslam

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no olive branch

It was a simple enough question to ask.

Would apparent election winner John Whitehead keep his opponent, Jim Weaver, on staff at the Knox County property assessor when Whitehead takes office in September?

"Is that a serious question?" Whitehead asked, laughing.

Whitehead, after being assured the inquiry was a serious one, said he didn't plan to keep Weaver in his current post as chief deputy.

Whitehead won the Republican primary election by 70 votes, according to the unofficial results. Weaver said on Monday he is still mulling whether to contest the results. If he chooses to, he will have five days to file a lawsuit after the Knox County Election Commission is expected to certify results on March 21.

haynes' spin on voting

Voters had problems with the dials, and long delegate selection ballots, in the Republican primary. But to ask Tennessee GOP Chairman Ryan Haynes about it, making it easier to file to be a delegate wasn't an issue.

"I think it really boils down to that spin dial, (it) was not an effective tool," Haynes said.

He added that it took him two-and-one-half hours to vote.

As for the delegate selection process, he doesn't see that changing.

"I certainly would not be in favor of changing our system," Haynes said. "With that said, any time you've got 14 candidates on the ballot, you're going to have a lot of delegates to have to choose from."

He pinned it on the machines, rather than the delegate selection. Haynes in his role as the state party chairman pays attention to things happening across the state.

"It was one county that has problems with their voting machines," Haynes said.

silver beaver

The Great Smoky Mountain Council of Boy Scouts of America has chosen Sen. Lamar Alexander to receive the first Council Alumnus of the Year Award.

Called the "Silver Beaver," it recognizes exceptional volunteer service for Boy Scouts.

Alexander, an Eagle Scout, was given the award for recognition as an alumni of boy Scouts who has, over a sustained period of time, used the skills and values they learned through their association with Scouting to make significant and long-lasting contributions to their local communities through their careers, avocations, and Scouting, according to a news release.

Each year the Great Smoky Mountain Council, by authority of the National Court of Honor of the Boy Scouts of America chooses individuals to receive this honor, the highest award a local council can bestow upon an adult volunteer.

Others honored include Jim Alsip, Jessica Bivens, Robert Farmer, Samuel Furrow, Frank Jennings, Joel Searfoss, Gary Sharp, and Denise Weismuller.
Donald Trump speaks at the Knoxville Convention Center on Nov. 16, 2015. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

Donald Trump is well on his way to winning the Republican nomination, but he got a real boost last week, when the Republican establishment and its spokesman, Mitt Romney, announced a "Stop Trump" movement, even if it calls for denying him the nomination at the convention.

The implication is that the voters are stupid, they don't recognize Trump's imperfections and they need cooler heads to rectify the situation. Maybe Romney wants payback. You see, rank-and-file Republicans stayed home in droves four years ago to deny Romney the presidency. I guess Romney has reason to distrust the wisdom of your average Republican voter.

You would think the rejection of Romney and the repudiation of Jeb Bush would give them a clue that the great unwashed out here are fed up with the party apparatus, Congress and the special interests who fund them.

Our state establishment's fave, Marco Rubio, is in free fall, and that will help Ted Cruz. Cruz has the ground game to win caucuses (Kansas, Maine) because Trump doesn't even bother. If Rubio gets out, Cruz might start to catch Trump, but the establishment won't be thrilled about that, either. Cruz could get enough delegates to win, resolving the "Trump" problem. We'll see.

What the establishment doesn't seem to get is that all the negatives about Trump are offset by one salient fact. The establishment's free-trade policies have set up a system that encourages American companies to move production to Mexico and China, taking the good jobs away. At the same time they have allowed a flood of illegal immigrants to come in to take the jobs that are left for substandard wages. Even U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a pillar of the state Republican establishment, seems to have gotten a clue. He released a statement last week urging the party to listen to disaffected voters. He said the American people have reason to be angry.

Turnouts for Republican primaries and caucuses have set records. Trump is bringing Democrats and independents to his cause. No one believes government statistics. The unemployment rate is a joke when 94 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force and thus are not counted as unemployed. Yet there are millions of jobs unfilled. What they don't tell you is that businesses aren't paying decent wages and benefits to attract people to the workforce. Businesses are being hammered by health care expenses, high taxes and regulations that penalize growth.

Yes, people are angry. Meanwhile, the high-tech companies and the pharmaceutical companies that are leading record Dow results are moving to Ireland. Apple is making your smartphone in China. Ford and General Motors are building cars in Mexico.

Is Trump going to destroy the Republican Party? There are millions of people out here who don't give a damn if the party of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and K Street gets blown up.

I think John Kasich is the most qualified guy running for president and I voted for him. But I completely understand the feelings of the people who vote for Trump  they know they have pulled the pin on a hand grenade and they would like it tossed into the lap of the Republican establishment.
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As demagogue Donald Trump slouches toward the Republican National Convention, establishment Republicans are bracing for a possible test of their integrity: Will they put the interests of the nation above partisan politics?

In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander are upholding the tradition of the late Howard H. Baker Jr., whose partisanship had its limits during the Watergate crisis when the fate of the nation was at stake. Neither Haslam nor Alexander has said he would support Trump as the party's standard bearer.

Trump won the Tennessee primary with 39 percent of the vote and has more than one-quarter of the GOP delegates he needs. Trump's improbable run has divided the Grand Old Party in a way unseen since conservative firebrand Barry Goldwater defeated Nelson Rockefeller for the Republican nomination in 1964. Democratic President Lyndon Johnson trounced Goldwater in the general election.

Trump is a different beast than Goldwater, who was a seasoned politician working within the system. The real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity has never held political office and his outrageous, hate-filled rhetoric has included promises to ban immigrants based on religion, bring back waterboarding and "worse," get rid of the Consumer Protection Act, round up and deport 11 million illegal immigrants, end birthright citizenship, impose a 45 percent tariff on imports from China and "open up" libel laws to stifle the free press.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney denounced Trump last week. Many Republicans in Tennessee, however, have embraced the idea of Trump as the GOP nominee. Haslam and Alexander are welcome exceptions.

Haslam, who has endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, told The Associated Press that Trump would have to make dramatic policy changes to gain the governor's support. Haslam cited the need for a blanket disavowal of white supremacist groups, an anti-abortion stance and a reversal of Trump's stated intent to ban Muslims from entering the country as changes he would like to see.

Alexander, another Rubio supporter, declined Friday to say whether he would vote for Trump if he's the party's nominee this fall. "There are a lot of states and a convention left to go," Alexander said. "I have always supported the Republican ticket, but ask me that question when we have a nominee."

On the other hand, some leading Tennessee Republicans - including U.S. Reps. Chuck Fleischmann, John J. Duncan Jr. and Phil Roe - said they would support the party's nominee, even if it is Trump

Some in the GOP are hanging their hats on a brokered convention, something that has not happened since 1948, to find an alternate candidate. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker has warned party leaders about the pitfalls of convention deal-making: "Focus more on listening to the American people and less on trying to stifle their voice."

As Alexander noted, a lot can happen between now and the convention. Establishment Republicans might hope for a Rubio surge, but whatever happens, they need to emulate Baker and place the welfare of their country above the fortunes of their party.
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I see it in my Facebook friends' posts. "How can this be? What lunatics are voting for Trump?" This is about communication. And both parties have failed dismally.

Leading brands have shown us that learning how to communicate with and connect with their customers is paramount to their success. Oddly, it seems the political world has arrogantly ignored this time-proven tactic, and it is being served its own lunch as a result. Whether your target wants to see your message on television, radio, billboards, at the movie theater, in an email message or as a paid Google ad, delivery matters as much as, if not more than, the message.

Case in point: Donald Trump has achieved the greatest arc in American political history as a non-politician running for president. What has he done differently? What have his opponents done that they might have done better?

Trump has figured out how to talk to voters the way voters want to be communicated with. The Republican and Democratic parties seem not to have figured this out. Even fuzzy messages like "Making America great again," which, while strumming at the heartstrings, don't really communicate a specific strategy, are resonating with a lot of American voters.

I eagerly participated in early voting based on the information I had at the time, but I will always argue that there were other candidates I truly liked but felt were unelectable. I just didn't want to waste my vote for someone, who, for communications reasons, had no viable candidacy. This should be a lesson to candidates about communicating to voters in the way voters want to receive information, rather than how the candidates want to deliver it.

Jennifer Holder, Knoxville
By Choi Sung-jin



Korea's slump-stricken construction companies and shipbuilders are pinning high hopes on the newly emerging Iranian market, which is also reflected in their share prices, market analysts say.



Now that international sanctions on Iran have been lifted, they expect the Middle East country will begin placing orders for plants and large vessels.



This explains why the share prices of three largest shipyards rose recently despite their record-high combined losses of 8 trillion won ($6.4 billion) last year, they said. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering's share price jumped 8.62 percent to 5,290 won Friday, and those of Samsung Heavy and Hyundai Heavy rose 5.65 percent and 4.55 percent, respectively.



The shipbuilding shares have risen after the Korean and Iranian governments held a joint economic committee meeting in Teheran on Feb. 29, at which they agreed to step up cooperation in plant and shipbuilding sectors. Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Joo Hyung-hwan asked his Iranian counterpart to help Korean builders receive orders for crude and LNG carriers worth $18 billion, to be placed by Iran's state shipping company, NITC.



Contrary to their expectations, however, the Iranian special demand may likely end up as a breeze, not a typhoon, the analysts said. NITC will not place orders at the same time but divide them over three to five years, in $3 billion to $5 billion lots a year.



Nor is there any guarantee Korean shipyards will sweep the bidding, they said. "Daewoo and other Korean shipbuilders will have to stage fierce competition with their Chinese rivals to win orders," said Yoo Jae-hun, an analyst at NH Investment and Securities.



Local builders should fill up their dwindling backlog orders through brisk activity not only in Iran but elsewhere, Yoo said.



The share prices of general contractors are also on the rise for similar reasons. The prices of large builders, including Daewoo, Daelim, Hyundai and GS, rose by 5 percent to 20 percent over the past month.



Most Middle East countries recently reduced orders for oil and gas plants hit by low international oil prices, but Iran is likely to increase orders to catch up with its regional rivals. According to Global Insight, a U.S. market research company, Iran's construction market this year is estimated to grow to $49.6 billion, up 7.59 percent from $46.1 billion last year.



But this is not the moment for hasty expectations in this field, either, as the outline of Iran's construction of plants is yet to be known, the analysts said. It is uncertain, too, whether Korean builders will prove to be more competitive than their Chinese, Japanese and European counterparts.



This is especially so because Iran, whose fiscal conditions now are not good, is making it a precondition that contractors first shoulder construction costs. The domestic financial companies and state-run institutions have poorer records of project financing compared with their foreign competitors.



"I expect few, if any, Korean construction companies will be able to sign a contract with Iran during the first half of this year," said Yoon Seok-mo, an analyst at Samsung Securities.



It is never easy to turn hopes for Iran's special demand into reality, and, even if it is possible, will take a long time to materialize, something the companies involved and investors in their stocks should be well aware of, experts agree.




By Choi Sung-jin



Many owners and family members of conglomerates will likely be reelected to boards despite opposition from institutional investors, local and foreign, a corporate watcher says.



According to Corporate Governance Service, many tycoons and their relatives who were renominated as board members for shareholder meetings this month have been objected to by investors.



Among them are Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Suk-rae, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho. Expressing objections to their reelection were the National Pension Fund, Barings Asset Management and APG, a Dutch pension management firm, and many others.



In the cases of Chung, Chey and Cho, investors opposed their reelection because of a breach of trust and alleged tax avoidance, which destroyed shareholder value. The investors rejected the chairmen of Lotte and Hanjin because they served as executives of too many subsidiaries, violating their duty as board members.



The conglomerates cited "responsible management" as the reason for their reappointment of these executives. Hyundai Motor, SK and Lotte Group said the tycoons will become "registered board members to enhance corporate value through responsible management based on ownership."



"These investors are not opposing their reelection just because of their past track records," said Song Min-kyung, a researcher at the corporate monitor group. "The problem is the conglomerates are neither presenting plausible reasons for reelection nor are trying to persuade major shareholders and investors in a shareholder-friendly policy."



Aside from chaebol owners and their family, many other candidates for executives of the 30 largest conglomerates have faced opposition from institutional investors. Of 140 candidates in 83 subsidiaries of the 30 largest groups, which will hold annual shareholder meetings between March 8 and March 18, 31, or 22.1 percent, have been opposed by five or more investors, recording an opposition rate of 10 percent or higher.



The reasons have varied, from lack of independence and conflicts of interest to convictions for crimes such as embezzlement and accounting fraud.




Pilots of Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea's largest flag carrier, staged a rally on Tuesday, urging their company to get more actively involved in wage talks which have almost stalled amid a growing rift in relations between labor and management.



More than 200 pilots from Korean Air gathered in front of their headquarters in central Seoul. Dozens of pilots and non-pilot employees from second-ranked Asiana Airlines Inc. also joined the rally in solidarity.



"We are not demanding (money) from a poor person. How could they say that we are asking too much at a time when we are demanding just one thirtieth of the chairman's salary," Lee Kyu-nam, head of the Korean Air pilot union said at the rally.



Both sides have been at odds over how much their salary should be increased for pilots, which currently demand a 37 percent hike in wages. The company proposed a 1.9 percent increase, which it said is on par with the wage growth rate for other non-pilot workers.



As they failed to iron out the differences, a majority of Korean Air pilots voted for a strike in mid-February and started the so-called work-to-rule campaign in which they stick to all work-related rules and regulations.



The rift between labor and management at Korean Air has been deepening, especially since the airline company recently decided to sack a pilot for hampering its business operations by joining the ongoing work-to-rule campaign. It also asked a court injunction over the recently-held vote for a strike, claiming the vote is "invalid" due to procedural problems.



The labor union demanded the decision be withdrawn, calling it an "unjustifiable" punishment based on his union activities, and also vowing to take all necessary steps in response.



A labor dispute at Korean Air usually draws criticism as they are seen as demanding more in addition to their already high salaries. Some tend to look askance at them, saying they are holding public transportation hostage to push for their own interests.



In the wake of their 2005 strike and resulting backlash from customers, the government designated the airline industry as critical to the public interest, making it almost impossible for its unions to go on a full strike by obliging them to keep certain levels of flights up and running under any circumstances.



Korean Air pilots have been complaining about their tight flight schedules and relatively small salaries compared to those of foreign airlines, a gap they cite as the main reason for many of their coworkers leaving for higher-paying jobs, mostly in China. (Yonhap)




By Lee Hyo-sik



European business leaders here are expressing concerns over the Korean government's discretionary enforcement of the law, saying that they want to do business in a predictable, regulatory environment.



They also say that if Asia's fourth-largest economy does not alleviate its legislative and regulatory uncertainties, and enhance its policy transparency, many foreign companies operating here may move elsewhere. The leaders also cited the nation's rising labor costs and rapidly-accelerating population aging as a key obstacle to doing business in Korea.



While releasing the results of a survey of 139 European companies about Korea's business environment, Tuesday, the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK), headed by Chairman Jean-Christophe Darbes, said its member firms want to operate under stable and predictable business conditions.



"Our Business Confidence Survey 2015 found that member firms are facing significant regulatory obstacles when doing business in Korea," ECCK Secretary General Christopher Heider said. "Many businesses complain about the legislative and regulatory environment, especially how the Korean government enforces laws and regulations."



According to the survey, 53 percent of the respondents evaluated the government's discretionary enforcement of regulations as serious. Nearly 45 percent also said the unpredictable legislative environment adversely affects their business.



"Korea has significant room for improvement in these two aspects. The reliable regulatory environment and the fair enforcement of the law are important for companies when they decide to invest and hire workers," Heider said. "They are constantly assessing business environment and may relocate to other places if the things do not meet their expectations."



The secretary general pointed out the government's recent flip-flop on the consumption sales tax.



"To stimulate domestic consumption, the government earlier raised a ceiling to 5 million won from 2 million won, meaning that items priced at below 5 million won were not subject to a five-percent consumption tax," he said. "However, the government lowered the ceiling back to 2 million won two weeks later after the change failed to boost consumer spending and lower prices of products worth between two million won and five million won. This shows how inconsistent government policies are."



He then cited rising labor costs as another major obstacle to foreign businesses operating in Korea, stressing that this, along with sluggish labor productivity, has discouraged European companies from expanding their presence here.



When asked about North Korea's provocations in recent months, Heider and other representatives of European chambers said foreign companies have become largely indifferent to what happens north of the border.



"European businesses are not concerned about North Korean risks," the secretary general said. "As far as business is concerned, the North Korea issue is not a significant risk. Geopolitical risks associated with the North do not affect our business outlook."



Heider then said European business leaders are seeking to communicate more with working-level government officials.



"There is a significant discrepancy between ministers and their subordinates. But we have been talking to only top policymakers," he said. "We would like to interact with officials at various levels. It is a slow process to get policymakers to reflect our concerns in policies. But we will continue to communicate with them whenever we can."




By Lee Hyo-sik





Shin Kyuk-ho

Lotte Group founder Shin Dong-bin

Lotte Group Chairman

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin has decided to expel his father and group founder Shin Kyuk-ho from the board of directors of the group's major affiliates, a move to further solidify his control of Korea's fifth-largest family-controlled conglomerate.

The forced exit of the founder from group management will likely deal a decisive blow to Shin Dong-joo, his eldest son and former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings in Japan, who has been waging a bitter fight against his younger brother to take back control of the group.

On Tuesday, Lotte Confectionary filed a regulatory report that its board of directors decided not to reappoint Kyuk-ho. The company said the group founder's removal from its board will be put to a vote in the upcoming shareholders' meeting on March 25.

"The company management decided not to reappoint the founder to the board, given his age and deteriorating health," Korea's largest snack maker said. "The decision is also aimed at improving the firm's governance structure and making its management more transparent."

If approved by shareholders, Kyuk-ho will lose the control of Lotte Confectionary, the first company he founded in Korea in 1967.

The aging founder is also expected to lose his board seats at Lotte Hotel and other key group units in the coming months. Kyuk-ho's term as a board of director at the nation's largest hotel chain will expire on March 28. Lotte Shopping, Lotte Engineering & Construction and other group subsidiaries have reportedly decided not to renew the group founder's term.

"I believe that Chairman Dong-bin is in firm control of Lotte Group, with most employees and shareholders rallying behind him," said an executive at one of Korea's major associations, "The group founder will lose all his board seats at major group units if Dong-bin wants it that way. Kyuk-ho's inevitable exit will adversely affect Dong-joo's attempt to regain the control of Lotte Group."

Over the past year, Kyuk-ho, who has been siding with his eldest son, has been demanding Dong-bin give up his chairmanship. However, the chairman has refused to do so, arguing that Dong-joo has been manipulating his ailing father who is too sick to make his own decisions.

With his father's backing, Dong-joo has been waging a series of attempts to unseat his younger brother, but to no avail.

On Sunday, Lotte Holdings in Japan, which holds significant shares in Lotte Hotel and other Korean units, held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting at Dong-joo's request. He asked shareholders to dismiss his younger brother from the company's board of directors, but they turned him down.

"I think Dong-joo has a slim chance to take Lotte Group back from his younger brother," the executive said. "The former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings vows to continue to fight. But it will not do any good to anyone, including himself."
South Korean television series "Descendants of the Sun" swept the top spots in major music charts here, thanks to the drama's immense success, data showed on Tuesday.



As of 11 a.m., three songs from the soundtrack of the military melodrama landed high in multiple music charts. "This Love," a ballad sung by K-pop duo Davichi, topped MelON, Genie Music, Naver Music, Bugs Music, Monkey3 and Soribada.



"Everytime" a pop duet song by Chen of K-pop boy band EXO and Punch, topped the weekly music chart and download chart of Gaon.



"Always," a melodious ballad by female rapper Yoon Mi-rae, also ranked No. 1 on the weekly soundtrack and mobile music charts of the same music rater.



In addition to the big-name artists, the songs apparently emerged triumphant on the back of the undaunted popularity of "Descendants of the Sun," starring actor Song Joong-ki and actress Song Hye-kyo.



In the show, Song plays Yoo Si-jin, an army lieutenant in the war-torn country of Uruk, who falls in love with outspoken doctor Kang Mo-yeon.



In the fourth and latest episode, aired on March 4, the show hit 23.7 percent in viewership, dwarfing its rivals in the same timeslot.



"Descendants of the Sun" is broadcast every Wednesday and Thursday at 10 p.m. on KBS 2TV. (Yonhap)




The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office / Korea Times file



Prosecutors have raided a foreign school in southern Seoul for allegedly embezzling billions of won in school funds, JoongAng Ilbo reported Thursday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office seized documents at Dulwich College School in Seocho-dong that showed the money was allegedly sent to an offshore account.

The school is suspected of creating a paper company and sending funds there to evade tax.

The school is a branch of Dulwich College, a boys' day and boarding school based in London.












By Jhoo Dong-chan

Dulwich College Seoul is suspected of having embezzled school funds using a paper company abroad, prosecutors said Thursday.

Investigators raided the foreign school Wednesday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said that they confiscated documents related to school management and account records from Dulwich College in southern Seoul.

Prosecutors said the school allegedly set up a paper company abroad to divert several billion won from its school budget.

The prosecution said it will also question the school authorities as to whether they sent money to create a slush fund using a paper company overseas to evade paying taxes.

"The investigation focuses mainly on the embezzled funds," said an official.












Prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted three board members of the Seoul branch of a British international school over allegations they embezzled some billions of won in school expenses in violation of the private school act.



The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said the dean of admissions at the school, identified only by her surname Lee, is accused of siphoning off some 7.2 billion won (6 million dollars) of tuition from 2010 to 2015 to redeem loans. The money was borrowed to build school buildings.



Lee's 50-year-old husband and a Singaporean chief financial officer of a for-profit corporation located on the Cayman Islands were also indicted over the same charges.

The company holds de facto control over a nonprofit paper company in Hong Kong, which was set up to establish the Seoul branch of the school.



Under the private school act, only nonprofit organizations can run international schools in South Korea.



Prosecutors said they suspended taking action against a 55-year-old chief executive officer (CEO) of the corporation at the tax haven, as he was abroad and constantly denied to appear before prosecutors. The CEO is a Swiss national.



The four suspects are all board members of the nonprofit organization in Hong Kong.

They are also suspected of arranging a contract that obliges the school to pay some 3.6 billion won in franchise fees to the Hong Kong company. The Seoul branch is already obliged to pay 800 million won to the British school in royalties.



The indictment came a few months after prosecutors raided the school in Seocho district, south side of Seoul, and confiscated school management records and bank statements.



The school, which opened in September 2010, provides courses for primary and secondary students. The tuition fee is known to be more than 30 million won a year, far surpassing that of other schools here. (Yonhap)




By Choi Sung-jin



Three years have passed since the nation's first female president took office, but the social status of women here has gone backward, reports show.



Indices that show gender gap and women's status have worsened and women's entry into society still remains at rock-bottom, feminist groups say. Some indicators on women's welfare improved but mostly in figures, while not many women felt the effects, they said.



According to the World Economic Forum's global gender gap report, Korea was 115th of 145 countries surveyed, down sharply from 108th place in 2012. The ranking on women's political power, in particular, has plunged from 86th to 101st over the past three years.



The wage gap between men and women, in which Korea has been at the lowest rank for more than 10 years, widened from 36.3 percent in 2012 to 36.7 percent in 2014.



Among Cabinet ministers President Park Geun-hye has appointed in the past three years, former Minister of Ocean and Maritime Affairs Yun Jin-suk was the only woman, aside from three others who were all ministers of gender equality and family. There were fewer than six female ministers, including three for gender equality and the family ministry, appointed by Park's predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.



The share of female parliamentarians is 16.3 percent, ranked 111th of 191 countries. Aside from female colleges, women serve as president at only about 10 universities, 5.2 percent of the total.



President Park's women-related campaign pledges show a high ratio of implementation but lack substance, civic groups say. According to the assessment of policy implementation, made by the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, 75 percent of pledges have been acted on, not in qualitative but quantitative terms, they say.








By Choi Sung-jin

Since the anti-terrorism bill passed the National Assembly recently, domestic users of messenger app services have noticeably moved to foreign apps, relatively free from officials' surveillance, industry watchers say.

App Annie, an app-analyzing company, said Tuesday that in the ranking of mobile downloads, "Telegram," whose server is in Germany, has sharply risen in recent days. As recently as Feb. 7, Telegram was 51st in Apple App Store's download ranking, but has drastically risen to take top place on March 2, when the law passed the parliament.

The mobile messenger, made by a Russian programmer, is relatively less exposed to the risk of domestic spying, the experts said.

A similar trend is seen in Google API, too, used by the largest number of Koreans, including those who have Samsung Electronics' Galaxy phones. Telegram's ranking in the communication app area has rocketed from 30th to second place in just a month.

But the once-perennial top ranker, Kakao Talk, has fallen to second place in the Apple App Store, and to third to fourth place in Google API.

This is not the first time the Korean mobile messenger has suffered falls in ranking. In October 2014, when public prosecutors looked into Kakao Talk, many users also shifted to Telegram.

There have been more instances of governments hindering economic activity and innovation under the pretext of national security since the terrorists' attacks in Paris last November, the experts said. Apple, for instance, is resisting the FBI's demands to help it hack the phones of suspected terrorists, they said.
By Jun Ji-hye





Kim Hong-kyun

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that South Korea's new nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun will visit Washington from today to Saturday to meet with his U.S. counterpart Sung Kim for talks on the North Korean nuclear program.

"A meeting between Kim Hong-kyun and Sung Kim will take place Friday," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck announced at a regular briefing.

This marks Kim's first visit to the U.S. since his appointment, Feb. 29, as special representative for peace and security affairs on the Korean Peninsula. He replaced Hwang Joon-kook who served as Seoul's top envoy to the now-stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang's denuclearization.

"The two envoys will evaluate the current situation facing the Korean Peninsula, including the possibility of additional provocations by the North," Cho said. "The two will also conduct in-depth discussions on joint measures to make North Korea move toward change through the thorough implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2270 as well as independent measures of each country."

He noted that South Korea and the U.S. are sticking to a consistent position that the North's denuclearization should come first before any negotiations begin.

Later in the day, the U.S. Embassy to Korea also announced a similar position, saying that Washington remains focused on robust implementation of the new resolution to make clear to Pyongyang that it must comply with its international obligations and relinquish its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The embassy said: "Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the United States' highest priority in our policy towards North Korea. This remains unchanged," apparently trying to downplay rumors that the U.S. is making a subtle change in its North Korean policy to engage in peace treaty talks with the North.

Such rumors were raised after U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a regular briefing last week that that Washington has not ruled out the possibility of pursuing a "parallel process" by which it holds peace treaty talks with the North along with denuclearization negotiations.

The 15-member UNSC unanimously voted for the new resolution on March 2, imposing the harshest-ever sanctions on the Kim Jong-un regime for its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7.

While conducting its continuous provocative actions, the North has repeated calls for a peace treaty with the U.S.

China, traditionally an ally of the North, has also proposed peace treaty talks and simultaneous denuclearization negotiations with Pyongyang.

The South Korean government rejected that suggestion, saying that denuclearization is the first priority.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye
By Chung Ah-young



Unionized pilots of Korean Air decided to resume negotiations over wages with management, Tuesday.

Executive members of the pilots' union held a meeting to discuss ways of settling their dispute with management.

"We will resume talks. We are expecting management to show a sincere attitude," the union said.

The pilots have staged a work-to-rule campaign instead of going on strike since they voted for industrial action, Feb. 19 after failing to reach an agreement with the management over a wage hike.

The company earlier asked the union to resume negotiations, Monday after firing a pilot, surnamed Park, for rejecting a flight order.

The pilots called for the company to withdraw the dismissal and to accept their proposal in a joint rally with union members of Asiana Airlines and the Korea Airport Corp. in front of the company's headquarters in western Seoul on Tuesday.

Management decided to postpone a qualification review committee meeting to further punish him and 20 flight attendants who put stickers denouncing managers on their suitcases.

The company said that it decided to dismiss Park for violating the flight operation manual code and hampering normal business operations. Park reportedly plans to appeal to the qualification review committee.

The company claimed that Park intentionally delayed the departure of a flight bound for Manila on Feb. 21 by rejecting an order to fly the return flight to Incheon. The union said Park's action was based on a rule that bans 12 hours of straight flying within a day.

The pilots have demanded a 37 percent hike in wages, while the company proposed a 1.9 percent increase, considering the wage growth rate for non-pilot workers.

Korean Air was hit hard by a pilots' strike in 2005, calling for a wage hike and for management transparency. The strike caused huge losses to the company and inconvenience to passengers.

On Feb. 25, Korean Air filed a court injunction against the recent union's vote for a strike, claiming the vote was invalid due to procedural problems.

The company also filed a suit against some union members for holding stickers "groundlessly" damaging the reputation of the company and its chairman.


By Kang Seung-woo

Park Geun-hye

President Park Geun-hye is changing her views about the challenges facing the country's economy.

A number of months ago, she warned of a possible impending economic crisis while calling on opposition parties to endorse bills on economic and labor issues. Now she is talking about optimistic economic indicators, although the bills remain pending at the National Assembly.

Political analysts said Tuesday that Park's baffling turnaround is politically motivated by the main opposition party's strategy to blame the government's poor policies for the current economic difficulties ahead of the April 13 general election.

Park told her senior secretaries Monday that the nation's economy is showing a reasonable performance, better than she had expected and fretted over, stressing that an excessive sense of uncertainty over the economy should not be an issue.

"The nation's export decline is slowing down and youth employment and consumption are maintaining a steady growth," Park said, adding that she expects the economy to continue improving when the government's financial policies are adjusted.

But Park's comments regarding the national economy are in sharp contrast to her previous repeated claims that the nation would tumble into another economic crisis, when urging the National Assembly to pass economy-related bills since last year.












By John Redmond



The Seoul International Women's Association (SIWA) plans to hold a newcomers' meeting to encourage foreign women to join the group at the Itaewon Global Village Center, Friday.

"If you are new to Seoul or SIWA, we encourage you to come to our newcomers' meeting," SIWA says on its website. "It's a great chance to get to know a little more about our organization, including membership benefits, and the city of Seoul."

Following the meeting, attendees are encouraged to join members for lunch.

SIWA was established in 1962 and is the largest and longest-running international women's organization in Korea, with more than 400 members from over 40 nations including Korea.

The newcomers' meeting is usually held on the second Friday of each month.

Membership to SIWA is not required but advanced registration is recommended.

The meeting will be from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

For any questions, please e-mail newcomers@siwapage.com or visit www.siwapage.com.

To get to the Itaewon Global Village Center, take exit 2 of Itaewon Station and walk straight for 200 meters. Look for the Hannam Building on your left next to the 7/11. The center is on the 5th floor at the end of the hallway.
Foreigners who have tax issues can visit Yeoksam Global Village Center to meet with tax counselors from the district's tax office on March 15.

Free sessions will be available from 9:30 a.m. to midday.

To register for an appointment, e-mail ygvc0417@gmail.com or contact Kakao account @ygvc0417 with your name, nationality, mobile phone number, preferred time and some brief information about your problem.

The center is on the 5th floor of Yeoksam 1 Culture Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, next to the BMS building.

To get there, walk straight out exit 2 of Gangnam Station, turn right at the first traffic light and walk straight for about 500 meters.
Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun considers his answer about the aggravated inter-Korean relations under two successive conservative governments, during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday.

/ Korea Times photo by Sim hyeon-cheol



By Choi Sung-jin

Why do some Americans, even Republicans, say they will emigrate to Canada if Donald Trump becomes president? And why are many Koreans, South and North, living in fear of another war breaking out on their divided peninsula any time now?

The reasons are similar: to lead secure and peaceful lives, people should have good capable leaders. Few know this simple truth better than Jeong Se-hyun, standing representative of Korea Peace Forum and former unification minister, and he learned it from firsthand experience.

"Minutes after I received my letter of appointment from former-President Kim Dae-jung on Jan. 29, 2002, then-U.S. President George W. Bush called North Korea one of the'axis of evil' countries," Jeong said in an interview with The Korea Times Monday. "Then I said to myself, "Oh, my gosh, I will have little to do at my new job.'"

Jeong was justified in thinking so. North Korea was more than just upset with Bush's remark, vowing to sever all contact with the United States and South Korea. In his first summit with Kim Dae-jung nearly a year earlier, the U.S. leader also thwarted KimSunshine Policy of engaging North Korea, calling the South Korean leader who was more than 20 years his senior "this man," in front of reporters.

However, less than a month from Bush's infamous State of the Union speech (even his father, George H. W. Bush, criticized the axis of evil remark in his autobiography), Jeong became one of the busiest unification ministers in decades. When Bush visited Seoul on Feb. 20 that year, Kim had a one-on-one meeting with his U.S. counterpart for more than an hour. "Emerging from the tete-a-tete, the President said, "I managed to persuade him (Bush) with all the strength I could muster. The rest is up to you, Minister Jeong."

Jeong said he thought the U.S. leader changed  or at least eased, if temporarily  his rigid stance after the exclusive summit.

While visiting the site of an inter-Korean railway later in the day, the U.S. leader wrote on a cross-tie, "May this railroad unite Korean families," according to Jeong. During a joint news conference before his departure, President Bush also said, "We have no intention to invade North Korea," though attack' might have been a better word as Jeong saw it.

The veteran of inter-Korean affairs said this is but one anecdote that showed the importance of a leader in charting out his or her nation's future course. Jeong, 71, took up inter-Korean duties of varying types and levels between 1977 and 2004 under six different Presidents, from Park Chung-hee to Roh Moo-hyun. "I am like a clerk who has served all kinds of bosses who happened to take over my store," he said.

Even for him, Seoul's policy toward Pyongyang over the past eight years or so is something of an enigma and a very lamentable one at that.





A lamentable enigma

An example of this lamentable enigma was President Park Geun-hye's hasty, unduly, hard-line stance against the North in the wake of the latter's fourth nuclear test and sixth long-range rocket launch earlier this year, Jeong said. President Park seems to have gone a few steps too far, particularly in deciding to introduce the U.S. THAAD missile defense system, thinking the U.S. would follow and China would feel pressured. "South Korea showed its hand prematurely but, as it turned out, THAAD was just a bargaining chip for the G2 powers," Jeong said. "Now what card is left in Seoul's hands?"

By virtually shutting down the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the last remaining channel with the North, Seoul has also locked itself out of the room for crucial talks. Washington and Beijing appear to be seeking to discuss a peace treaty with Pyongyang in a two-track approach of sanctions and dialogue. Would the North agree if the South tries to butt into the trilateral talks?

"If a national leader and her or his national security team cannot discern real strategy from the public policy of major partners, that country's diplomacy can't escape the amateurs' realm," said Jeong, now chairman of the Institute for Peace and Cooperation. The Park administration apparently had not known about the behind-the-scenes talks between the U.S. and North Korea to sound out the possibility of peace treaty negotiations just ahead of the North's launch of a long-range rocket  until The Wall Street Journal reported it  as the former unification policymaker saw it.

What defies Jeong's understanding is the decision-making process of this administration amid such a dismal lack of information. Former President Kim sacked his foreign minister upon returning home from his first summit with Bush, holding him responsible for one of his worst diplomatic fiascoes. Given Park has retained both her national security advisor and her foreign minister since taking office, either they were the perfect team or they can't be held accountable for any mistakes, large or small, as all decisions have been made God knows where. With the exception of some right-wing commentators, however, few objective experts, here or abroad, say the current national security team has been doing well.

"It's an open secret the incumbent President would not listen to advice even from her close aides, not just in domestic but in foreign policy," Jeong said. President Park might be trying to emulate the singlehanded governance of her father, former President Park Chung-hee, he said. "However, there is too wide a gap to be filled between the father and daughter in their personal abilities."

Jeong pointed out in this regard one of the most common misunderstandings is Kim Dae-jung was the architect of the Sunshine Policy. "The nickname of the engagement policy is condescending from the standpoint of the North," he said. "Its real name is the policy for reconciliation and cooperation between South and North Korea tracing back to the senior Park's days."





Containment vs. engagement

Most people who maintain that the Sunshine Policy saved the dying North Korean regime in the late 1990s and extended its life, base their opinion on the assumption of the North's impending collapse.

"As we all know, however, the North has not crumbled and it will hardly do so in the future, either, especially under sanctions from the outside world," Jeong said. "If the economic aid to the North had been diverted to financing nuclear development programs, how can you explain three out of the four nuclear tests were conducted over the past eight years of conservative governments in the South that have severed almost all aid?"

The inter-Korean relationship hit rock bottom under three conservative presidents  Kim Young-sam, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, all of whom assumed the North would collapse soon. "Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry told Kim Young-sam that the North was like a disabled plane' that would make a hard landing, and that the U.S. and South Korea needed to induce its soft landing to prevent catastrophe," Jeong said. "But former President Kim ignored the latter half of the U.S. official's advice and paid no attention to inter-Korean affairs, saying, Why should we care about a broken aircraft?'"

Former President Lee also used to say, "Unification could come like a thief in predawn hours." That belief, which Jeong guesses was based on misinformation or wishful thinking from some ultra-rightists or neo-conservatives, led to Lee rejecting the proposal from former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to try to swap the North's denuclearization with a peace treaty, which she repeated no fewer than three times in 2009, Jeong said.

Likewise, at a meeting of the committee she launched in 2013 to prepare for the reunification of the Koreas, the incumbent president said, "Unification could come as early as next year." Upon taking office, President Park talked about "trustpolitik" between the Koreas, raising hopes about a different approach from her predecessor, Lee. When asked about the possibility of another inter-Korean summit, however, she dashed cold water on such expectations, saying, "How can I hold a summit when the North is not denuclearized yet?" A more positive and farsighted leader would have pushed for broader contacts despite, or rather because of, the unsolved nuclear crisis.

Critics of the engagement policy say the liberal governments "ladled out" aid for the North. But the South has provided about 30 trillion won ($25 billion) over the past three decades, or about 1 trillion won a year, in governmental and private aid for the North, only about 1/40th of Seoul's yearly defense budget, according to Jeong.

"To just keep peace, we need almost 40 trillion won a year, but we can also make' peace with only an additional 1 trillion won," he said, adding that engagement is always far cheaper  and safer  than containment. "In that case, we won't need the 10 trillion-won THAAD system that will mostly fatten the pockets of the U.S. military industrial complex."

Asked about widespread rumors that conservative leaders in the South have exploited the North's provocations to perpetuate their rule, Jeong merely said, "Liberal or conservative, a leader must have a strong vision and clear philosophy about gradual and peaceful unification as well as the ability to realize it in the most plausible ways for people at home and abroad.

"For now, we can only hope nothing serious will happen over the next year or two until more positive and forward-looking leaders appear in both Seoul and Washington," he said.
By Lee Seong-hyon

There was a doctor who had been treating a patient for years. The doctor had a son, who also wanted to become a doctor and was attending medical school. During the summer break, the son came back home and watched his father working on the same patient. That evening during the meal, the son asked his father.

"Dad, you know the patient that you've been treating for years?"

"What about him?"

"I think I know how to cure his illness. Actually, it doesn't seem very complicated, either, based on my reading of the medical texts. I think there's a quick solution. You don't have to deal with the same patient for such a long time." The son proudly said, expecting to be complimented for his rapid grasp of medical knowledge.

"You idiot!" The father scolded his son instead. "You think I don't know that myself?"

"Of course, I know how to knock out the disease. But, if I do so, tell me who then is going to pay for your tuition? And how do you think I've paid for your expensive schooling for all these years? That patient has been very useful to us."

I heard this story from a Chinese academic, specializing in geopolitics in East Asia. The doctor is China; the patient is North Korea, he told me.

China has been tasked with treating the North Korean disease for years as the host to the Six-party Talks, an international consortium aimed at denuclearizing North Korea. Instead of curing the disease, however, China used the opportunity to cleverly further its own agenda.

After 13 years in operation, with on-and-off meetings, the Six-party Talks have not fulfilled their stated purpose of denuclearizing North Korea. In fact, the last time the Six-party Talks were held was in December 2008. Many pundits say the talks were de facto dead. Yet despite such a widely held view, China as the host to the international talks, has gained more than it has lost.

First, China used its hosting role of the multilateral consortium to burnish its much-needed international status as a "peacemaker" for the regional conflict. It was quite timely as China was sculpting an international facade as an innocuous nation that was rising peacefully (heping jueqi) and not a threat to the world. With that, it also considerably patched its image hernia from the Tiananmen Massacre.

Second, as the North Korean nuclear issue has become a major international crisis hot spot, China's diplomatic status has also risen. For instance, whenever the North Korean issue becomes front-page headlines, the first person the American ambassador to the U.N. seeks to consult is the Chinese ambassador to the U.N. For instance, there is a widespread picture of the Chinese ambassador to the U.N. Liu Jieyi, conversing with United States ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, discussing how the U.N, should deal with North Korea. Such a picture bolsters the image of the so-called "G2" of the two major world powers, working side by side, on an equal footing. It also lends credibility to China-promoted narrative of "a new type of major power relations" (xinxing daguo guanxi) in which China asks America to respect the Chinese sphere of influence so that they can avoid conflicts.

Third, China's status as host to the talks enabled it to conduct a shuttle diplomacy among relevant countries and control the flow of information by doing so. In the past, China was often sidelined by North Korea, which was only interested in talking to the U.S. But as the host, China was plugged in to the latest information on the other stakeholders' strategic thinking. It even influenced the flow of North Korea-related intelligence, strengthening China's diplomatic clout.

Fourth, the North Korean issue has brought together both China and the U.S. for more frequent consultations, helping their confidence building in the process. A paradox, analysts point out, is that U.S.-China relations may have been much more fraught, had there not been North Korea.

Now, amid deepening strategic mistrust and rivalry, China thinks it's in its interest to sustain the North Korean disease and use it as a strategic pawn against the U.S. It's apparent that the trouble lies as much with the doctor as with the patient. And it's common sense in this case to consider changing the doctor. The irony is that Washington, the chief doctor, has been entrusting China with the task for years, despite knowing so well that China has never been credentialed for such a task. Washington has been outsourcing the North Korean issue to China, while sitting back on the comfy couch, labeled "strategic patience," and neglecting the sick man North Korea.

Many observers call North Korea's latest nuclear test as a "game changer." It is not. We are dealing with the same game with China treating the same patient under Washington's negligence. The true game change will come when Washington invests meaningful political resources and brings a policy care package to tackle the North Korean disease, including more effectively pressuring China.

Lee Seong-hyon, Ph.D. is a research fellow at the Sejong Institute. He can be reached at sunnybbsfs@gmail.com.
Thailand has agreed to "actively" enforce the newly adopted U.N. sanctions on North Korea, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, noting the Southeast Asian state has shared the need for pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.



The agreement came as South Korea's First Vice Minister Lim Sung-nam and his Thai counterpart Apichart Chinwanno held a policy consultative meeting in Chiang Mai on Monday, during which they discussed bilateral cooperation in trade, infrastructure development and other areas.



The bilateral high-level meeting was held for the first time in six years.



"Lim explained our position on the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions resolution and asked Thailand to join the efforts to clearly cut the flow of any money and technology into the North's development of weapons of mass destruction," the ministry said in a press release.



On Wednesday, the Security Council endorsed the package of new sanctions to punish the North for its Jan. 6 nuclear test and Feb. 7 rocket launch. The sanctions include mandatory inspection of all cargo going in and out of the isolated state and a ban on the North's exports of coal, iron ore and other mineral resources.



During the talks, Lim also asked the Thai government to support South Korean firms seeking to participate in the country's infrastructure development projects, including those to construct railways and an integrated water management system, the ministry said.



Pointing to Thailand's decision last year to purchase four South Korean T-50 trainer jets, Lim also voiced hopes that the two nations would work together to bolster cooperation in the defense sector.



The two sides also agreed to make efforts to bolster bilateral trade based on the results of a joint study on the feasibility of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement. Last year, the two-way trade volume reached 11.3 billion dollars. (Yonhap)




North Korea has stolen information from the smartphones of South Korean officials, Seoul's spy agency said Tuesday, the latest in a series of cyberattacks against South Korea.

The North hacked into smartphones belonging to dozens of major South Korean officials between late February and early March and gained access to lists of phone conversations, the content of text messages and phone conversations, the National Intelligence Service said.



North Korean hackers also sent text messages to South Korean officials to try to lure them into following links to malicious software, it said.



The spy agency said about one out of five smartphones were infected with malware, which led to the leak of the phone numbers of many other senior South Korean officials.



The latest cyberattacks came amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following Pyongyang's nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.













North Korea has a track record of waging cyberattacks on South Korea and the United States in recent years, though it has flatly denied any involvement.



South Korea and the U.S. began the largest-ever annual military drill on Monday in the latest show of force against North Korea. In response, North Korea threatened to counter with a preemptive attack. (Yonhap)
The following is a chronology of major events leading to South Korea's adoption Tuesday of fresh sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile tests.

-- Jan. 6: North Korea conducts its fourth nuclear test, which it claims to be of a hydrogen bomb. The U.N. Security Council issues a press statement denouncing the test and begins work on a new sanctions resolution to punish the North.

-- Jan. 13: South Korea, the U.S. and Japan hold an emergency meeting of their chief nuclear envoys in Seoul.

-- Feb. 2: North Korea informs the International Maritime Organization and other international agencies of its plan to launch a satellite between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25.

-- Feb. 5: South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone, asking for China's active cooperation in drawing a strong U.N. sanctions resolution.

-- Feb. 7: North Korea launches the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite from its Sohae rocket launch site. The U.N. Security Council issues a press statement denouncing the launch as a violation of past council resolutions. South Korea and the United States announce plans to begin formal talks on the possible deployment of the THAAD missile defense system in the South.

-- Feb. 10: South Korea announces the suspension of an inter-Korean industrial park in North Korea's border city of Kaesong.

-- Feb. 18: U.S. President Barack Obama signs into law new legislation calling for stronger sanctions on Pyongyang.

-- Feb. 24: The U.S. and China reach agreement on a draft sanctions resolution.

-- March 2: The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 2270 imposing the strongest sanctions yet on Pyongyang, including mandatory inspections of all cargo going into and out of North Korea. The U.S. blacklists five North Korean entities, including the powerful National Defense Commission, and 11 North Korean individuals.

-- March 5: The European Union blacklists 16 North Korean individuals and 12 North Korean entities in line with the new U.N. resolution.

-- March 8: South Korea slaps fresh unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang, including a 180-day entry ban on vessels that have visited the North and financial sanctions on 30 North Korean entities and 40 North Korean individuals involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction. (Yonhap)
Go't blacklists 40 individuals, 30 entities



By Yi Whan-woo





The government said Tuesday that it has decided to pull out of a joint logistics project involving the two Koreas and Russia and has notified Moscow of the decision.

The move is part of South Korea's independent sanctions in addition to the latest U.N. Security Council resolution against North Korea.

The government said the suspension of the Rajin-Khasan project is part of a set of punitive measures in response to Pyongyang's nuclear test conducted, Jan. 6, and long-range rocket launch, Feb. 7.

The measures include a ban on the entry of foreign ships if they have visited North Korea six months before making a port call here.

The three-way logistics project was aimed at securing a sales route for Siberian coal through a railroad between Russia's border town of Khasan and North Korea's ice-free port of Rajin, from where vessels carried it to South Korean companies.

Involving Chinese-flagged ships, a total of three trial runs took place from 2014 to 2015.

"We've notified Russia of our action concerning the joint project through diplomatic channels," said a government source on condition of anonymity.

It added that Russia regarded South Korea's move as "regrettable."

Moscow threatened to use its veto power at the UNSC unless international sales of Siberian coal through Rajin could continue before joining hands to approve UNSC Resolution 2270 on Pyongyang, last Wednesday.
By Kim Jae-kyoung





Prof. William Brown

North Korea is facing a disorderly rise of a market economy as a consequence of its pursuit of nuclear power, William Brown, professor of economics at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, said.

"The nuclear program is killing the Marxist economy and the bombs, ironically, are creating a chaotic kind of capitalism (in North Korea)," Brown said. He teaches courses at Georgetown on the Chinese and North and South Korean economies.

He said the North's command economy is becoming so weak it cannot fend off the rise of natural and rather chaotic private markets.

"The best evidence for this is the growing circulation of U.S. dollars, an amazing development in an economy that not long ago only used socialist ration tickets as a kind of pseudo money," he said.

"In my thinking, the 2009 episode in which people fought back against the theft of their money via revaluation was a nail in the coffin of the Marxist command economy."

In Brown's view, Kim Jong-un has turned a blind eye to the increased use of money, especially hard currencies, which helps explain what observers are now seeing as a vibrant private economy amid the dilapidated state economy.

Brown said the nuclear program's progress over 35 years, and especially in the past 10 years,has coincided with the slow cracking and breakdown of the reclusive country's economy.

"That economy required lots of foreign aid, including aid from the Soviet Union, China, Europe, Japan, and even South Korea and the U.S.," he said. "But by making so many enemies with its nukes,North Korea now receives almost no aid, so the state economy is floundering."

Brown, who is a retired U.S. government economist having served in several U.S. departments and agencies, and in the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said that this clearly is leading the world to a dangerous situation.

"At any time the system could collapse into chaos or the (Pyongyang) government may try again to take control, with huge impact since it has nuclear devices," he said.





Party Congress in May

Brown expects that North Korea will announce some important changes at its party congress in May because it has some big holes to fill with the closure of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

"The upcoming May party congress is very important to watch for signs of reform," he said. "My guess is we will see some important changes that formalize the beginning of private property rights."

He said he would not be too surprised to see some small acceptance of private wages and private farms bigger than the small private plots they now have.

"These kinds of reforms are very difficult for conservative North Koreans to tolerate because they are ideological and, more importantly, they decentralize economic power in a way that eats away at the state's absolute control," he said.

He pointed out that North Korea has pretty much opened its goods markets but not its labor or capital markets and farmers are still on their collectives.

"I suspect internal tensions are growing and sooner or later they will have to follow these steps with big changes implied for the North Korean economy and for its relations with the rest of the world," he said.

He said President Park Geun-hye's recent decision to shut down the Gaeseong Complex was a step in the right direction because it is not really true business.

"Workers there were not paid real wages  their dollars were changed into won at an extremely bad exchange rate, making their salaries worthless  but were provisioned by rations from the state agency, making them part of the command economy system, not the market economy," he said.

He said the money was sucked up by the government to use to develop nuclear materials.

"If the political environment improves, President Park might offer to reopen the zone under a changed wage system in which the workers are paid directly," he said. "This would be much better economic policy, since earnings would be spent locally, money would circulate and the market would expand.





No dependence on China

Professor Brown made three recommendations for South Korea to cope with the challenges stemming from the North's nuclear brinkmanship.

The first thing President Park should do is to push for her unification initiative, with a focus on prodding the North to decentralize its economy and create private property. "That way, when unification comes, integration can happen seamlessly and with big benefits for all Koreans," he said.

For encouraging market decentralization, he suggests the South avoid giving resources to the North Korean government and its agencies because Pyongyang can and does use dollars and gift commodities to "buy back" the market economy.

"South Korea can encourage decentralized activities by ensuring that any transaction includes money paid to the people who actually produce the goods or service," he said."Business-to-business engagement might be encouraged as long as both sides profit."

Lastly, given the growing danger to South Korea, he called for Seoul to maintain good relations with big countries that can help it should instability in North Korea occur.

"Strong allies willmake it easiernot to be tooafraid to take advantage of situations to bring change to North Korea and eventually let unification happen," he said. "This, of course, means good relations with the U.S. but I'm also thinking of Japan."

However, he said the South should cut its dependence on China, citing China's own separate interests in maintaining the status quo in Korea.
By Lee Hyon-soo

On our previous trips to the United Kingdom we  my wife and I  visited virtually all points of interest in London which attract foreign tourists. We ventured out of the city this time around to see more of England.

Our first stop was Oxford, situated about 50 miles northwest of London. In the "City of Dreaming Spires" we wandered down its ancient streets and visited famous colleges. The 38 colleges that make up the University of Oxford were founded independently over a span of seven centuries. It was interesting to note that each college has distinct origin and character, and is equipped with its own residence and courtyard. Not only did we find the remarkable history of Oxford to be overwhelming, but we were also awestricken by the antiquated buildings in which Britain's great minds were nurtured.

From Oxford we made our way north to Stratford-upon-Avon, lying at the very heart of England and so unmistakably English in character. Stratford-upon-Avon is a small town where Shakespeare, the greatest dramatic genius of the English-speaking peoples, was born and died (By the way, 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of his death). The house in which the poet was born and spent his early years is a half-timbered building of a type common in Elizabethan Stratford. In Shakespeare's time it consisted of two separate parts  the family home and an adjoining shop used by his father, a glover and wool dealer. Although the house has undergone some restoration, its essential features remain unchanged.

Just a mile to the west of Stratford-upon-Avon lies Shottery, the village where Anne Hathaway's cottage is located. It was the home of Shakespeare's wife before her marriage. Apart from its romantic association as the scene of Shakespeare's youthful courtship, Anne Hathaway's cottage is a property of outstanding architecture and picturesque appeal. Originally a farmhouse, it is an old thatched cottage which remains unchanged since Anne's time.

Our final destination was Haworth (pronounced "How-worth"), a small village in Northern England. Here in this remote and barren setting lived the famous Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Of the three, Emily is my favorite. She was extremely withdrawn and given to solitude. She poured the secret thoughts of her tormented soul into the only novel she wrote  "Wuthering Heights." It is an intensely passionate yet unhappy love story that has captivated so many young men and women since its publication in 1847. Nothing better reveals Catherine's unrestrained love for Heathcliff than her own impassioned utterance: "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath  a source of little visible delight, but necessary. He's always, always in my mind  not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being." It is incredible that such fiery words were penned by a painfully shy woman who died at the age of 30.

Emily's two sisters, Charlotte and Anne, also distinguished themselves by writing "Jane Eyre" and "Agnes Grey" respectively. The house in which the Bronte sisters grew up and went on to compose their famous novels is now called Bronte Parsonage Museum. It contains first editions, manuscripts, some of the clothes the sisters wore and some of the furniture they used, including a rosewood desk at which Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. We were told by the curator that, after Stratford-upon-Avon, Haworth is England's most visited literary shrine.

On our way back to London we stopped in many places to visit historic sites and to take in the beautiful scenery of the English countryside. After a leisurely tour of England, we returned home to Canada with a sense of contentment.

The writer is a retired international banker, residing in Toronto, Canada. His other writings are posted on http://blog.daum.net/tomhslee.
By David F. Helvey

North Korea's fourth nuclear test this past January and long-range missile launch in February underscore the fact that the reclusive regime remains, in the words of U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, an "up close, dangerous, and continuing threat to the security of the Peninsula and the region."

Pyongyang's actions highlight the role of the U.S.-ROK Alliance in deterring North Korean aggression and contributing to stability and security on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia, and the world.

While focusing on deterrence and responding to the immediate threat from Pyongyang, we should also recognize that the ultimate source of the threat lies in the regime itself and that the path to long-term security and stability on the Korean Peninsula lies in reunification.

The U.S.-ROK alliance can play an important role in support of Korean reunification. Retaining the alliance after reunification would also serve the interests of both nations and the region by reinforcing the existing international order, assisting a unified Korea to meet its security needs, and facilitating regional stability.

However, for the alliance to endure, it must be considered as part of advance planning for Korean unification today.

Four principles should guide planning for an alliance between a unified Korea and the United States.

First, alliance planning should begin with a solid grounding in common values and ideals, along with a set of shared interests. Ranking high among these would be a commitment to democracy, open societies, and free market economics; respect for human rights and the rule of law; and, support for peaceful resolution of disputes.

The two countries would share an interest in preserving the security of a unified Korea and its political and economic systems, as well as in maintaining regional peace and stability, access to the maritime, air, space and cyber commons, and the capacity to respond to global security challenges such as natural disasters, terrorism, proliferation, organized crime and infectious disease.

Second, in planning for a future without North Korea, the alliance should do nothing that undermines the deterrence, military capabilities, and readiness needed today. Continued Alliance investment in interoperable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; air and missile defense capabilities; and command, control, communications and computers (C4) enhance alliance readiness to "fight tonight," if necessary, and strengthen the foundation for combined, coalition-style operations in the future.

Likewise further development of trilateral cooperation among the United States, the ROK, and Japan will sustain habits of cooperation and better integrate elements of each alliance into a larger multilateral construct reinforcing international rules, norms, and standards.

Third, a future U.S.-Korea alliance should emphasize the principle of respect for and protection of sovereignty.

This is important not only for the defense of Korea, but also to signal to the region that the alliance would not become a platform for territorial expansion.

Planning, in this context, should include diplomatic efforts to assure China, Japan, and Russia that a future U.S.-Korea alliance would respect territorial boundaries and support regional and global stability. This does not mean, however, the alliance should not respond to aggression or coercion that disrupts the regional order.

Fourth, leaders on both sides would need to ensure that the alliance is designed for long-term political sustainability in both capitals.

This will require a foundation of equality and a mutual commitment to sharing the responsibilities and resourcing the military capabilities needed for security on the Korean Peninsula, and alliance cooperation in the region, and across the globe.

Washington and Seoul have strengthened the alliance in recent years by redoubling efforts to counter the North Korean threat and by setting an affirmative agenda for security cooperation regionally and globally.

This vision enables the two sides to imagine a future of alliance cooperation between the United States and a unified, global Korea in the absence of a clearly defined threat and in support of a safer and more secure regional and international order. Simply having the vision, however, is insufficient.

That vision must inform and be informed by detailed planning, exercises and contingency responses to enable the allies to demonstrate the value of such cooperation and to evaluate mechanisms for alliance coordination and action, as well as the U.S. military presence (if any) on a unified Korean Peninsula.

Although answers to larger questions concerning the nature of the future security environment and a unified Korea's role in it are fundamentally political and will take time to be debated and resolved, it would be a mistake for either country to abandon the alliance or to wait until those questions are answered before analyzing options for an alliance between the United States and unified Korea, and the pathways to achieve them.

The U.S.-ROK alliance, and the stability and security that it provides, has enabled the Korean people in the South to realize the remarkable political, economic, social and cultural achievements that give new meaning to the idea of "the Miracle on the Han River" There is no reason that an alliance between the United States and a unified Korea  properly structured and supported  cannot bring the same benefits to the Korean people across the peninsula.

David F. Helvey is visiting distinguished research fellow at the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs of the U.S. National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. He served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia from December 2012 to April 2015. The views expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. A longer version of this article published by NDU Press and can be found at: http://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/ocuments/stratforum/SF-291.pdf.
Advancing quality of their lives is national priority



Korea had little to celebrate on International Women's Day this week. The latest statistics show that Korea is one of the unhappiest countries for women.



At home, Korean women have it harder than their peers in other countries. The latest report by Statistics Korea shows that Korean men spend the least amount of time among OECD countries on household chores. As a result, these and child-rearing are almost exclusively shouldered by women. At work, Korean women are struggling more as well. A survey in the Economist showed that Korea has one of the worst environments for working women, ranking last out of 29 OECD countries surveyed for its "glass-ceiling index." Korea has been last on this list every year since it was first published in 2013. This means that the country is consistently falling way behind other countries in women's access to higher education, their labor force participation, equal pay, representation in senior management and childcare. Also, Korea placed 115th out of 145 countries in its gender equality index in a World Economic Forum report.



Not only are these numbers unfitting for Korea's economic size and for a country that elected a female president, they also attest to an embarrassing failure of the Park Geun-hye administration's policies for aiding women and families. If anything, lives of working women have become harder since Park assumed office. More women shun having children because of rising costs and other burdens related to childcare, resulting in an unprecedented birthrate crisis. She arrived at Cheong Wa Dae with a pledge for "an era of people's happiness," but this will continue to be an empty slogan as long as Korean women remain as miserable as they are now. Therefore, policies to assist women to reach their full potential at work and make a happy home should be a national priority.



As Korea's first female president, one expects Park to do more for women. During a New Year briefing at Cheong Wae Dae, she said her administration aims to build a country that promotes the quality of women's lives by creating an environment where working women are able to raise children without excessive financial burdens and strains on their careers. The president needs to ask herself what her administration has done to realize this crucial objective. As a female president, we urge Park to show more passion to empower women and set an example for future female leaders.



Now is the time for a women-first shift in family policies. To make Korean families happier and stronger, it is vital for policymakers to respond to working women's needs. Policies to advance women's lives are not just good for them. They are good for families, the economy and ultimately, society. Most of the government's incentives for increasing the birthrate, for example, are centered on families with more than three children, when the reality is that most women shun having even two. Such discrepancies need to be addressed to assure women that the government will wholeheartedly support them to work and raise families at the same time. Also, policymakers in areas of employment, health care and family issues need to vigorously study and benchmark model countries in promoting gender equality at home and at work.




Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday renewed his calls for holding peace treaty talks with North Korea in tandem with discussions about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.



Speaking to a press conference, Wang said the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the "firm goal" of the international community, but relevant countries should address the concerns of North Korea at the same time.



Wang described his proposal for peace treaty talks with North Korea as "reasonable."

China is also opposed to any actions that might further escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Wang said.



In recent weeks, China has called for relevant nations to simultaneously pursue discussions to end the 1950-53 Korean War and reach a settlement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The Korean War ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.









The Chinese proposal echoed a long-standing demand by North Korea.



The U.S. has said the demand by North Korea is a nonstarter as long as the North pursues its nuclear ambitions. U.S. officials have stressed that Pyongyang has got the order wrong and should first focus on negotiations to end its nuclear program. (Yonhap)
SHINee's Key / Courtesy of Page1

By Kwon Mee-yoo

K-pop group SHINee's Key will star in a new play, "Save the Green Planet," at Art One Theater in Seoul's theater district, Daehangno.

From April, Key will play Byeong-gu, who believes aliens are plotting to conquer Earth and are hiding among Earthlings.

The play, based on the namesake 2003 Korean film, is a science-fiction black comedy that has a cult fan base.

The plot revolves around Byeong-gu and Man-shik, an owner of a chemical production company who Byeong-gu believes is the head of the aliens and conspiring to invade Earth.

The stage adaptation, directed by Lee Gi-na, will maximize lighting and video projection to transcend time and space.

Key debuted as a member of SHINee in 2008 and is a talented actor. His theatrical career began with "Frank Abagnale Jr." in the Korean production of the musical "Catch Me If You Can" in 2012. He then played Clyde in "Bonnie & Clyde," D'Artagnan in "The Three Musketeers" in 2013, Zorro in "Zorro" in 2014 and Usnavi in "In the Heights" last year.

Key will alternate the role of Byeong-gu with Yi Youll and Jung Won-young, while stage veterans Ji Hyun-jun and Kang Pil-suk will take on the role of Man-shik. Actresses Ham Yeon-ji and Kim Yun-ji will play Sun-i, Byeong-gu's assistant. Yuk Hyun-wook will play various supporting roles, including the detective investigating Byeong-gu.

"Save the Green Planet" runs from April 9 to May 29. Tickets, available from 2 p.m. March 14, cost from 45,000 won to 55,000 won. For more information, call 1577-3363.
Kang Hee-chul Yang In-mo Lee Jang-moo

By Kim Bo-eun



The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) awarded the Korea office's chairman and two board members for their contributions to the organization, Sunday.



Yang In-mo, honorary consul general of Croatia to Korea; Kang Hee-chul, a partner at Yulchon and Lee Jang-moo, chairman of the board of directors at KAIST, were awarded plaques of appreciation for their role in helping get the Korean office settled, at an event held on the sidelines of a regional meeting of WWF Asia representatives.



It has only been two years since the WWF Korea office opened in 2014, but it is functioning well, due to the contributions of the three awardees, WWF said.



"The WWF, one of the largest global environmental groups, is rational and systematic in its efforts to protect the environment," Kang said.



"It has been rewarding to see the development of WWF Korea and I will continue to play my role as long as circumstances allow."



Yulchon has been providing the organization free legal consulting services since the office opened.






Samsung loses Apple business, but Qualcomm helps



By Kim Yoo-chul



iPhone designer Apple will likely no longer rely upon its chief smartphone rival Samsung for chips to be used in its next iPhone.



Samsung and Apple are the world's largest purveyors of smartphones, but the latter is also one of the former's biggest semiconductor clients.



Apple has been paying billions of dollars to Samsung Electronics annually, for the purchase of mobile DRAMs, NAND flash memory chips and application processors manufactured by Samsung's fabrication plants in Korea and the U.S.



Officials said TSMC of Taiwan was recently named as the sole vendor for equipping the iPhone 7 series with key A10 processors, which will likely boost TSMC's bottom line.



Theoretically, Apple's decision to make Samsung as a second-tier vendor does not bode well for Samsung's chip business. But U.S.-based telecom chip giant Qualcomm is filling in the void made by TSMC.



"TSMC won over Samsung Electronics in the battle for the first batches of A10 chips," an official who is familiar with the issue told The Korea Times by telephone. "TSMC will entirely handle the new Apple project, though Samsung will take a secondary role. But Samsung doesn't have to worry about that as Qualcomm is ditching TSMC."



He said Samsung's logic chip fabrication lines both in Korea and the United States will be fully operational without suffering a lack of business thanks to the increased orders from Qualcomm.



This view is in sync with J.P. Morgan, as the U.S.-based major investment bank said Qualcomm is dropping TSMC and going to its largest competitor Samsung for its finer 14-nanometer technology this year and 10-nanometer next year.



"As a result, while Qualcomm contributed to over 20 percent of TSMC's revenue in 2014, it is expected to be only 9 percent this year and 4 percent next year," J.P. Morgan said. "Building a semiconductor plant is expensive _ estimated to be over $10 billion in capital expenditure _ that even large foundry makers like TSMC and Samsung tend to skip a generation."



Qualcomm is selling its popular Snapdragon 820 chipsets using Samsung's 14-nanometer processing tech after the San Diego-based outfit addressed a problem with overheating.



Samsung is the planet's sole chip producer handling the 14-nanometer processor technology. The 820 chipsets are being used in new smartphone models by top handset manufacturers including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Sony and Xiaomi.



"The growing popularity of Qualcomm's redefined 820 chipsets keeps Samsung fabrication lines busy," said another official. "Samsung's logic chip business is expected to generate about 1 trillion won in profits throughout this year."



A company spokesman declined to comment on the issue. Qualcomm representatives in Seoul also said they can't comment on client-related issues.
/ Graphic by Cho Sang-won



By Yoon Sung-won

World go champion Lee Se-dol was confident about beating Google's artificial intelligence (AI) AlphaGo in a five-game match that starts today, but cautioned that it won't be a sweeping victory.

Lee took a step back from his previous prediction of a 5-0 landslide victory, citing AlphaGo's capability to mimic human intuition.

"The final score may not be five to zero," Lee said during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. "Considering the algorithm that may mimic human intuition to some extent, I may lose a game if I make a human mistake."

Lee pointed out playing against a machine is quite different from a human opponent because machines do not show physical responses that he can consider when making a move.

"I will remain alert and play a beautiful game," he said.

Lee, who has been the world champion of go or "baduk" for the last decade with a nine-dan rank, admitted that machines will beat humans in the long run.

"We cannot go against the trend. I think machines will beat humans someday. Humans will be defeated in the long run," he said. "If I get defeated it might be negative for go and this is inevitable in this modern life. However, it will not destroy the value of go itself."

Demis Hassabis, chief executive officer of AlphaGo's developer DeepMind, introduced the AI's advanced algorithm that uses two neural networks that streamline the number of possible positions, helping the machine make more efficient moves.

Hassabis said go is one of the most complex games that has ever been developed by humans and requires a high level of intuition and calculation and thus is very difficult for machines to determine which side is winning.












/Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Han-soo

Controversial cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk and his team have decided to add a long-extinct cave lion to their clone list after the carcasses of two cubs were recently found in Siberia.

While the cave lions - named Uyan and Dina - are regarded as a sensational find, only one will be used for cloning. The other will be kept in a freezer during the process.

Cave lions lived during the mid to late Pleistocene times on the Eurasian continent, which stretched from the U.K. to East Russia. They are thought to have been about the size of a present-day lion.

There has not been any plausible explanation for the animals' extinction, but some believe a shortage of food was the cause.

Hwang visited Siberia this week to collect samples of skin and muscle tissue from the cub. But he clashed with Siberian scientists when he could not get his hands on a larger pool of samples, according to media reports.

In 2006, Hwang was expelled from Seoul National University, one of the most prominent colleges in Korea, for falsifying data in stem cell research.

His team is also trying to clone the long-extinct woolly mammoth.
World-famous K-pop act Big Bang are celebrating their tenth anniversary this year and it looks like fans in Japan are in for a real treat.

On Monday, March 7, a press release from YG Entertainment revealed that Big Bang will hold a two-day concert in Japan this summer.

The concert titled BigBang 10th Anniversary Stadium Live 2016 in Japan will take place at Yanmar Stadium Nagai in Osaka on July 30 and 31.

Before Big Bang holds their two-day concert in July, the group has scheduled several spring concerts in Japan during the months of April and May.

Big Bang will kick off their event tour at Kobe World Kinen Hall in Kobe on April 22 through 24 and May 27 to 29. Big Bang will also hold concerts in Fukuoka on April 27, 29, and 30 at Marine Messe Fukuoka. Then they will travel to Nagoya on May 1 at Nippon Gaishi Hall. Lastly, they will go to Chiba and perform at Makuhari Messe on May 3 through 5 and 14 to 15.

Meanwhile, Big Bang just recently wrapped up their MADE world tour on March 6 with a final concert in Seoul at Olympic Park, which the members revealed plans for their 10th anniversary concert this summer in Korea.

Big Bang will hold their second round of concerts in China and travel to Shanghai, China for the 2016 MADE [V.I.P] Tour at the Mercedez-Benz Arena on March 11 and 12.
Korean singer Lee Seung Chul headed down under this past weekend for a performance at the world-famous Sydney Opera House.

On Saturday, March 5, Lee Seung Chul held his solo concert titled The Best Live In Sydney, and performed at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

With 3,000 fans in attendance, Lee Seung Chul performed about 30 of his hit singles including "My Love," "Don't Say Good Bye," and "Heeya."

"Its my honor to have a concert in such a world-renowned place," said Lee Seung Chul to the crowd (via Korea Times). "I always hoped to have a concert on this stage."

Lee Seung Chul was the main vocalist of rock band Boohwal before he decided to leave the band in 1989 and release his first solo album Don't Say Good-Bye. His most recent release was the album My Love in June 2013.
Lee Seung Hwan wowed fans in Japan with a concert last weekend.

On Friday, March 4, Lee Seung Hwan held his first Japan concert at Zepp DiverCity in Tokyo. The show was two hours long and attracted more than 1,000 people.

Japanese and international media in attendance praised Lee's spellbinding performance.

"Emotional and powerful vocals mixed with exciting lighting and laser shows brought the audience into one crazy party," said associates from Tokyo FM and TV broadcaster TBS, as reported by the Korea Times.

"[Lee Seung Hwan] delivered the best Korean music," said Philippe Mesmer of French outlet Le Monde. "Japanese experts agreed unanimously that his concert was a top-notch gig that perfectly represented Korea's mass culture."

Lee Seung Hwan made his debut in 1989 at the age of 26 with the album B.C 603. He holds the record for the longest concert in Korea when he held a 26th anniversary show for six hours and 21 minutes on September 25, 2015 at the Uniqlo Ax Hall.
A new South Korean law has been passed that makes it harder to purchase albums and digital singles in bulk, a common tactic used in order to artificially boost the chart rankings of artists, reports Soompi.

But some fans have expressed concern that this may also hinder the non-malicious practice of group purchases, especially since the section of the law has stated that "fan-mobilized group activities through [music] agencies" will be facing punishment.

International fans have been known to consolidate their orders as a group, with one fan placing the order for many albums or digital singles, in order to reduce shipping costs. The items are then distributed to the members of the group. There is now a question on how the government will determine whether a group purchase is lawful or not.

The South Korean government is still ironing out the implementation guidelines. It has been consulting with the music industry to avoid choking the industry when enforcing the well-meaning law.

"The government will be working with representatives from the music industry to arrange guidelines for the application of the law up until it goes into effect. We will make every effort to ensure that the law is enforced according to the process of discussion and to avoid excessive regulation," a representative from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism reportedly said.

---

Mickey is a writer and digital content creator based in Manila. He is a co-founder of ZAVI App and editor of the small business blog IndieMickey. He has also been bitten by the K-Pop fashion bug - follow him on Instagram @mickjami.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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PRESS RELEASE

British Intelligence Hitman Crows that Brazil Crisis Marks End of the BRICS Fantasy

March 7, 2016 (EIRNS)In his article in today's Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the avowed British Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) stringer for British intelligence notorious for his role in orchestrating the slander operation against President Bill Clinton, proclaimed today that, in his view, the destabilization of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has entered a final phase, and its aim is to break up the BRICS alliance as a whole.

Under the headline "Downfall of Brazils Lula Marks End of BRICS Fantasy," Evans-Pritchard manically trumpets that

"Brazil is the first of the BRICS quintet to break down on so many fronts at once, but Russia and South Africa are both in deep crisis, and China is running through $100 bn. of foreign reserves a month. Only India has the wind in its sails. The BRICS concept has become meaningless."

With last Fridays grandstand arrest of President Rousseffs close ally, former President Lula da Silva, Evans-Pritchard pontificated, "the drive to impeach Mrs. Rousseff suddenly looks unstoppable." He adds that the "markets" are hoping that current Vice President Michel Temer will take over, "grasping the nettles of austerity and reform at the head of a pro-market government."

Notably, Evans-Pritchard has been deployed personally into Sao Paulo, from where he has been writing prolifically since the beginning of March. In a March 3 Telegraph column, he insisted that Brazil

"is heading straight into the arms of the International Monetary Fund. The sooner this grim reality is recognised by the countrys leaders, the safer it will be for the world."

Simultaneously, the British Crown has activated Marina Silva in the drive to bring down the Rousseff government. Silva is a wholly-owned "green" asset of the British royal family, who in 2008 received from Royal Consort Prince Philip himself, founder of the murderous World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Award for her environmental achievements. Silva came in third in the first round of the 2014 presidential elections, but she only became a presidential candidate after her running mate (she was a vice presidential candidate), Eduardo Campos, died in a suspicious plane crash three months before the election.

In remarks reported by Folha de Sao Paulo March 6, Silva not only backed the arrest of Lula da Silva, but demanded that Rousseff and her Vice President be removed from office, not simply by impeachment but by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), as this, she said, would overturn the results of the October 2014 election won by Rousseff, thus "correcting an involuntary mistake" by the Brazilian people, and leading to new presidential elections.
PRESS RELEASE

Russia Continues To Organize Syria Cessation of Hostilities

March 6, 2016 (EIRNS)The Russian Defense Ministry reported yesterday that some opposition groups have called on Russia to protect them from the jihadis.

"They are asking us to provide their security and defend them from militants of the ISIS group and other terrorist organizations who declared a manhunt for opposition figures signing ceasefire agreements. From our part, we will help ensure the security of the leaders of the Syrian opposition units and heads of local administrations who signed agreements to end fighting and to start the reconciliation process,"

the ministry said. Russian representatives have held 23 meetings with opposition forces since opening the Russian Reconciliation Center at the Khmeimim (Hmeimim) air base last week.

The ministry also reported that the number of groups signing on to the truce keeps rising.

"Application forms to join the cessation of hostilities over the past 24 hours have been received from eight commanders of armed groups operating in the province of Daraa. Thus, the total number of moderate opposition units joining the reconciliation process has reached 30,"

the ministrys newsletter said.

Ministry spokesman Gen. Sergey Kurylenko reported nine breaches of the cessation of hostilities monitored during the past 24 hours, including six breaches in Aleppo province and one in each of Damascus, Latakia and Daraa. Kurylenko explained that Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization bombed four residential neighborhoods in Aleppo.

In Geneva, UN representative Staffan de Mistura is hedging as to when the talks might actually begin. "I see us beginning on (Thursday) March 10 when we will launch the process," de Mistura said in an interview with pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat. The Saudi- and Turkey-backed oppositionists are still not saying whether or not theyll go to Geneva, and their handler, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir, is still insisting that Assad must leave at the beginning of the process, not the end.

Turkey, meanwhile, continues to shell Kurdish YPG units across the border. The latest report comes from Qamishli, in Hasakah province.

"There was firing by Turkish troops at members of the Peoples Protection Units [YPG] near the city of Qamishli which caused serious injury in one person,"

said a YPG spokesman. The YPG have been fighting ISIS and have U.S. backing.
Today, the roster of the 21st annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has landed. It includes:

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin

Prizewinning children's book author Kwame Alexander

U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera

"Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi

Long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad

Author James Patterson (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Writers

James Patterson

Susan Orlean

Joyce Carol Oates

Jonathan Lethem

T.C. Boyle

Alexander Chee

Michael Connelly

Heather Havrilesky

Commentators

Tavis Smiley

Reza Aslan

Author Michael Connelly (Mark DeLong / Little, Brown and Company) (Mark DeLong / Little, Brown and Company)

Actors

Rainn Wilson

Alison Sweeney

Poets

Jorie Graham

Luis J. Rodriguez

Douglas Kearney

David St. John

YA writers

Ally Condie

Ransom Riggs

Marie Lu

Melissa de la Cruz

Zac Brewer

Margaret Stohl

Actor Rainn Wilson (Michael Lamont) (Michael Lamont)

Chefs

Duff Goldman

Alice Waters

Festival events are free, with a $1 processing fee per ticket. Times subscribers can buy festival passes and other tickets starting today; tickets are available to the general public March 11.

In two separate, ticketed events that are part of The Times' Ideas Exchange, commentator and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and musician, actress and memoirist Carrie Brownstein will appear to talk about their latest books and creative lives.

In all, there are more than 400 authors coming to read, discuss and sign books. There are open stages where attendees might pass a poetry reading or musical performance; a kids' stage full of family-friendly programming; demonstrations on cooking stages; hundreds of booths, food trucks and more. This year, attendees can get tickets to see podcasts recorded live at the festival, including Jonesy's Jukebox and Nate Corddry's Reading Aloud.

The 2016 Festival of Books will take place April 9 and 10 on the USC campus. The book prizes  which include awards for James Patterson and Juan Felipe Herrera  will take place Saturday evening. More information about attending the Book Festival and Book Prizes can be found at www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

Book news and more; I'm @paperhaus on Twitter

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Patrons of the San Jose public library system have racked up $6.8 million in late fees for overdue materials. Thats a lot of pennies.

While its not uncommon for libraries to have unpaid late fees reaching into the millions, the situation in San Jose is especially bad, according to Jill Bourne, the director of the library system. Its not going in the right direction, she said. Were not offering the right solutions.

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What the city thinks might get it back on track is an amnesty program to bring both readers and missing books back, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Late fees in San Jose libraries are higher than in many other cities. Patrons are charged 50 cents a day for overdue materials, with a $20 cap.

In Los Angeles, libraries charge 35 cents a day for most late books (and just 15 cents for childrens books).

San Jose City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio said he supports a two-week amnesty program, which would allow patrons to return overdue materials without having to pay the fines theyve amassed.

If were not collecting the money and youre restricting people from the library, shouldnt we have an alternative to welcome these people? Oliverio said.

ABC7 News-KGO reports that 40% of San Jose library cards have been suspended for overdue books.

This is a $28-million facility; its open six days a week. We want people to use it, Oliverio told the news station. If you bring those items back, thats worth a lot of money just in that inventory of items.

This isnt the first time San Jose has explored an amnesty program. The idea was floated in 2000, but the city decided not to go forward with it, NBC Bay Area reports.

Similar programs have been tried in other cities, however. The Los Angeles Public Library offered a two-week amnesty period last month, and cities such as Chicago and Indianapolis have instituted amnesty programs in the past.

In San Jose, reactions to the proposed program have been mixed. Juan Diaz, 24, said he supported the program, telling the Mercury News, Some of the books arent even worth $20, and people dont want to come back.

Eddie Acevedo, 60, disagreed. People have to learn the hard way, he said. Some people have no discipline.
The year in ransomware began on Feb. 5, when computers at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center became infected with malware that shut down their communications capabilities. Ten days later, after the 434-bed hospital had been reduced to keeping records with pen and paper, the facility paid a ransom of 40 bitcoins -- about $17,000 -- and regained access to its system.

More than a week later, computers at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services became infected with a program that blocked access to their data. The agency was able to isolate the infected devices and has refused to pay the attackers.

In cybersecurity, people are considered the weakest link. They are also both the most abundant resource and the most susceptible target.  James Scott, cybersecurity expert

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Get ready, because this trend is just beginning. Institutional targets such as hospitals, government agencies, school districts and police departments have been hit, but they may account for a minority of ransomware cases; lockdowns of individuals computers and mobile devices, accompanied by demands for a few hundred dollars, may be the norm. As more household devices become networked to the Internet of Things and left unsecured, more opportunities will tempt criminals into cyber hostage-taking.

Within the last few days, security experts discovered a ransomware program aimed at Apple device users -- a relatively rare target -- embedded in Transmission, a client app for the peer-to-peer system BitTorrent. Apple promptly upgraded its devices security software to block the program, but an estimated 6,500 computers were infected within the first day and a half. The malware encrypts files on the victims computers and flashes a message instructing them to send one bitcoin, valued at about $410, via a digital address. Similar attacks have been aimed at Windows PC and Android smartphone users.

Whats insidious about these attacks is that the sums demanded hit the cybercriminals sweet spot: Theyre small enough to seem like a nuisance charge victims will simply pay to regain access to personal files that may include heirloom photos and important papers, yet can spell big profits to hackers who target enough victims. Each individual loss is so small that even in the aggregate they remain a minor concern of law enforcement, especially because sensitive files arent being stolen and sold. They remain on the victims computers, but out of reach.

The rise of ransomware points to a gaping flaw in individuals cyber hygiene, in the words of James Scott, a fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a consortium of security firms and experts. Individuals are increasingly likely to entrust crucial personal data and heirloom materials such as family photographs to computers, but not very likely to keep secure backups or protect them from digital invaders; as few as 25% of home computer users are estimated to regularly back up their data.

In cybersecurity, people are considered the weakest link, Scott said. They are also both the most abundant resource and the most susceptible target.

That shows another facet of the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI, which is seeking essentially a company-devised back door to gain access to data on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers. Back doors are basically vulnerabilities, Scott told me by email. Adversaries seek out vulnerabilities to exploit. I think anyone in the cybersec community will have a problem with backdoors for anyone, including law enforcement because bad actors will always find them.

Nor does the FBI offer much in the way of solace for ransomware victims. Last year, its cybercrime chief in Boston, Joseph Bonavolonta, was quoted telling a gathering of cybersecurity experts, To be honest, we often advise people just to pay the ransom.

At a more official level, the FBI asks targets of ransomware to notify the bureau. But it acknowledges that theres little it can or is willing to do in individual cases. The FBI doesnt make recommendations to companies, a spokesperson explained to the IT security firm Sophos. Instead, the Bureau explains what the options are for businesses that are affected and how its up to individual companies to decide for themselves the best way to proceed. That is, either revert to backup systems, contact a security professional or pay. The Horry County, S.C., school system last month paid a ransom of $8,500 to decrypt its servers after the FBI was unable to suggest an alternative.

The spread of ransomware attacks may be a new wrinkle in cybercrime, but the approach itself has a long history. According to Scotts paper, the first known such attack dates back to 1989. Thats when a prominent biologist named Joseph L. Popp distributed a virus on 20,000 infected floppy disks to attendees at an international AIDS conference. After the infected machines had been booted up 90 times, the malware locked up the computer and flashed a message instructing its owner to send $189 to a post office box in Panama.

A workaround was quickly developed and Popp was arrested, but he was determined to be mentally unfit to stand trial. He later gained an alternative measure of fame as the founder of a butterfly conservatory in upstate New York.

Since Popps exploit, ransomware has become harder to break and the approach more sophisticated. Ransomware programs are traded and sold on the gray market, so the attackers dont necessarily need expertise in anything but sending it out. The infection can be spread by phony emails or compromised downloadable applications, and falls into two main categories: locker and crypto. Locker programs leave users data untouched but keep owners from accessing it on their devices. Crypto programs leave users with access to their computers but encrypt the files; once the ransom is paid, a key is sent to allow their decryption.

As Scott observed, individuals are the best targets because they seldom have the expertise at hand to deal with a computer-based attack. Some attackers even impose a time limit, after which the targeted data may be permanently deleted. People do not think rationally under time limits, he said. The victim is subject to the anxiety of the ticking clock ... and the fear of regret if the data is lost forever. Many people will count a fee of a few hundred dollars as cheap under the circumstances.

There isnt much that individuals can do to protect themselves against ransomware other than remaining especially vigilant about clicking on email attachments, even from friends (whose computers may themselves be infected), or downloading applications from any but the best-authenticated sources. Regular backups are essential, so that peoples most sensitive files can be recoverable. Institutions often are no better at protecting their systems than are individuals; indeed, many malware infections start with unwary individuals at big institutions.

Scott argued that a never pay the ransom policy is unrealistic, because sometimes a systems downtime can be enormously costly or even threaten lives, even if the owner is confident that it can be restored after days or weeks. But the awful truth may be that ransomware is here to stay: The number of ransomware attack variations is limited only by the imagination and motivation of the attackers, he said As in so many other aspects of cybercrime, the best defense is hygiene; keeping a system firewalled and its users educated may not guarantee safety, but its the only option. And the FBI needs to acknowledge that back doors often become front doors, no one needs another front door.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see our Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com
Amazon will open its second physical bookstore in the summer  this time in Southern California  venturing further into the business that it squeezed over two decades.

Called Amazon Books, the store will be located at Westfield UTC mall near UC San Diego. New signs posted in front of the e-commerce companys future bricks-and-mortar location confirm whats been expected since early February, when Amazon advertised online for Amazon Books store managers, booksellers and device enthusiasts.

The Seattle company already operates a bookstore in an upscale shopping center in its hometown and could eventually open up to 400 bookstores, according to a recent earnings call from mall operator General Growth Properties Inc.

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We are excited to be bringing Amazon Books to the University Towne Center Mall in San Diego and we are currently hiring store managers and associates, Amazon spokeswoman Sarah Gelman said. Stay tuned for additional details down the road.

Amazon is jumping in at a time when many independent bookstores are enjoying an upswing after titanic shifts in the industry, including the boom in buying cheap books online and the rise of e-books.

Many small booksellers are seeing sales increases, buoyed by the shop local movement that has pushed many customers to patronize their neighborhood shops instead of buying online. Some bookstores are even investing in new branches and finding buyers when their original owners retire, said Oren Teicher, chief executive of American Booksellers Assn.

In 2015, the group had 2,227 bookstores on its membership roster, up nearly 35% from 2009. Members also reported a more than 10% rise in unit book sales from 2014.

Many booksellers are worried about the effect Amazons offline efforts will have on bookstores.

Amazon dominates the book market, said John Mutter, editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, an online newsletter for booksellers and librarians. In some ways it feels like they want to get into brick-and-mortar book retailing to try and disrupt the one part of the business they dont dominate.

Analysts say that Amazon could also be experimenting with using physical stores as smaller versions of distribution centers, which it has been aggressively opening in recent years to ensure speedy delivery times. Orders can be shipped directly from the stores, while the locations themselves can serve as convenient places for shoppers to browse products and return items in person, industry watchers said.

The San Diego store will presumably resemble the Seattle location, which sells a limited selection of Amazons best-reviewed books. That venue also doubles as a showroom for the e-commerce brands expanding hardware lineup, which includes its Kindle, Fire TV, Fire tablets and Echo. The Echo, the companys latest gadget, is an in-home personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence.

Mutter, who has been to Amazons Seattle store, said he was surprised by its sparse book inventory. The shop seemed to be more a showcase for devices, he said, than books.

For a store of that size, they dont have that many books compared to what an independent would have, Mutter said. I had this distinctive reaction, he joked, that cash flow is bad, so they cant afford inventory.

In some ways though, Amazons first two bookstores will mimic the formula of many traditional bookstores  opening up shop where affluent shoppers are.

The San Diego store will be located in an upscale mall adjacent to a Tesla store and across from an Apple store. In the same mall, other e-commerce companies such as menswear retailer Bonobos and trendy eyeglass company Warby Parker have also put down physical roots.

The shopping center matches the style and retailers of University Village, the Seattle-area mall where Amazons first bookstore opened in November. That location spans 7,500 square feet, with approximately 5,500 square feet of retail space.

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The Westfield UTC mall represents a great showcase location for Amazon, said Miro Copic, a branding expert and marketing lecturer at San Diego State. San Diegos demographic makeup presumably matches that of the e-tailers online customer base, he said.

Copic anticipates that Amazon will use the San Diego venue to sell its entire brand  not just books  and teach shoppers about the perks of Prime membership, such as music and TV content, or educate them on the advantages of owning an Echo.

It will be a way to have the Amazon experience at the mall, Copic said.

Both stores are near big colleges, which could provide a boost from students curious to check out Amazon in person after regularly ordering from the website.

It remains to be seen whether Amazon will undertake a serious expansion into real bookstores.

I suspect its a test, Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said. Two small stores arent going to change the fortunes of a company that has topped $100 billion in annual sales.

shan.li@latimes.com

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com

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Facing skyrocketing drug prices, the Obama administration is proposing potentially major changes in how Medicare pays for some medications, including high-priced specialty drugs used to treat cancer and other costly diseases.

The proposed regulations, unveiled Tuesday, would initially affect a relatively small share of the nations nearly $500-billion drug tab.

But if widely implemented, they could overhaul the way Medicare, Americas largest insurer, pays for drugs, by linking payments to the effectiveness of medications, not just their prices.

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These models would test how to improve Medicare beneficiaries care by aligning incentives to reward value and the most successful patient outcomes, said Dr. Patrick Conway, chief medical officer at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The choice of medications for beneficiaries should be driven by the best available evidence, the unique needs of the patient and what best promotes high-quality care.

Though still a relatively small fraction of the nations total annual healthcare tab  which is nearing $3.5 trillion  prescription drug costs have been rising rapidly in recent years.

Drug spending jumped more than 12% in 2014, according to federal analysts.

That is driving public anxiety about how much the pharmaceutical industry is charging for its products.

In a national survey by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation last fall, Americans singled out drug prices as the most pressing healthcare issue the next president and Congress should address.

Both presidential front-runners, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, have proposed new government initiatives to control prices.

Clinton and Trump were calling for the federal Medicare program to negotiate lower prices with drugmakers, though Trump more recently appeared to switch strategies, voicing support instead for importing lower-cost drugs from abroad.

Clinton is also proposing new caps on how much patients can be charged for prescription drugs and new restrictions on how drugmakers advertise and how much they must spend on research.

Pharmaceutical industry officials say the high prices are necessary to fund research in lifesaving treatments and note that even very expensive drugs can save money in the long run by extending patients lives and avoiding other costly medical care such as hospitalizations.

Proposing sweeping changes to Medicare Part B drug reimbursement without thoughtful consideration and stakeholder input is not the right approach and puts Medicare patients who rely on these medicines at risk, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spokeswoman Allyson Funk said in a statement.

Genentech, the South San Francisco maker of numerous cancer medicines, said it was reviewing the proposal.

Were supportive of efforts that take a holistic look at the overall cost of treating serious diseases such as cancer, the company said in a statement. We actively work with all stakeholders in the healthcare community to ensure patients have access to medicines like ours.

Rising drug costs  which came after years of relatively slow growth in prescription drug spending  are putting intense pressure on government health plans such as Medicare and Medicaid and on patients themselves, who are being forced to pay more and more out of pocket for care.

The new Medicare initiative would affect only prescription drugs that are administered by physicians through the Part B program, such as ones for chemotherapy. These totaled about $20 billion in 2015, according to the federal government.

The initiative would not affect the much larger Medicare Part D drug program, which provides insurance coverage for prescriptions that seniors fill at the pharmacy.

But the new effort to test value-based systems of paying for drugs could ultimately require the federal government to make judgments about which treatments work best for which medical conditions.

That task could be politically explosive, as it has sometimes been in other countries with more centralized government health insurance systems such as Britain.

Dr. Robert Figlin, director of hematology and oncology at Cedars-Sinai, said the plan is likely to be a step in the right direction. He said Cedars doctors had already moved to providing evidence-based, value-based care.

Obama administration officials emphasized Tuesday that the federal government is only seeking feedback on the proposals, and Medicare has no plans to limit physicians choices of drugs.

Nothing  will prevent doctors from prescribing exactly the treatment they think their patients need, Conway told reporters.

Medicare officials also are proposing to limit how much patients must pay out of their own pockets for these drugs.

And they are seeking to scale back incentives in the Medicare program that pay doctors and hospitals higher fees for prescribing high-priced drugs, even if they are no more effective.

noam.levey@latimes.com

Staff writer Melody Petersen contributed to this report.
One of the most fascinating chapters in American art from the first half of the 20th century is also among the least known. The details of its efflorescence may never be fully grasped, regardless of how relatively recent the events. But an absorbing, must-see exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum goes far in bringing the episode back into long-awaited view.

Simply put: Issei photographers, most of whom immigrated to Los Angeles from Japan while still in their teens, went on to make some of the most adventurous avant-garde photographs in the years between the two World Wars.

The relatively brief interwar period is commonly regarded as one of the richest in international photographic history. Move over, Aleksandr Rodchenko and Albert Renger-Patzsch. Make a bit of room for Shigemi Uyeda, Kentaro Nakamura and several more.

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Their work was widely shown in the 1920s and 1930s, often receiving critical accolades and winning prizes in important exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The artists regularly published in influential photography journals, while their active participation in an international dialogue about cutting-edge art far surpassed anything that fellow L.A. artists such as painters Henrietta Shore or Lorser Feitelson could imagine. No less a photography colleague than Edward Weston was a fan.

Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920-1940" chronicles the often-exceptional camera work of 40 artists. Well never know the full extent of their achievement, but individual photographs are nothing less than great.

The titles end-date suggests why we know so little of them today. Tragedy and heartbreak are responsible for nearly erasing this extraordinary Modernist movement from our collective memory.

Within days of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the West Coast was declared a theater of war. Cameras were quickly designated as contraband for enemy aliens. When Japanese Americans were rounded up for relocation to concentration camps, most of the photographers work was destroyed, hidden away or otherwise lost. Relatively little remains.

Toyo Miyatake is the best-known name among the assembled crew. However, his reputation rests primarily on the intimate documentary pictures he made  often on the sly  of the wartime internment camp at Manzanar. The exhibition predates that shameful period, so its focus on Miyatakes work is different.

In addition to his 1927 photographs of celebrated modern dancer Michio Ito, three experiments in pure abstraction from 1931 are included. Great swirls of blurred luminescence burst through deep blackness, creating a gestural abstraction. The earlier pictures show a dancer posing, but these later studies record only movement.

Light Study #2" is especially revealing, a loop composed of two interlocking curves of swooping luminosity. If the irregular circle looks familiar, thats because the form is surely based on Sumi-e, traditional Japanese ink painting. Its like a photographic negative of a classic 17th century painting of a sacred circle by the Zen Buddhist monk Bankei Ytaku.

The Zen concept of ens  the void, the totality of enlightenment, the passage from a world of sorrows to nirvana  is evoked. The modern machinery of a camera and lights passage through its aperture substitutes for brush and ink, as a painter would use for traditional calligraphy.

Miyatakes image is emblematic of the uniqueness of avant-garde Japanese American photography. It is a species of Pictorialism, which arose in Europe around 1890 as the dominant style of advanced camera work and sought ways to connect photographs to painting concepts. The goal of adopting a painterly facade was to show that photography was more than a mere mechanical record but could also be legitimate artistic expression.

Most Pictorialist photographs suggest European painterly traditions in subject, style and handcrafted look. Most of these Japanese American photographs dont. Instead, they recall Asian art.

Issei, born in Japan after the U.S. had forcibly pried open international trade, had grown up within a fading agricultural society nonetheless wary of Western cultural intrusions. Yet, as young immigrants to America seeking betterment in a rapidly industrializing new country, they were also eager to look ahead.

Avant-garde Japanese American photographs look forward and backward simultaneously. The ethos of modernity is fused with Asian artistic heritage.

Then things get a bit complicated.

Japanese art had already exerted a profound effect on emerging European Modernism. Whistler, Monet, Degas, Cassatt, Bonnard  their paintings flattened perspective, open spaces, unusual viewpoints, decorative patterning and more can partly be traced to a fascination with things like katagami textiles and ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

Japonisme ran through the emerging Modernist bloodstream. One result: Pictorialist photographs by Japanese Americans look as modern as modern can be.

The best of these artists refined their work by exploiting the technical capacities of the boxy Graflex view camera that was their preferred instrument. They prized the simplest, most straightforward darkroom techniques, such as careful cropping. Sharp-focus edged out the atmospherics of more conventional work.

Uyedas Reflection on the Oil Ditch, shot around 1925 at a Santa Fe Springs drilling site, was among the most widely reproduced of the genre. In Berlin, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy included it in The New Vision: Fundamentals of Bauhaus Design, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, his classic 1938 book.

A receding landscape of circular puddles on an oil field is carefully cropped to excise extraneous elements  including the horizon  and heighten the marvelous patterned design. Piercing the field are parallel images: reflections of the morning sun, high in the sky, and an oil derrick, drilling deep into the earth. The photographic surface is visually intensified.

Nakamuras Evening Wave (circa 1926) is similarly refined. The foamy breaker follows a dynamic diagonal path from one corner of the brilliant print to the other. A tide pulls out to sea as a curling wave comes in, both illuminated by the radiant light of the unseen moon that creates the eternal, rhythmic tension between them.

The show includes dreamy Pictorialist photographs that directly mimic Japanese art, such as Hiromu Kiras intimate landscape of thin reeds in a serene pond and Seizo Katsus tree branches draped across a cloud-covered sun. Some mirror Modern European painting, such as atmospheric scenes of smoke-choked railroad yards by Taizo Kato and F.Y. Kunishige.

But its the sharply focused, more abstract and austere geometric works that claim prolonged attention. No wonder Weston, who advocated unmanipulated and sharp-focus photography, was a regular visitor to Japanese Camera Pictorialists of California and Shaku-do-sha, two prominent L.A. photography clubs. The aesthetic influence between the Issei and Weston likely went both ways.

One recurrent theme  a single individual in a landscape  is especially compelling.

Theres a man sitting on the vast, elegantly curved wall of the Hollywood Reservoir dam by Kira; Ichiro Itanis aerial view of an eel fisherman striding through water; the exquisite play of geometries where a man emerges into daylight in J.T. Satas view from inside a darkened automobile tunnel (it appears to be the 2nd Street tunnel beneath Bunker Hill, a few short blocks from Little Tokyo); and a tiny, silhouetted pedestrian swept along by the luminous, sweeping curve of a road  a veritable ribbon of light  in Hisao E. Kimuras mountain landscape.

These very formal compositions juxtapose a human sign of a journey through contemplative consciousness  Kiras dam-sitter is titled The Thinker  with environmental intervals of empty space. They picture the traditional Japanese concept of ma. The ma is an interlude, a spatial pause, whose experience gives shape to the whole.

A solitary figure in a distinctly modern world framed by a foreign aesthetic also describes the often-precarious, emotionally conflicted condition of an immigrant. Think of the lone-figure photographs as nominal self-portraits.

The show includes several cameras, plus photo magazines, exhibition catalogs and other historical ephemera. Artists  only men, as was the Japanese custom  who worked in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego and Honolulu are included. But Los Angeles, with Little Tokyo its epicenter, was home to the most impressive group.

Guest curator Dennis Reed has made slow but steady recovery of this mostly missing period a lifes work. This is his third exhibition on the subject  the first a small 1982 display at L.A. Valley College, where he retired from the faculty four years ago, and the second in 1986 at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, a few blocks from the museum.

With 103 works, the current show has two dozen more photographs than the last one. Some havent been shown since the 1930s. Making Waves resonates as the often-impressive tip of a regrettably lost iceberg.

Twitter: @KnightLAT

------------

Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920-1940'

Where: Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave., L.A.

When: Through June 26, closed Mondays.

Info: (213) 625-0414, www.janm.org

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ABCs new drama Of Kings and Prophets attempts to treat the Bible as just another historical document. Since it is a television show, this means two things: It opens with a horrific battle scene, and it is peppered with steaming/scheming sex.

Just as the primary purpose of the nascent Internet initially seemed to be a wider distribution of porn, televisions new digital technology has focused almost exclusively on the awfulness of battle. Vikings, Saxons, pirates, early American rebels  we see them fight, we see them die in bloody sprays of sundered flesh and exploding bone made even more gruesome by stop-motion photography and increasingly excellent sound effects.

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So it is with Of Kings and Prophets, which opens as Saul (Ray Winstone) leads the increasingly united tribes of Israel to victory against the Philistines. His face is smeared with blood, his exhaustion palpable, but still he hacks and thrusts and howls his way to triumph.

This is what it looks like to do the service of the Lord.

Or at least his prophet, Samuel (Mohammad Bakri), who, following Gods orders, anointed Saul as king. And Samuel is not done yet. Saul returns from battle to finalize the tribes unity with the wedding of his daughter to a son of the House of Judah (cue hot broadcast network sex), but Samuel has another order from on high. For the Lord to bless the union, Saul must slaughter the Amalekites.

When the king balks, Samuel makes it clear that what the Lord has given, he can take away. While Queen Ahinoam (Simone Kessell) suggests that Saul ignore Samuel, who may have his own agenda, Saul struggles to be both leader and servant.

Meanwhile, over Bethlehem way, a young shepherd is engaged in a very different sort of battle. A lion is slaughtering the sheep of Davids (Olly Rix) father. Without sheep there is no money; without money, the shepherds cannot pay tribute. So David offers to kill the lion to save his father from a flogging.

All of which means that David eventually makes his way to court in great acclaim just as Saul is being told God is training his replacement.

There are moments when Of Kings and Prophets seems sincere and very timely in its examination of the tense and historically troubling relationship between politics and religion. When kings are truly anointed by God, prophets wield an enormous amount of power; prophecy is historically a very messy business.

But those moments are few and far between, at least in early episodes, which seem more interested in proving once again that people are people no matter what the century or how true the script is to the time period. So David has a bro, Joab (David Walmsey), who, in a scene that appears to be a legal requirement of all period adventure drama, urges him to give up his quest for the pleasures of women and wine, and the queen and princesses are allowed, if not encouraged, to speak their minds.

It also means that Saul is not above receiving the, er, attentions of a servant, which is distressing in both text and subtext.

The result overall is certainly less biblical, in the traditional sense, but its also far from epic. The tribes are not the kingdoms of Westeros, nor are they meant to be, but in this story, the real relationship worth exploring is that between Samuel and God.

Unfortunately, while creators Adam Cooper and Bill Collage have no problem with amping up the sex and violence of the Book of Samuel, they draw the line at the truly adult material; the nature of God is assumed, and those who question come to sticky ends.

The casting director has made an effort with the large and often-confusing cast (Goliath is the tall nasty one), but the male leads  Winstone, Rix and Walmsey  are all obvious subjects of Great Britain. (The British accent remains the lingua franca of all period drama, including, apparently, the biblical ones.)

Winstone does a good enough job capturing Sauls ferocity as well as his bewilderment, and Rix is as dreamy a David as you could ever imagine while also being lethal with a sling. In the second episode, they share a brief and powerful moment as two men extolling the virtues of the simple life, but we know where this is headed, and it is neither field nor farm.

Neither, it must be said, seems half the leader or politician that Queen Ahinoam is, but then the original material is fairly famous, so there is only so far the creators can stray.

------------

Of Kings and Prophets

Where: ABC

When: 10 p.m. Tuesday

Rating: TV-14-DSV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for suggestive dialogue, sex and violence)

mary.mcnamara@latimes.com
At hospitals across California, administrators are pushing doctors to perform fewer caesarean deliveries, hiring birth coaches and asking pregnant women to stay in labor longer.

For years, medical experts have said that C-sections  a surgical procedure in which a doctor makes an incision in the mothers abdomen and uterus to remove the baby  were being done too often, yet the rates kept climbing.

In 2014, however, delivery hospitals in California reduced the number of C-sections performed by more than 1,000 compared with 2013, according to a Times analysis of new data.

Whats changed recently, some experts say, is the nature of the healthcare system, which focuses increasingly on eliminating unnecessary expenses. In the era of the Affordable Care Act and its emphasis on low-cost medical care, C-sections  which cost more than vaginal deliveries  have become a sticking point for hospitals and a target for the people paying the bills.

Childbirth is the most common reason for hospitalization in the U.S., said Katy Kozhimannil, a health policy professor at the University of Minnesota, so when insurers and self-insured employers look at where their costs are going, you start to see caesarean delivery rises to the top.

Hospitals not only face direct pressure from insurers to curb C-sections, but theyre also concerned that a high rate could affect business. As more data on medical facilities is available to patients, hospitals dont want to fall to the bottom of the pack and lose patients who see higher C-section rates as unfavorable.

Dr. Allyson Brooks, an obstetrician and chief quality officer at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, remembers that a few years ago the hospital was under fire from its insurer because of a higher-than-average C-section rate.

In California, maternal care plus a vaginal delivery cost commercial insurers $15,259 on average, while maternal care plus a C-section cost $21,307, according to a report commissioned by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a nonpartisan research center.

Over the last two decades, many U.S. doctors began opting for C-sections in part out of convenience, because the procedure is often much quicker than waiting for a woman to deliver vaginally, experts say. Some patients chose to have C-sections a trend made famous by celebrities in the 2000s and labeled too posh to push.

Though generally safe, C-sections are still invasive surgeries, with a longer recovery time than vaginal deliveries. And once a woman has one C-section, she has a 90% chance of delivering her next babies by C-section. The World Health Organization says the ideal C-section rate is around 15% but in the U.S. it reached 32.9% in 2009.

The rates were influenced by factors such as the culture of the hospitals and type of community it serves. Three years ago, Brooks recalled seeing posts on social media by Orange County residents such as, If you want to have a vaginal delivery go to a different hospital, if you want to have a C-section go to Hoag.

Brooks said that though most obstetricians agree C-section rates are too high, it can be difficult to get them to consider doing fewer. They worry that trying to bring down rates will harm women. C-sections can be necessary if the umbilical cord is dangerously tied around a babys neck, or a womans uterus is at risk of rupturing.

So she began calculating a low-risk, or NTSV, C-section rate for her hospital. It includes only women considered the least likely to need C-sections  first-time mothers, having a single baby around their due date, and carrying a baby positioned head down.

The U.S. surgeon general has called for reducing the low-risk C-section rate to 23.9% by 2020.

Hoag began requiring that doctors show clear medical reasons to induce labor in women, and also started calculating and sharing each doctors low-risk C-section rate.

At Hoag, the low-risk C-section rate dropped from 31% in 2013 to 26% in 2014, one of the biggest declines in the state.

And it wasnt just Hoag. From 2013 to 2014, the rate of C-sections among low-risk moms in California dropped from 27.3% to 26.1%, a reduction of 1,219 procedures statewide, according to data released last month by the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Task Force and analyzed by The Times.

The analysis also found that the percentage of Californias 244 delivery hospitals that met the surgeon generals goal jumped from 32% to 42% between the two years.

Hoag negotiated with its insurer to be paid an equal rate for C-sections and vaginal deliveries so it wouldnt lose money when rates dropped.

But other hospitals that have brought down their C-sections rates have faced financial consequences.

The six Providence Health & Service hospitals in Southern California took a revenue hit from doing fewer C-sections, said Regional Chief Medical Officer Michael Bernstein. They also spent money hiring obstetricians to staff the labor and delivery wards in shifts, so doctors wouldnt feel rushed and opt for C-sections because theyre quicker procedures.

Bernstein said he thinks the change is better for patients and could be good for the hospital group in the long run.

Increasingly, under changes set into place by the Affordable Care Act, hospitals arent paid per treatment, but based on the quality of the care. Hospital leaders say C-section rates could become one of the metrics used in such calculations.

But Dr. Aaron Caughey, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, said theres no single low-risk C-section rate that all hospitals should aim for, and that rates will vary from hospital to hospital because of differences in the patient population.

I would hate it if Medicaid said, Every hospital whose rate is above the median, were not going to pay you a chunk of money. That is a bad approach because then people squeeze it down without attention to whats best for patients, Caughey said.

Even if hospitals arent being officially penalized for high C-section rates, administrators are worried about the financial effect of losing patients who want a vaginal birth. Deliveries arent big moneymakers for hospitals, but once a hospital treats a mother, it's likely to care for the rest of her family in the years to come.

Some mothers say that they felt as if their physicians rushed into C-sections, and they dont want to repeat the experience.

When Anastasia Stone, 32, was pregnant with her first child, her doctor told her she needed to be medically induced to begin labor, which resulted in a C-section. I was a typical first-time mom, she said.

Stone, who lived in Santa Cruz at the time, said she later came to believe she couldve had a vaginal delivery instead of a C-section if her physician had waited.

When she was pregnant with her second child, Stone went looking for a doctor who would try for a vaginal birth.

Dr. William Gilbert, regional medical director for womens services at Sutter Health in the Sacramento region, said Sutter Davis Hospital has drawn such women from around the Sacramento area because it had the lowest C-section rate in the state in 2014  12%.

Hospitals with the lowest C-section rates Sutter Davis Hospital has the lowest C-section rate among low-risk mothers in California. Look up your local hospital's c-section rate >> Hospital City C-sections Deliveries Rate Sutter Davis Hospital Davis 71 598 12.0% Emanuel Medical Center Turlock 51 391 13.0% Mammoth Hospital Mammoth Lakes 5 43 14.0% Sonoma Valley Hospital Sonoma 7 49 14.3% Bakersfield Memorial Hospital Bakersfield 174 1170 15.0%

The hospital uses nurse midwives, who deliver most of the babies, and reserves obstetricians for backup. Birth is treated as a natural process instead of a health condition that always requires medical intervention, said Carolyn Campos, nursing manager of the hospitals birthing center.

Gilbert thinks that as more data on specific rates of procedures or treatments is available, patients will increasingly turn to that information when choosing where to seek care.

In 2014, low-risk C-section rates ranged from 12% to 70% at California hospitals.

Six years ago at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, Gilbert began encouraging physicians to allow longer labor in women, and began posting each physicians low-risk C-section rate in the doctors lounge. From 2010 to 2014, the hospitals low-risk C-section rate dropped from 31% to 27%.

Gilbert thinks that most of the success came from publishing the doctors rates internally.

Doctors dont want to be the highest rate, he said.

soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com

Twitter: @skarlamangla

ryan.menezes@latimes.com

Twitter: @ryanvmenezes

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Today ushers in a new and potentially decisive era in political power here in Californias capital city.

Good morning, Im Sacramento bureau chief John Myers and todays newsletter begins with the numbers 70, 1990 and 8.

Each relate to the ascendancy of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), who took the oath of office Monday afternoon. An all-star group of Californias most powerful politicians were on hand, including Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.

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Rendon made special note of his working class roots and those of his wife. And as Liam Dillon reports, Rendon laid out three big policy goals  most notably a focus on poverty  and later leader mused a bit on what his arrival means for the evolution of political power in Sacramento.

Now, about those three numbers.

70: Rendon is the 70th speaker of the Assembly, a line of leaders dating back to the Gold Rush. Most of them served in Californias first six decades as a state, when longevity in the job was rare.

1990: This was the year voters imposed legislative term limits with a six-year cap on service in the Assembly. One third of all Assembly speakers have served since these original term limits were imposed. Voters loosened term limits in 2012 and Rendon, as a result, has the potential to serve more than eight years leading the Legislatures lower house.

8: This is how many speakers have ever served four years or longer, a fact that runs counter to the often heard lament of too much leadership turnover in the Legislature. In fact, only three Assembly speakers have ever served six years or longer: the late Jesse Unruh, the late Leo McCarthy and the iconic Willie Brown.

Perhaps what Speaker Rendon really can do is help recalibrate the state Capitols balance of power. Every country has an executive, Rendon recounted on Monday once telling students during his teaching career. Only democracies have a legislature.

By the way, you can find out what really makes Mr. Speaker tick by reading Melanie Masons in-depth profile of the man from January.

PRIMED FOR PRIMARY NIGHT

Speaking of numbers, here are tonights big ones in the race for the White House: two and four.

Two states hold Democratic presidential primaries today  Michigan and Mississippi  while Republicans tack on primaries in Idaho and Hawaii, four GOP contests in all.

The Great Lakes State is tonights big prize for Democrats, with 147 delegates at stake. And it will be yet another test of the differing Democratic brands of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, finds Cathleen Decker.

She also writes that Michigan may be good to Donald Trump tonight, given how well outsiders have done in the state.

As always, well have full Election Night returns as polls begin to close, updates to our delegate tracker and continuing coverage from the presidential reporting team on our Trail Guide news feed.

NO MAGIC MIKE IN 2016, AS BLOOMBERG SITS IT OUT

Vegas oddsmakers can scratch Michael Bloombergs name off their lists in the presidential sweepstakes. The former New York City mayor is officially taking a pass on a 2016 campaign as an independent.

As Lisa Mascaro reports, this one just didnt pencil out for a man who made his fortune on analyzing information.

When I look at the data, its clear to me that if I entered the race, I could not win, he said on Monday.

HANG OUT WITH US ON THURSDAY IN L.A.

A quick note to invite those of you in Los Angeles to join us for debate night this Thursday at the Regent Theater. Im lucky enough to join colleagues Christina Bellantoni and Seema Mehta for some political analysis both before and after the GOP presidential debate. Prizes? Debate bingo? How could you say no? RSVP today and join us on Thursday.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

 Trump seems to be accusing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of quid pro quo corruption in new TV ads. Melanie Mason and Michael Finnegan report the ads are a clear sign of the intense focus now being placed on the battleground that is Florida.

 Rubios strategy to win suburban areas doesnt add up, Lisa Mascaro finds.

 In Michigan on Monday, Clinton lamented her dilemma in the politically thorny debate between privacy and security highlighted by the FBIs fight with Apple, report Brian Bennett and Evan Halper.

 Hillary Clinton on Fox News? Yes, it was true on Monday.

 In Sacramento, Assemblywoman Patty Lopez (D-San Fernando) has agreed to pay a fine for not properly filing campaign and personal finance statements, reports Patrick McGreevy.

 California pop group Echosmith will perform at the White House Easter Egg Roll March 28, along with Let It Go singer Idina Menzel, and Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) rapper Silento. Made up of four Chino siblings, Echosmiths first hit, Cool Kids, got to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

LOGISTICS

Miss yesterdays newsletter? Check it out here. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox daily. And keep an eye on our new politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. Are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics and @LATpoliticsCA?

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast.

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.
The sheriff's deputy needed to be fired, his supervisor decided.

Daniel Genao was popular with his colleagues and had never been in serious trouble before.

But he had made false statements on police reports, writing that there was a gun in a suspect's waistband when the weapon was actually behind a nearby planter.

From then on, Genao's testimony in court would be questioned, Chief Thomas Laing noted, according to county records. More broadly, Laing said, Genao's actions had undermined the criminal justice system.

Nearly four years later, Genao continues to draw a county salary. The Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission reinstated him, even though he had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report.

(@latgraphics)

Sheriff Jim McDonnell is fighting the case and others like it in court, saying he is determined to keep lying deputies off his force.

Since taking office in December, McDonnell has made honesty among his 9,000 sworn deputies a centerpiece of his reform agenda. He has tightened the penalties for lying on the job, fired deputies who made false statements and is reviewing the assignments of those found to have lied in the past. Some could be required to work under special conditions, such as recording all their interactions with the public.

McDonnell's tough approach contrasts with that of former Sheriff Lee Baca, who let some proven liars off with remedial classes. Baca himself pleaded guilty in federal court last month to lying to federal authorities and faces up to six months in prison as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors.

Establishing clear ethical boundaries is especially important as the department emerges from a period of scandal, with more than a dozen former employees convicted of crimes including lying and beating a jail visitor, McDonnell said in interviews with The Times.

He said there is no place in his department for the most egregious liars. Assigning them to desk jobs is not a solution because every deputy should be ready to testify on the witness stand, he said.

"My question is, for someone who is proven to be untruthful or lacks integrity or committed acts of theft, insubordination, those kinds of things, where can I put someone like this?" McDonnell said. "Where can I comfortably deploy people where we don't have that level of trust?"

My question is, for someone who is proven to be untruthful or lacks integrity or committed acts of theft, insubordination, those kinds of things, where can I put someone like this?  Sheriff Jim McDonnell

But to fully implement his strict regime, McDonnell must contend with the Civil Service Commission, a five-member body appointed by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that adjudicates discipline cases of county employees. In the last year, the commission has reinstated Genao as well as a deputy who lied about whether he had tried to take a photo under a woman's skirt and another deputy found to have falsely asserted that he had not witnessed a colleague beat up a jail inmate.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Sheriff's Department hired officers with histories of misconduct >>

McDonnell's efforts to challenge those decisions and two others involving false statements mark a significant change from the past. In the previous five years, the Sheriff's Department did not appeal any civil service decisions of any type, according to department officials.

The number of deputies with documented histories of dishonesty could be in the dozens or hundreds and possibly includes some high-ranking supervisors, said Executive Officer Neal Tyler, McDonnell's top aide.

Even if he wins the court appeals, McDonnell cannot completely clean house. Because of contractual protections, he cannot get rid of proven liars he inherited from the Baca era.

In the landmark Brady vs. Maryland case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors must turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense. Local prosecutors keep a so-called Brady list of officers with credibility issues, which defense attorneys can use to undermine the officers' testimony, potentially derailing criminal cases.

At the Los Angeles Police Department, where McDonnell spent much of his career, lying under oath or on an official report almost always costs an officer his or her job if the lie is material to the case, said Cmdr. Stuart Maislin, who is in charge of internal affairs.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

An LAPD officer who is fired by the chief for lying but reinstated through the appeals process is typically placed on long-term desk duty.

"Once we prove something is a false statement, it's almost a kiss of death" for the officer's career, Maislin said.

Under Baca, a cornerstone of the Sheriff's Department's discipline system was the use of remedial classes instead of suspensions. If deputies learned why the behaviors were wrong, Baca reasoned, they would be less likely to re-offend.

In a 2013 report, a department watchdog said classroom time was not adequate punishment for some deputies who made false statements, including lying on official records.

"There are far too many instances of the department being lenient toward members who withheld or obscured the truth," Special Counsel Merrick Bobb wrote in the report.

Full coverage: L.A. County jail system under scrutiny

But advocates for sheriff's deputies say the issue is not black and white.

Sean Van Leeuwen, vice president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, a union representing deputies, criticized McDonnell's "one size fits all" approach to honesty.

"Was this a bad act or was this a bad heart?" Van Leeuwen said. "Did you do something wrong because you made a mistake, or was this really a bad act?"

Both the LAPD rules and the new sheriff's policies include a range of discipline, up to and including termination, for making false statements. McDonnell said he does consider the deputy's intent and the seriousness of the lie in deciding the punishment.

Still, McDonnell is cracking down. In his first year in office, 90% of deputies found to have made false statements were fired. In the preceding three years, half were fired, with the other half receiving suspensions or demotions, according to department statistics.

Deputy Steven Stroble was on duty at the Alhambra Courthouse on June 14, 2011, when he reached under a woman's skirt to take a photo with his cellphone, according to a civil service hearing officer's report filed in court.

(@latgraphics)

In an initial interview with sheriff's investigators, he denied being in the building that day. He later admitted he was in the clerk's office but claimed he was picking up a piece of paper near the woman while texting his wife on his cellphone, the report said.

The investigators urged him to tell the truth, because the incident had been captured on video cameras inside and outside the clerk's office. Stroble denied that he tried to photograph under the woman's skirt but said he had intended to take a photo of her leg to send to his brother. He said he stopped as he was leaning over, realizing it was a stupid thing to do, the report said.

In March 2012, Stroble pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of photographing under a person's clothes for the purpose of sexual gratification.

The Sheriff's Department fired Stroble. But the Civil Service Commission reinstated him, noting that he did not actually take the photo, that he owned up to the lies and that other employees have kept their jobs despite making false statements.

In November, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge agreed with the department that the deputy should be fired. Stroble is appealing and remains on leave, with pay.

Genao, the deputy who wrote false reports about the gun, said he was traumatized because of his fear that the suspect he encountered was armed. Stress and confusion, Genao said, caused him to write that he found the gun on the suspect rather than behind the planter, according to a civil service hearing officer's report filed in court. Genao insisted that he did not intentionally lie, the report said.

The hearing officer concluded that dismissal was excessive because Genao admitted to the false statement and was a popular, well-respected deputy. Other deputies have ended up on the Brady list yet remained on the job, and Genao could work a non-patrol assignment, the hearing officer noted.

The Civil Service Commission voted to return Genao to duty with a 30-day suspension. The Sheriff's Department has put him on leave, with pay, while it appeals.

In a third case being challenged by McDonnell, Deputy Mark Montez said he did not see or hear another deputy punch an inmate seven times at Men's Central Jail on Sept. 27, 2010, according to a civil service hearing officer's report filed in court.

Video showed Montez was standing nearby when the beating occurred, according to the report. Montez had to have heard the inmate being beaten, so his denials were not credible, the hearing officer concluded.

Montez also said he was unaware that his colleague later bashed the inmate's face against the wall. But afterward, he was seen on video with the colleague, motioning with his arms as he looked at the wall, which had blood on it, the report said.

The Civil Service Commission reinstated Montez, noting that other employees who were nearby and denied knowledge of the beatings received lesser punishment. The department is appealing, and Montez remains on leave, with pay.

Greg Z. Kahwajian, president of the Civil Service Commission, said the panel's decisions reflect the disciplinary standards set by the Sheriff's Department. The commission has sometimes found it compelling when deputies have pointed to others who committed similar offenses and kept their jobs.

Among those who kept their jobs is David Anthony Hernandez, who pleaded no contest in 2009 to filing a false police report.

To justify searching a car, he claimed he had found several arrest warrants for people connected to the vehicle, according to court records. But computer records showed he hadn't looked up the warrants until after he had found cocaine and arrested the suspect.

Hernandez was placed on paid leave after the criminal charges were filed, returning to duty after an administrative investigation, a department spokesman said. Officials declined to say what punishment Hernandez received, citing state confidentiality laws.

Hernandez could not be reached for comment. He is still employed as a patrol deputy.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

Twitter: @cindychangLA

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The sheriffs deputy needed to be fired, his supervisor decided.

Daniel Genao was popular with his colleagues and had never been in serious trouble before.

But he had made false statements on police reports, writing that there was a gun in a suspects waistband when the weapon was actually behind a nearby planter.

Advertisement

From then on, Genaos testimony in court would be questioned, Chief Thomas Laing noted, according to county records. More broadly, Laing said, Genaos actions had undermined the criminal justice system.

Nearly four years later, Genao continues to draw a county salary. The Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission reinstated him, even though he had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report.

Sheriff Jim McDonnell is fighting the case and others like it in court, saying he is determined to keep lying deputies off his force.

Since taking office in December, McDonnell has made honesty among his 9,000 sworn deputies a centerpiece of his reform agenda. He has tightened the penalties for lying on the job, fired deputies who made false statements and is reviewing the assignments of those found to have lied in the past. Some could be required to work under special conditions, such as recording all their interactions with the public.

McDonnells tough approach contrasts with that of former Sheriff Lee Baca, who let some proven liars off with remedial classes. Baca himself pleaded guilty in federal court last month to lying to federal authorities and faces up to six months in prison as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors.

Establishing clear ethical boundaries is especially important as the department emerges from a period of scandal, with more than a dozen former employees convicted of crimes including lying and beating a jail visitor, McDonnell said in interviews with The Times.

He said there is no place in his department for the most egregious liars. Assigning them to desk jobs is not a solution because every deputy should be ready to testify on the witness stand, he said.

My question is, for someone who is proven to be untruthful or lacks integrity or committed acts of theft, insubordination, those kinds of things, where can I put someone like this? McDonnell said. Where can I comfortably deploy people where we dont have that level of trust?

But to fully implement his strict regime, McDonnell must contend with the Civil Service Commission, a five-member body appointed by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that adjudicates discipline cases of county employees. In the last year, the commission has reinstated Genao as well as a deputy who lied about whether he had tried to take a photo under a womans skirt and another deputy found to have falsely asserted that he had not witnessed a colleague beat up a jail inmate.

McDonnells efforts to challenge those decisions and two others involving false statements mark a significant change from the past. In the previous five years, the Sheriffs Department did not appeal any civil service decisions of any type, according to department officials.

The number of deputies with documented histories of dishonesty could be in the dozens or hundreds and possibly includes some high-ranking supervisors, said Executive Officer Neal Tyler, McDonnells top aide.

Even if he wins the court appeals, McDonnell cannot completely clean house. Because of contractual protections, he cannot get rid of proven liars he inherited from the Baca era.

::

In the landmark Brady vs. Maryland case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors must turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense. Local prosecutors keep a so-called Brady list of officers with credibility issues, which defense attorneys can use to undermine the officers testimony, potentially derailing criminal cases.

At the Los Angeles Police Department, where McDonnell spent much of his career, lying under oath or on an official report almost always costs an officer his or her job if the lie is material to the case, said Cmdr. Stuart Maislin, who is in charge of internal affairs.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

An LAPD officer who is fired by the chief for lying but reinstated through the appeals process is typically placed on long-term desk duty.

Once we prove something is a false statement, its almost a kiss of death for the officers career, Maislin said.

Under Baca, a cornerstone of the Sheriffs Departments discipline system was the use of remedial classes instead of suspensions. If deputies learned why the behaviors were wrong, Baca reasoned, they would be less likely to re-offend.

In a 2013 report, a department watchdog said classroom time was not adequate punishment for some deputies who made false statements, including lying on official records.

There are far too many instances of the department being lenient toward members who withheld or obscured the truth, Special Counsel Merrick Bobb wrote in the report.

But advocates for sheriffs deputies say the issue is not black and white.

Sean Van Leeuwen, vice president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, a union representing deputies, criticized McDonnells one size fits all approach to honesty.

Was this a bad act or was this a bad heart? Van Leeuwen said. Did you do something wrong because you made a mistake, or was this really a bad act?

Both the LAPD rules and the new sheriffs policies include a range of discipline, up to and including termination, for making false statements. McDonnell said he does consider the deputys intent and the seriousness of the lie in deciding the punishment.

Still, McDonnell is cracking down. In his first year in office, 90% of deputies found to have made false statements were fired. In the preceding three years, half were fired, with the other half receiving suspensions or demotions, according to department statistics.

::

Deputy Steven Stroble was on duty at the Alhambra Courthouse on June 14, 2011, when he reached under a womans skirt to take a photo with his cellphone, according to a civil service hearing officers report filed in court.

In an initial interview with sheriffs investigators, he denied being in the building that day. He later admitted he was in the clerks office but claimed he was picking up a piece of paper near the woman while texting his wife on his cellphone, the report said.

The investigators urged him to tell the truth, because the incident had been captured on video cameras inside and outside the clerks office. Stroble denied that he tried to photograph under the womans skirt but said he had intended to take a photo of her leg to send to his brother. He said he stopped as he was leaning over, realizing it was a stupid thing to do, the report said.

In March 2012, Stroble pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of photographing under a persons clothes for the purpose of sexual gratification.

The Sheriffs Department fired Stroble. But the Civil Service Commission reinstated him, noting that he did not actually take the photo, that he owned up to the lies and that other employees have kept their jobs despite making false statements.

In November, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge agreed with the department that the deputy should be fired. Stroble is appealing and remains on leave, with pay.

Genao, the deputy who wrote false reports about the gun, said he was traumatized because of his fear that the suspect he encountered was armed. Stress and confusion, Genao said, caused him to write that he found the gun on the suspect rather than behind the planter, according to a civil service hearing officers report filed in court. Genao insisted that he did not intentionally lie, the report said.

The hearing officer concluded that dismissal was excessive because Genao admitted to the false statement and was a popular, well-respected deputy. Other deputies have ended up on the Brady list yet remained on the job, and Genao could work a non-patrol assignment, the hearing officer noted.

The Civil Service Commission voted to return Genao to duty with a 30-day suspension. The Sheriffs Department has put him on leave, with pay, while it appeals.

In a third case being challenged by McDonnell, Deputy Mark Montez said he did not see or hear another deputy punch an inmate seven times at Mens Central Jail on Sept. 27, 2010, according to a civil service hearing officers report filed in court.

Video showed Montez was standing nearby when the beating occurred, according to the report. Montez had to have heard the inmate being beaten, so his denials were not credible, the hearing officer concluded.

Montez also said he was unaware that his colleague later bashed the inmates face against the wall. But afterward, he was seen on video with the colleague, motioning with his arms as he looked at the wall, which had blood on it, the report said.

The Civil Service Commission reinstated Montez, noting that other employees who were nearby and denied knowledge of the beatings received lesser punishment. The department is appealing, and Montez remains on leave, with pay.

Greg Z. Kahwajian, president of the Civil Service Commission, said the panels decisions reflect the disciplinary standards set by the Sheriffs Department. The commission has sometimes found it compelling when deputies have pointed to others who committed similar offenses and kept their jobs.

Among those who kept their jobs is David Anthony Hernandez, who pleaded no contest in 2009 to filing a false police report.

To justify searching a car, he claimed he had found several arrest warrants for people connected to the vehicle, according to court records. But computer records showed he hadnt looked up the warrants until after he had found cocaine and arrested the suspect.

Hernandez was placed on paid leave after the criminal charges were filed, returning to duty after an administrative investigation, a department spokesman said. Officials declined to say what punishment Hernandez received, citing state confidentiality laws.

Hernandez could not be reached for comment. He is still employed as a patrol deputy.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

Twitter: @cindychangLA

Hoy: Lea esta historia en espanol
Hoping to force an oil company to plug more than a dozen wells that had been sitting idle next to a Washington Boulevard school, local residents urged the Los Angeles Fire Department to take action.

They pointed to a rarely used section of city code that empowered the fire chief to demand that the company either restart or abandon idle wells. The Fire Department then made that demand.

But instead of plugging the wells, the oil company says it has reactivated them to satisfy the city demands, restoring the flow of natural gas across the street from an Arlington Heights environmental studies academy named for Rachel Carson and Al Gore.

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The decision stunned residents. We thought we had the upper hand, said Jeff Camp, president of the United Neighborhoods Neighborhood Council, which supported the Fire Department request. I cant believe it.

Eric Kinneberg, a spokesman for Freeport-McMoRan, said in a statement that the Fire Department and state oil officials did a safety and operational inspection before wells were reactivated and that the site was in compliance with city and state regulations.

Community members had raised concerns about the idle wells because if oil or gas wells deteriorate, chemicals, fluids or gases can leak into groundwater or the air.

In recent years, three wells at the 4th Avenue site had failed pressure tests. After more tests, one was plugged and the other two were found to be in line with idle well rules, according to state regulators.

Residents had also worried that leaving wells idle indefinitely could increase the risk that taxpayers would ultimately have to pay to plug them if the oil company fell into financial disarray. Freeport-McMoRan has been battered by plunging prices for oil and faces daunting debt.

In light of those woes, is the company trying to avoid paying for the required costly cleanup of the site  or stalling in order to sell the site or go bankrupt? Jefferson Park resident Steven Peckman asked.

West Adams resident Michael Salman said he believed that if Freeport is reactivating the wells, theyre doing it only as a temporary measure to try to avoid the expense of plugging the wells.

Kinneberg said the site still had economic value. Any assertions that the city could be left with plugging costs were unfounded attempts to incite panic, he wrote.

In a letter urging the Fire Department to act, Salman had called the idle wells a wholly unnecessary hazard that were not producing any benefit and should not be allowed to sit there indefinitely.

Residents had reason to think the 4th Avenue wells would not be reactivated. When the Los Angeles Unified School District planned the new academy, the company then operating the site, Plains Exploration & Production, said the proximity to a school would trigger a long list of air quality regulations that could make it difficult for them to operate viably.

Oil production halted there more than five years ago  around the opening of the Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Studies, named for the author of Silent Spring and the former vice president. Natural gas continued to flow for a few years longer.

Besides the challenges that oil producers had said were posed by the nearby school, residents had believed there was another obstacle to reactivating the wells: Freeport no longer had state permits for water injection wells at the site.

But the company indicated last week that it did not need those permits because it had instead activated the injection wells for a different purpose  gas production.

Salman said that raised yet another issue. He pointed out that city codes say that converting a well in that way requires city approval, which the company has not yet received.

Kinneberg said it would have been impossible to reclassify the wells in time for the initial city deadline, so the company had activated the former injection wells as a necessary first step to show they worked for production, then idled them to allow time for the reclassification process.

Fire Department spokesman Peter Sanders said the department would not determine whether the company had satisfied the city demands to plug or reactivate the idle wells until it had heard back from the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.

State regulators have said their rules lack clarity on when an idle well should be plugged. But L.A. also has its own, stricter rules to nudge companies to plug wells.

The city rules say that after oil wells have been left idle for a year or longer, they must be either shut down or reactivated within roughly a month after the fire chief tells them to do so.

More than 1,100 idle wells are scattered across Los Angeles, according to the state geothermal resources agency. Still more could fall under the same kind of city demand as the 4th Avenue wells, since L.A. rules allow it to take action before California officially deems wells idle.

But Fire Department officials said they could remember only two other cases, both seven years ago, in which they demanded that idle wells be plugged or restarted. Fire officials said they usually target other violations because plugging wells can be costly for the company.

Rock Zierman, chief executive of the California Independent Petroleum Assn., estimated such costs could run from $150,000 to $500,000 per well. He said reviving wells with new technology had allowed companies to avoid the added costs and disturbance of drilling new ones.

Just to say that a well has happened to be idle for a year, it has to be abandoned even when it doesnt pose a threat  now youre taking an asset away from a producer, Zierman said.

Zierman said idle wells face regular inspections and testing. But some experts say that idle wells can pose a risk because they tend to be less closely monitored than active ones. A report prepared five years ago for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned that existing monitoring of idle wells in California was not consistent with adequate protection of underground sources of drinking water.

Without regular testing, there are no early warning signs until you have undesirable things starting to show up at the surface, said Robert Bea, professor emeritus at the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at UC Berkeley.

State rules deem wells idle and say they must be tested if they have not been operating for at least six months in a row during the last five years.

But there are no enforceable, statewide rules about how regularly they must be tested after that point, said Donald Drysdale, spokesman for the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. Local offices of the agency decide how often to do so based on factors such as groundwater depth, he said.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesEmily

Hoy: Lea esta historia en espanol
Im Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I dont want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

Honestys (Now) Department Policy

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Telling the truth would seem to go hand-in-hand with wearing a badge. But in the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, it hasnt always been so. More than a dozen former employees have been convicted of crimes in a five-year-old FBI investigation, including making false reports and trying to obstruct justice. Last month, former Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators. His successor, Jim McDonnell, has reemphasized honesty, firing deputies who dissemble and reviewing the assignments of those who have lied in the past. Still, he cant clean house completely.

Unintentionally Priming the Pump

A group of South Los Angeles residents hoped to force an oil company to plug more than a dozen wells sitting unused near a school. And an arcane section of city code seemed to back them up. It said that after wells have been idle for a year or more, they must be either shut down or reactivated. But instead of plugging the wells, the Freeport-McMoRan oil company says it has reactivated them, restoring the flow of natural gas across the street from an environmental studies academy named for conservationists Rachel Carson and Al Gore.

Unwelcome Attention

They were tracked by surveillance cameras and denied basic services such as water. When they called 911, police took their time responding. Federal authorities said this was how nonbelievers were treated in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., both run by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On Monday, a jury found that the two towns had violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers. The next step is for a judge to decide on a remedy. Federal receivership is one possibility.

Its International Womens Day

It has been more than 100 years since a group of socialists in New York City started International Womens Day, which never quite caught on in the United States but is celebrated in many other countries. So how has the global movement for womens equality fared? In Yemen, a woman is considered half a witness in court cases and is forbidden to leave the house without her husbands consent. In Tanzania and Lesotho, women cannot inherit land. We take a look at some key indicators of womens well-being around the world.

CALIFORNIA

-- How the question of whether to issue an emergency declaration to protect Los Angeles street people from expected winter storms became a game of hot-potato keep-away.

-- Its accepted wisdom that parents should be involved in their childrens education. But some immigrants feel reluctant because of language barriers or their own limited education. At Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles, a book club for parents is writing a new chapter of inclusion.

-- Fourteen people were injured when a Bay Area commuter train struck a tree that had fallen onto the tracks in heavy rain.

-- A fast-moving storm soaked Southern California Monday, complete with lightning strikes that startled commuters and momentarily cut power at Los Angeles International Airport.

NATION-WORLD

-- In a victory for gay rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states must honor adoptions by same-sex parents who move across state lines.

-- Clashes in Tunisia near the border with Libya left at least 53 people dead in what may be a sign of the spreading influence of Islamic State.

-- Raymond Tomlinson, the man who invented email and forever raised the profile of the @ symbol, has died.

-- Drought, famine and the spread of infectious diseases were long viewed as problems of the developing world. Today, theres a greater understanding of how the world is interconnected and how challenges to its future are universal. Im pleased to introduce our new Global Development Watch initiative, which launches today with support from the U.N. Foundation. Here, you will find coverage that highlights some of the issues and challenges in building a sustainable future. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Viacom Chairman Philippe Dauman talked up his plan to auction off a 40% stake in Paramount Pictures, the studio that made The Godfather, Forrest Gump, Mission: Impossible and Transformers.

-- Disneys Zootopia delivers lessons about race and prejudice, and a major reason theyre subtle rather than preachy is Michael Giacchinos upbeat, character-focused score.

-- Some schools have bake sales. A West Hollywood private school landed Beyonce.

BUSINESS

-- In 2005, Congress limited liability for gun sellers and manufacturers whose products get used in a crime. Would repealing the law end gun manufacturing in America? Highly doubtful, writes Times columnist Michael Hiltzik.

-- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under attack from an unexpected source: Democrats.

SPORTS

-- Tennis star Maria Sharapova revealed that she had failed a drug test at this years Australian Open. Should the World Anti-Doping Agency punish Sharapova? Join the discussion.

-- Whats Peyton Manning planning to do in retirement? His dad, Archie Manning, gives The Times Sam Farmer some insight.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- The Los Angeles Unified Schools District secret stash of art includes a Salvador Dali. The nations second-largest school district has amassed a collection of more than 50,000 artworks, donated over the years by alumni and donors. Now, a small selection can be viewed online. (KPCC)

-- Whats behind the low representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the vaunted STEM disciplines that underpin advanced economies? A female geochemist says an unacknowledged cause is sexual harassment. (Jezebel)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

Visitors to the Monterey Bay Aquarium got a rare sight: a sea otter giving birth. The mother had perched on a rock to escape rough seas stirred up by El Nino storms. It was the second time since December that a pregnant sea otter had used the pool to deliver a pup. Sea otter scientists working for decades on research  had never seen anything like this before, said an aquarium official.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.
In November, as a forecast of severe winter weather seemed to threaten Los Angeles homeless population, activists clamoring for Mayor Eric Garcetti to declare a citywide state of emergency had little luck.

Garcetti resisted the idea of an emergency proclamation  a move that would enable him to assume broader executive and police powers in the fight against homelessness  describing it as a rabbit hole that risked distracting from long-term solutions to the plight of thousands who live on L.A.'s streets.

Some homeless activists found the mayors inaction galling. But he may have been more amenable to their arguments than he let on. Shortly after declining to declare an emergency, Garcetti quietly wrote a letter asking for a similar proclamation from Gov. Jerry Brown.

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While the weather system will make life difficult for millions in California, it is imminently life-threatening to the more than 17,000 homeless Angelenos who live on the streets, he wrote on Dec. 15.

Brown rejected the request, according to officials in the governors office, arguing it would be unwise to declare a state of emergency before anticipated El Nino rains actually arrived. His hesitation now looks prescient: The pounding storms forecast for Southern California this winter have for the most part not materialized.

While the weather system will make life difficult for millions in California, it is imminently life-threatening to the more than 17,000 homeless Angelenos who live on the streets.  Mayor Eric Garcetti, in a letter asking Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency

Although the homeless have suffered  during a rainy stretch in January, a 60-year-old woman died of exposure on a downtown sidewalk  the weathers human toll has not been as dire as some predicted.

The request to the governors office, previously undisclosed, nevertheless sheds light on Garcettis back-channel actions during a period when city officials and homeless advocates were struggling to prepare for the expected El Nino onslaught.

Gary Blasi, a retired professor at the UCLA School of Law and longtime homeless advocate, said the letter also raises questions about why Garcetti, in light of the potential catastrophe he described to Brown, did not assume emergency powers himself.

Garcettis request is exactly contrary to what he was saying as to why he was not declaring a local state of emergency, said Blasi, who in the fall urged the mayor to issue such a declaration. Its either an emergency circumstance or its not.

Garcetti spokeswoman Connie Llanos said the mayors request to Brown had a pragmatic purpose: An emergency declaration from Sacramento would open the way to Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, which only the governor can formally request.

Llanos said the citys public-safety workers were already carrying out some of the tasks they would have under a mayoral emergency declaration, but that outside money was needed to boost their efforts.

We looked at everything  every tool we had available to us, Llanos said. What we really needed was additional funding, which is something that only the state, by accessing FEMA dollars, could have given us.

Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University, said the unpublicized exchange between Garcetti and Brown  and the ultimate absence of an emergency declaration by either  may also point to the political dimensions of homelessness, an intractable problem in which many elected officials see little upside in exerting leadership.

Theyre sort of playing hot-potato keep-away, Gerston said. Youd much rather have somebody else get their hands dirty on this issue.

The debate late last fall over some form of proclamation took place during a period of especially confused policymaking on homelessness. Faced with a homeless population that grew 12% during Garcettis first two years in office, L.A. City Council members held a news conference in September to announce their intention to declare a state of emergency on the issue.

However, subsequent scrutiny of city and state law found that such powers rested largely with the mayor, who could either declare a local state of emergency (subject to later council approval) or seek a more sweeping proclamation from the governor.

In the former case, the mayor could assume new power to create and enforce rules or requisition supplies necessary for the protection of life and property. By contrast, under a statewide declaration, emergency leadership powers would pass mostly to the governor, who could direct the states considerably greater resources to the city and also potentially seek federal disaster funding.

As the years end approached, Garcetti expressed little outward interest in using his own authority. Llanos said in November that Garcettis approach to sheltering the homeless from El Nino was not about a technical definition of a state of emergency, which he never promised.

In early December, Garcetti said criticisms about the lack of an urgent response to the predicted El Nino were more of a perceptional issue and suggested he was focused on long-range planning.

I think everybodys going down these rabbit holes of state of emergency, this and that, he said. Im less interested in short-term unease or criticism than long-term failure. I want to do this right. And if sometimes that means being quiet to put in place the things that you actually want to do to solve this, thats OK with me.

Llanos said the mayors comment about rabbit holes referred to the complexity of the issues involved, and was not meant to imply that an emergency declaration was unnecessary.

Less than two weeks later, Garcetti conveyed a different view of an emergency proclamations value  so long as it came from Brown.

I understand you are reluctant to declare a State of Emergency to address this crisis. Nonetheless, I respectfully request that you reconsider that decision, Garcetti wrote. Your declaration  could make the difference in our ability to address this impending humanitarian crisis. Thousands of Angelenos are depending on swift action from their government.

peter.jamison@latimes.com

Twitter: @petejamison

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A preliminary investigation shows that a mudslide triggered by days of rain probably caused a Bay Area commuter train to derail on Monday night, according to an official of Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks.

The Altamont Corridor Express, also known as the ACE train, was traveling north between Fremont and Pleasanton shortly after 7:15 p.m. when it struck a tree that had fallen onto the tracks and derailed, said Steve Walker, an ACE spokesman.

The train was the last of four from San Jose to Stockton that evening, Walker said. The three others  including one within an hour of the crash  had passed over that stretch of track without incident, he said.

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Days of sustained rain weakened a muddy hillside around a bend, and mud and water flowed onto the tracks and brought a tree with them, Walker said. The speed limit in that area is 40 mph and the train was going 35 mph, he said.

Of the 205 people on board, including two crew members, four people were hospitalized with serious injuries and five suffered minor injuries, Walker said. Neither crew member was hurt.

The front car completely derailed and landed in a creek, the second car was lifted off the tracks and remained upright and the final three cars and the locomotive remained on the tracks, Walker said.

The Department of Transportations Federal Railroad Administration will investigate the crash.

Francisco Castillo Jr., a Union Pacific spokesman, said in an interview with local news outlets Tuesday morning that the company sent investigators to the scene Monday night and that our preliminary investigation shows a mudslide may have caused the derailment ... when we went and checked out the area there was mud up to the wheel. Its clear that mud was involved.

Passengers in the car that landed in the creek broke out windows to escape, a witness told KRON-TV.

One side was in the water, one side which was up. People were coming out of the window. Tearing out the window and coming out that way, passenger Naveed Mozaffar told the station.

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ACE trains serve about 5,000 passengers daily, Walker said. Service was suspended Tuesday and will probably be closed again Wednesday, he said.

Its impossible to find 50 to 60 buses to get people to where they need to go, Walker said. Ideally, the train is what we need but were not going to rush it. We want to make sure the hill is stable.

Buses took passengers stranded by the crash to the Alameda County Fairgrounds on Monday night. Buses also were sent to ACE stations along the way to Stockton to pick up about 30 people who had planned to board the commuter train.

Firefighters completed their work at the scene by 2 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.

One of the Bay Areas smaller transit lines, the ACE train serves passengers traveling from parts of the Central Valley to the East Bay and Bay Area.

The express service through the Altamont Pass began in 1998 and has been expanded since then.

The transit line runs from Stockton to San Jose, with stops in several cities including Tracy, Livermore and Fremont.

Cities along the route have seen major development over the last three decades, with some considered bedroom communities for the Bay Area.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna

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The California bullet train has won a court victory in a key lawsuit that sought to stop the $64-billion project because it allegedly violated restrictions voters imposed in 2008.

A Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled that the allegations in the suit were not ripe for review, finding that opponents of the project offered no evidence that the state rail authority would not comply at some point with the restrictions as it continues to plan the project.

There are still too many unknown variables, Judge Michael Kenny wrote in his 19-page ruling in the lawsuit brought by Kings County and two farmers. The ruling appeared to leave open the door for the lawsuit to resume in the future.

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The chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority, Dan Richard, took the ruling as a validation of the states planning.

Todays ruling confirms that we are indeed delivering a fast, modern and environmentally friendly high-speed rail system that meets the voter-approved requirements under Proposition 1a, Richard said.

This five-year lawsuit wasted taxpayer dollars and delayed implementation, but we are moving forward and redoubling our efforts to build this transformative, job-creating investment in Californias future, he said.

Though the decision is a victory for the state, it holds the rail agency to strict compliance with some of the bond act requirements that will be difficult to meet.

Stuart Flashman, an attorney representing plaintiffs John Tos, Aaron Fukuda and Kings County, said he would have to consider his next steps and wouldnt rule out an appeal.

Though the high-speed rail authority may have won this round, the ruling  provides ominous signs about the authoritys future use of bond funds, Flashman wrote in an email. It should perhaps be considered a second shot across the bow of the authoritys current proposed system.

The 2008 bond act, which provided $9 billion for the high-speed rail program, required that the train system would have to be financially viable, allow the operation of trains every five minutes in each direction, operate without a subsidy, have all the funds identified for an operating segment before the start of construction and travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes, among other things.

The rail project has survived a number of legal challenges, political attacks and regulatory minefields over the last several years. It is struggling to find enough money to complete a partial operating segment by 2025.

Opposition has been strong in the Central Valley, where agricultural interests are backing a proposition for the November ballot that would reallocate bonds for the rail system to new water projects.

The rail system also has encountered difficult technical problems in its plans to cross the Southern California mountain ranges and surprisingly strong resistance in working-class Latino neighborhoods along a planned route in the San Fernando Valley.

Kenny flatly rejected some of the plaintiffs arguments, including that the state must adhere to the bond act requirements even if it hasnt yet tapped into the bond funds for construction. His ruling leaves the state free to continue with existing work using greenhouse gas fees and federal grants, even though it will eventually need the bond funds.

So far, the state has not attempted to sell the rail bonds to fund actual construction, though some environmental planning and administrative costs have been paid for with bond sales.

In an earlier phase of the lawsuit, an appeals court reversed Kennys finding that the state violated the bond act because it drafted a funding plan that did not comply with the bond act. In the current ruling, Kenny defers to that decision, saying the state has so far not submitted a funding plan to use the bond dollars.

The plaintiffs in the case asserted that the rail agency violated the bond act when it reached a political compromise in 2012 to share slower speed tracks in the Bay Area with commuter and freight trains.

Instead of speeds up to 220 mph, the trains would be limited to 110 mph. Instead of four tracks through the Bay Area peninsula, the system would use two existing tracks that all the trains share. Kenny ruled that the compromise by itself was not a direct violation of Proposition 1a.

But the suit also alleged that the slower speeds and sharing of track would not allow the system to meet two key requirements: the operation of 12 trains per hour and a 30-minute trip time between San Franciscos Transbay Terminal and San Jose.

Kenny noted that the authoritys own analysis showed that at 110 mph, trains would require 32 minutes to make the San Francisco to San Jose trip.

Kenny did send a strong message to the rail authority on the issue, when he said it was most troubling that the authority based its trip times on a station in San Francisco at 4th and King streets, instead of the Transbay Terminal that was identified as the end point in the bond act. Transbay is 1.3 miles farther along, accessed through a tunnel that potentially could add another minute to the trip time.

Kenny issued his ruling Friday, but it was not posted on the Superior Court website until Tuesday morning.

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A UC Irvine student who died after attending a rave in San Bernardino County last year fatally overdosed from the illegal drug Ecstasy, the coroner said.

The official cause of death was acute toxicity from MDMA, the chemical name of Ecstasy, said Mike Sutcliffe, supervising coroner investigator for the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department.

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The death of John Hoang Dinh Vo, 22, of San Diego, was the second since 2013 attributed to Ecstasy of a person attending a rave at the San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore. Vo went into cardiac arrest after suffering a possible seizure at Insomniacs Beyond Wonderland rave held at the amphitheater, a venue owned by San Bernardino County. Insomniac is a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment.

Vo was in his senior year at UC Irvine and studying biology.

There have now been at least 23 confirmed drug-related deaths nationwide since 2006 among people who went to raves organized by Los Angeles-area companies. Eleven have died in Southern California  four in San Bernardino County and seven in Los Angeles County  and five in the Las Vegas area.

Vo was taken from the rave to Loma Linda University Medical Center and was pronounced dead after 11 p.m. March 20.

Insomniac began holding raves at the San Manuel Amphitheater in 2013, following complaints of drug use at the companys previous concerts at the nearby National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino. Insomniac has since resumed holding events at the National Orange Show center.

After Vo died last year, an Insomniac spokeswoman said that the company extended its thoughts and prayers to his family.

Beyond Wonderland returns to the San Manuel Amphitheater later this month for a two-day run on March 18 and 19.

Drug overdoses have been a major problem at electronic dance music festivals, where the use of Ecstasy and similar substances is closely tied to the rave experience.

Ecstasy can trigger dangerously sharp increases in body temperature, to as high as 109 degrees, which can cause organ failure and death. Ravegoers are often told to drink plenty of water, but some drink too much, which can cause their sodium levels to crash and trigger a seizure that makes it hard to breathe. Some people have slipped into fatal comas.

The drug can also cause the breakdown of muscle into a chemical that damages the kidneys, which can be fatal.

Doctors have said overdosing ravegoers have come into the emergency room with convulsions and heart attacks, leaving some who survived with brain damage as well as impaired speech and walking ability.

Following the suspected drug overdose deaths of two young women who attended a Live Nation rave at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds last summer, the Los Angeles County Fair Assn. said last week the group is not planning to host raves in 2016.

Twitter: @ronlin

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In a project we call We Are L.A., we have been exploring and revisiting interesting elements of Los Angeles' present and past. During Women's History Month, we're taking a look at some notable and interesting Los Angeles women.

In 1880, Los Angeles was a young city in need of a head librarian.

After formally establishing a city library in 1872, the first two picks for the top job had been duds: Newspaper editor John C. Littlefield offended patrons with the pungent odor of Jimson weed, which he smoked for his asthma; Patrick Connolly was deemed more fond of the contents of the saloon on the first floor of the building at Spring and Temple than the library rooms on the second. The City Council vowed to "elect a lady librarian" to fill the position.

Mary Emily Foy was 18 years old and had been part of the fifth graduating class from Los Angeles High School a year earlier. She applied for the job and individually lobbied each of the 15 male City Council members to get it.

Once she was unanimously appointed, Foy developed a reputation for her wide-ranging knowledge: She was often called upon to settle bets among bar patrons for questions like "Who wrote Webster's Dictionary: Noah or Daniel?" (Noah, for the record.) Foy also established a Dewey Decimal catalog system, hosted the Ladies Reading Room, and refereed chess games in the Newspaper Room.

William Mulholland, who was designing the city's aqueduct system, came to the library asking if he could take home a reference book for his research. Foy bent the rules for him and allowed him to check it out.

The City Council didn't reappoint Foy when her term was up in 1884, but she made the best of it: She attended the California State Normal School in Los Angeles (a precursor to UCLA) and Woodbury Business College. Foy returned to Los Angeles High School as a teacher, and later became a Democratic Party leader and prominent suffragist.

It is absurd to anticipate that women will be less womanly, or men less gallant, because the women may devote five minutes out of every year or every two years at the polls.

In 1911, California became the sixth state to allow women to vote.

Mary E. Foy in front of a mural of her parents, Samuel and Lucinda Foy, in the Statler Hotels Foy Room at 7th and Figueroa streets (now the Omni Hotel) in 1957. The mural was eventually painted over. (Los Angeles Times)

In 1921, she campaigned for a bond issue so Los Angeles could build its own library building. (The three rooms above the saloon where she'd worked were rented.)

The Central Library building opened in 1926 on the same plot of land where Foy had attended the Normal School years earlier.

Foy unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1934  though she did come in fourth out of 11 candidates, and was the only woman in the running  and in 1939, she established the group First Century Families, which still exists today and is dedicated to Los Angeles preservation.

She died in February 1962. In July of that year, on what would have been her 100th birthday, the Central Library officially christened the Mary E. Foy California Room, which was later renamed the Children's Reading Room.

You can find out more about and contribute to our growing selection of people and places that make Los Angeles interesting at #WeAreLA.
Onlookers visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday got a rare glimpse of a pregnant sea otter giving birth to a pup after she perched atop a rock to escape rough seas caused by El Nino storms.

Aquarium workers filmed the incredible birth by chance after the female sea otter swam from the ocean into the Great Tide Pool, a sheltered body of water that rests at the edge of the facility.

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After giving birth, the mother pulled the pup close to her chest and began a grooming regimen to keep it warm. Sea otter pups have a thick layer of fur that makes them buoyant, kind of like a floating cork, facility spokeswoman Angela Hains said.

Sea otter scientists working for decades on research  had never seen anything like this before, she said.

The wild sea otter remained in the pool caring for her new pup until Monday, then swam out to sea, Hains said. But the mother and her pup returned later that day.

It is the second time since December that a pregnant sea otter has used the pool to deliver a pup.

Once nearly extinct, sea otters are a crucial part of Monterey Bays ecosystems. Otters consume sea urchins and other marine life, which allows the bays kelp forests and eel grass at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Watsonville to thrive.

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA

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Victor Emilio Cazares Gastellum, an alleged onetime top lieutenant in Mexicos Sinaloa drug cartel, has been extradited to San Diego, four years after his arrest in connection with one of the largest U.S. investigations ever mounted against the powerful organized crime group.

Cazares, who was flown from the state of Mexico to San Diego on Friday, entered a not guilty plea in federal court Monday and was denied bail.

Cazares, who is believed to be related to Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, allegedly ran a drug trafficking arm of the cartel that linked Colombian cocaine producers with cities across the U.S.

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His vast network of truck drivers, stash house operators, pilots and regional distributors was detailed in a four-part series published by The Times in 2011. The investigation, headed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, resulted in the arrests of more than 400 people across the U.S. and Mexico.

Cazares, 52, was raised in Mexicos drug trafficking heartland in the Sierra Madre mountains and moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Bell in the 1990s, racking up a few minor drug arrests before moving back to Sinaloa.

He ran his distribution empire from his sprawling ranch in the community of Badiraguato, where he built a palatial home with a twin-towered church, two pools and stables for his dancing horses.

Cazares eluded his pursuers for years after his indictment in 2007, in part by undergoing plastic surgery that made him look younger. He was arrested in April 2012 at a highway checkpoint near Guadalajara.

The Sinaloa, Mexico, estate of alleged cartel kingpin Victor Emilio Cazares, as seen in 2009. Cazares, who was arrested in Mexico in 2012, has been extradited to San Diego. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

During Cazares years fighting extradition, U.S. and Mexican authorities have kept the pressure on the Sinaloa cartel, most notably with the arrest of Guzman, whose tunnel escape last July and subsequent recapture in January riveted the world.

If Chapo cultivated a defiant bravado that bedeviled authorities, Cazares represented the low-profile, business side of the cartel, more FedEx than Scarface.

A hands-on manager who kept constant tabs on his shipments, Cazares allegedly oversaw hundreds of distribution rings based in major U.S. cities.

His alleged distributors included a middle-aged American pilot who shuttled cocaine loads from Southern California to Pennsylvania; a long-haul truck driver who rarely made a move without first getting the OK from his psychic in Compton; and Carlos Charlie Cuevas, the leader of a crew of 40 drivers and lookouts who smuggled drugs across the border at Calexico in Californias Imperial Valley.

Some of Cazares former underlings, including Cuevas, could be potential witnesses if the case goes to trial, though there are signs of a plea agreement in the works.

Jan Ronis, Cazares San Diego-based attorney, said Cazares may be open to resolving the case in order to avoid the years-long wait for a trial to proceed. Defendants of Cazares stature awaiting trial are often placed in solitary confinement  locked in a cell 23 hours a day  at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego.

Hes hoping to resolve the case, if he can resolve it in his best interest, Ronis said.

The next court hearing is scheduled for April 4.

Cazares was extradited after he exhausted all of his appeals, according to the Mexican attorney generals office. He is the 221st person extradited to the U.S. during the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Cazares was being held at the maximum security Altiplano Prison outside Mexico City, where Guzman is currently in custody.

Twitter: @ricardin24

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If Laguna Beach residents have trouble concentrating or are awakened by rumbling from above, the City Council wants the Federal Aviation Administration to know about it.

In a rare act of activism, the council is urging residents to call or email aviation officials if noise from passing jetliners annoys them.

One of the things that helps us with the FAA is when we have data points, Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede said. The way we get data points is when people call and complain or email and complain.

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Airplane noise complaints are nothing new in Laguna Beach. The city has relayed residents concerns to the FAA for years, but one South Laguna homeowner said she has noticed an uptick in noise since October.

The nonstop airplanes over my home continue, Michele Monda told the council.

Monda said that for three straight mornings last fall, she tallied an average of 12 to 15 flights passing overhead 40 minutes or less apart each day. Planes begin departing from John Wayne Airport at 7 a.m.

That had not happened before, Monda said in a follow-up phone interview.

Monda is concerned that not only are flights getting increasingly close to Laguna Beach but that commercial jets could be flying at lower altitudes. When she recently took off on a flight from John Wayne, Monda said, she could see the pool, table and chairs in her yard.

Youre telling me at 8,000 feet my eyes could identify that? she said.

Monda said she asked the FAA if anything had changed regarding the routes of departing jets or the altitude at which they fly when crossing over land and didnt get a clear answer.

Agency spokesman Ian Gregor wrote in an email that the FAA has not changed any procedures at John Wayne.

The noise concerns come at a time when the FAA is considering new air traffic procedures at airports nationwide, including John Wayne, which is on unincorporated land surrounded by Newport Beach, Irvine and Santa Ana.

The FAA wants to replace traditional ground-based air traffic procedures with satellite-based technology with its Next Generation Air Transportation System. It is also considering a proposal to narrow flight paths at 11 Southern California airports, including John Wayne.

Gregor says Laguna Beach would be unaffected by these changes.

The agency believes that the changes could save fuel, reduce emissions and delays, and shorten flight times by establishing flight paths that are less dispersed than they have been.

Air traffic controllers now can direct pilots off standard routes to keep planes safely separated from one another and to make up time, Gregor said. Under the proposed system, precise takeoff paths would be programmed into the planes flight plan.

The downside, as residents see it, is that the system could concentrate flights over residential neighborhoods especially in Newport Beach, parts of which sit beneath John Waynes takeoff zone.

Flights from John Wayne headed east of Las Vegas are supposed to ascend over the ocean, turn around and fly over land near the South Laguna and Dana Point border.

The proposed new flight paths would be virtually identical to the current system, Gregor said, adding that the FAA still needs to approve the satellite method, possibly this summer.

Laguna Beach Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman said during the meeting that the noise residents are hearing could stem from pilots not adhering to the fixed route and turning around earlier, thus traveling over more of the city.

It comes down to the end of the flight when [pilots] brag about, Were early, Iseman said. One of the ways they get to be early is turn around in a hurry. Our problem could be easily solved by flying out just a little bit longer. Were talking about seconds longer before they turn around.

The FAAs top priority is safety, Gregor said.

During heavy volume times, it often is not possible to keep all planes in one stream, Gregor said. So [air traffic] controllers will [move] them to maintain an efficient flow of traffic while keeping aircraft the required distance from one another.

Iseman and Zur Schmiede formed a subcommittee to study the issue and are working with city staff and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) to address residents concerns.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce

Alderton writes for Times Community News.
On Monday, the attorney of Making a Murderer subject Steven Avery announced he is releasing a book about the trial. Jerome Buting, who was featured prominently in the Netflix series, said in a news release that HarperCollins will publish his personal account of what happened in Manitowoc, Wisc., in 2017.

If you cant wait that long for more tales of injustice, weve got great news. Well, not that great: Manitowoc is hardly the only place in America where you can find bad cops, crooked prosecutors or lousy defense attorneys. For many, the justice system has perpetrated injustice.

But its good news for readers, at least, because plenty of these stories have been immortalized as books. For your next rage-inducing read, consider one of these.

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1. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Author Bryan Stevenson is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal services to prisoners and defendants who cant afford them. His book is a staggering look at who in America typically gets the death penalty. Much of the book centers on the case of Walter McMillian, a black man who became a scapegoat for the local police when the murder of a young white woman went unsolved.

2. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Steven Avery isnt the first real-life person to get the Netflix treatment. Season 1 of Orange Is the New Black is based on Piper Kermans memoir of her 11 months in prison under mandatory minimum-sentencing laws for decade-old money laundering charges. Its not quite as salacious as the show, but it does provide a solid overview of the injustices people face behind bars.

3. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy

The murder of an LAPD officers son raises complicated questions about who gets justice in neighborhoods where homicides seem to come with the territory. Written by our L.A. Times colleague Jill Leovy.

4. Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong by Raymond Bonner

Shortly after the body of an elderly widowed white woman was found in South Carolina, police arrested a black man who had helped clean her gutters. He was semi-literate, intellectually disabled and had no record of previous felonies. Ninety days later, he was given the death penalty for the crime. After 11 years on death row, a young attorney took up his case and tried to clear his name.

5. Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

Five women were murdered on Long Island between 2007 and 2010. All of them were prostitutes. All disappeared after meeting with johns from Craigslist. Like most women who engage in sex work, the women came from marginalized backgrounds and troubled upbringings. The fact that it seemed like they were victims of a serial killer didnt seem to trouble local police, and their murders remain unsolved.

6. Surviving Justice: Americas Wrongly Convicted and Exonerated edited by Lola Vollen and Dave Eggers

In first-person narratives, men and women who were jailed for crimes they didnt commit explain how it happened  and what life was like after they got out again.

7. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

Between 2008 and 2012, 350 cases of sexual assault were reported to the police in Missoula, the picturesque college town that plays home to the University of Montana. Jon Krakauer (the nonfiction master who wrote Into Thin Air, Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven) looked at five of those cases and explored why neither the university not the local police seemed to want to get involved.

8. The Executioners Song by Norman Mailer

The police and the courts got this one right: Gary Gilmore did, in fact, murder two people in Utah in 1976. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, but his execution was delayed or rescheduled on several occasions because of stays filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Gilmore actually fought to get his execution, saying, This is my life and this is my death. Norman Mailer won a Pulitzer for the book, which looks at Gilmores early life and Americas cultural and judicial debate over the death penalty in the 1970s.

9. Life After Death by Damien Echols

Three teenagers were tried as adults and convicted of murder in 1994 for the 1993 slayings of three Arkansas children. Two of the so-called West Memphis Three were given life sentences; the third, Damien Echols, got the death penalty. New DNA evidence produced in 2007 led to the eventual freedom of the three. In this memoir, Echols recounts what happened to him after the investigation and trial, both of which were marred by shoddy police work, dubious evidence and a nationwide public hysteria about devil worship known as the Satanic Panic.

10. The Central Park Five: Chronicle of a City Wilding by Sarah Burns

Similar to the case of the West Memphis Three, the Central Park Five was a group of teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of a gruesome and widely publicized crime. Each of them spent six to 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed to the case and was linked to it by DNA evidence. To find out what happened, author Sarah Burns interviews the wrongfully convicted men, the man who confessed to the crime and the police officers and attorneys involved in the case.
A cross section of California leaders in business, education, law enforcement and religion joined Tuesday in urging the Supreme Court to uphold President Obamas plan to offer temporary relief and work permits to as many as 5 million immigrants who have been living in the U.S. illegally.

They drew a sharp contrast with Texas, which has complained of the burden imposed by immigrants and led the legal fight to block Obamas executive action.

The California leaders told the court the undocumented immigrants who are working and raising families are making the state stronger, better and more prosperous. About one-fourth of the nations undocumented immigrants live in California, they said.

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Representing just 7% of the states population, [they] make up 34% of its farm workers, 22% of its production workers and 21% of its construction workers according to one estimate, they said in a friend-of-the court brief.

Some estimates say as many as 60% of Californias farmworkers are undocumented, they added. Today, the undocumented workforce alone contributes $130 billion to Californias gross domestic product (GDP)  an amount larger than the entire respective GDPs of 19 other states.

Immigrants also have helped maintain Los Angeles as the largest manufacturing center in the United States, far outpacing other manufacturing centers like Chicago, Detroit or Philadelphia.

Its easy to get caught up in the white-hot political debate over this issue, said Jot Condie, chief executive of the California Restaurant Assn. But for us, this simply comes down to people  our fellow churchgoers, classmates, neighbors and hard-working individuals. Millions of loving families hang in the balance. Kicking the can on immigration reform can no longer be an option.

Obamas stalled program, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, would offer relief from the threat of deportation and a work permit to about 1.1 million Californians who are parents of legal children. The brief cites a UCLA study that estimates this program, if put into effect, would generate 130,000 new jobs in California alone, increase the collective wages of undocumented immigrants in California by more than $5.5 billion annually and support public programs with $3.8 billion in new business, personal and sales tax receipts annually.

The Supreme Court, with only eight justices, will hear arguments April 18 in the immigration case now called United States vs. Texas.

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It began when Texas and more than two dozen other Republican-led states filed suit in Brownsville, Texas, contending Obama did not have the legal authority to defer deportation to a large group of immigrants. The judge agreed Obamas plan appeared to be illegal, and he issued an order that prevents it from taking effect. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judges order by a 2-1 vote.

Obamas lawyers appealed, arguing first that Texas does not have standing to sue. The presidents order does not regulate the state, they say. Moreover, immigration enforcement is a matter for the federal government. They also argue that the U.S. immigration laws give the executive branch broad leeway in deciding whom to deport.

Texas lawyers responded by arguing the president had violated this constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws. On Jan. 19, the court agreed to consider that issue, potentially turning the case into a landmark test of presidential power.

But the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13 all but ended that prospect. Without Scalia, the courts conservatives will not have a majority to write an opinion that broadly rejects Obamas executive action.

However, Obamas lawyers cannot win without at least one of the justices who leans to the right, either Chief Justice John G. Roberts or Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Both joined in a 2012 opinion that rejected key parts of an Arizona immigration law that authorized local police to stop people and check their citizenship.

If the justices were to split evenly, the tie vote would affirm the 5th Circuits decision preventing Obamas order from taking effect.

California Attorney Gen. Kamala Harris filed a separate friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday in support of the administration that was joined by her counterparts in 15 Democratic-leaning states. She called Obamas order as a common sense action on immigration, which will allow millions of hard-working immigrants to come out of the shadows, contribute to the prosperity of this nation and build the American dream.

On Twitter: @DavidGSavage

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Forty-eight hours after praising the rise of Ted Cruz as nothing short of a miracle during a rally for the Republican presidential candidate, an Idaho pastor was experiencing a miracle of his own Monday  recovering from a bullet to the head and other gunshot wounds sustained in an ambush outside a Coeur dAlene church.

Tim Remington, a popular leader of the communitys religious right, was shot six times Sunday afternoon by a suspect authorities identified as a 30-year-old former Marine, Kyle Andrew Odom of Coeur dAlene. A manhunt was underway Monday to find him and a silver Honda that sped from the Altar Church parking lot.

The daylight shooting was caught on security video, authorities said. The resort towns police chief, Lee White, termed Odom armed and dangerous and said he should be taken off the streets as quickly as possible.

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Though rushed to Kootenai Health and Medical Center in critical condition after being shot in the skull, lung, shoulder and hip, the California-born Remington, 55, was later upgraded to fair and was doing absolutely fine, according to the churchs associate pastor, John Padula.

Security video, Padula told the Spokesman-Review newspaper, showed the suspect attending a Sunday service at the church in northeast Coeur dAlene, a city of 46,000 residents about 35 miles east of Spokane. The suspect, who wasnt a church member, waited in the parking lot after Remington finished his sermon and prepared to leave.

As the pastor got in his car, the video showed, the suspect came up and began shooting him in the back. It didnt look like the first time he had shot, Padula said. He stood pretty professional as he was shooting.

A family friend, John Crigger of nearby Kellogg, said he talked with Remingtons wife at the hospital and as far as I understand it, Tim Remington will simply have more reason to boast in the Lord. On his Facebook page, Crigger wrote: Shot six times and not ONE vital hit.... Emergency room Techs and Dr.s are calling this a miracle.

The motive for the shooting puzzled the family, as well as church and police officials. Remingtons ministry included counseling and housing drug addicts, some with criminal records who had threatened the pastor in the past, officials said without elaboration.

His church opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, according to its website, based on literal interpretations of the Bible. We believe, Remington said in a posted message, that Jesus Christ is the answer for every one of lifes problems and the Bible is our guide to living the Christian life.

The parents of four children, Remington and his wife, Cindy, started the Altar Church 18 years ago, according to a church biography. The pastor was born in Riverside, moved to Coeur dAlene as a teenager, later returned to Southern California, met and married Cindy and became a pastor in Loma Linda. The couple subsequently ran a coffee house in San Bernardino and ministered to street people, those who have problems with drugs, alcohol and perversion, the biography says.

In the Southland, and later in Idaho, the Remingtons began a program of taking needy people into their home as part of their family. Over the last couple of decades, they have had more than 300 live-in guests, according to a church web page.

At a Saturday rally for Cruz that drew an estimated 3,000 people to the nearby county fairgrounds  Idahos Republican primary is Tuesday  Remington pumped up the crowd, telling supporters, Weve been waiting for someone representing God for a long time! He then gave the rally invocation, describing Cruzs candidacy as nothing short of a miracle in this nation.

The Cruz campaign released a statement saying, We pray for his full recovery and hope the attacker is swiftly brought to justice.

According to Odoms Facebook and LinkedIn pages, he served in the Marine Corps from 2006-10, partly as a flight equipment technician at Camp Pendleton, reaching the grade of corporal, and earned an Iraq Campaign Medal. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Idaho in 2014, earning a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry, and volunteered with Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity.

A statement released Monday by Odoms family said they were devastated by Sundays events. We are praying for Pastor Tim, his family and his continued recovery. We are also praying for Kyles safe return and to get the help he needs. We love you Kyle!

Anderson is a special correspondent.
An elite FBI hostage rescue team is under investigation after one or more federal agents apparently lied or failed to admit that they shot at Oregon occupier Robert LaVoy Finicum during a fatal showdown in January, officials revealed Tuesday.

News of the potentially embarrassing investigation came as officials announced Tuesday that Oregon State Police troopers were justified in killing Finicum on Jan. 26, when state and federal law enforcement captured the leaders of a lengthy armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore.

One Oregon State Police trooper fired three shots at Finicums truck as the rancher sped toward a law enforcement roadblock at 70 mph and crashed into a snowbank on a rural Oregon highway.

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Then, after Finicum got out and reached for a loaded gun in his jacket, two state troopers shot him three times, according to the Deschutes County Sheriffs Office investigators who reviewed the shooting.

All six of the state troopers shots were deemed justifiable, and, in fact, necessary, said Malheur County Dist. Atty. Dan Norris, who reviewed the investigation.

But investigators said they also found evidence that an FBI agent had fired one or two rounds at Finicum and failed to admit it during multiple interviews, which has led the U.S. Justice Department Office of the Inspector General to open an investigation of the FBI agents at the scene.

Of particular concern to all of us is that the FBI [hostage rescue team] operators did not disclose their shots to our investigators, nor did they disclose specific actions they took after the shooting, Deschutes County Sheriff L. Shane Nelson said in a televised news conference Tuesday, without specifying to which actions he was referring.

The failure by HRT operators to disclose that they fired shots during this contact, and actions they took after the shooting, are the subject of an ongoing investigation by both Deschutes County Sheriffs Office and the inspector general of the United States Department of Justice, Nelson said.

Greg Bretzing, the FBIs special agent in charge in Oregon, did not go into detail about the allegations, but said, The question of who fired these shots has not been resolved. He added that his office would cooperate with the inspector generals investigation.

The development is likely to inflame supporters of the armed protest group that took over the wildlife refuge Jan. 2 to protest the federal governments land-use policies. Some supporters view Finicum as a martyr, and his violent death has inspired right-wing demonstrations around the country.

Before the Jan. 26 stop, Finicum had hinted at his willingness to die for the armed occupation, and on Tuesday, investigators played a video taken by one of the women riding inside the ranchers truck in which he tells police, Just shoot me!

You can go ahead and shoot me. Put the laser right there, put the bullet through the head, Finicum can be heard shouting at police who had pulled over his truck. You want blood on your hands?

The video also shows other occupiers in Finicums vehicle apparently urging him to drive away from the police who stopped him, which is a felony, officials said.

When Finicum drove into a three-foot snowbank to avoid a law enforcement roadblock, he nearly hit an agent on the FBIs hostage rescue team, and then almost immediately got out of his truck after it came to a stop, officials said.

As Finicum staggered from the truck, an Oregon state trooper pulled out a Taser, but the rancher was shot by two other troopers when he reached for a loaded 9-millimeter handgun in his left inside jacket pocket, officials said.

A state autopsy showed that Finicum was shot three times in the back, the Oregonian reported.

Deschutes County investigators said they were puzzled by a bullet hole in the roof of Finicums truck, which did not come from shots fired by Oregon state troopers  but instead, apparently, from the FBI agents at the scene.

During the course of our investigation, we discovered evidence that an FBI HRT operator fired two shots as Mr. Finicum exited the truck, and one shot hit the truck, said Nelson, the sheriff.

The FBI agents apparently did not admit to firing the shots during interviews, Nelson said.

After further investigation raised concerns, the local investigators briefed the U.S. attorney in Oregon of the FBI agents actions on Feb. 18, who in turn notified Bretzing the next day. The FBI special agent in charge then promptly notified the Justice Department inspector generals office, Nelson said.

On Feb. 20, an agent from the inspector generals office and a team of investigators from the inspections division of the FBI flew to Bend, Ore., to review the evidence in the case, Nelson said.

The Office of the Inspector General confirmed that the FBIs hostage rescue team was under investigation, but declined to provide details.

The armed occupation of the refuge ended Feb. 11 after the final holdouts surrendered to law enforcement officials who had surrounded the compound where they were holed up.

After becoming a sprawling crime scene, the refuge is almost ready to reopen as the federal government prosecutes dozens of men and women facing felony conspiracy charges in connection with the occupation and a similar showdown with federal officials on Cliven Bundys Nevada ranch in 2014. Two of Bundys sons were among the Oregon occupiers; they and two other sons are among those facing charges in the Nevada case, as is the elder Bundy.

The refuge is clear and will be reopening soon, Bretzing said in a statement. People who once feared for their safety are back in their homes. Those who chose to break the law will have their day in court. Life is not yet completely normal, but we are on the path to reconciliation and recovery.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattDPearce

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Hillary Clinton had largely avoided appearing on Fox News for years. After Monday nights town hall on the cable station, featuring Clinton and, separately, her challenger Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, she had to wonder: Why?

Clinton came under sustained questioning by Fox anchor Bret Baier on her use of a private email system while secretary of State. She was asked in depth about the chaotic situation in Libya and whether she deserves the blame for it. She parried the questions and said little different from what she had before.

Baier raised a few questions that had rarely surfaced in previous debates and town halls, but neither Clintons nor Sanders answers opened a new vein for the opponent to mine.

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All told, the Fox News event in Detroit may have benefited both Clinton and Sanders, giving each half an hour of publicity on the highest-rated cable news station in the country, one that may deliver access to voters who dont commonly listen to their views.

Certainly many of Foxs viewers would never consider a vote for Clinton or Sanders. But some may be wondering which way they will turn if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee  he is polarizing even among party members; trying for even a few of them rarely hurts.

The most extensively discussed topic was Clintons emails, which shes not had to discuss at much length in Democratic debates because Sanders has ruled the topic out of bounds. Several times Baier asked Clinton about the propriety of emailing classified materials; Clinton each time denied that the information had been marked in that fashion when she handled it.

Nothing I sent or received was marked classified, she said. She invoked Colin L. Powell, a secretary of State under a Republican administration, as using a private email system and finding out later that unclassified information had been retroactively declared secret.

Powell has expressed his outrage, Clinton noted: Colin Powell and I are on exactly the same page.

In response to Baiers question whether she was worried about a federal investigation into her actions, Clinton declared, Absolutely not.

On Libya, Baier pointed out that Clinton was a prime framer of the Obama administrations policy. If the 2011 overthrow of Moammar Kadafi was a great victory, he asked, isnt the current tumult in the country her responsibility?

Clinton called Kadafi a ruthless dictator with American blood on his hands and said that the country might be in worse shape had he remained in place. Since his downfall, the country lacks a government and fighters loyal to the Islamic State militant group are moving in.

We would be looking at something much more resembling Syria now, she said, citing the deaths of 250,000 people in that country and a far smaller 1,500 in Libya. Clinton also flatly refused to consider the use of American ground troops in Libya.

The town hall came one day before voters in Michigan and three other states cast ballots. Sanders and Clinton have clashed more harshly in the state than anywhere else.

In a debate Sunday, Sanders hit Clinton for allowing a super PAC to benefit her campaign and for refusing to release transcripts of well-compensated speeches she made to Wall Street. He also criticized her support for several 1990s-era Clinton administration policies, including welfare reform, international trade and criminal justice reform. Clinton has, in one way or another, repudiated her past positions.

Clinton went at Sanders for refusing to support a bailout bill in 2009 that included funds to save the auto industry, hugely important in Michigan and nearby states. Sanders voted for an earlier measure that involved only the auto industry; he opposed the winning measure because it included a bailout of Wall Street.

By early Monday, her campaign was airing a radio ad using her statement that she was the only candidate to back the auto industry.

The two also used the town hall to press their different views on issues.

Sanders, under questioning by an audience member who is a doctor, promised that his favored turn from Obamacare to a Medicare-for-all universal system would not, in the transition, leave Americans without coverage. Clinton, he said, is trying to frighten people on that score.

Sanders faced skepticism from an audience questioner and Baier about how he would push his liberal promises through a Congress whose two houses are controlled by Republicans. Sanders said a groundswell that would elect him would also flip party control of Congress.

Change in this country always comes from the bottom on up, Sanders said.

Clinton faced a similar question on how she would find common ground with Republicans, who have used her as a symbol of liberal excess.

When Im not running for something, the Republicans say really nice things about me, she said to laughter from the audience, and I have a whole archive of those comments.

Baier asked both candidates whether there were any circumstances in which they opposed abortion, particularly in late pregnancy. The topic rarely comes up in debates because candidates on both sides hew to their party line.

I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to do with her own body, Sanders said.

Clinton reiterated her support for a womans right to make the decision. She said she could back restrictions on late-term abortions as long as exemptions were included to protect the mothers health and life.

Otherwise, she said, its not much of a right if it is totally limited or constrained.

Clintons last question came from a 13-year-old named Samuel, who wondered whether Sanders was her enemy or her ally.

Ally, for sure, she said. She and Sanders have taken pains to describe their differences as issue-based, not personal.

We have differences and we are passionate about our positions and we air those, she said, adding that she was proud of both campaigns and wanted his backers support in the general election if she was the nominee.

That goes to a central concern as Clinton moves closer to the nomination: how to knit together Democrats. One way surfaced, with Baiers question about whether, if nominated, she would choose Sanders as her running mate.

For now anyway, she brushed the thought aside.

Oh, lets not get ahead of ourselves, she said. I dont want to think any further than tomorrow and the Michigan primary.

If she defeats Sanders in Michigan on Tuesday, expect that question to come around again.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker

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Some Michigan context

Sen. Bernie Sanders captured at least 543,000 votes Tuesday night in his Michigan victory  a huge sum more than Hillary Clinton won there in 2008 under very different circumstances.

Eight years ago, Michigan party officials bucked the Democratic National Committee and held an early primary in a violation of the rules protecting the first-in-the-nation status of Iowa, New Hampshire and a few others.

Candidates skipped campaigning in Michigan and Florida, which also broke the rules.

On Jan. 15, 2008, Clinton won 55.2% of the vote with 328,309 people punching ballots for the then-senator. Barack Obamas name didnt even appear on the Michigan ballot. (The runner-up was uncommitted with 40% and then-Rep. Dennis Kucinich with 3.7%.)

Clinton won all but three counties  though she lost the one thats home to the University of Michigan to uncommitted.

On Tuesday night, Clinton also lost that county, this time to Sanders, but she bested her rival in at least five others.

If you check out our handy delegate tracker, youll see Sanders looks to net about 10 more delegates from his Michigan win. And unlike 2008, these delegates actually count in the overall race for the nomination.

That year, it was only after a protracted  and ugly  fight both publicly and behind the scenes that the Democratic National Committee ultimately compromised and let some of the delegates stand.

It didnt matter in the end, of course, because Clinton sent her supporters to Obama in a unity moment at the convention in Denver.

Were a long way from a moment like that, but Michigan voters who showed up in big numbers clearly wanted to have their say Tuesday.

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Note to Bernie Sanders: John Kerry is not a good model for your presidential campaign.

Sanders and Hillary Clinton are facing off Tuesday in two states: Mississippi, where Sanders is expected to be shellacked, and Michigan, where his chances look increasingly slim. There, in addition to the high percentage of Clinton-friendly African American voters in both states, Sanders has to deal with the accusation that he opposed the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler (gasp!) that almost certainly saved the auto industry and the tens of thousands of jobs it provides in the state.

Unfortunately for Sanders, his defense has been a variation of the I was for it before I was against it argument that proved so damaging to Kerry in his 2004 campaign against President George W. Bush.

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At Sundays Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, Clinton surprised and stung Sanders by saying he voted against the auto bailout. Thats because Sanders voted in October 2008 against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which dedicated $700 billion from the federal Treasury to a new Troubled Asset Relief Program to save the U.S. financial industry (and avert a bigger crisis globally).

Not a soul in Congress wanted to vote for TARP. But you would have been hard pressed to find a mainstream economist in October 2008 saying there were any better options.

At the time of its passage, no one saw TARP as the solution to the auto industrys deepening troubles. There was one connection -- General Motors financing arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., which somehow managed to lose a ton of money on subprime mortgages -- but that wasnt exactly obvious.

In fact, the first time anyone tapped TARP to save the auto industry was in December 2008, when the lame-duck Bush stretched the rules in order to lend $17.4 billion to GM and Chrysler. Bush did so only after Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a bill that would have extended $14 billion in loans to the two companies.

Sanders campaign pointed out Monday that he had voted in favor of the $14-billion aid package. The campaign went on to say, When that bill ran a Senate Republican roadblock, the White House turned to a separate Wall Street bailout fund for loans to the auto industry. (See what they did there? The proposed auto industry measure was an aid package, which is good, right? The other was a bailout, which is obviously evil.)

What the campaign failed to mention was that Sanders voted the following month with Republicans in a failed effort to cancel the second half of TARPs funding, which would have stopped the Obama administration from using $350 billion in bailout dollars. That sum had $4 billion earmarked for the auto bailout, but arguably included most of the $80 billion that ultimately was lent to the industry.

So in other words, Sanders was following in the footsteps of Kerry, who famously tried to hold himself out as an opponent of the Iraq War by noting that hed voted against a bill to fund it -- after previously voting for the measure.

Granted, Sanders isnt guilty of so blatant a flip-flop. But his position on the auto bailout and TARP illustrates one of the drawbacks of being so ideologically pure (or rigid).

Not a soul in Congress wanted to vote for TARP. It was an undisguised bailout for big financial institutions that had played fast and loose with their investments, and by all rights they should have been allowed to fail. But you would have been hard pressed to find a mainstream economist in October 2008 saying there were any better options. Had the Federal Reserve and Congress not moved aggressively to recapitalize the banking system, the results would have been much, much worse.

So the best course of action for lawmakers was to hold their noses, vote for TARP and then come up with a new regulatory scheme designed to eliminate the likelihood of another bailout. And thats precisely what Congress tried to do with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, although whether it succeeded is a whole nother debate.

You could argue that the effort to slash funding for TARP in January 2009 was really just a protest vote against the design of the program, as other Democrats have said. And admittedly, TARP evolved over the months as federal officials moved away from the original idea of buying up bad bank assets and found more efficient, less costly ways to shore up the financial industry and ease the credit crunch.

But again, protest votes are easy. Coming up with workable policy is hard, and Congress didnt have the luxury of time in those days. Perhaps Sanders has forgotten how dire things were after Lehman Bros. failed and AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all cratered. The economy was sinking fast, dragged down by a financial sector that had lost its ability to price risk and lend money.

Candidates often get torn apart in campaigns for supporting this or that compromise, as their opponents invariably focus on the less savory elements of the package and ignore the overarching reasons to vote for the thing. Here, Clinton is blasting Sanders for the opposite reason: He opposed a compromise that included something widely viewed by Democrats as a good idea (the auto bailout) because other elements of the package were less savory to his anti-Wall Street worldview.

That was his choice. He can say he was for the auto bailout at one point, but that was before he was against it.

Follow Healeys intermittent Twitter feed: @jcahealey
Campaign finance is arguably the breakout issue of this election year. Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton both rail constantly against Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that opened up election spending to corporations and super PACs. On the GOP side, candidates super PACs have garnered as much news media scrutiny as the candidates themselves.

This might seem like music to the ears of those who worry about how money dominates politics. But Citizens United is only the harmony, not the melody of that tune. The much greater threat to Americas hallowed system of self-government remains the day-to-day routine of hard money fundraising.

The much greater threat to Americas hallowed system of self-government remains the day-to-day routine of hard money fundraising.

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Hard money refers to contributions given directly to a candidates campaign, not to outside political groups such as super PACs. Even with a cap on these contributions of $2,700 per individual, such donations constitute the bulk of political spending. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, of the $3.7 billion spent in the 2014 congressional midterms, super PACs, nonprofits and other outside spenders made up around $560 million, or roughly 15%. In contrast, $1.5 billion, or 42%, was spent by candidates themselves, with the rest left to party committees.

Two other inside-the-Beltway terms  call time and the cash committee  illustrate why hard money is the core problem.

Call time is the hours politicians spend dialing for dollars. House Democrats, for instance, are advised to spend four hours a day in the cramped cubicles at their partys headquarters phoning rich people who often dont live in their districts.

When Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) recently announced that he would retire from Congress, he estimated that during his 15 years in the House he clocked about 4,200 hours of call time. Translated into a 40-hour workweek, thats two full years spent trying to cajole money from people like a telemarketer.

Cash committee is a nickname for the House Financial Services Committee because its such a lucrative fundraising perch  but one rife with conflicts of interest. In the 2014 election cycle, for example, committee members received more than $30 million from finance, insurance and real estate industry employees.

Contributions of this magnitude are normally raised at events in one of the many renovated townhouses surrounding the Capitol building owned by trade associations, or at posh restaurants a few blocks from Senate and House offices. Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) hosts a monthly book club where, according to Bloomberg Politics, Wall Street lobbyists contribute thousands to receive a signed copy and some hors doeuvres (though attendees rarely read the book in advance). During the height of the fundraising season, like right now, 20 or more such fundraising events are held in Washington every day.

The hard money chase marinates our elected representatives in the mind-sets of the wealthy and special interests  and takes them away from doing the job we voters pay them to do. As former Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), who later served as a lobbyist for the motion picture industry, has opined: The sad truth is  there simply isnt enough time in the day to stay competitive in campaign finance and do the actual job of policymaking.

Overturning Citizens United or regulating super PACs would, alas, do nothing to free our politicians from this frenetic fundraising. That can only be accomplished by cutting the ties between lobbyists and legislators and redirecting politicians time and energy toward small donors.

New York City has a model program that matches donations less than $175 6 to 1. Suddenly these small checks collected in bulk become a lot more valuable to a politician with limited time. As one participant told the Brennan Center in 2010, The multiple match increases reliance on small donors, [so] there is less need ... to cozy up to special interests. And if Congress banned lobbyists from contributing to elected officials, as South Carolina has since the early 1990s, cash committees would become a relic of the past.

Neither of these changes would require a constitutional amendment, and both could revitalize our politics from statehouses to Capitol Hill.

These are the kinds of campaign finance reforms we should be talking about during this election cycle. In fairness, Sanders and Clinton have reform ideas that extend beyond tackling Citizens United, but they rarely talk about them and havent debated them with any specificity. Republican presidential candidates have proposed much more limited fixes, some of which are quite dangerous, such as raising or removing caps on political donations to candidates entirely.

Focusing so intensely on one court case makes it harder to gain attention  and momentum  for other, more effective reforms. The next time you hear someone talking about Citizens United, you might remind them that super PACs are only 15% of the problem.

Nick Penniman and Wendell Potter are coauthors of the book Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron has set June 23 as the date for a referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom will remain in the European Union. If Britain chooses to exit the EU (the so-called Brexit option), the ramifications will be felt across Europe, but perhaps nowhere as sharply and dangerously as Northern Ireland.

For more than 40 years, the EU has provided the benign and neutral political framework that has helped foster and preserve the peace between Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland. But now it is English nationalists  an increasingly strident faction of Camerons Conservative Party and the vociferous right-wing UK Independence Party  who threaten to undo that progress. Their movement taps into some of the same populist sentiments that motivate supporters of Marine Le Pen in France and Donald Trump in the United States: They are tired of austerity policies, angry about low wages or lack of jobs and are fearful of losing the jobs they do have to immigrants and refugees in an open-border Europe.

The stakes are high. A vote to leave the EU might destroy the United Kingdom: Scotland might revisit secession from the U.K. so that it could stay part of Europe. Where would that leave Northern Ireland?

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In Northern Ireland, the Brexit debate is opening up old sectarian divisions. The Irish nationalist parties, the Social Democratic and Labor Party and Sinn Fein, want to remain in the EU; pro-British unionists mostly want to leave. The latter have always been suspicious of Europe diluting their British identity, including enforcing legal changes around social and moral matters such as homosexuality. Unionist farmers and businesses, however, may vote to remain in Europe because they enjoy massive subsidies from Brussels, equal to more than 4% of Northern Irelands output and more than 80% of its farm revenue.

The Northern Ireland economy is still shaky. Being detached from Europe would not only mean losing those subsidies, but also its attractiveness to global companies looking to invest in a low-tax corner of the European Union.

John Hume, who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for his role as architect of the Good Friday agreement, brilliantly saw that a shared European identity could reduce the hostility and suspicion between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists. Instead of a zero-sum debate over spoils within Northern Ireland, the two sides would together fight for more subsidies from Europe and investment from abroad. It worked. For years, former political enemies made common cause, in Humes words, spilling their sweat and not their blood.

The larger danger of course is that Brexit could upset the delicate balance in Northern Ireland.

EU membership likewise improved relations between the Republic of Ireland and Britain. The constant contact between government officials at weekly EU meetings created common bonds and reduced the sense of Ireland being a small neighbor of Britain, an island behind an island.

If Britain votes to leave, however, the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland would become the EUs external border. How long before British police roadblocks are rolled out to keep Middle Eastern refugees from coming in via Ireland, which would presumably become part of border-free Europe? (To date, Ireland has opted out of the Schengen Agreement.) The Irish government has made clear its interest in having Britain stay in Europe, but only U.K. voters will decide, based on local issues.

The larger danger of course is that Brexit could upset the delicate balance in Northern Ireland. Disappointed nationalists might seek some form of a united Ireland, triggering a negative reaction by unionists. Whatever way one looks at it, reopening these identity issues gives extremists issues to exploit and risks destabilizing the region.

Its worth recalling that the momentum for building a United States of Europe after World War II was propelled in large part by a determination to avoid further devastating violence. The hope was that being part of Europe would tame nationalist fervor and make everyone more secure, prosperous and tolerant. That stayed true for the initial years, but recently Europe has failed important tests such as the widespread unemployment crisis, the Russian challenge to Ukraine and the debt crisis in Greece.

The EU may be too large and diverse to progress any further toward a United States of Europe. It is very hard for 28 European states with different languages, histories, economies and domestic pressures to agree on what will solve their problems. Member states already are losing trust in the collective European border-free policy, with some closing their shared borders in response to the refugee crisis.

The Brexit debate is causing people across Europe to ask: What does Europe mean for them? Recently, the Czech government hinted that it too would consider leaving if Britain did.

It may well be that EU leaders will have to delay their push for an ever closer union until Europe delivers on its original mission of more security, jobs and prosperity. But, regardless of how Britain votes June 23, one thing is sure: Those with any interest in peace in Northern Ireland will be hoping that the British stick with Europe.

Ted Smyth, a communications and public affairs strategist based in New York,is a former Irish diplomat.

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In China, its not easy to become a living Buddha. First come the years of meditation and discipline. Then comes the bureaucracy.

The highest level of living Buddhas must be approved by the central government, Phurbu Tsering, the abbot of Sera Monastery near Tibets capital, Lhasa, said at a meeting of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature on Monday. Other Living Buddhas must be approved by local governments.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

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China is laying down the law on reincarnation, as Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama  Tibets enormously influential spiritual leader  enters his twilight years with no successor in sight. Although the ruling Communist Party is an officially atheist organization  officials are barred from practicing religion  it is perennially uncomfortable with forces outside of its control, and has for years demanded the power to regulate the supernatural affairs of Tibetan Buddhist figures, determining who can and cannot be reincarnated.

Padma Choling, chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Regions Peoples Congress standing committee, speaks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 7, 2016. (Andy Wong / Associated Press)

The Dalai Lama, 80, fled the Himalayan region in 1959 after a failed uprising; Chinese authorities revile him as a separatist, although he claims to only want increased autonomy for the region.

Authorities have framed their bureaucratization of the afterlife as a bulwark against fraudulent, profiteering monks. Yet experts say its also part of a wide-ranging effort to tighten control over the turbulent region.

From the point of view of Beijing, the whole apparatus seems to be about giving Beijing control over the appointment of the next Dalai Lama, said Robbie Barnett, director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University. The Chinese term huofo, or living Buddha, refers to high-ranking religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism, but it has no true equivalent in the Tibetan language.

Communist policy on religion is: You run Tibet by...having a lama who is credible enough to be influential when he says you should follow the Communist Party.  Robbie Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University

They want to make sure they control the next Dalai Lama, as theyve tried to control the current Panchen Lama, Barnett continued, referring to the second-ranking leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. We think we know about Communist policies [in Tibet], but theyre not what they appear. Communist policy on religion is: You run Tibet by  having a lama who is credible enough to be influential when he says you should follow the Communist Party. They dont have enough power to control Tibet without a lama to handle it.

At the meeting  held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the countrys most prestigious venue  Phurbu Tsering, wearing red monks robes, spoke softly in Tibetan, while another delegate to the legislature translated into Mandarin.

He recited several points from the State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5, a law that authorities passed in 2007 to govern reincarnation. One must have recognition from the religious world and the temple to reincarnate, he said.

The law itself frames reincarnation in terms of national security: The selection of reincarnates must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups, and the selection process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country, it says.

Fake living Buddhas have been in the headlines since November, when a video went viral of Zhang Tielin, a Chinese-born British actor, being ordained as a living Buddha at a lavish ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonys host, Baima Aose, a Chinese man from southeast Chinas Fujian province, claimed that he had been certified as a living Buddha by a famous Tibetan Buddhist monastery. The monastery later denied ordaining him, and Aose issued a public apology.

On Jan. 18, authorities published online an official registry of 870 licensed living Buddhas, searchable by name, temple and identity card number or living-Buddha card number, to cut down on fraud.

Yet experts say that the system of registering living Buddhas has itself become fertile ground for corruption.

The thing [authorities] are emphasizing is the database  thats the new hyped up thing, said Barnett. The way it works is permits. You get a permit from the local religious affairs office, saying youre recognized as a so-called living Buddha. Once you have that system, it means you can pay for it.

Apparently what that means  and I have several personal sources on this  is that each area has a quota of these to hand out, and the officials in each area just sell their quota, he continued.

The Dalai Lama, in a 2011 statement, called the countrys reincarnation laws outrageous and disgraceful.

The enforcement of various inappropriate methods for recognizing reincarnations to eradicate our unique Tibetan cultural traditions is doing damage that will be difficult to repair, he said.

Tibetan refugees hold placards and candles during a vigil following the self-immolation of two Tibetans in Bangalore, India, on March 5, 2016. (Manjunath Kiran / AFP/Getty Images)

More than 140 people in Tibet and neighboring provinces have burned themselves to death since 2009 as a grim protest against Chinese rule; many have called for the Dalai Lamas return as they went up in flames. On Feb. 29, an 18-year-old Tibetan died after lighting himself on fire, marking the first self-immolation since August, according to the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet.

Chinese authorities have repeatedly blamed the Dalai clique and other hostile foreign forces for the rash of self-immolations.

Authorities closed Tibet to foreign visitors beginning Feb. 25, and will probably keep it off-limits until the end of March  an annual occurrence since riots rippled across the region in March 2008. They have not extended the same restrictions to domestic Chinese tourists.

At Mondays meeting, Baima Chilin, deputy Communist Party chief of the region, said that the Dalai Lama was no longer a religious leader after he left Tibet in 1959.

If the Dalai Lama wants to return to China, he must give up Tibet independence, and must publicly acknowledge Tibet and Taiwan are inseparable parts of China and that the Peoples Republic of China is the only legitimate government, he said.

Chuan Xu and Yingzhi Yang in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

Follow @JRKaiman on Twitter for news from Asia

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While European Union leaders on Monday looked for Turkey to help stem the arrival of more migrants, Turkish officials sought an additional $3.3 billion to help the country handle the influx of newcomers.

Political leaders were gathered in Brussels for a summit aimed at working out how to manage the thousands of men, women and children arriving on Europes shores daily and devising a plan for stopping yet more people from making their way there.

Turkey has become a temporary home to approximately 2.7 million migrants who have fled war-torn homelands or poverty in the Middle East and Africa. Many migrants have made the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea to get from Turkey to Greece, where they hope to travel and seek asylum in wealthier parts of mainland Europe such as Germany or Scandinavia.

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The emergency meeting was called so leaders of the 28-nation EU could ask the Turkish government to prevent more people from attempting the crossing by sea and to take back thousands of migrants who had already arrived in Greece.

Entering the summit in Brussels, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, said: The whole future of our continent is on the table where we need solidarity between us, and I am happy today that there is much more intensive awareness of these challenges among the European leaders.

Many of the migrants are from Syria and have made the journey to Europe with only a handful of personal belongings and their life savings. People smugglers are rife along the route and thousands of migrants have been cast adrift into dangerous waters aboard flimsy boats that have capsized or sunk.

In an effort to discourage the crossings, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced Sunday that it was deploying warships to Greek and Turkish waters to assist the EUs Frontex border agency.

British Royal Navy vessels will also be patrolling the route, which has enabled more than 123,000 migrants to land in Greece this year.

As warmer weather arrives in the area, there are fears the numbers of people attempting the crossing will rise, regardless of the danger.

On Sunday, at least 25 people drowned off the Turkish coast while attempting to reach Greece.

Leaders arrived at the summit in chauffeur-driven cars, talking tough before disappearing inside for hours-long meetings.

This is our common problem, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told reporters as he entered the summit. Its not a problem of one country, its a European problem so we have to find a collective European solution in this problem.

But the challenges of agreeing on a plan became evident. A news conference scheduled for late afternoon was canceled and reporters were informed that the meeting would run into the evening.

Turkey appeared to be using the summit to gain some important ground on its desire to become an EU member, a wish that has so far eluded it. It also tried to negotiate that in return for cooperation on the migrant crisis, plans to ease visa requirements for Turks wanting to travel in Europe would be sped up.

To avoid that refugees arrive in Greece we have to cooperate with Turkey, French President Francois Hollande said.

Yet as the leaders met in Brussels, the situation for thousands of migrants looking for a better, safer life continued to deteriorate.

About 13,000 migrants remained stranded along Greeces northern border after Macedonia closed its border in an effort to stop people traveling into mainland Europe along the Balkan route.

The move was supported by Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Austria, but has caused a huge backlog of people who have no money and nowhere to turn.

Boyle is a special correspondent.
One pleasant weekend in September more than 150 world leaders converged on the United Nations to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs -- the worlds new 17-point agenda to end poverty, hunger and inequality, take action on climate change and the environment, improve access to health and education  [and] build strong institutions and partnerships. To achieve, in other words, sustainable development.

The admirable aspirations set forth by this agenda, however, will fail to materialize without robust health systems worldwide. The interdependent relationship between health and socioeconomic development has been well documented. In the words of American anthropologist and humanitarian Dr. Paul E. Farmer, as the Ebola outbreak that ravaged West Africa proved, most of the world lacks access to the basic staff, stuff, space and systems necessary to combat disease and repair the human body. In fact, more than 5 billion people  the vast majority of the worlds population  lack access to safe, affordable and timely surgical and anesthesia care. This is particularly unfortunate since roughly a third of the global burden of disease requires surgical and/or anesthesia decision-making or treatment. More than 17 million people will die this year of surgically related conditions, surpassing the combined deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Why does a lack of surgical and anesthesia care affect so many? It is because surgery and anesthesia are not disease entities. They are treatment modalities that address the breadth of human disease  infectious, noncommunicable, maternal, child, geriatric and trauma-related disease and injuries. Treating the sick very often requires surgery and anesthesia.

Unfortunately, hospitals in most of the world are ill-equipped to treat sick patients: a third to three-quarters of hospitals in low-resource settings lack consistent access to electricity, running water, oxygen and other equipment basics. Sadly, in many regions of the world, hospitals are buildings in which people go to die -- a fact not lost on the poor, who have no other option. Further, the few surgeons, anesthesiologists and obstetricians who do work in low- and middle-income countries are often drawn to Boston or Boise rather than Bihar or Bangladesh. Finally, as healthcare expenses are the leading cause of impoverishment worldwide, those lucky few able to reach and receive care are most likely left destitute  a perverse trade-off between illness and impoverishment.

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Recently in American healthcare politics we have used the metaphor of the moon shot for curing disease; a metaphor that, by the way, was actually accomplished in 1969. The majority of the worlds poor do not need a moon shot. They need functional infrastructure, a trained workforce, supplies that arrive on time and processes necessary to assure a mother is saved from postpartum hemorrhage, a child from a perforated appendix, or her father from a fractured femur.

In the era before World War II, international health was focused on keeping armies disease-free, and workers and colonists healthy enough to be productive for the motherland. After World War II, the old colonial paradigm was rejected in favor of an era of renewed global collaboration. The World Health Organization was born and the major disease threats of the time  smallpox, polio, cholera, malaria  were systematically targeted to varied success. Encouraged by the wins, a buoyant world community pledged in Alma Ata in 1979 (10 years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon) to achieve universal primary healthcare by the end of the century. The end of the 20th century came and went without universal primary healthcare, but at least we had sent a man to the moon.

As the initial enthusiasm for universal primary care receded, the inability to find financing mechanisms led to a narrower view of what could be achieved. Low-cost interventions such as immunizations were funded at the expense of important, but higher-priced solutions such as building clinics and hospitals capable of both providing immunizations and other treatments. Building comprehensive primary care and hospital systems were seen as too expensive and, in the case of surgery, too complicated for the realities of the global health landscape. Only recently in the 21st century, after lessons learned from the HIV/AIDs epidemic, has the public health community come to recognize that the more expensive can sometimes be the more valuable. Surgical interventions, for example, are now deemed amongst the most cost-effective public health interventions around, competing with more traditional favorites such as immunizations.

Regardless of the historical reasons for these failures in health and surgical system strength -- and there is plenty of blame to go around -- what we know for sure is that a focus on true, comprehensive health systems strengthening has never before been part of the global health agenda. The stakes now could not be higher, the urgency never more acute given our global community. A fever in Sierra Leone is felt in San Francisco and within a few hours; weak health systems anywhere affect humanity everywhere. The other hard reality is that in this new world health order, the poor lose first and the poor lose the most. The worlds poorest economies could lose $12.3 trillion over the next 15 years because of the burden of surgical illness. And low- and middle-income economies will lose a staggering 2% of gross domestic product per year by 2030 if surgical and anesthesia capacity is not integrated as an equal partner in health system strengthening.

Fortunately, the world is paying attention. Last year, the World Bank, World Health Organization, and Lancet Commission on Global Surgery released major policy documents outlining paths to universal access to strong health systems inclusive of surgical and anesthesia care. Surgical indicators are appropriately collected and will be reported on major global platforms, including the World Banks World Development Indicators, and major surgical strategic planning processes are underway in Cape Verde, India and Zambia. The momentum is building.

The past century in global health has taught us that we do not need to travel to the moon to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to invest in strong health systems, and surgery and anesthesia care represent a major cross-cutting foundation for these systems. The goals will only be possible when ministries of health prioritize integration of surgery and anesthesia within national health plans, and when international funding agencies switch from vertical disease-based funding to funding that strengthens health systems that include surgery and anesthesia, and when the World Bank and the World Health Organization make a commitment to tracking indicators related to surgery. The future of the Sustainable Development Goals depends on including surgery and anesthesia as partners in healthcare at every level.

John Meara MD DMD MBA is the Kletjian Professor of Global Surgery at Harvard Medical School and co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. Nakul Raykar MD MPH is the Chief Fellow of the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School.
Education, equality and an honest and responsive government  two years ago, a group of residents in Los Angeles told us these were some of their top priorities for a better world. Facilitated by the United Nations, similar conversations took place among governments, businesses, civil society groups and millions of individuals around the world.

The conversations led to a historic moment last year when 193 nations gathered at the U.N. and adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious agenda to end poverty and promote peace. The global goals, which are to be achieved by 2030, represent a common to-do list for a better world and a promise that nobody is left behind.

The 17 connected goals seek to address the worlds complex economic, social and environmental challenges  from jobs, education and climate change to poverty, gender equality and peace and justice.

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It is a bold agenda that takes on complicated challenges. Though it will not be easy to achieve, it is possible. Experience shows that progress happens when the international community mobilizes around common, measurable and meaningful goals.

Indeed, the global goals for sustainable development follow the Millennium Development Goals, which are credited with concentrating resources, focusing policy attention and aligning new partners to address the root causes and consequences of global poverty. In recent decades, the world has reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty by more than half, and the number of children dying before they reach the age of 5 has also declined by more than half.

But theres no point in stopping there. And theres no way to achieve the global goals if we leave half the population behind.

In places across the globe, girls and women are too often the poorest, the most underfed, the least educated, the most underpaid, the most violated and the most at health risk.

The global goals reflect the notion that girls and women are not only more vulnerable to all of the development issues we care about; they are also the key to overcoming them. Girls and women are at the heart of every goal because empowering girls and women is essential to poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

For example, research finds that an educated girl marries later and has fewer children. Her education helps to protect her from HIV. Her children are healthier and 50% more likely to live past the age of 5.

When girls can stay in school longer, it raises their eventual incomes by 10% to 25%. Child and maternal deaths drop when girls and women have access to modern contraceptives. And when girls and women have equal opportunities in the workplace, economies grow.

A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute found that if a womans participation in the labor market was the same as a mans, it could add up to $28 trillion to annual global GDP by 2025. Thats equivalent to the combined economies of the U.S. and China.

Its clear: Girls and women are a force for change in their families, communities and countries. A generation of healthy, educated, safe and empowered girls and women has the potential to transform the future of humanity.

So how do we ensure she can realize her potential and get the world we want?

First, the global goals offer a road map. They demand we remove the barriers that keep millions of girls from a full and beneficial education. They remind us we have a duty and the ability to end the largely preventable deaths of 300,000 girls and women who die each year from pregnancy and childbirth complications. They insist we stop making girls and women shoulder the burden of unpaid work and give them access to economic opportunities, modern energy services and quality healthcare. And they refuse to tolerate early and forced child marriage and female genital mutilation.

Second, because she counts, we have to count her. Unbiased data about the realities of the lives of girls and women  both in absolute terms and in comparison with boys and men  is extremely limited and absent, especially in the poorest countries. We lack the crucial data we need to understand the causes of maternal deaths, the prevalence of intimate partner violence, and the number of women working in the informal economy, among many other issues. We cant modify what we dont measure. Initiatives like Data2X are working with partners to close gender data gaps because achieving the Sustainable Development Goals depends on it.

Finally, we must embrace the opportunity. The global goals offer a once-in-a-generation moment to pursue our shared aspirations for peace and progress.

World leaders have made a promise. It is up to us all to fulfill it.

Translating the goals from words on a page to progress we can witness will require resources, political will and enduring engagement from the private sector and individuals. We will need new ideas, new partners and new ways of operating. And we will need to prioritize the rights and needs of girls and women.

Everyone has a role to play in this because we all have a stake in our shared future.

Kathy Calvin is president and chief executive of the United Nations Foundation.
Its been more than 100 years since the world began observing International Womens Day, and yet no country has achieved full gender equality.

Its very sobering to realize that its 2016 and we dont have that yet, said Daniela Ligiero, Vice President of Girls and Women Strategy at the United Nations Foundation.

Of 145 nations, Iceland has come closest in the realms of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, according to 2015 data from the World Economic Forum.

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But in Yemen, the country that ranks lowest according to the same data, women are only considered half a witness in court cases and are forbidden to leave the house without their husbands permission. In Tanzania and Lesotho, women cannot inherit land. All around the world, 1 in 3 women will experience some kind of sexual violence or intimate partner violence in her lifetime, Ligiero said.

As several countries around the globe mark International Womens Day today, here are a few key indicators depicting the status of women and some of the challenges that remain.

Education

About two-thirds of countries in the developing world have achieved gender equality in primary education according to U.N. data, but the progress is less substantial at the secondary school level.

In Africa and South Asia for example, boys remain 1.55 times more likely to complete secondary education than girls, according to World Bank data. Statistics from the U.N. Childrens Fund, UNICEF, show that in 2012 at least 19 countries had fewer than 90 girls for every 100 boys in school, with the greatest disparity in the Arab States and sub-Saharan Africa.

Even when girls make it into the classroom they still continue to face particular risk in chaotic conflict settings, said Nisha Varia, advocacy director for the womens rights division of Human Rights Watch.

In Pakistan, for example, the Taliban has declared war on girls education, and frequently attacks educational institutions. In 2012, Pakistani Taliban gunmen shot education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In Nigeria, most of the 300 girls kidnapped by extremist militia Boko Haram in 2014 are still missing.

Employment

The obstacles to womens upward mobility do not subside if they manage to attain academic qualifications.

They dont translate into greater equality in the labor market, said Sarah Gammage, director of gender, economic empowerment and livelihoods at the International Center for Research on Women. Around the world women have disproportionately been part of the informal economy.

They are typically responsible for providing care services for family members, Gammage said. Other duties include child rearing, cooking, and other household chores. It is work for which they are not paid. Women perform three times more unpaid work than men, according to the U.N.s 2015 Human Development Report.

This has a huge impact in terms of the types of mobility women are allowed, Ligiero said. If you are spending up to eight, nine hours collecting water, caring for kids, how are you going to get an education or engage in some kind of activity that is actually paid?

The absence of women from the paid labor market is hurting the world economy, development experts say. For example, if women were to play an identical role in labor markets to that of men, as much as $28 trillion, or 26%, could be added to global annual GDP by 2025, according to a September 2015 study by McKinsey Global Institute.

Thats what were missing out on by not fully empowering women, said Ligiero.

1 / 18 German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Markus Schreiber / AP) 2 / 18 President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. (JAVIER LIZON / EPA) 3 / 18 Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and German President Joachim Gauck. (ODD ANDERSEN / AFP/Getty Images) 4 / 18 Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, left, with Director General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi Sahle-Work Zewde. (SIMON MAINA / AFP / Getty Images) 5 / 18 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, of Bangladesh. (Richard Drew / AP) 6 / 18 Brazilis President Dilma Rousseff. (Eraldo Peres / AP) 7 / 18 South Korean President Park Geun-hye. (Chung Sung-Jun / AP) 8 / 18 Interim Central African President Catherine Samba-Panza. (Jerome Delay / AP) 9 / 18 BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - AUGUST 20: President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner along with presidential candidate and Governor of Buenos Aires Daniel Scioli. (Charly Diaz Azcue / LatinContent / Getty Images) 10 / 18 Swiss Federal Councillor and Minister of Justice Simonetta Sommaruga. (PETER KLAUNZER / EPA) 11 / 18 Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP) 12 / 18 Lithuanias President Dalia Grybauskaite. (EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP/Getty Images) 13 / 18 Trinidad and Tobagos Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. (Moises Castillo / AP) 14 / 18 Politician and Former Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. (RADEK PIETRUSZKA / EPA) 15 / 18 Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, right, and Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, president of Malta. (ARMEND NIMANI / AFP/Getty Images) 16 / 18 Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma. (Virginia Mayo / AP) 17 / 18 President of Chile Michelle Bachalet with counterpart of Paraguay Fernando Lugo. (Jorge Villegas / LatinContent / Getty Images) 18 / 18 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - MARCH 02: President of the European Commission Jean-Cloude Juncker (not seen) and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg (C) hold a joint press conference after their meeting in Brussels, Belgium on March 02, 2016. (Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) (Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)

Legal, social and cultural restrictions

Legal restrictions also continue to hinder womens upward mobility in many countries of the world.

Being able to make decisions, such as voting, owning land, and deciding whom to marry is where we see the most significant difference between the least developed and developed countries, said Varia.

In Tanzania, when a womans husband dies, the mans clan appoints an administrator to deal with his estate, and that is typically not the wife, according to human rights advocates.

In Saudi Arabia, women are not permitted to drive and cannot open bank accounts without their husbands permission. In Iran, a prominent politician recently called for donkeys, monkeys and women to be kept out of parliament. Uganda forbids women to gain permanent custody of children after a divorce, and Vatican City remains the only country in the world where women cannot vote. Thats because only cardinals are allowed to vote for a new pope -- and since women cannot become leaders of the Catholic Church this bars them, and men who are not cardinals, from the polling booth. Its also illegal for women to get divorced in Vatican City.

Social and cultural norms also continue to stifle womens progress, and the restrictions can be both dangerous and debilitating.

Honor killings, the traditional practice that allows the slaying of a family member who is believed to have brought dishonor on a family, claims thousands of womens lives every year in South and Central Asia. Pakistani human rights NGOs estimate that there are about 1,000 honor killings every year, according to Human Rights Watch.

Some communities in Ghana practice the tradition of trokosi, where young girls are gifted to priests to atone for crimes, typically committed by a male family member, or to show gratitude for a blessing.

More than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthdays, according to UNICEF. Of those, about 250 million were wed before age 15. Child brides are still common in West and Central Africa and South Asia, Ligiero said. This can lead to girls dropping out of school, experiencing early pregnancy and being at risk of domestic violence, womens rights officials said.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, women can be forced to marry to settle a feud, while in Morocco they can be forced to marry their rapists. Algeria and Tunisia give a pass to rapists if they wed their victims. Husbands in Lebanon can legally rape their wives because the law does not recognize the concept of spousal rape.

In Kenyas Luo community, women can be subject to wife inheritance. The age-old practice where a brother weds the widow of his brother has been blamed for contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Reproductive rights

A lack of reproductive rights and control over sexual health remains one of the most problematic areas for women in many countries.

In El Salvador, where abortion is outlawed, a woman can be jailed for having a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Female genital mutilation continues to plague women and girls. At least 200 million people alive today have undergone the procedure in 30 countries, according to a recent UNICEF report. Half of all the girls and women who have been cut live in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia, and girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have undergone the mutilation, according to the agencys data.

Mortality rates for pregnant women are also startling. For example, an African woman faces a 1 in 31 chance of dying during childbirth whereas in the developed world that statistic is 1 in 4,300, according to Ligiero of the U.N. Foundation.

There have been significant strides in several areas and huge challenges and pushback in others, said Varia. Womens rights remain a struggle.

For more news on global sustainability, go to our Global Development Watch page:latimes.com/global-development

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in global development: @AMSimmons1

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The business of peace in Africa
An American tourist was stabbed to death in one of three attacks reportedly carried out by Palestinians across Israel on Tuesday  the same day a survey was released showing almost half of Jewish Israelis support expelling Arab citizens of Israel.

The man was identified as a Vanderbilt University graduate student on a school trip to Tel Aviv.

The attack took place Tuesday evening in the port of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, where both Jews and Palestinians live. At least 10 people were injured and the suspected attacker was shot dead by police.

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Police described the attacker as a 21-year-old from the West Bank refugee camp in Kalkilya.

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Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where the stricken American was taken, described him as a 29-year-old man, according to the Ynet news site. The report said the same hospital was treating his wife, who was severely injured in the attack.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos issued a statement saying the victim was Taylor Force, a student in the Owen Graduate School of Management at the university in Nashville, Tenn.

Taylor embarked on this trip to expand his understanding of global entrepreneurship and also to share his insights and knowledge with start-ups in Israel, Zeppos said. He exemplified the spirit of discovery, learning and service that is the hallmark of our wonderful Owen community. This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world.

He said all other Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff on the trip were unharmed.

Just over an hour before the attack, three Israelis were wounded in two separate attacks, occurring within minutes of each other, in Jerusalem and Petah Tikvah. One Palestinian suspect was shot to death.

The Israel army announced Tuesday night that it was sealing off the West Bank villages of Zawiya and Auja, the hometowns of two of the attackers, preventing anyone from leaving or entering. Israeli forces were also deployed to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, where one of the attackers lived, as violence broke out there.

The attacks took place at a low point in Israeli-Palestinian relations, and on the day that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel for talks with leaders on both sides. They also coincided with the release of a survey by the Pew Research Center that dramatically illustrated the divisions in Israel between Arabs and Jews, and between religious and secular Jews.

The survey by the Washington-based think tank found that almost half of Israeli Jews backed the transfer or expulsion of Palestinians to other countries. The number of religious Jews who supported expulsion was higher, with 69% of ultra-Orthodox Jews supporting it.

The number of Palestinian citizens of Israel, known as Arab Israelis, who still had faith in a peaceful two-state solution had dropped, with 74% believing it possible in 2013, and only 50% in 2015. Only 43% of Jewish respondents believed the two sides could agree on a viable two-state solution  the goal of international peacemaking efforts.

According to the survey, Arab Israelis dont think Israel can be both a democracy and a Jewish state, with 63% of Muslims and 72% of Arab Christians saying the two are incompatible.

Most Israeli Jews, by contrast, believe it is possible for Israel to be a democratic, Jewish state  although there are sharp divisions between religious and secular Jews about what that means. Roughly 90% of secular Jews say democratic principles should prevail over religious law, while the same percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews say precisely the opposite.

The survey included face-to-face interviews with 5,600 people and had various margins of sampling error, depending on the size of the subgroup.

Its findings pointed to the challenges facing the United States as it continues to look for a solution to the intractable bloodshed in the region  and struggles to maintain civil relations with Israel.

Bidens arrival Tuesday came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to decline an invitation to meet with President Obama. The cancellation of Netanyahus expected visit to Washington, originally scheduled for later this month, came as a surprise to U.S. officials, who issued a terse statement expressing annoyance over the change of plans.

We were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit, the White House statement said.

Netanyahus office later denied that he had surprised the White House and said he called off the trip to avoid becoming entangled in the heated politics of the U.S. presidential election. Many Democrats accused Netanyahu of meddling in U.S. affairs last year when he lobbied against the nuclear agreement between Iran and a group of international powers led by the United States.

Most of the discussion between Biden and Israeli leaders is expected to center on Israeli hopes that the United States will increase funding of a new, 10-year military aid package from the current $3 billion a year. Israel is seeking an additional $1 billion a year; the Obama administration is reported to be offering an additional $500 million a year.

There is little hope that Bidens visit will lead to any efforts to reinvigorate the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. The violence Tuesday made it one of the bloodiest days in a five-month wave that has left 33 Israelis and nearly 200 Palestinians dead.

In the attack involving the American, police said the man stabbed three people near the Jaffa port, ran toward Tel Aviv stabbing another three people, then stabbed four more farther along the beachfront promenade, not far from a now-shuttered nightclub where a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 25 people in 2001.

Seven of the people injured in the attack were being treated in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, one of them in critical condition, three in moderate condition and two suffering from light wounds. The hospital said one of the victims was a pregnant woman and another was an Arab Israeli.

Israeli police said two police personnel were wounded, one critically, in a shooting attack near the Damascus Gate, which leads into the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinian suspect was shot dead. Another Israeli was wounded in a stabbing attack in Petah Tikvah.

Shuttleworth is a special correspondent.

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A conservative Iranian lawmaker was caught on video saying that women, like donkeys, have no place in parliament, sparking calls for him to be thrown out of office.

The video, which surfaced on YouTube last week, shows Nader Qazipour giving a fiery victory speech after winning reelection as a member of parliament representing the city of Urmia.

Parliament is not the place for donkeys and foals, monkeys and women, the 57-year-old cries, amid boasts about his fearlessness and commitment to challenging the wealthy and powerful. Qazipour was speaking candidly in his native Turkish language, independent analyst Nader Karimi Juni said, and evidently did not expect to be recorded. He has since released a halfhearted apology, as furor over what reformists are calling Nader-gate grew. I was carried away by the jubilation of the election among my supporters, and said something in error, he said. I express my regret, and do hope the misunderstanding will be alleviated.

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The misogynistic remarks, first reported by reformist-linked media outlets, came just as women won 14 of the 290 seats in Irans parliament  an increase from the nine seats held by women before the most recent vote. Seven more female candidates face runoff elections in April.

He represents the fanatical, traditionalist men in our society, and should have been disqualified long ago by the Guardian Council, Farzane, a feminist activist who declined to give her full name, said, referring to the body that accepts or rejects all candidates who wish to run for office. Sakine Omrani, an outgoing lawmaker, called on the speaker of parliament to penalize Qazipour for insulting the women of Iran.

Nader Qazipours comments were so obscene that I do not want to think about them, Shahla Lahiji, a gender equality advocate, publisher and author of historical texts, told local media. But I should say, when 600 female candidates were disqualified to run in the recent parliamentary election, that was a more important tragedy to be addressed.

Qazipours crude remarks represent the feelings of many in the traditional strata of Iranian society  feelings that are becoming less acceptable to express publicly as women make gains in public life. In the years since Irans 1979 revolution, women have occupied an average of 3% of the seats in parliament, according to official figures. The first vice president for womens affairs was introduced during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Three Iranian presidents  Mohammad Khatami, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani  have had female vice presidents for environmental organization.

Mostaghim is a special correspondent.

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Clashes in Tunisia near the border with Libya left at least 53 people dead Monday in what may be a sign of the spreading influence of the extremist group Islamic State.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for an attack that led to the fighting between militants and Tunisian forces near the city of Ben Gardane. But Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid directly accused Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

This attack was aimed at confusing the security situation in Tunisia in order to create an ISIL emirate in Ben Gardane, he said at a news conference Monday.

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Scores of people were killed in Islamic State attacks on tourist venues in Tunisia last March, June and November, and Tunisia has become a major provider of Islamic State recruits, authorities say.

According to the Tunisian Interior Ministrys estimates, at least 2,400 of its citizens have become Islamic State combatants in Syria since 2011, with about 400 of them later returning to Tunisia.

Political turbulence in neighboring Libya enabled Islamic State to infiltrate that oil-rich country in 2014 and declare the establishment of an emirate, with the Libyan city of Surt as its headquarters.

Islamic State attacks in Tunisia and Egypt are a sign of the groups spreading influence, said Kamal Sharaf, an independent political analyst based in Cairo.

We have seen ISIL easily carry out deadly attacks in countries like Egypt and Tunisia even though the group has no announced emirates there, he said. Every action in any Arab or Muslim country has its reaction somewhere else; you fight ISIL in one place so they carry out reprisal attacks in another.

Sharaf said he believes that Western-led attacks on Islamic State make it easier for the group to gain sympathizers and recruits.

It is very easy to justify ISILs jihad to potential newcomers when their direct enemy is Western and non-Muslim, he said.

Mondays clashes took place as militants divided into groups launched consecutive attacks at police and army premises in Ben Gardane. Army and police forces responded successfully to the assault, killing 35 militants and capturing seven, the official news agency TAP reported, citing police and army officials.

There is no place for ISIL or terrorism in Tunisia, Defense Minister Farhat Horchani said. He said operations against the militants were continuing.

In addition to an overnight curfew that was announced in Ben Gardane, Tunisian authorities closed two border crossings with Libya.

Mondays attack came weeks after a U.S. airstrike killed nearly 40 people at an Islamic State training camp in the Libyan city of Sabratha, near the Tunisian border.

The U.S. State Department alerted Americans to the risks of traveling to Tunisia after the Sabratha strike.

Hassan is a special correspondent.

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More than 100 delegates will be available for Republican presidential candidates on March 8's "Super Tuesday 2," across states where the Latino electorate is on the rise.

Michigan

Michigan will host both Democratic and Republican presidential primaries on Tuesday.

In the Democratic field, 147 delegates are at stake in a state where Hillary Clinton is expected to win. Based on the latest Monmouth University poll, surveying 302 likely Democratic primary voters between March 3 and March 6, Clinton has a 13-point advantage over fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, 55 percent to 42 percent.

"Clinton had Michigan all to herself eight years ago after her opponents pulled out when the state violated party rules in scheduling its primary too early. This time she appears to be holding on in the face of a tough challenge from Sanders," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

In the Republican field, the same Monmouth poll found Donald Trump in the lead. With a 13-percentage point advantage, Trump received 36 percent, ahead of Ted Cruz's 23 percent, John Kasich's 21 percent and Marco Rubio's 13 percent. If the Monmouth statistics stand, Cruz, Kasich and Trump will share Michigan's 59 delegates since each would have passed the 15 percent threshold.

Michigan's Latino population is the 20th largest in the country with 231,000 eligible Latino voters. Almost half of the state's Latino population, at 49 percent, are eligible to vote.

Mississippi

Mississippi has 40 GOP and 41 Democratic proportional delegates at stake.

With almost 1,000 Republican likely voters polled, a survey by Magellan Strategies and Y'all Politics found Trump with a large lead. The poll, conducted on Feb. 29, saw Trump with 41 percent, while Cruz and Rubio jousted for second place. Cruz, by 1 percentage point, placed second with 17 percent to Rubio's 16 percent. Kasich received 8 percent.

In the Democratic field, Clinton is expected to convincingly win Mississippi. In the same poll, Clinton received 64 percent to Sanders' 11 percent, but 24 percent were still undecided.

The survey did ask for respondents' race, and only 1 percent were identified as Hispanic among both Republicans and Democratics. As indicated in the Magellan Strategies poll, Mississippi's Latino population is quite small. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 80,000 Latinos live in the state, which includes 31,000 eligible voters.

Idaho and Hawaii: GOP Only

Democrats only have two primaries on March 8, but Republicans have two other elections: Idaho's primary and Hawaii's caucus.

Idaho is home to 32 delegates and more than double the Latino population of Mississippi. Latinos, who comprise 12 percent of Idaho's population, represent 80,000 eligible votes.

Polling data in Idaho has been scarce, but Trump once again has a lead in a survey by Idaho Politics and Dan Jones and Associates. Conducted between Feb. 17 and Feb. 26 with 230 likely voters, Trump received 30 percent. Cruz and Rubio received 19 percent and 16 percent, respectively, while Kasich attracted 5 percent. The poll's margin of error, however, was 6.5 percent, meaning second place could go for either Cruz and Rubio.

Hawaii, with 19 delegates, does not have polling data available or averages from RealClearPolitics. Stats are available on the island's Latino population, which stands as the 39th largest in the U.S. Nearly 142,000 Latinos reside in Hawaii, including 85,000 Latino eligible voters.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton insists her record on mass incarceration doesn't reflect her current views on the issue.

During her most recent debate against democratic challenger Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the former secretary of state admitted to a panel of CNN analysts she's now convinced her actions were a mistake. Throughout her campaign, the former first lady has been pounded by Black Lives Matter protesters over her support for a 1994 crime bill many argue led to mass incarcerations by haphazardly creating harsher sentences.

At one floor debate over the bill leading up to its inception, Clinton invoked the racially-insensitive myth of "superpredators," referring to young blacks described at the time as irrevocably violent and immoral.

Clinton Admits Regrets

On Sunday night, Clinton followed the lead of husband Bill Clinton. The former president also once supported the legislation, but in 2015 he publicly admitted he now feels doing so only made matters worse.

"I signed a bill that made the problem worse," the former president recently shared at a NAACP meeting in Philadelphia. "And I want to admit it."

While pointing out she still feels certain elements of the bill have worked, such as the Violence Against Women provisions, Hillary Clinton added, "But other aspects of it were a mistake and I agree. That's why I am focused and have a very comprehensive approach towards fixing the criminal justice system, going after systemic racism that stalks the justice system, ending private prisons and ending the incarceration of low level offenders."

Bill Also Introduced 'Three Strikes' Rule

The 1994 bill is also notorious for creating the "three strikes" rule that mandated life in prison for anyone convicted three times for violent felonies, including drug crimes. Congress is now weighing various legislative proposals that would scale back at least portions of the law.

Through it all, Clinton has remained relatively popular among black voters. The mothers of Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and Dontre Hamilton -- victims of police violence -- have all openly campaigned for her.

During her recent South Carolina primary win, black voters went for Clinton by an overwhelming margin of 86 to 14 percent, setting her on course for a wildly successful Super Tuesday showing a week later. On March 1, Clinton won primaries in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Massachusetts.

"What a Super Tuesday," she raved in the aftermath.

Clinton quickly turned her attention to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, asserting that America is already great, rejecting his campaign mantra to "Make America Great Again." She later pledged to make the country "whole again" and has since vowed to tackle the issue of immigration within the first 100 days of her administration if she is elected.
In light of Donald Trump's seemingly unstoppable momentum, the GOP is poised to stand behind Ted Cruz, a candidate who was previously seen as too divisive and unpopular to consider for the presidential nomination.

The 45-year-old candidate knows that he is becoming the most reliable bet for a party very reluctant to get behind the celebrity real estate magnate turned presidential candidate.

Cruz Is the Only Candidate

Speaking to his supporters on March 2, Cruz asked his other rivals to drop out of the race so he could face Trump alone.

So long as the field remains divided Donald Trumps path to the nomination remains more likely, and that would be a disaster for republicans, or conservatives, and for the nation, said Cruz. "For the candidates who have not yet won a state, who have not racked up significant delegates, I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together united.

Acknowledging that Cruz is not likely the first choice for many Republicans out there, political blogger Leon H. Wolf wrote a piece for the conservative site Red State in which he asserted that Cruz is the only candidate right now who can save the GOP from a Trump nomination. Wolf argued that, although Cruz lacks executive experience, he is preferable to Trump, whom Wolf described as an ignorant, unhinged political figure with megalomaniacal tendencies.

As the numbers for John Kasich remain low and Marco Rubios campaign lags behind, Cruz has emerged as the only viable alternative to Trump. Wolf said that Trump is guaranteed to lose in November, but Cruz might have an actual shot at winning.

Lindsey Graham Backs Cruz

Former presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke to CBS's Charlie Rose about how his party had essentially run out of options and would now have to get behind Cruz.

"Ted Cruz is not my favorite by any means, said Graham. But we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump, and I am not so sure that would work."

Graham was certain that the Republicans will lose the presidential election to the Democratic Party, and he blamed his party's stubbornness.

Heres what I am going to tell people when we lose to Hilary: I told you that the immigration issue is killing us. Were doubling down on the problem we had with the Hispanics. We went from self deportation to forced deportation," he said.

According to Graham, the party is suffering because it is stuck in a demographic death spiral."

Cruz Is Trump Lite

As Latin Post previously reported, Cruz idea's about immigration are not actually all that different from Trumps. Like Trump, Cruz plans to build a border wall. The senator, however, does not insist that Mexico pay for the wall. Regarding border security, Cruz would like to triple the number of agents and incorporate surveillance and biometric tracking technology.

Prior to the recent tension between the two candidates, Cruz had suggested that Trump could assist his administration in keeping out Mexican migrants. Cruz once suggested that Trump should be put in charge of constructing the planned wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Bernie Sanders' campaign is running a lengthy Spanish-language advertisement on Univision in hopes of attracting a greater share of the Latino vote.

The ad features a Hispanic worker, who fights back tears over a two-minute segment of the video as she reflects on her life of low wages working the tomato fields in Florida. She eventually says, "Voy a luchar mientras." ["I will always fight."]

Several media outlets have reported the ad is part of a blitz, costing several hundred thousand dollars, through which the Sanders' campaign is blanketing the airwaves in Miami, Orlando, Phoenix and Tucson.

Across the political landscape, the strategy is viewed as nontraditional. But with the critical Florida primary set for March 15 and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton already holding a sizable advantage, the Sanders campaign is pulling out all the stops.

Sanders Produced Similar Video With Daughter of Eric Garner

The ad is similar to one the campaign recently released featuring the daughter of Eric Garner, the victim of police violence in New York. Garner was killed in 2014 in a scuffle with police near his Staten Island home, sparking widespread protests against police abuse.

In the ad, Garner's daughter Erica tells the story of her father, with Sanders only interjecting at the midway point of the footage.

In the more recent video, Sanders reflects on a 2008 trip he made to the small Florida town of Immokalee, where he discovered harsh conditions he described as a "human tragedy." But, the ad centers not on Sanders' tale, but on the plight of a Mexican immigrant named Udelia.

Udelia narrates in Spanish with English subtitles. She reflects on her life as a mother. She also highlights the difficulties and abuses she and other workers are forced to endure in the tomato fields where they all toil.

The ad goes on to explain workers are routinely denied water and bathroom breaks and are forced to survive on wages so low they can't afford food for their families. Three minutes into the five-minute ad, Sanders chimes in, as a 2015 speech he gave at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials blares in the background.

Clinton Maintains Lead in Florida

A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Sanders trailing Clinton 59 to 33 percent in Florida with just over a week remaining before voters there take to the polls. Researchers also found Clinton leading among virtually every demographic, including holding a double-digit lead among those who describe themselves as very and somewhat liberal.

One of Clinton's biggest cushions of all comes among Democratic voters who say they want a candidate with the right experience. In that category, she leads Sanders by a staggering 87 to 9 percent.

The poll also found 54 percent of Sanders supporters have an unfavorable view of the former senator from New York.
Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton spoke about the issues but for the first time it was broadcast on the Fox News Channel.

Hillary Clinton's Confronts...

Foreign Policy Record

Although she was the second candidate to discuss several issues with Fox News anchor Bret Baier and attendees of the Detroit town hall, Clinton received heavy focus on her record as secretary of state. Clinton said she will not call for U.S. combat troops into Libya to confront the Islamic State militant group. Clinton added her stance supports the current approach of using special U.S. forces and airstrikes to combat the Islamic State.

Abortion

In regards to abortion, Clinton was asked if she believes a child should have legal rights or protections before it's born or prohibiting any abortion restrictions regardless of its stage. Clinton said a decision to proceed with an abortion should be a personal decision by women, their family, their faith and their doctor.

"I think we have to continue to stand up for a woman's right to make these decisions, and to defend Planned Parenthood, which does an enormous amount of good work across our country," said Clinton, based on transcripts, adding she favors late pregnancy abortion if there's health concerns affecting the mother.

Emails

As expected, her email protocols were questioned. Clinton said she had no idea her email server was going to be sought as evidence by federal authorities, but noted there has been misinformation surrounding the details of her emails.

"I have said it wasn't the best choice to use a personal email. It was a mistake. However, I am not alone in that. Many people in the government, past and current, have on occasion or as a practice done the same. Nothing I sent was marked classified or that I received was marked classified. ... What we turned over were more than 30,000 emails that I assumed were already in the government system, Bret, because they were sent to state.gov addresses," Clinton said.

Bipartisan Relations

The former New York senator was asked how she will "compromise" on issues with the Republican Party. She acknowledged she has worked with GOP lawmakers during her tenure as first lady, senator and secretary of state on issues ranging from health care in the 1990s and adoption and foster care reforms. She admits it won't be easy to compromise with Republicans but there will be a process to find common ground.

Education & College Affordability

Clinton later spoke about education affordability. She noted her stance for early childhood education, universal pre-kindergarten and college affordability.

It is absolutely imperative that we make college affordable. I have a plan to do that, debt-free tuition, more help for non-tuition costs so more young people can actually start college and complete college," said Clinton, adding her plan differs from Sanders.

After a brief interruption, Clinton continued, "I call it the New College Compact because everybody is going to have to do their part. I want debt-free tuition. You will never have to borrow money to attend a public college or university. The money that you will need will be provided if you cannot afford to go to college. And, right now, given the costs, that covers most people except wealthy people. What I am saying is that we will fund debt-free tuition. You won't have to borrow money."

Clinton's college affordability plan also calls for students to refinance their student debt based on a percentage of their income. Her New College Compact plan would cost $100 billion, annually.

Healthcare

Clinton reiterated her support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but does want costs lowered and better competition among health insurance providers.

Lack of Millennial Support

Clinton was asked why she's not attracting the same millennial voters as Sanders. She commended Sanders for attracting large millennial voter turnout and she will continue campaigning to win them.

"I'm proud of those who are supporting me. And, I tell young people all the time, you may not be for me now, but I'm for you regardless, and I'm going to keep working to try to help young people because, after all, this election is about their future," Clinton said.

Sanders: Ally or Foe?

Despite campaigning against him, Clinton said she considers Sanders as an alley. While they may have difference, she said both are "passionate" about their platforms and differences.

"I am very proud of the campaign that Senator Sanders and I are running. And, I have said publicly, I will repeat that tonight. I hope to win the nomination. If I am so fortunate, I hope to work with him, the issues he has raised, the passion he has demonstrated, the people he has attracted, are going to be very important in the general election, but equally following the election to try to get things done. So, I certainly consider him an ally," said Clinton, but said it's too soon to consider someone for the vice president nomination.

Bernie Sanders Confronts...

Bloomberg's Presidential Run

Sanders was first asked about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to not pursue a presidential run. Sanders said it's Bloomberg's decision, but the independent Vermont senator is concerned about Bloomberg's billionaire status.

"What does concern me, Bret, on a broader scale is Mr. Bloomberg is a billionaire. And I think it's a bad idea for American Democracy that the only people who feel in many ways that they can run for president are people who have so much money," said Sanders, who reiterated his stance opposing the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

Being Poor in the Ghetto

Sanders clarified a statement he made during CNN's March 6 primetime debate regarding low-income white populations and ghettos. Sanders had said on Sunday's debate, "When you are white, you don't know what it's like to be poor.''

At the Monday evening town hall, Sanders defended himself as the only candidate who has spoken more about poverty and it's an issue the media has ignored.

"What I meant by that in African-American communities you have people who are living in desperation, often being abused by white police officers. That is a bad thing. And that has got to change. And that's why I'm fighting to reform a broken criminal justice system. But I know about white poverty. It exists in my state. It all over this country. ... We have too many people living in poverty. We have got to change our national priorities. We have got to deal with that issue," said Sanders.

Social Program Costs & Healthcare

The Vermont senator was questioned on his spending proposals, mainly for social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. While Sanders' proposals will include tax increases, approximately $18 trillion is projected to be spent on these social programs. Sanders said most of the spending will go for healthcare, which, based on his "Medicare for All" plan, will see middle class families save nearly $5,000 per year on health costs.

"I happen to believe -- and I know not everybody agrees with me -- I believe that health care is a right of all people," Sanders said, telling Baier that the "right" comes from being a human being. "I believe that if she is poor and you are rich, she is entitled to the same quality health care you have, because she's a human being."

Tackling the Islamic State

Sanders was asked about his foreign policy experience and how he'll address the Islamic State. Sanders noted his opposition vote against the war in Iraq -- which Clinton voted in favor. He said many of the issues currently impacting the Middle East stems from the Iraq War vote. Sanders does not want the U.S. to confront the war alone and called for a coalition of Muslim nations to confront the militant group.

"I will do everything that I can to keep American troops out of perpetual warfare in the Middle East. But I do believe that along with a coalition of the major countries on Earth, U.K., France, Russia, I believe we should support the Muslim troops on the ground with air attacks, with military equipment, and with all of the help that we can provide. But, it should not be our troops on the ground for many, many reasons."

Economics & Trade

Similar to the CNN debate, Sanders reiterated his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), explaining Americans should not compete against people around the world "who are making pennies an hour." If elected president, Sanders said he will change trade policies and have corporations invest in the U.S. instead of China.

Sanders also called for a minimum wage increase. He has consistently proposed raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, while Clinton prefers $12 per hour but with states and cities having the right to increase wages further.

Abortion

Sanders said the government should not instruct women what to do with their own body. The senator defended his stance as a pro-choice candidate and believes abortion is a decision by the woman, her physician and her family.

Meeting Legislative Goals

Sanders said he will not solely rely on executive actions to accomplish his legislative agenda, stating "that's unconstitutional and it can't happen." Sanders said he has worked with Republican lawmakers and found common ground. Recognizing the large voter turnout he's received in several states, Sanders believes such turnout will shift Senate control from the Republicans to Democrats and fewer seats in the House of Representatives.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
Colombia's Mines and Energy Minister Tomas Gonzalez Estrada has resigned from his position as the country is swamped with energy problems due to the drought.

President Juan Manuel Santos announced the news of Gonzalez Estrada's resignation on Monday.

"The mines minister, Tomas Gonzalez, has assumed responsibility for the delay in savings measures and has presented his resignation," Santos said in an interview in Bogota, the Colombian capital.

Santos said that Gonzalez Estrada's position will be filled by Maria Lorena Gutierrez, who is the current minister for the presidency.

According to Santos, around 11 percent of energy has vanished over 15 days due to the fire that occurred at the Guatape hydroelectric plant in the province of Antioquia in February. The incident shut down generators and restricted the water supply that flows into other plants.

About 70 percent of Colombia's energy is generated at hydroelectric plants.

How the Government Plans to Remedy the Situation

Santos urged Colombians to limit their electricity usage so that rationing would not be needed. The government also plans to impose a system of carrot and stick, which will issue penalties for households and companies that use energy more than the average consumption.

"As president I would have preferred that we take these measures sooner," the Colombian president noted. "What is at stake is the credibility of the government, but most of all Colombians' confidence in the electrical system.

Effects of Drought

Colombia's energy ministry is taking actions to avoid a blackout in the final peak months of the drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which is the main culprit for the country's decreasing hydroelectric reservoirs. Colombia is "maximizing thermal dispatch, boosting electricity imports from Ecuador and implementing energy conservation measures," Argus Media reported.

The drought and water shortages have also affected the country's agricultural sector, teleSUR wrote. Dried up farming lands and loss of crops has caused food price hikes of up to 80 percent in some instances. The poor state of almost 15,000 hectares of crops has placed around 5,000 farmers and their families in a tough economic condition.

In addition, the drought is causing mass displacement in northern Colombia as people struggle to find access to ample supplies of food and drinking water, according to Colombia Reports. The Ombudsman's Office said in February that 300 people were registered as displaced in the province of Bolivar alone.

The office noted that it's likely that the real number of displaced people is higher because not all locals register themselves as displaced. The country's 51-year long armed conflict has already displaced 7 million people.

Earlier this year, Venezuela announced that it will temporarily stop its export of natural gas to Colombia because of the drought.
Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto expressed his discontent with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, comparing him to some of the world's most notorious dictators in history.

The present Mexican president joins the crowd of unhappy Latinos who deem Trump as the one who damaged U.S.-Mexico relations with his blunt opinion about the immigration issue.

"It seems to me that they damage the relationship which Mexico has sought with the U.S.," the Mexican leader said in an interview as stated by El Universal, referring to Trump's statements.

Mexican Leaders' Opinion on Donald Trump

Before the interview, Pena Nieto remained silent about how the Republican frontrunner had been talking about Mexicans even after two of his predecessors weighed in on the matter as previously reported by the Latin Post.

In February, ex-president Vicente Fox strongly denied Trump the satisfaction of getting the Mexico border wall he proposed to keep immigrants from entering the United States.

"I'm not paying for that f---ing wall," he declared in an interview with Fusion, further expressing his worry about how the presidential hopeful is getting support from states with a high Hispanic voting population.

Earlier in the same month, ex-president Felipe Calderon shared his opinion on Trump's wall, calling it a "stupid" idea.

Now, Pena Nieto, who was trying to avoid meddling in U.S. politics, is pitching in his opinion on the business tycoon, whom he compared to notorious power-hungry personalities.

"There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of strident rhetoric have led to very ominous situations. That's how Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in: they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis," he said.

However, when asked if he is worried that Trump may be elected as President of the United States, Pena Nieto shared his belief that no person who insults Mexico would win the White House.

Donald Trump's Campaign Progress

While many are condemning Trump's way of thinking (and, in the same manner, of speaking), he remains the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, as stated by Vox.

The latest results posted as of the writing of this article, Trump has already won 384 delegates and is leading the Republican nomination race, followed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz with 300.

Marco Rubio remained in third place with 151 delegates while the less popular GOP candidate, Ohio Governor John Kasich got 37.

While the race is far from over, Trump's progress continues as more primaries conclude. This leaves the big question of how the November 2016 Presidential Elections would turn out if the business tycoon represented the Republicans and what happens if he wins.
Brazil's Lower House of Congress Speaker Eduardo Cunha will be facing an investigation regarding corruption allegations.

The council's decision to proceed with an investigation was decided last Wednesday.

Cunha has 10 days to present a written defense to the chamber's ethics council after he was officially notified of the probe on Monday. There are claims that Cunha lied to Congress over his use of secret Swiss bank accounts.

Cunha refused to accept the council's notification, saying that he is swamped with meetings.

Cunha Denies Allegations

In a parliamentary inquiry last March, the speaker said that he had no Swiss bank accounts. However, Swiss authorities revealed that Cunha, his wife and his daughter all possess accounts in Switzerland. Cunha argued that the accounts are beneficiary trusts and not personal accounts.

Cunha, a main adversary of President Dilma Rousseff, is also facing corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering charges over bribery accusations. The $5 million in bribes he is accused of taking was part of a huge bribery and embezzlement kickback scheme involving Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras.

Ten Supreme Court judges voted unanimously to indict Cunha over accepting bribes to assist a contract worth $1 billion, which was used to build two oil drilling ships for Petrobras.

Refusal to Step Down

A number of politicians have requested Cunha to step down from his post while the investigation is ongoing, but the speaker wouldn't budge. In December, police raided his homes and seized a computer, cellphone and documents.

Cunha has accused prosecutors of "persecuting him in retaliation for his impeachment drive." But his critics on the left "accused him repeatedly of the opposite: that he was wielding the impeachment weapon as revenge for his own troubles."

Cunha has opened impeachment proceedings against Rousseff in December. The president was outraged by Cunha's move, and hit back by saying that the speaker himself is connected with the Petrobras kickback scheme, also dubbed as Operation Car Wash.

Cunha is part of the PMDB Party, which is currently in a rough alliance with Rousseff's Workers' Party. Cunha's conviction could help Rousseff, who is also in hot water over accusations in electoral court that she mismanaged finances for her 2014 re-election bid.

One of Rousseff's most senior former allies, Workers' Party Senator Delcidio do Amaral, is reportedly gearing up to testify against the president. Do Amaral is also accused of involvement in the Petrobras scandal.

Rousseff is facing widespread blame for the worst ever recession that is currently happening in Brazil.
People who are not physically active in their youth are more likely to be diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes even if they're not overweight or obese. Low cardiorespiratory capacity and poor muscle strength are considered to be long-term risk factors for the disease in adulthood.

A Swedish study on young teenage boys found that poor physical fitness at age 18 can lead to three times the risk for type 2 diabetes in adulthood. The risk was found to be true for all individuals, regardless of body mass index (BMI).

Physical Activity May Play a Crucial Role in Type 2 Diabetes Prevention

The research, done by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Lead author Dr. Casey Crump states that their study was the first of its kind to explore the relationship between the level of physical activity in childhood and adult type 2 diabetes.

For their research, Dr. Crump and colleagues analyzed the health data of more than a million 18-year old military conscripts in Sweden without a prior diabetes diagnosis. They tracked the men until the age of 62 and determined when they were diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

33,000 men had diabetes and around half of them were diagnosed in their 40s. The researchers found that 18-years-old who were the least active at the time they were conscripted were likely to be diagnosed with disease even if they had a normal BMI.

According to Crump, copious physical activity in youth will reduce the risk of diabetes regardless of genetics and BMI or being overweight or obese. Physical inactivity is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes, which is also the most common form of the disease among adults.

Adult Diabetes Prevention Should Start in Childhood

Dr. Neil Calman of Mount Sinai Health System recommends that children and teens get adequate play, exercise and physical activity to stem the onset of adult diabetes later in life. He adds that the research provides a lot of insight to the disease.

"Our research group is also studying the effects of aerobic fitness, muscular strength and BMI on other health outcomes, including ischemic heart disease and cancer," Dr. Crump explained in a press release as per Press Rocket Release. "We need more longitudinal measurements of physical fitness over individuals' life course to determine age windows of greatest susceptibility to its effects on Type 2 Diabetes."
Gone are the days when people are forced to attend time-consuming classes and endure physical training to acquire professional skills. With continued innovation in the digital age, it's no wonder education platforms are also stepping up their game.

Online learning services -- a good number of which are MOOCs -- are examples of this. With just few clicks on the Internet, one gets the opportunity to become smarter at his own convenience, right in the comforts of home.

What is Platzi?

Platzi Inc., an online learning service based in Mexico City, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding for its new education technology startup. It targets people interested to study professional skills courses in English and Spanish.

Platzi aims to help people who have no access to high-bandwidth Internet to improve skills needed to create their own apps, businesses and websites. Platzi's subscriptions cost $29 a month, or $299 annually, and people can choose over the company's live and on-demand video courses. On top of these professional tech skills, Platzi also teaches design, finance and marketing.

Co-founder Freddy Vega explained that the company's services can be accessed through proprietary compression technology despite having limited and low bandwidth Internet connection.

"We learned what Netlix learned, which is that when you don't have a lot of motion in a video, you can compress it and transcode it so it plays well even on a 1 megabits per second network," Vega told the Wall Street Journal.

Other companies have invested in Platzi's endeavor, such as 500 Startups, Omidyar, Nazca Ventures, Amasia Ventures and Y Combinator.

LatAm Entrepreneurs are Interested Too

Vega said that his company's partnership with YC opened plenty of doors for Platzi, the Next Web reported.

YC partner Kat Manalac told the Next Web via an email that the company already has Latin American entrepreneurs involved, but they wish to attract more of them.

Platzi has at least one Hispanic founder, signifying diversity. According to Vega, "YC doesn't care where you come from, or whether English is your native language. It's not about where you are from, it's about what you can create," the news outlet added.

Platzi's methods are in accordance with people's evolving thirst for knowledge.

"The way we learn has changed dramatically over the last few years. People never stop learning and are constantly looking for 'knowledge upgrades.' In addition, they aren't looking for academic knowledge; they want to learn from the best professional in their industry," Vega shared.

The Future

Platzi wants to dip its feet into mobile apps to make learning even more flexible for people. As of this moment, 35 percent of its students are updated on Platzi classes from their mobile devices, specifically tablets.

These apps will be created by Platzi's in-house staff, which comprises 25 employees in Colombia and four in Mexico. Platzi is also scouting for native English speakers and more senior staffers for the expansion of its three-member team in the United States.

The U.S. labor market has improved earlier this year, with more than 40,000 Latinos benefiting from new jobs. As new educational methods emerge, learning becomes more accessible, making the future much more promising to the digital generation.

What do you think about Platzi's course offerings? Check them out here. New users can sign in via Facebook or Twitter.
More than 220 congressional lawmakers filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting President Barack Obama's immigration executive actions lawsuit.

The Case for DAPA and DACA's Expansion

The Democratic Party leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, in addition to 223 additional members of Congress, filed the amicus brief defending the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals' (DACA) expanded guidelines. The lawmakers agreed Obama's November 2014 immigration executive actions were legal based on current laws passed through Congress.

In a statement released on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Obama's immigration executive actions are both legal and constitutional, and even former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush took action to protect children and spouses under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986.

"Republicans' breathtaking obstruction has perpetuated an utterly broken immigration system that tears families apart, dishonors our values as Americans, and fails to meet the needs of our country," continued Pelosi and Reid's joint statement. "By and large, we are a nation of immigrants and the vast majority of families who would benefit from these programs include American citizens. We should embrace their contributions."

"We are confident the Supreme Court will recognize the legality and necessity of the President's actions to help bring our immigration system back into line with the values and needs of our country," Pelosi and Reid added.

According to the amicus brief, signed by 186 House Democrats and 39 Senate Democrats, the Supreme Court should reverse the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' judgement, which was a decision favoring Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District's temporary injunction verdict.

The brief was also signed by several Latino congressional members including Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., Norma Torres, D-Calif., Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

The Inaction of DAPA & DACA+

Former Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who now serves as governor for the Lone Star State, launched the lawsuit against Obama's November 2014 executive actions. Abbott claimed Obama breached his executive authority with DAPA and DACA's expansion and didn't consider its financial impacts.

Abbott's lawsuit has since received support from other Republican governors and attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The suit scored victories from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which provided the temporary injunction preventing the federal government from implementing the programs.

The U.S. Department of Justice requested the Supreme Court to review the lawsuit, and on Jan. 19, the court agreed to hear the case. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments on April 18 and a decision could come in June.

With DAPA and DACA's expanded rules, nearly 4.9 million eligible undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. would temporarily avoid deportation and be granted three-year permits to stay in the country.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
Despite protesting and filing court action to delay the FCC's spectrum auction because of an eligibility debacle, it looks like Latina Broadcasters of Florida will not be able to participate.

At the end of March, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is set to begin auctioning licenses for telecommunications and broadcasters to use repurposed wireless spectrum, the bands of frequency used to carry cellphone, television and radio signals. Licensing spectrum is vital for the ongoing operations of broadcasters. Without them, there is no medium on which to broadcast.

The auction, which represents a huge reallocation of wireless bands freed up since television broadcasters switched to more efficient digital signals, is set to begin on Mar. 29. One party from Daytona Beach, called Latina Broadcasters, wanted to delay the auction after not qualifying, but it's not looking good for the Latina television broadcaster.

Arguing that the FCC is crushing her "American Dream," Nora Crosby Soto, the owner of Latina Broadcasters of Daytona Beach, an affiliate of Azteca America, tried to delay the FCC's spectrum auction through a court injunction. Crosby Soto filed an emergency motion on Feb. 26 with the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Washington D.C. circuit to delay the auction, after the FCC ruled on Feb. 12 that her organization was not eligible to take part in the auction.

The FCC said that Latina Broadcasters did not qualify and that the FCC had essentially made a clerical error by previously indicating, multiple times, that Latina Broadcasters and its station WDYB-CD in Florida were eligible. While the broadcaster was on an early list of eligible stations, the FCC later said Latina Broadcasters had missed an important filing date to participate.

Given the short amount of time between the FCC flipping its eligibility decision and the start of the spectrum auction, Latina Broadcasters filed to be included in the auction on a provisional basis.

"With the FCC's decision coming just 31 business days prior to the auction's start, the government effectively boxed Latina into a corner, leaving Latina insufficient time to pursue meaningful relief from the courts without asking for a delay of the auction," the party stated, according to industry journal TVNewsCheck. "The FCC does not offer a valid basis to deny either of Latina's options to preserve the status quo. The FCC's unsubstantiated claim that 'allowing Latina to participate on a provisional basis would... delay the incentive auction' is nonsensical."

It's not just the FCC that Latina Broadcasters are fighting. Many organizations that have been found eligible to participate are arguing for the FCC's position, wanting to deny the broadcaster's court request for a stay and encouraging the auction to proceed without delay. The group includes the powerful Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which put in an amicus brief in favor of the FCC.

In a press release put out over the weekend, Latina Broadcasters' chief Crosby Soto, sought help from the Latino community to change the FCC's schedule. In the call to action, the beleaguered company owner emphasized her roots as a Mexican immigrant and called the FCC's actions an affront to her American Dream.

"When Nora Soto crossed the Mexican border at the age of six, guided by a coyote, she never could have imagined that one day she'd be in a battle with one of the most powerful government agencies in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), just to hold on to her American Dream," read Latina Broadcasters' statement, according to Broadcasting Cable.

"I have worked my entire life and sacrificed much to realize the American Dream," wrote Crosby Soto. "I've done everything to contribute and be an asset to this country. I'm crushed, disappointed, and deeply saddened by the actions of the FCC that will jeopardize everything I've worked so hard to build," she added. "It is my hope that the commissioners of the FCC will do the right thing."
A Virginia family is desperately seeking to bring back a Colombian woman they legally adopted in the U.S. as a child. The woman was recently separated from her young son when she was deported back to her homeland.

It's been five years now since Susan Hill was sent back to Colombia, and her older brother, Jacob, is still trying to figure out what happened, according to Newsplex.

"It was technically her home country, but she didn't know the language, she didn't have any clothes except the clothes on her back," Jacob Hill said. "She didn't have any money. She didn't have a single person in Colombia."

In the wake of the family's ordeal, some now see their plight as a classic study on how maddening the intersection between international adoptions and immigration law can be.

Siblings Born to Drug Addicted Parents

Along with their three sisters, Jacob and Susan Hill were born in Colombia to drug addicts, who abandoned them before reportedly being sent to jail. The siblings were placed in a foster home nearly three decades ago.

In 1989, Albemarle County residents Caren and Gray Hill became involved by adopting all five of the children in Colombia and moving them to live with their nine other children in their six-bedroom home in Virginia.

"I've always wanted to have just a bunch of kids," said Caren Hill, who had previously adopted five children from Bolivia with her husband.

In time, the Colombian children were given new American names and were legally classified as residents. But the Hills now admit the job of caring for 14 children left them so overwhelmed they didn't completely finalize the adoptions here in the U.S. until six years later in 1995.

At that point, they only adopted four of the Colombian siblings. Word is Susan had gone to live with another family, and there was a possibility she would permanently stay apart from the Hills, prompting the delay finalizing her adoption.

Susan eventually ended up back in a series of group homes, where she began to run into trouble and was convicted of several nonviolent offenses. Her downward spiral was cemented when she signed one of her sister's names to a traffic ticket for driving without a license.

Jailed Trying to Return

Susan Hill was then deported back to Colombia in 2011, forcing her to leave behind her infant son. She now sits in a Houston prison, after being nabbed late last year trying to sneak back into the country.

"I thought it was some kind of joke," she said of her first time hearing talk of being deported. "I was like, 'What is an alien number? I have a social security number. I never heard of an alien number.'"

As she sits in limbo, her brother vows that he won't stop fighting for her and her right to be here in the U.S.

"She's got the same DNA as I have, and I hope that she would do that for me," he said. "I know she would do that for me."

Immigration has become a major issue in the 2016 presidential race, with leading Republican candidate Donald Trump vowing to deport all 11 million immigrants.

Meanwhile, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has pledged to push reform legislation over her first 100 days in office if she emerges as the winner in November's general election.
Iran Court sentenced Iranian billionaire businessman, Babak Zanjani with death penalty. The said business tycoon is convicted of corruption over the billion oil revenue fraudulent accusations. His sentenced was announced on Sunday by the justice official.

Babak Zanjani, 42 years old, along with two other defendants convicted to corruption, which is a capital offense and was ordered to pay a fine equal to the embezzled funds from state-run National Iranian Oil Company, stated by judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the Guardian reported. The convicted billionaire had been on a long trial for his prominent roles in aiding the government evade oil sanctions.

Zanjani was arrested on December 2013, on which he was accused of arranging billions of dollars of oil deals through a network of companies of his during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, according to BBC News. Since the year 2010, his stretching companies from Turkey to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates have been used to sell millions of barrels of Iranian oil for the government.

While his fortune worth of $13.5bn, he also said he has debts of a similar scale. Zakjani, who was among the wealthiest in Iran, was also one of the Iranians blacklisted by the US and European sanctions, Yahoo News reported. Before he was arrested, Zanjani had argued that international sanctions were preventing him from handing over $1.2bn still owed to the government. However, on his recent trial, prosecutors said he still owed the government more than $2.7bn in oil revenue.

Working for years as a business man, Zarjani appeared in photos with some high-ranking officials and often shows off his wealth in public, such as private jets and luxury cars. Zanjani was convicted of "corruption on earth", the most serious offence in Iran's criminal code.

Wealthy figures have been executed after being found guilty of similar charges, such as Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi, who was executed by hanging in May 2014 for embezzling billions of dollars.
As per published draft legislation, Hungary decreed to cut cash and other subsidies for asylum-seekers, and scrap measures designed to help them integrate into society.

The government included in the draft to reduce the space available in refugee holding centers. Refugees who were granted protection will only be allowed to stay in camps for one-month instead of two months and their eligibility for health care services from one year to six months.

Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban believed that such decree could prevent economic migrants seeking asylum in the country and could reduce social subsidies for asylum seekers who received international protection.

Moreover, he said that large influx of Muslim immigrants could destroy Hungarians' lifestyle and endanger Europe's Christian culture. Thus, Hungary will not participate in any resettlement plan and that nothing should be done without the closing of the borders.

In a statement by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, he said that his country concluded the new agreement on migrants with the European Union because the wave of refugees has increased tremendously in the last months.

Reportedly, he told that Turkey is already home to 2.7 million refugees and hundreds of thousands more are currently on the Syrian side of the border.

"They are in a very desperate situation, and we are very worried whether there could be new waves of refugees," he said.

At an EU summit, Davutoglu said he presented Turkey's proposals to discourage new migrants from entering Turkey, improve the living standard of existing refugees, and strengthen Turkish-EU ties - not only on illegal migrant issues but also on all challenging issues.

However, Orban said that he will veto any plan to resettle asylum seekers directly from Turkey to EU countries in a setback for a European Union summit seeking a deal on how to deal with the migrant crisis.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel told that the EU Council President Donald Tusk should take forward with the proposal and work out the details with the Turkish side before the next EU summit.

The EU tried many attempts to persuade Turkey to take back thousands of migrants and do more to stop others leaving for Europe.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and Italy's Angelino Alfano proposed for an EU-wide system to register migrants and a harmonization of selection procedures and rights for asylum seekers, a German newspaper reported. They also called for an "ambitious reform" of the Dublin rules - which oblige migrants to request asylum in the first EU country they enter by means of a newly adjusted Common European Asylum System.

Human rights organizations condemned how Hungary responded to the migrant crisis in Europe.

Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group, said the government's true aim was to discourage those granted asylum in Hungary to stay.

Mata Pardavi, the Committee co-chair said, "It takes away the possibility of starting a new life even from those the government recognized as needing protection. The objective is to make asylum-seekers leave."
Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (27)
Mar 8, 2016, 8:57am ET

VW warns of 'unprecedented' fines, possible job cuts

Company labor heads suggest the workforce may need to be trimmed if penalties soar, according to reports.

Volkswagen officials have reportedly warned workers that layoffs may be on the horizon if government agencies pursue steep fines for years of diesel emissions non-compliance.

Company works council chairman Bernd Osterloh issued the dire warning at a meeting attended by tens of thousands of German workers, according to Reuters.

The comments did not include any specific reference to levels of expected fines, leaving the matter surrounded in uncertainty, though Osterloh made clear the implications for a worst-case scenario. The messaging also appears to be aimed at government officials, as job impacts will undoubtedly be considered by regulators tasked with deciding punishments.

"Should the future viability of Volkswagen be endangered by an unprecedented financial penalty, this will have dramatic social consequences," he said. "We very much hope that the U.S. authorities also have an eye for this social and employment-political dimension."

Elon Musk and a list of other clean-energy executives last year called on the government to consider alternative settlements rather than focusing on steep fines and forcing the company to fix offending vehicles. The group argued that VW should be presented with an opportunity to accelerate rollout of zero-emissions vehicles, potentially with an agreement to build EVs in the US.

"In contrast to the punishments and recalls being considered, this proposal would be a real win for California emissions, a big win for California jobs, and a historic action to help derail climate change," Musk said.

A recent report suggests the Environmental Protection Agency may have included the proposal in its settlement talks with VW. The claim has not been independently corroborated, however, and it is not unusual for provisions to be presented in negotiations but ultimately rejected.

Unofficial estimates of potential fines vary wildly, ranging from $18 billion to more than $40 billion. The company could also be forced to compensate owners or buy back vehicles that cannot be brought into compliance.
You could say Neil Reid has bottle; lots of it.

But he doesn't think so, at least not just yet.

The Johnstown man collects old stone bottles from every corner of Ireland and is especially interested in a couple of bottle producers who were based in Naas many years ago.

They are J. Watson & Co (Mineral Water Manufacturers and Wholesale Bottlers) and J.P. Bermingham (Bottlers ).

I have been collecting 'Victorian Era' Stone Stout and Ginger Beer bottles for several years now. I have always had a keen interest in antiques and local history and after picking up a few of these bottles at various antique markets, he told the Leader.

He has amassed a collection of approximately 50 bottles so far, from Cork to Donegal though has hasn't quite managed to hit all the counties.

Stoneware bottles were produced 100-150 years ago and were all hand made.

No two bottles are the same due to the processes involved, but the minor flaws are what add to their charm, says Neil.

Gradually stoneware bottles were replaced by mass produced glass bottles and the result of this that many of the stonies were buried in landfill sites or dumped in rivers and canals and can be difficult to locate.

I am keen to collect a few local stone bottles, especially from Naas, Newbridge and the surrounding areas but would also be interested in bottles form anywhere in the the 32 counties. I'd appreciate any help in gathering local bottles. Neil can be contacted on 0866006622 or email Neilreid76@gmail.com.
A group of hard-working Newbridge College students and their teachers are embarking on an exciting adventure to work with the poor in Trinidad.

Twenty five students and five teachers, including Newbridge College based, Trinidadian Dominican priest Fr Matthew Martinez OP, will visit Matthew's country of origin for two weeks at Easter. They will carry out important missionary work with the Living Water Community in the capital of Trinidad, Port of Spain.

The group of fifth years will engage closely with the disadvantaged, the marginalised and the needy of the parish in a variety of ways, be it providing comfort and aid to the elderly impoverished, hungry children, halfway houses, cancer patients, abandoned youth and will learn about providing general spiritual direction, said one of the organisers.

The students and teachers involved have all paid for their own flights through summer jobs and sponsored events and are now taking part in further extensive fundraising activities, the proceeds of which will all go to the Living Water Community who describe their mission as follows: 'Our Community has a vibrant ministry to the poor in Trinidad - the physically poor and the spiritually poor.

In a world where the illiterate, hungry, homeless and destitute spill on to our streets every day, we see the need for basic care, nourishment and self-development programmes managed in an efficient, cost-effective manner.

The teachers said the students are still making tireless efforts to raise funds in order to bring a much needed donation to the Living Water Community but also to bring a message of hope to our Trinidadian family.

They will also share some of our own culture through Irish music, poetry, dance, sporting and media presentations. It will be a collaborative, spiritual and charitable mission that would greatly appreciate the support of the Newbridge community, she added.
A Clane based brewer is set to make further moves into the craft beer market and it will be using county produced malting barley.

Kelly's Mountain Brew, which is based in an industrial estate in the town, is has been brewing mainly bottle beers but Ronan Kelly and his team are now in talks with local publicans to provide draught beer in their premises.

A new three-year 15,000 financial loan deal with Linked Finance, known as a peer-to-peer lender, will help them double capacity including producing the draft.

The company, which produces Justice, Revenge and Revolution blends has been exporting, including to Russia.

We will be keeping the draught lager local, said Ronan, who has expanded his workforce in recent times.

The Clane company is sourcing its malting barley in Kildare from Minch Malting. The barley is cut in Kildare, said Ronan.

Brewing on the new draught lager started last week and it will take a few weeks before the first brew is ready for the customer.

Lager takes longer than ale to brew, said Ronan, who reminded us that that their master brewer is Joe Bergin from Leixlip.

Asked if expansion could mean he will have to leave, he said they are talking to Ted Murray at the Thompson Industrial Estate with a view to getting extra space.

We could take turnover to half a million here, said Ronan, who had offers from peer lenders at Linked Finance of over twice what he needed.

The co founder of Kellys Mountain Brew, he, and his partner, Jackie, set up the small brewery with the start up support of Clane Business Park.

He worked in the construction business in Ireland in 2007. When the building sector crashed, he went off the Qatar for five years.

When he returned, he worked at Intel for a short while.

On July 25, 2014 the first beer brewed by the micro brewer was delivered went into the Supervalu retail outlet at Clane.

Along with Ronan and Jackie, Eoin Harrington is the assistant brewer. Former Guinness brewer, Joe Bergin, advises them.

Since we first spoke to him, they have taken on a small number of extra staff.

They were producing 6000 litres a month, most of it bottled, when we spoke to them last year.

They were planning to do lager at the time.

Local outlets and the Irish market continue to account for most of the sales  the Village Inn, Celbridges Kildrought Lounge, Jones and Clane GAA are among the outlets  15% are now exported, including to Russia. around.
St. Mary's College, Naas, will host Oklahoma in the school on successive nights between March 9 and March 12 (starting at 8pm).

The musical is part of the Transiton Year programme and all TY students take part either on stage, as part of the props, costume or front of house teams.

Just before Oklahoma became a new state, Laurey Williams notices that Curly, a handsome though shy ranch hand, has been acting strangely around her. Through some course of events, she and Curly soon realise the feelings they have for each other. Judd, a hired hand at Laurey's home, also has feelings for her. Together, she and Curly have to do something to save their relationship and keep Judd from doing something terrible. Woven in is the life of Ado Annie, one of Laurey's friends.

Her boyfriend has just gotten back from a trip to Kansas City. While he was away, she fell for a peddler who is a ladies' man and doesn't really want to marry her.

Set against the backdrop of ranching Oklahoma, this musical is full of fun, music, and romance for everyone.

Tickets are available from the school at lunchtimes only or on the door on the night.

Buy early to avoid disappointment.

Tickets are priced at 12 for an adult, 8 for students/senior citizens.

Special offer for Thursday night only 2 adults and 2 children 35, 1 adult and 2 children 24.
Leitrim Rose, Sinead Flynn has just returned from a life changing experience after volunteering for a week in Belarus with Adi Roche's Chernobyl Children International.

Sinead, from Ballinamore, and 18 of her fellow Roses and Escorts travelled over to Vesnova Children's Mental Asylum, a state institution that is home to over 170 children who are suffering as a result either directly or indirectly from the nuclear tragedy that happened 30 years ago this April.

Sinead said the trip was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever done!

She said Words can't describe it, memories which will always stay with me... I couldn't have gone out there with a better bunch of people - my rose family who was there for each other throughout it all.

She paid tribute to all her supporters saying a huge thank you to everyone who has donated and supported me before I headed over to these amazing kids.

She concluded saying she will always be grateful for the opportunity.

The roses spent their time bringing smiles and love to all the kids as they suffer badly from the lack of one to one attention. Some of the Rose group have medical occupations and they were able to help deal with some of the important health issues over there.

The children suffer from a vast range of different health problems including very bad deformities, Downs Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy. The roses helped feed and treat the children in a loving manner which the kids are not accustomed to.

Voluntary CEO of Chernobyl Children International, Adi Roche said, "the effect that the Roses and Escorts have on these children is absolutely priceless. It gives these special children hope and shows them that there are people in this world who love them and care for them. They are a credit to their counties, to their families and to the Rose of Tralee Festival. Everyone can be proud of them".

As a group, the roses raised over 40,000 to be used for the children in the institution and this will play a massive part in providing basic health care to help and comfort the suffering children. They also brought over suitcases packed with supplies from simple items such as Sudocrem, Calpol, all things that cannot be got over in Belarus and toys and clothes too.

The Leitrim Rose Centre are extremely proud of Sinead and would like to encourage any girls to join them this year for the 2016 Leitrim Rose selection.

www.roseoftralee.ie
Glowing tributes were paid to Judge Geoffrey Browne at last weeks sitting of Strokestown District Court, which was Judge Brownes final time to preside over cases there before his retirement.

Addressing the Court Judge Browne remarked, I never thought I would get to this stage. I have been wondering for the last few weeks what I was going to say.

Speaking about advice he received from a senior Judge upon becoming a District Court Judge in 2002 Judge Browne commented, That was a learning curve, they were very busy courts.

He recalled being told how to get through those busy court lists. I was told to listen to what they have to say and dont make lectures or speeches.

Having operated in the local region since 2004 Judge Browne said he has seen all manner of cases in Strokestown over the past 12 years.

Where does the time go? From animal cases, to drugs, road traffic, family law, you name it, he said referring to what he has seen come before him adding it may get even tougher for his successor.

There is a whole load of stuff coming in that I havent told Mairead (Conway) about from a place called Brussels!

He continued, There are all types of cases. Some people have drink or drug addictions, some appear in relation to family law.

It is all very sad. I dont know what is happening before I go into Court. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes difficult, sometimes distressing.

Addressing a group of secondary school students from Scoil Mhuire, Judge Browne said, The young people up there, if you get in trouble your name goes on a system and there is no way of taking it off.

I have to be aware of a persons future. This is ordinary common sense stuff, ordinary day to day living.

Judge Browne went on to praise those he has worked alongside during his time in Strokestown starting with the members of An Garda Siochana.

I have the height of praise for the way Gardai deal with cases. They deal with young brats and the abuse and ridicule they get is quite amazing.

Bualadh bos to the Gardai, they have done an excellent job as far as I can see, now theyve moved away from the Church in Tulsk, which was a well known spot for catching drivers exceeding the speed limit.

He also praised the work of the solicitors who appeared before him referring to them as top class.

He continued, speaking with his tongue slightly in cheek, Some are rather cute, theyre the ones you want to watch.

He added the solicitors would make you believe everybody is innocent before commenting, Well the Guards dont think so and it is up to the Judge to decide.

Referring to the role of the probation service Judge Browne remarked, Unfortunately Ciaran Connolly from the probation service is not here.

I have the height of praise for the way they go about matters. They have limited resources but they do an excellent job.

Judge Browne reserved his final words of praise for those who work in the Courts Service, particularly Mairead Conway.

Beside every successful man theres a wife, not this time - Mairead is not my wife! She and the Courts Service staff keep Roscommon courts ticking over.

There are no complaints, there is a little bit of muttering but they get on with their job. I have nothing but admiration for the way the District Court is operated in Roscommon.

I would like to thank Mairead and the staff for their friendship over the years.

I think thats it, I dont think Ive ever spoken so much in my life.

Judge Browne concluded to a warm round of applause saying Im going to miss you all.

Mary Rose McNulty addressed the Court on behalf of the Roscommon Bar Association to pay tribute to Judge Browne.

Judge Browne is with us as long as Im qualified, she noted, adding, I qualified in 2006 and have had the privilege of being in front of him since then.

You treated us most fairly with a courteous manner, despite us maybe annoying you at times!

Ms McNulty added, You could tell the difference between someone who was down on their luck and someone who needed to be taught a lesson.

I wish you a long, healthy and happy retirement and I hope you wont be a stranger.

Addressing the Court on behalf of An Garda Siochana Insp Ollie Baker said, On behalf of the Commissioner I would like to be associated with the comments.

Speaking with colleagues they stated the view that you handed down well balanced verdicts. They all spoke in glowing terms, he added.

Speaking on behalf of Scoil Mhuire, Strokestown, school teacher Ms Fahy stated, Your name is synonymous with justice in Roscommon.

On behalf of the students and staff of Scoil Mhuire we would like to wish you a long and healthy retirement.

District Court Clerk Mairead Conway also paid tribute to Judge Browne, wishing to be associated with the comments previously made.
This is the speech that Alison McInnes gave to the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference. Its quite direct and points out our own failings, saying that we have to take action to resolve our lack of diversity.

Ive been a member of our party for a quarter of a century. One disappointing constant has been the gender imbalance in our parliamentary groups.

I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the dynamics of our party, locally and nationally, and to identify through the partys own myriad actions what it actually values and honours.

Despite being the party that claims it cherishes equality and womens rights, its actions often reveal a clear preference for adherence to a single, male patent pattern. And that creates a feedback loop that means members when asked to choose are most likely to opt for what they know the party values above all, and so it goes on.

There is a societal, ingrained implicit bias that leads us all, women and men, to value a particular set of attributes above others. There is no need to be outraged or defensive  no one is saying it is deliberate or malicious, but it is real.

For generations  for ever really  society has been constructed by men, institutions named and shaped by them. They have built systems that are so comfortable and work so well for them that they often cant begin to imagine the advantage it gives them.

And thats the crux of the matter the advantage and privilege that men currently enjoy.

It has been heartening over the last few weeks to hear some men say they are willing to cede that advantage in the interests of fairness.

So to those who argue that positive action is giving a special advantage to women  I say it is quite the opposite  it is a realignment to break the old mould that society has been using for too long.

Of course our party is not alone in this  how could it be?

But in academia, in board rooms, in workplaces we have seen concerted action for some time to tackle this.

Whereas in our party? Deep discomfort, usually swiftly followed by playing down and outsourcing the problem  by saying we need to fix the women.

Ill leave it to others to point out how insulting it is to women to rely on the superficial refrain it should be the best person for the job as a defence for the status quo.

Let me acknowledge that it is an uncomfortable realignment that you are being asked to endorse. Many young people in particular will find it an affront. The ambitious young men who think their ambitions might be thwarted (they wont). Young women who are determined to get there on their own thank you (they might).

But none of this is about individuals. This is about making the party fit for the future.

Willie has led this party with verve and determination through a tough time. He has successfully kept the libdems in the story, we have punched above our weight. Today Willie is telling you he needs to lead a diverse team. That he needs to harness all the talent in the party..

I agree. There is nothing liberal about blocking 50% of our talent. Members, I urge you to set aside any personal misgivings you might have about this  otherwise the party faces growing irrelevance.
In January, the Prime Minister announced in The Sunday Times that he wanted to see 100 of Britains most run-down estates transformed. His ambition is apparently nothing short of social turnaroundwith massive estate regeneration, tenants protected and land unlocked for new housing all over Britain.

Together, he said, we can tear down anything that stands in our way. What fighting talk! Yet what stands in the way is usually the fact that people actually live on these estates. Several generations of the same family may have done so. People cannot and should not just be swept aside in these waves of prime ministerial purple prose.

Good estate regeneration schemes look to provide existing residents with a crucial right of return  the only way to give real meaning to Camerons promise of protection for tenants. The deal should be while you will need to decamp for perhaps a year or two, you will be able to return to the same estate and live in a home of a higher quality.

To make that possible, Councils already have to joust with developers over what is and isnt viable, in their battle to have social rented and shared ownership units reprovided. And we know some authorities have already given up. Just look at the Heygate Estate, in Southwark. Once a place of more than a thousand council properties, its new guise will see wealthy investors ascend to glinting penthouses, while only 79 socially rented units will be replaced.

Now, the Governments Housing and Planning Bill will make these situations even worse. By making starter homes  coined non-starter homes by Shelter  a priority in the planning process, over all other forms of tenure, they will be asking local authorities to negotiate the following with developers:

Rebuild an estate Build enough market rate private housing to fund the scheme Re-provide existing social rented properties so tenants can return AND provide starter homes.

Such an ask can only result in failure, especially in London. Either the crucial right of return will be denied to existing residents when regeneration goes ahead  more Heygates  or the Prime Minister will fail in his ambition to regenerate estates.

In our first debates on the Bill last week, I tabled an amendment which would exclude regeneration schemes from the Governments demands that starter homes take precedence over provision of real affordable housing. We received strong support from Crossbencher Lord Kerslake, and from Conservatives Lord Horam and Lord True. Responding on Thursday, even the Minister, Baroness Williams of Trafford, agreed that that the requirement to deliver starter homes might affect the viability of a site.

So far, so logical  but of course the Government didnt accept the amendment. The Minister told Peers she would prefer to deal with the question of exclusions through a departmental consultation. The danger with such warm words is that they simply dont add up to a commitment to protect regeneration schemes  and existing tenants on regenerated estates. Only a solemn promise that such schemes will not be put at risk by the starter homes initiative will satisfy Peers when it comes to the next stage of this highly controversial Bill. Ill be working across party lines to secure this, and will report back here on LDV.

* Dee Doocey is Liberal Democrat Tourism Spokesperson in the House of Lords.
Tim Farron has openly said that he smoked Cannabis as a youngster.

From todays Mirror:

Its time that we had the courage to look at the evidence and make a decision that will help us to tackle the real criminals instead of the current failed approach.

But sadly, too many other politicians want to continue forcing our police to waste resources chasing cannabis users when they should be able to take violent crime instead.

Father-of-four Mr Farron, 46, told the Mirror: I tried cannabis when I was younger, as did many other politicians.

The MPs candid confession comes as he calls for the complete legalisation of the drug in a bid to generate up to 900million for public coffers.

On the party website, Norman Lamb has urged members to support the motion calling for the legalisation of Cannabis. He wrote:

I fully accept that cannabis, like any drug, can pose harms to individuals who choose to use it. But if we accept that many people will use cannabis  whether for recreational or medicinal purposes  then we must be pragmatic in how we minimise those harms. That is why I will be making the case for introducing a fully legal, regulated market at our spring conference this Saturday.

No drug is made less harmful when you buy it from criminals. Drug dealers have no interest in your welfare. They never ask for proof of age, they wont refuse to serve you if youve taken too much and you may have no idea what strength of cannabis they are selling to you. Criminal dealers also have every motivation to encourage people who buy cannabis from them to move on to far more dangerous and addictive substances.

But this is not the only devastating social cost of the current law. Thousands of people each year receive convictions for possession of drugs for personal use, which will blight their education and employment opportunities for the rest of their lives.

While my primary motivation in arguing for a change in the law is the human cost of prohibition, it is also worth mentioning the economic case for reform.

Currently, the illegal drug market is worth billions to criminal gangs, while the war on drugs costs the UK tax-payer billions more. Conversely, a regulated market could generate savings (particularly in the crime and justice system) and the taxation of cannabis has the potential to raise significant revenue.

Finally, there is the compelling law and order case. It is shocking when you think how many police hours are spent targeting people carrying small amounts of cannabis for personal use. Hours which could be better used tackling far more harmful crimes.

The Liberal Democrats have a proud history of developing our policies based on evidence, liberal principles and informed debate. I think this report is an incredibly valuable contribution to this process.
This is the speech I made to last weeks debate on diversity at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.

I joined the Liberal Democrats in May and have never spoken at conference before. What I am going to say is going to be quite anecdotal and general, but makes an important point nonetheless.

I grew up in a family almost entirely made up of girls. I attended an all-girls school from the age of 11 where I saw girls reaching and exceeding their potential. I never used to see gender inequality as a hugely important issue because in my life, and the lives of the people I was surrounded by, being female never seemed to hold anyone back. The women I knew had amazing careers, and the girls I knew were confident and opinionated. They seemed to have all the same things as the men I knew did.

It was not until I became interested in politics at university when I really started seeing gender inequality as a key issue in our society.

The under-representation of women in politics has far-reaching implications. One such implication is that it portrays an idea that women do not want to participate, or more worryingly, are not suited to participate in political life.

It is often said that women dont want to stand for selection or election. I do not believe that this is true for all women. But for those women who do not want to stand, we need to understand why.

For me as a young woman, it is off-putting when you think you will be judged for what you are wearing or how much you weigh, rather than the policies you are promoting. It is off putting when you get called bossy for putting your opinion across in an assertive way, when a man who puts his opinion across in the same way is heralded as having leadership skills. It is off putting when you feel you have to make a choice between a career in politics and a family.

These are barriers to women participating in political life. These sorts of representations in the media, usually on social media, and wider society have to change.

I believe that these representations will change when we all become more used to seeing women in political and public life more generally.

This is where the liberal democrats can make a difference.

By supporting this motion we will be working towards a situation where women in politics is regarded as the normal, not an exceptional, state of affairs. It will send a strong signal to women that we not only want you to participate in political life, but we need you to.

This motion is about taking that step and tackling this underrepresentation of women quickly. And quickly is a key point. We need a period of positive action to achieve this. The Liberal Democrats cannot afford to fall behind on this issue any longer. So please support this motion.

+

* Charity Pierce is a new member of the Liberal Democrats and is a student in Edinburgh
Its International Womens Day, when we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. But, the IWD website reminds us, the latest estimate of the World Economic Forum is that, at the present rate of progress, full parity between genders will not be achieved till 2133. Our record in Britain, while improving, is doing so painfully slowly. The pay gap between genders has not closed in spite of legislation, and has remained relatively consistent for the past 20 years. Britain elected more female MPs than ever in May 2015, but still sits at 48th in the world league table, behind many of our European neighbours, and behind some of the worlds poorest nations. Lindsay Northover is right to point out that had it been based on the Lib Dems, the UK would be bottom, grouped with Yemen and Qatar.

Why is that? Well, because we have no women MPs any more, just 26% of our approved parliamentary candidates are women, and women are under-represented on many of our internal party committees. We are in a similar situation where BAME, LGBT+ and disabled members are concerned. I dont know about you, but I find that shaming for a party that holds equality as one of its fundamental commitments. In our constitution, we say that we oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality. Its time to show that we practice what we preach.

We have an opportunity to do this at the Spring Conference in York, when we will be debating motion F20, Electing Diverse MPs, on Sunday morning. While by law we cant have shortlists reserved for candidates who are BAME or LGBT+, we can have all women shortlists (because women are not a minority), and we can have all-disabled shortlists (recognising the distinctly higher barriers candidates with disabilities face). This motion proposes that we adopt all-women shortlists in seats where sitting MPs are standing down, and in some seats where we won more than 25% of the vote in 2015. Its a way of ensuring that when it comes to the General Election in 2020, we have the best possible chance of returning several women MPs to Westminster, and setting our party back on track when it comes to standing up for equality and showing the world that we mean business on that front.

There are those, including women, who have resisted all women shortlists in the past, Some say they dont want to be selected as a token, but in our party, no woman ever could. Every female candidate has to be good enough to be approved and good enough to be short-listed by the local party. Any sub-standard tokenistic candidate simply wouldnt get to this stage, especially in our most fiercely contested seats. Some say that candidates should only be selected on merit regardless of gender, and that the best person will always win. But the selection system is so skewed by factors like money and time, not to mention unconscious bias amongst local party members, so we cannot say that merit has triumphed if we have no women MPs at all. Interestingly, many people in the party who might in the past have argued that all women shortlists were unacceptable are now telling me that they support the idea, as a time-limited targeted measure to get us out of this difficult situation. And I agree.

When we were in government, Vince Cable made it clear that he expected that FTSE 100 Boards should include at least 25% women, with the threat of quotas in the background. During the last parliament, the number of women on those boards doubled, almost reaching the target Vince Cable and the Davies Commission set. There was also a significant increase in the number of women on FTSE 250 boards. Thats a fantastic achievement and one that we should be hugely proud of. Alongside that, Jo Swinson battled to bring in shared parental leave, and the Lib Dems worked in Government to improve childcare provision. Lynne Featherstone at the Home Office put in places measures to protect women and girls against violence. Practical, vital measures to secure greater equality.

Now lets do the same for our own party. By supporting the motion, we will be doing for our party what we did for the country, ensuring that women have a voice and make a contribution as part of our parliamentary team. I will be supporting the motion next Sunday. Please give it your support too.

* Tim Farron is Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Agriculture and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
A BROTHER of criminal figure, Christy Keane, has been found not guilty of having hundreds of Xanax tablets for the purpose of sale of supply.

A total of 263 tablets were seized at the home of Anthony Keane on July 14, last.

During a contested hearing Keane, aged 52, of Colmcille Street, St Marys Park insisted he had the tablets for his own personal use.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy was told the defendant suffers from depression and anxiety and that the attempted murder of his brother at the University of Limerick two weeks earlier had further tested his anxiety.

Given what happened, tensions were extremely high, said solicitor John Herbert.

Detective Garda David McGrath of the divisional drugs unit said he and a number of colleagues executed a search warrant at around 12midday on foot of confidential information.

He said a purse containing blister packs of Alprazolam was found shoved between the cushions of a sofa in the sitting room of the house.

In a cautioned memo taken at scene, the defendant accepted the tablets were his but told gardai they were for his own use.

Cross examined by Mr Herbert, the detective garda agreed that nothing evidential was found on Keanes mobile phone and that no paraphernalia associated with drug dealing was found in the house.

Keane told the court that while he has been prescribed Xanax by his GP, he takes additional tablets.

I takes a lot more than the doctor gives me he said adding that he takes up to eight tablets a day.

Judge McCarthy dismissed the charge saying he had a reasonable doubt.
A 27-year-old Newcastle West man who was seen chasing another man around an estate in the town with a knife received a suspended sentence at Newcastle West District Court.

Inspector Brian ODonovan told the court that gardai responded to a call on October 14 last that Stephen Daly of 49 Sharwood Estate in the town was seen with a knife in the Castleview estate.

When they arrived, they found Mr Daly sitting on a wall outside a house in the estate. As they approached him, he was seen throwing an item over the wall. Following a search, gardai found a knife wrapped in a sock.

According to Inspector ODonovan, the incident was part of an ongoing dispute between the defendant and another person.

The court heard that Mr Daly had 56 previous convictions, including for assault, public order and theft.

Solicitor Michael ODonnell, told the court that his client had been sitting on the wall waiting for some friends to come out of the house, that he wanted to talk to.

He pointed out that Mr Daly had previously been the victim of a bad assault which had left him partially blinded in one eye.

He added that Mr Daly also suffered from a number of health problems, including schizophrenia and paranoia and that he was attending the mental health services in Shannon, where he now lived. This is a totally changed man in every aspect of his demeanour. He is dealing with his mental state, he added.

Judge Mary Larkin imposed a three-month prison sentence which she suspended for two years on condition that he liaise with the probation services.
LIMERICK Chamber is hosting a major event this Wednesday night aimed at reversing the infamous doughnut effect, which has seen retail flourish in the suburbs instead of the centre.

Chief executive of the business group Dr James Ring is calling on all traders with an interest in the city centre to attend the event, which kicks off at the Hunt Museum at 6pm.

He believes that while the council has a role to play, it is the business community which must take the lead to ensure the full rejuvenation of the city.

The guest speaker is Dr Lisa OMalley, head of the department of management and marketing research at the University of Limerick.

She will facilitate a debate to establish what the business community can do to make the city centre thrive again.

Dr Ring said it is important retailers stand together to help the city develop, and added Wednesdays meeting as potentially one of the most important for the development of the centre.

If we want to see something happen in the city, we will have to do it ourselves, he said. I am happy to stick my neck out, and agree to lead it. But I need them to row in behind me. I cannot do it alone.

The Chamber boss is hoping that proposals to brand and market the city centre are forthcoming from the event, saying: Limerick is buzzing. There is something happening every day.

The Milk Market is jam packed at the weekend, yet it doesn't translate into the city centre around the corner. There has to be a reason for this. I would like to see retailers come together and help brand Saturday as the shopping day in Limerick, he said.

In order to ensure this is a success though, restaurants and bars also need to get involved in offering special offers to entice people to remain in the centre longer.

Sunday, he added, could be designated as a family day in the city centre.

While the Chamber will continue to lobby City and County Council, Dr Ring feels the initiative must come from members.

He said: The council has a role to play, and we will not let them off the hook in delivering what they have to deliver. But other groups have roles to play, including the gardai. But the businesses have an even bigger role to play. Take them out, and it is game over. Lets stand together.

Dr Ring, who is about to embark on his second year as Chamber CEO, says he hopes to see a real thriving city centre.

We are against the Parkway Valley development, we will continue to be against the Parkway Valley as a retail unit. The reality is the retail has to come into the city centre. There are too many empty units in retail parks outside the city. It is horrific to see this. We need to see it in the city centre.

"My own style is I much prefer action to talking. I think a lot of the retail strategy hinges on Wednesday night, Dr Ring concluded.

For more information, telephone 061-415980.
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A 52-year-old man in Scotland who inhaled recreational drugs called poppers developed vision problems that have lasted for months, and the impairment may even become permanent, according to a new report of his case.

The man's vision became blurred and distorted shortly after using the drugs, and he went to a hospital in Scotland in September 2015. Although the man has since recovered his vision to some extent, it remained reduced in both eyes at his last follow-up appointment about two months ago, said Dr. Joshua Luis, one of the doctors who treated the man and co-authored the report.

For this man, the lasting problems may be minimal, he noted. "He may not be able to read as fine print as he used to, but it shouldn't have too much of an impact on day-to-day life," Luis told Live Science. [16 Oddest Medical Cases]

But there have been 30 published cases of vision problems and eye damage related to the use of poppers, the authors of the report said. Moreover, they suspect such cases may actually be more common than officially reported.

When the man came to the hospital, he told his doctors that his vision had been blurred and distorted for the past 10 days, and that the problems had started right after a night of clubbing, during which he inhaled poppers, which are chemicals that cause a person to feel euphoric and sexually aroused. Poppers are made of chemicals called alkyl nitrites.

When the doctors examined the man, they found that the inner and outer segments of his fovea  an area in the retina of the eye where visual acuity is normally the highest  had been disrupted. The doctors advised the man that he refrain from using the drugs again.

Three months after the man's initial visit to the hospital, his vision had improved slightly.

If a person is experiencing problems with his or her vision after taking poppers, the best way to prevent these problems from getting worse is to stop using the drugs, the authors of the report said.

However, this does not guarantee that the person's vision will go back to normal: though some patients do recover their vision completely, the vision of other patients does not get better with time, according to the report, published today (March 7) in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

There are no treatments for the vision problems and eye damage that the man in the report experienced after taking the drugs, although some previous reports have suggested that a patient might benefit from taking a carotenoid called lutein, the researchers said.

A vision problem is not the only health effect linked to the use of poppers. For example, the authors of a report published in 2002 in the Journal of Emergency Medicine described two cases of people who experienced temporary blood problems after inhaling the drugs.

Specifically, the people had an abnormal amount of methemoglobin  a type of hemoglobin  in their blood, which resulted in a decreased availability of oxygen to some tissues in their bodies and blue-grey discoloration of the skin. Both people recovered after receiving treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that using poppers may increase people's risk of HIV because they reduce users' inhibitions to engage in risky sexual behavior.

Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.
This ghostlike octopod is almost certainly an undescribed species and may also represent a new genus.

The recent deep-sea sighting of a highly unusual bluish-white octopod moved one of the mission scientists to paraphrase a Taylor Swift song, saying, "I have never, like, ever, seen that one."

Yes, it was that special.

The pearly-hued cephalopod was spotted Feb. 27 in waters near the Hawaiian Islands, captured on video by a robotic vehicle deployed by the Okeanos Explorer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship that conducts ocean exploration around the world. [New 'Ghost-Like' Octopod - Scientists: 'Never Seen Anything Like This']

Deep Discoverer, Okeanos' remote-operated vehicle (ROV), was conducting the first dive of the 2016 season, about 2.5 miles (4,000 meters) below the surface.

What the mission scientists found on that dive was unexpected and striking. A peculiarly pale octopod  resembling an octopus but yet to be described  crouched on the ocean floor, apparently lacking the pigment cells, or chromatophores, usually associated with octopods. Its body also appeared to be less muscular than is usual for these animals, giving it an almost ethereal appearance that Michael Vecchione, a zoologist at the NOAA National Systematics Laboratory at the Smithsonian, and a curator of cephalopods at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., described in a statement as "ghostlike."

ROV Deep Discoverer approaches the unknown octopod at 4,290 meters depth. (Image credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016)

"Beautiful image, here!"

Two scientists' astonished and delighted voices are audible on NOAA's octopod video  Daniel Wagner, a research specialist with the NOAA Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, and Chris Kelley of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii. Wagner exclaimed that the creature was "different than the two we got on video last year," while Kelley chimes in to add, "That animal is not in the HURL guide!" referring to the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory's reference collection for identifying deep-water animal species.

"We've never seen one like this at this kind of depth before," Vecchione told Live Science. Octopods with fins, the so-called "dumbo" octopods, are common at this depth, he said, but this ghostly, finless creature belonged to the incirrate octopod group, which lacks fins and is typically found in shallower waters.

Vecchione said he knew of one other type of octopod without pigment cells, but he noted that this new animal revealed a different number of sucker rows on its arms than the known species  one row instead of two. "So that's why I'm pretty sure that it has to be an undescribed species, and maybe an undescribed genus," he said.

But while the prospect of finding a new ocean species is certainly exciting, it's also just not that unusual, Vecchione added. The ocean is deep and vast, with much of the deep sea yet to be explored and likely holding many unknown forms of life.

"Frankly, undescribed species in the deep sea are a dime a dozen," he told Live Science. "We know so little about what lives down there."

Follow Mindy Weisberger on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Apple is embroiled in a battle with the FBI over an iPhone that was used by one of the shooters involved in the December attack that killed 14 and wounded 22 in San Bernardino, California. The two sides are involved in an ongoing court case over Apple's refusal to comply with a Feb. 16 order from a federal judge that demanded that the tech giant build custom software to help the FBI break into an iPhone 5c given to slain attacker Syed Rizwan Farook by his employer.

With both sides refusing to back down in what is turning into a complicated legal skirmish, untangling the realities from the rhetoric has proved difficult.

Here's what you need to know about Apple's fight with the FBI. [6 Incredible Spy Technologies That Are Real]

What is the FBI asking Apple to do?

In 2014, Apple deliberately changed its operating system (OS) to ensure that all iPhones were encrypted by default and that Apple had no access to the encryption keys. Instead, keys are generated by combining a user's password with a unique identifier stored on the phone. Farook's phone runs iOS 9, which includes the new security setup as well as a feature that permanently locks the phone after 10 incorrect entries.

Because Apple can't decrypt the phone, the FBI wants the company to upload a modified OS that disables the 10-attempt limit and permits electronic entry. Farook used a 4-digit passcode to lock the phone, so the new software would allow the FBI to rapidly cycle through the 10,000 possible combinations.

The FBI needs Apple to build the software because any updates require the company's digital signature, according to cybersecurity expert Alan Woodward, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. "These are the keys to the crown jewels  it's what makes their software legitimate," Woodward told Live Science.

The FBI is willing to let Apple build and upload the software at its own facility, but the agency wants to input the passwords itself.

What are the key legal arguments?

The FBI's legal argument relies heavily on the All Writs Act (AWA) of 1789, which gives judges general authority to demand compliance with court orders as long there are no other legal avenues, the subject of the order is closely connected to the case and it does not impose an undue burden. Apple says it is "far removed" from the case and the resources required to build the modified OS are an undue burden on the company. [Smartphone Encryption: What You Need to Know]

Apple has also invoked the right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment, saying code is a form of speech and the company is being compelled to code for the FBI as part of the court's request. Previous cases have determined that code can sometimes be considered speech, but the circumstances were different in those situations, according to Peter Swire, a privacy law expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

"We don't have clear guidance in the courts about whether the First Amendment would apply," he added.

Importantly, though, a federal judge in New York ruled in favor of Apple in a similar case last week regarding an iPhone that was seized in a drug case. While the decision has no direct impact on the San Bernardino case, the ruling from Magistrate Judge James Orenstein, in New York's Eastern District, said the government's interpretation of the AWA was so expansive it "cast doubt on the AWA's constitutionality."

Still, Swire said it's hard to predict the outcome of this legal fight. "Judges sometimes disagree, and if they do, this could quite possibly go up on appeal  maybe all the way to the Supreme Court," he said.

Why now?

This battle is just the latest attempt by law enforcement to circumvent growing levels of encryption in consumer devices. The White House announced last fall it would not promote legislation compelling tech firms to build "backdoors" into their devices to allow agencies to sidestep encryption, which means the FBI has been forced to explore alternative means.

Court briefs from Apple show that the company has challenged at least a dozen recent FBI requests to unlock iPhones. Woodward said the case appears to be more about the government's right to force companies to unlock phones than it is about evidence on this particular device. And, the FBI has chosen a case where public opinion is likely to be on their side, he added. "Terrorism is a very emotive subject," Woodward said.

FBI Director James Comey admitted as much when he conceded recently that the case could set a precedent. And other law enforcement groups, both at the state and local level, have said they will try the same tactics if the FBI wins, reported The Intercept.

"If Apple is forced to open up the San Bernardino phone, then it's hard for it to avoid opening up others' phones when faced with a similar court order," Swire said. [15 Best Mobile Security and Privacy Apps]

What are the wider implications?

Apple and its supporters claim the FBI is asking it to effectively create a backdoor into its products, with no way of guaranteeing that these workarounds will only be used by the "good guys." The company also argues that a precedent like this would strengthen law enforcers' hand when demanding other workarounds that further erode encryption and privacy. For its part, the FBI says it is only asking Apple to do what was standard practice before the company made changes to its operating system, and the court order only covers a single phone.

If a precedent is set and these requests become routine, the risk of such technology ending up in the wrong hands would certainly increase. But, Woodward said the FBI's solution only deals with the limited situation where devices are in the physical possession of a would-be hacker, so fears spread by privacy lobbyists that the outcome of this case could lead to mass surveillance are most likely wide of the mark.

Rather, Apple's decision to fight the case is as much a battle to protect its reputation for security, Woodward said."Apple is trying to make it look like they are doing this for people's good but I don't think it's entirely altruistic," he said. A more pressing concern is that complying with the federal court's order would make it harder for Apple to resist similar requests from governments with poor human rights records, such as China and Iran.

Ultimately, the point may be moot, according to Woodward, because users have been able to create pass codes of up to 90 characters using both numbers and letters since the release of iOS 7. Even if it were possible to skirt security features and use a computer to automatically generate possible passwords (what's known as brute-force search), it would take years to chance upon the right combination, he said.

"If they did try, it would take longer than anyone at the FBI would be alive," Woodward said.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
The bionic fingertip was able to help an amputee distinguish between feel rough and smooth textures.

Using a bionic fingertip, an amputee for the first time has been able to feel rough and smooth textures in real-time, as though the fingertip were naturally connected to his hand.

After Luke Skywalker got his hand cut off during a duel with Darth Vader in "Star Wars," the young Jedi received an artificial hand that helped him both grip and feel again. Scientists worldwide are seeking to make this vision from science fiction a reality with prosthetic limbs that are wired directly into the nervous systems of their recipients.

Researchers experimented with amputee Dennis Aabo Srensen from Denmark, who damaged his left hand more than a decade ago while playing with fireworks. Doctors immediately amputated the appendage after Srensen was brought to a hospital. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

"I still feel my missing hand  it is always clenched in a fist," Srensen said in a statement.

The researchers had connected Srensen to a bionic hand that helped him to tell whether an object held in the prosthetic was soft or hard, round or square. Now the scientists wanted to see if they could improve his ability to detect more subtle characteristics, like rough or smooth textures.

"The more we are able to reach the complexity of the natural sense of touch, the more usable the device will be," study co-author Silvestro Micera, head of the translational neural engineering lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, told Live Science.

The researchers connected a postage-stamp-size artificial fingertip to electrodes surgically implanted to nerves in Srensen's upper left arm above his stump. A machine then ran the bionic fingertip over different pieces of plastic that were engraved with smooth or rough patterns.

Sensors in the artificial fingertip generated electrical signals that were translated into a series of electrical spikes, imitating the language of the nervous system. These spikes were then delivered to Srensen's nerves.

"One of the most amazing things we saw during the experiments was the fastness of the learning process," said lead study author Calogero Oddo, a bioengineer at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies' BioRobotics Institute in Pisa, Italy. "Dennis [Srensen] was able to perceive texture about 15 minutes after the first delivery of electrical spikes."

(Image credit: EPFL/Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies' BioRobotics Institute)

Srensen could distinguish between smooth and rough surfaces 96 percent of the time, making him the first person in the world to recognize texture using a bionic device, the researchers said. [Body Beautiful: The 5 Strangest Prosthetic Limbs]

"The stimulation felt almost like what I would feel with my hand," Srensen said in the statement. "I felt the texture sensations at the tip of the index finger of my phantom hand."

The researchers also experimented with non-amputees who were temporarily attached to the artificial fingertip through electrodes stuck into nerves in their arms. These volunteers were able to distinguish between rough and smooth textures only about 77 percent of the time. Srensen probably did better than the non-amputee volunteers because the electrodes were surgically implanted into the amputee's nerves, whereas they were not as securely attached to those of the non-amputees, Oddo said.

When the researchers scanned the brains of both Srensen and the non-amputee volunteers, they found that Srensen's brain activity while using the artificial fingertip was analogous to that of non-amputees using their own fingers. This suggests the sensations from the bionic fingertip accurately resemble the feeling of touch from real fingers, the scientists said.

The researchers have already integrated the new fingertip into a prosthetic hand. Micera said they plan for patients to use this advanced bionic device in experiments before the end of 2016.

"Hopefully, we will have proof of long-term use in two to three years and transfer to clinical practice in five to 10," Micera said.

Currently, the fingertip can discern textures on a millimeter scale, Oddo said. "When it comes to discriminating a piece of wood from a piece of paper, a piece of cotton, a piece of silk, and so on, those materials differ on an even finer level, on a micron level," Oddo told Live Science. He added that they have developed an artificial fingertip that can discriminate such fine textures, and they hope to have patients test it on items such as clothes.

The scientists detailed their findings online today (March 8) in the journal eLife.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Forwarders expect Iran to offer a medium-term demand boost and many are gearing up operations as they seek to expand operations in the country of some 80 million people. However, understanding the current sanctions regime is still no easy task.

According to a memorandum from legal advisory firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, although the Atomic Energy Agency in January verified that Iran had complied with various nuclear-related undertakings in accordance with the terms agreed last July with China and Western countries, which would see the US, UN and EU provide phased sanctions relief, understanding what relief actually means is critical for any business looking to enter Iran.

The lawyers said that there was now substantial divergence between US and EU sanctions regimes for Iran  the EU has suspended nearly all economic and nuclear sanctions, but the US relief focuses mainly on secondary sanctions, measures that target foreign banks and other foreign companies that engage in certain activities involving Iran.

Financial institutions and multinational companies  particularly those based in Europe  that had become accustomed to transatlantic synchronicity will now need to proceed cautiously, given the substantial gaps between remaining US and EU sanctions.

The comprehensive US embargo against Iran remains largely in place and, with very limited exception, US persons remain prohibited from doing business with Iran or the Iranian government.

But as previously reported in Lloyds Loading List, a number of forwarders and 3PLs are cautiously taking steps to extend operations in Iran in anticipation of a surge of infrastructure spending, renewed energy exports and higher levels of FMCG imports.

Panalpina already offers regular air, ocean and road services to Iran, having prepared for the lifting of sanctions for the last two years. Commodities vary from telecom to automotive and oil and gas equipment as well as aerospace, said a spokesperson. The facilities in Iran can handle the current growing demand and there are plans in place to improve the infrastructure going forward. We expect a gradual increase of traffic, and not a surge overnight.

Middle East based Aramex has been operating in Iran for the last ten years and now employs around 150 professionals there. Chadi Fares, global air freight director, said the company has had to limit its network to domestic operations due to the imposed sanctions and in order to abide by international laws and regulations. Once the sanctions are completely lifted, business should be as usual in Iran, he added. Currently we are monitoring and will evaluate the situation accordingly.



He forecasts that lifting international sanctions would see a growth in all market segments, particularly imports of spare parts, commercial and high-tech goods.

Iran is a big regional market, has a massive potential and developing infrastructure, he said. For us, our approach for doing business in Iran is the same as any other market. The lifting of sanctions means that opportunities for trade are opening. We believe that any change in the market that enhances global trade and connectivity is good for our business.

We are continually evaluating the situation and how the environment is developing in Iran in light of the sanctions being lifted.

But as previously reported in Lloyds Loading List, some freight forwarders see major new market opportunities following the lifting in January of UN nuclear-related trade sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic, even though US companies are still excluded from most trading activities with Iran because of unilateral US sanctions that remain in place.

Its the biggest market opportunity to have emerged in the past decade or so, observed Thomas Blank, Europe managing director for Hong Kong-headquartered 3PL Kerry Logistics.

The removal of the sanctions is something people have been waiting for for many years, and it's going to have a big impact on exports from Germany and China to Iran, because for the past 30 years, capital investment (in the country) has been close to zero, he told Lloyds Loading List.

The US imposed sanctions in 1979, following the so-called Islamic Revolution in the country, and expanded them in 1995 to include companies dealing with Iran. This may not have been an official and binding set of sanctions like the UN sanctions imposed in 2006, but in practice any company that did any business with the US faced major problems if found trading with Iran, Blank explained.

Blank continued: The interesting part is that only a few forwarders have been dealing with Iran until now. This means there will be a similar starting point for us all, and therefore a real race to land business. Kerry Logistics has a plan for Iran and we are determined to be there.

Panalpina said Iran was a highly attractive market. Regional CEO for the Middle East, Africa, and CIS, Peter Triebel, told Lloyd's Loading List: Our staff in the Middle East and from Europe have conducted regular business trips to Iran in the last couple of months and we are in the process of deploying a Panalpina delegate to the country. Indeed, regular business relating to the telecoms vertical has already started and is handled in close cooperation with our local agent, Chain International Transport, he added.

Meanwhile, DB Schenker, a major player in the automotive vertical, is expecting the lifting of sanctions to provide scope for Iran, a country with a population of 80 million inhabitants, to become a major importer of vehicles, the company confirmed. Before the sanctions, Germany used to be Iran's biggest trading partner. DB Schenkers presence in Iran dates back to the 1950s and in recent years has focused on an agency agreement.

The German firm is making preparations to provide multi-modal solutions  by air, ocean and land  in anticipation of growth in the Iranian trade. (Cargo) space (to Iran) is not an issue right now and we will be establishing procedures well in advance to ensure that the necessary capacity can be secured in the future, a spokesman noted

Small and medium forwarders are also looking to participate in potential new opportunities coming from the reopening of Irans economy. UK forwarding and logistics services group Seafast Logistics has announced the formation of a joint-venture partnership with long-established Iranian logistics provider Seven Seas Tehran, in response to the lifting of the nuclear-related trade sanctions. The joint venture Iran Shipping & Logistics Limited (ISLL) was registered with UK authorities in August 2015, immediately following the announcement of the nuclear-related agreement with the European and US governments.

The developments now permit Seven Seas and Seafast to activate their plans to provide global shipping and logistics services from 90 Countries to and from Iranian Ports. Seafast said the companies had been patiently waiting for this opportunity, and would now be able to offer solutions for container shipping, break bulk, project cargo, refrigerated goods, and air freight into and from all Iranian ports.

However, the door has not yet re-opened for US logistics and forwarding companies to trade with Iran  nor their US cargo-owner customers. In a note to customers following the lifting on 16 January of the UN nuclear-related trade sanctions, Expeditors said: US companies should carefully review the related Treasury Department/Department of State guidance document, which notes that none of the sanctions-related commitments outlined in this guidance regarding Implementation Day] apply to US persons, and US persons, including US Companies, continue to be broadly prohibited from engaging in transactions or dealings with Iran and the Government of Iran unless such activities are exempt from regulation or authorized by OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control).

It added: The nuclear-related secondary sanctions that were lifted by the US generally are directed toward non-US persons for specified conduct involving Iran that occurs entirely outside of US jurisdiction."

A spokesperson for CEVA Logistics told Lloyd's Loading List: In respect of the recent changes to Iran sanctions, CEVA in all locations, including its non US entities, are treated as US persons because of CEVAs ownership structure. As a result, there is no change in CEVAs policy concerning Iran. Our policy remains that there is no company activity concerning Iran.

A number of container shipping lines have already announced their return to Iran, in anticipation of and following the lifting of sanctions, although some, including Maersk, remain cautious. Maersk Line said it was considering plans to resume services to Iran following the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions last weekend, but has not yet decided when, even though 2M partner Mediterranean Shipping Co had already resumed Iran calls late last year.

CMA CGM resumed Iran services last August, and a number of Asian carriers have also been serving Iran for several months, including Hanjin Shipping, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Evergreen, and Yang Ming Marine Transport, according to Lloyds List.

Air cargo capacity to and from Iran was also expected to increase, as passenger and cargo airlines expand their services. For example, the bellycargo capacity to Iran offered by Lufthansa Cargo, via the Lufthansa group of airlines, will increase further with the introduction of summer season schedules at the end of March.

Lufthansa will increase capacity by more than 20% on its daily Frankfurt-Tehran flight, using a B747-400 and will also launch a second route to Iran with three weekly flights from Munich to Tehran, commencing in April and operated by an A330. Lufthansas sister carrier Austrian Airlines will also increase its frequencies on the Vienna-Tehran route, offering up to 14 weekly flights between both cities during the height of the summer season. Additionally, commencing in April, the Austrian flag carrier will launch four weekly flights between its Vienna hub and the Iranian city of Isfahan.

Nevertheless, some believe the Iran market will take some time to build up. Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at Bimco, said that while the lifting of Irans sanctions would benefit shipping by stimulating foreign trade, large-scale investments would be needed before Iran could emerge as a major new market. Investments in the oil and gas industry are needed to facilitate a growth in exports, as well as increasing the purchasing power of the 80 million Iranians before imports can be boosted, he added.

Image: Shutterstock.com
Grease Monkey of Laredo, Laredos newest quick lube and express car wash facility, celebrated its grand opening Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its newly-opened location on 2518 Bob Bullock Loop.

Owners Robert and Amy Rodriguez were joined by Laredo Chamber of Commerce officials and members, Laredo Daybreak rotarians, and family and friends to celebrate.

Grease Monkey of Laredo is extending the festivities into a weekend full of refreshments, prize drawings, and super savings.

The community is invited to come see NASCARS Tony Stewarts No. 14 Mobil 1 Chevrolet.

Grease Monkey is the largest independent quick lube operation in the country.

Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Denver Colorado, Grease Monkey currently has more than 300 centers operating in the United States, Latin America and China.

Grease Monkey provides preventive maintenance services, such as full service oil changes, for cars, trucks and SUVs.

With each full service oil change, Grease Monkey provides a complete review of the vehicles maintenance needs and includes a 16-point maintenance inspection.

The Grease Monkey certified pit crew program offers customers a service experience that is unrivaled in the quick lube industry, a news release states.

Grease Monkey of Laredo features the companys Monkey Shine express car wash concept.

The Monkey Shine express car wash provides a fully automated exterior express car wash experience at speeds of up to 70 cars per hour with available full service cleaning for the interior and exterior.

Grease Monkey of Laredo is locally owned and operated by Robert and Amy Rodriguez.

Robert is a native South Texan who brought his family to Laredo over five years ago.

Amy is a Vermont native who quickly fell in love with the Laredo community.

After 15 years of working for the federal government and moving all over the world, Robert and Amy decided to unpack their boxes for good and stay in Laredo.

They chose to open Grease Monkey in Laredo due the welcoming business environment, strong economic growth and most importantly the warm support they received from their friends, family and the community.

Amy and Robert said they are excited to have the opportunity to bring Grease Monkey to the community and providing over 20 new jobs through their new venture.

For more information about Grease Monkey of Laredo and its services, call 956-319-9871, find them on Facebook or visit www.greasemonkeylaredo1004.com.
iStock/Thinkstock(NILES, Calif.)  At least 14 people have been injured after a train derailment in Niles Canyon in Northern California, according to ACE Train, which operates a commuter service between Stockton and San Jose.



According to Alameda County Fire Department, nine people were transported to hospital, five of which had minor injuries, while the remaining four have injuries that are considered serious but non-life threatening.



Train operator ACE released a statement about the incident, "ACE train 10 struck a tree on the train tracks at mile post 34 between Fremont, Ca and Pleasanton, Ca." Video from the scene shows the first car plunged into a nearby swollen creek.



"Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car," Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. "It was dark, wet, it was raining. It was very chaotic," Kelly said.



"This is an absolute miracle that no one was killed, no passengers or first responders," Kelly added.



ACE confirmed there were 214 passengers on board the train at the time.



"The service is cancelled on Tuesday March 8th. We are working with our partners to restore service as soon as possible pending a complete investigation and assurance that the tracks are safe," the statement continued.





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By Long Island News & PR Published: March 08 2016

Promise highlights former federal prosecutors record of taking on corrupt politicians - whether theyre Democrats or Republicans.

Long Island, NY - March 8th, 2016 - Today, Assemblyman and former federal corruption prosecutor Todd Kaminsky released the second ad in his campaign to replace convicted former Senator Dean Skelos.



The ad, which will run on cable stations across the South Shore, features Todd Kaminsky, in his own words, describing the critical need to stop corruption on Long Island.



As the former prosecutor in the federal governments local public corruption unit, Kaminsky won big cases against corrupt Democrats and Republicans before his election to the State Assembly.



Since then, Kaminsky has delivered results for Long Island, winning tax relief for Sandy victims, significantly increasing education funding for the South Shore, and passing ethics reforms to hold Albany lawmakers accountable.



After releasing the ad, Kaminsky said: "I took down corrupt Democrats and Republicans because corruption has a cost. Corruption in Albany robs our communities of critical school funding, needed road repairs, and an improved LIRR. Ive had enough and our communities have had enough.



Taking on corruption has been the cause of my career and I wont stop fighting until all taxpayers get the government they deserve."





About Todd Kaminsky

Assemblyman Kaminsky has spent his career fighting for Long Island families and working to end government corruption. As a federal prosecutor representing Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens, and as acting deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section, Todd took down corrupt elected officials, drug kingpins and other major felons.



In 2014, Todd was elected to represent the South Shore in the New York State Assembly. During his first term, Todd fought for and won ethics reforms, tax breaks, aid for Sandy victims, and a new emergency center at South Nassau Communities Hospital. Todd authored the most laws by a first-year assemblymember in recent New York State history.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

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Al Qaedas military organizational structure was detailed in one the 113 documents taken from Osama bin Ladens Abbottabad compound and released by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence last week.

The document outlines al Qaedas use of the Chief of Staff Committee, which it described as the group of officers and personnel qualified to work with a military commander leader in leading the military component company that is under his command in peace and in war. The existence of these committees, which support military commands and units, is further evidence that al Qaeda operates as an organized insurgency, and not just as a terrorist group.

US intelligence officials who discussed the document with The Long War Journal on condition of anonymity said that al Qaeda has implemented the Chief of Staff Committee at multiple levels. Evidence of the existence of this command staff is seen in what al Qaeda referred to in the document as the Supreme Authority, or the central command, in al Qaeda branches in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, North Africa, and Yemen, and in individual military components, or what many of Osama bin Ladens documents describe as companies, battalions, and brigades.

Another key organizational position, the general manager, who serves as the chief of staff for al Qaedas leader, has been disclosed in one of Osama bin Ladens documents that was previously released. It is likely that other important organizational positions are described in the massive cache of bin Laden documents that have yet to be released.

According to the document, the Chief of Staff Committees tasks are assisting the leader in preparing the component company and leading and administering it through:

1. Collecting information;

2. Preparing the component company and transferring/disseminating it;

3. Supervising its implementation;

4. Organizing the work of different services that assist the combatant component company.

The committee has five wings, which which are tasked to deal with administration, intelligence, operations and training, logistics, and morale. These wings, which are strikingly similar to the organization of Western military units, operate in war and in peace, are described as:

The First Wing: The Organization and Administration Wing, or the Personnel Wing.

The Second Wing: Reconnaissance and Military Intelligence Wing.

Third Wing: The Operations Wing.

The Fourth Wing: The Provisions and Supply Wing.

A Fifth Wing The Morale Affairs Wing.

The committee has a Chief of Staff who is a true aide to the commander leader, and he follows up on the various activities of the component company, according to the document.

The document outlined the additional responsibilities of the military chief of staff at the supreme authority level. There are several helpers who are given the title Assistant Chief of Staff.

He enjoys many authorities benefits, and he has  on the supreme authority level  a number of helpers who have the title Assistant Chief of Staff,' according to the document. In the Supreme Authority, there is an office that helps the commander leader, and it includes a group of officers, including the associates. The task of this office is facilitating the works of the commander leader and communicating with the Supreme Authority leader or the non-military authorities.

This explains how al Qaeda has been able to replace military leaders and their subordinates who are killed in drone strikes or other operations.

Al Qaeda has maintained what the US State Department has described as a deep bench of capable leaders who can step in when their superiors are taken off of the battlefield. The creation of the Chief of Staff Committee is one way al Qaeda has ensured that it can adapt to US counterterrorism operations designed to kill key leaders and operatives.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Luton is a large town, borough and unitary authority area of Bedfordshire. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 258,000. Luton is home to Championship team Luton Town Football Club, London Luton Airport and The University of Bedfordshire. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. For all the latest news from Luton sign up to our newsletter here.
Head to the White House to Learn the Top 10 Presidential Perks

The National Constitution Center developed the exhibit by using artifacts and interactive multimedia. The exhibit will encourage role playing opportunities to guide visitors along the campaign trail and into the Oval Office.1. Toothbrush cups displaying the presidential seal.2. Wake-up calls from the White House operator.3. Domestic staff to make your bed, do your laundry, feed your pets, and perform other household chores.4. Free M&Ms in special presidential boxes, and all the pretzels and potato chips you can eat!5. Five full-time chefs to make all your meals.6. Watching first-run films in your own private movie theater.7. Swimming in the White House pool.8. A social secretary who can arrange a meeting with any celebrity in the world.9. A weekend retreat in Maryland called Camp David. Invite your friends; they can stay for free!10. Your own private jet (Air Force One).Headed to the White House February 12  November 13, 2016Adults $13.00; Children (4-12) $8.00 through March 31 with the Winter Warm Up sale. After March 31, 2016 Adults $17.50; Children (4-12) $11.00 and Free for MembersIncludes general admission to the National Constitution CenterThe National Constitution Center is located at 525 Arch Street on Philadelphia's Independence Mall. The Center is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia inspires active citizenship as the only place where people across America and around the world can come together to learn about, debate, and celebrate the greatest vision of human freedom in history, the U.S. Constitution. A private, nonprofit organization, the Center serves as America's leading platform for constitutional education and debate, fulfilling its Congressional charter to disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a non-partisan basis. As the Museum of We the People, the Center brings the Constitution to life for visitors of all ages through interactive programs and exhibits. As America's Town Hall, the Center brings the leading conservative and liberal thought leaders together to debate the Constitution on all media platforms. As a center for Civic Education, the Center delivers the best educational programs and online resources that inspire, excite, and engage citizens about the U.S. Constitution. For more information, call 215-409- 6700 or visit
Say, have you heard about this iPhone security case? Apparently it was in all the papers. Turns out iPhone security was also in the papers in 2013, just differently.

Heres what New York state officials are saying now.

NYPD counter-terrorism chief John Miller calls Apple out for aiding criminals by refusing to unlock iPhones

Officials of New York are adamant! Apple must open the iPhone!

Apples decision to withhold user data from the government helps criminals, NYPD counter-terrorism chief John Miller said Sunday.

Smartphone security helps criminals. Huh.

Funny, but the Macalopes so old he remembers when Apple and other smartphone makers were faulted by the New York state attorney general for failing to live up to their responsibility to their customers to fulfill their promises to ensure safety and security. By which the Macalope means he is older than three years old.

Yes, as recently as 2013, police and politicians from New York were complaining that Apple devices were too easy a mark for criminals. Make them more secure! they cried.

Three years later

I still dont know what made Apple change their minds and decide to actually design a system that made them not able to aid the police, Miller told Catsimatidis.

First of all, Apple does aid the police, frequently, and more than just by reducing smartphone-related crime by making phones more secure. What the company balks at is creating back doors that can be exploited.

Second, its a bit odd that you dont remember your own states attorney general pillorying Apple for not making its phones more secure. Its like something happened one dark night in 2015 and New York state officials woke up in an alley in Queens, reeking of fortified malt liquor and dressed in a Dandy costume, remembering nothing of anything that happened since the Yankees mascot was retired in 1981.

You are actually providing aid to the kidnappers, robbers and murderers who have actually been recorded on the telephones in Rikers Island telling their compatriots on the outside, You gotta get iOS 8. Its a gift from God,and thats a quotebecause the cops cant crack it.

They are also providing aid to their customers who arent kidnappers, robbers and murders. People who dont want their bank records and personal information like the location of their friends and family compromised because they left their phone in a bar or a cab.

Can you even imagine the unbelievable crapnado of blazzlefrozzle that would rain down unendingly from the skies if someones stolen iPhone ended up leading to a stalking incident or worse? You would be able to walk from one coast of this great nation to the other touching nothing but APPLE FAIL headlines. The Macalope really does not like playing these what-if scare scenarios, but its effectively impossible when law enforcement offers nothing else.

There was once such a thing called corporate responsibility, [Police Commissioner Bill] Bratton said. Now, its corporate irresponsibility.

Bill, dont quit your day job to become a professional zing writer. Dont get the Macalope wrong, you should totally quit your day job, because youre advising that people should be made less safe so that law enforcement can have more search-and-seizure capabilities just dont quit to become a professional zing writer. First of all, the Macalopes not sure thats even a real job. But if it were, youd be terrible at it.

In an editorial published by the Washington Post, Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi noted the problem with going back to the software security standards of 2013, the ones that New York officials complained at the time werent good enough.

We cannot afford to fall behind those who would exploit technology in order to cause chaos. To slow our pace, or reverse our progress, puts everyone at risk.

Its a shame New York officials cant remember what they were yelling at Apple to do the first time they were yelling at Apple, because thats the time they were more correct.
Aybuke Semerci Aybuke Semerci

The supplement includes an interview with Aybuke Semerci, senior technology transfer specialist at Koc University, in which she talks about recent tech transfer initiatives in Turkey and what her job involves. Koc University is one of the countrys leading scientific institutions. Researchers recently developed a new type of road surface that de-ices itself.

The Turkey Focus is published as the Turkish government is preparing a new draft law to improve IP enforcement. In an interview conducted by email and available exclusively online, the president of the Turkish Patent Institute, Habip Asan, discusses that and other topical IP issues in the country.

Habip Asan Habip Asan

The supplement also includes the following sponsored articles: Implementing a patent enforcement programme  by Okan Can of Deris Attorney-at-law-Partnership

How to register slogans as trade marks  by Kerem Gokmen of Dis Patent

Managing your patent portfolio  by Aydin Mutlu and Nazil Deniz Kol of INVOKAT Intellectual Property Services

Second medical use patents and the skinny label issue  by Selma Unlu and Gulay Goksu of NSN Law Firm

Read all the articles online now or look out for the supplement in our March hard copy issue.
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Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced the successful sea trials of the companys 10th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, John P. Murtha (LPD 26). The ship, built at HIIs Ingalls Shipbuilding division, spent four days in the Gulf of Mexico last week with Ingalls test and trials team operating the ship and performing more than 200 test events.

Overall the builders trial was successful, and the ship performed well, said Kari Wilkinson, Ingalls LPD 26 program manager. This shipbuilding milestone is another accomplishment for a seasoned LPD production and test team that is ready to continue the learning on future LPD platforms. This team understands the important mission LPDs provide to our nation, and we look forward to delivering another fine, much-needed asset to our sailors and Marines.

Major evolutions during builders trials include the anchor-handling demonstration, ballast/deballast demonstration, detect-to-engage exercise, running the ship at full power and steering.

Shipbuilders will now prepare John P. Murtha for acceptance trials in April to demonstrate the same tests and operational success to the U.S. Navys Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). The ship is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in the second quarter of 2016.

LPD 26 experienced an excellent builders trials, said George S. Jones, Ingalls vice president of operations. This is another fine testament to the dedicated men and women of Ingalls shipbuilding and their shipbuilding talents. The John P. Murtha is a quality ship, and the ability to deliver her on schedule later this year is a result of great craftsmen and the outstanding Navy partnership we have with the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Gulf Coast.

LPD 26 is named in honor of the late John P. Murtha, who represented Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District from 1974 to 2010. In addition to his tenured history in the House of Representatives, Murtha was also a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and Reserves. He served for 37 years and received the Bronze Star with Combat V, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for his service in the Vietnam War. He retired as a colonel in 1990.

Ingalls has built and delivered nine ships in the San Antonio class. In addition to John P. Murtha, Ingalls has the 11th LPD, Portland (LPD 27), under construction. Portland launched on Feb. 13 and will be christened on May 21. Ingalls received a $200 million advance procurement contract for the 12th ship in the class, LPD 28, in December 2015.

The San Antonio class is the latest addition to the Navys 21st century amphibious assault force. The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ships are used to embark and land Marines, their equipment and supplies ashore via air cushion or conventional landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey. The ships support a Marine Air Ground Task Force across the spectrum of operations, conducting amphibious and expeditionary missions of sea control and power projection to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions throughout the first half of the 21st century.
South Korea said it would independently impose new sanctions against 40 individuals and 30 entities for Pyongyang's weapons programme and ban any vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days.



The decision to issue more unilateral sanctions against the North follow a U.N. Security Council resolution triggered by the isolate state's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month.



The sanctioned individuals include a Singaporean and a Taiwanese nationals.



South Korea would also discontinue participation in a pilot project that brought Russian coal to South Korea through a North Korean port, Rajin, a foreign ministry told reporters in a joint briefing with other government agencies.





Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim
The growing worldwide demand for marine technologies, port construction and shipbuilding is generating new export opportunities for U.S. companies. As more firms look to boost their bottom line by maximizing their reach to the more than 95 percent of world consumers who live outside of the United States, many are taking advantage of numerous export resources along the way. At the same time, many other businesses have yet to export.



International Trade Specialist Maryanne Burke leads the U.S. Commercial Services Marine Technology Team, and is based at the Boston U.S. Export Assistance Center, part of the U.S. Commercial Services global network of offices located in more than 100 U.S. cities and U.S. Embassies and Consulates in more than 75 markets. In the below Q&A, Burke shares some boots-on-the-ground insights for U.S. marine tech firms looking to sell globally.

Why should U.S. marine tech companies consider exporting, or expanding their current global sales?

More than 95 percent of the worlds consumers are outside of the United States, so if a company is not exporting, its like leaving money on the table. Exporting can help grow a companys bottom line, smooth its business cycle, and help buffer changes in the global economy while increasing its worldwide competitiveness. If your company is not exporting, its highly likely your competitors are exporting or will be soon.





What are some export opportunities in marine technology industry?

Several strong trends in the marine technology sector offer opportunities for U.S. companies. Among these are maritime defense and security, shipbuilding, ocean observation and data management, oil and gas exploration and port infrastructure and services. The following are just a few examples:

According to the Global Trade Atlas, U.S. exports of ships, boats and floating structures totaled more than $2 billion in 2015, with Canada, Egypt and Mexico the top three export markets for these U.S. products.

Colombia has launched a key initiative to expand cargo patios and container areas to include a $250 million project for Buenaventura, a $180 million project for Barranquilla and a $100 million project for Santa Marta. Another project involves $1 billion dollar investment for a 600-mile dredging project of the Magdalena River connecting the center of Colombia to the Port of Barranquilla.

India expects traffic at major (federal) ports to grow from 561 million tons in 2010 to 1.2 billion tons by 2020, and traffic at minor (state and private) ports from 289 million tons to 1.2 billion tons in that same decade. Indias 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017) calls for about $28 billion to be invested in the port sector to include new terminals, inland water systems, upgrades of existing berths and modernization of operations. The Ministry of Shipping has also launched Project Green Portswhich will help in making the major ports across India cleaner and greener. A major element of the initiative will require the latest in environmental and energy-related technologies.

Port development projects will also require marine technologies such as security, logistics, vessel tracking, oil spill detection and contingency preparedness, dredging, underwater exploration and mapping, among other goods and services.

The Netherlands, home to Europes Marine Equipment Trade Show, offers solid growth opportunities for pleasure boats, electronic charting, versatile screen displays and interfacing. Its also a good market for super yacht suppliers, sailing boats and parts and green solutions.

Many of these opportunities can be found in our U.S. Country Commercial Guides. In addition, our U.S. Commercial Service Marine Technology Team is working with many companies in the pursuit of Arctic expansion and economic opportunities for oil and gas deposits, shipping and infrastructure. Examples of top market opportunities include countries such as Japan, United Kingdom, Norway and Singapore. Japan has special interests in marine-earth sciences and accompanying technology, as well a fast-growing defense industry; the United Kingdom is a leader in marine renewables, a sector that offers well-established firms and partnering opportunities; Norway is interested in deepwater technology; and Singapore is experiencing increased demand for oil and gas exploration and offshore support vessels.

Our U.S. Commercial Service team continues to receive trade leads from all around the world: a tender from Jordan needing consultants for the Red Sea/Dead Sea Project; and several tenders from the Government of Canada looking for various mapping instruments and data collection technologies among the most recent. Feel free to get on our Marine Technology Team email list (on our website) for news of the latest opportunities.

Do U.S. marine tech firms have a competitive edge vs. the international competition in the global marketplace?

U.S. infrastructure and technology is world-class, and U.S. companies have an excellent reputation for quality and after-sale service. Another advantage is that much of the scientific and cutting-edge ocean technology research originates from the United States, providing a strong base for export sales. Furthermore, the sheer size and scope of the broader U.S.-based marine-related industry is impressive, and much of its revenue is generated through exports as well. According to a NOAA Office of Coastal Management report issued in 2015, the U.S. Ocean and Great Lakes economy accounted for 147,000 business establishments, 2.9 million employees, $113 billion in wages and $343 billion in gross domestic product in 2012. Three of the six economic sectors covered in the study were marine transportation and construction, offshore mineral extraction and ship/boat building.

The United States also is a strong exporter of ocean-related scientific equipment. A recent NOAA study on The Ocean Enterprise looked at for profit and non-profit businesses; providers of ocean measurement, observation and forecasting infrastructure, as well as intermediariesall of which are critical to maritime commerce and the blue economy. The report notes that exports accounted for $1.4 billion or 20 percent of the estimated $7 billion of maritime revenues attributable to Ocean Enterprise business activities in 2014.

What are some challenges in selling internationally?

One of the biggest challenges is encouraging smaller companies to consider their export possibilities. Its not uncommon to hear U.S. companies say, My business is too small to go global. The reality is that exporting has become more viable than ever for even the smallest businesses thanks to the Internet, improved logistics options and the array of federal government export assistance available.

If a U.S. company has a good track record of selling in the United States, one of the worlds most open and competitive markets, theres a high probability that firm has good export potential. Sometimes companies also worry that the paperwork is too complicated and licensing takes too long. There is also plenty of export assistance available through the U.S. Government and partner resources to make the process easier.

Additionally, trade finance and global banking have evolved to the point where buying and selling things internationally is routine, safe and efficient with programs offered by the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Small Business Association.

What are some recommendations on how to best pursue international opportunities?
With volatility back, many seek to explain what has amounted to quite a back-and-forth October. And it seems many settled on recent developments in Europe as the culprit. While possible, a quick glance at Europe's recent headlines might have you thinking it's 2011 or 2012. In our view, fears around the eurozone likely lack the teeth to materially bite this bull. The questions may be slightly different now: It's more, "How does the eurozone avoid a 'lost decade' of growth?" than warnings of the imminent collapse of the common currency. But most of the fears-and many of the specifics-are the same. These recycled false fears likely lack the surprise power to knock a global bull off track.

Interested in market analysis for your portfolio? Our latest report looks at key stock market drivers including market, political, and economic factors.

Better Together, Spanish Edition

In Spain, Catalan leader Artur Mas canceled the November 9th independence referendum , two weeks after the Spanish Constitutional Court suspended the planned vote. In its place, Mas is planning a more informal means for Catalans to voice their opinion, without the risk of officials getting indicted. But with volunteers manning this "revised process" and Catalan officials unable to access voter registration records to see who can even legally vote, the original nonbinding referendum has become a glorified opinion poll-similar to the 2009 vote-with no way to tell whether it's predictive or not. Even supporters suggest this version is virtually meaningless. The old fear Catalonia breaks away has become even more bunk now.

Germany and France Team Up to Avoid "Lost Decade"

How do you prevent the eurozone from turning Japanese? Apparently the German and French economic ministers don't know, so they've turned to the academics-asking for Franco-German initiatives that will boost domestic and eurozone growth. As grand as this partnership sounds, the request is for recommended measures to implement by 2017-not exactly an urgent call to action. A humorous timeline, since real eurozone GDP's prior highpoint is in 2008. So if you assume (a big assumption, mind you) the eurozone economy doesn't exceed that between now and the implementation of the economists' recommendations, they will be implementing advice targeting avoiding the decade they just experienced.

With the fiscal policy friction between France and Germany-and expectations France's 2015 budget will fall short of EU requirements-building political goodwill seems to be the motivation here. But even if this Q&A session with economists results in plans the two nations accept, the recommendations are unlikely to get implemented any time soon. Gaming market direction beyond 12-18 months is futile, in our view. From that perspective, this is noise. However, politicians buying into the drab-decade narrative is a good sign sentiment is quite dour.

Germany vs. The OMT, Round 6

The European Court of Justice (a real thing!) will now determine the legality of the ECB's Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) program-the plan that followed ECB President Mario Draghi's "do whatever it takes to back the euro" statement from July 2012. A decision is expected mid-2015. Several Germans, including lawmaker and noted euroskeptic Peter Gauweiler, claim the OMT breaches the German constitution and equates to the ECB financing government debt-impermissible under eurozone treaties. The ECB argues it is merely conducting monetary policy, which is clearly within its jurisdiction.

While fighting the OMT brandishes Gauweiler's euroskepticness-political street-cred-it's a bit pointless today. The ECB designed the OMT to quell panic-driven high rates on government bonds, which the ECB then saw as a threat to the euro. But since inception, the OMT has bought a grand total of zero bonds. Rates fell when confidence returned, rendering the program moot. Gauweiler and Co.'s litigating amounts to challenging a press release filled with highfalutin statements backing the common currency and fun central banker-jargon! As the ECB's lawyer succinctly said, "Legally speaking a press release cannot be deemed to be valid or invalid." Nothing on PRWeb is exactly a constitutional issue.

Greece Is Still Greece

Greece returned to the front page as well, likely due to recent market volatility. With bailout battles, financing issues and political concerns, Greece's 10-year yield rose above 7% for the first time since March. But given where Greece was just a couple of years ago-two defaults in one year, two bailouts and borrowing costs over 30%-a 7% yield doesn't seem so bad. What's more, Greece has never exactly been hailed a huge success. Talk of another potential default, restructuring and more have surrounded the nation throughout the last couple years-nothing surprising to markets.

Stressful Stress Tests

On October 26, the ECB will release its Comprehensive Assessment-the Asset Quality Review and stress tests-results. These findings aim to establish a high standard and inform the ECB of the banking system's standing before it becomes banks' primary supervisor November 4. While we question stress tests' effectiveness for proving banks' readiness for future crises, they've already impacted the eurozone by hitting lending. Given the possible consequences from failure-like being deemed insolvent-loan growth has been anemic at best in anticipation of these stress tests. Now that doesn't guarantee all eurozone financial institutions will pass the ECB's review, and hiccups could always arise. But getting long-awaited clarity should be positive, removing one obstacle standing in the way of more lending.

Media also pinpoints slow eurozone growth as a volatility cause-citing data like German trade and factory orders. But these too aren't newfangled issues, particularly in the proper context. German exports did fall -5.8% m/m in August, but that follows July's jump to record highs. Factory orders also dipped after a July surge. Outside these rehashed false fears, new news from the 18-member bloc has actually been ok. Ireland released its first "non-austerity" budget in seven years. Portugal also submitted a growthier budget well within eurozone limits. For some broader perspective, consider what the current global bull market has done throughout the eurozone's real and perceived tumult. (Exhibit 1) Stocks don't need a vibrant eurozone to rise, and with the region better off than the dire interpretations so easy to find, even meh news is probably good enough.

Exhibit 1: MSCI World Total Return Since March 2009

Source: FactSet, MSCI World Total Return from 3/9/2009 - 9/30/2014. Headlines, in chronological order, are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Stock Market Outlook

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The annual Rooster Walk Music & Arts Festival has been awarded a $10,000 state grant that will be used toward marketing this years event.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the Virginia Tourism Corp. Marketing Leverage Program grant on Monday. Grants totaling more than $812,000 were awarded to 39 projects statewide as part of efforts to attract tourists.

"These grants are proven to increase visitation by creating marketing partnerships and effective marketing programs," McAuliffe wrote in a news release.

Grant recipients must match the state funds with at least twice as much of their own funds.

Piedmont Arts, the Rives Theatre and the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp.s (EDC) Tourism Division partnered with Rooster Walk Inc. to come up with a $20,000 local match.

The eighth annual festival, to be held May 26-29 at Pops Farm in Axton, will feature 45 bands performing on five stages and 35 arts and crafts vendors. It also will include childrens educational activities as well as the Tuff Strutter 5K, a trail race being held as part of a partnership with the Martinsville-Henry County Family YMCA.

Portions of festival proceeds will be donated to the Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship Fund at Martinsville High School and Rooster Walk Inc.s Band Instrument Donation & Repair Program for city and county school bands.

More than 4,000 people attended Rooster Walk last year, said co-founder and Executive Director Johnny Buck. Attendance has increased by 15 percent to 20 percent each of the past five years, he said.

Among this years headlining acts will be Lettuce, a funk band, and the Sam Bush Band. Bush is a bluegrass mandolin player who is considered one of the originators of the Newgrass style, according to information online.

As a festival gets bigger, it is able to attract more well-known bands, and more people start coming, Buck said.

"If they see bands they know and love (on the itinerary), theyll come to your festival," regardless of whether they know anything about the community where the festival is being held, he said.

"Rooster Walk has grown to become one of the premiere cultural events in our community," attracting visitors from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, said EDC Tourism Director Jennifer Doss. "We know that with increased marketing, this following of loyal fans will continue to grow, boosting area tourism."

Visitors to Martinsville-Henry County generate $66.1 million dollars in revenue, U.S. Travel Association data shows.

Information provided by the EDC shows that tourism generates about $1.37 million in tax revenues for the city and county annually and 735 people have tourism-related jobs in the community.

Buck said the state grant will become part of Rooster Walks marketing budget.

Plans are to market the festival through radio, television and website advertising and social media as well as distributing fliers, he said.

He and Jason Lagesse, president of Rooster Walks board, said that in marketing this years event, emphasis will be placed on reaching music lovers in metropolitan areas of North Carolina, including the Piedmont Triad, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham.

"There are a lot of folks who live within a two-hour drive (of Henry County) who dont have awareness" of Rooster Walk, Buck said.

Legesse added that he wants those people to realize, "Hey, theres a lot of cool stuff going on just across the border!"

This was the first time that Rooster Walk applied for state tourism dollars, said Legesse, who prepared the grant application along with Phil Wenkstern.

He said it did so in part to help bring money into the community.

Buck emphasized, however, that the festival has been successful over the years largely due to support from the community and local volunteers.
A project to repair the worst section of a damaged sewer line is getting into full swing.

Crowder Construction Co. will replace about 1,500 feet of the line along Walker Road between Rives Road and the Resurgence Properties site  the former Bassett-Walker plant  south of Martinsville, said Mike Kahle, the citys project manager. The line basically runs along the Smith River.

Work on the project started in December. However, recent snow and rain made the river bank too muddy and slippery for construction workers to access until recently, which caused delays, said city Water Resources Director Andy Lash.

"Were starting to really pick up the progress now," Lash said. But "its tricky construction."

Before a new line can be installed, the bank must be stabilized to keep it and Walker Road from collapsing.

Dirt is being brought in and packed down to stabilize the slope so that a retaining wall can be installed.

Crews will drill under the road until they hit bedrock to install construction nails that are about 20 feet long and two inches in diameter, Kahle said. To create the wall, about 450 feet of steel mesh will be hooked to the nails and coated with shotcrete, he and Lash said. Shotcrete is concrete forced through a hose with compressed air.

The roughly 20-foot-high wall will resemble one supporting a hill near Walmart and Lowes on Commonwealth Boulevard, the city officials mentioned.

A ditch will be installed between the wall and the road to drain away water to prevent soil erosion, Kahle said.

Crowder anticipates being able to start installing the wall in about two weeks, he said.

A 120-foot-tall oak was one of numerous trees that had to be removed from the river bank to accommodate construction, he added.

The 6.2-mile sewer line, installed in the 1960s, extends from near Fieldale to Martinsvilles wastewater treatment plant near Forest Park Country Club. It carries most of the citys sewage, and some of Henry Countys, to the plant for processing.

Based on inspections with video equipment, the city determined that the line needs about $30 million in repairs due to erosion it sustained over the years. The stretch along Walker Road is to be repaired first because some of its corrugated metal has collapsed. Further collapses could cause sewage to flow into the river, officials have said.

Repairs to other sections of the line are being planned in the future in two additional phases.

Kahle said he expects the repairs to the Walker Road stretch of the line to be completed by mid-June, weather permitting.

Crowder, of Apex, N.C., submitted the lowest bid for the project at $3,392,500.

Martinsville was approved for a 30-year, no-interest loan of $21.74 million from the Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund, via the Virginia Resources Authority (VRA), to help pay for repairs to the line.

Because of legal restrictions pertaining to how much debt the city can take on at any particular time without first holding a referendum, the loan is to be provided in two installments, the first being $10 million.

At 7:30 tonight, Martinsville City Council will consider adopting on first reading an ordinance authorizing the issuance of $10 million in bonds to help pay back the loan. The ordinance is part of financing requirements.
RAMSEY

Kenneth Walter

Kenneth Walter Ramsey, 81, of Ridgeway, passed away Sunday, March 6, 2016, at Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County. He was born December 8, 1934, in Banner Elk, N.C., to the late Walter and Nellie Ramsey. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife, Marie; and second wife, Rachel.

He received a bachelor of science degree from Appalachian State University and attended V.P.I. Kenneth also received a master's degree from University of Virginia. He served in the United States Army, was a member of Highland Baptist Church, and was a longtime educator in the Henry County School System.

Kenneth enjoyed working and meeting people at the local hospital as a Red Cross volunteer and also at the local nursing homes. He enjoyed gospel music and traveling.

Mr. Ramsey is survived by his wife, Debbie Ramsey of the home; stepson, Todd and his wife, Jennifer McBride; stepgranddaughters, Siena and Jessi McBride, all of Elgin Texas; three brothers-in-law, one sister-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.

The funeral service will be held 1 p.m. Thursday, March 10, 2016, at Highland Baptist Church with Pastor Jeff Evans and Pastor Bobby Billings officiating. Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, 2016, at the church and other times at the home. Burial will follow the service at Roselawn Burial Park. Military rites will be performed by the Martinsville and Henry County Veterans Honor Guard.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to The Gideon's International, P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, TN 37214-0800.

Norris Funeral Services, Inc. and Crematory in Martinsville is serving the Ramsey family. Online condolences may be made at www.NorrisFuneral.com.
TODAYS WORD is babel (bay-bul). Example: "A steady stream of travelers dragging wheeled suitcases and speaking a Babel of tongues is helping revive downtown Jamaica, a vibrant hub of Queens that weathered several gloomy decades of decay and crime."  Joseph Berger, The New York Times

MONDAYS WORD was harrumph (huh-ruhmf). Definition: to clear the throat noisily; a noisy clearing of the throat. Examples: (1.) "These charges are absurd," he harrumphed; (2.) They stood around harrumphing about the current state of politics

Coming up on April 9, a fundraising dinner will be held for Hugh Gerlach to help with his medical needs.

The location is to be announced. The sponsors of the fundraiser are Henry County Bike Club, the Elks Club, members of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and Thrivent Financial Services.

For more information about the event or how a company/organization can help, contact Linda Drage at (276) 340-9105 or email lindad19501@live.com

Reminders:

 Senior Citizens Tuesday Evening Dance at Rangeley Ruritan Building will be held 7-9:30 p.m. today with music by The Plantation Band. Admission: $5. Public invited.

 To pre-order Brunswick stew from the folks at Sanville Ruritan Club, call 629-1103. The stew will be sold on Saturday for $6 per quart.

 Bassett High School will be holding their popular Spring Craft Show (one day only) on March 19. More details later.

Disciple Men of Mount Olive East Christian Church will hold its Annual International Day of Pancakes on Saturday with proceeds to benefit special needs children. Pancakes will be available at the church at 3611 Spencer-Preston Road, from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. The cost is $5.

Want to see an example of how groundhogs can dig holes (burrows)? Take a look at the bank in front of Virginia Mirror and at the rear of Hardees in Martinsville. The holes are more visible at this time of year, because the Kudzu (that previously covered the holes) is dormant.

For several years, a groundhog burrowed into a bank beside the newspaper. The burrow led to the cement abutment into the parking lot.

The cement remains undermined to this day.

The groundhog was eventually hit by an automobile on the street and killed.

Groundhogs  also known as woodchucks, whistle pigs, or marmots  are stocky mammals with strong, short legs and short bushy tails. Their fur ranges from dark to light brown with very light guard hairs, making them sometimes look frosted.

Their front feet have long, curved claws used for digging burrows. Groundhogs generally weigh between 5 and 10 pounds, and males are usually slightly larger than females.

They are known for their burrowing habits and destructive behavior. Groundhog burrowing can pose a serious threat to agricultural and residential developments, which is why its important to identify groundhog damage early.

Groundhogs are also excellent diggers with dens ranging from simple and shallow dwellings, to extensive tunnel systems twenty-five to thirty feet long, and two to five feet deep, with two entrances.

Their nesting chamber is usually at the end of the main tunnel, and they also make a toilet chamber somewhere within the tunnel system, helping to keep their living space clean.

They have a keen sense of smell and hearing, helping to keep them safe from predators.

They also are fierce fighters and can hold their own against their enemies, which include humans, dogs, coyotes, foxes, bears, bobcats, mink, hawks, weasels and owls.

Groundhogs also will emit a loud whistle or shrill when startled or frightened (thus their nickname, "whistle pig"), then continue on with a "chuck chuck" type of chatter until they settle.

Rabies can also be a concern for people who have groundhogs on their property. They are mammals, making them susceptible to the disease.

To identify groundhog tracks. A groundhog has five toes on the front feet and four on the back; generally leave profound claw markings whenever they move.
Jeremy Corbyns statement in favour of decriminalisation of prostitution on Friday once again brought the wrath of the Parliamentary Labour Party against him. The right-wing majority amongst female Labour MPs saw their opportunity to hypocritically strike another blow against Corbyn. The evidence is clear that these MPs have supported and continue to support policies directly in contradiction with the interests of working class women.

The issue itself gives rises to a lot of heated statements, but amounts to little in practice. It is clear that the issue of prostitution will not be resolved either by decriminalisation or by banning. It is an issue that stems from inequality, poverty and deprivation, not from this or that government policy. Prostitution stems from class society, and will only be abolished with the overthrow of capitalist society.

Bourgeois politicians, always pretending to be the paragons of virtue and morality, are some of the best customers of sex workers. Male and female, adult and child, all kinds of prostitution is practiced semi-openly in Parliaments. The scandals surrounding paedophilia in the Tory Party is hardly an exception. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal included both Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, the son of the British Queen. Chancellor George Osborn has been pictured taking cocaine with a sex worker and the Swedish King has been involved in multiple scandals involving prostitutes, including one where the Swedish Foreign Office complained about being tasked with supplying prostitutes for his trips. Strasbourg has become known as a hub of prostitution because of the presence of the European Parliament in the city, the same Parliament that recently voted overwhelmingly in favour of criminalising the buying of sex. The pious speeches of politicians against prostitution and the social ills therefrom are nothing but rank hypocrisy meant to rally votes. These politicians know full well that they will never be subject to the laws they introduce.

Similarly, the so-called Swedish model, which made buying of sex illegal, as opposed to selling sex, only served to get rid of curb-crawling. Although the change in the law undoubtedly has reduced publicly visible prostitution and reduced the number of men admitting to having seen prostitutes (who would expect otherwise), there is no reliable evidence that it has actually had any significant impact on the level of prostitution in general.

Corbyns critics are led by a group of right-wing female MPs, including the former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman, who supports the Swedish or Nordic model. These women are always very keen to put themselves forward as champions of women and even claim to be wanting to help sex workers. But in reality the policies they advocate drive women into prostitution, not the other way around.

The British Parliamentary Labour Party has over the past few decades increased the number of women in its ranks significantly. The percentage of Labour MPs that are women has risen from 9% in the late 80s to 29% today. However, this was done partly on the basis of all-women shortlists, imposing right-wing female careerists on constituencies. The New Labour clique co-opted the right-wing of the womens movement with promises of careers and positions in the party. This top-down candidate selection created a situation in which the female Labour MPs were significantly to the right of their male counterparts.

One of the first, and most controversial, measures that the Blair government introduced was a cut in single parent benefit, which obviously disproportionately affects women. This policy was fronted by no other than Harriet Harman, ironically as the first ever Minister for Women. In the vote, only 9 female Labour MPs voted against, which was 9% of the total, whereas among the male labour MPs 38, or 12%, voted against.

Once the policy was passed, Harman was sacked, although she returned to the government in 2001. In government, she supported the introduction of tuition fees , the war in Iraq, privatisation programmes etc. As acting leader of the Labour Party, she attempted to cajole the party into supporting the draconian Welfare Reform Bill in June 2015. She was defeated and had to settle for an abstention. Corbyn and his supporters voted against.

In the same mould is new Labour MP Jess Philips, who openly declares that she only became a local councillor in order to become an MP, and makes no secret of the fact that shes aiming for the top. Shes an unashamedly careerist politician, who has been part of carrying out some of the most draconian local government cuts in Britain, reducing the Birmingham Council workforce from 20,000 to 7,000. Here is another fine champion of women. Like Harman, she abstained on the Welfare Reform Bill.

The outcome of the all-women shortlist was a Labour group in Parliament where women were more likely to vote for attacks on women than men were. No wonder that the past decades has seen a fall of 18% in womens participation in general elections (1992-2010), particularly among young women.

One can only wonder what these so-called feminists would have said to the mother on the BBCs Question Time who tearfully demanded answers from the Tory minister Amber Rudd, another feminist, about the cuts to her tax credits.

A large number of women in prostitution are either single mothers or students (1 in 20 students), precisely the groups that have been driven into poverty by successive attacks, first from New Labour and then the Tories and LibDems. If one was serious about fighting prostitution, this is where one would start: social housing, cheap student accommodation, scrapping tuition fees and reversing privatisation and cuts in the public sector. In the last analysis, however, as long as class society remains, so will prostitution, only a socialist transformation of society can remove finally resolve the situation for working class women.

The so-called feminism of these politicians amounts to nothing more than simply more jobs for their female peers. Their demands are for more (right-wing) women MPs, more women local councillors, more women in business, more women in boardrooms etc. These MPs faithfully represent a layer of bourgeois women, but have nothing but scorn for working class women.

In the Labour leadership election, women, and particularly young women, were far more likely to support Corbyn than any of the women candidates. Clearly, they understand that working class women are best served by socialist policies, not bourgeois careerism.
In the current campaign to receive the Democratic Partys nomination for president, Hillary Clinton has tried to portray herself as a defender of womens rights, appealing to sisterhood and the possibility of becoming the first female president in order to galvanize support. While there is certainly a layer who views her as the most progressive candidate because of her gender, many young women and men in the U.S. can see right through the smoke and mirrors, and recognize Clinton as a member of the increasingly hated establishment.

This recognition has been bolstered by recent blunders made by high profile Clinton supporters, such as Gloria Steinem and Madeline Albright. Steinem who is recognized as a leader and spokeswoman for the second-wave feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 70s, sparked outrage when she suggested that young women were supporting Bernie Sanders for male attention. She has since apologized for her sexist remarks, but the damage has been done and the hypocrisy of liberal feminism has been exposed. During the same week at another Clinton rally, Madeleine Albright, a former U.S. secretary of state, remarked that there is a special place in hell for women who dont help other women. This resulted in many questioning if there was a special place in hell for a woman who has served the cause of US imperialism for most of her professional life and previously maintained that the deaths of half a million Iraqi children as a result of US sanctions was "worth it". Once again, the hypocrisy of Clinton portraying herself as a champion of women was glaringly clear.

The reality is that Hillary Clinton is a representative of U.S. capitalism and imperialism, and throughout her more than 20 years in positions of power, she has enthusiastically supported policies and wars that subject hundreds of millions of women around the world to conditions of abject misery and poverty. Her allegiance with Wall Street is very clear from her campaigns donor list of tycoons, bankers and lobbyists. Clinton has also come under scrutiny for a series of closed-door talks she provided to Wall Street banks and investment firms like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank between 2013 to 2015. Clinton received a total of $4.1 million in speaking fees according to the Wall Street Journal. As the saying goes, you cannot serve two masters. Being funded by and therefore beholden to the ruling capitalist class means that Clinton cannot serve the interests of the majority of working class women. As president, she would implement austerity and attacks on workers that would disproportionately harm women and other marginalized layers of the working class.

Many young women who identify with intersectional feminism have correctly observed that we cant view all of those who belong to a category such as women as homogeneous and have highlighted that despite being a woman, Hillary Clintons class interests and politics are not in the interest of a majority of women. However, while intersectionality rightfully points out that people experience multiple layers of interconnected oppression, it approaches oppression from the individual subjective level, suggesting that those who belong to a particular oppressed group have the most accurate view of the nature of that form of oppression and are most capable of fighting it. If we follow this approach to its logical conclusion, Clinton would be the most qualified to combat the oppression of women. Many young people recognize that this isnt the case and have mobilized around Bernie Sanders, because his ideas speak to the growing anti-establishment and pro-socialist sentiment of American society. While intersectionality views all forms of oppression as equally fundamental, Clintons attempt to use her gender to gain support is showing in practice that class cuts across all other forms of oppression. To understand this means, it is necessary to consider how the oppression of women arose from the split of society into classes and how capitalism today requires the continued oppression of women.

Origins of women's oppression

Women have not always been subjugated to men. In fact, for the majority of human existence, a sexual division of labour did not result in social and economic inequality. In hunter-gatherer societies, everyones labour was equally important to the survival of the group and members of a band would share equally in the fruits of the collective labour. When humans shifted to agricultural production about 10,000 years ago, a surplus (more that could be immediately consumed) was made possible for the first time. Overtime, some accumulated enough surplus that they no longer had to work and used their surplus to compensate others (or at least keep them alive) in order to work for them or to trade for other specialized goods - this represents the split of society into classes of exploiter and exploited. The origins of the oppression of women lay in this historical shift in the way we produced and exchanged. Due to the fact that the labour generating the wealth was largely dominated by men, womens work lost its public character. The institution of marriage arose to control womens reproductive capacity and ensure the paternity of children so men could pass down their wealth to their offspring. With the development of private property, women were confined to the domestic realm as the property of their husbands for thousands of years, until the development of capitalism.

Capitalism drew women back into the public realm which in some ways represented a step forward. Being part of the working class meant that women could organize and demand more freedom and rights relative to past epochs. Of course, this varies from country to country based on the stage of development and the impacts of colonialism and imperialism. But under capitalism, women are doubly oppressed as unpaid labourers in the home and exploited as wage-labourers in the workplace. Capitalism requires womens free labour in the domestic sphere in order to reproduce the next generation of workers to be exploited. Furthermore, pay differentials between men and women drive down everyones wages and results in more profits for the bosses. The ruling class relies on the division of the working class on gender, race and other lines to maintain their system of exploitation and they use their monopoly of the media and other cultural institutions to perpetuate discriminatory and divisive attitudes. When it suits their interests they provide artificial concessions to layers of the working class to garner their support and pit them against other sections of the workers. This is precisely what they did with Barack Obama, presenting him as a champion for black Americans and its what theyre doing with Hillary Clinton, championing her as an advocate for all women and children.

When Marxists say that class cuts across all other forms of oppression we do not mean that it is the worst form of oppression in terms of suffering, or that the working class is superior in any way to other oppressed groups. We mean that as long as we live in a society where a small minority exploits the majority, no one oppressed group can ever be genuinely emancipated, there will always be systemic inequality. Any representative of the minority ruling class, regardless of their gender, race or sexual orientation, will ultimately serve their class interests. Under capitalism, the primary form of oppression is the exploitation of wage-labour because paying the workers less than the value of their labour is the basis of profits accumulated by the capitalists. This means that the working class, who make up a majority of most countries, are in a unique position because of their role in capitalist production to bring the system to a halt.

The fight for reforms

Does all of this mean that Marxists suggest that nothing can be done regarding the oppression of women until there is a socialist revolution? Certainly not. Marxists stand firmly against sexism, gender-based violence and discriminatory treatment of women  which along with racism and other forms of discrimination, only serve to divide the working class and prevent us from uniting against our common oppressor, and therefore have no place in the movement. We support collective action from below to prevent and respond to sexism in our streets, workplaces and campuses, including walk-outs with both male and female students and workers, and the formation of democratically accountable bodies to guarantee the security of our communities. These initiatives must be led by the organizations of the working class, such as the student and trade unions. Marxists also support any reforms that would alleviate the barriers women face, such as universal child care, access to sexual health services and pay equity. We call on the organizations of the working class to consolidate a united class struggle to fight for these demands and against all cuts and attacks directed towards the workers, which disproportionately hurt women. While doing so, we highlight the temporary nature of reforms under capitalism. Capitalism is in a period of decline and demands cuts and austerity when in crisis. We must fight for reforms while always linking them to the need to struggle for socialism.

Unfortunately, the bureaucracies of the working class organizations are often responsible for holding the struggle back, by compromising with management or the state in order to avoid open conflict and protect their privileged positions. This is one reason why bureaucratic policies such as gender-parity are not an effective tool for advancing the position of women. It mostly means that a minority of women achieve advantageous positions while little is done to fight for better conditions for the majority of workers, half of which are women. While more participation of underrepresented groups is a positive development, our representatives must be elected based on their politics and capacity to lead a genuine struggle. Its important to understand that women and other oppressed groups are not oppressed because they are underrepresented; they are underrepresented because of systemic oppression in society. Similarly, sexist cultural views about women are a reflection of the economic and social role they occupy under capitalism, so targeting societal views without changing the material conditions of society cannot on its own eliminate sexism. The focus must be on transforming the organizations of the working class into militant bodies that fight for the overthrow of capitalism, for the conditions that can genuinely emancipate women and all exploited and oppressed people.

What are these conditions? First, we have to remove the burden of domestic labour from womens shoulders. This can be achieved through socializing domestic work and providing public cleaning, laundry and meal services, establishing extensive paid leave for both parents to raise their children, and providing universal child care. Additionally, we must put an end to the scarcity of capitalist austerity, which breeds discriminatory attitudes. Everyone must be guaranteed well-paid employment, access to fully funded post-secondary education, housing, comprehensive health care and so on. These are the conditions that can place men and women on an equal material footing and allow women to be more involved in public life and the administration of society. Finally, social ownership and democratic control of the media, arts and cultural facilities, and the education system would provide cultural content that challenges negative attitudes about women.

These policies directly contradict the profit motive of capitalism and can only be achieved by nationalizing the commanding heights of the economy and democratically deciding how to use the vast wealth in existence to benefit the majority. There are more than enough resources in society for everyone to have a high standard of living, but electing a female president or prime minister on the basis of capitalism can never achieve this - it must come from below, through a united class struggle for socialism. It is through united struggle that prejudice and discriminatory attitudes will breakdown as people come to realize their common interests. The great majority of us are exploited and oppressed by capitalism. It is in all of our interests to not only unite and fight against the oppression of women, but also against all forms of oppression. Only on this basis can the genuine emancipation of women and the elimination of all forms of exploitation be achieved once and for all.

Source: Womens emancipation: Hillary Clinton vs the class struggle
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Cyndi Lauper and Boy George

(File Photo)

A pair of 8'0s pop music icons have partnered for a summer tour that will come to Boston and Connecticut.

Cyndi Lauper and Boy George have announced a co-headlining stint that will visit the Mohegan Sun Arena on May 20 and the Wang Theatre - Citi Performing Arts Center on May 21.

Lauper and Boy George owned the pop charts in the '80s with the former scoring hits like "True Colors," and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and the latter fronting the band Culture Club and its charting catalog of songs including "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," and "Karma Chameleon."

Tickets for the show are on sale beginning Saturday, March 12 at 10 a.m. through all Ticketmaster outlets and locations including ticketmaster.com and by phone at (800) 745-3000.
the-peanuts-movie.jpg

A scene from the animated "The Peanuts Movie."

(20th Century Fox)

Capsule reviews of this week's video releases, on DVD and Blu-ray, including special features.

"The Peanuts Movie" (G, 93 minutes, 20th Century Fox): Computer-animated, 3-D tale based on a script written in part by the son and grandson of "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz. Contains nothing objectionable, except for unlicensed dispensing of psychiatric advice by Lucy. Extras include six "Snoopy Snippets," "Better When I'm Dancin'" Meghan Trainor music and lyric videos," "You Never Grow Up Charlie Brown," "Snoopy's Sibling Salute," "Learn to Draw Snoopy, Woodstock and Charlie Brown," "Get Down with Snoopy and Woodstock Music Video," "Behind the Scenes of Better When I'm Dancin'," "Snoopy's Playlist."

"In the Heart of the Sea" (PG-13, 122 minutes, Warner): Ron Howard-directed adventure focuses on the real-life whaling voyage that inspired Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." Contains intense violence, maritime peril and disturbing thematic material. Extras include "Chase & Pollard: A Man of Means and a Man of Courage. Blu-ray adds "Whale Tales: Melville's Untold Story," "The Hard Life of a Whaler," "Lightning Strikes Twice: The Real-Life Sequel to Moby Dick," "Commanding the Heart of the Sea," deleted and extended scenes, "Ron Howard: Captain's Log."

"Macbeth" (R, 113 minutes, The Weinstein Co./Anchor Bay): Michael Fassbender stars as Shakespeare's ambitious Scottish nobleman, who murders his king (David Thewlis) after a group of witches predicts Macbeth's ascension to the throne. Washington Post critic Michael O'Sullivan declared the film "a mournful masterpiece, rendering Shakespeare's spectacle with all the sorrow and majesty that it deserves." Contains brutal violence and brief sexuality. Extras include Q&A with Michael Fassbender, "Making Macbeth" featurette.

Also: "Beyond Beyond" (animated Dove Seal of Approval winner), "The Blue Hour" (supernatural love story from Thailand), "Coming Home" (Chinese drama about victims of the Cultural Revolution), "Flesh for the Inferno" (horror story about a group of murdered vengeful nuns), "40 Love" (French father-son drama), "Frankenstein" (modern retelling of the classic), "The Mask You Live In" (documentary exploring America's definition of masculinity), "Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing, the Road Is All" (profile of "The Man With the Golden Arm" author), "Open Season: Scared Silly" (new animated "Open Season" movie"), "Out of the Inferno" (Hong Kong "towering inferno" tale), "Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2" (followup to 1999 cult hit "SLC Punk!"), "10,000 km" (Spanish long-distance love story), "Victor Frankenstein" (James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe as Dr. Frankenstein and Igor), "The Wonders" (Italian family of beekeepers takes in a troubled teenage boy), "You're Killing Me" (when man starts dating a serial killer, his friends begin to disappear).

Television series: "Community: The Complete Final Season?" (two-disc set with all 13 episodes), "The Heavy Water War" (all six episodes of Norwegian miniseries),"Hogan's Heroes: The Complete Series" (28-disc set with all 168 episodes from all six seasons), "Mammon - Season 1" (three-disc set with all six episodes of the conspiracy-thriller Norwegian TV series), "Manhattan: Season 2" (all 10 episodes of the series), "The Spoils of Babylon" (IFC mock miniseries), "Unbreakable Schmidt: Season One" (two-disc set with all 13 episodes).
Senator James Welch swearing in

State Sen. Jim Welch, D-West Springfield (center), is sworn in at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. (Robert Rizzuto / The Republican)

(Republican file photo)

BOSTON - State Sen. James Welch, a top lawmaker who represents West Springfield and sits on the special committee on marijuana in Massachusetts, said Tuesday he remains undecided about a proposal to legalize marijuana that could appear on the statewide ballot in November.

Welch traveled to Colorado with some committee members in January as part of the committee's "deep dive" into the legal marijuana industry.

Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2012, and Massachusetts voters could consider a proposal doing the same in November.

The special Senate committee on marijuana on Tuesday released its report delving into the possibility, recommending a ban on home grown pot in Massachusetts and a heavier tax structure on the substance the ballot proposal calls.

The report does not weigh in on whether Massachusetts voters should vote for the proposed ballot question. Each individual legislator will have to arrive at their own opinion on the proposal, Welch said.

"I haven't taken a public opinion on it yet," said Welch, a Democrat who represents West Springfield and parts of Springfield and Chicopee. "In terms of the committee, we agreed we wouldn't take a collective opinion."

Welch, who co-chairs the state Senate's Health Care Financing Committee, added: "If it could be guaranteed that legalization of marijuana, if it happens, would only create a situation where legal adults could purchase it and use it, I would be in favor of it. But I'm still wrapped up in the whole thing, the message we're going to send, and if the ballot question passes, whether it will have a negative effect or positive effect on our youth."

But Welch said he felt confident that Massachusetts is capable of putting in a safe, legal system if the ballot question passes, and the state could make some inroads in combating marijuana use among young people through public health awareness campaigns.

"Whether we like it or not, whether you're in favor of legalization or not, marijuana is here," Welch said. "We can't put our heads in the sand and say if the ballot question isn't going to pass, marijuana use among adults and youth is going to go away."

Welch, who acknowledged trying marijuana during his college years, called Colorado a "difficult" example to use when talking about marijuana legalization, because the state's ballot question was a constitutional amendment that left little room for public health officials and legislators to weigh in.

But if legalization comes to Massachusetts, the state will have the ability to "make changes and regulate as we see fit."

While Welch called the special Senate committee's report a "down the middle" document that lays out what the state should do if marijuana is legalized for recreational use, proponents of the ballot question lashed into it.

"It's just recycled hysteria and we don't think anybody's falling for that," said Jim Borghesani, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

Welch said the report isn't as negative as it's being viewed. "I think it highlights what needs to be done," he said.

But another state senator, Michael Rodrigues of Westport, said he was leaning towards legalization before his trip to Colorado and changed to opposing the measure.

"The black market doesn't go away because it's so well-established," he told reporters on Wednesday.

The only state senator from the Boston area on the committee, Linda Dorcena Forry, expressed support for the concept of legalization.

"I support responsible adult use of marijuana; however, the current question facing voters on the ballot in November is broad and does not address serious concerns regarding regulations of production and sale of edible Marijuana based products," she said in a statement.
BOSTON - Massachusetts voters are expected to head to the polls in November and likely vote on a ballot measure fully legalizing marijuana, four years after they signed off on medical marijuana and eight years after approving decriminalization of small amounts of the substance.

A special state Senate committee, whose members recently traveled to Colorado to see the legal cannabis industry up close, issued its official report on Tuesday, sounding a skeptical note on legalization and hoping to promote a cautious approach.

Here are some takeaways from the report:

The report recommends heavily taxing marijuana

The committee's report wants "strict" limits on the marketing

No celebrity endorsements

The report wants a ban on "home growing"

The report estimates 885,000 Massachusetts residents used marijuana in the last year

One in four high schoolers used marijuana in the last year.

Addiction hits one in nine users, the report claims.

If recreational marijuana is legalized by Massachusetts voters, "it will be critical to dedicate sufficient time, expertise, and resources to ensure as smooth an implementation as possible, which nevertheless is likely to be challenging," the report says.

State officials struggled to implement a medical marijuana program after Massachusetts voters approved it in 2012, the same year Colorado legalized recreational marijuana.

Four years after the approval of medical marijuana, there are six dispensaries are open across Massachusetts, as patient demand for products has surged.
"All of the regents expressed their confidence in Engstrom, to a person, at this meeting," Mcrae said. "His leadership of the university was commended. They recognized that it is difficult to lead in choppy waters, in fact, we have a number of campus executives who are leading through choppy waters."

By Peter Christian

Full Story: http://newstalkkgvo.com/montana-board-of-regents-we-stand-behind-um-president-royce-engstrom-enrollment-not-the-sole-issue/
The Future of the Flathead: Kalispell Chambers Monthly Luncheon to Feature Top Education Leaders

The March installment of the Kalispell Chambers Monthly Luncheon Series will feature the Flatheads top education leaders for a report on how they are meeting our valleys current and future educational workforce needs. The luncheon will take place Tuesday, March 14 from 11:45 to 1:00pm at the Kalispell Red Lion Hotel.

Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Mark Flatau will discuss the most up-to-date information on the school system. Kalispell Public Schools has seen a steady increase in enrollment and is over capacity in grades K-5 and moving towards capacity in grades 6-12.

A Facility Planning Committee, comprised of over 40 people has met 7 times and is proposing a new elementary school and middle school on property located south of town. There is also a possibility of a second new elementary school north of town. Flatau will conclude with information regarding future bond and levy requests to make the new schools a reality.

Flathead Valley Community College President Jane Karas will give an update on the college addressing the newly approved student housing, new academic programs and the continued expansion of four-year degree options on the FVCC campus. She will also discuss future college initiatives including the possible development of a student center and fitness center on campus to better serve students and the community.

The luncheon program will also highlight chamber events and happenings, introduce new members, and announce a new program and partnership with Google.

Reservations are required for those who would like to attend. Please contact the Chamber by 5:00pm Friday, March 11 at (406)758-2803 or [email protected] to make a reservation. Tickets are $19/person or $148/table of 8.

About the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau

Since 1904, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau has been a leading voice in strengthening our community and the business climate, with the goal of making Kalispell and the Flathead Valley an ideal location to live and work. The Chamber consists of 700 businesses and organizations, which employ over half of the workforce in Flathead County, Montana.

Kate Lufkin, Marketing & Communications Specialist

Kalispell Chamber of Commerce

Convention & Visitor Bureau

15 Depot Park | Kalispell, MT 59901

(P) 406-758-2801 (F) 406-758-2805

Please note the change in my e-mail address:

You can now reach me at [email protected]
When Deny Staggs considers Montanas film industry, Bozeman comes to mind as the state leader. Its home to the grip and lighting industry, and its where the states major commercials and films are made.

But when Staggs thinks about Missoula, he sees the potential for a media-support industry fed by the University of Montana and bolstered by the entrepreneurial spirit of several local startups now setting trends in the field.

"This could be the media-manufacturing hub," said Staggs, the film commissioner with the Montana Film Office. "It could be the place for startups, a place for content, digital-education tools, app makers, designers and coders. You could build Missoula to be the Austin of Montana  the startup tech center. Nobody is serving this industry."

By Martin Kidston/MISSOULA CURRENT

Full Story: http://www.missoulacurrent.com/business/2016/03/mayor-filmmakers-explore-missoulas-potential-media-arts-hub/
22 May 2019. A benchmark in our efforts at reclaiming our legitimate rights on the Chagos Archipelago. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in the wake of the opinion emitted earlier by the International Court of Justice ( ICJ), resolved that the UK should abide by the Court ruling and vacate the Chagos within six months. A year has elapsed. No movement, that is known, has been recorded on that particular scoreboard.

This leads one to wonder : what moral right would the UK have to pressurise other countries to uphold UN Resolutions and international law in general? For example, can it apply pressure on the Israeli government to abandon its stated intention of annexing the West Bank and other Palestinian territories? Israel was, after all, one of the other five, along with Australia, that voted against the Resolution.

The Chagos Archipelago issue has kept the UK and Mauritius at loggerheads for over half a century. In reviewing this matter, it is opportune to recall certain pertinent facts: First, the UK, in defiance mainly of United Nations resolutions 1514 and 2066, excised the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius prior to Independence and leased it to the USA to establish a naval facility on Diego Garcia. The Chagossians were unceremoniously removed and dumped principally in Mauritius.

Second, Mauritius is not a belligerent nation. It has peaceful credentials. It has no national army. It harbours no untoward ambition in the region. Its foreign policy is anchored on : friendship to all, enmity to none.

Third, the Indian Ocean is a major trade route, principally for known rivals India and China. France is present in the region through its departments of Reunion and Mayotte (the latter being part of the Comoros Archipelago), the UK through the illegal occupation of the Chagos, and its military presence in Kenya and Oman. It is noteworthy that Djibouti, at the western tip of the Indian Ocean, hosts a number of foreign bases on its territory, including those of China, France, the US, Italy and Japan. India is equally present in the region via a number of privileged agreements, including coastal surveillance systems.

Lest it be forgotten, Mauritius has always favoured a bilateral approach to this dispute, but the UK, for decades, avoided addressing the real issue, resorting to delaying tactics. The British- Mauritius Fisheries Commission of the 1990s relating to exchange of fisheries scientific data around the Chagos waters, the so-called Marine Protected Area (MPA) of 2010, covering the same expanse but, lo and behold, excluding the waters of Diego Garcia, are flagrant examples of such perfidy. Substantial bilateral talks at the highest level, often called for by Mauritius, were craftily circumvented. Resolutions of international and regional organisations like the Non-Aligned Movement, the OAU/AU calling for peaceful settlement were simply ignored. Mauritius even proposed a possible way forward: the immediate restitution of the outer islands to It while discussions on Diego Garcia would continue. This proposal was also put to President W. Bush in 2004 at the Oval Office by then Prime Minister Berenger. But the mandarins of London were adamantly opposed.

Matters worsened when Berenger threatened to withdraw temporarily from the Commonwealth to take the matter to the ICJ. The UK shamefully amended its reservation on such matters barring that route. Mauritius served notice that it would take the matter to the UNGA to move the ICJ. However, a change in government in Mauritius simmered down the issue for a while until the UKs unilateral proclamation of the Chagos MPA, despite a contrary undertaking from then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to then Prime Minister Ramgoolam. The latter took the issue forward leading to the historical verdict of the Law of the Sea Arbitral Tribunal on the matter.

Mauritius had always privileged the bilateral course. Even former Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth gave more time to time. The threatening note issued jointly by the UK and US missions in Port Louis when concrete steps were being envisaged to take the issue to the UNGA simply blew the lid off. If the matter has been so internationalised of late and now rests with the UN, it is but thanks to the British themselves.

Despite the ICJs forceful pronouncement condemning UKs actions and enjoining it to terminate immediately its unlawful occupation of the Chagos, an opinion overwhelmingly upheld by the UNGA, regrettably, the UK continues to baffle international law. Its stature in the world is dented. It even failed to have its judge re-elected to the ICJ, a first since the inception of the Court. Despite adverse international public opinion and the recommendation of its own All Party Parliamentary Group on the Chagos to heed the Courts opinion, the UK continues to be defiant. Even the EU countries, except Hungary, dissociated themselves from it.

Australia also finds itself among the six that voted against the UN Resolution. But then, throughout its history it has predisposed itself unconditionally to the USA and by extension to the UK. Yet, it has had many an opportunity to play a legitimate leadership role in the region. As a Commonwealth country, along with India and post-apartheid South Africa, it could have formed an axis to play a major role in the security of the Indian Ocean and be identified more as a committed partner in this region than be tied to the WEOG (Western Europe and Others Group) in the context of the UN geographical configurations. Its attempt to form a rival grouping at the time the Indian Ocean Rim Association was being mooted is revealing. Isnt it time for a review of its foreign policy options and for it to position itself as an important player in this part of the world? The UK should understand that times have changed. This is another world. It is no more the era of Rule Britannia! It should drop its defiance and play according to international norms. It should demonstrate its willingness to uphold the ICJ opinion and restore itself as an international law abiding country. Mauritius is willing to dialogue and reach the rightful conclusion. Resettlement of our citizens on the Archipelago is not problematic.

Mauritius is officially on record as having no objection to the US continuing to operate its base on Diego Garcia. Of course, it is conscious that the Pelindaba Treaty constitutes an obstacle in that perspective. It is, however, in a fait accompli situation. Had the UK not contravened in the 1960s, the Chagos would not have been excised and history surely would have taken a different course. Mauritius will need to negotiate with the member states of the AU, parties to the Treaty, and chart a way forward. The Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace concept spearheaded by India in the thick of the Cold War is no longer among the cards being dealt in this region.

The way forward exists. And Sovereignty has no price!

Vijay MAKHAN

20/5/2020

P.S : it would be interesting to see what the UK Court of Appeal has to say in the wake of last years developments at the ICJ and the UNGA in its impending adjudication. Also imminent is the UN Secretary Generals report to the Assembly.

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The Director on the Board of the SIC is caler about it, putting Mauritus on a lockdown status is part of the past because there is hope for a comeback to a normal life in the near future and it is a matter of time.

To an exclusive audio to Maurice Info, Vincent Ravat said:

We have to live with it and meanwhile Lets hop on hope, hoping and hopeful that someday we will hop on regular life again! Like Harmik said. I have no doubt about this. Its a matter of time. We need resilience and patience.

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by Jim Gilmartin , Columnist, March 7, 2016

Companies, often encouraged by legal counsel, regularly resist expressing vulnerability, sometimes at great expense. A classic example took place in the early 1980. The Audi 5000 was reported to accelerate spontaneously from a stand-still without driver involvement. Audi responded with not even a token amount of compassion and vulnerability. It said simply that drivers were at fault.

Audi sales in the U.S. plummeted from nearly 75,000 to barely 12,000 cars. Moreover, a little-known fact is that Audi was ultimately vindicated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It ruled that driver error did in fact cause the unintended acceleration. But because NHTSA ruling received little media attention  bad news gets more and bigger headlines  it took Audi more than 12 years to bring sales back to the original levels.

Companies spend vast sums fortifying and defending themselves against legal challenges by customers while apparently not realizing that the roots of a claim might lie in a breach of the emotional contract between a company and customer. People dont sue people or organizations for whom they feel affection  or as advertising guru Kevin Roberts would say, that they love.

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Numerous studies have found that it costs more to get a new customer than to keep an existing customer. Baby Boomer customers are no exception. Moreover, their level of response to authenticity, honesty and the willingness of a company to be vulnerable is higher. In addition, research has shown that existing customers tend to spend more money with a company than new customers do. It makes a lot of sense to devote time to creating a book of evergreen Baby Boomer customers (the term "evergreen" can refer metaphorically to something that is continuously renewed) not only because they are likely prospects for new purchases and have the most disposable income of any demo.

Boomers will also be your richest source of referrals. Companies spend lots of money doing customer satisfaction surveys. However, thats wasted money for many companies because they dont realize that people often report satisfaction with a product or a company but dont have any deep sense of loyalty.

You want your customers to be more than satisfied. You want them to be loyal. Satisfaction is often determined by left-brain analysis, such as coming up with an answer to this question: On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied were you with the product/service you bought? Customer satisfaction is mostly about what a Baby Boomer thinks about a company or brand. Loyalty is mostly about how they feel about a company or a brand. Satisfaction surveys tend to focus on the details of the transaction. Nevertheless, what brings Baby Boomers back repeatedly is the experience they have with a company.

Toro, the giant lawn mower maker, learned that by delivering better on the emotional contract it could decrease personal injury lawsuits. Toros leadership once believed personal injury litigation was inevitable, given the nature of its products. However, in the mid-1990s company reps began personally contacting injured customers. They apologetically extended the companys sympathy and suggested that if an immediate settlement could not be arranged, arbitration could be a better than going to court.

The $1.5 billion company used non-threatening paralegals, experienced settlement counselors and mediators familiar with Toro's preference for early case resolution. Since adopting this emotionally sensitive approach in1994, weve uncovered no evidence that Toro has been in court for a single personal injury case. This is a truly amazing record for a company that builds dangerous equipment that falls into countless careless hands every weekend of the year. Toro estimated it saved more than estimated $100 million in litigation costs since it kicked off its non-aggressive approach to avoiding litigation in 1991.

Isnt the idea of the emotional contract simple common sense? Think of how things are between you and those with whom you have close relationships. When they make you feel good, you cut them some slack when they mess up a little bit. However, if youre already down on them, arent you likely to call them on every mistake? Baby Boomers become evergreen customers when you have delivered strongly on the emotional contract.
Automotive News, Tuesday, March 8, 2016 9:05 AM

After a century building what it calls the "ultimate driving machine," BMW Group is preparing for a world in which its customers will be mere passengers, and the cars will do the driving themselves. Days before BMW's 100th birthday, Klaus Froehlich, its board member for research and development, described plans for a completely overhauled company, where half the r&d staff will be computer programmers, competing with the likes of Google parent Alphabet to build the brains for self-driving cars. "For me it is a core competence to have the most intelligent car," Froehlich told Reuters in an interview at the Geneva auto show.

Read the whole story at Automotive News 
by Felicia Greiff , March 8, 2016

Boston-based independent programmatic company Digilant named Alan Osetek its global CEO.

Digilant, which was incubated at Havas, had a year of growth in 2015, opening offices in the U.K., Italy, Chile and Peru. The company aims to continue the trend, charging Osetek with overseeing global operations in nine markets and Digilant's DMP/DSP tech. Osetek will also serve on the management team at ispDigital, the holding company of Digilant, and report to ispDigitals CEO, Don Epperson.

Prior to Osetek's appointment, Epperson held the position of global CEO for Digilant in addition to his role at ispDigital, Osetek said.

Asked about his outlook on the company, Osetek said, "We're really trying to be a pure-play programmatic solution for both agencies and advertisers on a global scale."

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Most recently, Osetek served as global president of Resolution Media. He also held positions at iProspect, Visual IQ and Isobar/Carat, and founded email and CRM marketing firm Vizium, later sold to Aegis.

Earlier this year, Digilant announced it had expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of technology from DeltaX, a Bangalore-based company specializing in dynamic creative optimization technology, Real-Time Daily reported.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, March 8, 2016

Blue-Collar Vote Key for Trump Win, said the front page of The Wall Street Journal Monday morning. While this may be the case, labor unions are preparing to actively support the eventual Democratic nominee.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has amassed around two dozen national union endorsements, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders securing five. Notably, however, the AFL-CIO, the countrys major union federation, is yet to endorse either candidate and is unlikely to do so any time soon.

Some have characterized the AFL-CIOs decision not to endorse as a win for Sanders. The move highlights the growing rift between union rank-and-file, which connects with Sanders messages of inequality and international trade agreements (not to mention Trumps populist inventions), and union leadership, which views Clinton as the best chance for a Democrat to remain in the White House.

Side-stepping an endorsement hasnt stemmed the federations political pursuits. Following its winter meeting in San Diego, the campaigns department announced that it would create a super PAC geared toward energizing voter turnout.

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Though expected to raise tens of million of dollars, the labor-run PAC will be a far cry from the hundreds of millions sitting on the sidelines for the GOP, most visibly embodied in the Koch brothers pledge to spend $889 million this cycle.

Beyond unions themselves, blue-collar workers are becoming a key demographic in the presidential race. Union membership has declined significantly over the past few decades and the usually left-leaning unions have steadily lost clout in the growing number of Right to Work states around the country.

This will particularly be the case in the Rust Belt, where Trump has the best chance to secure the nomination.

The deterioration of the powers unions had in their collective bargaining rights allows space for other organizations, i.e. political campaigns, to engage potential voters. Sanders and Trump have done just that, Sanders with his focus on inequality and animosity toward the corporate class -- Trump with xenophobia and catchy idioms.

Trump has done particularly well in the early primaries and caucuses with white working-class voters, while Sanders has done less well. He has made large inroads with the white blue-collar demographic. As both candidates attest, there is overlap in support between the two, and that most likely lies with the working class.

Red, White & Blog spoke with WorkJam COO Joshua Ostrega, who noted that the minimum wage isnt the only part of the discussion that needs attention. There are a number of qualitative changes that can be made to improve the conditions and rights of workers.

Trade, welfare, inequality and immigration will weigh heavily on American workers minds. Differences also exist between white and minority members of the working class. Despite Trumps success with white blue-collar voters, unions and workers will be integral to Democratic success in November.

Former AFL-CIO political director, Steve Rosenthal explained: For the Democratic nominee, the labor movement is the most effective tool after the candidates own campaign.
by Sara Guaglione , March 8, 2016

Zinio, a global digital magazine distributor, announced today a partnership with DPV Deutscher Pressevertrieb, Germany's full-service magazine distribution provider.

DPV will apply Zinios digital platform and distribution technology, called Zinio Pro, to its clients of about 650 magazines in the German-speaking market of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Joan Sola, EVP of global markets at Zinio, told Publishers Daily that the partnership leverages this great relationship DPV has with publishers. They become the reseller of our platform with those publishers.

Zinios technology will be a complement to DVPs successful print distribution services by providing its publisher clients with digital distribution to all platforms, including mobile.

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Sola said Zinio Pro is the result of Zinios acquisition of a company in 2014 that gave them the technology to provide publications with a back-end content platform and mobile applications.

The issues publishers were facing were similar all over the world: increasing costs of production from different platforms, digital magazines were typically PDF-based and not optimized for mobile, but there was a growing demand coming from mobile, Sola said.

The Zinio Pro platform is used by over 700 titles, including Rolling Stone, Mens Journal and ESPN The Magazine, according to Sola. Z

inio plans to roll out the technology to all 6,000 of its titles around the world in 2016.

We are about to announce major distribution opportunities beyond DPV very soon, Sola added.

Nils Oberschelp, CEO of DPV Deutscher Pressevertrieb, stated that the partnership allowed DPV to run its digital publishing and distribution business "more efficiently, in a more standardized way and simultaneously for all platforms; covering the entire supply chain from content production to standardized reporting and circulation auditing."

DPV's first client to take advantage of the partnership is Austrian publishing group Verlagsgruppe News, which has already converted its portfolio of apps to run on Zinio Pro.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 8, 2016

Google has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate court's decision granting class-action status to pay-per-click marketers who are suing the company for allegedly placing their ads on "low quality" sites.

In a petition filed last week, Google argues that the marketers should not be able to proceed as a class because their damages would need to be calculated on a company-by-company basis.

The battle centers on Google's "parked domains" and "errors" programs, which often serve ads on sites that aren't fully developed, and on typo sites that people visit accidentally. Several pay-per-click marketers -- including law firm Pulaski & Middleman and retailer RK West -- alleged in a 2009 lawsuit that ads on Google's AdSense for Domains and AdSense for Errors programs result in fewer purchases than ads on Google's search results pages. The marketers, who are seeking restitution, also claimed that ads on parked domains could damage their reputations.

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A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit recently ruled that the marketers could proceed as a class because they had presented valid proposals for determining restitution on a class-wide basis. The appellate judges appeared to endorse at least one methodology -- the "Smart Pricing" approach, which the opinion describes as "the difference between the amount the advertiser actually paid and the amount paid reduced by the Smart Pricing discount ratio."

But Google argues that restitution can't be calculated based on a "general one-size-fits-all formula."

Google adds that many advertisers -- including RK West -- "achieve higher conversion rates on parked domains and error pages than on the Smart Pricing benchmarks."

Additionally, the company contends that the 9th Circuit's ruling would result lead to a situation where "hundreds of thousands of different advertisers who purchased millions of different ads from Google over the course of several different years."

Those marketers "will demand restitution from Google for alleged violations of Californias unfair competition laws -- never mind that some putative class members benefited from the alleged misconduct," Google writes.
A lack of stem cells in the womb lining could be the reason behind thousands of miscarriages, says research published in the journal Stem Cells that could offer new hope of treatment for women who repeatedly experience failed pregnancy. Share on Pinterest Recurrent pregnancy loss is a distressing experience. Miscarriage is the most common cause of loss during pregnancy, affecting 15-25% of pregnancies. It most commonly occurs at any time within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Of women who are trying to conceive, 1% will experience recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), or the loss of three or more consecutive pregnancies. Many risk factors have linked to RPL, but scientists have not yet fully understood the underlying causes. Researchers at Warwick University in the UK, led by Jan Brosens, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, studied tissue samples from the womb lining of 183 women.

Lack of stem cells in the womb lining of women with RPL The participants were receiving treatment at the Implantation Research Clinic, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire National Health Service (NHS) Trust in the UK. Cultures from womb biopsies revealed that there was no epigenetic signature indicating the presence of stem cells, and there were fewer stem cells overall in the women who had been through recurrent miscarriages, compared with a control group. This lack of stem cells appears to speed up cellular aging in the womb. Renewal of the womb lining normally occurs with each monthly cycle, after each miscarriage and after a successful birth, but its ability to renew depends on its stem cell population. In patients with RPL who lack stem cells, there appears to be accelerated aging of the womb tissue. The aging cells mount an inflammatory response, which helps the implantation of an embryo but hinders its subsequent development. The team concludes that a lack of stem cells, leading to accelerated aging of the lining of the womb, is causing the failure of some pregnancies. Prof. Brosens explains: After an embryo has implanted, the lining of the uterus develops into a specialized structure called the decidua, and this process can be replicated when cells from the uterus are cultured in the lab. Cultured cells from women who had had three or more consecutive miscarriages showed that aging cells in the lining of the womb dont have the ability to prepare adequately for pregnancy. The next step will be to research a treatment to correct these defects, which the authors hope could prevent future miscarriages in women who are affected.
Women are less likely to receive basic life support for cardiac arrest from members of the public then men, the European Society of Cardiology announced today on International Women's Day.

"There is a misconception that women don't have heart problems so they don't get as much help from the public and they are not treated the same by doctors," said Dr Nicole Karam, an interventional cardiologist at the European Hospital Georges Pompidou in Paris, France.

The study included all 11 420 patients who had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Paris and the surrounding suburbs between 2011 and 2014. Data on how the patients were treated were recorded in a prospective registry at the Sudden Death Expertise Centre (SDEC).

The researchers found that 40% of the sudden cardiac arrests occurred in women. Bystanders were more often present when cardiac arrests occurred in women than when they occurred in men, but only 60% of women received basic life support, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), compared to 70% of men.

"When a man has a cardiac arrest he is less likely to have witnesses but they perform CPR more frequently," said Dr Karam. "Probably people are more afraid to do CPR in women because we look fragile. They may also not believe that she is really having a cardiac arrest - even though we found that 40% of patients were women."

The researchers found that 18% of women made it to the hospital alive compared to 26% of men. Dr Karam said: "Here we cannot blame the victim herself because a cardiac arrest by definition happens suddenly. Patients collapse, lose consciousness, and cannot help themselves. Bystanders often fail to help women probably because they don't believe it's a cardiac arrest and the medical services are less likely to rush them to the catheterisation laboratories for an angiogram. Besides, extracorporeal life support, another key factor in sudden cardiac arrest management, is six times less frequently performed in women than in men."

ESC guidelines recommend that unless there is another obvious cause for cardiac arrest (gunshot wound, for example) all patients should receive an angiogram to check for coronary artery disease, regardless of their gender. But the study found that of those who did reach the hospital alive, just 40% of women had an angiogram compared to 60% of men. Of those women who did have any angiogram, almost half had a coronary artery disease.

"Our study shows that women receive less investigations and treatment than men, despite the guidelines saying that they should be dealt with the same," said Dr Karam. "There is still a mistaken belief that women do not get coronary artery disease. But we found that coronary artery disease was the cause of sudden cardiac arrest in one-third of the women who did have an angiogram. So the angiograms were not a waste of time."

She added: "A previous study in our hospital showed that cardiac arrest victims often had symptoms on the previous day, including fainting, blackouts, dizziness, palpitations, chest pain and shortness of breath. Women have a tendency to think they are imagining their pain or symptoms, or decide to deal with them later. But women need to listen to their bodies if they have chest pain, go to the doctor and be quick."

Dr Karam concluded: "The frequency of coronary artery disease in women is increasing so it's no longer a 'man's problem'. Cardiac arrest is not a rare event in women - in our study four in every ten arrests occurred in women. When it does happen, doctors need to manage women just as they would manage men. We can only improve women's survival from cardiac arrest when doctors, emergency medical services, the public, and women themselves accept that it can happen to anyone regardless of gender."
A 52-year-old man developed distorted vision after inhaling poppers for the first time.

Writing in an article published in BMJ Case Reports, the doctors who treated the man explain that upon hospital admission he had been experiencing 10 days of blurring in his central vision and metamorphopsia, a type of vision problem where the shape of objects seen are distorted. His peripheral vision was normal.

These problems were experienced immediately after a night of clubbing, during which he inhaled poppers.

An examination revealed disruption of the inner and outer segment layers of the fovea, a small area in the retina of the eye where visual acuity is highest.

Doctors advised the man to stop taking the drugs, and after three months there was marginal improvement in his vision.

Despite the high use of poppers, there have been only around 30 published cases of poppers causing vision loss and damage, but "the actual incidence is likely to be much higher," they say. Disease progression can be prevented by stopping the use of these drugs, but recovery is variable.

Poppers are legal highs regularly used for their euphoric effects, especially by men in the gay community. These are not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act and are available from a range of sources.

However, the 'Psychoactive Substances Bill' is currently under review at the House of Commons proposes to tighten control of substances, including poppers, in the UK.
Keeping body fat low as you age is more important than achieving a low number on the scale, according to an article published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Both low body mass index (BMI), a measure of a person's weight in relation to height, and high body fat percentage are independently associated with increased risk for death.

Recent studies have shown an association between mild obesity (as measured by BMI) and lower mortality risk. Known as the "obesity paradox," these findings have been the source of debate, as physicians are advised to counsel obese patients to lose weight to decrease their risk for chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Because BMI is an imperfect measure of body fat, researchers hypothesized that greater body fat percentage, independent of BMI, would be associated with increased mortality.

They measured body fat using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and BMI for 50,000 men and women over the age of 40 to examine associations between BMI and percent fat - alone and in combination - with mortality. They found that having a higher percent body fat was independently associated with reduced survival, as was having a low BMI.

These finding suggest that body composition, not just weight, needs to be considered when assessing a patient's health and risk of death. The authors say that in some people, higher BMI may actually reflect non-fat tissue such as muscle.
Avoidable harm to patients is still too high in healthcare in the UK and across the globe - making safety a top healthcare priority for providers and policy makers alike.

These are the findings of two reports launched today by researchers from Imperial College London. Both reports, produced by NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC), provide evidence on the current state of patient safety and how it could be improved the future. They urge healthcare providers to embrace a more open and transparent culture to encourage continuous learning and harm reduction.

Professor Ara Darzi, Director of the NIHR Imperial PSTRC and senior author of the reports said: "For too long the mind-set has been that patient harms are inevitable, and that nothing can be done to prevent them. But keeping patients safe is a fundamental part of care. Although we currently face many changes - such as increasingly complex patient cases and limited resources - we must focus on creating safer environments for patients. This should involve a systems-based approach, and coordinating action across all levels of the political and health systems. We also must ensure patients and staff are integral to any solution, and not just seen as victims or culprits."

The first report focuses on the current system used by NHS staff to report patient safety incidents, called the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS). The report authors explain this system requires refinement and renovation, so as to take advantage of new technologies and recent behavioural insights. For example app-based technologies offer a simplified platform that engages staff in the incident reporting process. This will not only improve the ease of reporting, but also the accuracy of data reported.

In particular, the report reiterates problems around under-reporting of safety incidents, and reveals structural concerns within the NRLS, that have inhibited its usefulness as a tool to drive safety improvement.

Erik Mayer, lead author of the report, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial, explains: "The UK has one of the biggest incident reporting systems in the world. But despite this, evidence suggests that as little as 5 per cent of patient safety incidents are reported. This is often related to the culture of institutions and the culture of medicine. For instance, staff may witness an incident that should be reported, but are hesitant to do so for fear of repercussions."

Furthermore, the information produced by the system is difficult to analyse, making it hard to spot dangerous trends or problems.

"At the moment there is no standardised method to code or group the reports. So, for example, a delay in a medication being given may be recorded in a number of different ways, depending on the hospital. We need to standardise this and ensure that we have an improved approach to incident reporting."

The second report, Patient Safety 2030, suggests a 'toolbox' for patient safety. This would include: using digital technology to improve safety; providing robust training and education, and strengthening leadership at the political, organisational, clinical and community levels. Other points in the 'toolbox' include effective and high-quality education and training; strengthening measurement methods, including incident reporting, and exploring new digital solutions.

However, the authors warn that interventions implemented to reduce avoidable patient harm must be engineered with the whole system in mind, and empower patients and staff to become more involved in preventing harm and improving care.

Ultimately, both reports issue a global call-to-action on patient safety: both for individual health systems to convert the evidence on how to improve patient safety into everyday practice, and for the global community of health systems to share learnings from each other's successes and failures.

The publications: "NRLS Research and Development Final Report", funded by NHS England, will be presented on March 8th at the Royal Society in London. The "Patient Safety 2030", funded by a grant from the Health Foundation, an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and healthcare for people in the UK, will be presented on March 9th at the Patient Safety Global Action Summit 2016.
An international team of researchers from the Universities of Leicester and Naples has examined the role of a receptor in the body that could help to prevent or reduce the effects of asthma attacks.

In a new paper, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, the team examined the role in the body of nociceptin, a peptide that activates the nociceptin receptor, better known for its association with pain processing.

In asthma there is a constriction of the airways and an increase in immune activation - typically these are treated with a dilator (salbutamol) and a steroid (to reduce immune response).

The study identified that nociceptin has substantial activity in asthma models given before or during an asthma attack - and that a single molecule reduces both the immune response and causes dilation.

It is hoped through the observation that scientists can demonstrate effects before or during asthma that the discovery could help to prevent or reduce established asthma attacks in people suffering from the disease.

Professor David Lambert, Professor of Anaesthetic Pharmacology from the University of Leicester's Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and Leicester's Hospitals said: "I have been working on the pain related and immune modulatory actions of nociceptin for many years and it is really exciting to see this translated into a further therapeutic arena; the devastating airways disease of asthma."

Professor Chris Brightling, NIHR Senior Investigator and Honorary Consultant from the University of Leicester's Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation and Leicester's Hospitals added: "In spite of good treatments for asthma many people with asthma still have ongoing symptoms and frequent attacks. This exciting research presents an entirely new approach for asthma that needs to be tested in clinical trials."

Professor Bruno D'Agostino from the University of Naples said: "For many years, my research group has been working on the role of nociceptin in the regulation of airway responsiveness in animal models, and it is very interesting translating our results into clinic area regarding asthma, a disease that is forecast to grow over the next years."

This study was part funded by Airway Disease Predicting Outcomes through Patient Specific Computational Modelling (AirPROM), Asthma UK, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit.

Work in Italy was funded by PRIN 2010-2011 n. 2010Y4WMCR_005 from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).

AirPROM (www.airprom.eu) is funded from the European Union under grant agreement n 270194 and brings together experts and current research to build a multi-scale computational model of the lung as a new way of characterising asthma and COPD.

Dr Erika Kennington, Head of Research at Asthma UK, added: "There's nothing as terrifying as not being able to breathe, yet every 10 seconds someone in the UK has a potentially life threatening asthma attack. This research is exciting because the protein identified here may relieve not just the symptoms, but the inflammation of the lungs and the tightening of the airways that cause asthma too. We urgently need more investment in asthma research to turn these findings into new treatments."
WECF releases "Women and Chemicals" publication and calls for more political action for better health protection from harmful chemicals.

In our modern societies, women and men are all continually exposed to hazardous chemicals in their every day lives. But women are often differently exposed due to their (entrenched) gender roles and because of biological susceptibilities and health impacts. WECF, an international network of civil society organisations working for a healthy environment and gender-just society in over 50 countries, presents therefore at International Women's Day 2016 a deeper look at the nexus between gender roles and women's exposure to hazardous chemicals worldwide with its publication of "Women and Chemicalss".

In this publication WECF looks at the impacts of e.g. highly hazardous pesticides, mercury, and endocrine disrupting chemicals on women's health. Women and Chemicals was developed with support and expertise from the United Nations, civil society and scientific institutes. The views expressed in the publication are WECF's.

Hazardous chemicals can be found in the air we breathe, in the food we eat, in the water we drink. People are largely unaware of this daily chemical exposure. The negative impact of these chemicals affects the environment and human health and can cause a number of lifelong and irreversible diseases and chronic ailments. The World Health Organisation has established links between hazardous chemicals and the increased risk of breast cancer. It estimates that around 1.7 million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020.1

Women are exposed to a range of hazardous chemicals at home and at work. The publication looks at specific cases in all parts of the world such as women as pesticide sprayers, waste pickers, house cleaners, employed in the plastics industry etc., and as consumers of products which contain toxins. It analyses the issues from an intersectional perspective, and recognises that different regions have to deal with different problems. Exposure to toxic chemicals can lead to serious health effects, such as (breast) cancer, diabetes or infertility.

Corinne Lepage, Former French environment minister and chair of the WECF Board of Trustees, says: "I am worried especially about hormone disrupting chemicals. Although we know about the threat to environment and human health, the EU Commission so far has not been able to regulate EDCs. In particular women and men who are planning to have children, need to be better protected from and informed about EDCs. This report is a good starting point to show the linkage between chemical exposure of women and increasing rates of diseases and that political action is needed now."

Alexander Nies, SAICM President, welcomes the publication Women and Chemicals. "SAICM is the ideal multi-stakeholder process to address cross-cutting issues like women and chemicals. SAICM emerging issues and projects such as Chemicals in Products, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) and Highly Hazardous Pesticides address the protection of vulnerable groups, such as women. Now we need to bring the projects into practice."

Some substances such as endocrine disrupting chemicals can also have negative impacts on very young children. This was also affirmed by statements in 2015 from the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and the Endocrine Society.2 FIGO, who pointed out that "exposure to toxic environmental chemicals during pregnancy is ubiquitous and is a threat to healthy human reproduction (....) while babies are born 'pre-polluted.'"3 FIGO and the Endocrine Society both urged political action has to be taken.

Alexandra Caterbow, WECF concludes, "in this report we focused on women, because often men's health impacts are already better known, from reduced sperm-counts to testicular cancer and genital malformations.4 We call on urgent legislative measures to better protect the health of women, men and children from hazardous chemicals. Immediate steps have to be taken to end use of highly hazardous pesticides, to strictly regulate EDCs such as Bisphenol A from consumer products and packaging, to ban mercury use in artisanal small gold mining, and to promote the use of safer substitutes and non-chemical alternatives"
Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer that develops in very early forms of nerve cells in the embryo or fetus, and it accounts for the most pediatric deaths for any tumor outside of the brain. The most lethal form of this tumor is often associated with amplification of the gene MYCN, and now scientists at VCU Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Philips Institute for Oral Health Research may have developed a combination therapy that uses this gene to kill the cancer, instead of making it grow.

In a study featured on the cover of last month's edition of the journal Cancer Cell, Anthony Faber, Ph.D., and a team of scientists demonstrated that MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells are highly sensitive to an investigational drug called ABT-199 that is currently being evaluated in clinical trials for another disease. After determining why ABT-199 was so effective in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma, they began a process of looking for other drugs that increased its effectiveness. Eventually they discovered that another investigational drug called MLN8237 complements ABT-199 and is very effective at killing neuroblastoma tumors in laboratory experiments and advanced mouse models.

"The positive preclinical activity and safety profile of this targeted therapy combination will hopefully set the stage for clinical trials in a subset of neuroblastoma patients who urgently need new, more effective therapies," says Faber, assistant professor at the Philips Institute for Oral Health Research at the VCU School of Dentistry and a member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center.

ABT-199 targets the protein B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2), which regulates a form of cell suicide known as apoptosis. Faber's team found that ABT-199 kills neuroblastoma cells only in the presence of amplified MYCN. They found this selectivity was due to paradoxical upregulation (cellular increase) of the pro-apoptotic (suicidal) protein NOXA in this type of cancer. The process is paradoxical because amplified MYCN is responsible for the formation and growth of these high-risk tumors and would not ordinarily be associated with promoting cell death. Their strategy was therefore to "turn MYCN against itself," finding vulnerabilities specific to this cancer, such as MYCN-upregulated NOXA, and treating the cancer with a drug that exploits the vulnerability.

The addition of a second investigational drug, MLN8237, to ABT-199 led to widespread cell death in the experiments. The researchers attributed this outcome to a further imbalance in the BCL-2 family member proteins, which govern cell death. The toxic effects of the two drugs were only seen in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells; the combination therapy was not effective against neuroblastomas without amplified MYCN.

"Fortunately, our primary collaborator, Yael Mosse at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), treats a high volume of these patients and has been a trailblazer for developing targeted therapies, including MLN8237, in neuroblastoma. We also have a good relationship with the drug maker, Abbvie, that produces ABT-199; therefore, we believe we are in a good position to hopefully bring the ABT-199/MLN8237 combination into the clinic at CHOP," says Faber. "In addition, we are also exploring ABT-199 as a chemosensitizer (makes cells more sensitive to chemotherapy) in MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas with Dr. Mosse's team. Overall, it seems there may be a place for BCL-2 specific inhibitors in the future care of these patients, and we are excited about that.

"These advances would not have been possible without the financial contributions of our supporters, including the Massey Cancer Center, and our private donors, who have been true blessings to our work and include Alex's Lemonade Stand, Rally/The Truth 365 and Wipe out Kids' Cancer. We greatly appreciate their support."

In addition to pursuing clinical trials with collaborators at CHOP, Faber is partnering with Massey researchers Hisashi Harada, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Philips Institute for Oral Health Research and member of the Cancer Cell Signaling research program at Massey, and Geoffrey Krystal, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care at the VCU School of Medicine, chief of oncology at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center and member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at Massey, whose prior research shed light on the important link between NOXA and BCL-2 inhibitors exploited in the current study. And because MYC family members are amplified in several other cancers, including about 25 percent of small cell lung cancers, the potential of future findings may extend beyond neuroblastoma.

"Drs. Harada and Krystal have made important advances in the biology of NOXA and its relationship with BCL-2 inhibitors in tumors. Indeed, their previously published work helped guide us in the right direction," says Faber.
A network of brain regions involved in self-disclosure on Facebook has been determined, according to a new study published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports.

In the first study to examine the intrinsic functional connectivity of the brain in relation to social media use, Dar Meshi and colleagues observed connectivity between regions of the brain previously established to play a role in self-cognition, in 35 participants.

Researchers focused on the medial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus, two cortical midline regions that are recruited when thinking about oneself.

"Human beings like to share information about themselves. In today's world, one way we're able to share self-related information is by using social media platforms like Facebook," says Meshi, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany.

Facebook is the world's largest social media channel with 1.5 billion monthly active users. It was used in the study because people post information about their thoughts, feelings and opinions, as well as pictures and videos of themselves.

All subjects completed a Self-Related Sharing Scale to determine how frequently each subject posted pictures of themselves, updated their profile information, and updated their status. The participants were selected to vary widely in their Self-Related Sharing Scale scores.

Researchers recorded functional neuroimaging (fMRI) data while subjects were allowed to let their mind wander; subjects did not perform an explicit task. Researchers then analyzed the connectivity of each participant's brain to determine a relationship between brain connectivity and Self-Related Sharing Scale score across participants.

Results showed that participants who share more about themselves on Facebook had greater connectivity of both the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There was also greater connectivity between the precuneus and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex.

"Our study reveals a network of brain regions involved in the sharing of self-related information on social media," says Meshi. "These findings extend our present knowledge of functional brain connectivity, specifically linking brain regions previously established to function in self-referential cognition to regions indicated in the cognitive process of self-disclosure."

The authors point out that the implications of their research are broad and lay the foundation for future scientific investigation into self-disclosure.

The study was supported by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
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This year's theme is "Patient Voice" which is echoed by the Centre for Health Ecologies and Technology (CHET) through this art exhibition and film festival 2016.

Blue Ribbon Art Exhibition and Film Festival

http://www.rarediseaseday.org/ https://globalgenes.org/world-rare-disease-day/ http://www.eurordis.org/content/rare-disease-day-2016-theme-and-slogan https://www.rareconnect.org/en

There are nearly 70 million people with rare diseases in India. In the year 2014, Karnataka state had a rare disease population of 3.7 lakhs.The most prevalent and frequently occurring rare diseases in India are Thalassemia Sickle Cell Anemia and Hemophilia WRDD is a platform to bring together communities of people with the rare disease to advocate for better access to quality healthcare including better diagnostics, treatment and affordable drugs.The Centre for Health Ecologies and Technology (CHET) at the International Institute of Art, Culture and Democracy (IIACD) presented the Blue Ribbon Art Exhibition and Film Festival on 1 March, 2016 at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore under its Autism and Rare Diseases (ARDA) outreach programme. ARDA aims to raise awareness and sensitize communities on rare diseases through art, film and other creative media. Through its research, advocacy and practice, CHET seeks to improve access to quality healthcare for people and families with rare diseases and other communities, which have been excluded from mainstream health systems.The curators, designers and other organizers of the Blue Ribbon Art Exhibition and Film Festival at CHET were inspired by Global Genes Project's Blue Denim Ribbon which is universally worn on Global Rare Diseases Day, celebrated on the last day of February every year, as a symbol of hope for people fighting rare diseases and to help raise awareness. Every visitor to the festival was given a blue ribbon as a show of unity with rare disease communities.The Blue Ribbon Art Exhibition showcased the creative artworks of children and young adults below 20 with rare diseases. It aimed at raising awareness of their rare diseases and generate hope. The artworks communicated the personal lived experiences of the children and adults with rare diseases such as Thalassemia, Hemophilia, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and children with Autism and developmental disabilities. Some of the posters and artworks in this exhibition are a call-to-action to step up therapeutics and curatives especially in gene therapies. Eminent artist Balan Nambiar reviewed and prepared the comment on the artworks for this exhibition.In this event, CHET partnered with several rare disease patient advocacy associations in Bangalore - Hemophilia Society, Bangalore Chapter, Thalassemia Society, Bangalore, Dystrophy Annihilation Research Trust (DART) and Rotary-TTK Blood Bank in the art exhibition. Artworks of children with Autism and developmental disabilities from Sajjan Rao Vidya Samsthe, Bangalore and Assisted Living for Autistic Adults (ALFAA) have also been included. The artworks of Neelesh Ganesh, a high-functioning individual with Asperger's syndrome drew much attention and admiration from the audience.The aim of the Blue Ribbon Film Festival was to share experiences of people with rare diseases with the public. The curated films gave an overall introduction to rare diseases such as Hemophilia, Thalassemia and Pompe disease . They captured the nuanced experiences of children, adults and parents living with rare diseases. The curator's intent is to avoid portraying the tragic and to instead present the colorful and diverse experiences of people with rare diseases. The films combine a blend of the artistic and the experiential to convey the rich lives of people living with rare diseases and negotiating different realities. Some of the films included the award winning documentary "The Indomitable Spirit" by Maya Chandran and the Hollywood blockbuster "Extraordinary Measures" starring Brendon Fraser and Harrison Ford. This film captures the struggles of a father searching for a cure for his two children who are fighting Pompe disease.The event was inaugurated by Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD of Biocon Limited. Significantly, the draft framework for a rare disease policy was presented to Dr. Sowjanya, Director of the National Health Mission, Karnataka. For the first time in India, such a framework is being presented to the government to look into a public policy for people with rare diseases to support diagnostics, treatment and availability of affordable drugs.This event also provided updates on research and treatment and a platform for people with Hemophilia, Thalassemia, DMD, Primary immunodeficiency (PID) and Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), care providers and care givers to share their experiences, desires and hopes. The larger goal of the Blue Ribbon Art Exhibition and Film Festival on rare diseases is to communicate the diversity and beauty in the lives of people with rare diseases.Source: Medindia
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"The positive preclinical activity and safety profile of this targeted therapy combination will hopefully set the stage for clinical trials in a subset of neuroblastoma patients who urgently need new, more effective therapies," says Faber, assistant professor at the Philips Institute for Oral Health Research at the VCU School of Dentistry and a member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center.ABT-199 targets the protein B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2), which regulates a form of cell suicide known as apoptosis. Faber's team found that ABT-199 kills neuroblastoma cells only in the presence of amplified MYCN. They found this selectivity was due to paradoxical upregulation (cellular increase) of the pro-apoptotic (suicidal) protein NOXA in this type of cancer. The process is paradoxical because amplified MYCN is responsible for the formation and growth of these high-risk tumors and would not ordinarily be associated with promoting cell death. Their strategy was therefore to "turn MYCN against itself," finding vulnerabilities specific to this cancer, such as MYCN-upregulated NOXA, and treating the cancer with a drug that exploits the vulnerability.The addition of a second investigational drug, MLN8237, to ABT-199 led to widespread cell death in the experiments. The researchers attributed this outcome to a further imbalance in the BCL-2 family member proteins, which govern cell death. The toxic effects of the two drugs were only seen in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells; the combination therapy was not effective against neuroblastomas without amplified MYCN."Fortunately, our primary collaborator, Yael MossA at the Children''s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), treats a high volume of these patients and has been a trailblazer for developing targeted therapies, including MLN8237, in neuroblastoma. We also have a good relationship with the drug maker, Abbvie, that produces ABT-199; therefore, we believe we are in a good position to hopefully bring the ABT-199/MLN8237 combination into the clinic at CHOP," says Faber. "In addition, we are also exploring ABT-199 as a chemosensitizer (makes cells more sensitive to chemotherapy) in MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas with Dr. Mosse''s team. Overall, it seems there may be a place for BCL-2 specific inhibitors in the future care of these patients, and we are excited about that."These advances would not have been possible without the financial contributions of our supporters, including the Massey Cancer Center, and our private donors, who have been true blessings to our work and include Alex''s Lemonade Stand, Rally/The Truth 365 and Wipe out Kids'' Cancer. We greatly appreciate their support."Source: Newswise
Following the March 4, 2016 killing of Amani Hosni Jawad Al-Sabatin after she carried out a car-ramming attack against a group of Israeli soldiers at Gush Etzion junction, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 'Abbas sent a letter of condolence to her family in the town of Husan. In it, he praised Al-Sabatin as "a martyr who quenched the land of Palestine with her pure soul."

For reasons that are unclear, the letter was on the official letterhead of the Palestinian Embassy in Jordan.

The letter was then tweeted by the Fatah Recruitment and Organization Commission (@fateha1965).

Below is a translation of the letter:[1]

"Embassy of the State of Palestine

"The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

"March 6, 2016"

"In the name of Allah the merciful and beloved,

"'And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.'[2]

"Distinguished residents of Husan,

"Distinguished Al-Sabatin family,

"With great sorrow and deep anguish we received the news of the death of the martyr Amani Hosni Jawad Al-Sabatin.

"We consider her to be someone who is with Allah, may He be exalted and elevated, as a martyr who quenched the land of Palestine with her pure soul.

"I share your deep sorrow and anguish, and express my most sincere condolences to you and to your distinguished family, and to the residents of Husan and the dear Al-Sabatin family. I beseech Allah the Exalted and the Omnipotent to bestow upon this martyr His many mercies, and may she rest in Paradise. May Allah fill your heart with forbearance and consolation."

"Mahmoud Abbas,

"President of the State of Palestine"



The letter sent by 'Abbas

Hamas Press: The Palestinian Woman Is A Man - At A Time When Real Men Are Hard To Find

The Hamas press reported on Al-Sabatin's death in the car ramming, and on her funeral.[3] The Facebook page of the Hamas website Palinfo.com shared a poster with her face against the backdrop of the Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem and details of her death in the operation against the Israeli soldiers.[4] It read: "The 35-year-old martyr Amani Al-Sabatin, killed by the occupation's bullets near the 'Gush-Etzyon' settlement in Bethlehem, after carrying out a car-ramming operation against the occupation's soldiers, on the morning of Friday, March 4, 2016."



Poster shared by Hamas on its Facebook page

Palinfo.com posted a report on Al-Sabatin stressing her "daring car-ramming operation" and explaining that "the Palestinian woman is persisting in resistance operations and participating in the Palestinian people's intifada against the occupation. She is the first to educate the men, and she creates them. Moreover, she is a man at a time when [real] men are hard to find."[5]

Endnotes:
The obituaries all cited Raymond Tomlinson, who died over the weekend, as the "inventor" of email, but out in the cold in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shiva Ayyadurai bristled.

A few eulogies were a little more nuanced, noting specifically that the New York-born Tomlinson is widely recognized for selecting the @ symbol to connect a username with the destination address email, making it a central part of the communications process. Even G-mail was guarded, tweeting, "Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map. #RIP."

But that was of little comfort to the Mumbai-born Ayyadurai, who emigrated to the US with his family when he was only seven, and has been fighting an epic battle to be recognized as the primary inventor of email as we know it when he was only 14. "I'm the low-caste, dark-skinned, Indian, who DID invent #email not Raytheon, who profits from war, death and lies," he raged in one tweet a few hours Tomlinson's death, referring to the deceased man's employer, best-known as an armaments company.

 Facebook

A few supportive tweets recognized his claims. "The truth will prevail. Have no doubt about that! Your insightful invention has changed the world. Credit will go where it is due," one supporter tweeted. Another came from his own spouse, the actress - comedian Fran Drescher, who wrote, "EVERY1 honest knos Shiva Ayyadurai @va_shiva invented, has copyright &is a victim of racism." Ayyadurai himself noted: "Today is MahaShivaratri. The night of truth, & justice over ignorance, fitting that Raytheon's lies about #email, and Tomlinson died today."

So what is the truth? The FACTS are that Shiva Ayyadurai does have the first US copyright for Email, or "Computer Program for Electronic Mail System," in 1982. Numerous awards and honors recognize his work, from a "Westinghouse Science Talent Search Honors Award for creating EMAIL" in 1981 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History accepted his code, papers and artifacts demonstrating HIS WORK on EMAIL. And while he may not have written the first email program or code, he is recognized in some quarters as the first to devise the form closest to today's email - on commission from the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

A sham he is not, as attested by number others honors that are undisputed. But missing from the scroll is the official recognition, from the government and the tech community at large, which says he only capitalized on the infrastructure provided by the military and other pioneers, including Tomlinson, to make some contributions in the advancement of electronic mail as we know it today.

 Facebook

In interviews, Ayyadurai has argued that as a 14-year old in New Jersey in 1978, he not only had no access to the early technologies that were strictly in the military domain, he didn't need their parts, their protocol, or the Internet. His work centered on using local area networks and Ethernet cords.

What Tomlinson did, Ayyadurai clarifies, is send text messages between computers. "It is also an obvious and inescapable fact that sending a text message is not email - since email, as we all know, is a system that includes features such as Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Folders, Attachments, Carbon Copies. Groups, Forwarding, Reply, Delete, Archive, Sort, Bulk Distribution, and more," he writes on his website.

He, Ayyaduari, on the other hand, invented a software system that duplicates the features of the Interoffice Mail System. "I named my software "EMAIL," (a term never used before in the English language), and I even received the first US. Copyright for that software, officially recognizing me as The Inventor of Email, at a time when Copyright was the only way to recognize software inventions, since the US Supreme was not recognizing software patents," he writes.

He has influential supporters, including the philosopher-activist Noam Chomsky, who has known Ayyadurai since he was a sophomore at MIT, and who noted in a testimonial that "the steps taken to belittle the achievement" of a 14-year old immigrant ... "suggest an effort to dismiss the fact that innovation can take place by anyone, in any place, at any time."

"Given the term email was not used prior to 1978, and there was no intention to emulate '...a full-scale, inter-organizational mail system,' (which is what Ayyadurai did) as late as December 1977, there is no controversy here, except the one created by industry insiders, who have a vested interest to protect a false branding that BBN (a military contractor like Raytheon) is the "inventor of email", which the facts obliterate," Chomsky noted in his support for Ayyadurai.

However, others, including some media outlets, who credited Ayyadurai for the invention of the email, have been forced to retract or clarify their stories - by the powerful US military-industrial complex, according to Ayyadurai. The US defense establishment, he argues, wants the public to believe that their tax dollars are well spent to invent things like Velcro and GPS (both of which it did). But often, innovations came come from humble, hum-drum low cost environments which do not suck up billions of dollars - which is the point he is trying to prove.
Its a proud moment for the country and a progressive step at that. Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha just announced that the country will get its first batch of female fighter pilots on June 18 this year.

"As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training and are at par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18th," he told ANI.

And very soon on 18th June this year Indian Air Force will get its first woman fighter pilot: IAF Chief Arup Raha pic.twitter.com/pYi8vWtVr4  ANI (@ANI_news) March 8, 2016

 BCCL

"As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training and are at par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18th," Mr Raha said further.

 BCCL

Until October 2015, women were not inducted as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force. The decision to allow them to be trained, and subsequently fly, as fighter pilots was taken by the Defence Ministry last year. Raha, who was speaking at a seminar on women officers in Army Medical Corps, praised the Defence Ministrys decision to allow women fighter pilots in the IAF.

Including women as fighter pilots in the Indian air force is a welcome step and promotes gender equality like nothing else. Equality encompasses both rights and duties, and if one demands equal rights for themselves, it only makes sense that they share the duties equally too. And what better duty there is than protecting ones country?
Somewhere between the fight for equality and conflicting feminist ideologies, these women have carved a niche for themselves in the society by conquering and defeating all odds. Yes they have made us all realize that for proving her mettle she does not need any gender specification or any man behind her to push her towards success.

Here are some women whom we salute from the bottom of our hearts for their courage of bringing a change in the society.

1. Neerja Bhanot

 yahoo

Neerja was in her early 20s when she was killed by the terrorists in the 1986 Pan Am Flight 73 plane hijack, while saving the more than 350 passengers onboard. Neerja was posthumously rewarded with the Ashok Chakra. She became the youngest recipient of this award and proved that courage is not gender specific and has nothing to do with age.

2. Kalpana Chawla

 wikimedia

She was the first Indian woman on space who made the whole nation bask in the glory and joy with her achievements. Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-American astronaut, lost her life in the year 2003 when her space shuttle disintegrated over Texas while re-entering the earths atmosphere.

3. Irom Chanu Sharmila

 reuters

She is known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, so do we need to say more! Irom Sharmila went on a hunger strike in 2000 to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). After the Malom Massacre, Sharmila started this strike which is known to be the worlds longest hunger strike. Her determination and courage is commendable.

4. Laxmi

 facebook

Laxmi was 15 when she was acid attacked by a man double her age when she rejected his advances. But this did not make her weak. Instead, she took this as an opportunity to bring a change in society by working towards the welfare of the acid attack survivors. Today she is the voice of all the acid attack victims across the globe and she recently even featured in an advertisement for a clothing brand.

5. Indra Nooyi

 reuters

Indra Nooyi has been ranked 13 in the list of Forbes Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women and is the Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo. Not only this, Forbes even ranked her third in the Worlds Powerful Moms list. Indra Nooyi is an inspiration for all the women who aspire to become entrepreneurs.

6. Bhanwari Devi

 alternative (dot) in

She was allegedly gang-raped by the higher caste men when she was trying to prevent a child marriage in their family. But this act did not deter her from her cause. Bhanwari Devi, the Indian dalit social-worker from Rajasthan, received recognition both nationally and internationally and was even a part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

7. Sunitha Krishnan

 wikimedia

Sunitha is a social activist and co-founder of NGO Prajwala, who has constantly worked for the welfare of sex-trafficked victims and rehabilitate the sex workers. She was gang-raped at the age of 15 and has received many death threats and even attacked by people because of her work. But all these acts have only strengthened her fight against human trafficking.

8. Priyanka Chopra

 reuters

You dont need a godfather in this industry and Priyanka Chopra is one actress who aptly proves it. Miss World 2000 might not have had a great start to her career, but today she is not only Bollywoods much sought-after actress, but has even carved a niche for herself in Hollywood. For those who dont know, she represented India at this years Oscars.
President Aliyev: Southern Gas Corridor to more expand co-operation between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey

By Messenger Staff

The second Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Meeting started in Baku on Feb. 29.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attended the meeting and emphasised the significance of holding the event and added that it will focus on the work done in previous years as well as future tasks.The President noted that high-level and successful coordination work had been carried out between the projects participants following the previous years meeting.President Aliyev recalled that the groundbreaking ceremony for TANAP project was held in 2015 and added that this project plays an important role in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor.He noted that the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project will make it possible to expand cooperation between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and other countries.Azerbaijans president highlighted that energy security holds an important place in world politics and on the agenda of international organizations.He noted that Azerbaijan remains committed to all its obligations and continues to develop the principles of a market economy.Ilham Aliyev said that energy cooperation cannot be a political requirement and this issue should be free of any political format.Azerbaijan actively cooperates with the projects participants, and this cooperation will create opportunities to achieve success in other spheres of the economy as well, according to Ilham Aliyev.The President added that energy security plays an important role in relations with the European Union.
Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Mardas will meet at the Foreign Ministry tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 March 15:30, with the Special Representative, on Migration and Refugee issues, of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Tomas Bocek (former Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe).



Ambassador Bocek has already visited the accommodation and reception centers at Elaiona and Chios, and has met with representatives of the Government and local administration, the Ombudsman, NGOs, etc.



Following the meeting, a brief statement will be made to the news media.
BAD AXE  A Bad Axe woman was sentenced to serve at least a year and a half in prison this week for her role in a six-year shopping spree at her former employers expense.

Sarah Marie Harris, 33, pleaded guilty to embezzlement, $100,000 or more, at her arraignment Jan. 25, connected to several incidents in which she wrongfully spent money that belonged to Weldall Welding and Engineering Corp. in Elkton between April 2010 and August 2015.

Huron County Circuit Court Judge Gerald M. Prill ordered a restitution hearing to determine an amount owed before imposing a sentence.

Harris, who appeared with her attorney Elizabeth Weisenbach, disputed the amount of restitution owed because Harris claimed some of the transactions were made for supplies needed at the office  such as toilet paper, coffee and soda  and not her personal use.

During the hearing, the courtroom heard testimonies from James H. Neurath, Gary M. Gardner and Harris.

Neurath, a certified public accountant with Weldall Welding for 32 years, told the court he was asked to look at the businesss books in 2015 after the owner saw an unusually high balance on the company credit card while checking a statement online.

In 2010, theres a firewall of where things begin, Neurath said. For the first three months of 2010, there were no issues whatsoever. In April (2010), petty cash discrepancies started.

Petty cash is a small amount of money kept on hand by businesses to pay for small amounts owed versus writing a check. Weldall Welding kept $350 in its petty cash drawer.

Neurath said the procedure he went through to uncover the embezzlement was to look through every bank statement and check written  roughly 10,000 documents  that was processed. He said he began working on the current year, 2015, and worked backward, but once he got to 2013, there were still some issues so he kept going.

In November 2010, Neurath noticed unusual purchases on the companys credit card.

The types of products they (stores) offer are not related to the need for a metal fabrication business, he said.

Stores that Harris made purchases at, with either the companys petty cash, personal checkbook or credit card, included: Walgreens, Sunoco, American Eagle Outfitters, Wal-Mart and Bath and Body Works.

Nuerath told the court after 478 hours of working on the case, he arrived at amounts loss for the six-year period, which are:

 2010: $31,985

 2011: $46,908

 2012: $44,604

 2013: $60,130

 2014: $134,805

 2015 (eight months): $70,364

Because of the amount of hours put into the case, Neurath said the bill Weldall Welding will receive will be quite expensive  $119,850. Weisenbach asked how Neurath expects to receive payment or if hes billed the company yet, considering all circumstances. Neurath told the court he hasnt billed Weldall yet because it would virtually put them out of business trying to pay it.

Gary M. Gardner, president and CEO of Weldall Welding, took the stand next.

Gardner told the court he discovered it all by looking at a credit card statement online one day. He said he noticed a substantially large amount of bonus points on the account and from there, things began to come to light.

The last person to take the stand was Harris who challenged the amount owed. The prosecution sought restitution in the amount of $388,798 plus Neuraths bill, but Harris claimed she only embezzled $329,028.

I had no need to take petty cash, Harris said, because the company had credit cards.

Harris claimed the difference between the two figures was money used to purchase items for the office and was not used for reasons outside of that. Weisenbach told the court her client went through all statements and came up with the lower figure.

After nearly two hours of hearing statements from both parties, Prill ordered the final amount of restitution owed to be $468,148. Prill did note he cut roughly $40,000 down from Neuraths bill.

Court proceedings then moved forward to impose a sentence.

Weisenbach told the judge her client has dealt with many struggles and obstacles in her life that point to her shopping addiction.

Harris was abandoned by her mother, sexually assaulted by family members growing up and in 2009 lost the person who raised her throughout her life  Harris grandmother, Weisenbach said.

Any one of these things can break a person, Weisenbach said. All three broke her.

Weisenbach described Harris as a "shopaholic" who used shopping to maintain her high. Harris had to put her child through counseling because the child became accustom to shopping, but once the shopping spree was over, she needed to understand why.

It was a learning lesson for Weldall, Weisenbach said.  Its important to keep those checks and balances balanced  and they didnt do that.

All of this was available online, she said, meaning the bank statements were available for viewing at any time by the owner.

Next, an emotional Harris handed Weisenbach a prepared letter to read to the court.

Unfortunately, theres no do-overs in life and I cant go back and change what I did, Weisenbach read. It was a high of buying stuff.

The letter went into her shopping addiction, indicating she would spend five to 12 hours a day on her phone, the computer or in stores buying items.

Harris letter also mentioned other issues shes been dealing with such as her recent diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar, depression and anxiety.

The victim, Gardner, pleaded with the judge to give Harris the penalty he thought was necessary.

The embezzlement was not a crime committed against a big corporation with deep pockets, Gardner said describing the case as the most damaging white collar crime in Huron County. ... Because of this, Ive had to ask myself Will I be able to pay my bank? Will I be able to pay my employees? Will I be able to pay my vendors? 

Finally, before the judge sentenced Harris, Huron County Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski noted one big thing missing  trust.

Its a small business that hes (Gardner) been working at for 40 years, Rutkowski said. ... The victim here is somebody that didnt do anything wrong.

Trust was missing in this case.

Prill moved forward and compared Harris shopping addiction case to drug-related cases.

Does a heroin addict spend that amount of money on drugs? the judge asked. The answer to that is no.

Prill noted he noticed at no point during the proceeding did Harris ever apologize to the company.

You have to pay the piper for what youve done in this case, he said.

Harris was sentenced to a minimum term of one year and six months  maximum 20 years  in the Michigan prison system. After sentencing, Weisenbach told the judge she would be taking $5,000 Harris put up for escrow and apply the money toward Harris restitution payment.
At recent events for the Democratic presidential candidate, supporters have latched on to his pronunciation of the word "huge," which in his distinctive Brooklyn twang sounds more like "yuge." But that word  and the delivery  is already associated with Republican front-runner, and fellow New Yorker, Donald Trump.

Perish the thought that Sanders, a scold of billionaires, is mimicking one. Huge, without the first letter, "must have been one of the first words he ever learned to say," said his spokesman, Michael Briggs.

Sanders may have a lifelong association with the word, but fans appear to have picked up on it after a recent appearance on "Saturday Night Live."

The Vermont senator appeared with Larry David in a sketch where both portrayed characters trying to survive a shipwreck similar to the Titanic. David likens Sanders' ideas to socialism, to which Sanders says: "democratic socialism," adding "huge difference" in his signature style.

"Huge?" David says. "Huge," Sanders responds.

Now at his packed rallies, Sanders' backers bellow the word with glee as he offers his campaign pledges to break up big financial institutions and overhaul the campaign finance system. In Michigan recently, Sanders bantered with the crowd.

"People want you to think small. Think small," Sanders said, as cries of "huge" rose from the crowd. "I think it's time to think big."

As the crowd kept calling out "huge," Sanders acquiesced: "All right, you can think huge!"

People screamed and stomped their feet. Sanders quipped: "Now I know the impact of 'Saturday Night Live."

Conrad Foreman, 21, a student at the University of Michigan, brought a sign to the rally that read: "The revolution, it's going to be YUUUUUUGE."

"It's just catching on to the authenticity of him," Foreman said.

Much earlier in the presidential campaign, that word had already been practically trademarked by Trump. His pronunciation of "huge" has been imitated by late night hosts and slapped on T-shirts. Trump doesn't use it much in rallies these days, though his staff still uses "yuge" as a Twitter hashtag.

Scott Koenig, 41, a builder in Charleston, South Carolina, said he was certain "huge" was Trump's phrase.

"You say it all the time when you talk about Trump," said Koenig, who went to a Trump event out of curiosity. "It's a northeast thing. I can see that, but I think it's funny."
BAD AXE  A Harbor Beach man pleaded not guilty to several assault-related charges in court on Monday.

Fred Junior Tippins, 35, was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, two counts of felonious assault with a deadly weapon, domestic violence and habitual offender-fourth all stemming from an alleged altercation at a local bar last year.

On Oct. 15, 2015, Tippins allegedly got into an argument at Hunters Bar in Harbor Beach with his sisters friend, according to a police report. Tippins allegedly cut the victim on the side of the head with a knife and left the bar shortly after. He ended up at his sisters home  which resulted in an altercation with her.

According to the report, after leaving his sisters home that night, Tippins went back to the bar and attempted to confront the victim again, but was stopped and later arrested.

Tippins appeared in Huron County Circuit Court for his arraignment on Monday. His attorney, Michael Knoblock, pleaded not guilty to all charges on his clients behalf.

A two-day trial is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. May 10. A final pretrial was ordered for 10 a.m. April 25. Bond was continued at $20,000 cash or surety.

In 2004, Tippins was convicted of homicide-manslaughter in Wayne County, and spent 10 years of his 15-year sentence locked up. He was discharged Aug. 23, 2014, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Almost 100 people mostly from Haiti who were rescued from an overcrowded boat off the Florida coast had no food or water for...
The Air Force says it's ready to deploy the Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber to the Middle East as part of the military campaign against Islamic State.

"The venerable B-52, with its similar capacity and accuracy and endurance, remains ready and able to meet combatant commander requirements," Air Force Secretary Deborah James told reporters on Monday afternoon during a briefing at the Pentagon.

The Boeing Co.-made aircraft's deployment required carrying out infrastructure improvements in theater that have since been made and awaits final approval, James said. She didn't detail the type of work or where it was done to prepare the area for the iconic bomber, which can carry nuclear or precision-guided conventional ordnance.

More information would be released "at the appropriate time," James said.

The B-52 was built to deploy nuclear weapons anywhere in the world and reflects the primary long-range bomber for much of the Cold War. In the early 1960s, it was modified to carry conventional bombs and deployed to Southeast Asia to target enemy forces in North and South Vietnam.

The B-52 will take over strike missions against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, that have been carried out by the B-1 Lancer, which returned to the U.S. in January for much-needed maintenance and upgrades.

-- Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bryantjordan.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders said the U.S., in concert with European allies and Russia, should provide air power, materiel and equipment to Arab countries fighting Islamic State in the Middle East but not put American troops on the ground.

Sanders, who is vying with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democrat Party nomination, offered his remarks Monday during an hour-long town hall on Fox News. The event featured Sanders in the first half hour and Clinton in the second.

Responding to an audience member's question on how he would deal with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, Sanders first quoted, as he has in the past, Jordanian King Abdullah in describing ISIS as "a war for the soul of Islam."

Abdullah, he said, makes the case that Muslim countries have to destroy ISIS.

"I agree with that," Sanders said. "I will do everything I can to keep American troops out of perpetual war in the Middle East. But I do believe a coalition of the major countries on the Earth -- the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia -- I believe we should support the Muslim troops on the ground with air attacks, with military equipment and all the help we can provide.

"But it should not be our troops on the ground for many, many reasons," he said.

In her remarks, Clinton also said the U.S. should lead a coalition against ISIS, though she did not name any particular country. The U.S. currently heads up a coalition of dozens of nations, including European allies, in support of rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. Russia is also conducting airstrikes in Syria, but not as a coalition partner. It supports the regime of al-Assad.

During a discussion of Libya, where ISIS is also making inroads, Clinton rejected the idea of putting ground troops there.

"Not U.S. combat troops," she said.

But she suggested she would follow the strategy underway in Syria and Iraq, where the U.S. is "using Special Forces, using airstrikes to go after ISIS leaders."

-- Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bryantjordan.
Dear Ms. Vicki,

I married my husband when we were 18 years old and I was pregnant. He went into the military and served for 20 years. We have five children together. One is severely handicapped and the youngest child, who we adopted from one of my husband's family members, has autism and other issues.

I went to school and earned an associate's degree and bachelor's degree, and I've worked throughout most of our 33 years of marriage. My husband was gone a lot with the military, and I later learned that he volunteered for many of those trips.

When he retired in 2003, he was rated 50% disabled by the VA and he had trouble finding a job. He finally said if he took a job as a contractor with the Army in Korea for two years, we could pay off our bills. I had no idea then that he would never come back or help support the household.

He never told me how much he made. He slowly put less and less money in our joint account, and then he refinanced our house and took my name off the deed.

I was constantly blamed for spending too much money. He said it was all my fault even though he was running up bills like crazy.

He would not come home to visit, saying we couldn't afford for him to travel. I was controlled and abused throughout our marriage, emotionally and physically. I was terrified of him. I did what he said always. I never questioned him.

When his contract was up after two years, he said he had to extend it for another year. Then, in 2008, he emailed me and said our lives were going in two different directions. I asked him to come home repeatedly, but he made excuses for why he couldn't. Then he told me he wanted a trial separation.

Four years ago, our son was dying and I begged my husband to come home. He finally came for four days and spent only one day with our son. I told him not to leave because our son was expected to die very soon, but my husband said he had to go back to work. Three days after he left, our son died. My husband decided not to come home for the funeral.

When we went to court in November 2011, he was ordered to pay alimony, child support and half of his military pension. I got my joint bank account cleaned out and closed with the help of his family. He made angry and threatening phone calls to me and cut off all communication with our children.

I have since heard that before we were separated he had gotten two separate women pregnant in the Philippines and that he has a son and a daughter there. Over the years, he has canceled Tricare for me and the children and switched us from Prime to Standard. I have had breast cancer several times, fallen at work, lost the use of my arm, lost the use of my leg and I have so many medical bills. He knows this, but he says it is not his problem. He even fought me on renewing my ID card.

Our handicapped daughter is 16 and will never be able to take care of herself. We have it in one part of the divorce papers that he is supposed to support her past her 18th birthday, but he hates her so much that he made it known he wants to stop supporting her when she turns 18. It probably doesn't even matter. He has been in contempt of court so many times and no one cares or ever does anything. Legally, we're still married because he hasn't even signed the divorce papers!

I still do not receive half of his pension. The company he worked for informed me that his last day was Jan. 30, 2016. They said he voluntarily quit. I went to the child support office in Sacramento to open a new case, but I have no idea how to find out where he might be working now. Would the military have to be informed if he is getting or using the military facilities or supporting his other children?

Is there anything else I can do? Is applying for a VA pension separate from retirement?

-- Abandoned by Airman Husband

Dear Abandoned,

Thank you for reading the column and for writing to me. I have to admit that your story is heartbreaking. However, I know the emotions your story evokes in me probably won't help your situation.

From your report, it sounds like you have spent years on this merry-go-round with your husband, fighting for support that is rightfully yours while your husband continues to dodge accountability and responsibility. There are a lot of questions and advice that I have, but I will try to focus on just a few because I don't want to overwhelm you and add more stress to your situation.

First, I hope you have legal representation with a lawyer who understands military marriage and military culture. However, if you do, I don't understand why your attorney hasn't filed a motion on your behalf. The judge should not allow your husband to avoid the legal proceedings. But I'm not a lawyer or a judge.

Second, your husband is clearly dodging child and spousal support. But to answer your question, as a retiree, your husband and his minor children are entitled to use military facilities and the military wouldn't have to know. My point is that your husband is retired so he doesn't answer to a chain of command like he did when he was on active-duty service.

Your situation illustrates the advice I give to many military spouses: Though many marriages are over long before the service member retires, it can get harder if a divorce decree or legal separation is not done before they retire. Once they retire, there is no one in the military who can hold them accountable.

I know it is difficult, but I hope you have close family and friends who can be supportive. In the meantime, please contact Ex-Spouses of Servicemembers for Equality (EX-POSE). Their phone number is 703-941-5844. Here are a few services they provide:

EX-POSE provides information for spouses regarding separation and or divorce from active-duty, reserve or retired military service members. They also help military service members with their questions regarding separation and or divorce.

EX-POSE informs spouses about their eligibility for a potential share of the military pension, which is not an automatic entitlement right but is a legal interest.

EX-POSE explains the benefits of requirements of the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), which ends one year from the date of the actual divorce unless appropriate action is taken. EX-POSE provides an attorney referral service for EX-POSE members only.

-- Ms. Vicki

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The Astros reached agreement with manager A.J. Hinch on a revised contract at some point earlier in the offseason, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports. His new agreement is said to increase his earnings and put[] him in position to remain with the club longer. All told, says Drellich, Hinch now appears to have a guaranteed term that runs through 2018.

Precise details remain hazy in large part because the exact terms of Hinchs original contract were never entirely clear. Reports at the time pegged it at three years and an option, but he has suggested that may not have been the case.

Regardless of whether this deal is properly termed an extension, or whether it is just includes the exercise of an option year, it obviously reflects an enhanced commitment from the organization. Hinch impressed on all fronts last year, bringing a broad skillset to the job and drawing positive reviews from GM Jeff Luhnow and owner Jim Crane.

The proof was in the pudding, of course, as the new-look Stros surged to the post-season and very nearly took the AL West. With a host of exciting young players returning, and a few key additions plugged in over the winter, expectations are high in Houston for 2016. That doesnt mean a repeat will be easy; the entire American League has hopes of contending, and the western division in particular seems wide open.
DETROIT - Calexico, a New York City-based Mexican restaurant group, will open a flagship location in downtown Detroit by the summer.

On Tuesday, officials announced the restaurant will take over the 1040 Woodward Avenue space in the One Campus Martius building, which formerly housed an Olga's Kitchen.

Dan Mullen, executive vice president of Bedrock Real Estate Services, at a press conference called the 4,000-square-foot retail space on the corner of Woodward and Gratiot Avenues one of Bedrock's "most desirable spaces" in their real estate portfolio.

The restaurant started in 2006 as a food cart in New York. Today, they have three food carts and four restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

It was restaurateur Randy Dickow who piqued Bedrock's ears to Calexico after he spent a day in New York selling Calexico owners Jesse, Brian and David Vendley on Detroit.

The 130-seat Detroit location will be a flagship location for the restaurant group, Dickow said at a Tuesday press conference.

"Calexico's food is legendary in New York and we are excited to bring the restaurant's fresh, authentic and satisfying flavor to downtown Detroit," Dickow said in a release. "We know the delicious food, craft cocktails and festive atmosphere will make Calexico a dining destination..."

Dickow opened a Freshii location downtown last year in a Bedrock building. He has two other restaurants in downtown Detroit.

Calexico has won multiple awards, including Zagat's 2011 best rated Mexican restaurant in New York City, and the 2014 Vendy Master's Cup, which is awarded to New York City's top street food vendor of the decade.

Mullen said Bedrock looked for something unique to put on the corner, and Calexico offered "Mexican food, elevated."

The restaurant serves Mexican flavors mixed up with "elements of southern barbecue." The name comes from a U.S. southern border town that nestles up against Mexicali, Mexico. The brothers and Calexico co-owner Peter Oleyer started with "several family recipes."

Basically, Calexico has taken the idea of a taqueria and "taken all sorts of liberties with it," Oleyer said.

On the menu are appetizers, salads, bowls, burritos, quesadillas, tacos and made-from-scratch sauces like Calexico's "smoky crack sauce".

In Detroit, Derrick Rassam, formerly of Mad Hatter Bistro and Tea Room in Birmingham, Mich., will be the chef. According to a release, there will be Detroit-only menu items and specialty drinks.

There will be a full bar -- Dickow said the margaritas are a specialty.

David Vendley and Oleyer attended the press conference, where they expressed excitement to be opening in a city they're come to love.

"(We) build restaurants in the types of neighborhoods we want to hang out in," Oleyer said.

Said Vendley: "Detroit is know across the country as one of America's hot food cities, and we look forward to adding to that already impressive reputation by bringing out California-Mexican fusion cuisine to the Central Business District."

Construction on the restaurant is scheduled to begin in April. Calexico will hire about 70 full-time employees in Detroit.

The restaurant will be open late on weekends, Dickow said, and will have happy hours, brunches and "reverse happy hours."

Ian Thibodeau is the business and development reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. He can be reached at ithibode@mlive.com, or follow him on Twitter.


GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- If you have tickets for the Fall Out Boy concert tonight at 7 p.m., getting into the concert will feel like going through airport security.

You can keep your shoes on, but expect to be patted down and then have to walk through metal detectors.

Concertgoers should also allow extra time tonight, since the nearly sold-out concert might mean congested access to parking and the lines entering Van Andel Arena. Doors open to the lobby at 6 p.m.

The enhanced security comes at the request of the promoter, Live Nation, says SMG, which manages the Van Andel Arena.

There has not been a threat of any kind, noted SMG in an announcement. But the venue management said the precautions were being taken in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks in November, that killed 130 people including 89 at a concert venue.

Live Nation is more aggressive than most promoters about security, said Lynne Ike, SMG director of marketing.

"They are the largest promoter in the world," Ike said. "They have a universal approach."

The concert promoter wants to ensure that people aren't worried about coming to the show, and feel safe in the concert venue, she added.

While the extra layer of security is decided on a show-by-show basis, it is becoming a more frequent request.

"I really feel this is the way things are going," Ike said.

And in response to calls, the SMG is also opening up a room where parents can stay for free during the concert. The room is in the Intermission Restaurant in the front lobby of Van Andel Arena.

"It's nice to be able to stay close to your kids if don't want to buy tickets (to the concert)," Ike said.

Parents should enter at the Intermission door near the marquee on Fulton Street. They will have to go through the same security procedure as the concertgoers.

Ike said there were already a few concertgoers in line by early Tuesday morning.

Her tip to get through the line is not to bring anything you don't need. Carrying items like a wallet and phone in a Ziploc bag is becoming more fashionable, she added.



"Think in advance about what you need," Ike said.

Shandra Martinez covers business and other topics for MLive. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
BYRON TOWNSHIP, MI -- SpartanNash Chairman Craig Sturken is retiring from the Michigan-based grocer when his term ends in June.

His time with the company dates back to 2003 when it was Spartan Stores. In 2013, the grocer headquartered in the Grand Rapids suburb of Byron Township merged with Minneapolis-based Nash-Finch company.

Sturken was chief executive officer of Spartan Stores for five years until 2008, and president for four years until 2007. He was succeeded in those positions by current CEO Dennis Eidson.

"It has been a privilege to be a part of SpartanNash's growth and transformation and certainly a highlight of my career," Sturken said in a statement.

His retirement marks the end of a 50-year career in the retail grocery industry.

"Craig's leadership helped transform the company from a financially struggling Michigan-based publicly traded company to become the fifth largest food distributor in the nation," Eidson said in a statement.

During Sturken's tenure with the company, the grocer's revenues grew to $7.7 billion, from $2.1 billion.

Eidson is expected to be elected to succeed Sturken as chairman at the company's annual meeting on June 2.

Sturken said he was looking forward to traveling and spending more time with his family.



SpartanNash supplies independent grocers, and is the largest food distributor serving U.S. military commissaries in the United States, in terms of revenue.

The grocer also operates 160 supermarkets across 10 states, primarily under the banners of Family Fare Supermarkets, Family Fresh Markets, D&W Fresh Markets and Sun Mart.

Shandra Martinez covers business and other topics for MLive. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce will host a half-day issues summit on the Flint water crisis and Detroit Public Schools next Friday, March 18.

The event at the Downtown Market will go beyond exploring the costs expected to weigh on West Michigan's taxpayers as state leaders explore ways to solve the two issues, according to Chamber leaders.

"We will be exploring the effects of aging infrastructure and legacy costs on our communities and the potential solutions," said Rick Baker, Chamber president and CEO. "It's an important conversation for our community to have as our state and region weigh important policy questions."

The half-day summit will feature keynote presentations by Dan Varner, CEO of Excellent Schools Detroit, and John Walsh, director of strategy for Gov. Rick Snyder.

The event will also include roundtable discussions along with a panel of experts that will include John Weiss of the Grand Valley Metro Council, and Ken Sikkema, a former West Michigan legislator and co-chair of the Governor's Flint Water Task Force.

The issues raise policy questions and funding questions, said Andy Johnston, vice president of government and corporate affairs.

"I think there's a fundamental agreement that we need to resolve these issues - there's no doubt about that," Johnston said. "It definitely has an effect on the state as a whole."

"We want to dig into these and see what solutions are being proposed and how that will affect West Michigan," he said.

More than 100 Chamber and community members are expected to attend the event, according to a news release.

Jim Harger covers business for Mlive Media Group. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.
Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Are you celebrating National Pancake Day?

But we just celebrated pancake day, didn't we? Many cultures celebrate Shrove Tuesday, or the day before the first day of Lent - you know, the day we call Paczki Day - by eating pancakes. But this Pancake Day, first organized by IHOP to raise money for Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals, is another excuse to indulge.

Pictured: Damin French, of Jackson, drizzles syrup over his pancakes Saturday at Rooster's Coney Island. French was at Rooster's for the second time with his girlfriend, Michelle Wallace, and her mother, Linda Wallace. (Libby March | CITIZEN PATRIOT)

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

National Pancake Day

On Tuesday, March 8, 2016, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., IHOP is giving away a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes at all participating locations. In exchange, customers will be asked to make a donation to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. This year's fundraising goal is $3.5 million.

Pictured: Eight-month-old Alaster "Gator" Thompson protectively puts his hand on a stack of free pancakes as his uncle Kevin Johnson, right, looks on during the IHOP National Pancake Day Celebration held at the Bryan, Texas location Tuesday morning Feb. 23, 2010. (AP Photo/The Bryan-College Station Eagle, Dave McDermand)

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Humans have been eating pancakes for a very, very long time

Did you know that there is evidence that pre-historic man was eating some variation on what call pancakes as far back as 30,000 years ago? Check out the scoop on the history of humans' relationship with flapjacks here.



Pictured: In this image taken on Oct. 15, 2012, flaxseed pancake and waffle mix and healthy pancakes are shown in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Fluffy flapjack tips

Ann Arbor News photographer Melanie Maxwell got some pancake-making tips from the pros at Nick's Original House of Pancakes, at 3030 Lohr Circle in Ann Arbor.

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Jessica Webster

Why not make your own?

Making pancakes at home can be a lot of fun, whether you're whipping up some Jiffy Mix or some truly from scratch griddle cakes. I've been making Dorie Greenspan's blueberry pancake recipe for years. What's your go-to pancake recipe?

Pictured: Pancakes are made as batter is poured onto a skillet. (mlive.com file photo)

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

But it's not just about the traditional pancake

The pancakes we're accustomed to in America are made with wheat flour, eggs, milk, butter and a leavening agent, but different cultures around the globe have their own takes on the pancake.

Pictured: In this image taken on March 26, 2012, pancakes with molasses and honey used as a base are displayed in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

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Jessica Webster | jessicawebster@mlive.com

Consider the crepe

French crepes are a form of pancake made without a leavening agent. The batter is spread thin over a hot surface, and are served with sweet or savory fillings.



Pictured: Nutella crepes being made at a creperie in Montmartre, Paris in 2014. (Jessica Webster | MLive.com)

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Or perhaps the Dutch baby

Dutch babies, which are German (Deutsch) and not Dutch, are similar to Dutch pannenkoeken (following me so far?) in that they are eggier than their American counterparts and don't contain leavening agents such as baking soda.

Recipe: Savory Dutch baby pancake is delicious for any meal

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Chinese crepes are called Jian Bing

Made with a mixture of wheat, ground green bean and corn flours, the crepes cook quickly on the 420-degree crepe maker surface. An egg is cracked and spread across the surface and herbs are added before the crepe is flipped. A variety of fillings, including choice of meats, spicy sauce, lettuce and a "secret crispy" is added before the crepe is folded and served.

More here: Chinese crepes the specialty at new Mark's Cart's business

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Potato pancakes, anyone?

Latkes, or otato pancakes are traditionally made during Hanukkah. Fried in oil, they celebrate the miracle of one day's worth of oil lasting eight days. But truly - they're delicious all year round.

Recipe here: Nechamy Weingarten's recipe for Latkes

Pictured: In this image taken on Oct. 15, 2012, two-potato pancakes are shown in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Southern Indian cuisine brings us the dosa

The dosa is southern Indian street food - a crepe made with rice batter and black lentils. They're sometimes filled, and served with chutneys. Oh - and they're delicious.

Recipe: Jamie Oliver's Amazing Indian dosa

Puneet Jain, Plymouth, takes his order of paper roast masala dosa (a 2.5 foot long crepe served with potato masala) to his table at Neehees Indian Vegetarian Street Food restaurant on Ford Road in Canton where Jain was eating lunch, Thursday afternoon, June 10th. (MLive file photo)

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<a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/9337597/">Will you be celebrating National Pancake Day?</a>

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Will you be celebrating National Pancake Day?

How about you? Will you be celebrating National Pancake Day this year?
Three companies recently awarded a contract to develop a large area of land in Southwest Yangon will begin the project by building a bridge across the Hlaing River from the new development to the citys downtown area.





Construction will begin on March 15 and will take around 18 months, said U Tin Sein of Yangon Southwest Development Public, one of the three developers.

Located on 11,716 acres, the ambitious project is bordered by the Pan Hlaing River, the Twante-Yangon Canal, the Hlaing River and the Hlaing Tharyar-Twante Road. Blueprints show that the companies plan to build five bridges in total  three connecting the area to Yangon and two crossing the other rivers.

The three companies  Business Capital City Development, Shwe Popa International Construction and Yangon Southwest Development  were provisionally awarded the mandate to redevelop the area in January and received approval from Yangon City Development Committee on February 26, allowing construction to begin.

Fifty-four firms initially expressed interest in the tender but only three followed through with the application. Due to the sheer scale of the project, the tender selection committee awarded it to all three companies, asking them to cooperate.

Crossing the Hlaing River, the new bridge will connect to Bagaya Street in Kyeemyindaing township, said U Kyaw Soe, regional minister for forestry and energy.

We need the bridge in place so that we can transport construction materials to the other side of the river, to build the rest of the project, he said.





U Tin Sein agreed that the bridge is a priority.

We need to build the bridge and roads first. We started planning as soon as we received our permit from the regional government, he said, adding that a Singaporean company has been hired to design the bridge and may be joined by another firm from Japan.

On the western side of the river, around 220 houses in the area will have to be destroyed to make way for the bridge, U Tin Sein added.

We will give each person K1 million to cover the costs of relocating, as well as six months of rental fees at K300,000 per month. We will also replace the houses with 2400-square foot accommodation, which we will build at the same time as the bridge, he said.

Architectural plans show the project will include industrial zones, residential areas and low-cost housing, said U Kyaw Soe. The companies have also agreed with the regional government to build 10,000 low-cost housing apartments free of charge, he said. They will build these units  the project will support working- class people.

The Southwest New City is one of seven satellite towns that the government plans to build to support the citys burgeoning population which is forecast to swell to 10 million by 2040.

Since the contract was awarded, real estate speculators have seized on the opportunity and rushed to the area to buy up land, said U Tin Sein. The projects developers cannot control this, but will not take responsibility for farmers who sell their paddy to investors, he said.

We cant control the prices and land dealing, but once weve finished the project we will only offer compensation to landowners who are really farmers. We wont give it to investors who have bought up land.

On March 2 local residents were invited to a celebration to mark the launch of the project, which has so far been well-received, said local farmer U Tun Min Lat.

This area is underdeveloped so people have been unable to get an education. If we work hard, this place can become part of the city, so we are happy with the project, he said.
In honour of International Womens Day, Myanmar Times correspondents Myo Satt, Shwe Yee Saw Myint, and Emily Spink asked women and men their opinions on the state of the issues most affecting women in Myanmar.





What message do you want to give to men?

Ma Ei, 39

Artist

The message I want say to men comes from my own experience. My message is simple, yes, but also very meaningful: Men must see women as equals. Most men believe that they know more, that they are cleverer than women. Ive been treated in this way many times before. I want to say that we all know just as much as them and should be recognised as such. I dont want any woman to be made to feel lesser ever again.

Which woman do you look up to most?

May Thandar Win, 33

Associate partner at Bell Pottinger Public Relations and Communications Company

There are many women that I look up to. But if I had to choose just one of them, I would have to go with Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay, one of the greatest Burmese writers. I like her so much. I believe that she is a woman who had used all of the resources available to her to their greatest capacity, as a mother, as a great writer, as a good wife. After her husband passed, she continued on with the newspaper business that they had established which is hard to do alone but she managed to succeed at that while raising her children. In my opinion, for a woman, being a mother is the most precious gift from nature. So, a woman who is not only successful in some business and also as a mother and wife while maintaining a balance is certainly something to look up to.

Do women need to take any precautions in Myanmar?

Ko Kyaw Zaw Htin, 33

Waiter

Women should go not go outside after 10pm because drunkards will annoy them. Drunken men do not think clearly and do not hesitate to give women some trouble. Downtown is not so dangerous in Yangon but women should still be careful all the time everywhere. I have one daughter and shes still young but is growing fast. I have to be extra-careful with her. I will not ever allow her to go outside alone because I have seen too many crimes where the woman is the victim.

What kinds of challenges do women in Myanmar face today?

Khine Cho Myat, 23

Managing director of Miraculous Diamond and Platinum Shop, board member of the Myanmar Women And Children Development Foundation





The high maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Myanmar is one of the worst challenges Myanmar women are currently facing as there are 200 deaths per 100,000 live births. Their lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services and information, including family planning choices, are defined by the UNFPA as main contributing factors of Myanmars high MMR. Despite increased awareness and donor funding to advance Myanmars healthcare system, more work from the government, its development partners and the private sector is needed to strengthen accountability mechanisms for Myanmar women.

How do you perceive the problem of victim blaming in Myanmar?

Shwe Yinn Mar Oo, 31

Media and communications manager, Yangon Heritage Trust

Victim blaming is something rooted deeply in our society. Especially in rape cases, victims are more often blamed than the ones who committed the crime. This, however, is not a solution to the problem but is instead a careless and insensible conclusion. If we want to see the decline of these problems (eg rape cases), victim blaming will never be the solution. We should focus more on the ones who committed the crimes. They are the root cause.

Do women need to approach relationships differently than men?

Ko Linn Kyaw, Trishaw driver

I think that women should be careful, even with their colleagues and boyfriends. They need to avoid bad men, drug users and those who have bad characteristics. Yesterday, I saw a couple. The boy hit the girl and then forced her to come with him onto the main street. The girl tried to defend herself but she was weaker than him. Many people saw this happening but no one offered to help. The boy looked at me angrily when he saw me.
A National League for Democracy official confirmed yesterday that the party will allocate a vice presidential position to the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy.





The official, who asked not to be named, also said the NLD would nominate one of its own members as chief minister of Shan State, but the SNLD is likely to be given cabinet positions in the state government.

Nominations for the presidency are expected on March 10. The upper and lower houses of the national parliament, which are both controlled by the NLD, will nominate one candidate each, while the military will nominate a third. One will become president and the other two vice presidents.

SNLD general secretary U Sai Nyunt Lwin is the favourite to get the vice presidency, with party leader U Khun Tun Oo ineligible due to his daughter holding foreign citizenship.

The NLD official said he expected U Sai Nyunt Lwin to become vice president but could not confirm the information.

One of vice presidents will be an ethnic leader  that is certain, the official said.

He added that U Htin Kyaw would likely be the partys pick for the presidency, while U Lin Htut, a Shan State Hluttaw representative for Lashio, could become the Shan State chief minister.





The NLD decided late last month to nominate a proxy for the presidency rather than back Daw Aung San Suu Kyi  who is ineligible under the constitution  and risk a potentially dangerous confrontation with the military.

With the NLD refusing to reveal the identity of its planned proxy president, U Htin Kyaw has been widely tipped by pundits as the leading candidate.

U Tun Tun Hein, an NLD spokesperson, would neither confirm nor deny reports of U Sai Nyunt Lwins nomination. However, he did say that SNLD leader U Khun Htun Oo would not be nominated.

You better ask U Sai Nyunt Lwin. I think he will know by now if he is going to be nominated, U Tun Tun Hein said.

U Sai Nyunt Lwin said the NLD had offered a position in the Union government to the SNLD, but did not mention the position or identity of the individual.

They offered cabinet posts to the party two month ago. It could be the vice presidency  they didnt say, he said.

U Khun Tun Oo said the SNLD wanted its members to be appointed to both the Union and Shan State governments.

In particular, it wants the Shan State minister for mining post to ensure that resources are properly shared between the Union and state governments.

He added that U Sai Nyunt Lwin would meet with officials from the NLD in the next day or two but did not mention what he would discuss with the party.

U Lun Htut told The Myanmar Times he was prepared to take on the chief minister job but was not sure he would be selected.

Under Myanmars constitution, the president nominates all 14 state and region chief ministers, regardless of which party holds a majority in the state or region parliament.

The NLD holds a majority in 12 of 14 state and region parliaments  all except Shan and Rakhine states  but has said it will appoint party members to all chief minister posts.

U Lin Htut said he had participated in NLD training programs on public administration and media to prepare for a high-level position.

I am preparing myself mentally to serve the people without hesitation based on the partys assignment, he said.

Political analyst U Yan Myo Thein said the appointment of an ethnic leader to the vice presidency would support the NLDs national reconciliation agenda.

The party also nominated ethnic leaders from the Arakan National Party and the Union Solidarity and Development Party as deputy speakers of the upper and lower house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, or Union parliament.
Migrant workers are often looked down on  even reviled  in their host countries, and ignored by or trafficked from their home countries. But policies to protect the rights of migrants benefit almost everyone involved and help drive economic growth, according to a new United Nations study.





The report suggests that countries in Southeast Asia, a region yet to establish adequate policy guidelines or protective norms for migrants, may be failing to capitalise on a major potential source of per capita growth, with rampant inequality and rights abuses holding back economic gains.

More than 95 million people from the Asia-Pacific region live outside their birth country and more than 59 million people work as temporary migrants, according to the inter-agency UN study, Asia-Pacific Migration in 2015. The figures represent an enormous uptick over the past two decades and the increase is anticipated to continue.

For Myanmar, the trend has resulted in the number of migrants more than doubling between 2000 and 2013 from just over 1 million to over 2.6 million.

According to the report, more than US$229 million in remittances was sent back in 2013.

But at the national level and through intergovernmental organisations like ASEAN, countries in the region are failing to manage the flow of labour and are overlooking positive net benefits of migration.

It is quite widely assumed that migrants take jobs from nationals, and drive down wages, the report reads. In general, migration is beneficial for most of those involved, resulting in higher GDP growth in countries of destination, increased wages for migrants, and benefits in terms of remittances for countries of origin.





Countries that have reduced vulnerabilities and exploitation of migrant workers obtain greater economic benefits. However, as the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) notes, neither positive nor negative effects of migration are automatic.

The research shows that it is the prevailing economic and policy context which shapes the impact of migration. The UN argues the region could and should be doing more to promote a streamlined process ensuring everything from fair recruitment practices, to social protections, fair pay and assimilation.

Few of the regions countries have implemented comprehensive, long-term migration policies, however. In this absence, bilateral agreements reign over the migration process, but often fail to provide adequate protection or oversight. Inevitably, unscrupulous brokers and human trafficking fill the vacuum.

Business-as-usual risks heightening inequality, holding back advances in productivity, and facilitating human rights abuses, said Hongjoo Hahm, deputy executive secretary for programs at UNESCAP.

Positive outcomes require policies aligned with national development strategies and international standards promoting fair recruitment, decent and productive employment and social protection.

Instead of seeing migrants as a national security threat or funnelling labourers to destination countries through short-term arrangements that restrict rights and neglect abuses, the report suggests both countries of origin and destination must put better structures in place.

Andy Hall, a migration expert and adviser to the Migrant Worker Rights Network, said Myanmar is among the worst offenders in terms of failing to capitalise on the benefits of migration.

Within ASEAN, Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in terms of protecting its own workers overseas which results in lesser remittances, he said. Its crucial the Myanmar government realise [the positive impacts] and take measures to ensure enhanced protection for their migrants overseas.
Despite the constant menace of cyanide and mercury used in the search for gold, and the threat of electrocution from unscrupulous fishermen, the number of Irrawaddy dolphins has slightly increased this year, fisheries officials say.





A survey conducted in late February has revealed that the number has risen from 58 to 65, said U Han Win, a dolphin expert with the Ministry of Fisheries.

The dolphins are not yet a disappearing species, he said.

Inspectors found a baby dolphin in the preservation zone, two more near Katha and some near Bhamaw/Bhamo, Kachin State.

The survey is carried out every year, amid fears that the rare species is constantly at risk from environmentally destructive practices.

The real threat comes from the gold business. Mercury and cyanide can cause death and the destruction of species. If it were not for that, the number of dolphins could increase, said fisheries ministry director U Hla Tun.

The number of dolphins hit a low of 31 in 2002, rising to 58 in 2003 and 72 in 2014, before falling to 58 in 2015.





Translation by Khine Thazin Han
The military has sent bulldozers to dig up land claimed by farmers who say it was seized from them, without compensation, more than 20 years ago. The move came after the farmers, in Mekin Kone village, Patheingyi township, Mandalay Region, asked the authorities to restore their land to them.





Residents say the 277.53-acre parcel was originally owned by about 100 farmers, but Central Command seized it in 1992 on the pretext of growing food for the military. However, the land then went unused, say residents.

A farmer, U Hla Tun, told The Myanmar Times on March 5 that since no project had ever been launched on the land, the former owners had requested Mandalay Regions Farmland Management and Records Department to let the original owners have their land back. Shortly afterward, the 910th Battle Field Battalion (Engineer) sent in the bulldozers.

The military seized our farmland but then did nothing with it. We have requested the regional land authorities to return the land to us. They came here to talk about it, but didnt give us any official permission. Now the military has sent in bulldozers to dig up the land, he said.

Since the confiscation, the farmers have been working the land as tenants. They say the military told them they were digging wells.

Land records officials are carrying out a field study. We just want our farmland back because we are in difficulties for our livelihood. We dont want to insult the military, but we want them to give our farmland back if theyre not using it, said farmer Daw Ni.

An officer of the 910th Battle Field Battalion told The Myanmar Times that the land was owned by the military.

Translation by Zar Zar Soe
The Arakan National Party has taken a tough response to dissenters within its ranks who this week broke with the partys official policy of opposing the incoming National League for Democracy government.





Rumblings of discontent within the ANP  which was formed out of the merger of two Rakhine parties in 2014  have exploded into the open, threatening to split the most successful ethnic minority party to emerge from Myanmars elections last November, possibly to the benefit of the NLD.

The ANP announced yesterday that its disciplinary committee had formed a group to investigate an unauthorised press conference held on March 6 by some senior party members who rejected the official party policy of serving in opposition to the NLD.

The five-member investigation team is to report its findings to the ANPs central executive committee, which is due to meet in Sittwe on March 12 and 13. U Phoe Min, a member of the investigation team, told The Myanmar Times that the leadership committee would then decide whether to take punitive action.

The ANPs CEC decided in January to oppose the NLD at the Rakhine State and national level after Daw Aung San Suu Kyis victorious party rebuffed ANP calls to be given the position of chief minister in the state or a share of executive power. The ANP emerged as the single largest party in Rakhines state parliament last November but just short of an overall majority.

But on March 6 members of the former Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), which merged with the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) to form the ANP two years ago, held a press conference in Yangon to announce that they would not try to block the NLD. U Zaw Min of the ALD faction, which formerly enjoyed close ties with the NLD, said antagonism against the NLD was not in the interests of Rakhine State.

Fragmentation of the ANP is likely to be welcomed by the NLD which last week confirmed it intends to appoint one of its members, U Nyi Pu, as the states chief minister, in effect heading a minority government in Rakhine.

The nationalist ANP strongly defends the interests of the Buddhist Rakhine majority in the state, which was torn apart by communal violence in 2012, resulting in the military-backed governments policy of segregating the stateless Muslim minority. Members of the international community engaged in Rakhine had been alarmed at the prospect of an ANP-led state government.





Taking a hard line yesterday, the ANP said the six members who held the press conference did not have permission from the central executive committee and had broken party policy as well as rules and regulations.

U Phoe Min said the investigation group intended to get answers to its questions on March 11 and that it was up to the leadership committee to decide next steps. The decision rests on the CEC. I cant say what kind of decision will come out, he added.

U Myo Kyaw, a CEC member who took part in the Yangon declaration, warned the ANP that punitive moves would risk splitting the party, with the ALD faction breaking away.

We aimed for unity and negotiations between us, he said of the ANPs bi-party background. If we cannot manage through negotiations then the state of the party will become one-sided, he added. He also said he had not received notification of the probe.

But ANP secretary U Tun Aung Kyaw said the organisers of the press conference should not have aired internal party problems in public. The effect was to spread the impression among party supporters that the ANP was splitting, with the possible result of damaging its reputation, he added.

The investigation team would look into the background of the press conference, he said.

We can say how we will penalise them only after the CEC meeting and we will follow party policy on this, U Tun Aung Kyaw said.

The ALD faction complains that the former RNDP members  widely seen as the dominant bloc within the party  strong-armed the January decision to work against the NLD without unanimous approval.
Womens rights are human rights is the prominent slogan that evolved out of the fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.





Since then, international treaties for the advancement of women and against gender-based discrimination have been signed, national laws created and amended and action plans written all over the world.

Myanmar signed the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1997, formed the National Committee for the Advancement of Women, and assigned the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement responsible for implementing and monitoring the countrys Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women (NSPAW)  a 10-year plan aiming at advancing womens status in 12 areas and reaching substantive gender equality in Myanmar until 2022.

But if we look back at the last two decades since some of those major global commitments on womens rights were made by the international community and national governments, many inequalities remain.

Admittedly, a few accomplishments have appeared on the surface, like the often-quoted improvement toward gender parity in school enrolment, or the increased participation of women in the economic sector.

If we take a closer look at gender dimensions, we find that domestic violence, sexual harassment in public places and in the workplace, trafficking of girls and women, sexual violence against women, unequal pay for similar work, male-dominated state systems, and the  often undisputed  inferior positioning of women in many religious orders are frequent realities of factual gender inequality.

Why is it that the many efforts of civil society, womens organisations, activists, researchers and even governments have not brought the urgently required changes for substantial gender equality?

Instead of looking at the root causes of discrimination and vulnerability, we need to shift our focus toward the opportunities that we can gain by creating inclusive and just societal systems in which gender equality becomes the norm. But what can we gain?





A McKinsey report called The Power of Parity says that women on this planet generate only 37 percent of the global GDP despite being half of the worlds population. A high share of the female workforce remains lost in unpaid, often unvalued housework. It is estimated that women could contribute US$28 trillion to the annual global GDP in 2025, equal to the combined GDP of China and the US, if they were identically participating as men  if the womens workforce was lifted out of the household black-box and into the markets.

Allowing and enabling women to be part of business decision-making pays off as well. According to the PAX Global Womens Leadership Index a strong correlation exists between the most financially successful businesses and the highest share of women in leadership of these companies. Fortune 500 companies with more than three women in leadership outperform companies without women on directory boards.

In Myanmar, women are extremely under-represented in decision-making in both public and private offices. Throughout all sectors, culture is most frequently given as the reason why women are not allowed into leadership positions  in other words, the culture of male superiority and female inferiority.

In a male-dominated system, the countrys gender-blind approach to data on the economic sector is likely to reproduce and fortify already existing discriminations against women.

What is clear is that women constitute a high share of informal employment and unemployment and therefore run the risk of being socio-economically dependent on men and families. Such vulnerabilities can cause further stress within already poor households and contribute to various forms of gender discrimination, such as domestic violence. For companies it is crucial to stay on top of trends and needs, new and shifting markets and consumers, cultural peculiarities, innovations and new synergies. This can also hold true for government institutions.

Greater diversity, including higher participation of women, has the power to help companies better anticipate the market and its outcomes. Equal participation and leadership of women and men are mirroring the diversity of the markets and, in turn, creating and shaping the markets in more innovative and diverse ways, while at the same time bringing gender equality.

To create long-term success, Myanmar organisations and state agencies need to develop strategies to enable women to climb the ladder into decision-making positions, to equally participate in all levels of the organisational and institutional hierarchies, and to transform an organisations mindset.

They need to explicitly commit to pay equal wages for equal work, and to ensure equal recognition of equal competencies, and allow for equal opportunities for both women and men.

Myanmars business case for gender equality needs to be systematically built around the different needs and interests men and women have in the rapidly developing socio-economic environment. This requires systematically collecting gender-disaggregated data for women and men in all spheres of governance including private and public sectors.

There is also an urgent need to calculate how much Myanmars economy could grow if women were equally contributing to productive economic development, and if all those unpaid contributions by women  that represent indispensable contributions to the familys life, the societys well being and the countrys overall socio-economic development  were monetarily valued and accounted for.

Gender equality might not come without risks or temporary unwanted side-effects for some, especially for those holding the power. However, in the long run, gender equal decision-making and womens equal involvement in leadership will become accepted and allow for greater economic and social benefits on the macro-, meso- and microeconomic levels.

Nora Pistor is a consultant on gender, politics and development and a researcher and PhD candidate at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn and University of Marburg, Germany.
A permanent scar on her forehead, a broken tooth, a miscarriage  all caused by spousal battery. Daw Tin Tin Hla (not her real name) decides to speak to her spiritual adviser about a longstanding situation of domestic violence. Though very patient and kind, my adviser urged me to make my marriage work and not to break the family. But my family was broken long ago. My children and I live in fear of violence, she said.





Daw Soe Soe Ohn (also not her real name) was sexually abused by a man from her community. I took my situation to the village chief. The man and I were told to marry for the honour and harmony of our family and communities. How can I marry him who has no respect for me? I did not marry him, she said.

These are just two of many women who have been silenced into accepting violence to preserve the sanctity of marriage, and maintain family and community honour, peace and harmony. But their silence belies the fact that there can be no peace, honour and harmony in families and communities in the first place when the dignity of women and girls is assaulted, when their psyches are scarred, spirits broken and bodies injured.

Communities also cannot be at peace when victim-blaming becomes a syndrome rooted in discriminatory cultural stereotypes, be they about womens dress codes, interactions, mobility patterns, feminine attributes or the lack thereof, or past sexual history. Worse still when this is used to exonerate the perpetrator.

Family and community honour and peace are anchored not in beating women into silence about oppression, but in equality and respect for the human dignity of men, women and children.

On March 5, UN Women and Religions for Peace organised a panel discussion, Step up Action to End Discrimination and Violence against Women and Girls: Reflections from a Religious Perspective. Prominent speakers discussed religious perspectives on non-discrimination and ending violence against women and girls. The message was clear: Religious principles and teachings do not tolerate discrimination and violence against women.

According to Hindu scriptures, where women are honoured, there will be auspiciousness, said Dr Hla Tun, a core member of Religions for Peace-Myanmar and co-ordinator of Sanatan Dharma Swayam Sevak Sangh, a Hindu religious organisation.

Al Haj U Aye Lwin, a core member of Religions for Peace and chief convener of the Islamic Center, said that according to Islam, Both men and women are created from a single soul.





They are complementary  equal but not identical. Women have a right to choose their religion, life partner, to own property, to be educated ... To treat women badly is a major sin in Islam.

Quoting Scripture Catechism 412, Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, said, All persons enjoy equal dignity and fundamental rights in so far as they are created in the image of the One God, are endowed with the same rational soul, have the same nature and origin, and are called in Christ to the same divine beatitude.

Discrimination and violence against women and girls has hefty development costs to women, families and societies. Violence is intimidating, restricts mobility and interactions, and consequently female access to education and employment. This stunts women and girls and has larger development implications.

A 2012 study on the costs of violence in Vietnam showed that women survivors of intimate partner violence had an income 35 percent less than women who had never experienced violence, largely due to absenteeism and reduced productivity. Total productivity loss from intimate partner violence is estimated at 1.78pc of GDP.

Violence against women also has serious inter-generational impacts. Children witnessing domestic violence are at enhanced risk of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and poor school performance.

Surveys from various countries reveal that boys who witnessed their fathers violating their mothers were three times more likely to use violence against their partners later.

All of this is also prohibited by Buddhism. The Buddhist code of conduct  right speech, right action and right livelihood  prohibits discrimination and violence against women and girls. This involves a commitment to harmony and self-restraint, purity and non-violence, and the principle of doing no harm to others, said Daw Tin Hlaing from the NGO Rattana Metta.

The transformative potential of religion as a driver of gender justice and equality is undoubtedly a potent force to draw on. Religions for Peace in partnership with UN Women further commits to step up action to raise awareness within and across communities to prevent discrimination and violence against women and girls and provide care and support for survivors.

Jean DCunha is head of UN Women, Myanmar. The agency is mandated to promote gender equality and womens rights at global, regional and national levels and in the UN systems work on gender equality.
Guisa Suttle and Maria Fernandez glazzing and fitting glass at Turner Restoration's workshop

Turner Restoration's tools of the trade

Detroiter Jim Turner is in high demand. A few years ago, while giving a presentation on historic restoration in the Pacific Northwest, he got a call from New Orleans. Following his presentation, Turner hopped a flight to help with reconstruction efforts in Louisiana following the devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought. More recently, Turner has been spending significant time in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was asked to run a college program on the historic restoration trades.But despite answering calls around the country, Turner and his company, Turner Restoration, remain based in Detroit, the city he loves. He's one of the area's staunchest advocates for historic preservation, arguing against two recently-introduced bills designed to gut the decades-old Michigan's Local Historic Districts Act while working with his hands to shore up historic properties throughout the region.His company specializes in the repair and restoration of the windows and wood features of historic buildings. Today, he averages four to five employees at any given time. He has both commercial and residential clients, from the city to the suburbs and even out of state.His first-hand restoration knowledge may have begun when he moved into Detroit's Arden Park-East Boston Historic District in 1988, but his love of old homes began as a child riding in the back of his parents' car.Turner grew up in government housing in the Downriver suburb of Ecorse. It was a tight-knit African-American community that he remembers fondly. But it was the grand homes of old Detroit that planted a seed in Turner."I grew up passing through these magnificent neighborhoods in the city, riding in the car and gazing up at these large houses that we never thought we could obtain while we drove to Belle Isle," says Turner. "It set a dream that was ultimately fulfilled."He would pass through those same neighborhoods as an adult going to work at Chrysler. It wasn't until Turner was invited to house sit for a realtor who was selling a home in the Arden Park-East Boston Historic District, however, that he discovered the magic of living in a historic home. He fell in love with the house as soon as he entered and would go on to negotiate a land contract and successfully fight for a mortgage (at first he was denied, but later would secure one after appearing in front of the city's Mortgage Review Committee). The purchase of that home set Turner on a path that he has been following for nearly 30 years.Turner first learned the craft of historic restoration by working on his own house, teaching himself how to insulate and weatherstrip old windows. Any thought of buying new windows was quickly put to rest when he realized that the old windows in his home were more valuable than what was being sold in stores. He just had to learn how to fix them first.A year after purchasing his home, Turner began to volunteer for Preservation Wayne, now called Preservation Detroit . In joining the advocacy organization, Turner says he began to see Detroit in a different way, understanding how different patterns of migrations of ethnicities and cultures shaped the city.In Louisville, Turner sees many of the same socio-economic challenges faced in Detroit. As instructor and program director at the Samuel Plato Academy , he's providing a largely African American group of students with jobs training in the historic restoration trades. All at once, he's teaching useful skills to an under-served population while spreading the value of historic preservation and restoration."It's mostly African Americans that are living in these older cities and communities. They're living and paying taxes, and that's often overlooked by leaders who don't see their value," says Turner. "It's the citizens who have been keeping their finger in the dike."Turner scoffs at the idea that historic preservation stands in the way of economic progress, as some in the state legislature have argued. In fact, he says, look at the Detroit neighborhoods that are experiencing the most development, and you will see that it's the city's most historic areas with high-quality, old, historic buildings that are being restored and reinvigorated. There are economic advantages that accompany historic preservation.The idea that historic preservation is pro-development is lost on some leaders and businesspeople. Fast and easy sometimes trumps a more measured approach taken by people like Turner. Since House Bill 5232 and Senate Bill 720 were introduced in Michigan's legislature earlier this year, historic preservationists have rallied to block the bills' passage, arguing that they would strip the Local Historic Districts Act of 1970 of its power and hinder communities' abilities to maintain neighborhoods as historic districts.Turner, in his op-ed for this publication, says, "Historic preservation has been a crucial economic driver in Detroit's continued revitalization. Since 1996, over $350 million has been invested in the city through the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program. Of the 89 buildings involved, over half have been rehabilitated within the past six years. Our historic districts have been helping lead the rebound as well, attracting investment and tax-paying residents. Tellingly, almost 75 percent of neighborhoods that have now seen their property values exceed pre-recession values were located near or within historic districts."As Turner points out, not only has historic preservation served as an economic driver for the city, it's been his own source of income since opening his business in 2001. Turner Restoration averages four to five employees as the company travels throughout southeast Michigan and beyond, applying expert restoration techniques to individual homes and businesses. In addition to running his company in Detroit and the restoration trades school in Louisville, Turner is an advisor of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He also used to serve on the board of both Michigan Historic Preservation Network and Preservation Wayne (Preservation Detroit).Not only is historic preservation important to Jim Turner, Jim Turner is important to historic preservation."In Detroit today, we are going back to a more livable city, where people live where they work," he says. "Historic preservation helped start that because looking at where you are helps you value the culture that is there. It helps you grow and build families, neighborhoods, and communities. It's about preserving a small nugget of culture that we all live in with our neighbors."MJ Galbraith is Model D's development news editor. Follow him on Twitter @mikegalbraith Photos by Marvin Shaouni . Photo of Jim Turner by Erica Rucker.
To many music fanatics , Unruly Family is one the household names when reggae/dancehall music is made the topic of confab.

The Ghanaian dancehall music duo are set to unveil another mind-boggling melody dubbed Better Days . Tonda and Black Gee of the Unruly Family fame are noted for their lyrical prowess and vibrant stage performances.

After proving to Ghanaians how talented they are with their versions recorded on Jullie Jay-Kanz renowed Social Media Riddim and Sicnarfs Grave Fire Riddim which are both trending on international dancehall map, the artistic music duo divulged how ready they are for the musical journey with these and many more "fireworks".

When asked why  Better Days was made the choice of caption for this new tune,Tonda replied :they believe that eventhough the journey is thougher now, with prayers they will hopefully hit the mark one day.  We believe in our talent and with the help of God ,better days soon come :Black Gee insisted.

Better Days which is produced by talented producer called Nana Kay will be available on all music platforms for listening pleasure.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Gospel minister, Nii Addo is set to release his latest gospel single, TOWDAH that means My Thanksgiving on April 9 this year. The yet-to-be released song will be launched at a concert at Columbus Ohioin USA. The April 9 event which promises to be one of the biggest Ghanaian single release shows in Ohio will happen at Jesus Power Assemblies of God church, Columbus Ohio headed by pastor Apostle Bismark Osei Akomeah.

The All White Praise and Worship Night dubbed Towdah will experience powerful songs ministrations from other seasoned gospel musicians who will join the 2014 Africa Gospel Music Awards male artist of the year for US/Canada, Nii Addo to make the presence of God felt.

Gospel artistes expected for the program are Bernice Acheampong of Jane & Bernice fame, the residence choir, Power of Praise led by pastor James Quartey, Evangelist John Sena from Ghana, minster Fay Destiny from Tanzania, One Love crew band, Minister Samuel Sey from France, Minister Blessing Ali from Nigeria and others.

The TOWDAH song features one of the best Ghanaian drummers, Francis Osei. Minister Nii Addo has been spreading the word of God through music for years now. Audios and music video of Minister Nii Addo can be found on YouTube and iTunes.

Sponsored by TV Africa Columbus Ohio
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Elizabeth Burke, a UK-based lady of Ghanaian origin, has embarked on a mission of collecting books from persons living in the UK and donating them to schools in Ghana.

Just by word of mouth and with the support of friends, Elizabeth Burke told NEWS-ONE she has collected over 4,000 books within the last two years and shared them across several schools in Ghana.

Last Friday, Elizabeth Burke and her friends donated some of the books to students and pupils of Hannah School Complex, a private-owned basic and junior high school in Accra.

The school has a student population of about a 1,000 and is reputed to have a high reading culture among its students and pupils.

I am a big believer in education and I have been educated to the master's level. I was fortunate to get my education for free so I am moved when I get to understand that there are people who need books but struggle to get because of where they live. I want to do something to help such people and I decided to start in Ghana because I have my connections here.

We collect the books from friends and a lot of people back in the UK. They donate books on varied subjects and very interesting children's books. It has been wonderful doing this by just word of mouth and so far we have been able to raise over 4,000 books in two years, Elizabeth Burke explained.

ELizabeth said both basic and tertiary institutions in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana have benefited from such donations, and she expressed the hope more books would be collected for donation.

Proprietress of the school, Hannah Boatey, expressed her gratitude to Elizabeth Burke, and gave an assurance that the books would be properly maintained and put to the best of use so as to benefit students who enrol in there.

She explained further that Hannah School Complex has a deliberate and sustained attempt to inculcate into its students a culture of reading, and it is for this reason the books are highly appreciated.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Like it or hate it VGMA is one of the most prestigious awards ceremonies in Ghana and it is revered by most of the industry players and as such organizers are expected to live up to the expectation of the stakeholders even though it is a daunting task yet 16years have gone by and we are still faced with a lot of malfunctioning which leave much to be desired.

Shatta Disqualification

This years Awards can't be mentioned without the name of Shatta wale and I believe it's because of the hard work he did put in under the year under review and not his character. VGMA 2016 started with a press confab from the board which ended with the final words coming from the board chairman Mr Yola's wife Madam Theresa and she stated clearly the disqualification of Shatta Wale with an explanation. I was shocked upon hearing his disqualification and confused after hearing the explanation.

In fact ,the move reminded Me of Mario Puzo's book "The God Father" and the way Vito Andolini Corleone went about his business as the Don. To me it was a clear sign of paying the young man back for mistakes he has already apologized for and to me that was an act of the Old Testament that read "An Eye for An Eye, A tooth For A Tooth".

One Man Commando

You see there is only one man who can be a commando and that is Arnold Schwarzenegger and in fact it's in only his movies, the last man who tried it was 2Pac who felt it was him against the world and we all saw what happened to him, he was makavelidbefore reaching 26years so my advise for our Schwarzenegger is to calm down and re-strategize and he will be shocked with the support he will amass. What confuses me about him is his inconsistency and that to me is a bit worrying but in this instance I will blame his management for their inconsistency because if you go for a meeting and state that yes we will apologize and you refuse to apologize then I don't know how much more inconsistent you can be. All the same I won't worry too much about Shatta because I know he is a strong man who has stood the test of time and will continue to survive as a monster the industry have created and more over this could be non of my business.

Glaring Mistakes

There were some fundamental mistakes which were completely avoidable and I would attribute that to the time wasted in planning how to carry out the disqualification plan else I see no reason for those mistakes even if it was an oversight and oh to those who say Google is not only the determining factor let me remind them that the same Google is that one that exposed those basic mistakes.

Transparency

This years VGMA organizers did a great job by publicly announcing the members of the board and even thought I still have my reservations I still think it was a transparent move but my problem has to do with the fact that the research team is unknown. Secondly we all know the work of the board is to review and categorize songs submitted but my question is who authenticates the genres for instance do they have a team put up to make sure that the songs submitted are put in the right genre because we keep seeing Afro pop songs being put in the category of Reggae Dancehall which raises a lot of eyebrows since VGMA goes beyond our borders and might paint a gloomy picture of our experts. Moving forward we should find experts in the various genres to assist in the categorization in other to avoid future occurrences and if I may ask are cover versions eligible to compete? Just a harmless question I guess.

The Complaints

Over the years Ghana Music Awards has received serious bashing from stakeholders and I will just mention a few, in 2010 Kwaw Kesse described it as "fishy, biased, fake and shitty". Black Rasta also publicly called it, the biggest insult to Ghanaian music" which I believe he later solved it with the organizers. In 2012, R2bees described the Awards as A joke, fraudulent and not credible in 2014 Shatta described it in unprintable words and in 2015 Sarkodie added his voice to it. Just this year Kwabena Kwabena has described what is supposed to be for everybody as a "Private Party" and as for Guru am sure he is tired of complaining so he has resorted to threats. In all these examples and many more can we say that they are all not true and even if they are all lies does it not affect its Credibility in someways.

Competitiveness

Recently I heard a song by Vybrant Faya saying that Stoneboy won the Artist of the year because Sarkodie opted out, a statement which I think was unfair to Bhim but the question is na who cause am and is that not going to be repeated again since who ever wins this year would have to leave with the fact that it was because Shatta was disqualified?

Loud Silence

There is a saying that the voice of the people is the voice of God so when you don't hear their voice then you might be listening to the devil .Also ,silence really means concern and in this years VGMA's the silence is very loud as compared to the previous years and you can clearly see that the people are getting fed up and are beginning to ignore even the controversies.

Conclusion

l believe all egos must be dropped since Rouky Dawuni has proven to us that you don't need to win the Artist of the year locally but with hard work and perseverance you can get to the Grammys, in all this, the signs a clearly written on the walls and just like the he goat who thinks he is destroying the owners wall he forgets that it's his own buttocks he ends up destroying .

The only proverb I can find for them is that S3 Ni Mo Entumiwua Etiti Wuntuma but knowing and studying the board over the past years they have proven to be a listening board to the extent that sometimes I think they listen too much so I believe they will take this piece in good faith and not in vindictiveness as Nii Aryee mentioned on Akwesi Aboagye's show on Peace FM in order to win back the lost trust in some of the players so we don't loose more stakeholders whom they are working for.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

The maiden edition of the annual University Gospel Choir of the Year (UGCY) Ghana competition will take place on 13th March 2016. Following the success of the competition in the UK, the National Theatre, Accra will play host to the maiden show, which is to be broadcasted on Viasat 1 TV.

LW Company in collaboration with Gospel Town Africa, organizers of University Gospel Choir of the Year (UGCY) Ghana and Viasat 1, are pleased to announce that 10 university choirs have made it to the finale of the maiden edition of the competition in Ghana.

The competing choirs include Shout Choir  University of Ghana, Legon, Philharmonic Choir  Accra Polytechnic, Kharis Choir  UDS, Hearts of Worship  University of Ghana, Legon, Gracious 4  Ashesi University, One Spirit Choir  UCOMS, Chaplaincy Choir  University of Education, Winneba, Stewards of Praise  University of Ghana, Legon, Ghamsu Choir  University of Education, Winneba and Wizzy Choir  Wisconsin Int. Uni.

Each choir will have the chance to perform and battle it out with the hopes of taking home the prestigious UGCY 2016 title.

A panel of musically inclined judges namely, Ps Helen Yawson, Ms Diana Hopeson, Obed Psych (Preachers Gh fame), Noble Nketsiah, Nii Okai, Jennifer Jessica Dankwa will preside over the final decision as to who will be crowned the first ever UGCY Ghana Champions 2016. Movers and shakers in their own right in the Ghanaian Gospel scene our judges will also act as mentors to each of the choirs.

UGCY Ghana airs on Viasat 1 TV from March 6th and runs for 6 weeks every Sunday at 6pm.

About the event:

UGCY is a young, voluntary organization which is inspired by the iconic blockbuster movie Sister Act 2  Back In The Habit, starring Whoopi Goldberg. Since its creation, UGCY has held SIX annual competitions in the UK, celebrating the talent of 4000+ students from various universities across the UK and has worked with the likes of ITVs the X-Factor! UGCY aims to bring many talented young individuals together through gospel music, as a celebration of the arts and a means to inspire both young and old. UGCY would love to see gospel at the forefront of the music industry and plan to help advance this by encouraging musical participation amongst young people.
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The Government of Japan has approved the amount of US$ 630,000 to fund the project titled Supporting food and nutrition security in Sudan through soybean processing. The project addresses the local production and processing of soybean in Sudan, and comes in line with the national priorities reflected in the ongoing Country Programe implemented by UNIDO. The launching is scheduled in April 2016, and constitutes the second phase of the UNIDOSudan soybean value chain development programme implemented in 2014 where Japan contribution amounted US$ 500,000.

The new funding is expected to further promote the utilisation of locally produced soybean in agro-industries and among Sudanese households, through soybean productions and processing; thereby creating jobs and contributing to poverty reduction. It aims at building capacities in the production premium quality soybean beans for local industries, processing of value added soy products including soy milk and soy cake, and as an important component of poultry feed. The project will also address linking soybean producers to the local market end-users.

Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Hideki Ito expressed his pleasure to make another contribution to develop a viable Sudanese business on this strategic crop of soy bean. He said I hope this second project will further enable the Sudanese farmers, researchers, business people, and consumers to get more familiar with this precious crop. It is an invaluable crop to the lives of the Japanese people. I wish to see a possibility of soy bean playing a role in adding a new dimension to the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

UNIDO Representative, Mr. Khaled El Mekwad commended the valuable cooperation between UNIDO and Japan for the benefit of Sudan. The dissemination of soy bean processing and consumption culture in Sudan will allow a larger population to consume food with a higher nutritive value at a more affordable cost. The Sudanese pilot experience may be shared at a later stage with other countries in the region he added.
On the occasion of International Women's Day celebrated on 08 March 2016 under the theme :  Planet 50-50 by 2030 : Step It Up for Gender Equality , Maman Sambo Sidikou, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the DRC, reaffirms MONUSCO's commitment to work alongside the Congolese government and population to achieve the gender equality goal.

I commend the efforts being made by the Congolese authorities to promote women's empowerment, and I encourage all national and provincial stakeholders to take more effective action in order for the principle of gender equality enshrined in the DRC's Constitution to materialize in everyday life,  stated the Head of MONUSCO. For Francoise Ngendahayo, UN Women Representative in the DRC, The date of 8 March is a constant questioning on the implementation of national and international agreements that countries have signed up for gender equality and women's empowerment. Women should not be discouraged by the slow pace at which the reforms are applied. It is a long-standing fight where progress is impeded by socio-cultural factors, hence the need for renewed efforts to encourage States to honor their commitments. " The UN and its technical agencies promote the participation of women as equal partners with men in achieving sustainable development, peace, security and full respect for human rights. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN's efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe. Notes to the Editors:  International Women's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an opportunity to look back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, to look ahead at the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women. International Women's Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.  The United Nations Charter, adopted in 1945, was the first international instrument to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped create a historic legacy of internationally-agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

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From March 7 to 9, Liberian and European Union specialists are gathering to proceed to the identification of needs in order to strengthen the country's system to deal with threats emanating from Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear agents and materials.

Two experts of the Joint Research Centre, one of the scientific bodies of the European Union, participates in this workshop gathering all the Liberian stakeholders playing a role in the prevention, preparedness and crisis response of CBRN-related whether of a criminal, accidental or natural origin.

This activity takes place within the framework of a global EU action referred to as the EU initiative of the Centre of Excellence for the CBRN-related risk mitigation. This cooperation programme brings together 54 countries worldwide clustered around 8 centres of excellence. The objective is to support participating countries to develop national capacities and internal coordination as well as to strengthen regional and international cooperation which is crucially needed to tackle this transversal issue that does not stop at national borders.

After or in parallel to the designation of a national focal point and the establishment of national CBRN team, this needs assessment workshop is the first step towards the development of a national action plan that should notably help better target national priorities through the capacity-building projects that the initiative funds in each region covered.

The exercise is based on a methodology specifically developed by the EU covering legislative, regulatory, strategic, institutional and operational aspects. This process enables to determine the measures to take to reduce CBRN-related risks in conformity with norms and best practices internationally recognised.

Liberia is part of the Centre of Excellence of the African Atlantic Facade since August 2013 together with Morocco (where the regional secretariat is based), Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Cameroon and Gabon. The country participates in four projects respectively on the detection of infectious viruses, the management of epidemics, the mitigation of chemical industrial risk, and the management of biological and chemical waste. It also participated in the two closed projects on the management of sensitive CBRN-related information and the development of e-learning courses on CBRN risk mitigation.

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Context:

Incidents related to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear materials and agents have dramatic human, social and economic consequences. In some cases, their consequences may reach a point where they actually threaten to jeopardise development achievements. To a certain extent, these incidents can however be prevented and their consequences mitigated through preparedness and coordination.

It is with this objective to strengthen CBRN governance worldwide that the EU set up the CoE Initiative. Launched in 2010, it pursues the objective to prevent, prepare and help respond to CBRN-related incidents which can be of a criminal, accidental or natural origin. It does so by promoting and supporting political and operational cooperation at internal, regional and international levels. Since these threats often have a transnational nature and require a high-level of expertise requiring the sharing of best practices and the pooling of resources, the action has indeed a regional approach.

There are three levels of actions that it works on. At the institutional level, each participating state is asked and supported to nominate a national focal point and to establish a national team comprised of all relevant stakeholders. At the political level, they commit to proceed to the identification of their needs through a specifically developed methodology (Needs Assessment Questionnaire  NAQ) and, on this basis, to develop and adopt a national action plan (NAP). At the operational level, participating countries benefit from several regional capacity-building projects that they develop together. These projects cover a wide variety of fields including for instance safety and security, emergency planning, crisis response, export control, illicit trafficking, storage and disposal, and redeployment of scientists.

To date, there are 54 countries belonging to 8 centres of excellences for South East and Eastern Europe; African Atlantic Facade; North Africa and Sahel; Eastern and Central Africa; Middle East; Gulf Cooperation Council Countries; Central Asia; and South-East Asia. These centres are administered by a regional secretariat located in one of the concerned participating country. These secretariats benefit from administrative, logistical as well as technical assistance.

Financed by the EU with a budget of EUR 185 M for the period 2007-2017, this endeavour is implemented through its Joint Research Centre and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, has welcomed Ghana's decision to introduce a visa-on-arrival policy for citizens of African Union Member States. The President of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, announced the decision in his State of the Nations address to the Ghanaian Parliament on 25 February 2016.

With effect from July this year, we will be allowing citizens of AU Member States to enter - our country and obtain visas on arrival with the option to stay for up to thirty days and experience what our country has to offer. This measure, with time, should stimulate air travel, trade, investment and tourism, President Mahama said in his address, highlighting the importance of facilitating the mobility of people to unlock Africa's economic potential.

The decision is a result of a resolution adopted at the African Union Executive Council meeting held earlier this year in Addis Ababa, which stipulated that AU Member States review their internal and external security realities in an attempt to implement mechanisms allowing for the issuing of visas on arrival for citizens of Member States, with the possibility of a 30-day stay.

The AU Commission Chairperson expressed her great pleasure in Ghana taking immediate concrete steps to implement this decision of the Executive Council. She also noted that Ghana is reaffirming its Pan-Africanism and upholding its place in the area of the African continental integration, which is a key tenet towards the realisation of Agenda 2063 - The Africa We Want.

After Ghana, I am convinced that many other African countries will follow suit, in the interest of achieving an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, Dr. Dlamini Zuma said.
N'Djamena (AFP) - Fourteen candidates will compete for Chad's presidency in elections on April 10, including long-time incumbent President Idriss Deby Itno and opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo, the constitutional council said Monday.

Deby, in power for 26 years, is running for a fifth term.

The list of his presidential rivals, announced on television, includes all the major opposition figures in a Sahel country that remains poor despite starting to make money from oil exports.

Kebzabo, president of the National Union for Development and Renewal (UNDR), is running for a third time, having stood against Deby in 1996 and 2001 and served under him as a minister several times.

Other candidates include Nouredine Delwa Kassire Koumakoye, a former prime minister under Deby, and Laoukein Kourayo Medard, the popular mayor of economic capital Moundou.

The elections come after a wave of unrest that has rocked Chad in recent weeks, with students taking to the streets in fury over the gang rape of a girl in mid-February, allegedly by the sons of a government minister and three army generals.

Two high school students have been killed by the police and army during the protests.
Commodore Steve Obimpeh says Stan Dogbe is responsible for the anniversary brochure.

08.03.2016 LISTEN

The Chairman of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, has said questions surrounding the errors in the official anniversary brochure should be directed at Presidential Staffer, Stan Dogbe, because he is responsible for the brochure.

After an impressive and colourful Independence Day ceremony which was graced by two African Heads of State, the numerous errors in the official brochure for the event went viral on Facebook, Twitter and on other social media platforms.

One of the mistakes was the description of Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as the President of the Republic of Ghana. The brochure also had many factual, typographical, and grammatical errors, which have been widely shared on social media.

The programme in the brochure, which referred to the Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of the Republic of Ghana.

This morning, I called someone who works closely with the Flagstaff House and asked for contacts to members of the planning committee.

My source said Commodore Steve Obimpeh chaired the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee. When I called Obimpeh and asked to speak to him on the error-ridden brochure, he said: Speak to Stan Dogbe. Speak to Stan Dogbe; he was responsible for the brochure.

He ended the call before I had time to ask further questions. When I called Stan Dogbe at 12:59PM, he did not answer my calls. At 1:05 PM, I sent him a message on WhatsApp and told him what Obimpeh had told me and that I wanted explanation. Even though he read the message, and the application showed he was online, he did not reply.

At 1:52PM, I sent a reminder, Hi, Stan. WhatsApp again showed that he read the message but did not respond. He has still not responded at the time of posting this article (5:03PM)

The Information Services Department (ISD) later issued a statement apologising to the President and the people of Ghana for misrepresentations in the brochure. The ISD said it authored the content of the brochure and accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development.

Below is the full text of the ISD statement.

STATEMENT ON EVENT BROCHURE FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE

The Information Services Department (ISD) wishes to apologise to the President, HE John Dramani Mahama, and the people of Ghana for the misrepresentations in the Event Brochure of the impressive 59th Independence Day Parade at the Black Star Square. The Department, which authored the content of the brochure, accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development.

Francis Kwarteng ARTHUR

AG. DIRECTOR

Accra- January 12th, 2016.



The press statement from the Information Services Department

The ISD statement had yet another error with the date. Even though the statement was issued on March 7, 2016, apologising for the March 6 event, it was dated January 12, 2016. The statement was emailed to media houses from the Ministry of Informations official email address. Joy FMs checks with the Deputy Minister for Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, revealed that the statement is authentic.

Date is an error. Pls ignore the date but the statement is accurate and comes from ISD, Felix Kwakye Ofosu said in a text message. It is not clear whether or not he saw the statement before it was sent.

I called Commodore Obimpeh again for more information on the exact role Stan Dogbe played in the preparation of the brochure but he did not answer my call. Below are some of the pages with errors in the brochure.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Honorable President of the Ghanaian Community in France,

Nananom, Religious Leaders, Leaders of Ghanaian Associations

Fellow Ghanaians,

Friends of Ghana,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening and welcome to Africanology, the new cultural civilization in Africa" My name is Sugru Manwuriba Alhassan, I am the founder of Africanology. As a Ghanaian writer here in Paris, I'm very elated to be among my own people today.

Let me start by thanking the Ghacif President Honorable Michael Osei Mensah and my fellow compatriots who came together to organize this important ceremony today here in France

Mr. Chairman, distinguished audience present here to celebrate the 59th independance day ceremony, it has always been a pleasure to be with one's own people.

Ghana is now 59 years old. Ghana is all what we have as our national identity and therefore we must celebrate its independence.

Ghana, our beloved country is the most beautiful country in the world and it shall remain so forever in our minds and feelings.

We salute our First President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, Private Odartey-Lamptey, Nii Koblah Bonne, and all the gallant men and women who fought for Ghana's image. That is what gives a meaning to our today's celebration.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said, the independence of Ghana is meaningless until the total liberation of Africa.

The body of Africa has been freed but the spirit of Africa is still trapped, it is now the duty of you and I to work out and untangle the spirit of Africa from the spiritual and physical world.

Fellow Ghanaians please allow me to use this platform to tell you the origin of the name Ghana.Ghana extends the life the old Ghana Empire and that was the reason why, our first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his Government chose it to replace the colonial name, Gold Coast after independence.

According to the Arab historian who kept the history of Ghana empire, Ghana means greater king, this is what has been recorded when you google out the history of Ghana empire. Also according to our oracle talking drum historians "Ghana" means greater than the king.

We still have the meaning in some of our Ghanaian local languages today. They are two separate words, Gaa means greater than, Na means king. According to the linguistic oracles, the sea king family was interdicted to become the next earth king due to the wickedness of their father who was a king after his disappearance.

After several years of the family being subjects to the sun king family. They arose up to form another group and over powered the king, so the leader named himself greater than the king.

Finally, after the short history. Let me take this opportunity to seek your indulgence on my current career as a writer. I just published my first book in Ghana and I wish to create its awareness among our people here in France. It's a book written to revamp the African creativity. It is titled "African Traditional Revolution''. The ideology is simple. We must believe in ourselves as blacks and be proud of our identity, hence accepting who and what we are.

We must learn to create on our own, rather than depend so much on creativity from other people's culture and tradition.

Our resilience as Africans is very crux to our development. This generation must play an active role in Africa's renaissance by virtue of our creative abilities. If we are able to create new things in the world I believe Africa will be a better place to live.

Dr. Kwadwo Sarfo is manufacturing cars in Ghana, we must be proud and support him. Because, that's the only way the African story can be changed. I wish to end my submission here, and humbly request everyone to buy a copy of my book to read. You will see the realities of our beloved continent. It is sold for only 10euros today.

Thank you all and God bless you all.

Sugru Manwuriba Alhassan

Pioneer Africanologist
A Kumasi-based Broadcast Journalist who was manhandled by some supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP) in the Manhyia North Constituency has openly stated that his attack was instigated by the Member of Parliament for the area, Hon. Collins Owusu Ansah.

Osei Tutu, a reporter with the Kumasi-based Bohye FM said he overheard the MP loud and clear on the fateful day ordering some thugs to beat him because he(the MP) thought he was videoing an incident that was going during a constituency polling station elections.

"It was Hon. Collins Owusu Amankwaah who ordered his guys to beat me; I heard him loud and clear," Osei Tutu stated during a reconcilliatory meeting with the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi.

The meeting was called at the behest of Chairman Wontumi to resolve all issues and to officially apologise as a regional chairman to the journalist for the unfortunate incident.

The Broadcast Journalist reportedly suffered several beatings at the hands of some suspected NPP supporters at the Manhyia North Constituency whilst covering an elections meant to select executives in some outstanding polling stations in the constituency ahead of a crucial constituency primary slated for Sunday.

Osei Tutu however accused the incumbent MP, who is fighting tooth and nail to maintain his seat on the ticket of the party, of being the brain behind the dastard attack which left him with bruises on his face.

He however told the NPP regional chairman that he was now recovering from the atrack and that he was hoping to bounce back soon.

The journalist therefore expressed his gratitude to the NPP regional boss for according him the honour of inviting him to his office, stressing that he feels humbled by the humility of Chairman Wontumi.

On his part, Chairman Wontumi commended the journalist for honouring the invitation and also expressed personal gratitude for showing patience and restraint in the midst of the incident.

Chairman Wontumi reassured his commitment to protect all media personnel in the region and to ensure peaceful working relationship towards the betterment of the reigon, the party and Ghana as a whole.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Accra, March 5, 2016: TEDxAccra has announced a diverse speaker lineup for this years TEDxAccra conference under the theme Re-Think, to take place from April 19, and to climax on the 23rd at the National Theatre from 9am  3pm.

Speakers for this years conference features entrepreneurs, educators, engineers, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers and doctors both in Ghana and the diaspora. With ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who will lead a masterclass, broadcaster Gilbert Aggrey (Abeiku Santana), actor and talk show host KSM, and Kenneth Ashigbey, a few of the notable names on the bill.

The other powerful speakers also include Edwina Momoh, Priscilla Birago, Princess Umul Hatiyya Ibrahim Mahama, Robert Nii Arday Clegg, Mamadou Toure of African 2.0, Parminder Vir, Dan Meyer, Amanda Budge, Steven Wallace, Tina Tangalakis, Paul Miller, Lisa Lovatt-Smith, Edem Adzaho, Jide Otoki, Fredrick Amissah, Justice Julia Sarkodie Mensah, NanaAma Dowuona, Daniel Marfo, Dr. Thomas Tagoe, Emmanuel Awumee, Dilys Sillah, Nana Amoako-Anin, Adjoa Boateng, Dr. Paul Henry Dsane. Full speaker bios are available at www.tedxaccra.org

TEDxAccra will also feature performances from top acts including, Wanlov the Kubolor, Phrimpong, Naki Abrobettoe, Chief Moomen, Ama Asantewa Diaka and MzVee.

Speaking about this years conference, the Communications and External Relations lead of TEDxAccra 2016, Cynthia Ofori-Dwumfuo said: Every year, our mission is to secure speakers, performers and artists who have a deep connection to Africa and who have innovative ideas worth spreading. This year is no exception; weve selected a group of people who will speak to the inspiration and spirit of re-thinking our priorities.

Our speakers will engage participants to deconstruct, decipher, explore and rethink about some of the greatest challenges and innovations facing our society today. TEDxAccra is not is only meant to create dialogue and action, it also serves as a platform for people to share their thoughts, actively apply ideas and ultimately bring positive change to our society today, Ms Ofori-Dwumfuo added.

TEDxAccra2016 will occur from April 19 to 23 with a variety of events to be held across the city. Tickets for TEDxAccra2016 are on sale now with limited seats available. See www.tedxaccra.org for more information and stay tuned for further information.

About TEDxAccra

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.

The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. TEDxAccra is operated under license from TED. TEDxAccra is annual event, where thinkers and doers of our community are gathered to create and share ideas. It seeks to develop and leverage the TED experience at a community level, bring together innovative thinkers to connect and discuss great ideas.

At TEDxAccra, participants will take part in a TED-like experience that will ultimately equip and inspire them into boundless possibilities.

The concept is to reflect ideas and inspire thinking of a new generation of African thinkers and leaders, presenting to an audience committed to engaging and reengaging in an active and meaningful manner with the continent.
On the occasion of International Womens Day, Youth Without Borders Ghana wishes to congratulate and extent our well wishes to all the women in the world. The International Womens Day since its adoption in December 1977 by the United Nations General Assembly, has focused on bringing into lights critical issues that affect the development of women across the world. This year, the UN celebrates International Womens Day under the theme Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality.

What an important time to settle on such a theme. Globally, women have contributed significantly towards social, economic, cultural and political achievement, but they are the least rewarded for such feats. Progress towards gender parity has not paced up with contribution of women in our societies. In many cultures men are still rewarded for being men and women penalised for being women.

The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take up to 2095 to achieve global gender parity. A year down the line, they estimated that it would rather take up to 2133 to bridge the gender disparity gap considering the glacial pace of progress.

Gender parity will be a mirage if the key issues that impoverish women globally are not addressed. Women are impoverished financially, culturally, educationally and in many areas that matter a lot in human development. Such impoverishments are much more pronounced in developing countries where the situation is compounded with lack of economic opportunities and unfair culture and social norms.

In Ghana, women constitute 51.2% of the population, however very little emphasis is made in advancing the course of women in the Ghanaian society. Most women are still stuck to the domestic roles of housekeeping and petty jobs at the expense of their ambitions and dreams.

According to the Ghana statistical service (2010) records, women are less likely to be educated as compared to their male counterpart. Only 38% of females of age eight (8) and above have received some form of formal education. It seems to be an axiom that society has given less attention to needs of women in Ghana.

However, Ghana as signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is enjoined to provide for women empowerment through advocacy, sensitisation, education and the creation of new gender-oriented organisations. On the contrary, neglect and weaken commitment seems to have been the norm of efforts towards ameliorating the challenges of women in Ghana.

One of the MDGs that were obviously missed by Ghana was the reduction of maternal mortality. Very little emphasis seems to have been placed on challenges that are women bound. Many of the most dreadful diseases of women are still not considered in the NHIS services. Diseases such as cervical cancer which is known to have killed more womenthan any form of cancer in Ghana have not received needed attention.

On the occasion of this years International Womens Day, it is important that individuals and institutions or agencies at all levels seize the need to make purposeful commitment towards eliminating women impoverishment to hasten the attainment of gender parity at the closest time possible.

Now is the time to make it happen, equal rights to education, health care, economic opportunities and social progress. Youth Without Borders Ghana wishes to call on the International Federation of WomenLawyers (FIDA), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) and like manner civil society groups to apt their efforts towards creating an environment in which the full potentials of women in our society can be achieved.

Signed

Mr. David King Cartey

Director of Communications and Public Affairs

[email protected]

0264324242/0207322381/0247558188
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Those who mismanage our affairs will silence our criticism by pretending to have facts not available to the rest of us. And I know it is fatal to engage them on their own ground. Our best weapon against them is not to marshal facts of which they are truly managers, but passion. Passion is our hope and strength, a present help in time of trouble.- Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah'

You don't want to barge into a shrine out of respect for the sacred. You tread cautiously. Yet government has shown no such sacred caution in barging into the shrine of the 1992 constitution where your fundamental human rights are kept hidden,protected and revered.

The government of Ghana is seeking to pass the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill, 2015, into law. Why? According to the Ministry of Interior (proponents of this piece of legislation), the object of the bill is to enact legislation for the lawful interception of postal packets and telecommunication messages for the purpose of fighting crime, suppressing organized crime including money laundering, terrorism, narcotic trafficking, identity theft and generally for the protection of national security.

Why the rush?

Parliament put out a notice on Monday February 15, 2016 ostensibly, to solicit public input into the draft legislation, with Friday, February 19, 2016 as the deadline for submission of such inputs. Also the draft legislation was not published along with the public notice on the official website of Parliament. Clearly, this was a very short notice Parliament gave to the public for the submission of inputs into this piece of legislation. After sustained pressure by the media and some civil society organizations (particularly CDD and Occupy Ghana) for Parliament to give the public ample to consider the implications and likely impact of such a bill on the rights and freedoms of Ghanaians, Parliament gave another 2 week window within which the public was to make input into this bill.

Joy Fm, through its Thought Leadership wing, has led the way by organizing a major public forum for We the People to subject this bill to some thorough scrutiny. The arguments for and against this piece of legislation were assessed. Occupy Ghana has also petitioned Parliament, stating very strong reasons why this bill should not be passed into law.

Why the need for this legislation?

A spoilt child is a boy who has many military toys but still wants a water pistol for Christmas. A sign of a spoilt government is when despite many laws, it still wants more to snoop around everybody's closet.

I ask myself, why does the government feel the need to initiate and seek the passage of this bill when there are about 5 or 6 laws in our statute books which create the opening for the legal authorisation of interception of postal packets and telecommunication messages where necessary? According to some respected lawyers in the country, the existing law is that interception of communication is prohibited and criminal.

However, it is permitted under the provisions of the Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, EOCO Act, Narcotics Control Act, Electronic Communications Act (ECA), and to some extent, the Electronic Transactions Act.

All of these laws unanimously indicate that there can be no interception without an order or warrant of a court. Additionally, and under the ECA, the President may issue Executive Instruments to authorise interceptions. And, the phone companies themselves might intercept for strictly specified industry purposes, which do not include disclosure to third persons.

So far, the arguments put forward by the initiators of the bill, are in my view trite, to say the least. According to James Agalga, Deputy Minister of Interior, the law will cure the inherent inefficiencies of all the other laws such as the Anti-terrorism Act. ...the bill seeks to expand the scope of existing laws on terrorism, suppress organized crime and narcotic trafficking in the country.

He further argues that for the country to avoid abuse of the law in terms of interpretation, the current bill before the House has detailed the circumstances and conditions for an interception warrant.

This argument, I contend, is a sheer attempt to throw dust into our eyes. Heres why:

Provision 4 (3) of the bill says Despite subsection (2) the national security coordinator may where there is the need for urgency, ORALLY authorise the interception without a warrant of a postal-packet or telecommunication message but the oral authorisation shall be confirmed by obtaining a warrant from the high court within 48 hours after the oral authorisation has been issued.

Clearly, this is gallows humour gone bad! And it smacks of desperate attempts by the government of the day to curtail the right to privacy of We the People. Whats the need requiring the National Security Coordinator (a political appointee) to go to court to confirm something he would have long done in a manner that satisfies someones whim?

Another equally pathetic provision in this bill is Provision 18 (1) which says, The Chief Justice may appoint a Justice of the High Court to supervise the implementation of this Act.

(2) A Judge appointed under subsection (1)

(a) Shall ascertain whether the provisions of this Act are being complied with; and

(b) Submit to the National Security Co-ordinator at intervals of not more than twelve months, reports on the compliance with this Act and any other matters that the Judge considers necessary.

Why should the Justice of the High Court, appointed by the Chief Justice to supervise the implementation of this Act and ascertain whether the provisions of this Act are being complied with, submit to the National Security Coordinator who is required by the same Act to obtain interception warrant from a Justice of the High Court sitting in chambers?

Making the High Court Judge report to the NSC will undoubtedly remove any independent transparency and separation of powers. The judiciary should be the final arbiter of our laws, not the executive. Have the principles of Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances gone to the dogs in Ghana?

Im almost tempted to side with Kofi Bentil, Vice President of policy think tank, Imani Ghana when he asserts that critical journalists, opposition politicians will be hunted down through the law and their private lives including marital and extra-marital relationships will be laid bare before the listening ears and watching eyes of security operatives.

Will this Spy Bill stand the test of Article 18(2) of the Constitution?

The Spy Bill is a bully in school. Should bullies be allowed to run wild and conquer? Only if the headteacher watches unconcerned.

I am not a lawyer yet. But in my fickle mind, the right to privacy of the Ghanaian people is safeguarded by the 1992 Constitution, Article 18 (2) which states quite clearly that No person shall be subject to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication except in accordance with law and as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the protection of health or morals, for the prevention of disorder or crime or for the prevention of the rights or freedoms of others.

Therefore, any piece of legislation which cannot stand the test of this fundamental provision will, in my estimation, be declared unconstitutional by the courts.

Lawyer and member of Occupy Ghana, Kojo Annan Ankomah, presents us with some insights. On whether or not this bill will stand the test of Article 18(2), he comments, ...the courts have stepped in to protect and uphold the right to privacy. The reasoning of the Court in Malone v. The United Kingdom remains pristine and unassailable.

And for Ghana, one thing stands clear: any law that gives to any public authority even a shred of unfettered discretion to intercept for any period, should not stand the Article 18(2) test.

His argument is based on the 1984 case of Malone v. The United Kingdom, where the European Court on Human Rights applied Article 8(2) of the European Convention in examining the lawfulness of the tapping of Mr. Malones telephone calls.

It found that although the tapping had been ordered following a warrant issued by the Home Secretary on suspicion that Mr. Malone was involved in some criminal activity, and such warrant had been issued in accordance with UK law, the law in question did not contain adequate safeguards.

The Court held that the phrase IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW [which phrase is in Ghanas Article 18(2)] looked not only to having law but the quality of the law: it must be compatible with the rule of law, and must contain protection against arbitrary interferences.

The Court held that it was contrary to the rule of law if the discretion granted was expressed in terms of an unfettered power. Consequently the law must indicate, with sufficient clarity, the scope and manner of exercise of the discretion, having regard to the legitimate aim of the measure in question, to give the individual adequate protection against arbitrary interference."

As regards to interference, the court held that it could only be regarded as "NECESSARY IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY" [which phrase is also in Ghanas Article 18(2)] if the particular system of secret surveillance adopted contained adequate guarantees against abuse.

Kojo Annan Ankomahs argument, based on this ruling, is very cogent and should hold sway in our courts.

The way forward

It is such a cruel bargain for government to hold back a bill that allows us to see what it does yet push through another bill that allows it to see what we do. It's against any basic moral conscience left in the worst criminal. Even terrorist know how to negotiate a life for another life, a hostage for another hostage.

The Right to Information Bill has been in Parliament for 13 years. The passage of this bill, aimed at promoting transparency and accountability by empowering We the People to have access to information on how the government runs this country has been delayed for such a long period of time.

Now this same government wants We the People, to give it the mandate (through our representatives in parliament) to open our postal packets, monitor our phone calls, read our messages and generally tamper with our means of postal communication and information technology systems in the name of fighting crime and protecting national security.Imagine the effrontery!

I am however cautiously hopeful that this bill will be subjected to some thorough scrutiny in Parliament, by the minority, especially as the leader of the opposition NPP, Nana Akuffo Addo has categorically made a profound statement against this Spy bill; calling on MPs to vote against it.

In his version of the State of the Nation, delivered on Monday, February 28, 2016, he said: There are serious concerns over, what has been termed, the Spy Bill but the President chose to make no mention of it. ...Essentially, this bill gives the state unfettered, discretionary access to the private correspondence of individuals.

It poses potentially a major threat to individual freedom of expression and privacy. This law should not be passed, and the Minority has already signalled its opposition to the bill in parliament.

The irony is that the Right to Information Bill, which on the other hand, will rather enhance individual freedoms and good governance, by providing further access to public information, all in the spirit of transparency and accountability, had rather been put on the back burner. Obviously, it is not one that excites the president because it provides sunshine on corrupt practices .

Fellow Ghanaians, its time to end our appalling silence while the government we voted into power takes our country and We the People for a ride. Lets resist any attempt to get this bill passed by Parliament because it most certainly will have enduring implications for our rights, freedoms, liberties and more especially our rights to privacy; rights we ought to guard jealously.

The writer is a Ghanaian political analyst, Civil Rights advocate and Media Consultant. He's also Lead Coordinator of Thought Leadership Programmes at Ghana's foremost media organization, Multimedia Group Limited.

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: www.facebook.com/nicholas.o.opoku

Twitter: @nickopuni
John Dumelo with some fans

08.03.2016 LISTEN

An attempt by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to use a health walk to water down the embarrassment suffered in the past week about misrepresentation of the status of roads in Hohoe hit a snag.

The event was well patronized by supporters and sympathizers of the party in the region except Hohoe residents, the people whose sake the walk was organised.

Some ministers leading the participants during the walk

The Health Walk dubbed 'Walk for Mahama' according to the Volta Regional Chairman of the NDC, Gyapong Cudjoe was organised to reinvigorate the party in the Hohoe constituency and also assess the allegiance of the youth for the party.

He said People in Hohoe say a lot of things. They say that the youth in Hohoe are against us. I am happy to note that when I asked my lieutenants to organise a walk; today, here, the youth poured out in their numbers.

However the Hohoe residents, particularly the youth were least enthused by the much publicized walk which attracted John Dumelo, the Ghanaian actor who has pledged his unalloyed support to the NDC party and President Mahama. Many of the youth were seen going about their normal duties as a show of apathy against the governing party.

The MMT buses that conveyed the NDC supporters to the walk

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It appeared the organisers had the premonition that the residents would not turn up so they organised four Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses and two school buses of senior high schools in Logba and Leklebi to convey party supporters from both far and neighboring constituencies.

Participants were virtually drawn from outside Hohoe with some coming from as far as Ho which is about two and half hours' drive, Kpando, Jasikan, Hohoe South among others.

Members of Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN), student wing of the NDC in St Francis and St Theresa's Colleges of Education also added up to the about 600 participants.

When the walk got to the Zongo area, the youth and other bystanders were openly making the 'change' gestures with their hands; connoting a change in government.

John Dumelo who was addressing the youth had to battle with chants of our roadsour roads in both English and Ewe.

A Presidential Staffer, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah pleaded with the people not to lose hope in the NDC and President John Mahama since they were the only party able to bring development to the region.

The event brought together government officials and party bigwigs such as the Chief of Staff; Julius Debrah, Minister of the Interior, Prosper Bani, Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and MP of the constituency; Dr. Bernice Adiku Heloo.

Others were Francis Ganyaglo, Deputy Regional Minister and the entire regional executives of the NDC as well as some MMDCEs.

Hohoe residents recently hooted at the Roads and Highways Minister, Inusah Fuseini for feeding the President with half truths about Hohoe roads as presented by the President in his State of the Nation Address.

The seemingly embarrassed Minister in an attempt to defend the inaccuracies presented assured that the roads will be done adding that the contractor will be invited for questioning. Residents were yet to get a feedback on the issue. Interestingly the Roads and Highways Minister was nowhere to be found during the walk.

From Fred Duodu, Hohoe ( [email protected] )
08.03.2016 LISTEN

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made a sensational claim that Judgement Debt Sole-Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Mahama because of the 'hatchet' job he did for the government on its (NPP's) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to the NPP, the ruling NDC, led by its General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia, was hiding behind the Judgement Debt Commission Report prepared by Justice Apau to make Nana Akufo-Addo look like a corrupt man when he is not.

An open challenge is being thrown at Justice Apau to come public over the allegation that he did a dirty job for the government in exchange for a reward.

The NPP gurus have therefore dared the government to arrest and prosecute the former Attorney General (Nana Addo) if indeed there was any evidence linking him to the sale of the drillship Discoverer 511 which happened during the Kufuor administration.

Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP as a party are tired of the deliberate attempts by the NDC and their agents to tag the man as a corrupt person, Acting General Secretary John Boadu said at a news conference last Friday.

Arrest Nana Addo and prosecute him if it's not just propaganda you are doing with the drill ship saga, John Boadu said, insisting that Asiedu Nketia's misguided and erroneous reference to Nana Akufo-Addo's alleged incompetence is borne out of the usual ignorance and/or deliberate attempts to mislead the public, he said.

When the Sole Commissioner after investigating the various judgement debts submitted his report to the presidency, it emerged that sections of the report had been purportedly doctored.

The said doctored portion of the report concerned Nana Akufo-Addo, whom the Sole-Commissioner was said to have made adverse findings against in the drill Ship Discoverer 511 which was sold in 2001 to defray debts incurred by Tsatsu Tsikata when he was the Chief Executive of the state-run Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The drill ship was disposed off by the Kufuor administration to defray a $19.5 million judgment debt owed Societe-General Bank and the Sole-Commissioner reportedly concluded that Nana Akufo-Addo's miserable failure to defend the state in a London court led to a judgment debt higher than what Ghana would have paid.

.

This Commission holds the view that the payment of $19.5 million instead of the $14 million agreed on earlier, constituted financial loss to the Corporation and Ghana, the leaked report claimed at the time.

Strangely, Justice Apau had made the adverse finding even though he never invited Nana Akufo-Addo to hear his side of the drill ship saga which took a greater portion of the commission's sitting, despite the fact that the NPP flagbearer was on record to have volunteered to testify in the matter. No reason was given by Justice Apau ignoring Nana Addo's open request to the commission.

In another twist, DAILY GUIDE's sources had hinted that a lot of what is in the report is not in the official copy presented to the presidency.

Some of the phraseology and words used in the leaked report are not in the official report and it seems clear that NDC propaganda is at work.

According to the source, There is no 'miserable failure' among others in the report as it appears adding, clearly this has been done by some people in authority for political propaganda purposes.

The source said that two things stood out and remain relevant in the report and one was that the Sole-Commissioner did clearly state unequivocally that he could not question the decisions of the AG in the matter.

However, the source added that the judge had gone on to say that the failure to attend court in London led to SG obtaining the default judgment.

According to the source, the report appeared to have made 'a leap' to say that SG obtaining the default judgment led to a settlement of $19.5 million instead of $14 million and therefore, occasioned financial loss.

By William Yaw Owusu


WE NEED A NEW CONSTITUTION  NANA AKUOKO SARPONG

The Omanhene of the Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Kwame Akuoko Sarpong, has called for a new constitution that will reflect the realities of the Ghanaian system.

I AM NOT NDC  ASANTEHENE

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has dismissed rumours that he is a member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), saying he is a Ghanaian and a father figure of his kinsmen.

CONSULTANT SUES KEMPINSKI

An Accra-based business development consultant has sued GCC Resorts Limited, owners of Kempinski Hotel, for what he says is unlawful termination of his appointment as a director of the company.

GNPC BOWS a5M ON RENT

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has defied the order given by Parliament and gone ahead to rent an office space costing a whopping amillion for just a year.

APAU REWARDED FOR NANA JOB  NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made a sensational claim that Judgement Debt Sole-Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Mahama because of the hatchet job he did for the government on its (NPPs) presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

WE GOOFED: ISD ACCEPTS BLAME FOR ERRORS

The Information Services Department (ISD) says it has accepted responsibility for the error-laden brochure used for the 59th Independence Day parade in Accra last Sunday, March 6, which depicted the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as President of Ghana.

EX-DCE, 4 OTHERS HOT OVER ALLEGED PROCUREMENT FRAUD

Three staff of the Wassa Amenfi East District Assembly in the Western Region have been interdicted on alleged procurement fraud in the award of several contracts running into millions of cedis.

NATIONAL SINGLE WINDOW TO SAVE ECONOMY $200M

The full implementation of the Ghana National Single Window Project, an important drier for the simplification, harmonization and automation of trade processes is expected to save the economy $200 million annually.

KORLE BU EYE DEPARTMENT TO CLOSE DOWN FOR CONSTRUCTION WORKS

From Wednesday, March 9, the Eye Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital will be closed for additional construction works.

OVER $6M GHANA GOLD STOLEN

Available information from Indian government agency, Zauba Technologies & Data Services showed that between January 2014 and January 2016, a total of 101,179 kilogramme of gold valued at $3,607.415,756.36 was shipped out of Ghana without going through the necessary processed, a situation that ripped off the state an amount of $6,367,088.81 in revenue in terms of royalty .

$100,000 FREE CASH FOR ENTREPRENEURS

The sixth Anzisha Prize application phase is now open, and the search is on to find Africas Youngest most innovative social and business entrepreneurs under the age of 22 to compete for $100,000.
Dr. Gerd Muller, Germany's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, announced on 28 February 2016, an additional funding of 1.5 million Euros for UNICEF Libya, to help the provision of appropriate child protection services and psychosocial support, as well as access to quality education, with a special focus on conflict-affected and out of school children.

Gerd Muller: Through the cooperation with UNICEF in Libya we can reach up to 60,000 children having better access to education. Children of internally displaced persons will be able to have regular lessons again through mobile classes and receive necessary psycho-social support. Children are the future. And good education is one of the essentials for a generation capable to rebuild a country where the people can live in peace, a country that offers prosperity for everyone. 

During his speech, Mr. Ali Al-Za'tari, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in Libya, affirmed that, The Libyan humanitarian crisis is not visible to all, a crisis that should not be in this wealthy state, but it is a reality and it is painful. There is a large number of Libyans in need of assistance and we are keen to receive assistance and to deliver to Libyans, without distinction.

Children in Libya have borne the brunt of constant conflict. As per the Humanitarian Response Plan, 2.44 million people in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance, out of which an estimated 40 per cent are children who are considered to be the most vulnerable.

Dr. Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF Special Representative, said The generous contribution of the Government of Germany will enable UNICEF to reach more children in Libya, who are in dire need for support. Girls and boys will benefit from community-based services in the West, East and South of Libya, including hard-to-reach, through solid partnerships with the civil society.

The Government of Germany committed in 2015 an ample contribution of four million Euros to support the children of Libya, through UNICEF. The funds will be utilised till June 2017 to support the protection and psychosocial well being of girls and boys, especially victims/survivors of Gender Based Violence and other types of conflict-related violence.

In conflict affected areas, the funds will be used for school rehabilitation and to provide School-aged children especially internally displaced and out-of-school children, with access to education and learning opportunities in safe environments where they benefit from a strengthened quality education system and water and sanitation facilities.
The Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, is following with keen interest the ongoing process of the constitutional reforms in Senegal.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas encourages all actors to conduct a serene debate on the constitutional reforms, and has no doubt that the process will be carried out in an inclusive and participative manner. Senegal enjoys a well-deserved reputation as a solid democracy in Africa, and any efforts aimed at consolidating the democratic institutions are welcomed.

The United Nations will remain ready to support the Senegalese authorities in this process.
Kenya, Nairobi, 8th March 2016 Airtel Kenya employees yesterday visited Grace Community Childrens home based in Kongo, Kahawa West, in Kasarani.

The team from the companys Finance department interacted and shared special moments with the children through various activities including singing and dancing and photo opps in a true reflection of the Airtel Spirit of living behind an indelible mark in childrens hearts.

The Airtel Spirit is a code in which the brand and its employees get involved in community initiatives by identifying and supporting causes they are passionate about.

They employees shared breakfast with the little ones, danced, played games donated items which include mattresses, bed Sheets, blankets, mosquito nets, stationeries, basins, sandals, utensils and food stuff. The team also promised to continue supporting the institution by improving their accommodation environment that will improve their living condition.

Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi expressed the companys appreciation to the team for visiting the home, saying; At Airtel, we are passionate about making a positive impact on the individuals and families in the communities in which we operate. The teams visit and support to Grace Community Childrens home is a contribution that will enrich the lives of these children, inspire hope and bring smiles to their faces.

Adil further encouraged Grace Community Childrens home founders and management team to continue to nurture the children and restore the confidence they need as children to grow into better adults.

Grace Community Childrens home Director Pastor Samuel Barasa expressed his gratitude to the team from Airtel for the support to the home, noting that the intervention will help to make life more comfortable for the children. Pastor Samuel appealed to other organizations and well-wishers to emulate Airtel by supporting the needy in the community.

The home was founded in 2001 by Pastor Samuel Barasa who was touched by the situation that the street children in his area were undergoing. The home is currently home to 103 children. The vision of the Centre is to see children enjoy their rights and benefits so that they can lead a better life with adequate food nutrition, shelter, clothing and uninterrupted schooling, moral uprightness and legal protection.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

The Accra Regional Police Command has arrested two men who usually steal food items under the pretext of buying them.

They usually divert the food items to other locations without making payment after the owners supply them.

The suspects are Kwasi Twumasi and Isaac Kwasi Acheampong.

Two of their victims have since reported to the police.

ASP Effia Tengey, the Accra Regional Police Commander spokeswoman, who briefed the media, said on December 4, 2015, Kwasi Twumasi went to the first complainants wholesale shop at Taifa and requested for 80 bags of Aroma rice, 25 gallons of frytol cooking oil and six boxes of Titus sardine valued at GH15,295 to stock his shop at SCC Weija.

He promised to pay for the goods after they had been delivered to him.

On reaching Weija SCC, Twumasi asked the complainant to accompany him to his house at Kasoa for the money.

The suspect ordered that the goods be put on a corridor in front of a closed shop after giving an excuse that he had left the keys to the shop at home.

Unknown to the complainant, Isaac Kwasi Acheampong, an accomplice was waiting with another truck to collect the goods to an unknown location.

After discharging the goods, Twumasi joined the complainant in the delivery truck and headed towards Kasoa where he claimed his house was located for the money.

As soon as Kwasi Twumasi moved from the scene, Isaac Acheampong loaded the goods into the waiting truck.

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An onlooker, who became suspicious, quickly informed Police and Isaac Acheampong was arrested with the goods in the truck.

While Isaac Acheampong was being interrogated, the complainant reported at the station that Kwasi Twumasi was trying to escape.

During interrogation, the suspects confessed that they both had conspired to defraud the complainant.

While investigations were ongoing, the two suspects were released on the police enquiry bail and asked to report later for further investigation, but upon their release they failed to do so.

While efforts were underway to serve their sureties with forfeiture to appear before court, the two were rearrested on February 23, 2016 for committing the same offence using the same modus operandi.

The two, in a company of another accomplice named Sally Baidoo aka Hajia visited another shop at Tetegu Weija and using the same modus operandi, requested for 40 bags of rice value GH30,000.

Hajia asked the shop owner to supply the goods to her at Timeless restaurant at Atomic Junction, Madina.

After the goods had been dispatched, the suspects met driver of the truck with registration number GT 8949-12 and escaped with it.

The police mounted a search and the truck was intercepted at Adenta.

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey

( [email protected] )


Razak Kojo Opoku

08.03.2016 LISTEN

The United Progressive Party (UPP), founded by Akwasi Addai Odike, a Kumasi-based popular footwear dealer, was yesterday dealt with a heavy blow as its General Secretary exited the political grouping ahead of the 2016 general election.

Razak Kojo Opoku dumped Odike's party to join the newly formed All People's Congress (APC), founded by Hassan Ayariga, who lost to Dr. Edward Mahama in the People's National Convention (PNC) flagbearership race recently.

The UPP chief scribe, who announced his resignation in a statement to the media on Monday, told DAILY GUIDE in an interview that his move was expected to enhance the image of the APC.

I think that I need a different platform to exhibit my potential, which the UPP  in some way somehow  cannot afford me the opportunity, he explained.

According to Razak, he had neither been bought nor influenced with money, and that his decision was borne out of his personal conviction.

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The former UPP General Secretary said he had been in the trenches with Hassan Ayariga for many years, including the formation of the ACP, and therefore wanted the public not to see him as a traitor.

Akwasi Addai Odike was elected flagbearer of the UFP but later got sacked by the party's National Executive Committee ahead of the 2012 general election for alleged incompetence, but held on to the position till he formed his own group and received certification for operation from the Electoral Commission in May 2015.

Razak pointed out in his statement that joining forces with Ayariga was a positive way of contributing to finding ways that would improve the lives of Ghanaians.

He sees the APC as having a brighter prospect, which he indicated, would be seen right after this year's elections, noting that it would surely become the third force in the country after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He believes that the UPP would find a replacement, but added that it would take a good political strategy for the party to get stabilized.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi


The Art of Leadership

08.03.2016 LISTEN

By Dag Heward-Mills

A leader can expect your home base to come under fire. You must expect an attack on your home base. You must expect an attack on the family, friendships and alliances that are a source of your strength. Every attack on your home base, aides, alliances, friendships will have a significant impact on the war.

Whilst King David was out fighting the enemy, Amalekites cleverly attacked his home base and burnt it down. All their wives, sons and daughters were taken captive. David was devastated; that is to be expected. No matter how hardened a warrior is, he looks forward to going home, to a place of rest.

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.

SO DAVID AND HIS MEN CAME TO THE CITY, AND, BEHOLD, IT WAS BURNED WITH FIRE; AND THEIR WIVES, AND THEIR SONS, AND THEIR DAUGHTERS, WERE TAKEN CAPTIVES.

Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

1 Samuel 30:1-5

If you are a travelling minister, you can expect an attack on your home. The devil would like to leave you homeless. He would like to leave you without a place to come back to. Satan would like to attack your physical home and leave you without any solace or comfort. He would like to bomb your shelter so that you have nowhere to go to when you finish fighting. This is why many ministers have marital problems.

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It is an attack to bomb their shelters so that they have nowhere to go. It is called a de-housing attack! Instead of pastors coming home to softness, comforts and delights, they come home to hardness, more hard work and arguments. Loving words are replaced with accusations, opposition and resistance. Soon, a minister of the gospel does not consider his house a place of solace, comfort, softness and delights. He has been de-housed!

The Royal Airforce of England, under the command of Bomber Harris de-housed the citizens of Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Cologne and many other German cities. They did this by bombing and smashing the cities of Germany.

Similarly, Satan has de-housed many pastors and preachers of the gospel. This is also the reason why there are few evangelists. If you dare step out of your church and evangelise the world, your church can be taken over and you will have nowhere to come back to. You will also have no one to support you anymore. Many evangelists are de-housed ministers, having no support, no more aid and no more aides.

Your family and your aides are very important for your mission. Their importance is spelt out by the fact that the enemy will target them and try to eliminate them. Do not be surprised if your home base of close aides and alliances come under attack. Often, your ministry cannot be completed without the input of these close aides and alliances. Do not be surprised if Satan tries to turn your aides into rebels. It is an attack on your home base.

Stand up and defend your home base. Fight to maintain your house. Build bomb shelters so that you will not suffer a de-housing attack of the enemy.

Hannibal's Home Base Attacked

Hannibal was the famous African general who invaded the Roman Empire with his elephants. He crossed the Italian Alps with his armies and elephants and entered deep into Italy. Hannibal defeated the Roman armies several times.

Believe it or not, the Romans were never able to defeat Hannibal for eight whole years whilst he was in Italy. One day, they devised a strategy to get rid of him. The strategy was to invade Carthage (Tunisia), the home base of Hannibal.

When Carthage came under serious attack, Hannibal was called back home to defend his own country. It was only when Hannibal was forced to return to Carthage to help defend his home country that the Romans were able to get him out of Roman territory. When the Romans eventually fought Hannibal in Carthage, they defeated him. Indeed, the mighty Carthaginian general who had brought the Roman Empire to its knees and lived for eight years within striking distance of Rome, was defeated by an attack on his home base.

Remember, a leader must expect an attack on the family, friendships and alliances that are a source of his strength  that is his home base!

[email protected]


08.03.2016 LISTEN

We have commemorated the 59th anniversary of the drawing of the curtains over colonialism in the Gold Coast at a time we can state is the most turbulent in the country's post-independence history.

At age 59, Ghana has little to show for its existence.

When the Union Jack was lowered on the eve of independence (on 5th March, 1957), most citizens of the nascent nation were excited, full of great expectations.

Only a few of them were apprehensive about what was in store for their country; others could not resist relishing glitters of the times, the marching songs of the new Ghana Armed Forces and the Police as they spotted the flag of the new nation amidst cultural dances  offering a colourful side attraction.

We are told that some elderly persons were not too comfortable with their compatriots stepping in to control the throttles of the new nation. They were right as unfolding events, still counting, soon showed.

A putsch ended the nine-year-regime of a man some loved to hate, describing him as a dictator, existing challenges providing ample excuse for them to sustain their position. Some demurred though preferring to see the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as a man who prepared the country for an economic transformation but whose dreams were truncated.

With a poor human rights record and the tendency to be dictatorial largely, it is not surprising that there are mixed reactions to the regime of the country's foremost indigenous political administration.

The coups and counter-coups and a so-called revolution were the patches of negative developments which characterized the long and momentous journey traversed by the country so far.

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Had Ghana been a human being she would have been at the threshold of retirement from public or civil service full of wisdom and well primed for the next phase in her adult life.

After a long and chequered journey the junta which claimed to have been born from a revolution metamorphosed into a civilian administration with the junta leader shedding his olive green uniform to become a president. The rest is the other side of the worrying history the country has recorded so far.

Today the economy which should have been doing well is not living up to expectation; myriad factors responsible for the unacceptable trend. So bad is the situation that even the role of the newfound oil resource appears to be waning significantly. Mismanagement and corruption have combined to make life unbearable for most Ghanaians, a far cry from the great expectations which greeted the country at independence.

The country is reeling under a scathing energy crisis of unusual dimension, even as those responsible for the mess continue to pretend to be busy reversing the situation.

Many of the kids who took part in Sunday's commemoration struggled to have their uniforms ironed for the occasion.

IMF prescribed conditionalities are in operation to compound the immediate challenges of the average Ghanaian.

A bumpy road lies ahead but that notwithstanding, we must be hopeful about a necessary change that would come someday and alter the abrasive status quo. We cannot afford to say a happy birthday  even belatedly  to a wobbling Ghana though.
Alex Mould  GNPC Boss

08.03.2016 LISTEN

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has defied the order given by Parliament and gone ahead to rent an office space costing a whopping GH5 million for just a year.

The said office space, Dennis House, is located at Tema where the state-run oil company has its headquarters building.

The amount has raised eyebrows, with MPs suspecting a 'create, loot and share' brigade at play, especially when GNPC had been asked to desist from hiring a similar office complex in Accra at $40 million for a period of 10 years.

The corporation has been accused of spending Ghana's oil cash in very questionable ways.

Officials of GNPC came to Parliament in December 2013 with details of how they were going to operate in 2014 and quoted $40 million in their budget as money that would be used to rent an office space for a period of 10 years, but the Committee of Mines and Energy in Parliament, after scrutinizing their accounts, said the money could be used to put up a permanent building to serve as offices of the GNPC in Accra near the Tullow head office, even though there is another office complex  Petroleum House  being used by the GNPC.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima Mponua, Isaac Asiamah, who made these known in his contribution to the presidents State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Friday, said the move by the GNPC was a gross disrespect to the authority of Parliament and that serious action must be taken against those who took the decision.

They wanted to rent an office apartment and then we looked at their inflows and said No, you have more money so why cant you acquire your own property, build an office so that it becomes the property of Ghana for generations to benefit from the office? he said, adding that the officials unanimously agreed to the suggestion by parliamentarians and promised to build the office only for them to go ahead to rent a property which has cost the nation GH5 million.

This is total disregard for Ghanas Parliament, he said.

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In his contribution, the First Deputy Speaker, Ebo Barton-Odro, who was presiding, kept asking the MP for Atwima Mponua if he had any evidence to back his claim, to which Mr Asiamah replied in the affirmative and showed a copy of the tenancy agreement that was made available to members of the Mines and Energy Committee upon request.

The First Deputy Speaker said the document could be accepted only if it was an original copy or a certified true copy, but Mr Asiamah said as a member of the Mines and Energy Committee, he could testify that the document was genuine and that was why officials of GNPC brought it to them, arguing further that if the First Deputy Speaker doubted the authenticity of the document he could ask the chairman of the Committee or any member of it to authenticate the document.

Mr Barton-Odro still insisted on the originality of the document which generated heated argument between him, Isaac Asiamah, MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah and MP for Old Tafo, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah said having been in the House for 20 years, it had always been the practice for MPs to back their claims with authenticated documents which could be a photocopy or original and also name the source and that if the First Deputy Speaker was insisting on the original document then MPs' hands would be tied and could not discharge their duties as well as its oversight responsibility.

The NPP MP was dissatisfied with the attitude of the First Deputy Speaker and told a section of the media after his contribution that he (Barton-Odro) acted strangely, adding that such attitude helps corruption to thrive in the country.

He said that it was the same attitude that resulted in huge debt that was paid to an individual.

I think this is another form of 'create, loot and share, Mr Asiamah charged.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr


08.03.2016 LISTEN

Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has kicked against policies of the current administration that cripple businesses and cause unemployment.

Nana Addo said he would reduce corporate tax rate, abolish VAT on financial services, remove duties on the importation of raw materials and manufacturing equipment, among others, to stimulate growth of the private sector if elected into power.

Nana Addo, who disclosed this recently to the media in Accra, said an enhanced employment tax credit scheme would also be instituted to provide incentives for companies employing fresh graduates under his administration.



Tax net expansion

He stated that the formalization of the Ghanaian economy would be pursued as an economic strategy to expand the tax net.

These, according to him, include National ID cards, which the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has failed to issue in seven years after depriving the National Identification Authority of funds.

He said the National ID cards would be issued in the first year.

In the area of financial inclusion, he said the goal is to have 70 percent of the bankable population having bank accounts, move from a cash-based economy to an electronic payments based economy and complete the street address and post code system.

He added that such processes would enhance the collection of more revenue even with lower tax rates.

My approach will be different from the tax, borrow and spend approach of the Mahama administration. My priority will be to reduce the cost of doing business to help small and medium-scale enterprises grow and to make the Ghanaian economy become globally competitive.

We will provide tax incentives for increasing productivity, he indicated.

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Teacher training allowance

We will restore the teacher and nursing training allowances and we are still committed to our programme of free Senior High School (SHS) education for all students at that level.

We will deepen financial sector reforms with the objective to establishing Ghana as a leading financial hub in Africa. Unfortunately, this government has taken us backwards in the area of financial sector reform.



Huge Gov't debt

He added that government has failed to fulfill its obligations to statutory funds such as the NHIS, DACF, GETFUND, Payments to the Disabled, etc. even though government had collected taxes that were meant for such funds.

We would implement a policy of automaticity in the transfer of revenues collected for these funds so that arrears to these funds do not arise in the future, Nana Addo affirmed.

Traders' dilemma

Traders in the country are calling for the cancellation of the between 10 and 20 percent import duty, 17.5 percent import VAT/NHIL, 0.5 percent ECOWAS Levy, 0.5 percent EDIFF, 0.4 percent GCNet, 17.5 percent GCNet VAT/NHIL, GHS9 Ghana Shippers Authority, 1 percent Income Tax on Imports, GHS5 I.D.F, 2 percent Special Tax on Import, GHS5 CUBAG and 1 percent CCVR.

By Samuel Boadi


08.03.2016 LISTEN

The Information Services Department (ISD) says it has accepted responsibility for the error-laden brochure used for the 59th Independence Day parade in Accra last Sunday, March 6, which depicted the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as President of Ghana.

The event brochure distributed at the Black Star Square was full of poor grammar, awful spelling, badly constructed sentences, as well as shocking colloquial expressions with the description of the green colour in the national flag as 'dark green.'

The Information Services Department (ISD) wishes on behalf of the National Planning Committee of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee to apologise for the misrepresentations in the Event Brochure of the impressive 59th Independence Day Parade at the Black Star Square.

The Department, which authored the content of the brochure, accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development, Francis Kwarteng Arthur, Acting Director of ISD, expressed in a statement issued yesterday which has its own problem with date.

The letter, which was supposed to have been written yesterday, has January 12, 2016 on it and Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a deputy Minister of Communications, had to apologise for the error.

Ghana undoubtedly became a laughing stock after a series of blunders were spotted in the brochures used for the national parade.

Reading through the brochure carefully, 'Coat of Arms' was spelt 'Coat of Arm.'

Others like 'Globalised Sky,' 'youthfull,' and 'As if by divine-designed' featured prominently in the brochure.

In the Table of Content, the brochure embarrassingly referred to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as President of Ghana and misspelled 'Kinbu Senior High Technical School' as 'Kimbu Senior High Technical School.'

As if that was not enough, the author of the brochure embarrassingly struggled to string words together to make sense, while the information in it was ambiguous and unreliable.

The Ghana-Kenya relations article was poorly written while the bit describing the location of Ghana on the globe appeared disjointed.

Yesterday, an apology issued by the department was wrongly dated but was quickly corrected when attention was drawn to it.

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Stan Dogbe Pops Out

In a related development, it emerged that it was presidential staffer and head of Communications at the Flagstaff House, Stan Dogbe, who was responsible for the brochure.

According to Joy FM's Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Chairman of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, had asked him to direct his questions surrounding the errors in the official anniversary brochure to Stan Dogbe because he was responsible for the brochure.

This morning, I called someone who works closely with the Flagstaff House and asked for contacts to members of the planning committee. My source said Commodore Steve Obimpeh chaired the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee. When I called Obimpeh and asked to speak to him on the error-ridden brochure, he said: 'Speak to Stan Dogbe. Speak to Stan Dogbe; he was responsible for the brochure.'

He ended the call before I had time to ask further questions, Manasseh narrated.

When I called Stan Dogbe at 12:59 pm, he did not answer my calls. At 1:05 pm, I sent him a message on WhatsApp and told him what Obimpeh had told me and that I wanted explanation. Even though he read the message, and the application showed he was 'online,' he did not reply.

At 1:52 pm, I sent a reminder, 'Hi, Stan.' WhatsApp again showed that he read the message but did not respond. He has still not responded at the time of posting this article (5:03 pm), Manasseh concluded.

Cost

H. Kwasi Prempeh, a law professor based in the United Sates, was wondering how much money was spent to prepare for the shoddy job.

So how much did it cost us to commission someone to write and edit this anniversary booklet? Who wrote this piece of crap? Poor grammar, poor spelling, bad geography and on and on and on. A shamefully mediocre job, all over, he lamented in a facebook post.

Prof Prempeh is just one of many Ghanaians who have taken to social media to express their disappointments about the event brochure.

How many stages of review, if any, did it go through before it went to press? I would happily have edited this damn thing for them pro bono, as my patriotic contribution to the days celebration. If youre going to sole-source the gig to your cronies and partisans, as is your standard operating procedure, make sure, at least, that they are competent and can do a top-notch job. I guess you choose writers and editors for these jobs the same way you choose DCEs and some Ministers and Deputy Ministers: Competence not required! This is a national disgrace, he stated.

By William Yaw Owusu


H.E. Dr. Aisha Laraba Abdullahi, Commissioner for Political Affairs of the African Union Commission met with H.E. Dr. Fadel Mohammed Jewad, Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs of the League of Arab States, at the LAS Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

The Meeting brought together from the General Secretariat of the LAS: Mr. Zaid Al-Sabban, Director of Africa and Africa-Arab Cooperation, Mrs. Einas Al-Firjani, Director of Migration and Population Policies and representatives from the Department of Human Rights, Civil Socieuty, Elections, International Organizations and Amb. Salih Sahboon, the LAS Head of Delegation to the AU. From the African Union: Amb. Abdulhamid Buzahir, the AU Head of Delegation to the LAS, Amb. Salah S. Hammad, Senior Human Rights Expert and Mr. Nadir Fath-Alaleem, Senior Political Officer from the AU Delegation to the LAS.

The two sides reiterated their commitment to enhancing the Africa-Arab Cooperation in different fields with special focus on the promotion of peace and security, democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law in Africa and the Arab world. Both parties stated the need to strengthen the cooperation based on the outcomes of the Africa-Arab Summit of 2010, which was held in Sirte, Libya and the Summit of 2013 in Kuwait and committed to institute this political dialogue through annual meetings to discuss issues of mutual interest for both regions.

During the dialogue, the two sides also discussed issues related to on-going conflict in Africa and the Arab world, migration, internally displaced persons and the involvement of the civil society in the work of both organizations.

Upon conclusion of the meeting, a joint Communique highlighting the areas of cooperation and collaboration between the African Union and League of Arab States was issued.
The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region, Said Djinnit, participated in the second General Assembly Meeting of the Regional Civil Society Forum of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Forum comprises National Civil Society representatives elected in the ICGLR Countries with the aim to provide Civil Society a voice and platform for coordinated actions in the region.

Special Envoy Djinnit called on the Regional Civil Society Forum to foster a regional approach to forge cohesive and effective civil society support to regional efforts to address the challenges confronting the Great Lakes region. As entities enjoying legal recognition from the national civil society groups, I urge you to work to correct any mistrust or misperception on your roles in order to foster effective collaboration with your various governments, Mr. Djinnit told the gathering. The Special Envoy's call was echoed by the Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Honorable Augustine Mahiga who appealed to the members of the forum to forge alliance with governments in the region in order to become catalysts for change.

Since 2013, the Office of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region has funded series of national civil Society consultations on the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region. My presence here is testimony of my personal commitment and of my office's continued support to your efforts to ensure that civil society of the region play a greater role in the positive transformation that the Great Lakes region is witnessing, Mr. Djinnit reiterated.

More than 60 Civil Society representatives from the 12 ICGLR member states attended the Second General Assembly Meeting. Eight (8) ICGLR countries have already elected their National Civil Society representatives, including the DRC, Central African Republic (CAR), Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Four (4) remaining countries are yet to elect their representatives. These are Angola, Burundi, Republic of Congo, and Sudan.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Ghanas Foreign Minister, Ms. Hanna Tetteh, who also doubles as Member of Parliament for Awutu-Senya West, ought to be reprimanded and possibly fired from the Mahama cabinet for shamelessly and unethically using her office to solicit a kickback, in the form of a newly constructed elementary school building, from the Chinese government (See  $250K School Block Not My Birthday Gift  Hanna Tetteh Fumes TV3Network.com / Ghanaweb.com 12/29/15).

But I sincerely dont think what am asking here of Parliament and the Flagstaff House will ever happen. At least not anytime soon. The fact of the matter is that Ghanaian politicians, in general, irrespective of ideological suasion or political affiliation, have lost their innocence and sense of shame. Which is why the half-Hungarian, Ghanaian-born is reported to be damning the nations media for accurately exposing what may well be her own version of the MMT bus-branding scam that came to light recently.

That she actively solicited a bribe from the Chinese government, in the form of the building/construction of the Awutu-Senya Junior High School B, a Local Authority or District Assembly School, is reportedly contained in a reactive conniption that she wrote and published on her Facebook Wall. That the keys to the aforesaid school were handed over to the relevant authorities in the presence of Ms. Tetteh, and on the Foreign Ministers birthday, to boot, makes this gift all the more worrisome. I know protocol may not permit him to comment on this scam, but I am still wondering what the reaction of the British High Commissioner, Jon Benjamin, would be.

for instance, in what ways is the alleged solicitation of this naked and patent bribe in the form of an elementary school block, in the very district which Ms. Tetteh represents in Parliament, any different from the importunate solicitation of soli by Ghanaian journalists that Mr. Benjamin has been decrying for some time now? And does not the Foreign Ministers shameless, albeit diplomatic, solicitation of bribery from the government in Beijings local representative in the country all the more damning?

And if, indeed, as widely reported by the national media, the Chinese Ambassador involved in this patent diplomatic scam was captured on digital/magnetic tape to be saying that the newly reconstructed school was intended as a birthday gift to Ms. Tetteh, then what moral right or authority has the recipient to contradict the giver? This is rather ungrateful on the part of the recipient and inexcusably disrespectful.

We must also state here for the record that the Chinese are not well known for giving grants, even in the quite laudable form of the reconstructed Awutu-Senya West JHS B District Assembly with no strings attached. Such gifts are often given with the objective of their being reciprocated in one form of favor or another, and so it is rather preposterous, if not downright silly, for Ms. Tetteh to insist that this veritable Chinese Gift Horse was given purely out of the kind heartedness of the Chinese government. We must also promptly and poignantly note that perhaps there are more poor people that needed the money spent on the Awutu-Senya West elementary school in question than the entire population of the African continent.

Then also, we need to highlight the fact that in recent years the Chinese government has been emotionally embroiled in a diplomatic row with the Mahama government over the flagrantly predatory activities of its citizens in the form of illegal mining, otherwise known as Galamsey. And so, clearly, the Chinese may be looking for ways to make Ghanaian politicians and leaders amenable/ susceptible to readily opening up the country for such unarguably destructive predatory activities.

But what makes Ms. Tettehs reaction all the more annoying is the alleged writing on her Facebook Wall, to the effect that The school [in question] is a public schools and not a private property, obviously conveniently forgetting that Ms. Tetteh is herself a public official who has unduly used her public office for private gain in the lead-up to Election 2016, and not the CEO of a private company purely engaged in private entrepreneurial activities. Her provocative reaction also exhibits the profile of a cabinet appointee who may be both intellectually and morally, as well as professionally, unsuited for the heavy-lifting job of Ghanas Foreign Minister.

Then again, who said that President John Dramani Mahama, Ms. Tettehs boss and the man with whom she has been widely linked romantically, is any better qualified to be CEO of Corporation Ghana?

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
The African Union Commission in collaboration with the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR), WHO and other key partners concluded a three day meeting aimed at developing a roadmap for the eradication of Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) in Africa. According to WHO, RHD is the most common cause of acquired heart disease among children in developing countries, and it affects school-aged children in Africa.

Delivering the keynote address, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Dr. Sidiki Mustapha Kaloko reminded participants that the continent was relying on them to ensure that RHD was not a public health problem in Africa. He informed the experts that their efforts to eradicate RHC have not gone unnoticed by the leadership of the continent who take the health of its citizens very seriously. He warned that development in Africa will be impeded if diseases such as RHD continue to cause disability and kill children. Commissioner Kaloko stated that Rheumatic Heart Disease is preventable and treatable, so I am calling upon you to address it as a contribution to our Agenda 2063 adding that health is a key element of the Coninent's developmental framework. The Commissioner later unveiled the Addis Ababa Communique which contained Seven Key Actions to Eradication of Rheumatic Heart Disease in Africa.

In his statement the President of the National Council of the Pan African Society of Cardiology Professor Bongani M. Mayosi reminded the meeting of the burden of RHD in Africa and assured the AUC of technical support. He reiterated his organization's commitment to the in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease across Africa. The representatives of the World Health organisation (WHO) and Novartis Pharmaceuticals pledged their support and commitment to the initiative to eradicate RHD.

The Meeting was held in fulfillment of the mandate of the Conference of African Health Ministers (CAMH6) held in Addis Ababa in 2013 that requested the African Union Commission to develop a mechanism to control non communicable diseases in Africa. This request was further reiterated during the first joint African Union and World Health Organization Ministerial meeting, during which ministers pledged to take action towards controlling NCDs in Africa under the AUC-WHO joint work plan.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

State prosecutors are set to press fresh charges against the two persons standing trial for attempted robbery at Ashaley Botwe, a suburb of Accra.

The two-Salif Abubakar, a beautician and one Yusif Eliasu, a student of Radford University were being held by the police for allegedly robbing one Socrates Theodore Atieku, a doctor.

Although the accused persons were charged with conspiracy to rob and attempted robbery, Salif was also in the dock for allegedly causing harm to the complainant on December 15, 2015 at Sahara-Ashaley Botwe.

However, the prosecution in the case which was being heard at an Accra Circuit Court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh withdrew the charges leading to the discharge of the accused persons.

But the freedom of the accused persons was short-lived as they were re-arrested for fresh charges of attempted murder.

The two are expected to be arraigned before an Accra Magistrate Court this week over possible charges of conspiracy to murder or attempted murder.

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The accused persons are friends who allegedly hatched a plan to attack Atieku, lock him in a room and take money from him because Yusif claims he was cheated in a business deal by Atieku. The victim had denied any business transaction.

On the day of the incident, Yusif who knew the house of Atieku took Salif there pointed out the house to him and Salif entered.

In the hall of Atieku, Salif who had a machete in his T-shirt requested for water but just as the complainant was going to his kitchen for it, the accused pulled put the cutlass and inflicted a wound on his head.

Atieku struggled with Salif but he managed to escape.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson

[email protected]


08.03.2016 LISTEN

Osabarima Adu Gyamfi III, Chief of Akyem Okumaning in the Denkyembour District of the Eastern Region, has appealed to his subjects to vote for Mercy Adu Gyamfi Bello, the New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate for Akwatia in the upcoming general elections.

He was speaking as the guest of honour at the official launch of Friends of Ama Sey Fun Club (FAMASEY) at Akyem Okumaning. The chief used the occasion to urge the people to vote for the woman to represent the constituency saying, We need to change things, and not be static about how we vote to elect our leaders.

The chief said Okumaning has not benefitted much from successive governments though they were noted for voting in a particular direction, and pointed out that we cast vote with the hope to gain some benefits which has not been the case for us.

Chiefs of Aboabo, Apraku, and a number of queen mothers under Osabarima Adu Gyamfi's jurisdiction, pledged their unflinching support to Mercy Adu Gyamfi popularly called Ama Sey to become the next Member of Parliament.

Giving the welcome address, Emmanuel Kusi, Chairman of FAMASEY of Okumaning branch, promised that Okumaning's pattern of voting would change in 2016 because of the deceit by the incumbent MP, Baba Jamal, who has taken the people for granted.

According to him, the town saw major improvement under the erstwhile NPP government, and said Okumaning must move forward hence the need for change in government come November, this year.

FAMASEY's primary focus, according to its leadership, is to push and ensure that Ama Sey becomes the next Member of Parliament for Akwatia Constituency.

Alhaji Bello Sey, Chairman of the occasion, said he was overwhelmed by the massive support for his beloved wife, and promised to assist the fun club in everything it plans to do to ensure victory for NPP.

Accompanying Ama Sey were Alhaji Baba Yakubu, Constituency chairman, Mr Ansong Ojukwu, second vice chairman, Eugene Opoku-Acheampong, secretary, Mr Oppong, assistant secretary, Daakye Obeng-Danquah, communication officer, Madam Grace Boatemaa, women's organiser, and Auntie Mary, deputy women's organiser.
Ebenezer Tetteh Amanor

08.03.2016 LISTEN

The chairman of the Great Ningo Youth Association in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region has been arrested by the Prampram District Police for allegedly raping a woman.

Ebenezer Tetteh Amanor, 36-year-old teacher, was said to have entered the room of his drinking bar attendant at Ningo and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.

He was apprehended on February 24, 2016 after the woman lodged a formal complaint with the police on February 21.

Mr. Amanor, according to information, went to the home of the victim at about 10:00pm on February 18 when the woman had finished bathing and was dressing to get ready to sleep.

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He quickly entered the room of the woman, undressed her and tore her underwear before forcibly having sex with her.

The woman was said to have screamed for help but nobody came to her rescue.

Confirming the incident to DAILY GUIDE, Prampram District Police Commander, DSP Paul Bampoe, stated that the victim had been issued with medical report form to attend hospital for examination.

Tetteh Amanor denied raping the woman during police interrogation, explaining that he has been in an amorous relationship with the woman for a very long time and that the victim willingly took part in the sexual activity.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the youth has been arraigned before court, as investigation continues.

From Vincent Kubi, Ningo


08.03.2016 LISTEN

Manufacturers and importers were required to emboss tax stamps on their products before releasing them onto the market from 7th March 2016.

That followed the implementation of the excise tax stamp policy by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

While some manufacturers were expected to start complying with the directive from yesterday, importers who cleared their goods at the ports could wait a bit longer following the strike by some business organizations including freight forwarders and the importers and exporters association.

The business organizations are challenging the policy, citing inadequate consultation, an increased cost of operation, as well as excessive delays at the ports as their basis.

An executive of the Technical Committee of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, John Mantey told Citi Business News that I don't even know the idea behind that whether to protect the local consumer or whom are we protecting? Every single box you have to put a stamp on it; one person brings in a machine, sets it somewhere now go to the port, the queues there, get those goods on the truck you take them to another place and then you have to offload them-labour, you will have to pay for that, John Mantey remarked.

Where are we going as a country? The standard board's stamp is on every single item that is imported into the country. Let's think about these things and make sure something better is done. This tax stamp is a no-no for anyone, he stated.

 Citifmonline


Dr. Zenator A. Rawlings

08.03.2016 LISTEN

A group calling itself Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is putting a lot of pressure on Dr. Zenator A. Rawlings, daughter of Ex-President J.J. Rawlings, to step aside as the party's parliamentary candidate in the constituency for the November general election.

According to the members, Dr Rawlings has been found not to be duly registered by the Electoral Commission (EC) and therefore did not qualify to contest on the ticket of the party during the primary last year.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by one Nana Kwesi Aburam-Korankye, the convener of the group, also said that they were reliably informed that plans were being hatched to indefinitely suspend the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Nii Armah Ashietey, and one Nii John Coleman from the party to pave way for Zenator Rawlings to proceed with her parliamentary ambition undisturbed.

They are planning to suspend Hon. Nii Armah Ashietey and Nii John Coleman so that after the EC opens the register for the limited registration in April, our sister will register and the situation will be manipulated for her to go unopposed.

We assure those planning this that..this is the great NDC built on accountability, probity and transparency, the group cautioned.

Our founder is the great Jerry John Rawlings. He definitely and certainly will not orchestrate or allow persons to orchestrate the victimization of innocent party warriors who have toiled for this party, simply to allow his ineligible daughter to run for Klottey Korle, they added.

We are disappointed in the national, regional and constituency executives of our party who presided over their mandated task of vetting persons who were interested in representing our party in this years general election and allowed Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings whom they ought to have known right from the start did not qualify per the rules of the party, the constitution of the party, and the Constitution of Ghana, to contest the November NDC parliamentary primary.

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They insisted that it is this lapse that has dragged the name of our party into disrepute and today, our party is being discussed in the media in a negative light.

Members of the Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network claimed they sighted the letter from the Electoral Commission which revealed that Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings is not a registered voter on the Electoral Commissions National Voter Register.

This news does not surprise some of us since we have, from the very beginning, tried to draw the attention of our partys structures to the ineligibility of Zanetor Rawlings to run on our ticket for parliament.

We had our own reservations, and even petitioned the founder of our party who happens to be the father of Zanetor Rawlings to call our sister, his daughter, to order and convince her to step down from her overzealous ambition of running for parliament when she did not qualify per the rules of the party and the country.

There were other attempts by other members of our party in the constituency to correct the wrong Zanetors candidature posed to the fortunes of the party in the constituency, yet all of these good-faith attempts to save the image of our party and that of our sister from ridicule unfortunately fell on deaf ears, the group recalled.

They claimed that Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings deceived the people of Klottey Korle, the NDC and the entire country when she knew that she was unqualified to run for parliament yet went ahead and picked nomination forms, went through the vetting process, initiated a campaign and actually contested for the NDC parliamentary primary last November, adding our dear party and our sister Zanetor will clearly be further embarrassed if she is not called to order.

The group is demanding unqualified apology from Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings to the party, the other contestants and the electorate in Klottey Korle, for taking all of us for granted and wasting our time.

By William Yaw Owusu


08.03.2016 LISTEN

Abdul Rahman Agha educating the mechanics on the genuine and non-genuine Mercedes-Benz spare parts

Silver Star Auto Limited (SSAL), leading automobile company in the country, has organized training workshops for independent Mercedes-Benz garage owners and technicians.

They were trained on how to use genuine Mercedes-Benz spare parts to service vehicles of their clients.

The workshop, held in Kumasi, was aimed at guiding the technicians to distinguish between genuine Mercedes-Benz spare parts and fake ones on the market and the proper way of fixing them.

A team of Silver Star Auto officials, led by Abdul Rahman Agha, Parts Manager, facilitated the workshop.

Mr. Agha said, SSAL wants to develop a good working relationship with these technicians, educate them on the need to use genuine parts and support them to satisfy their customers.

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He disclosed that SSAL, which is the authorised distributor of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Ghana, has the capacity to stock a wide range of genuine servicing parts, noting that Mercedes-Benz spare parts are manufactured with precision and longevity in mind.

Simon S. Gborbidzi, Ashanti Regional Manager of the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), in his remarks, commended Silver Star Auto Limited for organizing the workshop.

He was optimistic the workshop would enhance road safety, explaining that with the use of genuine spare parts, the tendency of having vehicle breakdown which causes road accidents would be low.

Mr Gborbidzi urged vehicle owners to focus on regular maintenance and servicing of their vehicles.

He also appealed to technicians to use genuine spare parts.

A business desk report


08.03.2016 LISTEN

In an interview with Al Jazeera Englishs flagship current affairs show, UpFront, Vicente Fox, former Mexican president, strongly criticised Donald Trump, saying he is absolutely a racist.

Every word that he says goes in that direction, he told UpFront host Mehdi Hasan, adding that his discriminatory speech is creating violence within the same United States and that "all brown and Afro-Americans and everybody else is insignificant to him.

Fox, who served as Mexicos president from 2000 to 2006, has been exceptionally outspoken and harsh towards Trump. During his interview with UpFront, he reiterated his concern, saying Trump is so arrogant, so ego-centered, so vain and empty in his head.

I see Mr. Trump as a false prophet, he added. He is going to bring that great nation to the desert, to hunger.

In recent interviews, Fox has likened Trump to Adolf Hitler and also made headlines responding emphatically to Trumps campaign promise to build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants out of the US. Trump has asked Fox to apologize for swearing at him, but when asked if he plans to apologize, he told UpFront, Who really needs to apologise is him, to all the people he has offended.

On the subject of Trumps business pedigree and prowess, Fox offered a harsh critique, saying, The amount of money he got, hes inherited it, so he is a junior.

His economic knowledge is extremely poor, he added. He has hired undocumented, he took to bankruptcy a casino and many other things. Its very difficult to understand how he made so much money.

Fox also lamented Trump's ignorant position on keeping Mexicans out of the US and souring trade relations.

He is not understanding that by trading we both win, he said. He is not understanding that Mexico buys to the United States every year millions of US dollars. This means millions of jobs for US citizens, he said.

On Trumps proposal to tax cars imported from Mexico, Fox asked what the consumers of the car say when the car price increases by 20%?

It's very stupid what he is saying, he added.

Watch the full eight-minute interview below

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08.03.2016 LISTEN

[08 March 2016] Airtel Business, the Enterprise solutions sub brand of Airtel Ghana will on Thursday 10th March host its second SME breakfast series for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) within the Kumasi Metropolis.

The Breakfast series, under the theme Innovation  the wheels for driving todays business is aimed at empowering SMEs through knowledge sharing and capacity building. The session will cover topics such as harnessing the transformational power of technology to grow businesses, Human Resource management processes and best practice in financing for SMEs amongst others.

The event is expected to attract over 100 business owners and decision makers from the business community in Kumasi who will also benefit from the cross fertilization of ideas as they engage with other business owners and the team from Airtel Ghana. Said Richard Adiase, Ag. Head of Airtel Business.

He continued, Through this platform, we are bringing business owners across different sectors together to connect and engage with each other. We will also be exposing them to the wide array of bespoke communication, connectivity and collaborative solutions under our suite of unparalleled solutions and services for SMEs. This is a must attend event for all small and medium sized businesses in Kumasi.

Airtel Business provides custom-made end-to-end business and enterprise solutions with cutting-edge technology that delivers great value propositions for all forms of businesses  large, medium and small enterprises.

Airtel Business solutions for SMEs includes, hybrid solutions to provide unmatched value and reduced cost, fixed voice for business contact lines, Airtel money for M-commerce, Airtel internet for all connectivity needs and Audio conference for business collaboration.

The Breakfast series was instituted by the Smartphone Network to empower businesses and provide a platform for business owners and senior business people to engage and network.

Airtel is Ghanas fastest growing telecom network and leader in data and digital innovation offering unparalleled telecommunications and lifestyle products and services to its customers.

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 335 million customers across its operations at the end of August 2015. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

About Airtel in Africa

Airtel is driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all. Airtel has 17 operations in Africa: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Airtel International is a Bharti Airtel company. For more information, please visit www.airtel.com, or like the Airtel Ghana Facebook page via www.facebook.com/airtelgh or follow us on Twitter via the handle @airtelghana.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Headmistress of Old Tafo Presby school , Theresa Oduro Safoa has expressed gratitude to the late Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu for his assistance to the school over the years and has also urged the police to bring the killers to book.

She said this at a ceremony to commission a 10-seater water closet toilet facility which was financed by the late MP at Akyem Old Tafo in the Abuakwa North constituency .

"We have being here without toilet facility since the school was established in 1890" She indicated.

The District Pastor of Old Tafo Presbyterian church, Rev. Maxwell Amagyei Antwi also expressed gratitude to the late statesman for his enormous support to the community and the constituency in general.

"He has been a true statesman to everybody and I hope God replaces him with someone who can continue the good legacy he (J.B) had left" He retriated.

He said the facility will go a long way to ease the problems both pupils and teachers go through in responding to their nature's call.

He, therefore, urged the school authorities to take good care of the facility in order to expand its life span .
08.03.2016 LISTEN

In the NPP today, the only god in it who has never made any mistakes at all and done anything wrong is Nana Akufo-Addo. He is responsible for anything good that happened in the NPP but has no hand in anything bad that happened. If you dare hold Nana Addo responsible for anything bad in the NPP, you will get people tearing you up like you are the biggest fool on earth. Meanwhile, that is the main problem in the party and that is pushing the party slowly to another election defeat in 2016.

When you read the NPP newspapers and listen to their radio stations, all you hear is that Nana Akufo-Addo helped President John Kuffour to win both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections but President Kuffour caused the defeat of Nana Akufo Addo in 2008 and Alan Kyeremanteng also caused the defeat of Nana in the 2012 Presidential elections. When Nana Addo ignorantly took Ghana to the Supreme Court and wasted everybodys time including causing heavy financial loss to the state, it was all Dr. Afari-Gyans fault and when he lost the case at the Supreme Court, it was Judge Atugubas fault. Kwabena Agyapong and Paul Afoko were responsible for all the troubles that were going on in the NPP.

In the presidential primaries when Nana Addo corrupted all the delegates with GHC600, 000.00, his supporters jumped to his defense and named it donation and hailed Nana for coming out to rescue the party from financial troubles. When people went and wanted to butcher Afoko and Agyapong at the party headquarters, everybody in Ghana knew whose group went and did that and everybody knew who was behind that shameless and evil act, yet Nana Addos supporters came forward and described it as an NPP internal affairs and that such occurrences happen in all political parties. Nana Akufo-Addo has never been responsible for anything bad that has ever happened in the NPP. It is always somebody else who did it. Blame either President Kuffour, Afoko, Agyapong, NDC thugs, Dr. Afari-Gyan or somebody!

I have personally read most of Dr. Arthur Kennedys opinions on the NPP including the one he titled Confusion over mandates in the NPP In Dr. Kennedys opinion, and what I take from it is that hold Nana Akufo-Addo responsible too When you read his book Chasing the elephant to the bush he seems to suggest the same thing. That is, let us hold somebody within our party responsible for our failures rather than always blaming some foreign entity, who may not even know what we are talking about.

When was the first or last time the NPP held Nana Akufo-Addo responsible for any election defeat of the party? Does it not bother you if President John Mahama campaigned for just 40 days to become President as against Nana Akufo-Addo who had campaigned for 12 years and still lost? You dont get worried if President Mahama has now campaigned for 4 years? Are you not scared?

Dr. Arthur Kennedy on Akwaaba Radio in the USA on May 12, 2015 stated that during the National Executive delegates meeting in Tamale, Nana Addo might have had some people in mind that he had wished they won the Chairman and the General Secretary positions but they did not win. Paul Afoko or Kwabena Agyapong might also have had somebody in mind that they had wished he won the flag bearer position for the party but he also did not win. He continued to say now those elections are over and what the leader (flag bearer) of the party needs to do is to bring all parties on board for the common good of the party.

Unfortunately, now everybody is blaming Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong for the confused use of mandate in the NPP, instead of putting the unity of the party squarely on the leader of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo. If Nana Akufo-Addo cannot and does not work with just two members of his own party, how could he work with over 200 NDC Parliamentarians? The NPP is always blaming the wrong people for their troubles when the real causer of all these troubles is walking free without any blame and accountability. You see, that is the main problem with the NPP. The earlier they fix this problem, the better it will be for them.

On May 11, 2015 I heard Hon. Kennedy Agyapong on Asempa FM in Ghana, saying that Dr. Arthur Kennedy is living comfortably in the US and writing all sorts of things against Nana Akufo-Addo, when in actual fact he (Dr. Kennedy) does not know all the efforts Nana has been putting in place to resolve the problems in the NPP. He continued to say that all the efforts Nana Addo has put in place for the unity of the party has not worked and Dr. Kennedy should know that. Wow! Wonders shall never end.

My question to Hon. Kennedy Agyapong and my fellow Ghanaians is that if Nana Akufo-Addo has been doing everything in his power and wisdom to resolve the problems in the NPP and they have not worked, how can he (Nana Addo) tell Ghanaians that he has the magic solutions to all the problems Ghana has? Has Nana already deceived Ghanaians? If Nana Addo cannot unite and solve the problems of 500,000 members of his party, how could he go around the country and say he can solve all the problems of 25 million people? If Nana Addo cannot solve a basic and simple problem in his party, how could he solve the complicated problems of a country? These are serious questions Ghanaians should ask themselves as they go to the polls in November 2016. It is not enough if a clergy tells you lets vote the NDC out but did not say who we should vote them in. If you are not careful, you will vote the NDC out but the one who is coming would rather compound your problems because they cannot even put their house in order. The devil you know is better than the angel you dont know. Take this advice.

My take is, until the NPP begins to hold Nana Akufo-Addo responsible for all the troubles and problems in the party now and in the future, they should forget about election 2016 and all future elections in Ghana. If Nana Akufo-Addo has done everything to solve the simple problems in the NPP which started in 2008, and it has not worked, (per Hon. Ken Agyapong) why shout on mountain top blaming President John Mahama for not being able to solve the complicated energy problems in Ghana which started in the 80s? Meanwhile, President John Mahama has said former Presidents managed the energy crisis but he will fix it. This is another promise the President has kept. Has Nana Akufo-Addo come out to set a date when he will fix (not manage) the simple troubles and problems in the NPP? Food for thought.

If I were a member of the NPP, I will not just push this article and all the opinions by Dr. Arthur Kennedy away, but I will start to ask myself certain questions and will begin a process of holding Nana Akufo-Addo responsible for every bad thing that is going on in the NPP including our serial electoral defeats. This way instead of saying Yegye Yeman meaning we want our country back, you will begin to say Yegye Yen Party meaning we want our party back. NPP has been in the bush for far too long under Nana Akufo-Addo. It is about time a group rises up and save the NPP now!

Lawrence Appiah-Osei (Protocol)

Chairman

Friends of John Dramani Mahama (USA Chapter)

[email protected]

703-400-1621
Tunis (AFP) - Tunisian security forces searched for jihadists near the Libyan border on Tuesday after a deadly raid the authorities described as an unprecedented assault by the Islamic State group.

Analysts said Monday's attacks show that jihadists are keen to spread their influence from Libya to Tunisia and to set up a new stronghold in the country.

Prime Minister Habib Essid said about 50 extremists were believed to have taken part in the coordinated dawn attacks on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts in the border town of Ben Guerdane.

He said that 36 attackers had been killed and seven captured in a fierce firefight that also saw the deaths of seven civilians and 12 security force personnel.

Essid told a news conference that the Islamists "murdered one internal security force member in his own home".

He said three civilians and 14 security personnel were also wounded.

"The (security forces') reaction was rapid and strong. We won a battle and are prepared for any others," Essid said.

"Now they know Tunisia is no easy pushover and that it is not so simple to set up an emirate in Ben Guerdane."

On Monday, Essid said that the operation's aim had been to create a "Daesh (IS) emirate" in the town.

Michael Ayari, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, agreed, saying the attacks were an "extension of the armed conflict so far confined to Libya".

Some IS jihadists "consider that Ben Guerdane could become a strategic 'liberated' zone that would include southeastern Tunisia and the Tripoli region," he said.

- Manhunt and curfew -

Interior ministry spokesman Yasser Mesbah said the search for any attackers still at large was continuing in the border area.

He said a nighttime curfew imposed in the town after the attack had been well respected and that the situation was "stable".

Essid also called for vigilance and promised a full investigation.

"There are lessons to be learned from this terrorist attack. There will be a thorough assessment of what happened, and we will draw all the conclusions," Essid said.

"It may be that there was a failure at a certain level, that of intelligence, other elements."

Carnegie centre researcher Hamza Meddeb said the attacks could have been to avenge the killing of dozens of people last month in a US air strike on an IS training camp near the Libyan city of Sabratha.

The city lies just 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Tunisia's border and several Tunisian extremists were said to have been killed in the US raid.

"Some wounded jihadists had said (after the raid) that IS would seek revenge by carrying out attacks in Tunisia," said Meddeb.

A US official has said one of those "likely killed" in the February air strike was Noureddine Chouchane, a senior IS operative behind attacks in Tunisia.

- 'Exterminate these rats' -

On Monday, President Beji Caid Essebsi described the attack as "unprecedented" and was "maybe aimed at controlling" the border region, vowing to "exterminate these rats".

The United States and the European Union also condemned the attacks, with Washington offering to help Tunis confront extremists.

Residents said the assailants appeared to be natives of the region.

They stopped people, checked their ID cards apparently to seek out members of the security forces, and announced their brief takeover of Ben Guerdane as "liberators".

On Tuesday the authorities said the situation in Ben Guerdane was "stable", and that "large quantities" of arms and ammunition had been recovered.

It was the second deadly clash in the border area in less than a week as Tunisia battles to prevent the large number of its citizens who have joined IS in Libya from returning to carry out attacks at home.

Two deadly IS attacks on foreign tourists last year that have dealt a devastating blow to Tunisia's tourism industry are believed to have been planned from Libya.

Jihadists have taken advantage of a power vacuum in Libya since the NATO-backed overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 to set up bases in several areas, including near Sabratha.

Tunisia has built a 200-kilometre (125-mile) barrier that stretches about half the length of its border with Libya in an attempt to stop militant incursions.
Mr Emmanuel who is the CEO of Emmanuel group of companies in the United Kingdom, has come to the rescue of the Ashanti regional library by donating educational books running into hundreds of pounds.

Some of the books donated last night were Science, Geography, Maths, Health, English and History Books for adults students, as well as Dictionaries and story books for children as a gesture for the Ghana independence celebration in the UK.

The business magnate who keeps expanding his wholesale, distribution and retail company has promise to fill the Ashanti Library in three sets of consignments each year, with the first already dispatched to Abigail Fremah Boakye via Ultimate FM 106.9 Kumasi.

As to the essence of supporting the Ashanti Library Book Donation Campaign reach its ultimate goal, Mr Emmanuel said: Well when I heard about it, I thought to myself why not, I grew up in Kumasi and have been to the library couple of times, and to hear that the library is sort of empty without any books and then looking back at how the library has supported us through our childhood, I was a bit sad, so giving back to help the community redeem itself, is the best thing to do.

He further indicated that since the world is moving at a faster speed, scientifically and geographically, there will be the need to grow Ghanas Information, Communication and Technological base rapidly in other not to be left in that direction.

In that he said: The world is changing hence the need to update ourselves in terms of what books our children and students are reading and is more about the science, the geography, the maths, computer and technological literacy.

Miss Abigail Fremah Boakye, the young lady masterminding the campaign to sustain and maintain the library, informed Mr Charles Asare of Angel FM who then contacted Clarke Pentoa, a journalist who is helping to push the campaign further in the United Kingdom to reach its mission.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

When I stood at the New Polo Ground in Accra at midnight on 5 March 1957, within earshot of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, as he whispered to Mr Krobo Edusei, Bepae ma me! (Come and do the opening salutation me!) and heard Krobo respond by yelling with gusto: CHOOOOOBOI!..... CHOOOOOBOI!, to be greeted with probably the loudest YEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII!! ever uttered on earth, I would never have believed that 59 years later, we would have a regime that would pack journalists into a tipper truck for them to cover the independence anniversary of their beloved country.

On that most auspicious day in our country's history, the Press were given special buses  all new and shiny. A special stand was erected for photographers to stand on and be able to get the best shots possible. All I needed to tell the police officers near the special dais on which Dr Nkrumah and other CPP leaders stood, was Reporter! They gave me immediate access by pushing peole away to allow me to pass.

For I lived in a country where people really understood their duty. The police were there to prevent harm being done to our leaders, not to show anyone where power lies. Had they prevented me from getting access to the dais  and thereby being able to tell successive generations what it felt like to be present at the Polo Club at that midnight hour  I would have just walked away with my head held high. But the reporters of the current era do not seem to have any pride.

They are thus treated with very little respect by those who organise public events. Indeed, some of them were violently assaulted whilst covering  a similar independence anniversary parade in 2013. The army's PR department initially lied about what had happened, but later apologised. But no-one was punished as far as the public knew. The sequence was this year's tipper truck! No; 59 years ago, I would never have believed that the journalists of independent Ghana would be among the most servile elements of our society, or that the rulers would look on unconcerned if and when humiliation was inflicted on journalists. After all, Kwame Nkrumah was a journalist! Would there ever have been a Ghana had The Accra Evening News not existed?

I would not have believed, either, that Chiefs, whose predecessors had competently and courageously organised their people to resist foreign invasion after foreign invasion mounted with superior weapons  sometimes led in their resistance by women (one of whom, Yaa Asantewaa, has become a shining icon in our country's history)  would sit down and expect a disinterested Central Government to be the only one to beat off gangs of local and Chinese galamseygold-diggers-cum-fortune-seekers, who use toh-toh-toh-tohmachines to dig for gold in the rivers from which human beings get the water which they must drink in order to live!

Is this the country whose people used ancient kyirem [asafo] formations to prevent their cocoa trees from being cut down, ostensibly to fight against swollen shoot disease? Is this the nation in which the sounding of gong-gong and drum alerts would send men into the bush to look for women who had not returned from their farms and had disappeared (believed raped and killed); and who would also organise night-time patrols to deter burglars from attempting to rob their towns and villages? What has happened to the spirit that once reigned at Aboabo in Kumase? Where are the Amantuor-Mmiensa in Akyem Abuakwa? Where are the Asafo Companies  with their picturesque flags  that taught valour and honour to the young men of the Western and Central Regions?

No, I would never have believed that our people would all be sitting down and watching their rivers die. Birem, Densu, Offin, Prah, Tanoh, Butere, Supong and many others are all at risk of dying completely. One brilliant TV journalist who made a film about the tragedy, Edem Srem, wrote in heart-breaking terms about the lack of concern in the country over this tragic situation:

QUOTE: After our documentary [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6qaiPSbZsQ] was aired, the president and his ministers visited some of the areas where we had shown illegal mining activity to be on the riseBut galamsey is still taking place in various areas, including Twifo Praso, Bempong Agya, Appiah Nkwanta, Kyekyewere, Diaso, Bawdie and Dunkwa-on-Offin. - UNQUOTE (See more at:http://newafricanmagazine.com/ghana-murky-world-galamsey/#sthash.cR4X48KE.dpuf )

NO! On 6 Match 1957, I would never have believed that our independence, which we deemed so valuable that Dr Kwame Nkrumah was so bold as to say that it would be meaningless unless it is linked up with the independence of the whole African continent! would rather so emasculate us and rob us of all common sense that we would sit down and watch with our hands tied behind our backs whist the source of our VERY LIVES  our water bodies  were being violated AND KILLED by foreigners and the local traitors who assist them  for money. And, of course, I would never have believed that one day we would have a President in this country, who. having sworn to safeguard all our lives, tells us, regarding galamsey, that those who destroy our water bodies do so because they want to earn a living!

If, on 6 March, 1957, anyone had told me that we would place education so low on our agenda that one day, children would be going to school under trees -- without desks, blackboards, books or chalk, whilst we made propaganda about supplying schools with laptops, I would have said the person was crazy. Ghana which had introduced fee-free education even before independence? Especially not with a University Professor as Minister of Education and the son of an Nkrumah Minister as President?

No  I would have laughed if someone had told me that we would have radio and television stations that are so intellectually shallow that they would disgrace our entire country by publicising the delusional verbal ejaculations of the likes of Bishop Obinim and Kwaku Bonsam. At Radio Ghana, we didn't publicise religion in the news bulletins. We gave them a slot once a week or so and that was it. So Obinim can turn into a snake or a vulture? Did these fools in the media not see a a sharply-dressed Obinim in a video clip, repeatedly kicking the stomach of a pregnant woman with his shoe? Were they incapable of observing from that slip that Obinim might be a deranged sadist? The poor woman might have believed that the kicks to the stomach would drive witchcraft or an evil spirit out of her unborn child. But what about our radio and television publicisers of Obinim? Is this the sort of man who deserves national attention?

And I would never have believed that in a Ghana that has been independent for 59 years, and has developed relations with Interpol, the FBI, Scotland Yard and many other first-class detection agencies,in the world the police would be so toothless and unprofessional that when an old woman suffering from dementia is burnt alive publicly for merely mistaking someone else's bedroom for her own,they would not be able to bring the offenders to book in five years and four months! I refer to this report in the Daily Graphicof 26 November 2010:

QUOTE: Grandma Set Ablaze To Exorcise Witchcraft

A 72-year-old grandmother [Nana Ama Hemmah] suffered one of the most barbaric of deaths when she was burnt alive by a mob at Tema Site 15, after being accused of being a witch.....

Five people who allegedly tortured and extracted the confessions of witchcraft from Ama Hemmah before drenching her in [kerosine] and setting her ablaze have been arrested by the Tema Police.......

Two of the suspects are Samuel Ghunney, a 50-year-old photographer, and Pastor Samuel Fletcher Sagoe, 55, [an] evangelist. The rest are Emelia Opoku, 37, Nancy Nana Ama Akrofie, 46, and Mary Sagoe, 52, all unemployed.

Briefing the Daily Graphic on the incident, the Tema Regional Police Commander, Mr Augustine Gyening, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said [that at] about 10 a.m. on November 20, 2010, Samuel Fletcher Sagoe visited his sister (Emelia Opoku) at Site 15, a suburb of Tema Community 1, and saw Madam Hemmah sitting in Emelias bedroom at a time Emelia Opoku had sent her children to school.

... Samuel [Fletcher Sagoe] raised an alarm, attracting the attention of the principal suspect, Samuel Ghunney, and [other] people  The suspects claimed that Mad. Hemmah was a known witch in the area and subjected her to severe torture, compelling her to confess [to] being a witch. ...After extracting the confession,... Ghunney asked Emelia Opoku for a gallon of kerosene and, with the help of his accomplices, poured it all over [Madam Hemmah] and set her ablaze. . A student-nurse, Deborah Pearl Adumoah, who chanced upon the barbaric act, rescued Mad. Hemmah and sent her to the Community One Police Station, from where she was transferred to the Tema General Hospital, but she died the following day.

In their [statement made under caution], the suspects denied the offence and explained that they poured anointing oil on the old woman and [that] it caught fire when they offered prayers to exorcise the demon from her. UNQUOTE

http://www.Graphic.com.gh /news/page.php?news=10378

Anointing oil? My backside!

Buck up, Ghanaians of 2016. A lot of confidence was invested in you in 1957. Do not let those who believed in you as the future builders opf the nation they won back for you from the British colonialists, gnash their teeth and wring their hands with sadness, as they watch you from that far-away place they have now gone to, from where they can never return.
Staff of the Information Service Department say they played no role in the production of an error-ridden Independence Day brochure, which has embarrassed government.

They are angry for being made to take the blame for the errors that included addressing the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta as President of the Republic of Ghana.

Hooting, shouting, and chanting minutes before a press conference, the workers say they cannot accept responsibility for the errors.

This sharply contradicts that of the departments acting director Francis Kwarteng Arthur who issued an apology Monday for what he called "misrepresentations."

Angered by the decision, the workers abandoned work Tuesday and were engaged in a meeting with management and their Director.

ISD was not involved in the printing. We dont know anything about it. We dont know how it was printed.so whoever did the job must come out to apologise.

We cannot apologise for what we didnt do a female staff screamed at Joy News Manasseh Azure.

The workers are shocked at the Acting Director for exposing his staff to embarrassment in the media as well as social media after he signed a letter taking responsibility.

Why would he issue an apology? a quizzical-looking staff told Joy News. The staff said they are too demoralised to work and want their professional integrity cleared following rebuking and insulting commentary in the media and on social media.

In an intriguing twist, Manasseh Azures checks revealed that the letterhead used to issue the apology is different from what the Department uses for its official letters.

Photo: Official ISD letterhead

Further checks at the printing section of ISD revealed that the unit has been printing the brochure for the past five years but did not print this years edition. The unit has not been functioning for some time because of a lack of electricity.

Photo: The workers are waiting at the Communications Ministry for an explanation from the Acting. Director Francis Kwarteng Arthur.

The ISD Director has asked the media to leave the meeting, promising to address journalists after meeting with his agitated staff, although the Director states that nobody in the ISD handled any aspect of the Independence Day brochure.

Fingers are pointing to Presidential staffer Stan Dogbe as the one responsible for the printing of the brochure.

On Sunday, March 7, the Chairman of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, has said questions surrounding the errors in the official anniversary brochure should be directed at Presidential Staffer, Stan Dogbe because he is responsible for the brochure.

Stan Dogbe

Stan Dogbe is yet to respond to text messages containing queries from Manasseh Azure.

In a Facebook comment posted 12 hours ago, Stan Dogbe insinuated that "peace of mind makes the body healthy, but jealousy is like a cancer"

Watch video of workers at ISD head office.



More soon...

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Flagbearer of the People's National Convention, Dr. Edward Nasigire Mahama has assured youths within the Krowor Constituency that there's no need to worry anymore since his government is capable and committed to fix the issues of youth unemployment that has bedeviled the country when voted into power come November 7.

He therefore urges the youths to galvanize support and vote for him massively to win power in November polls.

Dr. Mahama gave the assurance whilst addressing some youths in Nungua near Adogon in the Krowor Constituency of the Greater Accra during a familiarization tour to the area last Sunday.

Most of the youths who listened to Dr. Mahama shared their frustration concerning lack of jobs characterized by undue hardship they've had to battle with each day, appealing for his intervention to end the crisis when given the nod.

Dr. Mahama reiterated his message of hope which revolves around his New Force which is aimed fixing youth unemployment which is a big challenge to the nation hence transforming their future.

Earlier on Dr. Mahama also visited Alajo Seventh-Day Adventist Church to introduce his 'New Force agenda to the youth at function called the Foundation Stone Laying Service Organized by the Church.

He stressed the need for the youth to ensure that the fear of God guides them in doing what is right always. Dr. Mahama urges the youth to vote for him come November 7, pledging he restore life and hope to all those who are afflicted in anyway as a result of bad governance by the current administration.

Meanwhile Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central, Henry Quartey has charged pastors and leaders of other religious bodies to guard against inflammatory remarks when delivering sermons to their patrons. He cautioned the youth to desist from all social vices that seeks to mar the peace Ghana enjoys this election year.
Over the past few years, Russian authorities have been prioritizing media cooperation and the use of soft power to address the falling image of Russia among the political and business elites in Africa.

The authorities have also made persistent efforts to inform the elites and business community about the positive developments and emerging economic opportunities in Russia, but Russian media and policy experts say there is still much room for improvement.

Quite recently, Olga Kulkova, a research fellow at the Center for Studies of Russian-African Relations, Institute for African Studies in Moscow, noted in her opinion article that "in the global struggle for Africa, Russia is sadly far from outpacing its competitors. In terms of stringency of strategic outlook and activeness, the country is seriously lagging behind China, US, EU, India, Brazil."

For example, at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting, both China and Africa have fixed a "China-Africa Press Exchange Center" in China to encourage exchanges and visits between Chinese and African media, and China already supports frequent exchange of correspondents by media organizations of the two sides.

Professor David H. Shinn, an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs George, Washington University, thinks that China Central Television, China Radio International, China Daily, and China's official news service, Xinhua, have made a major media push into Africa. This effort coincides with China's expanding economic and political engagement, including the fact that China is Africa's largest trading partner at more than $200 billion annually,

Shinn, who was a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia (1996-99) and Burkina Faso (1987-90), wrote in an emailed interview with Buziness Africa: "Neither Russia nor the government-controlled media of any other country has made a comparable media outreach effort in Africa. This situation speaks more, however, to the extraordinary effort China is putting into its African media campaign than it does Russia's comparative lack of effort."

Kulkova suggested that "Africa needs broader coverage in Russian media. Leading Russian media agencies should release more topical news items and quality analytical articles about the continent, on-the-spot TV reports in order to adequately collaborate with African partners and attract Russian business to Africa. More quality information about modern Russia should be broadcast in African states. Indisputably, it would take a lot of money and efforts, but the result will pay off."

The 21st century is the century of new technologies bringing international communication to a qualitatively different level, it is a time for new methods of "struggle for the hearts and minds" of African partners. Russia ought to take that into account if it wants to improve the chances for success in Africa. All the leading countries have been doing that quite efficiently for a long time, Kulkova noted.

While many experts say African media seem uninterested in developing links to Russia, Vasily Pushkov, an independent expert on international media relations argues that "it works both ways and more so the two regions are very far from each other. They are not as interconnected as they were during the Cold War era. But, the interest in the media is relatively high right now."

He explained that Russia might have an image problem among African elites, "partly due to the fact that Russia had to somewhat reduce its different development and investment programs in the African continent compared to the Soviet era. There is also a communication problem. Most African media get their global news from the leading Western media outlets, which in turn have a nasty and longstanding habit of always portraying Russia as the world's bogeyman."

Some problems and challenges in developing the media connection to Africa still remain. Pushkov said: "Africa is a huge continent. And it is only fair to remind oneself again and again that it is not a single entity. It has multitude of languages, cultures, nations, customs and regional or global interests. This is something that many people tend to forget when dealing with the continent."

"But this diversity also means that you can not cover the whole continent by firmly establishing yourself in just one part of it. This calls for a very complicated and structured work that requires a lot of resources the amount of which has been significantly reduced by the global financial crisis," Pushkov explained assertively.

He, however, points to positive trend in media cooperation. Last year for instance, Russian media made somewhat of a breakthrough in establishing partnership relations with African media companies.

The main progress was reached during the forum of the heads of the BRICS countries' leading media outlets "Towards creating a common information space for the BRICS countries" which took place in October in Moscow. This resulted in a number of signed cooperation agreements between Russian and South African media companies. Furthermore, leading Russian media outlets have continued their work to expand coverage of events happening on the African continent.

China is leading among the BRICS. During the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in December 2015 in Pretoria, both China and Africa aspire to reach new milestones in many spheres, one of which is to train hundreds of journalists, help them with skills development and skills transfer programs.

According to the official reports, this will provide an opportunity, by using the power of modern media, for advancing the common interest of the two regions in a mutually beneficial way.

For the past few years, Russia has made some efforts to return with investment and business to Africa, but unfortunately only a few of those development projects have been made public.

"Russian media write very little about Africa, what is going on there, what are the social and political dynamics in different parts of the continent. Media and NGOs should make big efforts to increase level of mutual knowledge, which can stimulate interest for each other and lead to increased economic interaction as well," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

"To certain extent," Lukyanov said, "the intensification of non-political contacts may contribute to increased interest. But in Russia's case, the main drivers of any cooperation are more traditional rather than political interests of the state and economic interest of big companies. Soft power has never been a strong side of Russian policy in the post-Soviet era."

But, this trend may be changing. In a foreign policy speech, President Vladimir Putin urged all his Russian ambassadors and diplomats to actively use new technologies to highlight Russian success stories, improve Russia's image and defend its interests abroad, according to Russian daily Kommersant, quoting an official who attended the meeting.

"It's not enough to just crow something once We should explain our positions again and again, using various platforms and new media technologies, until they understand," the official, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, quoted Putin as saying.

According to experts, the level and intensity of cultural influence can be raised by the effective use of soft power, and of course, social media as pointed out by President Putin in his mid-July address to Russian diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But the primary task is for diplomatic representations both in the Russian Federation and inside Africa to recognize these new methods of disseminating information, work with transparency and self-dedication, and keep up their legitimate responsibilities within the policy framework.
The convener of the Civil Society Group, Alert Ghana Media Network, Mr. Fadi Samih Dabbousi, will today 8th March, 2016 launch his new book 'Ghana: 59-Years To Nowhere' a political book reflecting on where Ghana is heading towards as well some solutions to country's woes after 59 years of independence.

The launch comes off at the plush African Regent Hotel today.

The Special Guest of Honour on the bill is H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, Ex-President of the Republic of Ghana.

The book has recieved many endorsements from major political players on the Ghanaian front and has been described as the holy book of today's politics in Ghana.

It carries in its details a road map if well collated can better serve the nation.

It is indeed a must read.

The general public is also reminded to attend and grab their copies at oly GHC50.
The Tema LNG Import, Storage and Regasification Facility (the Tema LNG Facility) will provide the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), in its capacity as National Gas Aggregator, with the ability to secure competitively priced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to supplement indigenous gas, providing significant security of fuel supply and unlocking investment in a new wave of power plant capacity expansion.

The Tema LNG Facility will have the capacity to fuel over 2,000 MW of power generation. LNG will significantly cut fuel costs for Ghana's existing thermal power plants and those which will be developed in the future.

Micoperi is pleased to announce that it has been selected by Quantum Power, in consultation with its Project partner GNPC, as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor to the Tema LNG Facility.

Claudio Bartolotti, Vice President of Micoperi stated: We are delighted to have been selected to execute the EPC for this project of strategic importance, not only for Ghana but also the wider West Africa region. Micoperis established experience in Ghana and in delivering similar projects in other markets ensures execution to the highest international standards.

Matty Vengerik, CEO of Quantum Power, added: Following the rigorous international EPC tender process which we launched last year, Micoperi has emerged as the successful bidder. We look forward to a professional collaboration to ensure the timely commissioning of this strategic facility, which has the full backing of the Government of Ghana.

In February 2016, Quantum Power signed a heads of agreement with GNPC for the construction and operation of the Tema LNG Facility.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

My attention has been drawn to the publication by one Awal Mohammed, a Deputy National Communication Officer, NDC Zongo Caucus on Thursday 3rd March, 2016 alleging that the School Feeding Programme is not the brain-child of NPP and that ... Ghana was denied funding for the second phase 2010 and 2016 because of the malfeasance that took place under Dr Amoako Tuffuor.

I would like the general public to disregard it because it was meant to peddle falsehood for their mischievous political gains.

It must be noted that, the idea of hunger and poverty was just on discussion at the UN.

NEPAD came in on the discussions of hunger and poverty a little later and not specifically on school feeding per se and indeed never stared anything of this nature in Ghana.

It was when Dr. Amoako Tuffuor was invited by the State Department of the US government programme, for future leaders in Africa that he learned and decided to start the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

At a lunch break, they asked him what he was interested in and he said he wanted to visit a school and see the children because he loves children. When he visited one school, he noticed that the children were taking apples and some other foreign foods. So he decided that he could start a similar one in Ghana but with our home grown foods.

Mr. Jeffery Sachs and Mr. Pedro Sanchez, School of Earth Sciences, Columbia University, New York invited him for lunch and he was asked how he wants to fight hunger and poverty in Ghana. This was where he explained that in a country like Ghana, we needed to embark on a large scale farming project guided by the government.

Dr. Tuffuor stood his ground that a developing country can most successfully encourage many small scale farmers whose collective efforts can add up to the equivalent of few large scale farming and there must be a government programme to encourage the good ones to expand their farms with time. He stressed, it would be easier to start small since they are used to it and encouraged to expand with improved management skills and market availability.

They disagreed with him that it should be a small scale but Dr. Tuffuor insisted that it should be small scale for a start.

An extensive discussion started on hunger and poverty especially with regard to children. Dr. Amoako Tuffuor was able to convince them that he is committed to children and would ensure the success of a programme that will fight child hunger and promote wealth at the lowest level of society.

The name Ghana School Feeding Programme was carved by Dr. Amoako Tuffuor. It started as his personal initiative which he later worked through the government to achieve his dream of making it a nationwide programme. The current Office facility at the state house was seized by Dr. Amoako Tuffour for the establishment of the Ghana School Feeding Programme. He furnished the office with his own resources. About 7 offices and a conference room with his own resources:Ipads, tables and chairs, air conditions, stationary, painting, new doors. There was no government budget that can ever be traced in government accounts that took care of this.

Dr Tuffour did this from his own pocket for children and Ghana

It must be noted that, the UN arrangement was a global strategy and there was no specific country strategy and that was what Dr. Amoako Tuffour initiated in Ghana and made it work.

The programme started with ten (10) pilot schools across the regions of Ghana in each region.

After a while, several children started running towards the pilot schools leading to high enrolment in such schools. This gave birth and further confirmed Dr. Amoako Tuffuors conviction that it could become a national program. People started congratulating him across the world, and it eventually became a national programme.

He travelled out of the country to solicit for funds to support the programme. By the time Dr. Amoako Tuffuor left the Ghana School Feeding Programme, about 600,000 pupils were.

In a book donated to Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, Hans Einhoorn highly commended Dr. Amoako Tuffuor for being hard working, innovative and brilliant for making the programme successful.

In a book on a Dutch History of Ghana, Hans Einhoorn, on Sept 14, 2006 wrote:

To my dear friend and partner, Kwame Amoako Tuffuor in great gratitude for his relentless efforts to make Ghana School Feeding Programme a success and for his skillful management of the Ghanaian-Dutch relationship. This means that, even the foreigners were pleased with Dr. Amoako Tuffuors management of the Ghana School Feeding Programme as Executive Chairman.

Price Waterhouse Coopers did not find Dr. Amoako Tuffuor in any malfeasance as the false publication purported. The National Audit Service did not find him in any wrongdoing relating to his job as Executive Chairman of the programme.

The testimonial from Hans Einhoorn shows that there was good management of the Ghana School Feeding Programme at the time that Dr. Amoako Tuffuor was its Executive Chairman.

The Audit report at the time also indicated that he was free from any related malfeasance.

There was no Serious Fraud Office case against him as well.

However, two officials from the programme were invited to the Serious Fraud Office for investigation etc.

The question to this attention seeking false communicator of the NDC is that, why was Dr. Amoako Tuffuor not invited to the Serious Fraud Office but rather praised by even foreigners in their writings?

However, lets not forget that there was a High Court judgment in favor of Dr. Amoako Tuffuor. If he had engaged himself in any misconduct in the course of his duties, both the audit and the Court ruling would have revealed it.

It must be placed on record that nobody could fault Dr. Amoako Tuffuor of inefficiency. He was thought of as a forceful, efficient and full of workable ideas. He was never corrupt as testified by the Auditor Generals department in their report of 2009.

It is painful that for the love of his country, Dr. Tuffuor financed the establishment of the Ghana School Feeding Programme only for a clueless person like Awal, to peddle falsehood as part of the NDCs usual cheap propaganda.

The NDC communicators should therefore desist from misleading Ghanaians and repent from using lies as a tool to propagating their political agenda for election 2016.

I have taken the trouble to investigate about the programme and gotten to know the truth. Its been revealed that the NDC is always lying in their desperate attempt to look good even at the risk of been caught. I dont blame Mr. Awal, even the President of his Party goes about spewing lies about projects that has never seen the light of day, and he is following suit.

Abdul Aziz Yakubu

Social Communicator

Tamale
K. B Asante

08.03.2016 LISTEN

It does not get us very far for anybody to make a comparative analysis of the Ghana of 50 years ago and draw a balance sheet with todays Ghana and conclude that the Nkrumah-led tenure of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) government was far better and more comfortable to live in, as Mr. K. B. Asante is reported to have observed in a Joy-Fm-produced documentary recently (See Ghana Was Better 50 Years Ago  K. B. Asante MyJoyOnline.com /Ghanaweb.com 2/24/16). It is all a matter of relativity or where one stood vis-a-vis the center of State power and governance a half-century ago.

For the nonagenarian Mr. Asante, a former private secretary to President Kwame Nkrumah, life could not have been much better and sweeter under the CPP regime. The problem with this sort of comparison is that even from 2000 to 2009, when the Kufuor-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held the reins of governance, Ghana was much and far better than it had been under 20 years of the Rawlings dictatorship. Under President Kufuor, the countrys economy had expanded at least four-fold; Ghana had also healthily transitioned from the intellectually stultifying culture of silence to an unprecedented era of free speech that had not even existed under the Nkrumah regime.

Of course, the countrys population had also increased exponentially, which means that Mr. Kufuor had a much more complex problem to deal with. Indeed, contrary to what the former Presiding Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) would have his audiences believe, life in Ghana could not have been much happier if you found yourself on the wrong side of the political divide, which simply means that you were not a card carrying member of the so-called Convention Peoples Party. And if you were a formidable political force to reckon with, such as Dr. J. B. Danquah, you would have been deemed a national security threat because you had dared to question a policy initiative or an edict issued from either the Osu Castle or the Flagstaff House by the proverbial African Show Boy.

I also dont know that the sort of media censorship that prevailed under most of Nkrumahs tenure fostered the requisite intellectual and cultural ferment necessary for the healthy and rapid development of the country. For example, by 1963, not a single privately owned newspaper was published anywhere in the country, with the last of such healthy alternative media outlet, The Ashanti Pioneer, having been summarily shuttered by the issuance of an edict from the Flagstaff House. Indeed, at least during the next two decades subsequent to his landmark and auspicious overthrow, the extent of the deleterious impact of censorship under the CPP regime on the creative production of the Ghanaian writer was still a major discursive subject at major regional and international conferences. This was because a diddly little had been written and published in Ghana that favorably compared with the literary output of other writers on the continent.

To-date, Ghana has not produced any literary artists of global heft and stature like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa ThiongO, for some ready examples, with the possible exception of Ayi Kwei Armah. For the average teenager in the countryside or the rural community, other than the enforced indoctrination of the Cult of Nkrumah Worship, there was not much to talk about in terms of a healthy moral and psychological development. Nkrumah was Der Fuhrer, the heroic political equivalent of Adolf Hitler; and, indeed, the entire establishment of the Young Pioneer Movement (YPM) was modeled after a youth movement of the same name that had existed under Hitlers Third Reich.

And so it is not clear precisely what Mr. Asante means by the prevalence of a comfortable existence under Kwame Nkrumah. Indeed, by the beginning of 1961, the cost living for the average Ghanaian worker which had already become insufferably prohibitive would be further aggravated when unionized government employees suffered a 10-percent deduction of their salaries and wages at source. This politically extortionate measure was aimed at underwriting the obscenely profligate lifestyle of CPP movers and shakers.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Accra, GHANA  U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry & Analysis Marcus Jadotte will arrive in Ghana Wednesday, March 9, as part of a three-country education trade mission to Africa. The centerpiece of the visit will be the USA Higher Education Student Fair, to be held Thursday, March 10, from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Accra Airport Hotel. Twenty-five U.S. colleges and universities will be recruiting students to study in the United States.

Two of the institutions, McNeese State University and the San Mateo Colleges of Silicon Valley, have specifically announced scholarships that will be available to qualified students who attend the fair.

Students who are seeking to enroll in bachelors, masters or doctoral programs in the United States can register to attend the fair by visiting EventBrite.com and browsing to USA Education Fair Accra. The registration link is also available on the U.S. Embassy Facebook page at www.facebook.com/usembassyghana.

The United States remains the destination of choice in higher education according to the most recent Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, which tracks global student trends. In the 2014-15 academic year, the United States hosted nearly one million international students, almost double the number hosted by the United Kingdom, the second leading destination country.

Last year, the number of Ghanaians studying in the United States increased 6.3 percent. Ghana surpassed Kenya to become the second largest sender of students from Africa, trailing only Nigeria. Currently, more than 3,100 Ghanaian students are spread among 600 universities and colleges in all 50 American states. U.S.-Ghana educational exchange is mutual: Ghana is a popular study abroad destination for Americans, as well, ranking second in Africa, after South Africa, with more than 2,300 Americans earning credit at Ghanaian universities last year.

As the U.S. government works to increase the number of students from Sub-Saharan Africa who study in the United States, this mission offers the delegation the opportunity to interact with students, learn more about their educational goals and interests, and share opportunities that U.S. institutions have available.

Africa presents a number of opportunities for U.S. institutions seeking to globalize their campuses, said Assistant Secretary Jadotte. Outwardly mobile students make up 25 percent of all students on the African continentthe highest rate in the world. Enhancing education and expanding study abroad opportunities for African studentsfuture leaders and innovatorsbetter prepares young people for the 21st century global workforce and economic opportunities.

The education trade mission delegation provides a diverse cross section of higher education in the United States. Included in the group are schools from across the United States that vary in size and type including community colleges; universities with undergraduate and graduate degree programs; and institutions that offer an array of specialty degrees.

The delegation comprises representatives from:

Berkeley College  New York, N.Y.

California State University, Bakersfield  Bakersfield, Calif.

Chemeketa Community College  Salem, Ore.

Columbia College Chicago  Chicago, Ill.

Emerson College  Boston, Mass.

Foothill-DeAnza Community Colleges  Los Altos Hills, Calif.

The Graduate School, University of Florida  Gainesville, Fla.

Huston-Tillotson University  Austin, Texas

Indiana University South Bend  South Bend, Ind.

Loyola University, Chicago School of Law  Chicago, Ill.

Maryville University  St. Louis, Mo.

McNeese State University  Lake Charles, La.

Michigan State University  East Lansing, Mich.

Murray State University  Murray, Ky.

Northern Kentucky University  Highland Heights, Ky.

San Mateo County Community College District  San Mateo, Calif.

Santa Rosa Junior College  Santa Rosa, Calif.

Schiller International University  Largo, Fla.

University of Arizona  Tucson, Ariz.

University of California, Irvine  Irvine, Calif.

University of California, San Diego  La Jolla, Calif.

University of Delaware  Newark, Del.

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor  Belton, Texas

West Virginia University  Morgantown, W.Va.

Wheeling Jesuit University  Wheeling, W.Va.

The U.S. government runs a network of 400 EducationUSA Centers in 170 countries to provide impartial advice to those seeking to study in the United States. Two EducationUSA Centers are located in Ghana, one at the U.S. Embassy in Accra and the second at Ace Consult in Kumasi. Individuals interested in group information sessions and one-on-one advising should visit ghana.usembassy.gov/educational_advising.html (Accra) or educationusa.state.gov/centers/educationusa-kumasi (Kumasi).
The largest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has jumped to the defence of its Presidential Candidate Nana Akufo Addo insisting that he dressed properly to Ghanas 59th Independence anniversary event.

According to the party, a discussion by members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) focused on what Nana Akufo Addo wore to the event amounts to cheapening Ghanas political discourse.

The three term Presidential candidate has come under a lot of flak from members of the NDC for what they describe as inappropriate dressing of Nana Akufo Addo to perhaps the most important event on the countrys calendar.

He wore a white linen shirt over black trousers to the event, but his opponents who have described his attire as disappointing were of the view that he could have dressed more formal to the occasion which was attended by the Presidents of Guinea Bissau and Kenya, Jose Mario Vaz and Uhuru Muigai, and several other dignitaries including the diplomatic corps.

But speaking on Neat FM Tuesday, a deputy Director of Communications of the NPP, Anthony Karbo stated that Akufo Addo couldnt have gotten it wrong with his attire to the event.

He said the NDC members who have launched an attack on the NPP distinguished Presidential candidate should teach their senior officers in government fashion if they have any knowledge in fashion.

President Mahama then as a Vice President, used to wear polo shirts to official functions, it was the NDC people who came out to say the Vice President was not dressing well and he had to change. If the NDC have to teach anybody fashion, they should teach themselves. As far as we are concerned our Presidential candidate was properly dressed for the occasion he was in a plain white linen shirt and you know how linen tops are, when you sit in a chair or a car, certainly when you wake up youll find some parts crumpled.

He added: This business of talking about how inappropriate what someone has worn to a ceremony what kind of politics are we reducing this country to, in any case its not even true that Nana Addos dressing was inappropriate, I think that Nana Addo was well represented the entourage was neatly positioned. I dont think we should waste too much of our time on such a petty issue. I think what worries the NDC is that Nana Akufo Addo talked about the Presidents speech and indeed people had reservations about his speech. People think that he should have captured the moment of the country, where we are now, the difficulties we face as a nation. That is what is important.
The African Union is committed to its aspirations to ending hunger in Africa by 2025 and is keen to explore various avenues to achieve this. H.E Mr. Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, made the reassurance during a meeting on 4th March 2016 with the President of Instituto Brasil- Africa Prof. Joao Bosco Monte, at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

With the new push for national school feeding programmes and the launch of the first edition of the Africa Day of School Feeding on 1 March 2016, the Deputy Chairperson said adoption of the school feeding was not only a strategy to enhance children's performance in schools, but also to boost income generation and entrepreneurship in communities. He pointed out that the Home Grown School Feeding multi-sectoral approach was aimed at making Africa self- reliant to avoid reliance on donor- feeding programs and relief food.

With lessons to learn from Brazil where the government has implemented a robust school meals programme to ensure children stay in school, Mr. Mwencha said the AU Commission would deliberate and make considerations on the invitation to participate in the 4th Brazil- Africa Forum scheduled for November in Brazil, where it would seek to draw lessons on agriculture production and technology transfer in an effort to eradicate poverty and famine in the continent.

[Description: IMG_1489 brazil]

The Deputy Chairperson underscored the need to promote Agenda 2063 whose Aspiration 1, focuses on inclusive growth and sustainable development. He noted that special focus should be placed on agricultural production, transfer of technology and finding solutions to the challenges of value addition and the post-harvest wastage that has hampered the growth of the agriculture sector in Africa despite its immense resources and unexploited potential. He said that in so doing, the aspirations of zero hunger in Africa by 2025 would be achievable and realistic.

Prof. Joao Bosco Monte said the 4th Brazil Africa Forum would offer an opportunity for participants from government representatives, the private sector, business leaders, potential investors and the academia to promote the dialogue between Africa and Brazil on among others, the agriculture sector. The platform also seeks to foster an exchange of experiences, information and ideas to find good business opportunities of the agricultural sector in Brazil and Africa.
08.03.2016 LISTEN

The Progressive People's Party (PPP) and the Convention People's Party (CPP) have taken a decision not to contest the upcoming Abuakwa North constituency by-election.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) last week Wednesday also disclosed that it would not contest in the by-election.

According to the NDC, the circumstances surrounding the MP's gruesome murder that brought the nation to a standstill made it impossible for it to contest.

The NDC is of the opinion that the scar of grief and sorrow emanating from such barbaric act would take a longer time to heal, and it would be appropriate to desist from any act that has the tendency to aggravate the pain that J.B's family has been subjected to, the party's statement said.

In a statement, the PPP also said, The National Committee (NC) of the Progressive People's Party on February 24, 2016 decided not to contest the by-election in Abuakwa North which is scheduled for March 29 this year.

The PPP, therefore, called upon the constituency executive to go ahead with their strategy of organising at the polling station level to ensure victory come November 7, 2016.

The CPP also announced its decision not to contest the Abuakwa North by-election slated for March 29.

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The CPP said its decision is strictly informed by our partys analysis of the situation.

However, it served notice that it would contest the seat in the general election in November.

We continue to mourn with the people of Abuakwa North and the NPP. It is our prayer that finality would be brought to the unfortunate murder of the late MP by ensuring justice is served, a statement signed by Kadiri Abdul Rauf Issifu, CPP Director of Communication, said.

Vacant seat

The seat became vacant when the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, was murdered in cold blood at his residence at Shiashie in Accra some weeks ago.

-Daily Graphic


Special prayers for an accelerated development and peace that will make Ghana a model state were said by the Muslim Community on Friday (March 4, 2016) at the Yankasa mosque at Bronx, New York.

lt was organized by the Permanent Mission of Ghana and the Muslim community as part of activities to mark Ghana's 59th independence anniversary.

The prayers were led by the Chief Imam,Mohammed Salley. In attendance was a delegation from the Mission, led by the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations, Mrs Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee,and various Muslim chiefs in New York.

Addressing them, the Ambassador praised the Muslim community for the way they had conducted themselves and urged them to continue to live peacefully in their communities as good ambassadors of Ghana.

She told them about government's appreciation of the important roles the diaspora played in the Ghanaian economy with their regular remittances and contributions in various forms.

After briefing them about the worldwide economic challenges of which Ghana was not an exception,including particularly the current low prices for country's oil,gold and other mineral resources, Mrs. Pobee assured them that the prudent and realistic measures introduced by the government had started yielding results. She mentioned for example the improvement in the energy crisis.

Urging them to show continuous interest in their country's welfare, Mrs Pobee tasked them to bring their regular suggestions and criticisms on the country's development to the Mission. To this end, she informed them that a Diaspora desk had been set up at the mission and all foreign missions abroad, so they should feel free to ask for information on various investment opportunities as well as what ever was agitating their minds on national issues. This is because Ghana needs all her sons and daughters to show interest and participate fully in the development of the country.

At this stage, the Ambassador informed them that the Consulate General has started the installation of a new passport printing machine as part of a fully integrated online system. This is to ensure an improved service to applicants. Aside that, a new electronic system of visa and passport acquisition as well as bio-metric passports are to be introduced in conjunction with the United Parcel Service (UPS) that will not only speed up the process but also make it hassle free.

Earlier, Abdul Salam, president of Yankasa, said the 5000- member association is very happy with the interaction with the Mission and therefore wanted it to be made a regular affair.

He announced that about 300 children were being given free lessons at the weekends to support their education,

Present were the Consul General, Mr. Bernard Quantson, Chief Treasury Officer,Mr.Francis Tsetse, Mr. R,Harry Reynolds, Head of Information and Mr.John A.Eshun, expert on Disarmament and International Security.
The acting Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Adekunbi Sonaike Ayodeji, has disclosed the killing of seven Fulani Nigerian herdsmen in Ghana.

Addressing a news conference in Accra, Commissioner Ayodeji said the Fulani herdsmen were killed when they clashed with some farmers in some parts of the country.

She said the Commission will take responsibility in part for the activities of the herdsmen because some of them are citizens of Nigeria.

She sympathized with the farmers whose economic life is destroyed by activities of these Fulani herdsmen.

However, Commissioner Ayodeji has refuted claims by some Ghanaians that activities of Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the destruction of some farms in Ghana.

It will be unfair to say everything is being caused by these Fulani herdsmen. There are roles played by even the nationals, she said.

Commissioner Ayodeji blamed the whipping of sentiments by the Ghanaian media which she said is responsible for the recent hostility activities against Fulani herdsmen.

She called on the government to collaborate with the High Commission to resolve the issue before it takes a different proportion.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Austin Brako-Powers|[email protected]
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Militant Islamist group al-Shabab has dismissed as exaggerated US claims that more than 150 of its fighters were killed in an air strike in Somalia.

The militants do not meet in such large numbers in one spot because of the threat of an attack, a spokesman said.

He did not give details of casualties.

A resident said that al-Shabab had arrested several people from the remote central Somali village of Raso, after the US bombed its training camp in a nearby forested area on Saturday.

The US said the strike, by both drones and manned aircraft, was aimed at preventing a large-scale attack by the al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The resident told the BBC Somali service that al-Shabab recruits from around Somalia had been converging on the camp, about 195km (120 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, since last week.

The US strike appeared to have led to heavy casualties, with al-Shabab reinforcements arriving to collect the dead, the resident added.

Fighters who survived the assault had now left the area, he said.

A spokesman for al-Shabab, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, confirmed to Reuters news agency that the US had bombed an area controlled by the militants.

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However, the US had exaggerated the number of casualties, he said.

We never gather 100 fighters in one spot for security reasons. We know the sky is full of planes, the spokesman added.

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said that initial assessments were that more than 150 fighters had been killed at the training facility.

The camp had been under surveillance for some time, Capt Davis said.

We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and [African Union] forces, he added.

A Somali official said their intelligence service cooperated with the US ahead of the air strikes, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The US has a huge military base in neighbouring Djibouti.

In a 2008 strike, it killed al-Shabab leader Adan Hashi Ayro. His successor Ahmed Godane was killed in a 2014 strike.

-bbc


Police in the Eastern region have succeeded in preventing the humiliation of a widow threatened with banishment after she refused to undergo some widowhood rite.

Private legal practitioner, Irene Abotsi-Nyahe who sought help for the widow told Joy News that the development came after police in the region invited the chief and the widow for a discussion.

This follows a Joy News report that a woman had been given with a 24-hour ultimatum to agree to the demands of the chief of the town, Nana Abam IV, to undergo the rites or face banishment.

Irene Aborchie-Nyahe had said earlier that the Gender Ministry could not brag about protecting rights of women in the country if it failed to attend to the plight of a widow in Abam.

Aborchie-Nyahe called on the Gender Minister to stop Nana Abam IV from carrying out his threat of banishing the lady from the town.

Speaking at a gender forum to mark International Woman's Day, Gender Minister, Nana Oye Lithur urged the police to step in and save the situation.

It is a constitutional provision and no traditional leader or community can insist on a woman going through these practicesso whoever is doing that should note, she warned

Irene Aborchie-Nyahe expressed gratitude to the Minister, the Eastern Regional Police Command and to Joy News for carrying the news and saving the poor widow from embarrassment.

She advised women lawyers and NGOs to organize public education to enlighten women not to embark on certain traditional rights against their will.
Abutia-Teti, (V/R) March 08, GNA - Four Junior High Schools (JHSs) in the Ho-West District have proven that with motivation, Junior High School students in sub-urban and rural areas, could compete favourably in Science with their peers in the cities and urban areas.

This was exhibited at the finals of the '2016 Ho-West Basic Schools' Annual Quiz Competition', instituted by Mr Emmanuel Bedzrah, the Member of Parliament (MP), towards halting the poor performance of candidates in the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

A total of 64 JHSs in that District took part in the elimination series, out of which Abutia-Kloe E.P. JHS, Dzolokpuita D.A. JHS, Tsito R.C JHS and Kpedze-Awlime R.C. JHS emerged as finalists.

This year's competition, held in partnership with the District Education Directorate, the District Assembly and Ngorli, an NGO in Education, was under the theme, 'Improving Quality through Competition.'

Mr Benard Seshie, the Volta Regional Coordinator of Ngorli, said the organisation would sponsor a tablet computer for the winner, as part of the package of awards for next year.

The competition, which tested the contestants' abilities in General Science, English Language, Mathematics, General Knowledge and a 'Problem of the Day' was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the pupils and engender competition among them.

Science emerged as the easiest segment of the competition for all the contesting schools as the contestants answered almost all their major questions with ease, while they were urged on with prolonged applause from their teachers and the audience.

Kpedze-Awlime JHS scored 22 out of the 24 maximum points, followed by Tsito RC JHS with 18 points; while Abutia-Kloe JHS and Dzolokpuita D.A JHs scored 13 points each.

Kpedze-Awlime R.C. JHS topped the 'Class' with a total of 74 points and took the winning trophy, a Dell Desk-top Computer, UPS system; and printer and certificates.

Tsito R.C, JHS came second and took away certificates, Dell Desk-Top Computer and Printer while Dzolo-Kpuita D.A. JHS came third and also took away certificates and a refurbished Desk-Top Computer

Mr Bedzrah announced a bursary for each of the three contestants for Kpedze-Awlime R.C. JHS tenable at any Senior High School or Senior High Technical School in the District.

Each of the competing schools however showed major weaknesses in mathematics.

Kpedze-Awlime R.C. JHS best performer in mathematics scored 11 out of 24 maximum points at stake.

That School also topped in the Mathematics -based 'Problem of the Day', with nine points out of 20.

Mr Charles Ewoade, District Chief Executive, described the initiative by Mr Bedzrah as the 'icing on the cake', and announced that the competition would be extended to the Senior High Schools next year.

He said the Assembly would adopt the competition in 2018.

Mr Ewoade said the fact that Tsito Old JHS last year's overall winner, but was eliminated in the first round of this year's competition showed how keen the competition had become.

The District, from which JHS students could hardly make it to any SHS previously, has since the introduction of the completion been able to see a number of students making it to Senior High School.

In January 2014, media reports indicated that About 500 children of schoolage in 10 communities in the Ho-West District of the Volta Region had no access to education because their parents have illegally settled in the Kalakpa Forest Reserve in the Abutia Traditional Area, where social amenities were non-existent.

Since then, many interventions are being implemented the district and central government levels to improve upon the situation.

According to the ghanadistricts.gov.gh, the Local Government Ministry's official site, the Ho West District is one of the 25 districts in the Volta Region of Ghana.

It was established by the Legislative Instrument (LI) 2083 of 2012. It was carved out of Ho Municipality in January 2012 and inaugurated in June, 2013.

Home to the Amedzofe Mountain, its District's capital is Dzolokpuita.

The state of educational infrastructure at the basic level, the official website said, required general maintenance works, while the schools lacked adequate library facilities and workshops for technical and vocational training.

The District has about 152 communities with some prominent ones being Tsito, Kpedze, Anyirawase, Dededo, Dzolo Gbogame, Abuatia- Kloe, Abuatia-Teti, Avenui, Vane.

The 2010 Housing ad Population Census put the size of population size at 94,600, with the residents being mainly skilled workers in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and craft.

GNA
08.03.2016 LISTEN

Accra , March 8, GNA - The First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has commended women of diverse backgrounds, particularly, Ghanaian women, for their enormous contributions towards the sustenance of families, the economy and society as a whole.

'These contributions, both at home and in our social life, have contributed so much to the world today,' she noted.

The commendation, which was part of a statement, copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra on Tuesday, is in commemoration of this year's the International Women's Day, which falls on March 8.

The annual event, is celebrated in many countries around the world, and approved by the United Nations, to acknowledge the achievements of women without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.

The United Nations (UN) has dedicated the commemoration of the Day to galvanising commitment towards speeding up the achievement of Global Gender parity by 2030.

Under the global theme is: 'Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality' UN Women is thus organising a number of high-profile events in over 40 countries, where ordinary citizens, activists, musicians, athletes, students, security personnel, scholars and stock exchange officials would be among those who would commit to 'Stepping It Up for Gender Equality.'

Mrs Mahama, in response to the clarion call, stated: 'I join today, in commemoration of International Women's Day, in Pledging for Parity as is being done across the world'.

She urged men and women in leading positions, to reach out to the young ones, and to take a stance to commit towards parity in all areas, such as the work place, home and school, because: 'a stronger woman does not make a weaker man but a better home, workplace and school.'

Mrs Mahama said the idea was not to ask for help for women, but rather their recognition as a part in the world of humanity, because it was a great injustice to deny those who contributed to life, the ability to participate in its offerings.

The First Lady, who is also the President of the Lordina Foundation, however, expressed her encouragement that much progress had been made over the years with regards to issues of gender parity.

'Today, a young lady is hardly hindered in many places, including going to school to pursue a course that was previously reserved for men'.

She, therefore, urged society, and the country at large, to do more to close the gender gap that still existed in various areas across the globe.

She also pledged her commitment to the 'Ending Child Marriage' Campaign, which was recently launched by President John Dramani Mahama at the recent meeting of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV & AIDS, in Accra.

According to her, the campaign would open doors to many more girls who would like to have a future with better economic and social prospects instead of falling into the traditional quagmire of yesterday.

She said: 'We must support and give a voice to the young girls who stand the risk of being married off or are already married off to men far older than them and yet are required to remain silent'.

'We will continue to make opportunities available not only to those who will reach out but also those who may not have the hands to stretch out due to ignorance or poverty. This is because, just as every boy and man can, so must every girl and woman be able to, reach out to a better world'.

Mrs Mahama explained that parity in its other sense also meant having the knowledge to make the right choices, that was why this year, she said, the Lordina Foundation, would focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in addition to its activities.

She said the strategies adopted at the just-ended 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, on measures to educate young people their sexuality, would provide an avenue to reach out to many young girls and women, for them to be able to make the right choices regarding their Sexual and Reproductive Health issues.

GNA
Accra, March 8, GNA - Mr Reginald D. Laryea, a business executive and former Chairman of the Ghana News Agency's (GNA) Board of Directors was one of the personalities who were singled out for special honour at the Agency's 59th Anniversary celebration in Accra on Friday.

Mr Laryea was Board Chairman for the nation's news-wire service from May 2011 to May 2015, having served for two terms.

A citation that accompanied his award read, 'During your tenure, you ensured that your experience as a passionate strategist, executive marketer and brand communicator was brought to bear. You believed so much in the future of the Agency and sacri+ced so much for its growth and success.

'It was therefore not surprising that by the end of your tenure, GNA had moved on from a single line product, to piloting four different products, and on course to become, yet again, a vibrant news Agency in Africa. Indeed, your quiet diplomacy in dealing with issues regarding the Agency was telling.'

The citation continued: 'You are a true business leader and mentor, and the GNA Management would be eternally grateful for the transformation you brought to the Agency.'

The Ghana News Agency is the foremost news agency in sub-Saharan Africa. Set up on the eve of the country's independence, March 5, 1957 by President Kwame Nkrumah, the Agency played a key role in the early days of the liberation struggle in Africa, and helped in the promotion and development of African institutions, not least the OAU which later became the AU.

An authoritative news agency in Africa, GNA is highly respected for its truthful, unbiased, credible, objective and accurate news reportage, all done with speed.

GNA
Upper Bobikuma, (C/R), March 8, GNA - The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Agona West and Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona West have jointly broke grounds for work to begin on GHa397,000.00 police station at Upper Bobikuma.

The project which would be completed in eight months period will be financed with District Development Fund (DDF) of the Assembly.

The new police station has female and male cells, juvenile cell, office for officers, armory, stores, canteen, washrooms and waiting room.

Addressing a gathering, Mr Samuel Oppong, the MCE, said the construction of the police station was to curtail rental expenditures being incurred by the central government on the police station in the town.

He said it would also motivate the officers and men of the Police at Upper Bobikuma to work extra hard to reduce the prevailing crime rate.

The MCE said the Assembly has procured a block manufacturing machine for Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to serve as income generating venture for them.

He said plans are advanced for the Assembly also to assist the Ghana Prison Service to enter into income generating ventures to raise more funds and help reduce government expenditure.

The MCE called on the people of Agona West to appreciate the efforts of the government under President John Dramani Mahama to improve their living conditions.

Mr Charles Obeng-Inkoom, MP for Agona West, said the road from Upper Bobikuma to Agona Nyakrom would be constructed by the government under cocoa roads project.

He said the road from Gomoa Afransi to Ajumako has been awarded on contract, while others in the Agona West Municipality would be constructed to facilitate movement of goods and services.

Nana Odum Abobaw, Tufuhene of Upper Bobikuma, thanked the Assembly for the project.

He said the police station at Upper Bobikuma was opened in 1964 and till today, it has not had its own premises, adding that it would encourage the personnel to work hard to reduce crime cases in the area.

Nana Adobaw appealed to the MCE and MP to intervene to ensure that medical assistants were posted to the Bobikuma Health Center to ensure quality health care delivery.

GNA
Accra, Mar. 8, GNA - In commemoration of International Women's Day, MTN wishes to congratulate its female employees and Ghanaian women for their contribution to the development of Ghana.

A release signed by Mrs Cynthia Lumor, Corporate Services Executive of the company, said MTN acknowledges with pride the efforts of all its female employees who continue to work hard to provide quality network services, products and services to customers and help drive Ghana's digital agenda.

It said the contribution of women to the growth of the economy, business and society in general cannot be overstated.

The release said to celebrate the occasion, MTN is organizing a workshop to discuss 'Employee wellness and mental health' on March 8.

It said an interactive session dubbed 'Mmbaa Nkormo' will also be organized with a panel of MTN female employees with diverse personal and professional backgrounds.

The release said this will focus on work and life adjustment for women in the corporate setting and how productivity, work and life balance can be attained.

It said Ericsson, a technology partner of MTN, is also organizing a motivational session for 15 top performing female engineering students from the University of Ghana, Ghana Telecoms institution and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The release said the main speaker for the Ericsson session is Cynthia Lumor, Corporate Services Executive of MTN.

Commenting on the celebration, Mrs Cynthia Lumor said 'the theme for this year's celebration is a call to action in the women empowerment agenda. We each have a role to play to 'step it up for gender equality.' As a company that has integrity as one of its core values, MTN places great importance on creating equality for all. The Company's special focus on the development of women is evidenced in the number of positions occupied by women in executive and senior leadership positions, both in MTN Ghana and MTN Group. We are adopting a renewed focus on gender equality that will help us identify and close gender equality gaps.'

Mrs Lumor commended all women whose hard work, dedication and sacrifices have contributed to business sustainability, improved healthcare and education, child safety, and other achievements.

She also used the opportunity to congratulate the ultimate 2016 MTN Hero of Change, Madam Paulina Opei, for brightening many lives through her selfless devotion to saving and transforming the lives of hundreds of motherless children.

The release said through the MTN Ghana Foundation Economic Empowerment portfolio, MTN has embarked on initiatives aimed at empowering women in rural communities across Ghana.

It said the Foundation has provided capacity training and seed capital for several women groups, including the Tizaa Dini Women in Shea Butter and the Sung Suma Women in Shea Butter in Upper West region.

The release said the MTN Ghana Foundation also places particular focus on maternal healthcare and the general wellbeing of women and has commissioned several projects aimed at improving maternal and child mortality.

It said these include a 40-bed Neonatal Center for the Tamale Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region, and a 20-bed maternity block, fully furnished with medical equipment and furniture for the Ejisu Government Hospital in the Ashanti Region.

The release said the MTN Ghana Foundation refurbished the maternal blocks of Effia Nkwanta Government Hospital in the Western Region and the second floor Maternity Ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Greater Accra.

It said MTN Ghana pledges to continue to work to create parity for all and create opportunities that will empower more women.

GNA
Accra, Mar. 8, GNA - Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, says the Ministry was working on replicating the Okwahu Paragliding Festival in other parts of the nation but stressed the need for districts to own their tourist attractions.

She said the Ministry was working with a group of people from the Volta region who have started a paragliding festival in the region and would be supporting them this year in that regard.

She said another site in the northern region has been inspected by the ministry adding that 'this year when the pilots come, they would go there as technical people to inspect and advise us on whether the site can be used for paragliding'.

The Minister said this at the launch of the 11th Okwahu Paragliding Festival to be held from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th March, at the Odweanoma Mountains in Kwahu.

The Minister will also host Master Abraham Attah and some of his friends and family at the festival where she will hold discussions with him on a package that will see him become Ghana's Tourism Ambassador.

Mrs Ofosu Agyare said the young man had made Ghana proud and deserved to be celebrated.

'We are proud of Abraham Attah at Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts and we think that all of us should pamper him and do our best to make sure all he has achieved takes him far,' she said.

This year's Okwahu Paragliding Festival is expected to be fun-filled with other activities aside paragliding, including tours to the Breast Mountains, Buokuro Rock and Stone City by the Kwahu Tourism Initiative, ludo, draught, oware and scrabble competitions as well as Abseiling packages for mountain -descending and hiking lovers.

The Ghana Dance Ensemble would also perform at the festival for the first time this year and will give interested participants tutorials on some traditional dances.

'Ten seasoned international paragliding tandem pilots from the United States of America, Japan, Peru, France and Belgium are expected in the country to fly passengers during the festival' she said, adding the pilots will also begin training some local pilots this year.

Mrs Ofosu Agyare said the festival was an opportunity to attract both domestic and international tourists and also boost the local economy and urged Ghanaians to participate in the festival, and urged the media, to give it a prominent coverage.

Mr Charles Osei-Bonsu, Acting Executive Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority, lauded the paragliding festival initiative saying it showed the symbiotic relationship between tourism and the environment.

He said the environment could be used for tourism instead of tourism rather destroying the environment.

Bisa Kdei's 'Mansa' was unveiled as the theme song for the 2016 Okwahu Paragliding Festival.

GNA
Apam (C/R) Mar. 8, GNA - Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, the District Chief Executive for Gomoa West, has called on parents, whose children are beneficiaries of the School Feeding Programme, to feed them before coming to school.

He said reports reaching him indicate that some of the children were left to starve till the food for the feeding programme was ready at lunch time.

The DCE condemned the situation and said it was seriously affecting their academic output.

Mr Aidoo-Mensah said this when he addressed a parade of school children from 12 basic public and private school and one senior high school to mark Ghana's Independence Day Anniversary celebration at Apam.

The DCE urged girls in the area to make their education their primary concern so that they can become self-reliant and useful to their communities.

Mr Aidoo-Mensah said teenage pregnancy cases had reduced from 16 in 2014 to 11 in 2015 as result of formation of adolescent clubs in schools and enforcement of the Assembly bye-law that prevents school children from being seen on the streets after 20:00 hours by the chiefs.

The DCE appealed to parents to encourage their girls as they attended to their academic affairs to enable them benefit from scholarships by the campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a non-governmental organization.

He expressed regret that it had become difficult getting girls to take advantage of these facilities to complete their education due to teenage pregnancies and other related concerns.

GNA
Nkroful (W/R), Mar. 8, GNA - Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, has said government would continue to initiate realistic social interventions that would empower the youth to assume their critical roles as future leaders of the nation.

He said it is against this backdrop that government has invested in the youth in various aspects of their life since 2009.

Mr Kofi Buah said this when he delivered President John Dramani Mahama's address at Nkroful, the birthplace of Ghana's first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, during the 59th Independence Day Anniversary celebration.

This year's celebration was on the theme, 'Investing in the youth for Ghana's transformation.'

Earlier, the MP, who was flanked by the DCE, the Divisional Police Commander and security officers, inspected a contingent of schools cadet corps in the District led by parade commander, Master Augustine Minlah.

Twenty schools from the basic, secondary and technical levels participated in the parade with the Aiyinasi Anglican Primary emerging the overall best in the primary division, followed by the Nyaneba JHS in the Junior High category and the Kikam Technical Institute (KIMTECH) in the Senior High School level.

Mr Kofi Buah, who is also the Minister of Petroleum, said the district assembly and his office are working together to organise two mock examinations for BECE candidates yearly to improve on their results.

Due to this intervention, he said, the District scored 73 per cent in 2013 BECE examination, which rose to 74 per cent in 2014, and dramatically increased to 92 per cent in 2015, placing the District third in the Western Region.

Four candidates who excelled in last year's BECE received cash awards for making the District proud.

Mr Kofi Buah said the District and his outfit has also resourced teachers, donated free exercise books to pupils, and sponsored needy ones to pursue further education all in an effort to improve education in the district.

The MP said government and development partners were ready to fashion out a youth policy to get them employed especially in the oil and gas industry.

On the Esiama-Nkroful-Teleku Bokazo six kilometre route, he said work had begun in earnest and would soon be completed and added that Ghana COCOBOD had also started work on the route from the northern part of the District through to Prestea.

Mr Kofi Buah also advised Ghanaians to eschew divisive tendencies as the nation prepared to go to the polls in November, to enable the country come out of the polls as one people from diverse backgrounds, but with a common destiny.

GNA
business CBI probing alleged fraud at state-run Syndicate Bank The CBI is searching 10 locations that include bank branches and homes of bank employees, CBI spokeswoman Devpreet Singh told Reuters.
you are here:
business Here's why banks, auto, pharma stocks are in focus Stocks likely to be in the news are: State Bank of India, Bank Of Baroda, Coal India, Siemens, NMDC, Tata Steel, Sarda Energy and Minerals, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Bharat Forge, Apollo Tyres, Ajanta Pharma, Strides Shasun, Power Grid Corporation of India, TVS Motor Company.
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd [ASX:FMG] has had an incredible run over the last five days. Its strong momentum brought it to the attention of many opportunistic investors.

What happened to the FMG share price?

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd [ASX:FMG] has had an incredible run over the last five days. Its strong momentum brought it to the attention of many opportunistic investors. If you came into the stock yesterday, you would have experienced a huge jump in price. However, that settled back to a much lower level today.

Why did FMG shares do this?

With the recent rallies in commodity prices led by energy, some much-needed adrenaline has been let into the beaten-down commodities sector. FMG is one of the top iron ore producers in Australia. Its story is no different from the other big players, except it has a higher level of cash cost than them.

Throughout this extremely depressing commodity bear market, all commodity producers have been cutting down their costs and bringing up production. However, the rebalancing between demand and supply has been difficult.

China is still on a path to slide lower. Its shift from manufacturing to consumption means there is a lot of overcapacity to digest. For rebalancing to happen, time is needed for M&A and closures. China is going to give more fiscal support in conjunction with monetary support. However, it is sticking to a path of structural reform, meaning commodity exporters will need to scale back their expectations for the medium term.

Fundamentally, there is nothing exciting about the commodity producers. However, price might just be interesting enough to attract investors. Relative to the long term, prices are too low. If you are a long term investor, commodity might be one of the best places to be right now.

What now for FMG?

Whats next for FMG? It is hard to say. If prices start to stabilise in commodities, or even pick up on the energy side, stocks like FMG will revive somewhat. However, remember that fundamentals are not all that better. Investors are really just trading the oversold portion of the market, resulting from the recent mispricing.

As a momentum stock, will FMG stay? We will need to look at data. For today, FMG stays

Ken Wangdong+

Emerging Market Analyst, New Frontier Investor
With less than one month left of this tax year time is running out for ISA and pension investors  or anyone looking to boost their savings and reduce their HMRC bill. Read our Guide to ISAs, Pensions and Tax-efficient investing to make sure you dont get left behind.

With just few weeks to go before the end of the tax year, investors are looking for potential holdings for their ISA portfolio. Just like actively run funds, exchange-traded funds can be held in an ISA or self-invested personal pension (SIPP) investment wrapper to save tax.

ETFs are passive funds that provide investors direct exposure to a particular stock, bond or alternative assets market such as the FTSE 100 or UK Property index. ETFs charges a low annual management fees than other trackers funds and they also offer investors a wider choice of markets to track. If an asset class or a market had been performed under expectation, a diversified investment like ETFs could minimise the risk. ETFs can be an effective investment vehicle to widen investors portfolios exposure at a low cost.

Below, we reveal five of the most popular ETFs as determined by Morningstar.co.uk readers monthly clicks and what Morningstar passive fund analysts think of each offering.

The latest figures show investors are researching domestic stocks, suggesting that despite the volatility UK market remains attractive to passive investors.

Also featuring in five of the most viewed ETFs were S&P 500 ETFs; cross referencing with fund flow data from Morningstar Direct reveals investors were selling these  with one particular fund recording outflows of more than 150 million. UK investors should bear in mind that investing in ETFs domiciled in the US is not tax efficient.

The fund offers broad exposure to the 100 largest UK stocks, and it is one of the cheapest ETFs tracking the FTSE 100 index charging at 0.09%, says Hortense Bioy, director of Morningstar passive fund research. According to data from Morningstar Direct, the fund saw an inflow of 144 million in January alone. It was the largest inflow in seven months. It shows passive investors confidence to large companies listed in the local index despite market volatility at the start of the year.

The index looks fairly well-balanced from a stock perspective, with top sector exposures including financials (19-23%), consumer staples (15-18%), energy (12-16%), healthcare (8-11%), and consumer discretionary (8-11%).

Yet Morningstar analysts remind investors that overall a quarter of the index is made up of resources companies like Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) and Rio Tinto (RIO) which are reliant on the fortunes of the broader economy and their performance is often directly linked to international commodity prices, which experienced sell-off last year.

Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL)

This Fund seeks to provide long-term growth of capital by tracking the performance of the FTSE All-World Index, a market-capitalisation weighted index of common stocks of large and mid-cap companies in developed and emerging countries. The fund charges 0.25%, with Apple (AAPL) the largest component of the FTSE All-World.

This fund offers exposure to the 50 highest yielding UK stocks within the universe of the FTSE 350 index, excluding investment trusts. It is broadly diversified, large and mid cap-focused fund, covering top sectors at the moment that include financials, utilities, consumer defensive, communication services, and energy. It charges at 0.40%. Morningstar analyst Bioy said that the fund could serve as a core UK equity holding for investors seeking a regular income stream.

This fund saw an outflow of 153 million in January. It was the largest outflow since its operation in 2013.

This ETF provides exposure to the 500 largest companies in the United States, tracking the performance of the S&P 500 index. The index itself covers three-quarters of the U.S. equity market, is market cap weighted and well diversified by sector with the highest exposure to Information technology, financials and health care.

Morningstar passive fund analyst Monika Dutt says the fund can be used as a long-term core holding in a portfolio given its broad exposure. It can also be used as a tactical tool for investors looking to place a short-term bet on the direction of the U.S. equity market. Yet the underlying companies in the index are increasingly generating more revenue from countries outside of the United States, making the ETFs performance more sensitive to global macroeconomic trends.

ETFS WTI Crude Oil ETC provides exposure to the price performance of West Texas Intermediate crude oil through the use of near-month futures contracts. The total cost of holding this product is also 0.99% per year. The ETF saw an inflow of 139 million in January despite the instability in oil price, according Morningstar Direct.
With less than one month left of this tax year time is running out for ISA and pension investors  or anyone looking to boost their savings and reduce their HMRC bill. Read our Guide to ISAs, Pensions and Tax-efficient investing to make sure you dont get left behind.

Pensions are not a gender-specific issue. We are all living longer, which means retiring later and having to save more in order to secure a comfortable retirement. We are all falling short of requirement; the average pension pot in this country is worth just 40,000. Although savers are no longer required to buy an annuity when they stop working, it is still a useful calculation to ascertain the sort of income a lump sum could provide in retirement. Assuming an annual investment return of 4% and a lifespan of 25 years following retirement, Morningstar calculations show this will provide a retirement income of just 2,560.

But women do fare worse than men in the retirement stakes. According to a report from Aegon, 45% of women do not have have a retirement action plan, women have half the pension savings of men and receive a lower State Pension thanks to breaks from work for child rearing.

Kate Smith, Head of Pensions at Aegon: The more disruptive working lives of women, cutting hours to care for their children and elderly parents, put them at a disadvantage and means their salaries lag mens by a fifth. Shorter hours means less take-home pay reducing the amount women are able to save in a pension. Most worryingly of all is more than four in 10 women between 40 and 59 years old havent started planning for retirement. Aegons study also showed that women were over-reliant on a male spouses income to provide in later life, so on this, International Womens Day, we are highlighting three women who can help other women secure a better income in retirement; three female fund managers highly rated by Morningstar fund analysts. Female fund managers are hard to come by, making up just 7% of the pack, but these three are among the best in the business. Male investors are free to benefit from their skills too. Schroder Income Growth (SCF) This closed-end fund is Bronze Rated and managed by Sue Noffke. Morningstar fund analyst considers Noffke a talented manager. She is part of the UK Prime team composed of three experienced members, who have been working as a close unit for nine years; Noffke and team member Andy Simpson have been colleagues for over 20 years, he said. That brings consistency of approach as they are well-schooled in the Schroder investment philosophy for UK equities. Performance has been good under Noffke and the fund has outperformed both its UK Large-Cap Blend Equity Morningstar Category peers and its benchmark. In addition, the income target has also been met. We also take some confidence from her longer track record at the Schroder Prime UK Equity fund. Kames Ethical Equity This is a Silver Rated fund run by manager Audrey Ryan. Kames Ethical Equity is a very good way for ethical investors to gain exposure to UK equities, says Morningstar fund analyst Simon Dorricott. Since January 2000, the fund has been managed by Ryan, who has been involved with the strategy since joining Kames in 1997. Ryan makes good use of the team's stock research and thematic views when constructing the portfolio, said Dorricott. The fund's long-term performance has been strong against the UK flex-cap equity Morningstar Category and the benchmark index, while short- and medium-term returns have also been impressive. There have been some recent tailwinds for the ethical style, but the performance of this fund also compares favourably with other ethically managed products. Henderson Strategic Bond Considered one of the best bond funds on the market, this is run jointly by Jenna Barnard and John Pattullo and rated Silver by Morningstar fund analysts. Barnard became deputy manager in Nov 2003 and comanager in Jan 2006. Pattullo and Barnard are talented fixed-income managers in Morningstars view, and they have worked effectively together for more than 10 years. The fund has had a strong run over the past three years, helped by a significant exposure to high-yield bonds but investors should nonetheless be mindful of the risks involved here. Given the frequent aggressive allocation to lower credit quality, the fund can be volatile and it will likely experience other periods of underperformance in the future. Having said that, the long-term track record under the current managers tenure is strong. The fund has outperformed the Morningstar Category average and IMA peer group over 10 years.
CMHC has vowed to collect additional data on foreign ownership, which will provide more information on the amount of offshore investors taking advantage of tax loopholes, according to one broker.Collecting more data is definitely a step in the right direction; some of the biggest social programs, such as welfare, are going to foreigners purchasing (expensive) Canadians homes, Geoff Lee, a broker with Dominion Lending Centres GLM Mortgage Group, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. There has to be more information on these (buyers) assets.Referencing a 2015 study by University of B.C. geographer Dan Hiebert, which found that approximately 25,000 households in Vancouver declare less income than the money they spent on their housing costs, Lee said many affluent offshore buyers remain in their home countries and send money to spouses living in Canada who also collect social security programs.Hieberts study found nearly 60% of homeowners in one designated low-income neighbourhood, Shaugnessy-Arbutus Ridge  which is home to many million-dollar mansions--, are foreign born. The neighbourhood is considered low-income due to the low incomes reported by residents, many of which live in luxury homes.The also study found many residents in that and similar neighbourhoods  also home to luxury homes  pay low or no income tax and also collect welfare.Speaking about the study, the Douglas Todd, migration writer for Vancouver Sun, wrote the tax unfairness caused by the growing phenomenon of mansion owners alleging poverty can be traced largely to Canada failing to catch trans-national migrants who refuse to report their total global income at tax times.CMHC has vowed to collect more accurate data on offshore investors. The Crown Corporation told Bloomberg Monday it has contacted FINTRAC, Canadas financial intelligence agency, as well as Stats Canada in a bid to better track foreign investment.CMHC will measure the level of foreign investment by determining if the property is owned by a person whose permanent residence is outside of Canada, CMHC spokesperson Karine LeBlanc told Bloomberg.Lee says more data will provide the government with a better idea of just how many offshore investors are taking advantage of tax breaks and social programs.I think there needs to be some type of guidelines because there is a lot of foreign investment, he said. There are a lot of loopholes that need to be closed.
Amid the rapid emergence of new and potentially disruptive technologies, an industry analyst said that these developments actually help brokers and agents, rather than displace them.



In a piece for TechVibes.com, technology writer Jonathan Whiting pointed at the real estate industrys continued investment in service firms that offer greater process flexibility, especially in areas like analytics and workflow.



Whiting said that this reflects the industrys preference to improve the efficiency of tried-and-true old school, antiquated systems such as listings and spreadsheets, instead of replacing these outright with new technology.



Theres a gap between what consumers want versus what brokers and agents want. The word disruption in real estate brings to mind futuristic economies where consumers can buy, sell and finance their dream home with a click of a button, Whiting wrote. Yet very little of the money invested is going in that direction.



Figures from CB Insights stated that in 2015, approximately $1.5 billion was invested in technologies related to the real estate industry, most notably in centralized multiple service listings.



Whiting noted that agents remain invaluable to real estate transactions as intermediaries between the data and the consumers. He added that the race is now focused on who can leverage these technologies to maximum effect.



In the next few years the most successful companies will likely be involved in disrupting the inefficiencies that the humble agent cares most about, he stated. This will include how they meet new clients, how they manage their business on-the-go and how they maintain their 6% commission rate.



Whiting warned, however, that the continued weakness of the Canadian economy and currency might stifle further innovationespecially since new technology does not come cheap.



Most products charge in US dollars, so with the falling Canadian dollar the cost of solutions went up approximately 35% for Canadian agents, the analyst wrote.
As one of Canadas most active markets, the Toronto real estate sector is showing no signs of stopping, with February 2016 numbers posting an unprecedented increase of 21.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.



TREB figures also pointed at a 16.3 per cent rise in detached home prices in the city, translating to an average of $1,211,459 last month. The overall average for Toronto homes sat at $685,278, while the number of new listings went up by 8.2 per cent.



Brokers and sellers are confident of this momentum lasting throughout most of the year.



Every single house that comes out, even those that arent really worth it, end up with multiple offers. So its a very difficult time to be a buyer and the good times continue to roll for the sellers, Toronto real estate broker David Fleming told the Toronto Star.



Fleming said that the first part of 2016 represented the toughest market Ive ever worked in for single-family homes in his 12-year stint as a GTA broker.



Realosophy broker John Pasalis concurred with the observation, saying that the insanely competitive market is spurring ever-intensifying price wars.



Sales are off the charts, Pasalis said. The positive thing is its actually home buyers rather than speculators or flippers.



Industry players noted that the significant volume of foreign capital continues to prop up the market.



In their mind, theyre willing to spend $1 million, but when they convert the money and have it sitting in the bank, at this point they have $1.2 or $1.3 million, according to Remax Infinite realtor Ferro Payman. He confirmed that as much as 25 per cent of his deals are with Arab, Chinese, and Iranian investors who are taking advantage of the generous exchange rates.



They see the growth of Canada, especially in Toronto. And when I show them the sales that have been happening over the past couple of years, they become very eager to purchase a house, Payman added.
Market Clearing Foreclosures at Close to Normal Rate

The national foreclosure inventory dropped by about a quarter year over year, bringing the number of homes in the process of foreclosure at the end of January to 456,000 units from 583,000 in January 2015, a decline of 21.7 percent. CoreLogic said the inventory, which represented 1.5 percent of all mortgaged homes in January 2015 has been stable at a 1.2 percent rate since last October although the number of units in the inventory has now reached the lowest level since November 2007.

There were 38,000 completed foreclosures during the month compared to 46,000 in January 2015. The recent number is down 67.6 percent from the peak of 117,743 completed foreclosures in September 2010.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 6.1 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.2 million homes lost to foreclosure.

The serious delinquency rate, mortgages 90 or more days past due including loans in foreclosure, declined by 22.5 percent over the 12 months ended in January. There were 1.2 million seriously delinquent mortgages at the end of the reporting period, a rate of 3.2 percent. This rate was the lowest since November 2007 as well.

"In January, the national foreclosure rate was 1.2 percent, down to one-third the peak from exactly five years earlier in January 2011, a remarkable improvement," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The months' supply of foreclosure fell to 12 months, which is modestly above the nine-month rate seen 10 years earlier and indicates the market's ability to clear the stock of foreclosures is close to normal."

"The improvement in distressed properties continues across the country in every state which is contributing to the lack of stock of available homes and resulting price escalation in many markets," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "So far the trend toward lower delinquency and foreclosures has been immune from shocks from such things as the collapse in oil prices attesting to the durability of the housing recovery."

On a monthly basis completed foreclosures increased by 16.4 percent from 33,000 reported in December and the foreclosure inventory was down 1.6 percent from the previous month. CoreLogic said that in the years before the housing crisis began in 2007 completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month.

Five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally over the 12 month period. Florida again led with 74,000 followed by Michigan with 49,000, Texas with 29,000 and California and Ohio with 25,000 and 24,000 respectively.

The jurisdictions with the highest foreclosure inventory rates in January were New Jersey (4.3 percent), New York (3.5 percent), Hawaii (2.4 percent), Florida (2.3 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.3 percent).
Appraisal News and Trends; Comp Survey on LO Base Pay

Overheard the other day: a young person telling a friend, "Why should I get a loan now? I am going to wait for negative rates here in the U.S. so banks will pay me to borrow the money!"

Anyone investing in mortgages, whether they are whole loans or securities, wants to make sure that the property's value is correct. And when you're dealing with pools consisting of thousands of loans, validating those numbers can be daunting. Appraisal news continues to evolve.

The federal banking regulatory agencies issued an advisory to clarify expectations for the use of property evaluations by banking institutions. "The advisory describes the agencies' existing supervisory expectations for the use of an evaluation instead of an appraisal to estimate a property's market value for certain real estate-related financial transactions. Unlike an appraisal, an evaluation does not have to be developed by a state-licensed or state-certified appraiser. The advisory also addresses the use of alternative valuation approaches, methods, and other information that financial institutions may use to develop an evaluation in areas with few, if any, recent comparable property sales in reasonable proximity to the subject property. Regardless of the approach or method used to estimate the market value of real property, an evaluation report should contain sufficient information and analysis to support the value conclusion and the institution's decision to engage in the transaction.

A while back Peter Gallo sent along a story written by Isaac Peck about how an AMC was fined over C&R fees. "The Louisiana Real Estate Appraisal Board (LREAB) has again taken action to ensure that Customary and Reasonable (C&R) Fees are being paid by AMCs and lenders in the state...the Board ruled against iMortgage Services, LLC and issued a Final Order that included a fine of $10,000 and a six-month license suspension. The suspension was stayed, provided that iMortgage provides a C&R compliance plan to the Board no later than March 21, 2016.

"In contrast to Louisiana's previous C&R enforcement action involving Coester VMS, where there was no admission of guilt by Coester, this is the first judgment against an AMC that leaves no question on the determination of guilt. The Board's final order establishes that iMortgage failed to comply with Louisiana law and violated the C&R fee requirements set in place by the Board.

"Demonstrating the glacial speed at which many state board investigations operate, the initial complaint against iMortgage was filed two years ago in January 2014 after iMortgage sent out an appraisal order for a full 1004MC FHA appraisal with a fee of $200. The investigation was not opened until May 2014, with the hearing taking place in December 2015.

"In its written response to the initial investigation letter, iMortgage's Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Dean Kelker, explains that iMortgage's fees were based, in part, on a fee survey that iMortgage was given by one of its large origination clients (later revealed to be Flagstar Bank), and that he 'can't speak to the details of the survey because it was conducted without our involvement.'

"Kelker writes that iMortgage works on a cost-plus basis, having been provided a minimum fee for each geographic market by Flagstar. iMortgage then adds a "service fee" to the appraiser's fee in order to develop a final borrower cost for the assignment.

"In addition to the Flagstar fee survey, Kelker says that iMortgage also determines fees based on its 'experience in the market' and the fees that appraisers quote and accept within particular local markets. Kelker argues that iMortgage complies with both C&R presumptions of compliance, as it relies on what he says is an independent third party fee study (Flagstar's study), as well as iMortgage's internal market data regarding what it has been paying appraisers and what appraisers have been accepting.

"...The language of the C&R fee provision of Dodd Frank states unequivocally that 'Fee studies shall exclude assignments ordered by known appraisal management companies.' Because iMortgage, however, did not know the details of the fee survey, it is unknown whether the Flagstar survey, which served as iMortgage's first line of defense, used AMCs fees in its determination that $200 is C&R for a 1004MC FHA appraisal order.

In his letter to the Board, Kelker raises his objections with Dodd-Frank, writing that iMortgage's problem with "broad fee studies," possibly referencing the Louisiana Board's fee study, is that they are "general in nature and do not specifically encompass the scope of work associated with an individual mortgage assignment." Furthermore, Kelker writes that any fee studies that "specifically exclude appraisal management companies in their composition create a potential bias due to the significant participation share of AMCs in the mortgage market." While contrary to the wording of the Dodd-Frank C&R fee provision, this sentiment echoes many other AMCs that insist that the fees they pay should be included in fee surveys and that fees consistently paid by AMCs constitute C&R fees because appraisers are accepting them."

While I'm pontificating on appraisal news, Michael Simmons with Axis AMC wrote, "I admire a system where how critically important it is for loan officers to embrace a culture of integrity and to recognize that their role was to serve their customers first. Having spent 25 years in a previous life working in the lending industry, I found that this is absolutely correct. And I have seen recent criticism of bidding assignments to get the lowest fee for an AMC's benefit. Again, spot on. In my opinion, selecting an appraiser for an assignment based on the lowest bid has no place in appraisal management. I've listened to the OCC's Appraisal Policy Specialist speak multiple times at appraisal conferences on the topic that choosing an appraiser based on their making the lowest bid on an assignment has no place in an appraisal management company's decision to select an appropriate and qualified appraiser. Neither does who can deliver a report in the fastest time frame relate to who is best qualified. Now I'm not so naive as to think that time isn't often a critical factor, but good appraisers need a reasonable amount of time to produce a credible report - and that should always be the guiding factor, both for lenders and their customers.

"As far as paying appraisers a rush fee, most appraisers would prefer not to have to work under that pressure (or through the night or on every weekend) to solve someone else's emergency. As a lender, if you needed your team to work over a weekend to get a file to docs in time to save a close date or save a lock rate, wouldn't you have to pay (and want to pay) your staff overtime? No difference really than paying an appraiser a rush fee. But when it comes to appraisers not knowing the neighborhoods or not understanding the markets they accept assignments in, that's always unacceptable. It is bad enough that an appraiser would take an order like that, but far worse that an AMC would hand out an assignment to such an appraiser. That's not appraisal management - and lenders should complain.

"So here's my question: there are AMC's that always use local appraisers, always do a quality job of communicating with the lender and appraiser, always work diligently to support and protect all parties to every transaction and ultimately are a valuable resource to the lender, the originator and the borrower ... aren't they a product of the same regulations that are being demonized? Could it be that the problem lies more with bad actors than, if you'll pardon the expression, a bad ACT (as in Dodd Frank). Maybe we need to spend our energy identifying and supporting those AMC's that embrace a culture of integrity ... just like we should gravitate to lenders and loan officers who mirror that same culture of integrity. The CFPB says borrowers should 'Know before you owe.' Experienced LOs know they need to serve their customers first. Ask that your lenders 'Know before they order' - and only work with AMCs that make best practices the core value of their culture and serve their customers first. Then and only then will the tone of the conversation change."

Franklin American Mortgage (FAMC) announced that a lender certification may be used in lieu of a disaster inspection performed by a licensed appraiser, licensed inspector, or nationally recognized field company.

NewLeaf Conventional guidelines have been updated to reflect the newly announced Fannie Mae elimination of the continuity of obligation requirements. Also, age of appraisal, retirement and social security policies have been updated to align with Fannie and Freddie Mac guidelines.

Lakeview and Bayview Loan Servicing have temporarily eliminated the following products in the County of Genesee, Michigan: Conforming Fixed or Arm and High Balance, FHA Mortgage Program Full Doc (Non-Streamlined) and All Portfolio Products. Lakeview will continue to originate all FNMA DU Refi Plus, FHLMC LP Open Access and FHA Streamlines. In addition, it has updated the Early Access Product guidelines to now permit gift funds, and reduced the required reserves. Also noted, As of March 1, 2016 it is adding two new appraisal management companies (AMC), Axis and ProTeck.



Jobs and Announcements

Under "tools for lenders," VidVerify is pleased to announce its partnership with Bankers Insurance Service (BIS), a leading insurance provider in the mortgage industry. Recognizing the importance of consumer education and awareness in a tightly regulated environment, Bankers Insurance Service will now offer incentives to its lender clients that implement VidVerify's video communication tools. "Learn more about the expanding presence of video in consumer use, marketing & mortgages; join a 15 minute weekly webinar. VidVerify is a system of automated videos delivered throughout the loan process, assuring that a consistent, compliant message is sent to every borrower and tracked so you are audit ready with reporting. The entire video library is accessible for internal and external usage. Additionally, the ability to record personal video is also available with compliance controls. For questions contact Laura Hopkins314-853-0121."

CMG Financial Correspondent Lending continues to grow! After a very successful 2015, AJ George, Senior Vice President of Correspondent Lending at CMG Financial, is proud to announce the promotions of Ron Harrison, Mary Nguyen, Brian Hilberth and Ralph Ippolito to National Sales Managers. The National Sales Management Team is responsible for developing relationships with new and existing correspondent sellers throughout the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Central, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. With this announcement, CMG Financial is looking for 2 (two) qualified and highly ambitious Sales Associates, preferably located in the East San Francisco Bay Area, but would consider a remote location. For more information, email careers@cmgfi. com or clink the link above to view the career post. CMG Financial supports multiple business channels and is uniquely positioned to provide competitive products and services being an approved Fannie, Freddie, FHA, VA, and USDA direct lender and mortgage servicer which allows TPO-originated business from its sellers. CMG Financial is headquartered in San Ramon, California. For more information about CMG Financial Correspondent Lending, click here.

In retail news Stearns Lending LLC continues to grow rapidly in its retail channel. Stearns is looking to add to its sales force by hiring Retail Branch Managers, Sales Managers, and Mortgage Loan Originators in key markets across the United States. "The top privately held mortgage lender has experienced 909% growth in their retail channel since 2011, based on funded loan volume. The company broke records in 2015 with back-to-back record funding months and $25.3 billion in total funded volume. Contact Brad Hoke to learn about Stearns' career opportunities.

And what are all of these production folks going to be paid? According to the most recent STRATMOR Compensation Connection survey, approximately 20% of the respondents did not pay a Base Salary to Loan Officers. If a base is paid, however, the average isapproximately $24,000. How does your compensation compare to your peers? Participate in STRATMOR's annual compensation survey to gain valuable insights on not only Loan Officer compensation but for key positions across all departments. This year's survey includes enhanced tools to make the data collection easier and faster for participants. Each one of our modules (Executive Management, Retail Sales, Consumer Direct Sales, TPO Sales, Fulfillment and Production Support) have been updated to collect additional data elements including frequency of payouts that provide you with actionable information as you analyze and administer your compensation plans. Join us for this exciting new year of Compensation Connection. For full details, visit the 2016 STRATMOR Compensation Connection website or email compconnection@stratmorgroup. com.
With the continuous surge of controversial tycoon and U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in the polls, and especially after a powerful showing last week, more and more Americans are now looking into moving up north.



In fact, according to Google Data Editor Simon Rogers, the search term how to move to Canada saw an astounding 350% growth after emerging as a favorite in Super Tuesday. Red-hot Canadian markets aside, a generous exchange rate makes the following locations attractive prospects for would-be migrants.



Vernon, BC

According to Toronto real estate agent and Canada Real Estate Association board member Richard Silver, this locale boasts of warmer weather that has played a crucial role in the areas wine and fruit industries. A fully furnished duplex in the town currently sells for $276,260.



Whistler, BC

Site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the equable ski resort town plays host to over 2 million visitors annually. Home prices can go as low as $138,000.



Montreal

A January 2016 report by Sotheby's International Realty Canada noted that Montreals real estate market is projected to maintain its affordability this year. This uncommon stability has made the city a prime choice for those who find Toronto and Vancouver prices excessive.



But there is the issue of needing to learn French before you move there, Silver told CBS News.



Calgary

One of the Canadian cities hardest hit by the global oil shock, the Calgary market has not been kind to brokers and sellers. Buyers, however, are in a position to enjoy generous deals, with a two-bedroom condo unit going for just a little over $130,000.
NEW YORK (AP)  Hundreds of New York City police officers lined Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in a farewell salute Monday to a former NYPD colleague who was gunned down in Texas.

David Hofer, an officer in the Dallas suburb of Euless, was celebrated at a memorial Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral. NYPD officers in dress uniform were among thousands of mourners praying before his cremated remains.

A Euless police officer had carried the cherry wood box with Hofer's ashes bearing his name to the altar, near some daisies and a sign that read, "Blue Lives Matter."

His finacee, Marta Danylyk, wept quietly, sitting close to his mother, Sonja Hofer, and his father, Helmut Hofer.

"He went to Texas to make a good life, but once you put a shield on your chest, you're always in danger," Pat Lynch, head of New York's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said after the service.

The 29-year-old Brooklyn native was killed Tuesday while responding to reports of shots fired in a Euless park. As he and his partner approached, the gunman opened fire, mortally wounding Hofer. His partner returned fire, killing the man.

A New York University graduate, Hofer spent five years working in New York's Ninth Precinct in the East Village. He left two years ago for Euless, whose police department has welcomed several former NYPD officers to its ranks.

On a sunny Monday morning, the lone bagpiped sound of "Amazing Grace" rang over Fifth Avenue as Hofer's remains were carried out of the cathedral, the seat of New York's Roman Catholic archdiocese.

Monsignor Robert Ritchie, who presided over the Mass, summed up Hofer's life in three words from the pulpit: "Respect, honor, love."
Hillary Clinton's promise during a debate Sunday to aggressively regulate fracturing deepens the divide between Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on oil and gas development and signifies her continued shift to the left on environmental issues.

In the Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Michigan against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton said she wouldn't support fracturing in states or local communities that don't want it, if it causes pollution, or if the chemicals used aren't disclosed.

"By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place," Clinton said.

The comments marked a shift for Clinton, who, like President Barack Obama, has generally supported fracturing, while insisting methane leaks must be plugged and steps taken to ensure the practice doesn't contaminate water. She even highlighted natural gas in a campaign fact sheet last month as lowering energy costs, reducing air pollution and putting people to work.

But translating Clinton's debate-stage profession into actual regulation clamping down on the technique would be difficult, if not impossible. There are limits to what a president -- any president -- can do to limit the hydraulic fracturing process now being used to free gas and oil from dense rock formations nationwide.

Although state and local governments regulate the practice -- and some ban it altogether -- the federal government doesn't have much authority to directly regulate fracturing on private lands. The biggest openings are through laws allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air and water pollution tied to fracturing, said Kevin Book, an analyst with ClearView Energy Partners. "But these controls are both limited and litigable."

Further, most U.S. oil and gas wells today are stimulated into production using hydraulic fracturing. Shut down fracturing, and you shut down the oil and gas boom along with it, said Katie Brown, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, a research program funded by the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Clinton has worked to burnish her environmental credentials on the campaign trail, pressed by activists who have embraced Sanders and his clean energy agenda. Unlike Clinton's nuanced stance, Sanders' response to the issue Sunday was direct: "No, I do not support fracking."

Industry officials viewed Clinton's fracturing answer "as a political response to the guy standing to the left of her on the stage," said Neal Kirby, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

"She is continually being driven to the left by Senator Sanders," said Mike McKenna, a Virginia-based lobbyist and Republican strategist. Now, "she wants to kill the American energy boom, which is something not even the Obama crew could imagine."

But Clinton's comments are not enough for some deep-green environmentalists who want an all-out ban on fracturing, not just regulation making it more difficult and more expensive.

"Clinton will continue to struggle to convince climate advocates that she is serious about addressing the crisis until she comes out for a full ban on fracking," Yong Jung Cho, a campaign coordinator with the environmental activist group 350 Action said in a statement. "Clinton has moved from supporting fracturing to insisting on regulations that would make it impossible to frack in most places. It's high time to come out against it all together."

Sanders has pushed for an end to all oil, gas and coal development on federal lands.

By contrast, Republican presidential candidates have been uniformly supportive of domestic oil and gas development. Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, says his support of fracturing can win votes in New York, where the activity is banned.

"Shutting down U.S. production would make the United States less competitive, more reliant on foreign sources of energy and disrupt the geopolitical advantages that hydraulic fracturing delivers to our allies abroad," said Louis Finkel, executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, in an emailed statement. "The false choice offered on the campaign trail is a political stunt by those who are spouting populist rhetoric for political points; they are not being honest with American voters."
The Texas Supreme Court today will hear arguments in a case that could deliver a multi-billion windfall to struggling oil and gas producers by taking a major bite out of state tax revenue.

The issue before the justices may sound arcane: Are metal pipes, tubing and other equipment used in oil and gas extraction exempt from sales taxes? But a yes to that question, brought by a Midland-based driller, could trigger a flood of refunds that would wipe out the states projected $4 billion budget surplus, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar warns.

This ones as big as they come, the Republican said in an interview. The neon light lights up, because of the sticker shock.

Southwest Royalties, a subsidiary of Clayton Williams Energy, filed its lawsuit in 2009, just before improved technology unleashed a surge of oil production that transformed the U.S. energy landscape. Susan Combs, Hegars predecessor, was named in the original lawsuit, which has wound through the court system for years.

The driller is challenging the agencys refusal to refund the company for certain purchases between 1997 and 2001, when operators were feeling the pain of cheap oil.

Lower courts have sided with the state, prompting the company to appeal. Now, the justices are set to weigh in during a new era of oil patch trouble  with prices plunging to depths unseen in more than a decade.

Southwest Royalties seeks to recoup less than $500,000 in the case, but the stakes are far higher.

Granting the exemption would affect more than the companys tax bill, Hegar argues in court filings. It would impose a severe financial penalty on Texas taxpayers amounting to $4.4 billion in 2017, and $500 million each year after that as companies around the state seek to cash in, according to estimates compiled in 2012.

Today, the justices will parse the language of a sales tax exemption for goods and services used in the actual manufacturing, processing, or fabrication of tangible personal property, and consider how that description relates to the mechanics of petroleum extraction.

The case hinges on whether certain extraction equipment  like casing, pipes, tubing and pumps  fits the definition cited in the exemption.

Southwest Royalties says it does. Its equipment processes West Texas crude by separating it into marketable oil and gas, the company argues. The Texas Oil and Gas Association, the states largest petroleum group, backs that position. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a powerful conservative think tank, also supports the company.

Dallas-based Ryan, LLC, a high-powered tax firm, is representing Southwest Royalties in the case. Its attorneys declined to comment. But in a statement released in January, G. Brint Ryan, the firms CEO, said: It has long been the firm's contention that below-ground equipment used in the processing of oil and gas qualifies for the Texas manufacturing exemption.

The state counters that the equipment does not qualify for the exemption because underground minerals are not tangible personal property. Meanwhile, natural pressure and temperature changes  not the equipment itself  transform crude as it rises to the surface, it argues.

It is hardly likely that the Legislature intended such an expansive and costly interpretation of the manufacturing exemption, the states attorneys wrote in legal filings.

Southwest Royalties disagrees, and it says the financial impact has no bearing on who has correctly interpreted the policy.

CONTINUE READING HERE.
James Durbin

James Butler Bonham was born in Red Banks, South Carolina, on February 20, 1807. He was the great grandson of Samuel Fuller, one of the children on the Mayflower. James grew up on the Bonham family plantation and attended a field school. A field school is a one room schoolhouse in a plantation area that would have had a large stove for heating the room on cold days. James and his friend, William Barret Buck Travis were pranksters at school until the death of Jamess father. Jamess father died when he was eight years old. James became a more serious student after his fathers death. James was raised by his mother, Sophia. She had inherited plantations from her father and her husband and she was a good manager.

James remained good friends with William Travis. Travis was two years younger than James and some sources say they were second cousins. They were both very intelligent boys. They enjoyed hunting and fishing and later became skilled horsemen and swordsmen. The two boys also had pride in their manners and the way they spoke. It was a very sad day when Travis announced that he and his family were moving to Alabama. The two boys promised to keep in touch writing letters.
NEW YORK - The SATs infamous guessing penalty is gone. Its vocabulary is less arcane, minus words such as lachrymose and obsequious that students tended to memorize and then forget. Its essay is now optional. The perfect score - set in 2005 at 2400 - is reverting to the iconic standard from generations past: 1600.

But perhaps the most important change to the retooled college admission test that debuted last week for hundreds of thousands of students nationwide lies in its approach to what they learn in high school. The new version of the SAT aims more than ever to measure core skills taught in school, such as reading charts, analyzing evidence and applying algebra in mathematical problems.

The College Board, which owns the 90-year-old test, sought to purge the tricky questions -- akin to brain teasers -- that were vestiges of what used to be called a scholastic aptitude measurement. The theory behind aptitude testing was to find innate potential in students regardless of where they went to school. Now the SAT is officially described as an achievement test meant to reward those who study hard in class.

It most resembles the work that kids are already doing in the classroom, College Board President David Coleman said last week in an interview with The Washington Post at his office here in New York. I think the old SAT was a departure from kids everyday work, in their schoolwork. Evidently. It was almost universally felt to be so.

The new SAT was rolled out Wednesday in schools in the District of Columbia, Connecticut, New Hampshire, selected New York City schools, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Jose, and in Floridas Hillsborough and Seminole counties. On Saturday morning, 277,000 students from across the country are scheduled to sit for the test. In all, 463,000 students are expected to take the new SAT this month.

Hugo Barrillon and Jordana Graveley, juniors at Conard High School in West Hartford, Connecticut, called the revision an improvement. They took the SAT Wednesday morning during school along with 40,000 other 11th-graders in Connecticut, with testing fees fully paid by the state. Both also had taken the old version in January.

I noticed that in the reading, there were a lot more evidence-based questions, said Barrillon, 16. You would have to find a source from the text to support your answer to the previous question. That was definitely different. Barrillon said he believed the new test reflected his studies more than the old one.

Its a lot more focused on what we have learned in school, Gravely, also 16, agreed. One of the reading passages, she said, was a document that covered material familiar from history lessons. The vocab was really actually something that you would encounter in real life, she said. The old SAT penalized students for incorrect answers, to deter guessing. But the new SAT eliminates that rule. Its a lot less of learning how to take the test than the old one was, Graveley said.

Bruce Reed, a test-preparation consultant with Compass Education Group, based in Larkspur, California, said student perceptions about the new SAT matter less, in the end, than whether the test yields reliable and valid results to help admissions officers do their jobs.

Isnt it ultimately about the colleges? he said. Its a hollow victory if its just a test that feels better when youre taking it.

The revision has been years in the making. Coleman, one of the architects of the Common Core State Standards, was given a mandate to rethink the admission test when he took the helm of the College Board in 2012. The Common Core spells out what students should learn in math and English language arts from kindergarten through high school. Those standards, and the assessments connected to them, were widely adopted but have proven politically controversial. The College Board considered Colemans expertise an asset as the nonprofit organization grappled with discontent about its marquee test.

The last overhaul of the SAT, in 2005, added a writing section with a required 25-minute essay, worth a maximum of 800 points, to the math and critical reading sections, also worth up to 800 points each. In ensuing years, the SAT lost market share to the rival ACT admission test.

The ACT, based in Iowa, assesses English, reading, math and science, with an optional essay. It has long been perceived as a straightforward achievement test, with slightly higher time pressure per question than the SAT. It does not have a guessing penalty, and it has never purported to measure aptitude. Colleges now accept either test equally, and in 2012, the ACT surpassed the SAT in usage. In the nations Class of 2015, about 1.9 million students took the ACT, compared to 1.7 million who took the SAT.

One cannot ignore were in competition with the ACT, Coleman acknowledged. But he said that was not the main driver of the SAT changes.

Coleman unveiled his vision for the new SAT in March 2014. He wanted a transparent test, stripped of trickery and grounded firmly in what students learn. He also announced that the College Board would team with the nonprofit Khan Academy to offer students free online tutorials for the SAT, a measure aiming to reduce the advantage of families wealthy enough to hire private test-preparation consultants. Since June, 900,000 students have registered with Khan for SAT practice and have completed 39 million problems, Coleman said.

The old SAT took 3 hours and 45 minutes. The new version is 3 hours, plus another 50 minutes for those who opt to write an essay. The two core sections are math and evidence-based reading and writing. Most of the questions are multiple-choice, but some math questions require students to write in an answer. The math section focuses on algebra, data analysis and fluency with complex equations and expressions in preparation for advanced math.

Calculators, previously allowed throughout the math section, are now barred from certain portions of the new test. There also is less emphasis on geometry.

Some prominent universities in recent years -- including Wake Forest and George Washington -- have dropped requirements for applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores. Critics of the tests say that they are a needless barrier to college access for disadvantaged students, and that transcripts and other information can tell colleges all they need to know about an applicants academic potential.

But the large majority of selective colleges, in the Ivy League and beyond, continue to require submission of scores. They will be watching closely how the revised SAT performs its mission of helping to predict college success. That could take years to learn.

Were quite optimistic that it will be at least as good as the old test, said William R. Fitzsimmons, longtime dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard University. But we have to wait and see.

Fitzsimmons predicted that many students will cheer getting rid of flash-card vocabulary -- words that appear only once in your lifetime, but really have no connection to what you encounter in college or after college.

Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale, said getting ready for college should never be about tricks or last-minute cramming for a test.

I believe that the redesigned SAT is on the right path in its transparency and openness, and that it sends the clear signal that if you work hard and achieve, we in higher education will work to open doors for you, Quinlan said.

Barbara Jenkins, superintendent of schools in Orange County, Florida, which serves tens of thousands of students from low-income families, said she is most excited about changes to the SAT that suggest its payoffs are not reserved only for the elite or for those who can afford a prep course. The message, she said, is that practice pays off for anybody. Theres not some anointing that youre smart or not smart, Jenkins said. Instead, its something you work toward to open opportunity.

Education is replete with inequities, from preschool through college, with students from affluent backgrounds enjoying far more educational resources; there are strong correlations between standardized test scores and family income.

Coleman said he is mindful that those inequities are stubborn. But he said the SATs revision, coupled with the Khan Academy initiative, gives the College Board a strong reply to critics who say that privilege can purchase an edge in opportunity.

You say SAT and people say, Well what about the test prep? Coleman said. He said that many people wonder how can a challenge be fair if the tools of practice are costly, and if theres a sense of mystery and that some people can sell you the secrets.

The first step to reform was clear, he said: I had to get rid of the secrets.
After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, it became its own independent country and was named the Republic of Texas. During the years 1836-1846 immigrants moved here from various countries in Europe hoping to find a better life in the Republic in Texas. These immigrants took a chance and left their homes and countries to start a new life in a beautiful place with lots of land, rivers and mild climate. In areas where they settled in the Republic, you can still see evidence of their culture, hear their different languages being spoken and see their influence on the area they chose to settle.

Life was different back in those days. The capital was located in Houston. There was not much money in the Republic because so much money had been spent on the war. There were not many roads to get from one town to the next and there were still attacks from Indians and Mexican troops near the border. The Republic wanted new people to move here to build towns, schools and roads for our new country. Our new government wanted people to move here from Europe to start new lives here. To help attract European immigrants to Texas, the empresarial system was used to designate colonies and bring immigrants here.

Three of the most famous empresarios were Henri Castro from France and two Germans named Henry Fisher and Burchard Miller. In 1842, Henri Castro persuaded 600 families and men to move from their homes in France and come live near San Antonio, Texas. They started a colony called Castroville named after Henri Castro. Castro hired 27 ships and brought over 2,000 farmers from France to start new lives in Texas. In return for the French people leaving their homes, friends and country, Mr. Castro gave them a ship ride over to Texas, 320 acres, a house and tools to start their first farm. All of this only cost $240.00. In return, Castro gave all his colonists approximately 300,000 acres of land. The ship ride was very difficult and would take months to get to Texas from France. They would land in Galveston, Texas and take horses and buggy rides from Galveston to their new community and the trip was long and hard and would take many weeks. Back then, a horse and buggy could only travel about 10 miles a day.

Also in 1842, Henry Fisher and Burchard Miller were two empresarios who helped bring 6,000 German, Swiss, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish families to settle on 3 million acres between the Llano and San Saba Rivers. These immigrants moved away from their countries and chose to move to Texas where costs were cheap and taxes were not high.

A small number of European immigrants moved to Texas from Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. The Swiss immigrants settled in the northern part of Texas. They helped to bring dairy farming to Texas. The first Swedish immigrants settled mainly in the towns of Galveston and Houston. The first Norwegian immigrants settled near the Dallas area and in East Texas.

The largest groups of immigrants to move to Texas were from Germany. During 1836 and 1846 over 35,000 immigrants moved to Texas from Germany. They did not speak English and only spoke German. They had to learn a brand new language when they arrived in our country. They settled mostly in the areas of New Braunfels, Texas and Fredericksburg, Texas. Both of these towns have a strong German influence still seen today. You can still hear German accents spoken when you walk down the streets visiting these towns. You also still see some of the German influence in many of the buildings and homes were built with an architecture style from Germany. German foods like sausage, sauerkraut, German potato salad and German beer are very popular in these towns today. One of the largest water parks in the United States today is called the Schlitterbahn, which is a German word meaning slide. The Schlitterbahn water park is located in New Braunfels, Texas and was built with a German theme to remind us today of the strong German culture in this area. New Braunfels and other towns have yearly festivals called the Wurstfest and Oktoberfest that honor all the German people who immigrated here and to celebrate all the German traditions still seen today.

The European immigrants sacrificed greatly by leaving their family and friends in their home countries of Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and many more and took a chance moving to Texas and starting a new way of life. Many died from the long trips over the ocean and malaria from mosquitos when they landed in Galveston. They slept in tents for months while waiting for their homes to be built, but coming to the new frontier of the Republic of Texas was worth it. Texans today owe gratitude for the sacrifices made by the European immigrants to settle Texas and start farms, build towns, hospitals and schools and they contributed to the creation of the Texas we have today.

Tanner Hedrick is a seventh-grader at Midland Christian School. He is the son of Stephanie Hedrick and Larry Hedrick.
Asked about Trump, Pena Nieto complained to the Excelsior newspaper about "these strident expressions that seek to propose very simple solutions" and said that sort of language has led to "very fateful scenes in the history of humanity."

"That's the way Mussolini arrived and the way Hitler arrived," Pena Nieto said.

Pena Nieto until now had avoided direct comments on Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the two countries' borders and has said Mexican immigrants bring crime and drugs to the U.S. and are "rapists."

But as the New York businessman has built a lead in the GOP primary, current and former Mexican officials have begun to publicly express alarm. Former Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon also have alluded to Hitler in describing Trump.

In the interview with Excelsior, Pena Nieto said that "there is no scenario" under which Mexico would pay for the border wall, as Trump proposes.

But he said he hoped cooler heads will prevail.

"I hope that prudence and restraint will prevail among the voters there, and at the end of the day there will be a government that we can seek dialogue with, as we have done with the government of the United States," Pena Nieto said.

He said he would work with whoever eventually wins this year's U.S. presidential election and to maintain a climate "of mutual respect and joint agreements."

In another interview published Monday, with the newspaper El Universal, the president said he would be "absolutely respectful" of the U.S. political process. But, he added, "It appears to me that (Trump's comments) hurt the relationship we have sought with the United States."
2 Chainz made an appearance on the Wendy Williams talk show this morning, March 7, to reveal details on the new album released with Lil Wayne, Collegrove, and also opened about the tragedy of his friend and fellow rapper, Bankroll Fresh, who was recently killed outside of an Atlanta recording studio.

On the heels of his latest album release, the Georgia rapper stopped by the Wendy Williams show to explain exactly why he decided to collaborate with "his favorite rapper" Lil Wayne, and chose to keep it under wraps until the release date. According to the 6'5" rapper, the original way of releasing an album is no longer successful since people have such short attention spans these days. He believes surprising people with a new album is the more effective approach.

"I just think that's the new way to promote and market things," the Grammy nominated artist explained. "The original way, the old way was to set a date to get the fans excited about...putting a project out. And then doing marketing and promo leading up to the album. But, today's youth - the attention span is so short that I felt like, that I could just put out an album and the impulse of it being a surprise album would drive them to buy the project."

Though the rapper didn't intend to set a date and do much marketing or promotion for the album, he actually did. According to Rap Up, back in November of 2015, the College Park rapper tweeted that a joint project with Lil Wayne was in the works. Although at time, the project's working title was ColliGrove, and later grew into the actual title of the album, Collegrove.

It's #ColliGrove ya heard me !  Tity Boi (2 Chainz) (@2chainz) November 12, 2015

During the interview with Williams, 2 Chainz, who's real name is Tauheed Epps, explained how he came up with the concept for the title. "Collegrove is really like a word that I made up," he said. "It's College Park (GA) where I'm from and Holly Grove (LA) where Lil Wayne is from and we put it together and called it Collegrove." The "I'm Different" rapper has been updating his fans on how well the album is doing on his social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, and fans appear to be enthusiastic of the album's release, and have even started creating their own mock album covers, similar to that of the Collegrove album.

Tweet me ur COLLEGROVE self made covers ...make urs at https://t.co/5dOvsTmKDY  Tity Boi (2 Chainz) (@2chainz) March 7, 2016



Though Epps is elated by the success of the album, the recent death of his close friend, Bankroll Fresh, has him reevaluating the purpose of his platform as an artist.

"He was an authentic rapper, trap rapper from Atlanta," 2 Chainz said of his deceased friend. "[He] touched many of lives, lit up every room he went to. [His death] was super unfortunate, super unnecessary, super senseless and it just made me want to just step up - use my platform for some more positivity."

Bankroll Fresh was shot and killed outside of the Studio Exec recording studio in Atlanta of Friday night, March 4, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Police are still in search of a suspect in the murder.

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ultra Europe has announced the first batch of artist on its 2016 lineup. Among those who will head to Croatia this summer include Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Above & Beyond, Alesso and Armin van Buuren.

Also included on the bill include headliners like David Guetta, DJ Snake, Carl Cox, Dash Berlin and Afrojack. There will be plenty of big-name DJs from house and underground like the usual suspects fans have become accustomed to seeing on these lineups like Adam Beyer, Carl Cox, Marco Carola, Jamie Jones and Solomun.

There isn't much trance on the billing, but New World Punx members Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten with his revived Gouryella moniker will be leading the charge.

This is the fourth edition for Ultra Europe. It will return to Poljud Stadium in Split Croatia. The festival has grown from a two-day festival to a three-day affair and now last year Ultra started billing a full week of activities around the festival - much like what happens with Miami Music Week and Ultra Music Festival Miami.

This is just the first phase of artists who will head to Split this summer. The lineup will not be as busy as the Miami edition since there are fewer stages, but expect some more big names to be booked in the coming months. Watch the recap from last year and see the full list of announced names below. Tickets are available on the Ultra Europe website.

Ultra Europe 2016 Lineup Phase 1:

Above & Beyond

Adam Beyer

Afrojack

Alesso

Armin van Buuren

Carl Cox

Dash Berlin

David Guetta

Hardwell

Jamie Jones

Marco Carola

Martin Garrix

DJ Snake

Solomun

Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella

Hot Since 82

Ida Engberg

Joseph Capriati

Markus Schulz

Nic Facuilla

W&W

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Following the death of Nancy Reagan at the age of 94, armchair drug policy activists have started a petition demanding the White House have Fetty Wap perform "Trap Queen" at the former First Lady's funeral "to commemorate her contribution to the Trap."

The petition, started by Change.org user David D., cites the woman behind the widely disputed "Just Say No To Drugs" campaign's "unforgettable legacy as the First Lady of the United States," but insists that her accolades run deeper than being married to former President Ronald Reagan: she "holds the important legacy as being the most famous Trap Queen in American history."

The political figure's death has reignited debates regarding the Reagan administration's escalation of the War on Drugs which led to the mass incarceration of Black and Latino Americans in particular. The petition calls-out the hypocrisy of the First Lady leading a nationwide "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign while her president husband enacted domestic drug policies that involved extraordinarily harsh sentences to mostly minor drug offenders and possibly funding the Contras in Nicaragua, who helped supply the United States with cocaine, SPIN reports.

In the words of the petition: "While her husband was linking up with Papi to flood the streets with narcotics, Nancy was on TV telling kids to 'Say No To Drugs.' Her infamous 'anti-drug' phrase encouraged strict laws on drug possession that led to a school-to-prison pipeline we're still dealing with now."

The petition continues: "Blacks and Latinos went to jail in droves for possessing drugs her husband gave them. It was an incredible sleight of hand that would make any wannabe Trap Queen hide in shame for her inability to be as diabolical as Nancy."

As Uproxx points out, Killer Mike previously addressed the same issues and called out Nancy and Ronald for flooding drugs into black communities on his 2012 track "Reagan." Listen to Killer Mike breakdown the War On Drugs below.

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sarkodie should have been bigger than ...
Microphone and US Flag View Photos

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte delivered this weeks Republican address talking about the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act as well as how addiction has impacted her state and the U.S.A.

Ayotte was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are her words:

Hello, Im Kelly Ayotte, and Im proud to represent the great state of New Hampshire in the United States Senate.

For the past few years, Ive been working to bring attention to the heroin and prescription opioid abuse epidemic that is impacting my state and communities nationwide.

This is a life or death issue. In 2015, four hundred twenty New Hampshire residents lost their lives to a drug overdosemore than the number of people killed in traffic accidents. In February alone, there were 14 suspected opioid overdose deaths in Manchestera record high in our states largest city.

Were seeing similar trends not only in New England, but also in West Virginia, Ohio, and across the country.

But these are not just numbers. Behind every statistic and behind every headline is a life that has been lost.

A mother. A daughter. A son.

A brother. A neighbor. A friend.

This is not a Republican or Democrat issueit affects all of us.

As I have traveled around New Hampshire, Ive heard directly from our public safety community, treatment providers, addiction experts, families, and individuals in recovery about effective strategies to address this urgent problem.

On ride-alongs with the first responders in Manchester, Ive seen first-hand what theyre facing on the front linesand Ive witnessed their incredible efforts to save lives.

Treatment facilities in New Hampshire are working tirelessly to help individuals struggling with addiction who need our support.

Ive had the opportunity to visit these facilities and hear directly from the talented people who work there. They do such important work.

And throughout New Hampshire, people are coming together to raise awareness about this epidemic in every way they canfrom 5K races and rallies, to roundtables and community forums.

For some, this epidemic hits especially close to home.

Like the mother from Greenville, New Hampshire who wrote to me. She spends her days helping people living with substance use disorders, only to come home to see her own son struggling with heroin addiction. She told me: As I tried to comfort those who have been affected by this tragedy, I think that my son will be next.

Or the high school student from Manchester who told me how concerned he is about the negative impact this epidemic is having on his city. When he walks home from school, he sometimes sees discarded needles on the sidewalk. Tragically, he lost his best friend to a fentanyl overdose.

Or the grandmother who told me she lost her granddaughter to heroin.

Reversing the tide of addiction will take a comprehensive, thoughtful approach, and must include strategies for treatment, prevention, education, support for individuals in recovery, and increased interdiction.

That is why it is so important that this week the Senate took up a strong bipartisan bill to address this crisis.

I first helped introduce the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Actor CARAin 2014, and it has broad support across the aisle. CARA will be a significant step forward in the federal response to this epidemic and will support local efforts to tackle this problem.

CARA will provide additional support to first responders and law enforcementlike expanding availability of the life-saving overdose reversal tool, Narcan.

It will strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs to help prevent doctor shopping and expand drug take-back sites to promote safe disposal of unused or unwanted prescription medications.

CARA will increase access to treatment for individuals struggling with addiction. The bill also would expand prevention and education efforts in our schools, and launch a specific prescription opioid and heroin treatment and intervention effort.

And CARA would establish a campaign to bring greater awareness to the association between the misuse of prescription pain killers and heroin use, and educate the public about the dangers of abusing fentanyla deadly drug increasingly mixed with heroin or sold on the streets on its own.

Over 130 stakeholder groups across the country have endorsed CARA and called for its swift passage.

CARA has strong support from law enforcement, including the National Fraternal Order of Police, the Major County Sheriffs Association, the New England Association of Chiefs of Police and New Hampshires police chiefs, who I had the privilege of working with when I was Attorney General.

Forty-two Senators on both sides of the aisle have come together to cosponsor this legislation.

A Tilton, New Hampshire resident recently wrote to me about this issue and said: We need action, and we need it right now.

We have an opportunity to act right now to save lives in New Hampshire and across the country. And for the first responders, treatment providers, and those struggling with addiction, those in recovery, and their loved oneswe owe it to them to pass CARA. And we will. Thank you.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning on AM 1450 KVML at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 AM.
Assemblyman Anthony Rendon View Photos

Sacramento, CA  Democrat Anthony Rendon was sworn in as the new speaker of the California Assembly this afternoon.

It was touted at the ceremony that the Southern California lawmaker played a key role in negotiating the $7.5-billion water bond approved two years ago, and he has earned a strong reputation on legislation related to childhood education and environmental matters.

Rendon announced that his top three priorities will be to fight poverty, provide more oversight and increase participation.

The Republican Assembly leader is Chad Hayes of Yucca Valley. He has released a statement reading, Speaker Anthony Rendon has committed to running the Assembly in a way that is respectful of the diverse perspectives represented in our Chamber. I look forward to working together to serve our state, and when we disagree, I know that we will do so in a civil way.

Rendon replaces outgoing Assembly speaker Toni Atkins. Governor Jerry Brown, and others, were on hand for todays swearing in ceremony. Because of recent changes to term limits, allowing for candidates to serve longer in a single house, Rendon could theoretically stay in the role of Speaker until 2024.
San Andreas, CA  Three calls to action are part of a rather substantial agenda for the Calaveras supervisors this week.

Topping the list at Tuesdays meeting, the Calaveras County supervisors will consider a joint request coming from the sheriffs office, probation department and behavioral health services to adopt a resolution actively supporting the agencies Stepping Up initiative efforts to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in the county jail. The draft resolution also calls on county personnel and local residents to join efforts.

The meeting documents acknowledge a critical increase in the numbers of incarcerated people with mental illnesses, including within the Calaveras County Jail, as well as recent state criminal justice and public health system reforms that, officials say, provide an unprecedented opportunity to address the issue locally with state support. Already multi-jurisdictional teams across the states counties are working to connect with those in need of behavioral health care in and out of custody; while in the process, they are developing key indicators to measure prevalence and program prowess.

Locally, a new response protocol has designated both a dedicated a mental health worker and a clinician to serve those in crisis or with mental health needs, according to jail officials. The clinician is additionally developing innovative inmate programs focusing on self-esteem and anger healing as well as effectively managing anxiety or depression disorders and substance abuse issues. As funding for key staff is in place, the resolution does not seek additional financial support at this point from the county; however, by passing a supportive resolution the supervisors will effectively enable jail and program staff to receive technical program assistance through the Justice Center under the Council of State Governments.

Time To Tackle Rise In Dying Trees

As tree mortality issues already on the rise in Calaveras County will exponentially grow this year, the supervisors now face the need to roll out proactive tree removal and disposal protocol in order to be eligible for state funding. A draft program outline calls for involving a taskforce of local, state, federal, public and private stakeholders; identifying trees per affected acre by using the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protections Fire and Resource Assessment Program Tree Mortality Viewer and employing registered foresters. The supervisors anticipate passing a resolution to enable all this as well as to request that Calaveras be added to the list of high-risk counties associated with bark beetle infestation, which may allow it to tap additional debris clearing funding that may be available through CAL Fire, the local fire safe council, and other means.

In other business, the supervisors will hear a presentation from the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce Leadership (CCCLP) team about establishing a Calaveras Business Resource Center (CBRC). Up for subsequent discussion is the possible lease of the now vacant county-owned Huberty Building in San Andreas to the Central Sierra Economic Development District (CSEDD). The district, now working with the CCCLP team on a $250,000 Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant application that would fund the CBRC for two years, would head up business development and support activities with day-to-day operations staffed by the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce under the advisement of CCCLP.

CCCLPs position is that in the aftermath of the Butte Fire, the county now, more than ever needs to support existing and prospective local businesses and nonprofits that provide economic stability and opportunities and that a BRC could serve as a hub for promoting both. A list of services that might be offered includes: classes and workshops; short-term subleasing or sharing of office space for small or start-up businesses; access to office equipment; meeting space; a small retail store selling items produced by participating businesses; and a mini innovation lab, similar to the Innovation Lab in Tuolumne County, with equipment available for developing prototype items.

Noting the hundreds of disaster relief operations launched across the country over the past year as well as the tireless efforts of its local personnel in supporting those impacted by the Butte Fire, the supervisors also plan to proclaim March 2016 as American Red Cross Month in Calaveras County. Following a closed session with legal counsel, Tuesdays meeting will open to the public at 9 a.m. in the supervisors chambers at the county government center (891 Mountain Ranch Road).
Sacramento, CA  A proposal would give decline to state voters more influence in Californias June 7 presidential primary election.

Currently, in order to vote in Californias Republican primary, you must be a registered member of the GOP. However, the Democrats, Libertarians and American Independent Parties allow decline to state voters to take part in their primaries. A proposal submitted to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, resolution ACR 145, asks that there be an option for decline to state voters to receive a non-partisan ballot listing all of the candidates. The parties would not actually be required to acknowledge the results of the non-partisan ballot, but it would symbolically show party leaders what candidates are favored among a larger mass of people. The proposal is being pushed by Republican Assemblymembers Kristin Olsen and Anthony Cannella, as well as the non-profit Independent Voter Project based in Southern California.

Olsen says, We shouldnt be disenfranchising voters in an open primary state by not giving them an opportunity to vote for the most important office in America.

Secretary of State Padilla has not yet stated his opinion on the proposal.
San Andreas, CA  A man already convicted of murdering his son in New York in 2008, was arraigned yesterday in Calaveras County Superior Court for the alleged murder of his wife in Murphys in 1991.

Karl Holger Karlsens wife Christina died in a house fire in Calaveras County nearly 25 years ago, and at the time it was ruled to be accidental.

However, in 2008 the couples 23-year-old son Levi was found dead at Karlsens property in upstate New York. It initially appeared to be an accidental death, related to Levi working on an automobile, but officials later discovered that it was orchestrated by the father. Following the high profile murder case, the death investigation in Calaveras County was re-opened, and on August 29, 2014 charges were brought against Karlsen for killing his wife. It took nearly a year-and-a-half to coordinate the effort of transporting the suspect from New York to Calaveras County. The Calaveras District Attorneys Office worked closely with the Sheriffs Office, and other agencies, to make it happen.

District Attorney Barbara Yook reports that Karlsen appeared for an arraignment yesterday afternoon but did not enter a plea. His arraignment was continued to April 4.

Karlsen was sentenced to 15-years-to-life in New York for the 2008 murder of his son.
Kissimmee and Tampa are about to "Feel the Bern."

U.S. Senator and current Democratic Party Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will hold rallies in both Kissimmee and Tampa Thursday.



The events are the last two of three "A Future to Believe In" rallies scheduled during a three-day-swing through the Sunshine State in advance of the critical March 15 Florida Presidential Primary.

The Kissimee rally is set to take place at Osceola Heritage Park, 631 Heritage Parkway. Doors open for the public at noon, with the program set to start at 3 p.m. Free on-site parking will be available for attendees; however, due to limited space, rally organizers encourage carpooling.



The Tampa rally will be held at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall, 4800 U.S. Highway 301. Doors open for public admission at 4 p.m., with the program expected to begin at 7 p.m. Parking for the event will be available on-site for a fee.

Both events are free and open to the public, with admission first come, first serve. Rally organizers strongly recommend that those planning to attend either the Kissimmee event and/or the Tampa event to RSVP via Sanders' campaign website.


The Florida presidential preference primary is March 15, but its also a day voters in Winter Park can have a say on the makeup of their city commission.

City commission Seats 3 and 4 are up for grabs on the ballot.

A big issue facing the four candidates running for the two seats is how to handle development in a community that prides itself on cobblestone streets and historic homes.

"Winter Park is undergoing a lot of growth pressure right now, said Carolyn Cooper, who is running for her third term on the Winter Park city commission. I think the improvement in the economy has actually created a challenge for us, and that challenge is we must grow in a manner that continues to allow us to be a community of distinction."

Cooper says her experience in city government makes her the best choice for Seat 3.

But her opponent, political newcomer Lambrine Macejewski, who owns a popular Mexican restaurant in town, thinks its time for change.



"If you look at what's happening on U.S. 17-92, I think there's been a lot of growth very quickly, and to me, it looks more like Highway 50. Colonial, to me, that's not Winter Park, Macejewski said. We need to preserve the charm, and I think with balanced, good development, we can do that."

Pete Weldon has been on various city boards, but now he wants Seat 4 on the city commission, concerned that regulations have hampered residents and business owners.

"I've been concerned that protecting Winter Park is equivalent to controlling Winter Park, and I'm not sure that that's the right way to do things," Weldon said.

Weldon is running against incumbent Tom McMacken, whos looking for his third term on Seat 4.

He says the city needs to be selective in whats developed.

"You walk that fine line of how do you keep the ambiance of our city and how do you still allow it to renew itself? That's a fine line, and I think I've walked that," McMacken said.

One thing all the candidates can agree upon is they want a larger police presence in the community.

Recent crime in the city has residents concerned, and the candidates want more police patrolling the streets.
The Texas Historical Commission has given special commendation to the City of Plainview for successful annual progress as a designated Main Street community, one of a select group of Texas communities to receive the recognition this year.

All 58 have been recommended to receive national accreditation for 2016.

The Texas Main Street Program began in 1981 as one of the first state coordinating programs in the county, and is now in its 35th year. Local Main Street programs focus on responsibility utilizing the communitys historic assets for economic benefit and to increase quality of life. During 2015, more than $216 million was reinvested into Texas 90 Main Street districts. In addition, 327 small businesses and 1,710 jobs were created.

Main Street programs in Texas are staffed - Melinda Brown is Plainviews Main Street director - but relay on community volunteers to support in program. In 2015, Main Street volunteers donated more than 115,000 hours of work to support the program.

This years recognition is for progress shown between September 2014 and September 2015. Sharing in the recognition are members of the 2015 Plainview Main Street board, Chris Lefevre, Paul Drager, Phil Shackelford, Diane Book, Beverly McCaskill, Frances Barrera, Dr. Michael Graves, Janice Payne and Debbie McPherson.

For 35 years, the Texas Main Street effort has provided substantial return on investment to local communities across the state, said Mark Wolfe, THC executive director. Recognizing these individual local programs through an annual accreditation process proves that Main Streets ambitious annual goals are being achieved.

The recognition was announced at the winter gathering of Texas Main Street managers in New Braunfels, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a Texas Main Street city.

The combination of effort by Main Street volunteers, staff and other local partners reaps great dividends. The state recognition and national accreditation recognizes these efforts, said Debra Drescher, TMSP state coordinator.

Accredited programs show above average performance in 10 categories on an annual report. Selection criteria focus on planning, partnerships, staffing, volunteer effort, preservation ethic, training, and program assessment through reporting. The state office also works with programs throughout the year by providing various services based upon local needs.

We are so excited to receive National Accreditation for our Main Street program, said Melinda Brown, Plainview Main Street manager. The board did an outstanding job this year and I am glad to see them recognized for all their efforts.

To learn more, visit the National Trust Main Street website at www.preservationnation.org/main-street and www.thc.state.tx.us/mainstreet.

The 58 Texas cities recommended for national accreditation include: Amarillo, Bastrop, Bay City, Brenham, Bridgeport, Caldwell, Canyon, Carthage, Childress, Clifton, Colorado City, Corsicana, Cotulla, Cuero, Decatur, Denison, Denton, Eagle Pass, Elgin, Farmersville, Gainesville, Georgetown, Gladewater, Gonzales, Grapevine, Greenville, Harlingen, Henderson, Hillsboro, Huntsville, Kingsville, La Grange, Laredo, Levelland, Lufkin, Luling, Marshall, McKinney, Mineola, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, Nacogdoches, New Braunfels, Paris, Plainview, Rockwall, Rosenberg, Royse City, San Angelo, San Augustine, San Marcos, Seguin, Taylor, Texarkana, Tyler, Victoria, Waxahachie and Winnsboro.
LANSING, Mich.  Republican front-runner Donald Trump faces a test of his durability with white, working-class voters in Michigan, the first industrial state to vote in the 2016 primaries and the biggest prize among four states casting ballots Tuesday in the turbulent GOP race.



Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii are also holding Republican contests. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in Michigan and Mississippi.



Squeezed between high-profile Super Tuesday and high-stakes primaries next week in Florida and Ohio, Tuesdays contests are unlikely to dramatically reshape either partys primaries. But with 150 Republican and 179 Democratic delegates at stake, the races offer an opportunity for front-runners to pad leads and rivals to catch up.



While Trump has stunned Republicans with his broad appeal, hes forged a particularly strong connection with blue-collar white voters. With an eye on the general election, hes argued he could put Midwestern, Democratic-leaning industrial states such as Michigan and Wisconsin in play for Republicans.



Trump is facing competition from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has failed to win a single primary so far but hopes Michigan can give him a boost heading into his home states winner-take-all contest on March 15.



Its not just the whole country thats watching Michigan  now the worlds beginning to watch, Kasich said Monday during a campaign stop in the state. You can help me send a message about positive, about vision, about hope, about putting us together.



Unless Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio can win in their home states next week, the GOP primary is set to become a two-person race between Trump and Ted Cruz. The Texas senator is sticking close to Trump in the delegate count and with six states in his win column, hes arguing hes the only candidate standing between the brash billionaire and the GOP nomination.



During a stop at a catfish restaurant on Monday in Mississippi, Cruz said the current vacancy on the Supreme Court means Republicans cant take a chance on Trump.



Hes been supporting left-wing politicians for 40 years, Cruz said.



Rubio sought a boost in Tuesdays contests from Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee. Romney has recently become an outspoken critic of Trump and recorded a phone call on Rubios behalf in which he warns Republicans that if the real estate mogul wins the nomination, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished.



Romney has not endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary, but clearly says in the phone recording that hes speaking on behalf of the Rubio campaign. A Romney spokeswoman said the former Massachusetts governor has offered to help Rubio, Kasich and Cruz in any way he can.



Some more mainstream Republicans have cast both Trump and Cruz as unelectable in a November face-off with the Democratic nominee. But theyre quickly running out of easy options to stop their momentum, and are increasingly weighing long-shot ideas such as a contested convention or a rallying around a yet-to-be-determined third-party candidate.



Clinton, meanwhile, appears to be on a steady path to the Democratic nomination. Shes steadily grown her lead over Sanders, who has struggled to broaden his appeal beyond a loyal following of younger voters and liberals.



Trying to make a stand in Michigan, Sanders has accused Clinton of being disingenuous when she asserted that he opposed the auto bailout that rescued carmakers General Motors and Chrysler during the Great Recession. The bailout of the U.S. auto industry by presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama remains popular in Michigan, the home of the U.S. auto industry, and has been credited with preserving the Midwests manufacturing base.



Secretary Clinton went out of her way to mischaracterize my history as it relates to the 2008 auto industry bailout, Sanders said during a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Let me be as clear as I can: There was one vote in the United States Senate on whether or not to support the auto bailout and protect jobs in Michigan and around this country. I voted for the auto bailout.



Sanders and Clinton both voted in favor of a bailout bill in 2008, but it failed to clear the Senate, prompting Bush to announce about a week later that the federal government would step in with $17.4 billion in federal aid to help the carmakers survive and restructure. The last $4 billion was contingent on the release of the second installment of the Wall Street bailout funds.



Sanders did vote for a 2009 motion to block the release of those funds, though the measure was defeated by 45 Democrats, including Clinton, and a handful of Republicans.



Heading into Tuesdays contests, Clinton had accumulated 1,130 delegates and Sanders 499, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.



Among Republicans, Trump leads with 384 delegates, followed by Cruz with 300, Rubio with 151 delegates and Kasich with 37. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.







Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press Emily Wagster in Jackson, Mississippi, and Kathleen Ronayne in Monroe, Michigan, contributed to this report.






PLAINVILLE  A New Britain man faces charges after police said he punched a woman during an incident that also left a 15-year-old unconscious outside a restaurant Saturday night.



Luis Santiago, 47, of 931 West Main St., New Britain, was arrested on Saturday and charged with risk of injury to a minor, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault, third-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment, and breach of peace.



On Saturday around 8:40 p.m., police responded to the Imperial Buffet on New Britain Avenue in Plainville for a report of a fight, said Lt. Nicolas Mullins, police spokesman. The fight began after a man made a comment to a woman who was with another group of people, according to Mullins.



The argument continued outside and Santiago punched a 22-year-old woman in the face, Mullins said. A 15-year-old boy was also punched in the face by someone Santiago was with, causing the teen to lose consciousness. The woman was then punched again in the face by the same man that struck the 15-year-old.



The woman had visible injuries to her face but declined to be taken to the hospital. The teenager was taken by ambulance to the Hospital of Central Connecticut at New Britain General.



A witness recorded the incident on a cellphone, and officers were able to view the recording, Mullins said. Santiago was taken into custody at his home without incident. He was released on $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear at Bristol Superior Court on March 14.



Police are investigating and attempting to identify the second suspect, Mullins said.










A former San Antonio nurse appointed by the Veterans Affairs Department to administer the finances of veterans who were deemed incompetent or incapacitated was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in federal prison for stealing more than $140,000 of their benefits over five years.

Cornelia V. Hurling, 58, admitted she spent much of it on personal expenses, including meals, movie rentals and lawn services. The VA claims she stole $141,734 directly or by taking excessive fiduciary fees.

Hurling apologized, saying she took full responsibility and regrets her actions.

As her lawyer sought probation for her, Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra instead gave her 14 months in prison, ordered her to serve three years of federal supervision once released and to pay $141,734 in restitution.

Hurling pleaded guilty in September to one count of misappropriating or embezzling the funds she was supposed to manage as a VA fiduciary. A separate charge of embezzling from the government was dismissed as part of her plea deal.

Her lawyer, Christian F. Capitaine of Houston, argued there were mitigating factors that should affect Hurlings sentence, including that she suffered a stroke during the period in question and her house burned down, though he said that doesnt excuse her conduct.

Shes certainly remorseful and is taking responsibility for what shes done, Capitaine said.

Hurling was previously a licensed vocational nurse but hasnt been practicing for a number of years, Capitaine said.

Between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 20, 2013, Hurling served as a fiduciary appointed by the VA to administer the financial affairs of at least 22 veterans who were deemed incompetent or who were otherwise incapable of handling their financial affairs, her plea deal said.

In July 2013, the VAs Office of Inspector General found that Hurling had not submitted mandatory accounting statements for 12 of those veterans, including bank account statements for the previous four or five years.

She had opened bank accounts for all 22 but was also the signatory on a business bank account for Educational Health Care, or EHC  which she incorporated in Texas in July 2008, serving as its director  and an account she shared with her daughter, her plea paperwork said.

A review of her business and personal accounts showed that Hurling was the primary user and that she deposited money from veterans accounts into the EHC account in amounts greater than her VA-authorized fiduciary fee.

In most of those instances, the funds were not used for any of the veterans benefit, the plea paperwork said. Rather, the debits on the account were for Hurlings personal use. For example, Hurling spent money on meals, lawn service, handyman repairs and movie rentals.
Less than two weeks after its previous CEO, Marla Jackson, abruptly resigned, Goodwill San Antonio has appointed an interim CEO.

Retired Army Major Gen. General Kevin Bergner and a former USAA executive will take over at the nonprofit during a national search for a permanent leader, said Janelle Sykes, chair of the Goodwill San Antonio board of directors.
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Jean Smith testified Tuesday that her tip to police about her nephew Anthony Lee Smith, who is accused of killing Daniel Lee Cantu and taking his wallet, had nothing to do with the $5,000 reward money.

I wasnt doing it to get money. I love my nephew, she said through tears in the first day of Smiths murder trial. I would rather see him in jail than dead on the street.

Prosecutors say Anthony Smith told family members what he did to Cantu, while the defense said the assertions from relatives are not true because their statements kept changing.

Jean Smith testified that she saw television news reports in the days after the shooting and that her nephew told her he had killed the man.

According to police, a relative of Anthony Smith had contacted police days after the killing and said he was smoking marijuana and had shot Cantu in the heart and got $100 off the guy, an arrest warrant affidavit stated.

Jean Smiths testimony followed that of her sister, Lynell Simmons, who said Jean Smith is a liar who turned their nephew in for the money.

Asked by lead prosecutor Kimberly Gonzalez about her statements to investigators regarding what she knew about the killing or her nephew, Simmons said none of what the detectives attributed to her was true. Police wrote what they wanted in her statements and she just signed them, she testified.

Under cross examination from defense attorney Christian Henricksen, she told the court that she could not read or write.

Simmons had to be admonished several times by state District Judge Jefferson Moore for arguing with and speaking over attorneys on both sides. At one point, she attempted to engage with a male juror whom she accused of staring at her, which prompted another warning from the judge.

Earlier testimony by first responders described how they found Cantu, 51, lying near his residence July 28, 2013, at the Banyan Tree Apartments in the 8100 block of Crosscreek on the Northeast Side.

He had been dead for hours, killed by a gunshot wound to the chest, his body crawling with ants and his wallet missing, witnesses said.

The trial is expected to resume at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the 186th state District Court.

ezavala@express-news.net

Twitter: @elizabeth2863
When dance instructor Marlene Pita pushed play on her cell phone, the sound of mariachis filled the studio, setting off hand claps and stomping feet while strengthening of family bonds.

As the strains of La Cucaracha blared from radio speakers, youngsters moved from stoic poses, alongside mothers and grandmothers, to dance steps created long ago in Mexico.

The ruffled hems of the girls colorful dresses unfurled like an old-fashioned hand fan above the buffed floor at Pre-K 4 SA South Education Center, one of four such centers in San Antonio. Mothers and their children swirled in sync, as two boys tapped thick heeled-boots behind a fellow dancer, clomping his Spider-Man sneakers to his own beat.

Practice your homework all over the house, Pita said, as she wove her way through the lines of small dancers and their family members. Use your mirrors. Good job!

The free ballet folklorico class is a pilot program that reinforces discipline, motor skills, self-confidence, vocabulary and understanding of Mexican culture.

The children and adults practice in classes Mondays and Wednesdays, from 2 to 2:45 p.m., at the Pre-K 4 SA South Education Center, at 7031 S. New Braunfels Ave.

The classes will continue through the fall and end this semester with a recital where children and their parents will perform together.

Ballet folklorico features dance steps from different regions across Mexico, and preserves authentic, traditional folk dances.

Valerie Canales, 29, said dancing with her daughter, Zoeli, 5, gives them a chance to explore their culture.

Its something we can do outside of school together, Canales said, as Zoeli gave the program a thumbs up. I love that the program is incorporated into her school day.

Paul Chapman, communications manager for Pre-K 4 SA, said the intergenerational class has been a big draw at the center.

A lot of times with schools, family engagements stop at the front door, he said. This is an opportunity to bring parents into the programming and make them feel at home in the community. Weve seen that attendance, retention, all of those things go up as weve seen an increase in family involvement.

Chapman said the class is one of the four pillars of the Pre-K 4 SA program that include professional development, competitive grants, family engagement and curriculum.

The class started in September after staff at the center proposed the idea to Jeannette Chavez and Belinda Menchaca, both with the Guadalupe Dance Company. Marlene Pita, a dancer with the company based at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, has danced folklorico since she was 11.

In a traditional dance class, she said, moms arent allowed so their children will not be distracted. But at the Pre-K 4 SA center, parents play a big part and see their children are being challenged.

And as much as the folklorico instructor demonstrates dance steps, she also teaches other important life skills. Pita stresses to her students to be on time and be respectful. She doesnt allow gum chewing.

Pita tells parents that its fine for the youngsters to make mistakes; its another life skill on how to recover.

We take a little oath that this is one of our duties to pass it on to the younger generation, Pita said. Its one of the accomplishments that I get to do here with the kids, is to introduce them to it if theyre not aware of it yet. Its really great for mom to be able to share this, like when they read together at home.

Maria de los Cornejo Angeles, 32, said shes glad to dance with her 4-year-old son, Juan Jose.

I like making it a part of my day, its an opportunity to be at the same place, Angeles said in Spanish through an interpreter. Hes getting to learn a dance from his culture in Mexico.

Her son said he likes the noise his shoes make when he practices with his mother.

I like dancing with my mom because she takes care of me, a teacher interpreted for Juan Jose. Because she loves me.

vtdavis@express-news.net
A man convicted last week of aggravated promotion of prostitution was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.

Patrick Perez was 27 when he was charged two years ago with aggravated promotion of prostitution, trafficking of persons, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a prohibited sawed-off shotgun. The state proceeded only on the prostitution charge.

San Antonio police answered a call around 2:45 a.m. Feb. 19, 2014, after someone reported that a person with a shotgun was stealing televisions from three rooms at an EconoLodge motel in the 6000 block of Interstate 10 on the Northwest Side.

Officers said then that a woman at the scene told them that Perez had threatened her, so police took him into custody after he ran into one of the three rooms he had rented and locked the door, a police report stated.

An unidentified woman at the scene told police that Perez was a pimp, who had posted photographs of women online, police said.

Prosecutors argued in their closing statement that Perez, who faced between 2 and 10 years in prison, should get as close to the maximum as possible because though he expressed remorse and tearfully apologized on the witness stand, he had attempted to run his prostitution business from jail.

Hes a manipulator, lead prosecutor Ryan Wright told the jury, adding that there just wasnt one woman involved, but several.

Wright reminded them of an audio the prosecution played from a conversation Perez had with one of the women alleged to have been one of his prostitutes while he was in jail.

He could be heard telling her, Its $1,000 to get me out, youre gonna make it, and I want (name withheld) helping you  I dont want you working by yourself.

Defense attorney Oscar Cantu Jr. told the jurors in his closing statement that Perez has changed and is getting help to stay off of meth. Cantu said Perez isnt the worst defendant. He pointed out that even Perezs estranged wife and his mother-in-law said he was a good, caring man before his drug use.

He had a real life behind this common theme of drug use and crime, Cantu said.

ezavala@express-news.net
News / Africa

by Agencies

Nkandla - President Jacob Zuma on Saturday said modern women were too quick to say they were being harassed when men were innocently complimenting them.Zuma, who was in a jovial mood, made the comment shortly after he checked for his name on the voters' roll at Ntolwane Primary School in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.He was accompanied by his wife Tobeka Madiba Zuma and their 8-year-old daughter, Nqobile.Zuma spoke to female journalists, saying in Zulu, "It's a pity we live in a white man's world; you can't even say 'Gqezu, Gqezu ntomazane! Nongenazo izinkomo uyayidla inyama'."This is a Zulu saying loosely meaning that even if you don't have enough money to pay lobola, you can still get married.Zuma said if men could compliment women the way they did in the past, his bodyguards would compliment the journalists. "But when men compliment you innocently, you say it's harassment. You'll miss out on good men and marriage," said Zuma, laughing.He also encouraged journalists to go out and register to vote. "You don't have to tell us who you're voting for, it can be your secret," said Zuma.Meanwhile, the DA expressed their disappointment with the comments made by Zuma.According to DA national spokesperson, Phumzile Van Damme, Zuma's comments are "outrageously sexist and an insult to every single woman in our country, especially those who are survivors of violence and sexual abuse"."It's precisely this patriarchal attitude that allows for women to remain the subjects of high levels of violence and sexual abuse throughout our country," Van Damme said.The DA said that these comments will be reported to the South African Human Rights Commission. "We will also write to Jacob Zuma and the ANC Women's League President, Bathabile Dlamini, and ask that they issue an apology  without delay  to the women of South Africa for their blatant disconnect from their lived reality across our country."
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SAN ANTONIO  An online fundraising account has been established for a San Antonio Police Department officer who was indefinitely suspended last week after fatally shooting unarmed Antronie Scott on the North Side in February.

The GoFundMe campaign, created by Krystal Tijerina, went live on March 5 and is seeking $100,000 to cover attorney fees and bills for John Lee.

Lee was handed a "contemplated indefinite suspension" on March 1 by SAPD Chief William McManus. During an interview with the Express-News editorial board last week, McManus alluded to the possibility of Lee's suspension being reduced.

RELATED: SAPD officer who shot, killed unarmed Antronie Scott faces indefinite suspension

So as most of you know SAPD officer Lee was placed on indefinite suspension this past week for doing his job. We as a family and department should help him. He has a family to support and the chief took that away from him, the webpage said. "He now has attorney fees and his monthly bills that still need to be paid. I have started this gofundme page for him and his family. Lets show him how much we appreciate his job well done and we will not let him walk this line alone.

SAPD spokesman Jesse Salame said Lee is still being paid for the time being and a hearing at a later date will determine whether the levied suspension is upheld.

Scott, 36, had been followed to the apartment complex parking lot where he was killed on Feb. 4 by undercover officers because he was wanted on felony warrants of drug possession, police said.

RELATED: Widow of unarmed man shot, killed by San Antonio police sues SAPD, city and officer

McManus said during a press conference after the shooting that Lee, an 11-year veteran, almost immediately fired his service weapon because Scott spun around quickly and the officer feared for his life.

Lee pulled up as Scott was exiting a white Mercedes sedan. The officer approached and told Scott, "Let me see your hands."

The officer told investigators at the time he thought Scott had a weapon in his hand, but it was later determined to be a cellphone.

The campaign has raised a total of $1,867 as of 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday.

A request for comment from the sites creator was not immediately returned.

mdwilson@express-news.net

Twitter: @MDWilsonSA
A softcore porn actress who had supported Ted Cruz  until his campaign pulled an ad that she appeared in  has picked a new candidate. Amy Lindsay is now stumping for Donald J. Trump.

I like what he stands for, Lindsay told CNN on Monday. I also have realized along this adventure I've been having for the last couple weeks, people are really attacking him and lying about him, and I know how that feels.
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Three men and one woman told a 24-year-old man that they would bring him into their satanic cult before beating, stabbing and strangling him to death, according to Chihuahua state police.

RELATED: Murder case of 'Phantom Killer' in Texas remains unsolved 70 years later

Police found the body of Edwin Miguel Juarez Palma, 24, wrapped in black plastic bags on March 1 in a street in Chihuahua City, the state's attorney general's office announced last week.

State police have arrested Calep Josefath Acosta Loera in connection with the killing, the attorney general's office said in a news release Monday.

Three others were arrested Friday for their alleged involvement in Juarez's killing: Omar "Osiris" Sanchez Garcia, 25, and Iveth Nayeli Lopez Hernandez and Gustavo Adolfo Dorantes Dorantes, both 18.

Pablo Rocha, director of the state police, told Mexican news outlets that the suspects believed that Juarez would come back to life as a vampire, according to El Norte.

RELATED: The rising Mexican drug cartel figures that could replace Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman

The four suspects told Juarez they would initiate him into the cult of "hijos de bafomed," or the sons of Baphomet, a symbol worshiped by Satanists, according to the attorney general's office.

Juarez was beaten and stabbed with a glass bottle, the attorney general's office said.

The coroner's office ruled that Juarez died of strangulation.

RELATED: 10 mugshots show transformation of Texas man with bizarre face tattoo

Investigators were led to the suspects by information posted to social media, according to the office.

Authorities found bloodstains at a cybercafe owned by Sanchez, the attorney general's office. It appeared that the suspects had tried to clean the stains with detergent and chloride.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
SAN ANTONIO  Forecasters say San Antonio is in for another round of downpours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning that could see hail, high winds and possibly a tornado.

Severe storms pounded much of Central Texas throughout the day on Tuesday, but the heaviest downpours stayed well to the north of San Antonio. That could change in the next 24 hours.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

THREE people have died while two are admitted to Nchanga North Hospital after being struck by lightning while working in their maize fields in Chingola's Chabanyama area.Zambia Daily Mail reported that similarly, in Chitambo, three pupils were left unconscious after lightning struck them while at school.Copperbelt commissioner of police Charity Katanga confirmed the Chingola incident, which happened at 14:00 hours on Saturday.The victims sought refuge under a tree when it started raining, and one died on the spot, and the other two on the way to the hospital.Katanga named the deceased as Guza Banda, 82, of house no 15, Chikwekwe Road, Chabanyama Site and Service; Methius Banda, 14, of house number 12B of the same township and Susan Nyamba, 44, of an unknown address.Katanga named those that are admitted to Nchanga North Hospital as Grace Nakamba, 60, of an unknown address who sustained burns on the body and Dorcas Nanyangwe, 16, who was left with blisters on the head and legs.She said the five were working in a maize field when lightning struck them."I can confirm that we have three people that died in Chingola after being struck by lightning. Two survived the attack and are admitted to Nchanga North Hospital," she said.And in Chitambo, three girls of Makando Primary School have been hospitalised after lightning left them unconscious last Friday, Violet Mengo reports in Lusaka.Ministry of General Education spokesperson Hilary Chipango said in an interview yesterday that the three girls, who are in boarding school, were rushed to Chitambo Mission Hospital where they are admitted.He said the girls are now conscious and out of danger.Mr Chipango named the girls as Precious Lilema, 10, Abigail Luhanga, 12, and Regina Nakaundi, 12. The incident happened at 18:45 hours on Friday.
What much of the public remembers of Nancy Reagan is the devoted, adoring wife of President Ronald Reagan. She was all that, but the characterization is, at its heart, superficial.

Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday at age 94, was a powerful member of, first, the California and then the national political establishment. She helped guide her husband to office and in policy.

She was reportedly instrumental in hiring  and firing  political and White House staff. And she undertook this because of one of those two traits the public most associated with her: devotion. This led her to be highly protective of Ronald Reagan, who was also a former California governor. And this made her perhaps his most valued ally and adviser.

She kept a big part of her life under wraps. She insisted that she not be viewed as any sort of power behind the throne.

She was, without a doubt, influential, but Ronald Reagan was also his own man. He followed her advice  and that of other advisers  in apologizing for the Iran-Contra scandal, staging a turnaround in public opinion, and in dumping White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan in 1987. But he didnt on other matters, notably Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He remained as defense secretary.

President Reagan died in 2004, after a 10-year bout with Alzheimers. After the diagnosis, Nancy Reagan became a national advocate for awareness and research in the deadly disease. But she had also spoken out against drug and alcohol abuse as first lady. Remember, Just say No? And as a cancer survivor, she urged women to have mammograms every year.

President Reagans legacy is recalled with some yearning these days, given the current GOP campaign. And with good reason. His accomplishments were real and his legacy more nuanced than many appreciate. And in this context, its best remembered that the former actress was very much part of this team.
EDINBURGH, Scotland  A recent update from the ATM Security Associations European ATM Security Team (EAST) suggests that card skimming at cash machines is evolving.

Criminal usage of throat inlay skimming devices, which are hidden within the card slot, appears to be increasing.

The trend of losses due to skimming occurring outside of EMV chip liability shift areas continues. International losses were reported in 44 countries and territories outside of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and in three within SEPA. The top three locations where such losses were reported are the United States, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Skimming attacks on other terminal types were reported by 12 countries, and seven countries reported such attacks on unattended payment terminals (UPTs) at fuel retailing stations; while 15 countries reported cash trapping attacks and five countries reported transaction reversal fraud (TRF) incidents.

In a recent white paper, the association suggests that ATM skimming will continue to be a formidable threat until every country, including the United States, fully adopts EMV, or chip-and-PIN, card technology.

It is clear that the presence of the magnetic stripe on payment cards is the underlying cause of the persistent threat of skimming and card compromise at the ATM, the association wrote in its conclusion. The strategic goal of the card payment industry needs to be to remove the magnetic stripe from the card once the global migration to EMV is complete and correctly implemented.

Conexxus and NACS provide convenience and fuel retailers with resources and tools to proactively initiate and maintain effective payment security procedures that help reduce the occurrence of skimming. In December, Conexxus and NACS hosted a free webinar that highlighted the processes and tools available to protect dispenser terminals from intrusion and skimmers. The webinar was conducted by representatives from Gilbarco Veeder-Root and Wayne Fueling Systems.
New savory snack brand, GOOD THiNS, comes in eight varieties.

EAST HANOVER, N.J.  Mondelez International is responding to consumer demand for more wholesome savory snack options with its first new snack brand in more than a decade: GOOD THiNS. The brand contains real ingredients like wheat, potato and rice, and no artificial flavors, colors, cholesterol, partially hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup.

GOOD THiNS are available in eight varieties at launch:

The Potato Ones! (with 60% less fat than regular fried potato chips) in original, sweet potato, and spinach and garlic

The Chickpea One! In garlic and herb

The Rice Ones! (gluten-free) in veggie blend, salt, poppy and sesame seed, and salt and pepper

The name GOOD THiNS pays tribute to the delicious taste and wholesome ingredients, as well as the thin and crispy texture," Brown said.

"GOOD THiNS is good on so many levels, we think it will naturally become a go-to for our consumers in any snacking situation, said Danielle Brown, marketing director for GOOD THiNS at Mondelez International.

GOOD THiNS is currently rolling out nationwide.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

An alleged bogus doctor who has examined, prescribed medicine to and treated thousands of patients for years has been nabbed following an undercover investigation by The Citizen.Mogaswa James Mathopa, 47, has allegedly never studied medicine, but practised as a doctor for more than a decade.In 2010, the same "doctor" was convicted on three counts of fraud and one of contravening Section 22A of the Medicine and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965 for a similar crime.According to court papers, he pleaded guilty, citing a lack of legal defence. The serial impostor was later fined R50 000 or three years in prison, with a further three years imprisonment suspended for five years on condition that he did not commit the same crime.Despite previous convictions, it seems Mathopa reverted to his old tricks. Little did he know it, however, but he was on the radar of Crime Intelligence, which pounced on him on Friday.The police raid at a Tlhabane surgery in Rustenburg, where the alleged fake doctor had been operating, left patients and laboratory messengers, there to collect and deliver blood samples, staggered.The raid was conducted by the National Health Department's medicines and related substances control unit, Crime Intelligence, and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).A Mabeskraal village surgery that Mathopa used was shut down by the police. The Citizen spoke to a close friend of Mathopa, whose parents died two months after each other.This was after they were allegedly treated by Mathopa. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the friend said: "For years, this man and I were very close."My parents took him as their own son, yet he treated them, gave them medication, injections, knowing he is not a doctor. I feel betrayed."Baffled, one of Mathopa's longtime female patients said: "I built a good relationship with the doctor."My head is spinning. I don't know what to say. I never thought this could happen. I feel stupid. I need a smoke."Are you telling me I have been showing my bum to a man who is not a doctor?"He injected and did a pap smear on me."A community member, who joined Mathopa's patients as they watched the scene unfold in disbelief and shock, confirmed he had been consulting the alleged bogus doctor for arthritis. When this reporter attempted to enter through the surgery door, Mathopa softly told me: "Please don't come in, there's a problem, come back tomorrow.It was apparent he had not discerned that I was a patient in disguise. After the man's arrest, police at the Tlhabane station were overheard saying they were also among Mathopa's patients.One policeman, a patient of Mathopa, said: "I wouldn't have asked him to prove to me that he was a doctor."In Mathopa's rooms were the files of many patients and expired and high-schedule medication. This was despite Mathopa allegedly not having a dispensary licence and being registered with the HPCSA.Surgery owner Dr Seutane Seutane told The Citizen he employed Mathopa at his surgery in about 2010 as a locum.He said Mathopa had produced a medical certificate from the University of Natal. Seutane claimed he was not aware Mathopa had previously been convicted for impersonating a doctor.Mathopa is in police custody and is expected to appear in court today. He faces charges relating to fraud and the contravention of Section 22A of the Medicine and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965.He will again appear in court on Tuesday on the same charges for another "surgery".
By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Originally published at New Economic Perspectives

The Bank Whistleblowers Uniteds third weekly lemons award is made jointly to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Fannie Mae (with a dishonorable mention to the federal judiciary). The award goes for these entities indifference and even hostility to whistleblowers. On September 6, 2008, the FHFA placed Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship in conjunction with the largest public bailout in global history. Fannie and Freddie failed in an orgy of fraudulent mortgage loans.

Fannie had suffered enormous losses in the early 2000s from a variant of accounting control fraud. Those frauds were brought to the attention of the public and the FHFAs predecessor agency (OFHEO) by a Fannie Mae whistleblower, Roger L. Barnes. The Washington Post reported:

Two exhaustive investigations have backed up Roger L. Barness allegations that Fannie Maes financial statements could not be trusted and that accounting managers manipulated numbers to meet rising earnings targets.

Naturally, Barnes experienced retaliation that destroyed his career at Fannie Mae, though he was the person doing everything right according to the law and Fannies own policies. Fannies regulators forced out its CEO and CFO in response to the securities fraud. Paragraph 2 of the SEC complaint against Fannie Mae for securities fraud explicitly charged that the purpose of the fraud was to produce hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to Fannies officials.

At the end of 1998, senior management manipulated the Companys earnings in order to obtain bonuses they would otherwise not have received.

Fannies early forms of accounting control fraud that were addressed by the SECs complaint led to regulatory restrictions on growth that shifted Fannies new senior managers towards a new form of accounting control fraud using liars loans that caused losses so large that Fannie failed. (Freddie was also sued by the SEC for accounting control fraud at the same time as Fannie and its new managers reacted in the same fashion as Fannies new managers and produced the same kind of failure.)

In these circumstances, one might have thought that Fannie and FHFA would do everything possible to encourage whistleblowers by rewarding them rather than retaliating against them. One might even be tempted to board a flight of fantasy and believe that the courts would act zealously to protect whistleblowers at Fannie. Alas, given that this a Whistleblowers lemon award, the perceptive reader has already guessed that a mere $189.5 billion pubic bailout of Fannie and Freddie would not cause a fundamental change in their senior managers or the FHFAs senior managers.

Fannie is continuing to retaliate against whistleblowers during the conservatorship. Fannies managers are continuing to prevent whistleblowers from even going to court to secure relief when they are the victims of retaliation. The courts are allowing these abuses, designed to intimidate whistleblowers, and barring whistleblowers at Fannie who are retaliated against from being able to have their day in court. This is occurring even though the Dodd-Frank Act sought specifically to bar this abuse of arbitration clauses that Fannies managers used for the purpose of intimidating whistleblowers.

In Taylor v. Fannie Mae, the court acknowledged that Dodd-Frank had deliberately amended the prior whistleblower protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which had allowed employers to force whistleblowers to give up their normal rights to have their claims of retaliation heard in court.

While SarbanesOxley claims were arbitrable at the time the law was originally enacted, the recent DoddFrank Act, enacted in July 2010, amended Section 1514A to prohibit arbitration of SarbanesOxley claims. 18 U.S.C.  1514A(e)(2) (No predispute arbitration agreement shall be valid or enforceable, if [it] requires arbitration of a dispute arising under this section.). As the defendants are attempting to enforce a dispute resolution policy over a SarbanesOxley claim, the question before the Court is whether the DoddFrank Act applies retroactively to arbitration agreements that existed prior to July 2010.

Note that the Congress and the President in signing the Dodd-Frank Act had the benefit of years of experience with Sarbanes-Oxleys effort to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. They realized, correctly, that corporate frauds were using arbitration clauses to aid their ability to silence whistleblowers through intimidation. They determined that this was terrible public policy that caused horrific losses to our Nation.

Fannie should not have to be ordered by Congress not to deny its whistleblowers the right to go to court to vindicate their legal right when Fannie executives unlawfully retaliate against the employees. But even if Fannies leadership failed to do so, the federal government (FHFA) is the conservator of Fannie and Freddie. The federal government as conservator has all management powers over Fannie and Freddie. It is outrageous that the FHFA has stood by while Fannies managers have (1) continued to violate the law, (2) illegally retaliated against the whistleblowers who have tried to warn their superiors and the public of Fannies continuing crimes, (3) and invoking the arbitration clauses to deny the whistleblowers their right to protect their rights in the courts  the very arbitration clauses that Congress declared unlawful because they were used to intimidate whistleblowers and put our Nation at risk. We have seen the catastrophic harm that the frauds led by Fannie and Freddies senior managers caused and how critical a service Fannies whistleblowers have provided to us.

The Bank Whistleblowers United is a strong supporter of the WARN Act to protect whistleblowers from retaliation that was introduced last week by Representative Cummings. We urge the public to support the adoption of that Act.
Lambert here: Interesting question, eh? See under the Iron Law of Institutions, sadly.

By Gaius Publius, a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @Gaius_Publius, Tumblr and Facebook. Originally published at at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here.

Listen to the first minute and a half of this NPR report? How easy will it be for Hillary Clinton to counter this argument (source)?

Weve been looking at the electability argument lately, and it doesnt look good for Clinton if shes the nominee. Below are the thoughts of one more writer who thinks Democrats shouldnt take a chance that Clinton can pull out a win against Donald Trump.

But before we get to that, consider. Clinton is beating Bernie Sanders in states that (a) will not go Democratic anyway, or (b) are filled with voters who will always vote Democratic. Sanders is beating Clinton among voters that could easily vote with Trump.

Regarding the latter, consider this, from prior to the Super Tuesday voting:

Amid Trump surge, nearly 20,000 Mass. voters quit Democratic party Nearly 20,000 Bay State Democrats have fled the [Democratic] party this winter, with thousands doing so to join the Republican ranks, according to the states top elections official. Secretary of State William Galvin said more than 16,300 Democrats have shed their party affiliation and become independent voters since Jan. 1, while nearly 3,500 more shifted to the MassGOP ahead of tomorrows Super Tuesday presidential primary. Galvin called both significant changes that dwarf similar shifts ahead of other primary votes, including in 2000, when some Democrats flocked from the party in order to cast a vote for Sen. John McCain in the GOP primary. The primary reason? Galvin said his guess is simple: The Trump phenomenon, a reference to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, who polls show enjoying a massive lead over rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others among Massachusetts Republican voters. 

Now ask yourself  Who retains more of these voters for the Democratic Party, Clinton or Sanders? If youre having trouble deciding, listen again to the first minute and a half of the audio clip above.

Glenn Greenwald on Clintons Electability

Glenn Greenwald offers his thoughts on the electability risk of nominating Hillary Clinton:

Should Dems Take a Huge Electability Gamble by Nominating Hillary Clinton? Many Democrats will tell you that there has rarely, if ever, been a more menacing or evil presidential candidate than Donald Trump. Trump is the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory, pronounced Voxs Ezra Klein two weeks ago. With a consensus now emerging that the real estate mogul is the likely GOP nominee, it would stand to reason that the most important factor for many Democrats in choosing their own nominee is electability: meaning, who has the best chance of defeating the GOP Satan in the general election? In light of that, can Democrats really afford to take such a risky gamble by nominating Hillary Clinton? In virtually every poll, her rival, Bernie Sanders, does better, often much better, in head-to-head match-ups against every possible GOP candidate.

He notes that in most polls, Clinton loses to Cruz, while Sanders beats Cruz in all of them. Then Greenwald turns to Trump:

A similar story is seen in their match-ups against Trump. Although they both end up ahead in most polls, Sanders margin over Trump is generally very comfortable, while Clintons is smaller. Clintons average lead over Trump is just 2.8 percent, while Sanders lead is a full 6 points:

Heres that data in chart form via RealClearPolitics (source is the Greenwald article). First Sanders vs. Trump:

Now Clinton vs. Trump:

Keep in mind, these results are prior to any head-to-head debates in the general election.

What Will a ClintonTrump Debate Look Like?

At least one writer thinks Clinton is uniquely vulnerable to Trump in debates, and Sanders is uniquely impervious. Just a snip of this, since Ill likely return to it:

[A] Clinton match-up is highly likely to be an unmitigated electoral disaster, whereas a Sanders candidacy stands a far better chance. Every one of Clintons (considerable) weaknesses plays to every one of Trumps strengths, whereas every one of Trumps (few) weaknesses plays to every one of Sanderss strengths. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, running Clinton against Trump is a disastrous, suicidal proposition. Clintons people are right to point out that these polls [the ones Greenwald mentions above] mean very little; after all, Sanderss entire campaign success is a caution against placing too much weight on early polling. And they are especially right to emphasize that we should visualize how the campaign by conservatives will realistically play out, rather than attempting to divine the future from highly fallible polling numbers. But its precisely when we try to envision how the real dynamics of the campaign will transpire that we see just how disastrous a Clinton-Trump fight will be for Clinton. Her supporters insist that she has already been tried and tested against all the attacks that can be thrown at her. But this is not the case; she has never been subjected to the full brunt of attacks that come in a general presidential election. Bernie Sanders has ignored most tabloid dirt, treating it as a sensationalist distraction from real issues (Enough with the damned emails!) But for Donald Trump, sensationalist distractions are the whole game. He will attempt to crucify her. And it is very, very likely that he will succeed. Trumps political dominance is highly dependent on his idiosyncratic, audacious method of campaigning. He deals almost entirely in amusing, outrageous, below-the-belt personal attacks, and is skilled at turning public discussions away from the issues and toward personalities (He/shes a loser, phony, nervous, hypocrite, incompetent.) If Trump does have to speak about the issues, he makes himself sound foolish, because he doesnt know very much. Thus he requires the media not to ask him difficult questions, and depends on his opponents having personal weaknesses and scandals that he can merrily, mercilessly exploit. This campaigning style makes Hillary Clinton Donald Trumps dream opponent. She gives him an endless amount to work with.

Please read the rest; its a wake-up call, and includes an interesting faux-Trump speech that, in tone at least, catches his voice perfectly.

The Favorables, the Climate of the Electorate & the Risk

Greenwald closes with the argument from favorables, a look at the unique climate of this election, and the risk of a Democratic loss.

Of all candidates in the race, Sanders has the greatest net-favorable rating. At the other end of the spectrum, both Clinton and Trump have the lowest net-favorable ratings. About Sanders and Clinton and their favorables:

[T]he more the public gets to see of both candidates, the more popular Sanders becomes, and the more unpopular Clinton becomes.  Or look at the same metric for critical states. In Ohio, for example, Sanders favorability rating is +3 (44-41 percent), while Clintons is negative 20 (37-57 percent).

On the climate of the times:

Then theres the particular climate of the electorate. While its undoubtedly true that racism and ethno-nationalism are significant factors in Trumps appeal, also quite significant is a pervasive, long-standing contempt for the political establishment, combined with enduring rage at Wall Street and corporate America, which  along with the bipartisan agenda of globalization and free trade  have spawned intense economic suffering and deprivation among a huge number of Americans. In this type of climate, why would anyone assume that a candidate who is the very embodiment of Globalist Establishment Power (see her new, shiny endorsement from Tony Blair), who is virtually drowning both personally and politically in Wall Street cash, has electability in her favor? Maybe one can find reasons

to support a candidate like that. But in this environment, electability is most certainly not one of them. Has anyone made a convincing case why someone with those attributes would be a strong candidate in 2016?

People certainly have reasons to support Hillary Clinton, and I understand them. I even agree with some of them. But if electability is the reason, preferring her seems like a risk. If winning is your goal, why take it?

Win with Sanders or Lose with Clinton?

The question I have, and its a serious one, is this. If the hard core of the Democratic establishment had to choose between these two results  Win with Sanders or lose with Clinton?  which would they choose?

I honestly cant say I know. But if they do choose the riskier candidate, they must consider the cost of a Sanders win to be even greater than the cost of a Republican win, or they wouldnt take the risk.

Food for thought.
Holly Olson sits in the beach compatible wheelchair. Submitted

SHARE Ease of moving equipment to the beach using the wagon and cart is demonstrated. Submitted Ben and Holly Olson. Sandra Baer/Eagle Correspondent Holly Olson at South Beach with some of the beach equipment available through her company. Submitted Holly Olson demonstrates how easy it is to set up the umbrella on the beach wheelchair while Ben Olson looks on. Sandra Baer/Eagle Correspondent

By Sandra Baer

Making a living in paradise can be difficult, but with a little ingenuity and hard work many have succeeded and are thriving, like Goodland resident, Holly Olson, who owns Beach Bum Equipment Rentals.

Beach Bum Equipment Rentals is designed to provide beach visitors with chairs, umbrellas and other necessary items for a fun day in the sun. It all started when Olson noticed that tourists were arriving on the beach with small hotel towels in hand, or bedsheets to lay out on the sand and sit on.

"They come down here for a nice vacation, but find themselves empty-handed, or buying items they can't take back with them," Olson said. "We make it easy, because we deliver the equipment and we pick it up again. All they have to do is relax in style and enjoy the beach."

Olson grew up Michigan, but moved to Goodland after vacationing in the area in 1989. She and her first husband, Tony LaMore, decided to move to Madison, Wisconsin to be closer to LaMore's family after he became ill. Following the death of her husband, Olson remained in Wisconsin where she eventually married Ben Olson, a co-worker at the Dell Bar, a fine-dining restaurant. The two frequently vacationed on Marco and finally decided to buy a home on Goodland three years ago.

"I worked at CJ's and I began selling my own jewelry from a display table near Stan's on Goodland, but I really wanted to be more involved in the tourist industry," said Olson, who researched the concept of equipment rental before plunging in and starting her own business a year ago. "I decided to buy sturdier higher-end colorful Tommy Bahama chairs, umbrellas, wagons and carts that have pockets for storing drinks, cellphones, snacks and sun lotions."

To set up her new business, Olson relied on past business experience as a Realtor in Wisconsin, but also took advantage of free advice and assistance offered by the Collier County Small Business Development Center in Naples and the Small Business Administration. She also turned to other local business owners like Doug Ouverson, and Kevin Hauke, who wrapped her van in advertising.

"I get a lot of help from my husband and children," said Olson, whose daughter, Christina Ketchum graduated from Lely High School. Olson also has two sons; Anthony LaMore, who graduated from the Marco Island Academy and Erik Olson, who is currently dual enrolled at Florida State University where he is earning an associate degree while still in high school.

Olson provides large-wheeled easy-to-push wheelchairs that have canvas sun shade protectors attached for handicapped visitors. Younger visitors can ride to the beach in the large wagons she rents. Coolers stocked with ice, boogie boards, organic sun lotions, noodles are also available, while large plush Pima cotton towels can be purchased.

"We don't have a lot of storage at our house down here, so when we have groups of relatives, or friends come to visit, we just rent the equipment, so that we can all spend the day at the beach," said Carolyn Roth, a Goodland resident. "It's wonderful, because we can go over to South Beach, or Tigertail, sit on the beach with our friends and then watch the beautiful Marco sunsets at the end of the day."

For more information, call 239-280-0321, or visit Beach Bum online at beachbumequipmentrentals.com.
SHARE Chef Denis Meurgue creates a burst of flame over the hot stove. Bistro Soleil serves French-inspired cuisine in the Olde Marco Inn, a historic 1883 building at the northern end of Marco Island. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Kristyn, left, and Patricia Traversi enjoy dinner in the main dining room. Bistro Soleil serves French-inspired cuisine in the Olde Marco Inn, a historic 1883 building at the northern end of Marco Island. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Beignets are dusted with powdered sugar and accompanied by Chantilly cream for serving. Bistro Soleil serves French-inspired cuisine in the Olde Marco Inn, a historic 1883 building at the northern end of Marco Island. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Apple tarts cool after coming out of the oven. Bistro Soleil serves French-inspired cuisine in the Olde Marco Inn, a historic 1883 building at the northern end of Marco Island. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent

By John Osborne

Sometimes "separate but equal" holds a positive connotation.

At least that's the case for the owners of a pair of French restaurants located just steps away from one another on Marco Island.

With the dinner-focused Bistro Soleil inside the historic Olde Marco Inn and Petit Soleil - a breakfast and lunch spot tucked away inside the Shops at Old Marco - Lisa and Denis Meurgue said they have Francophile foodies covered regardless of the time of day.

"It's a challenge, especially in such a seasonal area, but we're able to do it because we have such a great staff," said Lisa Meurgue, a former banker and human resources professional who met her husband while both worked at a Club Med in Mexico.

"That is the most important thing for us by far - having good people in place. Like it or not, you just can't be everywhere 24 hours a day."

As things stand, the Meurgues can be found 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week at Bistro Soleil, which they opened in 2008, and at Petit Soleil, which they opened in 2013, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"It's a lot of work, but we love what we do, so that's definitely a plus," said Lisa Meurgue.

Denis Meurgue, an award-winning chef born in France who came to the United States in 1987, echoed those sentiments, saying that the long hours mark a labor of love for the couple, who share three daughters.

"Owning your own business in Southwest Florida is challenging because you need to find a balance between season and offseason," said Meurgue, who has also worked in Spain, Greece, Martinique and the Bahamas.

In addition to somehow managing to find that balance, Meurgue said a lot of his guests have also tapped the couple as sources of inside information about France.

"We have had many people say to us, 'We are going to France - where should we go?'" he said. "So as a result we have offered wine-and-dine tours to France. We have traveled to the Champagne and Alsace regions, the Burgundy region and the Loire Valley. This year, our destination is Bordeaux. We really do enjoy sharing our love of food and wine with our guests."

At Bistro Soleil, Lisa Meurgue said her husband is well known for a number of his signature items.

"He smokes his own salmon, and that's very popular," said the Wisconsin native whose restaurants employ 35. "There's also the escargot and French onion soup, which people really love. And since people always love entrees with local fish, there's a grouper dish topped with crab meat and lemon caper sauce that's also very popular."

Meurgue said Bistro Soleil entrees range in price from $23 to $36 and come with a house salad, vegetable and choice of potato in an atmosphere like no other around.

"The Olde Marco Inn was built in 1883, so there's an older, quaint bar and three different dining rooms with different themes," she said. "We also have a piano player, so it's definitely an interesting place with a lot of character."

Meurgue said Bistro Soleil also boasts a ballroom that hosts bridal rehearsal dinners for up to 180 people and an annual fundraiser for the Marco Island chapter of the American Cancer Society.

"We started holding the 'Fight Like a Girl' fashion show in 2009, and so far we have raised about $50,000 to $60,000 for cancer research," said Meurgue, a breast cancer survivor herself. "The next one is Feb. 23, and it's already sold out, so we're definitely excited about that."

Sue Olszak, a community manager at the Marco Island ACS chapter, said her organization would put the money to good use.

"This is a volunteer-led organization, so the money Lisa raises drives our mission even further," she said. "Lisa has been very involved for a long time, and we're just so excited about the next fundraiser, which she managed to sell out in record-breaking time this year."

In addition to her annual cancer fundraiser, Lisa Meurgue said she and her husband also participate in raising money for college scholarships through Leadership Marco.

"We like to give back to the community because the community gives so much to us," she said of the inspiration behind the couple's charitable endeavors.

Noting that the couple's lunch-and-breakfast spot, Petit Soleil, offers a scenic courtyard for outdoor dining in addition to room for 60 guests inside, Meurgue said the menu there includes a wide variety of offerings ranging in price from $4 to $14.

"We have chocolate croissants and crispy waffles that a lot of people say are the best they ever had," she said of the couple's newer restaurant. "There's also quiche and an eggs Benedict for breakfast that Denis makes his own sauce for. For lunch, we have a lot of traditional French dishes, such as croque monsieur, which is grilled ham and cheese sandwich with bechamel sauce. Just a lot of really good stuff."

Regardless of the restaurant guests choose, Meurgue said reservations are recommended.

"No matter where you go in season on Marco Island, it's probably best if you make a reservation because you just never know around here," she said with a laugh.

To make a reservation at Petit Soleil, call 239-970-6072. To make a reservation at Bistro Soleil, call 239-389-0981.

For more information, see bistrosoleil.net.
A dispute between two men led to a shooting Monday night at Summer Lakes Apartments in North Naples, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office. (NBC2)

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By NBC2

A dispute between two men led to a shooting Monday night at Summer Lakes Apartments in North Naples, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office.



Deputies said a man was shot in the leg and taken with non-life-threatening injuries to the hospital, while the other man involved fled the scene in a vehicle. The sheriff's office is searching for the man as the investigation continues, NBC2 reports.



Summer Lakes Apartments, 5520 Jonquil Lane, are located behind the Walmart Supercenter at Immokalee Road and Juliet Boulevard.
The Florida House chamber in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)

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By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News

TALLAHASSEE - House and Senate budget chiefs agreed Monday on next year's education budget, clearing the way for a vote on the entire $80 billion state budget by the end of the legislative session on Friday.

Agreement on the $21.7 billion education budget ends work on the final agreement between House Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon. The action Monday places the state budget into a three-day cooling off period, as directed by the state Constitution. The House and Senate cannot make changes or vote on the budget until Friday.

Lingering issues that prevented Corcoran and Lee from wrapping up the budget Sunday as planned included calculations within the contentious Best and Brightest scholarship program for teachers. The program provides teachers who scored high on college entrance exams with scholarships, which some colleagues felt was an unrealistic standard.

Corcoran and Lee already had agreed to spend $713 million on education construction projects, some of which would be paid with bonds. Florida Gulf Coast University stands to receive $3.9 million to build its 12,000-square-foot School of Integrated Watershed and Coastal Studies. The Collier County campus of Florida SouthWestern State College could also receive $8 million to replace foam insulation in its buildings and $537,000 to renovate a science building.

Lawmakers already agreed last week to spend $15.8 billion toward K-12 education. The budget provides $7,178 per pupil, which is 1 percent more than the $7,107 for the current year.

Corcoran and Lee also agreed on Sunday to $60 million in water projects, which includes $1 million for a Marco Island water treatment plant and drainage improvements. There's also $975,000 toward drainage projects around Lee County.

Also, Naples would receive $750,000 for drainage infrastructure improvements.

The budget chiefs also agreed to provide raises for some state workers, not including employees of the state Department of Corrections. They agreed to provide $3 million toward state Department of Agriculture forestry firefighters, which Gov. Rick Scott vetoed from the budget last year. They also provided $4 million for Florida Department of Law enforcement lab technicians.

Both the House and Senate also ignored a request from DOC to provide 734 corrections officer positions. Corcoran, who will take the role as House Speaker next year, said DOC Secretary Julie Jones should consider decreasing the size of the prison population.

"Having 100,000 inmates is difficult for anyone to manage at any time, and she needs to work on that," Corcoran said.

DOC officials said in a statement that they will remain hopeful in the last days of the session.

Areas of the budget such as the $34 billion health care plan were settled by Corcoran and Lee last week. They began the budget making process Feb. 26, when they agreed not to fulfill Scott's request for $250 million for an incentive fund used by Enterprise Florida. The Senate also will vote on a $129 million tax cut package it proposed during a committee meeting last week. The plan is a fraction of the $1 billion Scott requested and heavily promoted over the past few months.

Contact Daily News reporter arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com or 850-559-7620
SHARE Shawn Carney, president of 40 Days for Life, an international pro-life organization, speaks to a crowd of supporters at Fleischmann Park Tuesday, March 8, 2016 in Naples. After Carney spoke the group headed to Planned Parenthood of Naples to peacefully protest against the clinic. (Luke Franke/Staff) A crowd of pro-life supporters gather at Fleischmann Park Tuesday, March 8, 2016 in Naples to hear Shawn Carney, president of 40 Days for Life, an international pro-life organization, speak. After Carney spoke the group headed to Planned Parenthood of Naples to peacefully protest against the clinic. (Luke Franke/Staff) Phyllis Urban, center, holds a "pray to end abortion" sign, with a group of other pro-life advocates, along Goodlette Frank Road just outside the corner of the Planned Parenthood building Tuesday, March 8, 2016 in Naples. (Luke Franke/Staff) Shawn Carney, president of 40 Days for Life, an international pro-life organization, speaks to a crowd of supporters at Fleischmann Park Tuesday, March 8, 2016 in Naples. After Carney spoke the group headed to Planned Parenthood of Naples to peacefully protest against the clinic. (Luke Franke/Staff)

By Liz Freeman of the Naples Daily News

Southwest Florida supporters of the anti-abortion movement had a lot to celebrate Tuesday with several national leaders in town for the 40 Days for Life campaign.

The co-founder and president of 40 Days, Shawn Carney, and Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society in Chicago, attended a rally at Fleischmann Park before taking part in a prayer vigil outside Planned Parenthood of Collier County.

The Thomas More Society is a public interest legal group that defends the rights of 40 Days supporters to gather and pray outside abortion clinics.

The nonprofit legal group is defending David Daleiden in civil lawsuits for creating undercover videos last summer about Planned Parenthood and the sale of fetuses.

Carney, 33, told 50 supporters at Fleischmann about the importance of their ongoing prayer vigilance outside Planned Parenthood to potentially prevent women from going through with abortions.

"You're the last hope for that baby," Carney said. "You are also the first sign of mercy as that woman leaves the facility."

Carney helped organize the first 40 Days for Life campaign in 2004 in College Station, Texas. He said it is active today in 607 cities in 32 different countries. The 40 Days movement is peaceful and includes converts to the anti-abortion cause, he said.

"About 25 percent of local campaigns are led by women who have had an abortion," he said. "We are a movement of sinners. We are a movement of converts."

In the past two years, a record number of abortion clinics nationwide have closed and community pregnancy centers outnumber abortion clinics five to one, he said.

He also said abortion clinics operate by distracting women in order for them to go forward with an abortion, or they would change their minds.

"It's too horrific if they are not distracted," he said.

Brejcha, with Thomas More, spoke about how his group defends the First Amendment rights of 40 Day supporters to gather and pray outside abortion clinics.

"You are at the forefront of citizen democracy," Brejcha said. "Nobody can harass you, nobody can give you grief. You have the right to be there."

With regard to the Planned Parenthood videos, Brejcha described the sale of fetuses as a "ghoulish thing" and the "horror really begins in the abortion clinic."
SHARE Roselle police recently stopped a car with a tree wedged in its grill. The driver was cited for driving under the influence. (Roselle Police Department) Roselle police recently stopped a car with a tree wedged in its grill. The driver was cited for driving under the influence. (Roselle Police Department)

By Clifford Ward, Chicago Tribune (TNS)

The police report may not have captured all the color of the incident. It did, however, get to the heart of it.

Stopped for driving with a large tree embedded in the front grille, the report reads.

Photos taken by officers in January of the 2004 Lincoln with its arboreal accessory have gone viral since the images were posted on the Roselle, Ill., Police Departments new Facebook page last week.

The tree was estimated to be about 15 feet tall.

We didnt stand there and measure it, but it was a big tree, Roselle Deputy Chief Roman Tarchala said Monday.

The Facebook posting had more than 19,000 shares and 13,000 likes as of Monday morning.

The incident took place about 11:10 p.m. on Jan. 23, when a motorist noted the car heading south on Roselle Road and called police. An officer saw the car, presumably without much difficulty, and pulled the driver over.

The motorist, Maryann Christy, 54, of Schaumburg, Ill., told police that she struck the tree somewhere in her hometown, but didnt remember where, Tarchala said. Schaumburg is just north of Roselle.

Officers said the woman smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests. She was cited for driving under the influence, police said. She is due in DuPage County court April 15.

Tarchala said he has been surprised by the amount of attention the pictures have generated.

We were just trying to be proactive and put something on our new Facebook page, he said.
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Workforce/affordable housing

A housing plan is a necessary first step toward identifying a long-term solution to ensure there is an affordable place to live for those in the workforce and seniors in Collier County.

So it was an important agreement Collier commissioners reached last week to begin to create the county's first comprehensive plan to address the issue. One citizen who addressed commissioners recalled a meeting about housing costs in 1997. There have been similar discussions since, along with a League of Women Voters study and a Daily News yearlong in-depth report a decade ago.

Yet, after nearly 20 years of recurring conversations on this complex problem, a plan isn't in place today.

Creating a plan is a smart way to go because it's a guide that will remain in place during robust market times, like now, and will be beneficial during downturns, like the one that began about eight years ago and persisted into this decade.

Some may roll their eyes when they hear about a government body addressing a problem by hiring a consultant and/or developing a plan.

In this case, however, it makes sense because as many as four of the five Collier County Commission seats may change in the fall elections. A plan will take about a year to put together. That could mean it's handed off to a newly constituted County Commission within months after it takes office.

Last year, commissioners authorized updates of long-range development plans for Golden Gate, the Immokalee area, and the land in between. During that discussion, it came to light that only about 10 percent of land in the county remains that isn't in preserve, government hands or had its future use already determined. That small percentage is another reason it makes sense to develop an affordable housing plan that can work in concert with the other long-range plans.

Where?

The question of where that workforce housing should go can be taken into account as the various plans are put together.

Commissioner Donna Fiala, for example, suggests her district from East Naples to Marco Island has taken on more than its fair share of affordable and workforce housing, so it's better to spread it out elsewhere in the county.

Commissioner Tim Nance, whose district includes Golden Gate Estates out to Immokalee, noted there is a concern about increasing density there because it creates more stormwater runoff to have to manage.

Land prices in Naples and North Naples, part of two other commissioners' districts, already may preclude constructing homes affordable to front-line workers.

Yet commissioners heard that pushing the workforce out of Collier County into Lee County isn't the answer either, as six-lane Interstate 75 already is jamming up at rush hour. Similarly, pushing more development inland creates a complication because there is just a fraction of the money available to build all of the roads needed now to carry traffic between coastal employment centers and inland neighborhoods.

Commissioner Penny Taylor, who is the one member certain to remain on the board beyond the fall elections, urged consideration of what's called inclusionary zoning. It would incorporate homes at modest prices in conjunction with higher-priced residences in developments as they are approved. Other commissioners, however, rejected that as a solution.

Given those various viewpoints and a menu of options, including whether to create a tax to support housing that is more affordable, it makes sense to develop a plan to hand off for the next commission to tackle.

Not government housing

One answer to the previous housing price crisis that emerged before the Great Recession was the idea of government agencies and major employers becoming partners in trying to build housing for teachers, first responders, nurses and the like.

So it was a welcomed approach last week to hear that this time, the emphasis isn't on government building the housing for those who need it.

Instead, a plan will come up with the incentives and strategies that may encourage companies to want to build modestly priced homes and rentals, as well as providing financial assistance to those who need help to afford a place to live in Collier.
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Paul Holimon, Naples

Students think deeply

When I was in middle school (we called it junior high) here in Florida, the writing I did in school consisted of book reports, creative narratives and journal entries.

I enjoyed the process, but never once was I introduced to "academic writing." In high school I was invited, occasionally, to write an essay in response to a text we had read. ("How would you feel if you were a French peasant in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities?" or "Explore the theme of redemption in O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find.")

Never was I shown a model of collegiate or professional critique; never was I taught to study and emulate a piece of critical acclaim. Nonetheless, I earned a spot at both University of Florida and Florida State University.

Today, a few decades later, the bar has been raised, thanks to the standards movement. In addition to composing creative narratives, the students in our middle and high schools are studying the rhetorical techniques of history's most cogent writers (George Orwell; Joan Didion; James Baldwin; Jacque Rousseau, Presidents Madison, Lincoln, and Kennedy; Simone de Beauvoir; Frederick Douglass; Henry David Thoreau, etc.) and crafting essays in the style of these "mentor texts."

Stuart Greenberg, former executive director of Just Read, Florida! (the literacy department of the Florida Department of Education), told us that "writing is thinking in print."

The children in our public schools are thinking in more complex ways than their parents or grandparents did at their age. Thank goodness for the new Florida Standards, and many thanks to all of our terrific public school educators in our "A" school district.
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

A LUSAKA businessman has denied impregnating a school girl arguing that he is impotent and that women were the last thing on his mind.Zambia Daily Mail reported that John Banda, 35, of Matero township told the Matero Local Court that Ganizani Phiri, 51, was merely after his money.Phiri sued Banda for making his daughter pregnant and was demanding compensation especially that Phiri's daughter had even dropped out of school because of the pregnancy.Phiri complained to senior court magistrate Lewis Mumba that instead of addressing the problem, Banda hurls insults at him saying he is a vulture who wanted to make money out of his daughter's pregnancy."Banda is evil and I will do whatever it takes to teach him a lesson," Phiri said.He lamented that Banda has insisted that he will only accept responsibility if he sees results of the DNA test."What is even worse is that his father supports what he says. Banda and his family are shameless. They have no conscious yet my daughter is out of school because of Banda," he complained.But Banda told the court that he recently moved into Matero township and hardly knows anyone."I don't even know Phiri's daughter. I think he is trying to take advantage just because we are neighbours," he claimed.Passing judgment the court dismissed the claim for compensation.
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William Martin, Naples

China trip

I am troubled by the recent front page Naples Daily News "exclusive" article on Mayor John Sorey's trip to China "at taxpayer expense" with "little to show for it

One can certainly question whether the mayor's travel to China to promote Naples was a good and appropriate use of taxpayer money. But the trip occurred more than a year ago and the article infers that the related expenses were not properly documented. It goes on to describe the Daily News' attempts to validate them.

As someone who has traveled widely, including China, I know from experience that when you buy a prepackaged tour, you typically get an invoice up front which is paid in advance. Often one price is quoted with little expense detail. Then you get vouchers which are turned in at registration at various hotels, etc.

The traveler receives no additional receipt for the hotel stay unless there are out of pocket charges for mini-bar, etc. This appears to be the pattern of Mayor Sorey's trip. The invoice was properly reviewed and approved.

My reason for writing is not to defend Mayor Sorey. Instead, I believe the substance, tone and placement of your article strongly - and inappropriately - suggest possible wrongdoing. Coming two weeks before the hotly contested mayoral election, the article smacks of electioneering bias rather than the objective investigative reporting you prize
Gulf Bay Group of Companies (Gulf Bay) has announced that reservations for the 72 estates and penthouses at Mystique, the new ultra-luxury high-rise in the exclusive Pelican Bay community, are one-third complete.



Under the direction of Aubrey J. Ferrao, who founded Gulf Bay Group of Companies in 1986, Gulf Bay has successfully completed 14 luxury properties along a 1.5-mile stretch of Gulf-front land within Pelican Bay.



The response to Mystique has been overwhelming, and surpassing this milestone demonstrates the demand for this iconic tower just steps from the beach in Pelican Bay, said Ferrao.



The 21-story Mystique will feature a total of 68 estate and four penthouse residences on one of only two remaining developable land parcels in Naples between The Ritz-Carlton on the beach and Port Royal. Mystiques expansive estates range from over 4,000 to over 5,280 square feet under air and are priced from over $3 million to over $7 million.



Reservations for Mystique are ongoing, with Naples-based Premier Sothebys International Realty serving as the exclusive listing agent. The sleek and contemporary onsite sales center, which opened in December 2015, reflects the modern architectural style of the ultra-luxury high-rise and showcases several features of Mystiques sophisticated and refined design, including luxury kitchen and bath vignettes.



The developer for Mystique is Pelican 1 Owner, LLC, an equal partnership between an affiliate of the global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and an affiliate of the Gulf Bay Group of Companies.



In addition to its history in Pelican Bay, Gulf Bays other award-winning developments include The Brittany on Park Shore Beach; Marco Beach Ocean Resort on Marco Island; and the 4,000-acre award-winning, master-planned community of Fiddlers Creek.



The Gulf Bay Group of Companies completed and under development build-out market value of luxury residential properties is estimated in excess of $5 billion.



KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes. KKR had $98.7 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, 2015.



For more information about Mystique, visit the sales center at 6885 Pelican Bay Blvd., log onto www.MystiquePelicanBay.com or call 239-598-9900.
This past Saturday, March 5, members and friends of the Bonita Springs-Estero Association of REALTORS (B.E.A.R.), gathered at Ellie Drive in San Carlos Park to help construct the walls of a new home for Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties.



B.E.A.R. volunteers met with volunteers from other local businesses including Clive Daniel, Lunsford Construction, and FPL to raise the walls for a new Habitat for Humanity Home, as well as clean and paint an adjacent Habitat home.



It is very heartwarming to see so many volunteers come together to lend a hand to give back to our community, said Meighan Harris, Director of Development & Events for B.E.A.R. We accomplished so much in just a few hours because we had such a great turn out and everyone was giving it their all.



B.E.A.R.s mission statement is to serve and help their members prosper, as well as contribute to the community. Last year B.E.A.R. raised $2,171 for Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties, and participated in their first volunteer build put on by the B.E.A.R. Young Professionals Network (Y.P.N.). The B.E.A.R. YPN plans to continue to support Habitat for Humanity through financial donations and volunteer labor for years to come.



Habitat for Humanity provides homes for people in need so they may build better lives for their families. Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties was recently ranked number one in the nation for housing and neighborhood development by Charity Navigator, the nation's largest charity evaluator.



Founded in 1966, the Bonita Springs-Estero Association of REALTORS , Inc. (B.E.A.R.) is a local trade organization of over 900 REALTORS and more than 150 affiliated industry members. B.E.A.R. is part of the National Association of REALTORS and Florida REALTORS, and provides its members with a wide range of services designed to educate and empower members and consumers alike through the opportunity to sell or purchase real property. It also provides the public with up-to-the-minute real estate reports, trends and information about the Bonita Springs and Estero real estate market.



Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties is one of the largest Habitat affiliates in the country, and has helped more than 1,394 families in Lee and Hendry counties become homeowners. Habitat homes are built through the use of volunteer labor and donations of money and materials. The homes are then sold to low-income families with a low or no interest mortgage and monthly payments set at 30% or less of the homeowners income, making homeownership an affordable reality. For more information visit www.habitat4humanity.org.
On the afternoon of November 14, 1922 (nine months after its foundation) Henry Phelan became the first member of the new Civic Guard (later renamed An Garda Siochana) to be killed when he was shot in a quiet pub in Mullianahone, Co Tipperary whilst on a simple errand to get a hurling ball for a team he was starting where he was stationed in Callan.

On the afternoon of November 14, 1922 (nine months after its foundation) Henry Phelan became the first member of the new Civic Guard (later renamed An Garda Siochana) to be killed when he was shot in a quiet pub in Mullianahone, Co Tipperary whilst on a simple errand to get a hurling ball for a team he was starting where he was stationed in Callan.

He was twenty-one years of age at the time but the circumstances behind his killing and the identities of those involved have never been clear. Today almost ninety years later very little is actually known about young Phelans own background and his death is a subject that many in the Mullinahone and Callan areas are still very slow to talk about. A new documentary however due to be aired next weekend has looked into the Laois natives life both before and after he joined the force and also examines some of the theories concerning why he may have been targeted.

Born on Christmas Day in 1900 Henry Phelan got his early education at Paddock National School which he attended until he was fifteen years of age. According to current principal Sean Mullaney who managed to dig up records from the time, his attendance was a mixture. In the early days he seemed to miss a lot of days but then later on his attendance was pretty ok. During the War of Independence it was known that he had been a member of the volunteers but which unit was never fully established. Now Castletown historian Mike Rafter reveals that he was in the Mountrath Volunteers after coming across a statement from a comrade testifying to this.

The original Civic Guard application form that Henry Phelan filled out in his own hand writing together with the required letters of recommendation from his local parish priest and his IRA commandant are also featured in the documentary. According to Garda Jim Herlihy from Cork it strikes you straight away the absolutely beautiful handwriting in great script altogether. Phelans first posting was in Kilkenny city and after a short time he was transferred to Callan in South Kilkenny.

On the day he died he had travelled with two colleagues (Irwin and Flood), to the village of Mullinahone. After purchasing the sliotar the three men entered the public house of Mrs Bridget Mullally when according to reports three men walked in. One produced a revolver killing Phelan instantly. No one was ever charged and over the years it was thought he had been mistaken for his brother who had served in the RIC in Co Tipperary.

Theres RIC connections in terms of his older brothers, two older brothers Martin and Daniel joined the RIC, explains his grandnephew Daniel Phelan but according to Jim Herlihy he had three brothers in the Royal Irish Constabulary and none of them served in the Premier county. He goes onto explain however that he could have been mistaken for a former RIC man from Kilkenny who had the same name as one of his brothers.

The documentary also includes a visit to the pub where the shooting occurred and will reveal possible clues and suspicions regarding the identity of his killers. Others interviewed are Mullinahone residents Michael Larkin, Ricky Sheehan, Bernadette Lynch, Hubert Scott together with Callan historian Philip Lynch and present-day descendants of Garda Henry Phelan still residing in his native Mountrath. Newspaper accounts, eyewitness statements, findings of the inquest and details of the subsequent trial of two men accused afterwards will also be incorporated.

The revealing two part documentary entitled A Boy of Good Character: The Story of Garda Henry Phelan was produced, presented and researched by Tipp Today producer Tom Hurley and was made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland & Tipp FM. Part one is due to be aired on Tipp FM radio on Sunday next May 20 at 6.30pm with part two the following week.
News / Local

by Nduduzo Tshuma

BARELY a week following its launch, former Vice President Joice Mujuru's Zimbabwe People First party is already embroiled in a fight over positions with some members reportedly miffed over their exclusion from the management committee.According to sources within the party, those involved in mobilising supporters in Bulawayo and Matabeleland region were overlooked with Mujuru last week announcing names unknown to them.Affected in this confusion, sources revealed, include former war veterans national chairman Jabulani Sibanda, who was conspicuous by his absence at the Press conference last Tuesday and former MDC-T Pumula legislator Albert Mhlanga.ZPF head of the media steering committee Methuseli Moyo yesterday dismissed the reports saying: us a lie, I don't know anything about that, and it's getting clearer that you, as an institution, are on a mission to create fictitious stories about ZPF.However, sources said after the Press conference, the "front runners" from Matabeleland raised the red flag complaining over the inclusion of "strangers" ahead of die people who had volunteered their time mobilising for Mujuru.Names that have torched the storm include Zimbabwe Liberators' Platform leader Max Mnkandla and Esnat Bulayani formerly from the Professor Welshman Ncube- led MDC who were appointed conveners for Matabeleland North and Bulawayo respectively.'After the Press conference, there was a feeling that some names were parachuted by Mujuru, names of people unknown and who weren't there during the mobilisation process. To make things worse, some of the selected names are very dubious," said a disgruntled member."Some of the affected include Jabulani Sibanda and former Pumula legislator Albert Mhlanga who were running around for Mujuru before she came out but now it's not dear where those two stand. Mujuru and her team said the term management committee had been erroneously used, insisting that the structures were temporary?The sources revealed that another meeting was held at a Bulawayo hotel last Friday to meet the leaders chosen by Mujuru."Even Sibanda attended the meeting. It was basically to welcome the members announced by Mujuru at the Press conference but it was made clear that their appointment came as a shock as they weren't known," said a source.
News / Local

by Patient Sibanda

A WOMAN who approached a court claiming $250 maintenance for her two children from her ex-lover wept when the man denied paternity of one of the minors after she said she gave the child her ex-boyfriends surname as her father was not supportive.Ruth Tsuangura of Bulawayo's Cowdray Park suburb dragged Blessmore Machangaira, a taxi-driver, from Makokoba suburb to the Maintenance Court demanding support for her two children aged six and two years old.Machangaira told magistrate Tawanda Muchemwa that he could only pay maintenance for one child and requested to go for paternity tests for the other."I'm only responsible for her second child. In 2008 I was in South Africa when her first child was born. I met her in 2013 and she told me that she had one child. I actually know the father of her child," he said.Tsuangura started sobbing and magistrate Muchemwa told her not to cry and say her wishes.The magistrate then ordered Machangaira to pay $40 for the upkeep of the two minor children and to apply for paternity tests.Tsuangura said Machangaira was the father of her two children.She said he impregnated her in 2008 and they never met until 2013 when their first child was three years old"When he went to South Africa I dated another man who then supported his child. I then decided to register her under his surname because the man was helping me."Machangaira isn't telling the truth. All what he said is what I told him after he came from South Africa. I separated with that man to stay with him. He is a taxi- driver so he can afford to pay $250,'* she said.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The uni-visa regime between Zimbabwe and Zambia could be re-introduced by the end of March if negotiations for its return bear fruit, a senior immigration official has said.Dubbed the Kavango-Zambezi uni-visa, the regime was first introduced during the 2014 United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly that Zimbabwe and Zambia co-hosted but collapsed in December last year.After the general assembly, the two countries piloted the regime for several months with the idea of rolling it out across five countries in the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area to promote tourism.The five countries include Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Department of Immigration principal director Clemence Masango said the regime collapsed due to logistical and legal reasons."Just before the end of December 2015, there was a logistical issue. First our counterparts Zambia ran out of stickers, but then as Zimbabwe we could not continue to issue (the visas) unilaterally. This is a joint exercise mutually agreed upon so we could not carry on. Then as we also came to December 31, our Memorandum of Understanding came to an end operationally, so legally and logistically those were the reasons," he said."However, there are ongoing consultations and negotiations between the two countries so that we can re-institute the facility of the uni-visa as soon as possible."Mr Masango added; "I can assure you that if according to the briefing that I have, if nothing to the contrary happens we should be able to see the uni-visa up and running again by end of March."Zimbabwe last Thursday announced a new visa regime for 37 countries including China whose nationals have dominated neighbouring tourist destinations while Zimbabwe was missing out, in a move meant to increase tourist arrivals.China along with 36 other countries including Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Algeria, Turkey and Cuba were moved from Category C to B whose nationals obtain visas at the port of entry on arrival. But for Chinese tourists only those travelling as a group and cleared by tour operators and travel agencies in that country would qualify.Chinese business persons and other citizens of China as approved by their government will continue to apply for visas online.Zimbabwe has also removed visa controls for all countries in the Southern African Development Community.
News / National

by Daniel Nemukuyu

Prosecutor-General Johannes Tomana wants the Constitutional Court to determine whether it is constitutional to have a serving High Court of Zimbabwe judge preside over the case in which the Chief Justice's decision is being challenged.He wants the highest court in the land to consider the options of bringing in a foreign-based judge or a retired High Court judge to hear his urgent chamber application to stop the Judicial Service Commission from instituting disciplinary proceedings leading to his possible removal from office.Tomana, who is embroiled in a legal wrangle with JSC, argued that he would not have a fair hearing if Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku's subordinate at the High Court hears his challenge.Recently, Tomana was served with letters from JSC seeking his views on his suitability to hold the esteemed office of the PG considering his defiance of court orders.The letters signed by the Chief Justice, according to Mr Tomana's lawyers, are steps towards instituting a disciplinary tribunal to determine the PG's suitability to continue holding office.He filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court to stop the JSC from continuing with its moves to bring him before a tribunal.While the urgent chamber application was pending, Mr Tomana yesterday filed an interlocutory chamber application before the same court for referral of his High Court case to the Constitutional Court.In the chamber application prepared by his lawyers Mambosasa Legal Practitioners, Mr Tomana listed JSC and the Minister of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs as respondents.Mr Tomana crafted the constitutional question for determination by the Constitutional Court as follows:"Whether applicant can, consistent with the standard set out under Section 69(1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, receive a fair hearing if the application filed under case number HC1913/16 is dealt with by a presently sitting judge of the High Court of Zimbabwe."Mr Tomana, in a founding affidavit forming the basis of the chamber application, emphasised that he had not lost confidence in the judges of the High Court, but the circumstances surrounding the case required constitutional scrutiny."I must also point out that this application has nothing to do with my lack of confidence in the judiciary in Zimbabwe."It is however, a recognition of the fact that it is a misnomer for a judge of the High Court to make findings criticising or upholding what has been done by the head of the judiciary."I trust to reiterate that judges as a matter of practice decline to sit when they are required to make findings in favour of or against their peers."It is unheard of that a judge could make findings in favour of or against their superior," he said.Mr Tomana cited the decision by the Chief Justice to refuse to hear a constitutional application by a Harare man Mr Rooney Kanyama, saying the dismissal of the challenge was a deliberate way of weakening Mr Tomana's pending urgent chamber application.He said the Chief Justice who turned down the application by Mr Kanyama was the judiciary boss and his juniors (High Court judges) were likely to be compromised in dealing with the urgent chamber application.The JSC bosses, who authored the contested letter to Mr Tomana and are party to the proceedings in the High Court, and the High Court judge, would be put in a difficult position handling the urgent applicatio, he argued.Mr Tomana, who is facing criminal charges at the Harare Magistrates' Courts' involving Gushungo Dairy bombing, was in October last year slapped with a 30-day term of imprisonment for contempt of court after he defied court orders to issue certificates for the private prosecution of Bikita West legislator Dr Munyaradzi Kereke and Telecel shareholder Dr Jane Mutasa.Kereke was accused of raping an 11-year-old relative, while Mutasa was facing charges of swindling the company of airtime recharge cards worth millions of dollars. Tomana was fined by a nine-member judges' panel of the Constitutional Court led by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.The sentence was, however, wholly set-aside on condition that he complied with the court orders and issue private prosecution certificates to Mr Francis Maramwidze and Telecel, within 10 days, failure which he would be barred from practising as a lawyer in Zimbabwe.The following month, Tomana was again at the centre of another storm for allegedly abusing the court process to rubber-stamp the acquittal of former Zupco board chairman, Professor Charles Nherera, who was charged with corruption.The abuse reportedly occurred at the time when Tomana was the Attorney General.Prof Nherera was acquitted by the High Court in November 2009.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met on Monday (7 March 2016) to discuss the conflict and instability on NATOs southern borders. Mr. Stoltenberg thanked Turkey for its efforts to tackle the current refugee and migrant crisis and stressed that NATO stands in solidarity with Turkey.

The Secretary General underlined that Turkey is generously hosting more than two and a half million refugees and is bearing the brunt of the greatest refugee and migrant crisis since the Second World War in Europe. He also praised Turkeys commitment to NATOs surveillance deployment in the Aegean Sea. NATO ships are currently collecting information and conducting monitoring to support Turkey, Greece and the EUs border agency Frontex in their efforts to tackle human trafficking and the criminal networks. Earlier today, the Secretary General also met with Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos to discuss the details of NATOs deployment.

Over the week-end, we decided to step up our efforts and our support to assist international efforts to deal with the crisis. We are expanding the area of activity into the territorial waters of Turkey and Greece, in close coordination with both Allies. So NATO is starting activities in territorial waters today. We are expanding our cooperation with the EUs border agency FRONTEX. And we are expanding the numbers of ships in our deployment, the Secretary General said in a joint press point with Prime Minister Davutoglu.

Mr. Stoltenberg explained that NATOs Maritime Command has exchanged letters with Frontex. This will allow us to exchange liaison officers and to share information in real time. So that Frontex, as well as Greece and Turkey, can take even more effective action. This is a great example of how NATO and the European Union can work together to address common challenges, said the Secretary General.

During his meeting with Prime Minister Davutoglu, the Secretary General also discussed the situation in Syria. As part of NATO support to assist with the refugee and migrant crisis, Allies have decided to intensify intelligence, surveillance and monitoring along the Turkish-Syrian border. This will complement the assurance measures for Turkey we decided late last year, including more AWACS presence and an increased naval presence, said Mr. Stoltenberg. He added that NATO will also continue to augment Turkeys air defences with Patriots.

The Secretary General underlined that the Syrian ceasefire remains the best possible basis for renewing efforts to reach a negotiated, peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria. He added that NATO remains concerned by the Russian military build-up in Syria and the eastern Mediterranean: Russias military activity in the region has fuelled the humanitarian crisis and driven more people to Turkeys borders. It has also caused violations of NATO airspace. So more than ever, it is important to see calm, de-escalation and dialogue.
Photojournalist shines a light on the dangers of agrochemicals and multinational control that is destroying people around the world

(NaturalNews) Breathtaking photos, which look like scenes from a battlefield, shed light on the generational damage that Monsanto's agrochemicals can do to families. The pictures are part of a photo-essay by journalist Alvaro Ybarra Zavala called, "Stories of a Wounded Land." The pictures capture scenes from the dark side of Argentina's haunting agricultural landscape. Recently, they were presented at the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France. Zavala confirmed that he is now coming under pressure from Monsanto to stop showing the photos.While in France, Zavala was interviewed, starting with why he chose the project in the first place. While working in Argentina, Zavala saw beyond the pretty face of modern-day agrochemical GMO farming practices"I started working on a particular case in Argentina, and I discovered that there were always more stories to tell," he said. "I understood that the issue was important and global. ... The idea is not to create activism but only to launch a debate on how we want our food to be produced. This is crucial; everyone eats."When asked what the major problems were, Zavala responded, "Whether you are in India, Argentina or elsewhere, this type of agricultural production leads to problems of public health and the environment, human rights violations, political and economic tensions."He talked about corporate control taking out local producers and forcing them into using various dangerous agrochemicals . "This industry requires 4000-10,000 hectares to be profitable. Small local producers are sidelined and everywhere one finds the same multinationals. The small producers are having to sell their land or are forced to do so - especially in Brazil. And if they do not, their fields are surrounded with areas treated with pesticides, such as Roundup, which contaminate or destroy their harvests."In talking about the health consequences, he went straight to the point: "In Argentina , the first generation of children is affected because their parents were exposed to these chemicals. Cases of miscarriages, diseases or malformations such as hydrocephalus are legion. I thought I'd have to search for them, but in every villageThe adults suffer from cancers and skin diseases. Contamination occurs through contact with the products, but also through food and water." [emphasis added]When asked about why the local people continue to work with and around the agrochemicals, Zavala stated exactly what he witnessed: "[T]hese firms are giving them work. And cooperatives that manage health insurance, legal protection, etc. are very close to multinationals like Monsanto . Everything is done so that the system continues without being reported on."When asked why the authorities haven't done anything to stop the violence of agrochemicals, Zavala said, "They also live off this business. Our work has been very little publicized but[emphasis added] He also said that multinationals like Monsanto "can afford two hundred lawyers to fight us."As the pictures show, residents living next to tobacco and soy farms sprayed with glyphosate, 2,4-D, endosulfan and chlorpyrifos are suffering horrifically from birth defects and disabilities. Constant exposure to these chemicals through the generations and in the womb is causing some to be born without the ability to walk, some to be born without eyeballs and some to be born without important parts of the brain.As revealed, the people living in Argentina succumb to the agrochemicals year after year now, because of cooperation with large producers which demand the use of the chemicals as a requirement for farmers to purchase seed.As Zavala documents, these agrochemicals are blasted from aircraft and spraying machinesLocal authorities do nothing to stop the unprecedented release of agrochemicals which infiltrate the water and are also breathed in directly by those working among and near the fields. As depicted, methamidophos calibre 25, a phosphorous-based chemical that was banned by the Stockholm Convention, is often sprayed alongside a host of other cellular disrupting agrochemicals.Seeing a generation of people forced into compliance with this method of farming is heartrending, especially after seeing pictures of children living with rare malformations.
EPA used to speed up UN sustainable development programs, destruction of private property

BLM operates similarly, concentrating private property in the hands of central planners

EPA acts as a licensor, promoting industry interests as environment is polluted stealthily

EPA won't stop the pervasive poisoning of municipal water supplies

EPA causes wide-scale environmental disasters, poisoning the Anima River in 2015

(NaturalNews) Instead of going after the corporations that are polluting the country's navigable waterways and municipal water supplies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now spends its resources going after individual property owners, taking over their land with force and intimidation, all in the name of protecting "wetlands."This was the case with the Sackett family of Priest Lake, Idaho. When the family bought a 2/3 acre parcel of land in rural Idaho, they planned on building the home of their dreams. When the EPA arrived, the Sacketts were told their property was on protected "wetlands," that they would have to return their land to how it was, and go through an expensive application process asking permission to use their own land. The EPA threatened the Sacketts with a $75,000 per day fine for failing to follow their intrusive "compliance" plan. This was not an isolated incident. This has become top priority for the EPA in recent years. Visit EPAwatch.org to stay updated on these abuses.In this way, the EPA is being used as an arm of the United Nation's sustainable development programs (Agenda 21) , to intimidate property owners into giving up their land and liberty to central planners' collectivist agendas. Americans are slowly being conditioned to believe that there is no such thing as individual property rights, that responsible stewardship of the environment comes from government bodies and central planners who think they know what's best for everybody. An armed, intimidating EPA that confiscates property from individuals, does nothing to protect people from environmental disasters that threaten public health.In much the same way, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is part of the same process of property confiscation and consolidation of power to the federal government. Today, the federal government claims ownership of more than 50 percent of the land in 11 western states. Instead of working with people to help sustain the environment, the BLM, like the EPA, slowly and steadily seizes private property from the people and the states. It's all about control and centralization of power, not environmental protection.The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements that met in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1976, and which has infiltrated U.S. law, stated, "Land ... cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership ... may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes. Public control of land use is therefore indispensable."At its inception, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might have been a good idea, but now the agency acts as a licensor, permitting corporations to pollute the environment under specific conditions. The EPA permits big industries (that work in the interest of central planners) "legal" access to polluting the environment, as long as it's done under EPA limits. As long as a corporation gets a license from the EPA, they are allowed to unleash their toxic waste , spray their chemical pesticides , or poison the water supply For example, under The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the EPA "provides for federal regulation of pesticide distribution, sale, and use. All pesticides distributed or sold in the United States must beby EPA." [Emphasis added]In trying to convince the public about "why we use pesticides," the EPA uses the example that "indoor household pests such as cockroaches can contribute to asthma and allergies," and therefore must be sprayed with chemicals. This is a ridiculous justification for pesticides, which are more of a threat to the human respiratory system than to cockroaches.The EPA also does nothing to stop the phosphate mining industry from selling its toxic byproducts hexafluorosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride to U.S. cities, where it is then dripped into the water supply and marketed as good for the dental hygiene of the population.The nuclear power industry was allowed to ravage the western U.S. in search of uranium to make atomic bombs for the U.S. military. There are thousands of abandoned uranium mines in the west, and they are constantly contaminating the water supply of Native American communities today. In 2015, the EPA even had a hand in unleashing 880,000 pounds of toxic elements from the Gold King mine, straight into the Animas River.The EPA isn't necessarily protecting the environment as many would hope. The agency actually causes greater environmental problems, while ignoring true health hazards. The EPA promote industry interests and license their activities, while being used as a tool of force to ridiculously seize private property from individuals.
How you can take action to prevent the DARK Act from happening ... Sign the petition now

If GMOs are so safe, why is the government running scared when it comes to food labeling?

(NaturalNews) While many health-conscious Americans are in favor of having their foods labeled so they know whether or not they're eating genetically-modified items , there are people determined to keep citizens in the dark about what they ingest. Appropriately referred to as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, it mainly involves members of the government and the folks at Monsanto (surprise, surprise) who don't think food should carry such labeling.For example, if Senator Pat Roberts, Chair of the Agriculture Committee, gets his way, a new bill would squash the GMO labeling strides that Vermont has made, while preventing additional states from involvement in mandatory GMO labeling laws.The bill would also make voluntary labeling fall under the jurisdiction of the USDA  a frightening thought considering that the agency would likely be perfectly fine labeling foods as Non-GMO even if they've been created with the controversial genetic engineering technique known as gene editing. Such people  including Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow  are of the mind set that these labeling laws are unnecessary because GM foods are, in their opinion, safe.Unfortunately, the bill is making frightening strides, as it's recently been given the green light by the Senate Agriculture Committee in a 14 to 6 vote. This means that the bill is inching its way closer to becoming a reality; because of this recent decision, the bill is on its way to the Senate where it will receive a full vote.But you can help prevent such an atrocity from taking place.The serious implications that this bill has for your health and freedom is precisely why you should take action today. Sign the "Stop the Dark Act in the Senate" petition now to make your thoughts known, and to urge people to value better health over what's-in-it-for-me politics. Their ludicrous attempts at banning GMO labeling must stop.Upon clicking the "Read the petition link" on the petition page , you'll read words that speak truth and resonate among the health-conscious. There, it states that, "Americans want 4 simple words: Produced with genetic engineering." It goes on to say, "It is unconscionable that you would support a bill to take away States' Rights to label GMOs and preempt Connecticut, Maine and Vermont's mandatory GMO labeling laws. It's a slap in the face of Americans' who have a right to know if our food has been genetically engineered. I am urging you to do the right thing. Support states' rights and the right of every American to have simple, on package access to the information we need to make informed choices about the food we feed our families."If you're in agreement with these words, take action today by signing the petition. Undo what Senator Roberts set out to do, and what seems to be moving in a very dangerous direction. Every single signature matters, so don't think yours won't make a difference.The details of the bill Roberts hopes to see rise through the system and become fully passed, says, "No State or a political subdivision of a State may directly or indirectly establish under any authority or continue in effect as to any food or seed in interstate commerce any requirement relating to the labeling of whether a food (including food served in a restaurant or similar establishment) or seed is genetically engineered (which shall include such other similar terms as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture) or was developed or produced using genetic engineering, including any requirement for claims that a food or seed is or contains an ingredient that was developed or produced using genetic engineering."That's a long-winded way of saying that your right to know what you're eating is about to be violated  should this bill go through. It's hard to imagine, but there are actually people out there who want you to continue eating horrible, Frankenfoods; they're blatantly saying they want to keep GMO horrors out of your sight. But if they're as safe as they suggest, why do they run scared when the topic of GMO labeling arises?"Congress must pass a national food labeling solution that offers farmers, families and food producers the certainty and access to the affordable and sustainable food supply they deserve," says Pamela Bailey, head of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.Others are in agreement with her thoughts, including Scott Faber, the head of the national Just Label It Campaign. Of the latest attempt by Roberts, Farber says that it's "outrageous" for him to try to prevent the public from knowing what they're ingesting.
Russia: U.S. corn and soy low quality, unsafe

(NaturalNews) Just one day after much of the world celebrated Valentine's Day this year, the nation of Russia enacted an embargo on all imports of corn and soy products originating in the U.S., say reports. Following through with promises earlier made in defiance of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country will no longer accept transgenic corn and soy imports due to safety and environmental concerns.In 2013, President Putin met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the issue, in which he expressed "extreme outrage" over the Obama Administration's continued protection of bio-piracy corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta , which are spreading bootlegged seeds and crop chemicals throughout the world. One of President Putin's biggest concerns is the continued decline in bee populations, which has been repeatedly linked to pesticide and herbicide use Russia's hostile feelings towards GMOs and crop chemicals are also shared by China, which enacted its own embargoes in 2015 to protect its bees and food supply against contamination. All across the globe, countries that haven't been taken over by multinational seed corporations are taking a stand against GMOs and crop chemicals, and it's cutting into U.S. commodity exports in a major way."Restrictions will be imposed on imports starting from February 15," Assistant Director of the watchdog group Rosselkhoznadzor, Alexey Alekseenko, is quoted as saying by. "They (the U.S.) have to establish a system to ensure safety of products imported to Russia ."That system currently doesn't exist, warn critics, and likely never will due to heavy lobbying from chemical and seed-modifying corporations, which hold incredible power in Washington, D.C. Their lobbying efforts keep GMOs and crop chemicals from being effectively regulated, which is harming U.S. farmers, who are seeing decreased market potential for their transgenic offerings."Since the products shipped from the United States pose a real threat to Russia, and the US guarantees are not valid, we reserve the right to introduce temporary restrictions on imports of US corn and soybeans," Alekseenko added in a quote cited by RT.com.Besides the GMO element, U.S. corn and soy products aren't exactly of the highest quality, says Russia. Dry rot has been found in corn, as have weed seeds in soybeans, Alekseenko warns. And the microbiological conditions of the soil in which these crops are grown are also not being adequately addressed by U.S. farmers, which means an inferior end product."We were dumfounded," Alekseenko told the media. "Every batch of products should come with a microbiological certificate that guarantees food safety. It turns out the products are not being tested."In 2015, Rosselkhoznadzor found 64 unique cases of bacterial contamination in U.S.-grown soybeans. So far in 2016, at least four additional cases have been identified, including one with a bacterial strain that has never before been identified in Russia.The Russian embargo on soybeans originating from the U.S. will cost American farmers nearly $200 million a year, which represents only a very small percentage of total U.S. agriculture exports. But if word gets out that U.S. products are inferior and potentially dangerous, many other countries besides Russia could soon follow suit."The Russian decision is a huge blow to USA agribusiness," writes F. William Engdahl for GlobalResearch.ca. "For decades, the US grain cartel companiesADM, Cargill, Bungehave dominated the global trade in soybeans and corn , the most widely used animal feed for cattle, pigs, chickens because of its high protein content.""The Russian decision, to my knowledge is the first blow to be struck against the powerful GMO agribusiness cartel."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Fourteen months ago Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko was an obscure politician in Zimbabwe.He had just started finding his feet in Zanu-PF's cut-throat politics because he had spent most of his professional life representing Zimbabwe in Russia, Botswana and South Africa, among other countries in a diplomatic career that began with a posting to Mozambique in 1987.After his surprise elevation to deputise President Robert Mugabe alongside Emmerson Mnangagwa, many expected him to use his diplomatic skills to douse the flames engulfing Zanu-PF. But the man who has lived at the plushy Rainbow Towers Hotel since his appointment has been nowhere close to being a diplomat.His propensity to put his foot in the mouth has left many asking questions about Mugabe's choice.Unlike Mnangagwa, whose political track record is well-known within the Zanu-PF circles having served as a Cabinet minister in various portfolios, Mphoko was an unknown figure until his name popped-up as the party's factional wars heightened.He had been recalled from South Africa where he was the country's ambassador and his name started to feature prominently in the media as he launched his campaign for the vice-presidency.Within six months as VP, he dressed down Psychomotor minister Josiah Hungwe, telling him to stop addressing him as the "second vice-president", declaring he was equal to Mnangagwa."Before I proceed, I would like to make a point of correction to Cde Hungwe," Mphoko said in May 2015."We do not have a first and second vice-president in our structures. We just have two vice-presidents."Mphoko added, "We only have one first secretary of the party, who is President Robert Mugabe, and two second secretaries of the party, who are the vice-presidents, so I wanted to make that correction".To show that he is a legend of controversy, the VP has had several more gaffes, with the most recent one being his comments at a rally in Chiweshe.While introducing the First Lady, Mphoko made what many viewed as a tribal statement. He claimed that there were people insinuating that since Mugabe was a Zezuru, it followed that a Karanga would succeed him."There is nowhere in our Constitution where it is written that this country was liberated by a Karanga, a Ndau, a Zezuru or a Ndebele," he said."What we hear now that President Mugabe is a Zezuru and if he steps down a Karanga should take over is not what we fought for. That is a Rhodesian mind. Don't lose sleep over statements by some excitable people because there is nothing like that."We have party ideology and if you jump away from that, you risk being hit by landmines out there. You will die, it's your fault. Don't say I have not warned you. So, let's not fool ourselves thinking that the position of president is up for grabs by everyone," he said. That statement later caused a tribal backlash.But before that, he had commented on the explosive Gukurahundi issue, suggesting that Mugabe should not be blamed for the 1980-1987 mass killings in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.In an interview with a State controlled newspaper last year, Mphoko said Gukurahundi massacres - which left over 20 000 people dead in the 1980s - were a Western conspiracy. Angry opposition parties and activists called for his resignation over the utterances.His views also appeared to have affected the cordial relations that he enjoyed with his party comrades such as Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo, who took exception to his Gukurahundi utterances."As President Mugabe has said, Gukurahundi was a moment of madness' and that is the bottom line. There's no need for confusion on this," Moyo posted on micro-blogging site Twitter in response to the blundering VP.As if that was not enough, during his tour of the country, Mphoko angered vendors when he said he did not understand why able-bodied people engaged in vending.Activists and opposition parties said the VP should have addressed the reason why many people were vending, instead of attacking those who were working to earn an honest living.Besides the political gaffes that he has made, Mphoko has also made himself a target of criticism by most Zimbabweans after he allegedly refused to occupy a house that was previously used by former Vice-President John Nkomo, demanding his own house.For more than a year, Mphoko has stayed at a top hotel in the capital spending in excess of $280 000 of the tax payer's money.Political analyst Enerst Mudzengi said Mphoko had been trying hard to make a name for himself, hence some of the controversial statements."He is trying to find a trade-mark and in the process [he is] making numerous blunders. Remember, he is a man with no constituency to talk about. He has never won an election, hence he is doing all sorts of things, appearing at all rallies by [First Lady] Grace Mugabe in the hope that he will get some backing within the party," Mudzengi said.University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer, Eldred Masunungure said Mphoko should learn government procedure and political language."He lacks maturity when compared to Mnangagwa. He needs to master what to say and what not to say," said Masunungure."He will lose relevance if he does not mind his language."
Facebook is to award bonuses of 280 million ($396 million) to its U.K.-based staff over the next three years in a bid to offset the amount of tax it has to pay to the U.K. Treasury, NBC News reported.

Each employee will receive an average of 775,000 ($1.1 million), which Facebook will list as a taxable expense.

The news, as revealed in the Sunday Times, comes just days after Facebook's very public tax restructuring in Britain, which the social media giant explained was a bid to "provide transparency to Facebook's operations in the U.K." The company had announced on Friday that it would be changing its tax setup by no longer diverting profits from its largest British advertisers through Ireland, where corporate tax is lower.

Facebook makes an annual $4 billion in profits, but has yet to release figures as to its U.K.-specific earnings.
It was a sight that would leave any fisherman licking his chops: A bevy of sturdy-looking salmon swimming in a small enclosure at the base of Keswick Dam  cut off from their intended route up the Sacramento River near Redding, California. In other words, pretty much sitting ducks.

Suddenly the ground rumbled with a mechanical whining as the water began to empty out of the pen  forcing the fish into another enclosure which began to climb the height of the dam aboard a giant elevator  a James Bond-like escape.

This peculiar fish elevator was part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife hatchery program at the upper end of the Sacramento River  aimed at preventing federally threatened winter-run Chinook salmon from plunging further into population despair.

"What were trying to do is save a run of fish," said John Reuth, assistant manager of the Livingston Stone National Fish hatchery.

The Keswick Dam was outfitted with special fish ladders, an elevator and traps all intended to catch salmon and place them in the hatchery program to help re-populate the river.

At the top of their elevator ride, the container full of fish swung out toward the road and was emptied into a waiting container truck. From there the fish were driven about 15 miles to Shasta Dam where the Livingston Stone hatchery lies just below the dams fortress-like face.

"Right now its sort of important for us to give them a little jump start basically," Reuth said plunging a net into a holding container and producing a dense, squirming cluster of fingerling size fish. "These are the one run of salmon that everybodys concerned about with."

As the tanker truck of fish pulled into the hatchery yard, Reuth and other hatchery managers scaled its tank, gathering around as one worker climbed inside and began pulling out adult salmon one by one.

A few of the fish were identified as having been raised at the hatchery  but in the interim had swam down the Sacramento River, out the Golden Gate Bridge to spend three years in the ocean before making the return trip.

The targets for Reuth and his team are naturally born fish to add to the hatchery program  to improve the genetic stock and create a heartier traveler. With a recent survey predicting only a 3 percent survival rate of the current year winter-run Chinook, likely the result of the prolonged drought, Reuth said the situation had become grave.

"If we could get into another bad year like next year since salmon are on a three year cycle," Reuth said, "it could mean the demise of the salmon."

Back inside the truck tank, biologists attached tags to the fish and clipped a genetic sample from each tail fin. The DNA samples would later help identify winter-run fish.

"Its there as a plan B in case the natural stocks of winter run disappear," John McManus, director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association said of the hatchery program. "Theyll have the genetics and living fish and eggs on hand at the hatchery to keep the run alive until natural components can be reintroduced or come back."

Over the past couple years, the federal government trucked 20 million salmon smolts from Livingstone Stone and nearby Coleman Fish Hatchery down river for release in the Delta  to improve their chances of survival. Two weeks ago, the team released another 400,000 fish into the Sacramento River.

Although commercial fishermen are allowed to only catch Fall-run salmon during their season, regulators partially base fishing quotas on the number of winter-run salmon present. Regulators have already warned fishermen to expect a limited season which normally opens in May, based on the limited number of Winter-run chinook.

Reuth said there were only an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 adult winter run salmon in the Sacramento River. Back in the 1980s, the number had dropped to about 190.

From inside the tank, the hatchery worker fished-out a large natural born salmon  the size that would bestow bragging rights on any fisherman lucky enough to nab one. The fish was placed into another truck to be hauled to the Coleman hatchery.

Reuth took in the giant fish with the calm of someone who had witnessed similar fish for more than a decade  whose efforts have sent millions of fish on their trek out to the ocean.

"Today in the truck we saw a few fish come back that I raised myself here at the hatchery," Reuth said. "I raised them from an egg to a juvenile  they went out to the ocean for three years. And are now swimming back to spawn again."
Six University of California at Santa Cruz students were arrested Friday on suspicion of running a drug ring that uncovered more than $100,000 worth of MDMA, police said this week.

The students were affiliated with one of two affiliated campus Greek organizations, Lambda Phi Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, according to police.

The suspects were identified as Mariah Dremel, Benny Liu, Cesar Casil, Nathan Tieu, Hoai Nguyen, and Cecilia Le, all 21 years old, who allegedly possessed a controlled substance, police said. Dremel, Liu, Casil and Tieu are also suspected of conspiracy, according to police.

About 5,000 tablets of MDMA that weighed about 4.1 pounds were found and have a street value of more than $100,000, police said.

SCPD shuts down student drug ring. 5000 ecstasy pills = $100K. 6 arrested https://t.co/luOfohdnm9 #SantaCruzPolice pic.twitter.com/kiR18KwkXD  Santa Cruz Police (@SantaCruzPolice) March 8, 2016

Police worked on the case with help from personnel at the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Officers learned that multiple packages containing MDMA tablets were being sent through the U.S. Postal Service over the past few weeks to three Santa Cruz addresses, where search warrants were served on Friday, police said.

The homes were in the 400 block of Locust Street, 200 block of Castillion Terrace and the 100 block of Peach Terrace, according to police. The warrants were served with help from the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Postal Service and Homeland Security, according to police.

Officers learned on Friday that Homeland Security investigators were able to stop a second shipment from arriving to the group, police said.

MDMA, more commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly, is a psychoactive drug that can increase a person's heart rate and blood pressure, DEA officials said. People can experience increased energy from the drug in addition to sadness, anxiety and depression, according to DEA officials. If taken in large doses, MDMA can lead to serious health complications or death, DEA officials said.

Lambda Phi Epsilon is described as an international Asian-American-interest fraternity that sets high standards for academics, social experience and community service, according to the college's website.

Lambda Phi Epsilon posted a statement on its website, saying in part, the fraternity will be cooperating with the local authorities to understand what happened. The International Fraternity has placed the University of California, Santa Cruz chapter on a Cease and Desist, suspending all normal activity and chapter functions pending further investigation."

Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority's Delta Chapter was created 24 years ago and aimed at advancing sisterhood, philanthropy, scholastic excellence and Asian-awareness in the community, according to the group's website.
With Illinois' presidential primary just over a week away, presidential hopefuls have shifted their focus to campaigning in the state.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton will hold a get-out-the-vote rally in Vernon Hills Thursday. The Park Ridge natives trip comes just two days after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, campaigned in Evanston.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump will also hold a free rally at the University of Illinois-Chicagos Pavillion Friday.

Doors will open at 3 p.m. with the event scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

It's rare for a Republican Presidential rally in the city limits; more often the GOP holds large events like this closer to the party faithful in the suburbs.

As of Monday morning, nearly 43,000 people had signed a moveon.org petition arguing the rally has no place in Chicago but especially not at an institution of higher learning. Students and local politicians have also planned a peaceful protest of the event, encouraging Trump critics to obtain tickets to the rally and gather outside the venue.

The Friday event falls on the same night as an Illinois Republican Party fundraiser, which fellow presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz has said he will attend. Other Republican presidential candidates have also been invited. It's not clear if Trump will make an appearance after his rally is over.

Also on Friday, Bernie Sanders, fresh from his upset win in Michigan Tuesday, will hold what his campaign called "an interesting contrast" to the Trump rally. The rally will be held in Summit, Illinois at Argo Community High School. It begins at 8 p.m. but doors will open at 5 p.m.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs wife, Heidi Cruz, addressed a City Club of Chicago breakfast Wednesday before visiting Cruzs campaign field office in Homer Glen later that day.

Cruz is scheduled to headline the Northwest Suburban Lincoln Day Dinner in Rolling Meadows Friday. Ohio Gov. John Kasich declined an invitation to the event, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has yet to commit either way.

Rubio has no commitments in Illinois this week, although Conservative Solutions PAC, a super political action committee backing the senator, has spent over a half-million dollars on anti-Trump ads in Illinois. Rubios home state of Florida will also be decided on March 15.

Kasich appeared at a at a town hall event at a truck manufacturing company in the Chicago suburb of Lisle Wednesday, laying out his plan to improve the economy. Several hundred people filled the atrium of Navistar Inc. for the first of two events the GOP candidate held in Illinois.

Kasich also held a Town Hall at Palatines Park District Community Center Wednesday.

Aside from Florida and Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio will also be hold primaries on March 15.

Trump currently leads the Republican field with 384 pledged delegates. Cruz has 300 pledged delegates, while Rubio has 151 and Kasich has 37.

Trump won Kentucky and Louisiana Saturday, while Cruz won Kansas and Maine.

Democratic presidential hopefuls have also shifted their focus to Illinois, opening campaign offices and airing TV ads.
During a radio appearance Monday, Veterans Affairs whistleblowers Germaine Clarno and Dr. Lisa Nee claimed that Rep. Tammy Duckworth did little to respond to their claims of mistreatment of veterans and corruption within the Hines VA.

According to their allegations, Duckworth was largely unresponsive to evidence related to veteran mistreatment and inadequate investigations conducted by the VA's inspector general.

Clarno claimed that, although she approached Duckworth "many" times, the congresswoman did little to respond to her claims.

"I never felt that [Duckworth] wanted to hear exactly what was going on," Clarno said. I really thought going to Tammy Duckworth, that she would be the one who would stand up and say this has got to stop.

Duckworth, a combat veteran who lost her legs co-piloting a helicopter in Iraq, held high-ranking positions in the VA before entering politics. She served as Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and later as Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the US Department of Veterans Affairs from 2009 to 2011.

Duckworth's camp dispelled the whistleblower's claims in a statement.

"Since receiving troubling reports from Ms. Clarno regarding Hines VA, [Duckworth] has doggedly pursued them by helping launch a VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation and a separate review by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the independent federal agency tasked with protecting federal whistleblowers, among several other actions," Duckworth spokesman Ben Garmisa said.

According to a 2014 report, the VA office of the Inspector General conducted an inspection to assess allegations that dealt with cardiovascular care at the Hines VA. The inspection was at the request of Duckworth and Sen. Dick Durbin.

The Duckworth camp claims the congresswoman had called for an investigation into the Office of Inspector General's transparency record prior to allegations made by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel that the VA was stonewalling whistleblowers.

"Retaliation against whistleblowers is not acceptable to her and she is seeking a face-to-face meeting with VA Secretary Robert McDonald to highlight the critical importance of protecting them," Garmisa said.

Duckworth also faces charges of retaliation against two employees at the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. The employees filed complaints alleging mistreatment and abuse of veterans at IDVA facilities during Duckworth's tenure. Trial is set to begin on April 4.

Duckworth, who currently represents Illinois' 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, will face Urban League CEO and President Andrea Zopp as well as state Sen. Napoleon Harris in the March 15 Democratic primary for Mark Kirk's U.S. Senate seat.

Incumbent Kirk will face Oswego businessman James Marter in the March 15 Republican primary.

Clarno and Nee claimed that Kirk was helpful in responding to their concerns.

"If I would've gone to him two years previously, who knows what lives could've been saved," Clarno said.

Kirk's camp lauded the whistleblowers and condemned Duckworth's inaction.

The accounts of these courageous whistleblowers detail yet another chapter of Rep. Duckworth silencing critics to protect the bureaucracy, her own legacy and her party," Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. "As a member of Congress, Rep. Duckworth has a responsibility to care for the most vulnerable, but when it came time for her to protect our veterans from the corruption and mismanagement at the VA, she failed."

Despite the allegations, Duckworth holds a sizable lead in the race for the Democratic nomination.

A poll conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies between Feb. 4-7, found Duckworth received 64 percent of support while Zopp received 6 percent and Harris received 3 percent. The poll was conducted for Harris.

An additional poll, conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, found Duckworth receiving 52 percent of support from self-identified Democrats with Zopp receiving 6 percent and Harris receiving 4 percent.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) on behalf of Patson Dzamara, the brother to the abducted Ital Dzamara has sued the police for blocking a march which was supposed to be cionducted in recognition of the missing journalists and democracy rights activist.ZLHR said on Sunday 06 March 2016 it filed an urgent chamber application at the Harare High Court on behalf of Patson Dzamara representing the Dzamara family seeking to interdict ZRP Officer Commanding Harare Province Chief Superintendent Saunyama, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri and Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo from interfering with a march organised by the Dzamara family to mark one year since Itai Dzamara, a pro-democracy activist and freelance journalist was abducted and disappeared.
Suspected serial killer Darren Vann is facing new charges more than a year after he led police on a bloody scavenger hunt in Northwest Indiana, confessing to killing several women and hiding their bodies in abandoned homes.

Vann has been charged with five additional counts of murder and 10 additional counts of rape, attempted murder and criminal confinement, the Gary Police Department announced Monday. Further details on the charges weren't immediately released.

Vann was arrested in October 2014, one day after police found the body of 19-year-old Afrika Hardy in a motel bathtub.

After his arrest, Vann admitted killing several women and told police where the bodies could be found.

Vann was charged with murder in Hardy's Oct. 17 strangulation and in the death of Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville. Jones, 35, was reported missing by her sister just days before her body was discovered.

Vann pleaded not guilty to the two deaths.

Vann is suspected in at least five other women's deaths, all of which were believed to be sex workers. Investigators used Vann's cellphone records to track his movements after he revealed to police he liked to check on the bodies he'd stashed after a fresh kill, authorities said.

In an interview with NBC 5, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart compared the investigation into Vann to the investigation into serial killer John Wayne Gacy saying, "When youre dealing with someone who kills a lot of people, give up trying to predict."

Little has been revealed about Vann's court proceedings because a judge earlier issued a gag order in the case.
Can Donald Trump really make good on his promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border to prevent illegal migration? What's more, can he make Mexico pay for it?

Sure, he can build it, but it's not nearly as simple as he says.

Constructing the wall, now a signature applause line at Trump campaign rallies, is a complicated endeavor, fraught with difficulties. Numerous bureaucratic, diplomatic, environmental, monetary and logistical hurdles must be overcome.

And forcing the Mexican government to foot the bill won't be easy, especially since its president has flat-out refused.

A physical barrier between Mexico and the United States has been tried before.

During President George W. Bush's second term, Congress authorized $1.2 billion to build several hundred miles of double-layer fencing but the government faced myriad obstacles. Private landowners objecting to buyout offers. There were environmental concerns and lawsuits.

Some 650 miles of border fencing now sits on the border, including roughly 15-foot tall steel fencing in many urban areas that is designed to stop or slow border crossers on foot and vehicle barriers, which are shorter steel posts filled with cement and planted in the ground.

Just getting that built was a challenge and a new, taller wall like the one Trump wants would almost certainly face as much, if not more, opposition.

First, a 1970 boundary treaty governs structures along the Rio Grande and Colorado River at the Mexican border. It requires that structures cannot disrupt the flow of the rivers, which flow across Texas and 24 miles in Arizona and define the U.S.-Mexican border, according to The International Boundary and Water Commission, a joint U.S.-Mexican agency that administers the treaty.

Trump has said his wall will not need to run the full 2,100-mile length of the border, but even excluding those portions blocked by geographic features, there are serious issues.

In some places, treaty obligations and river flood zones would require the wall be built well into the United States, which would be awkward if the Mexican government is paying for it and overseeing the project. In addition to creating a sort of no-man's land between the wall and the actual border, one government or the other would have to buy large amounts of private property as well as land owned by at least one Indian tribe whose territory straddles the border in southern Arizona.

In areas where the border is defined on dry land across New Mexico, most of Arizona and California, structures have to be built so that the wall doesn't obstruct natural run off routes or otherwise induce flooding. Building in those areas can be complicated and costly. In sensitive sand dunes in Southern California, for instance, a "floating fence" had to be built to allow the natural movements of the dunes.

Then, there are the conservation issues. Groups such as Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club sued over parts of the existing partial fence. And, federal regulations could prevent or at least significantly delay or increase costs of construction in certain areas.

A total of 18 federally protected species may be found along certain sections of the California border and at least 39 federally endangered, threatened, or candidate species live along the Arizona border, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Presuming Trump can overcome all of these bumps, he must also contend with the cost and the diplomatic consequences.

Numerous fact-checking organizations have taken issue with Trump's estimate that the wall would be built for $10 billion to $12 billion. And, they have rejected his contention that the wall could be funded by reducing the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico. Figures released by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Congressional Research Service indicate that the total cost of the current 650-mile fence has been $7 billion. And that doesn't include maintenance and upkeep.

Trump has insisted that Mexico will pay for the wall, perhaps through fees on money that immigrants send home to their families, tariffs or other means. Fees would be wildly unpopular and tariffs would likely run afoul of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The cost of such tariffs would also ultimately be borne by U.S. consumers.

Getting the Mexican government to pay for it outright is almost certainly wishful thinking.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said Monday that "there is no scenario" under which Mexico would pay for the wall and likened Trump's rhetoric to that of Hitler and Mussolini. Former President Vicente Fox put it more bluntly: "I am not going to pay for that f---ing wall." Both Fox and another former president, Felipe Calderon, have also compared Trump to Hitler.

So there's diplomatic ill will, a question the Congressional Research Service raised in 2009.

"Do the gains in border security outweigh the risk of alienating Mexico and Canada?" it asked. "Should the Mexican or Canadian government's opinions or wishes be taken into account when border fencing is concerned? Given the need to coordinate intelligence and law enforcement activities at the border, should maintaining cordial working relationships with Mexico and Canada take precedence over sealing the border with physical barriers?"

On Wednesday, a group of Republican national security community members, including former government officials, blasted the idea.

"Controlling our border and preventing illegal immigration is a serious issue, but his insistence that Mexico will fund a wall on the southern border inflames unhelpful passions, and rests on an utter misreading of, and contempt for, our southern neighbor," they wrote in an open letter.
A former Connecticut priest plead guilty to providing a teenager with ammunition and explosives powder in 2012, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Paul Gotta, a 58-year-old former East Windsor resident who was charged with seven counts of sexual assault two years ago, faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of willfully distributing an explosive material to an individual under the age of 21 years old, according to prosecutors.

In 2012, Gotta aided a 17-year-old with purchases thousands of rounds of ammunition and on two occasions purchased two pounds of explosives powder in East Windsor for the same teenager, according to court documents.

Gotta served as administrator of St. Philip Church in East Windsor and St. Catherine Church in Broadbrook until he left in 2012 after being accused of sexual abuse.

Gotta was indicted on six charges, including aiding and abetting the unlawful transport of a firearm in interstate commerce, aiding and abetting the possession of a handgun by a juvenile, aiding and abetting the possession of ammunition by a juvenile, distribution of explosive material to an individual under the age of 21, aiding and abetting the attempted manufacture of a pipe bomb, and obstruction of justice but only plead guilty to one charge, prosecutors said.

He will be sentenced on May 19 and could be spend up to 10 years in prison and pay a fine up to $250,000.
Two sisters came up with an elaborate plan to steal from the West Hartford Police Department, according to authorities.

Yahaira Santiago, an employee at Doctor's Express walk-in clinic on The Boulevard in West Hartford found a wallet containing $1,100 at the clinic and turned it over to her manager. But she first cataloged the wallet's contents, according to police.

Santiago then sent her sister, Jennifer Melo, to the police department to claim the wallet as her own, police said. Melo knew every detail of what was in the wallet and even had a photo of it, according to police.

"She knew the exact amount of 20-dollar bills, the exact amount of fifties, the exact wallet," Lt. Ted Stoneburner said.

About a week after Melo collected the cash, a second woman, Rita Vorotnikova, arrived at the police station to report she had lost her wallet at Doctor's Express. She even provided officers with a bank statement proving the cash was hers, police said.

"It takes a very special person to walk into the police department and steal from the police department," Lt. Stoneburner said.

When confronted, Santiago and Melo denied knowing each other, according to police. Officers began an intensive investigation and found the two women spoke to each other 120 times within two weeks of Melo picking up the cash from the police department. It was then that police learned they were sisters.

Santiago and Melo face charges of larceny and interfering with an officer. Santiago also faces an additional charge of giving a false statement. She was released on $25,000 bond. Melo was released on $1,100 bond, the same amount she's accused of stealing from the police department. Both will be in court on March 17.

Unfortunately for Vorotnikova, the money was gone by the time police learned the details of the alleged crime.

"she's not so much surprised that somebody stole money from her because that happens everyday, but more of, you know, that somebody would do it to the police station, Artor Shakhnazaraf, Vorotnikova's stepson said while translating for his stepmother.
Contractors repairing North Texas tornado damaged structures raced Monday to beat a forecast for heavy rain.

The Dec. 26 tornado damaged approximately 2,000 structures, most of them in Garland and Rowlett. Garland homeowner Odessa Quinn said she lost her roof that day.

"The rain was all in the house, soaked everything, so all the carpets had to come up," she said. "The walls had to come down inside."

Workers made big progress on repairs, including a new roof to protect the new walls inside Quinn's home.

"My guys were working really hard; seven days per week," she said. "Im grateful to them."

Garland homeowner Barb Oldani has a new roof and only minor painting to be touched up in her garage where the roof failed in December.

"The house started shaking and I could hear the tornado go over the roof," Oldani said.

Around her home, many other neighbors are not as fortunate, with major work or total reconstruction still to be done.

"I think a lot of the problem is, theyre probably trying to settle with their insurance before they start repairs," Oldani said.

Garland Building Official Jim Olk said 60 percent of the damaged structures in his city still have no permits issued for demolition or repairs. Of about 800 Garland structures impacted in some way by the December tornado, Olk said 127 were destroyed, 102 had major damage and 113 had minor damage.

Roofers and window repair workers teamed up on one Garland house to make it water tight Monday.

We want to try to beat the rain, because the work that has been done, you dont want to have to do it again, said Austin Butcher with Rowlett based Window Solutions. And the workload, weve just been so busy, being were from Rowlett, our company.

Nearby heating and air conditioning contractor Stephen Allard installed furnace vent flashing on the roof of another damaged house.

Water could get in for sure, so we ran a seal around that pretty good before it starts raining, Allard said.

Allard said the house is owned by an investor who bought the damaged structure cheap from the previous owner who collected an insurance settlement and chose not to make the repairs.

That way they wont be out of a house six, eight months until they can get it rebuilt, he said.

Owner Odessa Quinn said she is looking forward to living in her home again, but it needs more repair from the December damage.

"It seems like a long time to me because Im anxious to be back home, but it wasnt that long ago," she said.
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Another round of heavy rain pushed through North Texas Wednesday morning. A Flash Flood threat remains in place for areas east and southeast of DFW.



Wednesday afternoon will offer a break in the rain before more showers develop overnight and Thursday morning. Scattered showers will again be possible Friday. A 20 percent chance of showers now exists for Saturday.

Powerful storms dumped heavy rain on parts of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma Tuesday, causing flooding that led to a school bus rescue, property damage from multiple tornadoes and the death of a boater whose canoe capsized in strong winds.

By the time the storm system leaves Texas and Oklahoma later this week it could dump up to a foot of rain on some areas, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer McNatt.

Wednesday

Most of North Texas is under a Flash Flood Watch until 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Flood and Flash Flood Warnings issued for Collin, Dallas, Denton, Henderson, Hunt, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall and Wise counties have expired.

Up to 7 inches of rain is expected through Wednesday and up to 12 inches by the end of the weekend in some parts of Texas.

In Arlington, high water forced the closure of multiple parks near creeks or the Trinity River, including the Village Creek Historical Area, Tuesday afternoon. The parks have not yet reopened.

As of 11 a.m., 33 flights were canceled and 180 were delayed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Three flights were canceled and 14 were delayed at Dallas Love Field.

Garland residents whose homes were damaged by December tornadoes worked ahead of Tuesday's storm to repair roofs and windows. Not all of the repairs were finished in time, though, and rain poured into several homes in a neighborhood south of Interstate 30.

Tuesday

Your Storm Photos - March 8, 2016

An EF-1 tornado  confirmed Tuesday evening by the National Weather Service  caused damage to four mobile homes and injured four people in the community of Tolar, Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said.

Powerful winds damage sections of Northwest Tarrant County, including several storage buildings near Lake Worth Tuesday morning.

The NWS also confirmed Tuesday that an EF-1 tornado touched down in Stephenville earlier in the day. The NWS attributed much of the storm damage in Stephenville to straight-line winds, but did say a narrow EF-1 tornado hit the area.

An EF-1 tornado has top winds between 86 and 110 miles per hour, according to the NWS.

High water forced the closure of several low-lying roads, including the frontage roads to Interstate 35E in Denton County between McCormick and Underwood streets. Those frontage roads were reopened to traffic before the afternoon rush hour.

Heavy wind and rain caused power outages and damage to several schools in Tarrant County. A strong wind gust ripped off a panel of bricks from the student union at the northwest campus of Tarrant County College, and flying debris damaged a number of vehicles at Chisholm Trail High School and Brewer High School.

Two power poles snapped in half Tuesday morning during a storm that swept through Richardson, knocking out power to the immediate area.

Dallas-based utility Oncor at one point reported more than 40,000 customers without power Tuesday as strong winds brought down power lines, trees and traffic lights. Winds of up to 70 mph were reported and tornado warnings were issued for parts of central and eastern Texas.

Emergency personnel waded through thigh-deep water to rescue six children from a school bus caught on a flooded road north of Fort Worth.

Crews rescue six children and the driver of a Denton ISD school bus that was trapped in high water Tuesday morning.

McNatt said that in addition to flash flooding, there's widespread river flooding, but the damage isn't expected to be extensive.

"We've had a relatively dry January and February, so the lakes aren't full and the rivers aren't as full, either," she said.

The weather service issued a flood advisory for the Illinois River near Tahlequah, in eastern Oklahoma, cautioning that the river could rise to 10.9 feet by Friday  with flood stage on the Illinois at 11 feet.

Storms damage homes near the border of Collin and Denton counties in the town of Little Elm Tuesday morning.

The Poteau River near the town of Panama, which runs through Arkansas and Oklahoma, could also flood, the weather service said. Flood stage for the river is 29 feet and the rains were expected to cause the river to reach 32.7 feet by Thursday.

Pete Snyder, a meteorologist with the weather service in Tulsa, said the storm system "is somewhat meandering," producing the chance for more rain through the rest of the week.

"The storms are not that much severe here because of where the low is located, but there could be several strong storms that sneak into the area, but for the most part it's going to be a heavy rain," Snyder said.

In northwestern Arkansas, heavy rain was expected to begin Tuesday evening and last through early Friday, with up to 8 inches possible west of Little Rock. The service said minor to moderate flooding could occur on the Ouachita, Little Missouri, Fourche LaFave, Petit Jean and Saline rivers.

Storms strike Hood County Tuesday morning, destroying half the homes in a mobile home park in Tolar.

Authorities near Houston said they've recovered the body of a 22-year-old man whose canoe capsized as he and another man were fishing in a bayou near Galveston Bay.

The system is unrelated to one that brought powerful thunderstorms to much of California on Monday, walloping the Sierra Nevada with blizzard conditions and briefly knocking out power at the Los Angeles airport.
The first two cars of a commuter train transporting people from Silicon Valley to the Central Valley derailed in Sunol Monday evening, injuring nine on board, four of them seriously, police said.

The leading car of the 214-passenger Altamont Corridor Express train No. 10 plunged into Alameda Creek after ramming into a tree near 5500 Niles Canyon Road between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m., authorities said.

According to Steve Walker with the Altamont Corridor Express, the trains first car, which weighs 120,000 pounds, has 130 seats in it. It was carrying six passengers and one crew member when it struck a tree that had fallen onto the tracks and fell into into the water.

At the time of the accident, officials reported that it was raining heavily in Sunol, a rural area of Alameda County, about 45 miles east of San Francisco. Passengers believe the wet weather caused a mudslide and downed a tree, which triggered the crash.

"It just shifted the gravity all of a sudden and we were all just panicking," Rad Akhter said. "There were two people hurt, pretty badly. One was just under the mudslide so we were trying to dig her out while the train was hanging so it was a pretty crazy experience."

Passengers told NBC Bay Area that they were terrified to find themselves in the water, forced to save fellow passengers and trek to safety through complete darkness.

"We knew we were in a pretty remote area so we knew we had some hiking to do along the train tracks," said a passenger identified only as Kathy. "I'm grateful that it wasn't worse."

Crews had to fight the creek's fast-moving currents to pull riders from the partially submerged rail car, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. Images posted on Twitter by the Alameda County Fire Department show the train car on its side and half-submerged in water. He said that the train car landed in the water on its side and the car began to fill with water.



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"It was dark, wet, it was raining. It was very chaotic,'' Kelly said. "This is an absolute miracle that no one was killed, no passengers or first responders.''

The second car behind it also derailed, but managed to stay upright while the three cars behind them, including the locomotive, stayed on the tracks, Walker said.

Five of the wounded passengers sustained minor injuries while the rest suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries. They were rushed to Washington Hospital in Fremont and Eden Hospital in Castro Valley. Earlier in the night, officials reported that 14 people had been wounded, but later clarified that a few with minor injuries had been treated at the scene and were feeling better.

As of 10 p.m., all the passengers were removed from the train and were being assessed, officials said. ACE sent buses to the crash site to transport uninjured commuters to the Alameda County Fairgrounds where they were reunited with anxious family members and friends, officials said.

Around 10:15 p.m., however, commuters said on social media that they were still at the crash site, hungry and cold. Buses were not expected to reach the passengers till nearly 11 p.m., they said.

"This is beginning to look like that Harrison Ford movie #TheFugitive derailment scene," Twitter user John Wong wrote.

#AceTrainDerailment. Yay the first bus has arrived and I'm on it! Woohoo. I will survive! pic.twitter.com/1naa4l1yYT  John Wong (@Kung_fu_kid) March 8, 2016

Multiple agencies, including the Fremont Police Department and Alameda County Fire Department responded to the scene. Police shut down Niles Canyon Road and expect it to remain closed until further notice.

"Once we get some daylight, well be able to really see whats going on and walk the tracks," Kelly said.

The ACE train was traveling from San Jose to Stockton, according to its website. The train  the last one othe night  was en route from Fremont to Pleasanton, Walker said.

Railway officials said after the derailment that there will be no ACE train service Tuesday.

"We are working with our partners to restore service as soon as possible pending a complete investigation and assurance that the tracks are safe," ACE train officials said on their website.

ACE officials also provided taxis for the commuters stranded in Pleasanton when the train derailed. The taxis took them to their destinations, people said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump accused Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of having the "worst voting record in many many years," ramping up his attacks against his Republican rival in an interview with NBC 6 South Florida.

"He's a very bad representative of the people of Florida," Trump said Tuesday from West Palm Beach. "He never shows up to vote."

Of the 302 votes cast between March 9, 2015, and March 7, 2016, Rubio has missed 125, or 41 percent. In the previous year, Rubio missed 55 of 374 votes tallied, or 15 percent, The Associated Press reports, stating that Rubio is not as delinquent as Trump claims.

The report also notes that then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama skipped 45 percent of Senate votes during the same stretch on his way to the Democratic nod and eventually the presidency. Sen. John McCain skipped 62 percent of votes over a year-long period when he ran for the GOP nomination in 2008.

According to a Monmouth University poll issued Monday, Rubio is closing in but remains eight points behind Trump in Florida ahead of next week's key primary in Rubio's home state.



So far, Rubio has only two wins in 20 elections, and is now facing attack ads by the Trump campaign after having vowed to win at home.



Trump, who owns multiple properties in Florida including the Trump National Doral, described the state as his second home.

"I understand Florida very well," he said. "I'm going to do a great job for the people of Florida, that I can tell you."

Early voting is already underway in the Sunshine State for the March 15 primary.

As voters in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii head to the polls Tuesday, Trump believes things are shaping up to be a "two-man race" between him and Ted Cruz.



Trump also touched on restoring relations with Cuba in his interview with NBC 6 South Florida. While Rubio has remained adamantly against the thawing of relations, Trump says it's a plan he's open to, but that the current deal is not one he would support.

"I think it's time. We're living in the modern age and now it's time to do something," Trump said.

He added, "I would like to see a better deal than Obama is making."

Trump also called Obamacare a "total disaster, total failure" and vowed to repeal both that and Common Core if elected.



He also noted the importance of securing the nation's borders, likening them to "Swiss cheese."



In a live phone interview with "Today," Trump also addressed criticism of his request for supporters to raise their hands and pledge their allegiance to vote for him. Some have likened the incidents to imagery of Nazi rallies.



"Honestly, until this phone call, I didn't realize it was a problem," Trump said. "If it's offensive, if there's anything wrong with it, I wouldn't do it," he added.



Trump insisted that his supporters were having a good time, and dismissed any comparisons of his campaign pledge to a Nazi salute as "ridiculous."

Trump's schedule Tuesday includes a press conference at the Trump National Gold Club in Jupiter at 9 p.m. EST.

On Thursday, all of the Republican candidates will take part in a debate at the University of Miami which will air on CNN.

Tuesday's first polls close in Mississippi at 8 p.m. EST, with primary results for both parties. Michigan's primary results for both parties follow at 9.

Idaho's Republican-only primary closes at 11 p.m., and Hawaii's GOP caucuses close at 1 a.m.

In all, there are 150 GOP delegates at stake, and 179 Democratic delegates to be doled out from Tuesday's contests.
News / National

by Prosper Dembedza

THREE men accused of stealing from President Robert Mugabe's son, Chatunga Bdlarmine, will stand trial on March 29.Victor Josam, 26, Tendai Makambaire, 30, and Kelvin Mwandayi, 27, briefly appeared before Harare magistrate Elijah Makomo yesterday for a routine remand.The trio is accused of stealing the 19-year- old's iPhone 6 valued at $1,500 on November 7 last year.Prosecutors say the three and an accomplice who is still at large hatched a plan to steal from unsuspecting students who were at a function at St John's College in Harare.The court heard that the trio allegedly proceeded to St John's College in Borrowdale where they targeted Chatunga.It is alleged that at one point Chatunga went to the bathroom in the company of his friend, Honour Mukudzei Rwodzi.It is also alleged that Chatunga gave Rwodzi the iPhone as he entered the gents. The trio approached Rwodzi and misrepresented that they had been sent by Chatunga to collect his phone, it is alleged.The court heard that Rwodzi allegedly handed over the iPhone to them after which they disappeared into the crowd.Police were called leading to the arrest of the trio and recovery of the phone.
Hot, salty water leeching from cooling canals at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant is negatively impacting Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade county commissioners were told Tuesday.

Fueled by a county study that connects water from the plant with surface waters of the bay, a parade of environmental activists called on the county to issue a violation notice to the plant's owner, Florida Power and Light.

County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is prepared to give a presentation to the commission later Tuesday.

Elevated levels of ammonia, phosphorus and salt were detected after FPL was forced to increased water in its cooling canal system in order to cool it below the 104-degree maximum temperature allowed for entering the plant.

The connection to the plant was established by detection of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen found in elevated levels in water that passes through a nuclear power plant. The highest levels in the waters of the bay are only about one-fifth of the level allowed by the EPA for drinking water.

So, FPL notes, the presence of tritium itself is not a concern.

But the elevated presence of nutrients in the bay, now being directly tied to the plant, concerns environmental activists and others interested in protecting the waters.

Other data show FPL's plant is polluting the aquifer as far as five miles outside the plant's boundaries, adding salinity to the underground body of water relied on for drinking, irrigation and manufacturing.

A state administrative judge last month found the state Department of Environmental Protection has failed to hold FPL to account for polluting the environment.

A former head of DEP is now a top FPL executive and the company gives millions of dollars to Florida politicians.
International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made for women worldwide, but also a time to look ahead to the work that still needs to be done.

Sponsored by the United Nations and celebrated worldwide since March 8, 1914, International Women's Day celebrates "acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities."

The theme for this year's celebration is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality."

Some key targets for the U.N.'s 2030 agenda including ensuring that all girls and boys worldwide have access to quality early childhood development, the eradication of all forms of gender-based violence, and to put an end to child, early and forced marriage.

According to Google Trends, International Women's Day was searched more than 1 million times on Monday, making it the third most popular search of the day worldwide.



The company's interactive Google Doodle featured the stories of 337 women and girls from 13 countries, dubbed the "Doodle-worthy women of the future" completing the statement, "one day, I will ____."

Locally, several organizations are celebrating International Women's Day.

Officials at Miami International Airport are handing out 75,000 flowers to honor the day.

How are you honoring the theme of International Women's Day? Send your photos to isee@nbc6.com and/or tweet us @nbc6 using the hashtag #InternationalWomensDay. We might use your photos in a gallery on-air or on the NBC 6 news and weather app!
Bernie Sanders breathed new life into his long-shot White House bid with a crucial win in Michigan's primary Tuesday night, chipping away at Hillary Clinton's dominance in the Democratic presidential race. Republican Donald Trump swept to victory in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, overcoming fierce efforts to blunt his momentum.

Even with Sanders' win, Clinton and Trump moved closer to a general election face-off. Clinton breezed to an easy victory in Mississippi, propelled by overwhelming support from black voters, and she now has more than half the delegates she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination. Trump, too, padded his lead over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, his closest rival.

Cruz, however, was the winner in Idaho, according to NBC News projections.

The front-runners turned their sights on November as they reveled in their wins.

"We are better than what we are being offered by the Republicans," Clinton declared.

In a nod toward the kind of traditional politics he's shunned, Trump emphasized the importance of helping Republican senators and House members get elected in the fall. Having entered Tuesday's contests facing a barrage of criticism from rival candidates and outside groups, he also delighted in overcoming the attacks.

"Every single person who has attacked me has gone down," Trump said at one of his Florida resorts. He was flanked by tables packed with his retail products, including steaks, bottled water and wine, and defended his business record more thoroughly than he outlined his policy proposals for the country.

Sanders, meanwhile, said Michigan signaled that his campaign "is strong in every part of the country, and frankly we believe our strongest areas are yet to happen."

While a handful of recent losses to Cruz have raised questions about Trump's durability, Tuesday's contests marked another lost opportunity for rivals desperate to stop his march to the nomination. Next week's winner-take-all contests in Ohio and Florida loom large as perhaps the last chance to block him short of a contested convention fight.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich was in a fight with Cruz for second place in Michigan and hoping a good showing would give him a boost heading into next week's crucial contest in his home state.

For Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Tuesday marked the latest in a series of disappointing nights. He emerged from Michigan and Mississippi with no new delegates, a grim outcome for a candidate who has the overwhelming support from Republican senators, governors and other elected officials.

Rubio insisted he would press on to his home state's primary in Florida next Tuesday.

"It has to happen here, and it has to happen now," Rubio told supporters during a rally in Sarasota.

If Rubio and Kasich can't win at home, the GOP primary appears set to become a two-person race between Trump and Cruz. The Texas senator is sticking close in the delegate count, and with six states in his win column he's argued he's the only candidate standing between the brash billionaire and the GOP nomination.

During a campaign stop at a North Carolina church, Cruz took on Trump for asking rally attendees to pledge their allegiance to him. He said the move struck him as "profoundly wrong" and was something "kings and queens demand" of their subjects.

Some mainstream Republicans have cast both Trump and Cruz as unelectable in a November face-off with the Democratic nominee. But they're quickly running out of options  and candidates to prevent one of the men from becoming the GOP standard-bearer.

The economy ranked high on the list of concerns for voters in Michigan and Mississippi. At least 8 in 10 in each party's primary said they were worried about where the American economy is heading, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Among Democrats, 8 in 10 voters in both states said the country's economic system benefits the wealthy, not all Americans.

Sanders has sought to tap into that concern, energizing young people and white, blue-collar voters with his calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and making tuition free at public colleges and universities. Michigan, with big college towns and a sizeable population of working-class voters, was a good fit for him, though something of a surprise victory given that Clinton had led in polls heading into Tuesday's voting.

Still, Sanders has struggled mightily with black voters who are crucial to Democrats in the general election. In Mississippi, black voters comprised about two-thirds of the Democratic electorate and nearly 9 in 10 backed Clinton.

After Tuesday's results, Clinton has accumulated 1,214 delegates and Sanders 566, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

With Tuesday's wins, Trump leads the Republican field with 428 delegates, followed by Cruz with 315, Rubio with 151 and Kasich with 52. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates.
It was a case that stole the innocence of a community: the fatal stabbing of a little girl in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on March 8, 1966, a slaying in a safe neighborhood in a safe town.



Seven-year-old Wendy Sue Wolin was stabbed to death in daylight waiting for her mother outside their upscale apartment building. In spite of a detailed composite sketch of the male suspect and one of the largest manhunts ever in the state, the case went cold.

It haunted many, including Elizabeth Police Captain Todd Mooney, who decided to unofficially reopen the case a few years ago. Mooney told the I-Team he was the same age as Wendy, lived in the neighborhood, and said the case, always stuck with me. I saw the blood. He posted this on Facebook:



March, 8, 1966. Wendy Sue Wolin was murdered in front of her home on Irvington Avenue. Someone out there knows who did it.

He had no idea his social media campaign would breathe new life into the case.



The post drew hundreds of responses from those who shared their memories of the moment that their lives changed. Elizabeth resident Grace Fusco connected. It impacted my childhood, throughout my whole life, she said.



Mooney also posted a composite sketch of Wendys suspected killer, hoping it might spark a lead. Someone did recognize that face, but not in connection with Wendy. It involved the killing of another little girl in neighboring Highland Park the year before.



Neighbor Beth Moroney told the I-team she is certain she saw Wendys killer on her block the same day that her friend, 11-year-old Mae Rubenstein, was stabbed more than a dozen times inside the family home on South 3rd Avenue in February 1965. Maes mother was also killed by the unknown intruder.



I saw the face and I knew right away it was the same man, Moroney said. All I could do was scream. I just kept screaming, 'Its him, its him.'



Moroney said that right after the killing she described the man to police but there was no follow-up and no composite. She still wonders whether Wendys death could have been prevented had police had listened to her. Authorities never made an official connection.



But the I-Team has uncovered more bizarre coincidences in the two cases. When the Rubensteins were killed, Wendy and Jodi lived a block away in Highland Park in their grandparents house. Their last name was Rubenstein, no relation to Maes family.



Jodi Wolin, who moved to Florida several years ago, now reveals her mother suddenly moved the girls to Elizabeth 11 days after the Rubensteins died with no reason given. Jodi said she never even heard about the Rubenstein case until Facebook. One theory is that the Rubensteins may have been killed in a twisted case of mistaken identity.



Jodi said her grandfather did owe money to the mob and other powerful people, and she wonders.



Im just appalled at the coincidences," she said.

They could have been looking for me or Wendy, said Mae Rubensteins older brother, Elihu Rubenstein, who lives in North Brunswick. He added that he doesnt believe its all a coincidence because there are just too many similarities.



Said Mooney, I mean, listen, it would be a great movie or a great book if you could connect Highland Park and Elizabeth. Even Wendys story would be. Its an unbelievable story.



Both families said their goal is to keep the memories of the little girls alive and they appreciate all the support on social media. Jodi said: I think about her every day. It was my job to protect her.



The mayor of Elizabeth is planning a memorial service for Wendy in June. DNA from Wendys coat is being tested but Mooney said the evidence is so degraded, it will likely not produce any positive results.



There was no DNA in the Rubenstein case because police mopped up the blood.
Thousands of people have signed a petition to get the University of Illinois-Chicago to cancel Donald Trumps rally at the school pavilion Friday.

As of Monday morning, nearly 43,000 people had signed the moveon.org petition arguing the rally has no place in Chicago but especially not at an institution of higher learning.

In many instances Trump rallies have led to students, youth, and people of color being violently attacked by attendees, the petition, started by a graduate student at the university, read. UIC should not be host to hate. Please cancel the event.

Thousands of students are also planning a peaceful protest at the event, encouraging Trump critics to obtain tickets to the free rally as well as gather outside the venue.

The GOP presidential hopeful will speak at the free rally Friday at the UIC Pavilion, according to his campaign website.

The event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. but doors will open at 3 p.m.

Protesters cited the Republican front-runner's stance on immigration, his calls to bring back torture techniques like waterboarding for alleged terrorists and a recent endorsement from white supremacist David Duke.

"The platform Donald Trump would announce at the UIC Pavilion is a direct attack on much of the UIC student body - from mass deportation to a ban on muslims to a refusal to denounce the KKK, not to mention regular insults to women," the student petition reads. "If UIC is a 'minority serving institution' that comes with specific responsibility. And that doesn't include serving white supremacists or hosting events that put the student body at risk of altercations with attendees who have a history of violent attacks on people of color at his rallies."

Trump is known for drawing large, protest-ridden rallies, but he has argued the massive events are evidence of a "movement" of a "silent majority" frustrated by everything from the nation's uneven economy and immigration laws to a government run by "stupid people."

The school's chancellor, Michael Amiridis addressed students' concerns Saturday saying the university "is not endorsing, sponsoring or supporting any candidate for political office." Rather, it is continuing with a decades-long tradition of hosting campaign events on campus, he said, noting there is no legal basis to exclude a candidate "because of the views he or she expresses."

"UICs core values of freedom, equality and social justice for all, regardless of race, religion, national origin, disability status or sexual orientation, are deeply rooted in our diverse community and not endangered by the presence of any political candidate on campus," Amiridis wrote. "We encourage public and civic engagement by all members of our University and we endorse the idea that the answer to speech that one does not like or finds offensive is more speech and not censorship."

Still, UIC faculty and staff sent a letter of concern to Amiridis Monday, saying they're worried about the safety of students and staff at the event.

"We are deeply distressed that this event threatens to create a hostile and physically dangerous environment to the students, staff, faculty and alumni who come out to express their opposition," the letter read. "We base this claim on what happened recently at another public higher education institution, Valdosta State in Georgia, where university security ejected a group of peaceful protestors, all of whom were students enrolled at the university, who were seeking to attend the rally being held in a campus venue. We are also concerned for the safety of the diverse staff and team of student employees who work at the UIC Pavilion, as well as of those in our community who have no choice but to traverse parts of the campus around the Pavilion going to and from work and class from the time the event doors open around three through and immediately after the full closure of the building."

Local politicians have also pledged to protest the rally, including Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) and Congressman Luis Guitierrez.

"When Mr. Trump arrives in Chicago, we'll be the first to welcome him, to greet him and then to send him back on his merry way because Chicago knows better," Lopez said. "Our people expect better and our country thankfully will get better."

Still, many supporters have said they plan to attend the event, despite the protests.

Trump's campaign declined to comment on the planned protests and petition, saying it "does not comment on matters of security." Chicago police said Trump now has Secret Service protection and also declined to comment on the potential for increased security due to protests.

Trump has been in Chicago headlines often in the past few weeks after he spoke out against the Ricketts family for making donations against his campaign.

I hear the Rickets [sic] family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $'s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide, Trump tweeted last month.

Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts addressed Trumps comments shortly after, saying its a little surreal when Donald Trump threatens your mom."

His Trump-branded building has also been the source of controversy in the city after it installed 20-foot-tall illuminated letters spelling the real estate mogul's last name at the hotel and residential tower at 401 N. Wabash Ave.

The Friday event falls on the same night as an Illinois Republican Party fundraiser, which fellow presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz has said he will attend. Other Republican presidential candidates have also been invited. It's not clear if Trump will make an appearance after his rally is over.

Other presidential candidates have also traveled to Illinois in recent weeks, with Hillary Clinton holding a get out the vote rally and fundraiser in the city last month and Bernie Sanders traveling to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville for a rally Friday.

John Kasich will also hold a Palatine town hall Wednesday.

Illinois presidential primary will be held March 15.
Two months after both Mayor Jim Kenney and Forbes expressed interest in bringing the Forbes Under 30 Summit back to Philadelphia, the popular event is moving to Boston.

Billy Penn reported that Kenney's spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said Forbes would not provide economic impact statistics to the city, so the decision to let Forbes walk "was in the best interest of the taxpayer."

The Forbes Under 30 Summit has been held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for the last two years, drawing some of the world's top millennial entrepreneurs and business creators. Many celebrities have also spoken at the multi-day event, including Malala, Monica Lewinsky and Barbara Pierce Bush. Also, Forbes signed on many prominent music artists to throw free concerts.

Its domestic move to Boston suggests that it's trying to pull from a deeper pool of entrepreneurs and investors. Boston has significantly more start-ups valued at more than $4 million than does Philadelphia.
A judge has removed a major hurdle to California's high-speed rail system, ruling that the $64 billion system does not violate promises made to the voters who approved it and that planning and financing can proceed.

The ruling announced Tuesday came in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for Kings County and a group of landowners who claim the state's projections on ridership, construction and operating figures are not reliable.

They asked the judge to block the state from spending money on the project.

However, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny said the 2008 ballot initiative specified only that the state could issue bonds to construct a high-speed rail system and did not prevent modifications to the plan voters were given.

He agreed with the plaintiffs that the California High-Speed Rail Authority has not proven the rail system will be financially viable or can meet the travel times voters were promised but said the system continues to evolve so it is premature for the court to intervene.

"The authority may be able to accomplish these objectives at some point in the future. This project is an ongoing, dynamic, changing project," Kenny wrote.

Voters have approved $10 billion in bonds for what would be the nation's first high-speed rail line, and California has secured another $3.2 billion in federal matching funds. In addition, the project will receive money each year from the state's greenhouse gas emission fund. The amount will total $500 million this year.

That funding leaves it far short of its $64 billion price tag, and state lawmakers and the Republican-controlled Congress have balked at providing more money.

Still, backers believe segments of the project can be operating within the next decade.

Dan Richard, chairman of the board that oversees the rail authority, expressed relief at the judge's ruling. He said "a great myth" has developed that the system being built is different than the one voters approved.

"It's totally and completely false," Richard said at a board meeting Tuesday. "What we are building is exactly what the public voted for: a fully electric, 200-plus mile-per-hour train that can operate without a subsidy that is designed to operate in 2 hours and 40 minutes between our great cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco."

Plaintiffs argued that plans for the bullet train have strayed far from the promises made to voters, particularly on trip times, ridership and maintenance costs.

Plaintiffs' attorney Stuart Flashman said his clients would be evaluating their next steps.

"Though the high-speed rail authority may have won this round, the ruling ... provides ominous signs about the authority's future use of bond funds," Flashman said in an email.

Voters were told the trains would whisk travelers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, and the system would operate without a government subsidy. Opponents say neither is possible under current plans.

It was also pitched as a stand-alone system that would not have to share tracks with slower commuter rail lines.

Since then, plans have changed repeatedly as state officials made political compromises, including the decision to share tracks with commuter trains in some sections.

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration lowered the cost estimate to $64 billion in February as part of a new proposed business plan that upended plans for the rail line.

The change, which still requires board approval, would send tracks from the Central Valley north to the San Francisco Bay Area instead of south as planned since 2012.

It also calls for a 250-mile segment from San Jose to north of Bakersfield to begin operating by 2025.
Owner and franchisee OTO Development of South Carolina plans a March 10 opening for its new 135-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Mission Valley.



A statement from Spartanburg, S.C.-based OTO, which will also manage the property, said the newly built hotel is at 2401 Camino del Rio N. The five-story property has 754 square feet of meeting space, to accommodate functions of up to 45 people.



The hotels amenities also include business services, guest laundry facilities, outdoor swimming pool, fitness center and four Chargepoint electric vehicle charging stations. The lobby has a 24-hour convenience market.



Launched in 1998, SpringHill Suites is a mid-priced, all-suite brand of Marriott International Inc. and has more than 300 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

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Celebrate Irish history and culture this St. Patrick's Day with DMV events and deals you won't want to miss. Read on for our top picks.

1. St. Patrick's Day at Fado

On March 17, Fado Irish Pub (808 7th St. NW) will open at 8 a.m. and serve breakfast and pints for early risers. Irish dancers and bag pipers will perform throughout the day, and live music starts at 2 p.m. After noon, you can expect a $10 cover charge.

2. Logan Tavern St. Patrick's Day Specials

On March 17, from 5 p.m. to close, Logan Tavern (1423 P St. NW) is celebrating the holiday with food and drink specials from 5 p.m. to close. On the menu will be traditional Irish cuisine such as Irish Beef & Beer Stew and Bangers & Mash. There will also be Irish drinks such as Guinness and Jameson. Don't forget to participate in the St. Patty's Day trivia for a chance to win gift card prizes!

3. Shamrock Crawl in Arlington

On Saturday, March 19 between 1 and 9 p.m., the Shamrock Crawl in Arlington will feature specials at more than a dozen bars, including Clarendon Ballroom (3185 Wilson Blvd.), Mad Rose Tavern (3100 Clarendon Blvd.), Liberty Tavern (3195 Wilson Blvd.), Whitlow's on Wilson (2854 Wilson Blvd.) and Mister Days (3100 Clarendon Blvd.). There will be costume prizes for those in the best St. Patrick's-themed costumes.

Tickets are available online here for $20, or or at the door for $30. Register on the day of the event at Clarendon Ballroom, Clarendon Grill or Mad Rose between 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to pick up your wristband and mug.

4. Alan Kelly Gang at Wolf Trap

Traditional Irish music group the Alan Kelly Gang will perform at the Barns at Wolf Trap (1635 Trap Road, Vienna, Virginia) on March 17 at 8 p.m. Green beer will be available!

Tickets are $25-$27 and are available online here.

5. Sir James Galway & Lady Jeanne Galway at the Kennedy Center

Looking for a more classical way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? An Irish flute and pennywhistle show might be right up your alley! The show will take place March 20 at 4 p.m. at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (2700 F St. NW).

Ticket prices range from $45-$100 and are available online here.

TIP: SoberRide will provide free taxis (up to a $30 fare) from 4 p.m. on March 17 to 4 a.m. the next day to provide a safe ride for those under the influence on this holiday. Go here for more information or call 800-200-TAXI (8284) for a ride.
News / National

by Nduduzo Tshuma

TSHINGA Dube, the Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees yesterday said he has no authority to decide the fate of Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association chairperson Chris Mutsvangwa as he was elected to the position.Dube, who was appointed by President Mugabe to replace Mutsvangwa as minister on Saturday, said he only "suggested" that to deal with the divisions rocking the former liberation fighters' movement, holding elections to usher in a new leadership, may be necessary."Mutsvangwa was elected by war veterans and it's not me who can replace him. I don't have authority to replace him," said Dube, who told The Chronicle yesterday that war veterans "should elect another chairman because they can't work under someone who has been suspended from the party (Zanu-PF)""I said maybe after meeting the President, they may have to carry out elections. How do you bring them together when they're divided? I was simply making a suggestion."Dube said it was his vision that the planned meeting between war veterans and President Mugabe would also include key ministries like that of Finance in order to find lasting solutions to the plight of former freedom fighters."We're still mobilising resources so that we secure transport and accommodation for the delegates. We don't want them to be stranded in Harare like vagabonds. We're organising a serious meeting with His Excellency and it's our wish that the Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, is there, although we're yet to invite him, because most issues affecting war veterans are around welfare, school fees and medical care," Dube said."We also want to invite other key ministries like that of Lands. The President will be out of the country this week so it'll give us enough time to prepare for that meeting."Last week, the Politburo found Mutsvangwa guilty of undermining the authority of Zanu-PF's President and First Secretary, and insulting the First Family.He will not hold any party position during his suspension, although he remains a Zanu-PF member and National Assembly representative.
Confused, scared and in desperate need of medication: Its a terrible combination for people with dementia when they wander away from their homes.

Thats what Nancy Strohmeyers family thinks happened to her.

She spent her life taking care of other people, raising her own children while working as a Montessori teacher and a caregiver for the elderly.

"Over the last couple of months, she had been suffering from what we thought was rapid onset dementia," her son Kenneth Strohmeyer, Jr. said. He explained it happened so quickly, his mother abruptly lost about 30 pounds.

They have just one photo of what she looked like after the disease took control of her mind, a snapshot taken just hours before she vanished. We were having a difficult time getting her out of her apartment, her son said. Wandering just wasn't one of the things we were really concerned about."

But Feb. 8, his 66-year-old mother disappeared, last seen on the sidewalk in front of her apartment complex  a building sitting next to heavy woods that feed into Great Seneca Creek in Germantown.

That's where the News4 I-Team met with Officer Jason Huggins of the Montgomery County Police Department.

He said he is the only full-time search coordinator in the greater Washington area -- theres no one else like him in the region.

Accoring to Huggins, dementia searches jumped more than 10 percent last year in Montgomery County. He expects that number to keep growing as more and more Baby Boomers reach retirement age.

"A person walking two miles an hour for six-and-a-half hours, the entire county is our search area, Huggins explained. No one can search that amount of property."

So he works with a team of eight officers specially trained to find the missing.

They use a lot of math and statistical models to plot out the highest probability areas to search first. They rely heavily on a book called Lost Person Behavior by Robert Koester.

Koester lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, but travels the world training search crews to find all kinds of missing people.

"The fatality rate for dementia cases is twice that of lost children," Koester said. "For a long time in search and rescue we were used to looking for hikers and hunters and missing children and the dementia cases were not meeting the same patterns. They were closer. They were in locations that were briars, brambles, really thick sort of transitional zones and that was making our scratch our heads."

But by studying hundreds of real-life dementia cases, Koester created mapping software that allows police to simply drop an icon at the last known location and the computer will highlight the most likely places they should start searching.

Koester's research found dementia patients follow the same patterns. They walk in a relatively straight line until they bump into something, at which point they will stare at the object or lay down if theyre tired. They wont even think of turning around, Koester explained.

Since most dementia patients tend to be older, they typically take the path of least resistance -- sticking to roads and trails that go downhill.

That often leads to water, which Koester said many mistakenly believe will be an easy, flat place to walk.

But if they get in trouble, they will not call out for help or even answer if someone calls out their name. "They'll watch a search team walk right by them without saying anything, Koester said. They think, What are they doing in the woods? It doesn't even click that they're lost, they don't have that perception."

Koester explained the disease literally changes the way someone with dementia or Alzheimer's sees the world. "There's a loss of peripheral vision. Koester intertwined his fingers to create a visor above his eyebrows and then placed his thumbs on his temples, effectively blocking out his sight on either side and above eye-level. Thats all you're going to see, he explained. The sight distance gets even worse in reality because a lot of people with dementia are actually looking down at the ground."

In the woods, Officer Huggins put his hands in the same U-shaped position above his eyes and showed how someone with dementia will stop walking when they come to a small obstacle  in this case a medium-sized tree and some hanging vines.

"A person with dementia isn't going to push through this, he explained. This is enough. We look at it and we're like, Why wouldn't you just walk around? With a person with dementia, this may be enough where they're like, This is an impenetrable object. I can't go around it. At that point, Huggins started to stare at the tree trunk. We will find them standing just like this," he explained.

Nancy Strohmeyer's children now wonder if their mother didn't realize her home was literally right next to her as she walked along the sidewalk and instead walked off into the woods trying to find it.

She's been missing for a month and the case has become personal for Huggins. After more than a decade of searching for people, she is the only dementia patient he has yet to find.

7 Tips for Helping Authorities Find Loved Ones With Dementia

If someone you loves has dementia, experts say it isnt a matter of if they will wander, its when. Officer Laurie Reyes of the Montgomery County Police Departments special Autism and Alzheimers Outreach unit offered these tips about what you can do now to help them find the person you love:
Spring-like temperatures have arrived with gusto -- and the weather is so warm that the National Park Service has bumped up its prediction for the cherry blossoms' peak bloom dates.

Peak bloom for D.C.'s famed cherry trees is now expected to occur between March 18 and March 23, the NPS announced Tuesday.

Just a week ago, the NPS had announced peak bloom dates would be March 31 to April 3. The NPS said Tuesday that it had considered March's above-average temps when making the original prediction, but "potentially record-setting temperatures, averaging nearly 20 degrees above normal for the next week, have greatly accelerated the bloom watch."

Peak bloom is considered to occur when 70 percent of the Yoshino cherry trees along the Tidal Basin are in bloom. The NPS said that in past years, unusually warm or cold temperatures have resulted in peak bloom as early as March 15 and as late as April 18. The average date for blooming is April 4.

In response to the earlier peak bloom, the Tidal Basin Welcome Area, located near the paddle boats at Maine Avenue SW and Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, is now scheduled to be open from March 18 to April 3, moved up from April 2-17.

Organizers have already announced the dates for this year's National Cherry Blossom Festival. It's scheduled to run for four weeks from March 20 to April 17. The festival is a big boost for city and regional tourism.

Here's a peek at some of the best events:

Saturday, March 26: The official opening ceremony features performances at the Warner Theatre (513 13th St. NW). Tickets are free but are required to attend; see the festival website.

The official features performances at the Warner Theatre (513 13th St. NW). Tickets are free but are required to attend; see the festival website. Saturday, April 2: Oh, go fly a kite! The Blossom Kite Festival , a family-favorite tradition, has competitions and demonstrations. You can bring your own kite, or kids can make their own!

Oh, go fly a kite! The , a family-favorite tradition, has competitions and demonstrations. You can bring your own kite, or kids can make their own! Saturday, April 9: The Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival will blast off above the water after a full day of enjoying food vendors, an artists' marketplace and more.

The will blast off above the water after a full day of enjoying food vendors, an artists' marketplace and more. Saturday, April 16: The National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade boasts a 10-block-long lineup of balloons, bands and all things pink. Grandstand tickets are on sale now for $20, but standing room along the route is free.

The boasts a 10-block-long lineup of balloons, bands and all things pink. Grandstand tickets are on sale now for $20, but standing room along the route is free. Saturday, April 16: After the parade, six blocks near Capitol Hill turn into a celebration of Japanese culture with food, performances and more during the Sakura Matsuri Festival . Tickets are $10 and free for children under 12.

After the parade, six blocks near Capitol Hill turn into a celebration of Japanese culture with food, performances and more during the . Tickets are $10 and free for children under 12. Saturday, April 16-Sunday April 17: The Cherry Blast at the Carnegie Library (801 K St. NW) is a celebration of Japanese pop culture, including anime, cosplay, fashion and gaming, plus a Japanese-inspired dance party. You can also indulge in Tokyo street food, sake tastings and sushi workshops. The event runs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

To celebrate the National Park Service's 100th birthday, festival officials say they will also hide a special cherry blossom themed gnome in parks this spring. Those who find "Petal the Gnome" will win a festival prize package.

This year marks the 104th anniversary of the gift of the cherry blossom trees from Japan as a symbol of friendship with the United States.
The Montgomery County Board of Education has officially appointed Dr. Jack Smith as new public schools superintendent and approved a four-year contract for him, the board announced Tuesday.

Smith has been serving as Maryland state interim superintendent since September. He previously was the superintendent for Calvert County.

"Our community rightly expects that we will give every child a first-class education, and that is what we are committed to doing," Smith said. "We want every child to graduate with a world of options and choices before them."

His tenure with Montgomery County will begin July 1, the board announced in a press release.

Under the terms of his contract, Smith will earn a salary of $275,000 per year and $40,000 in deferred compensation, plus a contribution of $19,875 toward his retirement plan. Smith also will receive benefits such as health, disability and life insurance, moving expenses, and the use of a vehicle.

"Jack Smith is an exceptionally skilled leader who will build on our district's legacy of excellence, and help us ensure that we have a school system where every child has the opportunity to succeed," said Michael A. Durso, president of the Board of Education, in the release.

The board had conditionally appointed Smith last month, pending agreement on a contract and approval by the state superintendent of schools. However, since Smith himself was acting in that role, the Maryland State Board of Education appointed Dr. Karen Salmon to act as interim state superintendent to approve Smith's appointment in Montgomery County.

The county has been without a permanent superintendent since Dr. Joshua Starr resigned a year ago. In May, Dr. Andrew Houlihan of Houston turned down the job.

Larry A. Bowers has served as interim superintendent since Starr stepped down. Bowers plans to retire June 30.

Smith will inherit a school system with a growing population and a growing achievement gap between rich and poor.

One of his first short-term goals will be improving graduation rates.

"That's something you can act on pretty quickly in terms of identifying students who are at risk of not graduating and then going out and finding them and bringing them back to you and making sure they get all the support they need to graduate," Smith said in February.

Before his selection, a Change.org petition urged Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan not to name Smith the permanent state superintendent.

After Smith left Calvert County Public Schools, the Calvert Recorder conducted a three-month investigation into the compensation package for Smith and his executive staff.

"Like extra leave and increasing salaries regardless of the fact the school system was in a downward spiral as far as salaries and pay raises and step increases and stuff like that," reporter Sara Newman said.
An officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray can be ordered to testify against his colleagues, Maryland's highest court has ruled Tuesday.

The Court of Appeals' ruling sides with prosecutors who asked a judge to compel William Porter to testify against the five other officers facing charges stemming from Gray's death. Porter's first trial ended in a hung jury in December.



The rulings affirmed Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams' decision to force Porter to testify against two of the officers and reversed the judge's decision that Porter did not have to testify against the three other officers.

Officer William Porter is awaiting retrial in the case focused on Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in Baltimore police custody. His neck was broken in the back of a police transport van while handcuffed and in leg irons, but not restrained by a seat belt.



Attorneys for Porter argued that he shouldn't be forced to take the stand while his own trial is pending.

"Every time he gets up on the stand, he subjects himself to a perjury charge, which carries 10 years more," argued Gary Proctor, a lawyer for Porter. "On top of that, look around. It will be live-tweeted. What Officer Porter said will be covered in the news. The jurors will hear it. The witnesses will hear it."



Prosecutors countered that they are offering Porter limited immunity, meaning anything he says on the witness stand can't be used against him at trial.
The suspect in the killings of two sisters in Cheverly, Maryland, has been found dead in Virginia, authorities said Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities believe the suspect, Kevin Tyrice Reynolds of District Heights, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Prince George's County Police say Reynolds was suspected in the deaths of two sisters -- 26-year-old Tarekka Jones of Cheverly and 22-year-old Jalisa Walls-Harris of Bowie -- who were killed Monday night.

Officers were called to the Cheverly Station Apartments on Landover Road about 10:30 p.m. Monday and arrived to find the victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both women died at the scene.

This shooting brings the number of homicides related to domestic violence in Prince George's County to eight this year. State's Attorney Angela Alsobrooks told News4 that she supports a bill that would expand the definition of abuse in Maryland.

Homicide detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Reynolds early Tuesday morning. He was found dead in Hanover County, Virginia, around 10 a.m., police said.

The Hanover County Sheriff's Office is investigating Reynolds' death.

Prince George's County Police said the preliminary investigation indicates that Reynolds and Jones had been in a romantic relationship.

One neighbor told News4's Molette Green that Jones' three children were in the apartment and her 5-year-old saw what happened.

"It's sad. It's really sad. That you would just take an innocent life. People don't value life anymore," said a woman who identified herself as one of the victim's relatives.

Walls-Harris wanted to pursue a career as a vocalist, according to a woman who identified herself as a family member.

"She was a shining star. She would light up any room," the family member told News4's Meagan Fitzgerald.

Jones was studying to become a dental hygenist, according to a classmate.

"She was really nice and outgoing," another classmate said.

Residents at the apartment complex reported hearing an argument before the shooting.

The deadly double shooting comes hours after two women were stabbed inside an apartment in Landover Monday morning. Santa Lizama, 23, died at the scene; the other is expected to be OK. Police say Lizama and the suspect were in a romantic relationship.

Walls-Harris' family is accepting donations for funeral expenses via a GoFundMe page.
A 13-year-old girl is credited with getting her younger brother and sister out of a Lanham, Maryland, apartment after it caught fire Tuesday morning.

Diana Hernandez was home getting ready for school while her mother took another sibling to the bus stop. When her younger brother alerted her to the fire.

"He came running towards my room saying, 'Diana, my room's on fire, my room's on fire,'" she said.

Diana said she was scared but remembered what she learned in elementary school.

"Stay down on the ground if there is a lot of smoke on top and always make sure you're not breathing that air," she said.

"She immediately gathered them up together and got them out of the apartment and called 911," said Mark Brady of Prince George's County Fire and Rescue "And she had stated to us that she had learned that in school during a firefighter visit."

She likely kept her brother and sister from being seriously injured or worse by getting them out of the apartment, fire officials said.

"Our experience is that children, especially children that age, can tend to freeze, or even hide, in a fire situation unlike an adult's instinct, which is to get out," Brady said.

When firefighters arrived at the building in the 9900 block of Good Luck Road about 6:40 a.m. were called to in Lanham, Maryland, about 6:40 a.m., they found fire moving to the upper floors from the terrace level.

Some residents trapped on upper floors had to be rescued from their balconies, Brady said.

No injuries have been reported at this time.
A man who knocks on doors and introduces himself as "your neighbor Bruce" is scamming D.C. residents out of money, they say.

Several people who live near the Washington Navy Yard say a well-dressed man who says his name is Bruce has recently knocked on their doors and given an elaborate story about why he needs to use their phones and get Metro fare.

Its sad that somebody would take advantage of good-hearted people, a neighbor said about the man caught on one resident's surveillance camera.

The man has told multiple residents he went outside to empty his cats litter box when his door blew closed, locking him out of his house with his keys, wallet, and phone left inside. He says he has a spare set of keys in his car, which he says he left in Springfield, Virginia. He then asks if he can use a phone to call neighbors to get an extra copy of his house key, and if he can borrow money to take the Metro and then a taxi to get his car.

Navy Yard residents said the man approached them dressed in a suit and tie, which they said led them to believe his story was credible.

Youre trusting someone, thinking that theyre telling you the truth and theyre not, another resident said.

Although police have called the man's actions a scam, he has not been charged with a crime. Panhandling is not against the law, and people technically handed over their money to him voluntarily.

News4 has learned the man fits the description of someone running a similar scam in the Dupont Circle area, who went by the name Gene. A similar situation is also occurring in the Logan Circle area.

If I see him anywhere, Ill call the police, a resident said.

Police ask that if you are approached by a man with a similar story, you call 911 immediately and provide details on the encounter and a description of the individual. They also ask that you try to take a photo of the person. Police strongly caution against allowing strangers into your home.
Hundreds of students from several different Boston Public Schools walked out of class Monday, hopped on public transportation and joined forces on Boston Common to march to the State House steps in protest of proposed cuts for next year's school budget.

Jamal Mohammad, a student at Josiah Quincy Upper School said, "We had to send a message, make it loud and clear that we can all unite and come together."

Boston School Superintendent Tommy Chang recently proposed cutting $20 million from the central office budget. He also proposed trimming $10 million to $12 million from the per-student funding formula, which affects the budgets of individual schools.

Jontae Mongo, a Brighton High School senior said, "It's not good, there's teachers in there sad about to lose their jobs."

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that while he applauds the students standing up for their education, he doesn't think walking out of school is the right way to go about it, and he says there is a lot of misinformation as the budget process continues.

"It's not a $50 million dollar gap, and we're working on closing that gap and working on making sure that we try and eliminate the gap altogether," Walsh said.

Walsh said the gap was more like $30 million and it's shrinking, and that the budget has actually risen this year.

State education commissioner Mitchell Chester said the district actually spends a relatively high amount per student, but is burdened by other costs.

"Boston has tremendous structural obligations, not least of all in their collective bargaining agreements, their aging facilities, over capacity of seats," Chester said.

But some at city hall say the district needs to figure out a way to balance the budget without short-changing these students.

Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson said: "Either we stand up for these young people or we walk away from our future and that's what all of them are saying to us."

Boston Public Schools presented the fiscal year 2017 budget to the school committee last month. Monday night at English High School will be the second of three public hearings on the budget.

The budget vote is scheduled for March 23rd.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hand-in-hand with his wife on the other side of the world, nothing about the place MLB pitcher Cole Hamels was standing felt comfortable, but the moment he saw the wide-eyed little girl, he knew he was where he was supposed to be.

"It was just kind of crazy," Hamels remembers. "I was like, 'I cant believe thats my daughter.'"

A dream planned out almost a decade before was now being realized in a courthouse in the middle of Ethiopia.

"I think she was hesitant to tell me at first," Cole says of his wife, Heidi, who competed on "Survivor: The Amazon" and revealed when the couple was dating her hopes to someday adopt internationally. "I was completely into it. It was something that I never thought about, because my focus was in a million other directions. But when I sat down and thought about it, I thought it was an absolutely amazing experience and opportunity for us to do."

The soon-to-be-named Reeve Hamels had been left in a field as a six-month old by parents who did not have the means to provide for her. A local orphanage had taken her in. Now, she was being adopted by an American family with a father known for dominating Americas pastime.

"At first, youre thinking of all what-ifs, the alarms, what people are going to think," the Texas Rangers left-hander said. "And then, when you really sit down and think about it, you think this is my life. This is our life together. Were going to live it the way that we choose."

It was a process that had originally crawled along (the Hamels had waited six years for the call), but had now shifted to shockingly fast-moving.

"Its all of a sudden, 'Hey, you need to be (in Ethiopia) in three days,'" Cole remembered. "You have a court date, and you see your daughter for the first time the day before, and you only have two hours with her. And its a beautiful country, and the people are incredible.

"But its a whirlwind."

After completing the enormous stacks of paperwork required ("it's encyclopedia-like, man.") and overcoming the initial challenges of visiting a country they had never been to before, the Hamels quickly saw why everyone at the orphanage raved about little Reeve.

"That smile that she has," Cole says, shaking his head. "Shes blown us away every day. Shes been an absolutely amazing daughter. Shes an amazing sister to our two boys. They cant imagine her not being their sister and she cant imagine not having two older brothers."

Cole doesnt hide that Heidis passion for helping international orphans inspires him. In fact, it is what fuels his Hamels Foundation, which just opened a school in Malawi, Africa, which will help educate an estimated 2,000 orphans.

That same passion also gave him his little girl, who now three years later, admittedly provides similar toddler challenges to her older brothers  "The terrible threes are a real thing"  but has changed the Hamels family in an incredible way forever.

"We cant imagine our life without her," the former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher said. "She is loved so much more than I think she could possibly ever understand and she is going to be protected probably more than she could ever understand."
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

HIGH Court Judge Justice Clement Phiri will on Tuesday 08 March 2016 hear an urgent chamber application filed by the family of missing pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara seeking an order to interdict the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) from interfering with a march scheduled for Wednesday 09 March 2016 to mark one year since the freelance journalist was abducted and disappeared.Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights stated that the Dzamara family had on Friday 19 February 2016 notified the ZRP of the planned religious march scheduled for Wednesday 09 March 2016 and stated that they were exempted from giving notice to the ZRP in terms of the provisions of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) but only notified the law enforcements agents because they acknowledge their important security role in the society."But on Thursday 03 March 2016, Chief Superintendent Newbert Saunyama, the ZRP Officer Commanding Harare Central District and some members of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) advised the Dzamara family that their notice to hold the peaceful procession to mark one year of the disappearance of the pro-democracy activist did not comply with the provisions of POSA and hence they could not proceed with the march," said ZLHR."In an urgent chamber application filed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights at the High Court on Sunday 06 March 2016, Patson Dzamara, a brother to the missing human rights activist argued that Saunyama and his JOC members had no justifiable excuse or reasonable cause to deny his family authority to hold the peaceful religious march as a way of registering the family's disgruntlement with the continued disappearance of his brother."ZLHR said Patson argued that it is not in Saunyama's purview to suggest ways on how the Dzamara family and Itai's friends should exercise their right to march and petition. He indicated that the Dzamara family had notified the ZRP so that they could provide the necessary police personnel if it so wished."Apart from Saunyama, Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri were listed as respondents to the application," said ZLHR."Dzamara stated that the JOC members who sat with Saunyama during the meeting held on Thursday 03 March 2016 are not part of the police regulating authority as contemplated by Section 25 of POSA and the presence of these unidentified members during the meeting is ample evidence to the Dzamara family that the Officer Commanding Harare Central District had some ulterior motives as he sat during the meeting with members who are not part of the powers that are conferred to him by POSA."The organisation said Dzamara argued that by blocking his family from staging the march, would violate the family's entitlement to freedom to demonstrate and petition which is provided for under Section 59 of the Constitution."Itai went missing on 09 March, 2015 after he was abducted by some unidentified men from a barber shop in Harare's Glenview high density suburb," ZLHR said.
Lil Wayne performed a concert at Indiana University this week, and on his way out of town Saturday, he went the extra mile to express his gratitude. No matter what you think of his music, his act of kindness made an impression on several people at an Indianapolis airport.

Amanda Lickliter was at the airport when Lil Wayne, 33, was set to depart, and caught a touching moment. She says that a military aircraft arrived at the airport just as Lil Wayne was about to leave, and parked next to the rappers plane.

Though he and several companions had already boarded and were ready for takeoff, Lil Wayne (real name Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr.) told the pilots he wanted to get off the plane. He then went inside the airport and shook hands with each of the roughly 30 service members hands, posing for photos and thanking them for their sacrifice.

Lickliter posted about the exchange on Facebook, and by Sunday afternoon the post had received more than 1000 shares.

So Lil Wayne came through IND today. At the same time he was due to depart, there was a military C130 arriving. It... Posted by Amanda Cooper Lickliter on Saturday, March 5, 2016

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She told NBC 5 that it wasnt who it was, but the act itself that impressed her most.

I would've shared it even if it was Joe Blow off the street, Lickliter said. I think it speaks volumes of someone who would take time out of their obviously busy schedule to shut down their plane and shake the hands of often forgotten about men. The fact that it was Lil Wayne just made it that much better.

It was awesome to see the faces of the guys he thanked, she continued. So many had to do double takes when they realized who he was.

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Lil Wayne signed to Cash Money Records in 1991 as the youngest member of the label. Wayne's debut solo album "Tha Block Is Hot" was released when he was 17 and and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 before going platinum. Other albums include "Lights Out" (2000), "Tha Carter" (2004), "Rebirth" (2010), "Free Weezy Album" (2015) and "Tha Carter V" (2016).

In a 2011 interview with Hot 97's Angie Martinez, Lil Wayne announced that he would retire at age 35; saying "I have four kids", and that "I would feel selfish still going to the studio when it's such a vital point in their lives." The rapper's four children were all born to different mothers and range in age from six to 18 years old.

In November 2012 he said that "Tha Carter V" will be his last album ahead of him pursuing other interests.

Lickliter also said the fact that it happened without any cameras or members of the media there made it that much more meaningful.

I thought this was a very admirable thing to do, especially when there was no obvious publicity in it for him, she said of Wayne. He seemed genuinely happy to give them the recognition they deserve.
An arrest has been made in connection with a weekend shooting that killed a man in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Saturday morning.

Victor Laboy, 42, was arrested Tuesday morning at 2:15 in Lawrence, according to the Essex County DA's Office.

Laboy was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Jose Colon.

Lawrence Police said they responded to a report of a large crowd and possible shots fired at 2:43 a.m. Saturday at Samms Store at 389 Broadway St.

Upon their arrival, officers said they dispersed the crowd but did not realize shots were indeed fired until Colon arrived at the hospital shortly thereafter.

Laboy is set to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Lawrence District Court. It was not immediately known if Laboy has an attorney.


A New Hampshire couple and a Massachusetts man have been indicted on murder charges in the connection with the homicide of a 29-year-old New Jersey woman whose body was found bound and burned near train tracks.

Fernando Owens of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Julian and Shannon Squires were indicted by a grand jury on one count each of murder and aggravated kidnapping, according to the Plymouth County DA's Office. The Squires had previously been charged with accessory to murder.

Police in Bridgewater found Ashley Bortner's burning body late in the evening of Nov. 3, 2015 beside MBTA train tracks. More than 70 percent of her body had been burned, and she had been gagged by clothing with her face covered by a towel. Authorities say her hands and feet were also bound behind her.

Investigators say Owens knew Bortner, and that police seized evidence from his home linking him to the murder. Tuesday's indictments allege that the Squires helped Owens kill and dispose of Bortner's body.

Police are still actively searching for Owens, and the Squires are currently being held on bail.
Polaris Office is a Korean-based Software as a Service (SaaS) company that offers a cloud-based office productivity suite. As we've come to expect from these suites, Polaris offers file creation, storage, sync and share alongside editing and PDF support. Polaris Office launched in 2014 and has amassed 35 million customers since then.

Which all makes sense and points to a hyper-specific vendor that is leveraging cultural and language differences to carve itself out a niche. If that was the entire story one would congratulate Polaris for finding a niche and leveraging it successfully.

Unfortunately, Polaris has had what I can only classify as an unfortunate rush of blood to the head and has decided to launch into the US market in an effort to, in their words, make a material impact on the business of both Microsoft Office and Google Apps. Polaris is talking up its platform as being barrier-free.

It talks about positioning itself in the gap between the cloud-based conveniences of Google and the deep functionality of Microsoft Office. According to the company, the middle ground between Microsoft and Google represents a huge opportunity  the market is ripe for change and conditions are perfect for a third player to disrupt the balance between the big players. "Polaris will compete with Microsoft and Google by offering the best of both  its cloud-based office software combines the convenience/freemium model of Google for Work with the powerful functionality of Microsoft Office."

Oh my, oh my. Where to start?

Well first, this huge white space that Polaris senses between Google and Microsoft may have existed eight years ago when Microsoft was still pushing a desktop-first solution with deep functionality backed up by a very thin cloud layer, and when Google docs was certainly cloudy but lacking in core functionality. But those days have well and truly gone.

Google Apps is, for all but the most demanding of Office power users, "good enough" for most situations. At the same time, Microsoft has to its credit pulled out its finger and made Office a true cloud product. The Office mobile applications are fantastic and Office's deep ties into OneDrive mean that the sharing and synchronization features are certainly as good as anything else out there.

So why would Polaris try and enter a market with two players who are so dominant? And why wouldn't it look to the failure of other third players in the market. I think specifically of Zoho, a suite of breathtaking scope - invoicing, accounting, CRM, office productivity, Zoho has it all. The one thing it doesn't have is any real degree of customer uptake. People fundamentally don't want another choice in the market.

Polaris thinks it has an edge with real-time editing of multiple document formats, a free service for up to three devices and storage compatibility with Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. None of that really matters. Polaris also shows itself to be woefully behind the times when it breathlessly states that "MS Office and Google for Work only allow users to store documents to their respective servers." Maybe they missed the recent news about Microsoft Office deeply supporting Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and others.

The cloud has been transforming the way we work and communicate for the past decade, and the future of workplace collaboration now lies in flexible, cloud-based tools, said Kwak Min-cheol, founder, and CEO of Infraware, the parent company of Polaris Office. PC Office is a disruptive solution that goes beyond the current offerings in the U.S., giving users a truly barrier-free, cost-effective option to access their favorite tools in one place. The U.S. office software marketplace has long needed a challenger that offers both powerful functionality and cloud flexibility, and were excited to be able to offer that with PC Office.

No Kwak. It really does not.

I'm not sure what caused Polaris to embark upon this mission, but it really is misguided. They should focus on their home markets and a proposition that actually makes sense. Entering the US market certainly does not.
A day after announcing it would be bringing SQL Server to Linux, Microsoft has announced that it is joining the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community for developers launched more than 10 years ago.

Microsoft, which notes that it has worked with the Eclipse Foundation for years "to improve the Java experience across our portfolio of application platform and development services," is attending the EclipseCon gathering in Reston, Va., this week.

MORE: Big names like Google dominate open source funding | Windows 95 freaking out teens will amuse adults

Microsoft already offers Eclipse tools such as the Azure Toolkit for Eclipse and Java SDK for Azure. Shanku Niyogi, GM for the Visual Studio Team, adds in a blog post that the company is releasing additional tools and services for Java and Eclipse developers.

Microsoft is joining the Eclipse Foundation as a Solutions member, alongside the likes of Airbus, Intel and Goldman Sachs. The higher-level Strategic member level includes CA Technologies, Google, IBM and 10 others.

Microsoft, which has been making a habit of open sourcing its technology, including .NET, isn't alone in this effort. Apple, IBM, Google and Facebook are among the other big names embracing open source (see "10 products that big tech companies have open-sourced recently").
What follows are the four candidates in the 2016 US Presidential primaries, who have (at the time of this writing) the largest number of won delegates -- and their viewpoints (with specific, cited quotes) on four issues of particular interest to for lack of a better word nerds.

And, by nerds, I mean people like you and me. Free Software, Open Source and Digital Privacy advocates. Technology enthusiasts. Computer nerds. (I wear that badge with pride.)

+ MORE POLITICS: Techies back Democrats in Presidential race +

The candidates represented here are (in alphabetical order by their first names) Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz. I apologize if your favorite candidate is not included here. I had to draw the line somewhere and top four seemed reasonable.

The issues Ive selected are, in no particular order, NSA Wiretapping / Government Surveillance, Edward Snowden, Apple v. FBI, and Net Neutrality. I would have included Free/Open Source Software in Government in this list but I could find very little from any of these candidates on that issue. There are other issues I could have included here as well but, again, had to draw the line somewhere. And 4 Candidates, 4 Issues felt right.

No commentary from me on any of this. Just the candidates' own words.

NSA Wiretapping / Government Surveillance

Bernie Sanders - I'd shut down what exists right now  is that virtually every telephone call in this country ends up in a file at the NSA. That is unacceptable to me. - thehill.com

Donald Trump - Well, I tend to err on the side of security, I must tell you, and Ive been there for longer than you would think. But, you know, when you have people that are beheading if youre a Christian and frankly for lots of other reasons, when you have the world looking at us and would like to destroy us as quickly as possible, I err on the side of security, and so thats the way it is, thats the way Ive been, and some people like that, frankly, and some people dont like that. - truthinmedia.com

Hillary Clinton - She said on the topic of NSAs spying power: ... how much is too much? And how much is not enough? That's the hard part. I think if Americans felt like, number one, you're not going after my personal information, the content of my personal information. But I do want you to get the bad guys, because I don't want them to use social media, to use communications devices invented right here to plot against us. So let's draw the line. And I think it's hard if everybody's in their corner. So I resist saying it has to be this or that. I want us to come to a better balance. - theatlantic.com

Ted Cruz - We need to walk and chew gum at the same time. We need to both be vigorous in protecting the security of our country, and in particular, making sure we have the tools to stop acts of terrorism before they occur. But at the same time, we have an obligation to honor the Bill of Rights. - cnn.com

Edward Snowden

Bernie Sanders - Love him or hate him, we all owe Snowden our thanks for forcing upon the nation an important debate. But the debate shouldn't be about him. It should be about the gnawing questions his actions raised from the shadows. - sanders.senate.gov

Donald Trump - Message to Edward Snowden, youre banned from@MissUniverse. Unless you want me to take you back home to face justice! - twitter.com/realdonaldtrump

Hillary Clinton - The following quotes are in chronological order. Snowden and Clinton got into a little back and forth:

Clinton stated, [Snowden shouldnt come home] without facing the music. He broke the laws of the United States. He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower. - politifact

To which Snowden replied: Sad to see Hillary repeat a false claim despite fact check. She could develop a reputation. - twitter.com/Snowden

Causing Clinton to hit back: Because he took valuable information and went first to China and then is now under the protection of Vladimir Putin, I think that raises a lot of questions about everything else he did. So I do not think he should escape having to return and answer for what he has done. - thehill.com

Ted Cruz - It is now clear that Snowden is a traitor, and he should be tried for treason - thehill.com

Apple v. FBI

Bernie Sanders - I am very fearful in America about Big Brother. And that means not only the federal government getting into your emails or knowing what books youre taking out of the library, or private corporations knowing everything there is to know about you in terms of your health records, your banking records, your consumer practices. On the other hand, what I also worry about is the possibility of another terrorist attack against our country. And frankly, I think there is a middle ground that can be reached. - nbcnews.com

Donald Trump - I think it's disgraceful that Apple is not helping on that. Apple should absolutely -- we should force them to do it. - msnbc.com

Hillary Clinton - I see both sides, and I think most citizens see both sides. We dont want privacy and encryption destroyed, and we want to catch and make sure theres nobody else out there whose information is on the cell phone of that killer. - nbcnews.com

Ted Cruz - I think law enforcement has the better argument. This concerns the phone of one of the San Bernardino hackers, and for law enforcement to get a judicial search order, that's consistent with the Fourth Amendment. That's how the bill of rights operates. - cnn.com

Net Neutrality

Bernie Sanders - We must not let private corporations turn bigger and bigger profits by putting a price tag on the free flow of ideas. - sanders.senate.gov

Donald Trump - Obamas attack on the internet is another top down power grab. Net neutrality is the Fairness Doctrine. Will target conservative media. - twitter.com/realdonaldtrump

Hillary Clinton - Closing ... loopholes and protecting other standards of free and fair competitionlike enforcing strong net neutrality rules and preempting state laws that unfairly protect incumbent businesseswill keep more money in consumers wallets, enable startups to challenge the status quo, and allow small businesses to thrive. - qz.com

Ted Cruz - Net Neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government. - twitter.com/sentedcruz

Nerdy Endorsements

In preparing for this article, I started looking around to see what candidate various nerd / geek / tech celebrities were supporting (or at least talking very positively about). To say there is a trend would be an understatement. Here are just a few.

[Note: I am including every non-Sanders endorsement, from a tech/nerd celebrity, that I could find at the time I wrote this article. There were only two. I even asked on Twitter and G+ if anyone could find others that were not supporting Sanders. Came up empty.]

Steve Wozniak: Down on Republicans and Democrats, #Bernie2016#FeelTheBern.

Edward Snowden: Sanders unexpectedly more credible on foreign policy than OM and Clinton, who repeat conventional wisdom that failed for a decade.#DemDebate

Mark Ruffalo (aka Bruce Banner / Hulk): Vote for@BernieSanders for a kinder gentler more human nation.#FlintDebate

Richard Stallman (aka RMS): Photo of Richard Stallman Feeling the Bern

Wil Wheaton: So, no surprise here: Bernie Sanders is my choice for president

Bruce Perens: Im endorsing Bernie Sanders, because of what Ive learned from Open Source.

And the two that are not supporting Sanders...

John McAfee: Im in this to win.

Eric Raymond: I want a libertarian. Since I'm not going to get that, gotta settle for the viable candidate with the strongest line in limiting government, which in this cycle looks to be Ted Cruz. 
Digital transformation has been a hot topic with both IT and business leaders. Organizations of all sizes are trying to harness the potential of shifting to digital business models to lower costs and bring worker productivity to new heights. Unfortunately, the path to digital workspace isnt an easy one as there are many components that need to be brought together.

This week Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, unveiled a new mobile-first portfolio to address the needs of the digital workspace. The solution is a suite of integrated networking software and hardware solutions that enable organizations the ability to meet the new demands. The shift to a new type of workspace is being driven by the influx of tech savvy workers with connected mobile devices as well as the Internet of Things (IoT). The new Aruba suite of products gives IT teams the ability to anticipate and resolve connectivity issues and create secure policies to build digital workspaces.

Legacy networks were architected with the notion of static, wired desktops that connected with premises based servers. The explosion of mobility, IoT and cloud has made this model obsolete and its time for organizations to think mobile first and reconsider network requirements. The digital workspace shifts the network services from being IT centric to becoming employee centric.

The new, integrated wired and wireless portfolio from Aruba, combined with advancements in network management and security, allow IT organizations to design and augment their networks for the digital workplace. Specifically Aruba brings these new capabilities to the digital workplace.

Predict Wi-Fi connectivity issues with Aruba Clarity

In many ways, fault management doesnt really matter any more. Networks are built to be highly resilient and can withstand almost any outage. A more important concern is performance issues. IT often has to deal with the case where all of the network devices appear green on the monitoring console but users are complaining about things not working.

Aruba Clarity, a new software module for Aruba AirWave network management, collects data and performs analytics to deliver insights into the access layer to understand connectivity based issues that can impact user performance. IT can use this information to proactively address issues before users are impacted. With Clarity, AirWave can monitor a number of metrics such as the time taken for mobile devices to associate with access points, obtain IP addresses or resolve names for DNS services. In addition to monitoring how WiFi clients connect and roam, Clarity allows network operations to run tests on-demand or with scheduled sessions.

Lastly, updates to AirWave allows for time-lapse visualization of Wi-Fi coverage for up to 24 hours, giving network engineers network DVR capabilities to short circuit the troubleshooting process.

Secure the network down to the device

Meeting the challenges of the digital workplace, particularly with the addition of IoT, requires enterprises to be able to modify their security policies quickly and enforce changes in real time.

The new Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager 6.6 allows security operations teams to create policies that can adapt to BYOD and IoT growth. The new version also enables device profiling for any uncharacterized device.

As part of this solution, Aruba announced new multi-gigabit 330 series Wave 2 APs to deliver optimized performance of bandwidth intensive applications such as Microsoft Skype for Business, WiFi calling and video. Aruba offers a feature called ClientMatch that ensures that wave 2 capable mobile devices can take advantage of the MU-MIMO standards. The new access points also support integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for management of beacons for indoor location based services.

Aruba also announced it new 3810 Switch Series to connect at speeds 1, 2.5, 5 or 10 Gig speeds. Multi-gigabit technology offers great investment protection as the switch can be used today but also in the future as WiFi speeds increase.

Lastly, the digital workspace solution offers HPE multivendor integration services to complement the Aruba products. The services can be used to mask much of the complexity from trying to tie together products for a wide variety of vendors.

The shift to a digital workspace will be highly dependent on the wireless network. The new Aruba products combined with HPE services can help businesses deploy a digital ready network without the associated deployment risk.
Robert Hannigan head of Britains NSA equivalent agency the GCHQ, finally stopped asking for a backdoor to encrypted devices. Instead he called for an end to what he called the abuse of encryption by ISIS and other terrorists and criminals at the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative, according to a report by the MIT Technology Review.

Hannigan wasnt getting what he wanted by calling it a backdoor so he changed the name for building flawed encryption that law enforcement can exploit to ending the abuse of encryption. Hannigans attempt to use speechwriters and political spin to solve a mathematical problem is a fools errand.

Asked for his thoughts about policy makers asking mathematicians and cryptographers for the impossible cryptographer and computer security and privacy expert Bruce Schneier said: "It always worries me when people say that we need to find some kind of compromise between law and technology. Technology is reality. It doesn't change based on some compromise. Technologists need to work with policy makers to create policies that work within the realistic bounds of the technology."

Law enforcement officials' STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education or lack of it predict which side of the encryption debate they will choose. Hannigan could only make this statement without feeling horribly embarrassed because he has a STEM blind spot in his education. Anyone who has taken a year of college linear algebra knows that private citizens, enterprises, law enforcement and the military cant protect data with encryption while preventing abuse of encryption. It is just a binary 1s and 0s situation with nothing in between these two states.

In stark contrast to Hannigan, last week the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told a packed auditorium of security professionals at the RSA Conference that he did not believe in a backdoor. Carter also contradicted the positions of US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey who also have tech-education blind spots on their resumes summarized below.

Robert Hannigan UK Director GCHQ studied classics at Wadham College, Oxford according to the Irish Post.

Loretta Lynch US Attorney General attended Harvard College, earning her bachelors in literature in 1981, and then opted to stay on with the university, graduating from Harvard Law School in 1984 according to biography.com.

James Comey US FBI Director attended the College of William and Mary where he studied chemistry and religion and later studied law at the University of Chicago, according to an interview by New York Magazine. Apparently Comeys greater strengths were qualitative rather than quantitative because his senior thesis at the College of William and Mary was on religion not chemistry.

Ashton Carter US Secretary of Defense earned bachelor degrees summa cum laude in physics and medieval history from Yale University and as a Rhodes Scholar he received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University, where he was later a physics instructor, according to the Department of Defenses website . He worked as an experimental research associate at Brookhaven and Fermilab National Laboratories.

Carter cant be imagined to say that he wanted to end the abuse of encryption because all his common sense gained by studying the world as a physicist would have made him wince at the thought. Less scientifically and mathematically gifted Lynch, Comey and Hannigan can rely on their beliefs that if challenged cryptographers can change the fundamental principles of mathematics.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Elizabeth Tsvangirai the wife of MDC -T President Morgan Tsvangirai has said as the nation joins the international community in celebrating the International Women's Day, Zimbabwean women are still faced with the challenge of working hard to put food on the table for their families."Today is International women' day; that day when as women, we take stock of our lives and evaluate whether we are making any progress in terms of living as equal global citizens with our male counterparts," said Mrs Tsvangirai."Today, we reflect on the dangers, the frustrations and the impediments faced by women to live as equally respected citizens on the global stage. In the case of Zimbabwe, it is sad to note that today, we are commemorating---not celebrating---this day at a time when the nation is facing hunger and starvation."She said this is because in acute times like these, it is the mothers who struggle every day to put food on the table even under these very difficult circumstances where only the President of the country can afford hosting a million dollar birthday bash in the drought-stricken Masvingo province----a province where most citizens and livestock will be lucky to make it to the next farming season!The 2016 theme for International Women's Day is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality"."The United Nations observance on 8 March will reflect on how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals. It will equally focus on new commitments under UN Women's Step It Up initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women's empowerment and women's human rights," she said."Indeed, whatever struggle for equality we are engaged in as women, we have to step it up to ensure that we step up to the plate and make this dream a realization."She said as African women, they need to simplify these struggles and these themes so that they are clearly understood.She said the essence of the women's struggle must have traction at the shop floor level."It must begin to have meaning to our women in the villages and in the various spaces where they are oppressed, vilified and looked down upon. The struggle for equality is also the struggle of the poor woman in the ill-equipped maternity ward in Mutoko, on the food distribution queue in Muzarabani and at the community borehole in Plumtree and Maphisa," she said."It is these ordinary women whose plight we must reflect on today with the aim of ensuring that this struggle begins to alleviate the desperate lives they live every day. The theme this year speaks to the desire for equality in positions of authority and responsibility. What it means for the poor women in the village, whether Zanu PF or MDC, who are sitting in the scorching sun waiting for their share of food relief from predominantly male councillors and distribution agents, is that they must begin to look forward to females occupying these important roles of providing food relief to our nation."Mrs Tsvangirai said women are known for their soft hearts and in a year in which they are all struggling to put food on the table, it is only the woman who understands the plight of children and families."Indeed, women are likely to be fair in ensuring that food is fairly distributed in a non-partisan way. And yes, the political struggles of today's women will not end until women occupy decision-making positions. I am happy that the MDC has since realized that women must occupy decision-making positions. Long before the United Nations had come up with Planet 50/50 as a theme for this year's International Women's Day commemorations, the MDC had already made a similar pledge to the women in this great party," she said."You will all recall, that one of the resolutions adopted at the party's 4th Congress on November 1, 2014 clearly stipulates that the MDC must have an equal number of women and men in all the decision-making organs of the party. It is my hope that the party will live up to this pledge adopted its highest decision-making organ."She said as Zimbabwean women commemorate this day against a sad background of suffering, of inequality, of hunger and gender-based violence."Every day, we read sad tales of gender-based violence, including murder that is mainly targeted at women. I am particularly saddened by the plight of the rural woman. Not only does she bear the brunt of scavenging for food in a bad year like this one, but her health is not regarded an important issue, especially by this clueless government," she said."There must be free medical care for our pregnant women because they are executing an important national duty. In the same vein, it is my wish that women, particularly the suffering rural woman, are provided with free sanitary wear. And because the girl child has been sidelined for years, it is important for the country to seriously consider bringing back the good old days of adult education or the night schools of the early 1980s so that our women catch up with their male counterparts in the true spirit of Planet 50/50."She welcome the ruling by the Constitutional Court to outlaw child marriages."My only concern is that our communities have not been properly educated that these child marriages, so prevalent in our communities, are now illegal. There is need for enabling legislation to give life and meaning to this ruling. In fact, some women I have spoken to told me they would have wanted the age of marriage consent set at 21, their argument being that even 18 year olds are still children," she said."On a day like today, we need to spare a thought for all those women who were maimed, raped and killed in the various struggles of the nation since 1890. From the war of liberation to the current struggle for democratic change, it is the women who have suffered most and today, we must remember them. Indeed, we must salute them.""As we celebrate this great day today, I wish to challenge those in government to ensure that there is no partisan distribution of food aid."Mrs Tsvangirai said everyone is a Zimbabwean and hunger knows no political party card."As I have said before, it is the women who are bearing the brunt of this El-Nino induced drought. Please give them food and don't ask them for their party card or their political affiliation," she said."Zimbabwe belongs to everyone.Happy International Women's day and indeed, let's go 50/50!"
News / National

by Staff Reporter

More than 5000 Zimbabweans were convicted for drug related crimes last year, an indication that the vice that most Zimbabweans have been afraid of for so many years has now come onto the nation's door steps.Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said in the period from January to December 2015, 5445 people were arrested on various drug related crimes.She also indicated that ages between 15 and 35 are the major users or abusers of drugs.5273 people were charged for varying offences which included importing dangerous drugs, selling, manufacturing, possession and unlawful possession of drugs.International statistics show that cocaine is the second most trafficked illegal drug in the world.International seizures of the toxic substance cocaine have continued to increase and now total 756 metric tonnes, with the largest quantities of the drug intercepted in South America, followed by North America.In the past, Zimbabwe was used by drug dealers as a transit country but the trend is changing fast.Sad revelations are that the country is fast turning into a back yard manufacturer of dangerous drugs with local youths emerging as major perpetrators.There are indications that some drug lords are known and hot spots for such activities are also known.Some believe that lighter sentences imposed on some of the convicted people discourage the police from taking risks of tracing such dangerous activities.Harare lawyer, Mr Tapson Dzvetero believes there is need to revise the legislation to ensure these new drugs on the market are classified under the Dangerous Drugs Act which has provisions of a custodial sentence of up to 15 years in prison.'An idle mind is the devil's workshop,' goes the old saying and social commentators say parents must play a leading role in mentoring their children."On one side, poverty can drive children into taking risks, but on the other hand, money in the hands of irresponsible children end up buying dangerous drugs," a social commentator, Musekiwa Makwanya, said.Zimbabwe Institute of Drug and Alcohol Combating Director, Mr Joseph Javangwe said there is need for awareness to ensure the youth are educated on the dangers of being recruited into dangerous substances abuse.While common drugs such as dagga have been abused for a long time in zimbabwe, these pale into insignificance when compared with dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroin that are finding their way into Zimbabwe.
News / News

by Stephen Jakes

Bulawayo City Councillor Thobani Ncube has expressed concerns over the increased number of stray in the city amid fears they were posing danger to the residents who might contract rabies if they happen top be bitten by the animals.According to latest council minutes Ncube commended the Committee for its efforts in the area of health inspectorate.He was however still worried about the issue of stray dogs. More effort was required to conscientise residents on the need to observe by laws, keep their dogs under leash and not allow them to roam the streets."The shooting of stray dogs should also be prioritized," reads the minutes.Councillor Silas Chigora concurred and pointed out that of late stray cattle and donkeys had also become a problem in his ward (4) especially in Waterford."Residents in out lying suburbs such as Waterford were inconvenienced by various livestock invasions from the Douglasdale area. There was need for stern measures on this issue," reads the minutes.
News / Press Release

by Obert Gutu

Recent revelations by President Robert Mugabe to the effect that at least US$15 billion worth of diamonds from Marange/Chiadzwa has not been accounted for are very astounding and startling, to say the least. Mugabe publicly stated that less than US$2 billion has been remitted to the national treasury ever since diamond mining operations began in the Marange/Chiadzwa areas about a decade ago. The MDC is extremely concerned with the opaqueness surrounding the diamond mining activities at Marange in Manicaland province. It is more than apparent that right from the outset, the manner in which mining licences were awarded to the various mining companies at Marange/Chiadzwa lacked transparency and accountability. There was no public tender system that was instituted before the afore-mentioned diamond mining licences were awarded. Everything was done secretively and as a result, it was always going to be very difficult to enforce transparency and good corporate governance consistent with international best practice.In a desperate move purportedly aimed at restoring sanity within the diamond mining industry in Marange, the government recently cancelled all licences that had been granted to the various mining companies. Not surprisingly, a number of these diamond mining companies have since resorted to litigation in order to enforce what they claim to be their rights that were infringed by the government's rather draconian and unprecedented action. Since the court cases are still sub judice, the MDC will not give its own interpretation of the law suits. Suffice to state that the MDC strongly advocates for respect for the rule of law and property rights.No rocket science is needed to appreciate the fact that there has been serious illicit financial flows from Zimbabwe emanating from the opaque and shadowy diamond mining operations in Chiadzwa over the years. Even the local communities that live in Marange communal lands have bitterly complained about how the diamond mining activities on their ancestral land has not benefitted them in any meaningful and tangible way. Abject poverty and destitution remain the order of the day for the thousands of villagers who were translocated to Arda Transau Estate to make way for the diamond mining operations. Even the provincial capital city, Mutare, still looks like a ghost town inspite of the fact that billions of dollars worth of diamonds have been extracted from Chiadzwa over the past few years. Put bluntly, the people of Chiadzwa in particular and the whole of Zimbabwe in general, have got absolutely nothing to show to prove that diamonds have improved their standard of living. If anything, the discovery of diamonds in Marange has come to be some kind of a curse to the people of Chiadzwa in particular and to all Zimbabweans in general.Marange diamonds have benefitted only a few privileged people; most of whom are members of the ruling elite. It is beyond comprehension how a staggering US$15 billion worth of diamonds could go missing without the President of the country knowing, exactly, what is taking place on the ground. President Mugabe's recent disclosure, therefore, is clear proof of gross dereliction of duty on his part. Without a proper and comprehensive forensic audit of the diamond mining activities in Marange being carried out, the people of Zimbabwe might never get to know how much, exactly, the country has lost as a result of the criminal and illicit financial flows coming out of Marange. The MDC holds Mugabe and his entire Zanu PF regime solely and wholly responsible for the mess in Marange. We have stated it before, and we repeat it here and now, Mugabe is no longer in full and effective control of the country. The deep-rooted factionalism that is tearing Zanu PF apart has literally made it impossible for Mugabe, at the very advanced age of 92, to efficiently and effectively discharge his duties as Head of State. It is apparent that there are some shadowy and Mafia-like forces that are now in de facto control of the country. In order to save Zimbabwe from a complete and irretrievable breakdown, the MDC calls upon parliamentarians, across the political divide, to do the patriotic and honourable thing of immediately impeaching President Mugabe. The old man is certainly no longer fit and proper to remain in office as the country's President. He has totally and hopelessly failed to discharge his duties as Head of State.
Opinion / Columnist

Grace Mugabe is not an idiot. Or so her record would indicate, anyway. It is hard to imagine an idiot amassing power and wealth in fields as diverse as property and dairy, fast-food outlets and mining.She is a former cross border trader and office typist who bedded and wedded the President of the Republic. Her life has been punctuated by one meteoric rise after the other. Monumentally, at least twice she has risen from obscurity to power.And yet if Grace is no fool, but there is something needlessly and extraordinarily foolish about the way she conducts herself.Her behaviour in Chiweshe earlier this month seemed stupid, partly because she used excessive and vulgar language, but largely because she has destabilised a party that should be one of the success stories of the independent Africa.Isolated events can be misleading, and it was intriguing how ragged and rattled Zanu-PF were after the Chiweshe rally, yet that could scarcely be called a surprise.A simple general knowledge quiz would be enough to ascertain that Mrs Mugabe doesn't know enough about a lot of things.Her character is antithetical to many of the qualities necessary in a political leader: integrity, compassion and reasoned convictions, wisdom and prudence, trustworthiness, a commitment to the moral good.For much of her recent career Dr Amai has even deemed it a compliment to be branded arrogant. In her defense, arrogance on its own is not an issue. The problem is caused by those who are too arrogant to listen and learn, too convinced of their convictions to heed advice and too distanced from reality and their supporters to understand the sentiment in the surrounding area.When their opinions are not underpinned by knowledge and character, it is a dangerous combination.The thing about such autocrats is that they do not do anything by half measures. Much as Grace Mugabe denies she is a problem, there is sufficient evidence to the contrary to dispute that. When the Doctor's relationship with someone breaks down, it tends to do so spectacularly.They tend to be prominent people too. Ray Kaukonde, the late Amos Midzi, the then "anointed" Vice President, Joice Mujuru, all lost battles to the hardened Mrs.Yet, it is instructive that Zanu-PF supporters afforded Joice Mujuru a standing ovation when she launched her party, war veterans backed her, and even followers of the MDC formations are sympathetic to her. Mujuru's record might be as horrendous as Grace's, but a dignified, defiant character inspires respect.Ironically, since Mrs Mujuru was fired, she has quietly set-up a party which on the face of it might be formidable. She has progressed quite well. On the other hand, the notion that Zanu-PF has progressed under Grace Mugabe is increasingly ridiculous. If anything, Zanu-PF languish in limbo.Zanu's serious problems began just before Mai Chatunga was appointed and mushroomed thereafter. Jongwe house is now just a dysfunctional environment where laudable achievements bring blame, recognition of excellence is considered treasonous and where reason and rationality have been suspended. Lunatics have taken over the asylum.The shame is that the men who are responsible for Zanu-PF's achievements are as powerless as the long-suffering supporters. Sadly though, the truth is there is nothing either faction can do beyond waiting on the whims of an erratic lady who in the words of Jabulani Sibanda has orchestrated a bedroom coup'.Landmark birthdays offer a time for reflection. On his birthday, Robert Mugabe's response was to complain about lack of cultured respect' and his wife being abused'.Mr Mugabe is accustomed to being right, in his own mind at least. Yet even when Mr Mugabe was right, he was wrong.He was right to say that cultured youths do not insult their leaders. But where culture is the answer, the problem lies in the question.If Grace Mugabe's conduct is a barometer for cultured dignity, then the obvious conclusion is she has none.There is hardly any dignity in saying "Handisi Hure Ra Mugabe (I am not Mugabe's whore)" in public and in front of minors for the matter, or questioning the paternity of rival's children on the same forum.Leadership at an elite level is about dignity and public perception. To some extent, it is at any level. Mistakes come at a greater cost. Sooner or later, errors catch up with the perpetrator. That is the narrative.The first lady has a fine determination but not the aptitude to lead. Her rashness brings other dangers. Her industrial quantities of self-belief cannot shield her from accusations she is wrong: wrong in those errant decisions and, more significantly, wrong for Zanu-PF in general. The wayward wife is now a national problem.---------------This article appears on - maynardmanyowa.com . Visit to read more exclusive analysis on Zimbabwe and South African issues.
Opinion / Columnist

"We are fighting against a system, it is that system which is unjust," said Joice Mujuru at the Press Conference on 1 st March 2016. She was quoting the late General Josiah Tongogara. "This system has stolen any hope for the people of Zimbabwe!"By the time Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980 many people had heard that repeated many, many times by Tongogara, President Mugabe, Hebert Chitepo and many other libera-tion war leaders as well as other nationalist leaders. It was the standard answer repeated over and over again, especially to allay white fears that the liberation struggle was a race war and the blacks were hot intent on driving all the white out of the country.It was only at Zanu PF members only meetings or "off the record" one to one discussions that many of these leaders would tell you in no uncertain terms that the struggle was to replace white domination with black domination and take back all the white had stolen from the blacks.The reason why the violent white farm invasions of 2000 onward had such a strong appeal to many blacks especially the war vets is this was fulfilling the pre-independence promise that blacks will have their revenge and settle old scores with the whites.After independence, President Mugabe has reaped huge political capital by upholding the "on the record" position that Zanu PF was fighting "the system" and not a racial war. He was knighted by the British, a singular honour bestowed on very few nationalist leaders who fought to end British colonial rule. Mugabe reverse his position to the "off the record" posi-tion of going out of one's to punish the whites. There is no doubt that Zanu PF leaders and their thugs on the ground derived a lot of gratuitous pleasure from the harassment and wanton violence and mental stress that inflicted on the white farmers and their friends.Mai Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party followers know Zanu PF is an in-competent, corrupt and murderous regime that lost the support of the ordinary people years ago. But since she and many of her ZPF party members like Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gum-bo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Jabulani Sibanda and many others were Zanu PF members until 2014, the new party desperately needs to convince the Zimbabwe public that it is as different from Zanu PF as chalk and cheese. And what better way of underlining the difference be-tween Zanu PF and ZPF than evoking the same pre-independence sentiment of fighting an "unjust system"!How ironic that people like Mai Mujuru and many other ex-Zanu PF members now calling the dictatorship an "unjust system" and undertaking to "fight" to end it have spent the last 34 years creating it and then ramming it down the nation's throat. Are they just playing the old game again of "on the record" fighting the unjust system and "off the record" making sure the dictatorship is not dismantled?Joice Mujuru and ZPF's agenda to end the dictatorship and deliver free, fair and credible elections or is the party interested in ending the Zanu PF dictatorship and removing the dicta-tor Robert Mugabe only to install in its place a ZPF dictatorship headed by a new dictator Joice Mujuru.Anyone who believes even for one second that Mujuru has ever cared about democracy, free-dom, human rights, free and fair elections, etc. is very naive or dishonest. All she has ever cared about is absolute power and as soon as her position on the feeding trough was secured she never lifted a finger to fight for any of these things in all her 34 years in power. When she lost her position on the feeding trough she has, once again shown interest in democracy, jus-tice, etc. but only as the only means for her to regain her position on the feeding trough.Our aim should be to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and remove the dictator Mugabe and re-place it with a healthy and functional democracy and accountable and competent leaders. We must not allow ourselves to be fooled by Mujuru and her ZPF into settling for a half-way house of replacing the Zanu PF dictatorship with a ZPF dictatorship!
Opinion / Columnist

Recent claims by self-imposed exile, Thomas Mapfumo that President Mugabe must retire should not be tolerated but dismissed with due contempt.Mukanya, as he is sometimes called by his followers, have no authority to undermine President Mugabe's leadership. Who is he to insult the Head of State in the media? In fact, Mapfumo should be reminded that President Mugabe is in that position because God wills it. Romans 13 verse 1 clearly says, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God". Therefore it is morally wrong for Mukanya to criticize the leadership of President Mugabe who was divinely appointed by God.Every Head of State has an important role to play in his country, so as President Mugabe. For starters, President Mugabe's age has absolutely nothing to do with retirement. In 2013, the people of Zimbabwe elected President Mugabe to lead the nation through the ballot box. President Mugabe won the election resoundingly against his rivals in opposition parties. The fact that he was chosen to lead the nation for another term, shows that Zimbabweans have trust and faith in his leadership.Under no circumstances will President Mugabe listen and depend on gossip to lead this nation as claimed by the reckless Chimurenga musician, Mapfumo. If he is ignorant to international affairs, Mapfumo should be reminded that only a year ago, President Mugabe, besides being the Head of State, he was also both the Chairman of African Union and SADC. In his wise leadership, what then will prevent him from leading this nation?Opposed to what Mukanya was saying that President Mugabe should retire, it's actually him who is supposed to retire from his music. Mapfumo's Chimurenga music has lost focus as it concentrate on the politics of the country to the dismay of his diehard fans and have since abandoned it.Genuine Zimbabweans do not abandon their country and leave others to develop it while they are absent. If Mapfumo is serious about his country, he should come back and join other Zimbabweans in revitalizing the economy. It is everyone's responsibility to develop the nation. However, it is a shame that people like Mapfumo who claim to be patriotic, lack political will to develop their own country.Surely, uttering foolish statements will never make Mapfumo a hero; instead it makes him looks dim-witted and silly. As a musician, Mukanya's music should make sense. By this time, Mukanya's music should have matured. Even if Mapfumo is in his self-imposed exile, his music should encourage unity and peace among Zimbabweans, instead of inciting terror and despondence among Zimbabweans who are willing to revive the nation.Mapfumo is nothing but an unpatriotic rebel who is trying to make ends meet through singing music that attacks his own country. The fact that Mukanya's in America, depicts that the man is singing for his supper. There is nothing that comes from the western community that compliments and supports Zimbabwean policies. What the Americans are capable of doing is just extending illegal sanctions against our country and nothing else. It is unfortunate that Mapfumo who dwells in the US has also joined the wagon and falls in the same pit of attacking Zimbabwean government.Mapfumo has no guts whatsoever to tell President Mugabe to hand over power as he is also contributing to the imposition of illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe through his music.Quoted in a local daily press, Mapfumo noted that it was his choice to live the country. "No one forced me out of Zimbabwe. I am a musician doing this job at international level" Mukanya said. However, written reports have it that Mapfumo left the country over alleged vehicles' scandal. The reported scandal was that Mukanya bought vehicles that were not properly cleared. Mapfumo's case portrayed the weakness in him of failing to comply with the law.Mapfumo, you should just shut up. You lost your right to comment on Zimbabwean issues the moment you ran away instead of helping other Zimbabweans to build the country up.
Opinion / Speeches

Speech read out to the party's Women's Assembly provincial commemoration at Harvest House, Harare

Introduction



The theme for this year's International Women's day

"Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality".



Conclusion

Today is International women' day; that day when as women, we take stock of our lives and evaluate whether we are making any progress in terms of living as equal global citizens with our male counterparts.Today, we reflect on the dangers, the frustrations and the impediments faced by women to live as equally respected citizens on the global stage.In the case of Zimbabwe, it is sad to note that today, we are commemorating---not celebrating---this day at a time when the nation is facing hunger and starvation.I say this because in acute times like these, it is the mothers who struggle every day to put food on the table even under these very difficult circumstances where only the President of the country can afford hosting a million dollar birthday bash in the drought-stricken Masvingo province----a province where most citizens and livestock will be lucky to make it to the next farming season!The 2016 theme for International Women's Day isThe United Nations observance on 8 March will reflect on how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals. It will equally focus on new commitments under UN Women's Step It Up initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women's empowerment and women's human rights.Indeed, whatever struggle for equality we are engaged in as women, we have to step it up to ensure that we step up to the plate and make this dream a realization.As African women, we need to simplify these struggles and these themes so that they are clearly understood. The essence of the women's struggle must have traction at the shop floor level. It must begin to have meaning to our women in the villages and in the various spaces where they are oppressed, vilified and looked down upon.The struggle for equality is also the struggle of the poor woman in the ill-equipped maternity ward in Mutoko, on the food distribution queue in Muzarabani and at the community borehole in Plumtree and Maphisa.It is these ordinary women whose plight we must reflect on today with the aim of ensuring that this struggle begins to alleviate the desperate lives they live every day. The theme this year speaks to the desire for equality in positions of authority and responsibility.What it means for the poor women in the village, whether Zanu PF or MDC, who are sitting in the scorching sun waiting for their share of food relief from predominantly male councillors and distribution agents, is that they must begin to look forward to females occupying these important roles of providing food relief to our nation.I say this because women are known for their soft hearts. In a year in which we are all struggling to put food on the table, it is only the woman who understands the plight of children and families. Indeed, women are likely to be fair in ensuring that food is fairly distributed in a non-partisan way.And yes, the political struggles of today's women will not end until women occupy decision-making positions.I am happy that the MDC has since realized that women must occupy decision-making positions. Long before the United Nations had come up with Planet 50/50 as a theme for this year's International Women's Day commemorations, the MDC had already made a similar pledge to the women in this great party.You will all recall, that one of the resolutions adopted at the party's 4th Congress on November 1, 2014 clearly stipulates that the MDC must have an equal number of women and men in all the decision-making organs of the party. It is my hope that the party will live up to this pledge adopted its highest decision-making organ.I want to conclude by saying it is sad that as Zimbabwean women we commemorate this day against a sad background of suffering, of inequality, of hunger and gender-based violence. Every day, we read sad tales of gender-based violence, including murder that is mainly targeted at women.I am particularly saddened by the plight of the rural woman. Not only does she bear the brunt of scavenging for food in a bad year like this one, but her health is not regarded an important issue, especially by this clueless government.There must be free medical care for our pregnant women because they are executing an important national duty. In the same vein, it is my wish that women, particularly the suffering rural woman, are provided with free sanitary wear. And because the girl child has been sidelined for years, it is important for the country to seriously consider bringing back the good old days of adult education or the night schools of the early 1980s so that our women catch up with their male counterparts in the true spirit of Planet 50/50.I also want to take the opportunity of this day to welcome the ruling by the Constitutional Court to outlaw child marriages. My only concern is that our communities have not been properly educated that these child marriages, so prevalent in our communities, are now illegal. There is need for enabling legislation to give life and meaning to this ruling. In fact, some women I have spoken to told me they would have wanted the age of marriage consent set at 21, their argument being that even 18 year olds are still children.On a day like today, we need to spare a thought for all those women who were maimed, raped and killed in the various struggles of the nation since 1890. From the war of liberation to the current struggle for democratic change, it is the women who have suffered most and today, we must remember them. Indeed, we must salute them.As we celebrate this great day today, I wish to challenge those in government to ensure that there is no partisan distribution of food aid.Everyone is a Zimbabwean and hunger knows no political party card. As I have said before, it is the women who are bearing the brunt of this El-Nino induced drought. Please give them food and don't ask them for their party card or their political affiliation.Zimbabwe belongs to everyone.Happy International Women's day and indeed, let's go 50/50!I thank you
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Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sunshine. High 81F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 61F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.
Reporter

Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee).
Columnist

Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich).
Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), the nation's only nonprofit dedicated exclusively to cell and gene therapies for cancer, is delighted to announce the recipients of its 2016 ACGT Young Investigator Grants. These grants are awarded to help the researchers build upon earlier research and take them to the next level in cancer treatment, setting the stage for possible clinical trials. While ACGT funds research into all forms of cancer, this year's recipients from the University of California, Los Angeles, Duke University Medical Center and Yale Cancer Center represent the future of cancer research specifically leukemia/lymphoma, melanoma and blood cancers.

This year's grant cycle brought in a record 115 scientific applications for the ACGT Young Investigator Grants, the most in ACGT's 15 year history. ACGT's highly competitive grants have been funding breakthrough cancer research scientists such as Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Michel Sadelain at Memorial Sloan Kettering, for their work successfully treating leukemia through gene therapy, which have been touted in recent national documentaries on cancer aired on PBS and HBO. ACGT has funded more than $25 million in cancer research.

This year's Young Investigator Grantees are:

Yvonne Chen, MS, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Eradicating Leukemia/Lymphoma with Immunotherapy

Dr. Chen is using CAR-T therapy, with a focus on proteins that bind to a specific disease marker known as CD19 found in advanced leukemia and lymphoma patients. Because of this marker, conventional treatments have been ineffective. Several clinical trials have shown that CD19 CAR-T therapy achieves positive outcomes, but there are still questions on the optimum parameters for success and too often studies depend on trial and error. Dr. Chen plans to further research the technique to better understand the biochemistry and to refine the screening method in order to ensure even more consistently high outcomes.

Dr. Chen's interest is the development of synthetic biological systems with applications in health and medicine. She brings to her research interdisciplinary skills learned in academic training and professional work experience in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as advanced studies in immunotherapy and systems biology. She earned an MS and a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, and held postdoctoral positions at Seattle Children's Research Institute, Washington, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Brent Hanks, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina

A Vaccine for Melanoma Using Immunotherapy

Melanoma has been steadily increasing in recent years and despite improvements in diagnosis and early stage treatment, metastatic cancer patients have less than a 10% prognosis for recovery. Dr. Hanks is studying pathways that block the immune system's ability to destroy cancers. These fundamental pathways, which are present in many cancers, inhibit potent dendritic cells that would otherwise open the door to an immune system attack. This research has identified a fatty acid transporter that plays a crucial role in this process and the possibility of a drug intervention that will shut down the barrier to treatment. Based on these findings, and laboratory research, Dr. Hanks has proposed to engineer a vaccine that will genetically silence the inhibitor so the body's natural killer T-cells can do their job. ACGT grant funding will support further testing to confirm the effect of the transporter, with the intent to develop a vaccine treatment primarily for melanoma.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Dr. Hanks has dedicated the last decade to research in the fields of tumor immunology and immunotherapy. He served as Fellow and Resident at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, after earning an MD in Medicine and a PhD in Cancer Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He has published extensively and has received numerous awards for his work.

Samuel G. Katz, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Using RNA to Kill Blood Cancers

Great progress has been made in harnessing a patient's own immune cells to attack blood cancers. A particularly effective alternative is to harvest the patient's T-cells [killer white cells] and reprogram them to recognize the cancer as a threat. Once returned to the body, these reprogrammed cells use a dual-action protein known as a chimeric antigen receptor [CAR] that first recognizes the tumor and then attacks. Most protocols use retroviruses to alter the cells, but the new proteins might also attack healthy tissue. Dr. Katz's research instead employs RNA, which directs the cells to attack only the cancer and has the added advantage of minimal side effects. In addition, RNA reprogramming is more transient, meaning that after conclusion of treatment, RNA and derivative proteins return to their normal state, which further minimizes possible side effects.

In addition to research, Dr. Katz teaches genetic, biochemistry and cell biology techniques to better provide patient care. He earned his MD in Medicine and a PhD in Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Division of Medical Sciences in Boston, Massachusetts, and served his residency and fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and his post-doctoral fellowship at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston.

Barbara Netter, ACGT co-founder and president noted that, "2016 marks a big change in cancer research in that gene and immunotherapy are being heralded as breakthroughs which scientists have been searching for since the early 1970's when the 'war on cancer' was launched." "It's exciting to see the depth and promise of what these scientists are developing and ACGT is proud to be able to fund them at this pivotal time."

Mrs. Netter added that, "Funding scientists studying cancer gene and immunotherapy hasn't always been so widely popular and, in fact, many organizations declined to fund this type of research until results were proven. ACGT has long believed that the cure for cancer resides in the genes and proudly supported gene and cell research into finding effective treatments for cancer."
LOS ANGELESBaronian Trading, which sells magicians rope, is branching out, ready to provide quality supplies to those interested in bondage and rope play.

They're really magicians ropes, but they're cotton braided rope, which people say works really well for bondage, explained a rep for Baronian Trading.

Currently, the company offers two styles of rope, each in two sizes.

Two of the ropes are with a core, which means there's filler inside the braided rope, the rep said. And the other two are no-core rope, which means that the outside is braided, but there's no filler inside, so its considered hollow.

The ropes also comes in different sizes: a raw rope, which is untreated cotton, that measures 8mm with a core (BCT1); a 10mm bleached cotton with a core (BCT2); a 10mm bleached white cotton rope with no core (BCT3); and a 15mm bleached white rope with no core (BCT4).

The ropes come in either 100 meter spools (well more than 300 feet) or 25-foot packets.

Pricing for the ropes is as follows:

BTC1: 100-meter spool - $60

BTC2: 100-meter spool - $110

BTC3: 100-meter spool - $110

BTC4: 100-meter spool - $125

BTC1: 25-foot packet - $10

BTC2: 25-foot packet - $13

BTC3: 25-foot packet - $13

BTC4: 25-foot packet - $16

Baronian Trading also offers a Sampler Pack, which features 25 feet of each rope, for a total of 100 feet, for $45.

For anyone in the adult industry who orders and mentions AVNPromo I will give them a 15 percent discount on their first rope purchase, the company rep said. To use the code, either email directly or use the multiple order link on the website.

For more information, or to place an order, visit Bondage-Ropes.com or BaronianTrading.com, or email [email protected].
Many viral diseases tend to become chronic - including infections with the HI virus. In persons affected, the immune response is not sufficient to eliminate the virus permanently. Scientists at the University of Bonn have now identified an immune factor which is partially responsible for this. Their results give rise to hopes for new therapeutic approaches. The work, which included researchers from the University of Cologne and the Technical University of Munich, is being published in the renowned journal "Nature Immunology."

The HI virus triggers the immunodeficiency disease AIDS. The infection has a chronic course - the immune system is not able to get rid of the pathogen. This is due among other things to the fact that the virus directly attacks and destroys certain immune cells known as helper T cells.

However, many helper T cells are not affected by the virus at all. Nonetheless their function is impaired in the case of AIDS. Normally, helper T cells secrete inflammatory messengers during an infection. As a result of this chemical distress call, killer T cells (the body's own defense troops) become ready to fight and are guided to the site. By contrast, in AIDS and other chronic infections, the helper T cells remain silent. But why is that?

To answer this question, the researchers initially analyzed which genes in the silent helper cells of HIV patients are active. Result: In chronic inflammation, the immune function of the helper T cells is inhibited by various signaling pathways. These signaling pathways in turn are apparently controlled by a single molecule known as tumor necrosis factor (TNF).

This factor appears to be responsible for the weak immune response. "We investigated mice suffering from a chronic viral infection similar to an HIV infection and inactivated the TNF molecule in them," explains Dr. Marc Beyer from Life and Medical Sciences Institute (LIMES) of the University of Bonn. "As a result, the helper T cells worked normally once again. After ten days, the animals had completely eliminated the virus; they were healthy."

Misdirected protective function

Paradoxically, the tumor necrosis factor has exactly the opposite effect in acute viral attacks: It brings the immune system up to full speed and additionally ensures that cells infected with the virus commit suicide. "Therefore, in an acute infection, large quantities of TNF are formed very rapidly," says Dr. Zeinab Abdullah from the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University Hospital Bonn. "In chronic infections, on the other hand, the body secretes small amounts of TNF over a long period of time. This appears to cause the helper T cells to shut down to some extent."

The researchers suspect that this is a protective mechanism. A prolonged strong immune reaction can in particular destroy healthy tissues as well - with life-threatening consequences. TNF could act as a type of emergency brake which prevents this. Exactly what the tumor necrosis factor does on a molecular level is still largely unknown. The scientists involved now want to examine this question in detail.

The results may establish new therapeutic options in the medium term. Thus there are drugs which inhibit the effect of TNF. These TNF blockers are used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism, for example. They are to prevent defense cells from attacking the body itself. "Among other things, we want to investigate what effects these drugs have in rheumatism patients who are additionally suffering from a chronic viral infection," says Marc Beyer.
The combination of low aerobic capacity and low muscle strength at age 18 is associated with a three times greater risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes in adulthood, according to new research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai published online today in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The study also found that poor physical fitness was a long-term risk factor even among individuals with a normal Body Mass Index (BMI).

Researchers from Mount Sinai and Lund University in Sweden examined fitness and health records from more than 1.5 million male military conscripts in Sweden from 1969 to 1997. As a result of Sweden's national healthcare system, researchers were able to track the cohort's data over several decades (to a maximum age of 62 years) and obtain follow-up information to see if and when the conscripts were diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Most studies of physical fitness have examined aerobic but not muscular fitness, and have focused on adults but lacked data at younger ages with sufficient follow-up to examine the long-term risk of Type 2 Diabetes.

"This is the first study to examine early-life physical fitness in relation to the long-term risk for Type 2 Diabetes in adulthood, independent of BMI, family history or socioeconomic factors" said Casey Crump, MD, PhD, Vice Chair for Research, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Senior Faculty, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and lead author of the study. "Our findings suggest that prevention should start early in life and should include both aerobic and muscular conditioning. We hope our research will help inform more effective lifestyle interventions among children and youth to promote better population health in the U.S. and other countries."

Diabetes, the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, is a metabolic disease that results in high blood sugar levels because the body does not produce enough insulin for proper function. Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and affects more than 300 million people worldwide. It has more than doubled in prevalence over the past 30 years, along with increasing rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyle.

"This research has enormous implications for the work we have been doing in our department, promoting adequate physical education programs in schools and the need for safe play spaces for children and teens in our communities," said Neil Calman, MD, Professor and Chair of Family Medicine and Community Health, Mount Sinai Health System. "Addressing these problems has now been proven to be of critical importance in preventing adult diabetes."

"Our research group is also studying the effects of aerobic fitness, muscular strength and BMI on other health outcomes, including ischemic heart disease and cancer," said Dr. Crump. "We need more longitudinal measurements of physical fitness over individuals' life course to determine age windows of greatest susceptibility to its effects on Type 2 Diabetes."
This week at Pittcon 2016, Bruker is showcasing new products and analytical solutions for core Applied & Pharma markets, for our Nanoanalysis, Microscopy & Advanced Materials Research markets, as well as new after-market services and life-cycle support solutions for our customers.

A. Applied and Pharmaceutical Markets

The new MATRIX-MG series of high-performance gas analyzers offer automated, high precision and real-time monitoring of gas compounds based on infrared spectroscopy. The target gases are analyzed inside a cell with different optional optical path lengths to cover a broad range of applications.

The identification and quantification of compounds is performed automatically by OPUS GA (Gas Analysis) software with quantification of more than 400 compounds without the need for calibrations.

The new Honey Profiling module of the NMR FoodScreener has quickly gained acceptance by major global food analysis labs and honey-packers due to its unique capabilities to rapidly and cost-effectively detect adulteration, and mislabeling of content or origin.

Eurofins Scientific Group and the Bruker-led Honey Consortium with companies QSI and ALNuMed have decided to harmonize their NMR honey profiling models and are collaborating on the release of a unified update of the Honey Profiling module. Famille Michaud Apiculteurs is the first honey-packer to adopt this novel NMR solution.

With the integration of Honey Profiling in their analytical portfolio, Famille Michaud can increase the scope of analysis, while reducing the time of analysis from 2 days to just 20 minutes, in order to reduce production lead-times and total costs, and to protect their premier honey brands.

The latest update of the Wine Profiling module of the NMR FoodScreener provides a unique solution for the authentication, fraud detection and labeling compliance of high-value wines.

The latest module upgrade features a substantial increase in the number of regions now covered, and includes areas of particular interest to consortiums, consumers and collectors. Wines from France, Italy and Spain, where a premium is paid for wines from a specific locale and labeling requirements are stringent, can now be easily and cost-efficiently authenticated and their quality ensured.

As demonstrated by recent adulteration scandals identified by this method, Wine Profiling is a powerful tool for the full value chain, from producers guaranteeing the quality of their product to merchants anxious to protect their investment and reputation.

Bruker announces new sample automation with 26mm tubes to further enhance the value of its TD-NMR based minispec Toothpaste Analyzer. The sample changer can handle 48 samples with temperature control for highest reproducibility.

Further options include a barcode reader and safety housing. The minispec Toothpaste Analyzer measures the fluorine content in toothpaste several times faster and at a fraction of the total cost of ownership compared to other methods.

The new Bruker FUSION-SV 1.1 automated structure verification solution for small molecules in pharma and chemistry research integrates high-resolution, accurate mass ESI-QTOF mass spectrometry for automated chemical formula generation with NMR spectroscopy.

The updated FUSION-SV 1.1 solution now includes additional 2D NMR methods for even higher confidence in rapid, automated structure verification. Designed for the workflow of medicinal and synthetic chemists in pharma, chemical industry or in academia, FUSION-SV 1.1 guides chemists to meaningful results with minimal interaction and without the need for expert knowledge.

Designed for the real-time analysis of chemical reactions under process conditions, the new InsightMR solution uses NMR flow-tube online monitoring to analyze and optimize chemical reactions.

InsightMRs software features a user-friendly interface to allow both expert and non-expert users to set up, monitor and adjust key experimental parameters. The new NMR flow tube and probe, with temperature controlled transfer lines, allows fast and continuous transfer of reaction mixtures from a reaction vessel.

B. Nanoanalysis, Microscopy & Advanced Materials Research

The new Bruker SiBrickScan (SBS) is the first at-line FTIR instrument allowing for the quantification of interstitial Oxygen in complete Silicon bricks and ingots. The SBS system is a big step forward for Si wafer producers.

In contrast to classical approaches, the SBS does not require the preparation of thin samples, but directly determines the Oxygen gradient along the ingot main axis and for fast and economic QC.

The micro-XRF spectrometer M4 TORNADO offers new key capabilities for the analysis of multilayer materials as well as for the quantification at uneven surfaces, e.g. in powder samples. The new XMethod software 1.3 manages calibrations and standards and enables the optimization of complex methods, such as the quantitative analysis of metallic multilayer stacks for composition and coating thickness.

The M4 TORNADOs new FlexiSpot feature allows spot sizes of up to 200 m for reproducible quantification of irregularly shaped samples, such as powders, soils or granular raw materials. With these new features, the M4 TORNADO continues to set standards in accurate, fast and non-destructive elemental analysis.

The new Vutara 352 Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscope enables entirely new research functionality in super-resolution microscopy, including the ability to perform pair-correlation, co-location, cluster, and live-cell analysis with super resolution.

Based on Brukers proprietary biplane technology, it leverages high-performance data acquisition and image processing capabilities to perform the entire imaging workflow, from acquisition through localization to quantitative analysis.

The Opterra SR high speed confocal option on the Vutara 352 system enables seamless correlative imaging for sample investigation prior to super-resolution imaging, as well as the capability to combine super-resolution images with confocal images for contextual information.

The new MultiMode 8-HR AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) brings extensive capabilities for nanomechanics and higher speed imaging to the worlds highest resolution and most widely-used AFM. It enables researchers to access the broadest range of ramp frequencies for viscoelastic studies and nanomechanical assessment of a wide range of materials, from soft biological specimens to hard metallic samples.

The system provides unprecedented bandwidth and extremely low-noise data acquisition to enable such proprietary technology advances as ScanAsyst, PeakForce QNM and FastForce Volume. These features reaffirm MultiMode 8-HR as the most versatile, highest performance AFM in its class.

The novel Contour CMM Dimensional Analysis System is the worlds first non-contact metrology system to perform simultaneous nanoscale height, surface texture, waviness and form measurements, as well as 3D coordinate measurements for geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, all on one instrument.

Its Vision Dimensions software offers proprietary features designed for small-part characterization, including automation for part programs, hundreds of preset analyses, and customized inspection reports.

The Contour CMM system performs rapid, non-contact precision measurements for stringent metrology in R&D and manufacturing of small structures in precision-machined components across a wide range of industries, from medical and optics to automotive and aerospace.

C. After-Market Services and Life-Cycle Support

LabScape  Magnetic Resonance & Preclinical Imaging Service and Life Cycle Support: As laboratories continue to optimize uptime, productivity and total cost of ownership, the Bruker BioSpin Group introduces a new, flexible approach to instrument life-cycle management, maintenance and service - the new LabScape concept.

Bruker BioSpins LabScape suite of laboratory services includes a range of maintenance, repair and upgrade agreements for magnetic resonance and preclinical imaging product lines. Customers can choose comprehensive packages or a la carte services, as needed.

LabScape can be tailored to customers needs, whether its maximum system uptime, close cost control, or even automatic system upgrades. Customers can rely on LabScape for reliable, optimal instrument performance and ready access to up-to-date expertise and techniques from our team of trained engineers and applications scientists.

Frank Laukien, Ph.D., the President and CEO of Bruker Corporation, commented:
Research from the Single-Cell Genomics Centre on the Wellcome Genome Campus could change the way we look at gene expression and immune response. Published in Nature Methods, the new method, TraCeR, provides a powerful tool for research into immune response, vaccination, cancer and autoimmunity.

What makes one T cell attack an antigen, and another remember it for next time? A series of RNA sequencing experiments by the Teichmann group at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute led the group to develop a new technique for understanding T-cell receptors. TraCeR, a single-cell sequencing tool, allows the determination of both the sequence of the T-cell receptor in individual cells, along with each cell's gene expression profile. This opens up new possibilities in the future for developing rapid diagnostics based on the genetic profile of blood cells.

When your immune system detects an invader - whether that's a disease or, in the case of autoimmune disease, part of your own body - it starts producing an army of T cells to remove the pathogen, which itself is producing lots of different proteins.

"It's a battlefield, with fighters on different fronts, snipers, generals and even journalists bearing witness," explains Mike Stubbington of EMBL-EBI, now at the Sanger Institute. "What we wanted to know was how different populations of T cells respond to disease - what role they're playing in the battle."

T cells are equipped with receptors that can latch on to a particular invader out of a vast array of possible options. This means they are extremely variable, with hundreds of billions of possible DNA sequences. A combination of paired sequences determines what protein a receptor will detect, so to understand what is happening at the molecular level, it is imperative to find both sequences in each cell. Using TraCeR, scientists can look at the DNA and RNA (expression) profiles of these highly variable T-cell receptors at the same time.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

The researchers found the receptor sequences are unique, unless the T cells have the same parent cell. The presence of 'sibling' cells proves that an infection has triggered the division of a particular T cell, which indicates it is multiplying to fight the invader. Using TraCeR, the researchers accurately identified 'sibling' cells and explored their different response to Salmonella infection.

"This technique helps us see whether all the 'children' of a particular T cell do the same thing at the same time, which is an open question in biology," adds Tapio Lonnberg of EMBL-EBI. "We can start to see whether the antigen itself plays a role in how a T cell will respond, and even whether it's possible to determine what the invader is, just based on the sequence of a T-cell receptor."

"This kind of breakthrough work can only be done using single-cell measurements," says Sarah Teichmann, Head of Cellular Genetics at the Sanger Institute. "This new tool for single-cell sequencing gives us a new approach to the study of T cells, and opens up new opportunities to explore immune responses in disease, vaccination, cancer and autoimmunity."

The next step for the team is to apply similar methods to the study of B cells to better understand the adaptive immune system as a whole.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have captured unique images of problem-solving in action by tapping into the minds of mice. The study shows rapid rewiring in the frontal brains of mice after they learn by trial and error.

Using advanced microscopy techniques, researchers found that when mice used new strategies to find hidden treats during a foraging task, they showed a dramatic resculpting of their frontal lobes.

"We are excited because these are the first pictures of live rewiring in the brain at the synaptic level that capture a trace of this higher-order form of learning," said study senior author Linda Wilbrecht, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley.

The findings, to be published in the journal, Nature Communications, provide compelling evidence in favor of "active learning," an approach that promotes critical thinking and problem-solving in schools and workplaces.

While time-lapse movies have documented brain restructuring during motor, sensory and fear-conditioning tasks, "Visual evidence has been lacking for the more complex, cognitive, strategy-based trial-and-error learning that helps us grow each day at school and at work," Wilbrecht said.

"These data push us towards greater recognition of how multiple dimensions of learning, particularly active learning, may be sculpting our brains," she added.

Wilbrecht and study lead author Carolyn Johnson, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, sought to investigate how rules, defined as "learned relationships between cues, actions and outcomes," are encoded in the brain.

"We know rules are in there somewhere, and we wanted to get a glimpse of how they might be established and stored in the neural wiring," Wilbrecht said.

The researchers focused on the "orbitofrontal cortex," the brain region highlighted in the famous case of Phineas Gage, an American railroad construction foreman who survived an accident in which an iron rod shot through his frontal lobes.

Before the injury, Gage was known as a polite man who followed rules. After his accident, he became a rule breaker and nonconformist.

For the study, UC Berkeley researchers tracked daily changes in the synapses of the orbital frontal cortices of mice as they learned new rules. They did so by having mice explore various strategies to find Cheerios that were hidden in bowls of wood shavings scented with either licorice, clove, thyme or fruit. The rules for how to find the Cheerios changed on a daily basis.

For example, on the first day of the experiment, the mice learned that the scent of licorice would lead them to a Cheerio hidden at the bottom of a bowl, but they received no other clues.

"They had to discover the rule that led them to a Cheerio using trial and error," Wilbrecht said.

Mice carried out the foraging task in the morning, and brain changes were recorded in the afternoon. Using a technology known as 2-photon laser scanning microscopy, researchers took pictures of the growth and pruning in the brain circuitry of long-range axons, conduits for electrical signals that connect neurons in the frontal lobe's executive centers.

The mice who puzzled out the new rules on a daily basis showed dramatic changes in the wiring that broadcasts information from the orbitofrontal cortex.

"Importantly, these changes scaled with each animal's trial-and-error strategy and experience, suggesting they reflect each animal's intellectual growth," Wilbrecht said.

By contrast, mice who received Cheerios freely without having to navigate rules showed no uptick in brain circuit remodeling.
Lindenburg Industries, LLC, the Chinese company that failed to live up to its promise of revitalizing the old Thomasville Furniture plant in Appomattox, missed the Monday deadline to repay a $1.4 million grant from the Governors Opportunity Fund, according to officials with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Communications Manager Suzanne Clark confirmed Monday afternoon VEDP had not received repayment of the grant from the Chinese company.

VEDP has taken and will continue to take appropriate steps to recover funds due from Lindenburg Industries, she said by email Monday afternoon.

Sandra McNinch, general counsel for VEDP, previously said the company does not intend to pay by the deadline.

Now the deadline has passed, the state can take legal action to recover its money.

On Feb. 5, an Appomattox County Circuit Court judge froze almost $860,000 in the account of a real estate trustee until litigation among Lindenburg, VEDP and DAI could be settled, The Roanoke Times reported.

Virginia State Police is conducting an initial inquiry looking into the failed deal to bring the Chinese-based manufacturer to Appomattox using $1.4 million in state money, after being contacted by VEDP.

The former Thomasville Furniture plant  a site where Appomattox residents had hoped 349 workers would manufacture catalytic converters after a $113 million investment in the plant  has since been sold to a Moneta developer.

The developer, George Aznavorian, has said he has many ideas for the plant including storage or a small business incubator.

He has already made inroads with the community by paying off the outstanding town of Appomattox tax bill and water bill and allowing his property to host the volunteer processing center after the Appomattox tornado two weeks ago.
MONTREAL  Next Door Studios will release Johnny Torques very first bottoming scene with fellow exclusive Markie More. The scene, Torque That Ass, will go live on March 9, 2016, on NextDoorRaw.com.

Torque shot his first scene for NextDoorMale.com in 2009, and has since filmed over 60 scenes for the studio. He has amassed a large fan following with his boyish good looks, chiseled physique, and aggressive topping skills.

Fans have been asking me for years if Johnny would ever film a bottoming scene, said Rocco Fallon, director for Next Door Studios. Hes been thinking about it for a while, and finally decided that he was ready to go for it, but only if he could bottom for Markie More. Its a fantastic pairing and the scene being bareback makes it even better. Im sure Johnnys fans will be thrilled!

Next Door Raw is the newest addition to the Buddy Profits affiliate program. The site features exclusive bareback content with new updates weekly. A membership to NextDoorRaw.com gives full access to the entire Next Door Studios network of 16 sites.

Affiliates have the option to receive $35 PPS or 50 percent rev share options on all memberships, including trials. Payments are sent twice per month, on the 1st and 16th of each month, and they cover the previous two weeks' referrals.

Affiliates can visit BuddyProfits.com to access promotional materials. For more information about Buddy Profits contact Ewan French, Affiliate Manager at [email protected].
Virginia could not sustain a four-year surge of growth in the value of its agricultural exports in 2015, as declining commodity prices hit the value of such goods as soybeans.

The value of agricultural exports from Virginia to overseas markets declined about 4.7 percent in 2015, state officials announced Monday.

The state exported about $3.19 billion worth of agricultural products in 2015  down from an all-time high of about $3.35 billion in 2014.

Prior to 2015, the state had experienced four consecutive years of growth in agricultural exports.

The whole country was down for 2015, said Todd Haymore, Virginias secretary of agriculture and forestry, in an interview Monday at the Governors Conference on Agricultural Trade.

Global commodity prices largely are down for such products as soybeans and other grains, he said.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the trade figures during the event at the Hilton Richmond Downtown. He said the decline was the result of weaker value, not volume, and Virginia solidified its position as the second-largest exporter of farm products on the East Coast behind Georgia.

Record yields in key production countries contributed to lower crop prices in 2015, officials said. Per-bushel prices for soybeans, Virginias largest export commodity, declined nearly 13 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Overall, the value of U.S. field crops fell 9.4 percent to $135.7 billion in 2015 from $149.8 billion in 2014.

Haymore said some new trade barriers in foreign markets, such as Russia, also contributed to the decline, along with higher shipping costs to some markets.

On the whole, Virginia fared better than most exporting states, he said. We had one of the lowest percentage declines.

For example, the value of exports from Georgia declined 15 percent in 2015. The value of North Carolinas exports dropped by more than 13 percent.

The top three agricultural export markets for Virginia in 2015 were China, Canada and Switzerland. China imported more than $694 million in agricultural products, Canada about $291 million and Switzerland about $204 million.

The top agricultural and forestry product exports from Virginia in 2015 included soybeans, pork, lumber and logs, soybean meal, leaf tobacco and processed foods. The state also exported wine, craft beer and distilled spirits; wood pellets and chips; seafood and other marine products; and poultry, soybean oil, wheat, animal feed, corn, raw peanuts and cotton.
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Red Hulk, Ronin, and more: 10 Heroes and Villains whose secret identities were hidden from readers

There's a longstanding superhero tradition of hiding the identity of certain characters even from readers
Today, on International Womens Day , we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while calling action for gender parity. The United Nations campaigns for  Planet 50-50 by 2030  referring to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) that are to be achieved in the next 15 years. The goals urge us to, for example, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls (SDG 5), and to eliminate gender disparities in education (SDG 4). Below, I focus on these goals in more detail and discuss why they are so important for sustainable development, but lets first look at how gender equality is measured and distributed in the world today.

Gender inequality exists in every country

The Global Gender Gap Index produced and reported by the World Economic Forum since 2006 is a well-known method for measuring equality between women and men. The Forums Head of Employment and Gender Initiatives, Saadia Zahidi, explains the Global Gender Gap Report is a tool for tracking gender equality over time. The index looks at educational attainment and political empowerment, as well as two topics closely linked to CABIs work  economic participation and opportunity, and health and survival.

Overall, gender inequality diminished in 20062015, but Saadia Zahidi highlights there is still work to be done even in the highest-ranking countries: In 2015, were covering 145 countries, and not a single one of them has closed the gender gap. Iceland is at number one, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden, all of whom have closed over 80% of the gender gap. In 2015, the highest ranking African and Asian countries were Rwanda (6th) and Philippines (7th), respectively, while Kuwait was the highest ranking country of the Arab world at place 117. Gender equality is a fundamental value in the Nordic countries, which has probably advanced the countries success in this and other similar international comparisons. Therefore, focusing on deeply held social values might help understand some of the barriers that exist for gender equality in countries that score lower.

Equality linked to food production and the environment

SDG 5 lists nine targets to reduce gender parity by 2030. The targets fall roughly within the following categories: increasing womens safety, recognition for work, health, ownership rights and empowerment. SDG 4 again calls for promoting lifelong learning opportunities for both girls and boys, women and men. These targets are naturally important for ensuring gender equality, but how are they linked to sustainable development, food production and the environment?

According to the highest estimates, global human population may reach 17 billion by 2100. The more people the higher the demand for food and agricultural land  and consequently, the heavier the negative impacts on the environment. Even with the current seven billion people, our planet is struggling with high levels of human malnutrition and the sixth mass extinction of species. Educating girls and women is crucial for sustainable development largely because it can help improve family planning and thus control population growth.

In addition to gender equality, agriculture and agricultural research are key for achieving the SDGs. Women are central in the world food production  on average, women account for 43% of the agricultural work force in developing countries, and produce 6080% of the food in the developing world. In conclusion, educating women in agricultural sciences in developing countries would strongly support achieving the SDGs by 2030 and ensuring a sustainable future for the planet.

Despite the ambitious agenda for 2030, the World Economic Forum predicts that the gender gap wont close until 2133. Therefore, we will have reason to celebrate International Womens Day still in many years to come, and draw attention to the great achievements and important roles of all women worldwide.

Reference:

The State of Food and Agriculture. Women in agriculture: closing the gender gap for development, FAO
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(Newser)  Kelly Clarkson says her label "literally blackmailed" her into working with Dr. Luke, the producer Kesha has accused of rape. Clarkson initially tweeted in support of Kesha after a judge told Kesha she must continue working with Dr. Luke to fulfill her recording contract. "Trying 2 not say anything since I can't say anything nice about a person... so this is me not talking about Dr. Luke," Clarkson tweeted at the time. On Monday, Clarkson appeared on Australia's Kyle and Jackie O radio show, where the hosts asked her about the tweet, Time reports. "I only worked with himeven the last time I worked with himbecause literally I got blackmailed by my label," she said. "They were like we will not put your album out if you dont do this."

"Hes a talented dude but hes just lied a lot," she said. "I've run into a couple really bad situations. Musically, its been really hard for me because he will just lie to people. Its like 'What?' It makes the artist look bad. Hes difficult to work with, kind of demeaning, its kind of unfortunate. People are like well youve worked with Max [Martin] and Luke and Im like Max and Luke are very different. Obviously the dude is a talented guy but character-wise, no. ... Hes just not a good person to me. Weve clashed." She added, "When you have that poor of character, like, so many artists don't like you ... that's not normal." Kesha has also gotten support from Taylor Swiftin a big way. Dr. Luke denies Kesha's allegations. (Read more Kelly Clarkson stories.)
(Newser)  Glenn Beck and Louis CK aren't the only ones comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto today issued a warning about the Republican presidential front-runner, who has said Mexico will pay for a US border wall to keep out illegal immigrants, Reuters reports. "There is no scenario" in which Mexico will make such a payment, Nieto tells El Universal. He goes on:



"And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity. That's how Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis. And I think what (they) put forward ended up at what we know today from history, in global conflagration. We don't want that happening anywhere in the world."

Nieto says he will nonetheless try to deal respectfully with anyone who wins the US general election. But one analyst isn't impressed: "Why would you egg [Trump] on?" political science professor Federico Estevez asks the Guardian. "If you punch back  there you are aligned with the Democrats and you get nothing [in the bilateral relationship] as a result." (Read more Donald Trump 2016 stories.)
(Newser)  The White House has for the first time promised to release the death toll of civilian and non-civilian casualties from US drone strikes going back to 2009, reports the Guardian. Or at least some drone strikes: The disclosure won't cover those in areas of "active hostilities" such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Instead, it will include those in places such as Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen. President Obama's counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco, told the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday that a tally of alleged terrorists and civilians killed in such strikes since 2009 would be made available in the "coming weeks." She added that the "figures will be provided annually," per Politico, though it remains to be seen if the next president will support the move.

Monaco said the disclosure may include tallies compiled by non-government groups; one such tally released in 2014 found that the US killed 1,147 people in Pakistan and Yemen while targeting 41 known men. But "it's not enough to tally up the drones' body count. We need a thorough reassessment of the program itself," says an attorney for drone strike victims. On Friday, a Justice Department official agreed to release "a much more detailed explanation of the standards and procedures employed in both capture and lethal targeting counter-terrorism operations," in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. (The news comes just days after US strikes killed 150 suspected militants in Somalia.)
(Newser)  Joaquin El Chapo Guzman's oldest daughter is ready to take a DNA test to prove her identity following a bombshell interview with the Guardian published last week. In the interview, Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz claimedamong other thingsthat her father snuck across the border twice to visit her and other family in California despite the major manhunt on his tail. But the Guardian reports that following the release of its interview, El Chapo's common-law wife, Emma Coronel, denied that Guzman Ortiz is El Chapo's daughter and says the family has no idea who she is.

Guzman Ortiz tells the Guardian Coronel and lawyers working for El Chapo told her to retract the claims she made in the interview, but she refused. Im not going to deny anything at all, she says. Coronel has demanded Guzman Ortiz take a DNA test, which Guzman Ortiz says she is happy to do. I have a document which says Im his daughter; [Coronel] should show me the paper which says shes his wife, she says. According to the Guardian, it has already seen a birth certificate, a Mexican voting card, and other documents that prove Guzman Ortiz is who she says she is. Those other documents reportedly include family photos of El Chapo and letters he sent Guzman Ortiz from prison. (Read more Joaquin Guzman stories.)
(Newser)  Two volunteer firefighters in Virginia who decided to break the rules and rush an 18-month-old girl to a hospital in their fire engine instead of potentially watching her die are back on the job. The fire chief in Stafford County says Capt. James Kelley and Sgt. Virgil Bloom, who were placed on administrative leave after the Feb. 27 incident, have been reinstated, CNN reports. The chief says the firefighters' actions had been under review because the girl was transported in a firetruck, not an ambulance. This is a "highly unusual occurrence for our department, and as we do in situations that appear to veer from our established practice, we initiated a review," he says.

When Kelley and Bloom arrived at the scene in Fredericksburg, the girl, who had suffered a seizure, had turned blue and was unresponsive. The firefighters decided to use their vehicle because they thought the nearest medic was around 15 minutes away. Their reinstatement followed a nationwide outpouring of support. The girl's father, Brian Nunamaker, says he was appalled when he heard about the suspension, the AP reports. "The actions of these men represent a dedication to their mission, and a deep concern of doing what is best for the people they are serving," he said in a statement. "In our eyes, they are heroes." Kelley tells the Washington Post that he knew using the firetruck violated guidelines, but the decision was a "no-brainer." (Read more firefighters stories.)
(Newser)  Two polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona border violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits, and water hookups, a jury said Monday. The civil rights trial marks one of the boldest efforts by the government to confront what critics have long said was a corrupt regime in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. The seven-week trial provided a rare glimpse into the communities that for years have been shrouded in secrecy and are distrustful of government and outsiders.The jury awarded $2.2 million to six residents eligible for damages, but the towns will have to pay only $1.6 million because lawyers negotiated a settlement in that part of the case.

The towns were accused of doing the bidding of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. Jurors concluded that police officers treated nonbelievers inequitably when providing police protection, arrested them without having probable cause, and made unreasonable searches of their property. The judge will now decide what other punishments to impose. Federal authorities have not specified the changes they will seek, but they could ask for the Colorado City Marshal's Office to be disbanded and for its duties to be handed over to local sheriffs. (Last year, church members were convicted of shutting down schools to supply child labor during harvest time.)
(Newser)  Newspapers have dubbed him the "horror dentist," former patients in a small French town call him the "butcher"and if you have dental phobia, Jacobus van Nierop may soon feature in your nightmares. The Dutchman went on trial Tuesday in Nevers, France, accused of intentional violence and fraud during the four years he worked in a rural area, the AP reports, where he allegedly mutilated the mouths of more than 100 patients with terrible dentistry. More than 50 patients are seeking damages, saying he pulled out healthy teeth or left them with problems such as broken jaws and recurring abscesses after unnecessaryor unnecessarily violentprocedures.

"When I arrived, he gave me seven or eight shots in my gums. And he pulled out eight teeth at once," a former 65-year-old patient who visited van Nierop for braces tells Le Journal du Centre. "After that, I gushed blood for three days!" The 51-year-old dentist, who had been recruited to work in the remote area despite a poor record in his homeland, was arrested in 2013 after more than 120 victims banded together to press charges, AFP reports. He fled France but was later arrested in a small town in Canada, where he reportedly tried to slit his own throat after police tracked him down in September 2014. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of more than $400,000. (This young French boy concocted a kidnapping story after skipping a dental visit.)
(Newser)  Thomas Webber stoops to check his car for bombs every morning before heading out, but the 71-year-old American has no plans to leave Damascus, a city he has called home for more than four decades, the AP reports. He's one of the very few Americans not of Syrian origin living in the capitalperhaps the very last oneafter the US closed its embassy and urged citizens to leave the country in 2012. He said that when the Czech Embassy contacted him, urging him to leave, it told him he was the last American not of Syrian origin still living in Damascus (an official at the Czech Embassy contacted by the AP said he couldn't confirm that). At 6 feet 4 inches, Webber is a lot taller than most, and his silver hair and bespoke suits with pocket squares also make him stand out. But the policemen at nearby checkpoints wave him on with a smile, and he stands by his decision to stay. "The Syrian people are just the most beautiful people in the world," he says. "There's no way I'm going to leave this country. They're going to have to carry me out."

Webber was born and raised in Orchard Park, NY, a Buffalo suburb. He arrived in Damascus in 1975 to teach science at Damascus Community School, a private American academy, and went on to convert to Islam and marry a Syrian woman. Except for a brief stint teaching in Iran, he has lived in Syria ever since. The country was relatively safe for Americans until 2011, when full-blown civil war erupted, and in the chaotic early months of the conflict, foreigners fled, fearing kidnappings and bombings. The security situation in the capital has improved since, and over the past week a US and Russia-brokered ceasefire has brought the first major lull in fighting. Webber has three grown children, 11 grandkids, and a great-grandchild living in various countries, and he visits them often, but he always comes home to Damascus, where he teaches English part time at a local high school."When it's your time, it's your time," he says. "I could leave school and slip on a banana peel and die. It's God's will." (Read more Damascus stories.)
(Newser)  Although laws in Virginia state the minimum age to wed is 16, the fine print reveals a more disturbing picture: Much younger kids may be able to marry with parental permission and if the girl is pregnant, leading to extreme cases in which youngsters not even in their teens have been granted marriage licenses, per the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Republican Sen. Jill Vogel, who says current laws "are not protecting children," hopes to put an end to that loophole with state Senate Bill 415 and companion House Bill 703, which call for raising the minimum age for all marriages to 16, WTOP reports. If approved by the governor (both bills flew through their respective chambers Monday), the new law would permit marriage for 16- and 17-year-olds only if they petition a judge, who would consider their ages, maturity, and criminal history and determine they weren't being threatened or forced to marry.

"It's rarely the case that [a pregnant] 13-year-old is marrying a 17-year-old," Vogel says. "It's more often ... that it is a child marrying somebody decades older than they are." In cases like that, Vogel says, instead of issuing a marriage license, "someone  should be asking the question, 'Well, if this 13-year-old is pregnant, isn't that evidence of statutory rape?'" Vogel also notes the gender disparity in the state's current laws, noting a pregnant 13-year-old girl could be forced to marry, but a boy that age doesn't face that dilemma. State Sen. Thomas Garrett doesn't concur with the bill, arguing that it replaces the "insight and judgment of parents with that of the court," per the Times-Dispatch, but Vogel says it's necessary. "It really shocks the conscience, some of the situations children have found themselves in." (Florida was dealing with a similar problem.)
(Newser)  The US military plans to bury a sailor from the USS Oklahoma whose remains were unidentified for more than 70 years after he died in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Machinist's Mate 1st Class Vernon Luke of Green Bay will be buried will full military honors at a veterans cemetery in Honolulu. The 43-year-old was killed in action on Dec. 7, 1941, and his funeral at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is scheduled for Wednesday. Luke was among nearly 400 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma who were buried as "unknowns." The military exhumed the servicemen last year, saying advances in forensic science and technology had improved their ability to identify them. Luke is the first to be reburied in Honolulu after identification. (The Green Bay Press-Gazette has a photo of him.)
(Newser)  Visitors to the grave of William Shakespeare can't help but notice this to-the-point inscription: "Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones," it reads (with the spelling cleaned up). Curse or not, a group of documentary filmmakers has begun poking around in unprecedented fashion. The crew from UK's Channel 4 became the first to gain permission to examine Shakespeare's grave at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon earlier this year, reports the Telegraph, though they're using radar rather than shovels. The results of their study, part of commemorations marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, will be revealed in a documentary this spring.

"We can confirm a scan of the grave has been completed," says a church rep. If nothing else, the work "is likely to give a clearer picture of a possible family vault," reports the Telegraph, adding that the playwright is buried next to his wife, daughter, son-in law, and grandson-in-law. It's also possible the study could put to rest a long-standing rumor, as noted by the Stratford Observer: "There has been historical speculation as to whether Shakespeares skull was removed by grave robbers and re-buried outside of his home town." But a Jezebel blogger isn't banking on bombshells: "Educated guess: Spiders, bones, and possibly an ill-advised earring." (Could this be the famous skull?.)
(Newser)  A possible deal between Turkey and the European Union to handle the ongoing migrant crisis is being hailed as a "breakthrough" by EU leaders after an outline was drafted Tuesday, the AP reports. This "one-for-one" arrangement would mean that in exchange for every migrant in Europe that Turkey takes back (including any plucked from the EU's territorial waters), the EU will agree to resettle what CNN refers to as one "legitimate" refugee who would qualify for asylum, which probably means mostly Syrian refugees. The deal is designed to keep migrants out of the hands of smugglers and human traffickers and to keep many from making the dangerous journey. "We will break the business model of smugglers exploiting human misery and make clear that the only viable way to come to Europe is through legal channels," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday, per Deutsche Welle.

Turkey already shelters about 2.7 million refugees, most Syrian, and if the deal is finalized, it could result in thousands more flooding back in. The EU would pick up part of the tab, as well as expedite talks on bringing Turkey into the union and streamline the visa process for Turkish citizens. But some humanitarian groups are concerned. "The collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention of Human Rights," a regional director for the UN's refugee agency says, per the Telegraph. UNICEF is also wary, with a rep noting "too many details still remain unclear" and that kids are especially at risk. "Children should not to be returned if they face risks including detention, forced recruitment, trafficking, or exploitation," the rep says. Amnesty International says the plan is "alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane," mainly because Turkey can't take care of the refugees already there. EU leaders hope to close the deal at their next summit in Brussels on March 17. (The crisis is only expected to get worse come spring.)
(Newser)  The Ohio police officer who allegedly joked about the suicide of a Black Lives Matter activist has been fired. Two days after MarShawn McCarrel II killed himself on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse, Lee Cyr allegedly commented, "Love a happy ending" on a Facebook post about the suicide. The post was apparently deleted, but Cyr was placed on leave and has now lost his job, WDTN reports.

"This action is in violation of the departments social media policy and does not conform to the Professional Standards & Core Values established by the organization," says the Fairborn Police Department in a press release. Cyr, who was off-duty when the comment was allegedly posted, had been with the department since 1994, WHIO reports. (Read more Black Lives Matter stories.)
(Newser)  The mayor of a Florida town who loves "living outside the box" will soon be living it up on the high seas when he makes what one friend is calling a "very risky" trip, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. Clint Johnson, mayor of DeBary, plans on cobbling together a raft and floating from Havana to Key West, so that he can "share the experience and weigh the pros/cons of a more open relationship with our neighbor 90 miles south," according to his website. Johnson plans on heading down to Cuba in mid-April, then making the return trip solo through the Florida Straits on an unpowered DIY vessel with little to no help. "I want the trip back to be as authentic as possible," the 30-year-old says. "If I've got a big boat sitting right there with granola bars on it  that ruins the whole thing. If I did have a chase boat, it would definitely be far out of sight."

Johnson expects the entire trip to take two days if conditions are perfect, more than a week if not, and he'll have a personal locator beacon and another location device so he can send updates to his website as he blogs his way through the experience (he says he was able to get the license from the US State Department for the trip to Cuba for "journalistic" purposes). "I want to experience what it's like to come here on a raft," he tells Fox 35. "I want to know what the men, women, and children go through to get here." The State Department already seems to have some insight into that experience, warning on its website that "Cuban territorial waters are extremely dangerous and difficult to navigate, even for experienced mariners. The potential for running aground is very high  and running aground will often lead to the complete destruction and loss of the vessel." (He'll just miss the Rolling Stones concert in Havana.)
(Newser)  A 29-year-old American tourist in Israel was killed in a series of attacks that coincided with vice president Joe Biden's visit to the country on Tuesday, the Times of Israel reports. The man's wife was "severely injured." A Palestinian man armed with a knife stabbed multiple people during a 20-minute attack across three locations in the city of Jaffa. Ten people were wounded, some critically, but the American touristidentified by the AP as Taylor Forcewas the only death. "He attacked a tourist couple," one witness tells the Guardian. "The woman was stabbed several times, tried to flee, and fell. The terrorist then continued to stab the man." Force was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University and was on a school trip to Tel Aviv. The injured victims include a pregnant Israeli woman, a Palestinian man, and an Arab Israeli.

Video from the incident shows the attackera 21- or 22-year-old man from a Palestinian refugee camprunning from location to location attacking people. "I saw a man run at me with a knife, I ran at him with the guitar and smashed it in his head," one man tells the AP. "He was so stunned and didn't know what to do with himself and then started running away." Police shot and killed the attacker. Biden, who was meeting with a former Israeli president nearby, condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the victims and their families. There have been near-daily attacks since September in Israel, but Tuesday was one of the worst days. At least 13 people were injured in stabbings and shootings in Jaffa, Jerusalem, and elsewhere. In total, four Palestinian attackers were killed by Israeli police. (Read more Israel stories.)
New Delhi:

Google has paid special tribute to women of different nationalities on the occasion of International Womens Day. Taking woman education as the theme, Google have made a video featuring woman of various nationalities, titled as I will one day.

The short video shows the woman of different nationalities expressing their desires to achieve something one day. The uniqueness of the video lies in the fact that Google has refrained from featuring known and famous. Instead, they have featured the common woman of the world.

The video also features a woman of Indian Nationality who speaks in Hindi and wishes to open a restraint. In rest of the video, the woman form different nationalities are seen addressing their desires in their native languages.

In the end, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousufzai appears to give the message of that ONE DAY EVERY GIRL WILL GO TO SCHOOL.
Tunis:

Exceptionally deadly clashes between Tunisian forces and extremist attackers left at least 53 people dead today near Tunisias border with Libya, the government said, amid growing fear that violence from Libya could destabilize the whole region.



Gunmen attacked the city of Ben Guerdane at dawn today and fighting continued into the evening. Tunisia closed its border with Libya and the Tunisian interior and defense ministers traveled to the town to oversee the operation, according to a joint statement from their ministries.



The Tunisian government didnt identify the attackers and no group claimed immediate responsibility, but two IS-affiliated websites said Islamic State group militants were engaged in the fighting.



This is an unprecedented attack, planned and organized, and whose goal was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate, said Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi.



The attack left 35 terrorists, seven civilians and 11 members of Tunisias security forces dead, according to the joint government statement.



A 12-year-old girl was among those who were killed.



Libyas chaos, five years after the uprising that led to the ouster and killing of longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, has allowed the Islamic State group to take control of several cities. The divided country is ruled by two parliaments: an internationally recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival government, backed by Islamist-allied militias, that controls the capital, Tripoli.



Tunisias fledgling democratic government is especially worried about the IS presence in Libya after dozens of tourists were killed in extremist attacks in Tunisia last year. IS extremists claimed responsibility for those attacks, and Tunisian authorities said the attackers had been trained in Libya.



At dawn today, gunmen targeted a police station and military facilities in Ben Guerdane, Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Yasser Mosbah told The Associated Press. A night curfew has been ordered in Ben Guerdane until further notice.



The nearby tourist cities of Djerba and Zarzis were not affected by the violence, the statement said.



Frances foreign ministry condemned the attacks and identified the gunmen as terrorists coming from Libyan territory. This attack just reinforces the urgent need for a political solution in Libya, the ministry said in a statement, adding that Tunisia was targeted because of its exemplary democratic transition.

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London:

Scotland Yard today warned that Islamic State terrorists were planning enormous and spectacular attacks on western countries as part of the dreaded terror outfits strategy to broaden its focus.



Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, who is also the UKs national head of counter-terrorism, told reporters that Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists were broadening their focus to target western lifestyles.



In recent months weve seen a broadening. Much more plans to attack western lifestyle, and obviously the Paris attacks in November, Rowley said.



Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader. And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks not just the types that weve seen foiled to date, he said.



Scotland Yard noted that the number of terrorism-related arrests hit record levels last year 339 arrests in England, Wales and Scotland, which is the highest yearly figure.



This marked a 57 per cent increase in the last three years, compared with the previous three, Britains largest police force said.



It also marks an increase in women and families among those arrested, around 14 per cent were female and 13 per cent were aged 20 and under and nearly four out of five were UK nationals.



You see a terrorist group that whilst on the one hand has been acting as a cult to use propaganda to radicalise people to act in their name. You also see them trying to build bigger attacks, Rowley said.



That would not have been the picture that one would have seen a few years ago. That is an indication of that radicalisation, the effect of the propaganda and the way the messages of Daesh (ISIS) are resonating with some individuals, he said.



He said the ISIS was encouraging supporters who had received military training in Syria to enter northern Europe to stage attacks.



It also emerged at the briefing that psychologists are being deployed to work with counter-terrorism units because of increasing concern that people with mental health problems were being radicalised.



Having that insight is critical, Rowley said.



He also confirmed that the number of trained firearms officers across the UK had been increased in the wake of the attacks in Paris last year in which over 120 people were killed.

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Mexico City:

President Enrique Pena Nieto stepped up Mexicos criticism of Donald Trumps inflammatory comments about his country, saying his strident rhetoric recalls the rise of Hitler and Mussolini.



Pena Nieto urged Americans to vote with caution as he used newspaper interviews published today to slam the Republican front-runners criticism of the Mexican government and migrants.



The Mexican leader condemned Trumps strident tone, saying such comments seek very simple solutions to complicated problems, and he warned that they can hurt US-Mexican relations.



There have been episodes in the history of humanity, unfortunately, where these expressions, this strident rhetoric, has only really led to ominous scenarios in the history of humanity, he told the daily Excelsior.



Thats how Mussolini and Hitler arrived. They took advantage of a context, maybe a problem, that humanity was experiencing at the time, after an economic crisis. And I think that what was proposed led to what we know from history, a global conflagration, the president said.



Pena Nietos comments follow tough reactions from his predecessors, with former president Felipe Calderon also drawing a parallel with Hitler and Vicente Fox dropping the F-bomb against Trumps call for Mexico to pay for a border wall.



Trump, who leads the race for the Republican nomination, has railed against immigrants and especially immigration from Mexico, accusing the country of sending drug dealers and rapists to the United States.



As for the billionaires vow to make Mexico pay for a border wall, Pena Nieto told Excelsior there was no scenario in which his government would foot the bill.



I hope that the electorate there is really cautious and that in the end it results in a government with whichas we have up to nowwe seek dialogue and we continue building bridges of understanding, within the framework of absolute mutual respect, he said.



In an interview with El Universal, Pena Nieto warned that Trumps statements hurt a relationship that Mexico has sought with the United States of bridges, of dialogue, of rapprochement, of seeking solutions to shared problems.



He added: It seems to me (such statements) come from an ignorance of Mexico.



The Mexican leader said, however, that he would seek a constructive dialogue with whoever is elected the next US president on November 8.

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New Delhi:

Deepika Padukone, who is busy shooting for her debut Hollywood flick xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, keeps her eager fans updated.

In her informal series, Deepika posted an amazing picture with her male lead Vin Diesel in the movie.

Vin and Deepika looked enjoying in each others company. Moreover, our very own Deepika is seen resting her head on a pile of bags and Vin is seen laughing while seated next to her.

Unlike previous ones, this picture is a bit informal and has been posted directly from the sets of the movie.

Also starring Nina Dobrev, Samuel L. Jackson, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Ruby Rose, Kris Wu and Ariadna Gutierrez, the movie will release in 2017.

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New Delhi:

After facing criticism, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the government has decided to withdraw proposal to tax Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals.

Main argument is that employees should have choice of where to invest, idea is to make people join pension scheme, Jaitley said in a statement Lok Sabha.

Here are the 10 Developments:

1. The roll-back in the PF withdrawal tax was announced by Mr Jaitley in a short speech in Lok sabha on Tuesday. He said that a comprehensive review would be conducted in this regard.

2. The Finance Minister made the announcement while clarifying the governments stand on the PF withdrawal tax amid controversy over the proposal.

3. Meanwhile, the Finance Minister said that tax proposal for NPS scheme has been retained.

4. The Opposition had criticised the PF withdrawal tax that was announced by the government in the Union Budget last week.

5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly suggested to defer the EPF tax for now.

6. While announcing the Union Budget, Jaitley had proposed that 60% of the amount deposited in the employees EPF account would be taxable on withdrawing, while 40% would be tax free and this had to be applicable after April this year.

7. According to the provision, in case 60% is re-invested by the employee in an annuity or pension fund then it will be tax-free.

8. Protests were held by the government demanding immediate roll-back of the proposal.



9. Jaitley had said earlier that any decision on the roll-back would be taken by the Prime Minister.



10. Jaitley says the idea behind the EPF tax is to create a pensioned society.
New Delhi:

On International Women's Day when the world is expressing the gratefulness and love for woman, here comes a news which depresses us to the core. TDP MLA and actor Nandamuri Balakrishna has allegedly made some very derogatory remarks against women.

As per a report, Balakrishna, who is also the brother-in-law of AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu said that he has to kiss and even make her co-stars pregnant on screen to satisfy viewers. "If I play eve-teasing roles, and just follow girls, my fans will not accept. Either a kiss should be given or they should be made pregnant. Thats all. We have to commit ourselves." said the actor-cum-politician at a public meeting.

The comment has been widely criticised and News agency PTI has reported that a FIR has also been registered.

We have received a complaint against Nandamuri Balakrishna alleging that he made some vulgar comments against women at an audio release function for a movie held three days ago. We are seeking legal opinion on the issue, Saroornagar police inspector S Lingaiah told PTI.

Wading into the issue, YSR Congress MLA RK Roja today demanded an apology from the CM and Balakrishna on the issue.

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New Delhi:

On the occasion of International womens day, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha announced that India will see first batch of women fighter pilots on June 18th  something which really corroborates the woman empowerment in India.

As of now three women trainees have volunteered to join the fighter stream. They are under the second phase of their training. Once they complete their training and are at par with their male colleagues and the passing out parade is scheduled on June 18th, Raha told ANI.

Raha revealed that three women pilots have voluntarily come forward to register their names for the job. Currently, all the three pilots are going through the training session. After the completion of training, all three trainees will be elevated the first women officers in the fighter stream. After which, they will proceed to the regular fighter squads.

He revealed that it was the Air Mobility Command (AMC) who first provided the opportunity to women to serve in the defence after which, the females were exposed to these opportunities.

This had surprised many as Raha had earlier disapproved of inclusion of women in the fighter squad.

As far as flying fighter planes is concerned, it is a very challenging job. Women are by nature not physically suited for flying fighter planes for long hours, especially when they are pregnant or have other health problems, he had said.

President Pranab Mukherjee joint address of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had also said the same. In the future, my government will induct women in all fighter streams of our armed forces. President Mukherjee has said.

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Washington:

Students most often use the words brilliant and genius to describe professors who are male and in academic disciplines where women and African-Americans are underrepresented, a new US study has found.

Researchers analysed more than 14 million reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, where students write anonymous reviews of their professors.

Male professors were described more often as brilliant and genius than female professors in every single field we studied - about two to three times more often, said Daniel Storage from University of Illinois in the US.

Students also used brilliant and genius to describe their professors most often in academic fields such as philosophy and physics, in which women and African-American students are a distinct minority, said Storage.

The study found that none of the following four factors could fully explain the underrepresentation of women or African-Americans in a field - average GRE (graduate school entry exam) math scores, the desire to avoid long hours at work, the selectivity of each field or the ability to think systematically.

While there are correlations between some of these factors and the presence or absence of women and African-Americans in some fields, we consistently found that the only thing that was explaining the proportions of women and African-Americans in a particular field was that fields emphasis on the importance of brilliance and genius, said Storage.

Both of these groups are stereotyped in a similar way about their intellectual abilities and therefore are potentially affected in a similar way by the amount of emphasis that is put on brilliance, said Andrei Cimpian from the University of Illinois.

The people in certain fields might not see that quality in women and African-Americans. Women and African-Americans themselves may be conditioned to not see these qualities in themselves, said Cimpian. The findings were published in the journal Science.

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New Delhi :

Getting a good hair cut is not a big deal, visit a salon and you will get your hair chopped as desired. But what if we tell you that you can cut your own bangs at home?

It could have been a dreadful deal if you have tried it at home before but this video shows how easily you can cut your own bangs. Make up artist Camilo Bravo uploaded a 15-second video to Instagram where she cut her own side bangs, and the results will completely blow you away.

Before reaching any conclusions, have a look at the video and decide yourselves, isnt it quite easy to cut bangs at home?
New Delhi:

It was a sight not seen often when woman MP Ranjeet Ranjan today rode to Parliament on an orange Harley-Davidson motorcycle to make a statement on Womens Day.



The 42-year-old Lok Sabha member belonging to Congress from Bihars Supaul, wearing a blue attire with helmet and sunglasses, rode around the Parliament complex before entering the House to take part in days proceedings.



A mother of two, Ranjeet said she does not allow even her husband Rajesh Ranjan, also a Lok Sabha member from Bihar, to touch the bike, which she had purchased from her own earnings.



However, he does get a chance to sit pillion as she rides the American monster.



Prices of Harley-Davidson motorcycles start from around Rs 4.5 lakh.



Ranjeet said she can come to Parliament on motorcycle and cycle daily. My life has been such that my parents have never objected to whatever I have done so far, she said.



She later also participated in the discussion on Womens Day in Lok Sabha.

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New Delhi :

Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, under fire for organising a massive event on the Yamuna floodplain, today said his organisation will build a biodiversity park in that area and rubbished allegations of ecological harm.

Ravi Shankar told reporters here that not a single tree has been cut in the run up to the World Cultural Festival to be held between March 11-13 and that four trees have only been trimmed in the riverine area.

Villagers said that their buffaloes never went near the water in the past. Now I have been informed by the them that those buffaloes have entered the water. The villagers are very happy.

We will leave the place after making a biodiversity park there. In the past, our volunteers have brought out 512 tonne of garbage from Yamuna. We have not cut any trees, have just trimmed four. We want a clean Yamuna and we care about the environment, Ravi Shankar said.

The event, slated to take place between March 11-13 on the west bank of Yamuna floodplain near DND flyover, has been organised to celebrate 35 years of The Art of Living. It is being supported by the Centre and the Delhi government among others, and is expected to attract around 35 lakh people.

It has come under the scanner of National Green Tribunal after a set of petitions were filed demanding its cancellation over concerns of potential permanent damage to the riverbed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the event on Friday and President Pranab Mukherjee was to attend the valedictory function on Sunday.

However, Mukherjee yesterday pulled out of the event in the wake of controversy citing unavoidable circumstances. The National Green Tribunal today questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is required for erecting structures in Yamuna Flood plains for Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living three-day World Culture Festival.

You (MoEF) file an affidavit by tomorrow and tell us why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures in flood plains, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar said.

The direction came after counsel appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said that they have found no debris at the site, when an expert team had visited and as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

The Green Panel also questioned the building up of pontoon bridge by the Army on river Yamuna for the festival, and asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel as who gave the permission for setting it up.

DDA, Delhi government, MoEF said that they have no relation with the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge as all the three said that they are concerned only with different issues.

While DDA said it was only required to give no objection certificate for the bridge, Delhi government submitted that its role for the pontoon bridge comes only at the time of flood and MoEF passed the buck on Ministry of Water Resources.

Advocate Rajiv Bansal appearing for DDA backed the authoritys decision to grant permission for the event saying that it has given the nod with conditions that no permanent construction will be permitted without permission from the competent authority.

The area is meant for recreational activity. The area is with DDA and it is the competent authority. Permission was granted after taking proper legal opinion which was conditional that no permanent structure will be constructed and also that it will be subject to permissions from other concerned authorities, he said.

Art of Living (AOL) in its submission said that it had taken the requisite permissions from all the authorities except from the police which is subject to permission from fire department and they have fulfilled all the conditions.

The bench after hearing the matter adjourned the matter for tomorrow. The NGT is hearing pleas seeking stoppage of ongoing construction on the flood plains for the Cultural festival.

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Raipur:

Activist Soni Sori today said tribal women in India feel insecure despite living in a democracy as she lambasted both police and government for failing to protect them and their rights.

We live in a democracy despite which we are insecure. We are attacked and dissent is squashed. Even today, many tribal women are locked in jail. They face various kinds of tortures, atrocities and injustice.

Is raising voice against injustice wrong? Is asking for a legal proceedings wrong?, she said at a gathering at Jantar Mantar to mark the International Womens Day, where the audience responded with a resounding Shame!Shame.

Sori, who herself was attacked with an acid-like chemical in Chhattisgarh last month, alleged that the state police indulges in all kinds of atrocities and still manages to get away with it.

Police are raping us instead of protecting. They call us naxals and throw us behind bars. FIRs have been filed against the guilty policemen but no action has been initiated against them, she alleged.

The 44-year-old Adivasi school teacher was arrested by the Delhi Polices Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists.

During her imprisonment, she alleged that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police.

Men are killed and women tortured in Bastar by those who want our land and, when we question them, they attack us, she said referencing to the recent attack on her.

By April 2013, the courts had acquitted Sori in six of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence.

Buoyed by the huge turnout in her support, Sori vowed to continue fighting for the rights of tribals and women in Bastar despite the ordeals she was facing.

I will return to Chhattisgarh. We are not quitters. We will continue our fight. We will fight for the freedom of women who are in jail for years. We will fight together and we will win, said Sori.

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Lucknow:

Amid the controversy over its minority status, Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor Lt Gen (Retd) Zameer Uddin Shah will meet HRD Minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi on March 10.

Thursdays meeting between the two could well mark a watershed moment in AMUs present uneasy relationship with the HRD Ministry, an AMU spokesman said.

Shah had yesterday said the preservation of minority character of the university is a very emotive and sensitive issue for the Muslims of the country.

He was speaking at a seminar here on Religious Tolerance and Indias Pluralistic Ethos organized by the Sir Syed Educational Society.

Shah said in his meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, he informed him that any attempt to tamper with the minority status of AMU would cause disquiet in the Muslim community.

Noting that Modi gave him a patient hearing, the Vice-Chancellor said, I feel that the Prime Minister is going to give very serious consideration to all the issues raised by us in the memorandum.

Shah said he also stressed that if the universitys three off-campus centres located in Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar continue to be starved of funds, their very existence would be jeopardised.

The Vice Chancellor did not comment on media reports about his alleged humiliation by Irani on January 8 when he accompanied a delegation led by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, which had gone to meet her and refused to disclose whether the issue had come up during his meeting with the Prime Minister.

A number of prominent alumni, including former Rajya Sabha member Mohammad Adeeb, had voiced their concern over the incident.

In a letter addressed to different alumni associations, Adeeb said, We share the humiliation which has been heaped on a man who is not only the Vice-Chancellor of this great institution but also the former Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces of India.

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Islamabad:

The 87 Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen freed by Pakistan, who were stranded for more than 30 hours at the Wagah border, were today allowed to cross into their homeland after all legal formalities were completed.

Today we have handed over 87 Indian nationals mostly fishermen to BSF India, Pakistan Rangers spokesman Muhammad Asif told PTI adding the Indians were handed over after meeting the legal requirements.

Owing to lack of coordination between the Pakistan Rangers and Foreign Ministry, the Indian nationals who were released from the Landhi Jail, Karachi on March 6 could not be handed over to the Indian authorities.

They remained stranded at the Wagah border yesterday as the Rangers said the Indian officials concerned did not turn up (at Wagah).

Earlier, Pakistan Rangers official Major Waheed said that all arrangements to hand over the released prisoners to the Indian authorities were made but none of Indias foreign ministry officials reached Wagah to sign the documents to hand over the prisoners.

After the release of the 87 prisoners, another 457 Indians remain in jail in Karachi and most of them are fishermen arrested for territorial violation.

Landhi Jail deputy superintendent Shakir Shah said the 87 Indians had been in jail for more than two years.

They had completed their sentences and were freed after verification of their travel documents sent by the Indian authorities.

Both Indian and Pakistani fishermen are often arrested for illegal fishing since the Arabian Sea border is not clearly defined and many boats lack the technology to fix their precise location.

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London:

The UK today appointed veteran career diplomat Sir Dominic Asquith as its new High Commissioner to India. The 59-year-old Asquith will take over from Sir James Bevan, who joined the UKs Environment Agency (EA) as chief executive last November, soon after Narendra Modis first visit to the UK as Prime Minister.

The Honourable Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG (Knight Commander) has been appointed British High Commissioner to the Republic of India in succession to Sir James Bevan KCMG, who has transferred to a non-governmental public body. The Honourable Sir Dominic will take up his appointment during March 2016, a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office statement said.

Sir Dominic has been at the forefront of UK-Libya affairs, having served as ambassador in Tripoli in the past and currently chairman of the Libyan British Business Council. He holds a number of advisory posts at firms like Dentons LLP, Macro Advisory Partners and Group DF International.

He takes charge in India at a time when India-UK ties are at a high and is expected to be joined in New Delhi by wife and four children.

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Washington:

The US Air Force will continue to fly daily missions over the South China Sea despite a buildup of Chinese surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the contested region, with both nations militaries in discussions to avoid any miscalculations, a top US general said today.

Gen Lori Robinson, the commander of the Pacific Air Forces, also urged other nations to exercise their freedom to fly and sail in international airspace and waters claimed by China in the South China Sea or risk losing it throughout the region.

Weve watched the increased military capability on those islands, whether its the fighters, whether its the missiles or the 10,000-foot runways. We will continue to do as weve always done, and that is fly and sail in international airspace in accordance to international rules and norms, Robinson told reporters in Australias capital, Canberra, where she will address the Royal Australian Air Forces biennial Air Power Conference next week.

Robinson declined to say how the United States would retaliate if a US plane was shot down by the Chinese.

Several governments have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, a major conduit for world trade. The US lays no claims to the waters, but says it has an interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and non-use of force and coercion to assert claims.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a hard line today on the countrys claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, saying Beijing wont permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
At age 88, New York-based Earl Fultz and his wife, Gloria Elmaleh, 85, started commercially bottling and selling the Moroccan sauces and spices she had been concocting at home under the brand name, "cHarissa." After Gloria passed away, Mr. Fultz, now 91, soldiered on and even expanded the business, winning a variety of accolades including a best-in-category award at last summers Fancy Food Show.

So, how does one get the entrepreneurial bug at almost 90 years old, and what lessons can he share? Here are some of Earls entrepreneurial pearls of wisdom.

Related: Why It's Never Too Late to Become an Entrepreneur (Infographic)

1. Try to focus on what you know.

Earl is very cognizant that statistically, more startups fail than succeed, so he advocates that you pursue a business in an area you know. Both he and his wife came at this from a different perspective.

In creating the business, Gloria, who was originally from Morocco, experimented with spices that she was familiar with in an effort to find a way to easily bring Moroccan flavor to familiar foods. She ultimately tamed a very hot Moroccan sauce / condiment called "Harrisa" by removing the hot jalapeno and substituting Cumin, the worlds second most popular spice.

They named it "cHarissa" to denote the difference but to also indicate it was kind of a third cousin to Harissa. It was her specific knowledge of the product that led to something special and differentiated.

In running the business, Earl had some familiarity with the food business. He explains, I wrote and produced sales meetings for General Foods and bottler conferences for Pepsi and Coca-Cola. But that experience is only starting from the top. Starting from the bottom is different. However, he believes that his experience allowed him to have a good working knowledge of the industry that he could leverage and increase his chances for success.

2. Get a real proof of concept.

While Earl says that is was family that originally encouraged his and his wifes business, it wasnt a real opportunity until there were third-party paying customers.

We first exposed cHarissa at a birthday party for Gloria and her sister with over 40 family members," he says. "It got compliments, but it was at a cousins party the following year when we were urged to try to market it. I agreed to do the groundwork, find a supplier and get a label.

"By this time, I had met [his current 'right-hand woman'] Jeri Woodhouse, who had a commercial kitchen and was very active in promoting home-grown and healthy foods. She gave me some of her space at the local farmers market. The response was terrific. The first week was less than $100 in sales. By the fifth week, sales were over $500.

Related: It's Never Too Late: At 78, This Former Physicist Is Starting a Hedge Fund

3. Do your best to attract people who are smarter than you are.

Earl believes that a big part of his success -- and that of other entrepreneurs -- is to attract smart people. This includes Jeri, mentioned above, and business advisor Ellen Rohr. This allowed Earl to leverage the knowledge base of others while he built the business.

As Ellen Rohr said, When I first met Earl, I assumed that he was just dabbling in a hobby business, hoping to keep busy. Boy, was I wrong! At our first meeting, Earl announced that his goal is a billion-dollar company. He intends to knock the other hot sauces off the tables of America -- and the world!

"Earl has more energy than a 9-year-old. While physically, he moves a little slower than he used to, mentally he is a force of nature. As a result, he is an excellent delegator. Jeri, in her 70s, reports in to Earl daily, and they operate off a written business plan and updated projects list.

4. Expect to make mistakes.

With a lifetime of knowledge comes the knowing that you dont ever know everything. Earl says, I think the biggest problem is one's lack of experience -- aka The frog's dilemma.' The frog knows it has to jump to get anywhere but doesnt know what direction to jump. The same problem is inherent in start-ups -- and even companies who are growing to a new level.

The solution, says Earl, Ask for help. You don't have to take it. And like the frog, keep jumping, just expect some hard landings.

5. Dont undervalue the purpose.

While Earl has so many wonderful things to say about entrepreneurship, he says, I value having a purpose in my declining years. I value having something to get me up in the morning (good or bad).

While profits are important to keeping a business going, Earl now has something that not only honors his late wife but fills the void of her being gone. Hes also been able to add to his life experiences with such accomplishments as becoming a guest chef at Yankee Stadium and meeting Matt Gibson, Executive Chef at the NY Yankees Legends Restaurant. His connection with Matt led cHarissa to being served at the Revolving Restaurant atop the World Trade Center.

He says, Its a kick!... I wish I had learned earlier how liberating a startup can be. And fun.

6. Make your own luck.

Earl believes that timing and luck play a role in an entrepreneurs success. However, he thinks that you are able to influence the course of that luck with your actions. He says, I think business colleges should have a course called Luck 101.' My premise is simple -- luck comes to those who have a passion, who have goals and who aren't afraid to take a chance. I've had a lot of luck.

Related: The Benefits of Launching a Family Business in Your Golden Years

As for the future of cHarissa? Earls goal is to keep going into his 100s and then, someday Warren Buffet will wish he had bought us.

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Today is International Women's Day, celebrating women's economic, political and social achievements worldwide. So, it seems fitting to single out Nigerian entrepreneur Habiba Ali, CEO and managing director of Sosai Renewable Energies. This company, which was founded in 2010 as a for-profit, is one of Nigeria's largest distributors of renewable energy, providing solar lamps, water purifiers, solar panels and more to communities and urban areas. Its energy-consulting service offers market analysis, feasibility studies, advisory services and strategic guidance.

Related: This Artificial Intelligence Startup is Empowering Women All Over

Ali's mission is none less than to bridge the energy gap and bring clean, renewable energy solutions to her nation's disadvantaged communities, Despite that aery goal, Ali began at the street level, handing out solar lamps to women in her neighborhood, to replace their kerosene lamps, dangerous to their lungs.

With grit and smarts, she eventually founded her company, taking advantage of mentoring and training she received from VV GROW Fellowship, a one-year accelerator for women owners of small and medium businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Today, her Kaduna, Nigeria-based company is thriving, with 20 employees. Ali wants to empower other women entrepreneurs by teaching them to sell renewable energy products in their communities and to "pay it forward" in the process. In her own words:

I never planned on starting a business. My husband and I had originally founded a non-governmental organization focused on renewable energies. In this role, I was invited in 2009 to Uganda for the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) Forum. Did you know that using a kerosene lamp for just three hours can create fumes equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes? I didnt, and it scared me -- I passed women street vendors in my neighborhood who sold their products by a kerosene lamp for no less than five hours a day.

I was buying bread from women whose lungs were going black with fumes. One day I bought 10 solar lamps and loaned them to the women in my neighborhood to use in place of the kerosene lamps.

A month later, they did not want to give them up. This was the beginning of Sosai Renewable Energies. Today, we provide renewable energy products and sustainable energy consulting to communities across Nigeria. As we celebrate International Womens Day, I wanted to share my story and advice Ive learned as an entrepreneur for women looking to find their voices and improve their lives through entrepreneurship.

Here, too, are the lessons Ali says she's learned:

1. Identify a critical need and know your customer.

In Nigeria, we have a huge energy problem. Many communities are not connected to the grid, and families have to use generators and kerosene lamps to light their lives. At the same time, many Nigerians are very poor. While our lamps are cheaper than kerosene or battery-powered lamps in the long run, they can be a big investment for Nigerians with very little income.

To succeed as a company, we had to balance this critical energy need with the realities of our customers lives. We have worked hard to bridge that gap by securing enough financing to provide customers with rent-to-own and other payment options for renewable products.

2. Get smart.

Over the years, I have faced numerous barriers in building my business. In 2015, I participated in a one-year accelerator program called the Vital Voices GROW Fellowship. The program allowed me to explore my capabilities as a leader and provided me with the training to successfully grow my business. The most important thing an entrepreneur can do is to find training and a mentor who can help set her business up for success.

Related: #PledgeForParity, Here And Now

3. Build a strong network.

As a woman entrepreneur in Nigeria, building a community of mentors and support has been very important to my career. Last year, the VV GROW Fellowship connected me to a global network of women entrepreneurs. It has been amazing to see the growth and success that these women have accomplished since our training, and know that I was there with them from the start. We are now a group of friends and sisters, holding each others hands through hurdles and growing together without any animosity.

4. Dont listen to naysayers.

I have been in business long enough to know that the journey, especially for a woman in northern Nigeria, is filled with challenges and frustrations every step of the way. Many did not approve of me working so hard outside the home and it was difficult to obtain funding for my business when I first started. But business also changed my life. It enabled me to discover the me within me, my driving force and my strength. I believe any woman can start a business, if she really sets her mind to it.

5. Pay it forward.

It had always been a dream of mine to involve women in the sale of renewable energy products. Renewable energy is not a very girly business, and for that reason, I think that women really need to show their prowess in this field. Thats why I launched the Matan Arewan Sosai energy entrepreneurship initiative, which aims to help women become energy entrepreneurs and use clean energy technologies like solar refrigerators, kiosks and milling for income generating activities.

So far, we have recruited about 30 women and are working to source additional funds so that we can extend more income-generating activities to women. By doing so, Im paying it forward and helping more women stand on their own financially.

Related: They Came, They Saw, They Conquered: 4 Women Who Chose unconventional Fields & Excelled

The Vital Voices GROW Fellowship is a one-year accelerator program for women owners of small and medium businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. In partnership with the ExxonMobil Foundation, the VV GROW Fellowship provides customized business skills training, technical assistance, leadership development and access to networks to help women grow their businesses and increase their leadership impact.

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Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
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DANBURY  Police say a man looking to rent an apartment he found on Craigslist gave a $15,000 down payment to a New Jersey couple, but later discovered the pair did not own the home.

The victim told police Jan. 19 that he was searching for Danbury rentals on craigslist.org, when he found a post for an apartment at Poets Landing condominiums, 16 Hayestown Road.

The man visited the apartment twice. The first time he was taken there by Brian Barry, 41, and the second time by both Barry and his wife, 30-year-old Amber Barry, police said.

The Roseland, N.Y., couple told the victim they were relocating and wanted to rent the apartment out, according to the report.

Police said the victim signed a rental agreement and gave the couple $2,350 for each the security deposit and the first and last months of rent, as well a lump sum to lower the overall monthly rent.

Shortly after he moved in, the victim learned the Barrys did not own the apartment, but were former tenants themselves, police said.

The couple had leased the condominium in August and rented to the victim in September, according to the report. In January, the actual owner served the victim with a notice to quit for failing to pay his rent. The owner thought the victim was Barry, police said.

Brian Barry was arrested Feb. 26 in Bridgewater, N.J., and was brought to Danbury on Saturday. Amber Barry was arrested Feb. 29 in Roseland, N.J., and was brought to Danbury on Monday.

They were each charged with second-degree larceny and were released after posting $50,000 bond. They are scheduled to appear March 18 in state Superior Court in Danbury.

Police said the victim has since moved out of the apartment.
OTTAWA, March 8, 2016 /CNW/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde, together with Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson and AFN Women's Council Chair Therese Villeneuve, today marked International Women's Day by Canadians to celebrate the success of Indigenous women in Canada, and honour them by ensuring their safety, education and equality.

"Today we celebrate the many essential contributions women make at the centre of our families and our communities," said AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde. "Our relationships with our mothers, sisters, aunts and daughters are sacred and they must be respected. Today we celebrate the success of Indigenous women across Canada and we honour them by committing to their safety, education, employment and equality wherever they reside."

International Women's Day is acknowledged annually March 8. It celebrates social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action. This year's international theme is focused on gender parity.

"First Nations women still have many challenges ahead of us in terms of equality and equity at all levels, whether it be among First Nation governments, provincial or federal," said Okanese First Nation Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier who is the longest serving female Chief in Canada. "Efforts must be made to promote, provide and support upper level management and political opportunities for First Nations women."

"Indigenous women in Canada should have access to the same opportunity as every other Canadian  male or female," said AFN Women's Council Chair Therese Villeneuve. "The AFN women's council supports and promotes Indigenous women in leadership roles in our communities and across the country. We celebrate our sisters who are thriving in their homes and family units and in business and high level careers. Every role must be respected and every woman and young girl must be supported to fulfil their dreams for success."

International Women's Day follows the second National Roundtable on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls which last month brought together Indigenous families, leaders and federal, provincial, territorial leaders to set priorities to address and prevent violence.

"Safety and security for Indigenous women and girls is an urgent priority that requires immediate attention and long-term, coordinated action that will address head-on the vulnerabilities that lead to violence," said AFN Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson who leads efforts in the area of justice and addressing violence against Indigenous women and girls. "There is no quick fix or easy answer, but with the appropriate investments in shelters, day cares, education and housing (just to name some), we will be able to better achieve safety and better support success."

For more information on work toward a national action plan to address and prevent violence against women and girls and the upcoming 2016 National Roundtable please visit: http://www.afn.ca/index.php/en/policy-areas/i-pledge.-end-violence.

The Assembly of First Nation is the national organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada. Follow AFN on Twitter @AFN_Comms, @AFN_Updates.

SOURCE Assembly of First Nations

For further information: Jenna Young Castro, AFN Communications Officer, 613-241-6789, ext. 401; 613-314-8157, or [email protected]; Alain Garon, AFN Bilingual Communications Officer, 613-241-6789, ext. 382; 613-292-0857, or [email protected]
NEW YORK, TORONTO, March 8, 2016 /CNW/ - A new multi-country initiative to accelerate action to end child marriage will help protect the rights of millions of the world's most vulnerable girls, UNICEF and UNFPA said on International Women's Day.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage announced today will involve families, communities, governments and young people. This is part of a global effort to prevent girls from marrying too young and to support those already married as girls in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East where child marriage rates are high.

"Choosing when and whom to marry is one of life's most important decisions. Child marriage denies millions of girls this choice each year," said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. "As part of this global program, we will work with governments of countries with a high prevalence of child marriage to uphold the rights of adolescent girls, so that girls can reach their potential and countries can attain their social and economic development goals."

The new global program will focus on five proven strategies, including increasing girls' access to education, educating parents and communities on the dangers of child marriage, increasing economic support to families, and strengthening and enforcing laws that establish 18 as the minimum age of marriage.

"The world has awakened to the damage child marriage causes to individual girls, to their future children, and to their societies," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "This new global program will help drive action to reach the girls at greatest risk  and help more girls and young women realize their right to dictate their own destinies. This is critical now because if current trends continue, the number of girls and women married as children will reach nearly one billion by 2030  one billion childhoods lost, one billion futures blighted."

Child marriage is a violation of the rights of girls and women. Girls who are married as children are more likely to be out of school, suffer domestic violence, contract HIV/AIDS and die due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Child marriage also hurts economies and leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty.

The global community demonstrated strong commitment to end child marriage by including a target on eliminating it and other harmful practices in the Sustainable Development Goals. UNICEF and UNFPA call on governments and partner organizations to support the new Global Program to help eliminate child marriage by 2030.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage is being supported by Canada, the European Union, Italy, Netherlands, and the UK.

Download multimedia material here: http://uni.cf/1R1p80u

About UNFPA

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA works in over 150 countries and territories to expand the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy and productive lives. For more information about UNFPA and its work visit: www.unfpa.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About UNICEF

UNICEF has saved more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization. We work tirelessly to help children and their families, doing whatever it takes to ensure children survive. We provide children with healthcare and immunization, clean water, nutrition and food security, education, emergency relief and more.

UNICEF is supported entirely by voluntary donations and helps children regardless of race, religion or politics. As part of the UN, we are active in over 190 countries - more than any other organization. Our determination and our reach are unparalleled. Because nowhere is too far to go to help a child survive. For more information about UNICEF, please visit www.unicef.ca. For updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook or visit unicef.ca.

SOURCE UNICEF Canada

Image with caption: "UNICEF Canada (CNW Group/UNICEF Canada)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160308_C1148_PHOTO_EN_637678.jpg

For further information: To arrange interviews or for more information please contact: Tiffany Baggetta, UNICEF Canada,416-482-6552 ext. 8892; 647-308-4806 (mobile), [email protected]; Stefanie Carmichael, UNICEF Canada, 416-482-6552 ext. 8866; 647-500-4320 (mobile), [email protected]
Partners announce the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging

TORONTO, ON, March 8, 2016 /CNW/ - The Posluns Family Foundation is celebrating International Women's Day by announcing a partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), and The Alzheimer Society of Canada (ASC) that will fund the first research initiative of its kind in Canada under the title of the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging.

The Chair will support an outstanding researcher working to enhance women's brain health through the study of cognitive aging and associated disorders. More specifically, this initiative will build capacity in research that accounts for gender and sexthat is, social and biological influenceson brain health and aging. The Chair holder will work to translate the research results into gender and sex-sensitive policies and interventions that improve brain health and promote wellness in aging.

The Posluns family has a long history of philanthropic work that spans across four generations. Lynn Posluns, founder and president of Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI) is spearheading the initiative along with her siblings Wendy Posluns and David Posluns in the name of their parents, Wilfred and Joyce. Wilfred Posluns passed away in 2010 at the age of 78, and this Chair is being established to honour his and his wife's long-standing dedication to community involvementsomething that Wilfred was very passionate about.

"Wilfred was always involved in the community, from an early age of 21," said Joyce Posluns. "He has instilled the importance of charity in our three children, Wendy, Lynn and David. And now our grandchildren have also become involved. Wilfred's philanthropic drive has been passed on from generation to generation."

The partnership between CIHR, OBI and the Posluns Family is intended to provide financial support over the next ten years for the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging. Additionally, a Postdoctoral Award associated with the Chair will be awarded by the Alzheimer Society.

This Chair program is very important in the advancement of health care, a philanthropic area supported by the Posluns family. "Multiple studies have been done on men, but this is the first time in Canada that a research position of this kind will specifically focus on women," said Lynn Posluns, adding that "women's issues are often neglected and we need to find answers to progress female brain health initiatives."

The Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging holder, who will be based at an academic institution in Ontario, will consider these differences between the sexes when it comes to brain health. The Chair will work toward understanding how addressing those differences could lead to better treatment options.

Women today suffer from depression, stroke and dementia twice as much as men and an astounding 70% of new Alzheimer's patients are women.

About the Chair

The Chair will be a researcher of exceptional merit, recruited across Canada or abroad, or a top researcher already established in an Ontario institution who is a leader in her/his field. The goal of the Chair Program is to impact and enhance the understanding of gender and sex differences in brain health. The Chair will engage in activities and speak on behalf of women's brain health and aging.

Quotes:

"It has become increasingly apparent in recent years that we need to account for sex and gender influences in health research. Men and women are similar in many ways, but when it comes to our health, our differences matter. By understanding these differences in brain healthsuch as why more women are affected by Alzheimer's than men, which cannot be accounted for by the greater longevity in womenwe can work toward better treatments for everyone. We are very proud to support the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging, which will lead to valuable research evidence to benefit the research community and people affected by dementia."

Dr. Yves Joanette

Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Aging

"We're tremendously excited to be supporting the work of the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging through our Alzheimer Society Research Program. This first-of-a-kind Chair will shine more light on diseases like dementia that largely impact women.

Furthering our understanding of women's brains, may lead to the development of more effective treatments, preventative measures, and ultimately a cure. This new initiative will benefit everyone living with dementia."

Mimi Lowi-Young

CEO at the Alzheimer Society of Canada

"As seen in the various areas that OBI focuses on, we know that brain disorders can affect men and women differently with regards to how disorders present themselves and how they are experienced by an individual. We also know that some brain disorders are more prevalent in women than men, for example, Alzheimer's disease. We are proud to be part of this group of partners who are acting on the growing evidence which shows that a better understanding of sex and gender differences will lead to better brain health for everyone. The important work carried out by this new Chair will be poised for maximum impact as it fits into other key research initiatives being driven by OBI and partners."

Dr. Tom Mikkelsen

President and Scientific Director, Ontario Brain Institute

About the partners:

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is Canada's premier federal funding agency for health research. Its objective is to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system.

The Posluns Family Foundation is a private charitable foundation established by the Posluns Family. The Foundation distributes funds for religious, charitable and educational purposes, and in pursuit of those purposes, supports health care programs, medical research, community organizations, educational institutions, and other organizations and agencies making a difference locally and abroad.

The Ontario Brain Institute is a provincially-funded, not-for-profit research institution seeking to maximize the impact of neuroscience and establish Ontario as a world leader in brain research, commercialization and care. Convergent partnerships are created between researchers, clinicians, industry, patients, and their advocates to foster discovery and deliver innovative products and services that improve the lives of those living with brain disorders.

The Alzheimer Society of Canada is the leading nationwide health charity for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Active in communities across Canada, the Society offers help for today through our programs and services, and hope for tomorrow by funding research into the cause, prevention and a cure. For more information, visit www.alzheimer.ca.

SOURCE Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI)

Image with caption: "Logo: Alzheimer Society of Canada (CNW Group/Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI))". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160308_C3752_PHOTO_EN_637467.jpg

Image with caption: "Logo: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CNW Group/Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI))". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160308_C3752_PHOTO_EN_637469.jpg

Image with caption: "Logo: Ontario Brain Institute (CNW Group/Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI))". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160308_C3752_PHOTO_EN_637471.jpg

Image with caption: "Logo : Women's Brain Health Initiative (CNW Group/Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI))". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160308_C3752_PHOTO_EN_637473.jpg

For further information: For communication inquiries, please contact: Laura Casselman, Account Director, Brown & Cohen Communications and Public Affairs Inc., 416-906-7689, [email protected]
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari, Femi Adesina, was a guest on Radio Continental programme recently where he s...

In the interview, Femi asked Nigerians to be patient with Buhari as he promised them change and that the change will not be magical. Read excerpts of the interview below...If anybody says there is a loud silence, it means that person has not been listening. At times, it is so very easy to say there has been silence, when that is not the case, because on this issue, last week in a major interview the President spoke on it. It was relayed on NTA for about two days running. He spoke on the Fulani herdsmen issue and a statement also came out from our office on the matter. So, if anybody says the President is silent or has been silent on the issue, it baffles me. The President spoke in an interview that was relayed on NTA and TVC, and he said it is a perennial problem, and something would be done about it. He talked about cattle grazing route, and he said between the federal government and the state governors, this matter would be looked at and tackled decisively. I also remember that Chief Audu Ogbe, the Agric Minister, has also indicated that quite soon, problem of herdsmen and farmers would be over in the country because they would do something about getting feed from Brazil for cattle rearers.That is the reason the President said it is going to be between the federal government and the state governors. The state governors are closer to these herdsmen, through the state and local governments, there is a way they would be reached. They are not spirits, they are humans and they operate in environments where people can reach them, and the President has said between the federal and the state governments, something can be done. In the past, there were grazing routes in the country, it is either we return to that, or there would be something else, but I know the issue would be dealt with.A: On the issue of power, it seems Nigerians are their own problems. You can recall about four weeks ago, the power ministry came out to say that the megawatts we had was 5070, which is an all-time high in 16 years. A few days after, some people blew installations in Bayelsa, we lost about 1600 megawatts immediately. After that, installation was blown in Delta and we lost another 1,000 megawatts. What would the government do in that kind of circumstance? If the people who should be provided power are the ones sabotaging installations, they cant turn round to say government is not providing power. Nigerians need to determine what they want. If South Africa has about 50,000 megawatts, it is because their own people are not sabotaging their installations, they are not going to blow up the lines. If Nigerians continue to blow up and sabotage, then they cant come around to say that there is no power.A: Government is not helpless, and government should never be helpless. A government that is worth its salt should never be helpless, but there are so many things that the government can deploy attention to, and when the attention is focused on securing installation instead of what we can call other weightier matters of the law. It is just a waste of time. We are wasting our time as a country, because other countries dont have that distraction, they dont have to deploy troops to monitor installations, because nobody would sabotage installations since he knows the thing is for his own good. I think, in this country we need to get to a point where we should realize that when we do certain things, we are hurting ourselves and not the government.A: Government will do what it should do, but short of lining up soldiers from Lagos to everywhere, in fact it cant stop. We Yorubas have a saying that you are never as smart as the person watching you, because he would find a time when you are distracted, when you are not alert and strike. That is what is happening. No matter the security that you put round these installations that cover several hundreds or thousands of kilometers, how do you monitor them and those who want to sabotage would not find a place where they can attack?A: The government is not omnipotent or omniscient. The government cannot be everywhere at every time. That is the reason the onus is on Nigeria to see these installations as their own. When you blow up installations, who are you hurting? You are hurting the people and the society. That is what we should realize. Last week in Qatar, the president said vandalism is a disincentive to foreign investment, because potential investors hear and read all these things, that installations are sabotaged in Nigeria. So if investors refuse to come because of that, who gets hurt? It is not the government, it is the people. I think we need a lot more patriotism in that aspect.A: Don't forget that when the power ministry announced that we had 5070 megawatts recently, it also said that by December, another 2,000 megawatts would be added to it; giving us 7,070 megawatts. That brings a lot of hope, but that hope is dampened, when few days after, they begin to blow up installations, and you lose 3000 megawatts. Talking of alternative sources, a lot is in process. Because every country the president has visited, power has been an issue, and I know that a number of people have come up with alternatives, what they can do to help Nigeria, and talks are on-going. Very soon, I believe that those talks would yield results.A: Let me try to put in perspective the fuel supply situation in the country. What caused the latest round of queues is that there is a breach in supply, which came from two ends. One, from the importation end and two, from the distribution end in the country. We have NNPC bringing in 70 per cent of fuel used in the country and the other 30 per cent is supposed to be provided by independent marketers. The independent marketers are not really doing much because of the differential in dollar rate currently. Before they can import, they expect government to do something in terms of dollar differential; but government is limited because we are not earning much dollar.The only way Nigerian government gets dollar is through sale of crude oil, and we know that price has gone continuously down, that is what caused the breach in supply, because everything is imported. We are not refining much most times; and added to that is the fact that Europe is in winter. During winter, you cannot predict importation as in other seasons of the year, because there are some parts of the world where the seas are virtually frozen and ships cant sail. A ship that you could predict would arrive after 30 days during summer, would arrive at 40-45 days because of the vagaries of the weather.This is another thing that affected importation into the country. There is this third issue, which is very important because it links to what we have said earlier. All these ships that bring in fuel are insured internationally, and international insurers are refusing to insure ships going to Port-Harcourt and Warri because of the aggressiveness in the area. They follow all these things, all these pipelines that are vandalised and all of that, they follow. Therefore, those ships land in Lagos, and then you transport fuel by road to those areas. All these are complexities about our country that need to be looked at. I have said that Nigerians themselves must decide to address these complexities.A: You would recall that Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who is NNPC GMD and minister of state for petroleum, has said that our existing refineries are not better than scraps, and that already has foreshadowed the fact that there would be a new policy for refineries.A: There are two things we need to isolate. There is this notion that government was meant to pay N5,000 for unemployed graduates. That was the popular notion and that was what the President corrected, that instead of paying N5,000 to unemployed graduates, he would rather provide infrastructure, he would rather give them enabling environment to be useful than giving out dole to them. But there is one that is already captured in the budget, it is called the conditional cash transfer, which is going to be given to the poorest of the poor.A: I think Nigerians have always complained, and we should learn to stop complaining and believe more. If you have elected a government because you believe it can bring change;(because these complains started from the first month), and you have not allowed them to isolate what the problems are, and articulate what the solutions would be, and you begin to have all these complaints, I think it is not natural. What government needs at a time like this, is cooperation and support. The President said this at an interview last week. He said things deteriorated over 16 years that PDP was in power, this is the ninth month of this government, and you want everything to have changed.It is not real. There must be realistic expectation, and realistic expectation will demand that people are patient, supportive, and encourage the government. This is a government that is working for the people. Somebody said two days ago that this is a government that is "pro-poor", which is true. Then, all these complaints would not do anybody any good. Rather than complaining, let us cooperate, support and encourage.The promised change would come. Don't forget that our President said it would take a minimum of 18 months to revive the economy. Nigerians dont listen to something like that, they want magic immediately. It doesnt happen that way. This change will come, but it would follow a process, and it would be enduring.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed, has expressed support for the media repression bill under Senate review, also known as Bi...

The bill which carries a two-year jail term with it and up to a N2 million fine has been opposed by civil society groups and online activists, arguing that it intended to gag media and free speech.Senator Ibn NaAllah who proposed the bill in question, has stated his unwavering support for the bill.I sponsored the bill to sanitize information flow in the social media. The social media is a very valuable platform for dissemination of information and it has helped this country greatly but of recent we have seen some few bad eggs who have turned it into a business venture," he disclosed to news reporters.At a public forum, Justice Mahmud Mohammed also endorsed the bill, claiming that privileges should be safeguarded against frivolous abuse.His comment is coming at a time when the country's judiciary is under the spotlight of the media for corrupt activities. Judges and justices have been embroiled in scandal and accused of taking money to deliver specific judgments.After the public forum, the Senate is expected to discuss the bill extensively and either make revisions or vote on it.
The police, on Tuesday, commenced prosecution of the Kano State-born Yunusa Dahiru, alias Yellow, who allegedly abducted the 14-year-old ...

Yunusa was arraigned before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the state capital, amid tight security.He is being prosecuted on a five-count charge of criminal abduction, Illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge.A Special Police Prosecutor, Kenneth Dika, signed the charge sheet in a suit number FHC/YNG/17c/2016.The charges read to Yunusa stated : That Yunusa Dahiru a male resident in Opolo-Epie area of Yenagoa in Bayelsa State conspired with the duo of Dankano Mohammed and Mallam AlHassan between August 2015 and Febuary, 2016 to commit an offence of abduction and thereby committed offence punishable under section 27(a) of the Trafficking in persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.That Yunusa Dahiru abducted Ese Oruru by means of coercion, transported and harboured her in Kano State and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 13(2)(b) of the Trafficking in Persons prohibition Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.That you Yunusa Dahiru induced Ese Oruru by the use of deception and coercion to go with you from Yenagoa to Kano State with intent that she be forced or seduced into illicit intercourse and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 15(a) of the Trafficking in persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015That you Yunusa Dahiru procured Ese Oruru and subjected her into sexual exploitation in Kano State and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 16(1) of the Trafficking in Persons (prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.That you Yinusa Dahiru had unlawful carnal knowledge of Ese Oruru without her consent and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 357 of the criminal code Act and punishable under section 358 of the Criminal code ACT, Cap.C.38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.Yunusa, who wore yellow caftan and brown cap amid heavy security pleaded not guilty to the charges read to him in Pidgin English.Efforts by a police interpreter to help the accused with indigenous Hausa Language, were resisted by the Presiding Judge, Justice H.A.Nganjiwa.After listening to the police prosecutor and the lawyer to the accused, Kayode Olaosebikan, the judge adjourned the matter to March 14.The judge, who said the courts priority was to hear the case and other related motions, remanded Yunusa to prison custody till the adjourned date to hear a bail application filed by the accused lawyer.While speaking to journalists, Olaosebikan, described the case as that of two love birds who decided to elope.He said: We have applied for bail and the court will rule on it on the adjourned date. The prosecutor has filed their case. It is easy for the prosecutor to pile up issues, now they have to prove it beyond reasonable doubt.We see the case as that of two love birds. We call it elopatic. It is case of Yunusa, an 18 years old boy in love with a 14 years old girl and they agreed to elope.(The Nation)
Mr Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, the Chairman of the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), disclosed on Tuesday that the tax office had widened i...

The chairman claimed that the new tax regime was in concord with Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode administrations inclusion of every resident to the growth of the state.Mr Ogunsanwo who revealed this at the Alausa office, said that the agency had begun the process of overhauling the informal sector with a view to ensuring voluntary compliance by all tax payers.He also said the agency had identified three categories of tax payers in the sector. According to him, they include market men/women, artisans, micro, small and medium-scale enterprises and domestic staff.He commented that these categories of people were expected to remit one per cent of what they earned to governments coffers.The tax master claimed that the taxes collected will augment government revenue at a time when federal allocations have drastically reduced due to the fall in oil prices.The chairman also said that a tax guide will be published and translated into pidgin and Yoruba for all to understand.
The family of James Ocholi has suspected foul play in the death of the late Labour Minister. Ocholi according to reports was involved in ...





According to Ocholis uncle, Abdallah Aliu; another relative, Paul Audu; and the immediate younger sister to the late Blessing, who did not want her name mentioned, that the driver be investigated."There was a kind of foul play in the whole exercise, which is very worrisome. Apparently, the driver who drove the car was the same person who took the photo of the dead man and sent it all over the Internet  whatsApp and others. So, the question is: how come that the driver of the vehicle in the same car was able to take the picture of the dead man?," Abdallah said.The side of the door, where the Honourable Minister sat, was not properly locked because after the car somersaulted, the thing flung him and so he had a terrible and fatal damage that his body was beyond recognition. There was a foul play in Ocholis death.While I was in his house, I already knew because those who conspired and plotted it (the death) became jittery because I have never been to that house and they dont know me. But somehow, they became jittery, scared and worried.This thing they did is political, it is a political war and some people want to score some political points against the system somehow. The death of Ocholi is quite suspicious.So, I had to hurriedly leave because God has made me to know what happened and we know that they will get the people who are responsible. When you are innocent, God will always uncover how certain things happened. Ocholis death is a great loss to the common people of Nigeria. And the spirit of the common people of Nigeria is fighting back.The perpetrators want to derail the focus of this administration. They are looking for every way to put a wedge in the wheel of success. I can specifically pinpoint those who plotted these things. What they are trying to do now is to knock heads together and the earlier we get rid of them out of that place, the better.As we were there, they were trying to get the contacts of the ministers that came there for condolence, making phone calls and reporting back to whoever is their manipulator.They decided to get rid of Ocholi to derail the focus of the government. Ocholi was not smart enough to know that these things could happen. They have lost, failed and we will ask God to forgive them because they have taken a soul that they cannot create.(PUNCH)
Nigeria and Switzerland on Tuesday in Abuja signed a letter of intent for the repatriation of illicit assets, including the 321 dollars m...

Nigeria and Switzerland on Tuesday in Abuja signed a letter of intent for the repatriation of illicit assets, including the 321 dollars million allegedly stashed in Swiss banks by late Gen. Sani Abacha. Mr. Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, signed on behalf of Nigeria while the Swiss Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Didier Burkhalter, signed for his home country.A brief discussion between Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Burkhalter preceded the event which took place at the vice presidents conference room with Swiss Ambassador.Eric Mayoraz and his Chief of Staff, Damien Cottier in attendance as witnesses. The Swiss minister told State House Correspondents at the end of ceremony that the event was a milestone in the effort to complete the return of the late Abachas illegally acquired funds stashed in his country.We are confident that we can work together in order to make a new point and step in fighting corruption.The fight against corruption is a priority of our government and it is important to work together in order to restitute the money that has been stolen to the population. Switzerland and Nigeria have already written the history 10 years ago with the restitution of 700 million dollars of the Abacha funds.Today, it is another amount of 321 million dollars that can be restituted. We are at the end of the process but it is very important now to make everything right and above all to organise a monitoring mechanism by the World Bank for the use of these stolen assets.And then, there will be a restitution and it will be and can be swift, transparent and can be at the end for the good of the population.According to Burkhalter, it is important to show a common will by Nigeria and Switzerland by the signing of this letter of intent to go that way and to move ahead. He said that there was a legal requirement in the decision of the prosecutor in Switzerland to ensure judicious use of the money when repatriated.There is the necessity of a monitoring mechanism by the World Bank and it is also necessary to have good projects in social way.  For instance, there could be the initiative to save one million lives. If we have this mechanism by the World Bank for monitoring and the good project to the good of the population, then the money will be restituted.Burkhalter said he was not aware of any other funds illegally kept in his country besides the Abacha loot. In his remarks, Malami said the essence of the signing was to communicate to the world and Nigerians. The intendment arising from the signing of the letter of intent is to communicate to the world and the Nigerian state in this regard, that the intention is there and the commitment is there and the fund is going to be repatriated as quickly and as soon as possible.On the significance of the event, Malami said it was to send a clear message to the people that the Buhari administration was working hard to recover all looted funds.The message is clear that this government is up and doing as far as the repatriation of looted funds wherever they are located, wherever they are situated in the globe is concerned. The government has the desired commitment, has the desired political will, has the desired cooperation and has put in place the desired road map for the recovery of the looted fund.
Nigerians living in South Africa have urged the Federal Government to prevail on South African government to relax the permit/visa restr...

Nigerians living in South Africa have urged the Federal Government to prevail on South African government to relax the permit/visa restrictions for Nigerians as being done for citizens of other countries. The President of Nigeria Union in South Africa (NUSA), Mr Ikechukwu Anyene, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday. Anyene urged President Muhammad Buhari to use the occasion of President Jacob Zumas two-day visit to Nigeria to address their concerns.He said that law-abiding Nigerians in South Africa were facing difficult situations on a daily basis. He said that immigration laws in South Africa were recently reviewed and had practically rendered a lot of foreign nationals, including Nigerians illegal immigrants.It has now become very difficult to acquire South African permits; Nigerians in South Africa are made to face numerous bottlenecks when trying to renew their temporary residence permits. The same thing cannot be said of South Africans visiting or working in Nigeria.We feel it will be fair if South African authorities can relax the permit and visa restrictions for Nigerians as they have done for Southern African countries like Zimbabwe and Lesotho, he said.He said that the union was willing to work with the foreign ministry to project the good image of Nigeria. Anyene said that the union was always willing to support the efforts of South African authorities in maintaining law and order within Nigerian communities in that country. He said that the union had developed an identity card for all Nigerians in collaboration with the Consulate General in Johannesburg.We will like to suggest that the identity card be given recognition as another means of identification alongside others, he said. He also appealed to the Federal Government to urgently intervene in the delay in acquiring a replacement passport when they lose their passports.This can be done by empowering the immigration officials at our various consulate offices to approve the re-issuance of lost passports instead of the current process of waiting for approval from Abuja, he said.
It was indeed a sad day yesterday in the home of the late Minister of State (Labour and Employment) James Ocholi, who died on Sunday ...

It was indeed a sad day yesterday in the home of the late Minister of State (Labour and Employment) James Ocholi, who died on Sunday along with his wife and son in an accident on the Kaduna-Abuja highway.The National Hospital in Abuja has conducted an autopsy on the bodies. One of the survivors of the crash has been declared stable in hospital.The driver, the orderly, the chief detail and the ministers personal assistant were injured in the crash.Ocholis son, Joshua, a Youth Corps member who graduated from Salem University in Abuja, also died in the crash. This is contrary to the information that it was Aaron who died. Aaron was, in fact, one of those receiving visitors at the Ocholis home yesterday.Among the visitors were the Presidents wife Mrs Aisha Buhari and the Vice Presidents wife, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo.Governors, ministers, top lawyers, government officials and friends of the late minister were at the residence.National Hospital spokesman Dr. Tayo Haaastrup said: We have done postmortem on the bodies. We have remained proactive in attending to the survivors. One of those who survived is stable and we are still keeping him around. Some of the survivors are in Kaduna and we are expecting them here today.Tomorrow, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will hold a valedictory session for the late minister, Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said yesterday.All roads around the Dagash M. Street residence were taken over by heavy vehicular traffic as dignitaries trooped to the place.Reporters were barred from the living room of the Ocholis as Mrs Buhari visited. She was received by a member of the family, Paul Audu and Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige.Hajia Buhari simply wrote in the condolence register: It is a terrible shock to us, we pray for the soul of the departed to rest in peace. May the Almighty God condole the family. Mrs Osinbajo wrote: May their souls rest in perfect peace.A course mate of the late minister at the Nigeria Law School, Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), recalled with nostalgia, their relationship. I have known James Ocholi since 1985. We were called to the Bar the same day. I took the seat before him, but James was very consistent.He was a man of principle and a Christian to the core who practised what he preached and he was a gentleman. I knew James to be very consistent, hardworking, diligent on the job and a man of integrity.I was in Ibadan when the news came yesterday. The news was so devastating that I could not believe it because he was a pillar of our class. He belonged to that famous Class 86 of the Nigeria Law School and those of us who are colleagues know the Class 86. They call us all sorts of names but that is the class to be.When James believed in a cause, he will fight it to the last. He was a man of principle and we are going to miss him. My last discussion with him was on Wednesday.There is a matter we are handling for members of the House of Representatives over defection and I was leading him and some other SANs and he suggested that since we have now come to power, we should withdraw the matter. He sent somebody to me and the matter is to come up on Thursday and I promised him that I was going to send somebody to the Court of Appeal here in Abuja.Minister of Youth and Sport Solomon Dalung wrote: My brother, you left me without a word. What a surprise. Death, you are a great thief. You will always leave sorrows. Rest in peace.Dalung recalled that the last Federal Executive Council meeting held about two weeks ago, was when they last met.Others, who were at the late Ministers residence include Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase, FCT Minister Muhammad Bello, a delegation of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, former Deputy Governor of Plateau state, Pauline Tallen, Deputy National Chairman, (North) of the APC, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, among others.The Ministry of Labour and Employment declared yesterday a day of mourning.The. Minister said: We have lost a legal luminary and community mobilizer with exceptional and visionary leadership skills, who has brought his wealth of experience to bear in discharge of his responsibilities as the Honourable Minister of State in the ministry as evident in the complementary role he played in the on-going efforts at resolving industrial crisis in the Oil and Gas including the Health Sectors.Ngige said Ocholi left the labour sector at a time when the nation greatly needed his deep experience as an arbitrator and international negotiator, while the vacuum created by his demise will remain difficult to fillThe Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has sent a message of condolence to President Muhammadu Buhari, the governor of a Kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello and the family of the late Ocholi over the death of the Minister.President of the Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said in separate condolence letters that the death of the Minister is a great loss to all Nigerians.The letter to the President reads: On behalf of the Nigeria Labour Congress, I wish to condole you on the tragic death of the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN) and members of his family.In the brief moment we have worked together, I found Mr Ocholi earthy, humble, lively and knowledgeable. I had no doubt in my mind he was an asset in government-labour relations and certainly, he was going to play a more critical role in the future. His death is therefore a big loss to all of us.Mr. Ocholi was a civil, decent and humble man; a legal luminary; and an illustrious son of Kogi State, who brought to bear on his job, clinical efficiency and humanity. He was a trusted ally of LabourIt is a shame, death has robbed us of this irreplaceable and priceless gem.
Former Chief of Staff to the governor of Delta State, Dr. Festus Okubor, has raised alarm over the importation of foreign culture in pr...

Former Chief of Staff to the governor of Delta State, Dr. Festus Okubor, has raised alarm over the importation of foreign culture in presidential protocol, describing the development as a slap on the countrys cultural heritage.Okubor expressed outrage that President Muhammadu Buhari on his return from his recent trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar was welcomed by soldiers garbed in Scottish attire.Affirming laxity on the part of the presidential minders, Okubor said that it was a disgrace to use soldiers dressed in the attire of the nations colonial powers to welcome the president of Nigeria back to his country.Asserting Nigerias rich culture from Kano, Borno to Benin, Okubor said: I really feel that there are people bent on embarrassing the president and the people of Nigeria after watching that clip of the president being welcomed by soldiers dressed in Scottish attire.For our president to be welcomed by a foreign culture is an insult when we have our own resplendent cultural outfits. Whoever did that does not love Nigeria, Okubor said.
President Muhammadu Buhari has a message for Christians who are unhappy with Nigeria's inclusion in the the Islamic coalition, ostens...

Below is an excerpt of what Mr President said during an interview with Aljazeera on the issue.Why cant those Christians that complained go and fight terrorism in Nigeria or fight the militancy in the South. It is Nigeria that matters, not the opinion of some religious bigots.Ive just told you; it was the Boko Haram itself that declared loyalty to ISIS.ISIS is basically based in Islamic countries. Now, if theres a coalition to fight Islamic terrorism, why cant Nigeria be part of it while those that are fighting in Nigeria as Boko Haram claim to be Muslims? But the way they are doing, it is anti-Islamic.How can I change the religious identity of Nigeria?No religion advocates hurting the innocent and just because the Muslims are the ones that claim to be Boko Haram and they are killing innocent people whether in the church, in the bus or in the market place, then I will just sit and look at them because I too am a Muslim? Islam is against injustice in any form."
Six members of the House of Representatives representing Ekiti State have condemned last Fridays invasion of the State House of Assemb...

In a joint statement in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, the members: Kehinde Agboola (Ekiti North I), Thaddeus Aina (Ekiti North II), Ayo Oladimeji (Ekiti Central I), Olamide Oni (Ekiti Central II), Segun Adekola (Ekiti South I), and Akin Awodumila (Ekiti South II), all of the Peoples Democratic Party, said the SSS veered off its constitutional roles of protecting Nigerians against domestic threats and intelligence gathering.The lawmakers alleged that the SSS was investigating academic qualifications of some members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and political appointees.We dont understand the relationship between the internal security of Nigeria that the DSS is to protect and academic qualifications of political appointees, the statement said.They accused the SSS of usurping the duties of the police, military, and other security agencies.We condemn in strong terms, the last Friday invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly complex and we call on other lovers of democracy in the country to rise against this emerging tyranny which is threatening to jeopardize democratic governance in the country, the statement said.Most importantly, we wish to state expressly that the DSS under President Buhari is becoming an instrument of political oppression, such that the agency has abandoned its constitutional responsibilities in pursuit of matters that should be handled by the police and other security agencies.For instance, what is the business of the DSS with election funding? Is the DSS now INEC, EFCC or ICPC? Is the DSS the police that it is now arresting people for mere political disagreements?The lawmakers said the state should not be subjected to the destabilizing force of the federal government.We also wish to express our solidarity with the State House of Assembly and the 26 PDP members, the federal lawmakers said.They should know that they are not alone in this battle to sustain democracy in Ekiti State, we are with them.(Premium Times)
Representatives of the Swiss government are expected in Nigeria on Tuesday to discuss with their Nigerian counterparts the repatriation o...

The delegation will be led by the Swiss Minister for Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, who is expected to meet with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, over the repatriation of the $321million confiscated from the family of late former head of state, Sani Abacha.An official of the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria, Pascal Holliger, confirmed the visit exclusively to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.Yes, our foreign Minister is on his way to Nigeria on Tuesday, Mr Holliger said. He is coming on a working visit to Nigeria. During the visit, he would open the Consular Generals office in Lagos and meet with the Vice President of Nigeria and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss the issue of the repatriation of the second tranche of the Abacha loot, he said.But some Swiss and Nigerian civil society groups, who got wind of the impending visit, dispatched a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding that his government give assurance that the $321million that would be returned to Nigeria by the Swiss government would be put to good use.Copies of the petition titled Restitution of Abacha funds: Swiss and Nigerian NGOs demand guarantees, was sent to the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, and her foreign affairs counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama, and the Attorney-General of the Federation and minister justice, Abubakar Malami.A copy of the petition obtained by PREMIUM TIMES was also sent to the World Bank Vice President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, and the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs Office for International Public Law (DDIP) in Berne, Switzerland.Signed by representatives of eight civil society groups, the petitioners expressed concerns that the fund could disappear just like the repatriated funds by the government of Liechtenstein in 2014 if government did not take steps to guarantee transparency and accountability.Swiss and Nigerian NGOs demand that the authorities of these two countries, together with the World Bank, take all measures necessary to guarantee that these funds be returned in a manner that is transparent and benefits the general population of the country, the people that were initially cheated out of their money, the petition said.The groups said their fears followed the confidential agreement reached between the Nigerian government and the Abacha family in 2014, in which the Nigerian government agreed not to prosecute any member of the family in lieu of the returned loot.The controversial agreement reportedly received the backing of Genevas public prosecutor, resulting in the withdrawal of all criminal charges against Mohammed, the eldest son of the late dictator, allegedly implicated in a case of laundering his fathers loot.There are fears in civil society, in both Switzerland and Nigeria, that this money could be embezzled once again, Executive Director, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, David Ugolor, told PREMIUM TIMES.Mr. Ugolor said the petition was sent to the Nigerian and Swiss governments, as well as the World Bank, to demand a guarantee that these funds would actually be used to finance projects that would improve the living conditions of the Nigerian people.It is imperative that they be allocated through a transparent process that involves both Swiss and Nigerian NGOs, Mr. Ugolor said. The transfers must also be performed in installments and upon the condition that the sums returned in previous installments were used as supposed, he said.Under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, Mr. Ugolor said the $235million returned by the Liechtenstein government vanished without trace after government said the money was used to acquire arms to fight the terrorist group, Boko Haram.Other signatories to the petition included Olivier Longchamp, Berne Declaration (Switzerland); Martin Hilti, Finances and Tax programs coordinator, Transparency International (Switzerland); Adetokunbo Mumuni, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (Nigeria); Mark Herkenrath, Alliance Sud (Switzerland); Debo Adeniran, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) (Nigeria); Godwin Uyi Ojo, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (Nigeria), and Blair Glencorse, Accountability Lab (UK).(Premium Times)
NEWARK -- The Devils have managed to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race longer than most prognosticators expected, but with only 15 games remaining in the regular season they are facing several obstacles in their quest to earn a postseason berth.

Statistically, they can still make the playoffs for the first time since 2012, but successive losses to the Dallas Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins have put them six points out of the top eight.

The MCL sprain suffered by No. 1 goalie Cory Schneider and the ongoing unavailability of winger Mike Cammalleri (he's missed 17 games with a right wrist injury) are only two of the issues the Devils must overcome.

Their final 15 games include a California road trip beginning Thursday night in San Jose, another meeting with the Penguins and a late-March trip to Florida and Tampa.

What do you think will be the Devils' biggest obstacle over the next 15 games?

Vote.

Rich Chere may be reached at rchere@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ledger_NJDevils. Find NJ.com on Facebook
NEWARK -- After his two prior convictions on weapons charges, Freddies Cresporios was sentenced each time to a term of probation.

But Superior Court Judge Richard Sules on Monday said those sentences clearly did not deter Cresporios from committing his latest offenses in 2014, when he robbed a man at gunpoint and then chased a woman and her son down a street with a rifle.

For those two separate incidents, the judge sentenced the 21-year-old Newark resident to 16 years in state prison.

"Now Mr. Cresporios, you're a young man, but you already have established a very serious criminal record involving weapons," Sules said. "I hope that when you finish this sentence, you'll be a little older, a little wiser with respect to your conduct."

Cresporios received the sentence after having been convicted by a jury on Jan. 20 of robbery, aggravated assault and weapons charges in connection with the two incidents in Newark.

Cresporios must serve nearly 14 years before becoming eligible for parole, and he will receive credit for nearly two years of time served.

In the first incident on May 13, 2014, Cresporios, armed with a firearm, robbed a man in the 600 block of 6th Avenue in Newark, authorities said. Cresporios stole cash, a cell phone, a backpack and keys from the victim, authorities said.

About 17 hours later, Cresporios attacked a woman and her son in the 100 block of Berkeley Avenue when he chased them down the street with a rifle, authorities said.

Leading up to that incident, individuals in Cresporios's group had been threatening people in the neighborhood, according to Essex County Assistant Prosecutor David Feldman, who tried the case.

The two victims were taking pictures of the house where Cresporios and others lived and the cars parked outside in order to provide information to the police when Cresporios saw them and confronted them with the rifle, Feldman said.

During Monday's hearing, Feldman requested the 16-year prison sentence and said the three victims had been scarred mentally, saying "this incident will stay with them for the rest of their lives."

Feldman criticized Cresporios for showing "no remorse whatsoever" and said he "shows no consideration for what he did to other people."

Cresporios declined to make a statement during the hearing.

But his attorney, Robert Blumenfeld, who requested a seven-year prison sentence, said Cresporios "denies that he was the person responsible for these crimes."

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
State Supreme Court.JPG

The New Jersey Supreme Court, pictured in this file photo, has reinstated the convictions of Saladin Thompson in a pair of random shootings in Irvington that left one man dead and injured two others.

(Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

NEWARK -- The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated the convictions of a man after determining a Superior Court judge properly dismissed his claims of racial discrimination during jury selection at his trial.

The state's highest court reversed a 2014 ruling by a state appellate panel that overturned Saladin Thompson's convictions in a pair of random shootings in Irvington that left one man dead and injured two others.

Thompson, who is African-American, has argued prosecutors improperly excused seven African-Americans from serving on the jury at his trial. After the matter was remanded, a Superior Court judge in 2011 rejected Thompson's claims and upheld his convictions.

The state appeals court ordered a new trial for Thompson after finding that the judge did not conduct the requisite analysis to determine whether prosecutors had committed "impermissible discrimination."

But the Supreme Court found the judge had conducted an adequate analysis when he determined the state's "race-neutral reasons" were credible and Thompson failed to provide information to back up his claims of racial bias.

In the unanimous opinion, Justice Lee A. Solomon wrote that the judge gave Thompson "an opportunity, in response to the State's explanations, to provide information beyond the fact that seven of the nine peremptory challenges were against African-American prospective jurors."

"That defendant was unable to do so supports the court's conclusion that defendant failed to carry his ultimate burden and, under our deferential standard of review, militates against the Appellate Division's reversal," Solomon wrote.

The court remanded the matter to the Appellate Division to evaluate Thompson's appeal of his 67-year state prison sentence.

The charges against Thompson, 35, formerly of Irvington, stem from what prosecutors said were a pair of random shootings in the township on July 8, 2005.

At about 10:30 p.m., Tony Andrews was sitting on his porch on 21st Street when, for no apparent reason, Thompson and a co-defendant, Erik Gordon, shot him, prosecutors said.

Thompson and Gordon then fled to a Chinese restaurant on 16th Avenue, and, for no apparent reason, they shot Nibal Green as he was waiting for take-out food, prosecutors said.

The gunshots exited Green's body and struck a cook in the leg, prosecutors said. Green later died from his injuries.

Gordon pleaded guilty to charges related to the case and was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Saladin Thompson

During jury selection in Thompson's trial, prosecutors used seven of their nine peremptory challenges to excuse African-American jurors, court documents state. The final jury included five African-Americans and nine jurors who were not African-Americans, court documents state.

The jury convicted Thompson in January 2007 of murder, attempted murder and related charges, and he was later sentenced to 67 years in state prison.

Thompson appealed his convictions and the matter was ultimately remanded for a hearing to allow the prosecution to articulate its reasons for excusing the jurors and for the judge to analyze whether the state had engaged in impermissible discrimination.

At that hearing, the prosecutor explained how the seven African-American jurors were excused based on their specific responses to questions during jury selection and without any intent to exclude African-Americans, according to the Supreme Court decision.

Thompson's attorney at the hearing "acknowledged that the information provided by the prosecutor was supported by the transcripts of jury selection, and offered nothing further," the decision states.

"Instead, counsel claimed he was at a disadvantage due to the passage of time and because defendant's trial counsel, who had moved to Colorado, was unavailable for the hearing," according to the decision.

But the judge "found that the prosecutor's stated reasons for excusing the seven African-American prospective jurors were credible and that the State 'did not engage in impermissible discrimination in exercising its peremptory challenges,'" the decision states.

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.